---

Some time later.

The cafeteria got quiet the moment a line or service bots walked in. The uniformed abductees watched as they rolled in a series of projection equipment. And at the end of the line was their gracious host – Eli. He walked behind them, turning his head for a few seconds worth of a glance at the crowd seated around the chairs and tables. All two-hundred and seventeen of them. Hopefully. And over on one side was Henry, waving his hand as if he was going to get a wave back. He, of course, did not.

The service bots positioned the equipment at the front of the crowd where the empty food aisles were situated. They rolled down a large sheet of white, synthetic fabric with a small, two-dimensional holographic projector clamped on the top. As they monitored the cable box rolled alongside the projector, another one of them handed Eli a remote. He promptly hit the power button and watched the initialization process start up on the synthetic screen. Before it finished, he turned to the crowd as one of the service bots dimmed the lights.

“Everybody know why they’re here?” He asked aloud, arms raised in a questioning gesture.

Henry raised his hand high in the air, waving it back and forth. You could almost hear the sound of utter annoyance resonating in Eli's head.

"Rhetorical question... Henry." He responded. Henry pulled his hand down.

The screen lit up with a series of footage cuts from recent news reports, clear and crisp for all the room to see. The attacks in the southwestern US, the ones in Singapore, Vancouver, everywhere of major impact. The otherwordly beings just... ravaging, everything. Eli spoke up again with, "I'm not stupid. And none of you are either, I hope." He pointed to the screen and said, "Been following this? If you were more focused on anything else, it'd have to be for a really good reason. Because let's not forget... this is an invasion."

Henry raised his hand again. He'd been following it.

"Henry put your GODDAMN hand down."

Henry put his hand down again.

Eli continued. "You've all had a chance to talk since you got here so I'm going to go on my current understanding that you know the deal here." He paced around a bit. "Your dreams. Or, your nightmares. Depends on who I'm asking. Lot of you have been running around in places not of this world. Let me clear things up for you, you're not dreaming. You are literally controlling another version of yourself somewhere else in space-time."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Each and every one of you has rolled up the lucky number. You've all got a link to the worlds these things are coming from. You've been seeing a... red city? Like, really red? Foggy wilderness with weird clouds? Place that looks right out of one of those old Saw movies?" He paused and gauged the crowd's reactions, of which, there were few. Save for one.

Henry raised his hand again, waving it wildly this time.

"Somebody smack him."

Henry pulled his hand down again. There was what seemed to be a "No, no please dont." from his position in the crowd. Nora removed the spork she had managed to pilfer from the flatware rack from her pocket and jabbed it, with an artisan's precision, into the side of Henry's thigh.

"Ow! What the hell!"

"What?" She asked, genuinely confused. She waved a hand vaguely. "The man incited violence."

"Not what I expected but okay." Eli responded after a brief period of disbelief. With a hint of humor. He hit another button on the remote, initiating a stream of new footage – this time, of the places he had described just prior. The red city. The foggy wilderness. The mega-factory. “The Zones.” He said aloud, “Or so we have branded them. We, being, myself and the organization I work for.” Another press of a button, and a logo akin to the one printed on Eli’s lapel badge came into view. A man’s head with an ethereal apparition floating before it. “Somniatis APR. Astral Projection Research.”

“Sounds like a disease!” Miriam called out.

_{Oh for the love of God.}

Eli hung his head and pinched his nose in a sense of defeat. Another moment passed by before he raised back up and said, “’Kay, you know what? Cutting to the chase. You’ve all been brought here so we can form a preemptive defense team against the things in the Zones before they bleed out into our reality. And to help do that, we constructed a machine that will allow you to travel to the other Zones. The ones you’ve been relatively oblivious towards so far.” He looked around the room, dropping his rushed, snarky attitude. “I don’t know how the rest of you feel about this, but you need to understand something. Our world is in danger. This is a real, living threat. I know most of you may not want to be here. And I’m sorry this happened to you. But I’m not kidding when I tell you it’s all for the greater good. Your families are being taken care of by our own personnel. They’re safe. And you will rejoin them once we’ve put a stop to this invasion.”

