Kreeya

She-warrior Kreeya plans to conquer Earth Realm and wage battle with Shao Kahn.

Shang Tsung (series regular Bruce Locke) is brutally attacked in the Cobalt Mines by three female warriors. Just as he’s about beaten, Vorpax (series regular Tracy Douglas) appears, but instead of helping him, she delivers the blow that levels him. Shang Tsung is spirited from the Cobalt Mines and taken to Earth Realm as a prisoner.

Vorpax and the warriors, it turns out, are subjects of Empress Kreeya (guest star Fabiana Undenio), a woman warrior determined to topple Shao Kahn’s empire. Like Shao Kahn, Kreeya has been amassing her universe realm by realm, growing stronger with each conquest. Now she has her sights set on Outworld–thus the invasion of the Cobalt Mines.

Kreeya has settled on the neutral, and therefore relatively safe, Earth Realm as the place where she will raise her army to defeat Shao Kahn.

Meanwhile, Rayden (series regular Jeffrey Meek) warns Kung Lao, Taja and Siro (series regulars Paolo Montalban, Kristanna Loken and Daniel Bernhardt) that something is amiss in their realm. He can’t quite name it, but something is definitely not right.

Presently, that something arrives at the trading post in the form of Vorpax and two of Kreeya’s warriors. Vorpax invites Kung Lao, Taja and Siro to meet with Kreeya and hear her plans to bring peace to all realms through the destruction of Shao Kahn–the three are even asked to join Kreeya’s armies. Taja and Siro are intrigued by the invitation and meet with Kreeya; Kung Lao is skeptical and stays behind. In an effort to woo Kung Lao, Kreeya shows up at the trading post with Shang Tsung in chains.

Kreeya tells Kung Lao of her people and their quest. She goes on to tell him that her people are a powerful race and when they breed with others, their traits prevail–eventually erasing all traits other than their own. Kreeya proclaims this is all in the name of peace and harmony, however Kung Lao sees it more as the conquering and vanquishing of entire races and realms.

Reluctantly, Kung Lao goes to Kreeya’s compound to learn more of Kreeya and her people. Simultaneously in Outworld, the Shadow Priests have brought Shao Kahn news of Kreeya and her impending attack. Shao Kahn now declares war on Kreeya–even though she is on Earth Realm, which is technically off limits to him. Shao Kahn will deal with the Elder Gods once he’s dealt with Kreeya.

At Kreeya’s encampment, Kung Lao learns much more about Kreeya and her ways than he planned. He discovers a ‘hive’ filled with thousands of incubating female warriors who will grow to adulthood in a matter of weeks–all spawned by Kreeya! When he confronts Kreeya, he and the others are given a choice: join them or perish. When they refuse, they are taken prisoner with Kung Lao being put in the cage where Shang Tsung is being kept. Kreeya, it appears, plans to ‘mate’ with each of them to create new legions of super warriors.

Kung Lao, realizing the desperation of their situation, goads Shang Tsung into a fight. Once Shang Tsung strikes Kung Lao, Rayden appears–the rules of Mortal Kombat have been violated and he can now intervene. Rayden frees Kung Lao and Shang Tsung and, ironically, the mortal enemies must fight together to stop Kreeya and save the Earth Realm from her invasion. The two are successful in destroying Kreeya’s compound and the hive, but disturbingly, when the dust settles, Shang Tsung, Kreeya and Vorpax have all gone missing in the Earth Realm. Back in Outworld, Shao Kahn has discovered that Kreeya deposited thousands and thousands of hives on her visit and his kingdom is about to be attacked by hordes of her warriors.

                   

Shadow of a Doubt

Shao Kahn makes numerous attempts on Kung Lao’s (series regular Paolo Montalban) life before being stopped by his stepdaughter, Princess Kitana (guest star Audie England).

Episode opens with Kung Lao (series regular Paolo Montalban) being attacked by the warrior Rain (guest star Percy ‘Spit Fire’ Brown), who has the ability to summon lightning from the sky to strike his opponents. Shao Kahn has sent Rain to kill Kung Lao, which would give him control of the Earth Realm, as well as keep Shang Tsung (series regular Bruce Locke) in the Cobalt Mines for eternity.

Taja (series regular Kristanna Loken) and Siro (series regular Daniel Bernhardt) come upon the fight causing Rain to flee. Unfortunately, Rain has hurt Kung Lao badly and he’ll require a few days’ bed rest. Shao Kahn decides this is the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the trading post and finish the job Rain has begun.

In order to gain access to Kung Lao, Shao Kahn calls upon the warrior Mileena (guest star Megan Brown) who he transforms to look like his stepdaughter and friend to Kung Lao, Princess Kitana. He sends this substitute Kitana to the trading post with orders to kill the weakened Kung Lao. The evil Kitana arrives saying that she heard that Kung Lao needed some nursing, and she wanted to repay the favor for the time he helped save her life.

