This chapter is a bit longer than the others. Thanks for all the great reviews, it really makes my day great!

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Disclaimer: I own nothing related to the MK universe or its franchise; it belongs to Netherrealm Studios.

House of Kards

"So is there a purpose to why we're all just standing here, looking like idiots?"

It didn't matter who'd asked, the inquiry was on everyone's minds. After their lunch in the dining hall, they'd been told to meet along the shores of the Sea of Blood for another activity. Once there, they all found the only activity they were really participating in was waiting for the judge on duty to arrive. And once he did, they still hadn't gotten anything started. Raiden wasn't alone, though; no, he'd dragged with him a hunk of ice, something that looked like a frozen statue of...a human? The god stood the 'statue' erect in the sand at the bottom of the hill and faced the players.

"Is that...the camera guy?"

"What happened to him?"

"Why's he frozen?"

Raiden narrowed his stormy white eyes on the Cryomancer and the Enenra who were deceptively silent.

"Hey Scorp," Noob chuckled, "Why don't you help the guy out?"

Scorpion tilted his head as he considered this; if he did lend a hand, it would mean the game of the day would begin, and the sooner the game started, the sooner it would end. He made up his mind and brought his fists to his sides, engulfing the both of them in flames. He intended to just send a direct blast of heat right at the statue.

The statue, who was in fact Jimmy Aames, couldn't physically show how terrified he was at that prospect, but his eyes did widen marginally in fear as the spectre grew closer. It was Kitana who stepped in just in time.

"Maybe that's not such a good...idea..." she trailed, gaining a bit of awkwardness in her tone as the seconds prolonged.

The instant she'd stepped up and placed her hand on Scorpion's shoulder, he'd stiffened and had begun to swivel his head ever so slowly towards her. When he had his ivory eyes pinned on hers, he reached up, plucked her fingers off of him one-by-one, and then brushed the spot she'd touched indignantly.

"Don't. Touch me." Scorpion warned her.

Kitana blinked in surprise but said with decorum, "Okay. Excuse me for the offense."

She turned on her heel and strode away from the spectre, and while she was at it she whipped the silky end of her ponytail in his face. He was still sputtering on strands of her black hair long after she'd gone and stood by Liu Kang.

"So do we really have to wait until he un-freezes?" Sonya asked.

She was agitated with one of her partners, the slimier one of the two, and didn't want to be in his company any longer than she absolutely had to.

Raiden said, "Yes, you do. And if you don't like it, take it up with the one who did this in the first place?"

"Who?" She frowned.

After she asked that, everyone's eyes roved over to the culprit who was trying to inch away.

"Kuai Liang?" Liu asked, "You did this?"

"Why?" Sheeva also asked of their teammate.

Kuai was spared from whatever response he was about to give when Mileena butted in again. She had her fists on her hips and her brow quirked.

"I think the more important question is," She spoke, "Why can't we just get the thing started already?"

"Yeah," Rain added, "Why do we have to suffer 'cause this sap got himself iced over?"

"Princess Rain is right," Ermac said, "If that mortal was dumb enough to keep pestering people with his annoying device, he got what was coming to him."

Rain scowled and said, "What did you call me?"

Before that could devolve into something crude and violent, Raiden decided to go ahead and appease the players. He'd promised the college student that he'd be allowed to film each of the games as footage for his project, but now the god knew he had to compromise.

"Fine," Raiden capitulated, "Everyone gather round so that I only have to explain these rules once."

When they all complied, he continued.

"This activity is simple. I'll give you each a deck of 52 playing cards," Raiden said, "All you must do is build a free-standing structure using as many of them as possible."

"Tch, too easy," Rain scoffed.

Sonya nodded and asked shrewdly, "What's the catch?"

"There is no catch." Raiden refuted. "However, if your opponents decide to launch projectiles or attack your structure, your structure, not you, then they will be within their rights and your team must defend against that."

"Ah, okay." Sonya said. "Now it's starting to sound like a challenge."

Noob said, "Yeah, maybe for you."

