Ginger didn't know what she was feeling when she woke up. On the one hand, she felt as though she was floating, on the the other, she had the impression that there was something surrounding her, and entering her body through her nose. It took a while before she realized she was in water. That's when she opened her eyes, started to have difficulty to breath and tried to go up. She saw something moving above her, something that looked like black dots, moving as though they were writing something on the water. Ginger didn't know what they were, but she could tell that they were on the surface, which gave her an idea of how close she is, which helped her to go faster, until she reached the surface and inhaled deeply.
Jason, who was already looking for her, saw her coming out, after which he went into the river and helped her get out. Once out, the two of them rejoined with Max and Snake.
"Thought we lost you there." Snake said.
"Yeah." Ginger replied, "Luckily those rinkeling winkeling water-things there kept me oriented."
"Those what?" Snake asked her.
Before she could answer, Jason had already wrapped his arms around her, showing just how much afraid he was that he'd have lost her.
"This is still a disturbing sight, I tell ya." Max said.
Once Jason let go of her, Ginger asked them: "So where's Al?"
"He's resting." Max answered, "He drained too much... necroplasm, as he calls it, so he needs to recharge."
"That means there is one man less." a voice said, which neither one of them knew.
They turned to look at who just spoke, and recognized him as Krimson.
"Both our robots are broken." Krimson said, as he started to charge electricity in his hands, "But I do not need it for you four."
Snake raised his gun and replied: "We'll see about that."
He shoots, but it took just one move of Krimson's hand to change the bullet's trajectory. Nobody knew what it was that they were seeing, but Jason didn't show much of any fear. He took out his machete to attack Krimson, but the latter took something out of his pocket to fight that too. He took out something that looked like a flashlight, but whatever light it was that came out, was not only red, it also appeared to be of the same length as a sword, and very hot, as it managed to melt Jason's machete into two pieces. No, it didn't break, it melted. Max then tried to attack him with her feline abilities, but Krimson could use his telekinetic abilities to push her away, which he also did with Jason, as well as Snake and Ginger when they tried to attack.
Once all four of them were down, Snake started: "You... coward!"
"What did you say?" Krimson heard him, "You dare to call me a coward?"
"You wouldn't call me that yourself if you didn't have those powers." Snake replied.
That's when Krimson raised Snake off the ground, again with his telekinetic powers, except that it looked as though he was held up by his neck, as Snake was having trouble breathing. In a similar situation, Snake would have punched or kicked the man that's trying to strangle him, but this man was too far away for him to do anything to. The others tried to help, but Krimson used his powers to keep them on the floor.
"Don't be impatient." he told them, "You'll be next soon."
"Jesus walking into a hotel once." another voice spoke.
Krimson turned to see who was talking. He didn't know the man he was seeing, but Snake recognized him: "Kenny?"
"He gave the innkeeper three nails and asked him: 'will you put me up for the night?' " the man, Kenny, finished.
"What?" Krimson couldn't understand.
Kenny looked surprised, although he didn't appear to really be exactly that: "It's what a friend of mine told me, back when I was..."
Krimson didn't listen. That light-sword he used earlier, he threw it towards Kenny, which got him right in his heart. Kenny appeared to be in pain, for a brief moment. After that, he pressed the button on the sword, causing it's light to disappear. When that happened, everyone could see the wound it caused, but could also see how it healed, leaving no mark of penetration at all.
"Nice toy." Kenny said, "Didn't I see this in some movie or other?"
He shrugged, after which he broke the sword into pieces, using his bare hands alone. They turned bloody after that, but that too healed.
Seeing this, Krimson let go of Snake and turned completely to Kenny: "What are you?"
"Ever knew that all the ancient religions think of the crow as a deity?" Kenny answered, "A devourer? A hunter? A..."
Krimson couldn't hear much more of this. He used his electricity on Kenny. The latter held out his hand, which caught most of the blast. It looked black at first, but it healed quickly.
"It is the power of that crow that's been given to me." Kenny continued, uninterrupted, "Ironically, I wouldn't have had it if it wasn't for you..."
Krimson tried his telekinesis, but that too got deflected, by just one sway of Kenny's hand. There was no way of stopping him.
"You... who took my girlfriend away..." Kenny continued, "And endangered our..."
That's when Krimson used the full blast of his telekinesis with both of his hands, so Kenny couldn't deflect it even if he wanted to. Kenny flew backwards, hitting a pole, hard enough for everybody to hear his back break. This was a moment where the others saw their opening to attack Krimson. They used all their might on him, while he was still confused. Unfortunately, Krimson quickly recovered from all that, and had to use a combination of both his electricity and his telekinesis to throw everyone away. At that moment, where he had all four of them in his grip, he was about ready to kill them all off, but he didn't count on someone else kicking his legs. When that happened, Krimson fell down, as did the other ones, exhausted from what just happened.
"That... hurts." Kenny said, while standing over Krimson, who had apparently forgotten that this man could heal from every wound. Earlier, even, Kenny was shot by a group of men, but not one bullet stopped him from fighting back.
