13833/Digging Up The Past - Late Withdrawal

Digging Up The Past - Late Withdrawal
Date of Scene:	10 September 2021
Location:	New Jersey Savings and Loan - Norwood, NJ
Synopsis:	Punisher catches a show and robs a bank
Cast of Characters:	Phantasm (Drago), Punisher
Tinyplot:	Digging Up The Past

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Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Across the river and through some hoods, to Jersey Savings we go!

If there wasn't enough reasons to hate Robert Clayton, the scavenger hunt to find things of value continues. All the prep to get into Clayton's condo let to discovering that people find creative ways to reclassify their studio condos into multi-rooms without increasing square footage. A search of an air vent produced a key, which granted access into a vault which had - another key. And where does that key go to?

If you guessed a safety deposit box, you are correct! And to add to this, that box is located in ANOTHER vault. IN NEW JERSEY.

The bastard.

But fine. It took a bit of time but Micro was able to suss out just which bank that key went to and the things needed to make that key useful. But first. Jersey.

The Jersey Savings and Loan location in Norwood, New Jersey is a rather unassuming bank. It is merely a one floor bank that is devoid of any personality that makes it any different than all the other banks that got built in recent years.

After going through a set of double doors, people are greeted with the sight of a table that contains little shelves for deposit slips and pens.

To the right of that table, the doors to various offices where people can do private matters such as, applying for loans, being rejected for loans, setting up bank accounts, setti- BANK stuff. It's for BANK stuff.

To the left of the doubledoors there is a long counter where the tellers manage both the people awaiting service inside the buiilding, or they can turn around and service the person who is at the drive up teller. And should they have any questions, they can just ask the manager who is situated in the adjacent office.

To the far back of the building, towards the right, are the doors to the bathrooms, while to the left, kind of adjacent to the teller area is the vault area. During the bank hours it would be wide open. But being that it is after hours, that door is shut for the night, waiting for the timer to hit zero before it opens up again in the morning.

It is quiet in the bank right now. Most of the lights are off save for the emergency lighting which sets a rather somber mood for the sole nightguard making his hourly walk around the bank, making sure the office doors are locked tight, the privacy room is vacant, and the bathrooms are still empty. And well, dinner has finally caught up to him so he might as well test the plumbing as well.

Punisher has posed:
Sitting in the parking lot of the bank, the Battle Van has been sitting for hours, for all outward appearances abandoned.

Inside though, the Punisher is gearing up for, you guessed it, a bank heist.

Not just any bank heist, but a heist to uncover intel... and since they have confirmed that Clayton is a probable HYDRA plant? That makes him eligible for 'asset acquisition'. A fact that the Punisher is going to capitalize on tonight, since he'll need to get into the vault for this anyway.

That means a good portion of the back of the Battle Van has been prealloted for the cargo he's going to be bringing out via cargo drones.

"Alright. Anything I should know about before I go out there, Microchip? You hit the cameras from the wifi hotspot I plugged into their network, we disable the security, I deal with the guard, then we setup to drain and grab. Still seems like the best way to go about this."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"We covered most of it already." Micro confirms, "Second key before the vault. From what I could see, that got left in the manager's office. Probably locked."

There's a pause, "It's an open layout, You'll want to time your entrance when he's checking out the bathrooms or the box room. Ready when you are."

Punisher has posed:
As he slaps the magazine of Mercy rounds into the Beretta in it's holster, the backpack of gear is adjusted and Frank brings the pistol up into a ready stance as he goes out of the back of the Van. He's in full Punisher regalia tonight, with trenchcoat and his armor bodysuit. This one /could/ turn nasty if the police get involved somehow, and if the security systems have alarms he can't account for, a shootout with them is a very real possibility.

The Punisher almost never wants a police shootout... but he's never backed down from them before, and never will. His war is far too important to let amateurs get in his way.

He approaches the bank, glancing at his watch to make sure his timing is good, before he takes out a lockpick and gets to work... "Breaching now." He states. Never let it be said he isn't a professional when he's in the field.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"Looping now." Micro replies back.

It takes a little bit of waiting. Guard heads out of the bathroom. Wanders to the vault area, walks down behind the tellers area, confirms door still closed. (LIKE IT WAS LAST TIME) Turns,a round, Loops around the desks to start checking the office doors starting with the one closest to the double door entry. The prime point to start was then. With the guard's back STILL in view through the glass way.

