*backdated to Febuary 26-Lipton and eventually Scorpion*

[lt_blade]

The first thing Sonya noticed when she woke up was that the other side of the bed was cold. She wasn't really into snuggling, but some mornings she just found herself curled up close to Hanzo when she woke up. That wasn't the case now, and her heart nearly leapt out of her throat when he wasn't there. It was only when she fully opened her eyes that she saw the real reason why she was alone in bed.

She was home. Back in her room at her parent's house, in the room she hadn't actually slept in for so long. It was all there: the pictures, the certificates she earned from school, the medals from athletics, and right on her dresser was her army fatigues, set up like she always had them.

Sonya reached over to get out of bed when the sight of her wedding ring brought her back to reality, along with the shorts and t-shirt that she'd slept in. This couldn't be real then, she thought. This was an island trick, or it could be. Besides, she hadn't been home in so long, and if the island were to send her back, it would send her back to the Outworld dungeon.

The phone on her desk rang and she hurriedly rushed over to answer it. When she heard Jax's voice on the other line, it was only her officer training that kept her voice steady as she listened to what he was saying-that he, Liu and Cage would be coming over soon.

She nodded stiffly and hung up, looking at the calender on the wall: if this meeting was for what she thought it was, she'd better get dressed quickly.

Comments

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

They'd barely gotten past the first block when the sound of boots was heard.

Even as they, Sonya found herself wondering how in the hell they were found so fast: an entire realm and somehow the Emperor managed to pin down their location.

Damn sorcerery.

It was only thankful that these 'warriors' were human-shaped, and as nasty as those weapons were-they could be parried and dodged.Compared to the soldiers Sonya saw in Outworld, it was almost laughable, if Sonya hadn't seen the 'heavier' artilery before hand.

She barely had time to slide the rifle off her back when a fire exploded between them and Kahn's warriors. Seeing Scorpion as a hellspawn again should've made her worried, but seeing him fighting with and not against them-she wasn't going to complain at the moment.

That still left a few other warriors to deal with. The fight with Scorpion meant that the squad had to split up, leaving her team nearly surrounded. Sonya used the rifle to block and avoid getting speared, sliding low at the warrior and sweeping his feet from under him. Getting up on her knees, she reversed her hold on the rifle, holding it by the barrel and swinging it on the enemy's neck, breaking it.

Meanwhile, Jax was using his arms to block any on coming attacks, their metal sheaths strong enough to take the blows. In the melee, he found himself exchanging blows with one of the Outworlders who lost their weapon, the armor deflecting most of his blows, but not the combat knife that found itself buried in a part of his neck that wasn't covered in armor.

[niceofyoutoask.livejournal.com]

The moment the soldiers appeared, Lipton's rifle was up and he was taking aim. Different from his M1A1 paratrooper carbine, but he was far from picky. "We engaging, Sir?" He called to the Major or Sonya, whoever was nearest and could give the go-ahead. There was no 'hold your fire,' so his finger was on the trigger and his aim was on the approaching figures, but since they had no firepower there was time to be cautious. The warriors reached Cage and Kang first, and when they burst into action Lipton figured that was damn near close enough. He'd just gotten one shot off into the guy furthest on the right, closest to him, when something else flashed into existence.

He turned the barrel to him, but then the figure was taking out the soldiers for them. Lipton followed Sonya's lead - apparently he was on there side - and shot another, and turned to the others. With the others in close contact, Lipton stood back a few feet, eye to the rifle, and picked off the ones he could get a shot off on. He knew where his strengths lay, and while he was no Shifty, at this distance his accuracy was reliable and while the splatter might get his allies, they weren't in any real danger of friendly fire.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion was aware of Sonya fighting near him. He remembered the period of time he had been altered to resemble a human. He remembered starting to refer to himself as Hanzo Hasahi once again, and even marrying Sonya. But that was now distant. His mind was in the fight.

Scorpion whirled around in the direction of Lipton and threw out a rope tipped with a kunai. It missed Lipton's head by inches, but it did strike its intended target. A Tarkatan had been stealthily approaching Lipton from behind. It howled in pain at the impact. For Scorpion, it wasn't enough that it had just been impaled by the weapon.

