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The souls
seemed to fly by in high speed, but they weren't fast enough for Kenshi to catch their exact direction. Kenshi kept following
the terrified souls and stopped for nothing.
It had been three days since he started following the souls. He was not
sure exactly where these souls were heading, but he was pretty sure that Shang himself was somehow forcing them towards him
so that he could consume them and keep them for himself to maintain his own youth.
Hopefully, the swordsman was right.
At
the same time, he searched for the missing Special Forces Agent Cyrax. Back on Earth, Jax had not received any word from Cyrax.
He and Kenshi had kept in contact throughout the last couple of weeks, Earth time.
"How's it going out there?" Jax
asked him.
Kenshi could hear Jax voice on his arm panel and brought his left arm up to speak into it. "It's pretty
quiet around here at the moment, except for these souls I'm following."
"Quiet?" Jax sighed. "That's what Cyrax said
before we lost contact with him. You say that you're following souls?"
"Yeah," Kenshi replied. "It's like they're being
attracted to something, like a fly to a light."
"Maybe this is finally our lead to what may be going on out there,"
Jax concluded. "Keep your senses as sharp as possible."
"That won't be a problem," Kenshi answered.
"Any clues
on Cyrax yet?"
"Not yet. I can't sense anything that has to do with him."
"Maybe the two of you have taken different
paths. After all, Outworld is one huge place."
"You can say that again." It was then that Kenshi sighed a bit. "Jax?"
"Yeah?"
"How's
Alex?"
"She's doing better," Jax replied. "The first time you left, she was pretty down, but she's improving. I think
it's as long as you're all right, she'll be all right. I'm sorry that you haven't been able to speak to her. It's just that
the General only wants me to keep in contact with you. I wish I could connect you to her, but I could lose my job."
"It's
all right," Kenshi sighed with disappointment. "As long as you tell me that's she's okay, it at least brings comfort to me."
"True,"
Jax agreed. "Well, I'll be signing off now. I'm going to work out for a little bit and then get some paperwork done. I'll
get in contact with you as soon as I'm done. Later."
"Later." Kenshi brought his arm back to his side. Then, for the
first time in hours, he stopped in his tracks. He began to sense something disturbing other than the souls. He used his senses
to figure out what it was. After a while, he sighed to himself.
This is probably how the environment is, Kenshi
thought. Then, he began walking forward again.
***
The Red Dragon Member Mavado walked over to a place called
The Acid Bath. He stood in the middle with his hookswords, one in each hand, and looked around. This was the exact place where
he was to meet up with Hsu Hao, who has been an undercover spy for many weeks on Special Forces. Tonight he was to destroy
Special Force's Outerworld Investigation Agency.
"The time has come," Mavado spoke out loud. "The Deadly Alliance has
begin and the Earth will fall to their knees at Shang and Quan-Chi's hands. And the swordsman will die at my hands and I shall
finally fight Kano."
He raised his hookswords in the air and twirled them around before smacking them then together
above his head.
***
After a whole hour of working out, Jax stretched his arms out. He got up and walked towards
the benches where his towel and water bottle were. He whipped the sweat off of his face, and then took a sip out of his water
bottle.
Nothing's better than an hour of working out, Jax thought with a small smirk.
After a quick
shower, Jax got dressed in blue jeans, black boots, a white T- shirt, and of course his metallic arms. Although he had a load
of paperwork to do, Jax decided to take a few minutes off to get some fresh air. He walked outside and sat on a bench. Since
it was near dinnertime, most of the jets began to land back in after a whole day of flying.
It's been a while since
I flew, Jax thought. Maybe I should get back into it as soon as this investigation's over.
It was then
that both Kenshi and Alex came to his mind. He smirked to himself thinking about the couple who were only together for a week
before Kenshi left for Outworld.
They sure have something special between them, Jax thought. He knew even
before they hooked up that the both of them had strong feelings for one another, but neither of them realized it. Before Kenshi
left, he remembered Kenshi's words.......
(Flashback)
It was three hours before Kenshi would leave for Outworld.
Jax was helping him pack up the things the swordsman would be needing for his mission.
"Here's a flashlight," Jax said.
"Jax,"
Kenshi replied with a small smile. "I think you and I both know that I won't be needing that."
"Oh, right! Sorry about
that, I forget that you're blind sometimes."
"It's all right. With my strong senses, it doesn't seem like I'm blind
at all."
"True," Jax agreed. "Hey Kenshi."
"Yeah?"
"Good luck."
"Thanks," Kenshi answered. "Hopefully
this will be over before we know it."
