Dynamite & Laser Beams (IC)

[Ari]

Red Moon could only guess at what was going on above, but she could at least track the Bee-Keeper's movements in the room above, and seeing him rush across the floor and strike at something near the door alerted her to the very valuable fact that the robot was trying to escape!

Without taking a moment to consider something very important about her powers, she took a few steps in the floor, and hurled herself clean out into the air, swooping out of the smooth metal without so much as a ripple to betray her attack, landing beside the robot, pulling back her arm and bringing it down with tremendous power into the hide of the mechanical monstrosity! Her psychic claws tore straight for....

...the mindless automaton. Her hand bonked comically off of the creature's hide, leaving not so much as a mark on the beast. Staring blankly at the thing with the edge of her palm still against the cold metal she said very irritably *krkrash*"Damn it."*grmmmkjhk*

[SpicyWaffle]

Even as Red Moon struck home ineffectually, the gigantic automaton let loose another squeal of aggravation, flaying the air wildly with its multitude of appendages as it reared up against the heroes surrounding it. Opening its mandibles in a frantic screech of bone-chilling terror, sparks flew from its gaping maw where the Bee-Keeper had struck it, its eyes red-hot with searing desperation. But still, even as it bucked and weaved against its oppressors, the battle-bug was unsteady; wobbling against the tiled floor as it struggled to regain its footing and shake off the devastating blow it had received only seconds prior. It couldn't seem to get a bead on either of he adventurers blocking its exit route, but even on its featureless face it was clear as crystal: the robotic abomination wasn't happy at all.

Now was their chance! Between the Bee-Keeper and Red Moon, this was their one shot at taking the beast down before it had a chance to retaliate further!

[SpicyWaffle]

Seizing the opportunity while the mechanical monstrosity was busy reeling from his blow, the Bee-Keeper sized up his target once again, imminent on putting a rest to this whole ordeal. He hurt everywhere, and Red Moon couldn't have been doing much better from Baxter's perspective. But if they didn't act now, it might be for nothing; no way that wasp was getting out of this vault in one piece; it was all or nothing!

Bounding upwards, the Hero of the Hive locked his metal fingers together to form a massive, impromptu hammer with his fists. With devastating force, the Bee-Keeper put everything he had into his attack as he flung his downward blow upon the robotic insect's skull. With another rippling strike, the gigantic bug creaks under the blow, yet despite the obvious force behind it, the Bee-Keeper couldn't quite seal the deal. The stinger-sporting automaton shook its head vigorously, but nevertheless remained petulant in the face of annihilation.

"What'zz thizz thing made out of?! Get it beefore it triezz zzomething!"

[Ari]

Watching with amazement as the armored champion of Colletidae everywhere smashed into the faux-insect with punishing force, Red Moon's face winced as the metallic crash echoed throughout the close walls of the vault.

And its hide stood strong against the assault. The Farsider was baffled 'I had not thought Earth metallurgy was so...potent.' she thought, looking over its largely undamaged hide as it reared, looking for some weak spot, some-there! A loose panel, close to the core where the vital systems were most likely to be stored! Dodging towards it the grey-suited woman lunged underneath the metal bee, her long arms darting up and prying off the panel with a sharp tug, tossing it out of the room carelessly as her eyes locked onto her target: the couplings deep in its innards. A sharp pull, a few disconnected tubes and wires, and their foe would fall!

Spidery hands slid into the guts of the steel insect, fingers hardened by death gripping the vital tubes in a fist, and pulled once, twice, and again! To no effect.

Her dried eyelids fluttered as she tried to blink, peering through her helmet at the knot of tangled wires just blocking her attempted sabotage. Time was running out, she could feel the monsters energy beginning to course through its body, meaning that in mere moments she was going to be filled with several hundred thousand volts. With a Herculean effort, she stabbed her left hand into the morass of wires, shearing the robot's main connection to its power supply with a single stroke! Rolling out from under it, she looked up at the robot looming above her, knowing that this might be their only chance!

