Sonia shoots you a sharp look, but you're unyielding. "It's not giving up!" you insist. "We need to get somewhere where we can make a better stand. We'll never keep this place!"
For a long, agonizing second, Sonia gazes at you. Then she nods. "Fine! Let's go!"
With the suit of armor not yet vanquished, even with the invading students backing away, your party makes a break for the basement, sprinting for the doorway to Matron's lab and the relative security that it might offer.
Next
You burst through the door into Matron's lab, causing Matron to look up from the table that they're bent over and Grace to turn to you with interest.
"Well?" Matron asks, as though they entirely expected you to come sprinting into the laboratory in this manner. "How are things looking out there?"
"Bit of a mixed bag," you admit. "Some vampires and werewolves got in, then a big suit of armor came to life and chased them off." You point up, indicating the floor above. "It seems like it's a bit distracted for the moment, but it's after us as well."
Matron nods. "So we have some time, but not much time. While the experiment is being finalized, we should discuss our options."
"Options?" Sonia asks. "For what?"
"Your way out," Matron says briskly. "It seems unlikely that you'll be able to exit the same way as you did last time, particularly as either the mind-controlled student body or a sentient suit of armor will be trying to break its way in here."
They reach out a finger, pressing a small button on their wristwatch, and a thick metal shutter rattles down over the door through which you've just entered.
"With that option no longer open," they go on, "you will need an alternative exit. As I recall, there are three other exits from this point in the school: a tunnel that leads through a series of catacombs beneath the building, a passageway between the basement and the floor above, and a hidden way of my own devising. All of them should get you to the outside safely enough, whatever that means anymore."