Virtue is its Own Reward 2.0
----------
(July 9th - 1:10pm)
It took me a few minutes to locate where in San Francisco the robbery was taking place. Even when you are standing on top of buildings looking for flashing
lights, thirty square miles is a lot of city to cover. When I finally found the place 'bee of hay for forty five power street' made much more sense.
Bank of America 445 Powell street. The radio chatter used a lot of abbreviations I wasn't familiar with. I only ended up catching the general gist of
things.
There were three suspects. This was not their first tangle with the police. The police were not happy with them in the least, but they were waiting for swat
and/or some other special team to arrive.
I parked myself on top of a building across the street and settled down to watch what would happen. I was confident that between my stealth and everyone's
attention firmly directed at the bank I could have walked around on the street. But why put myself in the line of fire if I don't have to? The cops had
made an attempt to cordon off the street and get pedestrians out of the way, forming a semicircle of cover with their cars. The officers were all smart enough
to take cover behind their engine blocks, but I had to wonder how much good it would do.
Someone was on a bull horn demanding that they come out with their hands up, but it sounded like a mere formality. No one was expecting this to end peacefully.
I was trying to decide if the robbers were smart or stupid for a daylight robbery. Lunchtime meant a decent amount of traffic on the streets, and hostage
opportunities inside the bank. But it also meant a lot of cops on the streets. My estimation of them fell a few notches when they made their exit from the
bank. Two guys and a girl in spandex, armor, and black ski masks with duffel bags over their shoulders. The first one out the door had the telltale shimmer of
a force field around him as he ignored the cops and ran for a panel van parked in front of the bank. Robber number two stopped long enough to shout something I
couldn't make out at the cops. As he finished his little speech he reached back as if to throw something. By the time his fist finished coming forwards it
was wreathed in flames and a fireball was on it's way. The police that weren't in line of fire took that as the cue to open fire. The police that were
beat feet as their cover quickly became more hazard than help.
Not all of them made it far enough, two were knocked off their feet. One was knocked out into the building I was standing on, of my line of sight. The second
wasn't so lucky. He didn't make it as far and landed like a ragdoll, the back of his jacket burning.
Robber number three, the female, had a sword of some kind in one hand and occasionally seemed to flicker in place as she loaded her bag in the back of the van.
Once that was done she stood on the tailgate and looked towards the sky, not even paying attention as she flickered in place whenever a bullet came to close.
The driver leaned out of the window and pointed at the cop car that was blocking their exit. A bolt of something left his hand and smashed into the car,
spinning it 120º around it's front tires. With their exit now clear sword woman ducked into the back of the van, closing one of the doors behind her. Fire
boy stopped throwing flames around long enough to hop on onto the open half of the tailgate and make a grabbing motion down the street.
Without the fireballs to keeps the police's heads down return fire quickly ramped up. It didn't seem to matter all that much, most of the bullets were
deflected by a familiar shimmering field. The van shot from 0 to 30 in conjunction in less than a second, matching the sudden deceleration of a car that had
been crossing the intersection behind them. I ignored the sound of the crash further down street and kept my focus on van, which was heading north and quickly
picking up speed.
I wouldn't be joining forces with them, they attracted far too much attention to themselves, but it would be useful to know where they hung out. Depending
on their security I might even visit a little karmic justice on them.
I teleported from rooftop to rooftop watching as the van continued to gain speed. Twice cars coming in the other direction had just stopped as the van surged
faster. Looking with a mix of admiration and disbelief as the van caught air when they crossed california. It slewed a bit as the tires touched back down, but
the driver kept it under control. Any cars that were in their way were either avoided or knocked out of the way with a bolt of force. It was easy to see how
they managed to avoid getting caught so far. Quick exits and enough power to punch through any roadblocks guaranteed that couldn't be stopped. All they had
to do was get far enough away to ditch the van, change into their civies, and they were golden.
They turned west onto broadway at close to 70 mph, the van only sticking to the road by some sort of kinetic manipulation. A smile bloomed on my face as I saw
the crest of the hill two blocks ahead. At the speed they were going all it would take is a little nudge, and I wouldn't even have to face the unpleasant
3-on-1 odds later on. I ported ahead to sidewalk corner and readied a force bolt of my own.
The pedestrians were too busy looking at the van barreling up the street to pay attention to me as I elbowed my way into position. My force bolt clipped the
back of the van as it crested the hill, doing no actual damage to the van itself, thanks to the drivers force field, but imparting enough angular momentum to
make all the difference. The van looked rather majestic as it sailed through the air, slowly rotating. That illusion ended 30 feet down the other side of the
hill once the tires met road again. Even as skilled as the driver was, he couldn't do much about landing more than 45º off of straight. The tires squealed
for a dozen feet before the front of the van clipped a car in the oncoming lane. Then things got significantly more erratic.
The van managed to roll over three and a half times before colliding with a parked car and stopping on it's roof.