Kitana only rolled her eyes and muttered, "Don't tell me you're planning on cheating again, Noob Saibot?"

"It's the way to go, Princess." Noob grinned shamelessly.

"Is there a time limit?" Smoke asked.

Raiden nodded. "Five minutes."

"Five minutes?" Mileena parroted, "That's a lot of time. I can stack those things in about two minutes, tops."

Stacking cards was one of the things she'd gotten good at. See, she had to find little ways to keep herself occupied back home while Nightwolf was working. Sure, she had her hobby of altering clothes for herself and some of the more daring women in the village, and she was always out she did make a daily goal of screwing around with Tvari, but her free time still abounded. She would've liked to spend time with Elan, but since he'd gotten promoted to the position of a healer he stayed busy. Hence her maximum skill at using playing cards for anything but playing.

"Ready?" Raiden asked.

When he received no response, he took that to mean the affirmative.

"Alright." The thunder god said, "When I return, you must step at least two feet away from your structures and wait for my judgement."

"Yeah, yeah," Ermac spoke brusquely, "let's get this over with."

"So eager to lose?" Shang Tsung baited.

Ermac narrowed those green eyes and barked, "This is coming from the slimy sorcerer who's yet to win anything; not this game, nor...the throne of Outworld."

Shang Tsung let the barb slide, he wouldn't challenge his creation, not here. Instead, the sorcerer turned and joined his two teammates. The challenge had begun.

Very early on, Tanya realized she had a great advantage: using her sorcery, she was able to extend razor-thin, finger like vectors and wrap them around each individual card. Once she had them bound to her magic, all she had to do was use those vectors to pull all the cards together in one neat, sturdy little tower.

But of course winning would take much more than that.

"Ow, that's my foot you stepped on, you clumsy-!"

"You shouldn't have been so close to me!"

"No, you just need to watch where the fuck you're putting those big ass planks you call 'feet'!"

"Why, you!"

And just like that, the man she was having doubts about calling her lover lost sight of the matter at hand and shoved Mileena angrily. Of course, when the former assassin righted herself, she was hardly concerned about the huge stack of cards her body had crushed. No, the only thing on her mind was retaliation.

"I'll show you to put your hands on me, you flamboyant little mutant pussy!" She growled as she neared the prince.

Rain lifted his chin and said, "Come at me, then."

"No!" Tanya shouted, exasperated. "Nobody's coming at nobody, now you, Mr. Flamboyant, guard the left of me and Mileena, you guard the right."

"Mr. Flam...what?" Rain frowned, "What does that shit even mean?"

"You should know," Mileena sneered.

"Shut up!" Tanya hissed, "Stop antagonizing each other! Just go to your positions and make sure nobody's attack gets near me."

"And what are you going to do?" Rain asked.

She glared at him and said, "If you must know, I'll be rebuilding the tower that you two destroyed."

"I didn't destroy anything," He scoffed, "It was the hag who fell on them."

To his mild surprise and Tanya's immense relief, Mileena didn't rise to the bait. No, she kept her back turned as she diligently set about guarding the left side like she'd been instructed.

If Rain has any sense of self-preservation in that arrogant head of his, he'd know to be wary of this sudden nonchalance, Tanya thought.

It was going well at first. That system they'd worked out: the one where Kuai Liang built, Liu Kang played offense, and Sheeva guarded. But since all good things must come to untimely ends, this didn't last.

"What the-" Kuai muttered.

The cause for his surprise was that the card in his hand had burst into flames and turned to ash as soon as he went to stack it at the top. The Cryomancer looked to the left and right, but only when he turned completely around did he see the one who'd done the deed.

"You did this!" Kuai cried.

Scorpion lifted his chin in acknowledgement of the accusation.

The young leader then turned around and shook his head. He figured Sheeva would handle him. But sure enough, as soon as Tundra picked up another card, it met the same fiery fate. As did the next one he picked up.

And the next.

And the one after that.

And the three or four that were stacked at the very top of the structure.

