Level 3 Access Granted - Opening File 4

"So the plan went well, I assume."

He laughed, mostly because it was a solid victory for humanity.

"We've wasted the time of Him. It is a completely victory. Of course, this plan won't fool him again, but he knows that there's no way for him to pull a Trojan Horse on us."

"How much more time will it take?"

"As much time as it would to remove every follower he has, until the only teams who know of his existence is Delta-Seven, Tau-Nine, and the research team of Two-Four-Four-Epsilon."

"So you don't know?"

"How would I fucking know? I don't know who is in that damned cult! We're doing our best, but we aren't miracle workers."

He grinned, "Well, I wish you luck then. I also raise the fact that it should be done ASAP."

"No shit, Sherlock. After Altamira, you think we want another XK event?"

Sylvia thought it was an unnatural occurrence when Ethan hadn't exited the helicopter with the rest of the team. As the thought entered her mind, she shoved it aside. It wasn't her concern, not that she wanted to care anyway.

He acted like he was different than the other members of their former team, but he was no different, slaves to their superior. From the time they met, he followed, although reluctantly, all of Valper's orders. This was more due to the reason he disliked Valper, not that he hated the line of work. She always went out of her way to chisel down those walls of his, but no matter the progress, there were always more to tear down.

She decided it was no longer worth her time. If he wanted to blindly enter employment by the Foundation right after leaving Valper, so be it.

She had to admit, whoever, that she missed good company. Jeanne and Freed were back at home residing with Maidame Curie, probably still working for Valper, even if under a new group. Though she had caught wind of exorcists being locked away from clearance to all anomalies unless they are specifically cleared by a MTF captain, or the O5 Council, whoever they were.

Although she suspected the O5 were likely the "de-facto" leaders of the Foundation.

Captain Weinberg was the final one to exit, hopping out as he checked his watch. Sylvia jogged at a steady pace to him, and he turned his head, "Kiddo, what's up?"

"Someone would like to see you," she replied, pointing towards a man who was leaning against the doors of a HUMVEE, taking long drags from a cigarette.

"Shit," Weinberg cursed and stormed over, "The fuck you're doing here, little shit?"

The man gave a wide grin and dropped the stub on the sand, grinding it under his feet, "Michael, it's been years and you greet me like this?"

The captain rolled his eyes, "Fucking hell Azazel, unless you're here to help, you shouldn't be here."

That's when Sylvia realized why the man was so familiar. The description in church records were accurate. Blonde hair merged with brown, an unusual color of eyes mingling between red and brown, the goatee that covered the tip of his chin, even his nonchalant attitude was on point. "Of course I'm here to help! Joshua asked me to do so, yaknow?"

Silence. Complete and utter silence save for the glare wishing death at the receiver that emanated from Weinberg's eyes.

"Ah, where are my manners?" Azazel said, and faced Sylvia. "You're Sylvia Lyyneheym, one of the best exorcists ever had by the church, alongside Siegfried and Dulio. Glad to meet you, I'm Azazel and this is Michael Weinberg Odes, and I guess he still goes by Michael Weinberg."

Sylvia nodded, "An honor to meet you, the church described your appearance as so, but your personality rather...differently."

He brushed his hair behind his ear and shrugged, "Not surprised, the church isn't a savory character most of the time."

"Alright," Weinberg cut in and gestured, "Fuck you too. You're joining us, then, Azazel."

But even as he turned away, Sylvia saw his small grin. Azazel winked and leaned in. "He acts pissed all the time, but he's hands down one of the best people you can know. Anyway, you're lucky to have him as your team leader."

He ran to catch up with Weinberg as Sylvia joined the rest of her team. "Sergeant Campos?"

The man looked up, his green eyes raising slightly as he straightened up from moving a container of food supplies, "Ms. Lyyneheym. I was going to call you, MTF Kilo-Nine wanted you to join in on the expedition."

She blinked once then managed to utter, "What?"

He scoffed and smiled, "Don't what me. Irina Shoudo and Xenovia Quarta I believe were their names. We had a joint meeting and came to a conclusion that support team members would be useful joining the main expedition into the tunnels of 1730, many of the members, including those two, wanted you to join Weinberg."

He hefted up a backpack, along with armor, and waved to a rack of weapons, "So, gear up."

She grinned and nodded, eager to join her former teammates before being transferred to Team Helios. Once she felt ready, Daniel nodded and pointed to the backpack, "Inside is enough supplied for half the squad for 2 days, Jemson has the other half. Both of you also have enough ammunition to fight a continuous battle for a few hours, so it'll be pretty fucking heavy. Jemson has some extra ammo, not as much as you, but he has all the medical supplies, so be sure to not lose each other."

Sylvia laughed, and was handed a helmet, "Standard helmet, but upgraded communications, very unlikely to lose contact with us, even if the location is still an anomaly."

She held it gingerly, staring at the tinted visor.

"It's decades ahead of the previous variants, we've been testing on various methods of communication since many anomalous objects remove communication from HQ to the team."

It seemed he took her observation as hesitation. She frantically corrected him and he grinned, slightly embarrassed. She slid on the gear and shouldered on her packback, heading towards Weinberg as he finished checking radio and the connection to command.

