*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 20

Griffin's

New Job?..

 

                Kain watched the replacement closely...a woman...he hadn't had a woman in such a ranking for a long time...he smiled.  She was absolutely frightened.  She knew that the slightest thing she did wrong could make him kill her.  It was INCREDIBLE to see what lengths a new person went through to try to please him.  He was willing to bet that, if he'd still had his body, she would have offered herself up to him JUST to make sure she didn't get killed, and she would do it whenever he wanted.  The thought made him yearn for his old body, and hate Babe all the more for taking it from him.

                Frantic shouts suddenly started filling the factory's halls.  It seemed Babe was in range...

 

                Babe had his scanners working overtime to find anything suspicious.  They detected metal, and lots of it, along with nearly twice as many life-signs than the last time...but there was nothing in his scanners that he could place on Kain...no abnormal energy signs, nothing.  Kain had a damn good hiding spot.

                Babe went a bit lower, hoping his scanners would pick up a little more if he got closer to the factory.  He got something alright!!!!  cannons appeared out of the ground near the factory and shot at him.  They had incredible aim...one of his wings was hit...and destroyed!  He had to land, and FAST.  If he didn't the heat from his wing could start a reaction with the other and then he wouldn't be able to fly at all!  As he descended, the area where his wing used to be exploded again, freezing his arm circuitry so that he couldn't activate his cannon!  He made it to the ground, but his other wing had taken too much stress, and exploded.  The blast knocked Babe to the ground.  He shook himself and stood up to look around.  Smaller guns had risen from the ground and were aimed at him.  He gasped and lay on his back to protect the damaged areas from any bullets; his armor would protect the rest of himself...at least from the guns.

                Kain was another matter.  He walked out calmly, smiling, "Good to see you again, Babe."  The section of guns behind Kain lowered into the ground.

                "You were waiting for me."

                "Of course.  After you took away Griffin, who I paid hundreds of thousands to create, I had to get even somehow.  I think this is a fair trade.  You ruined a plan, so I ruin you."

                "What?"

                Kain laughed, "Surprised?  I'm not going to change you this time, Babe.  I 'm going to kill you and use your parts for my NEXT robotic soldier!  I've got it figured out now.  I won't make the same mistake I made with you!  Oh, don't bother getting up.  Those guns are being remote controlled.  You face me, they shoot.  You face them, I shoot."

                Babe turned on his transmiter, hoping against everything that Sarah had left her end open.  She needed to hear this so she could prepare.

                Kain perked up, "You've activated a transmission?!!"  He touched a small button on his arm and spoke into it, "Are you tracing the signal?!!"

                "We've already got it, sir."

                "YES!!!!"  He laughed, crazed, "YOU'RE THROUGH, BABE!!!!  YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS WILL DIE!!!!!!!!!!"

                Babe's mouth had dropped open, "I just...I gave away where SARAH was!!!!!!!!!!!  DAMN!!!!!!!!!!"  Babe lurched to his feet and slid out his claws.  He rushed Kain before the guns behind him had a chance to get on target.  Kain looked back and swore.  His arm changed into a cannon, but Babe was just barely too fast.  He slid the claws into Kain's neck, twisted them around and up and down, screwing up the wiring as much as he possibly could.  Kain fell from him, limp.  Babe twirled around and ran at the guns right as they fired.  He managed to block the damaged areas, and sliced up the guns before running away.

                ...he'd gotten away...Babe couldn't believe it.  He'd gotten away and killed Kain!  This time Kain HAD to stay dead!!!  He HAD to!!!

 

                Kain scowled, "Damn...he got rid of another...I can't make many more of those...soon I'll have to face him in person..."  He leaned back into his chair, trying to sort through how Babe had managed to do it AGAIN.

 

                "Babe?..Babe, what's wrong?.."  Sarah asked over the transmission.  He'd left the link open...why?  He knew that Kain would be able to trace the signal...

                After a minute, she got an answer, "It's alright now...I got Kain...I can't fly home this time, Sarah.  My wings are totaled...and I can't use my cannon.  Where should we try to meet?"

                "Can you make it back?"

