Psyren

-brrrrriiing- No. Not again. She didn't want to go.

The call that rang in her head brought with it a dull throb as Elaine forced her eyes open at the scrawl of chalk across the black board. Lines and equations blurred together in an incoherent smear as she dragged herself to her feet. Stuffing her notes into her bag without ceremony, she left the lecture hall... no, ran from it.

She fought the compelling urge to pick up the phone to answer the call, the act in itself bringing another beat to the rhythm of her headache. She didn't want to go.

Head lowered, she ran through the halls, barreling past people as she clutched her book bag with a desperate grip, if only so that she didn't reach for the phone inside. There was no time to get back to the apartment, but her car was close enough. Skidding to a stop beside the vehicle as she fumbled with the keys took what felt like an eternity. The bag she'd prepared for this situation sitting in the trunk as she slammed the door close.

- Got the call. I'm going in.- Shaking hands sent the text out before she lifted the cell to her ear... by then the call had reached a trilling pitch that was practically impairing her functionality. She didn't want to go, but she didn't have a choice.


It started a little over a month ago. It was an accident, a coincidence really, finding the phone card when she was in the Berkeley library. It had been stuck between the pages of a book she'd needed for class, standing out from the yellowed pages of her text. The brilliant red laminated plastic and it's elegant, almost savage lines... It wouldn't hurt to test it out. It was only a phone card. Or so she thought.

The questionnaire had surprised her. She'd never had to answer a questionnaire just to use a phone card, but she suffered through the strange questions. It was a free card, maybe the company was conducting a survey. However she couldn't help but feel uneasy when the questionnaire and call ended with the simple statement, "Thank you for taking this questionnaire, you are now registered as a player in Psyren. You will be contacted shortly to enter the game."

In the end, the phone card didn't work. Not the way it was supposed to. It didn't allow her to call anyone else, and it merely stated each time"You have 49 points remaining on your card" before the line went dead.

She never thought that the card, left forgotten in the bottom of her book bag, would be the source of her grief a week a later. The call came to take her to Psyren, the ground lurching away from her feet for a brief instant the moment the receiver touched her ear. To have survived this long... She had been lucky.

The relief was instant. The pounding beat against her skull vanished so fast that she almost questioned whether it had occurred moments before. Her eyes blinked open once her knees dropped down onto solid ground and braced herself for what she would see. This was the third time, and she still couldn't help but cringe at the sight before her.

Desolate ruin. The sky was a dark shade of red, with what she could only guess to be sunlight filtering in as a dull glow, direct light itself a vision she had yet to see in this place. However it was the rubble strewn across the horizon that was depressing, the familiarity of dilapidated building structures and the endless ruin...

Hefting her bag she rose from her knees as the dry wind picked up to whip through her hair with an ominous howl. The soft murmurs of disbelief along with the crunch of feet across loose concrete brought her attention to the people that had arrived, just like her. Clean clothes that stood in sharp contrast to the ruin they all stood in. The wild eyed confusion was etched across every face she saw. She hated having to lead, but with the blatant chaos... it was inevitable.

"Excuse me..." The quiet voice went unnoticed.

Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Excuse me. Please calm down. I don't think any of you have been here before. I have. My name is Elaine. I don't know where we are at, but I do know that there's a map and we can eventually get out and get back."

Heads swiveled and came to a stop on her. Wariness from some, relief from others... she took a frantic step backwards at the sudden din of questions that rose from the handful of people around her.

As if right on cue, the phone rang beside her. It was a beaten, unpowered thing that obviously should not be working... but it still rang. The shrill sound cut through the myriad of voices and for a brief moment silence fell.

Elaine's hand closed around the handle and when she'd lifted it to her ears... the transmission began.

The sound filled their ears, no, mind. It wasn't a sound. It was directly within the confines of their minds eye.

"Thank you for joining this round of Psyren. Psyren shall be the source of your power and despair. There is only one exit in this game. Those searching for an exit from this world, find the gate." The eerie voice spoke as the image of another payphone floated up in their mind. One side of the enclosure was missing and shards of broken glass protruded from the rust mottled frame that might've once been a smooth silver. The image stayed imprinted in their minds for a few seconds longer and the transmission of that violation of their mind ended.

Ichi

Ichi lit a smoke as he gazed at the stack of “Clearance Priced” television sets, all flickering just inside the glass storefront window. It seemed so silly for all to be turned to the same channel, playing the same newscast in unison, but Ichi guessed it was for potential buyers to compare picture quality, color contrast and that sort of crap. He wasn’t interested in buying one of these pathetic used televisions, but the newscast was something that interested him greatly.

The opening jingle played and the logo swooped across the screen with the station identification. The song wasn’t really music, more like a grab bag of synthesized notes, all bundled together to project professionalism without singling out any specific genre or type of music. Sterile and bland, much like the lives of the people who gathered a little to close to try and hear the latest news before their friends.

~This is KTVU channel two NEWS, bringing you a special report.~

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m Gasia Mikhaelia bringing you this special report.” The vaguely Latino anchorwoman announced, as if the disembodied voice prior hadn’t alerted the audience to the fact that this report was special. “The mysterious string of disappearances continue in various parts of the Bay Area, all seemingly linked to the mysterious underground cult called ‘Psyren’. Though little is known about this group or the whereabouts of the missing persons, the disappearances seem to be somehow linked to public payphones. Here’s correspondent Rob Aguirre with a report.”

The scene changed and another disembodied voice took over the narration. This voice was different than the practiced, prerecorded intro voice. The letters at the bottom of the screen identified the voice as being the aforementioned Rob.

“With more and more people disappearing, seemingly into thin air, police remain baffled as to how or why people are being taken away from their homes.”

After a brief montage of public phones and images of grief stricken mothers and widows, the picture flashes to a uniformed police officer, clearly holding a press conference to the media.

“Let me assure all of you, that we are doing everything in our power to uncover the reason behind these disappearances. We are following up all the leads that have been made available to us, but as of yet we have uncovered no solid leads. As of now, the only things we know for sure is that the disappearances are somehow related to phone cards that have been distributed though public pay phones.” The chief of police rambled on, the bags under his eyes indicating a lack of sleep. The deep wrinkles in his forehead displaying his frustration.

“Though the name ‘Psyren’ has appeared on these cards we have not been able to locate or uncover any organizations, religions or cults by that name. Anyone with information on Psyren should come forward as soon as possible.” The scene changed, though it was clearly not the end of the press conference. Old disembodied Rob decided to take over.

“Despite the assurances of the chief of police, Bay Area residents remain wary and unconvinced. Just ask, Thomas Kingsley from Richmond, father of Julian Kingsley age nineteen, still missing.” The screen showed a yearbook photo of the missing teen.

“He just vanished, I’m tellin’ you. Gone!” The elderly black man insisted the moment he was cut into the report. “He kept hollerin’ about some kinda ringing. Said it was coming from the inside. I told him I didn’t hear anything, but he just yelled louder. Then I watched him put his phone up to his ear, trying to call the police I guess, and bam! He just vanished, like into thin air. I haven’t seen my boy since.”

The man was clearly quite distraught, despite the fact that he was spouting nonsense. People didn’t just vanish into thin air, Ichi knew that. As one who prided himself on making people disappear without a trace, he had to tip his cap to whoever was behind all this. Even he had never nabbed someone in front of their own family.

“Not all police officers believe, as their chief seems to, that these disappearances are crimes. When we talked to Officer Spitowski of the Oakland Police Department, he voiced a different opinion.” Disembodied Rob chimed in, cutting off the grieving father to show yet another Caucasian police officer.

“It’s all a big scam, that’s why there’s no leads.” Officer Spitowski insisted into the camera. “Every few years or so we get these freaky cults popping up. Any time there’s a turn in the economy, or a war goin’ on, or a meteor passes by too close; all the loonies line up like a bunch of damn lemmings to hop off the nearest cliff. These people ain’t been taken anywhere, they’ve all gone. Gone to pray to their wacky elephant headed, eight armed God. All I care about is finding these looney toons and their hideout before it’s full of a bunch of dead bodies in new shoes. Got it?”

“Though much is still unknown about these mysterious disappearances, our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones to the mysterious Psyren cult.”

“They most certainly do Rob, thank you.” Gasia sighed, feigning sincerity. “With more disappearances happening every day, people are becoming frantic for answers. One anonymous benefactor has even promised Ten-Million Dollars to anyone who can unravel Psyren’s secrets.”

~This has been a KTVU-2 Special Report.~

Ichi’s lips turned up in a grin around his cigarette. It had sure been a lot of bullshit to get through to the part that he cared about. Ten Million was a hell of a lot of money, and for him it seemed like a cinch to figure out who was behind something this huge, they couldn’t have covered their tracks completely. Not to mention that Ichi had an advantage over most.

Flicking his cigarette butt into the street, Ichi turned away from the storefront and pushed his way through the crowd of people who had gathered to hear the latest on the disappearances. Once he was free of the crowd he took out the red calling card that he’d hidden in his pocket. This little red card was to be his golden ticket!

There was only one problem now. Ichi didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do with it! He’d already activated it, answered their dumb little questionnaire (Even the offensive questions like: “Do you ever feel remorse for the people you kill?”). So now what was he supposed to do?

When Ichi turned off of Market Street onto Larkin, the card seemed to hear his thoughts. The card itself began ringing and vibrating in his hand! Ichi’s eyes grew wide behind his sunglasses and he turned the card over a few times in his hand trying to figure out what was making it do this.

Then the ringing grew louder and louder! Not coming from the card at all, but the inside of his own skull.

<“Damn it all!”> Ichi cursed in his native language of Japanese, rushing over to the nearest payphone. “Moshi-moshi.”

Suddenly the familiar streets were gone, even the odor had changed and Ichi’s head was swimming. His head shot back and forth, desperately trying to get a sense for his surroundings. There was no sunlight, in fact the sky seemed to be shrouded in shadow and red clouds. Complete destruction in every direction, cracks in the ground and piles of rubble all coated in layers of dark dust and sand.

Breathing heavily, Ichi fished out his cell phone and looked at the screen. It was static, no signal and before his very eyes the battery wore down all four bars in the span of about four seconds. No help. When he looked up again he saw a young girl, early twenties or younger calling everyone over to her.

Ichi wasn’t about to take orders from some dumb college girl.

That's when his mind was invaded once again. A voice that rattled the inside of his skull told him to seek the gate and showed a flash of what it meant in the form of a mental image.

"Thank you for joining this round of Psyren. Psyren shall be the source of your power and despair. There is only one exit in this game. Those searching for an exit from this world, find the gate."


“Hey! You! What the hell is going on here?” Ichi demanded in his most practiced English of the girl who thought she was in charge. “Where are we? How do we find Psyren?”

Ash was hungry. The smell of Kevin's lunch on the other side of the cubicle divider wasn't helping much, causing her stomach to grumble even louder as she gnawed on a pencil and tried to keep focused on her computer screen. She needed a break; something to put her mind somewhere other than on food. Damn him and his fancy-cooking girlfriend. Ashley could barely boil fucking water without nearly burning her apartment down.

Opening up a browser to the news station, she thumbed through the top stories, curiously clicking on the bright red link screaming about breaking news. More about the weird disappearances happening across the city... It really was a confusing thing, but Ash hadn't paid much mind to it lately. The more she read on this latest report, however, the more it seemed to sound oddly... familiar...

"Oh, you sonofabitch!," she suddenly shouted after reading half the report, shoving herself up from her chair and accusingly thrusting a finger over the divider at Kevin. "You lazy fucking bastard!"

"Shum-fing wong?" Kevin asked between mouthfuls of food, looking up at her blankly as he slurped up more linguine.

"That game you've been trying to push through. I know where you got the idea, you shit. Everyone kept calling you so damned creative to come up with all that- I see what it is now! You've been following that news story like a fucking hawk, haven't you? People vanishing into thin air, nobody knowing how it's done, that whole screwed up story..." Ash was seething now, glaring down at him. "I've been working on my storyline for 6 months. When'd you find this, huh? A few weeks ago?!"

Kevin swallowed his food calmly, setting the fork back down before looking up at her with a faint smile. "Ashley, it's quite common for designers to use events as the basis of their games. Look at all the War games on the market. I've simply found my own special event to capitalize on. Maybe you should try the same. I bet you would do wonderfully with something like... oh, I don't know. An anger management game?"

"Shut the fuck up, you goddam-" Ash was half over her cubicle's wall now, standing on her desk and trying to hit him. "Those people could be dead, you shithead!"

"Not my problem." He shrugged, reaching for his food- only to howl out as Ash swiped the bowl. "Hey! My lunch-!"

"Not my problem. I'm fucking hungry and you pissed me off. I'm taking it."

