---

"Status report."

"The inaugural run was a relative success. The team of volunteers managed to cover a lot of new ground and slightly improve the conditions within Zone 1. They've been informed of the nature of the other two Zones, and I will be doing the same with the rest of the facility's newcomers along the next few days. We keep this up and we'll stop seeing invaders within a week or so."

"If you can keep them going."

"I can and I will."

"Are you certain?"

"I have to be. Otherwise this whole operation would be a failure."

"Very well then. The Board will continue to support you and manage Kilander's legacy fund. But remember your objective; find a way to stop the invasions altogether, not just hold them at bay."

"Yeah, yeah, I understand. That all you need?"

"Drop that tone, Winzer."

"Make me."

---

---

With the inaugural run completed and the first day done and over with, Somniatis' operation has now entered into full swing. The night passes, with all the Zoners contemplating their situation and how they will deal with it in the long run. Many are positive - others, not so much. After another night of REM antics, you awaken on the second day, with the Nexus Projector and sleeping pills both ready to be utilized. Elias continues to watch the Zone grids, ready to alert the facility to any potential bleeders.

For now, you are free to do whatever you see fit to do. Explore all three of the Zones, engage the other characters, anything. No more directions, no more obligations.

It's all up to you now.

---

The shriek of mechanical parts failing, the sizzle and pop of dissolving soft matter. The sound of a whirring contraption winding down and a bellows ceasing to pump air. In his sleep, Tyler's face twisted and contorted as he subconsciously heard the sound of animalistic feeding, like a pig to slop. Drool dribbled from one of the corners of his mouth and onto the pillow below his head as he almost growled in his restless sleep. His muscles tensed and strained as he struggled in vain, before gasping into a waking cold sweat.

"Hey." Came a voice from the speaker hung up near the television. "You awake?"

Tyler shook his head and heard the jingling of metal reply. His wrists had a familiar chafe to them. A pressure. Cuffs. He sat up and looked around the room but found no personable origin for the voice, he replied regardless. "More or less. Where the hell am I?"

"Good question, isn't it?" The voice replied, "You'll get filled in a little later. For right now though, I need to hear some things from you."

Tyler pulled slightly at the restraints with a grunt before letting his arms flop back down into his lap. He let out a sigh, heavy and annoyed, before speaking. "Well, you must be the warden of this place, so what do you want to know? If it ain't already on my file, that is."

"Warden. Good one." The voice said, "My name is Elias. And I am in charge of things here, but it's not a prison. However, some of the folks the agents bring in are noted criminals. So I have to take precautions. First things first - can you confirm you've been having some strange dreams lately?"

"Name's Tyler, Elias. Excuse my manner, but this sure seems a lot like a prison... A fancy one maybe, but a prison. And sure, if you call crawlin' up the walls and munchin' on machine nasties strange then yeah, my dreams have been a step away from... average fare."

"That's what we're looking for. But like I said, I'll elaborate later - for right now, I'm gonna make you an offer. I work with an organization that can make a lot of different things happen without a lot of people knowing about them. I know you probably weren't enjoying your sentence, either. So here's the thing - I have a job for you. And a lot of other people. But I wanna know beforehand if you're gonna cooperate."

Tyler sucks on his teeth for a moment, thinking quickly. "You ain't wrong. But cooperation depends on how lucrative the offer is. We talkin' a clean slate here?"

"Cleanest slate there is. New name, new papers, new home even. We can set you up however you like. If you behave yourself. And if you do your job well."

"And if I have family? The offer extend to them?" He looks down at himself and picks slightly at his nails.

"We can arrange something for all of you."

He takes a deep breath before replying. "What wouldja need me to do?"

"Once again - I'll explain later. For now, just give me your word you'll cooperate, and the service bot outside will come in and uncuff you."

With a breath through his teeth, Tyler nods slightly. "Yeah... Yeah alright. I'll act the sensible boy scout as well as I can, for now."

"Good man."

---

The next day...

---

The soft, steaming burger almost swallowed Tyler's fingers as he dug into his first major meal of the day. The bun was so soft and the lettuce so crisp. So much better than food in the pen. This joint wasn't SO bad, considering the food and the treatment he had been receiving. They even took the cuffs off of his wrists, on account of his stellar behavior. How could he even commit a crime anyway, when he was stunned by such a delectable piece of food? They had even given him new digs to wear around the complex they had placed him in. A nice clean jumpsuit, black with a big red 3 on the arm. Much better than the muck-ridden mess he was wearing from the pen. He looked around at the other 'Zoners' present around him, all eating and conversing. If he was pleased with his current situation, his heavy brow and morose expression betrayed nothing of the sort.

