Chapter 22: I'm Phantom

Alex spoke to his AI, Amy that was built in his suit, "Amy, tap into the police frequency."

" Tapping now, sire," Amy replied. Moments later, Alex heard the police's conversation.

Random policeman A in the radio reported, "Hostages are seen at the center of the mall. " Random policeman B reported back, " Gunmen are carrying assault and automatic weapons. Location is unknown. "

Hearing this, Alex asked Amy, "Put up the design layout of the mall and hack into the security cameras of the mall. " Amy said, " Sire, most of the cameras are destroyed by the gunmen. And here's the design layout. " Glancing at it and instant memorizing it, Alex reached his destination and was now near the police barricade outside the mall, not seen by the police and the reporters. Alex then activates the thermal imaging, trying to see where were the gunmen.

"Hmm ...8 are guarding the hostages, 6 on the watch near the entrances and the other eight seem to be collecting the loots. They seem to be quite organized. Time to save the unfortunate ones." He zoomed past the policemen and phased through the walls, entering the mall unseen.

In the hall where the hostages were held, Jacob, one of the gunmen, said to his mate, Jack, " What's taking so long? I'm getting impatient."

Jack reassured Jacob, " Relax, Jacob. The boss is negotiating with the damn police. If you want to relief yourself, you can choose one of the girls over there. There are a few cute ones. "

Jacob smirked, " Okay. I will do that. " He walked to the grouped up hostages and saw a high-school girl in the crowd. He and the girl made eye-contact with each other, the girl noticed his look at her, especially to her body. Jacob walked towards the girl and dragged her to a changing room that was far away from the other hostages. She tried to struggle, but her attempts were futile when he pointed her back with a shotgun. Jacob started to strip her in the changing room while the girl weep.

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Meanwhile, Alex was speeding in the mall and was heading towards where the hostages were held. He could hear a weeping noise coming from one of the changing rooms he passed and stopped at his tracks. " What is that sound?" He listened to it more, " Is that noise coming from this changing room? "

Alex asked Amy, "Amy, where is the sound coming from?" "It's coming from that changing room, sire" replied by Amy, the AI.

He then activated the infrared imaging of his suit and saw a gunman -Jacob- that was starting to grope and strip the high school girl. " This person deserves to be punished. Hmm.. What should I do to him? Got to save the girl first" said Alex. Alex broke the door of the changing room, and Jacob got startled, " WTF ... who's interrupting me? ". He turned and saw a man in a dark red suit staring at him and he immediately pressed the trigger of his shotgun which was aimed at the man in dark red.

'Pek ... Pek'

He shot until he heard 'click' sounds ( No more bullets), thought "That will teach him a lesson." As the smoke cleared, the man in dark red was still standing at his original spot, unharmed. Alex said," Is that all you got? Disappointing." while dropping the shotgun pellets that were shot at him to the ground.

Jacob took out his secondary weapon, a pistol and aimed at Alex quickly. His quick motion would have been impossible to stop and fatal for most people, but to Alex, it was snail speed. ' Yawn from Alex.' Alex went to Jacob'side, disarming his weapon and speed punched real hard on his head and his body, especially his private part, rendering him unconscious. Jacob slammed hard on the floor and the high school girl was in a corner of the changing room, covering her ears and closing her eyes. All the scene happened in a few seconds.

Alex came up to the girl and tapped on her shoulder, saying in his changed voice, " Hi, girl. You're saved from him. " The girl opened her eyes and was shocked to see the gunman on the floor motionless and the man before her was unharmed. Alex told her, " Don't worry, I won't harm you. And he's not dead ... Are you okay? "She nodded before Alex continued saying, " What your name, lady?" The girl replied, " My name is Carrie. "

" Okay, Carrie. Listen to me carefully. I need you to stay quiet here for a while, I'm gonna to save the rest. It will be over in a flash." said Alex at the entrance of the changing room.

Carrie said while trembling as she was in shock, " Who are you?"

Alex looked at her, " I'm Phantom. " before speeding away.