Starring:
Guest Starring: Green, Blue and Black
Summary: When a trio of men try to rob the bank, it doesn't go exactly as they planned.
Date It Happened: February 7th, 2007
Get Down In The Floor
4th Street Bank, New York
The light is just starting to fade from behind the skyscrapers and those with 9-5 jobs are just starting to stream out of their offices to make their way for errands, home, or what have you. The 4th Street bank is fairly crowded with people trying to make their last deposits and withdrawals before it closes it's doors. An older bank, it's mostly woodwork and marble, harkening back to the days when banks were great institutions and not floodlighted.
Cass is making her monthly sales deposit, trying to hurry so she can head back to her shop to reopen for the later night rush. The line for the tellers is long and winding and she's right in the middle. While she's not trying to be impatient, she can't help but cross her arms and tap her foot a little, staring at the people in front of her and willing them to remember some other appointment they have to run off to and make the line shorter.
Also standing in line to deposit her weekly allowance that she hasn't yet spent, is Hailien. The fifteen year old looks a bit cold, but she's actively watching the crowds as she holds the slim manila envelope in her hands. She doesn't recognize anyone yet, but surely she'll see someone she knows- eventually. I mean, a fifteen year old like her can't be that hard to forget, can it?
It's probably fairly normal to look upset in a bank - matters of money can be touchy, after all - and one of the customers, a blonde woman at the second-from-the-end teller, is exemplifying sentiment this today. Niki may be lucky in that she has finally reached a teller, unlike the many people waiting behind her, but 'lucky' is not a word she would use to describe her current situation. …or her life, for that matter. She looks worn down and tired, dark circles under her light eyes. "Please, isn't there some way you can check?" she's asking the teller in a rather pained voice; the teller is trying to be as apologetic as she can as she refuses the woman. There's a line waiting! Niki clutches the edge of the counter, her eyes imploring. "I'm from out of state and— I just… I really need to get to that money on the card. Isn't there something you can do? /Please/?"
Several things happen at once. The clock turns to 5:15, Cass watches the blonde woman at the teller, and three men wearing different colored hoods step out of different parts of the line, pull out guns and shoot up into the air. The bullets smash into the ceiling with an amazing, echoing crash, since the bank is high ceilinged and mostly quiet. There are a couple of screams and almost everyone in the line quickly drops to the floor, murmuring terrified sobs. The leader, wearing the green hoodie paces by the line filled with scared people and starts his, probably practiced, speech. "If you haven't already gathered, this is a hold up, old fashioned style. Don't make much noise and don't play any heroes and we won't have much problem here." Selecting at random, he reaches forward to drag Hailien over to him. "And this little girl's gonna make sure ya'll play nice."
As soon as the shots are fired, Cass freezes for a moment, too scared to scream or even move. It's a few seconds after everyone has dropped to the floor that she manages to make her body comply and do the same. It's more of a collapse onto the ground than anything graceful, but she's not looking to win any awards.
Hailien freezes when she's dragged over and held tight by the Bad Guy- then, shakily, the girl takes a deep breath, and, wrapping an arm around the Green Hooded Leader, she phases. It's unnoticable at first- however, when they both start to sink into the floor, it's pretty damn obvious this isn't an ordinary high school girl, even as she struggles, after sinking them into the floor, to get herself free and just leave him entrenched in the floor. "Let me GO!" She screams furiously.
"Okay. Thanks for your time," Niki says to the teller, sincerely gracious but sounding awfully dejected. Sighing with tired frustration, she pushes away from the counter, preparing to turn away and let the next person have their turn at more successful banking. Does robbing a bank count as successful banking? As soon as she turns, Niki the scene suddenly changes before her eyes, leaving her staring in shock at the robbers, slightly agape. Like Cass, it takes her a moment for her survival instincts to kick in; as it turns out, that just means crumpling to the floor against the teller's counter instead of a certain alter ego breaking through. Let's not name names. As she crawls backwards, holding onto her knees, it's the captive teenage girl she watches - at first with concern for Hailien's life, but quickly, her eyes grow wide with surprise and confusion. "No way," Niki whispers to herself.
