"Nick! Wake up!" Connie pushed her brother again for the umpteenth time. "I swear, you'd sleep through an atom bomb!"

Slowly, Nick opened his eyes and turned over to glare at her. "Who gave you permission to step into my domain, Ex-con?"

Having grown tired of his many nicknames for her, she growled and used all the strength in her body to shove him off the bed. Since he was wrapped tightly in his covers, he couldn't use his hands to break his fall. Instead, his face hit the floor and he let out a pained groan.

"Ouch…thanks a lot." It took him a few seconds to untangle himself and rise to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head as he glared at her again. "Once again, why are you in my room?"

"Maybe you forgot," Connie said in a progressively irritated tone, "but we have guests."

"I didn't forget actually—for a few minutes I was trying to, but then you came in and decided to remind me."

"Of course I did! You're the one that said 'this will be awesome', 'everything's going to be fine' and 'we'll figure it all out'." When she quoted Nick, she spoke in a voice similar to that of Barney the purple dinosaur.

"I don't sound like that! And we will figure it—in fact, I think I already did."

"What are you talking about?"

He walked over to his desk where almost twenty completely covered papers were scattered about. The writing on them looked like scribbling and several things were crossed out. He scanned through the papers, picked up one in particular, and then held it out for Connie to see. "Why do you think I was ignoring you and trying to continue sleeping?"

Giving him a suspicious look, Connie walked over and took the paper. It took her a long moment before she was able to decipher what his scribbles actually said. As she looked over it, she saw that it was a plan on how to return the characters to their universe. Essentially the sheet said that if the characters came through the television, there was no reason why they shouldn't be able to go back that way. Of course they'd need a new TV and game system, but that was the easy part. The hard part was waiting for lightning to strike their TV again.

Connie looked over at the other sheets of paper and was shocked to see the amount of detail Nick put into it. Some sheets were about the possible flaws and bad outcomes with the plan, and others were about how to keep the characters hidden for the time being. Eventually, she looked back at her brother, still surprised. "You did all of this? How long did this take you?"

"All night; I just finished an hour ago. It's funny how several volts of electricity running through your veins can cause you not to sleep. The good thing about thing about it though, is that I've managed to control my twitching."

Slightly concerned for her brother, Connie took a closer look and saw that his eyes were red and there were bags underneath them. For a quick second, she felt bad, but that passed away when she remembered why the characters were there in the first place. He just had to play one more round…

"What do you think? Good plan, huh?"

"I don't know, Nick. I guess it's worth a shot—any idea is better than nothing—but if you ask me do I believe it's going to work that simply, the answer is no."

"That's why I didn't ask you that."

She frowned. "Listen, Mr. Man-With-The-Master-Plan, everybody is downstairs fighting. Since you have everything figured out so well, you should've planned for this. So go down there and break them up."

"SCUBA DIVING!" Nick shouted suddenly, startling his sister. When she jumped back and gave him a confused look, a sheepish smile appeared on his face. "Sorry…while I did manage to control the twitching, for some reason, now I shout random words from time to time. So far it's only happened about five times and the words make no sense. I would try to control this too, but honestly, it makes me feel closer to Raiden, because he shouts crazy things sometimes too."

Putting her hand over her heart and closing her eyes, Connie took a moment to collect herself. After doing so, without warning, she grabbed her brother by the collar and pulled him closer. "If you do that by my ear again, I'm going to knock every last tooth out of your mouth."

"…you ever notice how your threats always have something to do with my teeth?"

The urge to punch him was so strong then and she started to give into it. Her fist was balled up and she was just about to cock it back when they were interrupted by loud voices.

Sure we haven't met before? | You're still alive, aren't you?

You will remember me, insect! | Yes, every time we pass your grave!

The actor… | Just like you, working for a scale.

Is this because I'm dating Jacqui? | You're dating Jacqui?!

Special Forces vs Lin Kuei? | If you wish…

Nick chuckled. "Oh, Takeda's going to get it now…"

Connie yanked him forward and then released his collar. "Go. Fix. This. Now."

"Alright, alright."

Nick made his way downstairs at a pace slower than his sister's likings. When he actually saw for himself the fighting that was taking place, he was amazed and horrified. He never thought he'd get to see Reptile spit acid in real life…and he certainly never thought he'd see it hit the wall and start burning through it. "Yikes. What are we going to do?"

"Nothing. We are going to do nothing…but you, on the other hand, are going to put an end to this before we become homeless."

Nick had been so focused on how to get the characters home that he didn't plan for that scenario or any one with them fighting. Of course, he couldn't let his sister know that, so he had to pretend as though he knew what he was doing. Giving into the impulsive decision to take his shirt off, he threw it in Connie's face. "Watch and learn, Con-gress."

