Chapter 3: Powers and Close Calls Part 2
Alex continued to chase Tremor. Tremor tried to stop him with minor quakes and more rocks, but Alex was able to react fast enough to avoid or absorb attacks he threw. He shoots fireballs at the big ceiling to drop it on Alex and he is presumed crushed. Smiling in triumphant, Tremor busts open the doors, leading to the stack of weapons on a big battlefield outside. "Kano would be proud that we will be rewarded. Shao Kahn better love his gifts." Tremor said as he gets them ready. He was about to contact Edenia to open a portal, but the sound of gunfire shoots the contacter out of his hand. Tremor turns around to see Alex, alive and unscathed.
"Gotta say love what you've done with the place. You and Kano. I appreciate the tour and all, but this is where I'm gonna kick your ass and take you to my place for a while." Alex mocks him.
"You're an Earthrealmer. How could you possibly survive my earth powers?" Tremor demanded.
"Correction. I'm half earthrealmer." Alex stated as he glows with the yellow aura.
"Powers do not scare me, boy." Tremor said. "I've learned how to not be afraid of any powers under Kano. I owe everything to him. He broke me out of prison and he earned my loyalty."
"You're an idiot for following someone low like Kano. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. He's just gonna ditch you like he just did Kabal." Alex said.
"You lie. You know nothing about us. I'm giving you one chance to walk away." Tremor said.
"I never leave without completing a mission." Alex said as he gets into position and they fight.
Tremor starts by throwing a punch to the chest and gut, but Alex parries them. Tremor throws a kick to the head but Alex blocks. Tremor throws a magma rock punch, but Alex grabs it and thanks to having absorbed some earth power, he doesn't feel any pain. He throws a hard punch at Tremor, knocking him backwards. Alex charges in and throws a backhand to the head, swings his arm at the left side and kicks him in the head. He jumps up, grabs Tremor's throat with his legs and throws him down, a move that Sonya taught Alex. Tremor gets up and throws a fireball down at the ground but Alex jumps over and slams his fist into the ground, causing a minor quake, making Tremor stumble. Alex executes a series of four punches to the shoulders and ribs, cracking his shoulders and two kicks to the head, sending him backwards.
Tremor will not give in. He summons balls of molten magma from the ground and several of them drop, and Alex narrowly dodges them, but realized too late that it was a distraction. A rolling fireball explodes near him and sends him towards Tremor, who jumps up, grabs him and throws him down, back first. Alex's back is slightly damaged but feels some pain from it. Alex jump kicks, but Tremor blocks it and does two punches to the chest, a two fist attack to the ribcage and throws a fireball at Alex and explodes close to him.
Thankfully, his powers protected him, but still felt more damage from the explosion. Tremor jumps to slam his fists down on Alex's head, but Alex dodges, only to be backhands in the face followed by a punch and kick to the head. Tremor does another molten punch on his back, sending Alex, sliding on causing more pain. Alex, while not as dazed as a human would be, is having some wounds on him. His healing factor only helps him heal a little, but also only when his life is in extreme danger. Tremor attempts to finish him off by trapping his feet in rocks.
"Now you will die. This is for pleasing Kano." Tremor said.
Before Alex can do anything he sees two walls closing in on him. Alex tries to push as much as possible. Tremor seems to be having a hard time trying to crush Alex, surprised since no one has resisted before. Alex starts to grit his teeth and gets more angry as he absorbs the power from the walls. As he absorbs more while getting more angry, his eyes briefly change to black with green pupils and breaks out of the trap. His eyes turn back to normal and he grabs his head with one hand as if he was in pain. He didn't had time to figure out what happened though, he had to help finish the mission. Tremor throws two fireballs, one in the air and one on the ground. Alex jumps over the one in midair and absorbs the rolling fireball on the ground and fires it back at Tremor. Alex kicks him in the chin and face, cracking the front of his skull, rolls under him and elbows his lower spin and punches his upper spine, also cracking it. Tremor slides down, head first, defeated.
"Big mistake, Tremor." Alex said before he goes to place the C4 on the stack of weapons, tases Tremor and cuffs him and carries him to a safe distance. He ducks behind cover and sets off the C4 and there goes the weapons. That's three stacks down, two to go. "Commander, General, do you read? Tremor's toys have been trashed."
"And Tremor?" General asked.
Alex turns and sees Tremor falls through a portal. "Damn it. He just fell through one of Shao Kahn's portals." Alex joked.
