Summary: While recruiting for the suicide mission against the Collectors, Commander Shepard comes into contact with a variety of potential recruits, and each one more stranger then the last. A Mortal Kombat and Mass Effect Crossover, and once again, the very first!

/-/Author Note/-/

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my new work! A Mortal Kombat and Mass Effect crossover fic! Now as the genre may suggest, this is more or less a humor fic, maybe more along the lines of crack if you see it as such, so it really shouldn't be taken seriously. This is more or less for laughs and giggles. There is a bit of plot, as with any story I write, but it's mostly just humor involving Commander Shepard's various meetings with the characters of Mortal Kombat. Also note that not all of the characters in the series will be making appearances. I already have a list of characters set to be revealed, involving a couple of non-related one-shots featuring several MK characters that won't make a direct appearance in the story, but will be at least referenced. So, aside from that, read and enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Scorpion's Sting

Commander Shepard stared rather blankly at the man sitting across from her in the bustling bar on Omega. Not unfamiliar with the concept of strange, having to deal with a variety of such during her time as a Council Spectre, going as far as dealing with extinct race of sentient insect like aliens known as Rachni, a mythological and ancient sentient ship known as a Reaper, not to mention the zombie like creatures on Feros known as Thorian Creepers, in addition to the geth and the Husks…

But even those incidents, as strange as they were, didn't stun her in this particular manner as the man sitting across from her.

Dressed in a black and yellow ninja suit, or so she presumed based off the mask he was wearing, his outfit was adored with bone like fixtures and a skeletal motif, his mask in particular resembling that of the skeletal remains of a scorpion. Attached to his waist was a blade of some sort, too small to be a combat knife, and it was connected to a chain tied around his waist. On his back were two swords, oddly designed but no less intimidating. His eyes, completely white with no pupils, stared directly at her, his arms, in which were easily the largest she had ever seen on any male, even on those muscle heads she had bunk with during her N7 training. She could actually see the viens popping out, admist quite a few nasty scars from what she could make out in the dark lighting of the booth they were in.

And he still hadn't stopped staring at her…

Raising her drink in hand, Shepard struggled for words, a first for her, but the man before her was rather strange, and this was coming from a woman whose best friends were a scared turian, battle hardened krogan, and crippled smartass.

"Um…hi?"

The man didn't respond, but his eyes did narrow slightly, which only increased Shepard's nervousness. Wasn't it wrong to say that she felt like a cornered animal about to be torn to pieces by a hunger predator?

"So…come around here often?"

Was that growl? That was definitely a growl.

Maybe under normal circumstances, Shepard wouldn't have been intimidated by this man, or at least to the point where she was stammering with a bead of sweat working its way down her forehead to the side of her neck, but she wasn't dressed in her N7 armor, nor was she armed. Technically speaking, she was still logged onto being present on the Normandy, Joker covering for her by producing a looping video feed of her in her new cabin, otherwise known as the Loft, stripping down her weapons, because god knows she wasn't letting Taylor, former Alliance or not, get anywhere near her babies. Obviously the ruse wasn't going to last long as EDI would discover sooner or later that the video loop was rigid and contact 'buzz-kill' Lawson.

In retrospect, it seemed rather idiotic of her to not only go to Afterlife, alone, unarmed, dressed in her civvies, but also for the intensive purpose of getting absolutely smashed, with only Joker knowing of her real whereabouts, but damn it she needed a break. It's not every day you discover that you've been dead for two years and that the life you knew was now nothing more but a good memory. She would have at least brought Garrus, but he was still stuck in medical, even after his assurance that he was fine, even after taking several rounds to the leg and chest before getting smacked right in the face with a missile. The scarring was going to stay according to Chakwas, unless she wanted to spring for the extra 50,000 credits and purchase the necessary medical equipment to repair the scarring. And she was getting slightly off topic. Point of the matter was that she was alone, defenseless, tipsy at the very least, and she had just claimed a small corner booth in a bar filled to the brim with the seediest characters in the Terminus System, with a ninja clad possible psycho as her only company.

Lucky her, right?

"Hmm…you're waiting for somebody?"

The man's fists, resting on his biceps, his arms folded, clenched, and she swore that she thought she saw an actually flare of fire seep out of his finger tips.

It was probably just her imagination she reasoned, though that didn't stop her from pushing her bottle of alcohol away from her. She had already been poisoned once already at this bar, so it wasn't a bit of stretch that somebody put some sort of hallucination inducing drug in her drink. Or a micky, though they were going to regret it when she got her hands on them…

And her spacing off and internal monologues seemed to be doing nothing else but pissing of her fellow patron even more. Maybe she should have just left when she noticed him for the first time…?

