Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 21:55:22 -0500
From: Vctr113062@aol.com
Message-Id: <960217215521_146996178@emout09.mail.aol.com>
To: jevans@MIT.EDU
Subject: Winter 14/16

*****************************************************************

	Reptile cloaked us with his Power of Invisibility. Sonya and I could still
see one another, but no one could perceive us through the creature's
projected aura. Though Reptile himself was unseen to my eyes, telltale scraps
of mystic runoff betrayed his approximate location. He was behind me. The
three of us silently crept through Goro's dank lair. Liu Kang's fight with
the four-armed Prince of Shokan would take place any second now, in a shadowy
cavern a scant distance away. Echoes of the young warrior's taunts drifted to
our ears.
	"The Shokan were once a proud and noble race. Now look at you - fallen to
the level of a hired thug!"
	#rrrrrrRRRRR,# Goro growled.
	Sparky and Catsclaw hung slack on their chains, unconscious. Seven hooded
guards surrounded them in a half-circle. Reptile, Sonya, and I arranged
ourselves as planned. Sonya would handle the two guards furthest to the
right, Reptile the two at farthest left, while the middle three were mine.
I'd volunteered to deal with them, explaining that I, too, am capable of
affecting more than one target with my Power - provided that I have enough
time in advance to gather the required amount. To prepare for three targets,
I'd spent the previous ten minutes in meditation, and I had to discharge the
Ice soon or it would fade from my grasp. 
	"You are a Prince, Goro! The Shokan's nobility used to be champions and
defenders. When did you sell your souls to a monster less human than you
are?"
	#I MADE YOUR ANCESTOR SUFFER BEFORE HE DIED. YOU WILL ENDURE THE SAME FATE!#
All three guards in front of me flinched from Goro's vehemence.
	"Careful, Goro." Shang Tsung's command came from above as well as afar. He
had to be seated atop his throne on the lip of this honeycombed ravine. "Do
not toy with this one. Kill him without delay."
	#GORO NEEDS NO ADVICE FROM A WEAKLING LIKE YOU!# 
	Shang Tsung sucked in his breath. Though I could not see him, I could almost
feel ripples of his outrage. "Do as you will, then," he spat, barely in
control of his temper. "FIGHT!"
	The sorcerer's command was our agreed-upon signal to attack.
	I channeled a wide surge of the Power into the three guards before me. Sonya
seized the heads of her two guards and smashed them together. A hissing sound
came from my left as I stepped forward and crushed the throats of two of my
guards. They collapsed, sputtering, trying vainly to breathe. The third had
begun to shake off the Ice's effects by the time I got to him, but he still
couldn't see me. He attempted to call out and raise his spear. Taking hold of
the weapon's shaft, I rammed its far end into its wielder's diaphragm. His
cry became the whistle of deflating lungs. I curled one arm tight around his
throat. He struggled for a short while, then fell slack. I let his limp body
fall face down on the ground.
	Blood gushed from the headless neck stump of one of Reptile's guards. The
other had one hand clasped over his eyes. Caustic green spittle dripped from
between his fingers. His remaining hand made a thrust with the spear it held,
wide of where Reptile stood. For an instant the saurian's scaled face became
visible, hovering within the nebulous aura of leaking Power trails. Reptile's
tongue shot out. It stretched like a frog's, spanning the meter between his
mouth and the guard's face. The pink member wrapped itself around hooded
sentry's head, muzzling his startled cry. The vinegar stink of Reptile's
caustic saliva mixed with the odors of his victim's fear and sizzling skin.
Knifelike fragments of bone poked out of Reptile's tongue. They drove deep
into the guard's neck, slicing through skin, muscle, and vertebrae. The
sentry's muffled shriek abruptly ceased as the tongue retracted, pulling the
severed head off its torso. Reptile's jaws unhinged, distending impossibly
wide, and the head wrapped in tongue vanished down them. A bulge briefly
appeared in his neck, but soon vanished. Noticing me, he returned my stare
and rubbed his stomach with one hand, mimicking the human gesture for
satiation.
	By this time, both of Sonya's guards were also stretched flat on the cold
stone. Reptile's gaze flicked briefly upon them and the bodies of the
sentries I'd brought down, yet he made no move to eat them. Perhaps he
preferred to dine upon live prey. 