"It's okay, Sergeant. You Destroyed the stacks. That's what's important. Meet up with me and Johnny." The General orders him. "Commander, how are we doing?"
"Same here. Tasia got away but we got Kabal. Kano must've ditched him." Cassie reports. "Tasia will probably tell Shao Kahn about what happened."
"It was going to happen eventually. Meet up with me at the last place as we planned." Sonya said.
"Roger. And Jin is injured. He may need a medic." Cassie said.
"I'm on my way to help with that. Don't wait for me, I'll catch up." Alex tells her.
"Be careful. And hurry." Cassie ordered. Cassie helps Jin while her group of soldiers grab the knocked out Kabal and they started to where Sonya and Johnny are.
General Blade and Johnny Cage have taken the alternate path and know exactly where Kano and Jarek are. They bust down the door and fence and start shooting any goons that try to fight back. They quickly see the duo splitting up.
"Johnny, go after Jarek. Kano is mine." Sonya said.
"Will do, favorite wife." Johnny acknowledges before he runs after Jarek to another battlefield arena. Jarek was once a fellow student of Kano and learned many moves from him while learning his own. Johnny, however, was experienced enough to know how Kano fights, so dealing with Jarek should be no problem. Johnny attempted to shoot him, but Jarek was quick enough to dodge the bullets, though not as fast as Kabal. Jarek grabs his star blade and throws it at Johnny. He barely dodges by ducking, but he was holding his rifle up and it got sliced in half.
"Looks like I broke your toy, Cage. You're Sonya's husband, huh? Well you're gonna regret trying to chase me like a human chasing a dog. She's gonna be a widow" Jarek said.
"And you're gonna be a dog who's about to have a fist up his ass." Johnny said in anger.
"Come at me then, asshole." Jarek said as they fight.
Jarek swings his second blade at Johnny but he ducks and uses his green shadow powers and double backflip kicks him in the chest and back. Jarek tries to do a cannonball move, but Johnny easily dodges it and throws two green energy balls at Jarek's back and injures him. Jarek gets out his lasso and throws and grabs Johnny's leg with it, pulls him off his feet and kicks his stomach and punches him in the forehead. Jarek thrusts his sword down, but Johnny rolls out of the way, does a series of three kicks to the chest and does his signature nut punch move and kicks him backwards.
Johnny backflips two times to him and does a roundhouse kick to the right side of his jaw, grabs his head and slams it on his knee, cracking the front of his skull and and backflip kicks his chin, cracking it more. Johnny punches Jarek, turning him around, and thrusts his fists through Jarek's back and starts ripping his chest open and makes a hole. "Here's Johnny." Johnny joked as Jarek falls backwards, dead. "You fight like Kano, and that's why no one likes you." Johnny plants his C4 on Jarek's stack of weapons and gets to a safe distance and sets it off. Four down and one to go. "General, I got the weapons trashed. How's the talk going with Kano?"
"Oh, the usual kind of shitty talk. They're always boring as hell." Sonya reports as she avoids Kano's attacks.
"Hang on, we're coming back to you." Johnny said as he starts running back.
Sonya and Kano continue to fight as they usually do, given their intense hatred towards each other. "You just love to make me busy, don't ya, General?" Kano teased.
"If it involves me kicking your ass, yeah pretty much. Killing you would be even better." Sonya glared at him.
"I love it when you give me something good for once." Kano said.
Sonya and Kano start fighting again. Kano leaps forward with both daggers but Sonya dodges backwards, grabs his shoulders, punches his human eye, knees him in the chest, and shoots him backwards with her ring gauntlets. Kano rolls backwards, fires his optic eye laser, but Sonya leaps forward out of the way and tries to punch Kano in the gut, but he saw this coming and grabs her fist, headbutts her, throws her down and rolls over and elbows her in the chest. Sonya gets back up, narrowly dodging a dagger to the face, but Kano kicks her on top of the head, knocking her down and kicks her backwards. Sonya is now truly pissed. She runs towards him faster than usual and kicks him in the forehead twice, jumps over him and grabs his throat with an energy whip and slams him down on the ground head first, knees his left arm and breaks it and stomps him in the neck. Kano coughs as he struggles to get up but Sonya wasn't done. She knees him in the back and kicks him in the back of the head, defeating him.
"Did that make you happy finally, asshole?" Sonya mocks him. She sees the last two stacks of weapons and goes on to destroy them, but a green portal opens. She gets ready to fight whoever it is. This ends up distracting her, as she is knocked back by strong water and thrown into a wall. Kano gets back up and is fixing to activate his optic laser to kill her, but he is stopped by a voice.
