Max Lombardi

Max Lombardi is a protagonist in the SCP Foundation mythos. He is an expert agent of the SCP Foundation who had gone through numerous missions and encountering various anomalies, and telling new recruits of his experiences.
He is the main protagonist in "The Lombardi Tales" series.
==Biography==
===Working for the Foundation===
Not much is known about the origin and past of Max Lombardi apart that he had a presumably beautiful wife who he would forget about. He joined the SCP Foundation under unknown circumstances, at around 1988, becoming an agent tasked with the retrieval of anomalies. He would gather intel to investigate a possible anomaly before going out there to claim it. This included both objects and people like reality-benders, some of which could be captured easily though it wasn't uncommon to fight them.
One of his earliest assignments was to assist Counterintelligence Director McDonnell in England where information pertaining to the organization, including the O5 Council's meeting schedule, got leaked. Following the assassination of a couple of Overseers, Lombardi was set to assist MTF Xi-13 in securing a waterfront warehouse in the Finnish capital. Unfortunately, as they docked at the Helsinki waterfront, a Nighthawk engine detonated from within the warehouse, seriously injuring half of the squad. Lombardi was the least injuried and seeing everyone around him knocked out he radioed back to the SCP Kraken ship to sent backup. Through time, Lombardi proved to be an expert in the field of retrieval, rising through the ranks to the point that every command of Mobile Task Forces, like Paul Dimaccio, reported to him. From this, Lombardi would lecture newcomers on the type of anomalies they dealt with and how they should work and behave.
After finishing his mission chasing some elf-like creatures, Lombardi took the rest of his day off. He decided to go drinking to a bar in a sketchy part of the town. There he met with a beautiful woman with whom they drank together until she invited him to her place. Following their hookup, Lombardi awoke in the bathroom with a surgeon above him, having stolen his kidney. Despite the cheap surgery performed on him, Lombardi fought back, taking down the group of organ traffickers before returning to his normal life.
Learning of a serial killer who skinned his victims through anomalous means, Lombardi and his men began investigating this case. Analyzing a previous serial killer who did the exact same thing with his victims, Lombardi discovered that he had a son who was most likely the suspect they were after. He and his men visited the man in his house to question him while not arising suspicion, and confirmed that he was the serial killer. Unfortunately, the serial killer got hold of them and in an attempt to evade capture he switched his address with that of his neighbor so when they barged in they would have the wrong target. This worked, as Lombardi and the other personnel broke inside the wrong house which belonged to a innocent man, causing collateral damage and accidentally shooting his daughter. Lombardi had the man tied up and broke his fingers to stop him from screaming. Realizing their mistake, Lombardi apologized to the poor man for what had happened but told him that they would amnesticize him and make him forget about this incident, covering it up as a failed burglary. After that, Lombardi and the personnel presumably captured the serial killer since he was very sloppy in covering his tracks.
Looking for a squid-like creature in a village in Angola, Lombardi and his squad waited for it to arrive to them until they were confronted by the a Global Occult Coalition's team. The GOC demanded the Foundation personnel to get out of their way and leave the creature to them, but Lombardi refused and as their argument soured the creature began soon approaching. Both Foundation and GOC operatives took their positions and prepared to fight. However, Lombardi and his men were unaware that the creature could shroud environments in darkness, while the GOC came prepared with their night vision goggles. Unfortunately for them, they failed to learn that the creature was only vulnerable to silver, leaving Lombardi and his men to try to shoot at it in the dark. After accidentally killing some GOC operatives Lombardi managed to kill the creature, and with this over he reported what had happened to his superior.
On Halloween, Lombardi and his partner were sent to capture a young anomalous kid with strings attached to their body. He confronted the kid and was honest with them, telling them that he and his partner would bring them into their van and transport them to the nearest Foundation facility. The kid tried to argue back, and although Lombardi was understanding he told them that if he didn't bring them in then another organisation would come to either kill them or turn them into a weapon that could be used to hurt innocent people, including their loved ones. Lombardi promised he and the Foundation would take care of them if they behaved good and compensate their family after amnesticizing them.
