Previously on Emily’s First Trip (to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.)… “Emily opened the door and walked through and was greeted by miles and miles and miles of blue-grayish empty space. Emily gave out a low whistle which echoed around the place hollowly. “How am I supposed to train here exactly?” Emily wondered aloud. “I don’t exactly have anything to train with. No weights, sparring partners, dummies, not even a vaguely healthy shake.” And as she spoke these things appeared. A stack of weights clinked into existence. A disgruntled Emily clone popped into existence. A stuffed training dummy sulked some ways away from Emily. A vaguely healthy shake was suddenly in her hand. “Oh.” Emily grinned, “I can work with this!””Emily drank the vaguely healthy shake in her hand and gagged. “Eugh, that was awful.” It occurred to her that she just drank some random drink given to her by some unknown force. That could have been anything, really. Poison. Alien urine. A vaguely unhealthy shake. After several minutes spent pondering this, Emily decided that since she hadn’t felt any negative effects that it must have been a vaguely healthy shake, as was requested earlier. She shrugged it off, lately the answer to many questions had stopped being anything sensible and started being “Just don’t think about it.” She forced down the rest of the shake and threw it out. Emily now looked between the weights and the sullen training dummy until her eyes rested on the disgruntled Emily clone. The clone was the spitting image of herself, obviously. Emily scanned her and found that the clone was the exact same power level as herself. Real Emily decided to use this clone as a benchmark. Real Emily would fight her clone first, train vigorously afterwards, and then come back to this clone and see how much she had improved.
Emily beckoned for the clone to come closer. The clone approached her warily, apparently knowing what Emily had in mind. “You’re going to use me like a guinea pig benchmark aren’t you?” Clone Emily didn’t look very happy about being brought into this world just to fight with herself. Emily nodded, “Yeah, pretty much. I imagine that this doesn’t make you very happy huh?” Clone Emily crossed her arms. “No. It doesn’t. How do you feel about it?” Real Emily crossed her arms in a mirror image of the clone, “No, the more I think about it, it doesn’t.” Clone Emily and Real Emily stared at each other for awhile. “I have a feeling that instead of training, I’m going to have a long and drawn out moral crisis about you.” Remarked Real Emily. “I have that feeling too.” Said Clone Emily. And so they both sat down and took a little while to think about things. Was it really right to do this? Was it right to create life and then destroy it? Who or what gave her the right to do something like that? Did she really have to defeat this new Emily? “So… what would happen if I just walked out of this chamber with you?” Real Emily asked. Clone Emily shrugged. “I dunno. I may not even be real. I could be some weird organic projection or something.” Both of the Emilys stared at each other. “Wanna try?” asked Real Emily. Clone Emily shrugged, “Sure.” And so both Emilys got up and walked to the door. Real Emily opened the door and gestured for Clone Emily to go first. Clone Emily walked right on through and then disappeared. “…Emily?” Real Emily peeked around outside. No one. “Emily?” Emily called again. She looked across the infinite expanse, seeing no one else. Emily tried to imagine clone Emily again, but nothing happened. Emily felt a small pang of loss. “Well this sucks….” Muttered Emily. “Yeah, it does.” Agreed Clone Emily. “You’re alive!” Real Emily smiled. “Yup! For now anyway.” Clone Emily, “I guess we might as well spar like we were originally going to.” She remarked. “Yeah, might as well.”
The two Emilys back away from each other and adopted the same stony faced look. They began circling each other, slowly, calculative-ly. This went on for quite awhile actually. Long time. “Um… you gonna make a move there?” Real Emily asked. “Pfft, no way. I know how you work, Emily.” Clone Emily grinned. Emily grinned too and then both Emilys launched themselves at each other. Clone Emily immediately switched tactics and stopped, turning her flying punch into a ki blast that detonated right in Real Emily’s face. Clone Emily grinned until Real Emily burst through the ki blast looking a bit singed and then smashed her fist right into Clone Emily’s gut. Clone Emily flew backwards and hit the ground, Real Emily landed on top of her and threw punch after punch at Clone Emily, who successfully managed to block most of the attacks. Clone Emily brought her palm up and a ki beam smashed into Emily, knocking her off of the clone. Clone Emily got up while Emily recovered and went on the offensive. Clone Emily flew across the short distance between them and delivered a devastating uppercut. Emily stumbled backwards and Clone Emily took advantage with a flurry of quick jabs and knocked Emily to her knees with a hard left hook. Clone Emily looked triumphant and gave her double a moment to recover. Emily smirked and wiped a thing trail of blood from her mouth. “Oh you’ve done it now…” Clone Emily made the mistake of rolling her eyes. The second she looked away Emily rushed directly at her and knocked her off her feet with a tremendous haymaker. Clone Emily fell to the ground and Emily leveled her palm down at her. A ball of latent ki flickered on her palm. “I win!” She declared triumphantly. Clone Emily rubbed her bleeding nose with her sleeve, “Yeah fine, whatever.” Emily helped up Clone Emily. “I think that was a good opener to our training, don’t you?” Clone Emily shrugged and looked a bit like a sullen child. “Come on, you’re gonna spot me.” Emily said firmly.
