In Shadow - SCP Foundation

A quest of mystery, magic, peril, within the SCPverse. Here you play as a character named 'Umber'.

► Information

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The Gist

Simply put, this is a quest of mystery, magic, peril, within the SCPverse.

Here you play as a character named 'Umber'. The participation of the audience will drive Umber's actions, the plot, and ultimatley the ending. Choices, outcomes, and the unfolding story will be updated in this article, usually broken up by acts and chapters.

The Host

Hi, I'm lurkd. o/

I will try to have at least an update or two every week. when work isn't killing me.

The Rules

When there is a choice, post what you think should happen.

If you agree with someone else's choice, reply with an affirmation1 to that post.

The choice with the most affirmations happens.

The Story So Far…

This section is for those just coming in and need to catch up. Basically the TL;DR version of everything up to current.

The Cult of New Umbra, having beef with the Serpent's Hand and the Library, decides to free the Second Child (SCP-017) from the SCP. Using the Book of Shadows from the Library and an antimemetic familiar (later named Ben), they send a lone homonculus agent, Umber, to Site-81. Umber and Ben are able to infiltrate the site using magic. Along the way they meet with Emily (SCP-2996) and she joins the mission. They all make it to the lower level where Umber is shot and killed, but his body is taken by Emily off-site to a cave. There, Umber is reincarnated and they successfully infiltrate Site-81 again.

They are able to create a containment breach by cutting off the main power so they can reach the chamber where the Second Child is. After getting back to the lower level, they are intercepted by Special Task Force Zeta-5. There is a fight ending with Emily being contained and taken back into the depths of the facility, leaving only Umber and Ben. Using magic, they are able to kill Zeta One, retrieve Emily, and reach the bottom sub-level.

► References

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Progress Maps

Outside Progress MapPIC

Inside Progress MapPIC

Other

SCP Foundation Entry on the Second ChildLINK

Library Entry on the Second ChildLINK

Site-81 DossierLINK

► Character List

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Umber

Umber is a homunculus made of shadowstuff and wool. He was constructed by the artificer supreme at the request of Kiran, the leader of the Cult of New Umbra. Umber had been sent to the library a handful of times acquiring texts on behalf of his masters, sometimes with or without the knowledge of the librarians. His previous mission was to obtain the book of shadows, a tome of forbidden spells and knowledge that the cult desperately wanted but was kept from them by the library's archivists. Now he has been sent to Site-81 with the book to release the Second Child, a keter entity under lock and key by the SCP Foundation. He is focused, impatient, ill-tempered, and genuinely ignorant of the human world.

Ben

Ben is a small sentient construct made of a special metal called shadowsteel. It was forged by the artificer supreme specifically for Umber's mission to Site-81. It also has the special ablity to emit a sound that has antimemetic effects in humans who can hear its ring. Ben can often be seen floating about head-height around Umber unless ordered elsewhere. Ben must obey his master, Umber, or risk undoing the shadowmancy which holds him in this world. Ben does show signs of relative intelligence, but unfortunately has little at hand in order to express itself when it needs to.

Emily Nash

An incorporeal entity that was initially discovered in an abandoned home in Nashville, Indiana and assigned as *SCP-2996 by the Foundation. She usually appears as a young female with a number of visible wounds across her body, including a major gunshot wound to the right eye. She also claims the identity of one Emily Nash, the subject of a murder in Nashville, Indiana, in 1929. Data recovered from various sources have supported the claim that an Emily Nash was found dead in her home; however, the listed cause of death was suicide. Based on Foundation interviews, she has rejected any evidence that supports suicide, and has vehemently remarked on several occasions that her killer was a close friend and neighbor though their existence has not been verified. Much of her background is inconsistent, incomplete, or unreliable according to Foundation records. The mentions of a Samantha Pendleton in her record are of an unknown origin.

Virgil

Virgil is an AIC in the late stages of alpha-testing before being released fully. Currently assigned to menial IT helpdesk tasks, Virgil works on resetting passwords, diagnosing hardware, and other low-priority daily tasks. Virgil has gotten some feedback about adjusting the way the personality drive interacts with the task master process flow and the adaptive interface output. Virgil's build has a limited release running on only a few test sites, one of which being Site-81.

Sage

A lazy toad that you'd think was dead if it didn't periodically croak from time to time. Seems to only croak when danger is close by. Otherwise, Sage is just a slimy green lump with eyes.

► Inventory and Stats

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Umber's Inventory (6/6)

Item
Image
Load

A Familiar

N/A

Vest of Bullet Resistance

2

Book of Shadows

2

Phone

2

Emily's Inventory (2/3)

Item
Image
Load

Unrestricted Badge

1

Keys

1

Quintessence
Amount

Brightmatter (4/10)
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CHAPTER I

The Second Child Cometh

► The Forging [COMPLETE]

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On a desk, the artificer supreme of the Cult of New Umbra sat and pondered about her given task. "The second child cometh? Now of all times. In my lifetime even." She sighed as she prepared the forging ritual. "Time to get started."

This was not a time to falter in her craft, it was a time for her to masterfully build what was asked. A familiar of great worth and use would be needed to help the mission. In her hands, she shuffled the major card decks of artifice, each card drawing synergies from the other cards or decks in order to infuse and create a new form made of malleable shadowsteel, an ingot of which she had gently placed on the desk in the center of a carved heptagram. She began crafting her recipe with the decks, making sure they were thoughfully turned in sequence in order to create the correct combination of a sustainable balance of both form, shadow, and power.

She drew from the middle, the inverted cauldron to start, followed by the sparking hammer from the minor deck of shades. Several draws from the deck of whispers to give the familiar purpose of mind. Two cards were drawn and burned to ash as sacrificial offernings. Cards were continually drawn and exchanged, each combination more tempered in elegance than the last until finally a perfect method presented itself. All chosen cards were slowly placed in the proper sequencing along the heptagram. The ingot of shadowsteel in the center began to glow with a dark purple as the recipe completed itself with the guidance and experience of the white-haired artificer.

Her old hands finally turned over the last three cards left outside the heptagram, one to be selected and placed as the key focus component.

A broken chakram,

a bent chalice,

and a spent candle holder.

After a brief pause in thought, the answer became clear…

“…of course, the candle holder.” The artificer slid the card toward her to observe it better. “To dim the minds of those who would observe our agents.”

With a flick of her fingers, she tossed the card into the heptagram. There was a tell-tale sign of a temperature drop as the ingot became lit with a bright pink fire. The heptagram closed and light in the room dimmed all around. With outstretched legs, the tired artificer pushed her chair back and reached for her pipe as she waited for her recipe to “cook” itself. The peal of ringing metal resonated against the walls as the ingot took on a conic shape. Dark runes began to etch themselves along the outsides of the brazen steel as the object took on its intended appearance. A bell.

A floating bell began to emerge from the bright fire and dancing cards. As the artificer inhaled the first drag from her pipe, the heptagram collapsed with a sudden burst of vacuum followed by the scent of ozone. The familiar was built. “Ah, welcome little one.” She smiled at it and nodded. For sure a work that her long dead mentor could be proud of as well.

The bell floated stoically. Not yet even aware of its master or even its own existence just yet. Another drag and puff from the artificer as she glanced over at the clock on her wall.

“Oh damn! The time!”

Quickly she winced as she got up on her arthritic knees, summoned a portal in her workshop, and tossed her hapless creation into it. The familiar made an audible “Plorp!” as it passed through a membrane of shadowstuff.

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► The Council of 3 Shades [COMPLETE]

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Meanwhile, in a pocket dimension of darkness, the council of three shades stood at an altar and discussed the recent events. Their shadows outstretched from their respective locations so they could, by proxy, talk privately in person.

“It actually retrieved it? Straight off the shelves of the library?”

“Aye, from the vault even… so we are going through with the plan, right?”

The Cult of New Umbra leader, Kiran Singh, tapped the altar with their shadow to interrupt his two subordinates. “Yes. Now if you two would just let me finish. We carry this through… and we do it with the homunculus.”

“The homunculus!? Wouldn’t you rather put your trust in… you know… an actual member to accomplish this?”

The adjacent shadow grew irritated and spoke sternly, “You really want to send a member? When we are already on the sore side of the library? When they have every single one of our members’ names on their black list? We can’t even get a bloody library card! Can you imagine the backlash if we were caught? We can ill afford a war with the librarians.”

“With all due respect… fuck the librarians.”

“Fff- ugh! Your temper is unbearable, Yvonne!”

“You wanna go, Bertie!?”

Kiran then tapped on the altar again. “Your bickering is going to give me a headache. I will not hesitate to cast both of you out of this chamber if you can’t shut up and listen.”

The two shadows lowered their shoulders and paused to hear their leader speak. “Now then, we have the book of shadows. We have no reason to believe that this is another fake. Several of our scholars are currently in the process of confirming this. It is now or never. And we must be quick about it.”

“Exactly, which is why we should send a member!”

“Yvonne, I know how strongly you are positioned on this, but I have decided. The homunculus goes. Bertrand is correct. We are not in a political or offensive position to take on the librarians, because we will have to eventually now that we have taken their book. The clock. Is. Ticking."

Kiran crowded the alter more with his dark presence. "I've already asked the artificer supreme for her help in this. SO! I would prefer to not start your little cult war until after we get the second child, yes?”

The shadow cast by Yvonne shrunk back and mumbled, “Y-yes, your eminence.”

Kiran nodded and abruptly continued, “The homunculus goes. Its lifespan outside is short, so if it is caught by the jailers it will merely dissipate into shadow within a week. We can also claim deniability since neither of our members actually took the book. We know the librarians keep a close watch on all of us. Whatever we send should be completely and utterly insignificant and disposable should somethi-.”

It was at that moment when all three felt the presence of something watching them. Standing at the base of the altar, no taller than the knees of their shadows, stood a cloaked cyclopic figure made of merged flesh and shadowstuff. In its tiny hands it held the book of shadows tightly in its grasp.

Kiran’s shadow cleared his throat, even though his actual throat was in Jakarta. The council stood silent and let the awkwardness hang heavy like smog in Beijing. Unsure of how long the homunculus had been standing beneath them and listening, Kiran was the first to address it. “Umber. Looks like the scholars have released you early, but we are sending you out again.”

Umber. The pointy limbed, one-eyed, hooded figure not even eight moons old stood before the council of three shades and said, "Has the eminence run dry of 'insignificant and disposable' shades? Has the plotting gone already awry? Awry awry? I'm ready to serve again all the same. Aye aye!"

"Aye." Kiran nodded back to Umber. "I am glad that you are willing, but not back to the library we send you. Our plotting and situation demads us to send you to where the jailers have recently moved the second child so you can bring them back."

Kiran purposefully paused to let his orders sink in, not only for Umber but for his other subordinates to understand the finality of his decision. “To bring back the child you will need to use that book in your arms to do so. Casting a simple shadow bind from the book of shadows should be adequate enough for us to pull them out of its prison. You will also be given additional help. Yvonne, if you would.”

The feminine shadow slowly slithered forward and even though the shade lacked its owner’s facial features, Umber could still feel the scowl coming all the way from Canada. Yvonne, high shadowmancer, stretched her finger and touched the ground where Umber was standing. “I give you your own shadow to take with you. On the outside, the black quintessence which gives you life will quickly wane."

"Having your own shadow will prevent your lifeforce from leaching out, but it will shrink all the same if you use any magic from the spellbook, or get hurt. Once it is gone, there is little we can do to keep you alive.”

Yvonne’s form then leaned in for effect. “No mistakes.”

Kiran watched Yvonne’s motions as she returned to the altar. He nodded to Bertrand, apprentice to the artificer supreme, to speak.

“Umber, the artificer supreme has granted you a familiar which should be arriv-“

Before he could finish the syllable, a metal cone pierced the membrane of Umber’s shadow and stopped at his head level. The soft peal of the ringing metal filled their heads with a dull noise.

“…ah. A familiar to which you can command its actions. You can also ring it to dim the perception and memories of those around you. Antimemetic is what I believe the jailers call it.”

Kiran nodded again. “Thank you, both. Umber you have your orders." Umber stood stoically, not really sure what to say or how to react to being given another assignment that very likely would be a suicide mission for any other member of the Cult of New Umbra.

"We will now send you to the jailer’s prison in Indiana as close as we can approximate. The shadowstuff will carry you as far as we can reach. From there you can emerge from any dark corner in the vicinity. May you recieve the child's blessings…” Kiran, Bertrand, and Yvonne clasped their hands in contrition and summoned a way using Umber’s new shadow, which promptly swallowed its owner. "…in shadow."

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► Arrival at Site-81 [COMPLETE]

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Submerged in the cold shadowstuff felt like being dunked into a lake in February. After a moment in freefall, Umber was able to flail the pointy stubs that were its arms and make out the faint light piercing the membrane. It was much like being under a blanket, crawling along the floor and looking through the threads. To one looking from the outside, a seeping blackness would be seen crawling from the forest floor surrounding the facility. Within it Umber was carried along, hopping from shadow to shadow in the afternoon sun.

A large 81 was decaled on a sign. Fencing stretched the outer perimeter to keep the main walls free of wildlife. The hapless passenger easily creeped under the fencing and made its way past the first line of security.

Umber had some control of the shadowstuff, but wondered where was the best place to emerge from? There were a few drainage ducts. There were dark corners. There were vehicles on patrol. Even the patrolling guards had shadows. Lots of choices were available.

Of course there was the vehicle pool to Umber's immediate right and with it a lone guard standing idle. Seemed easy enough to get started he thought. Silently he slithered with the shadow stuff under one of the parked vehicles. Pulling his head out of the inky blackness, he could feel his skin ache from the daylight. If a shadow did not accompany him on this mission, for sure he would not have lasted more than an hour in this harsh environment.

Once Umber's whole body was pulled out, he crouched behind the driver's side wheel and began to plot the next move. From the undercarriage, the heavy boots of the lone security guard could be made out. Likely if Umber wanted access into the facility, he'd need to go through the easiest route… right through the main entrance.

Such a brazen trick would be impossible with the current small and pointed stature. However, Umber had the book of shadows in his possession. A convincing disguise could be formed with a little magic. Knowing full well that Umber had a limited pool of shadowstuff at his disposal, he'd need to limit the spell as much as he reasonably could. Probably 30 minutes would be all he'd need, he thought.

Umber turned the pages and found the incantations for shadeforms. Such a spell allowed the caster to pull material from one's own shadow and surround themselves in a different form. It would be solid enough even to interact with objects, but with limitations. There were some exceptions to the spell but Umber did not have the time to research the text fully. Nor did he have enough shadowstuff to spare in order to compile additional modifications or metaspells to the shadeform he needed. He had to be conservative with what Yvonne gave him to work with.

Umber began to recite the words while concentrating on the humanoid form of a security guard. The boots, legs, armor, and head. Thank the second child that he did not need to put much detail into the face since the guards wore face masks. After mumbling the final word, he then felt his shadow reach out and engulf him like a predator pouncing on prey. It tightened around his limbs and body, until it became part of him. The black outer shell swelled and firmed into a physical form until a humanoid shape began to coalesce. The spell was working.

THUNK

In hindsight, it was probably not wise to perform the spell while underneath a vehicle.

Umber winced after hitting his head against the drive shaft and grumbled to himself as he had to shimmy out from under the chassis, which was thankfully uplifted enough to not trap him. Before propping himself up on his two legs, he noticed a plastic bag wedged under the rear wheel. It was perfect for carrying his familiar since having a floating bell around one's head would be a red flag. The familiar was quickly bagged and tied with a knot.

Umber shakily got up, dusted himself off, and used the side mirror of the vehicle to inspect his new form. Near perfect, he thought. All the essentials needed to pass as a security grunt from a glance. It was then that Umber noticed he was being watched by the adjacent guard. Clearing his throat, Umber produced his best impersonation of a human.

"H-hullo."

"Hmm."

The man gave a grunt-nod and casually walked in the direction of the guard house that stood on the edge of the main thoroughfare of the facility. Umber could make out the majority of the buildings from where he stood. It was now a matter of figuring out of how to get inside and where to go from there with a mere 29 minutes and 15 seconds left until the spell wore out.

When in Rome, Umber thought. He trotted down the main road that led towards the administration building and observed what it was that made guards… well, guards. He puffed up his chest like he had purpose and marched along. He waved at a passing patrol vehicle as it drove out the gate even. No smiles. Just a grunt and a nod was all that he could expect as a response. Up ahead he could see two guards in conversation.

Umber briskly crossed the road and walked up to them. After passing them he quickly crouched down to pretend he was tying his boot. Gently he placed his familiar, which was still in the bag, on the ground next to him as to not inadvertently ring it. Umber perched an ear over his shoulder pad so he could easily make out what was being said.

“Yeah, but I think if you’re a Patriot’s fan you’re pretty much a dick on principle.”

“I hear ya, all my brother talks about is Brady this and Brady that. Fucking sick of it. AND he’s from New Mexico for fuck’s sake.”

The guard on the left chuckled, or what could be defined as a chuckle as he puffed a half breath of air through his nostrils and smiled. “Heh, yeah… oh hey, you on patrol D or E today? Powell is bringing in lunch during sentry change at thirteen hundred for A through D patrols.”

“Shit, I’m on F actually. I’ll miss it. What is it, pizza? Throw a slice in the fridge for me?”

“Sure, it’ll be at the power station break room. Slice of Hawaiian right?”

“Ew, fuck that. Meat lovers.”

“I’ll do you a solid. You hooked me up when Jacobs brought in breakfast burritos.”

“Those were good. Had them little green chilies.”

"Maybe for you, gave me the squirts."

At this point, Umber was taking entirely too long tying a boot. He picked up his bag and propped himself up to continue towards the administration offices. Out the corner of his eye he could make out someone who was surprisingly not a guard hanging by the double doors of the admin building smoking a cigarette.

There were also two individuals in blue jumpsuits unloading crates of equipment from a semi marked ‘SHIPPING CONTAINER PORTAGE INC’. With a forklift, a crate the size of a fridge was hauled from the truck and into the long building just north of the administration office.

