Chapter 71 "Iris' Ability"

From the window, it was nighttime, the room was completely dark, and there was no light. William was unsure of the time or the reason for what was occurring to him right now. He just knew that the timing of this event was unfortunate.

There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary other than the pool of blood that was on his bed. Nothing from his room that was rummaged or being thrown around as if there was a burglary.

The tablet, which was in his hands but still attached to the display pedestal, was still there. He took a time to look around the room, and a lot of questions were now running through his head.

Why is he here at this time? What actually happened in his bedroom? Why was his bed covered with a lot of blood? Whose blood is it? Did he really see a murder in his own bedroom? Why did only the bed appear to be in disarray while everything else appeared normal?

He couldn't process it as there were a lot of things happening around him at once. One moment he is in a heist attempt with Iris, and the next thing that happens, he seems to be back in his room.

Could it be that he had been transported back to his previous world? If so, then what caused him to be transported here? Did the old tablet he just touched have anything to do with his transmigration?

There were an unlimited number of questions. Processing everything that had occurred to him during this brief window of time, he lapsed into deep thought. Although he had his own thoughts, he was unable to say that this was the right answer definitively.

"William! William!"

He heard Iris was calling his name, but the voice was faint, and she was nowhere to be found. He could hear it clearly as the voice was near him.

Iris then grabbed his shoulder. In an instant, he was back to his senses, and the area surrounding him changed once again to the vault room that they were in right now. Everything had come back to normal.

"Are you okay? You seemed to be acting kind of weird for a moment. What's happening? Didn't you hear what I said before?" said Iris with a confused look.

William looked around for a moment, his hands were off from the tablet, and he was back. "Nothing, sorry. I went blank for a moment. What was that you're trying to say?"

Iris pulled out many polaroids that she had taken. As if a CCTV camera were showing both him and Iris in the room, William could see that the image within the polaroid was moving in real-time.

"I have taken a few shots from the camera, including multiple angles and some other points of view. Some of them were taken from a different point of view so that we could see this room in real-time, and some were taken in close range for my hand to reach out the item." Iris explained.

William processed Iris' words, "Wait, what do you mean by that? Like, does it make any difference at all if you had taken it from a different point of view?"

Iris took one of the polaroids and started to reach her hands within the frame. Her arm went through the polaroid, and a hand appeared out of thin air near one of the items in the room.

The other polaroid, which had a different viewpoint and point of view from above, was then selected by her once she withdrew her hands. A large hand suddenly materialized on one of the room's corner sides as she began to reach her hands within the frame. It had grown in size and was about the size of a standard motorbike.

"Like this. Though, we're only gonna use this polaroid to keep an eye out for the target. As for the others, it will be used to move out SCP-3934 from the vault." said Iris as she put back the polaroids into her purse.

William hummed, "Huh, that's interesting. One of the unique abilities that would be useful for things like this."

"It wasn't as good as yours, perfect for any intel operation given what you could do." Iris continued, "We should go right now as we have already got what we need here."

"Right, right." William pressed the button on his earpiece, "We have eyes on the room. SCP-3934 wasn't in this room. It might've been auctioned at this moment."

"We can confirm that the target is being auctioned right now as we speak. They are about to close the bid." replied Grace in the comms.

"Great, we have everything we need. Both of you should leave the room as soon as possible and wait for the next command."

Both William and Iris then walked out of the vault as they had done their final step for their mission. All they had needed to do was to get out of the area before anyone noticed and William's shapeshift wore off.

They exit the room, and the vault door automatically closes. They don't appear to need anything else, so they might just leave the area without any issues.

William and Iris quickened their pace to leave the hallway as quickly as they could. Before they walked through the intersection, they heard footsteps coming in their direction. William grabbed Iris' hand to stop her before continuing on.

He felt a little bit of warm sensation coursing through his body. He felt this before, the same sensation that he had when making contact directly with SCP-2006 a few weeks ago.

With this, William could tell that he had acquired Iris' anomalous ability. It seemed that he was able to copy it after he saw how her ability works, since he had made contact with her multiple times before and didn't feel anything.

It sounded like about two or three people walking down through the hallway, with a wheel or some sort, could also be heard from a distance. He had guessed that the staff was in the middle of transporting the auctioned item to the vault.

"Don't rush. Act calm and don't even talk to them." said William

Iris nodded and let go of her hands. They both walked together casually. Acting out of the ordinary would only make them alerted. Iris and William walked down through the hallway together, and they saw three staff were walking in their direction.

It was quiet, only the sound of the wheel moving through carrying what could only be guessed as an auctioned item and the footsteps between the five of them. They didn't seem to be bothered by their presence in the hallway.

The employees appeared to greet them without saying a word as William nodded his head to them as they passed. They didn't appear to ask themselves why they were there.

Iris and William breathed a sigh of relief when they were able to pass them in the hallway without arousing suspicion. Nothing transpired between the two of them. After that, they walked out the door.

As soon as they appeared to be leaving the hallway, they split up to avoid arousing the suspicion of the security personnel posted at the entrance. William proceeded to the men's restroom to transform his face back to normal as Iris approached the lounge where Stevenson was waiting.

Iris arrived at the lounge and sat down at the table. She put her purse on the table for Stevenson to see the result of their infiltration into the vault room. He was quite satisfied with the result.

"William went to the bathroom to change his face first. He'll be here in a moment." said Iris as she took a sip from her glass, "What do we do now?"

"What do we do now?" Stevenson looked through each polaroid that Iris had taken, "All we can do now is to wait until the party's over."