Vulcan was wandering through the forest, constantly checking over his back for several threats. This forest was home to danger the people in the city couldn't grasp. The creatures...they were mutated to an extent even he couldn't quite grasp. Vulcan wandered, checking for such creatures. He walked along a small trail of crushed leaves, going to his small cave-like home. "Fitting for a beast..." He was also worried about all the bandits and such, murdering the people and animals trapped here, to make a living, for sport, or just to kill. There are many types of people in this FORM world. Ever since that helmet defected, millions got transferred to the city, a "haven" previously built by the creators as the center of social activity. It was crushed, and rebuilt as a place of murder and deception. No one was who they truly said they are. The same goes for the manbeast walking through the woods right now. He was mutated, as was other people and animals. He wondered why animals were included, and thought the FORM helmets transferred the minds of animals with the humans. He thought about these things constantly. He had the power to change back to human form, but he felt...strange when he did. He felt weak and powerless. But in this mutant form, he had power. And he had a position of power along with it. People ran from him, therefore fear played its role. When the animals started attacking random people, he was blamed, and fear took its toll. He was considered a murderer. And he was tired of being ran from. He wanted people to accept him. But he knew...that wasn't likely to happen.

Her face plunged into the ground, causing a gush of blood to ooze out of her chin. Wicked laughter echoed in the alley as she forced her bruised legs to stand and shakily break into a run.

"Where do you think you're running, girl?" the low voice hissed behind her, sending shivers to run down her spine. Tears were welling in her eyes as she brushed them roughly with her hand to clear her vision.

No...

The brick wall signalling a dead end caused her legs to crumple beneath her. The same laugh ensued the sound of stopping footsteps not two feet away from her. "Now, you're just like a trapped little mouse, aren't you?" the voice mocked. Elie felt a hand pull at her trembling arms as the man pinned her to the wall. His rotten breath filled her nostrils, hazing her mind as he hissed inches away from her face. "You shouldn't have ran."

"You shouldn't have caught up..." she choked as a lone tear rolled down her cheek and her vision blackened.

. . .

After God knows how long, Elie fluttered her eyes open before gingerly pushing her arms against the ground to lift up her body. Her eyes warily scanned her surrounding as tears cleansed her muddy cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered before she walked away, leaving the the bleeding corpse on the ground.

Vulcan yawned, glad for waking up unharmed for the day, and stretched, his arms' metallic joints creaking as he couldn't have oiled them the day before. He wandered out, and decided to find some of the trees to make a synthetic lubricant, as the creaking was starting to annoy him. As he slashed at a few trees to see if the sickly grey sap would ooze out, he finally found one, a large, ashen tree, and carved a hole for the sap. It was very runny for sap, and he simply let it run over the joints, making them cleaned and squeak-free. From there, he went out to hunt, and find something to eat. To him, food was food, the taste nothing.

Sitting within a large abandoned building that would almost look like a skyscraper from the outside. The building itself looked almost as though it had rusted it's metals in many spots from the inside. This had caused many different holes to form on the external part of the building so that anyone would be able to look into the large building from the outside. However, not much view would be shown due to the electricity within the large building itself had been cut off long ago. So obviously enough, if anyone were to look into the building it would be only pitch black is all they would see.

Sitting at what seemed to look like the 6th floor of the building, there was a young boy dressed in all white that had what looked like a white hoodie pulled over his head to hide his wolf-like ears. He had stared down at the city toward each of the people that walked around to enjoy their life. Once again, just like his old neighborhood all the boy could hear was people in different areas of the city fighting one another, if not with their fists it was with weapons such as guns. He sat right at one of the holes that was revealed on the building, however other then the other holes if someone were to look at the hole he was sitting it, they would easily be able to see him. "Hmmm..nothing is even different around here..might as well explore." Were the only words that seemed to escape his lips before the young boy decided to jump out of the 6th floor window, landing onto his feet perfectly fine. Readjusting his hood slightly to hide his wolf-like ears as well as straightening out his pants a bit to make sure his tail was hidden fine in his pants.

Next time why don't you just run when you get the chance?
It's unnecessary for you to kill them, Liz.

She slipped her pen through the book's binder before flipping through the earlier pages. This book was her only medium to communicate with... her. She touched the written pages lightly and skimmed the words.

Don't be scared—

Flip.

I'm sorry you're hurt, I'll be more careful next time. I—

Flip.

I'm doing this for you, Elie. All for you.

She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the book, feeling the cold metal binder touch her skin. A quite sob escaped her lips, but left her eyes dry.
No, this is not the time to cry. Not again.

