Authors Note : You're reviews are always appreciated, as are your fantastic movie choices. PM me your movie choices.

Disclaimer : I do not own any of the characters from the Mortal Kombat Franchise, nor do I own the rights. This is only a work of fiction paying homage to the franchise.

Warnings : Some violence references and minor sexual references for this chapter.

CH. 1 – DROP OFF

"Dad, one day I'm gonna kill someone by brutally ripping them in half with my bare hands."

Johnny Cage leaned over the side of the pilot seat, flicking switches and pressing buttons before he turned to look at Cassie, putting his hands on his heart. "Yeah you will, booboo!"

Cassie still wasn't used to the sound of her dad's voice being so loud through the headphones – even after the whole journey. She held onto the abnormal headphones, readjusting them painfully. "I hope they scream."

Johnny Cage said something to the pilot that she didn't really catch.

Was Cassie spoilt for wanting all her dad's attention to be on her at all times? She swung her legs loosely under her seat, gazing out of the window. "Hey Dad, do you think there'll be any cats in the jungle?"

Johnny Cage said something else to the pilot. Something about landing. Then he held the mic dangling from his headphones and talked into it. "I'm sure there'll be one or two, booboo! Which one do you want?"

Oh, which one did she want? She put her finger on her lip and furrowed her brows. It would need to be a cat that reflected Cassie as a person. One that suffused heart, body and mind … one that circumvented human emotion itself … one that transcended the very boundaries of human nature … now how to put that into words?

"I'd want a black and white one! With a stripe! Who ate all my vegetables for me!"

Nailed it.

Johnny Cage chuckled. "I think that's dogs, booboo."

Oh, maybe she was thinking of dogs. Maybe that whole garbage about suffusing human nature was actually Cassie really thinking about dogs. It made sense to her really; as the parallels that she drew from the nature of dogs was not all too different from the parallels that she drew from humankind as a whole. Both fulfilled primal and basic desires; however humans had the innate need to one-up each other on the race to a higher level of capitalism that did not necessarily benefit any one individual or the entirety of society as a whole but rather OHMYFUCKINGLORD was that a snake?! Cassie pressed her face to the window.

The creature slithered it's way along the jungle ground, smoothly blending in with the greeny jungle floor. It's tongue was a light pink color that looked unhealthy at best.

Woii my jesus Cassie had never seen a snake before! She'd only just caught that out of the corner of her eye - and any other person would probably call it a superhuman sense of sight, but Cassie never really thought about it as a gift. Now thinking about it though, she had just seen a snake from the sky through a murky helicopter window ... a snake that blended in with the surrounding grass and was barely even moving. So she guessed it had to be a kind of good level of sight.

The helicopter slowly descended to the floor.

Cassie watched the canopy of the jungle get higher from her seat. The world was soo big and Cassie was soo small. She gripped her safety belts, leaning back on her seat.

"We're about to land, booboo!" Johnny said to his daughter.

She was already ahead of him, clutching her belts and leaning back. Her legs still loosely swung underneath her seat.

The pilot began to inch the helicopter closer to the floor, slowly guiding it down. They were going slow in the final descent to the floor. The helicopter swayed left and right as the pilot placed it further down. Then, with a tiny thud, the helicopter landed on the floor. The blades of the rotor grinded slower and slower as the moments passed, eventually halting to a stop.

Cassie took off the headphones and placed them around her neck, rubbing her reddish ears. Damn, she was so happy to be rid of that uncomfortable device from her ears once and for all. Then she unbuckled her safety belts, detaching herself from the seat and jumping down onto the floor. It was also pretty sweet to finally be able to touch the floor with her feet again.

Johnny Cage came over and put his hand on her shoulder. "And if you were to find this strange vegetable eating cat, what would you call it, booboo?

Cassie smirked. "Chlamydia, obviously."

Johnny Cage cocked his head. "Is that because you have chlamydia, booboo?"

Cassie lit up. "No you have chlamydia!"

"No, you do!"

Cassie chuckled. "No! You do!"

Johnny smirked at his daughter. "Oh, well if you say it, then maybe I do."

Her beam practically touched her ears.

He ruffled her hair. "C'mon, booboo, let's go outside."

Cassie beamed again, leaving her hair the way her dad had ruffled it. Then she picked up her backpack, slotting it over her shoulders, and stepped out after her dad.