Another press of the button. The projector shut down, and one of the service bots raised the lights. Eli stood before the crowd and continued speaking. “The machine I mentioned, we call it the Nexus Projector. It has only recently exited its prototype stage. So what I need from you now, is some volunteers. For the inaugural run into Zone 1. The red city.”

He crossed his arms.

“Who’s up for it?”

Lenora Puglesivic

Well, Lenora, Mom was right. You didn't say your prayers before bed and now you've been kidnapped by secular humanists, just like she said.

The thought bounced wryly around her head as Lenora returned the spork to her pocket. It had been years since she had spoken to any member of her immediate family. She had a few cousins who had also left the faith, but she didn't have much in common with them. So, unlike most people there, the thought of her family hadn't even occurred to her until Eli brought it up.

Well. What did she have to lose? She only bothered to work so that she could fund her hobbies. The dreams were interesting enough to count as a hobby. If she could get someone to pay her room and board while she was here, then she didn't have a problem with the situation. Much. She still might attempt escape - Nora wasn't super thrilled at the idea of secret compounds - but for now, she was comfortable going along with the project.

"I'll go," she said. "I don't have to be from the red city, right? I mean, dream myself there? Because my dreams are of the maze-factory."

---

"It's my home turf, and being in the zone is a million times better than being in a damn wheelchair. So I'm in." Miriam piped up. Henry, who was still rubbing his knee like the bitch he was, also raised a hand. "I've been hearing way to much about the other zones and the Nexus. I've been waiting for two weeks to get in on it. Sign me up." Henry said, raising his hand AGAIN. He knew that when he showed up he would be different than his REM form. But he also knew some other things that would occur with some work. So he wanted to get in on that as soon as he could.

"Hey Eli," Henry said out loud. "What kind of stuff are we going to be facing in Zone One? Some people might want to know what they're going to be up against!" He shouted. He knew full well what they would be facing. Denizens were the equivalent of innocent civilians, while aggressors were their enemy. Big and red and on fire and armed to the teeth. Not fun to deal with, at least by the sounds of it. "Also, should we be expecting anything different from the Nexus projector that wouldn't occur in normal sleep?"

Miriam on the other hand, was ecstatic. She didn't know anything regarding the Nexus or REM stages, at least not yet. She however, did know that in Zone One, she was unstoppable. She wasn't as offensive as Julian or some of the other zoners despite being a fire wielder, but she couldn't be touched by their weapons. She was made of condensed ash and smoke. If they shot her, she just reformed. Her body wasn't affected by things such as bullets or blades. Rather things like water or slime. This mission would be a walk in the park, and an excuse to flex her muscles to show that cancer girl might be a bitch, but she was no wimp.

Jazz
Location: Unknown

Jazz is satisfied with Bobby's answer, as well as the other man's. She then turns to see their gracious, yet slightly snobby looking host walk in through the door and begin to talk about why they are here. He flashes up pictures of the places where others had been in their dreams, but the foggy wilderness stabs at her heart like a knife. She gasps slightly, grabbing a seat with a shaking hand. She recognizes the wilderness from her own dreams and she imagines those creatures that she has seen in them. It is not a pleasant sight. She looks up as he asks for volunteers to go into the first Zone: the red city. This would be a good chance for her to do some research and studying of these so called "Zones". It's not like she had much to lose.

"I'll go!" she says, standing up quickly. "I'm originally from the foggy wilderness, but this is much more exciting, especially if I get to explore." She smiles and pushes her glasses up on her nose as she looks around at the other people who volunteered: the girl in the wheel chair, another girl and the spastic boy who keeps waving his hand. She smiles. This would be a fun group to go with, but she would some how have to sneak away so she could explore.