Jemson strolled up beside her and nodded, then gave a thumbs up to Weinberg as the captain counted heads. Satisfied, he led the way down as the rest of the Foundation operatives settled for making camp aboveground.

Not long after the only things illuminating the path ahead were the headlamps attached to the helmets, Weinberg shining the dirt ahead while the five behind kept a light consistently lit on the walls and ceiling.

Two men kept a constant watch on the back of the entire expedition, making sure the entire force of twenty plus Foundation member's weren't wiped out from an ambush.

The descent was narrow, the corridor barely fitting two men side-by-side, with no sounds but crunching of dirt and the occasional sitrep from Weinberg to the base, just the hollow clopping of boots on stone and steel.

Eventually, the path widened exponentially, spitting them out into a corridor that was approximately a 3 meter cube. "We're now in a three by three by three room."

[Acknowledge, we're receiving the feed. According to the floor plan from the previous records, you should be at a underground offloading area. The garage door on your ten is where the imports come in. That should be none of our concern.]

"So we're going for the singular door at the right then?" Weinberg had turned towards the standard-sized, blue door and away from the massive white wall.

[Affirmative. Take caution, according to Samsara, you'll be entering a cognitohazardous lake. You know the drill.]

Silence for a short moment, causing the command to repeat the statement. Weinberg finally replied, "Yeah, I needed to remember which it was. Understood."

[Lose nobody.]

"Cannot guarantee that, command."

They didn't respond and simply cut the call.

Weinberg turned to the group and removed his helmet, "Alright scrubs, here's what's going to happen here. We're entering a high fatality zone, and you heard base. The whole area coming up is a congnitohazard. It's powerful and you will need to resist it to the best of your ability.

"Normally, we're all fucked already, cause we're deep within the 'deceased' range, but this variant seems to be a weaker one, so we're fine. Some of you may be familiar with it already from a previous deployment. If not, you'll know exactly what it is very soon. To everyone who has not a whit what I'm saying, when we go through that door, tell yourself in your head, 'I do not recognize the bodies in the water.'

"Understood?" He had pushed through to address them all, as a professor would at a lecture hall, "Tell yourself that. Repeat that as if a mantra. I do not recognize the bodies in the water. Again and again. If you have to, say it aloud. I do not recognize the bodies in the water. Say it with me."

He repeated it and only few joined it. Weinberg cursed loudly, "Fucking say it. Your lives depend on this phrase. I don't give a flying fuck you sound like children repeating after me. You're dead if you don't follow my steps."

Weinberg said the phrase again, everyone being compliant. They went round again and again, ingraining the statement for five minutes straight. She felt silly, they all did, but she was unnerved by Weinberg's piercing eyes holding a gaze could murder.

"Remember, no matter what, you don't recognize the bodies in the water." He pulled on his helmet and spoke, "Telemetry check."

[Same as before.] The base responded a beat after. [No change since initial check. Ready?]

"I am."

[Proceed.]

Sylvia was among the last to enter, and was greeted by a beautiful, misty lake, the water a nice, pure gray that reflected the facility walls around them, fog drifting over the surface peacefully. Rocks jutted from under the surface, making few platforms and jagged stalagmites.

After the first twenty two went, she waded in. She felt the water make way for her boots, and even through the leather-like material she felt the chill from the low temperatures. It made her glad the boots went halfway up to her knees.

That wishfulness was shattered when she saw Weinberg just barely out of sight from the fog nearly waist deep. She shuddered as she hated wet clothing articles and undergarments, if a torture method was effective for her, it was to drench her, fully clothed, in cold water then let her dry.

It wasn't long before she saw the bodies, some floating facedown, others face up. Few had their heads turned towards her, and her vision became off-focused.

She knew them.

But she didn't recognize the bodies in the water. It was impossible.

Wrong, she did. They went to the same highschool as she.

She didn't recognize the bodies in the water. No, it had to be an anomaly, it explained why those facing her seemed to call to her most.

The Foundation is cold, lying to her. She had to be with them. She knew them.

"I do not recognize the bodies in the water."

The words helped some, but not much. She waded further into the lake, trying to say the words again but failing.

The Foundation knows the truth and abandoned them. They will abandon her too.

She turned towards the side.

She had to go to them, join them before the Foundation took away this chance.

Sylvia saw a man wading into the lake, towards the bodies and felt a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up and saw Irina frantic, panicking, "We have to help him!"

Weinberg shouted from the front, voice tinny and distant, "Do not help them. They are a lost cause and you'll join them in the waters if your pursue."

"We have to try," Irina pressed, and Sylvia's mind cleared, the europhobic feeling passing, "He won't know."

The man moved slowly, seemingly stuck in mud. Sylvia tread forward, Irina following shortly after. Nobody chase them, called to them. She looked back and the operatives were ignoring her, purposefully striding through the path.

She moved quickly, surprised at the progress she made with Irina. Shortly after, they were side-by-side with the man and grabbed his arms. He fought and shouted, begging, sobbing.

His words were incomprehensible, but she heard traces of "them," "children," "crying."

They barely made it back, the man slowing their progress heavily. "You don't recognize them," Irina spoke firmly as they make it back to the line. "Let's go."

"We need to save them!" He cried. Sylvia flinched and turned back, towards the bodies, she...didn't recognize them. She couldn't.

