Outside the faintest traces of daylight were beginning to break from behind the treetops. Of course, it was still too early for most of the city of Venice to be up and about, but in the Cage residence, the day had already gotten a head start.
The first thing Sonya had heard when she woke up was the distant sizzling of whatever Johnny had decided to cook up that morning. After she had convinced herself to get off of the ridiculously comfortable couch that she had ended up burrowing herself into last night, she managed to drag herself into the kitchen and claim some of the stuffed omelet Johnny had prepared.
As she sat at the table, sipping coffee, she watched her friend ravenously devour his portion of the omelet, along with some bacon strips, sausage links, and a strange drink that she guessed was probably also ridiculously high in protein. Sonya really didn't want to sound rude about the way Johnny was feasting like a pig in front of her, but then she remembered that with Johnny, being polite was never truly on her list of priorities.
"There's this new thing out now," she commented, continuing to drink from her mug. "It's called chewing."
Johnny paused right as he was about to inhale another chunk of omelet and eyed her in an irritated manner. He chewed a bit more slowly after her comment, however, and seemed to be over it.
"Hey," he replied, giving Sonya a full view of the masticated egg that filled his mouth, much to her chagrin. "Big boys like me gotta eat. I haven't worked out in over... well, however long we were in the tournament."
"You're going to work out?" Sonya replied, looking at Johnny's bandaged right hand, broken since he had had to punch in the window to his trailer to get the pass. But it didn't seem to faze him as he shrugged and downed half of the protein shake in one shot. Guess he's just breaking in old habits, Sonya thought, almost admiring him, in a way.
On the other hand, she didn't seem to have much of an appetite (for not-so-shocking reasons). Still, there was a lot of food on the table, including some toast that Johnny didn't look too intent on stuffing into his face at the moment.
"Well," she said as she put down the finished coffee cup and began to pile slices and a variety of jams onto a spare plate. "Good luck with that."
Pouring orange juice into a cup, she picked up the small breakfast and headed out of the kitchen, earning a puzzled look from Johnny.
"Hey," he barked, mouth still full. "Where're you...?"
Sonya turned around and shot him a look that instructed him to keep his voice down.
"Oh," Johnny said quietly, after it clicked that the meal was for their guest. He nodded and went back to his breakfast as Sonya made her way to Raiden's room.
Sonya was careful to tread quietly as she pushed the door to the room open. Immediately she went over to see how her friend was doing. He was still asleep, but at some point in the night it looked like he had rolled over onto his side, which she guessed was a good sign; tossing and turning had to better than… the alternative.
She mulled over taking his temperature again, but since he didn't seem to be shivering or sweating, and for the first time looked like he was sleeping normally, she decided against it and simply set the plate and cup down on the nightstand, figuring he would take it when he woke up. With that, she took one last glance at her silver-haired friend before she walked out of the room.
By the time Sonya had returned to the kitchen she found to her surprise that everything had been cleaned up from the table and stacked neatly in the sink, with Johnny nowhere to be found. She strolled around the house a little, trying to familiarize herself with the layout, when she passed through one hallway in particular that seemed to have music pulsing through it. She approached one door that seemed to be the source.
Once she opened it, a blast of pounding house music came barreling out. She deduced that this had to be the weight room, seeing as Johnny was jumping rope on the other side, near the stereo.
Furious, she dashed over and grabbed part of the rope while it was still in mid-air, alerting Johnny to her presence.
"Hey!" he protested as she shut the music off, abruptly.
"Are you crazy?" Sonya snapped, yanking the jump rope out of his hands altogether. "Not only is Raiden still sleeping, but it's seven in the morning and you're blasting crappy techno so the whole city can hear? Do you even know the definition of 'subtle'?"
A bit annoyed, Johnny grabbed the jump rope back and retorted, "Sublety's never been one of my strong points. It's not what I'm paid for."
Johnny was about to begin his jump rope routine again, but quickly realized it was futile, as he had lost count when Sonya barged in. The latter observed the weight room quickly, noticing the barbell rack, bench press, and treadmill, among other exercise equipment. It was like Johnny owned a whole damn gym for himself, she noted sourly.
Sonya snapped her attention back to her acquaintance, who had thrown down the jump rope and was now making his way over to the chin-up bar installed in the sliding glass doors that opened up to an impressive view of the city, upon which sunlight was beginning to creep.
As he grabbed onto the bar, Johnny looked back and saw Sonya already on the floor, starting effortlessly on a set of crunches.
He didn't even bother pulling himself up before he told her, "There's a machine for that over there."
He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the appropriate contraption, but Sonya completely disregarded his advice.
"I don't need a damn machine," she growled, grunting each subsequent time she pulled herself up. "I've been doing this… the old-fashioned way for years… and it hasn't failed me… yet."
Johnny bristled indignantly. He hadn't blown fifteen-hundred dollars on the Ab-Aid 2000 for it to be casually dismissed in such a manner.
When Sonya pulled herself up again, she could see Johnny standing at her feet, looking down at her.
