Back at the base, Rebecca, Tim, Lilly, Juan, Catalina, Ryan, and Josh were prepared for a fight; however, they had heard someone shouting, "I come in peace!" No one made a move because they were waiting for Rebecca's signal. So, they all just waited, and eventually, the oversized scorpion stopped before them.
A tall, beefy dirty blonde haired man jumped from the scorpion's back. He was shirtless with wild-looking tribal tattoos and was only wearing some kind of shorts. On his feet were sandals. The man looked like he had just come out of a jungle or something.
The man walked past the scorpion and gently brushed its head. "Thanks for your help, girl. Now don't go causing anyone else any trouble ya hear?" The man said with a natural tone of charisma. The scorpion seemed to nod to the man and even seemed happy to be touched by him. It would then turn around and move along.
"Wow, this a lot more people than I expected. Still, I am glad to see all of you. My name is Henry Willson." The man, Henry, said with a bold smile and started to approach Rebecca and company. Rebecca looked over the man, and she found that she could probably trust this man for a moment.
He didn't seem like a bad person, but it was good to be cautious. "That's close enough, Henry," Rebecca said. Mainly so the man wouldn't touch Sussan's fire pillar. "My name is Rebecca, and I am currently in charge of these fine folk. If you don't mind me asking, how did you find out our position?" Rebecca asked.
She had a good reason to ask. They were out in the middle of nowhere, and even if someone had stumble across this prison, they wouldn't know anyone was here until they got closer. Henry made it seem like he knew they were here and made a bee-line for this place.
"Oh right!" Henry exclaimed. "Slipped my mind. I haven't really talked to any other human in the past few months. Been trapped in a city that has been infested with forestation the entire time. It's like a jungle there. But, the thing is, I can talk to creatures. Be it the Undead or the Bugs." Henry said with a warm smile.
Everyone looked at them than each other. They might have never believed him if they didn't know about Tyrone's Seed Power. "And?" Rebecca pushed onward, still holding the gun in hand, prepared to fire it at any time. "Right. A passing Dragonfly said that there was another human who had talked to it. Something about them being in prison near the city. They had an entire group of people." Henry replied and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I actually came here to talk to that person. Since I can talk to the bugs as well." Henry added with a proud nod. "And that Scorpion?" Tim asked. "Her? She's a wild one. She tried to eat me at first, but after I roughed her up a bit and took care of her, we've been friends since." Henry said with a wide smile.
It was pretty clear that this person was a unique one. "Alright then..." Rebecca would lower her gun, which signaled everyone to cancel out their Seed Powers. "I'll trust you for now, so for now, you'll have to do things our way," Rebecca said. She was high alert because Jake was missing and had been kidnapped. For all she knew, this could have been a stage-four undead. "But first..." Rebecca extended her hand out.
"Pleased to meet you, Henry," Rebecca said. Everyone knew what she was doing, so they kept their guard up. Prepared for anything just in case this person was a stage-four undead. Henry approached Rebecca and shook her hand. Rebecca could feel firm strength and warmth and thus concluded that Henry was not a stage-four undead. He also didn't look like a stage-four bug either, considering he had no visible signs.
"We have a place where you can shower, so come inside," Rebecca said after their handshake, and Henry smiled wide. "A shower!?" His eyes lit up as if he hadn't been able to shower in forever. The truth was, he hadn't. He could only run water over his body from the river, but that was it. It wasn't a proper shower.
Seeing this caused Tim to chuckle since he knew exactly what Henry meant. Even Lilly had felt the same when they were allowed to shower for the first time in forever. Henry smiled at everyone here and was lead inside. "Juan and Catalina, go inform Josh and the others. Lilly, can you make an announcement for everyone to meet in the meeting room in about thirty minutes. As for you boys, you'll be keeping Henry here company." Rebecca gave everyone their orders, and they agreed.
"What about me?" Sussan asked since she had been the only one left out. "Can you bring Tyrone here?" Rebecca asked, and Sussan nodded. The people who were given their tasks were off; meanwhile, the boys took Henry into the men's showering area.
Upon entry, the boys showed Henry where to put his stuff and pick up the body wash and hair wash. Henry was astonished by what they had here. While the place looked like a prison on the outside, it looked completely different on the inside. Especially this shower room.
The boys decided to take a shower with Henry since they had no other choice. Once all the dirt and sweat were washed away, they could see Henry was well built. He had scars here and there along his body, but for the most part, he seemed rather healthy. His hair was long, probably longer than it should have been. To add, it had a wild look to it as well, but it went well with his wild beard.
