The aftershock hits exactly where the earlier injection left off. Abby’s muscles seize, then surge, as the serum ripples under her skin like live current searching for a new stable shape.
Her height ticks upward again. The loft answers with a metallic groan, exposed wiring snapping sparks across the brace while the bent laser grid flickers into a false red reflection around her frame.
Arthur Blues
The final dose is still climbing. It is not done with her yet.
Arthur braces himself against the wall and watches the sensor tablet spike. Abby’s shoulders widen a fraction more, then lock as she forces her breathing into a slow, deliberate rhythm.
Abby Stone
The room is too small for this spike.
The strain eases by degrees. Her skin smooths, the tremor stops spreading, and the loft stops shrinking in on her long enough for them to stay standing.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stabilize Abby’s form
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the unstable loft
“I will smash through the wall to create an exit.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +1)
Abby commits to the wall instead of the pain, planting both hands and driving forward. The first strike caves a rib of alloy inward, and the loft coughs out dust and sparks through the crackling light.
She hits again, and the panel tears wider. Daylight from the shaft beyond slices through the breach, framing a jagged exit as metal shrieks and folds away from her reach.
Arthur Blues
Abby, you made it through. Take it slow, the room is still slipping.
Arthur steps back from the fresh opening, tablet lowered, eyes fixed on Abby instead of the failing brace. The red grid stutters across the broken edge, then spills into the gap like a warning.
Abby Stone
The opening is real. The strain is still inside her.
Abby draws one rough breath and holds herself upright, but her arms shake under the aftermath. The loft is breached, yet the facility’s security hum swells somewhere deeper in the walls.
Arthur Blues
They know where we are now.
“I slip through the breach into the shaft”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)
Abby lowers herself into the breach, shoulders turning sideways as the torn metal bites past her hip. The shaft swallows the crackling light, and dust rolls around her like static.
Her boots find the first rungled edge below the opening. The loft stays behind her, groaning, while the red flicker smears across the hole and fades from reach.
Arthur Blues
I have you on the readout. Keep going.
Arthur leans over the breach with his tablet raised again, one hand braced on the warped frame. The security hum sharpens somewhere in the walls, answering Abby’s movement.
Abby Stone
The shaft is open. Her body is still carrying the surge.
Abby clears the opening and drops into the shaft proper, catching herself against the narrow service rail. Her arms tremble at the impact, but her frame holds, heavy and controlled.
Above her, Arthur stays at the breach, half-lit by drifting sparks. Below, the dark shaft hums with the facility’s remaining security, waiting for the next move.
Quest Complete
Escape the unstable loft