Stationed at Site-34, the Foundation personnel were attacked by some Chaos Insurgents. Lombardi and his men fought against the Insurgents in the underground Hall 42, hiding behind the blast doors while several anomalies broke out and the power ran out. Lombardi urged his men to bring their injuried captain out of the site to safety, leaving him to go restore the site's power back. He was successful in his task, allowing the personnel to take out the attackers and recontain the anomalies. However, he later found out that while recovering the captain was killed by a unknown assailant who had infiltrated the shelter and leaving no tracks behind.
While traversing Hallway 18 of Site-17, the site was attacked by the Proponents of the Paranormal Rights. In that moment Lombardi lowered his protege agent Vance near him to the ground to keep him safe. Deciding to fight against the intruders, he and Vance made their way to the armory, assuring his the agent that they would get through this. On their way they came across an enemy group, but thankfully they were killed by SCP-082. The two agents planned to use other SCPs to fight off the intruders before arriving to the room where the armory should have been, only to see that it had disappeared because of a spatial anomaly. Encountering more of the attackers, Lombardi instructed Vance to open the door near them to unleash an SCP while he distracted them. Vance did as he was instructed and released VN-1520 which proceeded to slaughter the enemies. Lombardi congratulated Vance but to his dismay noticed the enemies' weapons were also destroyed. Luckily for them, the containment breach would later subside.
After a Foundation containment squad, which was transporting a unicorn, was attacked by the GOC's Assessment Team 735, Lombardi was notified of this attack and he and his men quickly arrived at the scene. There he attempted to recapture the unicorn but as it ran away he gave up, deeming it unnecessary.
During his time in Area 25B, Lombardi was among the personnel tasked with taking down SCP-076-2 by wasting their bullets on him. When Agent Xiaoshan tried to discuss with Lombardi the possibility of 076-2 being the biblical Abel, Lombardi shot her down, telling the young agent that when it came to 076 theories didn't matter and instead one should be concentrated on repeatedly killing him.
On July 20th of 2016, a small town in the Nubian Desert in Sudan completely disappeared without a trace after some glyphs appeared above in the sky. Lombardi and his Task Force, who were originally sent to investigate activities relating to the Office for the Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts, were tasked with gaining information about this anomalous event, designated EE-7372. Seeing that a memetic field had encapsulated the affected area only Lombardi was sent to investigate it since he was resistant to anomalous memes. Armed with his gun, Lombardi proceeded to enter the area and make his way to the town which was completely devoid of any citizen except for an operative of the Horizon Initiative. He confronted the operative and aimed his gun at him, but the other man quickly disarmed him. The man introduced himself as Asim, telling Lombardi that he didn't wish to harm him and tried to disuade him from investigating the phenomenon.
Lombardi didn't listen and instead ambushed Asim, getting his gun before ducking behind a house for cover. As they were about to exchange bullets, the ground beneath them suddenly broke and a Mekhanite woman emerged from the ground and ascended into the sky. The woman attempted to kill Asim, but Lombardi intervened by shooting at her. As they waited for one of them to move, Asim spoke, telling everyone that there was no need to fight and assured the cyborg woman that he wouldn't attack her. Lombardi also obliged, since he had ran out of bullets, allowing the woman to introduce herself as Chloe who was scouting mission in the area before coming across them. Lombardi demanded her to elaborate on what she was scouting for, and so Chloe had a spire rise through the ground. Upon a closer look the spire was actually a massive mechanical arm engraved with glowing ruins, and as Chloe affirmed was the first Mekhanite Colossus that preceded SCP-2406 and had the power to hide itself from enemies by manipulating memory and perception.
With this information in mind Lombardi turned to leave, intending to write a report about this finding and send his Task Force to contain the anomaly. Chloe threatened Lombardi to kill him if he brought attention to this place but he was adamant in fulfilling his orders. As the two were about to fight, Asim spoke up, telling them they could use the colossus' power to make their superiors forget that the town and the phenomenon ever existed and could easily hide them to not break the Veil of Secrecy. Lombardi tried to argue against this, but was eventually convinced, leaving to return back the nearest Foundation site and delete the file regarding EE-7372.
