In Broad Daylight

Gunshots, screaming, madness... and not a single police officer in the vicinity.

"We have to call the police!" Annie said and got right into the action with shivering fingers.

We were hiding, people were running as a group of at least fifteen guys with heads over and heavy guns rushed into the bank after killing the security in the front. Corpses lay on the ground bleeding, some of them still alive, until they were executed in cold blood by a bastard laughing.

Of them all he was the most psychotic. 

I frowned and pulled the girls out of there before we were seen. As I did so, the faces of people inside the bank began to be pushed against the glass as they were being taken hostage and shown to the public with guns pointing at their heads, crying.

"Everybody listen up, dozens of assaults go down in New York every day, let this one be just another one~"

The guy in the front was acting very cocky, pointing his gun at one of the security survivors in the front, it didn't matter… if that man wasn't attended, he'd bleed to death.

"Dad!?"

I heard Annie screaming, Jean covered Annie's mouth and pulled her away but it seemed one of the hostages was a man whose face was pushed roughly against the glass, he was her father although I don't remember his name. I saw the man and recognised him for picking her up from school a few times.

He must have been doing some shores in the bank when this happened, how unfortunate.

...

"Girls, listen up, it is dangerous here. Police will surely come in a bit, just stay here".

"Where are you going!?"

"I'm just going to take a closer look…"

Jean yelled at me and pulled my wrist but I quickly released and left both of them two blocks uptown where a bunch of people conglomerated to watch the incident from a safe enough distance, the unavoidable human curiosity.

I noticed that she frowned and didn't agree with me, she just hugged Annie who was terrified and had begun praying for her dad's safety, she called the police... they said they were on the way, but nothing else was heard after that.

I left both of them there and rushed into an alleyway, it was dirty and dark with a few big rubbish bins. I sighed and walked, no, 'phased' through the wall and into one of the buildings in line with the bank.

It was an apartment block. I walked into an alleyway, the next wall was somebody's bedroom. The wall after that was a living room… I kept walking in the direction of the bank.

Going through several bedrooms, living rooms and bathrooms. On my way, I picked up a head cover, a balaclava, that was in somebody's bedroom and wore it to cover my face, how convenient. I know there are going to be plenty of cameras in the bank. 

A few walls later, I arrived in a luxurious hall of the Bank of America.

I took a peek first and witnessed hostages being pushed around and onto the floor, there were lots of people, more than twenty all tied up with an assortment of things from shirts to tape and ties. They were terrified and I even noticed a few dead bodies of what looked like security people who had been inside and likely retaliated. 

"Hurry up, V!" One of them yelled while pushing a female hostage to the ground with a dubious expression, he felt her up… but no more than that; disgusting bastard.

"Man, these things take time!"

"We've got only twenty minutes before they get on our ass, I said hurry the fuck up!"

They argued; the one getting scolded did look like it was his first time doing this sort of shady business.

The one screaming (presumed leader) had two companions watching after the hostages and there were a total of ten people inside the bank and five outside keeping guard. The ones inside are divided into two groups: the ones that kept the hostages quiet and the ones that picked up the money, two of them headed downstairs to what I presume is the vault, carrying big backpacks.

'It doesn't look like their first time. We're in the middle of New York, where the hell is the police?' I thought.

Half of them focused on taking the money out of the offices and safes. Strangely enough, the person who held the pass and keys was acting very cooperative. Although, with a gun pointed at your head, anyone would.

All of them seemed to be focused on their respective tasks. Going by what he just said, they expect to be out of here in twenty minutes.

'Did they bribe the police?' If so then these people are no pussy gangsters. They have high calibre guns, they have vans and personnel, they also bribed the police... If I make the wrong move, it may bring consequences my way.

It only took me a few seconds and dubious gazes to make my decision. I decided to make my move and entered the hall completely instead of just peeking.

My powers have two aspects. Intangibility is one… although that is not an accurate name. it is simple to become nothing; the disadvantage is that I'm yet unable to use both aspects at the same time.

The first person to look at me was a hostage. I made some hand signs to tell them to be quiet. He may have thought I was working together with them because of how shady I looked with the balaclava. 

I approached the first guy from behind, he was the one with the broadest view of the whole scene. There were a total of three people watching over the hostages, I wanted to take care of them first because they could use the hostages against me. 

The rest were getting the money into the bags, huge money.

I stood roughly five metres behind him and pointed my finger at him as if it was a gun; two seconds later he began to convulse and fell on the ground with a heavy crash, immediately getting all the attention.

"H, what happe- who are you!?" The second goon caught me. I didn't waste time and went for him, aware that I needed to rush up things to protect the hostages. It was one of my primal objectives.

I wasn't far from him, but it was enough time for him to ready up the gun and start shooting me, I only needed to be five metres away. The bullets phased through, shocking him as he kept going, the noise got the attention of everybody and that's what I didn't want, attention. 

"What's going on?!" One of them asked, there shouldn't be any reason to be firing shots at this stage. I extended my finger forward and his eyes rolled back within his eyesockets, spewing saliva and choking on it before he collapsed.

I felt a slight sting on my chest and bit my fingers, ignoring it for now. 

"Robert!" One of them was stupid enough to shout the guy's name, he also pointed his gun at me. I only had one more guy to take care of to secure the hostages but now there were more of them coming up to me. I got attention from the ones outside and also from the ones picking up the cash.

That guy, the leader, was clever. He picked up a woman by the hair and pointed the gun to her head.

"Damn kid are you a mutant!? Stay away or I'll kill her!"

However, sadly for him. He was within my range. If the woman got shot at this stage, there was nothing I could do, but I still tried something. I raised my hands up my head in a sign of surrender and only looked at him deeply.

!!!

I didn't need my fingers to use my powers, that was just a decoy. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed as well. The lady screamed when the gun fired up, missing her just by a few centimetres. 

The situation descended into chaos after that.

"All the hostages stay down!" I yelled and decided to just rush for it and start killing them one by one. As long as the hostages were safe, I didn't care about my safety.

Shots were fired at me from multiple directions, but I still made those people collapse one by one. One of them was even stupid enough to rush at me with a knife.

*BOOOM!*

A big explosion was heard and the floor shook, they opened the vault. I couldn't help but smile.

However, I noticed something strange happening that put me on high alert. I finished the seventh guy, leaving just one of them on the base floor and the two underground in the vault. When I finished the fellow with the knife, the last guy above was on me and fired, I had just finished using my void aspect and hadn't put up my 'intangibility' aspect. 

But something happened.

'What the-' it wasn't only him shocked, I was too. The bullets stopped dead in front of me, like levitating.

I'm not doing it which means... there is another mutant helping me?

I frowned and shrugged the detail aside; finished that guy off and looked around, the hostages were glaring at me, some with hope, some with fear... if any of them was doing it, I had no way of knowing. 

'Who was it?' I couldn't ask that question now.

"What the fuck is going on here!?" The guy who had been maniacally laughing outside and killing people was the first to enter to see what was going on. He was also the first to fall, foam spewing out his mouth.

The last four were easy to deal with as they all came rushing through the door together guns in hand, they all collapsed at the door one on top of the other.

I was shocked… since everything started, there is not a single police officer outside. The bank's alarm has already been triggered. Not one, is the damn department that corrupt?

"All the hostages leave through the back door, you're safe now!" I screamed and they thanked me, most even crying and rushing out. I saw Annie's dad too.

The moment the guys driving the vans saw their comrades collapse in the entrance, they sped up out of the scene as well, they had failed. Soon the bank was empty with nothing but corpses left behind and a triggered alarm.

I looked at the cameras around and lifted my eyebrow in shock, they were all snapped and twisted.

'What? Somebody stopped the bullets... somebody snapped the cameras?' I don't understand, that other mutant felt like he was trying to protect me more than anything else.

"Come out!" I yelled, but no one came out. I thought maybe it was a mutant among the hostages and left it at that.

Now, with the hostages cleared. The real purpose as to why I'm here.

I picked up the bags of cash one by one, a bit disgusted as some of them were coated in foam and saliva from when I killed the goons, at least not blood. I packed them up in front of the same wall I had just come out of, cleaning my sweat and heading downstairs to the vault.

"Who the fuck are they shooting upstairs? there is not supposed to be any resistance!"

"You think one of our guys got greedy?"

The two guys were packing up all the cash they found and gossiping. There was plenty of money, they didn't even have enough bags to carry it all. They saw me enter the room and fell face forward onto the steel floor of the vault, foaming and unaware of how they died. I filled up the bags and headed back upstairs.

I frowned, there were too many bags for me to carry, let alone, applying my power on them all as I did with my clothes was going to be complicated.

I decided to take just as much as I could in one journey instead of being greedy and coming back for more. Four bags filled up to the brim with an unknown amount inside, I left three more behind and phased through the walls with them, arriving in the same alleyway I had been in prior; dropped them in a massive trash bin that was in there, dusting my hands off.

'Money secured, I just have to come for it later'.

I dropped the balaclava inside the trash can and my jacket too in case any of the hostages could recognise it, then headed over to where Annie and Jean were.

...

By now, the crowds were bustling with people and the police cars started rushing in. Exactly twenty minutes later… sons of bitches.

I found Annie but Jean wasn't anywhere around. The girl jumped on me the moment she saw me.

"Ray!"

"Annie, where is Jean?".

"She left shortly after you! Where were you!?"

"She left? I was just eavesdropping closer. You should call your father. I heard a lot of shooting, I think someone got involved in it, the hostages were running away from the back door of the bank. Hurry up and call him".

"R-Really!? Let me call my dad now!"

She did as I said, he answered the call... I could see the relief in her face. Shortly after, Jean appeared pushing through the clouds with her hands in her pockets, although she looked a bit pale and tired.

"Jean, where were you?" I asked.

She frowned and looked at me for a good few seconds before biting her lips.

"I was… eavesdropping. And you? What were you doing? I didn't see you there".

"I was watching from another angle. So, you saw what happened?"

"Yes, somebody stopped it all… a mutant I think".

We both stared at one another until Annie came to us.

"Guys I just called my dad, he's just around the corner! I'll go see him! See you guys later, thanks for everything!" She didn't even wait for us to answer, and instead just ran out.

"Stay safe, Annie!" We both told her, standing next to one another in silence afterwards. There is something ominous about Jean that I can't quite grasp, about her gaze.

"It's been a bit hectic but fun. We better part ways" I told her.

She nodded but held my wrist, stopping me from leaving right away, "But we live in the same area, so we can head back together, don't we…? Or do you have something else to do?"

"Yeah, I got something to do around the area".

"Something to pick up, Ray? I will go with you, let's go"

I frowned and eventually sighed when she pulled me in between the crowds towards that Alleyway.

What a pity.