Poison Gas

Chapter 1: From Poison Gas, with love.

"Alright, put'em up! Hands in the air! If you value your lives, don't move a muscle or utter a single word!"

It was a rainy afternoon at Oakville Bank's Miller branch when the door shot open and several masked men wearing bandanas or ski masks and thick dark coats strapped with combat vests, bearing firearms rushed inside. As two remained outside to stand watch, the rest aimed their weapons at the terrified tellers, staff, and customers. A baby's wail was the only sound that shattered the silence. One man in a black bandana, presumably the leader of the gang, headed over to the windows and tapped on the window with his semi-auto rifle.

"Let's go! Unlock the vault doors and grant us access to the cash if you value your lives. We don't have all day!"

One of the terrified tellers, an African-American woman fresh out of the university and starting her first steps into the real world, motioned to the other nervous-looking two tellers, an Asian male ten years her senior as well as a dark-haired woman that reminded her of Salma Hayek,  to come over. Despite putting on a brave face, the young employee was beside herself with fear. Who wouldn't be in their present predicament? Her two fellow tellers glanced at her in a baffled expression.

She leaned over and hissed at them. "Get over here-now!"

Hesitantly, as if she had just transformed into a King Cobra, her coworkers leaned over to her to see what she had to say.

"Listen, we need to call for help. Chang, please dial 9-1-1-"

"Ma'am!" The bandana-clad burglar, donning dark glasses to cover his eyes despite the gloomy weather outside, tapped his gun on the glass door.  "Perhaps I wasn't clear, but let me reiterate. We are in a hurry so I'd appreciate it if you'd hurry up. You don't want these innocent people out here to leave in stretchers or body bags. Some are even your coworkers so I recommend you think it through and don't try anything foolish or -"

That was when the entrance door shot open and there was a bright flash that dazed everyone present. Blinking her dazed eyes, the young bank employee was greeted by the sight of a smoke screen blocking out the lobby from the plexiglass window. It appeared to her as if the dreary gray clouds from the sky outside had diffused inside when the door was opened like some sort of sentient mist. That was when the gunshots rang out.  The sound was dull as if sound was traveling underwater.

"What eez happening?" Her olive-skinned coworker whispered. "Are ze police here?"

"That fast?" Her male companion frowned. "Maybe someone did call them ahead-woah!"

All three jolted as something large made contact with the window with a loud thud. They saw a hulking figure clad in a dark trench coat and bearing a gas mask whose eyes glowed a ghostly green amid the gloom grabbing the crook leader by the scruff his neck and slamming his face repeatedly into the glass, leaving a bit of blood smeared upon it before snapping the criminal's neck like it was a matchstick amid the gasps of the bystanders. Dropping the dead bank robber, the imposing figure then drew a gun the girl recognized as a Colt, her brother carried one, and fired to the side, which resulted in the dropping of a disoriented crook and splattered his brains on the glass. As quickly as he appeared, the gas-masked gunman disappeared. Once the smoke cleared, the bank employees cautiously rose from where they were crouched and were awestruck by the sight that greeted them. Eyeing the prone shapes of the bank robbers and the befuddled customers and bankers rising up from where they were crouching to survey the scene, Chang turned and smiled at his female coworkers.

"I guess it isn't necessary to call the cops anymore."

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"Let me go, please! I swear to God I don't know anything."