The Perfect Run

Ryan had been shot at more times than he could count.

Unlike Psychos or special cases like Augustus, all of the courier’s abilities, from his save point to the time stop, derived from a single unifying power. It was only through training and experimentation that Ryan discovered its multiple applications. In particular, it took him years of looping to realize he had an enhanced sense of timing.

The more he experienced a situation, the better Ryan became at predicting and reacting to it. If someone used a martial arts move once, he would subtly anticipate it next time anybody else tried it; the courier could predict when one would toss a smoke bomb to the ground, and catch it before being consciously aware of it. This made learning physical skills almost trivial.

It wasn’t all-powerful, since there were situations when even the fastest reflexes couldn’t make a difference—like getting beheaded by an invisible blade or hit by a laser as fast as light. Lacking any superspeed, Ryan couldn’t truly ‘dodge’ bullets or artillery.

But he could predict someone’s line of fire before they pressed the trigger. His body would then subtly shift, projectiles would miss, and give people the illusion that he could dodge even bullets. Combined with the time stop, the courier seemed impossible to hit from the point of view of outsiders.

So when Vulcan attacked him with her cannon arm, Ryan paused time for a split second and dodged out of the line of fire. A dense shell blasted the orphanage’s wall behind them, collapsing cinder blocks and opening a path towards what seemed to be a kitchen. The trapped pets behind the fence panicked, some frenzied cats managing to escape by climbing.

“Vulcan, it’s an orphanage!” Atom Cat shouted, but before he could rush to Ryan’s help, the Meta-Gang flanked him. The hero avoided a deadly punch from Mosquito and a small fireball from Mongrel; Atom Cat’s movements were chaotic, showcasing his lack of formal training, but his natural agility made up for it.

To her credit, Vulcan froze for a split second, vaguely ashamed. Instead of assaulting Ryan with heavy artillery and risk destroying the shelter, she switched to hand-to-hand combat. Mini-turbo reactors activated on the mechanical suit’s back in short bursts, causing the five-meter tall metal monster to move at the speed of a racing car.

Showing extreme agility honed over countless loops, Ryan backflipped to dodge a giant fist to the face, and then a stomp. “I have to hand it to you,” the courier began, before switching the meaning of his sentence, “because you can’t reach it!”

Vulcan’s attacks grew more frenzied, and when she no longer had the orphanage in her line of fire, she switched to heavy weaponry. Her mech’s shoulders opened to reveal minigun turrets, firing hundreds of pellets at Ryan. The courier used a mix of time stop and timing to avoid the attacks, trying to circle the machine and find a hatch for the cockpit.

Psyshock, meanwhile, threw away his overcoat, hat, and sunglasses, revealing his true self to the world. He had long shed his flesh, replaced with thousands of black wires which he usually shaped into a facsimile of a humanoid form. The only organ that survived his mutation was his skull, which left his bio-mechanical brain exposed. His neon eyes reminded Ryan of two bright torchlights.

Psyshock reshaped his wires to form eight elongated arms, turning himself into a horrific mockery of a spider. While Vulcan occupied Ryan and Atom Cat fought his cronies, the Psycho leaped over the area in a single bound, going straight for the orphanage.

Realizing this, Ryan decided to dump Vulcan and pursue Psyshock, but the Genius didn’t let him. Her hand lunged at the courier, big enough to crush him whole, while her miniguns provided suppressing fire.

In spite of her fearsome armor, Ryan could tell that Vulcan didn’t have much direct combat experience. Her movements were clumsy, and while her weapons aimed true, there was no foresight involved, no human cunning or improvisation; she probably outsourced control to a basic AI. Her armor was also clearly a prototype designed to fight a big and aerial target, instead of an agile and stylish gentleman.

In short, Vulcan had brought a Wyvern-buster to a Quicksave fight.

Vulcan could have won if she had carpet-bombed the area from above, but instead, she chose to announce her presence and make the battle close and personal. Ryan could sense a desire to prove herself in a fight, perhaps to outshine Wyvern.

Girl’s got issues.

Stopping time for ten seconds, Ryan moved to the armor’s left, dodging her hand and bullets. Then, he carefully punched the elbow joint with Fisty, aiming to maximize pressure damage. When time resumed, the recoil applied in full, and the mech’s arm shattered at the elbow point. The forearm fell to the ground, electrical jolts coming out of the damaged parts.

As he guessed when he first observed it at the Armory, much like medieval armor, Vulcan paid for her suit’s enhanced mobility with weakness in the joints.

“What’s this?” Ryan mused. “A short-circuit?”

“You aren’t funny, Romano!” Vulcan complained through her armor’s loudspeakers, clearly jealous of his peerless wit. “You think you are, but you aren’t!”

“Come on, don’t be small-minded.” As she retaliated with another volley of bullets, Ryan froze time and rushed to the orphanage, Psyshock having vanished through the hole Vulcan made in the wall.

Meanwhile, Atom Cat fared little better. Mosquito had taken flight like the insect he was, diving down to try and impale the hero with his stinger. While Atom Cat could easily dodge, Mongrel limited his movements. The strange Psycho flickering in and out of existence, propelling himself with short bursts of wind while attempting to hit the hero with his hand tool. Sometimes, he threw a fireball here and there, small fires starting all over the wasteland park.

