"Well, there's no need for expletives. We can handle this situation like men." I reprimand the old fellow as another vine shoots up from the earth and into the ceiling.
"What did the two of you DO?" He yells at us as he rushes over to his terminal, clutching the core. The ethereal glow from the orb begins to fade slightly, and then, akin to a man breathing, the core would replenish its light, seemingly taking the brightness from the room itself, and slowly releasing it once more.
"We didn't do anything! It was your stupid machine that just started breaking everything!" Kassidy yelled at him defensively. I put my hand on her shoulder, and she looks up at me. The scientist's hands fly across the keyboard as vines indiscernible from the one in the middle of the room begin to dig into the walls. I hear the building crumble as a result of this, and I pull Kassidy with me as I backpedal towards the stairs. Error codes light up the screen the old man is working on and he groans in frustration.
"I can fix this..." He mumbles to himself, just before a massive vine crashes through the monitor, knocking him backwards.
"Kassidy. Take this and run outside." I place the core, which rolled over to us when the old man was knocked out, into Kassidy's hands.
"What about you?"
"Don't worry, I need to secure my quarry. Go outside, now!" She swallows and nods, clutching the glowing orb as she rushes up the stairs. I quickly grab the old scientist and hike him up on my back, before securing the case holding my cosmic veil across my chest.
"No, you fool..." The man groans weakly. "The core... it- it's the only way to stop this..." I freeze.
"Elaborate, immediately."
"It- the flora here, it's hyper bio-evolutionary"
"Meaning?" Roots begin to dig into the basement, crowding the floor as various electronics wither into dust.
"The plants- they grow incredibly fast, and can't be stopped without the core." He groans. "It was the only thing holding them back..." I nod, and run to the stairs.
"Okay. So let's put it back," I say breathlessly as I haul the surprisingly heavy man on my back, "My... associate- I gave it to her." I fling open the doors and hear a visceral squelching sound as the laboratory is filled in vines, mud, and roots at such a frightening speed as if the Star-Written himself was pouring water into a cup. "Ah, blast. That'll make things difficult." Securing the old man tightly on my back, I sprint towards the door and force it open, but find that it won't budge. I peer through the window to see that a large root has grown across it, preventing the door from opening. I rush to the connecting dining room to find that the windows have also been covered by this large growth, leaving no gap wide enough to escape through. "Can you stand yet?" I asked the man, and he nodded fervently. "We need to go up. Whole bottom floor's likely covered at this rate." Another vine shoots up from the floor and pierces the ceiling, appearing in the gap between the two of us.
"This way" the man leads me to the stairs that take us to the next floor, which ends at a lone doorway. Bursting into the room, the man reveals his bedroom. Unkempt, many clothes were strewn about, accompanied by stacks upon stacks of books. The messy desk had at least four different hard backs on each corner, and the poor, flickering lamp was supported by two. The garish overture of disarrangement was especially highlighted by the huge tree trunk in the middle of the room that looked to be about 4 snaps long in diameter and supported bark that are 3 tuns thick.
"I do believe your house is becoming a tree," I say, admittedly in awe of the might of this marvel of nature.
"Yes, well, I'd like for us to not share the same fate, so get over here!" The man ushers me to the balcony window and slides the door open. As we rush outside I spot Kassidy on what's left of the street, still clutching the orb. The street has met a similar fate to the first floor of the scientist's house, the concrete reduced to dust in favor of massive vines, roots, and other flora. It would highly appear that this Bartlem jungle has been reduced to a mere biological jungle.