Bang.

The bullet sails true, straight into Jumping Jack's right shoulder. It takes him a moment to notice it, feeling nothing more than a slight poke in his arm at first. Followed by a hot, burning sensation rapidly spreading from deep within.

He slumps back against the wall, clutching his hand over the wound. The heat grew, his entire arm felt like it was on fire. "Fuck fuck fuck!" He couldn't feel a thing below his shoulder, just the burning pain and the feeling of his suit getting soaked.

Through a blur in his eyes, he sees a weird blue road appearing under Timewinder's van, sending it careening up into the air and driving away.

"God fucking dammit fucking son of a whore!" he swears through gritted teeth, blinking away tears in his eyes. He screams at the far off vehicle flying through the sky "Get the hell back here you bastard!"

He holds his wounded arm close to his body, continuing to grit and grind his teeth as he leans away from the wall. He takes a step, then another, and on his third he slams his feet into pavement to spring himself upwards.

His body hurtles through the air, chasing after Timewinder's van, which is still being whisked away by an odd blue road forming in the air. Jumping Jack hops up to the roof followed by hopping to the next.

His eyes continue to blur from the pain, and as he attempts yet another jump, his injured ankle gives out from under him. He rolls and tumbles along the hard concrete roof, toppling over onto his injured shoulder.

He curls over onto his back, groaning as a fresh wave of pain washes over him. He digs his fingers into his shoulder, holding tight to his wound as he sits himself up.

"I can't do this, I can't do this, I need to call someone." Jack tries to dig around in his pocket, struggling to pull the phone out from his suit. "Thomas, I need to call Thomas, I-Oh..."

His phone's been smashed to bits by the Runt with the pole. "Lousy no good stupid little punk!" he barks through gritted teeth. Falling back onto his back, Jumping Jack shouts up at open air "Stupid fucking bullshit!"

"...I wasn't cut out for this shit..."

He lays there, taking shallow ragged breaths as he stares upward. In his mind, he imagines Timewinder driving off into the sunset, quickly getting further and further away as he lays here doing nothing.

He imagines Thomas, and what he'd think if he saw the sorry state Jack was in right now. He'd probably lecture me again, point out something stupid I did...

Jack thinks to himself of what everyone else might think. Fresh to Grade B and he gets taken out by some random jackass in a suit, not even 5 minutes before his patrol even actually starts. Reporters would crawl all over a story like that.

"You know, maybe Tom was right," Jack mutters as his arm grows numb. "I ain't cut out to be a hero. I don't take this shit seriously, I don't think before I leap, I just joke around and pretend to be some big-shot hero..."

Suddenly, Jackson sits up. "No no, fuck that. If I need to take this more seriously, then I might as well do it now." With shaking legs and cloudy vision, he forces himself to stand.

"I'm a hero, and it's time I started acting like one." He takes a step forward.

"You think the real heroes out there would let something like this stop them? Hell no! And I shouldn't let it stop me either!" Another step forward.

"You think Tommy lets this shit stop him? Of course not!" A third step.

His shaking begins to slow as he keeps moving forward. "You think Memento would let this shit stop him? Of course not!"

His vision clears, and he can barely spot Timewinder's van off in the distance being swept away.

"You think Jumping Jack would let this shit stop him? Of course not, because he's me and he's got a god damn reputation to uphold!"

Jumping Jack leaps, soaring up through the sky and sailing after his target. His feet slam down on the next rooftop, ankle flaring up with pain, yet it doesn't stop him from leaping again.

His feet touch the next rooftop for barely a second before springing back up. His wounded arm held tight against his chest, his eyes homing in on that black van atop a blue road.

He continues to hop, skip, and bounce his way along. He gains on the van rapidly, being nothing more than two buildings behind.

The blue road leads to a stop atop a tall office building, with the van pulling in and parking. Jack makes one final leap, landing square on the building. He makes his way towards the back of the van, ready to finish this fight- Tick

The van doors slide open, an antique revolver poking out, the barrel pressed up against Jumping Jack's chest.

A single thought goes through Jumping Jack's head, "Man, fuck being a hero."

Bang.