Chapter 1

Jax looked on as Kabal lay silent in the hospital room, his body covered in bandages that was a sheet of paper compared to the burn marks on his body and his now brownish tinted skin. Jax shook his head as we wondered what had happened, he had no idea who could have done it, no normal man could shoot an arrow so precisely at a moving target that was traveling in the hundreds of miles an hour. His phone rang, buzzing in his pocket.

"Yes?"

"Major Briggs, we have analyzed the finger prints on the arrows." It was the voice of one of the evidence analyzers, he didn't know who but it didn't really matter he just needed to know who did this to Kabal. "We have a small issue, the prints don't show up on the database from us or from any of the other embassies."

"Damn." Jax cursed as he left the room, his left hand running across his head while he held the phone to his ear. "Anything else?"

"The tips of the arrow was a barbed broad head arrow made of a black metal, I am not sure what type though it has a similar molecular structure to steel."

"Any idea where it was made?" Jax's anger only grew, his fist slammed against the pale green hospital wall, a man came around the corner dressed in a long white lab coat and light blue cloth outfit heading in Jax's direction. "Never mind, if you get any more knowledge on the evidence or anything else on who did this keep notes, I have to go." He hung up as the man approached, clipboard in hand.

"Major Briggs, I have several bits of bad news about your friend, but I also have good news for you." Jax nodded his head to tell the man to continue. "His skin is burnt but that is the obvious part, his esophagus, lungs, and throat are burnt to the point where he can't breathe without aid, his elbows as well as several other bones are shattered beyond natural repair, and what's worse he is in a coma and will not wake up without serious help." Jax smashed his fist into the wall again, a clear dent was now visible leading to an apology as well as an offer to pay for it. "Never you mind, I will say that there is a way we can get him back to full capacity, which is what your commander called us about. We're taking him to the lab of the Cy-Tech part of the hospital and we are going to perform an emergency assimilation operation."

"Slow down doc, what exactly does that mean?" Jax wasn't the most technically savvy in the medical field.

"We are going to turn him into a cyborg, it's the only way we can get him completely functional again, otherwise he's going to be a vegetable for life." Another fist collided with the wall, this time driving all the way through it. This led to another apology from the heavily built officer and another offer to pay for the damages.

"Do what you can to keep him alive, I can't let another one of our partners die when there is a chance we can save him." He leaned against the wall letting out an exasperated sigh, he half expected a tear to fall from his eyes and onto the white tile floor. But it didn't, instead he sucked it up and stood resolute before the smaller doctor, "Just do what you can."

"Understood Major, I will call your superior when he is ready to leave the hospital." Jax shook his head, his expression was a brutal mixture of pain and understanding, but understanding of what is the question that passed through the doctors mind. Major Briggs turned to his friend and gave the injured man a heart filled salute before walking away, toward the elevators and out the doorway.

Sonya sat on her knees next to her bed were Johnny's passed out body lay, blood stained bandages covering his entire left leg. Her hand was wrapped around his elbow (though her fingers weren't close to touching) and tears began to fill her eyes once again. The front door banged with a resounding thud that repeated four or five times. Sonya wiped the tears out of her eyes and walked to the door, her black tank top had several damp spots around the front, which was evident to Stryker who happened to be the one on the other side of the door.

"We need to go, Kabal is in the hospital and we need to take Jax back to H.Q. so we can get the evidence of the attack completely looked over before we start looking for suspects and we need him to not be under so much stress." Sonya only nodded, but her head jerked around.

"Did you hear something Kurtis?" Both peered into the shadows in the back of the house.

"No, I didn't." He held out his large flash light and shined into the back of the house, but nothing caught his attention other than the light glinting back into his eyes from the mirror. "Let's go Sonya, Johnny will be ok." Both exited the room, leaving the place in darkness, and neither seemed to notice that the door didn't close. After a few minutes later a heavy black boot nudged open the ash door, and in the shadows a red light shined from the doorway, followed by the glint of steel, sharp, ragged, crooked steel.

