The Perfect Run

No matter how many times he would visit it, Ryan would never get used to Rust Town. The whole place reeked of misery and despair.

Atom Cat seemed to share his sentiment, as both drove through the slums with the Plymouth's windows closed and the air cleaner on. “It’s even worse than I thought,” he said, looking at a streetlight hanging by its cable, threatening to fall on the road at any moment. “Way worse.”

“You never went mice hunting here?”

“No, my family lives in the wealthy Patrician district. I lived a very sheltered life truth be told, even during the wars.”

“So a house cat then.” If so, Ryan’s threat of neutering him must have hit a bit too close to home.

“I guess I went stray,” his sidekick mused.

“I do wonder why this place is such a dump compared to the rest of the city though,” Ryan said. It reminded him of the bad old days when he scoured ruins for supplies, with Bloodstream breathing down his neck.

“It belonged to the region’s original inhabitants,” Atom Cat explained, “those who lived in the Gulf of Naples and escaped its bombing. They managed to survive, in spite of the poisons and plagues, but when Dynamis took over the region, the company forcefully relocated them to make room for its own people. I guess the homeless and the diseased didn’t fit into their picture of a shining capital city. There are plans to renovate the area, but they haven't materialized yet.”

He shook his head in disappointment, the sound of a cell phone’s alarm interrupting the discussion. Atom Cat looked at his mobile, but didn’t take the call.

Ryan glanced at the screen, seeing Atom Cat had missed fifteen calls from a certain ‘Fortuna’ and seven from one ‘Narcinia.’ “My sisters,” the superhero said before the courier could ask questions. “I keep in touch with them, but they want me back and don’t take no for an answer.”

“That means they love you,” Ryan replied without any hint of sarcasm. He could sympathize with people wishing to reunite with their family. The courier did wonder what made Atom Cat consider Dynamis to be a better option over the Augusti though.

Ryan suddenly wondered if Len, like Atom Cat, wouldn’t want to meet him, but immediately brushed off these thoughts. Of course she would rejoice when they met again, after so many years! It was just his anxiety talking!

“I love them too, but as long as they keep supporting the Bliss business I—”

Another person called Atom Cat, who stared at the name on the screen for several seconds, his gaze undecipherable.

‘Livia.’

Instead of ignoring the call like the others, Atom Cat outright turned down his phone, sighed, and messed with the radio to change his mind. When he finally settled on a channel, Ryan glared at his sidekick. “Hip hop, really?”

“You don’t like it, brotha?”

“No, I don’t!” Ryan changed the channel back to the Daft Biopunk chronoradio. The music switched into a combination of electronic, synth, and alien rhythms.

“Nice sound,” Atom Cat commented, as they passed through narrow streets. “Where are we going?”

“The Meta took over the junkyard area as their base,” Ryan said. “It’s located at Rust Town’s center.”

“I’m stopping you right here, I’m all for ambushing a lone Psycho, maybe two, but attacking their home turf with only the two of us is suicide.”

If Ryan had been alone, he would have tried anyway, but he wasn’t going to lead his sidekick to certain death. “Thing is, children have been missing in the area, according to my information. I've located an orphanage south of the junkyard, and I thought we should check it out.”

instantly tensed.

he was, but he had come to expect the worst when Psychos

the city’s water reservoir. Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, Dynamis heavily protected the area, armored soldiers protecting its confines. “Then

Ryan did.

duo made their way to an isolated building surrounded by a dusty wasteland. The paint on the cinder block walls had vanished, peeled by time, and half the windows were broken. A large fenced area extended left of the building, housing dozens, if not hundreds of stray cats and dogs. The distressed noises they made and the smell they produced immediately overwhelmed the duo, as they parked the car

them on. The air here was less polluted

animals with sympathy. The sheer

ten and twelve at the orphanage’s entrance, playing with a dirty golden retriever near the open doors. One was a black boy with acid burn scars on half his

Ryan waved a hand at

dress, while the boy clung to the dog. “Back off, druggie,” she

that was

When time resumed, he had put the gun inside his

his thumb like in a commercial. “I’m

it, Quickie,” Atom Cat replied, the nickname making Ryan feel dirty inside. “We

afraid. The dog nuzzled his face to reassure him, and didn’t make any hostile

replied while glaring at Ryan. “A

casually,

he heard, the more Atom Cat grew agitated. “But, how do

said with a proud face. “We scavenge

the boy in the leg before he could finish

asked. The little girl kept her mouth closed, the other

gun.” She ignored Atom Cat and instead kept glaring at

Ryan replied, having a reputation to uphold. “Let me buy you a real gun, like a Desert Eagle.

him, before trying to build a rapport with the kids. “Who is this mama, your caretaker? Can we

replied stubbornly. “She’s

“Busy doing what?”

crossing her arms. “What do you

to argue with the kids that they only wanted to protect them, Ryan sensed tension

could sense

approached the orphanage, parking five meters away from the entrance. Other kids appeared at the

one of them as the mosquito monster that wrecked his Plymouth in a previous loop. The second was a scrawny, bald man dressed like a plumber; disfiguring tumors grew out of his flesh

As for the third...

figure, in spite of his heavy black overcoat, hat, scarf, and sunglasses. The way he walked, like a shambling doll mimicking

Psyshock, Adam’s second-in-command.

three Psychos glanced at the group with menacing stares, Atom Cat instantly moving to shield the kids; so did the golden retriever, who

little Cesare?” he said with a robotic, digital

Ryan flinched.

lost signal, calling home to Daddy.” His heavy sunglasses glittered

path with that creep four years ago, before he drank his Elixir. Even if Ryan now had superpowers and could defend himself, Psyshock's mere presence made him feel uneasy. “How are the scars

readied his claw-like hands, itching for a fight. “If you survived, I

aren’t enough for you?” Ryan