2012-08-03 The Bank Job

Gotham Savings & Loan. It's one of those banks that never gets robbed. Ever. For some strange reason. At the present moment, there's a nice round of people inside, mostly because they'll be closing in an hour or so, which is not good. Or good, depending on how you look at it. It's also: Payday Friday. So that's a good thing, at least, right? Anyway, for all intents and purposes, Gotham Savings & Loan is working overtime to make sure everybody's money gets launder-- er, handled with great care and ease. The tellers are friendly, smiley and all overly hot females, while the suited customer service representatives look more like they stepped out of a bad mob film. Huh. Oh and for security? There's one old dude. With a whistle.

Why do people go to banks? Well, for Heather, it's a wire transfer that her agent forgot to take care of. Sure, she doesn't have an account here, but she knows she'll need to actually open one, and transfer funds in here, in order to have them do the transfer for her. Also, the amount she needs transferred is too much for her bank to let her do it online. So she's dressed... well, as conservatively as she ever dresses, standing in line and waiting for an agent to help her. Not just the teller line, she needs a bit more help than that. Fortunately for the bank, she's looking at a six digit deposit amount.

Just a simple day trip, just a jaunt around Gotham for Don and Holly, more bonding time together! Except the restaurant down the street's EFT system is down, and that's all Don has... "Honestly, who carries cash in Gotham, Holly?" Don asks as he holds open the door for his partner, adjusting his glasses as he does. He looks around for the indoor ATM, apparently not trusting the Gotham streets enough outside to do such a thing out there. Lower voiced as he walks toward it... "Do you... feel that?"

Laura had been in New York the day before, but a chance encounter with a sonic rifle and the claw-popping rage that resulted had told her it was time to hop a freight train elsewhere. That's how she'd ended up in Gotham, and she liked the look of the place but it was an even stranger city than New York was. The lure of this urban jungle was partly in the untamed dangerousness of it all. She's making her surly solitary way down the sidewalk outside the bank, actually, dressed in her old X-23 bodysuit and boots, with her leather racer's jacket thrown over it. Not exactly the most inconspicuous of choices, but the escaped clone is still a little vague on what constitutes 'normal' dress, and the aura of don't-bother-me seems to keep most people from noticing.

The Cuckoos are out and about--well, not as far as anyone else knows, they have a 'Not My Problem Field' up. It's irritating to maintain, with all these people around, all these boring, clammy little minds scrabbling at them. One mind in the mess, though, is the one they're after. They're following the silver string of their bond to Laura.
 * "There she is."| That lacks the usual detachment. |"Of course she's there."| They reach out and tap Laura's awareness as they let her into their field so she can see them.

"From what I've heard most people avoid it," Holly says to Don as they step inside. She frowns when Don brings her attention to it. It's hard to explain - something in the air. A tingle, almost. "...who would've guessed, in Gotham of all places," the redhead snorts. It's that certain something that makes Holly grin to herself. "C'mon, c'mon. Get in. Take your time, even!" Does she seem excited?

Afternoon in Gotham. Not a city the Phantom normally finds himself in, but he'd been trailing some thugs from Manhattan. They thought they could escape him by ditching their car and racing through alleys. One grey wolf one one side, and the Phantom on a white horse on the other, and the thugs were proven wrong. The little chase ended in the alley just across the street from the bank, and he uses some cord scavenged from a Dumpster to tie the pair of thugs up. The police will get an anonymous call from a pay phone soon enough, and they can deal with the thugs.

At a traffic accident in front of the bank, Commissioner Gordon rubs the bridge of his nose frustratedly. "Sorry for calling you all the way out here Commish--I guess it was just a fender bender, after all," a young officer tells, "It sure looked like the mayor's limo...hitting that...big...garbage truck..." he mutters, pointing to the dumpster and the busted garbage truck. Waving it off, Jim Gordon shakes his head, "Don't worry about it, son. Let's just get this taken care of and head back. Oh and don't forget to get a comment from that...garbage driver..." he tells the young man. With a sigh, Jim Gordon glances back at the bank and the people walking nearby. "Hey Commish, we just got an anonymous call! Some...guy...just took down some thugs," another officer yells as he pokes his head out of the car. "Where at?" Gordon asks. "Uhhh...right here..."

You know that bad feeling that you get when something is about to go down? That incredibly weird feeling that probably shouldn't be happening? That feeling that makes you think-- oh never mind. This is Gotham City. Shit happens. BOOM! The explosion comes from beneath the bank, blasting a hole up through the floor as marble and debris goes all over the place. The explosion immediately sets off the alarm, which has the bank going into lock down of an epic scale. Gates start dropping and doors start locking all around the bank. The vault, in the bank, swings closed like there's nobody's business. The only doors still unlocked are the front ones. Wonder why. SCREEECH! A black and red van pulls right up to the front of the bank, practically into the doors, hitting anyone on the sidewalk that may be just in front of the doors. The back of the van opens up and out jumps at least six to seven guys, all wearing red hoodies and carrying sub machine guns. They are headed into the bank. Three of them stick by the doors to guard them. Rising up from within the blast hole, slow clapping as the crane lifts him up and into the bank proper is the Red Hood. "Friends! Romans! Assholes! Lend me your ears!" The biker helmeted jerk has a shotgun strapped to his back as he regards the innocents. "Welcome to Gotham City! I'll be your badass bank robber today! Isn't that great?" Red Hood is flanked by two sets of guys, also dressed like the rest of Red Hood's crew and their submachine guns. Old Dude with the Whistle? He's hiding under somebody's desk. F this noise.

