A/N : Hello again everyone and welcome to next chapter in my fic I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! As usual criticism is wanted, in case you spot anything that could be improved upon.
The lobby was humming with activity as Chevalier entered the PRT building causing all attention to be turned to him, most of it from the group of visiting tourists. They all began to surround him, smiling and cheering, taking photos and asking for autographs. Security noticed this and stepped in and pulled them away from him, he gave them a slight wave as he walked past.
He crossed the room moving around the people who were walking about and approached the front desk.
"Good evening, Chevalier!" The woman said with a bright smile on her face.
"Good evening," Chevalier responded, "The director asked me to give these to you when I came in today," he said, handing the woman the papers.
She took them with the same smile plastered on her face. "Great, I'll get these all sorted!"
Chevalier thanked the girl and headed off to the left side of the room, entering the elevator and pressing the button for the fourth floor.
Upon exiting the elevator, he was greeted with Adamant sitting at a nearby desk, his helmet lying on it.
Chevalier approached him; getting closer, he was able to see that the helmet was badly cracked and battle damaged and bits of metal were placed beside it. Adamant picked up a small piece of metal and began to form it into the helmet. Chevalier also noticed a few bruises and cuts that decorated his face.
"I see your fight with Abolish didn't go too well" Chevalier said playfully.
"Bastard got the drop on me; won't happen again."
"We'll see about that." Chevalier said, slightly chuckling.
Adamant chuckled, "Hey, fuck off," before filling in the remaining crack in his helmet.
"Legend back yet?"
"No, still meeting with Alexandria and Eidolon."
"I assume he won't be joining us then?"
"Yeah, makes you wonder what they're talking about that they can't tell us. Can't help but feel that we're being kept in the dark about something big, you know?"
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean," he said solemnly "but whatever it is, I'm sure it's for the best."
Adamant nodded before picking up his helmet and donning it, following alongside Chevalier afterwards. They continued through the room passing the many cubicles and dividers until they got to the door of the meeting room.
Opening the door greeted them with a large room with a round table placed in the middle. At the head of the table sat Director Wilkins, alongside him sat Astrologer, Cache, Clay, and Ursa Aurora.
The director noticed the pair and greeted them. "Ah, Chevalier, Adamant, please take a seat."
Adamant went towards the last available chair and took a seat leaving Chevalier standing.
Cache noticed this and used his power, causing a spread of dark lines to form at the free edge of the was followed by glassy black material that formed together with the lines and then disappeared, leaving behind a chair.
Chevalier took his cannonblade off his back and placed it on the floor beside him before seating himself; he removed his helmet as well and brushed aside his dirty blonde hair before turning his attention to the director.
"I apologize, but Legend and Prism will not be joining us today for they have other pressing matters that they are tending to. Despite their absence, we still have important subjects to discuss," he turned his attention to Adamant before speaking again, "Adamant, were you able to get a read on Abolish during your recon yesterday?"
"Yes, I wasn't able to get much on him aside from the fact that he seems to be based near the outskirts of Albany and was strong enough to crack my armor in a few hits. He seemed to be moving faster than the average person and was cunning enough to ambush me."
"Alright, we will have Albany pinpointed as a location of interest for him. As for his classifications, I believe it is reasonable to believe he is Brute 4, Mover 2, and possible Thinker. Good work," He took a sip of his water before continuing,"Cache, Clay, how have city repairs been going?"
Clay spoke up, "Clean up phase has been completed for a while now so we can fully
focus on repairs."
"Excellent! How long would you say until we are eighty percent repaired?"
Cache chimed in this time, "If things continue at the rate they are now, perhaps about three to four months, maybe less."
"Great, Dragon has come up with some schematics for counter measures, should we need them in the future, I want you to work on installing those once you've gotten to that eighty percent mark. Hopefully, they should be able to hamper the damage of another en—"
He paused as his phone vibrated in his pocket, all notifications were not allowed to be let through his phone during a meeting unless they were considered high priority. He pulled the device out of his pocket, his eyes widening as he read the notification.
He looked around the room, his eyes stopping on Chevalier as he spoke. "Containment breach at Site 12, Prism's and Raymancer's locations are unknown and at least 4 others dead. I want you out there to survey what happened and lend a hand if they need it."
"I'll need a team." Chevalier replied.
"Take Ursa Aurora and Astr—"
The voice of Adamant spoke up saying, "Take me."
"After your recent confrontation with Abolish, I don't think it's a good idea for you to be out in the field again so soon."
"I'll be fine, I'll be able to help with repairs if nothing else."
The Director relented, "Okay, but I would feel better about it if I had Astrologer join you as well."
"That's fine, we'll head to the Tower immediately."
"Good, remember to update every fifteen minutes, if you can, so we can verify your safety; we can't risk anymore losses."
