[IC] ZONES: -system offline-

[Empour]

@Zombehs

Kayla Kirby

As the man(Ellie, wasn’t it? Cute name!) had said, in the big white area they found themselves in, they all still looked like how they did in the cafeteria. Kayla jumped for a second, realizing that she still had to keep a tiny portion of her mind focused on keeping her holosuit active. Hopefully nobody saw the little lapse in the uniform...

Anyway, nobody gave her any odd looks, so it was likely fine. They all headed to the big, red door glass thingy, at varying speeds. One of them even ran through it. Kayla went in second-to-last, and felt a sudden blur of disorientation, and then normal again. Wait, no. Something was different, this wasn’t how she felt in her dreams. She felt heavier, like she was carrying a backpack full of bananas in a lead suit.

Kayla opened her eyes. All around her, fantastical beasts and people looked around at each other, nobody able to identify anyone else(from what she could tell, anyway). Kayla felt a little disappointed, her outfit wouldn’t be nearly as-

Wait. Something was wrong.
There was something obstructing her vision, as if she had a very big nose.
Something heavy was on her back, and Kayla didn't have a backpack in her dreams.

Shaking slightly, Kayla looked down.
She was in a silver, skintight suit that looked almost exactly like her Holosuit without any holographic stuff. The material was thicker, heavier, too. No, no, this wasn’t how she was supposed to be here, where was her skirt and vest? She focused hard on them, trying to see if she could make the suit she was now in display them, but there was no luck(1).

No, no, no, no, no, this was all wrong. Why was she in her holosuit? That wasn’t how she was in the “zone”. This was supposed to be where she would make friends in this strange place! How could she made friends if she looked like a very shiny surfer? Everyone knows what happened to them! And then there was this THING on her face, what the heck was that supposed to-

Kayla accidentally hit one of the two gas tubes going from her back to her mask. Trembling, she followed it to her back, and found the big, smooth, rounded metal there. Shaking even more, she followed it back to her face. There was a hard mask there, just as she thought. No, no, this is impossible. Not only did they make her not only look like a stupid exhibitionist silver surfer, but they gave her the mask of The Choked.

Kayla was in such an awful panic at this point that she didn’t even notice the scream that went out around her, the scream that was not hers. Kayla never screamed, Kayla squeaked. Just as she did now.
There was nothing left to do. Whoever those jerks that made this nexus thing were, they didn’t like her, not one bit. She couldn’t let the others see her like this. She had to get away, somewhere where the people she had wanted to befriend couldn’t see her.

Without even thinking, Kayla was running. She bumped past a tall man in a cloak, but was in no state to apologize. The end of the tunnel went into a long, wide street, with many side streets branching off of it. She would turn at the first street, and get out of their sight. A big, scaly thing rushed past her, but she paid it no mind. Horrifying monsters that could eat her took secondary priority to getting away.

Kayla turned left on the first intersection she came across, and saw one of the buildings within view had an open door. Paying no mind to manners, law, or the minute possibility that she was a vampire, she ran in, and slammed the door behind her, collapsing behind it, panting hard. Running was really tiring for some reason, and that reason probably had something to do with the giant metal tank that was digging in to her back. Even with that moderate discomfort, Kayla was happy to be out of sight of the others. Hopefully nobody noticed her, and she could find a way to speak with the people controlling the netflix machine, and give her her old outfit back. Hopefully.

(1)Meanwhile in the Nexus’ room, Kayla’s uniform had been replaced by an exact replica of her REM form. Hopefully, nobody noticed.

[Horrid]

Ursula Elwyn

---

Ursula's focus had already shifted to searching for any Denizens that may be around, out and about. She never knew what to make of the Denizens, in any sense. Sometimes they seemed like they wanted to help in some fashion, other times they just seemed like they wanted to avoid her at all times. This Denizen, or Aggressor, she wasn't even sure, had a very different method to avoiding her and her company. A very collaterally destructive method at that. It was worrying to say the least, if it could cause that much movement just by hopping around then Ursula could only shake to think of what it would do if it were allowed to run around the City for any long stretch of time. With a slow flex of her fingers, Ursula concentrated on feeling out her link to the ground beneath her feet, closing her eyes to listen to the low rumble from within this dream earth. She only wished she could hear this in real life. So calming, like a voice calling out to her. Soothing her and drawing her down where it was safe. Such a lovely ambience.

@GingerBoi123
The crack of the pavement beneath her broke her from her slightly meditative trance. With a sudden movement she turned slightly as she was addressed directly, a boy speaking in reply to her earlier statement. He began jogging off in pursuit of the goatman and looked back at her, inviting her along. With a nod she pushed herself into a light jog to catch up to him, skirt and decorative fabric flapping slightly as she gained speed. With every step, a small plume of dust billowed out to be only slightly larger than her foot, as she displaced small amounts of dirt with every placement of her bare foot. She turned to the boy, and greeted him as they moved. "We probably shouldn't pursue too quickly, who knows what kind of dangers this thing might pose. I think we should just observe from afar for now, and make sure it isn't doing anything overly concerning. Hopefully it just ends up looking for some grass to eat or something. Do you think it has a problem finding horseshoes out here, what with having hooves and all?" Her thoughts spilled over into her opinion on the situation, coming out as a slight ramble but overall getting her point across. She adjusted the fabric around her head and neck, pulling her hair so that it sat correctly alongside her face in one large forelock.

[Zombehs]

@Empour

Julian Maius

He didn’t flinch so much as his body tensed, ready to lash out, when someone bumped right into him. A glance backwards revealed no one nearby and by the time he turned around the small statured girl was already some distance away. He was a bit surprised that she hadn’t been knocked over in the bump or that she could move so fast with the stuff strapped onto her, but that surprise quickly gave away to annoyance mixed with worry. Julian could feel that his abilities were diminished for one reason or another, the spark not as intense as usual and he could only guess at what had caused the individual to break off from the group. Despite the scowl, he nevertheless picked up the pace and jogged after the “brat”; couldn’t exactly just walk away and do his usual thing knowing that some teenager was out there alone.

