I scoured the surface of the ocean around Bermuda, the island where the Foundation placed its Site-17 next to. Because of the cloudless sky ever since Day Break, I could cover hundreds of square kilometers of ocean by just flying really high up.
Descending, I found my outfit reverting back to Kukulkan's first ascension as I stopped using the Heart of ORT.
As I dipped into the sea, I made sure to knock on the side of the submarine before approaching the bottom of the middle portion of the vehicle and then carrying it on my back.
There, I began to rise and the submarine started rising with me. Before I could go for more than a few seconds, several flaps jutted inward to reveal spaces where I could place my hands.
Zvezdnyy just made sure I could have an easier time to carry the submarine. How thoughtful of her.
Inserting my hands into those flaps, I found it to be sturdier than I imagined. I'd have a much harder time ripping this away.
Accelerating at about 1 g of force, I then moved in the direction of where the sun was traveling across the sky, to the west to hit the East coast of the United States. There, I'll move north along the coastline before eventually reaching New York where I'll make contact with those remaining Tau-5 members.
As I thought of those who stayed, I couldn't help but look back at the slowly disappearing island of Bermuda. My fight against SCP-343 probably caused the collapse of the entire facility, especially when I dug through a kilometer of rocks.
Water's probably flooding everything. Anyone who might still be alive down there would've surely drowned and been crushed by the water pressure at the bottom of the ocean.
I continued my travel unabated. It took less than an hour to reach Charleston, South Carolina.
During that travel over the seemingly endless ocean, I found myself drifting along in thought, wondering about stuff.
I felt the phantom sensation of flesh crawling all over me, causing my body to instinctively curl up before I actively fought against it.
The memories of being inside that meat sarcophagus were maddening. The feeling of having all your orifices filled and tentacles moving and rubbing against your internals was… without question, disgusting.
It was horrible.
Even now I feel dirtied by those things. Even when my body is cleansed of any flesh I can still feel those things crawling inside me, filling up all my spaces from my lungs all the way to my reproduction canal and my entire digestive tract.
Flesh replaced air. Flesh filled every bit of my lungs. From the smallest alveoli to my entire stomach, it clogged it all like a pollutant.
The submarine swayed as I flinched at the phantom sensation of flesh all over my body.
Only for more than a second. Very quickly I forced myself to feel the sensation of air flowing through my hair and forced my thoughts into a very different direction.
Namely, what to do next.
Obviously, I'll make contact with the Tau-5 members left at the fortress I made, as I've already decided. Afterward, I think I'd more than proven my worth to the SCP Foundation when I terminated SCP-343. If not because of my value as a potential operative, then at least to appease me to prevent me from becoming a problem.
They'll probably bend over backward to my demands.
Once I reached the American coastline, I was able to entertain myself by gazing at the group underneath me. Empty towns and cities devoid of any humans, devoid of anything save for those flesh monsters.
I conjured up a small bit of plasma around me then blasted it at any loose collections of fused human meat just out of spite.
It was as though I was saying 'fuck you' at them.
I never strayed more than a few kilometers away from the coastline lest I lose sight of it.
Man, having the Map on my Smart Device would've been supremely helpful.
Once I reached Norfolk, I decided to take a minor detour and continue hugging the coastline along the Chesapeake Bay and check out Washington.
Flying above the Potomac River, my brows furrowed when I saw how Washington wasn't the empty sparkling Metropolis I imagined it to be, but instead a blasted crater surrounded by fallout.
Much of central Washington was vaporized. Everything up to the Washington National Cathedral was flattened as though some giant had passed by here.
What the hell happened?
My tongue reached out and tasted the air. Soot and ashes, and a bit of uranium.
A nuclear bomb was detonated here. Multiple small ones. MIRVs. Probably air burst as well.
Did some nation bomb Washington out of spite? Did the Russians do this? Or the Chinese? Or the North Koreans?
No wait, I don't think the North Koreans have the missile technology to even reach the District of Columbia. Seattle maybe, Hawaii definitely, but not Washington.
Thankfully, the weather seemed to have entirely stopped after Daybreak. The air was still. The global air currents were still. There wasn't any wind, nor rain, nor snow. There weren't even any clouds in the sky.
Thus, this prevented much of the spread of any potential fallout to neighboring states.
I flew past the crater of Washington and passed by a relatively intact Baltimore. There were a lot of burnt-out, blackened husks of buildings in Baltimore.
Following the 95 highway, I continued traveling and passed by the silent Philadelphia.
I can't help but feel down. I'd been to Philadelphia before I signed on with the Company. I remember it being a bustling city of over a million souls. Now it can probably be counted by one hand.
I reached New York within less than five minutes of travel after passing by Philadelphia. With another ten seconds of travel, I'm above the fortress I made of that garbage dump.
The first thing I noticed was just how there were more meat monsters around the edge of the moat I made. Without a second thought, I conjured up a small orb of plasma next to them and sent forth a stream of superheated air that instantly vaporized any collections of molten meat while melting the surroundings.
After the fight with SCP-343, I found myself able to more easily control plasma without using my hand as a focusing lens.
Turning back to face the fortress I made, I spotted a figure fully clad in dark armor waving at me, in his other hands was a large grenade launcher combined with an autocannon.
I should put this submarine down.
But where? It's too large to fit inside the entrance used by those garbage trucks, and the people inside need to get out without being exposed to the sun…
It was eventually decided that I'd place the submarine in the water where the river barges would be loaded with containers full of trash.
There, I flew up to the periscope and gestured a 'stay here' motion before leaving to greet the Tau-5 member on the roof of the fortress.
"I assume Site-17 was destroyed?" Onru immediately said once I was within five meters of him.
"Yes, unfortunately. SCP-343 was infected by the sun and overrun the place. I was forced to terminate him."
"That's what the light show's all about, isn't it?"
The armored immortal then pointed up. Tracing his fingers, I found the man pointing at the Moon glowing thanks to the literal country-sized lake of lava spanning across its entire surface, alongside parts of it being gouged out as though it was a tub of ice cream and someone had taken a scoop of it.
"... Yes." I hesitantly replied, "Yes it was. SCP-343 was tough. I had to bring him into space and fight him there lest Earth is rendered uninhabitable."
This was the strength I tried to hold back all the time. The power to obliterate a moon with the same amount of effort as squeezing a balloon until it popped.
Onru nodded, before asking, "Did Captain Sarah get out?"
"..."
My silence seemed to have been enough answers for the man. Though he tried to keep it down, I could tell how he was agitated by the loss of the Captain.
Onru lowered his head, "About an hour ago, Nanku received a telepathic message from one of Site-19's employed telepaths. O5-9 says all of your prices have been agreed upon and he wants to meet you personally as soon as possible in Site-19."
After finishing, the man quickly walked away as though he was attending urgent business.
"Wait! Did anything happen while I was gone?"
Onru ignored me and continued walking away.
Strange. Very strange. Having a moment to myself, I processed what Onru said to me.
An O5 want to meet me? Weren't they Class-A personnel who must not come into contact with any SCP objects?
Despite having the power to strip a planet of its crust, I felt nervous. Here was an individual who was the head of the scariest organization in the world, and they wanted to meet you personally.
"Hmm."
My feet left the ground as I started flying once again. There, I decided I'd deal with this later and instead focus on how to get those inside the fortress into the submarine, where I could then carry them to Site-19 wherever that's located.
A few more seconds later, a solution appeared in my mind as my eyes looked at the remnant of the bridge where garbage trucks entered and exited from.
Though I severed it in its entirety when I made the moat, there's still a bit of it left that extends out by a few meters.
Perfect.
So I flew and did exactly as I planned, parking the submarine right underneath the bridge and away from the sun.
Squatting on the top of the submarine, I tapped on the hatch and waited several seconds before it swung open. Inside the opened hatch I saw the face of Doctor Chen.
"O5-9 wants to see me apparently. I'm going to bring in more people, we're leaving in an hour."
