Breakout

Shadows Revealed

"Are we going to the back exit?" Mark asked after a period of silence. Cryoatic nodded, though he didn't stop walking.

"Do we have to?"

"This one's the least defended." Cry turned a corner.

"That's not-" but whatever Mark was going to say was cut off by a curse from Ken. They had reached the exit. In front of it were battalions of soldiers. All of whom had just noticed the group.

"You might wanna do something before they realize they can shoot us," Mark said fairly quickly, taking a step back. Pewdiepie let out an oddly animalistic scream as he erupted into flames and charged the soldiers. Cryoatic vanished, and soon soldiers were dropping with no discernible cause. Yamimash, having already avoided several shots, started acting like some sort of deadly strobe light: covered in blinding light and teleporting all around the hanger. Ken acted like a wrecking ball, bowling over groups of the guards. Minx took off running, casting a concerned look at Mark.

The D-class was staying out of the fight, occasionally yelling advice to the fighting SCPs. Being too preoccupied with watching the human, Minx didn't watch where she was going beyond avoiding friends and walls. A sudden explosion of red stopped her dead in her tracks. Yamimash blinked back out of existence, not seeing his tactic had showered Minx in soldier.

"Minx! Move!"

She obeyed, dodging a shot. The explosion of stars behind her eyes, however, meant something had hit. She rolled over, seeing a soldier that had hit her with the butt of his gun. Before he could do anything else, however, he cried out and collapsed. Minx stared at his body, finally looking up to see Mark, armed with a gun, shooting at soldiers where the SCPs weren't in the way.

Minx almost laughed. Even with Mark's help, they were being overwhelmed. Ken, naturally, hadn't slowed his assault at all, but the others weren't as lucky. Pewdiepie's flames, while still raging, were lowering as his focus split between fighting and not harming his friends. Yamimash's light had gone red and he had mostly stopped teleporting, now merely blinding everyone around him. Cryoatic, whose smiley was now red with and open, jagged toothed smile, was fighting just as hard but was fading in and out of visibility.

Minx herself decided to try something that may turn the tables. She opened her wings and shot into the air, applying her super speed. She sounded like a giant hummingbird as she flew over the soldiers, avoiding bullets and catching the attackers from above. She could still hear Mark yelling something to Yami over the gunfire.

She whipped toward the D-class when it stopped. Everyone, soldiers included, seemed to slow and watch as Mark jerked back in response to the bullet that had lodged itself in his chest. Minx felt her mouth fall open in a silent scream as he fell, horror overtaking her.

A soldier's cry of "Kill it!" turned the horror to fury. Minx's lips curled up in a snarl. It was Yamimash, however, who pointed out what the soldiers had seen.

"Black?"

The substance oozing from the wound in Mark's chest looked like liquid shadow, more of it appearing as the soldiers ignored the dumbstruck SCPs and opened fire on Mark's prone form. This only seemed to speed up the process, as Mark, now thickly coated in the shadow stuff, sat up.

His human build alone had not changed. Brilliant red eyes snapped open against the black that covered his face as tendrils slowly slithered from his back, supporting him.

"Slender," Cry murmured, taking a step away from him.

The creature that had been Mark let out a gurgling scream before lunging at the remaining soldiers, shadow-mouth tearing open in a jagged pattern that looked like his face merely turned into large triangular teeth below his eyes. The barrage of bullets did nothing. He shredded the soldiers like they were tissue paper, biting chunks out of unlucky soldiers that got too close.

The other SCPs had backed away from the carnage, unwilling to try running past Mark while he rampaged. The room had been blood-coated a few minutes after the original fight started. Now it had body parts strewn across it as well. Mark, suspended on his tendrils, seemed to prefer ripping his adversaries apart though he wasn't choosy about what he did it with.

The last soldier had his throat brutally torn out by shadow-esque claws while Mark bit through his armor and into his chest. Minx flinched and looked away, hearing a horrible, wet, ripping noise as he pulled back. The armor chunk hit the ground with a plastic thunk; the rest of the body with a wet slap.

Mark let out a terrifying roar before turning to Minx, who tensed up. She didn't want to fight Mark, who was clearly a lot more dangerous than a simple human. The shadow creature hissed and charged her. She tensed and ran out of the way, hearing him slam into the wall that had been behind her.

"Mark!!!!! Stop!!!!!" Minx yelled, opening her wings and flying out of his reach. He screamed in frustration, stretching as high as he could on his tendrils, but got distracted by something invisible shoving him down while he was less stable. Cry reappeared in increments as he ran out of range, power waning. Ken took Cry's place, punching Mark down as Pewdiepie gritted his teeth and erected a flame wall around them.

Yamimash teleported inside the circle where Ken had Mark in a hold that kept him mostly still. Minx landed by Cryoatic, who was breathing heavily. His smiley was half-way between the red one and his regular black one.

"They hacked the s-system and planted false information. I wouldn't have come this way if I knew."

Minx nodded, glancing at Pewdiepie, who sighed and dropped the firewall. Ken still had Mark, who had stopped struggling apparently in favor of listening to Yamimash. He was talking softly to Mark, whose eyes occasionally narrowed and widened in response.

"What is he saying?" Minx murmured, unwilling to get closer in case she set Mark off again. Pewdiepie, telepath that he was, answered, "Whatever it is, it's calming him. His mind is really creepy right now, all dark and rage and hunger. It doesn't feel like Mark. I think him "not wanting more voices in his head" wasn't really a joke."

She nodded, frowning as Ken's hold loosened. He released Mark completely, and Pewdiepie didn't react badly, so Minx held still. The darkness coating Mark was fading. Soon it was just Mark with solid red eyes, and then even those vanished. The man glanced around, looking confused, before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.