The service lift rattles under Abby Stone's hand as she shoves the override into place. Status lights strobe amber, then blue, and the display peels open into a hidden route log. One entry repeats in a clean corporate loop, Keir Dalm, archive transfer, level delta.
Abby Stone
Got you.
Arthur Blues leans in beside the panel, eyes wide, while Victoria's green-lit face turns toward the new signal. Mara Venn, still contained, watches from the floor with tight, guilty stillness. The lift doors shudder, waiting for a command that will take Abby straight to Dalm's handoff point.
Victoria
That route is live. He is not far. If he is using the archive spine, he is expecting cleanup, not pursuit.
Arthur Blues
Then this is our window. Abby, if you take that lift now, you cut him off before he buries the network.
The panel unlocks with a sharp chirp. The lift floor settles level with the corridor beyond, exposing a narrow rise toward the archive core. Every flicker on the display points the same way, deeper into the annex, where Keir Dalm waits to be confronted.
Abby Stone leaves south archive annex behind and arrives at Keir Dalm's handoff point.
“I take the lift to Keir Dalm, alone”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
The lift glides out into a dim archive landing, all cold glass, matte steel, and humming data rails. Abby steps off into a narrow service alcove where cargo crates sit sealed in neat corporate rows. Ahead, a man in a tailored field coat turns at the sound, one hand still on a portable briefcase scanner.
Keir Dalm
You are earlier than I expected.
Keir stiffens when he sees her, but he does not run. His scanner flickers once, then goes dark, and the archive lights sharpen around him like a stage cue.
Keir Dalm
If you are here for the transfer, you are already in the right corridor. If you are here for me, then we should not waste the only quiet minute we get.
Abby Stone
You do not get to hide behind paperwork anymore.
Keir lowers the scanner and angles his body toward the sealed crates, as if measuring exits that no longer matter. A thin status light on the nearest crate blinks once, then opens into a public-access manifest tagged for immediate pickup.
Keir Dalm
Then look at the manifest before you decide what I am hiding.
The corridor falls quiet except for the crate lock cycling open. Whatever Keir planned, it is waiting in plain sight now, and Abby has the first clean look at it.
Quest Complete
Confront Keir Dalm
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Superb→Legendary
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Abby's reputation
“Is Keir Dalm trying to stall me?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 9)
Abby leans in, her massive frame casting a long shadow over the manifest, but the data scrolling across the screen is not a shipping log. It is a live feed of her own biometric signature, currently being broadcast to an off-site server.
Keir Dalm
I am not just stalling you, Abby. I am buying enough time for the upload to finish, so the world can see exactly what happens when a goddess loses her temper.
Abby Stone
He is using my own reputation as the weapon.
“Im only losing my temper because a sad, pathetic, weak little man cant stand to see a smart, strong, beautiful young woman be successful. You're nothing compared to me, you'll always be nothing compared to me, and threats of making something that i already don't hide from the public go public won't help you beat me.”
FAILURE (Legendary Willpower, rolled -4)
Abby Stone
Abby’s voice comes out flat and cold, a deliberate cut at Keir’s ego, calling him weak and pathetic, and dismissing his threat as the move of someone nowhere near her level.
The words hang in the archive air, but Keir does not flinch. The red biometric graph keeps pulsing across the manifest, and his smile tightens into something more measured than smug.
Keir Dalm
You think this is about winning a shouting match. It is about framing. About who the public believes when they see that feed.
He reaches back and taps the side of the open crate, where a slim relay puck sits nested in foam beside the screen.
Keir Dalm
Your strength is famous, Abby. Your temper is easier to sell.
Abby Stone
The uplink hardware is right there, and he is still talking instead of running.
The manifest light washes over Keir’s face as he leans in, no longer posturing as a victor, but as a man trying to land one last story before the evidence closes around him.
Keir Dalm
So tell me, does the hero of the lab want the truth, or just the version that keeps her followers clapping?
“I hide nothing from the public. They know i can be quick to anger, but they also know how easily i can control my strength. Ive neber hurt anyone who didn't try hurting me or others first.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Abby Stone
I hide nothing from the public. They know I can be quick to anger, but they also know how easily I control my strength. I have never hurt anyone who did not try hurting me or others first.
The archive room goes still around Abby's words. Keir's eyes flick to the manifest, then back to her, and the hard line in his mouth loosens by a fraction.
Keir Dalm
That is the part they do not get to hear often enough.
He slides his hand off the relay puck, letting it sit exposed beside the open crate. The red graph still burns on the screen, but the angle of his shoulders shifts from threat to assessment.
Keir Dalm
You are not the story I wanted to sell. You are the problem I used because it was easy.
Keir Dalm
And because people believe what they expect from a giant.
Behind him, the manifest keeps streaming, but his attention stays on Abby now, waiting to see whether she wants the truth or the next blow.
“I tell him to finish uploading whatever dirt he thinks he has on me. I know I've done nothing that could turn the public against me.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
Abby Stone
Finish the upload. Let them see whatever you think you have. I have done nothing to turn the public against me.
Abby does not flinch. The challenge lands cleanly, and Keir's glance flicks to the manifest again, like he expects it to save him.
Keir Dalm
That is what I needed to hear.
He taps the relay puck once, and the red graph on the screen surges brighter as the upload locks in behind his hand.
Keir Dalm
If she stays this steady, the clip loses the rage angle. I need a different hook.
Keir Dalm
The numbers are real. The framing is mine. I wanted a public panic, not a confession.
The crate display keeps running, but the room feels less like a trap now, more like a reckoning. Keir waits, exposed, while the manifest finishes its last pass.
“What you don't seem to fully understand, Keir, is thst im skways recording or streaming. Every step of this investigation has been filmed from my perspective through my visor. And this entire conversation has been live streamed to the public so i could expose you in real time.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Abby’s visor feed is already out there, live and uncut, every angle stamped with her point of view. Keir’s expression changes as the implication lands, the last bit of control draining from his face.
Abby Stone
What you do not seem to fully understand, Keir, is that I am always recording or streaming. Every step of this investigation has been filmed through my visor, and this whole conversation has been live-streamed to the public.
The red glow from the manifest screen washes over him, but it no longer feels like his spotlight. It feels exposed, the way a bad edit looks when the full source file is finally open.
Keir Dalm
...Then I am not controlling the story anymore.
He looks once at the relay puck, then away from it. The broadcast has become a witness, and the witness is not on his side.
Keir Dalm
If the public has the raw feed, then they see the whole sequence, not just my version. That changes what I can claim.
For a beat, the room goes quiet except for the continuing upload. Keir waits, finally forced to meet Abby as a person instead of a target, while the last data packets leave the crate.
Quest Complete
Protect Abby's reputation
New Gift: Public Relations Shield