Friday evenings are the worst (Open)

“I’m not from Chicago,” she replied. Eve thought it would have been obvious. Of course, she did not know much about any Crime Syndicate running around. She just thought all that happened was just a series of unfortunate events. “Okay, that sounds good,” she said with a nod. Of course she didn’t mean ‘good’ in a good sense, but a good in the sense that she understood the information he was relaying to her. She wondered how they might be able to save the hostage, running a few more ideas through her head before looking up to Ranger to listen to his plan.

“I’m up for anything,” she said. The plan seemed good enough for her. It was simple and therefore probably couldn’t be messed up. She was going to make sure that the hostage did not get hurt, no matter what. She took a deep breath and allowed for him to sweep her up and run into the bank. She was glad she didn’t have super speed because she honestly thought it was the most surreal feeling in the world.

She sighed and began to emit her cold aura, allowing the area to slowly drop in temperature. The cold was often associated with intimidation, and that was probably what she was best at. She watched as he dashed off to grab the gun. With that done, she leapt over the counter and aimed a kick straight to the confused gunman’s head. The man fell over, and she gave him a punch in the face to make sure that he was thoroughly knocked out. The poor child hostage was startled and crying, to which Eve just gave them a pat on the head. She picked them up and ran out of the bank, passing them over to one of the police to deal with before running back inside to back up the Ranger.

Her part of the plan was done, but if he needed any help, she would be there to give them a firm roundhouse kick to the face. Though, from the looks of it he seemed to have it handled.

Having it handled was certainly an understatement, four people against the second greatest archer alive in a space as small as a vault? It was easier than counting to one, okay well maybe not that easy but to Ranger it was pretty damn easy. As soon as he whistled and the bank robbers turned around to take notice of the hooded archer standing behind them the closest two were taken down with one electric net arrow where they were tangled up together and the third person was taken down in quickly after with a tranquilizer arrow. As soon as that person was down Ranger moved onto the final person letting loose a snare arrow only for said arrow to pass right through the man, and then thud down dead against the wall behind him. This was no where near new to The Ranger having dealt with meta-human bank robbers before, but one that could become intangible was certainly going to be tough to deal with.

Scratching his head, figuratively, Rey tried to think of just how he was going to deal with the man who stood before him. That is of course until the man drew a gun and fired the first round of bullets at him. Which of course Ranger dodged with relative ease, ducking to the left and then rushing forward at the man at what could be considered normal speed. Upon coming up to the man he threw his hand that wasn’t holding the bow forward and slammed the man’s gun hand up against the wall knocking said gun out of the man’s hand. “No guns.” The Ranger barked out at the man as the bank robbers other fist came flying out into the Ranger. By in that of course is exactly what happened, the man’s fist phased threw our Crimson colored hero’s chest and pounded into one of his ribs before being pulled out forcibly.

Having had the wind knocked out of him and a new hole in his chest that had not been there before hand Ranger grasped at the area with both hands and stumbled backwards. This was certainly not something he had calculated to have happen. He knew when dealing with other meta-humans you had to plan for every possibility, but how could one plan for a fist breaking their rib from the inside and then pulling said fist out of the body the hard way? Grunting with pain he struck the man across the face faster than the human eye could account for and knocked the man out with one strike before he himself knelt down holding his own wound while trying to keep the blood from pouring out.Everything had been going so good and yet the night had only truly just begun…

The Serbian Assassin was, for once, wandering in a city, with a purpose. Usually he was just wondering because he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have many jobs to do, well actually he purposefully didn’t get involved with many jobs, and really found a hard time trying to find out what to do with himself. This is why he spent so much time thinking and why he was going through this mid-life crisis.

The reason he was in the windy city was that he had finally caught wind of Frank Bjorgenson aka “The Ghost”. He had ripped Zoran off a long time ago in a deal they cut. Zoran was hired by Frank to assassinate a local crime lord, and had paid Zoran half of the money up front and was going to pay him half after the job was finished. Well, when Zoran came to collect the other money, “The Ghost” had an ambush waiting for him. Zoran managed to defeat it, but Frank, due to his intangibility powers, had managed to escape.  After some convincing information, Zoran knew that Frank had come here to Chicago and Zoran had been secretly tracking him for some time.

