Part 5 - Blood of the King

Chapter 94 - Glitch

Teresa glared at Max. Gwen was standing by the door, running her fingers along the edge of one of her katanas.

"You realise you've put us in a difficult situation?" Asked the former commander, sitting forward in her chair.

They were aboard a Legion cruiser in 9559 which had been converted into a mobile headquarters of sorts.

"I guess we're even."

"We can't have someone who kills in cold blood as senior director. The PR would be ridiculous."

"Good. I resign, then. Now I can get back to whatever people my age do."

"You don't get out of all this so easily, Maximilian."

Clearly someone had told Teresa that nobody used his full name unless he was in trouble.

"Why not?"

"Because you're a spider person."

"Alright, I quit being Spider-Boy too. You can have my suit back if you want."

"That isn't what I meant. I meant you have powers, and we need them if we want to stand a chance. So, I accept your resignation as senior director but not Spider-Boy."

"Spider people don't kill. That's why Mum isn't one anymore."

Gwen shrugged when Teresa glanced at her. Clearly she agreed.

"Well everyone makes mistakes."

"Sure...everyone makes mistakes...said Hitler's lawyer."

"You aren't Hitler."

"I might be." Gwen added with an emotionless grin.

"No, you just need time in a psychiatric ward. Anyway, we have a mission. Foundation Site-89 suffered a major containment breach. It contains a lot of former Keter class anomalies, so we have to be careful. Conall is coming too, and an elite strike force."

"Yay..." Max muttered sarcastically.

Site-89 was a small one. Everything seemed calm when the two Ares jets touched down, and it remained that way for quite some time. Max knew things must be serious when Teresa had appeared with an assault rifle. He tensed up as Conall kicked down the door and drew a golden sword.

"Stay sharp." Whispered one of the soldiers who took point.

Weapon mounted flashlights were the only light source inside the pitch black halls. Knowing some of the things the Foundation contained, Gwen thought this was set up quite perfectly to be a scene from a horror movie. Everything remained silent as they came to a cross-roads.

"Split up. Gwen, Conall, you take half the squad and go left. Me and Max will take the other." Teresa ordered.

Max wasn't sure he liked this. Teresa took point now, heading right down the cross-roads and down a staircase. She kept her rifle up and her finger on the trigger at all times. Max wished he had more weapons than muscle. What use was that against acid spitting monsters or whatever was down here? Suddenly, there was a horrific shriek that made him shiver. Teresa raised her hand to signal for the team to stop and peered down the corridor. There was another scream, then a voice that made Max's blood run cold.

"Help me! Please!"

"Grace!"

Teresa put an arm out and grabbed him as he made to run towards the sound.

"It's a trap." She whispered.

"They have Grace!"

He broke free and started running.

"No, Max! No!"

The soldiers glanced at each other and Teresa sighed.

"Shit. Gwen's gonna kill me."

"Is it 939?" Asked one of the soldiers.

"That's my best bet."

The voice was getting louder as Max ran closer and closer to the source. He skidded to a halt in front of a broken door from which the sound was coming from and walked inside. He knew he was dead as soon as he saw what had tricked him so easily. Two metres tall, two-hundred and fifty kilograms, red and lot's of teeth: it was all his nightmares in one.

"Oh...there you are." Murmured the single specimen of SCP-939 without moving its mouth.

He turned to try and run, but a second one blocked his exit. The first lunged on him, throwing him to the floor. He yelled out, hoping the squad would rescue him. No help came, just more blood as the creature ripped his arm clean off. Then nothingness as it killed him with a single bite to the neck.

Teresa and Max were on the ground. Neither knew how they got there, nor did the rest of the squad. They had just heard a shriek then they were sitting there. What they all knew was a serious sense of deja vu. Max heard a voice that made his blood run cold.

"Help me! Please!" Grace screamed from somewhere down the corridor.

He took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Is that an SCP?"

"939. Heads up, the Foundation had one-hundred and fifty specimens in containment. I don't know how many are here." Said Teresa.

"How do we deal with them? They're big, red...lot's of teeth...hang on, how do I know that?" Max asked.

"They produce a gas with amnestic properties. It's possible we've been exposed. Keep your guard up and your gas masks on. Load tranqs; bullets won't do anything. And ignore their shouts; they'll lure you in and kill you."

The team advanced slowly, Max held the pistol he had been issued ready. Muscle would be of little use here. The first 939 bounded out of the shadows but skidded to a halt for no apparent reason. It just stood there, staring at them but also not due to its lack of eyes. Two more were standing still a few metres behind it. One of the soldiers tranquilised all three with a single shot each. There was a light at the end of the corridor. The team advanced towards it, turning left into a room. A 939 lay on the ground, completely dissected. Its remains were groaning.

