Call 0 - The Call of Destiny

Sometimes, landings could be rough. Just like this one, when Ryoji suddenly hit the ground rather hard, and whirled up quite a bit of dust. What the hell just happened? A rather annoying ringtone from his cellphone was the last thing the boy could remember... He was sure it wasn't the original ringtone, either. Who screwed with his phone? And also, who screwed with reality just now? Slowly, Ryoji pushed himself up after regaining his breath, using his arms to lift his body out of the dirt. Hitting the hard stone underneath did make him a bit dizzy till fresh air - or at least air - reached his brain again completely.
Still, even after that, he didn't quite understand what his eyes picked up. A grey and brown wasteland was before him, and the boy himself seemed to have landed right besides something that could've been a highway once, but now was ripped open on many parts or simply gone. The coin phone besides him, he didn't even notice - what he did notice, though, was that strange phone card in his hand. As he stood up and tried to get all that dust and sand out of his clothing, he looked at it again... When he used it, a strange voice asked questions, which he answered - since this card obviously held secrets. Secrets he wanted to uncover... and now he was head first in that secret. The pale young boy held up the card a bit while looking at the strange sky. What was that? Clouds? No, there was too much light for clouds. This was when he noticed the rules appearing on his card.
"What...the...hell?" Ryoji muttered, still trying to understand what happened. So this... was Psyren? The Future? But how was that even possible? And where the hell did his laptop disappear to? All questions he couldn't answer. Leaning against the pay phone behind him, the boy looked up at the strange sky, still baffled at what happened, the Call Card in his hand. A barren wasteland infront of him was supposed to be the future? Did someone pull out the nuclear warfare after all? He couldn't know that with each breath he took, the atmosphere of this destroyed world removed more and more of the natural limiter a human had on his psychic powers...

Ciro had been roaming Psyren for a while now. He was done his objective for today but he thought it'd be nice to kill some Tavoo. He looked at the desert and used his Telekinesis to life Tavoo up and slam them down. He'd used the environment as an impaling device to shatter their core. He got some sick pleasure from it. Maybe it was because that was one less Tavoo down. Maybe it was because he loved his powers. Or maybe it was just because he enjoyed being a sadistic bastard who got a thrill from hearing the final cries before they died and went to wherever the hell Tavoo go when they die. Whatever it was, he enjoyed his day job.

The experienced Drifter was speeding through the skies, but he stopped suddenly, fell, and used Rise to lessen the blow. He rolled as he landed so that the pain would spread. He looked out into the distance and saw another figure who looked helplessly lost. Using his Burst he got rid of the sand from his person, and walked forward. He always helped new member when he could. HE remembered first getting here. It was hell, though he had an alter-ego that didn't make his existence any easier...

He ran up to the male until he was a goo ten feet away. "Welcome to Psyren. You're new here, aren't you?" Ciro looked about a bit as if paranoid. He didn't want to be taken by surprise by the Tavoo. He didn't look around like he was crazy, just like he was waiting for something or someone.

Xinorrie really didn't know much about Psyren, except that it could be part of something big. So he used the card, and now he was here, in this vast wasteland where ruins were everywhere and the sky was dark. He couldn't have known that there was a thin membrane that covered our planet's atmosphere. Not yet, anyways. He quickly got up from where he had landed and looked around. No one. There was no one here. This place looked like it was hit by a asteroid or something. So he decided to find somewhere where he can start thinking. He ran to the nearest tall building and started to climb it. He slipped here and there, because the stairs were sometimes in ruin. But he got to the top without much problem and looked around. 'Come on, please. Let there be someone I can talk to,' he thought as he surveyed the land. Then he spotted two figures with a public phone booth behind them. "Oh yeah!" he shouted as he began running down stairs and out of the building, towards the two figures.

For a moment, he flew. He flew about four feet, but the surprise of flying shocked Xinorrie and he fell to the ground. Just as he landed on his toe, he ran again, not wanting to miss the figures and any answers they might give him.

