Raiden, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Stryker, Kabal and the rest of the Police Force and any civilians they encountered on their way to the cathedral.
"How do your visions work, Lord Raiden?" Liu Kang felt compelled to ask.
"As Earthrealm's protector God, I am alerted of powerful threats that pose a threat to this realm," Raiden explained. "Speaking of which, the Naknadan I sense have arrived in Chicago Illinoi."
"Is that the only threat out there?" Lao questioned. "Those Naknadans also still have to pay for what they did to the Wu Shi."
"The nearest threat at least," Raiden clarified. "That should be our next target."
"So, these things from Outworld are tearing things up worldwide?!" Kabal spoke anxiously.
"I'm afraid the potential is there," Raiden half confirmed. "I have already been in contact with the Special Forces. I'm positive that they'll aid in fighting the Naknadan forces."
"There's still a matter of the remaining Tarkatans in New York." Kabal reminded.
"We can handle them," Stryker assured. He turned to the rest of the police force. "Right fellers?"
The replies were a mixed bag. Some were enthusiastic to get back to fighting the Tarkatans and others still couldn't get over the bizarre and horrible things they had seen. Even one of their own officers, Kabal had supernatural powers it was nothing shocking in comparison to this invasion.
"By agreeing to protect and serve we weren't anticipating this." Kabal said as he began breaking parts off the handle of what was supposed to be the handle of Kabal's batons.
"What are you doing?" His partner asked.
"Well batons aren't gonna do shit." He said with frustration in his voice. He raised one of his two batons which revealed that he had made what would equal to a war club in terms of use: he carried the stick of the baton and now had the former handles transformed into sharp spikes.
"And that is?"
"Any better ideas, officer?" Kabal asked with obvious hostility.
"Not right now, no," Stryker admitted. "We should stick together if we're going back out there."
"We need reinforcements with better weapons than damn handguns and sticks!" Kabal remarked.
"Calm down, Kabal," Stryker advised. "Please."
"In this situation I don't think I can!" Kabal yelled in reply. "We're fucked."
"C'mon, Kabal," A member of Kabal and Stryker's unit placed a hand of reassurance on the former. "Join us."
"Fine." Kabal complied as the officer ushered him to join the rest of their squad as they tried to comfort their colleague.
"Are you sure your friend will be alright?" Liu asked.
"I'm not sure about him nor my squad," Stryker admitted. "I'm also unsure if I'll be okay."
"Get your forces ready to stop the remaining Tarkatans, Kurtis," Liu Kang advised. "Me and Kung Lao will meet with the Special Forces in Chicago."
"I'll try." Stryker replied.
"We must leave now." Kung Lao said eagerly.
"I will teleport you there," Raiden informed. "But after I transport you there I must part ways to consult with the Elder Gods."
"Then I guess I'll ask what these Elder Gods actually are when I see them," Said Stryker. "Good luck team."
"I assure you that this storm will pass," Raiden promised. "May the Elder Gods protect us all."
Lightning surrounded Raiden and the two Shaolin monks before the lightning flickered away, transporting the heroes away. Raiden made a stop at a street that was nearby the apparent Naknadan army and wished Kung Lao and Liu Kang good luck before teleporting again, this time to the Heavens.
Raiden now stood in the centre of a sacred circular platform. It was surrounded by evenly placed pillars which in between them formed transparent blue faces, they were the Elder Gods.
"Elder Gods I would not have visited you if this matter wasn't of importance," Raiden began. "Shao Kahn has begun an invasion on Earthrealm."
"We are aware of your plight, Raiden." All six of them spoke in unison.
"Then you must know to intervene." Raiden said with high hope.
"It is indeed an unfortunate event," One of the Elder Goddesses said. "But Shao Kahn has not violated any rules of Mortal Kombat."
"Me and him both agreed to alter the rules of the tournament," Raiden reminded them. "If he won then he could merge Earthrealm and Outworld. But if Earthrealm won then he couldn't make another attempt to merge our realm."
"Another attempt through ways of a tournament," They clarified. "The protective ward on Earthrealm is shattered, meaning this is a matter that is not associated with our tournament rules."
"This is absurd!" Raiden yelled in anger. "Why have the tournaments in the first place if you're allowing such tyranny?!"
"The tournament is to try and maintain balance between the realms due to Outworld's increased strength as of Shao Kahn's rule," They elaborated. "Though the potential to still win a realm through the tournaments or by other matters is still viable."
"Cetrion, please." Raiden begged to the Elder Goddess who had been talking to him.
"If we were to aid you then we'd be showing an unbalanced bias," Cetrion replied. "Our only say in Shao Kahn's conquering came via the tournament, which is now gone."
"You must make an exception," Raiden demanded. "Innocents are dying to Shao Kahn's armies!"