----

She refused to talk to him the rest of the day, others from the small office simply peering around the corners of their own small booths to see what was going on. Ash tried to ignore them, ending up using the restroom a few times to both avoid questions from others as well as trying to settle her own sour stomach. That stuff may have smelled good, but now it left her unbelievably sick. Maybe that girlfriend of his wasn't such a grand cook after all.

The end of the day didn't come soon enough. As soon as the little clock on her computer hit 5 pm, she was already headed down the hall. She just wanted to go home, lay down, maybe have a few drinks- Forget that asshole. Some of the testers tried to talk to her as they waited for the bus, but Ashley refused to say a word. Just get home.

Her mailbox actually had mail in it when she entered the main foyer of the apartment building; the phone bill and a little red envelope. Return address was from Dayton Ohio. Ah... Dad. Why the hell was he sending her something? Opening them as she went up to her door, she took out the birthday card inside. So you're another year older...

"Jesus, Dad... My birthday's in December...," She sighed, tossing it onto the kitchen counter. A little red card slipped out of it, skitting to the edge. Grabbing it before it fell, she took another peek into the birthday card, finding a quickly jotted note from Dad.

Can't remember when it is. Figured I'd send one now. This card thing came in the mail. Some promotion from a phone company or somethin'. Maybe you can use it.

"Aw, and a recycled gift. What a great dad." She scowled, looking over the little red card. Maybe Dad was right, though. It was a phone card, but no company she had ever heard of. Well, there was lots of random phone companies out there anymore. Maybe these guys were doing this as a marketing thing. She could use it to at least check in on Dad... "Remind him when my damn birthday is."

She dialed the number on the back of the card, waiting for it to tell her to enter the number to call... but instead, getting a survey. More marketing? Jesus. The woman just wouldn't shut up. 1....2...2...1...1... Her finger was getting tired. "Thank you for taking this questionnaire, you are now registered as a player in Psyren. You will be contacted shortly to enter the game."

It hung up.
Hey, what the hell?! What about her call?! She dialed it again, only to receive the annoying bee-bop-boop of a bad number. Of course it wasn't going to work. Dad had probably used it up himself and forgot. Annoyed, she hung up again, taking a beer from the fridge and dropping onto the couch. Screw it.



Maybe she had drunk too much.
But GOD that sound was annoying. Was it her alarm? No, that didn't sound like that. This was a ringing in her ears- but not the usual ringing from a hangover, it was more like an actual... RINGING. Like a phone. Was it her phone?

She sat up slowly, looking over at the phone on the counter blankly. "I get it. Too many. Shut up." More ringing, louder this time, pounding into her skull. She groaned, wrapping her hands around her ears as she stood up. Maybe it was Dad, apologizing for the shitty gift. Yeah, right. Maybe the card company, calling back on the defective card. Better bet being that one. She finally made it over to the phone, lazily picking it up. "Yeah..."

She almost passed out with the change that took place, both in her mind and the apartment around her. The queasy feeling in her stomach grew worse now, Ash unable to control the building feeling of puking. She choked it down as she opened her eyes, shaking as she found the group of people around her... The girl not much off from her own age calling to them all. She talked too quietly, Ash couldn't understand her very well. With a frown, she wiped the back of her hand across her lips, taking a few hesitant steps forward. Whatever had happened, it hadn't bothered to bring her beer with her. Damn. She could've used a bit more of that now.

Another voice spoke, an unseen person calling out in her mind. From the confused faces around her, she figured it was heard by them as well. The annoying phone lady. Wait... Psyren? Now it finally came together- How had she missed it before? The news report had said Psyren was behind all the vanishings... The same thing that Kevin had stolen his game premise from! "Son. Of. A. BITCH!"

Anna Marsdon

“Ma’am!” Three year old Johnny said in an excited little voice as he ran into the classroom nearly tripping over his own feet. Anna sighed. He was a handful at the best of times even more so when excited.

“Yes Johnny, what is it?” she asked as she gave him her standard pleasant smile.
“We found this card on the playground Ma’am, what does it say?” he asked as he handed Anna a red card the size of a business card. It was covered in the sticky remnants of a toffee that strung like ribbons from his fingers.

Anna crinkled her nose as she took the red card from the eager boy and held it between her forefinger and thumb as if it was a disgusting bug of some sort. She slowly turned it around. “It looks like a phone card, Johnny,” she said.

“Oh.” Johnny tilted his head to the side as he inspected the card in her hands. “Can we phone it please Ma’am, pretty please?” he asked in a nagging voice, about to grab onto her leg and tug at her dress with his sticky hands. Anna took a step back and quickly countered with a, “Yes, let’s do that.”

Johnny followed her as she walked to the telephone perched on the reception desk. Anna dialled the number and found a pre-recorded voice. “What are they saying teacher?” Johnny asked curiously.

“They are asking some questions,” Anna said as a light frown flitted across her brow. She answered the string of very ... odd question by alternating on the keypad with Johnny watching her every move like a hawk. She really did not have time for this, nor did she have the patience to deal with Johnny’s temper tantrum. This really was the lesser of two evils.

The pre-recorded voice came to an abrupt end by saying, "Thank you for taking this questionnaire, you are now registered as a player in Psyren. You will be contacted shortly to enter the game." The line cut out. Anna moved the phone away from her ear and stared at the receiver for a moment. The screen was blank. How very odd!

The rest of the day was rather uneventful and Anna slumped down in her couch as she reached her empty apartment at 6pm that night. What a day. All she had energy for was watching something mindless on TV while waiting for her microwave dinner to cook. She flitted through the channels and then did a double take ... quickly skipping back two channels to KTVU-2. The word ‘Psyren’ stood out like a blazing red light on the screen. Turning up the volume, Anna caught the last snippet of the special report.

“With more disappearances happening every day, people are becoming frantic for answers. One anonymous benefactor has even promised Ten-Million Dollars to anyone who can unravel Psyren’s secrets.”

“Disappearances...?” Anna’s shocked voice echoed through the apartment a split second before an annoying ringing sound started ricocheting around her frayed mind. She lifted her hands to her temples gently rubbing them as she pushed off the chair to check on her food.

The ringing would not stop though … it seemed to be getting worse. She leaned against the kitchen cupboard as she checked her food and placed it back in the microwave for another five minutes. By this time, coherent thought was almost impossible. “I don’t … understand…” she murmured, fishing her mobile from her bag and placing it against her ear … to call the doctor.


Anna screamed as she felt the floor give way under her. The next moment her feet touched ground and it was deathly quiet. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when her emerald eyes fluttered open.

Destruction … absolutely everywhere!

It resembled a street she knew but from a futuristic sci-fi horror where nothing seemed normal. Even the sky looked like a molten black pool of lava. She backed up and tripped over a piece of concrete that jutted out of the ground sending her careening against a wall that stood slightly ajar. “This is not real,” she whispered to herself.

A protruding nail grazed her finger and tore through her skin. The drop of blood that poured from her finger and the pain that jarred through her hand made it crystal clear that this was … very real.

Anna froze as her eyes darted around. How on earth did she get here? Will she make her way home again? She caught movement not so far from her and turned to find a few people aimlessly walking around, looking lost as she felt. Taking a deep breath, Anna slowly walked closer.

"Thank you for joining this round of Psyren. Psyren shall be the source of your power and despair. There is only one exit in this game. Those searching for an exit from this world, find the gate." Another voice intruded in her mind.

Chance Revere

The sky was pretty today. Chance sat idly on a corner missing another class, to toss popcorn at assorted wildlife. This close to the Bay there were more seagulls than anything but they were a fine bird. Once you got past the scavenger part. So far he'd made eight passes. Tossing the fairly un-aerodynamic popped kernels perfectly as a bird swooped to touch it. It was rare but he got better at it, after he saw it happen. After a while though as with everything else Chance started getting better at it, and it was well boring. And his next class was starting in any case, he should probably tell someone to go take notes for him.

Pulling out his cell he checked the casing. No battery left. "No Battery left huh. Have to remember to charge you more often." Jingling his pocket he probably had the change for a pay phone. Though he idly wondered when they'd dtart taking debit cards. Getting to the first one he saw a card envelope sitting taped to the reciever. "Hello, and who might you be?" Hoping it was not another one of those horrid Chick publications comics he stripped it open, and was surprised to find what looked like a phone card. But there was no one around. Not at all. Strange. "Oh well good luck and all that I guess. That's a terribly clever way to market yourself. What company is this?" He turned it over in his hands before the Pay phone, noting the lurid striped Logo, and the spiked black lettering. "Psyren huh, Well I'll use this wonder how much is on it?"

Dialing the number in to check balance he was greeted with a strange message. "Take our questionaire? Right" At that point he stopped lsitening for a moment and began reciting, while he typed in a song. The key tones pleasantly drowning out her voice. "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Discovering a wild lush land, he found Americans." His fingers dashed over the keys until he could just hear in the background. "Thank you for taking this questionnaire, you are now registered as a player in Psyren. You will be contacted shortly to enter the game."

How weird was that? He dialed again but coukld only here that he had 49 points. What kind fo useless Phone card was this? whatever he inserted 50 cents and called his body got notes taken and took a stroll, it wasn't until much later that he started hearing the ringing.

When he did though it was a small side effect of a contact high. A bad buzz. Today was really not the day to talk to trent the resident floor stoner, With his going on about a new stash he'd just found. thing was Trent knew about Everything that could possibly come to you free, and he'd never heard of a company called Psyren but he had heard some new report about people disappearing.

"Maybe you shoulda listened to the questions dude." Had been trent's only real guess, and slightly disgusted and having wasted so much time, he tried to take a nap. But the ringing wouldn't stop. He checked the appliances, both computers, his laptop, his guitar, anything he could think of. It onluy got worse. A high, shrill note going on and on, threatening to spill out hsi ears and shatter glass. He didn't care if it was Live or if it was memorex, he was goign to go find who was responsible for this and teach them all two weeks of Tae Kwon Do he'd had the patience to attend. Stumbling into the hall he looked left and right, there was only the one emergency Phone on his campus floor, and it never rung, but maybe now. Cautiously in pain, in need of Dvil he answered it. "Hello?" And the floor swallowed him whole.

In terms of disconcerting this had to be near the top, everything was dissolving it seemed, and he had his eyes closed. The pricks of gooseflesh traveled along his skin one patch at a time, over his entire body. Until finally his skin not feeling as if it would crawl away with a fuck you note he opened his eyes. The world was gone. Devastation was everywhere. there were some landmarks he could indetify but only if the entrie building around him had turned to glass, or considering the rubble he was in, vanished in a sudden explosion. But there were people, at least as confused as him, standing about a devastatingly cute oriental girl. Who was clutching a phone. Queasiness vanquished He took a step, "Hey don't touch that phone...." When words broke into his head.

"Thank you for joining this round of Psyren. Psyren shall be the source of your power and despair. There is only one exit in this game. Those searching for an exit from this world, find the gate."

When they retreated he felt like it had spoken inside his brain. The girl was or had been talking about a map, and some thug seemed to be in her face. A serious looking or seriously pretty looking red haired woman was growling a threat. "So this phone card only brings pretty women and assholes to the restauraunt at the end of the universe? Or are we just the latest in unreality TV?" He was musing aloud in a much louder voice than he wanted to. But everything still felt groggy, as if far away from himself.

Present Day

While the office had the potential to be a shrine to lavish greed and power, the greed aspect was not present. Those who entered room with natural wood panels on three of the walls, and the floor to ceiling windows making up the fourth, were not mistaken that this was a place of prominence. The room had enough decorations to make the room not look sparse, or cold. Paintings of landscapes, and portraits of ordinary people warmed the room along with some interesting table pieces from obscure cultures around the world.

His desk was a massive, solid oak affair that was at least 200 years old. The barest minimum of items rested on the table's top. Two LCD screens, a keyboard and mouse, along side a jotter pad and an expensive pen. The only other item to reside on his desk was an hourglass with all the sand at the top of the bell. The fluid was clear enough and light enough that if you didn't know, you would think that it was full of air. Plus, it did take an hour for the sand to run from bottom to top.

Sitting forward in a plush leather chair, his elbows resting on the table, both hands with fingers laced to support his head, a well groomed man sat silently, merely breathing slowly and softly. His black hair was cut short, free of any signs of gray. His skin spoke of an Anglo heritage and his face was free of any noticeable lines. The white shirt was still neat, offset by a plain navy coloured tie.

A huge intake of breath signaled a change in the man's status. He leaned back into his chair, letting his arms come to rest on the armrests of the chair. Once his breathing relaxed, he opened his sapphire blue eyes, bringing the world into focus. His neutral, almost peaceful expression grew slightly darker and troubled.

"That will not be acceptable if it comes to pass." He reached for the top draw, extracting a cell phone before walking over to the window. He punched in a number, and waited for the caller to respond.

"Hello Angel. There is a matter to be dealt with. Peter Gorston. He will be running for a state political spot that's become vacant. I need you to make sure he doesn't get it. Make sure he falls for some convenient scandal or such. The usual thing that kills a politician's career. But if he proves to be to hard to tempt, just kill him. But only kill him as a last resort."

