All my motes!

Robin stared in dismay at the lack of motes in his menu. He had gotten lucky with the elevator shaft spider massacre, and he knew it. He was not likely to get a massive amount of motes at once like that again, at least not any time soon. Hopefully you won't go through another molt anytime soon.

He picked up the anytool and frowned at the oddly short blade. Great. Opal… No, not her fault, don’t blame her. Opal’s evolution absorbed the magic from this, too. Not ideal… It was my main weapon. I really, really don’t want to use the spider knife. Maybe a spider-arrow or something... make some spiders waaaaay over there, please.

Guess this is my only option, he thought, hefting what felt to him like a very tiny spear, or a hand scythe made by a craftsman who only had a couple hours in which to complete his work and no blueprint on which to base his labor.

Robin felt a strange determination filling him. The nap had done him more good than he had realized. He had desperately needed a good reset for his overloaded brain, over-tensed from constant exposure to new and horrifying situations. His headache was gone entirely, and the pollen didn’t seem to have any lasting effect. That you know of.

Robin peeked through the elevator door, opening it a crack, and watched the potted ivy continue trying to climb the broomstick, looking like a child trying to practice flag-twirling. Robin shut the door quietly while he considered his next move.

“Okay, Opal. What do you think I should do? Should I try and go straight up, or keep exploring room by room? There’s likely a lot more stuff here that could help me out, and yoshi knows that when even … or if I reach the top, there really isn’t anywhere to go.”

“...I also have my doubts as to whether or not the outside is safer than the inside. There are likely going to be completely different threats outside. There was a bird that had attacked the helicopter pilot when Robin had arrived (luckily after they left the helicopter). It didn’t do much, but if the pilot hadn’t been wearing a helmet, the bird would have captured a sizable chunk of his scalp. The group had ended up fleeing inside before the bird gave up and flew away.

And that had just been an ordinary bird. That same bird might have mutated or changed with the Ysari System. Definitely did, Robin thought glumly.

And that had just been a bird. What about the other threats that were known to inhabit the peculiar continent? It was widely regarded as the most dangerous place on Earth, and that was not discounting war zones. Everyone wanted to get a permit to travel here, but very few qualified.

Robin never would have qualified on his own, if not for his grandfather putting in a word for him. Robin still was not sure why his dad’s father helped him to get the internship if he didn’t want Robin here in the first place. He had been a confusing, intimidating man.

“I think going outside in our current condition is a deathwish. I don’t even have a weapon, besides… this thing isn’t really going to be as useful as it was. Robin glared at the (former) anytool. His Identify skill wasn’t bringing any notifications up, either.

Time to go, then.

Robin moved to open the door of the elevator and was momentarily startled by the presence of Opal directly above him. He had definitely seen her in his peripheral vision before he moved. He had not noticed her familiar presence in his mind changing orientation, but… there she was.

Pink Moon Mantis, right. She’s going to abuse this power. She already seems to enjoy messing with my mind a little bit.

Robin considered for a moment. That felt weirdly appropriate for a mantis.

Opal stared down at him and began cleaning one of her foreclaws. Robin suspected it might be the mental link, but to him it looked like she was doing the mantis version of casually cleaning her nails.

“Are you feeling a bit cocky after that evolution, Opal?” He flexed a fist clad in the Lesser Armor of the Beetle and grinned up at her. He was feeling a little cocky himself, despite the loss of his main weapon. He received no response, but that wasn’t particularly surprising.

Robin took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped out. Opal climbed over the elevator door frame and onto the ceiling of the hallway. Stay close, he thought at her, focusing his will. I think she got that… Guess I’ll find out.

No point in going into the plant room again. I’ll need to check the stuff I took off the shelf at some point, some of it might be magical. Robin shook the strangeness of how normal that thought was becoming.

Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, pick, a, door, and, then, I’ll, go! Robin looked down the hall at the door at which he had ended up pointing. It was the least visible door of all the doors he had included, and was almost entirely around the corner at the end of the hallway.

Robin dodged the plant swinging the broom around haphazardly as it attempted to climb the stick. Robin covered a smile with his free hand. Awww, the poor thing’s caught in a logic loop!

The confidence granted by Robin’s new armor had faded immediately after he had passed the plant room door and gone further than he had before. He reached the end of the hallway without anything jumping out to grab him, drag him screaming into the dark, wrap him in webs, and drain him like a fruit-juice pouch. Obviously that happens at the last door. Just look at it; you’re obviously going to die in there.

Robin had no argument for the anxiety that plagued him. The door he had chosen was different than the other doors. He had not been able to see it from his vantage point around the hallway, but as he rounded the corner fully he could see it in unpleasant detail.

The door was the same size as the other doors in the Laboratory, and roughly the same design, thick wood running vertically with horizontal metal bands running over the entire door. The wood was black, with thin streaks of dark brown running with the grain. The metal was a stark contrast to the wood, an almost-white silver. It wasn’t platinum, Robin could identify that metal on sight. His father never took off his platinum wedding ring. Maybe it’s titanium?

Robin shook off the feeling of dread and used his Identify skill.

