"Hey Payne! Are you gonna make more coffee? Or are you just gonna leave it empty! Payne!" yelled Kao, an officer at the station. He walked off after making sure Max made a new pot.

What a day yesterday was. The city was damn near destroyed, Sergeant Phil was assassinated, and now Max had to somehow get to the park to meet Joey. After getting his coffee he walked back over to his desk, Pierce was sitting in his chair quietly.

"Pierce..." said Max.

"Max, they are sending free ferries between Shoreside and Staunton, we can catch one there."

"Pierce, I'm going alone." In that moment, Pierce looked into Max's eyes.

"What? Why?"

"You have things to do. Your brother is dead."

"No, it's okay."

"No, it's not, Pierce," Max sighed, "you have to take care of this, for you're brother."

There was an awkward silence. Max walked out after refilling his coffee mug. It was November second, the city still in wreckage, but it was getting fixed pretty fast. Max took his own Windsor to the ferry, and crossed it. It arrived on a newly made dock, just north of the football field.

After the Ferry arrived, Max drove to Bellville Park. Staunton Island didn't take nearly as much damage as Shoreside did, hell it looked like a normal day, everyone in a hurry, rude, aggressive, the same way it had always been. Max drove south, alongside the park, looking for a space to parallel park. As he found one, a blue Kuruma sped into it before Max could get it. The guy got out and flipped Max off. Max returned the favor. He spent the next five minutes circling the park, until he finally decided to just find the nearest parking spot and just walk to the park.

There were so many people in Liberty City now, the population was supposedly "four million." After finding a parking spot three blocks away, Max had to cross the dangerous streets of Staunton Island. Every time he tried, he almost got hit by those insane taxi drivers. Eventually he made it to the park.

The park was still luscious and green, the grass looked healthy, the trees were tall and wide, and overall it was in a very good condition, better than the rest of the city. As Max made his way around the park looking for Joey, a dense fog drifted in, putting a white haze throughout the park making it hard to see, and giving the park an eerie feeling, like it was some sort of graveyard. Max couldn't see more than ten feet in front of him it seemed like, the fog was very dense. The air was moist, making it feel like his face was wet, almost as if it was raining.

Max stopped, looking as hard as he could, he saw nobody. He turned around, still hearing the city, but it was like he was alone in the park. As he stared as hard as he could ahead, and hand was set upon his left shoulder. Max turned around to see Joey, still dressed in his same clothes, but with bullet holes in the chest, and a stream of dry blood along the left side of his face, to his shirt.

"Max." Joey said, looking into Max's eyes.

"What happened to you?"

"It's kind of a long story, and it's not safe up out here. We need somewhere to talk, like the bathroom."

Max found himself in the men's bathroom, which were actually, unusually clean. Max was leaned up against a wall, while Joey was at the counter, holding himself up with his hands on the sink. He had his head down.

"You gonna talk? Or was this just a waste of time?" Max questioned.

"No. It's not."

"Then talk."

"I don't know…"

"Hmm?" Max shrugged.

"I don't know if I was discovered, by the JCF."

"What do you mean?" Max got off of the wall in alertness.

"I was being shot at last night. I had no idea who it was, but… He was dressed in a black trench coat, that's all I know."

"A black trench coat?"

"Yes, as you can see he shot me a couple times." Joey turned around and leaned against the counter. "Thank god for that vest."

"Why didn't you act dead?"

"I did, but he started walking towards me, and I knew he would finish me off, so I got up and ran."

"So he knows you're still alive? Hmm…" Max put his hand up to his chin.

"I think he goes by the name, Kingpin."

"He thinks he's a Kingpin?" Max was almost getting confused.

"No, I heard his phone ring, as I was hiding in an alley, while he was searching for me…" Joey hesitated, "He answered his cell, and I could hear the person in the other line… barely. He said, 'Kingpin? Where are you?' and then Kingpin started to walk away, talking about something, I can't recall." Joey walked to the other side of the bathroom.

"So you don't know if it was the Mafia? Did they see you?"

"That's the thing," Joey pointed at Max, "They didn't… Or, I-I don't suppose-that they did."

"If it wasn't the JCF, then wha-who else would want you dead?"

"Nobody… Hell, nobody even knows I'm out of prison."

"So out only possible suspect in the JCF."

"It has to be them."

"Possibly, but remember, we still don't have enough evidence against them it's too early to make assumptions." Max stated.

"So what do we do?"

"We investigate, keep you safe… Pierce and I will look into it, keep an eye out for you. And if indeed he does attack again, we will fight back, and find out who he is, who he is working for, and why he his employer wants you dead."

"Where's Pierce?"

"He's taking care of things." Max started to head for the door.

"So eh, where do I go?"

"Come with me, you can stay in my apartment." Max smiled.

