"Remind me again, why is this necessary?" Kate asked from her chair. Her voice mirrored her appearance: pale, pinched, and pained. The drugs that kept the agony at bay had worn off, and Annie had refused to give her more.

"We need protection," Annie said patiently. She searched through a closet of bright orange hazmat suits, looking for something that would fit over the bulk bandage currently wrapped around Kate's leg.

Annie had waited just long enough for Kate's logical reasoning to return, then had directed her to jump them to the University of Texas's biocontainment facility. Annie had done her Ph.D. work in microbiology and infectious diseases there, and had known that the facility would have the equipment that she insisted they needed.

"I know that," Kate insisted patiently. She had jumped in a chair to keep her weight off of her wounded leg. "I want to know why it has to be done now."

"Because we need to know what they're doing."

"It can't wait until tomorrow? When I don't want to saw my leg off to stop the pain?" It came out as a whine. Kate bit her lip. Sounding that pathetic was almost as bad as being in this much pain.

"I know you're hurting, but I've already almost overdosed you on Advil, and I can't give you anything that would make you loopy. I don't want to be jumped into a wall."

Kate shuddered involuntarily. "I don't even think that's possible," she muttered rebelliously. "Interatomic forces between molecules seems to prevent the splitting of spacetime within a solid object." Her voice sounded as pale and pinched as she was sure her face was. "It doesn't seem to be a problem on the initiating end, likely since the jump field energizes any solid matter enough to weaken the interatomic bonds and excite the molecules to create enough thermal motion for the object to come apart….."

"Kate."

"Yes?"

"Stop it."

Kate sighed dramatically. "Plebeian."

"Nerd." Annie stepped away, drawing a full body suit out of the closet. "As to why we have to go now, it's simple. Biochemistry takes time. The minimum time it takes to make a vaccines from a known virus is six months, if you don't mind the inevitable mistakes that come from rushing science. If they are so close to completion that they're mass producing this agent, then we need to know what it is. The sooner the better. So, while I appreciate how much pain you must be in, we have to go now." She pulled a suit out of the closet. "This should work."

It took both of them and the chair to maneuver Kate into the suit. Fine tremors were running through her muscles, sweat beading on her skin, by the time they were done. The hazmat suit completely wrapped her up in orange nylon. The self-contained air unit rested against her lower back, the weight both comforting and disconcerting at the same time. Comforting to know that it was there, protecting her against any airborne bioagents. Disconcerting to know that it was needed, that the air itself could kill her.

She left the hood open as Annie chose her own, the doctor sliding into the suit with an ease that spoke of long experience. Kate knew that she had done some HIV work for the Ph.D. part of her dual degree, but Annie had never mentioned specifics.

The one time Kate had asked, she had been glared into submission.

Annie stepped up to her, zipping the hood closed and starting the air filter for Kate before activating her own. She reached down, picking up a bag completely wrapped in protective plastic.

"Ready," she said, offering Kate her shoulder. Kate moved slowly, wrapping one arm over Annie's shoulders, resting her weight on her friend.

"Merlin?" Kate asked, her voice echoing slightly in the hood. Her breath misted lightly on the clear face panel.

The communicator buzzed, once again tucked into her ear. "I've got the connection. Shutting the field down in three… two… one… down."

Taking a breath she jumped, dragging Annie along with her. They flickered into existence between the stacks of bottles. Annie looked around, slowly pivoting as she took in the cavernous room.

"You look like you hadn't believed me," Kate said, the plastic hood hollowing out her voice. She felt sweat break out across her forehead as Annie released her, and her full weight landed on her injured leg.

"I believed you," Annie murmured. "I had just hoped that, for once in your life, you were wrong."

"Hey, I'm wrong a lot," Kate objected. Her muscles trembled, and she slowly sank down to the floor. "For instance, there was that one time when I said that quarks couldn't possibly…."

"Not the time, Kate," Annie murmured. She walked over to one of the shelves and took a bottle from the rolling racks. She held it up to the lights overhead. A thick coating of slime slicked the inside, warping the light that passed through. A thin layer of magenta liquid, slightly murky, covered the bottom of the bottle as Annie held it on its side.

"What do you think?" Kate asked from her place on the floor. She had slumped over like a stringless marionette as soon as she hit the ground. The shiny tiles on the floor were cold, and the chill felt good on her inflamed leg.

She didn't need to worry about Annie hearing her; Merlin had outfitted them both with earpieces before they left.

