Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

You stride confidently into the bank, flanked by your two new teammates. Thanks to a certain invisible wolf scouting ahead, you know exactly where the security guards are standing. A pair of glowing mind-hands whip out and disarm them before they can even react to your presence.

You hold the guns aloft a few feet above your shoulders, just so everyone has a visible reminder that they're dealing with a parahuman. You gesture towards Aisha with a regular hand.

"Alright, everyone listen up!" she yells, getting everyone's attention. Though between the masked, armed, black-clad figures and the light show caused by your mind-hands, most people already had their attention on you. "We're BITN, this is a robbery, and you're our hostages!" Mostly redundant information - a lot could be inferred from context, but it needs to be stated for form's sake.

One of the security guards, displaying more bravery than his salary deserves, lunges for you barehanded. A single punch from your third mind-hand sends him to the floor before he can cross even half the distance.

"Don't do that!" Aisha yells. "That's the opposite of what you should do! Everyone stay cool and listen to the boss, and you get to go home unharmed!" She gestures back to you.

"Thank you, Imp," you say. Your new voice is something else, a hoarse, raspy thing achieved by shape-shifting your neck to put pressure on your throat just so. It sounds pretty badass, if you do say so yourself. Though Aisha almost died of laughter spectating the development process: It took a fair few tries to make it more Godfather, less Donald Duck.

Anyway, it makes for an excellent contrast with Aisha's shouting. Your captive audience is straining to make out your words, their attention focused entirely on you.

"I am Poltergeist, these are my associates, Imp and Ghost." You gesture to Aisha and Sophia in turn. You're not even pretending that Ghost isn't Shadow Stalker: She's wearing exactly the same outfit she did as a hero, except that her mask, originally a dark gray, has been painted white.

You and Aisha are dressed much the same, all in black with white masks. Hers depicts a grinning devil, yours a screaming ghost. Aisha is carrying Shadow Stalker's spare crossbow, and they both have black duffel bags slung over their shoulders. Quite the matched set.

"I will be keeping you company here while they see to the technical details," you continue. "Please do not try anything funny. While I like to consider myself a reasonable person, my associates may take offense on my behalf, and I cannot be held responsible for their actions. Believe me, you do not want to make an enemy of Ghost. Not unless you hate consensual sex and love biohazardous waste."

There are a couple of gasps from the audience at this. One woman tries to to make a break for the doors. You gently restrain her with a mind-hand before she can start a trend.

Ghost, of course, does not try to deny anything you just said, but Imp pipes up. "Don't lump us together like that! I'm not a psycho like her!"

"Of course not," you agree, your voice not bereft of a certain amount of irony. "And no one has ever ended up unconscious and naked in a dumpster, lucky to be alive."

"I never- Oh. That." Her shoulders slump as she realizes what you're talking about. Admittedly you're being a bit unfair to her here: That's what she does to her friends. If a civilian hostage acted out you doubt she'd do more than follow them home, squat on their table and pee in their coffee.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" the remaining security guard demands. What is it with these people and guts above their pay grade?

Imp is practically dancing with eagerness to answer that particular question, hopping from foot to foot in her excitement at being given a setup like that. "Oh. Oh! I know, can I tell him? Can I?"

You motion for her to go ahead. "Prenatal drug exposure!" she crows triumphantly, jabbing herself with a thumb. "So much drug exposure, you have no idea." You have to admit, the guard's reaction to this statement is pretty funny - but not nearly as funny as your realization that Imp looked up the word 'prenatal' specifically to present a more sophisticated image in case the 'what is wrong with you' question ever came up again.

"Daddy touched me," Ghost adds. "He touched me in so many ways." Oh god, the fond, wistful tone with which she drops that bombshell, you have no words. You should have named the gang 'the Comedy Club.'

Now everyone is turning towards you, friend and enemy alike, as if they expect you to somehow top this.

You shrug (letting the motion continue on through your mind-hands to set the guns bobbing in the air, just for effect). "I dunno. These crazy bitches are a bad influence, I guess."

"You’re their leader!" the security guard shouts. That's what scandalizes him, not the child-rearing practices of the North American pavement ape?

"A good leader enacts the will of the people," you retort, and telekinetically punch him in the face. "Places, people," you add to your subordinates.

Ghost phases into shadow and leaps through the wall, heading straight for the vault. Aisha remains long enough to shoot out the cameras in the lobby - you made some solid steel bolts for just this purpose - before heading deeper into the building through more conventional means (ie, doors).

You lean back against a wall and meaningfully look back and forth across the room. No one seems inclined to give you trouble after that little exchange.

"C1, complete," comes Aisha's voice through your earbud a while later. "You missed a spot," she adds. "Behind you, to the left."

"B1, complete," she confirms a few seconds later.

