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Falias is considering Room 2, and has taken one of the corked test tubes.

The next room had been empty as well, thin strips of blue light had flickering on at their entrance to reveal a room that looked like some sort of lab.

Stepping forwards after the others who had entered, Falias gave the bits of technology around a curious glance. The humming sound that he'd been hearing was louder here but not by much, although... He frowned Is that a catching sound I'm hearing? He paused listening and after a few moments heard the sound again and then after a few moments more yet again. Yep definitely some sort of catching sound, but I'm not sure where it's coming from.

The red-haired Page (Sarras)and the small Mercury page (Menae) had both taken bottles and so although Falias had been eyeing up one of the black bottles on the ground, he decided eventually to leave it. Instead he picked up one of the corked test tubes, taking a moment to glance curiously at the dust and pebble contents before slipping it into the pocket that didn't have the hook thing.

"I agree that the noise sounds louder here, than before" he said. "So I'm inclined to check out room 2 since from the map it looks like it's parallel to this one, but I'll go with whatever's decided." It would mean backtracking through the previous room to get there, however it looked like they'd need to do that anyway for room 7 as well.

Room 2 and he took a bottle of clear white liquid with ‘adrenalin boost’ scribbled on the label.

Now that they had entered Room 3 without mishap, Hogwarts made his way over to the table, determined to make a good choice in items this time. However his attention easily shifted elsewhere as he studied the various objects along the walls. “Woah, this looks like a chromatograph, but I’ve never seen one quite like it. This is seriously impressive. Too cool. Look at the display!” He wished he had his notebooks to do a sketch and make proper notes.

He coked his head, listening in to whir of the machinery and everyone else’s deductions. Another glance at the map and he shrugged.

“Room 2 makes sense. We can do a loop around and end with Room 7, then come straight back to the stairs.”

After another inspection of the table, Hogwarts finally made his choice and pocketed one of the potions. This looked like it could give a good energy boost in a time or crisis… or if anyone went into cardiac arrest. Were there any syringes around?

As they continued on, Hogwarts felt the floor give a shake and it took quick whirl of his arms to right his balance.

“Well… something just happened…”

Grabbing a bottle labeled 'rum' form the previous room, proceeding forward with the others.

Over the years Bastion liked to think he was more than a little well aware of the world around him. Young people never did see to like him and hell, neither did the old people. Young Pigfarts distaste with him was to be expected. He was old and probably still smelled like the home but it didn't matter in the end. Hollow Bastion was just as much of a knight as this kid was.

And with his age came a wisdom. A wisdom that understood that this place was hell and though some kids grabbed what seemed to be healing potions (Menae) or other weaponizable items Bastion knew better. A sense of impending doom came over him and what better thing to do than to hit the bottle when you felt it in your bones that maybe you just weren't coming back. Who knew what was in this bottle? It may have been labeled rum but who know if there was something else in here. As long as the kids weren't looking Bastion didn't care all too much. He took a swig of the liquid, regretting it soon after but giving no discontent on his face. What the kids didn't know couldn't hurt them, after all.

Thank the gods he did take that drink for the loud screaming from beyond the doors in the new room was maddening. He contented with turning down his hearing aid. Not enough to completely deafen him but enough to atleast leave him with some room to think. Those whippersnappers might struggle with the noise so atleast one able-bodied man need to be able to think!

"Look like someone got caught in whatever is whirly jurrling around back there. Sounds like old man Phillips when he got whacked in the kanoodle with a crochet mallet. Go on, Ankh. Go open the next door, see whatcomes of it. I got some waters here if you need to calm yerself first."

Piggy's going to room 5!

Piggy followed Ankh forward, hands balled into fists. As the door slammed behind them, she looked around - so far, nothing deadly. Perhaps it was just a mistake? An error? Of course if they kept moving forward and did not meet a dead end then it would not matter...

She had even begin to assume they'd gotten off scott free again - Mistral had promised traps, but where were they? Certainly not here! Or. Certainly not here until she heard the screaming.

It was her father, a man's low wail of pain. The squire froze and looked around, suddenly wide-eyed and scared. "Dad?" she asked anxiously. Ankh and Bastion heard it too, apparently - heard it and ordered her to force the door, but - Piggy didn't want to do that. The screams were coming from up ahead, not behind them, and if it was her father-

She ignored the locked door behind them and followed Ankh.

