A/N: I love to write the action chapters as much as the romance-y ones. Everything always plays our in my head like a movie. :) Anyhoo. Read, review, and enjoy!
Chapter 20: Hero Complex
(Ashley POV)
She had filled David's bag to the brim with money and returned to Griffin's lair. She was grinning from ear to ear when she was Griffin jump into the lair. "Griffy!" she shouted.
He eyed her curiously. "Mood swing?" Griffin put a plastic bag on the coffee table and sat down next to her on the couch. "Brought yeh some food."
"Brought you some money," Ashley said in a mock voice. He looked at her oddly and she picked the black backpack up from the floor. Unzipping it carefully, she held it open for Griffin to see. His eyes went wide.
"What'd yeh do, rob a bank?" he asked. Ashley shook her head as she zipped the bag back up and dropped it on the floor.
She pivoted slightly on the couch to face him. "David gave me some money," she told him.
Griffin nodded with suspicion. "And why did he give you money?"
She shrugged. "'Cause I'm a good friend I guess." Ashley spontaneously threw herself at him and the unexpected Griffin caught her with an "oof". Ashley kissed him playfully and said, "So I'm thinkin', we try to pay off the Paladins to get Tori back. Then we can do something…fun."
Griffin raised his eyebrows at her. "You really think that'll work?"
She shrugged. "Dunno. But there's enough money here that it might."
He shook his head and pushed her away from him a little. "You're not going anywhere near a Paladin. Though the rest of your plan is do-able," he said in a low voice as he moved to kiss her.
Ashley sat up and got off him. "Look, I wanna get Tori back. It's the only way."
Griffin stood up and looked at her with a glare. "You can't pay off a Paladin, Ashley. They use the government's money. They don't need your bloody money."
She looked at him with a slightly shocked expression. "It's worth a try. Someone's life is at stake here."
"I told you they won't-"
"David went to rescue her Griffin!" she yelled. Griffin's face dropped and he stormed into his room. "Where are going?"
Griffin returned to the living room, holding a baseball bat in one hand and the shock stick in the other. He tossed the bat to her and looked pissed. "We're going to get Rice-boy. Then I'll beat him until he loses his ruddy 'hero complex'," Griffin snarled as he spoke.
'Hmm. The caring side is also evil. Interesting…' Ashley raised an eyebrow. "Alrighty then." She swung the bat in her hand and asked, "Where to?"
Griffin jumped in front of her and wrapped an arm around her waist before jumping a second time.
---
(Tori POV)
Tori stood frozen in the spot where David left her. Everything felt as if it was closing in on her. The world stopped moving and she dropped to the floor. She felt her breath slow and her heart speed up. A few stray tears dropped onto the floor. Tori wiped her eyes with her hands and looked up when she saw Griffin and Ashley appear in the living room. Ashley walked over to her and dropped down next to her. She hugged her and said, "I'm so sorry, Tori. This is my fault."
Tori sniffled and she saw Griffin standing over them, holding a weapon in hand. "Where are you two going?" she managed to ask in a shaky voice.
"We're going to beat David's arse," Griffin said, sounding quite angry.
Tori pulled away from Ashley's hug and said, "What?"
"We're going to get him back he meant. Stay here and do something to keep your mind off things, alright?" Ashley told her as she picked up the wooden bat and stood up. She moved to Griffin's side and Tori scrambled to get up.
"Let me come with," she begged. "I wanna help bring him back," she said solemnly.
Griffin shook his head. "No. This time you WILL stay." He grabbed onto Ashley's free hand and they disappeared. Tori kicked the couch angrily and threw herself down on it.
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(David POV)
When David returned to the meeting looking room, Roland was still sitting there. "Good. Right on time," he had an evil grin plastered across his face as he spoke.
David tilted his head slightly. "What are you going to do with me? Kill me?"
Roland got up and gave him a concern look. "Oh no no. We're going to use you for testing new ways to halt jumps."
He shuddered a little at Roland's words. David swallowed hard and said, "You're not going to kill me?"
Roland made a sound of disapproval as he shook his head. "You're too precious to kill. It's rare that we actually capture a live Jumper who's so willing to cooperate." The words fell off Roland's tongue and stung David like battery acid. He bit his lip and Roland said, "Bring 'em in!"
A Paladin from earlier brought in two metallic bracelets and David watched as he locked them onto his wrists. "Should I activate them, sir?"
Roland nodded and David felt his wrists being pulled together with a strong force. They seemed to be handcuffs of some sort with a magnetic pull that could be activated and deactivated whenever. David tried to pull them apart but struggled for nothing. Roland laughed and said, "Move."
David sighed and walked out the door with a bit of reluctance. 'This can't be good…'
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(Ashley POV)
Griffin jumped them from David's living room to the outside of some building. She looked around. "Where are we?" Ashley gripped the baseball bat nervously.
A look of determination was on Griffin's face and he jumped to the other side of the gate. "It's a Paladin base. Let's go."
Ashley nodded and jumped to the other side of the gate. She looked around and saw a man coming out of the building with a shock stick in hand. He was wearing grey clothing under a trench coat. "Griffin…" Ashley said nervously.
He jumped next to her. "Hold tight," he told her.
Ashley quickly grabbed onto his jacket and he jumped. She looked and saw they were in a room somewhere. "Where are we now?" she asked as she dropped her grip and took a step back.
