Hoygull nodded. Quibba nodded in response, dismounted from the 
grenade launcher and followed Hoygull back down the stairs. 


Once Hoygull got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw Kesh, Crowl, 
and Duck, along with a few remaining members of the Avian 
Division, spamming grenades at the entrance of Site-18 to keep 
away the relentless flood of statues. Hoygull fired a grenade to help, 


but then he realized that, in his rush, he had forgotten to pick up an 
extra clip of grenades, meaning that he had to ration the grenades 
that were already in his clip. 


Not bothering to use the translator, he yelled at his team: "We need 
to leave, now!" The remainder of MTF-Eta-4 nodded in response 
and shouted orders for the Avian Division to fall back. 


Hoygull, Quibba, and the pair of shark punchers ran/flew down the 
maze-like hallway to prepare the monorail, when they encountered a 
statue. 


A towering, ibis-headed behemoth stood before the entrance to the 
monorail. The shadow of the beast paralysed all. Hoygull 
instinctively raised the grenade launcher, eyes wide and panicked. 


"Don't shoot! It's too close, you'll kill us all!" yelled Quinn as he 
grabbed Hoygull by the wing, manoeuvring for a retreat back into the 
tunnel system. "We're going to have to find another way to Vegas." 


Quinn was drowned out by the birdsong emanating from the bird 
statue. The melody it sang was easy on the ears. It was beautiful, 
despite how ugly Quinn found it. Quinn felt his troubles melt away as 
they soared like a Selachian hawk into the sea sky. Hoygull watched 
in despair as the Centre operatives melted before the slowly 
advancing statue humming its perverse birdsong. 


To Leah, thinking was like wading through knee-high soup. Keeping 
herself grounded was so difficult, but it would be oh so easy to let 
her thoughts be pulled up into the clouds. Leah remembered clouds. 
She remembered floating around the skies of other Earths, goofing 
around with her friends. She remembered the journeys they took on 
their way to track down WHITE NETHER. All the funny, bizarre 
moments that they shared. 


Wait, said some nearly mute voice from the back of Leah's mind, / 
don't want to forget this. | don't want to be a bird-person. | don't want 
to go. She conjured up the thought of Jaedan, of how goofy yet stoic 
he would look during this situation. The birds are going to take him 
from me. 


Leah's blood ran hot. An intense rush of energy pulsed through her 
body. She could barely hear her own thoughts, but right now she 
didn't need to. Her hazy vision tinted red, she jumped and swung 
her arm square at the mass of concrete, transferring her amassed 
rage and energy into its core. 


At first, there was only pain in Leah's arm. The horrendous melody 
of the statue stopped for a brief moment before the statue let out a 
shriek of pain. It swung at Leah, knocking her against the wall; all for 
nought, the statue was mortally wounded. It thrashed and screamed 
at the world as the small cracks that Leah's impact made spread, 
the fractures snaking their way around the beast, the fissures 
deepening. 


All at once, the statue collapsed into rubble. 


Her thoughts were once again her own with the birdsong gone. 
While Quinn slowly regained his grasp on reality, Leah pulled him 
onto the monorail with what strength remained in her left arm. 


"Leah. Please, get some rest in the monorail. You have done more 
than enough." said Hoygull. 


Leah's peripherals were shutting down. Her eyelids were getting 
heavy, her body shivering. She knew this feeling well: it was shock. 
She'd probably broken her arm irreparably and the adrenaline was 
wearing off. She couldn't rest just now... that was one statue... 
there's over eighty more... 


"Hey, Hoygull?" 
"Yes, Reznik?" 


"If any of those statues lay a claw on the Ja-... the team, I'm gonna 
have Avian Division brand chicken wings, y'hear?" said Leah, 
weakly grinning. 


As the rest of the Centre's eyes opened, Leah's closed. 


There was no time to contemplate the shark puncher’s idle threat; 
the explosions in the hallways beyond informed the team that the 
Avian Division was being pushed back to the monorail room. 


Looking down the hallway, Hoygull saw eight Avian Division fighters, 
perhaps the last eight, fleeing down the hallway. Among those eight 
were Kesh, Crowl, and Duck; Crowl and Duck had already discarded 
their grenade launchers and were fleeing, while Kesh emptied what 
was left of her clip into the statues before dropping her gun and 
following suit. 


"Get in!" Hoygull yelled. MTF-Eta-4 flew into the monorail, while the 
shark punchers carried Leah onto it. SCP-2785 had already 
stumbled onto the monorail. The remaining five birds tried to 
escape, but the ceiling suddenly collapsed, letting a flood of statues 
into the room, effectively trapping them. 


"Start the monorail!" Hoygull yelled at SCP-2785. 


The monorail began to crawl to a start before it began to glide along 
the tracks. A few statues noticed this and started to dive towards the 
monorail. Some managed to grab onto the last cart as it began to 
leave the station. 


