Celeste Luu Rahn

Celeste sat in the driver's seat of her personal armored car. She'd been in the vehicle hundreds of times, yet never this particular seat. Always, she relied on others to drive her to where she needed to be.

The corpo cast-off who relied on everyone around her is dead. He was right to call me a stupid little girl. That's exactly what I was when we met. But not anymore!

I don't know what half his thoughts meant, but he was right about enough that I can't rule out the rest. That means accepting what he said about my future. Which means he's a free roaming seer. Which is downright terrifying. There's a reason PsyCore abducts thousands every year. People like him are too dangerous to have running free. And now I'm not much different. Telepaths are just as quick to get locked down.

Shit, this is so bad!

Celeste smacked the dash, her hand, toughened by years of training, barely felt the impact.

I haven't heard anyone's thoughts but his, which means I'm either not fully awakened, or it's actually his ability and not mine. A seer and a manipulator? Is it even possible to have dual abilities? I can afford to wait a few more minutes for him to come out for another test. If father asks why I’m late, I'll tell him I couldn't figure out how to get the car to work.

Thoughts of the tall stranger brought a flush of anger to her cheeks. Not from being brushed off, but from what he said of her uncle. She tried to calm herself by reaffirming that at least now she knew he was manipulating her. The knowledge that everything he’d told her to do was a set up to destroy her credibility and remove her from the family business spoiled the attempt.

What she couldn't figure out was why. They had been working closely for the last year to steadily squeeze out the Soulgen shareholders, and to great success. Between defaming the company, blocking funding, and threatening families, they’d nearly succeeded in bringing the stock price to zero. One of their inside men even sabotaged the production of the up and coming flagship product, delaying it long enough for all the pieces to be in place.

Everything was going exactly to script, until someone bought an enormous quantity of shares out of nowhere.

Was it uncle? fuck! No wonder I couldn't get the last few holdouts to sell no matter what I tried, they were already in his pocket! Damn that lying Ehrhardt! He's probably been laughing himself erect every night. Pervert always staring at my tits and uncle telling me to dress sluttier because it was his ‘weakness.’ I’m going to kill them both!

Celeste took a calming breath, only partially succeeding at getting her emotions in check.

I shouldn't jump to too many conclusions. I know every vendor Soulgen interacts with and this mysterious Mr. KongRu isn't on the list. Could he have something to do with the stock price? No, it would be whatever force is behind him. A force capable of hiding a seer from PsyCore…

Swallowing hard, Celeste distracted herself by checking the stock again, doing the easy mental math to determine whoever was buying the company had already spent over half a billion credits.

No way that fatso is so wealthy on his own.

She searched for his name on the IS, finding nothing even when she ran the recording of his face she took through image matching software.

How can there be nothing about a wealthy internal force adept with such a unique name?

The man in question exited Soulgen, clearly in a hurry. Her face pressed against the tinted duraglass of her door. She held her breath, hoping to pick up one of his thoughts. Hearing only her own heavy breathing, she imagined her brain flexing but it was all useless. His huge frame squeezed into a completely standard city taxi and it accelerated away.

For a moment, she considered following him but a flock of drones took off from around a nearby building. They zipped after his car, dissuading her. with a click of her tongue, she punched in the address of her father's mansion. Just then, a dozen jet-black armored cars came tearing around the corner one by one.

Tires screeched as they pulled up to the front door and several of her uncle’s goons flooded out. They swarmed into Soulgen’s lobby and Celeste’s lips pulled back in a snarl. Her family didn’t own Soulgen, yet. Which meant there was no reason for their people to be there.

She recorded everything. It wasn’t proof enough of colusion that she could bring it to her father, but it was a start.

Benson the ex-bodyguard

A heavy van raced down the Shelen Freeway. Inside, two men hovered over monitors, a third tapped away at an AR display, while the fourth lay motionless on the floor.

“Update on the target!” Benson snapped as he checked the device monitoring the unconscious Murang. His lips were drawn back, revealing white teeth. He had promised Murang’s mother he would keep the boy out of trouble but his penchant of attacking without orders finally caught up to him. The worst of it was the guy had been suffering from obvious injuries, yet still managed to take out one of his best fighters in a heartbeat.

“Drones are in the air and tracking is solid.”

“Good. We have to recover our rep. Unless you bums never want another job in this city. After this fuck-up, there’s no way Juan Pauel is going to let us off easy.” As if summoned by the use of his name, Benson’s LinQ announced an incoming call from Juan Pauel Luu Rahn.

Juan Pauel sounded almost bored as he dismissively spoke directly into Benson’s brain, “Stay near the girl. Report back to me. About the simplest possible orders, yet you failed miserably. I should be appalled at how incompetent you turned out to be, but honestly, I knew from the start you would be utterly useless. In ten seconds, I’m going to fire you and make sure you never find work in the entire United Territories of Amanath for the rest of your lives.”

Benson sucked air through his teeth, then spoke as quickly as he could, “Please, sir! We’ll do whatever it takes to prove our worth. We aren’t the best, it's true, but we’re loyal. Neither her nor her father ever suspected us. That’s got to be worth something!”

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“A valid point, but hardly enough. A loyal dog with no teeth holds half the value of a cat.”

“We have teeth, sir! We’re tracking the man down as we speak. He’ll be dead before the sun rises,” Benson swore vehemently, his fists clenched so hard his arms shook.

Juan Pauel drew in a deep breath and sighed heavily, “So this is what bottomless incompetence looks like. I wasn’t sure I’d get to see it in this lifetime. You don’t know his name or background, or why he was there in the first place, yet you… I can’t even be bothered to explain how idiotic your plan is.”

Benson blanched as the seconds ticked by in silence. When Juan Pauel continued, Benson sagged with relief, “The real issue is you don't understand your strengths and weaknesses. You did well tricking my brother and his wastrel. Deciding to follow this random man for revenge was pure luck, which is a strength in its own way. It turns out I am very interested in him, but you aren't nearly qualified to be his opponent.”

Juan Pauel’s tone shifted to snapped commands that Benson hastily made notes of, “Continue monitoring his location. Maintain a distance of at least ten kilometers. I’m sending someone to take over your operation.”

“Thank you, sir! We won’t let you down again. I swear it!”

“Don’t thank me. This isn’t an opportunity. It’s your last gasp of free air. If you fail, I’ll have you mutilated and kept on life support until your families are so poverty-stricken from keeping you alive they’ll have no choice but to become my slaves for the next ten generations.”

The call ended. Benson’s whole body shook with fear as he finally realized what kind of man he’d attached them to. He reached for the recall button of the drones, contemplating if he could get his team to another continent before they ran out of funds. The hope in Dixon and Aaron’s eyes stayed his hand. Murang twitched, showing the first signs of life since the bastard cracked his skull.

Looking at his injured friend, Benson realized the truth: they were already in too deep. Juan Pauel wasn’t the kind of man that would give them a chance to run and betray him. There was only one true path forward, all other ‘options’ were just a difference of how quickly they got themselves killed.

With a heavy heart, he relayed their orders.

Raine KongRu

Raine’s taxi sped down the highway toward home. He typed follow-up replies to the Frontier people while starting a call, “All right Morty, how much damage did you do to my new company?”

“Since their servers are isolated, I had no choice but to make a few copies of myself and set them loose. Hopefully, they restrict themselves to following the directives you gave me. If they get out of hand, you can always bring me in and I’ll clean up whatever mess they made.”

“And the data?”

Morty buzzed a response, “I was able to decrypt some employee files and a few of the research notes from another project.”

“Okay, send them to my room. Though, I meant if you managed to stop any data from being pulled off the servers.”

“I had to overheat the ports and remote hubs, frying their hardware to ensure nothing could be transferred in or out. I couldn’t find anyone on staff who specialized in hardware replacement and there are several invoices to a company who makes next-day repairs. It's safe to say I only bought you a day, two at the most.”

Raine blew air through his lips, more than pleased, “Not bad at all. I can work with that. Anything else?”

“I found a clue on the ones responsible for deleting your personal information.” Raine’s ears perked but Morty’s next words turned his hope to disappointment, “They didn’t bother erasing their tracks, because there were never any tracks to begin with. The only explanation is that they used a sub-command already built into the government system itself.”

Raine’s gut twisted. He asked the question, but already knew the answer, “Why would the government care about deleting my personal information? And Mel’s too?”

“I’m afraid even a postulation would be premature at this point. Apologies, Master.”

The only explanation is that whoever deleted my data knows I’ve come back to the past. But why target Mel as well? And why haven’t they come for me yet or contacted me directly? Instead, it's like they’re protecting me. No, they’re giving me time to gain power so they can reap more rewards when they eventually come to collect! Whoever they are, they’re going to strike when I’m a fat, tasty pig, but still too weak to resist. I have to step up my timeline.

Morty pulled Raine back from his thoughts, “There is one other thing of note. I’ve made it through the basement’s first barrier. There are at least two more. The house sent me an automated warning to stand down. I’m expecting resistance if we choose to continue.”

Raine shook his head, “Hold off for now. I’ll get you and the drones some upgrades before we go any further.”

“Understood, Master.”

“See you soon.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/hpsW3fY.png]

At the house, Raine hurried to the kitchen. Withdrawing the vial he’d ‘borrowed’ from Soulgen. He uncorked it and took a whiff. A familiar pungent odor filled his nostrils and his whole body quivered with need. From the smell alone, he could tell this dose was much more potent than the ReGen he'd taken in the past. Considering how close they were to the original release date, he was mostly confident it wouldn’t kill him.

He dabbed a few drops of the sticky liquid on the back of his wrist, then pricked his finger with a knife and let his blood fall into the vial. The brownish green liquid reacted, fizzing softly before losing its color until it was completely clear. He dabbed a little more of the mixed substance on his other wrist, then waited ten minutes. Neither arm had a negative reaction so he carefully extracted a single drop from the vial and placed it on his tongue.

A euphoric burst of tingles raced outward from where it landed. They quickly coated his entire mouth, then spread through his flesh in every direction as though physical matter were no obstacle to their insurmountable advance. Wherever the tingles passed, his aches and pains vanished, replaced by surging vitality that left him aching for more. The effects quickly faltered, running out of the mysterious energy that sustained them.

The rest of Raine’s body yearned to feel as good as his jaw and neck did. Saliva swarmed his mouth and he swallowed repeatedly, hungrily eyeing the rest of the precious liquid. He restrained himself, waiting another ten minutes while observing his tongue and mouth in a mirror.

Definitely leagues more potent than the usual ReGen. They must have chosen to dilute it. Makes sense, more creds that way. Last time, I didn’t get my first dose until eight years from now… As a thirty-year-old, the effects were underwhelming.

In the past, everyone knew that ReGen was more effective the younger someone was when they took it. With a single dose, an old man might extend his life by fifteen years while a teenager could double his entire lifespan. Since Raine had yet to reach his prime, and with how potent this prototype version was, he could only imagine what the results might be.

His eyes watered as he was flooded with emotion. In this new life, the chances he’d made for himself were leading him down a path that seemed too good to be true. Not willing to wait any longer, he opened his mouth and threw back half the vial. As powerful waves of healing energy raced through him, he re-corked the rest and stored it in the freezer.

The tingles blasted through him like a tsunami, spreading to every corner. He could feel them pulling apart his individual cells where they ate the waste and filth built up from a lifetime of bad choices. Like a beating heart, pulses of chemical reactions tore through him one after another. His legs buckled and he fell to the floor. Raine laid flat as seizures took him. The inside of his suit filled with rancid gunk that was pushed from his skin. His eyes rolled back in his head as his brain experienced pure bliss well beyond the most mind-blowing sex.

Time passed in a flash, and eventually the sensations faded. His muscles, bones, and organs thrummed with untold potential. His clothes were so loose they hung on him like rags. Squelching wetness clung to him as he stood and lifted an arm, his lip curling as a glob of black paste plopped to the floor. Holding the bile crawling up his throat through pure force of will, Raine sped to the shower, leaving a trail of filth in his wake.