Jax and Johnny found themselves at the end of the trail and headed towards the emperor's castle.
"What's going on here?" Jax asked Johnny. He was not quite up to speed. "Outworld isn't happy about their loss." Johnny replied. Jax was confused. "What are you talking about?"
Jax loaded his machine gun as they talked.
"The Mortal Kombat tournament." Johnny explained. "I attended the tournament with Sonya." He continued. Jax cocked his gun. "I'm lost." He said.
"There's probably more oddities here than at the tournament." Johnny warned him. "Y'know, where there was a shapeshifting grandpa and a four armed monster." Jax became skeptical. "Four arms? What the hell?" He asked.
"I beat him." Johnny added. Jax gave him a funny, but reassuring look. It sounded ridiculous, but it was very much the current circumstances. "I would assume this is a scene from one of your cheesy action movies. But I saw those fuckers on the bridge. That ain't it." He said. "Sonya would tell you. But first, we gotta find her." Johnny continued.
Jax agreed. "Let's go."
They got to the castle, finally, and headed through the front doors. They looked around. It was a very big space, full of statues and sculptures. Johnny followed Jax through two large wooden doors.
Down the stairs was a stone bridge, with a pool of boiling acid underneath. One wrong step, and they were dead men, so they treaded carefully. Jax took the lead. Johnny heard something behind him.
He turned around to see a familiar red clothed warrior levitating towards them. "Uh oh." Johnny said. "That guy isn't good news." He continued. Ermac approached them. "Johnny Cage. Jackson Briggs." He addressed them both.
"It knows my name?" Jax asked. "That's Ermac. Sonya beat him at the tournament." Johnny replied. "Sonya beat him?" Jax asked.
"Right after Kano." Johnny added. The two stepped back as Ermac menacingly approached them.
"We will demolish you." He said. "Where's Sonya?" Johnny asked. "Yeah, mac. Where is she?" Jax pointed his gun at Ermac. "Sonya Blade is in Kintaro's den, awaiting her gruesome demise." Ermac replied. "Kintaro?" Jax asked.
Ermac charged his green energy in his hands. "A shame you will not live to see her again." He force choked Jax, the same way he did Sonya at the earthrealm tournament. He dropped his gun on the ground. While he was being choked, he spotted the entry way across the bridge.
"Johnny. Straight ahead." Jax said, pointing at the entrance. "What?" Johnny asked. "She might be down there." He continued. Johnny refused to leave him behind, remembering the challenge he presented Sonya. "Ermac is a man of many souls. You can't handle this yourself."
Jax broke Ermac's choke hold by kicking him. He picked up his machine gun off the ground. "Yes." He said. "Yes, I can." Jax shot at him, and put many bullet holes in Ermac's chest which oozed with a glowing green substance.
Ermac shot some energy at Jax, causing him to drop his gun once again. This time, beside him into the acid. The gun dissolved in the boiling green acid. "Just go!" Jax yelled at Johnny. "I'll take care of this guy."
Johnny left Jax behind, and headed towards the entryway. Jax continued his fight with Ermac. "Kintaro will take care of him. We will finish you." Ermac taunted.
Johnny made his way down the decrepit, stone stairs. At the bottom was a dungeon, a similar space to Goro's lair, but much more uninviting.
There were several dead bodies down there. From behind a cell door, a battered prisoner saw Johnny and begged him to let him out.
He helped him out, and received a thank you. The prisoner headed towards the exit, only to be caught by his torturer, Kintaro. Johnny hid behind a table full of weapons as he watched this tiger striped shokan monster grabbed the prisoner and ripped all of his limbs off, laughing.
Johnny continued his search for Sonya as Kintaro was playing with his prisoners. He walked into his throne room and looked around, only to be caught by the monster himself. He gave Johnny a devilish look.
"You must be Kintaro. This must be your room." Johnny said, nervously. Kintaro approached him, with each of his footsteps making a loud thump. "Who are you? What are you doing down here?" He asked Johnny. "Just part of this tournament." Johnny replied.
"Oh... yes." Kintaro said. "Shang Tsung told me all about you, Johnny Cage." He explained. "That's right." Johnny replied. "The one who Goro couldn't beat at the tournament." Kintaro cracked his knuckles. "His medallion is at my house." Johnny boasted. Kintaro laughed.
"Goro is an embarrassment to the shokan." Kintaro replied. The tigara lineage which he was from was considered to be a lower class than Goro's dragon lineage, according to his own people. This led to Kintaro having bitter feelings towards Goro, believing himself to be the better deal.
"Well, my four armed friend, I'm looking for a military general. Perhaps you've seen one?" Johnny asked. "Goro couldn't finish you." Kintaro said. "But I will finish you..." He delivered a left blow to Johnny in his abdomen, causing him to collapse to the ground.
"…at the tournament." Kintaro continued. Johnny rolled around the ground in pain. "Jeez... Goro was actually nice." He said. Kintaro smiled, devilishly. "His dragon lineage left us in the dust. To hell with that! For the tigara army, for the shokan!" He said, with confidence.
"Come fourth, Kintaro!" yelled Shao Kahn, standing at the top of the stairs of another entrance Kintaro used. Johnny caught a glimpse of Kahn standing up there. "See ya, chump." Kintaro said, as he kicked Johnny across the room like a soccer ball and walked up the stairs.
"Ouch!" yelled Johnny. "Dick!" He pulled himself up, groggily. Suddenly, he heard a voice cry out for him. "Johnny!" Sonya yelled. She was chained up by her arms a few feet away from her. All the other prisoners next to her were dead. "There you are, beautiful." Johnny addressed her, and approached her.
"That four armed bastard is gone." Johnny said. "Emperor called him upstairs." Sonya had already saw that, as she wasn't too far away.
"So..." she wondered about how Johnny was getting her out of there. He looked around, and on the weapon table he hid behind, he found a sledgehammer.
"Hold still." Johnny told her. Sonya winced in horror. He smashed the chain holding her up on the left side. She wrapped her arm around his neck. Johnny smashed the right chain next and brought her down off the wall. He scooped her up and put her back on her feet.
Sonya pulled her wrists out of the chains, and grabbed her weapons off the table which Kintaro took from her. "There's another one of those things." She told Johnny, of course, stating the obvious. "Yeah. I saw. This one's an asshole." Johnny replied. "and he's perverted." Sonya added. Kintaro always has fun with his prisoners, especially the female ones. Not even Goro was as vile as he was.
"His penis is probably barbed." Johnny remarked. "I could have lived without knowing that." Sonya replied. They headed towards the way Johnny came. "Well, your partner Jax is fighting the man of a thousand souls upstairs." Johnny informed her. "Jax?" Sonya asked.