The End of Paladin

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(Brian's P.O.V)

We teleported before a hotel in lower Manhattan. 

"That's Paladin's current on site base. I've been tracking their movements for the last few years and this is their base of operations in the US."

"What's their real one?"

I asked while studying the place. It looked fancy. 

"I have an idea but nothing concrete. You ask me, I think it's somewhere under Mount Rushmore."

I rose an eyebrow.

"Really? That's like…"

"Cliche? yeah I know. But they're an organization as old as the Nation. Even older. Jumpers have existed for a long time and with them so have their hunters."

He turned to stare at the building, his voice taking on an edge.

"So how do we play this?"

The whole place was getting a lot of activity, so I couldn't blast it to heaven's come and be done  with it.

"Ok. Roland is the main concern. I assume the Paladins are working out in an underground compress underneath the Hotel."

He nodded, prompting me to continue.

"If so, then that means they have to have a discreet entry and exit point hidden somewhere. I doubt they would want to be seen going in and out of the hotel through the front door."

He smiled.

"Yeah. You're right. So all we have to do is find the entrance and use it, taking us directly to them."

I agreed but…

"It's not gonna be easy. They probably have cameras placed on those entrances so they're gonna see us coming from a mile away."

Griffin threw his hands up in the air.

"Can't you, make one of those seals you gave me to hide us from the cameras, mate?"

"It doesn't work like that. The seal I constructed on you plays with the perception of people. It tricks the brain into making you a low priority. For example, they would rather go take a piss than deal with you. I can't trick a camera like that. Given enough time maybe but I want to deal with this Paladin shit now."

"Yeah ok. But we also have another problem. They have a jumper helping them. Don't know if it's just one or not but that puts a wrench in any any plan we form."

I hummed as he finished.

"Don't worry about the Jumper. I can handle them."

Griffin laughed.

"Look mate, you're strong. Fucking powerful actually but all I would need to do is teleport you above a volcano and you'd be done. Any run of the mill jumper can do that."

He was right. But still…

"Trust me, I'm not overestimating myself. Frankly it's insulting that you think I could go down that easily."

He shrugged and muttered, 'your funeral' under his breath.

Asshole.

We finally settled on a simple plan. Griffin would discreetly infiltrate the hotel and press the fire alarm while I would go to one of the hidden entrances and reveal myself. Roland would probably send the jumper to teleport me into a danger zone to try and kill me, because he probably knew bullets were useless on me. Once the attention of the Jumper or Jumpers is on me, Griffin would teleport Roland to a cell that had seals in place to prevent him from escaping. 

Everything relied on one thing. My ability to deal with a jumper. 

With a mock salute, Griffin teleported and left me alone. We had a pretty good idea of where the hidden entrance was. The hotel had a parking lot behind it and Griffin had seen Paladin activity around that area. Turns out there was a door that led to an elevator straight down to the underground section of the building. A pretty simple but effective system. 

I started walking towards the door when a guard spotted me.

"Excuse me. You're not supposed to be here. Put your hands up and identify yourself."

He aggressively said while pointing his handgun at me.

"You're with Paladin correct?"

He opened fire after my words.

The bullets met a ki barrier Infront of me and flattened against it's surface.

"Thanks, I've been meaning to test this out."

Forming a ki barrier was one of the ki control exercises I was doing but it had evolved into a proper defense skill. I motioned and the ki barrier shot forward to hit the guard and slam him on the wall. I pulled back the ki into me and the skill petered out leaving a groaning body behind. 

All that happened Infront of the camera. The element of surprise was gone but I wasn't aiming to be subtle. And neither was Griffin. The fire alarm came on suddenly and I heard a cacophony of people all the way from the parking lot escaping out of the building. 

"I reckon this is your doing, Mr. Valiant?"

Roland's voice came out if a speaker placed near the camera. 

"Come and find out."

The voice went silent and a second later I ducked out of the way of a punch. A jumper, just like I'd expected. My danger sense screamed at me that an attack was coming at me from my back. Ki escaped in the shape of 2 circular shields protecting me from the jumpers touch that would have ended with me deep in the Mariana trench. 

I slapped his body away and turned my attention to the second one. He teleported to my back right before the jumper I had slapped away jumped Infront of me with a kick. An action that was made powerful from the momentum I'd thrown her away with. The shield blocked her attack successfully. She snarled at me and then her, the other jumper and I started a dance of martial arts.

They utilized a combination of Teleportation and kung fu, which made the art, Jump-fu? I was careful to not allow them to touch me. They couldn't teleport my constructs away from me as that was energy so I took advantage of that to bat away and block their attacks. 

2 minutes in and then things started getting ridiculous, the girl teleported in with a car that slammed onto my body at high speeds. My eyes went wide and I instantly constructed a ki barrier around the man behind the wheel. The guy stumbled out of the wreck looking no worse for wear and tailed it. Smart move.

