Mortal Kombat 9: Ember Edition

Chapter 23: Breaking the Bro Code

"What you did was utterly irresponsible, your very poor choice of actions could've compromised the mission! Honestly, Ember, you need to think before you act! Whatever made you believe that you were in a good enough condition to leave, let alone fight?! You better be grateful to your brother and Nightwolf, because if they weren't there then you wouldn't be here."

Ember stopped herself from rolling her eyes, certain that doing so would only piss Raiden off further. He had already been yelling at her for...twenty-five minutes perhaps?

Once Sub-Zero and she returned to base, she was already reluctant enough to see the reactions on her allies' faces. While Raiden was the only one giving her hell, the others made sure that she didn't miss any of their disapproving glares. Smoke was the only one who didn't glare since he knew where she was the whole time.

"...your punishment will be issued to you in due time, but now there is another matter to be discussed." Ember sighed, glad he was done with the yelling, but not eager to learn of her punishment.

"Jackson Briggs has informed me that this base is no longer safe. Shao Kahn knows where we are and no doubt he will plan to attack us, we must relocate."

Now that the topic wasn't her, she allowed herself to look around and see what the others thought of this. "Where will we go then, Lord Raiden?" Liu Kang asked, his own voice betraying restrain and bitterness, as if this cause was beginning to tire the monk.

Raiden didn't seem affected by Liu Kang's change of tone. "We will all relocate to a temple in a remote area, it'll be safer there and we will have more time." He told the others that they will all be leaving shortly and to grab all their belongings from the base.

Johnny nearly sprinted out of the meeting room, presumingly grabbing the unusually large number of sunglasses that he always carried with him--where he put them, who knows.

Ember had to be escorted back to her room by Jade, which she didn't mind, but she sensed that the others didn't trust her on her own. It left an unpleasant feeling in her stomach.

"So will you be escorting me everywhere now?" She asked the green garbed woman as they walked to her room.

"I won't all the time, but the others will."

"Even if I need to use the bathroom?" Ember tried to joke to lighten the mood, but failed. Jade didn't even crack a smile as she side glanced to the pyromancer.

"This isn't something to joke about, it is serious. You don't seem to take your safety into consideration--" she stopped mid sentence and sighed. "--I will not scold you, Raiden has done that enough." They got to her room and quickly Ember got her picture, put it in her pocket, picked up her doll, and started to return to the meeting room with Jade beside her.

Back in the meeting room with the others, it seemed like forever had passed before Cage came back, scanning the room with a cocky grin. Raiden wasted no time in telling the others where the sky temple was. Without a word, the thunder god rose his hands before them, lightning crackling from his palm and fingers. A bright light blinded them all and just like that, the meeting room was empty.

All of them reappeared in another flash of blinding light, but now they were at the temple. The room Raiden had teleported them into was humongous, and dark. There was some light from the stained glass windows, mostly from the stained glass picture of the same dragon depicted on Liu Kang's medallion, but overall Ember couldn't see much.

Then Raiden gave a great sweep of his hand and magically thousands of candles lit up, revealing two grand staircases that led to more rooms in the already large temple and a weird table that looked like it was used for sacrificial rituals.