After a good night's rest and some breakfast, SCPs and Researchers alike gather in the theater. Their morning was mostly uneventful until Abel attempted to stab Cain’s eyes out with a fork. Cain attempted to sit next to his brother and start a conversation with him which he responded with extreme violence. Before the madman could do any real harm the theater responded by locking up his muscles through unknown means until he calmed down. Once he did he was reprimanded by the theater but the only response it got was less slurs in multiple languages being thrown at it.
“Now that Abel is calmed down, we can begin the next viewing.” The theater says as the lights dim and the big screen comes to life.
In the now ruined cafeteria of Site-A9 Sam, Iris, Cain, Fuji, and Nicole are helping the facility staff clean up after the Insurgent attack. Well cleaning up as best they can, nothing they can do at the moment about bullet holes and destroyed furniture. Sam for his part was doing it to distract himself from his anxiousness. It had only been about eight hours since the attack, Alexis jumped through one of the Insurgents portals to save Sol and Billy who’d been taken. Since then they’d heard nothing from any of them. Sam knows how dangerous the Chaos Insurgency is and his worry of his sister was growing. To top it off the Overseer just kept telling him to be patient when he asked her if they’d found where the Insurgets took Alexis and the kids.
“How often do these Insurgents attack the Foundation?” Lilith asked. She'd never personally experienced an attack by the Chaos Insurgents so she was curious as to how often it happens.
“More than the higher ups care to admit.” Dr. Clef answers. “They often try to downplay the threat the Insurgents pose.”
“Why?” Epon asked. In her mind it would be safer to warn everyone about the threat so they can prepare.
Dr. Clef shrugged. “Probably to prevent employees from quitting out of fear. Though I have heard some conspiracy theories among personnel. Some seem to think the Chaos Insurgents are former MTFs that went rogue for money. Others think they're a cult of some kind.”
Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long as the overseer’s voice played over the intercoms. “Sam, Nicole, Iris, and Fuji report to the overseer’s office”
Hopeful Relief washed over Sam and Nicole. “Finally.” they both said in sync.
Iris turned to Cain ,who is rearranging the tables that are still intact, and handed him her mop. “Sorry to leave you with the chores Cain, but can you finish mopping the floor?”
“It’s fine Iris. I’m happy to help and duty calls to you.” Cain waves her farewell as she leaves with the others to speak with the overseer.
When they arrived at the overseer's office they found her looking exhausted and her desk a mess of scattered papers. She’d been up all night prior to the attack filing reports, talking with her higher ups, and getting everything in order ahead of time for the next day. When the insurgents attacked it caught her off guard, now it was eating her up inside. She just couldn’t understand how they got in undirected at first, then she heard about how they used portals of some kind and her paranoia spiked. This all culminated in how she is now. Exhausted from the stress, infuriated at how the enemy slipped by their top of the line defenses, and embarrassed at how she’d only recently got this job and already things have gone wrong.
“She's certainly seen better days. She should get some rest.” Dr. Rights says only to receive accusing stares from her peers. “What?”
“A bit hypocritical don’t you think Dr. Rights?” Dr. Kondraki asked.
Dr. Rights took offense to being called a hypocrite by her peers. “Oh, like you’re one to talk Kondraki!”
“I’m not nearly as big a workaholic as you are. One of the interns once caught you asleep, on the toilet, whilst still holding on to an open laptop with files pulled up on it.”
Dr. Rights face became a little red with embarrassment due to the call out. “That was one time!”
“Overseer? You called us?” Fuji says, pulling her attention away from the papers on her desk.
“Yes, thank you for coming.” She says. “We receive information on where Alexis, Sol, and Billy are.”
“That soon?” Sam asked in surprise. “I’m not complaining by any means, just surprised we heard something so soon.”
“Yes. We were contacted but Alexis from within the Insurgent base they were taken to. She transmitted her coordinates before her signal got jammed and we lost contact.” she answered.
“She actually managed to get a signal out of an Insurgent base?” Dr. Clef asked, genuinely impressed. “That’s no small feat, the insurgents are usually more careful. Unless they’ve started slacking recently.”
“Or perhaps they wanted her to call for help?” Abel, ever the tactician, suggested.
“Why go through all the trouble of trying to hide then?” Dr. Rights asked.
“It could be a trap. They let her send out a signal for bait.” He answered.
This came as a relief to Sam and Nicole in particular. The knowledge that their sister is at least alive brought them a little piece of mind.
“Where are they?” Sam eagerly asked.
“Appalachian Mountains.” the Overseer answered. “We know the facility's exact location but we don’t know its layout or what anomalous entities or items the insurgent might be storing there. For this reason Iris and Sam will be going with the recon team to get a look at their defenses. If an opportunity presents itself for you to sneak into the facility, take it.”
The Mention of the Appalachian Mountains peaked Forty’s interest. She’d heard those mountains were home to many supernatural creatures, however unlike most children who would be afraid of such things, Forty found them interesting. Perhaps due to her own anomalous ability to take existing animals or plants and modify or merge them into an entirely new creature. “I would like to visit those mountains one day.”
Dr. Kondraki quickly but kindly shut that idea down. “I’m afraid we can’t make that happen, Forty. The Mountains are much too dangerous for one as young as you.”
Though really disappointed Forty didn’t press that matter further. The orphanage she’d grown up in regularly taught her to never question adults or there would be consequences.
“What if things go wrong or they don’t get the opportunity to sneak in?” Nicole asked.
“That’s where You and Fuji come in. the two of you will be with the assault teams. If things go wrong or if Sam and Iris aren’t able to sneak in, you will storm the facility and take it by force.” the Overseer answered. “Head to the armory and get prepared with the rest of the strike team. Dismissed.”
Sam, Iris, and Nicole left after the dismissal but fuji stayed for just one more moment. “Overseer? About my wife?”
“She’s fine. The surgery went successfully, the bullet didn’t damage an artery and only fractured some bones. All the pieces of the bullet in her leg have been extracted. Frankly she’s lucky the bullet was mostly intact save for those few pieces. Don’t worry she’ll recover. She’s being watched over by Sarah and the medical staff.” The Overseer’s explanation relieved Fuji, prompting him to thank her and leave with a clear head.
“You know, the love Fuji has for his wife is kind of endearing. From what I can tell relationships don't thrive much in the Foundation. It's a breath of fresh air.” Lilith says. She admired the enduring love between the husband and wife despite their current circumstances.
“I wouldn't get too fond of it. The Foundation typically tries to keep such things to a minimum. Especially among SCPs.” Dr. Rights explains bringing down Lilith's mood. “Though I suppose it can't be helped this time. They were already married when we acquired them. The fact that they're allowed to be in the same MTF together is a miracle.”
Lilith with her mood now sour glared at the researcher. “In the future please refrain from spoiling the mood when something nice is being shown.” She practically hissed.
The view changes to show a group of MTF soldiers in the woods of the Appalachian mountains. Among them is Sam and Iris both of which are doing a double check on their equipment before they move in on the Insurgent base which could be seen in the distance. Instead of the casual clothing she usually wears, she now wears a similar uniform to the rest of the MTF unit. Green army fatigues under a bullet resistant vest, a utility belt, a backpack full of basic survival gear. Her long blonde hair was tied back so it didn’t get in the way and her trusted camera was strapped to her utility belt in case she needed to use her abilities. As for weapons, instead of carrying the same loadout as the other MTF soldiers she carried an MP5 and a Glock 19. Sam for his part wore his usual combat attire but did decide to bring a Benelli shotgun alongside his Desert Eagles, mostly because the Armory Master insisted that he brought something other than two handguns.
Sam walks over to the team’s sniper who was looking down sight at the Insurgent base. “Anything significant we need to worry about?”
“Nothing more than what Insurgent usually defend their outpost with. Sniper towers, small bunkers, air defenses, sandbags, electric fences, and of course the buildings are probably reinforced.” the soldier answered. “I imagine all the cool shit is inside.”
“You know I didn't think about this until now but is it wise to bring more SCPs to attack an Insurgent base? Is their whole thing stealing them from the Foundation and weaponizing them?” Epon questions.
“Now that you mention it; it does seem strange. But I'm sure the higher ups have their reasons.” Dr. Kondraki answers.
“If you don't trust the higher ups in the foundation then put some of that abundant faith you have in Alpha-9's ability. Besides Sam, Alexis, and Nicole in particular have shown to have experience when it comes to dealing with the Insurgency.” Dr. Clef adds.
Epon had her doubts in the wisdom of this strategy, but she knew that she wasn't a tactician so who was she to judge. And as strange as it is for a catholic girl, she'd grown confident in the fighting capabilities of the vampire siblings. And on top of that Fuji and Iris had tagged along with a lot of soldiers to boot. She'd decided to take Clef's advice and put some faith in Alpha-9's ability. She closed her eyes, bowed her head slightly, put her hand together, and began quietly chanting a prayer for their success.
“How has the Foundation not found this place sooner?” It didn’t look like it was in a position where satellites couldn’t find it and it wasn’t subtle looking either.
The question wasn’t particularly aimed at the sniper but he gave a possible answer anyway. “The Insurgents have some pretty advanced tech, they probably have something in there that's kept them hidden. If not that then they could also be using anomalous items with some weird ass ability. Either way it wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Can you take out those watchtower guards from here? I don't see any cameras looking at the watchtowers.” Sam asked.
“No, I'd need to reposition myself for each shot. The other watchtower guards would see the bodies and sound the alarm before I could take them all out.” The sniper answered.
Iris overheard them and interjected. “I can take a picture of each of them and then use my abilities to take them out in quick succession.”
Dr. Bright recalled reading in SCP-105’s file that the first time the Foundation tried to make use of her abilities they tried to get her to help with an assassination. She was disgusted by it and refused to comply no matter how much they tried to compromise with or threaten her. “Huh. You’ve really changed since the Foundation brought you in haven’t you Iris?”
Iris winced slightly at the question. “Yes, unfortunately.” It was a fact she was painfully aware of and not remotely proud of. She’s far more willing to take a life if needed now then she was a few years ago.
“I don’t think your polorid will be able to get a good enough picture of them. Or does it even matter how clear the pictures are in order for your powers to work?” Sam asked. Iris had explained how her power generally works but didn't explain any limitations.
“I can do a lot more with pictures taken from my polaroid but yes if the picture isn't clear enough my powers won't work. Luckily my powers will work with pictures taken from other cameras too. That's why I also brought this long range camera.” She explains as she pulls out said long range camera from her backpack. This one was noticeably bulkier than her polaroid and has a cylindrical lens. “This camera was made by the Foundation. It's more advanced than any other known hand held camera in the world. I shouldn't have an issue getting clear pictures from this distance.”
Iris found herself intrigued by the camera. “The Foundation made that? And they trust me with it?” It made sense from a tactical perspective to give her a camera like that given her abilities. That said she didn't think the Foundation would trust her with such technology. The Foundation seldom trusted SCPs and she'd once attempted to escape. It was only once and she failed but she was sure she'd destroyed any chance of the Foundation trusting her. In her opinion, it's a miracle they'd even let her into Alpha-9.
“Seems at least some of the higher ups have high hopes for you. Keep this up and you might get more benefits.” Dr. Kondraki encouraged. He was in that group of researchers that believed if an SCP behaved they should be rewarded, within reason of course. Doing so would increase trust between the Foundation and its SCPs making them easier to deal with.
“I'll keep that in mind. But I wonder what future me did to get to that point? How far in the future is this? She doesn't look that much older than me.” Iris responded. She was genuinely thankful for the encouragement but her confusion overshadowed it.
She focused on each of the tower's guards, three in total. The camera printed out the pictures each clear and focused on the head and shoulders of each of the guards. So clear that the finer details of their helmets could be seen. She pins the three pictures to a tree with some thumb tacks before turning back to Sam.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a silencer on you would you?” She asked.
Sam didn’t get to answer her before one of the soldiers walked up to her and handed her a silencer. She attached the silencer to her handgun and took aim at the pictures point blank. She touched the first picture activating her ability then pulled the trigger before quickly repeating the process for the other two pictures. The pictures were completely undamaged, instead the bullet traveled into the pictures like a portal hitting the Insurgents shown in the pictures at point blank range.
“Are they dead?” Iris asked the sniper.
The sniper took a moment to look down sight at the tower guards only to find them layed down unmoving. “Yeah they aren’t moving and no alarm has been sounded. Pretty sure they’re dead. You should get moving before the bodies are found.”
The view shifted to inside the Insurgent facility where Alexis was putting on the uniform of an Insuget she’d just killed. She hated wearing the uniform and insignia of the organization she hates most in the world, but for the moment it's the most practical option for moving around undetected. Thankfully the helmet covers the face so she didn't have to worry about any of the guards recognizing her and the helmet’s visor was tinted so it could hide her red eyes.
“She’s managed to remain undetected whilst in the Insurgent base for this long? That's impressive. There had to have been at least a day since she entered the base and that's being generous. That time could change depending on how long it took for her to get her message out, how long it took for the Foundation to get the message, and how long it took for the strike team to get there.” Dr. Rights says as she makes a quick note on Alexis's espionage potential.
“Hiding in the vents? Or maybe she shapeshifted into a mouse?” Lilith suggested. “We once saw Nicole shapeshift into a bird so It's not an impossibility.”
Now fully dressed she hides the body in a closet before leaving the room. As she made her way through the halls she listened in on various conversations by security guards, researchers, and various other staff. Her hopes was one would give a hint as to where Billy and Sol are being held. Thankfully she didn't need to search too long before she heard a commotion followed by the smell of burning flesh. She rushed to find out what was going on and found a guard on the ground, his right arm and right side of his face horribly burned. Next to the guard is a medic and another guard spraying the burned guard with a fire extinguisher trying to put out the fire on his clothes. Across from them are two other guards pointing their rifles at an open doorway.
“Oooh, death by Fire. A painful way to go. But I suppose these Chaos Insurgents deserve it.” The Possessive Mask says with a hint of amusement in his voice, his sadistic nature rearing its head. “I'm gonna take a guess and say Sol is responsible. It makes sense from a story perspective. Alexis, our heroine, is looking for a kidnapped girl with fire powers and conveniently comes across a gruesome scene involving fire. Of course caused by the fire wielding girl defending herself from her kidnappers.”
Dr. Rights frowned at the description of what was likely to occur on screen. “You know as much as I hate the Insurgents, you shouldn't talk about death so casually as if this was all some book.” She was less than amused by the Mask's sadistic view on life. And even less fond of how he degraded death as though it were all some work of fiction.
The Possessive mask only found himself more amused. “We all interpret the world differently my dear. In my case I like to look at it as though it were a book or a play.”
She walked over to the room to see what caused the commotion. To her relief it's Sol, who was floating, engulfed in flames, eyes glowing orange, with a look of panic on her face. Naturally her flames couldn't harm her but the room she was in wasn't so lucky, everything in it was scorched and the walls looked like they were beginning to melt. If someone were to walk into the room their skin would probably be burned off from the intensity of the heat.
She needs to take care of these guards to calm Sol down and get her out of here before more guards show up. However first she needs to take out the cameras looking at them. There are only a few cameras in the hall looking at them. She takes them out by looking at them and crushing them with telekinesis. For items as small as cameras she didn't even need any hand motions to do it, she just needed to see them. Luckily the guards around her are too preoccupied to notice.
“That won't be good for anyone time wise.” Dr. Clef, ever the strategist, says.
“What would you do in that situation?” Lilith asked. She wasn't a tactician so if she came across a child in danger she would have helped regardless of any tactical disadvantages.
“Oh no don't misunderstand, saving Sol is and Billy is the goal so she'd have to save them regardless; But regardless she's going to have to deal with those guards and knowing Alexis she'll likely kill them. Which will mean she'll have to deal with the bodies. Once she does, someone will realize they're gone or find the bodies. And then there's the cameras, someone is going to realize they're down. That puts everyone on our side on a time table.” Dr. Clef explains.
With the cameras gone she only needed to take care of the guards. She quickly shot the guards aiming their guns at Sol then before they could even react turned and shot both the injured guard and the guard treating him. Sol stared at her in confusion, from her perspective a guard just turned traitor and killed her own allies. To clear the confusion Alexis took off her helmet. Immediately the fear and confusion in Sol vanished causing her to put out the flames she'd conjured. She runs to Alexis tearfully embracing her. Alexis is a friendly and familiar person unlike her kidnappers so it brought her comfort to see her.
“Alexis, what is this place?” Sol asked. “When I woke up I was strapped to a table and surrounded by strangers holding scary tools.”
If he could, SCP-049 would be frowning. “Strange, they went through all the effort to capture her alive and yet from what Sol implied they wanted to cut her open. How perplexing, that risk killing the patient.” He didn't care too much about Sol herself, more so he was confused by the Insurgents logic.
His statement earned the Plague doctor strange looks from nearly everyone in the room. SCP-049's methods are surprisingly well known throughout the Foundation among Staff and SCPs alike, despite attempts to limit that information. The Plague Doctor, of all people, questioning the methods of the Insurgents? Now that was ironic, perplexing, and possibly hypocritical given the things the Plague Doctor has done.
“Don't you kill people, perform surgery on their corpses, and reanimate them? A bit hypocritical on your part don't you think doc?” Dr. Clef asked.
“I don’t kill my patients, I cure them.” The Plague Doctor clarifies.
“Sure whatever lets you sleep at night doc.” Dr. Clef says sarcastically.
“Don't worry, you're safe now, stay close to me and I promise I won't let those bad people get to you.” Alexis answers. “Do you know where they took Billy?”
Sol tried to remember if she heard anything about Billy after she woke up but couldn't. “No, I don't know what happened to him after we were taken.”
“Alright, don't worry we'll find him, just stay close to me and play along with whatever I say.” Alexis says as she puts her helmet back on.
Before leaving to go look for Billy Alexis grabbed the dead guards and threw them into the scorched room. Not much of a hiding place but at least they aren't laying out in the middle of the hall. Still the bodies will be found and the alarms will go off so they needed to find Billy as fast as possible.
The view shifts back to the recon team who managed to get inside the building without getting caught. Five infiltrators in total, Sam, Iris, and three other MTF soldiers. They moved throughout the halls silently killing any guard they came across, carefully hiding the bodies as they did. They used a drone to mess with the cameras. When the drone passes by it messes with the camera causing the image to freeze, whoever was watching on the other side would be none the wiser. The drone is another invention of the Foundation's Research and Development department using anomalous means.
They’d so far been unsuccessful finding Alexis, Sol, or Billy however they did manage to come across a server room. Currently one of their tech specialists is going through the files looking for anything useful after he’d managed to bypass their built in security.
Sam looked up at the drone buzzing overhead. “Hey what's the drone for?” He asked the soldier next to him.
“Some new tech from the R&D department. It’s what's keeping us invisible to the camera so long as we stay close to it. Don’t ask me how it works, I don't have a clue. Probably classified anyway.” The soldier answered.
“Do you have a fascination with technology?” Iris asked.
“Not really. Just curious about the drone. This doesn't seem like the place to use a drone, but clearly that's no normal drone.” Sam answered.
Iris became curious about his hobbies. “If you don’t mind me asking, what other hobbies or skills do you have? Or are you just good at killing Chaos Insurgents?” She’d seen him fighting the Insurgents, at some points it looked like he got enjoyment killing them. In those moments she got unpleasant reminders of Abel. She hopes she wasn’t working with another Abel.
Sam took a moment and thought it over before answering. “My sisters and I have other skills. Alexis likes cars or vehicles in general. Put her in a garage with some tools and a car and she’d be occupied for hours. Nicole is fascinated with psychology. I've seen her spend days reading about and studying psychology for days on end. For me it's biology. If I weren’t too busy trying to put an end to the Insurgents then I would’ve liked to be a biologist. Unfortunately that's a luxury we don't have.”
“Those are all some useful hobbies. If they’re skilled in those fields then perhaps we can nurture those skills and put them to use. It would be something productive they can do outside of testing and field missions.” Dr. Rights suggests opening her notebook and writing down her thoughts.
“If they qualify; Alexis could be put on a vehicular maintenance team, Sam could be on a biology team, and Nicole could be paired with an on sight psychologist.” Kondraki adds.
Cain remembered the conversation prior to this mission and decided to speak up. “I think they're already doing something like that. Earlier the Overseer mentioned Dr. Sarah Francis is with the Medical team treating Aki.”
The response she got came as a relief, for a moment she thought she was going to be paired with another Abel. A single minded brute with no substance other than revenge. Then again she didn't see much substance in herself. A byproduct of her survivor's guilt. Occasionally she'd have nightmares about her time in MTF Omega-7.
She was brought out of her thoughts when the facility's alarms began blaring. It was only a matter of time before they were found out but they'd hoped they could stay hidden long enough to find their people. Iris quickly got on her comms and called the assault team. Now that they'd been found out there was no point in holding off the raid.
Whilst Iris called Nicole and the rest of the assault team Sam turned his attention to the soldier gathering data from the servers. “Did something trigger while you were in there?”
“Not that I can tell.” He answered as he continued focusing on the monitor in front of him. Despite the stressful situation he kept his cool.
One of the other soldiers, a Sergeant, interjected. “Did you manage to get anything from their systems?”
“A list of things they've stolen from us and are studying here. There is something very noteworthy about an anomalous object that they didn't take from us. It was under a lot of encryption but I broke it. It's called the Spear of the Scarlet King?”
The mention of the name Scarlet King caused Cain, Dr. Bright, and Dr. Clef to visibly tense up. Cain was permitted by the Foundation to memorize various important documents due strong photographic memory. They use him as a sort of human back up for sensitive documents. In many said documents the Scarlet King is mentioned usually in regards to the end times. Dr. Clef had many encounters with the Skarlet King's various cults during his time in the GOC. None of which were pleasant and all spoke of a God that seeks to unmake everything. Dr. Bright was one of the few in the Foundation that knew of the Scarlet King aside from the O5s. He'd come across this information in chunks over the course of his long life and more or less piece together what the Scarlet King is all about.
Kondraki took notice of his coworkers' reactions. “Anything you want to share with the class, Dr. Bright?”
“Nope.” Dr. Bright answered.
Dr. Kondraki turned the question to Dr. Clef “How about you, Dr. Clef?”
“I heard the name Scarlet King off and on during my time with the GOC. There are a bunch of cults associated with the name. Don’t know much beyond that.” He half lied.
“What about you, Cain?” Lilith asked, noticing Cain tense up alongside Clef and Bright.
“I’m sorry, But the Foundation made me swear to secrecy. I won’t answer any questions regarding the Scarlet king.” He answered.
Lilith wanted to press him further but decided against it, figuring the Theater would eventually reveal more. All she needed was patience.
“What do we know about it from those files?” the Sargent asked.
“Nothing much, just Its name, location in this facility, and that the Insurgents find it very important. The rest of it is Redacted. Sir, I think we should focus on retrieving this Spear. It's important to the Insurgents so it should be to us too.” The soldier explained.
“Then we’re going after that spear.” the sergeant orders.
However the order didn't sit right with Sam. “What about Alexis, Billy, and Sol? Isn’t the mission to rescue them?”
“Missions change. This spear seems important to the Insurgents which means its bad news and takes top priority.” The sergeant reaffirms his stance on the matter.
“Why don’t Sam and I look for them whilst the rest of you go after the spear?” Iris suggested. She didn’t see why both goals couldn’t be accomplished.
The sergeant shut the idea down immediately. “No can do. You know better than anyone the Foundation’s policies on SCPs in MTF units. SCP personnel are not to go unsupervised if it can be helped. Besides, the assault team will be storming this place any moment now, they’re bound to run into them. If not them, then have a bit of faith in Alexis, from what I was told she’s a capable agent and the whole reason she’s here to begin with is because she followed after the Insurgents to save the kids.”
Lilith frowned at the lack of trust. “Haven't they already proven they can be trusted?”
“It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of policy. We have rules that must be followed now matter how much we may trust them.” Dr. Rights, ever the strict follower of regulations, explains. “Besides, the Foundation doesn't give out its trust easily. And from what I can tell from previous viewing the anomalous members of Alpha-9 don't fully trust the Foundation. Both sides have set boundaries on how far they are willing to trust the other side.”
Sam was reluctant to say the least, but he had a point. The likelihood of the assault team running into his sister and the kids are high and Alexis is no pushover. “Fine, lead the way.”
The view shifted to the chaos of combat that had erupted outside the Insurgent facility. Nicole with a squad of MTF Soldiers prepares to breach the main door. They'd taken out most of the defenses on the outside of the facility save for a few stragglers that were in shootouts with other squads of MTFs. After they'd gotten the green light from the recon team, the assault teams wasted no time in engaging the Facility's defenders. They didn't take any casualties, only some injuries. Still, despite how quickly they'd brought down the outside defenses they had no doubt the inside would likely be worse.
The sounds of gunfire rings out across the facility as multiple squads of MTF breach the facility at different locations and engage Insurgent defenders. Nicole was in one of these squads making her way throughout the halls tearing through Insurgent after Insurgent. Her katana, glock, claws, and fangs serve as a maelstrom of death for any Insurgents in her way. Thanks to her being the bigger threat the Insurgents focused primarily on her limiting the danger to the MTF soldiers with her. Everything seemed to be going well until the Insurgents shiny new cyborgs showed up.
However, unlike the ones they used to raid the Foundation, they're much bigger. They stand at eight feet tall, black armor covering them head to toe, arms replaced with heavy machine guns, and rocket launchers on their shoulders. Walking, half man half robot, tanks. There are three of them total approaching Nicole and her group. Just one could probably take out multiple squads on their own.
“Jesus. Those things look more metal than man. At this point why don't they just make robots?” Iris grimaced at the sight of the massive cyborgs.
“If I had to guess why they don't want pure robots, I'd say it's because robots tend to be too linear. The cyborgs probably still have at least a small degree of will left. Just enough so they can adapt to a situation if needed.” Dr. Clef explained.
“Everyone get to cover now!” Nicole shouts in panic as the cyborgs guns lock on to them.
Everyone, save for Nicole, practically dove into the nearest room to get out of the open hallway. To avoid the incoming bullets Nicole turned into fog allowing the bullets to pass right through her. She flew directly towards the cyborgs stopping right in front of the first and returning to her normal form before thrusting her blade into its singular eye. The blinded cyborgs fired where it had last seen her but she'd dove under its legs and slashed at the back of its ankles forcing it to its knees. Not all of it was covered in metal plates otherwise it wouldn't be able to move, certain parts like joint areas are still exposed. The other two cyborgs locked on to Nicole and opened fire only to end up hitting the downed cyborg instead as she'd lept out of the way. The previously injured cyborg was reduced to a mess of blood, oil, destroyed metal, and torn flesh. After avoiding the barrage Nicole bounced off the wall she'd jumped towards and delivered a kick to the neck of the next cyborg shattering any bone or metal inside. As soon as it went limp she jumped on the shoulders of the next one and ripped its head off.
With the three walking tanks dead she turned her attention back to her squad. “Alright it's safe to come out! They're dead!”
“Jesus Christ! They're willing to deploy those indoors. I knew the Insurgents were crazy but I didn't think they were self-destructive.” One of the soldiers says alarmed by the reckless strategies of the Insurgents. “Thanks for the save Nicole. We don't have enough bullets to take those things out.”
Nicole wasn't quite as surprised as the soldiers. To her the Chaos Insurgency were always insane. Or perhaps she simply didn't care. “Don't mention it. C'mon let's keep moving before more show up.”
They moved room to room, hall to hall, looking for any sign of Alexis, Sol, and Billy. Finding them nowhere, they changed their strategy. Instead of going room to room randomly they went towards where they heard combat. If they're lucky Alexis, Sol, and Billy would be somewhere in the fighting. If not then at the very least they can link up with the other teams.
As they pushed forward they once again came face to face with another cyborg tank accompanied by a squad of normal cyborgs. The soldiers tried to retreat into nearby rooms just like last time and let Nicole handle the cyborgs but began to panic when the steel doors wouldn't budge.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” One of the soldiers cursed as he continuously tried to kick the door down as the Cyborg Tank took aim at them.
