Note: This story is set to be a 3-shot, that means 3 chapters. Enjoy.

Chapter 1 - The Trap

Part I - David

David strolled through the park, jacket blown back a bit by the wind. The bright beaming sun shown in his eyes, and he raised a hand to block it. With his eyes clear, David stopped and looked around him. Children playing, people running down the nearby street with surfboards in their hands, women walking their dogs. Yep.

California.

He'd been here for all of two days. Last week, he'd been holed up in Griffin's new lair, hanging out with the British jumper and playing video games. It was a relaxing break from being chased. Griffin wasn't as opposed to David coming to the lair nowadays. Now that David understood what was going on, he didn't really barge in and ruin Griffin's day anymore. He would just pop in and say hi, hang out, maybe bring a pizza. Griffin's favorite thing David brought was ice cream and cake. Apparently, he didn't think much of the two foods and hardly ever ate them.

David never told Griffin he'd only brought them because it was his birthday. Griffin hadn't wished him happy birthday, but he hadn't expected him to either. He didn't need to be congratulated. He was entertained enough that day by Griffin's face while he tried the food and Griffin's cursing when he got a brain freeze. David had laughed the whole time, which only pissed Griffin off more.

But about a week ago, Griffin decided it was time to go find another paladin, so he followed one of his leads to China. One of Griffin's rules was that David couldn't live in the lair when he wasn't there. So that's when David hopped off to New York. He checked out some things nearby, meandered at the empire state building, and basically hung out for a couple of days. He'd been hit on, but David knew better than to get attracted to any of the girls he met.

After Millie ran off on him, he'd strayed away from forming too many attachments. At first, he'd been appalled. He was turning into Griffin! But as it continued, and he stayed with his English friend more and more, David decided being like Griffin wouldn't be so bad.

He got bored with New York after that and popped on over to sunny California. So we're up to speed. David continued through the park until he got to the busy main street. He wondered why he'd chosen to come here of all places after New York. Perhaps because it was so sunny. New York was rather dismal and rainy these days. Although, now that he thought of it, he wondered why he hadn't gone back to check the lair between cities. Griffin could be back by now. And even if he wasn't, why hadn't David gone to China with him?

They both hunted paladins now. Why had David let Griffin go alone? He couldn't remember why he'd chosen not to accompany Griffin, so he tried to focus on something else. When should he try the lair again? Tomorrow? That would mean Griffin had enough time to go searching for his paladin and either capture them or kill them. That was enough time, wasn't it?

Something pressed into David's back. He recognized the shape and closed his eyes as he mentally scolded himself for letting his guard down.

"Don't try to run. It's useless," a female voice warned.

"Oh uh.. Yeah? Why should I run? Am I under arrest?" David asked, acting as though he didn't know why she was here.

"Don't play dumb, jumper. It didn't help your friend, and it wont help you," she said, pressing the end of her electricity rod into David's back just a bit. She hadn't activated it yet.

"My friend? What do you mean?" David asked. She tilted her head to the side, but he couldn't tell what she was doing. She was behind him, after all. By 'friend' did she mean Griffin?

"The one over in China. I know you know who I'm talking about," she explained, her voice growing annoyed.

"What did you do to him?" David asked, his voice gaining a threatening edge to it. Had they finally caught Griffin? Was he alright?

"He's in our custody. Someone who's caused us so much trouble, well..., he'll probably get a special punishment," she almost sounded joyful at the prospect. David grit his teeth. She had to be lying.

David took off running. A few steps later, he jumped fifty feet forward. He heard the crunch of the sidewalk as the electric baton connected with it instead of with David. Few people paid enough mind to notice his teleportation or her odd weapon defacing city property. David ran down a side street. He didn't want to involve other people, and he didn't want them to know where his jumpscar would be.

As soon as he figured he was clear, David jumped back to Griffin's base. He skidded a little as he stopped running. The air caused by his jump ruffled some papers. Looking around, this looked just like Griffin's old base, only with more defined walls and more space. Still, everything was exactly the same as when David had left. Griffin hadn't come back for papers or pictures or... weapons. Nothing was different. If Griffin got in trouble, wouldn't he have grabbed a weapon or two and then gone back to beat them up before they followed him?

