After some time, she felt something in her head, as if some fuzzy 
film had been pulled back from her brain. A log long empty blipped 
open, with a message. 


[Boss: Oi, get off your ass. It’s time to fuck shit up.] 


Momoko had many hobbies. Unfortunately, given that bar fights, 
gunsmithing, cooking, and surfing were all out of her reach, she had 


few hobbies she could actually enjoy. She spent most of her captive 
days exercising, thumbing through what books her captors would 
loan her, and programming her dreams. 


Tonight’s dream involved fighting deep-sea angler-elves in the 
Outback, on the back of a T-rex with feathers like an Indian spice 
rack and big robotic arms. Benedict Cumberbatch was also there. 
He was a pigeon. Momoko was pretty sure that was a glitch, but she 
might upgrade it to feature in future installments. 


The fighting had been appropriately lively and Momoko was enjoying 
herself, when Benedict Cumberpigeon opened his mouth-beak and 
screamed with the exact tone and pitch of an air raid siren. 


Every time. Momoko grimaced, and with one hand unscrewed the 
still-screaming pigeon man’s head. In the hollow stump of his neck 
was a red button. 


No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't patch out the 
"incongruous outside noise to rouse the dreamer" bug. She pressed 
the button, and woke up. 


The siren continued, out in the hallway, accompanied by the sterile 
voice of an automated alert system. 


“Containment breach in progress. Site lockdown procedures 
initiated. Please report to your designated safe zones. Security 
personnel to Sector 4.” 


Sector 4...she had no idea where that was. Couldn't be anything 
good, of course. 


The door opened, and there was no one on the other side. A text- 
voice appeared in her head. 


[Boss: Get moving - Nanami needs backup.] 


Oh ho! Momoko shot out the open door and sprinted down the hall 
as site schematics unrolled in her inner eye and a blue AR arrow 
scrolled out on the floor. 


“Containment breach in progress. Site lockdown procedures 


initiated. Please report to your designated safe zones. Security 
personnel to Sector 1.” 


[Boss: Shit, I’m locked out. Diversion’s over, they'll be on 
Our ass.] 


[Momoko: Fine by me.] 


Wind kicked her hair back. She could run! Finally! She bounced 
down the hall, past rows of nameless metal doors, throwing in a 
somersault or cartwheel every so often for good measure. 


She shot past an intersection, and the timing was just right that her 
foot connected with the head of the guard turning the corner. His 
helmet’s flight was accompanied by the audible snap of his jaw. 
Momoko ducked into a roll and kept going. No momentum lost. 


More messages appeared in her head. 
[Boss: Nanami get that security system down. ] 
[Nanami: (/ #80) /] 
[Nanami: !M HACKING AS FAST AS | FUCKING CAN] 


[Nanami (ynapmoc.tibbar.kcalb| 
hctiBcitamesopA#ynapmoc.tibbar.kcalb| 
hctiBcitamesopA) has joined adminNet] 


[Alexandra has kicked Nanami from adminNet. Reason 
for ban: Unauthorized Access. Alexandra sets ban on *! 
ynapmoc.tibbar.kcalb| 
hctiBcitamesopA#ynapmoc.tibbar.kcalb| 
hctiBcitamesopA] 


[Commissar Sorhyu (malb.malb|malbak#malb.malb| 
malbak) has joined adminNet|] 


[Alexandra has kicked Commissar Sorhyu from 
adminNet. Reason for ban: Repeated Unauthorized 
Access Attempts. Alexandra sets ban on *!malb.malb| 
malbak#malb.malb|malbak]] 


[Tsarmina the Vile (ritok.ssertrof| 
ssertsim.seyeneerg#ritok.ssertrof|ssertsim.seyeneerg) 
has joined adminNet.] 


