Red Meteor Quest Season 2, Episode 3

"This is great!"  Jane exclaims as she chows down on some pancakes. You had spent the night at Saya's dorm room (Sadie and the others had decided that in order to keep them all happy, you had to go stay with each of them a different day of the week) and so the three of you had gotten together to eat some of the food in the college cafe.

"If you keep eating like that, you're gonna get fat." Saya chided as she took a bite of her cereal

"That's okay, I'm sure Red would like me anyway if I were a bit pudgy, right Red?" Jane asked with a wink

"Right, you got it." You reply automatically, you were not going to risk saying something that would make her mad(though you've never seen her get angry, and you in fact think it isn't possible to make her angry). You had opted for something simple, just getting yourself some toast and munching on it.

"So what's the plan for the day?" You ask the two of them

"Nothing, just hanging out. No classes for either of us today, so that means you have us all to yourself~!" Jane cooed

"Please don't say it like that." Saya chided slapping her friend on the back of the head

"The day off huh...?" You mutter to yourself

>That means it's time for Justice!
>It's time to goof off!
>Leave it to the girls to decide what to do
>Other/Write-in

>That means it's time for Justice!

You swallow the rest of your food and look at the other two with determination. "With the two of you having the day off, that means it's time for justice!" You exclaim rising to your feet, drawing the looks of some other student goers, which made the two girls grab your shoulders to calm you down.

"You want us to go patrolling around the city?!" Saya said in a hushed whisper "But what about those freak shows that attacked you a few days ago?

"It should be fine, there's three of us and only two of them." Jane adds in smiling

"You mean we only know that there's two of them so far. I don't know about you two but I don't like the idea of going out to do heroics when there's the possible chance of someone coming out of nowhere trying to kill me."

"But we fought freaky monsters months ago." Jane sighs

"Yeah, monsters. These are people and they're way smarter than some failed science experiment."

"It'll be fine Saya, besides, we need to keep the public safe, and there's three of us, so watching one another's backs will be fine. If things get to difficult we'll call in the others." You say reassuringly

It's a few more moments before Saya lets out a defeated sigh at the looks both you and Jane give her. "Fine...ugh and here I thought I could relax on a day off."

You mentally cheer that you get to do some heroics for the day, and the three of you finish your food and head out of the cafe, ducking behind a building with no one nearby before transforming. Moving upwards to the roof, Orange Sun and Crimson Eclise look to you.

"So where should we head today O' fearless leader?" Crimson asked

"We'll head to..."

>The East
>The West
>The North
>The South

>The East

"Let's head East, we'd probably be a bit more in the clear there."

The other two nod in agreement and the three of you head off. Jane as per usual is flying the entire way, while you and Saya are regulated to jumping from roof to roof. It's times like these you wonder why you didn't get the abilities that'd make you fly.

As you all arrive in the eastern part of town, you notice already that there's a car jacking in progress. This is small enough that only one of you needs to act and Jane wastes no time in taking the initiative, going invisible before sinking into the top of the car. As the man works to get it open, she pops up in front of him, letting out a loud 'Boo!' as he stumbles back

"Oh shit!" he exclaims going for his gun, but it's too late as Jane already has gone invisible again before appearing behind him.

"What you're doing is illegal you know." She  whispers in his ear, the man spins around, only to meet Jane's fist colliding with his face. The ensuing beat down is pretty quick, with you and Saya just watching from the sidelines as Jane quickly lays him out. As he falls unconcsious, she grabs his body, sinking it slightly underground so that he's stuck there before looking the car to find a pen and small piece of paper.

"And here, a note for when people see you like that." She grins The note simply read 'I am a bad car jacker, please dig me out of the ground and take me to jail.' As Jane rejoins you and Saya, you can't help but  feel at least a bit sorry for the would be thief.

The same goes for the next set of thugs you find. There was a group attempting to steal a ATM machine before the three of you swooped in and dealt with them, sending them packing quite easily. It goes that way for the next several encounters, until you see a burning building. How it caught on fire you aren't sure, but it just ignited out of nowhere.
"Let's head inside!" You state, as the other two follow you inside. You all notice something odd though, this building is on fire, but you see no one else inside...until you hear a crying sound. You all quickly move to the source and see a lone girl, huddled over and crying as the fire blazes around her.

>Approach her
>Call out to her
>Jane, grab her!
>Other/Write-in

>Jane, grab her!
>91

"Orange Sun, grab her!" You exclaim, to which Jane moves in swiftly, there's some wreckage that she can more easily move through, and as you and Saya get ready to move some aside, and look for anyone else that could possibly be stuck in this place, something odd happens.

