Today was a special day. Gino's was having a sale on its pastries, and Felix needed that sweet, sweet cannoli. Normally, he wouldn't be caught dead in the city during the day; the sheer amount of people made pickpockets bold, and the hustle and bustle of the crowds were not exactly Felix's scene.
Listening to the news through his earbuds, Felix shouldered his way through the sea of people as a snowplow might cut through snow. Then, the news host's voice brought him to a screeching halt. "There's an ongoing robbery at Gino's Italian Bakery. Multiple armed men are holding hostages at gunpoint," she said, her calm voice contrasting with the dire news she conveyed.
Felix looked upwards, finding Gino's Italian Bakery's signage in the distance. He was close. A part of him wanted to sprint the way he came: the logical part. However, West City was lacking in the superhero department. More of them had come forward across the country, but none had made themselves present here.
"They have police officers," Felix whispered to himself as he turned back towards the way he came.
"A man's been shot!" the newscast exclaimed.
"Screw it!" Felix shouted. Gino's was growing clearer and clearer, but it was especially obvious because of the wide-open space around it. People avoided the typically wildly popular restaurant like the plague. There'd be a side opening to the restaurant.
Felix dove into the alley next to Gino's, hoping that none of the shooters had spotted him. The newscast didn't make a mention of it, so he put it out of his mind. He had taken on someone with a gun before, but that was in close quarters and there was only one of them. This was different. There were at least four, from what he'd heard.
He found the door ajar. So this was how the gunmen made it in discretely. Drawing his hood over his head, Felix mustered every little bit of stealth he had: he'd need it. Pushing the door open gently, Felix slunk inside, watching for any sign of danger.
"Stop!" a gruff voice called. Panicked, Felix looked over at the source, finding the barrel of a gun pointing directly at him. Forcing his emotions down, Felix tried to do what Miss Watanabe had taught him. He breathed deeply and forced time to rewind.
Outside Gino's again, Felix was now armed with the knowledge that they were watching the side entrance. They weren't incompetent in the least. The question of why this well-coordinated robbery was happening to Gino's rose to the forefront of his mind before he quashed it. He needed to rescue those hostages.
Looking for an open window or some other entrance took priority. Going in through the front or side door was practically a death wish, as Felix had almost just discovered. Unfortunately, there were none. He paced the alley back and forth, occasionally looking at the small army of cop cars that had assembled in the street. They weren't able to move into the building without endangering the hostages, either.
And then someone sprinted past him. It was definitely a woman, and she wore a hoodie in the same style as he did. "Hey!" he called out. What was she doing here?
She ignored him completely and ran into Gino's through the side entrance. Gunshots met her charge, and though Felix couldn't see the outcome, he knew what had just happened. He turned back the clock once more, this time placing himself in front of the woman.
"They've got a gunman watching that entrance, you know," Felix said, fighting the headache he'd developed. The woman looked at him in curiosity. Then she blew past him again. It ended the same way as before: with gunshots.
As before, he popped back to just before the crazy girl decided on storming the metaphorical castle. "STOP!" he screamed, tackling her to the ground. Or at least, he tried to tackle her to the ground. It was like he collided with a wall. Sliding off, nursing both an intense headache and hurt arms, Felix watched her mouth an apologetic "I'm sorry."
And then the gunshots. If he tried to use his powers anymore, he didn't know what would become of him. Could it induce some kind of head-related trauma beyond just headaches? A coma? With an aching heart for the girl who had just thrown away her life attempting to be a hero, Felix picked himself off the ground and approached Gino's.
He needed to know.
The door was fully open, as if a battering ram had struck it. "What the hell?" Felix whispered, peering inside and not finding the woman lying on the ground, as he'd expected. No, she was standing above one of the robbers, his head in her hands – she was literally holding him up in the air by the head.
There were numerous holes in her hoodie, holes that didn't exist before she ran into the restaurant. They looked suspiciously like gunshot holes, but they couldn't be. Felix walked into Gino's, nobody paying attention to him. All eyes were on the girl – Felix could tell that she wasn't any older than he was, now that he saw her more closely.
"Let him go," one of the remaining three growled. "You might be one of those fancy superheroes, but this chick isn't." He pointed his gun towards the hostage he held in his hands, a young girl who looked terrified out of her mind.
Felix paused. So she had gotten shot? Was she impenetrable or something? The superhero's arms wavered, before she eventually began to let the scumbag back down to the ground. Felix frowned. She might have been immune to bullets, but she wasn't the only superhero around. There was no way he was going to stand by and do nothing.
Felix pounced.