Out of the entire Lin Kuei, I'd have to say the most close-knit group in the clan would be myself, Sektor, Cyrax, and Smoke. And in this clan, we all go way back.

I've known Cyrax the longest. After all, he is my "adopted brother." But my closest friend in this group is Smoke. But the four of us are a posse, either way. The four of us are like brothers.

Speaking of "brothers", now it's becoming clear to me why I miss my own brother. He and I never hung out very much. In fact, we'd always get into fights over trivial issues. But he is the one who trained the four of us. It's just sad that I wasn't as close to my older brother as I am with these three Lin Kuei.

This posse all started when the Lin Kuei inserted the four of us into their ancient rival clan, the Shirai Ryu, as spies. And by mere coincidence, when we "joined" the Shirai Ryu, they decided to insert us into the Lin Kuei as spies. Of course, the Shirai Ryu didn't know that we're really spies working AGAINST them. So we decided that we'd give the Shirai Ryu false intelligence about the Lin Kuei, while giving the Lin Kuei true intelligence about the Shirai Ryu. This, of course, led to ambushes by the Lin Kuei, and eventually, the downfall of the Shirai Ryu. However, according to my brother's journal, the four of us had nothing to do with the sudden collapse of the Shirai Ryu. His journal states that it was someone else; some sorcerer named Quan Chi.

Two years ago is when our stints as "double agents" ended, as the Shirai Ryu was no more. We remained active Lin Kuei members, but there were no missions lined up for us. There was really nothing to do except training, maintenance, sparing, and when there's REALLY nothing to do, just sit there and act like a bunch of dumbasses.

And now, Smoke and I were on our first assassination mission. I felt kinda nervous, because espionage was my specialty, not killing someone. But Shang Tsung had to go, and if necessary, Shao Kahn, too.

Suddenly, we saw a huge sphere of white energy. "There's the portal! Smoke, Sub-Zero, get ready to jump!"

On Cyrax's cue, I opened the side door. I was the first to jump out. The force of the portal sucked me in like a whirlpool. My muscles tensed up almost immediately. Smoke immediately followed.

I felt no weight on my body as Smoke and I flew into the swirling vortex. The center of it looked like a black hole sucking us into oblivion. Suddenly, the black hole started to fill with electricity, which got closer and closer to us. And suddenly, we were zapped by the bolt, and within seconds, I hit the ground hard. Smoke was nowhere to be found afterwards, though. I presume the portal took him somewhere else.

I looked around. These surroundings were foreign to me. The same reddish orange vortex we saw while passing through the portal was in the sky, and so was that same black hole with sparks of lightning flashing in the center.

"Welcome to Outworld!", shouted an voice coming out of nowhere.

I looked around, but found no one in my sight.

I have a bad feeling about this place, I said to myself.

Suddenly, a man cloaked in dark purple robes appeared out of nowhere. His face was hidden by the hood that covered it. He was floating in the air.

Then suddenly, more similarly-dressed men appeared behind him. "Enjoy your stay in our realm...of course, that stay will be eternal," one of them spoke. Their voices were eerie. My skin was crawling at this point...I had a bad feeling about these people. They just gave me the creeps.

Then, out of nowhere, a man showed up. He had black shoulder-length hair, wore a red headband, black leather wristbands with small spikes on them, and a black pair of pants with a red trim on the sides, with a red waistline. I don't know who he was, but he looked at me suspiciously.

"Sub-Zero? No, you can't be alive! I saw you die at the hands of Scorpion."

"Yes, I am Sub-Zero," I started. "But not the same one you saw before. I am his younger brother. And who might you be?"

"Your brother only cared about assassinating Shang Tsung for the money! I suppose you're in Outworld to finish his job. We'll see if you're anything like your brother!" He put his hands in front of him, ready for a fight. "Oh, and by the way, I am Liu Kang, the reigning Champion of Mortal Kombat!"

