Per 
DYNAMITE
Holder
Thalia sat on the edge of the roof. The setting sun melted the sky into purples and oranges, though Thalia's eyes were shut tight. Gentle footsteps approached from behind.
Miracle sat down next to the younger girl and said nothing for a while.
"Impact told me what happened."
Present Day
Monday morning. The automated system injected SCP-4119 with a sedative, and the Site-496 cleanup crew in their yellow beekeeper suits came into the cell to carry her limp body away and scrub the walls. One stopped and looked at the crude, bloody letters on the wall.
"Uh, boss. Who do we tell about that?"
Researcher Stephanie Marquez sat in front of the camera, as a holographic projection of her appeared in SCP-4119's cell. She tapped the microphone. "Hello, Thalia. My name is Stephanie Marquez."
SCP-4119, back in her restraints, cocked her neck and winced. "Can you at least turn down the room vibrators? I can see why you'd rather not let me out but my ears are ringing and I can barely hear you."
Stephanie looked over at the Head Researcher, Dr. Maravilla, who nodded and turned the dial by two notches. Then Stephanie cleared her throat.
"Thalia, what is it you wanted to talk about?"
"First thing. That agent, the one I threw off a cliff… just tell me straight."
Stephanie was silent a millisecond too long. Thalia hung her head and sighed, the trail of burning nitroglycerin moving from the wall behind the hologram to the slanted floor.
"Gods. I know it doesn't mean jack shit but I'm sorry. I keep replaying it over and over in my head. Phenomenon is right, I'm impulsive, and that's why I'll never- never mind." Her face scrunches a little. "You know I physically can't cry ever since I landed here? I- I'm going on a tangent again. I left a message on my wall as a kind of test, to see what you guys would do."
Stephanie drank her water. "Well, you've got me here. What do you want?"
"Right. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but even I know you're not APHELION. Not the Coven either, or anyone else I've punched. The outside air tastes different, I've got blood coming out of my eyes now, and you guys only have one moon here. So my expert deduction is that I'm on another world or universe entirely."
"We've come to the same conclusion."
Thalia looked back up. "Then where the hell am I?"
"I'm afraid we can't-"
"Right, right. Worth a shot. The thing is that I know you're not any of the bastards from my world, and you're at least kinda reasonable for even having this conversation with me. You're competent, because you've got me in a pretty clever cell, and you're not stupid-evil, because I'm still alive, untortured, and un-vivisected, so I think we can talk this out like adults."
"Alright."
Thalia continued on. "I don't think you particularly like having to deal with me in here, can't imagine it's cheap to keep this whole setup going. I don't like the cell any more than you guys do. All I want is to go back home. Then I can get back to doing my job, and you guys get me out of your hair and can go back to whatever it is that you do around here." She faced the image of Stephanie and closed her eyes, momentarily stopping the constant sound of bubbling nitroglycerin in the chamber. "I'm willing to play nice, here. You'll notice I haven't once tried to break out, make threats, anything, since you put me in this cell."
Stephanie smirked. "Oh, we've noticed. Can't ever be too careful; 'false sense of security' is one of the oldest tricks in the book. One fancy cell is a small price to pay for peace of mind. Give us a reason to trust you."
Thalia cocked her head. "You're gonna think I'm messing with you."
"Try us."
"In my world, I was a superhero."
The rain came pouring down as a young girl cried in her room for the one hundred and nineteenth time. She heard the familiar, dull shouting a few rooms over and curled into her blanket.
Something was different tonight. Her eyes watered, and the droplets levitated in front of her instead of running down her face. Thalia felt piercing sensations tear through her skull, and screamed. She shut her eyes and pressed her hands to her temples, and for a moment she felt like normal. Thalia opened her eyes slowly.
And the wall of her house exploded.
Thalia didn't remember much else. She felt herself being pulled out of the rubble by strong arms. The light and sound of another explosion coming out of her face. Strange voices, in a panic. Then a cloud of forgetfulness and sleep. Then nothing at all.
Thalia shivered in her gray bodysuit. The air conditioning was once again cranked up, and the cold air flowed through the cold concrete halls. Thalia looked down at the neat pyramid of small gray cubes on her tray, topped with two red cubes and one greenish one. She sipped the cup of water and began eating the gray cubes. The boy with mottled green skin sitting next to her looked over. "Damn, C4, you're getting a second red already?"
"Shut up, Ju- L12. You get four, and you also get a blue, you can't complain."
"Careful." Justin knew they weren't allowed to use their real names in there. "Also it was three whole years before they bumped me from one red to two. You're getting yours after four months."
Thalia swallowed the last red cube. She held the green cube in her fingers, idly twirling it.
"What are the greens for?"
Justin shrugged. "How would I know? I'd say about half, a third of people get em. Usually it's people with powers they gotta trigger over and over themselves, like K8 with the sonic bones. She gets four or five green cubes, I think. I wouldn't worry about it too much."
Thalia chewed on the green cube, and shuddered at the metal-and-cranberry taste she still hadn't gotten used to.
"Can't we just trade? I hate the green ones."
"You can't eat someone else's color cubes, dummy. Your throat'll melt. I saw it once."
Thalia ate the last two gray cubes, and washed the whole thing down with the last of her water.
"I've never asked you. How long have you been here?"
Justin quickly shoved his blue cube in his mouth and looked down at the table. Thalia wasn't having it.
"I asked you a question."
Swallow. Then a low whisper. "Too long. I've been in here since I was five." 8 years.
Thalia said nothing. The mealtime buzzer sounded, and they were whisked away to other concrete rooms.
C4 Thalia and five others, all in black uniforms, waited for the armored vehicle they were in to stop moving. She glanced around. Justin was to her left. K8 on her right. The other three along the other side looked older and wore masks.
K8 twisted her neck, stopping just short of making it crack. Of the five unmasked kids, she was the only one to have done an actual mission before. She sensed the apprehension of Thalia and Justin. "Follow instructions. Don't be stupid. That's about all you need to know."
The middle masked person raised a finger. "C4 will accompany me on breaching the interior. L12 and Alpha-" he motioned to his left, "will be the distraction, and K8 and Gamma-" then to his right, "will be on perimeter duty. Simple mission, minimal defenses, just a few guards and drones. We should be back in the vehicle in less than 30 minutes." Satisfied, Thalia sat back in her seat. She knew they'd take care of her. A few missions like this under her belt, and maybe she'd get selected for the more advanced missions and training, like K8 had been.
The vehicle stopped. A red light in the ceiling blinked twice, and the back doors of the vehicle swung open. Alpha, Beta and Gamma jumped from the vehicle to the ground with silent, practiced grace, unhindered by their black tactical gear and imposing sizes. The three teens followed, less smoothly.
Gamma raised his helmet. He spit out his teeth then dug a hole and buried them in the soil. The teeth cracked, sprouting roots that spread throughout the surround area quickly. One rather thin root wriggled out of the ground and settled in one of Gamma's empty tooth sockets. He motioned for K8 to circle the perimeter.
Alpha and Beta nodded to each other. Alpha spoke up, with a gravelly voice. "Estimate about 12 guards. Beta, you know where to go. L12 and I will draw them towards the northwest corner."
Beta cracked her knuckles and looked down at Thalia. "Alright kid, let's go." She lowered the bottom half of her mask and inflated her cheeks, then exhaled a stream of purple gas that enveloped her and Thalia. They vanished from the view of the others.
Alpha walked up to one of the reinforced doors of the loading dock on the west side of the building. "Do your thing, Twelve." Alpha picked up Justin and hurled him at the door. Justin crossed his arms and reflexively extended a thick sheet of green, camouflage-pattern tank armor from them, punching through the door and landing on his feet. Two guards in the vehicle bay came running, armed with shock batons. Justin let the shields sink bank into his arms and stood up. The first guard slowed down upon seeing him. Justin preyed on this as his foot sprouted a whirring tank tread, propelling him towards the first guard. At the last second, the tread retreated into his sole and he backhanded the guard with the panel of armor that instantly grew out of the back of his hand. Before the guard's shattered helmet could hit the ground, Justin had sped towards the second guard. He ducked under the wide swing of the guard's baton, and extended his kneecap into a tank gun turret, which he swung upwards between the guard's legs. The guard crumpled, and Justin dispatched him with his own shock baton, then tossed it away. Alpha leaped in through the hole and picked up both of the batons. "Excellent." He swallowed each one whole, then led Justin to the end of the hallway to find more guards. Justin suppressed a smile.
Hidden from perception by the gas, Thalia and Beta easily sprinted through the corridors and two flights of stairs to reach their target. The last corridor had gleaming, mirrored walls instead of the dull concrete ones throughout the rest of the building, and Beta paused. She pushed her right nostril shut with her finger and exhaled forcefully through her left. An orange, dusty cloud streamed into the corridor, revealing a web of moving laser beams.
Beta took a deep breath in, and switched nostrils. A sickly green cloud flowed from her right nostril and began to glow as it mixed and reacted with the orange gas. She directed the cloud towards the furthest wall, which dulled and cracked as it corroded. Beta suddenly gasped and sucked the clouds back into her mouth.
Beta turned Thalia's head and pointed. "Right there, that little black circle? Blow it. I can't corrode it without fucking up the rest of the system."
Thalia paused. She hadn't worked on precision as much as she should have these past few weeks.
Beta's eyes narrowed. "Can you do it or not?"
"I can do it!"
Beta waved her hand towards the wall. "Take all the time you need."
Thalia's heart pounded. OK… you got this. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and steadied herself. She opened her eyes just a crack, squinting at the black spot Beta had indicated. The veins in her neck strained, and the component exploded into a shower of sparks. The lasers disappeared, and the corroded piece of wall at the back disengaged and revealed a new chamber.
Beta sighed and started walking through the glass hallway. She thought about her own days in training, and how far Thalia still needed to go. She's got some small-scale precision, but she's not confident in it, and from what her Taskmasters told me, she seems to be holding herself back even when she needs to let go… She needs a push.
Thalia followed Beta into the chamber and saw a small briefcase on a pedestal. Beta picked it up and walked out of the room, putting her finger to her earpiece.
"Alpha, we got it. How we looking up there?"
The crackle came in. Beta found it frustrating that of all the insanely high-tech things APHELION could afford, clear comms apparently weren't one of them. "All clear up here, Beta. I let the kid clear em out."
"Perfect. Reconvene at the truck."
Gamma stood perfectly still, connected to his roots. Beta crackled in his ear, saying she and Alpha were on their way. K8 circled back around. "All clear, sir."
"Good. We're just about done here."
K8 whipped her head to the left. "Did you hear that?" She opened her jaw wide and popped it, using the hypersonic burst produced as sonar. "We got incoming, really fast."
"Shit, we weren't supposed to deal with heroes today! Get back to the van and get ready to drive us out of here."
Gamma spit more teeth into the ground in preparation then radioed his teammates. K8 sprinted for the truck but stopped in her tracks when a pink blur landed in front of her, leaving a crater.
A dark-haired woman dressed in red stood up from the crater and grinned.
K8 felt her ear bones vibrate, and reflexively somersaulted backwards using ultrasonic bursts from her toe joints to propel her. The instant she jumped, roots burst from the ground and wrapped up the pink-clad woman. K8 landed on her feet and poised herself as the roots began to glow red.
A pillar of fire erupted, vaporizing the roots and freeing the woman, who started walking forward. The flames illuminatedher, revealing the glowing red feather decals on her arms and legs and a distinctive sun-shaped icon on her chest. K8 and Gamma stepped back, and the latter frantically shouted into his comm.
"She's a Daybreaker!"
Beta froze in her tracks just before she exited the building. Any ordinary hero on patrol could have been handled by the six of them (even if three were kids), but Daybreakers… Even a single one could take on an entire strike force and win, and they almost never worked alone. She'd have to hope she could keep herself and the truck concealed, and that the other five could hold them off long enough.
"C4."
"What's going on?"
Here's the push. "Situation's changed. A Daybreaker intercepted us."
Thalia swallowed. Trial by fire, huh. Most of my regiment hasn't even seen a Daybreaker in action, much less even fought one. She spoke softly. "What's the plan?"
"We're both still cloaked, but I can't hold it much longer. You'll head outside and provide cover for Alpha and Gamma until I reach the truck and give the signal. When you get the signal, you and Alpha will combine your powers to blind the Daybreakers long enough for the five of you to get in the truck."
A pause. "Alright. I got this."
Beta nodded silently and sprinted down the opposite hallway.
Thalia came out to the courtyard through the twisted hole Justin had left in the rolling door. She looked down and saw wisps of purple gas starting to leak from her arms, then surveyed the battlefield. K8 and Gamma were dodging streams of fire from the woman dressed in pink.
Alright. Just lead her away from the truck, and make sure Gamma and K8 don't get charbroiled.
She settled behind a burnt pile of roots and adjusted her goggles. The smoke everywhere made it tricky to see, but she did her best to focus.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The woman was thrown back by the combined explosions but landed on her feet and recovered quickly, pushing her palms out and creating a wall of flame that expanded forward and sent Thalia ducking for cover as it moved towards her. In the split second opening, she shot a burst of flame from her feet and launched herself towards Gamma, covering herself with a fireball and burning straight through the gnarled roots between them.
KLANG!
Gamma flinched, and saw Justin in front of him on his knees, blocking the woman's impact and flames with his shields. The fireball surrounding the woman dissipated as she recoiled her arm. Justin took advantage of the surprise, recalling his shield and extending the tank gun from his right wrist in one fluid motion. Gamma summoned more roots to bind the woman's legs, and Justin lined up to fire the tank gun point blank in the woman's face.
Before he could fire, the woman recovered and gripped the barrel of the gun with her glowing left hand, bending it away from her face. Then she swung the kid and hurled him towards K8, knocking both of them down.
"For your own sake, children, stay out of this."
Thalia shuddered. She stood up and sprinted along the wall, firing explosions at the woman haphazardly. Alpha was hiding in a corner, eating power wires out of the walls like spaghetti. Thalia stomped up to him.
"The fuck are you doing over here?"
Alpha sucked up the last cable and looked down at Thalia. "I'll excuse your insubordination this once, child. You know the plan, so stick to it."
Thalia continued on, trying to take potshots at the woman. The woman shot streams of flame in random directions, trying to hit her invisible assailant and forcing Justin to stay close and protect the unconscious K8.
A fireball shot towards Thalia, and she exploded the ground beneath her to launch herself out of the way. In the smoke, she saw the last of the purple fog dissipate off her. But if she was visible now, that meant…
Beta shimmered into view with the briefcase, thirty feet from the truck doing the same. A sonic boom erupted from the sky.
"Oh shit-"
With a thunderous slam, a second figure landed, stomping on the front of the truck at the speed of sound. The front half of the truck collapsed into a splattering of beige powder underneath the boots of the orange-clad man. He had brown skin and black buzz-cut hair, and the same sun symbol on his chest as the pink-suited woman. "Going somewhere?"
Thalia was frozen in her boots. Two Daybreakers meant she'd either be killed, or be as good as dead when she made it back to base without completing the mission. She watched as the orange-clad hero threw a crumbling piece of the truck at Beta, who dove for cover. The pink-suited woman sent another flame wall at Gamma and Justin as she swooped in to snatch the briefcase, then stood next to her teammate.
"What took you so long, Dulce?" the woman groaned.
Dulce stepped forward. "I was trying to pinpoint their vehicle, Miracle." He turned to the APHELION agents.
"Stand down," he boomed.
Gamma and Beta got on their knees, and Beta mouthed to Thalia and Justin. "No matter what, stay down and play dead."
"Alright. So here's how it's gonna go. I'm-"
KRAKOOM!
A gigantic bolt of lightning struck between Dulce and Miracle, sending them flying. Alpha emerged from a cloud of smoke, his right arm transformed into a tangle of sparking wires and tubes the size of a tree trunk. Beta nodded and leapt to her feet, sprinting towards the knocked down heroes to retrieve the briefcase. The wires sank back under Alpha's skin, and his neck and head transformed into a two-pronged gun-like shape, firing electric blasts at the heroes.
Dulce stood up from the dust-lined crater he was lying in, and saw the briefcase lying about thirty feet from Miracle lying face down in the dirt. He dodged a lightning bolt and made a leap for it but was entangled by a burst of roots. With a shout, he broke free of the roots, turning them into crumbling mazapan. An instantaneous glance at Miracle later, and he flew straight up, leaving a dusty crater. Before Alpha could fire again, Miracle dove for the briefcase, rolled, and ignited the dry roots and volatile dust, blinding Alpha and Gamma and throwing them back.
Alpha stood up and diverted more wires to his head, creating a four-barreled cannon. Miracle sheathed herself with a fireball, then created six more as decoys when Alpha began blasting lightning haphazardly.
Two of the fireballs sandwiched Gamma, who managed to block the brunt of the roots with the last of his teeth. Exhausted, he collapsed from the heat. The hot air was making it hard for Beta to breathe, but she dodged for cover, moving towards Thalia.
Alpha scored a hit, slamming Miracle into the ground with a blast of lightning. He overcharged the four cannons and aimed at her again when-
WHAM!
Dulce came down from directly above Alpha and swung his interlocked fists straight down on the center of the cannons. The impact shockwave tore through the wires and metal comprising the head and torso of the cyborg, turning them to brittle sugar and peanut dust. The wiry arms, legs, and partial abdomen fell to the ground, sparking. Dulce stomped on the pieces for good measure, then flew towards Miracle and helped her to her feet.
The duo turned to face Beta, who was now holding Thalia in a loose chokehold. Beta was holding a dull black metal contraption the size and shape of a traffic cone to the girl's head.
"That's close enough. Now that I've got your attention, I'll make this quick." She caressed Thalia's head. "Give me the briefcase or the girl gets atomized." Thalia looked up at Beta. Beta subtly mouthed "fake".
Dulce and Miracle froze, then looked at each other. Dulce nodded solemnly.
"Alright. I'll throw the briefcase over, you let the girl go and she'll grab it for you."
The edge of Beta's mouth curled up slightly. If I do that, they'll kill me while she's holding the case, then take it from her.
Miracle blinked.
Lightning bolts shot down from the sky, striking the ground between Impact and Champion.
Champion looked up, the fire of the sun in his eyes. "Why now?"
Standard superhero tradition permitted the even exchange of words before the first blows were dealt. Impact knew Champion would abide by this, even after the destruction of the base, and so he spoke.
"I have everything to gain and nothing to lose by stopping you now."
Something wasn't right. "And you're alone? If you survived after all, surely you've got other heroes up your sleeve."
"They're off cleaning up your lackeys. This is between you and me. A finality."
Champion grinned at this. "Ah. The classic one-on-one showdown, not the clusterfuck like last time."
The lightning in the air grew hotter as Impact bristled. He watched the familiar, hateful tendrils of solar plasma curl around his opponent, and Champion grit his teeth in preparation as he assumed a battle stance.
"This time, I'll kill you for real."
Electricity arced around Impact as he clenched his fist and saw the tattoo of his best friend.
"You already did."
A resounding boom echoed across the empty desert as the two former heroes clashed.
Miss Dynamite stood up from the crater she had been blasted into, and ran a finger across the bottom of her eye. The tear quickly evaporated, and she realized she could barely remember the last time she saw her tears.
The burning golden shape was still standing. Miss Dynamite felt her stomach sink. Impact was dead. Armando and Prodigy were both dead. The Hammer was reduced to atoms. Communications with the team at the base had gone dark. She grit her teeth, cracked her neck, and started walking back towards the shape. There was still a job to do.
Champion kicked a stray arm away from him and walked towards Miss Dynamite.
"You survived! Honestly, I would have been disappointed otherwise."
She stopped, but said nothing.
"Look. It's over. You tried your best, but sometimes your best just isn't good enough. I'm not unreasonable. I don't want to kill you when you could be a valuable asset in helping me rebuild all of this. I'll let you surrender right now, just this once."
The hot wind blew solemnly.
"And what about my teammates?"
"Spared, from the moment you agree."
"And all I have to do is sign away the world."
Champion laughed. "You've always been so dramatic. You can't sign away what you never had. You and your associates never had a chance of stopping me, not then, not now. And why would you want to?"
She closed her eyes.
"I'm gonna need an answer."
"No. Because I'm a goddamn hero." She opened her eyes, and a ball of fire erupted in the middle of Champion's face, throwing him back.
"So be it."
Every hero has what we call a "nova": it's an emotion, circumstance, or situation that seeps into your power all the way to its core and amplifies it. When you hit your nova, you get focused, you shrug off things that would put you down, you go further, hit harder, react faster. No one's really sure whether it's physiological, or mental, or magic, or even just a placebo or superstition. Impact's was VENGEANCE. After all this time, I think I figured out Champion's.
It's PRIDE. He needs that feeling of superiority, needs both himself and others to respect the magnitude of his power in order to fuel it. When I look at it with a clear head, I can match him powers-wise and skills-wise. So it's all gonna come down to our novas, and who's got more of theirs to burn. Champion's going down.
Because mine is REGRET.
Explosions and shockwaves and beams of solar heat rocked the already seared desert. Thalia conserved energy, staying out of melee range and evading the bursts of sun with small well-timed explosions. She continued to pepper Champion with explosions, targeting his face, hands, and joints to keep him off balance.
The sirens ring out in that awful, unsettling whine. Just yesterday I would have considered the sound almost a comfort, a bolt of lightning surging through my adrenal glands, calling me to action. A hero, ready to face the day.
I'm not sure if I can anymore.
I saw my mother and two of our closest friends run to confront Prominence. I would have gone with them. I should have gone with them. Maybe?
"Destroy the lab first, Thalia. Then come and find us."
It might have made more sense to them than me. My head is still spinning, emotions flowing and staining my psyche like a tie-dye pattern. I let a tear fall before blasting it into vapor and moving on. Champion betrayed all of us. The world I knew fell apart before my eyes and I've just killed people I trusted with my life yesterday.
The base has eight underground levels. I'm on the seventh one, trying to remember which way to go. There's not much down here except storage: chunks of broken evil robots, recovered alien artifacts, retired costumes. Yet the doors and walls keep getting thicker. I know my mom is right even as I desperately wish she was wrong, and that this will all turn out to be a misunderstanding. There's a clang behind me, and I spin around to face the source, hands raised and glowing.
Perfect. Aiden Vorkoff. Of all the people to run into, it had to be him. Lanky kid with his brown hair in that godawful bowl cut, silver and brown costume that's been plastered with the Daybreaker logo all over it. Wait a second. I look a little closer, and it's not the hollow sun outline. It's Champion's personal variant.
"What do you want, Hotshot?"
He grins. "Boss sent me. Said to check down here for anyone lurking around and bring them upstairs."
I narrow my eyes and quickly glance at the surroundings. I'm in a larger warehouse room, and there's three exits. Two of them I'm certain lead me to the next level. Level 8 is mostly just the generators. I can work with this. This kid's kinda new. Only been on the team a year or so. Major ass-kisser. Worships the ground Champion walks on. I know his power, and I start working out strategies as I stall.
"He did, did he? What a good little errand boy. I could help you look, in case you get lost down here."
"Don't play dumb with me. I saw you with the villains."
I pretend to play with my goggles. "You're gonna have to be a bit more specific. I beat up some villains earlier, if that's what you mean."
"Champion said-"
"Come on, I know you can think for yourself if you really really try, but quit dancing around. Champion told you to take me down."
"Not bad for an old lady." The kid somersaults forward, and his body contracts into a shiny, bronze ball. What's new is that the once featureless sphere now bears a couple etchings of Champion's symbol, and even a small image of his face. I step to the side, evading the projectile, and scoff.
"Jeez, kid, obsessed much?" I turn around and blast him, and a flash of light knocks the ball off course and into a wall. He's unfazed. I don't even see a scratch on the metal. "That's a warning shot. Surrender and I'll only knock you out."
The bronze sphere rolls off the wall and spins to pick up speed, then shoots towards me like a pinball. His voice rings out, with a metallic pitch. "You talk a big game, but neither of those is gonna happen. You can't break me in this form." I dodge his bounces without any flare, and then feint a stumble. He takes the bait and comes straight at me, and before he knows it I have both hands out and I let loose a burst that floods the room with daylight for a split second. The smoke hasn't even had a chance to clear, and I feel the hot metal press into my skin. My blast canceled a good chunk of his momentum, but he's unhurt and I'm smacked thirty feet down a corridor. Shit. I expected as much. He's expendable to Champion, but not useless.
I get to my feet and blast the ground to send me backwards, further down the corridor, and twist in mid-air so I hit the ground running. I hear the dull thunk as the ball rolls around the room and pursues me down the hallway, bouncing against the reinforced walls.
The ball speaks as it's bearing down on me. "That's right, you better run!" I blast a control panel and emergency barriers start closing. "I'm only running so I don't have to see your stupid 'tattoos'!" I retort, trying to goad him. I slide under a barrier as it closes and then veer left, toward an elevator. I hear Hotshot smashing through the barriers. A burst of light, and the elevator is destroyed, leaving me free to jump down the now mostly-empty shaft. I just have to lead him to the right spot.
The color coded lines on the map intersect in an odd location, an empty room where the heating controls used to be before they were centralized upstairs. I leave a trail of unmistakable explosive craters as I pass. He'll think I'm just trying to slow him down.
There's old boilers and pipes lining the walls that echo noise from elsewhere on this floor. In fact, the floor underneath my feet is less reinforced because of all the old pipes running through it.
Right on cue, Hotshot rolls right through the wall. I blast him back, and manage to push him about ten feet. He gets cocky, as I hoped he would. "That the best you can do? They should call you Miss Firecracker, you washed-up fossil." I roll my eyes behind my glasses. Damn kids. I'm only ten years older than him, not that I expect him to do math in his head that easily. He rolls toward me, and I get the sense that he's trying to intimidate me. As he speeds up, I sidestep and grab hold of the grooves on him. I grunt and twist my core, flinging the metal ball into the air. I take a half step back and outstretch my hand, and a small explosion forms on the floor underneath the falling ball, sending it back into the air. I've trapped Hotshot, and he knows it.
"That was easier than I thought, kid. Surrender yet? I can keep you in the air all day if I wanted to."
The ball vibrates in the air as it bounces up and down, coming teasingly close to the floor before getting launched again. "FUCK YOU!"
"Let's talk this out like adults- uh, professionals. What did Champion promise you?"
"How- unh!- do you know he promised me anything? Maybe I'm just being a good hero and doing what's right."
"I know enough about you, Aiden. You'd never do anything unless it benefited you too. There has to be a reason you practically worship Champion. Come on, what are you hoping for?"
The ball made a sound almost like a spit. "Alright! Fine! He said if I did good this year he'd make me his official sidekick! He said he'd even get me a statue."
I snort. "Kid, you're pathetic. Do you really think Champion gives a fuck about you?" I decide to drop the bomb. "He's not the perfect hero he makes himself out to be. Remember Singularity? He was right all along, and Champion killed him to cover his tracks. I've seen the files. He's behind nearly every villain organization we've run into the past five years. APHELION, the Coven, it's all him! Come with me and I'll show you! Why do you think you're not even allowed to know what else is down here?"
"Shut the fuck up, Miss. Now you're just making things up. Champion was right. You're just jealous of him, and how mediocre of a hero you turned out to be compared to him and me. It must burn you that he never considered you for the core team, even with how long you've been here. You just want to smear him so you and your pathetic friends can try to steal some prestige."
Well. I no longer feel bad for what I'm about to do.
"I knew trying to sway you would be a waste of breath. So you can just go to hell."
The ball laughs. "You idiot. You can't hurt me with your explosions, and as we speak I've been increasing-"
"Increasing your density, I know. What's your max, about 9 times the density of lead? You figure that you'll be able to get heavy enough that my explosions won't be able to lift you, and then you'll crush me like a steamroller. But I'm not just practicing my juggling, I'm weakening the floor beneath you. Pop quiz, Hotshot: what's on level 8?"
He's shaking now. "Oh shit… the geothermal generator?"
"That's right. The one built over a naturally occurring magma plume."
I launch him into the air one last time, and he knows there's nothing he can do to stop me. I leap into the air, and stare directly at the top of the sphere. A point of light appears, and grows brighter and brighter as the ball reaches the height of its arc and descends.
"Like I said. Go to hell."
He's a living cannonball. And I'm the gunpowder. The room shakes with a KABOOM that destroys the remaining shelves and pipes, releasing steam everywhere. Hotshot is sent straight down at the speed of sound and I'm flung into the air. I bounce off the destroyed ceiling and hit the floor, and resist the urge to go look into the borehole I've created. The sad thing, I realize, is that this is still probably a better end for him than he would have eventually met under Champion.
CLEVER
Holder
Ursula and Stella sat down at the table, powering their way through the wobbly mountains of paperwork and munching away at the plate of conchas sitting precariously on the edge.
Ursula dunked a concha in her glass of milk. "You think this'll actually go through?"
Stella signed another page. "Honestly? I don't know." She delicately set the page atop a small stack and leaned back in her chair. "When you say it out loud it's a pretty ridiculous idea. But I think there's a space for it. We'll blaze our own trail here, figure it out as we go along."
Ursula stapled a clump of papers together. "Right there with ya. Now who's this guy we have to meet with?"
Stella and Ursula stood in front of the mahogany door, frozen with anticipation. The golden plaque read
Assistant Director of Task Forces
COMMANDER ULYSSES ELLISON
in a simple, no-nonsense font, and beneath the plaque was an iron door knocker. Stella smoothed her uniform and knocked, making a sound louder than she had expected.
Ursula whispered, "I wanted to knock it…"
The door opened, and Ursula and Stella were greeted by a wide, towering, man in a green uniform. Colorful badges seemed to wallpaper his entire left side. A small patch of salt and pepper hair prevented his head from truly being bald, as it seemed most of the man's hair had migrated to his upper lip, culminating in a magnificent handlebar mustache as thick as Stella's wrists.
"You must be Miss Delacruz and Miss Nunez! Come in, come in! Please, have a seat."
"I hear Site-31 is great to work at. You should see if you can transfer there!"
Viviana pushed Stella against the wall, tears welling in her eyes.
"You killed my sister!"
Rosa trembled as she reached out and pet the bright orange Triceratops on the horn, and the giant, formerly rubber dinosaur bellowed gracefully and lowered its head. The young Researcher looked back at her sister and friends and waved.
The moon shone brightly over the Avenue of the Dead. Stella Delacruz walked quietly along the dirt path, past the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. She reached a small cleft of rock and tapped her foot claw on the rock in a practiced pattern. In her mind, she felt the familiar question push in. She repeated the code phrase she had been given:
"Only when the stars stop falling."
A tiny red beam emerged from the wall and into her eye, then turned off. Stella walked into the tiny elevator that opened from the wall, curled up her tail, and waited for the doors to close.
Stella felt the elevator rumble as it descended about 25 floors. The steel doors opened again, and Stella walked into a makeshift, hollowed-out dirt room with a few computers and khaki-clad researchers milling around. The curly haired woman turned around, and gave the momentary shock that Stella was all but used to by now. Stella couldn't sigh or shrug as easily as before, sadly, so she continued forward in Spanish.
"Dr. Salvador. I'm Special Agent Stella Delacruz."
"Apologies, Stella. They didn't exactly tell me-"
"That I'm a literal dinosaur, yes. I'll make this quick, I just need to talk to 4959."
"Yes. We'll bring you down."
Stella stepped into the stone chamber, lit only by a large pair of glowing green eyes. She turned on a light, and set it down. The gigantic Quetzalcoatlus skeleton ambled towards the source of the light, then paused. A booming, creaky voice came from the shadows.
"Do my eyes deceive me? How good it is to see you, Stayla!"
"Hello, Jelrikam."
"It's Quetzalcoatl now. But- oh, which tongue would you prefer? I've eaten many speakers of español, but perhaps ingles is better for you? Or did you ever learn our words for yourself?"
Stella relaxed. "Kelmura's weave on our tongues ended when we left your time. Spanish will do."
"Very well! I had given up hope on ever seeing a familiar face eons ago!"
"I'm not here to chit chat. This is important."
"My dear. I outlived every species I ever knew. I have not seen my old tribesmen in millions of years. Please at least indulge me this rare opportunity."
Stella swayed her tail sharply.
"Now then. How on earth are you still alive?"
"Kelmura returned us to our own time after the Battle was over. For us it's only been five years since then."
The pterosaur circled Stella, towering over her. "I see. So what are you here for?"
"I don't know how much your minions can tell you, but the world is going to hell. My people are throwing anything and everything at this, and I'm just trying to call in any connections I have. You helped us once; I ask you to do it again."