There was another loud pop as a bus appeared before me. Luckily it was empty. A rotating ki disk sliced the bus into two and the pieces fell on both of our sides. They hit two of the parking lot's pillars and destroyed them. The pieces of concretes exploded outwards and a huge amount of dust rose up. 

"Hey I have a question. What did Roland promise you, that you would do his dirty work for him?"

I asked them during the brief lull in the fight. 

" A whole lotta money to put you down. Frankly I don't see what's the fuss about you, so far we're kicking your ass."

The man said.

"Shut up."

The female jumper told him.

The stalling worked however and something suddenly clicked inside me. A smile instantly spread out on my face. Finally. I blew the dust away with my ki and my hand shot out to intercept the bat aimed at my head. The male Jumpers eye's went wide when he no doubt tried to teleport and couldn't.

He backed away but I pulled him close and grasped his jaw before he could shout a warning to the female jumper.

A ki ball appeared in my hands and I pointed it to the side where the female jumper was coming from. There was a huge discharge of energy and a massive explosion as the ki blast reduced her upper body into ash. 

My mind went blank. I hadn't been trying to make the ki blast explode. It was meant to be a blunt attack that would have hopefully taken her out of the fight. The man squirmed in my grip and looked at what was left of the other Jumper's body and screamed into my hand. I looked into his eyes and saw...hate. 

If I left him alive then he would do anything and everything to avenge her. I recognized that same conviction. The hard choice it is then. Another ki blast and I took his head off. I then fired two more ki blasts and watched the energy fully consume their bodies, leaving behind a burnt mark on the floor.

I breathed in and the entire space distorted with the ripples of energy saturating it. I had extensively studied how a jumper teleported and although I was a long way from replicating the ability, I had stumbled on an idea on how to stop them from teleporting away. 

I spread out my energy and adjusted it to a unique frequency that countered their ability to jump. Without access to their abilities, the two jumpers were nothing more than baseline humans.

I steeled my heart and turned back to the camera. The cellphone in my pocket buzzed and I accepted the call once I noticed it was Griffin. 

"I have him. Fucker shot me on the arm though."

"Ok. Let me...let me finish up on my end and then you'll come and get me."

I was about to kill people. I would lie and say that them being a shady organization that killed others didn't make it easier, but it did. 

I blasted through the door and punched the elevator to take me down. Griffin had blocked the other escape routes that the Paladins could use on the ground floor so they were all sitting ducks. A hail of fire pelted the huge shield Infront of me. I enlarged it and threw it forward. The squad of Paladins was taken out and a ki blast made that permanent. 

Hallways passed and more lives were snuffed out. I didn't falter nor hesitate. I knew the stakes, any of these people could come after my family. Infact they had. 

I knew there were consequences to every action and no matter how long it would take, I was going to face the repercussions of them. But for now as I speared through the last of the Paladins, all I felt was relief. 

I destroyed the video footage and the servers to erase every trace of my presence. Griffin jumped in and I found myself in another place entirely. Roland was staring at us from behind the closed cell doors.

We studied each other for a while before I removed my half mask.

"We finally meet at last Roland. Can't say it's a pleasure, you know with you trying to kill my family and all that. What were you thinking coming after me anyway?"

I questioned.

"Its what an exterminator does. Cleaning out the place to get rid of bugs and rodents. You can hardly fault me for taking on such a worthy..."

Griffin slammed the bars of the cell and snarled.

"My mother was a rodent to you? She never did anything bad in her life and you killed her!"

I placed a hand on his shoulders to calm him down. He winced in pain and walked out of the room. His arm was bleeding from where Roland had shot him.

"Ok, Roland. I need you to tell me who else knows about me and Spiderman's identity. Maybe I'll let you go afterwards."

He scoffed.

"We both know that's a lie. I've always been prepared for death in this line of work. Your threats are meaningless."

I rose an eyebrow. I knew he wouldn't break and honestly I had little tolerance for torture.

"That's true. However, I can make your death painless. The guy who just left won't give you the same deal. So tell me what I want to know and I promise you, I'll make it quick."

Roland clammed up and refused to talk.

"Very well. Say hi to the devil for me."

I left the room and saw Griffin pacing in the next room impatiently. He had a gun in his hands.

We made eye contact and I said,

"He's all yours."

Dooming Roland to a few minutes of hell on earth. Griffin shot him on all his limbs, broke his kneecaps and finally put a bullet through his brain. 

We went after the safe houses next and destroyed them and the Paladins we found there. Lastly as we stood Infront of the burning building that was the last safe house, I allowed myself to breathe in relief. 

It was done. The Paladins were no more.