4.6.3502, 11:15, at the medical station in the training room of the AOs hideout in Stean.
Mimicry shot awake and cried out in torment, feeling like his ribcage was being stirred with numerous hot blades. Fighting for breath, he could barely see through his tear filled eyes, and when he tried to move, an unknown force held him down.
The pain only lasted a few moments in which he writhed in anguish against the restraints.
“Time for you to sleep your little misery away” He heard his master’s voice quip before he lost consciousness once again.
“Why did you knock him out again, Blur?” Twin , who was currently handing Trail a glass of water, asked. He had been checking medical supplies before, but was now done.
“His injured ribs would break again if he moved in the next few minutes and I can't have that happen since he has a mission in two days.” She reasoned and looked at her unconscious student with pity.
Concurrently Mimicry was having a strange dream. He saw a majestic dark blue palace, with countless towers plastered in between its giant walls. Dim pulses of light made it seem like the huge complex was rippling.
Small points of light were orbiting around it like little moons. They dragged bright trails after themselves like shooting stars, forming a surreal scene right before his eyes.
It was then that he noticed that the palace stood on a massive hill. A multitude of walls encapsulated the natural slope, arranged so tightly that the hill was only slightly visible. This made it seem like a giant mountain of stone wall was guarding it.
The magical sight reminded him of the fairy tales in which angels descended from mystical palaces and brought the alms of the gods to the needy.
These tales were the last widespread remnants of the once powerful churches. They had lost their relevance, as the technological advancements had brought prosperity for all and the harsh famines of the past had been defeated.
With rapid growth and innovations, general wealth had been attained, leading to the general populace's lose of faith. In the eyes of the people, the gods were no longer needed and the churches lost their public approval.
These thoughts ran through Mimicry's mind, while he looked down at the mystical palace or castle, the thick walls and numerous towers gave it the air of one. But its elegant design reminded him more of a palace, one rich nobles with too much money liked to build.
Then he realized that he was seemingly levitating in nothingness, a void all around him. He looked to his left and right, but only darkness greeted him. Wondering what was behind him he tried to turn around.
But he couldn't! No matter how much he flailed his arms or kicked his feet he couldn't turn.
Forcing his neck into a painful position, he was finally able to glimpse at least somewhat behind himself. First he checked his right more thoroughly, yet again there was only darkness.
Turning the check the left, his neck muscles screamed in protest, but he ignored it. The thought of not knowing what was behind him made him sick! The strings of his muscles felt like they were about to tear, when suddenly a purple sea entered the corner of his vision. Its surface was a glistering translucent mantle of magenta, reflecting a intensely shining red sphere! Suddenly the bizarre dream ended and he jolted awake, with a painstaking headache and bathed in sweat.
“Must have been an awful dream for you to wake up that fast” Twin, who was still monitoring both him and Trail, said as he pointed to two sheets of paper on the small table beside Mimicry. “Your master left them for you, no clue were she is now though”.
Used to his master's habit of leaving him alone at random times he massaged his temples and set up. He felt his chest ache, however much to his surprise the pain was manageable and he grabbed the sheets Blur had left for him.
Giving them a cursory glance he realized that it was another ability description with activation symbol. “How long was I out?” Mimicry asked curiously, reading the paper more closely.
“About an hour” Twin answered and handed him a glass of water, which he gratefully took. “How are you feeling?”
Mimicry took a sip of the cold water and it seemed to reinvigorate him. He hadn't realized how much his body craved hydration and quickly emptied the glass. “I'm doing decent against all my expectations”
Twin only nodded in acknowledgment of his answer and went back to keeping watch over Trail, who was still pale from the earlier blood loss.
Placing the glass down, Mimicry finished reading the ability description and respective boon prayer. It was Dupe; Activity Replica and allowed for observed actions to be copied and reenacted by oneself.
“Should make for some useful utility” finishing this thought he stretched, checking his body for any other injuries he might have. Finding nothing, he kneeled down on the bed and began to pray.
Once again rays of blue coalesced with the projection of his tattoo and bizarre symbols, fused into one another in inexplicable ways, assaulted his mind. Gritting his teeth, he endured the torturous onslaught for several painful seconds.
After this, he let himself fall on his back onto the medical flatbed, which lacked proper padding. He had to get proper rest. While staring at the with wood planks supported stone ceiling, he couldn't help but wonder how bad the side effects would get once he got stronger.
Meanwhile in a cramped room somewhere else in the hideout.
Blur busied herself with a telegraph, sending her reply to Sliver to the hideout in Votal. She had taken off her leather gloves for this delicate task, pressing down the buttons of the mechanical metal typewriter one by one, careful to not misspell even one word.
This type of typewriter she was using had recently hit the circles of underground criminals. On first glance it seemed ordinary, but it automatically encrypted sent messages. The encryption could be modified freely by the user and because of this, it was practically impossible for anyone else to crack, although it had the downside of requiring the decryption device on the receiving party's side to be tuned accordingly.