[SpicyWaffle]

With a vicious tug and a well-aimed stab, the Farsider came away with the sequestered innards of the mammoth of a robot between her spindly fingers. Sparks flew as power couplings were disabled, and the distinct scent of burning wires flooded the air of the vault as the automaton screeched and howled its metallic death squeals. Rearing on high as if in great agony, the beast leaned too far and came crashing down upon its back with a hiss of its hide scraping against the floor, serrated limbs kicking viciously into the air. But after a moment of deafening wails and pitiful squirms, the atrocity of steel and circuitry ceased its convulsions, and in its lulled state let loose a small metal box from its maw with a humble 'clink.'

The villains defeated and the hostages saved, Bayview's branch of the First National Bank was safe once more, thanks to Red Moon and the Bee-Keeper! But whatever the crooks were after that was within the lockbox seemed important enough for the automated fiend to hold on to until the very end; struggling even in its death rattle to keep a grip on its precious cargo. But whatever secrets were inside could wait; for now, the pair of saviors had earned their reprieve - at least for a moment.

[SpicyWaffle]

Slumping against the deposit box drenched wall with a palpable sight, the Bee-Keeper took his breather in furious bouts. Thank goodness this grim-looking heroine in the opaque helmet showed up when she did; otherwise, Baxter wasn't certain he could have handled the robot. The proof was certainly in the pudding as he wheezed to catch his breath, feeling the tender sensation of having his body blasted by both rifles and the optical death beams of their most menacing foe. Every fiber of his being from the tips of his toes to his eyebrows seethed with soreness, his armor dented and burnt in numerous places the least of his concerns as a low pounding that just didn't want to quit throbbed across his physique. But at least they'd come out on top in the end, and the mechanical monstrosity and its gangland entourage had been dealt with.

"Phew! Nizze zzave," ached the Bee-Keeper after a moment, lifting himself off of the blaster-scorched ground wearily. Just to be safe, he gave the wanna-bee a swift kick, its unmoving physique both a gratifying relief and all the proof the armored apian needed that it was down for good this time.

"Bee-Keeper III, by the way. Zzeriouzzly, thankzz for the help. Thingzz were looking kinda crazzy back there for a while till' you zzhowed up," he said as he returned his attention to the clearly foreign emissary, extending an armored hand towards the heroine as professionally as the inexperienced teenager could muster. He wanted to ask about the get-up, and the weird physique; but that was hardly his place. With all the strange people he'd met recently, it wasn't the most bizarre thing he'd laid his eyes on. Besides, he owed her at least some respect for the way she handled herself.

[Ari]

Checking the holes burned through her austere grey terrasuit, Atraxia got unsteadily to her feet, keeping a long hand over the smouldering patches as she said graciously *Krjrrrksh*"It was an idea, I thought that I could keep it from working if its power was cut. Similar to pulling out a heart."*kaajksh* she said thoughtfully, the helmet swiveling over to Bee-Keeper hastily *gkrk*"That is, as an analogy, not that I have done that, I mean..." she cast about for a way to escape the awkward place in her sentence, concluding lamely "...that is, you know."*jkajksh*

She shook the proffered hand gratefully, her hand quite light in Baxter's grip. *Vrrrsht*"Red Moon, I am from Farside City." she added to explain questions she guessed the Bee-Keeper had "I am glad to be helpful, I could never have beaten those people alone either. You are a great inventor to have built something like that suit."*krtsch* She looked around at the broken robot, and the scattered unconscious forms. Shrugging as she thought 'Well, I am sure the emergency services of this planet can take care of this' she bent to pick up the small box, straining to get it to chest height and leaning back sharply to keep the weight better balanced. Quickly altering the suit's speech modulator to get 'strained and short of breath' *trkshhh*"What do you make of this Bee-Keeper?"*grmshhhxch*

[SpicyWaffle]

Secretively arching an eyebrow, Baxter Bowles just smiled lightly behind his helmet at the woman's analogy. With all that had just happened, a little nervousness was certainly expected - and Red Moon wasn't the only one feeling the strain of the situation. The awkwardness of the situation only escalated as he shook the hand of his savior as she explained she was from some place he'd never heard of. Another raising of an eyebrow followed suit; it was almost as though she knew he was going to ask the obviously foreign woman where she hailed from, though it wasn't quite the answer he was looking for.

