ic Bank Job

[RocketLord]

GM

 

An Eastern Seaboard Bank in Wading Way, Freedom City

October 19th, 2020

11:45 AM

 

It was peak hour, just around lunch. Everyone wanted to get banking done today, it seemed, and the bank had been stuffed when the gunmen arrived, rushing out of two armored vans and into the bank. They moved quickly, efficiently. They were trained, not just the run of the mill thugs, and they had the equipment to back it up. They were all dressed in black body armors with blacks masks that left only their eyes free.

 

It wasn't quite clear what had happened inside, but a single shot was fired, followed by a burst of gunfire, and then, the hostage situation began.

 

Ten minutes later the police had barricaded the bank. All they knew was that if anyone entered, the gunmen would start shooting the hostages.

 

No demands, nothing. It was a stalemate.

Edited October 18, 2020 by RocketLord

[3personal5me]

It was Anthony's weekend, having just finished working nine days in a row as an electrician. He was at home, aboard the STS New Beginnings. A small shuttlecraft used to ferry people and equipment from orbital platforms to planetary surfaces, it was now buried underground, hidden beneath an abandoned construction site. Heavily damaged from its trip through a black hole and its subsequent reappearance inside an abandoned subway line, the STS New Beginnings was in sorry shape. And so Anthony found that while he wasn't working his day job as an electrician, he continued to work as an electrician as he tried to repair the ship.

 

In the privacy of his home, he was thankfully able to wear his SPIDER Rig, using its suite of tools to aid him in his work. He was currently hanging from the ceiling, three mechanical legs holding him in place, while the fourth held an access plate out of the way. He was elbows deep in a nest of electrical wiring and fiber optic cabling, trying to trace back an electrical short. His metal clad fingers traced along a particularly thick power cable, when his work was interrupted by the ships onboard computer chirping to life. He looked over to the monitor, craning his neck to see what was happening.

 

News coverage played on the screen silently; an aerial view, presumably from a helicopter, covering a bank robbery in progress. Anthony deftly dropped from the ceiling, a pair of mechanical legs quickly replacing the service hatch. His fingers flew across the holographic keyboard of the computer, switching through the available camera angles and accessing the police communications system. A tinny voice crackled to life over the speakers; a police dispatcher was scrambling to coordinate a response. It looked like Anthony's third job was calling for him.

 

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Anthony travelled through the city quickly. Each mechanical leg was capable of firing steel cable tethers, normally used for moving heavy objects in zero gravity. Anthony had soon discovered that they were also useful for swinging through the city. He often enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness and freedom as he hurtled through the air, a distant reminder of what it felt like to be in zero gravity. Today, however, his mind was focused entirely on the job at hand. While he had done some small time hero work in the past (back alley robberies and the like), this was the first time he would be arriving on the scene to something newsworthy. He swung around the corner of a building, arcing gracefully around and towards the ground, ending in a jog that brought him before the cabal of cops that stood outside the bank.

 

"Antho- uhh, Steel Spider, at your service. What's the situation?"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Yeesh, where did you come from?" The officer in charge looked at Steel Spider, nearly spilling his coffee in the process. He wasn aolder man, probably a few years away from retirement. He looked the hero up and down for a moment. "Steel Spider? Never heard of you."

 

He seemed to think it over for a moment, before motioning towards the bank with his other hand. "We got a hostage situation here. Bunch of guys in full tactical gear came in those two trucks," he motioned towards the armored trucks, "run into the bank, start shooting at people, some security guard draws his weapon and get gunned down for his trouble. Someone starts the alarm, and here we are."

 

"There's at least 10 bad gys there, according to witnesses." He paused to point at a group of people standing behind some cars, being interviewed by a few other officers. "So, what do you think you can do about that, hero?"

[3personal5me]

Anthony chewed his lip, thankful that his helmet hid the concern on his face. The most criminals he had handled at once was three, and there was never more than two guns involved. He gazed at the bank in thought. If a guard was gunned down for trying to resist, he could only imagine what would happen if a hero kicked down the door. His suit could survive all but the heaviest of firepower, but the thugs were just as likely to turn their weapons on the hostages.

 

"Question one; how many hostages do they have? Question two; how much natural light is in the bank? Skylights, windows, that sort of thing. Question three; can we cut power to the building? Question four; have they said what they want? Question five; do we have ready access to building blueprints? Final question; do we have access to camera feeds in the bank?"

