>>1173744

It is a rare thing for a man like Akayama Kaito to resort to piracy to accomplish his goals, especially since he himself has spent considerable time with a crew of pirate hunters. But as the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and Kaito has never been more desperate. His team and friends lie in ruin and death, taken by a hostile machine to be made into something inhuman. His ship, destroyed, and his beloved Mileena went down with it. He had failed them.

In his recent grief over Turana, Kaito had not been there for them until it was much too late. A threat from within and without had destroyed his team in a plot that had taken advantage of his absence; on that beach he glimpsed not only a machine of the reborn Cyber Initiative, but that hated cleric of chaos, Havik. When Raiden spoke of his inability to divine the threat of the machines until it was already too late, it could only have been due to the chaosrealmer's scheme.

Not that Kaito had thought of that at the time. He was angry, angrier than he had been in a long time. He had lashed out at Raiden in particular for his perceived failure---it was only later, after having stolen the boat that he is now sailing south, that he had taken time to reassess things and calm down. Not enough to rid him of his anger, but enough to think more clearly.

There is one thing that prevents him from giving in to the rage that boils within, and that is the thought that he still has a chance to fix what has been broken: the orb. If brought to Ryan in the southern seas of Edenia, where the strange man has waited ever since their fateful reunion, he can use it to transport them both to the demiplane outside of normal reality, a place Kaito has been to twice before. There awaits Aegis, the being responsible for his twenty-year nap, and arguably the reason that Kaito has suffered so much grief of late regarding Turana.

He has been preparing himself for the journey. Once Ryan is reinstated into his position, he plans to ask the man to transport him back in time, much like they did during the time when he was Otiak. This plan is all that is keeping Kaito's mind in focus---he is pushing back the pain and the sorrow with the desperate hope that he can save everything: his friends, his timeline, all of it.

As he sits, he directs wind to blast the sails, using his elemental powers to propell the boat towards his destination. His brow is heavily furrowed and his mind is racing with fury, but he wastes no time and keeps the wind blowing. The orb lies nearby, covered in cloth.

>Use the orb to contact someone
>Check your communicator
>Focus solely on reaching your destination
>Contemplate your current situation more
>Other

>>1173746
>Contemplate your current situation more

Currently on vacation for the weekend, so updates are going to be slow for now. Just a head's up.

>>1173746
>>Contemplate your current situation more

I mean if we're re-enact a Terminator movie, let's plan ahead so that it's one of the good ones and not Genisys.

>>1173746
>Contemplate your current situation more

>>1173803
Take you time duder.

>>1173746
>>Contemplate your current situation more
Let's not end up one of those cliches who tries to fix a bad situation and just makes everything worse.

Update coming shortly.

>>1173797
>>1173872
>>1173885
>>1174303
>>1174303

As the ship sails onwards, Kaito opens his eyes and takes a deep breath. He remains steady, but within a turmoil of conflict continues to rage.

'I wasn't prepared,' he realizes grimly. His shoulders begin to slump downwards as his head lowers. 'I was so preoccupied with Turana and the war at Nemsai, that when this hit, it was...'

He stands up and walks over to the side of the ship, placing his hands on the railing. He grips it tightly as he takes sharp breaths through his nostrils. 'It doesn't make any sense. My team was strong, I trusted that they could look after themselves! How could they have been taken out?' He looks down into the water and is reminded of its role in Chaosrealm society. 'Havik... He planned all of this. Why? The Chaosrealm Kamidogu? That would make sense. But why leave the orb? Then again, he was in partnership with Noob Saibot for years. He could've taken it then, too...'

Kaito runs a hand through his hair as he paces around the deck of the stolen ship. 'Why? Why leave the orb, but take the Kamidogu? Why even work with Noob in the first place just to betray him and let us take the orb?' The more he tries to think about it, the more upsettingly confusing it becomes. 'He let us take the orb, betraying Noob only at the moment when my team attacked while I was suffering from the Wraith Plague. It was his plan. But the training dummy going rogue? Was that his plan, too? Or did he just take advantage of it?'