Turning her gaze back to his face, Shepard asked, "You got a name buddy?"

Immediately after she asked, she cast her sight down, and felt her lips and throat go dry as she saw with her own eyes, a brief flare of fire escape the man's eyes before disappearing back to his pupil less gaze.

"…Scorpion."

Shepard merely nodded her head in response, wondering how to make herself scarce without tipping off her pissed off acquaintance, as she was certain when he had spoken out his name, there was a underlying tone of warning to his voice. She didn't even register really on the fact that the man was named after an insect, and if she did, she wasn't really tempted all that much to ask why he was named as such.

"…You never did answer my question."

God, she was just digging herself in a deeper hole, wasn't she?

At the very least the man decided to answer this time, though his tone of voice suggested that for her own personal wellbeing, she should probably pry any deeper than that.

"Yes, I'm waiting for someone."

Nodding her head slightly, she muttered, "Good, that's good." She was starting to wish she had moved her drink away and finished the damn thing. That or she at least kept her Predator on her. If she ever got back to the Normandy in one piece, she wasn't letting that thing out of her sight ever again. She'd be sleeping with it under her pillow tonight, and every night after if need be.

"Is there a reason why your still here woman?"

Bristling slightly at being addressed as 'woman', even if it was anatomical true, Shepard mumbled out, "Well excuse me for trying to make conversation…"

That only served to irritate the man even further.

"If there is nothing of importance that you require, woman, then do me the honor of leaving me alone. I have better things to do with my time then waste with you."

Now that just pissed her off, though she attributed it to the alcohol.

Glaring at the man, Scorpion her mind supplied, Shepard snapped back, "You're lucky I don't have my gun right now or I'd shoot you." And it wasn't as if she shot, stabbed, or killed people for less. She stabbed that Sergeant Caska in back with a wielding knife just for doing his job, but hey, details…

Strangely enough, that didn't make Scorpion any angrier or more irritated with her. He seemed to actually…checking her out? No, his stare was why too intense for that, and he seemed to be lingering more on her arms then her chest or face.

"Gun? So you are a warrior of sorts then?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow at that. Warrior huh? That term was something she expected from Wrex or any krogan really, but hey, she could work with that.

"Yep. Name's Shepard, Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy. Or formerly at least. Don't really know if that title still holds true or not."

Scorpion seemed slightly intrigued by that statement, though she couldn't really tell one way or the other. Damn pupil less eyes…

"Alliance Navy? And your rank is Commander? That title is

"What do you mean by, 'formerly'?"

Ah…and here comes the kicker.

Giving him a thousand watt smile, which in reality was really more of a grimace, Shepard stated with false cheer, "Well, there could be a quite a few reasons for that. One is that technically speaking, I'm dead. I was spaced into vacuum before I drifted planet side and crash landed on some frozen wasteland of a planet. So actually, I'm undead, minus the whole brain eating thing, I'm pretty much a zombie. Secondly, I was brought back to life, and now in the service of a pro-human terrorist group, responsible for not only the death of a Fleet Admiral, but also for forty-eight lives of soldiers, not including the science team or colonists, lost on the colony of Akuze, my own nearly among them."

Scorpion nodded his head in understanding, which surprised her. Even she had a hard time believing herself sometimes, and she was living it.

"I understand your burden. I too died sometime ago, murdered unjustly while I pleaded for my life. I then had the opportunity to face my murderer soon after, but failed to avenge my death. I had then been resurrected and served a man whom I believed to have my best interests at heart, whom would grant me the opportunity to avenge not only my death, but the death of my clan and family."

Shepard, despite herself, was absorbed slightly in the man's tale. Two years ago she would have been thinking that this man was crazy and delusional, but seeing as she herself had spent two years under the knife as it were, it opened up her mind to quite a few possibilities. Besides, she couldn't be the first person in history to have died and be brought back to life, right?

Scorpion continued with his tale.

"I served him faithfully, and gained my chance to avenge who had been not only my killer, but that of all those I held dear to my heart. After a brutal battle, I emerged victorious, and I had believed to have finally avenged my death, as well as those as my family and clan, the Shirai Ryu. But I was wrong. Less than a week after the death of my killer, Sub-Zero, I learned that he had a younger brother, whom I was told was the true killer of my clan. I was enraged, and sought him out and battled, but lost. Eventually, I managed to encounter him once more deep in the dungeons of a fortress in another realm known as Edenia, where I finally defeated him."

Scorpion eyes flared slightly, though Shepard couldn't tell for what reason, before he continued with his tale.