As Jane grabs hold of the girl, everything goes silent. Deathly silent. "Thank you for saving me Orange Sun." The little girl says

"Heh, anytime kid, now let's get you out of here and-"

"I have one request Orange Sun..." the little girl interrupts

"What's that an autograph?" she replies "Sorry, but now isn't the-"

"DIE FOR ME" she exclaims in a somewhat distorted voice. The fire disappears, in fact, the entire building disappears, instead, you're now in what is clearly, an abandoned building, with just you and this...girl?

"Oh what the hell is this." Saya deadpans as she looks around, "Oh shit the door!"

You look back to see that door is now covered in grotesque looking hands, barring your escape.

"Wh-whoa!" Jane exclaims  as one of the hands manifest from behind the small girl, trying to grab her but missing.

"Who are you?!" you growl out

"Hands Off, a pleasure to meet you, oh valiant heroes!
But I'm afraid to say, you'll become zeroes!
A pretty penny I am being paid
To put you all within the grave
So to that end I kindly ask
DIE FOR ME NOW YOU PATHETIC TRASH"

"Okay, I admit, her rhyming sense isn't too bad." Jane quips "But I'm in no mood to be dying today!"

"Looks like we don't have a choice but to take her down." Saya sighs whipping out her taiko sticks "I never thought I'd be beating on a child..."

You draw your saber as well, while Jane calls out her ghost bit as well.

Hands Off, looks at you all, a sadistic grin on her face, as the numerous hands dance around her

>Roll 3d100+15

>92,110,94

Hands Off doesn't move at first, but you can see the myriad of hands come flying at the three of you. With your speed, dodging them is easy, you cut one of them clean off, the hand retreating  from you and back towards Hands Off, as if it were a puppy that just got kicked.

Jane, being the one who can attack her the best from afar, instructs one of her ghost bit to open fire on her, and as it opens fire, the hands all move up to cover Hands Off, blocking the attack from hitting her.

"Oh goddammit..." Jane sighs, backing up as a few more hands reach out to attack her. She goes invisible, the hands losing track of her as she moves behind Hands Off and then reappearing.

"Gotcha!"

Hands Off is caught by surprise, as Jane delivers a kick to her face hard enough to send her flying directly to Saya, who crashes into her head with the taiko sticks, the small girl letting out a yelp as her head meets the floor. Unfortunately, Saya is unable to deliver anymore blows, as the hands quickly move in to grab Hands Off and sink her into the floor before having rise back up a few feet away.

"How completely rude..." She mutters grabbing her head in pain. She snaps her fingers as the hands all come together to form a drill shape, before getting ready to smash into all three of you.

>3d100+15

>83,65,109

The drill comes at you with a speed you didn't expect, and while you and Saya manage to dodge out of the way without too much trouble, Jane isn't so lucky as she reacts a bit too late and takes a solid hit, sparks flying out of her suit As the drill pushes her into the wall. Some hands come out of the drill, attempting to hold her in place so that the drill can deliver a more serious blow, but this fails as you quickly send a torrent of flame to ignite the entire drill.

Saya moves over to help Jane to her feet as she drops to the floor with a grunt.

"You alright?" She asks

"About as well as you can feel when taking a giant drill to the chest." She replies bitterly

"Heh...right...sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"A little help here!" You call out as you slice away at more of the hands that attempt to attack you. It's difficult to get close to her as the hands are impeding, and now the hands have completely covered her body  after Jane's little display and are now blocking attacks from all angles. It goes on like this as all three of you attack her at once.

"Red, Orange, I got an idea!" Saya calls out to you "Keep her distracted for a little bit."

"What are you doing?!" you call back dodging another blow

"Just do it!"

>3d100+15

>84,113,114

You have no idea what Saya is planning, but you heed her words for now, you and Jane doing your best to stave off the hands as their attacks get more and more relentless. You think you're going to be pushed back by the onslaught until you something gains your attention.

BANG

You hear a long bang echo throughout the room, and can only turn your head back for a moment to see Saya banging away at it with her taiko sticks.

BANGBANGBANGBANG

This constant banging causes the entire building to shake, as everyone (sans Saya of course) Wobbles from the constant assault on the floor, for a second, you aren't entirely sure what she's up to, but then your eyes go wide behind your mask as you catch on.

She wouldn't...

BANG

She isn't...

BANG

She's couldn't

BANG

As the floor begins to give way, you can tell that she most certainly is. With one final slam of her sticks on the floor, the entire building begins to crumble. Bits of debris fall from above you, with you and Jane retreating to where Saya is.