"Griffin?!" David called out. Nothing. He hadn't expected a response. If Griffin had been captured, David had to save him! But how? He wasn't as good as Griffin when it came to tracking people down, and he had no idea where any paladin bases were. Where would they take a captured jumper?

David made a hard decision and jumped right back to California. He would capture that woman and make her tell him what she knew. When he reappeared in the alley, the woman was there. Three men flanked her, and all of them looked surprised. They probably hadn't expected him to come back. David glanced down and saw the men were setting up a black box. That was the machine that could enable normal people to teleport through jumpscars!

They'd find Griffin's lair!

If Griffin was a goner, it wouldn't matter, but David still had a belief that Griffin was probably fine... He had to be. Griffin wasn't the kind of guy to get caught, even by a whole herd of paladins. And anyway, caught or not, David wasn't going to let them destroy another one of Griffin's lairs because of him.

Before any of the paladins could move, David began to jump. He appeared all around them, making an erratic circle of a pattern. It was honestly making him a little dizzy, but he could handle it. If there were too many jumpscars in the area, that machine would be useless. The faces of his enemies kept flashing around them to every point he appeared at. David was pleased with their reactions. He stopped jumping and just smirked.

"Having a little trouble there?" he asked. The woman glared at him. Suddenly, David felt a shock run through his body. What?

Somehow, a fifth paladin had snuck up behind him and caught him in the back with a electric rod. David grit his teeth and felt his limbs go limp. He struggled to regain control of them as fast as possible while the woman walked up to him. She pulled something out of her pocket and jabbed it in his arm. David flinched on reflex and swung at her. Her needle came out of his arm, but it had already done its job. The vial was empty. David felt like spaghetti. He tried hard to keep himself up, but it was no use. He bent over on the ground and finally fell down altogether.

"Wh-what did you... do to me?" His words were slow and heavy. The woman smiled at him.

"Don't worry, cutie. It's not poisonous," she seemed to tease him. Then David's vision became black. In a matter of moments, a blindfold had been put around his eyes and he almost immediately fell in his drug induced sleep.

"Load him in the van. Quickly! The other one could show up any minute!" the woman ordered harshly.

Part II - Griffin

Griffin strolled through the streets of a small Chinese city. He was following a paladin. He had been doing this same thing for the last two days. He'd been away from home for about a week. The first two days away from home, he was actually chillin, waiting for his prey to show up. He hit a bar or two, which didn't go so well. He didn't know Chinese as well as he should and argued incessantly with a woman about wanting a beer, not noodles. Of course, she didn't understand, so he had to act the whole damn thing out until she realized he wanted a drink. Then she brought out her fricken lame ass sake shit which Griffin had tried before and didn't like as much as the sake he could get at the bar down the way so he argued with her some more until she finally brought out the beer. Sweet Jesus!

The next two days in China were boring. Griffin spent his time trying on funny masks and scaring children by walking around in public while wearing the mask and randomly teleporting all over the place. When he tried to get a second mask, however, the store clerk caught him and accused him of stealing while smacking him upside the head and chasing him from the store. Bitchy ass Chinese woman.

Women! God!

First the beer and now the masks. How was he supposed to have a good time?

Then he spotted his target. The paladin didn't seem to notice him on that fifth day. Griffin managed to follow the guy rather well without even jumping. At first, he thought this was too easy. Suddenly, he noticed four other paladins he recognized, all spread out among the crowd. How had they known he would be here? Was it because of his tricks on the kids the day before? He hadn't expected so many.

As Griffin began to back out of a potentially dangerous situation, he was surprised by his thought pattern. He was faced with five paladins, and he was thinking about David showing up at the lair with pizza. How stupid could it get? Griffin really needed to get a hold of himself. As soon as he was out of sight of the paladins, he jumped back to the lair. He half expected to see David there and was slightly disappointed when he didn't.

