"Let me out." Kabal spoke void of all emotion. The look in his eyes was that of a stone cold killer. He was standing behind a set of thick, metal bars inside of the Special Forces headquarters. Prisoners were locked up all around him also inside prison cells. The room was darkly lit, and the walls were a murky green. There were no windows in sight, and the area was small enough that it could make one quite claustrophobic. Kabal's long black hair was greasy, and scattered all over the place. His beady brown eyes stared emptily at the bars in front of him. Blood soaked his dirty, and ripped clothes. On the opposite side of the bars stood two people. One male, and one female. The female had long, beautiful blonde hair, and alluring green eyes. She was dressed up in a spotless, green cameo army fatigue. She looked down at Kabal in what appeared to be a sorrowful way. The man standing directly next to her was bulky, tall, and gave off a menacing vibe. He was dark skinned, and had really short black hair. His eyes were a dark brown, and he was wearing green khakis, accompanied with a black military vest. The dog tags that were wrapped loosely around his neck read off his name off as Jackson Briggs.
"You know that's not possible now." Jackson Briggs informed with his deep voice. At these words Kabal's eyes found theirs. The woman standing next to Jackson had a difficult time looking into his.
"You know I'm not the bad guy here." Kabal said almost in a whisper. The emptiness in his voice was almost haunting.
"I know how close you are with Kano's father." His words were directed at Jackson. Jackson nodded at this.
"Yes, we were allies in this gang war between your clan, and the Red Dragon, but imagine how angry he would be with you right now if he were here. We had Daegon's second in command in our grasp, and we just about had him talking before you decided that it'd be a good idea to break in here, and set him free." Jackson had no sympathy for what Kabal had done. He did not comprehend why he should feel guilty for a man who broke into an interrogation of an American terrorist, beat him to a pulp, and then unintentionally set him free in the process.
"They killed my brother!" Kabal snapped in a fit of rage. His hands clasped around the solid metal bars with a grip as strong as a snake in the middle of killing it's prey.
"Sonya talk some sense into him! Don't forget I had your back at that tournament!" He pleaded as his vengeful gaze shifted back to the blonde next to Jackson. She gave a deep sigh in response, and seemed a bit uneasy at the request. This woman was known as Lieutenant Sonya Blade. She had been a major force within the Special Forces unit for some years now. She works directly with her superior officer Jackson Briggs, whom she calls Jax for short. Jax is a Special Forces Major meaning that his word was usually the law around his division. Together the two had stopped many criminals the world over, and through all the adventures, and countless hours of working together, the two eventually became the best of friends. Usually the pair would look down upon any type of criminal scum whom had managed their way behind the bars of the Special Forces prison, but Kabal was no ordinary criminal. Kabal was a member of the Black Dragon cartel, which was now owned by his best friend Kano. They specialized in robberies, and weapon dealings. They weren't the type of monsters that their sworn enemies the Red Dragon often bragged about being. The Red Dragon was notorious for murdering anyone from police officers, to lowly criminals, or even innocent civilians. To put an end to this organization Jax sought out the aid of the Red Dragon's biggest opponents The Black Dragon. Together they would construct plans in order of capturing, and identifying the groups many numbers. Sonya did not agree with this alliance, as she saw all criminals no matter how major to be evil. That stance quickly began to change around the time of the Mortal Kombat tournament that had happend just a few weeks prior. Though she may not have a fondness for the criminal named Kabal, but she respected the fact that he saved her life from the clutches of that being called Ermac. And even though she had no ideas of friendship with Kabal she couldn't help the fact that she was saddened to hear about the loss of his brother.
"I know he did Kabal, and i'm sorry! I promise that we will make Mavado, and the Red Dragon pay for what they did to you, but you have to understand why you're locked up! You can't do what you did no matter how much crap that evil man has put you through!" Sonya expressed with great emotion.
"I want him dead!" Kabal grunted loudly, his teeth were gritted as he said this. Sonya, and Jax saw a look they did not want to see from across Kabal's face.
"Trust me, if he gives us a reason that forces us to kill him we will, but we need as much information out of him as possible. He could be our only way of catching Daegon." Sonya was begging at this point for Kabal to calm down. Kabal gave a small, unhinged chuckle at her words. Sonya, and Jax looked at each other carefully. They both had a strong feeling in their guts that Kabal was beginning to lose it mentally.
"We need information about your brother Kabal. As much as you can give us about both of your pasts. We need to know why Mavado would place a hit out on you, and your clan." Jax spoke with a certain calmness to his voice. Kabal shook his head slowly, and backed away from the bars. His face became scrunched up, and the look of absolute guilt spread across his blood stained face.
"It was all my fault." He breathed finally. He shifted his head to the ground, and stared at the cracked concrete floor below him.