"This is a matter that you and the Earthrealmers must solve," Cetrion stated. "Though Fujin has our blessing for if he wishes to aid you."
"Fine then," Raiden complied as he realized it was helpless to try and negotiate further. "Thank you, Elder Gods."
Raiden teleported away, back to Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Suddenly, he was surrounded by a group of Naknadan peons who were wielding small daggers. Lao threw his hat into the spine of one of the surrounding Naknadan which caused the soldier to stumble into the lightning empowered hands of Raiden who shocked the soldier until they fell unconscious. Another Naknadan grabbed Raiden's arm which only charged the arm up with lightning, blasting the peon away. Liu Kang dealt with three soldiers that were to Raiden and Kung Lao's left. Liu used his fists and kicks to leave their enemies knocked out.
"Have the Special Forces arrived yet?" Raiden asked as he electrocuted another Naknadan.
"I haven't heard any gunfire so I presume no." Kung Lao answered.
"They'll be here," Liu assured. "No need to worry."
"Oh, I'm not worried," Lao said as he fought off a couple more soldiers, weaving between their attacks as he communicated with his allies. "These goblins are pathetic."
"We are no goblins, monk," Retorted Kollector as he stepped in front of his peons. "Hold your stance, my men!"
"Sorry, I'm disrespecting the goblins," Lao commented. "You're scum that's been corrupted by greed and selfishness."
Kollector cackled. "Selfish? Because of me, many Naknadan have rose from being abused slaves to prideful fighters for Shao Kahn."
"If you work for Shao Kahn then you're a slave," Liu Kang argued. "No matter what your station is."
Kollector laughed at the comments again. "Tell that to my hard-earned wealth."
"Is that your attempt of a joke?" Lao asked.
"Oh, believe me, my vault is no joke," Responded Kollector. "It's ironic really, we went from being the enslaved to the slavers."
"That is no such thing to brag about!" Yelled Liu Kang.
"I for one disagree," Kollector stated. "Capturing the Champion of Mortal Kombat would be quite the feat to boast."
"Keep dreaming, Kollector." Liu said before re-engaging in his fighting stance.
"Were you not paying attention?" Kollector asked rhetorically. "On my own, I caused the grand progression of my race. In summary, I make dreams come true."
Sudden gunfire interrupted the conversation. From down the streets road pulled up military cars and tanks which the Naknadan army turned their attention to.
"Deal with the Earthrealmers!" Kollector ordered as he scurried away into the crowd of Naknadan warriors. "We have a bank to deal with, my looters!"
Kollector and a group of his looters moved down an alleyway as Liu Kang, Kung Lao and Raiden returned to fending off the Naknadan masses.
On the side of the Special Forces, they had to deal with a Naknadan cavalry. Many masked Naknadans came charging down the road. They were riding Centaurians whom were equipped with bows and the Naknadans themselves carried a cutlass sword each and a fistful of arrows in both of their short backhands. The Centaurs had bright red numbers painted on their horse bodies which was to vividly show what number said cavalry riders were as they were all named Kavalry.
Kavalry #173, the brother of Kollector, was seemingly opting himself to take the charge of the rest of the cavalry. They rode a female Centaur called Nikala who was shooting perfectly placed arrows that connected between a soldier's eyes at least ninety percent of the time. A tank lined themselves up to the oncoming horde of cavalry and blasted a highly explosive missile towards them, wiping out seven Centaurs and their riders too.
"Get me closer, Nikala," Kavalry requested. "I must stop that thing."
"I'll try, Kav." She complied.
Nikala charged faster, a few other cavalries calling out a similar command to their own Centaurs and they followed. A blockade sat at the end of the road they were charging down. A tank and two military cars were behind a row of soldiers who had took cover behind the blockade. Kavalry #173 was the first to leap over the blockade and immediately stabbed his cutlass through the head of a crouched down soldier, slicing their head clean off. Nikala turned and booted her back hooves into another soldier. More of the cavalry arrived at the blockade and they quickly overpowered the soldiers before turning their attentions to the tank which the Centaurs began hoofing at. The tank was quickly tipped over and no other than Jackson Briggs spilled out from the vehicle.
"We found the perpetrator!" Yelled a cavalry member, their Centaur was holding them in place.
"Your machine has caused a lot of suffering," Another stated. "Let's kill him slowly."
"They're called tanks." Jax informed as he tried to wiggle free. Even his increased strength from his arms were proving ineffective.
"Start by taking his arms," One cavalry member recommended. "We can examine their technology."
"Very well then." The Centaur began to pull at Jax's metal arms, trying to rip them off.