"We're inside the building. I was here once when I was looking for something. We've gotta find him quickly. Stay behind me."
She gave a nod. 'Griffin's in full out hero mode. And he yells at David about this stuff?' Ashley held the bat at the ready by her side as she followed Griffin out the door and into a long hallway. They went into the room across from the one they were in and found filing cabinets upon filing cabinet. "Wow…" Ashley was in awe. 'There's gotta be a zillion records in here.'
Griffin interrupted her thoughts when he said, "Over here. Gotta find his file and find out where he is. If he's alive, that is."
She watched Griffin move over to a filing cabinet and open the top drawer, eyeing the folders quickly. 'How can he say that? David is one of his only friends. The three of us are all he has. What if it was me instead of David…?' Ashley moved to a cabinet far from the one he was looking in and pulled open the lowest drawer. She scanned the names and saw one with the name "Rice" on the label. She pulled out the file and saw it was for "Mary Rice." "Who's Mary Rice?" Ashley asked over her shoulder.
"I think that's his mum. She's a Paladin."
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Wonderful," she grumbled.
"Found it!" Griffin called and she turned around, only to come face to face with a Paladin. He lunged at her with a shock stick and Ashley let out a scream. She jumped behind the Paladin and kicked him behind the knees. A ping ran through the back of her mind and Griffin was at her side, jabbing the Paladin mercilessly with the shock stick. "Be careful," he murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Ashley swallowed hard and something whizzed by them. "What was that?" she yelled.
"They've found us!" Griffin exclaimed as he grabbed her arm and jumped.
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(David POV)
They tossed him in a room after injecting him in the neck with something. He fell to the floor as the Paladin pushed him. David felt a tremor rumble through his body. He winced and heard a man's voice say, "It will stop you from jumping for a while. First strain that we'll be testing on you."
David tried to get to his feet as his body trembled. "Assholes," he murmured as the trembling slowed down. He managed to inch his way back to a wall and lean against it. His breath was ragged. 'What did they just inject me with?' David worried a bit about it and shut his eyes, trying to think of how he could get out of the current situation. Using the wall to hold himself up, David carefully stood up. 'Maybe it didn't work…' He tried to jump and nothing happened. Seconds after his failed attempt, he collapsed to the floor; his body twitching and feeling as if he was shocked. David couldn't even think the shaking and tingling was so bad. His vision became blurry and he thought he sensed a jump. David pushed off the floor with his hands as the shaking slowed. With fading vision, he heard the door open and the faint sensation of someone near him jumping. 'Could that be Griffin? Or Ashley maybe...' Voices around him yelled faintly before he fell unconscious.
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(Griffin POV)
They burst into the room and found David on the floor, twitching and squinting his eyes. Griffin turned and bashed the Paladin growing nearer to them. The Paladin fell and he heard Ashley shout something. He looked over his shoulder and saw Ashley trying to lift a limp David. 'He better not be dead. After all this…'
"He's got a pulse!" she said after pressing two fingers to his neck. "Something about these cuffs though," she trailed off before putting his body down gently. "Hold on!" Ashley jumped out of the room to somewhere close-by.
"Easier said than done," Griffin said as he stood by the door and kicked at a Paladin who ran up to him. He proceeded to kick him again in the chest and heard the sound of something snapping. Griffin smirked and shut the door, trying to figure out how to lock it. Finally, he noticed a little button on the door knob and pushed it. 'That should stop them for the time.' Griffin turned around to the unconscious David. He kneeled down next to him and gave him a light shake. "David," he said, "David goddamn it wake up!"
Griffin whipped his head around when he sensed a jump to find Ashley cradling her left arm. There was blood dripping to the floor and she let out a shaky sigh. "Good to go. I turned off the cuffs," she said weakly.
He grabbed the back of David's shirt and jumped over a few feet to Ashley. "C'mon." Ashley used her right hand to grab onto his elbow. Her grip was weak. Griffin sent her a worried look before he jumped. There were three jumps before they landed in David's living room.
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(Tori POV)
She felt a jump and sat up. Tori saw Griffin with a grip on David's dark shirt and Ashley holding her arm with a pain stricken face. "The hell happened?" Tori asked in a hurry as she got off the couch and ran over to David's side.
Griffin let go and rolled David onto his back. "They had him. His file said something about an experimental drug," he told her as he yanked the cuff-like bracelets off. "Right now he's just unconscious." Griffin glanced over at Ashley, and then did a double take. "How bad is the bleedin'?"
Tori looked at Ashley and noticed she had blood up to her elbow on her left arm and it was also on her hand that was covering said wound. "Well, I'm not woozy yet," Ashley said with a weak smile.
Tori saw Griffin slide over to Ashley. "Take your hand off. Lemme see," he told her. Tori looked at her as she winced. Her eyes moved down to her arm as she took her hand off the wound. A gash ran from right below her wrist to a few inches before her elbow. "Think you might need to see a doctor for this one…"
Ashley shot him a look of amazement. "Not gunna happen. Uh uh." She shook her head and put her hand back onto the gash.
Tori eyed her with worry. "You really should go. David should get checked too."
Griffin looked over at David. He gave a sideways nod. "You're right. Grab a hold and I'll take us," she said with a subtle sigh. Tori grabbed onto David's arm and she looked over at Ashley, who was trying to grab hold of Griffin's arm. Griffin took hold of her hand before jumping them all to the outside of a hospital.