Veil of the forsaken.

"Labs and Orphans.."

As they stepped into the lab, they were immediately greeted by chaos.

Dorothea was perched on a stool, frantically waving a clipboard like she was trying to swat a wasp. Andrew was beside her, gripping a fire extinguisher with the wide-eyed look of a man who had just seen his life flash before his eyes. A machine in the corner was beeping wildly, its screen flashing bright red with an error message that definitely didn't look promising.

"WHY IS IT MOVING?!" Dorothea shouted, pointing at a small, gelatinous blob that was oozing off the table and wiggling across the floor like it had places to be.

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT I DON'T LIKE IT!" Andrew yelled back, aggressively pumping the extinguisher's handle but missing every shot.

The group stopped in the doorway, watching the absolute disaster unfold. Veil blinked. "Do we even wanna know?"

Lady, ever the composed one, folded her arms. "What exactly were you both doing?"

Dorothea whirled around, clipboard still in hand, eyes wild. "Okay—before you say anything, in my defense, this was notsupposed to happen."

Andrew, still battling the blob, let out a sharp exhale. "Yeah? Well, in my defense, I told you this was a stupid idea, and look where we are now."

"I thought we could enhance cellular regeneration!" Dorothea defended, waving her hands. "A little bio-engineering never killed anyone!"

Andrew shot her a look. "We have literally had casualties in this lab before, Dorothea."

Dorothea paused, then winced. "Okay, maybe a few."

Arlos, watching Andrew's miserable attempts at subduing the rogue science project, grinned. "Need a hand, Doc?"

Andrew scowled. "Unless your hand comes with a flamethrower, stay back."

Veil let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. "I swear, every time we come here, you guys are one failed experiment away from blowing up the whole base."

"Hey, this time we had it under control!" Dorothea insisted.

The blob made a horrifying squelch noise before launching itself at the ceiling.

Dorothea immediately screamed. Andrew dropped the extinguisher.

"CONTROLLED, MY ASS!" Veil shouted, stepping back.

Juno, who had been silent the entire time, just let out a quiet, horrified whisper. "...It has legs now."

The group collectively looked up.

Indeed, the blob now had legs.

And it was crawling.

Andrew grabbed Dorothea by the shoulders. "DOROTHEA. FIX IT."

"I AM THINKING, ANDREW!" she snapped, frantically flipping through her clipboard.

"THINK FASTER!" Veil yelled.

Lady, who had been watching the entire ordeal with a mild expression of disapproval, finally stepped forward. Without a word, she reached for a nearby console and calmly pressed a large red button labeled CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL.

A hatch in the ceiling immediately opened, and a suction tube shot down, grabbing the abomination mid-crawl. With a horrifying slurp, the blob was yanked upward and disappeared into the containment unit.

Silence.

The entire group stood frozen as the machine beeped once, confirming containment.

Dorothea let out a deep, shaky breath. "...Well. That worked."