The silence in the aftermath was more deafening than the initial explosion. The two mercenaries, now thoroughly disarmed and still deeply confused, were zip-tied to a support pillar. Emma was staring at Domino, who was calmly inspecting a tear in her catsuit, as if the entire violent encounter had been a minor inconvenience.
"You... you work for him?" Emma finally managed to ask, her voice a mixture of disbelief and accusation as she looked at me.
"She does now," I said, pushing myself off the server rack, the mental exhaustion making my legs feel like lead. I looked at Domino. "Right, head of security?"
Domino finished her inspection and gave me a lazy, assessing smile. The rewritten memory had settled in her mind as unshakable truth. "The pay better be good, boss. My last employer," she said, a brief flicker of confusion crossing her face before she dismissed it, "had a very generous benefits package."
I met her gaze, a silent understanding passing between us. This was a dangerous game. Her mind was a fortress, and my crude edit was a patch, not a rewrite of her entire personality. If she ever truly questioned it, the whole thing could unravel.
"It will be," I promised. "Raphael, draft a contract. Standard NDA, full benefits, and a salary that's 20% higher than whatever Winston Frost was paying her."
"So the box talks too," she mused. "Cute."
I ignored the jibe and focused on the more immediate problem: the psychic headache I was now nursing. The mental gymnastics of rewriting memories had taken a toll.
And then I felt it. The faint, fizzy tingle of my nascent luck field, a passive hum at the edge of my perception. I had a new power to explore.
"What do we do with them?" Emma asked, gesturing to the two mercenaries who were now staring at us with wide, terrified eyes.
"We wipe their memories of this place, of us, and drop them off somewhere they can get a cab," I said. "Domino, a little help?"
She shrugged. "Not my department. My contract is security, not clean-up."
"Consider it your first assignment," I countered.
While Domino efficiently and non-lethally knocked the two mercs unconscious, I stumbled over to a workbench, the strain of the night finally catching up to me. I was getting stronger, but I wasn't invincible. I had just won a major victory, but it had drained me.
Emma followed, her expression a complex mixture of awe, fear, and something else I couldn't quite place. "What you did... with their minds..." she started, her voice a low whisper.
"I did what was necessary," I said, not wanting to get into the moral grey area of what I'd just done. "They were a threat. I neutralized them."
"You didn't just neutralize them, Alex. You... rewrote them." She looked at Domino, who was now expertly searching the unconscious mercs for tracking devices. "Is that what you did to her?"
"I gave her a better offer," I said simply. It was the truth, in a way.
Before she could press further, Domino sauntered over, holding a small, sophisticated-looking bug. "They were wired. Frost was listening in." She crushed the bug in her fist. "Not anymore." She looked from me to Emma, then back again. "So, this is the new gig? Corporate espionage and weird science projects in a garage?"
"We're a tech startup," Emma corrected automatically, her business persona kicking in. "Aura Innovations."
"Right," Domino said with a smirk. "And I'm a freelance risk management consultant." She leaned against the workbench, her gaze settling on me. "So, 'boss'. What's the first order of business for your new head of security?"
My mind was racing. I had a probability manipulator on my payroll. The possibilities were endless. But first...
"First, you get these two clowns out of here," I said. "Then, you and I are going to have a long talk about your... unique talents."
As she effortlessly hoisted one of the unconscious mercs over her shoulder, I "accidentally" stumbled, my hand brushing against her arm. The contact was brief, a flicker of movement in the chaotic cleanup.
[Origin Axquisition]! I screamed in my mind,'Activate!'
A strange, tingling sensation, like the fizz of champagne, flooded my system. It was a feeling of pure, unadulterated potential, of the universe bending to my will.
[Power: [Probability Manipulation (Nascent)] Lvl. 1 has been created!]
Description: You can subconsciously generate a 'luck field' around yourself. This subtly influences the outcome of events in your favor. Active control is not yet possible. The effect is passive and unreliable at its current level.]
Domino paused, a slight frown on her face. "Did you just...?"
"Tripped," I said quickly. "Slippery floor."
She gave me a long, suspicious look, but the rewritten memory of me as her employer held firm. She just shrugged and dragged the two bodies towards the door. "You should get that checked out, boss. Clumsiness can be a real liability in this line of work."
I watched her go, a slow, triumphant grin spreading across my face. I had survived. I had protected Emma. And I had just acquired two of the most valuable assets on the planet: a head of security with perfect luck, and the seed of that same power now growing inside of me.
The board of Aura Innovations had just officially expanded. And the game was about to get a whole lot more interesting.