Not waiting around for her possibly violent response, he walked out into the battlefield that used to be their living room. When he found a small area in the corner of the room that was safe from all projectiles, he shouted, "I demand you attention! Stop fighting!"

No response.

"This is Sparta!"

No response.

"Get to the choppa!"

No response.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

Sub Zero stopped for a brief moment and looked at him, but then went right back to fighting.

"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!"

Somehow, the characters started fighting even harder and Nick finally accepted the fact that they weren't paying him any attention. Just when he started trying to think of a Plan B, he caught sight of Scorpion bringing up Hell Fire from the floor, burning Jacqui.

Nick's jaw dropped and he darted over to him, just barely missing a bullet from Erron's gun. "Scorpion, cut that out! You're damaging two things that I just can't support—Jacqui's face and my carpet. While I don't like the big black patches you're leaving everywhere, I'm more concerned about Jacqui's face. Come on, I've got to marry her one day! The pictures won't come out nice if she's got spear holes and burns all over her body!"

Scorpion turned to him and raised his fist as though he was going to strike him next. Luckily, Jacqui punched him before he could do so, sending him flying back.

"I love a woman that can protect me when a resurrected fire ninja tries to attack me."

Too focused on the fight to hear a word Nick said, Jacqui continued to go after Scorpion. Nick started to cheer her on, but changed his mind when one of Mileena's sais flew past his face and into the wall. Deciding to back away from the danger that seemed to keep narrowly missing him, Nick ended up bumping into his favorite character.

"Oh my goofy goobers, Raiden! I'm so glad to see you!" Nick held up his hand toward him. "I know you're not a hug-person, but what about high fives?" Raiden just stared at his hand until it fell back to his side. "I'll take that as a no."

"I apologize for shocking you yesterday. In order to avoid another instance like that, it'd be in your best interest not to touch me without permission…or call me your father."

"…what about dad or daddy? Pop or papa?"

Raiden frowned. "No."

Nick looked reluctant for a moment, but sighed. "Fine…but I'm still going to think it in my head."

Raiden didn't seem to appreciate that, but he didn't voice it.

"Raiden, what are we going to do about this?" He gestured to the many fights. "They're wrecking my house and they won't stop. I even shouted obvious movie quotes and they didn't stop to guess what movie!"

"You claim to know about us and our lives. Do you not know that you must wait until each fight is over before a winner can be declared?"

"I don't have the luxury of waiting; if I wait, everything in sight is going to be destroyed…including me!"

"This is the nature of Mortal Kombat."

Right at the end of his sentence, one of Takeda's ninja daggers landed near his feet. Nick ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "Well this is not the nature on Earth! Maybe in prison, but not in my house! If you won't help me stop them, then I'll do it myself."

"Wait Nicholas Hale, I have a question," Raiden said suddenly.

"And I have an answer, you first."

Raiden looked unamused by the remark, but continued, "You are an adolescent, correct? Where are your parental guardians?"

"What do you mean? You're right here…"

He frowned again.

"Fine. My regular parents work far away from here; they travel a lot because of their job." He shrugged as if he didn't care one way or another. "Me and Connie are usually by ourselves, so don't be surprised if you don't seem them at any point. I mean, the last time I spoke with them, they said they were coming back in a week or so, but don't hold your breath about it."

"Do you and your sister take care of yourselves?"

"Yeah, basically. It's not all that hard; while our parents may not come home, they sends checks, so we're fine." He glanced back at the battle. "As much as I'd like to continue this conversation, I really have to go put a stop to this."

Nick ran to the middle of the room where he was very vulnerable and surrounded by fire, ice, swords and other weapons. Not seeing many other options than to break it up himself, he looked around for the safest two to stop. Only pondering on it for a few seconds, he jumped in the middle of Kung Jin and Cassie, and pushed them apart. "Stop fighting!"

"Shaolin punk!" Cassie said, wiping the blood from her mouth.

"Military grunt!" Kung Jin retorted, reaching for an arrow.

"I said stop! If you don't listen then you won't hear what I have to say."

"Unless it's about my boot on Jin's face then it's not important!"

"It's about going back to your universe—I found a way to get you guys home!"

As if the magic words were spoken, everyone immediately stopped fighting and turned to him. Takeda was the first to speak. "You did? I thought you said it would take a month."

"It probably still will. I did make a plan to get you all home, but it can't really be executed right now."

"Why is this?" Sub Zero asked, skeptically.

"LAMBORGHINI!"

"…what?"