With that, Chevalier equipped his helmet and strapped his cannonblade back on, exiting the meeting room with the other three capes following alongside him to the elevator going down to the main lobby.
They stopped out of the elevator and began moving towards the front door of the PRT building, the sun rays lightly trickling in from the giant windows besides the front doors.
The tourists that were still there didn't approach the heroes this time, instead opting to stay back and take pictures as the heroes hurried past them, through the lobby and outside of the building.
The four heroes arrived in Lower Manhattan directly below the twin skyscrapers.
Chevalier scanned the area, noticing that the leftmost tower was in better shape compared to the right one whose entrance was blocked by massive amounts of debris. They turned left, to the lesser most ruined tower, and entered through its front doors.
The interior was surprisingly untouched by the mass of fires and lightning bolts that had riddled the exterior of its frame. It was vacant with no signs of life anywhere, free of clutter minus the occasional floor sweeper and spray bottle.
The four walked near the front desk before taking a right and going behind it and entering a service elevator. Pressing the button caused the elevator to descend— at a faster rate than what was considered to be normal, possibly due to the heavy weight of the hero's gear.
The elevator doors opened to a basement floor, that much larger than the one at the PRT building. They exited and crossed from one end to the other, getting into a similar elevator, ascending this time to the lobby of the second, less intact tower.
The contrast between the lobby of the leftmost tower and this one was night and day. While the other tower's lobby had been for the most part clean and intact, this one was the exact opposite. The front desk that was cemented into the floor had been ripped from its foundation and was crumpled into a pile of rubble. The floor morbidly matched it, the tiles having been shattered and scorched from the massive amount of seismic activity and flames that plagued it. The once new furniture that had once decorated the lobby was now broken and scattered throughout the remainder of the floor.
"Wow, Behemoth really did a number on this place." Adamant commented.
"Fuck, I'll say," Astrologer responded.
Chevalier paused upon seeing the room, he had participated in the first attack of the Endbringer on New York but this time around it was much worse. That day would never leave him, witnessing the familiar buildings from his past crumble as the forty-five foot goliath trampled through them. The good people of his city flee for their lives, the majority of them not making it.
He pushed the thoughts aside. "Let's keep moving," he said, approaching the stairs of the building.
"Wait," Ursa Aurora called out as she pressed the call elevator button, "Repairs have been fully completed for the elevators thanks to Clay and Cache."
"Great," Chevalier responded, allowing the others to enter into the elevator before stepping into it himself.
The doors opened to the top floor of the tower: it was taller than the rest, about the height of three normal floors combined. The floor was clean, unlike the rest of the building.
PRT officers and scientists littered the area: some wheeled carts packed to the brim with big boxes labeled with various colors of tape in order to signify a certain type of material within them.
In the middle of the room were four waist-high consoles, each manned by at least two scientists. Wires jutted out from the rear of each console and met up and connected to the top of the machine that the consoles surrounded. The center of the big machine held a large two dimensional oval; looking through it showed the interior of a building different than either of the towers.
The lead researcher approached the group. "Chevalier, it is great to see you and your team," she said, extending a hand out towards the hero.
Chevalier took the hand, shaking it, "Dr. Grazin, it's always a pleasure."
"No, no, the pleasure is all mine, I assure you," she said with a smile, "I assume you're here to deal with the containment breach?"
"You'd be correct on your assumption, Doctor."
"Great! Here, you'll need these in order for us to receive clear communications from Earth Aleph to Earth Bet." She returned to her desk and fished out a set of four armbands, giving them to the capes.
Each of the four took the armbands and placed them on top of their wrists.
"Dragon's design?" Astrologer asked.
"Yes, however, these aren't like the ones you're used to using during Endbringer attacks. These are specifically programmed for communication relay only — it needs to be in order to transport signals over such a vast distance — so don't rely on your usual methods should things spiral into a less favorable outcome. We don't have many of them, so we have to use them sparingly for situations of high importance.
"Thank you Doctor." Chevalier responded.
"No problem."
As she finished speaking, the people manning the consoles quickly fiddled with the controls, each in unison with the others' movements. This caused the image of the portal to start shifting and churning until it became clear again, revealing another room that was still in the process of being built, metal lining basically every wall that could be seen.
"There are two agency helicopters that will take you to the Site; it shouldn't take more than five minutes." The doctor said.
Chevalier nodded at this before stepping through the portal to Earth Aleph.
The other side of the portal led to the interior of an agency headquarter. Personnel soon gathered around the heroes, leading them outside the facility and to the landing pads.
Chevalier along with Astrologer and four armed personnel took position in one helicopter, leaving Adamant and Ursa Aurora to take the other helicopter along with five armed personnel.