"They're making something," Annie murmured. Her voice was low and rich. It was only in her moments of distraction that the icy shields she had melted away, revealing a side of her personality more befitting her name.

"This style of culture is mostly used to collect cellular secretions. Proteins, viruses… that sort of thing."

"Viruses?" Kate asked. An icy wave raced down her spine as her brain helpfully listed off every virus she knew. West Nile, Yellow fever, Ebola, HIV, rabies, flu, Dengue, SARS, herpesvirus, polio, rubella, measles and mumps, every type of pox… The list went on and on.

"Good infectious agents," Annie continued. She almost sounded uninterested. "Can be made transmissible by air, almost undetectable, asymptomatic until it's too late."

"Do they not realize what they're playing with?" Kate groaned.

"Too much tunnel vis-"

The bottle in Annie's hand exploded.

Time slowed as her brain jumped into hyper mode. The world turned crystalline.

Shards of glass shot outward. Pale pink mist blossomed, forming a cloud around Annie's suit-covered form.

Several bottles behind her shattered as well, carving a path straight back before an impact crater unfolded like a blooming rose on the wall behind her.

Annie jerked back just as a second bullet punched through the space she had been. Cracks raced out across the plastic sheet that protected her face, originating from a perfectly circular hole. The back of the hood stretched and crinkled as the bullet tore through, wrecking a second path of destruction through the lab.

Many little somethings pelted Kate's back. Two sharp cracks reached her ears, followed by a crystal cacophony.

Time seemed to speed back up again.

"Down!" Annie yelled as she dropped to the ground. Kate twisted around.

The massive sheet of glass that had separated the lab from the rest of the world was gone, lying in a hundred thousand shards across the floor behind her. It must have been broken pieces of glass that she had felt pelting her back.

Standing beyond it, a horribly familiar grey gun clutched in his hand, was Spiky Hair.

WhathowwhenMOVE! Her thoughts were moving so fast they blended together.

Kate rolled over on the floor, ignoring the shriek of her torn muscles. On her stomach, she jumped, appearing just behind Annie. Reaching out, she grabbed Annie's ankle just as the doctor snatched another bottle from the bottom of one of the racks. The next instant, they were gone.

Heat washed over them, light beating down from the glaring sun.

Annie leapt to her feet, ripping away the shattered hood. "Where are we?" She demanded, quickly stripping off the neon suit.

"Death Valley," Kate gasped, the face shield immediately fogging up on contact with the harsh desert air. She reached up to wipe away the condensation, but the beads of water had formed on the inside. Under the inexorable sun, the temperature inside the suit was shooting up. She could almost taste the copper tang of the air.

A hand landed on her shoulder, and she felt Annie tugging at the zipper on the suit.

"I have been almost killed far too many times today," Kate grumbled as she peeled off the plastic.

She climbed to her knees and stopped, swaying as blood rushed from her head. A company of bright dots was dancing in front of her eyes, and the ringing in her ears was thunderous.

"….incinerator…. Kate, focus!" Fingers snapped in front of her face.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Annie sighed. "I know you're tired, but we need to move."

"Right. Machine. Rips reality." She tried to get to her feet.

"You really have to stop with this reality-ripping thing," Annie grumbled, hauling Kate up with an arm under her shoulders. "No one has any clue what you're saying. Now, where are we going?"

"Texas. Incinerator." The roaring in her ears was starting to fade. "Have to go before…"

The misty jumpscar she could still see was ripped open by a grey-clad figure. Kate didn't stay to make out the details. She jumped, dragging Annie along with her.

Sterile white walls and harshly conditioned air replaced the desert panorama. Annie let go long enough to pop open the lid of a dark orange biohazard bin and drop the hazmat suits in. The orange bag, heavy with their stole loot, hung from her fist.

"Now that that's taken care of…" Kate began.

She heard the almost-sound of a jump, felt the wave of displaced air against her back. Without turning she jumped again. The smell of salt water filled her nose, just as her body registered the face that there was no solid surface under her feet.

Annie shouted as gravity took hold, and they fell. There was just enough time to take in the uninterrupted expanse of blue water that surrounded them before Kate jumped again.

They dropped down in a cornfield, landing hard. They hadn't fallen for more than half a second, not enough time to gather a significant amount of kinetic energy. But Kate still stumbled on landing, jagged bolts of pain racing up her leg. She collapsed, sitting down hard. The sudden movement ripped her out of Annie's hold.