===Possible Endings===
====Hiccup Jacet====
During his stay in a Foundation power plant in the countryside, the facility was attacked, forcing Lombardi and his men to fight back. Unfortunately, the plant was soon overrun and Lombardi got fatally wounded. With no other choice, Lombardi sabotaged the plant in order to cause an explosion that would destroy parts of the surrounding area and take the attackers with it. As he sacrificed himself Lombardi spoke to his transmitter despite the receiver being broken, telling his fellow personnel that they fought not in the service of the Foundation but for the people they held dear before adding that they were a family that worked together and would never be alone as long as they got each other. Following his death, his belongings were shipped to the Archival Storage.
====The Stars Do Not Wait For You====
When the reality bender known as SCP-1915 became the all destructive "Absence", Lombardi continued with guiding young agents during the fight against the entity to no avail. With the Foundation destroyed and everyone he knew or cared about dead, an elderly Lombardi watched the state of the world from the roof of the tallest building that still stood. Having lost all meaning in living he was visited by Nobody, before the Absence went to destroy all life on earth.
==Appearance==
Lombardi appeared as a bald and bulky Caucasian man with some facial scars.
==Powers and Abilities==
Lombardi was a normal human being trained as an agent with no real powers, except for having a natural resistance to memetic anomalies. He specialized in the retrieval of anomalies and would gather intel on the anomaly before going after it, in order to prepare himself for when he inevitably came to claim it. Although most of the time he captured harmless objects and compliant individuals, there were times he had to fight, not only to successfully capture them but to also protect the nearby civilians and himself. He was also an engineer as he could bring back Site 34's power during an attack and have a power plant to explode. Lombardi was multilingual as he could speak French besides English. 
==Personality==
Lombardi was one of the best agents at the Foundation's disposal, being always ready, prepared and collected. Having worked for the Foundation out in field for an extended period of time, Lombardi began instructing newly recruited agents on how agents work, becoming a known good teacher to them as his lessons greatly helped them survive. Lombardi was serious and dedicated to his job, containing various dangerous anomalies that could threaten human lives. Although he served the Foundation, Lombardi wasn't completely loyal to the organization or the Council, working for the Foundation solely to help in protecting innocent lives. He even had sympathy for the poor sapient anomalies like anomalous children, knowing that their containment was unjust, and if these individuals suffered uneeded abuse at the hands of the Foundation personnel Lombardi would try to help them. Lombardi recognized the world as cruel and unforgiving, and didn't give much thought to love or relationships, seeing it as detrimental to staff as it would always end in heartbreak. Despite appearing as abrasive at first, Lombardi truly cared for his fellow agents, seeing them not only as friends but as family who worked together and looked out for each other, and told them to not needlessly sacrifice their lives to claim a random anomaly as agents like them were precious while the anomalies could be contained another time. However, Lombardi wasn't truly honest during work, treating those tangled in his mission harshly and dismissively since he would amnesticize them and would forget everything, and when a staff member messed up with handling an anomaly or accidentally caused damage he would advise them to just put the blame on the elusive Nobody instead of taking responsibility.
==Gallery==
===Images===
Maximilian Lombardi.jpg
===Videos===
Urban Legends (The Lombardi Tales)
Grasp On Reality (The Lombardi Tales)
Property Values (The Lombardi Tales)
Nobody Knows (The Lombardi Tales)
GOIng My Way (The Lombardi Tales)
Relationskips (The Lombardi Tales)
Orientation (The Lombardi Tales)
Trick or Treat (The Lombardi Tales)
Command Performance (The Lombardi Tales)
Hiccup Jacet (The Lombardi Tales Finale)
==Trivia==
* Lombardi and his men referred to the reality-benders as "Bixbies" in order to not give out their capabilities to any nearby civilian or the reality-bender themself who might be unaware of their powers. He also used slangs to refer to the GOC's members as Gocks and SCPs as Skips, which were adopted by the majority of the personnel.
* Lombardi appeared to enjoy donuts and coffee.
* Lombardi enjoyed Halloween as he could hide his face behind masks.
* The "Personnel And Character Dossier" suggested that Lombardi had evaded death in "Hiccup Jacket" thanks to the intervention of the O5 Council.
* In "Square your shoulders, lift your pack, and leave your friends and go." part of the "Aces and Eights" canon, a universe in which the SCP Foundation is set in the Old Wild West, Lombardi is an agent of the Union Investigations Unit who interviewed Jay Everwood regarding her encounter with the 682nd cavalry.
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