The famous movie star Johnny Cage sat alone in his barren New York penthouse.
An exotic alcoholic drink in hand, Cage stared at his reflection in the massive wall of windows that looked out over the city. He slouched further into his leather recliner, sinking deeper into thought.
Johnny thought about his comeback to the a-list in hollywood with his new movie "Freedom Fighter".
It felt utterly meaningless now that he'd seen a piece of the bigger picture...
and not just being a 'protector of Earthrealm' either.
He dug his cell phone out of his pants pocket and began flicking through his adress book. Breezing past at least a dozen famous actresses, most likely ready to be making tabloid headlines with cage... undercovers.
The glowing readout on the tiny smartphone read, "SONYA B."
Johnny stared at the name for what seemed like minutes, before the screen went dark, and he dropped the phone on his lap. After a while longer, he looked over at the martini glass, dangling from his hand, and realized it was empty.
Frustrated, he set the glass on the floor, slipped a t-shirt on, grabbed his cellphone and a pair of sunglasses and left the apartment.
A few hours and several desperate phone calls later, Johnny Cage found himself sitting next to the beautiful Sonya Blade in a jazz bar. They sat silently in a cozy dark corner, eyeing their drinks, but never touching them. Under the soothing jazz, an uneasy tension sat between Cage and Sonya.
"Johnny..." she sighed, "why now? Why me? How do I know I'm not just another conquest to you? Am I more in your eyes than just... this?" she gestured to her body.
"A couple years ago, thats all I saw. Just... sexiness. But now,"Johnny said as eloquently as possible.
"Now you're trying to tell me you've changed?" she retorted.
"You have no good reason to believe me, but Sonya... I've fought side by side with you against things that even the movies can't come up with! You've saved my life, I've saved yours. I've seen you in a different light..." Johnny spoke as evenly and calmly as possible.
He took a sip of his beer, and continued,
"I've come to respect you as a woman Sonya, admire you even. And... I don't think I wanna live without you." He took another long drink, then exhaled, relieved he didn't fumble his heartfelt speech.
Sonya sighed, and put her hand on his,
"Theres a part of me that sees the red-carpet celebrity acting out a scene... but theres this other part of me that sees this man, whos nervous as hell and taking a big leap of faith saying all this."
"So... does this mean...?" he asked nervously.
Sonya chuckled and stared into her cup of coffee, grasping it with both hands feeling the warmth.
"This means that we'll see where this goes. But thats all for now."
Johnny smiled and took one last swig of his beer.
"Lets go, I'll walk you home." He helped her up and they left the bar arm in arm.
A short while later, Johnny and Sonya arrived at her tiny rowhouse downtown. Sonya turned to Johnny and kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks Cage. Its been... real. For once." they both chuckled and said their goodbyes. Johnny watched as Sonya walked inside and shut the door. He slowly turned around to happily walk back home, he hadn't felt this riddiculously cheerful in months. He'd been pretty used to faking a 'gorgeous' smile at all these red carpet events and such, but this one was genuine.
Lost in thought Johnny almost didn't notice how all sound essential dropped out of range. He stopped and turned around, seeing the eerie green light shine brightly through the front windows of Sonya's house sent Cage into a frenzied panic, he knew that strange green light, he'd seen it before... in Outworld. He broke into a flat run back to her front door. He leaped up over the five steps to her front door, and kicked it open in midair.
Cage froze when he saw the villianous sorcerer, Shang Tsung, pulling Sonya into a massive energy portal, formed right in the middle of her living room. The blinding green light enveloped the whole room, the errant strands of fiery energy shredded the floor and ceiling, sending flaming shards of wood splinters flying across the room in a whirlwind of destruction.
"You're too late Cage!" the sorcerer shouted as he disappeared into the light, his left arm wrapped around her waist, his right hand held firmly onto her hair, yanking her head back.
"Johnny!" Sonya shouted, her left arm reaching out for him, her right hand occupied, trying to pry loose Shang Tsung's painfully tight grip on her hair.
"SONYA!" Cage yelled as he leaped forward, arms extended. He grabbed her outstreched hand with his right hand, his left hand grabbed her forearm. He struggled with all his might to free her from sorcerer's grasp. To no avail, the Sonya was enveloped in the portal, and Johnny's arms as well, still struggling to pull her out. The portal began to shrink, closing, faster and faster.
It closed around Johnny's arms, causing a violent spatial rift, searing the skin on his arms with green electric flames. Cage shreiked in pain, trying to pull his arms free from the rift, he could feel the pain even in his bones. After a few agnonizing seconds of excruciating pain, the rift forced itself close, flinging Johnny backwards through the air so hard he broke through the outer wall of the house, flying at least a dozen more feet, over her porch, landing on her front lawn.
He fought to stay awake, but things were getting dark. His eyes slowly rolled back into his head as he lost consciousness.