Fortunately it is a small bank and a very boring one and the guard has lost track of how many times he has checked the area already. His steps are relaxed. And he finally makes it to the back bank of bathrooms.

Not a sound comes from the system as the doors are breached. But there is the sound of the guard apparently humming something.

Is he wearing earbuds?

Punisher has posed:
Can't really blame security guards being lazy. What maniac would think of robbing a bank with a sealed vault?

Someone with expertise in explosives and how to use them. Not that the punisher is an actual maniac. Anytime people say he's a maniac, he just points to an actual lunatic: The Joker.

Frank has even tried to take /him/ out once.... but he's a slippery bastard.

Right, the door.

Said door opens without much fanfare; Frank has done this so much it's practically muscle memory by now. Skipping inside, his pistol is brought back to ready as he moves for that guard. Deal with him, and the rest of this heist is a cakewalk.

... well, until the explosions level the basement and half the building and the cops are called.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As Frank makes his way forward it appears that the guard has reached a very ... uh, moving song on his playlist. Trusting there to be nobody save him and the cameras (that will never be looked at unless there is an incident, which is highly unlikely), he proceeds to shake what his mama gave him as he backs away from the women's bathroom and line dances over to the men's.

Microchip watches the feed, jaw dropping. "He better be glad we're looping right now." He mutters to Frank.

Punisher has posed:
*Thwip* As he's line dancing from one side to another, the silent Mercy round knocks him on his ass... and he fires two more to be sure, into the forehead and into the chest proper.

The guard out of the way, the pistol is holstered, and Frank looks to the cameras, towards Microchip. "Looks like plan A will be feasible."

Which is no interruptions until the boom.

He moves to go grab the key from the managers office, then...

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
The fall is not a graceful one as the round hits him while he's inbetween bathroom doors. This is a feat in itself as the frames are very close to each other. He ends up falling forward, smacking his head into the small section of wall before rolling over for the second and third insults hit him. As he hits the floor, the earbuds fall out, giving a slightly louder taste of the music he's listening to but not enough to discern the singer in question.

Frank's assessment on the lack of interruptions is spot on. Save for the locked manager's office door.

Punisher has posed:
Another lockpick later, and Frank is inside the office. He's not looking for just the key though, he's also looking for useful intel and assets. If he's going to start working on seizure, this is a good starting point.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Funny enough the manager's office had it's own floor safe. It appears to be an ole-timey safe. Based from the door being open with the bolts in the locked position, the owner of the office doesn't trust that he'll be able to open it again. Or it's a big pain to open. Inside there are a bunch of bank brochures, pens, temporary ATM cards, and empty checkbook covers.

Behind that are several file cabinets. Four of them. With Four drawers each. Loaded down. To the other side, the manager's L-shaped desk with its own locked drawer.

Punisher has posed:
The locked drawer gets his attention, and he walks over as he stuffs what's useful into his trenchcoat pockets. "Getting briefly sidetracked. Stand by." He says as Frank works on lockpicking the drawer.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Similar to basic filecabinets, the drawer lock is more an inconvenience than a full out protection. It might discourage someone who has a few seconds to swipe something but when you got all night?

Well.

The quiet office is filled with the clunk of the mechanism turning. With the resistance removed, the drawer shifts forward slightly.

Inside, Frank finds a set of keys. Two of them looking pretty familiar to the one found at Clayton's place.

Punisher has posed:
Can't hurt to take a look, at least... and he pockets them after snapping pictures with his smartphone to send to Microchip, "Think you can match those to boxes?" Frank asks as he starts to head down to the vault itself, finally.

Time to start setting up.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"I think at least one of those might be the teller key." Micro replies back, "But I'll check."

As Frank sets up for the grand finale of his bank tour, Micro does work in the background, determining what he can about them. "The teller keys are very similar to what is given to those who pay for a box except there are fewer locks of that type. Looks like this bank has two variations." When you're through getting in you're going to want to take box 57 with you."

Punisher has posed:
"Got it." Frank replies as he's setting some C4 and semtex charges, along with det cords.

The Punisher is going for as little property damage as possible here... but there's no way in hell he's knocking this vault open without detonating most of the first floor central support simply due to the funneling effect from this much explosive material.

There's a reason he brought cargo drones.

"Going to do a sweep of the first floor teller stations first. The vault door is as primed as it can be."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"Alright."

Frank's sweep ends up showing not much. The only person in the bank is the guard snoozing away outside the bathrooms. Considering the size of the bank, he might be a bit too close.

