Chapter Text
Liu Kang felt his blood run cold, running through the streets of Sun Do. Li Mei trailed behind him, sensing the urgency.
”Something has turned for the worst,” She said, keeping her pace next to the fire god. “If that Johnny Cage has caused any damages, I’ll have him banished from these streets..!”
Liu Kang shook his head. “I’m hoping it will not come to that. Nor to any of my champions.”
He slipped through part of the crowd, only getting a glimpse of the main attraction. Raiden and Johnny Cage, fighting hand to hand.
But Raiden wasn’t fighting back. Every pose he took was defensive.
”Stop this!” Raiden told Johnny, gritting his teeth. “You made your point clear enough already!”
Li Mei nearly had a blood vessel burst. That f*cking moron, causing a ruckus in her city. He was surely to be banned at some point, fame be damned.
Johnny just smirked, taking a step or two back. “Don’t tell me you’re giving up already, man.”
The actor grinned sharply, throwing another punch to Raiden’s jaw. “This party is just getting started!”
His fist seemed to phase in and out of reality, almost a soft green blur. Raiden wasn’t fast enough to dodge it this time.
The punch landed directly against his jaw, a shockwave of pain going through his skull. He winced in agony, the stinging pain traveling through his skull— it was awful.
The champion was knocked off balance, falling back before someone caught him.
”Raiden, are you alright?” Asked Liu Kang, helping the master of thunder back to his feet.
”I’m fine, Lord Liu Kang,” Raiden choked out, holding his aching jaw. “I just… didn’t expect that to happen.”
The crowd shoved past them, pushing them back.
Johnny stood in the middle of the street, laughing and jeering. He waved his hands, encouraging the growing crowd to cheer and scream for him. Nearly everyone was chanting for him, screaming his name.
“Johnny! Johnny! Johnny!”
Kung Lao made his way through the crowd, appearing on the other side from behind Johnny. “This has gone on long enough,” the Shaolin said, getting into an active fighting stance. “Someone needs to stop you.”
Johnny scoffed, crossing his arms. “You? You?”
The actor cackled, shaking his head. “Not. Gonna. Happen.”
He started to walk towards Kung Lao, keeping that sharp grin on his lips. He appeared so much more menacing this time, not like the times where he would get into character for a mere joke. This was serious. This was malicious intention, more dangerous than he ever has been.
Kung Lao scowled, hands balling into fists. “One-for-one, then,” he spat. Reaching up, he grabbed his hat, throwing it at Johnny.
Johnny just leaned to the side, dodging it entirely.
“You missed.”
In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind Kung Lao, elbowing the warrior in the ribs.
Kung Lao grunted, crouching down to slide past the actor who just smiled and laughed. Johnny threw his head back as he laughed, about to say something disgustingly snarky, but it never came.
Kung Lao’s hat did.
Johnny was silent. No serious harm was done, but his glasses broke and fell off his face with a snap, a small cut lingering on his cheek as blood slowly trickled down his face.
The crowd was silent. Kung Lao quickly picked up his hat and took a few steps back.
An angry vein popped up on Johnny’s neck. Without a second thought he lunged to Kung Lao, both of his hands wrapping around the Shaolin’s throat.
Kung Lao struggled in his grip, grabbing onto Johnny’s wrists in a poor attempt to pry him off. He could practically feel the air being pushed out of his throat.
“f*cking asshole,” Johnny growled, his hands trembling. “Never f*ck with my face..!”
Kung Lao managed a sly smirk, despite the situation.
“I'm not the one you should be worried about,”He choked out. “You’re blinder than he is.”
Johnny barely had any time to react before a heavy and blunt pain hit his neck, causing him to stumble. The actor collapsed, feeling his consciousness fade away.
Kung Lao caught him before he could eat stone. The Shaolin smirked softly, looking up at his savior. “Thanks, Kenshi. I was wondering when you would get here.”
The swordsman nodded, putting Sento on his back. “The crowd was… very enthusiastic about the fight. I wanted to get in the center before things got worse, but I think that has already passed.”
Kung Lao lifted Johnny by the shoulders, sighing. “Yeah, but, he got really into it too. What got over him?”
Kenshi helped him up, shaking his head. “Even I cannot be sure. At the very least, it’s strange.”
Liu Kang and Raiden appeared from behind the crowd. “Kung Lao, Kenshi!”
Li Mei made her way through as well, nearly steaming with rage. “What in Jerrod’s name was all of that?!”
Kung Lao had a look of shame on his face. “We… we don’t know…? We didn’t know what was going on.”
Raiden lifted his head, pushing himself off of Liu Kang who held him up. “They’re right, Li Mei. He just opted to attack.”
The champion seemed to deflate.”I should have stopped him.”
Liu Kang shook his head. “There was not much for you to do, Raiden.”
