***Sky Temple***

“My… my name is Azriel”, she looked around for a bit but didn’t know where she was. So she faced Raiden and asked him, “Where am I exactly?”

Both Raiden and the man looked at each other confused at first, since she at least remembered her name they ruled out Amnesia. The man proceeded to ask her, “Are you from EarthRealm?”

“EarthRealm?”, said Azriel. She tilted her head to the left in confusion as to why he called it that. “Is that what you call this Dimension?” It was clear that she was from another Earth. Possibly a 3rd one, as she didn’t look right when compared to the heroes they met long ago.

“If you cannot remember how you got here, can you at least tell us what happened before then?”

“Sure, but first, can you at least introduce yourselves to me. It would be nice to know who you are.”

“Very well, I am Raiden: God of Thunder.”

“And I am Liu Kang: a protector of EarthRealm and current champion of Mortal Kombat.”

Azriel saved her questions for later as she started off with her discovery of the Temple, followed by an unpleasant encounter with Zae, and how Tina was separated from her.

***Temple of Creation***

(2 days ago)

“HEY! Let go of that book you son of a bi..”, Before she could finish her sentence, Zae shot some tar directly at her mouth, which left her gagged and couldn’t speak. He saw the page that was left opened and read it out loud before he opened a Vortex right in front of himself. Before he walked in, he looked back at Azriel and gave off a villainous glare.

“I will find your little friend, and I will get my pieces back, even if I have to make universes collide.”

With her spell book now in his cloak, he walked straight into the Vortex on his new mission to find the scattered pieces and eventually learn the secrets of the middle piece, which was the only one he didn’t have. Azriel was all alone and trapped. The tar that Zae shot was a special kind, one that magic users like her have struggled to break free from, especially if they didn’t know how to burst. Lucky for Azy, she knew the spell but she needed to wait bit as it requires a huge amount of magic built up, it took a while since she used so much of it during the fight. While Azriel waited she thought of how she could defeat Zae, for she was afraid that her skills might not be enough. However, she remembered her previous encounter, and how she nearly sealed him away. Since she couldn’t do much else right now Azy eventually dozed off.

(6 hours later)

Azy woke up at the sound of footsteps and saw that it was Zae and a guy that she didn’t know about.

“So, this is the girl that gave you so much trouble?”

“Yes, and her little friend will get what’s coming to her.”

She looked at him with anger after what he just said. She had her magic built up faster when she went to sleep and now, her eyes glowed as she was able to burst it out, which not only knocked those two creepy guys back but it shredded the tar into pieces. Zae tried to shoot her down with his tar cannon but she released smoke from her hands which helped at first. Quan Chi saw through it and blasted a flaming skull at her which knocked her back a bit, but also hit Zae who just so happened to be next to her.

“Wow, what an interesting artifact, where have I seen this before?”

Zae gazed at her and noticed she held a capsule which contained a scroll, one that he held onto.

“You lousy piece of filth!?!?” Shouted Zae as he ran at her with a sword for a left hand but didn’t get her as she pulled her eyelid, stuck her tongue out, and opened a vortex underneath her. He didn’t get her in time.

“NO!!!!!”

Zae was angry, like, really angry, to the point where he sounded like a beast. Quan Chi brushed it off as normal for him and asked, “What exactly was in that scroll?”

***NetherRealm***

She hoped out of a Vortex and she landed on a cliffside that led down to a giant lava river. She gulped before she looked up and saw nothing but a giant wasteland.

“That was almost too easy.” She said to herself as she took out the scroll which held info for an artifact known as the Platinum Prism. This was one of the very few places to find one and it wasn’t easy. The NetherRealm could drain magic for users who stayed in there for too long, it could even cause some to go insane if they stayed in there long enough. She walked forward for hours and made sure to avoid any holes she might’ve fallen into, but she had to set a budget to how she used her magic since it was slowly draining in this realm, and not in the normal way, it would drain even when she hadn’t used it for an hour. It took a total of two hours, but she finally found it. Except it was down a cliff, on a small piece of land surrounded by lava, and it had a forcefield around it that glowed really bright. She felt that it gave off a strong presence even if she was a good distance away from it. Azriel snapped her fingers and was able to float down. She landed safely on the rock. She then reached into her cloak and got out the white key that she still had. The young sorceress was about to unlock the force field, but then, she was suddenly ambushed by a swarm seven of winged onis that tried to take a bite out of her.