Alexander hung up, and went back to assessing the overall insurance risk to his company's latest client. He found it hard to concentrate on his paid work. In a few years, it wouldn't really matter anyway.

Present Day

A satisfied little smirk touched Angel’s lips as she snapped her mobile shut. She so loved Alexander’s methods, even if they were jaded and underhanded. Angel was far from complaining. Everything was as it should be in the grander scheme of things and she enjoyed being an instrument to Alexander’s will.

Tapping a manicured finger against her mobile, she clucked her tongue in the back of her throat and set off to investigate the unfortunate Peter Gorston.


Angel arrived at Gorston’s high-rise office building a week later. Wearing a pinstripe business suit that fit her frame snugly and accentuated every curve on her body, Angel drifted into the reception area. Her high-heels clicked on the marble floor, grabbing every person in range’s attention as their eyes roamed across the seductive minx that had just presented herself in Gorston’s office akin to a dangling piece of candy.

“I am here for my 12 ‘o’ Clock appointment with Counsellor Gorston,” Angel said giving his mousy secretary a predatory smile. “We have a … ‘lunch’ appointment,” she added, letting the ambiguity of the statement hang in the air as she provocatively licked her lips and winked at a passer-by.

Sure enough, Angel had set up a purely platonic meeting with the counsellor and then managed to re-arrange the rest of his schedule for the afternoon. She had always had a knack for getting in and out of places, undetected.

A few minutes later, Gorston opened his door and audibly gulped as Angel slowly slid one leg across the other before elegantly rising to her feet. “Counsellor! What a pleasure to finally meet you,” she said as Peter flushed bright red.

“Indeed.” His eyes roamed lasciviously up and down her form before lazing for a moment on the sheer stockings that clung to Angel’s shapely legs. It has indeed been a while since such lush ‘talent’ graced his office. Angel’s violet blue eyes twinkled in answer to the glint of hunger she saw in his eyes. Her plan was working already, and she had not even started yet.

Walking his guest into his office, Gorston closed the doors after telling his secretary to hold all his calls. “Miss Angela Daye, pleasure to meet you,” he said using one of her alias names as he politely held out a chair and watched from an elevated vantage point as the brunette sunk down in the chair giving him a clear view of her ample bosom. A smile tugged at his lips as he contemplated bending her over his desk and ‘exploring’ their business agreement. “So tell me about your company and what you have to offer for my upcoming election campaign,” Peter said conversationally as he took his own seat and watched Angel with rapt attention.

“I am from a company called WISE,” Angel said as she leaned across and handed Peter her business card, affording him another tantalising glimpse of the creamy flesh beneath her suit jacket. “We specialise in public relations and are here to offer an airtight campaign that will ensure your success in the upcoming elections.”

Angel gave him a quick overview of the campaign and slid a folder across the desk to him. ‘Misjudging’, the folder fell from her hands sending papers to flutter across the carpet at Peter’s feet. Apologetically, Angel crouched down and scooped up the papers with Peter leaning over and snatching up a few sheets himself.

“Thank you,” she murmured and reached up against the table to push herself up again. At that very moment, the door handle to Counsellor Gorston’s office turned. A light smile dawned across Angel’s face as she deliberately lost her footing, landing in a kneeling position before Peter with her hands braced on his knees.

“Angela,” he gasped as he tried to stop her from falling, his one hand tangling in her hair while the other braced her shoulder. The door to the office opened, presenting Congressman Rutherford and the other two candidates to the state political spot along with a throng of media. They were there for Counsellor Peter Gorston’s rescheduled meeting at 12h15 during which they were to air their respective arguments for the political seat.


“Counsellor Gorston, devoted husband and father of three was found by members of the cabinet in a rather precarious position yesterday afternoon, placing him a scandalous light on the eve before voters are set to make their mark,” the female anchor reported on CNN News.

“It is done,” Angel’s voice came across Alexander’s receiver.

“Hey! You! What the hell is going on here?” Ichi demanded in his most practiced English. “Where are we? How do we find Psyren?” The blouse pulled tight as his hand gripped her collar, pulling the fabric uncomfortably tight against her slight frame. The lines of her bra pressed against the white of her shirt as she paled at his demands, her mouth opening and closing in an attempt to find the words to answer, and was saved by the bell when the shrill ringing of a siren started.

"I - I ... You are in Psyr-" Elaine stammered.

Chance made a start for the foreigner, intent on getting him to release the woman trying to help them all, when two things hit him. A distinct migraine, followed by the unmistakable bulge of a weapon in the man's back waistband. Maybe it was holstered maybe not but it was certainly present. That made Chance think again against all the sudden pain. He held his arm out to the other woman, with a quick do not get involved yet motion, holding a finger up, and beckoning her over. Once he was close enough he thought he shouldn't be heard, he whispered over. "He has a gun leave it."

Anna walked a little closer trying to listen to the young girl who was attempting to explain things. "There must be some horrible mistake somewhere," Anna said in a mousy voice. No one even noticed her or gave her comment the time of day, like usual. "I should be at home preparing for my children's lessons tomorrow, can't we just go back?" She asked giving everyone a bright smile... it was eerie in such a desolate place.

Elaine pulled back away from the thug, trying desperately to make him loosen the grip on her. "It's okay. we can get out. We'll be able to get out, just don't panic and don't go near the siren." She answered in Anna's direction, not quite sure who it was that spoke it.

"Hah! I'm done with you already." Ich scoffed, carelessly tossing the petite girl aside, making her stumble and finally skid across the rubble and concrete like a rag doll. "I'm off to go seek my fortune! You can go do whatever that dumb voice tells you if you want. I'm going to find out what that sound is and solve the mystery!"

"I'm Ichi! It stands for Ichiban, that means I'm the best! Number one, that's me!" Ichi boasted, turning back to the crowd. "Anybody who wants to win, instead of just scraping by, follow me! Just don't get in my way, otherwise I'll take you down like anyone else. Get it?"

"Good Luck then buddy, and see what's making all that noise I got a headache already." Chance made a simple motion as he walked, making sure to avoid jostling the thug so he could go and help the woman on the ground. He whispered into her ear. "Are you alright, I didn't rush in because I can see he's armed. Let him go, If you know the way out we can just use that and leave him here Huh?"

Ichi took one more look at Elaine and scoffed at her plight. "I have no time or patience for weak people pretending to be strong." With that he turned a cold shoulder and trudged in the direction of the siren, not even bothering to look to see who else would follow. The confusion was evident, where the boisterous young man seeming to be the only one willing to take action. Anna wordlessly shuffled closer to him, deciding to stick with him. He was at least doing something.

Elaine's head rang with the impact as the air was knocked from her lungs. When her eyes cleared, most of the group had left. "Wait! Oh god... don't go near the siren... It's dangerous!!"

Ichi just flipped the bird over his shoulder, ignoring her warnings. "Sit on it! That reward is mine!"

Chance helped Elaine stagger to her feet and attempted to follow after him, before realizing that she would leave people behind. Torn in the moment of dilemma she stopped.

"Here, I'll get the map up for you guys. Head for the exit. The gray areas are danger zones. Avoid them as much as possible." Elaine crouched in front of the phone as she spoke, sliding in her Psyen card. Immediately, the image of a map shimmered before her in a psi induced display.

She quickly copied down the map to the best of her ability before she pulled out her card free. She handed the scrap of paper to the nearest person before she turned to follow Ichi. "Follow the map, I'm going to try to bring those guys back..."

"NO!" He held his hand out to her. "I mean No. Just let them go. If we're going after them we have to go as a group and I'd rather people survive who aren't going to shove us around or possibly kill us. He had a pistol on him."

"Your best chance of survival is heading for the gate. There are more things here than a thug with a gun to worry about."

"I can handle myself against some wild dogs or something, even other wildlife, But bullets kill you dead, cause you can't tell me seriously that there are things more dangerous than a pistol in the wrong hands?"

"You have no... idea. Believe me... bullets are the least of my worr-." She was interrupted when a scream broke out across the distant horizon... in the direction of the siren. Immediately she started in a run towards that area.

Ashley listened to the group beside her, still fuming over the fact she was now experiencing for herself the same damn thing that Kevin had been trying to pawn off as his own idea- and had no way of letting anyone know! Scowling as the group grew louder in their arguments, her ears perked slightly as the man with broken English shouted out about winning. Winning? Wait- Fuck, this thing was already some type of game?! Someone had managed to make some type of VR game and- "God DAMN it..." This was just getting more and more frustrating. It was bad enough when Kevin seemed to be pushing so far ahead of her... but now someone else was going THIS far?

She growled to herself, dusting some dirt that had managed to collect on her jeans before looking to the remaining group. Ichi had already taken off, looked like. That one girl seemed pretty upset about it, too. Sounded like she read the instruction manual. Well, if she knew the rules, Ash was gonna stick with her. Let the dumbasses that wanted to see how free roaming a sandbox this game was get stuck in a dead zone; she'd rather reach the first objective and get on with it.

Something scampered off behind one of the remains of a building behind her, Ash shooting an annoyed glare after it. She hated working on co-op games. Whoever designed this thing was really pissing her off; using these game card things to trick people into joining, not even bothering to offer a single player mode, teaming her up with people who refused to actually cooperate (seriously, what the hell was the point of CO-OP mode if no one COOPERATED?!), not giving any further details on it other than what these few people were randomly spouting-

"You don't ignore the person who knows what the hell they're doing," She finally spoke toward the others, frowning as the one guy continued to argue n going after Ichi the Idiot. "Let him learn. He'll come haulin' ass back. All newbs do, no matter what kinda game it is. You don't try to be the ballsy one of the group, because you come off being the team dipshit... Now where's this map thing?"

She peered over the one man's shoulder as the girl handed him the map, looking up curiously as she warned on certain areas. Jesus. That was a lot of spots. Whatever was hiding in there was supposedly worse than Mister Fuck-You-I'll-Do-It-Myself? She frowned slightly, trying to find the best route around all that, only to have her concentration broken by the howling scream. "Think he learned...?" A chuckle almost developed in her throat, but was choked down when Elaine took off running with a rather horrified look on her face.

That didn't set right at all. Why was she so scared for that guy? It was just a game, right? So he'd respawn somewhere or something. Big deal.

Wait. What that one guy'd said...

"This thing is fucking REAL?!"

Nester/Ichi - Dust to Dust

SK-eeeeeeeeT!
SK-eeeeeeeeT!
SK-eeeeeeeeT!

Keep the blade sharp.

That was the only thought that Nester could hold for longer than thirty seconds at a time. Keep the blade sharp and everything else would fall into place. Instinct was all he had left. No emotion, no forethought, no malice, no regret, no sorrow, no joy, no remorse. Only focus... Keep the blade sharp.

The hulking grey mass of what had once been identifiable as humanity crouched over a flat chunk of broken and misplaced concrete, scraping his worn steel cleaver over the coarse surface at a precise thirty-degree angle. As the motion of the blade wore the stone dry, Nester mustered as much saliva as he could, letting it slowly dribble over his chapped and bloody lips that had been sewn shut for longer than he could remember.

After what seemed like an eternity, Nester’s thick, bubbly saliva reached the stone and was smoothed out again by the scraping cleaver. The cleaver never changing angle or orientation, the process was repeated. After scraping the stone dry once more, Nester spat again and reversed the process to sharpen the other side of the blade. The shrill, metallic shriek of metal on concrete resuming its rhythmic, uniform trill.

Keep the blade sharp, keep the zone secure.

As long as those things were taken care of, Nester had nothing to fear from the Gods that ruled what was left of this doomed planet. The Gods who had destroyed and created him in the same effortless motion. To Them there was nothing that posed a problem, not even a challenge. Nester had only one challenge anymore... or was it two?

Keep the blade sharp, keep the zone secure.

As Nester watched his saliva creep its way down to his chosen stone, he thought back as long as he could. The screaming, the agony... the power. All were part and parcel contained within the faintly glowing, blue orb, hidden discreetly by a flap of his own grey flesh, cut and stitched over it. He might have wondered what he’d been like before, if his mind had been whole enough to allow it. He might have even wondered how it was he’d come to exist in this hellish visage, this hellish world, this hellish life... his hellish existence. Instead his mind circled the same loop, like a dog chasing its tail.

Keep the blade sharp. Keep the zone secure.


After the “followers” were out of earshot, Ichi glanced over his shoulder to see the skittish but adorable little blonde following on his heels like a lost pup. As one corner of Ichi’s mouth tugged upward into a smile, the other corner of his mouth expelled a soft expression of frustration. Though the girl was lovely to look at, she was weak. While Ichi’s left brain was busy imagining wild and innovative ways in which he could fuck her brains out, within the unique environment they currently shared; his right brain was pondering just how much extra effort it was going to require for him to keep her safe as well.

