Mortal Kombat

by Jeff Rovin

  Goro agreed. Lumbering behind the ice containing Rayden, he wrapped his arms around the block and lowered it to the ground.

  “Think you can hit him this time?” Goro asked.

  Reptile approached with a slow, slithering gait. “I was struck from the side by a new assailant, Goro. However, you had no excuse for that first charge when we disappeared.”

  “My excuse was that he disappeared!” Goro said. “I knew about his lightning, but I didn’t know Rayden could teleport!”

  Sub-Zero’s ears perked. “Rayden? I’ve defeated a god?”

  “You had help,” Reptile said, bending over the head of the frozen deity. He let the acid run through his mask, and the ice began to evaporate in billowing, sizzling sounds.

  “Did I?” Sub-Zero said, tapping his chin through his mask. “When I arrived, he appeared to have the two of you at a disadvantage. Perhaps we should let him up again and see how you would fare–”

  “In a fair fight?” a voice rang out from the direction of the sun.

  The three henchbeings looked over, squinting red, green, and human eyes into the light. They saw no one, then leapt aside as a pair of short-stemmed harpoons screamed toward them. The barbs snagged the frozen heroes in the ice between their feet, and as the servants of Shang Tsung watched, the blocks were quickly drawn away from them. An instant later, the air between them wriggled and darkened and a figure materialized in their midst, a man clad in black and gold, his face all but hidden behind a gold mask.

  The newcomer faced Sub-Zero. “You defeated a god with the help of two others, fiend – the same number it took to help you beat an unarmed man.”

  Sub-Zero moved so that his face was flush and close to that of the newcomer. “Don’t come to my battlefield and lecture me, pup. Don’t you dare.”

  “Stop me,” said the youth.

  “In time,” Sub-Zero replied.

  “I’ll stop you,” Goro grunted. He ground his upper left fist into his bottom right palm, and upper right into the bottom left. “I’ll rip your living heart out. I don’t like braggarts.”

  “Calm yourself, Goro,” said Sub-Zero. “What is your name, boy?”

  “I am Scorpion,” said the youth.

  Sub-Zero snickered. “I’ve eaten Scorpion, and had scorpion soup. I can’t say I cared for either. Now, tarantula stew–”

  “You murdered a toll-taker,” Scorpion cut in. “He was a gracious and blameless man, a gentle husband and caring father.”

  “Ah,” said Sub-Zero. “You are… the son?”

  “Enough talk,” Scorpion said. “It’s time to answer for your crimes.”

  “Will you make all of us answer?” Reptile sneered. A crocodilian glint in his eyes, he spit acid at the costumed figure.

  The acid passed harmlessly through Scorpion as he faded and rematerialized several paces behind the group. The trio turned as one.

  “I’ll fight anyone who tries to help this fiend,” Scorpion vowed.

  From behind the three villains, a familiar voice said, “And we will help him, cowards!”

  Reptile, Sub-Zero, and Goro spun again.

  “Liu Kang!” Goro blared.

  “And Rayden,” Reptile croaked as his green eyes settled on the blue-and-white figure standing beside Liu Kang.

  Scorpion seemed to stand a little taller. “I said it was time, Sub-Zero. Turn and face me.”

  The ninja’s head turned round, and the rest of his body followed a moment later. He casually hooked his thumbs inside his black sash belt, then slipped his index fingers in beside them.

  “I’ve turned,” he said. “I’m facing you.”

  Scorpion’s arms were stiff at his sides. He bent them at the elbow so that the flats of his forearms were facing at Sub-Zero. He barely blinked as he watched the ninja, waited for him to make a move.

  “Will you shoot me?” Sub-Zero asked as he began circling his opponent. “Once in the leg to slow me, once in the side to bring me down, once in the belly so that I bleed to death slowly, painfully.”

  Scorpion turned as Sub-Zero did. He wasn’t frightened, but his heart – beating for two, himself and his father – was thumping madly.

  “I will fight fairly,” Scorpion told him, “which is more than you’ve ever done.”

  “True,” said Sub-Zero. He removed his fingers from his belt, then quickly folded them into fists. “So I ask you, young avenger – why should I start now?”

  Sub-Zero dropped to the ground, and as he did so black smoke erupted everywhere, billowing from the ground on all sides.

  Scorpion held his breath and leapt feet first into the smoke where he’d last seen Sub-Zero. He felt the earth shake, and though he groped wildly, the killer was nowhere to be found. Within moments Scorpion began to gag from the choking, greasy smoke and willed himself out and away: he passed through the black limbo of Yu and, still coughing, reappeared several hundred yards beyond the smoke, near Liu Kang. The White Lotus fighter had started running toward him when the smoke first appeared.

  “Are you okay?” Liu Kang said, putting an arm around Scorpion’s shoulder and looking into his eyes.

  Scorpion nodded vigorously as his eyes swept the grimy, dark air above the field. “Did – did you see where he went?”

  “He didn’t move until the smokescreen was up,” Liu Kang said. “Typical Lin Kuei trick. That was a ninja smokebomb – oil and tear gas. They’re small, under high pressure, and activated by puncturing them with a nail. They have no honor, those devils. Won’t fight when they can run.”

  “My father had honor,” Scorpion said. He was still peering ahead, trying to catch sight of his foe. “That was why he left the Lin Kuei. That was why they killed him.”

  “I’m sorry, friend. I know how you feel.” Liu Kang pressed the button on the side of his watch. None of the numbers lit up, which meant that Sonya was beyond the one-hundred-mile range of the signal in her knife handle. “Sub-Zero murdered two of my comrades in the dark, and I fear for the safety of a third.”

  “Goro and Reptile may be big and strong, but they’re not stupid,” Liu Kang said. “They ran off with Sub-Zero. Three against two aren’t odds they favor.”

  “But how did they get away so fast?”

  “Perhaps Sub-Zero didn’t,” said Liu Kang. “A ninja with his experience can dig a ditch in seconds and pull the soil in over him. You could search for hours and never see the breathing tube. As for the other two, did you feel the ground rumble? That had to be Goro stomping off on those brontosaurus legs of his. He probably had Reptile under one of his arms.” Liu Kang watched as the smoke began to dissipate. “Or maybe the rumbling was some of Shang Tsung’s red lightning, sent to collect his lackeys. It’s said the wizard can see all.”

  Scorpion took a deep breath and shrugged off Liu Kang’s arm. “I’ve got to go after them.”

  “No!”

  The voice rumbled from directly behind him, and Scorpion turned to see Rayden standing there, his eyes a flat gold, his expression grim.

  “We will get them later. Right now, we have another task.”

  “You have another task,” Scorpion said. “I won’t let Sub-Zero escape–”

  “He already has escaped,” Rayden said. “I have just been to Shang Tsung’s island.”

  “He gets around,” Liu Kang said to Scorpion, “sort of like you do.”

  “Liu Kang was correct,” Rayden continued. “Sub-Zero and the Outworlders fled, and Shang Tsung collected them with his red lightning.” He looked at Liu Kang. “Sonya Blade is with them, and Kano is on the way.”

  “He’s whole again?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he get the amulet?”

  Rayden nodded.

  Liu Kang said, “Then you don’t dare go there, Rayden. All they have to do is touch you with it and we’ll be taking out ads for a new Thunder God.” Scorpion said, “What was the other task you spoke of, Rayden?”

  The Thunder God replied, “We must go to my temple on the peaks of Mt. A
ngilas and find Kung Lao. Only the priest can tap the power of the amulet, and we will need that if we are to defeat Shang Tsung and his killers.”

  Liu Kang said, “Rayden doesn’t get emotional about the things that upset us humans, Scorp – comes with being a god. But as much as I want to get to the island now, he’s got a point. We’re going to Shang Tsung’s home turf: if we don’t go prepared, we’ll get creamed.”

  Scorpion looked from Liu Kang down to his open hands. “All of this power, and what have I been able to do with it? I let my prey escape.”

  “What have you been able to do?” Liu Kang asked. “Friend, if you hadn’t pulled us to safety, Rayden and I would both be masquerading as basic protoplasm. Your powers and courage have earned a friend and ally for life,” Liu Kang said, “and if there’s a world beyond this one, you can count on me there as well.”

