Respond to an emergency mission (End free time)

You'd made some startling discoveries about the Goodbye Girls as of late, but they almost felt like a dream. After all... not to toot your own horn, but it felt to you as though you and the Girls had somehow ended world terrorism. Adder had been keeping its head almost comically low since losing their leader. The Deliverer bodies had been piled so high, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine Promethia was the only one left, and even she'd ceased barking as of late. Ivan Bortnik's flow of advanced weaponry, cybernetic enhancements, and robotics to terrorist cells had been cut off at the source.

All in all... the world had never seemed so peaceful. It was entering the fall now, nearly Thanksgiving. Across Washington, trees were beginning to brown and shed their leaves. You felt you had a lot to be thankful for. Things had been quiet, but quiet wasn't a bad thing for a super agent used to responding to such threatening missions as you were. You actually felt guilty. You were sitting on a lot of information you needed to act on. Maybe now was the time to consider doing that, while there were no other complications.

As if by way of a cosmic joke, an especially threatening light began to blink on and off, silently, upon your mission control console, just to the right of your laptop.

The missions the Goodbye Girls tended to respond to could all be thought of as "emergency missions;" after all, 90% of them involved world terrorism and active threats to the welfare of civilization on a global scale. Even still, there was one light on your console that read "EMERGENCY." Should that light go off, it meant a direct summons from Goodbye and, most likely, a catastrophic event, the kind that would cause widespread panic if it hit the newspapers or the internet.

Right now, that light was going off. It almost frustrated you how discrete it was; you felt the warning ought to be much larger. That wasn't it... This light couldn't stand out or blare an alarm, because to do so would betray its true function. This wasn't the kind of alarm that everyone was supposed to see, hear, or be made aware of. It could only mean one thing: Goodbye was summoning you to talk about the Goodbye Girls. You'd run out of time to hold your cards... This time, you'd be made to point the finger. If you couldn't point to anyone, that would be even worse.

It was time to wake up from the sleepy, autumn dream you'd settled into.

The walk to Goodbye's office was more unsettling than you'd imagined it. Your stomach was in knots as soon as you got up from your seat, but ever the analyzing sort, you noticed significant details that made you feel even worse. For starters: none of the Goodbye Girls were anywhere to be seen. You couldn't check into every room, but you could get a sense of it... the watchful eyes of Vaarvel were not upon you. There was no single phone light coming from Tschau's room. Despedida's gamer cave was empty and abandoned. Au Revoir's punching bag hung still in the air. Where were the Goodbye Girls...?

Your sense of unease became worse as a red light began to flash over-head; now the warning alarms really were going off. A monotone system voice announced that combat personnel should report to the science bay, while all other personnel were ordered to evacuate the subterranean base. What could account for this change? Goodbye had intended to call you to her office and then... what? Something happened that caused an alarm to be raised? So this was no longer about a discussion, but instead, an active threat? Your heart began to pound as you escalated your pace from a walk to a run, regardless of your tie flapping free from your jacket or how you might look.

Had you sat on that information you'd collected too long?

Was this the cost of your complacency, thinking things were really that easy? Thinking you had unlimited time? In the end, the concrete data you'd gathered was still too dangerous to act upon... it was as if it was all doomed to go to shit, no matter what you did. You'd always known that was a possibility, but you had wanted to think you could stall it!

The alarm blared in your ears as you pictured the worst: your boss, who'd called you, may already be a victim.

You reached Goodbye's office amidst the ongoing alarm with your heart in your throat, prepared for what you might see. Had she been murdered? Was a fight in progress with this office as the scene? As you pushed open the door, you saw no one... You hoped against hope that she'd evacuated already. That would be in-character for her...

... However, there was another possibility that was even more so. You approached the desk then crouched to peek under it; your eyes met with the butt of Goodbye's skirt as she shivered in terror beneath the desk. It was such a pitiable, cowardly scene that you couldn't help but laugh. Your laughter against the alarm going off throughout the base made you feel insane, but you let it out anyway... Until Goodbye turned around to face you, with her glasses off and her eyes wide with terror. Most of her expressions of fear were comical, but this one felt different, possibly because it didn't seem to carry any marks of over-reaction. The sense you got was that she was fully justified in this expression of fear.

"It's... It's over, Ciao... I-I waited too long... the Goodbye Girls made their move..."