Elie lifted herself up from the ground and started walking, her legs slightly trembling for the injury. Going to the hospital was a useless cause here in FORM. There were too little cure and too much injury and no promise of security at all anywhere in such a crowded area. You were better off sitting in a quiet corner and pray to God no one noticed your existence while you're waiting for your blood to dry. She held her gaze low and hid herself beneath her rain coat even though the sky was dry and the sun was blaring with brute force.

Somewhere, she heard a shrill voice calling desperately for help. Eli shut her eyes and kept on walking. Nothing. I heard nothing.

As always, this was a normal day in FORM. She wondered, as she studied the crack in the pavement, will change ever come to this wretched place?

While the teenaged boy made his way around the city with his hood pulled over his head, he had made sure to keep his head down the entire time. Making sure anyone he had passed made no eye contact whatsoever. He hadn't wanted to start any trouble against himself even though that was probably going to be impossible in this world. Everyone in this world had to fight for survival and then there were even people who fought as well as killed innocent people just because they enjoyed the sensation of seeing the person bleeding to death if not hearing their screams of agony. Immediately stopping in the middle of his tracks when the young teenager had noticed that there was a man standing down the sidewalk in front of him. Still keeping his head down, the teenage boy remained silent as though he was waiting for the man to speak first. "Hey kid, what do you think your doing walking around these parts of the city alone? Didn't anyone ever teach you that it's dangerous around here?" The older male spoke as he began to take a few steps forward to the teenage boy who still remained still. "Truly..nothing changes, no matter where I go.." The teenage boy whispered quietly to himself, only to look up toward the older man approaching him.

Within nearly seconds, the teenage boy was now walking in the opposite direction of where he was originally walking. The older male's head crushed into the sidewalk, all that remained was his body sticking out of the ground; lifeless. Truly, the boy didn't wish to kill the man but in this world it wasn't as though he had much of a choice. He had tried multiple times to leave his attackers alive out of the kindness in his heart, however he had found out that was a bad idea since he was attacked right from behind as he had tried to walk away from the person. Forcing him to kill the same attacker he had planned to let live. The young boy's name was Makoto, even if he may had looked and acted as though he was a kind young child that was pretty much weak and unprepared for anything. No one has ever thought about the weapon he carried on his back, hidden underneath his large hoodie sweater.

Soon enough while Makoto had continued to make his way down the opposite path he went down. He had ended up finding what looked like another young person walking ahead of him. Squinting his eyes lightly to look at the person, he was able to figure out that it was a female with what looked like dark purple hair. Curious on why she was walking around here, Makoto began to sneak into the darkest corners as he followed her to where she was planning on going. Unaware if she was another killer looking for her next victim or not, Makoto kept following her. If she was truly another one of those senseless killers, it would probably depend on who she was planning to attack on whether or not he'd jump in to help.

It's never safe here in FORM. So, if you want to survive, you have to prepare yourself for it and you have to quickly learn from your experiences. Elie quickened her steps, aware that she had been trailed for a while now. The girl was driven to paranoia as she started breaking in a run. That was when she realized her mistake—you should never run in the city of FORM.

Why?

Because when you run away, there'll always be people chasing after you.

"She went that way! Keep following her!"

Five... no, six, she estimated from the sound of the rhythmic footsteps. She could hide. She was always good with hiding. Hiding was better because then she doesn't have to come out. Right, she should hide. But, where? Elie made a hurried observation of her surroundings. Alley? No, not again. Abandoned building? No building in FORM is ever truly abandoned. There's always someone there. Where... where—there!

Elie climbed up the wired fence, cutting her hands in the process. The blisters stung but she ignored it as she jumped over to the other side before ducking into a ditch. Her heart was thumping loudly in her chest as she held her breath, fearing that even a single sound might betray her. A nervous, breathless chuckle escaped her lips when she finally heard the footsteps of her pursuers fading in the distance as she closed her eyes, resting her head between her knees. "I-I made it..."

"Don't be so sure, missy."

The blade was already threateningly close the her neck before she even realized what was happening. Oh no.

And that was the last thing that Elie remembered. Because at that moment, the one with a knife hovering over her throat and a crooked grin slowly curving on her lips—was Liz.