"You do realize that we do not have time for this, and I have no intention of fighting you, but since you insist on fighting, then I have no choice!" I put my hands in front of me, as well. "We'll see if you truly fight like a Champion!"

Liu hit the first blow on me with a kick to the ribs. He followed up with a fist to the face, followed by an elbow to the gut, which doubled me over. I was expecting him to hit me while I was down, but he waited for me to recover.

The next punch he threw, I blocked with my forearm, which I countered with a punch to his chest. He blocked my next blow. We exchanged and blocked each other's blows for what seemed like forever, but in reality was only about five minutes. He attempted an uppercut on me, but I quickly swayed it, pivoted my left foot, spun, and hit him in the face with a roundhouse kick with my right foot. He was pushed back a few feet, and lost his balance.

Like him, I waited until he recovered to attack. Like I said before, killing wasn't my specialty. Espionage was. Killing was more my brother's specialty, and so was theft.

Suddenly, his legs rose, and he balanced himself on his hands, and then sprung his feet on the ground, and all of a sudden, he put his hands together. He lifted his knee and pushed his hands forward. A fireball the shape of a dragon's head flew in my direction from Liu Kang's hands. Thinking quickly, I put my hands together, knelt down to one knee, and pushed my hands forward. The Ice Blast. A technique learned from my older brother. A breeze of ice shot from my hands, and went right underneath Kang's fireball.

That was my mistake. I aimed too low. Of course, I didn't have enough time to aim it correctly. Instead of colliding with each other, our projectiles hit each other. That fireball didn't physically burn my body, but the heat of it, as well as the force it was shot at, made it feel like it. The force of the fireball sent me sliding back and on the ground. Liu Kang, however, was frozen in place, but he was quickly thawing.

By the time I got up, he had already defrosted. I was caught off guard, and he nailed me with a flying kick. That attack was so quick and so much force was applied to it, that as soon as it hit me in the chest, it knocked the wind out of me. I was done for.

"FINISH HIM!", shouted the voices of those weird-looking guys in robes.

Liu held his hand out. I apparently needed help getting up. I extended my hand out, and Liu pulled me up.

Suddenly, one of those weird-looking guys put his hands together. A small flame appeared in his hand. And out of nowhere, blasts of fire were spewing from the ground below us.

"SHIT! WHO THE FUCK ARE THESE GUYS?!", I spat. I didn't like the situation I was in.

"The Shadow Priests. Shao Kahn's guild of sorcerers, led by none other than Shang Tsung."

Liu and I stood side-by-side, both of us ready to fight.

Placing one foot in front of me and bending my other knee and propelling myself forward, I slid to one of the Shadow Priests, and tried to nail him with an uppercut. However, my fist suddenly felt like it was hitting the air. I looked in front of me to find that the Shadow Priest had quickly vanished. He appeared before me again, giving an evil laugh that made my skin crawl. And in the blink of an eye, I was hit at point-blank range with a blast of black lightning. I stumbled back, only to be hit with a weird green aura by another Shadow Priest.

Liu Kang, however, seemed to have an easier job at fighting off these vile wizards. He threw everything from his fireballs, to that flying kick he gave me just moments ago, and even a weird looking flying kick where he rotates his legs like a bicycle. He fought off every single one of them, until there were only two left, and the only two left were the ones seriously kicking my ass. And they were about to finish me off right there. They both created a huge orb of hellfire that was sure to engulf me as soon as they fired it at me. And this spell was preventing me from using my "Kori", or rather, my ability to freeze objects. But Liu disrupted the spell by throwing a fireball at one of them. Suddenly, I felt the drain on my "Kori" vanish.

"Get ready to freeze on my cue!", Liu warned. The Shadow Priests were about to prepare another spell.

Putting my hands close to each other, I gathered my Kori before the vile sorcerers could disable it again. Liu did the same, gathering flaming energy into his hands.