Kuai Liang balled his fists and turned to the spectre with his own brand of fire in his eyes. He gestured to his team's cards, tiered horizontally, and then back at the spectre and his hot hands.

Why is no one blocking him, Kuai wondered, then saw why: Sheeva had her hands full with holding some kind of fire in between her four hands like a flaming shield that deflected all the attacks coming their way. And Liu Kang, well, he was having a pretty good time actually being bad for once, shooting fireballs at any and everyone. The new Sub-Zero turned back to Scorpion, who'd taken a shot at the seat of Kuai's pants.

"Oh, that's real nice," Tundra shouted. "Well how do you like this?!"

If he hadn't intimated so much about what was coming, perhaps Kuai Liang could have caught the Netherrealm spectre off-guard with his rapid, icy blow. But as it was, that ball of coldness that left the Cryomancer's hands went past Scorpion as the demon dropped into the ground below, teleporting somewhere else.

Another blast hit the entire tower this time, but it didn't come from Scorpion. No, this projectile was inky and black, and only served to annoy Tundra even more.

"Oh, you, too?!" He cried.

The other being chuckled and said, "Yeah, little brother."

"Why?!"

"For whining so much." Noob told him, "That and, you kinda' froze my partner."

He was staring at her like a kid did the window at the pet shop when there was a new puppy on display; the effect was a whole lot less adorable and sweet. No, his dark eyes were half-lidded and swarming with something she couldn't quite place. She had a feeling that, whatever it was, it wasn't anything good or wholesome. In stark contrast, the other male on her team was also glancing down at her when he could, but his gaze was worried. He often gazed at her like that since he didn't trust the sorcerer either. Nightwolf had good reason not to, considering what the being had done to his wife.

"Don't you have a barrier to maintain?" Sonya groused at last.

"I do," Shang spoke, "But it isn't nearly as intriguing to watch as you are."

The woman cringed. "Please stop talking now."

"Am I bothering you?" Shang asked in a low voice, "Making you...uncomfortable?"

She would have said yes, hell yes, and then would have asked him why it had taken him so long to figure that out. But the smirk he wore was indulgent, victorious. So she decided she wouldn't dare let him know he was getting to her. Instead, she turned her back to him and kept at her work.

"No," She answered him in an unaffected tone, "Not at all. I just need to concentrate."

"Not for this measly challenge," Shang Tsung told her. "But what's to come, you do."

"What?" she immediately had to ask.

The lieutenant was inquisitive by nature, and he was baiting her to begin with.

Shang replied, "The real challenge begins in three or four weeks from now."

"Why do you say that?" She frowned.

"Because, my dear Sonya," He explained, "That is when you and I will face each other in-"

"Over there!" She suddenly cried.

Shang didn't flinch or even turn his head, he just raised his fist and strengthened the faint green glow that surrounded Nightwolf's barrier. That way, the errant fireball of Liu Kang's hit it and bounced off the surface instead of making its way towards the tower of cards Sonya was precariously working on.

"No need to fret, Miss Blade." Shang Tsung chided. "This really is child's play."

Sonya just glared at him. It hadn't gotten past her, the fact that he had so boldly used her first name as if they were on familiar terms. Nor had she neglected to notice how he'd made the assumption that she and he would be the two contestants who'd last to the final rounds. She scoffed.

"If he and I really are the last two left," She muttered, "I'll shoot myself in the foot."

Since it was evident that Scorpion moved fast enough to be in almost two or three places at once, Jade and Tomas had left the offensive position to him. And as far as defense, well: you can't hit a target that you can't see, right? That was why Tomas had draped the area around the deck of cards, himself, and his other partner in smoke. It was simply efficient, for him, but for her it was like being in a private sauna. It was so hot that, after only a minute, she'd had to put her hair up. And now, after nearly three, she was sweating.

"This doesn't bother you?" Jade asked, fanning herself.

Not for the first time a card slipped right out from between her slippery fingers. Smoke reached over and plucked it from the sandy ground from where it'd fallen.