And it had been such a calm day, up until this point, too. Ain't that always the way? Just reaching the end of your shift, and someone has to go and pull something like this. Perfect.
With the technology of today, the Danny and his team are briefed as to the situation inside en route. One hostage, three men, lightly armed and it didn't look to be wearing body armor. Well. That's fine.
Outside the bank, the regular police seem to be getting in position, cars tearing up to park outside, making their presence very loud, and very known. Danny and his team would be entering through the windows, from the roof. An operation made easier by the height of the building, and the helicopter which is whisking them towards their destination.
The team, of course, are nervous. You always are, going into a situation like this. Body armor is checked and rechecked, weapons loaded and ready. The air is tense, there was a girls life on the line. Nobody was going to crack a joke.
If Green had any idea what he was getting himself into, he probably would have picked a different target. He thought he was getting a helpless and scared teenager, but what he got was someone who's starting to pull him through the floor. "WHAT THE HELL! HELP ME! SHE'S A FREAK!" As if dropping something hot, Green shoves, or as best he can when he's sort of through the marble floor Hailien as far away from him as he possibly can. As soon as he starts freaking out, his comrades, start to glance around them, suspiciously. They've got a job to do and they'll finish it and then pull their comrade out of the floor. Blue is at the tellers, tossing bags through the slots, but now he's a little wary. "No more of that freaky shit," Blue warns. When he gets to Niki, he points a gun at her. "Gimme your wallet, sugar." Black hoodie guy is trailing down the line, his gun lazily pointed into the air. "That goes for all of ya! Take out your wallets, your deposits, and you hand them over here. Just put them in the bag and no one gets hurt."
Cass, still terrified, stays where she is, shaking. All she has on her is her deposit, but it's for the store and if it gets stolen, she's not sure what she'll do.
The Freaky Girl, aka Hailien, is let go off, and pulling herself up and out, the girl stomps hard on whatever body object of Green Leader's body is out of the floor, then she goes after Blue, full on tackling him and trying to bury him too, so it'll be all nice and neat for Danny and his SWAT team when they arrive- also, to save Niki's sanity, what little she has. Also? It's a yes, way, not a no, way.
The events that tumble forth next have Niki, understandably, on guard. She slowly moves her hands to the floor beside her, as if she may push herself up at any second - presumably not a wise move, when there's a man pointing a gun at her head. "I don't have any money," she insists plaintively as she looks up at the blue-hooded man, eyeing the weapon with fright flooding to her eyes. "I swear—" Just as she plucks her dropped purse from the floor, Hailien is suddenly /right there/. Her expression settling into one of determination (albeit rather… leery, and certainly not one-hundred percent confident about all of this), she takes this moment to get to her feet. She marches straight up to the black-hooded man from behind. "Hey, leave them alone." With that, the woman grabs the arm he holds the weapon in with both of her hands, and with one good swivel of her body, the robber is flying across the bank toward the nearest wall.
Almost on cue, as the robber is sent flying across the bank, the windows explode in a shower of glass, Danny leads the way, gun pointed directly at Green, with him, another five officers take up position, covering the three robbers quite suddenly from pretty much every angle they could think of. One was down. Black was down, Green was standing in place… but Blue was still active. Or as active as he could be with an automatic weapon trained on him.
"EVERYBODY FREEZE!" Danny bellows, "Drop your weapons and get down on the floor, now! One wrong move and we will -not- hesitate to use lethal force. That goes for all of you. On the floor."
As a note, Niki does, also, have a weapon trained on her… more because she's standing and not cowering like the other civilians. That Hailien is no longer a hostage… that was confusing, but nobody seems to be pointing a weapon at the fifteen year old girl. It wasn't -immediately- obvious that something was up with Green, after all. The questions could come afterwards.
Green gives a yelp of pain when Hailien stomps on him, which alerts Blue just enough to turn in time to see a tackling girl come at him full force. He doesn't have enough time to shoot, but he does swear a lot and start trying to bash her head in with handle of his gun. "Ya damn freak, get off me!"
Black is running down the line coercing people to put their money into his bag when he finally reaches Cass, still clutching her deposit as tightly as she can. "Just gimme the bag, sweetie, and I won't shoot you in the face." Leveling his gun at Cass, she starts crying and holds onto the bag as tightly as she can. "No," she replies very softly and shakily. She's not even looking at the gun or the man pointing it at her and she's obviously shaking, but she's not giving up her money. Luckily, for her, before anything else can happen Niki is grabbing Black by the arm and flinging him across the bank. He makes a confused unmanly squeal before hitting the wall with a crack. He falls to the floor with another unpleasant sound and lies there, still.
Green drops his, but Blue still has his weapon, and, sort of, the the phasing girl. Instead of attacking her, now he goes for a good, strong grip on her, even pointing the gun to her head. "Take us through the floor. Now. Or I'll shoot you."
It is now the time to freeze, even as Hailien stays where she is, holding onto Blue just as tightly as he has a gun to her head. "No." She says, voice a bit breathless. "No, no, no." She clears her throat. "Shoot me if you have to, but I am not letting you out of this floor. You are stuck here, and just remember, you’re in trouble anyways, so what's killing me going to do? Just get premeditated murder on top of assault, and attempt to rob a bank? You’re idiots, that's what you are, to not even realize there's a police station right next door. You don't deserve to be listened to." She's angry now, and annoyed, and therefore is spouting off her mouth even as she doesn't move.
Blinking and staring in the black-hooded robber's direction for a second or two after she put him there is Niki - that was a loud *crack* - but only until the SWAT team bursts in, causing her to shield her face from the glass instinctively. The look she gives the leader of the team then, Danny, is just as non-threatening; she just looks like a scared civilian. Opening her mouth to explain, she ultimately says nothing at all and - after a moment of hesitation amidst the pandemonium - raises her hands. She backs up a few steps, looking behind her at Hailien and the other robber, then back to the authorities.
Danny doesn't hesitate for a moment. Gun pressed to girls skull- most likely even whilst she is still chewing the guy out- his weapon is trained on the crook.
There isn't even time to breathe. For Danny, it is as though there is nothing in the world but he and the guy who was threatening that poor girl. Nothing at all. And although she might be willing to trust her life to the logic of a man who had nothing left to lose, Danny had seen too many situations go too wrong. There is a split second between gun pressed to head, and—
*BANG!*
And then he's breathing again, the other members of the team already moving to cuff the other two, when it's quite clear that Niki is not a threat, though one does move over to check she is alright.
There's a loud *BANG!* Then Hailien, who had managed to stay an annoyed, pissed-off angry veneer throughout the whole show, goes limp in Blue's arms as the both appear back on the floor, whole, with Haili evidently and veritably passed out. Do as you want, she's out of it for at least a few hours.
Well, this is just frustrating. Being stuck in a floor and not being able to even intimidate a girl into helping him. He would be more angry and frustrated about his lot in life, but there's a loud bang and then there is nothing for poor Blue. Danny's shot doesn't miss at all and right between the eyes is a small, bleeding hole. He's just a dead man, still holding onto Hailien.
Cass, still stunned and shaking, covers her head when the glass crashes and the police come charging in. However, when she sees the guns trained on Niki, she feels like she has to do something. "Wait!" she croaks. She's not really steady enough to stand for the moment, nor is she sure that's really a great idea with so many guns pulled out at the moment, but she wants to make sure that they don't harm her. "She just saved…" And then Danny shoots and she makes a swallowed scream sound.
Niki assures the member of SWAT that she's just fine - and it's true enough. While the woman does look a bit shaken, that's more than understandable. In fact, she should probably be more shaken than she is. While she keeps a wary eye on the violent acts surrounding Hailien, she flinches as the bullet is loosed and looks away. "Hey… hey," she calls out quietly to Cass, all but tip-toeing in her high-heeled boots toward the screaming woman. She crouches down, huddling beside her, and lays a comforting hand on the stranger's back. "It's okay, it's over now," she says, trying to be soothing even though her own voice is shaky. "Just don't look."
