They took the hard drive out. Opening the case released pressure on the swelling battery. As soon as it was open the battery started swelling faster. The case could never have been closed again. The whole enclosure bent like a soda can. I should have figured out earlier what was going on. The first sign was the computer started to seem wobbly if you stuck it on the desk and typed on the internal KB. I thought the little rubber feet on the bottom were worn, in actuality it was the case starting to deform. What finally figured it out for me was the swelling started to make the keyboard stop functioning properly. Some keys were stuck.
It got stuffed in a bag and run over to the Apple store (which is only about 200 yards away).
Never heard a word about it again, they threw my HDD in another MBP and I was off and running with almost no downtime.
Of course that was like a 2013 MBP, that would not happen with the 2018 one I have right now since they can't be opened with a screwdriver and the internal SSD is soldered.