They made it to the opposite side of the room, and the man curled up after removing his helmet and tossing it aside.

She saw the sheen of sweat on the young man's face. The red eyes and the running snot. He glanced up at her and turned away, staring at the waters. Weinberg strode up to Sylvia and Irina, arms crossed and apparently furious. "I said not to stray."

Irina got up from her sitting position, defiant, but Weinberg held up a hand, "Nothing wrong with what you did, in fact, I thank you. But you put your lives in danger. It's extremely conflicting here in the Foundation. I admire what you did, but you can't toss your lives away like that. In our line of work, you value your life over others. Our missions need as much manpower as we can. Just remember that, okay?"

Sylvia watched speechless as he knelt down and sat in front of the man, "Still never forgot them, eh?"

The man avoided his gaze, silently breathing as he looked at the foggy-eyed corpses floating along at the surface.

"Those were good kids. A tragedy. Just remind yourself, that if you join them in these waters, you will never see them again, you won't ever find another life to apologize to them."

"Yes sir," the man replied blankly and shut his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, kid." Weinberg said softly, "This SCP is one of the most dangerous locations. What it tells you is hard to resist. If you want to make it up to me, just learn to resent it and its existence."

"Understood," he replied and turned to Sylvia and Irina as he reached for his helmet. When he picked it up, he gave a sad smile, "Thank you two. I owe you my life."

Putting it on, he jogged ahead to join the rest of the expedition party. Weinberg groaned as he stood and watched the man leave through the door, "Eric was part of the Coast Guard and a chaperone for his son's field trip. On the way back home, a drunk driver forced the bus to fall off the bridge they were on. He only saved three kids of the class of forty, his son helped him save two more before drowning while helping the third."

With that, Weinberg stalked off, toward the crew. Irina and Sylvia have each other a cursory glance before following the captain.

They got a head count and Weinberg closed his eyes when he counted five missing people. Two from his team, three from the second team.

Xenovia walked over to them, tapping her sheathed sword as she pushed the rifle out of the way, "I'm glad you guys made it. I didn't even realize you two were gone."

Irina smiled sadly, "We were fine."

"What if you weren't?" Xenovia asked, worry clearly in her voice. "I don't know what you see as benefits from this organization," she continued, "It's a dark, dark group of people.

"They are humans, and they're messing with entities that aren't supposed to be tampered by humans."

Irina shook her head, "No. You're right, but you're wrong. None of this belongs on Earth, we shouldn't be seeing any of this. However, these people are good people. They are dedicated and honorable men and women. They put their own lives on the line, very much like the three of us, handling and protecting those who cannot defend themselves from these.

"They do it efficiently, and more importantly, ethically. They're trained to do their job, and they are excellent at it." Irina's eyes narrowed, "I respect them, and see them more structured than even the Church."

Xenovia took a step back as Irina turned around and sighed, "But I don't like being sent out on all these missions. All these...SCPs are just so unnerving. I can't stand it."

Xenovia was about to speak up, but closed her mouth when Weinberg came within arm's length, "We're all ready to move out, you three women good to go?"

Irina nodded, with Xenovia reluctantly following suit. Sylvia opened her mouth but felt the pack on her back, "May I have a moment to check inventory?"

Weinberg raised an eyebrow and nodded assent, "Good call, what's the other man's name? Jemson?"

"Jordan Jemson," Sylvia confirmed. Weinberg smiled slightly and turned away.

"I'll have him check his, we'll move out when he's done if that's fine with you?"

"Certainly," Sylvia replied, "I should be done by then."

Nothing was amiss, all edibles were still sealed, all medical items dry, and all equipment was untouched. She had zipped up and reshouldered the pack when half a dozen Foundation members took the rear guard. Within the next minute, they were moving.

The vanguard moved ahead entirely undisturbed, there were no SCPs, zombies, unstable areas, no anomalies of any sort. The entire trip descending was plagued with nothing.

No bodies were found so far, despite the report stating four dozen civilians, which is supposed to be good news, but she heard fleeting mutterings from the team that this location used to house a dangerous facility.

If it were true, it was mysterious that there were no corpses found yet. Not to mention that the initial exploration team still hadn't responded to any communications yet.

Equipment and live recordings hint they are still alive, but it was unknown why they refused to respond.

The base chalked it up to equipment malfunction, but knowing that this exploration team was still in perfect contact with the team aboveground and the base, it wasn't a malfunction for sure.

Surprisingly, these tunnels were pristine, despite being under an abandoned facility for possibly a decade. No peeling paint, no leaking pipes, no mold, no dust.

It took a predictable roundabout repeat of sitreps for over half an hour marching through the tunnels before Weinberg found the first corpse.

"Foundation member. I see the gear and weapon."

[Caution, Captain. You remember the site.]

"Yes, I know. Approaching now. " He turned around and gestured to a member of the second team holding a double barrel with a duckbill attached. "There's some fucked up shit from this anomaly in the previous encounter. I don't know what to expect from this, but if in the case I'm being fucked, don't hesitate to shoot me."

The man recoiled and began to object, "But sir-"

"Don't argue. Just fucking shoot."

[Follow his orders, soldier.]

The man hesitated for a moment too long and Weinberg shook his head, waving over a second man, "Ivan."

Sylvia suspected he meant the Russian, who came forward and took the shotgun from the man's hands. He aimed at the corpse as Weinberg edged closer and closer, step by step before grabbing the helmet and slowly pulling it off.

The woman's head fell off to the side, dried blood making a trail down her chin. Weinberg inspected the inside of the helmet and handed it to Ivan, who ran a gloved finger along the bottom and back while Weinberg cut the body armor and felt the fabric uniform underneath. "There are signs of bullet entry, but I have a feeling it isn't the cause of death."

[So we agree. Eyes open and keep going. We'll watch the path with you.]

"Cool, how about Cassidy?"

[...We'll consider retrieving the bodies, but it's unlikely we can. If you're up for carrying her up, feel free to do so, but we don't know if the Gatekeepers are even alive at this point, and there were a dozen of them. That brings your manpower down to half if you want to retrieve all the bodies, and makes your expedition twice as vulnerable.]

The captain nodded and made his choice, laying the Foundation member on her back and put back on her helmet, placing her hands on her stomach. He got back up and retrieved his UMP from Ivan as the Russian returned the shotgun to the previous member.

They moved on. Some reluctant now compared to before, some even more reluctant than before. Sensing the disturbance of morale, Weinberg actually paused and turned around. "Alright. That's it. I want to know now how many of you actually want to be here."

Nobody raised their hand, to which he nodded. "Who doesn't mind being here?"

Half raised their hand and Sylvia saw it was all from his team. He scoffed and shook his head. "Never mind," Weinberg looked at the second team, "I know you guys aren't accustomed to this. You mainly do urban hunt for anomalies. Never have you actually ventured underground to a location like this for one. Those of you who wish to stick behind and watch our backs, you may. Unfortunately for you, we can't leave yet. It's not a good plan to do."

There was silence, the team unsure on how to respond. "I should have known that drawing from the closest responding team was a bad idea. Let's stop right here for now and set up a camp instead. We got ourselves a good number of rooms to use and fortify, especially with the junk lying around."

Half his team split up, Ivan Volanski, Julia Hernandez, and Frank Sosa joining him. Lyynesta Hollis, Yukki Hoffman, Eric Nelson, Jacob White, and Siegfried stayed behind. Jemson split from the group and joined the four. "We'll go ahead, see if we can find anything of interest, threat or not. Everyone else, just set up camp and we'll meet you in a couple of hours."

Sylvia turned to Irina who had an eyebrow raised and immediately realized she didn't see Siegfried at all yet. The flashlights of the five men and women combined vanished into the darkness ahead, and the remaining ones set about looking for anything that can be used.

They managed to find some construction lights, lanterns, and canned food left behind in a few rooms and set those up to shine into the darkness of the corridors. Sylvia shrugged off her backpack and unloaded its contents in the room she was in.

Lyynesta came over silently, poring over the supplies before giving a thoughtful hum and walking out, "You can leave them there, we'll keep this room protected. Come, we'll need more hands setting up everything."

The visible corridor was easily the size of a football field, the team noting there were two doors every five yards, in a consistent pattern, lining down the length of the place. They set out finding shelves and tables to shove and tangle down the place to create a choke point, the place they held down around twenty yards long. Finding some sandbags in few rooms that seemed to be used as a location for a last stand, the team added them onto the fortifications to create an extra layer.

Lyynesta and Eric managed to split the teams to occupy two rooms opposite of each other right on the edge of the wall, but one being one door behind the other. Further exploration showed that all the rooms had two door exits and this specific location seemed to be a recreation area of sorts, though why it was miles underground the previous(now cratered) location was a mystery to her.

Sylvia saw Azazel mingling with the teams, his brown suit and khaki loafers completely out of place between all the uniforms of the Foundation team, but nobody seemed to mind, or at least was bothered enough to bring it up. He even spoke and pointed out a few things to many of the members while they prepared the area.

He wasn't demanding or overbearing, rather cautious and thoughtful in his suggestions. When he made recommendations, he brought up a way to fix the problem, and debated with the members if his solution was workable.

The conversations were never long, and soon enough, the first team were finally situated. They had the corners occupied, their M60's resting on the sandbags, the stock resting on their knee as the barrel pointed up. Another had a M60 while sitting on the left side of the entrance, one oddball used a Degtyaryov, letting the plates lean against the sandbag as he took a long drag from his cigarette.

She sidestepped and slipped through the Foundation members, finding her way over to Siegfried. He caught sight of her, although her purple hair to be specific, as she walked under a cone of light and stopped his conversation briefly. Sylvia soon saw that this was where Irina and Xenovia had vanished off to while the team was situating themselves at this spot.

"Yo."

"Siegfried, over here," Irina cut in before Sylvia could reply. "You can't seriously think of leaving the Foundation just as you please."

Siegfried's eyes darkened and he turned back to Irina while Sylvia took a step forward. She knew that look all to well and had seen Ethan suffer from an escalation. "The church and Foundation made it plainly clear that this is all a phase. When Sakamoto and I were going through the Foundation's conditioning, they stated we can file a resignation at any time."

Irina was clearly annoyed at the reply, "I heard that answer from you so many times already, why need you say that for the third time?"

He was silent, simply glaring down at her. She gave a soft sigh and Sylvia could hear the suppressed growl of anger. "Never mind, I remembered your nonsensical dream of being one of the strongest humans."