Danny takes a deep breath, apparently frozen in place for a few seconds before he can bring himself to stand. The body is disposed of, the girl checked, first (had he missed? He never missed, he couldn't have missed. He didn't miss. Just shock.) and then put on a stretcher for the ambulance which is, of course, already on it's way. Green's predicament is then noted, and Danny shakes his head. This was… weird as all hell. First the guy babbling about phasing, then the guy stuck in the floor. Something funny was going on.
"Alright. Everybody stay calm." He states, wrenching Green's arms up behind his back and into a pair of cuffs. "We'll just need to take your statements, and then you can all go home."
"Y-You saved my life," Cass looks up at Niki, still terrified, still shaking, but starting to get that under control. "Thank you." Though she's told to not look, she can't help but survey the situation. Unconscious man against a wall, another man in the floor, dead man in the floor. "Oh God, that girl…is she alright? Does she need any help?" Finally, along with some of the other patrons, she stands up on shaky feet.
"I was just trying to do something to help. Anything," Niki answers modestly. She listens to the commands of Danny, and watches the goings-on with a slightly detached expression; her focus is on Cass she keeps arm around the terrified woman all the while, helping her to her feet. "I hope so. I'm not sure what happened."
Danny relaxes as the situation becomes… slightly less desperate. The regular forces were coming in now, taking statements and helping people up. Danny himself, however, makes his way over to Niki, he hadn't seen what the woman had done to poor Black, but, she had been standing up, and he was curious. He was going to have a /ton/ of paperwork to get done later about all this, and he wanted to hear what she had to say.
"Hi." He states, "Hope I'm not interrupting. You two alright? We got here as fast as we could. I was just wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions."
Still blankly looking around her at the scene, Cass shakes her head, starting to get a hold on herself. The shaking has stopped mostly and now she feels like she has some control over not slumping back onto the floor. "It certainly was something." She's about to ask more when Danny joins them. While he may want to ask them questions, she wants some of her own answered. "Is that girl alright? The one who was grabbed? I know some medicine, if she needs help." Then, finally, something registers, he asked how they were. "Oh, um, I'm fine. I guess. As much as I could be fine at the moment."
There's a sudden flicker of panic in Niki's features when Danny starts addressing them, but she suppresses it - along with the feeling of dread that accompanied it. She gives the man a small, tremulous smile as she looks up him. She finally lets her hand trail away from Cass. "I'm fine— I mean, a little shaken, I've never seen a bank robbery before…"
Danny nods slowly, "Yeah, yeah, it'll do that to you." He says slowly, nodding along in what he hopes is a relaxing manner. "But, see, I'm curious about one thing, here." And the look he gives Niki is… anything but comforting. "See. Usually, when we bust in, we don't find one of the robbers with his feet encased in marble. Now. That sort of thing… that's a bit weird. So. I was wondering if you might be able to help with that. Did you happen to see what would cause that to happen? 'cause, well, I'm -pretty- sure it ain't listed in the security of the buildin'."
Though Danny is mostly ignoring Cass through what is certainly some sort of interview, Cass is going to have nothing of it. While outspoken at the best of times, it's a lot harder to control when her adrenaline is running so high. Reaching out a hand to grab onto the stranger who just saved her, she glares at Danny. She's fully aware he's a police officer and this might not really be a good idea, but she can't stop herself. "I'm sorry, are you accusing this woman of something? How /dare/ you! This woman just saved my life when there was a /gun/ pointed at my head. You want to question someone about pulling people through floors, then ask the girl you nearly shot! She's the one that did that. And I'm not quite sure how that's quite a /bad/ thing when what she did clearly helped us all!" Her voice is gradually getting louder as she keeps talking and slowly starts to put herself in front of Niki, as if it's her turn to protect this woman. Really, it is the adrenaline talking here. Finally, she takes a deep breath, realizes what she's just done and blinks. "Or, well, if you really were just asking, then, that's your answer. That girl did it."