"Please help me." It pleaded.

The team ignored it, staring at the light source. Teresa closed her eyes for a second, then announced a possible Google search:

"This is SCP-3812. It being here explains a lot, although not the breach itself."

"What does it explain?" Asked a soldier.

"How we ended up on the floor, alive, with a sense of deja vu. It changed reality and...yes, it botched it. Anyone else remember, now?"

Max shuddered, suddenly remembering the feeling of his arms being ripped off and the darkness that consumed him as the 939's jaws sank into his neck. Teresa remembered hearing his cry for help. 3812 appeared to be some sort of glowing white orb, floating in the middle of the room.

"What do we do with it?" Asked another soldier.

"Nothing. It's a Thaumiel level entity. When it first entered our narrative, it was a human that slowly went crazy and became this."

"Maybe Mum will turn into a narrative hopping lunatic if she keeps going?" Max joked.

"Yeah...no. 3812, can you hear me?"

The orb seemed to mumble something inaudible.

"We need help putting everything back together. It would save a lot of time if you helped."

More mumbling, then the lights came on. The shredded 939 was gone, the walls and doors were fixed. Everything was back to normal.

"Thank you!"

Gwen raised her eyebrows at her son's account of how he had died.

"Mauled by 939, huh? There's worse ways to go."

"Like..."

"Well, you could venom strike a Kate when there were plenty of other options to be tried."

"Yeah...can't we use the Animator to bring Dad back?"

"After your stunt in 7610, good luck trying to get them to do that."

"Forgot about that..."

"Yes you did."

There was silence for a moment as Gwen drank a glass of water in one go before asking:

"What about this 3812?"

"What about it?"

"It can change reality, right? What if it wiped Khahrahk from existence?"

"I don't know. Apparently it gives you competition for being mentally unstable."

Gwen laughed.

"Wow...must be pretty far gone. Well, since you've died and come back to life, I guess I get to say welcome to the Morales family. It's a tradition."

Max sniggered and grinned.

A few hours went by. Teresa was giving a quick briefing to the directors, Gwen, Max and Conall.

"Every report we have is the same: five containment breaches in five former Foundation facilities. All of them contained specimens of SCP-939, and all of them are missing most. Site-89 contained nineteen; there were only four left. The pattern is the same with the other four: fifteen specimens missing."

"Someone's stealing 939s. That isn't helpful at all with Khahrahk around." Concluded Robert.

"Unless it's Khahrahk stealing them?" Lisa suggested.

"Why would a big red guy want to kidnap not-so-big red guys?" Asked Conall.

"That's the question, I guess."

"The only thing they produce of any value is amnestic gas. The Foundation started using it as a general amnestic but stopped because of a number of incidents of people having severe deja vu before wandering into a den of 939s." Said Teresa.

"Were there any patterns between the breaches? Other than fifteen 939s missing?" Asked Gwen.

Teresa looked down at her iPad.

"There were. All had the same types of damage, all personnel were killed the same way: either by a single or multiple pronged stab wound, or by blunt force. But that doesn't mean much."

Gwen pressed her hand to her chest, morphing off her spider suit which she placed on the table before pulling up her t-shirt a little to reveal a scar on her hip formed of four round marks.

"Pronged stab wounds like this?"

Teresa nodded. Gwen put her suit back on.

"Then it was 096. Single prongs would fit a sword; Khahrahk gave 096 a sword after letting it free from whatever curse the Quintari put on it. Multiple would be its hands which did that to me twenty-five years ago. And blunt force...it's 096."

"It's a sound theory, but we'd need camera footage to confirm it."

"Since it's 096, shouldn't we avoid getting pictures of it?" Asked Max.

"True. I'll sort it out. So, what do we do about it?"

Robert sat forward in his chair and drummed his fingers on the table.

"All 939 specimens are fitted with subdermal trackers. Obviously we use them to locate them and bring them home."

"Like a big red puppy." Murmurred Conall.

"How would 096 carry fifteen 939s?" Asked Lisa.

"I'm guessing it didn't. Khahrahk opened a portal and lured them through then 096 went in to destroy the evidence." Teresa answered.

"But why exactly fifteen?"

"Maybe that was how many they could fit into their 939 processing plant." Suggested Conall.

"Whatever the reason, we need them back. 939s are some of the most dangerous creatures in 9001, and that's saying something. I'll keep you all posted." Said Teresa.

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation