Per 
A look of uncertainty washed over Dr. Hallows's face. The task 05 command had assigned him to wasn't something he was all that familiar with. He was a level 4 member of the science and research division, how could he be expected to just move to the Intelligence Agency?
Dr. Hallows let out a heavy breath and got up from his chair. The squeak it produced was all too familiar with him. He walked over to the nearby break room housing SCP-294, rummaging through his labcoat pocket trying to find enough change for a drink. He pulled out two quarters and inserted them into the machine.
BLACK COFFEE
He watched the machine spit out the brown liquid, steam wafting over his cheeks. 294 knew where to get good coffee.
Dr. Hallows made his way back to his desk and sat down. He heard his phone ring. It was North.
Hallows had been assigned Doctor North as a partner ever since he was moved to the Intelligence Agency. He didn't know much about him, apart from their shared love of coffee and introverted personalities. With careful yet eager hands, he picked up the phone and answered.
"Hello? North? What's up?"
"Hey. Come over to the Task Force's headquarters. There's something you need to see."
"Will do, see you in, say, 15 minutes?"
"Very well. See you then."
Dr. Hallows put down the phone and slid it into his back pocket. He then proceeded to collect his documents and started his way to the surface.
Dr. Hallows passed many faces he'd grown to love while walking through the entrance zone, hopefully, this assignment would end soon, he'd miss them. Although he couldn't let the Foundation know how he felt.
He loyal to the Foundation, that was never something in question, but he would curse decisions they've made in his head. Dr. Hallows's primary reason for joining the Foundation was due to his love of discovery, albeit he had no clue what horrors awaited him within those cold, steel walls.
Hallows exited the elevator.
Gate A.
God, it was bright.
After a moment or two of adjusting, Hallows walked over to the nearby helipad and got in the chopper waiting for him.
"Good morning, Dr. Hallows. We apologize for moving you on such short notice, I know 4253 was something you planned to work with this week, but IA needed your help. I trust this won't be a difficult task for you."
It was the director of the Intelligence Agency. Hallows didn't think he'd meet him any time soon. In fact, he had no idea he even existed until just a few weeks ago.
"Morning," he said, "Yeah, it's no big deal, I'll just see how I can help and be on my way. Thanks for entrusting me with this information. I know the Intelligence Agency is incredibly secretive."
"Doctor North will be overseeing this project, he, apart from you, is the only one who knows what this mission truly is. The MTF units are to be utilized only for containment." 05-9 said, "It's imperative you work well with him."
The director paused.
"Your mission is to help us understand and contain an anomaly 53 clicks south of here."
Hallows's eyes widened, he'd been apart of containment and recontainment teams before, but the idea of working to contain an anomaly even the Intelligence Agency was worried about gave him chills.
"Interesting," Hallows paused, "What are the odds there'd be one so close to site 06?"
Nine spoke again, "Not unlikely. It seems to be every year the foundation comes into possession of nearly a thousand anomalies."
The helicopter was nearly at their destination. Hallows could see the tents and antenna's set up. Enormous poles pitched into the ground with branches sprouting out in all directions. They were looking for something, and they weren't going to take any chances trying to contain this thing.
The helicopter began to lower itself onto a makeshift helipad in the middle of what appeared to be a grassland right outside a forest. Doctor Hallows exited the helicopter, labcoat flapping in the wind.
"You're not coming with?" Hallows asked the director.
"No. I'm just here to brief you on your assignment, I have more important business to attend to. Good luck, doctor."
The helicopter took off leaving nothing but a spot of leftover wind and the sour smell of gas Hallows had never gotten quite used to.
Hallows turned and walked towards the nylon tent. He lifted the flap to the comms room, standing over a laptop talking to an MTF agent was Doctor North.
Hallows always thought North was an interesting fellow as he always wore a pair of glasses with red and blue lenses and a fedora, interesting attire for a foundation agent. The two have had some insightful conversations over the past month when Hallows first learned he'd be working with him.
"Greetings, Dr. Hallows. I hope the ride here wasn't too bad?"
"Not at all, what's the emergency?"
"We've got a reading on the source of the anomaly, the waves seem to be originating from a cave deep within the forest. All attempts to find the highest concentration of waves repeatedly led to the same system of caverns. We sent a squad down there to investigate, but we lost contact a few hours ago."