Li Mei crossed her arms, scowling. “You cannot be serious, Lord Liu Kang. I cannot allow you to keep your champions here. I mean this in the nicest way I can possibly muster, you must return them home or permit me to keep them in custody.”
Kenshi’s jaw dropped. Kung Lao nearly dropped Johnny. “L-Li Mei..!”
Raiden’s shoulders tensed. He felt terrible- he could have done anything else to stop the fight, but he didn’t. “Li Mei, please. We—“
Liu Kang held his hand up. “I’ll take care of this, Raiden.”
The god shifted to face Li Mei as the champion continued to sulk. “If I allow them to be taken into custody, will they remain at the royal palace?”
The others remained silent, unsure of what was to happen. Would they stay somewhere comfortable? Somewhere like the prisons Shang Tsung was kept in? Hell, would they be exiled from Outworld entirely if Li Mei wanted them gone?
“They will remain in a specific portion of the palace. They will be constantly monitored by the royal guard, and not permitted to travel anywhere else without explicit permission, which will also come from you,” Li Mei explained firmly.
”That’s… that's practically house arrest,” Kenshi commented.
”It's basically a synonym,” Kung Lao added, shifting to carry Johnny on his back.
”We’re on royal house arrest.” Raiden confirmed.
Liu Kang thought to himself for a moment. While they should be in Earthrealm, he knew better than to disobey Outworld policy, let another incident occurs. Even then, he would have to leave them here in order to check on the rest of the Shaolin and those at the Wu Shi Academy, and speak to Madam Bo about the possible problems arising.
Poor Ashrah. Hopefully training is not as harsh this time around.
Liu Kang slowly nodded his head. “If that is the case, then I accept your offer. I entrust that you will keep them safe.”
—-
House arrest. Royal house arrest.
Raiden flopped onto the nearest chair he could find in the room. The fact that all of this happened nearly made him nauseous. But, there wasn’t much he could do. Sure, he was a champion of Earthrealm— but that didn’t mean he had much of an influence. He had hardly none at all-- nowhere near as influential as Johnny.
Kung Lao threw Johnny onto another chair, not even bothering to fix his posture. He was unconscious, its not like he would notice anything until he woke up. Smacking his face would be nice, though…
”So, he just… became competitive out of nowhere?” Kenshi asked, leaning against the wall. “That’s not like him at all.”
”Maybe he got too caught up in the moment,” Raiden said with a sigh. ”He’s always getting caught up in… well, anything.”
Kung Lao shook his head, taking a seat on the floor. The carpet was nice, but its not like the carpet he had back home in Fengjian.
“That’s not like him, though. Maybe the crowd got to him. You saw how everyone was cheering.”
Kenshi thought to himself for a moment. The crowd was cheering quite a bit.
“He is quite the sucker for attention,” Raiden said, sighing. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what got to him. Maybe its…”
He cut off his sentence, seeing a figure in front of the door through the glass. Until there was somewhere to put the Earthrealmers, they would remain in the palace commons, monitored by several soldiers.
The champion sighed once more, shaking his head. “I've lost my train of thought. I can’t think properly whenever we’re being watched. It’s rather unsettling.”
”It’s like when Lord Liu Kang watched us during our training,” Kung Lao says with a small smirk. “Man, his eyes were really creepy until I got used to them.”
Kenshi remained quiet. With Sento, he could see most solid objects. But, he saw more than that with Johnny.
—-
Raiden’s face nearly hit the stone ground of the streets, barely managing to pick himself up.
Johnny held himself up with pride and arrogance, not akin to how he normally would. It was as if something were surrounding him.
Kenshi’s jaw tightened. There was this sort of aura around the actor, almost like steam. Whatever he was carrying felt menacing.
He could barely see it. A thin outline, almost glowing. It pulsed and radiated with energy, as if it were a powerful object.
This… energy kept growing— expanding. Becoming more dangerous as this fight continued, sometimes fading in and out like a glitched TV screen. The glow became brighter as the tension increased, nearly hurting his senses.
He felt this throat run dry as the color shifted. It can’t be possible. With Sento’s vision, he shouldn’t even be able to see bright colors akin to how he could before his eyes were removed.
This aura was a piercing green, almost toxic in nature. It stung, as if you looked at a flame for too long only to look into the darkness and still see it. This wasn’t normal at all, this was new and concerning.
It felt like a curse, dragging him in and out of his own body. This can't really be from Johnny, right?
—-
Thwarting his stress, Kenshi shook his head. “Maybe we could be overthinking it. When was the last time he drank?”
Raiden shrugged. “I’m not sure. It must’ve been a few months ago, right around when we started our training.”
Kung Lao scoffed, rolling his eyes. “As if he would fall into that so quickly. He isn’t like every other celebrity from America.”
The three remained silent for a while, thinking and wondering before a quiet groan came from one of the chairs.
”Eugh, this hangover…”