Silly, Griffin rationalized. His mind kept jumping back and forth on subjects. If the paladins had been there for him, they would have attacked instead of letting him go. They hadn't even looked up to acknowledge he was there. They must be tracking a different jumper. Yeah. That's right.

David hadn't come to China looking for Griffin, had he? Cause he was just the kind of person who could attract five paladins to China just by thinking about going there for a visit. Suddenly a little worried for the jumper in potential danger, Griffin jumped right on back to where he had been moments before.

Griffin checked around the corner and saw the paladins had not moved. Yep. They definitely hadn't been after him. Griffin gauged the possibility of using any of the roofs as a position to keep tabs on them. The one he'd been following was sitting down now. Two were sitting together, one of them being the man Griffin had been following. Across the road from them were the other three, not sitting together and not looking at one another. If they were trying to pass off as regular people, they were failing. Although, no one else seemed to find them suspicious.

Griffin spotted a good spot to hide while he watched and jumped. He appeared on top of a sturdy looking store, hidden behind their sign, which was in the shape of a square and the perfect size for our favorite British jumper. Griffin peeked out and counted the paladins again. Yep. All five were there.

A woman screamed in shock down the road and Griffin's attention snapped to her. When he looked, however, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. She was standing by a stand that had just fallen over. It must be hers because she was running around trying to grab the fruit that was now pouring into the road. Silly people and their -... wait a moment.

Griffin analyzed the scene a bit closer. Her stand didn't just fall over. It was smashed on one side. He hadn't heard anything connect with it though. Had it happened while she was screaming? Griffin flipped his attention to the side where a guy was standing and shaking his foot as if to get some mud off of it. But the stuff on his shoe was red, like the inside of the woman's fruit.

A jumper.

He'd misfired and landed on the shop. Idiot. Griffin looked quickly back at the paladins. They all seemed tenser, if that was possible. They had their hands in their pockets, probably on some of their new toys. Bloody bastards. Yet they weren't moving in. Why? Griffin glanced back to the poor jumper. Instantly, he scrambled to hide himself even more. He almost didn't want to look out.

Roland.

What was that bastard doing here? A scar on Griffin's back tingled, and he smashed it under his hand until it stopped. Roland was walking down the road without attracting much attention at all. How did he manage that? He just reeked 'creepy', didn't he? Didn't his appearance say 'dangerous' all over the place?

Griffin felt his insides bubble with anger. He wanted to attack, but there were five other ones sitting not thirty feet away. Griffin could take on paladins, no problem. But this was different. This was Roland and five well trained paladins. Griffin knew them all by face. They all probably knew his face too. There was no way Griffin could take them all alone.

A happy thought was that they were after this random reckless jumper and not David. That trouble maker was safe for another day. The five paladins sitting at the shops all stood up at once, catching a few fleeting glances from other patrons. They began to walk toward the jumper. Roland backed out of the jumper's sight.

When he noticed he was being stalked, the young male jumped again, further down the street. He was moving further and further toward Roland. Griffin grit his teeth. It may not be David, but it was still a fellow jumper, and he couldn't just sit here and watch them hunt one of his own kind.

Griffin jumped to a side path between two shops, just in front of where Roland was waiting. As the jumper ran his way, he whistled. He successfully caught the guy's attention. He waved and motioned his head. Griffin didn't know why he thought this random jumper would trust a stranger when they was being chased by paladins, but they did.

Griffin took off down the path, followed by the jumper, who had been smart enough to jump into the path instead of just running into it. He may have shocked a few people, but the paladins may be temporarily unsure of where he went. Griffin led the other jumper to the end of the path and then turned left. There he jumped. The man following him ran right into his jumpscar by surprise. They both appeared outside the city. The other male fell down on his face while he tripped over a root in this slightly forested area.

"Oh yeh. Watch your step there, friend," Griffin warned too late. He knew he'd been too late, but he said it anyway.

"Thanks for helping me out," the older male coughed as he stood. "But why did you help in the first place? Those men might come after you now."

"I can handle mehself. You looked a bit unstable, though, and I can' rightly leave a fellow jumper to fight for his life, now can I?" Griffin asked, though it was rather rhetorical.