Ciro felt another energy near by. It was unknown to him. "Ciro..." Cide's voice rang inside his head as a warning. He could feel Cide's blood lust rising, but Ciro suppressed it. "Relax, Cide...I can handle this. Just because you wanna take Noir on a test drive doesn't mean I cannot handle myself..." Cide sighed inside their head and mumbled something about Ciro being an annoyance he didn't enjoy. Ciro ignored him. He was just cranky. He focused his attention on the oncoming figure. He didn't know who or what it was, and so he protectively stood in front of Ryoji. He didn't make a move yet, but he would at a moment's notice if need be. He didn't know who Ryoji was, but Ciro could always use an ally. Dead people weren't good allies for him.

Xinorrie saw the two figures clearly now. He made a long grin. Then he let out shout and waved his hand. "Hey!" he shouted. HE ran as fast as he can not really caring about how to stop when he will need to stop, which will be shortly. He was too happy with his discovery to notice that. But when the one standing up stood in front of the other as if to protect, he stopped. "Hey, I don't mean any harm," he said quickly as he gasped for breath. He rested his hands on his knees and continued to gasp. "Mind tellin' me what's going on around here?" he asked. "I just used that calling card and I lost consciousness and next thing I know, I'm here," he added. Then he froze. There was something slithering underground here. Something big. He could feel the rocks slowly moving. The ground slowly trembled. "Uh, guys. I don't think that you will believe me but there's something beneath us," he said as he looked up.

Ciro relaxed a bit but didn't move from Ryo. This man seemed harmless enough, but that scar on his face was a red flag for Ciro. He had been in too many close calls because he let down his guard. The Psi levels of this male were too low though to be someone deadly. This threw Ciro off a bit, but his thoughts got right back in line as he felt the vibration. "I feel it...just relax. Any emotion will throw your position to the wind and we WILL be attacked...here is not the place fore questions..." He looked back at Ryo and sighed slightly. One new kid he could handle, two was near suicide even for him. Tavoo seemed to have an uncanny sense of who was easy pickings. Unfortunately there were some who seemed to enjoy more of a challenge. All three males together was a walking buffet for any Tavoo who sensed them. "I promise I will explain everything later. Right now though, you two are on a clock...And if we don't get you both out of here you'll die." Ciro looked about. His Sense Rise was active and he was tracking the movements from below them. "Just...trust me right now...You need to keep calm..."

Xinorrie's eyes widened when he felt Ciro's Rise. He could feel it. It was so powerful. Of course, Xinorrie did not know much about Rise-Trance-Burst, he only knew their feel. He stood still and cam as possible. He could tell the size of the thing underneath them. It wwas huge! But perhaps smaller than the boulders he used to paly around with his power. Wait... it was longer than that. Two... four... "Holy Trombones and a pogostick... it's a worm," he muttered quitely as he readied himself for the worst. He ativated his powers for just-in-case purpose.

(( By the way Xin =) I know in your history it said you displayed telekinetic abilities, but you registered a fire type Psi for your power. So please don't play upon those telekinetic powers. I mean...you can comment on them as you did in that post, but don't go into a fight and start throwing things around =) Not to say that you would, just a heads-up so that we avoid confusion later on.))

Ciro stood perfectly still for a bit. Cide's voice rang inside of his head yet again. "If you just let me kill the damn thing we can all go about our fucking business." Ciro's face was kept calm, but inside he was getting irritated. [i]"I can handle it. Can you please not think about killing for just two seconds?" Cide grumbled as his voice and presence inside Ciro's mind faded yet again. He looked at the ground and to Ryo again. He didn't really know what to do. He had no idea where to go as he didn't know if Ryo found or pressed the map button on the phone. He knew of A phone around here, but he didn't know if it was the right one. Regardless, they didn't have long to choose. He could hear the beast below them moving. It wasn't passing, it was circling. As this dawned on Ciro he looked to each of them. "We don't have long...but stay still...movement will irritate it and we'll be attacked instantly. Just relax while I gather some information from both of you starting with names...Who are you?"

((kk ))

"The name's Xinorrie. I got the calling card several years ago, but i just recently used it," Xinorrie replied as he kept a small kindling around him. The kindling, shaped in a red crimson ball flating around him was burning at 100 degrees Celcius, the temperature at each the water boils, but it didn't seemed to hurt him. "I'm just getting ready to burn anything that comes to me," he said. He stood still through all that talking, waiting. "What's your name?" he asked him. "Were you here for a long time?"

Well, at least he wasn't alone anymore now... but something was strange about both of them. He couldn't quite pinpoint why, but as for the second one, maybe it was the fact that he FLEW THROUGH THE AIR for a couple of seconds for no apparent reason. So this really was... Psyren. So it wasn't a strange cult, group of criminals, or something similliar. It was an actual world... or time. Whatever it was, it didn't seem too peaceful, but the first one who appeared did seem nice enough... Looking away from his card and the rules, he looked behind himself onto the pay phone. The map on your starting point, this was what the card said.
"I'm Ryoji." He said with a low voice, since he had no idea how you could hide your presence besides with something like that. He still didn't even know what kind of worm was something to be afraid of, or that PSI existed. His introduction did seem rather short, but that was because he was checking out the phone infront of him, pressing buttons aimlessly. Till one of them worked - and a card was displayed. "Woah! This place really IS strange... how does that work without electricity?" The boy muttered, absorbed into it already. He tried to memorize the surroundings... according to this card, they where in some kind of valley, in the rests of a city. A strange mark was over all of the area, and this would maybe cause Ciro to spout out some curses - because nearly all of this area was a danger zone. The only building not inside of it was a parking lot, but that was in the opposite direction of the goal - and a tower was on the north of the area. Still amazed from the map, the slowly awakening Burst user sneezed - and big dots of red appeared all over the map.
"...Hu...h?" Nearly collapsing backwards, Ryoji suddenly felt as if someone hit his head with a speeding truck, got out of it, placed a shotgun onto said head and pulled the trigger three times, all that before throwing him into a lawn mower. In other words: He felt horrible, with blood beginning to drip out of his nose. "What's with this all of the sudden...?"
Without even truely realizing, the boy fell backwards, flat on his skinny behind.

Ciro nodded as both boys listed their names. [i]"They sound like a bunch of wusses...can't we just leave them and go track down someone who actually has a chance of survival? Look at the map? We're sitting in a hot spot right now. So much killing to be done, so much fun to be had. And we're wasting our time with these idiots...I mean, look at Ry...Ry...look at the twit over there? He's already fainted and we haven't even gone anywhere yet...I doubt he'll even make it out of here. I can't wait to see his powers burst out and watch him REALLY get into deep shit actually...know what? Stay here. I want to see what happens to them when you fail to protect them because your arrogance won't let you give control to me..." Cide was in a horrible mood today for some reason. Ciro dismissed it and just ignored him.

"Sooo not good..." He looked at the ground and then to Ryo as he fainted. This was going to have to be quick. He memorized the map and slowly walked over to lift up Ryo into his arms. He'd have to carry the male from here to the exit. His eyes looked to Xinorrie as he answered his question first. "Who I am can come later. Right now, we need to move..." He began walking again and signaled with his head for Xinorrie to follow. The fire he manifested was ignored by Ciro. He'd question it later. Right now was not the time to explore this man's powers. "Your body has been exposed to Psyren's atmosphere...It's removing the limiters humans developed to protect their body's from the fearsome power that lay within their minds. The stress on your body is too much to handle right now, and if we don't get out of here soon, you will probably die. Of course there's the off chance you could live as well...for now just relax. Best chance for your survival is for you to close your eyes and just relax..." Ciro continued walking. Cide's laughter was ringing in his head at the back of his mind.

"Gr...great... finding out the secret behind Psyren, and then, turning around and being dead. Not really my goal, not at all..." Normally, Ryoji wouldn't let anyone just lift him up and carry him, but at the moment, in this life-threatening situation and environment, it was better to just go along with whatever this Ciro guy said. Not that he had much of a choice, since it was hard to move anything but his own eyes at the moment, and if that experienced Drifter said it was best to relax, he should probably just accept that. At least his death wasn't certain, so it would be best not to worry too much.
"Thanks... I guess I would've been dead without you." Ryoji muttered. His mind was blurry, and it was hard to gather a concrete thought. With each breath he took in, more of Psyrens strange atmosphere affected his brain and body, removing more and more of his natural limiters. Either he would die from the shock of them being removed all of the sudden, or his PSI would be unstable when it first awakened. A loose-loose situation, really. However, now, in this state where the world seemed blurry, Ryoji slowly began to feel something instinctively. A moving thing underneath them... and it seemed to follow Ciro. Not good, not good at all. Xinorrie and Ciro himself most likely also noticed by now - the Worm under them knew exactly where the group was going. It only waited for a chance to strike.

