It felt like heavy fatigue, and almost a headache of sorts. After removing his hand, he could see it was now sweaty and clammy.

  After this moment, he took these quiet 2 days of weekend to try and use this power more and more. There was no looking past this; he had an actual superpower. Time would slow down just as he wanted, and he started to test it out.

  Running a stopwatch on his phone and counting in his head, he could see that time slowed by pretty much 2x. A second for him would be half a second passing in the outside world, and everything was affected besides himself.

  This had to be what caused him to hurt Kam so badly. His fist would get 4x the kinetic energy, and any force he applied would double just from this effect. There was one thing he absolutely had to try this in.

  It was Saturday, and he headed to one of the cages of Blim Square. These cages had football courts, where kids would spend their days playing and playing. Improving their skills.

  Many of the world’s best footballers were known for hailing from these ‘blocks’ and were renowned for their ball control and dribbling abilities. Leo could always come back here to relax, and practice for when he’d have games in his school’s football team.

  “Yo, we short on heads, so dis new guy roll wit us.” A young kid called out.

  He stood at around 5’7, with olive-toned skin and black hair, already with a tattoo down his arms and on his neck.

  “If you ain’t got game, stay back, yeah? I’m tryna clutch dis.” The boy called out with an odd sense of confidence to Leo.

  “Chill, I got chops. I pull my weight, no stress.” Leo replied with the blocked city slang.

  The boy started with the ball at the centre of the cage, showing impressive dribbling skills. Even in the face of two physically larger kids, he kept his body in between the ball and them, whilst relying on his dribbling skills to keep the ball away from their feet.

  However, there was no space to press. Kicking the ball straight back to Leo, he began to show what he was made of. One of the larger kids rushed straight toward him. Leo was older than the dark-skinned boy, that looked to be around 15. However, he was around 5’9 and stocky, with visible fat but muscle as well.

  Leo was nowhere near his size, so the boy advanced with confidence, only for Leo to tap the ball by his side with ease.

  He was in his element. Managing to dribble yet another player, he kicked the ball along the ground to a tall, slender boy ahead. He could see that he was their main striker. Already receiving pressure from the other defenders there, he smacked the ball on his first touch, getting it through an open path between two players who he assumed were their defenders and into the bottom left of the goal.

  The goalkeeper, a rather rotund old man, was left unable to defend, and grumbled with annoyance at his shortcoming.

  “Damn, what a ball! Maybe you got chops after all. Keep dat up, and this dub ours!” The boy replied, dapping Leo up.

  It always felt great, after a long day, to come to one of these cages and let out his stress playing the beautiful game.

  With the ball at his feet, he could really take his mind off what was happening in life. He was sure that was why people of all ages came to these places to play. Many were kids, but some were older and fully working men.

  However, Leo wanted to test something else. As the ball was headed to them, he could see that his time ability was working. It wasn’t certain, and was still hard to pull off but he could get it done about 60-70% of the time.

  As the ball approached him, he slowed time and could see everything around slow, as if the players were attempting to run through resin.

  The young boy ahead of him that attempted to kick the ball past him tried but Leo could see the ball passing by him clearly. Reaching out his leg, he swiftly snatched it before continuing forwards.

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  With feet of lightning, he could step past every person in his way and do so with immense speed compared to those around him.

  Half-speed was quick enough so that he couldn’t lazily run past everyone, but slow enough to make him look magical and explosive as he played. Easily making it into the opponent’s box, all it took with a quick hit into the bottom right corner of the box to get his first goal.

  “Brah went full star mode—mad shot, yo!” A boy on his squad called out, which was met by other appraising comments.

  Leo felt awkward from all this praise that he hadn’t really gotten before. He was decent at football, but nothing too special compared to the other super-dribblers that lived in these cages.

  He played for his school's football team and was practically a benchwarmer. The only time he'd start would be against some of the worst performing football teams in the area.

  With this time slowing, though, he could reach a wholly new level.

  After half an hour or so more playing, he managed to get 3 more goals, gaining a handful of spectators to glimpse the magic themselves.

