Detective Tubb and the Case of the Capricious Keter - SCP Foundation

Tubbioca was dreaming of munchies and flowers on his soft bed when he heard the door to his containment cell open slowly. He yawned and stretched his little plushie nubs, then slowly rolled over.

"Hello? It's munchy time already?" He inquired looking around, but he saw no one.

"Playtime? Where is everyone at?" No one was there.

He heard a faint rustle as if someone had moved paper. The plush was confused. His door was never left open without someone coming in or out.

"Who's there?" Silence.

Tubby jumped off his bed with a soft thump and started waddling towards the door. He wondered whether the nice people with the munchies would come today. He did love his munchies.

"Munchies? Is it munchy time already?" More silence.

The plush paused in thought. Where were his friends? He didn't have an answer, so he decided to find out. Maybe he would find his munchies along the way.

"Where is everyone?" Tubby asked himself.

Tubbs waddled out of his containment cell and looked around. To his left, a long hallway with doors along both walls, that ended in an intersection with another. To his right, a similar hallway but this one ended in a large space far away. A sign was on the wall with words on it.

The right or the left? The tiny plush didn't know which way to go but decided to go to the right since it was shorter.

Off he waddled but stopped suddenly. He saw something on the wall halfway down the hallway. With fast little plushie waddles, he made his way over there. Tubby looked up at the wall, there was red stuff smeared on it.

"Those are pretty pictures!" The stuff on the wall must be pictures because they looked like the ones that a researcher showed him on several cards. She'd called them pretty pictures and asked him to tell her what they looked like to him.

He nodded and said happily, "They are really pretty pictures. Thank you whoever made them."

And the pictures were drawn in red too! He liked the color red. It reminded him of the juicy, crunchy, red munchies his friends sometimes brought him. This made him happy and he began to dance. First, he hopped. Then, he spun. Followed by a double hop, another spin, and finished with a roll from side to side.

After his little dance, he happily bounced down the hallway with little plushie bounces. Now and then he would pause to look at more pretty pictures on the wall, and repeat the process. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make this hallway pretty for him.

The plushie was so happy that he passed an open doorway and almost didn't notice it.

Tubby stopped and turned around. He tilted to one side, then the other. This was the only open door he'd seen since he started exploring. He forgot about the pretty pictures he was following and waddled towards the open door.

"Hello? Anyone in there?" Only the soft rustling of paper answered him.

"Are you a friend?" This time, there was no sound.

Tubby frowned as much as his little plush face allowed. He knew he had heard something.

Silently he crept up to the doorway and looked inside. It was an office. Directly inside the office, there was a simple desk and chair with a trash bin next to them. He moved further inside and saw another chair next to several bookcases and filing cabinets to his left. There was no sign that there was anyone in the room.

"Come out! Don't be scared. I'm a friend." He squeaked, getting frustrated.

Nothing moved, but Tubby knew there was something here. He scanned the room from just inside the doorway. Then he moved towards the desk and looked behind it, but nothing was there.

A rustling sound came from inside a drawer of the file cabinet. Tubby snuck over to investigate and out popped a small origami teddy bear holding a folder.

The origami teddy bear jumped down with the folder and ran out the door.

"Stop! That's not yours!" But, the figure was gone.

Tubby ran as fast as his little nubs could take him. Once he got into the hallway, he saw the figure flatten itself and disappear through a crack in the wall. It left the folder outside the crack.

"Wait! Let's be friends!" The plush yelled after the paper figure. This thing was quick.

Tubby came to the crack and stared at it. He was confused. How could that thing fit in there? He pressed himself up against the crack. He couldn't fit. His plush body was too big. The origami figure shouldn't have been able to fit either, but somehow it did.

"Hello in there! Why did you hide?" His only answer was silence.

"Do you have munchies in there?" He asked hopefully. Nothing but silence. Tubby frowned.

"Fine! Stay in there! I don't wanna be your friend anyway." He huffed. What a rude paper creature!

He looked down at the folder. On it was a name and a small picture of one of the friends that would come visit him. Inside, there were papers with many words on them. Tubby frowned as he tried to make out the words but couldn't. He soon gave up and turned away with hurt feelings. All he'd wanted to do was make friends with the paper bear.

He walked towards the cafeteria. Several times, he turned around because he thought he'd seen an origami bear head poke out of the wall.

The cafeteria looked huge to the little plushie. And there were tables and chairs. He immediately forgot about the strange paper thing. Tubby stared in awe at the vending machines in front of him. Slowly he approached the vending machine.

"Wow! Munchies in a box," he muttered, "Big box."

He had never seen so many types of munchies. There were munchies in bags. Some were in wrappers. The wrappers were pretty. He particularly liked the shiny ones. The plushie tried to jump up to the dispensary opening but his little plushie legs couldn't send him high enough.

"Bye munchies, I'll be back soon," he said with a sigh and waddled away from the munchies in a box.

Tubbioca was distracted when he spotted a pool of red with an object next to it. He waddled over to investigate.

"What is this? It's so pretty!" He exclaimed.

The plush poked it with a little nub. It was sticky and quickly stuck to his nub. He thought it felt weird. Tubbioca poked it again. And hopped up and down with excitement at discovering something new.

Tubby looked down and saw his nub had left a mark on the floor from the red fluid. His little eyes widened. He could draw pretty pictures with this red liquid.

Tubby dipped his nubs in the red liquid and started drawing. He didn't know what he was gonna draw but he knew it would be wonderful. Frantically his little nubs drew squiggles, circles, and he even managed a few squares.

"Ta-da! All done!" He exclaimed happily. He was now standing in the middle of a crude drawing of himself about 5 times his actual size. All drawn in the red liquid.

Tubby nodded approvingly at his handiwork. He thought it was the best anyone would ever see.

The plush then finally noticed the object resting next to the pool of red.

"Oh, you're a pat-pat!" Tubbs squeaked with joy. He loved pat-pats. They solely existed to hold things and to give him pets. He was sure that's what they were naturally designed for.

He started to waddle over to the pat-pat but found his front nubs had difficulty moving. The red fluid had begun to dry on his little nubs and had gotten quite sticky.

"This stuff is sticky," he said looking at his sticky nubs. How would he get rid of the stickiness, he wondered.

His eyes widened as he had an idea. He quickly popped his right front nub into his little plushie mouth and started to suck on it. Once that nub was clean, he proceeded to work on the left one. Within a few minutes, his little nubs were clean, though his body had some red smudges that he didn't notice at the time.

"Tastes kinda weird," he said smacking his little plushie mouth.

Tubby circled the pat-pat, it wasn't attached to an arm-part, which he thought was peculiar. All the other pat-pats he had seen were connected to a human person with an arm-part. He then turned his attention back to the severed pat-pat and waddled over to it.

"Hey pat-pat, you gonna give me pets?" It just sat there and didn't respond.

"Pat-pat please give me pets?" Tubby asked again. Again it seemed to ignore him. He poked it. It didn't move.

"Do you have munchies?" He nudged it with his head.

The plush frowned. Maybe the pat-pat was sick. Or maybe it was lost and didn't know what to do without a human person. That must be it, he decided, the pat-pat must be lost.

"Do not worry pat-pat," he comforted, "I will find your human person."

Tubbioca waddled away, confident that he would find its missing human person. He headed towards the nearest door, which leads to the cafeteria kitchens.

Tubby pushed the door open to the kitchen and looked around.

"Pretty! Someone worked hard," He said.

The entire kitchen had been splattered with red liquid. It covered the floors and parts of the walls. A person sat slumped in a corner with several shards of bone embedded in his chest along with many slashing cut marks across his unmoving body.

"Oops! You're sleeping. I'll come back later," Tubby said as he sees the sleeping person.

Tubbioca waddled backward out the kitchen door. He tried to be careful to not wake the sleeping person in the corner but the kitchen door slammed closed.

"Shhhhhhh!" He scolded, "He's sleeping!"

A loud thud resounded through the cafeteria as something heavy hit the floor.

Tubby whirled around and saw a teddy bear-shaped entity made of various pieces of bone.

"Hello, friend!" He exclaimed.

The bone teddy tilted its head to one side contemplating what to do about the grey plushie in front of it. Then it took a slow step forward. And then another.

"You want some munchies?" Tubby asked. "Munchies are in the big box over there." He nodded towards the vending machine.

The bone bear stopped and stared at the little grey plush. Then it took another step forwards.

Suddenly, the skeletal bear was no longer slow. It was very fast. The bear covered the distance between the little grey plush and itself within seconds.

Tubby felt a sharp pain from behind and was sent flying end over end. He landed with a light thud and skittered across the floor.

"That really hurt!" Tubbs complained, rolling back to his feet. Despite the pain, Tubby was unharmed, though there were light marks on his rear that proved the bone entity had made contact.

The bear moved with surprising speed. Again closing the gap between the plush and itself, this time slapping Tubby across the face with razor-sharp skeletal claws.

Tubbioca was sent spinning from the force of the blow. When the spinning stopped, he felt dizzy and his face hurt. He felt tears welling up in his little plushie eyes.

"Why did you hurt me?" Tubby rubbed his face.