"Farzzide Zzity?" he repeated, verbally scratching his own head as he said it aloud. It felt strange to say, but there would be time for questions later. Despite Red Moon's praise and Baxter's obvious elation despite it being somewhat untrue, he shook the unneeded boost to his ego away for the time being as the strange suit wearing woman hefted up the oh-so-important lockbox the giant robot was fixated on. Clearly, it was something of great value to these thugs and their automaton compatriot... but what made it that way? What was so significant about a box in a vault that had them frothing at the mouth to have it?

"Dunno. They zzeemed pretty zzeriouzz about getting their handzz on it though," the Bee-Keeper buzzed back, rubbing his non-existent stubble as he looked over the silvery container curiously. With the police yet to have bust into the defused bank, the Hero of the Hive looked around to make sure the coast was clear. "Think they'd bee mad if we aczzidentally zzneaked a peek inzzide? I mean, y'know, if it juzzt happened to have been opened by coinzzidenzze..."

[Ari]

The Farsider looked dubiously at the strongbox in her arms. She was curious too, deeply so, and it would have been a lie by omission not to say that she was spurred onwards by the fact that they had had to fight to obtain the thing, but had had seen where unchecked curiosity could lead. With a soft electronic warble and cold reverberation behind her words Red Moon said brusquely "No. We will ask the owner of this bank what lies within the box. Better we ask than make fools of ourselves." she put the lockbox back down, with considerable and obvious reluctance, onto the harsh floor with a resounding thud as it slipped through her gloved fingers. Staring down at the staunch little enigma for a while, she realized with a suddenness that would normally have jolted her that she had just foiled a super-villainous attack!

With an electronic thrum she said softly to Bee-Keeper III "Never done...this before." she looked over at the fallen robot "You did very well. With those robbers, I mean. Did they steal one of your inventions?" she intoned anxiously.

[SpicyWaffle]

With a sigh, the Bee-Keeper nodded slowly as the small container plopped out of Red Moon's fingertips and back onto the ground. It was probably a terrible suggestion, but still, he felt odd asking to see what was in the secret box. But perhaps that didn't matter; weird or not, it was still the proper procedure to follow.

"You're probably right," he agreed, straightening up his pose as the low throbbing in his body etched an achy weariness along his torso. "Guezz it wouldn't bee right. Y'know, not without azzking firzzt," hummed the Hero of the Hive, running his cold steel fingers across his apiary dome. Shifting his gaze from the large robot prone on its back with its serrated appendages locked in rigor mortis to the leader of the thugs' unconscious form, the Bee-Keeper gave his much more alien-looking counterpart a knowing nod.

"C'mon. Guezz we better let everyone elzze know it'zz all over."

Still winded but more than happy to do so, the Bee-Keeper lead the charge towards the entrance of the bank, heavily armed hands held up high in surrender.

"Hey! Don't zzhoot! We got em'. Zzafe to, y'know, go in and arrezzt the guyzz who zztarted thizz thing."

[SpicyWaffle]

Trekking outside of the bank, the pair of heroes are welcomed not with a fanfare of praise, but a flurry of activity. Lots of screaming and shouting erupted from the police officers as they began to mobilize, their weapons drawn as they stormed into First National Bank from behind their police cruisers. Onlookers watched in awe as Freedom's Finest charged in, the tellers and clerks whom were previously held at gunpoint ogling their workplace from the safety of the ambulance as more armed men entered in blue uniforms entered, and in quick fashion began dragging out the unconscious remnants of the Malanti gang members in handcuffs who were so bold as to rob the bank in broad daylight.

"Looks like I was wrong about you, bug," one of the policemen said as he moved up alongside Red Moon and the Bee-Keeper after emerging from the bank, the name tag on his lapel reading 'Donahue' across his breast. Despite the praise, the caustic look he shared between the Bee-Keeper and Red Moon was anything but friendly; a sour disposition wrapped around his face. Other officers busied themselves loading perpetrators into their cruisers one-by-one, reading their rights as their captors seemed to rouse themselves one by one. The obvious leader of the bunch was the last to be forced in, his eyes fluttering as he groggily came to from the mental assault of the Farsider. He looked out of sorts and disoriented, and it would be quite the rude awakening once he realized where he was on his way to.

