No, I'm not dead, just a little burnt out and playing Doom Eternal.
A lone Coordinator sits in the Command Center, overseeing a squad that was recently tasked with capturing a new SCP that showed up from out of nowhere near a mountain range.
The radio fizzled into action as the squad made contact. "This is Omega-One, we have eyes on the target, over."
"This is Command, do not engage the target until given orders to." he said calmly, hoping that nothing goes wrong.
"Will do, target appears to be a bipedal animal that bares resemblance to a rhino on two legs, appears to be armoured well from what me and the squad can see."
"Get into positions for the containment attempt." he took a breath, stressed from what might happen if things go wrong. "You have the all clear to start, Captain."
"Squad is in position, attempting containment - now."
"Alright Kanin, what do you think it likes so much about me then? If your theory about this 'Ralts' is correct according to you."
Kanin was sitting with his feet outstretched lazily onto one of the desks from the chair he was sitting in. "Well Doc, you never did anything to it other than observe, you were the only person to appear not fearful of it, and you are technically different from all of us. Being an SCP technically and all."
"Maybe, but it seemed indifferent to the other humans, minus you."
"So what did you ask it then?" he asked while sitting upright in his seat, getting into the conversation we were having. "Surely you got something interesting to tell that the other guys don't need to know about."
I faced the enclosure's window, seeing the 'Ralts' relaxing on the tree in the center. The questions it answered last night fresh in my mind. "It's attuned with emotions. The way it was talking seemed to indicate that it is going to grow and get even stronger, and has the personality of a child to boot."
"A child? Heh, well I'll be damned."
"May I remind you what it did to your squad?"
"Oh right..." he began while facepalming. "I still feel my pride draining away anytime I look at it."
"Broken pride is the least of your problems." I snickered out while going towards the door to leave.
"Where you going?"
A smile came onto my face. "Oh no, it's not where I'm going, but you."
He looked back and forth between me and the SCP's enclosure, already onto what I was going to do. "Absolutely not, we've already seen that it hates me! What would this even do for you?"
"I'll accompany you, this is a test of how much it trusts me. Maybe you'll even make a new friend."
Kanin got up reluctantly and followed behind me. "Don't we need permission from the site director to do this kind of test?"
"I am the site director, I can do whatever I want."
"Follow behind me, and no, your weapons will not be accompanying us." I nonchalantly stated as he took a pistol out of his holster and cocked it.
He sighed as he put the gun down onto the floor. Looking at the door to the enclosure with a sense of defeat on his face.
I ignored him as I signaled for it to be opened.
The door was quite large, despite the size of the actual enclosure being meant for smaller lifeforms in general. I didn't really care what size door we had for it, it could teleport anywhere it wanted anyway.
It closed behind us as we walked over to the tree, the 'Ralts' having noticed us.
I casually tossed it my amulet.
[What's he doing here?] it said in a lower voice while jabbing one of its hands at Kanin.
"Because I asked him to be, he's not here to hurt you."
It wearily looked at him with a glowing pink eye, fading back to its ruby-red form after a few seconds.
A buzzing started coming from my radio, catching both Kanin and the Ralts's attention. I answered it while facing away from both of them.
"Make it quick." I sneered into the radio.
"Something has come up, it needs you right now up in the Command center."
"No, I'm busy right now. Figure it out yourself."
"An SCP is being transported here, we need your authority."
"And I'm currently running a live experiment, I'll be there when I want to. Until then, do or die-" I clicked the a button on the radio to mute it and attached it to my belt again.
I turned around to see Kanin sitting on the ground with the SCP touching his right hand. Calmly I took a few steps towards them, the 'Ralts' waving happily at me as I approached.
He looked at me briefly before getting back up, something akin to morbid curiosity on his face. "... I think the SCP rifled through all my memories or something, I can hear its voice in my head whenever it touches me."
Before I could ask Kanin a question, a voice pierced my mental silence. [Hey mister, what's a SCP and why does he call me one?]
I should've seen this question coming, considering that others have asked it before, but now wasn't the greatest of all time with whatever the hell is happening up top and down here. Maybe for once I have bitten off more than I can chew.
"Uh, SCP is an acronym, do you know what that is?" I asked it.
[ac-row-nim? Acronym… does it mean that it stands for something?]
"Close, it means that it's an abbreviation for a bunch of different words, all beginning with the corresponding letter. The S stands for Secure, the C stands for Contain, and lastly the P stands for Protect."
It seemed to ponder what I said, putting one of its hand-like parts on its chin while pacing back and forth. I found it amusing, it really did reminisce of a curious child. I never did ask if it had a name, other than its species name. 'Ralts' is something I'd rather drop for an actual name or number at this point.