"NOW!", he commanded. I threw the ball of ice I had created at the Shadow Priests, while Liu shot a fireball. Both Shadow Priests were frozen, and Liu's fireball shattered them into millions of pieces before I could even see their bodies being frozen solid.

All the Shadow Priests were defeated...or so it seemed. But my initial instinct was that reinforcements would arrive.

And boy, was my instinct right. More Shadow Priests came, including one of them wearing a black robe with a yellow trim around it.

"Welcome to Outworld, Sub-Zero! Like your brother before you, you are quite a superb warrior. You are also the last of Earthrealm's warriors chosen to compete in Shao Kahn's tournament to arrive in Outworld," spoke the one in the black robe.

"Since you're dressed differently than the others, I presume you are the soul-sucking leach, Shang Tsung!"

He removed his hood. He had a black fur cap with a gold dot in the middle, long black hair, braided back, and a long black goatee. His eyes had no pupils, but they sometimes flashed green. I could see the look of pure evil in his eyes.

"So Shao Kahn restored your youth, Sorcerer! You were a coward to run from your own tournament! By the rules of the Elder Gods, I am the true winner of the Tournament!", Liu spat. He must really hate Shang Tsung.

"Well, since the Champion of Mortal Kombat is here, I suppose it is time I issue my Right of Challenge! Shao Kahn has challenged your realm's warriors, yourself included, to compete in a Mortal Kombat tournament to be held on Outworld! Accept, or all of Earthrealm's warriors on this realm will die, and the Emperor shall enter your realm and merge it with Outworld!" The Shadow Priests just looked ready and willing to kill us all now.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning appeared from behind Shang Tsung. He quickly turned to see all the Shadow Priests behind him being struck by a growing stream of lightning. That stream just got longer and longer, and even started branching out. Most of the Shadow Priests were burnt to a crisp and blown into pieces. I swear, one of them had his head blown off. The amount of blood spurting out from his neck was about the same as the amount of waters humans normally drink in a day.

Eventually, the lightning stream would gather into one spot, and shape into the form of a body, and the lightning dimmed until I could fully see the person it had formed into.

"Raiden?!" Shang Tsung was shocked...figuratively though, unlike the rest of the Shadow Priests.

"SHANG TSUNG, YOU HAVE DEFIED THE SACRED RULES OF THE ELDER GODS! YOU HAD ISSUED YOUR RIGHT OF CHALLENGE BEFORE THE CHAMPION OF MORTAL KOMBAT, AND YOU AND YOUR SHADOW PRIESTS WERE JUST ABOUT READY TO PULL OFF A SPELL THAT COULD HAVE KILLED HIM REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT HE ACCEPTED! AND DON'T LIE TO ME, SORCERER! I CAN DETECT A SORCERY SPELL WITH JUST THE NERVES IN MY BODY ALONE!"

"My deepest apologies, Lord Raiden. I promise you, it will never happen again," Tsung pleaded.

"SEE TO IT THAT IT DOESN'T! NOW LEAVE MY SIGHT!"

"We will meet in the Tournament, Liu Kang. And this time, there will be a winner. It may not be you," the sorcerer said before he vanished.

Raiden approached the two of us. Liu Kang put his hands together against his chest and bowed his head. I did the same, though my skin was crawling at the sight of all that happened in those few moments I had been in Outworld, including Raiden's scolding of Shang Tsung.

"I can feel that you are intimidated by me. Don't be. I will not bite...not unless you try anything that threatens Earthrealm or any other realm, Sub-Zero."

How did he know I was intimidated by him? "Do you read minds or anything, Thunder God?", I asked.

"Not just minds...but souls, as well. Board this Dragonfly, as it will transport you to our camp with the rest of Earthrealm's warriors. It's the fastest method of transportation in this realm aside from sorcery."

It was a weird-looking thing. Basically, it was an airship shaped like a dragon. They have their own set destinations. Liu and I boarded the Dragonfly, and within seconds, it took off.