The Bank Blues (Open)

It was an average day at the National Bank, people going about their general business of depositing and withdrawing various amounts of cash, checking their safety deposit boxes and such. The day was made slightly less average as Zarakc walked into the bank, toting a briefcase with him. He wore a simple grey t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans and running shoes. Not exactly the get-up you would wear whilst having a briefcase in your possession. He gazed about the bank and the people, catching some people eying him somewhat uneasily. Ignoring those uneasy gazes, he stepped up to an open teller window and place the suitcase up on the counter.

"How many I be of assistance to you today?" The teller's voice rang out in a friendly, though routine, manner. Her eyes watched Zarakc as she awaited the response, some of the unease that other people had somewhat instilling in her thoughts from the mismatch of Zarakc's appearance.

"Just a deposit." Zarakc replied, his voice having a faint sense of friendliness to it as he gave the teller the account information and proceeded to unclasp the briefcase. He took four stacks of various bills and passed them off to the teller. He watched the teller as she looked at the bills for a moment and then took them and started to go through the process of depositing them into the account.

Once the stack of smaller bills was finished, the teller started on the stacks of the larger bills and soon stopped for a moment. She seemed unsure about something before looking back up at Zarakc for a moment. "An error came up, just need my manager to help me real fast." She stated as she stepped away for a moment to find one of the managers. The 'error' that came up was certainly not an error, but a warning about marked bills that had been taken from a series of robberies. The manager and the teller came back in short time, the teller saying something about the error that came up and not knowing how to respond to it.

"Sorry for the wait sir, our tellers aren't able to close this error without a manager." The stocky manager told Zarakc as the manager leaned over the table and started working on the keyboard as the teller hit the silent alarm to get some police over here. The manager continued to work on the keyboard, actively looking to be doing something to burn time until the police got here. Zarakc looked around as the guards in the bank appeared to be keeping an eye on his teller window a little more actively than before. Perhaps paranoia, perhaps not.

"This going to take much longer? I've got a meeting with a friend soon." Zarakc asked after a minute or so went by, some impatience becoming heard in his voice as he was thinking of a course of action if he wasn't just being paranoid and things went south from here. He eyed the manager and the teller, his gaze and off-colored eyes not exactly doing him in favors in helping the two feel more comfortable about the situation.

"My sincere apologizes sir, our system is being slow today and isn't helping us get through this problem any faster. I'm sorry for the inconvenience" The manager offered in reply to Zarakc's impatience, trying to say things that would hopefully keep Zarakc calm until the police arrived.

As luck would have it, for the bank anyway, there were two units in the area and unoccupied as the silent alarm was triggered. Both of the patrol cars were parked in the front of the bank and the four police officers came in as Zarakc was talking with the manager. Two of them came up behind Zarakc and the other two stood off to the sides, ready to assist if Zarakc resisted arrest.

"You're under arrest for possession of bills tied to multiple robberies. On your knees, hands behind your head." One of the officers announced to Zarakc who tensed up at the statement as the manager and bank teller backed away from the scene. Zarakc knew if he acted now, it was most certainly going to end badly for him; the best response he could have now would only get the officers close to him on the ground, and the others could easily incapacitate him, most likely with tasers. That plan was certainly rejected. For now, Zarakc slowly lowered himself to his knees and place his hands on his head as he drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes and taking the moment to concentrate.

The officer that spoke to Zarakc moved in quickly, taking his hand cuffs and clasping them around one of Zarakc's hands, lowering them to behind his waist at the same time. As the officer was about to clasp the other part of the hand cuff to Zarakc's free hand, Zarakc suddenly tugged his hands forward, breaking free from the grip of the officer and slammed his palms down against the ground. A large gust of wind suddenly surged from above Zarakc and the officers and slammed down onto them, sending the officers and the surrounding guards to the floor, as well as sending plenty of loose documents swirling in the air.