At that entrance, Heather is half tempted to rip off her -own- ear and throw it at the guy, but for now she just stands there and stares dumbly even with the rod of cast iron stuck through her belly and out her back. She slowly looks down and then scowls, "I swear... that's gotta be the dumbest entrance I've -ever- seen. Plus... you ruined my top!" She exclaims as she reaches a hand down to try to dislodge that big iron rebar piece. It's obviously not affecting her all that much, but she is -kinda- public about her powers. But she's on hand and all. "And you.. robbing a bank, in this city, have -got- to be retarded." she adds casually, trying to draw attention to her, and off of the civilians.

"The back of my eyes are itching." Don mutters as he inserts his debit card and types out the pin, one hand shielding the number from casual observers. "Definitely itching." Grumble grumble grumble. Card comes out, cash goes into pocket, turning to head out the doo-BOOM! Don grabs for Holly and immediately dives for the cover of the ATM alcove. "Do we just... do we just attract bad luck?" He asks, crouched next to the machine.

When the explosion goes off inside, Laura starts, hunkering down at first until she realizes there isn't an immediate danger to her. When-- inevitably, the Cuckoos decide that they want to now visit the exploding-floor bank, though, she follows along, scenting the air with an alert, wary sort of manner. "Wasteful," she notes, as the Red Hood's grandstanding comes into view, and glances at the Cuckoos for an explanation. This doesn't look like an actual warzone.

Up over cars, around screaming and fleeing civilians they go, oblivious to the panic and injury around them. Laura starts scooping rocks and flicking them with pinpoint accuracy, shattering one camera after the other, the girls hot on her heels. The girls drop their field, careless for the moment of being seen, but they do pull up their hoods to hide their hair. These minds are no more interesting now than they were before the explosion. The Red Hood, on the other hand... |"Look at that."| |"He could be very useful."| |"At least he's distracting."| The Red Hood's mind is mostly bubbling with glee, revenge, and a little bit of hope. The Gotham Mob and mention of Batman are mere footnotes to the girls. |"Mad as that... Hat..."| |"Hatter."| |"Yes."| |"LOVELY."|
 * "Ooooh."| |"Boom."| |"Laura..."| |"Remember how we said there's money in banks?"| |"Let's go get some!"| There's nothing like the Cuckoos when they have a purpose. |"We'll need to be careful of the cameras."| |"Can you take them out, Laura?"|

Okay, one form of ID, no grandmother, fill out this form and - LOUD NOISES. Rain jerks visibly and accidentally puts the pen through the paper. She looks rather sad for a moment. She was almost done with that... Sadface. And *donk*! Right on the top of the head! A rock? For reals? What is with rocks being attracted to her head? No marksman has aim good enough to hit something important in -her- head, as far as she reckons. There's a glance over towards the people now yelling and having - whoa, that's a lot of guns. "..." Squint. Wait. Is this happening? What was in breakfast? Should there be a White Rabbit montage playing? Her eyes almost cross at that. Regardless, she's more interested in anyone hurt by debris for now. There's at least one or two for her to check on, having given up on filling out the paperwork for a bank account for now.

Holly Granger finds herself meeting the ground, courtesy of her partner/roommate/occasional pain in her butt. "...OW. Geezus, would you watch how you tackle someone?" She peers around the edge of the machine, grinning despite the bruising that will no doubt come from Don suddenly taking her to the ground. "If we attract this sort of thing at least once a week I can remain happy," she says. "So... did you want me to encourage you to go talk to them, or are the guns enough of a deterrent this time?"

The explosion in the bank draws the Phantom's attention immediately. Great, a daylight robbery. He'd have to admit there's a certain ruthless cunning behind that--if all else fails, there are plenty of hostages. "Devil, go around back," he tells the wolf as he dismounts the horse. "If the front exit is cut off, they may try to use the back. Try and get some police to go with you, but don't worry if they won't follow." For some reason, they never trust the wolf, the Phantom thinks to himself as Devil runs off. "Hero--go find somewhere safe. It's going to get ugly." That's said to the horse, as he rubs the mare's jaw affectionately. As she trots further down the alley, away from all of this, the Phantom goes to leave the alley and skirt around the police gathered in front of it without drawing their attention. Amazing how sneaky a guy in a purple costume can be when he puts his mind to it.

