Raz was quick to put his hands up as a sign of peace. "It's okay! I don't pop into people's brains without asking!" He stashed the portal back into his pack. "So if we ever run into a situation that needs a Psychonaut's touch... well, you know where to find me." Raz flashed a dumb smirk to try and help ease Therion. The idea really seemed to freak him out, and Raz didn't want to leave the air too awkward between them. Well, any more awkward than it already was.
On the train ride to the next destination, Raz spent the time filling Jesse in on his whole deal as he did Therion, though with a little less theatrics. He didn't want to hit another passenger with a stray shot. "I should probably tell the people in charge about this," he said after the second explanation of his PsychoPortal. "Not like people know what Psychonauts are capable of in a lot of this world. Might be pretty useful somewhere. Say, who is in charge of our group? Is it that short, fuzzy guy and his robot friend? Or the big trombone man? Maybe even some sort've, anti-Galeem? Counter-Galeem? Galeem adjacent entity?"
Raz really wished they would've had time to stay at the MTT Resort. The underground area it inhabited looked pretty interesting, the area itself held potential mysteries - as Raz himself put it when they arrived, "How come the line is named after the Resort, and not the whole place?" - and he was seriously craving a good soda. Unfortunately, duty called, at the wrong time as it usually does, and the trio were sent back the way they came pretty fast. Raz looked wistfully up at the resort as they left it behind. "Maybe next time," he promised the building.
After a quick stop at the Metro to meet back up with everyone and collect their next line passes ("Man, this place should really invest in some easier-to-navigate architecture.") they were headed right down to Twilight Town. Much like Toro, Raz was surprised to find just how accurate the name was. Traversing a town where the sun was always the perfect level to shine right into your eyes was... annoying.
When the thought of participating in some street races came up, Raz decided to sit out, the excuse being, "the last time I was in charge of our wagon we ended up losing a wheel, one of our horses, and the entire kitchen tent. Better if I'm not within ten feet of an actual racecar. Or, uh, anything like one." Instead, Raz followed up on his earlier thought, and sought out who he figured were the closest to the "higher ups" of the organization.
"Hey, it's Tora, right? And... Poppy? I'm not sure if it'll really be helpful to the group but..." He began, going into a small discussion on the Psychonauts' modus operandi, and that maybe they didn't need to punch all of the problems they ran into all the time because of it. You know, if it helped.
Level 2 (XP: 0/20) Interactions: Scout, Sectonia @Archmage MC Haven
With the ambush hitting its stride Wonder Red strategized quickly. The civilians' safety was paramount to his own at the moment, and while he and his compatriots could dispatch the melee advances easy, they were under the most threat by the enemies firing from cover. Without a proper team of Wonderful Ones to support him, he'd have to get creative.
Leaping into the air, Red landed on top of one of the decrepit cars sitting by the encampment's entrance. He grabbed it from above with his Unite Morph, lifting himself up in the process, and 'revved' the car, rolling it back and forwards on its rusted rims. Then, like a kid playing with a toy truck, he sent it careening ahead! And just as he let go he unmorphed, setting the borrowed Antlions atop the car as it barreled through the Ash Devils rushing towards them. The Antlions, collected so close together, sparked any Root their makeshift ride got close to and fried any bullet that wizzed past them, like a mobile electrical field.
It was a bumpy ride, between the car's neglected state, the uneven terrain, and the impacts of their enemies, but the strength of Red's Morph allowed it to continue on past the ambush, eventually upending over a deep trench, scattering Antlions everywhere. Everywhere, as it happened, behind what the ranged Root were using as cover.
As the enemy gunmen dealt and were dealt with by the Antlions and Sectonia's efforts, Red immediately went back on attack. He worked in tandem with Scout, delivering the final blow to any Ash Devil not felled by his gunfire, and soon the road to the gate was littered with bark and weapons. The only remaining problem for them now was the Hulk, finally entering the fray once more. Capitalizing on Scout's distraction Wonder Red jumped over the Hulk, delivering two swift jabs to the back and top of its head, injuring and dazing it enough for the other two adventurers to finish the job. Not quite enough to keep himself from getting hurt, though, as the Hulk lashed out with its cleaver, so big compared to Red that it more clubbed him off to the side, face first into the encampment's metal walls.