Jax rose one of his dangling legs into a knee which he struck into the Centaur, causing them to lose their grip. The Centaur went to grab him again but Jax clapped his hands together, sending a shockwave towards the Centaurian. Other Centaurs began blasting arrows at Jax only for him to block the arrows with his arms, causing them to dink off the metal. The Naknadans immediately began overpowered Jax again, making his struggles worthless.
Kavalry #173 checked inside the tank for anybody else and was surprised when a bullet skimmed past his head. The driver was still alive but was badly injured from the tank crash. Kavalry stepped on their gun and slide it across the tipped sideways tank. The soldier crawled to the feet of Kavalry.
"Finish your job, monster." He demanded weakly.
"Interesting, we call Earthrealmers monsters." Kavalry replied.
"Just kill me already!" He again ordered while mustering the strength to raise his voice. Kavalry raised his cutlass but paused in striking it down when the soldier began sobbing.
"You're miserable," Kavalry sighed. Kavalry put his cutlass to one side. "Consider yourself lucky."
Kavalry left the tank before lying to his comrades that the tank had been cleared out. He looked to see where Jax was only to find that there was a new fight breaking out as Sonya Blade and extra backup had arrived to Jax's aid.
"You showed up in the nick of time." Jax said as he grabbed an assault rifle that a soldier tossed to him.
"We're always looking out for you," Sonya replied as she sought cover. "Are the others ok?"
"Sadly not." Jax unfortunately informed.
"Dammit!" Sonya yelled out. "What even are these things?"
"I think Raiden called them Naknadans." Answered Jax.
"Speaking of Raiden," Sonya looked up to the sky. "Here he is!"
Raiden flew above the road, lightning blasting beneath him as he crossed past the Naknadan army, shocking many of its warriors. Raiden landed by the Special Forces soldiers, the ones that remained at least. He landed before the Special Forces and began fighting off oncoming cavalry. Whenever Raiden shocked a charging Centaur, the shock would always travel to the Naknadan rider. After eliminating about ten cavalry which was preventing them from reaching the Special Forces who were still firing bullets at them.
"Thanks, Raiden," Sonya thanked. "We were in big trouble there."
"I should be thanking you instead for aiding me in defending Earthrealm." Raiden gave his own thanks.
"Of course," Sonya said passionately. "It's our job to protect as well."
"Stay safe nonetheless," Raiden instructed. "I have to confront this army's leader."
Raiden flew up again before following Kollector's tracks which led to him seeing Kollector's looters surrounding a bank. Raiden landed on the ground and immediately blasted a lightning bolt at the first two Naknadans he saw. Raiden smashed open the bank doors, a knife was immediately launched at him but Raiden side stepped it and Raiden charged through the air with his fists being stretched in front of him which punched the Naknadan ahead of him as well as shocking them. More Naknadans surrounded Raiden but they all got in a close enough vicinity where Raiden could punch the ground and send lightning across the surrounding away. Raiden scanned the room before confirming it was empty. He moved to the vault where he encountered Kollector.
"You have nobody left to hide behind, Kollector." Spoke Raiden.
Kollector craned his neck to face Raiden as he grabbed his bag. "H-how are you here?!"
"It's not that difficult to have figured that somebody as greedy as yourself would come here," Raiden explained. "Now you will suffer for your sins."
"Screw you!" Kollector cried out as he tried to run past Raiden to the exist. He was unsuccessful and Raiden threw him head first into the vault door.
Kollector again tried to crawl to safety but was grabbed again. Kollector stabbed one of Raiden's right arm but was shocked by the Thunder Gods left hand. Kollector hurried to his feet and Raiden ran at him before being smashed in the face by Kollector's lantern and stabbed in the back several time by Kollector's knives but Raiden being a God did not die from all these stabbings. Kollector tried running away but a lightning bolt struck the exit and knocked him back into Raiden's grasp. Raiden grabbed Kollector by the throat and began shocking him. Kollector screamed in agony as his ruby like eyes began to widen. Kollector was near death but used his remaining strength to throw a handful of cursed flames into Raiden's eyes which temporarily blinded the Thunder God, allowing Kollector to escape.
"Kollector?" His brother recognized Kollector as he exited the bank.
"Give me a ride out of here!" Kollector ordered anxiously. "The Thunder God is after me!"
"A 'please may I' would've sufficed." Nikala quipped.
"Hurry and help me up!" He demanded.
"I'm not letting that filth touch me," Nikala informed. "Let's leave."
"That's fine with me," Kavalry agreed. "Goodbye, brother."
"Get back here, Kavalry #173!" Kollector cried out. "HELP ME!"
Fortunately, one Kavalry was forgiving enough to collect Kollector and take him to safety during the army's retreat. This left Raiden, Liu Kang, Kung Lao and The Special Forces with a short-lived victory.