Winds of Destiny: Falling ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Five: Rush

Misaki sighed and clicked the button on the side of her monitor to turn off the screen. Opening the shallow top drawer on the left side of her desk, she reached in and pulled out her phone and a small wristlet purse, setting them on top of the wooden surface before sliding the drawer closed. It slammed shut with a loud thud, causing her to jump just before she realized that it wasn't her drawer that had made the sound.

She swiftly turned her head toward the bank entrance just in time to see five large men dressed in black quickly and calmly enter the bank through the front door. It was hard to make them out in the dimmed lighting, which had been turned down after the bank had closed a few minutes ago. The loud thud she'd heard must have been the portly bank manager hitting the floor, she decided, noticing one of the intruders hauling the large, prone man away from the front door.

It had all happened within a matter of seconds. From the time she'd heard the manager hit the floor to when she looked up to the front entrance. They'd quickly and efficiently infiltrated the bank, disabled the guard, and spread out to all corners of the empty lobby, save for the few remaining employee's left to close up for the night.

"Everybody in the middle of the room! Now!" One of the villains barked out, tossing the unconscious bank manager into the center of the lobby like a sack of potatoes.

The teller who had been replacing Ai while she was on her honeymoon reached hesitantly for the panic button under the counter of her station. Her hand never made it. Misaki jumped at the swift sound of a bullet leaving the barrel of a silencer just before the woman collapsed in a heap of dead weight onto the floor behind the counter.

"No heroes here today, I'm afraid," drawled the villain who had downed the teller, bringing the pistol up in front of his mask and blowing at the smoke rising from the barrel.

Misaki gasped in silent horror at the swiftness of the action. This was nothing like the smash and grab job of the first crew, who had blown into the bank like a hurricane, their chaotic sense of disorganization enough to grant her an opportunity to get the drop on them. This crew was entirely different; organized, methodical... Experienced. She immediately reached down to her phone on top of her desk. She shifted her body to stand in front of it, hoping that the light from the device wouldn't draw their attention as her shaky fingers hurriedly typed out a short message on the onscreen keyboard.

Noticing movement out of the corner of her eye, she quickly hit the send button on the message she'd been typing and turned the phone over to face down on the desk, clicking the button on the side to lock the screen and put the device to sleep. She winced as her arm was roughly grabbed and she was pushed toward the center of the bank lobby with the rest of the employees.

"Don't crowd together! Spread out! Make a circle! Hands up, faces out!" The villain who had manhandled the manager barked out the orders, roughly herding the six of them into a circle with their backs facing each other. As the rest of the villains began tying up everyone's hands, she silently prayed that the short message she'd been able to send was enough to signal Hawks to hurry.

~*~

Walking back into the main area of the open lobby of his agency, Hawks let out a jovial laugh at something the sidekick at his side had said. He had a cup of steaming hot coffee in one hand, the other wrapped around his ribs as he continued to laugh at the spectacle the sidekick was making of himself while retelling the events of his day. 

The familiar chirping sound of an incoming message suddenly sounded out from the phone in his pocket. Setting the cup of coffee on the corner of one of the desks, he reached into his left trouser pocket to pull it out while wiping at the tears that dotted the corners of his eyes from laughing so much. Sniffing, he glanced down at the screen and swiftly skimmed the incoming message box illuminated in the middle of the lock screen. All sense of levity vanished from his expression as he read the short line of text, his form tensing as his sharp eyes lifted toward the closed balcony doors.