Luckily by that point the fight was largely won. The Hulk went down after the concentrated effort of the two adventurers, and what stragglers were left had enough sense to retreat now that their numbers were so low. Wonder Red looked a little worse for wear - his gauntlets scratched, bullet holes in his scarf, and a jagged cracked in the middle of his mask revealing pulsing blue circuitry - but he turned down any offer of healing supplies once they made sure everyone was inside safely.
"Excellent work, everyone," he said to not just Sectonia and Scout but also to the fighters that fended the attack off too. At least, the ones not tending to the wounded. They weren't very receptive to the praise, however, and Red didn't push the point. He turned to his partners. "We should get moving. There's not much else we can do to help here. We should make a note to inform Alcamoth about this location, too. They might be able to provide better help for the people here."
As they left for the train station, Red took a slight detour, weaving around the trenches to where the first monster had been. It had been caught by the sniper early on, and so Red decided to acquire its spirit for himself...
New Striker spiritbound: Howler A unique specimen of the all-consuming Root. While it seldom attacks, it will let out an ear-piercing shriek when it becomes aware of any enemies. In addition to stunning any foes close enough for a brief moment, it also summons a gang of four allied Hollows. While they have low life their small size and speed means they can swarm enemies and get some hits in with their nasty little hatchets. While the Howler is subject to typical Striker limitations, the summoned Hollows are not
Joining back up with the others, Red asked Sectonia, "Now that we're out of combat, what did you learn from the Moogle?"
Rather than stand around debating their path forward, Jesse went to go ask some locals for directions. That was a pretty smart move. Raz stayed at the crossroads with Therion, surveying the different ways to go a bit more.
"What's mana?" Raz eventually asked, looking up at the unfriendly thief, not that Raz could look at him any other way. "You mentioned it back on the train. Is that a kind of energy you use to do your powers?" Raz didn't know a lot about things outside of his psychic frame of reference, so he settled on vagueness to get through most of these conversations. A 'power' is a 'power' regardless of which universe you lived in, right?
"If you want, I can also tell you what kinda stuff I can do," he offered, "it's easier to trust each other if we're open about that, isn't it?" He summoned his levitation ball, used his TK to grab and wiggle the signpost around, and blasted part of the rock wall with a Psi blast. "That's all I can do at the moment." He de-levitated. "All my other psychic abilities are still... locked? Missing? I'm not really sure how it works. Oh! And I also have my mind reading back, too! It's not as easy like back home, but..."
Finally, he reached into his knapsack and pulled out his Psycho Portal, which just looked like a tiny door. "And there's this," Raz said, holding it up with pomp. "This is a Psycho Portal. It's what Psychonauts use to project into people's minds. I haven't gotten it to work in this weird mix-up world, though." He looked at it thoughtfully, turning it around, then glanced up at Therion. "Would you be willing to let me... try, on somebody not under Galeem's influence..."
It was around then that Jesse returned, with information. Raz nodded, looking back at the signpost. "Yeeeah, I'm usually all for a good climb, but after everything with the mountain, I wouldn't mind an easier ride, ahah."
Level 1 (XP: 9/10) Interactions: Scout, Sectonia @Archmage MC Haven
While Scout might have seen fit to take the opportunity to rest, Wonder Red certainly didn't! He stayed standing on top of his root, keeping watch of the surroundings for any ill intent. Growing complacent wasn't the best course of action, especially in a location that seemed this hostile.
And good thing too! While Sectonia was gone, all hell broke loose; armed combatants popped up from cover, almost blending in with the nature-infested environment, and began attacking the encampment. With barely a moment's pause Wonder Red leapt from his small perch, soaring through the air towards the main brunt of the ambush. A flying, bright-red person was an easy target to aim at, but the CENITNEL suit was designed to handle small munitions with ease. Wonder Red's reflexes also made sure that any shot near enough to his exposed head was reflected away off the bracer of his Vulcan Knuckles.
He landed with a skid, kicking up some dirt as he fell in line beside the two shielded tanks, just in time for things to go from bad to worse. Out of the chaos came a real gnarled enemy, one that blew the sniper from the water tower. Regardless of her capabilities, Wonder Red did a fancy cartwheeling flip to her position in order to catch her, then leapt back behind one of the shields to safety.