	I glanced at Sonya. Streaks of blood streamed from a deep gash in her left
shoulder. She clasped her right hand tightly around the wound. "What the hell
are you staring at?" she whispered, virulently. "Unlock Sparky's and
Catsclaw's chains, _now_!" In the distance, Goro roared while Liu Kang
shrieked a wailing battle cry. There was the <thump> sound of something large
and heavy colliding with a solid surface. 
	I set to work on the locks around the blond captive's ankles, sending the
Power inside and molding it into the proper shape to trigger the release
mechanism. It took less than twenty seconds for me to undo all the iron
shackles, except for one stubborn lock on the swarthy captive's wrist. That
one I had to break apart by allowing the Power's essence to freeze and expand
within the iron band's joints. The tread of padded feet surrounded me while I
worked. Reptile's kin had arrived on schedule.
	A soft groan escaped the swarthy captive's lips as he fell onto the
supportive hands of Reptile's associates. Two of them draped his arms around
themselves and propped him up. His eyes fluttered open. "Lieutenant...?" he
murmured. 
	"It's all right, Catsclaw," she softly responded. "They're friends. We're
going to get both of you out of this."
	"I had the strangest dream. The old man made you fight Kano to the death in
front of us, thirty-six times."
	"Thirty-eight."
	"Oh. Must've lost count after the twentieth time you killed him."
	I turned my back on them all and approached the guard I'd choked with a
stranglehold. He did not appear to be breathing. Rolling him on his back, I
removed his hood. His face was a hideous human parody with sickly yellow
skin, slitted eyes of crimson, and the jaws of a shark. His mouth was frozen
in an abnormally wide grin, neatly splitting his face nearly from cheekbone
to cheekbone, and filled with compressed rows of metallic grey canines. Shang
Tsung's servants were monsters not of this world.
	This particular monster's chest rose and fell in slight increments. Good. I
hadn't misgauged the duration of my hold after all. Wrapping my arm around
his neck once more, I sprinkled a whisper of the Power of his face. When a
layer of fine frost coated his features, he started to revive.
	"...rrrgh... gackh... huh?"
	"Your comrades are dead. Soon you will join them," I appraised, objectively.
	"YAAAAAAH! INTRUDERS! ALERT! MASTER, HELP ME!" he screamed, writhing.
Commotion stirred on the ridges above us, in the wake of his cries. At least
another dozen guards streamed toward us, drawn by his shrieks. I ended his
noise with a deft snap of his neck.
	A buzzing cavalcade of pink energy whistled and flashed over my head. It had
come from the crackling metal bracelet around Sonya's wrist. She reeled a
step back; her aim had been off because her one good arm wasn't enough to
properly brace herself against the blast's recoil. Her face was twisted in an
expression of outrage. I reached inside my vest. "You planned to betray us
all along!" she accused.
	Of course. I needed to distract Shang Tsung's guards. This jailbreak was the
perfect diversion. Though I'd promised to release her underlings from their
chains, I'd made no express or implied guarantees about what might happen
afterward. But with Shang Tsung's legion bearing down on us, I had neither
the time nor the inclination to explain matters.
	The approaching guards were only meters away when, taking a deep breath, I
withdrew a stoppered glass vial and smashed it on the stone between them and
Sonya. Sounds of choking and vomiting dogged my heels as I sprinted under
cover of the thick, billowing vapor, which rapidly spread to engulf the
entire chamber. Perhaps Sonya and her underlings would escape in the
confusion; perhaps they would not. I did not care either way. They had chosen
their fate when they dared to pursue Shang Tsung's vessel, just as the slain
ranks of the Tournament's competitors had chosen theirs.

*****************************************************************

	Liu-Tsung charged me, smoothly transforming his run into a leaping kick like
an arrow let fly. He moved with the speed, precision, and grace of the young
warrior, but the true Liu Kang would not have been so reckless. Liu-Tsung had
initiated the attack from so far away that I had more than sufficient time to
see him coming and react. I waited until he'd left the ground before I threw
the full brunt of my Power at him, to ensure that he would not dodge it with
his lightning speed. His flight came to a halt in midair, suspended in space
and time by the Ice.
