Author's Note

Back again, we shall delve deeper in, and I shall read to you the story from my mind onto this word document.

Enjoy.

”We have this weird thing in the world where you don't get insulted for what you do, you get insulted for who you are.”

-John Green.

Who?

It began as a sound.

“You’ll only be as good as you can be. . .I guess.”

Over and over and over.

“I-I didn’t mean to!”

Pictures of vibrant light, the cold touch of the ground, and the faint smell of gunpowder was in the air.

Faintly, Eddie Brock could remember. . .the pain of his childhood. He knew his life was one of the more explicit ones, no matter how he tried to lie to himself that it wasn’t. His mind ached and racked itself trying to remember the last thing before he was set in this predicament.

“Ugh. . .”Eddie felt his voice muffle, trying to stave off the mother of all headaches. He wanted to sit down in a bed, be it of leaves or feathers. Something to help him relax and take the load off of him. “Where. . .am I?”

He opened his eyes, only to see no light refract to show him anything; just darkness. Strangely, this felt different than just the lights being turned off or the sun no longer in the sky. Scared was not the correct term to use in this situation, but wary was more applicable. Eddie attempted to rub his eyes and possibly give him some better clarity. “What the?”

Something held a grip on him; not restricting, but definitely holding on. It made him walk, and he didn’t know where he was going. He slowly began to fight, the feeling resembling thick, cold jelly. Eddie certainly felt more resistance than just the material, though he powered through it and managed to move his feet a few inches.

The rumble from within, the disoriented feeling of not knowing if he was oriented correctly, and if he would be stuck this way began to eat at his mind.

In the midst, a different voice sounded that almost alien.

“N-Nooo. . .~”

Eddie’s heart wanted to stop for a moment, but couldn’t.

“What?” Eddie asked, muffled, but still able to hear his own voice only just.

“No, no. G-Get. . .out. . .” the voice called again, only sounding pained and and angry. It reverberated and hissed like a wild animal.

Eddie moved again, only much more wildly, and with a tense gait as he fought to regain the small amount of control he was able to. The mass refused, crashing into trees, boulders and anything it could as it voiced protests all the while as Eddie wanted nothing more but the nightmare to stop.

“Out, out, out!” Eddie felt another surge of pressure and the mass pull at itself. Was it attempting to pull him out?

One last push of power proved to be the most difficult, and almost impossible. Eddie almost gave up, but falling over a stump afforded him the opportunity he needed to gain some better control. Slowly, he could see light, or the lack there of as Eddie’s eyes observed the gloom and rain of a clearing with thick vegetation. It felt strange, like this mass that surrounded him was also inside of his body.

Something else Eddie was able to notice was the fact that he was able to talk normally without the flayed skin of his mouth being an issue; as well as the lack of any pain he felt from being tortured.

Thanks to. . .that monster horse bastard.

Had this thing healed him, too? More importantly, what was this thing, and what did it want with him?

Managing to forced heavily uncoordinated steps forwards, Eddie searched, turning his head left and right, intent on finding a source of reflection to view himself.

SQUISH! SQUISH! SQUISH!

“N-Noooo. . ” Eddie heard the voice hiss again as it fought back, occasionally stopping Eddie’s advance before he took back control, the rumbling and rippling of its malleable flesh doing little to deter him from his goal. Everything about the situation felt wrong.

Another push causes Eddie to keel over and fall to the ground, the sound of the rain being drowned out as a headache seam through his mind, thumping, thrumming and pounding across every each of his head. In the wet, muddy earth, he could faintly feel vibrations that caused the mass to ripple faster.

The mass felt confused, angry, and strangely enough. . .empty.

“W-What the hell. . .are you?” Eddie gasped, finally observing his reflection in a puddle of water; he could it. The substance that covered him, as black as night, easily enveloping his forms he spied the monstrous rows of teeth that jutted outward away from his face in almost suspended animation:

Tendrils and strands of the material clung tightly to his cheeks, the look of surprise on his face as the injuries that he sustained in that place of torture were non existent were the only thing he clung onto.

Raising a hand in front of him, he gasped at the long, pristine white claws that jutted from his ‘hand’. Just with the rest of the organism, it felt alive. The rise in his breathing became muffled as the mass surrounded him again, the tendrils latching onto to just above and below his eyelids.

In a moment of darkness came light. Eddie viewed the same puddle he stared at, only in a much better clarity than anything his own eyes could provide. He could see the very faint ripples as each raindrop incorporated into the puddle, the sight appearing as a miniature typhoon if were scaled down to a rice grain.

But the one thing that caught his attention the most had to be the giant white splotches that resembled eyes; unblinking, unmoving, but seeming to bore a hole into Eddie’s mind.

“W-What. . .are you? W-what am I?” Eddie heard the mass speak again, using the mouth to articulate the words, though a reverb was present alongside the snarl that came out of its throat.

“I. . .” Eddie said, at a loss for words, completely dumbfounded and detached from everything that was going on in that moment.

Enrichment Labs.

Dr. M walked down the narrow catwalk, flanked on either side by huge cylindrical pods decorated with genetic information about each specimen that was put in, the pale yellow fluid inside used to help preserve and enhance the basic genetic structure until release. Each pod came equipped with a top and bottom scanner and suppression system in the event any specimens got out before deemed necessary. Each pod hung suspended on an assembly line conveyor by brackets on the the top of the pod.

SCP-299 was certainly a cog in the machine that could fit, but merely had to be shaven down to mesh together properly.

“Dr. M, why are we here? Shouldn’t we be using the survey equipment to see if we can obtain any traces that SCP-299 may have left behind?” Jerry asked, frowning and grimacing a bit at the subjects that had their genes spliced, mechanical or mental augmentation, or just plain out evisceration. He hated coming down to The Vault.

“Nonsense, dear boy. We will need to observe how SCP-299 behaves in the wild; to put it against the more medium to higher tier predators of this world, and how it will handle each confrontation,” Dr. M looked over his clipboard, looking for a particular pod.

“What if it dies in the process?” Jerry looked at Dr. M as he stopped at a small lift elevator to take them to a different level. “Then it will be a waste of time, and money, if I’m being honest.”

Dr. M huffed at Jerry’s naivety. He was never without a backup plan of some sort. The escape of SCP-299, while unfortunate, was not completely uncounted for. He did say he would ensure SCP-299’s survival, growth and compliance.

For The Collective.

“Science is the one thing in this world, dear Jerry, that is only as difficult as material and information is readily available to come by. This-“ Dr. M draped a hoof around Jerry’s back as they stopped for a moment to let the information sink in. “-I was wholy unprepared for what SCP-299 did for escape, that was admittedly an error. . .on your part.”

“What?!” Jerry asked, a raised hoof quieting him.

“But I always have a contingency of sorts, we need only implore the means.”

Jerry began to notice something the further they went, and it would be more against their mission than anything. Did Dr. M finally lose it, or what? “This section is for the genetic fetuses, they’re still in conception, and won’t be ready for a few more weeks to begin the preliminary testing.”

“All except one, I took the liberty of keeping this one away from the other members; for the sake that they were. . .not ready to behold it. Until now,” Dr. M used his magic to separate two of the pods from their security harness as he moved them off the side. A panel stood before the, just with the rest of the room, which confused Jerry even more until a hoof print from Dr. M caused the panels to shift and pull apart, revealing another pod, though smaller in size, filled to the brim with purple liquid that bubbled and fizzed every few moments.

“What is that?” Jerry asked, approaching the pod until he was stopped by a hoof. Dr. M shook his head as he ventured forward, inputting a few numbers into a keypad as the figure inside floated about aimlessly, unaware of anything going on. Warning lights began to flash as the fluid began to bubble and fizz even more, showing that something indeed was occurring. “A fully developed specimen?”

“Indeed. What you see before you was bred in a distant sector of the laboratory, clone from fossilized and superb remains that retained its original abilities over the span of time. I discovered these while on my expedition to Mexicolt, The Flame Geyser Swamps, and Mt Everhoof, respectively.”

“Dr, what did you create?” Jerry began to back away from Dr. M began to laugh and prep the pod for release.

Dr. M clicked his tongue, only settling for regaling his assistant with a small tale of his past. “The future. . .the name was certainly something I had a bit of an issue deciding on, but then it came to me one day in a small restaurant in Applewood as a colt was playing music; like a light shining in the darkness. I found it. It was cast forth. And the sound of destruction will drown all else out. I call it. . .call her. . .Lyra.”