"Everyone!" Wonder Red shouted to those around him, "head back for the camp's center. My compatriots and I will fend this attack off!" With that he jumped right up once more, over their cover, heading straight for the imposing Hulk. In the next blink of the eye, Wonder Red would finally show what he could bring to the table.
"Wondeeeeeer PUNCH!"
In an instant - faster than most anyone could see it - a gigantic hand formed over Wonder Red's fist. Nearly twice his size, Wonder Red maneuvered it with ease... right into the Hulk in front of him. With a spin in midair he slammed his Unite Morph into the beast, backhanded with a close fist, sending the thing careening back through the hole it made, through the line of shotgunners behind it, and embedding right into a concrete pillar on the other side.
When Wonder Red touched down again he pulled his Morph in front of him, shielding himself and those behind him from further gunfire, which plinked off the construct. Looking at it closer, one could see the green antlions Sectonia summoned within the translucent red, each one in its own piece that all seemed to lock into place like a jigsaw puzzle.
Over his shoulder, Red shouted to Scout, "No! We can't leave these people to deal with this on their own! We have a duty to protect the inhabitants of this world. They already have casualties!"
Raz nodded once, writing down the word 'wibbly' in his notes, before the group forged ahead. "Alright, up! Up is easy, you just find the stairs. Or, you know, an array of perfectly spaced platforms that you can jump across. Always works for me!"
Of course the one set of stairs to be found only led slightly further up than they were, nowhere closer to the surface at all. The road eventually ended at a crossroads, and while examining their options Raz suddenly spoke up. "Hey, I think I can read this stuff now!" He pointed up at the sign. "Guess writing everything down really does make a difference. Alright, let's see... Looks like that way is a Fog Canyon? And this path goes to..." He soon died down, once he realized it wasn't just him who could read the sign. "Well, okay, where should we go?"
He glanced down each way forward, making a mental note of the apparent difficulty, before giving his two cents. "Does any of these places particularly scream 'goes to the surface' to you two? We could also, maybe, go further in?" Raz gestured around them. "If this is a bug kingdom kind of place, then maybe they have a way to send signals out closer to civilization, and we're at some bug version of the outskirts? Just spitballing, here."
Lemme tell you guys, this thing is fire. Real lit. Very hype-pilled.
Nah but really, Lug is a great GM, and his commitment to making this RP engaging and continuing its long-lasting tenure is really something. If you got any interest in this genre, don't be shy!
Wonder Red Level 1 (XP: 8/10) Interactions: Scout, Sectonia @Archmage MC Nyakuza Metro -> Haven
"Everyone, if I can have your attention!" Wonder Red raised an arm, stepping away from the gathered group before everybody split off. "As I'm sure you're aware, Commander Nelson and I are part of a much larger organization; CENTINELS Planetary Secret Service, also known as the Wonderful One-Double-Oh. Even though we've managed to collect a few members after we were taken by Galeem, there are over 90 of us out there, potentially still under its influence. If you see one of our number while on recon, relay the information as soon as you can to either me or the Commander. Do not try to engage them yourselves. They could be very dangerous."
With a parting nod to Commander Nelson, Wonder Red boarded the Mint line train alongside his unusual group. The pairing wasn't as random as it might've seemed, though. Unlike his home on Earth, where civilians were familiar with the workings of the Wonderful 100, this hodgepodge world was full of people he'd never seen before. He didn't feel comfortable in using any innocents for a Unite Morph in a pinch while out in the field. Sectonia, however, could provide invaluable support with her antlions, at least until the team got their numbers up again.
Hoping to be on the same page there, Wonder Red explained all this to her. "...so you see, if we can coordinate between each other, I would be able to assist to my full capacity," he said, finishing off a long-winded speech on how their suits and Unite Morphs functioned. Their train pulled into the station just as Red wrapped up. Did he really talk for the entire ride?! Apparently not out of breath after all that, Red was quick to jump to his feet. "Stay close," Red warned his partners, even though one of them was a giant wasp and he himself was right red, not the easiest people to lose in a crowd.
When the surge of rough-and-tumble folk petered out enough to let them off the platform, Red took in the surroundings, from the derelict, rotted buildings, to the various monsters dotting the landscape. "This place seems dangerous," he noted. "Was it like this before? Or could this have happened because of this World?" Red thought this over as he took a few steps out from the station, onto a root big enough to stand on, putting him higher than the dwarven Scout. Eventually his gaze sat on the big blue tree, emanating a sense of comfort.
