SCP-038

"You've landed on Boardwalk, and since you've already sold all your property to pay rent at Whitechapel road, you're now officially bankrupt." Your roommate sighs in defeat as you pick up the silver boot token from the blue tile and removed it from the game. A die falls from the ceiling, bouncing until it lands on a four to which you assisted your roommate by moving his piece.

While playing as the Banker, the alarm goes red with a loud alarm before the voice of whoever was behind the PA system spoke through in his usual monotone voice.

"Mr. Conner, report to Botany Sector 2 immediately and look for a Dr. Stephanie. Also, thank you to those that remembered to wish me a happy birthday today, I am so blessed that people like you have the time to greet me one." There was a depressed sounding party blower was heard after that proved to be corroborative to his tone of voice.

"Oh shit!" You stand up before tossing your green visor to the dog stuck halfway through the wall, "I gotta go, Ruby's the Banker while I'm out."

Through hallways, elevators, a flight of stairs, and finally a checkpoint that sprayed you with a somewhat sweet-smelling pheromone, you reached the correct Botany wing before finding a waiting room with magazines about agriculture to read, some free peanuts in a bowl that nobody seemed to touch, and a fellow D-Class anomaly who had a corncob for a head.

Nobody wanted to talk to him.

The background music was... fitting, to say the least, for the sector anyway. After a couple of minutes of attempting to be invested in an article about the proper time to water your vegetables, someone's cough had caught your attention and looking up, you witness someone in a labcoat and grey sweater with a stethoscope. Looking at their face, you soon discovered that it was a female researcher smiling down at you.

"Hey there, Conner I presume?" Standing up knowing the drill, you were just glad you could escape the room, "Sorry for being late, I had to deal with some paperwork. And by some paperwork, I meant Dr. Wilson's paperwork."

"It's fine, I get what you mean." Following her through one containment cell after another, the two of you eventually made it to the specific cell that needs your respawning ability for whatever reason. A small room with instruments and glass panes that observing a tree possible.

The female researcher walked towards the wall only to stop and run around.

"Let's first start with the greetings. I'm Dr. Stephanie but you can call me Steph for short, I think you already knew that." She glanced sideways and had a palm raised, clearly directing to the tree, "This is SCP-038. Don't let its simple appearance fool you, touch its bark and you get cloned."

"Who's the guy sitting in front of the computer?" The Researcher turned his head in shock and curiosity as the room's attention was fixated on him. The only sound in the room was suddenly nothing but the tongue of the machine.

"He's nobody. Listen, Conner.

"SCP-038's cloning abilities isn't 100% perfect; previous tests involving duplicating SCP-173 proved to have produced a slower and weaker clone of the subject. We're going to have to need you to touch the tree bark twice."

"Why twice? I don't get why you want three of me, that would be pretty annoying to deal with."

"Don't you worry about your precious little head Conner. Site Medical says that we're going to use one of them to perform dissection, so we'll know just what makes you special." A pencil's eraser was repeatedly tapped on your head while Steph explained what the Foundation wanted to see, "Trust me, I'm an arborist."

"Wait, wouldn't that make you a tree specialist?"

"Just get inside and touch the tree." A metal door slides open and you weren't in a position to argue. Approaching the tree, everything seemed fine as the arboreal anomaly didn't seem to be hostile at all, even when you stepped on the soil it laid on.

Walking nearer, you extended a hand to its bark as instructed with an uncanny silence being ever so present in the room. Contact was finally made before you planted your other hand on the bark.

Soon you saw something sprouting or bulging towards outside the trunk of the tree before it was followed by another similar object, both reminiscent of a human fetus with an umbilical cord attached to the tree.

Perhaps the worst part is that this isn't the strangest thing you've seen before as you continued to stare at the twins as they continued to form arms, legs, and a properly sized forehead until they actually looked like two normal baby boys. Suddenly the inner PA system made a poorly maintained screeched before the voice of Steph came on.

"Awh, they're so adorable. And as you've already guessed, they're also both you." The two babies continued to rapidly form, witnessing for the first time what you looked like as a newborn other than surviving newspaper snippet of numerous baby bodies inside a car, and not before long, you witnessed the clones mimicking what you appeared as a kid - from ages of 8 to 12 - in breakneck pace before they transformed into your pubescent self with hair growth increasing in numerous areas.

All of this happened while the clones wore a D-Class jumpsuit throughout the process. Observing them grow to what you believe is close to your current age, the voice of Steph returned.

"Alright, that should be enough. Lead both of your clones inside and we should be fine and dandy." Hoping that the test was almost over, you grabbed your copies by the hand and had them follow you outside the chamber where medical staff in scrubs were oddly present along with a gurney and syringes.

Dropping the hands of the two, it was decided that one of them was to be used for scientific purposes and was promptly injected with whatever medicine was inside them before strapping the Conner clone on the mobile bed, disappearing behind the sliding metal entrance. It was only the four of you now with Steph writing something on a clipboard, the unknown researcher busy with the machinery and the clone seemingly more akin to a husk or a program waiting for input.

"Alright Conner, thanks for your cooperation. You can go back to whatever you were doing before."

"Huh," you blurted, "I usually die in these experiments. I guess I shouldn't be picky about whether or not- Hey hold on a second, you said that you'll be using one of my bodies for dissection, but I've died before."

"Ever dissected a frog before? We've dissected your other corpses yes, but we've never had one that still has a functioning cardiovascular and respiratory system. Not unless you wanted us to cut you open while you were awake, with or without consent.

"As I see it, this is the safest and least painful way for your insides to be examined and see if your anomalous properties are present in your internal organs. With or without defects."

With a shrug and without another objection, you went outside just glad that you could get back to playing Monopoly if possible. The realization of what's going to happen to the other clone of yours popped into your mind but ignored it during your trip back to your room.