"Well... Thank you," the stranger said and cracked a huge smile of pearly whites. David's looked better. He had that whole... canine look to him when he smiled.

"Yep. Now ya betta jump on out of here if you know what's good for ya," Griffin warned, almost as if he were threatening the new jumper too.

"Right," was the response and the new jumper left. Now he was old news.

Griffin jumped back to his spot behind the sign to check up on the paladins. They had scattered, not wanting to alarm the locals. Two had headed down the path Griffin had taken. The others were spreading out through the city in the general direction the jumper had been going. Roland... Roland was on the phone. He smiled. No. That was more of a smirk, a deadly smirk that meant something good happened for him and meant someone else had died.

Roland hung up his phone and glanced over the area. Griffin almost swore Roland saw him, but the big black man just kept looking around. Then he sauntered off. What bugged Griffin the most about this seemingly innocent leave was that Roland was going off in a completely random direction out of town. He was also going out completely alone. Griffin just couldn't pass up this chance.

Griffin watched Roland for a moment and then jumped half the distance between them. He had to wait till Roland was completely alone. If they others came to his aid, Griffin was doomed. He wanted to take this bastard out once and for all, no interruptions. Griffin followed Roland on foot as far as he could. However, Roland turned a corner and Griffin lost him. How? Roland couldn't jump.

Something collided with his back and sent Griffin into the nearest wall. His head connected with the wall with a sickening thud, and he fell on the ground. However, Griffin wasn't out for the count. Not by a long shot. He'd been doing this too long to be out now. The British male jumped right back up and turned to his opponent.

Roland was there. Why hadn't he used some electrical gizmo instead of throwing him into a wall - something he would know Griffin could survive. On that note, why hadn't he just stabbed Griffin in the back?

"I thought I recognized you," Roland murmured in distaste. Griffin quickly wiped his confused look off his face and replaced it with anger.

"Wha's wrong? Why didn you just stab me like usual?" Griffin growled.

"Don't temp me, Jumper. Against my better judgement, I'm not here to kill you," Roland replied. He pulled out a pocket knife, not his normal dagger, and began to clean under his nails with it.

"You think I'm stupid or somethin?" Griffin asked. "There's no way a guy like you would eva let someone like me go withou a fight."

"Orders are orders, boy," Roland replied darkly, glaring at Griffin and stopping with his nails. "My only job concerning you is no longer necessary."

"What job?" Griffin asked, still on guard. He'd backed up a whole foot. Had Roland noticed?

"We came to China to find you. A new branch has been opened up - research. We need test subjects of the jumper kind-," and Roland was cut off.

"I ain't your guinea pig!" Griffin shouted. That was bullshit anyway. They already had a research department. Did Roland think he was stupid? Roland gave Griffin a cold and steady stare but did not move.

"You've been running from us for a long time. You seemed like a good choice for the experiments. However, you're no longer needed. We found our subject... in California," Roland said it as though it should mean something to Griffin. Griffin shrugged and shook his head.

"Poor bastard. Have fun with that. I'm outta here," Griffin decided. Roland had a knife out in such a way that he could probably stab Griffin no matter how the jumper attacked him. He couldn't afford to get stabbed and not be sure Roland wouldn't die too. He had to get back to the new lair in one piece.

Why? For a silly reason. If Griffin didn't at least get back to the lair, David would be left wondering where he'd gone. If he DID get stabbed, he wanted Roland dead, and he better be able to make the jump home. David would at least have a body and know what happened. Heh. See? Stupid reason not to attack. This was why Griffin didn't like making connections with people.

"You don't care about the jumper we caught? I thought he was your accomplice... but I suppose Jumpers really don't have 'friends', do they?" Roland's question wasn't really meant to be answered. It was more of an accusation. Griffin glared.

"What are you talkin about?" he barked. He couldn't mean David, right? Roland smirked.

"David Rice. He was just captured in California to be used in electrical testing. Poor bastard... yes?" Roland spoke using Griffin's words. Griffin grit his teeth.

