Bank Heist [Closed to Maelstrom]

Victor had a lot of work to do in order for this bank heist to be a success. He didn't care what happened. If this plan succeeded, then he'd get a good wad of cash. If it failed, well... that had it's own rewards as well. But first, Victor needed some minions. Chicago was full of those. Gangs and rival gangs, dogs hungry for scraps regardless of where they came from. Victor had little trouble finding them. They even had some mild skill. A little-known gang in a small neighborhood, involved in countless petty turf wars and small time crimes outside their little war.

They'd play their part perfectly. Recruiting them was simple. All it required was a display of power. So Victor came to them, coated entirely in wires, a walking/floating wire man, using the wires to allow himself to walk, even float slightly off the ground, and they found that their knives and guns were easily disarmed. Their cars did not turn on. They were outmatched. Outclassed. When "Zou" promised his aid in robbing a local bank for a split of the profits... well, that was simple enough. Zou seemed a god to them. If they performed well... then perhaps Zou would even help them win their little war, as a favor in return.

That was three days ago. Now, Zou was Victor once more, an unimposing entity stranded in his wheelchair. And this time, he was waiting in line at the bank, to make a withdrawal. He wore an eye patch over one eye. And in came the gang, twenty people, all armed with their switchblades and guns and bravado. And with them, a wire man. Victor was not inside this wire man, of course. This one was hollow, which was unknown to everyone else except this little man in a wheelchair. To everyone else, this was a rogue supervillain, attacking a bank.

"Everybody hit the floor! You, open the registers, now!"

The ringleader made himself a priority target from the get-go. A good three inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than the rest of his crew, he was the loudest and brawniest of them all. He went straight up to the counter, pointing the tip of his gun towards some poor lad on the other side of the glass. Everyone hit the floor. The two on-duty security guards pulled their guns at first, but were out-gunned. If anyone hit the emergency alarm, they'd find it didn't work.

Victor had shown up early and worked his magic just on the schedule. The wires in the building were under his control. And the wires connected to the alarms, all the alarms, were offline, no longer connected to the buttons that triggered them. The bank was isolated. The walkies that the officers carried were likewise neutralized, along with every cell phone in the building. Without any interference, the bank was at the mercy of this tiny gang with big hopes.

As the only man in a wheelchair, Victor played the role of a silent victim. Bad guys came in, and Victor put his hands in the air, with fear in his eyes. All the while, he was the one controlling the floating wire man at the head of the gang. All the while, he was the reason the bank was isolated. But there was no sign of that externally...

It was not a good day for him to go to work, not only because he had somehow managed to cut himself while shaving, but also he just had a feeling it would be bad. There was also him frying the microwave, setting off the small fire alarm within his cramped apartment; just another problem. Also he just hated his job. Banks were pretty damn boring, just people wanting their money withdrawn or deposited, nothing glamorous about that at all. It payed though and that was all that mattered in the long run. He would find a better job sooner or later, but until then he would take what he had.

Everything was boring enough as it was, until of course armed robbers just walked through the door, armed to the teeth too. ”Well shit.” He muttered, clenching his teeth together as a hiss made its way through them. Now they were getting robbed? This was just not the best situation that he could have found himself in, and the gun in his face did not help in the least. Hell, he could feel his knees get all noddley and most motor functions grind to a halt. The only thing really moving was his heart, hammering away in his chest.

The beefiest of the brutes seemed to be the one that had put the gun to his face, though what looked like a wirey man was also among them, possibly a crazy ass metahuman leading them with their insane power. With one hand reaching towards the register, he sly tried to press the silent alarm, alert the damn police like the manager had drilled into his head when a situation like this had arisen. Luckily they were not aware of the motion, but he was also unaware that the alarms had been cut off by a certain metahuman.