[Alexandra has kicked Tsarmina the Vile from adminNet. 
Reason for ban: Repeated Unauthorized Access 
Attempts, Ban Evasion. Alexandra sets ban on *! 
ritok.ssertrof|ssertsim.seyeneerg#ritok.ssertrof| 
ssertsim.seyeneerg] 


[Nannersbannanners (srekcuftihs.tahw.rof.nwod| 
nrut#srekcuftihs.tahw.rof.nwod|nrut) has joined 
adminNet] 


[Alexandra has kicked Nannersbannanners from 
adminNet. Reason for ban: Repeated Unauthorized 
Access Attempts, Ban Evasion, Being a Shithead. 
Alexandra sets ban on *!srekcuftihs.tahw.rof.nwod| 
nrut#srekcuftihs.tahw.rof.nwod|nrut]] 


[Dancypants (41.3tq.a.si.xel| 
ssefnoc.tsum.|#41.3tq.a.si.xel|ssefnoc.tsum.|) has joined 
adminNet] 


[Alexandra has kicked Dancypants from adminNet. 
Reason for ban: Repeated Unauthorized Access 
Attempts, Ban Evasion, Being a Shithead, Hitting on the 
Bot. Alexandra sets ban on *!41.3t.q.a.si.xel| 
ssefnoc.tsum.1#41.3t.q.a.si.xel|ssefnoc.tsum.|] 


[Varvara (seifisnetni.mehtna.lanoit| 
n.naissur#seifisnetni.mehtna.lanoit|n.naissur) has joined 
adminNet] 


[Alexandra has kicked Varvara from adminNet. Reason 
for ban: Repeated Unauthorized Access Attempts and 


Ban Evasion, Being a Shithead, Hitting on the Bot, 
Damnable Persistence. Alexandra sets ban on *! 
seifisnetni.mehtna.lanoit| 
n.naissur#seifisnetni.mehtna.lanoit|n.naissur] 


At this point in the log, three and a half million virus-laden 
sockpuppets joined all at once. 


Hana buckled down under her ballistic shield as bullets bounced off 
it. The filters in her lungs burned as they scrubbed out the tear gas. 
Short, shallow breaths, don’t overstrain the hardware. The cool 
metal door of Tomi’s cell was at her back, there were guards down 
the hall to the right and left, and she had eight bullets left. 


She’d missed all this. Missed it terribly. 
[Hana: | need Tomi’s door open!] 
[Nanami: (M FUCKING WORKING ON IT] 
[Momoko: Got tied up, I’m going to be late] 
[Nanami: YOU HAD ONE JOB.] 

The bickering especially. 


There had been a point, months ago now, where she had given up. 
Seemed distant now, silly even. Captivity had given her a lot of time 
to think on it, and after a while Hana had realized that she had been 
a child back then. Unused to real failure. Too easily broken. In need 
of some hardened edges. 


[Nanami: DOOR’S OPEN FUCKFACE (*434)/~s* LOVE 
YOU SIS] 


Not too many hard edges, though. 


The door slid open, and Hana pulled herself back to square the 
shield in the doorway. 


“You're blocking us in,” Tomi said in her dull gravel voice. Hana 
twisted her head around to look at her sister, who was sitting on the 
bed in a serene lack of plussedness. 


“Well konichiwa to you too.” 


Tomi stood up, cracked her shoulders, then her elbows, then her 
wrists, then her neck, then her jaw. 


“Blind idiot bull-rushes are usually Momoko’s job,” she said as a 
finger automatically wormed up her left nostril. “Il suppose we'll have 
to fill in.” 


The wave of toxic sockpuppets had scattered across the digital 
battlefield, like so many dead gnats. The Alexandra Al had retreated 
across the horizon for the time being, and Nanami had slipped 
through the breach in the banwall. Her second wave of attack 
programs ate through the remaining network defenses like 
hydrosulfuric acid through a cardboard box. 


Security was hers. For the time being. The previous officer for this 
kiosk sat slumped in the corner, with his head facing the wrong 
direction. 


“Who's the best? I’m the best,” she said to herself as she clicked on 
the microphone and cleared her throat. Oh, this would be fun. 


“One, two, one, two... Hello, filthy American pig-dogs: This is DJ 
Tsarmina bringing to you the soothing sounds of Johann Sebastian 
Bach’s ‘Air on the G-String’, with special accompaniment by the 
Bleeding Shits Philharmonic Orchestra. Thank you for your 
participation, and enjoy the show.” 