Chen's face paled as all colors drained away when he heard what I said, his brows reaching up to his forehead, "An O5 wants to meet you? As in, a member of the O5 Council?"
"Yes, a Tau-5 told me that." I gave a simple nod, a smile of amusement on my face as I saw how Chen reacted.
He had to visibly stop himself from falling off the ladder by the news coming out of my mouth.
"I see, so why aren't we leaving immediately?" Chen asked after taking back control over himself.
I took a deep breath before letting it all out.
"Well for one, I gotta get those people whom I rescued into this submarine. More than that though, one of my prices to the SCP Foundation was that if they wanted to contract me, they'd have to house all of those whom I rescued into secure Foundation Sites. This is that. I've dealt with Site-17."
Chen frowned at me using the word 'dealt', apparently preferring more discrete words.
"Aren't you tired after such a battle?" The doctor asked again, "Don't you want to rest?"
I stood up on top of the submarine, stretching my body.
"No. I feel perfectly fine."
I really do. Even after unleashing a plasma that can turn the Moon into bits of space dust floating around Earth, I still don't feel tired. Maybe a bit winded, but that's just the same amount of tiredness one feels after running for five seconds.
Chen sighed, "Alright. We—"
"My Polkovodets!" Zvezdnyy teleported beside me, hovering above the water inside the shade of the bridge above. She looked extra proud of herself, like a child who's just done a great deed and was about to tell their beloved older sibling, "How did I—"
I felt my heart stop.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled as I scrambled up to right next to Zvezdnyy, covering her with my body. She's outside of the protective shadow of the submarine!
"Wh— Wha? My Polkovodets, I am telling you the sea tales of the Zvezdnyy Rebenok! I fought against massive sea monsters—"
"What did I say about being in the sun?" I said with a stern look.
"That… that you shouldn't be in it?"
"Yes—"
I stopped myself and looked up. There, I noticed how Zvezdnyy was fully within the shade of the bridge, with not a single ray of sunlight anywhere close to hitting her.
Huh… My mouth hung ajar as I realized I worried for nothing.
"I'm… sorry. For yelling at you," Rubbing my eyes, I tried to temper any worry I felt from before, "I was just worried. I was worried you'd be turned by the sun."
As I continued to rub my eyes, I found a pair of small arms wrapping around me. Opening them, I saw the bundle of blonde hair belonging to Zvezdnyy underneath my breast. Her two arms snaked around my waist and placed me in a hug.
"It's alright, my Polkovodets. I can tell you care greatly for me."
I felt my heart melt. Instinctively, I felt my right hand go up and started brushing across the girl's head.
Her hair felt supernaturally soft. Like clouds in hair form.
I could get addicted to this.
But as with all good things; it must come to an end.
With a tap on her head, I said, "Alright, I got work to do."
"Aww," Zvezdnyy pouted as she stopped her hug, crossing her arms, "But you must hear of my exploits against the Leviafans, my Polkovodets!"
Oh, wait… yeah, they had to deal with a lot of those meat leviathans.
"How about this: let me work, and I promise I'll listen to your exploits fully."
"Promise?"
The edge of my mouth curved into a smile, "Yes, of course. I will keep on listening to your tale until you finish."
"Alright," Zvezdnyy then raised her left hand at me. All the fingers on her left hand were curled inward save for her pinkie.
Is she really…? I tilted my head as my smile turned a bit awkward.
"I read somewhere in a book before I was put to sleep that this is the best way to ensure a promise is kept. So! Pinkie promises me."
It's so childish… so innocent… so pure…
I felt dirty. I felt unbelievably polluted compared to the cleanness that is Zvezdnyy Rebenok.
Alright.
"Fine." I met the girl's pinkie finger with my own, "I promise."
"To…?"
I blinked, "To listen to your tale."
With that done, Zvezdnyy teleported back into the submarine, leaving me alone with Chen.
The old man then descended down the ladder, closing the hatch along the way. Just before he did, however, he said to me, "Well, I should get everyone ready to leave within the hour."
