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Ethan breathed an anxious sigh as he stepped out of the PRT van, one of the last wards to exit the vehicle. The building in front of him was cordoned off by police cars and officers kneeling around their vehicles, with a few setting up partitions of police tape to keep the especially curious pedestrian or reporter from getting too close to the danger. Ethan looked up at the bank itself, grimacing beneath his mask as he did so. It was a massive 25 story structure, the sides a sheer face of glass and concrete. Despite a significant portion of the building being composed of windows, the foundation and design of the concrete was clearly engineered with stability in mind - a focal point of Bridgewater architecture in a post-Confessor city. There were still weak points in the construction, but nothing that was applicable here, let alone useful.

[i]Three points of exit and entry on the ground floor, no readily accessible rooftop exit. Windows are reinforced, but a strong blow can knock them out of frame - much easier pushing from the inside-out, though this will lead to the hostages falling to their death. Push some of the Blackburn capes out the windows? Two should be able to circumvent this or survive the fall, but the rest are dead from a high enough drop, easy kills. Likely have some parahuman mechanism for escape after they finish the heist - exploitation of Ironsides portals? Flying Kintsugi minions? At least two stairwells in the building, one for daily usage, and a fire escape. The main stairwell likely cordoned off by Blackburn, but fire escape potentially overlooked due to lack of time. Access the fire escape through the back entrance, the code to enter the back is 58-[/i]

Ethan grunted a bit under his breath, his glove clicking lightly against his ceramic helmet as he moved to cover his eyes. His power was even more active than usual, flooding him with information. Was it the fact he was finally in a real 'cape situation'? The stress? The proximity to other parahumans?

Didn't matter. He had to work through it, couldn't get lost in the input before he pulled together what he needed. He fished his PRT issued phone out of his pocket, looking over the text messages from hostages, blueprints of the bank, and various other documents that were shared with him by the PRT on the ride over. He did his best to glance over everything he couldn't finish on the ride, allowing his power to fill in the blanks as he read and as Shattercrash began talking to the other Wards.

[color=a36209][i]The elevator system was already taken out? Had to be Ironside or Sun- okay, definitely Sundown. Leaves the stairwells for most of us, fire escape being the safer option. Hostages were probably moved to higher floors to prevent escape, but the question is where... Worry about it later, would take too much time to play 20 question with my power for that answer. Bird boy can maybe fly some of us up-[/i][/color] [i]can't support the weight, could maybe haul Tandem or some lighter Wards at best.[/i]

Ethan frowned, looking up at the bank once more. Scaling it was out of the question, even with Ethan's ability allowing him to pick out optimal hand points and climbing pathways. It was clear that the stairwell was the only real option for him, as well as most of the other non-movers. 

He was about to speak before Shattercrash raced forwards, leaping through one of the shattered windows as a trail of neon pink light trailed behind her. Several tense seconds passed before a crashing sound could be heard from within the bank, Tandem teleporting away an instant later. Ethan snapped back to the reality of the situation, a wave of cold tension washing over him. 

Yeah, he could probably die in this situation.

There were experienced capes here, but Ethan sure as hell wasn't one of them. Despite this, he was surprisingly calm about that - a far cry from his panic attack only a dozen or so minutes ago. With his power acting in overdrive like this, he was able to detach himself from the situation, focus his attention elsewhere to distract himself from the danger and the fear. 

This was a puzzle, and it had a correct answer. He just had to figure out the pieces and what he had at his disposal, work out a plan that he could focus on. He followed the trail his power laid out for him, speaking out to the other Wards. He fumbled his words for a second, before figuring out how to turn on his earpiece and share his message with anyone who had already left the main group.

[color=a36209]"Don't know exact positions, but I'm leaning towards the hostages being pretty high up - Sundown broke the elevator system to limit their escape, and the lack of external fire exits means they can't safely get out from higher floors."[/color]

He turned towards Hornet quickly, barely pausing in his rapid fire speech.