Approaching the orb, he opens the cloth and looks upon it. 'This thing... it's given me so much trouble. First it and Shao Kahn accidentally let the Entity into our reality, making me run around as a saurian until that mess got cleaned up, and now I have to use it again to break reality with Ryan and get back at Aegis. Life would've been easier without this stupid orb. It should've been smashed long ago, then I wouldn't have had all of this trouble.'

He sits down, slumping against the mast. 'But I can't blame an inanimate object. I'm just so damn frustrated and angry. They're dead! All of them!' He feels his heart pound in his chest and he catches himself before losing his temper, calming down as best he can. 'Mileena... Takeda, Cassie, Sheeva, everyone... Why did it have to be like this? Why?' He closes his eyes and looks up, resting his head on the mast. 'Why did things have to turn out like this with Turana? I was gone and wrapped up in my own feelings and now everyone is dead.'

For some time, he remains like that, caught in a loop of blaming himself for what has happened. He knows it won't do well to blame himself solely for this; others are responsible as well, and it keeps him going to remind himself that once he fixes this problem he will dish out a proper punishment for them. 'Once I get back, they're all going down. All of them.'

Suddenly his communicator beeps.

>Answer it
>Ignore it
>Throw your communicator into the ocean
>Destroy it
>Other

>>1174542
>Answer it
You have 20 seconds to make worth our while, or we'll destroy this pimped-up locator, and go on Batman rogue.

>>1174542
Answer it

>>1174566
I hope it's Johnny, because everyone else who we would like to speak with are either dead, or they don't use communicators.

>>1174542
>Answer it

>>1174566
>>1174578
>>1174587

Kaito holds up his wrist, examining the communication device momentarily before answering it. On the small screen appears Johnny. "Kaito! What the hell is going on?" he says desperately. "I got word of some kind of alert but nobody is responding!"

He stares at the screen for a moment, contemplating the futility of telling the man his family is dead when he plans on making it not so. At the same time, can he really keep something like that from his friend? "The team was taken out," he replies quietly.

Johnny is still. He reaches up and tears off his sunglasses. "What are you saying? Are you serious?"

"They're gone, Johnny. I'm the only one left."

The actor stares through the screen, his face uncharacteristically still. "Cass?"

Kaito nods. "I saw it happen."

"Who?" he asks quietly.

"The machines. Robots. The training dummy became, I don't know. Self-aware, perhaps. Or it was controlled by someone else." Kaito closes his eyes and simply speaks. "He's killed everyone."

"No, no, no!" Johnny says as soon as he finishes. "This can't be happening. The entire team? How? Where were the others?"

"I don't know. I don't know what happened to anyone else. The boat is gone, Mileena is dead."

"What is HAPPENING?" Johnny shouts, losing his composure. Unlike Kaito, he doesn't have the safety net of knowing about time travel. "Okay, okay, there has to be something we can do, right? Something we can save them with? Bring them back? Magic?"

"I have a plan," Kaito replies.

"Okay, what is it? I'll help you! Talk to me!"

"I plan on---"

At that moment, Johnny suddenly says something, but it is lost as the other man puts his arm down. Through the small speakers, Kaito hears something akin to a portal opening. Then, Johnny speaks, but not to his communicator.

"Oh my god... Sonya... Cassie?! What did they do to you?!"

Then, sounds of a struggle. Gunshots, an explosion, a sawblade. The communicator is still on and transmitting, but Kaito can only catch glimpses of two cyborgs as Johnny fights them off. The screen glows green with energy from the other end as Johnny shouts, "You bastards, WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FAMILY!?"

Kaito shouts into his communicator, "Johnny, get out of there!"

He hears a wall break along with some glass and loud, heavy footfalls. Johnny grunts in pain as something hits him, and he falls down a flight of stairs. Once at the bottom, he says something Kaito cannot hear and clearly tries to get back up, but again the mechanical footsteps grow nearer.

"Cass... Cass... Not like this..." Johnny coughs.

>Turn off your communicator
>Open a portal to Johnny's house
>Destroy your communicator
>Warn Johnny more and tell him to get out of there
>Other

>>1175160
Well it was the only next logical step from Triborg's view

>Destroy your communicator
No way back.

They'll follow the transmission anyways so we better get moving

>>1175160
>Open a portal to Johnny's house

Kaito's in a strength class well above the rest of the New Defenders and without Johnny we're doing this alone.

