Hallway
After everyone agreed on Liu's plan, they started walking towards Shang Tsung's
private room.
"Liu," Ryu said, "If Shang Tsung has a portal to Outworld in his room, then why can't Shao Khan just invade Earth from there?"
Liu sighed. "It doesn"t work that way. You see, to take over a realm, Shao Khan must first take all of the inhabitants souls for his own. To do that, the inhabitants of that realm must lose the strongest souls of that realm. It's kind of like a chain across the door of the portal, with the fighters, the strong souls, as the main link that holds everything else together. Once fighters lose ten tournaments in a row, the link is broken, and Shao Khan can open the door. Shang Tsung's portal kind of opens the door a little, but not enough for Shao Khan to get through, only lesser beings."
Ryu was silent for a while, then said, "What are our chances against Khan?" Liu lowered his head slightly. "Not good." He said. "Over thousands of years, Shao Khan has taken an incredible number of souls. The strength of each soul adds to his own strength. It will be just about impossible to defeat him. But we have no other choice."
Just then they reached Tsung's room. I was about half the size of the main hall. Shang Tsung was nowhere to be seen, but there were guards everywhere. The guards were dressed in black baggy pants, red shin guards, red arm guards, and a red mask that covered their whole head except for their eyes.
"We will have to defeat them to get to Tsung's portal."
Liu said. Then, as if on cue, everyone dropped into their respective fighting stances. The guards slowly started advancing towards them. One tried to kick Ryu in the head, but Ryu ducked and used a leg sweep to bring the guard down. At the same time, two guards were attacking Sub-Zero simultaneously. Sub-Zero judged the timing, and at the exact instant, he grabbed both of their arms. They tried to get free, but Sub-Zero concentrated, and flash froze them both. He used both arms to backhand their frozen forms, shattering them into hundreds of pieces of ice. Ken was fighting a guard with a spear, and was barely avoiding the slashes sent towards his vital organs. Just as the guard was a bout to pierce Ken's neck, Ken grabbed the shaft of the spear. He smiled and punched the guard square in the face. Ken put so much strength into that one punch, the guard was unconscious before he hit the ground. Liu Kang had it no easier. The spear that Kang's opponent was using had double edged blades on both ends. This made it easier for the guard to attack and harder for Kang to defend. When the guard brought the spear back for an instant, Liu saw an opening. He pulled both hands back to his side, then thrust them forward with all his might. For an instant, Liu's hands were enveloped in fire. An instant was all it took. The guard took the fire-fist attack in the gut, and crashed into Shang Tsung's dining table as he fell. Jason was fighting an opponent with a normal staff, no blades. The guard sent a sideways strike towards Jason's head, but Jason blocked it. The staff snapped into two pieces and the guard stood there shocked as Jason sent him flying with a spinning hook kick. Sakura was having trouble. The last remaining guard was seemingly the best, and she could only block and dodge his incredibly fast strikes; she couldn't attack. Ryu yelled at her to get out of the way, and she backflipped out of the guards range. The guard was about to pursue, but he stopped cold. Literally. Sub-Zero had launched a freezing attack at him. Sakura shrieked as the ground only an inch away from her feet was frozen solid.
"Well," Liu said, "That was easy." and started walking away. Sakura was amazed. No one, other than her had a scratch on them. They weren't even breathing hard. They walked the rest of the way to the portal in silence, Sub-Zero leading the way. Sub-Zero stopped abruptly and motioned for the others to stop too. Jason smiled and said, "Is it more guards? Hah. They don't stand a chance against..." Jason shut up when Sub-Zero whipped around and put a finger to his mask, where his lips would be. He then motioned for the others to wait there. Sub-Zero walked forward. Slowly and cautiously. Without warning, a spike attached to a rope shot at Sub-Zero. He ducked and the spear whistled through the air. The air his throat was occupying just a second before. The spear turned in mid-air and shot at him again. Sub-Zero rolled out of the way just in time. But his roll was frantic and unprepared. He hit a stone wall behind him, which knocked the wind out of him. The spear continued, then arced up, hovering about fifty feet in the air. Then the blade split in two, and shrieked in a shrill, ear piercing tone. It dove at Sub-Zero again. Sub-Zero narrowed his eyes until they were two slits in his face, and tensed every muscle in his body. Just as it would have impaled itself in Sub-Zero's face, he dived to the side, and the it exploded in blood against the stone. The rope detached itself from what was left of the harpoons crushed body, and shot back into the darkness. As soon as the rope disappeared, a sole man dressed in a black jumpsuit with yellow trim stepped forward. He spoke in a low, menacing, and obviously furious voice. "Impressive. No one has ever been able to do that before. But there is a first time for everything. Including a first time to die. You will soon know this, as I do, through experience."
It was Scorpion.
