15 Something rising

The Lich and Theo visited the gym but there was no basketball game between MTF's, so they just returned back to his cell.

Hassu just sat in the end of the room again, and about a few minutes the door to his cell opened, Dr. Hayes visited him again.

"Hello, Lich. How are you today?" She asked.

She was sitting on the chair in the middle of the cell while The Lich sat down uncomfortably on the cold hard floor.

"Pretty well, I guess. Went to the Bar and hung out with Theo."

"Theo?" She asked, "Is that one of the escort guards?

"Yeah. He's nice."

"That's good to hear. It's nice you're making friends with people."

"Not really a friend, but more like acquaintances for now. Also, I'm joining the Omega-7, you know anything about it" he asked.

"No. I haven't heard of them." She said, "It's probably beyond my clearance level or they haven't been around here longer for me to see."

"Is it a good thing?" The Lich asked.

'of course the Omega-7 isn't a good thing, SCP's being used as a weapon and then two sites being destroyed afterwards. But, I can't wait to be a badass on the field, I always wanted to be a hero.' he thought.

Little did he know, Hassu would eventually come to regret this mistake, regret those very words that would shape his view forever in this world.

"MTF's are always a good thing." She said.

"Well I suppose that's good. I just have one question." The Lich asked.

"What is it?"

"What's a 'clearance' level?"

Hassu already knew what they were, but he had never been informed about his classification level or clearance.

"It's... how we are allowed to know and interact with SCP's. Some SCP's are sometimes too dangerous for us to know so that's why they're given clearance levels."

"So like, I'm friendly right? What's my clearance level then?"

She chuckled, "you're level 2, and your classification is Safe."

"Safe. Do you think I'm safe, doc?" The Lich asked in a calm and deep voice. He didn't have any hostile intentions behind those words, but curiosity.

Those words echoed in her mind, the boy, scp-6303, had been classified as safe, and when he was brought here, he had been treated like an object, she was the only friendly face that treated him like a human.

Her heart ached just from the imagination of the loneliness the boy had to endure.

"Uh, doc? I don't mean to threaten you or anything." The Lich replied. He was afraid that she might get the wrong intention.

Dr. Hayes snapped from her thoughts and regained her composure.

"Oh no, no, you seem like a good person. So there's no reason for me to be afraid. Unless you start acting like one." She joked.

The Lich laughed softly at her humor. This was the first time he'd actually laugh genuinely.

"Impossible. I don't like being an asshole, as they say, with great powers come with great responsibility." He said.

Dr. Hayes just smiled. At least this scp was friendly and didn't seem to have it as bad as scp 6303.

Before they could continue speaking, the door to The Lich's cell opened.

Dr. Hayes craned her head to see Researcher Harold with Lieutenant Vough behind him. Vough was holding a metal collar and somewhat a large metal mask in his other hand.

"Dr. Hayes, I apologized, but the session is over, we have an emergency."

"What? But this isn't supposed to-"

"It's an emergency." Vough retorted, "Whatever is happening right now is beyond your clearance, doc. I'm sorry for being too harsh but we're in a hurry."

She nodded, picked up her pen and notebook before saying goodbye to The Lich.

The lieutenant put down the mask and pressed something on the collar that snapped it open.

'what the hell are they going to do?' Hassu thought.

"This is a precaution, SCP 7000. You're being deployed today, and to make sure you don't go rogue, we're putting an explosive collar on your neck in case you do something bad. And the mask is to prevent your power words from being used when you go rogue. I hope this isn't too much for you." Harold said.

"If it makes the foundation from trusting me more, then I'd take it. I do hope in the future they'd trust me more, I don't like collars. Makes me look like a dog" The Lich replied.

Harold nodded. Vough went forward as The Lich bent down to his level. He circled the collar on his neck and a clicking sound was produced, it snapped closed as the robes near his neck joined in.

Next, Vough attached the mask to his face as they stuck like glue on his jaw. He could still move his mouth, but if it activated it would shut his mouth and wouldn't be able to produce words. At least that was the running theory the head of research of SCP 7000 thought. Which was Elizabeth.

"Good. Now, follow us. We'll lead you to the garage. You'll be notified with your team on the way" Vough said.

They left the containment cell as The Lich was still confused about what was happening.