Just an Average Heist (Nightdread) Double XP

The Windy City was glistening white snow. It was a little after New Year's and the feeling of celebration still hung in the air.  Andre Spade examined the city below, from his expensive pent house, sipping a martini, while some girl (who's name he was blanking on) rubbed his shoulders. He'd grown up in those streets down below, and now he lived above them. Life was good. He looked down at his S-Phone upon receiving a message.  

Windy City News:
First Chicago Bank under siege, assailants appear to be meta....
The notification cut off there.

Andre smirked, and calmly walked over and placed his drink on one of his expensive marble tables. "Pardon me ma'am. I currently have far more important matters to attend to." He said to the woman, gesturing his head towards the door. Her mouth opened for a moment, as if to protest, but she finally scoffed and marched out, whispering something under her breathe. "Thank you." He said to her, as an after thought,  before climbing up his fire escape, onto the roof. He smirked, and shook some of the snow off, as he closed his eyes, and in his mind he spoke to the machine on his chest, and his suit began to retract. The blue and black Spade v1 completely enveloped him, and began to power up. Inside, a display appeared in front of him, listing news headlines, weather, time and more. With a mental command, the suits jets sprang to life, and lifted him off and away from the roof top. 'First Chicago Bank', he thought, and the suit began to fly towards the bank. He arrived in under a minute. 'Thermal', he thought, and the display in front of him instantly showed the thermal scans of the building. He examined the situation at hand. The building had exactly 32 people inside, 14 women and 18 men. 'Amplify sound', he thought again, and the suit complied.

"The vault contains approximately 600,000, and each patron should have roughly 100 to 4,000 dollars in cash, not to mention valuables." a raspy voice said.
"That's IT!?" He heard a woman yell, "We're doin' all this for little more than half a mil!?". She had a thick southern accent.
Spade now heard, what sounded like static. "He's bein all screwy again!" Yelled the southern woman, clearly annoyed. "Hit him." The man responded.
Spade heard a bang on a metallic object. "Thanks -bzzt-, I was -bzzt-.." another bang, followed by a sigh. "I was trying to inform you that we are currently being monitored by a man with rather impressive machinery, from directly above us." the voice, clearly robotic said. "Interesting." Spade thought out loud. His technopathy allowed him to know that this machine wasn't fully machine, but it had organic components as well. Unfortunately, Spade was temporarily distracted, trying to read through it's code, and the female figure unleashed a blast of red energy, that tore a hole in the roof of the bank, and knocked Spade away. "Well. This is going to be...unpleasant." he groaned.

Driving though Chicago was much easier than walking and since Night had come by a nice amount of cash from a previous job, a taxi was a luxury. Night was on his way out of town, when a string of police cars caught his attention. "Hey... if I pay you double can you follow those cops? Night asked raising one eyebrow. The driver didn't seem to keen, but money is almost anyone's weakness no matter how little, and with a well timed U-turn the taxi drive sped in pursuit.

"Is something going on at the bank? A robbery... I sure hope not...." the driver muttered under his breath, but it was just loud enough for it to catch Night's attention.

:How far are we from the bank? Night asked unbuckling his seat belt.

"About one block, why..." the driver was cut off as the back door of the taxi opened and Night disappeared from the car. Night narrowly missed an on coming EMS vehicle as it sped to the scene, and began sprinting on foot the final block to the bank. Suddenly a loud bang shook the ground as an explosion of sorts erupted from inside the bank, blowing a section of roof clean off. Shielding his eyes from debris, Night managed to see a large crowd of cops gathering outside, reading their positions for a seemingly futile attempt to calm the situation. That blast was way to powerful to be a grenade or even a rocket, so a meta-human, was naturally Night's next inclination.

"Alrighty then I just gotta figure out a way in right..." Night trailed off as he caught sight of a flying metal suit hovering just overhead of the scene. Oddly the cops hadn't taken notice of this or where certain he wasn't a threat. "Alright now I really gotta get in there, can't have that thing stealing the whole show" Night chuckled to himself. Closing his eyes Night blocked out all distractions as best he could, with great difficulty, and focused on becoming light as possible. Taking a step up, Night began ascending on nothingness over and above the cop line towards a building that gave a great overview of the situation across the street.

When he finally landed, Night was relieved to see the robot thing hovering still nearby. "Uh, hello! Um, Mr. Robot thing? What's the deal with this?" Night shouted and pointed towards the bank "is it really a heist, because if it is, I believe we should get on with stopping that."

Spade turned, and noticed the boy who was addressing him. He wanted to help, Spade had looked him over and noticed every micro-expression he made, and it was genuine. "From your willingness to help," he moved downwards, "you're clearly a meta. And I have no reason to fight them alone. Here is the situation currently." He explained what had happened prior to the his arrival.

As if on cue, a tall blonde woman executed the bank. She was about 6'2, and surrounded by the same energy that Spade had just...encountered. She let out a roar of anger, and two columns of pure energy shot out and two empty squad cars, blowing them to bits. "She needs to be contained," he began "is that within your capabilities?" he asked the newcomer. "I think I shall handle her two accomplices, if you need my assistance, taking into any phone or one way communicative system, and I will hear." he said, before firing past the woman, and into the bank.