	It would not hold him for long. Running toward Liu-Tsung, I vaulted above
his motionless body, grasping hold of his shoulders and using them as a brace
to support me while I flipped. When I landed, I used my spiraling momentum to
heave him over my head and smash him face down into the dusty earth. He was
moving to cushion the impact even as I completed the throw, bringing in his
arms and legs to absorb the shock. Liu-Tsung's crossed forearms protected his
head from a blow that could have cracked his skull. He instantly sprang back
up, a little dazed but far from beaten. 
	Using my hands and one knee as a stable tripod, I crouched and made a
ducking kick to his ankles. He left the ground a fraction of a second before
I finished the attack, leaping up impossibly high and spreading his legs
wide. I angled a second kick upward, nailing him in the groin.
	His back was to the canyon's edge as he fell, shrieking a pained wail that
lowered pitch from Liu Kang's piercing howl to Shang Tsung's deeper squawk.
His body melted back into its shorter, yellow-dressed shape. The necromancer
had thought to gain the upper hand by borrowing Liu Kang's body, but the
young warrior hadn't defeated me simply with his speed and Power. He'd bested
me with his intelligence, especially his uncanny ability to read my moves and
counter. Shang Tsung's mind just wasn't up to the challenge, particularly
after five hundred years of inactivity.
	"Get AWAY!" he cried, his voice cracking. He threw a swath of hellfire,
which I avoided by stepping in line with him, along the canyon's edge. I took
hold of his right arm, the one closest to me, and twisted it behind his back,
forcing the bent forearm up until his shoulder dislocated with a soft sound.
His free arm flailed; Power dripped from his fingertips as he attempted to
unleash more hellfire. I forced his free arm behind his back while his
dislocated arm hung limply. The dislodged limb was already healing, but it
couldn't function unless he set it back in its socket, and I would not give
him the opportunity. 
	My free hand grasped the small knot of dark hair at the base of his scalp
and wrenched his head back. "No, NOOOO! Let me go! Let me GO!" he raved. One
of his black shoes stomped blindly, landing by sheer luck on my outer foot. I
didn't slacken my hold, but the attack destabilized me, and Shang Tsung's
accursed neck was so tough it resisted the pressure I put on it well after a
mortal neck would have snapped. Still, it was gradually giving way-
	"_Let me GOOOOOOO_!" he screeched, throwing his weight over the lip of the
cliff. That was the one maneuver I had not foreseen. Gravel skidded
underneath my smarting outer foot. I was falling over the side with the
necromancer. Releasing him, I twisted and gained a hold on the cliff's edge
with both hands. My body smacked against the ravine's side. I nearly let go
when a jutting portion of rock poked at my fractured sternum. The last echoes
of Shang Tsung's descending wail still haunted the air after I'd pulled
myself back on the canyon's lip. I peered over the edge, seeing swirling
clouds and nothing more.
	Damn!
	If I could survive a plunge into this gulf, so could he. It was a long way
down, long enough to give him the time he needed to focus his Power and
levitate to a safe landing. Now that there was a break in the excitement, I
felt very tired. Days of sleepless weariness weighed heavily upon my
shoulders.
	Hot wind suddenly gushed from the ravine's depths, forcing me to take
several steps back and shield my eyes from its press. Earthshaking screams
accompanied it. A series of ululating howls that could come from no natural
beast rent the air. Something was coming. Something big.
	A writhing atrocity rose from the void. Its huge mass blotted out the
burning sun, replacing its orange beams with deep crimson light pulsing from
the cracks in its segmented body. For a face, it had a single plating of hard
bone with sideways-curving pincers framing the mouth; neither skin nor scales
covered the exoskeleton. Its multifaceted compound eyes blazed with white
heat. Segments resembling insect legs jutted out of its bony face, constantly
bending and waving along their many joints. The abomination's body was
covered with thick, overlapping armor plates, which ran in rectangular
segments along its snake's belly. Sharp parallel ridges extruded from the
sides of each segment. It had a great many black legs, branching off in
clumps along its length. Each leg ended in feet covered with razor-edged
blades the length of my forearm. Pairs of thin insect wings ran down its
spine; the air hummed from their continual beating. They churned so quickly
that their exact shape blurred and was lost. Surrounding the flying horror
was a squalid, immediately familiar aura of black sorcery.
