The helicopter hovered over the backstreets
of Manhattan. To the untrained eye, it would look like any
commercial or news helicopter, the kind of thing that might catch your attention for
a moment and then leave just as quickly, as your mind wanders over to wondering what you’ll
have for dinner. Nobody would know from a mere glance that
Mobile Task Force Iota-5 were inside, a four man team on a dangerous mission. This has always been the greatest power of
the SCP Foundation: Hiding in plain sight, using the mundane as a cloak to go unnoticed. But this time, the monster they were hunting
was capable of doing the exact same thing. And for the personnel of the Foundation, this
ability is an affectation, a learned and adopted skill. For SCP-247, this ability - that it employs
to deadly effect - comes as naturally as breathing air. The helicopter was monitoring local police
scanners and phone activity, as well as receiving direct radio orders from Command back at a
classified containment site. The latest intel was incoherent, horrified
screaming over the phone, traced back to a nearby alleyway. Someone had seen something horrifying. This was Iota-5’s cue to intervene. They rappelled down from the helicopter onto
the roof of a nearby tenement building, clad in thick tactical armor, antimemetic SCRAMBLE
goggles, DAN-INJECT IM injection rifles loaded with 10 cc S10 Syringe Darts - each one carrying
an immobilizing payload of potent, fast-acting xylazine - and high-powered conventional weaponry
in case of emergencies. If anyone in the world was capable of tracking,
securing, and containing SCP-247, it was these four operatives. And yet, by the end of today’s mission,
one of them would be dead. But they didn’t know that yet. Like all good MTF members, they had tunnel
vision for the mission at hand. They used a fire escape ladder on the side
of the building to reach the bottom of the alleyway quickly. There, they came upon a gruesome sight: The
aftermath of an attack. On the ground, a dead body with what looked
like claw marks all over it. Iota-5 found another civilian, half-mad with
confusion and terror, hiding behind a nearby dumpster. She just kept shaking and repeating, “But
she was so little” over and over again. One member of the task force, Corporal Rico,
elected to stay behind and secure the area while Foundation cleanup teams zeroed in to sweep the scene and provide
amnestics to witnesses. The remaining three continued the high-stakes
chase on foot. Their eyes in the sky radioed in, “Stay
frosty, Iota, we’ve got unusual incident reports from an apartment building a quarter-klick
North of your position. Potential fatalities; 247 is in an extremely
hostile state. Engage with caution. Over.” The trio engaged quickly, running towards
the source of the disturbance at break-neck speeds. They knew they were getting closer when they
heard the shrieking, and the deep, guttural growls. That low, primal rumbling of a true apex predator. Already, this containment breach was turning
out to be a horrific mess. It was going to be a nightmare for the higher-ups
at the clean up and misinformation departments to handle: Paying to repair inexplicable property
damage, providing amnestics to tens if not hundreds of traumatized witnesses, creating
plausible cover stories for upwards of at least ten dead New Yorkers. But even all that mess would have to wait
until the creature was actually captured and contained once more, which would be an ordeal
unto itself. They found SCP-247’s access point into the
building: A wooden door, torn to splinters by huge claws and fangs. Iota-5 charged inside, Injection Rifles at
the ready, only to find carnage in the hallway. Three more bodies, with deep claw marks cutting
into their flesh. It was a harrowing sight, but the team didn’t
have time to waste processing it. They needed to stop 247 before it killed again,
and again, and again… The team followed the trail of blood, and
the claw marks carved into the ground where 247 had passed. After killing the three people in the hallway,
it’d destroyed another door and gained access to a nearby stairwell. The blood continued up the steps. Iota-5 pursued. The next splintered door, clawed and bashed
off its hinges, led them further. They could hear the growling again. Distant, but clearly audible. They were close. There were another two attacked corpses in
the hallway. Previous corpses had been partially or even
entirely eaten, these two had just been clawed to death. Defensive kills. They’d backed the beast into a corner, and
now it was panicking, slaughtering anything it perceived as an interference. They pressed on now. This was the end game. Soon, they found the final busted door; this
one led into one of the building's private apartments. There’d be no other way out from here. 247 was trapped. The three members of Iota-5 shouldered their
Injection Rifles, and crept inside, full stealth mode. Something about the apartment was haunting. It portrayed all the signs of belonging to
a young, single mother and her only son. This was confirmed when they found the dead
body of the mother in the living room, eyes glassy and throat clawed out with one feral
strike. They could hear something else in the apartment,
too. A soft, gentle cooing, too human to be anything
else. They followed the noise until they reached
the child’s bedroom. What they saw there caused even the most hardened
member of the trio to break out in a cold sweat. This was the one thing they didn’t want
to happen. The child, utterly oblivious to the atrocities
that had unfolded in his building - to even the death of his own mother - was sitting
in his bedroom, petting a kitten. It was the sweetest little cat you’ve ever
seen: A fluffy, harmless creature with an orange, striped coat. This is the dreaded SCP-247. The child just kept repeating, “Good kitty,
good kitty…” while petting her. SCP-247 purred and rolled around playfully. To the untrained eye, it would seem that a
kitty like this couldn’t hurt a fly. But that’s where you couldn’t be more
wrong. Iota-5 stared at this display in a state of
nerve-shredding terror, thinking fast, trying to calculate their next move. “Aw, what an adorable little cat!” one
of the Iota-5 members found themselves blurting out. It was clear that 247’s effects were starting
to have an impact on even these hardened soldiers, and they needed to act quickly. They could fire a tranquilizer dart right
here, right now, but in the ensuing panic, SCP-247 would almost definitely lash out and
maul the child. It wasn’t a risk they could take, but time
was already running out. 247 would only allow the child to play for
