UrbanEvolution

ZONES: -system offline-

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

ZONES: -system offline-

@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."

ZONES: -system offline-

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."

ZONES: -system offline-

Jared's attempting to befriend Miriam, I feel like that was a major lapse in judgment on my behalf. Please don't hurt him, Urban.

@Twisted Fate

It'll be painful for a few minutes and she'll more than likely end up making him her personal slave for a while.

Then she'll develop a puppy crush on him and know full well that wouldn't work. Then they'd be best friends.

Stick with it. I promise you it'll be worth it lol

ZONES: -system offline-

Frickin'

X years and nine months ago I lived in a sack.

ZONES: -system offline-

Rest is for the weak

ZONES: -system offline-

(Written on phone, will fix in the morning)

Henry and Miriam

"Alright everyone!" Henry said, standing up from his seat, and walking over to Miriam, whom he had been tasked to assist. He picked the young woman up, who looked genuinely pissed off to be carried by a fat kid three years her junior. They were some of the first to go through, and when they crossed the line, everything changed.

---

"Put me down you sack of shit!" Miriam yelled, promptly punching Henry in the nose and backflipping out of his grasp. She had, at one time, been a gymnast. Henry yowled in pain and stumbled back. "Holy fuck man put some clothes on!" Miriam yelled, slapping her hand over her eyes. Henry, gathering his bearing, looked down upon himself.

He was huge. Not nearly the size of his regular self, but still huge. Armored skin, huge bulging muscles, human like build, big teeth... He reminded himself of killer croc. The problem was, he was ass naked. He quickly threw a hand down to cover himself as to not make Miriam off herself. Miriam had changed too. Almost as drastically as he had. She was tall and svelte and looked like a woman from the supermodel era except with long black hair and in leather. She was obviously very athletically fit and based upon that punch she had given him she had been lifting.

"Dont just stand there you fucking salamander, go find something to wear! Dont kill a denizen! Aim for the firey ones!" Miriam said, pointing off down the highway. Henry, not needing any further instruction, bounded off on all fours. Miriam however, stayed behind.

"So, Eli," Henry said as he ran, vaulting over the side of the highway guard and onto the red land itself. "Which pill did you give us, and which one would've given us clothes? The red or blue?" Henry said.

"Fuck you and everything you stand for." Was the curt reply.

Henry, now being a fair distance away from everyone else, stood up to his full height. "Salty." He said in response. "So, Eli, tell me about what kind of things we're dealing with here. In specific. I need to steal pants from someone and it'll be hard to find some in my size at the store."

There was a moment of silence. "Only thing you have to worry about, for now, are aggressors. They get big, so you get the idea."

"Thanks. So how's it feel to be watching a naked fourteen year old."

"Henry I will eject you so fucking hard that your head will spin."

Henry promptly shut the hell up.

There was a silence for a while as Henry traversed the land, he didn't know the area well, but hey there were buildings to climb and he kinda enjoyed that. Eventually however, he found himself on a rooftop overlooking a desolate street.

"Miriam said they're... Firey, is that right? Because Im seeing a lot of black smokey things wandering around." Henry questioned to the air.

"You're seeing what we call Denizens. They're friendly." Came Eli's voice. "Aggressors looks like... Combusted versions of them. Move a little more to your left. You're at a good vantage point for this area."

Henry did so, but as he moved, his field of view was able to adopt the sight of a small alley. Nothing serious but it was out of direct sight more than anything else. He could see two red figures and a black one.

The red ones were pummeling the black one, eventually to the point where the black figure stopped resisting all together. Something was wrong, and Henry knew it. He vaulted over the ledge of the building's rooftop, but didn't allow himself to fall, rather he controlled his decent by grabbing ledges and objects to stop a bad fall as he reached ground level. He couldn't see the alley anymore, but he still knew where it was.

He ran through the ashy characters that meandered around the streets, often pointing towards him and communicating in some strange language. He didn't stop to attempt to listen though. He had shit to do. As he reached the approximate area of the attack, he figured out why none of the others were defending the other denizen. There was a fence blocking the view. He growled and pushed himself forward, grabbing the too of the fence rather easily since he was it's height and tearing it away, exposing the scene.

Two red beings. One was thin and scrawny, but the other was larger, and carrying a lead pipe. It was smaller than him, but both beings were wearing PANTS.

Needless to say that, while Henry was ogling the pants, he was met with a solid lead pipe to the side of the face and pretty much ran into the wall. The smaller one attempted to assist but... Well, after the first attack Henry it didn't go well for them. Henry however was one set of pants richer though. Being himself, Henry feasted on the bodies of the Aggressors while the Denizens gathered around the hole in the fence, speaking and pointing and doing things that he couldn't understand. He paused mid-gorge, and looked up. The denizens silenced.

"What? I'm hungry!" He said, then realized that he wasn't there to eat, or even to get the pants he was wearing. No, it was for the denizen. He stood up and picked up the battered creature and took it over closer to the group, and set it down. He backed off and a few of the denizens encircled it and walked off into the crowd, which soon after dispersed as he fed upon the corpses of the aggressors to heal his wound and satiate a hunger he could already feel growing inside of him. It was faint.

But it was there.

---

Miriam removed her hand from here face and gaved off in the direction that Bobby pointed at. "I've seen a lot of ugly fuckers in my time here, but I havent seen that one." She said. She looked down at her hands. She didn't feel as warm as usual. Eli had said there would be changes. But she didn't feel that... Spark that she had before.

"Only one way to find out though." Miriam yelled, running and stepping up the rail guard. She then turned around to the group. "Anyone who can keep up... I'll show you the ropes." She said. Then fell backwards off the rail.

A few of the other zoners ran forward to see how she survived the fall, only to see what looked like a huge ball of smoke heading off in the direction of the buildings not far off in the distance.

ZONES: -system offline-

Don't start without me! I'm making my first post as we speak!

@Empour

Henry is big into anime.

Even he will think she's a weeaboo.

ZONES: -system offline-

I like the coat.

@Stairdweller

my favorite part is the white background

ZONES: -system offline-

I come back from a car trip and I see you all are talking about sandwiches.

I am sandwichkin and I find this offensive and ableist. Check your privilege, dirty cishet scum.