The conversation had long since died to a lull by the time the cafeteria doors opened once more. The procession of service bots indicated that it wasn’t just another abductee and the fact that the man at the end didn’t wear the scrubs every other occupant had on solidified that. He wondered if the robots would be able to do anything if there were some unhappy souls amongst the two hundred or so individuals around, but quickly surmised that other safety measures had been put in place. Thankfully the “presentation” got underway far quicker than the man in charge had arrived, otherwise Julian likely would have caused an incident. It was one thing to be kidnapped by an organization to face a very real threat. It was another to be kept waiting rather than be promptly briefed.

Although given how roundabout this Eli was making the explanation, the urge to interrupt and simply tell the man to get on with it was hard to clamp down on. A quiet sigh was had when the point was finally made and Julian raised his head as the room’s lights flicked back on. With a shrug he stood up among the many still seated around him. "Suppose it's my home turf too." It was rare that Julian worked with others in the "dreamscape", so he didn't particularly care too much about the other volunteers. Still...

It’d be interesting to see what abilities the blonde manifested given she was from the third zone, and he’d yet to hear anything about it. The pudgy kid had his head on right he supposed, the questions were good ones, even if his attitude was rather cheerful for the morbid task ahead. He had no idea who Miriam was in the Zone given the drastic appearance shifts that could occur, so he reserved judgement. The last girl seemed to have her priorities mixed up and her head in the clouds, but, small frown aside, he kept quiet and turned his attention back to Eli.

Now hopefully this was done in a more timely manner than Eli had arrived.

---

Good enough number of volunteers so far. Hopefully, more would chime in. Henry's questions (both of which he already knew the answers to, he just wanted to make a good impression on the new arrivals) would be a decent attention grabber. So, he began to speak aloud once more.

"Zone 1, you've got the Aggressors. Sure a lot of you in the red scrubs have seen them plenty of times. Flaming skin... usually. They carry guns, they travel in packs, and a good deal of them have got powers just the same as you. Surveillance team has picked up footage of several sub-types, most likely all of which you'll be encountering relatively soon."

"And what about the Nexus Projector?" Henry asked with a hint of a fake smile. He knew full well the answer they'd be given. Eli sighed before he continued.

"The Nexus Projector will allow any of you Zoners... that's the title we gave you... to enter a connected hub space between each of the three Zones. From there, you can step into any one you want, regardless if it's your home Zone or not. You can stay connected as long as you want, and the machine has a built-in, fail-safe ejection system that'll boot out anyone who's vitals on the other side get too low. That's all well and good... but there is one catch. The Nexus Projector puts you in a sort of pseudo-stasis in order to maintain a neural link with the surveillance and comm systems. So, you're not fully asleep. Because of that, your connection to the Zones is... a little weaker than usual. Don't know what that'll mean for you individually... but we'll find out in a bit so don't worry about it."

He crossed his arms again before continuing. "Any more questions, Olin?" He said aloud to the group, "Or can I get some more volunteers? C'mon, people!"

Malcolm listened intently to Elias and everyone else. So this was sort of like joining the army? Well, maybe not but I guess it's how he'll help the earth defend against the invasion and that was enough to bring Malcolm on board for the project. Then was the call for volunteers and four or five had already put their name down. "I'm in too!" Malcolm called, being one of the first with the number three on their shirt. The red city sounded nothing like Malcolm had faced before when he dreamt, so like any boxer should think, this will be a chance to improve himself as a fighter with a new environment and new opponents.

---

With a slight jump, Ursula vaulted back to lucidity, suddenly very much aware of her surroundings and the sheer amount of people that had been packed into this cafeteria along with her. A quick push of her glasses allowed her to scan the surroundings and find that quite a few were dressed in similar scrubs to her. Black and red, with a large number 1 on the arm. Others were dressed in scrubs with the numbers 2 and 3 on them. Zoners? Nexus Projector? The severity of the invasion threat was not lost to her, but these words were flying right over her head entirely, leaving her to sit in her seat and softly mutter a drawn out 'uhhhhhhhhhhhh' to herself. She breathed in and out rapidly, beginning to sweat and panic once again as her glasses fogged up from her rising body heat. The mention of her family only served to accelerate this process, very nearly bringing her to weeping tears. Her family was being 'taken care of'? What was happening to them? What were they going to take care of? Is this some terrible organised bloodsport deal? Was she going to be released into the wilderness to be hunted as the most dangerous game? She felt sick. She felt her stomach lurching and moving erratically as her mind raced.

With a desperate leap, Ursula kept her head lower than the others around her and looked for the nearest trash receptacle. With a wet retch, she promptly voided her stomach of her previous meal and a small amount of her stomach acid. Her throat burned and stung as she slumped against the wall, managing to slur out in a quiet, pathetic tone, "Is my family dead? Are they dead?" Her voice was soft and shaking with panic. She was familiar with Aggressors, the red-skinned terrors that seemed to be spawned from her worst nightmares. She could play this game, if it meant her family would be safe. She stood slowly, ignorant of the looks of pity and disgust she was receiving.

And then she raised her hand.

"I submit myself. Just don't hurt my family. Please."

Jared listened intently as the same man that had appeared on his TV screen began talking about everything that was going on. Well, he wasn't particularly listening at first but his attention was drawn when he heard the mention of the red city, and the voluntary mission there. He was somewhat surprised when the man started mentioning 'aggressors', having never seen them himself - but then it dawned on him that he had never actually been into the city, always preferring to glide across the skyline.

"What the hell, I'm in." He shouted at the man. "Weirdly enough, I've never actually been low enough down to see these aggressors - or whatever you called them. I reckon it's about time I started learning."

E.A. "Bobby" Smith

Bobby glared daggers at the big blonde woman who had stabbed Henry with a fork. He moved alongside her and whispered furiously, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? You can't just stab a kid with a fork. Didn't anyone ever teach you to pick on people your own size?" He said that last part completely un-ironically, having apparently forgotten already about the chubby kid's Zone form.

Unbelievably, the blonde looked confused or maybe the slightest bit irritated. "It was a spork, and I already explained myself, didn't I?" she said slowly. Bobby couldn't help but notice that she had her hand on the pocket she had slipped the eating utensil back into. Clearly, this was a dangerously insane individual. He put some space between himself and her. He wasn't running away, just... well, there was no shame in not wanting to be the next one who got sporked, right?

"I'd better come along too," he said, directing his comment to Eli. Everyone he had spoken to earlier had already volunteered, and he kind of had a feeling it wouldn't be a good idea to leave that crazy woman unsupervised. He threw a winning smile around at the other volunteers. "I think I count as a responsible adult in this situation. Assuming we're going to be grading on a curve."

Cara listened closely to the man who had stepped up, taking in as much information as she could. If what he was saying were true, then they were going to act as a defense force against these monsters in the zones. While volunteering or not was a no-brainer, there were still questions left unanswered. For one, who exactly was the man that had stepped up? He hadn’t introduced himself at any point. Two, he mentions that this project was supported by Somnaitis APR, did that make them some sort of private military, or did they have government support? Regardless, Cara stood up.

“I’m up for it.” She said, “When do we begin?”

Kayla sat there for a while, silent. She was a lot calmer now that she knew what was going on, but in the back of her mind, she was still a little worried that someone around her would notice that she was wearing a holographic copy of the ill-fitting uniform. The door-opener-thing certainly had difficulty recognizing her, though that might have just been that she was too short. She hoped it wasn’t a camera too, her freakout in there wasn’t really something she wanted other people seeing. It let her through eventually, and somehow she wasn’t late, so that wasn’t something to worry about.

The man’s speech helped a lot to settle her nerves, though, even if she did feel like a secret agent. From what he said, the people around her had been having the same dream about the red city, and that there were other weird places too. It was kinda confusing, but she got the basis of it. So she was supposed to be the superhero her dreams said she was? That sounded pretty fun, actually. Plus, being a part of the ina.. inagurril run, that sounded like an awesome way to make some friends, and figure out what the dreams were about. Plus, she’d be able to show off her awesome outfit in there!
“I’ll go!” Kayla almost had to shout to be heard over the people talking around her, and it took the man up top a moment to find her outstretched hand. She waved it a bit to draw his attention.

