Catastrophe

The Wrecking Crew

First appearance: "First World Problems"

You are the Wrecking Crew.

You are a team of mercenaries-for-hire who were born and grew up in eastern Europe.

Specifically, your home region used to be a small eastern European country named Vlatava.

Then the Soviets came.

Then, many years later, they left.

Vlatava is wedged between Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Its capital is Vlatavograd.

The original royal family is all but destroyed. Only Count Vertigo remains, and he admits he is not fit to rule.

Gangs roam the land.

Except your home village.

Gangs don't touch your home village.

That's because of you five men.

You have been together since you were toddlers. You trust each other more than yourselves. You defend your home so well that even the Ukrainian Mob went looking for easier pickings. Your mothers, the women and children and old men of the village, all live not richly but securely.

So now you take mercenary work, selectively, in far-away places so you can afford the occasional luxury for yourselves and your people.

You are self-educated, proud, supremely competent, and of very limited morality in anything beyond what your world held when you were lads.

The Job

You were contacted by a professional intermediary with a solid reputation. The actual client wishes to remain anonymous. Half your pay was provided up front, in the form of a shipment to your home town with the kind of untraceable luxury goods you like to provide to your people. The other half of the pay will be a cash deposit in a Cayman Islands numbered account, in the U.S. equivalent of very high six figures.

A certain young woman will be shopping at a specific extremely upscale enclosed shopping area, particularly somewhere in the center section where she has an appointment for a very snooty evening wear boutique. She is the spoiled stepdaughter of a very wealthy man, and she will have along only one bodyguard while she is inside the building.

You will capture her. She may be bruised but not permanently or even seriously harmed. Unconscious is fine. If it is easier to also capture the bodyguard, that is acceptable; if it is easier to kill the bodyguard, that is acceptable. You will transport your prisoner(s) to a clandestine meeting point on the harbor, where the merchandise will be inspected, you will receive confirmation of your deposit, and you will enter the transport which will immediately smuggle you back out to international waters.

One complication is that a politician will be giving a speech at one end of the building, and elite police forces will be present down there.

Another complication is that no picture of the target was provided, only a description:

She is a young woman in her early twenties, living the life of American luxury, pampered and trendy. She is also a mutant or mutate, we are not sure which, but has many features of a cat. Particularly she has the cat ears, the fur, and a tail!

If more than one shopper meets that description, you are best off capturing and delivering ALL of them, and let the intermediary figure out which one is of value!

A third complication is that this mall has four stories, and too many entrances for easy civilian management.

You will arrive with three days to plan ahead.^T You have a rented condominium in which you are staying, but once you start the job you do not plan to return to the condo. You have one nondescript white van for the job, but would be advised not to use it much beforehand so you don't risk drawing attention to it. You were not offered firearms.

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^T ((The GM recommends doing your planning ahead in the provided forum thread where you can, or in messages to each other, so we can get started once the food is ready Friday!))

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The Components

All five men have trained together, and have roughly equivalent melee and martial arts skills. Often two or more will combine their efforts in combat to perform a Team Attack, with or without powers.

• Blackout ((loosely based on a Controller))
• Hailstorm ((loosely based on a Blaster))
• Heatwave ((loosely based on a Defender))
• Quake ((loosely based on a Tanker))
• Riot ((loosely based on a Scrapper))

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Type

Illicit, Gang

Location

Europe

Related Professions

• Weaponry

Notable Members

• Blackout
• Hailstorm
• Heatwave
• Quake
• Riot

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Code Phrases and Favorite Tactics

• Cossack In The Middle: Two or more (especially Heatwave and Hailstorm) attack the same opponent from opposite sides, mainly aiming to hit the opponent in the back whenever he turns in anger toward the previous one who hit him in the back.
• Afghanistan: This is going nowhere and taking too long.
• Borscht: You should pummel that guy/object into a paste.
• I've Struck Oil: This is escalating into an international incident, and I could use a helping hand getting out of this situation.
• Vlatava-Style: Prepare an ambush here while I convince the enemies to chase me out of their fortress into our ambush.
• Fast-Ball Special: to hurl a friend at an enemy.
• Hot Potato: I'm sending a problem your direction.
• Count Vertigo: I'm lying or faking something to manipulate the opponents.
• Vlatava Nights: We should be stealthy.
• Your tail's on fire: Someone is trying to sneak up/attack you from behind.
• Vlatavograd Press Release: to disable a security camera.
  (Heat wave does it by cooking the electronics; Hailstorm does it by frosting the lense, Blackout does it with a Shadow Field, and Quake and Riot do it by Pressing the camera between the thumb and forefinger and then Releasing the pieces. Thus, a "Vlatavograd Press Release")
• Chernobyl: The entire area is about to be (or should be) hit by a Hail Storm, Super Nova, or similar mass destruction.

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