CHAPTER 9 - Rescue Mission

'Attack!'

As soon as Peter gave the order, the staff dashed forward and went after the unnamed lackey.

~Bam!~

The criminal was struck at his midsection as he spun uncontrollably in the air and crashed heavily to the ground.

"Ahh!"

The unnamed lackey gave a cry of pain as he fell.

On hearing the scream of his colleague, Freddie was so scared that he ran madly with one thought in mind;

'That kid is a demon!—a goddamn demon!'

Freddie had seen a lot of scary things all through the years, but none as scary as the kid that was currently taking out his colleagues like a phantom!

While he was deep in his scared thoughts, his ears caught the wordings of a low shout;

"Attack!"

Subconsciously glancing behind him, he saw a golden glow that sped towards him.

Freddie's eyes widened in terror as his lips parted in a subsequent scream.

But before the scream could leave his lips, he felt a terrible force slamming unto him which lifted him off the ground and sent racking pains all over his body as he crashed against a tree and blacked out.

As soon as Peter saw the staff perfectly executing it's attack, he could help but punch his fist through the air in jubilation.

"Oh yeah strike four!"

Peter exclaimed in excitement as he moved towards Freddie's unconscious figure.

"Whose your daddy now punk?—hehe!"

Peter felt so good as he stood there with his arms akimbo while grinning from ear to ear.

He began to have the lofty imagination of actually doing this for a living—that is taking down bad guys—like a superhero.

Speaking of superheroes, he decided to do something heroic, by calling the police.

'First of all, I need to gather this guys in one spot'

Peter thought as he wondered where he could keep the criminals huddled and tied up while he goes to get the cops.

'Yes that place would do nicely'

Peter suddenly remembered the spot where he first met the four criminals.

Speaking of the four criminals, he suddenly recalled that there was a woman whom was earlier being raped by the criminal Ted.

'I wonder if she had escaped'

Considering it a possibility, he shrugged as he wondered how he would be able to drag or carry the four criminals to the designated spot.

He was just a kid and these were mature guys.

There's no way that he'll find it easy in carrying or dragging them to that location.

But then, he stared at the staff that was floating quietly beside him.

'Maybe I can use it to my advantage'

He felt that if he could command the staff to fight for him, maybe he could ask it to do other menial tasks—like carrying a bunch of criminals through the forest.

'Lift'

He decided to test his idea as he began to give out commands.

'Carry'

'Elevate'

"Whom am I kidding?—it's not gonna work"

Peter finally gave up as he saw and heard no reaction from the staff or ethereal voice.

Sighing in exasperation, he decided to try it by himself as he grabbed the unconscious Freddie by the hand and began to pull.

At first, it was not noticeable until he had walked a few steps and discovered that Freddie's body was not as heavy as he thought it would be.

"That's strange....doesn't he work out?"

Peter wondered aloud as he kept pulling until he came across the unnamed lackey whom was also sprawled unconscious beside a tree.

"I hope you're also not heavy" Peter said as he picked the unnamed lackey by the hand and pulled.

And to his surprise, the unnamed lackey was also lacking in weight.

"Huh?—that's weird"

Looking at both men, Peter could see that they were quite muscular—and adding their height to the mix, it would have been very arduous for a kid like him to pull even one of them along.

Then an exciting thought came to his mind.

'Does this mean I've magically gained super strength?!'

Well, it may seem like a ridiculous idea, but after he just took out four criminals armed with guns using a floating staff, he was starting to believe in the ridiculous and impossible.

Deciding to try out his theory, Peter stood before a tree and swung his fist in a full blown punch.

~Wham~

Though surprisingly, he barely felt any pain—but that was it.

There was no explosive force that shattered the tree trunk like he expected or the appearance of a fist sized hole.

"Well....so no super strength then"

Peter said in resignation as he went back to resume pulling along the two unconscious criminals.

~Crack~

But unbeknownst to him, while he had gone a few meters ahead, the tree trunk that he punched earlier began to develop cracks as a large hole appeared in it.

*******************

At the police precinct, a young police officer kept browsing through his computer with a bored look on his face as he suddenly stopped and sighed in exasperation.

Geoffrey joined the police force three years ago—and since then he had not yet been able to solve any case or nab any wanted suspect.

Due to this, he was ignored and treated as a minor in the force.

But he couldn't really be blamed, as the important cases were always being handled by a select group of officers who were treated as prodigies and heroes of the police force.

"It just isn't fair!" He would always say.

"How can they keep hugging all the Glory?!"

Sometimes he wonders why he ever became a police officer in the first place.

With no case to solve and no criminal to arrest—what is the point of being a police officer?

While he sat in his bored state, he overheard two officers discussing;

"Yeah it's quite strange you know.....the south park used to be a nice place to visit, but with the continuous disappearance of kids around that area, it's now being dreaded by parents"

"I even got an anonymous tip about a kid whom was seen walking into the woods and is still yet to be seen"

Geoffrey's head perked up as soon as he listened to their conversation.

Standing up from his seat, he walked towards the duo in anticipation.

"Hey where did you say these disappearances occurred again?"

He asked as he approached them.

The two cops glanced at him as the one on the left replied;

"South Park—why do you ask?"

"Has there been any investigation into the case?" Peter replied with a question.

"Whoa slow down there detective" the officer on the right said sarcastically.

"Who said anything about a case?"

"But you just said that kids were going missing—that's sounds like a case to me"

"Look Geoffrey.....not all rumors you hear are actually plausible cases—some might just be what they are—rumors"

The officer on the left said as he shrugged and went to sit at his desk—while the officer on the right chuckled in derision as he went to get a coffee.

Tch.

"Lazy ass motherf**kers"

Geoffrey muttered as he felt great annoyance well up within him due to the indifferent attitude of these so called police officers towards something as serious as missing children.

Missing children!

He had to get to the bottom of this—be it a rumor or not.

South Park right?

He was heading there right now.

*******************

Peter successfully gathered all four criminals in one place as he proceeded to tie their hands and feet.

Oh yes, he also didn't forget to gag their mouth to avoid unnecessary attention before the police gets here.

While he was through with the first phase of his heroic work, he was about heading out to call the cops—when he heard a strange mumbling sound emanating from behind a tree.

Stopping in his tracks and paying attention to the mumbling sound, he began to wonder what it could be.

It could be an animal—or worse case scenario, a human.

But if it were actually a human, why were they hiding and making incoherent sounds?

Why not just come out and show themselves?

Glancing at the staff, he noticed that it just floated beside him quietly.

He had not received a threat warning from the ethereal voice—which meant that whomever was hiding behind the three was not planning to harm him.

But just to be very sure, he gave the signature command;

"Attack"

_{Cannot execute....no hostile detected}_

'In that case... there's nothing to worry about then'

Walking to the direction of the sound he felt his heart beating anxiously.

Though the ethereal voice gave him assurance—he couldn't help being nervous.

The closer he got to the tree, the louder the sound became.

But then he froze suddenly when his gaze rested on a leg—a human leg protruding from behind the tree.

Looking closely, he noticed that the leg belonged to a female.

A female!

A certain thought came to his mind as he ran forward and came to full view of the person behind the tree.

It was the woman whom he saw being raped by the gang leader Ted!

Her mouth was gagged and her hands and legs were tied.

When he looked into her eyes, he saw pain and sorrow.

Helping her to remove the gag from her mouth, he was about to assist her with her hands and feet, when she unexpectedly screamed into his face with tears in her eyes;

"The children....we need to save the children that were captured!!"