I flew back and onto the truck door. There, I lifted the thing with ease using only one hand and I crossed in.
The insides of the fortress didn't change at all—
As I walked, I spotted down at the lower section of the fortress how many people had gathered and prayed in front of a giant cross. Since there weren't any chairs, roll upon roll of bedsheets was used where people could kneel.
Huh. I see Bethany's been busy.
I could hear the woman preaching a sermon right now, "And the Lord said to me! That he shall return our savior to us today! And the Lord said to me! That—"
"Look! There's the Prophet!"
"Prophet Kukulkan!"
"Prophet Kukulkan!"
Many people began chanting and bowing and everything.
I immediately felt uncomfortable with the sheer praise I was being showered with. The fanatical reverence in their eyes has only gotten worse.
I looked at the edge of the room. There were only a small handful of people who sat by the edge away from the praying masses.
I raised a hand, and the many people instantly fell silent.
"Come. We're heading to a much more secure location than this place. I shall carry you all the same way through a pocket dimension of mine onto a transport, there, I'll ferry the transport to this more secure location."
"Thank you, Prophet Kukulkan!"
I quickly got out of the room as everything was just getting too much for me. Their worship… Goodness, I'm not fit to be a Goddess if I find worship repulsive.
It took less than ten minutes before everyone was loaded onto the submarine. Well everyone aside from Onru.
I found the man locked behind the bathroom stall.
"Hey, man, you alright?"
"No. I just figured out that the woman who might as well as be mother-in-all-but-name had just died."
Sarah is Onru's mother?
…Ah… My eyes widened as I recalled the origin of how Samsara Squad came to be. After being employed by the Foundation right from birth, they must've been like childrens to the old Captain. From there, Sarah Hughes must've become something of a motherly figure to these four.
And now she's gone. Onru's grieving.
"Listen, I don't know the relationship between you and Commander Hughes. But now's not the time to grieve. Now's the time to go."
After a long silence, Onru opened the stall door and walked out. "You're right. Let's go."
Onru and Nanku didn't take my offer of being transported inside my pocket space. They got into the submarine the old-fashioned way after telling me the exact location of Site-19 in the wilderness of Michigan.
Carrying the submarine on my back, I moved further westward and reached the supposed secret Site-19 in under an hour.
The entrance to the Site was disguised as a military airfield. Placing the submarine down on the tarmac, I was greeted by an entourage of several dozen armed SCP Foundation security guards and multiple car-mounted autocannons.
"You must be Kukulkan, yes?" The foremost security guard asked, fully clad from head to toe.
"Yes. The remaining members of Tau-5, survivors of Site-17, and those whom I rescued are all inside here." I tapped on the side of the grounded submarine.
"Right, if you would please place the submarine inside a hangar." The guard respectfully gestured at a nearby opened hangar.
I was about to do that before wheels sprouted out of the submarine and it started driving itself in there.
Hmm…
No one panicked by this turn of events apparently. Chen probably messaged them about what was transpiring.
"Right, please follow me, Goddess Kukulkan."
So I did. Though, was that the honorific they decided to give me? 'Goddess'?
We entered into a large section of the tarmac surrounded by a painted enclosure. There, the ground began to lower to reveal that this was an elevator.
The whole ride down was silent. Based on how still each of those around me was, I could tell they were tense. Probably nervous that I'd go rogue and destroy this Site as a whole at a moment's notice.
I mean, that glowing moon up in the sky was a very clear indicator of what I'm capable of. The raw destruction at my fingertips.
The elevator lowered into a large hangar filled with advanced aircraft and other vehicles that I could tell weren't available even to any national military.
Every researcher, engineer, and just— anyone— in my immediate vicinity who could see me suddenly stopped what they were doing and just stared. A roar of engines off to my right caught my attention as one of those open-top jeeps owned by a lot of militaries rolled right in front of me.
There was only one seat on the jeep: the one beside the driver.
So I got on by flying up and descending into the seat.
It was only when the jeep started driving through the many aircraft and vehicles and the driver beside me introduced them did I realized this was the Foundation's attempt at impressing me with the assets at their disposal. The many things that would also become available to me if I continued to work with them.