She dodged the first few strikes but one of them slashed her right eye which caused her to drop the key, and it would’ve fell in the lava if Azy didn’t catch it in time. One of the flying beast grabbed her by both arms and was whisked away. She had to use magic at this point, and so she did. When the other six oni’s approached their meal Azriel put the key back in her pocketthen she shot lightning out of her fingers, which fried the brains of her winged captors, and they all fell down. She floated downwards but wasn’t in the clear, as other demons heard the commotion and they all wanted to sink their teeth into her flesh. The Platinum Prism would have to wait as she had to fight through the entire horde and hope that she’d have enough magic left to create a vortex back to her world. A faceless brute lunged at her from behind, but she anticipated this and rolled out of the way and casted a fireball onto it. Two more approached her from behind, but she was swift and practically danced around their claw swipes, even if her right her was damaged. Just as more cam at her she sprayed smoke from the palm of her hands and jumped onto one of their heads. While in the air Azriel casted an ice spell that froze those beneath her, but before she could shatter them another winged one grabbed her while she was in the air.

It held her tight with both arms and attempted to bite her head off, however, instead of a juicy human head, its mouth was filled with a ball of fire that melted its head from the inside out. Azy fell, but couldn’t float down, as her powers were being drained rather quickly. It didn’t matter how much she used her powers in the NetherRealm, so long as she was there, the place itself drained them. On her way down, she slammed onto a rockslide and rolled on the crusty floor like a rag doll. As she came to a stop though, she screamed as she felt a small pointy object pierce itself through her chest, it was a black spike with a red tip at the end, although she barely caught a glimpse as it decided to enter itself into her body as if it wanted to go in. She managed to get back on her feet but was completely surrounded. She held her right arm in agony as it was injured due to her fall. The horde began to dog pile her as the ones who got in first proceeded to bite into her. Azriel thought it she was done for, but something unexpected happened.

Simultaneously, the demons were shocked by something, none of them were able to move. They were each covered in an aura type energy. The entire horde was lifted into the air and made into a ball, finally, the giant demon ball was tossed aside, leaving only Azy, who was barely alive, and this supposed figure who saved her life. Azriel gazed at her savior as it floated down to make sure she was okay. It appeared as a male anthropomorphic animal with gray quills, a white fluff of fur around his neck, five spines on his head, white gloves, cyan + black + white boots, and golden eyes that starred right at her. It spoke to her with a wimpy yet confident voice as it ran toward her.

“Hang on Azriel, I’ll get you out of here.”

“Wh.. who”, She coughed up some blood before she continued her question. “Who exactly are you?”

“That doesn’t matter.”, He picked her up and held her with both of his arms as he levitated off the ground and flew away with her.

“What matters is that I get us out of here and patch you up.”

He flew faster and faster all while Azy asked him to slow down a bit but he denied her request.

“I’m sorry, but I need to do this as fast as I can. I can’t risk having her know I was here.”

“Wait, who’s…” her eyes shut as her consciousness slipped away which had the stranger worried.

***Sky Temple***

(Present day)

“And when I woke up, I was here, and that’s when I met you guys.”

With her story rapped up, Raiden asked her about, “This Zae character, is he really as dangerous as you described?”

“Indeed, he’ll stop at nothing until he gets what he wants and is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way.”

“Lord Raiden, what if this guy were to come to EarthRealm?”

“Unless there’s a disk piece here he would have no reason to.”

Azriel walked past them and headed straight for the door at the end of the hallway. She jumped back a bit when Raiden teleported right in front of her with his arms folded. He firmly stood there and asked her, “You’re not seriously planning to go back into the NetherRealm, are you?”

“You don’t understand. That Prism is the only thing that can stop him, I should know since I tried it.”

“What do you mean?”, Raiden asked her.

“Well…”

Her explanation was suspended when they all heard the door as it was slammed open by a monk dressed in orange who ran towards them with urgency.

“Lord Raiden, bad news. The academy, it’s under attack.”

“Again?”, Liu asked the monk.

“Then there’s no time to waste.”, Raiden stated as he rose his left hand and a bolt of lightning came through and the three of them were transported to the Wu Chi Academy while the monk was left alone.

***Wu Shi Academy***

The three heroes were now on a rooftop in the Wu Chi Academy and saw the invaders from a distance. There was a giant vortex near the entrance and a ton of Tarkatans ran out of it. There were already a few in the academy and they were all being led by one in particular that had black armor, black shoulder pads, black pants, and a red belt. Many Shaolin warriors have already fallen in battle, but Liu leaped into action to help his fellows bros out, Raiden simply teleported, and Azriel decided to help out before she went back to the NetherRealm.

***Azriel’s old hideout***

Twilight finished up her last apple, she was thankful that Applejack had found some for not just her but for the whole group as well. Although Spongebob had to prevent his fat pink friend from eating them all. Tina, after giving it much thought, decided to go against Azriel’s note and not wait for her, especially since the situation began to be more dire. They all talked at the table about what they should do next. R.D. suggested they should head straight for Zae right now, but Twilight forbid it since they all know what he’s capable of as well as the fact that he now has an army at his disposal.

