I’m getting a better grip on my fiery transformation, but it isn’t complete yet. The power I felt when I fought against Hatchet, well, I couldn’t replicate that. Don’t get me wrong, being immune to damage and, according to 049, the pestilence was great, but I knew there was more to it.

But... that would have to wait. Alex sent me a notification to my wrist display, and I looked down at it.

Foxtrot: Meet me in the hangar. You’ve got 15 minutes.

I closed the messaging app and told Jade and 049 that I had to leave.

“All right. We’ll keep your 939’s safe, don’t worry.”

I smiled with gratitude and exited 049’s cell. I should ask Alex if I could get my own room eventually.

I made my way down to the hangar door, seeing Alex through the glass. She was wearing a space suit and was waving toward me, signaling me to come inside. I opened the hangar door and stepped inside.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking at Alex as she attached the suit’s helmet which hissed as it snapped into place.

“You’re going to help me befriend a 939, as we discussed earlier. Don’t tell me you forgot about our deal.”

I nervously sweated and grabbed the back of my head with a little laugh. “I might’ve...”

Alex sighed. She pressed a button on her wrist display, opening the hangar doors to the outside of the facility. “Just get a move on.”

“How about this one?”

Alex was looking through the plexiglass door, speaking to me via. Radio as I asked her which SCP-939 she would prefer. I picked up one of the pack members and held it up for Alex to see.

Alex narrowed her eyes and nodded. “That one seems nice. Get it out here, I want to take a closer look at it.”

I nodded, opening the door out to the Martian sand once more. The other 939 were obediently lying on the floor just relaxing, and none of them tried to follow me out of the holding cell.

The 939 in my hands growled quietly as he spotted Alex, and I put a hand on his muzzle. “Easy, easy. Alex is not an enemy.”

Alex looked nervous, much to my surprise. “Is this the first time you’ve been this close to a 939?” Alex glared at me angrily. “No!” She looked back down at the 939 in my arms and shivered a little. “They were behind glass though...”

The 939 in my hands growled again and I had to keep his mouth shut with my one free hand. “Alex, he can smell your fear. Calm down.”

Alex gulped and slowly approached me. “H-hey there, easy...” I backed away from Alex, knowing that if she remained as scared as she was, the 939 would undoubtedly bite. “Alex, I'm not joking. He will bite your hand clean off, either you calm down or we abort this little idea of yours.”

Alex retreated her hand in shock. “The whole hand? And you didn’t say that before now?? That’s definitely not helping my nerves!”

I sighed. “I never had any reason to before now.” Now that Alex had backed away from me a little, the 939 in my arms was much calmer and I pet his head. “That’s right. Don’t mind her, boy.”

I looked back to Alex and calmly explained. “Meditation usually helps me calm down if I'm stressed. You should try it, just take deep breaths and try to keep your concentration on your breathing and not what’s going on around you.”

Alex looked confused at my words. “So, you want me to completely drop my guard while two anomalies who can both easily kill me are standing right in front of me.”

I shrugged. “I don’t care how you calm down, as long as you do calm down. Your stress makes the SCP-939 just as worried as you are.”

Alex’s eye slightly twitched and she took a deep breath. “All right. I trust you. I’ll try to... meditate.”

I sat down on the sand, as this would likely take a little while. The 939 in my hands was completely worry-free and I barely needed to keep him on my lap at all. “Aw look at you. Who's a good boy.” I pet the little gentleman on his noggin, getting a smile in return. “I can’t believe how trigger-happy the foundation can be when it comes to classifying anomalies. These guys wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

I remembered that I only had the pack’s respect since I literally brought them back to life and laughed nervously. “You know what, never mind I said anything.”

Alex exhaled one final time just as I finished my sentence. “Wow. That really does help calm me down.”

I got up off the floor again, cradling the 939 in my arms like a baby. “He’s calmed down too, it seems.”

Alex slowly approached me, now much more confident. “Alright you little red devil... Take it easy.”

The 939 sniffed the air in front of him, smelling the gloved hand of Alex which was hovering a few centimeters from his snout. He curiously moved his head closer to the hand, eventually colliding with it.

Alex slightly recoiled at the 939’s behavior, but eventually moved her hand back to the reptile’s head. She stroked the top of the 939’s skull, inciting a happy low-pitched growl in response.