Chevalier took his cannonblade off of his back before sitting and placed it on the top of his lap. The helicopter began to ascend, hovering above the ground before gaining more height and flying off towards Site 12.
The helicopter landed on a landing pad that was made inside of a dense forest, allowing for the pad and the facility next to it to be almost completely hidden from the air.
Barbed wire fences on the perimeter of the facility blocked it off from the public, labeling it as a government facility.
Chevalier stepped out of the helicopter alongside Astrologer and assessed the facility. A large hole was noticeable on the far right of the gates, the metal having been bent and ripped. Looking towards the facility, he could see it was made entirely of concrete, painted a dark gray. It was clearly meant to withstand a possible attack, making it all the more worrisome that the thing had been able to break out.
The heroes had all gotten out of the helicopters and Chevalier noticed a medical assistant treating a young boy inside a nearby ambulance. Despite the boy's mask being off, Chevalier was able to make out who it was from the remaining armor left on his body. It was Gallant; his face was heavily bruised, with a gash running across the top of his forehead, which the medical worker was attempting to patch up.
Chevalier approached the worker, leaving his teammates behind, still looking over the area.
She looked up as he approached, knowing what he was going to ask. "He'll be fine: we got to him fast enough to ensure no major injuries could occur. He will most likely have a scar though."
Chevalier nodded. He had seen many heroes and villains injured or dead in the battles he had fought, but it was always the children in those situations that upset him. He looked to his left seeing Jouster talking to an MTF squadron. Chevalier approached him and Jouster turned to meet him.
"What happened?" Chevalier asked.
"There was a containment breach and we went to capture the escapee. We had him contained for a while, but Gallant got injured so I went to take him outside under Prism's orders. Next thing I know, as I was about to reach the entrance, the thing ran past me and broke through the door and the gate. I guess it was able to break out of the containment foam."
"And Prism?"
"I… I don't know. Last time I saw her, she was going to check out the other end of the building, took Raymancer with her."
"Thank you," Chevalier said. He began walking away then stopped. "You did good Jouster. If it wasn't for you, Gallant might not be as stable as he is now."
Jouster nodded as Chevalier returned back to his squad and entered the building. Upon entering, he noticed the corpses of two personnel lying in the middle of the hallway.
"Prism and Raymancer are still inside, possibly injured or worse. Adamant, Astrologer, I want you two to find the higher ups and figure out what other damage has occurred. Ursa Aurora and I will look for Prism and Raymancer."
"On it, Chevy!" Astrologer said before walking off, following the signs that pointed the way to the main office; Adamant followed alongside her.
Chevalier led Ursa down the hallway that contained the dried bloody footprints. The two of them followed the footprints until they got to a forked path, continuing down the one the footprints faded off into. They walked until they noticed four figures crouched around something further down the hallway, along with a tarp wrapped around something lying on the floor just down from the group.
They approached the four who were crouching, noticing the medical symbol embroidered onto the shoulder of the one nearest to them. They quickened their pace and saw who they were surrounding. It was Prism, face up, as pale as a ghost, eyes closed but still breathing.
Chevalier was almost happy to see this but looked down at her body. Her legs had been cut off below the knee: one had already been cauterized, the workers doing the same to the other.
He looked up at what was ahead of them and noticed the bodies of several PRT officers and Personnel strewn about in a bloody mess.
He tensed. Remembering the tarp just behind him, he walked back over to the tarp, leaving Ursa still looking at the wounded Prism.
He lifted the tarp and was greeted with the body of Raymancer beneath it, his throat having been ripped open and his stomach half disemboweled.
He froze, eyeing the body, regretting the fact that he wasn't here to do anything. A few seconds passed before Ursa approached from behind him, covering the deceased Raymancer and putting a hand on Chevalier's shoulder.
She whispered to him, "Let's regroup with the others."
Chevalier nodded and followed her back down the hall they had come from.
Chevalier and Ursa headed towards the main office, meeting Adamant and Astrologer half way.
"Did you find Prism and Raymancer?" Adamant asked.
"Yes," Chevalier responded, his tone somber and quiet, "Prism is alive but critically injured. As for Raymancer, he… didn't make it."
Ursa took Chevalier's silence afterwards as her turn to speak. "We believe this was the work of The Slaughterhouse Nine, based on the way the officers and personnel had been killed."
"Fucking hell! The Nine on Aleph?" Astrologer asked.
"Looks like it," Chevalier responded. "Did you two get information on any other events that occurred?"
"Yes we did. 082 was the one who escaped during his transfer," Adamant said.
"The Cannibal, right?" Ursa asked.
Adamant nodded and continued, "Thermite was deployed to destroy the remainder of 307 due to its massive growth during the breach. SCPs 991, 513, and 997 are all missing from containment. As for The Cannibal, he hasn't been seen anywhere. Signs of him have seemingly disappeared into the woods: no footprints, broken branches, nothing.