We can rescue him and maybe take one of the cyborgs out/recruit them as Kaito has a well established history of turning foes into friends.

Cassandra's probably gone but I'd wager Sonya's hardcore enough to be liberated.

>>1175160
>Warn Johnny more and tell him to get out of there
We can't get distracted. We have to get to Ryan.

>>1175160
>Other
Tell your Triborg to call me

We need to speak

>>1175244
>>1175160
You know what, yes. We can't abandon every sense of morality on the pretense of having time travel. That's not what Kaito stood for.
Let's try to save Johnny

>>1175279
That's a terrible idea. Triborg is just going to call down the full might of the Tekunin.

We also need to get word to Outland, Edenia, and whoever else ASAP.

Odds are good Raiden's on that, but it'd be best to be sure.

>>1175322
His mind is a network of 10-20 4chan anons. He ain't that smart.

>>1175354
Well he's easily distracted by arguments about 40k and Gamergate.

Quick, subscribe him to GG newsfeed!

Update incoming.

>>1175244
>>1175318

Kaito feels sweat rolling down his forehead as conflict grows within him. He slams a fist onto the ground. "Damnit!" He stands up and nearly pulls on his own hair in frustration. 'I'm going to fix all of this, I'm going to fix it... But I can't just abandon Johnny! He was my first friend in all of this, back on those docks in China! I can't abandon him, I just can't!'

A moment is all it takes for him to make up his mind. Taking out his personal portal generator with its four remaining charges, he quickly opens a portal to Johnny Cage's home in Venice, California. He leaps through and finds it trashed with clear evidence of a battle. Looking around, he immediately sees Johnny nearby, having fallen down the stairs, bruised and bloodied. Two female cyborgs are descending; one clad in dark green military colors and one in bright pink. Before he can contemplate the reasoning behind putting Cassie in a pink suit, Kaito summons the Staff of Raiden, aims it at them before they see him and blasts them with lightning.

The two cyborgs go stiff and are knocked through the wall, their joints locking up. Kaito knows they won't be down for long, and so he runs over to Johnny and picks the wounded actor up, who is mumbling the names of his daughter and wife. Kaito pulls one of his arms over his shoulder and drags him towards the open portal.

Before he can step through, Cassie-Tron flies up and raises both hands, aiming through the hole in the wall she and her mom-bot fell through. Her hands glow and she blasts them both with a cyberized version of her green bolts, knocking them through the portal. As they stumble back onto the boat, Kaito closes the portal behind them.

He lets go of Johnny, who rolls to the side and coughs. "Cassie... Sonya... Cassie... Sonya..."

The elemental warrior pushes himself to a sitting position and lets out a sigh. "Johnny, you alright?" he asks, nudging the actor.

Johnny opens his blue eyes and looks up at the sky. "No. I'm not," he replies in a faint, weak voice. "My family... my family is dead, Kaito..."

Kaito looks over and sees a look of defeated despair upon Johnny's face. The actor closes his eyes as he cringes in pain, both physical and emotional, and tears roll down his cheeks. The actor turns over and pounds a fist on the deck. "My little girl! My... my warrior princess, she's... She's not even human anymore!"

As he watches Johnny's despair, Kaito closes his own eyes and tries to collect his thoughts. 'What do I do? Do I tell him what my plan is? I've brought him here, so do I let him in on the truth? I could always take the orb down to Ryan and leave Johnny up here; it's not like he could follow me. Could he even come with me? Could he accompany us and help us face Aegis?'

>Don't tell Johnny
>Tell Johnny, but don't take him with you
>Tell Johnny and take him with you
>Take him with you but don't tell him anything
>Other

>>1176287
>Tell Johnny and take him with you
if he wants. And without sounding like we're in the middle of a psychotic break, even though we kinda are.

>>1176287
>Tell Johnny and take him with you
>it's a long shot, probably a suicide mission, and extremely dangerous, but if it works Cass and Sonya will be alive, healthy, and not cyborgy!

>>1176287
Bring him and tell him when he's ready.

