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dzthenerd490 · 3 months

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Action Report: The Chaos of Fate

This was possibly the worst thing that could happen, The New Church of the Fractured God had found its way into an old ISU vault. They were a well-known modern faction of religion known as Mekhanism though unlike most sects, who want to make Mekhane whole again; they are mostly driven by obtaining power from their deity. Except they weren't alone, they were currently battling against a group from Zealots on Crack. Both wanted to get some ISU tech, and both were incredibly dangerous enemies of the Foundation. Mobile Task Force Athena-1 "Assassin's Creed" obviously wouldn't have been able to handle the Mekhanites overwhelming power nor the chaos of Zealots on Crack. Not that they could offer the extra hands anyways, their forces were spread too thin at the moment due to Abstergo Industries raiding other vaults like crazy in hopes of replenishing their lost pieces of Eden. Instead, a much stronger and equally unpredictable force was going to be needed to fight. Thus, Mobile Task Force Alpha-9 "Last Hope" was deployed.

***

It was 2017 and Iris was on one of the SFH-2 "Ravens" she was holding a picture of her wife Meri whose stomach was already quite big since she was very pregnant. Iris smiled lovingly at the picture; she still remembered the joy she felt when Meri said she wanted to have a baby and the overwhelming happiness they both had when Dr. Zeek told them the procedure was a success. Then there was Iris's disappointment when she was assigned to today's mission, meaning less time with her wife. Due to the hundreds of other MTF's that existed within the Foundation and the fact that some of them were more powerful than Alpha-9 like Tau-5, Alpha-1, and Hecate-Alpha, she was rarely ever called to action. Though that didn't make the few times she was called to action any less frustrating.

The O5 Council only saw people like her as a weapon to be used by the Foundation, nothing more. She knew this as when she was first taken in by the Foundation, they immediately put her through harsh military training and taught her stealth and assassination tactics. It was quite bad at first but as time went on the MTF units she worked with became nicer and praised her on her growing strength and increasing number wins in sparring contests. Though there were always researchers that looked at her like a freak and even insulted her to her face for not being "human enough". Most ended up getting fired but it didn't make the pain and humiliation fade, though spending time with her wife and getting counseling from Foundation therapists did help.

Most thought she was too emotional and maybe sometimes she was but, in the end, she always felt justified in hating the Foundation. Though, she could always count on her closest friends; MTF Captain Xio, one of her mentors who was also a badass Assassin. Daniel who, despite his bad attitude, she could always trust to protect her from the O5 Council. Finally, there was the love of her life Meri which was pretty self-explanatory. Them and many others she had grown to trust over the years, they were all the only reasons she obeyed the O5 Council. If it wasn't for anyone else, she would have at the very least incited a rebellion and killed the Council if she could. Though there was that... other thing she could do, but even now at the age of 34 she still couldn't control it very well, so maybe it was best not to try.

"You've been staring at that picture for a while now, something nice?" Iris looked up to see Cain sitting on the other side of the chopper from her.

"It's just my beautiful wife."

"Ah, of course, I should have known from your smile. The love between the two of you is stronger than anything I have ever seen. It even bore life I recently heard, congratulations by the way."

"Ha, thank you Cain. You always say the nicest things."

"I always try to, it's a small part of my repentance but a significant part nonetheless."

"Oh... does that mean you used to be... homophobic?"

"Wha... oh! No! No! No! I meant kindness in general! Dear me Iris, please, I would never sink that low. Besides, believe it or not, back in the age of new, it wasn't uncommon for males to fall in love with other males and the same for females loving other females. The only reason it was looked down on was because no children could be conceived from such love as such it was called a fruitless form of love, but for those not wishing too or at least not yet it was considered trivial at worst."

"Oh, I see."

"Yes, it was popular during both the Greek and Roman era, I think even in the early years of the Medieval period as well... But then there were those kings and queens that had those... what do the young people call it... Harem! Yeah, that's it." Iris almost choked from laughter after hearing that but quickly cleared her throat so she could continue to hear Cain talk.

"Yes, especially the older men, they hated the idea of women not joining their harem because of their love for the same sex. With Christianity on the rise, they decided to bribe priests and bishops to add some verses and rewrite some quotes within the bible. Suddenly it was seen as weakness for a man to love another man and for a woman to kiss another woman was the same as bedding with the devil himself. The worst part is that most ended up following it to the extremes, calming those that had such love should be burned at the stake. I say, they didn't call it the dark ages for nothing."

"Wow, sorry you had to go through that Cain."

"It's okay, like all of humanity, as we grow, we may woe, but we also develop. We grow bigger, we grow stronger, wiser, and find more ways to cherish the greatest gift of life. Love." Cain winked at her making Iris smile, she then looked at the picture of her beautiful pregnant wife again.

"Sorry to interrupt captain, but we're at the insertion point!" Iris quickly put the photo on a hidden compartment of her armor, then turned on her earphones.

"Good, take us down nice and steady boys."

"Yes Captain."

***

Once they landed Iris and Cain as well as the four MTF escorts got out of the Raven. At around the same time the other Alpha-9 units and MTF escorts got off their own Ravens and met up in the middle of the choppers. Iris loaded SCP-AEZ and joined the group to see everyone, it must have been quite a serious mission with everyone here. All members of Alpha-9 were here, both from Division "Dagger" and Division "Sword". Division "Dagger" was the one Iris was Captain of; in her unit was Cain (SCP-073), Claudia Raines (SCP-347), and David McGowan (SCP-AZJ) and about three MTF unique Troopers. Her unit was used for stealth missions against powerful Groups of Interest or dangerous Persons of Interest. Then there was Division “Sword” where her good friend and old anomalous mentor Alexi Belitrov was Captain (SCP-2273). In his unit was Rainer Miller (SCP-4051), Leora Lightfoot (SCP-4818), Lucy (SCP-ADY-Alpha) and several MTF Unique Troopers. Because of their abundance of power and destructive capabilities they are mostly entrusted to fight against overwhelming threats. Despite this, Iris was shocked to see Leora here who was currently stretching with a smile on her face, ready to go on the mission.

"Alexei!" Agent Belitrov looked over to Iris who was walking toward him in anger. He was in his bio suit, so he assumed whatever made her angry, he had nothing to worry about. But then he was reminded the hard way that she knew AIE Martial Arts as she quickly swung her leg upward to kick him in the face. This was normally how she would strike him when she was mad because of how much taller he was. Thanks to his bio suit he wasn't decapitated, but it still hurt; probably the same way a regular person would be hurt by a slap to the face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Why would you bring Leora here?!" Alexei sighed as now he understood why she was so upset. He rubbed the sore part of his bio suit helmet and stood up properly to face Iris.

"It wasn't me, young Iris, the higher ups requested she come, and she accepted."

"And you just allowed it?"

"No, I did!" Iris then sighed as she turned to her left to face the Commander of Alpha-9 (SCP-AAS). There Charlie was standing there with her own bio suit and armor standing tall with a smile on her face.

"Seriously Charlie?!"

"That's Commander to you Iris!"

"Don't start! Especially after pulling this crap! For god's sake! She's thirteen."

"Hey! I can fight!" Both looked at Leora who was now standing beside them and pouting in anger at Iris. Iris sighed, walked up to Leora, and kneeled while placing her hand on Leora's shoulder.

"Leora, I don't doubt that, but you have to understand you're too young, you're not ready yet!"

"I am ready! Charlie even said I'm almost as strong as she was at my age, and she is super strong!"

"Leora, I know you and most of the younger candidates think we're heroes, but this job is very taxing, and it can really take its toll on you." Leora looked a little shaken by what Iris said but she just smiled and gently placed her hand on Iris's cheek.

"I know Iris, but really I'll be okay! I learned from the best after all!" Leora then walked away to continue to get ready. Iris stood up but sighed again, still being filled with concern for Leora. Then Charlie was the one who placed her hand on Iris's shoulder.

"Relax Iris, I'm nothing like those faceless assholes. If this really was something she couldn't handle I would have never brought her."

"Charlie, we're facing against a cult of capitalist cyborgs and a group of suicidal anarchists. Do you honestly think she'll be okay?"

"Yes, I actually do Iris. She's strong, sure, but she's also very smart, quick thinking, very brave, and has scored the highest in simulation training. She's practically excelled at everything at this point, the higher ups think she's ready for field work and honestly, I agree with them." Iris shook her head but didn't say anything else, she just let it go and walked away. Charlie then shrugged and walked to the group to address them all, while she did, she passed by David.

"Iris is still mad at you."

"Stay out of her head David. Mine too."

"... Sorry Commander."

"Alright everyone listen up!" All eight members of Alpha-9 and the MTF Unique Troopers gathered up to hear what Charlie had to say. One of them actually walked up to her to give her a Foundation Computer Screen Pad with all the information regarding the mission.