Tyler took another bite of his burger and chewed slow to savor the flavor. What did he have to worry about, after all? With the service drones watching over him like a pack of hungry wolves, and the scrap of metal cafeteria seat tucked away beneath the folded seams of his jumpsuit's pant leg, he felt pretty safe for being cooped up yet again. Maybe he wouldn't even need to pack up shop and run. Maybe this deal was on the up and up, seemed pretty good so far with the food and the limited freedom. He scratched at his chest as he weighed the options and felt a flat, firm shape within his breast pocket. Tyler paused for a moment before fishing out the object to examine it. It was a picture. Big enough to fit in his wallet. A picture of a little girl, a cheerful looking thing with a face painted in the likeness of a cat. Sabrina. She looked too cute, too innocent to be of any relation to the severe, emotionless mess of a man that sat grimacing at her picture.

He managed to crack a minute smile as he said, "Don't worry kitten. Daddy'll be back home before you know it."

Depositing the picture back in his pocket, Tyler quickly finished his burger and left the tray upon the table before reporting to the area that held the Nexus Projectors. Just like he was briefed earlier, before he was released. Strange contraptions they had here, he couldn't help but think as he stood off to the side, away from the traffic of the other Zoners. He was content to look around for now, dipping his toe into the water before plunging his head in.

All night Nigel could only think about one thing, His missing Journal. He was trying to deduce possible suspects and two stood out, That nosey Lady and that sloppy boxer character. Both where the only ones around Nigel and both had a surprising interest in his journal. All that information about the second zone and his demonic REM form. Gone. Worst Than gone, Stolen. The rage generated from this terrible luck made Nigel kill at least twice as many of the beasts he normally would.

Nigel quickly got up, dressed into his uniform and started his way down to the Cafeteria. Whilst in the cafeteria, Nigel was supplied with a surprisingly fair quality Sandwich. Nigel decided to get a head start on most people and head down to Level N after delicately eating his Sandwich. With a full stomach, He made his way down to Level N and walked a fair distance to the other end of the room, away from the entrance and any other current zoners. He sat down and waited for his half conscious state to take him into the Hub.

Nexus

As Nigel's vision switched to a view of the Nexus hub, he could see that two new entrances have opened up. Peering through, Nigel could see his zone, the forest, and a sewer-like corridor. Nigel, being the flying being he is, decided to return to the city zone. Nigel didn't want to get stuck in a dank corridor with little knowledge on what lives in there. He also didn't want to just return to the jungle, he spends pretty much every night there anyway.

As Nigel enters the red city, he felt himself change into a half demon once again. This time, however, he was expecting it. After the transformation was complete, the first thing Nigel did was check his claws. It had finally regrown and he had a full set of sharp claws again. Feeling relieved that his claws do regenerate, Nigel launched himself into the sky once again overlooking most of the residential-looking houses, He scouted for Aggressors to kill while monitoring any other changes to his disadvantageous form.

Malcolm awoke after another rough night of REM. Malcolm walked out of his room and headed straight for the cafeteria. He manage to grab a bowl of cereal before sitting down and eating it. He had one goal today. He headed straight for the nexus. After getting Eli to help him to get hooked up to the nexus. Malcolm went straight to zone 2.

Malcolm, once again walked from a bright white light but this time he was in a building, this must have been the Foremans workshop. He wasn't on the right floor though? He looked like he was above, and that's when he found the stairs below. Malcolm descended the metal stairs and scanned the room, weapons spanning the wall and counters, then he laid eyes on the Foreman. The armored Denizen raised his head at the sound of Malcolm's footsteps, detaching himself from the station he was surveying. He raised his hand and waved Malcolm over, like he needed him for something. Malcolm followed, curious at the silent denizen's motifs, or even what he wanted him for.

As the two neared each other, the Foreman extended his hands and took hold of Malcolm's. He stared down at the rather large mechanical gauntlet and ran his fingers along it, moreso along the edge between the tips of the thumb and pointer. Malcolm merely watched, confused, and with a brow raised. Once the Foreman was finished with his observations, he let go of Malcolm's hand and approached a different station in the workshop. He turned his head and waved to Malcolm again - though, this time, in a more "go away while I work" sort of fashion.

Malcolm took the hint, leaving the workshop in a bit of confusion, he then tried to talk to Eli. "Hey Eli, can you locate me a power source?" He asked.

"There's, uh..." Eli responded, albeit a bit groggily, "Looks like there's a generator or something outside the Foreman's workshop. Doesn't look connected. I don't think the guy will mind. Whatever you plan on doing with it."

"I should need a little bit" Malcolm said, placing his hands on the generator Eli pointed out. Electricity surged through his augmentations, crackling around his fists in a blue flurry. After a minute, Malcolm had enough to fuel him. His gloves were now charged and from time to time blue electricity snapped and fizzled visibly for brief moments. "Now, where can we find the Ram?" He asked.

"You're asking me that? Seriously? After he pulverized you yesterday?"

"We've got to get him." Malcolm said. curling his hands into fists. "I WANT round two." He declared with determination.

