War is Coming(1)

Looking up at the enormous hole in the ceiling, everyone could see the Hell Barge and the Immoran ships being pulled into the portal as well and the rest of the forces of the hell dimension. Once no demons were seen, the massive doors closed shut and the portal disappeared. 

The team let out a huge sigh of relief then sat on the ground, Robert meanwhile fixed their injuries using his ability but couldn't fix himself though.

"Amelia, are all of them gone from the city?" Rodeo asked through the radio.

[Yes, they're all gone. The city is literally now empty except for the Mobile Task Force that is still in the city. You guys did it!] 

"Yeah, we did."

"So... Now what do we do with this?" Miguel asked, still holding the red argent crystal.

Standing up from the ground, Rodeo approached him and took the crystal from his hands. He knew that this crystal was argent energy and that it was the only thing that could open the doors and the portal to the hell dimension. 

"We're destroying it." Rodeo answered before placing the crystal on the ground. He looked at Green and nodded.

Nowding him back, Green mentally ordered his Stand Cerberus as he formed an ice hammer, ready to smash the Argent crystal to pieces, but then, a radio call came in their helmets... and it was not Amelia's. 

"Hello?"

[Hello Queen's Requiem. I am O5-1. The Founder.] The person, who reveals to be an O5 member, no, he's no ordinary member as he is the Founder himself. He said to them, with his voice being distorted keeping his real voice hidden with a voice distortion device.

Learning it is the Founder himself, the team looked at each other and Rodeo continued to ask, "Hello sir. Why are you calling us?"

[I want to say first great job at handling such a big threat and succeeding, but we need you to keep the crystal intact.]

"WHAT?!" Everyone reacted negatively.

In absolute anger, Jacob shouted, "Listen here you! These maniacs wrecked an entire city, killed millions of people and your fellow soldiers, AND NOW YOU'RE TELLING US TO KEEP THE ONLY THING THAT CAN BRING BACK THOSE MONSTERS INTACT?!"

[I know this seems wrong to you but we need to learn more about this crystal. As we do with every SCP for research and scientific purposes. So do not destroy it.]

"TO HELL WITH YOUR SCIENCE CLUB, NERDS! I'M BREAKING THIS DAMN THING NOW!"

[If ANY of you try to destroy it, there will be serious consequences. And I mean very serious ones.]

"Are you threatening us, amigo?" Miguel asked in a serious tone.

[I'm not threatening you. If you go against the orders of someone as high ranking as me, the O5, things can go horribly wrong for you. Don't forget we gave you all the most freedom and most living privileges out of any Scp but we can take all of it away from you and your team as well in an instant.]

He added, [Trying to fight us is not a smart choice since we have other anomalies on our side that can take you out, I guess some of you know 096, and it is a perfect example.]

Hearing him mentioning that unstoppable monster, everyone except for Kreig and Spy gulped.

[All I'm just saying is that follow our orders and your team and the ones you consider as friends will not get caught in your choices. We are not the villains of this story. We, the Foundation, do what we do because we want to keep humanity safe and have to make choices which involve lots of risk, even if it's inhumane and costing our own humanity in the process. You have a choice, Rodeo. Choose wisely and take the correct one.]

Rodeo thought for a few minutes. He could destroy the crystal in this instant and make sure the portal stays shut forever but the consequences are that his team and friends, the freedom they got will be taken away or be treated as traitors to the foundation and becoming untrustworthy in their eyes could lead them to be treated as Scps again that to with coldness. 

Also he wasn't sure what anomalies they might have and ready to use against them and retaliation against the foundation itself could be disastrous given that the Chaos Insurgency, Global Occult Coalition, Serpent's Hand and not to mention the other Stand factions out there could take advantage of this especially the CI and the Stand factions. 

But if he keeps the Argent crystal intact the same three people in robes that Finn talked about might try again and unleash the beasts once again but since the  Foundation now has the city under control and the crystal and doors under their hands they can at least prevent the same thing from happening again and that he and his team will be ready for them. 

Going deep in his thoughts for a couple of minutes, Rodeo lets out a huge sigh.

"Queen's Requiem. We are going to contain the Argent crystal."

[You made the right choice, Rodeo. The Foundation will do its best to keep the crystal from falling into the wrong hands and keep these doors secured. You've done well today even though this was your team's first important mission. I expect a lot of things from you in the future. Terminating call.]

By his words, the radio call ends. 

"Yeah. Thanks... assholes."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Jacob grabbed Rodeo by the collar and shouted angrily at him.

"I know what I'm doing, Jacob. I thought it out logically and this is my decision. Trust me on this."

"I will..." With all the self-control and the mental mastery in his being, Jacob calms down and thinks of the conversation Rodeo and the Founder had, and thinking it carefully, he sighed, "Just... Please make sure this decision doesn't come back to bite us."

Sighing in relief and a bit surprised by Jacob's self-control, Rodeo added, "So long have we kept a watchful eye on the crystal and the doors. My decision won't come back to bite us.  Alright guys?"

Jacob, and everyone else nodded, Jacob lets go of Rodeo as he picks up the Argent crystal and all of them get out of the cavern and head for the top side. 

———————————————————————

In the desolate streets of Las Vegas, MTF soldiers from "Hammer Down" were now going deeper into the city and searching for any survivors and clearing out any enemy that might have not gotten pulled into the portal. 

Since the beginning of the operation of the Foundation, an army of hundreds of thousands of MTF operatives, but surprisingly, they only lost 30% to 40% of soldiers. Although the numbers were too many, it wasn't a big blow for the Foundation, even if all the soldiers they deployed were annihilated, it only shortened the Foundation's military by less than 12%.