With the covert but fruitless maneuver unnoticed, he opened the register, letting the big thug see all of the green that he so desired. If he did this right, he could try to use what little control of his powers he had to subdue the brute, but that would have left him with the rest. Damn, this was not going to be as easy as he thought it would be. Of course there were the two security guards but they were likely going to be gunned down if they even so much as moved out of line. Damn these villains and their well layed out plans, hopefully they didn't take it upon themselves to kill him.

There some villains that he heard about that killed just because they could. Perhaps he could try though, just take out the nearest thug and go for cover, try something, anything. As the man began to shovel the currency into a bag, Patrick moved his hand slightly, a finger pointed towards the chest of the thug. The movement was very slight, and he wasn't fully focused upon him to notice it in time. He tried to imagine a small arc of lightning leaping from the digit, just powerful enough to knock him out.

That however was not how it went down.

A bolt of electricity show out that went clean through his chest and hit another of them in the face, both dropping like a ton of bricks, as well as convulsing; white foam coming from their mouths. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air and small sparks leapt from their bodies. He quickly ducked behind the counter as shots were fired and people screamed.

Dammit.

The hollow wire suit shot forward as soon as the leader of the group was zapped. Victor himself was rather shocked. Heh. Shocked. Another superpowered individual was in the bank, as one of the tellers. There might even be more people there who were superpowered. Of course, shots started to ring out, but Victor had that covered, as wires around the wrists of each baddie yanked their hands to the side.

Victor had no intention of anyone dying today. Bloodshed was not on his agenda if he could avoid it at all.

Zou, on the other hand, had his wirey hand wrapped tightly around this poor teller's arm. And Zou had a special spell for just such an occasion - he could communicate telepathically with anyone touching his wires. Which mean that this wire man would seem even more real. As the wire man touched the teller, a raspy voice echoed through the boy's head.

"Nice trick. It won't work on me."

The wire man then began gathering the money from the register at a much faster rate, using individual wires to quickly whip money from that register - and many surrounding ones - into the sack. The rest of the gang started to wrestle with the wires on their wrists, but a telepathic command to them calmed them. They were no longer their own gang. They were Zou's, and he was in their heads, and they were all the more frightened of him then. Of course they would do as he commanded. Their guns were his to control, and they needed to understand that.

Victor watched on from his wire eye in the wire man's head as the more and more money made its way into the sack. Not a bad haul, if he didn't say so himself. Another spell was in the works now, one that would allow his wireframe fall guy to handle any shocks coming at him. But Victor was wondering... this kid didn't seem to have much control over his powers. That could be dangerous. He might end up keeping a tight grip on him, just in case...

It didn't take the gunfire long to settle down, but what had caused such a sudden ceasefire when he had killed two of them. Even if this murder was accidental, it was still murder. Would he have to go to jail for this? The male curled up against counter as if waiting for the firing to continue once again, but it never came. Then came the strange touch of wires, something that he was quite surprised to feel, as well as a mental voice communicating with him. Whatever he was dealing with, had much more control than he had and that could prove dangerous if he were pushed into a fight of any kind.

Slowly moving away from the imposing wire man, Patrick began to formulate a plan on how to deal with him. Sure he was not best known for his genius plans, but he had power; even if these powers were about as useful as reverse controls. He had no idea how to control that power that came from him and anytime it was sued, the damage resulting would be catrostrophic. The thought of the man he had killed coursed through his mind, sending a wave of revulsion through him. The way his eyes went blank, and his body jerked, the scene continued to play over within his head until he felt like he would be sick

He of course had other powers, but his other useful one was even more difficult to control than the one he had used to kill two people with, and he had so few ways of even using it at the moment. Still it was that, or risk potentially getting himself killed by this scary ass wire man, who he was sure could do that given the chance. ”Guess i'll have to try a different trick won't I.” He said under his breath, gathering in as much air as he could.

What would happen in this attempt? He could only guess at the results really but it was far better than sitting on his ass and letting his work place get robbed; the boss would not be too pleased about that. The breath came through clenched lips, the gust not as powerful as he hoped but it was enough to blow any human off their feet, but super humans would have been another matter entirely. Then again, he had never fought one before, so this was kind of a first.