You hum a little tune - it amuses you how it sounds with your broken voice.

"C2, complete."

You idly juggle the guns you took from the security guards between your mind-hands.

Fenrir shows up (to you alone - he's still immaterial) and gives you a nod: The cops have set up a barricade outside, as expected. He taps his paw against the ground three times: Three capes are there with them. You nod back calmly. If they were going to charge into a building full of hostages, they'd have done so already. Everything is proceeding according to plan. Fenrir walks back out through the wall, heading for his next assignment.

You grab a couple of pens from a nearby desk and add them to your juggling routine.

"C3, complete," Aisha reports.

"Play it safe, wrap it up," you order in response. Then you wait.

"B3, complete," Ghost reports, and you let out a breath. B3 was the only part of the plan you would consider 'risky', even if Ghost is strictly speaking expendable.

You straighten up and walk over to the security guards. Both of them have more or less recovered from your earlier altercations, and tense up as you approach. "You're free to go," you tell them. "Please make sure that no one is trampled on the way out."

You turn away before they can properly process this, and follow Aisha's steps into the back of the building. She's waiting for you in the expected place. A power drill is lying atop the bag she was carrying, and she's just finished cleaning up the dust on the floor as you arrive.

You get down on your hands and knees and peer through the hole she drilled, into the alley beyond. This close to the floor it will be pretty hard to spot, especially once she sticks a piece of tape over it. Inelegant to leave any evidence behind at all, but needs must. Once it turned out you couldn't actually walk through walls, nor maintain the shadow state long enough to sneak through ductwork, you had to add step C3: A tiny hole to escape the building through.

"Good work," you tell her.

Aisha hands you a note. Fenrir sticks his head through the wall and gives you a nod. The alley is clear. You turn into shadow and pass through the hole. You remain in the alley only long enough to spot the hole in the building opposite (drilled last night). You turn into shadow once more and reappear inside a disused storage room.

"A2, complete," you report, mostly for form's sake.

Now that's how you rob a bank.

(You're holding a note that says 'C4 complete', which... is a bit disconcerting. What specifically needed to be done with plastic explosives? But you trust the notes, so you resolve not to worry about it.)

While the labelled parts of the plan are all done, there are a few lingering details to take care of. You start by changing into civilian features, and an outfit closely resembling that of a city maintenance worker, and make your way into the storm drains. Specifically, the section that happens to pass right underneath the vault of a certain bank. Along the way you retrieve and roll up the antenna and signal repeater (also put in place last night) that let Ghost communicate from down here.

Alec and Ghost are waiting for you next to a trolley stacked high with bags. Alec is dressed up as a maintenance worker too, though you feel it's not all that convincing - he's way too pretty to be working in the drains. Still, he had to be down here so that she/they could calibrate how much to phase the bags being tossed down here.

"We lost three bags," Ghost says. Meaning she misjudged the phasing and/or the throw, and they ended up stuck in the ground somewhere.

"Within expected parameters," you say. "Good work." As long as B3 - Sophia's escape - was successful, you'd have accepted considerably heavier financial losses. Having her die fused into the earth was a risk you were willing to take, but it wouldn't have made you happy. You're nowhere near done with her.

Ghost takes off, and you and Alec start pushing the trolley down the tunnel. They'll probably figure out how you emptied the vault pretty quickly - but not quickly enough. You've parked your truck a suitable distance away, where a pair of inconspicuous maintenance workers can load it up with nondescript bags.

---

Spoiler: Aegis-o-vision

"Guess we found out what Shadow Stalker was planning to do next," Clockblocker remarks as he enters the room. He's already heard the news. I nod, waiting to speak until the rest of the (remaining) Wards have filed in.

"So," I say. "There was a robbery at the AmBank branch office earlier today. Three parahumans. We've been asked to look over the security footage, for reasons that will become obvious."

I bring up the black-and-white footage on the main screen. Three villains walk into a bank.

"Is that Shadow Stalker?" Kid Win asks.

"Yes. Keep watching."

The original security footage had no sound, but several hostages had partial footage of the event on their phones, and that audio has been spliced in, and subtitles added.

"Ghost, huh?" Clockblocker remarks. I shush him.

When Poltergeist explains why you shouldn't piss off Ghost, I have to pause the video. "One at a time, please. Gallant?"

"Her voice was hard to make out, Gallant says. "Is that subtitle really accurate?"

"The eyewitnesses were unanimous, I'm told. It left a bit of an impression. Kid Win?"

"What did she do?"

"We don't know. No victim has come forward. It could just be an intimidation tactic from Poltergeist."

"An oddly specific one," Clockblocker says.

"I bet she did it while she was still a Ward," Vista says glumly.

I start the footage rolling again, only to have to pause it once more a little later.

