Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (2 page)

That was his final thought before Motaro closed in and elbow-smashed him to the ground. Quickly recovering, Johnny handspringed up and went at Motaro with a shadow kick, but Motaro blocked it with a slablike arm and sent him reeling, his senses going into a dizzying tailspin.

Snorting hot gusts of air out his nostrils, hooves beating the cracked and dusty ground, Motaro charged at him.

Liu glanced to the left, glanced to the right, saw three or four Outworlders rushing him from either side, and decided not to try bucking the odds. He launched himself into the air, flipped, flipped again, and came down easily on his knees and elbows several feet away from them.

Unfortunately there was precious little time for a breather. An inhuman shadow had fallen over him the instant he landed, eclipsing any relief he felt with sudden dread.

He craned his beck up, up, up the long length of Sheeva’s body to a hideous face that promised only pain.

Springing to his feet, Liu took the offensive, trying to land a rapid series of kicks, knowing he’d be torn apart in seconds if he allowed himself to get too close to her.

Sheeva’s four arms became a blur of motion, repelling his attack. Liu’s first kick, a roundhouse to the face, was blocked by an upper arm. A reverse kick to her stomach was blocked by a lower arm. His next try at connecting, a jump snap kick, was blocked by
three
of her arms – and then a fourth arm darted out and he felt a hand lock around his ankle.

With a laugh like the grating of broken glass, Sheeva effortlessly flung him into the air.

Then, still rattling out laughter, she waited for him to fall back into her multilimbed grasp.

Waited to finish him off.

Kitana had seen Ermac coming in time to dodge his leaping kick, but he had twisted his nimble body in midair and fallen upon her like a spider descending from a web strand, entangling her in his arms and legs, defying all her efforts to break free.

The struggle went on and on with neither gaining the advantage for more than an eyeblink – but Kitana could feel herself beginning to tire. Ermac seemed able to anticipate her every move, slipping them without difficulty, countering with fluid moves of his own, virtually coiling himself around her. Even her jujitsu proved ineffective against his incredible fighting skills as he turned her holds and attempted take-downs back at her, finally throwing her to the ground, bringing up his right hand for a lethal strike...

“Enough!”

The word echoed over the ravaged battlefield, stopping the combatants in their tracks. Tense, expectant, their attention caught by the sound of the forceful voice, all of them turned their eyes toward its source.

Toward Rayden.

His own gaze, however, remained fixed on Shao Kahn.

“Only we can win or lose this battle, Kahn! We both know that. But do you have the courage?” Rayden said. While his confidence in the heroic band of mortals remained undiminished, there was too much risk in letting the combat go on under conditions set by the enemy.

Far too much, considering what he believed was at stake.

Kahn scowled, his expression contemptuous... but underneath that mask of scorn and arrogance, Rayden could see his clever challenge working on the sorcerer, hooking into his imperious pride.

He kept staring at Kahn, eyes unblinking.

Finally Shao Kahn raised his hands over his head, taking the bait, signaling his generals and warriors to back away from their opponents.

Slowly, hesitantly, they obeyed.

Silence hung over the tableau like some immense weight that was about to come crashing heavily downward.

And then Kahn struck at Rayden, rushing in with a shoulder charge, staggering him back into a polished marble column that had once supported the Temple of Light. The pillar broke apart from the collision, jagged chunks of it hurtling in every direction.

Seeing Rayden stunned, Kahn thrust out his hand, his extended fingertips glowing with a blue-white light that throbbed and brightened and was released as a pulsing corpuscle of energy. It went shooting out toward Rayden, sizzling the air into its molecular components and raising the acrid stench of ozone.

Rayden avoided it at the last possible instant, performing a double-somersault that brought him out of harm’s way just as the photon projectile struck a section of the temple wall, blasting it into stony debris. His feet still off the ground, Rayden untucked and struck Kahn with a two-fisted flying punch that knocked him to his knees.

Groaning in pain, Kahn fired off plasma blasts in wild, scattershot volleys, demolishing entire buildings, turning the few trees that had survived the violent environmental upheavals into scorched, smoking tinder.

Rayden pressed his attack, catapulting himself toward his opponent through streams of deadly energy pulses, assailing him with a barrage of shock-punches and gravitiless quadruple flip-kicks.