  “He cookin'! Look at dem legs—man’s flashin’ through the cage like lightning!”

  “Even the stack gods watchin’, brah —man’s caught fire!”

  Looking at all this attention, it felt alien to him. He struggled to find minutes on his school’s football team, only slightly better than the average benchwarmer. With only 1 goal in every game that he’d played, he wasn’t seen as a skilful player.

  With all of these eyes on him, praising him, it gave him this weird, fuzzy feeling inside. He couldn’t quite place a finger on what it was, but he was liking it.

  Soon, those playing began to fatigue and the game slowly fizzled out into just a game of aerial passing between the players. Even the younger kids, around 8 to 10, had touches akin to professional players.

  Returning home with a smile on his face, it slowly faded upon lifting yet another eviction notice.

  “Dear Resident,

  Lord-Provider Marco Merino of Floor 39 has issued a 21-day eviction notice. If you have not exited your property within this timeframe, water supplied by [AquaCurrent Limited] and electricity supplied by [AquaCurrent Limited] will be removed.”

  Leo couldn’t help but drop the letter upon reading it.

  Instead of walking further into his cube-like apartment, he slid down his door, using his bodyweight to shut it. The noise didn’t even alarm him; his mind was totally taken off the sensory information around him.

  21 days.

  He couldn’t even get a job, he was using the miniscule petty money from the government to get by.

  Revealing the sheet of pills he knew all too well. He couldn’t resist. He couldn’t take this anymore.

  Upon popping two pills, two heavy knocks were felt on his door. He could feel that wasn’t from any movement from him, and swiftly gulped down the two pills before sliding them across his room before lifting and opening the door.

  “Ahh, knew dis cube was yours. Seen you 'round this place. I'm that kid you balled wit last time. Struggle hittin’ heavy on this floor, ain’t it?”

  Leo could only sigh with relief upon hearing this. It was the tattooed kid that he had played with before, that looked around 15. He wouldn’t have wanted to talk to someone of this age, but feeling someone resonate with him made him open up almost in reflex.

  “Yeah, I’m barely holdin’ up, brah. Whole ting feelin’ rough.” Leo replied, rubbing his hair and hand in a stressed, fatigued manner.

  “For real. I been thinkin’—you fast, slick on your feet. We 'boutta do a shadowrun to 2nd floor, grab some stash. Marco say he slicin’ my folks’ water if we don’t drop coin by end o’ month, so I’m tryna stock up now.”

  Leo remembered the life of shadowruns. Rushing down to the lower, more prestigious floors. Taking what you could and leaving with the stealth of a ninja.

  He tried his best to leave that life behind him. To distance himself from those in the stack, so he could try and fit in with those in his school.

  On the outside.

  No matter how much he tried to be like them, he always felt like he was so far from them. So different to them.

  In 21 days, he’d lose his literal water and electricity. How could he function without that?

  He still had over a thousand to pay his landlord, and had to do so while having to pay his remaining rent.

  Leo looked down for a few seconds, contemplating everything. Did he want to go down this path again? It was always his dream to make it out this place, and escape the culture of the stack. The stacklife.

  Not only that, but this was a great risk. He hadn’t done this in a long time, and was rusty. This wouldn’t be a safe option, he could make his situation worse.

  Sighing, he lifted his gaze while pushing back on his doorframe.

  “I dunno, brah... dis one feel too heat. If they catch me on dat move, I could lose it all.” Leo replied, still thinking about the proposition.

  [Heat – risky or dangerous]

  He was reluctant, but it was clear that the option wasn’t totally off the table for him. How could it be in a place like this? This boy seemed to latch right onto this, giving a quick reply back.

  “C’mon now—yeah, it’s heat, but how we makin’ it on dis floor anyway? Stacklife don’t play fair. Look, we got maps, we got heads, we got a plan. Ain’t like we stupid, we seasoned runners. In ‘n out, clean run. We all eat better after. Sleep better.” He replied.

  Leo began to grit his teeth, annoyed at the choice he felt he was soon to make. Was this the only option? Every job application had come back as a rejection. There was no other way.