“Don’t worry.” Ichi said, his confidence and his Americajin accent both wavering slightly. “I know what I’m doing.”

Ichi forced the left side of his mouth to smile as well, his right eye winking as he glanced over his shoulder at the mousy little blonde. When he saw her eyes widen, the unmistakable glow of terror held within them, he turned back to face forward, looking to see what could have frightened her so.

Ichi saw a grey shadow off in the distance, just a haze from this distance, but harsh in contrast to the smoky red and black horizon. The sight of the hulking beast made Ichi flinch slightly, even from a distance the thing looked terrifying. Instinctively Ichi’s hand swept to the handle of the Beretta 96 Inox Semi-Auto pistol, housed snugly in the back of his four-hundred dollar leather slacks.

In a flash of stainless steel, Ichi’s muscle-memory effortlessly whipped the heavy .40 caliber pistol out in front of him, his arm making a perfectly straight line to point at the grey blob in the distance. Ichi didn’t stop, he didn’t even slow his pace. As one eye closed, the other aligned his sights on the thing staring them down.

“Hey!” Ichi demanded in his most intimidating tone of voice. “Who... What the fuck are you?!?!”


The sound of human shouting distracted Nester from his careful work on the blade. His red-on-yellow eyes grew wide at the sight of the two unscathed humans. A low growl escaped his sewn up lips as his chapped and broken fist tightened audibly around the handle of his precious cleaver.

The muscles in Nester’s thighs and calves made the same whining squeal of rising tension as he readied himself for the strike.

Their clothes were clean, remarkably clean even in this world ruled by dust and sand. Only the Gods managed to keep themselves so spotless as this, Nester realized that these mortals must have truly been special to be so clean despite their surroundings. Perhaps a reward might even be bestowed upon him for defending the area against them!

But what?

Nester had no idea what he desired anymore. Desire was one of many emotions he could no longer fathom. Reward was something that hinged on his desire, from what he could remember of both concepts, so he wasn’t sure what was so exciting about their presence within his sight. Perhaps he was just excited to have something besides the blade and the abyss to focus on.

The blade was sharp.

Keep the zone secure!


The creature’s eyes flashed the colors of flame up at Ichi before the echo of his demands had even finished reverberating back to his ears. Those eyes stopped him cold in his tracks, suddenly Ichi felt something he’d tried so hard to force out of himself, something he swore he’d never allow to creep into his mind again; he felt fear.

The fear that flooded Ichi’s veins was like ice water hitting him in the back. The shock of this unfamiliar sensation brought his thumb up to the safety on the side of his polished and oiled weapon. Without thinking, Ichi toggled the safety off. Just making him feel that wretched emotion he had worked for so long to force out of his psyche was enough to earn it a swift and premature death. Ichi squeezed the trigger, his vast experience teaching him not to pull, squeezing was best.

Before the hammer even fell, Blondie was screaming her head off. Apparently the yellowed eyes of this creature were too much for her as well, though she had less control over her fear than Ichi. When she took off running, the trigger reached its limit and snapped to the handle of the gun, releasing the hammer into freefall aided by the tightly wound spring woven into the inner workings of the pistol.

The massive .40 cal bullet exploded violently within the chamber, kicking the barrel of the polished weapon back hard. Ichi was prepared for the kick of the gun, the muscles in his forearm tensing and constricting as he brought the beast back under control. The slide moved back also from the percussive force of the shot, opening the breach in the top of the gun long enough to expel the smoking empty shell from the top.

Before the spinning, smoking shell even landed in the rubble at Ichi’s feet, the thing was upon him. It had closed the distance between them in a fraction of a second and even managed to avoid the shot that had been trained on its vital organs.

Ichi screamed, a low, long howl of frustration and terror as he fired three more large caliber rounds into the chest of the hulking grey beast before a flash of steel severed Ichi’s right hand from the rest of his arm at the wrist.

“Aggro.” Nester wheezed as Ichi’s blood fired out of his stump, soaking the monster’s torso in lieu of the gun, which clattered to the ground, still wrapped in Ichi’s disembodied hand. “A-Gu-Ro!”

Shock overtook Ichi’s senses as he stared down in horror at the stream of gushing blood spraying out of his wrist where his gun and hand had been only a few seconds prior. Out of sheer desperation, Ichi balled his surviving hand up into a fist and lashed out at the monster’s face.

The punch landed square, and Ichi’s adrenaline had allowed him to put his shoulders and back into the blow. It was like punching a bag of cement, and the loud, muffled cracking sounds that registered the punch served as indisputable proof that the punch had done more damage to its architect than its target. Ichi’s fingers were jagged and twisted in unnatural angles when he pulled his aching hand back.

Ichi was no longer able to make a fist, the compound fractures in his fingers already making the pale olive colored skin of his hand turn a vibrant, angry crimson. Ichi stared at his hand in horror, drawing in a long, deep breath in preparation for the agonized scream that he could no longer contain.

Before the anguished scream could even escape, Ichi’s cry was shoved back into his throat by the beefy, grey digits on Nester’s massive four-fingered hand. All that made it past the obstruction was a pitiful gargle as Nester lifted the Yakuza up off the ground by his skull.

The faint whistling of Nester’s meticulously sharpened cleaver was cut short by the low hollow thud of the blade slamming through Ichi’s expensive pants and lodging itself in his pelvic bone. Ichi’s eyes squeezed shut as his testicles fell from his torn pants, dangling sickly from thin bloody tendrils, keeping them bound to unseen organs of his reproductive system.

After a few long moments of wrestling with the blade, stuck halfway through the dense bone of Ichi’s pelvis, Nester managed to free the polished edge weapon. With one mighty jerk of his massive arm, Nester slid the blade upward fiercely until it once more met bone, this time against the xyphoid process at the center of Ichi’s ribcage.

As the torn seam of Ichi’s silk shirt spread open, a veritable mudslide surged forth from the inside of Ichi’s body. It was like his stomach was vomiting his digestive system out into the air in an unstoppable glut of humanity. The deep crimson blood flowed like a cape on the back of the yakuza’s long, spool of intestines, dark colored liver and still convulsing stomach.

The mess of organs and bile spilled over Ichi’s five-hundred dollar, alligator shoes in its journey to the dusty, ruined ground. As the entrails began to form a pile, a thin column of steam began to rise up from the ruddy colored puddle, being so much warmer than the ambient air. Ichi tried to scream again, this time all that escaped was a light mist of blood that splattered Nester’s forearm and face. The exertion of trying to scream forcing the contents of his ribcage down through the gaping hole in his stomach and essentially extinguishing his life.

If he’d had the opportunity or ability to utter last words, Ichi probably would have lamented: “This was supposed to be a game! What kind of fucked up game is this?!?”

As Ichi’s eyes rolled back into his head, his organs faded from midnight red to a hollow, light grey as they slowly degenerated into dust. The fading spread its way back up until Ichi’s legs too were grey ash and fell away from the rest of his remaining body in dense clouds. A single tear managed to escape Ichi’s tightly shut eye before the dust spread up to his face and the rest of him disintegrated into light colored powder.

Nester shook the remnants of his victim away from his forearm before his yellow eyes glanced up to see more finely dressed humans approaching...

“Abraham?”

Elaine ran, tugging on her bag and rifling through it's contents to pull free the pistol she had inside. "Yes this is real..... If you die here, you die.... your life ends, and not even your body will remain." She gasped between the paced breaths that hauled in the oxygen into her system. It was as much of an explanation she'd give now, there was no time.

If only she were faster.

Elaine rounded the toppled building that had obscured her view, skidding to a stop at the view before her, the scattered bodies laid out ragged along the ground, bloody, torn and broken. Her stomach sank as she saw the brute standing over the bloody mess that she identified as Ichi, only because of the distinctive silk shirt she'd remembered him wearing.

"Damn it..... they... none of them made it." It was a breathless whisper that carried to those who had just caught up to her. The bodies laid across the ground slowly began to disintegrate to dust and as another chilling breeze picked up, all the dusted remains of the dead were swept away, taking even the heavy smell of blood with it. Slowly, she back pedaled, hoping to get away from the scene to save as many of the people still alive as possible.

"Abraham?" The beastly head turned at the sound of feet crunching on gravel. Nester's head tilted at a forty-five degree angle, his yellow eyes squinting then widening at the sight of yet another conspicuously clean human female.

She blanched. He saw her. It was too late to make a quiet escape. "Get away from here. NOW! I'll keep him here." The stark terror rang in her voice even as she moved into action.

"Agg-uro!" He barked at her, his voice sounding robotic and metallic as though it was emanating from a steel speaker housed within a tin lunch box. The sight made her cringe as sewn lips strained over crude stitching to utter the sound.

"Rise." It was the softest whisper carried forth in the wind, as she invoked her psi and tossed a desperate prayer to any god that would hear her. The pistol lifted in her steady hands as she squeezed the weapon. A burst of speed followed to carry her forward as she aimed and fired a second time.

The loud cracking sound, like a hammer striking rock shocked him into motion, the sudden and fast sprint shaking the rest of Ichi's dust away from Nester's arm as he gave pursuit. The second sound caused him to slow down, the sudden and harsh impact forcing him to realize the other wounds he had suffered. This bullet making a fourth large hole in his rippling, bulky torso as all four holes leaked thick black fluid. When he looked up at the girl again, he had caught up. He lashed out with his left, striking her shoulder solidly with the back of his leathery hand.

She saw it coming. Get away! It was slow in her eyes, her senses following his every move down to it's minute detail. It was slow, but she was slower. Damn it! Why couldn't she move faster?! Why couldn't she control speed as naturally as she honed the control of her senses?!

Seeing the blow didn't softened the hit, forcing her to stagger to her knees with the unbalance as the crack resounded through her body. His silhouette loomed over her briefly before the belated rush of speed kicked in and she jetted free from her spot. The uncontrolled burst of Rise sending her ricocheting away from the beast that had been so close.

Nester's cleaver came crushing into the dirt where she had been moments before, digging his thick black fingernails into the coarse rubble underfoot as his mind realized his prey had changed directions. She was fast! Faster than prey had any right to be. Broken, sewn lips twisted up in a grotesque snarl as he kicked up rocks and tiny bits of broken concrete and resumed his pursuit. "Abraham?" He asked of the air between them.

The burst of speed faded as quickly as it started, leaving her on the far side of the clearing of rubble and away from Nester. She grimaced at the rough control of the ability, her body quickly feeling the effects of her inefficient use of psi and it's lack of control as the blow on her shoulder throbbed in time with the ache that was slowly gaining ground in her head. She had his attention, but past experience taught her that striking at random against these things was useless. The gaping holes in the brute's body was evidence of the resilience of their kind.

"In the beginning," Her eyes closed as the wind picked up. Within her mind's eye she saw the sparkling pieces of her own psi disperse, dancing in the space to mark all life forms around her... and all psi. Invoking the ability left her defenseless, but it was a risk she had to take, if only to find the source of his life... It only took a second for the culmination of ragged unrefined psi to gather, and emanate from him in ripples, condensing into a dull blue glow at the back of his neck - before it all ended.

The muscles in Nester's thighs groaned from the building tension once more as he leaped into the air. His massive hulking body sprang into flight as though he were weightless and landed just in front of Elaine. His heels skidded through the loose rubble as his bulk knocked her over and sent her pistol spinning out of her hand. He raised his cleaver up over-head, but hesitated. This girl had powers... perhaps she was important. Instead of bringing down the cleaver, his over-sized four-finger hand pinned her to the ground by her throat.

He didn't kill her. What did he want?! The panic bubbled as she gasped for breath against the grip that held her down. Her fingers dug into the hardened flesh, attempting to pull open the vice like clamp that closed around her throat.

Nester's rough, chapped gray hand slid slowly down Elaine's fair skin to the collar of her white blouse. Thick finger-pads pinching rubbing and feeling the material. It was nice, almost new, immaculate like the clothes that they wore. But she was hostile, and she was powerful. He couldn't release her, nor could he kill her, there was only one way to decipher her origins. Buttons flew in all directions as his gray hand tore the white fabric away from her pale olive skin, the drum-roll of popping threads ringing out like the final cry of fabric that was forever tainted.

The strangled scream spilled from her as she strained even more against the brute that was hell bent on stripping her. Was this the way things were going to end...??

"It's.. real...?"
Ashley repeated the words shouted by the other woman before she ran off after the silk-shirted man, a dumbfounded look on her face as the two simple words rang out in her head. It's real.

Ho-ly shit.
Now she was even more infuriated with Kevin and his damn stealing from the headlines; this was far more fucked up than just some simple kidnappings and a cult- This was-

What the hell was this?