Hoygull opened the window and fired a grenade at the last cart. The 
explosion detached it from the monorail, leaving the monorail free to 
continue to glide away. 


In order to secure safe passage, Hoygull fired his remaining two 
grenades at the room holding the statues, collapsing in some rocks. 
This blocked off the tunnel. The statues were unable to follow them. 


They'd lost the battle and with it, a good portion of their men. 
However, they were safe, and they soon might find something that 
would help them win the war. 


Hoygull realized something. For the first time ever, he was going to 
Vegas. 


Hoygull sat next to Quinn and Crowl on the monorail. It was 
designed to hold the entire Site; now it felt empty. A cold, awkward 
silence hung in the air between the three men. 


Quinn let out a sigh. "You know, | haven't gone this long without 


pummeling a Deviant before," he admitted in idle conversation. "You 
should try it sometime. The feeling of your hand shattering the scaly 
skin... That's my kind of high." 


Hoygull showcased non-existent hands as he raised his wings. 


"Oh, that's bull shark," Quinn said quietly, blushing from 
embarrassment. "Well, | hope clobbering that damn bird takes care 


of this feelin’. 


Another awkward silence followed. After some time, Hoygull spoke 
up. "Thanks again for the help," he said, his translator stumbling 
over his words. "Without you all, we would've died a long time ago.” 


"It's, uh, it's nothing," replied Quinn. "Us Foundations need to look 
out for each other, right?" 


Hoygull made the closest thing to a smile he could. 


"So, are we sure this missile will work?" Quinn said, "| mean, a 
Deviant Selachian's tougher than it looks. If a Deviant bird is any 
tougher than that..." 


"Just, trust your men out there. We'll worry about the rest," said 
Hoygull. Quinn stared out the window, speechless. 


Avian Anthology II 


August 12th, 2018 | Night | Outskirts of Las Vegas 


The group of birds and shark-punchers emerged from the monorail 
tunnel to see the blue-tinted night sky of Las Vegas. The bird-people 
that had once filled the sky were now thinning out. Looking down, 
Hoygull saw the now-familiar sight of damaged buildings and dead 
humans in various stages of the Avian-ification process. 


"Woah," commented SCP-2785, "everything's so big, but broken. It's 
as broken as a broken car!" 


"| don't think we have much time," said Hoygull, "the humans are 
going through the portals and disappearing. If we don't get 
HYPERION off the ground in time, the human race will be lost." 


"We've got to double-time this search, then," said Duck. 


Luckily, flight made searching for the shed much easier. The five 
seagulls took to the skies to look for the shed General Tarland 
described. 


It took an hour of searching to find the shed. It wasn't quite on the 
outskirts of Vegas; in fact, it was closer to the Las Vegas strip than 
not. It had the seven-pronged star and a ladder going down for what 
seemed like forever. As Hoygull casually coasted down the shaft, he 
did not envy SCP-2785, who had to go down the ladder manually. 


The bunker reminded Hoygull of an airplane hangar, but instead of 
aircraft, the bunker contained a massive missile, the base of which 
took up a good amount of floor space and the tip of which almost 
touched the top of the hangar. Computer equipment was attached to 
the base by thick, insulated wires. The entire place smelled of 
gunpowder and gasoline. 


Crowl flew up to one of the computers. He pushed some buttons, 
before turning back to the group. 


"This thing needs some fuel loaded into. It'll take all night" he said. 


"Good. Then we can get some sleep,” replied Hoygull, "| could use a 
bit of shuteye." 


It seemed that the bunker was meant to hold soldiers, for a time 
being. Hoygull found a spot in the bunkroom and curled up to sleep 
on top of one of the pillows. 


August 13th, 2018 | Below Las Vegas 


Hoygull awoke after a good six hours of sleep and took a handful of 
sugar cubes from the missile site's break room to shake off the 
sleepiness. Crowl woke up soon after and logged into the computer 
terminal. "Alright, do you all want the good news or the bad news 
first?" 


"Give us the good news first" replied Kesh, who had also woken up. 


"The Missile is fueled up and ready to be launched. It is ready to 
launch when we are ready." 


"Bad news?" 


"It looks like the army of statues from earlier finally caught up to us. 
Luckily, they are a long distance away, and | do not think they will be 
able to catch up with us before we can launch the missile. If we start 
now, we will have plenty of time to launch before they get here." 


"Let's launch now," said Quibba, who had also woken up, "we don't 
want to cut it closer than we already are." 


Crowl hit a few buttons. A computerized male voice sounded over 
the bunker: "Initiating Project HYPERION launch sequence. 
Opening primary missile exit shaft." 


The ceiling of the bunker parted, accompanied by the mechanical 
sound of gears turning. Eventually, the bunker opened to the bright 


blue night sky. The moon was still in view. 


"Initiating launch sequence," the voice continued, "T minus 100 
seconds... T minus 99 seconds..." 


