What You See is What You Get - SCP Foundation

”Name?”

”Samuel Baxter.”

”Age?”

”56.”

”Where were you born?”

”Berlin, Germany.”

Adam Krug eyed the unsuspecting figure sitting opposite on the table: tall, dark-skinned, bald and a beard that had been dyed brown. There was nothing inherently abnormal about this man. At least on the surface.

”When we found you—”

”When I found you.”

”—you identified one of our operatives. No greeting, no lead-up, no nothing. Just an unassuming man walking through the city. All of a sudden, you tell her that at 11:05 a.m. that a previously unknown trait of SCP-2381 would be discovered by members of her team. You left, but not before you provided her your adress.”

Samuel Baxter grinned. ”Thought me as some rival agent, eh?”

”My question is: How would you—”

”… ’know all of this’, yeah, yeah.” The figure rose in his seat, the cuffs clinking against the plastic chair. ”Wouldn’t you like to know?”

”I very much would, Mr. Baxter.”

”Oh, not using that fancy designation of ’AO-9459’ yet, I see. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given that the designation will only be conceived of in the next five minutes.”

”Are you insinuating that you possess clairvoyant abilities?”

He leaned back in his small plastic chair. ”Sure.”

Krug let out a sigh. ”Mr. Baxter, your cooperation would be of great benefit not only for us, but yourself also.”

”Whatever you say, kid. Just letting you know that I’m sorry for your right leg there. You hate to see it.”

Krug paused. ”If you’d like to elabo—”

*

Everything was plunged into a scarlet red, klaxons going off full throttle in his ears. He looked to where a wall once was, debris now strewn across the floor.

And a little to the left, there laid his interrogator. Unconscious, his arms were spread out like the wings of an eagle, blood trickling down Dr. Krug’s nose. His right leg was buried under concrete blocks and rebar that poked out of it.

Samuel Baxter vomited out a hairpin. Nothing else than stomach acid landed on the floor, as he hadn’t eaten anything the day prior, and the food the staff had given to him, which he knew was spiked with mild tranquilizers. What came next was a bit difficult, but nothing he knew himself to train for. In under thirty seconds, the handcuffs fell to the floor next to his stomach’s contents.

He rubbed his wrists, waited a moment for a few unobservant security guards to rush by, and stepped through the hole in the wall.

Samuel Baxter strudded through the hallways of the facility. Gunfire and the roars of a large beast echoed through the corridors. If he hadn’t known any better, he would’ve found the aesthetic — the debris and bloodied-up corpses — to be quite a chilling sight.

Just as it neared the gunfire and roars, that same gunfire was abruptly silenced. Only the heaving footsteps of the great creature traveled down the corridors, directly into his ears. He knew what the creature looked like, but seeing it with his own eyes still caused him to stammer in his breath.

The great beast turned to look at him, each step of its four limbs causing some dust to crumble from the ceiling. Its scaly hide seemed to go on without end, its yellow eyes appearing to glow in the dim scarlet lights.

The arm of a guard poked out from between its razor-sharp teeth, its jaws clamped tightly together. Upon seeing the man standing so foolishly before him, it let the severed arm fall to the floor, and stared at the man.

”You must be the lizard,” Samuel spoke in amazement. There was no reaction from the beast.

”In all my years,” he continued, ”I wondered what all of this meant. These… concrete walls, the alarm sirens… you…”

The reptile approached the figure, so fearless in its every word. Like a predator observing its prey, it kept its eyes trained on the man.

”I could see everything. There were no surprises. But I could never see past this moment,” he gestured at the reptile. ”I could never see past you.”

That was enough for the reptile. The creature lunged forward at inhuman speeds. Much to its surprise, when it landed again, there was no blood laid out before it, no flesh for its claws to dig into. It looked back behind it and saw the man, unharmed, having evaded its assault.

”For you see, there was nothing quite like you in my life. I never had any obstacles, nor did I ever—”

The reptile lunged forward again. This time, though, it crashed against a meter-thick steel door. It threw the door right off of its hinges. It took some time to recover.

”—encounter a beast such as you in my life before. So I came here to ask a question…”

The reptile rose back up again, staring at the man with a glimmer of pure rage in its eyes.

”Do you’ve got answers for me, or do you not?”

The creature stood still, almost motionless. It stared intently at the man. Samuel Baxter simply stood there, crossing his arms, and smiled. In the next few mimutes, a squad of Foundation operatives would show up soon. He saw them running down the staircase four minutes before they arrived via helicopter at the facility.

Armed with their rifles and rockets, these soldiers would—

He didn’t know. He didn’t know what would happen next. He couldn’t see it. He couldn’t see it. Samuel stared back at the reptile, horrified. It had forcefully ripped itself out — utterly unseeable to Samuel Baxter.

It lunged at the man. Only this time, he couldn’t see the creature’s next move. Only this time, the blood did spill out in front of it on the floor. Its claws dug deep into the man’s flesh, tearing its skin, muscles and bones into shreds.

Samuel Baxter let out one final blood-curdling scream, before it gazed into the lizard’s eyes, and died.

*

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INCIDENT 682/AO-9459

DATE: 06/30/2016

LOCATION: Site-67

INVOLVED: SCP-682; AO-9459 (”Samuel Baxter”)

On the aformentioned date, SCP-682 breached containment.

During the breach, security footage captured AO-9459 escaping captivity during its initial interview and advancing toward the former entity’s location.

In the encounter, AO-9459 engages in communication with SCP-682, whereupon the entity becomes hostile.

Footage shows AO-9459 evading SCP-682’s attacks in the first two minutes, until AO-9459 becomes visibly distressed, and is subsequently terminated by SCP-682.

The exact nature of this encounter is uncertain at the moment, although a proposal has been drafted (see below)

COMMENT: From the limited data I could gather of AO-9459, the recovered security footage, as well as the testimony of Agent ███████, it appeared to possess precognitive abilities. It may stand to reason that SCP-682 was able to adapt to its precognition, whereupon AO-9459 was no longer able to ”see” SCP-682. What this exactly implies, and what temporal effects this may have, is unclear at this time. - Dr. Adam Krug

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