I didn't let the power go to my head.
That would get us all killed.
"Before anyone starts celebrating," I said in the system chat, "let's ground ourselves in reality."
I paused, then continued.
"We are not the strongest things in existence. Not now. Maybe not ever."
That got everyone's attention.
"SCPs aren't enemies you fight," I said. "They're phenomena you survive. And in the future—Marvel's future—we're talking about threats like Thanos, the Infinity Stones, Celestials… maybe worse."
Herodotus:And we don't even know which version of reality we're in.
"Exactly," I replied. "Movies, comics, hybrid—doesn't matter. Overconfidence kills."
I let that sink in.
"For now, our goal isn't domination. It's infrastructure."
Step One: Secrecy
"The Foundation cannot be public," I said. "Not as a name. Not as an idea."
Ashoka:I can erase records, redirect blame, and bury incidents.
"Good. The public explanation for anomalies will be religion, omens, curses, or enemy sabotage," I said. "History already believes those."
Herodotus:Then history will remember what we allow it to.
Step Two: Location
"We need a containment site that meets three criteria," I continued.
Naturally isolated
Politically controllable
Geologically stable
Qin Shi Huang:Mountains.
"Yes," I said immediately. "Deep mountains."
Stone doesn't ask questions. Stone doesn't panic.
"A site carved deep into bedrock," I continued. "Multiple layers. No straight corridors. No symmetry."
Symmetry was an invitation to things that didn't think like humans.
Alexander:I can secure the surrounding territory.
"Do it quietly," I said. "No banners. No legends."
Step Three: Construction Philosophy
"This first site isn't a prison," I said. "It's a testbed."
We don't know what we're dealing with yet.
Qin Shi Huang:Then it must be modular.
"Yes. Cells that can be expanded, collapsed, or sacrificed if necessary."
I brought up a rough design using the system interface.
Outer layers: mundane stone and metal
Inner layers: isolated chambers
Emergency collapse zones
No central control room
"No single failure point," I said. "Ever."
Step Four: Personnel
"We do not recruit heroes," I said firmly. "We recruit professionals."
Cyrus:I can train them.
"Good. They don't need to know everything," I added. "Compartmentalization is survival."
No one person should understand the full picture.
Not even us.
Step Five: Anomalous Countermeasures
I hesitated here.
"This is where we move carefully," I said. "We don't experiment recklessly."
I glanced at my own abilities—Flash Forge burning quietly in the back of my mind.
"I can create tools," I said. "But anything anomalous we make must be limited, documented, and disposable."
Cleopatra:No biological SCP interaction without my approval.
"Agreed."
Step Six: Identity
"We don't call it the SCP Foundation yet," I said.
Names have power.
"For now, it's just a logistics and containment network," I continued. "No symbols. No slogans."
One day, maybe.
Not now.
Silence followed.
Not uncertainty.
Resolve.
Julius:This organization won't be loved.
"No," I said quietly. "It will be necessary."
I looked at the countdown ticking quietly in my vision.
[FIRST SCP SUMMONING — 28 DAYS REMAINING.]
We were building a cage for things that shouldn't exist.
And the first rule of survival was simple:
Never assume the cage is strong enough.