	Shang Tsung had finally tapped directly into his immense reserves of Power.

*****************************************************************
 
	My plan was working better than I'd expected. All Shang Tsung's guards had
left him, save one. The lone sentry's head was bowed and his shoulders
slumped, while the necromancer's finely arched eyebrows descended in scorn.
Though the guard's words were too high-pitched to discern against Liu Kang's
and Goro's clamorous battle cries, Shang Tsung's accusatory reply was firm
and clear.
	"You have failed me." The necromancer's attention was entirely fixed upon
his underling. Neither party detected my stealthy approach. The Power hovered
upon my hands. I was within range to cast it, yet caution held me back. The
Ice I create cannot kill across a distance; it merely stuns, and only for a
short time. Worse, the concentration required to project it across open space
would leave me momentarily vulnerable. Shang Tsung was so deadly, so Powerful
that it would be better to kill him in a single action. I crept close enough
to hear the guard's reply.
	"Master, I wasn't late for my shift-"
	"No excuses!" snapped the sorcerer.
	Closer... 
	"I am ashamed, Master. Please forgive me." Shang Tsung's lackey fell to his
knees, prostrating himself like a whimpering dog.
	"I forgive you."
	Whispers of clearer eddies reflected off Shang Tsung's churning aura and
scattered across open space. They were my only warning a split-second before
a noose of flesh, reeking of vinegar and dripping caustic slime, curled
around my neck. Shards of bone poked through its flaccid length, digging into
my skin. Placing both hands on the fleshy member, I drove the Power into it.
The Ice made it brittle as wafer; I snapped the tendril into pieces, ripping
them off my throat and casting them away. 
	Spinning around, I confronted a very distressed Reptile. His elongated
tongue spilled out of his mouth and onto the floor, ending in an open wound
that spilled brackish-maroon blood. He tried to say something, perhaps a
warning to his master, but all that came out was a weak lisp. The scream of a
mortal being drained of his soul filled my ears as I firmly stepped on
Reptile's bleeding tongue. I'd pinned him in place for a two-handed gouge to
his feline eyes, yet when he shut his eyelids, my fingers couldn't penetrate
their unusually heavy armor. 
	Reptile's tongue shrank, disappearing from underneath my foot until all that
could be seen of it were spurts of its blood trickling down his jaw. His skin
changed color to pale dusk. Blisters appeared on his face. Slit-pupiled,
crimson eyes softened into round pupils surrounded by sienna iris. Fully
transformed, he summoned a spiraling wheel of my own Ice and cast it toward
me.
	The lizard was a blasted shape-changer, just like his master.
	"Where is he? Where is that cringing coward, Shang Tsung?" Liu Kang's
shouted insults drowned out the scarce noise of the struggle with my own
reflection. I dived underneath the glittering path of his stolen Power,
tackling SubZero-Reptile about the knees. 
	"You can no longer hide behind Goro; I have defeated him!" Reptile's form
was in the process of changing again when I cocked and drove my fist into his
throat. The skin on his mirror-image face melted, dripping away from a stark
white skull. My knuckles met a hard ridge of bone. Reptile, now remade in
Scorpion's image, used his newly gained Power to disappear in a faint puff of
breezy Power.
	"Shang Tsung, you aging relic, answer me! You fading mockery of a man! You
pitiable monster in the shape of an elderly wreck!" Scorpion-Reptile reformed
to my left. He drove the heel of his right hand toward my nose. Keeping my
left arm bent perpendicular, I used the inner edge of its forearm to deflect
his strike at a cross-angle. He moved to retract his arm, but wasn't quite
fast enough. I took hold of the bony limb. Shifting position to squarely face
his right side, I whipped his arm in a clockwise circle, while keeping the
radius and ulna bones of his forearm in constant alignment. Though
Scorpion-Reptile's adopted form had neither skin nor muscle, his joints
obeyed the same laws as any mortal's. His body followed the twist of his arm,
spinning forward and awkwardly flopping on his back. Scorpion-Reptile's skull
blurred, again shifting into the mirror image of my fire-scarred face.
	"I have passed ALL your tests; now come down and face me like the warrior
you PRETEND to be!" As I chambered another crushing blow to his trachea,
SubZero-Reptile's good arm lashed out. Its fingers brushed lightly against my
wrist-
	Stillness.