"Same here. I'm getting sick of those Outworld bastards," Jax laughed.
Kenshi
laughed a little bit too, but them the smile disappeared. Even with his blindfold covering half of his face, Jax knew that
Kenshi's face was a serious one.
"Jax, you could promise me something?" Kenshi asked.
"Sure," Jax said.
Kenshi
sighed. "Could you promise to take care of Alex?"
Jax patted the swordsman's shoulder. "That's a promise I can keep.
You can count on me, man."
"Thanks," Kenshi replied with a small smirk.
(End of Flashback)
Jax smirked
to himself. It was a promise that he still has kept. After all, Alex was still well and alive.
The Special Forces major
got up from the bench. He was about to go back into the main building when he looked over at the door, which lead to the Outerworld
Investigation Agency's portal. He noticed a figure entering the room and going down the stars.
What the......
Jax thought. He began running towards the door, which was about a half a mile from where he was from. After a three minute
run, he made his way to the door.
He quickly opened it and jogged down the stairs. He could hear that the machine is
somehow operating the portal. Jax raised an eyebrow.
Only he and Sonya knew how to turn on the portal.
"Who's
down here?!" Jax demanded as he made his way to the bottom of the steps. It was then that he noticed Hsu Hao's face just a
split second before the blue swirls engulfed him.
"HEY!!" Jax cried out, but it was too late. The swirls disappeared
along with Hsu Hao.
"Damn!" Jax growled. He walked over to the operators when he suddenly noticed a small item on top
of the machine which read off, '00:00:08.'
Shit! Jax cried in his mind. It's a bomb!
He had
eight seconds before the small bomb would explode. The bomb was a type that was only enough to destroy just the building itself
and a few feet around it.
Not having enough time to operate the portal and go after Hsu Hao, Jax did the only thing
he could. He quickly turned towards the stairs and began running with all he had out of the building.
***
Alex
sat at her desk in her room and starred out the window. Even though she knew that Kenshi's all right, tears slowly flowed
down her cheeks, something that she rarely did.
But she had a good reason for this.
It was then that Sonya knocked
on the door. "Alex?"
"Come in," Alex replied. The blond agent walked in slowly, closing the door behind her. She sat
on Alex's desk.
"Is everything all right?" Sonya asked with concern. "You did get the report from Jax this afternoon
that Kenshi's still all right."
"I did," Alex answered. She sighed loudly, a shiver went up her spine. "It's not the
only thing that's bothering me at the moment either."
"What are you talking about?" Sonya asked. She knew that the
only thing that would be bothering the younger agent was the bad feeling of losing the man she loves.
"Please tell
me Alex," Sonya said again after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.
Alex slowly stood up. Sonya began to stand
up as well, but Alex pushed her back to the desk. "Don't, you need to sit down for this one."
"Um," Sonya said. "I
don't think I'm going to like this."
Alex took a deep sigh again. "Sonya, I went to the doctor today to see if I was
having the nervous breakdown we talked about last week."
"And......" Sonya said feeling a bit nervous. Whatever it
was it was going to be hard for Alex to say and if that was the case, it was probably not good news at all.
More tears
flowed down Alex's face. "Sonya, the doctor took a few tests and he said that......that........" she took one last full breath
and let the final words flying out without thinking. "Sonya, I'm pregnant."
Complete shock and relief filled Sonya's
heart. She quickly stood up. "What?"
Just before either woman could say anything, a loud explosion was suddenly heard
from outside.
"Shit," Sonya cried. She took her gun out and began running out of the room with Alex trailing behind
with her own gun out.
Many of the agents began running out of their rooms and ran outside. A large fire was burning
one of the buildings.
"Oh my God," Sonya said. "That's the OIA building!"
"Jax!!" Alex cried out. She noticed
the tall agent wobbling away from the rubble, his shirt and pants patched with burned holes.
Both female agents sprinted
towards him. Just before his collapsed, Sonya caught Jax in her arms.
"Hang on big fella," Sonya said. She looked at
him and saw only a few minor burns on the agent.
"It was that bastard Hsu Hao," Jax said coughing. "He blew up our
only portal access. I told you there was something up with him."
"Don't talk," Sonya suggested. "Let's get you some
medical attention and then we'll talk about this."
Alex starred at the burning building. Holding her stomach, fear,
anger, and sadness filled her heart and her tears matched the same feelings. The OIA's building, which held Earth's only portal
was gone. And it meant the one thing that Alex feared most.
Kenshi was lost in Outworld.
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