"It'll be a while, since we've got to clean up this mess, but the bank should be back in business within the week," he continued, fishing out a cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit it up. Even as he did so, he gave Red Moon a very peculiar glance, as if both surprised and annoyed to see another superhero on the scene. "We just need to get your statements on record about what happened inside."

[Ari]

Red Moon bowed her head slightly at the cold look, explaining awkwardly "The thieves sought to steal a large number of valuable minerals and currency used by your citizens, along with a small, heavy strongbox that holds...I do not know what." she admitted, her synthesized voice groaning and grumbling at the edges of hearing, though the words themselves were clear as bells. "The human robbers entered, and kept the people within from calling for help or escaping, while their leader and his robotic bee cut open the vault door with high-powered lasers. I assisted the Bee-Keeper in defeating them, and stopping the robot from fleeing with the strongbox."

She suddenly felt very self-conscious, glancing shyly at all the human eyes looking up at her and the Apian Avenger, thankful for the smoke-shrouded helmet covering her face. With a soft rumble she added "We are glad to have been around, when can we find out what was in the strongbox?"

[SpicyWaffle]

Officer Donahue's suspension of disbelief was already stretched pretty thin, but the mention of the robotic bee and inquisition to investigate the strongbox was enough for the man to arch a quizzical eyebrow and throw both of the heroes a scattered look of disdain and malign judgement. He seemed bitter; though, perhaps, Donahue was just always that way. He looked like a hard man - a person who'd seen the worst of the worst and trudged right through without even blinking, his nose to the grindstone likely as often as it was on suspect of a case.

"Whatever's inside is subject to a police investigation first. It could be critical evidence," the man said flatly, citing protocol in a tone as dry as desert sand as his gaze shifted from the alien woman to the scorned Bee-Keeper. "And we'll need to look into this robotic bee business. Just to be safe."

Besides the scathing reply from the somewhat sardonic policemen, the scene unfolding was almost certainly a happy one - albeit, perhaps, tinged with tears. Justifiable, given the life-or-death situation many of the civilians had been locked in before Red Moon and the Bee-Keeper arrived. Some were being greeted by friends and family as they arrived outside the bank, while others remained huddled with their blankets and coffee by the ambulances, sobbing pitifully in the wake of the robbery.

"Anything else?" the officer snipped as he jotted down the pair of costume vigilantes' words onto a small notebook, clearly relieved to have the situation resolved yet unhappy to be soliciting his time to the duo.

[SpicyWaffle]

"Yeah!" interjected the bee-themed hero, eager to set the record straight. "It wazzn't a bee. It wazz a wazzp. A wazzp! Zzeriouzzly, big differenzze!" he explained, putting what little he'd actually learned about the apian insects to meager use as he struggled to protect his good name. To be fair, it didn't look good: giant robotic wasp shows up with some lackluster goons to rob a bank, and a young man in a battlesuit styled after the same insect arrives conveniently in time to put an end to its nefarious plot. While it was truly happenstance, the clear cut coincidence was anything but.

"But yeah, that'zz about it. It'zz down for the count, zzo it zzhould be... y'know, fine to poke it or whatever it izz you want to do," Baxter shrugged. He was a bit heartbroken that the officer seemed adamant about keeping the contents of the box a secret, but it wasn't his place to argue with law enforcement. The people were safe, and that was all that mattered.

[Ari]

'Wait, that was an entirely different species?!' Atraxia thought in bafflement, glancing over to the armored apiarist as she felt a surge of irritation at the myriad forms of life on Earth. 'At least in Farside City, we had little other life to distract us.' she thought angrily, glad for the helmet and stiffened face muscles.

"Whatever it was could be a valuable clue to why they decided to grab advanced weaponry and a robot." she challenged "The more we know about what lies inside, the more we can use to keep this from occurring again!" she leaned slightly back, folding her arms "The matter of their weapons is also suspect. I trust such guns aren't used just by every petty thug?"

[SpicyWaffle]

"Sorry. You want to see what's inside? You'll have to take that up with the Chief and whoever owns the box," Donahue mused back sternly, not even bothering to look up from his pad of paper. He seemed to understand the foreign visitor's concern for keeping things hush-hush and desire to see what was inside, but his gruff rebuke spoke volumes on his personality: he was bound by the letter of the law, and the badge he wore meant he was obligated to uphold that letter.

