Red Meteor Quest Part 22

"So...let me get this straight...you all have been the one fighting those weird monsters that have shown up around town?" Helena asked

"Yes." Jane replied

"And you've found the source of it, said source being Sanja's boss over at Koffman labs who has a secret underground science lab?"

"You got it." Sanja replied "It shocked me just as much as you

"And so now you all are getting ready to charge his place of work and shut him down for good as well as taking out that freakshow in the purple outfit, who is surprisingly tough?."

"That's the plan." You say with a shrug of your shoulders

"And you expect me to run in there with you and help you defeat this guy and his legion of robots,monsters, and a purple madman?"

"That's the general idea." Saya said taking a swig of her drink

"And to top this all off...all four of you are dating Red Meteor...?"

"Yes...and technically each other. Please don't say that any louder it sounds weird!" Sadie cried

"AND WHAT PART OF THIS ISN'T WEIRD ENOUGH ALREADY?!" Helena exclaimed

"I-I know..." Sadie whimpered

It was the next day and you all had been filling Helena in on what all had occurred until this point. She would have completely denied it all if it weren't for the fact that she was White Moon, which forced her to accept it all.

"So you'll help us right?" Saya asked

"What choice do I have...?" Helena sighed, which was actually true. At first she refused to join the team, but once you brought up how Sally was involved, she became quite skeptical. To prove it, you had contacted her, to which she promptly gave Helena motivation: 'Join the team or you're fired.'
That was enough to make her form a begrudging partnership with you and your allies. "So...how long until we go after this guy?" Helena asked

"Tonight." Sadie answered "It's getting too out of hand, and Sally said she's done with whatever she was working on to help us out. We just have to pick it up and wait for the right time."

"That's a little soon isn't it?" Helena asked

>We don't have a choice
>We can't let more innocent people get hurt
>We've been planning this for a while now
>Other/Write-in

>We don't have a choice
>We've been planning this for a while now

"We don't have a choice." You say with a sigh "At this point, Koffman is just going to keep sending his monsters out and in the worst case scenario those things would rampage around town and probably do worse than what they did to Tim."

At this Helena shudders a bit, the look of Tim's unconscious body coming back into her mine. She was quiet now, as if accepting that you really didn't have much of a choice in the matter any longer.

"Besides, we've been planning this for a while now. Once it gets dark, we're going to head over to Sally's and then move out."

"I understand..." Helena said "So what are we doing until then?"

"Until then, we're on standby, just relaxing and having some fun!" Jane exclaims cheerfully

"You're way to upbeat about this." Sanja deadpans

"Better to be that than a bundle of negative emotions."

"She's got a point you know, we can't sit around worrying." You say, "But yeah, until tonight, we aren't doing anything. Just hanging here at Sadie's place."

"Why is it always my house anyway?"

"Well you're the responsible one!" Jane points out

At this everyone nods in agreement except for Helena

Eventually the ladies all taper off to do their own things for the time being.

*You can talk to 3 people before we move on. So choose wisely

>Helena
>Jane
>Sadie
>Sanja
>Saya

>Helena
>Jane
>Sanja

You decide to start by talking to Helena. You don't really have much to do yourself and it'd be best to try and ease her into things. No doubt she's still in some mild shock of it all. With that in mind, you head over to the couch she's sitting on, the tv showing the news as they get close ups on her actions as White Moon.

"How you holding up?" You ask

"I...it's a lot to take in. I mean, when I first heard about you popping up on the news, I thought it was a joke. I mean, a guy running around in an outfit like yours? Who would think that was real?"

"Well, here I am." You say with a grin

"I know...and the fact that I'm a part of it...my son is a part of it, my friend is a part of all this...it almost feels like a sort of dramatic irony no?"

"I guess? I don't know, I've just been going along with things, keeping people safe. After seeing the Hyper Force Five, I knew that's what I wanted to do with my life...well at least of all I can remember."

"All you can remember...? What do you mean?"

"I lost my memory. Don't remember anything before meeting Tim."

"That's...oh god I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it, it's fine. I'll remember something eventually, but for now our main priority is Koffman."

She nods at that, allowing you leave and go check up on someone else.

...And that someone else is poking her head through your chest right now.

"Hey Jane, you say ruffling her hair."

"Hey Big Guy, you doing okay?"

"I'm just fine, why do you ask?"

"Well..." She mutters "Tim, he's your best friend, and he got hurt and so..."

"It's okay, just a broken arm and a few bruised ribs, but he'll bounce back, Tim is tough."

"I hope you're right...but wait...he's totally grounded isn't he?"

"Yeah, Helena said he's gonna be in trouble for at least 3 months."

"Yeesh, she's brutal. Then again, what mom isn't..."

You chuckle at he words, before swatting her out of your chest. You decide to see what Sanja is up to, since she went towards the kitchen.