"You said you were in a jungle for three months, right? Did you get those scars from there?" Tim asked bluntly, and Henry looked towards him. "Oh, sorry. My name is Tim." Tim introduced himself since he realized he hadn't. Henry chuckled lightly and nodded, "No problem, but to answer your question. Not all of them. Some of them are old war scars." Henry responded.
"War scars?" Ryan asked, and Henry nodded. "Yeah. I woke up one day in that forest place. Haven't found my way out since. I just wondered all over the place, but never once was I able to find a way out. I found out I could communicate to the creatures since I had actually expressed my frustrations verbally." Henry chuckled lightly as he recalled what happened.
"An undead asked what I was complaining about, and at first, I mistook them as a human since they responded back to me. It was more so in my mind rather than verbally. I told them my situation, and they said something along the lines of, "That sucks; wish I could help." Although, I never got their name. I did find out, later on, they were actually a zombie." Henry admitted.
"Anyways, since I knew I could talk to the creatures. I tried to talk to each one I came across. A lot of them were rather friendly. Just trying to get by, and some of the hostile ones I beat down. Afterward, I took care of them, and we became friends." Henry said, making it seem like he had befriended a bunch of bugs and undead.
"Then why did you leave?" Tim asked since it seemed like Henry had it set for him. "Why? Because I learned there were other humans. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't the only one here. I mean, three months of non-human interaction, can you imagine it?" Henry said with a pitiful laugh at the end.
Both Ryan and Tim agreed that they probably couldn't imagine it. "So, after learning about that. I asked my trusty friend to give me a ride here, and she was pleased to do so. Of course, I told all of them I would eventually return, but not to wait up for me. After all, they have their own lives and needs, as do I." Henry said smilingly.
Tim and Ryan gauged that Henry truly thought of those bugs and zombies as friends from what he was saying. It was weird, but then again, a lot of weird stuff had been happening. So, they could easily accept it. They continued to talk for a while to get to know one another better, and Ryan introduced himself eventually.
Once they finished, they exited the shower room. He was going to put on his old clothes since he had nothing else to wear, but to his surprise, there was already clothing for him to choose from. The boys had opened a wardrobe of clothing anyone could wear, and they had all kinds of sizes.
The sizes had labels so people could find things easier to fit them. Henry went ahead and decided to wear some sports shorts and decided to keep his sandals. They were washed off in the shower room, so they nice and clean. Just a little wet, but that didn't seem to bother the man.
As they came out, they were greeted by Tyrone and Rebecca. "I suppose you look decent now," Rebecca said, seeing Henry was now clean. Henry looked to be around her age, maybe a bit older, but he also looked healthy. "Yeah. Thank you for allowing me to take a shower. I haven't had one for a while." Henry replied with a respectful smile and a thankful bow.
Rebecca smiled since Henry was polite towards them. Something she hadn't seen happen in a good while. It was good manners to be polite and respectful while in another's home. Especially if they were giving hospitality. "Come along. We'll introduce you to everyone else, but for now. This is Tyrone. He can also communicate with the bugs. Tyrone, this is Henry, the man I was talking to you about." Rebecca introduced them. It seemed like she brought him up to speed on what happened recently.
Tyrone looked at Henry with a bit of confusion. "He can talk to bugs?" Tyrone asked while offering his hand. "That I can. A passing dragonfly told me they had talked to you." Henry explained while shaking Tyrone's hand firmly. Tyrone couldn't help but feel odd about this.
Why?
Well, for starters, Henry was much taller and beefier than him. From what Rebecca said, it seemed like Henry could go toe to toe with the bugs and undead since he came riding on a Scorpion, whereas Tyrone didn't think he could do something like that.
Secondly, the man just radiated natural charisma. Nothing like Tyrone. He wasn't insecure about it, just found it odd that they both had the same kind of Seed Power even though they were vastly different. "Well, yeah. I did." Tyrone admitted, and instantly Henry's eyes lit up. "Really!? How? When? Did you become its friend!?" Henry bashed Tyrone with many questions, which caused him to give a wry smile.
"Yeeeeaaahhh..." Tyrone answered. "One question at a time." Tyrone would add, and Henry would step back since it seemed like he had invaded the man's personal space. "My bad! It's just that I got excited to know that we can both talk to the creatures." Henry explained, and Tyrone chuckled lightly. "It's fine. As for your first question..."
Tyrone and Henry went back and forth. Tyrone answered all of Henry's questions, and Henry even answered some questions that Tyrone had. From an outsider's perspective, it looked like they were hitting it off pretty well. They were presently on their way to the meeting room so Rebecca could introduce Henry to everyone else and explain the situation.
