//------------------------------// // One Jump Left // Story: Jumper: A New World // by PTTN //------------------------------// One Jump Left 2 Jay awoke with a start. He looked around his room, noticing it was pitch black and also noticing that he was wearing the same clothes as the night before; black and red gym shorts and a black t-shirt that fit his body snugly. He got up out of bed, only to meet the shin destroyer (aka. the bedside table). He stood there frozen, as pain gripped his entire left leg, cursing his luck. What a way to start the day, especially at..... ‘It’s 2:30 in the morning?!?!’ He screamed in his mind, ‘What the hell, brain?!’ As he was silently reprimanding his mind, he heard a scuffle downstairs. Apparently the maid was talking on her cell phone, or something like that, Jay didn’t care. She was speaking too fast and she was too far away for him to even understand. As he strained to listen, his stomach growled. He recognized the growl. It was not the ‘I’m hungry, feed me’ growl, it was the, ‘get to the bathroom or you’re going to have to burn your underpants’ growl. Sweet and sour chicken always had that effect. He had no idea why he kept eating it. He hadn’t noticed that the maid had been cut-off mid sentence. He hadn’t even noticed her lifeless body hit the ground: her jugular vein and carotid artery slit. Jay just wanted to make it to the bathroom before making a mess on the floor that, lo and behold, the maid would have to clean. He stopped in the middle of the hall and mentally slapped himself. ‘What the hell am I doing, I can just poof there...’ He thought. He selected the appropriate bathroom from the archive in his mind in almost no time at all, and jumped. He made it just in time, materializing in front of the toilet, and his bowels agreed with him, preparing to release a small monster into the toilet. He hadn’t noticed the shadow underneath the closed bathroom door move. Nor had he noticed the door move, ever so slightly. The Templar reached into her satchel and pulled out what looked like a dart gun. She aimed it directly at the light and fired a blunt tipped metal needle at the bulb, shattering it on impact and bathing the small room in darkness. Jay looked around, wondering what had happened to the light. He reached down to his pants to find the pocket and pulled out his cell phone, flipping it open and turning on the flashlight/camera flash. As soon as he did so, he jumped. He was sure he would have just soiled himself had he not just given the honor to the toilet. At first, he thought he was looking straight into a mirror. Blood red eyes stared back at him, but no other feature was shown, hidden by a shrouded mask. The Templar, however, knew what she was looking at. She wanted to get one last look at her son before she did what needed to be done. She had promised to wait until his 18th birthday, and even then, she stalled, trying to give the boy as much time as she could on this Earth, but all good things had to come to an end, and the time had certainly come. Jay quickly realized he was not looking into a mirror, but those eyes.... He then looked at his assassin, then down at his pants, then back at his assassin, realizing where he was. “I’m sure you can see how awkward this is for both of us.” He said, a bit of anger creeping into his voice. “You can stay and watch the show if you want, but I still need to wipe and, ya know......” His voice trailed off as his assassin continued to analyze him. She stood stoic, her mind battling itself. She knew which part of her mind would win, but she had to wonder if she had it in her to spare her own son. Eventually, the calculating side took over. She began to make her move. Jay saw his assassin shift her weight. All he saw was an assassin. Her eyes bore into his soul as her right arm reached for something slung on her back. He knew he could get away, even defend himself if need be, but he sat there, wanting to give it a little more time to see what would happen. She pulled a long rod from its’ holster on her back. It had two prongs at the top of the rod that looked like the pincers of a bug. That was all it took for Jay. He flashed and image of his room in his mind, and he was gone. The Templar was not easily escaped. She heard him appear in a room down the hall, and with a swift kick to the door near the handle, she busted it open and flew out into the hallway. The chase had begun. Jay quickly looked around for something to use. He took a step forward and fell face first into his floor. He lay there for a moment, his vision filled with carpet. He stood up again, mumbling a curse, and this time pulled up his pants. He could hear the footsteps racing towards him and he knew he didn’t have much time. He heard the door burst open, its’ handle and clasp shattered, and he turned, only to be met with those same red eyes that froze him..... He saw the rod charge with electricity as she stared at him. He felt like she could see his very soul, she could see all of his secrets as they stood there eyes locked. The Templar raised the weapon, the prongs pointed at him and crackling with electricity. Her right arm held the base while she let the end of it rest on her left forearm, allowing her to stabilize it and aim. Jay recognized this and dove onto his bed as the prongs lurched forward into the spot he had just been standing in. The prongs hit the wall and let out a burst of electricity, lighting the room. Jay looked at her as she started