"Thank you, ahem! Alright, here's the gist of it, we got two hostile groups of interest fighting over control within one of the vaults of the ISU. Unfortunately, they're the worst of the worst, that being Zealots on Crack and the Church of the Fractured Faith or whatever. Now this vault was actually cleared out by MTF Anetha-1 a while back so as far as we can tell there's nothing actually of value here. However, that doesn't deny the possibility that they might have missed something in the past. Our mission is simple: clear out all hostiles, capture as many of them as possible, and check for possible artifacts left behind. There's also some Researchers requesting we don't damage the vault. Apparently this one is quite special in that it contains murals and possible historical archives at least according to the Archeology Division of the Department of Mythology and Folkloristics. So yeah, that's the basics of the mission. Any questions?"

"Uh, yeah why is it just us? Why don't we have Able or that vigilante bozo?" Iris rolled her eyes at Claudia's question; Charlie was also disappointed due to how the answer should have been obvious.

"Claudia, Able and Cain are to never be in the same room together you know that."

"Then just get rid of Cain!"

"Claudia, for crying out loud, this mission requires we capture all hostiles and preserve the vault! That's not going to happen if Able is a part of this mission. Look, if you just going to keep complaining then just do us all a favor and keep it to yourself." Claudia just sighed and looked away, or at least it seemed that way; she was still invisible, so it was hard to tell.

"Alright then, any other question? No? Good, let's move."

***

MTF Alpha-9 moved forward to the target location; Division "Sword" took the front with Division "Dagger" hanging back. Charlie was with Division "Dagger" acting as a primary defender of "Dagger" as well as emergency reinforcement for "Sword" should the situation call for it. Both divisions also had Unique MTF Troopers with anomalous abilities to help in her respective division. However, Division “Dagger” has only 3 while Division “Sword” has 10.

Once they were close enough Division "Dagger" separated from "Sword" and went to one of the cliffs near the entrance of the vault. Not to close but just enough that they could scout the situation without getting caught. Iris had her earphone connected to Charlie so that they would get immediate updates on what was going on and how best to approach. Iris used her glasses to zoom in and see what they were dealing with.

At the entrance of the vault was a normal looking cave though the main abnormality is that there were Cultists at the front. One was a hooded figure with the symbol of The New Church of the Fractured God on his hood. Besides that, there were steampunk looking robots, random people with advanced looking goggles and laser rifles, a futuristic looking cyborg, and a vicious looking robot with six spider-like legs. Those last two were standing right beside the one with the hood over him.

"Hm, looks like your typical evil Mekhanites. But that's just the entrance. Hey, which one of you is best at reconnaissance?" One of the MTF Unique Troopers came forward upon Iris's request.

"Me, Captain, after an accident involving an experiment, I am able to have my soul leave my body."

"That's not too dangerous for you?"

"No Ma'am, I mean the time limit before my soul starts to lose its connection is about 5 minutes but when I'm on the astral plane I can travel at a speed of 90 miles an hour comprehending time as one second equating to one minute."

"Dang, alright, scout out as much as you can of the inside but remember! Come back in 4 minutes and 30 seconds! Not a second longer!"

"Understood." The soldier then got on the ground so his body would be comfortable. He suddenly and seemingly breathed his last breath as his soul left his body and zoomed into the Vault. His soul was actually visible so Iris and the others saw it all happen, the Fractured Cultists would have seen it too, but he was moving so fast they just didn't notice and those that did thought it was a bug. Thankfully after about 3 minutes his soul came back, making his body come to life.

"Are you alright?"

"Ha... Ha... Ahem! Yes Ma'am, sorry it takes me a while."

"It's alright, take your time and make your report when you're ready."

"Ha... Yes ma'am, Ahem! Okay ready to report. The true entrance to the vault is right inside the cave hidden by some large rocks. It's closed right now so getting in will be tricky. Beyond the door is a long hallway. It's quite long and wide too, filled with different structures almost like a city. The higher ups were right about there being murals there too with lots of weird stuff, but the main takeaway is that it's filled with Cultists. Lots of cyborgs, robots, and other Mekhanites with various augmentations."

"What about the Zealots?"

"Unknown, I tried to go farther but there was some kind of barrier at the other end of the large hall. It somehow kept me from moving on, but from what I could see there were lots of bodies belonging to both Groups beyond the barrier. There were also in the long hall as well. It seems they are having quite the bloody fight."

"Geez, how the hell does a small group like Zealots on Crack afford to have such a loss and still go on with life."

"Actually, ma'am I only saw about four bodies belonging to the Zealots, as for the Cultists I saw about forty-three. Or at least I think that's the case it was hard to tell given their... particular dress style."

"... Woah. Only MTF Hestia-3 has ever achieved killing so many evil Mekhanites with so little casualties. Guess those psychos are good for something after all. Anyways, anything else to report?"

"No ma'am."

"Good, let's continue then. Charlie, come in."

"Go ahead Iris. What's up?"

"The guards up front won't be getting reinforcements from within the cave so we don't need to worry about that. Still, I got some good pictures with my glasses so I think I can ambush them and take them out one by one."

"Actually, I'm going to send Leora to take care of them."

"What?! Charlie-!"

"Iris, the best thing you can do against the Mekhanites is snap their necks or shoot them and we need them alive. I am better at burning things than I am at containing them. Leora on the other hand can manifest binds to hold them in place, particularly strong ones might I add. Only I could ever break from her powers and that's just because I can manipulate anything related to energy."

"Charlie-"

"Captain Clef, this is an order from your Commander, stand down and have faith in Agent Lightfoot. Is that understood?" Iris grunted in anger, but she didn't say anything else other than confirming that she understood.

***

"Good, You're up Loera." Leora smiled and ran up to the front of the Cave. Leora dreamed about being a superhero ever since she was little but then when she was eight her wish came true. She suddenly got the power to create crystal-like light objects anytime she wanted though she was limited on what she could do. Then one day, strange men in black came to her house and told her parents they had a job offer in this place called New Marais. She thought it was boring adult stuff and that it sucked she would have to move but once they did, she was ecstatic over it.

It was a place full of aliens, elves, vampires, cyborgs, and other superheroes too! She was enrolled into a school there and met some awesome kids that were really nice and became her friends too. Because her powers were strong, she was given the chance to join the Foundation in an MTF called Alpha-9 "Last Hope". She was nervous at first but then she met Charlie whose powers were similar to hers and learned to use her powers in so many different ways. She grew stronger as time went on and eventually, she reached a point that she could proudly call herself a real hero.

Her parents were obviously nervous but as Leora got stronger, they began to calm down and even started praising her for how far she came. It did take them longer than her to adjust to New Marais but as they did, they came to accept her powers and her new responsibilities as well. She was a young girl, with supportive parents, cool out of this world friends, an amazing fantasy sci-fi place she called home, and awesome teachers and mentors that gave her the confidence and training she needed to become a real hero. What's not to love about her life?

As such even when she was assigned to this mission a normal 13-year-old should never be assigned too she wasn't nervous but instead really excited. This was her chance to show everyone that all of her training finally paid off. As such even when she saw the future soldier guys, the cyborg warriors, or the hooded cult guy she wasn't scared. She just ran up to them and stopped right in front so they could see her clearly.

"Sup guys?" The Fractured Cultists were all shocked by her sudden appearance, one alerted the other to go into the cave to get reinforcements. Only for the cave to be sealed by her Photon Crystals; Iris, who was watching, was also shocked to see this. Leora was only supposed to be able to create her photonic matter so long as she maintained physical contact with it, yet she just made a wall manifest simply by looking at the cave.

Leora quickly manifested binds on all the cultists forcing them to fall to the ground before they could even fight. However, for some reason the Photon Crystals didn't form on the hooded one who just started laughing at her. It then threw its hood off to show his heavily modified body. He was coated in black armor covered in Mekhanite Thaumaturgic symbols. He had snake-like wires and technological tubes slithering all around his body. Finally, he had two large black wings also covered in Thaumaturgic symbols and given vicious blade-like feathers. Suddenly the Thaumaturgic symbols on his body started glowing to hypnotize Leora with their Cognito hazardous properties.

"Foolish child! You will return to your Foundation! Find the pieces of Mekhane and bring them to our church!" Leora actually seemed to be under his hypnotism for a moment but then she smiled proudly and made a pair of shades out of her Photon Crystals.

"Nah!" The Fractured cultists yelled in anger which actually made Leora cover her ears in pain. Some of the wires and tubes connected to his arm and it suddenly grew into a giant hammer which he swung down on Leora. She was scared in one second but smiled the next as she manifested a hammer with her Photon Crystals and swung it at him. The collision overpowered him and broke his fist entirely making him yell in agonizing pain. He flew in the air quickly, once high enough he shot down at her some of his blade feathers though after making a Photon Crystals barrier, the feathers broke on impact. He growled in anger but suddenly his wings were getting shot with small but powerful pellets. With the combination of intense speed and strength his wings were quickly breaking down forcing him to fall back to the ground.

"Rahhh! I haven't lost yet!" Suddenly his armor started falling off showing beneath a smaller body of shinier armor. He zoomed around Leora so fast for her to see him, but she wasn't scared as she knew the idiot made a fatal mistake, he got rid of his Thaumaturgic symbols. She manifested a wall of Photon Crystal in a random direction around her and the cultist immediately slammed face first into it. He was badly hurt but tried to run away from her, but she proved to be faster. She turned the wall into a sphere surrounding him and condensed it as much as she could without crushing him to death.

"I just want everyone to be aware that I totally taught her that." Leora turned around to see Charlie smiling at her with the others. Leora ran to Charlie and hugged her to which Charlie ruffled her hair playfully. Leora giggled but then noticed Iris giving orders over the radio saying the entrance to the cave was secure and to send reinforcements at once to get the prisoners. Leora ran to her and hugged her, surprising Iris.

"I told you I got it! You saw right!" Iris sighed and kneeled down to face Leora directly with a smile.

"Yeah, you were amazing. Sorry I doubted you; you belong in Alpha-9." Leora blushed and smiled in pride as some other Alpha-9 units cheered her on.

“But you still have ways to go, don’t get overconfident okay?” Leora was a little confused at first but smiled again and nodded with enthusiasm.

***

Once a recovery team grabbed all the captured cultists to be processed back at the nearest Foundation base, the mission continued. Alexi tried to move the door, but it was held strong, so Charlie melted the door down by making her fists hotter than the sun. Once an opening was made, she absorbed the heat to allow everyone to follow her as she took the lead. The first part of the entrance was just a long staircase though wide too, so the group wasn't squished as they went down. Though as they made it down there was another door.

"Hm, this one isn't as thick so I can blast through it, but the problem is that once I do, hundreds of those Mekhanites will be ready to ambush us."

"Commander, allow me. I can take their bullet fire."

"Bullets don't worry me Alexi, the Fractured Church and Zealots have much worse things than that. Even with your new upgrades to the suit you won't be able to protect against everything they throw at you."

"Allow me then." Iris then pressed a button on her glasses and two nearly microscopic drones flew out and through the cracks of the door.

"What the hell was that?"

"My glasses' latest upgrade, nanobots that are able to float into the air and take pictures and send them back to my glasses. Allowing me to teleport to places I haven't been to yet."

"... Nice."

"Right? I'll provide a distraction so come through hard and fast... okay, I'm ready, on your mark?"

"... Now!" Iris then manifested a photo and jumped into it suddenly appearing behind one of the cultists positioned as a sniper. She shot one in the back of the head and quickly disappeared, confusing another sniper before he got shot as well. As bodies of snipers and lookouts started to fall that bellow noticed this and tried alerting others about Iris's attack. However, they were quickly blindsided by the front entrance exploding with Charlie quickly flying up and shooting several cultists with her fireballs and Alexi firing with the laser guns attached to the arms and shoulders of his bio suit.

"Intruders! Alert Brother Clyde!" One of the cultists nodded and along with a group, tried to go to the other end of the long hall to send the message. However, he and everyone with him was quickly shot down by Iris. While the cultist was going down Rainer manifested a shield made of Plumanium and used it to keep himself, Claudia, and the reserved MTF units safe. Leora made her own shield and was capturing as many of the scriptures as she could. David was also behind Leora's shield and using his anomalous abilities to control any of the cultists who were about to ambush them. He commanded them to attack their fellow cultists instead or just kill themselves. Some tried to form up into a group but Lucy used her meta-arms to jump in the air and towards the center of their group. In a matter of seconds they were all torn up into minced meat.

Meanwhile an MTF unit that had the ability to fly was in the air using his rifle to shoot down any hiding snipers or cultists that could also fly. There was also an MTF unit with the anomalous ability of never feeling the negative effects of drugs who filled his body with lots of different Foundation enhancement drugs to make himself into a temporary super soldier. He was not only able to withstand the bullets and laser blasts but could easily punch through their metal armor bodies. Another MTF unit with the ability to make a single melee weapon out of an anomalous atomization energy. She could slice through their weapons, armor, and any other forms of defense and quickly burn them all into dust with whatever weapon she made. Then there was one of the MTF units being protected by Rainer's and Leora's shield. She was using her anomalous sight that always showed her the quickest way to her goal which in this case was the weak points of her enemies, allowing her to shoot them down easily. Finally, there was an MTF unit that didn't have any guns at all as his anomalous ability allowed him to puncture a hole in anyone, all he had to do was point with a gun jester and say "bang".

The cultists however were strong as well, one was with heavy armor covered with memetic symbols forcing anyone who saw it to remember or imagine disgusting and embarrassing images. Then there was one covered in metal like scales all over his body, hiding several guns placed in his body allowing him to shoot anyone from any direction. He nearly got Iris a few times, but she managed to shoot him in the end. There was also a serpentine like cultists that screamed a headache inducing screech and had long laser blade claws. They even encountered a cultist made entirely of metal bug like bots with blades on their shells and each one carrying his consciousness so no matter how many they destroyed he was technically alive through each one. Despite their complexity, the cultists of the Fractured Church continued to fall one by one.

However, the cultists weren't done, the ones closer to the back brought out a large black metal box and opened it. Inside was a strange mechanical sphere that opened up and shifted out six arachnid like legs. Suddenly its armor plating in the front opened and showed several mechanical camera eyes. The machine walked forward and each of its mechanical eyes kept changing color. Suddenly one of the MTF units was frozen in ice and one of Rainer's shields started melting despite not being hot. Another MTF unit near Charlie had his helmet blown off nearly killing him, then he was suddenly hit by an invisible force in the stomach. She knew that machine was the cause, so she flew up in the air drawing the attention of the machine. She raised her hand and suddenly the camera eyes started going haywire, then powerful lasers blasted from her fingers and tore the machine apart before it could do more damage. With their final weapon destroyed, and ridiculously easy at that, the last of the cultists surrendered and allowed Leora to entrap them all in a proton crystal orb.

"Alright! Good work everyone! Not a single casualty as well! Alright, Medics! Treat everyone who was hurt and the rest of us let's survey the area and see what we can find." As the medics went to work, one of the MTF units walked up to Charlie with his head down.

"Sorry Commander. I couldn't get any good rolls with my dice."

"It's alright Lucky, you're still our ace at the end of the day. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Meanwhile Lucy walked over to one of the captured Cultists and used her meta-arm to grab them by the throat. She smirked and glared at him with cold and angry eyes.

“Hey! We’re just supposed to capture them remember!” Everyone was shocked to see Leora standing up to Lucy of all people. Lucy looked back at Leora with the same cold eyes but then her meta-arm suddenly disappeared. She then closed her eyes and smiled at Leora.

“I was just trying to confirm they were truly captured; you can never be too careful with Mekhanites.” Lucy then walked by Leora and gently patted her gently on the head, making Leora pout in annoyance at being treated like a kid. Charlie made sure to watch and used her energy sense to ensure that Lucy really did get rid of her meta-arms.

“Yeesh, that one still creeps me out.” Charlie then turned to Lucky that was still next to her.

“Yeah, I honestly think the higher ups jumped the gun at making her an Alpha-9 member, but you know the O5, they’d never pass up the opportunity to get just a bit more power.”

"Uh Commander! You're going to want to see this!" Charlie, Iris, and Alexi went over to where the MTF unit calling to them was and saw him pointing at a mural on the wall. It depicted some of the cultists they had just fought as well as ones they haven't seen on one side of the mural. On the other side was clearly Charlie, Iris, Alexi, Loera, and Rainer along with the rest of Alpha-9 on the other side. They were clearly running toward each other for a massive battle.

"This is... interesting, Trooper, how old is this mural, did the Mekhanites draw it? Did they know we were coming?" The MTF trooper next to them pulled out a Foundation Scanner and after waving it over the mural he read the results.

"Uh no Commander according to this, the paint of the mural is just as old as everything in here."

"... The ISU knew we were going to fight here?" Iris processed what Charlie said and scoffed while shrugging in annoyance.

"Well, that's stupid, if they could predict the future why didn't they prevent themselves from dying?"

"Apparently they tried everything, but nothing worked." Iris already knew this, so she just looked at the MTF in disappointment after his explanation.

"It was a war among the gods, kinda hard to avoid that." Charlie tried to back him up but that just annoyed Iris further.

"Then why didn't they hide in these vaults? I mean, look at how it's still standing, they should have been safe inside them."

"Maybe they were but then one of the gods made some kind of anomaly that allowed them to wipe the ISU from existence regardless of where they were. Look I don't know and right now I don't care, the research team can figure all that out and we can ask them later. Let's keep looking and if we can't find anything else then let's keep moving." Charlie and the MTF units went to look for other murals and potential anomalous items. Iris sighed as she thought the whole concept of precursor races being stupid, especially since they were more advanced yet were still wiped out. Though her annoyance died out as she looked around, she had never been inside an ISU vault before, so this was really interesting. It really was like some kind of weird city down here so futuristic and alien.

Right at that moment Iris wished this place was safe so she could have brought Meri and maybe their other friends here to watch. They would have enjoyed the amazing sight, though her gaze turned down and she saw a strange mural. She slowly walked up to it and looked at it in disbelief, Charlie noticed this and walked up to her.

