Creation began on 05-10-23

Creation ended on 10-03-23

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th: Julius wins the Glory

When word of Jason Voorhees being in New York and cut in half by falling half into a dumpster failing to claim another victim that got away from him, the name Julius Samuel Gaw became another name synonymous with the celebrity pantheon. The mere fact that he knocked the serial killer off a roof with some boxing moves and an uppercut punch and cut his legs off made people from the pro-boxing world come at him from all sides, every single one of them offering him a path to success.

-x-

Trapped like a rat in a maze, deep underground in a top-secret facility, monitored by armed guards and poked and prodded by people in white coats while restrained from head to toe in military-grade chains and constantly sedated by drugs designed to keep him from moving, Jason Voorhees was now a guest of the United States government. It was hoped that while there was a way to replicate his unique regeneration for military and medical uses, these men and women would keep him alive just long enough to fully map his genetic code and then execute him to keep him from escaping and killing again. But what enraged him more than this current state of captivity was the young man that knocked him off a roof and severed his legs on the way down to the ground. Oh, how Jason swore that, should the opportunity come and he would escape from this place, he would go after that man and finish what he started with him.

A guard looked at him from a distance with a rifle, and Jason glared at him, imagining the man that defeated him that night with his head knocked off.

-x-

Five years later

Even after five years, Julius was known throughout the world for his victory punch over Jason Voorhees in New York. When people saw him, they wanted to know if he was afraid that he'd die that night he and several others showed up in the Big Apple. In the end, he would just tell them that he was afraid of death, and that was what led him into his live-or-die match against Jason Voorhees. Still, it was that single moment on that night that took him from the bottom of his young life and hurled him into the position of a celebrity fighter.

"…I honestly can't believe that it's been five years since that night we got here," said Sean to Rennie as they stood outside a skyscraper in the Manhattan borough. "I mean, it's been that long, but it feels like we were here only the night before."

"Yeah," she replies as they get past the doorman after being instructed to go to the twenty-fifth floor. "But still, a lot has changed since that night. And the borough here is cleaner than it has been the night we got here. Do you ever think about what the authorities did with Jason?"

"Sometimes. I just hope that wherever he is, it's someplace far from here and deep underground where he can't get out."

"It'd be easier to just kill him."

"Except he's been killed time after time, Rennie, and he keeps coming back. Maybe some day, someone will find a way to kill him for good."

Ding! The elevator had reached the twenty-fifth floor and they walked down the hallway to the door of their destination.

Sometimes, they expected to see Julius with beautiful women or wearing a suit of gold or silver, but when they saw him each time he invited them over before the night of his upcoming match against a rival fighter, he always appeared humble, like a regular person.

"It's good to see y'all," Julius told the pair, and then noticed the ring of Rennie's finger. "When did you tie the knot?"

"Five months ago," Sean answered him.

Julius wished he had gone to the wedding, but he was doing the MMA tour that had gone to Australia and London, which left him unaware of several things that were going on close to home. If he had known, he would've put everything on hold to see his friends at their wedding.

"It was small, just a few friends and relatives," Rennie told him. "Who are you facing tonight?"

"Someone that claims to have survived an encounter with someone like Jason, only worse. Friends with a girl named Nancy Thompson. Calls themselves the Elm Street Fighter."

"Knock 'em out of the ring," Sean tells him. "We'll be there to see you in action."

"Thanks."

Even with people knowing his name and being a top fighter, Julius preferred the company of friends that he shared a brief history with that tied them together in a fight for their lives. Even with the sense of normalcy, there was that one event, that one individual, that left them scarred in a way that they couldn't forget.

-x-

After another unsuccessful attempt to execute Jason Voorhees, the research team returned him to his isolation cell and kept him restrained and sedated. For some reason, excluding the regeneration of his legs, which only occurred when his legs were brought back to the rest of his body, this murderer's ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissues was unparalleled. It would be some time before they could discover a means to execute him for his crimes and the lives he took. Until then, research and development would take place to find the way to do away with him for good.

"Meet our new research leader, gentlemen," a military general informed the people of the lab where Jason was housed, accompanied by a young woman. "This is Rowan LaFontaine."

The woman, Rowan, observed the hockey-masked murderer and could only feel disgust towards the fact that this man was deemed a hideous freak under the mask and was particularly dangerous with a machete. She hoped to find a way to put an end to him as soon as she could.

-x-

"…Let's get ready to rumble out here!" The announcers announced to the screaming fans that were at the arena for the fight between the two men that people had been waiting for.

On the right side of the ring was the enemy fighter trying for a shot at the title of champion, and on the left side was Julius, hitting his fingerless boxing gloves together before the referee began the match between them.

"Alright, you two," the referee told them when they stepped forward to face one another. "I want a good, clean fight tonight. No killer instincts, no hidden weapons, no foul language. You hear?"

"Yes," the new adversary replied.

"That means you, too, super fighter."

"I got it," Julius responded.

"Okay, you two, let's get it on!"

The referee backed away, and Julius threw the first punch he used against Jason. His strategy was the same as that night in the fight for his life. Only this time, it was just to be a champion for the people to look up to.

In the cheering crowd, obscured by the mere fact that they were nonentities, two men were present to watch the match.

"I fail to see the point in this," one of them, a pale-skinned teen of Asian descent, with dark brown eyes and black hair, dressed in black slacks and a white shirt, clothing he didn't feel comfortable in, told the other, a dark-skinned man with eyes so dark that it seemed like he could see into your soul.

"It has been so long for you, you have been deprived of one of the most powerful aspects of any life," the dark-skinned man responded. "We are here to enjoy a simple match between two men who have been through a horrible ordeal involving two of the darkest souls of the darkest side of human nature. There is fun in watching people who have survived live their lives. It is a trying goal, though, to try and move past a harrowing ordeal, but to those that proceed and succeed, there is joy in their success to regain their sense of security in living. There is wonder in their movement to the hope of a better tomorrow that comes with living today."

"Even though I don't understand entirely what you mean by what you say…I can accept that there are many lessons to learn from you as I have learned from others already."

"Even in death, there is much to learn as there is in life. There are many days ahead of us all. There will be days that are like calms between storms, days where it seems like losing hope is the only choice one has in the face of adversity or certain doom, when friends become foes and turn against one another over a belief or choice made before they can comprehend what is to be expected. But when those days do come, so long as there are those that choose to live, to believe in hope when they can't believe in anything or anyone else, don't forsake the truth that you can do something worth believing in."

The masses cheered as Julius punched his opponent and sent him falling to the ground in the ring. Even as the man slowly got back up, Julius smirked at the fun he was having this evening.

Use the combos, he thought as he raised his fists up, keep your feet light. This is it.

Greatness can be achieved through even the most trivial of actions

A/N: And here we are with the aftermath of Julius defeating Jason. I wanted this to feel like it eventually leads up to Jason X, and that there was a connection to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but not so much directly. In addition, I wanted to include some characters from other works that were just there to have a good time in between what they do elsewhere. What did you think of this chapter?