Joey nodded and followed Max out the door, into the intense wall of white fog. As they got to the top of the stairs and made it a few yard out into the grassy area, something made Max stop, with Joey behind him. It felt like they were being watched. Unforeseen eyes curiously watching their every move.

"What's going on Max? What's the problem?"

"Oh, nothing." Max still scanned the wall of fog. Joey was staring at Max's chest, a red dot moving up and down. A rush of adrenaline hit him as he realized what it was.

"MOVE!" Joey shouted as he slammed into Max with outrageous force, slamming Max into the ground, stunning him for a half-second.

The sound of a gunshot, then blood splattering out of Joey's leg was the signal to an assassin. As Max hurried to get up, another shot was sent into Joey's other leg, immobilizing him. Max stared at Joey, still standing in the same place.

"You fool! Fucking run!" Joey ordered.

A bullet nearly missed Max as he took off towards trees to take cover behind. After dodging a few more bullets he found himself holding his newly acquired Glock, pressed up against a tree which was being shot at, shards of bark blowing off of it with every shot.

Max looked over at Joey who was on the ground in pain, a few yards away from the stairs, a few yards away from cover. He was slowly making his way along the ground, leaving a trail of blood as he headed for cover.

The gravel on the trail jumped up as a bullet narrowly missed Joey's body. "DAMN!" Max screamed. He would need to distract the sniper, giving Joey enough time for Joey to get to cover.

"AAAHHHH!" Max screamed in rage as he jumped out form behind the tree and fired into the wall of fog from where the line of red was coming form. The shots were loud, echoing. Max unloaded a clip in less than five seconds before he jumped back behind the tree, dodging a bullet.

As Max reloaded, the tree was hit by a few more shots, Max's right elbow was phased from being a little to big for the tree.

"Ouch! Damn." He glanced over at Joey again, the red line aiming at his body. He was about eight feet from cover. To the right of Max was a larger tree upon a hill that overlooked a street. Getting ready, Max strafed while firing, running to the bigger trees which would provide more cover. The street was still crowded with cars.

The sniper aggressively tried to take out Max on his run, each bullet getting closer and closer to hitting their target. After unloading another clip towards his position, Max reloaded and started to shoot from behind the tree, peeking around it to get a few shots off.

The sniper began to loose interest in killing Max and began to shoot at Joey, who was getting closer to cover every second. Doing an inventory check, Max realized had only three more clips left. It was time to get closer, Max scanned ahead, looking for the next point cover, which was another large tree along the same hill.

He took off and fired two shots at the sniper, who then returned fire, sending bullet but a few inches from Max's chest.

Max was now behind another large tree, and the sniper started firing at Joey again. Ahead of Max was another fairly large tree on the slope of the hill, following that was a gravel path with an exit to the street, and beyond that was another large tree right next to it. This dash would be longer than the others, Max prepared himself.

Both of this hands gripped his pistol like a snake coiling a rabbit. He sprinted as fast as he could, firing at the red line though the fog as best he could. As he ran down the hill, bullets flew past him, and in a few seconds, he was behind another tree, still alive, with his adrenaline pumping him up. God, what a rush.

Max peeked around the corner, just a little further Max could almost see a figure, from which the red line was coming from, upon a little hill on a gravel path. Joey screamed as the sniper actually managed to hit him. "Damn." Max murmured.

Max emptied the rest of his clip form behind the tree, then reloaded. Max decided to crawl, a few small trees were to the right of him that would give him some cover.

As he got closer he could barely see outline of the figure from which the red line was originating. He got as close as he could, the ground in front of him began flinging up, throwing dirt over Max as bullets were being shot at him.

Using both hands, Max carefully aimed at the figure, the red line was shining on Max's face. Here he would have to have the best aiming he ever had, a few bullets had to be direct hits, or Max would die. And he knew that.

Nine shots rang out, eight of them from Max's Glock, one from the sniper. Max could see the bullet fly just above his left ear, hearing it scream as it passed him.

Silence followed those shots. Nothing was heard, no birds, no cars, no voices, nothing. A scream was let out from upon the hill. Max was relieved. He took a few breathes then stood up and slowly made his way up the hill. On a gravel path three way intersection, were about twenty shells from the rifle, and a small amount of blood. Max turned around, and saw through a few trees, Joey, who was just getting to the stairs. Max made his way back to Joey through the empty park. Sound came back, as if nothing had happened. Max put his gun back in it's holster at his side, and pullet his jacket over it. He went over to Joey.

"Are you okay?" Max asked as he bent down to Joey's level.

"Yeah, it stings." He replied, the bullet that hit him was just above his kneecap. "Did you get him?"

Max shook his head, "Come on, I know an guy who can fix this, but it won't be at the hospital." Max picked Joey up over his shoulder and made his way across the park, and across the streets back to his Windsor.

"His name is Dr. Malcolm, he was an army surgeon, is that okay?" Max asked.

Joey gasped and shook his head. Max started up his car.