"Being here is holding me back."

Irina pursed her lips and nodded, "Fine. So be it. I'm not going to say anything more."

Siegfried nodded and walked away, towards a position where he was isolated from the Foundation members, but close enough to give them help if they need it.

Irina tried to speak to Sylvia, but she was interrupted when Weinberg came on the communications system.

[Test twenty-two, respond.]

Sylvia heard Lyynesta reply after a second.

[Tau-Niner Beta. Alpha?]

[About fucking time. Some shit is up with this place, I'm completely wrong when I said this place is inert. Keep your guard up, we're coming back up. Will tell you when we're there. Found an SCP down here too. Long story, but we're all fine.]

[Roger that.]

At Lyynesta's reply, she saw everyone perform a check of their weapons another time and move to various positions at sandbags. Azazel himself sat down beside the man with the Degtyaryov and started a conversation as he leaned against the sandbags.

Sylvia sat down beside Irina, who was seated next to someone in her task force, and leaned back.

She quickly put on her helmet and gave it a tap, bringing up a time inside the visor, it was 11:14 PM, maybe enough time for a quick nap. Removing it, she has just as she closed her eyes when Irina nudged her, "Hey."

Sylvia glanced over. Irina was looking at Siegfried expressionlessly. "What do you think of how your team is doing right now?"

"What are you talking about?"

Irina faced Sylvia, "You know, how Freed moved to work for Valper, Jeanne is distant and planning on leaving the church. How about you three in the Foundation right now?"

She didn't know how to reply. "Dunno. Everyone in the Foundation is so secretive. Every piece of information is basically locked behind levels of clearance. You'd think they'd trust their employees, but it seems that's not the case."

Irina emitted a thoughtful sound, "I've heard from the people in my team that the Captain is tied with a dangerous...what do they call them? SCP?"

Sylvia nodded.

"SCP. As in, if you even know its name, you're now officially under its domain." Irina looked over at Lyynesta, who was staring down the hall, seated beside one of the Foundation members with their machine guns. "The more people who know its name, the stronger it gets. Rumors go that way anyway."

Sylvia saw lights bobbing down the corridor and stood, along with most of the employees seated. "Here they are."

Through the rustling of fabrics and sound of guns being moved, Sylvia counted four people. All accounted for. Lyynesta jerked her head to Jacob, who jogged ahead.

There was something nagging her mind though.

"Didn't the Captain say they found an SCP?" Irina asked. Lyynesta cursed.

"Jacob!" The man stopped, a meter away from the team, his back turned to the approaching group. "Everyone hold!"

"Captain, you read me?" Jacob was clearly concerned and now turned to face the group, backing up slowly.

"Halt!" One Foundation employee shouted, the group approached, as if they didn't hear.

"Captain," Lyynesta's voice was full of concern.

Jacob turned off the safety and so did everyone in the two MTFs available.

[Did I not fucking say...]

Weinberg's voice was tired, clearly fatigued. He didn't answer for a few seconds before he came back on, this time clearly.

[I'll contact you when we're there. This fucking place is falling apart, taking us more time going up than coming down.]

"We got four suspicious individuals. Matching your appearance."

Silence, Sylvia assumed he cursed off the radio. The group stopped. Sylvia saw that their looks were exact copies of Weinberg and the three that went down.

[Stall. We'll do our best to make it up. ETA ten minutes, think you can handle it?]

[MOBILE TASK FORCE TAU-NINER, YOU COPY? COUNT THIRTY!]

[We copy base.]

[You've got a problem. We were monitoring Captain Weinberg ever since you guys set up. Then we lost connection as Weinberg breached through a door. Assumed he was dead until we noti-]

[Cut to the chase, Tau-Niner Beta is facing potential anomalies.]

They seemed to have switched screens to the cameras to the larger team.

[Holy shit. They are not Weinberg. He's at least four minutes out. Don't kill. We don't know what's going on, and I don't want these guys causing the death of the captain. Contacting containment team now. They'll be with you guys within the hour.]

No sooner did they finish did Lyynesta shout, "We'll give you one chance. Stand down and don't make any sudden movements."

The Weinberg faced her, "Master Sergeant?"

She frowned, "Motherfuckers, who do you think you are?"

They immediately realized their mistake. "Lyynesta, think you could have everyone put their guns down? We'd like to get out of this place."

"No can do. On your knees."

"This is a warning, Master Sergeant."

"Good, that's the first warning in the two decades I've served with you. Knees. Last chance." They didn't make an intent to get down. They continued to step forward as if a firing squad wasn't just in front of them.

"And the SCP you had?" The group didn't answer for a bit, and the Weinberg sighed, "I was hoping it'll be easy for us."

Jacob's head was cut off instantaneously as he fired a burst, which blew off the head of one of the four anomalies and that was Sylvia realized he had reacted faster than anyone in the entire force combined.

Before he even went down, the Weinberg's limbs elongated and snapped like whips at the Foundation employees, but rather than being simple flesh and bone, they were sharper, weapons, not just simple limbs.

One man was beheaded and a woman had her arm sheared off at the forearm when she raised her arm to block the limb out of reflex.

The second one alive was quick, nimble, he clearly saw the bullets flying at him and evaded them all with ease, contorting whenever necessary. He ducked and weaved and scrambled up onto the heads of Foundation members, twisting the helmets to snap heads or ripping them off the shoulders. It soon became apparent shooting it was futile.

Sylvia frantically tried to think of a way to handle it, but ducked behind a sandbag, hearing the M60s and DP-27 go off in the back. A snap went her way then the sound of whips vanished. She peeked over the edge to see one machine gunner dead, and the second wounded, but the other two mowed down the false Weinberg. Turning her attention to the second, she was ready to run to the man stumbling with over two hundreds pound of flesh hanging off his torso when there was an explosion.

The Foundation member had pulled the pin off a grenade and shoved it into the teeth of the anomaly.

That explained why the man wasn't dead the moment it leaped on him.

Sylvia's breath shook as she laid down her weapon, then a horrible thought clicked just as the silence laid on the floor, Where's the third one?

"BACK!" Azazel's voice boomed off the walls, as Weinberg came up, their lights shining down the hall and clicked off at the lights from the fortification. "Hazel jump forward!"

The woman he was shouting at screamed as her body fell through the floor from her shadow, shearing into bits as she didn't have a chance to fight Her voice was cut off not a second later. The third anomaly disappeared again.

Sylvia stood up and an uneasy feeling shivered through her spine. She ducked and rolled forward just as she saw the anomaly reach out from the wall at her while Azazel shouted at Sylvia. A spear impaled its temple, punching through to the opposite side, and multiple more spears went through as it tried to drag itself back into the solid, piercing its neck and ramming down between the shoulder blades.

A couple more slid between its ribs before it stopped and slumped towards the ground, gravity pulling it, but its partial absorbance into the wall preventing it from actually touching floor.

Azazel dropped down and caught Sylvia's eye, nodding when he saw she was unharmed.

The most prominent sense that filled the room was the blood. Blood and a trace of explosives, there was far less air as iron danced about, emanating from the pools of blood and wafting off the blood splattered on the walls.

Weinberg was half-carrying Frank as he approached the lead anomaly. He glanced down at the tattered corpse then at Azazel, "I think I've seen better days."

Weinberg immediately dismissed the corpse, "How many casualties?"

Sylvia stepped back from Weinberg and went to get a body count with those remaining. Of MTF Tau-Nine, only Jacob and Yukki were killed. Of MTF Kilo-Nine, over half were killed, leaving seven left. When she realized his absence, she winced inwardly about telling Daniel that Jemson was dead too.

Sylvia looked around for Irina when the death of Jemson occurred to her. She frantically sought out those kneeling, the one man others tending to the wounded. Until she saw her standing up, hands on her hips.

She noticed Xenovia sitting on the ground, cross-legged as she stared at the body of someone vaguely familiar.

Sylvai couldn't help but watch, even when Weinberg had clasped her shoulder and said, "Please check for wounded. Xien can't do it all himself."

But there was no work for her to do. Xien had checked every body already, and all were dead except for two, who were lucky because they only lost a chunk of an ear and a hand combined. The rest were clearly dead, from their heads twisted and stretching from the lack of bone connection or portions of their torso removed.

A slaughter.

She stood behind Irina as Weinberg was making no progress with Xenovia, "She didn't have to die."

"Nobody had to die, but we had deaths anyway. Why do you think we scoff at the Church's silly practices? You're all simply humans in the end wielding glorified weapons against anomalies. You may think you stand a chance, but you're fighting the low tiered threats. Get up, we need to leave."

"Who do you hire to sacrifice?"

Weinberg seemed annoyed, "We hire from all over the world. GIGN, the French Foreign Legion, Special Forces, Kopassus, we don't discriminate. We even take from the normal infantry, as long as anyone is capable."

Xenovia seemed to think of a reply, but Weinberg added, "You think we're incompetent. Shit like this happens, but it isn't a daily occurence. Tell me how you and your exorcists will react to them. From what I can tell, one was swinging his fucking arms all over the damn place, one was able to disappear into solid surfaces, and the third was a fucking monkey. Tell me what you're able to do that we can't? Could you and your exorcist forces have taken these guys down in mere minutes with your weaponry? Your swords? Guns?

"The Church doted on all of you. Toted you around as the best. So far none of the Foundation can agree that the exorcists do everything better than we do. In some portions, yes, I'll admit that much. Some of you are great operatives, but a majority aren't. And from I see before me, you aren't one of the better ones. Get up."

Xenovia stood, hatred in her eyes as she glared at Weinberg. The man made no further comment and only returned the gaze. "Where and when can I leave the Foundation?"

Weinberg nodded, accepting her decision, "As soon as we get back. MTF Kilo-Nine can't be going anywhere anytime soon, so you'll have plenty of time to leave. Just speak to Ling'er. Hold on, let me see if she's alive."

He called to her on the comms and a Foundation member came over, removing her helmet as both she and Weinberg removed their helmets, "Alive, like usual."

"The Heavenly One still hates me," she shot back without a missing a beat. "And cruel as ever. What is it?"

She tugged at a bandage wrapped around her arm as Weinberg gave out the case. She understood, "Ms. Quarta, seek me out when we're back on Site. I'll let you know the process."

The woman turned to Irina, "And you, Ms. Shoudo?"

She noted Weinberg's quick look of confusion, and addressed the issue, "The two are Team Duo because they are inseparable."

Sylvia waited anxiously for Irina's answer. She watched as bodies were carried away and closed up in body bags, limbs and other dismembered parts were tossed into one collective bag.

"I'll...go with Xenovia," Irina shut her eyes as she gave the answer. She clearly didn't want to leave, but her ties to Xenovia was preventing her from staying. "But I'll send an application requesting to be in the joint programs with the Foundation. I think you guys helping us will be better than sticking with pure Church programs."

Weinberg put out a hand to Kilo-Nine's team leader and said, "So, that's that. All yours to handle now."

"Ass," Jing'er replied as Weinberg walked away.

Sylvia noticed that Weinberg had brought out a marked body bag and began storing the anomalies inside them, including any parts that had been thrown away from the main body. Irina nudged Sylvia in the ribs as Weinberg glanced up at her. "Let's go, everyone's leaving now."

"Wait," Sylvia replied and caught Weinberg's attention.

"Yeah?"

"What will you do with the bodies?" Sylvia pointed to the hazmat colored body bags.

"They'll be sent directly to the scientist teams at various sites," he replied, "depending on their specialty. I have no clearance to tell you which sites they're going to, but none will be transported to Site 16."

"And this place?"

"What about it? I doubt we can nuke this place, not to mention that is a stupid idea," he scoffed.

"We haven't fully explored it yet, right? We still found no civilians we were sent out to find," she pressed, "Why are we leaving?"

Weinberg shook his head, "Technically, we found one, this SCP. Long story, but we'll get the full one upon returning on site and done with the interrogation. The expedition is not our job anymore, base contacted the captains of all the squads on a more private channel, Tau-Nine and Kilo-Nine are to withdraw. While you guys were cut off, they concluded this place is still an anomaly. Some signs are classified as cognitohazards and the place still hold some of the properties of Site 13.

"We don't have the equipment for that, and Kilo-Nine definitely does not have the equipment for that job. Zeta-Nine, the Mole Rats, are the ones needed to be sent on this job, and they are now. They're the most experienced with exploring anomalous structures, and despite the losses they've suffered a while back, they're back on their feet."

Sylvia couldn't find any way to argue with that and slowly nodded, turning at the sound of boots on metal, the containment team finally arriving, the size of a platoon, with a squad of a clearly marked MTF team behind them, who Sylvia assumed to be the Mole Rats.

"Captain," the captain of the containment team approached Weinberg, "You stated we were needed?"

"Yeah," Weinberg jerked his head to the anomaly stuck in the wall. "And there's still a few branches unexplored. We'll need to take a look at that."

"What the fuck? Not the worst I've seen, but shit you're right when we needed the Vagene Opener."

He waved to Sylvia, Irina, and the lingering Foundation members, "Best you leave now. You are not cleared to be present."

"And you?"

Weinberg shrugged, "Not sure. Jing'er and I have to stick with these guys until they've finished. Just let Hollis and Matthew get you back to base."

"Bu-"

"That is an order," Weinberg creased his eyebrows. "Get moving."

Sylvia let out a breath and took a step back from Weinberg before turning around and heading up the stairs after Irina. Before she left, she saw a man carrying down a box the size of a duffel bag, she thought she heard noises coming from within, but he jogged out of sight to join the rest of the platoon of containment teams.

Interviewed: SCP-507

Interviewer: ███, will be referred to as ███

Foreword: This is the first official log concerning SCP-507. Retrieved ███ km south of the US-Mexican border at the former location of SCP-1730. Discovered and retrieved from the location by Cpt. ████████ of MTF ███-██, the subject was brought onto Site-██ for the interview. [DATA EXPUNGED]

-Begin Log-

███: "Shall we start?"

507: "Sure."

███: "You know we can't let you leave, right?"

507: "I guessed that already, since you blindfolded me and brought me here."

███: "How long have you been in the asylum?"

(Subject thought for a second)

507: "Nearly 20 years. This year would have been the eighteenth if...what's his name? Michael? If Michael didn't find me in that place. I might have been free, in fact."

(███ gave a noise, apparently in thought)

███: "Perhaps. Who knows. Were you the only person who descended in that place?"

507: "Err...no. I uh, just wanna say I didn't mean to do anything illegal-"

███: "Might I add you inadvertently did by teleporting out of the asylum, therefore-."

507: "Not my fault I enter another dimension on occasion! Anyway, I think you'd rather hear what happened."

███: "Correct."

507: "So after I managed to get back, I found myself like, waaaay outside of the asylum. I didn't exactly know where I was and where to go. That was when I ran into a few families. Luckily, they spoke a language I understood, kind of..."

███: "Which was?"

507: "Huh? Oh, Spanish. Soon I realized I was at the northern portion of Mexico, and they were all heading to the US. I kinda went with them considering I had no other option. I don't think you're too much into the details on the trip, but to cut it short, nothing happened except we ran into border guards and had to book it another way. Ended up finding the underground place your organization went to.

"We hid down there and heard a few border guards begin entering a little after. Probably after half an hour? Nowhere to run, and not willing to get caught, we pushed further in. I think we lost them after some time, though I can't really say with that place. As I told Michael, I don't recognize the path he took upwards to bring me here.

