FicWad

CHAPTER FOUR: ARRIVAL


The Chosen were grim as they left the boat and made their way to the main hall. Serenity kept her eyes ahead, trying not to stare at the mutated warriors that were acting as guards for Shao Khan. She could feel Tranquility walking along side of her doing likewise, his hands loosely clenched into fists, ready for an ambush.

Rayden looked over his shoulder at Earth's Chosen and smiled slightly as they entered the main hall, "Eat while you can. Knowing Shao Khan, he'll have some sort of demonstration for us soon."

"It fits with his personality." Tranquility agreed.

The Chosen sat down at the long tables, most grabbing dinner plates or bowls, filling them with all sorts of foods and soups. Surprisingly, the cyber picked up two large apples; a blade sprung from Clarimond's forearm and the cyber idly peeled both fruits and sliced them into sections. Unaware that Clarimond had an audience, it lifted the chin piece of its helmet, up to where a human's mouth would be located, and slid a sliver of apple through the slight opening. There was the sound of grinding crunches as the cyber chewed the fruit and then there was a sound similar to a human swallowing. The cyber unexpectedly turned its head towards them, as though suddenly aware it had an audience.

"You can eat?" Sub-Zero asked in amazement.

"Affirmative," the cyber replied before returning to its fruit.

Sub-Zero was about to ask more questions when Sabra kicked him sharply in the shin. He glared at the daughter of Scorpion, who scowled back at him fiercely, her crimson eyes smoldering with repressed power.

"Settle down you two." Tranquility stated. "Eat while you can."

The Chosen settled down, reluctantly eating their meal. Halfway through the meal, the cyber suddenly lifted it's head and stared at one of the large doorways.

"Unknown entity detected." Clarimond stated. "Scanning..."

"Holy shit..." Stryker breathed.

There, in the doorway, stood a massive being, neither Shokan, nor Centaur, both species that the Chosen were familiar with. This being was a towering creature with the upper body of a heavily muscular man which smoothly tapered down into a serpentine lower body. Dark forest green scales shimmered as the creature shifted his weight and folded his arms over his chest, showing the large spur/spikes that ran down his forearms and out the elbows. His face was similar to Reptile's true Saurian features, with his scaly visage and sharp features. He had short, spiky blackish-green hair, golden-green eyes, and large, long -- and very sharp -- teeth peeked out from beneath his scaly lips. The creature's bulk was so great only sharp thin rays of light managed to make their way through the doorway.

"Species is unknown." Clarimond reported in its monotone.

"Nagian." Serenity hissed, one hand resting on the hilt of her silver scimitar; behind her she could hear the familiar rattle of her twin drawing his blade.

"K'so." Rayden swore while Magnus paled.

The Outworld mutants who served as Guards began overturning tables, and the combatants each leapt backwards, cursing the Guardsmen. Several of the Guard lined up, and the creature slithered downed the long stairs. One brave -- or really, really stupid -- Guard stood ready to battle the creature. He slithered up to the guard and stared down at the six and a half foot tall Guard from a lofty near nine feet of height. The creature grinned, and in that grin they saw pure malevolence and depravity.

He struck with blinding speed; his tail slammed into the guard, sending the mutant flying across the dining room. The mutant guard slammed into a far wall and lifelessly slid down the wall to the floor, leaving behind a trail of dark green blood. Stirring slightly, much to the astonishment of the spectators, the guard gave a pathetic, pain-filled groan. Coiling his serpentine lower body, the creature sprang forward as though on a spring and landed heavily before the fallen mutant. His tail lashed out and wrapped around the nearly lifeless guard's body, hefting the mutant into the air. The creature's tail tightened around the guard and the mutant's bones popped and broke audibly.

Serenity's face tightened as she bellowed in an authoritive voice, "Release him! NOW!"

The creature turned his head to see who dared order him. His eyes widened as he saw the delicate looking young woman step forward, her silvery-blue eyes narrowed and her shoulders straight and thrown back with pride. Behind her stood a young man who bore the young woman a striking resemblance, a silvery-gray cybernetic warrior, and the man in the uniformof a San Francisco Police Officer. Directly behind them stood a towering ninja in black and dark yellow, whose gold eyes were narrowed and boring directly into his. The creature tightened his grip and the guard gurgled helplessly.

Stryker drew his handgun and leveled the weapon at the creature. "Set him down, nice and easy!!"