"Seize your fire, earthrealmer. Shao Kahn demands that they live." Mileena said as she steps out with a disappointed look on her face.
"And what are you doing here, getting into my business? I've gotten things under control until you showed up." Kano accuses her.
"My father knew you would be incapable of doing things yourself so we've come to finish your job for you." Mileena said as she nods to the brainwashed edenian warriors led by Rain.
"Gather together what we must. For Edenia. For Shao Kahn. Do not keep the emperor waiting." Rain instructed as they step through the portal following Mileena. As they step through, Tasia steps through and helps Kano up.
"Shao Kahn will not be pleased by this." Tasia said.
"Like I give a shit. All he does is argue and complain anyway." Kano said, flipping them off. As soon as he sees Mileena step through, he secretly activates a button. The ground opens up and a weird machine comes out and a countdown of one minute and thirty seconds starts. Kano and Tasia step through the portal as it closes.
Sonya recovers just in time and sees the weapons gone along with Kano. She turns to see the machine, quickly realizes what it is. "Oh shit." Sonya swore. She gets up to try to run, only to see Cassie, Jax and the others coming in.
"Sonya? Where are Kano and his stuff?" Jax asked, looking around.
"Gone. We got bigger problems." Sonya said, pointing to the bomb.
"We gotta move!" Cassie yelled, realizing what it meant. But as the countdown reaches 45 seconds left, all the exits are closed down and electrified and the ceilings closed. Kano must've did this just in case the Special Forces try to leave.
"Great. We're sitting ducks ready to be fed to Shao Kahn." Johnny said, trying not to panic.
Everyone tries to figure out how to find a way out. They try to shoot the doors down, but the metal was too strong for their weapons. Alex sees the entire place electrified, and knowing that he won't have time to absorb it and help escape because of the place is huge, he sees if he could defuse the bomb, but it was remote control and no override. That's when he got an idea.
"Everyone, hold on. I've gotten an idea." Alex said, stepping forward, glowing yellow again.
"Sergeant Alex? What are you doing?" The general asked.
Alex turned to her. "Trust me. I got this." He turns back around and holds his arms out and his hands start glowing and waves his hands around and chants some foreign words and an orange portal opens, surprising everyone.
"Did not see that coming." Jax said, eyes widened.
"That's my husband for ya." Cassie said. Alex turns to them, feeling short of breath.
"Come on! Move! Hurry! I can't keep it open forever." Alex yells to everyone. They nod and run through with Kabal as their prisoner. Alex stays, making sure everyone got through and after he sees no one else, he quickly runs through and closes the portal as the bomb goes off, taking the entire market and anything within a hundred miles. At least there were no civilians around.
Outside the Special Forces Base, Liu Kang and Kitana speak while they wait for their allies to come back safe and sound. They are confident that they will most likely succeed.
"Do you think they succeeded?" Kitana asked in worry.
"I believe so. I have heard many reports and have rarely failed on missions. They are not perfect, but they know how to do their job." Liu Kang.
"You're right. Knowing General Blade, Commander Cage and Alex, they are stronger than before." Kitana said.
"And Outworld couldn't ask for a better Kahn than you. Soon with Outworld and Edenia reunited, you and your mother will both rule and bring new faith." Liu Kang smiles. He and Kitana lean in and kiss each other lovely. Liu Kang was at first afraid of starting a relationship with her, but Sindel was quick to reassure him that she approves of it. Sindel is rather pleased with this, as it's better than have her be forced to marry someone by Shao Kahn.
They stop and see the portal opening and they, Sindel, Fujin and Raiden get into a fighting stance, ready for whoever it is. They stop in their place once they recognize who it is. It's the Special Forces. They notice that they have brought back a valuable prisoner. After Alex closes the portal, he bends over to catch his breath.
"General Blade. Cassandra and Alex Cage?" Fujin asked.
"Fujin." Sonya nods in greeting.
"What has happened? How was the mission?" Raiden asked.
"It's gonna be a story. You might not like it." Johnny said as they all look at each other.
Note: What happened with Alex right there during his fight with Tremor? That's something that will be brought up again in the story. His new portal power, along with another one you'll see next chapter, are from Liu Kang, Raiden, and Fujin training him more about his powers since they offered to help at the end of Dawn of the New Era. Johnny's fatality used was his Here's Johnny fatality from MKX.