Chapter 1: Surprise!

Watchful eyes flickered anxiously up and down the busy square. A lithe figure leaned against a buildings corner, arms crossed but muscles coiled readily. He wasn't resting his feet or passing time; no he had a purpose. And a purpose he delighted in.

There were six of them that evening, milling about the crowd in pairs; so innocent but too dangerous. They carried briefcases, but he knew what was inside of them. They weren't good Samaritans or simple civilians as theirs guises suggested; no, far from it. They were armed to the teeth, electrically charged weapons held readily at their sides, ready to kill without hesitation. And that was why he would kill them first.

It was a kill or be killed world they lived and he would never pretend otherwise. He'd had plenty experiences to prove it. He absently ran calloused fingers over a particularly nasty scar on his throat, a grim frown gracing his lips as he did so. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he focused back on his targets. He knew they suspected he was there, but they would not find him; he could take all the time he wanted. An almost evil smirk crept over his features as he watched them mill about; blissfully unaware of what was soon to take place.

Usually, Griffin o'Conner was a very impatient man, but when it came to hunting the Paladins, he had all the time in the world. They couldn't go anywhere he didn't want him to, and he delighted in the terrified shrieks and pleading of the bastards as he dropped them to their deaths in one of his favorite 'disposal' locations. One that he had remembered rather recently was one of his current favorites, from a time when he'd first begun to run. After his parents had been slaughtered before him and he had jumped away with his life; a little less whole than before.

His arm had been broken twice in that particular fight; he had only been thirteen back then if memory served him well and he'd hidden in the hull of a ship, delirious with visions of the Paladins hunting him and everyone he'd ever cared for. He had still been a lonely child, tracked down by an entire organization of killers; but he had rules and he constantly got away only a few scars richer. A man had found him there hiding in the hull of a ship filled with animals, despite his ability to jump anywhere he wished. It was pure luck that Griffin had chosen not to jump away right then, to move on and find another place to recover until he would start his ritual over again. Jumping, killing, running, hunting, recovering; it was a constant, unorganized cycle. But there had been no need for Griffin to run then, for the man who found him adopted him as his own and became something of a father figure for the young, lonely jumper. Ben Hayes. The man helped Griffin get back on his feet, guided him when he was lost, and the young jumper even re- taught himself to read from all the time he'd spent away from the craft. There were even times when the ship that Griffin was now a crew member of would be silent, and the jumper would jump away to take down the occasional paladin or two. Ben had never known. Never known until the day he too died; just like everyone else who had ever meant something to Griffin.

But it was not the Paladins who killed one Ben Hayes. It was a monster that Griffin could only too soon forget. A massive primate on an island of infinite peril (which also made it the perfect place to deposit his unfortunate Paladin victims for the beasties to snack on) and a place he regretted with every fiber of his being. Hayes had been thrown into the maw of a cliff, crouched, unsuspecting on the island, waiting to swallow all who came near. It was the Beast that had done it, and at that moment Griffin had been reminded of Roland, of the bastard he so desperately to kill. And a younger Griffin had vowed to spend his every waking moment bringing down the Paladins as soon as the ship once more reached New York.

He had done just that. Setting himself up in the Sahara desert, he diligently sought out the organization his kind waged war against. He made a lair for himself and constantly reinforced his rules; all the while keeping himself safe and exterminating the hunter scum. That was all before David however and he let out an involuntary snarl.

Griffin would have relished in finding the other jumper and decking him in the face. For making him team up with him, for stealing his bomb, for leaving him for dead in Chechnya, for being a general pain in the ass. But he had things to do, people to kill; and since their last encounter at his lair, Griffin had heard no word of Roland. This particular fact bugged him. Griffin was well aware that David did not possess the ability to kill someone, to take a life; he had known it from the start. So if David didn't kill the white haired maniac, where in the bloody hell had he gone?

Turning his attention back to the Paladins in the crowd before him once more, watching them search the crowd for him fruitlessly. However, even when lost in thought, Griffin had deciphered the pattern to their seemingly random wanderings. No, they were patrolling, weaving careful patterns in the crown as if they suspecting him to just walk between them. But he was smarter than they were, he knew they were there and he had the upper hand. The reason why six of the hunters were patrolling that particular area, however, remained a mystery. It was possible that it was once again the idiotic, sloppy, doings of one David Rice, or another rouge jumper, or maybe even they suspected they could catch Griffin in their little parade. But they wouldn't, they wouldn't even know what hit them.

