The Perfect Run

Chapter 32

Ryan woke up on a terrible mattress, with a cat on his chest.

The animal looked at the courier with its big blue eyes, as he emerged from his deep sleep. The Persian cat had a coat of fur of the purest shade of white, and the lazy expression of a creature sleeping eighteen hours a day without shame.

It was...

It was the perfect Bond Villain cat!

Ryan immediately let out a cry of joy, while the cat looked at him with noble curiosity.

“I’m gonna call you…” Ryan briefly raised the feline above ground to check if it was a male or female, and then let his imagination do the rest. “Eugène-Henry von Schrodinger!”

Eugène-Henry meowed in response.

“The name sucks,” someone complained from the ‘room’ right next to his—another animal cage repurposed into a prison cell. Ryan recognized the voice as Sarah’s. “It sucks hard.”

“Much like many geniuses, I’m way ahead of my time,” Ryan replied, scratching Eugène-Henry behind his ears. “You like that name, don’t you? You like it, don’t you?”

“Is that the white cat?” Sarah peeked into Ryan’s private space, finding the courier sitting on his bed sheet, the cat on his lap. The courier promised himself to work on his diabolical mastermind pose, though he needed to get a cashmere suit first. “It has a sixth sense to find suckers willing to feed it. That’s why it’s so fat.”

“Hey, he’s not judging you on your appearance!”

“Once, I showed him a rat, like one meter away from his face, and that lazy furball didn’t even react.”

“Slander!” Ryan defended his new sidekick. “Is there a shower though? I think I caught fleas sleeping on that bed.”

“Yes, but the water is muddy. Ma says she will fix it today after she checks your car.”

Check his—

“Goddammit, I hope she doesn’t find the bodies,” Ryan said, rising up from the bed. Eugène-Henry instantly took over his place and moved below the bed sheet, to better protect the mattress from intruders.

“There’s a spot for that,” Little Sarah said casually. “The druggies call it the Happy Hole.”

As it turned out, Rust Town did have tourist spots.

Ryan started dressing, but immediately noticed something wrong. Namely, his A-bomb was missing, and some of his weapons weren’t at their place. Someone had clearly checked on his belongings while he was asleep.

Shortie may be willing to help, but she didn’t fully trust him yet.

The courier emerged from the orphanage to find Len tinkering with his car, having opened the car hood to look inside. She had put the water gun aside, to her right.

“Comrade Shortie, just because it’s an all-American car doesn’t give you the right to wreck it,” Ryan said. “Find yourself a Lada.”

Len turned her head away from the engine, and Ryan's playful demeanor disappeared instantly when she grabbed the water gun. “Riri, what have you done?”

What did he do?

What didn’t he do?

Ryan glanced inside the car hood, his old friend keeping her weapon aimed at his head. Unfortunately, Len had found the brain and jumped to the wrong conclusions.

“Riri, have you…” Len clearly didn’t want to finish her sentence but forced herself to. “Did you put someone in there?”

“You wouldn’t believe how many tries it took before I found the right person.” He immediately raised his hands while Len made a mortified face. “Relax, I’m kidding, I’m kidding! It’s not even sentient!”

“Riri, don’t, don’t joke about this,” she sputtered, keeping her weapon raised.

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologized. “I default to humor when I’m stressed, and I didn’t have my morning coffee.”

Len remained as stiff and grim as ever. “Riri, where did it come from?”

“It’s vat-grown, a gift from another Genius.” No answer. “Shortie, I’m not a serial killer, and I don’t abduct hobos off the road to experiment on them.”

“Riri, I… I want to believe you’re not crazy. I really want to.” She shook her head. “But you keep a thermo-nuclear device with children nearby.”

the plushie. “Len,

lower lip. “What if you jump into another universe every time

her. “I guarantee you I’m not jumping into an alternate universe whenever I die. I checked. I wouldn’t do like, half the stuff I pull on

“If what you say is correct,

Shortie, some people get water guns for Christmas, while I got a Fat Man,” Ryan said, putting a finger

behave while you stay here,” Len

“Len, they have guns.”

themselves in this shithole,” the Genius replied. “But that

I will get rid of it.” He would hand it over to Vulcan, as a sign of friendship. “Can you give it

handing him the bomb. Ryan put a hand on it, their gloves brushing against the other.

didn’t trust him, she wanted to. He wouldn’t disappoint

she asked, as the courier put the bomb inside one

Ryan sighed. She wouldn’t like his answer. “Because I was

restart with your time-stop? You

said an early restart, I meant an early restart. Have you never wondered why I called myself

on. "That's how

a lot of bridges. "And since I need to commit suicide to

with a mix of pity, sadness, and compassion. “Do you think

of course not, I love living." If he had wanted to die for good, he would have picked a fight with someone like Cancel long ago.

silence, Len abruptly changed

courier replied, before shuddering as he remembered one of his worst deaths. “Whatever you do,

“Monaco? Why?”

putting the engine pieces back in their proper place. “Should I expect a mounted water turret? Please

its associated parts.” Only then did Ryan notice that while she had stopped pointing it at

Baby steps.

about his car, putting a hand on the hood. “You’re the last

hood once her work done. “Riri, why did you

was such a long story. Ryan worked many loops and decades on that particular

between various dimensions,” the courier explained. “You know some Violet Genomes summon creatures like that monster

them from these

Most of these universes radically differ from our own, but some are alternate histories Earth could have taken. Usually,

“I don’t follow you.”

think time is stable, that the past is set in stone, but in truth, it’s like the water you love so much, ever changing.” Ryan’s experience had taught him as much. “I mean, I

never considered...” Len trailed off with a worried frown,

involved. It was a rabbit hole of depression, questionable ethics, and self-misery. He preferred to think of it as a

timeline where things went well

opening his car’s door. “But I never found a way to reach an alternate Earth, even with a custom particle accelerator. All I can do

would get himself killed? Then again, they were close to the Junkyard. “What about

supposed to receive a recruitment offer from Wyvern and then Vulcan, but I’m not sure if she will follow through if I’m

with a deeper frown than

Dynamis jailed you, so I investigated,” Ryan admitted. “What

in their factories,” Len said with anger. “They pay them for dangerous work with just enough euros to feed themselves, but

these practices.” Even the junior heroes he

wear masks. Most wear suits and

you attacked one of

more details, her face turning grimmer. “But… they caught me. Somebody ratted me out and led the Private Security

the people you tried to fight

try to take the easy way out.” Len shook her head. “Wyvern didn’t bust me out, Vulcan did. And even then, it wasn’t for free. I had to help the Augusti transport

don’t intend to go to Dynamis this time,” Ryan reassured her. “I see only one way to kill Psyshock permanently, and it’s an Augusti-exclusive

she collaborated with Vulcan, she clearly had no love for her organization. “We could capture him,” she said. “From what you told me,

him from piloting that Mechron mech later on. “And while I don’t believe it, Vulcan

have any alternative. “I’ve… I need more

out my

want to help you, Riri. I

“The fact that you want to help at all

a little. “But the thing is Riri, even if we succeed in helping you, I… I’m not sure

We.

the time when Ryan believed they had a future together. He thought his feelings for Len had changed after so many restarts, moved past the realm of teenage romance. But every time he looked at his old partner, the

what could

are things I can’t forget, Riri,” she admitted. “My father, that stuff with the

safe around me,”

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