"Get over here!!"

Scorpion pulled the creature to him, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. A series of powerful punches sent it to the ground. As it attempted to struggle for its life, Scorpion knelt to pin his opponent to the ground. Tarkata had blades protruding from their limbs like this one did. The beast tried slashing a bladed arm at Scorpion, but the specter simply redirected the motion to carry a pair of twin arm-blades directly into it's own eye sockets. There was a high-pitched squeal as it died painfully. Scorpion then vanished, reappearing in the midst of the fighting elsewhere.

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

Jax just saw a squad of tarkatens join in, just as Scorpion-why was he suddenly fighting for them-launched his spear at one of the closer ones and proceeded to spear it with its own blades.

"Hold your fire!" He finally yelled out. While Lipton wasn't a bad shot, the chance that the rifle fire attracting other warriors was too great a risk.

For Sonya, under normal circumstances, (or what passed as normal), the reality of seeing Scorpion revert back to being a hellspawn would've left her aching inside. They both knew that sooner or later, he'd have to go back to Earthrealm, revert to being an undead ninja, but that didn't mean she didn't feel for him.

Now wasn't one of those times. Now, she was more focused on the battle, not only having to deal with the masked guards but also the tarkatens. Determined not to be trapped by a small number of them, Sonya twisted her left wrist and jumped into the air, the electronic anti-gravitational force field from the wrist band allowing her to get ten feet up in the air for several seconds. This effect only lasted a second, but Sonya made it count by jump kicking on one of the tarketan warriors, using enough force to break in his skull as she landed on his corpse.

Pulling one of her knives from its holster-having lost her rifle in another part of the fight-Sonya continued to fight off the remaining tarkaten warriors from a 'safer' position.

[niceofyoutoask.livejournal.com]

It was only when the ninja suddenly turned his way and threw something very sharp very near his face did Lipton catch a close enough look at him to see the eyes above the mask. Was that Hanzo? It had to be - this was his world as well as Sonya's, after all (strictly speaking, realms and all aside). Although, he supposed, as he watched the guy pull the thing towards him and brutally beat and skewered him, Scorpion might be the more accurate name, currently.

It disgusted Lipton, what Scorpion did, and it wasn't because of the gore. Gruesome he was familiar with; it was the cruelty of it that stuck with him. As much as he'd hated the Germans and other Axis soldiers they'd come into contact with, and had no qualms about killing for his country, he didn't wish them a longer death than necessary. Even in Speirs' rumoured executions, he'd offered them a cigarette before the shot.

"Thanks," he said, regardless, and whipped around, gun up at the spiked-man's fellows. They had some teeth on them, that was for sure. He heard the Major's order, and immediately dropped his gun, drawing out the knife he'd gotten from the supplies. He wouldn't question it, especially not now. He slung the rifle around his back and warily faced off against the men with blades. One of them looked away, growling, to where Sonya was jumping. Lipton only saw it as a blur in her peripheral, but focused instead on darting in to slit his throat, and then to leap out of the way of his friend's swinging blades.

Another rounded on him, and he squared off against the two of them, finding himself decidedly out of his element. He was a decent man at hand to hand and with a knife and all, but they had the decided advantage in built-in weaponry and numbers.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

The only reason Scorpion had any care whatsoever if Carwood Lipton lived or died was because Carwood was aiding Sonya Blade. Scorpion fully understood that the World War II veteran had lived with them on Tabula Rasa and that he was currently not in his own time, but he was nothing to Scorpion now. He honored the past commitment he had forged with Sonya, but most importantly, Sonya was smart as well as strong. She could help Scorpion uncover who he must avenge himself upon, and THAT was one of the few things that mattered anymore.

Two Tarkata against one warrior who had not experienced the Mortal Kombat Tournament was too many. Scorpion appeared in another flash of flame right behind the two enemy troops, and was already spinning to deliver a viscous kick to the back of it's neck. The beast convulsed and gagged with the whiplash while Scorpion punched the other one between its eyes, sending it back a few steps.

For a fleeting moment, Scorpion's clouded pupiless eyes met Liptons'. It was uninteresting. His attention was consumed by making his enemies suffer. He resumed fighting the one he had kicked.