In response, the teddy smacked the grey plush across the face again.

"Go away!" He yelled and launched himself towards the bear with a headbutt.

The grey plush was sent flying over a table by the mighty smack that he received as a counter-attack.

He shook himself. That last hit had really hurt and had made him a little dizzy from the tumble. The bone bear ran towards him.

Tubby rolled to one side and jumped at the teddy. This time he made contact. His little body had enough force to knock the bone bear over on its back. Tubbs began to jump repeatedly on top of the entity.

"Why did you hurt me?" He demanded, jumping on the bone creature with each word.

In response, the entity fired a bone spike at Tubby's face, sending him flying backward. He landed a short distance away.

The bone creature jumped to its feet and extended an arm towards Tubbioca. It shot at Tubby again, this time barely missing him.

"Don't throw things at me! It's rude!" The plush shouted. He was angry. He had tried to be friendly. He'd shown the thing where the munchies were. Was his kindness returned? No, instead this thing was trying to hurt him.

"You're making me angry!" Tubbs shouted.

Tubby then did what he knew best. He munched. Quick as lightning, Tubby engulfed the bone spike that was embedded in the floor, pulling it free in the process.

The change was slow at first but became faster as it progressed. First, little nodules began to form all over his body. Then, they began to grow outwards. Finally, they stopped growing and developed hard sharp tips on them. Tubbioca now looked like a hedgehog with spikes made of cloth-covered bone.

The bone teddy tilted its head to one side as if noticing the change in Tubby's appearance. It fired another spike at the plush but Tubby hopped to the side. And fired a bone spike right back at the bear, barely missing it.

"Take this!" The plush yelled at the bone bear and fired another shot, hitting the bear in the chest. The bone bear shook itself and fired back, but missed.

Tubbs shot several spikes at once towards the bear. Each spike hit and embedded into it. The bear wobbled and stumbled forwards a step. Tubby fired one last spike, once again striking the bears head. And the bone teddy fell over. Its bones separating once it hit the floor.

Tubby, the now spiky plush, shed a tear. He didn't know why the bone bear was not moving anymore. More tears came.

"Sorry!" He cried. "Soooo sorry!"

"Why'd you hu-urt me?" He cried as he piles more of the shattered bones together.

"Bones come back! I said I'm sorry! Wake up!" He nudged the pile of bones.

"Bye-bye bones, sleep well," he said and shed one last tear.

He turned away from the pile of bones. The plush was very sad. Tubby never wanted to hurt the bone bear but it had made him angry and was trying to hurt him.

Tubby shook himself, rattling his bone spikes. He turned to the next hallway and started waddling.

Tubbioca was still waddling aimlessly, thinking about what he'd done to the poor bone teddy. When the floor suddenly dropped out from under his little nubs. Tubby was suddenly bouncing down a set of stairs. He hit each step on his way down with a little "oof" and the rattle of his bone spikes.

When he reached the bottom, Tubby shook himself.

"Oopsy," he remarked with a little smile. As startling as it had been, he had to admit that was kind of fun.

"Wow!" He said as he saw the hallway before him.

The hallway was in a state of disarray. Light fixtures had been damaged and doors were broken or left open. There was red liquid on the walls and some on the floor. And to Tubby's surprise, there were people sitting or laying on the floor.

"Friends!" He yelled. He was so happy to finally see people after what had happened to him

Not a single person moved. Tubby ran up to the closest one. A man with a black vest and a helmet on that was laying on the floor with red streams from his ears.

"You sleeping?" Tubby asked. He nudged the man's arm.

"Can I go back to the room now? I'm very tired." He stated. The man didn't respond.

"Wake up! Why is everyone sleeping?" Tubby asked.

Tubbioca frowned and waddled quietly through the dead as to not wake them. He suddenly stopped because he saw something strange.

"I've never seen you before ear-man. Are you a friend?" Tubby asked a man covered in ears. It didn't reply.

As he walked down the hallway he saw more and more strange bodies. Some had holes through their chests or abdomens. Tubby didn't understand what he saw.

Tubby waddled along then stopped. Some distance in front of him there was a large open room. And inside that room, he thought he could see figures gathered in front of a massive set of double doors that were slightly open

The plush got excited. These might be friends. Maybe they had munchies. Tubby ran towards the room.

"Hi, friends!" He exclaimed as he entered the room.

The group of bear-shaped figures turned to face the plush. And tilted their heads to one side.

"You shouldn't be here," said an electronic voice.

"Why not?" Tubby asked. He looked around for the voice.

"I'm Tubbioca! Who are you? Do you wanna be friends?" Tubby asked.

A normal looking teddy bear stepped forward with another bear that was made of wires and radio parts. The ordinary teddy bear stepped slightly further forward and motioned to itself.

"I am known as Builder Bear. The humans called me 1048. The others are companions that I built." The electronic bear said for the other.

"No objects are supposed to be wandering around," the electronic bear said.

The ordinary teddy turned towards the group and made several motions with its paws. All of the bears spread out and encircled Tubby.

"Who let you out? Was it a human?" The radio bear asked.

"I dunno," Tubby responded, "I woke up and the door was open."

Tubbioca saw the origami bear and got excited.

"Hello, friend! Nice to see you again!" He exclaimed.

The origami bear ran and hid behind a metal bear.

"How do you know that one?" Radio bear asked the plush.

"I found him in a room with a folder," He replied.

Builder Bear glanced back at the paper bear and then looked back at Tubby.

Tubby smiled at the builder bear. He had made a friend he thought.

Builder Bear tilted its head and motioned at Tubby.

"Kill it," the radio bear said.

"What? No, don't kill me!" Tubby gasps. He thought they were friends.

All the bears started to move forwards. The metal bear was the fastest and leaped at Tubby ready to shred the plush to ribbons.

Tubbioca managed to roll out of the metal bears path just in time. Unfortunately, he rolled right into a bear made of batteries and wires. Tubby felt an intense electrical shock as the wires on the teddy bear wrapped around him.

Tubby struggled as hard as he could, using the bone spikes he'd acquired from the bone teddy bear earlier to rip wires. A bone spike logged into the bear's central battery and suddenly the plush was let go. He turned around to see the bear staggering backward holding its chest.

"Sorry!" The plush apologized. Even when he had to, Tubby didn't like hurting things.

But Tubby didn't have time to feel sorry for the battery and wire bear. Other bears were quickly closing in.

Metal bear made it first again to the plush and this time landed a fearsome blow, sending Tubby flying into a teddy bear made of nails.

The nail teddy tried to puncture Tubby. But Tubby's plushie skin would just bend. The plush did feel sharp pinpricks though where the nails tried to dig in.

Tubby shook violently trying to get the nail bear off of him. His spikes managed to knock some of the creatures apart and it let go, but was quickly back up.

Slowly, Tubby was whittling down the bear's numbers. The fight was quickly boiling down to several bears that Tubby's bone spikes could not damage and the Builder Bear with its radio bear companion.

The remaining teddy bear constructs circled the little plushie. Tubbioca was getting tired but these things were not giving him a break. He had three more bears left to fight. There was the metal bear, with its impenetrable metal structure and its raw power and speed. There was the nail bear with more metal defense and its strategy of bear hugging its opponents. And finally, there was the rubber bear, made of bits and pieces of rubber. Tubby's spikes could hurt it but not break it apart.

Near the giant open double doors, stood Builder Bear and radio bear. Builder Bear was busy trying to create another bear.

Tubby panicked as all three bears leaped straight for him at the same time and shot all his bone spikes, launching them in all directions like an exploding porcupine. Tubbioca closed his eyes and expected to feel pain from being beaten by the brutal bears. But all he felt was the weight of the teddy bear constructs as they fell on top of him.

He struggled to get out from under the bears. Fearing they would start attacking. Then he saw it. Builder Bear lay on the ground with two spikes in his teddy bear chest and one in his head.

"Hello?" Tubby asked. He heard muffled crying from inside the giant doors.

He walked over to Builder Bear and poked it. Builder Bear did not respond.

"Not sorry," Tubby said. And waddled past the now deceased teddy bear. This one time Tubby believed was ok to have hurt something.

Inside the room with the double doors were all of his friends. Many were wounded and some were sleeping but all were tied up and gagged.

"Wow, it's a party!" Tubby squeaked with joy! He had found his friends.

He started to waddle over to the group of his friends but paused. His stomach felt weird. And he noticed the spikes had never grown back. He felt a surge within his body and he regurgitated the spike of bone that he had eaten back in the fight with the bone bear.

Now Tubby was back to normal. He bounced over to his friends and nuzzled them. Many made sounds at him but he couldn't understand them with their gags in their mouths. The plush didn't care. He was just happy to be back with his friends.

Tubby found his favorite person, a researcher that visited him daily, snuggled up to him, and said, "Nice party. But I'm ready for bedtime! Can I have munchies later?"

The researcher looked confused at the plushie staring at him. Tubby didn't care because now he had found his friends. The plushie curled up and fell asleep.

Later, a mobile task force secured the area and freed the prisoners. Tubby was placed back in his containment cell and given a big snack before he went back to sleep.