>>1176287
>Tell Johnny and take him with you

>>1176287
>>Tell Johnny and take him with you

>>1176384
>>1176390
>>1176555
>>1176720

He looks again at Johnny, opening his eyes to behold the ruined man, wracked with the loss of his beloved wife and daughter. 'If everything goes according to plan, he won't even remember it... And it won't have happened at all. So why did I even save him?' He shakes his head. 'No. No, I should tell him. Even at a time like this, I can't just forsake a soul to die in misery...'

Kaito reaches over and places a hand on Johnny Cage's shoulder, gently stirring him. "Johnny. There's a way we can save them."

The actor blinks a few times, almost too out of it to have heard him, so caught up in his grief but not enough to completely miss it. He looks over. "What? How?"

"Time travel," Kaito whispers.

Johnny again blinks, then sits up. "We can... travel through time? Save them before they even died?"

His old friend nods. "Yes. At least, I hope so."

"But there's a chance, right?" Johnny asks, desperate for hope. He reaches over and grabs Kaito's wrist. "There's a chance, isn't there?"

"There's a chance alright. But it's complicated."

"Well hell, when isn't time travel complicated? How do we do it? Is there a machine?"

Kaito holds up a hand before the man starts rambling. "Hold on. We have to get there first. I have the orb with me, and that's the key to traveling outside of our reality. Once there, my friend will help us, but only after we defeat a giant suit of armor that was the reason I slept for twenty years. My friend's name is Ryan."

Johnny stares at Kaito, and he can tell that the actor is thinking he is lying. "I'm telling the truth, Johnny. You have to believe me, it's the only way we can save everyone."

"Kaito... are you sure you're not just crazy with losing the team like I am?"

The Japanese man grabs Johnny by the collar. "Yes, I'm crazy. I'm crazy with grief over Mileena, Turana, the team, everyone and everything! But I also know that we can SAVE them! And I know it sounds crazy, because it all is, but you need to trust me because I know what I'm doing. We're going to get them BACK, Johnny. All of them."

They lock eyes for a few tense, uncertain moments, until Johnny nods. "Okay, Kaito. I believe you. What do we do first?"

>Explain your previous adventures in breaking reality
>Destroy your communicators so they cannot be tracked
>Use your communicators to see if anyone else can be brought in for backup---Kenshi, perhaps?
>Focus solely on reaching Ryan as soon as possible
>Other

>>1177269
>Explain your previous adventures in breaking reality

>>1177269
>Destroy your communicators so they cannot be tracked

>>1177269
>>Destroy your communicators so they cannot be tracked
then
>>Explain your previous adventures in breaking reality

>>1177269

>Warn the other allied nations.
>Destroy your communicators so they cannot be tracked
>Explain your previous adventures in breaking reality

>>1177269
>Use your communicators to see if anyone else can be brought in for backup---Kenshi, perhaps?
>Explain your previous adventures in breaking reality

"Listen Johnny. Have I ever told you what I've been doing during that 20 years after Shao Kahn?"

>>1177282
>>1177302
>>1177737
>>1177805
>>1178391

"First thing's first, let's get rid of these," Kaito replies as he takes off his and Johnny's communicators. Slipping them from their wrists, he places them nearby before summoning the Staff of Raiden and blasting them both with a small barrage of lightning bolts, frying them utterly.

"Let me guess: so we can't be tracked, right?"

"Right." Kaito banishes the staff from his hands and then turns back to his friend. "Alright, Johnny. You're in this with me now so it's high time you learned the truth. I know that it wasn't so long ago for me, but for you it was more then twenty years ago when I first left our universe as we know it."

"Am I going to have to sit down for this?"

"It might help."

Johnny drags a barrel over and plops his butt onto it, crosses his legs and arms and waits patiently. Kaito takes a deep breath and continues, "Back when Shao Kahn was still alive and had captured Turana, I used that orb over there to visit her with an astral projection. She was in Shao Kahn's bedchamber, where he kept her in a birdcage, and the big guy himself was able to sense my presence somehow. He used some kind of magic and everything got muddled up, I don't know exactly how, but I found myself hurled outside of space and time, to somewhere... else."

"Okay, I'm following you so far."

"There, I met a talking skeleton who controls all of reality outside of what we know to be reality."

