Leslie – Rockslide

Everything was going according to plan, much to everyone’s delight. Amanda was standing in front of the double doors, in plain view of the several cops who had guns leveled at her. Raphael stood by her side, close enough to be enclosed by her protective slow motion bubble. Amanda was smiling out at the police.

Leslie was keeping an eye on the stone-encased kiosk, where the people inside had ceased to beg her to let them out. Kashif had finished with all the easily visible cameras and was talking quietly to Leslie, his golf club back in the bag along with his lacrosse stick, bag at his feet, and a baseball bat cocked casually over one shoulder.

Seth and Josh were with the manager inside the vault; presumably loading up the money into bags that the bank was happy to provide (that was the one detail Seth had forgotten!).

Jake was trying to look at ease somewhere between the kiosk and the doors, but truth be told he was nervous as all get out. Not scared, he told himself, but this action was heavy! “For hell’s sake,” he thought, “there are guns pointed at us this very moment! It doesn’t matter that we probably won’t get shot, or even shot AT, but still…”

A voice came booming in from the direction of the cops. Some big shot on a bullhorn. This was in the plan, of course. The cops would ask for their demands, ask for hostages to be released on ‘good faith’, pretend to come through on their end of the bargain, all while trying to give them (the villains) enough rope to hang themselves with. Thankfully the villains had seen enough movies to feel confident about the plan they had come up with.

None of the villains really listened to what the cop shouted; they just waited for Seth to join them. Which he did, and quickly.

“Hitter, will you help Skinwalker in the vault please?” Seth asked without stopping as he made his way to the doors and the protection Amanda offered. Kashif set off towards the vault.

The cop was still talking when Seth took a deep breath and cut him off.

“SHUT UP.” Seth shouted. The windows in the double doors shattered and blew outwards from the force of his voice, shards sparkling in the afternoon sunlight. The cop lowered the bullhorn, eyebrows drawing down on his face in a glower. “I don’t want to have a discussion. Our demands are simple. Bring us a bus, fully fueled, to take us to the airport, where you will have a private jet, also fully fueled, waiting to take us to an undisclosed location. On the bus there will be ten million dollars, all twenty dollar bills, in non-sequential order. Another ten million will be waiting in the plane. I will release half the hostages now. The other half you get when we get on our plane. All except for one. The last hostage goes with us, and will be sent back on the plane after we’ve been dropped off. If you try to mess with us, you will regret it.” Seth turned to Raphael and nodded.

Raphael looked out at the cops, picking his target. He settled on the guy with the bullhorn and concentrated fiercely. A moment later the cop screamed and dropped to the ground, hands clutching at his left thigh as if to hold a wound closed.

“What’d you give him?” Amanda asked, lips curving up in a cold smile.

“Remember how I was at the hospital that one day?” Amanda nodded. “That cop thinks the bones in his thigh have not only shattered, but they’re sticking out of the skin. Got that piece off of a young skater with multi-colored hair. It’ll last for maybe five minutes before it starts to fade away.”

“Cool!” Amanda laughed in delight. Raphael smiled back.

Seth left the front doors and crossed the room to where Leslie was standing, arms folded, in front of the kiosk. He finished off his first water bottle as he walked up to her.

“Mind making a door so I can release some of them?” Seth asked rather than ordered, ever the gentleman.

“Not at all!” A moment later the thin rock encasement began to flow down in one thin vertical spot. When there was an opening large enough to squeeze through, Seth peeked in. The small group of tellers and customers shrank back against the other side, trying to maintain as much distance as possible between them and him. Seth smiled kindly at them in an attempt to ease their worries while he did a quick mental count to see how many would be going.

“Did you all hear what I said to the cops?” Seth inquired. Most of them didn’t move; a couple shook their heads no. Seth smiled wider. He thought that they wouldn’t have, since he directed his vocal blast in the other direction, but it never hurt to be sure. “Ok, well, I’m going to release six of you. Right now. You all can decide who gets priority to go. I’ll give you five minutes.” He withdrew his head from the opening.