Takeda had no idea when he regained consciousness. At some point he simply started thinking. Thinking about his history of injuries. Punched. Kicked. Stabbed, slashed, scratched, shot, slammed to the ground, acid spit in his eyes, burned, bit, shocked - and shocked by Raiden, no less.
Never tasered.
And he hoped he'd never be tasered again.
Whatever electricity Raiden carried in his body was nothing in comparison. Getting tasered was a different kind of voltage. More . . . concentrated. More incapacitating. The moment the probes stuck into his side, right under his armpit, he stiffened. His whole body tensed uncontrollably, rigid as some 50,000 volts entered him. Each charge leapt from nerve-ending to nerve-ending, like thousands of pins and needles. With each leap the muscles attached to them forcibly bulged and contracted, shrank and twitched. He dropped like a rock. Luckily, Jacqui had the presence of mind to catch him before he literally face-planted into the ground.
She barely guided him to the ground before the MPs charged them. She surrendered immediately. Good, he thought, he wouldn't have wanted her tasered too. It was singularly the oddest experience he ever had. He wasn't sure when he ended up unconscious after that, either. All he remembered was his body buzzing then nothing. Someone probably warned them about his powers and they took care of it. He scoffed inwardly. It wasn't like he would have used it, not after he was caught fair and square. Not on allied soldiers.
Oh, right. The MPs captured him. It dawned on him that he was caught, but he didn't want to open his eyes yet - he was too afraid of seeing where they took him. What they were going to do to him. He lifted his head and his ears brushed against his arms. He figured his hands were tied over his head. His shoulders were stiff and starting to go numb; he couldn't feel his arms or hands. At all. All his dead weight pulled on his shoulders while he was unconscious. And his neck was sore from hanging. He had a bag or some sort of blindfold over his head. Every time he sucked in a breath he panted warm, recycled air back into his lungs. He felt suffocated. Uncomfortable.
"I'll let interrogation have their way with you," Sonya said. He knew she was serious but he didn't think . . . what did he have to confess to?
"Let's see, Takeda: you . . . mentally attacked General Blade, destroyed military property, ran from the crime scene, attacked MPs - until you got tasered, anyway - what else?" That stuff alone was enough to garner some kind of punishment from General Blade. "You earned it, buddy," he thought.
His eyebrows furrowed, and he felt something thick and gummy on his temples tug uncomfortably at his skin. What were they, electrodes? Oh God, she wouldn't electrocute him, would she? "No way, Takeda, no way . . . think about something else!"
To distract himself, he turned his attention to his feet. His legs were stuck in a half-extended position behind him, toes dragging on the ground, but without his upper body he couldn't roll back onto his heels and stand up.
"Damn it, Jin, why'd you make us do this?"
The door slammed open behind him, and Takeda jumped. Whoever it was pounded into his room, and he tried to pick up on the number of minds. As soon as he sent out a wave the thing around his temples hummed threateningly. He retreated, but not before it delivered a shock straight to his temples, scrambling his thoughts like eggs. He writhed, thrashing against the ropes. Accidentally swinging himself around. "Agh! What the-"
"Yeah, your telepathy should be blocked by that." He recognized General Blade's voice immediately.
"What is it?" he asked, relying on his ears to find where she was in the room. He briefly realized that that was how Kenshi navigated when he didn't have Sento.
She padded up behind him, grabbing his shoulders to stop him, and he tensed. She was going to hit him. And it was going to hurt.
"I'll ask the questions," she said, directly in his ear. Her hot breath trickled down his neck and he shuddered despite himself. "What were you and Jacqueline Briggs doing destroying the cameras surrounding my office?"
Who all did she interrogate already? How much did she already know? That was a pretty odd question to start with. 'I have to be smart about this,' he thought.
"Not answering?"
"Wait . . . "
"I know you're a tough kid, Takeda. Smart, too. I know you're going to try to think your way out of this. But I want you to know that I'm tougher." Her voice trailed along behind him as she continued. "By a loooong shot. You know my officer training involved me killing Oni." The leather of her gloves suddenly crinkled in his ear startling him. He flinched, thinking it was going to be a weapon. "With my bare hands," she hissed.
