As the black void washed over the two of us, I brought up my hands to shield my face from the oncoming waves. I waited for my hands to feel something, anything really. But nothing happened.
"Hey, are we doing this or what?" I heard Angela ask impatiently.
I slowly lowered my hands and saw that Angela had taken off her Jacket and was stretching her arms right in front of me.
Uh oh, did I flip a switch I wasn't supposed to? What happened to the Angela from 5 minutes ago?
I looked around and noticed that the place we were in was just a giant empty space. There were no signs that life existed here, though it was hard to even tell with how little I could actually see. The only source of light was a small circular hole at the top of the void that acted as a small light source. Unfortunately, its illumination was subpar at best.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"We're still at the Academy if you're wondering, but I've surrounded the area we're in with an artificial barrier," she motioned towards her belt which had two black spheres clipped onto it. "We only get a certain amount from Tech. monthly, so this better not be a waste of my time."
"How big is this space though? I don't really want to run into another wall."
"Don't worry about that, the space inside is a lot bigger than the space outside,"
She began to slowly walk around around me, her heels clicking against the floor.
"The space inside here is based on your own perspective of darkness. You could run around here for miles and never find a wall. The only caveat to it is that the illusion is broken if the barrier itself is broken from outside."
"Mhm." a small squeak in acknowledgement was all I could muster as I carefully followed her every move as she walked around me.
"You're locked-in." she remarked. "If you were a student I'd applaud you on your feat of concentration, but since you're someone that should be smarter than a student here let me remind you something you should already know: when someone focuses on an object, their understanding of what else is happening around them lessens.
"So? And your point?" I asked as I remained fixated on her moving figure.
"What I'm saying is, if my opponent was watching my every move I could do something like..."
She suddenly stopped walking.
"This."
As if she were a magician performing a magic trick, within the mere milliseconds it took for me to blink... Angela disappeared into thin air.
"Fuck, she's messing with me." I crouched low and tapped on my shoulder.
'Activating Augment [Celerity] at max capacity | One Use Remains.'
Suddenly the ground beneath me started to slightly rumble. I looked down and saw the tile floor beneath me tear apart. Emerging from the crack, the small figure of a fist swung out at me. I jumped backwards and raised my hands to defend, but something felt off.
Why did she only expose her hand?
As my body floated in the air, I noticed that the hand that emerged from the floor started to slowly shrink and distort. When I reached the apex of my jump though, I found the reason behind it. The thing that I thought was her fist flying at me from above was now flat like a piece of paper: a visual illusion.
"Shit-"
I had no time to finish my sentence as a blunt object pummeled me in the ribcage, sending me flying across the room.
Spit flew out of my mouth as I crashed and rolled onto the floor. Pain flared up in my side, but I had no time to care about that. Every second was precious, I couldn't waste it writhing on the floor.
I bit my lip and quickly got back on my feet using [Celerity]. My opponent was nowhere to be found, but her attacks seem to have come from my surroundings. An invisible attack from an object that that cannot be seen, and an illusory distraction. I couldn't find out what her Augment was from that alone, but it was a good start.
"Hmm, so your Augment is Hypervelocity." an ethereal voice spoke.
"Show yourself," I yelled out into the void.
"Hmm, what do you mean by that? I am aren't I?"
All of a sudden, she appeared right in front of me. Without hesitation, I propelled myself forward and threw a jab directly at her face. My punch however, went right through her visage.
I stumbled forward and quickly looked behind me, but instead of seeing one Angela, I saw two of her.
"You know, you're an interesting fellow," the two said in unison.
"Your augment might seem useless at first glance but you seem to have complete mastery over it." her voice then whispered in my ear.
I swung my elbow behind me, but again my arm didn't hit anything. The two Angela's started to walk towards me. As they walked, they started to blur. Static crept up their bodies until it reached their face. Then, the blur started to ripple outwards. The static tore apart the very images of Angela Wilson until it ripped them in half.
I let out a small nervous laugh, "What the hell."
My forehead began to sweat as the torn-apart Angela's began to mend its lost side, until what stood in front of me were four perfect copies of her.
"Superspeed is considered one of the weakest Augments to receive purely based on what other options you have, yet you seem to relish in your power," they all talked in unison.
"Maybe your view of power is stunted because of your own weakness, because you don't seem to be that phased by this," another pair of voices said from behind me. "Is it naivety or confidence I wonder?"
A laugh rang out from behind me. I turned around and I saw that another two copies of Angela had appeared behind me. The clones all began to duplicate, until they slowly began to completely surround me.
"I was planning on letting you go without much of a fuss, but your thirst for a fight left me craving for one myself," her silky smooth voice echoed out.
"I'll make this quick for you, I don't know your fighting capabilities but I doubt you'll be able to fight off this many of me."
I scoffed out loud. "What do you mean fight off?"
I walked forward towards the horde of Angela's and lifted up my arm.
"These illusions aren't real, they're nothing but a facade."
I swung out my hand to dissipate the illusion, but instead of passing through her face, my hand slapped against her cheek.
"Hmm, just an illusion you say?"
I instinctively jumped backwards and stared at the back of my hand. It was slightly reddened from hitting the clone, and I could still feel that slight warmth that came from touching its face.
"You seem bewildered, a shame really. I thought you would be smarter than this." the clone that I slapped began to grin.
As I looked around at the rest of the clones, I realized that they were all smiling.
"You know, I haven't made this many duplicates in a while," she said in an alluring tone. "So, go on then, make it worth my while."
A resounding snap rang out from the midst of the horde and in an instant, the Angela's began their assault.
I ducked underneath one punch and side-stepped past another, but the numbers were too much even for my speed. It was as if they're were all in sync. Every time one would punch, another two fists would swing. And every time I blocked a kick in front of me, it seemed like an entire team of soccer players had decided that my back was now their new ball.
With how beat-up I was from earlier, it didn't take to a genius to realize that I wouldn't be able to last much longer. If I knocked down one, another would take its place. I needed to find a weakness, something I could exploit, But for that to happen I'd need to be moving at speeds much faster than right now.
"RELEASE!" I yelled out.
'Voice Command Acknowledged, would you like to release the limiters on your Augment [Celerity] at the cost of your last charge?'
"Yes." I responded between breaths as I grabbed the arm of one Angela and threw her into the horde.
'Permission Granted. May the power bestowed upon you grant you victory.'
Adrenaline immediately surged through my body was my augment began to operate at overclocked capacity.
With every ounce of strength I had, I jumped into the air and propelled my body into the vast space above.
I scanned the crowds of Angela from above for anything useful, but nothing seemed to catch my eye until I spotted something strange. Every Angela that attacked me wore blackish jeans, a white blouse, and a small grey coat. But there was one particular Angela that stood out from the crowd:
An Angela without her jacket.