Money, Money, Money (Open to X-freaks!)

[The Brotherhood]

"This isn't gonna work."

"Dude, you always say that."

"You worry too much, man. You gotta be cool and loose like me."

An unmarked gray Econoline van sat in a sheltered parking lot across a busy street from the First Continental Bank, New York City branch. In the front sat a scrawny teen in a hoodie and a rangy Jamaican with his corded hair tied in a queue. Taking up most of the back was a huge, tatooed Samoan in a beater tank top, his own hair in an untamed explosion out the back of his head.

"It's a bank," said Geryon. "A friggin' bank in the middle of New York City. Where do you think this is, Deadwood? You know what kind of security they got in there?"

"Actually," Tron replied with a coy grin, "yes. It's computerized. Let me handle the digital rent-a-cops. You and Boomer can have a field day with the analog ones."

"I thought you could rob a bank online," Geryon said. "You're always braggin' about skimming a penny off every stock trade."

"Which is great, but sometimes you just need a sack full of hard, sexy cash," Boomer said.

"It's gonna be trouble with the boss," Geryon rumbled.

"Oh, sure. If we get caught. Which we won't." Tron gave a derisive huff. "You want daddy to walk you through the plan again?"

"What is this, The Italian Job?" Geryong grunted. "Let's just get it over with already."

"Music to my ears, man," Boomer said, throwing open the door.

The three mutants piled out of the car and, one by one, left the garage, crossed the street, and strolled through the Continental Bank's revolving door.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul waited patiently in line at the bank, but wondered how much longer it would be. He needed extra money to put down on an apartment in the lower east side, and that meant converting currency. He had twenty thousand rupees in a thick envelope in his Member's Only jacket, thanks to his cousin Kamil, who he still kept correspondence wtih. Still, Vipul knew that he couldn't keep relying on his savings and the good graces of some family members. He was in America, and he had to find a living doing some manner of work. Fortunately, his multitasking abilities were beyond compare, and he already had two Vipuls on full-time duty typing up resumes and posting to job websites.

The door opened behind him, and Vipul looked back to see a trio of strange men enter. He averted his eyes, as he was filled with stories of American criminals and did not need to appear conspicuous, as they would surely beat him with cudgels and steal from him while listening to rap music.

[Amber Bamforth]

In behind the trio, and looking more than a little out of place, was a teenage girl in an over-sized military jacket. She had the misfortune of being squashed into the same compartment as the huge Samoan guy and found herself staring, albeit unwillingly, into one of the huge curving tattoos on his back. As they all stepped out into the bank proper, Amber squeezed past and made a quick beeline for the ATM's, which were stood in a row against a wall to the right of the entrance.

[The Brotherhood]

Tron stepped in line for the tellers, ending up right behind a nondescript Indian-looking man in the labyrinth of felt rope fences.

Geryon wandered over to a brochure rack near the spot where four blue-uniformed security guards were standing and talking idly about the Knicks.

And Boomer found a bench near the entrance and sat down with his legs crossed and his arms hanging over the back. He saw the cute girl waiting for the ATMs nearby and smiled at her before going back to minding his own business.

In a few minutes, Tron was on the far edge of the snaking line, near an unattended cubicle with a computer terminal. He coughed just loudly enough to echo over the general economic buzz.

Boomer waited another few seconds. Then he stood and casually walked into the center of the lobby. Something began to glow brighter and brighter in his right hand.

He caught a few curious glances, people wondering if he had some new version of the iPhone or Blackberry. He smiled congenially at them. And then he shouted,

"EVERYBODY HIT THE DECK!"

Boomer hurled the glowing orb straight up toward the vaulted ceiling. It exploded like a cannon shot, rattling the windows and raining the lobby with plaster fragments.

Screams filled the air as the bank's customers scrambled to find safety. Tron joined the stampede, seemingly just as spooked as everyone else, and vaulted over the wall of the empty cubicle. Then he snapped open the computer case and thrust his hands inside.

The four security guards on duty drew their weapons and rushed toward Boomer, but Geryon intercepted them. Two extra arms burst out from beneath his shoulders with a wet crunching noise, and he seized each guard in one arm and flung them to the floor. Then he relieved them of their weapons and menaced the crowd with four pistols.

By now Boomer had a freshly glowing energy bomb in each hand, and he advanced through the parting crowd to the teller's windows. "Sixty grand!" he demanded. "Don't even think, just box it up and hand it over. I can do a lot more than that in property damage."

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"Oh dear!"

Vipul, never one for making waves, was one of the first on the ground, crouching low and using part of his jacket to shield his face from any falling plaster bits.

