Alex focused on the clone sprinting five steps ahead doing high knees and oozing athleticism while activating the new function of [Illusory Copy]. The world disappeared as the Skill activated.
It was nothing like [Phantom Step's] teleportation. That was like a clean blink and ending up somewhere else. This was like getting slammed through a wall of dissociation. His brain stayed behind while his body leapt forward, and for a few horrifying milliseconds, he wasn't Alex anymore. His awareness stretched thin and dragged through some wall in the universe. It happened in a flash, but the stairs fell away, and he was somewhere beneath reality. Giggles sounded from a narrow throat and a wet ASMR voice played with his ears lovingly. He couldn't see anything as he ceased to exist. It took just a moment. Then he snapped back into place faster than his mind could process.
Kind of.
His consciousness slammed inside the space where the illusion had been, but it wasn't perfect. The balance was off, and it was like taking over someone else's body mid thought. His foot landed wrong, his muscles didn't know what they were doing, and the clone had already disappeared. He flailed and fell. Before he could swear, his shin was already smashing on the edge of the next stair at full force.
"Fuuuuuuuuck!" He yelled, tumbling forward and face planting on the stone steps. He ended up in a sprawl, with the [Illusory Copy] nowhere to be found.
"Oooooowwwwwwwwwwwww," he wheezed and held his shin while sitting on the step. Only twelve more flights to go. He leaned back against the wall and got his bearings. "That is soo cool," he said, "but what the fuuuck?" He looked down and up the stairs. There wasn't even a shimmer left of his [Illusory Copy]. The dude was just gone.
"Where did my copy go?" He asked a pigeon at the next landing. The pigeon just kept stuttering forward the way pigeons do. It wasn't one of those yelling ones. "Is that…it is just gone? Did I just take over his body? Is that guy real?" A shiver ran through him. "How does he disappear if I didn't get rid of him? Is he like a version of me I pull…," Alex paused and immediately shut the door on that train of thought.
"Nope. Nope nope nope. That guy isn't real. Just an illusion. There's only one me." He nodded to himself and the pigeon. "Definitely not an alternate version of myself. Thinking is not an illusion. I am not going down that road. No thank you." He groaned and pushed himself to his feet, doing a test hop on his shin. He still wore the same crappy paint covered basketball shorts and Honest Ed's t-shirt. Sadly, it wasn't that he went into the more handsome version, just took up the space from him. At least no one was around to laugh.
"Alrighty," Alex said, preparing himself and giving the remaining stairs a glare. "Round two. I'm not done with you." His leg killed and was going to bruise something serious, but his Core still felt primed and ready to go.
He summoned another [Illusory Copy]. The clone popped into existence next to him, wearing those fancy little shoes. The bastard even scoffed at him soundlessly before sprinting up the stairs with ease.
"Really? Definitely didn't control that," Alex grumbled and sprinted after him, trying to match the cadence. As he flew past the next landing, the pigeon squawked before taking off.
"TELL YER DAMN CAT TO STAY AWAY!"
Alex whizzed by the bird as it flapped into the city. "Got it. Spy pigeons. That's great." Then he activated the second part of the Skill again.
WHOMP.
He flashed forward again into the worst version of dissociation. This time, there wasn't ASMR, but someone was teeth whistling a merry tune. He popped into the clone's space, and promptly skinned both of his knees on the stairs as his body teleported tried to figure out what the hell it was supposed to be doing.
"Auuuauuuuugh–son of a bitch!" he barked, trying not to scream as he scrambled up. The clone was gone. This time, Alex didn't really mind that the dude had vanished from existence.
"Again." He hissed.
Over and over, Alex fired off [Illusory Copy], and sent the progressively snarkier version up. The asshole even started appearing with a fancy wristwatch. He'd activate the second part of the Skill. He'd slip, and even took a tumble down half a flight, and somehow even knocked his funny bone on his own face. Explain that one. Two times turned into five, turned into ten as he slowly fell his way up the stairs. His Core was still humming. Finally, the top of the stairs of Casa Loma was a single flight ahead as Alex beat himself into learning the Skill.
"I. Will. Master. This," Alex said to himself. He sent the clone out, and the dude flew upwards right away. He followed, as the clone crested the stairs, already cheering, Alex pushed down on the Skill one more time and hoped his brute forcing would let him zip over without face planting again.
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One extremely creepy flash which involved someone crying in the inbetween place later, the real Alex flashed into the copy's hopefully fake existence. He appeared at the top of Casa Loma with knees bent just right, a pumping Core, and soft knees. His legs kept moving and he sprinted down the sidewalk while raising his arms like Rocky.
"Ha!" he shouted to the posh neighbourhood. "NAILED IT. WOOHOO!" Alex kept cheering as he sent out another copy. The clone sprinted off with perfect form and lit up with [Blazing Hot]. Flames burst cleaner and he looked like he was sponsored by a very violent shoe company. The real Alex's core revved as he ran harder to activate his own, slightly less cool flames. He struggled to keep pace with the copy.
"Let's goo!" he yelled as the music blasted in his ears. He bent into the sideways of reality and there was definitely someone watching. He couldn't see them, but they were there. Then a little snap and he was in the clone, shooting down the block with a perfect stride.
"Wooo!" he roared as pedestrians turned to stare as he blitzed past with flamed feet. He activated it again and flicked the clone to the side. Another teleport. He popped right, and left, and dodged a levitating lunch cart selling 200 Credit salads the size of a little cup. He sent the clone to vault a recycling bin, and before he could think if he could do it, activated again.
"Oh wow Mister! I wanna do that!" The blue recycling bin yelled as he landed inside the clone just as it cleared the bin with some serious hangtime. More pedestrians turned to watch him sing along to the new album and shoot out copies of himself, only to zip over to them as he got better and better. He turned onto St. Clair. There were raccoons wearing baseball caps, and even a succulent Familiar that looked sunburnt. He was having a blast as he honed the Skill.
Traffic on the street was the usual mix of floating trucks, delivery scooters cutting and covered in LEDs, and fancy cars purpose built for price only. Alex dodged the corpos walking in identical grey suits that streamed along the sidewalks. They all had heads down, coffees in hand, and murmuring into headsets. Alex let his [Blazing Hot] fizzle and vibed to the music. Time to just run.
I'm not even anti suit. But like, maybe pop the collar? Add a cape? Future's here, man.
Everything felt on. Like he could seriously run for hours. The sun approached the top of its arc as morning and noon did their handshake. He was sweating, and it felt earned. His lungs weren't screaming, and every single step felt wonderful. The Green Day album was hitting just right, and he practically danced in and out of foot traffic. He decided that running for running sake was awesome. With his new level in [Illusory Copy] somewhat covered, as it still felt a bit janky, Alex knew he was improving.
This is going to make deliveries so much easier. Hand off pizza over Dungeon lava? Check. Have him do all the hard stuff? Now I have a Skill to teleport me in any direction, and the Illusory Copy that I can jump to. DOUBLE TELEPORT. Wait shit…I need to check the range.
He dodged around a corpo with a blank stare, fired off his [Illusory Copy], and sent it sprinting for twenty seconds. When the fake version was thirty meters away, he tried to activate the second part. Nothing happened, but he did feel a sort of mental clipping as his consciousness tried to expunge itself from his mind. He stopped the copy and had it high-knee in place as he got within twenty meters. Same thing. At fifteen meters, his brain hiccuped and suddenly he was high-kneeing in front of a donut store. Did anyone even care that he just teleported to himself? Nope. They were all glued to their phones or staring at the fancy ads. Ridiculous.
Alex shook his head as he turned on Avenue to head back south. The car traffic was intense, but there weren't that many people walking on the sidewalks. He knew of a little trail that cut between the city and a cemetery park, and he took two steps at a time down a rickety set to get some more space. The noises of the city cut off a little bit as they were filtered through the trees.
The path was still a little slick. Alex's red converse squelched but he managed. The forest was in full bloom with fat, hairy squirrels that chased each other in loops of romantic violence. Birds screamed bloody murder, weeds literally flung leaves at each other in plant brawls, and the trees were vibing with the summer wind. The wind played them, and they swayed in time like bored giants. Alex offered a casual "Moooorning," to an old lady in a neon visor powerwalking in the other direction. She raised a sparkly water bottle in salute and kept trucking. He let himself slow down a bit and just soaked it all in.
The birds did remind him of one thing, however.
"Right. Burrow Sense. Burrow Sense…How bad could it be?" It was the birds that sold him. They reminded him of the Carrot Cardinal and his brief hallucination of a wonderful life ruined by a pellet gun. He tapped it mentally and could feel it right there, just itching to be activated.
Rather than running and turning it on, he slowed to a stop in a little clearing. Sure, there was a bird eviscerating a squirrel body and chomping on its tiny little Core, but it would do. No cars to get smacked by, no people to point and laugh. It was about as private as you could get in an overpopulated city.
Hmmm… Alright, Mr. Carrot Cardinal. Let's see what you've got.
With a little push, Alex shoved some Essence into [Burrow Sense]. And with zero planning and the strategic wisdom of a brick, Alex struck a pose, and mentally activated the Skill.
Fuck it.
He promptly blacked out into the mud and fire hose vomited the Fruit Bloops across his shirt as every single one of his senses uppercutted him at the same time. Sight, sound, taste, smell, everything dialed to the max and launched into orbit. It was all too much. he could taste the mud. He could smell the worms sweat. He could hear the ticking of a million little heart beats. His own oil in his hair bombarded him.
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