Inside, it was dark. As in pitch black. 'Thermal. Activate lights' he thought. The thermal vision returned, and a light shined from his helmet. He was reading hear signatures all around him, and as he looked downwards, he saw the patrons of the bank. Most were crying in fear, gagged and tied up, however a few appeared to be dead.

He reached over to one, a woman who had begun to shake and scream (or try to at least), as he walked over. "Don't worry. I'm Spade. I'm a hero. And you're sa..." He was cut off by a deeper version of the raspy voice he'd heard earlier. " I think she means. Look behind you." said a voice behind him. He turned to see a man with muscles that were literally tearing through his skin, standing a good 3 feet above him. Without warning, the man threw a punch, which Spade barely evaded, as it knocked over a faux marble column. Spade shot a stun blast from his arm at the man, who was hit but seemed unphased. Spade flew up, to gain the upper hand and regroup.This would be interesting.

"Alright, sure I got this! Night smirked as he jumped to street level. The woman seemed to be charging another attack, but Night wouldn't let her get that opportunity. He fired an ectro pulse from his feet boosting him towards the woman at high speeds, delivering a swift kick to her abdomen and sending her into the out side wall of the bank. But sure enough from the dust shot another beam Night barley avoided. "Wait one beam... shit!" Night shouted as he was bodied by the second attack sending him back into another cruiser.

"Ah goddammit! Night exclaimed picking himself up out of the crushed and mangled remains of the car, "Uh, sorry about the car" he added as a shocked police officer watched him jump back towards the enemy. He needed to end this quickly somehow, but she seemed strong enough to go more than a few rounds and with the amount of collateral she was dishing out. if this wasn't over soon there wouldn't be a lot of city left.

"Hey kid, get lost before I really hurt you" the woman smirked as she raised he hands again. She fired again but was interrupted by Night once again approaching with his elctro pulse, dodging a flying punch and grabbing him by the hood. "You see this is why we let the big kids handle the hero business"

"Hey im just going easy on an old woman, you should always respect your elders right? Night retorted as he charged an electric current through his body, shocking the woman just enough to get her to release her grip. "Also being this close to me isn't recommended."

Spade was focused on his current opponent, the ridiculously muscular gentleman in front of him. The man wore a pair of silver and red goggles, and cargo pants, with the scraps of a shirt on his torso. The man reached out for him, and in response Spade fired two more shots from his Stun Blaster, before flying straight into his chest, knocking the man back. "Graggh fucker!" the man roared at him. 'Environment Scan', Spade thought, searching for the third individual he'd heard earlier. The Spade suit began to scan for a heat signature, but none was found. Unfortunately, Spade's guard was down as he was focused on the missing third party. This allowed for the man to grab his leg, and he was slammed onto the ground multiple times.

"HAHAHAA!!" The man roared with laughter, as he began to press down on Spades suit. He could see the damage mounting, and he knew he had to stop it. He quickly examined the environment as he ran several different thoughts through his head. 'Where is the 3rd person...His strength is greater than my own, he must weigh exactly 412.7 pounds ergo...ah the newcomer is still alive, as I've suspected he is a meta, perhaps I should record the infor...." Spade continued to run several calculations and thoughts through his head, as he began to act.

Using one of the two miniguns, he's shot the perfect points on the ceiling above him, causing a large chunk to fall at just the right time. Spade put more energy into jet propulsion, and managed to create enough tension for the man to let go. As he rose to move towards Spade, he moved straight into the piece of faux marble. There was a crack, and the man stood for a moment, before falling.

Spade approached the man, and observed him as a change seemed to take place. He began to shrink and shrivel, into a man less than half the size. He laid there, breathing still. "Meta. Size-Changer." He said, slightly interested. suddenly, the censors on his suit picked up movement behind him. He'd been running simulations in his head the entire fight, and had determined that his other opponent was either ambushing his new ally, or him. It was the second one.

He turned in time to grab hold of his assailant, although he was still being hit by several long, metal, spider-like limbs. The creature was quite interesting. It's upper half had some human components, but the rest was like a large metallic arachnid. "Jayx...bzztt...C..Condition..Zzzztablee..." it siad, in a voice that had hints of humanity, but was overwhelmingly robotic. "Cyborg." Spade said, with an edge to his voice, as if he was impressed.

The Cyborg began to move closer, "Want..bzztt..mmmmoneeyyyy...Jayx and Taylorrr...bzztt...we will be richhh.." The cyborg was quite obviously suffering from something, and after sifting through his coding, Spade wasn't surprised. "Did you build yourself?" He asked "Quite sloppy indeed.". The cyborg hissed, and lurched at him, energy crackling from the tips of his limbs. "Zzzloppy!? When...bzztt... you're dead..bzzt th..then tell me it'zz zloppy!". Spade smirked, before grabbing hold of one of the legs, above the points from which the energy was originating, and threw him. Directly outside of the bank, and at the woman whom his new ally was engaged with, before flying out after him, showering him with bullets from the mini-guns.