When Shang Tsung (series regular Bruce Locke) learns of Shao Kahn’s plans to kill Kung Lao, he immediately dispatches Vorpax (series regular Tracy Douglas) to foil the plans. If Shang Tsung ever hopes to escape the Cobalt Mines, it is he alone who must vanquish Kung Lao.

Vorpax convinces the evil Kitana that Shao Kahn is using her and once she kills Kung Lao, she too will be finished. Vorpax tells her that the longer Kung Lao lives, the better off she is. The evil Kitana begins an affair with Kung Lao and making excuses to Shao Kahn.

Taja has become suspicious of Kitana’s behavior–it is markedly different from the last time she visited from Outworld. Coupled with the fact that Kung Lao is getting worse instead of better, Taja becomes increasingly wary of this Kitana.

Meanwhile, Siro has been tracking Rain since his attack on Kung Lao. When Siro comes upon Rain in an abandoned temple, he’s not ready for the intensity of his attack. Just as Rain is about to finish Siro with his trademark lightning blast, Rain is struck from behind by one of Princess Kitana’s fighting fans.

It turns out that in a last ditch effort to keep Kung Lao alive, Shang Tsung alerted the real Princess Kitana (guest star Audie England) that Shao Kahn had sent Rain (a former Edenian and friend of Kitana) to kill Kung Lao. In her pursuit of Rain, she came across the fight in the temple in which she saved Siro’s life. Following this, Siro asked how she had been able to get from the trading post to the temple so quickly. At this point they realize that the Kitana at the trading post is an impostor sent by Shao Kahn.

The real Kitana hurries to the trading post and confronts the impostor–a raging fight ensues. In the midst of the fight, the women are transported back to Outworld by Shao Kahn. He punishes Mileena by taking away the beauty she had received to pose as Kitana; when he turns to the real Kitana, she tells him that she was not disobeying him when she went to Earth Realm, rather she was serving him by exposing Mileena as a fraud who was both impersonating her and trying to kill Kung Lao–something Shao Kahn is forbidden to do by the Elder Gods. Kitana trumps Shao Kahn’s plans and is safe for the time being.

                       

Quan Chi

The evil sorcerer Quan Chi casts a spell over Kung Lao, Taja and Siro to lead to their self destruction and downfall.

The evil sorcerer Quan Chi (guest star Adoni Maropis) dispatches a trio of deadly women from the NetherRealm, which he rules, to do away with Kung Lao (series regular Paolo Montalban), Taja (series regular Kristanna Loken) and Siro (series regular Daniel Bernhardt). However, it’s not an ordinary execution Quan Chi has in mind for Kung Lao, Taja and Siro, but a plan by which each would die in shame.

Quan Chi has his three she-warriors, Mika (guest star Jamie Pressly), Siann (guest star Dana Hee) and Sora (guest star Renee Tenison), insinuate themselves into the lives of Taja, Siro and Kung Lao and with a little trickery, each is able to ‘infect’ her intended victim with a potion of Quan Chi’s creation.

The potion that was given to Kung Lao, Taja and Siro masks all of their good qualities and enormously magnifies their shortcomings–Siro becomes an obnoxious drunk, Taja goes back to thievery in a big, big way, and Kung Lao finds that his temper is uncontrollable to the point of violence and paranoia. Unaware that they’ve been the victim of sorcery, Kung Lao, Taja and Siro don’t recognize their own destructive behavior and only see how out of control the other two have become.

At one point, Kung Lao attacks Siro at the trading post and nearly kills him, throwing him out of a second-floor window. During this fight, Rayden (series regular Jeffrey Meek) appears and after seeing the irrational Kung Lao and the near-dead Siro, surmises there’s more at work here than meets the eye.

Rayden then finds Taja just as she’s about to be executed for stealing from the villagers. Among the mob chanting for her death he recognizes Sora and things start to make a little more sense. Rayden corners Sora and makes her tell him what’s going on. Once Sora explains Quan Chi’s spell to Rayden, it’s up to him to convince Kung Lao, Taja and Siro, that only they can break the spell by accepting that life contains both darkness and light and they must choose to live in the light and contain the darkness.

When Quan Chi learns of Sora’s betrayal, he is furious and decides that he’ll take care of Kung Lao himself. Quan Chi’s hope was that Kung Lao would kill an innocent person in a fit of rage. As a warrior, Kung Lao would be disgraced and banned from his temple, sure to die a broken man. Quan Chi would then take Kung Lao’s soul back to the NetherRealm where he would sell it to the highest bidder–most likely Shang Tsung who would use it to win his freedom from Shao Kahn.

Rayden explains this scenario to Kung Lao and warns him that if he is to fight Quan Chi, he must remain focused and not fight in a blind fury. Kung Lao heeds this advice, and when Quan Chi sees that he cannot win the battle he returns to the NetherRealm.

Despite the bruised egos, hurt feelings and broken bones, Kung Lao, Siro and Taja realize what they mean to each other and return to trading post to put their lives back in order.