Kabal

Kabal is a warrior who is a member of the Black Dragon Clan and a villain from the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games.

Mortal Kombat 3
Kabal was a member of the Black Dragon Clan until Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm. His soul was spared and he discovered that he was one of the chosen fighters. Kabal was attacked by one of Kahn's extermination squads and severely mutilated, surviving only through artificial respirators. He still had an unbroken will to fight and left behind his life of crime, swearing to become a force of good.

Between MK3 and MKDA
Kabal fought and was wounded severely by Mavado, who was a leading member of the Red Dragon that sought to wipe out the Black Dragon. He also took Kabal's hookswords as trophies.

Mortal Kombat: Deception
Havik found Kabal on the brink of death and saved him, in exchange for him bringing back the Black Dragon as a force of chaos and anarchy. In spite of his vow to give up crime, Kabal did exactly as Havik asked, trained with him for a few years, and returned to Earthrealm to reclaim his hookswords from Mavado.

He then began searching for new recruits and eventually found Kira and Kobra. Kabal and his recruits accompanied Havik to Outworld, Kabal secretly wanting to test the pair of recruits and he then tested their progress in the battle against the Dragon King.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Kabal encountered Taven in Argus's temple after the demigod beat Kobra and most of the other Black Dragon. He offered him a place in the clan, but was turned down and defeated by Taven.

In his ending, he defeated Blaze imbuing his hookswords with great power. Kabal challenged Mavado to battle and overpowered him easily, causing him to perform Hara-kiri. He held Mavado's head as a sign of the Black Dragon's superiority.

Mortal Kombat (2011)
In an alternate timeline, Kabal was formerly a police officer and a close friend and partner of Kurtis Stryker. Both of them were about to fight Kintaro, but Kintaro burned Kabal with a fireblast. Because of this, his skin and lungs were left heavily burned. When Stryker came back after he beat Ermac, Kabal was nowhere to be found. It turned out that Kano (an old friend of Kabal from his time as a member of the Black Dragon) rescued him and Quan Chi healed most of his wounds while Kano outfitted him with his mask and respirator.

Kabal escaped and fought Kano, Mileena, Noob Saibot, Sheeva and a Cyborg Sub-Zero (while still being controlled by the Lin Kuei). He joined Raiden so he could help defeat Shao Kahn, but ultimately, he along with Nightwolf, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Jax, Smoke, Jade, and Stryker were killed by Sindel. However Kabal and the others souls, including, Kung Lao, and Sindel, were claimed by Quan Chi and were forced to serve the evil sorcerer forever.

Mortal Kombat X
For the next 25 years, Kabal continued serving Quan Chi as an undead slave.

Powers and Abilities
Kabal is a ruthless, but level-headed fighter and wields his hookswords with great skill. His face is so hideous it can scare people to death, as evidenced by one of his fatalities. Kabal can also fire a plasma blast from his mask and use his superhuman speed to perform a dash, that spins his opponent around like a top.

Trivia

 * One of the hints in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is "Kabal says thank you very much". This may be a reference to a side mission players can perform, where he will reward them with his hookswords.
 * Kabal's fatality in MK3, where he removed his mask to scare the opponent to death, was listed as ninth on Screwattack's Top 10 Worst Mortal Kombat Fatalities list.
 * While all the other characters must perform "mercy" to use their Animalities, Kabal can do so automatically on the Sega Geneis ports. However this makes his head fall off.
 * In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Kano states that the Flash was so fast, he would give Kabal a run for his money.