	The touch of my own paralysis used against me was like seeing the world
reflected in the shine of a frozen waterfall. Listening to the drifting snow.
Feeling the beat of an owl's wings on the winter wind.
	"Reptile!" Shang Tsung's frantic shriek jolted me out of that motionless
other world. Only seconds had passed, though it did not feel that way. The
necromancer was in front of me. To his left lay the dried remains of a dead
guard. Crumbling mortar skittered underneath Shang Tsung's feet; he teetered
on the topmost edge of Goro's lair, about to fall in. SubZero-Reptile was
behind him and to his right, just outside his visual range. SubZero-Reptile
tentatively reached to steady his master - and stopped short.
	In retrospect, I think I know what made him hesitate. Once, a select few of
the Lin Kuei used to study the Power of shape-shifting. They soon learned its
penultimate danger: losing one's identity to that of the borrowed form. Some
became beasts that forgot how to be human. Others changed into the bodies of
members of rival clans, to assist operations of infiltration and espionage.
Their schemes backfired when they _became_ the enemy, selling out and turning
against the Lin Kuei in a murderous rampage. Eventually shape-shifting, like
necromancy, was also forbidden of all clan members on pain of imminent death.
	When Reptile assumed my form, he also acquired my desire to kill Shang
Tsung. That desire had to be at war with his true self, which had sworn an
oath to protect Shang Tsung. While he was trapped in the steel claws of
indecision, the necromancer plummeted over the edge, landing with a dull
<thud> on the floor of Goro's Lair. Shocked, SubZero-Reptile stared down into
the gulf. As his borrowed form reverted to dull green scales, I formed a
stiletto of Ice in my hand. I planted the weapon in Reptile's back, between
his scapulae and to the left. He toppled over the side as well.
	Looking over the edge, I saw Shang Tsung stagger to his feet. Liu Kang
approached him swiftly, yet also cautiously. I sprinted around and down a
sloping ramp built into the wall's far edge. The necromancer cried out in
pain when I touched the floor of Goro's lair. Liu Kang was keeping him quite
distracted. That would make my job all the easier.
	*GET OVER HERE!*
	One moment there was a clear path to the beleaguered Shang Tsung; the next,
Scorpion's forbidding visage barred my way. This had to be the true Scorpion,
not Reptile in disguise; for like me, Shang Tsung's servant preferred ambush
to open combat. The specter's unearthly spear tore through the empty space
between us, seeking my heart. I flipped forward, tucking into a ball and
clearing the barb's lethal course. The basalt sole of Scorpion's boot slammed
against my chest while I was in the process of landing. In the distance, Liu
Kang voiced his wordless battle cry.
	*Have you forgotten? This is the appointed hour of retribution!* Stunned and
off-balance, I threw up my arms to deflect Scorpion's chambered punch, but
his jab had been a feint - the true attack came from his other hand, and
lower. His bony knuckles drove into my diaphragm. I doubled over. 
	He was good. At least my equal in speed and strength.
	*Yesss, my demons have prepared me well for this day. What was two years to
you, has been an eternity of training and hatred for me! Did you think you
could run from my vengeance, assassin!?* Rage suddenly overtook him.
Abandoning subtlety, he thrust a straight punch, which I caught in my palm.
He tried to claw my face with the skeletal fingers of his free arm; I seized
its wrist and grappled with him. We remained locked in a balanced test of
might. The modicum of effort required to call the Power would have been more
than I could afford to sacrifice, so instead I tried to stave off the specter
with words.
	"I do not have time for this! I must kill Shang Tsung. After I have
assassinated him, I shall accept your challenge!" If he truly could see into
my mind, then he knew that I always keep my agreements to the letter.
	*No! Shang Tsung could kill you, and deprive me of my revenge!*
	"He won't."
	*I will not take that risk! Your life is MINE to destroy, and MINE alone!*
	While we argued, Liu Kang sang a final, piercing wail of pure fury. A dull
<crack> sound accompanied it. The combined effect set off a chain reaction in
the necromantic aura that permeated Shang Tsung's palace. Stone cracked.
Lightning flashed. Wooden supports creaked and groaned. The air crackled with
unraveling Power. There could be only one explanation: Shang Tsung had lost
to Liu Kang, and the failure was tearing apart his delicate web of sorcery.
