Chapter 21
Back in the world where Louis belonged…
Venus sighed as she put down the pen in her hand.
People say that you won't know to cherish something unless you lose it. For her & the class, that something was Louis, John, Lucas, Gabriel and Hank.
"Thinking about them again?" a familiar voice asked.
"Yup." Venus sighed as she turned to face Cindy, her longtime friend.
Cindy had been Venus's BF ever since primary school. They read the same books, watch the same anime and movies, and are so close that someone might as well mistake them for sisters. They wound up in the same middle school, and also on the same class.
"Yeah, I never realized it before, but Louis was actually a rather nice person."
"Me too. I kind of miss his jokes on English class."
"Yeah, but what's the use anyway?" Venus stared out of the window. "Dead people won't come back."
"WHO TOLD YOU THEY WERE DEAD?"
Venus jumped at the disembodied voice.
"Cindy, was that-?"
"I hear it too." Cindy frowned. She looked around, but saw no one in sight.
"CURIOUS WHO I AM?" The voice chuckled.
"Um…"
"LET ME TELL YOU A FEW THINGS FIRST. ONE, I AM NOT TECHNICALLY ANYONE. I AM A KIND OF BEING THAT YOU MAY CALL 'GOD', THOUGH IN TRUTH, I AM THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF ALL THE GREAT MINDS OF HISTORY. SECOND, YOUR CLASSMATES – THOSE FIVE BOYS – DID NOT DIE. THEY REMAIN ALIVE, AND BETTER THAN YOU WILL EVER SEE, IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE. THIRD, I HAVE MANY POWERS, AND TECHNICALLY, I CAN SEND YOU TO THEM."
"You're toying with me."
"OH, ARE YOU SO SURE?"
Venus hesitated. She kind of missed Louis, and going where he went couldn't be too much of a problem. But her parents…
"DON'T WORRY. TIME IS MUCH FASTER IN THE OTHER UNIVERSE THEN IN HERE. 1 YEAR IN THERE IS ONLY EQUAL TO 3 MONTHS HERE."
Venus looked at Cindy, who shrugged.
"Who knows? Maybe."
"GOOD. TRANSPORT IN 3…2…1…ON."
And all of a sudden, Venus felt as if she'd lost control of her own form. Then, all went black.
When Venus came to, she found herself floating in an infinite, white void. She looked down, and saw that her body was intact. Not even the clothes changed.
Then, another figure came into existence next to her. It was Cindy.
"What the…?" Venus muttered. She never did anything like drugs or alcohol, but nothing really stopped her from questioning her own sanity.
"OH, AND AS A LITTLE SURPRISE, I HAVE MANAGED TO BRING IN SOME OTHER FRIENDS OF YOUR OWN." The ancient voice chuckled. "AH, HERE THEY ARE."
And multiple figures that Venus were all too familiar with appeared. There was Lydia & Chris, the second pair of sister-like BFFs; Sofia, the girl who can never stay awake through a class; Elizabeth, Sofia's friend who loves jokes and wants to be 'a monkey'; Steffy, the morals representative and Hank's longtime friend; Eva, a quiet girl who doesn't interact much with the class; Amy (ssh), the Chinese class representative, and Cathy, or 'jjx' (Chinese name abbreviation).
The girls stared at each other.
"What is going on in-?" Cathy attempted to speak.
"CUT IT." The disembodied voice made everyone cringe.
"NOW, I WILL SHOW YOU RECORDINGS OF WHAT YOUR SUPPOSEDLY 'DECEASED' FRIENDS HAVE BEEN DOING."
And the scene shifted. Suddenly, the girls were standing on an airfield runway. Overhead, the night sky was covered by clouds. Countless alarm sirens were wailing in the background, and there were units all around the runway: AA machine gun emplacements, cannons, antiair tanks and gun batteries. All were firing off their payload into the sky.
A deafening roar made the girls turn. A WWII era propeller plane was rolling out of a shed, the white star of the U.S bright on its side. Its nose propeller spun, and the plane began to pick up speed. Meanwhile, more planes were emerging from the facilities.