Despite his late start after the girl, his strides were much longer and he made steady progress in catching up. ‘Shit.’ The possibility of losing her pushed him to pick up the pace as she darted around a corner ahead, and he managed the same turn just a few moments later. Yet that was a few moments too late as he slowed to walk on a completely empty street. “Gotta be kidding me,” he muttered as he looked around and tried to find her. The few doors he tried were all locked or led to empty spaces, his rather quiet calls got no response, and the few side-alleys revealed little of interest. Well, that was until the last alley he bothered to check.

He stepped in front of the shadowed alley just in time to catch a Denizen’s attention - as it tore the flesh off a corpse’s arm. Julian froze as he tried to rationalize exactly what he was seeing, while the Denizen seemed to be in shock at having been caught in the act. Yet the moment was broken as the black veil seemed to crack and bright red flames bled out from underneath. “Christ!” He didn’t know if cannibalism was what had set off the transformation from Denizen to Aggressor, but there wasn’t a question in Julian’s mind about what he was witnessing. Even as the creature opened its mouth, Julian threw his arm out and with it a stream of azure lightning. Sparks flew as it arced to pipes and other metal pieces in the alley, and whatever noise the Aggressor had been about to make turned to a screech of pain. It lasted for no more than a second before it was cut off abruptly, and the stream continued for a moment after that. By the time Julian retracted his arm and cut the flow off, it was a completely blackened corpse that slumped over the Denizen’s corpse.

Still, the Aggressor’s cry had been pretty damn loud and Julian wore his grimace clear as day. Not bothering to try and keep his voice quiet, he called out one more time, “Scuba girl. I don’t know if you’re from this Zone, but that was a damn Aggressor death cry. Move it, or you’re on your own!” Arcs of lightning flared to life on his arms as he started to glance around and keep his eyes open. He imagined there weren’t any Aggressors nearby otherwise he’d probably have run into them over two corpses rather than the little cannibalization scene, but who knew how far that call had travelled.

[Stairdweller]

Lenora Puglisevic

@ScarlettWaters16

Lenora looked sideways at the red barrier and reached out a hand to tap at it. She didn't actually touch it, instead hovering her hand nervously over the surface. After a moment, she decided that if she was in for the penny, she might as well be in for the pound. If she had come this far - following the video instructions, volunteering in the cafeteria, sitting in the stasis chair - then there was no advantage in baulking at a weird mental portal room. So, she squared her shoulders and walked through the wall and into the red city beyond.

The blonde stumbled as she walked through, as her centre of gravity changed from one step to the next. She was about the same height in both forms, but her real-world form was much bulkier. In the dream-world, she was all long gangly limbs, uncomfortably spider-like in her layered grey poly-urethane costume. There was also the imbalance created by her one skeletal, over-long metal arm. Lenora was normally more comfortable in her own flesh and metal than this, though. As soon as she entered Zone 1, she was aware of the malfunctions.

Her senses were duller than they were supposed to be - though still much better than in the waking world. The static was a problem, though. Her copper eye was not displaying correctly, throwing static across her field of vision. She really wished she had an eyelid on that side so that she could close it and concentrate on her silver eye.

She was tapping at the eye in question when the bird-woman asked if anyone wanted to go exploring. Maybe there was something stuck in the socket, shorting out the electrical signals? Static vision really distracting.

"I think exploring will be a good use for my time," she said, nodding sharply at the Zone 2er. She started jogging into the city, holding her long arm folded in front of her chest so that the swinging didn't throw off her balance as she ran. "I would like to get a closer look at some of the Denizens," she called.

Putting action to her words, the cyborg jogged off between two buildings, one a long low warehouse looking structure and the other a multi-story building, like a small office building. Nora didn't spare any thoughts for things like "property damage" or "trespassing." They had never really been issues in her home Zone, and she didn't plan to let them become such here. So, she didn't hesitate before ripping one of the big red metal doors off its hinges with her long arm and skittering in after tossing it to the side.

Perhaps she should have hesitated. The sight before her was just bizarre, even by the standards of how this day had been going so far. There was a huge, high ceilinged room immediately inside the door she had violated. The room was populated by at least a dozen denizens - their smoky outlines made them kind of hard to count - and one of the burning red aggressors. The dark, smoky forms were gathered around the larger one, which was on the ground and not moving. And as she watched, fascinated, one of them ripped a chunk of meat away from a gaping wound across the aggressor's abdomen and... ate it? It was kind of hard to tell, with their foggy outlines. Two more of the denizens ripped chunks off, one tearing a long strip from one of the aggressor's arms while the other one dug both hands into the abdominal wound. They were definately eating it.

Fascinated, she moved closer. She was dying to know what an aggressor's innards looked like.

[GingerBoi123]

@Horrid

Malcolm listened to what she had to say. "You're right, let's try and find it first before we try anything." Malcolm said to the women as they made their way down a street in the city. "And hopefully it does just find some grass to eat." He said with a smile. His eyes kept darting around looking for a power source. "I need some electricity first so I can supercharge these." Malcolm said, clenching his metal fists to illustrate them. "Just where?" He asked, more of a question to himself but either way. "Oh yeah! He suddenly remembered he didn't introduce himself. "I'm Malcolm by the way."

[Horrid]

Ursula Elwyn

---

@GingerBoi123
Ursula returned the smile in kind. This boy seemed rather friendly, and that would be more than okay with her outside in the normal world, but something about being in the Zone and the Nexus situation threw her off. For now, she erred on the side of caution and remained wary of the entire situation. She spoke plainly, tone rather nonchalant, "Nice meetin' you, Mal. I'm partial to being called Ursula, since its my name and all. Hahaha..." Her laughter weened off into a drawn out whine, a pathetic attempt to bridge the uncomfortable silence. At the mention and showing of his gauntlets, she pondered out loud to him. "Well, if you follow power-lines around, they usually link up to a transformer or a pylon. There are also those sidewalk power boxes that you could probably bust open like a roasted walnut..." She stopped for a moment to slam her foot on the ground, reporting back with, "As for underground power, may as well be Atlantis to me. No idea where they are. Seems like the power boxes would be your best be-"

@Zombehs
The dying cry of an Aggressor made Ursula turn her head so fast that she could feel the tendons in her neck straining to keep up, skirt whirling excitedly as she swivelled on the spot to assess where it was coming from. A death call meant that more might be on the way soon. Maybe it had something to do with the terrifying goatman, maybe it had found an opponent to go toe-to-toe with. She pointed in the general direction of the noise and looked to her new companion Malcolm. "Oooooooohhhhhh that isn't good. Not good at all. That could be that goat-thing. Could be someone ate some bad enchilada. Sounds a lot like bad enchilada." With no further word, she moved forward, bare feet kicking up dust as she hopped towards the noise. "We can find you a juice station on the way, or there if we are lucky. Come on, Mal."

