Winter wonderland

It was a cold night in Chicago, cold front sweeping across the state of Illinois and bringing with it many things that the city was so used to, and something that Michael hated. It was really cold, cold enough that his breath was easily visible and snow was beginning to fall down from the sky. These small white flakes that fell daintily in heavy drifts, whitening anything that it happened to fall upon and hell were they cold as well. Michael shivered lightly, pulling his coat closer, perhaps wondering if taking a younger form was a wise choice. His hair was a lighter brown, in a shorter style that was slightly mussed up and height diminished to around two inches under four feet, which seemed smaller than most eleven year old human males that he saw around the city these days. One thing that did not change within all of this was the fact that his eyes were perplexing silver, with minute flecks of green that would have given him away as something more than human; if humans were not so idiotic.

Andrew walked a few steps behind him, mulling over the fact that he was now a kid in comparison to his fully grown form. Sure, part of him wished that he could change his shape as freely as Michael could, but then again he wouldn’t choose to turn into a female just to mess with people. True the shock value had some impact; it only took a few times before he really grew bored by the trick and expected something else of him. ”Michael, are you sure this is going to work?” He said under his breath, looking down upon the small male that was walking alongside of him, perhaps a little too fragile looking for the monster that he knew lurked under that calm exterior.

”You need to have a little faith Andrew.” Michael retorted with a smirk, digging hands into his dark colored cargo pants, growing slightly irritated by the collar of his jacket that was itching his neck. With a jerk of his head that was fixed, and then the cold would once again slip through his jacket to annoy the male.

”That does not breed confidence in me.” He noted shivering just as much as Michael was, though he was perhaps just doing so out of habit. While the ethereal was relatively new to the windy city, Andrew was a native, so that meant he was slightly used to the cold that was whipping across it now. One of the many flakes of white falling touched Michael’s face, cold as it quickly melted into a drop that fell down his cheek. That would be repeated continuously as more of the snow would fall upon his warm face, some of it not melting but simply sticking there, and adding a sort of pale effect. He knew that Blaze and the others were waiting for his signal; his sign that they could begin their mission, one that he learned via television was rather cliché. Michael however saw the simplicity in a robbery, if it was performed correctly.

The red haired female was already waiting close to the target; a simple looking bank really but then again simplicity would only make it easier. Sure he had managed to garner himself an interesting amount of informants across the city, it was not enough, and he would make his influence stretch further until he was the sole criminal element within the city. There were many others that stood within his way, but they could only do so much before stretching thing, and Michael would find that breaking point. Following after the dirty blonde male, Michael would walk in after him into the rather clean looking bank, people waiting in line as the people behind the desks did whatever they did. It was nice that they were inside, where it was slightly warmer, and where he did not find himself wracked with annoying shivers.

Silver orbs darted about taking note of the small cameras swiveling about, taking in everything, though they would have that dealt with soon enough. If Blaze was half as trustworthy as she liked them to believe her to be, she would have some kind of technopath to help her out with those, and maybe even to disable that annoying silent alarm that he had heard so much about. Luckily both he and Andrew were rather skilled actors, so they managed to keep any suspicion off of them, or it appeared. Unless there were any Metahumans of the mindreading variety about, he was more than sure that they were set. His taller friend would approach the counter, and draw a certain amount, and upon stating his name everything would begin. The young looking male behind the counter perked up, eyes a strange hazel color and hair a slightly disheveled brown. He looked to the male approaching him, and smiled lightly before looking down at the short male not breaking the expression, something about him seeming off.
”Yeah, I would like to make a deposit.” Andrew said simply, placing a slightly crumpled check down, as the male would follow it with a slightly fatigued expression. It was late, so perhaps he was simply looking forward to the end of his shift, which seemed reasonable.

”Okay.” He looked down at wrinkled check and back up. ’Andrew Webb, right?’ Andrew nodded, keeping an equal expression on his face as he waited for the signal to come and within moments it did, as one could hear someone walk through the bank door. It was a female wearing a mask, with a small amount of red hair protruding from beneath, as well as a male dressed similarly. The female issued fire from her hands, blanketing the entrance of the bank to that no one else would be able to get in or out, and the sprinkler system did not start up as was usual. While externally Michael played the part of the frightened kid, internally he knew that everything was coming together, so long as they played it cool.

”Okay everyone, you know the drill. Don’t move or I kill you, blah blah blah/” Her partner was silent, but then again that was always the case, as they moved from the flames that were blocking off the front entrance towards the counter.