"Where are you takin him?" Griffin asked, trying not to show how upset he was about David's capture. He doubted Roland would even tell him where David was. Griffin would find out somehow, though. Still, no one could know Griffin had bonded with something... someone.

"Florida," Roland replied. "He's in an automated factory building that's undercover as an orange factory. Understand, I'm only telling you this because you'll never find it, and even if you did, you'd never go there... because you're jumpers. You don't have the desire... the ability to care that much about someone to risk you own neck to save them."

Griffin was gone before Roland's sentence finished. He didn't go back to the lair. He didn't go to Florida. Griffin went to California. David had shown him his favorite jump spot in California a while back, so Griffin was checking it before deciding David was actually in trouble.

He saw the beach down the road, the park off to the side. David liked to come to this spot because of the awesome waves, or so he said. They'd gone surfing when they came here together a couple months back. David was better than Griffin, but still not very good. Heh. They didn't do a lot of things together like that, so it had been a rather special occasion.

Griffin strolled down the road quickly until he nearly tripped in a hole. Cursing, he looked at what he'd tripped in, ready to kick it or something. That's when he noticed it was no ordinary hole. That was a dent in the sidewalk. What could drop hard enough in the middle of the sidewalk to cause this?

Griffin nudges a piece of broken cement with his foot and it sparked with a last bit of hidden electricity. This was made recently... by a paladin weapon. Griffin was surprised they would use it in the open like this. Still, that meant a paladin had definitely been here, in David's favorite part of California. Griffin glanced around him and smirked. He knew it. The young jumper stepped forward into the very last remnant of a jumpscar.

He found himself several feet down the sidewalk. Griffin looked around again for another jumpscar. He looked to his right and his eyes widened. Talk about jumpscar heaven. He spotted a whole cluster of them peeking out from a second turn off. Griffin rushed over, jumping in the first one. He appeared four steps to his left.

What the hell?

Griffin narrowed his eyes and began to step into random jumpscars all over the area. What had David done - jump in a circle? Why the hell would he do that?! Then Griffin found himself back at his lair. He looked around quickly to make sure that was really his location.

"David?!" he called out.

Some of Griffin's papers were on the floor, but that was probably caused by jumping. He ignored it and looked around the place as quickly as he could. David didn't seem to be around. Griffin jumped back to the alleyway via David's jumpscar again and cursed. Where had he gone? All these other funny jump scars led to nowhere!

Off by the street, he heard large car doors slam shut and a van roared into life. He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he decided the street was the next best guess. When he got to the street, he watched the loud van drive off into the busy streets of California with little thought to where it was going.

Griffin didn't see anymore jump scars anywhere down the street. He cursed and kicked the building on his left. His foot snagged on something on the way and sent it flying into the air. It was some dinky old jacket by the looks of it. Griffin caught it in the face when it came back down. With an angry grunt, he pulled it off. He almost went to rip it in half when he recognized it.

This was David's.

Dammit! Those bastard paladins probably left it behind to taunt him! David had definitely been here. He was the only other jumper who knew about the lair and now his jacket was lying on the ground right next to where that funky colored yellow and orange van had been parked.

"Ah shit!" Griffin cursed, balling up the jacket and throwing it to the ground. He stomped on it a few times and kicked at the wall again. This time he hurt his toes and fell back into the wall on the other side.

David had probably been in that stupid van the whole time! And what!? Griffin had just let it drive away!

"Shit shit shit! God dammit!" Griffin continued cursing as he grabbed the jacket and jumped back to the lair. He tossed the jacket on the nearest chair and went to his computer. No choice now but to find the factory where they were taking him. He typed in a few things, surfing the internet like some hacker genius. Then, while his computer searched, Griffin glanced over his shoulder at David's jacket.

With a sigh, Griffin stood up from the computer. He walked slowly over to the jacket and picked it up. He shook it out, a few layers of dirt just flying off of it, and set it over the back of the chair. Griffin stepped back to see how that looked and seemed to find it acceptable. He returned to his computer and began the tedious job of finding the paladin lair among all the actual factories in Florida.

Stupid Florida.