Crystal Lake, New Jersey, April 21, 2010
Although against their wishes, the three made it into the woods that surround the area known as Camp Crystal Lake. They've been walking around for over an hour, and the moon was just about high enough in the skies, so even those of them who couldn't see in the dark (something which Max could), could see just about enough.
"This is weird." Max remarked, "Do you hear this too?"
"Hear what?" Snake asked.
"I don't know." Max explained, "I keep hearing something snapping branches, but I'm not seeing anything."
"You don't think that our target is now targeting us?" Al asked her.
"Like I said, I do..." Max stopped talking at that point, as she saw something else, "There! There's the campsite."
"I don't think either one of our targets would be stupid enough to hide there." Snake said.
"If anything, it would be more of a trap for us than for them." Al agreed.
Max shrugged: "Whether we find them, or they find us, we should be glad if we see even one of them."
She ran to the site, and the two men didn't see any other option but to follow her. Although, Al already went up ahead, while Snake readied his gun: "Luckily that Thirteen gave me one of these at least, this time."
That's when he followed the other two. But just as he was about to pass a tree, somebody came from behind it. It was a man, about two heads larger than Snake and wearing a hockey mask. Snake immediately did the first thing that came to mind, and used his gun to beat the masked man. But the man was too strong to even feel the slightest bit of pain from this.
This disturbance didn't go unnoticed by either Max or Al. They turned around, only to see Snake in battle with one of their targets.
"At least we know he's still alive." Al mumbled, as he quickly changed into Spawn, to charge the man. But just as he was about to do anything, something fell out of the air and on top of him. Max was quick to turn to Spawn, only to see something that appeared as a human female, if it weren't for all the hair and it's wolf-like behaviour. With Spawn down, the two girls looked at each other. With their basic instincts telling them they are rivals, they engaged into a battle of their own.
Meanwhile, Snake was fighting a losing battle with the masked man. The latter managed to punch Snake's gun out of his hands, after which he punched him down. Once he had done that, he saw how Spawn had a sword at the ready to attack the wolf-woman. In order to help her, the man took out his machete and threw it at Spawn. It got him in his shoulder, which also pinned him to the nearest wall. Even though Spawn is strong enough to get out of this, he was still taken by surprise. This lasted long enough for him to see how the woman pinned Max down. With this, the masked man started towards them. But then he heard a click, which came from behind him.
"We're here to take you with us alive." Snake hissed, "But they are satisfied if only one of you is alive. Which one of you should I kill?"
The man and the woman looked at each other, somewhat worried. The masked man looked down, while the wolf-woman got off of Max.
This surprised Spawn: "You must be joking! These two let each other live because they care about each other?"
"Shut the fuck up!" the woman shouted to him.
This surprised all of them, but Max was the one to talk: "You can talk?"
"Yeah, and you can see in the dark? What the fuck are you?" the woman asked her.
Spawn had taken the machete out of his shoulder just then: "Damn, this woman swears a lot more than I do."
"Excuse me, I have a name!" the woman said, "It's Ginger."
"Nice to meet you." Snake said, with his usual sarcastic tone, "And you are?"
He directed himself to the masked man, but he didn't say anything.
"Well?" Snake insisted.
The man turned around angrily and punched Snake in his still-functioning eye. This was an opening in which the woman, Ginger, pushed Max away, while the masked man picked Snake up and threw him to Spawn, who was taken down like a bowling pin. The two of them came together to look at the three they had just taken down.
"Now..." Ginger growled, "Give me one good reason why Jase and I have to go with the four of you."
"Jase? Is that this Golem's na..." Spawn started, but realized something else, "Wait, the four of us?"
"Who taught you to count?" Max wondered, "There are only three of us."
Ginger snickered: "No. There's three of you, and there's one of this!"
She swayed her hand, as though thinking she's hitting something. Next thing everyone else knows is that they hear a sort of scream and they saw how one wall of a cabin suddenly splintered, as though hit with some kind of invisible force. Not to mention a panting voice that said: "You... you can see me?"
Neither Ginger or the masked man appear too surprised about this, but the other three were. Snake got up, went to the wall that splintered, but then stepped his foot on something.
"Ouch! Watch where you're walking!" somebody cried.
"There's something here?" Snake questioned.
"Wait a minute, that voice..." Max realized.
"I knew I smelled something." Ginger said, "And Jase kept pointing this out to me that something's leaving a trail, but he can't see what it is."
"An invisible man?" Spawn was just as surprised as everyone else.
"My ex-colleagues would say a hollow man, but yes." the invisible man replied.
"Dr. Bacon? Is that you?" Max asked.
Now it became clear to Snake: "So that's how you were spying on us the whole time."
"So your face never looked like a mask." Max realized, "It just was a mask."
"Alright, I better level with y'all." Bacon said, "My name's not Bacon. It's Caine."
"Caine. As in Sebastian Caine?" Spawn asked him.
"You know him?" Snake asked.
"Yeah." Spawn answered, "But from what I read, he's supposed to be dead. How did you survive that fire?"
"It wasn't easy." Bacon, or rather Caine, replied.
"That's very interesting and everything." Ginger interrupted, "But why won't all of you just leave us alone?"
"Believe me, we'd love to." Snake told her, "But we can't. Either we return with one or both of you, or we'll be prisoners for the rest of our lives."
"And we should care because...?" Ginger asked.
"You've seen who we are." Spawn answered her, "If they, who keep us, would go so far to collect us, who knows how far they'd go just to get you two."
"Remember..." Max started, sounding unusually menacing, "... we only need one of you alive."
The masked man turns to Ginger, he points to her, then down, so to say that he wants her to stay put.
"No, Jase, I can't let you go alone." Ginger said, "After everything you've been through, do you really need to face this by yourself?"
"This..." Max started, "... is... a disturbing sight."
"We'll both come with you." Ginger said, "But I must warn you..."
"Never mind, I know what you're gonna say." Snake interrupted her, then turns back to where he thinks Caine is, "Come on, 'hollow man'."
Snake reached to pick Caine up, but he couldn't feel him: "Where did he go!?"
"Here he is!" Spawn answered, as he appeared to have something in his grip that's struggling to let go, that kept begging to let go.
"You can see him?" Snake wondered.
"Now that I know I should look for an invisible man, yes." Spawn replied.
Snake then shrugged: "Alright. Let's go back to Thirteen's island. Come on Jase, Gin..."
The masked man grabbed Snake and threw him away. Before anyone, including the masked man, said or did anything else, Ginger told them: "Only I get to call him Jase. His name's Jason. You got it fucking memorized!?"
Leaving it at that, they all left the campgrounds, on their way to return to the aforementioned island.