The jungle was big. Huge even, with a blinding sun scorching the ground with it's rays.

Wooooow. It was funny to Cassie because the trees blocked out most of the sun, so there were patches on the floor where the sun hit and other patches where the sun couldn't reach. The patches that didn't get any sun also had no grass.

Johnny Cage turned around from the jungle and looked at Cassie. Then he walked over to her, crouching down next to her so his eyes were level with hers, stroking her hair. "How you feelin', booboo?"

Cassie used one hand to clutch her bag, and the other made a circle with her index finger and thumb. "Right as rain."

He placed his hands on her cheeks, holding her smiling face. "What's your mission, baby girl?"

"To protect and serve the people of earthrealm …"

"No, no," Johnny smirked, "I meant the mission for this weekend."

"Oh," Cassie chuckled slightly, "survive the weekend in the jungle!"

"That's my booboo!" He hugged her close.

She smiled into his shoulder, hugging him back even tighter. His cologne always smelled so great. It mixed with the tingy scents of the jungle, and both pricked Cassie's nose at once. "I don't really get why I'm doing this though, dad," she said, pulling out from the hug.

Johnny Cage let go of the hug too, looking into her eyes and smiling. "Well booboo – like you - I wanted the same thing. I'd spend days – days – wondering what it'd be like to go live in the jungle for a few days. Maybe I'd be able to eat some melon with some local thieves. Maybe I'd be able to skin a tiger and take pictures. Maybe I'd be able to take flight like a bird … these kind of adventures and then some."

Cassie nodded in acknowledgement.

"And what kind of horrible father would I be," Johnny continued, "if I didn't send my daughter away to go live in the very same jungle I wanted to go to for three days alongside flesh-hungry animals, dangerous thieves and nothing in the way of food and drink?"

Oh, that made so much sense to her! "Wow dad, that's a really great idea!"

Johnny Cage bopped her nose. "That's my girl! Now remember, you can't tell your mom that once again I'm sending you off potentially to your death, because she would probably call me an 'irresponsible and erratic parent' again."

Wow, mom called dad an irresponsible parent like allll the time. Sometimes mom could be a real killjoy. Cassie put her finger and thumb together on her lips, metaphorically zipping them closed.

Her dad kissed her on the forehead. "I love you soo much, sweetheart."

Cassie threw herself into her dad for another hug. "I love you more, dad."

"Okay, and remember, if anyone tries to hurt you …"

"I should break their spines in front of them whilst they watch, I know. Is there ever gonna be a time when you don't tell me that, dad?"

Johnny Cage half-smiled, once again pecking his daughter on the forehead. Then he jumped back into the helicopter, turning around and blowing kisses at Cassie. "Bye booboo! Don't forget to have lots of fun!"

It was now or never for Cassie. "Wait, dad …"

"Yeah, sugar puff?"

"Do you …" Cassie shuffled her feet whilst she tried to frame her words, "do you have to go?"

Johnny Cage laughed. "It's only for the weekend, baby girl."

Cassie shook her head. "I'm not talking about that."

Johnny Cage stopped, giving her a solemn look, then he walked over to her - patting her on the head and sitting down. "One step at a time, yeah Cass? First you have lots of fun in the jungle. Then we'll think about that."

Cassie nodded, stifling her frown.

"It'll be okay, baby girl. Have faith in your old man."

Cassie nodded. "I do, dad."

"Then don't forget to have lots of fun, Cassie!"

"I will do, dad!"

"Attagirl!" Johnny smiled, then he jumped back onto the chopper. "Bye booboo!"

Cassie waved really big.

The helicopter started to ascend from the ground, slowly moving up into the sky and taking off with all the grace of a bird.

She watched it for a long, long while after it took off with her hand over her eyes to block out the sun. When she finally couldn't see it anymore she got up, blowing hair out of her face and started walking.

To be honest though, whatever plans her dad had to stay with her mom were just a back-up plan. Cassie's main plan was to bring back something from the jungle. And Cassie had a lot of time to think about that on the helicopter ride over.

She was gonna bring the biggest, strongest thing in the whole jungle. Then she was gonna present it to her mom and dad as a gift to show them how much she wanted them to stay together.

She knew her mom was a total sucker for anything sweet, and what sweeter thing than bringing something back for the jungle as a gift so they sympathised with her and stayed together?