 

Anthony rattled the questions off quickly, never taking his eyes off the building. He didn't expect the officer to have answers to every question, but every little bit helped. A plan was starting to formulate in his mind. It was a rough idea, barely worth calling a plan. He was certain he would try to get in quietly, and hopefully take down at least a few of the gunmen before his presence was noted. After that, he would do his best to separate the hostages from the danger and handle the rest of the gunmen. 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"We don't know. The bank was packed." The officer stared strangely at him at the natural lights question, and gestured to the building. It was on the bottom of an office building, at least twenty floors tall. The front of the bank had large glass doors , but otherwise didn't show much of what was happening inside. It didn't have a lot of natural light from what they could see.

 

"Look, we don't know. Man, this isn't some movie. Look, it all happened a few minutes ago, they haven't made any demands beyond leaving them alone or they'll start shooting hostages and we can't just pull the power to an entire block like that." He seemed frustrated, reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose. "Look, just... If you got something, try. Just... keep people safe, please."

[3personal5me]

Anthony nodded, hoping he looked calm as he tried to psyche himself up for what was coming. "Alright. Keep an ear on your radio. I shouldn't need backup, but banks shouldn't get robbed, so..." He trailed off, then cleared his throat. "Keep an ear on your radio". He chose an arbitrary window, about eight stories up, and fired a pair of steel cables on either side of it. He zipped up to the side of the building, all eight limbs clinging to the stonework, and peered through the glass. while reasonably sure this would be a safe entrance, he certainly didn't want to burst through a window and directly into the party. He tried to focus past the reflection of his faceless helmet, searching the interior for any movement.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

From his position outside the window, he didn't see anyone moving around on the eight floor. The building had been evacuated, leaving the upper floors empty for now. If the bank robbers were on the upper floors, they didn't seem to be patrolling the eight, at least. The bank was on the ground floor, only taking up the first two floors of the building. Approaching from the eight floor let the Steel Spider sneak closer. 

 

He could see a door marked with a symbol for stairs. Otherwise it looked like some kind of open office plan, with small cubicles spread around. 

[3personal5me]

Anthony gently tried the window, and was able to slowly ease it open. He slipped through and into the offices, stalking along the ceiling as quietly as he could. "So far so good" he whispered to himself. He moved along the ceiling to the stairwell. Though not much time had passed since he first arrived on scene, he still felt an overwhelming sense of urgency, as if he was moving too slowly. He took a deep breath, calming himself, and focused on the task at hand. Down the stairs, into the lobby, don't be seen, then.... then something else. He would figure that part out when he got there. 

He tried the door to the stairs, and was dismayed to find that it was locked. Not much of an obstacle for him, be he couldn't help but think it was a fire hazard. From one of the hard shelled carrying pouches of his suit, he withdrew a set of lockpicks and began to work on the door. It only took a moment before a there was a soft click, and the lock turned freely. He slipped the picks back into the pocket, and eased the door open. 

Still on the ceiling, he crept through the doorway and began to make his way down the stairwell, heading for the bank below.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Moving further down, it didn't take long for Anthony to reach the stairs that led to the bank. The door was closed and locked, of course. There was a small window at eye height. Peeking inside Anthony would be able to see a man dressed in dark grey combat fatigues and body armor moving around a corner, with two men and a woman on the floor next to the wall. 

 

He couldn't see more of the bank from here, there was a wall about 15 feet from the door, where you could only go left. 

 

A single man, three hostages, and a locked door.

[3personal5me]

Anthony set to work getting the next door open; deftly working the lock over until it gave a soft click and released. He peered through the small window on the door one last time, ensuring the thug wasn't watching, and very gently swung the door open. He slipped through, quietly closing the door behind him, and took to the ceiling again. Stalking behind the armed man, he waited to strike. When the thug stopped to yawn, Anthony struck. He swung down from the ceiling, his armored boots slamming into the thugs chest and knocking him to the ground. Anthony was on top of him in an instant, one hand covering his mouth as he brought his fist down onto his skull. Satisfied that the first thug was down for the count, he quickly carried him back through the door and pinned him to the wall with what was probably an excessive amount of steel cabling. Heading back through the door, he signaled the hostages to keep their heads down, took to the ceiling once more, and crept further into the bank.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The hostages looked up, but stayed on the floor, while Steel Spider moved further into the bank.