Pedestrians were still scattering from the scene of this new accident when I ported in. I knew that some of them would be able to see through my stealth in
this bright daylight, but none of them would get a good enough look to ID me. I drew my laser rifle and crouched down to look in the passenger window. Ewww.
Fire boy had buckled himself into the passenger seat at least. But that didn't help him much when the driver had panicked and turned on his personal force
field. Nearly impenetrable bubble plus caving in roof equals one bloody mess.
Speaking of bubble boy, he was coming around. I took sight on his head and waited. He didn't look more than a little shaken up before he turned to check on
his former partner in crime. Then he looked rather green. The personal force field came went offline as he vomited into his ski-mask while hanging upside down.
He immediately started fumbling around his neck and tore off the ski mask. Whatever protective covering he had underneath the mask came off with it as he
coughed and moaned, vomit flowing out of his nose. That looked rather uncomfortable, so I put him out of his misery with a laser bolt through the head.
The 'Zot' of my laser rifle going off resulted in a few uncoordinated thumps and curses from the back of the van. I really didn't want to have to
crawl through the former passenger to find out what was going on back there, so I walked around to the back of the van. A few hard tugs resulted in one of the
rear doors opening. Sword woman was armed and struggling to her feet inside. Standing this close I could see that it was a holding one of those curved japanese
swords, and that the pieces of armor that were affixed to her spandex had a technological bent to them. I also saw that she didn't have her footing at all.
So I happily capitalized on my advantage and shot her in the face.
Or I would have if she hadn't lurched to one side and taken a swing at me. The sword didn't come close, but her continued survival frustrated me. I
took a step back in case her next swing would be more accurate and threw a force bolt at her. At this range there wasn't much chance of missing. She tried
to dodge anyway, lurching back to the other side. Her evasion was only partially successful. The force bolt caught her arm, and spun her around. With already
uncertain footing she made it half way around before her feet got tangled up in the duffle bags and she hit the ground.
I took sight on the back of her head before thinking better of it and using the butt of the rifle instead. Her head bounced off the roof (now the floor) of the
van and she went limp. Taking a moment to pull the duffle bags out from under her, I tossed them, along with my rifle, into pocketspace. I heaved her onto one
shoulder, picked up her sword with my free hand, and ported both of us out of there.
This was not their first time doing this, and I doubted they had spent all of the money they had stolen already. She would provide me with resources, or she
would be them.
-----
Notes: The (so far) nameless robbers are more intelligent than they look. There was a reason they were running around in ski masks and carrying the bags of
money.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
----------
(July 9th - 1:10pm)
It took me a few minutes to locate where in San Francisco the robbery was taking place. Even when you are standing on top of buildings looking for flashing
lights, thirty square miles is a lot of city to cover. When I finally found the place 'bee of hay for forty five power street' made much more sense.
Bank of America 445 Powell street. The radio chatter used a lot of abbreviations I wasn't familiar with. I only ended up catching the general gist of
things.
There were three suspects. This was not their first tangle with the police. The police were not happy with them in the least, but they were waiting for swat
and/or some other special team to arrive.
I parked myself on top of a building across the street and settled down to watch what would happen. I was confident that between my stealth and everyone's
attention firmly directed at the bank I could have walked around on the street. But why put myself in the line of fire if I don't have to? The cops had
made an attempt to cordon off the street and get pedestrians out of the way, forming a semicircle of cover with their cars. The officers were all smart enough
to take cover behind their engine blocks, but I had to wonder how much good it would do.
Someone was on a bull horn demanding that they come out with their hands up, but it sounded like a mere formality. No one was expecting this to end peacefully.
I was trying to decide if the robbers were smart or stupid for a daylight robbery. Lunchtime meant a decent amount of traffic on the streets, and hostage
opportunities inside the bank. But it also meant a lot of cops on the streets. My estimation of them fell a few notches when they made their exit from the
bank. Two guys and a girl in spandex, armor, and black ski masks with duffel bags over their shoulders. The first one out the door had the telltale shimmer of
a force field around him as he ignored the cops and ran for a panel van parked in front of the bank. Robber number two stopped long enough to shout something I
couldn't make out at the cops. As he finished his little speech he reached back as if to throw something. By the time his fist finished coming forwards it
was wreathed in flames and a fireball was on it's way. The police that weren't in line of fire took that as the cue to open fire. The police that were
beat feet as their cover quickly became more hazard than help.
Not all of them made it far enough, two were knocked off their feet. One was knocked out into the building I was standing on, of my line of sight. The second
wasn't so lucky. He didn't make it as far and landed like a ragdoll, the back of his jacket burning.
Robber number three, the female, had a sword of some kind in one hand and occasionally seemed to flicker in place as she loaded her bag in the back of the van.
Once that was done she stood on the tailgate and looked towards the sky, not even paying attention as she flickered in place whenever a bullet came to close.