"We should call our Moogle someplace safer than down here," Red said, "maybe higher up? If those rooftops are any better. We could look for this area's largest hub, but there's no guarantee that would be a nicer spot for it." He turned to his compatriots. "What are your thoughts?"
- - - Word Count: 476 EXP Gain: +1 Raz RANK 5 1/50 EXP Interactions: Therion @Yankee, Jesse @Zoey Boey Nyakuza Metro -> Queen's Station
When Raz reached the end of the train's rails, he hopped off, landing with a little skid that turned into a half-jog back to where the group was supposed to meetup. "Got mine!" Raz held up his passbook, having managed to find the Purple line's booth along the rails. "Seems like three of us are going Purple," he said, giving his pass a wave to Jesse's and Therion's. It wasn't clear if the decision to break off into groups of three was because of Raz pointing that out, but there wasn't any harm in him thinking so.
Once they boarded their train, Raz was trying to contain his excitement. Sure, the mountain may have bested him in the long run, but this was his real strength: exploring! Being outside of such a large group meant his unique talents would pop out more, too. The actual ride to their destination would probably be the hardest part, since tiny Raz found himself between two tall, keep-to-themselves types. So, naturally, he went to break the ice, with a bit of, "So this place is going to a 'Queen's' station, AND a resort. Seems like a pretty easy mission," and some, "Ya know I've always liked purple. It's like blue... but redder!" When his attempts at small talk hit a wall, Raz too lapsed into an awkward silence. At least, until something came to mind.
"Oh, hey, excuse me?" Raz addressed Jesse, "I saw you flying around and lifting stuff with your mind before. You must be a psychic too. And a pretty advanced one, I can't even levitate like you or Milla can yet." This train of thought sparked another, and he turned his head to Therion. "Oh right, and you... Thermin? Uh, I remember you getting scared back in that mountain cavern, and I just want to assure you that my psychic abilities can't 'run out' or however you said it. They're pretty reliable!"
Whether he managed to spark a conversation or not, the train eventually reached their first stop. Not a lot of the other passengers got ready to leave, so there wasn't much rush to get to the exit. Raz took the time to dig into his pack, pulling out a small notebook and a smaller pencil. He flipped the page over. "Queeeeen's... Staaaationnn." He said as he wrote the spot's name down. "Dark," he continued, "a lot of plant growth, moist conditions, bugs. Many bugs." He scratched his pencil across the notebook three times, underlining the word 'many'. "Eh, actually, 'dark-ish' works better. Plenty of light, just scattered all over. Not quite dim, though. Foggy..."
Raz was lost in his note-taking for a while, nearly tripping over a patch of moss and into a bug-lit lantern that hung low. Eventually, though, he stopped, and took it all in properly. "Huh. This place is funky," he expertly observed. "Do you guys know how this Moogle thing works? It feels too echo-y to just call it, right? Plus I'm pretty sure we're underground... in Psychic Tales 171, Otto Mentalis was stuck in the Cavern of the Demids, and his long range Telepathilizer couldn't--" He stopped himself short, since neither of his teammates seemed interested in Psychic Tales 171. Their loss.
Clearing his throat, Raz spoke again. "Soooo. Would you guys say this place has a more wibbly or a wobbly atmosphere, exactly?" He asked, turning his attention to one of the sigils, trying to replicate it in his notes.
Grinding along the electric rails really helped ease Raz's mind about all that went down the day before. Twisting and turning along with the cat-like trains gave him something to focus on. Plus, the higher the tracks led, the more of the enormous metro Raz could see. It stretched on for miles, not just where the tracks went but way further up than you'd noticed at ground level. This place might've been a section of the world all on its own. Hopefully there wasn't a Guardian around, though. Raz has had enough of fighting on trains for a while.
Sight seeing wasn't going to help with collecting pons, though Raz's method was also turning out pretty unfruitful. The problem wasn't a lack of pons - the tracks were littered with the things - it was actually getting to them! The layout of the individual rails overlapped, double-backed, and sometimes went clear straight up, making it tricky to hop onto the one that'd get him where he wanted. If that wasn't enough there were the trains themselves, too. Raz would have to jump lines to avoid becoming a kitty pancake, and every so often some enterprising shady cats would be leaning out the windows and swiping pons for themselves.
