Chapter Text
“Why’d you call us all, Gears? Was there another call?” Marina asked.
“Of a sort. I was just recently contacted by Craig. He informed me that his group lost contact with agents 3, 4, and 8 a few hours ago.”
“Oh no. You mean the ones who were asking about the blood pond?”
“Hold up. You sent my friends out to investigate a blood pond?!” Pearl yelled, glaring as if ready to commit murder with her bare hands.
Dr. King held up his hand defensively. “No, of course I wouldn’t do that. I specifically told them not to go there.”
“Those three will do anything to protect civilians, even at their own risk.” Marina pointed out. “If they heard about something dangerous, they definitely would’ve-” She was interrupted by the phone starting to ring.
“Perfect timing.” Clef growled, stalking over to pick up the phone. “Hello, what’s your-” His eyes grew wide with shock. “I-I see. Yes, of course we’ll be right there.” He slowly hung up the phone. “There’s a little girl performing magic in the middle of the city.”
Marina smiled. “Oh, that sounds adorable! What’s got you so spooked, Clef?”
“Maybe he’s the father. Whaddaya say, Clef? You secretly a dad?” Pearl grinned at the scientist.
“What?! No, of course not!”
“Why don’t you tell us, then?” Kondraki was looking at Clef with something between joy and rage.
“SCP-239 is none of their con-”
“Oh really? So it’s none of their concern how you tried to murder a kid? How you practically tore apart site-17 trying to kill an 8-year old girl?”
“You what?!” Pearl jumped up, trying to strangle Dr. Clef. “We trusted you! We left you alone with Marcus last week, and now we find out you’re some kind of kid-killer?!” She glared at the other Foundation employees, eyes blazing with anger. “How many of you were in on it? How many of you took his side? Any other earth-shattering secrets we should know about?”
“Pearl, let him go.”
“What are you saying, Marina? You’d better not be taking the child-murderer’s side.”
“No! No, of course not! I’m just saying, killing him won’t fix anything.”
“Yeah, I know. Any of you guys taking his side on this?”
“Of course not. I was the first to fight Alto when he tried that stunt.”
Dr. Clef scoffed, “Oh come on, Konnie. You know as well as I do that 239 was a threat.”
“No, she wasn’t! And you know it! There were procedures in place to prevent 239 from misusing her powers, and you willfully ignored those procedures.” Dr. King refuted.
“Really?” Dr. Clef narrowed his eyes. “Am I the only one who sees sense here?”
“Looks like it.” Pearl noted, glancing around to observe everyone else in the group glaring at Dr. Clef.
“Well then. I guess I’m out.” Clef activated the portal device. Before walking out of the dimension, he snapped, “Hope you guys learn for yourselves who’s really right here.”
The hole in the universe deactivated a few seconds later, leaving Marina to pick up the device. “I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it. Now we’ve gotta find that kid before something happens to her.” Pearl started off towards the base exit.
“Wait.” Dr. King warned, “I should let you know that SCP-239 is capable of subconsciously making whatever she believes come to pass. In other words, if she thinks something is true, it’ll become true.”
“Thanks, but that doesn’t matter.” Pearl insisted, “She’s just a kid. Magic or not, anomaly or not, she’s gotta be scared.”
“Pearlie’s right.” Marina agreed, “We’ll keep it in mind, but we’ll treat her like a kid first and foremost.”
“Alright, Marina, we’ve just gotta find a human child in a city full of inklings and octolings.”
“Right. I’m keeping my eyes open.” While Marina was alone, scanning the central district of Inkopolis, she heard a high-pitched voice yelling from somewhere a short distance away.
“I cast magic missile!”
Marina barely had time to dodge a bolt of white-hot plasma rocketing toward her. The intense heat brought a brief, scalding pain to her skin, before reducing the car behind her to a flaming wreck. “What-who threw that?”
A little girl appeared out of the alleyway. “I did, evil witch.”
Marina stood upright. “Hey, wait a second. I’m not an evil-”
“Silence, dark sorceress of the shadow realm! You can’t trick me! The great music magician DJ Octavio told me all about you! He even gave me a picture, and told me of your mastery of the dark arts! He sent me to slay you and save this world so I may return to my own!”
“Wait, wait, wait, Octavio put you up to this? You can’t trust him! He’s evil!”
“Octavio told me you’d try to trick me with your silver tongue! I see right through you! I cast magic missile!” Another beam of plasma rocketed out of the girl’s outstretched palm, much too fast to dodge.
Marina uselessly held her hands out in front of herself. Before the magic missile could strike her, a pitch-black barrier appeared to dispel the blast. “Huh. that’s new.”
“A-hah!” SCP-239 pointed at Marina. “Proof of your dark sorcery! You really are a wicked witch!”
“You’re really starting to get on my nerves, kid.” Before the girl could say anything else, Marina found herself surrounded in purple smoke. By the time it dissipated, she’d been relocated to the top of a building, where she briefly stumbled in surprise. “Woah, okay, I teleported. I teleported!” She hastily set up a six-way call on her communicator. “Guys, I found the kid at 541 crab street! Octavio convinced her I’m evil, and I think I somehow have magic powers. It must have something to do with her perception.”
“If that’s the case, you might start turning evil soon. Just stay there and avoid her as much as possible.” Dr. King instructed.
The girl reappeared, floating just above the building. “Yeah, that might be tough. I’m gonna need backup.”
“Foolish evil sorceress! You can’t escape me, coward! Now face me and accept your fate!” SCP-239 cast another magic missile, forcing Marina to jump off the building and start floating in midair herself.
“Please, stop this, 239! I don’t want to hurt you! Octavio’s just using you! Yesterday, he tried to destroy the city!”
SCP-239 stopped, her eyes widening with shock. “Wait. How do you know what the wizard teachers called me?” She slowly floated back down onto the roof of the building.
Marina followed suit. She could feel a dark cloud dispelling itself from her subconscious, that she hadn’t noticed until it was gone. “I, uh, I’m working with some of the…” She cleared her throat, “The wizard teachers.”
The girl looked at the octoling suspiciously. “Prove it.”
Marina’s communicator started beeping. “Hold on a sec. I’m getting contact from the other wizards. Hello?”
Dr. King’s voice came out of Marina’s communicator. “We’re at the address. Where are you two?”
“Sorry, sir. We’re coming down now.” Marina looked back at SCP-239. “The other wizards are down on the street. They want us to come down.”
“Okay. But you better not be lying.” The little girl disappeared, bringing Marina with her. The two reappeared on the ground, facing the four scientists and Pearl. “Over council wizard Gears! Swordsman Kondraki!” The girl ran over to hug Gears.
Dr. Gears patted SCP-239 on the head, with a subtle smile on his face. “Greetings, Sigurrós. I trust you have managed to avoid involving yourself with too much trouble during your stay in this dimension?”
“Sigurrós?” Marina knelt down next to the girl. “Is that your real name?”
“Sure is!” Sigurrós looked up at the scientists with wide eyes. “Is it true that she isn’t evil?”
Dr. Kondraki answered, “Yeah, she’s working with us. Whoever told you she was evil was lying to you.”
“Wait, so you’re a good witch?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“I’m sorry. Please don’t blast me.” Sigurrós looked down, eyes watering in fright.
“Hey, it’s alright.” Marina gently pressed her palm onto Sigurrós’s cheek. “I’m not gonna blast you.”
“You can trust her, kiddo.” Pearl confirmed, “Marina’s one of the nicest mages I know.”
“So Mr. Octavio really was lying to me?”
“Clearly.” Dr. Bright confirmed.
“Of course Octavio would be behind this?” Pearl glared as if she was ready to murder someone. “First he steals the great zapfish, then he brainwashes Callie, then he teleports a murderous demigod into a turf war stadium, and now he tricks a kid into trying to kill my best friend? That’s it. I’m killing him.”
“Hey, wait, let’s not be rash here.” Marina tried to hold her partner back. “I get that you’re upset, but there might be a better solution than going off on your own after the most dangerous octarian in the world.”
“Like what?”
“We should wait until the others get back. We’ll need help to take him down, especially if he’s got access to SCPs somehow.”
“How long will that take, though? I called Sheldon while we were searching, and he said they were leading the humans to war against a giant tentacle monster that came out of the blood pool. Not to mention, the kids are still stuck in some other dimension for all we know. We’ve been constantly splitting up ever since this whole mess started, so what’s one more? You guys can come with me if you want, but there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“You should listen to your friend. Even I know this is too risky.” Bright said.
Pearl looked down, fists clenched. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should- Gotcha! Epiphanies are for suckers!” She ran in the direction of the city border.
“I got this.” Dr. King tossed a portal device, allowing Pearl to accidentally run through it just before it closed. “There. Now she’s back in the base.” He teleported after her.
“I hate tonight.” Marina activated her own transporter.
Drs. Gears, Kondraki, and Bright all stayed behind with the little girl. “Sigurrós, I have the means to return you home. I want you to step into the mystical portal I’m going to open, but I’ll have to stay here for a few more months. Do you understand?”
“Of course, over council wizard Gears.”
“Good.” Dr. Gears activated the portal. “I promise, they’ll take good care of you at the magic academy.”
“I know. Thank you, over council wizard Gears.” Sigurrós walked through the portal into site-17.
Dr. Kondraki wiped his brow on his sleeve. “Glad that’s over with. Let’s hope those three haven’t killed each other yet.” The three activated their transporters.
Six individuals stood in the headquarters of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. “Hey kid, you still want to go on your own?” Kondraki asked.
“Nope! The captain just called, and they’re coming back from a successful peace visit.”
Marina raised her eyebrows slightly. “Does that mean the other three are back now?”
“Well, no, but apparently some guys from a group called the Serpent’s Hand are coming with them. They said they know the kids, and they’ve got knowledge of dimension-jumping.”
“The Serpent’s Hand are normally opposed to the foundation, but I suppose they’re our best bet this time.” Dr. King added.
“If they can help us find the kids, then that’s good enough for me. Let’s just hope for the best.” Marina decided.