Punisher has posed:
Yeah, that was the last bit to be dealt with. He's going to be hauled over a shoulder and placed out in the parking lot, far away from the bank itself.

Once placed, Frank turns back to the bank, brings up his detonator, and looks at the building a moment. "Time to wake up the neighbors." Was that a joke? His deadpan delivery makes it unclear. It's one of the very few times Microchip could probably remember him even approaching making a joke in recent years.

Then, he hits the switch.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
If the delivery made it unclear, the end result soon will. Upon the device being activated, the front of the bank looks- . Well, about the same. But the side of the bank is another matter as a portion of the wall between the vault and the teller desks gets blown out.

This pales in comparison to the noise and overall feel.

'BWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh....!' A symphony of car alarms a few blocks over errupts. Hopefully drawing the attention over there instead of where the source of the vibrations came from. There's the sound of brick clunking to the ground, but like a bag of popcorn near the end of its cook time, the sounds eventually stops.

A dog starts barking incessantly in the distance.

Punisher has posed:
"Alright, phase 2." Which is to say keep an eye on police bands, get the drones moving, and time for Frank to check stability to see if he can even get inside with a fire suppressor.

inside he goes, putting out fires as he goes. If he's very unlucky, he'll have to rely on the drones to get the boxes they need.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
If they weren't trying to avoid any more unecessary attention to the Bank, 'Ride of the Valkyries' would likely be the theme to associate with the drones as they start to fly on in. Perhaps it's on the guard's playlist. Who knows? It's questionable if anyone would want to see what dance he has cooked up for that song though.

As Frank goes through, he gets to play to any inner firefighter he has as he slays the random flare ups that pop up from the explosions. Annoying, but managable.

The perk of the bank being one story is that the foundation is still sound, despite the blast. The vault held pretty well too. The door is off its hinges but only a few of the boxes actually got damaged in the blast. There is a bit of a worrisome collection near where box 57 would be. Almost a diamond pattern but the box they're seeking is miraculously untouched.

It's like someone up there hates Clayton too.

Punisher has posed:
"Thank fuck, we don't need to go to plan C." Which was to burn a hole through the vault directly with a drone plasma torch while Frank held off the police.

"Alright, clean out the reserve and I've got the boxes." As he starts working on them, he also starts glancing around to opened boxes. A bit of random theft might make a good cover. Give it a week to return what was stolen and no one would be the wiser.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As Frank tends to the damaged deposit boxes, the drones buzz on past, gathering up what they can. Eh, while in Rome... Also wars are expensive.

Combined, the damaged boxes have a variety of items stored away for safekeeping. Three of them contained Jewelry, some obviously expensive while others, likely just there for sentimentality. Two of them contained old pictures. Three of them consisted of the documents needed to prove citizenship when obtaining an ID. And two of them contained data storage devices of various styles. CDs, flash drives... Even a zip disk.

Now as for Clayton's box. It required one of the keys retrieved from the bank manager's office to be combined with the one from the condo. Upon the box being released from the mechanism and being slid out, a quick peek shows a lovely assortment of things inside. Two memory sticks. Cash. Passport and IDs with Clayton's face, but definitely not his name and a gun. Loaded.

Wooh. Good thing that didn't go off in the heat.

And because Clayton's such a jerk...

Another key.

Punisher has posed:
The sentimental stuff is left behind. Anything of value is taken though, and sorted into it's own piles. He's only interested in taking Claytons stuff, but there's no time to sort any of it out.

Still, it'll be a hilarious news article about a bank robbery where most of the loot was returned shortly after. That'll be a fun one.

"Alright, I have some potential leads here." He collects it all into his backpack before he starts to help the drones load up the reserve himself... though the gun is put into his personal backpack storage.

Frank's gun, now.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
With the planning and equipment present, the gathering of what can be carried is almost done, leaving for the need to depart.

"I'm picking up calls indicating they're heading towards the bank. This'll have to do." Micro warns.

Punisher has posed:
"Get ready to go. I have one more thing to do." Punisher informs Micro as he tosses the backpack onto the floor of the Van, takes out a spraycan, and the template for a wall mounted skull emblem.

In about half a minute, the front of the bank has a spraypainted white skull symbol on it's front, leaving no doubt who was responsible for this bank robbery.

As he inspects it, Frank grunts, "Time to get the fuck out of dodge. Almost wanna get popcorn now for all the coverage this one is gonna get. Sends a message to his pals, too."

And he walks off, tossing the two into the back of the van before driving off.

Just another night in the war.