[h1][color=sienna]Ursula[/color], [color=mediumspringgreen]Nora[/color], and [color=deeppink]Malcolm[/color][/h1]
[sub][i]In collaboration with [@Horrid], [@Stairdweller], and [@GingerBoi123][/i][/sub]
[hr]
As the tunnel came back into Ursula's peripherals, she couldn't help but ponder on the previous encounter with their quarry. It looked like an Aggressor. It acted like an Aggressor. But what was it that made it so interesting to Elias and the other people directing this first expedition into the Zones? Just a problem to be dealt with, she supposed. She shook her head as they reached the tunnel where they started and stood in the spot she woke up in, as far as she could remember. With her cloth-draped arm flapping in the light breeze, she pointed to the rooftop that she saw the Ram last and looked back to her travelling companions. 

"Wasn't the thing up there when we arrived?" She mused.

"That's right," Nora said, already jogging toward the building in question.  "We should find some stairs and get up to the roof."

One ot the building's door hung crooked on a single hinge.  Nora batted it away and pushed the other one open as well.  There was a large atrium inside, lit by tall windows with angular panes that cast sharp lines of shadow across the smashed reception desk and overturned chairs within.  There were some unintelligible signs on the walls, but helpfully there was one with a familliar step-pattern line to indicate a stairway, and an arrow.  A few flights of enclosed stairs led to a locked door that, once forced open, led out onto the rooftop.

Malcolm had stuck close to Ursula and Nora as they went through the ruined streets and school. "It looks like the Ram went through the buildings too." Malcolm commented, spotting the smashed desk and other debris. When they made it to the top, Malcolm saw a pitch black blast mark on the roof. "Damn... He really makes an exit!" Malcolm said, half as a joke half out of shock, the mark took up the entire centre of the roof, it's almost a miracle it didn't cave in. Malcolm went to touch the mark but he realised he couldn't actually feel the temperature due to his mechanical fists. "I can't tell if they're fresh or not. I doubt it however." He said to the others.

"We know how old the marks are."  Nora said flatly.  "We were here when he made them."

"Oh yeah, haha." Malcolm said, rubbing the back of his head embarrased.

Ursula chuckled, speaking frankly. "So I guess we should just start scanning for smoke or something. He was jumping around, so they have to be in increments."

"Let's try the walkways." Malcolm said as he walked along the ones connecting from roof to roof, going fom blast mark to blast mark.

[center][h1]...[/h1][/center]

It hadn't taken the trio long, in the end. The blast marks lead from one to another in a relatively straight path towards the southern section of the city. The area was littered with tall, dilapidated buildings with crumbling overpasses and pavillions on the rooftops. From the looks of it, before whatever had happened to the city, it seemed like there used to be a lot of Denizens up here daily. Chairs and tables littered about, shops and stands, courts for games unknown... all vacant. The Ram had left a trail across all of them, the blast marks defacing the veritable ruins they walked upon.

"So where to now?"  There weren't any other scorch marks to follow.

"Hang on," Malcom began before he began to concentrate and communicate to Eli. "Eli? Can you get us a location on the Ram?" He asked.

[color=gray][i]"If the trail's cold around here, then..."[/i][/color] Eli responded to the group, [color=gray][i]"Try... that building a little to your right. The fortified one, with the banners."[/i][/color]

"How do you suppose this place got so ruined?" Nora wondered aloud as she headed that way.  "They must have had police at some point, how did the Aggressors get so out of control?"

"I was under the impression that is was one hell of a block party." Ursula chortled out, oozing sarcasm. 

"That doesn't sound like an enjoyable party."

[color=gray][i]"It was the Fracture."[/i][/color]

"The what now?" Malcolm asked Eli quizzically.

[color=gray][i]"At one point in time... the Zones were connected. All three of them, in the same fold in spacetime. Relatively close on the cosmic coil to our own reality. Something... happened. And they got split apart. The Denizens used to hunt the things in Zone 2 for sustenance. When they got cut off... it just came to this, eventually."[/i][/color]

"So this was some sort of haven utopia?" Malcolm said, trying to piece it all together in his own mind, but he did it through spoken words. "And now it's a cannibal warzone?"

Ursula put her hand to her head as she listened. "Woah... This is some freaky parallel universe shit? Dreams are getting way too complex. What about this Ram? Is he some sort of freaky phenomenon as well, or just another Aggressor?"

[color=gray][i]"I'm not sure. The surveillance team have caught him running around from time to time, but he always loses them. We think he might be working for someone."[/i][/color]

"What, like the KGB?" Ursula blurted out, scanning the horizon once more as she spoke, searching for clues like a good dream detective. "Or, like, the Mafia?"

"He's clearly a vigilante... like Batman!" Malcolm joked with Ursula as he looked around too.

[color=gray][i]"Like I said - we don't know anything for sure. But I think your best lead will be whatever's in that tower."[/i][/color]

The trio eyed their destination, readying themselves as they approached the top walkway of the tower in question. The crimson banners hung along its arches were still - not an indicator as to the life inside. But they'd hoped such.

[color=gray][i]"Careful. Don't know what's in there."[/i][/color]