The lift slams down and the doors stutter open on a white laboratory crawling with insects. At the far console, Max Exterminus works fast, his back turned, while a violet rift pulses above the floor like a wound in time.
Clover Ewing lands on the threshold in red emergency light. The broken blue lattice flickers uselessly behind her, and the green slime on the walls quivers as the room vibrates with each surge from the rift.
Clover Ewing
The rift is linked to that console.
Max Exterminus
Too late, Clover. One push and humanity becomes a historic mistake.
He slams a clawed hand across the controls. The rift swells, and the first wave of warped air lashes the lab benches, sending specimen jars rattling across the steel.
A thin crack of energy crawls toward Clover from the floor, not yet a strike, just a warning, while the console begins cycling toward full release.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop Max Exterminus
✓ Quest Accepted
Sabotage the time rift
“Clover runs for the console to shut down the Time Rift but she steps right into a thick Sticky puddle of Sticky Green Goo”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)
Clover breaks from the threshold and cuts straight across the lab. The sticky green puddle catches her boot, but her stride only stutters, not stops, and she drives on through the wobble.
She reaches the console in a hard, sliding step, one hand snapping out toward the controls while violet light spills over her suit.
Max Exterminus
No, stay back from that panel!
Max jerks around from the far side of the console, claws lifting clear as he squares to her for the first time.
Clover Ewing
The rift is tethered to this interface.
The time rift crackles above them, and the floor at Clover’s feet still glistens with the green trap she just crossed.
Somewhere below, the lift shaft answers with another metallic clank, louder this time, as the console keeps cycling toward release.
“Clover was stuck completely as her high heeled boots were stuck fast.”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +1)
Clover rips her heel free first, then the other, the sticky green stuff stretching and snapping back in glossy strands that slap the floor.
Her boots skid half an inch, finally loose, and she plants them wide at the console while the puddle trembles behind her.
Max Exterminus
No, stay away from the controls!
Max lunges around the panel, claws splayed, trying to cut off her angle to the interface.
Clover Ewing
The console is still cycling.
Overhead, the violet rift throbs brighter, and the lift shaft below answers with another hard metallic clank.
Max locks eyes on Clover and squares up, forcing the next move.
“Max Exterminus hits Clover with more Sticky Green Goo covering her high heeled boots trapping her there, Max quicky enters the rift.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Clover twists off the console edge as a fresh splash of sticky green goo slaps down where her boots were. It spreads hot and glossy across the floor, but she stays free.
Max breaks off his lunge and jerks toward the rift instead, shoulders hunched with desperate speed.
Clover Ewing
The console is still cycling.
Clover gets one clear beat at the controls, and the panel spits sparks under her hand. The violet glow overhead stutters.
Max Exterminus
No, no, not now!
He plunges for the rift opening as the lift shaft below throws up another metallic clank. A seam of light tears wider above the console.
The new goo cakes around Clover's boots' heels, slowing her stance, and the console shrieks into a harsher cycle.
“Clover's high heeled boots are still stuck in the thick Sticky Green Goo was able to destroy control panel and rift closes for good.”
SUCCESS (Good Technology, rolled -1)
Clover jams the console harder, and the panel caves in under her hand. Sparks snap across the surface, then die in a smoky hiss as the display goes dark.
The violet seam above the lab shudders, collapses inward, and seals with a brittle crack that shakes dust from the ceiling.
Max Exterminus
No. No, you have not taken it from me.
Max whirls from the rift and freezes when the room answers him with silence instead of power. His hand slips off the console edge, and the metallic clank from the shaft below sounds suddenly loud.
Clover Ewing
The panel is dead.
The goo at Clover's boots tightens as the system powers down, locking her stance in place while the last smoke curls from the ruined controls.
Max squares toward Clover at last, shoulders rising in a frantic, direct challenge as the lab settles into a dangerous stillness.
Quest Complete
Sabotage the time rift
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great