Within the next couple of days, the mood in the house was noticeably lighter. Of course, the weight of the situation still pressed on their minds constantly, but the three (Johnny and Sonya especially) felt they could breathe a little bit more easily since that day in the kitchen. Raiden's strength seemed to be returning, to the point to where he was able to join the other two in Johnny's exercise routine one morning.
He was helping Sonya warm up with a pair of wide arm guards designed to act as more of a practice target for the opponent rather than as practical protection for fighting. Series of short, loud thumps punctuated the air at the same time that Johnny's stereo system was cranking out the same music that had been playing the day Sonya interrupted him. Johnny himself was trying to complete a set of crunches on the floor a few feet away, noticeably avoiding using most of the workout equipment this time and opting for the old-fashioned route (Sonya silently counted off a small victory).
Raiden was standing up well against his opponent. His stance was unshakeable, and he even began instructing her at some points. Sonya took the advice to heart and would hold back or strike differently when Raiden directed, hoping it would do more to help him feel better and realizing it was genuinely improving some aspects of her technique.
Johnny finished his set and dropped back to the ground, exhausted. He could hear Sonya and Raiden continuing to spar behind him. He reached for his water bottle nearby and tiredly brought it to his lips. Much to his dismay, however, the thermos had run dry.
Sighing, he picked himself up and headed for the door.
"Be right back," he called out over the music. There was no response, but Johnny liked to think it was because they just didn't hear him.
Dragging himself to the kitchen, Johnny threw the refrigerator door open and browsed for the water jug. When he picked it up, he could feel it was already half-empty. He poured some into his thermos without any concern, but once the last drop fell in he realized that that meant there was little left for his friends after this gallon was finished. There was some orange juice left, but Johnny knew that really only he and Sonya would be the ones willing to drink it, since Raiden couldn't stand citrus. And Johnny definitely wouldn't have enough water left to make tea at this point.
He looked back in the fridge and looked over whatever food was left: some potatoes, lettuce, cheese, eggs that had probably gone bad by now, and a pack of ribs. Not much to last three people another night.
Johnny stood back and pursed his lips worriedly. This meant they were inevitably going to have to go out for food soon, and while it wasn't exactly like they had to fear being attacked or something, Johnny knew it would be hard to stay under the radar.
He closed the door and headed back to the weight room, where Raiden had now ditched one of the guards and was showing Sonya more effective blocking methods. He stopped when he saw Johnny's face, causing Sonya to turn around to see what had distracted her mentor.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
Johnny paused briefly before responding.
"Nothing, just thinking," he replied. "About food."
The other two gave him strange looks.
"…and how we're kinda running out."
"Running out?" Sonya demanded, taking a step towards Johnny, her mind already having jumped to the logical conclusion. "How can you be running out already?"
"Well, jeez, Sonya," Johnny defended himself. "It's not like the last time I was here I was stocking up for the nuclear winter!"
"Both of you," Raiden interjected. "Calm down. This is not a serious problem."
Johnny looked at Raiden in silent thanks before continuing.
"We can go out later tonight and look for something," he suggested. Sonya still looked irritated, but she figured there was no other solution.
"Whatever," she scoffed. "But we have to keep a good cover. Once paparazzi get a hold of pretty boy here, they'll track him like bloodhounds."
Johnny looked on in an annoyed manner as Sonya went back to her and Raiden's practice session.
Once the clock read 9:30 p.m., the trio agreed it was probably safe to go out. They would have waited longer, but as much as Sonya didn't want to admit it, she was ravenous for food after a measly lunch which had consisted of three ribs and a baked potato. Hopefully they would be able to blend with the throngs of crowds that would be brought out by the allure of L.A. night life. She suggested (or demanded, same difference) that Johnny wear a hoodie with the hood up and sunglasses the entire time they were out. At first Johnny objected, preferring not to look like a bum with a Vitamin D phobia, but one look from Sonya was enough to silence his protest. Raiden opted for a thick jacket which he hoped would help him blend in with the crowd, but Sonya didn't have the heart to tell him that it only made him look even more imposing. She figured she would just stay close by his side at all times in case anything went down.
They were in the heart of the city by ten, slipping by others on the sidewalk. Johnny was subtly sandwiched between the other two in order to stay incognito, but he couldn't help but feel that between indifferent cliques of uptight daddy's girls and drunken frat brigades on the prowl for dates, not too many people would probably notice him at this point. But he stayed silent to appease Sonya.
