Mortal Kombat 9: Ember Edition

Chapter 8: Neither Real Nor Fake

Without another thought, a fire-ball formed in her hand and she threw it at the unsuspecting man who was a member of the clan she hated with all her heart. Hearing the flames crackle as they flew at him, the man jumped out of the way in time to avoid being burned. He turned around, facing in her direction, and threw a ball of ice not too far to where Ember hid. He squinted his eyes to focus them better as he searched for the culprit.

"Who is there!" he demanded through his mask, "Show yourself!" he clenched his hands in preparation for another attack.

Ember looked at him from the front, before she had just seen his back and side. There was something familiar about the blue assassin uniform, the ice-blue eyes, and the icy mist emitting from his hands and mask. Her eyes widened--this man was trying to impersonate Bi-Han.

Enraged, Ember jumped from behind the large tooth and lunged at him.

He was knocked to the ground, not expecting someone to tackle him, and immediately tried to pry the small attacker off him while she tried to claw his face. Unable to remove her by hand, he brought his knee up hard on her back, making her roll off. As soon as she was off him he shot another ice-ball at her, but she somersaulted out of the way firing a beam of fire at him.

The man avoided the fire beam and blocked the kick that came after. As he blocked one punch and one kick after another he was briefly stunned seeing that his attacker was a young woman, one who was unexplainably infuriated at him. Although she was able to wield fire, making her a threat since fire melts ice, he didn't want to hurt her too bad, he was curious to know why she was trying to kill him.

He jumped out of the spot where fire rose from the ground and tried to freeze the area at her feet, but she jumped out of the way too. Then she rolled as he sent an ice beam, attempting to freeze her. The girl countered his ice beam with her fire beam and knocked him back with a blast, forcing him to stagger if he didn't want to fall over.

She ran over and unsuccessfully punched him as he blocked her; she was way too close to him so he kicked her square in the stomach.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!" she furiously demanded, eyes flaring. Confused, the Lin Kuei raised an eyebrow, not sure what she meant. "How DARE you try and take the form of my dead brother and have the NERVE to attack me!" she growled. "If this is one of Quan Chi's tricks, I swear--!"

"Your brother? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, miss--" The man was actually the new Sub-Zero...but Ember didn't know that. He was so stupefied at the moment that he didn't put the pieces together, not knowing who this crazy chick was.

"Oh, cut the crap! You know I mean Bi-Han!" she interrupted, fire igniting in her palm.

Sub-Zero's eyes grew big while everything came together in his head. The angry young pyromancer with fiery eyes suddenly became familiar to him; she was his sister.

"Ember?!" he called in astonishment, reaching a cold hand towards her. His saying her name served to piss her off more as her hands burst into flames and she aimed her palms at him to ready a powerful fire attack that would certainly incinerate him.

"I will burn you to a crisp!!" Ember snarled.

Sub-Zero lunged at her, diving underneath the large fire beam that blasted from her palms. He rolled out of the way as she tried to kick his jaw with the side of her boot and he somersaulted behind her. Quickly he wrapped both of his arms around her, keeping her arms at her side and preventing her legs from kicking him. She struggled like a wild bull against him while he restrained her, his arms and hands tightening into a death grip.

"LET ME GO!!" she shrieked.

"Ember, calm down!" he said right next to her ear, "Stop moving." Sub-Zero demanded, "Would you calm down and listen to me?!"