The blaring of alarms sharply pierced the silence, the 'Ralts' jumped slightly from the sudden noise. Kanin seemed to turn his worries from the SCP to whatever the alarms were about.
His radio suddenly lit up with chatter I couldn't understand from my distance, I turned mine on to listen in...
"Wherever Dr. Bright is, tell him that the situation he ignored has escalated badly."
Kanin glanced at me with a look in his eye. "What situation? I never got word of this."
"A new SCP was spotted and promptly contained, much in the same fashion as our newest one. Upon attempting to transport it here, it broke out and is now running about inside the compound on the ground level."
Inside the compound? Well that certainly changes things. Kanin glared harder at me. "What do you mean it's INSIDE the compound? Scramble whoever is able-bodied and has a gun to re-contain it immediately."
"We have, it's been burrowing underground at rates far beyond our ability to combat-"
The entire facility suddenly began to shudder and shake with great intensity, causing me to trip over and fall while Kanin steadied himself. As soon as it began, it stopped, leaving the 'Ralts' looking very concerned with what was going on.
I picked myself up and began towards the door with Kanin in tow, I looked back to the 'Ralts' as the door opened. "Please stay here, I promise we'll come back."
It nodded slowly, glancing quickly around the area with a fearful posture.
The doors opened, revealing the three people with rifles in full body armor behind them who were guarding it. Kanin made for his guns and quickly got himself ready to go, everyone seemed extremely on edge after we closed the door and started down the hallway to the elevator up.
Our ride felt like forever, while I wasn't personally afraid, I know everyone else certainly was. And that was enough for me to feel stressed, now I wish I had a gun.
The elevator doors opened slowly, the guards took point with Kanin seemingly now in command of them for now. Despite the intense shaking, no structural to the building had been done that I could see. Which was both odd but relieving, one less problem to deal with right now but another question to ask later.
"Do you all feel that?" a guard asked. "The ground… its shaking slightly still."
I put my hand to one of the walls and then the floor, even putting my ears to them. An odd hum and shaking could still be felt. "I do as well, Command said it could burrow underground…"
"We need to get outside then." Kanin said while turning the corner, pointing towards the exit. Slowly we crept along the hall, expecting something to jump out of the ground at any moment.
For once I began to feel fear of the unknown, it was refreshing.
The door opened with the mechanical sounds not caring for subtly, loudly clunking and scraping like knives against metal. Natural light flooded through the doorway as Kanin and the guards sweeped the fenced off area the door led to.
One of the guards knelt down, putting their head to the ground. "It's louder, get ready for anything."
"And get away from one another, this thing probably wants us to group up." Kanin added.
I stayed in the doorway as everyone got in positions around the area. When I don't know the outcome of something, I sometimes instinctively grasp for the amulet. The idea of a burrowing beast of an SCP really did have me curious…
I fished for it on my neck, finding it missing from its usual area. Frantically I searched myself and couldn't find it. I couldn't have dropped it along the way, it would've made a lot of noise. I know I had it with me when I went with Kanin inside the SCP area.
I must've left it with the 'Ralts' during the earthquake.
The ground shook slightly as something big bursted from the ground at high speeds into the air, landing with a loud thud as it roared at everyone. Whatever it was, it was bipedal, had a horn on its head, and looked as armored as a tank.
"Flashbang going out, cover your eyes." Kanin shouted as he ripped one from a dumbstruck guard's belt and threw it directly at the SCP. It narrowed its eyes and charged as the flashbang exploded close to its face, causing it to trip and fall as everyone opened fire on it.
Bullets flew true and hit their target, some blood showing itself. But the SCP must barely feel it.
The SCP rose up to full height and let out another deep and terror-inducing roar as it stomped its right leg on the ground. Shaking unlike anything I experienced before rocked everyone nearby, throwing them to the ground.
I rocked forwards towards the SCP, it roared again before charging at me. My heart felt like it stopped, maybe this is what fear felt like-
My body slammed into a nearby wall, pain riddling through it as blood began to seep into my white lab coat from a cut its horn gave me. I could barely breathe, the air knocked straight out of me with death coming for me yet again.
I closed my eyes and expected the worst, simply because I didn't want to remember seeing my guts getting torn out when I wake up in a new body...
A loud bang sounded out before something large fell to the floor. I opened my eyes and saw the 'Ralts' in front of me with its hands outstretched with my amulet hung from its tiny neck.
It came to rescue me, intriguing.