"Revenge match. Of course. Well here's the thing - he doesn't show up on the grid. Ever. I don't know why or how, but that's just the way it is. So I can't help you find the guy. You're just gonna have to... take a stroll and see if he comes up."

"Interesting. Well I guess I'll get to high ground like before." Malcolm said, voicing his decision. Malcolm looked around, managing to find a tall building he went up the floors one by one, fortunately not running into any aggressors. Yet...

Tag @Horrid and to a lesser degree @Jabking

Upon waking, Nora contemplated the stolen journal. She had perused it fairly thoroughly the night before, and hadn't found it all that incredibly interesting. Information about Nigel's demon form and notes on Zone two; and Nora was pretty determined to steer clear of Zone 2. It did not sound like her kind of place.

The blonde briefly considered finding Nigel and returning his notebook. She could probably wrangle it into a brownie-point gaining situation, by saying she had removed it from the cafeteria to prevent the service bots from claiming it, or to protect it from further food spills. But Nigel didn't strike her as the kind of guy to show gratitude, and she suspected that she would have more influence over him by now returning the book than by returning it. Her decision was fairly obvious, then: after making her bed and dressing in a clean set of scrubs, Nora tucked the journal away into a desk drawer.

The cafeteria was relatively crowded, so after filling her tray with a bowl of milkless rice crispies and a plate of tomato, onion and pickle slices from the burger dressing station, she sat down in the first empty seat she found. It happened to be adjacent to a thin man in red-and-black Zone 3 scrubs, much like her own. He really seemed to be enjoying his burger.

"We didn't meet yesterday," she said without preamble. "Are you going to Zone 3 today? I think it would be advantageous to form a group. Safety in numbers, it is said."

---

Zone One was more or less as Bobby had left it. Red sky, red sun, red buildings. No flaming red Aggressors at the moment, though; that was a bonus.

He'd entered the Zone through the new portal that led directly into the Foreman's shop, arriving just as another Zoner was leaving. The Denizen seemed kind of busy, so Bobby wandered around the room, looking at schematics and blueprints of some pretty outlandish weaponry. Bobby didn't have a lot of experience reading blueprints - he was really more of a spreadsheet kind of guy - Junior VP of Sales and all.

There was a diagram of a handheld, axe-like weapon with curving spikes pinned to one surface; a more realistic drawing next to it seemed to show it glowing red hot along the cutting surfaces. Another broadsheet showed multiple cut-through views of an enormous drill; there were also numerous things that looked like projectile firearms, and some that seemed to be shooting lasers. He vaguely wondered if he could manipulate a conventional trigger with his long, straight claws.

As he was examining the schemata, the Foreman approached quietly one side, speaking slowly but quite unintelligibly in his alien language. It seemed like a question, but Bobby had no idea how to answer it. He just shrugged his shoulders and cocked his horned head to the side, hoping to clearly convey confusion. The Denizen pointed at one of the diagrams, then gently nudged the human until he was standing in front of it.

This one showed something like a more robust version of a sniper's rifle. The large barrel was ringed with several wired coils - annotated in Denizen squiggles - and there were diagrams of oddly shaped projectiles. And, to his delight, the trigger mechanism seemed to be a squeeze lever without a guard.

"Sweet," he murmured, turning his head to smile at the Foreman. The denizen waved his arms around a bit and then ignored Bobby, moving across the room to go back to one of the cabinets, rummaging around and occasionally throwing things into a pile. Curious, the weredrewsarchus crouched down by one of the walls to wait.

---

@Stairdweller

Tyler found himself staring a bit too hard at the Nexus Projectors and REM Lounge from where he was. The remains of the burger gurgled in his belly as he looked over at the many other Zoners filtering in and out, to and fro. Like a tide of red, black and white, constantly ebbing and flowing. His ruminations broke when a young woman sat across from him and spoke without proem, asking him about his plans to enter a Zone today. He cocked an eyebrow, gruff voice grumbling, "Want to form a gang, huh? Numbers might help in the pipes, so I don't see the harm."

He scratched at the significant stubble at his chin and nodded, "Yeah alright. Let's go now. No use in waiting on the sleep to find us, right." With a gravelly chuckle, he made his way over to a service drone and rapped a knuckle on its back. "Hey, 'scuse me tincan. How do I get to this 'Zone'?" The drone turned and scanned him, judging by its sweeping head movement. It took a moment before it turned again and began walking, mechanical voicebox emitting, "I will escort you to the Nexus Projector. Please follow me."

It was a short trip, but soon Tyler found himself slowly drifting into a sound sleep as he lay upon a metal death-trap of a chair. Before his eyes closed he saw the girl from earlier entering the area behind him. He guessed they'd meet up within, and with that he fell out of his body and back in.

