The Perfect Run

Well, Ryan had to admit it. No matter how savage the attack, it had been a perfect sneak headshot. Wardrobe probably didn’t feel any pain.

“Wardrobe!” Reload shouted in panic, dropping everything to try and treat his teammate’s wound. It was in vain though; the courier had seen the bullet go from one side of the head to the other, and unless she had regeneration, the shot had slain her instantly. The Yellow Genome’s blood was flowing out of her skull and onto the ground, while flowers burned around them.

“Mortimer thought she would never shut up,” the hitman said without any remorse, keeping his rifle pointed at Reload’s head without pressing the trigger. In all likelihood, he had grown wise to his rewinding power.

“You…” While Ryan wasn’t surprised, Len struggled to find her words. “You killed her. You killed her.”

“You could have shot her in the knee!” Ryan said, quite pissed himself. While he didn’t know the girl until a few hours earlier, she seemed quite the theatrical superhero; she was long-term rivalry material! “She was fun, goddammit! Fun!”

“She would have recovered from a knee shot,” Mortimer replied with a shrug. For a second, Ryan had forgotten he was a brutal mob hitman beneath all the silliness. “With one exception, Mortimer hasn’t seen anyone recover from deat—”

“Murderer!” Reload snarled suddenly, charging at Mortimer with his weapon raised. The hitman quickly took a step backward to dodge. “You’ll pay for this!”

Len raised her water weapon at the Dynamis hero, hitting him with a stream of liquid; he dropped his laser blade in surprise, perhaps having been blinded by anger. Instead of propelling Reload backward though or cutting him in half, the water shifted around the hero and formed a dense, three meters-wide bubble around his body. When Shortie closed her water pump, the bubble stabilized and kept Reload immobilized.

“Thanks,” Mortimer said, before grabbing Reload’s laser blade as a trophy. “How long will it last?”

Shortie didn’t answer. She didn’t want to.

“She can’t talk?” Mortimer asked Ryan, who deactivated the laser blade and put it in a belt pocket.

“Yes she can, but not to you,” the courier said. “Also, you’re a jackass.”

“Hey, she was a corpo, why do you care?”

“She was my new archenemy, Mortimer!” Ryan said, raising a finger at the man’s mask. “You don’t kill a man’s archenemy! It’s like stealing his wife!”

“Oh, really? Sorry, poor old Mortimer is quite the ladykiller.”

Mortimer liked his comedy pitch black, like his soul.

Unfortunately for him, Len didn’t find the joke funny, and instantly raised her weapon at his face. “Hey, calm down!” the hitman protested, pointing his rifle back at Shortie. “What’s up with you?”

“I should have let him kill you,” Len said, clearly struggling against her instinct not to bubble the hitman to death. “You’re just as bad as the Meta.”

“Len.” Ryan turned serious, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s not worth the hassle.”

If she attacked him, then they would have the entire Augusti family after them. Ryan could handle them, but Len… didn’t need that trouble right now.

The aquatic Genius remained still for a few seconds, before lowering her weapon.

“Anyway, you’re the Underdiver, right?” Mortimer asked while appraising Len warily; unlike her, he hadn’t lowered his rifle. “Miss Livia said you were in charge of the evacuation effort.”

“I called bathyspheres already,” Len finally spoke up, her tone icy. Vulcan must have paid her to keep a few in standby as escape pods.

“Good, I was in charge of clearing the way and then getting our VIPs out,” Mortimer said, slowly sinking back into the ground. “I will be back soon.”

“You want to evacuate?” Ryan asked, pointing at Neptune repelling Dynamis’ air forces. “We’re sort of winning.”

“Bite me, Miss Livia’s orders,” Mortimer said while disappearing, “and you don’t argue with the money.”

Once he was gone, Ryan glanced at Reload’s watery prison, the Violet Genome trapped in a bubble he couldn’t escape from. His power restored him to his physical prime whenever he ran out of breath but never granted him the strength to escape. “Does it pop out if I stick a nail in it?”

to say, Riri?” Len looked at Wardrobe’s body, and though Ryan couldn’t see the face beneath her helmet, he didn’t have to be a precog to sense his friend’s sorrow. “He

Ryan moved towards Wardrobe’s body, closing the eyes. She deserved at least as

didn’t even use lethal force on you. How can you be so casual about

with a sigh.

say yet,” Len said. “Riri,

stick to you, it just gets overwhelming after

good answer to this. “I’m… I’m doing this for you, Riri. To pay you back. But that’s

reminded Ryan of that previous loop where he watched Jamie and co all perish before

Len asked him,

“Don’t what, save people?”

owe these people anything. That mindset of yours, it’s destroying you!” she protested, before looking at Wardrobe’s remains. “I tried to save everyone who deserved to,

Ryan could save everyone who deserved it. If

his trail of

“Away from what?”

all but pleading. “It will destroy

in your life after all?” Ryan teased her. “No more radio

silent for a moment, with the courier wondering if he had been

some hesitations. “I… it won’t be easy, but… yes. I…

oldest friend struggled to find

years, if… it was truly over between us,” Len admitted, flinching as an explosion echoed nearby. Neptune had knocked out

If anything, this loop had been worth it just to reach this point. “It means the world

needed to use vaguer terms, in case

Len said. “I think they are digging below

this was going. He grabbed his phone and tried to call Vulcan, unable to see her in the skies. “Jas? Jasmine?” Nothing but

scrambling vocal communications,” Len said, while five bathyspheres emerged from the seawater nearby, their doors opening automatically. “Dynamis, I

the ground, holding both Livia and Narcinia with his naked hands. It seemed he could apply his intangibility to others as

the second Mortimer released her, Livia managed to keep her composure. At least, until she noticed Wardrobe’s remains. “You

shouldn’t have?” the

a total war,” Livia replied, shaking her head. “Hector

consuming her flowers. “I… I

barking orders at Len. “Underdiver, we start evacuating immediately. Mortimer, you will go

asked, glancing at the fortress behind them. Geist had managed to close the hole, and the Dynamis Genomes

“My alternate selves. Their life is snuffed out in an instant, and I can barely see the cause. I assume Dynamis has a

at Ryan. “Not me,” he protested, before adding a

Len assigned a bathysphere to everyone. “Riri, you go

frowned at

multiple people inside. He sat on a crimson, semicircular bench, and immediately noticed seat belts. The bathysphere was equipped with multiple screens and buttons and even

the younger girl to move inside. The Augusti Princess stopped midway, a strained frown

foot inside

get it,” the Augusti princess said. “It’s all bright and then

step back, a sharp, translucent blade grazing her cheek and drawing

pulled her backward and out of

invisible force; Ryan could see the hint of a hand covering her mouth, and he

to locate the invisible Genome; glass shards emerged

it’s true.” A voice came out of nowhere, but Ryan instantly recognized it as Shroud’s. “Assassination attempts will always

asked, her face unreadable while she looked up at Narcinia. Clearly, she could see Mr. Windshield perfectly fine. “You appear together a lot when I look at

on her mouth. If she couldn’t draw blood, the Green Genome couldn’t use her ability. “A power that could have helped the world, as her mother wished… and your father

remorse flashing on her face. “Start by giving me back my mother,” the Augusti princess said as she regained her composure, her face harshening again. “Then we will talk about morality. Now, tell

isn’t here,” Shroud replied, glass shards threateningly raised at everyone present, Ryan included. Though the Carnival assassin and handsome courier worked on the same team, he seemed determined

frown deepening. “If it’s not Hargraves,