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."