Upon walking into the kitchen, you see Sanja...downing a large bottle of alcohol. You don't know what it is, but you can tell by the smell it's rather strong.

"Sanja...what are you doing?" you sigh facepalming

"Oh calm down Red, I'm just enjoying myself a little!"

"But should you really be drinking so early in the day?"

"It would be best...after all, what if I don't come back from this? I'd at least like one drink."

"That's...hey, don't talk like that, we'll get out of this fine!"

"But if we don't...? Come now Red, we all know it's a possiblity."

"I know but..."

She brings a finger to your lips "Say no more, you'll ruin the mood entirely, have a drink with me!"

And so you do, it's not a bad drink all things considered, but you make sure to keep her (and yourself) from getting absolutely shitfaced prior to your excursion.

Eventually, night falls, and the first thing you all do is file into Helena's car and head over to Sally's place. It's a tight fit, but this is better for moving around unnoticed. Once you arrive up to Sally's room, she has in her hands a USB drive.

"And it's done! Now take this and get going already, it's time to end this!" she says smugly

>Uh...what is it?
>Okay...?
>You heard her everyone, let's go!"
>Other/Write-in

>Okay...?
>Uh...what is it?

"Okay...so uh, what exactly is this?" you ask

"Oh right, I forgot to explain. That, my dear Red, is a USB containing a very potent virus I created. I've got it set up so that all you have to do is stick it into one of the computers in that underground lab of his and it'll transfer all the information to me, I have a friend in the police department on the  North side of the city who is waiting to get the information."

"You've really thought this out haven't you?" Sadie asks eyebrows raised at the revelation

"I don't leave anything up to chance, now get going. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can put Koffman behind bars. But remember, be sure to find a computer, any of the ones down there will do."

You nod at her, taking the USB and stowing it away, until the time was right to use it. Leaving her building, you all got up to the rooftops, traversing them until you were at Koffman's building. It looked normal from the outside, but you couldn't help but shudder as your mind flashed back to what Jane had found out.

"Everyone, hang on to me!" Jane whispered

You all transformed and using her ghost abilities, Jane managed to ferry you all to the floor she was on when she found the secret entrance. You were lucky, it looked like the place was deserted, at least the upper offices were anyway.

"It should be right through here..." She muttered, poking at the wall. Sure enough, she'd gotten it to move, the wall sliding up and leading to an elevator.

You all got inside, the thing being a bit cramped, but eventually you were led down to below to the secret lab...and it was...well strange to see it so close up, numerous test pods were all around the area, some housing creatures inside, and numerous other bits of machinery.

"So what should we do first...?" Black Asteroid asked

>Find the Computer Room!
>Let's look around first
>Other/Write-in

>Find the Computer Room!(79,97,98,69,94,87)

"We'll get to the computer room first, that's probably for the best." You friends all agree and so you all continue walking down the winding the halls, it's a blinding amount of white as you all continue along, until suddenly an alarm blares

"Oh crap." which is all you can get out as a wall comes up  causing your team to get separated from one another. You dodge out of the way, doing well enough to not get crushed by the thing, and looking to your side, you see that you're with Helena and Saya...

"What the hell just happened?!" Saya exclaims looking around

"We're separated...no doubt the enemy knows we're here now..." Helena mumbles

"Keep calm we should be okay for now." You say looking around, let's just keep going for now."

"What about the others...?"

"We'll just have to hope they're okay." come on, we'll see if we can find a computer room at all...

*Before we continue on, I felt it'd be fair we had a vote to see if anyone wants to switch perspectives. Be warned though, whatever you choose, that's who we're staying as for the rest of the session.

>Stick with Red
>Switch to Sadie

>Switch to Sadie

"Look out!" Jane exclaims as a wall suddenly shoots up from the floor. It seperates you from Red, Helena, and Saya, leaving you with just Jane and Sanja on your side.

"What on earth was that...?"

"Looks like we set off the alarm. Just great." you mutter angrily

"Are you alright Blue Comet, Orange Sun?" Sanja asks

"We're fine but...now what do we do? Red has the USB, and we don't know where we are..."

"Well, nothing we can do, we'll just have to doubleback and check out some of the other places around here, maybe we can find a security console or something to take the walls back down." Jane sighed

Well, you didn't have anything better to do, so you opted to listen to Jane's idea, at the very least, it beat sitting around here the  entire time. The three of you moved through the halls, with the walls being brought up at certain spots, you were forced to going along a specific path. It was almost as if you were being guided somewhere...

Walking forward more you were brought into an arena like place...similar to the place where Jane had captured that footage with her phone.

"Why don't I like the looks of this...?" Jane whispered looking around. Her question was answered as a tall robot rose from the ground.


Well *that* certainly caught your attention

"Well well, hello there Blue Comet and friends, I am Harold Koffman and I see you felt the need to intrude upon my underground laboratory. Now, I'll have you know that's trespassing...and I don't intend on calling the police. Instead, why don't the three of test out my latest invention...if you'd be so kind?"