Recently, a lot of activity had been happening at Frank’s hideout and he knew Frank and his gang was planning something. Today it happened. Zoran followed them to the bank robbery and was disappointed. Of course it had to be a bank robbery. A classic crime that brought tons of cops which made it hard for Zoran to get to Frank if he needed to. Worst of all though, it could bring superheroes. Zoran didn’t despise superheroes, but usually they didn’t make his plans easy. He guessed Frank wouldn’t be caught, but if he was and superheroes arrived, things could get ugly. Zoran didn’t know what life was about, but right now he figured that getting revenge on someone was something worth living for.

However, as Zoran watched the bank robbery go down as if he were an innocent bystander, he saw two superheroes arrive on the scene. He sighed and went down a dark alley to dress for the occasion. One thing he knew about superheroes were that they were tenacious and did not give up until they succeeded, which probably meant that Frank would be captured. Just stay out of my business, Zoran grumbled to himself as he stripped his clothes to reveal his more or less makeshift black costume with all the “SA”s and Serbian crests printed on it. They he put on his mask that covered the bottom half of his face with the large Serbian crest over his mouth, and walked out to claim his prize.

When he arrived back on the scene he had seen two superheroes, but now only saw one. She was delivering a hostage over to the authorities. The only, he figured, must still be inside.  He knew it was dangerous to encounter a whole bunch of cops and two superheroes, but he didn’t mean to fight them all and win. He just wanted into get Frank and then get out and get away as soon as possible. Hopefully it would go according to plan. Why do you have to make things so hard Frank? He thought, then continued Why am I even doing this? Yet he did not back down and drew his uzi, ran up and across the cop cars at over 50 mph, zoomed past the super heroine, and didn’t stop until he reached the bank vault where he knew they must be since there were no men in the police cars yet.

He stopped to see a red arrow man standing over all four bank robbers, including Frank.  How could one archer do all this? he wondered, He must have dangerous powers. However, when he looked again, the archer wasn’t standing, in fact he was kneeling and bleeding all over the place. Well looks like Frank didn’t give up without a fight, he chuckled in his mind. This would make things a whooole lot easier though.  It also gave Zoran leverage.

“Okay, now step away from the robber you just decked and him over to me,” Zoran said levelly. He didn’t really want a fight, and he hoped this man would comply quickly as he heard the cops yelling and beginning to formulate a plan outside.

Any normal bank robber wouldn’t stand a chance against either of them, that much was obvious, but a metahuman bank robber was definitely a new concept to Eve. By the time she had arrived at the vault, Ranger was knelt down, cradling what seemed to be an extremely large wound. She glanced over to the tall stranger that had somehow made his way into the vault, though she paid him no heed for the time being.

She pulled out her white work shirt from her handbag and began tearing it in order to make a sort of makeshift bandage. Usually, she wouldn’t be tearing up her shirt for strangers, but this was the man who had helped her in the alleyway, so she considered that the favour had to be repaid sooner or later. She strode over to his side, knelt down, and began attempting to bandage his wounds. It wouldn’t be the best bandage in the world, but it should help just a tad. Eve had made sure to tie it tightly so it wouldn’t fall off, and for it to apply pressure on the gaping wound over his chest. He would probably need medical attention as soon as possible, lest he wanted to bleed out.

“Alright,” she asked, though it was more of a statement than a question. “Good job.” It was definitely a sincere notion. She believed hard work should receive praise, and that is just what she did. Eve then turned her attention to the strange man who seemed to act as if he owned the place. She stood up and looked up at him, examining what she could of him.