The "Windy City," or more commonly known as Chicago, but "Windy City" seems to be more relevant. Chicago is no New York, but it is still one of Francisco's favorite cities in America. This city has a history that is comparable to many of the major cities in the United States, but it's most glorified being its sports history. Francisco was in town to visit the history museum and it was also to get away from the rubble and turmoil of New York. A break, something that Francisco needed dearly.

Little flakes were falling into Francisco's hair as he walked towards the bank. He was wearing a black fitted suit with a black overcoat and black gloves. The contrast of his outfit and the snow made him stand out more than anyone else. The snowflakes fell on his overcoat and stuck for a little while before eventually melting. He was going to the bank for a simple reason: to deposit money. He wasn't very fond of carrying large amounts of money, but it wasn't because he was scared of getting robbed. Safety was definitely not an issue. It's just that carrying a lot of money is tacky. Some people like to carry a lot of money, but they are just elitists who like to show off what they have. Humbleness is true class.

Francisco pushed open the door to the bank, a warm breeze greeting him as he walked in. He took a deep breath in; the cold was nice, but warmth is always refreshing. He took off his gloves and placed them into one of his overcoat pockets as he walked toward one of the open tellers and smiled at her and she smiled back. It was a woman in her 50s who looked like she should be home in bed. "Hello ma'am, I would like to make a deposit." He said as he placed a stack of bills and his ID onto the counter. She took the money and started accessing his account. While he waited, he heard the door open to see two figures: a child and what looked like the caretaker of said child. Something seemed off about the child, but Francisco couldn't put his finger on it, so he decided to ignore that feeling and his attentive gaze went to back to the lady. As soon as she gave him back his ID, he heard a woman scream.

The cause for the scream was because a lady was shooting fireballs out of her hands, cutting off the entrance and the exit, she wasn't an idiot. He just could never get a break. Francisco sighed and began taking off his overcoat, tie and unbuttoned his suit jacket, doing it discreetly among the chaos. He placed the overcoat and tie on a chair behind him. Luckily, he was always prepared for situations like this, as he had two knives in his jacket. Everyone was in disarray, but that was normal. Everyone slowly got on the ground, even Francisco. While he got down, he used his psychokinetic powers to slide down his suit jacket. The knives then dropped into his hands and Francisco sprung up and threw the knives with his telekinetic powers as an enhancement. The knives were moving at an incredible speed and were aimed at the right knee of each robber. He then quickly got into a defensive stance, ready to protect anyone in the bank.

Michael would allow the little plan of his to work out as he wanted it, putting on a shocked face as he hide behind Andrew, who could have no helped him even if he wanted to. While he was a powerful healer, fighting was not a strong suit for the Metahuman and that meant even if Blaze attacked him, all he could do was die and revive a little while later. The pyrokinetic looked over the small amount of people within the building, most of them already having dropped to their knees as they seemed to be following standard procedure, though there was one person that was going a different route than the usual, and that was going to prove annoying on her part.

One of them was a Metahuman and within a snap he was moving, throwing dangerous looking knives at them, all of them moving pretty quick and she had little time to really draw the katana at her side. Within a moment however, the male moved, grabbing Blaze and pulling her behind him as the knife aimed for her flew into the flames and the other slammed painfully into his knee, causing him to groan and buckle into a kneel. If he had not increased the hardness of his skin just in time, blood would have been spilt and that would have not gone well with Goliath in the least. ’Bastard is going to pay for that.” He growled lowly, teeth showing in the small slit of the mask that showed his mouth.

He looked to Michael, trying to relax as much as possible before relaxing as much as the angry male could. Sure this Metahuman was a small bump within the plan, but he was sure that their great leader would be more than able to get them out of this situation without causing trouble himself. ’Nice trick little man.” He spat venomously, loudly cracking his knuckles as eyes shot to Blaze who was simply standing behind him, jarred by the sudden jerk. She walked around him, looking upon the young Metahuman that had managed to slow them down, considering ways that they could move him out of the way quickly.

Drawing upon her weapon, the pyrokinetic took on a stance, weapon becoming cherry red with the heat that she was running through it. ”I know we have a mission to do, but let’s have a little fun with this guy first.” Okay, they were straying far from the initial plan, but not like Michael could tell them that, considering that he was supposed to be the helpless little kid cowering. If anything, that taught him not to trust off the wall allies like these, but then again they got the job done, so the occasional skirmish could be forgiven. Blaze unleashed a torrent of flames, aiming to force Psynapse to move to the side or something along those lines, and when that happened Goliath would use superhuman speed to close the distance.

