A small tornado of flaming embers sparking in the centre of the bridge that stood before Quan Chi's Fortress. The entrance of the Fortress was almost like a hellish replica of Shao Kahn's with both imposing Fortress' being surrounded by a gigantic pit with a bridge leading to the entrance. Unlike Shao Kahn's Fortress however, the pit wasn't seemingly bottomless and there was a blatant sight of a boiling pool of lava that surrounded Quan Chi's Fortress.
To the surprise of the enraged Scorpion, the Fortress was highly active as many members of the Brotherhood of Shadow were present for reasons Scorpion was unaware of. Some members of the Brotherhood were in human disguises and others were in grotesque demonic forms. Those who stood on the bridge were busy carrying weaponry and armour into the Fortress but immediately dropped what they were carrying and turned their attention to Scorpion as he emerged from the fire with a searing chain spear in his hands.
"It's the one who betrayed Master Chi!" one Demon recognized. "Get him!"
Two Demons immediately charged Scorpion only for the Spectre to swing his spear which slit one Demon's throat and then flowed through and cut the chest of the other one which caused them to stop their charge and clutch their wound to relieve it's pain. Scorpion didn't allow him the chance to heal and launched his spear through the Demon and pulled the spear out which revealed that it had pierced the Demon's heart which was what was attached to the point of the spear when he pulled it out. Scorpion grabbed the heart and tossed it off the bridge into the lava below.
"Bring me Quan Chi!" Scorpion demanded as he charged a fireball in his hand.
Another Demon approached Scorpion but was swiftly slain when the Spectre launched a fireball that blew through the Demon's chest, thus killing it. The other Demons paused and began coming up with a plan to deal with Scorpion in their native language. Scorpion waited until they all suddenly leapt at him but Scorpion expected and countered this by sending a flaming repulse around him which knocked all those in the area far back with most being blasted off the narrow bridge. One Demon came at Scorpion while holding a hamaxe that he had taken from the floor and swung the heavy melee at Scorpion only for the Spectre to parry it with one of his swords and drew his second sword to stab into the heart of the Demon. More Demons challenged Scorpion but all who did so died in attempt. Finally, Scorpion had made it across the bridge and sent a massive fireball at the door which caused it to collapse in multiple pieces as the Spectre intruded the Fortress.
"Quan Chi!" Scorpion called out the sorcerer. "Fight me!"
"What are you doing here?" Quan Chi asked with frustration in his voice as he entered the room from walking down the stairs with Kia and Jataaka by each of his sides.
"I know the truth," he revealed. "About what you did to my family and clan."
Quan Chi chuckled when he heard this, a laugh very similar to when he was causing Scorpion's family harm.
"You won't be laughing when I have your head!" Scorpion threatened. "Just like how you executed my son and my wife!"
"You have more guts than brains." Quan Chi noted. "My allies will overwhelm and annihilate you."
"I welcome the challenge!" he replied.
"Kia. Jataaka." Quan Chi called his two best servants. "Finish him."
The duo nodded in compliance and approached Scorpion to confront him.
"No!" Scorpion shouted at the sorcerer. "I want you! Not your minions!"
Quan Chi did not reply and simply turned away and headed back upstairs to presumably return to his work, his schedule being very busy.
"Get back here!" Scorpion yelled as he went to chase Quan Chi, completely ignoring Kia and Jataaka and charging past them.
"Oh no you don't!" Kia yelled as she tossed her boomerang blade at the Spectre with the blade slicing deep into Scorpion's shoulder before returning to Kia.
Scorpion took a glance back at the two Demons as he clutched his injured shoulder. "Try and stop me and suffer the consequences."
"Try us." Jataaka challenged.
"As you demand." Scorpion replied and backflipped over the two Demons and landed behind them with one of his swords in each hand.
Jataaka and Scorpion began fighting with the Demon's laser sword colliding with the Spectre's Ninjato's. Jataaka slammed down her sword between Scorpion's crossed together blades and began trying to push down on Scorpion's weapons to try and create an opening to attack him. Scorpion tried to push Jataaka's sword to one side so that he could control his other ninja sword to strike her down. Scorpion's efforts would have succeeded were it not for Kia who leapt onto Scorpion's back and cut her boomerang blade into his back and dragged it down his back savagely causing Scorpion immense agony. The Spectre managed to release another repulse of hellfire which blasted Kia off of him and sent her flying all the way across the room until a wall stopped her from being launched further.
Jataaka, on the other hand, was merely staggered from the repulse and quickly got back to dueling Scorpion. The Spectre was again overpowering Jataaka but the Demon unleashed a laser from her sword which shot into Scorpion's face which temporarily blinded him. Jataaka then sliced Scorpion's stomach and kicked him to a knee. She went to take off Scorpion's head but the Spectre used his hellfire to blast a fireball which knocked Jataaka's sword right out of her hands while also burning them. Scorpion then sprung to his feet and connected a spinning flaming kick into Jataaka's chest which sent her crashing to the obsidian floor.
Scorpion took the chance while both warriors were knocked down to run to the stairway to catch up with Quan Chi but as he did he was caught by surprise by a skull summoned by Quan Chi blasting into his face as he turned the corner of the stairs. Now accompanying Quan Chi was the Wraith who was renamed as Noob Saibot. The Wraith immediately recognized the Spectre whereas Scorpion did not recognize Noob.
"Remember me?" The Wraith asked despite already having the rough idea of what the answer would be.
"I don't even know who you are!" Scorpion replied as he used the wall to help him stand up from Quan Chi's surprise attack.
"You did." Noob informed him as he grabbed the stunned Spectre and shoved him down the short few stairs that he had climbed up. "I'm sure you remember Bi Han."
"Argh… what about him?" Scorpion asked as he struggled to his feet.
"I became this as a result of your misguided vengeance." Noob revealed.
"You're Bi Han?"
"Was." Noob corrected him. "I am now known as Noob Saibot… thanks to you."
"I am sorry for what I did to you, Bi Han." Scorpion apologized. "But do you not understand that Quan Chi was the true murderer?! He stole your identity and burnt my clan to ashes."
"You're insane if you think I will believe that." Noob said as he drew his scythe that he kept stabbed in his shoulder. "First you accuse me and now you accuse the man who has saved me?"
"You're being manipulated by him," Scorpion tried making him see sense. "I'd know from experience."
"You know nothing!" Noob yelled.
"I know of your brother," Scorpion informed him. "Kuai Liang."
"Did you kill him too?!" Noob jumped to conclusions.
"Nearly…" Scorpion confessed. "Then I began realizing that you were innocent and I tried to do what I could in return for my horrible act and offered to protect him."
"Protect him from what?" Noob asked out of curiosity though wasn't certain that the Spectre was telling the truth.
"The cyber initiative." He answered. "I assume you knew about it."
"Yes," Noob confirmed. "It was Grandmaster Oniro's latest master design… I hated it."
"Oniro is no longer Grandmaster." Scorpion continued to fill in Noob with updates which ended up backfiring as Noob was beginning to lose what belief he had in him due to how absurd all this information was sounding.
"Who leads now?" Noob queried. "Sektor?"
"No, your brother."
"What!?"
"And he has taken the mantle of Sub Zero to honour you and your grandfather." Scorpion added. "I'm sure you're proud of him…"
"Absolutely not!" Noob yelled as he became even more angrier than before. "If what you say is true then he has betrayed me! He has stolen my mantle and has aligned with you, the man who murdered me!"
"Try to understand..." Scorpion pleaded, now he was completely unsure of how to convince him. "Join me and we can destroy Quan Chi together!" Scorpion offered.
"No," Noob refused. "I won't fall for your deception."
"I'll help you return to Earthrealm." Scorpion offered. "Then you will understand… I hope."
"Well I will return to Earthrealm." Noob confirmed. "But not with you."
"If you will not join me in killing that damn sorcerer, then you will become my enemy." Scorpion warned him.
"I know." Was all Noob replied with before hacking at him with his scythe at full aggression.
Scorpion tried blocking the Wraith's savage attacks but his efforts had little success as Noob quickly hooked his scythe into Scorpion's back and it stabbed through his flesh until the other side of the scythe emerged from Scorpion's side. Noob then proceeded to rip the scythe out from the flesh that was just above Scorpion's hip, severing a chunk out of him completely. Fortunately, Noob hadn't had a chance to sink the scythe deep enough into Scorpion for it to damage any organs but it came alarmingly close to the Spectre's intestines.
Scorpion clutched his side as he collapsed to the hard obsidian floor with his crimson red blood staining the jet black flooring. As he was bleeding out Noob pressed his foot over the Spectre as Kia and Jataaka had also recovered from their fight with Scorpion and all three now surrounded him as he lay on the ground in agonising pain surging through his entire torso area now.
"Do what you wish with him." Quan Chi permitted. "Just make sure he's dead once you're finished with him."
Quan Chi walked away with a smile on his face as he heard Scorpion crying in pain as he was beaten with kicks from Kia and Jataaka as Noob began deciding what limb of Scorpion he'd dissect first. As Scorpion endured more punishment, his rage grew more and with it rose his levels of hellfire. Scorpion had naturally learnt that he needed to balance his use of hellfire or else he'd be unable to use his abilities in full strength until his powers recharged. Scorpion had already drained a lot of his energy. Despite his drastically building rage, Scorpion could still recognize that his efforts to get revenge on Quan Chi have failed and he'd need to try again another time.
With what energy he had left to spare, Scorpion tried focusing his hellfire on transporting him back to Earthrealm. But as Scorpion went to teleport to safety, Noob landed his scythe into Scorpion's shoulder and began cutting into the shoulder, trying to violently amputate the Spectre's arm. In what was almost like a natural reflex, Scorpion's body began burning high flames as a wave of fire pushed around him which created another of his repulses but this one was even more powerful as those affected by it could feel the flames burning them slowly as they were shoved away. This flaming aura that surrounded Scorpion in a way revived him and allowed him to tolerate the pain he was undergoing which gave him the strength to stand up and run out of Quan Chi's Fortress.
"You won't escape me, Scorpion!" Noob's voice boomed.
"Quan Chi ordered for him to be killed." Jataaka reminded her allies.
"We must catch him!" Kia yelled, panicked by Scorpion making a swift escape and worried of Quan Chi's response to such a failure.
"I'm on it." Noob replied before creating portals that allowed him faster travel as the pursuit after Scorpion continued.
Scorpion looked back and quickly noticed that Noob was gaining on him fast by using his teleport ability that came from his dark shadow powers. Scorpion looked past the bridge that he stood on and came up with a risky plan but due to his current inability to teleport as he lacked the power to do so he had to go through with it.
Once Noob reached Scorpion he immediately swung his scythe at him but Scorpion precisely rolled out the way and leapt off the bridge. Before plummeting to a boiling death from the lava, Scorpion launched his spear which attached itself to a cliffside that was a short distance beyond the bridge but far enough that Noob's shadow teleport couldn't reach it. Using the chain part of his spear, Scorpion swung across the lava and grabbed firmly onto the coal black rock of the cliffside.
"Damn you, Scorpion!" Noob yelled as the two stared at each from afar.
"Master won't be happy." Kia stressed.
"It'll be okay," Jataaka reassured her. "We'll continue tracking him."
"No," Noob disagreed with Jataaka's plan. "We don't need all three of us to tackle him."
"So we just let him get away?!" Kia asked.
Noob shook his head. "I will continue to hunt him down while you two remain here to aid Master Chi and Lord Shinnok with planning the invasion."
"Okay…" Kia said with a gulp.
"C'mon," Jataaka gestured for Kia to come with her. "We'll explain the situation to them."
"Farewell, allies." Noob said as they began heading their separate ways.
"Good luck!" Jataaka wished to the Wraith as they continued walking away from each other.
Scorpion stopped looking at the Fortress and refocused on trying to get out of the Netherrealm. He turned to his left where he saw a tall mountain made primarily of a fleshy like substance, though he couldn't make out what the exact material the mountain was made of and the residents of the Netherrealm cared not enough to research it. What stood out about this mountain was that within it was the entrance to a man made tunnel which had a structure that Scorpion was familiar with already from his previous experiences in the Netherrealm. Scorpion walked down the ashy slope which led a bit underground and to where the tunnel truly took it's lengthy form. As Scorpion suspected, he had discovered one of the Netherrealm highways.
These highways existed amongst the highest planes in the Netherrealm and allowed for easier traversal around the realm. All highways had portal systems connected to them which were allegedly placed beside the highways long ago by sorcerers. Scorpion knew that if he trekked down this seemingly endless highway for long enough then he'd eventually find his ticket out of this wretched place. He could only imagine how dreadful the lower planes were like if this was considered 'easy transportation' for the usual residents. Scorpion knew it would take time, even longer as his adrenaline like ability from his hellfire had now run out which caused him to return to limping, but he also knew that it was his best chance of escaping.
Back at the Fortress, Shinnok and Quan Chi were continuing to plan out an invasion on Earthrealm as Shinnok figured that after Shao Kahn's very recent invasion the realm would be in a very weak state. They plotted this in the Fortress' war room which had its walls covered by two large maps, another example of Shinnok's magical creations involving such things. His first map related invention being the one that Quan Chi had used to keep track of his Master's amulet over the many years of searches to retrieve it. Now Quan Chi finally had the amulet in his possession and Shinnok against his knowledge was holding a false replica forged by the sorcerer that lacked the amulet's true power.
The first map on the walls gave a broad showing of the entire of Earthrealm as it was the realm that Shinnok had always been plotting on ruling over as he saw much benefit from doing so with his main reasons being that it possessed the most intact land as well as being home to the most impressive technology in all the realms. It was technology that Shinnok was yet to properly understand but was fully aware of thanks to his close alliance he had made with Daegon: leader of the Red Dragon clan. The second map however, presented the upper planes of the Netherrealm that Shinnok ruled over (they were the only planes worth controlling).
Kia and Jataaka cautiously entered the structure's war room, walking in on a discussion between the fallen Elder God and the sorcerer. Kia quickly kneeled once Shinnok's imposing gaze fell on them. Jataaka took slightly longer to take a kneel as she was mesmerised by the impressive maps that spread across the walls. If you got close enough to the maps then they'd majestically come to life. The beautiful map of Earthrealm also caught Jataaka's eye in particular as trees, hills and mountains wonderfully arose from the paper. Jataaka wished that she could touch one of them but Shinnok and Quan Chi absolutely would not allow such pointless behaviour.
"Jataaka…" Kia whispered to make Jataaka snap out of her trance-like state and it prompted her to kneel, a gesture which was expected to be performed in the presence of Lord Shinnok.
"Lord Shinnok." Jataaka greeted on behalf of herself and Kia who had even less desire of interacting with Shinnok than Jataaka did.
"Kia and Jataaka." Shinnok acknowledged them. "I presume you're here to inform me that this Scorpion has been dealt with."
"He… escaped." Jataaka confessed before Kia could try coming up with a lie which would've only gotten them in more trouble.
"He what?" Shinnok asked rhetorically with blatant disappointment in his tone of voice.
"We were about to kill him but he-" Jataaka attempted to explain the situation but this came across as a petty excuse to Shinnok who took his amulet and blasted it at Jataaka.
"No!" Kia cried out as she hurried over to Jataaka to use her healing powers on her.
Despite the amulet being fake, it was still able to inflict a great deal of hurt. Quan Chi made sure to share some of the real amulet's powers into the replica to make it appear more legitimate to Shinnok where he couldn't actually recognize any changes.
"You fools!" Shinnok insulted. "You can't do anything right!"
"Please give us another chance, Lord Shinnok." Kia begged. "Noob is pursuing him as we speak. I'm sure he'll finish the task."
"I shall grant the two of you one final chance." Shinnok (generously for his standards) granted after some consideration. "The Red Dragon has donated some of their portal technology to us. I need the two of you to prepare some portals within Earthrealm that I can send my armies to."
"Do we look like technicians?" Kia asked and immediately regretted the words that escaped her mouth, her hot headedness sometimes getting the better of her. "S-sorry. Where exactly would you like the portals made, Lord Shinnok?"
"Do you recall how yourself and the other spies I sent to Earthrealm reported that 'The United States of America' was the area that suffered the most as a result of Shao Kahn's invasion?" Shinnok asked.
"Of course." Kia answered. "It's a country."
"I know that!" snapped Shinnok.
"What about it?"
"That will be where you shall set the portals." Shinnok informed her. "Prepare them close to civilization but not too close."
"We will not disappoint you, Lord Shinnok." Kia promised. "Ain't that right, Jataaka?"
Jataaka stood up with the support of Kia, now feeling recovered thanks to her healing. "Yeah…" She replied sounding understandably dazed still.
"Why do you want control of this America?" Kia boldly asked.
"To easily gain territory within Earthrealm itself." Shinnok answered. "It shall be conquered easily and then my conquest shall expand to the location of Raiden's Sky Temple so that I may corrupt the Jinsei within it."
"The Jinsei?" Jataaka asked as she was unfamiliar with such a name, as was Kia.
Shinnok sighed in annoyance, he was irritated by their needless questioning. This prompted Quan Chi to speak on behalf of his master.
"It is the name for the chamber containing Earthrealm's life force." Quan Chi answered. "It's complex substance has unique properties of healing, capable of restoring anyone's health just by being inside the chamber."
"Why do you need that?" Jataaka asked. "Kia's capable enough at that already."
"Lord Shinnok can corrupt it with just a touch," Quan Chi revealed. "Doing so will invert it's qualities and will-"
"You will see what affects it shall cause." Shinnok promised as he interrupted Quan Chi. "I've given away enough time to discuss my geniusness with you. Now begone, there is an Oni that I have arranged a meeting with and he will be arriving very soon."
The two Demons took a final bow to Shinnok and Quan Chi before exiting the room to retrieve the required portal tech for their new mission. As they left they passed by a masked Oni with an iron club on his fist with a massive beast Oni standing behind him with a ball and chain wrapped around his giant arm. The two Oni waited patiently to be allowed into the war room at the request of the Netherrealm's Dark Lord himself.