" . . . That sounds disgusting," he said carefully. "Look, I'm technically not under your jurisdiction, so are you even allowed to hold me like this? Have you called Master Hasashi?-"
The footsteps trailed to his side and he heard a snick. General Blade crouched down and swung something at his legs. A metal rod cracked against the side of his knee, and drilling pain split across his kneecap and circled around it. A cry of surprise and panic tore itself from his throat, and he bit his lip, trying to breath through the throbbing as it faded into a swollen numbness.
"Don't give me that Kung Jin line of shit!" she yelled. "And don't speak unless you're answering a question, understood?"
"Y-yes, Ma'am."
"What were you doing outside my office?" He heard her voice circle around to the front of him.
"L-looking for Jax's mission folder!" Wasn't it obvious?
"No shit! I mean what were you doing? What was your part in it?"
"J - I was supposed to be the distraction." He didn't want to incriminate Jacqui if he didn't have to, either.
"You mean you took out the cameras so we'd chase you?"
"Me and not Cass or Jin."
"Why did the four of you want the mission folder?"
"I feel like you should know-"
She slapped the rod into her palm and he froze. Then the rod slammed into his jaw, the sound thunking in his entire head. His teeth gnashed together and his head snapped to the side. Almost immediately his eyes blurred. His head lolled, his whole face and teeth went numb, his jaw hung open loosely as a wave of nausea crashed into him. Followed by throbbing pain. Nausea. Pain and nausea. "Oww," he moaned. Good thing his legs weren't holding him up anyway. He was sure they would've buckled by now. His temples started to throb, and he tossed his head back to blink hard at the ceiling. Try to regain some of his faculties.
"Why did the four of you want the mission folder?!"
He waited, frozen, until the dizziness passed. "Did you give Jacqui the same treatment?!" he cried as soon as he could trust his jaw. It felt stiff, like he couldn't close it. Hoped it wasn't dislocated or fractured. "No, no! Question, Takeda. Don't get it again! Why? General, you sent an all-star recon team - my dad, Jacqui's dad, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Master Hasashi, who else?"
" . . . "
"Right. Never mind. Don't answer that. You sent a team like that on a classified mission. About a week ago, right? Jacqui's dad is a notoriously frequent caller. Like, every few days caller. If some stuff goes down it's more like every few hours caller. The man hasn't called. Not once. We knew something was up then."
"What if I told them not to call?"
"Come on, General," he scoffed. He couldn't see her face, but the shape of her behind the blindfold squared its shoulders to him. He quickly remedied, "If you sent them on a mission, you'd obviously want them to report in! Why would you wait blindly for them to either return or be killed?" He waited for her reply, but she didn't say anything. His shoulders were uncomfortably cold. And tingly. He shifted, tugging at the ropes around his wrists until they groaned in protest. Hoping she may take a little pity on him.
"Go on," she prompted.
"Look, can you at least let me down? I can't feel my arms."
"Go on," she said again. Was this even real? What was going on?
"My dad didn't call either. Neither did Master Hasashi. So we ruled out Jax's comm device breaking."
"It didn't occur to you that they went somewhere comm devices don't work?"
"It did, we just . . . "
"Too goddamn impatient to wait."
"Please, Ma'am. Jacqui just got a little scared, is all. So did I."
"This doesn't downplay what you did. Still, I guess I can't blame you." She tugged the blindfold off his head, and the light assaulted his eyes. He blinked heavily, taking stock of his surroundings. Grey walls, grey cement floors with a drain directly underneath him, probably for blood. Working the clicking sound out of his jaw, he craned his neck as far up as he could look and saw the thick ropes criss-crossed around each wrist four or five times before trailing up around a hook suspended from the ceiling.
Next to General Blade was a table, with all manner of sharp objects on it. "Geez, General," he started, swallowing thickly. He hoped she didn't hear his voice shake. He hoped she didn't catch his wrists tense in the ropes. He hoped she didn't notice the way his heart pulsed out of his ribcage. The bead of sweat roll down his neck. "What, you have Kano in here before me or something? Oh my god, she's gonna kill me."
Wait. Was she? Would she really kill him? What did she even want out of him? What was she asking him that she didn't already know? He quickly took stock of all the information: she knew that him, Jacqui, Cassie, and Jin asked her about Jax's and Kenshi's mission. She knew him and Jacqui were the ones to take out the cameras - she asked him for confirmation in her first question. General Blade wasn't stupid - she was smart enough to know that they were looking for the mission folder, with or without asking him. What else?