“Awesome,” Liu muttered, watching from the sidelines.

Johnny heard him and managed a wan smile.

“The shoes,” he said. “It’s gotta be the shoes.”

Overwhelmed by Rayden’s ferocious onslaught, Kahn was clawing across the broken ground, scrambling to escape defeat. In a move of desperation, he snatched the ship from the hand of a sprawled Outworld warrior and lashed out at Sonya, lassoing her around the legs, yanking her violently away from her friends.

“This ends now!” he shouted, and slowly rose to his feet.

Rayden halted. “You hide behind a human?”

“Why not, ‘Lord’ Rayden?” Kahn mocked. “You have hidden your entire, pathetic life behind them!”

Johnny could not simply stand by and watch. He circled behind Kahn and leaped through the air, using a shadow kick to attack him, trying to free Sonya from his clutches.

“
No, Johnny!
” she screamed.

Too late.

Moving with preternatural speed, Kahn released his foothold on Sonya, turned toward Johnny, and pummeled him with a whirlwind of savage blows. No match for the ancient sorcerer, Johnny fought back as best he could, but was overcome in seconds. Battered senseless, he stood for a moment before his legs gave out and then collapsed in an unconscious heap.

Laughing, Kahn hoisted Johnny’s pummeled body above his head and held it there like a trophy – one he would be all-too-willing to smash into a thousand unrecognizable pieces.

“Surrender, Rayden, or this one dies!” Kahn roared, shaking Johnny’s limp body in the air.

Standing with Liu and Kitana, Rayden held up a hand. Arcane energy crackled from his palm.

“Then I will take your generals,” he said. “Earth does not bend to the will of tyrants.”

He pointed at Motaro, Sheeva, Sindel, and Baraka and a crackling bolt of current leaped from his fingertip, then sketched a circle in the air around them.

Kahn and Rayden exchanged defiant stares. Sonya breathlessly watched their contest of wills, her fists clenched at her sides.

“You would never let one of your precious humans die,” Kahn said.

“Trade me for Johnny Cage,” Rayden challenged.

Kahn lowered Johnny a little as if he were considering the offer.

“Come to me and kneel, Rayden,” he said. “Throw yourself at my mercy!”

Rayden’s eyes grazed those of Liu, Sonya, and Kitana.

“I have no choice,” he said, answering their unspoken appeals.

He released his mystic hold on the generals, the blue-white ring of energy around them vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared.

“You fool!” Kahn said, and with a hateful scream flung Johnny downward.

Johnny bounced off the ground, striking it hard enough to leave an impression in the dry, dusty soil. Then he rolled onto his back and lay very still, a low groan of pain escaping his lips, his limbs twisted at impossible angles.

“
Johnny!
” Sonya cried out.

She rushed over to him, her combat-trained eyes recognizing that he was gravely wounded even before she reached his side. As she knelt to lift his head off the ground, Kahn’s scornful laughter filled with a hatred that was almost sickening in its intensity.

Shocked, Rayden started toward them, but had barely taken his first step when Kahn released an energy blast that knocked him backward through the air.

“Johnny,” Sonya said, crouching over his limp, battered form. She smoothed a snarl of hair from his forehead, realized it was soaked with blood, and found herself looking at him through a blur of tears. “Johnny, I just want you to know... I mean, what you did...”

“I know,” Johnny said in a choked voice. He groped for her hand, found it, held it tightly. “Me... too...”

He struggled for air, the sound of his labored breaths piercing Sonya’s heart with inexpressible grief. She felt his grip loosen and knew he was fading.

And then, all at once, Kahn was looming over them.

“His soul is mine,” he said, and reached down with long, tapering fingers.

“
No!
” Sonya screamed, raising her arms defensively.

But it was no use. In her grief and horror, she was unprepared for what came next. Kahn swung his booted foot savagely into her ribs, knocking her onto her side, and then slowly closed his hand above Johnny’s body. Seized with convulsions, Johnny arched off the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head, the veins in his temples bulging, his arms and legs twitching spasmodically.