However fate seemed to favor the Foundation as before the bullets could fly the floor above the cyborgs collapsed on top of them abruptly. Initially there was confusion as to why the floor above just suddenly fell, that is until they saw why it fell. A massive humanoid creature made entirely of concrete. The creature lacked any facial features and in place of its hands are hammers. The cyborg tank under the creature began to struggle with what little strength it had left. However its struggle was in vain as the concrete creature repeatedly brought its hammer hands down on the cyborg’s head until it stopped moving. With the cyborgs dead the concrete creature turned toward Nicole and the group of Foundation soldiers. Out of fear they pointed they're guns at the creature and prepared to open fire. That is until Nicole noticed someone peeking over the creature's shoulder. It's Billy.
“Well he certainly isn't subtle or careful.” Dr. Clef chuckled with amusement in his voice. “It's a wonder how he managed to evade the Foundation for as long as he did.”
“I imagine he didn't summon such big creatures often, especially in public. He likely just summoned small things like birds or cats.” Dr. Kondraki initially believed the boy simply didn't use his abilities unless necessary for the sake of not drawing attention. However with what's been shown of Billy and his relationship with his anomalous abilities that seems unlikely. The boy loves his powers and takes any chance to use them when he can.
Nicole acted quickly. “Wait hold your fire! It's friendly!”
The Soldier's looked confused for a moment until they noticed the creature wasn't moving and the small figure of Billy. With the chaos calming down, and being relieved to see a familiar face, Billy climbed off his golem's back and rushed to greet Nicole. “Nicole! Finally a familiar face!”
“Hey kiddo! Glad to see you're unharmed!” She greeted his enthusiasm with a brief hug. “I take it that creature over there is your creation?”
“Yeah he's a concrete golem. I call him Jerry. Pretty cool right? He's been helping me fight off the bad guys.” The summoner explains.
“Don't you need some paper and something to draw with to summon things? How did you manage to summon Jerry?” Nicole asked. She was confused. The Insurgents are evil but not stupid so they wouldn't just give Billy what he needs to summon creatures. Unless they knew they could control him.
“When the alarms started going of the guards and doctors that were watching over me in the room they’d thrown me in ran out in a hurry. One of the doctors left a pen and some paper. I don’t think they knew how my powers work.” He explained.
“They grabbed him without knowing what he could do?” Iris asked in confusion. With all the previous talk of a possible spy, she figured the spy would make them at least somewhat aware of Billy's abilities.
“Perhaps the spy wasn't aware of that information? Instead they simply told the Insurgents about our facilities layout?” Cain suggested.
Dr. Rights took note of that idea. “That would make sense and could be used to narrow down our search for suspects. We'd just need to gather up and interrogate any staff with extensive knowledge on the facility.”
‘That would explain the short sightedness. When they raided us they just grabbed whatever anomalous being or object they could get their hands on. They probably knew who was an SCP but not what abilities they have. The Foundation probably keeps that information on a need to know basis. But how did they find us? And how did they know who and who wasn’t anomalous? Do we have a spy among us?’ Nicole contemplated but didn’t speak her thoughts. “Well at least you're alright. Do you know where they might have taken Sol? Or have you seen Alexis?”
He shakes his head. “No. When I woke up I was already in the room they were keeping me in.”
She could tell he's concerned about Sol but was putting on a stoic face to hide his fear. “It's alright, we'll find Sol and the others. In the meantime stay close to us and give Jerry orders. We could use his help.”
The view changed back to Iris and Sam’s group.
“It's behind this door.” The Sergeant says. After fighting through a few squads of Insurgents they'd arrived at the room the Insurgent's database said held the Spear of the Scarlet king.
“I don’t think we have strong enough explosives to get through that?” one of the soldiers says staring in disbelief at the massive door before him. The door was by far the most reinforced of all the others they'd come across so far. It almost looks more akin to a bank vault door, though much thicker.
“Give me a second and I'll see if I can open it from the inside.” Sam says before walking through the vault-like door as though he were a ghost.
“So he's a ghost now?” The Sergeant asked as the sounds of gunfire and shouting rang out from the other side of the door. Sam seemed to have run into security inside the room holding the spear. A few moments later and the gunfire and shouting goes silent. Another few moments and the door begins to open. Iris and the soldiers raise their guns on the off chance that the door's opening wasn't Sam's doing. To their relief Sam was fine and opened the door for them so they lowered their guns.
“All clear. You can come in now.” Sam says.
With the coast clear they walk into the room the size of a school gym. The first thing that stuck out to the group was the spear sitting on a table in the middle of the room. The spear looks like it's made of a blood red metal with demonic looking engraving running down the shaft. The spear has two heads one on both ends of it with both being three pronged, more akin to a triton. Aside from the spear the room was full of computers, terminals, lab equipment, and books that seemed to focus on the occult. Scattered around the room are dead Chaos Insurgent guards, Sam’s handywork. The only survivors are a bunch of Insurgent Researchers who are restrained in chairs by giant ink black snakes with glowing red eyes, common traits among most of Sam’s familiars.
“I’m surprised you didn’t kill the researchers too. Why’d you spare them?” The Sergeant asked.
“I figured they’d be more useful alive than dead. They were studying the spear so they probably have more info on it. We should take them with us when we leave and see what information we can get out of them.” Sam answered.
He walked over to the spear and went to pick it up off its table. The moment he picked it up images began to flash into his mind. He saw a ruined and burning city, demonic entities running rampant, skies that almost appeared to be bleeding, death, war, famine, and pestilence. The last image he saw was the most curious to him, a cloaked child no older than ten, standing at the edge of a cliff holding an orange colored short sword. In front of them, emerging from the waves at the bottom of the cliff, is a giant red skinned humanoid being dressed in royal robes, with three red evil eyes, massive deer antlers upon its head, and holding the same spear albeit much bigger that Sam just touched. The two seemed to be conversing but Sam couldn’t make out the words; it was like they were being scrambled. And just like that he was brought back into reality, with no context as to what he just witnessed.
“What the hell was all of that?!” Dr. Rights asked alarmed by the images.
The Plague Doctor spoke his theory. “The spear and the thing talking to the child at the end looked demonic in nature. Perhaps the spear is messing with his mind, making him see events that aren’t real to drive him mad? Or maybe it’s things to come?”
“Could be a mix of both. Showing him a terrible future too drive him mad with obsession.” The Possessive Mask suggested. “I’ve done that a few times in my day. Show someone a terrible future and they’ll become obsessed with trying to stop it. It’s always amusing to watch.”
“The Mask’s sadism aside.” Lilith says glaringly at the Mask. She detested its cruelty. “I’m more curious about the child shown in the vision. I couldn’t make out who they were because of the cloak, but I still wonder who he or she is? Why were they talking to that demon? They were holding a sword, did they intend to fight the demon?” No one had an answer for her.
Abruptly Abby, who up until this point had remained silent, spoke up. “There is something familiar about the giant red person.”
This caught the attention of everyone in the room. She finds the giant demon familiar? Why? All of them wondered.
“It’s familiar? Why? Have you seen it somewhere Abby?” Lilith asked.
“I don’t know. I just feel like I’ve seen him before.” She answered.
Clef became even more alarmed and suspicious. “SCP-053, try and think as far back as you can. Are you sure you haven’t seen that thing somewhere before?”
Her face scrunched up and she rubbed her temples as she tried to recall if she’d seen the demon before, but drew blanks. Instead of a memory she heard a voice speak to her in her head. “Not yet, Child.” The ominous voice spoke only to her, causing her head to hurt. “I can’t remember.” She felt compelled to say.
Some looked at her with concern, other suspicion, but none pressed the matter further. If Abby didn’t have the answers now then the theater would likely reveal more later. Or given time something might jog Abby’s memories.
Sam's eyes snapped open where he found himself lying on the floor with a headache and still holding the spear. He quickly let go of the spear and looked around him. To his relief he was still in the same room with the team he came in with. Some of them were guarding the door, others were guarding the prisoners they'd taken though now said prisoners were in handcuffs. Sitting next to him is Iris and the team's medic.
“Hey you alright?” Iris asked in concern.
“What happened?” He asked as the headache began to vanish.
“After you grabbed the Spear you passed out. We tried to separate you from it but you had a death grip on it.” The medic answers.
“How long was I out?” He didn't like the answer he got.
“Roughly ten minutes.” Iris answered.
“That long? It only felt like a few seconds. What happened while I was out?” He asked.
“We've managed to mostly take the base. Most of the Insurgents are either dead or captured. Any remaining resistance should be taken care of any minute now. Billy was found by Nicole and Alexis and Sol ran into one of our strike teams whilst looking for Billy all three of them are unharmed. Fuji and his team managed to find a whole stock pile of stolen Foundation tech and they’re working to identify it all and load it up for transport. When you passed out your familiars that you had restraining those Insurgents vanished and they tried to make a run for it. They didn't make it far before we caught them and cuffed them.” The Medic explained.
The Sergeant walked over to them to ask a question of his own. “Did anything happen after you touched the Spear? Aside from passing out.”
“The spear showed me visions. Alarming ones” He answered.
“So the Spear is a potential cognitohazard. Nobody else touches it.” The Sergeant ordered.
“How are we going to move it to a secure place if we can't touch it?” Iris asked.
Sam gave her the solution. “That won't be a problem.” He says as he levitates the demonic spear with telekinesis removing the need to touch it.
“That'll work. Alright everyone let's move out. We're heading home.” The Sergeant says as the screen cuts to black.