Well, that gust of wind did it's job... sort of. Every single bandit was knocked off their feet. Most of the people in the bank were knocked off their feet. Victor's wheelchair was knocked back, hit the wall, and fell over. For a split second, his world spun, and he lost his concentration. The wire man's grip loosened, but only for a second. Victor's self-preservation kicked in, and the grip tightened again.

The wire man did not blow over, however. The wires were capable of flying, after all, and the wire man was hollow. The air just whistled through him, as though he were barely even there. He lost his form for a moment, showing that he was indeed empty inside. But it was not long before he regained his form.

Also a neat trick. Also grossly insufficient to stop me. Though you have my compliments for ousting my little secret. Surprised? I'm just made up of wires. Nobody in here!

That raspy telepathic voice forced its way into the boy's head once more. Now, however, it seemed more wary. As though the lad had done something to shock the wire man.

"However, you are becoming a bit troublesome. Let's resolve this, shall we?"

The unfortunate clerk would soon find himself getting wrapped up in wires. The wire man was eating him, in a way, the wires he was made of finding their way through the teller windows, around his arms, his chest, his legs, his mouth... he would soon be finding himself inside the wire man suit, unless he found a way to stop the wires from engulfing his body. Zou had a hostage now, and his hostage was Mael. Any more big puffs of air, and he'd find his accuracy even further distorted. Any lightning bolts would hit him as well.

The attack had helped in dealing with the others, but this being was far different, far different indeed. He cursed under his breath, as the wires seemed to part for a second and reveal nothing. He was fucking hollow! There was no real time to react, the wires were already upon him and beginning to bind him in their deadly grip, which threatened to crush him with overwhelming force. He had no idea how to really react, nothing at all except trying to draw more of his power until he could break this iron grip.

”Shit, shit, shit.” Patrick cursed trying to kick the wires off until the managed to bind his legs. The wind picked up around him, as what seemed like a powerful current had formed within the building. It were almost as if the power were trying to act on its own, as if it were trying to protect him but at the same time could only act wildly.

It had happened before his power going out of control but why was it doing it now of all places? Electricity crackled off of his body as the winds battered against the wires slowly constricting him, pain seeming to permeate the captured limbs. In the end it was pointless, he had been captured and the wind only seemed to rage even more, as if its futile attempts would some how break him free.

Wind and lightning were beginning to surge from the boy at an alarming rate. He was becoming a hindrance. In a great blast, the wires shot upwards. A strange energy coated the outside of the wires, and a small buzzing began. Along with that buzzing, the wire suit seemed to just shred anything it touched, as the suit of wire rocketed up through the roof of the bank and into the air.

This left the bank emptied. Victor knew his attempts to steal the money would fail. He could always try again later. Next time, he wouldn't bother with the gang. Zou was a great alias, and nobody could ever suspect a cripple of being the real enemy. The security guards had sprung into action, trying desperately to apprehend the gang. In the end, they succeeded. Victor allowed their tazers to work, as well. His agenda had changed. He wasn't just here for the money now.

As the guards helped him back into his chair, he closed his eyes and focused on his other persona, Zou, the wire man. He was about a mile up now, with the bank teller in his grasp. The boy was still struggling, of course, but way up there it served no purpose. Victor activated a final spell, one that made the wires completely nonconductive, negating any harm the boy would do to himself with the electricity. Victor wanted to have a conversation. In his mental 'raspy voice', Victor began talking to the clerk, as Zou.

"You know, I can kill you, so you'd best calm down. I stopped those thugs from shooting any innocents for a reason. I don't harm innocents."

The wire shell had simply stopped moving in the air. It was hovering, and getting batted around by the winds summoned by the boy's powers. The electricity had stopped flowing completely. Certainly, the boy was generating plenty of it, but that electricity wasn't about to go anywhere. The wire wasn't conducting it, and there was no way for the electricity to leave the wiry shell. Zou was in control at this moment.