They reached a stoplight and found themselves alone on the corner. Sonya didn't know much about L.A., but she definitely thought night life would be much… busier than this.
"Is this what a Saturday night usually looks like around here?" she inquired. Johnny shook his head, trying to come up with an explanation.
"I guess the city's kinda been keeping things on lockdown," he explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's some kind of curfew."
Great, Sonya thought as she directed her attention back to the crosswalk light. Better make this quick.
"Where's the nearest grocery store then?" she asked. She didn't get any answer for a moment, causing her to look towards Johnny to see if he had heard her. He looked like he was staring at something, but he quickly snapped out of it. She assumed he had been going through a mental map.
"Uh," he stammered, looking around. "This way."
He turned suddenly and headed across the street left from where Sonya had thought he had been directing them. She and Raiden stumbled to keep up with him as he walked briskly down a street that seemed much less populated than the relatively bustling corner they had just abandoned.
This tool better know what he's doing, Sonya thought as she ground her teeth and tried to keep up with Johnny.
After fifteen minutes of following Johnny through the damned tangle of streets that was Venice, California, Sonya fumed, waiting for an explanation.
"What the hell is taking so long?" she snapped as they rounded another corner. "Do you know how far we are from the house?"
Johnny didn't respond to her accusations. Instead, he was looking around for something, which a hunch told Sonya was not a grocery store.
"Hello?" she barked, coming up to his side. Right as she was about to tear him a new one, however, Johnny looked to his right and smiled upon finding that for which he had been searching for the last five blocks.
"Aw, yeah!" he crooned as he made his way over to a building entrance, in front of which a line for some sort of event was forming.
"Johnny!" Sonya snapped again, looking around to make sure no one had heard her call him by his name. She stomped her foot impatiently and followed him, with Raiden following her trail.
"What is this?" she asked. Soon she noticed the line was organized by a long chain of red velvet cords, the kind used to direct the flow of human traffic at major attractions. And at the head of the line was a large man who was signaling the next couple that was allowed inside, from where loud music was threatening to bring down the walls.
A bouncer.
"Oh, no," Sonya groaned in dismay, realizing where Johnny had brought them.
"A club?" she hissed furiously. "How did you even find this place?"
"I saw a poster a few blocks back," Johnny responded calmly, putting his hands up in hopes that this would achieve the same effect with Sonya. Evidently, however, he still didn't know her well enough to know that this wouldn't work.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" she started to shout, losing control of her emotions. Ironically, it was now she who was drawing attention from the partygoers.
"Relax!" Johnny tried to calm her down, again to no avail.
"I thought you said the city was locking down on this stuff," Sonya argued.
"Well, yeah," Johnny responded. "But they're not gonna waste resources shutting down some random party. Besides, it's probably just that a bunch of people brought beer or something. This place hasn't been rented out by anybody for years."
"You mean this is illegal?" Raiden inquired, unwittingly pushing Sonya further to the brink of distress.
"'Illegal' is a strong word," Johnny replied. The actor hoped that a joke would take the sting off of the situation. "Let's call it 'improvised.'"
Johnny still received a disapproving look from Raiden. Much to his surprise, he almost wished he had received one from Sonya, too, if only because she was busy burying her face in her hands.
"Come on, Raiden," Johnny pried, elbowing his friend and desperately wishing the humor angle would work. "You've known us forever; if there's anything mortals know how to do, it's party."
"If there is anything mortals know how to do, it is skew their priorities," Raiden responded humorlessly, forcing Johnny to give up on his attempt to make peace. By now the three were receiving calls from the people in line, many who believed they recognized the movie star beneath the sunglasses.
"Hey!" came a shout from a man near the front of the line. "Johnny Cage?"
Sonya swore.
"I can't believe you're actually this stupid!" she complained, shoving Johnny quite harshly, resulting in a droning "ooh" from the crowd, which only served to infuriate her more.
While Johnny stumbled and shouted in protest, Raiden did his best to try and calm the both of them down.
"Hey, Cage," a female onlooker cried out coyly. "Who's your friend?"
There were murmurs from the women in line, and only after a comment about a "silver fox" flew by did the trio realize to whom they were referring. Sonya quickly ignored the whistles and wolf calls that were intended for them and continued to berate Johnny.
"You don't think I'm actually going in there, do you?" she retorted with disgust.
"Tell 'im, baby girl," someone else called out. "I like 'em feisty."
Sonya and Raiden both looked with contempt in the general direction of the call. Johnny tried to fix himself and began again.
