Blackthorns and Wild Buttercups (Indefinite Hiatus)

{Snap Dragons} - Prologue

The faint buzz of the lights above them was heard throughout the hallway, it was so quiet that normally if you walked through the endless maze that was the site's layout you wouldn't have even noticed it. However, today, the same could not be said for one individual.

Deafening is what you could call it. Amongst the clacking of prideful heels and the terribly loud ringing in Cory's ears, you could almost call the noise pleasant.
Almost.

Moments passed by as he was dragged along by his two escort guards, his movements sluggish, his expression was dejected and confused. He was tired from his most recent mission, his leg muscles ached but he continued on. He'd much prefer not to get his kneecaps bashed in...or something like that.

Cory was expecting to be let off a bit earlier due to just recently returning on-site from a mission. Apparently that wasn't going to be the case today, (from what he could gather from the guards) the site director's "assistant" needed to have a talk with him; however, that didn't satiate the man's curiosity and skepticism over the situation. Yes, he could be absent minded at times but he had his moments.

When he would ask one of the guards a question they'd either give a half-hearted response or just ignore him entirely. Cory began to grow a bit frustrated with the two, but understood that it'd be better to just stay quiet until they reached the site director, or their office, he supposes.

The professor, Otis, was a mysterious person with an intimidating aura and a seemingly constant grumpy expression plastered on his face. He had only run into the man a few times during his transfer, each time his anxiety rose just by being near him. He had his gut telling him to be weary of the man, he just didn't know why. Most of the time, Cory brushed it off as paranoia; however, there were things about the site director that made him think twice about his assumptions to brush off his suspicions.

The pristine white walls, tiled floor, and the trip in general blurred together as the three made their way to the director's office. Soon enough their destination was reached, a looming feeling of dread filled Cory as his heart began to beat in his throat. The shorter of the two guards gave him a gentle shoulder pat and a nod. Cory would have thanked them if he found his voice a bit sooner.

Abruptly, after the taller of the two knocked on the professor's office door a voice rang out, a cold voice partially familiar to him. Otis.

"Come it." the voice came out muffled on the other side of the door. Cory's heart began to flutter, his breathing began to quicken but he got it under control fairly fast. He needed to calm down. He was fine.

With the swipe of the taller guard's keycard the office door swooshed open, a small gust of cool wind swept across the trio. Cory shivered ever so slightly, he silently hoped the movement went unnoticed. From the last time he'd been in this office, he noted that his superior always kept his office unnaturally cold.

"Oh, it's you. Please have a seat, Mr. Crater." Cory reluctantly sat down on the chair in front of his superior's desk, "Do you know why you are here, Mr. Crater?"

Confused, Cory shook his head. He wanted to say something, but didn't, he couldn't. Otis nodded, "Hm, I see. Cory, In the mission report that Triana sent a few hours ago I noticed a few peculiarities regarding you, I'd like to inquire about them."

Finally, he found enough courage to be able to speak up, "Alright, what did she say?" he immediately felt lightheaded after speaking. Internally, he jabbed at himself for being so anxious. He just needed to answer a few questions and he'd be free to head to the employee dorms, he was too tired anyway to drive back home to his apartment.

"Could you give me a quick recap of what happened after today's mission, Crater?" Otis said, it wasn't a question. Cory nodded, he didn't really have much of a choice.

"Well, it started when—wait, you want me to do a recap of what happened during the recovery mission, right?" Wait, crap...

The site director's "assistant" scowled, "Yes, Crater, and I'd prefer to get this meeting over quickly."

"Oh, alright, sorry about that..(cough)..sir."

There was a silence.

"Ah, wait. Right," Cory brushed his hair out of his face, "Er...so as soon as we got to the area where SCP-1000 was sighted, we grabbed our gear and left the helicopter. It took us awhile and I got yelled at a bit by LT—Triana for not being serious, even though I was. Anyway, we got to a cave that was presumably being inhabited by SCP-1000."

There was a slight pause as Cory straightened his posture, "We had a "vote" to decide who would go down to scout out the area below first. Y'know, a vote of 2 to 1 doesn't really feel like a vote when you're the one getting outvoted," Otis raised an eyebrow, Cory quickly realized that he was getting off topic and continued, "So as I was saying I went down and found SCP-1000."

"According to the report, you were quickly overpowered, correct?"

"Mhm, yea." Cory 'verified'.

The site director's "assistant's" eyes narrowed, "And what happened afterwards?"

Cory tilted his head to the side, confused, "Huh—what do you mean?"

Otis shook his head, "How did you escape after you got overpowered by SCP-1000?"

Shit...

"Well...you see." he wracked his mind for some sort of lie, quickly he responded with, "As said in the report, probably, we came under fire by the Serpent's Hand. While Triana and Hooper were on the surface fighting a couple of Serpents Hand members, there were a few that had come down into the cave in search of SCP-1000. When they came down they distracted SCP-1000 enough for me to escape." he half-lied, he hoped it was a good enough response for the professor.

The site director's "assistant" nodded, his posture relaxing ever so slightly; however, Cory felt as though the man could see through his lies. He hoped that wasn't the case.

"Then what happened after that, Crater?" Otis' voice broke through his daze.

"Oh, after that I managed to make my way up to the surface to meet up with the rest of team Alpha Strike. They were knocked unconscious when I found them, but they woke up fairly quickly." Cory decided to leave out the meeting with Duni, maybe that was for the better.

"Alright, thank you, Crater. I just needed to make sure that all of your stories matched up." Cory nodded in acknowledgement, "You are free to go."

As Cory stood up and walked toward the office door he turned back, "But sir, why did you ask me to come directly to your office to talk about this? Couldn't you have asked the General to deal with this himself or?"

"Well, any appearances of groups such as the Serpent's Hand or others GOI is seen as highly valuable information. Since the recent attack on your group by the Serpent's Hand, we need to verify this information so that we see how we can act and prepare for it if it happens again. For the safety of the foundation and it's members, of course."

"O-Oh, alright. Goodbye, sir." Cory couldn't help the slight shakiness in his voice, luckily the professor didn't notice, right? He turned back to the door and walked out as the office door closed behind him with a shallow clang.

Looking around, Cory noticed two guards that escorted him to Otis' office were now gone.

"I'm glad that's over now. Might as well try to find the break room." he mumbled to himself as he walked through the foundation's maze of corridors and hallways.

At least he remembered where the dorms were...

Hold on...wait—dammit.

[To be Continued...]

[Edit : Had to fix a few issues with the wording.]