"Sorry, just ignore that…anyway, remember yesterday when my television and gaming system exploded? That has something to do with it." Everybody started mumbling at once then and Nick quickly shushed them before they could become rowdy. "Like I said yesterday, we're going to get you guys back. Whether you go back in one piece or many pieces is completely up to you…but preferably one piece."

"This one chooses to send Mileena back in many pieces," D'Vorah threatened, snarling at the Tarkatan hybrid.

"D'Vorah, you somewhat beautiful, yet incredibly disgusting rebel…please don't. I wanted to see that fight yesterday, but not now. I don't want to see any fighting right now. You all are demolishing my house and scaring Con-Artist." He gestured to his sister, who was looking on from the hallway. "Get out here, Connie."

Several of the group turned and watched as Connie cautiously made her way out of the hallway. She walked over to where her brother was standing and stood behind him. When she realized all eyes were still on her, she spoke in a low voice, "…hello everyone…"

"You see? That's the voice of a frightened and unattractive person. Look at her face. That's the face of a scared and unattractive person. It's not your fault she's ugly, but you can't go around scaring her because—"

"Thank you, Nick." She cut him off with a smack to the back of the head.

"All I'm trying to say is that you can't fight in my house. There are rules to this world just as there are to yours."

"Any other rules we should be aware of?" Kenshi asked.

"Plenty, but none that are really relevant right now. Well actually," a sly grin appeared on his face as he continued, "we wash a lot on this planet. Most times, we wash together. So if anybody wanted to get in the shower with me…" He made eye contact with Cassie, Jacqui, Sonya and Mileena. He started to look at D'Vorah, but then changed his mind.

"It'll be a cold day in Hell before I ever let you lay a hand on me." Sonya scoffed.

"Is this a mutual feeling?"

Cassie and Jacqui nodded adamantly as did their fathers in agreement, but Mileena didn't respond. She was looking at the bug goop on her body that D'Vorah had thrown at her. "I do want to shower…"

When Nick's eyes grew large with hope, Connie smacked his head again, but harder this time. "Nick, stop being perverted or else I'm going to break all of your teeth."

"Here we go with the teeth thing again…fine, whatever. You don't have to wash with me…yet. Just don't fight for now."

"Or else what?" Scorpion challenged, narrowed eyes.

He looked at him, concerned. "Why must you come at me with hostility? I'm you're friend, Scorpion."

"I don't have any friends!"

"Oh! We talked about this in Health class too. Were you bullied as a child?"

Teleporting and leaving a trail of fire behind him, Scorpion appeared next to Nick and punched him in the stomach. "Mock me again and I'll have your head!"

Connie jumped back and quickly moved over to where Kenshi was standing. For some reason, she felt slightly safer standing next to him. She watched her brother hunch over and try to regain his breath. After a minute or so, he was still breathing heavily, but he was finally able to speak. "…why, oh why, couldn't you come here in your Hanzo variation?" He took another moment to collect himself before he spoke again. "You have to stop with all of that or else I won't help you get back, and you need me. There, satisfied?"

"Do we really need you?" Cassie said, a smirk now on her face. "It seems like we could get more done without you."

"Cassie, sweetheart, you need me more than anyone else; you need a real man to love you. The guys in your group are lame, your daddy sucks and let's be honest, no one else here has a body to match mine." He flexed then, showing off his abs and muscles. While he was a relatively short guy, he made up for it with his body, or at least he thought so. "If I'm not here to take care of you, who else will?"

"How about me?"

"You take care of yourself?" Nick looked as if he hadn't thought about that. "It's a thought…but why go that route, when you can have all of this?"

"Stop flirting with the females, Nick!" Connie hissed.

"…but they're so beautiful." He looked at Sonya and then blew a kiss at her.

"So you flirt with me and then my mom? Nice," Cassie said and then stuck a piece of gum in her mouth.

"What can I say? I have a weakness for beautiful women."

Sonya folded her arms across her chest. "Just stop it, alright? I already have one Johnny Cage in my life and I can't get rid of that one no matter how hard I try. I certainly don't need another."

"You always make me feel wanted, babe," Johnny said with a grin.

"Shut it."

Nick frowned. "I'm nothing like him. First of all I'm not an actor; trust me, I'm the real deal. You can touch me to see if you want. And secondly, I'm way better looking than Johnny."

Johnny let out a laugh. "Are you what passes for good looking here? Wow, I didn't realize how primitive this world was."

"Did you really just say those words with your mouth?"

"Pretty sure I did."

"Come at me, Johnny! It'll only be two hits! I'll hit you and you'll hit the floor!" Nick put his fists up and got into a fighting stance.