"My name is Zou. And you, boy, are an interesting laddie. What is someone like you doing in a bank? Bah, I suppose you just haven't mastered your powers. That's clear enough, you tore up half your workplace back there. And some of my gang members. What is your name?"

The final question came more as a statement, but all the same, Zou waited for an answer. Neither party was being injured by the other at this moment, though Zou could certainly tear into the young man at any instant. But that was counter to his desires right now. The boy was now more valuable than the sack of money that was being reclaimed by the officers. The boy had potential.

He felt himself being lifted into the air, high above the city that stretched below him and the vertigo alone nearly had him feeling ill. The fear gnawed at the back of his throat and increased the speed of his heartbeat; all in all it was an unpleasant experience. Yeah he wasn't in the best position, the wires easily able to cut into him with a single thought from the man, yet he didn't do that. Why had he not dropped him and make him into flesh pizza? The answer made itself obvious as the guy began to talk, half asking questions as he held his life within his.....wires.

”You...don't?” So this guy wasn't some sort of villain? Was he one of those less brutal people that still robbed banks, or was it something else? The guy showed interest in him and the powers that he possessed, the unique gifts that could destroy everything around him with little effort, if he could control them. Why did he want to know his name anyway? It wasn't like it was anything interesting, or unique really.

”My name is Patrick, nothing special really.” if only he had a cool name or some sort of superhero name to give, but at the moment he did not. He had no real interest in using one, considering that his powers were dangerous weapons within themselves and he would have rather not had them. Not that he could complain too much, most people would love to have powers like his, especially something like controlling the air.

”I suppose you think you can help me....master my powers?”

It was true then. The boy had not mastered his powers. The thought did not surprise Victor. In fact, Victor was waiting to give a police report to the cops, who had finally been notified of the situation now that people were able to get the word out. Game over for the bank heist, and for the little gang he had hired. Not game over for making a new ally. Zou was focused on that endeavor.

"Patrick. A good name. No, I have no desire for bloodshed. It gains me nothing in return, where sparing people often gains allies. And sometimes understanding."

Zou was being sincere. He didn't like killing. He would, of course. If he had to. Zou was an extension of Victor's mind, though, and Victor was selfish at his core. But in that selfishness was a need for companions and friends, which he had few enough of. Victor found for his friends, and fought to better his own situation. Sometimes that meant doing things like robbing banks under cover of... well, his deceptive powers. But now? He might make a powerful friend indeed.

"Very well, Patrick. Give me all the lightning you can muster, and I'll show you control. And then, I'll teach you... but in return, I'll expect a favor from you as well."

Victor had already activated the spell that allowed him to alter the flow of energy in his wires. Now he merely used that same active spell to change again. Now, when Patrick zapped the wires he was in, the electricity wouldn't hurt him. Instead, all the wires would force the electricity to flow in one direction, out of the hands, in a concentrated blast. In true Emperor Palpatine style, Patrick was about to shoot lightning out of his wiry fingers far into a clear afternoon sky.

Since this guy claimed not to be a bad guy, and he had him around a few hundred feet above the pavement, there would be no harm in trying to trust him. As long as this didn't go south, south being him hitting the pavement. ”Well...okay then.” Sure he could unleash the lightning but he never really had any control over how much came out. When he wanted a lot, a small spark would sometimes come out but when he wanted little, a freaking bolt of lightning would shoot out.

Where would he shoot it though? He was somewhat wrapped in the thick wires that kept him aloft, as well as bound him tightly. Still, he would comply with the request. Gathering all of the energy he could control, the electrical energy began to coalesce around his palm until he could direct it with what little control he had, and in an instant the energy released.

The wires seemed to take in the power, coursing through it without harming hi, which meant that this guy was more than capable of beating him, even if he had control of his powers. Then came the glorious bolt of lightning flashing through the clear sky, something that was absolutely out of place really but people wouldn't have payed in too much attention. He was unsure how much power was in the bolt, but it looked like a lot.