Jim Gordon gives his officers in front of the bank some more instructions and then is suddenly surprised by the explosion. He stumbles as the bank blows up and frowns, "Geezus..." he mutters. He eyes the bank building as the Red Hood and his pals zip in front of it like real good villains. Jim Gordon and the traffic cops draw their weapons, "Take cover! Now!" he says, pointing out the villains to his officers. He pointy points at some nearby people and jerks his thumb toward safety, "Get out of there!" he tells them.

"Shut it up, Tits McGee." Red Hood is pointing off in the direction of Heather as he steps off his rising platform and onto the bank floor. He's not at all impressed or if he is, it's hard to tell, considering he's got a huge red biker helmet hiding his features. But he hasn't reached for a gun or anything, so he's not really worried. Or so it seems. Maybe he's just that badass. "I'm not here for your chump change. I'm here for theirs." At that statement, the Red Hood Gang turn their guns away from the innocent bystanders and bank goers and to the customer service reps that are all not at all looking scared. In fact, to look at them now, would give everyone a chance to see that they also have yanked out guns and are aiming them back at the Red Hood Gang. From the looks of things, there's about Twelve Hoodies and Eight Bank Mobsters in total. And everyone else is getting trapped in the crossfire. Suckas. The front of the bank is not really being guarded, except for the inside of the bank. The Hoodies are hoping the van will protect them for a while. There is one Hoodie still inside the van. He's the stupid one eating a sandwich in the driver's seat. He hasn't looked to the left yet, thus why he hasn't noticed ALL THE POLICE. Idiot. Around back? The only way in is probably that air duct. Even the back door is gated up nice and tight. So the baddies won't be getting out that way. Of course, just who are the baddies in this situation. Red Hood (or the Hoodies) are not really paying too much attention to anybody that's not a known criminal or harboring their money. Which makes it even easier for any heroic types to really get into position for take downs. If they want. He's still making grandiose speeches. "Oh, come on, fellas. Don't make this harder than it has to be. Just put the guns down. We just want your money. We'll leave the your punishment to Black Mask, Falcone, Rizzoli and..." Red Hood frowns, reaches into his pocket and comes out with a small slip of paper. "... isles. That's right. Forgot about that jerkoff." The bank mobsters don't budge. But they are busy shifting their guns from the Hoodies to the Innocents and back. They don't know who to shoot at first!

"I didn't think you were trying to rob the customers. I just thought you were stupid. Big difference there." remarks Heather as she reaches a hand to wipe a smear of blood from her lips before clenching one hand around the rebar and yanking it out entirely with a spray of blood on the floor ahead of her. She raises that rebar up and throws it with as much force as she can at one of the robber thugs. Specifically, at his hand. She's not exactly got the best aim, but she's starting to walk forward with what passes for a look of anger on her face. "Now, are you guys going to stop being stupid? Or are you going to select the more painful option?" She asks, blood flow slowing from her stomach wound already.

"I'm not very good with this whole tackling thing, I don't do it very often!" Well, except for that one date. But... not going into that right now! "For once, I have to give your methods some consideration." Glancing left and right, seeing that there's absolutely no one watching at the moment, Don stands and raises his hands above his head. "DOVE!" Rings of light envelopes his torso, swiftly traveling up and around until his entire body is glowing with a pale blue light. A moment later, the costumed hero Dove stands in his place. Real subtle.

The girls pause to assess the situation, making sure to stay well-back of Laura so she can draw any fire. It's not that they don't care, they just know who's good at what at the moment. Police out front, mobsters in here, and Mr. Entertaining in the middle. |"Yelling girl."| |"Shiny boy."| |"And more trouble coming around."| |"We'll keep them busy with each other, Laura."| Priorities. The girls tap the stupid Hoodie on the brain and point out the police. Then they remind the mobsters of the eternal truth-- |"You can kill Red Hood later."| --and point them toward those making heroic or defiant gestures, including police and obvious heroes in the area. |"We don't want this to end too soon."| They duck behind a marble pillar and sift through the information in the area to find out where all the money is. |"Damnation."| The vault is in lockdown. |"Tills for now."| They shift into diamond form and bolt across the bank at high speed, jump the counter, and start helping themselves with Laura.

Oh! Oh! Rain's seen Japanese animation like thi-- waaaaaaaaiit... Better check that crater for wayward calamari. Why is it her days seem to be surreal anymore? She no longer blinks at mutant chickens crossing roads, people bursting into flames or just snikting all over the place like it ain't no thing. And don't even get her started on the men in tights, defending people's rights. Wait. Who's robbing who here? At this rate, Rain's gonna need a flowchart. While no longer homeless, she's still broke as a joke. People are transforming around her. Pause. She looks to herself and shrugs. She'll help pull a bystander out from some rubble though it looks almost like a battle of Man vs. Brick. She tries to nudge aside the brick and let the fellow out. "I'm trying, I'm trying, this really isn't - my kingdom for a crowbar... isn't it absurd?" It's like Rashomon all in here.