He smiled at that last thought as he pushed himself away from the wall with a casual shove of his shoulders, his hands maintaining their position deep in the pockets of his dark jeans. He slid into the crowd like a fish in a stream, disappearing in the sea of faces in an instant. His shorter stature aided in this tactic some (though he would never admit to it) and he went unnoticed by all those around him. He wove his way through the meshing bodies until he was directly behind one pain of the Paladins, their backs still turned to his sinister grin. Oh how he loved this moment. And in one quick, fluid movement, both Griffins arms shot out and he grabbed the Paladins shoulders, jumping the three of them straight into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He relished the look of pure horror that flashed across the duos faces as they turned to face him in the crystal depths of the sea. The salt stung mercilessly at a deep wound on his back, but he gritted his teeth and pushed the pain aside. He watched at the men thrashed helplessly in the water, only grinning back at them with satisfaction as dark shadows flashed beneath their feet. Sleek, powerful, missiles of muscles churned the water around them, beady black eyes watching them in the mid-day light, fins cutting through the current.

Satisfied, Griffin jumped away; back to his current lair for a quick change of clothes. He stripped quickly and threw on a spare set of clothes, grabbing another one of his patented leather jackets and shrugging it on before jumping back to his corner in Times Square. With a self satisfactory grin he leaned back against the wall, his sharp eyes following the second pair of Paladins as they too preformed their last dance.

"Jimmy?" a shocked voice asked from behind him. His eyes widened and he tensed before whipping around, freezing as he recognized the people behind him. Jimmy was a name he had used to hide himself long ago, back when Ben had been alive, although he really did prefer Griffin. "Jimmy! It's really you! It's been so long! How have you been?"

A couple stood in front of him, smiling down on him with bright eyes. The woman was tall and had silky blonde hair that spilled off her shoulders and soft, gentle features. Her spotless pea coat was wrapped tightly around herself and she rested her body under the arm of the man with her. He was tall with a long hooked nose and now neat hair. He was thin and tall but Griffin remembered him to have a big heart. He gritted his teeth and smiled; but he needed to return to the Paladins before they left.

"Jack, Ann. How good to see you. Been a while, yeah?" he greeted, careful to keep his voice pleasant.

"Still in New York huh? Left the Venture though I see. Good for you. How's life treating you?" Jack Driscoll asked; a true smile on his face.

Griffin just wanted to smash his head into the wall. He owed it to these people to at least make small talk; after all they had been so kind to him a long time ago.

"Yeah, went onto other things mates. What about the lot of you? Seems like you're doin' well." Griffin replied, mirroring the others smile.

"We are. Life's been good to us since the incident. Hey, why don't you join us for coffee? We were just on our way."

"No I couldn't-"

"GRIFFIN!" an unbearably loud voice shouted across the square. Griffin, Jack and Ann spun around to face the noise. Griffin could have killed himself right then as he watched David push his way through the crowd towards them. Unbeknownst to the naive jumper, the other two Paladins recognized the idiot and the name he had called out.

'Great. Just great. Just hand us over to Roland why don't ya.' Griffin thought darkly.

"Behind ya, ya idiot!" Griffin shouted back. As much he would have loved to get revenge on the other jumper, he knew letting him be caught by the Paladins wouldn't be the way to do it. Besides, he wanted to do it himself.

The goons who had been in the square wasted no time in getting out their weapons however. Evidently, the Paladins had become desperate. They were willing to openly expose both of their kind into the open without a second thought. He wondered if they thought if they attacked in public that the jumpers wouldn't jump. If they would pretend to be like everyone else and run away. Griffin however wouldn't run just so once they were out of sight he could be caught in their favorite electrocuting toys.

One of the paladins shouted over the din of the crowd but Griffin could not hear his threats over the noise. His weapon was held casually at his side as he walked and a dark grin clung to his lips. He looked perfectly awful; sauntering up the small isle the crowd had made towards David, who had frozen at the center of the square to turn and face the threat.

Griffin groaned inwardly as he spotted the second pair of Paladins looping back behind the crowd, their weapons held ready in white knuckled fists. Griffin turned back to Jack and Ann who watched the scene play out with dropped jaws and wide eyes. As he turned their gazes flicked to him and he gave them an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, a bit o' a problem to take care of. Enjoy your coffee, yeah?" he apologized before turning and pushed his way through the gathered crowd. The second group of Paladins was still unaware of his presence as he fell into step behind them. They watched David and the other Paladins with watchful eyes, but not watchful enough, for Griffin easily managed to grab their shoulders and deposit them just as easily as he had the first two.

