Frostbitten

Enemy Territory

As Sub-Zero and Kabal darted from the Lin Kuei nursery, the Cryomancer pulled up his cowl and fixed his mask back into place. Thoughts about what he'd just discovered swirled through his head. He didn't care what his partner thought. Those babies were going back to the base in America, if it killed him to do it. They were not staying with the Lin Kuei only to be automated when they were adults, and especially not Tomas' son, Alexander. Kuai Liang felt a strange kinship towards the infant, almost as if he were a long lost uncle or even a father by proxy since the baby's real father was currently unfit to raise him. He vaguely wondered how Anya would feel about it if he just showed up on her doorstep with a kid that didn't even belong to him and said he was keeping him because that's what Tomas would have wanted him to do. But he was getting ahead of himself, he quickly realized. Kabal had been right in that they had to get out alive first.

Sub-Zero led the way up the wooden staircase, stepping carefully to avoid the creaky spots, thankful that Kabal had the sense to follow his movements. The long flight spilled into the kitchens where a handful of slaves worked to prepare food. The number of cooks had been reduced significantly, perhaps by as much as two-thirds, undoubtedly because there weren't as many mouths around the Lin Kuei to feed now that the majority of the assassins were cyborgs. The Cryomancer crouched in the shadows with his eyes fixed on a dark corner near the hearth, and he waited until the women nearby left their station to retrieve ingredients from the pantry before he darted to it quickly. Kabal immediately joined him.

Now Sub-Zero's eyes focused on the stone archway on the opposite side of the room, the exit that led to the dining hall. A short, plump woman rolled out dough on a wooden tabletop that blocked their path. He looked at Kabal, pointed to his own eyes, and then pointed towards the large space beneath the table that was also shrouded in shadow. His partner nodded his understanding, and the two waited in the darkness for another opportunity to run for it. When all the slave women were sufficiently distracted, they ran towards the space and crouched low inside it.

Now was the tricky part. Concealed by the table, Sub-Zero couldn't tell what the slave women in the kitchen looked at, and could only approximate where their line of sight was focused based on the direction their feet faced. He inhaled deeply, but silently. His heart pounded in his chest. If any of the women saw him or Kabal, they'd undoubtedly scream and that would be the end of that. The Cryomancer didn't know what Grandmaster Oniro would do to Kabal, but he'd definitely turn him into a glorified toy without a soul, and he'd do so without batting an eyelash. As if reading his thoughts, Kabal suddenly punched him in the shoulder. Sub-Zero looked back at him with a scowl, and saw him gesture at the Cryomancer's hands for a moment before he finally gripped one with his own gloved fingers. He immediately discerned that his partner wanted him to use his powers to create a diversion.

It was worth a shot. Silently, he summoned his powers to an outstretched palm and commanded the surrounding air to tighten. Kabal watched in awe as the swirling mist condensed on itself with a faint blue glow until at last, a small clear ball of ice formed in his hand. The Cryomancer wrapped his fingers around the golf-ball sized orb, glanced around for a good place to throw it, and at last settled on a spot towards the rear of the kitchens. He calmly inhaled before he aimed at the pantry, and then released the piece of hail. In microseconds, it smashed into the rear wall and immediately got the slaves' attention. As they went to investigate, he and Kabal crept quickly from their spot and rushed out the exit.

In the dining hall, he didn't have time to breathe a sigh of relief before he spotted Oniro sitting at his personal table to the left. Before Sub-Zero and Kabal were seen, the former hastily thrust his partner beneath a vacant table and watched from behind a bench as the Grandmaster hungrily devoured the food on the plates before him. Kuai Liang couldn't help but bitterly notice how in spite of Oniro's insistence that automation made a warrior stronger, he was still completely human. Do as I say, not as I do, he thought to himself, noting that his former leader was the only other soul besides them in the room.