"I'm the reason Devlin's dead." He whimpered softly. Sonya's reactions to his words caught Jax by surprise. She seemed like she really wanted to consul Kabal, and was trying with all of her might to refrain from doing so.
"Kabal explain it all to us. This will only help you in the long run. We can present your statements to the courts, and try to get you out of here." Jax informed with caution.
"Where should I start?" Kabal spoke in monotone.
"Begin with your childhood. Go into your brother's condition, and how the issues with Mavado arrived." Sonya instructed. Kabal took a second to collect his thoughts, and open his mouth to speak.
"Me, and Devlin were half siblings. Different fathers. My father was a good man, and treated my mom well. He provided a house, kept us all well fed, and even tried to get me into the best preschool I could attend even though he wasn't a rich guy. He was my hero." Kabal looked on with a thousand yard stare. A smile formed across his face, as Sonya, and Jax could tell he was picturing his father in his head.
"My mother was a prostitute, and on one of her working nights the man that would soon become my father found her after she had been beaten by her pimp for coming up short on cash from a client who cheated her. He took her in, and got her off of the drugs she was heavily addicted to. He stole her away from the pimp that owned her, and had me. For the first five years my life was great. My father pretty much gave me whatever toys, and items I ever wanted. He cherished me, and my mom to death. For the longest time I never understood how he could get me anything I wanted, whenever I wanted." Kabal spoke lightly.
"My father used to have his brother over sometimes, and the two would often talk about how their kids were so similar, and that one day we'd have meet. One night my uncle had visited, and began playing a game of poker with my dad. They were even teaching me how to play. My mom was making some nacho dip in the kitchen as we sat around together as a family. I would laugh at all of my father's corny jokes that night." At this point Kabal's smile faded into something much darker.
"There was a knock on the door. My dad stood from his chair, and opened it. "Who could that be?" Were the last words i'd ever hear him say." At this point Kabal was refraining from showing how upset he truly was.
"A lone gunman stood at the door, and blasted a hole right threw the greatest man I ever knew. I remember hearing my mother's deafening, and terrifying scream as a bowl she held in her grasp broke apart after hitting the kitchen floor. I was in shock. I was too young to fully understand that i'd never see my father again, and I just stared at his body for a good minute. I realized what death really meant on that night." Kabal hid his emotions under the guise of having no emotion, and Sonya could sense his true feelings underneath.
"I can recall my uncle cursing loudly, and he stood up after somehow appearing with a gun in his hand, but it was no use. As soon as he stood up he was dropped in almost the same fashion. My mom was crying out for the horror to stop, but it wasn't over yet. The gunman looked at me. He stared into my eyes. I'll never forget how blue they were. He pointed the gun at me, but for some reason he didn't pull the trigger. He marched into the kitchen and grabbed my mom by the hair. He dragged her out the door, as she screamed. I didn't see her for the rest of the night. I sat alone in that house with those bodies for hours. I remember poking my dad, and my uncle for hours, crying for them to get up, but they didn't. My mom returned to the house with bruises all over her, and her nose broken. She was obviously drugged, but at the time I didn't know any better. When the police arrived after she made the call she made the decision to blame my uncle for my father's death. Said he shot him, and that she shot him after a violent struggle, and to my surprise the police believed her." Kabal let a tear fall, but he quickly wiped it away. Sonya looked horror struck at the story being told so far.
"Later we found out she was pregnant again. I hated her for blaming the good man that my uncle was for my dad's death, but I understood why she did it. To protect me. I eventually found out that the man that was sent to murder them was actually a hit man hired by the pimps that my mother once worked for. To keep a close eye on her, the pimps sent the monster of a man that got her pregnant to live with us. I hated his fucking guts, and the thought of him today makes me sick! He used to beat us, verbally insult us, and never paid for any of us to survive. He made my mother do the work, and once again she found herself addicted to drugs. This time it was crack. Devlin was born a crack baby, but he was only born with the addiction, and no other side effects. It was his father's abusive ways that messed with my baby brother's mentality. He beat that newborn for anything, and it made him develop his retardation."
"Not long after Devlin was born my mother eventually overdosed on the drugs, and left us as orphans, because as soon as she died that asshole who beat her split. With no other options I had to do what I had to do to make sure we had everything we needed. I used to shoplift clothing stores, restaurants, and even stole from the homeless. I didn't enjoy it, but I had to do it for us. I taught my brother his first words, and used to read him bedtime stories every night by a fire that I had to make. Having a fire was the only way he'd let me read them to him. One day about five years ago at the age of sixteen I saw a man who looked pretty well off ordering some food at a very fancy diner in the heart of this city. I was looking to grab a special dessert for Devlin because it was his tenth birthday. I watched the man stuff his wallet in his back pocket after paying for his meal, and I thought i'd nab it from him. I reached into his pocket, but he noticed what I was doing right away." Kabal recalled in vivid detail.