"No," He said in answer to her, "I'm used to this."

Figures, she thought. Not a hair was out of place and the enenra did have a lot of hair. All long, silver, nice. Framing that even nicer face of his and-

I think I might need to get out of here, she thought to herself.

She sat back on her heels and ran her fingers through her hair, taking it out of its bind and then tying it back up again. It was getting really hot. She watched her teammate work while she fanned herself idly.

Smoke was really careful in the way he stacked those cards. He seemed like the type to take everything he did seriously, be a happening of war or a simple, lighthearted activity as this. Only, it wasn't so lighthearted for long. Not when he started speaking to her in that soft, accented voice.

"What's the matter?" He asked her.

"Nothing." She replied.

Smoke said, "You stopped working."

"I know." She sighed, "It's hot and I'm not really good at this anyway."

Tomas shrugged and said, "It's fairly easy, once you get into it."

"Oh?" She said, for lack of a better response.

And because she wanted to hear him talk some more. He did have such a great voice.

Tomas said, "All you have to do, essentially, is get a good foundation."

He pointed to the little tents of cards on the bottom row of the tower. The edges were driven in deep into the sand so as to guarantee they'd hold.

"And once that's done, you just keep stacking. A layer of cards flat on top of those, and then more tents, and more stacks, and more tents, and so on." He continued casually.

Jade nodded, a smile faint and short-lived. It would have been a more pleasant experience if it wasn't so hot. She sighed.

Well, five minutes can only last so long, she reasoned, and if I'm doing something, it'll take my mind off the heat.

So she crawled over to where Smoke was and started to build again. In silence they worked, for the most part, until the enenra needed to know something.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked.

Unthinkingly she replied, "Yeah, sure."

"Something, ah, personal?"

"...I guess so."

"You um," Smoke stopped.

He bowed his head over the card in his hands, the one he was about to add to the heightening structure. It was as if he were trying to choose his words carefully. Jade was curious.

"What is it?" she prodded.

Tomas turned his light eyes on her and asked, "How would you feel about, I mean, after this contest is over...would you um, want to maybe-"

"-I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

That good-humored voice made both Jade and Smoke cringe. Whatever he was about to ask was utterly out the window now. He turned from her, as if embarrassed or something.

Great, she thought, I think he might have been into me. And now I'll never know because this idiot decided to come in and kill the mood.

That 'idiot' had sprung from the sand next to them like the dead rising. It was the only way the wraith could get past Scorpion, by teleporting that is. So now Noob Saibot stood, looking down on them with a knowing smirk.

"Certainly is nice and steamy in here," Noob remarked, "What have you two been up to?"

"Get out!" Jade hissed.

Noob held up his hands and said, "Fine, fine. But uh, before I go..."

He raised his arms over his head and dropped a portal over their tower, making it fall through that circular abyss and come raining down on their heads like cardboard confetti.

The challenge that had started out in a relatively low-key manner was now frenzied and rushed. Everybody was having trouble building and so most of the players were just duking it out now, free-for-all style.

Liu Kang realized, with no small amount of pleasure, that he could shoot fireballs from both hands. And feet. At the same time. Kuai Liang was done, just completely done, when the monk actually burned some of their own cards.

Tanya had enough of her partners' bickering and had decided to switch places with Mileena. So far it was working out, since she got along with Rain and Mileena was ridiculously skilled at stacking cards.

Over at the far right side of the shores, Scorpion was still making things hard for anyone in the near vicinity by spreading hellfire under other players' feet, which was against the rules but hey; who was watching? His teammates had yet to fully regain the morale needed to rebuild that card tower that Noob destroyed.

As for the wraith, well, he was being upbraided by the princess, who still thought his actions unnecessary:

"While you were out antagonizing everyone else," She chided, "you could've been helping me with this tower!"

"I'm a soulless wraith," Noob told her, "And a notorious troll: what'd you expect?"

Ermac wasn't doing much, really.

In fact, the only team who was succeeding by a long shot was Nightwolf's group. They didn't have one single attack land on their tower, and nearly all their cards were used up.