"Did he?" Vista asks.

"Again, we don't know. Shadow Stalker never made any accusations. Her parents are separated, but to my knowledge she never spoke about why."

The rest of the viewing session passes without incident. The security footage cuts out as Imp shoots the cameras, making way for poorly angled cellphone footage of Poltergeist standing around doing nothing for a while before leaving.

"That's it?" Vista asks.

"They got away clean," I say. "Despite the police - along with Assault, Battery, and Triumph - setting up a perimeter outside. The vault was mostly - but not completely - cleaned out, and we have no idea of their movements after the cameras were taken offline. The hostages were all unharmed except for the two you saw Poltergeist attack, who got away with light injuries."

I take a deep breath before I continue.

"Okay. This was mostly to inform you of Shadow Stalker's new career, and the company she's keeping. If you encounter her again, she's to be treated like any other villain. You all know her ratings, and the way she fights. Be aware that she will likely start using lethal ammunition again, like she did when she was a vigilante."

"She sure wasn't tranquilizing the cameras," Clockblocker says.

I nod. "Now, let's do this by the book. Power evaluation. Poltergeist first." I set the screen to loop the footage of her. "Any thoughts on her telekinesis?"

"It's not telekinesis," Vista says. "See the way the guns leave ripples in space as they move?"

I peer closely at the grainy footage. "No?" A look around the room meets with shrugs.

"Ignore the light connecting them to her. Look, there, behind them. They leave a trail."

It takes a while of rewinding, zooming and slowing down the footage as Vista gets increasingly annoyed, but eventually everyone is able to agree that there's some sort of rippling effect there.

"See? She's not applying force, she's warping space."

"Okay. Could you counter her power?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. Levitating an object like that, moving it at that speed... That takes a stronger, more - more curved warp than anything I can do. I could probably mess with her fine control, though."

"How fine is her control?" I ask.

"Not sure. Did she damage the holsters when she took the guns?"

"I'll ask. Good thinking, Vista."

"She was confident enough in her control to juggle loaded weapons for fun," Gallant says.

"She might just be nuts," Clockblocker points out. "Anyway, what about the punches? Moving objects about, okay, but how do you punch someone with space?"

"I... don't know," Vista admits. Her fingers twitch and space ripples around her as she tries something. "Maybe... no. Or? but the Manton limit..."

"Let's table it until we see what the medical report says," I decide. "Now, what about Imp?" I queue up what little footage there is of Imp.

"I don't know what you want us to say, boss," Clockblocker says. "It's just her shooting out cameras over and over again. Anyone can do that."

"Not a combat Thinker, from the way she keeps missing," Vista says.

"The names," Gallant says. "A poltergeist throws things around. A ghost-" he pronounces the word with distaste "-walks through walls. An imp does what? Flies? Tricks people? Throws fire?"

"A Tinker," Kid Win says, speaking up for the first time. "Process of elimination."

"How's that?" I ask.

"Imp went to the security room, right?"

"Yes." I fiddle with the controls a bit and find the relevant footage. Imp in the security room, aiming her crossbow at the camera.

"Bring up the footage from the vault," Kid Win says.

I do so. "See," Kid Win says, "she shoots out two of the cameras in the vault right away, then stands around for a while before turning around and taking out the last one."

"Okay?"

"She was waiting for Imp to get to the security room - check the timestamps, they match up. Imp gets there, looks at the monitors, and tells Shadow- tells Ghost that there's still one camera left."

"How does that make Imp a Tinker?" Clockblocker asks.

"Sha- Ghost was inside the vault. A regular radio signal couldn't have gotten through to her. They have tinkertech comms."

"Could be from Toybox," Gallant says.

"A new team like that?" Kid Win objects. "Where would they get the money? ...I mean, before robbing a bank."

"The PRT database was likely worth a fair amount," I point out grimly. "Then again, we suspect there was someone bigger backing her on that - they may only have paid a commission, not a percentage."

"The crossbows!" Clockblocker exclaims. "She was always bitching about her crossbows breaking down."

Kid Win nods. "They're tinkertech. If they're still using the crossbows a month from now, they have a Tinker."

---

Spoiler: PH-O-vision, the next day

► ReadyRoom
Replied on May 5, 2011:
Bitten by who, though?

► Imp (Unverified Cape)
Replied on May 5, 2011:
It's an acronym. See if you can figure it out.

► long_distance_chef
Replied on May 5, 2011:
Bitches In This Team Escape Neatly?
​

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Spoiler: Mechanics corner

Under ideal circumstances you probably could use Bloodless Murk Evasion to escape through ductwork - but it lets you move a maximum distance of (temporary Willpower points remaining) yards in shadow form, and Taylor has been spending a lot of Willpower on 'appear fine' lately.