Spoiler:

Only Francisco would walk into a situation like this, but being a metahuman came with responsibilities. Though his first attack didn't go as planned as he wanted it to, he did gain some valuable information about his opponents. The woman was a pyrokinetic with a sword that possibly channeled her energy. The brute was just that, a brute. Seeing as his knife didn't immobilize him, he must have been a tank. He was dangerous, but not as dangerous as his companion. While the brute talked, Francisco talked to the other people in a voice only they could hear, "I'm going to create an opening and that's when I want all of you to escape. You'll know it when you see it."

As a psychokinetic, it was only second nature for him to "feel" everything around him and to make the entire battlefield his weapon. The sprinklers didn't go off when Blaze first used her powers, which meant that they sabotaged the sprinklers because of her pyrokinesis. As soon as he realized this though, Blaze unleashed a torrent of flames, aimed directly at him. Francisco quickly moved two of his fingers in a downward motion causing all of the sprinklers to come down and activate, including the ones by the entrance. The water would weaken her and her flames, which meant that she would be the first one to be taken care of. Francisco ran towards the flames wary of each step, he didn't want to fall and embarrass himself. As he approached the flames, Francisco made a swiping motion with both of his arm. This swiping motion created a temporary rift in the flames, in a sense it was as if he was Moses parting the Red Sea.

The rift was only temporary though, so he would have to move quickly before the fire closed in on him. He could feel the heat from the surrounding flames and could tell that being touched by these would kill him, but that wasn't a problem, as he was now close enough to Blaze to do some real damage. Francisco then threw his palm at Blaze, who was roughly ten feet away, in a punching motion. What came out of his palm was a high powered telekinetic push, aimed directly at her chest. The other customers saw this opportunity and sprinted towards the entrance/exit. Francisco smirked and jumped to the right and out of the way of the flames.

Unfortunately, the brute took that as his opportunity to close the distance. "Shit." said Francisco as a punch went flying towards his face. Francisco made a slight movement with his head to the left, narrowly dodging the punch. The wind from punch was fierce, one could tell that it was pure strength. Francisco then threw a knee at Goliath's stomach, but stopped just inches in front of him. What followed the knee was a telekinetic push that was the size of Franny's knee, but had enough force in it to blast a hole through a brick wall.

So the hero was planning to let the hostages escape while he dealt with the two Metahumans, however Michael was not planning to allow something like that to happen. The fact that he believed that the young Ethereal was part of the hostages made everything much easier, perhaps too easy but then again one should not look a gift horse in the mouth. When this opening came about, Michael would easily crush the small amount of hope that the male Metahuman was instilling within all of the people in this situation. Silver pools followed every small movement, sizing them up and equating them into a contingency plan. That was however when the sprinklers activated themselves, much to Michael and Blazes chagrin as the water began to rain down upon them. Whatever the hell happened, that stupid technopath was not doing his job and the entire job was threatening to go down the toilet.

The liquid fell upon the flames, causing them to dip in intensity and giving the psychokinetic enough leeway to make his move. He managed to tear a temporary rift within the large amount of flames sent for him, and within that small moment made his rush towards Blaze, speed admirable within its own rights. The flames themselves found it nearly impossible to keep up with the rather speedy male, coming in only a few inches behind him and he was gaining ground quickly. Within seconds he was around ten feet away from Blaze and thrust his hand forward, though she had an idea what was being sent her way. In a flash she crossed both arms over her chest and drew as much fire as possible between her and the powerful force.

A hole was torn in the center of the pyrokinetic shield and the female was thrown off her feet, slamming hard against the glass doors. Large cracks spider webbed across one of them before falling apart. It was within this moment that Goliath charged, his fist narrowly missing the males head, using enough force to have perhaps reduced the skull to nothing but shards of calcium. Within the short seconds that followed his attack, something slammed into his stomach, and sent the male flying into the nearby wall, causing the material to crack as he felt to the floor breathless.

Michael however followed the customers, keeping up the charade of being the helpless kid, right until the final moments when he could find a chance to make a quick change. His people could deal with the little Metahuman for a while, and he would be able to do what he did best, sow discord and cause overall trouble. Andrew was following close after him, both running past a stunned Blaze, who was attempting to push back onto her feet. She would not be humiliated by some young punk of a Metahuman, not here and not now. Pressing elbows o0nto the ground, she jumped to her feet, and with a roar unleashed a grand blaze of flames, but not at the Metahuman; it was aimed at the ones trying to escape.