Ebony Portal of the Mad Scientist This door was created from a rare tree enhanced with alchemical mixtures and an alloy of two rare metals. The room sealed by the door grants enhanced intelligence, perception, and mental processing power to those within, but also slowly grates on their sanity. All individuals within the room gain +15 INT, +5 Perception, +5 Mad Engineering, and +5 MENSTAM. Individuals within the room will experience a 20% increase in the severity, strength, potency, or effect of any mental maladies, afflictions, conditions, effects, and otherwise. Individuals free of any mental effects gain a chance to develop them, resisted by WILL.

Great. It’s a literal Anxiety Room. And that name… Is this the boss room? There’s no way it would be that easy. I’m going to have to fight through all those spiders, the different mantises, the millipedes and centipedes (Robin shuddered involuntarily as several thousand feet skittered across his mind), scorpions… not to mention anything new that might have been added or enhanced by the Ysari System. I'll fight the Mad Scientist in a climactic showdown on the surface as the Laboratory crumbles into a gigantic pit, all on a timer, of course.

Robin pictured himself fighting a giant mouse, Opal at his side, while he fell into a pit, the collapsed Laboratory falling around him. I have never really been all that great at time trials...

Robin reached out to touch the handle, the machete gripped in his white-knuckled other hand. The thought that he should have tapped the door with his mini-chete crossed his mind as he gripped the handle, but no traps triggered, so he lifted the handle. The door swung open silently, revealing the room behind.

The room had a soft glow, almost like a room with a very large television, but no other lights. Robin could see that the light was coming from a series of what could only be described as crystal balls, each sitting on a small triangular holder set into the wall. Robin could see tiny images in each of the balls. Some were clearly in the Laboratory, but several were showing a view from outside.

The tables visible from the door were covered in papers which were in turn covered in scribbles and notes, the margins filled to capacity. There was a large amount of scientific equipment, a bunsen burner, several racks of test tubes, various beakers and Erlenmyer flasks, but there was a surprising amount of equipment for which Robin had no names.The equipment seemed to be the only thing that was organized on any of the tables. The chemicals in various containers were stacked haphazardly across the tables and the floor.

“It will come into the room after a brief hesitation.”

The voice was sharp and clear, with the kind of natural confidence that made the words a statement of fact, rather than a command. Robin hesitated briefly and then walked into the room slowly.

As he entered the room fully, he found he could see the source of the voice.

It was coming from a large, pale man wearing a bright green lab coat, looking vaguely like a banana that was not quite ready to be eaten. His hair was long and slicked back with some kind of oil, but seemed to be escaping control, or perhaps had not been maintained recently. His eyes were a piercing green that seemed to cut right through Robin.

Mr. Lye smiled at Robin.

“It will politely have a seat on the red and green stool.”

Robin looked around the room and saw a stool that was red and green. He pulled it out from under the table and sat down on it, trying not to stare at Mr. Lye or let Mr. Lye leave his attention even for a moment.

Mr. Lye nodded and turned around, jotting something down onto a piece of paper. After a moment, he turned around, crossed his fingers, and leaned forward to stare directly at Robin. Robin stared back, a little more openly.

Robin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get the words out, a slight yellow flash came from one of the crystal balls. The strange man cursed and turned to the balls.

“It will be quiet until it is spoken to, and it will stay right there.” The Mad Scientist turned to a cabinet and began pulling out small storage containers, muttering angrily. After a moment, he made a satisfied grunt and pulled out a small brown eyedropper. “This should do it!”, he crowed, waving the bottle at Robin.

The Mad Scientist took the eyedropper and extracted several drops, dripping each directly onto the crystal ball that had flashed. “It will flash yellow once more, then green.”

Robin waited and stared at the ball to see if the man was correct. After a moment, the ball flashed yellow, then green, just as he had predicted. “The poison will take effect now.”

Moments after he spoke, the ball flashed red, green, and then red again. The man smiled. “We will speak now.”

The man turned around, sitting on a chair behind him in the same movement. He swiveled it to face Robin entirely, folding his hands in front of himself again.

“You will not move until I give you permission.” Robin stared, unsure of what he should do. The man smiled as if amused at a particularly cruel private joke. “You will not speak unless given explicit permission by me.” The man’s smile grew strained and red. Robin thought he looked like a little league baseball player’s father after they had an argument with the umpire. His father had liked to tell him to "be quiet until you are spoken to", and Robin knew just how to get under his skin.

“Okay, you got it.”

Robin leaned back as the man’s smile tightened across his face so quickly that Robin thought he was transforming into a beast for a moment. His face was a violent red, and Robin could see his veins pulsing on his forehead. The boy could not look away from the man’s seething glare. As Mr. Lye glared, the redness seemed to reach a peak in his face, and one of his eyes was abruptly flooded with red as a blood vessel burst, giving him the appearance of a homicidally-crazed victim of possession.

“YOU are INCONSISTENT with THE FACTS!” Spittle flew from his mouth to land on the floor as he screamed, his rage seemingly almost great enough to render him inarticulate. He took a step forward, his entire body shaking with fury. One hand slipped into his lab coat pocket and came back out with a massive syringe. It was big enough that it looked like it had been purloined straight from a cartoon, and it was filled with an unpleasant-looking blue liquid.

Robin lifted his mini-chete towards the Mad Scientist, stepping out of his chair. At the movement, the Mad Scientist seemed to explode, screaming in an inarticulate mash of words, lunging at Robin with the needle outstretched.