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Disclaimer: I do not own Jumper or any of the characters you recognize.
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So, that begins the tale of Griffin and me. He slowly warmed up to me and we eventually partnered up in hunting Paladins. I learned a lot from Griffin, both about Paladins and about him. The most important thing that I learned about Paladins is that their leader, Roland, would stop for nothing to kill him. Since I worked with Griffin, that meant that he would also stop for nothing to kill me. Great right?
What I learned about Griffin only made me fall more in love with him. Yeah, I said love. Of course, he was oblivious to this but, still. Griffin's parents died when he was five by the hands of the Paladins. He had a hardcore exterior, but he was a softie on the inside, or at least around me. Another thing that I learned about Griffin was that fact as a Jumper, you can jump anything that moves, including cars, buses, etc. I learned that the hard way when I went to get in one of his vehicles and it was instantly gone, causing me to fall to the ground roughly. Only to appear a few feet away; Griffin was smiling mischievously at me.
Several weeks after I first met Griffin, he informed me that we were going to Rome. He explained that there was an 'idiot' (according to him) jumping all over, attracting the attention of the Paladin. Where the Paladin went, we went.
"Make sure you grab some money," Griffin called to me from across the room.
"Okay, grab a bat or something," I yelled back. I opened the vault and pulled out a wad of euros, stuffing them in my messenger bag.
"You ready?" Griffin asked, jumping behind me.
"Yup, let's go," I said, grabbing his hand. I jumped us to Rome and we were greeted by sounds and smells of Italy. I didn't let go of his hand when we landed. Instead, I pulled him around, looking at everything.
"Amber," Griffin whined, causing me to turn around and face him.
"Yeah?"
"Can I have my hand back?" He asked, somewhat sheepishly. I noticed he blushed a light shade of pink, something I would have never imagine Griffin to do. I realized that I must have been blushing too.
I laughed awkwardly and released his hand. There was an heavy silence between us. We didn't meet each others eyes: I would look away and when I thought he wasn't looking, peak at him only to find he quickly looked the other way.
"Look! There he is," Griffin said, breaking the silence.
"Who?" I asked looking in the direction of where he was pointing.
"The guy with the blonde hair. He's with a girl; she has brown hair," Griffin said, still staring in their direction.
I followed his gaze and saw who it rested on. It was the bank robber from months before. "I've seen him before, " I announced.
"Ya have?" He asked, his British accent heavy.
"Yeah, I worked at a bank he robbed," I told him. "And I saw him at a bar in England the night I met you."
"Really?"
"Mhm," I cooed. "So, are we going to follow them… or what?"
"Or what. We'll just track them. He's bound to attract the attention of the Paladins sooner or later," Griffin said. We followed them with our eyes, which was slightly boring. I sighed. I shifted from one foot to another, and picked at my nail lightly. I glanced back the Jumper and his girlfriend, they were just talking.
"You wanna look around," I began, "to look less suspicious. I mean, after all, we are just standing here, staring at them."
Griffin was quiet for a moment, deep in thought, as he was normally. He looked at me with a smile on his face. "That's a good idea Amb."
A huge smile appeared on my face. "Amb?" I thought it was adorable.
"Sorry, Amber, I mean," he corrected himself.
"No, it's okay. I think it's cute actually. But what do I get to call you in return?" I asked playfully, linking arms with him and leading him through the square that we were standing in.
"Griffin," he replied bluntly.
"That doesn't count. It has to be a nickname," I told him. I thought for a moment, raising an eyebrow in the process. "What about Griff?"
"I guess that's fine," Griffin said, still smiling.
"Oh, look! They're going into the Coliseum," I said happily, pointing at the pair.
"Let's jump," Griffin stated. His body jerked and he jumped. I followed suit and landed next to him inside of the Coliseum. We were high up in the stands, almost at the top. No one would notice even if they were looking for us.
"Do you see them?" I asked him, my eyes roaming all over.
"Over there," Griffin said, pointing towards the bottom. They were standing on a platform, taking in the breath taking site. They didn't notice us, thankfully.
I whispered, "It's so pretty here." I smiled at the site before us.
"Yeah, it is," Griffin said, but when I looked over at him, he wasn't looking at the Coliseum, but directly at me. My smile widened.
"You're such a flirt," I joked with him, lightly shoving him. But, on the inside, I was soaring on cloud nine if you will. If we hadn't been tracking someone, I would have grabbed him and kissed him passionately right then and there. But we were tracking someone, so I didn't kiss him. Not that I didn't want to.
Griffin laughed, but quickly sobered up. He gaze went back to the spot where the Jumper and his girlfriend were standing. "Shit," he said after a moment.
"What?" I said, tearing my eyes from him back towards the bottom. They were gone. "Where'd they go?"
"How the hell do I know?" Griffin said, clearly annoyed. He ran a hand through his already messy hair. He let out a sigh of frustration.
I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder; I felt him tense at my touch, but then relax after a moment. "Well, they gotta be around here somewhere, let's take a look around, yeah?" I asked him.
"Good idea," he replied. He walked off toward the stairs, leaving me standing alone, hand still extended to the spot where his shoulder was seconds ago. I let an agitated sigh out, rolled my eyes, and followed Griffin in the direction he headed off in. It turned out that he jumped down to the bottom of the Coliseum. When I finally relocated him, he was casually sitting on top of a stone pillar. "What?"
"Nothing Griff, you cease to amaze me," I said, jumping to him and plopping down next to him. "So, where'd they go?"