Continuing to follow the young girl the whole way around the city, Makoto had began to suspect that she was just leading him around in circles in hopes to catch him off guard. Slipping both his hands into his pant pockets, the moment she had began to run off his eyes widened up in shock as he began to slip around the dark corners of the streets and sidewalks to make sure he stayed out of sight. It hadn't taken him long to hear other voices of both men and women starting to call out as well as running at full speed in the direction female he was following. Turning his head back simply once to take a look behind him, he had seen the multiple different men and women charging pass him as he hid within the darkness. "Eh?...Who're they chasing?...her?" By the time Makoto had returned his gaze back onto the dark purplish haired girl, he had seen her climb over a fence onto the other side. The fence itself looked rather sharp and dangerous to even touch, so seeing her climb over it was quite obvious she had to have hurt herself doing so.

Instead of taking the short way she had done so as well, by the time the others had run past her position. Makoto had decided to make his way around the fence and notice that her body along with another which looked just like a male's were inside what looked like a small indent on the ground. Making sure he hadn't caused himself to fall into that same mess, he simply kneeled down on the grassy floor as he stared down at them. The female that seemed to had been running all this time had what looked like a strange grin on his lips, just seeing that brought the thought of his own about her being a killer was nearly proven to Makoto. "Uhh, you okay?" were the only words that had come out of his lips, part of his mind had regretted asking such a question to a person that lived in this world since the last time he had done so, he ended up having the person jump after him as though they wanted to kill him.

There was a man behind her, holding a knife to her throat. Nothing out of the ordinary. Liz pulled out the shotgun from the belt of her jeans and without a single hesitation pulled the trigger directly at the man's temple in one swift movement. Goodbye. The sound of the shot was loud, but in FORM, no one even bats an eyelash to that oh so familiar sound anymore.

"Ugh," she grunted, scrutinizing the blood that had splattered on her raincoat. Luckily the blood didn't reach any other part of her body apart from the hand she had used to point the gun. She wiped it warily on the ground, wincing as the blisters stung with every contact, before she felt another presence within the proximity. Her gun was already pointed at the boy before she even took the time to look up to him. Her stare were cold and her voice chilled in the air as she hissed. "Who are you?"

But before he could answer, she collapsed to the ground.

Elie woke up with a start. Wha...? She rubbed her tired eyes and briefly acknowledged the lifeless body beside her. She mumbled her usual post-killing apology and pulled herself back on her feet. She halfheartedly took in her surroundings before she froze at a towering figure over the ditch.

Someone... alive? That-that can't be. Liz only disappears once she confirms that all threat is gone. W-wait, then that means... this boy is harmless?

A childish, naive grin spread to her lips, her whole face lit up with innocent relief as she looked up to the boy. Maybe it was because she had previously accepted the dark fact that she would always wake up to the—literally—lifeless atmosphere that she couldn't help but be overflowed with happiness to see the breathing boy. "Who..." she squeaked. Her eyes twinkled as she repeated the same question louder, but with a warmer tone that contradicted heavily with her previous counterpart. "W-who are y-you...?"

Vulcan decided to see how badly the city was today. He didn't really have anything else to finish up. He had his food reserves hidden, freshly oiled is joints, he had a bite to eat. The only thing to do, was walk in and see what happens. As Vulcan crossed the city border, he started to act like the creature he was, of course, it was an act. He couldn't really hurt someone, as it was against his nature. As long as they didn't attack him. He walked along the streets, his claws grinding against the broken cement sidewalks, seeing the occasional child run into their house to hide. "Hmph..." Vulcan continued walking, silently noting the small changes. He came into the city every week, maybe more than twice a week. It all depended on how BORED he was. He continued down, making sure no one was going to stab him in the back, as he had small sensors attached to his spine to note any life signs behind him. "It's useful to be a machine in this city...now isn't it..."

While Makoto had continued to kneel right above the ditch to watch the event of the male and young girl play out. His own thoughts were on that she was going to get herself killed at this very moment. It wouldn't be anything different in this city, people seemed to had enjoyed the feeling of the kill in this world. However, the grin that the young girl had was a big confusion to how she could be giving such confidence when she was in the face of danger. Seeing the sudden gun being pulled out from her side only to end up immediately blasting the adult male within his head without even giving it a second thought. Makoto's own eyes simply widened up in shock to wonder how quick her reaction was before she had gotten herself killed. Without much awareness of his own, his fluffed white tail still hidden underneath his pants began to wag with a bit of interest on knowing how she was able to do that.