The dark ashen clouds that had engulfed the skies of the city for the whole day was slowly being pierced by the ray of lights from the heavens, brightening a couple of areas with blinding lights, Queen's Requiem and Finn's gang were currently standing on the streets of the city, as they were being engulfed by one of the many rays of lights were seeing many soldiers enter the city. 

Queen's Requiem had their armor helmets off and for now just catching their breaths knowing their job was done, including Finn's gang as they also catching their breaths as well while Robert got his injuries patched by a medic. 

As they sat down for the next couple of minutes, Rodeo spotted a V-22 Osprey lands in front of them, as it lowered its ramp, from it came Amelia, Iris and... Good old Carson. Yay. 

"Hey guys! Job well done." Carson said to the group.

"Is that the only reason you came here? To tell us we did a good job?" Rodeo asked Carson as he stared at him oddly.

"That and to assist Dr.Buck and Iris." Carson said, pulling out a steel briefcase, "And to put the crystal in this brief case."

Approaching him, Rodeo gave him the Argent crystal and he put it in the briefcase. Rodeo then looked at Iris. He knew who she was since he read the articles regarding SCP-105 and no doubt most of his team members know as well. 

"Hi! My name's Iris Thompson or to the Foundation as SCP-105. I've heard a lot about you and your team's achievement at Site-19 raid and against the Chaos Insurgency mole. So it's a pleasure to meet you." Iris introduces herself sweetly as she gives out her right hand for a handshake, which Rodeo accepts.

"The name's Rodeo. It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Sgt. Johnson and Simmons have also told me a lot about you and your past experiences with the Foundation."

"Yeah..." Iris smiled. She then leaned forward and whispered to him, "Can I talk to you for a minute? Away from your team?"

"Alright."

While Rodeo and Iris were talking a little bit far away from the team and Carson securing the crystal, Amelia was talking with the rest of Queen's Requiem, including Finn's gang as she asked the person himself.

"Finn, you said you saw three people in robes activate the portal and that they had a logo behind their backs. I'm gonna show you some pictures. You need to tell me which picture matched the logo on their backs." 

Nodding his head in agreement. When Amelia showed him pictures of logos of different organizations and factions, Finn saw one of the pictures that matched the logo of the robed figures. 

"Yes! That's the one." He said pointing to the picture he recognized.

 Looking at the picture he pointed, Amelia's eyes widened, "Finn... this logo belongs to the faction known as "The Children of the Scarlet King." A faction the Foundation dealt with years back."

"Wait!" Hearing their conversation, Michelle tried to process her mind of what Amelia said before she gasped in absolute shock, a realization dawned on her.

"That means Davoth's old ally was the Scarlet King?!"

"Well that narrows down some of the clues on who the robed figures are and why they unleashed the forces of the hell dimension on us." Miguel said before looking at Amelia, "If you dealt with the faction years back, then some members must have survived."

"It's a possibility."

As the group were talking about the topic of his new revelation, meanwhile Iris showed a picture taken by her which showed Wamuu and Esidisi. 

"Please... tell me this is real?" Rodeo said coldly, frozen in place, literally both inner and outer.

"No, it's real, Rodeo, because me and Abel saw him. Lawrence also came from London and he found this," Iris then shows a picture of Santana, "He's here as well. Now we can only hope that Kars doesn't make an appearance." 

"..."

Noticing his not responding, just utter silence, Iris tried to ask but was cut off when Rodeo let out a maniacal laugh.

"Hehehehehehe. Hahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rodeo kept on laughing like a mad man who has gone insane or like he heard the biggest joke in the world.

"I... think I broke him, author."

(Author: YOU THINK!?) 

"Oh my god! Fate is testing us more and more every day and I think fate wants us to fight more deadly foes." Rodeo continued to laugh and added with an angered look, "What's next? The universe reaches a vanishing point? A calamity might strike? I don't even know anymore! But anyways thank you Iris for sharing me the info. Now we must mention this to my team and go crazy!"

"Oooook." Iris silently nodded with a nervous look.

Once their secret conversation had ended, the two approached the rest of the team and Finn's gang before Rodeo loudly announced.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have new problems!"

"And we have found out who the robe guys are and Davoths ally." Michelle said.

"Then let the explanation begin." Rodeo smiled coldly before he and Michelle explained to each other what they learned, and Rodeo wasn't surprised anymore when he heard Michelle's explanation, but for them...

"THE PILLAR MEN ARE HERE?!" Michelle exclaimed as she and the rest who had knowledge about them were in disbelief.

"Yeeeah." Iris nodded in nervousness.

"Hmm... So the robed figures are followers of the Scarlet King and Davoths old ally is the Scarlet King, huh? Oh yeah. It's all coming together." Rodeo nodded as he went deep in thought calmly, he isn't surprised anymore as he is now aware that more things are getting real shit by the minute.

"RODEO, YOU ARE NOT GONNA ARGUE WITH THE FACT THAT THE PILLAR MEN ARE BACK AND THERE COULD BE A CHANCE OF KARS IN PERFECT OR NON PERFECT FORM SHOWING UP?!" Evan shouted at him.

"Evan. We deal with one problem at a time. Right now we need to know more about those three robed figures and how they got the argent crystal in the first place."

Hearing his words, everyone was calming down for a bit. But then, an MTF soldier approaches them and reports. 

"Um... Sir, we found something. Best if you take a look at it."