The Hunter's words hung in the ruined hotel suite, a poison dart of a promise. "...we're so, so hungry."
The statement re-contextualized everything. This wasn't just an assassin sent by The Board. This was a competitor. A different kind of System user, one driven by a primal, predatory hunger. The Board hadn't just hired a killer; they had unleashed a shark, and now there was blood in the water.
Leo stood over the downed Hunter, his mind a whirlwind of cold, hard calculation. The [Energy Debt] was a dull, throbbing ache behind his eyes, a constant reminder of his limitations. The adrenaline from the fight was fading, leaving a chilling clarity in its wake. He had won this round with cleverness, by turning a luxury suite into a physics-based deathtrap. But the Hunter was right. He couldn't keep winning with tricks. Sooner or later, a bigger, hungrier shark would come along.
A defensive strategy was a losing strategy. The only way to win was to grow, to acquire, to achieve a level of power so absolute that he was no longer the prey.
"Evelyn," Leo said into the phone, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "The situation is under control, but the threat profile has changed. Our rival isn't just a corporate entity. They're deploying... specialized assets."
"Specialized assets?" Evelyn's voice was tight with controlled alarm. "Leo, what was that noise? What happened?"
"A hostile negotiation," Leo replied, choosing his words carefully. He looked at the Hunter, who was now trying to push himself up, his muscles twitching against the lingering effects of the magnetic field. "One that requires a permanent resolution. I need you to do two things. First, cut the power grid to this entire city block. All of it. I want it dark. Second, get Glitch back online. I have a new acquisition target for her, and it's time-sensitive."
"Cut the power to a city block?" Evelyn sounded stunned. "Leo, that's a municipal utility... that requires..."
"I know what it requires, Evelyn," Leo cut her off, a new hardness in his tone. "And I know you can do it. Find a pressure point, a shell company, a leveraged buyout of a subcontracted maintenance firm. I don't care how. Just make it happen. You have ten minutes."
He ended the call, cutting off her protest. He had given his CEO her directive. Now he had to deal with his own.
He turned his full attention to the Hunter. "Julian," he commanded. "Secure the asset. Prevent any further movement or System activation."
Julian glided forward, his golden eyes fixed on the struggling Hunter. He didn't use force. Instead, he placed a hand on the Hunter's forehead. A soft, golden light enveloped the man's head.
[System Command: Apply Conceptual Edit [Sensory Deprivation] to Target.]
[System Command: Apply Conceptual Edit [System Interface Disruption] to Target.]
The Hunter's struggles ceased instantly. His feral eyes went wide with a new kind of terror. He could no longer see, hear, or feel the room around him. More importantly, the vital link to his own Predator System—the source of his power—was now a firestorm of white noise. He was trapped, utterly alone in the silent, black void of his own mind. It was a prison more absolute than any physical cage.
"What did you do to me?!" the Hunter's voice screamed, though no sound came out. Leo could "hear" the desperate, panicked thought through his own System's interface. "I can't see! I can't feel anything! Where is my System?!"
"Sensory input and System access have been temporarily suspended pending asset review," Julian's synthesized voice echoed in the Hunter's mind, a calm, corporate HR announcement delivering a sentence of cosmic horror.
Leo walked over, crouching down to look the terrified man in the eyes. "You're right," Leo said, his voice a low whisper. "I can't liquidate you. You're a person. A biological asset. Messy. Complicated. But your System," he tapped his own temple, "that's just a company you're running. And any company can be acquired. Its assets can be stripped. It can be dismantled."
He stood up and began to pace, his mind working through the mechanics. This was the moment he crossed a line, and he knew it. He wasn't just defending himself anymore. He was becoming a predator.
[System Command: Initiate Hostile Takeover. Target: [The Predator System].]
The interface flared to life, but this time, it was different. It wasn't a simple price tag. It was a complex, multi-layered financial analysis.
[Analyzing Target Asset: [The Predator System].]
[Asset Type: Sentient, Autonomous Power System (SAP-System).]
[Core Concept: [Apex Evolution].]
[Current User: Designated 'The Hunter'. User/System bond strength: 92% (Symbiotic).]
[Acquisition Difficulty: Extremely High. A direct takeover would require UC in the tens of millions.]
Leo frowned. A direct takeover was impossible. His cosmic credit was already maxed out. But a hostile takeover wasn't just about buying something outright. It was about finding a vulnerability.
"System," he commanded. "Don't analyze it for acquisition. Analyze it for liquidation. I want to dismantle it piece by piece. What are its component assets?"
The screen shifted, breaking down the Predator System like a company being dismantled for parts.
[Component Asset Analysis:]
[Concept: Cheetah's Acceleration] - Value: 150,000 UC
[Concept: Rhino's Momentum] - Value: 220,000 UC
[Concept: Grizzly's Strength] - Value: 180,000 UC
[Concept: Eagle's Vision] - Value: 90,000 UC
[Concept: Chameleon's Cloak] - Value: 310,000 UC
...and 47 other identified conceptual assets.
Core Asset: [The Evolutionary Engine]. This is the central processing unit that allows the user to acquire and integrate new animal concepts. Value: Incalculable.
