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"I saved the world and I don't even get a t-shirt or something?" Johnny asks, and it's kind of a jerk-y question, really, and also 100% rhetorical, especially given that he asks it with nobody else around to hear it - except, of course, that there is.
"You get the 'or something'," Rayden says and then, before Johnny can ask what the hell that even means, there's a thunderclap and a bright flash and it's just Johnny by his lonesome again, waiting for his taxi to the airport.
So, yeah.
Johnny can't really talk to people about where he's been or what he's done, so he doesn't.
Instead, he goes back to making movies that have fists, or fight, or justice in the title, because he's kind of good at it and also because it pays the rent.
People probably still call him a fake, but it doesn't bother him as much anymore.
Not the way it bothers him to have Rayden show up in his bathroom all of a sudden anyway.
The way it happens is: it's morning. Johnny's just out of bed and about to brush his teeth. He's feeling sort of punchy so he strikes a fighting pose, checking the mirror to see how he looks.
"Vanity," Rayden says.
To Johnny's credit, he doesn't have a heart-attack. "What the - " he says, which is a sentence probably best left unfinished. "I'm half-naked over here!"
"I noticed," Rayden says, and it occurs to Johnny that this might be an indication that Rayden has, in fact, been checking him out, right before it occurs to him that Rayden is some sort of ancient Chinese deity and thus probably not in the habit of checking people out.
"Well, that's okay then," Johnny says.
Rayden makes himself comfortable on top of the washing machine. Johnny's mind insists on pointing out that, ancient Chinese deity or not, Rayden's pretty flexible. "Good."
Johnny decides not to point out he meant his comment sarcastically. "So."
Rayden picks up one of Johnny's dirty shirts and wrinkles his nose.
"What are you doing here? Do you need me to fight in another tournament?" His agent will yell at him for taking off one week before they're supposed to be shooting Fists of Justice III, but after he's been attacked by a guy who spat fire and had some sort of scorpion-thing thingy coming out of his hand, Johnny's even less bothered by that sort of thing than before.
"No." Rayden tosses the shirt back into the washing basket.
"Aren't you supposed to be protecting the Realm of Earth or something? I don't think me not having done my laundry yesterday poses some sort of threat to all mankind."
"You'd be surprised," Rayden says.
Johnny decides that's probably - no, make that definitely a joke. "So what? Is it Sonya? Liu Kang?"
Rayden hops down from the washing machine and puts a hand on Johnny's shoulder. "Something you should know, Johnny."
"What?" Johnny asks, a little warily, because that kind of sounds like the lead-in to bad news.
"Sometimes, it really is all about you," Rayden says.
"What - " Johnny starts asking, before he blacks out.
(When he regains his senses, predictably, Rayden is gone.)
Johnny's not sure what he's supposed to be thinking, really, so he mostly doesn't.
Instead, he goes and shoots another movie with another director who doesn't quite understand the way this martial arts thing works. (Johnny's got standards, all right. And 'it would look really cool' is not an acceptable excuse for a fight scene that has no sense of realism whatsoever.)
He doesn't see his apartment for nearly two months, which is fine with him. His apartment's not really much of a home; it's more a convenient place to sleep and watch TV and store things.
Apparently, it's also convenient for other people.
"You're not much of a homebody, are you?" Rayden says, by way of 'welcome home'.
"Were you waiting for me?" Johnny isn't sure whether the idea delights or terrifies him.
"I have something for you." Rayden reaches into his robes.
Johnny wonders why he even bothers asking Rayden anything.
Rayden holds out a small package. Johnny accepts it, for lack of anything better to do. "A present? It's not even my birthday." Not that he'd be expecting Rayden to be showing up with a gift then.
"I'm well aware," Rayden says.
Johnny stares at what he's holding in his hands. "These are - "
"Consider them a token," Rayden says, taking one step forwards.
"A token of what?" Johnny asks. There's a faint smell of rain in the air.
"Exactly," Rayden says, taking another step, which brings him well within touching distance.
"I don't - " Johnny manages, before he blacks out again.
They're very cool sunglasses. Near-identical to the ones he lost during the tournament, the ones Goro crushed.
Johnny isn't sure what it means that a god of lightning has gifted him with a pair of expensive sunglasses. He's pretty sure it means something, though.
"Johnny Cage," Rayden says. "You have been given a great gift. Now. What will you give me in return?"
"I ... don't think that's how it works?" Johnny tries, even if yeah, he kind of knows that's exactly how it works, at least in the movie business. It's very much a one-good-turn-for-another kind of world.