 

From his position on the ceiling, Steel Spider could see three of the robbers ahead. Two of them were by the doors, keeping watch outside, while one stood between the entrance and the small cubicles that the tellers worked at, moving around them and looking ahead around, patrolling for any stragglers among the hostages.

[3personal5me]

Deciding to take on the lone robber first, Anthony crept along the ceiling, his mechanical spider legs giving off only the slightest click each time they touched the marble. He secured a steel cable to a sturdy looking bit of the ceiling, and began to slowly lower himself to the ground. He touched down quietly, just a foot behind his target, and took aim. Another mechanical leg lashed out, slamming into the robbers neck, knocking him out instantly. He wrapped the man in his metal appendages, catching him before he could hit the ground. He looked around nervously, hoping the loud crack didn't alert anyone.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The man never knew what hit him. In a moment, he was unconscious, falling and caught.

 

Quiet and stealthy, Steel Spider had but moments to react when one of the other guards started to turn towards the man he had just knocked out.

[3personal5me]

Anthony gently cradled the thugs limp form in his arms as he sent a pair of steel cables up to the ceiling, quickly pulling the two of them out of sight. He carefully strapped the man to the ceiling, making sure he didn't cut off any circulation to his extremities. Satisfied that the criminal was dealt with, Anthony turned his attention to the pair of other thugs. Stealth and surprise attacks had worked fine so far, and he saw no reason to change a good thing. He scuttled along the ceiling towards them, formulating his next attack plan.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The two guards turned just as the Steel Spider pulled his target to the ceiling and secured him. They only just missed seeing, well, anything.

 

"Hey, where'd Ben go?" one of them asked the other, who just shrugged in response.

 

"Went to take a leak, maybe?"

 

The first of the guards seemed to accept that, before he moved ahead, just under Steel Spider, the other watching him.

[3personal5me]

Choosing to prey on the now unguarded guard, Anthony slowly descended from the ceiling. Two mechanical legs pointed straight up, a pair of steel cables stretching out and to the ceiling. The rest of his limbs were poised and ready to strike. It occurred to him that he must truly look like a spider; hanging upside down from the ceiling, suspended above his prey with his limbs held at the ready. He swung his armored fist around, sending it crashing into the back of the thugs skull. Metal legs instantly scooped him up, and the pair were soon heading back up and out of sight. Just a moment later, and another criminal was stuck to the ceiling. 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The man was pulled up and quickly secured on the ceiling.

 

A short while later, the other guard returned and looked around.

 

"What the hell?" No one in sight, he looked around, before reaching for his radio. "Jimmy, you there?" With no response, he flicked a switch on the radio. "Boss, we're not alone. Jimmy and Ben's gone."

 

[3personal5me]

Anthony slowly crept along the ceiling, the only thing betraying his presence being the quiet whine of the servos in his suit. From up high, he managed to spot yet another vulnerable goon. Anthony made his way closer, until he was directly above his target, and gently tethered a steel cable to the ceiling. He slowly descended, the steel cable being rapidly fabricated and unspooled to lower him to the ground. He flipped through menus on his HUD, his mental commands allowing him to quickly and rapidly navigate the onboard operating system. Suit integrity was nominal, energy was at near max capacity and slowly being regenerated by the small reactor on his back, and the raw resources to manufacture his steel cables had just barely ticked down to ninety-nine percent. He grimaced slightly at the list of currently inactive subsystems, disappointed that he had not yet managed to fully repair the suit. He closed the menus just as he touched down behind the thug. He prepared to deliver a debilitating blow to the back of the goons head, his fist already rapidly approaching the nape of the mans neck, when a warning appeared on his HUD. In bright red letters were the words "SERVO OBSTRUCTED: LEFT ARM; SERVO 3: REPAIR REQUIRED". He knew the mechanics of his Spider Suit like the back of his hand, though even a laymen would immediately recognize the left elbow had locked up. The entire joint stalled, sending his elbow fly past the mans head and hitting nothing. A moment later, the servo broke free with an audible snap. The joint was working again, but he had lost the element of surprise.

 

"Uh-oh".

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Hey!" The man that Steel Spider had tried to attack turned the moment the hero missed, then turned and rolled away, quickly kneeling into a crouching position and taking aim. 

 

He fired a few bursts from his rifle, though the shots went wide, peppering the ceiling with several bullet holes.

 

"Boss, we got trouble!" he shouted into his radio.