MARKUS X'S POV

I stared at the man sitting on the throne. I fully recognized him from earlier, but did not know his name. "And who are you? Shao Kahn's cousin?"

The man sneered as he stood up from the glistening royal chair, his black, gold-embroidered attire showing off his evidently high level of importance. "I am Sho Dai, Emperor of Outworld and former leader of Shao Kahn's Shadow Priests. Having seen it as an opportune time to truly formulate the Forces of Darkness, I deposed 'Empress' Mileena and exiled her from Outworld. With Quan Chi's inevitable assistance, Outworld and the Netherrealm will rule over Earthrealm!"

I merely shook my head. "If Shao Kahn's army couldn't defeat Earthrealm, what makes you think you have a chance?"

The sinister Shadow Priest merely chuckled before responding. "I assure you that we have been working on such a thing. My minions have already begun work on the latest strategy to replace key Earthrealm leaders with our own sorcery-created drones. When your defenses are set into shambles by your own men, will we not slip through and rule your world?"

Tanya nodded in agreement with him. "Indeed... The Deadly Alliance my Emperor has formulated with the Netherrealm is far more powerful than Shao Kahn's feeble army. Serina will prove her worth once she eliminates that accursed ice ninja and takes the princess's place..."

Before Sho Dai could tell Tanya to stop spilling his plans, I stepped into a fighting stance with Parsek. "Okay, we all know this is going to turn into a full-scale brawl, but could you do me the decency of naming all your drones... I mean warriors? I still don't know all of their names."

With a cruelly twisted smile, Sho Dai nodded as his minions formulated around him. Pointing at each one, he named them.

"Ruutuu! Noob Saibot! Kitana! Jade! Nitya! Tanya! Lamia! Kintaro!"

First to approach myself and Parsek were the mysterious Ruutuu and the spectral Noob Saibot. The blue eyes of the sinister form glowed brightly as I prepared to attack him. Parsek would deal with the wraith.

The demonic being sneered at me as I was looked over. "You are not worthy of dealing with a powerful demon such as I!"

Raising his arms, the phantom-like being summoned a decaying corpse that appeared to be some sort of Native American. With glowing red eyes, he stared at me for a moment before bowing to Ruutuu. "Nightwolf's soul was part of Quan Chi's offer for my allegiance. Soon you will feel the consequences of this decision!"

The undead Indian took a green tomahawk and threw it at me, a hit which I quickly ducked under before using the ice spray on the decaying Native American. With a good amount of cryogenic liquid having sprayed on the damaged body, the corpse froze solid, an opportunity I utilized to my advantage as I physically plunged my right arm through the frozen cadaver, shattering it into hundreds of pieces with the single strike.

Smirking at Ruutuu, I picked up a shard of Nightwolf's remains, thoroughly encased in ice and blood. "Can we get this fight going now? I don't want to waste my time doing this over and over again when I can simply send you back to the Netherrealm..."

The demon scowled at me before lunging forward, attempting to attack me with his semitransparent form. I fired a blast of ice at Ruutuu... And it went through him. Despite this, I still felt the flurry of punches and kicks from him as I fell back, rolling backwards as I prepared to fire some shurikens at the demon. Squeezing my fists in the correct way to fire the weapons, I gasped as they again went right through Ruutuu, ricocheting off the palace walls. I heard a cry and turned to see Noob Saibot with the shurikens I had fired lodged in his back as Parsek finished him with a brutal series of chops, finished by a Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick.

A punch from Ruutuu made me return to thinking about how I was going to handle the demonic being, when a thought occurred to me. Pressing the point that would self-freeze me, I was covered with a thin layer of ice as Ruutuu's fist made contact with my shoulder. Looking up, I saw the demon's mouth wide open as he froze over, a scared look in his eyes as I chopped down directly onto his iced skull. Ruutuu's head shattered like a snow globe, the black juices composing his demonic body pouring out of his neck as his body defrosted and fell forward, not even a single spark of life remaining in the vile carapace.