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

Sonya normally prided herself on close quarters combat, but in this case, it was a lot trickier when the enemy is literally 'armed' with three foot blades. Thankfully, while 'death matches' weren't that common on the island, she had been training with Scorpion for months now and if there was one thing you had to be when up against such a fighter, it was fast-speed and a good deal of bluffing.

She somehow found herself up against two tarkaten warriors who rushed at her. Ducking, Sonya grabbed a pike from a dead warrior and launched it at the 'faster' Outworld mutant. It struck him in the shoulder, leaving him paralized in one arm and staggering. The other mutant grabbed at him, intending to throw him forward so he could take out the Earth woman-actually, Sonya was hoping they would move closer.

Quickly, Sonya stuck out her right arm, activiating the wrist band again, but this time sending out several pink rings of energy. The energy blast was not as noisy as a rifle attack, but just as affective: it stunned the two warriors on contact, causing them to sieze up before collapsing to the ground. She didn't waste time in waiting for them to recover, instead grabbing the disgarded rifle and gripping it by the nuzzle. Sonya then proceeded to bash their two heads in, not stopping until their heads were all but turned inside out. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have agreed to such 'over the top' means of combat, but her experience in Outworld was telling-these things would not stop until their death or the death of her allies.

She finally stopped and looked around. The the tarkaten warriors that came after them had finally been killed, with Jax finishing off the last by breaking its spine and neck, but she felt as far from cheerful as possible.

The squad that came after them, they were just a small group and while not much of a challenge-she had a feeling things would only get tougher from now on. They had to regroup with the other Chosen warriors.

Looking at the others with her, her gaze fell to Scorpion, but the 'reality' of his sitaution seemed almost secondary to the mission at hand. It combined with the adrenaline from the battle and left a sort of blessed numbness from the physical and emotional bruises.

[niceofyoutoask.livejournal.com]

He could get behind this spontaneous transportation, Liption decided, as Scorpion finished off the blade-man that he'd kicked and Lipton lunged in (very reminiscently of the sort of drills they'd run after the order to affix bayonets, really) to stab the man he'd punched in the throat. He pulled the knife loose, blood bubbling out to the surface, and then had to back away as the thing flailed as it crumpled to the floor.

He was absolutely certain, when he caught Scorpion's eye, that this wasn't quite the Hanzo that he'd seen marry Sonya on the island. He seemed to recognize him, but if the pupil-less eyes hadn't given the difference away, the apathy would have. "Thanks again," an edge of dry humour to his words, more for himself than for Scorpion.

Eyes sweeping their surroundings, Lipton moved to stand beside Sonya as the Major broke the neck of one of the bladed things. He kept his face impassive, but that sound wasn't one he was particularly fond of. Better than the alternative, of course, but his wartime experience was with planes, tanks, guns, foxholes, and artillery. He was acclimatized to violence, gruesome wounds, and death, but it still struck him.

[get-over-here.livejournal.com]

Scorpion surveyed the area. The enemies were dead. The surrounding merging of the realms was not disturbing to him, though he was serving the Earthrealm warriors.

Then there was a sensation. As a specter, he was more attuned to sorcerous energies than the humans around him. He turned to meet Sonya's gaze.

"More of Shao Khan's forces are being sent here. We must go. Now."

[lt-blade.livejournal.com]

It was Jax that spoke up first, not really liking how Scorpion was looking at his partner like that.

"How're we to be sure you won't lead us to a trap?" He had a feeling the Hellspawn wasn't lying about Kahn's forces, but how were they to know he wasn't leading them to a bigger trap. "It's well known you don't play sides."

"Jax, we don't have time for this." Sonya urged, though she kept her gaze on Scorpion. "If Kahn wanted him to kill us, he would've started already. Right now we need to get moving."

Her explanation drew in looks from the remaining Earth warriors. To bring in Lipton was one thing, the man was military and Sonya lent her trust more easily to fellow military men than civilians, but Scorpion? If anything, it should've been her questioning his motives, not Jax.

Either way, she was right-they didn't have time to ponder over why he was fighting with them.

Jax tossed Sonya her rifle before motioning for them to get moving.