"Hawk!" comes the cry moments later. No shining light for her, instead Holly Granger is engulfed in an aura of flames. Moments later fires seems to burn away the clothing she wears, revealing the costume of red and white that she wears as Hawk. The flames even circle around her face twice to create the domino mask with the raptor-like talon designs on it. "Is there a plan, Dove? Because if there's no plan I'm just going to hit everyone with a gun until they stop moving." Didn't they have a conversation about Hawk punching things too hard? See? At least she's trying to consider Dove's side in this!

There's no getting in through the front door--besides the robbers being not too far inside it, there /are/ those police pointing their weapons at the entrance. So the Phantom has to sneak around to the far side--where all the windows on the ground level are closed and barred anyway. "Never want to make this easy..." he muses aloud with a grin--and spots a window on the second story. Open, and the upper levels don't have bars on the windows. Guess they're too used to people just blazing their way in. A short wall-run to jump up and grab the top of a barred window, and he monkey-climbs his way up to grab onto the bottom of the open window and haul himself into the empty office. He has to wince; his left collar bone was treated well enough the other night, but it still doesn't like being stressed like this. He lands on the floor in a crouch, flexing his left shoulder a little, then he goes to the door to peer out. The plan, as loose as it is, is that when the coast is clear, he'll quietly head out to find a balcony overlooking the lobby or, barring that, at least some stairs downward.

Ducking behind the hood of his car, Jim Gordon squints at the thugs and he vigilantes near the bank. "They're using that van," he tells one of his officers next to him. He squints as one of the people nearby transforms into a superhero, "This is friggin ridiculous. I don't think any of them are innocent bystanders. They start shooting, shoot back," he tells his young officer. The traffic cop nods slowly, "Uhhh, I just got this gun Commish..." he reports. On his radio, Jim Gordon eyes his young officer as he calls headquarters, "This is Gordon. We need backup! Get the SWAT out here. There's 6 or 7 people robbing the bank and 3 or 4 vigilante types messing around. One of them is...many lookalike girls...and another...short girl has gone inside for a cash grab...there's some others. Got that?" he relates.

"Sorry. I couldn't hear anything over the size of your tits. What?" Red Hood is just blatantly being an ass to Heather, since she's trying to pick fights with him and his Hoodies. The Hoodie she goes after is knocked in the hand by the rebar and he loses his weapon. He also wails like a chump. Red Hood turns his attention to the failure of a thug. "If you don't die during this, you're fired." And then he's turning his attention back to Heather. "Down girl. We're on the same side." Lies. Flashing! Lights! What the hell, a couple of Hoodies are semi-blinded by the TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE and they find themselves looking in that direction. "Uh. What the hell?" One of those Mobsters gets taken out by a knockout strike without so much as knowing what just hit him upside the head. He goes down and so does his gun. Poor Mobster. Sandwich Hoodie is about to enjoy his delicious Hoagie when he blinks, looks up and out his window. "... Shit." He drops his sandwich. Meanwhile, the rest of the mobsters find themselves no longer worried about Red Hood and the Hoodies. Guns are being aimed at everyone but Red Hood and the Hoodies. These heroes are going DOWN! "Youse guys is gonna' get it! Stay back!" "Yeah! We can kill the Red Hood laters! Youse guys is first!" Oh brother. Wait wait. Is there more Flashing! Lights! Those two Hoodies spot a second TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE and they are not happy. "Hey! Stop that!" Red Hood seriously needs to hire smarter goons. Sigh. Guns are pointed at Hawk and Dove. Upstairs! Yes! Victory! There's really nobody up here but actual innocent bank workers. They are hiding from the madness downstairs. But there's a balcony. It's pretty easy to find. Just... go that way. The balcony leads right out and over the ruckus down below. And nobody's paying attention to Up. Nobody ever looks Up. Sandwich Hoodie realizes that there's cops on their way to him and he does the only smart thing he can think of: He Floors It. And the van tire screeches, heading off and away from the bank, speeding down the street... and leaving the front doors to be used ever so easily.Y'know, except for the couple of Hoodies guarding them. Brick Freed Bystander is running like hell. Which is probably not a good thing, considering that people have guns. And that has one of those Mobsters getting spooked and BLAM BLAM! Bystander gets shot down in cold blood. Poor Rain. Did she help or... make things worse on that one?

"You know, for the record... they're real, and they're not all that huge! At most, a C!" announces Heather. She just keeps stalking right towards Red Hood, basically ignoring everyone else. "The same side eh? Funny, I don't -ever- remember signing on with Idiot Bank Robbers R us." She gestures about the room, the wound in her stomach fully healed now and she adds, "Do you know how many people you're actually inconveniencing here? People trying to pay bills? People like me, who were trying to open a damned account so I could do a wire transfer to actually do something nice for my Daddy?" She rolls her neck and gives a gesture, "Now, come here and let me turn that helmet of yours into an ash tray." It's obvious she's basically trying to get -to- Red Hood, and almost challenging the thugs in his pay to do something to stop her.

"Just... /do/ something!" And that's when bystanders are being shot at. Dove leaps into action, quite literally, in a display of acrobatics that's all about raw skill, not training. A forward handspring leaves Dove crouching in front of the mobster, grabbing for the gun and attempting to lock his arm behind his back. "That was probably the stupidest thing you have ever done in a life full of stupid decisions."

It's really nice of everyone else to make so much noise. It makes it really easy for a tiny little urchin girl to pop the teller drawer with a quiet >snikt-snikt< at the latch. Look how easy that was! And look, some cash for Laura's jacket. She stuffs a reasonable amount away, then pushes the drawer closed and withdraws, pausing to take the unconscious mobster's gun. Could be useful as she slinks away, staying low(even for her), ready for wherever the Cuckoos decide to call her next.

Sophie is overseeing the other two and holding the bag they've plucked from someone. She watches Laura's moves and her eyes narrow. "Hey. Laura," she says in a very low voice. "How much metal can you get through at once? Because... there's so much more in the vault." Esme turns to grin at Laura. "I like this plan." Phoebe adds, "We'd have enough to give away." The three girls look down the hole. What's a drop like that when you're made of diamond? Or when you're Laura?

Yay! He's free! "Wai--" Ooh... she's not very good at this heroing thing, is she? Rain has an expression somewhere between abject horror and sadness. She can't even giggle at the boob talk. Wait, who is fighting who here? There's Mobsters, there's snikt lady all snikty snikt, there's those chicks in hoods, there's the lady talking about her boobs, red hood minions and Red Hood and - well, now she doesn't even know anymore. The glowy flashy bird peeps. For now, she kneels near the fallen fellow to see if there's even enough life left to heal. Maybe she's spent so long healing for sandwiches, it's just how she rolls. Either way, she's seeing if there's enough left to heal and start healing or find the next poor soul to at least watch out over. Though, she is debating setting someone's shoes on fire (heroically).

Do something? Hawk flashes Dove a wiiiiiide grin. "That I can do!" Bullets don't scare her. She runs forward quite fast, intent on introducing the nearest goon to her fist. And if the goon is just that and takes the fit, she'll punch the next one, too. "Boo!" she declares, her white eyes narrowing. Not as scary as the bat no doubt, but hey, scary lady in red and white, right?

Ah-ha. A balcony. The Phantom crouches next to it and peers over--just in time to see the innocent bystander get shot in cold blood. That makes him grit his teeth; he's going to make sure that's the last innocent death. He takes a moment to watch what the other would-be heroes are doing, grateful for the attempt. It's always nice to see someone else standing up for the innocent, even if one of them is the--woman--who owes him a handgun. Okay, plan, plan-plan-plan... He looks up and around, then quietly pushes against the balcony railing. Mm. Not sturdy enough. He looks back up to the arched ceiling. Architecture this old, that just might work. It'd be made of sturdier stuff than plaster. A plan in mind, he finally shows himself--by leaping from the balcony and aiming his right arm at the ceiling. A flick of the wrist, and the grappling mechanism pops out of its cover on the outer side of his gauntlet, the little hook shot to the ceiling where it should grab on--and let the Phantom swing down and aim his booted feet right at the Red Hood. Specifically his chest, to kick him back toward the front doors. None of this messing with the henchmen--they'll go after him just for him going after the boss. At least, all of that is the /plan/.

Sirens begin to wail as the police make their way up the streets of Gotham to the popular bank. They radio in to Gordon about their location, "Alright, corner off the bank. These guys are just going in and out like its a supermarket. Some of the more dangerous ones are out front," he tells them over the radio, relying their descriptions in intricate detail for a few moments, making sure to give details about the jerk Red Hood, the weird looking Dove, and the others nearby. "Oh I forgot to reload," his young officer reports to the Commish and receives a squinty look. The young officer cocks his gun. "This is the police! This bank is being surrounded....as we speak! Give up! Throw down your weapons!" Jim Gordon yells to the people out front.

The Red Hood is not worried. He's not even moving out of the way. There are a couple of his Hoodies that start to stop her, but a hand is raised by the Red Hood and they are no longer worried about it. Well, they are, but they also don't make any moves to stop her. "Funny. So am I." Red Hood explains, before pointing towards the Mobsters that are not trying to Kill Him and his Hoodies. "If you'd get your head outta' my ass and look around, you'd see that these assholes are the crooks." He points nice and blatantly at the Mobster Bankers. "You don't want your money in this bank anyway. It's eeeeeeviiiiiiil. Nobody ever washes their hands." Mobster McGunner gets Dove'd like nobody's business. He can't even understand why he's getting gripped up. But the next thing he knows is that his gun is gone and his arm is pinned up behind him. "Youse gonna' pay for dis!" Right. The Getaway Girls have no problems from the Hoodies or the Mobsters. It's almost as if they have nothing but smooth sailing ahead. Everyone else is paying attention to something else. Which is working out in the favor of Stealth Girl and the Hooded Three. Brick the Bystander is bleeding like crazy, that is, until healing hands start to make everything all better. He groans and such as he's getting healed and within moments he's finally back to not being about to die and the only thing he can do is leap at Rain! "Oh god, thank you, thank you so much, wanna' get married?" There's already a ring on his finger. Awkward. Wham! and then Wham! Two Hoodies find themselves getting punched out without too much effort. They didn't even get a chance to lift their sub-machine gunnery to try and shoot at this scary bird lady! They go sailing for a moment, before crashing into desks. Sub-Machine guns scatter across the floor, though. Here's to hoping some stupid random fools don't pick up these guns and try to be heroes. Oops. There they go. Random Bystander #4 and #7. This won't end well. Here's the thing. Red Hood has this entire place wired. He's freaking Batman Junior (Fuck Damian) and there's a reason why he's not moving from talking to Heather. It's probably all part of the plan. In fact, he takes the kick in the chest like a champ, sailing back with it, only to land and roll backwards, popping up into a crouch near the doors. He's probably smirking beneath that helmet, but that can't really be seen. The blinking red-wing style explosive-rang on the floor near Heather and Phantom... can. Two seconds to move. BOOM! The Hoodies near the front of the bank are realizing that they are no longer hidden by the van. This is not good. "Uh. Boss?" Red Hood looks up and over his shoulder, still in his crouched position of awesome. "Set Phasers to Maim." is all he has to say, before he's lifting his own arm up and aiming his own grapple line for the ceiling. It hooks and he starts going upwards, while his Hoodies start shooting through the glass bank doors, blasting at legs and arms. No killshots. It's just to try and keep Gordon and his coppers busy.

At first, Heather's caught off guard. "Crooks?" she asks as she starts to look around. She doesn't really get much of a chance though, as the wing-a-rang lands and she just dives on it out of reflex. "This is gonna fuck up my outfit.." she mutters before it goes boom. Sure, the explosion is mostly contained, but she's... well she's not in this fight anymore. It's a good thing there's a comic book code too, or she'd be all over the naked bomb victim websites from this. As it stands, shreds of her clothing manage to cover up enough to keep her mangled body semi-decent. But she's out -cold- and yet already healing. But she's done her good deed for the day it seems.

"I'm sure I will. In the meantime, take a nap." Bonk! Mobster head, meet brick wall. Dove does it gently, but... Well. Thick heads and all. The gun gets tossed high and far away, and then Dove is on the move again, another of those acrobatic flips bringing him in front of the two would be heroes. "I'll be needing those, folks. You'll just do more harm than good, here." Yoink. Yoink. Toss! Right out the building, aimed for the armed gunmen. Who says guns can't be a non-fatal weapon?

Enough to give away? Laura... actually kind of likes the sound of that, and she's not sure why. The girl scampers for the vault door, pausing to look and see if anyone's watching before she pops a single claw again with a quiet >snikt<. The door's impressive, but an adamantium-fused claw between the vault door and its casing doesn't care that much for impressive. It takes a bit of effort, and some squealy metal, but Laura manages to force the claw down through the heavy bolts. The vibration of the claw going through the heavy metal sets her teeth on edge and makes the bones in her hand ache, but she's through before it does damage, and the claw vanishes back between her knuckles. Hopefully her body and the general ruckus kept that unnoticed...

The girls are ridiculously strong in this form. They grab the door and haul it open effortlessly, then break open the gate beyond. "Grab what ever is convenient. Laura, there's usually good stuff in some of the little boxes on the walls," Sophie says. The other girls are getting down to picking up whatever they can get together and carry. A quick scope turned up some convenient canvas sacks that might as well have "For Robbers" printed on them. After all, this is Gotham. They're going to make out fine.

Hey. Hey. Rain's been reacting to injured peeps. Mind you, the trade off for her magic not requiring gestures or speech? It's kinda -slow- to deploy and takes concentration. And she's a fairly nerdy nerd, so getting leapt at and proposed to is like social kryptonite. Eeeeee. "Um. You're welcome. Please keep your head down and find cover. I uh, um. You've got -" A ring. Rain is very, very carefully going to detach herself from the fellow, nudge him into cover and go check on the other shot victims. She doesn't even notice what's going on with the Cuckoos, Laura or what have you. Still, this is all really distracting, so she's having a bit of trouble getting things to GO and trying to figure out the best path between point A and point B is worse than any circuits assignment she ever had. Okay, mobster 1 is a resistor and ... crawlcrawl.

Hawk is likewise to preoccupied with scaring or attacking and/or both the goons to really pay attention to the antics of the Cuckoos and Laura. It's not her fault that she really, really likes punching people! "Hey, Dove!" she calls out, "How many've you got?" Every time, she tries to get Dove to keep score. She keeps beating him. Anyone surprised? She's not, but hey, maybe one day he'll surprise her.