  Scorpion looked at Liu Kang, and his eyes grew moist. “There is such a life,” he said. “A part of me has seen it.” He looked at Rayden. “Show us the way, Thunder God. It’s a sight I want my enemies – our enemies – to see.”

  Bruised, dirty, and a bit ragged, the trio set out for the temple, Liu Kang apologizing for holding his companions back, muttering that he’d make his own way if they wanted to teleport ahead, complaining that it was tough enough just holding his own among gods and dead people and monsters from the Outworld….

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  As the dragon-powered boat approached the fog surrounding Shimura Island, Kano felt a chill. There were times in his life when he’d felt like he was in a fog, but just a few hours before, he’d looked like that.

  He lifted his arm and let the amulet dangle before him. All this fuss and bother for a fancy stone in a weird, liquidy-gold setting and a brittle leather strap. He could have lifted one with emeralds and diamonds worth twice as much from any jewelry store.

  Of course, it wouldn’t have had magic powers. And this one seemed to, though Kano wasn’t sure. After he’d picked it up, he’d begun to tingle uncomfortably, like the time he’d never forget when he was a kid and stuck a wet goldfish into an electric outlet to try and cook it. The juice went right through the struggling fish into his hand.

  As he’d floated down the mountainside, his whole body had tingled painfully, just like his leg did when it woke up after being asleep. Then he’d hurt so bad he couldn’t move at all, and finally, he’d felt a knifing cold pain, as though he were being cut into salami-sized slices. A moment later all the agony had left him, though he felt like someone had parked a Buick on his shoulders. The weight nearly dropped him to his knees, and he’d suddenly realized that he was whole again. He looked to the right, then the left, and saw Kung Lao lying on the ground, the amulet in his hand.

  “Tryin’ to split with the goods,” he’d said, snatching it back and kicking Kung Lao in the ribs for good measure. “Nice try, but between the two of us you’re Lao man on the totem.”

  And then Kano had headed down the mountain, though he hadn’t gone far when a flash of red smashed into him from he had no idea where, giving him a serious headache and causing every hair on his body to stand up and do the Dance of Sugarplum Fairies. A second later he was on a beach with a dragon-headed ship bobbing a couple hundred yards away. He’d walked over and boarded, and here he was, rollin’ on into a fog.

  Kano figured that Shang Tsung had been watching him in a crystal ball or something and had sent the red light after Kung Lao had taken Kano to the amulet. But now, as he looked at the little trinket, he wondered if another triple million was enough for it. Shang Tsung must want it real bad to have gone through all this trouble.

  And something else occurred to him. Why would the wizard send a laser beam all that way, then drop him on the beach? Why not bring him right to the palace?

  Kano rubbed the stubble on his cheek, surprised at heavy his arm still felt. Maybe – just maybe, he thought – Shang Tsung was running out of juice. And if he was, maybe this bauble was the key to saving his butt. And if it was, it was worth a lot more than three mill.

  As Kano looked at the hypnotic, opalescent gem in the center of the amulet, he began to wonder if he should give the thing to Shang Tsung at all.

  Maybe I should hold it for him, he thought, make him tell me how to work it. Or maybe I should tell him a few things. Like I want to share what he’s got goin’, fifty-fifty.

  With the possibilities beginning to delight his imagination, Kano watched the play of blue-and-red light continue in the center of the amulet even as the boat entered the fog. And then, a wicked smile turning up the corners of his mouth, he slipped the leather strap over his head, felt the warmth of the golden setting against his chest, and decided that fifty-fifty was much too generous. Kano had done all the heavy lifting on this, was the one who had been turned into a fog-man and saddled with some of the losingest accomplices in caper history, and ninety-ten was starting to smell pretty fair to him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  When Rayden, Scorpion, and Liu Kang arrived at the temple, they found Kung Lao half-kneeling, half-leaning against the altar. He had managed to crawl in from the ledge, light a fire in the coal brazier, and pray to Rayden while attempting to collect his strength.

  As the trio entered, passing under the scintillating ceiling of frozen lightning, Kung Lao tried to bow toward the Thunder God.

  “Lord Rayden,” he said, falling forward onto the white tile floor.

  Liu Kang and Scorpion ran forward while Rayden stopped in the center of the temple. The two mortals lifted Kung Lao and carried him to one of the two golden chairs on either side of the temple.

  “No,” Kung Lao protested, trying to get back to the floor, “a priest must kneel in the presence of the Lord Rayden.”

  “It is true.” Rayden strode to Kung Lao’s side, put his strong hands on the priest’s arms, and raised him to his feet. “But I know what is in your heart, Kung Lao. You need not kneel to show me your devotion.”

  There were tears in Kung Lao’s eyes. “Thank you, Lord, but I’ve failed you. The amulet – I was unable to stop myself. I brought Kano right to it.”

  “We will deal with Kano and Shang Tsung presently.” The god sat Kung Lao in the chair, then faced Scorpion. “I sense the presence of two souls.”

  “I am son and I am father,” said Scorpion. “We are under the protection of the demigod Yu.”

  “Do you know the location of Shimura Island in the East China Sea?”

  Scorpion nodded.

  Rayden turned to Liu Kang. “I require your assistance, warrior of the White Lotus.”

  “Anything, Rayden,” Liu Kang said eagerly.

  “Scorpion and I must go to Shang Tsung’s palace at once. You will follow with Kung Lao.”

  Liu Kang’s face collapsed. “You want us to walk while you teleport there?”

  Rayden and Scorpion vanished, the god in a flash of lightning, Scorpion in a blackening wave.

  “I guess so,” Liu Kang said as he looked at the space that the two figures had occupied a moment before. “Why couldn’t they take us with them?”

  “Because our bodies would not survive the journey through limbo,” Kung Lao said. “It is a place for gods and the immortal soul, not for the likes of us.” He rose, gripping Liu Kang’s arm to steady himself. “But though Shimura Island is far, we can get there today – soon.”

  “How? Is there magic you can use?”

  Kung Lao said, “There is. It’s a weapon that Shang Tsung gave us without realizing it.” So saying, the priest hobbled toward the altar and once again knelt beside it. “Join me,” he said to Liu Kang.

  The warrior walked over and dropped to his knees. He watched as the priest shut his eyes, crossed his hands in front of his chest, began rocking back and forth slowly, and recited passages from the sacred Scrolls of Light.

  “‘It is said that those who believe in the divinity of Rayden will exhale the breath of seven colors, all the humors of which humans are capable–’”

 
“Forgive me, holy one,” Liu Kang said quietly, “but do you really think that’s going to help us now?”

  “‘That while sitting still, they can see into all eight points of the world and even to things under the ground. That in a dark room, or on the blackest night, they are their own light.’”

  Kung Lao bowed his head lower. Scrunching his mouth with disgust, Liu Kang did likewise.

  “I still don’t get this,” he said. “Rayden left without us, to protect you from harm. Why would he help now – and how?”

  The skies began to grumble, and Liu Kang’s eyes shifted from side to side.

  “It comes,” said Kung Lao.

  “What does?”

  “The key.”

  Liu Kang said impatiently, “The key to what?”

  “The transformation,” Kung Lao said as the altar and then the walls began to shake, the floor began to crawl, and finally the frozen lightning of the temple ceiling began to sparkle and pop before exploding, drowning out the words in Fengah spoken by Kung Lao….

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Upon arriving at the palace with Shang Tsung, Sonya found herself gripped tightly by countless pairs of hands. Some of the hands were pale, some of them monstrous, but all of them were strong, and they’d lifted her from the ground before she was able to defend herself. Though she made no sound, neither screamed nor swore, hands were clapped on her mouth, piled four thick so that she couldn’t even move her head.

  The owners of the hands all wore hoods, and she noticed that the ones who had the ivory-white human hands had black cloaks and seemed to move in slow motion without actually moving slowly, while the hands in white cloaks moved normally though their flesh was amber and cracked, like the floor of the driest basin in the hottest desert. Whichever type they were, the hands squeezed so tightly they hurt, and the reek of the bodies was overpowering – some smelling like damp earth, some like spoiled milk, none of them any good.