She glanced to the other man that had tried to talk to the now-running woman, a still rather lost look on her face. "Should we... I dunno.. go after 'em or something? I mean, she said that stuff was dangerous. We got the map... but do you understand the damn thing?" The concern was starting to grow in her voice; the reality of the situation beginning to sink in more and more as everything began to catch up with her. The scream that rang out around them made her blood curdle, her eyes widening as she looked at the man. "What- What was that...?"

A stupid question. It was obvious as to WHAT it was; the reason behind it was the more worrying, frightening thing. With the howl that had come before, this one on top of it was leaving her nauseous. This entire thing was insane. Even when she thought it was just a game, it was pretty fucked up- but now? It was beyond insane. She couldn't even fathom a word for it.

"Grey zones..." She peeked back at the map that he held, shaking her head. "She ran right into one. With dumbass and the rest of 'em. If she knew about this place, why the hell'd she..." Ash shook her head, a disgusted, confused look on her face. "She knows how this place works. That's what she said right? If those idiots already fucked up, I don't wanna do it too... We should- Damn it- We should go after her or somethin'."

Chance and Nester Written from both myself and Lit shark.

"I think we should follow her too." Chance replied to the red headed girl. When she took off Chance started for her, and immediately dropped like a stone behind her. His breath became shorter and he began to chill, holding his arms around his chest while it felt an icy weight crushed his chest. His body became slower as his joints inflamed, seemingly a swollen mass of pain one moment and an icy numbed lump the next. His legs, even as he moved, seemed leaden weights that spiked with hot spasms. Still he moved forward, attempting to catch up to the girl who had a map. "Wait," he croaked as his throat went painfully dry, and he stumbled forward, his vision blurring.

That was a blessing. Chance had made it to the slaughtering grounds, but managed to avoid the stench of death, to avoid the breath of the wind flicking dust past him. Only watching the flicker of nickel as it fell to the ground covered in dust. Then the beast was on Elaine. She spoke, and impossible things happened. His eyes opened to shock and he could not close them for everything in the world.

Chance didn't know what to do. In mere moments the world he knew was upside down. Never mind the strange post apocalyptic wasteland, or the ruins of a society he imagined. It was the image of a seven foot beast holding a meat cleaver pawing the only friendly person in this entire godforsaken hellhole. More than that, Elaine had exploded in motion moving faster than he thought possible, hitting harder than possible. Even as this lumbering beast tore the ground around her. She lived.

There was a word. Rise. A word that ignited fresh energy in him, and brought the roiling nausea and dizziness right back a hundredfold. It buckled his frame till he was on his knees and from there he could only mouth the word again. Rise.

So he did. He rose and as power seemed to fill him he ran, stumbled, the ground betraying his feet, his hands caught him and his frame hit the giant with more weight than he could ever have mustered. "Leave the lady alone." The words were quiet but filled with the power that a croak can bring. For the first time since he'd begun chasing the girl in white he stood up to his full height, and stared at a giant.

Nester's coarse hand had just finished searching his prey's soft flesh, the flesh he had exposed by tearing off its outer garment. He puzzled that she had need of such a tiny undergarment, memories of human things such as bras and modesty no longer held. Just as he was about to disregard that last barrier and conclude his search for her core, his back erupted in fierce pain. A low, almost human grunt escaped him as he toppled over, slashing down with the cleaver in a broad arc above Ellie's head.

The motion of his cleaver wielding arm allowed Nester to displace his weight, shifting his face first plummet into a neat and almost intentional looking shoulder roll. As the dull pads of his massive feet skidded through the rubble once more, the monster glared over his shoulder, once again asking in that grating metallic wheeze. "Abraham?"

Chance stood there a moment scared beyond wits as the monster rolled with unbelievable agility for a thing his size. The cleaver came up again, and Chance could see his face reflected in its terrible gleam. The monster gazed back at him over it's shoulder, terrifying him, but he did a good job of keeping it off his face. Or so he hoped. "Lincoln?" Chance wheezed out. "Or Simpson?" He began to move forward, charging towards the hulking beast. Vertigo over took him, however, throwing him forward in a tumble and crash, his body skidding off the ground.

This time Nester was ready for the young upstart's charge. The first time he'd been taken off his guard, not expecting a second Rise user in this group, but now that the prey had identified its skill set, Nester refused to be surprised again. In the same motion, Nester spun around, his heels kicking up dust and rocks and his knees bent slightly. As the prey stumbled forward into range, Nester exploded into a full bodied upper cut. The solid fist slammed into Chance's midsection, launching him skyward to land on the other side of Nester, just out of view.

Chance hit the ground unaware of how he'd survived, his breath gone and his body smashed into the earth like a motorcycle crash victim. His equilibrium was gone as he rolled forward on the ground, finally landing behind the giant. His mind screamed each word to itself. Rise. Rise. Get up. The influx of energy wrenched his mind further as it brought his body new life. Illness overwhelmed him as he looked wildly about, his spinning vision finally locking on the monster's kneecap. In a haze of clarity Chance leveled a kick towards it, failing pathetically as his enhanced but uncontrolled strength only tossed his body away. He succeeded only in using the tree trunk leg as a springboard to spin and roll in a windmill across the dusty trail.

The beast thrashed back and forth for a few moments, desperately trying to figure out what had happened to the prey, were it had landed. Was it possible that the Rise User had merely vanished into the sky? As Nester gazed up at the churning, sunless sky he felt something on the back of his leg. Though it struck him with the force of a swinging baseball bat, it felt no different to Nester than a familiar pat on the back. Behind! It seemed so obvious now. Once again Nester whirled around, this time leading with the cleaver but slicing only through thin air. He saw the prey tumbling away into the distance and let his muscles tense for a moment before giving rapid pursuit.

As Chance stopped he could see the monster run, the wicked cleaver again holding his face like a mirror. The blade shone in the sunless sky, reflecting pools of haze. Chance saw the opening he needed to take, to avoid the wicked sweep of the cleaver and the turning bulk of the beast. He moved to his feet the motion exhausting him as he stood, hands on knees, legs bent. He focused everything he could into the word. The word that had kept him alive. Rise. It responded, filling his mind with joy and power. He leapt. His heels passed his head in a flip, the wall behind him crumbling when he launched forward, his body a mid air missile, hands outstretched.

He'd throttle the beast, crush his throat in the blow. And Chance was certain he would have, if he were on target. He soared, clearing the quick monster, his hands scrabbling wildly as he passed, tearing at the beast's face and neck. His hand ripped an ear it found a grip on, and his frame crashed into the monster's back, his arms firmly wrapped around its thick throat. He writhed, ripping and tearing stitches from the broad shoulders and back of his foe.

Nester watched, dumbfounded as the prey leapt high above him in an acrobatic flip. Just as Nester lost sight of Chance the agony in his ear and neck forced a long, jagged scream from the beast, before Chance's forearm shut down the valve, silencing any attempts at continuing the scream. Nester thrashed wildly, driven mad with terror as he sensed how close the prey was to his precious core. As stitches tore through thick flesh Nester lot is grip on both the cleaver and whatever sanity he had left. The beast threw himself forward, flipping over to land on his back, his tremendous weight crushing down on poor Chance and scattering the remnants of Ichi's pale ashes. As the light blue glow of his exposed core shone brightly, Nester rose up from the ground, frantic to find his precious blade, having already forgotten the man who made him drop it.

The air rushed out of Chance as the beast crushed him to the ground, his arms flopping off its neck. His vision swam and he sat up, gasping, before he rolled to his knees and vomited. His eyes closed, and burning in the back of his mind he could calmly see the glow of a crystalline surface behind the creature's neck. His eyes opened and he turned to the side, perfectly scooping the nickel plated Beretta Ichi had carried before. His ears only barely registered the crying voice of Elaine, the Asian woman in white behind him. She was telling him to shoot the core, that the core was his weakness. Of course it was. Big glowing weak point just like a video game.

The monster for his part looked broken, searching frantically for his dropped cleaver. His speech fell on the world like steel shavings over broken rocks. Chance's eyes closed once more, and opened. His arms raised, his hands braced the Beretta's grip and he fired.

*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*

Three sharp angry bursts of noise, destroying the silence in his mind. Three sickening holes blew the Core from the beast's neck, taking most of it with them. Chance looked at the flawless execution of the impossibly large protector of this Zone, and no sympathy or remorse crossed his big brown eyes. Black blood stained his shirt, obscuring the questioning of his tangerines. Chance blinked one more time and saw the smoking gun in his hand, smelt the burnt cordite, and felt the soreness in his wrists from its heavy recoil. He vomited again, dropping the pistol, his eyes welling with tears. His jaw worked overtime and he shivered, the sensation taking him to his knees. Another spasm took him to his face on the ground where mercifully he passed out, muscle spasms robbing his entire ability to move.

Monster and Mask

Nester wailed as the bullets essentially decapitated him, blasting his grey throat column out the hole where his lower jaw once set. The narrow purple passageway writhed and constricted as the hulking frame of a man struggled to inhale his next breath. Worse even than the loss of the front of his neck, the destruction of his precious fragile core was spilling concentrated blue gunk all down his chest and what remained of his face. His scream was no longer a scream, it was more of a wet gargle as the blue fluid drained his life away, into the harsh air.

The top stitches that remained in Nester's surviving lip dangled, while other long gashes existed in the flesh where the laces had gone with his lower lip. Having relocated his blade, Nester whimpered pitifully as he threw it in the direction of the girl in white. The blade whizzed off into the distance, but it was a weak throw by Nester's standards. It was the last of his psi...

The massive bulk of flesh and raw muscle crumbled to its knees, no longer able to support its massive weight. After one long sweeping glance around with his yellow eyes, Nester faded into dust. The instant his knees touched ground, the dust gave up its shape, crumbling into a loose pile, that was spurned to the mercy of the wind...

Then there was silence, only the whistle of the wind blowing the dust of various disintegrated bodies in long billowing curls that picked up small pieces of sand as well.

***

Mask turned the page on his massive, hard bound book, made larger by the plastic lamination of its pages. The steel plated expressionless mask hissed at the man behind it sighed. He turned the last page and set it back in the shelf of the massive library housed within the Central Siren Tower.

This particular book had been a strange tale indeed. The first half, an odd collection of short stories, detailing heroic stories of broad heroes having unlikely exploits. Each tall tale accompanied with heavy handed moral lessons. Creation myths explaining backgrounds of things that had once been beyond the scope or comprehension of mankind. The second half followed the exploits of a young man named Jesus. His teachings were sound, but his leadership methods were questionable. If he’d truly been powerful he ought to have crushed his accusers rather than inventing an excuse to die.

The book had been a difficult read, not quite poetry, not quite history, not quite fantasy either. It seemed strange to Mask that this book would have been one of the few selected for preservation. Seemingly a lost relic from a forgotten time, when issues of right and wrong were ambiguous concepts, that people needed to teach their children which was which.

Right and wrong were no longer difficult to distinguish, however, both were irrelevant in this new world. There was no mighty hand that would intervene on the behalf of the weak but righteous, no wicked Devil to drag off and punish the evil. There was only power, and the powerful subjugated the powerless. Just like they did in the book.

Mask tossed the book on top of the pile of others in the deep, metal barrel. He soaked them all in gasoline before tossing a match in to set the entire stack ablaze. More knowledge that would be his alone, more knowledge under his control, more power for him alone to possess.

Rising from his chair, Mask glanced around the finely furnished library, scanning the titles for any he’d not yet read. Nothing jumped out at him, so Mask left the library. As the wooden door creaked open, he sent out telepathic signals, searching for where Angel had gone. Perhaps she could help him kill what was left of this mundane, pointless existence.

I’m bored with these books. I hope you’ve found some fun diversion to leave the shade of my long shadow.

Psyren: Angel descends

I have a surprise for you, Angel sent Mask the answer to his question, her voice fading from his mind with an excited, almost sadistic giggle. She stood atop the remnants of a massive pine tree staring in the distance at a blonde woman who was aimlessly running and clumsily stumbling over obstacles. A predatory smile tugged at Angel’s lips as she contemplated the possibilities … idly running her fingertip along one of the twin blades: ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Destiny’, strapped to her thighs.

“Come to me, my precious,” she whispered as her form evaporated into black mist that swirled and played in her absence atop the tree. Angel’s form reappeared in a blossoming spiral of black smoke as her body solidified two hundred yards away from where she was a split second ago. Raven hair played around her angelic face and her black trench coat fluttered in the torrent of wind that bellowed around her. As her heeled boots touched solid ground, Anna rounded the corner and Angel donned an award-winning ‘innocent’ expression.

Anna saw someone standing a few feet away looking as confused and baffled as she had a few moments ago. “We have to RUN!” Anna screamed at Angel, terror etched on her face as she reached the brunette, who looked as if she had just stepped out of a fashion shoot.

“There’s a thi … monster,” Anna gasped as she pointed wildly behind her. “It just killed … this man in a silk shirt … horrible …” tears were streaking down Anna’s cheeks as she stared into Angel’s azure eyes, hoping to find solace from a complete stranger.