In spite of the danger, he couldn't help but steal a look at the robbers, who had to be mutants. Up until now, the only mutants he'd really seen had been either trying not to cause a scene, or used their powers in a muted fashion in a pub somewhere. This was different. The attack was brazen and in the open. He wondered if these were the guys responsible for the Kings Cross attack, and then checked himself. Probably not, since that was in London...

[Amber Bamforth]

As the ceiling collapsed, Amber gave a yelp and stumbled back against the ATM she'd been trying to withdraw cash from. Everyone else, apart from the security guards, had dropped straight to the ground, as if they were accustomed to this kind of thing. Amber - not a native and by no means thinking straight - decided to do what she knew best. She turned quickly and flattened the palm of her hand hard against the ATM screen. One of the bank-robbers had noticed her lack of compliance but before any protest could be made, there was a flash and she vanished – into the machine!

[The Brotherhood]

Geryon just blinked at girl's disappearing act. Another mutant? And some kinda teleporter, from the looks of it. Well, as long as she stayed out of Brotherhood business.

Boomer prowled the teller windows, keeping his arms spread so everyone could see the energy bombs flickering in his hands. Most of the tellers had dropped beneath the counter, and a few were scurrying away to the secure sections of the bank.

"What's the hold-up?" the Jamaican mutant demanded. "We're on a tight schedule. And just in case you think you're safe behind that glass..."

He turned and slung one of the bombs hard against a pane of bulletproof glass and seemed to sink halfway in. It hissed for three seconds and then blew the pane in, showering the far side of the counter with shards. There were more screams.

Tron was already into the bank's network. Of course, not everything could be accessed from this terminal - things like the vaults - but the maste alarm could be keyed from anywhere, and that meant he had a route into security. They'd already pulled a silent alarm, of course, and the cops were already well on their way, but that wouldn't do the bank much good if they couldn't get in.

Suddenly the revolving doors froze with a magnetic lock, and a set of steel shutters slammed down around them. Every other exit in the building had locked itself, too. And after tapping into the cameras, he found all the other guards in the building and trapped them in rooms, in hallways, anywhere that was out of his brothers' way.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul suddenly didn't want to be a spectator anymore.

He looked left and right, and noticed an alcove just to the back and left of him. He gingerly crawled toward it, noticing a sign that indicated the men's restroom. He'd heard what sounded like locks, but maybe there was an air duct or some other way of getting outside.

[Locksmith]

A 1979 Ford Econoline van had eight minutes remaining on its parking meter outside. Gray in color, it attracted little interest--even to the meter maids--but its alarm sounded loudly as the bank rocked from the force of Boomer's first blast.

Meanwhile, in the mens' room, the van's owner was fumbling with the button of his jeans. The alert on his keyring had gone off, telling him his van was being tampered with. No one tampered with his van. No one.

Forgetting to zip his fly, or even wash his hands, Johnathan Parker pushed out of his stall and his heavy feet pounded toward the bathroom door, not running as a bank was the last place he wanted to make a scene. People might think he was going to rob the place or some such nonsense. But as he pushed open the mens' room door he halted quickly. Everyone was on the floor, bars were up, and bulletproof glass was shattered. Blasted New York Times. If their sports reporting wasn't so good, he wouldn't have been lost in reading the paper on the crapper and just might have heard what was going on outside. Thankfully no one seemed to have spotted him quite yet.

Well, maybe that Indian guy, but other than him, no one.

[Amber Bamforth]

Amber bounced throughout the bank. Her energy surged from the ATMs, into the teller's computers, and finally into the security system. With a crackle, she burst into the real world again – into the bank vault. She fell out of one of the camera's monitoring the strongroom and, landing awkwardly on her feet, hit the ground with a thump.

“Oh, crap.”

[The Brotherhood]

Boomer hadn't expected the security grid to go up, but he quickly caught on to what Tron was doing. And that was giving him an excuse to escalate.

"Hey! Hey hey hey! What do you think you're doing?"

His remaining bomb grew even brighter, crackling audibly. Customers around him whimpered.

A bank employee, probably with negotiater training, approached the teller window with his hands up. "Sir, please. We're getting you what you want."

Boomer whirled around and shoved the crackling bomb in his face. "You wanna lock these poor people in here with us? That what you wanna do? What happens is gonna be your fault!"

"Sir, someone panicked and tripped the security lockdown. We're trying to open it. And we've got the cash in a bag and are delivering it right now."

"You're trying to rip me off," Boomer snarled. "Hey, Strongman! Get over here and find us a hostage!"

There was another outburst of dismay as Geryon rumbled down the line of patrons - everyone was trying to watch without making eye contact. But none of them seemed to strike his fancy until he came to the empty cubicle. Then he reached down with one of his four arms and pulled up Tron by the shirt.

"How 'bout this one?" Geryon growled. "Real hero here!"