"My master at the time, Quan Chi, entered the room, and announced that he was the true killer of my family and clan. For what reasons, I still don't know, but he gloated on how I had been the easily manipulated puppet and he, the clever puppeteer, had no further use for me. Once I realized Quan Chi's treachery, I dragged him with me to the Netherrealm. I have been hunting him ever since."

Thoroughly enraptured by his tale, Shepard couldn't help but feel a great deal of sadness for the man in front of her, a stark change from the slight discomfort he had brought out of her initially, as well as the empathetic bond she felt they shared due to their 'undead' status.

Which brought up an idea that if she was sober, Shepard would have never even considered addressing.

"Hey. Um…just an idea, but how about joining me and my crew? We're on a mission with suicidal odds staked against us, and we could use all the help we can get. You look like you can handle yourself quite well, and by your own admission, you can follow orders, so you don't have a problem with authority."

"I am sorry, but I cannot. I must find Quan Chi, and cannot afford anymore distractions."

Sticking her tongue out slightly, Shepard said, "Well…how about this then? You help me with this mission, and I'll help you find Quan Chi."

Scorpion in response merely leaned forward slightly, his mask brushing against Shepard's nose slightly, causing her to go cross-eyed as she looked at the offending object before settling her eyes on his own.

"If I offer my services to you in this mission of yours, you will not only aid me in locating the sorcerer, but not interfere with my goal in killing him, or try to convince me to spare his life?"

Shepard gave a crocked grin before raising her glass up in a toast.

"To be quite honest? If you don't kill him, I certainly well."

The corner of his mask moved slightly, and if Shepard was slightly little more sober, or at least a lot more less drunk, she would have perceived it as a smile.

"It is agreed then. I, Scorpion, of the Shirai Ryu, offer my services to you aid in your mission, Shepard-Sama. Your will is my will, your enemies are now mine enemies, and my life is under your command until our agreement has come to pass."

Taking a swing of her drink, Shepard gave herself a mental pat on the back.

She now had a ninja on her side.

Score!

Walking inside the Normandy airlock doors, Shepard paused in her steps as she came face to face with a levied Miranda Lawson, slightly concerned Jacob Taylor, as well as an apologetic Jeff "Joker" Moreau.

"…Hi?"

With her gaze as cold as glaciers, Miranda hissed, "Shepard. Where. Were. You?"

"…Um…recruiting?"

That brought Miranda up short for a brief moment before the anger returned tenfold.

"You went after Mordin Solus? Alone!"

Shepard frowned slightly at the name. Mordin who now? Dammit, maybe she should've cut back on the alcohol…

Still, she wasn't about to let her XO get away with such blatant disrespect, especially in front of her new teammate!

Poking her XO in the chest, and marveling at the air cushion capabilities, Shepard growled, "For your information Ms. Lawson, I did not go after a Mr. Mordion Solus! I actually went to Afterlife and found me a ninja!"

It was at that time that all three occupants took a good look at the tall and imposing figure behind Shepard, who was giving Miranda a glare promising a lot of pain before a very quick, if not already assured death.

Wrapping her arm around Scorpion's neck, and falling to bring him down to her own level of height despite her slight pulling, Shepard bubbled out happily, "This here is Scorpion! He's an undead ninja who decided to help us out on our mission."

Pausing for a small breath, Shepard added airly, "And yes, I'm drunk, but I can assure you that my decision was made 100% without the influence of alcohol. Okay maybe 90%, though was that before or after the tequila shots…?"

Taking a look at the group's reactions, which only shifted to Miranda and Jacob, both were looking between her and the Shirai Ryu ghoul with equal amounts of trepidation and confusion, before looking at her as if she grew a second head.

Joker, after he took one look at Scorpion turned his gaze back to Shepard, a slightly incredulously expression on his face.

"Okay, seriously Commander? Do you get all these guys at the same store or what?"

/-/Author Note/-/

End of the first chapter, and we have a meeting between Scorpion and Commander Shepard. I won't really use descriptive words to describe Shepard for the fact that everyone has their own version of a FemShep in their heads, either by their own design or otherwise, so don't expect information about Shepard's physical appearance aside from the scars from the cybernetics from the Cerberus reconstruction and the fact that she's short in comparison to Scorpion. Anyway, I hope I did decently enough on this first chapter. Scorpion is my favorite character in Mortal Kombat, and I found it difficult trying to write him and Shepard interacting, though I feel I did a good job, all things considered.

Regardless, hit the review button below and tell me what you think. Criticism is welcomed, so long as it's helpful.

CursedAndTorn, over and out.