The surrounding changed once more. They were standing in the middle of an abandoned street, with crumbling concrete structures on each side. Then, a grinding noise came as a light tank came down the road with several soldiers around it, the tank field-green and carrying an emblem: a lightning bolt over a blue star, placed on a white shield with a ribbon bearing the words 'Saunders'.
The roar of gunfire pulled the teenagers back to attention. And on the cue, a soldier in front was knocked down as four plumes of bloody mist burst from his torso. A stream of flame flew into the men, and all were slain by the bullets. The light tank fired a round in the direction of the gunfire, but was immediately destroyed as a rocket broke its armor and blew up within, turning the vehicle to a burning wreck.
From the direction where the attacks came, a boy walked out solemnly, holding a pistol in his hand. A soldier pulled up and attempted to shoot, only to receive a bullet to the head, killing the man instantly.
The girls gasped.
The boy was Louis. But he had changed.
Louis was thinner than they last saw him, and taller. He wore a set of very strange clothes: a grey tunic coat outside a white shirt, along with grey pants, black boots, a grey helmet and several belts. He had a submachine gun hanging by his side, and the holster for his pistol was on his belt, along with several grenades and a bunch of other casings for who knows what. But one thing was sure: this was definitely a military uniform of some sort.
But the biggest change was his expression. They had never seen anything like that on his face before: it spelled grim determination, with a streak of cruelty, mercilessness and sadism.
The scene shifted again.
Now, they were standing on the hind of a huge tank. The vehicle had its turret turned dead ahead and its gun slightly raised. The turret in front of them was a large, rough hemisphere, with several indents and hatches on top. The hatch on the left had a weird weapon on it: a series of small cannons mounted on a shield-like piece of metal. Far away in the front, smaller outlines of other tanks can be made out.
Then, one of the hatches popped open, and out came Louis.
He gripped the weapon on the top of the turret, pulled the trigger, and streams of flame thundered out of the cannons' barrels.
KABOOM!
The girls flinched as the tank's gun sounded. And their perspective shifted again, following the shell as it flew out of the muzzle, enveloped in flame and smoke. It flew across the plain, and rammed itself into an enemy tank: an M4A1 Sherman, from the history books.
The enemy formation fired off their own guns, and countless shells exploded against Louis's tank, yet none did any visible damage. The tank fired once more, overturning 2 more Shermans. Then, the feed cut.
"WELL?" The mysterious voice asked, "HOW DO YOU FEEL?"
"What the hell…" was all Venus managed to get out.
"NOW, THE TIME HAS COME. REMEMBER, BE MODEST, BE CAREFUL, BE BRAVE AND BE NOBLE."
And reality bent and warped around the girls, and then, all went black.
Back in present time…
I stared, utterly confused, at my old class monitor.
"Well, umm," Venus said, trying to break the tension, "good to see you again?"
"Guess so."
Bang-bang-bang!
"Son of a-!"
I swore and wheeled around, raising my gun as the enemy soldier attempted to raise his AK-17 for another salvo. Of course, I didn't give him a chance.
"Is this… a bad time?" Venus asked, in a small voice.
"Very." I kicked over a nearby enemy corpse and pulled the man's SC-2010 out of his grip before examining it.
Hmm. ACOG scope, grenade launcher, muzzle brake and extended mags. Would do.
"Here." I tossed the bulk of a weapon into Venus's arms. "You guys do your own business for a while."
"Can't you-?"
"Hey, someone has to save the rest of our campus. Relax, I'll be totally fine."
And I dashed off into the fight.
…
Venus stared in utter confusion, first in the direction Louis went, and then at her new gun.
Great. How do I even use this thing?
She decided that maybe she should wake the others up first. She managed to, after a while, some weird sleep-talk, and a lot of confusion and explanations.
"Okay, let me get this straight." Cindy deadpanned, "he just threw you a gun and let you defend yourself?"