"Are you crazy?!" You exclaim

"Hey, we gotta get outta here somehow!" she replies

"Burying us alive is not the answer to that!"
Unfortunately for you, Saya proves to be right, as the hands covering the door are gone as they move to wrap around Hands Off. The small girl is cowering (This time legitimately) as the rocks crumble around her.

"Let's move now!" you call out, as your allies begin making for the door, you all manage to get out as the building comes collasping  down on itself, Hands Off still inside. As you all retreat to a nearby rooftop, you all peer over the wreckage.

"Think she's still alive?" Jane asked

Before you can speak, you  all see a single shadowy hand peer out of the wreckage.

"That'd be a yes..." Saya remarks backing up. "Let's get out of here, we don't  want this fight spilling out into the city."

You silently agree and you all decide to retreat back to Saya's dorm room. Thankfully, you aren't followed back, and you don't run into Smokes or Top hat on the way back either.

"Okay..." Saya sighs out "So we met the third person out to kill us."

"She was pretty creepy and I'm the person with ghost powers..."

It's Saya who is just staring at you.

"What...?"

"This is your fault you know. I knew something was going to go wrong!"

>At least we're alive
>It was going to happen sooner or later
>Look on the bright side, we at least know who is trying to kill us
>Other/Write-in

>It was bound to happen, Tim already called it!

"It was bound to happen, Tim already called it!"

For a few moments, Saya is silent, before sighing and rubbing her head in exasperation.

"The worst part about all this, is that I can't really refute that at all." She says as she takes out her phone.

"Who ya texting?" Jane asked

"The others, letting them know who else to look out for. That's make three psychos and we need to be on our toes. If we're going to beat them, then we need to keep track of who they are and what they do."

"Not a bad idea actually." You think "Sally would probably be best to keep track of all that though."

"I'm one step ahead of you. I've already sent her a message, and according to the reply I got, she's gonna look into Smokes, Top Hat, and now Hands Off."

"I doubt she'll have any really useful  information." Jane mutters with a shrug "Aren't guys like them, ya know, super secretive or something?"

"Who knows and who cares, I just wanna relax now."

>Yes, relax, relaxing sounds good
>Jane are you alright?you took a really bad hit there
>That fight tired you out. Sleep now
>Other/Write-in

>Jane are you alright? you took a really bad hit there

You look over at Jane, who seems to be rubbing the spot where the drill hit her in the stomach.

"You okay Jane?" You ask moving in to comfort her

"Yeah, I'll be fine, but that attack hurt like hell. Remind me to never get hit by giant hand drills ever again." She jokes

"I don't think you should joke about that..." You reply

"I think I should." She smirks back "I mean, a 'hand drill', that's pretty funny don't you think?"

"Not when said drill drives itself into someone I care about."

"Hey, I'm still alive, so it's fine right?"

"Just give up Red, she's in one of her moods, and there's gonna be at least 10 sex jokes by the time she's done." Saya says without turning back to you.

"You ruined the fun!" Jane whined "I had some good ones all lined up.

>Attempt to out lewd the Jane
>Play along anyway
>Make jokes at Saya instead
>Other/Write-in

>Attempt to out lewd the Jane(78)

Jokes huh? You think you could give her a run for her money? Lewd jokes aren't really your forte, but you decide to give a shot, it's mostly just word play right?

"A sex joke or two? I can take that...though I know Jane is the one who likes taking it."

The look on Jane's face is one, you suddenly grow fearful of as she stares at you with a wide grin.

"Oooooooh is that so? I do love taking it Red, regardless of if its big,small,wide, thin, or in between!"

"Haha w-well...." You trail off

Though that isn't important, I suppose we should talk about food or something, I really like pancakes or anything you can drench in thick rich syrup, it really adds to the flavor." She says in a husky voice

"T-that's a bit..."

"Besides that though, I enjoy hot foods, they really warm me up in all the right ways. What about you Red, what do you like?"

"Um...I uh..."

"Hmmm? You like cherries? You know, I know where you can find some to lick...all.night.long.~" She whispers in your ear.

At the end of this onslaught of double meanings, you can't help but turn red as words fail you. You sputter out some nonsense, what it was, you don't even know as Jane continues to look at you smugly, while Saya sighs at you.

"This is why you don't encourage her." She says calmly picking up a pillow and throwing it at Jane's face

"Wah!!! Hey, why you'd hit me?!" Jane

"Because you won't stop otherwise."

"That's not true!"

"Yes it is."

"Okay, but it's fun, look at him!" Jane says pointing at you

"Yes, he's completely frozen up from your jokes."

The rest of the night went on like this, and there's only one phrase that stuck in your mind: Goddammit Jane.

>To be Continued