Johnny Cage laid awake in his hospital bed. His green eyes were staring at the ceiling above him. The sound of a television news station was being played aloud in the room. His ears were focusing in on what a reporter was reporting.
"Yes Bonnie, we have conformation that Hollywood actor Johnny Cage is residing nearby in the local Manhattan Recovery Center. Rumors are circulating that the well known celebrity is suffering from a broken spine, and many more minor injuries at this time. New York Police have begun an investigation as to who could be the person responsible for the actor's attack." Reported a news man, as a response to the woman sitting next to him.
"Are there any details as to where Mr. Cage disappeared to for the week he was reported missing?" Asked a female reporter named Bonnie. The male reporter responded quickly.
"The hospital has said that Mr. Cage has become extremely delusional since his return to the public. He's been reporting that he went to some kind of fighting tournament to fight for the survival of Earth, and that a supposed God of Thunder chose him to be a warrior that would represent mankind in this tournament, and that his back was broken by a massive four armed dragon, he claims is named Roro. It only get's stranger from there." The male said with a sad look to his face. The female reporter also gave a sorrow filled look.
"Poor guy must've been beaten pretty badly. I'm willing to bet that we'll be hearing reports of brain damage soon as well. We all hope for the best recovery possible. In other news-" Johnny blocked out the rest of her reporting, and began thinking about what he had just heard. Nobody believed him. Everyone thought he was crazy. Hell they even reported the name wrong of what he described as the attacker. Roro? Seriously? Maybe he shouldn't blame them for not believing his story. Hell, he knew if he heard somebody talking like that, he'd want some hits off of whatever the fuck they were smoking. He was telling the truth, and now was beginning to feel alone. He had no visitors other than his nurses who were not in the best of company in any form. Nobody from the tournament had shown up to aid him in getting his story out there, and the worst part of it all was the fact that the green energy he had managed to somehow summon at the tournament had no traces left back in the real world. It's like he had awoken from a nightmare, and he might've believed that if he didn't hear Kano outside of his room arguing with two doctors about not letting him in to see him. Johnny was happy to know that at least someone tried to visit him. Johnny turned over slightly, and growled in pain as he did so. His back felt like it was on fire, but every day he was gaining more, and more mobility. The back brace that he was wearing made laying down a massive pain in his ass. He quickly learned to just be happy to not have been paralyzed. Johnny's eyes found his bedside counter, and on it was a stash of a few unopened envelopes. He reached for a red one that was on top of the stack, and ripped it open slowly with his fingers.
"Ouch!" He cried, as him opening the envelope resulted in him getting a deep paper cut that had began bleeding lightly.
"Son of a..." He whispered under his breath as he stuck his bleeding finger into his mouth. Once he got over the stinging rumblings of his paper cut Johnny pulled a green paper card out of the envelope.
"Get well!" Was plastered all over the front of the card in glitter, and stickers. Johnny instantly thought that this card was the work of a fanatic teenage fan girl, and of no surprise to him it was.
"I just want to say that you are my inspiration! You are just like so hot, and charming, and I hope to see you again sometime soon! I loved all of your films, even the not so great ones like Time Smashers, and Ninja Mime! I hear your friends with a friend of mine! You should visit him soon! Get well OKAY? You need to finish that Rage in the Cage sequel! Your biggest fan Kira!
P.S - I know what people are saying about you, and it's okay. I'm kinda crazy too!"
Johnny Cage gave out a small chuckle before closing the card, and softly tossing it back onto the counter. He loved getting things like this. In a world where everyone likes to bash Johnny Cage, he was relived knowing that somewhere out there someone will support him no matter what. He picked up the next card, and carefully opened it. He avoided another paper cut, and found a letter this time. He held it up to his face, and read it out loud.
"Hello there mate. As you probably are aware I was the one creating all that ruckus out there before. I was trying to come, and see you, but those damn son's of bitches just wouldn't let me in. I need you to know a few things, first off don't reply to this letter with a response. I've got a lot of bad people after me, and I wanna avoid dragging you into that. Secondly, You should know that we lost bud. Kung Lao got his neck snapped by that old man, and now we're fixing to go to war with those Outworld fucks, and lastly Raiden has abandoned us. I've been trying to contact him, and I managed to get a hold of Kenshi, but nothing from the God himself. I'm trying to get us all together to fight this, because once that invasion hits we're most likely to be the ones who are going to be hunted down. I need you to find me once you get out of there. I'm not too far, but I can't reveal my location in case someone unwanted reads this. Good luck mate, and get well. - K" The letter ended on that note. Johnny figured who the author was straight away. This was the first time Johnny had heard anything about the ending of the tournament. He thought that since nothing had changed in the past few weeks that they had won. He would've thought more people would have showed up to see him if they had won however. Kung Lao was dead, and he couldn't believe that. He wondered who all survived, because now he only had word of Kano, and Kenshi. He had nothing from Sonya which he found extremely disappointing. He thought something was there, and his last memory of the tournament was of her kneeling down over him, trying to comfort him after having his spine crunched. He just hoped she made it, and if she had, why didn't she at least come to visit? Some good hospital sex has always made for a quick recovery right? He gave the idea some more thought before coming to the conclusion that he'd probably throw his own back out after trying to put the moves on her. Still, he couldn't really explain it, but he sensed something between them. Maybe it was all in his head? Maybe he didn't truly want to know an answer. His mind shifted back to the haunting thought of Earth being destroyed by Shao Kahn's forces. Johnny had never seen Outworld's ruler before, and hadn't really heard much about the Emperor, but he knew that if he was the man in charge of all those weird, deadly, and savage fucks, well then he, and everyone else were in a world of hurt. As Johnny stared blankly at the letter in front of him he turned his head suddenly after hearing his room door creak open. A cute female doctor in all white was standing before him. She had a clipboard, and a very thick, and long pill bottle in her hands. She moved steadily towards a nearby desk, and pulled out a chair. She sat down carefully, and turned her attention to Johnny who was staring back at her.