It was getting old exchanging blows and seemingly getting now where with the woman. Night had speed on his side, but she was surprisingly resilient, getting back up after each one of Night attacks. "Shit..." Night grimaced as he look around the area. Nothing he could really use to an advantage out here. The police as well where mostly a hindrance at this point sadly, with Night having to keep half his focus on making sure they weren't incinerated by a stray blast of energy form the woman.

"Hey police guys, it would probably benefit us all if you backed off a bit, uh, please!" Night shouted as was fired back into another cruiser. "Ugh, sorry, but seriously last time this happens I promise." The woman just casually sauntered around waiting for Night to regain his balance, seemingly taunting him. "Ok no more falling for that again" Night muttered readying to pulse jump again, quickly executing the move but just as he was about to strike, jumped to her side as quick as possible and swept at her legs, toppling her.

"Gah!" was all she managed before crashing to the ground. She attempted to release a burst of energy but Night quickly touched his finger to her forehead.

"Sorry about this, but I gotta end this now, its sounding pretty rough inside and I bet its a lot more interesting in there " Night mocked as he sent an electric burst through his finger, knocking her unconscious. "She's all yours boys" Night said as he made his way towards the bank entrance. His acquaintance seemed to be making quite the ruckus inside, as many gunshots could be heard echoing inside. Night decided that since there was already so much action inside, stealth seemed irrelevant and rushed inside to find the suited hero being bombarded with bullets from one of the crooks. A gunfight wasn't the best idea with all the hostages around and clearly his friend was in the middle of something as well.

I could knock the power out, that could work. That fancy suits gotta have some sort of night vision  or something! Night thought looking around for a good spot to assist. "Hey spider freak, catch this! Night shouted as he arched a bolt of electricity towards the spider thing hoping to distract it from firing. "And now for my next trick Ill be taking the light!" he added as he absorbed the electrical power from the room, destroying the light sources in the process.

Spade watched as his ally drained the energy from the Spider-Cyborg. "ZZZtop!" It shrieked, writhing around. The woman seemed to stir, and the suit was reading that the man had started to get up. "Incoming." He began to power up the Stun Blasters, and aimed his at the now approaching woman. She was stumbling, but enraged, and as she stood a column of the energy surrounded her.

From the entry way of the bank, the man was rising, and growing larger and stronger as he approached. "I suppose I shall engage the female, and you , her accomplice?"  Spade said. He began to power up, and energy was cracking from the Stun Blaster. "It's go time." he said. The woman fired a shot at him, which he'd anticipated. Calculating his speed vs hers, as well as their respective masses, he concluded that if he increased output to the propulsion systems by 3% he should effectively immobilize her, temporarily disrupting her concentration. He moved as the plan had called for, however an unforeseen circumstance occurred, as two columns of energy fired from her eyes, knocking him back towards the ally.


He flew forward again, launching a full out assault. His mini guns blazed, and the Stun Blasters fired. The woman fell, and finally gave up. Spade turned to his ally. "I assume you'll finish this soon, I shall free the hostages and report to the authorities." he began to walk away before turning and telling the man his name. Spade.

Night face the Goliath man with a surprising amount of confidence. He knew that the man count move as fast as him, so is increased size and by extension strength was all but useless if he couldn't catch him. "Oh ya I got this, just be a second" Night answered as he waited for the giant to get within striking distance of him, and quickly sidestepped as he struck and delivered a punishing stab of electricity to the mans right calf. Staggering back the man looked like he knew he was beat no matter what he did. His partners were down and the premise was surrounded, so he as a last ditch effort he attempted to grab a hostage. "Oh no you don't!" Night shouted as he pulse jumped and swatted the reach of the giant away.

The man roared in anger but stopped and fell to his knees, clutching his right calf. "Hurts don't it? Night mocked "yeah that's the feeling of your muscles contracting forcibly from that previous dose of voltage!" The man tried to stand but fell back down low enough for Night to strike the back of his head, rendering him unconscious.

Night walked back to Spade, who in the mean time was releasing hostages. Night too busied himself with freeing hostages, and both hero's received ample thanks from the people. "Hey that worked out great! By the way the names Night, its been nice working with you! Night smiled and held his and out to Spade. He was just happy they managed to stop this crime, or things could have gotten rather messy for the police force. "Hopefully we can do this hero thing again together! Night laughed.

Spade nodded. "Yes, Possibly." He said in agreement, extending his hand to shake Night's. "I can give the statement to police." he said, as the mask uncovered his face, and he felt the Chicago chill. He made a mental file of "Night" listing powers, appearance, and every little detail he noticed about him. Knowledge is power after all, and in a world of Metas, power is very useful.

"Well, I suppose I'm officially a hero and all, with my first "team-up" out of the way." Spade chuckled. He then turned, nodding a final farewell to the man, before walking towards the glaring lights of squad cars, snow blowing past him melting on his suit. As he approached, a small boy grabbed his arm, opening his hand for a high five, which Spade delivered. A woman, obviously the boys mother, began to thank him for saving their lives. He smiled. and nodded back at her. He smiled a little, as he walked away from them.  Yup, he was a Hero now. And it felt pretty damn good.

--End--