"Yes yes. You're quiet welcome. Now rest...or attempt to..." Ciro was busy focusing on the worm below them. He could feel the vibrations thanks to Rise. He could also hear it as well as track it's movements perfectly. This thing was large...and pissed. It was following their every movements circling below like some kind of sand shark. Ciro walked steadily and looked back at Xinorrie. "I recommend not radiating Burst waves...it will only irritate the beast more...Burst waves are more threatening than Trance waves. So if you have a Trance ability get that ready as opposed to Burst...Of course if it attacks it will probably be focused around me since I have the weakest member of our party...so it's up to you if you wanna keep your Burst up...It might confuse the worm and make it unsure as to who to attack..."

Ciro continued to walk. He was very aware of their surroundings and the fact that if there was one worm, there had to be more. Most Tavoo traveled in packs. Worms were at the top of that list...

Xinorrie quickly followed Ciro but he made sure he kept his distane so that the multiple balls of the burning inferno will not hurt anyone. But he was close enough to listen without having Ciro or Ryoji shout. He had taken a few steps when his head started to hurt.
"I recommend not radiating Burst waves...it will only irritate the beast more...Burst waves are more threatening than Trance waves. So if you have a Trance ability get that ready as opposed to Burst...Of course if it attacks it will probably be focused around me since I have the weakest member of our party...so it's up to you if you wanna keep your Burst up...It might confuse the worm and make it unsure as to who to attack..." Ciro said to him. Xinorrie looked at him and nodded, dissipating his Grata Faxum and tuning his Trance a little.
He walked again, but the pain came again. It came at a more shocking wave. He placed a hand on his nose and immediately pulled it back when he saw the blood on his hand. "The hell?" he said as he wiped it off and touched his nose holes again. The event described on the website he had visited before he ame to Psyren was coming true: the endless nosebleed. "What the hell, it was true?" he said as he continued to stumble.
What Xinorrie didn't know was that whatever was in the atmosphere of Psyren was slowly removing his natural human limiter. Despite being a natural psychic, he had limiters in him. In fact, he had a lot of the limiters. More than anyone would have guessed. If Xinorrie knew, he would not have been in so much shock. But it was a normal thing that happened to everyone in Psyren. After all, he had been in here for several hours already.
The removement of limiters, however, slow and one-by-one kind of process, began to affect his PSI. It began to fluctuate greatly. "Aw, this just can't be good!" he shouted as several kindling flung from his body.

Ciro couldn't help but swear silently as he noticed Xinorrie have the same effects. This was going to be a long trip in Psyren. He looked at him and his bleeding nose. "Do you feel lightheaded? Are you going to pass out?" His blue eyes locked onto the man and while his voice wasn't remotely touched by worry, but his eyes were slightly concerned for the male as well as them all. He held Ryo as best he could that would allow for mobility should the worm attacked. This meant holding him rather close to his chest which was slightly uncomfortable for Ciro, but whatever got them out of here alive.

"Lightheaded? a little. Am I going to faint over a little bleeding? HECK YEAH! No, that was a joke. No, I don't feel like fainting over this little bleeding," Xinorrie replied as he stood up. His PSI was going out of control and it was putting strain on his brain. 'Control it. Control this. You need to control this,' Xinorrie thought as he sought to control it. But it didn't help. His PSI struck out like caged tiger would and his brain felt like it wass going to crack into multiple pieces. He stood and began walking again. He stumbled a little. He cracked his neck. "That's better," he said as he took a step. The pain surged again. And again. He sensed the worm beneath him. It was coming up. It was coming up. "Ouch," he muttered.

