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.

if you’re wrong?” she asked, biting her lower lip. “What if you jump into another universe

half the stuff I pull on a weekly basis if I knew I left a mess behind.

even scarier,” Len said, still struggling to understand his power’s full scope. “If what you say is correct, then you can rewrite the entire space-time continuum almost at

water guns for Christmas, while I got a Fat Man,” Ryan

eventually lowered the water gun. “You will behave while you

“Len, they have guns.”

Genius replied. “But that nuke, Riri, won’t

hand it over to Vulcan, as a sign of friendship. “Can you give it back then? I swear you

her jumpsuit and handing him the bomb. Ryan put a hand on it, their gloves brushing against the other. The courier sensed her reluctance to give the weapon away, but

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

like that?” she asked, as the courier put the

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

you automatically restart with your time-stop? You said

early restart, I meant an early restart.

finally caught on. "That's how

lot of bridges. "And since I need to

pity, sadness, and compassion. “Do you think

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

uncomfortable silence, Len abruptly changed the subject.

way worse places,” the courier replied, before shuddering as he remembered one of his worst

“Monaco? Why?”

a flustered Len started putting the engine pieces back in their

notice that while she had stopped pointing it

Baby steps.

tech, huh?” Ryan boasted about his car, putting a hand on the hood. “You’re the last Genius in a long line to work

There’s a lot I could work with, actually.” Len closed the hood once her work

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

but between various dimensions,” the courier explained. “You know

them

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

“I don’t follow you.”

truth, it’s like the water you love so much, ever changing.” Ryan’s experience had taught him as much. “I mean, I just have to jump back and

a worried

of the horrors involved. It was a rabbit hole of depression, questionable ethics,

went well

to reach an alternate Earth, even with a

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

through if I’m in Rust Town. After that, I need to have my windshield cleaned, and Bone Daddy will become someone

a

you, so I investigated,” Ryan

labor in their factories,” Len said with anger. “They pay them for dangerous work with just enough euros to feed themselves, but provide neither healthcare nor safety guidelines. One out of five people gets

don’t think Il Migliore supports these practices.” Even the junior heroes he had met during the seminar seemed more self-obsessed

all criminals wear masks. Most wear suits and ties. Since nobody would stand up

attacked one of

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

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

I guess people always 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 their drug,

intend to go to Dynamis this time,” Ryan reassured her. “I see only one way

no love for her organization. “We could capture him,” she said. “From what

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

didn’t have any alternative. “I’ve… I need

my power,

you, Riri. I really do.

warmth. “The fact that you

if we succeed in helping you, I… I’m not sure if there will

We.

believed they had a future together. He thought his feelings for Len had changed after so many restarts, moved past

what could never

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

around me,” Ryan

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