They're marketing themselves to me.
I let out a smirk. I've got them. They really do see that I'm too valuable to lose.
Good.
Eventually, I got off as we reached an elevator. From there, I, accompanied by more security guards, got in as one of the guards tapped his card onto a reader inside the elevator.
We went deeper down before the elevator finally stopped with an announcer speaking, "Head Office. Reached."
The elevator door parted ways to reveal a long stretch of another sterile hallway flanked by nothing. There was only a door at the end of this hallway with the words 'Site Director' on it.
Site Director?
As the security guard moved forward, so did I. We entered through the door and into a… very normal and casual office atypical for someone whom I imagined to be an O5. I mean, there's plenty of potted plants all over the place, with furniture of mahogany alongside shelves full of books.
I spotted the presumed O5-9 writing on some papers on his desk. There was another man wearing a ruby pendant off to the side drinking some tea, but that's probably just some researcher.
Oddly enough, everyone except the man drinking his tea quickly left the room once I entered.
"O5-9. But please, call me Doctor Bright. I was newly promoted to the role of an O5 so I'm still trying to get used to the names."
The man said as he stood up with his right hand outstretched for a handshake.
Wait a minute, Jack Bright is an O5?
Since when?
Seeing as how I didn't meet his handshake, Doctor Bright moved on and sat on the chair behind the desk. There, he motioned me to sit.
I sat down on the only other seat in the room that no one had sat in.
"I assume you have a lot of questions?"
"Yes."
Before I could continue, Doctor Bright continued, "Of course, and they will be answered, but please, let me say on behalf of the SCP Foundation that it's a very nice pleasure to be working with someone as powerful and benevolent as you, Goddess Kukulkan."
"Al… right."
The man's fingers touched each other in a very business-like fashion.
"Now, we at the O5 council have agreed to meet all of your demands. Already, those whom you rescued are being given top-tier suites at Site-19. More than that, we've deployed the full strength of our telepaths to locate every remaining survivor across the planet and are now bringing them in. Already, more than five thousand people have been picked up within the continental United States alone and MTF squadrons are en route to their location."
A smile wormed its way on my face, "That's great. But have you guys discovered the source of this apocalypse? What caused this corruption of the sun?"
Bright clapped his hands as a hologram appeared above his desk. In it, the hologram displayed a black female with very long hair and bright marks all over her body.
"This is SCP-179. As of a week ago, she has been reclassified as 'Neutralized'."
Wait, wasn't SCP-179 the same one that called the sun her brother? My brows furrowed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"SCP-179 was destroyed by a blast from her so-called brother. Her last warning involved the word 'ion'. We're still trying to figure out what she meant but our best researchers think it's charged particles from the sun…"
Ion.
I tuned Bright out as my mind became fixated on the word 'ion'.
Ions.
Ion…
Ion… I recalled how the sun turned people— all biomass really— into this amorphous mass that's somewhat similar to SCP-610 in appearance. They look like Sarkic abominations.
Sarkicism.
Ion.
A chill went down my spine. My eyes gained a distant look.
Grand Karcist Ion.
Grand Karcist Ion, the Founder of the Sarkic Religion.
He is the one who corrupted the sun.
The revelation made me go weak. I had to clutch the armrest of the chair I sat in with my right hand to not fall down.
Grand Karcist Ion is responsible for this. This killing of an unimaginable magnitude. The corruption of the finest man I knew.
"Oh god…" I muttered under my breath. I started to hyperventilate as my mind began to rapid-fire concepts related to Ion. Sarkicism. Daevites. Yaldabaoth. The God of Flesh.
"Oh god…"
"Goddess Kukulkan?"
I ignored everything as I tried to fully grasp just who caused all this. My left hand clasped the sides of my face.
Yaldabaoth means Mekhane. Mekhane meant the Scarlet King. The Scarlet King meant all the higher tiers of the SCPverse.
"..."
I suddenly realized just how big things have gotten.
Oh fuck.