"They're inside there," he replied, pointing in the direction with his head. "The doors locked, David will be out here in a moment."
"You know for a fact that the door is locked? Who's David?"
"So many questions. I know its locked because I locked it," he paused to smirk. "David is the Jumper's name, ya twit," Griffin joked, nudging me with his shoulder. He was smiling, something I've observed he was doing a lot more of lately. Good, he needed to lighten up anyways.
As if on cue, David appeared from thin air. He started talking to no one in particular, just talking to be hear himself. Or, that's what I assumed. David walked past us and gave us a strange look.
"What?" Griffin asked harshly.
"You've never seen two people sitting on a stone pillar before?" I said, using the same harsh tone as Griffin.
David gave us strange look but continued walking. Once his back was turned to us, we jumped to another pillar a little in front of him. When he passed us, he gave us another strange look.
I waved at him from high up. "How's it going?" I asked casually, using a pleasant tone with him this time.
Griffin didn't say anything. David didn't answer, but quickened his pace. When David nearly reached the end of the row, Griffin and I jump behind him silently.
"Wouldn't open that door if I were you, not if I wanted my girlfriend to keep breathing." Griffin stated, causing David to jump in shock. He turned to face us. Griffin continued, "But that's just me. What are you going to do anything bring her down, have a nice little romantic picnic, a little tea party?"
"Not a good idea," I said, agreeing with Griffin.
"Nope, you wouldn't want to come down here, would ya?" Griffin asked me, swinging the bat over his shoulder.
"Nah, not my thing," I replied, looking around. Yes it was very pretty, but history and all that jazz was never my forte.
Griffin looked back to David and smirked. David must have taken that look the wrong because his face distorted with anger.
"You so much as look at her wrong…"
"What are you gonna do?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow. I jumped behind him, which made him turn and look at me strange.
"Where you gonna jump us?" Griffin asked before jumping next to me. "Think you were the only one?" He jumped back to his original spot as I did the same.
"You lead the life you live, you think you can just come to Rome and they wouldn't notice?" I asked him.
"You think you can jump all over the place?" Griffin also asked. He circled around the spot where David was standing. "You think you can jump and no one would notice?"
We didn't leave enough time for him to answer. "But they have, David. They have noticed," I answered for him. "Not us, we already knew, remember that bank in Chicago?"
David nodded but didn't say anything.
"I saw jump you and kept silent. You've been careless, my fellow Jumper," I said.
"Who've noticed?" David asked, finally finding his voice.
"Them," Griffin pointed with the bat, "down there."
Three menacing Paladins walked through the entrance and neared us. In their hands, they're carrying brief cases. In them, I'm assuming of course, are weapons of some kind to kill and/or hurt us. Not good.
"What's up boys?" Griffin asked, his famous smirk playing on his lips. They remained silent.
A barely audible noise behind me caused me to look over my shoulder. A jump scar left behind.
"David's gone," I told Griffin. He peered over his shoulder as well.
"Looks like its just us then," he said, looking over at me.
"Let's kick some ass, yeah?"
"Sounds good to me," he replied.
We turned our attention back to the Paladin. By this time, they've dropped their brief case like things and out popped a gun. Or least, something like a gun or perhaps a harpoon-shooter.
Griffin noticed this. "That's new."
Before I could honestly comprehend what happened, two of the hunters shot at us; harpoon like wires extending from the end. I jumped to my right, barely missing the thick wires. Griffin did the same, only jumping left. This continued on for a couple minutes, somewhat tiring if you ask me. David fell over a ledge above and nearly landed on me. Griffin saw what happened and jumped to me.
"Welcome to the war," we said in unison before jumping out of the way.
I ended up on top of the stone pillar we were sitting on earlier. The Paladin hadn't noticed me yet. I looked to Griffin, who was also standing on a pillar. One pursuer aimed directly at Griffin's back, who clearly didn't see this. In the nick of time, I jumped to him, grabbed his hand and jumped to the ground and behind a stone wall. I fell on him from the impact of the ground.
"Sorry," I said quietly, quickly getting off him. I extended my hand to him and he took it.
"That's okay, thanks. That was a close one," he said, smiling. He disappeared as he jumped away. I followed him and landed behind a Paladin softly.
"Hello," I said to him. As he turned around, I kicked him in the stomach which resulted in an 'Oof' from him. He land roughly on the hard ground. I grabbed his weapon and threw it as far as I could. The Paladin was starting to get up; I kicked him again, harder, where the sun don't shine. A painful gasp from him. And as harsh as this seems, I picked up a rock from the ground and hit him over the head. A trickle of blood ran down his forehead. I always feel a little bad, but then I get over it.
I glanced over at Griffin and he was fairing just as well as me. The last Paladin was nowhere to be seen. I placed a hand on my damaged Paladin and jumped him and myself to where Griffin was standing. I smiled approvingly at Griffin.
"Good job," he told me. I felt my cheeks grow hot.
"Thanks, you too," I replied.
Before any real conversation could start, David jumped to us. He looked confused and tired. "Who are these people?" He asked us.
"Paladin. Paladins kill jumpers. I kill Paladin," Griffin bluntly said.
"And me, I kill 'em too," I added.
"Class dismissed," Griffin said.
A woman shouting from above in Italian. And now is when I wish that I would have stayed in school and completed my Italian class. She has obviously noticed us and ran off to get someone.
"Let's get out of here," I told Griffin. He nodded as a reply.
We both grab onto our unconscious Paladins and returned to the lair.
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So, chapter 2. What'd you think?? Just click that little review button and make my day!
