A Passing of Time - Raiden (Mortal Kombat) Story

Chapter 1

In the Past

How she ended up in his presence was still a mystery to her. One minute, she was fighting these...beasts and the next thing she knew, blue light flashed before her eyes, surrounding her-protecting her from unseen foes. Frantically, she looked around, eyes darting everywhere to find where that lightning originated from. She never could have imagined the man that had created it.

Her eyes locked onto him as he floated down to the ground. He landed silently although, nothing about his presence was silent in her eyes. Lightning, the actual stuff that only resided in storm clouds, wrapped and flickered around his body like he was made of it.

As he approached her, she took small steps back, unsure of the man before her. Broad shouldered and easily six and a half feet tall-most likely more though. White and dark blue attire with some gold accents. She couldn't see his eyes directly, but from what she could see through his straw hat, they were a blinding blue.

"Who are you?" she questioned after finally finding her voice.

"I am Raiden, God of Thunder," he answered.

Suddenly, his hand shot up and a bolt of lightning flew from it, going just past her head to hit a beast behind her. Althea tensed at the sound and feel of the lightning going by her, making her hair stand on end.

Raiden lowered his hand.

"My apologies. I did not mean to frighten you," Raiden said.

Althea glanced behind her to see the beast, now dead, lying on the ground.

"It's fine," Althea returned her eyes to Raiden's.

"Althea, will you come to Sky Temple with me? I can better explain myself there," Raiden told her, offering his hand palm up to her.

She stared at his hand.

"You have willingly sacrificed yourself to protect others that live here in this realm with you. You are the very essence of a hero to those you have saved with your actions. I am searching for the strongest warriors I can find. And I have chosen you as one of them," Raiden said, trying to persuade her just the slightest.

Althea looked up at his eyes before returning them to his hand, still extended toward her.

"Okay," she agreed hesitantly.

She placed her hand in his. Once she did, Raiden left with her to Sky Temple.

In the Present

As he continued on with his syllabus lecture, Raiden noticed the young woman who seemed out of place in his lecture hall due to her science themed backpack with some periodic table joke on it. She was slightly older than the average, fresh-outta-high school freshmen and sophomores he usually had in this course. Although, perhaps she was filling an elective late in her college career. It perplexed him as to why a possible science major would be in his history course, but he was never one to judge someone completely based on appearance.

Besides, she was one of the few students who appeared to actually be paying attention to his words rather than sitting mindlessly on her phone. The devices were more than annoying in his mind, but he understood that should there be an emergency, one should have the means to be notified immediately.

Speaking of which, another phone sounded off in the small lecture hall.

"I understand if you need to be contacted for an emergency or such that, having a cell phone is useful, but refrain from leaving them on ring in this lecture hall. This class is only an hour and a half long. If the need to be notified immediately is that important, put your phone on vibrate instead of ring. You may step out of the room to take a call. Do not take the call in this room during my lectures. Others who have paid for this course like you will not take interruptions as such lightly," Raiden explained, giving the student roughly halfway up the room a pointed look. The student quickly put his phone on silent while his face slowly tinged red.