[IC] Titans East: United We Stand

[Iridious]

"Ash can handle the fall."

Julian's statement was heard loud and clear, but Radorion had never actually attempted jumping from such a height. The wind whipped his hair as he leaned out the hydraulic door and watched Tha'am lower Kid Q to the rooftop. Hesitating for a second, he scanned the roof for the best spot to land with minimal noise. It would have to be a top of a wall - the reinforcement would absorb the sound more effectively. With that consideration, Radorion took a deep breath.

"Alright, here goes..." he mumbled to himself as he let the wind take him. The fall was quick, not lasting more than two seconds. Surprisingly to himself, he managed to land on three points with nearly no pain. He pushed the 'hows' and 'whys' to the back of his mind as he lifted his left hand off of the surface of the roof and stood up straight. There wasn't time for that now.

Tha'am had already phased through the walls and into the building as Q and Ash prepped to get inside the structure themselves. Ultimately, they decided on a utility doorway on the roof as it would lower the chances of being spotted. The locks were of analogue design and though Radorion had a set of lock picks inside of his right glove, he reasoned that Query probably had his own set of tools. Radorion let Kid Q take point on disarming the lock. As soon as the last tumbler turned over, the two of them made their entry.

"We're inside. Ready for your plan, Cobalt. How many guys are there? What guns are they using? Anything that could give us an edge here." Kid Q asked through the telepathic link. The whole idea of being linked mentally was still a little off putting, and surprising, to Ash. He was caught off guard this time almost as much as the first.

"You should make your way into the vault, they are armed with assault rifles, I can only assume they are all military trained."

The group took this info to heart as they sneaked through the emptied corridors of the bank. The trip took a few moments, but they eventually arrived at the outer door to the vault.

"Military, huh..." Ash trailed off in thought for a moment before remembering the others could probably hear it. "Tha'am, do you think you could take care of their weapons? If they're busy unloading the vault then they won't necessarily have a grip on those rifles. Remove those from the equation and make a distraction to draw their sight away from our direction so Query and I can subdue two of them quietly, leaving the third for you."

The door adjacent to them was wide open and they could hear the rustling and commotion from within. Fortunately, the telepathic link had enabled them to be completely silent up until this point. Ash peeked in through the entryway - the robbers at least seemed to be focused on filling bags for the moment. He waited and watched, but they did not turn their attention to the door.

"Cobalt, we're heading in..." Ash conveyed through thought. He turned the corner and started to skillfully make his way towards the closest threat.

"Team, careful, I don't know how.. But.. They tore the vault doors off" -there was a momentary pause- "With their uh, hands."

Ash stopped in his tracks momentarily, struck by the news. He had thought it strange that there wasn't the hint of a burning scent in the air, which would usually accompany drilling and would certainly be present in the use of plastique. Ash looked down at his right hand. He was still confident he could deliver sufficient force to the back of this man's head to knock him unconscious, and that's all he needed.

"Well...in for a penny, in for a pound." He thought with a bit of unease after a pause of consideration.

[FacePunch]

Marcus threw his hands up in surrender as Fortress surrounded him in a soundproof forcefield. "Alright, I stand corrected." He commented over the Titan's communicator. When she gave Knitter a field of his own, he couldn't help but be impressed. His team knew what they were doing; that much was certain. "Let's hope you can handle holding up the roof, Grandma." With that said, Atlas returned his communicator to his pocket. He formed an emerald drill out of pure hardlight and set to work drilling a hole in the ground. It was a bit unsettling, truth be told, to not hear the drill as it tore through the dirt and grass outside the bank. Marcus made sure not to tear up the sidewalk or street, knowing that such an action would be viewed unfavorably by the police and the city's government. Roads were expensive, after all. More expensive than the bank's lawn, anyway. Atlas made sure to turn his communicator up so that he could hear any updates from Cobalt or the team inside. With that taken care of, Atlas began to move underground. The digging was slow going. Atlas could have gone faster if he didn't have to worry about Knitter putting up stable supports for the tunnel. But since he was working with non-lanterns, Atlas would have to settle for sub-par speed as he started to descend into the darkness of the underground. "Getting kind of dark down here." He commented as the sun's light started to disperse as he went ever deeper. Marcus dug about twelve feet down in a semi-diagonal fashion; steep enough that he wasn't wasting time, but level enough that a normal human could climb back up the hole.