...of course. Just after landing, the Phantom noticed how cocksure the Red Hood was. Kind of hard to miss the way he didn't act like he gave much of a care about being booted to the police officers' line of fire. And he looks down. Without wasting another second, he dives out of the way, to slide across the marble floor, covering his face and letting the concussion wave from the explosion push him further. But he's already scrambling to get to his feet even as his left hand whips down to pull out his only handgun, which gets aimed at Red Hood's knee. Armor is always weakest at the joints, but he's not actually worried about doing damage. One carefully aimed shot at that knee is mainly to draw the police officers' attention outside to the fact that the leader of this little band is standing right there--and to pester the Hood enough to keep himself as the man's target. Plus, in the Hood's position, the ricochet will go straight down into the floor, so no worrying about hitting an innocent.

As three more cars and a SWAT van pull up to the front of the bank, Jim Gordon frowns as he can hear guns and more violence. "Lock down this area! Now!" he lets out, "Move out!" he tells his men as they hop out of the SWAT van with automatic weapons and anti-Gotham-criminal weapons. The five SWAT officers cross the street and advance on the bank front lawn. Jim Gordon and his three traffic officers pull up from behind his car and move toward the front at the opposite angle. Holding their guns up toward the crazy people out front, Jim Gordon tries to keep his men safe by approaching Heather plus the mob van from the rear, "Freeze! Nobody move!" At the rear of the bank, three more police cruisers pull up and more officers jump out thanks to the Commissioner's alert and call for help. They eye the bank and don't immediately advance on it, but lock down the area with their pistols, shotguns and sharp eyes. "Commish, we've got the rear covered. Nobody is back here. I think I hear shots inside---I think we better go in. But you need backup at the front? Commish? You read me?" Captain Morgan asks.

Mobsters don't do well with hitting brick walls with their heads. He's bleeding and he's knocked the hell out, thanks to the Dovetastic Dove! Birdtastic Dove? Whatever. He's just knocked the hell out, okay? Which is perfect, because those guns are in the process of slapping the Hoodies upside the head and they don't do anything but go down. Red Hood has some really lame goons. Stealth Girls and the Hooded Three have no trouble at all getting whatever it is they are after. Money. Deposit Boxes. It's all fair game and there's not even a camera down here. Which makes this all the more sweeter. Lucky Girls! Hawk has no trouble at all with the punching of Mobsters and Hoodies this way and that way. They are just getting knocked all over the place. It looks like a 60's Batman scene with the way they are sent sailing. One of them tries to hit Hawk, but only ends up swinging himself into a desk. Um, that was Hawkward. Rain manages to get away from Stalker McHealederson, but she doesn't get far before his wedding ring comes sailing towards her to hit her in the head. Much like the rocks that keep getting too close to her cranium. What the hell. Magnetic Head? Armored Knees are always a good thing to have. Weak points? Are not. Which is why the Red Hood's planned for that. While he takes the shot in the knee, it does just ricochet downward and then the Red Hood is continuing his rise up towards the ceiling, thanks to his grapple line. "Try again, Trojan Man!" Red Hood calls down to the Phantom. He swings from his grapple line towards the balcony and proceeds to make with his getting the hell out of dodge. By this time, the tear gas pellets he left downstairs are starting to go off. That should cause enough chaos to help with his getaway. Gordon and Friends have full range of the bank at this moment. Even the security measures are starting to let up, thanks to the arrival of the cops and their units. This is going to be wrapped up nice and tight pretty soon. Here's to hoping they are prepared for the tear gas.

"Eleventy billion. Just keep hitting things!" A pause, and Dove frowns. "I cannot believe I just told her that... She's never going to let me live it down..." Oh, he is NOT EVEN trying to escape this. Dove executes another one of those forward handsprings, leaping from the nearest desk to easily overtake the balcony. Maaaybe a little flight helped with that... "Come on, Red Head, you have to go face the police now. Just come quietly..." Not sure exactly where he is. Hypervigilence, go!

Laura pauses as she assists the girls in loading. Claws make short work of deposit boxes, and so on. Before too long, though, the sounds outside the vault filter into her enhanced hearing. "We should go," she announces, hefts what she has, and makes a run. She's sure the girls can keep up, and simply exits the vault at a dead run, hops the teller counter, and slides across the floor to drop into the Hood's hole. He must have come in from somewhere, so logically it is also a serviceable bolt-hole.

The girls make off with heavy bags of money as though they were nothing. They mimic Laura's style as they zip down into the hole. After they've booked it a little way, Sophie stops. "One moment. We need to do something." The girls shift into flesh form--they'd never pick up the bags again like this--and their minds sift outward as one, searching for a particular pattern of thoughts. |"Got him."| A delicate touch taps Red Hood's thoughts and a warm voice murmurs, |"We'll see you again soon."| |"We haven't forgotten."| |"Some of this is yours."| Then they're back to diamond again and on the run.