[UrbanEvolution]

Miriam Grant

---

Miriam heard Jared's response but could and did not respond, rather she slowed, reforming mid air to land on a roof top. She fell to the floor of the roof, her inertia keeping her moving forward as she hit the ceiling heels first. She leaned backwards into her landing to keep herself from toppling forwards. Her arms came out to balance herself as she came to a stop, and she snapped up to her full height once again. She turned to look at the one who had decided to come with, her orange eyes following his movements. He was fast. Faster than her over a long distance at least. She waved one of her arms in the air in an attempt to get him to land with her, or on a neighboring rooftop.

"Hey twinkletoes! Quick blowing the sky and land!"

---

Henry Olin

---

Henry groaned, wiping his maw with his forearm. He shook his head and put his hand on the side of his head that the Aggressor had struck with the lead pipe. Normally after he ate he would be back on his feet good as new, but it felt slowed this time, as if he had taken the blow a day or so ago rather than just the time of. He shook his head an attempted to ignore the pain as he staggered to his feet. He had eaten most of the aggressors he had just killed, but there was still some of the bodies left. Parts of the legs and arms and other parts that weren't as sought after, at least not in animals he was used to hunting. Parts like the skull if you get get through it, throat, torso and thighs... those were the good parts. He shook his body for a moment and did a small hop to try and get his blood flowing more. He looked over to the larger corpse he had just fed from and noticed that it's hand was still clenched around it's weapon, which had previously been used on him. It was what looked like a lead pipe, about two feet long. Not exactly the kind of thing you'd expect for someone Henry's size to use as a weapon but it was something.

He leaned down, groaning more because his head throbbed from the earlier strike, but picked up the weapon anyway. It was a bit heavier than he expected, but easily within the realms of his use. He smelt the corpses, taking in the aggressor's scents as to discern potential prey items from the other disinteresting creatures that lived in this plane. He turned around and noticed that there were still a few denizens watching him. He stood still for a second, watching to see how they would react, if they would attack like how the aggressors had or not.

There was a moment of silence, and seeing as that they were not threats, Henry slowly backed away to the end of the alley and into the street it connected to. The denizens grabbed what was left of the bodies and pulled them away into the crowd and out of his line of sight. He rubbed the small bump growing on his head again, and continued a slow pace down the street. Not too far away however, there was a bright flash, then a crack and some shouting about someone who was a scuba girl. He picked up his pace and followed the street down to where the noise was coming from. Another step forward and he was at figurative gunpoint. At literal electrical point. "Dont shoot, it's Henry." he said, raising his hands. "I came running when i heard the screeching and the shouting. And the lightning." he said, looking over Julian to the corpses that he had created. One was blackened and cooked and the other was... still fresh. Both were still good though. At least to him.

"You gonna eat that?" Henry said rhetorically, nodding over to the corpses. One of his biggest weaknesses was that he was always hungry. At least in REM form. His hunger was ever present in Nexus form as well, it seemed. He slid past Julian and moved the blackened corpse to get at what was left of the Denizen. Henry had no reservation for their lives, it seemed. Seeing them more as prey or a food source. He placed the lead pipe on the ground and began tearing into the body. He stopped in between bites to speak. "I heard you say something like... scuba girl. Are you looking for someone? I could track them."

[Twisted Fate]

As usual, Jared had underestimated his speed and had gone soaring far past the point where Miriam had stopped. He seemed to be lacking a lot of control in this form; he was usually able to stop and start flying at will but was currently having trouble actually slowing down. It took him a couple more meters before he actually managed to regain control and come to a halt. Turning around, he attempted to gently propel himself towards the rooftop that Miriam was standing on, but still only just managed to land on the edge.

"Bloody hell..." He muttered, detesting this lack of control. He spun around to face his companion.
"Twinkletoes? Is that seriously the best you can come up with?" He teased. "I would have thought some sort of genie reference would have been more appropriate at least, considering my attire."

He looked her up and down almost imperceptibly. She was attractive, there was no denying that. However, he had a suspicion that she was actually a lot younger than she looked, and decided it was probably best to leave any thoughts of that nature right there.
"So, jailbait." He grinned. "You want to show me around? It's embarrassing to admit it, but I've never actually been low enough down to witness this beautiful city in it's entirety."

[Empour]

@UrbanEvolution
@Zombehs

Kayla Kirby

“Kid? Where are you?”
Kayla sat there for a while, taking deep breaths and trying to ignore the deep voice outside that kept calling for her. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this, especially if it was one of the big monster-people. Deep breaths.

Kayla didn’t know where she was, this was definitely an area of the city she hadn’t been in before. The buildings were all much smaller, and farther in-between. She didn’t know how to get to the area she knew- It could be anywhere, and she, at least, knew that this city was massi-

The scream was terrifying. It was unlike anything Kayla had ever heard, and sent shivers down her spine. That alone would have been enough for Kayla to brace herself even harder against the door she hadn’t realized had a perfectly usable deadbolt, but the fact that it had been so(from what she could tell) close, that was enough to make her leap up from the door, run to the back of the room, and hide behind the counter there, shivering. Then, the voice called out again.
“Scuba girl. I don’t know if you’re from this Zone, but that was a damn Aggressor death cry. Move it, or you’re on your own!”

Aggressor? Death Cry? What was he talking about? None of the flaming zombie people monsters she had fought in her dreams ever made screams like that. Aggressor, was that the name of them? She had just been calling them by what faces she imagined on them, followed by the suffix -zombie. Janice-zombie, Markuss-zombie. That sort of thing. The voice sounded worried- perhaps it wasn’t one of the monster-people?

Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
The vibrations started out soft, but became much more noticeable as whatever approached came closer. Or just started stomping. Something like that. The noise faded, and then stopped. Whatever had been approaching evidently went right past her. Or was faking it and was about to rip open the door and eat her. One of the two. Kayla compressed herself behind the counter a little more. She started hearing two people talking to each other, though it was muffled and she couldn’t tell what was saying. One of them was definitely the deep voice from before, and the other sounded like someone that had just gotten braces. Were they friendly? To Kayla’s experience, the girls with braces were usually very good friends. Kayla hadn’t seen anyone with braces in the tunnel, though...

Curiosity overcame her fear, though the potential prospect of a friend certainly helped. She made her way back to the door, which, most unhelpfully, swung inwards. She made the most of it, though, and cracked the door open, trying to see what was going on. Unfortunately, the angle she was able to see through didn’t reveal anything, so she was forced to open the door quite a bit more and stick her head out. She turned a bit, and spotted them about halfway down the block.

There was no girl with braces. There was only a massive, massive shirtless monster man that looked like it would love nothing more than to hunt, kill, skin, grill, and devour her, right after it was done eating its current victim. Additionally, there was a tall man in a cloak near him that was looking at him in disgust, but not running, or doing anything for that matter.

Kayla stared, stared in terror. Stared a little too long, because she saw, somehow, that the reptilian eyes of the monster crocodile had flicked from his meal to her. She couldn’t tell if he really saw her, because that snapped her out of it so fast she closed the door with a bit of her hair stuck in it. She reopened it and pulled it out, then shut it again.

Now, Kayla needed an escape. She needed to get out of this building, and go somewhere where the killer crocodile couldn’t find her. Her eyes darted around the room, and spotted a door, halfway hidden behind a shelf full of strange, multicolored glass cubes. In a flash, she was there, trying to pull the shelf away. It was extraordinarily heavy, even though it looked like it was made of simple glossy oak.

Try as she might, the shelf wouldn’t budge. By now though, Kayla was in a wild panic, and couldn’t find another way out of the shop. The stupid shelf just wouldn’t move!

[ScarlettWaters16]

@Stairdweller

Jazz looks after the girl as they begin to roam the city. She makes sure to stay on the ground, that way the girl can keep up with her. She knew immediately that this girl was not from this Zone, especially considering that she now looked like a cyborg. So she obviously was not from Zone 2 either. She must be from the mysterious Zone 3. Jazz grins and flaps her large wingspan slightly, trying not to hit the buildings. She is very large, a little bit over eight feet. So she towers over the poor girl in front of her. Jazz wants to say something to the girl, but she does not know what to say.

They reach a large door and Lenora has no yield to just ripping it off its hinges. Jazz cringes at the sound, but she looks inside after the girl. She notices the Denizens, as well as the aggressors. She noticed that the Denizens seemed to be... eating the aggressor. She felt some bile rise up in her throat and she gagged quietly, turning away from the disgusting sight in front of her. Though she was very scientific, Jazz is more on the engineering science of things than the biology science. Jazz immediately looks back as the girl starts to approach the Denizens. She quickly puts a wing in front of her, hopefully stopping her. Jazz says quietly to her, "We should get out of here. Once they're through with the aggressor, they will probably notice us." Unfortunately with her now advanced hearing and sight, Jazz could see every detail on the aggressors body clearly, as well as hear the tearing and munching of the meat. Jazz shudders and says, "I would prefer not to be turned into bird soup, if that's okay with you."

[Zombehs]

Julian Maius

It wasn’t hard to hear, or feel for that matter, Henry’s approach given the bulk of his form. Thankfully rather than burst around from a corner or something, he came into view a good distance away and Julian dropped his arms as the familiar reptilian appearance became clear. A rather prominent frown formed as Henry drew close enough for him to see specks of blood and gore that dotted the massive creature’s maw. His expression tightened somewhat as he shook his head and stepped aside to let the “boy” pass by, though the smell of ozone was readily apparent.

To his disgust, it seemed that his predictions weren’t off and Henry readily tore into the Denizen’s corpse. “Elias, what the fuck?” Julian didn’t know if the Operator heard him over the crackle of lightning as he sent a stream to knock Henry away from his “meal”. He cut off the flow and darted back to gain a bit of distance from the other Zoner and called out again, “So why the fuck is Henry devouring a Denizen corpse?” Aside from the fact that he’d just seen another Denizen undergo transformation into an Aggressor, it made him a bit sick to watch the corpse get torn to pieces and stuffed down Henry’s maw. They weren’t humans, but they were close enough that he wasn’t about to let them be turned into food after they died; and frankly Henry probably had issues given how he didn’t even bat an eye at seeing them as food. Sparks danced across his entire body as he brimmed with power, more than ready to unleash a few more blasts if necessary to drive the “boy” back from what remained… which was frankly not that much anymore.

[Jabking]

Nigel McGallet

---

Nigel couldn't believe his luck, that man had already walked off with the other Zoners before he could even volunteer. Nigel looked at his surroundings with disgust as he walked down the stair case down to "Level N". How creative Nigel thought as he burst into a sort of equipment Corridor. Not really looking at all the "stuff" around him, he quickly rushed up to that man, determination in his eye. "Hey! Whoever you are, could you ready an extra slot for that Nexus thingy? I'm kind of interested in your machine." Nigel demanded impatiently.

The man, his name escaped Nigel, turned in his seat and shot him a quick glance. He turned back to the console for a minute and spoke into a microphone, saying, "Hey, I'll be back in a sec." He turned back to face Nigel and asked him, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Nigel" He replied proudly "an honor, I know". He took a proud stance and Continued "now, I don't have time for idle chatter, I want in"

The man stared right back at him with a look of annoyance and disgust. He shook his head before turning back around on his chair and getting back to the console. "Not dealing with your shit." He said, "Go back upstairs."

Nigel, feeling insulted, continued "What? Why not? Please!"

The man, without turning back to face him, replied, "You had your chance to volunteer in the cafeteria and you missed it. Beat it."

Nigel gave a look of disappointment, he wanted into this nexus. Nigel decided to try a different approach, He said confidently "look sir, I could be very helpful, I can travel with ease and can kill even the biggest beasts. Plus, you only have about ten other people in there, one more could be all the difference."

