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“Dad, where WERE you?” Cassie’s voice held only a note of worry, to which Johnny responded dutifully by putting both hands up in mock surrender.
“Just checkin’ out the Fire Gardens, sweetheart; how many chances do ya get to do that in your life?” He was the picture of collected contentment, having rearranged his garb after Liu Kang rumpled it with his powerful, searching hands and aggressive lips. It was fortunate they’d stopped when they had.
“Dad… why are you wearing sunglasses?” Her eyes were narrowed, sharp, just like her mother’s and Johnny felt a pang of guilt. This “dad” was distinctly different from the first.
“Were you toking, Mr. Cage?” Takeda’s voice danced with amusement as he and Jacqui approached, she holding his arm and leaning heavily on him; he carried her shoes while she supported her swelling belly with her other arm. Little Hanzo was nowhere to be seen, but neither parent seemed worried.
“Is that what the kids are calling it… again?” Johnny’s eyes darted about as if searching for a solution to this sudden problem about which he had considered little when Liu Kang’s lips were on his, but in the gentle light and the dark tint of his sunglasses, no one could see.
“I think he was just trying to speak your language; now c’mon, you look stupid,” Cassie interjected, reaching out and, quick as a flash, snapping the shades off her father’s face.
There was an audible gasp from more than one mouth and the silence which followed was palpable.
“I’ll be damned,” came a grunt from near the cocktail bar where Erron Black was handing something sweet-looking to Jin, who did an almost comical double take. “Check them peepers.”
“By the Great Spirit,” Nightwolf whispered in disbelief, hating his need to utter what Johnny had once called his “catchphrase”, but it was absolutely appropriate. Even Fujin seemed more than a little surprised, but did his best to disguise it. The effort was wasted; no one was looking at him. All eyes, every single cognizant pair in the place, were affixed to Johnny Cage and his new set of “peepers”.
“Definitely toking,” Takeda concluded, bumping Cassie’s shoulder with a fistful of shoes, indicating she should probably give her father’s shades back. She did not, holding them tightly, mouth puckered in that way she had just about abandoned when she hit puberty—it came back every once in a while, when she was absolutely overcome and would not be reasoned with on any account. Johnny feared this look.
“Cass’,” Johnny began to explain, but she merely squeezed her fist, crushed his sunglasses and stalked off. One groom slid something into the other’s hand as they, too, emerged from parts unknown, Hanzo bearing his namesake upon his broad shoulders. Neither of them seemed particularly shocked—pun intended—but perhaps nuptial bliss was having an effect.
“I am not calling you Lord Johnny Cage,” said Sub-Zero firmly.
“You will be lord of very little, anyway, if you do not catch your daughter,” advised Scorpion. Johnny nodded numbly and went stumbling after her, wishing he had had just a little more to drink, or maybe a little less, so he could have retained the testicular fortitude to resist… But resist what? It was Raiden’s will that he, Johnny Cage, inherit his divinity and power. He didn’t have much of a choice. You couldn’t refuse something like that, could you? Either way, Johnny hadn’t and would have felt like he was insulting the guy if he had and he was of the opinion that it was idiotic in the extreme to go around insulting gods, especially ones like Raiden. There aren’t any gods like him…
“Cass’! Cassie, wait—Cassie… please, come on… You gotta let me explain this—it’s sudden for me , too!”
She stopped then, a little ways down a path he did not recognize. They were far enough from the gathering, once again, that the sounds were fairly muted, with trees, shrubbery, and walls dividing them. Cassie did not turn, keeping her back to her father, her shoulders rounded, body tense. She was shaking but Johnny knew better than to approach.
“So you’re just gunna leave, like that—mom’s gone and now you just can’t wait to fly the coop, huh dad?” Her voice was caustic, venomous, burning and corroding both of them as she spoke. Frozen in place once more, Johnny wondered what in the world he could say that would convince her that he wasn’t simply leaving, flying the coop as she put it. Because in a way, he was.
“Cassie… I’m not—”
“You ARE.” She whirled on him, but did not approach, rage spilling off her in waves. He could almost feel it from here. Any minute, he thought, my baby girl’s gunna start glowin’ green and then I’m really in for it. The urge to laugh hysterically rose up in his guts and he stifled it, though not without effort.
“I’m not,” he said, quietly but with firm authority. He was still her father and if he had to attempt to pull that card to have this discussion, he would do it. “Cassie, I would never just…”
“Then what is this? Huh?” She gestured sharply toward his face and his glowing eyes, the arcs of electricity, now visible in the dimness, beginning to sparkle and dance nervously over his body, across the lines of his suit, illuminating him in an eerie blue.
