It was just a few hours before Ian would be stuck in a room with SCP-096. At this current moment, a large cube was being unloaded into the testing area, which consisted of a large room, a smaller room and a connecting corridor.

Ian watched nervously as the airtight metal cube was lowered, slowly and gently into the bigger room and out of sight from where he stood in the empty space outside the specially made containment chamber. There were foundation workers bustling about, preparing everything, although no one was in the containment area.

Instead, remote cameras were being used to survey the chambers innards, so that no one had to be inside. And when the box was about to be opened, the cameras could be turned off. This was very beneficial, as the box contained SCP-096.

Ian had concocted a plan to 'rehabilitate' the aptly named shy-guy, but first it had had to be shipped from the secure facility where it was being held. Not that this facility wasn't secure… secure-er facility. It had been moved there for termination, but evidently that had failed. No one was quite sure why it had failed, because most of the staff that had been there had been massacred and the rest had killed themselves in order to be spared from a more gruesome death. This was hardly reassuring to a man who had to get into close quarters with the cause of such havoc. He regularly had to assure himself that this was fine.

Ian had run into doctor Loanyard soon after SCP-096 had arrived. He asked the bespectacled man what had happened and his exact words where. "I don't know. Maybe they didn't use a big enough gun." That was hardly reassuring either.

Ian was roused from his thoughts by a series of loud noises from inside the testing area. There was the sound of thunder in a can, a screeching crash that curdled the bones, and then the most awful scream Ian had ever heard. Everyone in the room froze. Most closed their eyes. He ran to the control room were the two members of staff present looked exceedingly nervous.

"What happened?" he asked trying not to sound as afraid as he was. His Scottish accent made that a little easier, but much of the dulling was done by his numbed mind. The assistant nearest the door, who didn't want to look at the monitor simply said, "something broke." In a rather weedy sounding voice.

He received an exasperated look from Ian 'that's very helpful' was his mental response. The other, who was surveying the cameras answered him while examining the recordings.

"It looks like one of the metal wires attached to the cube snapped up near the winch. The second gave out from the strain, half of the cube has been dropped onto the bottom of the containment chamber and… I assume the screaming was SCP-096." She was somehow both very professional, and utterly blasé.

Ian nodded and moved over to look at the monitor. The assistant's deduction seemed correct. From what Ian could see one half on the cube was indeed on the floor, and the other half was suspended three meters into the air by the remaining two cables.

The competent assistant turned to Ian "What should we do now, Doctor Kyles?"

This caught Ian off guard for a moment, as he almost didn't recognise his second name. Hearing it said like that made him feel both oddly superior and old at the same time.

He cleared his thought and straightened up from where he had leaned down to look at the monitor. "Lower it down all the way."

The first assistant gave him a perplexed look "but what if the bottom is damaged. It could just fall through." They tried not to wimper.

Doctor Kyles thought for a moment. "Just do it. I'm sure it'll hold up better if it's placed down and not dropped… again." This statement was followed by a loud metal groaning which emanated from the winches. The first assistant gulped and picked up a radio to put Ian's order through. He clearly wasn't used to dealing with keters. He couldn't imagine many people were.

The Scot headed out of the control room and surveyed the area. There where various members of staff pottering about. Some looked terrified but others seemed calm. An engineer walked over to him. Ian assumed correctly that it was a damage report.

"Sir, it looks like the floor with held the impact with little structural damage, but there is still some risk that it won't hold. In my opinion, we should call this off to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Ian nodded as he considered the new information. He may have been afraid earlier, but the prospect of calling the experiment off just didn't sit well with him. In some ways, giving up was more frightening than facing 096. He looked back to the engineer and decided that he needed information. "How long will it take to fix?"

The other man looked at the clipboard he was holding. "About three days. We need to check for cracks too, so nothing can bust it open if there's a site containment breach."

Ian shook his head. Then an idea hit him. "Add some temporary support as soon as possible. The other chamber is still intact, so we should just go ahead and move SCP-096 through there as planned."