_{"Oh, Jesus Christ..."} The man muttered, pinching his nose. He turned back towards Nigel and said, "Fine, okay, look, if I let you in, will you PLEASE knock it off with the bragging? It's annoying as shit."

Nigel smiled and replied simply with a nod. He noted that this man was easily annoyed, something he maybe able to use to his advantage. "So, what should I do?" Nigel asked quizzically.

"Pick a chair and get in it."

Following the man's instructions, Nigel took up the closest chair and sat down in it. How cheap Nigel thought as he squirmed uncomfortably in the chair for a second, until he decided on a more lax position. "Ready!" He shouted with determination after feeling comfortable. The man raised one of his hands and returned a middle finger to Nigel, promptly before hitting a button on the console. In nary a moment, Nigel was well and asleep.

...

"Alright, you're in." The man's voice rang throughout Nigel's head as he woke up in the Nexus, "Walk through the spot in the red wall and just... do whatever."

I intend to, asshole Nigel thought to himself. Now he could freely wander a new zone. A red city, interesting... he thought as he walked through the designated spot. As he entered this new world, Nigel found himself... Feeling stronger? Yet, not AS strong. Nigel put his hands to his face, only to be shocked at the abnormal, sharp nails he had grown. He then noticed that his clothes had changed too which was a relief, those clothes made him feel... Common. Nigel's attention was lastly brought to the subtle change of weight on his back. Turning his head, he saw his wings, however, they where smaller and less armoured. These must be these disadvantages the man briefly described, the sacrifice for traveling across the... Zones, Nigel recalls someone calling them.

I've... Got to get use to this change Nigel thought as he launched himself into the sky with his simpler wings. He started to survey the landscape as he glided around the red city, it was a refreshing change of scenery. A moment later, Nigel saw three red, humanoid smoke creatures cornering a blue counterpart. Nigel felt he had to intervene, this was an opportunity to try out his new powers that he couldn't pass up. Nigel quickly swooped down and, before any of the humanoid creatures could react, dug his claws right into two of the hostile creatures skulls. As they fell to the ground and Nigel ripped his claws swiftly out of their cranium, The last creature picked up a metal pipe from the ground and swung at Nigel.

Nigel's wings covered his front and deflected the attack. But as the hit landed, Nigel flinched at a stinging pain emanating from his right wing where the pipe was deflected. After the creature brought the pipe behind it's head for another swing, Nigel's wings opened up and he slit the creatures throat with a precise swipe with his right claws.

The third creature's corpse hit the ground quickly and the more docile creature got up. After speaking in an alien language, it returned to the shadows down a nearby alleyway. my claws dragged a little inside the creatures, they feel weaker and my wings can be hurt... Nigel mentally noted feeling disappointed by these changes.

Nigel launched himself into the air once again, he wanted to practise more. He needed to get use to this version if he was going to be in this nexus thing often.

[UrbanEvolution]

@Empour
@Zombehs
@Twisted Fate

Miriam Grant

---

"That's the thing, genies are actually cool." Miriam said, crossing her arms and looking him up and down. She had some Aladdin knock off following her. Wonderful. And he apparently, despite being from here, had never been on the ground. Ignoring the jailbait comment, Miriam shook her head. "You are something else, you know that?" she said. This guy had literally been dreaming in a whole other worlds and was too busy with his head literally in the clouds to notice? "What, did you get hypoxia up there and just never think to come down?" she said, incredulously. She groaned and slapped her hand on her face.

"Alright, twinkletoes, here's the deal." She said in an exasperated manner. "There are all kinds of places around here, and zone one has two types of people. The denizens as Eli calls them, which are the black smokey people and are friendly, and then the aggressors which look like the denizens except on fire and wielding anything from a gun to sword." she explained. "Then there are some small starving creatures that look like aggressors that haven't eaten in a long time. I haven't seen what's in the water... if it's even water, and if there's anything in there." she finished. She walked over to the ledge of the building and looked over it to the desolate streets below. "Lets explore a little bit, and find some aggressors for you to see and maybe fight. You don't look like the kind of guy who has been in a street brawl before. Time to fix that, because if you're gonna follow me around you're gonna be in a few of them."

---

Henry Olin

---

Henry shrieked in surprise and pain at the sudden shock that traversed through his body, from the person that he had previously perceived as an ally. He stumbled back against a dumpster, and roared. His arms pulling back and his chest expanding wider than what one would think from a being of even his size, releasing the deep sound of anger at being denied food. He turned and pulled the dumpster around on it's wheels and prepared to kick it down the alleyway in Julian's general direction. "Henry!" Eli's voice suddenly screamed in his head. Realizing what he was doing and that it was too late in the action to stop it entirely, Henry redirected his foot and kicked forward with enough control to send the warning that if he did that again that he wouldn't have the control necessary to not miss on purpose. The dumpster sailed past Julian, barreling past him and into the alleyway across the streets, clipping the building wall on the way in and spinning somewhat, before falling on it's side.

"I'm not entirely sure, WHY he's doing that, but from what I've been observing, most of the zoners from zone two more readily eat Aggressors. From what Henry here has told me in the past, in REM state, Henry is driven by hunger. It seems that aspect still affects him even now. It's probably not a good idea to do that." Eli hypothesized. "Henry, aggressors only. Be glad that no Denizens are in your immediate vicinity to see what you just did." the operator stressed to the larger zoner, who was shaking his head, looking genuinely annoyed. Henry moved on to the more charred body seeing as he wasnt allowed the other one. As he turned his head to face it though, he saw movement. He didn't know of what, but the door shut with some hair sticking out, opened again, and then shut when the hair had been pulled out. Henry looked down at the charred aggressor and placed his foot on it's chest, pulling off it's arm and biting through the whole thing like a shish kabob as he approached the door. He pressed his head onto it and heard a great deal of movement inside. Instead of being the terrifying monster the person thought he was, he decided to do the only thing she wasn't expecting.

He chewed the last of the limb and swallowed, and then proceeded to knock on the door.

"You alright in there? It's Henry, one of the zoners. Friendly, I promise. Disregard the noise. SOMEONE decided to shock me."