"Hello Mr. Cage, are we doing any better today?" She asked politely. Her eyes shifted to her clipboard. She pulled a ball pointed pen from the nearby desk, and waited for his response.
"Oh you know, I'm great." Johnny spoke quietly.
"Like seriously, I can't even tell you how good it feels to have nobody in the entire world believe you." He finished sounding extremely sarcastic. The nurse looked up at him.
"I never said I didn't believe you Mr. Cage. We all at this hospital believe that whatever happened to you was something unordinary." The doctor responded with a small smile. She made a check in a square on a paper attached tightly to her clipboard. Somebody needed to tell this weirdo to explain because Johnny had no idea what she meant. Was she saying that she believed him? That the entire hospital believed his story? No, that couldn't be right. If they truly believed him then the news outlets wouldn't be receiving the information given to them. Right?
"You're...You're going to have to explain this to me. I don't think I'm getting what you're saying." Johnny squinted his perfectly shaped eyebrows in confusion.
"At first most of the doctors didn't know what to think. You arrived here screaming. Your spinal cord had many dislodged discs popping out. The pain was so intense that the hospital put you in a short term coma so we could do the spinal surgery, but after cutting into your skin your body starting glowing green. Some of us were freaked out, while others were more interested. We did some research, but nothing matched it. When we went back to the surgery we found that whatever had been causing your body to glow was also healing your spinal cord. We found that all three discs that had been popped out had been carefully pushed back into place. Now I don't know if we believe you were off dragon hunting or whatever your claims are. We believe those are hallucinations you experienced triggered by your brain as a way for your mind to deal with the amount of pain you were in, but when you mentioned your glowing we took some notes. It hasn't happened since you've awoken. You were missing for an entire week, and you can't remember what had happened to you. The doctors are theorizing that you've been internally radiated." The doctor with brown curly hair explained. Johnny listened to her words to the best of his listening abilities, which may not be really all that good, and was angered greatly that he was still not being taken completely serious.
"You've got to be kidding me?" Johnny was almost asking at this point. He gave out a deep sigh, and leaned in slightly at the doctor.
"When can I get out of here?" Johnny asked very impatiently. The doctor stuck out her hand that was clasped around the pill bottle. Johnny grabbed a hold of it, and drew it towards himself. He looked down at the large white pills, and then back up to the doctor.
"The others have asked me to ask you about staying here for a while." She responded stiffly. Johnny did not like the sound of that. He would rather be back at Shang Tsung's island than being in this dreadful hospital that's quickly ruining his reputation, not that it wasn't already bad as it was.
"We would like to study the glow that repaired your spine. We want to see if you're radiated after some more surgeries. See if it's causing a cancer to form, or if the white blood cells are doubling to heal your body. We would like to run more test. See if we can cure, or contain this thing." She explained. Johnny didn't even think of the possibility of his glow being from cancer. The thought of being diagnosed with that scared the ever loving shit out of him. He couldn't allow himself to think about that. It wouldn't matter if he did or not if Shao Kahn's invasion was going to happen. He could be dead in a short time.
"No. I need to go. I have things I need to do." Johnny expressed.
"We can't make you stay. Your back isn't broken anymore. We'd just really appreciate you letting us learning more about this." The doctor said sounding disappointed.
"I'm sorry." Johnny spoke not feeling truly sorry about not letting them dissect him like a frog. He stood up from his hospital bed still in pain. He then looked down at the pills in his hands again.
"They're for the pain you're feeling. They should ease it over time." The doctor finished before standing up as well. Johnny nodded his head noticing her words. He turned to his bedside counter, and grabbed the envelopes from it. He scrunched them up before fitting them roughly into his jean pockets.
"Take two of them three times a day within a six hour period." She explained carefully.
"Now just put your signature here, and you'll be free to go." She said handing him the clipboard. Johnny quickly scratched his name in pen across the paper before handing it back.
"If you change your mind about letting us have a in depth look at you feel free to come back." She noted. With that Johnny didn't hesitate to leave his hospital room. After spending a few minutes signing out of the hospital at the front desk he reached a rotating door that let out to the massive city outside. He pushed his way out, and after doing so he shielded his eyes from the bright rays of the sun reaching his face. It was a wonderful day. Not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was just right. After looking around to gaze at the world he hadn't seen for a week his mind shifted to his current objective. He needed to find out where Kano was held up. Where would he begin looking? What would a man like Kano being doing? Johnny could recall Kano speaking about a Dragon Tooth at the tournament. Some kind of bar his clan owned. Maybe he'd be there? If he was laying low maybe he wouldn't be? It was worth a try either way. Maybe somebody there would know where he was if he wasn't there? After giving the place some thought Johnny agreed with himself that going there would be his best bet. He started walking down the sidewalk, and after walking about a block he saw something very strange. A black car was following him silently from a distance.