Mortal Kombat III

The Gathering

The Subway
Jax took the controls and piloted the Subway Train into the tunnels. Sonya sat in one of the passenger rows, nodding off. For hours, there was dead silence. Until suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck inside the train, causing its lights to blink on and off for a few seconds.

"What the hell is going on?" Jax roared, as he stepped into the passenger's booth, only to see what had caused the brief disturbance. "Oh… well, look who shows now after the fighting's over."

"Don't get started with me, Jax." said Raiden. "You know I wasn't permitted to interfere at the start of the invasion."

"Why not?" Sonya said, now standing, looking Raiden in the eyes, a look of accusation on her face.

"Sometime when the world isn't being invaded, I'll draw you a diagram." Raiden responded.

Raiden turned to look at Jax, and saw the cybernetic arms that Jax had implanted on himself. "Why are you wearing those?"

As though he was surprised by the question, Jax took a step back. "What's it matter to ya?"

"It doesn't… tell me anyway."

"These things are just added muscle, that's all it is."

"Well, if I were any other mentor I would preach you on trusting your own inner strength, but I'm not any other mentor, so I'm not gonna do that."

Sonya continued to stare at Raiden, a look of anger on her face, when Raiden turned to face her, he was noticeably puzzled. "And what did I say to deserve that look?"

Sonya didn't answer, Raiden choose to continue. "I know about Johnny Cage. I'm sorry."

"If you had been there, you could've been able to save him."

Raiden took a moment to answer. "Perhaps I could've. But now is not the time for grievances, I must take you two to Nightwolf's camp, it is the only place where you'll be safe. Liu Kang, Kung Lao and Kitana are already there."

"Who else is gonna be there besides us?" Jax asked.

"First, a warrior named Kurtis Stryker. Second, a Black Dragon named Kabal."

"What?" Sonya and Jax yelled out in unison.

"Yes… please keep in mind that I do not take your personal lives into account when I'm trying to prevent Earth from being assimilated into another realm."

"But he's a Black Dragon!" Sonya protested.

Before Raiden could explain, the train had come to a stop.

"That's weird. I didn't pull the brakes." said Jax.

"Raiden must've caused the thing to short-circuit when he teleported in." surmised Sonya.

"As though you two were going to continue using it." said Raiden. "Let's just go now…"

"Hold on." interrupted Sonya. "I think there's someone outside."

Sonya pointed over to the window, where they could see a silhouette passing by. Jax ripped off the nearest door.

"Who goes there?" he shouted.

"Whoa! Hold on." shouted the man. Now that Jax could step out of the train doors, he could see that this stranger was not among Shao Kahn's ranks, judging by his very uniform.

"What's your name?" Jax asked.

"My name's Kurtis Stryker."

"Stryker?" Jax said, turning to face Raiden, who nodded.