Equestria ⇀ #1115132120
Canterlot Palace, Entrance Hall
———♠———
Grandmaster Hanzo ‘Scorpion’ Hazashi sneered beneath his armored Menpō mask. The strange creatures were nervous, even scared. He decided not to kill them as it was… pitifully obvious that whomever led them was weak and likely more cowardly. More likely, a taste of power will have gone to their head, making them more arrogant.

He could feel their host and ally exploring the soulscape.

-- Within the Soulscape | Shang Tsung’s Island --

Micah looked around cautiously. “You said this was a soulscape… so…. I’m guessing I’m merged with the old man on a spiritual level, not just a physical one. Strange… I had found stories and rumors of this sort of thing… people vanishing only to end up somewhere else,” he commented.

“Something has you troubled,” Kitana said softly, not making it a question, but a statement.

“My cousin, Lavender… was cosplaying as someone you know very well, Kitana. Whoever that guy was… dressed as Ishmael, the Betrayer of Hope, he knocked her into the same stand I was knocked into. I remember your fan pinning my arm and shoulder down alongside Scorpion’s kunai and chain… as well as Sub-Zero’s mask. That would explain why you three were…. Awake… I suppose we could say. Though who else could be here,” Micah replied before he ducked as a familiar razor rimmed hat shot past where his throat had been moments before. “Well, that’s another one… though I have to wonder if Hanzo was right,” he commented wryly as Kung Lao frowned.

“Right about what, sorcerer?” the Shaolin monk said warily.

“If your biggest weakness was your ego. Hell, between you and Liu… Liu may have the physical talents… but you have your own skills. Not many can wield a razor rimmed hat without a ton of scars on their hands… or missing fingers. Hell, the only one I can remember other than you would be Oddjob… and his hat ended up getting him killed… though who uses a bowler hat with a razor rim? It just didn’t look…. right,” Micah deadpanned. He saw Kung Lao smirk as he returned a more subtle one. “Although stroking one’s ego can be a good distraction,” he thought as he shoved off suddenly, unintentionally mimicking Liu Kang’s flying side kick and catching Kung Lao high in the chest before shoving him backwards into a shoulder roll.

“Not bad, sorcerer,” the monk said carefully.

“You’re a dumb bastard, ain’tcha? I’m not Shang Tsung. Yeah, I look like him, but I’m not him. Name’s Micah,” Micah replied in a sarcastic tone.

Kung Lao blinked, glancing at Kitana, though Micah didn’t miss it. “Then how did you?” he started.

“I’ve trained in no less than four different styles of martial arts. Tang Soo Do, specifically of the Mu Du Kwan discipline, Tae Kwon Do, of the Kun Gek Do discipline, Muay Thai, and Judo. The first has the flying side kick as one of its intermediate to advanced skills and one that I’ve practiced for many months, though I will admit that I’ve never fired one off like that before,” Micah said dryly, his tone shifting to sheepish.

Kung Lao hummed. “So you do not know of Shaolin Wu Shu,” he commented thoughtfully.

“Nope. I know of Shaolin Kung Fu which I’m certain Kuai Liang would know of, but I’m not sure what the other is,” Micah deadpanned, shrugging.

“That’s because they are the same, only named differently,” a cold, deep voice said dryly. Dark brown eyes narrowed as the youth spun, instinctively shifting his weight into a stance that made him think of the low Muay Thai stance he’d seen Jackson Briggs favor at times, though it was more focused on the balls of his feet, allowing for greater maneuverability.

“He has talent, though it is somewhat unpolished, as if it has not been in recent use,” the Lin Kuei Grandmaster mused thoughtfully.

Micah’s gaze was distracted as he spotted a flare of emerald light. “That looked almost like something Ermac might use… or a certain primping sorcerer,” he commented. Kuai noticed Kitana’s lips twitching as if she were trying to not laugh, while Kung Lao looked somewhat confused.

He shifted his weight, relaxing slightly before sighing softly. “I’m sure you can guess I know who you all are, though… in my world… none of you exist outside of a video game series… named after a particular tournament you likely know of very well. And I’ll freely admit I do like Cary Hiroyuki’s portrayal of Shang Tsung in the movie they did of it, though in most of the games… Shang was an asshole in need of a foot,” he deadpanned. He heard the Shaolin monk snort in return. “And if you don’t set that ego aside, Lao, I’m going to slap it out of you,” he said dryly before he blinked, startled to see Kuai’s form shattering into ice and blowing away. He did, of course, recognize the exit tactic as one employed from the MK 2011 game from the Tag Kombat.