The creature turned his gaze to the police officer and smiled maliciously. With a flick of his tail, the sound of the guard's back breaking and his weak cry of pain echoed throughout the dining hall.

"You deformed sack of shit!!" Stryker roared in anger as he released his weapon's safety.

The creature's visage showed his rage; he most certainly did not appreciate Stryker's opinion. Before the policeman could squeeze off a round, Clarimond tackled the police officer out of the path of the near lifelessly body of the mutant guard. Behind the guard's body was the tip of the creature's tail; the tail tip went through the heavy wooden table in a manner akin to a hot blade through butter. With a slight jerk he yanked his tail from the table, revealing the wicked looking barb on the tail tip. Clarimond, once again, had saved the life of Kurtis Stryker.

"Enough." Rumbled the voice of Shao Khan. "You have proven your power and skill Nig'ia."

The creature, Nig'ia glared at the Chosen Ones spitefully and hissed out in a deep, raspy voice, "You will all die in thissss tournament, and the Emperor shall claim the souls of all of Earth Realm assss well assss your own, mortalsss!"

"We've heard that threat before." Johnny Cage said, shaking his head. The actor then smirked, "I haven't heard a lisp that bad since Reptile. You two really should go to a speech therapist!"

Sub-Zero barely contained a snort of laughter, while Serenity chuckled regally.

"Retire to your rooms, my Chosen Ones; you will need your rest for later." Rayden counseled his Chosen.

The others nodded in agreement and they each slowly drifted off, the guards leading them to their assigned rooms. Serenity stopped by the body of the fallen guard and kneeled gracefully, placing a hand on his chest. She chanted softly in ancient Lunarian and a soft silvery glow enveloped the hime and the guard. When the light vanished, the guard was completely healed and his mutations had vanished, leaving behind a somewhat handsome Human male. Serenity elegantly rose to her feet and turned to the astonished guard that had been assigned to her.

"I am ready to go to my room now." She said gently. Her guard nodded jerkily and stumbled slightly as he lead the hime to her room.

"You saved my life again, Clarimond. Thank you." Stryker said to the cyber as they walked along side their guards to their assigned quarters.

"You are welcome, Sergeant Stryker." The cyber responded in its monotone before following its guard down a different hallway.

'How strange for the machine that protects us to be so...Human.' Stryker silently mused as his guard led him to his room.

A stealthy shadow followed the Chosen with silent footsteps...



Serenity yawned as she stretched on the hard bunk of her small room. Sleeping with his back to her on the bunk across from her was Tranquility. She sat up and rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes. It was amazing how much rest one could get if they weren't fighting Youma at three in the morning.

The tsuki-hime swung her legs off the bed and stood, all the while stretching. She pulled a thick black terry-cloth robe out of her sub-space and pulled it on. Yawning, she pushed the long braid she put her hair in before she went to sleep over her shoulder as she exited her room quietly so she wouldn't awaken her twin. Padding down the hallway quietly, she kept on guard for any hidden threats before entering the bathroom that the Chosen on this hall shared and looked around.

No one was present.

Smiling, she removed her robe, hanging it on a peg. She turned on the shower, eager to get a hot shower in before the bathroom rush and before the tournament. With her face in the water spray, the sound of the shower's roar drowned out all sound; even the sound of the door silently opening...



The shadow had come to take its own shower before the other Chosen Ones awakened and its eyes went wide as it caught sight of Serenity. Mentally cursing, the shadow closed the door softly and stalked down several corridors, finding a nice wall to bash its head in repeatedly and promptly doing so, cursing at itself in a multitude of languages, several of them long dead...



Serenity took care in rinsing her hair, hoping to not leave any shampoo/conditioner behind in her long silver locks. She frowned slightly as she thought of the sudden chill she had experienced while she showered. It was though she was in the very presence of Death itself...



The Chosen gathered once more in the dining hall for their breakfast. Clarimond once more surprised them by grabbing a small dinner plate and piling different types of foods on the plate, mostly carbohydrates. Once more the chin piece went up and thin slivers of food went through that slight opening and there were the slight sounds of chewing and swallowing.

"It is recommended that you ingest your food requirements for this morning so that you will have your strength for the imminent battles." Clarimond suggested in its monotone.

The others seemed to agree with the cyber's advice as they began to chow down on their breakfasts...