“I don’t think that you are permitted to take bank robbers out of the crime scene,” she stated plainly. She had only just stopped her cold aura from being emitted, but being close to her would still feel rather chilly. Though, if she knew anything about masked crusaders and the like, it was that none of them would stand down due to a little cold. “You have no business here and it would be best if you left before the authorities mistook you for being in cahoots with them.” She gestured over to the unconscious bodies as she said so.

Eve did not know if the man was actually a part of the bank heist’s gang, or if he was just a random man who had a bone to pick with one of the gang members. Either way, Eve believed in innocence until proven guilty, and she would not want the stranger to get arrested just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad things happened to suspicious people, after all. Though, in all honesty, Eve wanted to get herself and the Ranger out of the vault quickly. It would be better if none of them were seen by the cops, in her opinion.

On the ground kneeling and attempting to hold his wound shut was not the position Ranger wanted to be in when Shiver arrived to the vault to give him whatever backup was needed. This should have been an easy in and out case, but of course Ranger had to get cocky and the intangible man was able to let a punch slide into his god damn chest leaving him with a wound much bigger than any he had thought of obtaining from this fight. Teeth gritted in pain he tried to stand up only to fall back to one knee as Shiver bandaged his wound with her own shirt. She may have thought them to be even now but he would still owe her that debt. “Thanks…” he muttered out through barred teeth as he attempted to stand.

Using the wall to support himself he slung his bow back over to his front and extended it, notching a tranquilizer arrow as he pointed it at the man. “Look I think you should do as the woman says, just get out of here and leave the unconscious men for the police.” Sure, he wasn’t in the best position to be making any sort of suggestions let alone demands or threats but he was damn sure he was still the best fighter in that vault with or without an injury. You weren’t trained by the god damn Black Knight and Black Arrow for two to three years and didn’t pick things up along the way. He of course wanted to stay and make sure the man in front of him didn’t make a move against the man lying down on the ground but he knew staying for the police was a bad idea. Especially now with all the anti-hero propaganda going around.

Motioning for Shiver to get out Ranger slowly started to move forward before switching his tranquilizer arrow for an electric net arrow which he shot out over the top of the unconscious body of the man the weird SA man was going after. Now, if he tried to touch the body he would be electrocuted with enough volts to either take down or phase even the toughest of super humans. “Like I said, get out before the cops show up or you hurt yourself.” He muttered to the man once more using the wall as a support as he caught up to Shiver and snuck out of the back of the bank with her. Now he wasn’t too sure what was going to happen in that bank but he certainly did not like the looks of the random man that was in there.

Zoran, with all his tactical wit, did not expect the situation to turn out as it did. First off, the lady's arrogance staggered him. She walked by him as if he didn't matter and went straight to her friend. Perhaps it was a front however. While inwardly he was fuming as much as his stony heart could fume, but outwardly he still took it all in as if he had planned it from the beginning.

Then, after she bandaged her friend, she told Zoran to leave saying, “I don’t think that you are permitted to take bank robbers out of the crime scene." With that, a smirk stretched his face for an instant before vanishing. First off, even though he was a foreigner, he knew America well enough after a few decades to understand what he was doing was illegal. He didn't understand if she was mocking him or truly believed he was that stupid. He meant to reply, but then quickly realized time was short.

Quickly his mind started to work, calling rapidly all the information and experience he had gathered from his century long assassin career and began to work it into a plan. Soon, he began to sense cold in the room, as if an arctic blast had blown through the vault. However, he was just outside and it was nowhere near as cold as it was in here. Looking at her and then the archer, he deduced by her stance and look that she was the one producing the cold. A cold manipulator, possibly ice manipulator, he thought in his mind. She could be very dangerous, depending on what her abilities were in this. If she could only drop temperatures, he shouldn't have a problem with her. However, if she could manipulate ice and make ice weapons, he might be in a bit of trouble. She likely would not have superhuman strength or durability, Zoran thought. He believed that if he could get behind her with his lightening fast reflexes and inhuman speed and deliver a knockout blow to the back of her head, she would quickly be out of it leaving only the wounded archer whom Zoran did not count out, but had no fear of as of this moment. Likely he would try to fire an arrow which Zoran could dodge, then the Assassin could land a foot plant in the man's face, take him out of the fight, grab Frank, and get out of there before the cops even got in.