"Iris? What's wrong, why are... no way..." Charlie looked at the mural as well and saw what had spooked Iris so much. It showed a girl with long black hair, deer horns, and a golden scarf; her hands were clasped together, and she was seemingly praying while hovering over the earth. Around the earth there were strange people in tacky, cool, and mostly colorful clothing and masks seemingly dancing all around it.

Iris then looked to another Mural next to it, it showed the same girl singing while the people in masks were dancing, seemingly chasing after her as well. However, what really shocked Iris is that on the opposite side was the Scarlet King. He had the scarlet skin, eyes all over his body, and the large horns with the sinister sharp teeth smile on his blank face. There were several of his spawns, some of his cultists, and even the infamous Blade Head was there on his side seemingly chasing after him. It was like the two were only seconds away from fighting.

"Is... is that Meri?"

"That's impossible, Meri is blonde. She never even told me she wanted to dye her hair black or any other color."

"Huh, maybe it's an ancient god or something. There are lots of ancient gods that have deer horns after all, like that freak deer from Saturn for example."

"No, look at the clothes of the cultists and the dancing people, this isn't the past, it's the present, or future maybe! Is that what these murals are? Are they depicting the future?"

"Hm... Look Iris I really don't know, but it shouldn't have anything to do with you or Meri. maybe the researchers will tell us later, come on it's about time we moved on." Charlie walked off leaving Iris to stand there for a little while longer looking at the Mural. It kinda looked like Meri but also different, Iris knew it wasn't her wife but for some reason something about it gave her an odd feeling. Still Charlie was right, she wasn't going to get answers just staring at it so she shook her head and followed Charlie.

***

After the recovery team came again and it was confirmed there was nothing to find Alpha-9 continued down the long hall. It took a lot longer than expected or maybe it was the exact amount of time since it did look like a street of a large city. Once they made it to the other side, they found the large barrier that the MTF Trooper who could astral project, mentioned earlier. Iris looked into the barrier and saw that it was being emitted by a device that required a key to lower the barrier.

"Oof it's a locked door, without a key we can't go through."

"Let me try something." Charlie then walked up to the device and placed her hand over where the key would need to be placed. She then closed her eyes and suddenly the device started glowing and then turned off the barrier.

"Woah, how did you do that?"

"It was simple, I put my own energy into the device and found out where all the energy is sourced and absorbed it." Charlie then walked forward leaving Iris and Alexie standing there in silence.

"I really hate it when she makes impossible things like that sound simple."

"They don't call her goddess for nothing, Iris."

"Her code name is supposed to be JUST 'Fire Goddess'. Ugh, why did the O5 Council make her fight with Sigurrós. Ever since then those two have grown insanely powerful." Iris just sighed as she followed Charlie while Alexie chuckled as he waved everyone at the back to follow them.

End of Part 1

Part 2 (Coming... Eventually)

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nach0 · 1 year

Text

broken feathers and bloody wings

Summary:

Humanoid anomalies grow wings after a certain stage of development in their powers.

Iris has always hated hers.

AO3 Link

Word Count: 1244

Iris knew she was screwed the minute she heard a long and disappointed sigh.

Which was ridiculous. She was an MTF commander, trained in hundreds of forms of combat, the sole survivor of Omega-7.

She could have just kept walking. Once she was in her cell there was nothing Jacqueline could do to follow her. But she knew it would just make future missions awkward and tense.

“Is there something you needed?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. Maybe if she just bluffed...

“You are aware it’s very obvious when you’re binding, right sir?”

She was, in fact, aware, but she blamed the foundation entirely for that. They denied her proper binds so she had to resort to other things. Like tying her wings together with rope and hiding them under her jacket.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Denial was great. It was her favourite thing. It got her through psych evals and awkward conversations about her feelings.

It wasn’t working.

Jacqueline sighed at her. Again. Iris was already over this ‘disappointed friend’ act. “Right, jacket off. Did you at least make the knot easy to untie?”

“You could just leave it alone and stop bothering me.”

“So no then. Let me do my job and be your medic.”

She reluctantly shrugged off her jacket, pulling out the knife she definitely wasn’t supposed to have to cut the ropes off herself. Most skips would hate having a weapon so close to their wings. Iris was long past caring.

Once she was done Jacqueline pulled the rest of the rope away and let bright red wings stretch and fill the hallway. “How many of us have told you to stop doing this now?”

Iris looked straight ahead at the wall. “They’re a hindrance on missions and reveal me immediately as an anomaly. That’s all.”

“Sure. That’s why you keep them bound and hidden for as long as you can get away with even after we’re back on site.”

She was starting to get annoyed and kept her wings tightly to herself. No use training herself out of expressing with them if one slip-up ruined everything.

“It’s none of your business.” She said with professional detachment. She was the commander, and Jacqueline was one of her soldiers. Nothing more than that. “My wings and my reasons for hating them are my business.”

“...Hating?” Her voice was filled with concern, so genuine it made Iris want to punch something. Or cry. Probably both. “Sir, that’s-”

“I said hiding. You misheard.”

That moment made for the perfect time to leave, so she turned and stormed away without another word. Her cell was silent, but it was safe from judgement and invasive questions.

At least until word of the incident got back to her foundation-mandated therapist.

Horary.

SCP-105 Iris Thompson was 15 years old. She hadn’t left her bed in weeks, but that was fine.

There were no missions anymore.

Her photos had been confiscated, but that was fine too. They only showed dead bodies now.

It hadn’t been long after the... disbandment of the team that her wings had started to grow in. The researchers had been ecstatic, saying she’d reached an important stage in the development both her life and powers.

They’d been less excited to explain what cardinal wings represented.

Grief and loss.

How fitting.

She couldn’t believe they expected her to be excited about it.

To her, they were just the final nail in the coffin proving she wasn’t normal.

Because otherwise she could pretend. She could look normal, act normal, and aside from outdated references, she spoke normally. Take her photos away and she was just as average as anyone else.

Wings weren’t average. And now there was no chance of her ever being let go. Even if she lost her powers, actually lost them with multiple tests to prove it, she was a risk to the veil.

And yet they still tried to offer her incentives based on them. Flight training if she engaged with the researchers. Time in a safe airspace if she ate full meals consistently.

It was shocking how they hadn’t realised that it made her far less likely to comply.

The door to her cell opened. She didn’t bother to move from her blanket lump.

“105, you need to get up. Learning to use your wings has now been made mandatory.”

She mentally weighed the pros and cons of being abrasive before deciding she was too tired to care.

“Fuck off.”

There was a long pause. Almost enough to make her regret her decision.

“You will be escorted by force if necessary.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, she sat up. Stretched out her wings. Ran a hand along the feathers.

Iris made eye contact with the researcher as she grabbed hold of one of her primaries and yanked. Then she did another. And another.

By the time they snapped out of their shock and called the guards, her wing was mangled beyond use. There was no way she could fly on the bloody mess, even if her other side was untouched.

She lost a lot of privileges for that stunt, but they’d got the message.

She would never use her wings.

Jacqueline had snitched.

Iris was now required to have her wings out at all times while not on missions, which included the cafeteria. She’d avoided it for a while before being told how worried Leora and Stacy were about her, and couldn’t she just come out for a little while to reassure them?

Dammit. She had gone soft.

The pair had swarmed on her immediately, asking questions about where she’d been and if she was hurt.

Usually they were satisfied with grunts and non-committal answers, however seemingly sprouting wings out of nowhere was much more interesting than her classified missions.

“Will we get them?”

“If you’re lucky, no.”

“Do they hurt you?”

“Not anymore.”

“Can you fly on them?”

“Never learned.”

“Can I touch them?”

Stacy’s question threw her and she paused, blinking slightly.

Wings were meant to be personal. They were fragile and much more painful than regular limbs when injured.

But... letting her do it would be an even bigger flip off to the researchers constantly trying to get her to accept them. Besides, she’d been shot before. What damage could one teenager do?

“Alright.”

Leora and Stacy both looked shocked at her response, though they quickly scrambled over to her side of the bench when she spread her wings wide.

There were a number of marks, crooked feathers that had never healed quite right, but they were gasping like it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen.

Stacy carefully reached out and ran a hand along it, frowning slightly at the dirt and dust she’d never bothered to clean out. She gently started trying to brush it out, only to freeze as Iris-

Well, Iris chirped.

She had never once made a bird noise. Not even in distress. But the minute someone is gentle with them-

“We are never talking about this again,” she hissed, standing and almost tripping over the table in her rush to leave. Everyone moved out of the way of a pissed Commander Thompson and she was back at her cell in record time.

A loud groan escaped her.

Everyone who talked about ‘self-care’ and ‘not neglecting an entire part of your body’ was going to be insufferable.

Though she had to admit she wouldn’t mind someone doing it again.

#scp 105 #scp iris thompson #scp iris #scp #scp foundation #scp 1985 #scp 3009-C #scp 3009 #scp 4818 #bit of angst bit of fluff #iris makes bird noises #entirely just wingfic that's the whole reason i wrote it #writing #my writing #nach0 writing #feathers and lonely cells

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