so long before something terrible happened. It was an inevitable part of SCP-247’s process. That’s when Private Kowalski, one of the
remaining members of Iota-5, stepped forward. He was about to do the only thing he could
do, knowing it would cost him his life. As he took his final action, the Foundation
credo looped once more through his head, “We die in the dark so that others can live in
the light.” Fighting against the urge to rush forward
and start petting the cat, he instead lunged forward and struck the cat with his foot. Immediately, it turned and pounced, knocking
Kowalski against the wall with terrifying force. It gave the most ferocious growls as it tore
into the screaming Kowalski, eviscerating his abdomen. The child screamed and retreated into the
opposite corner of the room. Kowalski was done for, but now, his teammates
had a clear shot. They secured 247 in their sights, and unloaded
several darts into its flank, sedating it with their powerful tranquilizers. Soon after, it gave a lethargic growl, and
collapsed onto the ground. An evac and containment team was already on
the way, along with the cleaners. Many had died that day, but at least SCP-247
would be brought back into containment, preventing further bloodshed. Kowalski would be given a posthumous medal
of bravery for his selfless actions in the line of duty, as well as a generous stipend
to his grieving family. By this point, you’re probably wondering:
How can a harmless kitten cause so much carnage, mayhem, and despair? The answer is simple: It’s not a kitten
at all, it’s a fully-grown female Bengal Tiger, nine feet and 400 pounds of pure muscle,
with four inch claws, four inch canines, and an inbuilt killer instinct. But due to an anomalous memetic effect, 247
can only ever be perceived as a sweet, tiny housecat. But even worse, due to its
additional cognitohazardous properties, almost everyone who sees 247 is compelled to approach, and begin doting and
fawning over it. And that’s exactly how it gets its prey. Its memetic properties are actually so flawless
that, regardless of Foundation countermeasures, it has never been perceived as anything other
than a kitten. It’s actually only through forensic analysis
into things like bite and claw marks left on victims, measurements of weight, and abnormal
water displacement in aqueous environments that we can tell it’s really a tiger at
all. For a brief period, SCP-148 - a metal that seems to counteract
cognitohazards and mind-warping anomalies - was used in the containment of
this Euclid-class creature, but these measures were abandoned after SCP-148 proved to have
a negative impact on nearby Foundation staff after prolonged exposure. Now, strict protocols of surveillance and
distancing are required to prevent hapless Foundation staff members from being lured
to their doom by 247. The head researcher on the SCP-247 case wanted
to conduct a series of experiments on SCP-247, hoping to find more about the interplay of
its unique traits with other members of the animal kingdom. Two control animals were brought in, to represent
the duality of SCP-247: Control A was a yellow kitten, roughly matching 247’s apparent
shape and size. Control B was a fully-grown Bengal Tiger,
representing 247’s actual shape and size. A mixed-breed, cat-chasing terrier was brought
in for the first test. It immediately followed Control A around,
barking wildly until it retreated up a tree. Unsurprisingly, it fled in terror from Control
B, cowering in the corner. Control B paid no mind to the dog, perhaps
considering it beneath its attention, even as prey. With SCP-247, the dog initially ran towards
it, barking, until it was only five meters away. At this point, 247 let out an irritated mewling
noise, and the dog fled to the corner in terror, suddenly aware of its true nature. For test number two, a male tabby kitten was
brought in. As expected, it simply played with Control
A, and was terrified of Control B. In the first part of the test with 247, the anomalous
attributes of the creature led to some surreal, mind-bending footage. At multiple points, 247 picked up the other
kitten, as an adult female tiger might do with a cub, and lifted it higher than 247
seemed to be capable of. It was like watching a glitch in real time. In a second part of the
test, the kitten immediately fled in terror, suggesting 247 can control how it’s perceived. Next came a deer, prey typical of a Bengal
Tiger. Neither Control B nor 247 were fed for three
days prior to this experiment, and both killed and ate the deer. However, curiously, 247 killed the deer with
a single, merciful bite to the neck before eating, compared to its more brutal methods
with human targets. And when this experiment was repeated with
247 after it hadn’t been starved, it showed little interest in the deer until it became
hungry again, suggesting it inherently prefers human or human-like prey. This theory was further reinforced during
tests with a chimpanzee. The chimp fell under 247’s cognitohazardous
spell, and began to pet it. Seven minutes later, 247 attacked and brutally
devoured the chimp, as it would its human prey. But strangely, the most frightening result
of all came when SCP-247 was paired with an adult male Bengal Tiger. They engaged in standard mating behavior,
which later led to the duo reproducing a new creature - designated SCP-247-1 - which had
all the anomalous traits of SCP-247. But the frightening realizations don’t stop
there. Studies into genetic material provided by
SCP-247 shows slight deviation from a typical Bengal Tiger's genotype, suggesting contamination
from another creature that mated with one of its non-anomalous tiger parents. For context, tiger broods have an average
of three cubs, but can have as many as seven - a common practice, given how tiger cubs
are vulnerable to cannibalism from rival adult males looking to court the females. This leads to only one frightening conclusion:
There could be more creatures just like SCP-247 out there, apex predators that seem to the
untrained eye like cute, harmless kittens. They could be anywhere, and if they’re close
enough to each other or other non-anomalous tigers, they could breed even further, becoming
the scariest invasive urban species you’ve ever seen. Because, after all, we know what their preferred
prey is now. So next time you see a cute little orange
tabby cat and feel the instinct to pet it, take a second to think about it. It may be the last thing you ever do. Now go check out “SCP-4511 - SWINE GOD”
and “SCP-2845 - Alien God Crash Lands on Earth - THE DEER” for more animalistic SCPs
that’ll really get inside your head!