Rayden cocks his head. "No?" It would have been a much less intimidating question if his eyes hadn't been lighting up when he asked it - and by 'lighting up', Johnny means the literal thing.
"I ... really like them? A lot? So, you know, thanks."
" 'Thank you' is not a sufficient response," Rayden says, but his eyes have gone back to normal, so Johnny figures he's moving in the right direction, more or less.
Also, it's probably not a good idea to point out he hasn't actually said 'thank you'.
"Okay, so let me work on that one," Johnny says, which sounds reasonable to him, except that Rayden's coming in awfully close again, which probably means nothing good is about to happen, even if part of him sure seems to think so.
He doesn't actually black out this time.
He just wakes up. In his own bed, in his own apartment.
Alone, and kind of hating it.
At this point, Johnny decides it's time to do the sensible, rational thing.
Thus, he hops on the first plane to China he can find.
"Lord Rayden gave these to you?" Liu turns over the sunglasses in his hand.
"Yeah," Johnny says. "Why, what'd he give you?" He figures there's got to be something, what with Liu being the Chosen One and all.
"Advice. During the tournament." Liu doesn't seem to feel short-charged.
Johnny kind of gets where he's coming from, even if - well. Apparently, he's not the kind of guy on whom electric shock therapy works by way of saying 'don't touch, dangerous'. (In his defense, so far, it's always been Rayden doing the touching.)
"Right," Johnny says.
Liu coughs. "Lord Rayden isn't very - "
"Sane?" Johnny suggests. Liu looks at him like he's just cussed in a church or something, which, given that they're in the Temple of Light - okay, fair point. "Sorry."
"He moves in mysterious ways," Liu says. "It is clear he favors you, though."
"Why? 'cause of the cool shades?" Johnny accepts them back from Liu and puts them on, because he can, and because they are, in fact, very cool.
"Because you are still alive," Liu says, too seriously.
"Fine. I'll send you a wedding invitation when we've set a date, all right?"
Liu frowns. "I don't believe that is legal in America."
Johnny's pretty sure it's not legal in China, either. "It was a joke. I was joking."
"Of course." Liu rises smoothly but not, Johnny notices, as smoothly as Rayden would have done. "Do you know, when we get a lightning storm, there are those who say it is a sign of Lord Rayden's pleasure."
"I did not know that, no," Johnny says, not adding that he's not sure he needed to know that, either, because ten to one, next time he hears a thunderstorm, he's going to be lying awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering who the lucky guy (or girl) is.
Johnny's not even surprised when, on the plane back home, he turns his head and finds Rayden sitting in the seat next to him, reading a newspaper.
"Well, that was a waste of time."
"Was it?" Johnny asks, because turn-about's fair play.
"Was it?" Rayden returns, and the way he looks at Johnny reminds him that Rayden's been doing this a whole lot longer.
Johnny comforts himself with the certainty that Rayden's not going to be using any of that electrickery of his this time around - not while the plane's still in the air, anyway.
(His mistake, it turns out.)
Johnny considers visiting Sonya as well, but (1) she knows about as much about Rayden as he does, if not less and (2) apparently, being in the Special Forces means nobody is allowed to know where you are on any day of the week that ends in an Y.
Plus, he kind of feels he should have this.
He's gotten people gifts before; it's not that complicated, even if it might feel that way, because there are things he wants to say with this gift, and things he feels he probably shouldn't say with this gift, and they are mostly the same things.
Also, it can't possibly be healthy to be turned on by a guy who keeps knocking him out.
Rayden stares at his gift for perhaps five seconds and then laughs, which Johnny hopes is a good sign.
"Five-hundred dollar sunglasses," Rayden says, shaking his head. "Truly a gift fit for a god."
"You're welcome," Johnny says.
"Still, your gift lacks inspiration. Originality. I did it first."
"Yeah," Johnny says. "I guess that goes for most things. Doesn't it?"
"Having done something before does not diminish the joy of doing it again. And again. There are things I have done well over a thousand times, and yet I still find myself taking pleasure in them," Rayden says.
"Yeah? Like what?" Johnny asks. "Knocking people out cold?"
"Am I a knock-out, or merely beyond your ability to handle?"
"Vanity," Johnny says.
"Truth," Rayden replies.
"I could handle you if you'd let me," Johnny says.
"Prove it," Rayden says.
(The next day, one of the local newspapers reports on an extremely violent thunderstorm seemingly appearing out of nowhere around fifteen minutes past eleven and vanishing again around two in the morning.)
(Johnny considers sending the article to Liu, but decides against it in the end, showing it to Rayden instead, who responds more or less as expected.)