02- The Precinct.

First things first, I had decided to call into work in order to get a few days leave, which they accepted thankfully enough.

After that, I had begun looking for anyone who would be willing to teach me anything about actual martial arts… after all, I was good with both CQC and my firearms training, but I needed more tricks up my sleeve if I wanted to survive the Invasion of Outworld, let alone all the other bullshit.

Unfortunately, most of the martial arts schools around me were just generic martial arts… Karate, Boxing, Kung Fu, etc. To be fair, they could be useful, but they weren't exactly what I was looking for… so I stopped looking for the most part and focused on training my body.

Mainly, I was lifting weights, practicing my aim… just trying to become something more than what this body originally was.

Nearly a week later, it had been… well, a few days since I had been transmigrated into the body of Stryker, and after the first day of general panicking and attempted planning, and a few days of training which unfortunately didn't do all that much, I had allowed the Stryker within me to guide me to where I needed to go.

Also known as the New York City Police Station, so I could clock into work. I wanted to eat and pay rent after all.

I walked into the police station, to see various officers going about their day doing work, some doing paperwork, others investigating crimes and a few leading cuffed criminals in the holding cells.

"Stryker, my friend! How have you been?" One of Stryker's fellow officers asked as he walked over, he was a large muscular man with a full black beard, by the name of Arnold Reeves… who looked like an unholy cross between Keanu Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I've been good Arnold! Really needed that time off, how about you?" I asked, relying on Stryker's memories to figure out how to interact with the people who had been his coworkers for years.

"Honestly? It's just been the usual. Oh right, Carmine's back! Oi, Carmine! Get over here!" Arnold shouted, causing one of the other officers to arrive.

"Oh, hey guys" Anthony Carmine said with a pained smile, from Stryker's memories he had gotten shot in the head during a stand-off with some gangsters a couple of months ago… his SWAT Helmet was the only thing that saved his life.

"Carmine, it's good to see you. How are the kids?" I asked, somewhat sympathetically.

"They've been good, Kurt. Little Elizabeth's been a hell raiser as always, but Gary's been helpful around the house… he's a good kid, if a bit quiet" Anthony said, his pained smile turning into a proud one.

"That's honestly really good to hear, just… stay safe, alright Anthony?" I said, patting him on the shoulder. Anthony was honestly really prone to accidents, and had worried Stryker quite a bit over the years.

He just nodded at me, before walking off presumably to do his work. He was on paperwork duty for the foreseeable future.

With that, Arnold also left, mentioning something about looking into a murder case. He had a disgusted look on his face, which told me all I needed to know about that.

It was probably some gruesome murder scene… and while Stryker was trained not to vomit upon seeing such sights, I wasn't confident at all in not feeling nauseous if I saw something like that.

So, it came to my relief when I saw Stryker's partner of several years walking up to me.

This was Kabal, a tanned man with a ponytail, he'd been a criminal before joining the NYPD looking to 'atone for his sins'... that was a few years ago, and Stryker had been his partner since he was a rookie. They worked well together.

"Stryker, you doing alright?" Kabal asked, as he put his arm over my shoulder, "I heard you took some time off. That doesn't sound like you… are things going well?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, I just wanted some time to do some self reflection… help find myself a bit. It mostly consisted of training in my gym, heh" I said with a slight laugh, "Now… Do you know what we're doing today?"

"No idea, man. Maybe the Chief will tell us when he gets here?" Kabal suggested with a shrug, as he leaned against a nearby wall.

"Ask and you shall receive, men" The Chief said as he walked up to the two of us, he looked like a classic 80's detective, with a brown trench coat and salt peppered frizzy hair.

"Chief Columbo, we weren't- I uh…" Kabal said hesitantly, as he looked to me in order to figure out what to say.

This was the Chief of Police, Frank Columbo. He was one of the greatest detectives in the LAPD during the 60's and 70's before arriving at the NYPD in the 90's… he became the chief a couple of years ago, and everyone in the precinct respected his sheer skill and intellect.

"It's fine, officer. Now I want you two men to do something for me" Chief Columbo said as he took a drag of his cigar.

"Oh, what do you want, chief?" I asked curiously. My memories of Stryker informing me that the chief has given him and other officers 'secret missions'.

"The two of you, follow me to my office." Chief Columbo said, as he quickly led the two of us to his small office.

The office was rather sparse for an office that would usually belong to the chief of the police, instead of various accolades and awards, the walls were practically covered in pictures of his wife and dog, and newspaper clippings of the various cases he'd solved… and funny statistics, like how apparently Australia is wider than the moon.

With that, the two of us sat down in a pair of chairs, as Chief Columbo sat in his own.

"Now men, I have a special mission for the two of you… y'see, you're the best physical combatants in the NYPD by far" Chief Columbo said with a slight grimace, as he slid over some photos of bloodied men and women fighting each other…

My heart quickened as I studied the gruesome pictures, a flicker of unease igniting within. The pained expressions etched on their faces hinted at a tragedy that ran deeper than mere brutality.

I couldn't help but wonder if a couple of the people in those photos were already dead…

…Is this? Wait, is this some sort of recruitment to the Mortal Kombat Tournament? Oh fuck, I'm not ready at all…

"Well, there's this little fighting ring that we haven't been able to get our guys into, so we need the two of you to go undercover. It's called… Hornbuckle's Arena" Chief Columbo said, "Do you two think you're capable of doing this?"

Well… at the very least, it wasn't the Mortal Kombat Tournament…

"I'm in, what do you say, Stryker?" Kabal asked me with a slight grin.

"…Yeah, I'm in" Looks like I'm going to actually go fighting for the first time in 'my' life… hopefully Stryker's skills can help me with this.

This shouldn't be too hard, I hope…