The driver leaned out of the window and pointed at the cop car that was blocking their exit. A bolt of something left his hand and smashed into the car,
spinning it 120º around it's front tires. With their exit now clear sword woman ducked into the back of the van, closing one of the doors behind her. Fire
boy stopped throwing flames around long enough to hop on onto the open half of the tailgate and make a grabbing motion down the street.
Without the fireballs to keeps the police's heads down return fire quickly ramped up. It didn't seem to matter all that much, most of the bullets were
deflected by a familiar shimmering field. The van shot from 0 to 30 in conjunction in less than a second, matching the sudden deceleration of a car that had
been crossing the intersection behind them. I ignored the sound of the crash further down street and kept my focus on van, which was heading north and quickly
picking up speed.
I wouldn't be joining forces with them, they attracted far too much attention to themselves, but it would be useful to know where they hung out. Depending
on their security I might even visit a little karmic justice on them.
I teleported from rooftop to rooftop watching as the van continued to gain speed. Twice cars coming in the other direction had just stopped as the van surged
faster. Looking with a mix of admiration and disbelief as the van caught air when they crossed california. It slewed a bit as the tires touched back down, but
the driver kept it under control. Any cars that were in their way were either avoided or knocked out of the way with a bolt of force. It was easy to see how
they managed to avoid getting caught so far. Quick exits and enough power to punch through any roadblocks guaranteed that couldn't be stopped. All they had
to do was get far enough away to ditch the van, change into their civies, and they were golden.
They turned west onto broadway at close to 70 mph, the van only sticking to the road by some sort of kinetic manipulation. A smile bloomed on my face as I saw
the crest of the hill two blocks ahead. At the speed they were going all it would take is a little nudge, and I wouldn't even have to face the unpleasant
3-on-1 odds later on. I ported ahead to sidewalk corner and readied a force bolt of my own.
The pedestrians were too busy looking at the van barreling up the street to pay attention to me as I elbowed my way into position. My force bolt clipped the
back of the van as it crested the hill, doing no actual damage to the van itself, thanks to the drivers force field, but imparting enough angular momentum to
make all the difference. The van looked rather majestic as it sailed through the air, slowly rotating. That illusion ended 30 feet down the other side of the
hill once the tires met road again. Even as skilled as the driver was, he couldn't do much about landing more than 45º off of straight. The tires squealed
for a dozen feet before the front of the van clipped a car in the oncoming lane. Then things got significantly more erratic.
The van managed to roll over three and a half times before colliding with a parked car and stopping on it's roof.
Pedestrians were still scattering from the scene of this new accident when I ported in. I knew that some of them would be able to see through my stealth in
this bright daylight, but none of them would get a good enough look to ID me. I drew my laser rifle and crouched down to look in the passenger window. Ewww.
Fire boy had buckled himself into the passenger seat at least. But that didn't help him much when the driver had panicked and turned on his personal force
field. Nearly impenetrable bubble plus caving in roof equals one bloody mess.
Speaking of bubble boy, he was coming around. I took sight on his head and waited. He didn't look more than a little shaken up before he turned to check on
his former partner in crime. Then he looked rather green. The personal force field came went offline as he vomited into his ski-mask while hanging upside down.
He immediately started fumbling around his neck and tore off the ski mask. Whatever protective covering he had underneath the mask came off with it as he
coughed and moaned, vomit flowing out of his nose. That looked rather uncomfortable, so I put him out of his misery with a laser bolt through the head.
The 'Zot' of my laser rifle going off resulted in a few uncoordinated thumps and curses from the back of the van. I really didn't want to have to
crawl through the former passenger to find out what was going on back there, so I walked around to the back of the van. A few hard tugs resulted in one of the
rear doors opening. Sword woman was armed and struggling to her feet inside. Standing this close I could see that it was a holding one of those curved japanese
swords, and that the pieces of armor that were affixed to her spandex had a technological bent to them. I also saw that she didn't have her footing at all.
So I happily capitalized on my advantage and shot her in the face.
Or I would have if she hadn't lurched to one side and taken a swing at me. The sword didn't come close, but her continued survival frustrated me. I
took a step back in case her next swing would be more accurate and threw a force bolt at her. At this range there wasn't much chance of missing. She tried
to dodge anyway, lurching back to the other side. Her evasion was only partially successful. The force bolt caught her arm, and spun her around. With already
uncertain footing she made it half way around before her feet got tangled up in the duffle bags and she hit the ground.
I took sight on the back of her head before thinking better of it and using the butt of the rifle instead. Her head bounced off the roof (now the floor) of the
van and she went limp. Taking a moment to pull the duffle bags out from under her, I tossed them, along with my rifle, into pocketspace. I heaved her onto one
shoulder, picked up her sword with my free hand, and ported both of us out of there.
This was not their first time doing this, and I doubted they had spent all of the money they had stolen already. She would provide me with resources, or she
would be them.
-----
Notes: The (so far) nameless robbers are more intelligent than they look. There was a reason they were running around in ski masks and carrying the bags of
money.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy