*-*-*-*-*-*-*- MagnusBane:PsychicDetective*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Chapter 2-
Calm Under Pressure
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec-Alec *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"Move the line back another twenty feet, just to be safe."Alec called to the uniformed officers in charge of keeping the bystanders back.
They had gotten a call into the station about 8:30am saying that there was a robbery in progress at West Coast Bank. The call had said that the robber had a bomb and that he had taken hostages. There was no count so far, best estimate was around fifteen.
As of yet no one had confirmed the possible explosive however to air on the side of caution they had deployed a device to jam cell reception for a half mile radius of the bank to avoid any possible triggering of a device, just in case. They're shifts didn't start till nine today, but he'd decided to go in a bit early to get their cases for the day and get started. Once the call came in though it was all hands on deck…at least it was supposed to be…
He hadn't been able to reach Simon yet.
He'd tried again just before he left the station, but it just went straight to voicemail. He was a bit annoyed, honestly.
He understood that Simon was happy with Raphael, and they really were annoyingly adorable together, but he couldn't believe that Simon would ignore a work call to spend a bit more time with his boyfriend. He guessed that when he got to the station they would just send him out to the scene, but he should have been here, they really could have used the extra help to deal with crowd control.
He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard tires squeal to a stop near the barricade. Looking up he saw Magnus bound out of the car. His first thought was relief, maybe Magnus could figure out something about this, he seemed to be able to on almost anything. Glancing over he noticed that Raphael was with him…
Huh…that was kinda odd…figured he was still with Simon…
Maybe Simon heard his message and brought them both…that might make sense… he hadn't seen Simon yet, maybe he was driving separately?
He started over to them
"Hey, they're okay, let them in" He called over to the uniform trying to stop them, which was probably a good thing, as it didn't look like either of them was about to stop anyways.
Then he noticed the expressions on their faces. Magnus looked worried and rather angry; he kept shooting concerned glances at Raphael, who looked more terrified than Alec had ever seen.
Oh…yeah…that's a bad sign…
He didn't even think the guy had a scared expression.
Didn't think anything could scare the man.
"Hey… Where's S-, sorry, is healright?" He asked Magnus, glancing at Raphael
Raphael didn't even really seem to be registering Alec, Magnus shakes his head
"Why haven't you been answering your phone!?" Magnus demanded, nearly glaring at him
Alec startled at that…was completely stunned by the anger in his voice; he'd never heard Magnus sound like that.
He shook his head slightly,
"I- they have the cell signals jammed for half a mile. We got a call that the bank was being robbed and that the robber may have a bomb."
Raphael made a slight, nearly pained, sound, it was the first he'd heard of the man since they'd arrived. Magnus put his arm around his shoulders, squeezing firmly, comforting him.
Alec was starting to get really worried; he looked back at Magnus,
"Seriously, what is wrong with him? Did something happen?"
Magnus shook his head, eyes wide, nearly panicked,
"Alec, Simon is inthe bank"
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Simon-Simon-Simon-Simon-Simon *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Oh my god, what do I do?
What do I do!?
Simon had no idea how to handle a freaking bank robbery!
He didn't know the first thing about that kind of situation; he didn't even really watch movies with bank robberies in them. The last one he saw was in The Dark Knight! Somehow he didn't think Christian Bale was going to bust in and save them.
Oh my god… He was way too immature to deal with this!
He was thinking of Batmanand had spent 30 minutes waiting for a comic book store to open to buy the Justice League Movie, for heaven's sake!
A panicked, sobbing cry pulled him from his thoughts. He chanced a glance up at the other hostages; it was total chaos. People were shaking and crying, a couple looked near cationic, setting straight up eyes wide, A few looked like they were praying.
Glancing around Simon did a quick head count. There were thirteen hostages in all; the two female tellers, six other women and five men, counting Simon. He looked over to the other side of the bank where the two robbers were.
The one with the gun was barking orders at the other man, having him barricade the doors with a few chairs. It distantly registered to Simon that they weren't wearing masks;
That really didn't seem like a good thing.
He took a deep breath, looking around. The gunman had fired into the air to get their attention. He seemed agitated; he was obviously the one in control. Simon looked him over so he could give an accurate description if needed;
Tall, he'd say a few inches over six feet, pretty well built; he vaguely looked like he may have some kind of military training. Dark blond hair, graying slightly, maybe mid-forties. The man was wearing a plain, rather nondescript grey suit; it looked like something a banker would wear. Simon wondered if that was planned, if he was trying to blend. He seemed very sure of what he was doing; he was agitated, but didn't seem panicked.