In Takeda's mind she had all the pieces, and she had all the pieces connected. So why? She would risk killing a Chujin of the Shirai Ryu clan in an unneeded interrogation? That wouldn't be the wisest career move, considering it would look like cold blood. She'd have Master Hasashi and the whole clan on her and the SF within days. And Kenshi. Did she really want Takahashi Kenshi after her? The greatest swordsman in the world?
She would risk losing Takeda's skill, his telepathy, and Cassie's teammate? Why the heck was he tied up, beaten, intimidated, for a confession that was of no consequence to either of them anyway? The thoughts steeled him.
Maybe he missed something. Maybe she knew something he didn't and thought he'd be able to explain it. He wanted to find out. In his newfound empowerment he glared straight at her and suddenly threw everything he had into a mental attack. He wanted to burrow through her mental walls if she had them up before the thing around his head shocked him. The moment she felt his power touch her mind she glared back at him. Just what he wanted. Their eyes connected and he reversed, opening up his mind. He pulled at her mind instead, wrapping his influence around her, inviting her in and enticing her eyes to his. He made his power visible in his eyes. His very pupils glowed blue, he made them like bottomless pools of infinity. He locked her in his gaze, holding her still.
She froze. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open in uncharacteristic paralysis. He attacked her senses next, breaking their connection as he shut down her eyes and ears.
Despite her barriers the force and strength of his attack worked and dizzied her. She staggered back, and in her confusion let down her defenses. He slipped through the cracks like water through rocks and scanned her mind.
A barrage of images and voices flooded into his mind, so quickly he couldn't sort through them. From her point of view, and from all different times and memories. He bent over a bleeding Johnny Cage in Quan Chi's fortress. He heard Raiden calling her name. He heard a little girl screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!" He felt someone pin something to her uniform. He choked Kano, feeling his jugular pulse beneath her thumbs. By the time he found the thought streams he was looking for, the ones associated with their heist, the electrodes around his temples hummed again. It emitted a high-pitched whine that grew higher and higher until it delivered the shock. His whole neck and face tensed up, paralyzing the scream in his vocal chords. He swore his eyes actually crossed, every process going on in his head was interrupted. His mind went dead, momentarily disconnected from his body.
He accidentally transmitted his pain to General Blade. Her hands flew to her head and she screamed out, collapsing to the ground.
General Blade lay there until her sight and hearing returned, blinking dizzily, reorienting her equilibrium in the brightness. Takeda shook his head, regaining control of his mental faculties first.
"What the hell am I even DOING here?!" he yelled. "You're not gonna kill me, General Blade!" He pulled at the ropes again, toes uselessly kicking at the ground in the only form of protest he could muster. "And you already know everything you're asking me about! What, are you just trying to scare me? Is that it?"
"OF COURSE I'M TRYING TO SCARE YOU, YOU IDIOT!" she screamed back. Her confession surprised him. He didn't expect her to explain herself at all.
"What?"
"If this were a real interrogation you'd be DEAD already!"
"Why-?"
"Because you don't destroy MY property, start a false alarm like that, put MY life in danger, mess with MY soldiers, MY MPs, MY FTFs, ME! And just get away with it! You will NEVER pull a stung like that with SF again. Is that clear? I don't care WHO you are, I don't care WHAT you can do! I don't care what FACTION you're in! Do you understand me? Now grow up! You owe me like 4,000 dollars for all the shit you destroyed!" She peeled herself from the floor, roughly massaging her temples. "Geez, that was weird."
"Yeah? Not as weird as being hit with a metal rod. My jaw hurts. And my knee."
"Well boo-hoo!" she sneered. "I have a job for you."
"A what?" He felt the subject turning away from him, but he was still stuck on it. She kept trying to bring up something else but he couldn't quite grasp what it was.
"A mission! A job! I have a mission for you and the rest of Cassie's team."
"Wait . . . a mission?"
"Yes, Takeda, God! A mission!"
Oh. Oh. Was she . . . asking a favor of him? "A mission? You're gonna send me on a mission? After you just put me through all that?"
"Takeda, please-"
"Wow, General! A mission! I wonder what it could possibly be! I am just so excited to do you this favor after you just scared the SHIT out of me! You know, I'm half-tempted to decline at this point! I'm Shirai Ryu. Hanzo Hasashi is my master, not you! I take orders from you because I want to, not because I owe you anything-"
"It's about Kenshi and Jax!"