You led her to her chair and then helped her sit down into it; her hands were trembling so badly that it looked as though she was several pots into her favorite drink. As for yourself, you remained standing with one hand on the desk, waiting patiently for her to collect herself. You knew that this was a situation that would require your immediate response. You asked which of the Goodbye Girls had been the one to act... {if Suspicion that Au Revoir is the Enemy = 1}Au Revoir?{endif}{if Suspicion that Tschau is the Enemy = 1}Tschau?{endif}{if Suspicion that Despedida is the Enemy = 1}Despedida?{endif}{if Suspicion that Vaarvel is the Enemy = 1}Vaarvel?{endif}

Goodbye retrieved her glasses from her breast pocket, then placed them awkwardly upon her face; it made her look just a bit more in control, but not by much. "I... I don't know what to say...! It started strangely. I haven't seen the footage, but they say Au Revoir and Vaarvel were spotted heading towards the hangar. That's when I punched in to call you here... Only, before I could do anything, they'd taken a Gambit. They didn't kill any CEDIT officers, but they did fight their way through, and a lot of personnel assigned to that area are now in a bad way. In other words, they violently seized an aircraft. That's not the end of it... they've set a course towards CEDIT London, Ciao... I-I sent a warning to London, to Madison, but... but what if the Goodbye Girls attack London? I can't... I'm freaking out, Ciao!"

You could tell this wasn't about the damage that this was likely to do to her career; she was worried about the people in London. You imagined the same Au Revoir that had been set against Adder so many times, now turning her gun and her skills against the people in London. Your mind raced, as another image popped up: Vaarvel, grinning, approaching Madison in a reddened room like this, then snapping her neck with malicious quickness.

"The details aren't clear. Do you think... Do you think Au Revoir was trying to stop Vaarvel, or maybe the other way around? They couldn't both be evil, right?! I-I'll bet Vaarvel chased down Au Revoir and snuck onto the plane. Yeah! V-Vaarvel always knows what to do, even if I don't like it! Au Revoir must have snapped and Vaarvel went after her, right?!"

You clicked your teeth irritably; you were almost certain that theory was premature. Still, you had your mission ahead of you: retrieve the Goodbye Girls from London. You assumed that Despedida and Tschau would be joining you in this important mission, but as soon as the words left her mouth, you noticed more tears appear from behind the corners of Goodbye's glasses.

"Th-That's just it, Ciao... We're under attack here too. I'm hearing Tschau's... gone rogue. I can only assume it has something to do with Vaarvel, or Au Revoir... whoever it is that stole the plane headed for London. It gets worse: Despedida is trapped with her in the science wing. I don't even know if she's still alive. She hasn't reached out to me. Our available combat personnel are on it, but... Well... Maybe Despedida can handle it? I-I sure hope so... The bad part is that this leaves you without a team."

You banged your fist on the desk in frustration, causing Goodbye to jump. You asked her: what about Tschau? Everything points towards something controlling her, right? What were CEDIT's orders?

"... The field agents will do what they have to, in order to subdue her," Goodbye muttered. As she noticed you hunching helplessly over the desk and placing both fists upon it, she placed one hand upon the back of your jacket and rubbed gently. "I'm so sorry, Ciao. This is more than any of us ever anticipated and all of it hitting at once... I can't help but feel the mastermind's getting everything they wanted. But I... I need you on this. This really is the culmination of everything and you're the only person who knows the girls well enough to handle this. I've got some tools for you I thought you might need, hidden in my safe... they're based on the reports you submitted. There could be something in there that'll give you an edge when you face off against the girls. The only question is... Which are you going to face? We need a whole task force full of you, but you're just one operative. You can't be everywhere at once... Whatever you can't do, I'll put Telegram on for one more rodeo."

She paused to open her laptop, then began to type feverishly. "These are the options available to you... Let's call them 'Dark Humor, Closed Beta, and Cut Losses...'"

((From here, you can proceed towards any of the endings that are currently available. Your options within those endings, as previously mentioned, will depend upon your knowledge of the murders and your affinity. These will roll out one character at a time. Vaarvel, Au Revoir, Tschau, and Despedida are now available!

Please note: you will have a chance to reloop back here and pick other endings once you're done, keeping your same score. Don't be afraid to try an ending; you'll have a chance to see everything you've qualified for, and maybe a little more, in the end!))