Power surged through the wires. Victor felt it, and was impressed. The boy's ability was fairly strong, and if he had the strength to control it, he'd be a formidable opponent. And a powerful ally, if Victor could help him learn to control it. But for now, he was content in the knowledge that he had found a strong person.

"Impressive. Have you any idea the power you hold inside you? You scratch but the surface, yet there is much much more to you. I will help you train. Your electricity, as well as your wind creation. But for now, let's test the latter. I'm going to drop you. And you... need to fly."

As soon as the voice ceased, Patrick would find himself falling. The wires had stopped floating. It was a long drop, so the boy had plenty of time to figure out what he was doing. Of course, Zou wouldn't let him die from the fall. He'd break the fall with the wires early enough that it wouldn't harm him. But Zou wasn't going to show any signs of that just yet. Patrick's abilities might work best under pressure. And few things were more pressing than the sight of the ground growing rapidly closer...

”Wait you're going to wha....” In the next moment he found himself plummeting through the air at an ever increasing speed, the vertigo almost enough to make him vomit as he tried to summon the power of the air around him. There seemed to be nothing as he continued his plummet, trying to imagine the wind carrying him, anything that would stop this seemingly hopeless free fall. ”Come on, just stop me dammit.” He muttered, the sounds of his voice drowned out by the wind. In an instant he felt himself stop the fall, floating in air for what felt like a moment before he veered and resumed the sharp fall. Well so much for that. He waited for the inevitable splat, but found himself being held aloft by something, by wires. Atleast the guy had no intentions of letting him hit the ground, but it wasn't like he really enjoyed being dropped like that. He was not a fan of heights in general, and being dropped from them was also a close second.

A small start. Patrick had done well to stop himself for just a moment. It was a small start. But Victor could work with that. The boy had the ability, he simply needed the time to master it. Now Zou had touched on both of his abilities, and seen his level of power and control. And while the electric ability was far more destructive, his ability to conjure wind could be just as useful. Such abilities... Patrick could power a small town with them, he just didn't know it. Nor did he have the control to do so safely. He was a threat, both to himself and those around him. He needed training, yes, but who would train him? There weren't schools for this. This wasn't some pretend game. This was real life.

Of course, they were still falling through the air. Zou stopped him at the last moment, a slow but steady deceleration at the end of the fall that kept him from going splat on the top of some unfortunate business establishment. Victor had enjoyed this little exercise immensely, but the strain of controlling wires from so far away was beginning to take its toll on his real body's endurance, which was small enough already. Next time he would make sure to be there in person. Patrick would find himself hovering a short distance over the building he nearly hit, as Zou's raspy voice found its way into his consciousness once more.

"Not bad. Not great, but not bad. I think this is all the training I have in store for you today. We will meet again, not to worry. For now, I need to vanish for a while. And you need to collect your things and return home. I will call on you soon enough, when I have a training system laid out that is more... efficient than this one."

And with that, the wire man would set Patrick down in a deserted alleyway, and the wires would go limp, falling from the boy's body lifelessly. Zou had left the wires, and they were no longer at his disposal. And Patrick was on his own once again, free and able to go about as he pleased. As for Victor, he let out a silent sigh as his wire control ceased. He was exhausted, he realized. That was more strain than he had put himself under in a while. Victor wondered just how much strain he could handle. And just how extensive his control could be. He would have to look into that.

For the moment, however, the police were finished with him. He was free to leave, while they were free to look for a suit of wires, which they may well find. Victor did not care. He was not linked to the wires he controlled yet. And even when he was... what prison would be able to hold him? Besides, he had gone out of his way to make sure nobody had died. As far as Victor was concerned, that made his crime a minor one, with a much greater reward than mere money. Victor had found someone he could train. And perhaps someone who could help him as well.

((Thanks for an awesome rp. I feel like pushing the training any further would get boring at this point, so I'm gonna go ahead and end it now. I have a few training ideas though, and I think you'll like them, if you're interested. If not, thanks for a fun thread and I'll see you!))