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.”

plushie. “Len, there are no permanent consequences around

she asked, biting her lower lip. “What if you

I checked. I wouldn’t do like, half the stuff I pull on a weekly basis if I knew I left a mess behind. My power only

correct, then you can rewrite the

for Christmas, while I got a Fat Man,” Ryan said, putting

him, but eventually lowered the water gun. “You will behave while you stay here,” Len said. “I…

“Len, they have guns.”

this shithole,” the Genius replied.

it over to Vulcan, as a sign of friendship. “Can you give it back then? I swear you will never see that bomb

before searching in her jumpsuit and handing him the bomb. Ryan put a hand on it, their gloves brushing against

him, she wanted to. He wouldn’t

weapon like that?” she asked, as the courier put the bomb inside one of his coat's inner

Len nodded, and Ryan sighed. She wouldn’t like his answer. “Because I was bored, and I thought it would be

with your time-stop? You

When I said an early restart, I meant an early restart. Have you never

on. "That's

bridges. "And since I need to commit suicide

pity, sadness, and compassion.

had wanted to die for good, he would have picked a fight with someone like Cancel long ago.

silence, Len abruptly changed the subject.

he remembered one of his worst

“Monaco? Why?”

the car, and a flustered Len started putting the engine pieces

Chronoradio and its associated parts.” Only then did Ryan notice that while she had stopped pointing it at his face, Len kept the gun

Baby steps.

huh?” Ryan boasted about his car, putting a hand on the hood.

the hood once her work done.

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

crossroad, not only between time and space but between various dimensions,” the courier explained.

them from these

but some are alternate histories Earth could have taken. Usually, these histories aren’t stable and

“I don’t follow you.”

time is stable, that the past is set in stone, but in truth, it’s like the water you love so

trailed off with a worried frown, unable

involved. It was a rabbit hole of depression, questionable ethics, and self-misery. He preferred to think of it as a universal memory-wipe. “Anyway, I thought the Chronoradio could help me locate

things went well for us,” Len

replied with a sigh, 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 with the Chronoradio is listen to

with a worried frown. Did she think he would get himself killed? Then again, they were close to the Junkyard. “What about that undead madman in the

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

with a deeper frown

I investigated,” Ryan

factories,” Len said with anger. “They pay them for dangerous work with just enough

heroes he had met during the seminar seemed more self-obsessed than actively

her head. “Not all criminals wear masks. Most

attacked one

grimmer. “But… they caught me. Somebody ratted me out and led the Private Security to my

tried to fight for?” Ryan guessed, his friend nodding.

“Wyvern didn’t bust me out, Vulcan did. And even then, it wasn’t for free.

see only one way to kill Psyshock permanently, and

like the idea. Even if she collaborated with Vulcan, she clearly had no love for her organization. “We

he’s smart, he will have a suicide button.” Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a thermo-nuclear device. Besides making the world a better place, taking down Psyshock would also prevent him from piloting that Mechron mech later on. “And

“I’ve… I need more time, Riri. Time to figure this

out my

looking away. “I want to help you, Riri. I really do. No one

that you want to help at all means a

Riri, even if we succeed in helping you, I… I’m not

We.

word had brought back memories of 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 courier always wondered what

could never

she admitted. “My

around me,” Ryan stated the obvious. Like

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