As The Serb readied for his attack, he saw the archer notch an arrow to his bow and then agree with the woman. Zoran expected nothing less. What happened next, however, Zoran did not foresee.

The archer all of a sudden switched arrows, perhaps reconsidering his current course of action, and then shot the new arrow at Frank, which covered him in some sort of an electrified net. Zoran's facial expression, almost never caught off guard like this, even moved for a half second into a surprised face, before contorting back to its usual stoniness. "Like I said, get out of here before the cops show up or you hurt yourself," the archer firmly said. It might have been a front for his weakness, but it came off like cockiness and Zoran hated cockiness if he hated anything.

Then, as Zoran formulated a new plan, he saw the archer starting to leave with the lady out the back of the bank. Sighing, he aimed his uzi at Frank. Perhaps the archer had saved him some trouble. Imagine how hard it would have been to capture and keep a man that could phase. With that comfort, The Serbian Assassin pulled the trigger and fired one shot into the unfortunate robbers head, killing him almost instantaneously. Then whirling around, he saw the archer and the lady leaving. It wasn't worth it to chase them, he had no real quarrel with them.

Just then the cops burst through the front doors and Zoran immediately opened fire, killing two before he was riddled with bullets. As he layed on the ground and felt the blood pour out of his body, he waited for his body to knit together before he could be back on his feet and out of the bank before the cops knew what happened.

(OOC: Errr should we end it here or should at least I get out of here? Unless your guys chase after me there is no real way I can keep going here. What do you guys think?)

Eve questioned how such a big wound had appeared in the Ranger’s chest in the first place, but decided that it was a question best kept to herself. Maybe one of the robbers had some sort of acid gun, but from a quick glance she knew none of them were carrying anything too sophisticated. Not that she even believed bank robbers could handle anything more than an automatic pistol. She reached down, offering a hand or arm if the Ranger wanted to use it for extra support when standing up. From the looks of it, he seemed to have been having trouble the first time. That would have been expected, considering his injury.

As the Ranger proceeded to lean on the wall, Eve spent the few moments formulating different plans of leaving without having to participate in any unnecessary conflict. Whoever the stranger was, she didn’t want to know just what he could do. For all the knew, they could be biting off more than they could chew by fighting him. Plus, she had a feeling that the police would arrive soon and therefore possibly jump to wrong conclusions.

She followed Ranger closely, just in case he needed any support. Loss of blood did tend to lead to lightheadedness and the possible inability to balance properly. She assumed he was tough enough to handle it, but she was still there if need be. She took a few steps away as he took out his bow and arrow, firing at the knocked out bank robber that the stranger had wanted. In all honesty, Eve just wanted to get out of the bank before any discrepancies took place.

As the left, she heard the dull ringing of gunshots. She assumed that the stranger had come armed. Either that, or the police force had arrived at the scene and started firing. To Eve, her job was done and dusted and therefore she had no business dealing with whatever came after as a consequence of the arrival of the stranger. She quietly wondered if people were dead from the gunshots she had heard, but she quickly dismissed the thought. None of it really concerned her anyway.

(OOC: Well, whichever you'd prefer I'm honestly okay with everything, though it doesn't seem as if any of them have a tiff with each other.)

Spoiler:

Upon exiting the bank behind Shiver Ranger heard something behind him, something that he had not wanted to hear that night or any night ever. The sound of gun shots rang out through the still of the night, and had he been at full strength the hooded archer would have raced back into the building to see just what it was that happened, who fired the bullets and at what. But because of the gaping wound given to him by the meta-human bank robber there was physically no way he would be able to stop anything from proceeding how it wanted. All he could do was slowly walk along using Shiver for support when he needed and try to block out the sound of the gun fire in the bank.