Needless to say that it wasn't very productive. But it was pretty fun.
At least until Raz got flung off the tracks. While racing towards a lone pon, a train overtook him on the neighboring rail, and one of those pon snatchers whacked him clear into the air with a butterfly net. Raz soared for a distance, the momentum of his sliding making him sail like a skipping stone, landing on a metal platform jutting off the side of a building. The impact made him lose his grip on the only two pons he was able to snag, rolling along the floor until they came to a stop against the legs of a fold-up table, manned by a particularly slimy alligator, in more ways than one.
"Whoa!" The alligator yelped. "Good thing nobody else was around for that. You came in so hot I'd've had to tell them, 'hit the deck!', which I think wouldn't be a very tasteful phrase considerin' your current circumstances."
Raz picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Thanks. I guess? Hey, those are mine!" Raz rushed to collect his pons, but the alligator didn't seem to want them.
"You got me all wrong, pal! I don't take people's belongin's that way. That's what pickpockets and pigeons are for. Nah, I only steal in the 'technically legal' way. And by that I mean I run a perfectly legitimate games business that does nothin' funny! No humor to be had here! Not even a chuckle. Heheheehh." To prove his clean-handedness, the gator picked up one of the pons closest to him and handed it back to Raz. "Name's Slick Mickey, by the by."
"I can, uh, see why," Raz muttered, holding the pon Mickey gave him between two fingers, a very clear slime patch dripping off one side.
"Guess y'got a good head on yer shoulders then! Well, anyone can see that, cuz it's big, and bigger's always better. At least that's what my dermatologist said when I went to get that weird thing on my inner thigh checked. 'Course, that was after he screamed in abject terror, but he assured me it was due to a spooky ghost he saw out the window and I see no reason to think otherwise." Mickey placed a hand down on his table with a wet thunk. "Say, I happen to, ahhh, entertain people with big and/or good heads. You lookin' to buy a Metro pass, right? If you put your pons up for a bet, you can quintuple your grabs! Two to ten in just one unrigged diversion."
Raz thought this one over. The math did seem in his favor there, but he'd had enough experience on the road to run into scam artists before. Eventually he said, "I guueeeeess I can do that, sure. But I get to pick the game."
Mickey visibly gulped. "Uh-hah, well, see, that ain't really how it works..."
"Well, if you say so. Guess I'll just take my two, WHOLE pons with me to someplace else..." Raz made like he was going to march off. He didn't even get a single step in before Mickey practically threw himself across the table.
"Ah, no no! I-it's fine, heh. What sorta gamesgator turns down a game? A bad one! Or one that's fed up with the career choice, which is perfectly valid." Mickey produced a stack of cards and set them down. "So, kid, what's it gonna be?"
"How about... you pick a card and I have to say which it is."
"Really? Y'wanna go with that?" Mickey could barely hide his joy, shaking in his gatorskin boots (which were his feet. He didn't have shoes.) "S-sure, sure! Let me just..." In a frantic jolt, Mickey rifled through the deck of cards, turned his back to Raz, did a bit of futzing about, and turned back, a single card in his hand with the back towards Raz. "Alrighty then! What do you say this card is?"
Before Raz could begin to guess, Mickey tossed the card into his gullet and swallowed it down! "Hey! That's cheating!" Mickey merely shrugged and did his worst at playing innocent. Not that it really mattered. Raz wasn't fixing to play fair himself. He'd felt a familiar tingle in his brain ever since yesterday, and now it was feeling a lot closer to home...
Mind Reading: Raz is able to peek into the minds of those around him and read their thoughts in the moment. It's actually much weaker than it was in his home universe; Raz has to actively concentrate in order to pick up snippets of thoughts in someone, and his telepathy is much flimsier too, with even a moderate amount of effort needed on the target's part to keep their thoughts hidden. But if he catches someone off-guard, and they don't have a good natural mental defense, their mind is ripe for the reading.
Raz squinted and brought two fingers beside his temple. Since Mickey only just met him, he'd have no idea this kid was psychic at all, so this should be a piece of cake. The brainwaves cleared, a fog in Raz's head clearing just enough to catch what was going through Mickey's head.
"The card was... a Queen of Hearts... that you scribbled over with a blue pen and turned into the King of Clubs."
Mickey's jaw dropped so low it almost flipped his table. "That's, what, wow! I can't even be mad, that was exactly on the money! Y'got some real intuition on ya! Normally I'd be weaslin' my way out, as you do, but I'm too impressed and frankly a tiny bit scared to really scam ya here." Mickey scooped two handfuls of pons from his pockets and laid them out on the table. "There y'go, kid, eight pons with your name and my skin secretions on 'em. Don't go spendin' it all in one place! Haha, see, it's funny because you will."
Raz looked a little less than pleased as he rolled the pons into his pack. "Gee, uh, thanks for that. Good luck with the card stuff, Mickey."
"Oh, no, you cleaned me out. Only had eight to my name. Gotta fall back on my second source of income: letting people pay me to get away from 'em." As Mickey folded up his table to move on, he gestured towards the train rails. "If y'wanna know where to get a pass, just follow the lines. Eventually they loop back 'round to the stations for 'em, where you can buy one."
"Oh, thanks!" Raz waved Mickey off as he turned back to the rails. The closest one way a bright purple, so Raz figured that'd be the one he'd go on. Why not, right? And then he was off, back to his grinding.
- - - Word Count: 1,263 EXP Gain: +3 Rank Up!
Wonder Red Level 1 (XP: 6/10)
Lower Nyakuza Metro
Much, much farther below, Wonder Red was somehow having worse luck in his search. The alleys looked promising, but it seems most everyone else had thought the same thing; the nooks and crannies down here were picked clean. It made sense that not a lot of passerby would be adventurous enough to collect the ones above. Wonder Red picked up every trashcan, smashed every crate, opened every payphone's coin flap, and there was not a single pon to be found. As adverse as he was to return emptyhanded, Wonder Red needed to retrace his steps back to where they first split off and look for a different way to gather pons.
On his way through the alley again, Wonder Red heard something strange. Some sort of laughter and a bell-like jingling, that echoed off the walls, giving it a very eerie quality. His searching earlier must have masked the sound. Seeing as they were off exploring for pons anyways, Wonder Red decided to investigate. It took a bit, trying to determine the source of the sounds since the alleys were so numerous that it felt like it came from every direction, but a few right turn and several wrong turns later, Wonder Red found himself at a metal door cracked open.
Stepping inside, Wonder Red saw what looked like a big soundstage. In the center was a handcrafted set made out of fabric, cardboard, glue, tape, and other sorts of DIY odds-n-ends. All over the place where small, bouncy dolls, or what looked like them, also made out of various materials in an array of colors, decked out in costumes ranging from paper animal masks and PJs to sci-fi visors and jet boots. And they were just everywhere. Some were hopping around their personal play area, climbing walls, jumping between precarious platforms, slapping decals wherever they fancied. Others were at the fringes of the stage, trying on different pieces of costumes or collaborating on building colorful new set pieces. A few were even rooting around a huge machine, tugging at its internals as it sparked and jittered.
For a moment Wonder Red thought this was some strange underground militia of doll people, but just watching them for a bit revealed that they were only having fun. Playing, dressing up, crafting for the heck of it all. It brought a smile to Red's face - even with Galeem's influence, it seemed some worlds were able to retain their innocence and joy.
Just as he was turning back out the door, one of the little sack persons up on a high, wobbly 'icicle' stumbled. The whole thing swayed back and forth, and the doll atop it lost its balance, tumbling right off. Wonder Red, seeing it out of the corner of his high, leapt into action. "Look out!" He sprung forward, closing the distance from the door to the stage, and landed under the falling doll, managing to catch it in both arms. "Are you okay?" He asked as he set the doll on its feet.
It gave two thumbs up and a big, open-mouth smile. There was also a smattering of soft applause from the ones that were looking their way. Wonder Red nodded. "That's good. You should try securing your structures more, so this doesn't happen agai--" Above, the rickety tower finally gave way, collapsing into several pieces and falling towards them. Wonder Red was once more quick to act, jumping straight up to meet the falling debris in midair. "Hah! Whah! Pawh!" He delivered swift punches to each piece of the structure, sending them flying away from the person he just saved, or any of the others loitering in the danger zone.