Something went out of him, then. Vaporous, intangible, it fled his lips like vapor, trembled in the air, and after a brief moment was drawn into Kahn’s fist, where it flittered between his bony knuckles like a trapped moth.

“Let this be a warning!” Kahn said. “All those stupid enough to be a ‘hero’ shall bow to me!”

He raised his clenched fist to his mouth and inhaled deeply, savoring the breath as if it carried the scent of some heady perfume.

Watching with stunned eyes, Sonya knew instinctively what was happening.

Knew he was consuming Johnny’s soul.

Imbued with impossible strength, that look of obscene relish still on his face, Kahn flipped back up onto the outcropping.

“It has begun!” he said, and leaped into the Portal a split-second before it irised shut.

The sound of his disembodied laughter lingered behind him like a curse, growing louder until the ground shook from its rumbling vibrations. Slowly, a grotesque stone gargoyle from Outworld ruptured the earth’s crust underneath Johnny, thrusting upward, raising him in its massive arms, forcing Sonya and the others to step back.

“Do we just stand here and take this?” Liu said, struggling to keep his balance.

Rayden looked around at his young champions. The Extermination Squad had remained on their side of the Portal, and was advancing in a deadly semicircle.

“This is not a fight we can win. They outnumber us by a dozen to one,” he said. “We must go.”

He pointed toward a nearby cave and they ran for it, chased by the Outworld warriors.

Rayden lead the small band of heroes through the mouth of the cave, urging them forward as the Extermination Squad drew nearer.

“All of you move back!” he shouted, and waved them into the darkness beyond the opening. “Hurry!”

They ran for the shadows, then turned back toward Rayden, expecting to see him confront the Outworlders. Instead, he loosed a powerful energy beam at the ceiling of the cave, bringing down a mound of boulders that blocked the entrance, leaving their pursuers outside... and leaving
them
in utter blackness.

“We are safe,” the immortal said, standing in the cloud of dust raised by his miniature avalanche. “For now.”

He noticed the dried remains of a tree limb at his feet, snatched it up, and sent a charge of current into it from his fingertips, causing it to catch fire.

His companions looked frightened and tense in the glow of the makeshift torch.

“I don’t know if I call being trapped in a cave ‘safe’,” Liu said.

Rayden’s eyes moved across their faces.

“Kahn has opened the Portal,” he said. “Your planet and Outworld have begun to merge into one realm.”

Kitana was shaking her head as if to banish an unwanted thought. “My mother... resurrected... is it possible?”

“If I am correct, your mother Sindel is the key to all this,” Rayden said. “And as the two realms merge, I will lose my powers here on Earth. Each of
you
must therefore grow stronger. Together we are the hope.”

“Together we couldn’t even save Johnny,” Sonya said bitterly.

Ignoring her comment, Rayden turned, extended his free hand, and sent a dazzling energy bolt into the tarry darkness. Chunks of the cave wall fell away in another controlled rock slide, revealing a narrow passageway up ahead. Its bare stones gave off a greenish light of their own.

“Follow me,” Rayden said.

And raising his torch, strode toward the eerie glow.

“What is this place?” Liu asked.

“During the ice age, your ancestors fled below ground,” Rayden said. “As you will see, the great wonders of your planet are not all on the surface.”

Sonya and Liu let their eyes roam the cavern. Its vaulting roof was hidden in layers of shadow, and though they couldn’t begin to guess its full dimensions, neither had any doubt about its immensity.

“You will find these caverns wherever you travel on Earth,” Rayden said with a sweeping gesture. “Any cave above ground will lead to one.”

“So?” Sonya asked, trying hard to sound unimpressed.

Liu, meanwhile, had been quietly considering Rayden’s words.

“Are we splitting up?” he said after a pause.

“We have no choice,” Rayden said. “There is too much to do and very little time.”

“What happened to your ‘all for one, one for all’ pitch?” Sonya said harshly.

“This can’t be!” Liu said at the same time. “We won the tournament. The rules say the Earth is safe for another generation–”

“Kahn has obviously cheated and broken the rules.”

“How could the Elder Gods possibly
allow
this?” Kitana said.

“I do not know,” Rayden said. “But Kahn must be stopped or your world will perish. We have only six days until annihilation.”