Looking to the variety of scorch marks that littered the street, the nearby buildings, and the police cars still parked in front of the bank, Officer Donahue just whistled and cocked his head slightly towards the fiasco dying down behind them.

"But you ain't kiddin' about those guns," he murmured, adjusting the brim of his hat before returning to his stoic no-nonsense demeanor again. "This is some serious firepower - we're talking beyond military grade. If even one of us had been hit..." The policeman almost seemed to shudder at the thought as he trailed off, looking again towards the heroes as he shrugged. "Yeah. The Malanti don't have a lot of connections in the gun trafficking ring. At least, they didn't until today, as far as I knew. Whoever supplied them with these guns must be pretty high up the food chain. We'll need to perform a proper investigation and get some detectives on the scene first before we start ruling things out, but from where I'm standing I don't think this is any kind of high-tech smash-and-grab. This was planned; had to have been. They knew when to hit the bank and catch the clerks, had all the tools to crack the safe, and enough firepower to overpower us. If you guys hadn't shown up, we'd have been calling in the big guns, and there's no telling how that would have played out."

Officer Donahue scribbled down on his notepad again briskly, wasting no time in adding his own notation about the procured weaponry by the low-caliber gang. He stopped his scrawling finally and looked back up towards the pair of saviors whom had foiled the diabolical heist.

"I may not agree with the way you superhero types operate under-the-radar, but you did good today. I'll... hrm... I'll see what I can do about letting you get a look in that box, and let you know what I find out about these Malanti and their new toys. Don't take this too personally now; I just owe you two a favor for saving the day."

[Ari]

Atraxia's growl of impatience was distorted just enough that it sounded rather menacing, and not merely ridiculous, a fact the gray-suited Farsider woman was glad of as she nodded stiffly to the officer Donahue. With an electronic rumbling underlining her words she replied "Thank you for your patience, enforcement officer Donahue. Both of us will be glad to learn about what the object of these citizens contained. I will try and look for where those weapons came from, hopefully I won't have to interfere with any of your fellow officers in your search. Once you have found out what the leader of these criminals was planning, I will visit you to learn of it. Good day, officer Donahue" drawing herself up to her full imperious height, helped greatly by her large, smoke-filled and face-concealing helmet, she turned more graciously to the third Bee-Keeper.

In a voice modulated in a more kindly manner she said "I thank you again for your excellent work, Bee-Keeper. Things would have been much worse if you had not been there. If you would assist in discovering what this was all about, I would welcome your aid." With a dry rustle of aging skin and the thick material of the gray-blue terrasuit, a spindly hand was offered to the squatter armored human teen.

She prepared her matter/energy transfer, getting ready to propel herself into the air.

[SpicyWaffle]

Grimacing at Donahue's unwavering dedication towards keeping the pair of heroes from prying further into the situation, the Bee-Keeper could only silently agree to the officer's insistence. Baxter wanted to know what the deal with the giant wasp was. He wanted to see inside that lockbox. But what was he going to do? Strong arm the box from the policemen after saving the day? It looked like - at least for now - the pair of heroes were going to be stuck waiting for news as to who was behind this. For the first time, the law had him by the arm. It was an uncomfortable feeling, knowing that despite the fact he could do something, he couldn't do anything. Just grin and bear; there wasn't an alternative.

"You'll totezz be the firzzt perzzon I give a ring if I hear anything elzze," agreed the armored vigilante, hesitating only momentarily before taking Red Moon's spindly hand in his own and giving it as light a shake as he could muster and passing along a small scissor-cut index card bearing a radio frequency in shoddy handwriting. Even doing so, the Hero of the Hive couldn't help but throw a look towards Donahue as the officer returned to his duties, notepad still gripped in the palm of his hand. "Hope it won't take em' too long to figure out what'zz going on."

Following suit and admitting defeat in discovering the secrets of the vault, the Bee-Keeper III gave a salute to the remaining rescued civilians, spreading his wings with a sharp swish of steel against air. With the day saved, Baxter was left with another challenge still on his plate: finishing up his classes at school! With a friendly wave and a whoosh as his sharp wings began beating furiously, the yellow-and-black hero took to the skies, vanishing against the sun.