"This man was huge. He had a tough man look to him, and after getting caught I knew he was gonna beat my ass super hard. He pushed me away roughly, and I caught a group of eyes from a bunch of well dressed men staring dead at me. He backed me outside, and forced me around the building into an alleyway, far away from where anybody could see. He decked me once real good in the face, and after that I fell defeated to the ground. I closed my eyes tightly because I feared he would keep beating the shit out of me, but he stopped. He actually started laughing. Shortly after that I heard even more laughter from a small pack of men standing just a little further down the alley way. I opened my eyes to see them all looking down at me with huge smiles on each of their faces."
"You're gonna have to be a lot tougher, and smarter than that if you plan on being a thief." I remembered the man who punched me said to me. One man stood out, out of all the them. I remember him telling me to stand up, and I did so as fast as I could. He watched me for a good solid minute before he spoke to me again. He told me that he knew who I was. I told him he was full of shit, and he replied with my father's name. He told me that him, and my father go way back. Said that they were partners in crime. I learned that day that my father was actually a member of the Black Dragon. I also learned that the man I thought was my uncle was actually just my father's best friend, and partner." Sonya, and Jax listened to Kabal's story with complete interest. They couldn't believe how rough his life had been so far, and they knew he was only getting started.
"I found out that the man who stood out the most to me was named Jason Kamponi, but he was only called Mr. Kamponi by the groups members. I remembered that his son was also there. He told me that the group had been looking for him, but that I was so evasive that they couldn't get a good lead on my location. That was the first conversation Kano, and I ever had. Shortly after that confrontation Devlin, and I went to our new home in the form of a fancy old bar named the Dragon Tooth. Hell, Kano even set up a huge birthday party for us, and got Devlin the most expensive cake he could afford. That was the start of our friendship, and it holds up to this day." Kabal finished. With that Jax decided to venture deeper into Kabal's backstory.
"Now how did your issues with the Red Dragon, and Mavado begin?" Jax asked curiously.
"The Black Dragon had been split from the Red Dragon for about a hundred years, but these rumors of Daegon leading the clan date back to even before Mr. Kamponi was born. Most of us have never seen him, and usually believe that the word Daegon is just a code name for whoever is leading the clan at the current time. Mr. Kamponi use to say that the Black Dragon were formed due to the amount of people who disagreed with the Red Dragon's murderous ways. So they split up into some sort of thieves guild. At first I was told we were their allies, but things turned sour quickly after I joined. Kano, no matter how much I love that guy has always been a thrill seeker. He used to antagonize the living hell out of a few of their guys, and they eventually called out a hit on him, and demanded that Mr. Kamponi offer up his son's life to keep the peace between the two clans. Mr. Kamponi disagreed, and then a war broke out. Kano talked the Red Dragon into a momentary alliance, with a huge giveaway of some guns that we managed to steal. Before the meeting took place I met a girl at a bar. We flirted, and things got serious. I slept with her, and later found out that she was Mavado's younger sister. Intercourse between clans is a big no, no so obviously he felt disrespected, and angry. Then there was the fact that Kano had sold the group a bunch of broken shit at the giveaway. That led into a huge massacre of their guys, after they attacked us. That's what's caused us to be hated enemies. I guess he got his revenge for me sleeping with his sister by killing Devlin. So that's why it's my fault the one person I had to protect is dead."Kabal finished his story, and sunk his head into his arms to hide his face. Sonya was heartbroken for the man that was in so much pain on the inside. She even felt the tears balling up in her eyes. Before they fell however, she turned her back to Kabal. She, and Jax began walking away in a long silence.
"Don't worry Kabal. We'll find a way for the court to excuse you." Sonya called out in a muffled voice. Upon hearing this Kabal placed his back against one side of his cell, and slid all the way down it into a ball. The sting of loss still fresh throughout his body.
(Author's note)
The more that I went back, and read some previous chapters of my stories I noticed that I haven't really given a lot of backstory for some of the characters, and now I intend to give you a little more history between the characters, and what their motivations are throughout the story. I read a review that says that me making Kano a hero was interesting. The way I've been writing Kano, and Kabal is that they know they're not heroes, they're just the lesser of two evils. Kano is more hotheaded, and quick to violence than Kabal, who is much more eager to talk out a problem, and be overall calm. Kano is the driver between the two where he takes the most action, and has the leader personality, and Kabal is more of the passenger who is always ready to jump into the mess that Kano is involved in. Both are caring towards each other, but can often come into conflict about how to handle the situation. I'd like to thank my followers, favoriters, and those who have left a review. I appreciate it a lot.