“Oh come on Twilight, you saw me and Tina take him on”

“No, I was busy fighting that other guy, remember?”

SpongeBob raised his left hand to get their attention but was unsuccessful as Rainbow Dash told Tina to back her up.

“We did, but it definitely wasn’t easy. But I agree with Twilight.”

“Seriously?!?!”

“Um guys- eh I mean girls, I..”

“I’m just sayin, we took down Chrysalis and the Storm King’s armies, so why don’t we do the same for Zae’s?”

Applejack reminded Rainbow that, “It was actually just the Storm King’s army we took down, Chrysalis had us captured, remember?”

“Yeah, that definitely wasn’t our proudest moment”

Batman asked them, “You didn’t kill any of them, did you?”

“No, of course not.”

Everyone at the table went silent except SpongeBob who was cut off by Spike, “Except for King Sombra, then again we didn’t know that it.. would..”, he figured it would be a good idea to stop talking.

“At least it wasn’t intentional.”

“Of course not Batman, we would never do something like that”, said Twilight.

SpongeBob had his hand raised for so long it literally fell off. He unintentionally freaked out Fluttershy, who was sitting next to him, but don’t worry for it grew back instantly. Her little panic made her flutter in the air and it got everybody’s attention.

“Oh, um..”, she quietly sat back down, “I believe someone SpongeBob has something to say.”

“Right. So, since we know that Zae is building an army with people that are from other dimensions, I figured why not build one of our own?”

Tina, Twilight, and Batman pondered his idea and came to the conclusion, “It just might work.”

“Then it’s settled than”, Tina said confidently, “I think we should split up into groups and find new recruitment and obtain a new piece of the disk.”

“I beg your pardon Tina”, said Applejack, “but how exactly can each of us track down a piece before they do, especially since we only have one piece.”

“That’s simple, or rather not since it is a more advanced spell. Hand me the piece Twi!”

Once the piece levitated in front of Tina she encapsulated it inside of a blue bubble. She harnessed her energy and performed the spell. The bubble split into three, they simultaneously popped and their one disk piece was split into three. The duplication spell was a success, and now they could have three separate teams. She explained that, “These two aren’t as powerful as the first and they will poof if you aren’t careful.”

Now that problem was out of the way, they all decided on who should go with who. Spike had his eyes set on the gorgeous Rarity while Tina wanted to have Twilight by her side (seeing how magic’s her special talent), Batman and SpongeBob stuck with Twilight since she’s the reason they’re here, Rainbow Dash went with Applejack because nopony else could keep up with them, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie went with Team Rarity to back them up, and Patrick went with Rainbow simply because the other teams were full. Twilight didn’t need to give a motivational speech this time since everyone was already motivated for their new game plan. They all headed out the front door and they each got their pieces out, Twilight’s team in particular had the real one.

Twilight noticed a tear shed down Spike’s eye as she went over to wipe it of, he returned the favor with a hug. She assured him that she’ll return safely despite not knowing where they’re about to go. This almost made Batman shed a tear, almost. The teams grouped up together as they were ready to head out. Team Rarity were up first.

“Now, if I remember correctly, all I have to say is find and the vortex will appear?”, she unknowingly had the piece aimed at a tree so when it shot the beam and created the vortex it sucked the tree in. “Oopsie”, she trotted through the spinning circle alongside Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Team Rainbow was next, Applejack aimed for a clear area and said, “find”, while the piece was in her mouth. They went in no problem, which left Team Twilight last. She also aimed for the clear space and one by one, they all went through, the hideout was left empty once again.

***Wu Shi Academy***

Meanwhile, back at the academy, the battle continued on as the Tarkatans had the upper hand. Liu Kang launched a fire ball at one of them and kicked another one that tried to strike him from behind. He blocked an attack from a third one that approached him from the right and he sweep kicked the solider as he blocked another attack from behind. He followed it up with a series of jabs and ended it with an uppercut. One of them actually managed to hit Liu Kang in the jaw but he shook it off like it was nothing. Liu performed a cartwheel that struck his opponent three times in the head and followed it up with an uppercut that launched the beast into the air. He heard a monk that called out for his help and ran towards him just as the Tarkatan from earlier landed face first on the ground. He found the old monk stuck under some rubble. As Liu lifted a few rocks and building parts another Tarkatan jumped in the air and tried to strike him with a sneak attack. Liu looked around when he heard the sound of the beast as it got sliced in half by a flying razor sharp hat. Just as the hat landed on the ground, a man teleported from under it and the hat was now on his head. This man had black boots, blue and red armor, tan pants, black hair with a pony tail, and black gauntlets.

“Good timing as always, Kung Lao.”, said Liu as Kung Lao helped him free the monk.