Hoygull could hear the engine of the missile warming up. Suddenly, 
he heard an ear-splitting, visceral, sound, not of the rocket, and 
looked up towards the moon. A large portal had just opened up in 
front of it, and the head of a flaming red bird poked through. 


"What's that?" yelled Quibba 


|..." replied Crowl, "I think we might be dealing with Thoth here." 


"I'm getting a lot of air-information here!" yelled SCP-2785, "but | 
don't think it means anything. It's just bird calling!" 


At the sound of screeching, several of the bird people swarmed the 
sky. The screeching was still overwhelmed by the sound of metal- 
on-metal as something came tumbling down the access shaft, which 
in and of itself was drowned out by auditory vertigo produced by 
Thoth shaking the world with his mere presence. This woke up 
Kesh, who hadn't woken up yet. 


"| think... | think this is the end of the line," yelled Kesh, "I can 
barricade the access shaft with some of the equipment here. You 
guys go to the armoury and find something to use." 


"T minus 70 seconds," the voice said. 


Kesh flew into a forklift and used it to push a table into the way of 
the access shaft. Hoygull motioned to the rest of his team to enter 
the armoury. 


Hoygull turned on the light. At a glance, he could see that there 
weren't too many explosives in the armoury. Maybe they would 
interfere with the missiles function? All they could find were a few 
grenades. Unsurprisingly, there weren't any weapons adapted for 
use by birds, so they had to improvise. Hoygull found a double- 
barrel shotgun that he could lift somewhat easily. 


Just as he was loading two grenades into his shotgun, Hoygull 


heard the sickening sound of metal against metal. The barricade 
won't hold he thought. Signalling to the Avian Division, he stepped 
out of the armoury. 


"T minus 44 seconds." 


Kesh had formed a passable barricade out of a few tables, a 
dysfunctional terminal, and the forklift parked in front of them. A 
statue managed to slip through the barricade. In his naiveness, 
SCP-2785 ran up to the statue to say hello and offer its pleasantries. 
A haymaker knocked SCP-2785's head clean off, and an uppercut 
launched him across the room and crushed him against the wall. 


"T minus 29 seconds." 


The statues burst through the barricade with their raw numbers. 
They organized themselves into a line and began to charge. Hoygull 
held up the shotgun and fired two grenades into the group of 
statues. The explosion destroyed three statues, and knocked a few 
more into other statues, causing collateral damage. The remainder 
of the Avian Division launched grenades and used various forms of 
firepower, including a mounted minigun, to push back the hordes. 


As he was loading two more grenades into the shotgun, one of the 
statues charged forwards and punched Hoygull square in the 
stomach, knocking him across the room into the wall. After 
recovering from the blow, Hoygull picked his shotgun back up. He 
was losing vision, but he saw a group of statues rushing towards the 
missile, and he fired two more grenades at them. It worked; he 
destroyed them, but one of them flew into Crowl's minigun, knocking 
it over. He was quickly overwhelmed without a weapon. 


"T minus 10 seconds." 


Hoygull realized he was out of grenades, so he loaded a couple of 
slugs into his shotgun and fired. They bounced harmlessly off the 
statues, hardly making a crack. Hoygull saw another group 
approaching the missile. No! he thought to himself, not wanting all of 
his hard work up to this point to be for nought. 


Through his dizziness and deliriousness, he saw Quibbs flying 


SCP-796: River Cat 


Item #: SCP-796 
Object Class: Euclid 


Special Containment Procedures: As SCP-796 affects only one 
individual at any one time, information concerning it need only be 
suppressed at a local level. Clinical and psychiatric records are to be 
screened for possible mentions of SCP-796's effects. The current 
affected individual is to be identified and located as soon as 
possible. Should an individual be confirmed to be under the effect of 
SCP-796, they are to be coerced into containment. The use of force, 
lethal or otherwise, is not permitted against individuals suspected of 
being affected by SCP-796. 


Once the current affected individual is located, they are to be 
housed in a modified humanoid containment chamber lined with 
memory foam and equipped with microphones with a sensitivity of at 
least -35dB to confirm the continued presence of SCP-796. In 
addition, the subject must be inspected daily for any new wounds; a 
lack of new wounds may indicate a breach of containment. Wounds 
inflicted on the affected subject must be disinfected and treated 
promptly. Similarly, damage to the containment chamber as a result 
of SCP-796 must be repaired as soon as possible. Essential 
personnel are not to approach 100m of the containment chamber 
without prior authorisation, and contact with the affected subject is to 
be limited only to non-essential and D-Class personnel. In addition, 
at least one D-Class personnel is to reside in the 100m exclusion 
area at all times. 


The death of the current affected individual is to be considered a 
possible containment breach. As such, their safety must be ensured 
at all times. In the case of their death, the residing D-Class 
personnel will be inspected for signs of SCP-796 and subsequently 
contained as necessary.