"Nick, give it a rest." After making sure Scorpion wasn't going to attack anymore, Connie walked back over to her brother and grabbed his arm. She started pulling him away from the situation. "All you're doing is wasting time."

"No, you know what's a waste of time? Johnny's character."

"That may be true, but you know what? Arguing with him isn't going to change anything. We should be focused on your plan and what we're going to do today."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He shot Johnny one last glare before pulling himself together. Clearing his throat, he stepped away from his sister and clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone, listen up. Today Conster and I had plans to go to the mall and pick up a few things. Now since the items we need to get you guys back are in the mall too, I figure we'll grab those as well. Well hit Game-Stop, Best Buy and a few other places and then we'll be right back here."

"Who are Game-Stop and Best Buy, and why are we going to hit them?" Reptile demanded.

Connie couldn't help but to laugh at his lack of knowledge about slang. "Those are stores, Reptile."

"Well why are we hitting stores?"

"We're not actually going to hit the store itself; it's just a saying here that mean we're going to shop and stuff."

Raiden shook his head. "You people with hitting stores and hay."

"Good one, Raiden! You ever think about dropping the whole god thing and becoming a comedian? No?" When Nick received no response aside from a blank stare, he sighed. "I feel like we don't talk like we used to…"

"I never spoke with you before last evening."

"I know, but in my head we spoke a lot more often."

"Anyway," Connie started before her brother could go off on another tangent, "who's staying here with them?"

"Huh? Nobody."

"…we can't leave them here alone, Nick; we won't have a house to come back to."

"I mean, nobody's staying here, period. We're all going to the mall."

A concerned look appeared on her face. "Did you really think this through?"

"HYDROCLORIC ACID!" Not even bothering to acknowledge the fact that he just shouted again, he continued, "Yes, I did…but even if I didn't, it's not like we have many other options. You'd die here if I left you alone with half of them. And how would you get to the mall by yourself? You can't drive. So either way, you'd die without me."

She grimaced. "As always, you're so encouraging."

"I know, right? I was thinking about becoming a motivational speaker."

A sarcastic remark was on the tip of her tongue, but she decided to keep it to herself. He'd get his one of these days—she'd make sure of it, but that wasn't the right moment for it. Right then, she had to take care of a few things that were on her mind before they departed. "I'm going to go take Mittens out now; he's probably going crazy from all the noise."

"Who is this Mittens?" Mileena asked suddenly.

"Our dog."

When she looked confused, Connie just stared at her. "Have you never seen a dog?"

"Do we kill it?"

"…no."

"Eat it?"

"…also no."

Still confused, Mileena huffed. "I want to see this Mittens dog that we can't kill or eat."

"Umm…maybe next time…"

"No, take her this time, Con-cubine."

Connie turned back to him and shot him a look. "Nick, I don't like—"

"That nickname? Yeah, neither do I actually. It's a little weird to call you that…"

"I'm talking about that idea!" She slapped his arm and then spoke in a lower voice that only he could hear, "I don't want to take her with me…"

"Why not? You're always talking about my teeth; with her, you two will really have something to bond over." Before she could protest any further, Nick gestured for Mileena come over to them. "Want to see, Mittens? You can watch Connie take him out to pee."

Connie's eye grew large, but Nick just pushed her along and then directed Mileena to follow her to the basement. He then turned back to the rest of the group. "Speaking of food, would any of you like some breakfast before we go? You guys do eat, right?"

"What do you have?" Jax asked.

"Mostly sugary cereals and cheese sticks, but I suppose if you really wanted, I could make some eggs and bacon."

"I'm down for eggs and bacon," Takeda said while rubbing his stomach.

"Same." Kung Jin gave a thumbs up.

"Not if you're cooking it," Johnny muttered, earning a chuckle from his daughter and Jacqui.

Somehow Nick heard and he immediately glowered at the man. "I'll have you know, aside from video games and pole dancing, one of my natural talents is cooking! I would be a chef if I didn't have plans on becoming a pilot…and pole dancer on the side. But you don't have to eat anything; you can starve for all I care!"

"Well." Cassie paused, trying to find the right words. "That was more information about you than I cared to know."

"Cassie, my love, as these days pass you'll learn more about me than I know about myself."

"Umm…"

Nick winked at her four times before turning and walking in the kitchen. "Eggs and bacon will be done shortly."

This is so much fun to rewrite. :P I appreciate all the reviews! I'll probably add others later on, but I doubt it as far as Jason. If you want to be awesome, tell me what made you laugh the hardest in your review. It'll make me laugh, lol ^_^