“Thank you.”, said the old monk as he walked away and found somewhere to hide since he was injured. They both heard a scream from a distance as they both looked towards the wall above and witnessed as many monks tried to take on the leader of the Tarkatan horde only for them to get sliced and diced. The two Shaolin warriors both decided to take him on together but not before Liu told Kung Lao, “I would race you, but you’re just gonna teleport over there anyways.”

“*pffttp*, Me, cheat? No way.”

“Well then, let’s get to it!.” Said Liu as he ran towards the leader as Kung Lao whispered, “shoot” to himself as he hoped to beat him to it but decided to play fair and ran alongside his best friend.

High above the ground, a vortex opened up with Twilight and Tina as the first two to come out of it. After they quickly realized that she wasn’t on the ground, Twilight and Tina managed to stay airborne with the help of their wings. Batman came out next and Twi was about to catch him but he spread his cape out and glided down to safety. But then along came SpongeBob as the last member of Team Twilight who spun out of control while he fell down.

Tina looked back at Twilight and asked her, “Umm… should we catch him?”, with a worried look on her face, only for her to reply , “He’s a sponge, he’ll be alright.”, with a playful grin on her face.

Liu Kang and Kung Lao eventually got up to the stone wall and were face to face with the leader of the Tarkatan horde.

“Baraka”, they said simultaneously.

Baraka looked behind himself and saw the two Shaolin warriors who were both in an awesome fighting pose back to back with each other (Liu held his faming fist out while Kung held onto his hat with his left hand) and were ready to take him on together. He proceeded to speak to them in a creepy voice despite the fact that his teeth were so huge, all while two huge blades came from his arms.

“I’ll take you both on and once I’m done my people will feast on your flesh in victory of Outwo…”

His monologue was interrupted by SpongeBob who crashed into him and they both fell off of the wall and through a rooftop of the nearest building. The two warriors both looked back at each other as they were understandably confused about what just happened. SpongeBob recovered from dizziness as he looked around and saw that he was inside of a Chinese looking house with a big hole in the roof. He looked underneath him and found Baraka who gazed upon him with anger.

“Nosferatu? What are you doing here?”

“Was that an insult you little yellow… whatever you are?”, asked Baraka as not only was SpongeBob pushed off of his back, but he got his blades out and sliced the poor sea sponge in half. He looked over him but jumped back a little when SpongeBob opened his eyes and asked, “Oh right, different world.”

Liu Kang jumped through the roof and threw a fire, in the shape of a dragon, directly at Baraka which sent him flying through the wall and crash landed on the ground. He turned around and told the yellow stranger, “Fear not, for I am Liu Kang! Are you okay?”

SpongeBob answered both question while both halves jumped up and slammed into each other from the sides that were incomplete. He was whole once more.

“I am not okay, for I am SpongeBob Squarepants.”

Liu Kang was amused at his remark but turned around as he heard the sound of growling from behind as Baraka climbed back up to challenge him. Liu stood in a fighting stance while SpongeBob got on his red karate gloves and horizontal helmet as they stood side by side.

Baraka shot a spark at him only for Liu to block it, what he didn’t expect however was to get charged and tackle so hard by the Tarkatan general that they both created a hole through the building they were in and crashed down on the ground. Baraka had pinned on the ground with both blades at his throat. He was about to slit it open but SpongeBob flew in and kicked him at the back of his head and he was knocked off of Liu. Baraka charged and swung his left blade at SpongeBob bit he dodged it. Then he swung at him with his right arm only to have missed again. Furious, he attempted to strike SpongeBob in the face, but the little square dude blocked it with his hands.

The Sponge saw an opportunity and swept his right foot which tripped over Baraka. He jumped up on his feet and attempted to sweep kick SpongeBob, but he missed as his opponent performed a backflip and landed a few feet away from him. Baraka shot a spark at the yellow one only for him to duck and Liu Kang shot the Tarkatan leader in the back with a fireball. He swiped at Liu with his left blade only for him to dodge, then his right blade but missed, and then Liu punched him on the right side on his face which sent him tumbling. He got back up and saw both the Shaolin warrior and the absorbent yellow one in their respective fighting stances as they starred him down, Liu Kang in particular had a flaming right fist. He looked at both of them and said, “You can both take me on, but you won’t take me down.”, as he leaped in the air and attempted to slash at them both.

Meanwhile, back at the wall, Kung Lao noticed two beings in the air. They were both trying to fend off the academy with their magic skills, but they made sure not to kill any of their enemies. He teleported right in front of the two strangers to try and greet them only to have alerted them. He assured them that he’s on their side. Twilight, Tina, and Kung Lao all introduced themselves to each other. Tina was going to ask if he’d seen Azriel around here but figured she would save it for later as they didn’t have time for questions.