When they arrived, they walked to the front of the meeting room. Everyone was already there and waiting. They knew to expect someone new since the others told them; however, they were baffled to find such a shirtless hunk with them.
"Wow..." Jen mused with a soft blush and wild look in her eyes.
Jessica rolled her eyes, seeing Jen's remark, and called Jen a rude name under her breath.
Lilly had no feelings towards this man. If anything, she viewed him as an adult version of Tim. Henceforth, he wasn't her type.
Alice and Sarah blushed lightly seeing him but didn't say anything. As for Sussan, she found the man attractive but also odd at the same time.
Boss saw him as a worthy opponent. Seeing all of those scars, it was pretty clear the man knew how to fight.
Josh was a bit iffy about him. He didn't like the feeling that some random person showed up as soon as Jake vanished. As for John, he also wondered who this man was and why he was here.
Noah and Dillian were actually annoyed that they were interrupted. They had things they needed to do and so little time to do them in. Although, they were both hoping this man could help them with the building if he planned to stay here, seeing how huge and beefy he was.
Ion was wondering why he was here, but that was it. Nothing special came up; although, he was more concerned about the fact that his own men hadn't arrived yet. They gave them the coordinates, so shouldn't they be here?
As for Natalie, well, she was just hoping this man wouldn't cause trouble. With her leaving soon, she wanted to make sure no one would bring harm to their family.
Rose, on the other hand, was indifferent about all of this. As long as the man did not pose a threat to their family, she did not care if he stayed or went somewhere else. Since Don left, Rose figured she was the strongest one here, and she took it upon herself to keep everyone safe in his absences.
After all, she didn't even want to imagine how Don would react if a single one of them was found dead when he returned. She knew Don would kill his enemies, but that was if they stumbled upon them. She didn't even want to think what he would do or the changes he would go through if one of his own was dead when he returned. The thought alone scared her since she felt like the entire world would come to an end.
"Now then. I have called this meeting because a person has come to her doorstep. They have traveled from another city. I'll let him explain his reason for being here, but he will introduce himself for now. All of you can introduce yourselves after he says what he wants." Rebecca said with a smile on her face.
Everyone took note of Rebecca's voice and how she was speaking. She did not have an ounce of anger, frustration, or even doubt about this man. As if she was willing to accept him into their family. They all knew that Rebecca could just naturally tell if someone was a good or bad person. If Rebecca wasn't giving off any cautious vibes, then perhaps this man wasn't a bad person. So they trusted her judgment.
"Hello everyone!" Henry said with a bolstering voice and a wide smile. "My name is Henry Willson, and I am from the jungle!" Henry blurted out, and when he realized what he said, he blushed a bit from embarrassment. A few people gave him confused looks, and some held back their laughs. One of them being Ion and the other being Jessica.
Henry cleared his throat and corrected himself, "I mean. I am from Earth, although I woke up in this strange world and in a jungle. So, I guess it isn't too far off to say I am from the jungle." Henry tried to make a joke with a slight smile at the end, which seemed to ease the tension in the room a bit.
"Anyways. I am here because I can talk to the creatures, and one of them told me that they had talked to someone here. I'll be frank. I haven't talked to any other humans in three months, so just the thought of being able to talk to another human excited me. At first, I didn't think any humans were alive or existed until then, so my excitement got the better of me, and I hastily made my way here." Henry explained. He even went into further detail about his Seed Power, and how he befriends undead and bugs alike, so on and so forth.
By the end of it, everyone just found Henry to be some odd dude that would fit in with their group of oddities. I mean, they had a rather odd group of people. Assassins, doctors, psychos who loved to fight, people who could talk to bugs, and so on and so forth. What was adding some dude who befriended bugs and undead to the mix?
In fact, Tyrone felt like Henry should stay and actually asked if he would. It made sense, considering Tyrone and Henry had the same type of Seed Power;. However, they had come to realize that Tyrone's Seed Power differed from Henry's. While they could talk to bugs, Tyrone could not talk to the undead while Henry could. To add, Henry could only do it verbally whereas, Tyrone could do it telepathically.
After the meeting, the introduces and various questions went back and forth. It was already evening. Rebecca said she would make dinner and asked for help from her squad, and they agreed. Although, after a bunch of mistakes from Jen and Boss, Rebecca just told them to get out of the kitchen and she would do it herself.
Why?
They were making more work for her, and in the end, she felt she could get everything done faster if she was alone.