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[b]All Tandems | Bridgewater Bank
June 19, 2021[/b][hr]It took 10 minutes for the Wards to be loaded up into a van and driven to the bank where the robbery was taking place. Along the way, they were briefed on the details of the robbery and suggestions were made as to how they might handle the situation. Tandem didn’t particularly agree with the suggestions made for her – she could better utilise her power if she operated her clones together, especially if she was going to be putting those bodies at risk, not to mention that she couldn’t separate them by more than 24 feet in the first place. 

Despite her disagreements, Tandem didn’t voice her opinion on the matter, they were only suggestions after all, and in any case, she was distracted by something that had been mentioned earlier in the briefing. 

There were hostages. It was a hostage situation in a bank.

When that part had first been mentioned in the briefing, anyone paying Tandem any mind at all, or even just looking her way really, would have noticed her clones flickering in and out of existence for a few seconds after the fact. Dismissed and replaced one after the other in a desperate attempt to cut off the inevitable trains of thought before they could take root. It hadn’t worked, and now, whatever excitement she’d felt only minutes earlier at the prospect of engaging with capes in a proper fight, was completely gone, replaced by an all-consuming panic that threatened to overwhelm her. 

Tandem was standing outside the bank building. Right. She’d teleported out the moment the van had come to a stop. She had to focus…

It was one of the things she’d thought about a lot since signing up for the Wards, so she knew the first thing she should do was get her hands on a proper weapon. She might have to fight someone, and while she had plenty of things she could use, it’d be a problem if the Protectorate found out she was carrying even a fraction of the stuff she was.

Scanning about, Tandem quickly spotted what she was looking for. Creating a clone over by a manhole, she quickly used its foot to shunt the cover into her inventory. The manhole cover would be far too heavy to throw with her own strength, but she didn’t need to rely on that in order to throw it with her power, and its weight would allow it to do quite a bit of damage to whatever she threw it at.

Normally, the idea of using her power for something like that would get Tandem excited, but somehow the fact that today she might end up actually needing to do it made it distinctly less so. She didn’t want to hurt anyone… An imagining of what the manhole might do to a person if she launched it at them, bubbled to the surface of the clone that’d collected its mind, and she quickly replaced the clone. 

[i]No.[/i] It was just a precaution. It was fine. She didn’t have time to think about that right now. What she needed to do was plan. Figure out a way to make sure everything stayed okay.

Right. The hostages. 

Could they find a way to get the hostages out, or short of that, secure wherever the hostages were being held before they could be executed? That might work, right? Hornet could probably identify where all the hostages were being kept, sorta like they’d talked about before, and Keystone might be able to do something similar with his power. Then it’d just be a matter of getting into the room, which probably wouldn’t be all that hard with two teleporters and a flyer on the team, after which they could work on protecting everyone. 

[i][b]Bang![/b][/i]

Just as a plan started to come together in Tandem’s mind, a loud bang rang out from inside the building, causing all three of Tandem to jump and shattering what little stability she’d managed to regain. 

Suddenly whatever plan Tandem had been formulating was gone from her minds, and she found herself having teleported her bodies directly into the bank. 

If being outside the bank had been bad, being inside the bank was a nightmare to Tandem. She vaguely registered that Decree had said something in her earpiece, but her attention was elsewhere so she couldn't say what; actually seeing the hostages forced memories Tandem had long since repressed back up to the surface of her mind, and this time there was no just dismissing the offending body. She’d started to hyperventilate at some point, her breaths seeming to get shallower and more rapid with every passing moment. 

Tandem felt tears starting to sting at her eyes, and bile rising in one of her throats; she shunted it all into her inventory. Now wasn’t the time to feel sorry for herself, getting to test out her ideas on capes was supposed to be fun, right?