Brutal Justice (open)

[Red Viper]

The robbery was going perfectly. Zed and his gang had disabled the alarm system, so for all they knew the police would never even get to the bank. Now all he had to do was get the bank manager to open the safes, and he and his boys would just have to help themselves and leg it. They'd be rich within no time, and Zed again congratulated himself on the planning that had taken him close to a month to get right. Now everything was perfect, and they were only a few minutes away from fortune.

"Open the safe, buddy", he hissed through his balaclava. His Skorpion sub-machine gun was pointed right at the manager's face. The manager, a short, portly man of about 40, was clearly terrified but he still had enough wits about him to comply with Zed's simple request.

"-Y-yes", he stuttered. "Follow me."

Zed and one of his accomplices followed the manager behind the counter. The manager lead them into a large room filled with small reinforced coffers, and Zed smiled beneath his balaclava.

"-Excellent. Now go open the safes with the most valuable items in them."

Shakily, the manager went towards one of the safes. Using an electronic key, he unlocked it, revealing a small box containing a necklace made of silver and a large, tear-drop shaped emerald. The size of the emerald and the quality of the workmanship would probably raise the item's value into the millions.

"Niiiice. All right, go get it", said Zed to his accomplice, who unceremoniously went to the safe and stuffed the necklace into his bag. "Keep on opening the safes, fatso."

However, as the manager was about to open another safe there was a loud bang from the reception area. As Zed turned around, gun raised and ready to shoot, there were shouts and gunfire.

"-The cops!!", shouted Zed's accomplice. Zed shook his head.

"-No, we would have heard their sirens...this is something else."

Zed quickly glanced around the room with all its unopened safes before barking an order to his accomplice.

"You stay here and stuff the bags while I go into the reception area to see what the fuck is going on!"

Zed then rushed through the door, down the corridor and into the reception area. Three of his partners in crime lay dead on the floor in pools of their own blood, while the rest had taken refuge behind the counter.

Zed barely had time to duck as a heavily armed red and black figure leaped out from behind a couch and opened fire in his general direction. Zed sought cover behind a desk and sprayed the area where his attacker was without exposing himself. Who the fuck was attacking them?

Well, Natalya probably wouldn't even have noticed the bank robbery had she not been passing by on a nearby rooftop. After quickly analysing the situation, she had swung down to the pavement and had thrown a flash bang grenade into the bank's reception area. She had then dived through the entrance, shooting down three of the bank robbers before taking cover behind a couch and engaging in a gunfight with the other criminals. Maybe she had rushed this particular intervention, as the enemy was well entrenched behind the counter and well armed. But hey, it was nothing that couldn't be remedied with the correct application of frag grenades.

She waited for a lull in the shooting before rapidly lobbing a grenade over the counter. There were shouts, followed by a loud explosion and several yells and cries of pain. One of the men ran had managed to escape the explosion, but was now out of cover. Without even a second thought, the Red Viper put a bullet in his head, but had to duck for cover as another man, who had also escaped the explosion, sprayed her position with an automatic weapon.

"Fuck off, bitch! Or I'll fucking kill you!", he yelled before dashing out from behind the counter. Before the Viper could stop him, he had dived into a nearby service corridor and had vanished. The Red Viper emerged from cover and ran down the corridor gun in hand. The corridor lead to the safe room, and once there she discovered a rather sticky but familiar situation. The man she'd been pursuing was holding what appeared to be the bank manager hostage, and he was backed by a thug armed with an automatic shotgun. Where did they get these weapons? No small time thug could get his hands on a Protecta shotgun without shelling out considerable amounts of money.

"-Step back or the old guy gets it!", shouted the bank robber holding the bank manager hostage. His "colleague" pointed his shotgun at Natalya. "And even if you make a move, we'll blow your guts against the wall."

[Rawhide]

It had been a day like all others, nothing exciting or anything. This, Todd had no quarrels with at all. Infact, he sort of enjoyed it, the peaceful and collected atmosphere was one of the quirks with this job. Then all of a sudden, a band of men barged in, armed and "dangerous". In order to keep in his role, Todd fell to the ground as they started shooting around them. They started shouting then, demanding money like it was their natural rights, arrogant asses all of them.

They then dragged Stanley, the bank manager with them to open the safes most likely. As they did, seven of them remained in the reception area to keep the other people around in check, Todd included. This kept going on for maybe six minutes before a volley of shots blasted in, killing three of the robbers, sending the rest in hiding behind the counter. In entered a red and black clad figure entered, moving for cover behind a couch. Todd was mildly surprised by this, seemed someone without the morals of the usual "heroes" had entered the scene. Then the apparent leader of the robbers appeared, nearly getting himself killed.

After the figure and the robbers had shot at each other in turn, making nearly everyone of the bank workers scream in terror, the figure lobbed a grenade at the robbers, blowing three of the robbers to pieces. one of the survivors tired to make a run for it, and Todd smirked as the robber was put down by the vigilante. the other survivor nearly got her though before running towards the safes where Stanley had been brought. The vigilante followed Todd noted, and after making sure the armed people were gone, Todd rose, walked over to one of the robbers who were first to die and grabbed his Scorpion sub-machine gun from the floor. Todd then causally strolled towards the safes.