See, it worked on two levels for Cassie. The first was that the strength of the thing she bought back would work as a metaphor for the strength that their relationship should be at; and the second was that the difficulty she went through with getting the gift would show just how much Cassie loved them and wanted them to stay together.

This, in turn, would make them want to stay together.

And this, in turn, would make her mom and dad fall into an elope where her dad was all like 'I've missed you Sonya, look at my huge muscles' and her mom would be all like 'indeed they are. kiss me you beautiful sugarmelon of a man!'

Wow, how the hell was Cassie such a genius?.

This plan made total sense.

Far to the other side of the jungle, Kano was hugely pissed off.

"You're not thinkin' about all the variables, Marcus!" he said, "Maslow … was a fag. He had no idea what he was talking about. His theory of self-actualisation was a load of shit. His children were a load of shit and his family was a load of shit and I spit on his whole bloodline. There's no such thing as self-actualisation." Kano laughed at this. "We're not just gonna work towards our best versions of ourselves, then realise we've actually reached the best versions of ourselves and accept ourselves for what we are. I'm sorry Marcus it's not gonna happen. We're gonna live the rest of our shit-soaked days on this shit-forsaken earth whilst looking for some small and pathetic reason to carry on going every single day."

Kano's prisoner Marcus only looked at him through tear filled eyes. "Please just let me go."

Kano sighed, shaking his head. "We live, don't we Marcus? We don't enjoy, we just live. We hold onto things and they make life worth living."

"I have a kid …" the prisoner weeped, holding his cuffed hands out, "his name is Ashley …"

"So if there really were to be some reason to live – and by the way Ashley's a girl's name - we would clutch onto it with everything we had, would we not? Something we could attach value to. Something that kept our life going. A belief or a goal or a vision. That's what separates the wolves from the sheep, isn't it Marcus?"

"My goal is my son."

Kano sighed again, puffing his cheeks and blowing air out his mouth. "Marcus."

"My name is John."

"Marcus, every day I have people tell me about their kids. Or their wives or their dogs or some other such bullshit." Kano shook his head, "And I don't really care for it, Marcus. So I'm gonna kill you now." Kano drew saliva into his mouth, all the while dropping his book and reaching for his machete. "But no hard feelings, yeah?"

The man only sobbed hopelessly into his hands with the strangled cries of please and no, begging at Kano's feet.

Urrgh. What a filthy waste of space this Marcus was. Kano spat on his back, drawing his machete from its holster. "Say words that count, Marcus. They may very well be your last ever."

Far to the East of the jungle, the sounds of rotor blades whipped through the air.

Kano perked up his ears. A helicopter this far away from society? Kano hadn't heard one in fackin' years!

It was grey. Very monotonous with little colour or ambiance. A star was painted onto the side of the helicopter.

What an ugly piece of shit. The first helicopter he'd seen in years and it was an ugly piece of shit. The first vehicle he'd seen in years … and it was an ugly piece of shit. What an anti-climax. What a lack of coup-de-grace. But it did beg the question, though, as to why one such helicopter was in the middle of a jungle infested with thieves and predators? He zoomed in on the helicopter with his robot eye, noting the symbol on the right.

Special forces …

Suddenly the helicopter wasn't such an ugly piece of shit. Actually, that special forces logo had made it quite an attractive piece of shit. Must have been around two or three klicks away. He could cover that distance before the crack of night. He licked his lips, grinning widely.

Whatever it had just dropped would be a fantastic haul.

And he was hoping it was a team of special forces agents. It would be a really hilarious slap in the face to send back just the arms of each of them to Sonya Blade. He would wrap them in packages with little love hearts. No no wait, what he could do was send different body parts from each of them to Sonya Blade. Kano chuckled. "Looks like it's your lucky day Marcus. I've got bigger fish to fry." Then he started walking away but turned around very suddenly to look at Marcus, particularly his bolted ankles. "But you can't really go anywhere so I'm just gonna come back when I'm done and kill you."

Then he carried on walking but he turned around again to look at Marcus. "Actually no, I'm gonna hunt you down, rip out your throat and then make you watch while I kill your whole family." Kano's eyes went to the air thoughtfully. "Then I'll probably kill you as well."

Kano's eyes went to the air again, wondering if there was anything else he wanted to say. When he finally couldn't think of anything else he would like to do, he turned away from Marcus and carried on walking.

Then he made his way down the hill and towards the helicopter site, whistling to himself as he did.