And then he fell down, hard. It took a while for him to find his bearings and actually move from the freaky pyramid room into the Zone itself, but as soon as that stagnant air and metallic scent hit him, he felt at ease. His form was different from what he was used to, as he looked down at his hands and found boil-ridden, malformed digits taking theplace of his normal limbs. His steps felt sluggish, and now and then he shrieked as he moved. He felt like pus-bubble with the bottom half of a metal goat, as he felt fluid sloshing back and forth upon his arms and chest. He pulled up the hood of his ragged clothing and looked around.

Walking in anything but a hunch was uncomfortable, and as he loped around he saw that he was in a room full of powerless machinery, exiting into a large hallway. Forward and onward he moved through the hallway in a half-limp, half-hop. The hallway abruptly ended and came to a catwalk suspended over what seemed to be an unending darkness below. There was next to no light upon the catwalks, but in the shadow he could see a silhouette. He drew back, best to stay out of sight. As it stumbled forward, he knew it had seen him. He knew an Abomination when he saw one and he would have had a fight on his hands with this one.

Had it not been suddenly bathed in light. Tyler's eyes trailed down to the source of the searchlight and found that below the catwalks was a single tendril supporting a light. The Abomination looked down, and then back up at him as the beam of light narrowed and became more focused. The thing reeled in pain before it burst into flames and detonated, like a soup can in a microwave.

The searchlight continued on, roving past Tyler's form hidden in the doorway. He could see in the distance that additional searchlights were now beginning to flicker and sweep up from the inky blackness of the abyss below.

"Maybe I should wait for backup..." He said quietly, voice sounding like a gurgling, dying iron lung.

---

@SepticGentleman
"So what is this place supposed to be?" Ursula said as she wandered into the Foreman's workshop, retracing her steps from she entered the world when she 'woke up' the newly opened workshop, her curiosity getting the better of her. Blueprints and broadsheets and tools, oh my. She traced a finger over a rather intricate drawing of what looked to be a raygun, small motes of dust swirling around her form from the shop floor.

She looks more official and serious that before. Gone are the flowing strips of cloth from before, replaced by trappings of shiny grey leather and soft brown. Her skin looks crazy smooth and is almost like the color of gold, with hair that falls to her waist in a waterfall of molten silver. What a weird lookin' dame. Weirdest of all, two growths of rock seem to just jut from her shoulderblades like miniature cliffs upon her back.

Out the corner of her eye, she spotted another Zoner leaning by the wall, and she paused. It took her a moment to manage a wave, as she was swiftly intercepted by a Denizen in peculiar garb. Waving his arms and jabbering at her before nudging her over to the side as he looked at the blueprints with a curious, almost pigeon-like movement of the head and neck. He returned to his work in short order.

She could only shrug as she watched, utterly intrigued by all the blueprints and diagrams. The axe and the rifle, the sword and the drill. All so intricate and involved, all flying so far above her head in terms of construction and operation. Were these for an army? For the Denizens to fight back? She felt herself remembering the murals where she fought the Aggressors alongside Malcolm and Nora. Some sort of warring factions, trying to even the odds now that they have taken back this workshop? All questions she would need answers for. And only one person to go to. With a thought, she attempted to contact Elias. "Hey, uh, Mr. Elias sir... that big picture we saw before, when we interrupted the fireflies little initiation slash dinner. What was that all about and how do I get back there from here?"

Lenora Puglisevic

@Horrid

Lenora eyed the anaesthetic pills, attempting to identify exactly what they were. Although her interests were varied, she wasn't anywhere near knowledgeable enough with prescription medications to name the pink-and-black capsules. She wondered if these were related to the medications people were given for day procedures. Nora kind of hoped they weren't that strong - she didn't like the idea of being unable to wake up if someone accosted her in her sleep. Well, her alternatives were limited, and she was already pretty much completely in Somiantis's power anyway, so what was a little coma between friends? She downed the pills with a gulp of water and settled back in the reclining chair.

I'm not going to be able to fall asleep. I only woke up an hour ago. Nora might have felt a little mellow, but not sleepy. Her restless mind refused to allow her to fall asleep naturally, recalling the disastrous encounter with the Ram yesterday and mulling over plans to pick a fight in the cafeteria. She was certain of her consciousness and quite unable to imagine that the drugs would have any effect at all on her.

Until Nora quite suddenly realized that she was, in fact, sound asleep. She was made aware of this fact by the realization that she was -crouching in a coolant-stained, wire-strung tunnel, her dull grey boots submerged in an oily black puddle. The salmon-coloured light of sodium lamps strongly illuminated the concrete conduit, and her nose stung slightly with the familiar tang of artificial chemicals. Zone Three, her home-in-an-adjacent-reality-to-home.

She could feel something living above and to her right, just at the edge of her perception. The cyborg rose to her full height, rotating her neck with a faint crackle and limbering her limbs. In addition to her flesh arm and the skeletal mechanical one, she had acquired a third limb the night before. It was a small welding arm, articulated at three points, and it was bolted over her left shoulder blade, large, hexagonal pins appearing to spear through her grey jacket and into the flesh beneath. In her peripheral vision, she saw the blue-white flash of the welding arc, and smiled. She looked forward to testing it.