The other man seemed the polar opposite of the gunman. He was shorter; around Simon's height, about 5'10", maybe slightly taller, and looked close to his age, late twenties at the most. He had black hair and a deeper skin tone than the gunmen.
He also didn't seem nearly as sure of what was going on, Simon got the feeling that he wasn't really okay with all of this. The guy looked almost as panicked as the hostages.
Simon's attention was pulled from the men when he heard a slight, gasping crying near him. He looked over in concern; a younger girl, maybe twenty at most, was sitting near Quinn. She was gasping eyes wide, shaking, sobbing softly; the poor girl looked absolutely terrified. He felt like he had to do something,
He just didn't know what.
He moved over next to her. Reaching over he lightly placed his hand on her arm, getting her attention, he gave a little half wave, and an overly bright smile.
"Hey, uh…hi, I'm Simon, umm... H-How are you today?"
She looked at him like he was crazy, which…okay, yeah, he probably deserved that… still confused seemed far better than panicked, so he figured if he just babbled enough maybe it would help.
Not that he'd ever been able to control that anyways
He settled a bit closer to her, giving her a concerned look,
"So, I don't really know, cause I'm not, like, a doctor or anything, but I think you're maybe having a panic attack. You need to calm down. I really don't know anything about them but I think I remember hearing somewhere that you're supposed to try to focus on something else, anything else… So I'm just gonna keep talking until it hopefully works, okay?"
She nodded slightly. She seemed a bit better until she glanced over at where the robbers were. Simon shook his head, squeezing her arm a bit, regaining her focus.
"No, no…don't look at them, close your eyes if you have to. Just focus on me, focus on your breathing. Hey, have you seen the new Justice League movie yet?I have, but I bought it this morning, isn't that cool?" he asked with an overly bright, eager smile.
She still looked confused, but she was breathing better it seemed and nodded slightly so he just continued
"So, like I said I'm Simon, what's your name?"
"K-Kyla" She said shakily
He gave his brightest smile, nodding encouragingly
"Well, Kyla, it's really nice to meet you"
She nodded slightly, trying for a bit of a smile, it didn't really work, but she seemed in control now, so he was counting it a win.
"So, Kyla, I know this is really scary, but I think if we all try to stay calm it will go a lot better, alright?"
She gave a bit of a shaky nod
"O-okay, I'll try" she said softly
"Well isn't that sweet. What, trying to be a hero or something?" a deep, ominous voice said
Simon looked up; the robbers were standing over them, the large blond man towering over them with a rather cruel, challenging smirk.
Damnit, he should have paid more attention.
Simon turned more to face the robbers, putting himself between the gunman and Kyla.
He shook his head, putting his hands up placatingly
"No, I'm not, I was just trying to get her to calm down so this didn't turn out any worse. Look, dude, I don't know what's going on, I have no idea what all you're after, but someone panicking and freaking out won't help anything. I was just trying to avoid that. I don't know what all your plan was for today, but I doubt it was just because you wanted to torment a bunch of innocent people.
All I'm doing is trying to keep them calm, or as calm as anyone can stay in this situation, so that we can all hopefully avoid as much trouble as possible, okay?"
He looks between the two men; the gunman looks suspicious, calculating, and very cold…on the other hand, his accomplice doesn't;
He almost looks relieved by Simon's words.
The gunman scoffed faintly, glancing over the other hostages before landing back on Simon.
"Yeah, fine… just don't get any stupid ideas; any of you. Anyone tries anything stupid or 'heroic', I'll start shooting."
Simon had no doubt he meant it
The man shifted back a bit, gesturing to the group as a whole,
"Everyone up, on your feet, move back towards the safe." He ordered loudly.
They scrambled to comply. Simon stayed near Kyla and Quinn, reaching over he took Kyla's hand and gave a reassuring squeeze, she glanced over, giving a not quite smile, and a grateful look, squeezing back.
They moved back further into the bank. The safe was near the very back of the bank, well away from the doors, there were no sight lines to this part, it was in a separate, nearly closed off, room, no way out but how they came. To Simon it seemed like a strategic location. This guy definitely had it planned.
He glanced over at the accomplice, standing awkwardly by the gunman, he looked as nervous as the hostages. This close Simon could see his expression, he looked near panicked, no way he was completely on board with all this. As they were moving the man looked up catching Simon's gaze, before quickly looking away.