Poor Rain. Why IS everything out to give her brain damage or invest in Tylenol stocks? Whine. Maybe she needs to trade her gambler's hat for a helmet. Either way, she huffs and decides to go check on Heather. Thoughtfully, she'll put a white hanky over Heather's chest before making sure there's vital signs. Thoughtful! Again, Rain's magic is nice, subtle and quiet but concentration and speed. All of those head hits are going to catch up to her one day. Still, she's at least checking even if direct healing may be a bit too slow or there may be others worse off. Bullets are her weakness. Well, also knives, bombs, gaping holes in internal organs, crushings, disgruntled Hulks and - okay, nevermind. Vital signs time!

"Eleventy billion?" The ensuing laughter makes Hawk miss a punch. "Geezus Dove, if you want to start telling jokes, let's do it at amateur hour at the comedy club, okay? Not when I'm trying to turn some idiot into jelly for looking at me wrong." Indeed, Hawk just needs some colourful explosive BAM! POW! ZAP! ZORCH! sound effects. At least she bobs and weaves as she fights, rather than just takes the punches and returns them. She CAN fight with a little strategy. Despite what Dove insists. "What?" She twists and turns. "He left? Maaan. I was wondering why the numbers were thinning out!"

Dang it. The Phantom grits his teeth as the Red Hood starts to run. Normally he'd go after him--but there are too many innocents to worry about. With a grunt, he holsters his weapon and takes a quick look around. Remnants of goons being dealt with, so that leaves the wounded--and the gas. Taking and holding his breath, he buys the ones helping the innocents some time by diving onto and across the floor. A spin lets him kick the first pellet to ricochet out through the front door, and he lands against the far wall, where he kicks off and continues the slide in a new direction. The second pellet is grabbed and thrown out the front door as well. The slide ends at the last pellet, which is grabbed as he gets to his feet and hurries to the front door, where the last pellet is thrown out. "We've got wounded in here!" he shouts out to the police. "Get medical teams here!" And with that he turns to start back toward the wounded, to start triage. And out back, when the police arrive, they find a grey wolf, who gives them a look that dog lovers amongst them might recognize as something akin to "it's about time". But with the police covering things, it lets Devil scamper off, to use nearby alleys to make his way back to the front, where he can watch the proceedings and see if he needs to run inside.

"They cleared out, Commish," the young officer reports as he surveys the front of the bank. "All clear over here, Captain. Head in," Jim Gordon tells Captain Morgan as he spots someone shooting gas at them, "Take a look at the wounded. And watch it. Gas masks!" he tells the man, "Hopefully, nobody is hurt too bad," he mutters. He opens the front doors and leads inside with his gun. He blinks surprisedly at the state of chaos inside the bank, "Nobody move...?" he mutters, looking at the people strewn about, the busted vault, and the big fat HOLE in the middle of the bank. "That's a big hole," the young traffic cop reports as he stares at it. Captain Morgan coughs as he appears from the back doors with his team, "We've got wounded back here, Commish. One lady got shot in the arm and she says it was this RED guy. Looks like they went down the drain...so to speak..." he explains, giving the police gas masks. "Figure out where he went. Get an ambulance," Jim Gordon tells Captain Morgan, as he too glances down into the big HOLE.

Red Hood is trying to get the hell out of dodge. It's really not hard to run... except when you have DOVE swooping on you like there's no tomorrow. And that's certainly what's happening right now. He stumbles, actually, which gives Dove enough time to pin the Red Hood right to the floor. Busted. Gone. Those girls are gone. And there's probably no catching them. At least somebody got the money out of this place! Bricky McStalkerson is still trying to get to Rain. But there's people, uniformed people, grabbing and dragging him away. It's time to get this bank all cleared out, after all! Did he just start singing the theme from Dawson's Creek? Hawk is about to get jumped by a remaining Hoodie... but that fool gets tasered, bro. Right in the air. So she'll get the chance to kick him while he's down and twitching by her feet. Shocking, isn't it? Phantombatics! Yes! Except for the part where tear gas marbles are now where the cops are. Does that count as an attack? Seriously, it's a big dude in a purple costume with a mask? Don't villains always wear purple? Just Sayin'. The cops are now in control of this scene and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. As the ones that are not wounded make their way out of the doors, thanks to the SWAT and GCPD being so responsive. Old Dude With The Whistle stumbles his way out, coughing and hacking and trying to wave away some of the gas and whatever else. "Sorry, son!" is said as he bumps into a random copper, before turning and stumbling out into the street and towards one of the ambulances that have arrived. "Are you okay, sir?" "Fuck off." Old Dude With The Whistle judo chops the EMT and high tails it to the front of the ambulance, where he hops in and slams the door closed. Old Man Mask lands on the ground and Jason Todd's smirk can be seen in the side mirror as the ambulance speeds off. Son of a Bitch.