The technician nodded "I'll get it done." Now this guy was used to taking orders. The technician walked off quickly to get back to work, leaving Ian standing around with nothing to do. He honestly felt a little useless at the moment, even though he was supposedly leading this project. This feeling was soon replaced by nervousness again, as he was informed by a formless voice over the radio that everything was ready to go ahead. He may have spent at least thirty minutes staring at a wall.

A man with a rather large blow-torch, wearing a fire-proof suit had already entered the testing chamber through the one and only entrance. A hole in the ceiling. As he disappeared from sight, Ian noticed the tag on his back. "D-2486". He frowned.

The D-class began to cut a hole in the cube that contained SCP-096. The wait was agonising. All control could tell him was that it was proceeding. This they were told only by a second D-class looking in through the tunnel. That made Ian wince.

The thumbs up were given, but the chamber was left all but sealed by the metal slab still sitting in the wall. Both D's simply made their way out using the climbing harness attached to the entrance.

While this was going on, Ian paced back and forth. Soon he would be the one in there. And there would be nothing between him and it. The doctor decided that the waiting was making him nervous. "I need to do something. I feel unnecessary, just standing about like this." He sighed in frustration. It couldn't hurt to make sure everything else was ready. He practically sprinted to the control room, which was an odd sight as he had been standing still not a moment before.

When he reached the small room, he saw that the cameras had already been turned off, just in case. The competent assistant from earlier turned to her superior as he entered "Everything's going to plan, sir. We just need to move SCP-096 into the second containment chamber."

Ian nodded. "Alright, let's get started."

The assistant nodded in response and looked over the test parameters to check the next stage of the experiment, as written up by Ian.

"You should probably get ready sir." The other assistant pointed out, quite correctly. Ian only nodded before turning and once again bolting off. He slowed to a fast walk as he reached the bottom of a steel staircase which had been put there by the technicians so they could reach the entrance.

Then he stopped, hit by a sudden wave of nausea. His breaths became shaky, and he could feel his heart wriggling frantically in his chest. Calming himself after the small panic attack, as well as he could, he walked up the stairs and onto the top of the larger containment chamber.

There were a few people up there already. A few D-class who appeared to be cleaning up bits of the broken winch systems, two armed guards who were stationed next to the entrance, which had been covered over to prevent accidents, and a few miscellaneous foundation workers. There was also a young man in a lab coat that was obviously here to assist Ian. The young man had to waddle over as he was weighed down by the large bag he had slung over one shoulder. He seemed to be struggling immensely. It was not that big a bag.

"Is everything ready?" Ian asked as the assistant lowered the bag to the floor.

"Yes sir…" he replied in a winded voice. Ian simply nodded before kneeling down on the floor and pulling the bag closer to him. He unzipped it quickly and checked over the contents. It's ridiculous, ridiculous contents…

- 1 large pillow

- 2 Blankets

- 1 large jumper

- 5 energy bars

- 2 bottles of water

- 1 large fabric bag

- 1 meter of string

- 1 large torch

- 4 spare batteries

It was a rather mediocre selection of items in all fairness, but it was everything he had asked for. Being in charge had its perks.

He nodded as he surveyed his haul for a second time, just to be sure. He felt a little better now knowing that everything was properly prepared. Scooping up the bag and standing up, Ian addressed his assistant again. "Alright, let's get started."

The other man simply nodded and headed of down the stairs to start the experiment. After watching him leave, the newly appointed doctor took a deep breath to steady his mind.

He wandered over to the entrance to the chamber, only to be approached by two more workers who promptly helped him into a harness. Once again he felt a little awkward as the two men fastened straps around him and tightened them. Thinking about it like that made him feel even more awkward. All of a sudden, he felt glad that he wouldn't be observed while he was with SCP-096. He worked better alone.

While Ian was being felt up by two very stoic men, the assistant who had talked to him only a few minutes before had run back down the stairs and round the side of the first containment chamber.

He simply nodded to the foundation workers standing finishing final details for the first part of the experiment. They nodded back, and promptly completed their work before heading off to clear the area of personnel. Now that everything was in place, the workers set Dr Kyles's plans into action.

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dear Dino2000,

... are you challenging me?

.

What can I say, I'm a simple dude. I aim to please. Do me a favour and ask again in like... a month... I will post again... maybe...