At the same time that was happening, Raiden and Azriel were back to back to each other and had their hands out towards their enemies as they were surrounded as they stood in the center of the Lei Tai platform that was being held by five statues with ropes. One of them charged towards the Thunder God but Raiden grabbed the Tarkatan by the jaw and filled his head up with so much electricity that his eyeballs popped out of their sockets, and his head exploded soon after. Batman stood on the roof of a nearby Monastery as he watched everyone else fighting. He would join in except he didn’t like Raiden’s method of dealing with enemies. He took note of the girl besides him and how she had a striking resemblance to Tina’s description of her lost friend. Just then, he heard two sharp objects flew at his face although he was quick enough to avoid them both. He gazed towards the source of the weapons but saw a masked woman in pink and black who charged at him with her Sia’s that were suddenly back. She savagely swiped at his chest, hoping to spill open his intestines, but Batman dodged each of her attacks until he was at the edge of the roof. Just when she came in for the killing blow, he did a graceful backflip off of the rooftop, ripped out his grapple gun, swung to the other side, and he stuck the landing. Mileena rolled herself into a ball then proceeded to roll really fast which knocked Batsy onto his back. She went for the kick from above but it backfired when Batman grabbed her leg and threw her off of the building, where the fight continued on.

During the middle of the fight, Azy noticed the Batman and Mileena as she couldn’t tell who was on the side of light. Raiden took note of her distraction and decided to intervene as he shot Mileena with lightning all while he flew towards them. Batman was furious as Raiden could’ve killed her. Even though she was trying to kill him he had no intentions to do the same to her.

“Look! I don’t care who you are, but I had the situation under control”

“Normally I’d expect gratitude, but seeing how our last encounter went, I can understand.”

Batman looked confused after that statement. He had never met this strange man before yet he acts like they’ve already met. Batman asked two obvious questions about the thunder wonder.

“I am Raiden: God of Thunder, and I don’t blame you for not remembering me. It’s been a long time since Dark Kahn was defeated. Unless…”

They noticed Shang Tsung as he teleported Mileena and whatever soldiers that were in that area out of there. Not only that, but Batman noticed that Azriel was gone as well. Raiden knew that she was going to get herself killed if she were to try and get that prism. He went off to find Liu Kang as Batman followed him.

Liu avoided Baraka with a backflip as he swung his blade hands at him. SpongeBob leaped high and attempted to smack his opponent on the head only to get kicked as Baraka knew of his sneak attack due to the fact that he screamed, “HI-YAH”. He turned back around and blocked the fury of punches that Liu Kang had for him, all while he got pushed back a bit with each flamming punch. Baraka averted each of them and took a bite out of Liu’s right arm. He tried so hard to rip it off but the warrior kicked him away and held his arm in pain. “Oh gosh”, Spongebob shouted as he rushed over to his new ally and asked him if he was okay. Liu assured his new the yellow square that he’s fine, with Baraka charging at them once more. Spongebob leaped at him head first and rammed into him right in the stomach, in which the impact with his karate helmet and Baraka’s chest caused the general’s ribs to crack. Baraka roared out in pain as he held his chest and stumbled backwards. SpongeBob landed on his feet then glanced back at Liu as they both ran up to Baraka and simultaneously uppercutted the outworld monster, left hand with Liu and right hand from SpongeBob. He was sent flying in the air with his jaw distorted and a few pointy teeth missing. Not Nosferatu crash landed face first in the dirt a few feet away from the two heroes that kicked his butt. Kung Lao, alongside Tina and Twilight, appeared right behind him as he was concerned about Liu Kang.

“Are you okay Liu?”

“*Grunts*, I’m fine. But I could use Raiden right about now.”

“Same here, but can you tell me who or what Raiden is?”

But before his question could be answered, Shang Tsung teleported near the general and not only helped him out, but he also informed him that, “The piece is nowhere here, we must fall back!”, he proceeded to use the same trick that he did earlier to get whatever Tarkatan that were alive back to the temple alongside himself.

“So, Shang Tsung was responsible for this! *Groans*”

Raiden shouted, “LIU KANG”, as he was concerned for him. Liu held his arm out to Raiden, who knew what he must do, as the thunder god used his electricity to heal Liu’s arm. The main quartet were impressed, especially Twilight who exclaimed, “WOW, I’ve never seen electricity used like that before.”, Liu and Lao took note of Batman but sensed that there was something different about him. He came to the conclusion that he was a different Batman from the one he fought. Raiden knew who Batman was but he had no clue about the other strangers. So he asked them who they were and what their business was in EarthRealm.

“I’m SpongeBob SquarePants, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.”

“And my name’s Tina. We’re here to look for these disk pieces-”

“For the Dimensional Disk?”, Raiden asked.

“W-WHAT”, Tina stuttered, “How do you know?”

“Azriel had informed me-“

“AZRIEL???? Where is she?”

“I was getting to that!”, She calmed down and proceeded to listen while Raiden had his arms crossed like a badass.

“As I’ve stated, Azriel informed me of the Dimensional Disk, and that this Zae character wants to use it for his own malicious ends.”

Tina gazed around the area. She looked up, down, and all around, but her lost friend was nowhere in sight. If only she knew earlier. But it wasn’t the time to get teary eyes, she had a mission, and she needed to stick with it. Twilight ensured her that there’s still a chance they could run into her during their travels, which cheered up the sad floating doll. Twilight showed off their only disk piece to her new allies and asked them where they could find any. She figured that Raiden could help them since he’s a god and was the most familiar with this new world, when in reality, he didn’t know where it was. I mean, he just learned about their existence today. He thought of a plan though, and decided to put it in action.

“Truth be told, I don’t know the exact location of these disk pieces”, Tina had a long face, “but I could give you suggestions on where to look.”, Her face lit up with joy. The thunder god name dropped a few key locations such as Deacon City, Yin Yang island, and even the Lin Kuei Palace. Tina heard someone whisper in her head, it suggested which place for her to pick.

“Who said that?!!”, she asked, but no one knew what she was talking about. Even though she didn’t know who or what that voice was, she decided to go with its advice and chose the Lin Kuei Palace.

“Very well then, I can transport you there at once.”

“Wait!”, Liu Kang demanded as he requested to join them, which they accepted, Kung Lao insisted to stay to make sure his Shaolin brothers were alright, and Raiden gave the team good luck, as they were gonna need it. They said farewell to Kung Lao as the thunder god threw his right arm into the air and the six of them vanished within a flash of lightning.

***Lin Kuei Temple***

In the Ice cold mountains of the frozen arctic, there rest a palace that is the home of the Lin Kuei clan of assassins. Raiden and the gang appeared right in front of an intimidating statue of the old grandmaster sitting down and held fire in the palm of its stone hands, not to mention there was a huge stone circle behind it. It was constantly snowing and definitely not an ideal place for a certain someone in square pants. Before Raiden left them he was asked by Liu where he was going.

“I need more information on this Dimensional Disk, and I hope the Elder Gods can provide it.”

They both wished each other the best in their endeavors as Raiden left them in the snowy arctic. While they were at that spot they took note of their surroundings. There was the grandmaster statue as mentioned earlier, two coffins stood on each side, behind it all was a huge cliffside that had a nice view of the palace itself, and to the left was the entrance to it. The palace itself looked like a Chinese palace with the entrance being a door with two dragon statues at each side. To the right side was the only tree in sight. As expected, the little Yellow Sea sponge constantly shivered in this harsh environment, if only he knew to bring thicker clothes. Liu was about to lead them inside when suddenly, Batman noticed someone who snuck up behind them. A blue ninja, who firmly grasped his katana, had intended for a sneak attack but Batman wasn’t about to have that. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by eight of them, each of them almost identical. The group was back to back as each of them were in their fighting stances: Twilight puffed up her chest all while she spread her wings her horn glowed, Batman held his arms out where the fins were facing the ninjas, Tina had her stubby hands in the formation of a circle as she was ready to cast an elemental ball, SpongeBob had his karate gear on and got in the traditional stance, and Liu Kang was in his usual Shaolin stance. They were all ready to fight, but…”

Stand down!”, someone shouted from somewhere and they proceeded to do just that without question as they knew who spoke to them, and so did Liu Kang. The voice came from the roof where it was their grandmaster who spoke. A man dressed garbed ninja-like uniform, some silver shoulder armor, a gorgeous black beard, some hair on his head, and a red scar that ran down the left side of his face. He jumped off and landed right in front of the group and greeted Liu.

“Greetings Liu Kang”, the stranger said as they shook hands.

“Greeting to you too Sub-Zero”

They could tell that he was a respected warrior. The grandmaster couldn’t help but notice the odd group that accompanied Liu. He did recognize Batman though, just like Liu and Raiden, he met up with the caped crusader a while back, or rather his counterpart.

“I have heard of you Batman, but who are the rest of your comrades?”

“I-I’m *shivers* SpongeBob Squarepants”.

“My name’s Tina, pleased to meet you”, she waved awkwardly as she wasn’t the best in greeting new people.

“And my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Hang on”, Batman requested to know how, so far, everyone in this realm seemed to know who he is. Sub told them to follow him inside the Temple and he’ll explain to Batman what he wanted to know. One by one, the group went inside the Temple after the grandmaster, but little did they know however, that there was someone that lurked inside of the tree behind them, someone who had a burning desire for vengeance. Inside of the temple, they all walked down several hallways all while Batman’s question from earlier had been answered.

“About a year ago, our realms merged together, or rather a different version of your realm, because of an entity known as DarkKahn. He was fueled by rage and made everyone fight to tear the realms apart. His terror wouldn’t last long however, as he was defeated by Raiden and Superman.”