"We kept hearing them running after us, so we eventually broke into a room to hide in. A few, actually. I got in the first with the others and they shut the door on the others, turned to a 'every man for himself' kind of situation. I don't know what the other doors contained, but I heard one man open a door and let out...who knows what. All we heard was screaming and guns firing from the border guards. This went on for a minute at most and we're all just so afraid to open the doors.

(Subject took a few breaths and ███ waited patiently as he gathered his thoughts)

507: "One family and their kid eventually got hungry, so we went out, since we had nothing to eat in the room we hid in. Nor to drink. And hours had passed, all we had to do was pray we get out of that place. So we left, and blood was everywhere, on the walls, ceiling, and bodies were just ripped apart. I picked up a rifle from one of the border guards and found out it was useless, bent beyond belief. What was out there was not human. Luckily I found one gun undamaged, but that border guard..."

(Subject shivered and ███ did not inquire further)

507: "We went looking for a way out. We managed to get to an intersection, and actually found some survivors, but they weren't who they seemed. The leader of my group started speaking to them, but he figured out something was wrong. That was when those...those things showed its true form. I booked it out of there and found the biggest door I could find. Locked myself inside as everyone was being mauled by them. I never walked out of that room again. I didn't want to. Not sure what sick god favored me, but I found myself inside a warehouse of some sort. Tools, weapons, equipment, medical supplied, even non-perishables. That's where I stayed for a week...I think. I didn't really keep track of time. Thought I'd die there until you guys picked me up, and you know the rest."

███: "Interesting. We'll need more on the location and its...occupants, later today. We have a team going down and fully exploring the place, so your information will be useful."

507: "I don't know much though..."

███: "All information is treated with high regards, no matter how small its informant believes. I don't really wish to give you false hopes or entice you, but we will repay you for your compliance."

507: "I-Oh sure, why not?"

-End Log-

Closing Statements: According to subject, [DATA EXPUNGED]. MTF ████-██ used the information to their advantage. Area is more accessible with the released threats neutralized, thanks to the assistance of subject. Containment teams and other MTFs are now able to explore freely the depths of SCP-1730. More anomalies were noted in locked rooms and laboratories (some were breached and the MTFs utilized hostile action to clear the locations). Conclusions were made that these were recently and consistently used, even after the neutralization and evacuation of SCP-1730. No names of its user were recovered and its utiliser is still to be discovered.

However, stolen papers(from previous areas being secured) were at these laboratories and the Foundation has recovered these documents(now under tighter security). One set of documents were apparently from a base utilized by the ███████████████████ from a base of operations at Tunguska River by Team Helios on a biological weapon mean to be utilized by the organization mentioned above. This facet was reviewed and confirmed with two members of Team Helios, Private ████████ and Support Member █████████. The papers were allegedly stolen by █████████████, a member of the Church. This fact is not proven nor disproven, however, Private ████████ is certain that the Church head is the last person to have had access to these notes. He cannot ascertain if it was passed to different hands.

According to the Private, the Church head is well-known to have performed questionable experiments before, a statement vouched by the laboratories, the Church, and recovered documents. The suspect is now under tighter scrutiny and not to be offered any access to any anomalies.

Now Closing File 4

A/N: Finals are finished! I'm now officially a free man for a month! Not, I have a lot to do during this Winter Break. Don't expect any chapters to be released within the next month or two. Since it has been a bit, I'll let you guys know just some info on what's coming up. This is kinda a pivot chapter.

The team will be splitting up once the Foundation finally enters Kuoh. Well, more specifically, they're walking their separate ways once the Foundation is finished with their business at Kuoh. How many chapters will that be? Not sure. I will end on the Kokabiel arc, and be starting the arc a bit differently than what canon DxD has done.

I would also like to do give a shoutout to Nexus Prime for helping me come up with a few ideas on how to depict the huge problems between the Church and Foundation's preparation methods for containing and/or engaging various SCPs, along with mixing Hero Faction with the Global Occult Coalition and "brand new" anomalies that have not been classified as an SCP yet.

Reviews:

Aquaticmammals: Unlikely I'll use it, but giving it a read, would be a good thing to steal from the Foundation(of course, if you're successful ;P) to use against...anyone basically

BartGirl: You're not supposed to. Per terms of Foundation procedure, if you do, you're to be drowned in most powerful amnestics in their possession. I never said anything, aight? ;)

Guest: Thanks, really appreciate the words of encouragement!

Yup, those numbers are pulled out of my ass, but I am aiming at a very low percentile because of the reasons you have listed. I will include the GOC, for sure. They are very likely to work in tandem with Cao Cao(to work with later), so do look forward to that. And thanks for the 343 suggestion. Opened up so many more paths for me to explore and connect the SCP canon with DxD!

Mogami Kumagawa: Yee buddy! The ball will keep rolling for some time. It won't slow until a while down the road, since the Foundation isn't likely an organization to give you much breaks outside of your normal sleep hours. The forces of Heaven frowning upon SCPs is likely, but I have a whole "lore-like" explanation down the line. Very down the line. They won't approve, but hopefully I'll get to what I mean by saying not everyone in Heaven will disapprove.

Metastable: I have not determined that yet. Most likely when there's that field trip to Kyoto.

Will just say this: SCPs have been around for millenia, and the Great War is no exception.