One night, a few weeks later, as the rain and wind were hammering on the window,
Sagat felt a presence in his room. He turned his head to face the person, (since there
wasn't much else he could do, given his condition) and saw a shadowy figure in a
Kimono with squinted eyes and a long flowing grey beard and mustache. The figure took
two steps forward, his shadowy face revealed from the illumination of the lightning. He
looked to be in his late nineties, if not more. From the sash of his kimono, he produced a
scroll with Chinese writing on it. He unrolled it to face himself and spoke aloud. "Sagat,
Champion of the Muay Thai style. You have been chosen, among others, to
represent your world in the greatest tournament ever held. Mortal Kombat! Go to
the East docks of Hong Kong, three weeks from now and board the dragon boat. Train
hard from now until then, for you will need all of your skills to survive." With that, the
figure pivoted on his heel and walked out the door. "Wait!" Sagat cried, but the man was
already gone. Sagat pondered this turn of events for a while, then succumbed to the force
of sleep.
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Ryu stepped out of the airplane and into the bustling San Francisco airport. He wondered
how he would ever find Ken. As he walked in no direction in particular, he noticed
people giving him strange looks. Then he realized that he forgot to change his clothes on
the airplane. He was still in his Karate Gi! "Well," he thought, "At least Ken won't
have much trouble finding me." He thought he heard someone call his name and turned
his head to the right, looking for the origin of the call. "RYU!" he heard again, this
time closer. He saw a blond head bobbing out of the crowd, pushing people aside.
"KEN!" Ryu called out, seeing his American training partner run towards him. Suddenly,
Suddenly, the crowd gave way, and Ryu saw Ken flying towards him in a jump kick.
Ryu side stepped, then ducked as Ken landed and threw a spinning roundhouse kick at
head. Ryu tried an upper cut, but Ken was already out of the way. Ryu spun and shot a
kick at Ken=s stomach. Ken blocked it, but was not so lucky when Ryu threw a volley of
punches at his head. Ken managed to block a few, but the ones that got through made up
for the missed ones. Ken fell on his back, then almost immediately flipped up into a
traditional Karate stance. The two stood there, eyes locked on each other, not moving,
not even breathing. Suddenly they both shot forward, about to attack, and shook hands.
An hour later.....
"Wow," said Ken, sipping his Coors Light, "Has it really been seven years since we last
trained together?" Ryu looked up from his plate of sushi and ramen and said, "Afraid so,
Ken. But it looks like we might be training together again." Ken's face became a mask
of confusion. "What do you mean, Ryu?" he asked. Ryu chewed some ramen, swallowed and said, "You
mean you weren't invited to the tournament? You haven't seen the Chinese scroll?" the
puzzled look in Ken's face faded and he said, "I do have the scroll, but you know I can't
read Chinese." Ryu chewed and swallowed some ramen and said, "Well,.....what it
basically said was that you were chosen to compete for Earth in a tournament called
Mortal Kombat. We're supposed to be at the East docks of Hong Kong in about two and
a half weeks."
Ken got up, pushing out his chair. "Well then," he said, "we better get started training!"
Ryu glanced up at Ken and sucked in some more noodles. Then he glanced down at his
food and promptly started eating again. Ken sighed and sat down.Ryu would
be awhile.