She had discovered it during a mission a few years back and proposed its integration into the communication of the organization. This made communications much safer and faster, since they had to hand-deliver their message before, due to the latent risk of leaks when using other methods.
Every week a large raffle had been done and the unfortunate winner had to deliver the mail. This tedious task often required multiple days, even when using the steam locomotive.
Another huge downside had been the horrendous communication speed between hideouts, but that issue had become history since the handy encryption typewriter. Though it was just called encrypter by everyone.
Finishing up the message, she donned her gloves again, turned off the telegraph, and got up from the wooden stool she had been sitting on.
She exited the small chamber which was dedicated to communication and closed the wooden door behind herself. As she locked the room she began to ponder.
“Sliver's mission should prove interesting, after all that weird jester will probably be at the execution too. He has become famous over the past two years and yet nobody even knows his background”.
His rapid rise to fame and the recent radicalization of Votal's people in particular made Blur wary of him. It just seemed too coincidental.
The popularity of jesters had been declining, so his success was odd. His support of some extreme opinions, which he openly spread, made him only more dubious.
Blur sighed, her eyes ached again. Fairly irritated, she popped a phial of Tias open and let it drip onto her eyes, as she walked towards the entrance to the basement.
The corridor's walls were decorated with many paintings, some were life-like portraits and others depicted moments of historical relevance. However no matter how different they all were, they had one thing in common, every last one of them had been approved by her.
Some she had brought from her personal collection and some where added later on, either obtained by theft or simply by buying them. Her significant role in the design of the hideout was only natural, since she had been the one to organize the new building. A few years prior, when she had been freshly stationed in Stean, she had decided that they needed a hideout more fitting of the ancient organization and promptly made her idea reality.
The usual neon green flames extruded from her tear glands, as she descended down the wide stone stairs leisurely.
Sliding the shimmering phial back into one of her lab coat’s excessively padded pockets, she saw the training room slowly enter her vision.
As she entered the room, Twin noticed her and gave her a quick look, before continuing to keep watch over the injured students.
Making her way towards the medical station, she spotted her student laid down on the bed. He was staring at the ceiling with unfocused eyes, like he was deep in thought.
Seeing her student like this she felt the urge to tease him. “Looks like you were really eager to receive your second ability”
Her remark startled Mimicry and he looked at her in surprise. “How do you know? Did you see the light or sense the prayer?”
“I figured that you have already received it because of your contemplating look. You know, since the ability description is vague and doesn’t name any examples on how to use it. Plus you aren’t the type to fall deep into thought.” She accentuated her quip with a smug smile.
At that moment an annoyed voice sounded from behind Blur, it was Twin’s. “Just tell him the truth, you noticed that his link expanded in diameter, didn’t you?”
The pale scientist tsked at his interjection and threw him an annoyed look. “You just have to go and ruin my fun. Makes me regret that I told you about that in the first place. I would have told him about that eventually anyways, once he reached a level at which the link diameter becomes relevant that is.”
“You can see my link?” Mimicry, who had been listening attentively, was bewildered at this revelation. He worried that since his master could see his link, maybe other powerful individuals could see it too and they might harbor animosity against him.
“Yes I can. In fact I can see everybody’s link if I’m close enough to them, but that only works when we are connected to the same power source. So you can quit your worrying, that frown doesn’t suit your usual naiveness.”
He ignored his master’s mocking and nodded in understanding, the existence of multiple power sources wasn’t news to him. She had told him about them early on during his training so that he would be able to avoid danger more effectively.
But she refused to elaborate when he asked her about the other power sources, only saying that he should run the moment he saw a glowing tattoo that wasn’t like the ones from the Arcane Operatives. That was also the first time he saw all the tattoos of the different levels of link might drawn on paper.
It was then that Blur decided to lead the conversation back to his newly acquired ability. “The easiest way to understand Dupe is to see it in action. I should warn you though, excessive use of the ability in quick succession can make you believe that you are what you replicate.”
Finishing the disclaimer, she initiated the ability, but in comparison to her student, her tattoo’s projection didn’t materialize, since the amount of ability usage needed to make that happen rose with each level of link might and with training.
Mimicry watched in bewilderment as his master turned into an exact copy of himself. Before he could fully process the situation, he saw himself get catapulted out of the medical station and out of his field of vision, he barely caught the split-second movement.
The dupe flew towards the basement’s wall, closing the distance in an instant, but just before colliding with it the air quaked and the figure stopped in midair only meters away from the grey stone.
The moment one foot touched the floor the outline of the figure shifted and Mimicry’s copy turned back into the pale scientist. Swiftly making her way back to her stunned student, she wore an amused grin on her lips.
“That’s Dupe; Activity Replica. It allowed you to witness your earlier dive across the room from an outsider's point of view, isn’t it wonderful?"