"I feel screwed." Cathy admitted, fingering a handgun (Note to readers: MP-443 GRACH) she picked up.
Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta !
Venus floored herself as a stream of machine gun fire swooped over the girls' heads. She quickly got back up, raising the rifle in her hands with some effort.
And found herself staring into the face of an enemy soldier, holding a knife.
The soldier lunged.
The girl screamed.
Her hand pulled the trigger.
The rifle cracked repeatedly.
And the man fell to the floor, stun written on his face, jets of blood flying out of him.
…
Venus stared in stun at the gun in her hands.
Did I really…
"THAT'S HOW IT'S MEANT TO BE."
She winced.
"THIS IS THE BATTLEFIELD. RULE NO.1: IT'S YOU, OR IT'S THEM. NO MERCY, NO ETHICAL UTOPIAS, JUST BLOODY TRUTH. GET USED TO IT, LITTLE GIRL."
So, this is how it's meant to be…
Venus closed her eyes. When they reopened, they were different, glinting with a steely, determined look, and shining like twin, brilliant stars.
Well, life finds a way, so why not me?
Venus lifted her gun, and walked away, calm and tranquil like never before.
…
"So, she's passed the bend." Andrew commented.
I nodded.
"Never imagined Venus to be the person to wield a gun, though."
"Hey, I would be laughing my head off if someone told me I was going to wind up like this back in our world." He chided.
Suddenly, something pricked in the back of my head. I get that feeling whenever things are about to go really wrong. At the same time, my phone beeped again.
Emergency situation.
Administrator operations:
Unlock: "Terror" magical tree
Unlock power: Abyssale Flammen
Unlock skill: Teleportation
Unlock skill: Pandemonium (Tier I)
Unlock skill: JAWS AND CLAWS (Tier I)
Warning: Ace enemies incoming
Nightmare-Class Objectives:
1: Defeat the new enemies
2: Convince them to follow you
At that moment, a huge jolt surged through me. Then, my right hand erupted in a ball of flame, only, it was not red, but as dark as the death of night, giving off an aura of dread and despair.
"Okay, something must be fucked up."
"ALBERICH!" Xu pretty much roared through the intercom.
"Yikes! What!?"
"There's a weird squadron of beings joining the party in here! Something's very wrong with them! You have to stop them!"
"Shit. Coming!" I cursed, and broke into a sprint with Andrew by my side.
But we barely ran for 3 meters before-
"Go to SLEEP!"
"What?"
And Andrew yelped in shock and fear, pointing to a nearby balcony.
Perched on the railing was a … teenager. But he looked incredibly unsettling. His white hoodie was spattered with splotches of crimson, and his face was deathly pale, forming a sharp contrast to his coal-black hair. But the worst was the horrible Glasgow smile slashed into his mouth, only ending where a normal person's lower jaw met with the skull.
My blood went cold. I've only seen too many fan art of the infamous Creepypasta.
Jeff the Killer.
Jeff leapt down, and before I knew it, he was completely on Andrew, laughing psychotically all the time. He wielded 2 kitchen knives, and closer up, I saw that he had acquired some equipment: he had a belt that stowed several more daggers, joint caps strapped to his body, and his hoodie had been renovated to also become a heavy-duty vest, inset with armor plating. The same goes for his trousers, and he wore long black military boots.
I drew my own Bowie knife to help, but just then, a cold wind blew against my back, and someone jumped me from behind. I ducked to avoid getting sumo-wrestled to the ground, and got a good look at my attacker.
He was a man in a black leather jacket, with a belt running over the shoulder and down his front, holding a series of surgeon's tools. He had a backpack, and an air rifle was slung on his back. His waistbelt held 3 magazine bags, all bearing words: "Tranquilizer", "Toxin" and "Taser". He had black pants to match his jacket, ending in black leather shoes. But his starring feature was the blue wooden mask over his face, with black eyeholes dripping an ominous black tar-like substance.
"What the Schiesse-!?"