Tron struggled like a bug on a hook. "No, please! Please, man, don't--"

"Shut up!" Boomer shouted. "He'll do, bring him over!"

The negotiator came back to the window with a small duffel. "It's all in here, sir, and we've almost got the lockdown sorted out."

Boomer seized the duffel. He knew it would be planted with a tracking device, and possibly an ink pack that would spoil the bills as soon as it was opened. That would be a problem if they were only there for sixty grand.

He sneered at the negotiator. "No deal, man. We're gonna find our own way out of here."

Before the negotiator could protest, Geryon had already climbed through the blasted-out window with Tron in tow.

Boomer climbed onto the counter himself, then turned to face the crowd. He opened the lip of the duffel and threw the energy bomb inside.

"Hey, New York! My gift to you!"

He slung the duffel by its handles high over the crowd, and it exploded, sending high-denomination bills fluttering down over their heads. Then he disappeared through the broken window.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"Aah!"

Again, Vipul hid his head for fear that he would get brained by shrapnel. He opened his eyes to see American dollars fluttering down to the ground. The group of customers and employees were a mixed bag. Some sat still, too shell-shocked to move. Some fled immediately. Others decided to take advantage of a good thing, and started pocketing loose bills.

Vipul reached forward, picking up a group of bills that were slightly torn and peppered by fluorescent purple dye. He looked at the bills and his brow furrowed. They didn't take the money because it was rigged, but it all seemed so expected. They didn't bicker, scream, or hurt anyone.

"Very strange."

[Vigilante]

Ginny pushed on the door to Continental Bank, rebounding slightly with surprise when the revolving doors did not open. Frowning, she gave the door another, experimental shove.

Pressing her face to the glass, the mutant cupped her hands around her eyes to look in, and caught sight of what appeared to be a bank robbery. And yes, sirens in the distance, which meant the alarm had been tripped, locked the bank down, and called the cops. She felt a surge of adrenaline as she spied what might have been the robbers, vaulting over the counter and into the bowels of the bank.

However, she really couldn't see all that well from outside. There were people huddled on the ground, that was for sure. The sirens got louder, and she reached almost absently to her shoulder. Empty. No compound bow, no quiver of composite arrows.

Ginny cast a glance up and down the street, just as the first cop car swung around the corner, lights flashing. And then she was inside the bank, just beyond the revolving doors. People shrieked at her sudden appearance, but she ignored them and bolted towards the counter where the bulletproof glass was shattered.

Vigilante meted out justice, and though she was out of practice a couple of bank robbers shouldn't be too hard to take down.

[The Brotherhood]

The bank employees gave the three mutants a wide berth - Boomer still held an energy bomblet in one hand, and Geryon was still heavily armed in every sense of the word.

"You got the codes?" Boomer asked.

Tron straightened his hoodie, glad to be on the ground again. "Have I got the codes. Do you really need to ask?"

They approached one of the vaults in the back with a card reader and a keypad beside the massive metal hatch. Tron pulled a magnetic card from an interior pocket and slid it through the machine's slot - as far as it was concerned, he had every authority to be there. Then he punched in the eight-digit access code.

The pistons holding hatch shut withdrew with a crash, and Geryon handily turned the wheel to disengage the remaining clamps. He swung the door open with ease.

"Now, let's see what we've got..."

Tron stepped into the open doorway and saw Amber Bamforth on the other side.

"...here?"

Geryon and Boomer moved in behind him, completely blocking the doorway, and glared at the girl.

[Locksmith]

Had it not been for the fact that only eight minutes remained on Johnathan Parker's parking meter, the middle-aged mutant might have just left this all to the authorities. But he was sick of parking tickets, and the Institue told him they wouldn't pay any more of them. Besides, he wasn't even at the bank on Institue business, but on his own, so it wouldn't be covered anyhow. Venting a sigh, Johnathan stepped out of the doorway of the mens' room, a marble floor tile cracking beneath him as he 'bulked up,' rapidly increasing his density.

"Did you guys learn how to rob banks from a movie, or something?" he let his deep voice ring out condescendingly, his comment directed at Boomer. "No masks, flagrant display of mutant powers that might as well be fingerprints all over this place. You'll get arrested the moment you step outside, too, I bet. And this bank doesn't even have a very big cash vault." Shaking his head, Johnathan Parker--the Locksmith--looked to the crowd of frightened bank customers and shrugged his shoulders. "Amateurs."

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Who was this big fellow? He sure was rather cocksure, and brazen enough to put on like he was teaching the robbers a lesson about their work.

Vipul decided at this point, discretion was the order of the day, and he scampered backwards into the men's room, slipping on some loose bills in the meantime.

[Amber Bamforth]

Amber's stomach was in knots. She could hear shouting outside, explosions and then – hissing, screeching as the vault door before her swung open. Once again, those three men were in her way.

