When The Facade Breaks 8

Opening my eyes, I found myself back in the warehouse, and slowly, I stood up and observed my body. And thankfully, nothing had changed other than the fact that I had gone by around a decade.

Ironically enough, I have begun where I started back in the jumper as both jump worlds had me starting at age 18. But instead of starting in 2008, I was beginning in 2012, and my apartment, I assume, was now in Seattle instead of New York City.

Checking to see if anything was moved around my room, I did a short walk around my warehouse to make sure nothing was missing, and thankfully, everything seemed to be okay. I checked some of the generators I had that were powering the freezers, and they all seemed to be doing fine. Now that I have crossed to another jump world, I can move them to my apartment.

Heading into my warehouse gym, I tested to see if my strength had been reduced. Still, after lifting the maximum weight that I had done in my previous world, I am happy to say that my body modification stats carried over.

Sadly, none of the perks in the chronicle jump document allow for me to increase my physical strength and to better understand supernatural abilities, but having faster-than-trained human reflexes, speed, and strength will come in handy.

Rechecking the bedroom, I found some identifications on the nightstand, and in addition to a driver's license, I also had transfer papers meant for the high school where the movie would take place.

Thankfully, I'm glad I'm starting in senior year as due to the bullying drawback I took, I'm not gonna be making many friends during my time at school. But I know one thing: even if they start messing with me, I'm not gonna take it lying down.

Well, I may not be able to do anything to them directly at the moment. Being able to jump anywhere in the world makes pranking people a bit more fun. Not to mention that a decent number of books aren't precisely volcano-resistant.

But now, the moment of truth.

I head back to the gym, place a 1-pound weight in front of me, and close my eyes. I tried to flex the new mental muscle I felt within my mind. Since I had a couple of hours before I actually needed to head to school, I felt like this would be a good time to adjust to this new power.

I cleared my mind and tried to focus on lifting the weight as a telekinetic hand was reaching out and taking hold of it. Soon enough, though, I felt a decent amount of pain begin to appear in my mind.

Reopening my eyes, I found myself disoriented, and I sat down on one of the exercise machine chairs and grabbed some tissues I had, and low and behold, I had a bad bloody nose.

After a couple of seconds, it felt as if my brain was trying to beat out of my skull. If I were to compare it to anything, it would be like listening to a very loud dubstep and feeling each and every beat drop on my head.

Heading over to the small freezer I had, I picked up an ice pack, placed it against my head, and rested for a few minutes. I knew I wasn't going to make much progress as it did take a couple of weeks for even the main characters to lift a baseball.

Yet, as I looked over to the 1-pound weight, I did find something that did alleviate my spirit a bit. The small weight I had picked up telekinetic shifted slightly to the right on the ground.

It wasn't much, but sometimes it's the little things that mattered. And upon thinking that, I immediately knew that I had just stepped right into a, that's what she said, joke.

Luckily, no one was around to hear it, and I was mostly just thinking to myself. But then the awkward drawback started to rear its ugly head as I tried to imagine myself talking to someone else, and I could immediately feel a decent amount of apprehension.

The hesitation kind of reminded me of a more serious version of myself. I do admit that I'm not the most sociable guy, but taking that drawback in conjunction with the bullying drawback just made sense, as it was literally free points. Why would I talk to most people when they won't be nice to me anyway?

But that's just semantics at this point.

Refocusing on my current objective, according to the jump document for this jump world, I should be arriving on the day of the party or anyone who has watched the film. It's the day that the three teenagers get their telekinetic powers from a dying alien.

If this were any other genre, I'd be apprehensive about the fact that three teenagers went into a cave that housed a crystalline tentacle-like alien. But to their luck, the alien was already dying, and after doing a bit more research on the movie, it turns out that if it hadn't been dying, the telekinetic powers the three teenagers would've been given would've been a means of control for the alien.

Imagining an alien species that can give any species that has higher brain functions Telekinesis is a terrifying thought.

Never mind the fact that if any government found out that any of their citizens had developed telekinesis, they would've been shipped to top-secret facilities and dissected for parts, if not used as breeding stock to see if they could pass the powers along.

This is why I'm very thankful that I bought the secrecy insurance perk, which will make it so that any usage of powers in public, people will be able to explain said usage of powers as special effects or CGI. I can't go too ridiculous with it, though, as there is a limit to the perk.

And now, with the paladins gone, I hadn't even realized how easily I'd been breathing as now the only things that could possibly endanger me were world governments.