My attention turned towards the other SCP that was knocked backwards, glaring at the tiny 'Ralts' while baring its teeth. It stomped again, but the floor didn't shake.
A large boulder shot up from the ground beneath the 'Ralts', throwing it violently into the air before it exploded. The blast sent it bouncing off the ground before landing next to me, struggling to get up.
I swore I saw a small grin on its face, it levitated off the ground and onto its feet before taking a battle-ready stance. The opposing SCP seemed to be amused by the display from something so small. However from the pure amount of smug radiating off of the 'Ralts' stance, I had a funny feeling it'd be okay.
The 'Ralts' formed a ball of unknown substance in its arms before throwing it at the SCP. It narrowed its eyes and grabbed a piece of the ground and used it as a shield.
Whatever the ball was collided with the piece of ground the SCP had with a loud bang, creating smoke in every direction. The 'Ralts' bent its head down, as if it was trying to locate something using its ears. I felt a familiar shake coming from the ground…
My voice was raspy and I nearly broke into a coughing fit trying to talk. "It's… below… you."
It glanced at me with a worried expression on its face. It turned back to its surroundings and took a deep breath. The 'Ralts's hands began to glow as the shaking intensified before something broke through the ground.
The SCP bellowed as it was forced to the surface, growling angrily at the 'Ralts' while throwing a giant rock at it. 'Ralts' looked at me, realizing I was unable to get away. It outstretched its hands again as they glowed, stopping the rock inches before impact.
It tried to throw it to the side, the rock exploded into pieces as the SCP charged through it and punched the 'Ralts' into a wall. Somehow it managed to stand up, but looked strained and tired, but the grin remained.
Like it had one more ace up its sleeve.
The SCP charged once more, its eyes widened and abruptly stopped as the 'Ralts' began to brightly glow.
Was it about to kamikaze? Just to win? That'd be bad for everyone here currently taking a 'recreational' nap from the earthquake. And I don't know if the amulet could survive such forces, I could theoretically die my last death here.
I closed my eyes and prepared for the sweet release of death, finding the lack of explosion yet oddly terrifying.
With a severe lack of patience, I opened my eyes and was greeted to the glow dying down, no explosion… yet.
While squinting my eyes a little, I saw the 'Ralts' had somehow taken a new form, now taller by about a foot with what looked to be a ballerina's dress. Its horn was now on the sides of its head near both ears instead of on the forehead and back of the head.
I stared in confusion, I couldn't help but slightly shake my head back and forth desperately trying to figure out what just happened. My amulet still hung from its neck, swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
The SCP seemed to be slightly more careful, eyeing the new form the 'Ralts' had taken while baring its teeth.
The 'Ralts' looked at me again, a soft glow in its eyes. I felt worry, and a slight bit of anger suddenly flow into me. Was this what it meant by sharing emotions? It felt odd but not so odd that it was uncomfortable.
It reluctantly turned away, facing back towards the hulking beast that was still staring it down. The SCP started charging again, the 'Ralts' prepared some sort of counterattack, using its powers to make some rocks begin to spin around itself.
My vision was beginning to blur, probably from blood loss. I glanced around the area, everyone else was still out of it for now, but there was a fallen rifle nearby…
The 'Ralts' jumped up into the air and rocketed the stones at the charging SCP in a barrage. It grunted in as some hit it low while others were swiped away from hitting its face. The 'Ralts' seemed to be still tired even with the change in physique.
The 'Ralts' dropped all but one of the larger stones, tiredness starting to take its course. Barely managed to throw it using its powers at the high speeds.
Both sides of the fight seemed on the edge of falling over, all they needed was a little push. I started crawling over to the rifle, it wasn't very far..
The SCP caught the large stone, holding it over its own head as it jumped into the air and sent it barreling downwards at the 'Ralts'.
Wide eyed and shocked it stopped the stone using its powers and tried to use it as a shield against the SCP which now resorted to punching and using its horn.
I grabbed the rifle, it was loaded and cocked already with a trank round. I wearily raised it from my position on the ground, my hands shaking with some of my own blood flowing onto the gun itself.
The rock broke away to pieces as the SCP raised its arms up to deliver a final blow. Leaving the unarmored bits under its arms exposed. I pulled the trigger, the round hit home causing it to roar in pain as it slowly fell to the ground unconscious.
The 'Ralts' looked at me shocked that I was fighting somehow. My consciousness began to fade as the weapon dropped from my hands.
It teleported to my side as its hands began to glow. [Don't worry mister, you'll be fine after a while.]
I couldn't help but stare into the amulet that hung from its neck still, swinging back and forth-...