The Mimic Bag's New Trick

Loshu froze mid-step.

(That's... a damn good question.)

SCP-101 wasn't just playing possum—it had actively deceived the entire site for days.

(Since when does a glorified trash compactor strategize?)

The Site Director leaned forward, fingers steepled. "Its behavior is unprecedented. Which means one of two things."

"One: It's evolving."

(Bad.)

"Two: Something—or someone—taught it."

(Worse.)

Loshu's mind raced.

(The earthquake. The power outage. The missing surveillance.)

(Too convenient.)

Jack scowled. "You think this was sabotage?"

The Director tapped a file. "We've had three incidents in two weeks: The breach. The earthquake. Now this. Coincidence?"

(No such thing in the SCP world.)

Loshu's Encyclopedia buzzed in his pocket—a new alert.

[Warning: Anomalous activity detected. Possible memetic influence on SCP-101.]

(Memetic?)

(Someone rewrote the Mimic Bag's behavior?)

The Director stood. "I'm assigning you two to investigate. Start with the earthquake's epicenter—Sublevel-6."

(Sublevel-6?)

(Site-19 only has five levels.)

Jack paled. "That's—"

"—where we keep the things even O5s pretend don't exist," the Director finished. "And now, something down there is waking up."