I never got to finish my sentence before Eyeless Jack lunged at me, right hand clasping a surgeon's knife. I barely parried away the thing with my knife, and engaged in rapid close combat. I can't let him use that air rifle!
Unbeknownst to me, I wasn't the only person having Creepypastas to deal with…
Johann "John" Arnowe was running across the street to aid some fellow soldiers when he heard it.
A maniacal laughter rung across the field, startling several others, both friend and foe.
Then, with a loud cackle, a really weird teen leapt right at Johann. The boy had a dirt-yellow sweater, orange-tinted goggles, a set of harnesses over his torso that held many small tools, a heavy flak jacket with desert-color camouflage, and thick belt holding a bayonet, 2 ammo bags, an M9A1 pistol with laser, a small, leather medical kit, a flashlight and a Swiss Army knife. He had full military-style gear, sporting a blue helmet (no, NOT UN peacekeepers-style), armor plates strapped to his arms and legs, joint plating, heavy-duty gloves, a mouth guard hanging from his neck and combat boots along with the previous belt, googles and flak jacket. A large sapper spade was strapped to his back, along with 2 empty holsters. The 2 heavy axes that used to be in them were held high in the boy's hands. But the creepiest part was the huge hole in his left cheek that exposed red gums and white teeth, leering down at the boy on the ground.
Johann sighed. He barely remembered this guy from Louis's constant talking of urban legends.
"Tobias Erin Rogers."
The teen froze, axe held in mid-swing.
"That's my full name … and my past name. I don't use it anymore." he murmured.
"Why are you-?"
John didn't get to finish his question before Toby began twitching rapidly.
Aw, fuck. His Bipolar disorder and Tourette syndrome's kicking in again.
Toby raised his axes-
Yup. That pretty much settles it.
-and lunged.
"You want axes?" Johann drew his double-bladed Feuerwehr axe, "I'll show you some."
And the two went spinning away, axe upon axe.
A bolt of lightning raced across the battlefield.
It halted at the side of a ruined Bradley, the bolts of electricity fizzing away to reveal Konrad "Gabriel" Von Hartmann.
"Man, this is sick." Hartmann muttered, checking his phone.
He had been given a new power a few moments ago: "Blitz". Essentially, it was the powers of Barry Allen in the Flash movies, enabling him to move almost at the speed of lightning and wield electric currents. It proved really powerful in combat: the poor enemy soldiers didn't even get to see who's attacking them before they got sent flying away like pebbles.
But before he had much time to muse about it, a bolt of electricity slammed into Von Hartmann, knocking him back several feet. Cursing, the boy in Fallschrimjager uniform rubbed smoke out of his eyes and glared in the direction of the attack-
-and had to double-take out of confusion and surprise.
The attacker proved to be a teenager, standing 2 meters away. But his clothes were very extraordinary: he had a rather torn green, hooded tunic beneath a weird kind of vest, built in with something that resembled the proton pack out of Ghostbusters and sparking with electric currents, fastened to his torso by a slanted shoulder strap and a belt, holding a TASER, an electric baton, a flashlight, a long sword strapped to his back (Konrad barely realized it was the Double-Helix Sword from Majora's Mask) and a shield (the Mirror Shield). Beneath were white, long stockings, ending in black traveler's boots. Many hard plating was strapped to his joints, all linked to the ground with what looked like static lightning. But that wasn't the most abnormal part: he had sharp, elfish ears, and his eyes were devoid of anything save for a red, slightly pulsating dot of light from the depths of his sockets. And speaking of his eye sockets, they had something dripping slowly out of them, and it looked extremely like blood.
Konrad's blood turned to ice: no way, wasn't he just an urban myth?
But the red eyes of BEN_ stared right back, quenching any guesses.
Then, the living computer virus drew the iconic weapons, and jumped straight at Von Hartmann.
"Verdammt nochmal!"
Konrad swore as he lifted his FG-42 and fired, but he knew just what would happen: the bullets passed harmlessly through. How do you kill computer code!?
