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“Cassandra Cage.”
Cassie nearly jumps out of her skin, and the hair on the back of her neck is decidedly standing on end. She whirls, body tense, despite knowing who is addressing her and being otherwise accustomed to his presence in her father’s home.
Of late, the god of thunder—well, she supposes he isn’t technically a god anymore, after what had happened with Liu Kang, but he still appears in lightning bolts and his eyes still have that freaky-ass glow—has made himself a semi-permanent fixture around the Cage house. She is glad for it, because the place had started to become desolate and empty without her mother, even if it had been years since Sonya lived with her father. It’s the knowing, Cassie assumes, that makes it hard.
“Jesus H Christ on a FUCKIN’ bike!” The hiss is hoarse, good-natured, but betraying the thumping of her heart. Raiden chuckles and shakes his head, clearly amused by the display.
“I am not your Earthrealm messiah—perhaps Lord Liu Kang would be a better fit for that role,” he says after a moment, stepping into the room. His eyes, unreadable to most, but never to the Cages, rest upon her only a moment before drifting over her shoulder to the window behind and the back lawn, where Johnny seems to be tinkering with a round, flat platform made of undetermined material—it is clearly heavy, but he has not given up on his quest… whatever that entails.
“So what’s up? Dad’s outside, messin’ around with… well a landing pad for you , actually.” Cassie sets the pile of magazines aside which she had been transporting to the recycling bin, frustrated with herself and her babbling. There is something about Raiden that brings forth a gush of words, and not the usual, sharp ones which suggest she is in any way in control of her speech patterns. She regards the upright vacuum cleaner, sitting off to one side, pointing her irked gaze toward it, rather than Raiden.
A Roomba is hard at work behind the couch in the area just before the foyer. The place is shaping up, almost gleaming, and Raiden is glad to see its emerging cleanliness. Cassie has clearly been matching the Roomba blow for blow in the rest of the house. Raiden only half wonders after the occasion. Earthrealm people have so many celebrations that it is, admittedly, difficult to keep track, though he suspects it is Johnny’s birthday.
“I see that.” The material of the platform with which the elder Cage is struggling, Raiden decides, must be a thick, vulcanized rubber composite. Johnny has expressed in the past his displeasure at the burn marks upon the lawn, though always in good humor. Evidently now he has made moves to prevent it. “But I am not here to speak with your father, Cassandra Cage.”
“Mmkay, so… with me, then? Do I need to like, kneel or… siddown or?” She doesn’t know the proper protocol to speak with a god or… emissary or whatever he is, though she has chatted fairly casually with Raiden on multiple occasions. This seems to be a little heavier and they are not on the brink of multi-realm war and she is not in uniform. “Oh uh—shit, do you want a seat?”
She clears another stack of magazines from the sofa and gestures. The divine nods and expresses his thanks, seating himself and finally ceasing his habit of towering over everyone in the room. Cassie plops herself on yet another chair then jumps up with a start. “FUCK!” She pulls a deflated whoopie cushion out from under her rear and tosses into a pile that deserves a neon sign reading “trash”.
Raiden chuckles. “Another of your father’s mementos?”
“Some’n like that,” she grunts, then straightens, as if recalling to whom she is speaking. Cassie respects Raiden, though she has not nearly so much experience with him as her father and late mother, or Liu Kang, who’s evidently some kind of titan-god-human hybrid thing now. She’s not clear on the logistics of that one, but it’s fine and probably above her pay grade in either case. “Anyway, what’s up?” Smooth, Cassie, just ask the literal embodiment of lightning ‘what’s up’ again. Nice.
“I wanted to express my condolences properly… for your mother and… my apologies on behalf of my older self—my… uglier self.” He shakes his head, sighing, wide shoulders sagging. The hat obscures his face, but she can read his expression via body language. Raiden is heartbroken. “Sonya Blade was a powerful, honorable, worthy representative of Earthrealm and all for which we stand—and she is… she was your mother and—”
“And she put up with dad, so that prolly makes her worthy of canonization—do y’all do that? Canonize folks? I mean that’s kinda what happened to Liu, right?” She, like her father, speaks over her pain, willing it to flee before her mighty voice. But it still hurts. Like Cassie can read Raiden, Raiden can read Cassie. She, by his estimate, is currently wishing she did not feel the compulsion to speak so loquaciously or frankly with him.
“She is worthy of a great many honors—I only wish that I had been a better person to honor her, a better friend. What I said… It was unkind and thoughtless. She did die with honor, but I… hate that she died at all.” His hands are folded in his lap, his face a stern mask. He is holding together well, due most likely to millennia of practice. Cassie has always imagined his forays into the world of the Elder Gods to be exercises in his own patience and humility, if they’re anything like how Johnny has envisioned them. She trusts her father’s perspective on the subject and her own observations of their lack of interference when she had felt certain they must . Gods, as it happens, must do nothing and Raiden does more than most. “I am very sorry. Please, accept my apologies.”
Cassie stands, then, and, in a burst of boldness not unlike her father’s, she seats herself on the couch next to Raiden—at a respectful distance, of course, but close enough to shift her body so she is facing him and her left knee nearly comes into contact with his right.
She can feel from here that peculiar electrical field her father once described to her when he had downed perhaps one too many beers and it is, in a word, immense. This isn’t even his final form , she thinks almost flippantly. The laughter threatens, but only in that hysterical way it sometimes does at funerals or other somber, church-related, no-laughing-aloud events. She reaches out to place one hand atop both of his and finds them, as well, to be immense. Her heart jackhammers for a moment and she wonders if this is what cardiac arrest feels like. Their eyes meet.