Umber stopped and looked at the shadow he was casting with the sun. High noon. He also had only 23 minutes left in this form, so whatever he was going to do he needed to hurry up and get to it.

Umber looked at his shoes and legs. If he had gotten this far without detection surely he could gain access to the admin building, he thought. He pivoted and walked down along the backside of the admin building. Standing under the watchful eye of a security camera stood a man in a white coat smoking a cigarette. His glasses were fixed on the movers who were unloading a crate, wondering when his department would receive the approval of new equipment.

Umber stopped in front of the door and tried the steel handle. Not even a budge. The older smoker did not budge either, his attention and thoughts far too distracted at that moment. Umber's shoulders shrank as he surveyed the area a little better. There was the badge reader adjacent to the door that had a weathered keypad. Budgeting cuts this year have pushed off another update on replacing some of the security systems it seemed. Umber crouched to get a better view of the keypad.

Sure enough, looked like a used keypad. Probably would be easier with a badge or an employee number or a secret code or a bomb, he thought. Stroking his fake chin, he pondered about what to do next. Perhaps there was a pattern in the wear of the buttons, Umber thought. Carefully deducing what looked like a pattern, he pressed his guess onto the keypad. Each number made an audible but indistinguishable beep when pressed.

3, 8, 5, 2, and 1

Nothing. Umber paused in thought. Something was not right here. Perhaps, he thought, he needed to try those numbers again. Extending a finger, he attempted to press the same combination of 38521. However, as soon as he pressed 3 again…

BOOP

The unblinking electronic eye flashed from yellow to red.

"Shadjar!" Umber mumbled the vulgar curse under his breath, a word that would likely turn the head of a fellow cultist. Obviously those numbers weren't right, but now he knew that it had to be a 6-digit code. There was also the question of how many tries he would have. More importantly, how many tries would he have before it would look suspicious? Perhaps making use of his newfound authority would work, Umber thought. He cleared his throat and approached the smoking old man.

"Ahem."

There was no response from the man. Umber tried again.

"AHEM!"

Like an owl, the old man's head swiveled to look at him. The end of his cigarette burned idly as his eyes scanned Umber from helmet to boots.

"Yes? What is it?"

"S-sire…" Damn, is the proper usage sire or lord, Umber thought. There was no time for a correction unfortunately. "…you are being urgently needed towards the insides." Perfect execution nonetheless.

The man stared blankly at Umber. The cherry on his cigarette was still counting down the time between them.

"Ohhh kay? For what?"

Slowly he turned his torso, exposing his ID badge. Nothing that could have been read at a glance unfortunately. Umber made a mental note of this but had to move on.

"Well… I am just beings here to tell you that the peoples are needing you in an urgency."

The man's brow furrowed and the end of his cigarette flaked off in the breeze. There was the heavy impression that he needed more convincing. Glancing over at the commotion in front of them, it was clear that the aged smoker was irritated by it. Envy perhaps? Yes, this human had a severe case of box envy, Umber thought.

"Yes. Urgencies. As in they are bringings big boxes for you too. Bigger boxes even." He emphasized by spreading his arms apart.

"The intangant specimen extraction chamber? That must be it. I put in a req for that last year and it's coming now?! Always something on my cigarette break!" The man flicked his cigarette into the gravel road, swiped his badge and hurried in. Humans and their big boxes… so predictable. Umber remembered the human holiday he read about where they covet their large boxes, but he would not consider this the strangest of human traits or even in the top five. Before Umber finished his thought, he quickly slid right behind him before the door closed.

Umber's heavy boots clacked against the linoleum floor. He squinted his eyes from the bright fluorescent bulbs bearing down on him and his shade form. A white hallway running east to west was visible as he stepped fully inside as the door closed and locked behind him. No turning back now. Umber caught one last glimpse of the man as he rushed through a double door at the west end of the hallway. On the other end, an elevator and locker room with the hallway continuing around the corner. Only him and dead silence existed in that hallway.

Now to get on with finding the second child, Umber thought.

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► A Foot in the Door [COMPLETE]

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Umber continued down the hallway, passing the elevator and locker room to see what else there was. Luckily, most of the doors were clearly labeled in the hallway going south. Utilities, janitor's closet, and a medical room. Another set of double doors were placed around the corner, but no windows. Oddly enough, only the utilities and medical doors had ID scanners connected to them. "This is going to be a shortest mission in the history of the cult if I can't get a hold of some access", Umber inwardly grunted.

Seeing as the hallways were devoid of prying eyes, Umber casually slipped into the locker room to snoop around. Again… boxes.

Metal boxes with locks. Seriously, what is it with this box fetish? Umber rolled his eyes and looked down to the other end. Rows and rows of lockers and some toilet stalls. Some lockers had a blue label and some with an orange label, whatever that meant. The loud hum of ventilation filled the empty space while his boots echoed off the white tile. As he approached, he bent his head down to see if anyone was occupying the stall. To his relief, there was no one. For a big building, it sure was empty.

Umber had seen this type of lock before and really all one needed to do was turn it the appropriate number of times in one direction or the other. Starting with the first locker on his left he idly started twisting the knob this way and that.

Umber curiously started to realize that the more he twisted the knob, the higher the locker went. Perhaps this was not a lock but merely a box height adjuster. He tried turning it back but it was not long before his arm was fully stretched. When he looked down, Umber's eyes went wide with shock.

The shade form was waning, and waning fast. Another minute and he would be back to his regular stubby shape. How unfortunate it was that just when the top lock was out of his reach, the intercoms then buzzed to life. There was a short burst of static crackle followed by the squeaky voice of a young human female.

"FIRST SHIFT LUNCH HOUR COMPLETE. THOSE ON SHIFT CHANGE PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR CAPTAINS AT YOUR RESPECTIVE SECURITY CHECKPOINTS. PLEASE TAKE NOTE THAT TODAY'S SECURITY TOPIC IS TERMAINAL PASSWORDS. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CHANGED YOURS? THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY."

Nearly half of his shade form gone, Umber could hear the shuffling of humans in the hallway. They must have been eating. And what do humans do after they are done eating food? They expel it from their other smaller mouth! Umber was not in a good position at all, and he needed to think of something quickly before someone discovered him.

With two nubby legs, he scrambled to the far side of the room. As his shade form melted away, he looked toward his familiar whom was wiggling inside the bag. Let them come, he thought as he used his stubby hands to rip open the bag. Just as two humans walked in, Umber clutched his book closely and glared at them. One guard and one other human dressed in a dull orange carrying a toolbox.

The two didn't notice Umber crouching on the floor at first all the while the familiar slowly rose above Umber's head and hovered quietly. The human in orange was first to notice and quickly tapped on the shoulder of the guard.

"Wha- Oh shit what the what?!" As the guard reached for a sidearm and the orange human was almost able to reach for the radio on their hip.

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNIIIIIINNNNNIIIINNNNNNNNIIINNNNG

A single note hung in the air for far longer than what could have been achieved with any normal metal. The peal of the familiar's ring resonated into the eardrums of the humans and disrupted specific electrical signals in their brains. It had worked. As the two stood dazed, Umber quickly ducked into an adjacent stall and clamored up onto the toilet seat. There he could wait it out.

"What?"

"Hmm?"

"What was I saying, Jess?"

"I dunno. 'Scuse me, gotta get to my locker."

The lockers. If they were going to open them, maybe Umber could see the combinations. However, the walls of the stalls were enormous. Umber had another idea though. He climbed up onto the tank of the toilet, and then gingerly pulled himself up onto the familiar. It was just enough to reach the top with his arms and pull up. From there Umber shimmied across the edge to get a better look.

One human went for a top locker and the other a bottom locker. Blue locker, blue badge for the guard. Orange locker, orange badge for the other human. But what do orange humans do? On the floor, there was another box that the orange human was moving things in and out of. Tools perhaps? Umber paid careful attention to the combinations of both, and it was a good thing he had a steel trap for a memory. Literally, the artificer supreme made sure that the steel-trap card was used during his own forging.

22 right, 13 left, 02 right. The locker on the bottom opened with a pop. 14 right, 34 left, 37 right and pop went the top locker. Umber couldn't help but make another observation on this strange box phenomenon. Humans putting things from a box into another box, while Umber watched from a box. With mild fascination, he watched the two go about their business and chat it up a little.

"You pulling a double today?" The guard looked over their shoulder as they removed their helmet.

"IT never sleeps. Gotta go route some network cable for a work order Bob and Karen are wrapping up in D-Wing." The orange dressed human began exchanging tools from locker to toolbox. They had a bigger locker and for good reason. Umber could see the insides crowded with all sorts of metal ratchets, cutters, and instruments.

"Yuck, I hate being sub-level."

"That's cuz you're claustrophobic, Alex."

"And keep that to yourself. Don't need that on my record somewhere." The guard donned a regular buttoned shirt but still kept their sidearm and ID badge on them as they closed their locker with a resounding clang.

"I'm sure it already is. Personnel has dirt on everyone and everything."

"That's why I don't talk to any of them. Just other guards and maintenance folks… and the occasional researcher if they're cool. Some of them are ok. When do you get off?"

"Late. Probably into third shift. But I won't complain. It's overtime on containment pay and I never say no to that." The human snapped their fingers and pointed at the guard.

"Must be nice." Commented the guard as they started to step out. "Buying rounds later at Marley's, moneybags?"

"Maybe. Are you going to ask Ash out?" The orange one closed their locker and picked up the toolbox, now looking heavier than before.

"Y-yeah, after you buy me a round."

"You'll never ask him out even if I bought the bar."

"Shut up."

Eventually the two shuffled out of the room. The shuffling from outside also got quieter and quieter. Umber watched from the top of the stall and thought about when he could make the next move and what move that should be.

Obviously, there would be some useful things in those lockers, Umber thought. When he started to worm his way back down, he suddenly had lost his grip and fell into the toilet.

SPLOOSH

"Shadjar!" he gurgled as he wriggled out of the bowl and plopped onto the tile. Wet and cold, he shook out his robe and picked up the book, which thankfully was still resting and dry on the top of the tank. The familiar looked down at its owner in bewilderment. "Some help you are," Umber barked back as he twisted the bottom of his robe to wring out the water. He tried to one last wringing before retrieving his book all the while pushing the idea out of his mind on what humans actually do in these stalls.

Ducking underneath the stall, Umber surveyed the room and breathed a sigh of relief. The first on to try would be the guard's locker. Being as high as it was, Umber made use of a janitor's bucket to stand on to work the combination. Glancing over his shoulder, he could see his familiar seemingly watching him work. “Can’t you stand watch or something? You are making me nervous.”

The familiar gave a curt nod and drifted a little further toward the exit. “Better. Now let me work this.” He turned back around, holding his precious book in one hand and turning the lock with the other. More than concentrating on the numbers, he was actually more nervous about falling into another container of water.

It took only three tries to get the knob on the right combination of numbers. There was a metal click and a squeak of accomplishment as the first locker was opened. Umber's large eye peeked in and made a mental list of all the things inside:

a paper tree

a lightning bite gun

a key

a box of nine mm's

three tunics

a rounded hat

and a red amulet of knife summoning

Umber hummed in thought as he left the door open and clamored down to the other locker owned by the orange human. This time it had only taken one try to unlock it. Pushing the metal door aside, Umber made another mental list of its contents:

purple rope

unpointed scissors

a sheaf of loose papers

a… thing with buttons?

two badge blanks

a rectangle named "Coco Loco"

and the glue of a krazy

Taking a step back, Umber looked at the contents of both lockers. It was a lot to carry and he was going to be very selective if he were to carry anything by hand or bag. The book itself took up an arm, so taking on more supplies than his body would allow would have been a real burden. Umber made a thorough decision.

Well firstly, one should look through the papers to see what is in there, Umber thought. He reached for the manila envelope and looked through it. It all… looked useful enough but was a lot to memorize for one homunculus. Blue maps. Lots of rectangles. Color codes. Numbers and letters. Umber closed it and put it back, maybe if he had them on hand he could better use them in the moment when they made sense.

Now for the supplies. Umber looked over his shoulder at the empty bathroom stall. His idea was to make a little temporary stockpile of loot while he worked on learning the button device. Clever clever clever, Umber thought as he gathered the red amulet of knife summoning, the lightning bite gun, the key, and a blank badge. There was too much in his arms to carry the book of shadows as well so he placed it near the lockers for now. He then gently placed each item on top of the tank of the toilet and went for the second trip. The button device.

It was bulky in his hands but not too cumbersome. After scrambling to the top of the toilet seat with the device, Umber put it in his lap and studied it. It looked to be on already so he read the screen.

SCP_Badger

ver 2.3.11

Main Menu:

► New

► Copy

► Edit

► Read

It all seemed simple enough. Having a brand new badge seemed to be the way to go. Something important and would give him all the access he would need. An ultimate super access card. "Let's make that," he said aloud.

Main Menu:

▼ New

|

| Loading program……100%

| Wi-Fi status: ON

| Wi-Fi signal: OPTIMAL

| Connecting to syncsrv81…

| Checking credentials…

| Connected!

|

| Welcome to SCP_Badger!

| To return to a pervious menu, type 'back' at any prompt.

|

| You have selected 'New'.

| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge creation.

|

| NOTE: Ensure that the new employee number is on

| file at syncsrv81 before starting.

|

| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:

| █

"Hmmmm." Umber paused in thought, then plucked the stylus from the side and tapped on the screen's keyboard.

| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:

| 1111111111111█

|

| Checking…

| ERROR 33: Employee number not found in syncsrv81 database.

|

| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:

| █

|

| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:

| back█

He grunted in frustration with no ultimate super access card in his reach. Next on the list was copy. Umber tapped on the triangle.

Main Menu:

► New

▼ Copy

|

| Loading program……100%

|

| You have selected 'Copy'.

| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge duplication.

|

| WARNING: duplication of any badge will void the original!

| Continue (y/n)? █

"Yes, obviously."

| WARNING: duplication of any badge will permanently void the original!

| Continue (y/n)? y█

|

| Do you have a valid badge you wish to duplicate (y/n)? █

"Nnnno?"

| Do you have a valid badge you wish to duplicate (y/n)? n█

|

| Choose one of the following:

|| ► The badge is missing

|| ► The badge is damaged

|| ► The badge is stolen

|| ► The badge is expired

|| ► Other

Umber was about to select the stolen option, but seeing as that is what he was trying to do he instead selected the expired option, thinking it'd be the least suspicious. "Almost tricked me," he mumbled under his breath.

| Choose one of the following:

|| ► The badge is missing

|| ► The badge is damaged

|| ► The badge is stolen

|| ▼ The badge is expired

||

|| Please provide the 13-digit employee number:

|| █

Back. Back. Back.

He huffed while furrowing the brow over his eye as he selected the next option.

Main Menu:

► New

► Copy

▼ Edit

|

| Loading program……100%

|

| You have selected 'Edit'.

| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge editing.

|

| NOTE: All edits will be recorded on the syncsrv81 database.

|

| Please insert the badge you are trying to edit.

It was the first time the device prompted him for a badge to insert into the slot. Reaching behind him, he grabbed a blank badge and slid it in. His little legs involuntarily swung back and forth in anticipation.

| Please insert the badge you are trying to edit.

| Reading…

|

| No data found!

| No employee number found!

|

| You are attempting to edit an undefined badge.

| Do you have a active badge for editing (y/n)? █

He sighed. "Back. Back. Back."

The last one to select was read, Umber did not know what to expect. He wiggled the card in the slot to make sure it was still firmly in.

Main Menu:

► New

► Copy

► Edit

▼ Read

|

| Loading program……100%

|

| You have selected 'Read'.

| You will now be directed to the prompts for badge reading.

|

| Please insert the badge you are trying to edit.

| Reading…

|

| Results:

|| Employee ID Number: □□□□□□□□□□□□□

|| Clearance: □

|| Class: □

|| EPIN: □□□□□□

|| syncsrv81 security token: □□□-□□□-□□□

|| Badge Status: UNDEFINED

|

| Would you like to read another badge (y/n)? █

Umber shook the device in frustration. His familiar cautiously backed away to let Umber have his little tantrum. This was not the big payoff he was expecting. Just as he quieted down, there was a loud bang in the stall next to him. Umber was so startled that he nearly dropped his device. After a short pause, the sound of scraping nails on the other side of the wall echoed in the empty restroom. Umber froze trying to figure out what to do.

What was a sure fire way to drive off a human, Umber thought. Of course. Every human runs for the hills whenever one of them nearby gives off their bathroom call. He remembered this from one of the comedic books he read during his time in cult library. Flatoolance is what they called it. Umber pursed his lips and then blew the loudest wettest noise he could produce into the palms of his hands.

PBPBPBBPBPBBPBPBPTPBBPTTPBBTPBPBPTBPBPT!

There was no response. He had to double-down much to the embarrassment of his familiar who could only float and watch.

"Oh Gods! There's so much! Ugh!"

PBPBPBBBPBPTBPBPT!

"The indignity! The horror! All is lost!"

PBBPBPTBPPBPBBBPBP! PTB! PTB! TBPBPT!**

Umber dropped the gun into the water to add to his performance. It made a loud splash but there was still silence from the other stall. Umber knew his bluff was being called out and he was forced to take a rash action. Quickly hopping down off the porcelain throne, he grabbed the gun from the water, approached the adjacent stall and kicked the door in. Suddenly he felt the urge to blurt out a human curse for effect.

"DIE YOU FUCKER OF MOTHERS!"

Empty.

At this point, Umber could only stand confused but at least the claw marks on the wall were a validation that he did in fact hear something next to him. "We need to go." The familiar nodded in agreement. With no time to spare, Umber gathered the rest of the small items on the top of the toilet and looked for an exit. On the ceiling there was an air vent, which Umber could probably climb up to.

Scrambling up the side of the lockers, he was able to position himself to unlatch the vent cover. The familiar floated up first to ensure the coast was clear. With a heave and pull, Umber wriggled up into the vent and closed the cover behind him.

It was dark, but it was the stuff he was born of and felt quite comfortable even though his vision was less than spectacular. There were two passages. One to the south where a loud humming noise was coming from. The other to the west that seemed to lead off into the dark with another tunnel a little further ahead. The wind in the vent also seemed to be blowing to the west as well. Umber shivered in the cool dry air, tucked the gun into his robe along with the other items, and looked to see which direction would be the better choice.

▼ Close

► Stealth Without Style [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

Umber decided to move westward, away from the humming noise that was likely a large spinning fan ready to chop him into little pieces. Likely the mechanism was responsible for supplying the cool air and moving it along the vent. It was cold inside the narrow space, but pretty berable. He adjusted himself and took a crouched position with his familiar floating closely beside him. "Alright now, let's do this quietly," Umber whispered over his shoulder. The familiar responded with a brief nod.

As they both wriggled down the vent it progressively got darker.

And darker.

And darker.

And finally dark enough that Umber felt at his most comfortable. For him, darkness felt like slipping into a cool bed on a hot night. It was the bright light that really got to him. Like sharp a sharp tingly sensation on your skin, it was not very soothing at all.

Umber could make out enough in the dark. Shape and dimension was easy enough to discern, which is all you really need when navigating in blackness. On the left, he passed another passage that ran south but he pressed on. Very carefully he made sure that he made the most minimal amount of sound as the metallic vent would surely amplify any misteps. He actually had a lot of practice being stealthy during his assignments to sneak into the library.

Another passage on his right this time that ended with a vent. Umber stopped to hear any noise coming from it but the hum from the machine behind him was still too loud. If he wanted to hear anything from these vents, he'd have to travel all the way to the end. Ahead there was a long stretch which looked to fork out in four different direction. He contiued on to see what was up ahead.

When he got there he could see another tunnel extending south and one ending north. And yet again, the drowning hum of the machine was too much to hear from the vent, if anything could have been heard. The familiar then tapped Umber on the shoulder. "What is it," he whispered back.

The familiar made some vague motions but Umber stood hunched over confused. "What? I can't understand you… maybe the artificer supreme should have given you a mouth."

Again, the familiar tried to gesture, but could only wiggle and twist indescernably. Umber however finally understood what it was trying to say. "This isn't the time for that. You should have went when we were in the bathroom." With that he pressed on ahead. The familiar twitched in frustration and returned to his side, floating more closely behind him now.

At last they made it to the turn, which went south. Another great machine with spinning blades could be seen at the turn, but it appeared to be off. Lucky for Umber as he and his familiar slipped by and continued running down the tunnel. Umber eventually made it all the way to the end. There he could see many vents all blowing the cool air into what seemed like a clustered space. Through the slots he could see large black boxes with lights sitting in a room. No human voice though. Again another room dedicated to the divine box. He scratched his noggin in thought and tried to lift up one of the grates. Unfortunatley it was bolted down.

"I think I have just the thing for this," He mumbled to his familiar as he produced the red amulet of knife summoning.

"I command thee… to open."

Nothing.

"By the powers in shadow… open."

Nothing.

"Tiṟanta?"

Still nothing.

"Shadjar. Open please?"

He shook it in his hand like it needed to wake up. Eventually he sighed and came to the realization that he needed to try a different approach.

Umber then took his time and examined it closely to see if there were any inscriptions he may have missed. Maybe it wasn't magical at all? As he studied it in the light of a vent, the air temperature dropped a few more degrees. Not that it would have been terribly noticeable in the already cold space, but the metal familiar was sure sensitive of it.

Slowly turning, the familiar looked behind Umber to see a single red eye staring back in the darkness. It dripped blood. Unbliking. Hungry. The small familiar trembled and gave a very small peal of alarm.

"Oh, look there. You just pull up on this thingy," Umber was preoccupied as he pulled up on the notch to produce a flathead screwdriver. "Clever human tool."

A claw silently stretched out from the black void and slowly reached for Umber. Sharp grey claws opened like a blossom, ready to dig and tear into flesh. The familiar backed into Umber and vigorously tapped against him to get his attention.

"Ugh. What is it now? Can't you see I'm working on getting us out? Stop bothering me."

When the familiar turned around to show Umber, the hand and eye had vanished. Typical, it thought as it turned back around to see its master staring sternly back. Slowly it backed up an inch to give its master some space. Umber huffed and made sure the screwdriver fit on the head of the screw, which luckily enough it did. He assumed that he could open any vent he wanted, even the ones he passed by. He just had to choose which one to pop open and slip out.

That room with the large black boxes looked enticing, Umber thought. Placing the screwdriver into the head of each screw was an agonizing process considering Umber barely had the strength to crack each screw to turn it. When the last screw was pulled the grate swung down. The creaking hinge was drowned out up by the hum of the room. Each box was at least three Umbers tall and had all manner of cables and lights and whirring fans. It was also noticeably warm.

Umber gave a hand signal for the familiar to go first. Call it penance for being a pain in the rear earlier. The familiar then reluctantly dipped through the opening and surveyed around the large space. No human presence was visible. It gave a brief nod-nod to Umber, signaling it was safe to come down.

“Alright… let me just go legs first… Mfhmf!”

Umber’s stubby legs kicked in the air as he tried to reach the top of the nearest box. Still unable to make contact, he inched down a little bit more. Then some more. "It feels like I'm almost there." Umber inched a little further with his legs fluttering desperately to feel something solid. Then he lost his grip altogether. His side caught the edge of the large box as he tumbled down past the lights and cables until the floor suddenly caught up with him. There was an audible “PLAT” as the pliable body of shadowstuff, bird bones, cloth, and other unmentionables that was a homunculus landed face first onto the hard linoleum. His familiar looking down at him, wondering what to do next.

“I… I’ll need a minute,” Umber stated. For sure, that hurt more than he expected and he would likely regret not taking something to repel down with either. There was no time to focus on the pain. Slowly he propped himself up with his arms, then stepped up and stood fully. The familiar floated down to his level to make sure he was well.

“I’m alright. Just shaken. By the way, what was that all about in the tunnels?” Umber inquired.

The familiar simply twitched back and forth.

“We are under enough stress. No more antics. Understand?”

The familiar gave another firm nod-nod. Umber nodded as well and looked about. Just rows and rows of covetous boxes with the only thing breaking up the monotonous droning hum is the rushing of air from the above vents. A lone computer terminal stood squeezed between two monoliths. The grey desk shoulder to shoulder in the cramped space with an elongated screen sitting on top of it. The only thing on the screen was the familiar Foundation logo and a white bar where the cursor blinked. Must be locked, Umber thought as he scrambled up the chair. Getting up onto the seat was not as hard as his sudden descent, but navigating in a human environment was beginning to be more and more of a challenge as the mission went on.

When he finally got up to the desk, he squinted at the username and spoke it aloud, "Jesse Abbot… an abbot? I didn't know the jailers had a monastery." There was more to read under the name. "IT Technician… it technician. Jesse Abbot, it technician? Is that just rude or poor grammar? I can't tell." He looked to the familiar for comment, but pushed the notion away as he remembered that it didn't even have a mouth.

“Nevermind. Just watch for humans while I figure this out.”

The familiar dipped up and down and then hovered up higher to get a better vantage point. It would not be able to hear a human in this noisy room, but at least it could see one. Umber paused as he glanced at his familiar that floated above him.

“I need to give you a name. It would make it easier to scold you when I need to.”

The familiar ignored the rude comment and continued to make up for its lackluster performance and focus on sentry duty. Umber shook his head to get his bearing and noticed the handle in front of him. A desk drawer. Pulling it towards him, he found a few curious items.

A marker of permanency

A sheaf of loose papers

An obsidian tablet

A small handwritten note

He studied what he should do with them, if anything. "Well this obsidian tablet and the marker may have some use," he decided.

He took the two items out of the drawer and gingerly placed the lightning bite gun in its place. This is a stealth mission anyhow, can't be shooting people when one is vastly outnumbered. Then there was the computer screen in front of him. A password seemed to be the only thing between Umber and the digital treasure trove he has been groping for since messing with the button device in the bathroom. "A nickname…."

J-E-S-S

The computer flashed a window back at him. "Login incorrect? Ugh… I'll be all day at this trying to guess nicknames." He tried to think of a few more just to be sure pulling the keyboard closer into his lap to better reach. "Familiar, what are some good human nicknames? Fleshy? Pinksac? Hairblob? Meatface? Ben?"

The familiar twitched at the name Ben. "Ben? I'll try."

B-E-N

Again, he was blocked. "No no no, that one is no good. Ben is a dumb name… huh… you know, that's the name I'm giving you for such a dumb suggestion." Ben did not react to the rude comment and continued to watch for humans. Umber rubbed his temples and tried to think harder, there must have been a master password that supersedes this one… like a skeleton key.

I-L-O-V-E-B-O-X

A-L-L-H-A-I-L-B-O-X

B-O-X-F-O-R-T-H-E-B-O-X-G-O-D

All failed. Umber grunted in frustration and pulled out the obsidian tablet, perhaps it would be more helpful. He fumbled with the tablet in his small appendages looking to see how it operates. Unintentionally, he pressed the circle on the bottom and the tablet lit up with shapes and colors. It surprised Umber so much that he nearly dropped the thing, thinking he had activated some sort of terrible spell to trap any poor unfortunate creatures in a hypnotic trance. After about five seconds of wincing, Umber exhaled pushed the previous notion aside. He looked at the screen to see what he could find useful to him.

Well there were many useful things. If only he understood what half of this meant he could probably get some overdue hints on what to do. Umber noticed the orange button which said 'Text'. Well he was looking for text, a very specific text as the password. He pressed it and it grew instantly to cover the screen. There was only a single message sent from what appeared to be another human.

"Moneybags? I thought this was Jesse… ooooooooooh." Umber's brain clicked and whirred with excitement as he put the phone down and typed his newly found clue into the computer screen.

M-O-N-E-Y-B-A-G-S

The screen flashed the words 'Welcome' and Umber squeaked with joy. The biggest victory yet since sneaking in. He put his hands together in anticipation to see what he could discover.

"Errrr…."

Umber sat even more confused than previously when he was in the bathroom stall. Where was the information? Where was the payoff? And what the hell is a dumpster doing here? He slouched in his seat feeling a little defeated. He almost wished the council of 3 shades had sent an actual agent and he could go back to sneaking into the library for books. "They should have sent a human, Ben."

Ben tilted slightly down to face Umber. It almost felt sorry for its master but knew there was little it could do to help. Umber had to soldier on. As a homunculus… no… as a member of the Cult of New Umbra he had to have faith. The second child needed to be freed. He propped himself back up, grabbed the mouse, and shakily dragged it across the screen to see what he could dig up in cyberspace.

Umber decided to look through the phone first. Luckily, it didn't have any security features on it. Probably the IT plebian assigned to it had ways to keep it unlocked for ease of use. Blessed be the lazy who make subterfuge that much easier, Umber thought to himself. Using his little digits, he thumbed through the email of one Jesse Abbot.

Only a few messages but nothing referring to the second child. Umber sighed and pushed the phone back down into his tunic. He pulled the rolling chair closer to the screen and squinted at the icons. "L-lodestar work orders. Who is doing the ordering?" Umber pushed on the icon with a thumb, but nothing. "C'mon… blasted device." Another firm tap on the LCD screen. "Why is nothing intuitive?" He bumped the table with a frustrated fist and made the whole thing rattle. The tiny arrow in the center of the screen moved ever so slightly, and thankfully caught the eye of Umber.

He looked at the mouse and poked it with a hesitant finger. Again the arrow had moved. Umber then draped a hand over the mouse and slid the arrow across the screen, this way and that. "Ah… alright." He unskillfully moved the arrow and clicked the lodestar icon. A window flew up into the screen and populated a display with table of ongoing repairs to the site.

❇ LODESTAR ❇

WORK ORDER MANAGEMENT

Client Viewer (Operator Access Only)

Site-81 Open Work Orders:

Location
Status
SCP
Description

D-Wing
Active
2151 / 2980
Rerouting utilities from chamber 05 to 06 while renovations are being conducted. Fiber optic line is included. Complete ASAP.

Railway
Scheduled
N/A
Furnicular tram needs new wheel bearing on left side. Squeaks during stop.

I-Wing
Active
017
Need replacement of one of the high-intensity arc lamp spotlights. Running on a spare currently.

F-Wing
Scheduled
2540
Electromagnetic manipulator does not turn on.

E-Wing
Active
3707
It happened again. Need new wheel clamps.

J-Wing
Scheduled
3740
Need replacement of hand-carved ornate oak table. Commission work if needed.

E-Wing
Scheduled
2445
Research requesting IT resources to assist in achieving unrestricted access to the object's operating system.

Umber hummed while reading them making little mental notes here and there. He got distracted a little by the dumpster icon with a '1' floating in the corner. He clicked and another display flew up at him. A lonely file with a strange name was the only thing in there. "Tckts file. What's a tckts file?," he asked rhetorically.

Umber nodded and moved on. He glanced at the AIC helpdesk. Help? Well that's for sure what he needed at the moment rather than blindly probing through the computer desktop hoping to hit paydirt. He clicked on it and a display with a curious looking avatar flickered up.

AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE

LIVE ●

Well if it isn't a user in the flesh! Name's Virgil. I'm the handsome AIC assigned to guide you through the magical land that is IT helpdesk topics and troubleshooting. And let me tell ya, I shoot that trouble so good it'll make your neurons burst on an atomic level! What can I solve for you today, champ?

I want a badge. Give me one.

Whoa whoa whoa there, bucko. Pump them brakes for me. Now I read through the access permissions master reference faster than a fart in a fan factory during a hurricane and it said that you, Jesse Abbot, are identified as a badge facilitator. You need me to hold your hand through the creation process, tiger?

No. Just make me one now.

Sorry, slick. My credentials only allow me to make requests for lost or stolen badges. You on the other hand, have credentials for creating and facilitating badges up to level 2. Now I'll give you a wooden nickel if you take a gander at that SCP_Badger icon installed on your desktop. Using your credentials we could access the program and I can guide you through the creation process, chief.

Fine. Where do I put in the blank badge?

You got a blank? Well hot damn, that's half the battle right there! When we're done with the badge setup, just plug that sucker into the badge module on the printer at the far end of the server room there. Least that's what your default printer settings are saying anyhow, sparky.

Stop calling me names.

Ha. Will try my darndest. Currently my personality driver has a confidence level set at 100% with a humor differential of 85%. But I'll let my programmer know I got another complaint about it. Alright, slugger?

Whatever.

Can do! Sooooo… your badge is missing then? As a security requirement, I'll need your consent to use your crednetials for making the replacement badge, kiddo.

Yes and yes. Get on with it.

Wunderbar, boss! You probably already know, but just as a reminder, these badges have mutable features that only work while inside the facility. So you'll need to remember that PIN number for everything outside the building. Super important cause I can't recover it and you'll need to make a whole new badge if you forget it. Got it? Good. Now let's get cracking on that badge, duderino!

Umber rolled his eye and leaned back a little. "A little bit of this thing goes a long way," Umber mumbled. The plucky Virgil created another window and loaded up the SCP_Badger program, running through the prompts in milliseconds.

SCP_Badger

ver 2.3.11

Connecting to syncsrv81…

Checking credentials…

Connected!

Main Menu:

► New

▼ Copy

Loading program……100%

You have selected 'Copy'.

You will now be directed to the prompts for badge duplication.

WARNING: duplication of any badge will void the original!

Continue (y/n)? y

Do you have a valid badge you wish to duplicate (y/n)? n

Choose one of the following:

▼ The badge is missing

Please provide the 13-digit employee number:

0013259987569

Employee found:

NAME
J. Abbot

DEPT
Maintenance/IT

LEVEL
2

CLASS
C

SITE
81

Please provide a new personal 6-digit PIN number:

998998

syncsrv81 generating new security token…

Badge setup complete!

Please insert blank template into printer.

Congrats on your new badge, jack!

And just like that, it was completed. Umber craned his neck to see the printer on the far end of the server row. It was blinking yellow as if waiting on something. Umber pushed off from the desk and rode the rolly chair down the linoleum highway. His momentum, however, puttered out about three-quarters of the way there. Umber simply huffed in frustration, clamored down the black plastic deskchair, and walked the rest of the way.

"You plug it in yet, partner?" the computer speakers blurted out from the desk. Umber winced, "I should have tried to mute it."

There was a thin slot, clearly used for inserting cards. Umber crammed the blank badge into the huge machine and watch the light shift from a solid yellow light to a blinking one. There was a rush of hot air as the fans kicked back on and the sounds of whirring motors and toner filled the cramped space. After about ten seconds, a new badge was produced. It had a new mutable matrix barcode and a fancy orange border. Finally, Umber had a badge.

Umber held it high in a feeling of triumph. The sneaking around. The stealing of items. The making of lewd noises on the toilet. The fall from the cieling. He was finally vindicated in his struggling. Things were finally starting to turn around for Umber and Ben.

"Uh… Ben? BEN!!!"

▼ Close

► Dead End? [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

"Lemme go! NNNHMF!"

The ghost had a strong grip. Umber flailed desperately to break free but it was no use. How could a ghost be so strong, he thought. He tried to reach for the nearest server rack to grab hold of, but it seemed to be just out of his reach. If he couldn't break free, maybe he could intimidate it by pretending to be a ghost as well.

"I'm a terrible ghost tooooooooo! And if yoooooooou don't release me, I'll overpower yoooooou! I'll inhale your ectoplasm and make it my oooooooooown. OOOoooOOOOooooOoOOoOOooOO!" Umber was sure that his ghost accent was dead on. Very dead on in fact.

The ghost blinked and tilted her head ever so slightly. In a corrosive whisper, she spoke to Umber in a calm and inquisative tone "You are a ghost?"

"Y-yeah. Yes I am. Now let go or feel my horrific undead fury." Umber was still trying to pull away forcefully.

"But you know what this is." The ghost held up a book. The book of shadows. The one he completely forgot about in the bathroom and the one thing that was going to help him release the second child when he found it.

"…oh…" was all that Umber could say.

The ghost pulled the book away and made it vanish into her own ethereal essence. Then she released him. "Now there are two of us. Now we can make them pay. How I've waited for another."

Umber rubbed his wrist trying to deice it after being in her frosty grip. "What are you?"

"I am like you. A ghost. Torn from my body and tortured by these people. Even in death, I do not find peace. There is only my hate that keeps me here. After being tortured, I learned their ways. I learned their machines. I figured out where to slip through the cracks of information. I waited when the time was right and was able to fabricate my very existence. They don't even remember me, now. But I am not done. My name is Emily and I will raze this place into the ground for what was done to me. How I've waited for another."

Umber hesitantly took a half a step back. "O… kay? Well, that is interesting. My name is Umber and I'll just need my book back so…"

"UUUUMMMMMBERRRRRRRRRRRRR." Emily vanished and reappeared behind Umber in a flash. She held him very close in her frozen claws in almost an affectionate way.

"Y-yes that's me. I just want my boo-"

"Umber, Umber, Umber… you and I are going to work together. I read your book. It has amazing power that we can tap into. Together we can cause chaos. Together we can sew destruction. Together we can burn a hole so deep that they would never ever dare to do to another like they did to me."

Umber recoiled a little as a long claw poked him in the mid-section. He could feel the icy tip even through his tunic. "Well, I do like me some mayhem, but I'm really here to accomplish just the one thing." Her grip tightened a little and her bleeding red eye grew into a hellish portal, which echoed the screams of Emily's past.

"WE WILL ACCOMPLISH MANY THINGS, UMBER."

"WE WILL WATCH THE RECKLESS ABANDON OF THEIR CAGED HORRORS TEAR THEIR WAY OUT. WE WILL SEE THE LAKE SET AFLAME. WE WILL SEE THE EARTH OPEN ITS TERRIBLE MAW AND SWALLOW THE EVIL OF THIS PLACE. AND WHEN THE SURVIVORS TRY TO RUN FROM THE RUINS TOWARD SAFETY, WE WILL BE AWAITING THEM WITH OPEN CLAWS. CAN'T YOU SEE? CAN'T YOU SEE THAT WE WILL ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH MORE. AND WHEN THE HATE IN OUR SOULS WASHES OVER THIS PLACE, THEY WILL KNOW THAT IT WAS THEIR OWN HANDS WHICH CAUSED THEIR DOOM. AND THEY WILL LAMENT OVER WHAT THEY DID TO ME. AND I WILL STAND OVER THE ASHES. AND I. WILL. LAUGH."

Umber looked immensely worried. "Um… yeah, but-” Her grip tightened to the point of almost being considered painful.

"WITH YOUR BOOK. WITH YOUR HELP. WE WILL ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THIS. YOU AND ME. ALL WILL SUFFER. ALL WILL DIE. WHAT SAY YOU, UMBER?"

Umber took a deep breath and wondered if he expressed a differing opinion, would he be ripped to shreds? Perhaps having a blood hungry ghost on one's side could be useful, he thought. Better to be in the maw or the bosom of a demon? Probably the latter. "I'll help you… but I have a request."

Emily's eye shrunk back down slowly to its original state. "What?" she whispered.

"I am here on business. There is someone I am here to rescue someone… someone like you. I must accomplish this first and foremost. Help me and I'll help you?"

She thought for a few seconds, then pulled her claws off of Umber's tunic. "Very well, Umber. But I am keeping the book till you fulfill your promise."

"Well I didn't really make a promise or anything, this is more like a loose terms and conditions," Umber mumbled back. Emily merely squinted back at him, opened the book, and ripped out the first page.

SSHHHRIPPP

"GAH! Don't do that! Fine! Fine! Promise! Just don't do that!" Satisfied with Umber's response she then nodded back, closed the book, and made it vanish again in her hands. Ben floated down to the two of them to see what was going on. "Ben. Little late to the party wouldn't you say?" Ben just dipped down a little in reaction to Umber's condescending tone. Umber then sighed and felt for his new ID badge, which he confirmed to be safely in his inside pocket.

"Yo! You get your badge situation under control there, comrade? Can I close out your helpdesk ticket there?" Virgil was still up on the screen awaiting a response. There was no camera or mic attached to the computer so it was actually a relief that he didn't hear Umber and Emily talking. "You there, amigo? I can't go until you dismiss me and are satisfied with my service."

Umber looked back at Emily as she faded to near invisibility. "I'll be watching," she whispered. Umber shivered as an uneasy chill ran up his back. He made his way back to the computer, pushed the chair into the desk, and climbed back up.

AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE

LIVE ●

You there, amigo? I can't go until you dismiss me or are satisfied with my service.

Yes, I got it. We're done here.

Neato! Well if you need anything else just give me a holler, buddy.

How?

How, what?

How would I call on you again?

Well, uh… you just login to another computer I think. They are located everywhere, friend-o.

Understood.

10-4. Also if you wouldn't mind, please spend a little time completing a survey for my programmers on how I assisted you today. Hell, wouldn't want to go through a decommission like the last AIC did. Have a nice day, boss!

Take Me to Survey!

After taking the survey, Umber closed the window and leaned back. He could see the exit along the east wall, which was the only door in or out of the room. The ventilation was above, but he'd need to scale a server rack to get back up there. Ben floated next to Umber tapped him on the shoulder. "Hmmm? You have a suggestion?"

Ben floated a little closer to Umber and shuddered slightly. Peaking from behind Umber, Ben glanced back at Emily… nervously. Umber could tell that Ben did not trust her, nor should he either. Basically holding his book as collateral for his cooperation, he'd need to find a way to either subdue her or get his book back. Either way, they called themselves allies for the moment. He silently nodded back to Ben, and there was an intrinsic understanding between them that one way or another, they'd eventually have to deal with Emily.

Umber looked back into the desk drawer one last time to see if there were any other items of use. He looked through the papers, which had a great deal of information on them. Unfortunately there was no way to carry them with all the other junk he had on him. "Emily?" he called from behind, "Can you carry these papers for me? I'm not sure what they are but they are probably useful."

Emily wafted up from behind and looked over his shoulder, "Why not just take a picture of them?"

Umber looked back at her from over his shoulder, "A what?"

"A picture. With the phone. I have watched the others use the phone to take a picture. I can show you." Her deft hand suddenly phased through his tunic. Umber squelched a strange sound in both protest and shock from having an icy claw reach inside his person.

"FGNCCHK!"

His whole body shook as five icicles picked the phone from his inside pocket and pulled it out. "H-Hey!"

"Calm. I'm showing you. Look with your eye. There's a button here that looks like a camera. You use it to take the pictures. Also, I know how to modify it, such as setting to an airplane mode as to not lose power." Emily worked the phone in front of Umber and switched to airplane mode in the settings. Umber watched with fascination and took some mental notes. "Airplane mode makes the phone fly?"

"No," Emily replied with a deadpan tone.

Umber nodded, but not really understanding all of this. "How do you know so much about human technology?"

Emily continued to click trough the settings, "Out of necessity. My heinous captors depend on technology and I have been learning how to use it against them. It's how I was able to change my records and escape in the first place." She closed the settings app and put the phone on the desk in front of Umber. "There. I also turned the brightness down. Now try and take a picture of those papers."

Umber looked down at the phone and picked it up. He then laid out the papers, three sheets total, and tried to take a picture of them. The camera flashed and singed him.

"GAH! You tricked me, betrayer!"

"You just took a picture of yourself." Emily took the phone out of his hands once again and showed him his mistake.

"You have to use the back camera. Here…"

Umber rubbed his sore eye as he recovered from the flash, the sudden wave of nausea starting to slowly subside. Being a mostly shadowstuff doesn't help as well. Emily pressed the button to switch cameras and handed it back to him, "Try again."

Umber squinted up at Emily with suspicion and then took three pictures.

CLICK

CLICK

CLICK

Afterwards he checked under files to see that they were in fact there. Umber was surprised at the intuitiveness of this device was to him. He reviewed them closely while Emily looked over his shoulder to comment, "Maps. It's the admin building. It goes deeper than that… I've seen only parts of it."

Umber closed it and put the phone back in his pocket. "Can you get us to where the second child is?"

"Who?"

"The second child," Umber said again with more emphasis.

"I don't know who or what that is, Umber. When I was in caged, I only saw parts. Everything was isolated from everything else." Umber hopped off the chair to think, "Shadjar. How should we make our way to the cages?"

Emily stood silently for a moment or two before finally speaking, “The facility is much larger underneath, and there are many doors to go through. Plus one giant one.”

“Doors you say?”

Emily nodded. Umber pondered about the keycard he now had and compared it with his maps. There seemed to be doors he could open and others he could not. More investigation on door opening techniques had to be conducted. “I saw more papers in the bathroom. I think we should look to see what is in there. Then let us see what we can find upstairs. I still have some magic left… I think.” He looked at his diminished shadow and judged that he wasn’t even halfway through his reservoir, yet.

Umber and Ben clamored back into the vents to retrace their steps. Emily was just a short distance behind them, with only a bloody red eye being visible in the dark. “Emily, you mind not stalking behind me like that? Why don’t you go on ahead and let me know if the coast is clear.” With a burst of chilled air, Emily moved through the pair of them and was gone from sight in an instant. Ben looked to its master for a reaction, but Umber was steadfast.

Eventually they made it back to the bathroom vent. Peeking through the slats, Umber could make out the vague shape of a person. It was Emily scoping the place out, moving from stall to stall to make sure it was empty. Then after she was convinced that the coast was clear, she tapped on the vent where Umber and Ben were crouched. Umber was able to descend without incident and clamor down to locker 21. There he worked the lock and pulled out the papers. Some of them were the same maps of the admin building and the same work orders that he discovered in the lodestar program on the computer.

One folder was a little different and had an intricate map of the ventilation system of the admin building. Second floor, ground floor, and the basement. Not really detailed on where the vents end but he could probably compare with the other maps and estimate what went there. He then opened the camera app on his phone and took some quick pictures of the papers.

CLICK

CLICK

CLICK

On the last click, Ben started to vibrate softly. Umber looked over his shoulder to look. The shivering peal of shadowsteel hung in the air as Ben continued his alarm. Something in Umber's head suddenly clicked, and he then understood that this was a warning signal for something approaching.

“Emily, I need the book now.”

“Why?” There was a wary hesitance in her voice. This was followed by hollow boots, which walked down the hallway outside.

“No time, just give me it.”

“No, tell me what for.”

“Emily!” The footsteps approached closer. “FFFN! I need a disguise. Hurry.”

She paused but relented and made the book reappear, holding it for Umber. He thumbed through the pages and found the incantations for shadowforms. Again, the spell would have a limited amount of time that it would remain. Roughly 30 minutes, give or take. Umber mumbled the script and concentrated. As his legs and arms started to fill out, the door began to creak open. Umber stumbled into a stall, half-formed and incomplete as a human walked in.

They whistled some kind of tune as they casually strolled toward a locker. Umber had to finish filling out his shadowform quietly as Emily and Ben watched. Emily actually had not really retained the concept of personal space since becoming a ghost. “Stop looking at me, I can’t do it when you are looking at me.”

The human stopped whistling and looked at the closed stall. “Er… not looking at you. Just came to get my stuff if you don’t mind.”

Crap, Umber thought, as he would have to switch into his human accent. “I am sorries. I was giving a talking to my… my phone. Yes, I am having the phone conversation. Excuse me.” Nailed it.

“Whatever.”

Umber waited for the human to quickly grab their stuff and leave. “Finally.” He stood up and walked out of the stall. A little shaky at first, but then got used to his human size. “Map says there’s an elevator. We can use it to go- Where’d Emily go?” Umber and Ben looked around but she was nowhere to be found. “EERNG! So frustrating. Forget it. Ben let’s put you in a bag.” He grabbed a plastic bag out of the bin and shoved the familiar inside without much regards to Ben's feelings on the matter.

Umber then took a deep breath and strolled out into the hallway. There were a few humans in white coats discussing gibberish and whatnot by a door. There was a person in orange pushing a cart of tools and glass containers. Umber blended right in with the scene. He quickly walked a short distance to the elevator and pressed the button for 2F, which corresponded with the map.

As he waited, Umber reviewed the map of 2F on his phone. There was a room labeled classified. How interesting, Umber thought. The elevator then dinged and opened up. A balding man with a large nose and a dark brown suit stood there with a clipboard. Umber froze a little. “Going up?” He said and moved a little to the side to offer space for Umber. Umber nodded and stepped in.

“Busy on patrol?” The man said as the doors closed. His clipboard nearly pressed against his nose as he read some charts. “Yes.” Umber robotically replied. Best to keep the conversation brief, he thought. Umber glanced at the ID card, taking note of the red border. Red cards meant unrestricted access, so this must be a human of great importance. Could be in charge of all the boxes on site, Umber thought.

“What is in the bag?”

“L-lost item, sir. Just returnering.”

The man moved an eye away from his clipboard to briefly view Umber, then reaffixed his attention back to the charts. The rest was a short and uneventful ride as the elevator stopped and opened to the second floor. The man made a brisk walk toward a set of large doors across from the elevator. The name on the door read ‘Dr. K. Aktus, Director’. With a swipe of his card, he entered the room and closed it behind him. Uber breathed a sigh of relief and made his way to the door marked classified. As he got closer, a strange sensation started to wash over him. A dull pain that only got more and more intense as he closed in. Ben was shaking as well, trying to pull away. Umber held Ben under his arm and pushed through. The pain was strong and Umber had the feeling of trudging up a steep hill to reach the door, almost as if there was some repelling force like gravity pushing against him.

It was unbearable by the time he reached the reader, quickly swiping his badge he watched the reader light turn red, meaning access denied. Umber fell back and crawled away. He felt this sensation before, but not from this plane. He felt this once with the librarians when they tried to banish him. Something unnatural and powerful was behind this door. It was also extremely hazardous to Umber’s health, which was painfully apparent as he looked at his now diminished shadow. Less than half than when he arrived. “Forget that door. I’ll kill myself if I try to open it.” He mumbled to himself.

There was another door to try, an office that he seemed to have access too. Shaking off the aches of his body, he moved around the classified room and into the offices on the south end of the building. There were five rooms and a larger printer. In the corner, a dying fichus tree and a half full wastebin. Umber moved toward the office labeled ‘2C, P. Klingerman, Asst. Dir. of Facilities’. He swiped the badge and heard the door unlock. Quickly stepping in, Umber blended well in the dark unoccupied office.

The computer was still on but locked, and unless Umber had a password for this human’s computer, he wasn’t going to access it. Umber then tried to open up some of the filing cabinets along the wall, only to discover they were locked as well.

“There’s something on the wall.” Said a voice as an icy hand crested Umber’s shoulder.

“GAAFTP!” This was the resulting sound that came out of Umber after being scared out of his skin by Emily. “Don’t sneak up on me.” He whispered at the highest volume, which could still have been defined as a whisper technically.

Emily merely pointed at the corkboard next to the calendar. A diagram detailing some of the power systems underneath the admin building. Umber reached for his phone and took a picture.

CLICK

“Might be useful.” Suddenly, Umber could hear the ding of the elevator from down the hallway. Many footsteps and voices piled out and into the open area. Sounded like they were about to have a meeting of sorts and were conversing outside the conference room until the meeting was to begin. Umber was losing precious time in this shadeform and thought about his next step.

▼ Close

► Over the Fangs [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

“There’s nothing else up here for us. We need to get down to the cages. Follow me.” Umber opened the door to the office gently as Emily vanished once more. Even though she was invisible, he could still feel her icy presence nearby. Umber walked toward the copier and stopped at the entrance to the hallway. He had to walk by the crowd and back toward the stairs. He would have liked to avoid direct contact with humans in close quarters if at all possible.

He also needed to look like he was actually doing some work as he walked past as to not look suspicious. Pulling out his phone, he pressed it against his ear and began to talk and walk past the crowd of suits and lab coats. At a brisk pace, he tried to hold his own conversation with his phone.

“No. Nothing. Yes. What was that? Then no. No sign of boxes up here. They must be in the sub-level… in the box room. Yes, they know better than to defile a box like that. Then they will be executed… I mean terminated. Yes, box be praised. I love you too.”

There were a couple of researchers, and especially Karen from finance, who gave peculiar stares toward Umber but none had the inclination or desire to say something to a security guard on patrol. Most at that meeting were focused on budgeting for next quarter. Umber then hustled down two flights of stairs and made it to the bottom, the sub-level access. It was noticeably dimmer and colder as the walls shifted from drywall to bare concrete. The tile linoleum was now polished and waxed cement that streched out ahead. Past the double doors and around the corner, Umber could make out the large bulkhead door on the south side.

Umber had to glance at his phone to refresh the rest of his memory on this place. The generator room is what he had access to and it was just on his left. Slipping past a guard reading a magazine, Umber reached the door leading to the generator room. From there he could get a decent look at the bulkhead. It was a beast of metal and rivets. It'd take a massive explosion to even dent it, he wondered. On each corner there were a set of hefy hydralics that kept the metal slab firmly in place. He could also make out cables for the motors which were the only things powerful enough to slide it back and forth along its tracks.

Umber could not stare at it all day, so he swiped his badge at the generator room and tucked inside. It was an empty space with three large orange machines labeled GEN A, B, and C. Thick black cables attached to the ceiling spread like a web out from the machines. There was the gentle hum of electricity as Umber leaned against the wall and sighed. “Are we getting closer, Emily?”

“Yessss. You saw the big door?” Emily reappeared from across the room and stared back blankly.

"I got a good look at it. But to get past it? I don't know."

Umber looked about the room noticing only the one way in and out. “Where to go from here?” Emily paused and then slowly pointed above her head with a single claw toward an overhead vent. Umber would have to revert if he hoped to fit in that small space. After reviewing the maps on his phone again, he agreed. From here they could access the armory. Big chance something juicy would be stored in there, Umber thought to himself.

With a wave of his hand he dismissed the shadeform prematurely and reverted back to his original form. He was able to shimmy up a power cable and access the vent, and then from there find his way in the dark towards a vent in the armory. He could see from the vent cover that the guard he passed earlier was on sentry duty, yet still had his nose buried in last month’s issue of ‘Guns & Ammo’. Remembering from when he was in the vents last time, Umber produced the amulet of knife summoning to unscrew the vent cover very quietly.

Success. And Umber was able to work his way down onto a shelf of grenades. Grenades!?! There were grenades, sub-machine guns, pistols, claymore mines, demo charges, and every rifle or shotgun he could think of, and even some he couldn’t think of. Thankfully he was able to duck between the racks of rifles and body armor while Ben occupied the other side of the aisle. If only the lone guard didn’t have to stand watch. Inside the clerk’s office stood a single body with a window facing out toward the armory floor that overlooked the rows and rows of weaponry. For a brief moment he got up and perched next to the window thinking he had heard something in an area that was normally dead quiet.

“He will never leave.” Said Emily in a whispy tone.

“What do you mean?” Umber replied.

“These guards… these filth with guns don’t move until another tells them to. Or when there’s an emergency. Or some other thing to draw them out.” Emily stated with her typical whisper.

“Shadjar.”

Umber paused to think, then scooted closer to Emily. “Well we need to draw the idiot out… then subdue them.”

“Subdue them?” Emily confirmed. Umber nodded and reaffirmed by ramming a fist into his other hand. As a response, Emily opened up her claws to show Umber her own weapons, but he vehemently shook his head.

“Not kill. Killing is going to complicate everything. I’m going to handle this.”

“You? You are going to take out the guard? By yourself?”

“With Ben’s help.”

Emily looked at them both and then back at Umber. “I don’t think that is wise. I can just slash thei-“

Umber held up a hand for emphasis, “No killing… unless I’m dead. Then kill away.” Ben shuddered at the thought, then floated closer to their master. “Hang back, Emily. I will let you know when you are needed.”

She hesitantly nodded right before she vanished into a stack of crates. Umber clamored up to the top of a shelf and laid flat. He then pulled out the marker, nodded at Ben, then tossed the marker at the metal shelf next to the tiny office.

CLACK

The impact rang loud in the silent armory. The guard on the other side of the glass quickly perked up and scanned the empty aisles long and hard. Finally after a long pause, they unholstered a pistol and stepped out into the dim light of the concrete room. Slowly they panned back and forth, keeping the gun pointed towards the floor in front of them. Their finger not quite wrapped around the trigger, but definitely a hair’s width away from it.

Umber peered over the edge just as the guard was getting ready to pass by. He was pretty sure he could get this guard on the floor in about 5 seconds flat. Hell, he's taken down the patrons at the library before… granted the majority of them were in their late 90's. He counted silently to three and then jumped onto the hapless guard’s back, gripping the collar of their body armor vest tightly.

“S-HIT!”

Ben floated in close and got ready to ring, but suddenly was grabbed by Umber and used as a weapon to hit the guard.

“AH, FUCKING!” screamed the guard.

Ben wracked against the hard helmet of the guard. Not quite able to make the desired effect with shadowsteel against Kevlar. Nor there was any indication that Umber could swing Ben with enough force to make a dent in said helmet. After about ten seconds of flailing, the guard reached back with a grunt, grabbed Umber by the arm, and flung him forward.

Umber tumbled in the air for a good two seconds. The disorienting spin was interrupted by the hard impact against the concrete wall. Ben also hit hard and fell flat onto the floor. Before Umber could scramble up to call on Emily, a gunshot rang out.

The single pop of the round was deafening in the closed space. The guard stood frozen, not sure to make out what Umber even was. Umber groaned as the hot bullet in his chest singed his insides. A second later, radio chatter started to interrupt the silence.

[SHOTS FIRED! SHOTS FIRED! ANYBODY GOT A LOCATION?]

[THIS IS SITE-81 COMMAND. CONFIRM, FIRE AND LOCATION?]

[F-PATROL, CAN CONFIRM. ONE SHOT. SOUNDED LIKE SUB-LEVEL IN ADMIN.]

[COMMAND, MOVING TOWARD STAIRS TO INTERCEPT POTENTIAL HOSTILES.]

[G-PATROL ALSO INBOUND, TAKING ELEVATOR.]

[COPY.]

The guard went to key up their own radio, when very suddenly the lights in the armory went out.

“H-hey… the lights! Get the fucking lights back on!” they shouted in the dark.

“OR WHAT?”

“AAAAAAAGHAA… NO… NONONONONO… AAAAAAAaaaauaa…”

gurgle

[COMMAND, HOLDING POSITION ON STAIRS. CAN CONFRIM VOICES.]

[SCREAMING. NO OTHER SHOTS FIRED.]

[COMMAND, DO YOU COPY?]

[F-PATROL, COPY. STANDBY FOR FACILITY LOCKDOWN.]

“Not yet.”

The artificer supreme suddenly woke up from a dead sleep. “Something happened.” Slipping on a loose shirt and sandals, the spry 80 year-old rushed down the corridor toward the exit. Upon opening it, a rush of cold mist from the valleys blasted her. A few steps up and she was on the open deck of her riverboat, currently floating up the Ganges. The sail fluttered softly in the breeze as something hung heavy in the night air. She looked up and proceeded to read the stars and weather above her.

“Polaris… AND Betelgeuse shrouded in clouds? And the moon is waning as well… wind is in the east… which means Mars is aligned with… Damn! That’s all we need right now! I’ll need to be quick. This weather won’t hold.”

She hurried off the deck and tucked into another cramped room. She didn’t need light to see, as she replaced her eyes with polished star onyx long ago. “Where are my decks?” She pushed papers and tools aside to make room on her small desk. A charcoal quartz statue of a dog headed human hit the wooden floor as she scrambled to find her cards. Several papers and pens clattered onto the floor as well. Upon pulling on a drawer she sighed in relief and reached in, scooping up her prized decks of artifice. An impressive collection 60 years in the making that the Library would die to get their hands on, as well as a few other unmentionable organizations. “Kiran is going to owe me big for this.”

She tucked her white stringy hair behind her ears and started to shuffle. Each cut of the deck had a meaning and had to be performed in such exactness that only a few master artificers could do this action without looking. After a proper shuffle, she consulted her memory on how to pull her three cards. This wasn’t exactly a forging ritual, but a ritual nonetheless. She had ways of affecting her creations from afar, even when they were broken. A good artificer always plans for an emergency.

First card pulled second from the top of an unknown deck, the zither played on golden strings. She made a note of it as if she recognized an old friend, and placed it down in the moonlight. Next, pulled from the very bottom of the deck of funerals, the burning seal. She hummed in thought and then placed the second card on the table. "Now to figure out the appropriate trump deck." The artificer supreme reached over and pulled an older card from her book of recipes. She straightend out the creases and gave it a good hard look. The amber eye.

“I knew I’d have to use this eventually. Shame I can only do this once.” She rolled her chair toward the window and tossed it into the murky river. A card left over from Umber’s own forging, now returned as a sacrifice. She watched it float down and into the river. It landed face up, perpendicular to the Hajipur leyline before sinking into the cold black. “Ah-ha! I know which one I need.”

She rolled back over and unsleeved an unusual deck with some cards having malleable jade edges. “Can’t remember the last time I pulled from the paradox deck.” She performed a kutti shuffle five times and then from dead center of the deck, she pulled the third card. The sword impossible… inverted.

Her face cringed slightly as she laid it on the table. She was unsure what this combination of cards meant, but it was what she had to work with. She leaned back and packed her pipe full of herbs in preparation.

"…life gives you lemons…" she mumbled.

All three cards were presented. Three options. Three solutions be they good or bad. Weal or woe. The old mind of the artificer supreme cleared the fogginess of distraction away. She lit her pipe and sat on the wooden floor, feeling the boat gently rock as it continued upriver. She would have to meditate in the dark until a living quintessence of shadow presented a single selection from the cards.

Six hours later, streaks of dawn began to shift the night into deep hues of blue and purple. The artificer was still sitting cross-legged, in between sleep and awake, mumbling her mantra. Slowly she tipped and fell to her side with a soft thud. The arificer awoke with a sudden gasp and looked in front of her. As her eyes focused, she could see the hazy night giving way to dawn. The shadow of the outstreched mast split the boat deck in half as it pointed due east. The three cards remained unchanged.

"Well this was a waste of time and sleep." She rubbed pulled her sore back and straightened up again with a few cracks and pops. When she closed and opened her eyes again, she could see a humanoid figure of darkness sitting across from her. "Gah! You… sure took one of you long enough. I've been here all night summoning!" She furrowed her brow at the spectral form. It appeared hunched with thick stubby horns on the side of its head. Its body was nebulous and full, giving the impression that it was made of more shadow than it needed. Beams of reflected light pierced its form, but it sat stoically in the shadow of the mast.

"So what do you have for me then?"

Slowly, without moving its arm, the fingers of the being stretched flat across the deck of the boat and pushed the zither card forward. Afterwards it slowly retracted back without moving the rest of its body.

"Great. See that wasn't so hard now wa-” the artificer's words were cut short as another icy shadow draped over her shoulder. She looked back to see the head of another humanoid shade rising up along the crate behind her. This one looked different. It was more slender and more defined, but upon its head perched a pair of feline ears.

She looked confused at it, but was certain she was only summoning the one… unless in her meditation she mumbled something incorrectly and got two of them to answer. "Who? I… I only needed one of you. I only want one of you."

The other shade did not respond with anything other than its off-hand reaching out towards the sword impossible and pulling it forward.

"Wait… wait wait wait… you can't choose two cards! You can't choose these cards!"

She looked up from the cards to see that the shades had vanished completely just as the sun had crested over the top of the Himalayas.

"REALLY!?!"

Her frustrated words echoed back and forth between the shores. She grunted and snatched the cards up, her knees wobbly, as she had to brace herself a little before trying to walk again. "Fucking shades… all form, no brains. How do they expect me to blend two cards?" She knew she was the person for the job either way, but merging two cards of artifice can be… unpredictable.

She wracked her mind trying to think of a way to do this. In one hand was the zither of golden strings. Five threads of fate running parallel in perfect harmony. With the pluck of fingers, one could vibrate and create magical chords. A skillful user could then take the best notes from each and create favorable melodies. Such is how changes of fate could work, theoretically.

Then the sword impossible… fucking inverted. She groaned as she studied the card. Never anything good. All possible outcomes are thrown out and only the unlikely are left. But inverted! An inversion of an already paradoxical negative is completely chaotic. Impossibilities begin to stack to the point of almost working against the user. Now combined with the zither? Five threads of fate turn into an infinite tangled mess pulling on every facet of the multiverse. Inverted changes it again to opposing outcomes. In addition, anything out of the paradox deck tends to be painfully ironic as well.

The artificer supreme, with all her knowledge and experience, did not know what was going to happen but she knew it was nothing good. With a heavy sigh, she sat at the end of her bed and looked at both cards. "The mission continues. Shadow, forgive me for what I have to do."

"Umber?"

"Umber."

"Are you alive?"

"You are! Ben, come quick!"

Umber opened his eye. He was surrounded by the dank scent of stale air and humid groundwater. "Where? How?" He sat up and looked at Emily standing across from him. She helped prop him up and took a step back.

"We thought you were dead. So Ben and I took your body down here so that you wouldn't wind up as a display in a jar."

Umber took a moment to let the grogginess melt off him. He looked around at the rocky outcrops and stalactites. "Thanks. So we're underground now?"

"Correct. This is where I like to reside sometimes when I want to be away from those enslavers. It’s quiet, dark, and secluded."

Umber simply groaned as Emily finished her sentence and then continued to talk.

"After you were shot-"

"Shot!?"

"Y-yes. You were shot. You don't remember?"

He tried to think hard, but the last thing he remembered was being tossed into a wall by a guard. He placed his hands on his chest and face, but everything felt normal. In fact, he felt pretty great. Emily looked over her shoulder and floated near to Ben.

"Well… what happened after I was shot?"

Emily put her hands behind her back and glanced at Ben for a second. “I took care of the guard and brought you here.”

“You took care of him? Somehow I think you are confusing the word ‘care’ with ‘violently murdered’.”

She shrugged. “Pot-ay-toes… Pot-ah-toes.”

Umber squinted his eyes as he felt his temper rise. “No! No potatoes! My mission, my whole reason for being here is screwed! Now the facility is on lockdown! There would be no way to get to the second child now. And if I return back to the cult as a failure there will be judgement. I’ll probably be obliterated by, Yvonne. Or deconstructed into recycled shadowstuff. OR-”

“It’s been a week though.”

“What?”

“A week. That was a week or so ago. The lockdown was lifted on Thursday.”

Umber sat befuddled. If it has been a week, how did all his shadowstuff not evaporate out of him after being shot? He pushed the thought aside because he was alive now. And now he had a second chance to get in.

“So I’ve been dead a week. Lockdown has been lifted. I feel better than I do during the winter solstice. This is good news.”

"Mmmmmmore or less. Yes."

"This cave is nice. It is close to the site?"

"Close enough, tucked in the forest."

"I can see why you like it down here. Cold. Quiet. Nobody to hear your wails of suffering. But where is that glow coming from? Shouldn't it be pitch black in here?"

"What?"

"Nothing!"

"You had a look."

"No I didn't."

"You aren't telling me something, Emily?"

"Well…"

"Emily!"

"Well you have been dead. That is for sure. Up until the flash of light and-"

"Flash? What flash?"

"I don't know. There was a flash and you just… you're just different now. Right Ben?" Ben floated silently, clearly not wanting to be involved at that moment. Umber had heard enough as he got on all fours and started to crawl towards the puddle in front of him and see his reflection.

"Um… don't know if that's a good idea, Umber."

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!?!"

▼ Close

CHAPTER II

An Impossible Possibility

► Don't Call it a Comeback [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

“Well we don’t really know how it happened. Ben and I were debating what to do with your body when all of a sudden there was a bright light, and you had changed. After that you woke up.”

Umber got up to his legs and looked himself over and over again. There were many questions, but nothing that could have been answered then and there. His tenebrous shadowstuff replaced with celestial brightmatter. It felt strange, but warm. Stark, but refreshing.

He hated it.

“SHADJAR! This is the absolute worst. How can I be part of the Cult of New Umbra when I’m mostly brightmatter. I’m a disgrace!” He then collapsed next to a stalagmite and placed his face in his hands as his glow slightly dimmed.

Emily and Ben floated in closer, “They can’t fix you?”

Umber mumbled through his palms. “The artificer supreme is very talented, but would it be worth fixing me? I’m not even a member. I’m only… a homunculus. Completely and utterly insignificant and disposable… Master Kiran’s words.”

Ben floated closer to Umber, but he was batted away like a mosquito. Emily did the same, except when Umber tried to push her back, his hands simply went through her form. “So… don’t be utterly insignificant or disposable. We finish what we started. We get back at them.”

Emily’s words hung true in Umber’s head. She was right, he thought. If he was going to be worth his salt in the cult, he had better well prove it. It was either that, or annihilation from the cult leaders. He had purpose. “You’re right. The mission continues. The second child cometh.”

Emily nodded and floated off into the cave to get ready and retrieve some things. Ben floated by the entrance to stand watch. Umber felt energized. He felt motivated. He felt like he could take on the entire Foundation. “I must train.” Luckily for him, the cave was infested with toads, which were perfect for target practice or just a target in general. Umber focused, put on his game face, and rushed towards the helpless amphibians. “HYAAA!”

Ben turned around to see his master flinging toads all over the cave. Although disturbed by this behavior, Ben did not intervene. He had already been flung around like a weapon and learned well to remain out of arm's reach. Better a toad than me, Ben thought. Amphibians were pummeled and thrown, hitting the walls of the cave with wet thuds. Umber could feel his strength returning with each toad as if one were punching a stress ball repeatedly. Eventually he switched to grappling, wrestling several toads in a pile until his robes were soaked in mucus.

“What are you doing?” Emily gasped as she returned an hour later from the deepest part of the cave.

“HNNG! Trying to get this toad in a headlock and choke it to death. Die you green menace!”

*croak*

Emily shook her head. "Listen, I went to get your book and one other thing." She produced a blue security badge. "It's from the security guard I took care of. Thought it would be useful later."

Umber nodded in agreement. Emily took the frog from him and handed him his book. "Perhaps you just leave the violence to me and leave the poor toads alone, hmm?"

"Right. I can do that." He shuffled off into a corner with the book to study up. "I'll give it back to you after I do a little research."

Umber looked through the list of spells, and of course they all used shadow as a major component. Shadowmancy being what it is, needs shadow. Umber groaned as he glanced at page after page of inapplicable text. That was until he reached the section on metamagic enhancements and modifications. In there it detailed how to manipulate light, because what is shadow if only the spaces between light. With a little extra, most of the shadowmancy spells could be tailored to affect light instead and use brightmatter, the metaphysical material created by celestial light, as the principal component.

Umber flipped back to see which spells could be easily converted. To his delight, most spells involving transmutation, evocation, conjuration, and illusion would apply. Spells that were more focused on abjuration or enchantment were hit and miss it seemed. Nevertheless, at least it was better than nothing, he thought. After committing this to memory, he handed the book back to Emily. "Thank you for holding onto this for me."

Emily nodded and took the book. Ben then floated towards them to rejoin the group. Umber, the leader, looked at both of them and took a breath, "I think we are ready." He started walking towards the exit, Emily and Ben in tow. As the daylight filled the space of the open cave, and the morning sun crested over the trees, Umber felt no pain being in the direct beams of the sun. It was an interesting feeling overall. He stood heroic in front of his team, looking out into the surrounding green forest ready to get back on the mission. Looking up at the sky, he could easily discern east and west but still wondered which direction to take.

Emily was trying to ignore it, but instead broke the stoic mood, "Um… Umber, are you taking a toad? I don't think we have the space for it."

Umber looked up at Emily, then dug into his robes and tossed out the maintenance badge. After rearranging some things, he then securely placed a floppy toad into his inner robe pocket. "There. Now can we continue?" The toad gave a muffled croak in agreement.

Emily huffed at the toad's response. "What sagely advice. You sure we're bringing that thing?" Already she had started to float ahead with Umber trying to keep up on his stubby legs. "If you call the toad a sage then we must take it as an omen." Umber spoke this in a half-serious tone. "A sage is always handy." Ben trailed between them ducking under the branches of the forest. It was a brisk walk back to Site-81 and in the afternoon sun no less. As Umber trudged through the leaves and sticks, as being the only on one in the group that actually walked, he started to appreciate his surroundings.

"This place isn't so bad. I was always partial to the shadows, but this is… nice." Emily glanced over her shoulder. "It can be nice, yes. I remember trees like this when I was a child." As she ends her sentence, a ghostly claw passes through the bark of a young oak. "Yes, the world is nice when you are living in it."

"What happened to you? How'd you get so mean? You don't seem like you were always mean."

"I wasn't." Emily plainly stated without leaving much to answer Umber's question.

"Someone pluck out your eye and you've been a terror ever since?"

"I was shot in the face. And what should have been a peaceful repose turned into my nightmare."

Umber looked at his feet, then back up to the branches filtering the sunlight. "What was dying like?"

Emily didn't give any indication of emotion as she answered, “Felt like falling. Felt like when you have a nightmare, and you know you are in a nightmare, but you can't get out."

"I don't know what that's like. I don't sleep. But when I died, I felt nothing."

Emily stopped. "Nothing?"

Umber confirmed with a nod, "Yeah. Just an end. And that's all."

Emily stopped next to an abandoned car overgrown with weeds and brush. "Maybe the second child can help you with that?"

"Maybe. What will you do after?"

"I don't know. Find something else to do. Someone else to punish."

"You get tired of all that hate?"

"It's all I have." Emily stated as she turned and continued down the worn path of mud and leaves.

Umber nodded and let the silence hang in the air for a few minutes until Ben broke it. He gave a soft peal as they approached the fence line. The trees and brush provided plenty of cover to walk up to the fence and peer down at the two buildings ahead.

One seemed to be dedicated to water, the other for air ventilation. Both had large pipes extending down and into the ground. The ventilation building was especially noisy as the large intake and outtake fans hummed on top of the roof. The other building was a little louder as multiple pumps could be heard within. Three guards were visible roaming the edge of the property.

Emily stared out beyond the fence, "So what's the plan?"

"The plan? The plan is we get back in."

Emily looked down and squinted at Umber. "Soooo… you're just going to stroll in? A plan Umber. Do you have one?"

Umber pressed up against the chain-link fence and looked across the property. "A few yards out, those pipes look promising. Water processing, huh? Yeah I bet that's water processing alright. These jailers have no concept of subtlety or deception. Clearly it is not for water."

"And how do you know that?" Emily dryly replied.

"Look. That guard out there next to building. He just drank from a water bottle. Why would he bring his own water when all the water is in the building, huh? That means there is no water in there. I bet it's dry as a bone inside. I also bet that those pipes are dry. For sure there's a way down to the sub-level from there."

Sage the toad croaked in agreement as Emily and Ben looked at one another. "That still doesn't get us from here to there."

Umber snapped his fingers at Emily. "Spellbook please."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want the spellbook?" Emily asked again.

"So I can summon a unicorn to seduce the guards. Just give me the book!" Again, there was another snap towards Emily's face.

She clenched her claws a little at that, but still produced the spellbook. "You would do well to remember who pulled you out of this place."

With a toss, it flopped down at Umber's feet. Crouched in the moss and grass, he started to turn towards the chapter on umbral portaging. "Shade messaging. Remote shadowmancy. Ah! Dark tunneling. Here it is." Umber read feverishly through the page while trying to manipulate his pudgy digits to correctly form all the intricate forms needed to perform the spell. Once memorized, Umber flipped back to the appendix of metaspells to apply it to light rather than shadow. Luckily, it wouldn't take much extra to achieve it.

"Did you know the speed of darkness is actually faster than the speed of light?" said Umber as he closed the book.

"That's just not true. It's the most not true thing ever spoken probably." Emily sighed.

"Well that's just your opinion. But it's true. So we'll eventually get there."

Emily shook her head and took the book back from him, "I can get in just fine. This trip is for you and Ben."

croak

"-and that toad. I'll see you inside." Emily took a step back and vanished into the bushes.

Umber stood back up and worked up his concentration. He furrowed his brow and recited the incantations and modifications. His brightmatter started to sparkle as the sunlight around him coalesced against his clothes and skin. Ben too found itself encapsulated in light as the building hum of a chorus started to permeate in the space they were standing. Soon enough from standing to floating. As Umber opened his eye, there was a sudden jolt.

Umber's brightmatter changed from solid matter to photons as his entire form, and Ben's, were stretched into a single line. In about 300 nanoseconds, Umber and Ben crossed the fence line, the field, the lot, and punched a whole the size of a dime through the sheet metal of the large bay door. With the hum of the machinery around, it wasn't even noticeable. The light beam Umber and Ben rode through the building was even less noticeable.

A few mentionable accomplishments were achieved in that moment. For one, Umber and Ben had made it inside. For another, Sage the toad was officially the fastest amphibian in history. And lastly, Umber got to experience being fully submerged for the first time. It had appeared that the light beam pierced the thin metal door, and the top of a large storage tank of water being housed inside the building. Once the light hit the water, it dispersed and out tumbled Umber and Ben. Umber floundered a little and then thought how ironic it was that there actually was a great deal of water inside. That thirsty guard was full of shit, was his next thought.

On either side, he was able to notice a couple of wide outlets. Luckily, they were marked for maintenance workers to identify where the pipes led. But the hatch directly below was unmarked and painted a rusty shade of red. Umber may have been a homunculus, but he did require air to breath, although not as much as a human. Eventually he was going to drown if he didn't make a timely decision.

▼ Close

► Out of the Frying Pan [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

The reactor might be an interesting detour, he thought. It was especially attractive considering it was the pipe that was labeled with the most recognizable context. 'Reactor', meaning the place where they make power. And 'Pool', meaning it must lead to some lounge area for the jailers. Nothing too dangerous there at least.

As Umber swam through the pipe, he could feel the darkness close in around himself and Ben. The brightmatter glowed and bathed the rusty inner walls with a soft light. Every few meters, Umber would pass by another partition of pipe connected with rivets and a thick flange.

Umber still had a decent amount of air to work with, much more than what a human could store but he was still vulnerable to drowning nonetheless. Up ahead he could see a gate valve that was swung open and plenty large enough for him to squeeze through.

"We having fun yet?"

In the darkness up ahead, a bloody red eye. Emily. Umber gurgled a response but swam toward her, which she seemed just out of reach no matter how much distance he closed. "I don't know this place to be honest. Never had a reason to visit this part of the facility. Well, never had a reason to because the radiation… it does weird things to me and I don't particularly like it. But you should be fine. I'll catch up to you later."

And with that, the eye faded back into the blackness. Umber rolled his eye. Whatever that was supposed to mean, he spoke internally. At least he could count on Ben. After another minute of swimming, Umber hit a split in the pipe. One end went straight up. The other went straight down. Not really sure which to take, he looked to Ben for guidance. If Ben had shoulder however, it would have used them to shrug. Then Umber had another idea as he felt Sage squirm about in his pocket.

He pulled the toad out and held her out in front of him like a dowsing. It was apparent which direction Sage wanted to go, as her mucusy skin allowed her to slip out of Umber's grip and paddle up the vertical pipe. "Hey!" Umber cried at her in bubbles as he took off in the same direction. All three of them started up. As they got closer and closer to the end, dark turned to blue, then blue to teal. Then just as Sage cleared the rim of the pipe, there was an uneasy feeling of light permeating through the water. Sage steered back toward Umber, and he was able to capture her once again.

It appeared that they had entered a large tank of water holding. Stuffed in the corner were dark metallic rods bathed in a strange light. Umber could feel the humming through his body as well as the light mingling with his brightmatter in strange ways. There was also a ladder and Umber decided it'd be best not to stay in the water much longer. He clamored out and took a deep breath of air. Above was a platform that encircled most of the tank. There was a lead-lined hatch that was closed and locked from the other side but also a control panel that could be accessed.

Umber wringed out his robe on the platform and looked down at the rods. Each rod sat in a 4x5 grid, but with only 15 rods submerged in the water. The other row of five must have been housed in the other large cylinder that was coming down off the ceiling like a greek column made of lead. Umber rubbed his head and looked back at the panel. "Loooooooooooots of buttons."

Indeed there were. Sliders, gauges, buttons, all sorts of things to mess with. Umber stared at it all for a full minute wondering if one of these buttons was a self-destruct. Probably that big red one, he thought. As he panned his vision from right to left, he noticed that on side of the panel was a monitor, and on the monitor was a familiar face. "Oh great. Ben, help me turn this computer off before that purple idiot starts up." Umber said in a deadpan voice. As he spoke the magic words, a window on the screen prompted up.

AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE

VOCAL TRIGGER DETECTED "HELP ME."

MIC ACTIVE ●

Hey there, bossman. Name's Virgil and it sounds like you need help making changes to a fission reactor, today. How can I help?

The purple avatar floated on the screen stargin back at Umber. Of all the things he had to deal with right now, he was not wanting to deal with the dopey computer person on the other side of the glass.

Umber then groaned.

Loudly.

Loud enough that it echoed off the walls of the shielded chamber and hung in the air like a fart in church. "Shadjar! Why can't you just go away?"

[unknown word]! Why can't you just go away?

No can do, buckaroo. I'm hardwired to this console to be 100% connected twenty-four seven, three sixty-five. How can I help you today?

Wait, you can hear me?

That's what the mic is for, chief. How can I help you today?

Umber huffed, Sage croaked, and Ben was still fascinated with the multitude of blinking lights on the console. He knew that he was not going to figure out how to work this contraption without blowing himself up or the second child. Neither would be desireable. He knew this was a second chance and he did not need to blow. Scrambling up near the console to get a better look, Umber started to form his questions for Virgil.

So Virgil, what am I looking at here?

Well I can't rightly tell that, scout. Where are you looking?

I'm looking at the console you [unknown word]! Tell me what it does!

Certainly, brother! What you are looking at is the fission reactor control console. There is a counterpart console located outside the chamber, but this one is directly hardwired into the control rod manipulator for direct adjustments.

Alright. Now explain all that again so I can understand it.

You got it, zippy! The fission reactor is how the site generates power. The control rods control the reactor, either by increasing or decreasing the reaction or power generated. Currently fifteen of twenty are engaged. The more you lift up, the more power. Does that make sense now?

Better. Now tell me how to shut it down.

Whoa there, dudebro. Let's pump the brakes a little. Currently the H through K wings are experiencing high power swings. The backup generators are not equipped to handle the approximate load at this time, so shutting down could have catostrophic consequences up to including a site breach. Activating the SCRAM would make for a rough week for sure.

What is a scram?

It's the killswitch. When activated, boric acid will flood the coolant pool, essentially choking off the reactor for at least twenty-four hours. Thankfully only designated users have access inside this chamber, and even fewer have an arming key. That is unless someone lost their's recently and it was haphazardly picked up by someone else. But I ain't got time to worry about that! Know what I mean, hombre.

Umber and Ben looked at one another as if they just discovered where the exposed nerve of the site was. He looked down into the glowing pool and sure enough, counted fifteen rods submered into their respective holes with five of them open. Umber wasn't a nuclear scientist, but he could understand enough to be dangerous with this new information. Now it was just needing to know what to do with it.

He put his hand along the control panel and was surprised to see that there were no screws of any kind. It was almost as if the panel was shielded and then welded shut to prevent tampering.

"Well that's inconvienient." He stated as a matter of factly as he rubbed his hand down the corner of the left side. He sighed but then remembered he did have something else on hand that just might work.

Umber fumbled for the key in his inner pocket. Once retrieved, he looked at it intently, and then looked at the lock he was going to try to fit it in. After a little scrambling up onto the control panel, he pushed the tip in. Surprisingly, it glided through the tumblers with ease until it hilted into the lock. As if under possession, Umber mindlessly turned the fob. There were a series of clicks and the button to the SCRAM started to glow red. Umber then pushed the red button.

There was a sudden whir of motors as the chamber echoed with a cacophonous roar. The gauges and instruments pegged to maximum as the large control rod chamber lowered down and choked the reactor. The coolant was flooded with a milky substance as well. The strange feeling in the pit of his stomach waned as the glow died in the water. Then it was silent. Umber looked behind him to see the screen, which was flashing red with a large explanation point.

"Uh, oh… somehow I don't feel all that great about my decision."

ERRRRRP

ERRRRRP

ERRRRRP

The blaring alarm that was coming from outside the chamber was enough to snap Umber out of it. There was a hatch off the side that seemed to be the only way in or out, besides the pipe he just swam up. The emergency lights suddenly flickered on with their red bulbs as the fluorescents died instantly in the chamber.

CLICK

"Ok, that's a little alarming."

Umber looked and nudged Ben for a reaction, but nothing. Ben turned and sternly "looked" back at his master with gross disapproval. Umber was forced to swallowed his failed joke. For a brief moment he wondered if his joke was either bad or it was Ben's fault for not getting it. Probably the latter, he concluded. While fumbling in the dark, Umber pulled the key from the lock and tossed it into the pool so they couldn't get it back easily. Though hard to see, the key made an audible 'plunk' as it hit the water and sank. Umber could also hear people. People in a big old hurry as well as muffled shouting. Umber took a deep satisfaction now that the entire site was plunging into chaos with no main power.

He looked back at the screen one last time and was surprised to see it still had power. Luckily, it was no longer flashing red and Virgil's avatar was back.

AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE

MIC ACTIVE ●

Sorry about that, hermano. Had to reboot and switch to an auxiliary power. What did I miss?

I did the SCRAM thingy and hit the button.

Well slap me around and call me Clippy. I'm sure it was because of an emergency. I'll just call in the MTF and they'll take care of the aftermath.

What is the M T F?

Mobile Task Force Epsilon-13. They are Site-81's permanent task force and are always on standby for incidents like this, comrade.

Wait… Virgil! Don't call them!

Too late, trigger! They are mobilizing now. I'm also detecting a few breaches here and there that they will need to respond to first. Apparently cutting the power out suddenly doesn't give enough time for the backups to start up on some chambers.

Backups?

The generators. They are all over the site but not enough to support the full draw of what is needed. So the real critical areas have them while the rest of the Site will have to get by. Anywho, the MTF will direct you to an evacuation location. Just proceed towards an exit, friendo!

"Thanks." Although it was more of the way Umber said thanks that made it really feel like he was saying, "Fuck you." There was a bang on the metal hatch door as the scramble of people behind it began to manually pry open the locks to get into the chamber. Another bang as the locks started to pull out from the corners. Shreds of light started to invade into the dark space as a flashlight waggled back and forth between the splitting seams.

"Who's in there!", yelled a deep voice from behind the hatch.

"C'mon, Jerry. If someone was in there causing trouble, you really think they'd respond with, Oooh yeah it's me from the chaos insurgency! Just be a sec!"

"Fuck off Kieth, I'm the senior operator here. Just help me with this crowbar."

▼ Close

► Into the Dumpster Fire [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

Umber had an idea. It might not have been a good idea, but it was an idea. As the bottom door latch was released, it started to slowly swing open into the dark reactor room. Umber cleared his throat and shouted back.

"Y… yeah! Fuck off Keith! This is… this is Major Murdeath of the chaos insurgency! Surrender now and you will receive a painfu- painless death!"

The two technicians seemed to halt in their entry. The crowbar dropped to the ground on the other side as there shadows drifted back into the other room. After a moment of awkward silence, faint mumbling could be heard on the other side of the door.

"We should call the MTF. Do you have a radio on you?"

"Good choice. Here. Whatever is in there we don't need to get it angry."

"Don't be such a chickenshit, Trevor."

"I'M NOT BEING A CHICKENSHIT!"

Umber started to say something else, but was rudely interrupted by Sage.

CROAK!

"Hey. Do you have a frog in there or something?" asked the younger technician.

"Wha- no! I'm a high ranking official from the insurgency, I would not carry a frog!….. Be quiet, sage! You're going to blow our cover!….. *ahem* You have ten seconds till I bust in there and murder everything in sight!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"ACK! Don't do that!"

Emily's presence suddenly manifested next to him in the dark. Umber became so startled that he actually dropped Sage to the ground, which made a similar sound akin to dropping a wet towel onto a tile floor. On the other side of the door, the two technicians mumbled and argued about what to do. Again, Emily addressed Umber, "The radioactivity prevented me from getting close to it, good job at shutting it off. But what are you doing, now?"

"I'm trying to scare these technicians to off so I can make an escape." Umber explained in a whispered tone.

"…scare?"

"Yes."

"…you?"

"YES, EMILY!"

"Want me to just…"

Umber rolled his eye and then crouched down to pick up his floppy amphibian companion. "If you must… go ahead." As he looked back up, she was gone. Before Umber could ask where she had wandered off too, there was the bloody gurgled scream of someone’s throat being ripped open.

"GAAAGGLGLGLARGH!"

THUD

"Keith! Oh God! No! Leave me alone! Shit! SHIT! AAAAAAGHAGARGLE!"

THUD

Umber listened as they collapsed in front of the door. A leg flailed out as one of them twitched in their death throes. Emily could be seen in the shadows raising a claw and plunging it deep into flesh. Ben watched in morbid curiosity, as the technician was relieved from the burden of his duties. Umber, however, felt pretty uncomfortable seeing Emily in her true form. Blood pooled and run under the seam of the door as it leaked into the cold reactor. "Come in, Umber."

Umber and Ben obeyed, stepping over bodies and into the main control room, which was not all that special from the reactor. The control panel was an identical setup. An exit sign was clearly labeled on the other side of the room and a single bathroom was adjacent. The window across the control panel overlooked some of the other facilities. The MTF was entering through the gates as soldiers poured off the transports. Heavy armored vehicles were deployed, as well as helicopters and boats over the lake. Fire erupted from a manhole that was connected to the sub-level. Gunshots were popping off sporadically. The radio chatter sounded urgent with people talking over each other. It was a containment breach.

"UMMMMMBEEERRRRRRR… Look at what you have done. Glorious isn't it?"

Emily shoved the bodies into the reactor and shut the door before gliding over behind Umber. Her bloodied claws gripped his sides as she watched the chaos from the window as well. Her eyes swelled and her voice dropped an octave as she spoke haunting words.

"SEE THE WICKED? SEE HOW THEY SCUTTLE LIKE ANTS? WE ARE THE POISON IN THEIR COLONY, UMBER. WE WILL LET THIS PLACE RIP ITSELF INSIDE-OUT. WE WILL LET THESE MEN AND WOMEN BE EATEN BY THE HUNGRY HORRORS WITHIN. I WILL RIP OUT THE THROATS OF THOSE TRYING TO FLEE AND TOSS THEIR WORTHLESS HUSKS BACK INTO THE WATER OF THE LAKE AS IT CHANGES FROM BLUE TO RED. AND I WILL LAUGH AS THEIR BLOATED CORPSES LITTER THE SHORES LIKE DEAD FISH. AND THEY WILL KNOW THAT IT WAS ME. THEY WILL KNOW."

"Emily… you're doing that thing again."

Her eye shrunk back down as she turned towards Umber. "Doing what?"

"Getting crazy with revenge… and ignoring my personal space. Also, your claws are… really unsanitary. Could you maybe not wipe the fluids of slaughtered humans on my robe… p-please?"

"Why are you being weird about this, Umber?"

"I'M NOT THE ONE BEING WEIRD AND CREEPY RIGHT NOW! CERTAINLY NOT!"

"Fine. I just thought we could enjoy a moment."

Emily begrudgingly released Umber and backed off, but still watched the outside as people were trying to push through the gates and evacuate simultaneously. Umber waddled over to the sink in the bathroom and wiped the blood off his robe with a little water. "We can't waste anymore time. The second child is probably unguarded but vulnerable. Let's get into where the cells are."

Emily listened while watching hordes of MTF operatives jog towards the eastern trail which leads to the lakeshore. Others started to flood into the admin building. Everywhere else was relatively ungauarded as all attention seemed to be focused on entering the sub-levels. Emily refocused and looked back at Umber, who was drying off the wet spot with some toilet paper. "Ok."

Umber shuffled out into the open and crouched into a ditch. "We can follow this ditch back to the jailer's offices," he whispered.

Emily paused a bit before responding. "We were already there."

"I know."

"That's where you got shot."

"I know."

"And died."

"I KNOW, EMILY!"

"Hmmm? What was that?" A nearby guard trotted over to check out what he thought he heard. Umber hunkered down into the weeds even harder as Emily dissipated. Ben also crouched low, but refused to get into the mud and dirty themselves. Luckily, Sage gave out a timely croak right as the boots of the jailer reached the edge of the ditch.

CROAK

"Pfft. Frogs." The heavy footfalls of the guard started to move away. Now muddied, Umber scrambled up to the top of the dich to peek out. It appeared as though forces were still mobilizing towards the east. Folks in labcoats and suits were moving north towards the exit. It appeared to be an evacuation and an assault to secure the site. "They do look pretty busy. Let's keep moving."

Umber crawled another few dozen yards to reach the north entrance of the building once again. "Emily, can you use your keycard?" Emily reappeared crouched next to him, "Of course." She then disappeared, and then reappeared next to the door. With a quick swipe, the front entrance unlocked and she ushered for Umber to enter. Umber got up, scuttled over the road, and dove inside before anyone could see him.

Inside was dark and empty. The air was different however, as if the smell of Emily's cave somehow made it in. Ben and Emily also slipped through the door and locked it behind them. Umber was familiar with the layout with the building especially since he took extensive photos with the phone. Echoed sounds from below could be heard, but indiscernible. "Alright, I remember this place now. Where to?"

"So can you tell me why they are headed into the building?"

Virgil happily chirped back at the director from the wall screen. "No siree-bob! But somehow they got their hands on a keycard. Should I deactivate the card, bossman?"

The director leaned back in his chair, letting it creak slowly as he puzzled over his next move. "No. Let us see what they are after exactly. Keep an eye on them and have Special Task Force Zeta-5 trail behind until I say to subjugate them."

"No problem, slugger!"

▼ Close

► Tiptoe Through the Tulips [COMPLETE]

▼ Close

Umber looked about the hallways once inside. He remembered most of this building but needed a reminder. Umber pulled out his phone, and tried to look at the pictures of the building interior. "Ah… ok… So we are here!" He pointed at the screen on the phone to show to Emily.

Emily rolled her bloodied eye and moved Umber's finger a half inch to the left. He nodded and continued, "Yes… there. And there's a storage room, here. You got a card to get in. I say we snoop there before heading down to the sub-levels."

"Oh captain, my captain." Emily responded in an unenthusiastic and monotone voice as she floated by him. Clearly, she was ticked off about something, but Umber pushed the notion out of his thoughts and focused on the mission. "Come along, Ben." The trio easily walked through the hallways since it was evacuated. The emergency lighting provided enough ambiance as they made their way through the double doors and up to the storage room entrance. "Open sesame." Said Emily as she swiped the security badge along the reader. Even in emergency power mode, the site still had enough juice to make sure the locks and badge readers worked. Only essential functions.

The card reader gave the green light and an agreeable beep as the deadbolt lock retracted. Umber stepped through Emily and pushed the door open to view shelves and shelves of boxes. "AHA! Human treasure. A box repository. So many… you think this also doubles as a place of worship?"

Emily panned her head from side to side. "As a former human, I argue against your theory on human box fetishism."

"Noted." Umber looked over his shoulder. "But then why so many boxes, huh?"

Emily sighed and dropped her claws to her side. "I don't have a good answer for that. Let's be quick, yeah?"

Something they could both agree on. Umber looked to Ben, "Look around and see if you can find something useful." Ben bobbed up and down and flew up and over a shelf out of sight. Umber began the dig into a shelf along the wall. Pens, staplers, notepads, paperclips, tape, and any other generic small office supply item were displayed in open bins. Umber mulled over a travel size bottle of hand sanitizer. "The shadow is this stuff? It's a… thick water? Why would humans need thick water?" He gave the bottle a squeeze as a spurt of it landed right in his eye.

"GAH! IT BURNS! SHADOW SAVE ME!"

Emily rushed over and batted the hand sanitizer out of his hand. "Umber what happened? Is it venom?"

"YES! SHADJAR!"

"How can I remove it? Should I cut it out?"

"CUT OUT THE VENOM!?! NO!!!" He would have pushed her away if he could have. "Just! Just give me a second… I think the pain is going away. Nebcharzz! That hurts."

Emily nodded; she then looked at the bottle lying on the floor and read the back label. "Hand Sanitizer. Flammable, keep away from fire or flame. Do not swallow. Avoid contact with eyes."

"Well now it tells me!" Umber rubbed his eye vigorously to get his tears to wash out the hellish concoction. Emily continued to read. "Keep away from children. Why children?" She looked at Umber, then back at the label, then back at Umber. "…ah."

"What?" Umber pivoted around to look at Emily, his eye was almost as red as hers.

"Nothing." She quickly replied.

They are both interrupted when the unmistakable sound of Ben's ringing alerts both of them. At the top of the highest shelf, Ben had found something interesting in an open box. Umber looked back down, a balled fist in his eye trying to rub out the last remnants of the bottled venom. "I'm going to go see what Ben found." Placing a foot and hand on the shelves ready to ascend, he looked at Emily one last time. "Go see if the coast is clear to make it down the stairwell?" She nodded and vanished.

Umber ascended the mountain of shelves that nearly scraped the ceiling tiles as he made his way toward Ben. "What do we have, Ben?" Ben excitedly bobbed up and down at its discovery as Umber leaned over to peek inside, but was interrupted by Emily coming back suddenly.

"Clear all the way down to the door."

Umber was startled and lost his grip in one hand but was able to maintain grip on the other. He dangled like a Christmas ornament, looking down at Emily. "Excellent. Let me just see what's up here and I'll be right down." Swinging back over, he pulled himself back up to the top shelf and peeked inside the box.

Inside were three glass objects and a piece of blue paper. It had some limited information but Umber dutifully took a note of it for later use. "Good work, Ben." Looking down, he then started his descent. Emily waited patiently for him at the bottom. "You don't think this is too easy do you?"

Umber continued down the shelves. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, there's nobody here. During a lockdown there's at least somebody in the building."

"You're paranoid… HUP!" Umber jumped down with three shelves left to go, but managed to make a good landing. "They all evacuated. No reason to think that-"

"-It's a trap?" Emily interjected.

"I was going to say no reason to think that anyone would be left behind. You saw all the staff leaving. The rest went east towards the lake. We're fine." Umber confidently walked past her, but her words started to dig into his head a little. What if it were a trap? How would he know? And what they would have to do if it were. Stepping out of storage, the hallways were dim and deserted. He walked over towards the stairwell and it too was as quiet as the void. "We need to get down there.” Umber started heading down with renewed caution. Emily and Ben picked up the rear as they made their way down. It was darker than last time they were down there, which was when Umber was killed. He unconsciously rubbed his chest where the hole was blasted into him a week ago.

At the bottom of the stair, he could make out the two sets of double doors. One he knew led to the armory, the other towards the bulkhead that blocked the entrance into much wanted sub-levels. Emily crouched down to address the frozen homunculus at the bottom of the step. "What now?"

"Well we should probably hit the armory." Umber responded as he turned and looked at the door. Another keycard reader. "If you don't mind?" Umber motioned toward the door and the empty post where a guard would have been stationed if not for the evacuation of the building. Emily swiped the badge and opened it up to the familiar room they were in a week prior. The smell of musty concrete and freshly cured paint filled the room as the fluorescents above flickered on. Rows and rows of weapons and ammunition. "Alright. Spread out and lets see what we can dig up." Emily, Ben, and Umber each went their own direction and spent a good amount of time rummaging through the boxes and lockers of the armory.

Sage croaked unexpectedly as Umber was looking at some rifles. "Hmm? What's that Sage?"

"She's a frog Umber." Emily's voice echoed in along the walls of the bunker.

"I know. Did you find anything yet?"

"Maybe. You?"

Umber looked up and the shelf adjacent and peered at the Kevlar vests. After rubbing his chest where a massive gaping wound would have been, he then pulled the smallest vest he could find. "I think so… though I'm not sure it will fit. Ok, everyone regroup." Ben and Emily reappeared back into the main aisle to show their swag:

a vest of bullet resistance

a gun

and a bomb

"….Ben where did you get a bomb?" Umber looked up at Ben who had the round metal ring looped around the top of it. Ben merely nodded in the direction of an aisle named 'ORDNANCE AND HIGH EXPLOSIVES'. "Oh…. alright then."

Emily piped up, "Umber, we can't carry all of this. Do we need any of it?"

"You're right, we don't. We aren't here to start a war." And with that, the gang then dropped their items on the nearest shelf. "We should really be more focused on getting past that big door." Umber led them all back into the hallway and towards the large bulkhead. Sage once again gave a very loud and pronounced croak.

CROAK

"What is with her?" Emily looked down at Umber's pocket.

"No idea, but we should keep moving." Ben was already at the door, floating along the seams of the metal slab and concrete walls to look for weaknesses. There was none. It was solid enough to take a direct hit from an energy blast, an acidic discharge, or some other destructive force. The locks on the bottom, which bolted it the bulkhead securely to the ground, looked just as tough, if not tougher. Even if Umber had a cutting torch, it'd take the better part of a night and day to cut into them. "Well… shadjar. Any ideas?"

Umber looked through his phone for those plans he pulled a while back. Going through the gallery he concentrated hard at one picture and then another. Emily looked over his shoulder to observe. Both of them stood in silent thought until Umber looked up at the ghostly woman. "Emily, can't you just… you know… go through it?" He pointed at the door with a stubby digit.

"I can. But how would I get everything else through there?"

"Fair point."

Sage then gave another croak, this time it rang loud and echoed against the walls of concrete.

CROAK!

"Sage, please be quiet." Umber bopped his pocket to get her attention. Sage wriggled a little but not much else. Ben started to float back down to the group, now convinced that there were no obvious points of entry like a vent or something but also interested in the sudden activity the toad was giving off.

"Maybe she's trying to tell us something?"

"Yeah? Like hurry up! Let's get this door open now." Umber said impatiently. "This our second time down here and it gives me the creeps."

"…is that because you died here?"

"Yes! Yes, Emily it's because I died here! Can you shut up about it!?!" Umber crossed his arms in a huff.

Emily didn't react much with her motions as she continued. "I understand. I would feel the same way." Umber sighed and rubbed his temples to try to shake off the strange vibes he was experiencing.

"Sorry. I don't mean to be snippy. I'm just- I'm frustrated. I feel like we're not making much progress and I'm not the most patient or used to working in teams."

"Neither am I. Actually it's rather nice." Her blank dead stare gave no indication as to her emotions, but the inflection in her voice certainly did. Umber nodded solemnly. "Yeah… it is." In reality, he had no idea what was going to happen to Emily after the mission was done with. It was not his place to bring others into the cult of new umbra, but at the same time, he did feel obligated to try and do right by her. Again, more things to shelve for after the mission. "OK. How about this door then?"

"Well it seems like all we have to do is turn this green wheel and the door should slide open." Umber noted as he put the phone away. Emily nodded and glided one step back as Ben floated on the otherside of its master. Umber rubbed his digits together and set Sage on the floor as he gripped the wheel. "Alright… 3… 2… 1… FNGNGH!"

The door creaked and groaned as the gears ground against one another. There was an unmistakable squeal of metal on metal as the metal slab started to roll along its bearings. It moved an impressive half an inch before there was a clang emanating from the floor.

Emily and Ben looked down to notice that the hydraulic locks along the bottom of the door where still engaged. Umber felt the resistance and doubled his efforts, rocking it back and forth. There was another metal on metal clang as the door was once again stopped by the immovable locks.

Emily winced as she watched Umber groan against the wheel.

"Al… Almost th-there!" His whole body shook as he put all he got into turning the wheel. To save him the embarrassment, Emily crouched down and put an arm around him. "Umber?"

"Not now! It's giving way… I can feel it."

"Umber, this isn't going to work."

"Yes it is! FNGH!"

The little homunculus's hand-sewn stitching started to pop as he strained even harder. Emily looked up at Ben, but Ben knew better than to interrupt the master. She then gave Umber an attention-getting pat on the back.

"Look. The locks. There are two of them." She pointed emphatically. "That door is not going anywhere unless those are disengaged." Umber opened his eye to look, and sure enough, half an inch was all he was going to muster with the locks there. "Ah… well then…" He let go of the wheel slowly. "How about we turn on the motors then?"

Emily nodded and stood back up. "Sure, but the locks will still be engaged." Umber rubbed his sore digits and located the breaker panel on the side of the bulkhead. Upon opening the panel he could see that there was in fact power running to the motors, locks, and lights. The gentle hum of the generators behind them confirmed that the whole circuit was powered by the generators now. "Somehow we need to disengage the locks if we want to get the door open."

Emily huffed, "That's what I've been trying to-"

Umber then threw up a hand to interrupt. "Quiet, I have to think."

Umber stroked his chin looking at the door and circuit breakers. He jiggled the breaker that was labeled 'B2' but did not notice anything other than a small set of green LED lights on each hydraulic piston flickering on and off. "Well that's not helping much." Walking back over to the wheels, Umber steadied his grip on the purple one and started to turn it. With almost instant results, the slow hiss of hydraulic fluid began to drain from the pistons and they both started to release and sink into the floor. With a heavy clunk, the solid metal locks eventually bottomed out into their respective cavities. It would take a herculean amount of effort to build the hydraulic pressure back up to relock them, or just simply turn on the pumps.

"Aha! Unlocked." Umber smiled broadly at another victory to scratch next to the longer list of failures and accidents that somehow got them back into the facility. Ben floated back to his master to bask in confidence and ego. Feeling rather triumphant then, Umber was about to take another crack at the green wheel when he had the brilliant thought. "Emily, why don't you peek through and see what's on the other side."

Emily turned to him and tilted her head. "I can't believe I never thought of that before." Emily placed both hands on the solid bulkhead, closed her eye, and stuck her head cleanly through. Phasing one's head through metal has a variety of interesting side effects that most would not think of. For one, a similar effect of brain freeze happens as head and object interact with one another trying to squeeze into the same space. Another is the unmistakable taste of whatever you are passing through saturating your mouth and nose. Although being dead has a great advantage to all this uncomfortable effects as you need to have senses to be uncomfortable.

It only took a brief three seconds to phase through the plated metal and concrete. Emily then opened her eye to observe the dark interior. Nothing was terribly surprising. It was dark, but not too terrible. She peered out ahead to try and catch a glimpse of anything out there.

At first it looked like a whole lot of still air. The back wall could not even be made out. Suddenly there was the distinct croak of Sage from the other side of the bulkhead.

CROAK

Emily used her hand to hold a finger up to Umber in hopes that he is able to quiet the toad who has literally been croaking every other minute since being down in the sub-level.

"That's better." She whispered to herself.

The suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of patter coming out from the dark. Emily squinted to see if her vision could cut through the blackness as something started to emerge.

Emily then retrieved her head, pausing only for a second or two before interrupting Umber's attempt at turning the green wheel. "Umber. We might have trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"There's about five guns behind this wall."

"G-guns?" Umber rubbed his sore chest.

CROAK!

Before Emily could explain further, the hum of electricity could be heard as the motors around the bulkhead started to whir into action. It was apparent that something has seized control of the bulkhead and it wasn't them. With a wailing grind, it started to slowly slide open. Suddenly the intercom chirped as a voice crackled through the loudspeaker. It was unmistakable as it was loud.

[NO HARD FEELINGS, CHAMP.]

[BOSSMAN HAS ME RUNNING ERRANDS.]

[IF YOU THREE WOULD JUST SURRENDER, WE COULD WORK SOMETHING OUT THAT DOESN'T INVOLVE KILLING.]

[OK, BUCKAROO?]

"Shadjar! Double Shadjar!" Umber yelled. "Curse you, Virgil!"

His yelling did not impede the bulkhead door, which was still creaking open at a sloth's pace. Emily looked to Umber with urgency. "Let's not get you shot again."

"Agreed. Back to the armory!" Umber grabbed Emily's hand, but it was like grabbing air. "Oh… right. Just follow then. Ben, you too!"

"Don't forget Sage!" Emily reminded him as she phased into an adjacent wall to enter the armory. Umber was in mid-step when before he pivoted around and retrieved the green lump off the floor. Sage gave another loud croak as a gun barrel protruded through the ever-widening space and took a few scattered shots at Umber.

[CONTACT]

BRAAAAP!

"Oh Shadow! Don't let me die again!"

The assailant let off a quick three round burst, luckily missing Umber as he scampered off around the corner. The bullets ricocheted off the concrete walls and floor before falling silent. The bulkhead squeaked loudly as Special Task Force Zeta-5 started to file through the opening one at a time. By then however, Umber, Sage, Ben, and Emily were in the armory pushing a large cabinet in front of the door. There was no power still but they had a good look around beforehand to see what was there. Frankly, it was a treasure trove of everything a mobile task force would ever want or need to head off a full scale assault or at least put on one hell of a show before dying.

"Well, now we are back in here. Wish I would have taken one of those big guns now." Umber panted, still trying to catch his breath after running for his insignificant life. There were humans coming that wanted him dead… again. Ben floated away from the group back towards the 'ORDNANCE AND HIGH EXPLOSIVES' bin in the southeast corner of the room. Emily was rummaging through some bulletproof vests, something in Umber's size. She didn’t need one at least. Sage was… Sage. Seems like everyone was in action except Umber, but he had to reel in his team. Any second they were going to be looking down the barrels of guns. Guns in the hands of very well trained humans that had no qualms shooting first and asking later, if at all. All Umber had was an armory, his spellbook, and his friends. He formulated a plan.

Four of them had huddled near the shelves that where the vests of bullet resistance were stacked. It was nearly pitch black inside being underground with no power As Umber wriggled into one of the vests he laid out his idea. "We have to fight them off." There was a pause amongst them as the realization of their situation sank in. Umber took another big breath and started again on his idea. "First we need to throw our supplies in one of the lockers. Emily, all I need is the book."

She nodded and slid it across the floor towards him. "What kind of spell are you thinking of?" She asked.

"Something nasty, but it won't be enough. I'll need your claws."

"I feel like I'm always getting my hands wet when I'm with you… and I like it."

Umber nodded as he emptied his pockets and stuffed them into an adjacent locker; Sage included. The toad croaked loudly as he placed the green lump on top of the belongings: the phone, the amulet of knife summoning, and the security key card Emily was carrying. Umber closed the door and ushered Ben over. "Protect our stuff and try not to get in the fight. Only when we are in real trouble." Ben bobbed up and down and then took a sentry position in front of the locker.

There was a clatter outside as Special Task Force Zeta-5 made their way down the hallway and towards the armory. "Umber, they are close." Emily floated back over and picked up a grenade. "I'll buy you a little time so you can get your spell ready."

Thumbing through the pages as quickly as he could, Umber scanned for something to fight with. It was time to show some teeth at these jailers. It was time for them to face the wrath of the Cult of the New Umbra. It was the least of what they deserved.

As he scanned the book chapters and sub-chapters for an appropriate spell, the clamor outside grew closer. The green glow of the night vision on their heads peered through the glass. Laser dots danced along the floor searching for a target as two of the jailers held their position. The other three however, were working on the door, which was thankfully without power. Umber finally landed on the chapters of shadow evocation and inwardly cheered as his nubby digits scanned the text of a promising spell. "Ha… The Flying Spears of the Black Voivode. Most effective. Now to work out the modifications to use brightmatter."

"Found it?" Emily whispered from the other side.

Umber responded with a thumbs-up back at her.

"Good."

[ZETA ONE, WE HAVE NOISES COMING FROM INSIDE. NO VISIBILITY.]

[STANDBY ZETA FOUR, POWER NEARLY RESTORED. HOLD POSITION AT THE WINDOW.]

There was the quiet sound of a metal click as Emily removed the pin of her grenade. Umber's eye went wide as he saw this. The blast would surely kill him in the concrete bunker of the armory. He was almost about to shout at her when he noticed her counting slowly to herself.

"2…"

"3…"

At the last second, Emily phased the grenade and her arm through the wall and politely presented it to the two jailers by the window.

"4…"

BOOM!

There was a mighty concussion of air and glass as it sprayed into the armory. Umber ducked back behind the shelves to avoid debris. The window and surrounding wall was destroyed. Without even a second delay, the remaining three members of Zeta-5 were stepping over the broken bodies of the other two and shuffling in, guns hot.

[ZETA FOUR AND FIVE ARE DOWN!]

[ENGAGE HOSTILES!]

The spray of bullets was thick as they ricocheted everywhere. Emily phased next to Umber and crouched down to pick him up. "Now?" she asked.

"Now? Oh… right! Yes. Now!"

Together, both Emily and Umber faced them head on. Emily's form expanded to monstrous proportions, claws the size of scythes ready to harvest. Umber flicked with his freehand and let fly three spears. Though they were not the intimidating black spears he had wanted, the brightmatter was still a fair substitute. They hummed chords in c major, sailing on dove wings toward their intended targets. 'Disgusting' Umber thought as his corrupted evocations flung down range.

The first and second spears hit one of them, piercing their heart right through the body armor. Almost instantly, he was killed. Another was slashed to ribbons by the terrible claws that came down on them. The sickening squelch of bones separating from tissue were enough to leave to the imagination. The one in the middle remained, and was the last. Though he had a finger on the trigger the entire time, he had dislodged a canister and rolled it across the floor towards Emily.

PFFFSSSSSSSSS

The top popped open and an opaque mist was ejected out, creating a thick cloud around her. Almost instantly, it had a negative effect on her as she tried to bat it out of the way. "Ack! No! NO!"

"Emily? Emily!" Umber raised his arm for another spear, but was quickly interrupted by gunfire. Some bullets struck him in the chest, knocking him over. He was alive thanks to the vest, but prone. Ben rushed over to help its master, but it too was struck by gunfire. The bullets however had little effect on Ben, being metal and all. "Ben, I'm hurt but alright. Help Emily."

Emily's protests were waning as her from shrank in size, even smaller when she was not swelled with rage. "Rad… irradiated gas… I… I can't…" was all she could muster as the last, and presumably the leader, of Zeta-5 brought out an incorporeal entity vacuum chamber and forced the diminished Emily inside of it. It sealed tightly with only Emily's bleeding eye visible. Ben rushed over to the assailant, ready to ring.

"Don't move!" The gun was pointed at Umber; its red laser dot centered right at his pupil. Ben obliged to the request and backed off slowly.

"Ben? BEN!" Umber was frozen as well, it was a valiant fight but there were one too many. Ben was bound to the protection of its master as his very meaning and existence depended on it. Such are the limitations of a familiar. For a good long while, the jailer pointed the laser at Umber's face till he stepped forward and retrieved the canister, and Emily with it.

[THIS IS ZETA ONE, SCP-2996 CONTAINED. INSURGENT HOSTILE SPOTTED IN ARMORY. PLEASE ADVISE.]

Umber wasn't going to wait to be shot in the face. In a spurt of stupid bravery, he grabbed Ben by the point and rolled back down the aisles of the armory. Five more shots rang out, but all missed. The tucked bright ball tumbled into the stacked shelves of the armory and was quickly out of sight. The jailer was just about to pursue, when his radio suddenly clicked on within an earshot of Umber and Ben.

[ZETA ONE, RETURN SCP-2996 TO H-WING FOR REPROCESSING. WE HAVE OTHERS COMING TO RETRIEVE THE INSURGENT.]

[COPY, DIRECTOR]

Back into the darkness and into the depths of the facility went Zeta One and Emily. Her sad eye looking out through her acrylic cage before blinking out. Umber cursed to himself.

"Shadjar! We are complete and utter shadjar! Why did you not help her Ben?"

Ben dipped down in front of its master in shame. It wanted to save Emily badly. Umber relented and sighed. "I know. I know. Familiar bonds and all that. Emily is not our mission. But… ARGH!" He kicked a shelf in frustration.

There was no time to mope over the events. He had to take action before the others the director spoke of came and put him in a cage as well. Already the director was having more jailers close in on them in minutes or even seconds.

▼ Close

► Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here [ONGOING]

▼ Close

Umber hustled back over to the lockers where he put his stuff. In it were the phone, the amulet of knife summoning, the security key card Emily was carrying, and Sage; who had not moved even an inch during the whole fiasco. He took only the phone and Sage out of the locker and placed the green toad onto the cold floor. Umber knew he could carry her if he were to pursue Emily, and it was pretty clear that the "no more than one familiar at a time" rule was strict to casters.

"Sage. You can follow us. However, we will travel quickly. Or you can go back to the marshes."

He looked over his shoulder and peered into the darkness where Emily was getting further and further away. "Up to you. Ben, let's go." And off he sprinted into the tunnel. Down into the bowels of the facility to find where Zeta One was taking her.

*splat*

Even though she was not part of the cult's mission, Umber had decided to make her a priority. Like it or not, he was willing to face the consequences if it all turned sideways. He had come to terms that his short life might be cut even shorter because of it. Umber could see in the dark still and made out the faint glow from Emily's containment unit. As it dimmed around the corner, Umber and Ben rushed after it. His small legs nearly flying as he turned the corner. There he was, Zeta One passing through a set of doors. Above it read: "FURNICULAR RAILWAY TO LAKE WINGS".

"He's going under the lake?" Is what Umber said to himself as he closed in on them. Umber and Ben squeezed through the sliding door just as it closed behind them. Inside was a large chamber with a station platform and a steeply sloped railway that went down and east. They were a bit late as Zeta One sat comfortably in the rail car as it was winched down under its own gravity. Deeper and deeper into the dark they sank. The headlights of the railcar did not even have enough light to see the bottom of where the rail ended, and soon after the taillights were swallowed up in darkness.

Umber stood at the end of the rail next to the winch as the tension cable creaked and the ceiling dripped lake water into the tunnel. If he had not been in such a hurry, he might have been impressed with the size of the underground portion of the facility. However, he had more pressing matters.

The lights of the railcar had already started to dim as it descended. Umber suddenly had an idea, though it was very risky. Just as he punched a hole into the water treatment building, he could blast his way into the railcar. He quickly thumbed through the book for dark tunneling and like before; he added the modifications for using light. As soon as he finished the final incantation of the spell, there was a great burst of radiant energy. Umber squeezed into a line of photons and aimed directly at the railcar. From his perspective, there was a very rapid kaleidoscope of colors rushing by. Most notably, there was a point when it all became very red.

After punching through to the other side of the railcar, Umber zipped another few hundred yards before finally puffing back into his regular form. He then tumbled for a few more seconds on to the tracks and eventually stopped. Luckily he was not all that harmed save for a few bumps. Umber propped back up and looked behind him only to see the careening mass of steel and glass coming down the steep tunnel. Apparently, he blasted through more than just brain matter and may have hit the control board in the front of the car that activates the remaining safety brakes.

Sparks and embers leaped onto the tracks like confetti as the rail car got closer. The frame shook violently from the vibration caused by the brakes, but gravity had quite a hold of it and was determined to bring it all the way down. It didn't take long for the last remnants of the brakes to melt as the railcar sped up.

"Second time today I am running for my life!" Umber said as he made a bold sprint down the steep incline. The growing brightness of the headlights and the screeching metal on metal wail were chasing him. There was another snap that could be heard from the top. It was the winch failing and finally snapping. Now there was nothing between the front of an out of control railcar and a solid concrete barrier to slow its progress, except for a small homunculus.

Umber was almost flying down the incline. He was actually surprised at his speed, although tripping at this rate would be disastrous. He concentrated hard at just keeping his feet in motion with his acceleration. Still the railcar was gaining on him. Below was the end of the line and the concrete barrier. Umber would have to jump and clear it if he had any hope of living through this. Four seconds from the bottom and the front of the steel box brushed his backside. "Ack!" he yelped as he pushed himself faster and finally into a harrowing vault over the barrier.

CRASH!

Glass, steel, cable, spell book, concrete, cell phone, and homunculus all went up into the air in a loud burst of air and noise. Umber was in free fall for a good five to six seconds until the ground caught up to him. He landed with a weighty thud and once again tumbled before stopping. Shards of a glass and rubble rained on top of him but luckily nothing bigger than a marble. His belongings were strewn across the floor and the ruckus down the tunnel was silenced for good. The smoldering and crumpled railcar now looked like a dented beer can. It lay snuggled against the cracked concrete barrier and was off its tracks. For sure, it would be a good long while until the jailers could repair the railway. It was totaled.

"Uggghhh…" Umber groaned.

Ben had been right behind him the whole way, but when you have a light speed head-start it is difficult to make any progress. Umber was alive… technically. His armored vest absorbed much of the forces during his tumble and he was in fair shape. Umber shakily propped up on his arms to collect himself and belongings. He was now under the lake in the deepest darkest parts of the facility.

After picking up the phone and book that were flung from the railcar, he turned on the phone's flashlight and begun to search the inside of the crumpled mess. It was at this time Umber truly paid any attention to the phone's battery life since he got it, which held at a measly 36%. He took a mental note of it as he stepped in through the broken door. Up at the top of the incline, he could make out faint beams of flashlights. Likely, it was the rest of the team coming for him. Umber simply smiled, as he knew it'd take them a good long while to get down onto his level without rail out of commission.

"PSSST! Emily? Are you aliv- are you here?"

There was a faint tapping on the glass on his left. He jerked his head to find a bloody red eye looking back at him through the clear container. Ben floated next to her to tap back. "Emily! Excellent… now let's get you out." Umber fumbled with the container for a few seconds before finally kicking it frustration. "Shadjar!"

Emily squinted and then glared back at him. "Oh, right… sorry."

Ben panned side to side before gently tapping on a button on the side. The glass cylinder popped open as the gas leached out and Emily expanded to full form. "uuuuuUUUUUUUUGGGGGGH! That. Was. Awful." She stretched out to fill the space and then compressed to a reasonable size. Umber nodded dutifully. "Glad to have you back with us."

"Good to be back… thank you, Umber."

"You would have done the same, Emily"

"Still…"

Emily bent down and scooped Umber into a tender and appreciative hug. Umber simply struggled, as this was most unbecoming of a serious cultist. What would Ben think? However, all Ben was thinking was the amount of time they were wasting. After an indecent moment had passed, Ben decided to gently prod the couple and refocus. "Right!" Umber cleared his throat as he was let go. All three of them then turned to the body of the now dead Zeta One. As if knowing what each was thinking, they quickly converged onto the corpse. Umber and Ben were searching for items that may be of use. As they did, he felt something rectangular in the left vest pocket and pulled it free. It was a red-bordered badge that looked fairly important. Emily was however mutilating the face of Zeta One, making an even bloodier mess.

"Er… Ok, I think we got something here. His badge. Emily, would you mind holding it?"

Emily gave one last rake across the lacerated skull before taking it from Umber. "Gladly. Ooooh, a red one. Wonder what it opens." Her bloodied claws did little to stain the already red badge.

"No idea, but there's other stuff here too."

Umber also set aside Zeta One's sidearm, his radio, a grenade, a large knife, and a set of keys.

He put them on the ground to rummage through if needed, but the more pressing issue was moving forward with the mission. Sure enough, their next obstacle lay directly in front of the crashed railcar. It was another large bulkhead door which blocked access to some of Site-81's most dangerous items, secrets, and who knows what else. Distant chatter echoed down the incline to Umber, Emily, and Ben. Just a reminder that they were still being pursued.

"Grab the keys!" ordered Umber as Emily swooped them up in her claws. Up ahead the large bulkhead peered out from the darkness as they disembarked the wrecked station. Ben was first to reach the large steel slab, tapping it gently just to make sure it was indeed impassable. Umber already started to work on it by the time he reached the controls.

"Ok, just like last time I believe. Purple is for the locks, green is for the door… right?"

Emily nodded in affirmation as she waited for Umber to perform the task. Umber rubbed his stubby digits together and began the arduous task of turning the wheels. With a slow click, the locks along the floor disengaged. Then the green wheel was turned and there was a painful squeal of metal on metal as it began to move.

It was dark and the air had turned stale with the ventilation deactivated. In the distance pipes groaned and water dripped from a crack in the ceiling. Umber, Emily, and Ben all stepped into the engulfing darkness. Now under the deep lake itself, they walked forward. Umber's glow provided some relief from the blackness, enough to see the polished concrete floor and the occasional cockroach as it skittered across the floor.

"Where are we going?" Umber asked to Emily who had seemingly taken point.

"I'm not wholly sure. I remember this place only vaguely. I know that it was further down but that is all."

"Ok, lets just walk quietly-"

"HOWDY, SLICK!" chirped a voice off to the side. A wall mounted screen flickered on and Virgil's icon appeared, staring at all three of them. Emily stopped in her tracks as Umber rushed ahead. "Virgil! Be quiet!"

AIC HELPDESK INTERFACE

MIC ACTIVE ●

Sorry bout that, casanova? Doing a little exploring are ya?

What? No. We are… um… trying to do some cell checks to make sure nothing escaped.

Ah, gotcha. Well some things did wind up escaping there, buster. Director has some plans and all to contain it, but glad to see all three of you are down here already. Should just be a short walk to each of your cells.

Our cells?

Well sure there, trigger. Director Aktus has labeled you as assets in the database already. MTF is going to be down here soon so I suggest all three of you get into your cells so there ain't no trouble.

Virgil, we are not getting into cells. You can tell the Director to kiss our-

I'm gonna cut you off right there, hoss. If you want my advice you outta head down toward the H-Wing and wait to surrender. I'll light a path fer ya so you can head that way. It is safe this way. Otherwise if they, or something else, catches ya it might get real ugly. Now I like ya'll, so I'd rather see everyone still intact after this is all over.

Umber raised a hand as if to scold Virgil some more but he was interrupted by the sudden string of floor lights illuminating a path straight south from where they were. Emily stepped ahead and looked back at Umber. "I can't be contained again… I just can't. I'd rather evaporate into nothingness."

He looked up at her. "Well being contained would really complicate the mission." Ben bobbed up and down in agreement. The only visible path diverged south but there were doors and other hallways along the way. Umber then took a moment to mull over his options.

▼ Close

Footnotes

1. An affirmation being "+1 to this" or "This" or any other obvious reply in the affirm counts.