When Todd was close enough to see the scene in front of him, he sighed. Stanley was in a hostage situation and it seemed the robbers were going to shoot the vigilante. Todd didn't really have that many options, so he lay himself on the ground on his stomach in the hallway. He knew the robbers were focused on the figure in red and black, so he had gone unnoticed. Todd then carefully aimed the Scorpion sub-machine gun from his position and fired two volleys at the robbers shins and ankles. Sure enough, both robbers shin and one of robbers ankle was shattered from the bullets, though Stanley's shin received the same treatment.

[Red Viper]

"OOOWWWW! MOTHERFUCKER!"

The screams of pain and surprise filled the room as the two robbers and their hostage hit the floor, their shins hit by several volleys of bullets. The Red Viper snapped around and immediately saw that one of the bank employees had taken a gun from one of the dead robbers. It was a nice deus ex machina, but had also lead to the possibly serious injury of the bank's manager.

However, Natalya had little time to speak to the bank employee-turned-gunslinger. One of the robbers cursed loudly before snatching up the dropped Protecta shotgun and aiming it at the entrance of the vault where the Viper and the employee were.

"Die, fuckers!", he yelled before opening fire. Natalya leaped out of the way, avoiding the buckshot that now slammed into the doorway and the corridor's walls and floors. The Protecta was a fully automatic shotgun, and required no cocking between shots, so the corridor was quite literally sprayed. The Red Viper quickly slammed her foot into the robber's face, sending him flying backwards and into the wall with a dull thud. Dazed, he struggled to get back up, but another kick on his shoulder brought him violently back onto the ground.

"-Now you pay for your crimes", said the Red Viper, bringing her wrist knife to bear. With a rapid and deadly gesture her wrist shot forth and the knife cleanly stabbed through the man's windpipe. Within minutes the robber was dead, and the Viper wiped her blade clean on the dead man's jacket.

"Justice is served", she said simply.

[Rawhide]

Todd saw the robber snatch the shotgun and as he started to aim, Todd was already moving. Despite his considerable bulk, Todd was fast to get op on one knee and leaped sideways into a nearby office. As he landed, he felt two flowers of pain blossoming through his shoulder and thigh. Sadly, it was small flowers, and after closer inspection he found that he had been merely nicked by the flying bullets.

Todd then heard the sound of boot and flesh connect, as he got up, the sound was repeated. Todd peeked out from his cover in time to see the red and black figure kill the robber. Todd felt a mild shiver running along his spine as he saw the ruby liquid flow from the robbers throat. How he enjoyed the sight of blood, the robber's terrified face as he felt his life slowly coming to an end was exquisite. Todd when the robber had finally died, Todd felt his fingers itch to end a life or too himself, but he had to restrain himself, this was neither the time nor place to indulge in pleasurable urges.

Instead he turned to the masked lady, smiling a friendly smile as he reach forth his left hand to shake hers. "Good Job Miss..Thank the heavens you came by to help us out. It is good to see that there is still justice in this cursed city." His voice rumbled and rolled like heavy boulders, his face and eyes smiling gratefully.

[Red Viper]

After cleaning her blade, Natalya straightened. She cracked her neck slightly, rolling her head between her shoulders, and then went to see how the bank manager was doing. The old man was on the ground, bleeding and with some rather nasty damage done to his ankles. After some examination, Natalya concluded that one of the bullets had hit his bone and had broken it. She reached for her communicator and called for an ambulance.

"Paramedics will be here soon", she told the bank manager before looking up at the bank employee who had decided to aid her in the operation. "And thank you...although what you did with the gun probably was the most advisable course of action."

The Red Viper reached for a small card on her belt and handed it to the bank employee. It was like a business card, although it lacked any kind of phone number or email address and was entirely black with a hissing red snake on the front.

"My work here is done", she said, before going past the employee and leaving the safe room.

[Rawhide]

Todd looked at the card and smiled for himself. A new vigilante eh? This could prove most interesting. Todd then turned towards Stanley, the poor manager he had shot. "Damm..what a mess you are, old friend." Todd rumbled as he lifted Staley up into his arms, like the old man was nothing but a doll before carrying him out in the reception area, placing him to rest on a counter. "there you go..the paramedics will take care of you soon, old boy." The rest of the personnel was understandably shaken, but some rushed to Stanley's aid as Todd returned to the safe room, studying the corpses with mild interest.

What their purpose had been was a riddle Todd didn't really care to solve, maybe they were some of Two-Face goons? or The Jokers? or someone else's. It didn't matter, they were dead, and the dead held little importance to Todd when he wasn't the one who had ended them. Todd studied the dead robbers, one of them was young, maybe around 19 years old, the other was older, 24 or 25. He was the one who had his throat punctured.

Todd then noticed something on the floor, near the pool of blood, among the debris. He knelt and picked up a leather wallet, stained, but otherwise unscratched. Todd opened it, realising it belonged to the robber with the hole in his throat. "Well well well..seems you lost this last round James..shame on you" Todd rumbled as he looked through the wallet. Todd easily found all the information he could need to find where James Brown lived. Todd suddenly found something he hadn't expected, a picture of a Young woman, not more than 22, hugging two girls together with Mr Brown. The girls couldn't be more than 9 and 5 years old, the picture brought a wide smile to Todd's face. "Oh my Mr. Brown, you've done well.." A dark chuckle escaped Todd as he placed the wallet in his pocket and turned around, walking towards the sirens and police rushing into the building. .

"Seems I've found my next playmates...you have my thanks, Mr. Brown..."