“It’s okay,” Angel cooed as she opened her arms, sympathy playing on her features that completely belied the dark and menacing glint in her eyes. “Can I help you?” Angel asked in a serene voice as Anna stepped into her embrace like a trusting child.

A thrill of excitement reverberated through her being as Angel wrapped her arms around the woman’s trembling shoulders. She licked her lips in anticipation of the intoxicating smell of fear. She nuzzled Anna’s neck, taking a deep breath of the refreshing strawberry scent that lingered in her blonde hair. So sweet … and innocent.

“I don’t … I have no idea what to do,” Anna stammered against the girl’s shoulder, who seemed extremely calm considering their predicament.

Angel idly twirled a finger in the girl’s hair before unsheathing ‘Vengeance’ from her left thigh. There was no warning as Angel abruptly sliced down the length of Anna’s floral sundress that looked absurdly giddy in the confines of Psyren. The dress fell from Anna’s body as Angel whispered in her ear, “I can think of … a few things.”

The blood in Anna’s veins ran cold as she felt the cold steel touch of a blade running down her spine, slicing through her bra to join the pathetic bundle of clothes at her feet. Anna slowly pushed away from Angel, her eyes impossibly wide in her face as she stared at the menacing features of something far worse than Nester could ever hope to have been. A scream erupted from Anna’s lips as she turned and blindly ran from Angel with no thought of modesty in her current state of undress.

A bored expression flitted across Angel’s face as she stayed perfectly still, watching the blonde’s ass sway as she ran down the path. Angel thoughtfully looked about her, nibbling on the inside of her cheek before inspecting her manicured nails. Finding nothing wrong, she let her attention return to her latest toy.

In a swirl, Angel disappeared in a cloud of black mist only to appear in front of Anna, who ran full speed into Angel standing like a concrete wall before her. “No point in running my dear,” Angel said in a husky voice as she wrapped Anna in a vice-like grip and raked her nails down her naked back. Anna screamed in terror, her body not even registering the trail of scratch marks adorning her pale skin.

Angel tangled her hand in Anna’s hair and sharply pulled her head back, leaving her mouth parted and her emerald eyes staring at Angel with a mixture of fear and helplessness. Her expression was that of utter horror and vulnerability … Anna was completely at her mercy. That look alone, made the hunt worth the while.

Angel hungrily gazed at Anna’s lips before she claimed them as her own, ramming her tongue possessively into the blonde girl’s mouth … moaning appreciatively as she revelled in the taste of fear. She abruptly let go and pushed Anna down into a kneeling position.

“Delicious,” Angel hissed as she leaned over Anna, letting Vengeance trail along Anna’s collar bone … slowly working her way down to Anna’s ripe firm breasts. She circled around one as Anna kept her eyes glued to Angel’s violet blue eyes, crippling fear keeping her rooted to the spot.

“Scream for me my precious,” Angel whispered as she let Vengeance draw first blood. A scream erupted from Anna’s lips as the blade sunk into her flesh, letting a trickle of crimson siphon from the superficial wound. Angel ran her finger along it and brought it up to her lips … her tongue snaking from her mouth to savour the taste of her latest toy.

“I have great expectations of you,” Angel said as she peered down at the tear-streaked and terror-stricken face of her toy. “You will learn to appreciate pain,” Angel promised before leaning over, giving Anna a provocative view of her bosom. Angel whispered in a barely audible voice that would make even the most hardened of criminals cringe in fear …

“Don’t … Disappoint … Me.”

Without warning, Angel teleported both of them back to Mask. A victorious smile played across her lips as she circled around the kneeling and whimpering girl, presenting her prize to Mask.

“Surprise!” She exclaimed teasingly, revelling in his reaction.

Ash's eyes widened as the man took off, her own feet taking moments to realize this before following after. They were going right for that thing... What the hell was SHE doing? She barely even knew this chick, other than she knew what this place was... Ash had walked off on friends in fights all the time, pretending not to know them; even after she was the one to even piss off the other party... Then why was she doing this?

She stopped as the man dropped, looking back at him. Maybe he'd come to the same thoughts. Maybe he was reconsidering. Good; if he kept up with that other way of thinking, it was going to make her feel like a complete ass and force her into taking the same course of action herself. As long as he just stayed down and-

He ran past her, fury in his eyes.

"Shit, man! I didn't mean go tearing in there like fucking Bruce Willis-!," she snapped, gritting her teeth as she just stood there. That guy-beast-thing was huge, and the blade-knife-headclaimer in his hands didn't look all that friendly. She'd rather keep her distance from that thing...

The other girl. Ellie or somethin'. She shouldn't be standing in that thing's range either. The monster of a man's blade was swinging around insanely, Ash hesitant on trying to get any closer until Chance had him distracted and pissed. Well, that second part wasn't so helpful, but at least the thing was focused on him and not Elaine. Finally mustering up her own courage, she ran to the other woman, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and trying to get her to move. She was shouting at Chance now, something about cores. "Don't start yellin'! You start yellin', that thing's gonna want to go after you again! Don't you watch horror movies?!"

Gunshots.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck-" She was gasping the words now, closing her eyes tightly as she simply stood there beside the other woman as a strangled howl tore through the air. Braving a stolen glimpse, her eyes widened at the sight of the falling creature, yelping out as it attempted a last attack on the woman in white. The blade skitted across the sand before them, Ash trying to regain her breathing as the attacker took his last.

But what about the action hero? Where was he?

She looked back to Elaine, noticing now her ragged clothing. Ash frowned with that, taking off her own coat and holding it out to her. "Here. It's somethin' at least. Now where'd what's-his-face go?" As the words left her mouth, she spotted the back of his shirt in the blowing sand.

He wasn't moving.
"Respawn...?," she whispered hopefully.

Elaine struggled to pull herself up, only to see the stranger single handedly... blindly try to take down the monster. Fuck was he insane? She knew better than to tap anymore into her own abilities... but he? Well. It seemed like he just stumbled across them... and was already trying to push the limit of what he could wield.

"Take out his core!!" Elaine yelled frantically at the man, following it was the broken telepathic image of the core she saw before she was taken down.

"Don't start yellin'! You start yellin', that thing's gonna want to go after you again! Don't you watch horror movies?!" It was almost humorous when death was so close at hand.

The breath Elaine was holding slowly escaped as she watched the bullets break against the core that kept the monster alive. The creature fell as broken as the many he had slaughtered and he too, became dust to blow away in the wind. The wind was merciful, taking away the remnants of that nightmare and left behind the fallen body of the stranger that had tried so hard...

Elaine was shaking when the coat was pressed into her hands. Adrenaline wearing out and shock taking much more of it's toll as she pulled herself to her feet and staggered towards the fallen body. "He's not dead yet. He didn't ash." She dropped heavily beside his body, rolling him over to check the wounds he'd sustained as well as his condition. "He will though if we don't get him out."

Rolling to her feet again, she picked up the pistol that was still hanging in his hands, then her own several feet away and finally found her bag under a layer of dust as she stuffed both weapons in and hoisted the bag to her shoulders. Returning to the man, she shouldered his weight and tried to pull him to his feet. "This isn't WoW. Things don't respawn here. You don't get second chances. If he died, he would ash like that monster we saw earlier... and turn into dust. Give me a hand, lets get the hell out of here."

It was quiet. Elaine had no idea how long she'd been dragging this man with Ashley, but they had made their 4th break stop and Elaine was slowly running out of food she'd prepared. She was also getting tired of munching on Cliff bars... but it was better than nothing. "We should be close." She said as she pulled out the crumpled paper and it's scrawled map. "Give me a sec while I go looking for the exit yeah?"

Elaine returned in a few minutes and the pair hauled the invalid to the pile of rubble that had obscured their view of the payphone... just as it was seen in the image when they entered Psyren. "Go first. Don't worry, it'll take you back. Go first so that someone will be on the other end to catch him."

Elaine dug into his pockets and pulled out his wallet, pulling his Psyren card free as she took a peek at the printed name on his ID, "Chance Revere. Well at least we have a name to tack on to the face." She looked up and pointed to the card slot in the phone booth, "Use your card and put it in there. Then pick up the phone and you'll be teleported back."

Elaine waited as Ashley skeptically followed the instructions... and disappeared. She waited a second longer before putting Chance's Psyren card in and bringing the receiver to his ear. His weight lifted from her hands as she breathed with relief. The nightmare was over. Standing up, she took one more look around before she too slid the card in. Her eyes narrowed into the distant horizon to see what looked like a run down bridge as the cables and paint peeled haphazardly away.... like that of a destroyed.... Golden Gate Bridge.

Her view was obscured as the phone touched her ear and the ground gave way beneath her. Her eyes opened to the noisy streets of San Francisco. The phone booth she was standing next to... looked eerily familiar, as if it were the exit she had just left... but the questions were put aside. A heavy groan from Chance brought her attention back to her priorities. He needed medical attention. Her phone came out as she made a call.

"I made it back. I've got an injured here, You're going to have to come and get us." After street names were given, she turned back to Ashley, "Michelle is a Cure user. Since this is your first time to Psyren, you'll probably be awakening some time today, you'll be able to use psi once you get over it. It looks like Chance here is already in the process. Don't worry, it feels as bad as it looks. Try to sleep it off when it happens, you'll be fine when you wake up."

A car pulled up beside them just as Elaine finished. The brunette that walked out and introduced herself as Michelle bent over and picked Chance up like a feather. As Elaine slid into the passenger seat, she turned back to Ashley, "You're coming right? "

Ash watched with confusion as Elaine checked him over, nodding slightly at the even-more-confusing explanation on how she knew he wasn't dead. Didn't ash? It hit her then; the other man... That creature... She looked to the fading dust strewn about the large blade that had been threatening both he and Elaine, but its owner no longer found in the dirt. Instead, there was just- that mess. Her gaze raised slightly, a sickening feeling coming to her stomach. This whole place was a dust-covered mess. If the majority of this was caused by death, then...

"Holy hell..."

She looked back quickly to Elaine at the request for help to get him moving. She nodded, reaching to take his other arm and helping to hoist him to standing. Dragging him was going to be a feat, but hanging around here wasn't on her list of fun activities. "So this exit.. You know what we're looking for, right?"

Well, she had the map.
And she knew how to read the thing.
Sounded like she knew it pretty well.

The silence on the trek to this mystery exit was a welcomed thing to Ashley; no screams, no roars, nothing from the distance... and nothing from them to attract unwanted attention from any more of those creatures. The only pauses came to rest from lugging him and nibble the snacks Elaine managed to have on hand, which Ash greatly welcomed- the only thing in her stomach was those beers she had guzzled before the phone call.

She never felt so relieved on her life when Elaine confirmed them to be near the goal. Finally! Out of this place! Her smile faded slightly as she asked Ash to keep tabs on the out man, dumbly nodding. As soon as Elaine was out of sight, Ash wanted to kick herself. What if one of those things came back? What if he woke up? She was terrible talking with people, and if he was in pain she had no idea what to do. Her dad had always told her to get a new injury to forget an old one; pinching her if she stubbed her toe, punching her left arm if she fell on the right. Not exactly the best medicine in such a situation.

Relief came once again with Elaine's voice. Eagerly getting back up and taking him with her help, she followed her to the phone, a rather doubtful look on her face as Elaine told her to use it. "I really don't think it's in service...," she mumbled, glancing over to see her looking through the guy's wallet and taking out his little red card. Ash followed suit, taking her own from her pocket. "Right. I'll catch Chance on the other side."

She had no idea what the hell she was talking about.

Still, if it was getting out of here, she'd do it. Placing her card in the machine, she picked up the receiver. Remembering the headache and headrush she had gotten from that first call, she closed her eyes, gritting her teeth as that weird headrush came over her once again. Nearly retching as she opened her eyes, she found herself looking at the Bridge. Hey, she was back!

Damnit. Her apartment was miles from here!

The machine spat her card back out at her, Ash taking it out before giving it a confused look. Wait- shouldn't this have been in that other phone? WAIT- shouldn't it have been on her COUNTER from that first phone call?!

Before she could really think about it too long, Chance was suddenly at the phone, nearly collapsing with the headset cradled against his shoulder and ear like a drunk calling for a cab. Rushing forward, she thrust her arms under his, trying to keep him from faceplanting into the pavement. "Sorry 'bout that, man...," she hissed sheepishly, readjusting her hold on him. Heavy guy.

Moving him out of the way, she glanced up to see Elaine arriving as well, another phone soon in her hand and a call being made. After all that, she was CALLING someone?! Ash tried to not listen in, but when Elaine called out to her, she gave a nod. Someone to help Chance... Sounded good. Maybe-

"Wait. Awakening? What.. what's that? Sleep it off? Like a hangover? Believe me, I'm good at sleeping those off..."

