[h2]Raymond Haywood: Icehouse Hideout[/h2]
It took a couple of days for the Broker to get back to Raymond with his new weapon. In that time, Raymond had been left to think to himself, and he'd realised that perhaps simply gathering guns wasn't the best plan of action. Not least because that would make five separate weapons for him to carry around on missions; but furthermore, and thinking back to his hit against the so-called Universe Warrior that rocketed him to notoriety, because even his strongest gun would do squat against another Endbringer. That would be something he'd have to resolve: now that he was stationed at least semi-permanently in one place, the chance that he'd encounter such a being increased fairly substantially.

However, he ultimately decided, it might be best to figure out one problem at a time. His current weapon setup had been more than sufficient for most hits, and the chances of an Endbringer attacking [i]this[/i] specific city were very low, especially with years passing between any two sequential attacks. That said, as soon as his weapon had been handed over, he'd asked the Broker if he could link him to a Tinker with the right skills to, say... merge his weapons into one?

A few days after that, and Headhunter was given the opportunity to chat with a man going by the epitaph "Matrix", whose specialty supposedly lay in creating drones - specifically, autonomous drones with rudimentary intelligence, working either alone or in some sort of network that let them achieve more than just the one machine could. That was certainly an idea to look into later on; however, it was not why he was there. After some discussion, they had agreed upon a weapon that essentially shapeshifted to match whatever form was provided, specifically the five guns that served as a base for it. Matrix had assured Headhunter that he could do what he'd been asked to do, for the right payment of course, and a reminder that the weapon would need tuning up every couple of weeks; with that arranged, it was only a few days more before Raymond finally received his new weapon.

It was, to say the least, perfect for his present needs. He reminded himself when he received it that it was only a stepping stone to a superior weapon - there were a few types of parahuman who could resist even grievous bodily harm from mundane solid projectiles - but it would suffice for the time being.

That ultimately led up to today. Their mission, essentially, was to steal a crate from a minimum-security function, and immediately, the two newer members were discussing the matter of how to handle it. Thunderbolt had suggested setting up another ambush; Heartless had proposed that he sneak in and tase the guards unconscious beforehand. Both plans had their benefits, but whilst of the two, Heartless' made more sense, it was also unlikely to remain effective for long, which was why Chatterbox's suggestion of implementing several backup plans was so intelligent. Whatever they were. And... well, Sofia hadn't contributed, so that was that.

'I can't imagine ambushing the cargo as it reaches the storehouse will be very helpful, Jason,' Raymond posited quietly, 'since we'll have a period of low security to take advantage of after that anyway. Perhaps if we wait from then until the time of the rally, but even so. Nor will tasing the guards keep them down for long, Ryan, unless you also tie them up and gag them afterwards. It's surprisingly difficult to knock people out for more than a brief period of time, I've learned, not without causing permanent brain damage or worse.' He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself.

'That said, if you happen to have some rope and gags available, that'd be very helpful in handling the latter point. Or we can go out and buy some... James, don't you have minions who can buy things for you?' he asked, turning to the youthfully-attractive mind controller as he did. He still believed that was a false name, because why wouldn't it be, but it was the name he had provided, so why not call him by it? Just in case he slipped up...