"Okay, now you've lost me."

"His name is Chronosis and he is a separate being from the Elder Gods. I spoke with him and he showed me some stuff, giving me a small perspective on... everything. The whole of reality, Johnny. Alternate universes, parallel timelines, alternate timelines, demiplanes of existence... Our world is but one of many in an infinite and infinitely complex series of worlds."

"So, there are worlds where we, I don't know, didn't win?"

"And there are worlds where people other than us won. One where Kitana married Rain, one where Mileena had a kid with Reiko, one where I never existed at all! Ones where things we made up in movies are real, like Predators or Xenomorphs!"

"Bullshit," he chuckles.

"Johnny, I don't need you to believe me, I just need you to listen. When we defeated Shao Kahn, I was kicked out of my body by the Crimson Thunderbolt."

"Yeah, I was there for that. Asshole blasted me."

>>1179111

'At least I'm keeping him distracted from his grief; his humor is returning to him. Better keep talking.' Kaito clears his throat. "That's when I met Ryan. He works for Chronosis, and is kind of weird."

"You don't say."

"He told me that when I first slipped out of reality, I left a hole that something got in through. LONG, LONG story short, I had to run around as a saurian sorcerer looking for this 'Entity' that was going to destroy all of reality. It had chosen Scorpion as its 'anchor' and I fought him and Havik in the Jinsei chamber where my body slept. When I defeated Scorpion, the Entity was dealt with by Chronosis and the Elder Gods and everything got set straight. Only then I returned to Ryan's demiplane and found out he had been replaced by an asshole named Aegis, who was angry at me for the mess I had accidentally made with the Entity in the first place, so he sent me back to my body but twenty years later. Upon waking up, I found Mileena, who was hunting pirates, and it turns out that Ryan---who had been banished to the bottom of the edenian seas and has remained there ever since---was the one controlling these pirates in an effort to attract me in order to tell me how we could get back at Aegis: the orb. So, we bring the orb to him, he cracks reality allowing us to get back to his demiplane, kick Aegis out of his spot and get Ryan back in his old job and in return he'll owe us one, which I plan to use to ask him to send us back in time to fix this timeline and save everyone from dying. And, well, here we are."

Johnny takes a moment to process that monumental amount of information, staring blankly at Kaito. He takes out his sunglasses and a cloth and begins to clean them, then puts them on, and then says, "I don't know if I'm going to be able to add that plotline to the movies when we get back."

In spite of everything, Kaito cracks a smile and chuckles. "No, probably not. You're the first person I've ever told about my adventures outside of reality and time travel. I saved all of existence, all of reality from destruction, and my reward was to wake up twenty years later to find Turana as what she is now. That's why I wasn't there, Johnny. I was in Outworld, watching the siege of Nemsai, feeling sorry for myself. I wasn't there when the machines killed everyone." He sits down on a crate and with a heavy sigh says, "Truth be told, I don't know if what we're trying is even going to work."

Johnny is silent for a moment, then replies, "Well, there's a shot, right? That's all we've ever needed before."

Kaito looks up and meets his gaze, then smiles. "Yeah. You're right about that."

"So... a talking skeleton, huh?"

"Yup."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you've been watching too many bad movies."

"What, yours?"

"Hey now," Johnny laughs. They both share a laugh, which after a moment dies down. The humor offers but a fleeting escape from the terrible reality of their situation and they sober up quickly.

>>1179118

>Use the orb to contact someone
>Concentrate your wind and water powers to push the ship towards Ryan's cave
>Talk with Johnny more
>Meditate
>Other

>>1179118
>>1179111
>Use the orb to contact someone
Gotta make sure Kenshi is not dead yet.
I can't think of anyone else really.

>>1179127
>Concentrate your wind and water powers to push the ship towards Ryan's cave

>>1179127
>>Concentrate your wind and water powers to push the ship towards Ryan's cave
No more chances with getting caught by havik or something. Remember to keep in mind that Havik may be using all of this as a way to travel back in time. Remember that havik always somehow has a way to manipulate things exactly the way he wants them to go.

>>1179421
You know, on second thought, I am more worried of Aegis trying to sabotage us now.
Remember, anything we say outside of Ryan's protection, he can hear. and now we just stated we want to break time to get back at him.

