Up to the Attic

You consider your options before nodding; anything you can extract from Keith about this place will be useful in tracking down and identifying any of the escaped monsters. Like the Artificial Intelligence, they have their designs, and even the other creatures of Hell that you sense inside are merely allies of convenience at best. You release Allegra, brushing your steel hand across her shoulder and sense how she shudders at your touch. No matter, you will assimilate all of them in time. Already you hear the sultry voice directing you to induct Allegra and brother into the fold.

With a final glance at the still knocked-out werewolf, you make for the stairs. Allegra holds a white-knuckled grip on her baseball bat, and analyzing the pheromones she releases through her pores tells how frightened she is despite putting on a brave exterior. You can't help but admire your flesh-bound friend, so frail yet still standing up against the supernatural.

"I'll go up first. Just protect my back and let me handle the rest." Your reassurance has the desired effect as she stays close behind. The sound of the pandemonium fades with each step up the stairs.

The doors are the same as the first time you came to the attic. Although with changes to a few of them, including the futuristic entrance to the laboratory. The white metal seems rusted, and the blue lights flicker feebly, like any semblance of life has left the room. More worrying is the glass door that you see bulging against an impenetrable and shifting mass of greenery. Your lips curl in disgust at sight just as the door bursts into shards of glass and spreading vines.

Another infected human. You hope. If it's the true source of the room's corruption, then you're already too late.

Your battlecry is a metallic growl as you throw out your hands and send a pair of flaming jets of infernal energy toward the overgrown weed. You can hear feminine and agonized scream coming from the other end, and, for a moment, the tentacles retreat. Though the return assault is twice as fierce with the roots of the plants crawling all over the walls, floor, and ceiling. "Allegra, run! Hide in one of the rooms!" It's too much for you if also need to protect your friend. "Don't touch anything. Promise me!"