Then he remembered his newest powers. He concentrated, and fired a burst of electricity just as BEN came full into his face, blasting the entity away.
"Very interesting." He heard BEN mutter, looking at him with interest as the virus stood back up.
And the fight begun.
In Xu's case, everything started going crazy a few moments ago.
He had managed to keep himself well-defended with his single Type 89, years of martial arts training, and his own type of magic. And these people have no idea how resilient and powerful Countryhumans can be in combat.
But just as he stopped to reload his handgun-
Whistle!
He ducked and caught the projectile, and raised an eyebrow.
Who the heck throws syringes in a fight?
"集中火力！"(Chinese, "Concentrate fire!")
Xu looked behind him. Several soldiers from the Chinese Faction's PLA were firing their QBZ-83 and QCW05 assault rifles at a … something.
It looked human, but it was quite tall, approximately 1.8 meters tall, and clad in black overalls. The face was obscured by a mask similar to the one medieval doctors wore. He had a harness over his torso, holding many more syringes loaded with who-knows-what, and a waistbelt held many small surgeon's tools. A leather bag was slung by his left side. All the soldiers' bullets sparked off the black coat without any visible damage.
The being sped forwards, ignoring the continuous fire, and punched a PLA soldier in the gut, knocking him down onto the asphalt. A nearby U.S Army Countryhuman jumped the being with an Origin 12 shotgun, but even that was not sufficient in piercing the anomaly's outfit. The man-like being ripped the gun out of the soldier's hand and whacked him across the face with it, dazing him.
The being threw his hands out in 2 karate chops, and two Chinese Countryhuman soldiers passed clean out. Another fired a CBJ-MS submachine at the being, still in vain, and got a real hard kick to the shins.
At this point, Xu had had enough. He was the leader of the Chinese faction, after all.
He drew his sword. It was a weapon that he hadn't told Alberich about, and as old as his grandfather (who, sadly, had died long before him). It was named Qi Xing Long Yuan (the Seven Stars and the Dragon's Abyss), and is a powerful enchanted weapon, infused with the most ancient, powerful magic of the Chinese faction.
Then, the Countryhuman leader tapped an elaborate iron wristband on his left arm, and armor shimmered into existence over his form: interlocking, linked grey Kevlar and soft steel plating fastened onto the limbs, gloves made of similar texture, reinforced, metallized high boots, a helmet made of reinforced, grey carbon bio-nanotube material and equipped with a built-in radar, goggles with a set-in screen and optical assistance system (basically, it helps target enemies, can make you see light in a variety of wavelengths, and keeps out unwanted light in combat), and a heavy-duty rig over the torso, inlaid with plates of soft steel, Kevlar and bio-nanotube material, and equipped with a super-compressed radio, a mini Energy Shield device, a Biological Regeneration Unit, a defensive EMP shock system, and even 2 mini-jets that allow for a few hours of flight. The armor can withstand flames of tens of thousands of degrees, or direct immersion in liquid nitrogen, and process insane durability, thickness, hardness and toughness. You can say that, with the suit, one is very much immune to all human weapons (of course, no guarantee if you stand next to an exploding nuke).
Raising his sword, Xu stepped forwards to meet the new threat. The entity only nodded slightly before throwing several syringes at Xu, all of which glanced off the body armor. Xu brought his sword down, and succeeded in giving the entity a cut along the shoulder. The being winced before looking at Xu with a glint in his eyes.
"Finally, someone who can wound me." The Plague Doctor muttered as it drew a knife, "Let's see what else you've got."
And the two went knife-on-sword.
Sergey grinned as he swiped another wave of enemies out of his path with his hammer.
Seriously, he was having a field day out here. He managed to get time to draw his signature weapons: a huge hammer and an equally large sickle, all of which are forged of super-high density steel and reinforced with Communist magic (weird term, but get used to it). No weapon of human standards stood a chance in front of him.
"He-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he!"
"Chto?" Sergey muttered and turned towards the sound-
-and had to recoil in utter confusion.
