Chapter 8
Kabal rolled his eyes in complete disbelief as Kano admitted to turning down Sonya's advances just an hour earlier. He wasted no time in letting Kano know what a stupid decision it was. "I am sorry, but you have got to be the dumbest mother fucker I have ever met," Kabal blatantly said as he drank a shot of Tequila. Kano cast an annoyed glance at Kabal while trying to get the attention of the bartender for another round of shots. "You don't have to be so blunt about it, mate."
Kabal smirked. "Since when are you so sensitive? Let me remind you that you brought me to this dump of a bar not because you like my company but because you knew that only I will tell it to you straight. If you didn't want your feelings to get hurt, you should have talked to Kira." Kano just blankly stared at Kabal. "Fuck you asshole," he said as he drank his shot. Kabal grinned. "Alright, back up a sec. You mean to tell me that Sonya came onto you and you just... shot her down?" Kano shrugged. "We started fooling around a bit and then...I don't know...I just couldn't go through with it."
Kabal shook his head out of disbelief. "You really are a stupid mother fucker! You should have slept with her! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?!" "She was drunk! She would never have thrown herself at me if she was sober!" Kano defended himself. "Listen mate, in my past I've done some pretty fucked up shit, but even I wouldn't take advantage of her like that." Kabal glared at him. "Really? Since when? I seem to recall you engaging in some wild drunken sex with many broads back in your day." Kano smirked. "Yeah, well if you recall, I was drunk all the time in those days."
Kano slightly twisted his face as he downed another shot of Tequila. "So, I should have slept with her?" Kabal tilted his head back to take his shot. "It's Sonya! She is fucking hot! You said it yourself, she wasn't that drunk. If I had been you, I would have slept with her!" Kano sighed. " I fuckin blew it," he said as he drank another shot.
Kabal pointed his empty shot glass toward him. "You know what your problem is? You've gone soft." Kano slammed his fist into the table, startling some patrons around them. "I am NOT fucking soft!" Kabal calmly continued, not phased by Kano's sudden angry outburst. "Relax, asshole and hear me out. As a leader, you are highly respected and you can instill fear in the even the toughest "blokes", if you will. You've never doubted any decisions you've made, which have always been calculated and methodical. Yet, when it comes to Sonya, you keep second guessing yourself."
"What are you getting at?" Kano impatiently asked. Kabal leaned forward. "I think you are in love with her. It's either that, or you are a moron." Kano sipped his beer in silence at the realization of Kabal's words. Kabal observed his reflective manner. "For what it's worth, I am sure that she's in love with you too. She has been for months, but like you, keeps on denying it."
Kano looked a Kabal seriously. "Then what do I do? Our arrangement finally works the way it needs to. With Sonya at my side, the Black Dragon has been stronger than ever. We can be unstoppable. The last thing I need is to fuck it up by complicating things with her." Kabal grinned again. "You want my honest opinion? Have your way with her. You'd be crazy not to."
An hour later, Kano decided to take up Sonya's suggestion and began research to look for anything that could aid them in destroying both versions of Havik. Kano opened his laptop and logged onto the OIA's intranet portal; Kenshi had granted him and Sonya access to aid them in research. Kano pulled up the online library to access its archive directory. He spent the next couple of hours researching hundreds of relics and talismans that could potentially inflict damage on both Havik versions. He eventually nodded off as he was getting no where with his search.
The next morning, Sonya groggily awoke to a throbbing headache. "My fault for drinking so damn much," she mumbled to herself. Sudden dread came over her as she remembered the events from the night before. She also took notice that she was still in the same clothes from the previous night and came to the realization of what didn't happen between herself and Kano. "Ugh, what is wrong with me?" she said in frustration.
After her shower, she started walking through the living room as it was on the way to the kitchen. She redirected her steps toward the sound of loud snoring. As she walked closer to the seating area, she noticed Kano's arm was hanging off the arm rest of the sofa. She giggled at the sight of him laying on his back with his mouth wide open as he was completely passed out.
"Hey wake up," she said as she gently touched his shoulder to rouse him. Kano woke up startled by the sound of her voice. He was in such a deep sleep that he had forgotten that he passed out in the living room. "What time is it?", he groggily asked. She looked at her watch. "9:30. What were you doing that you slept out here?", she asked. Kano sat up and rubbed his eye. "I used the OIA library to do some research to help us find something that we could use to kill these twisted fuckers. Must have fallen asleep while I was reading."
"What did you find?" Sonya asked. Kano narrowed his eye. "Honestly? Not a damn thing. Hours of research only to feel just as lost as I started." "Wow," she said as she sat down beside him. "Tell me about it," he said as he leaned his back into the sofa. Sonya stared blankly ahead of her while deep in thought. After a few minutes, she widened her eyes as she had an epiphany. "Their thing is that they can regenerate even after losing a limb? What if we are able to inflict damage in such a way that they have no chance to regenerate?"
Kano looked at her intrigued. "What are you thinking, love?" She turned towards him. "We need to come up with an attack strategy to completely incinerate them. We need to think about what weapons we might have at our disposal that could deliver that kind of damage." Kano raised an eyebrow. "I like where you are going with that. Let's talk some more over breakfast."
An hour later, Sonya and Kano were at a local diner eating breakfast. Kano slapped at Sonya's fingers as she reached for another one of his French toasts. She had already eaten two out of four of his toasts. "Hey!" she cried. "You should have gotten your own!", he said.
She laughed at him. "I am sorry, I couldn't decide if I wanted pancakes or French toast." Then she gave him half of her stack of pancakes while grabbing another one of his French toasts. "Here, stop being such a baby." "You're such a bloody pain in my ass," he said as he shoved a mouthful of fluffy pancakes into his mouth.
He motioned for their waitress to come to their table and placed another order for more French Toast. "So getting back to your point earlier, we need to plan a strategy on how we can finish these two fuckers once and for all. What are your thoughts?"
Sonya chewed while she contemplated his question. "What about your laser eye beam attack? At its maximum potential, the energy blast ideally should be powerful enough to destroy them." Kano reached for a sausage link off of Sonya's plate. "I suppose that could work, but we might have better luck combining it with another energy source." "Such as what?", Sonya asked as she sipped her coffee.
"The energy bracelets I gave you can omit energy rings at varying levels of power. At the highest level, it would be like transmitting a bomb." Sonya looked at him stunned. "My energy bracelets are capable of that type of power?" Kano nodded. "Aye love. I developed them for that type of purpose. I am thinking between these two attacks, we should be able to deliver a fatal blow that won't allow for those fuckers to regenerate."
"I think we may also need to utilize both Scorpion and Tremor as a back up. Their combined firepower can serve the same purpose to incinerate both Havik versions. Their power can also be used simultaneously with our attacks if for some reason ours are not enough," Sonya suggested. "Alright, it sounds like we got ourselves at least one plan. But before we can get to those fuckers, we gotta get through their freakshow of an army," Kano said.
Sonya silently stirred her coffee as she recalled the image of the menacing army. "From Jax's video, I am estimating that there were at least 1000 soldiers and I am sure that number is only going to grow...Once we finish here, I want to schedule a video call. We need to coordinate among our allies and utilize all of our resources if we want to have a chance of fending ourselves against an army of that size."
As they were eating their meal, Sonya thoughtfully looked at Kano. "About last night," she started to say. "I know I came onto you a little strong." Kano gave her a small smile. "Yeah, you caught me by surprise, but it's alright, you have an excuse, you had a lot of drinks in ya. No need to make it a big deal." The look in her eyes said otherwise. "I want to talk about it," she said. Kano gave her a serious look. "Go ahead, love."
Before Sonya could utter a word, something caught Kano's attention. He looked toward the entrance of the diner just to see Kabal walk through the door. "Fuck. You've got to be kidding me", he said. When Kabal spotted them, he started heading for their table. "Who invited the bloody wanker?" Kano asked. "Oh Kabal texted me earlier to find out what we were up to. I told him that we would be here," Sonya answered him while grabbing a sausage link. "Bloody hell...," he said in an annoyed tone.
"Mind if I join ya?", Kabal asked as he sat down next to Sonya on her side of the booth. "Don't mind if you do," Kano tonelessly answered. Kabal took a sip of Sonya's coffee. "Kenshi called, he wants to discuss the upcoming Outworld mission." "You could have put that in a text message," Kano said as he took a sip of his coffee. "Glad to see you too, asshole," Kabal said with a smirk.
"Oh French toast!" Kabal said as he grabbed some off of Kano's plate. Kano threw his fork on his plate out of frustration; he had just received his second French toast order just moments before. "Why the fuck is everybody eating my food?" Sonya handed Kano some more of her pancakes. "Oh lighten up. Let's just order some more." She motioned to their waitress who promptly came over to their table.