Zarakc quickly got up as the officers yelled out for his apprehension, the guards in the bank moving in to do so. Not wanting to figure out if they had anything in the sense of tasers, Zarakc threw his uncuffed hand forward at the guards in the path to the entrance, a gust of wind knocking into them, causing them to fall onto the ground. He quickly ran past the temporarily downed guards and outside of the bank, taking off in one direction, looking to get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Suspect on foot fleeing the National Bank, heading east. Blue hair, about six feet tall, grey shirt and blue jeans. Advise caution, he's a meta." One of the officers in the bank called out on his radio. The warning went through the police radios and any channels tied into them as the officers from the bank hurried outside, two of them getting into their car whilst the other two took pursuit on foot.

Claire had been in Titan's Tower when the alarm went off. She was eating cereal and the alarm scared her, making her spill the cereal. They really needed to get a less loud alarm because it could come on at any time. She didn't have time to clean it up so she rushed out of the Tower, listening in on the police radio.

"Hm...east. Blue hair? And a meta? This can't be good."

Claire headed in the direction where Zarakc was and she stopped short when she saw him in the distance. He was running quite fast and she didn't know if she could catch him that quickly. Behind him in a distance were the security guards, running like army men chasing an escaped convict. She soon heard sirens and looked in the other direction to see a police car coming. They were closing in on him so was it necessary to butt in. She ducked behind a tree and looked around it to see how this was all gonna play out.

Zarakc looked behind him to spot the police car with the sirens blaring along with the bank guards and the other two officers in pursuit of him. Of course this just couldn't go smoothly without any issues, that would just be too easy. With a heavy mental sigh, he looked back forward, running past pedestrians and pushing those out of the way who hadn't caught wind of what was happening. With each alley he passed, he looked down it to assess if it would be worthwhile to go down it instead of heading down the street still. His luck changed somewhat as the police cruiser drew closer to him. He quickly ducked into an alley and leapt up to grab hold of the bottom ladder of a fire escape and quickly climbed up that, working up the ladders and climbing up to the rooftop as the police car pulled up to the curb by the alley.

"Suspect is now on the rooftops, caution still advised." Another update went out as Zarakc made his way up onto the roof. He glanced around the scene, trying to dictate which direction to run in to try and shake the police off him. He had already shifted into a hawk once today and he really wasn't wanting to do it again in case he could simply run them off on foot, he really needed to work on that taking so much out of him. Deciding to head away from the street, he ran north now, jumping the distance to the nearby building, landing in a roll to cushion the fall from the higher building.

"What is this kid doing? Parkour?"

Claire had to run to keep up with Zarakc because he was quite fast and even faster than her so she had to keep sprinting as the police car went beside her. As it was about to go past her, she jumped on the back and almost slid off but quickly caught her balance back. Turning invisible, the police man on the passenger side looked back but he didn't see anything because she was invisible. It was hard to hold on as she listened to the update and the car turned.

"Woah!"

Claire slid off the car, falling onto the ground as she was left in a cloud of dust. Looking to the rooftops, she saw Zarakc jump and was left dumbfounded. She wondered how fast he was. Climbing the ladder quickly, she made it to the rooftops and saw him on the nearby building. She turned invisible again in case any security guards were there, pursuing Zarakc. Jumping off the building, she made a force field under her to make a soft landing. Pushing a hand out, she made a force field over Zarakc to trap him in it.

"Stop......right.....there.... Hold on I need to catch my breath."

Zarakc was going to continue his running away from the police and the guards once he came out of the roll, though instead of moving forward he hit the force field that surrounded him as he tried to push on. His eyes narrowed as he heard a voice behind him, though it seemed... young. Once he turned and saw Claire standing there, catching her breath his eyes stared at her with animosity as his countenance shifted, looking aggravated, most likely due to this young girl currently containing him.

"Are you serious!?" He asked, more meant as a rhetorical question as he took a breath and slammed his palm against the field, sending a gust of wind tossing around inside the shield, causing his hair to move about wildly from the wind. His eyes glared at the girl as he struck the force field a few times with his fists, the handcuffs on his hand jingling as he did so. He didn't have much in the way of dealing with this, especially when the authorities got here. He had no idea how long this girl could keep this shield up, but every moment was precious time that he could be using to get away instead of being cooped up here. He hated being confined. His eyes looked past the girl, seeing two of the officers had made their way up to the roofs.