Krimson raised his hands to attack Kenny, but the latter was too fast for the former. The two broke out into a fight, in which the one could try and damage the other, but only one of them could heal from anything at all.
After some time, Krimson was finally taken down, with almost every part of his body covered in blood. Despite that, he still found the strength to try and get up.
After mumbling something in his own language, Krimson said: "I will have my revenge on you... you can believe t..."
He couldn't say anything anymore, as something got him in his back. He turned to look, and saw Jason, using whatever was left of his machete on him. Krimson thought of using something from his hands again, but Ginger stepped on both of his hands.
"Don't even think about it!" she exclaimed.
"Alright, we got him." Max sounded cheerful, as she was about to go to Krimson herself."
"No." Snake stopped her, "Let him take care of it."
Snake pointed to Kenny, who approached the now powerless Krimson: "How does it feel now? To be in the position that so many have been in, thanks to you? Weak, powerless, hopeless. But don't worry, unlike you, I'm not without mercy. I will not let you suffer anymore."
Krimson, as anyone else, didn't know what he was hearing: "Th... Thank you... very much."
"Nor will I let you have anyone else suffer." Kenny added.
Krimson needed just one second to realize what was about to happen, but within that same second, Kenny had already grabbed Krimson's head and broke his neck.
"That takes care of him." Ginger said.
"Too bad Al wasn't here to see this." Max moaned.
"If he was, Krimson would have used his powers on him as well." Snake told her, "And if not, he would've killed him before Kenny would've arrived."
"Ah, a soldiers honor." Max realized, "Don't meddle into affairs that don't concern you."
"Right." Snake replied.
Ginger meanwhile turned to Kenny: "So you're that Kenn..."
But he was already gone. Vanished into thin air.
"He's gone? How does he do that?" Max wondered.
"Yeah, he does that sometimes." Snake replied.
Kenny returned to that town where Tess was kept captive. When he re-entered the town, he noticed it was called Ravenburg. A fitting name, given the circumstances. In any case, when he saved his girlfriend, he thought of allowing her to rest in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Unfortunately, Krimson's robot came to that house and destroyed it. So Kenny was forced to move her into another place. The best place he could find was an old bar, run by an old man. He can remember the man shouting something that sounded like "ah-ker-chee-eh-ah-ker-chee-eh" when his entering woke him up.
When he returned to the bar, he met with the old man again, who immediately asked him: "You're back. Do you know what's going on? Why does the sun shine when it is night?"
"I don't know." Kenny replied, "Where is she?"
"She's still upstairs, but..." the old man hesitated, "... when she woke up, she started to shout and break everything in the room. I had to er... bind her to the bed to calm her down."
"I was afraid that'll happen." Kenny replied, as he quickly went upstairs.
The old man, meanwhile, looked up in the sky, still puzzled about this phenomenon. In his own language, he decided: "I'll probably read about this in 'De Ravenburgse Post' tomorrow. I mean today... this is very confusing. Ah-ker-chee-eh."
Kenny entered her room, where he could hear Tess' muffled screams and see her struggling, but he wasn't sure whether she was trying to get loose or working out her anger, grieve, or something else. In any case, all he needed to do was sit next to her in bed and hold her face in both of his hands. She still screaming, but that faded away as soon as she realized who was with her. Once she was her usual self again, Kenny took off the cloth that had her gagged.
"... Ken... Kenny?" Tess breathed out.
Her first thought was to hold him, but her hands were still tied. Kenny helped her to get loose from those, which made sure that nobody could stop them from holding one another.
After some tears and some time, Tess finally said: "They told me you're dead. They told me you had an accident."
Kenny wasn't prepared for that bit, but didn't think there was any way in which he can say anything to make this seem less painful. He let go of her, and said: "Tess, I know you're not gonna like this, but..."
"But what?" Tess was afraid of what he was about to say.
"I..." Kenny had a hard time saying this himself, "I'm not supposed to be here."
"What do you mean?" Tess couldn't understand, "This room?"
"Not this room." Kenny answered, "Not this city, not this country, not this world,... what I'm trying to say is... I really don't want to go, but... I just have to."
This made Tess about as unhappy as she was some time ago: "No... No! You can't just leave me! I don't want to be alone!"
"You won't be." Kenny assured her, as he lay his hand on her belly and rubbed it nicely, "He'll be with you."
Tess looked down on her belly, then back at Kenny: "You... you knew?"
"Not before my accident." Kenny told her, "And believe me, if I could, I would stay for him. But I don't have a choice."
Tess started to look sad, but Kenny held her face again, allowing her to look into his eyes. She saw something in them, that helped her see his sincerity. If he wanted to leave her, he wouldn't have come to her to say so, she realized. Still, she had one last request for him.
"Can..." she hesitated, "...Will you stay with me, until I'm home?"
"Yes." Kenny answered, "That I can still do."
From that moment on, they held each other again. If the world were to end just then, it would still not be enough to bring those two apart.