“So it wasn’t me, but rather, another Batman.”

“Sounds cool”, said the sea sponge who was no longer shivering, “I wonder what it must be like to meet yourself.”, Twilight glanced back with a bead of sweat, like in an anime as she knew what it was like all too well. Liu informed Grandmaster blueberry ice that DarkKahn hasn’t returned and there is a bigger crisis that needs to be stoped. Tina told him about their quest for the disk pieces and had the idea to come here.

“Out of all the places in EarthRealm, why come here exactly?”

Tina didn’t have a convincing response, as she didn’t want to say, “there was a voice in my head”, for obvious reasons. But no matter, as Sub-Zero knew what they were seeking. They arrived in the Grandmasters chamber for some tea on a small table in the middle of the room. Even though he wasn’t expecting guest, he already had some tea ready before their arrival. But just then, a side of the roof was blasted with fire, which left a huge hole that leaked the snow cold air inside. The group was left on edge as the attacker revealed himself in the hole, it was none other than, “Scorpion?”

“You traitor, and here I thought your clan had honor.”

“What are you talking about?” *tilts head*

“Don’t think you can trick me again”

SpongeBob was both upset at the destroyed tea and frightened at the angry fire ninja. Everyone else didn’t know what he was talking about but were willing to help Sub-Zero out, but he blocked them off and asked them to, “leave, it is me he wants to fight.” Liu, in respect to his demand, ran exactly where they entered the chamber, with the others shortly after. The two warriors starred at each other, as they knew what was about to go down. Once rivals then allies now rivals again are about to fight each other, and only one of them will make it out of this encounter.

Scorps made the first move as he threw out a chain with a kunai attached to the end of it. Sub saw it coming and created an ice pillar then proceeded to jump from it so he could punch the yellow ninja in the face, only to be denied as his opponent teleported in flames. He appeared above and slammed Sub to the floor with his feet on his back. The fight was far from over tho, Sub froze the legs of Scorpion which made him fell over to his left side. As he was honorable and didn’t want to attack his opponent while down like this, he have Hanzo the chance to get up all while he created dual ice swords with his ice powers. Scorpion drew his blades and the two assassins clashed with their blades. They swung their blades at each other, each swipe would either miss or be blocked, these two were really at each other. Sub attempted to talk it out during kombat.

“Hanzo, what’s gotten into you?”

But he didn’t respond, as he was blinded by Quan Chi’s deception. As their sword skills were evenly matched, He vanished in a whirl of fire which left Sub on guard, as he could appear from anywhere. Just as expected, Scorpion tried to land a flying kick, complete with hellfire around his foot, but it was evaded. Sub threw an ice ball at Scorpion which froze him in place and landed an uppercut that was strong enough to have shattered his own ice. Scorpion got back up and returned the favor as he engulfed Sub-Zero with hellfire, and it hurts like.. well.. hell. It only got worse as a kunai flew through his chest, the same one that Scorpion attempted to catch him with earlier, he pulled hard on the chain it was connected to which flew Sub closer as he was grabbed by the throat and slammed to the wall, which indeed left a small dent in it. Kuai Liang, who still believed this was a misunderstanding, tried his best to talk his way out of this battle.

“H-Hanzo, did Quan Chi do somethi..” *chokes*

“Quan Chi showed me the truth. You were the bastard who killed my family, and here I thought I could make peace with you and your clan. First your brother killed me, the Lin Kuei massacred my clan, and you finished off my wife and child. For that, I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD.”

“N-NO, while it’s true that my brother and my clan did those horrible things, I was not involved. In fact, I refused to join them in that massacre. Your families *hack* true killer, remains, a mystery.”

Scorpion paused for a moment, he had to think if Sub was telling the truth. Was he just trying to weasel his way out of this fight or he being the truthful and honest like before? Scorpion proceeded with a question but loosened his grip a bit.

“If you are not the murderer, then who..” *explosion*, Something happened that garnered their attention. Scorpion let go as Sub-Zero went off and saw what happened. The temple had been invaded by zombies, some had cones on their head, some had buckets, and all of them had brown coats with a red tie and torn up jeans, as well as shoes. The Lin Kuei have dealt with some of them but Kuai Liang still felt the need to help them out. Scorpion was left to ponder. If Sub-Zero isn’t responsible, then who was it. It became obvious to him as he thought of the most obvious person that had pulled the strings on him, Quan Chi. You could probably imagine how angry he was at that point.

Around that time, Twilight and the gang noticed that the zombies came in and wanted to feast on their brainz. They had to fight their way through it, and so they did. Quan Chi walked through the hallways and sited each room, searching for the piece, all while he held his hands behind his back. Both Scorpion and the zombie army merely served as a diversion. Unexpectedly, he crossed paths with the team of five as they figured he was behind this, even though Batman and SpongeBob had never met him before Twilight and Tina told them about the mad sorcerer during their recap. Liu Kang was the most familiar with him, as he heard the story of how him and Shinnok were defeated by the older Sub-Zero.

