The signs of air pollution in the Wastelands slowly started to fade away as we approached civilization. The gray smoke shrouding the sky had faded, as well as its horrible stench, and the purple and orange sky of Outworld returned to its normal state. Luckily, we did not run into any Tarkata on their native soil.

Suddenly, we ended up in a strange place.

"Hmm...This place looks almost exactly like Fort Hood...or does it look like Fort Sam Houston? Or Fort Leavonworth?", Jax thought aloud.

"Well, it does look like a military base," Cage replied. "It looks almost exactly like the military base in one of my movies. In fact, that was the only military movie I was ever in..."

"Well, since we're on military property," I pointed out, "I think Smoke and I should do a bit of recon."

"OH HELL NO! YOU LEAVE THE GOD DAMN RECON TO ME!"

"Sorry Jax, but Smoke and I have expertise in reconnaisance."

"Well so do I!"

"How many years, soldier?"

"Ten years!"

"Smoke and I have done recon our whole lives!"

"Settle down, guys! What if you were to wake Shao Kahn's soldiers, and they saw us here?"

"Not my problem! I'd just whoop their asses, just like that!"

"You're getting cocky, Jax. Now cool it," I said.

"Now, if you'll excuse us...we've got some recon to do."

Smoke and I lept to the top of one of the buildings. I froze the roof, and Smoke stepped on the ice patch I created. He shrouded himself in a cloud of smoke, and the ice patch started melting, creating a hole in the roof. When the smoke cloud cleared, I went down that hole I created. We found ourselves in what appeared to be a place to store weapons. We saw everything from spears, to axes, to maces, to swords...you name it. If it was a weapon, it was stored in here. There also appeared to be a river of flowing lava. It appeared to me that they didn't just store weapons here. They made them here, too.

All of a sudden, I saw Smoke get knocked out, and within seconds, I got hit from behind, as well.

The last thing that we saw were the faces of what appeared to be Outworld soldiers with skull helmets before everything went blank.

When I awoke, I found myself chained to the wall, along with Smoke, Jax, and Johnny Cage.

"You guys got ambushed, too?", I asked Cage and Jax.

"Hell yeah! After you guys failed that recon!"

"Smoke and I are almost like trained ninjas! We can do recon in stealth. But how the hell Kahn's soldiers discovered us, I don't know. Fortunately, we are alive to report what we found."

"Spill it, sucka!"

"That base we were in...they actually made weapons there...apparently, for the purpose of Shao Kahn's army...and just by looking at them, I could tell they were top-quality."

"And I also happened to find a few vials of poison stocked away, most of them empty. My best guess is that these weapons are laced with poison, that way if the weapon, itself doesn't kill you...the poison it's laced with will," Smoke pointed out. Now that's a detail I did not see. I was just shocked.

"Dirty sons of bitches! You could get prosecuted for War Crimes if you pulled that off on our realm!"

I looked around our cell. "What happened to Liu Kang and Kung Lao? And where's Raiden?"

"Long story short," Cage replied, "Liu and Kung got distracted by Tarkata, when we were ambushed by Shao Kahn's soldiers. And apparently, Shang Tsung kept Raiden busy."

"I had a feeling that rat-sucking son of a bitch sorcerer had something to do with this! I swear, when I see him, my face will be the final face he ever sees!" I was seething with anger. His tournament cost my brother his life.

It was then that I heard footsteps. It sounded like the footsteps of more than just one person. More like three people.

Within moments, standing in front of my cell were three women, dressed like ninjas.

All three of them wore what looked like bathing suits, cleavage showing, with a black waistline, and black collars, complete with long gloves and long boots going up to mid-thigh, as well as headbands and cloth over their mouths. One of them was dark-skinned, and the other were very light complected. The dark-skinned one wore green, while the other two wore blue and purple. The ones wearing blue and green had some sort of string in the area where their cleavages showed, while the one in purple seemed to show her cleavage and her upper belly. All three of them had long, black hair.

They also carried different weapons. The one in green carried a metal staff. The one in blue carried two steel fans. The one in purple carried two sais. I took note of what Smoke told me about weapons being laced with poison...

"So, we have a couple of snoops here!", the one in purple spoke. Her voice was like nails on the chalkboard. Very, very raspy! "Let's see how they like torture...a very pleasant sight to see you beg for mercy on your knees..."

"Mileena!", the one in blue spoke. "You KNOW we have orders to bring them before the Emperor unharmed! They are competing in his tournament, you know!" Mileena...so that's the name of the one in purple. Unlike Mileena, though, the one in blue had a much sweeter voice, even though it sounded almost identical to Mileena's.

"Kitana, you never let me have any fun with the prisoners!", Mileena spat...so Kitana's the one in blue. Who's the one in green?

"Why don't you two just shut up?!" They both looked to the green-clad female.

"Will you look at that? Jade can't take a little argument!" So that's her name...Jade.

Suddenly, we saw Raiden stand behind the three assassins. They sure did look like assassins. Mileena turned behind her.

"And just who the fuck are YOU?!", she spat in her raspy voice.

"Your superior!"

"I bow only to Shao Kahn!", Mileena spat back.

"ALL in this realm bow to me, including your beloved Emperor, whether they like it or not! All, that is, including a disrespectful bitch like you!"

"A disrespectful WHAT?!" Mileena was furious. She charged at Raiden with her sais. It's your funeral, bitch, I thought.

Suddenly, Mileena was pushed back by a bolt of lightning, and was slammed against the bars of my cell. She growled in anger.

"Dare to continue, Mileena?", Raiden challenged. His eyes suddenly shifted to Kitana. A very strong look in his eyes, indeed.

"Your destiny awaits you. I must warn you that you will not have an easy time accepting it," Raiden told her. His eyes shifted to Jade.

"The same applies to you too, Jade." I had no idea what Raiden was talking about.

"Sir...we don't even know you...and what do you mean by this?", a confused Kitana asked.

"Trust my judgement, Kitana," Raiden said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "In due time, you shall see."

With that, Raiden slowly evaporated in a flash of lightning. Kitana, Mileena, and Jade then left, and were replaced by about eight of Shao Kahn's soldiers, who unlocked us from our cell, then cuffed us, and escorted us out of our cells. This doesn't look good, I thought. We'll probably be executed.