The being in question was a tall, weird-looking clown. He looked as if the colors on him had all been bleached out to a black-and-white shade, had a conical nose that didn't seem like an appendage, and he was holding a huge wooden mattock in his hands.
Then, with no further ado, the clown swung the hammer right at Sergey, who retaliated by bringing his own hammer into an upwards swing.
With a loud clang, the two hammers met, and Laughing Jack was visibly surprised to find his mattock flying out of his hand.
Sergey grinned. "Communist steel, fool."
But that grin didn't last for long, because just then, a gust of wind told Sergey something was behind him. The Soviet Countryhuman just barely ducked aside as another weird man lunged at him: he wore a white Greek comedy mask, but there was something black seeping out beneath the rims of the mask, and for some reason, Sergey felt that the mask was snickering at him. The man held a large butcher's knife in his hand.
That gave Laughing Jack just enough time to pull another weapon: a large frying pan and swing it at Sergey's face. Sergey raised his shield and deflected the attack, parrying away a swing from the man processed by SCP-035.
And the fight went on.
Jones was unleashing hell on the invaders when the anomalies caught up with him.
An infernal screech rung through the field, carrying such a strong aura of fear that it made everyone freeze in their positions. Then, an insane, horrible-looking creature leapt into the field.
It looked like it had once been human, but it had arms and legs impossibly out of proportion, white, leathery skin stretched over a similarly disproportioned skeleton, and sharp talons on the end of its limbs. He watched as the being grabbed several terrorist gunmen and picked them up like mannequins before … well, let's just say what followed was a hell lot of gore, blood and screams.
Even Jones, who had proven himself a capable military officer in his years of service, had to shiver at the grisly ends the men met.
Then, the monster turned on Jones himself.
"Aw fuck, you've got to be kidding me!" Jones moaned in frustration and unease as he slapped a design etched into his arm.
Instantly, a blue light poured out of the design and solidified around Jones, dying away to reveal a set of battle armor. It was a super-advanced strategic coverall suit that would've made the SPARTAN warriors out of HALO envious, towering to over 2 stories tall, made of armored fabrics and covered with armored plating that could shrug off the full fury of an AC-130 gunship. The suit is equipped with many systems that handle anything from stabilization to aiming, all capable of being controlled via a layer of sensors in the helmet that syncs with Jones's thoughts. But the real shock comes with the armaments: the suit has twin 6-barreled, 10-mm autocannon turrets built into the 2 shoulders, firing energy blasts of a wide variety of power. However, even the least powerful contains equivalent force of HE shells from a T-90 MBT. The guns have an average firing rate of 12000 rounds per minute and can keep up continuous fire for 20 minutes before needing to cool down. Apart from these, the suit also holds 5 special mechanical arms, ending in mechanical, 3-fingered claws that have the unnerving ability to intercept any form of attack via force fields, even capable of holding raw energy and light; the joint that links the claws' fingers to the arms each conceal a blade of pure energy and 3 launchers that can fire special cables. Other weapons include 2 anti-proton launchers at the waist, 2 mini laser projectors on the side of the neck (do not underestimate these for their size though), 2 pairs of 5-mm autocannons built into the two wrists, an extendable chainsaw blade positioned where the left hand's radial artery is, a device that generates a large defensive force field around the armor, and best of all, twin rocket engines on the back of the suit, which can sync with smaller propulsion units on the suit's feet, generating more thrust then all of the Saturn V rocket's engines combined. (For reference, the thrust-to-weight ratio is somewhere between 20 and 25). The hands of the mech held a gigantic 8-barrelled, 20-mm laser autocannon with a fire rate of over 20000 rounds per minute.