"Hey, watch them," the gunman ordered nudging the other mans shoulder, getting his attention, the younger guy flinched away slightly,
"I'm going to make sure the doors are secure, if any of them get out of line, use this"
The gunman pulled out a second gun handing it to him before turning and heading back out to the main room towards the front of the building. The accomplice was looking at the gun like it was going to bite him. He looked panicked, seemingly like he'd never handled one before.
That could either be a good thing or bad.
He didn't know about the weapon; that meant he was less likely to shoot anyone… purposely, anyways…
On the other hand that meant it was entirely possible that he could end up shooting someone by accident. Especially if he kept waving it around like he was currently doing.
Simon moved a bit closer to the man,
He spun towards Simon,
"Just stay back!" he exclaimed shrilly, eyes wide and slightly wild,
Simon froze, showing his hands, he shook his head faintly
"Whoa, hey, dude, It's okay, alright? I'm not trying anything…Just calm down" Simon said placatingly
That was not the right thing to say
The man shook his head frantically, gesturing erratically
"Calm down!? I am in the middle of a bank robbery! An actual, with a GUN robbery, this is NOT what I agreed to, not even close. It was supposed to be a hacking job, nothing major, I didn't even know why we needed to be IN the bank… thought he just didn't understand that it could be done from anywhere. I just thought he didn't know!
Now I am holding a gun and a bunch of people hostage, and being ordered around by some psychopathic nutjob!" He's eyes were wide breath coming heavy and uneven.
Simon nodded quickly, still keeping his hands visible,
"Okay, that…that's kinda a lot to deal with, but, what I got from that is that you don't want to hurt any of us, right?"
"No, no not at all, I wouldn't do that!" he shook his head frantically
Simon nodded, giving the man a reassuring smile,
"Kay, th-that's great…really good. I'm sure all these very nice people are happy to hear that. But can you please just put the safety on the gun, and maybe point it at the ground, okay?
You really don't want to shoot anyone, and if you keep moving it like you are and panicking, that is exactly what you're going to end up doing.
None of us want that, right?" Simon finished calmly
The man looked horrified by the idea, franticly shaking his head, looking over the gun trying to find the safety. Simon took a cautious step closer, leaning forward a bit,
"It's the little button on the side, just left of the trigger, just flick it down. They do tend to stick on the older models like that though, so make sure you actually feel the click" Simon offered
He found it, and flipped the button.
Simon breathed a sigh of relief, one less thing to worry about. The guy was staring at him, looking around he noticed the hostages were as well.
"What?" he asked in confusion,
"Umm... Y-You just don't really look like a gun kinda guy, that's all…" Quinn said, somewhat nervously
"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm not…well not in general anyways… but it's a part of my job though, so, yeah..." he shrugged faintly, glancing around
Well…that didn't help calm them down…
If anything they were starting to look even more suspicious of him then the accomplice…who was also looking at him with an extremely anxious look, kind of inching a bit away.
"What, exactly do you do?" One of the men in the group asked
Simon shook his head quickly
"Definitely not whatever you're all thinking! I'm a detective with the SBPD." He explained,
The group of hostages seemed to relax minutely; he caught quite a few looks of relief.
"Oh, man, I took a COP hostage?!
Oh man… this is bad,
This is SObad!"
The accomplice looked even more freaked out than before
Yeah, this really wasn't going well
_End Of Chapter/Notes_
Okay, so 'the Accomplice' is Raj, I like the character in the show, so I kinda wanted to find a part for him. I seem to be relying on OC's a lot in this series, but I kind of like the fact that you don't automatically know if they're going to be good or bad ( Let's face it, If you see Sebastian or Valentine in a Shadowhunters story, you know they're not going to turn out to be anything good)
Plus I like playing with name meanings:
Quinn: The Wise
Kyla: Lovely
Robber- Charles (Manly) Wallace (Stranger)
Raj- (King) Nadim- (Drinking Buddy)
(I searched through everything; I couldn't find a last name for Raj, this one sounded good to me)
Lastly, I just wanted to get an idea of the four guys heights, and this kinda cracked me up so I thought I'd add it
These are the heights of the actors who play them:
Raphael 5'9"
Simon 5'10"
Magnus 5'11"
Alec 6'3"
Like, they just go up just inch by inch, then you get to Alec
Raphael is like ½ a foot shorter than him!
Anyways, I'll update soon!
Hope you're enjoying it!
O18O
*-*-*-*-*-*-*- MagnusBane:PsychicDetective*-*-*-*-*-*-*-