Griffin could almost laugh out loud at the inexperience of this particular group. He preferred it that way, but he hadn't even had to raise a fist to end them. They should have never sought him out in public, it was a major mistake on their part and now they had paid for it. But what he was about to do next he would definitely regret later; and he was well aware that he was breaking his own rules. The very rules he'd kept himself alive by, but he also couldn't leave two other Paladins in the middle of a crowded city with the most naïve jumper he had ever had the misfortune of meeting.

So with only a moment's hesitation, Griffin Jumped. Salty water showered down around him as he emerged in the center of a bewildered crowd. David looked over at him, shock clearly written on his face.

"Wipe that look of your face yeah? You wanna help me or ya just gunna stand there?" He asked, gesturing to the slowly advancing Paladins. He turned to them and rubbed at his eyes, clearing away the slowly burning water and his soaked hair. "'Sup chaps?"

The lips of the first, more muscular Paladin pulled back into a snarl. Griffin merely flashed a mischievous grin before jumping out of the way of a whip like tendril of metal crackling with electricity as it smashed into the pavement. Their fight was more like a dance then anything, him jumping and dodging, striking at his foe with well aimed jabs. His enemy was out matched and it became apparent immediately as he stumbled back against the weight of a well aimed fist on his jaw. David had engaged the second Paladin, but both of their movements were a lot less fluid, almost clumsy. They staggered and swung at each other with messy accuracy.

"To the shark pit Davey!" Griffin hollered harshly, slamming his knee into the gut of his adversary. He grabbed the back of the man's collar and jumped, once again tossing in the waves of the ocean. A lifeless figure hung suspended in the water next to them, lips parted in a breathless scream and eyes wide in sightless panic. A red hue tinted the waves and slippery shadows cut through the water around them, watching, waiting; hungry.

He felt the water shudder as the other jumper appeared beside him, jumping back to the city square as they watching the Paladins thrash and struggle in the tossing waves. The duo reappeared, gasping in the square of New York, water pouring off and around them, dripping from their clothes and down their faces. Griffin shook his head briefly and righted himself, watching through narrowed eyes as David did the same.

And then Griffin punched him.

He swung with all the fury of countless hours of muscle tensing pain and the thousands of volts of electricity that had pumped through his body as he hung, trapped in the pylons.

"What the fuck?" David swore, whipping blood from his chin as he glared at the shorter jumper.

"You left me for dead!" Griffin shouted.

"I had to!"

"You left me in a telephone tower in bloody Chechnya!"

"You were going to kill them!"

"Because they were going to kill us! I told you to leave Roland to me! But no; you had to take your bloody girlfriend to Rome! You almost got the lot of us killed! You destroyed my lair!"

"I had to save Millie!"

"Did ya not get it David? Did ya not get it when I said I didn't work well with others? When I told ya that was a very limited thing? That didn't mean leaving me to die!"

David glared at him but his eyes pleaded for forgiveness, for understanding and his chest heaved with furious gasps. "I dealt with Roland! I took care of him when I saved her."

Griffin's fist met David's face for the second time, his teeth clenched in fury. "Y-you bloody wanker! I told you- I told you to leave him to me!" But before his fist could meet David's face again, a hand caught his arm from behind.

"Jimmy?" A startled voice asked, and Griffin twisted his neck to look at the astonished faces of Ann and Jack.

Jack held the smaller mans pulled back arm in his hand, his fingers digging painfully into his muscles. He let out a shaking breath and lowered his arm, water still dripping off his in streams, forming puddles on the side walk below his feet. People are still there, watching them with eager, almost desperate eyes. Waiting for some explanation to what they had witnessed. Listening intently as the two feuding jumpers screamed at each other in pained voices full of betrayal.

"Jimmy, what just happened?" Ann asked, her forehead crinkled with worry. They look older. Both of them do and they look at him wearily. As if afraid of the part of them they had just witnessed there. They recalled him as the scared, lost, cabin boy of the SS Venture. A boy without a purpose; a boy who needed someone to look up to, who leaned on the shoulders of all those who showed him kindness. Like Hayes, who had found him, Jack, who had helped him on the island, Englehorn, for giving him a place on the ship.

But that was not who they saw before them. They saw the wild, roughish, battle scarred, angry, loner of a jumper. A man who had lost everything that had mattered and had taken revenge into his own hands. Who had been scared and shocked and left for days in a battle zone, unable to move for all the unbearable pain shooting through every fiber of his being. No, he was hardly the same person at all.

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A/N: Hey yall! I'm not really into writing authors note unless I have something to say. Which I don't. I just want you to review. Cuz it's awesome. You should really try it out.

Oh and cuz of this. Disclaimer: I don't own either of these movies or their characters.