The suit's activation was just in time, because at that moment, the terrorists sent in their final heavy gear: 4 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters (hive-comb rockets, Hellfire ATMs, side winder AAMs) and 5 MD500 Defender helicopters swooped into the fray, firing their chain guns, missiles and rockets at whatever is in sight; 3 KF-21 fighter jets dived from the clouds, strafing the defenders before flying off for another run; 2 K239 Chunmoo self-propelled rocket artillery vehicles lined up at the end of the quite-demolished street and fired a deadly salvo, arching through the skies right at Jones; 5 K-2 MBTs advanced in spearhead formation and fired their guns. More infantry – Jones figured there had to be several brigades – poured out of the wrecked buildings and fired their weapons at the looming mech.
Jones just sneered in the face of the incoming tide of weapons.
With a powerful roar, the two shoulder-mounted autocannons kicked into action, unleashing a trail of electricity and energy into the sky. The rockets were intercepted completely, and before the enemy could react, the 2 anti-proton launchers charged and fired a bolt of blinding white energy, obliterating the rocket launchers in a massive explosion; the 2 neck-side lasers beeped and started mowing down enemy soldiers at astonishing efficiency.
But before Jones could lift the super-heavy chain gun in his hands, one of the soldiers looked at the anomaly, which was now sitting beside the road in a pile of debris, in the face…
And it all went to Hell.
The monster tensed suddenly and raised its head to send out an unearthly screech to the heavens. Then, it charged headlong into the enemies, and turned itself into a whirlwind of death. The enemy troopers screamed as they were shredded to ribbons (quite literally) and some attempted to fight back, but the anomaly seemed to be constantly regenerating and had no sense of pain as it kept on slashing. An AH-64 attempted to attack the anomaly by bombarding it with hive-comb rockets, but what happened next shocked even Jones to the core.
The monster howled in rage at the hovering gunship and leapt off the ground, gripping the copter by the wings. It swung its arms, and the aircraft's fuselage was torn apart like tinfoil. The bird spun violently and crashed in a huge fireball.
"What the hell…" Jones muttered, "System! Identify the – oh God, no!"
The creature suddenly turned its attention to the right, where a young U.S Countryhuman soldier sat on the ground, his scoped SA-805 lying by his hand, and a terrified expression on his face. The entity got ready to pounce-
"No."
The entity looked up in surprise as Jones blocked off the path to the soldier with his form.
He spoke in a calm voice: "I will not allow you to hurt my friends and allies."
Friends…
SCP-096 stared at the mechanical marvel in front of him.
Suddenly, he was on a snowy mountain, sitting next to a boulder. In front of him, a man who he recognized as his classmate in high school was wrapping up a gash on his leg.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked, "I thought everyone thinks I'm a freak."
The teenage boy grinned at him, "Hey, cheer up, bro, it's not like it's your fault you had that mental situation. We're classmates, we're friends." He extended a hand. "Right?"
096 stared back. Slowly, he nodded.
"Yeah." He said, "Thanks, friend."
Jones stared curiously at the entity in front of him.
It had been on the verge of pouncing when he said that, but it froze when the words left his mouth.
It opened its own mouth, and the mech's enhanced sensors picked up one word.
"Friends…"
Then, the entity was encased in a soft white light, which shrunk slowly. When it faded, all that was there was a young man, perhaps only a year older than Alberich himself, in full hiking gear, shivering as he buried his face into his hands.
A flurry of movement caught Jones's eye. The soldier had got up and went up next to the man.
"You okay, boy?" the Countryhuman asked.
"Scared…"
"Calm, bro. We got you."
"Nightmare…"
"It's ok, it's ok. It's all over now."
The man looked up.
The Countryhuman extended a hand.
The man slowly accepted the hand and got up.
"Welcome to Oarai," the soldier paused, "Um…?"
The man smiled a bit.
"My name is Jack Stevenson. Also known as SCP-096: the shy Guy."
Andrew kicked Jeff to the floor.
Alberich pinned Eyeless Jack to a nearby wall.
Johann knocked Toby's axes out of his hand.
Konrad blasted BEN onto the ground with a EMP blast.
Xu threw the Plague Doctor into a telephone booth.
Sergey grabbed SCP-035 and Laughing Jack and started to crush their windpipes.
Suddenly, a loud voice rung inside everyone's head.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!"