Act Four: New Allies…?

Day Two

Site Director's Office, Site-17, [REDACTED]

10:00 AM

"...thank you, Dr. Bailey. This matter is certainly pressing, but alas, we are still restricted by our 'primitive' technology. However, your expertise is certainly appreciated, and I hope for the safe re-containment of SCP-105 and the recovery of our agent..." and with that Director Moose ended the video call with a heavy sigh.

She just got off a secured video call with Trevor Bailey (she thought?), head of the Department of Extra-Universal Affairs or Multi-U for short. Basically, she asked him point blank if there is a chance to at least locate where the...SCPs and Agent Lu has ended up. And he replied with...no. Unfortunately, the Foundation may be able to contain eldritch beings but no inter-dimensional GPS tracker. But the department will give a heads-up if they did find something.

Tilda had Maya type up a report for the containment breach of 105, the sudden changes in 507's abilities and the loss of Junior Agent Lu to be sent to O5 Command and Site-19. Aside from that, there is nothing that she can do aside from hoping that Site-87 can do what they do best: exploring the multitude of parallel worlds and alternate realities...

Day Four

Somewhere in rural Bumfuck, Ursus

8:00 PM

The "deer" girl who calls herself Firewatch (a weird name to be sure) was scanning her surroundings as Lu got some brief shuteye while Steve and Iris were talking with her. They were taking shelter in an old abandoned barn on the remains of a once-vibrant field. The campfire lit from the scrap wood and some firestarter from Lu's survival book-kits (which nearly got torn by the bandits they encountered back in the woods) burned brightly but was hidden from view. The smoke slowly rose towards the starry black sky, with the crescent moon continuing its eternal movement around...Earth? Or Terra?

It can get quite confusing.

Iris noticed that Firewatch seemed...content? Like a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders and she could now finally breathe. She didn't talk much during their two-day hike through the nation known as Ursus. They passed gray lifeless hills pockmarked with black, crystalline and jagged rocks that might be what the Terrans call "Originum", contrasted by lush valleys teeming with plantlife and avoided villages and large cities due to the risk of being ousted. Carol back in Dewville had told them about the proud Ursus people and how recently they started to treat outsiders as beneath them. That is not even including the Infected who had it worse.

Much worse.

Iris wanted to document the rather strange yet interesting terrain, but Lu ordered her to save her Polaroid for emergencies, in case they needed to use her abilities. Thus, Steve meticulously recorded their observations both with his camera and Lu's phone to record audio logs. That was fine.

She hasn't used what made her an SCP in the first place ever since the incident.

She shouldn't think about it now.

Then Iris noticed that Firewatch took out what looked like a harmonica and started playing a soft tune. The melody was a bit...longing? Yet hopeful? Nevertheless, the beautiful music flowed through the barn and into the night...it reminded her of home, of her family that she would never see aga-

Iris shook her head. She can't start now. Not here.

Anyways, the harmonica was reaching its zenith as even the sleeping Lu woke up at first confused but then seemed to sigh with relief when he saw that it was Firewatch playing. Then the music slowly faded away as the Operator finishes playing.

"That, was amazing," praised Steve. "Where did you, uhh, learn to play it?"

"My village usually spends their free time with music when they are not hunting and bartering with other nearby villages; especially during periods of good fortune..." Firewatch drifted off with a thousand-yard stare in her eyes. "I just don't want to talk about it."

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No."

The group went quiet.

"Well, I don't know if I should be revealing this to you all but YOLO, I guess. I have a younger sister. Damn brilliant. Currently taking her PhD on biotechnology in Stanford. Nice girl you know. Thing is, ever since our parents died...we kinda...drifted apart. I don't know what will happen next. But I know one thing: I ain't dying without fixing our relationship." Lu opened up with a grim face.

"What's her name?" Steve asked.

"Gwen. Wonder why my first name's not Ben..." joked Lu as the trio laughed at the reference.

Firewatch's face showed no sign of emotion.

"Ooh, feeling a bit hungry. Let me get some food," Lu absentmindedly said as he took his food-book and pulled out a box of Pocky's. He was about to eat it when he noticed Steve and Iris looking at him like he just breached a Keter-class. He was about to ask "What?" when he realized his mistake: he just pulled out an object. From a flat book. In front of an Terran. AND warned by Steve to NOT do it.

"Well, just kill me now," he thought as the only change in Firewatch is a slight rising of her eyebrows and a tiny widening of her eyes. Lu only barely noticed because he immediately looked at her direction when he screwed up.

He immediately coughed, put the book away and opened the box, then offered two each to the others.

Firewatch sighed then asked, "Do you want to know what happened to my village? I suddenly have an urge to talk."

"Uhh, sure; you can but you can stop if you start to feel uncomfortable."

" Well, most of us have become part of the forest, all because to that wretched rebel baron...I will always remember that name: Casimir. Too bad when I finally found him; he was only a shadow of himself, there is no satisfaction in ending a pathetic wreck's life. But vengeance is still vengeance, and I pray that all my late friends and family are at peace...they were caught off-guard and slaughtered like sheep...Chief Humar...Pegla...Ermos...the others...and I was too weak to stop their deaths. But they have been avenged now...I hope."

The trio were silent. It was quite some heavy stuff.

"And that's why my codename is Firewatch. It's the name of my village."

8:10 PM

"Damn, that is-" Lu stopped with his face scrunched as he swiftly grabbed his rifle, got up and briskly walked outside. Iris and Steve were alarmed as Firewatch also followed Lu outside.

"Thought I saw a flash of red..." Lu whispered to Firewatch. His finger was on the trigger and it was itching.

"Red? Then that can mean only one thing," Firewatch replied calmly.

"Wait, the fuck do you mean?" Lu was confused.

"They have found me. S.W.E.E.P."

"S.W-gah!" cried Lu as a small, red-clad person slammed into him from above. His gun was pinned underneath his body along with his arms.

Lu tried to turn his head around but then felt a cold and sharp blade on his neck. But from the corner of his eyes, he could see that it...or rather, she looked barely fourteen with wolf ears on her head as well as...human ears? The hell? And how is she pinning 140 pounds of him down?!

"Don't move," she said in a cold voice.

Then another person popped out of the nearby shrubs. Another female from the looks of her chest. This time, she seems to be based on a rat judging from her ears and long, thin tail. She was dressed in black and gray and has a ridiculously large sword behind her back.

She walked up to them and asked to Firewatch, "Operator Firewatch. Dr. Kal'ist does not take kindly to people who go AWOL but consider yourself lucky that it was a retrieval order, not a kill order."

Then she looked down to the pinned down Lu. He smiled back at her with all of the dignity he could muster.

"And seems like you decided to bring along strays, eh?"

Author's Note: Author's note: School just smashed my schedule so forgive the late upload. As for the next Act...hmm...