Fireballs, limited invisibility, air conditioning... Ryan recognized these powers as those from knock-off Elixirs sold by Dynamis. Mongrel must have drunk a cocktail of them. Since the powers gained were but a shadow of those of true Elixirs, his body managed to handle more than two at the cost of his mental faculties.

Still, even if forced on the defensive, Atom Cat fought hard to regain the initiative in this two-on-one fight. He attempted to punch Mongrel, his hands shining with crimson energy, but in spite of his bestial snarls, the Psycho remained careful not to give his foe any opening.

When time resumed, Ryan had managed to reach the orphanage, only to backtrack when a dozen wires came out of the hole and threatened to catch him in a net.

Psyshock emerged from the hole, having grabbed four kids with his tentacle arms; Sarah, her friend, and two twin girls no older than eight. His cold alien eyes glanced at Ryan with disdain while one of his wires was making its way inside one of the twins’ nose, traces of blood and fur all over his body.

throwing knives, intending to target

of Ryan’s line of fire, the girl

in shock, which Psyshock immediately exploited to send a tentacle at him. Suffering from his time stop's cooldown, the courier couldn’t freeze the clock as the arm hit him with the speed of a harpoon. He managed to grab it

exploited the opportunity to tackle him from the side, throwing the hero through the pen’s fence. Dogs

of the child he had connected to; needles appeared at the end of his wires, for

telepathy—no matter its physical limitations—hadn’t caused Ryan to feel murderous

thought the same. Showing basic human decency, she stopped paying attention to Ryan and instead raised her armor’s last functional

woman,” Psyshock replied dismissively, positioning his hostages to protect himself from Vulcan's weaponry. Meanwhile, Mongrel moved towards the pen to finish off Atom Cat while Mosquito flew in circles above them. Some dogs who had remained behind instead of fleeing barked angrily at the

careful not to hit the kids, instead, cutting through wires

closest to him with his knives, and then rushed towards the children. With a swift swing, he severed the wires holding the twins

by sending his wires in all directions, targeting both Ryan and Vulcan with a rain of tentacles. The courier fled while carrying the twins in his arms,

the courage to try and bite Mongrel when he approached. With a bestial snarl, the Psycho raised both hands, channeling a fireball through the right and a swirling vortex

rushed at Mongrel while he was distracted, and this time managed to grab his head with his hand. The Psycho’s body turned red, his colors muted by a crimson hue, and then

to blow air, yet the blast annihilated him without leaving a trace. Clothes, skin, even the tool he carried; they

when cornered, Atom Cat had

murder on his mind. The young superhero froze, as if an idea crossed his mind, before grabbing a pebble on

his own minibus. The car’s alarm activated, and combined with the noise from the battle,

Cat could modulate the strength of his explosions and even delay

despondent, and the other crying in fear. “It’s okay, you’re safe,” Ryan tried

the courier immediately returned to the fray. Psyshock had used all his wires to restrain Vulcan, trying to keep the mecha anchored to the ground while desperately trying to

despicable bastard used his captives as human shields, preventing the Augusti from

Psyshock, tossing knives at his skull. Wires deflected them, but this caught the criminal’s attention. “A teleportation power?” the Psycho hissed

quip back, but in your case, you will go out the way of the rhinoceros,” Ryan said with dead

leaped, and punched the Psycho through the skull in the frozen time. His fist gored through the Psycho’s metal bones and brain

play with his enemies, but he knew better than to give any telepath a chance to fight back. Especially someone as loathsome

collapsed to the ground in a mess of wires and brain matter, dragging Sarah and the other kid down with him. Ryan quickly caught Sarah

the same with her charge. “Little girl, can you take your friend and move away? The big bot is waiting

hand and running away to safety. Vulcan remained silent, watching the children get out of the way with grim vigilance. Ryan couldn’t tell if it was regret, longing, or something else, but she

Vulcan attempted to fire plasma beams at

cameras, blinding Vulcan before she could open fire. Atom Cat, meanwhile, attempted to punch Mosquito and blow him up alongside the minibus, but the insect flew away when he

enormous shadow flew over the

the tiniest animal to Vulcan herself, as a

and golden eyes. Her claws could cut through steel, her tail ended in a flail, and a suit

Wyvern.

dragon landed right on Vulcan, stomping her mech underfoot with such force, it created a mini-crater below. If Ryan hadn’t damaged her cameras, the Augusti might have

fly away. The dragon, quicker, raised her

SQUASH!

a human did with a fly. The hit flattened the insectoid

ground, smashing the miniguns. The Augusti attempted to activate her mini-turbo reactors to fly away,

at her, knowing the danger. “Extract the cockpit! The

its execution, the dragon carefully extracting the human within with her claws without damaging the rest of the suit. Before the disheveled Augusti could react, Wyvern tossed her

had the foresight to install

inspiring fear, Wyvern’s victory caused great joy in the kids, who let out shouts of jubilation after a short silence. Only the child whom Psyshock had connected to remained despondent, her twin trying to wake her

he had spent enough loops studying medicine and biology to give her a check-up. While intrusive, Psyshock’s orifice invasion usually didn’t

asked Ryan, the euphoria replaced with

to remove the blood from his patient’s

the children said, looking in horror at the animals burning remains and the destroyed

have a long, long conversation,” she said, her powerful voice more that

trying to kidnap children!” Atom Cat