Quickly enough when the same female had turned around to end up pointing the weapon straight toward Makoto. He was quick enough on his own feet to be able to jump back, allowing him to stand straight up on his toes as though he were just about ready to bolt off in the opposite direction. Makoto was indeed quick and agile to avoid several bullets, but being fired at over and over wouldn't be too good for him. Even he wasn't that quick on his feet, listening to the attitude with the question that followed with it toward him. Right as he had opened his own mouth to get ready to say something, seeing as the young girl had quickly fallen to the floor. Makoto could only raise a single eyebrow in even more confusion, that was strange. By the time she had stood back up to her feet only to ask Makoto once more on who he was, this time the voice sounding much more gentle and warm his jaw slightly dropped in complete and utter shock on how fast her personality changed. "Uhhh...I'm..Makoto Takashashi. Nice to meet you?...and you are?" He had answered her question and asked the same in return, not even bothering to ask what had just happened.

Not long after he had answered the young girl's question, both his wolf-like ears hidden under his hood began to twitch slightly from hearing what sounded like claws grinding across the ground. The sound itself was nearly unbearable, it had sounded like fingernails crawling itself down a chalkboard. Whatever or whoever was making that sound was no doubt not human, as though anyone within this city was even considered human any longer. Whatever it had been, there was no doubt that it was close by. Unaware if it was dangerous or not, Makoto tried to keep it on the side of his mind wondering if the female had known about what it could've been.

Vulcan continued to lumber down the sidewalks, his claws creating their own cracks in the pavement. He noticed a few people hiding as they saw him, scared for their lives. he couldn't blame him. To a normal person, this FORM looked as if it was out of a nightmare. Soon after, he noticed a boy in white, and wondered if he would, as the others, run. Vulcan began to walk a little slower, so as he passed, he could get a good look at him. It's not every day someone chose a FORM as small as that. In this city, people always had something special about them. From their weaponry, to how they looked, it was always...dangerous in someway.

She was glad that the boy talked to her—how long has it been since she'd talk to a person?—but she felt nervous with the introduction. Despite her hesitation, she managed a small smile. "Nice to meet you, too. I'm Eliza—uhh, Elie! C-call me Elie," she stuttered, twisting her fingers into a knot.

The boy seemed distracted by something. She strained her ears, wondering what was it that stole his attention. As she did this, she noticed her Glock 26 laying on the ground and quickly retrieved it, fearing that the boy might see. That was also the first time since she regained consciousness that she was aware of the blood stains all over her raincoat. She thought in dismay how she may appeared in the lens of the stranger. "This is..." she began to explain, but her lips froze when she saw a figure heading their way. A figure, with his metallic skin and poisonous claw, so distinctive it would take a blind person to not be aware how different this person really was.

Vulcan.

Elie lifted her weapon and pointed it to the monster. "Vulcan," she spat, angry tears welling up in her eyes. "You—you caused all this," her voice was a low hiss, but the evident tremble it contained betrayed her bravado. Unwavering from her slip, Elie tightened her jaw and positioned her forefinger at the small trigger. Pull the trigger. This nightmare will all end when you pull that trigger. The memory of her smiling parents flashed in her mind as a loud sob escaped her lips. Her whole body shook violently before her face crumpled as she loosened her grip on the gun and let it fall to the ground. "I can't—I can't do it..."

Listening to the sound of whatever was grinding across the sidewalk, Makoto's wolf-like ears continued to twitch from underneath his hood as he turned his head back and forth to figure out where the noise was coming from. Soon enough as the sound continued to grow louder by the moment, Makoto soon turned his attention behind him to see what looked like a strange monstrous creature making it's way forward toward him and the girl in front of him. At first sight, he couldn't help but have both his eyes widen up in shock. Who wouldn't have just stared at the beast in fear at how it had looked. Many people around this world especially in this city acted just like monsters by killing others nearly everyday. Although, never had Makoto seen an actual monster roam around the city like the one that was making his way in front of him at the very moment.

Remaining standing still as he had watched the beast step closer every moment. Makoto could still hear the female behind him answer his question while his attention was still partially upon the monster. He was indeed curious on why she had stuttered on saying her name, although whatever the reason maybe, he paid most of his focus on the beast before him in case it had planned to attack. Hearing the girl named Ellie call the monster Vulcan, he couldn't help but turn his head back to look at the girl in shock on how she had known it's name. Seeing her point her weapon toward the beast and having her own hands tremble as she held onto the gun. Makoto refused to speak a single word for the moment since he wasn't too sure what would be the better idea at this point, attack the beast and have it possibly attack them back in return or just stand there and hope that the beast meant no harm.