---

The volunteers – all eleven of them – walked with Eli as he made his way down the stairs of the facility’s floors. Elevator wouldn’t hold all of them. Thankfully there were a series of automatic platforms for Miriam to descend upon.

“Like monkeys about to be shot into space.” Eli said aloud. Some chuckled, most didn’t. They clearly weren’t having any of his shit today. In truth, he wasn’t surprised how well they were taking this whole situation. Just as he expected when he was talking to Director Chelsing earlier on the comm. “You all must be very proud of yourselves.”

“What’s your name?” One of them asked aloud, “You never bothered telling us.”

_Fuck.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Eli responded, “Elias Winzer. I’ll be your Operator for the duration of this whole thing.” If someone were to make a Matrix joke right now, Eli would most likely have attempted to throttle them. But, thankfully, no such remark came up. So he continued, “Whenever something comes up and needs to be taken care of in any of the Zones, I’ll put a notice up and see who wants to tackle it. We’ve got specialized sleeping pills stocked up for use in case it happens to be your home Zone. You’ll be a lot better off if you match up, after all.”

The group reached the bottom floor of the facility after a bit of walking. Level N, as the sign on the staircase signaled. They made their way through a corridor stacked with power equipment, half of which was too advanced to even look like it belonged there. Given this extraordinary circumstance, however, it was forgiven. At the end of the corridor, the two large doors slid open as the detection grid passed over Eli and the Zoners. They walked inside and beheld the massive machine before them. A rectangular room in shape, and where they stood was an elevated platform with a vast control console situated at the edge. Buttons, dials, readouts, everything. Three projectors over synthetic panes, each framed in one of the three colors of the Zones, displayed a colorized grid over a relatively incomplete three-dimensional map. Beyond the console, there were rows of reclined, padded chairs with neural uplink headgear hanging above them, stretching left and right. Just enough to fit all the Zoners in the facility, from the looks of it. And at the very back of the room, the main piece of all the system. A massive, cylindrical chamber housing a column of rotating stabilizer plates, and running down through the center, a vivid tri-colored spiral of an unknown energies.

The Nexus Projector.

“Pick a seat and get comfortable.” Eli called out, approaching the console and starting the machine up. The Zoners all descended from the platform and branched out, each of them selecting a relatively close location. Some of them were apprehensive. Others were damn near ecstatic. But after a moment (coupled with Miriam being helped into her own chair), they were ready. Eli recorded all their positions on the button panel, following by setting up the neural comm.

With everyone in place, ready and waiting, Eli began the stasis initialization sequence. Once they were all nice and knocked out, he hit the central activation button.

And in they went.



“Welcome to the Nexus.”

They heard Eli’s voice in their heads as they all slowly regained consciousness. They looked around, finding themselves scattered about in a gigantic, triangular prism, still in their human forms. The three walls around them were each a flowing stream of energy the color of their respective Zone, clouded entirely save for one clear location viewable within each. A tunnel entrance in Zone 1. A secluded grove in Zone 2. And circular chamber in Zone 3. The floor and ceiling, or lack thereof, were utter void.

“I’ve got channels open for all of you to talk through. Your chairs are also broadcasting live streams of your individual fields of vision, so I can see whatever you’re seeing. As you’ve figured by now, you’re all still human at the moment. That’ll change the moment you step through the red wall into Zone 1. Go ahead and march on through.”

They did as told, and in one collective group, entered the red city.

Bobby hit the red face at a dead run, not sure what the process of going through the portal into Zone 1 was going to be like and not wanting to give himself time to chicken out. He figured it was like swimming in the ocean - best to dunk your whole head in right off the bat to get over the shock of the cold.

So, he was one of the first to make it through into the red city. Unlike when he dreamed, where he just sort of became aware or himself in his hoofed carnivore form, Bobby expected there to be some kind of sensation of transformation as he left the neutral space. There wasn't. His perceptions just kind of fuzzed for a moment, and then he was aware of himself as different. Bobby wasn't in his usual dream form, more like a half-human version of it... which seemed to confirm his original werewolf idea.

