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?”

body, and though Ryan couldn’t see the face beneath her

eyes. She deserved at least as much. “That

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

replied with a sigh.

heard you say yet,” Len said. “Riri, you can’t… you can’t become

you, it just gets

I’m doing this for you, Riri. To pay you back. But that’s it. When this

Ryan of that previous loop where he watched Jamie and co all perish before him. “I can make it right,” he said,

Len asked

“Don’t what, save people?”

protested, before looking at Wardrobe’s remains. “I tried to save everyone

between them was, Ryan could save everyone who deserved it. If

guessed his trail of

“Away from what?”

this cursed city,” she said, all but pleading. “It will destroy us both. Maybe even

in your life

with the courier wondering

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

as his oldest friend

have checked up on you for years, if… it was truly over between us,” Len admitted, flinching as an explosion echoed nearby.

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

vaguer terms, in case

“I think

enough bad endings through his long life to tell where this was going. He grabbed his phone and tried to call Vulcan, unable to see her in the skies. “Jas? Jasmine?” Nothing but static. “Shortie,

Len said, while five bathyspheres emerged from the seawater

and Narcinia with his naked hands. It seemed he could apply his intangibility to others as long as they remained

was clearly shaken, folding her arms and looking at the ground the second Mortimer released her,

shouldn’t have?” the

will be a total war,” Livia replied, shaking her head. “Hector cannot back down

Narcinia lamented, looking at flames consuming her flowers. “I… I

the younger girl, before barking orders at Len. “Underdiver, we start evacuating immediately. Mortimer, you will go back inside, bring Bacchus and

we evacuate at all?” Mortimer asked, glancing at the fortress behind them. Geist had managed to close the hole,

replied, a look of brief concern breaking through her tranquil expression. “My alternate selves. Their life is snuffed out in an instant, and I can barely see the cause.

“Not me,” he protested, before adding a caveat, “this

a bathysphere to everyone. “Riri, you go first,” she

Narcinia frowned at Len. “Are

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

girl to move inside. The Augusti

foot inside

Augusti princess said. “It’s all

took a step back, a sharp, translucent blade grazing her

out a scream as an invisible force pulled her backward and out of the bathysphere. Almost on instinct, Ryan froze time and peeked outside the

could see the hint of a hand covering her mouth, and

skies, trying to locate the invisible Genome; glass shards emerged from the sea, surrounding the group and bathyspheres

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

send you, Mathias?” Livia asked, her face unreadable while she looked up at Narcinia. Clearly, she could see Mr. Windshield perfectly

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 uses it to poison innocent people. You disgust

faltered briefly, a brief look of 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 your master

threateningly raised at everyone present, Ryan included. Though the Carnival assassin and handsome courier worked on

replied, her frown deepening.