"Hi. Can we get some more coffee, another order of pancakes and French toast? Oh, and a side of bacon. Kabal, do want anything?," Sonya asked. "Nah, I am good, I'll just pick off of you two," Kabal said as he ate some of Sonya's pancakes. Kano shot Kabal an irritated look. "The fuck you will, piss off! Go make yourself useful and reach out to Kenshi and Stryker to set up a video call; matter of fact, arrange to get Scorpion and Smoke on there too."
Kabal finished Sonya's coffee. "Will do." He flashed Kano a grin which irritated him even more. "Thanks for breakfast," he said as he took off. "Fucking freeloader," Kano mumbled. After he cooled down, he reached for Sonya's hand to softly caress it. "Now baby, where were we?", he said with a grin. Before she could answer, he noticed that Kira and Jarek had entered the diner, passing Kabal on his way out. "Oh for fuck's sake." Kira dragged Jarek behind her to meet Sonya and Kano at their table.
"Mornin boss," Kira cheerfully said as she sat down next to Sonya in her booth. Jarek squeezed into Kano's booth much to his dismay. "What are you two doing here?", he asked. "Kabal texted us. We thought we would join you for breakfast," Jarek answered as he grabbed a piece of Kano's French toast. Kano shot Jarek an annoyed glance. Sonya muffled her laughter. "Here guys, you should try the pancakes; they are really good."
Hours later, Sonya and Kano, along with Jarek, Kabal and Kira, sat in the warehouse conference room for their video call with Jax, Kenshi, Scorpion, Smoke and Stryker. They were organizing a defensive team for their upcoming mission into Outworld. "How many Black Dragon would you say are within our base, around 50?" Sonya asked Kano. "That's about right," he said. "Alright, what about your other affiliate branches abroad?" "I have about 450 members among my remaining branches," Kano confirmed. "You're going to need to call them to report back to base. That will give us some man power but not nearly enough," Sonya said.
"Alright, what about your unit? Anyway we can use them? You run the most highly specialized branch of the FBI. We can benefit from the use of your agents skillsets," Kano suggested. "I have about 400 agents in my unit," Sonya said. "What do you say, Stryker? You think our guys are ready for some real action?" Stryker smirked. "For this? Absolutely. Count us in," he answered.
"Can we count on the OIA?," Kano asked Jax and Kenshi. "We can give you another 250 agents," Jax offered. "Agreed," Kenshi said. "Even with our combined forces, however, I am afraid it is not enough. The number of soldiers in their army has increased almost double its size since the last video communication we provided you." Sonya widened her eyes. "Kenshi, that last communication was a day ago."
"We received word from a comrade of mine, Syzoth. He fought alongside me and Lord Liu Kang's other Earthrealm champions, when we first countered Outworld's forces several months ago. He has been acting as a spy for us and has provided us intel regarding the current conditions of unrest since Titan Havik began his invasion in Outworld."
"According to Syzoth, Titan Havik chose to invade Outworld to gather its strongest warriors with the intention of completing his goal of conquering all of the realms. He has already taken over Zaterra and has forced the Saurians to fight among his army. He has also set his sights on Edenia and is seeking to overthrow Queen Mileena and enslave her people."
"And as for Earthrealm, his attacks grow bolder with each passing day. We just became aware of another massacre, this time against our friends at the Shaolin Temple." Scorpion was stunned by Kenshi's startling revelation. "The monks of the Shaolin Temple? They are a peaceful people. Why would anyone want to target them?"
"Due to the timing of these attacks, we believe that they serve as a diversion from Titan Havik to prevent Lord Liu Kang from interfering with the invasion in Outworld. Liu Kang has been aiding his Earthrealm champions, our comrades Kung Lao and Raiden, to manage the aftermath of the massacre," Kenshi said. "So that counts him out from being able to help us", Kano said. "It is unlikely," Kenshi said.
"It is only a matter of time before Titan Havik's plans will come to fruition unless we act quickly. How soon can we assemble a defensive team?," Sonya asked. "Once I call them in, the remaining Black Dragon can be here by tomorrow night," Kano said. "We can also have our teams in place by tomorrow night, "Stryker said.
"You will need more warriors to counter Outworld's forces," Smoke pointed out. "The Shirai Ryu will aid you," Scorpion offered. "The addition of our clan members will greatly increase your defensive forces to withstand against Outworld's army." Sonya sighed out of relief. "Scorpion, Smoke, thank you. You have no idea what this means to us."
"That settles it then, we will ready our team for tomorrow night," Kenshi said. "Everyone, get some rest. We will convene tomorrow around noon to finalize our preparations before we head into Outworld."