[GingerBoi123]

Malcolm weaved the streets with Ursula to the sound of the screech. When they arrived, Malcolm saw a desecrated corpse and two zoners as they clearly were not denizens or aggressors. "Um, hi there." Malcolm greeted, putting his giant metal hands up as a sign of friendliness. "Me, Malcolm, and my friend Ursula here," Malcolm introduced, nodding to Ursula when he mentioned her name. "We heard a scream. What the fuck happened?" He asked curiously.

[Empour]

@UrbanEvolution

Kayla Kirby

Kayla was confused, scared, and lying on the floor, too tired to move. She was exhausted because she had just spent the last few minutes trying with all her adrenaline-filled might to move that shelf, which had not budged an inch. She was scared, because she just heard the most terrifying roar in her life a few moments before. She was confused, because apparently the source of that roar was politely knocking on her door asking if she was okay, while moments before she had seen it devouring something dead and humanoid. In any case, she wasn’t in any position, both figuratively and literally, to let the monster in. It took her half a minute and quite a bit of courage, but she managed to squeak out a, “Come in,” before she could convince herself out of it.

[Stairdweller]

Lenora Puglisevic

@ScarlettWaters16

"I don't think they are aggressive," Nora argued. Bird-girl was huge. Taller than a human with an even wider wingspan, her spread pinions easily blocked Lenora's view of the feast in question. She could still feel them moving around back there, though, with that internal awareness she had that let her pinpoint the movements of living things. "You are free to leave if you find this situation frightening," she said neutrally. "I will warn you if I see them dragging out any large pots. Go or stay as you wish."

Nora pitched forward and somersaulted under Jazz's wing, using her non-metal hand to part the enormous secondary flight feathers. She was not known for her ability to respect personal space. On the far side, she used her long arm to toss herself back onto her feet. Now that she could see the Denizens again, they seemed politely confused. The smoky black figures continued to take turns eating raw chunks of aggressor, though several were also keeping an eye on Nora and Jazz as they chewed or awaited their turns. One of them made a beckoning gesture.

"See? They're friendly." Lenora walked right up to one side of the Aggressor corpse. She flared her nostrils, filtering the air for any relevant scents. She wasn't used to this zone yet; the urban environment was very different from the maze-factory she'd learned how to use her senses in. A lot of the information she got didn't mean anything to her. She tried to visually categorize the corpse - helpfully dissected for her - and could make out layers of tissue and bone, as well as organs both familiar and unknown. She wasn't sure if she couldn't recognise them because they were partially eaten, or just because this was an alien creature in an alternate dimension.

One of the denizens beside her seemed to notice her intent examination, and helpfully reached into the torso wound, ripping off a strip of abdominal wall muscle. It offered the chunk to the human. Fascinated, Nora took the freshly liberated meat. Up close it looked like... well, raw meat. It also smelled like meat. She licked it - it tasted organic, like animal cells, with varying amounts of salts, vitamins, minerals - in general, meat components. "Thank you," she said, looking up at the Denizens again. Several of them seemed to be looking at her. Expectantly. It seemed pretty clear to Nora what they wanted her to do. She looked down at the Aggressor-flesh, then back up.

Then she shrugged and took a bite.

---

E.A. "Bobby" Smith

Bobby trotted through the red city, his long, cloven-hoofed legs carrying him quickly and easily along the deserted streets. He actually thought that he liked this form better than his bigger, scarier, regular shape. The hands were super handy, for one thing. He could jump well, and use his powerful claws to grab onto just about anything he wanted. Just because he could, Bobby threw himself at the side of a three-story building and began scaling the side, claws digging into the metal and stone like soft cheese. When he got to the top, he easily flipped himself over the low wall around the edge of the building's flat roof.

The roof seemed to have an abandoned garden atop it. There were rows of dead, brown plants growing in planters, some of them producing withered webs of vines that trailed forlornly across the rooftop. There were also some rusted chairs, a glass-topped table, and a plethora of the usual rooftop things like vents and aerials and pipes and such. It had probably been a pretty nice place to hang out, before whoever lived here had abandoned it. There was also a door in a little shack that looked like the entrance to a stairwell. It was locked. Although Bobby could probably have broken through it with his razor-claws, he decided to respect the privacy of anyone who might still be living in the building. Figuring that this was as much as he could do here, Bobby hopped up on the wall on the far side of the roof.

Below him, one of the flaming red Aggressors - a small one, not much bigger than an average human - was prowling along the alleyway, probably looking for someone to mug or whatever it was these things did with their time. A fang-filled grin spread across Bobby's face. Time to try out hunting as a biped. He leapt from the roof, hitting the wall across the alley about half-way down, digging his claws into the bricks to halt his fall. Below him, the Aggressor looked up just in time to see Bobby vaulting off the wall in a fifteen foot drop directly onto it's own head. The Zoner pinned it face down with his - hocks? he didn't actually know what that joint was called - and pulled back a clawed hand for a killing strike at the spine.

That didn't happen. Instead, there was a burst of fire and a horrible burnt hair stink, and Bobby rolled away, his legs and one forearm moderately singed. "Balls!" he swore. He hadn't been aware that they could do that. He leapt to his feet, narrowly avoiding a hurled ball of fire. The Aggressor wasn't as small up close as it had seemed from three stories up - it had clearly been walking hunched over. And close up, it didn't seem... right. It was skinny and oddly shaped, its torso too long for its limbs, with a face that looked like something from a cautionary tale about cut-rate cosmetic surgery. And it was hurling blobs of fire that splattered and popped like even-more-painful bacon fat when they landed near Bobby. As he wove back and forth, one of the projectiles hit a wall beside him at eye level and sent a burning streamer across his face. He rubbed it off with the back of his hand, but not before it raised a line of blisters. "A'right, you're gonna die," he snapped.

Bobby dove in low at a angle across the Agressor's path, intentionally overshooting and coming up to a crouch slightly behind and to the right of his opponent. It turned to flame at him, but didn't complete the spin before Bobby stabbed at the back of its knee, his claws grinding on bone. Hamstrung, the Aggressor went down like a sack of hammers, and Bobby was on it in an instant. He didn't give it a chance to burn him this time; instead he slashed wildly at its neck and chest until it stopped moving and exposed bone glistened in its wounds. Then he levered himself to his feet, shaking as much fluid off his arms as he could manage. "Well, that was entertaining," he groused. He felt a little uncomfortable, looking at the seriously mangled corpse; overkill wasn't usually his style.

As he contemplated his work, a door opened in the building he had previously been on the roof of. Two denizens cautiously emerged, gestured incomprehensibly at Bobby before dragging the misshapen Aggressor corpse inside with them, and closing the door. "Huh." Bobby said aloud. Then, louder, "you're welcome!"

[Horrid]

Ursula Elwyn

---

@GingerBoi123
The streets wound and turned in familiar patterns as Ursula padded along with Malcolm, feeling the texture of the ground beneath her feet. The rolling wisps of dirt and dust brushed across her skin, like moons orbiting her form as they slingshotted themselves to the ground behind her, attraction too weak to keep up as she ran. She skid to a halt as Malcolm did, scanning their surroundings for Denizens or uglier presences. Rooftops, alleyways, streets and windows in the local area were, for all that she could see, clear and safe. No sign of any baddies or the goatman, so at least the area was safe.

@Zombehs
@UrbanEvolution
@Empour
Relatively safe, that is. The moment the sight of the ravaged, charred Aggressor corpse hit her, Ursula felt her stomach move once again. "Oh sweet christ, what the fuck happened?" She spoke through her hand, her other hand at her stomach. She coughed from her throat, but managed to keep her lid on this time. With a panicked look to Malcolm and then to the bodies, she spoke in a harsh whisper, "It looks like a pack -- a battalion of bears came through here!" Her eyes lingered on the wounds for a moment and took in shredded skin and frayed sinew, unable to look away as she pondered rapidly. It was as if they had just been pulled from the body, right off the bone! She had never actually seen Denizens eating, so maybe this is truly how they found sustenance?

Finally managing to work up the resolve to look away, she closed her eyes and gripped at her stomach to calm its burbles of protest. Her skin was crawling and it was a few seconds before she could bring her eyes from the ground up to the crackling figure before them. Having being introduced, she waved silently, fearing to open her mouth immediately should more than words come flying out again. Her steadfast silence didn't last long as she witnessed the large reptilian creature that she arrived with. Holding an arm in one hand and knocking at a nearby door like he was trying to borrow some sugar. She let loose a short squeak, surprise dismissing her sickness. "I don't- I mean what is... what?"

[Twisted Fate]

@UrbanEvolution

Jared was amused by how shocked Miriam seemed to be about him never exploring the city.
"What can I say? I was convinced I was just having dreams about being a god, and that's not really that hard to believe is it?"

He lifted himself off the rooftop, taking care to ensure that his ascent was as controlled as possible.
"Denizens good, aggressors bad. Think I've got that." He called, lazily floating backwards. "Can't say that I have ever really been in many fights, but how hard can it possibly be? It's not like I'm defenseless here." he whisked the air around him into a small tornado to prove the point, forcing the air to surround his legs to add to his otherworldly appearance; if anybody looked at him it would seem that he was a tornado from the waist down.

He knew that the girl called herself Miriam, but when he actually thought about it, he couldn't remember seeing anybody like her outside of the zone.
"So, I don't remember seeing you outside of here, and I'm pretty sure I'd remember someone like you."

[UrbanEvolution]

Kayla & Henry

(Written with @Empour

---

Henry stood by the door a second longer as to be sure that no further response was to be made before he let himself in. As he stepped inside, he attempted to look around the room in an effort to locate the source of the motion he had seen before. It was dark in here, his vision wasn't what is was in REM form. He smelt the air, attempting to locate the girl's position. He failed on both accounts.

"You in here, helloooo?"

"Uuuuuh, hang on, let me try to..." A girl's voice came from the back of the room, near what appeared to be a shop counter. "N-no good, I can't get up. I'm at the back, behind the counter. Don't eat me, please," the voice continued.

Henry followed the sound of the voice and eventually came upon the owner. He had never seen anything quite like how she looked before, so he was genuinely confused at first at her appearance. She looked like she was wearing chain mail scuba gear and generally looked like she was ready to go shark diving. With tubes and tanks on her back for one thing or another. He hesitated at her remake about eating her. "What? No, no. I'm not here to eat you. I wouldn't have knocked if that were the case. You're a zoner, right?" he questioned, moving through the pathway that led to the door she was collapsed on. "Do you need any help? Are you hurt?"

"I d-don't think so, I'm just, uh, really tired. My leg hurts a little, though. What- uh, Who are you?" She replied, eyes still wide.

"It's Henry... Henry Olin. Fat fourteen year old that Nora stabbed with a spork." Henry answered. He stepped forward and reached down, his huge arms wiggling their way under her shoulder blades and knees and then lifting her up with seemingly very little effort. He grunted for a moment and maneuvered her body as he directed her outside of the room and back into the alleyway.

The girl didn't ask for any further explanation, or say anything for that matter. She actually just looked like she was going to be sick. "Can you, um, can you put me down? Please?" she requested, pointing towards a strange metal box of unknown purpose.

Henry grunted and moved onward in the direction his passenger had pointed, slowly setting her down next to the metal box (which reminded him of an electrical box of something, the kind in front yards) as gently as he could as to not harm her due to lack of respect to his own strength. "You good?"

The girl made herself a little more comfortable. She then said, "I'm okay, yeah. Just give me a minute," as she sat there, holding her stomach. About half a minute later, she said, "I'm Kayla, Kayla Kirby. You said your name was Henry? What do you look like in real life? I don't know who this Nora is."

"As I said, short, fat fourteen year old." Henry said, walking over to the rest of the Aggressor corpse and walking around it, more than likely looking for an area where there was still substance to feed on. He shook his head and pressed his foot into it, taking the off the other arm to gnaw on. "I don't know what Nora looks like either right now. Haven't seen her." Henry said, eyeing the detached limb. "All I know is that she stabbed me with a spork."

"Well she doesn't sound very nice," Kayla said, with a little more confidence now, "Why did she do that?" She stretched a little, and tugged at her mask.

