31 Chapter 31: The Domino Effect
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"My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get"
- Forrest Gump, (Forrest Gump)
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<(Atem POV)>
"So, can any of you track him or know where he is, or do we have to search the entire globe to find his whereabouts?" I asked Zoya, hoping that I wouldn't have to use my cosmic awareness to try to scan the entire planet.
The skill even though could cover the entire Earth at my current level was still extremely mentally tiring to use. Not only that but sensing too many things at once while using the ability could also give me one hell of a headache.
After all, it's one thing to use it in the vast emptiness of space and something completely different to use it on a place like Marvel's Earth. Also, there were just too many ways to block my cosmic senses including some quite easy magical spells and rituals that could even be performed by amateurs with the right resources. Of course, this was something I wasn't at all proud of but the truth is truth.
"We had established a lot of secret bases all over the world for different emergencies, so he could be in any one of them but the problem is that we had made a base in almost EVERY country on the planet, sometimes even multiple bases in a single country. Hell, there are some bases I don't even remember the location of, making the possibility of us finding him in time, almost next to impossible." Remus explained with a deep tired sigh as she used her fingers to play with her hair in frustration.
"I have also tried tracking him online sir but it seems wherever he is, he either has extremely good cybersecurity capable of thwarting even me or, he isn't surrounded by technology at all. I could try and find him by using our new long-range observation satellites, but using those limited satellites to thoroughly search the entire planet would still be too time-consuming compared to our more... supernatural methods." Zoya spoke up as well from inside the tablet in Hank's hands.
"Supernatural methods? Do you mean we should try to use magic or maybe the Cerebra again? But, I thought you said that the Frost sisters weren't able to find Romulus' whereabouts even with the Cerebra, so what guarantee is there that this time it would be any different." I asked doubtfully.
"You are exactly right sir. There isn't any guarantee. But I wasn't talking about the Frost sisters or the Cerebra. In fact, I am not talking about magic as well since that too can easily be blocked especially by someone like Romulus who according to our intel has his own group of mystics to block long-range magical attacks against him. However, there are a lot of superpowers that might help find out Romulus' current location, other than just telepaths. The simplest of them perhaps is luck." She cryptically said it like she was trying to build hype for something.
"Luck?... Wait, are you talking about her...?" I asked curiously while furrowing my eyebrows as realization suddenly dawned on me.
"Yes, I think it's finally time for you to summon her for a mission," Zoya replied, her voice containing a slight undertone of teasing.
"But I have told you before Zoya, what she has is not a power, at least not one that she can rely on like other metahumans. Her power is something uncertain, one that even she doesn't know the working principle behind. We can't just blindly rely on her power" I argued righteously.
'Also, she is the only one who has beaten me in every single game we have ever played, no matter how much I have tried to cheat.' I thought with a mental pout although that had nothing to do with me not wanting to bring her for a mission.
"You are thinking about the games you played with her, aren't you sir?" Zoya asked with an impassive voice, for some reason sounding like she was judging me.
"No... of course not. I am not such a petty god. I am just worried about her getting hurt if her powers fail for some reason during a critical time. That's why I don't like assigning her any mission or quest." I tried to give an excuse for my reluctance in bringing her in for this.
"Wait, who are guys talking about?" Wolverine asked while raising his eyebrows curiously.
"A certain woman with a certain set of skills who can do the impossible and achieve the unachievable much higher than her pay grade, all the while depending on her stupid luck... quite literally," I explained.
"Oh, you are talking about Domino, aren't you?" Laura exclaimed as realization struck her.
"Precisely. Neena Thurman, aka, Domino is an artificially created metahuman also known as a mutate who has the power of... good luck. She is incredibly lucky, so much so, that she has never ever lost in anything or been seriously hurt after she got her powers."
"Well, she did lose her first husband, and that too after just three days of their marriage, so..." Laura said in a savage remark as almost everyone present flinched a little at her words but still chose to ignore it nonetheless.
"According to my calculations, if her power works the way I think it does, then all she has to do is just randomly point at the map and that will exactly be the location where we will find Romulus," Zoya explained while pretending like Laura hadn't just interrupted her at all.
"That sounds a bit of a... stretched gamble," Hank said what was in everyone's mind including mine.
"I agree. I refuse to believe that just having good luck is a genuine ability. Her pseudo-super soldier-level physique might be useful for us in battle but her good luck can only do so much." I said with my mind made up.