"Awesome!" he exclaimed. There was a rough edge imparted to his voice, imparted by his mouth full of fangs, but at least he could talk this time around. He took a few test-swipes through the air with his new claws, then experimentally slashed at a nearby concrete-looking wall. His claws cut through it like cake.

"This is going to be so sweet," he continued, looking around at the others and trying to guess which superhero, monster or cyborg went with which person back in the lab.

That was when he saw the ram-headed thing on another roof. When it did it's goat-scream-maniacal-laughter thing, he instinctively crouched down and brought his claws up in front of him, a fighting (or possibly fleeing) stance. "What the hell was that? Is that normal for this Zone? Zone 1 people?"

(Written on phone, will fix in the morning)



"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.

The red hued scenery was familiar as Julian’s eyes opened and he glanced at the other two “worlds” with some interest. There wasn’t much time to observe and actually entering would have to wait for another day, so with a quiet grunt he walked through as directed. The passage through the veil was odd as if pressing through syrup that wasn’t the slightest bit sticky. Not uncomfortable and certainly over in an instant, but unusual all the same.

Rather than a brilliant discharge of electricity that seemed to accompany his usual appearance, which likely would have been bad given his proximity to others. Julian was aware of his much more human appearance. From a quick glance it was apparent that this body had a few extra inches in height and also the taste in clothing as some mage pulled out of one of his novels or games. Again it was odd, but not exactly uncomfortable; the robes didn’t seem to impede his movement all that much and the amulet, despite its size, rested easily around his neck.

His eyes were not locked onto his strange new appearance though, not when there was something that stood out against the distant buildings. The creature was easily noticeable even at this distance, and their attention didn’t seem to go unnoticed. His hands raced up to cover his ears as a ear splitting roar filled the air, and by the time the wince had faded from his expression the creature had vanished with several loud detonations. His eyes narrowed at the faint trails left behind as the arcs of lightning that had unconsciously surged forth faded away.

That strange welcoming aside, damn did some of the “Zoners” look fucking weird. It seemed that Zone 2 was filled with a bunch of werebeasts or whatever as the other man had mentioned prior to Elias’ arrival. Given that Smoke Girl, who was probably Miriam given her character, had already answered Julian sufficed with a shrug as he sighed in annoyance. The Nexus entrance just had to be at the edge of town didn’t it? It looked like it’d be a long damn trot to town, fucking joy that was.

---

Even as the familiarity of the Red City served to put her mind at ease, Ursula couldn't help but regret her decision to climb into the Nexus Projector and even engage in this entire project and debacle. She felt as if her stomach were still heaving up matter from her earlier panic. How embarrassing, to be hurling into a trash can for all to see. She felt that she didn't have to be reminded of how she very quietly flipped her lid for a short time.

Waking up in the Red City always felt as if she was pushing her way up from beneath the soil to arrive on the surface, in the streets or within a rundown building. Using this Nexus thing was different though, more like her consciousness was being swapped over into another body like a game cartridge. When she woke to artificial consciousness surrounded by the altered forms of the people she had just seen, she was almost shocked out of her oneiric skin. So different, so varied, some completely unrecognisable compared to before, some vaguely resembling their former selves.

She glanced down at herself to see that she was different as well. Ursula noted that she looked more like a cross between a monk, a belly-dancer and a runway model, with fabric that clung to her body like a second skin and showed off her curves like no one's business. She could see in the places where the fabric parted to expose some skin, she had gained geometric markings all over that looked and followed a very similar pattern to a piece of bismuth, multiple lines following the same direction and turning at 90 degree angles to cover more of her body. The dust and pebbles from the urban locale wafted and spiraled around her form as she stepped forward to look around. She felt... lesser... in a way. The scientist said things would be different, but she didn't think they'd be this different. What a strange new set of feelings these were.