                "I'd have to cut through the city, but yeah.  I don't have enough energy to go around the place."

                "Okay...just stay where you are.  I'll bring you some clothes."

                "Alright...I'm waiting."

                Sarah cut off the link, grabbed a bag full of clothes for Babe, and took off to find him.  She knew the general area where he was...

                ...her nightmares wouldn't let her forget it.

 

                "Griffin?  What happened?.."

                Griffin looked up and smiled.  He and James had stopped their mock battles a while ago to heal up...well, James needed to heal up.  It hadn't taken Griffin's body more than a few minutes to fully heal, "Not much..."

                "Not much!!!  You were kidnapped!!!"

                Griffin shrugged, "Not at first...I went there of my own free will.  The guy tricked me after I got there.  He didn't keep me too long.  So, what've you people been up to?"

                "Seraching for you like crazy!"  Don said after he found a place to sit, "Anyway...I might have found you a job, if you're interested.  It'll help you earn up money for an actual place to stay."

                Kia stepped in, "And I went and got you some citizenry papers.  Fix up these and you'll be a legal citizen for the island."

                "Fix up?..what do you mean by that?"

                "Well, you came from off the island...you're technically not native to this place...you're not a citizen.  If you want a place to stay, or even a job that pays better than minimum wage you'd need to be a Yann city citizen for more than a year.  Since you aren't we should make you one as soon as possible, right?"

                Griffin smiled, "Yeah, you're right...thanks."  He took the papers from her and glanced through them for a bit.  When he was done, he stood up and looked at Poseidon, "Well, you said you found a job for me, we gonna check it out or what?"

                Poseidon nodded and got up as well.  Kia had brought along Pik and Ralf; said they were waiting for James.  Griffin said goodbye and left with Poseidon.  He winced when Kia called back, "I talked with Sarah!  Julie still wants to talk with you!!!"

 

                "This is the guy?"

                Don nodded, a little breathless.

                Griffin was staring at Don like he'd grown a third head or something.

                Don glanced over at him and noticed the stare, "What?"

                "How?.."

                "What?"

                "You changed?..how'd you do that?"

                The man who had been waiting for them glanced between the two, "Uh...just come and get me when you're ready..."  He headed inside.

                Don asked again, "What?  What are you talking about?"

                "How did you do that?  You were huge!!!!!"

                Don glanced at himself, "What, you mean my animal form?.."

                "Animal form?..But James turns into a giant...I thought that was just him...can anyone else on this island change?.."

                Now it was Don's turn to stare, "You've never seen anyone in animal form?..what about you?  Don't YOU have one?"

                "I...I don't know...I've lived my whole life like this..."  He gestured to his body, "I...I didn't know there WAS anything else..."

                "Oh...well, we'll figure it out later I guess...you want this job or not?"

                Griffin stared at Don a moment longer..."Sure...yeah..."  He seemed to come back to himself enough, "Yeah, let's get this over with.  What's the job again?"

                "Well, this guy runs an interesting sort of agency...he trains people into bodyguards for hire...like if Bill had some weird experiment he wanted to show some people, he might think it's valuable enough to ask Babe to keep him company.  That way, he's got the Protector helping him out.  This works the same way, but you'd take the place of Babe...and you'd get paid for your help."

                Griffin nodded.  It made enough sense, "You mean like a Secret Service for hire instead of always guarding the President or something?"

                "The what protecting the who now?"

                Griffin laughed, realizing his mistake, "Nothing.  Sorry...I get it."  He walked inside.  The place was, instead of the seedier idea Griffin had been expecting, almost exactly like a simple corporate business.  There was a large waiting room area, with a single desk, and the man Don had spoken to sat behind the desk, waiting.

                "Alright...so you're Griffin?"

                "Yes sir."  Griffin nodded and shook the man's hand.  He kept his grip firm, knowing that, in this case, THAT would count for a lot more.

                At this, the man smiled, "Alright...sit down.  I like what I see...although, you MIGHT want to keep up whatever you've been doing.  You haven't had to use your muscles that much, by the looks of things."

                Griffin shook his head, "No sir.  I spend most of my time exercising.  I haven't had many chances to...hey...you're that guy!"