to retract the weapon. He started to roll around in the blankets like a child. To an onlooker, the scene would have been somewhat comical. He made sure he was buried deep in his comforter before he jumped into the kitchen, just as the prongs hit the blankets, but not finding purchase. He grabbed a frying pan off the hanging rack over the stove and waited as he heard her hop the banister and run down the hall. Jay took a swing at her head as the Templar ducked under it, grabbing his arm as she went by and bringing her knee up to his left leg, hitting him just above knee cap on the outer quadricep, causing Jay’s left leg to buckle. She raised her weapon, still bursting with electricity, and tried to bring the rod straight down towards Jay’s neck. He jumped directly behind her, just missing the blow to his neck. Jay tried to get up, his left leg nearly useless as she had crushed the artery. She turned quickly and launched the prongs at him again, catching him in his shoulder. The shock brought him to his knees as he felt like his organs were being violently vibrated. It took him all of his willpower to reach up, grip the two metal prongs, and pull them out of his shoulder, causing a charge of electricity to burst outwards, sending him into the cabinets behind them, successfully shattering them. He sat in the wreckage of the cabinets, trying to unscramble his brain from the electricity. “What the hell do you want?!” Jay demanded. He had had enough of this. The Templar stared at him. Her gaze burning into his own eyes, “No one man can have the power you do, Jumper.” She stated flatly, her eyes never leaving his. “You are an error in the world, and it is my job to absolve the world of such errors.” Jay was shocked. For some reason, he didn’t hear a word she said. All he could hear was her voice, and for some reason, he felt calm. The voice soothed him. It was like this brutal death wasn’t going to be such a bad thing after all. His mind then put together the fact the she knew who he was, calling him a ‘Jumper’. ‘Not only that, dumbshit, but she JUST said she was going to kill you! Now get it in gear and do something!’ His mind screamed. Sometimes Jay could be so mean to Jay. He jumped behind her, making sure he was standing when he came back into existence. As she turned, he brought his palm upwards, toward her chin. His open palm struck her chin at a 45 degree angle, and he could have sworn he heard her teeth crunch. The Templar stumbled back, stunned. Jay brought the image of his room into his mind, planning his escape already. He heard the tell-tale launch of the two pronged rod, and he jumped. In his room, he went straight for his signature RayBans and beanie. Couldn’t leave home without them. Just as he finished adorning them, the distortion he usually leaves behind from jumps started to crackle. The next thing he knows, the prong shoots from the distortion, having hit the starting distortion just as he jumped from the kitchen. It wraps tightly around his leg and immediately begins shooting electricity through his body. He can hear the faint footsteps of his assassin, walking with a bit more confidence and with less urgency. She knows she has him, and she knows he is dying. Jay’s brain begins to shut down, the current running through him frying him from the inside. Black begins to surround the edge of his vision. He has no idea how much longer he can hold on. ‘At least I got my sunglasses on.’ He thinks to himself, almost as if accepting death. He can’t think straight. His thoughts are distorted, rendering his jumping useless. His assassin walks in and looks right down at him. Jay can see the hurt in her eyes, but it just pisses him off. ‘Get that!’ He thinks to himself. ‘I’m being electrocuted and I can still find a place in my heart to be pissed off.’ That brings a smile to his face. The Templar watches in horror as the smile creeps onto Jay’s face. Here is her son, with who knows how many volts of electricity travelling through his body, and he his smiling. Jay watches as his assassin steps back. Death is slowly creeping in. The black in his vision growing with every passing second. As death reaches out to him, his mind clears. Suddenly, he can think, but one image pops into his mind. ‘Huh,’ he thinks, ‘never been there before. Must be heaven or something.’ It’s an image of a bright sunny day, with a forest of lush, green trees. Everything in it just seems so colorful to Jay, but he has no idea where this place is. He has never seen it before, let alone been there. This memory came from nowhere, but it is the only one Jay can focus on. His mind is not responding to him, no other memory can be pulled up. Jay is confused, scared, and dying. He focuses on the image, but sets his head back, accepting death, who eagerly awaits him. The Templar watches with mixed feelings. She had no intention to let him suffer like this, but her job is done. Her loyalties lie with the organization. She had, however, watched him from the shadows. She watched him grow into an adult. But she knew that she had brought that monstrosity into the world, and it was her job to take him out. With her job done, she turns to leave. *Whump* Jay blacks out. The Templar is thrown into the wall. She groans as she gets up, and looks towards Jay’s body. Where he had been, a large crater had formed in the floorboards. His body was nowhere to be found. She looked closer at the air, looking for the tell-tale distortion of a jump. She found nothing.