Oh great...

>3d100+10

>87,103,108

Not even a second after Koffman finishes speaking does the robot go into attack mode. It's pointed arms, immediately open fire with numerous missiles coming at you from every which way. You dodge out of the way well enough, with Sanja and Jane doing the same. Jane having gone intangible so that the attacks went right through her, and Sanja ducking into a shadow that was made by the robot.

You don't waste any time once it's done shooting it's opening volley and you whip out your blaster, opening fire on it as well as summoning up some  Ice spikes to chuck at it. They pierce the armor, setting in deep, but not slowing the robot down at all, Jane has her ghost bit active as it fires lasers and occasionally ingests some stray fire that comes her way.

Sanja manages to leap and claw at the thing, managing to to get a sickeningly blow on the machine.

It stumbles back, retreating into the air to rest a bit before diving back in to which you raise up an ice wall, making it smash into it. The shards fly all over, obscuring your and the others vision for a moment.

>3d100+10

>98,54,109

The robot circles back around, getting behind your friends. Fortunately, for you and Sanja, you both leap out of the way and avoiding the cannon fire from him, Unfortunately for Jane, she sees it too late and gets sent flying by the blast.

"Orange Sun!" You call out in panic, she stumbles to her feet, some sparks coming out of her suit as she stands up

"Crap that...really hurt." She mumbled

"Are you alright?"  you shout back

"Yeah...just gimme a minute..."

"You heard her Black Asteroid, buy some time!"

"Got it!"

The two of you move in, you freezing  any cannon fire that gets close to you while Sanja just tears them in two with her claws.

"Mode 2!" You shout, making your armor change as you now focus more on your ice attacks. This time you make a large spiked ball of ice out of the air and fire it at  the robot, knocking it back against the wall, with Sanja following up to and clawing off one of its arms.

>3d100+10

>81,88,108

You continue your bombardment of the robot with ice, while Sanja continues ripping and tearing away at what parts she can. Eventually, it manages to break out and move out of the way though, getting far away again. It's chest opens as it begins charging what looks like an extremely large laser blast. You open fire on it, hoping to do your best to stop it, but the heat of the charge is melting your ice before it can get close.

"Dammit, this isn't looking good. Black Asteroid, brace yourself!" you shout at her

You bring up an ice wall just as the thing fires at you, but it goes through the wall effortlessly, and is just about to hit you, you close your eyes behind your helmet, ready for a world of pain, but it never comes. Confused for a moment you open your eyes to see Jane in front of you.

And not just her either, as her Ghost Bit, is in front of her, it's mouth open wide as it seems to be ingesting most of the blast.

"T-thanks for the save Orange Sun!"  Sanja squeaked out

"Don't...thank...me yet!" She said struggling to hold the beam in place "Alright now, send it right back!"

The Ghost bit, ingested the laser and quickly fired it back at the robot, the blast rocking the entire structure as it becomes engulfed in the blast, the bright light blinding you all.
When the light dies down, you  see the robot is now on the floor a smoking husk of what it once was.

"Well, it's dead now..." you pant, "But we need to find a way out of here..."

"We'll there's a door over there...but I could fly us up to that window over there." Jane points with a jerk of her thumb It was a viewing window by the looks of it, maybe that's where Koffman had been?

>Head through the doorway on the other side
>Go for the window

>Go for the window

"Well, it's worth a shot, let's see where that leads." You say motioning for Jane to help you both get up there. A quick ferry up later and you're in the room that Koffman was watching you from. There's not much there, some blinking  consuls here and there and otherwise not much.

"Looks like Koffman has left." Sanja sighed

"He probably left as soon as the fight started, it doesn't matter, lets keep moving." And so you all do, there doesn't seem to be much else. You really wonder why there isn't a security system installed here, so far none of these hallways have seemed that dangerous...

"Come on, there's gotta be a control room around here somewhere..."

You'd been searching for at least an hour or two now, and with no results. It almost felt like you were in a crappy dungeon from an old RPG.

"Hey, I think this may be it!" Sanja calls out to you

Looking inside the room she's pointing at, it certainly looks like a control room of sorts. Tons of computers around (Some even lining the walls)

"Well this could be it, but how do we go about actually shutting it down?"

"Smash it." You state simply taking out your gun "Can't work if it's broken to bits.

"Crude...but effective..." Sanja mutters "It'll most likely work."  she whipped out her clawed hand moving forward to begin wrecking the machine, before something landed on her shoulder.

"Eh...what the hell is this...ugh, it's slimy!"

You looked up to see something you didn't expect. Something you really wish weren't here right now...

"Why can't these things ever be easy?!" You shouted "Sanja get back!

>To Be Continued in Red Meteor Quest 23!