“Raiden’s… gone, Cass’… Liu says he’s not dead, but he’s—we’re not gunna see him again; he’s mortal now, like, really mortal and I guess his final request was to give this shit to me . Kid, I don’t want this… I don’t want any of this, but I’m…” He trailed off helplessly, looking down at his hands which he curled into gentle fists and released, watching the sparks fly. “It’s… I have to.”
Cassie watched him, studying her father carefully, eyes blurred with tears. She was certain her carefully-applied eyeliner was running, despite the waterproof label. Furious with Johnny for this affront and at Raiden for bringing it on them, she nevertheless bore that ire in silence for the moment, considering all the thunder god had done for them, and their closeness. He had become a friend and now they would never see him again. His future self had been her mother’s downfall and for that, she could not forgive him, but the Raiden who had passed his power to Johnny was not the same man. She had become fond of this one.
“It’s bad timing, I know,” Johnny continued, fumbling with his words, but wanting desperately to make Cassie understand something even he could not quite grasp. “And I’m not sure why he wanted me to have this. Liu doesn’t know either. Maybe Ol’ Sparky was goin’ senile or somethin’.”
The humor was misplaced, he knew, and neither he nor Cassie laughed. She was at least watching him now, rather than outright fuming, regarding him carefully, really studying her father. She chewed her lower lip, brows knitted at the center of her forehead. In this light, she looked just like her mother and Johnny’s heart squeezed with remorse.
“This… you need this,” Cassie said, concluding her internal thoughts aloud for her father’s benefit. “Dad, I know you… I’ve known you my whole life. Back then, when I was a kid, I used to wonder why you didn’t date anyone else when mom…” She sighed, shaking her head. “I always thought you looked so lonely and it broke my heart, knowing I couldn’t fill that space for you. Worse… I kinda figured, y’know, I was the reason there WAS a space.”
There was a lump rising in Johnny’s throat, but he suppressed it, listening to his daughter, so much like him and yet so different, so wise for her age. Better than I was, he thought.
“I know I wasn’t, y’know? But kids…. Anyway, you aren’t the kind of person who can be alone for very long, are you?” She did not mean the question in a cruel way. She sought truth and she, to Johnny’s chagrin, was absolutely onto something. It was, of course, not a truth he had known when he was younger, had only had inklings. Now, a man well into his fifties, he had figured it out, though it still stung to hear his baby girl say so.
“No, Cassie… I’m not.” The admission felt like a weight being lifted, but this also left him exposed, as if that weight had been a shield more than a burden. “I had to do it… when you were younger ‘cause, well you know what all the books say about a never-ending parade of people in the house when you’ve got a kid…” He trailed off, hands moving helplessly to indicate he was at a loss.
“Thank you, Dad. You... “ Her whole body seemed to sag as she approached her father, arms open. “You deserve a break, but it looks like you’re getting more work, huh?”
“An eternity of it,” he admitted and wrapped his arms around his daughter. Cassie held him tight, withdrawing only when she could not take the oncoming numbness.
“I dunno if I can get used to that,” she admitted.
“I don’t think I can turn it off,” Johnny said apologetically.
“Yeah, Raiden couldn’t either,” she responded. Her eyes caught something and she stopped. “Hey… have you got like, a glowstick necklace on under your tux? I didn’t know they were handing out goodies like that .”
Cassie gestured toward the chest of Johnny’s tuxedo which, while still on him, in the most technical sense of the word, was askew and the fabric between the buttons had come dislodged (notably, his tie clip was nowhere to be seen). Despite his best efforts to reshevel himself, he had evidently missed a few details. Johnny looked down and began to fumble with his tie, loosening it and tugging it aside, suddenly suspicious. Images of Liu Kang and Fujin’s beautiful, glowing marks of divinity were flashing in Johnny’s head and his fingers fumbled eagerly with the top three or four buttons of his shirt. He had asked Liu and the guy had promised later but OH, by god he had to know.
“Oh my god, dad…” Cassie’s hand had found her mouth and she was grinning ear to ear. “You’ve GOT to show Liu Kang; he’s gunna flip.”
“Show me what?” Liu Kang seemed to materialize out of the darkness… Perhaps he had merely approached and they had missed him in their excitement.
“This,” said Johnny proudly, grinning and turning and tugging the top of his shirt open a little wider. In place of his “Johnny” tattoo, there was, in a very similar script (albeit glowing a soft blue-white) another word:
THUNDER
Liu Kang seemed to sigh with his entire body. “Why are you like this?”