Without any other goal in mind, she headed for the living presence she could sense. It felt like a large, complex animal - a Zoner, probably, given that she had never seen anything alive down here except for the Abominations and the scavengers. It wasn't at all easy to get to. The impossibly twisted tunnels made it very difficult to navigate, and Nora had to move out of range of the other Zoner before she could climb up a level and approach again. It didn't help much that her target was clearly moving. She ignored other distractions as she homed in, dismissing the familiar signatures of scavengers moving nearby.

Nora crawled out of a square duct into a long hallway, much darker than the sodium-lit tunnel below. The living thing she had been following was a short distance ahead - beyond that, she had briefly felt the blur of an abomination, and there was something hard to parse moving far below. She approached the Zoner, intentionally letting her feet scuff against the floor to make a bit of warning noise.

"You smell awful," she whispered. The stench was like the penultimate vomit of a fatally poisoned jackal. Her sensitive nose wrinkled involuntarily. "Did we meet in the cafeteria? I am Nora." It was sometimes difficult to link waking people to zone people, and this goat-legged scarecrow plague-victim monstrosity was too distractingly hideous for her to easily identify. Well, he'd probably be hard to forget, too, on the bright side.

She watched in the direction he had been looking in before she approached. A catwalk stretched out into the darkness, illuminated here and there by roving searchlights. This was... new.

Malcolm strolled across the walkways connecting roof to roof. Thus far, no sign of The Ram. How did he turn up last time? Oh yeah, they took on the Crimson... thingy. "Hey Eli?" Malcolm asked. "Where can I find those Crimson guys from last time? Theyre trackable too, right?" He asked.

"Not really, no. None of them are individually powerful enough to show up on the grid. But what you, Ursula, and Nora did last time probably stirred up the area a bit. So you could probably find a patrol if you look around a bit."

"Right..." Malcolm replied. He scanned the streets below, trying to find any sign of the Crimson Matriarch's soldiers. Nothing on the west side. Malcolm jogged north of the roof. Nothing below. Malcolm decided to walk over to the next building. He heard distant chattering below in this Zone's alien language. Malcolm peered down, and that's when he saw them.

Seven in total. All dressed in the same uniforms as the ones from before. They were each carrying a rifle, save the supposed leader, who went unarmed and unmasked. They were some ways away, and they hadn't spotted Malcolm yet.

Malcolm decided to go the same way he did before. He simply dropped down, and about halfway down he dug his left glove into the building, slowing his descent and bringing rubble down with him. One of the soldiers turned and pointed up at Malcolm, shouting. They all turned, raised their rifles, and fired. The officer merely watched. Malcolm quickly swung his fists up into a block, the bullets pinging and ricocheting off in different directions. Malcolm slowly but surely made his way to the closest one, one step at a time. When Malcolm was finally close enough, Malcolm quickly returned the bullets with an uppercut. The aggressor was not only met with a metal fist but also the electricity stored in his fists too. The officer backed away as his men formed a guard in front of him, two of them raising to fire their rifles while the other three took a moment to reload theirs. Malcolm rolled forward to close the gap to the next aggressor, who was just about to push the clip into its rifle. Malcolm aimed a gutshot to double it over, stunning it with brute force and a surge of electricity before standing up and throwing a punch on the back of its head. Malcolm then felt pain in the back of his left shoulder, he was shot by the aggressor next to the one he just took out. A moment or two passed before he was shot again, a little more closer to the spine but not enough for serious damage, never mind the adrenaline pumping through Malcolm right now. He turned to face the aggressor and took a couple of steps forwards while gearing up an uppercut. Malcolm swung upwards and knocked the gun out of its hands before landing a right straight into its chest.

The remaining three aggressors and their officers reared back. The troopers set their rifles aside, each of them drawing what looked like batons from their belts. The officer's head and hands began to develop thin, rising distortions as he continued to back away. He made a swiping motion with his right hand, and the troopers charged. Malcolm saw the three and he bashed his fists together. "You want more!?" He called out in a taunt. The fastest aggressor swung at his head, which Malcolm responded with a dodge. The second soldier went for a downwards swipe which Malcolm could only lean to avoid. The third aggressor caught him off guard and struck a blow to his head, sending Malcolm spinning backwards and onto the floor. Malcolm struggled to get up, when he got to his hands and knees Malcolm spat out some blood, making a small splatter on the pavement. He stood up and wiped his mouth with his arm, the cold metal brought Malcolm's senses back from the grogginess and he felt ready. He lifted his fists up into his pose. His left hand slightly more forwards than his right. He bounced lightly on his toes. "That all you got?" He asked the three, awaiting their next attacks. Malcolm planned to throw counter punches like his teacher taught him to when he was on the ropes.

Suddenly, that familiar scream. The troopers and the officer lowered their weapons and began to back away. Malcolm darted his vision to and fro as he attempted to locate the Ram. He never managed to spot him before there was a brief quake beneath his feat. He turned his head as it subsided, and there the enemy stood. Hunched over, arms hanging, legs crackling with explosive energy. The two eyed each other for a moment before the Ram slowly began to make his approach. Malcolm went back to his stance, bouncing on his toes and keeping his fists up. The Ram let out a quick yell before charging, turning and raising one of his legs the moment he got close. "Come on!!!" Malcolm yelled back, rolling to the left to avoid the kick. "Not this time!" Malcolm said as he turned and stood up. Malcolm went through his own charge, raising his right fist up. The Ram countered with a punch to Malcolm's gut. Malcolm grunted as the Ram hit him, with such force he had never felt before, and he was immediately on his hands and knees. Coughing, Malcolm weakly raised his head, witnessing the Ram taking a couple of steps back before finishing Malcolm off with a punt to the head, as if his face was a football. For the second time Malcolm was defeated, his vision was black, then similarly went to white.



@Horrid

"Yeah, sure, I'll point you in the right direction. Malcolm's in the area, he should- oh, uh, hold up."

Eli hit Malcolm's designator to stop it from beeping and rose from his seat. He looked out over the console to the young man waking up in his chair. "Got your ass kicked?" He called out.

Malcolm chuckled, "Yeah" He said, almost disappointed. He sat hunched over in his seat for a moment or two, contemplating the fight. How could he beat this... this thing? Maybe the Foreman had something? An equaliser? Malcolm rushed over to Eli's console, putting his hand on the operator's shoulder. "Put me back in there." He requested in earnest. Surprisingly he didn't feel sick like last time.

"Aren't you the go-getter." Eli responded after a brief pause.

"Ive got a plan!" Malcolm said. "We've been missing weapons!" Malcolm explained. "The Foreman must have some he wants to get rid of, right?"

"If you think that'll change anything, go ahead and take a look around his workshop."

Malcolm nodded and jogged back to his chair, eager for the next round.

In collaboration with @SepticGentleman

---

Henry, for the longest time, had always seen himself as the unconventionally attractive nice guy. Sure, he had an okay personality for a person who cannibalized in their sleep, but that would only get him so far. For the past week or so he had been hitting up the exercise room in the facility, mainly the treadmills. He had met a bodybuilder named Anthony there earlier in the morning and, despite the age gap and sheer different, the man had been a breath of fresh air into Henry's previous perception of what people at the gym were like. The man wasn't big on running, in fact he could only run about as far as henry could because he did mostly weights, but through the conversation they began having about the zones and common ground they had, it... it was actually pretty nice.

He remembered the conversation.

---

"I saw you, yesterday." Anthony stated, huffing somewhat to make up for the breathing he lost while speaking. Henry turned his head, drenched in sweat under his arms and on his chest. But he was jogging. He was actually doing it. Henry looked at Anthony for a moment, attempting to form words in his delirious mind before speaking. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"I-" Anthony said back, huffing again to breath. "Saw you..." another pause. "-In Zone two last night... You're the... big one, right?" he questioned. Henry looked forward. This was somewhat embarrassing. "I heard you helped out... on the inaugural run too.." Anthony continued. Shit.

"It's no secret that... I wanna be fit." was Henry's final response. He reached his hand out and slapped the stop button on the treadmill, putting his hands on his knees and heaving for a moment. Anthony himself stopped the treadmill too, less tired but still sweating. He walked over to Henry and put his hand on his back. "I'll tell you what kid," he said, breathing again for a moment. "You cover my ass like you did for them, and I'll be your exercise buddy." he said. Henry looked up to the man in disbelief. Of all the people who wanted to help him, this man, who could be here with one of the few gym bunnies around the gym, was offering to help him instead?

"What do you say?"

Henry didn't even have to think.

---

It had definitely been and experience for him, and a big reason for him to pursue his goal even more. He had a friend to work with now and a coach of sorts. All he had to do was keep him alive at night. He could do that. He could definitely do that. He'd do it anyways just for being as kind as he was and running with him. Things were looking better, and it had him giddy even now several hours later. Now he was going to the Nexus, planning on visiting the red city again. He had heard tales about something called 'The Ram' that everyone seemed to be having a lot of difficulty dealing with and he wanted to see what all the commotion was about. Just as he entered, one of the kids who got into the little fight the day before was jogging back to his chair, apparently having had his rear handed to him, shouting about weapons of some kind.

"Hey, mind if I tag along?" Henry said, stepping into the Nexus and grabbing a chair. He knew Eli was giving him the middle finger, even if he couldnt see him. "I've heard all this talk about something called and 'Ram', and I'm curious now." Henry said a wicked smile on his face.

He was already feeling hungry.

@SepticGentleman
@gingerboi123

---

Miriam was already in the Nexus from the moment she had woken up that morning. She had eaten, changed, and was wheeled over immediately. She didn't give a damn about real life. She didn't have much left and there wasn't much she could do with it now. The dream world was a different story though. She had been at the foreman's workshop for a while, mainly reviewing schematics and listening to what little the foreman said. The weapons were all very different but also very similar to those of the real world. Swords were the most similar, but the gun's mechanics were a new breed all to foreign to her. It made her want to know what else was part of this strange world.

She had quickly learned that the difference between her REM self and NEXUS avatar was that, in the Nexus, she lacked the ability to throw fire. It was an interesting conundrum because fire in and of itself allowed her to manipulate Aggressors and use their power against them. Now she only had the limited ability to absorb their attacks, which meant that she actually had to fight them now. And because her main method of transportation was turning into smoke, she couldn't use any of the weapons that the foreman had offered her. Which really sucked.

But that had been a little while ago. At this point she had been exploring. Denizens had been especially taking her interest since she had bore witness to how intelligent they were. The marketplace, where few of them resided and interacted, had caught her attention first. Denizen culture was strange to a foreigner like herself. Aggressor bodies were often out on display and they actually fed on their bodies in a way somewhat similar to how Henry had. There had been a few ways they did this, she had noticed. Some in vials and glasses, or right off the bone. She also noticed that their exchange system was heavily focused on bartering, often with communication in their strange language between shopkeepers and the street-roamers. However, every now and again a denizen would produce a vial of fluid that the others often saw as high value and circumvented the bartering process, or took priority. Every denizen she had seen seemed to be masculine in nature, and their community seemed to lack females or juveniles. That would be a case she would have to look into.

She looked over the side of the tent she had been sitting on in observation. Two denizens were conversing in that language of their, every now and again looking up to her, pointing, then continuing to talk. She watched them, playing with her long black hair as the two beings conversed between one another. Many had done this, and it seemed she was known to them for her actions the day prior and her role in the aggressor slaughter had not gone unnoticed. They revered her, but they didn't seem scared of her. It was different.

One of the aggressors below her walked away, but the other remained, motioning for her to come down to her and calling up at her. She gave it a strange look. This was new. She uncrossed her legs and slid off the tent-top, scaring the hell out of the shopkeep who had been unaware of her presence on his room. The denizen who called her down laughed, and then it's friend returned, holding what looked to be three martini glasses with a red liquid inside them. It passed one to the to the denizen that called her down, and then one to her. They lifted their glasses and said "Chokya!", clinking them together. Miriam, seeing this, did the same, raising her glass and exclaiming "Chokya!" herself, clinking them with the other two, who looked her for a moment before their limited facial features contorted. They both shouted "Chokya!" again, and this time more of the denizens around them looked over and exclaimed it themselves.

The two denizens downed their drink, which had the consistency of a smoothie, and she, not wanting to be left out, did the same. Her facial features contorted. It tasted like burnt meat. She looked at the two, who seemed to be watching her and internally sighed, before downing liquid. She looked between the two and gave a half smile and then pointed to herself. "Miriam." she said. The denizens looked to one another and then back to her. One raised their hand and pointed to itself. "Miriam?" it said, sounding unsure. Miriam shook her head and grabbed the denizen's wrist, turning it to point to herself. "Miriam." she corrected. The denizen seemed to ponder this for a moment before it spoke again. "Miriam!" it said, it hand still pointed at her. It tapped it's friend on it's friend's chest to get it's attention and then said "Miriam!" again. It's friend looked at her, then to the other denizen's hand and then raised it's own hand to point at her. "Miriam!"

Pretty soon every denizen that she passed pointed to her and shouted "Miriam!" as loud as it could.

What had she done.

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@Stairdweller

Tyler jumped at the sudden activity and the sound of speech. Backup arrived quicker than he had thought. He turned with his head hung low, hood shadowing his face. "Never quite... noticed it, myself." His words were drawn out and harsh as they came through his jagged, toothy mouth. He twitched in the jowls as he refrained from making note on his lack of olfactory instruments. The fluid bubbling and pulsing beneath his skin was beginning to intensify slowly. Where had he seen this girl's face before? Just a few minutes ago, wasn't it? Yes, this was the woman who tried to make small talk when he was having his meal earlier, his new partner. He spoke with the tone of a struggling, car engine, "Ahhh, Nora is it? Yes... I remember you. I'm... Tyler. You caught me... with a full plate... so to speak." A gurgling chuckle. A disgusting noise.

A sound of slithering along the catwalk made Tyler turn once more and shudder slightly, those things, the searchlight beasts, they were still patrolling the catwalks in search of more things to turn into fine dust. He raised a four-digit hand and made a 'get down' gesture. "We'll have... more time for talking... later. For now, we have to... get around... these... things." He thumbed out over to the catwalk where the roving lights could be seen within the darkness. "From what I've seen... we'll want to stay out of the light." He rasped before stepping out onto the catwalk slowly, his flat-toed mechanical food slowly coming down with a whir. One foot after the other he walked, slowly advancing in search of an exit. Periodically some luminous green liquid would seep from his hands, hitting the floor below and sizzling there, sending up a small wisp of smoke.

With an exasperated groan, he crouches a few meters from an intersection in the walkways and curses under his strained breath. "I can't see... a damn thing. Goddamn... caution lights just don't... exist here." His breathing was heavy as his milky-white eyes strained against the shadow. "Not a damn... thing like a torch or a... flashlight." He pats down his tattered rags and sighs in despair, a labored sound of struggle. How the hell would they get through here if it might all be one big empty space?

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@SepticGentleman
@GingerBoi123

Ursula nodded before Elias was cut off. She knocked on her own skull, her opalescent skin shattering and reforming with the shockwaves of each impact of her knuckles. "Hello? You still there, Mr. Elias? You going through a tunnel or something, what is the deal?" She heard mention of Malcolm, thankfully a familiar name. With a look around the workshop she nodded. "Okay so I'll just head over to him then. Where is he?" The background noises were cluing her in somewhat. Asses being kicked, going back in, weapons. She could only assume that someone had been served a heaping helping of pain once more. The mention of the Foreman made her tilt her head. "So he's coming here now? Got an appointment with the nutty professor here?"

She spared a look over to the Foreman and found him to be staring back at her, waving his arms angrily and warbling in his strange, alien tongue. Ursula could not help but giggle. What a funny little Denizen he was. Speaking of little, she forgot that her height was so different in her REM form. After being in her Nexus form, the difference was even more apparent. She shook with excitement at the prospect of getting back out there into the action. Though she may have been aversive to violence, the adrenaline rush of running around and pursuit was hard to ignore. The chase being its own reward, as they said. Ursula felt her eyes once again being drawn back to the blueprints that lay scattered about the workshop. Weapons, she overheard, but these kinds of weapons, she did not expect. Axes and swords, yes. But lasers and drills and cannons? What was this Foreman thinking?

Something she would need to find out. She turned, taking a long-legged step over to the Denizen and tapping him on the shoulder before pointing to the blueprints. "So, what is it that you have planned for these?"

Malcolm looked over to Henry "Sure thing kid." He said cheerfully with a nod. Malcolm entered the Nexus once more and arrived upstairs in the workshop again. Malcolm rushed down the stairs, looking about for the Foreman. He was talking to Ursula, (well communicating to say the least) one of the women from the first confrontation with the Ram. Malcolm wasn't sure if Henry could physically fit into the workshop, seeing as he recalled him being some massive beast. Malcolm politely waited the Foreman to be done with Ursula so he could as for a weapon.

Nigel looked around for aggressors to fight, but the streets were strangely absent. His wings feeling slightly worn out, Nigel landed on the roof of a small residential building, presumably flats. From there he surveyed his fairly run-down surroundings. Tall buildings rose around him for a distance, some shorter and some taller than the one he was currently on.

Nigel decided that, instead of sitting around for something to happen, he would explore the building he had landed on. After travelling down a set of stairs, Nigel found himself on the top floor. He nonchalantly walked though the closest door and found what seemed to be a family room, simply speculated from the Toys scattered around the large room.

Quickly after taking a step into the room, A tall aggressor kicked though one of the many doors and into the main lounge where Nigel was currently placed. After reading the situation it had got itself in, the Aggressor put up it's hands and braced itself for a fight. It was using a knuckle duster with barbed wire haphazardly attached to it, obviously cutting into the Aggressor's skin. Does it not care? Nigel thought as he identified the weapon. Taking advantage of Nigel's unprepared state, The Aggressor swung straight at Nigel. Nigel attempted to dodge but was still hit by the barbed wire, which left 4 small cuts across Nigel's left cheek.

Nigel reacted viciously by using his right claw to completely take off the Aggressors right arm, effectively disabling it as that was the arm equipped with the knuckle dusters. Both the aggressor and it's arm hit the ground in sync, while Nigel wiped alot of blood of his face which was a combination of his own and the Aggressors. "You know" Nigel started explaining "I have to thank you, you've helped show me my limits and I must applaud you." The Aggressor squirmed as Nigel put his foot on the creatures neck. "I'll end this quick" He finished.

Snap

After a quick and helpless flail from the Aggressor, as well as a pathetic squeal, the Creature completely stopped moving... And breathing. Nigel sighed at the shameful amount of alertness he showed at the beginning of that fight. After a quick look at the mess he had made, he moved towards a cracked window, revealing a sight blocked by buildings. He stood there for a while, wondering what he should do next.