Chapter 1: United for a common cause
The lyric to the ACDC's song "Highway to Hell" was blaring from the black Jeep as it came around the bend of the number five highway towards New York. The passengers had the windows open as the vehicle's speed climbed way over the recommended speed limit.
"So when am I getting off this boring highway?" the driver asked as he looked into the rear view mirror to the two girls in the backseat with the map.
"Give us a second you need super vision to be able to read anything on this map." The eldest girl complained as she and the other girl in the backseat rotated the map to find the next road.
Next thing they knew the wind had pick up and taken the map in its hold and swept it right out the sunroof.
"Aw, man that was our last map." The youngest girl said, sad to see the map float in the wind through the back window.
"Okay, you know what we have to do." The driver of the SUV announced to the girls in the back.
"But I suck at rock- paper- scissors!" The eldest whined as if it weren't the first time she'd lost a round of rock-paper-scissors.
"Sucks to be you, Mikayla." The other girl commented.
"Shut up Tess!" The tallest girl in the back seat warned.
The two girls readied themselves to play the game to see who had to get out and fetch the map.
"Hey why aren't you and Nate playing?" Tess asked when she noticed neither one of the guys were participating in this childish game.
"Driver and shotgun keep an eye on the road and passengers in the back seat get the objects that fly out the windows."The driver smirked and the taller boy currently sitting in shotgun smiled.
"Don't give me that bull shit Chase." Mikayla stated staring at Chase through the mirror.
"Okay fine, ready Mikay?" Tess asked her sister.
"Yeah, yeah."
Fortunately for Tess, Mikayla was indeed really bad at playing rock-paper-scissors and therefore had to get out and catch the map that was now three hundred feet away.
"Damn." Mikayla cursed under her breath.
"Sorry" Tess said apologetically.
"Now." Chase exclaimed from the driver's seat as he looked in his mirrors for any cars and with that Mikayla had teleported herself in the blind of an eye to catch the map and make it back into the backseat before the map had a chance to touch the ground.
David entered his abandoned apartment in New York for the fourth time that month only to move whatever possessions were still there, Roland had managed to take out most of its continents but had still left some of David's secret hiding places untouched. At this point after leaving Roland stranded in a cave in God knows where and after having visited his mom as well as having left Millie back in Anne Arbour for her own safety he needed some time alone.
"Not again!" a girl screamed as she fell from the second floor of his old apartment onto his old couch that had been destroyed during Roland's last visit.
David watched in amazement as the petite girl had just teleported into his apartment, after he'd just thought about having some alone time.
"I'm okay." The girl reassured him as she got to her feet and looked around the room.
"And who are you? And why did you teleport into my living room?" David questioned while the girl dusted off her clothes.
"Oh... I'm Ronny, Ronny Foster, and I saw pictures of your apartment in Ronald or was it Nolland's car. Wait you know what I am?" She explained but didn't give anymore thought to weither or not he knew what she was, because he wasn't running or screaming and wasn't trying to kill her yet.
"I didn't want to come here, I was thinking more along the lines of Palm Springs but I landed here."
"His name is Roland and I left him in a cave somewhere, he's dead." David corrected.
"So the big black guy that I just saw about an hour ago in Mexico with freaky white hair and electrical guns is supposed to be dead? Either I now have the ability to see the dead or your plan didn't kill him, now which one are you betting on?" Ronny pointed out while she examined the remains of the apartment.
"Great Roland's NOT dead! After all this the little bugger still hasn't kicked the bucket? Well I hope Griffin knows". David Rice thought to himself as he watched Ronny play with a vase only to drop it and make it shatter into pieces.
"You didn't want that did you?" Ronny asked in embarrassment for having drop the vase.
The group continued their road trip to New York without a care in the World, Roland had been killed and life was beautiful for all Jumpers. The sun had almost set when they'd gotten a unanimous text message saying that the Paladins had gone and picked up Roland in the desert and that he was out to get all the Jumpers he could find.
"Son of A...!" Chase yelled as he slammed his hand on the steering wheel.
"Thought this guy was dead?" Nate commented as he read the text off of Tess's cell phone screen.
"I guess the old man doesn't know when to give up, we out number him and he isn't getting any younger." Tess replied sarcastically as Nate gave her back her cell phone.
"Well I guess we'll just have to take matters into our own hands and kill him ourselves now won't we?" Mikayla added as she looked at her fellow Jumpers in the Jeep.
The four friends looked at one another and knew she was right but weren't too enthusiastic about the idea because they knew that Roland wouldn't go down without a fight at least not an easy fight. The rest of the ride was silent, only the music playing from the stereo kept them company leaving them time to process what they'd have to do to kill the cockroach that Roland was.
David had taken a chance and brought Ronny back to his new hide out until the next morning because it was clear to him that she hadn't yet mastered her Jumping skills and would have felt bad if she's Jumped right into one of Roland's traps.
"Thanks for letting me stay the night David, it means a lot." Ronny thanked as she put her pillow on the couch.
"No problem, I guess we have to stick together now that Roland's still alive." David added as he took a seat next to her on the couch.
"I guess it's not so bad that I landed here, it's better than where I was supposed to have Jumped too." She smiled.
"Why is that?" he asked.
"Well I was heading home to Palm Springs after my vacation in Mexico when I'd encountered Roland, but he didn't notice me when I past by his car and saw the pictures he was looking at, there were some of you and your apartment as well as other Jumpers that he was looking for. Then I ran a few blocks and Jumped here by accident." Ronny explained briefly playing with her fingers.
"Well we've got time before he comes back to town to find me again and I suggest that you leave before then, unless you want to be part of this fight." David warned as he walked towards his room.
"Goodnight"
Ronny watched him as he disappeared out of sight and thought about what's he'd just said, would she want to stick around for this fight or go home to Palm Springs and wait to see the outcome that would come from this event.
"Rise and shine ladies time to get a move on we've got some more road to cover." Chase explained to the two sisters still sleeping in their room of a motel not too far from the highway.
Nate was standing at the door with his and Chase's bags and was waiting to carry the rest of the luggage.
"Yeah, sun's almost up and we don't want to stay in the same place for too long, who know's where he is?" Nate added and they all knew who he was talking about.
"Give us five minutes." Tess demanded as she pulled herself out of bed and took a pair of pants while Mikayla groaned at the thought of waking up before the f-ing sun.
Ten minutes later Chase, Nate and the sisters were in the car with their sunglasses on as they watched the sunrise directly in front of them. The Jeep roared to life and continued its journey once again to a safer place for them all.
The four laughed at all the good times they'd had in the past and talked about how they were looking forward to the ones in the future after Roland death, when suddenly Chase slammed on the breaks as a dark blur hit the front of his car.
"Hey, not the car!" he screamed as he got out of the car to see what he hit but it had disappeared faster than any normal human he'd encountered.
"What was that?" Mikayla asked as she made her way to the front of the car.
"I don't know?" Chase replied as the four of them now stood in the middle of the highway watching the other cars pass by them.