Johnny Cage's Nightmare

*For the sake of this fanfic, I'm ignoring the retcons made in DA about Cage's death and resurrection and ignoring Deception's entire storyline*

My name is Johnny Cage. After me and my buddies kicked the Deadly Alliance's ass (even though we never found Quan Chi, we were okay knowing that Shang was dead and that the army wasn't a threat thanks to all the transplanted souls leaving the mummies), we all headed back to Earthrealm. Life was sweet man! I managed to get out of a movie I didn't want to do, and I was set on making my own, showing off how I kicked Shang Tsung's butt (I was going to give Kung credit, but I figured he'd never watch the movie anyway).

I spent a few weeks writing the script, hiding away from everyone, ignoring the media, and just writing and planning my biggest production since Raiden brought me back to life those few years ago... When I thought it was gold, I called the best in the business to help me make my movie. I wanted to go to Japan to recruit some of the best martial artists that I knew and see if they wanted to be in my film. I even called up my ol' pal Mokap to see if he was interested in showing his stuff! He sounded psyched until I said we'd film on location in Japan. I don't know what got into him; he just started saying, ``No way Johnny, we can't go there!'' and I just hung up on him. I was a busy man, I got his answer, and I needed to move on and get to Japan.

I didn't want to go through the hassle of buying tickets and going through customs, so I flew my own private plane, and decided to scout for areas in Japan and visit the martial artists personally. The plane started having engine problems, so I had to land in the parking lot of a mall. Finding space wasn't a problem; the entire lot had no cars in it... It was a Sunday afternoon and the entire place was frigging empty!

I looked around the lot to see if anybody was there, but I couldn't find anyone... There was blood on the ground, garbage flying in the wind, cars turned-over, and even a few tanks wrecked on the streets. I started thinking that going to Japan wasn't a good idea and headed back to the plane, but as soon as I turned around, I saw what looked like a missile blow up my beautiful, expensive plane!

It wasn't long before a missile came at me; I jumped out of the way in time and saw what was shooting at me. He (or it, I don't know what to say) looked kind of like Smoke, only red instead of purple... I remember Sub-Zero talking about a red robot that wanted to kill him, and I guessed that this was the guy. I didn't know what the heck his problem was, but I didn't care; he blew up my plane, and I was going to turn him into scrap metal!

I started charging at him, getting my Shadow Kick ready to send him all the way to Shanghai, when I was blasted from the side. The bot didn't even twitch, so I couldn't figure out who blasted me, until I saw another red robot! I couldn't care less how many of these guys there were, I fought them both hand-to-hand, and was practically kicking their asses, until guess what? I was knocked from underneath my legs by a third red robot.

That was the last straw; I was getting steamed and wanted to beat these guys as fast as possible. I fought at all three of them, but they started teleporting all over the place... They kept coming at me from every side, and there was nothing I could do about it... It was almost as bad as when I was fighting those centaur-freaks of Shao Kahn a few years ago... I wasn't going to die again! Not at the hands of these giant tin-cans!

I kept on fighting until I took a bad hit in the back... The memories coming back of when that centaur cut my spine... I collapsed onto the ground... I couldn't move again! It was happening all over again! I could swear that I saw those monsters looking down at me, aiming their weapons... I was crying and screaming.

I was paralysed again and the robots surrounded me. Tears streamed down my face as I saw one of them open his hand and start charging some kind of laser at me, but the other two stopped him. One said they needed me alive, but the bot with his hand open said that I was useless if I couldn't move, but the third said that they didn't need my body... Just my brain. I saw one coming closer to me, and that's when I blacked out...

I woke up and felt so cold... At least I thought I should've been cold, because I couldn't feel anything. I thought that I was still paralysed, but I realised that I could move my head, even though I couldn't feel it... I looked around and saw that even more red robots than before surrounded me. These ones looked different though, had a different kind of armour and shape. They all stood aside as this giant, scary-as hell, red robot stared at me and started playing with my chest. I tried to look at what he was doing, but the robots held my head down.

The big robot backed up and I noticed that I was getting up. I couldn't control my movements though... I wanted to kick his ass for kidnapping me, but I couldn't even flinch. He called me the perfect unit... The perfect bodyguard... I couldn't even control myself as I bowed down to him. This was when I saw my legs... They were red... They were metal... In my mind, I began to cry... I realised that what happened to me with the Extermination Squads was nothing compared to this; I was a machine. I was the latest creation of the Tekunin.

Author : Jerrod Therace

Creation date: 2005-6-5-11-37

Modification date: 2005-6-5-11-37