"Eli told her to." Henry replied curtly, stuffing the limb he held in his mouth and just about swallowing it whole. When he finished his action, he stalked back over to the Denizen corpse and, using all of his willpower to ignore the feast right in front of him, picked up the lead pipe he had left behind when he kicked the dumpster at Julian in rage, and brought it back over to Kayla. "It's nice to meet you, Kayla," Henry said. "I don't know what you can do... for me it's pretty simple, but... here. Take this, if you think you'll have any trouble." He said, setting down the pipe next to her. "If you uh... don't like punching or whatever... What zone are you from again?"

Kayla stared at the pipe, as though not sure what to do with it. "I'm from this place, but I've never been to this side of the city before. Can you see the really tall buildings from here? I'm from the part with the skyscrapers," she said. She picked up the pipe, and shook it around, as though testing its weight. Because it was lead, it was heavier than it looked. "Where are you from?" she asked.

"Zone two. The wilderness. I look way different there." he answered. He poked his head out of the alleyway to gaze off down the street and into the distance. "Yeah, I can see some. We're a pretty good ways away though. The Nexus put us on the outskirts of town." he said. "By the way, why were you hiding and why are you so worn out?"

Kayla's blush was visible under the giant, silver mask she wore. "I, uh, I was trying to move this really heavy shelf. I-it didn't work," she muttered the last part.

Henry looked at her for a moment, his yellow eyes going over her silver clad figure for a moment before he decided not to press the question any farther, being as he'd been in embarrassing situations himself in the past and going past a certain point usually wasn't fun on the other party. "Well, rest up then. You and Julian over here," he said, nodding his head to the man in the street, "Know this place better than I do. Tell me when you're ready to move, and we will."

"I'm ready, I think," she said, hopping down to the ground. She wobbled for a second, then picked the pipe up. "Where are we going?" she said. Henry suddenly held his hand up to silence her and then pointed to the newcomers that were Ursula and Malcom. Henry, having seen both Aggressors and Denizens by now, knew these two had to be on their side. He opened the palm of his hand and waved slightly to them. "Dont shoot or... punch." He said, looking to Malcom's robotic hands. "We're friendly. I got hungry," Henry said, motioning to the charred body and mangled Denizen corpse. "I'm STILL hungry." He continued. "So please excuse the mess." He finished curtly, not really intent on explaining himself any further less the two attack him like Julian had. "I uh... I'm Henry. This is Kayla, and the tall pissy guy in the street is Julian." Henry said, motioning to himself, the silver clad shark tank girl, and then off to the street respectively. "And you two are...?"

---

Miriam Grant

---

Miriam raised and eyebrow, walking towards him and grabbing the wrist of the hand he had extended to create the small tornado, completely ignoring his legs. She twisted the wrist so the arm was turned and drove her other hand downwards against his elbow, which, with enough force could completely break it. She was not attempting that though more to make a point and cause some pain. With her arm already driving down at the elbow, she lifted upwards, turned her arm one way to pull his body that direction, and then swiftly altering the direction as she stepped backwards, pulling his already off balance, twisted body, and harshly flipping him-throwing him on his side. At most, it would knock the wind out of him and maybe hurt his arm some. If it had been a full on attempt to hard him... maybe not so much.

She dropped his arm as if it wasn't worth her time and took a step back. "Just because you have powers doesn't mean you're gonna be fine all the time. You wanna pick up a six hundred pound goliath or larger with some wind alone? Be my guest, so long as I'm not the one scraping you up when they turn you into a smear on the asphalt." she said, turning grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet... err, tornado legs. In truth she didn't mean this but this was the one place where she could pull off not being weak. This was her one sanctuary where she could appear without weakness and she desperately was latching onto that as if her life depended on it. Then he dropped the bomb. "Yeah, alright. You just stick to remembering this face." She said, pointing to her eyes with her index and middle fingers on her left hand. "Because if you knew me in real life you wouldn't know me for long. Not worth getting attached, you know?" she finished. She ran a hand through her hair, savoring the feeling of the raven black locks that dawned her head. She wished she could have that in life too. She wished she could be normal in life honestly. She, at least until she was about twelve, had looked like she was on track to become how she appeared in the zone until pancreatic cancer and chemotherapy hit her like a freight train.

"I'm gonna teach you to snap a neck and break some limbs. You might be an example if you piss me off. And I love beating on you already." She said, walking over to the ledge of the roof and looking over it. She looked over her shoulder to Jared. "I don't think you ever told me your name. Name's Miriam, as you probably heard one of the others say earlier," she said, turning her head to look back down again. "Meet me on the ground and tell me, if you still wanna tag along." she said curtly, before turning around and giving him the middle finger and falling backwards off the ledge. She fell, no intent on stopping or catching herself, and hit the ground full force, exploding into a cloud of cinders, ash, and smoke, which then circled itself on the red city's street and reformed back into her body, unscathed.

@Zombehs
@Twisted Fate
@Horrid
@GingerBoi123

[SepticGentleman]

MAIN MISSION: THE FOREMAN

OBJECTIVE: Travel to the Northern Workshop and aid the lone Denizen in clearing it of Aggressor forces.
ACCESSIBILITY: Open to all players.

“Hey, everyone listen up. The surveillance team is telling me there’s something going on up in the northern section of the city. Two big Aggressor marks surrounded by a lot of smaller ones. But I’m being told they’re all under fire… from a single source. So, it sounds to me like some Denizen is getting in way over his head. I’m more worried about those two bigger marks so, however many of you are good for it, get over there. One other thing…”

---

SIDE MISSION: THE RAM

OBJECTIVE: Follow the Ram’s trail and find out what you can about him.
ACCESSIBILITY: Private to the following players: @GingerBoi123, @Horrid, @Stairdweller

“That guy you ran into when you first entered Zone 1 – the Aggressor with the helmet who screamed and ran off? The surveillance team have seen him before. We call him “the Ram”. He’s a tricky fucker, and one we’re interested in finding more info on. Never shows up on the grid, never eats Denizens – kills them sometimes, yeah, but he just leaves the bodies lying around. A team of three or so should be enough to find him while the rest handle the situation up north. From what I saw when you all walked in, he was heading southeast. See if you can follow his trail – blast marks on the rooftops. Be careful with him, he doesn't fuck around.”