Emily found her way to the weights and assorted training equipment. She lay down on the bench, “I think that 300 Ibs on each side will do for now.” Clone Emily hefted up the weights and slid them on the bar. She gave them to Emily slowly and Emily began bench pressing her 600 plus whatever the bar weighed weights. Clone Emily conjured up a chair to sit in and crossed her legs, foot tapping along to some hidden music. After about 20 reps and no signs of slowing down, Emily sighed. “Could you put some music on or something?” Clone Emily thought for a moment, not sure if she had the capability. “Ah yes! Hmm… this situation calls for something catchy and word heavy, right?” Clone Emily asked. “Oh, you know me so well, me.” Emily giggled. Some actual quality rap music started playing. “Eh… it’ll do.” Emily decided. Emily continued pumping iron and was finally breaking a sweat after about hundred. “Normally this isn’t my type.” She said, starting a casual conversation, “it’s normally orchestral and some odd assorted music,but music to work out to has to take your mind off working out or it’s boring.” Clone Emily nodded in agreement, “You’re absolutely right. You alright there?” she asked, noticing that Emily was starting to slow down. “Yeah,” Emily grunted, “I think I’m pushing the limit here though.” Emily was in the five hundreds now. Clone Emily got up and stood over Emily, keeping a light hand under the bar. After another minute Emily could hardly lift it anymore. Clone Emily picked it up and set it on the bar holder thingy. Clone Emily handed her a bottle of water. Emily gulped it down and grunted her thanks. “About time to rest I would imagine. It’s been almost a full 24 hours here.” Emily looked shocked. “Really?” Clone Emily nodded. “Yep, you better go get some rest.” She beckoned towards another door, “Right through there are you quarters.” Emily swung herself up on the bench and made her way into her quarters. They were Spartan with only a bunk bed and jars of food. Emily immediately fell into bed and began to snore lightly.
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Emily awoke and found herself in the spartan Hyperbolic Time Chamber room. She swung herself out of bed and walked out of the room. Instead of the normal blue-gray expanse she had become used to, she found herself surrounded by stars. In front of her stood Clone Emily. “What’s going on with this weird background?” Real Emily asked. Clone Emily sniffed, “This is a dream designed to take you and the reader on a journey of self discovery.” Emily looked confused, “The reader?” Clone Emily shuffled nervously, “Ignore that bit. I’m gonna throw some questions your way and you’re gonna answer them, kay?”
“Okay….”
“Tell me what you think about your father and mother. What influences did they have on you?”
“Well, I always looked up to them, but I really don’t think they were that great parents…. They were great people really, they taught me a lot about the world. They rarely sheltered me about the way things were. Dad tried to soften the blows and would always be nice and gently about things like that, but Mom never had such reserves. She would tell me about suffering and death and inequality all the time. It was… it wasn’t the best topic for children. They were both proud and smart people, and I really do look up to them. They just lacked on the social side of things kinda.”
Clone Emily nodded. “Any siblings? Childhood friends?”
“No. I was the only kid my age in my town. No one to talk to about kid stuff and have fun…. Well, I had Johnson. He was an old fellow, but he was young at heart. He was always there for me and I could tell him anything.” Emily smiled with fond memories.
“How do you think that impacted you?”
“I don’t know. Everyone else other than Johnson was pretty harsh about things. I guess no one had patience for a little girl during a revolution though, huh?”
“How was your education?”
“Top of the line, just like most Bio-Tuffles. I was homeschooled by my parents, but Uncle J taught me the important things about life.”
“What are some of your biggest disillusionments with life?”
Emily’s eyes hardened. “Life isn’t fair. People die all the time and sometimes you’re the one to kill them. But just because things are this way doesn’t mean you should give up and take it.”
“Let’s think about your friends. What do you prefer in friends and partners?”
This one stumped Emily, “Er… I don’t really know. The only friend I’ve had before now was Uncle J, but he was like 70 or something. He was always kind, patient, and loyal and smart. I guess something like that.”
Clone Emily nodded. “That’s it for now. Here, take this.” Clone Emily handed her a list of questions. “Just think about these sometimes, whenever you have some time.”
Emily woke up with a gasp and some papers in her hand.
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Emily rolled out of bed and found that Clone Emily waiting. “Hello. I’m afraid we won’t get that last battle. You gotta go!” Emily frowned, “Already?” Clone Emily nodded, “Yup. Bye.” They both looked at each other for a moment. Emily looked at her feet, unsure of what to say. “Yeah… um. Bye.” Emily walked out awkwardly and that was that.
Word Count:1,938