When he landed, the assortment of sack people erupted into an even greater applause, cheering on Red's heroics. There was even a few shrill whistles. Red blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, really, it's all part of the job. No need to clap or anything." The sack person he had saved waved to get his attention and pointed behind him. At the other tall platforms were more sack people, looking at him expectantly, and toppling the towers again! Wonder Red was back at it, smacking away all the chunks of the set as they came, to the continuing enjoyment of the crowd. After a brief while, when there was little more on the stage for Red to punch, he was pretty tuckered out.
"Alright," he huffed between breaths, "I think I've done quite enough here. Really, you shouldn't be playing around so dangerously like that." The playful dolls didn't seem to take in his advice as most of them were already right back to work, gathering the scattered materials and setting up a new set to play on. One of the group wearing a little hardhat and vest approached him, a big bubble in his arms, and offered it up. Inside, 10 whole pons floated around. "This is for me?" After the sack person nodded, Red took the bubble. Was it payment for entertaining them? Did they expect him to punch this now?
Whatever the reason, Wonder Red saw it fit to take his leave, before they roped him into anything more. "Thank you for this," he said as he side-stepped to the door, "please try to remain safe from now on!" Of course, none of them paid him much mind anymore, their attentions diverted to something even newer.
Wonder Red hurried out the door, the large pon-filled bubble under one arm, and started to finally head back to the station proper. At least he was helping in some way, despite everything.
After Raz had went through all of that - the near-fatal mountain climb, the somehow-even-more-near-fatal fight with a giant monster, the mudslide of monster guts he accidentally partook in, the loss of one of their allies (which he wasn't really aware of until earlier that day) - Raz was glad to be in a more familiar atmosphere. For some of the team, the brightly lit, zig-zagging metro station was like another world. But, like, metaphorically another world, since it probably was an actual other world. Raz, though, it brought a sense of nostalgia to him. Hustle, bustle, the echoing chatter of the crowd, bright lights and the deep scent of cheap food. It felt like home.
Wonder Red, on the other hand, was just as on edge as he's always been, at least since the team first met him on the Virgin Victory. "Stick close together, everyone!" He said to the group at large, having taken a slight leadership ahead of the rest. "There's no telling what dangers could be lurking in this place. Complacency could get you lost. Or worse."
"Uhhhh..." Raz cleared his throat and pointed a little past Wonder Red. "There's a map right there, Mr. Red. And over there. And there too. I think that, uh, there's maps all over the place. Getting lost seems... hard."
"... Er, right you are, Junior Psychonaut Razputin Aquato. I hadn't meant to devalue the team's capabilities. These are just unusual circumstances we all find ourselves in, so... caution is key."
Whatever caution the group shared didn't matter much when they accepted the advice of a shady stranger at face value. Most of the metro inhabitants were shady, actually. Literal shadowy cat-like figures. They seemed harmless, but there was a feeling of eyes always on Raz's back that made his skin crawl. It was the exact same feeling that made Wonder Red on his guard despite the seeming safety of the metro. Something about the place was off, so it was probably best not to linger so long as they could help it.
As their impromptu informant skittered off, Wonder Red pulled out a medium-sized coin purse from somewhere on his person and popped it open. "Payment? If we all were to pool our resources together, there may be enough to afford a few passes."
Raz, however, already had his eyes on the prize. Or, eyes on the 'pons'; little green floating orbs dotted around the metro, over railways and on top of shop signs, tucked into nooks, and that was only what he could see from where he was.
"Oh, hey, I'm actually good at this kinda stuff!" Without making a gameplan with the others, Raz rushed towards a nearby hotdog stand and sprang up onto its colorful awning, bounding off of it like it was made of rubber, up towards one of the higher metro lines. "I'll meet'cha all right back there! Don't wait up for me!" He touched down on one of the rails and sped down it as if he was a train himself, gliding off into the twisting tracks to collect whatever pons floated around up there.
A little slower on the uptake than the rambunctious psychic, Wonder Red stashed his coinpurse back wherever it came from, and turned to one of the alleys that Sectonia had pointed out. "If we're to save these worlds from Galeem, Queen Sectonia, then we can't be afraid of getting our hands dirty. This is, a little more literal than the saying usually applies. Nonetheless!" With that Wonder Red dashed forward, poking around the dingiest of corners to find the pons other people had looked over. He might've been essentially digging through a couch for spare change, but he's doing his best at it!