Turning back to the now pissed-off Shadow Priest, I retracted the helmet's front places, allowing him to see the smirk on my face as Parsek joined me, his attire thoroughly stained by the now-incapacitated Noob Saibot's blood. I noticed as I looked up that the hooded woman, Nitya, and the leather bodysuit-wearing woman, Lamia, were both gone, leaving Kitana, Jade, Tanya, and Kintaro. I crossed my arms, waiting as I mocked the so-called 'Emperor.' "So, what's next? If your boys couldn't do us in, what makes you think anyone you have left can stop us?" I looked the three women over. "Not including Bumblebee, Puppy-Dog, and the ignorant hooker over here..."

Sho Dai turned to the three women. "He insulted you. You may take him, but do not kill him. Kintaro, you shall take his friend to the dungeons once you subdue him."

The three women, two masked, one not, advanced on me. Jade and Kitana both threw their weapons at me as I dashed towards them, ducking and dodging to avoid the razorang and fans before clotheslining Tanya as hard as I could. With the nymphomaniacal backstabber on the floor, I had just evened the odds. "Who wants some now?"

Kitana gave me a murderous glare, but Jade held a hand to her waist, stopping her from lunging at me. "Do not worry about him, princess. I will deal with this miscreant who shamed you by sleeping with your disgusting copy!"

Standing there, I merely stood motionless looking at Jade. She crossed her arms over the rather revealing split leotard she was wearing, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

I merely pointed at the back of her attire, her hind quarters barely covered by the thin, thong-like bottom of her outfit. "Dat ass."

Hearing her scream of hatred and frustration, I ducked, dodging the glowing purple pole that appeared in her hands as it projected above me. "So you're a pole dancer when you aren't busy being the life-partner of Kitana over here? That's hot..."

The beautifully dark-skinned woman lost it, seemingly shattering in frustration as her stabs, kicks, and lunges became uncoordinated maelstroms of physically manifested fury. I hooked my leg underneath Jade's as she tried to kick me, pulling her to the ground before dashing forward, intentionally falling on top the assassin, pinning her down as she tried to get up. Regardless of what magic she may have had at her disposal, she wasn't getting me off of her any time soon.

Struggling, she uttered a string of curses in a language I didn't understand before glaring at me with her emerald green eyes. "For Argus' sake, get off of me!"

Looking down on her, I nodded before giving her a metallic pimp slap to the face, something that surprisingly calmed her down as the pissed off ninja stopped moving. Looking up, I noticed that I had only one foe left, one who, in this case, seemed thoroughly worried about facing me.

Looking up at Kitana from my position on top of Jade, I slowly got off of her friend and began to walk towards the princess, who seemed surprisingly more fearful now that her human shield of a partner was unable to save her. As I prepared to freeze the princess, though, I felt a crack over my head as my vision began to go blurry. Slumping forward, I turned and saw Kintaro, his fist ready to strike me yet again. Evidently though, he wouldn't need to, as I slipped into the black abyss by myself with no more assistance...

CYRAX'S POV

As myself and Neksus entered the halls of the Emperor's dungeons, I could immediately tell that things were different now. While the cells were mostly devoid of prisoners, I noticed some that still lined the halls. Of note was one woman chained to the walls in the farthest cell down the hall, fully restrained by her arms and legs so she could barely move. When she spotted us, she motioned with her head, trying to get our attention.

Neksus, being the ever intelligent young man he was, immediately rushed towards her, eying her well-proportioned frame and minimal attire. "This woman seems familiar..." Running a hand down her waist, he paused and suddenly noticed the red eyes boring death into his soul. "It's Skarlet!"

Without any further thoughts, I took my buzzsaw and slashed it through the chest of the bloodspawn, watching as her body dissolved into a blobular mass before reforming in front of us. Shaking her arms and legs to remove the feeling of numbness, the sinister assassin quickly gathered her wits about her before pulling the mask off of her face, the Lin Kuei-like outfit she now wore preparing her for the inevitable fight.

"Thanks, Cyrax, but I've gotta get to Mileena. It's vitally important that I inform her that the time is now to begin the counterattack on the fortress. Baraka and Sheeva are waiting to hear from me."

Skarlet rushed towards the exit, but a word from Neksus stopped her. "Markus!"