Reflexively, she held her hands up. It seemed like the right thing to do. As she did so, her mind raced over possible exit routes. The only one she could see was the camera she had – minutes ago – fallen out of, but that was now almost totally blocked by the big Samoan guy.

[Damien E. Dervish]

Little did Johnathan Parker know, a mutant, and a student of the school that he worked at, was enjoying a night out on the town. He had stopped at a local pizzeria, where he very luckily got incredible service, and a dirt-cheap meal. Perhaps it's my award-winning smile, Damien thought to himself, flashing a smile again as he remembered the meal and the good company of some local kids playing video games and eating there. They had asked questions, and had found him incredibly cool, not scary at all. Maybe it's the height....or again, my award-winning smile.



Damien's musings were broken as he looked up, recognizing the van in front of him. It was a late seventies model, Econoline. And it belonged to John Parker, teacher and groundskeeper at Cullen's. Damien looked around wondering if Parker was about. After all, he could probably get a free ride home, provided that he either didn't let him know of his existence, or inform him that he didn't have any classes scheduled for the day. Either way, it would be a free ride home, one bus fee less to his personal funds.

And the musings were yet again broken, this time by an explosion, a tinkling of glass, and a blaring van alarm. Damien grimaced, and looked up. The bank was being robbed! Flitting instantly into action, Damien produced his bag of ball bearings and slingshot mid-flight. He followed the shadows, relying on his natural colorings to camoflague him. He crawled, and found himself a good perch and vantage point. Damien watched as one large four armed mutant, a mutant with energy glowing from his hands, and some hostage were walking towards a vault.

He moved again, getting himself a better perch. This one was actually in the bank itself, in the hanging lamps. They had coverings large and dark enough atop them to hide the small mutant. This perch was even within firing range of the first mutant. He expertly loaded his ball bearing, and stretched back the cup, preparing to let fly the steel ball, when he heard a familar voice, nearly monologing.

It was Parker.



Damien sat, at the ready, prepared to fire, ducked away and hidden excellently.

[The Brotherhood]

Crud! Seemed the one thing you could always count on was the stupidity of a few bystanders.

Tron scowled at the girl. "What the hell? I mean, overlooking the question of how you're here, why? Did we look like we needed a hostage? Aw, crap. Boomer, take care of her. Geryon, go shut up the fat guy."

Geryon turned and lumbered back out the vault door - but before Amber could make a move, Boomer grabbed her with one hand and held a glowing bomblet under her nose with the other. He opened her jacket and pushed the bomb down into an interior pocket.

"That blows up when I say 'when,'" he said. "Don't make me say it."

Then he shuffled her past the vault door to the opposite wall, making sure she was visible to the crowds outside, and sat her down against the safe-deposit boxes.

Geryon marched out to the counter and glowered at the loudmouth through the window Boomer had shattered. He leveled all four guns at John's chest. "Maybe you keep your opinions to yourself, little man."

Tron, meanwhile, pried the cover off an emergency access panel inside the vault, pulled out a length of cable, and wrapped it around one arm to maximize his contact with the system. Then he closed his eyes and dove into the bank's proprietary network.

[Vigilante]

A few long strides further into the bank the robbers were out of sight and Ginny slowed significantly to avoid slipping on all the money that was piling up on the marble floor. The bank patrons shrieked at her sudden appearance, and she didn't feel like taking the time to explain that she was a good guy.

But... what sort of bank robbers threw the money over their hostages? What were they doing in the back of the bank? Loud voices could still be heard past the counter once the customers quieted down again, and Ginny quickly teleported herself to the other side of the bulletproof glass as two big men started to face off with the counter between them. She smirked to herself. No need to break a window in her case.

The phone started ringing... no doubt the police trying to get in touch with the hostage takers. Ginny pointed at a bank employee, who flinched and ducked back under her station at the counter. "Answer it, tell them what's going on." She grabbed a spike off a work station, used for stabbing little bits of paper on to keep them in one place, and clenched her fist around it.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Once in the restroom, Vipul remembered his satchel that he had around his shoulder. He quickly slung it off, and unzipped it, pulling out three sets of t-shirts, shorts, and low-profile shoes. He sat there a moment, wondering if he was slightly mad for thinking about making a difference in this situation.

"Come on you have to pull it together."

He stood, looked at himself in the mirror, and spawned. Bulbous fleshy bits began to rapidly grow from his hands, becoming as large as he was. Amorphous at first, they soon began to take humanoid form as each doppleganger rapidly assumed its identical appearance of its creator.

Within half a minute, Vipul stood with three more of himself. The nude body doubles quickly took the basic clothes and slipped them on.

All four breathed deeply inward, and outward, and then filed out of the restroom.