The Perfect Run

It was May 8th 2020 for the fifth time, and Ghoul once again had a car accident.

As he climbed down from his Plymouth Fury after hitting his favored undead maniac, Ryan took the time to look at his beautiful partner. The car he had rebuilt from the husk he had found in the ruins of Florence, all by himself; over the years, Ryan had customized it into a marvel of technology that would make most Geniuses envious. The courier had drifted for years at the driver’s seat, survived countless explosions, rode over so many old people! Ah, the memories…

All in all, his Plymouth was the one constant in his life, the thing most important to him after Len. The partner he could never find in any human being since they couldn’t remember him from restart to restart.

“I swear, I won’t let anyone hurt you again,” Ryan whispered to his car while stroking the hood, like a cat. “The bad Psycho is gone.”

“Are you talking to your car?” Renesco asked from behind the bar counter.

“I’m not the one judging you on your current company!” Ryan replied, opening the car’s back. Once again, he decided to do something new and interesting for this restart. A method to avenge his car’s death upon the Meta-Gang once more.

“I know this sounds cliche,” Ryan told Ghoul, raising the jumper cables while doing his best German accent. “But we have ways of making you talk!”

After delivering a shocked Ghoul to the Private Security, finishing his delivery, and paying everyone off, the courier thought about his next course of action.

Intending to return to the Augusti Path—without screwing it up this time—Ryan returned to the first hotel he had booked in the city center instead of the southern district. He met Wyvern, warned her of Ghoul’s escape, and received her business card.

This time, Vulcan contacted him as normal.

He went to the Bakuto, met Zanbato, and received his mission. The day afterward, before he left the hotel, he hid a small remote camera in the room. Ryan had already booked a place somewhere else to avoid the assassination attempt, but he also wanted to catch a glimpse of the killer.

This time, Sarin showed up alone at the delivery. It appeared Ghoul remained in custody, and the Meta couldn’t spare anyone else as backup. Ryan would have wanted to say it had been a hard, tough fight. That he struggled for his life, and that Sarin proved herself a welcome challenge.

Instead, the battle lasted ten seconds.

He punched her in the face in the stopped time with Fisty; gas came out of the Psycho's mask, and she crashed on the supertanker like before. She could dish out a lot of damage, but couldn’t take it.

They hadn’t even destroyed the Old Harbor this time!

“I’m bored,” Quicksave complained, while the Augusti finished putting crates in the bathyspheres. The Private Security hadn’t even shown up!

“Good,” Zanbato replied calmly. “That means things are running smoothly. I would rather have boring efficiency every day than chaotic excitement.”

“That’s what she said,” Ryan replied, drawing a cell phone out of his pocket. It was an old pre-war Samsung he had tinkered with, enhancing its performance to match newer devices. With it, he could observe through his bedroom’s camera from afar.

The camera didn’t notice anything strange. According to the thermal sensors though, someone had flown close to the window, peeked through, and then left. Considering his room was on the tenth floor… definitively a Genome.

Now that he thought of it, he had glimpsed a flying hero during his first battle with Ghoul and Sarin. Could it be the same person?

“Does anybody know a flying invisible man or woman around here?” Ryan asked. “Asking for a friend.”

“Anybody with 100k in their account can buy an Invisibility Elixir at Dynamis,” Luigi replied, closing the bathyspheres after putting the last crates inside. He typed on his phone and the submarines vanished beneath the waves, carrying their supplies elsewhere. “For flight though…”

“The only fliers in town I know of are Wyvern, Geist, Vulcan, Devilry, Wardrobe, Mosquito, and Sarin,” Zanbato said. “Among them, only Geist can turn invisible.”

“Does he spy on people at night by peeping through their window?” Ryan asked. What confused him was that the mysterious visitor didn’t enter the room nor leave a bomb behind during this iteration. Did they detect the camera from afar and decided to avoid detection?

“No, he’s bound to one place outside town and can’t leave it at all,” the Augusti enforcer replied. “He’s a Yellow whose powers activated post-mortem, binding him to his grave.”

Ah yes, Yellow Elixirs. The potions granting ‘conceptual’ powers, from astral projection to bad luck. Ryan liked them, mostly because you never knew what to expect with them. Even by Genomes standards, their abilities were downright bizarre with weird limitations.

“Why the question?” Luigi asked, suspicious, Ryan feeling his truth-telling power activate.