An alert sounded on the armband as a message popped up on its screen, reading, "SCP 082 spotted in Madison, Wisconsin."
"How the fuck?!" Astrologer shouted.
"Madison is hundreds of miles from here. How the hell did it get there so fast?"
Chevalier spoke up, "We'll figure that out later, right now we need to get there and contain that son of a bitch! Adamant, you stay here and help with any repairs. The rest of us will head to Madison."
Adamant accepted the order and the other three heroes ran to the entrance of the facility.
Chevalier spoke into his armband as he ran, "We need a portal to Madison, Wisconsin on Earth Aleph by the time we get back to HQ!"
The armband responded, "Request Accepted, Chevalier."
The trio busted through the entrance and boarded the helicopters, taking off faster than before.
Chevalier was out of the helicopter before it fully landed, the two heroines following behind him. He entered the building, stopping at the portal and turning his head to the Scientist that was at the console.
"Wisconsin?"
The scientist nodded. Chevalier waited for the other two heroes to catch up before entering through the portal.
He appeared in the middle of a shopping district, Astrologer and Ursa Aurora coming out just seconds later. The screams of nearby civilians echoed throughout the nearby area along with the sound of distorted laughter.
The portal closed the instant the heroes were through, giving Chevalier a clear view of the creature. It was taller than what he had remembered of it in the pictures and documents, much more deformed and muscular as well.
The cannibal stood on the sidewalk, the corpses of several others strewn around the area. He was clutching a young man with dark hair in his hand. The boy struggled, but despite his athletic build, he was not able to budge out of the cannibal's grip.
Chevalier grabbed his cannon blade, which grew as he aimed it at the leg furthest from the arm that held the boy. He pressed the trigger as it finished growing, firing a cannonball from the weapon.
The Cannibal noticed this and moved, much faster than it should have been able to, whipping the boy he held into the path of cannonball.
Ursa Aurora attempted to create a force field between the projectile and the boy, but she was too late.
The projectile shattered the boy's body on impact while continuing through the air, albeit at a slower momentum, hitting the cannibal in the chest and knocking the wind out of him.
The cannibal knelled to the ground before tearing the door off a nearby car and hurling it at the trio.
Ursa Aurora made a force field, stopping the car door in midair before it could strike them.
Chevalier readied his cannonblade, aimed and fired another shot, while Astrologer sent down a fireball from the projectiles slammed into the creature at nearly the same time: Chevalier's hitting it in the chest while Astrologer's hit it on the head.
It went down slamming its face into the ground, Chevalier still had his weapon aimed at the creature, contemplating to shoot it again, before calming down and lowering it.
He spoke into the armband again. "We need officers wielding containment foam and a transfer vehicle as soon as possible."
It responded "Affirmative."
Chevalier struggled with aiding the Personnel in carrying the Cannibal into the transfer vehicle. It was sprayed with containment foam upon being placed in the middle of the vehicle's rear compartment.
After finishing, he stared at the corpses which were now placed into a nearby building, the blood that had been on the sidewalk earlier was now washed off. The car that had been destroyed was now loaded into another transfer vehicle alongside a crumpled wheelchair.
Gaze still fixed on the scene, he asked, "Does this really have to be the way? It doesn't seem ethical."
"I'm aware of the uncertainty you may be feeling, but this is what needs to be done to ensure that our corporation is kept secret," Dr. Grazin said.
Chevalier nodded slowly as the doctor flicked her lighter open and lit it, placing its flame onto the gasoline that had been spread through the interior of the building, setting it aflame.
"Come on," Dr Grazin said. "Let's get out of here before the amnestic gas starts up."
A portal opened up and the PRT Officers and Personnel stepped through it, the doctor and the heroines following afterwards. Chevalier stood at its entrance. He waited a few seconds, swearing he felt the slightest strain in his power, when the feeling didn't come back he made his way through the portal.
The transfer vehicles sped off afterwards. Within a minute, gas started seeping from nearby sewer vents, toilets, sinks, and sprinklers. It swept throughout the area, causing every person who inhaled it to have total loss of memory from the events that had occurred within the past half an hour.
On the corner of the shopping center however, stood two teenagers: a small white-skinned girl with long, straight brunette hair and a tan-skinned boy of average height with long, dark hair. The emotion plastered on their faces was a mix between devastation and hatred as they stood on the corner, watching the fire.
A/N: Thank you to all those who read through this chapter! Like I said last time there will be a delay for the next chapter because of life getting in the way and the fact that I want to get certain things right for both the Worm and SCP fandoms. Requests for SCPs to implement are still wanted so if you have one you would like to see the comment it down and who knows maybe it'll show up!