Soon, returning his gaze back onto the beast called Vulcan approaching them. Makoto could only stare for a moment in a bit of both confusion and still a bit of shock himself. "Wait a minute. Stop right there..exactly, what are you?" He immediately asked, holding a single hand up toward Vulcan; his entire palm opened completely to indicate that he meant for it to stop. He wasn't even too sure if Vulcan had even understood a word Makoto said, cause from the looks of it Vulcan wasn't human that was dead up obvious. So just giving it an order like that, Makoto wasn't even sure if it would even listen to him.

Elie glanced up wearily when she had heard the boy's voice. "He's a scientist," she murmured, in reply to his question. "He's the one... he's the one who started FORM. H-he's responsible for everything," she accused harshly, but with less conviction that her earlier hiss.

She knew, of course, she knew it was not his fault. It was a glitch in the program. Her father had told her everything about the FORM project and how it came to be. He was actually one of the head engineers working on the project. But, still, it was easier for her to have someone—anyone—to blame. And who better than the one who started everything?

Guilt tugged at her chest at how unfair she was being as she let out a loud sigh. "No... not his fault," she mumbled ruefully. Sympathy bloomed in her heart as she eyed the monster once again. It must'd been difficult, even more so for him than anyone.

Elie climbed out the ditch and seated herself on the ground. "I'm sorry," she said, her eyes trained on the corpse she had left in the ditch, but her words meant for the broken man in front of her.

Vulcan looked at the boy in white once more, as he saw that there was a girl behind him. Vulcan looked at them, and saw the girl had blood on her. "So...even the children are murderers now-a-days..." Vulcan sighed, and steam came out of his right shoulder's gear, as he turned towards the children. The boy in white held his hand up, and Vulcan wondered...why? "Now then...why would you think I should stop for you? You don't know me...I'm simply taking the punishment I started." Vulcan waved him hand, as if brushing flies away. "Leave me be. I have enough to worry about." Vulcan walked towards the dead body, as he picked it up with ease. "What a mess...." Vulcan grabbed the body in his right hand, and began to walk off, his grip causing a few of the ribs to shatter. "Tsk...humans are so frail..." He walked off, his left hand dragging against the ground, his right leaving a trail of red, as he walked towards the wastelands, off to his forest. "This world will never be normalized...will it..." Even though he never responded to her, he heard the girl. "I'm at fault...along with everyone who created that foul contraption..."

Listening to the young woman's voice on explaining that the creature before them was originally a scientist who had created this whole world called 'FORM'. Being explained that this world was actually created, Makoto had actually gotten shocked to hear this new discovery. He had thought this whole time when he was born into this world, that this was his home and there was no other such thing as being 'created'. With both of his eyes widened from the shock, all he could really do was watch how the young woman had climbed out of the ditch she was in only to mumble what sounded like an apology toward the creature before them called Vulcan. Slowly enough, Makoto had extended both his hands forward in front of his face to stare down at them. "So...wait, am I nothing more then a digital program?...do I...Do I even exist?" His whole new thoughts on life was being twisted in all different directions, escaping from his own family in the past, all the friends he had made in the past. He couldn't even tell if those people were truly even real people let alone himself anymore.

For about a minute or so, Makoto's hands and feet had began to tremble as he had tried to shake off the thought that his life all this time could've been a lie. When Vulcan had replied to Makoto speaking on that he was simply taking punishment for what he had done for creating this program before taking the dead corpse and walking off. He couldn't help but clench his own fists on wanting more answers about this world. "Wait!" He had called out, this wasn't really like Makoto at all; he wouldn't normally go after anyone or even call out toward anyone. Usually enough he would ignore the situation and walk away, but now realizing this world was fake he simply had to know more and the truth about everything. Unaware if the female was going to come along, Makoto continued to chase after the strange male creature into the wastelands of the world.

Hearing the boy rambling, a curious thought crossed Elie's mind. When he had ran after the scientist, Elie found herself at a loss of what to do.

How can there not be a way for them to fix this? Surely... this was not all there is to FORM, was there? And who better for her to get that answer if not from Vulcan himself?

Her heart was thumping loudly in her chest as she lifted herself up and sheathed her gun in the slit of her belt. Her earlier hesitation giving in to determination as she slowly followed behind the pair, as for the reason she was pursuing them was unfathomable even to herself, but one thing Elie was certain of, she just didn't want to be alone.

"Umm, so Makoto," she started as soon as she caught up with the boy, but her eyes still trained on the back form of the monster. "Why were you tailing me earlier?" She could tell from the sound of his steps that he was the one that had been quietly following behind her earlier. She should'd been worried by this knowledge, but her confidence in Liz's judgement left her feeling completely unguarded against the male.