Mortal Kombat 9: Ember Edition

Chapter 18: Brotherly Betrayal

The body was a man lying face down, the small twitches of his gloved hands indicated he was alive. He groaned and found the strength to lift himself into a sitting position, his appearance making Ember cringe as she looked over his burned flesh and frightening mask. She took a step back, not in the mood to fight, and listened cautiously to the strained breathing from the man.

When he saw her he squinted, but she couldn't tell. "Hey, you're that girl that helped Stryker, right?"

"Who are you?" She demanded, not recognizing him.

He let out a sigh, looking down at his deformed self, before replying "Kabal, I was there with Stryker." Her eyes widened slightly, but she said nothing else. Instead, she extended her arm to him and helped him onto his feet, briefly wondering what burned him so badly. "So, I gave you my name, what's yours?" Kabal asked.

"Ember."

"Amber?"

She shook her head, "No, Ember." Kabal looked at her, remembering how she burned the woman with the fucked up teeth and nodded.

"Fitting." He meant to ask if she lived in the city, but stopped when he caught sight of the Phoenix tattoo on her right arm. Ember couldn't see it, but he felt a little uncomfortable.

'Shit! She's a feather...' He wondered if she would attack, but she didn't seem very wary of him so she must've not known he used to be with the Black Dragon. Unless he wants more burns, he thought, it's best she doesn't know.

"You are not authorized for portal use." A robotic voice said out of the blue. Ember narrowed her eyes, the voice sounding oddly familiar.

Kabal, prepared to fight again, took out his hook blades and turned towards the voice. "Yeah? Says who?" Both Ember and he turned behind them to look at the Lin Kuei cyborg with blue paint, ice blowing from his palm. Ember's jaw dropped.

"Sub-Zero. Unit L-K-five-two-O."

"Kuai?!" Ember called out in shock, 'no...it couldn't be him...right?' Her stomach turned.

The cyborg's head turned to her. "That is no longer my name, the Sub-Zero you knew is gone."

Not understanding what he meant by that, and unnerved that the tone he used towards her was so monotone, Ember took a step toward him. "What are you talking about?"

Suddenly he threw an ice ball at her, narrowly missing her foot and she stumbled back. Kabal ran in front of her, hook blades at the ready. "You know him?" He asked, keeping his eyes on Sub-Zero, who seemed unaffected.

Ember's voice caught in her throat as she stared at the cyborg, hurt seeping from her voice. "Uh, yeah...he was my brother..." She didn't want Kabal to fight him, at the same time she did. This wasn't right, but for some odd reason she wanted to lunge at him and punch him in his stupid robot face repeatedly until his circuits fried or something of that effect. Fortunately she was in no condition to fight, a trend that seemed to be happening more often.

Cyber Sub-Zero shot a small ball out of his chest cavity that rolled to Kabal and Ember's feet. When it started to beep, Kabal hastily picked it up with his hook blade, ran up to the Lin Kuei and smacked him upside the head with it. Upon impact it dislodged from the hook and exploded in an icy flurry. The metal on Sub-Zero was ice resistant so only the explosion hurt him, not too badly though.