The doctor sat down hard at the same time she did. Looking over, Annie blinked her dark eyes. "Where was that?" she asked.

"Marianas Trench," she gasped. Her body was still vibrating from the series of rapid jumps. Deep muscle tremors ran through her thin frame. The expanse of ocean they had seen, thousands of miles from any coast are barely lit by dawn, covered the deepest stretch of seabed on Earth. The Trench, as its deepest point, went almost seven miles down.

Any machine the Paladin's tried to bring through would be utterly, irretrievably lost. If they were able to mobilize very quickly, they might be able to save anyone that went through with it.

Annie grinned wickedly. "That's…"

A Paladin fell out of thin air, landing between them with an audible thud.

Kate gaped at him, her mind momentarily blank as Spiky Hair raised his head out of the ground, spitting dirt.

There was only one way he could have followed them.

"He's a JUMPER!"

The three stared at each other for one breathless moment. Even Kate's heart seemed to stop in her chest.

The Paladin jumper shifted, and her heart exploded back to life. Adrenaline dumped into her veins, making the world narrow and sharpen.

They all moved at once, flickering in and out of existence. Kate vanished from her spot on the ground, popping into the space next to Annie. Her hand was already reaching out, seeking. But Annie was gone, appearing across from her on the far edge of the crop circle they had smashed. The Paladin was now sitting in the place Kate had been only seconds before. He cursed in a British accent, reaching for something on his belt.

Kate didn't wait to see the gun. She jumped again and felt her heart stutter in its rapid rhythm. This needed to end soon; neither she nor Annie could keep this up much longer.

She appeared next to her friend, grabbed Annie's forearm, and jumped again.

Hot concrete beneath her. Annie leapt to her feet and hauled Kate up.

"Go," Kate gasped as the scene changed yet again, from hot city to steaming jungle.

"Get to Merlin." Snow covered ruins of an abandoned Soviet base.

"Get a lightning rod to cover the spot." A hulking, blood red sandstone mountain, surrounded by scrub brush.

"He'll know." Harsh, almost electric cold as rich blue ice hemmed them in.

"Thirty seconds." Rolling yellow dunes, a shock of green marking the location of an oasis in the distance. "Ready?" Annie nodded.

Rich brown soil appeared under her feet as they popped into a vineyard. The two girls leapt apart, and an instant later Annie was gone.

Pain from her wound was a harsh throb, but her brain shoved it aside. Kate took a step to the side of the jumpscar, making sure to keep a mental countdown going in her mind.

It didn't take long. The fabric of spacetime, trying desperately to knit itself back together, rippled and split around the Paladin. He was already looking around, searching for the next jumpscar.

Kate didn't give him a chance to find it.

"Hey, Hair Gel!" She backhanded him hard across the face. His head snapped to side.

"Come and get me," Kate growled. Whirling, she jumped away.

Twenty seconds. She landed on a darkened bridge in Venice, already running. For a pulse-pounding moment, she thought he had stayed and gone after Annie.

Then she heard the almost-sound of a jump, heard him yell. Adrenaline burned away the pain ricocheting up her leg. Kate rounded a corner and jumped.

Fifteen seconds. Kate ran through the open forest, making sure she stayed within sight of the jumpscar. She couldn't afford to lose the Paladin. The towering trees had long ago grown tall enough to block most of the sunlight from reaching the ground. The undergrowth was sparse and the forest floor open, making for easy running.

She felt Spiky Hair follow her, and ducked behind a tree just as she heard the crack of a gunshot. Bark exploded from the side of the tree.

Taking a breath, Kate lunged out from behind the tree and jumped again.

Five seconds. She landed on the beach, storm winds ripping at her clothes, her skin. Kate covered her eyes with a forearm and struggled forward a step. Then two.

The winds beat her back. A strong gust made her stumble backwards…..and into a warm wall of muscle.

One. The Paladin grabbed her shoulder.

Time. Kate let her legs fold, just as she jumped. Connected by touch, the Paladin was dragged through the raging storms of space with her.

Kate purposefully jumped a foot above the floor of Merlin's Avalon. Spiky Hair grunted as he landed hard. Kate's full weight hit his grasp, and she tumbled to the floor.

Just in the nick of time. A lightning cable slice through the space she had been in and wrapped itself around the Paladin. He crashed down, convulsing as electricity raced through him.

"Gotcha," Kate panted.


I bet they spent all their evolutionary points on that upgrade.

Thoughts thus far?