Rave has leaned against a wall neat Light that has heavy shadows with his head slanted down, holding his right arm and breathing heavy. "Damn it... high hugh hugh... can't keep this up. We need ta move soon or fall back and regroup. With most of his plan sabotaged it will take time to fix and  as much as I hate changing the plan purely out of principle, I hate being dead more."

  "We already regrouped, so I assume traditional problem solving will commence shortly unless we feel like abandoning the job."

  Traditional problem solving is violence, duh.

Raymond looks concerned for Raven.  "That attack looks to have done a real number on you.  You should have yourself checked out."

He relays to the others what Emmy said. "I'd rather not quit if it can be helped.  But a delay for Raven returning to peak condition might be in order."

Light says, "If the guy succeeds at what he was up to, then we all die. Right? Or just we all lose our powers? Or we work for him..... Ug. I have standards. I refuse to work for him and I don't want my powers taken. So let's try to bring him down. Worst case scenario, we are forced to run. Don't forget; Raymond's mystery friend claims to have the barriers brought down. And Wrashk likely doesn't know since he has yet to monologue to us."

We all agreed then? If so Lets move out and if we make it through this Im buying the drinks later.

  Crushington appreciates the sentiment at least, considering unlike certain depictions not many robots drink beer (or at all).

  "I will see what I can do to ensure you will not need a straw to participate."  Hard to tank for self inflicted injury though.

Raymond is wearing a grim expression.  People willing to push themselves to the brink aren't something unique to Paragon City.  There were plenty of them in the Rogue Isles.  Too proud to admit when they're not up for a job.  And of course something always goes wrong.  Then they wind up dead.  And the rest of the crew scatters.  And Raymond gets stuck with carrying the body out and finding someone willing to revive her.

He hands Raven a few inspirations, nods to the others, and starts heading in.  "Let him monolog this time.  He might let something important slip."

OOC: Inspirations were the City of Heroes equivalent of healing potions, ethers, status effect removal, and so forth.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Tue 27 Oct 2015.

(Time Skip)

Wrashk gives his monologue again (Up to Crushington if he interrupts with blasting the chair this time or not).

Light looks really trigger-anxious, but holds back for now.

If permitted to finish his monologue, Wrashk brags that the mercs have not succeeded in stopping him or his plans.

Raven accepts the potions and uses them immediately, as they listen to the speech he reaches out with the shadows searching the room looking for anything they would have missed in the excitement of the last go round. (Up to DM if I find anything.)

  Showing great restraint, Crushington refrains from destroying their expensive (holographic) chair.

  "It does seem the importance of your associates was vastly overstated, yes."

  OOC: My own joke about Inspirations is that they are like childrens chewable vitamins.  Inventory UI wise, there was a tray they'd slide down racks from like an upside down pez dispenser.  Though there really wasn't any "official" statement on if they were literal items or an abstraction.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:49, Sun 01 Nov 2015.

Raymond frowns and narrows his eyes at holographic Wrashk.  "You won't get away with this!  Even if you survive this round, sooner or later someone will stop you!"

He takes a swing at the hologram, fully expecting to be mocked for being tricked by the decoy.

Raven finds nothing of interest. It's just a standard villain room with a shark pit below it.

Wrashk laughs. "Why would anyone hinge their plans on the efforts of others? Oh sure, allies are useful, but let's face it; people just aren't reliable."

He watches Raymond punch through his holographic self. "Oh. That might have hurt if I was actually there. But since you bunch are going to die soon anyway and even if you escape, you won't make it to me in time, how about I brag to you about my evil plans?" he laughs as he stands up, puts hands in his pockets and lets the floor begin to open to reveal the shark pit. (Note; it only began to open. There will be time for everyone to react) "You see; I had my underlings gather coordinates. But while they were each busy gathering those coordinates, I was spying on them. So the moment they had the coordinates, so did I. Those coordinates lead to artifacts, each of which controls one kind of power origin. For example, this one..."

He admires some ancient-looking spherical relic in his hand. "This one controls technology. Yes... the gods of ancient past foreknew the capabilities of today's technology. So I could, for example, control any robot with this. Including robots with minds of their own like Crushington there. But where's the fun in that when I can watch you all suffer and struggle to no avail? Although I could turn off Light's beam cannon for kicks." he finally can't hold in the maniacal laughter and lets it out.

Light is annoyed.

Raven crosses his arms and taps his foot in irritation, "If the shark tank is your big plan the your going bore us to death log before with your annoying laugh and speech." Though as he Jokes if those who pay close enough mind to the shadows, every time he taps the darkness under and around him gets thicker while his shadow armor shrinks making a floor of shadows so that they wont if the floor suddenly well doesn't want to floor anymore.

  "I always was annoyed by that particular branch of metahistory."  Going to the Gym and working out literally falls under such things, when you get down to it with Wrashk's overall plan.

  He considers the shark pit, and shrugs.  "I could deal with this for everyone, but that wouldn't be as fun to watch. Right, Wrashk?"  He just floats harmlessly in the meantime.