“Hey big guy... You’re not so bad, are you?” A smile formed on her face and I was once again taken aback by seeing Alex like this. She’s usually so cold and calculating but she’s acting so... soft now.

I smiled, scratching the leg of the 939. “He seems to like you. Do you want to try and hold him?”

Alex looked up at me with slight worry in her eyes. “A-are you sure? I mean... Do you think that’s a good idea?”

I reevaluated the idea. For all I knew, physical contact with my body might be what’s calming the 939 down so letting go of him at this point might be a bad idea. “You know what, on second thought, let’s not do that. I suggest we find somewhere indoors where you can get out of that Space suit, and he can get a good whiff of your odor.”

Alex let go of the 939 and cleared her throat quickly. “That seems like a good suggestion. I’ll see if we can spare a holding cell. For now, you are dismissed.”

Her mood seems to swing up and down like an autist. I debated asking her about it but decided against it. “Sounds... like a plan. What do I do with this 939 in the meantime? I don’t think I'll recognize him from the other members of the pack.”

Alex looked down at the 939 in my arms and after about 5 seconds she spoke. “I’ve memorized him. Take him back to the holding cell.”

I shrugged, not wanting to debate her reasoning any further. “Sure thing. I turned toward the direction of the holding cell, and I could hear Alex marching away from me with determined steps.

I looked down into my arms and at the 939, booping his snout. “boop.”

After setting the 939 down in the holding cell, I made my way outside yet again. I took a deep breath, inhaling Martian air that I still had no idea how I could breathe. “Refreshing”

I looked toward the horizon and my gaze softly moved across the dunes until I spotted something peculiar in the middle of the desert. It looked like a body and I squinted my eyes. It was very far away but I think I could see that its head was missing. Oh right, Hatchet.

I cringed my nose, spitting at the red sand beneath my feet. “If I wasn’t able to bring cherry back, I swear you wouldn’t have gone off the hook so easily...” I lifted my middle finger up toward the corpse in the distance for a few seconds, then turned around and walked toward the facility again. Even his corpse isn’t worth my attention.

I opened the door to the facility and was immediately met by an Operative who were apparently on their way out of the facility. “Well, hello there!” She said, letting go of the door handle. “Please, go first.”

I smiled and stepped through the doorway first. “The saying is ladies first, but you offered so nicely it would almost be rude to not accept.” I said, walking past the operative.

She chuckled lightly, and grabbed a hold of my shoulder, keeping me in place. I turned around and faced her, asking her what she wanted.

“I know Alex can be hard on people sometimes, but I just wanted to let you know the mood around here has been much better since you arrived. Thanks.”

I smiled and removed her hand from my shoulder. “That’s very kind of you to say. Thanks.”

She smiled at me one last time and grabbed hold of the door handle again, closing the door behind her as she left.

And these people are supposed to be cold-hearted killers... yeah, right.

When I made my way back to the center of the facility, Alex was suspiciously absent. I asked one of the operatives working in the reception, and they told me Alex had gone to her office. That’s unusual, but I guess everyone needs personal space every once in a while.

Now that I had no assignments waiting, I finally had time to think about what I wanted to do. Not what others needed or wanted me to do, but what I wanted.

I decided that I wanted to train my understanding of my fire form. It suddenly occurred to me that I had been walking around with the shotgun I got from the arsenal all day and I went to the Quartermaster to give it back to him. He wasn’t at the counter when I arrived, so I unloaded my unused rounds from the gun, put the shells to the side and left the shotgun on the counter beside the ammo. He’d inevitably return to pick it up, after all.

After my brief stop at the arsenal, I went outside into the red dunes again. I picked a spot at random that was far, far away from any buildings and started walking.

Some operatives who were patrolling the perimeter asked me where I was going. I answered that I needed some space, and went onward. They didn’t question me further, and I sighed. I was standing in front of the MTF, and he looked at me curiously. “What is it?”

I looked dead into his eyes. “If I show you something, can you promise not to tell anyone?”

The MTF nodded. “You have my word.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I closed my eyes, and let the fiery feeling spread through my body once again as I stood there. Slowly but surely I was covered entirely in flames, and in a flash my skin turned entirely black.

“I’m trying to get control of this.”