"Well I guess the mice left one little mouse behind, and now the cat is gonna play." A heavily accented voice came from the darkness, until the lights flashed on and Kano stood in the center room of the home of Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage, a grin stretching across his face as he span the dagger around in between his fingers. He strutted through the house, like he was invincible here, and as he passed through the house he picked up random objects looking them over before throwing it through the room, usually it ended up crashing against the wall or floor. The floor creaked in the kitchen, but Kano didn't pay attention to that and continued to move about the house until he decided doing what he came here to do. His blade began to spin faster as he walked through the house into the bedroom, and he placed his hand on the switch before flipping it on. A dash of movement off to his right caught his eye, he turned to see it but saw nothing, another dash to his left, and sweat began to bead. The sound of rustling cloth behind him caused him to turn about flinging his knife into a towel that had fallen to the ground. Kano let out a sigh of relief, thinking he was just freaking out, and turned his attention back to his soon to be victim. Another flash of movement, this one heading right at him, and he turned to see a gloved pale fingered fist struck him in the nose, producing an audible crack followed by a flow of blood from his nostril. He gripped his bleeding nose only to have a heavy boot covered foot slam into his chest, launching him into the dresser nearby and shattering the wooden frame.

In a burst of red light Kano shot a laser from his eye, however the attacker was faster than his reaction and the heel of the boot came in contact with his chin. Bent sideways from the force of the impact the stranger lifted him up and he got his first sight of the attacker; the hair was jet black like spikes of pure darkness except the tips of maroon, the eyes of the man were a deep purple, but his face below the nose was covered by an overlapping covering that led to a sleeveless black overlapped robe with relatively long "coat tails" to the back of his knees. His pants were baggy and a dark brown hue which fed into the heavy black boots that came over the pants. He continued to attack Kano, his fists were swift and precise attacking each weak point with exact coordination as if it was exact calculation. In one last attempt to fight back Kano managed to kick the attacker away and he dived out of the way of the next kick reaching for the dagger that was stuck in the window blinds and into the wall.

It didn't work entirely as planned, and instead of pulling the dagger around and into whoever the hell this was he was pulled away from the wall and his own knife was thrown at him, stabbing into his ankle and pinning him into the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you, who are you, you bloody," Before he could finish his sentence a heavy blow socked him in the jaw, and more pain shot through his body. The stranger said nothing, but pulled a pole about three feet long off of his belt and from it extended an axe blade of a black metal that seemed to blend with the leather strips that covered the handle of the axe.

"You have no honor you snake, sneaking into the home of a half dead man while his loved one is working to save her friends? That's not how a warrior works." The man then rose the axe blade to his shoulder and kicked the man in the face, the red eye of his cyborg plating cracked and dimmed to an empty grey color. Another kick, this one to the chest and more blood dripped from his mouth as the assailant who had foiled his murder stood over him. "Do you know what honor is anyway?" The man spoke with a hiss as if he was talking to a rodent. It was stern and angered, but Kano didn't know what the reason was for this man to stop him. The cloaked man crouched to the ground, his pale white arms resting on his knees, and he whispered into the ears of the angered black dragon leader. "You, are nothing, you are a worm writhing in the dirt. But a worm can do great things, but this particular worm," Here he pressed his finger into Kano's chest, "this worm right here, messed with the wrong snake, and the snake you messed with had friends who hired me to take care of you." Kano cursed and threatened the assassin over and over again, his tone filled with anger and humiliation, only to be ignored. The man turned and began to spin the axe handle in his hands, and in one swift and powerful motion the axe head sunk into the neck of Kano's body, leaving only the stump of the body. And after taking the body away, outside and into the lake outside, he took the head and placed it into an old Christmas box and put it on the table in the center of the house right in the view of the doorway.

"Liu Kang, watch your back, we will be traveling through the forests of the Lin Kuei, we must be cautious." Raiden walked with a resolute stride, Liu Kang a few feet behind as the two entered the lush green forests.

"Are you sure this is the best route to take Lord Raiden?"

"Yes, the cyborgs at the attack had the symbol of the Lin Kuei, and so I need to speak to the grand master to see if it was them." A rustling above the trees caused what seemed like thousands of green leaves to surround them, shielding much of their vision.

"And if it is the Lin Kuei and they were behind the attack they will try to kill us!" Liu Kang heard the rustling again, all around them and he held Raiden by his shoulder and motioned for him to hold still and listen. "Lord Raiden, do you hear that?"