You're parents known you're chasing me!?" Zarakc asked, yelling the question due to the humbling fact that he was currently being held in place by some girl who didn't look over 13. His fists struck the force field more, before slamming the palm of his uncuffed hand against it, sending another gust of wind against it. These were his best attempts to get out, there wasn't much else he could do with. There wasn't going to be much more time for him to escape even if the shield went down, but he was certainly hoping that his luck turned around. He really wasn't keen on being arrested, even more so after having to cause somewhat of a scene to escape from inside the bank.

Claire looked to the boy going crazy in her force field. He looked like he was going to kill her and when she saw him look past her, she looked behind to see two security guards coming toward them and one of them pulled out a taser and shot it toward her. She barely moved out of the way and the line hit her force field but bounced off. She let him out and ran past him before replying,

"Yes I was serious, now run! I'm a Teen Titan and no need to be sarcastic because you will get slapped!"

Claire was already jumping off of that building and landing on another one and landed on her force field again to soften it. She ran toward the edge of the final building to see police cruisers surrounding the building, threatening to shoot her. Pulling out her Titan Communicator slowly, she says:

"Guys...we have a problem."

When the force field faded away, Zarakc nearly paused for a moment to try and figure out what was going on exactly, but his body thankfully responded without much further thought needed. As the girl replied to him, he was running to the edge of the building, jumping off at the same time she did. He landed in a roll again to cushion the fall, trying to keep an eye on the girl as he did so, half-expecting to end up in a shield as he came out of it, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

"Care to tell me what's going on exactly? Thought you Titans were supposed to be the good guys." He questioned Claire, his voice being a mixed of confused and rushed, as he disregarded her comment about being sarcastic and being slapped. He thought about what the heck was going on; shouldn't the guards and officers just be going after him and helping or thanking the Titan instead of trying to bring her down as well? Perhaps there was something else going on that he was quite completely unaware of, but, if things went well, whatever help this Titan might get might assist him as well. Hopefully anyway, for this all could most certainly end badly with how things were looking, but only time could tell.

He contemplated about shifting into a hawk and just getting out of here, but abandoned the idea as he saw the guards make their way to the edge of the previous building. During the time it would take the transform, he guards could easily get down to this building and get him with a taser, or even possibly hit him from where they were and he didn't exactly want to get caught with one of those unless there really were no other options. He moved to the centre of the rooftop as he looked between Claire and the guards on the other roof. For the moment at least, the units surrounding the building didn't exactly affect him.

"We are..but those security guards don't look like the 'explaining' type. If anything, they will arrest me! I don't think they got a good look at my face though."

Claire also had dark blue hair, the same color as Zarakc and this interested her greatly to think if it was destiny that she had seen him today. He seemed like the free-running type of guy but she didn't know if she wanted to get to know him because he was running away from the cops and that didn't show a good sign. She turned invisible quickly so that the officers wouldn't observe her all the way and put her on the news or something.

"Don't worry, blue. I'm still here."

Claire had then jumped from the building and used her shield to catch her from making to much noise. She moved behind the officers and then reappeared, looking to Zarakc.

Zarakc was keeping an eye on the guards from the other rooftop, ready to try and knock them over if they tried to make their way onto the roof he and Claire were currently on. He looked back just in time to catch Claire turning invisible, rolling his eyes at that. Of course she would have a basically sure-fire way to get out of here unhindered. Well if it was anything like the last time he met someone that could turn invisible they stuck around despite having been able to easily get out of the situation; perhaps this would turn out more or less the same.

"Eh, either way, still trying to figure out how we get out of here." He replied as he looked over at the police officers and their cruisers at the front of the building. Glancing back to check on the guards on the other rooftop, it looked like they were backing up to get ready to jump down to the rooftop he was currently on. As that was happening, he saw Claire appear behind the officers and look up at him. Looks like she was sticking around, hopefully at least.

As the guards started to run to the edge of the previous rooftop, Zarakc started to run towards the edge of the rooftop towards the police, taking in a deep breath before hand as he decided to see if he could make it past them. Whilst in the air, he concentrated on his landing, wanting to ensure he didn't mess it up since that would most certainly end badly for him. As he hit the ground, he landed on his feet and crouched down, planting his palms against the ground only a split second after his feet landed. Landing like that had hurt his feet, but it was certainly worth the gust of wind that emanated from his location. The gust caused the open doors of the police cruisers to slam into the officers behind them and either stagger or knock down those who weren't behind anything.