The graceful strings rose from the site’s PA system, joined shortly 


after by the muffled screams of painful, uncontrollably bowel- 
loosening. Nanami leaned back in her chair, put her feet up on the 
control board, and felt the knot of tension that had curled between 
her shoulder blades dissolve and flow away. With one hand she 
played around with the lockdown commands, isolated the security 
squads, sent all-clear communications to the outside. 


She had needed that. She really did. She watched the cameras of 
security guards writhing around on the floor, with the pleasant 
presence of Bach her only company. 

[Boss: You'll get tired of that joke eventually.] 


[Nanami: Never.] 


Wizard stood on a plain of pockmarked ice, looking up at the one 
remaining star in the empty sky. A black star, surrounded by a halo 
of fading gases, and nothing else. 

He felt as if his guts had been scraped out by some jagged claw, 
and the hole filled with ropes of frozen nitrogen. The cold burned, 
and he could do nothing to stop it. 

This ts all there is. 


The voice came from inside him, circled around him. Rea’s voice. 
His own voice. 


The entirety of existence, dancing towards nothing. 
Without meaning. 
You are alone. You will always be alone. 


And then there was not even the black star and the black sky. There 
was nothing. 


The pain faded. Wizard opened his eyes and saw his room. The 
echoing voice of Red was gone. Warmth returned to his body, his 
shuddering faded, his breathing slowed. He tried to sit up, but 
nausea forced him back down again. 


He was dying. He knew it in his gut, he was dying. Red had never 
been that strong before, not even at the beginning, and he had only 
grown stronger in these past months. The doctors kept repeating 
their mantra - “We aren’t seeing any changes, we aren't seeing any 
changes’ — lies told by liars. To what end, he didn’t know, and he 
didn’t care. It didn’t change the outcome. He would die alone here. 
The girls weren't coming. They were probably all dead now, too. 
Dead or mad. No one could last in this place without going mad. 


Madness and death, dancing towards nothing. 


He lay on the floor, and was dimly aware of sirens outside his cell, 
then replaced by distant, indistinct music, but he paid it no mind. 
Tricks of the imagination, clearly, or tricks of his captors to further 
torment him. The door slid open. Another trick. That door never 
opened. 


A ghost entered the room. A ghost with calico hair and an orange 
jumpsuit. Rifle slung over her shoulder, bullet-proof vest. 


“Go away,” Wizard said. “You’re dead.” 


The ghost walked over, grabbed him under the arms, and hauled 
him upright. His legs felt like newborn sponge. 


“You're not real, you’re not real, you’re dead, leave me alone...” 


Slender scarred fingers deftly undid the pressure seals on his 
helmet and removed it. It clattered on the floor. 


The slap across his face wasn’t harsh, but it stung enough to cut off 
his words and freeze him in place. The ghost hugged him firmly and 
didn’t let go. 


“Hey there, Wizard,” Boss said. 


Whatever response Wizard would have made was held up in his 


SCP-944: Mirror Maze 


Item #: SCP-944 
Object Class: Euclid 


Special Containment Procedures: SCP-944 is to be surrounded 
by a3 m high opaque fence, both to prevent outside access and to 
allow experimentation unobserved by the public. SCP-944 is 
Officially listed as a condemned building, and “Construction Area” 
signs are posted to explain the fenced-off area. Level 1 agents 
wearing Amusement Park security uniforms are to guard the 
area and prevent unauthorized access. 


Non-D-Class personnel entering SCP-944 are cautioned to follow 
the blue floor lines, indicating safe paths. The “Hall of Fun” is off- 
limits, due to possible exposure to anomalous effects. 


D-Class personnel must be outfitted with subcutaneous GPS 
location transmitters before being permitted to enter SCP-944. 


Description: SCP-944 is a single-story building outfitted as a “mirror 
maze,” formerly an attraction at Amusement Park in ; 
After a number of anomalous effects were observed, the building 
was secured by the Foundation. As the effect appears to be 
localized, the remainder of the Park is open to the public. 