Hallows paced around the table, running his hands across it before looking at North.
"You stated earlier in your introduction dossier that this entity produces an unknown waveform, correct?"
"Yes."
"And this waveform causes brain hemorrhaging that resulted in the mass extermination of nearby animal life?"
"Yes. It appears to change its properties when the opportunity most suits it. Are you suggesting this thing is sentient, doctor?"
Dr. Hallows picked up a walkie talkie and pressed the button down to no response.
"Can it jam radio frequencies?" Hallows asked.
"Not too sure, we rarely send people in, but we could reach them just fine before."
Hallows scratched his neck.
"What was the last order you gave them? Their last confirmed location?"
North checked his computer screen, his face turned a pale gray.
"North? What's wrong?"
Dr. Hallows approached the computer. The monitor glowed the bright reddish purple of a spectrograph. The feed from the wave monitor displayed the bodies of the MTF unit scattered across an unknown surface, most likely the cave floor.
North lifted up his glasses in disbelief as if this was his first time learning about an anomalous object. Hallows, too, was silenced in shock. The sheer concept of a sentient metaphysical entity such as this was enough to send shivers down his spine. He turned to Doctor North.
"It's trying to communicate with us."
North and Hallows gazed in awe for several moments before Hallows picked up the radio he was playing with earlier. He began to speak into it.
"You know about us? Don't you?"
Doctor Hallows didn't expect a direct response, most likely a subsequent transmission of radio static, it never happened. Hallows sat back down next to North and thought.
How could this thing control the waves in the environment around it? What was the limitation to its capabilities? Hallows decided there needed to be an immediate expedition. If this thing was sentient intelligent communication would be imperative in order to better understand and contain it.
"North, we need to get a team together."
North turned in confusion.
"A team? To do what? Go find that thing? No way."
Doctor North stopped.
"This thing just took down the team we sent to investigate. It's clearly sapient. Hostile for all we know. This isn't a game, Hallows, we need a plan."
Dr. Hallows took off his lab coat, underneath was an old flannel shirt his wife had given to him last Thanksgiving. He set it down on the unoccupied chair and placed his hands on the seat in front of him. He thought for a moment.
"North, how can we possibly hope to contain this if we can't get close to it?"
North looked at him, his face expressionless, all modicum of emotion hidden behind his glasses. Hallows assumed he was thinking. North walked over to his files.
"I've been given permission to use every resource at my disposal, the director wants this contained. It's too close to civilization." he said pulling out a file titled 'Reconnaissance Mission IA-3'.
The doctor opened the file and set it on the desk. A satellite image of the forest covered with lines (presumably the path the MTF crew took when sent into the forest) as well as several documents were all neatly spread out on the surface in front of him.
Hallows stared, carefully analyzing each paper for any potential information that could help them during this assignment. North pointed to something.
"See this right here?"
Hallows nodded. He looked down and noticed a picture of a rusted tin can.
"This is the degradation of a tin can we left within the vicinity of the anomaly for a few days. It begins to break down but stops before any considerable damage occurs. It's safe to enter with armor, we won't be affected, but we don't know what might happen if we were to go in and investigate the caves themselves."
Hallows shook his head in acknowledgment. He furrowed his brow and picked up one of the entries.
"It's been growing. Hasn't it?"
North was silent.
"Right here, it says the initial size of wave concentration was a radius of 2 kilometers. It's 4 now."
North looked at his shoes and straightened his tie. His face bright red. He knew the dangers. Hallows was right. He left the tent and came back in a few seconds later with the MTF commander.
"Alright, Hallows. Let's go take a look at this thing."
Doctor North and Dr. Hallows got out of the Jeep. The MTF team Lambda-5 designated "White Rabbits" followed a few seconds later. Doctor North nodded at the commanding officer and the MTF squad moved out into the forest.
North and Hallows were equipped with armored pads covering all but the head. They were to instruct MTF agents and be protected at all costs, despite the soldiers not knowing who the men were whatsoever.
"We're getting closer, North."
"I know, I just keep worrying something is going to happen."
"I get it," Hallows said, "but I think I understand this thing well enough to temporary neutralize it long enough to set up a containment unit."
The team went further into the forest, traversing rocks and vines until Hallows's Geiger counter, repurposed to track the anomalous form of electromagnetic waves the entity produced, went off. They had found the cave.
"Here we are," North said, "Here's the deal. We've already lost one team. The plan is to see how far we can go without casualties. Doctor Hallows says he has a containment plan. Once we can find and neutralize the source of the waves we can call for backup and leave."
North had clearly done this before, Internal Affairs and SCP recovery wasn't something anyone but the IA were really experienced with, but he kept his cool and followed the group into the cavern. He wondered what was going through North's head.
The men entered the pitch black tunnel and turned on their flashlights, illuminating the walls around them. Despite there being two pathways the group did not split up, they kept walking towards where Hallows said the signal was the strongest.
Nobody spoke. Hallows simply motioned in the direction they were to go in. It was quiet, unsettlingly so. The silence throughout the cave was broken when a pulsating noise echoed throughout the cavern.
"Hold it, men." The commander said.
Hallows listened for a bit. He pulled out a device and recorded the sounds, running them through a portable spectrograph software. The soldiers waited patiently, patrolling the area while the doctors worked.
"Look at this." Hallows said, motioning for Doctor North to come over to him.
North peered over Hallows's shoulder and viewed the image. They received another message from the anomaly, this time it was a picture of them.
"It's watching us," North stated.
"Yes, it is. We need to keep moving, I think this will work."
They continued moving deeper into the cave, a feeling of slight paranoia came across the MTF crew. Unprofessionalism was common among MTF units when in situations causing extreme stress, but this felt different.
"I don't like this." One of them said.
"There's something here, it's going to kill us isn't it?" The lieutenant looked at the doctors.
North had been trained to maintain control of his emotions and was for the most part unfazed by the entity's attempts at manipulating the group. Same went for Dr. Hallows, who had become used to some of the memetic effects after years of dealing with SCPs such as SCP-1718 and SCP-2747.
The men noticed a bright light illuminating from a hole in one of the cave walls. The team breached the tunnel and entered the previously blocked off part of the cave. They saw the source, a bright pulsating ball of light and energy, arcs shooting out every which way.
The MTF agents started screaming in fear. First, it was the commander, then two of the cadets, and finally the lieutenant. North and Hallows were too focused on the anomaly to react to the others.
One by one the soldiers shot themselves. One bullet. Straight through the head.
The scientists didn't notice. Their attention was towards the entity.
It was beautiful.
4 bodies decorated the floor, each painting the floor with a steady stream of blood. The men didn't care, they couldn't.
North was the first to snap out of it, Hallows came to exactly 3 seconds after.
"We… found it," North muttered.
Dr. Hallows pulled out a camera attempting to take a picture of the blue ball of light blinding the cave. The camera didn't work. The circuits were mangled upon later inspection.
North, who was holding onto Hallows's scanner at the time, felt it buzz and took it out of his suit jacket. It was no longer a spectrogram message. It was simply a call, a call with no one on the other end.
North picked it up and lifted the device to his ear. He heard nothing, a feeling came over him to hand it to Dr. Hallows, he did.
Hallows listened intently, hoping he would have more luck than North. He didn't.
Dr. Hallows removed his backpack and placed it on the floor. He was drenched in sweat, he and North both. The two set up a device Hallows had tinkered with briefly before they left.
STOP
A faint voice stopped them in their tracks. It didn't sound human. It didn't sound like anything. It wasn't a voice, it was more like a thought. The feeling of mere ideas entering a human brain with no outside force to attribute it to was unlike anything the two had ever experienced before. Hallows could see the fear on North's face. He still had the glasses on.
"Why are we the only ones left?" Hallows asked.
The light turned a cool purple, rotated, and stopped. It was thinking.
I AM UNDERSTOOD
The ambiguity of the sentence left Hallows in confusion, there's not a single thing he imagined would scare him more than not comprehending something as simple as "I AM UNDERSTOOD".
"This was supposed to be an electromagnetic anomaly, North. What the hell is it doing talking to us?"
North stood up and dashed over to the device.
CAN'T BE CONTAINED
Hallows chuckled.
"You've got a point, you'll most likely be classified as Keter, but I wouldn't put it behind the Foundation to look for any means necessary to make sure you are kept in some kind of box."
It didn't respond.
North finished setting up the machine, he looked at Hallows and gave a thumbs up.
Doctor North flipped the switch. A loud buzzing sound burrowed into the men's ears, causing immense pain. The sphere of energy that was floating in the center of the cave vibrated violently, changing different colors. The cave shook. Their brains shook. The entire fabric of reality seemed to shake as if the entity they were crippling was the universe itself.
Then it all stopped. The men had fallen to the ground when the dust settled they rolled over to face the object. It was smaller and didn't glow as much. The colors seemed much less vibrant. North checked the radiation levels, minimal.
The anomaly had been neutralized.
It was done. The hard part was over. Doctor North had successfully carried out Hallows's plan to disable the entity by generating an electromagnetic field that nullified the waves and stopped them from functioning.
Dr. Hallows pulled out a radio he saved in case he needed to call for emergency backup. It was damaged beyond repair. The batteries melted and were leaking out the side.
When they found the exit to the cavern they were half expecting a bombardment of MTF with the intent of apprehending and interrogating them on what the fuck just happened.
The Jeep the group used to reach the forest was still parked outside with the keys left nicely on the dashboard. The doctors got inside the vehicle and sat in silence for several minutes. Hallows put his face in his hands and North cleaned his glasses and began to adjust what was left of his tie (a habit people had begun to expect from him). Dr. Hallows started up the Jeep and the two drove back to base.
The Jeep pulled up to the mess of tents and observation equipment the team has called their base of operations. Something was different, however, two helicopters were landed nearby and more tents seemed to have been put up.
They exited the car and made their way to the communications tent before being stopped by a guard.
"Hold it, only authorized personnel are allowed access beyond this point."
Doctor North looked confused, he pulled out his keycard and identification and displayed it proudly to the soldier.
"Hello, Doctor North, I've been assigned to oversee the study and retrieval of an anomalous entity within the nearby forest. This is my team's headquarters."
"North? I was told Doctor North was to be presumed dead. Our orders were to secure this facility and clear out any unauthorized persons or entities that had made its way onto the site."
The MTF agent's earpiece went off. What was once a case of mistaken identity devolved into a slew of "uh huhs" and "okays" from the officer.
The soldier looked back.
"Very well. Director's waiting for you inside, doctors."
The doctors had entered the communications tent. Sitting at the table looking over North's scattered papers was the Intelligence Agency's director, 05-9, again. He looked up, his gaze piercing through them. North had done this a million times, Hallows hadn't, but that didn't stop them from being more nervous than they've ever been before.
Nine opened his mouth, "It has come to my attention that your MTF squad died when you went to investigate the anomaly a second time. Am I correct in stating this information?"
"Yes," Dr. Hallows answered, "They died from some sort of paranoia-induced suicide caused by the entity in question. We've contained it, however, using a modified version of an electromagnetic field generator. It's capable of keeping it contained and it's capabilities debilitated."
The Director looked around the room and then at North, who had been silent the entire time.
"Good work, North. Go home, we're done here."
North began to pack up his belongings.
"And you," Nine's head turned sharply towards Hallows, "you've done an outstanding job helping us in containing this entity."
He paused.
"Well thank y-"
"Unfortunately we will have to apply amnestics as we cannot allow you continued possession of knowledge pertaining to the existence of our division." the 05 interjected.
Before Hallows could react he felt two sets of hands grab his shoulder.
Instinctively, Hallows tried to shake off the agents but eventually gave in to his apprehension.
It's how the foundation operates. He thought.
He gave in and was promptly removed from the room.
"Nothing personal," the director called out after him, "It's just a matter of Foundation security."
North and his supervisor watched Hallows be escorted into the adjacent tent before speaking again.
"He was a good partner," North said.
"He's good at what he does, I was reading his notes before you two arrived. I'll make sure he's assigned to this particular SCP since he clearly seems to have a substantial understanding of its abilities. I'll leave his notes on his desk."
The director turned to Doctor North.
"You're dismissed, agent, have a good rest of your day."
Doctor North opened up the flap to the tent and stepped outside. He never got a chance to appreciate the serenity of this place, perhaps if he wasn't sent here on a mission he could've enjoyed himself. He took off his glasses and folded them in his hand.
He looked around the site and took one last breath of fresh air before returning to his job of eternal discord and espionage.