A short while later he noticed that Shiver was walking them towards a hospital, one that wasn’t too far from the abandoned warehouse which housed the Knightwatch Lair underneath it. “Yea…how about we don’t go to the hospital…even out of costume I’d rather not let anyone know I have a hole in my stomach.” He coughed up grinning ever so slightly, the pain not as bad anymore but mainly because he had been thinking of other things. “There’s something I need to show you anyway, and I can get patched up there…” The Ranger spoke out as he turned ever so slightly, cringing as he did, and motioned with his head for her to follow down the side road where he headed over to the ‘Abandoned’ Warehouse.

Entering it with Shiver next to him he proceeded to walk over to the ‘long’ hallway that eventually led to an elevator; there he pressed a button and allowed the retinal scan to do its thing. The elevator doors opened and he stepped inside, leaning against the door as he waited for Shiver to follow him. “You coming or what?” The Ranger muttered out closing his eyes and waiting for the elevator to go down. Sure, he probably shouldn’t trust Shiver with all of this information without first consulting Malus at least but he figured she could be trusted. That and Ranger believed there was a place for her on the team. If she wanted to be on the team that was of course. When the doors to the elevator finally closed Ranger let himself relax while they descended. “Shiver…welcome to the Knightwatch Lair….” The old base for the Phantoms, he thought to himself as the doors opened and he lumbered inside to a chair.
((yupp we can end the topic now, as soon as Shiver either accepts or declines the indentation to the team. Thanks for the bit of struggle SA...sorry you couldn't be used more.))

((I guess this'd mean it's my post, though I'm really sorry for cutting. I'm leaving tonight so I just kind of want to get this here first before I forget . If SA does post, just put it above mine, I'm sorry. Thanks SA, maybe we could plan something else next time!))

Eve made sure to give the Ranger as much support as she could, so that they could walk at a decent enough pace. She planned to take him to the nearest hospital to get his wound fixed up. She wasn’t going to just let him bleed out on the streets somewhere. Plus, the hospital was the only place she could possibly bring him too, since she wasn’t going to bring a bleeding man back to her place. She was a scientist, not a doctor. That and she just did not want any relative strangers anywhere near where she stayed.

As they walked, she started thinking up possible excuses for why he had a gaping hole in his chest. It wouldn’t be the easiest thing to convince doctors and nurses that the wound was just an accident. She turned her attention to the Ranger as he spoke up. It was an understandable statement to her, after all entering a hospital while suited up could potentially cause a few problems. “I am assuming that you know a doctor,” she said, following him closely. She still gave him support but allowed him to lead the way. She was sceptical about the whole abandoned warehouse that he seemed to be leading her to.

She glanced around the warehouse as they entered, though nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. It had that empty, slightly suspicious feel that most abandoned warehouses had. She followed him to the elevator and was slightly surprised to see that it was functioning. Of course her face did not show any surprise whatsoever, but in her mind she wondered how they were able to get it to start working again. Not to mention it had a retinal scanning device that was probably meant to keep any intruders out. Eve was curious, and after quickly weighing out the pros and cons, she stepped into the elevator.

Eve took a deep breath as the elevator began to descend. She hoped her curiosity for what lay beneath the abandoned warehouse wouldn’t get her killed. Sure, she didn’t doubt her ability to take on anything that was thrown at her, but it was always good to stay on alert. She would rather be safe than sorry. As the elevator doors slid open, Ranger mentioned that it was the ‘Knightwatch Lair’, whatever that was. She guessed it was some kind of group like the types found in comic books. She glanced about before attempting to help Ranger get himself to a nearby chair.

“Nicely positioned place,” she said, “Retinal scans increase security. Nobody would suspect a working elevator in an abandoned building.” Needless to say, Eve was quite impressed by it all. She didn’t know Chicago even had enough heroes to start up its own group.

(No, you're fine Shivver, I'm done with the thread. Thanks anyways. Hopefully I'll get a little more posting in if we do it again!)