>>1179127
>Use the orb to contact someone
We need to warn our allies before they get attacked. Preferably the ones that are in outworld and edenia.

>>1179135

Supporting.

>>1179463
I'm pretty sure the news has filtered out by now that Earthrealm is a shitshow right now.

>>1179488
>"Main news tonight; our reptilian overlords are dead. Long live our cybernetic overlords."
>"In other news, a small band of vagabond terrorists have been eradicated by the mighty Tekunin...

>>1179135
>>1179463
>>1179464

Alright, we'll go with this. I'm playing a game with my niece at the moment, so I'll be a bit.

Once again thanks for your patience guys, I don't take a vacation down here often.

I wonder how Turana would feel if she'd learn that Kaito would rather endanger everything and reset space-time, than to date with her.

>>1179980
In a roundabout way, Turana's selfishness caused the Tekunin uprising, since Kaito was so fucked up by her he wasn't around to stop it.

After a few moments of silence, Kaito walks over to the orb and looks at its glowing surface, partially obscured by the cloth wrapped around it. He unravels the rest and sets it before him, clearing his mind. It has been some time since he last used this artifact, though they have had it in their possession for some time now. It was thought that it could present a strategic advantage and enable spying on others, much like what Noob Saibot used it for, but Quan Chi has been able to obscure the movements of the Deadly Alliance through some manner of sorcery. It came in handy in other ways, which is what kept Kaito from bringing it to Ryan in the first place; he always kept it in the back of his mind for a 'rainy day' scenario. It couldn't get much rainier than this.

As Johnny lingers nearby in thought, Kaito places his hands upon the orb. He knows that he can, at the most, contact three or perhaps four people, as the experience is quite taxing. He calms himself, setting aside the turmoil within and focuses his mind in preparation for its use, and he thinks about his first person to communicate with.

>Kenshi
>Kitana/Liu Kang
>Kotal Kahn
>Yanake/Scorpion
>Other

Sorry for the long wait with the short update, but you know how it is

>>1180467

> Kitana/Liu Kang

Edenia is our strongest ally and not sieging an enemy atm.

Plus the Kang is strong.

>>1180467
>Kenshi
Just tell him we're going to fix all this.
>Kitana/Liu Kang

>>1180475
>>1180526

He feels his spirit loosen from his mortal shell and be cast across the lands of Edenia, far north to the royal palace. There he finds Kitana, appearing before her as well as Jade, Sindel and King Jerrod. Kaito makes his presence known to all of them and they look up from the map they were surveying.

"Kaito!" Kitana says, walking around to stand in front of the ghostly projection. "Raiden contacted us and told us he had sent you to Edenia. Where are you?"

"Heading south," he replies. "I won't be joining you at the palace."

"Why? We must unite and stand against this threat! Liu has gone to China to summon the Shaolin and Lin Kuei. We'll need your help as well."

"I have a plan of my own. I am glad that you are prepared on your end."

"We aren't," Kitana admits. "These machines---cyborgs---they've already weaponized the Wraith-Plague. Even now our knights are reporting that these machines have been seen in the central regions, spraying the black bile of the plague upon innocents, infecting and dooming them."

Kaito closes his eyes. "Weeding out the weak," he whispers.

"Sub-Zero has contacted us and we are working on a way to destroy these machines, but they are more advanced than the previous Cyber Lin Kuei, much more advanced. If we do not all work together, we may not be able to stop them!"

"I know, princess. But I still cannot join you. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on."

"Kaito, what are you saying? With your team nearly gone, we need as many warriors as possible; you cannot abandon the fight!"

"I'm not. I promise you, I'm not. Trust in me, Kitana. What I am doing, I'm doing for Mileena. She's gone, too."

Sindel, Jerrod and Jade look on as Kitana stares into Kaito's astral eyes before closing her own. "Very well. I trust that you know what you are doing."

"I do. Good luck, Kitana."

"Fare well, Kaito."

He opens his eyes---his real eyes---and takes his hands off of the orb. Johnny looks over. "Any word?"

"These machines know exactly how to destroy us," Kaito replies. "Now they're using the Wraith-Plague against innocent people. It's almost a systematic annihilation of purely organic life..."