Isengard practically skipped through the second room. More treasures! She could see now there weren't going to be any sort of blasters- these were biological weapons. That was okay. She had a wonder, too, right? The awesome sci-fi weapons were probably there, probably hers. She spent so much time looking at the bottles that she ended up grabbing one at random in the end. It was labeled 'Energy Boost." Then, she practically skipped behind the others into the next room, but that was when her smiles ended for awhile.

The door slamming behind them was ominous, far more ominous the slightly messed up whirr of machinery that she could now tell there was something really wrong with. Then, of course, the screaming. To Isengard, it was the almost painfully high pitched shrieks of a little girl, of her nine year old sister. " Hannah!" she screamed, instinctively charging towards the next room... until the equally desperate calls of the other nights for their loved ones cut through her panic. "It's an illusion, guys." She stopped and turned to the others, trembling and on the verge of tears. "There's no way anyone but us is here." Her voice trembled, too, because while logically it was impossible for them to be there, she could hear the screams. This was the kind of thing that happened in books all the time, but in reality is was so much worse.

At that point, she clasped her hands over her ears, bit her lip, and followed the others to the next room, although she walked at a deliberate pace instead of charging,despite Ankh's orders. They already knew what was behind them, and it was't what they were looking for. The machine was ahead.

Burj Khalifa took a test tube filled with water from the previous room and is headed to room 5.

It didn't seem that they were in that room for long; Burj Khalifa was nearly left behind. It was kind of funny how she was not just a spacey person, but a person with a tie to actual space as well. Of course, she didn't have time to ruminate over the implications of that; she grabbed the test tube nearest to her (it was filled with a clear liquid... perhaps water?) and skittered back into position next to Ankh.

Then she heard a familiar voice screaming in agony. "Mel?" She said, calling out the name of her partner. A shudder wracked her body, and she mumbled, "No... Mel, what are they doing to you in there?" When Isengard spoke, it was a very small balm to her, and she voiced her agreement. "Yeah, it's got to be an illusion! How are we all hearing the voices of people we know? Whatever's here couldn't possibly have whisked all of our loved ones into space with us! Right?" As far as she knew, Mel had no connection to space and had no business being here. It had to be a trick. But the screams were so real... she couldn't deny the sound of Mel's voice. Trembling a little and clutching her elephant statue close, she followed the pack.

Not Carolyn. Thank Christ for that.

The being in the center of the room, caught in the machine, was humanoid -- but he couldn't say they were actually human. Whatever they were, though, two things were pretty apparent.

One: they were good and stuck there, not having a great time.

Two: they had the device piece Ankh was fairly sure they needed.

"Alright, keep back, ladies and gentlemen. The last thing we need is more of -- that happening to more people. We're okay -- you need to be sick, you go back in the room with the grates in the floor and you be sick there. No one pukes on anybody's shoes in here."

He was trying to keep calm, but -- like he figured most human beings would -- he felt out of his depth. The being's cries reached him easily, and the anguished begging undoubtedly tore at his heart (he wasn't made of stone, after all), but he did his best to ignore it for the time being. He had to. They couldn't just go rushing in.

Now, there were, by process of logic, three possible ways the being had gotten in there.

1) The being climbed in there all on their own, aiming to be stuck in some gigantic mangling mechanism with no way to get out. This seemed pretty damned unlikely based on the reasoning that he had no idea why anyone from any planet would ever do this, ever. So probably not.

2) The being climbed in there all on their own, for some reason other than to be crushed halfway to death over and over and over. In that case, maybe they had climbed in to get the device piece they were holding onto. To retrieve it for some legitimate reason, or to steal it?

3) The being was deliberately put there by somebody, for some reason probably involving being squished into a machine that was still running after all these years. In which case, who would've done that, and when, and how?

How could a machine that old still be running after all this time, especially with a body mucking up the gears? How was that possible?

"We're going to try and get you out!" Ankh called across to the being, hoping they could understand him as he could understand them. "Can you understand what I'm saying? How did you get in there? Do you know what this thing runs on, or how to shut it down?"

He was avoiding mentioning certain things -- like the magnet on a rope in his hands, or the fact that the device piece was made of metal. If they couldn't get the being out, they could still try and get the device piece from them -- and admitting to that might make the being less likely to make that easy for them.