The red ninja froze, turning to look at the former Grandmaster's son. "What?"

Neksus answered her. "Markus is with us! I know Mileena wants him... Tell her that she needs to come and get him."

Skarlet nodded before leaving the dungeon, as myself and Neksus returned to searching through the prisoners of the dank and depressing room.

Hearing a groan from a cell, I turned and spied a bloody person, barely holding themselves up as they grasped the bars in front of their prison.

I could tell it was a man, wearing the tattered remains of his red and black attire. His eyes were white, like those of a blind man, and his hand seemed to emanate a faint light blue energy, very weak due to his injuries. Sensing us, he weakly raised an arm.

"Help me... Sonya... Must know... Shinnok... Agh!"

Slumping over from the pain, the man fell back to the stone floor as I quickly cut through the steel bars, Neksus reaching inside to help the man regain his footing as he looked at me. "We need to get this man back to Earthrealm. He has lost a serious amount of blood, and will likely die if we do not get him help soon."

I nodded as the two of us moved to leave the dungeon, but hearing a roar, I dove for a corner. This turned out to be a smart idea when I saw what had produced that roar.

It was Kintaro.

More precisely, it was Kintaro holding a bloody and bruised Parsek, along with a sparking Markus X.

Waiting until the man-beast walked past, I lept onto him the moment that he spotted Neksus. Charging the energy net launcher in my chest, I held on as the Tigrar Shokan tried his hardest to remove me from his back. By the time he could reach his spare pair of arms back to grab me, I had fully charged the net launcher and released it, the pulsing green energy soaring through the Tigrar's body. Letting go, I watched as the cat-like beast fell apart, his body disintegrating into dozens of large lobes of flesh.

Looking down at the gory remains, I immediately noticed that something was missing: Markus!

SKARLET'S POV

Staying against the wall as Kintaro entered the dungeon, I waited for Cyrax to make his inevitable move against the cat-like beast. As he did, and Kintaro's remains fell on the floor in a mess of blood and tattered flesh, I dashed in, swiftly stealing the still unconscious armor-wearing warrior away with me.

As we left through the entrance of Sho Dai's fortress, I heard a groan from Markus as he started to wake up. Turning his armored head to face me, I saw the lights flicker as his armor reactivated, shortly before his face was exposed by the armor. "Ugh... What hit me? I feel like I just got run over by a diesel locomotive..."

Taking advantage of his seeming deliriousness, I did something that, truthfully, I had waited to do for some time now...

I kissed him.

My crimson lips touched his faded red ones as I passionately forced myself into his grasp, the excitement and thrill of having taken some of Kintaro's blood still running high. My tongue had no trouble gaining dominance, but it was Markus's conscience that got the better of him.

Opening his eyes wide, he attempted to pull back. "Skarlet, what the heck are you doing? Don't you know I already have a girlfriend?"

I reluctantly pulled back, my adrenaline unsatisfied. "Markus, I need someone... Someone to be close to. A partner, if you will. You're the only person I can think of who fits the bill, at the moment. The only other one I can think of is dead, and you're the closest thing to him I have."

The Earthrealm warrior freed himself from my grasp as I continued. "Don't you see? Since the first moment we met, when you decapitated me and I called it even with a smack across your face, I've grown to love you. I really can't function properly without you. It's almost like your training changed me after I got back from Earthrealm..."

Taking a step back, Markus raised his hand up. "Look, Skarlet, I'm not going to deny it. You're strong, deadly, and admittedly quite sexy. However, I'm already in a relationship with your Empress. It would be just... Wrong for me to betray her trust and make out with you. If you want to talk to Mileena about this whole loving me thing, maybe she can give you some advice on what to do, but right now? No."

A scowl began to grow on my face, but I managed to suppress it as I continued walking. The Earthrealm warrior gave me a quick panicked glance as he followed along. "Wait... Where are you going?"

"The Desert. Our forces have reinforced themselves there. You would be wise to come with me."

"And what about what I said? You going to talk to Mileena?"

A devilish smile grew on my face as I thought up a plan. "Let me put it this way... Your manhood will be frozen solid very soon."