He glanced behind his shoulder to make sure Knitter and Fortress were still behind him. Confident that the two were keeping up with him, Atlas began to dig straight. "Ring." He prompted. "Yes, Lantern Marcus?" The ring inquired of its wielder. "Open a map of the bank and triangulate my position. What room am I under?" A map appeared out of the ring for Atlas to see as he continued to drill forward. The map showed that Atlas and company were nearing the lobby, where most of the hostages were. Perfect. Just a few more yards and Atlas would start moving upwards. "You are in position, sir. From here you should have the best view of all the hostages and the hostiles within the vault." The ring informed Marcus. "Thanks, ring. That's all I need." The map disappeared and Atlas started to dig diagonally upwards until he was just under the floor. Once he was sure no hostages were nearby, Atlas stopped digging and created a small explosive out of hardlight. "This should do the trick." He muttered to himself. Now, all Atlas had to do was wait for the go-ahead.

"Team, careful, I don't know how.. But.. They tore the vault doors off...With their uh, hands."

"Oh. Super Strength. That's pleasant." Atlas responded. "Atlas, Fortress, Knitter. Take caution. They have some tricks up their sleeves." Cobalt warned over the communicator. "Will do, boss. I can handle a couple of bricks; no problem." Atlas made sure to get comfortable. "We're just waiting for the go-ahead, Cobalt. Whenever you're ready, give the word."

[King Kindred]

Assault rifles and military trained. That didn't seem to bother or worry Query. He could handle military trained combatants fine and he had others with him that could help with the weapons if they did prove to be a problem. His first thought to counter that was Martian telekinesis.

They started to make their way towards the vault and was ready for action when they were interrupted by Julian on the communicator. It seemed that he had forgotten that stealth usually came with radio silence. Fortunately the communicators were low enough in volume for only them to be able to hear. He just hoped these guys didn't have a frequency that matched with theirs. Though he guessed he couldn't be completely upset with Julian about it considering that he did give them a pretty good warning. One that changed the entire situation. He had to take in account everything now.

These guys were strong enough to at least rip off vault doors. It was safe to assume that each one of them had this level of strength. Usually when you had super strength you had durability to match or else you'd risk destroying your own body. They were military trained and had assault weapons. The latter wasn't really that big of a deal considering Tha'am was prepared to remove them when given the signal.

Things would go much smoother if Atlas and Aqualad had come inside with them, but they didn't account for this to be a more than ordinary robbery. He wasn't actually sure how strong either of the two were, but he knew Green Lanterns to be really strong and Atlanteans to have some amount of super strength and he was pretty sure that Aqualad was a super one of those. He however didn't have much time to waste on thinking about what should have happened and what they should have prepared for. He'd just have to punish himself for that later. Now he had to focus on stopping these guys and saving these civilians.

Then it reoccurred to him that Tha'am was a Martian who had both telekinesis and super strength. At least according to the Manhunter. He may not be on his level, but he should do some wonders.

He gave his green friend the signal accompanied with an, "And go." in the telepathic link and watched as Tha'am used his telekinesis to collectively rip the guns with force. He didn't have time to wait for Cobalt to give the word of the day.

[TroidDroid]

Fortress was concentrating on keeping the force-fields around herself, Atlas, and Knitter steady. Throwing up one small force field? Easy peasy. Throwing up a huge force field to defend the team? Not too hard. Keeping up two different sound-proof force-fields while Atlas made little quips? Harder. She kind of wanted to snap at him to shut up, but she knew that wouldn't get her anywhere.

"Team, careful, I don't know how.. But.. They tore the vault doors off...With their uh, hands."

"Oh. Super Strength. That's pleasant." Atlas responded.

Fortress tensed, one of her force fields hesitating and flickering for a moment before it steadied again. She sighed, relieved that she held it stable enough.

"Oh, happy day..." she muttered. Enough super strength to rip off the doors of a bank vault would make for a pretty serious opponent. Granted, they had Atlas, Aqualad, and Tha'am, all of whom should have the power behind their punches to make a difference. Of course, her force fields would hold up if she had to get directly involved after taking care of the hostages.

"Atlas, Fortress, Knitter. Take caution. They have some tricks up their sleeves." Cobalt warned over the communicator.

"No kidding, Cobalt. Thanks for the heads up," Fortress responded over the communicator.