“So, you must be Quan Chi.”

“You know him too?”, Liu asked SpongeBob.

“Sort of, Twilight and Tina had met him.”

With a grin upon his face, Quan Chi swayed his right hand that started to glowed green which created green portals, not vortexes, underneath their feet and swallowed them, except for Tina because she was flying and Twilight because he still had plans for her. They all panicked but couldn’t do anything about that as it happened so fast. They simultaneously shouted, “NO”, as their friends had vanished.

“What have you done to them?”

“I just needed them out of the way while I negotiate with you, princess.”

“Well whatever it is I won’t oblige.”

“Oh please, you have yet to hear my offer.”, With the snap of his fingers, Noob was summoned to battle. Noob was ordered to, “pin her down”, he got his hook out of his chest and swiped away, as attempted to severely harm Twilight but not kill her. Twilight backed up as she used her wings to gain height and blocked each of his swipes with her tails, which was okay since she used magic to armor it, which made aa a quick and effective shield. Tina tried to help but Quan Chi snatched her and used his thumb to cover the doll’s mouth. The blocking continued until she saw the opportunity and shot the shadow ninja with a beam of magic. He was shot, but the second shot missed as he split in two with Saibot by his side now. Saibot attacked her from behind while Noob went at her from the front, and it was working. Twilight used a bubble shield but it quickly broke down as the shadow ninjas sliced and diced it to bits. She figured that the best way to avoid them was to fly, since he seemed incapable of doing so, so she did just that, but noticed that Tina wasn’t with her, and all the zombies were defeated. Which was expected since they weren’t seen as threatening, but what was unexpected however is Noob who appeared from a black portal above her which would’ve been painful if she didn’t teleport.

Once he landed she shot him in the back with an ice beam and went inside to find Tina, as she wasn’t with her at the moment. She didn’t have to worry about Saibot as he disappeared once Noob was defeated. She heard a familiar slime ball voice that had her on guard. Twilight looked behind herself and found Tina in the clutches of Quan Chi.

“Looking for her?”

Twilight wanted to fire at him, but she couldn’t as he had the advantage with Tina being held hostage. She had to talk her way through him which wouldn’t work. Even though she was the princess of friendship, Twilight wasn’t always able to have her enemies reform. If anything, she mostly had to fight her way through them. But now she had to stand alone, as her friends were elsewhere. So now, with a stern tone in her voice, she gazed back at him and asked what he wanted from her.

“Nothing more than my master’s freedom from the NetherRealm.”

“And you’re afraid that Zae won’t uphold his deal.”

Quan Chi had a smile across his face as she knew what he was about to offer.

“That is correct. For clearly no one who obtains that power would ever share it. Our deals wouldn’t matter if he decides to reshape the multiverse. That is why I formed my own plan behind his back. While I’m here, Shang Tsung is convincing the other recruits to join in, we will strike right before the disk is complete.”

“Why are you telling me this?”, said Twilight as she was getting more concerned about Tina and what this had to do with her.

“Well it’s very simple. I of course will use said power to free Shinnok and he’ll destroy those fools who were so desperate for their goals. As if he would help them rule the world or steal the recipe for a sandwich. All of his enemies will be wiped out as well, all except you, my little pony.”

“W-what?”, Both Tina and Twilight were confused at first. The guy who tried to kill them earlier now wanted her to be by his side. She of course thought he was crazy.

“Why would I ever help someone like you?”, Twilight replied angrily.

“Why wouldn’t you? Your magic is extraordinary, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before, and yet, you waste them on those foolish heroes. I could’ve just killed you right now and force you to serve me, but I’m giving you the choice to rule by my masters side.”

“That won’t matter, even if I join you willingly you’ll just brainwash me afterwards.”

“*Deep chuckle*, clever girl”

Scorpion walked down the hall as he thought of who could’ve actually killed his family. He had a few suspects but no way to link them to it, there was just something missing. He stopped once he noticed Quan Chi talking to someone and decided to listen in. Since she wasn’t going to come with him willingly, Quan Chi snapped his finger and had her in a trance, or so he thought. It appears that alicorns have an immunity to mind manipulation. Frustrated, he decided to just kill her instead, but not before he left Tina in bad hands, that being floating skeleton hands. As the sorcerer and princess stood off Tina could do nothing but watch and ponder what happened to her other new friends.

Author's Note

I'm sorry that this took so long to come out, had a lot of personal stuff to deal with, but hey, it's now out. The end of chapter theme will be at the end of part 2 and I think you all know what it's gonna be