Periodically, individuals entering SCP-944 are capable of walking off 
the intended paths through the maze and into the mirrors. Despite 
extensive experimentation, the Foundation has been unable to 
predict when and where anomalies will occur, or the effects of 
walking through them. In addition, the distorting mirrors found in the 
“Hall of Fun” are sometimes capable of producing permanent 
distortions in the people viewing them. 1 


SCP-944 was built in 2006 and operated normally until Incident 944- 
U-1 occurred. It is unknown what initiated SCP-944’s anomalous 


throat for a moment or two, and then came out all at once, in tears 
and quaking sobs. Boss held him close, and didn’t say anything. 


[Boss: | found Wizard, will bring him to the meetup point. 
Just...give him a moment. He didn’t take it easy.] 


[Nanami: No prob, things are quieting down anyway. I’ve 
switched over to the backups.] 


[Boss: Right. We’ll be there in a bit.] 


She let Wizard go, and he wiped his dribbling nose on the back of 
his glove. 


“Are the others okay?” he asked. 
“Yeah, we’re all fine." 
“Thank God...” 


“Come on.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s get you out of 
here.” 


Wizard grabbed his helmet and his hat and put both back on. The 
two walked out into the hall. Piano was playing over the PA system. 


“Tchaikovsky?” Wizard asked. 


“Piano Concerto 1 in B Flat Minor, | think. Gotta love her theatrics. 
No one should be giving us any trouble: Anyone not sealed off by 
bulkheads is in no condition to do anything. Bit of a mess, though, 
so watch your feet.” 


The pair stepped gingerly around a blind-eyed researcher lying ina 
puddle of every bodily fluid the human person can produce. He 
wasn't screaming in pain anymore, which probably meant that he 
was trapped inside his own mind, watching whatever Nanami had 
cooked up. Shock porn, most likely. Wizard didn’t feel much like 
asking. Neither did Boss, for that matter. 


[Nanami: Oh ho HO, girls! Lookit what | found!] 


[Nanami:(D,.@ @.)D°. * °°) ° to 
ee ~~, cana 8, 4 *<>] 


[Nanami: SCP-2722] 

[Nanami: HYPE MAGIC NOISES.] 

[Momoko: Is this...] 

[Nanami: It is.] 

[Hana: Holy shit it’s a spaceship. ] 

[Momoko: A goddamn spaceship. ] 

[Boss: Goddamn, it is a spaceship.] 

[Hana: That is a big goddamn spaceship.] 

[Tomi: It has a Grand Wave Motion Projection Cannon.] 
[Momoko: Nope. Mine. My husbando. I'll fight you for it.] 
[Tomi: Bring it.] 

[Hana: grabs popcorn] 


[Nanami: And it’s just sitting around up there. A whole 
goddamn spaceship. Would be such a pity if something 
happened to it, something like an adorable and talented 
computer hacker getting her hands on the access and 
launch codes for the transport shuttle.] 


“Is there something going on?” Wizard asked. He knew the tells of a 
TacNet chat well enough. How easily everyone slid back into their 
old roles, like they never stopped. Boss grinned at him. 


“Oh, not a lot. Nanami just dug something interesting from their files. 
What do you say we go steal a spaceship?” 


« Hub | Stealing Solidarity: Phase 2 » 


Stealing Solidarity: Phase 2 


« Stealing Solidarity: Phase 1 | Hub | Stealing Solidarity: Phase 
3» 


Area-08 was located more or less five hundred miles west of the 
Azores, and consisted of a small, desolate island, and a larger, even 
more desolate artificial island. The larger island consisting of a ring 
six miles across and various modules that might be raised or 
lowered above the surface. The smaller island contained the launch 
facilities, the larger one provided containment. 


It was originally constructed in the 1950s as the center of the 
Foundation’s fledgling space program, and remains the only 
Foundation facility where launches might take place unseen, thanks 
to a complex net of data suppression, government and corporate 
bribes, satellite interference, and outright assassination both of 
character and body.