I was not being stubborn or foolish here. I knew it as a fact that she relied on her luck too much and was genuinely worried that her good luck might end or malfunction sometime during her mission which could not only ruin the chances of us successfully completing the mission but also could endanger her own life. And as much as I knew her, she would definitely do anything to tag along for this quest the moment she knew about it.
"How about Irene Adler or should I call her, my New Goddess of Destiny? I am sure that she has gained enough experience and control over her powers in the last few weeks that she might be able to see into the future and tell us where Romulus is." I argued.
"She could but I think you should stop avoiding Domino sir. You can't protect her forever. I know that you think that she is weak but give her a chance. She has been nothing but patient in waiting for an opportunity to prove herself... Plus Destiny is on a ten-day and ten-night honeymoon trip with her wife Mystique, and disturbing them from their rekindled passion would be impolite sir." Zoya justified her reasoning for choosing Domino.
"..." Maybe Zoya was right. Maybe I should give Domino a chance to prove her strength and usefulness.
I still remember the day I met her. It was about two years ago when I was on a leisurely walk to destroy one of The Facility's hidden bases. She was a sad and weak woman at the time, devastated by the recent death of her husband at the hands of her captors as well as the illegal experiments conducted on her body to make her the ultimate super soldier mutant capable of rivaling the Weapon X program but unfortunately for her, even there she was rejected and branded as a 'not good enough' model which had broken her will even more.
Even when me and laura (Laura hated the Facility so much that she wanted to tag along every time someone was tasked to destroy any of The Facility's bases) invaded the base and rescued all the victims while gutting or permanently disabling the members there, Domino looked like she had almost given up on life.
At that time, her powers still hadn't been discovered yet and she herself didn't know just how... lucky she was. But, when one of the Facility's members tried to shoot at a child, she stepped in to protect the little child without even thinking for a single second. Of course, I was there and wasn't going to let anything happen to any of them but amazingly, I didn't have to do anything. The Facility member died due to his own gun exploding in a rare malfunction. But that was not the end of her 'courageous acts'.
After that, she repeatedly put herself in mortal danger for the prettiest of reasons even though she initially had no idea that she was surviving every time due to her power. No, she was doing it because she literally had a death wish and wanted to end her own life to escape from the severe depression she was suffering from.
Currently, she is slightly better with her depression but her habit of always putting herself in mortal danger while not caring about the possibility of death or serious injury still isn't completely gone from her. Hell, she once blindly jumped from an 80-story building in Neo Genosha without even knowing if there was any sort of support or protection at the bottom just because she was feeling too lazy to take the stairs.
"Look, I don't know whom you people are talking about. But believe me, if this woman is our best and most effective chance of finding my brother, we should take it. My brother might not be the strongest fellow on the planet, he never was, but he is extremely deceitful and a master strategist. He has been one of the biggest shadow rulers of the planet for years. The fact that he has a proper plan on how to rule the world alone makes it important for us to find him as soon as possible and stop him without giving enough time for him to prepare countermeasures against us." Remus worriedly spoke up as she broke the awkward silence.
"*Sigh* Fine... But, I will try my cosmic awareness and a magical spell I know first. Only if they don't work, we will try asking for help from Domino." I said with a determined expression as I finally made up my mind.
'I really hope my magic or cosmic awareness somehow works and this Romulus is just some run-of-the-mill clique villain with not that high of an IQ.' I thought to myself.
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<(Omniscient POV) >
"Of course, nothing worked, this is Marvel after all. If I was that lucky, I could begin claiming myself to be a possessor of amazing god-level luck powers." I mumbled while clenching my teeth, annoyed that none of the mystical or supernatural means I tried to search for Romulus worked.
"Wait here, I'll go and bring her," I told everyone as I opened a Boom tube and went inside.
As I exited from the other side at one of the League's training rooms in Neo Genosha, I finally saw her, the metahuman who had the favor of Lady Luck herself, the widowed pseudo-supersoldier Neena Thurman, aka, Domino.
[{Image}]
She was standing in the middle of the training room in her hot signature tight back costume while she seemed to be humming to a tune with her eyes blindfolded and her ears plugged with earphones.
'What the hell is she doing? What type of training is this? Is she going to learn dancing or something...?" I could not complete that thought because the very next moment, about a couple of dozen plasma guns and pulse cannons began to randomly rain hell on everything in the room.
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