"Look, this'll all be gone in the morning," he assured them. "Nobody'll know this was here. You don't have to come in with me if you don't want to, so here's some cash…"
He fished around in his pocket for his wallet, prompting another call from the crowd.
"I got something in my pocket for you too, sugar tits."
Nobody could have anticipated the next action that resulted from the man's crude comment. With immeasurable speed, Raiden smoothly and precisely jabbed his hand into the crowd, which in response parted, clearing the way to offer the clueless sacrifice towards the terrifying Asian who looked like he could easily snap the smaller man like a toothpick.
The pig cowered as Raiden towered over him, brimming with a tranquil fury that was palpable to everyone within a ten foot radius, and staring him down with icy, storm-colored eyes. Holding him by the collar, a coolly furious Raiden growled, "You have nowhere near as much to offer her as you would like to think. Don't flatter yourself."
The man continued to babble on nonsensically in fear after Johnny and Sonya managed to pry Raiden away from the crowd, from which more calls were coming from women who had enjoyed the sudden display of zeal.
"All right, everybody just calm down," Johnny said again, waiting until they were all ready to listen to each other again. "Look. They've already spotted me. I can take care of things from here. You two can take this…"
He held out a stack of about two hundred dollars in cash.
"…and go find a store somewhere down this street. I'll meet up with you later. Deal?"
Sonya ground her teeth in disapproval. She refused to meet Johnny's eyes when she finally spat out, "Fine."
She grabbed the cash, took Raiden by the arm and yanked him off in the direction Johnny had indicated.
Sighing now that he was free from his burden, Johnny turned around to greet the string of eager faces awaiting him.
"Wazzup, party people?" he shouted to an enthusiastic crowd as he was admitted entrance without having to wait in line.
Sonya walked vigorously, still furious at Johnny for pulling them into a situation like that. Who knew what would be plastered all over the front page tomorrow morning?
"Sonya!' she heard Raiden call out behind her. She snapped around and waited for her friend to catch up.
"Sorry," she grumbled, continuing to walk once Raiden was at her side.
They walked quietly for a minute, neither of them daring to acknowledge what had happened back at the club. Thinking about the attention they had drawn caused Sonya to hiss again in frustration.
"I am sorry," Raiden stated suddenly, causing Sonya to look back up at him.
"What?" Sonya said, confused.
"I'm sorry," Raiden repeated. "For what happened back there. I lost my temper."
Sonya rushed to comfort her friend.
"Oh, no, it's okay," she stated hurriedly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm mad at Johnny, not you."
Raiden said nothing and continued walking. Sonya did the same. In a few moments, though, she was laughing in spite of herself.
Raiden looked at her quizzically.
"It's nothing, I'm just…" she said, pausing to emit another chuckle. "I'm just thinking that that was such a Jax move you pulled back there."
Raiden raised an eyebrow.
"How so?" he inquired.
"Whenever somebody made a crack at me like that in the old days, Jax would be the first one to tell them to put a lid on it," Sonya recalled fondly. "Back when I first enlisted in the army. I mean, he treated me just as hard as everyone else, but when we were out, he always got kinda… I dunno… papa wolf around me."
She smirked a little.
"Jax was always kind of like the dad I never had."
She didn't notice Raiden had been slowing down to a halt as she had been speaking. Suddenly cognizant of what had happened, she stopped and looked back at her comrade.
"…Raiden?" she asked, checking to make sure her friend was okay. Raiden stared woefully at the ground as he spoke.
"I am sorry, Sonya," he said, prompting her to think, Again?
"If it had not been for my mistakes, Jax and the others would still be here."
Sonya's stomach plummeted. She hadn't thought about the others for days, and the memory of what had transpired the day everyone was killed…
It was too much for her to bear.
"No, Raiden," she stated, falling back to comfort her friend. "It was out of your control. You couldn't have seen that coming. None of this is your fault."
Raiden didn't respond, and Sonya knew survivor's guilt was setting in.
"Raiden!" she demanded, forcing him to look directly at her. "This isn't your fault."
While he still looked unsure, he nodded in forced agreement. Sonya knew this was probably the best response she was going to get, but for now she was fine with it.
She turned to look back around to gauge how close they were to their destination. Luckily, she thought she could spot a market of Asian goods at the next corner.
"Look!" she said, pointing to the store. "I think there's something."
She looked back to Raiden, who saw the store and shrugged.
Figuring she would do more to comfort him later, Sonya took Raiden's arm in hers and led him to the corner.