“Raiden,” she says quietly, “I… get it. It wasn’t really you—not this you. I don’t… know anything about multiverse bullshit or cosmic whatever-the-fuck, but I… know you … err, well, I’ve gotten to know you,” she amends, then presses on, “and, more importantly, dad knows you. You don’t have to apologize, ever… Your being around here for him—for both of us—is huge. It means a lot to him and to me, y’know? You’re like the weird uncle that’s hard to explain to the neighbors, or somethin’.” Cassie withdraws her hand, because the electrical current has become too much and she’s gone a little numb in the immediate area. She minutely covers it with the other as she folds it in her lap, imitating him, but secretly trying to rub some of the feeling back into it.
“I do not do this, be here with you both, to apologize,” Raiden informs her, straightening. “I… have become fond of your family over the years and… it is not something even my nature can overcome. Nor do I want to deny it, Cassandra Cage.” There is an undercurrent of something else in his voice that she cannot place. Almost feels like he’s sayin’ good-bye. But that would be insane; he isn’t dying, not yet, and he isn’t leaving; where would he go?
“Okay Lord Raiden, I’m—I’ve had it up to here with the whole ‘Cassandra Cage’ thing… Don’t you know me well enough to call me Cassie?” Cassie surprises herself with this outburst. It does not, however, seem to have taken Raiden by surprise.
“Johnny Cage has said much the same,” he responds. She makes a “see there you go” gesture.
“You and me,” she says suddenly, standing, fists balled, “back yard, winner take all. I win, you call me Cassie—and my dad’s just Johnny, okay?”
“And if I win.” Raiden stands as well, once more dwarfing her. She suddenly feels foolish about her challenge, but the Blade women never back down. Cage women don’t either.
“I’ll… make that pizza you like…. With the anchovies.” Cassie pulls a face, indicating she has some objections about Raiden’s choice in pizza toppings. For his part, Raiden seems to consider it. Cassie wonders if he’s considering consulting the Elder Gods, even now, knowing it’s a cruel thought to have. Her contempt for them has not and will not likely ever wane, after what they’ve put Earthrealm through via their own inaction and refusal to enforce their own rules. Death’s more than they deserve, she thinks acidly.
“I accept your challenge.”
Cassie nods, her face grim, the set of her jaw and flash of blue eyes strongly resembling both her mother and father. She heads toward the back door with Raiden in tow, her heart hammering. Relax, Cass’, she thinks, it’s friendly; he’s not gunna fry ya for this . She had not been born when Raiden had evidently done the same to Liu Kang. The thought brings a grimace to her face; he had been younger than she is now.
Just as she reaches the door, her father bursts in and tosses his hands up. “I got it, Cass’, I figured out what… I… need…” He trails off as he catches sight of the tall, hat-topped figure behind his daughter. “Is there… uh, what’s goin’ on?”
Raiden finds his bewilderment charming and his expression softens. “Your daughter has challenged me to Mortal Kombat.”
“Oh okay well that’s just—MORTAL KOMBAT? Cass’, you gotta be shittin’ me, baby girl; what are you—why? No—Nope I can’t… this is not happening.”
“Once the challenge has been issued and accepted, it cannot be revoked,” Raiden reminds Johnny, laying a hand upon his shoulder. “But worry not. I have no intention of… ‘cheating’. Hold this a moment, will you?”
And just like that, the surge of electricity Johnny had felt when Raiden made contact erupts across all of his nerves and he suddenly feels like he is floating. Cassie once more whirls to face the thunder deity and finds that, in place of glowing, indiscernible irises, a pair of dark, soft ones meet hers with ease and benevolent kindness. Her father, however, is a different story. Reaching up, he pulls off yet another pair of $500 sunglasses (which seem to be in eternal supply in the Cage household) and flashes those strange, glowing eyes at his daughter.
“Dad?” Cassie’s voice is a strangely hoarse whisper. She shifts her attention and addresses her concerns to Raiden. “Is… he gunna be okay?”
“He will be fine, Cassandra Cage , now… to Kombat.” He gestures out the back door and, with the sound of her whole name, Cassie’s resolution is galvanized and she leads the way once more, a very human Raiden and a deified Johnny Cage now following her like the strangest band of ducklings ever conceived.
Johnny watches his hands, lightning dancing between his fingers as he finds his way, dazedly, to a deck chair and plops down into it. “Hey!” He calls suddenly, “can I like… go visit Liu?”
“You can.”
Before the second syllable is out of Raiden’s mouth, Johnny is gone. Raiden laughs and shakes his head. Cassie’s brows knit together. “Does he even know how to drive that thing?”
“Not at all, but his desire to see his friend will bring him where he needs to be.” Raiden stands back, beckoning Cassie. She notes that he does not seem to drop into any kind of fighting stance as she does and it worries her. She has seen the damage he can do with his lightning, but not without it and she has never, in her recollection, seen him engage in kombat. What the hell am I doing?
“Thunder God Johnny Cage,” Cassie says, the words tasting strange in her mouth. “That’s fuckin’ weird.”
“It suits him.”
-
The pizza is delicious, in Raiden’s opinion and, though he does not need to eat, there is a certain pleasure in these little indulgences. He is grateful to have learned this lesson from an old friend and he cherishes it when the timing is right and the opportunity arises. This certainly qualifies. They, that is, Cassie and Raiden, are seated on the back patio, the sun slowly sinking, the pizza box open between them.
“So… why does dad get to be Johnny and I’m still Cassandra?” She does her best to imitate Raiden’s stern baritone, but of course fails miserably and ends up sounding comical. Raiden considers her question and imitation a moment and sits forward, laying his plate aside. He shifts once more and turns to her.
“Your grandfather Carlton… refers to your father as Jonathan.”
Cassie never asks again.