The words Niki is about to form fall short before they ever leave her mouth. 'I've never seen anything like that before.' She would be lying, at least in part; sure, she may never have seen D.L. force someone to phase into the floor and get trapped, but there's a ballpark, and Hailien's activities were in it. Regardless, Cass speaks for her— which has Niki watching the woman with some surprise. She looks touched, for a second, most mostly she looks uncomfortable. Afterward, she shrinks back a bit from Danny. "I don't know if it was… the girl," she says carefully. "I don't know how that happened," she adds quite sincerely; the blonde looks uneasily over to the spot where it occurred. "Maybe the floor just fell through?"
Danny raises one eyebrow as he is given a talking to by the woman. His expression hardens at the accusation that he had almost shot the girl, and his eyes narrow for just a moment. "Ma'am." He says, tone just a little darker than it had been before. "I am not accusing her of doing a thing. If I believed that she was in league with the robbers, I wouldn't be asking questions here, I'd be taking her into custody. I'm not even saying it was a bad thing that happened. Only that it is strange."
He then looks back at the spot where Green has been, presumably, wrenched out of the floor. "Maybe. Stranger things have happened." He replies to Niki, "Now. Thank you both for your time." The officer turns to leave, and then adds one thing to Cass. "And, Ma'am, if you have an official complaint about my actions. Register them with my superior officer. If you don't, I'll thank you not to accuse me of taking unnecessary risks. Thank you -Ma'am-."
And that would seem to be all he has to say to her, turning around with the full intent to leave.
Seeing that her actions aren't really helping anybody, Cass shakes her head a couple of times. She doesn't really have anything to say in response to his talking to, she's more or less humbled now. When he turns to leave, she finally calls out, "Look, I'm sorry. I'm….not really myself right now. I don't have any complaints or anything." Sighing, she looks over to the hole in the floor where Green used to be and frowns. "Strange is right." Then, she looks over at Niki. "Sorry…normally I've got a pretty good hold on my temper. Look, thanks for what you did. My name's Cass. Cass Aldric. Just, figured I'd introduce myself."
Niki wraps her arms about herself, clutching lightly at the synthetic material her black winter coat is made of. When Danny has finished 'speaking' to Cass, she watches him go. She looks a little humbled herself, truth me told. "It's okay. There's nothing wrong with standing up for yourself… or me, in this case. Thank you for that." She gives the other woman a small, but meaningful, smile. "I'm Niki. Nice to meet you Cass." She takes a few steps amidst the sundry police officers to pluck her fallen purse from the floor. "Do you think that was our statement? Are we free to go now?" She glances the the door, and the broken windows, sidelong.
Cass looks over to where Danny is heading off again and shrugs. "I think I've said about all anyone wants to hear about what happened." Realizing that she's still got her deposit clenched in her hand, she slowly opens it and puts the envelope into the inside pocket of her jacket. "I could go for some tea. Or something. Something soothing. Or covered in chocolate. Maybe both. I wonder if they make chocolate covered tea or something." Pause. "Or, well, I guess that would just be hot chocolate."
Niki laughs lightly - it's a bit strained under the circumstances, sure, but Cass brings it out in that moment. "I could go for something like that too," she admits, followed by an unfortunately cynical smile. More than cynical, however, she's just frustrated. "But I couldn't convince the bank to give me any money, so now I have to go down and try to convince the people at the impound lot to give me my car back." Her smile turns sincere again; soft, friendly. "Take care, okay?" With one more uneasy glance at the bank's interior, she adjusts her shoulders uncomfortably and makes for the exit, picking her way around the glass shards, though most of them crunch under her feet.
"You too." Cass follows Niki with her eyes for a second, hedging on something. Giving her money might insult her, but she definitely wants to help her some way after what she did for her. By the time she finally comes to a decision, however, Niki's gone. Sighing, she points her Converses for the exit and slowly makes her way back to the outside.