SCP-4959 splayed its wings and bent its head down, eye to eye with Stella. "My magic is stronger than you give me credit for, child." The jovial tone was gone. "I know the Mother and the King battle to drown the world. I can feel the tug of war over the fallen souls that grow more numerous by the hour. And I also know they can't be beaten. One will finally win, and whoever's left will have to accept that."
Stella bared her teeth. "You don't know that we can't win."
"Child! You get a taste of power from the damned Witch Queen and suddenly you think you're unstoppable. She couldn't keep her own children alive!" SCP-4959 raised itself up and flapped its skeletal wings, knocking Ursula down. "Palsinnor and Armalore died in one day. Armalore gave himself up to serve The Sorrow and look how well that worked out. Kelmura killed her own half-dead children and created you abominations all because of an old prophecy!"
Stella said nothing.
"She relied on your kind's supposed strength. And what did it get her? The evil was suppressed for a time, yes, but where is Kelmura now? Long dead. I alone sought my own power and now I cannot die! I alone survived the extinction! I could kill you where you stand and make you my thrall, Witch Needle! Or you and your sisters could join me."
"Never."
"I think you would be much wiser to hide and wait out the inevitable than kill yourself trying to stop it."
"You underestimate us. Rot alone in your pyramid if you like, but we'll fight with or without your help." Stella turned and walked back to the tunnel exit.
SCP-4959 called out after her, igniting its fiery wings. "Remember me when your stolen life bleeds out of your dying heart, and maybe I will be kind enough to catch your soul before the gods eat it."
"And in first place, with 119 points, Ursula Nunez of _, _!"
Ursula bowed, then walked over to the podium, black and green ponytail swishing out of her baseball cap. She shook the announcer's hand and received her medal, then looked out at the softly applauding crowd. She saw her dad, with his ridiculous mustache, hat and full suit making him look like a discount mariachi. Then her mom, cheering and hollering and holding up a banner with Ursula's name flanked by bullseyes. Then her brother Erik, who had miraculously torn himself away from his phone long enough to clap.
Ursula blinked. Winning usually felt good. Seeing her family proud of her usually felt better. So why did she just feel numb?
Ursula sat at the dinner table, palm pressed tightly against her forehead. "Do we have to do this now? I was gonna head out in 10 minutes."
Her parents sat across from her, making it clear it would be a 2v1. Her father made the opening move.
"Mija." Here we go. "Your mother and I just want to make sure you have a plan. For your future."
A classic play.
"Dad. Are we really gonna do this again?"
"We were understanding when you said you didn't want to go to college right away. We were supportive when you got competitive in shooting. But you can't do this forever."
"The hell I can. There's active Olympic contenders older than you."
"Alright. Have you actually started looking into applying for that?"
Ursula was stunned for about half a second, which was half a second too long. Her mom tagged in.
"Mija. We want you to be happy. But we also want you to take your life seriously. Whatever you decide to do, commit to it. That's all we're saying."
"No, it's not. You always have more to say. Let's hear it, Dad."
He sighed. "Your mom and I worked hard our whole lives so we could give you and your brother a better opportunity."
Ursula dropped her head to the table. "Not this again. Every single time we get to this conversation, you always talk about this. How it's every generation's job to lift the next one up, and how much you sacrificed, and how damn much you expect of me. Where does it end? If Erik and I are doctors and engineers are you gonna push our kids to be astronauts and CEOs? I can't take this pressure anymore, I just can't."
Her mom tried to intervene, too little, too late, as the tears started coming. "Ursula. We just want you to realize how much we care about you."
"I am so sick of these expectations. I don't want to be the disappointment. I know how much you've sacrificed for us and I don't feel worthy of it, I don't feel like I deserve it. I can't carry the damn weight of Mexico's hopes and dreams all by myself!" She stopped to blow her nose.
"No one's saying that. But you need to realize the opportunity you've been given-"
"I get it, okay? You guys worked so hard to get here and I'm clearly ungrateful and undeserving of this so just send me back to fucking Mexico and bring someone else back in my place. The only reason I even try at all is because if I didn't you'd just transfer all the pressure to Erik and if I'm an adult and I can't handle it then how is he supposed to he's only fourteen oh god-"
Ursula degenerated into deep sobs. She had lost again. Her mom and dad hugged her tightly. They said "it's okay, it's okay", but Ursula was sick to her stomach now.
It's not okay, she knew. They'd hug, and reassure her that they loved her (which to be fair, they did), and then everything would be tranquil for a few days, maybe weeks if she was lucky. Then they'd inevitably fall right back into the same frying pan.
Ursula had a hard time sleeping that night.
The very next morning, there was a knock on the door. The knocking continued with no signs of stopping. Ursula rubbed her eyes, then stuck her handgun behind her back and jumped down the stairs in her sweatpants and hoodie to look through the peephole.
An older man in a stiff suit, bearing an uncanny resemblance to that one agent guy from the Avengers, stood in the doorway. Ursula opened the door slightly.
"Miss Ursula Nunez?"
Ursula brushed her frizzy, untamed hair over her ear. "Who's asking?"
"My name is Matthew Logan; I'm with Solomon's Crop Protection. I'd like to offer you a job with us."
Ursula unlatched the chain and opened the door.
"Must be some job if you came all the way to my house. Do you want to sit down? I can get you coffee, or water if you want."
The man sat down at the dinner table. "Water is fine."
Ursula poured a glass of water, then set it and a bottle of Gatorade on the table and joined the man. "So, Mr. Logan. What kind of job is this?"
"I'm sure you're aware of the feral pig problem in this state. Our company partners with several large farms in the area to protect vital crops, and we have an opening for someone of your skill." Logan produced a folder from his briefcase and set it on the table. Ursula opened it and began to read.
"Hmm." She cocked her head.
"Is there a problem?"
"What's the catch? I mean, there's gotta be one. You didn't just come to my house and offer me the job because you felt like it."
Logan smiled. "Yes, it's unorthodox. But we want only the best of the best working our security, protecting our product. And if that means we hand-pick, well, so be it."
Unfortunately for Logan, Ursula had too many self-worth issues for flattery to be very effective. Still, she flipped the page over and almost choked upon seeing the salary.
"That's, uh, not a typo there, is it?"
"Nope."
Ursula gulped. "Fuck it. When do I start?"
Ursula stretched her arms straight up in the air, then bent her neck to the right until a satisfying pop rang out. Then to the left. Pop.
"You know I hate the sound when you do that." Her coworker set down his can of Red Bull and began lacing his boots.
"I do. But it feels really good so whatever." Ursula adjusted the brim of her baseball cap. "You really gotta try it one of these days, Dylan. I'll even do it for you if you want."
"No chance in hell I'm letting your hands anywhere near my neck."
Ursula popped open the Tupperware container she had brought. "Oh come on. Don't you trust me?"
Dylan put his fist to his chin, exaggerating. "Hmmmm. No," he said jokingly.
Ursula dug into the enchiladas in the container. "Why you gotta hurt me like that? Next time we shoot a hog I'm not bringing you any of my mom's carnitas."
"Damn. You got a point there. Even though we haven't even seen a hog in like 3 weeks, sadly."
Ursula paused between gulping down tortilla and meat. "I'm just glad we still get paid even when there's nothing to shoot."
"Yeah, otherwise we'd be broke by now."
Ursula pushed the container towards Dylan. "Oh man. Tia Marisol really outdid herself this time. You want some?"
"Dammit, I just ate."
Ursula mock sighed. "You can't go on eating PB&J sandwiches forever, gringo. Seriously though, you and Jessica come over one of these weekends and my mom and I will forcefeed some culture into you."
Dylan shrugged. "Maybe. But your mom scares me."
"I'd call you a wimp but she scares me too."
A blue light on the wall blipped.
Ursula jumped to her feet. "Fucking finally! Let's go."
The dusk was settling in as Ursula stood on lookout.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." She pulled out her radio. "There's a weird hole in the east fence but I haven't seen anything."
"What's weird about it?"
Ursula squinted. "The fence just collapsed here; all the chain links are just lying on the ground broken. Something that pushed through wouldn't break them all individually like this. You seeing anything over there?"
"Nope. Wait, I think there's something over in the corn. I'm gonna go check it out."
Ursula adjusted her cap and started jogging the same way, catching up with Dylan.
"Well, where'd it go?"
Dylan called out. "It made a loud screech then went that way through the cornfields. Weird tracks, too, I don't think it's a hog."
The pair followed the trail of collapsed cornstalks, rifles drawn. The trail ended at a wooden fence that was falling apart before their eyes. Ursula squinted and raised her rifle. "You see it?" she whispered? Dylan looked up and gasped.
A nearly transparent, shimmering shape writhed and twisted around the fence, fading in and out of visibility. Ursula could make out three reptilian heads folding in and out of the vague outline, and a line of spines that intersected itself.
"It's a fucking Cerberus ghost chupacabra," she hissed.
SINGULARITIES
Item #: SCP-5579
Object Class: Pending (Euclid?)
Special Containment Procedures (Proposed): SCP-5579 is uncontained, and is to be terminated as soon as is feasible. Until a method for this has been accepted, uninfected personnel in Site-189 are to wear protective body armor and avoid SCP-5579-A instances.
Description: SCP-5579 is former Site-189 Director Morgan Jefferson.
Director Jefferson either is, or is possessed/influenced by, a metamorphic, parasitic entity. SCP-5579 has extended several thousand tendrils through the walls and hallways of Site-189. These tendrils emit a gaseous/memetic/cognitohazardous/(?) effect that allows SCP-5579 to mentally control some subjects who are exposed to it.
It is unknown what criteria determine whether a subject will succumb to SCP-5579's control.
It is unknown whether the affected subjects retain their personalities/memories or if they are simply puppeted by SCP-5579.
It is unknown if SCP-5579 is speaking directly through subjects.
Dr. Monique Velasquez finished typing and sent the document file through SCiPnet. It was rough, but it would do for now.
"It's pretty nice how the "create new SCP document" program is practically baked into every computer. Course, I've sent all the different distress signals too, I'm just making sure we get every option covered."
Dr. Wilberto Maravilla sighed. "Can't believe you wrote the SCP in five minutes."
"Told you I could, old man. And that's five bucks you owe me, assuming we make it out of here." She tried her phone again, but the signal was still blocked. "Where do we want to try next?"
"D-Class living spaces and Euclid containment are on the bottom two floors, as is Storage. It's possible he hasn't yet reached those."
Monique rose to her feet and strapped the taser to her belt. "Let's go."
Site-189 was small, and didn't really require too many D-class. Currently, there should have been ten to twelve of them here. Monique and Wilberto's sweep of the living quarters found only D-11424 asleep in his cot, with no sign of the tendrils. The other D's must have been in the labs when SCP-5579 manifested.
Monique gently shook D-11424 awake and the large man rolled over.
"Whoa-wha? Oh, Dr. Velasquez. What's going on?"
"Containment breach. We're trying to find unaffected people."
"Oh shit. What broke out?"