She frowned slightly as the car arrived, watching the three load into it before glancing at the Bridge once again. Her eyebrows shot up as Elaine called to her, giving a quick nod. "Uh- yeah. Sure. I... I'll come too."

If anything, she could get a ride.

Sliding into the backseat with the passed-out Chance, she looked at the two women, then over to him. This was all just so weird. The headache from that phone was getting worse, too. She let out a light groan with that, letting her head fall back against the seat and closing her eyes. "You said first time. That it was my first time... How many times have you been there? Why in the hell would you WANT to go back there?"

"Because you don't have a choice. Next time you can try resisting the call. It's not pretty." Elaine looked back and noted the pallor of Ashley's face. It seemed Ashley was starting to show symptoms. "You remember the point value of your card? You'll have to keep going back until your card value hits zero. When that happens, the voice on the phone tells you that you've completed the game. Michelle here beat the game already. She's the only person I know that has."

Michelle pulled up beside a house, tossed Elaine the keys and hauled Chance out. "You're welcome to come in if you want, I've got room if you need to crash here, if not Ellie can drive you wherever you need to be." Michelle paused a moment as she looked Ashley over, "Though it looks to me you should start sleeping that misery off. I'll be in my room patching this one up." There was no rush in her demeanor that came from a certain confidence in her ability to restore the invalid back to normal.

There was a certain amount of vitality required to survive Psyren. From the shallow breaths she picked up on the man, he had it. Hours probably had passed while he sustained his injuries and death had still not taken him. Michelle brought Chance into her own room, the door was left ajar as she laid him on the bed and began to strip him down. After a pile of dirty bloody clothes were tossed to a corner, she paused, and finally decided to allow him the modesty of his boxers.

The edges of her mouth lifted in a wry grin as she followed suit, stripping down to her black laced panties. Her own clothes she laid neatly over a chair before she slid onto the bed with Chance. Propping the unconscious man up, she knelt behind him, pressing the heat of her own body against his cold one. There was the softest purr of contentment as she felt her nipples harden against his skin.

It was time to begin.

She brought her hands together as if in a prayer, invoking her Cure ability and letting it emanate from her into the victim in her arms, using her psi to find those places he needed to be mended. When she was certain that there were no signs of rejection and her psi was passing into Chance, her hands parted to savor his body. Her hands tenderly moved over him, tracing the lines of his muscle, the ridges of his body and in their wake, left healthy and restored skin. Her breath that ghosted over his shoulder, was like a healing balm as it renewed the bruised and broken skin, making flesh slowly weave back together.

There was a groan of want as her lips tiptoed over the column of his neck, lifting to nibble an ear before kissing the corner of his mouth. She slowly moved back and laid him down before blanketing him with her own body. She started from his feet, hands flowing over him as her lips tagged after. As she passed his groin, she paused, pressing her breasts together over his stirring cock and sandwiching it briefly before she slid further upwards. Gradually she worked herself up to lay over him, with her hands resting around his head as she left slow kisses on his lips, gently nibbling on a lower lip before she parted.

Her hips rolled as she pressed her damp, scantily covered sex against his groin, drawing a soft moan of pleasure she silenced between his lips. She could feel the flare of psi surge into his brain as it sought to restore the damage he had inflicted on himself. Brain damage could not be recovered, but it was always possible to stimulate neurons to expand and fill in for the places that were damaged... a process that would normally take much longer than what she was doing now as she tasted freely of his lips.

The knock on the door followed by Elaine's lilting voice interrupted Michelle's fun as she reluctantly released Chance's lips and looked up at Elaine leaning against the door frame. "Should you be taking advantage of an invalid like that?"

"Well... Cure works best and is the least taxing on me when I want to cure the patient." Michelle retorted with a smile as she provocatively pressed her breasts against the Chance's chest. "Since I don't know... Mr. Revere, I have no reason to want to cure him. So the easiest way to do it... especially since he's still passed out, is to make myself want to."

"Right... I could've sworn you were really enjoying yourself."

Michelle grinned as she fluttered her fingers at Elaine in a dismissal, "I was, and you're cutting into my fun. Now go tend to your friend, from what I remember, she should be in a world of hell no Advil can save her from. You can tell me your adventures after I've had my fun."

"Oh, great. Like my friggin' ex who refused to go away..." Ash closed her eyes a bit tighter, her frown growing a bit more. This was all dad's fault. If he had just thrown away the damn thing like he did every OTHER piece of junk mail... But nooo, he decided to reuse something for the first time in his life.

As the car came to a stop and Michelle invited her inside, she creaked open her eyes, only to make another face at the pain in her head. God, it felt like her eyes were going to bleed. She had experienced migraines before, back in high school, but this was even worse than that! "Yeah, I- I think I'll take you up on that room... At least 'til I can see straight... You don't need to drive me, Ellie. I'll just call a cab or somethin'. I just can't remember my own address at the moment..."

Wilth Ellie's directions to the extra room, Ash lumbered into it, nearly a zombie in her steps as she came to the door. She stopped for a moment as she opened it, her head raising slightly as she heard some... odd noises. Chance had been pretty beat up- if he was starting to come to, he propbably would be moaning and growling about it. Didn't sound very masculine, though.

Oh, whatever. She didn't want to keep sstanding out there to try and investigate. Her head was screaming at her to get inside the dark room and make this pain go away. It felt like it was in other places now, as well. In her chest, in her arms... A terrible pain that made the queasy feeling in her stomach grow tenfold. Stumbling into the room, she fell onto the bed, snatching up the pillow and wrapping it over her head.

She tried to sleep, but everytime she started to doze off, strange images would come to her mind, followed by more pain. For some reason, her mind decided to keep replaying the Boat scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Gene Wilder's voice crooning out that song.. There's no earthly way of knowing, which direction they are going! There's no knowing where they're rowing, Or which way they river's flowing!

She hated that movie.

Why wouldn't this pain go away?! She grit her teeth, clenching the pillow even tighter to her head, remembering that Ellie had said it was going to be something that lasted awhile. How wonderful. She had also said to sleep it off. How the hell was she supposed to sleep it off when her head felt like it was going to explode?! The more annoyed she became, the more that headache grew in strength... which pissed her off even more.

"Alright, dad... This hurts like hell. What do you think I should be hurtin' myself with to outdo it, huh? Cut off my goddam arm?," she growled into the pillow, letting out a hard sigh. Try to sleep. Maybe she could ram her head into the wall a few times and pull that one off...

The gunshots were still ringing in his head, along with every phone call in the known world. Chance could swear his brain felt hot, and if nothing else was true, that was very likely a bad sign. He felt sick still, and it was getting worse, he couldn't dry heave any longer he could barely breathe with what seemed like an elephant on his chest. His legs seemed like jello. Correction bloody jello and occasionally they'd kick while he was dragged out of Psyren.

Outside of his own mind, the the torture was just as bad, his fever increased and his body kept going through chills along with it's muscle spasms causing difficulties to the two women trying to bring him out of the first round. His eyes opened sporadically, capturing snapshots of the ruined landscapes. His mind storing them for reference later until finally in the distance just before he left this desolate place he could see Golden Gate destroyed and snapped, like a giant's foot had stepped on it. He passed out again his weight going completely limp.

When he woke it was much more pleasurable. His body still ached, and his head still pounded, but the elephant sitting on his chest relaxed to a simple weight. Some small simple thing that barely impeded his breath. But most curious, and easily the most interesting of the sensations was the hot wetness rubbing against him. Was he having a wet dream. His body began waking, something graced his lips, and the endless pounding that was destroying his thoughts began to quiet. He almost woke, almost saw the angel that was kissing him while grinding her hot sex into his. Almost.

Something interrupted the bliss he was feeling and he could just hear through the fog of returning war drums in his head.

"Should you be taking advantage of an invalid like that?"

Chance thought, she can take advantage of whatever she wants, not like I'm in any position to stop her.

"Well... Cure works best and is the least taxing on me when I want to cure the patient." Michelle retorted with a smile as she provocatively pressed her breasts against Chance's chest. "Since I don't know... Mr. Revere, I have no reason to want to cure him. So the easiest way to do it... especially since he's still passed out, is to make myself want to."

I could help with that if I could get any coordination going. Chance thought and his cock twitched just once, pressing against his boxers to thump against her wet pussy as she pressed her nipples to his chest.

"Right... I could've sworn you were really enjoying yourself."

Chance was anyway. Now if only he could get his eyes to open so he could see this little nymphet on top of him. For a moment he didn't actually want to. Who knew where he was or what she looked like. But she felt; so slight, so soft, and so small, that he couldn't think of anything but gorgeous atop him. Who was it? His mind was waking, turning as he thought.

"I was, and you're cutting into my fun. Now go tend to your friend, from what I remember, she should be in a world of hell no Advil can save her from. You can tell me your adventures after I've had my fun."

The voices stopped and he could feel lips return to his for a brief brief moment while his body reacted as honestly as it could. He felt like his member would get up and walk away if he didn't do something. Didn't say something. He opened his eyes and saw a pretty little thing, with better than average breasts on tan skin. It was dark and he supposed that was a blessing but he wanted to see more of her. The tiny black lace adorning her pussy was soaking through, and he could make out all her features. They crystallized like a photograph, imprinting on his memory. She was so beautiful. His hands moved on their own, cupping against her smooth rounded ass, filling with the pristine tanned globes.

"I could help with all that fun Angel." His smile lit the room as he gazed appreciatively over her one more time. "If you'll let me play too."

Mask, Angel & Anna- Fallen Angels (part 1)

((LitShark & DarkEmpress collaboration))

No emotion made it past the immaculate polished surface of the mask, but somehow the towering man emoted bemusement. The girl was almost completely unmarked, aside from a small fresh cut near her ribs that Mask assumed she suffered in "capture". She smelled as though she must have bathed recently, with soap and shampoo. She didn't seem to have ever been raped, a true rarity in these troubling times. This weak and powerless beauty had somehow come from opulence.

"Where do you come from, powerless worm?"

Anna stared transfixed at the man who towered over her, his features completely obscured from her view. The fact that he called her a powerless worm made something in the deepest part of her cringe with hopelessness.

"Berkley ..." Anna croaked as she tried to clear her throat "... California."

Mask cocked his head to one side. It was strange to hear someone refer to this torn apart landscape by the long forgotten designations that civilization once knew these areas by. Mask had assumed that she had come from a shelter or a hidden colony somewhere.

"How did you come to be here?" Mask asked deliberately, pacing forward to crouch in front of the nude girl. "Make sure not to spare any detail."

Anna stopped breathing for a second as his face came closer, every hair on the back of her neck rising in an unconscious warning against the evil that seemed to radiate from this being. "One of my students brought me a call card they had found on the playground," she answered quickly before taking a deep breath.

Anna's emerald eyes darted to Angel who was perched on the side of a desk, staring down at Anna with bemusement. Her trench coat was unbuttoned and fell to her sides, revealing an absurdly lavish black velvet bodice that clung to her form. The thigh high boots were offset by lacey suspenders that held a set of sheer stockings in place.

Mask looked up at Angel, expressionless as always but certainly not bored. Dark eyes glinted from behind the barrier as Mask reached forward, his hand darting with the speed an arrow is fired at. His thumb moving under the lacy suspender as his gloved fingers traveled up Angel's inner thigh.

"She's not answering fully, make her scream so she knows that this is NOT a playground."

Angel's head lulled to the side sending her raven hair cascading across her shoulder as she stared up at Mask with unbridled hunger glinting in her eyes.

"My pleasure," she purred as she vanished in a puff of black mist to appear atop Anna. Straddling the kneeling girl ... Angel's expression hardened with sadistic glee a mere inch from hers. "It seems you want to scream for me precious," Angel whispered huskily in Anna's ear as she slowly unsheathed 'Destiny' from her side.

Angel clenched her teeth together as she plunged Destiny into Anna's shoulder. A gurgling scream erupted from Blondie's lips which was drowned out by the groan of pleasure that hummed on Angel's lips. She buried her free hand in Anna's hair and yanked her head to the side before leaving a soft fluttering kiss on the curve of her neck, grinding her hips against Anna's.

Mask chuckled lightly, moving in behind Angel to place the end of his gloved hand into her mouth, wordlessly instructing her to bite down and pull the material free of him. He wanted to touch her, feel the warmth of her fresh blood on his skin.

"I asked how is it, that you came to be HERE! In this place. Be efficient in your reply or be ready for more pain."

Angel held Mask's glove in place and slowly slid her head back, bringing the glove with her as she nestled her head provocatively against Mask's groin. She let the glove drop from her lips before she claimed Anna's trembling lips in a heated kiss that cut all oxygen supply off from the blonde girl's system. A minute later her lips relented and Anna took a shuddering breath as the world took a nauseating swirl around her.

"I ... I called the number ... and answered the questions," Anna gasped as she stared around her wildly. "A few hours later I was watching television and a horrible ringing sound started in my head ... the next moment I was here," Anna said in a quivering voice before pleadingly looking up at Mask.