                He waited for Griffin to continue.

                "From...what was it, three nights ago?  Two?  I got you out from that rubble, remember?"  A thought occured to him, "Hey...I thought that OTHER place was your office!"

                "It is...when I'm not hiring new bodyguards.  This job pays more, but doesn't do nearly enough to keep the money coming.  Name's Blake Gargan.  It's good to see you again, Griffin."

                Don smiled and left, able to see he wasn't needed anymore.

 

                Blake sized Griffin up, "If I hire you, we have a state-of-the-art gym on the upper levels of this building...but one thing bugs me..."

                "What?"

                "How DID you manage to move all that junk off of me?"  He took off the business-like overcoat, revealing an impressive build underneath, "See...I hadn't exactly been so helpless...at first it was just my desk in there...I had been thrown on my back.  I turned around, but then the ceiling decided to pile on top of me too.  I could have gotten the desk off, but the ceiling was too much.  By the looks of things, you've got the same amount of muscle I do...and I KNOW you got it off in one heap.  How did you manage?..and I thought I saw the pile glowing for a second that night, but I blamed it on having lost too much air."

                Griffin sighed, "I guess it's a bit obvoius I had some help then..."

                "Who was it?"

                "Not who...what.  You see, I'm...different from the other people here."

                "How so?"

                "Stand back...um...this desk isn't bolted down and doesn't have wires running through it, right?  I don't want to break anything."

                "No...go right ahead..."

                "Thanks."  Griffin stood up and concentrated on his chip.  He wanted to levitate the desk...a glow surrounded the desk as it started rising off the ground.  Griffin held it in the air a few seconds so that Blake here knew he wasn't seeing things.  He set it back down as gently as he could, "Well, what do you think?"

                Blake half fell back into his chair, "I have never seen anything like that...WHERE did you learn how to do that?"

                "Oh...well, I have this chip inside my forehead, and it helps me do that type of stuff..."

                Blake cautiously reapproached the desk.  Griffin laughed, "It's not going to rise up unless I want it to.  Your desk won't jump up and attack you.  Promise."

                "A chip...and that's how you moved all that stuff off of me?"

                "Yeah..."

                "Wow..."  He said in a whisper.  After a moment, he cleared his throat, "Well...there is one more thing I need to do before I can make anything official."

                "Huh?  You'll hire me?"

                "Hire you?!!  Damn it Griffin, if I DIDN'T I would be passing up a GOLDMINE!!!!!"

                Griffin eyed him.

                Blake calmed down, "It's nothing...you see, since you'd be working for me, I'd get some of the profit you make...I'll be in charge of training you, making sure you won't fold under pressure, show you some different ways to go about fighting...that sort of thing.  The pay you'll get from your benefactors could, alone, buy you any house you wanted on this island, and the benefits you'd get while working for me vary to almost anything you'd need!  Insurrance, dental; things more or less like that."

                Griffin nodded.  It made sense, "And you collect how much of what I make?"

                "Fifteen percent.  The rest is yours...not counting what taxes take out on you."

                "Okay...can I have a look at that gym?"

                Blake smiled, "I ALWAYS allow my potential employees the chance to look around.  It'd be bad for business if I didn't!  Oh, by the way, watch out for Kale."

                "Why?"

                "He's the Big Guy around here.  You don't normally want to pick a fight with him."

                "He's good?"

                "The best one here...and it kind of gets to his head.  I'm the only one he lets boss him around...everyone else has to just watch out."  Blake chuckled, "But I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.  With what you just showed me, he wouldn't stand a chance unless there was an army of him!  And even then he'd have it tough!"

                Griffin smiled at the compliment, "So...what's this last thing?"

                "Well, I need to know where you're staying right now, if you've had a job before, you know, standard employment forms."

                Griffin lowered his head, "I can't..."

                "Can't what?"

                "I don't have a place to live...I've never LIVED anywhere on this island!  I haven't had a job before..."

                Blake frowned, "Oh...I see...well, I can still hire you.  I just need to see your birth certificate and all that."

                Griffin winced, "I don't have any of that either.  I'm not FROM this island..."