Ciro looked at Xinorrie. He continued to watch his movements and noticed that he stumbled. He frowned a bit and shook his head. "You're not okay, but if you want to play hero then be my guest. The second you fall over, you're going to relax and let me carry you..." He continued walking. The experienced Drifter was feeling the worm move. He felt it change directions and for a moment he thought it was going away, and then he realized it was going to come up and attempt to swallow them. He still kept a look out for others. If this one was attacking now, it's friends had to be close.

So that other guy also started to show signs of weakness. Just great, really. Ryoji was still mainly out of it, though the nosebleed wasn't as bad as at the start now. And it was quite good that he didn't see how much of his own blood dirtied his scarf and clothing now, or he would probably freak out about it. If someone else touched his scarf, he could get quite... aggressive. Only god knew what Ryoji would do if he saw it in that state. His unstable PSI would most likely set some things on fire right away.
Being so close to the experienced Drifter wasn't really nice, either. Ryoji didn't mind to hang out with someone, but hanging ON someone was a completely diffferent matter. Especially when that someone was a person he couldn't trust completely yet... still, this all didn't really matter much, because now the ground began to shake even stronger, strong enough for someone without a Sense Type Rise to feel. Maybe it was because his delirium got weaker, or it simply was pure instinct that told the boy where the first one was coming from.
"Behind you, Ciro!" The weakened Drifter said as loud as he could. And only a moment later, the giant worm broke out of the concrete, charging at... Xinorrie. His constant release of PSI made him a prime target, and for anyone able to feel the Tavoo, they would notice about five more of those giant worms closing in. This didn't look good.

It took some time for him to get into psyren so he didn't managed to know or meet who besides him had been called this time. Shou was walking around looking for the exit until finally spotting a phone both in distance between two large stone chunks.

"There it is, if i had come from another side i wouldn't be able find it, but whats..." he was talking to his self when he finally noticed some movement and few psi variations in the area, it looked like two people that were running away from something but he didn't know what exactly, if they kept going they would probably pretty soon reach to the exit so it wasn't a big deal to worry about. At least that was what he thought until the large worm like tavoo came out from the ground attacking them and noticing another similar presences approaching too that didn't seemed friendly by its speed.

Rise, legs he thought jumping the farer and faster he could, landing on the roof of a destroyed building when he felt a tremor coming from below and a worm came out from it trying to swallow him.

Ciro heard the worm penetrate the surface of the ground just before Ryo warned him. He felt the other Tavoo coming as well. He could not set Ryo down. "Welcome to Psyren, Ryoji..." He mumbled as he held the boy close and used his strength Rise to it's max to rush past the worm. He got in front of Xinorrie and narrowed his eyes. The worm continued it''s charge but hit an unseen force and flew back. "We will be safe here. Just don't move farther than twenty feet from me..." He set Ryo down and looked at the worm. It was incredibly pissed and let out a massive roar. He charged again and Ciro put his hands together gathering psychic energy. He trust his right hand out to the worm and a massive invisible force crashed into it sending it flying back again. The boys would sense the energy surrounding them and the energy that Ciro shot out at the worm. He looked around him as the Tavoo's friends showed up. "Lovely..." Ciro's hair rose up as his arms extended to either side.


The two boys remained on the ground but Ciro began floating. Large chunks from the ground also rose up. He looked at the Tavoo and pointed. Two chuck flew at it and smacked it right in the face. He looekd behind him as Tavoo slammed into the force field and were flung back. He threw more ground at them as well. Ciro's eyes noticed that one of them were missing. His brain picked up another Psi signature. If this was an unfriendly, he was going to be pissed. Have. Fun." Cide laughed inside Ciro's head.

Xinorrie saw the worm come and unleashed his PSI Burst: Grata Faxum. A wall of fire turned up in front of him. "Burn!" he shouted as he directed his PSI at the worm that came to him. The fire lashed out and the worm's forehead was caught on fire. The fire spreaded quickly over the body and the worm let out a cry of agony. Xinorrie turned to the two. "Run before the fire gets you," he shouted at them. This was not good. There were more worms closing in. Hopefully, his fire would be enough to scare the heck out of them, but he doubted that. He made a ball of white flame in his hand and made a sword out of it. The sword only burned at 200 degrees Celcius and since it did not hurt him, it was okay. He grabbed the sword and turned around and threw it at the worm. The sword struck the worm between his body and head.
Then the problem came. He had exerted PSI more than his usual amount and his body began to gave in. Little cuts began to occur around his body.