[color=a36209]"Can you sense the hostages from this range? I can probably narrow their location down while looking over the bank schematics, but that's gonna take some time with all the rooms I'd have to check over - might be quicker for you to pop in and look around first. Just knowing the floor would cut down a lot of time."[/color] 

Ethan barely slowed enough to allow her to respond before continuing.

[color=a36209]"There isn't an entrance on the roof, but I doubt helicopter extraction would be an option anyways. You might be able to break into the higher floors through the windows, Bird boy, but I'd avoid it - might break your neck, the laminated glass is pretty tough. Easier to pop out of frame or slice a hole through than it is to break."[/color]

A pause as he unlocked his phone again. Ethan quickly began typing on the phone as he spoke, screen flipping between schematics and the text message he was typing every few seconds.

[color=a36209]"There are two stairwells we can use, a main one and a fire exit. Both are probably compromised, but I'm thinking the fire exit might've been overlooked - they only had so much time to lock down the main stairwell and elevator. Probably the safest way up for the non-brutes. Shattercrash and Richter might be able to climb the elevator shaf- Nevermind, stupid idea. Sundown's gravity distortions might still be active in there. I'm headed to an employee entrance near the back if anyone wants to take the fire exit."[/color]

Ethan finished typing his message a few seconds after he was done speaking, sending out an updated image of the bank schematics, with the entrances and stairwells highlighted, and some of the unlikely hostage locations (bathrooms, storage closets, etc) already crossed out. He was making his way towards the back entrance of the bank, not bothering to look to see who was following him. He was too busy looking over the building more, checking the officers on sight, noticing the tarnished remnants of metal and asphalt that littered the ground - didn't even need his power to tell him those were some of Kintsugi's minions.

[i]Vault and high security safety deposit boxes located in a basement level, but unlikely to be the primary target. Mercenary groups like Blackburn most likely going after documents and deeds on higher floors. Kintsugi likely to be guarding the hostages, his minion creation keeping larger groups in check more easily. Rely on stealth and assassination to take down quickly, minions should be easier to handle without coordination from a Master. Sundown probably keeping an eye over the main stairwell and elevator shaft, maybe support from Champion? Avoid confrontation. Ironsides has almost certainly diffused teleportation waypoints throughout the building, but unlikely to have gotten to all parts yet. Identify metal growths in environment, request Tandem cover them in containment foam or trap with explosives. Maintain stealth as long as possible, rely on Shattercrash to cause as much havoc as possible to pose as a distract-[/i]

Ethan got to the back entrance, barely slowing as he hammered a code into the keypad next to the steel door. Against most of the capes in Blackburn, Ethan was cannon fodder. This was his first time in costume, all his combat experience coming from schoolyard brawls and practice in the PRT training room. In every way imaginable, he should not be ready for this - he thought as much less than 15 minutes ago, when he had calmed himself by telling himself that he probably wouldn't even enter the building, just go over schematics and plans. 

Now he was walking into danger of his own volition. He had no idea why he was so calm as he snuck towards the fire exit stairwell, avoiding the shattered remnants of the lobby. His power needed more input to help him out here, input he couldn't get from outside the building. Or at least, not fast enough to matter. Not for the hostages. 

Was that it? His power needed more information to work off of, so he was risking his fucking life to get it? What stupid horseshit was that-

[i]Shallow and rapid breathing, must relax to conserve stamina and avoid hyperventilation. Adjust your gait, ease into balls of feet for softer foot falls. Avoid shattered glass on ground, noise may attract attention.[/i]

Ethan drew his knife, measuring his breathing carefully as he continued to climb. He made a stupid mistake - he relied on his power to ease him into this mission, to keep him calm and avoid letting his fear and anxiety get ahead of him. And it, for some reason, didn't tell him how stupid of an idea it was to enter here. 

Ethan paused as he rounded the stairwell, reaching the second floor. No point regretting it and thinking logically now. His power got him into this mess, now he just had to hope it could bail him out too. 

He continued making is way up the stairs.