Not wanting to see how long it took them to recover, Zarakc got up and ran towards the other side of the street, sliding over the hood of one of the cars, hoping to run into one of the alleys that Claire was by. He imagined that her shields could certainly help to provide cover if any of them were too quick to recover or weren't affected, though there was certainly something in the back of his head expecting him to end up in another force field and in a heap of trouble.

Claire had watched him jump and she turned invisible and followed him into the alley. She looked back while invisible to see the guards getting up from the air attack that Zarakc had just laid down on them and she realized that they were safe...for now. Reappearing and stopping, she looked at Zarakc before putting a hand on his shoulder and turning him and herself invisible as the guards ran into the alley.

Claire had quietly attempted to push him against the wall as the guards went by. If this worked then, she would have been close to Zarakc and would have been able to feel his breath on her and her face would be close to his face. Romantic....

Zarakc would have been set on just continuing to run away from the area before Claire placed one of her hands on his shoulder and proceeded to turn them both invisible as the guards made their way down the alley. He was already going to move back against the wall, so as Claire worked to push him against the wall, the action wasn't met with resistance. Shifting gently at the feeling of Claire being rather closed to him, the discomfort was preferred to possible having one of the guards or officers bump into them. His chest moved up and down a fair amount, it appearing that the running and using his powers was certainly taking a fair deal of his energy.

"You're a little close.. Zarakc mentioned in a hushed whisper, not exactly wanting to have them stay like this for longer than was necessary.He looked over at the police cruisers, wondering how long Claire could maintain their shared invisibility.

As the guards went by, Claire made them both reappear and then she looked at him. She liked being close to him and it seemed like she was getting attracted to him when she just only met him like actually 5 minutes ago. Girls were complicated..so complicated that she said girls were complicated and she was a girl.

"Sorry..."

Claire had blushed by she looked up so that Zarakc didn't see because this guy didn't seem like he liked her back and of course! She was 12. She admired him more than she liked him, more of like how people like celebrities than true love. She then looked at him with a stern look before getting down to business.

"So...what did you actually do wrong? Before I arrest you, I need to know. Well, if I arrest you, meaning if you did anything wrong or if it was just a mistake."

Zarakc stepped back away from Claire once she made them both reappear. He watched her before she looked up, not exactly understanding what she was doing before she came back down with a stern look at him. His brow rose at her as she addressed him in a serious tone.

"Seriously? Arrest me? I don't get you." Zarakc replied, seeming a little surprised in her sudden change in agenda and annoyed most certainly. "After they try to nab you as well, after that all goes through, your first thought it to see if you need to arrest me?" He inquired, trying to figure out what this girl was thinking, it's not like he had been going into the bank or running with guns blazing or anything of the sort.

Claire facepalmed and rolled her eyes at Zarakc after he had replied to what she had said. Even though she was on his side with escaping the cops, she was still a Teen Titan and no matter what, they had to get down to business. It was time to stop playing games and go into Interrogation. But with a 12 year old girl...wow.

"Females are complicated and complex creatures. It works on a lot of different levels, don't hurt yourself. Yes that is my thought, who is the one running from the cops here? Well, don't answer that. I meant who is the one who was FIRST running from the cops?"

Claire rolled her eyes again as she leaned on the opposite wall of Zarakc so she was across from him. She folded her arms and gave him a look that said, "We can be here all day if you need too."

"Don't hurt myself? Screw off kid." Zarakc offered as his first reply to Claire and her first set of comments. As much as he disliked the current situation, he figured that she could easily create another force field and trap him and there didn't seem like there was anything he could do from that point to escape. So for the time being it seemed like it was time was Q and A with the 12 year old Titan.

"As much as I'd love to spend the rest of the day with you, I'll pass. I was depositing money at the bank, and apparently some of the bill were from robberies, so that's why the cops showed up. I ran because like they would take my word that I wasn't involved and I'm certainly not going to be arrested because of that." Zarakc explained as he stood against the other wall, watching Claire carefully as he took the cuff that was around one of his wrists with his other hand and worked to see if he could manage to slide it off while they talked.