"Raiden's coming!" someone yelled, and that had the same effect as hitting a 'panic' button on a car remote would.

Everyone got desperate, especially the ones who knew they weren't going to win.

"Look at this mess," Tanya spoke.

She was talking about the thick pile of cards. The gods only knew how many times they knocked over their own tower, and even with Mileena's swiftness, there was still a lot of them left.

The shaman's wife sat back on her heels. "So what do we do?"

"I've got an idea," Tanya spoke slyly, "but we'll need to work fast. Just keep building, Mileena. Rain, get over here."

"Did you just...you know, whatever."

Jade was beyond caring at that point. She was already ticked off because of Noob and his vibe-killing interruption, so whatever her teammate decided to do with their cards was up to him. Tomas was over there, his smoke-screen dispelled, trying to put together their tower. It was no use. They would never win now.

"Stop torching our cards!" Smoke snapped. "I need them."

Scorpion just stared dead at him while he burned another handful of the deck.

"He's coming!" Kitana frowned, "We still have too many cards left!"

Noob said, "Oh well."

"So that's it?" She frowned, "You're giving up? We can still win this if we-"

Ermac chose now to finally contribute to the group. He flicked his fingers towards the east and the rest of their cards went flying into the Sea of Blood.

"Why did you do that?" Kitana asked, exasperated.

She just wanted to play the game and participate in the contest and maybe have a good time while trying to win. But it seemed like the gods had given her the two worst partners in competition history.

For his part, Ermac said, "We used all our cards building the tower."

"No we didn't," Kitana argued, confused.

"Oh, but we did," Ermac told her, "If not, then where are they?"

Noob chuckled and said, "Genius."

Kitana sighed.

"Everybody step away from your structures!"

Raiden was back and ready to judge. Everyone groaned when they saw him. Except Jimmy Aames. No, he was groaning for a different reason. See, when Liu Kang got fireball-happy, several of his flames bounced onto the camera guy's frozen body and steadily melted the ice that encased him. Now he was coming to, and groaning in pain as he did. It wasn't a jolly good thing to be trapped in suspended animation like that.

When everyone was a good distance from their towers, or their pitiful excuses for ones, Raiden surveyed them. He was quickly clued in to the foul play and only when he got to the last structure did he remark upon this.

"There's a curious trend going on," The thunder god spoke, "It seems like a lot of you have different sized towers, and yet there are no cards left over. Fancy that."

"Yeah," Smoke glared at his partner, "Fancy that."

"Smoke," Raiden spoke, "What happened to your cards?"

The enenra didn't lie when he said, "Scorpion torched them."

"Aren't you on the same team?"

"That's what I thought."

"Well why did you burn them, Scorpion?" Raiden asked.

The spectre only replied, "...sometimes I get these urges...to burn..."

"...Okay." Raiden frowned. "As for the rest of you, I'll be counting your cards. If they don't add up to 52, you're disqualified."

Cue cacophonous noises of displeasure and protest.

That didn't deter the thunder god from going about his task, though, and thus the cheaters were weeded out. Some people, like Rain's group, incriminated themselves and made his task a lot easier.

"So you used all your cards?" Raiden asked Tanya skeptically.

The ambassador lied and said, "Yes."

"Under penalty of disqualification, are you certain of this?" He asked again.

She was about to reply in the affirmative, but something caught the judge's eye.

"What is that?" He asked her.

It was Mileena who saw it first, and she huffed out angrily. There, in the sand, there was an obvious, unnatural mound of cards with the red edges peeking through the grainy earth.

"Are those your cards?" Raiden asked.

"...Heh, how did they get there, I wonder?" Tanya smiled coyly.

It wasn't working.

"Disqualified," Raiden said, moving on.

Tanya's smile crumpled and she rounded on her partner in crime. He was just sitting there, not too far from the sloppily hidden cards. He had his hands stretched behind him and his legs out front and he seemed not to care about anything at the moment.

"What?" He frowned.