"Wrong. Not the next moment." Mask insisted angrily, shoving two fingers into the gaping, open wound in Anna's shoulder, feeling around for crucial tendons and bits of her circulatory system that he knew were located in that part of the arm. "I still don't think she knows where she is Angel. Let's show her the outside."

Mask's fingers curled inside Anna's wound, nestling in between the juncture of her clavicle and her ribcage as he wrapped his free arm around Angel's neck down to fondle her breast.

Anna gurgled in pain as her emerald eyes rolled into the back of her head. Angel growled in ecstasy as she arched against Mask's touch, her free hand trailing up against his torso and her fingers playfully twisting across his nipple. In a swirling black mass of smoke, Angel ported them onto a ledge high up in the mountains, giving them a bird's eye view of the death and destruction that was Psyren. The roiling red and black mass above them reflected in her eyes as she howled up at the sky.

Mask only barely felt the increase in weight as Angel teleported them outside. He held Anna up by the union of her bones as she quickly slipped and nearly fell from the top of the tall, epic Siren tower.

"Back inside." Mask commanded, pinching Angel's nipple faintly. "Were there others like you?" Mask asked when they returned inside.

Anna was barely holding on to consciousness as pain became a constant part of her being. She barely registered the red and menacing sky above her as her head rolled back before they appeared back in the room.

"Yes, there was a group of about 5 people. I don't know if they are alive," she said barely audible as her body trembled violently.

"What were their names." Mask asked calmly, sliding his fingers out of her wound and wiping the blood off between her breasts before shoving his fingers into Angel's mouth for proper cleaning.

A veritable river of blood poured out of the gaping hole in Anna's shoulder as Angel slowly ... seductively, sucked on Mask's fingers. She ran her hand down Anna's back and cupped her ass as she pulled the blonde girl closer to her, grinding her heated sex against Anna.

"I don't know their names ... the one that the monster killed was called Ichi," Anna offered in a daze-like voice as she answered his questions methodically. Her features were stark and pale as her body spasmed at the loss of blood.

Mask leaned back, watching the blood flow from Anna's wound as Angel cleaned his fingers. With his other hand, Mask began unfastening his belt buckle. As his pants slid down from his slender hips Mask's cock sprang up, already made excited by Anna's screams and Angel's seductive ways.

"Make her suck it." Mask commanded, his fingers pinching down on Angel's cheek to drag her down to her knees. "Is she pleases me, I shall grant her power beyond her wildest imagination."

Without even granting time for willing compliance, Mask slid the head of his cock over Anna’s lips slowly, smearing her saliva and his precum together in an illicit lip gloss. His fingers still tightly pinching Angel’s cheek, he wrapped her mouth deliberately around the head of his cock, like a condom. When he felt her warm mouth engulf him, his still gloved hand slid over the back of her head, down her neck to her shoulders, slowly peeling the loose duster off of her shoulders.

“Show her how it’s done My Angel...”

The sigh Michelle offered him was theatric as a manicured finger lifted to tap against her pouted lips. "And here I thought I'd get to play longer... You got better a lot faster than I thought you would, Mr. Revere." She grounded her sex against him one last time before she slid off the way she came, letting the hand cupped against a rounded ass-cheek glide up her body as she descended and parted from his. Rolling to her feet from the bed, she pulled a robe over her shoulders, quickly obscuring the view he had of her. " I suppose nothing heals quite like a woman's touch..."

Groggily Chance watched as she got off of him and began to cover herself. "No nothing does." He replied in a confused tone. '"Which is why I think we should continue there's still a lot of me left to treat." Chance made a fumbling grab for her and succeeded only in rolling mostly off the bed his equilibrium completely gone. "You can't just leave yet, I'm still very injured." His mind rolled for something witty but nothing was coming, "Look at all the swelling that needs to be treated." He finally blurted, as his hand shook reaching for the tip of her robe. "That could be in danger of bursting."

A finger dragged across his chest before pushing him back onto the bed. "I think you're well on your way to getting better. There's very little I can do now to speed up the recovery of your 'injuries'." Her lips lifted in a grin as her finger drifted south and her hand turned to caress the swollen outline in his boxers. The touch was brief and all too soon the sensation was gone and she was at the door. "Enjoy the blue balls Chance. You blew yours."
Elaine looked up from the homework she had garnered off of Michelle's computer. The damp hair left telltale tracks of moisture streaked over both her paper and the spare change of clothes she had borrowed from Michelle. Night had fallen as the dimly lit lamp left it's long shadows across her features as opposed to brightening them.

"So are you going to let me... tend to you, Ellie?" The smirk on Michelle's face suggested far more than her words as a long finger dragged across Elaine's shoulder. "I'm sure you're battered and bruised too."

Elaine's face paled as she pulled away from Michelle's touch, thankful that the lone finger had glided over cloth and not skin. "I'm fine. I'll get better on my own."

"Really? It's only a kiss... maybe two." Michelle leaned forward, gathering the struggling Elaine into her arms, as a hand slid easily under the collar to fit around Elaine's breast. "I'd really love to cure you..."

"Right... And have you molest me in the process?! I'll do without!" Elaine grounded between her teeth as she writhed and tried to get away. "Isn't this considered sexual harassment?!"

"It probably is." Michelle replied thoughtfully. "Now, are you sure you don't want me to use Cure? That bruise on your shoulder is going to get a LOT worse before it'll get better..." As if to make a point her other hand lifted and gently pressured Elaine's shoulder, purposely assaulting the place that would hurt the most as Elaine wilted under Michelle's touch.

"Owwwww.....!! I - I'll be fine!" And in that moment Michelle relented and released her as Elaine fell back to her seat. There was a certain amount of surprise as Elaine found the pain in her shoulder wane. It started as a warm flare of concentrated heat that expanded into pleasure across her shoulder. By the time Elaine had pulled aside the collar to inspect the bruise, it and the sensation had faded. Her head snapped up as she stared at Michelle for a moment before dropping to stare at her toes and mumble. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it. I just like picking on you. Now. What did you see?"


Elaine was up early. In Michelle's house sleeping in meant the insufferable woman was likely to come haunt her in bed... It was much safer if she were awake. With the coffee set to brew, she sat down to nibble her toast as Michelle staggered out of her room.

"You think those two are gonna be up and running some time today?" There was a hint of concern as Elaine greeted her host.

"They should be up soon. Chance just needed rest to complete the rest of his healing, and Ashley... well awakenings never last an entire night." Michelle yawned and the room went quiet. Sinking into a chair, Michelle stole the other piece of toast sitting in Elaine's plate before she spoke again. "What do you see in them?"

"Ashley... is like the grandeur of fireworks exploding across a midnight sky. Unstable... but dramatically epic." Elaine's eyes went dreamy as she thought back to what she'd seen. There was a slow sip of her milk before she continued. "Chance ... is like a sea of faces. As if he possesses the potential of infinite number of people..."

"You see some of the strangest things..." Michelle let out a slow whistle as the footsteps came down the hall and the pair in question trudged out.

"Good morning! It's nice to see the two of you up and functioning again. Congratulations, you both survived your first round of Psyren and can now officially use psi... " Michelle was much too bright for an early morning as her eyes drifted over to Ashley and picked up an almost predatory gleam...

"There's a few things I've learned in this world. The main one, and this is an important one, now, kid... The main one is, you can't trust people worth a shit."

She could see him. She could even smell him; the smell of his cheap beer and equally cheap cigarettes, the cologne she came to associate with her father since as long as she could remember... The way he slumped over in his chair and wagged a finger at her as he gave her one of his half-slurred lessons on life. "So does that mean I shouldn't trust YOU, dad?"

"Buhhh. Don't be a fuckin' wise-ass. People'll- They'll take advantage of ya. Everything you do, they'll say it was somethin' they came up with. Unless it's SHIT. Then you can have all the credit. Everything that no one else wants to say is theirs... You'll get stuck with." Another slug of his beer, another scowling glare in her direction as he slumped over further. "Even if it ain't all your mistake."


Aside from the dream about her father, Ash felt quite a bit better when she woke up. That horrific headache had managed to work itself off, though a faint pulsing pain managed to linger behind her left eye. The reason for it wasn't a mystery to her, however; it always seemed to happen when she thought back on how her dad was with her as a kid. No reason to sit there and boohoo over her bad childhood; something had woken her up, and it was starting to beckon her even more now. Coffee.

Her feet weren't very cooperative on leaving that room, drudging her down the hall towards the scent wafting through the house. She grimaced slightly at Michelle's far too chipper greeting, mumbling something under her breath before stabbing a finger towards the coffeemaker. "S'ok if I get some'a that?," she asked in a jumble of words, not even bothering to wait for a confirmation on it before picking up a mug and pouring some out.

Taking a quick sip as she worked her way around the table, she plunked down at one of the seats, trying to get her body to realize it was indeed morning. "Sorry. I'm not.. a big morning person... Especially after last night." What Michelle had said, however, did manage to stay on her ears. They had made it through, hadn't they? But Ellie had said there was more to come, that they had to keep going back until that damn card read zero. "Psi. Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned that yesterday..." She nodded toward Ellie, barely losing the frown that rested on her face. "That mother of all migraines I had- That was the waking thing you were talkin' about, wasn't it?"

"Enjoy the blue balls Chance. You blew yours."

He twitched painfully one more time as she left. Now normally he'd have followed the near naked, creature as she walked out the door. Any red blooded man would. But this was not a normal condition, and his body refused to obey his given commands. He attempted to roll but his legs were impossibly heavy, the joints swelled and immobile. He collapsed back to the bed, and began to sweat, even though he felt deliriously cold. The hard on in front of him stiffened painfully but he could hardly reach for it to take matters in his own hands. When his hand finally got there he could hardly paw at it, as his fingers refused to curl.

Mercifully at that point he passed out from the heat, avoiding the rolling turns his stomach was starting. Dreams danced through his head, dreams of the woman who'd healed him, of the small Asian girl who'd taken him through the zone, of the red haired woman who'd followed him to the beast, and of the land he'd just come from. It's infinite spaces, the long impossible horizon, stretching over the wreckage of buildings he now remembered, as part of San Francisco. Lurid visions of bare glimpses, like staring at photographs, of a worst case scenario movie. He shivered in his sleep.

When he finally awoke his hard-on was gone. No wet dreams for him, and the inside of his mouth tasted like dust and vomit. He gasped as he tried to get moisture in it and nothing came. He hit the ground face first and pushed himself to his feet. Chance started staggering forward on limbs that had been asleep too long, pausing only to steal a robe from the back of the door. It smelled heavenly, like lilacs and girl. He looked both ways before he made his way to the bathroom, checking first if there were towels. He'd forgotten only once to do that and now it was habit. He showered holding his head under the water for what felt like forever, cleaning the ash of a dead beast from himself. There in the water he cried softly, for the first thing he had ever killed.

When finally he felt clean and the water had run cold Chance came out, brushed his teeth with his finger and rinsed many times, finally taking the risk of peeking his head out the door. After all, he didn't know this woman and he didn't want to be strange naked man in a strange home. He'd seen that on the news too many times. It never ended well. No matter how liberal San Fransisco could occasionally be with near total public nudity, he wasn't going to be trying it any day soon. Walking back to the room he closed the door and inspected his clothes.

Filthy. That just couldn't do at all. He rummaged, finding oddly enough a number of men's clothes in differing sizes. Chance felt even worse, she has enough MEN'S clothes in her closet and I blow my chance from when she started Naked on top of me. 'That chick is either the world's biggest cock tease, or I became so hideous in the last day that paper bags will become my new hair gel' he thought. He struggled with pants, eventually finding a pair that was a little baggy but actually fit his legs, His belt was serviceable and finally accomplished more than a fashion accessory, before he tugged on a plain white polo shirt and walked back out. He had questions for everyone, absolutely everyone, but the smell of toast, and the even more heavenly aroma of coffee.

He stared at the tableau of three women in a kitchen, none of whom he knew, for a brief moment before he too made his way into the kitchen. Past the woman with a map, The redhead who'd followed him into danger, and the woman who despite giving him the largest ache of the entire evening, had apparently healed him. Finally he stopped, and let his hands fall on the counter by the coffee machine. He despaired as he finally realized he had no cup. Finally he spoke, to the two at the table.

"So I have a lot of questions. And I don't know who has answers to any of them if anyone does, I'm betting Red here has the same ones. Like what the fuck was that? and where are we now? What happened to the other blonde with us, and who is this crazy lady who stopped short enough on me, to call it molestation instead of a happy ending?" His voice gritted a little and he realized how tight he was gripping the counter. "Now I've heard you talk about Psi, and about that funny word on my phone card and what they've been talking about on TV. I think I have some VERY valid questions. But if I can just get a little coffee and some cream, I'll hold off until after breakfast."