"Please. Just sit there and relax. I don't care what powers you display, if your nose is bleeding then you're new to Psyren. If you're new to Psyren, using your powers will only increase the sickness. Sit down, shut up, and let me do my job..." Another worm charged the force field and was reflected like that others. Ciro let loose several more bolts of telekinetic energy and then hurled a large boulder at them that got mixed into his telekinetic pull. The bounder smashed on the Tavoo, but went head first and the point pierced it's skin. So far he had been doing blunt force damage to them, which in and of itself can be deadly if you're not careful, but now he had an open wound to work with. He smiled and began releasing bolt after bolt. Each one was around the wound, and as they hit they pushed more blood out of the Tavoo.

Just sit back and relax. At first, the boy actually did that, just sitting on the ground - but eventually, he got up again. An amazing feat for someone new to Psyren to begin with, but the nosebleed had indeed stopped nearly completely now. The pale boy looked still quite sick, but that was normal. With one hand, he got the hairs out of his face that had fallen there, and his half closed eyes fixated another one of the works. It was in the back of Ciro, and crashed into the kinetic barrier before being reflected from it. He walked past the fire user as if he was hypnotized, and stood just where the barrier ended, the worm growling right infront of him, laying in wait like a predator waiting for a frightened prey to start running. Just that this victim didn't run. Instead, Ryoji suddenly had a weird smile on his face - and something flared up. The atmosphere of Psyren had removed all of his natural limiters, and as the worm charged again, the boy stepped out of the kinetic barrier, as if he wanted to die. But instead, he raised his right hand, and when the worm was just a second away from swallowing him whole...
The Drifter snapped the fingers of his hand. And with that, a stream of red fire was unleashed from his hand, expanding, entering the mouth of the Tavoo and burning it from the inside out. Screaming in pain, the monster stopped, and tried to burry his attacker with his sheer body weight, but with a simple step backwards, he was inside of the kinetic barrier again that repelled only Tavoo. Looking at his own hand in amazement, he felt some knocking pain arrising in his head.
"So... I can do that kind of stuff, too?" He literally seemed to doze off into his own little world, ignoring the other two Drifters. The worm he set on fire was still throwing itself around, his strange core-looking body part was also engfuled in flames, before it got cracks and exploded. One Tavoo less to worry about.

Xinorrie frowned, but he did not speak. He nodded and did as Ciro asked of him. But he kept the fire on the worm going and made a sword from his fire, just in case. This might be a long fight, seeing how Ciro was concentrating on one worm while several more came at them. Ciro had just told him not to use PSI because it would make the sickness worse, but like he cared much about getting worse. He formed a spear and threw it at the worm's forehead, piercing through its thick skull and brain, killing it instantly. Then, the bleeding stopped. Then he heard Ryoji mutter something. He turned to the boy. "Once you practice a lot, yes, you will be able to," he said as he made another spear. "But, you may get something totally different from ours," he said as he turned back and threw the spear again at an approaching tavoo worm.
Right now, Xinorrie was a massive tornado inside. His PSI was growing very very fast. It was making him feel so much better already. 'Yes, grow, grow, grow!' he thought. 'More more more!' he thought again.

Ciro sighed and decided that things weren't getting better. He knew that if these two continued to use their Psi like they did that things were going to get worse before they got better. They had just recently gotten their limiters removed and using their powers so soon would put a large strain on their body. Ciro let down the barrier. The Tavoo sensed this and charged in. Ciro quickly threw up another telekinetic field that was a mixture of attraction and repulsion. This pulled all the worms into a field of flotation rendering the worms helpless. They circled the boys helplessly. Ciro quickly located their cores. He used this new field to lift up chucks of earth and hurled them out at the cores. Each one broke and the worms turned to dust. Ciro fell and landed on his hands and knees. He stood up and rubbed his temples. "Damn worms..." He rolled his neck. "You two are apparently strong enough to flex your powers...so walk on your own." Ciro shrugged and began to walk in the direction they needed to go. He kept tabs on that mysterious Psi signature from afar. He wondered if it was a friendly or an enemy...