Her trance was broken by the goatman screaming into the City, literally exploding from his place up on the building and further into the city. Aggressors were getting different, or so it seemed. She pointed toward where the creature WAS and attempted to push up a pair of glasses that weren't there. "I have the most terrible sinking feeling that we will see that again."

Jared had to admit it; he was slightly embarrassed about his unfamiliarity with his own zone. As he stepped through the red wall, he realised that he didn’t have a clue about anything below the skyline of the city, and as such was taken aback by the ghost like figures drifting about. This probably would have had a larger impact on him had it not been for the noticeable difference in his power level. His appearance was still the same as it usually was in this form: he could see that he had become slightly transparent and could feel his hair wafting around as if in a breeze. His clothes had changed as well – the red jumpsuit replaced by what appeared to be brown leather leggings and a distinct lack of shirt or shoes.

“Well.” He muttered, “That rules out getting served in any restaurants down here.”

Usually in this form he felt near omnipotent, sensing the air around him for miles as if it were a part of him. This time, however, the radius of his senses had diminished significantly, and he could only feel the currents within half a mile at most.

Feeling confused and a little bit ashamed, he noticed the girl who had called herself Miriam turn into smoke and fly off, inviting anyone that could keep up to join her. He reckoned she was his best chance of getting his bearings, so decided to follow.
“I think the question’s more whether you can keep up with me!” He called playfully, submitting his body to the winds and floating swiftly past her. Bizarrely, he felt this action tiring him whereas usually he could fly with no effort whatsoever. He was going to have to be careful here in this state.

When Malcolm voluntarily got hooked up to the nexus he was worried. However all thoughts quickly subsided as his vision turned to black. The next sight he saw was the light at the end of the tunnel and other beings walking out. Malcolm shielded his eyes with his giant metal hands from the light as he stepped out into the fresh air. A sprawling city laid out before him and the others, speaking of which some were completely out of this world! Creatures from fairy tales, empowered humans and other cyborgs like himself. He saw the denizens for the first time, ghostly beings that looked like they were puffs of walking smoke, weaving in between them all and below them under the bridge

A loud shriek ripped through the air and drew the attention of everyone as some sort of giant goatman bellowed on top of a building and leapt off with an actual explosion propelling him building to building. "I have the most terrible sinking feeling that we will see that again." A women (@Horrid) said, dressed in very feudal clothing and lines covering her skin. "You got that right." Malcolm replied. This might be an important thing to deal with. Malcolm stared at his robot fist and tested the fingers, all working as normal. Malcolm didn't feel different but he noticed there was no steam exhaust, meaning he couldn't power charge anymore. Interesting. Malcolm then turned his hands into fists and then looked at the woman he talked to earlier. "Let's find him!" He said, with a sense of determination, his first challenge in the new zone. With that he set of at a quick jogging pace towards the city. He stopped and turned back to the women and awaited a response. "You don't have to if you don't want to." He added.

The next couple moments go in a blur. Suddenly she is transforming into her birdlike self. She looks around at the others as they become smaller under her and she smiles, feeling her wings begun to form on her back. She laughs loudly and jumps into the air, flying in circles as they entered the red city. Her hair changes to feathers and her body becomes mostly covered in feathers. Her clothes rip and fall to the ground, but she isn't worried. Her feathers cover her "special" parts and she laughs as she flies. She gains her amazing sight back and she feels estatic. Her talons grow out on her hands and she lands down next to the others, now fully formed. She is a good four feet taller than most of them now and she has an iron helmet that looks like a bird head on her head. Her body is also covered in armor.

"This is amazing!" she says with a smile. She sees the goat man jump away and the others saying that they were going to look for him. She also sees the girl turn to smoke and she feels happy. For the first time, she doesn't feel alone.

She turns to the remaining of the group and asks, "Alright, who wants to come exploring with me?" She smiles around at all of them, knowing that she looks strange with all of the feathers on her and around her face and body. The only human parts she had left were her arms and legs and face. Everything else was mostly covered with feathers.