Judging from the terrible grinding sounds, it would seem that his palace was
crumbling as well. Perhaps it, too, was like Dragon Wing - a structure so
shoddy that only black magic stalled its disintegration.
	"Reptile..." the necromancer coughed. His faint cry was hardly audible over
the din of his decaying palace. I should have known Liu Kang would not have
the ruthlessness to kill him directly. If I moved quickly, I could still
finish what the young warrior had started.
	I ceased pushing against Scorpion's strength and rocked backwards.
Unprepared for the sudden lack of resistance, the specter pitched toward me.
With an upward kick to boost his momentum, I sent him over my head, yet kept
the grip on his arms so that his supine body smacked into the stone floor
behind me. I completed my roll, arriving with my knees on his shoulders, and
drove the Power into the base of his neck. There was no more time to waste on
him, not when Shang Tsung could already be fleeing. Icy paralysis would keep
Scorpion out of my hair for long enough. Chunks of loosening mortar and stone
tumbled from above as I sprinted in the direction of the necromancer's voice.
	My fear that he might escape had been unfounded. 
	Liu Kang had broken his spine. His arms and legs hung completely slack.
Reptile was there, supporting his upper body. The lizard was almost as bad
off as his master. One of the scaly creature's legs had been twisted by his
fall; he tried to stay balanced on one knee. A deep gash cut into the right
side of his saurian head. Rivulets of dull reddish blood, trickling from both
the head and the mouth, dampened his face and uniform. The stiletto of Ice
was still in his back. I'd aimed it to pierce his heart, but perhaps lizard
organs are not arranged in the same manner as those of men. Shang Tsung's
sworn protector was in no condition to oppose me.
	A man-sized block of masonry barreled down toward my head, forcing me to
dodge. The block missed me by such a close margin that it pinned down the
frontscloth of my ceremonial uniform. As I tore the damn thing free, I heard
Reptile's whisper carry underneath the surrounding cacophony.
	"I am sssorry, Massster." 
	"You should be," Shang Tsung snapped.
	I closed in on the sorcerer and his slave just in time to see a gigantic
pile of mossy cinder blocks pulverize their bones.

*****************************************************************

	The thing Shang Tsung had become opened his rigid jaws and vomited an
expanding cone of fire - _real_ fire, not a psychic attack that merely
stunned. I threw myself almost but not quite entirely out of its path. Part
of my uniform was ablaze when I landed. To smother the flames, I rolled
lengthwise on Limbo's dust.
	The fireworm's wingbeats combined with the vibration of his segmented armor
plates to create a buzzing, chattering sound that vaguely resembled words.
%zzzNOW YOU zzzSEE THE TRUE EXzzzTENT OF MY POWERzzz! zzzBEG FOR MERzzzCY,
FLESHLING, AND I _MAY_ GRANT YOU A FAzzzST DEATH INSTEAD OF A TORTUROUSzzz
ONEzzz - zzzBUT EITHER WAY, YOUR zzzSOUL ISzzz MINEzzz!%
	I had absolutely no idea what to do.
	Assassinating a man is one thing, but how in all damnation was I to kill a
flying horror fifty times my size? What little Power I could call forth was
flickering unevenly on my left hand. It wasn't enough to immobilize a single
one of the gigantic fireworm's insect legs. Though my uniform was
extinguished, my right arm and leg sported long burns on their exposed skin.
Blocking out the distress chipped away at my concentration. Exhaustion sapped
my strength. When I tried to move, the best I could manage was a halting
limp.
	%zzzI DON'T HEAR BEGGINGGGGGGGzzz!% He swooped down. Three pairs of his
insect legs plucked me off the ground, easily anticipating my weak attempt to
dodge. The fireworm's armor-plated skin seared like superheated metal. My
struggles had no effect. My feeble burst of Power sizzled and evaporated off
his bony exterior. His snakelike neck curled in a loop, bringing his
white-hot, compound eyes on line with my own. His bony maw opened and shut
with hard <clack> sounds. %zzzFIRzzzST YOUR ARMSzzz, THEN YOUR LEGSzzz, THEN
LAzzzST OF ALL YOUR HEADzzz!%
	Saibot had been right all along. This was one trap I could not escape.