"Yes Liu Kang I hear it, as I have for the last five minutes, they have been following us since we entered the forests."
"Well why didn't you tell me?" Liu placed himself in a fighting stance and faced away from Raiden into the field of falling leaves.

"Because I didn't know whether or not they are hostile, and I know that you are prone to violence before being prone to saying hello." Raiden waved his hand and the leaves parted as a gust of wind blew away a pathway. Two men dropped from the tree line, one was dressed in a black sleeveless robe with a yellow outline along with baggy black pants and a yellow sash. His dark skin and black dreads contrasted with the light shining down from the forest canopy. The other was dressed similar but instead of yellow it was outlined in red and he had metal plates on his shoulders, and he was more oriental. Both had machine covered wrist bracers, and the red decorated one had two strange red canisters on his back.

"You, you are Raiden, and you are Liu Kang. What are you doing here in Lin Kuei territory?" The red man spoke with authority and prowess.

The throne room of Shao Kahn's temple was lit up with several torches surrounding the black and gold throne. The over muscled man dressed in an ornate sash around his waist and an x shaped leather strap across his chest that held two spiked pauldrons to his shoulders. A horned ronin helm adorned his head with a skull mask across his face, his hands rested on the arms of the throne as he looked forward at the heavy black wooden door decorated with the golden dragon symbol of the Mortal Kombat Tournament. The huge man slammed his heavy fist down on the arm of the chair, and rose up from the throne.

"Shang Tsung!" His voice was deep and booming and echoed all throughout the entire temple. The sound of footsteps followed, and an older man in an ornate red and black robe adorned in serpent designs.

"Yes Shao Kahn?" The voice was ancient and dry like a desert. Shao Kahn opened his fist and revealed that he held the broken eye of Kano.

"Someone has slain our friend Kano, and I would like to know who has done us this great service. I want you to find who did this and offer them an exclusive invitation directly from me to join me in my temple to speak to me about him working for me." He sat almost chuckling in his chair as he wondered who this man could be. "Also how is our newest "ally" coming along?"

"She is coming along very well, though she will require more substance and I need more... assistance." The long grey beard and wiry moustache waved in the slight breeze that came through the open rice paper doors on the sides of the building that opened up into the stormy night. "And I will find who this man is and will send Motaro and Sheeva after him as soon as I find out who this warrior is." Shao Kahn nodded his head in approval and waved off the sorcerer who proceeded to hurry out the door. Shang Tsung rushed down the stairs to his heinous meat pits and over to a large crescent shaped table with sticks of different wood rising from different holes with a steady burning ember on each of their tips. In the center of the crescent was a floating orange orb that had spiraling mist inside of its shell, and the ancient mage raised his hand to the orb and held out the broken red eye. A bolt of orange lightning snaked out of the orb and pulled the eye into the orb itself.

"Show me who killed this man." The desert cracked voice filled the air. The orange mist swirled faster and began to clear up, revealing the image of a ruined castle covered in green vines and surrounded by a lush green rainforest but there was no person in the image, which confused Shang Tsung as this had never happened before. "I guess the killer is here, but why does it not show him?" The old sorcerer stroked his beard as he pondered the reasons for this strange phenomenon. "Motaro! Sheeva! I have an assignment for you." The tapping of hooves on the cold stone floor and the heavy breathing of the two monstrous warriors reached the ears of the evil man moments later and as he turned he had to look up to see the eyes of the two creatures.

"Yes Shang Tsung, what is it you require?" Sheeva's voice was rough but was still clearly female.

"Yes, what does Shao Kahn require of us?" Motaro's voice was rough and sounded like it had a mix of growls inside there.

"There is a ruined castle called Red Raven Manor, somewhere in there is a man who Shao Kahn has particular interest in. I want you two to go and find him and bring him here. Do not kill him."

"Must I take him with me?" Said Sheeva already getting defensive in the standing of the two races. "I could find this man on my own."

"There are problems on Earthrealm that require us to go in pairs from now on, and I have decided you two will go and get this man." His voice grew with power like a peel of thunder. Motaro raised on his hind legs hand growled with fear as the power of the sorcerer was revealed. "You two will go to Earthrealm and find this warrior or I will rip the two of you apart and reattach your body parts to form a new monster that will listen to me!" The threat obviously worked as it filled the two with fear and they turned and solemnly left the meat pits, leaving the ancient man to himself.