OOC: Joke plot twist.  Frostfire saves the day because Wrashk forgot to get the Mutation Origin artifact.  Because 0.3% of the player base ever used it, and basically only one lower level enemy group counted for it.

Frustrated that he can't smash Wrashk right then and there, Raymond resorts to giving him a rude hand gesture right in his holographic face.

"I'm going to find you!  Then I'm going to break you!"

He turns his titanic weapon on the nearby wall.  "Rrraaah!"

Crash!

Wrashk laughs at the group and even widens his eyes as his laughter gets louder and heartier. "I love watching your reactions! Raven's boredom amuses me so! Raymond making wild claims to a hologram! And Crushington thinking he is being witty when he is only covering for his laziness! Too bad television isn't this good! You all go ahead and keep making excuses for your failure and that you can't even touch me. I'm enjoying every second of it!"

Light says, "We should at least figure out where his cameras are so we can "blind" him and thus, reduce his entertainment. It's the least we can do."

The sharks jet out of the pit. Yes, jet. They have rocket packs and are now flying sharks... with spines growing out of their hides. There is about 3 sharks per mercenary and they all begin breathing fire.

Light, thankfully, has super speed and is able to dodge.

Even while they group is all being attacked, Raymond is contacted by Emerald, "How are things going? I've almost pinpointed Wrashk's location. If you guys can keep him distracted, I'll be sure to record his villainy as evidence for court."

"Flying Fire Breathing sharks it had ta be Flying Fire Breathing sharks.... I need a nap and a bath." Raven sighs ad swipes his hand forward pulling the shadows around him to guard against the fire. (Any who wish there is room to hide with me.) He then looks to the rest of the team. "Ill provide support I'm low on juice," He gathers what energy he has left, "So long as I'm here Ill make sure they cant even touch us."

  "Well, firebreathing sharks is some dedication."  You know, what with them spending most of their time under water.

  Incarnate nukes would be overkill, as well as ruin Wrashk's show early.  So Crushington opens up with power sink to showcase his own display of 'I can make technology stop working right haha'.

Raymond is infuriated by Wrashk's taunting laughter.  Raven's dark powers, while extremely helpful in this case, are calling to mind some extremely frustrating times with the Circle of Thorns, and that's not improving his mood any.  And to top it off, Emmy wants him to let Wrask continue his evil gloating!

"Shut. Up!" he screams, charging the sharks with massive swings and lightning!

Between his shouts of rage he manages to point out to light, "Cameras in shark jetpacks!"

Plausible.  Probable even.  But hopefully now whatever camera Wrask was watching through before won't be picked off till the sharks are dealt with first, buying Emmy that much more time.

Light nods to Raymond and zooms all over the place to rip up wires and tear out anything that looks like a camera. He tries his gun again and finds it is working. "...good thing I'm crazy." Light comments quietly to himself as the others see Light open up with all kinds of laser fire!

The ceiling begins to lower. "Sorry I couldn't come be there with you all in person. But you know... my life is just so busy! Ahahahah"

Between Crushington's EMP and Light's lasers, the sharks begin dropping into the water, but with the ceiling lowering and the floor almost gone, that will soon hardly matter. But thankfully, Raven is able to keep the others from harm in the meantime.

Emerald coms Raymond, "Alright, Raymond! I've got the recording I need! Step through the portal! It will lead to Wrashk!"

A portal opens up. Wrashk's hologram looks at the portal. "...what? That shouldn't be happening..."

As the portal opens and the ceiling begins to fall raven slams his hands onto the ground and giant pillars of darkness form to try and slow the decent and give everyone time to get to the portal. "Forget the Damn sharks, we have bigger fish to fry."

  "What, Mako is here?" it's a legitimate question.

  Still, he heads through the portal because that is the sensible thing to do at the moment.

  Well okay, the 'practical for others' thing would be to let the ceiling (eventually) crush him so he can't simply be handwaved to attack the others.  But he wouldn't be a Vigilante if he had that much moronic selflessness going for him now would he?

Raymond punches the shark gnawing on his arm in its face and it drops into the water.

"So much for your supposed control over tech!  I know you were full of hot air!"

Seeing that Soul has slowing the celing's descent covered, Raymond zips through the portal after Crushington.

He coms, "Thanks, Emerald.  Perfect timing."

Once the group makes it through the portal, they see Wrashk on the other side. ".... oh look. It's the mercs. Fun."

There is a three-foot tall fox standing there wearing a blue top, blue skirt, blue vest, and a pair of sunglasses perched on the top of her head. She is leaning against a wall, arms folded and gives a smile and a wave to the others as they arrive. "All yours. But keep him alive for trial, please."

Light says, "You're not our boss, but... you did say the magic word. And death should be a release..." he gets an evil smile on his face as he turns to look at Wrashk. In the blink of an eye, Light is behind Wrashk and holding him still for the others.

Raven and Crushington's turns.  :)