"What?" she asked lamely, putting her set on hold.
"You like doing things the old-fashioned way, huh?" he inquired back, smiling.
Sonya squinted at him, silently demanding he get to the point.
"You and me. First one to reach fifty wins. Now."
Johnny should have gotten the hint when her eyes lit up, but he had already positioned himself on the ground next to her.
"You're on."
Light snuck in from behind the centuries-old Ming era screen partition as the day continued to advance. A sliver poked out from the top and slowly moved across the rest of the room as the sun followed its routine path, creeping along the walls until the light hit the bed. Minutes later it was on the bed's inhabitant's torso, and soon it was up to his neck.
When the light rested directly on his eyes, he finally sensed a change in his surroundings and stirred himself awake. He cracked his eyes open and quickly tried to shield them from the first catch of normal light they had experienced in days, an effort which took much more energy out of him than it should.
Raiden tossed onto his back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, watching the streak of sunbeam split the shadows in two. He was finally able to take in his surroundings completely; the room contained a veritable gallery of mismatched Asian paraphernalia, of all which he could recognize and place. A Japanese silk screen and the aforementioned Chinese one rested on two different sides of the room, a Han dynasty silk robe hung on a wall, and a rack of tachi was displayed proudly on the side of the room opposite the bed, in front of a giant tapestry with a yin-and-yang motif. Whoever the collector was obviously wasn't too picky about details like culture or time period, preferring to display the artifacts for their novelty value.
After noting his environment, Raiden attempted to pick himself up. Realizing quickly that he simply did not have the energy to sit upright, he settled for propping himself on his left elbow. He soon noticed the toast and drink that had been left for him on the nightstand.
He didn't know what instinct came over him and instructed him to snatch the toast and scarf it down, or from where the energy to do so had appeared. He had never been so desperate for food before; sure, he knew what some things tasted like, but it was never like he had actually needed nourishment the way mortals did. Soon afterwards he grabbed the orange juice and chugged that down as well, gagging on the liquid's overt tanginess and accidentally splattering some on the bed sheets in the process.
Putting the empty glass back on the nightstand, Raiden ran his free hand through his hair weakly, unsuccessfully trying to push dangling strands out of the way. Worry was beginning to displace fatigue; what was he supposed to do now?
Still groggy, he noticed that the door to the room had been left cracked slightly open. He wondered if he should attempt to push himself out of bed, or if it would be better to wait for someone to show up. The latter option seemed less viable as he thought about it, seeing as he'd probably already kept Johnny and Sonya waiting enough already.
With a new small surge of energy from the food and drink, Raiden tried pushing himself up all of the way and swung his legs over the side of the bed. So far, so good.
Slightly fearful, but still determined, Raiden managed to stand up on his feet. For a second, the long postponed change in his center of gravity almost sent him lurching forward, but he caught himself on the nightstand and leaned over to catch his second wind.
Feeling his sense of balance return to him prompted Raiden to go out the door.
"You can do it, Cage! Come on!"
The lieutenant barked at her competitor, who was now struggling not to collapse in a heap right in front of her. And while a smug smirk may have been creeping onto Sonya's face as she harassed her friend, Johnny was significantly less amused.
"You're telling me you can't take a little sweat and toil?" she continued to shout, gleefully watching Johnny's arms start to wobble while her own were perfectly stable. "Betcha one of your machines doesn't give you this much of a wring-out, huh?"
Johnny gave up trying to hide the fact that he was now panting like a Siberian husky locked in a greenhouse.
"We've only done seventy, soldier!" Sonya pointed out loudly, forgetting the indoor voice rule she herself had instated.
"My arms!" Johnny only barely managed to sputter out, a plea that fell on deaf ears. Appearing like he would hit the ground if he lowered himself one more time, she decided to add insult to injury and threw her left arm behind her back.
"How about you give one a break, then?" she taunted. "Is that better?"
Is this chick human? ! ? was the sentiment that ran through Johnny's head right before he crumpled onto the floor in defeat.
Sonya took the opportunity to chuckle at her compatriot's predicament, but the moment was short-lived when she caught sight of someone standing at the door to the weight room.
"Raiden!" she gasped. It was enough to snap Johnny out of his dazed stupor. They both saw their haggard ally leaning against the door frame for support, with a weary expression on his face, looking back at the two of them confusedly. They both rushed to help him, picking him up in much the same way they had in order to bring him to Johnny's house in the first place. This time, however, Raiden stopped them with one hand, apparently wishing to support himself.
"Are you doing better?" Johnny asked. Raiden only nodded in response, causing Johnny and Sonya to give each other looks.
"Come on," Sonya urged, pushing Raiden slightly. "Let's get you back to your room."
"No," Raiden said quietly, but it was still enough to make both of them stop upon hearing the utterance of his first word since… the incident.
Sonya disregarded it.
"Let's go," she commanded. "We'll talk about this later."
Allowing him to walk by himself, but trailing closely, Johnny and Sonya followed the former thunder deity back to his room.