“Someone like that blew up my bedroom a few days ago,” Ryan replied, which was technically true. The power forced him to be honest, but he could phrase his sentence to mislead. “As if that was original!”

“You certainly make enemies quickly,” Luigi noted, frowning. “How do you feel about that?”

an alien force take over his mind and change his words. “Nothing

him strangely.

inside.” Ryan shrugged his mind now on autopilot. “Like my brain is a bottomless well I try to

An awkward silence followed.

the bright side, I look fabulous on the outside!” Quicksave added to lighten the mood, before turning to Luigi, unable not

have to be sure about something,” Luigi said, unsympathetic. “Are you a snitch or a double

my own side only, and I have no cause at all!” Ryan replied, but couldn’t stop himself; his voice changed from happy to apathetic on its own. “To be honest guys,

the grunt guards said. “You should see

did, but I broke him first!” However, this was getting tiresome, and Ryan’s wits were at an end. He

like a lynx switching from being playful to threatened. “There is only one place where I don’t want anyone inside, and

seriously. “Sorry for the probing,” Luigi apologized, Ryan sensing the effect lifted. “I had to be sure you weren’t pulling a fast one on

at his face without emotion nor a word, making the truth-teller uncomfortable. Damn it, he hated mind-readers

up and go on our merry way,” Ryan said, turning to Zanbato and eager to gather his thoughts alone. “I

plans.

me to dinner first?”

that’s the plan,” Zanbato replied, much to the courier’s surprise.

he was serious?

stay at my place tonight,” Zanbato insisted, with the same tone as a big brother scolding his

I must catch my

“They will wait.”

“Zan is like cream. Sweet and it sticks to you when you get too

it vanilla ice cream?” Ryan asked innocently. “I

Zanbato suggested.

the strangest moments of Ryan’s life. Being led at knifepoint to a dinner party

into Ryan’s Plymouth and refused to exit until the courier agreed to come home with him. Passive-aggressiveness

the mysterious assassin having backed down for now, Ryan couldn’t

Augustus. The area was definitely higher-income than Little Maghreb nearby; local houses were large, modern, and built on steep hills overseeing the poorer districts below. Class stratification had

the hill’s edge. Colored in rich warm brown and white tones, the place

the opportunity to remove his power armor, showing no apprehension at revealing his face to Ryan. The courier had to admit, the Japanese counterfeit was quite handsome, with a perfect jawline, buff muscles, and a three-day beard. Ryan would peg him somewhere around

Cutter.” Zanbato shook Ryan’s hand. “No masks

secret identity?” Ryan replied. “I must warn you, many have gone insane

his thunder being stolen, “To your credit, that’s pretty

as he removed his mask, hat, and trench coat, tossing them into the

Jamie clarified, opening the garage’s door and inviting his fellow Genome inside his home. The door led to a large living area that could probably fit a two-room apartment inside, including the kitchen, a sofa with a big plasma screen, and stairs to rooms above. Huge picture windows gave a marvelous sight of the city below, and the deco involved a lot of Asian art. A katana hanging on

people were already present. A dark-brown woman drank a soda can near the balcony, while an Asian

Ryan didn’t pay them much attention, his gaze focused

the enormous rat on the kitchen counter, looking at Ryan with curiosity. The courier waved a hand at it, and the critter raised its tiny forelegs

girl in the kitchen on the mouth, while she put her

politely at Ryan, showing him a friendly smile. As skinny as her boyfriend was muscled, she kept her black hair short, dressed modestly, and wore discreet, yet elegant glasses. Ryan would have considered her pretty if she hadn’t suffered from weight loss and sore scars on the skin; the courier immediately identified her as

“Waza?” Ryan answered.

replied with the

realization, having finally met someone

both shouted at the same time. This startled the rat a bit, who tilted his head to the side. The dark-brown haired

Ki-jung reassured him. “You have to know the private

be initiated in this brotherhood is the pinnacle of culture,” Ryan said, politely introducing himself to this delicate

out, lovingly putting his

glanced around and realized the kitchen’s rat had brought his entire family. Three of his kindred watched a documentary on the tv, another slept

from behind his ears. “Somewhat. I telepathically connect with them, which increases their

Green?”

replied, meaning her power affected biology rather than mere rodent telepathy. “I’m

would recognize

arms and shoulders; she even bore a bird symbol below her right eye,