Leo stared at the list. It was a treasure trove. He couldn't afford the whole company, but he could afford to strip its most valuable assets. And in doing so, he would render the Hunter powerless. It was brutal. It was efficient. It was beautiful.
"Julian," Leo said. "Maintain the sensory deprivation. We're going shopping."
Just as he was about to make his first "purchase," the lights in the hotel suite, and indeed the entire city block, flickered and died. The world was plunged into darkness, the only light the emergency exit signs in the hallway and the faint, residual glow from the city beyond the blackout zone.
Evelyn had delivered.
In her own command center three blocks away, Evelyn watched a city grid map on her laptop. A twelve-block section, with Leo's hotel at its epicenter, was now shaded in black. It had taken a series of lightning-fast, legally dubious stock purchases in a public utility subcontractor, followed by an anonymous, high-priority "emergency maintenance" call to the grid's control center, routed through three different countries by Glitch. It was a masterpiece of corporate misdirection.
Her work wasn't done. She was now on a video call with a face that was just a swirling, anonymized vortex of pixels.
"The package is delivered, Glitch," Evelyn said.
"I saw," the distorted voice of Glitch replied. "The board matriarch, Beatrice Ashworth, just cancelled her weekly high-stakes poker game. The anonymous email I sent her, containing a single, untraceable transaction record from her 'charity' foundation to a casino in Macau, was... effective. She's terrified. She's vulnerable."
"Good," Evelyn said. "Stay on her. I want to know who she talks to, who she calls for help. This is how we map the network."
"Already on it," Glitch replied. "By the way, your boss has an interesting fighting style. My passive network sniffers went crazy during that blackout. There were massive, localized electromagnetic fluctuations coming from his suite. The kind of thing you usually see around a particle accelerator, not a hotel room. He's a noisy anomaly."
"Just keep him anonymous," Evelyn said, a note of weariness in her voice.
"That's your job," Glitch countered. "My job is to find the truth. And the truth, right now, is that someone else is looking for him too. While I was in Ashworth's system, I found a ghost. A digital signature I've only seen once before. It's clean, professional, and almost impossibly hard to trace. It belongs to an information broker known only as 'The Broker'. They were sniffing around Ashworth's files too. Looks like your boy isn't the only one trying to stage a takeover."
The vortex of pixels vanished. Evelyn was alone again in the dark. A new player was on the board. The game was getting more complicated.
In a small, cramped apartment overlooking the newly blacked-out city block, Maria Flores, the accountant who had been laid off from Thorne & Associates, was trying to give her seven-year-old daughter a bath by candlelight. The power outage was just one more indignity in a week filled with them. Her severance package had been frozen due to the ongoing investigation into Marcus Thorne. Her unemployment claim was tied up in bureaucratic red tape.
"Mommy, why are the lights sleeping?" her daughter asked, splashing water in the flickering gloom.
"They're just tired, sweetie," Maria said, her voice strained. She looked out the window at the dark, silent buildings. The collapse of the tower hadn't just killed seventeen people. It had sent a shockwave through the lives of thousands more, a wave of chaos and uncertainty. She felt like she was drowning in it. All she could do was try to keep her daughter's head above the water.
Back in the darkened suite, Leo made his choice.
[System Command: Initiate Hostile Asset Strip. Target: [Concept: Chameleon's Cloak].]
[Confirm expenditure of 310,000 UC? This action is irreversible and will permanently remove the asset from its host System.]
Leo hesitated for only a second. He was not just taking a power. He was crippling a man, leaving him defenseless in a world of monsters. The face of Maria Flores, a woman he'd never met but whose life he had indirectly ruined, flashed in his mind. The human cost.
He pushed the thought away. Survival was a zero-sum game. To build his own foundation, he had to tear down others.
"Confirm," he whispered into the darkness.
[Transaction Complete. -310,000 UC.]
[New Asset Acquired: [Conceptual Cloak - Tier 1]. Allows User to bend light and data around a target, rendering it effectively invisible to conventional and most systemic observation.]
In the silent prison of his own mind, the Hunter felt a fundamental part of himself being ripped away. It was a violation so profound it felt like a part of his soul had been repossessed. He let out a silent, agonized scream.
Leo felt a surge of new, cold power flow into him. The ability to become unseen. It was a perfect tool for a man who needed to operate from the shadows.
He looked down at the now-lessened Hunter. He could continue. He could strip him bare, take every one of his powers, leave him a powerless husk.
But a new notification appeared on his screen, overriding everything else. It was from Julian.
"Sir. A new threat has emerged. Analysis of the hospital's internal security network, which I now control, shows an unscheduled maintenance check was just approved for the floor where the 'Marcus Thorne' proxy is being held. The maintenance worker's biometrics do not match any hospital employee. He is an intruder."
The Board wasn't waiting. They were already moving to silence their loose end.
Leo's eyes hardened. The time for asset stripping was over. The time for proactive defense had begun.
"Julian," Leo commanded, his voice a blade in the darkness. "We're going to the hospital. Now."