"Jesus," Johnny whispers. "How can these things do this?"

"They had our combat data. They had the knowledge of the old Lin Kuei. Something, somewhere, went wrong and now we have a race of highly-efficient killing machines wiping us out. If we had known about them, if we had seen them coming, we could've stopped them, but we didn't. They had the jump on us, that had to be their biggest advantage: surprise. They probably took out some of our best before the rest even knew what was happening. Like with you and I."

Johnny kicks a crate. "Goddamned robots."

"At least the others are organizing. Those machines are going to have difficulty stopping a united force."

>Contact someone else
>Get to Ryan
>Meditate
>Check in with Raiden
>Other

>>1180724
>Get to Ryan

>>1180724

> Get 2 dah Ryan

>>1180724
>Contact someone else
Just wanna quick chance if either fireseed or maybe even forrestfox managed to somehow sneak off. He seems like a survivor to me. If not then
>>Get to Ryan

>>1180724
>Get to Ryan
>>1181048
also this a bit while we on the way. We won't bring them along tough.

>>1180890
>>1180965
>>1181048
>>1183098

Looking back down at the orb, Kaito closes his eyes and reaches out towards other members of his team he thinks may have survived---Fireseed, or Fox, perhaps. But no matter who he thinks of, he cannot reach them. The hole within him grows slightly deeper as he realizes that all of the New Defenders---save himself---are dead. Sheeva, Vapor, Cao, Takeda, Cassie, every one of them are simply gone. His brow furrows and he covers up the orb, attempting to use this pain to strengthen his resolve.

'I'm going to save them. I'm going to save them. I'm going to save them.'

That is his mantra, and it is what he keeps telling himself as he focuses on blowing the wind against the sails of the ship. Johnny paces around the deck, leaving Kaito be as he pushes himself towards the spot where he first reunited with Ryan. He remembers it well, as he had marked it on a map and committed it to memory in the event he would need to return, as he is right now. It is where he and the Dragon Wing were nearly ambushed before 'Captain Farragut' had revealed himself as Ryan.

It doesn't take much longer for them to reach the spot. Kaito stands up and recognizes the islands nearby, lamenting their lost time. If they still had the Dragon Wing, they could have gotten here instantly, but the machines took even that from him. Pushing the boat to the proper position, he and Johnny drop the anchor and look over the side.

"You said this guy's at the bottom of the ocean?"

"I did."

"Well, I guess it's time to see which of us is crazy, then."

Kaito holds the orb in the cloth underneath one arm and puts the other around Johnny. They both leap from the side of the ship and into the water, where Kaito projects a clear bubble around them both that repels the water. In this way he slows their descent, allowing them to reach the bottom of the ocean and touch the wet sand there. Focusing all the while to maintain the bubble of air around them, Kaito scans his eyes around until he spies the opening of the cave. They walk towards it.

Once inside, they find a barrier of water before them, running from the bottom of the water all the way to the top of the cave, a wall of solid invisible force repelling the ocean much like his bubble. They step through it into a clear and dry chamber beyond; it seems Ryan has drained his cave of water to allow him to move about more freely. Kaito and Johnny look upon him now, still in his strange diver's suit with his trident nearby, attending to an arrangement of coral that could be called art. He straightens, his back to them, and speaks in a muffled tone. "It's about time."

He then turns around, and looks at Johnny, then at Kaito, then at the orb, then back up at Kaito. "I hope you have a good reason for bringing him here."

>Explain the entire situation
>Cut to the point and give him the orb
>Ask him if time travel can be done once he has his job back
>Apologize for taking so long and bringing Johnny here
>Other

>>1183259
>Explain the entire situation
I help you break reality and get your job back, you help me and Johnny stop Skynet.

>>1183259
>Apologize for taking so long and bringing Johnny here
>Explain the entire situation

>>1183259
>Explain the entire situation
"I figured the man who I met in the beginning can save my ass at times when I can't do it myself."

Sorry there were no updates today. This was my last day with my nieces and nephew so I was away for much of it.

I'm heading home now. I'll be in touch.

We'll be continuing here.

>>1193051
>>1193051
>>1193051