I physically had to stop myself from laughing because I jumped from country to country and was never even accosted by a single law enforcement officer. Now I essentially have free rain to go anywhere as long as it wasn't anywhere too ridiculous, like jumping into the White House or something.

After a few minutes, the nosebleed stopped, and the pounding in my head began to lessen. As I looked at my identification, I saw that my name remained the same, which I assumed was due to the fact that they took the drop in origin.

While being able to just drop into a world and not having to deal with memories of a life that I may have lived is a comforting thing, but I knew eventually in order to get discounts on various perks. I would have to take other origins.

I really didn't know how to feel about gaining memories from alternate versions of myself. Would I be considered a body snatcher? A transmigrator? or is it some strange form of reincarnation?

I was hoping it was the last two, honestly, as the previous two would imply that I'm just joining with a spirit that is already mine to begin with. Still, the first one would mean that I'm just straight-up taking over someone's body, and that has a lot of moral implications that I'm not ready for.

Even thinking about the possibility causes my lonely fortress perk to activate, and I could feel mental walls being put up, trying to shield my mind from emotional consequences. Various theories and excuses formed in my mind about the nature of the jump chain and how taking part in these worlds actually worked.

They could just be simulations and not real worlds, and so I was essentially taking the place of an NPC, among other things I like to tell myself. But I had known to ask such questions, too. All I was left with were my thoughts on the matter.

Slapping myself back to reality. I looked at the clock I had placed next to my bed and found that it said it was already 5:30 in the morning. So, as I opened a portal out of my warehouse, I found myself back in my apartment exactly as I left it.

The furniture was still in the right place, although it did have the new furniture smell, which I did appreciate. Looking through the rooms, I found that the items I had placed in the apartment had remained in the exact same spot, so the theory that these items would go with me was confirmed.

Placing some food and drinks into the refrigerator as well as some other foods into the freezer, I headed into the shower to take a quick one and get ready for school...

I was still going to have to get used to that. Because back in my old life, I basically had to drop out after the eighth grade due to circumstances. But I knew I really wouldn't find anything too special in this world in terms of a school experience, that is.

It makes me wonder if there's a jump world made specifically for the high school musical films or something now that would be interesting to attend, if only to see if I would be forced to sing along during their songs.

Turning on the showerhead, I felt the water cascade over my body as I placed my hands against the shower wall and simply stared downwards and watched it flow. I didn't mean to stare, but I just found myself wanting to make sure that what I was looking at was real.

With my body of the jumper perk, any dirt and grime came off of me, without even the need for shampoo and other cosmetics. Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw that the Chad 101 perk had definitely done his magic.

Well, my face remained the same. It seemed more refined and approachable. If I could compare it to anything, I would look like a teenage model for Vogue. I am pretty sure Vogue had male models, right?

Exiting the shower, I put on some decent clothes, which included a sweater with a plaid shirt, which had a blue and white design, along with some jeans. It may have been a bit basic, but I felt like it looked good on me, although I would definitely need to invest in getting some fashion-based perks in future jump worlds.

Since my apartment had been moved from New York City to Seattle, the building I was in had changed, and my apartment's structure remained the same. I was technically lower to the ground than I was before.

In New York, my apartment had been a penthouse apartment in a 10-story building. The apartment complex I was in was around 5 to 6. But as long as my apartment remains the same, that's all that mattered.

Looking at my watch, I found that it was already 7 o'clock, and Seattle schools specifically high schools, begin from 8:30 to 8:45 in the morning and last until 3:40 in the afternoon.

So, I began doing something I had been reluctant to do before. I began teleporting across the city unafraid as I teleported from building group to building rooftop, but I did make sure I had my hood on and some gloves.

The hooded sweater and gloves could be excused as it was mid-September, and it was decently cold, around maybe 20 to 30°F. I made sure not to remain on too many roofs as I teleported across the city.

On some of the roofs, which were closer together, I just straight up jumped from them. If I was going to miss, I teleported onto the next roof, and I didn't want to fall in between the buildings and damage my back exactly.

But after maybe around 25 minutes of messing around the city, I pulled out my iPhone 5 and found a picture of my school. Focusing on a building next to it, I teleported onto that roof and climbed down using a ladder.

To my surprise, as I found myself at the front door, who did I see but Andrew Detmer and his cousin Matthew Detmer sitting on a bench waiting for school to start.