--------------- In the waking realm…

Kuai saw Hanzo shift out in a gust of hellfire as he took over, fighting the strange, chitinous creatures which seemed highly vulnerable to his and Hanzo’s skills. His icy blades sheared through the chitinous flesh, exposing dark greenish teal insides, though the blood tended to be a dark green much like that of a Raptor.

The Lin Kuei Grandmaster smirked, tilting his head. He focused his chi into a dense sphere that formed between his palms before he weakened one side of the sphere and let it fire out in a jet of freezing air that encased the chitinous creatures in ice enough to halt their movements but not enough to be fatal. He used his Ice Slide to accelerate his movements, using shoulder blocks to knock aside more of the creatures, stunning most of them before a bulkier one tried to crush him into the ground, only succeeding in shattering an ice clone. He split the creature’s skull with a heavy axe, the cryokinetic energy leaking out with the fractured ice and freezing the creature’s head from within.

------------------- Within the Soulscape…

Micah blinked, cocking his head in surprise as a maelstrom of hellfire exploded from the ground as Hanzo straightened. “Hell of an entrance there, Master Hazashi. Some might call it theatrical, but… sometimes the theatrical can be just as effective. Kombat is just as much psychological as it is physical and spiritual,” he commented.

Hanzo tilted his head with interest. “You are not like the parasite sorcerer. You are much more respectful,” he commented gruffly.

“Of course I would be. Unlike Shang, I have damn good reason to respect you all. No doubt he sees you merely as boosts of his own abilities, yet I see you as allies with knowledge that would doubtless be useful to me adjusting to this world. No doubt Kuai is having some fun outside,” Micah quipped, getting a chuckle from the stoic and gruff Shirai Ryu Grandmaster.

“From what I can tell, he is,” Hanzo deadpanned.

----------------------- In the waking realm…

Kuai smirked as he planted a side kick into the ribs of one of the chitinous creatures before slamming its head into a nearby planter, rendering it unconscious.

“Thorax!!” he heard a bulkier one snarl before he was encased in ice before he was slammed into a wall, heavily cracking it. Kuai snorted as he glared at the semi-conscious creature. He hummed softly, sensing that their possessor wished to push himself as pale emerald-teal flames flared before fading, revealing Micah as he rolled his shoulders.

“Thank you, Grandmaster Liang,” he murmured as he took a deep breath. He strode down the broad hallway, his eyes narrowing as he spotted more of the chitinous bipeds.

“You think you can stop our Queen? We Changelings will enjoy this feast!!” one of the bulkier creatures he now knew to be called Changelings snarled.

“You’ll enjoy a feast of what, my fist as I drive it down your throat until it comes out your ass? I’ll be more than happy to let you feast on that, asshole. And from the sound of it, your Queen sounds like a Queen Asshole in need of a boot,” Micah deadpanned, rolling his shoulders as three of them charged at him, leaving the bulkier pair by the broad doors. His hand dipped, coming up with a thin roll of monowire before he blinked, the instinctive movement reminding him of a certain female Special Forces Lieutenant. “Hmmmm, so, Sonya… you’re in there too, eh? Let’s play,” he murmured with amusement. He lightly wound the wire around the punching arm of one Changeling, letting his fingers slip off the wire as he twisted and dropped to a knee, dislocating the elbow as he twisted, plowing his forearm into the Changeling’s face once, twice, thrice before planting a Sparta style kick into his gut just beneath the ribs, driving the wind from the male Changeling. He ducked under the other male’s blow, grabbing his head and falling back, driving the male’s face and chest with an echoing crunch into his raised knee in a Codebreaker before he twisted, kicking the last Changeling, a female, in the gut several quick times before slapping her across the face with a hard roundhouse kick that dropped her senseless to the floor as he spun and regained his footing in a fluid spin before he pushed off in a flying side kick that just missed the bulkier Changeling who sneered before Micah smirked.

“You missed, freak,” the Changeling growled.

“Really?” Micah retorted, locking an arm around the Changeling’s neck before shoving off the wall and slamming his face into the ground as Micah let his body weight fall atop the creature, bouncing him off the ground before he caught the Changeling, tossing him at his buddy before hurling a fireball at both of them, driving them into the wall hard enough to almost drive them through the wall. He booted both doors open, cocking his head.

“What are you?!?” Queen Chrysalis snarled.

“Meh, just a wandering sorcerer… who’s about to give you the most unpleasant spanking you’ve ever had,” Micah deadpanned nonchalantly.

Author's Note

Micah's first true feel of harsh Kombat is upcoming!!! Queen Chrysalis will not be forgiving nor kind... so Micah has to find the killing intent to quell her madness... and give those fighting her already time to defeat her.