Mileena also approached him and said, "You got us D.Q.'d, that's what!"

"You need to take this more seriously," Tanya scolded, "You're acting like you want to get sent home."

Rain scoffed and gazed to the side, saying, "Would you two get off my back? I buried the damn cards like you told me to so I don't see why I'm to blame."

"News flash, Shit-For-Brains," Mileena snapped, "Burying them means not being able to see them anymore."

"Maybe you should've been working faster, wench." Rain said, "Then we wouldn't have had to bury them in the first place."

Mileena's eye twitched. But once again that day, she showed an overwhelming amount of restraint when she simply narrowed her eyes and quickly turned her back on the loathsome royal.

"It doesn't matter," Tanya sighed, "He's counting the cards, so we wouldn't have made it anyway."

"Disqualified," Raiden said, having counted Kuai Liang's team's cards.

"That's not fair," Kuai frowned, "Most of ours got burned by that demon over there! We didn't cheat!"

"It's true," Liu Kang vouched.

It was ironic, though, seeing as how he was the cause for some of their card casualties as well. Raiden tilted his head though, having heard the voice of Earthrealm's champion. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when he decided to be lenient with one of his 'chosen warriors'.

"Alright," Raiden said, "But I'll need to count how many you used."

And while he did that, murmurings filled the air.

"How come the judge goes easy on them?"

"Monk-boy shouldn't get special treatment!"

"If that were our team, we'd be D.Q.'d!"

No one was pleased at this blatant show of favoritism, but it couldn't be helped. Raiden got the tally for Kuai's group and then moved onto Ermac's team. He approached the host first.

"This is all your cards?"

"Yup." Noob lied.

"All of them?" Raiden pressed.

"Indeed." Ermac responded dishonestly.

"I only count fifteen." Raiden replied.

It was true, their statue was only 15 cards high. A shameful attempt, at best.

"No, there's definitely 52." Ermac insisted.

"Fifty-two?" Raiden frowned, his eyes glossing over.

"You're counting 52." Ermac commanded more than observed.

"I am counting 52." Raiden said tonelessly, his eyes still glassy.

"Stop!" Kitana suddenly shouted, "Stop!"

And it was as if someone turned a switch in Raiden's head; his eyes returned to normal and he blinked in bewilderment.

"What just happened?" he frowned.

Kitana looked at her two teammates reproachfully before divulging the facts to the god.

She said, "Ermac was manipulating you, altering your mind and forcing you to percieve these fifteen cards as fifty-two. He was...He was cheating."

She said 'cheating' as if it were a swear word, in a low whisper. Raiden turned to the host.

"Is this true?"

"Damn straight."

"Disqualified."

"Hn. Whatever." Ermac sneered.

Noob shook his head and said, "Just couldn't do it, could you Kitty?"

Kitana pouted and said indignantly, "No. I couldn't. I won't."

"Five seconds," Noob said, "Five seconds of keeping your mouth shut while Ermac and I handled business, and you couldn't do that? We weren't asking you to cheat. Just to let us do what we do."

"It's not right." She argued.

He chuckled and said, "You know what else isn't right? Being broke. And that's what we'll all be if you keep being so prude and prissy."

"Congratulations," Raiden said above all others. "For being the only ones who actually played by the rules, you three are this challenge's winners."

Everyone looked at the lucky team. With not one but two barriers, it was no surprise that Sonya's team came out victorious. She had not stopped in her steady work and actually used all fifty-two cards, despite having the immense distraction that was Shang Tsung. And as for the sorcerer and the shaman, they were both skilled at their respective 'arts', so maintaining a barrier for five minutes was nothing to them.

"Your team has been awarded 25 points, putting you at 125 total points for the week." Raiden announced.

Sonya smiled softly, but only at Nightwolf. She didn't even glance Shang Tsung's way. She already had that pervy smile burned into her retinas.

A/N: Thanks for reading! You already know what to do, just go ahead and review and tell me all about what you thought of this latest chapter :)

Do you still want more? If so, let me know!

~DymondGold~