If Raz had any further questions on the plan this conductor... bird.. guy had, they caught in his throat. Over the clattering of the train's engine on full blast, the whipping desert wind passing them by, and general chaos the fight with the monster was kicking up, a voice rang out, barely enough to be heard all the way up here: 'Time to tip the scales!' The sky darkened and the sound of thunder pealed over the Railway Gun.
That sorta stuff isn't something you ignore. Raz stepped to the engine room's doorway and poked his head out just in time to witness Robin's final smash, and the big-huge dragon that he apparently summoned.
"WHOA!" Raz had to stop himself from rushing straight out. "Hey, you two, check out what's happening!" One of the two was already at his side, and the other one was busy keeping the train going, so it wasn't really worth saying but, hey, something super cool was happening, alright? It didn't last long. As quick as it seemed to come, the dragon dissipated into nothingness, and Robin soon went with it in a brilliant beam of light.
Raz lingered on the moment, leaning out of the train's engine room and staring towards the back. Eventually he asked Therion, "Do you know what happened to him? Is he like, gone, or gone?" He might have to ask someone like Tora or Big Band that, since Therion was only recently, uh, freed? Un-glowy'd? Whatever the word for it he didn't know any more than Raz probably did.
He was so distracted by Robin's sacrifice that it took driving over Hollow Heights for Raz to realize they were getting close to it. "Oh, hey, what's the--" Raz began, though it was quickly forgotten once the tracks fell out under the train. In a last ditch effort he booked it towards the front, hoping to clear the last bit to safe ground...! But then the powerful winds up and yanked him right out of the air, high, high above anything.
"AHHHH I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOIIIING!" Raz didn't have a lot of fancy tools to spike the Red Eye for good on the way down. He wasn't the only one, sure, but he felt particularly at risk of splatting compared to the rest. Raz tried to angle his fall towards Braum, figuring that hanging onto the big guy with the big shield was probably a safe move. He didn't have much to contribute on the way down, but it seemed like everyone else had it covered.
And then, with one final strike from (most of) the group, the Champion as slain. As the rest discussed what to do next and explained the spirit's properties, Raz just sat and caught his breath. His energy was fading fast by now, after all he'd done that day. It was mostly a mental fatigue, but if you were in his line of work you'd understand that can matter all the same. "Nice one, team," he offered with a soft chuckle. Nobody wanted to stick around there for long, so the group hoisted themselves back up onto stable ground.
"I haven't earned my Cryokinesis badge yet," Raz said, "so I can't do anything to help with the heat. Between that and all this..." he looked down at himself, still covered in the monster's blood, and even a bit of flesh stuck to his shoe. "I'm definitely going to need a shower. And a fresh pair of pants."
Word Count: 586 Boss Defeated! Boosted EXP Gain: +34
Raz hadn't thought far enough ahead in this plan to figure a way off (out?) of the monster. Really his thought process hitched around the point where he got covered in blood. When Red Eye succumbed to the spinal assault and flung itself away, Raz was more or less expecting to eat sand. It wouldn't be that bad, really - he'd get some bruises, a bit of a burn, and itchy pants for a while, but he'd been through worse falls. Sure, he'd be stuck in the middle of a desert at that point... ok maybe it was that bad.
Luckily his teammates picked up his slack, swooping to catch him midfall. Raz stumbled for a second once he was put down, shot out a quick and mumbly "Thanks," then proceeded to hurl right over the railing. "Uhhhgh. This stuff reeks," he said, trying and failing to wipe some gunk off his jacket. That was going to need a real deep clean. And his goggles too, he couldn't even see out of them!
The fight against the Triliad restarted in full force, erupting into even more chaos across the gun's platform. Raz pitched in with some psi-blasts of his own, but between the nausea and the hecticness his aim was even more off than usual. A decision was (mostly) made on the direction to lead the Red Eye, and Raz decided to follow behind Therion as he went to inform the conductor. A second opinion was always helpful, right? And he didn't want the guy to be running into any baddies on his own.
Arriving at the head of the train with a lot less fuss than he thought, Raz took the small window of relative peace to catch himself, leaning against the control room's wall, leaving a slight him-shaped smudge of monster blood in the process. "Beneath it?" Raz pointed towards the back of the train. "You want to have that thing crash on top of the train... on purpose?"
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