The Perfect Run

• Spring 2018, farm near Firenze, Italy.

An eighteen-years old Ryan Romano kicked the laboratory’s door open, naked as the day he was born. “Braindead!” he shouted, raising a rabbit plushie above his head. “I did it! I did it!”

His ‘roommate’ Alchemo, who had been busy operating on an extracted dog’s brain, raised his head at Ryan. This lanky cyborg had bones made of brass, steel pumps for organs, and glass for veins; his hands ended with syringes. A brain and two green eyes floated in its glass dome of a skull, glaring at the time-traveler.

“Why are you naked, you shameless exhibitionist?” The voice that came out of the cyborg’s speaker was annoyed, but not surprised. “Have you let your base, biological urges run wild yet again?”

“Yes, but no!” Ryan replied happily, waving his new invention at the cybernetic Genius. “I just couldn’t wait to show you the truth!”

The cyborg looked at the beautiful toy without a word. For a moment, the only sound that echoed in the workshop was that of computers. The Genius’s laboratory was a true den of mad science, a chaotic gallery of brains in jars, tubes full of multicolored, chemical substances, and experimental weed strains. The Chronoradio awaited on a table nearby, hooked to an artificial brain and a miniature particle accelerator.

“What is this?” Alchemo finally asked. “A scavenged children’s toy?”

“The test probe!” Ryan replied proudly. “It’s way more imaginative than another rover!”

“And why a lagomorph plushie, exactly?”

“Well, it’s cute. If the dimension is inhabited, it will lull the locals into complacency.”

To prove it, Ryan flipped the back switch, waking up the plushie. Its blue eyes shone with artificial light, and it immediately played a pre-recorded message, “I love you!”

“See?” Ryan asked. “It comes with lasers and is programmed to protect children under the age of thirteen. It’s completely safe.”

“Sometimes I wonder if your neural connections are damaged beyond repair,” Alchemo said, absentmindedly finishing his current surgery. “But it is as you wish.”

Alchemo, or Braindead as Ryan liked to call him, was a Genius with a special focus on neural technology. Brain-machine interfaces, brains in a jar, sensory drugs, if it involved neurons, he could do it. Ryan had known him for over two years, at least from his point of view. They even started a drug cartel together in a previous loop, though that venture ended with Ryan shot by one of his maddened customers.

But it was fun! Maybe Ryan will dedicate this new loop to make their Rampage start-up work this time?

In any case, the time-traveler had dedicated the last decade or so to mastering Genius tech, learning from the best. With enough knowledge, the time-traveler hoped he could find a way to travel further back in time; before he drank his Elixir.

Progress was slow but worthwhile. Alchemo in particular might finally find a way to make the Chronoradio work.

“Romano.”

“Yes?”

“Put something on before the Doll sees you,” the Genius all but ordered his roommate. “You already corrupted her mind enough with your ‘body enhancements.’”

“You’re just jealous of my android design talent.”

“I fail to see the use in mammaries in an asexual gynoid construct,” Alchemo replied icily, completely missing the point. “Anyway, toss that thing into the accelerator. You still will not tell me the purpose of these experiments?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Ryan replied, moving towards the device. The mini particle accelerator took the shape of a small metal tube with a hatch, hooked to the Chronoradio. Ryan quickly opened it and put the plushie inside, like a child in an escape pod.

“We won’t know unless you try,” Alchemo grumbled.

Well, maybe Ryan could? Most of the people he confided in during the early loops didn’t believe him, but Braindead had grown more and more open-minded in the Violet Genome’s company. “How about I tell you if the experiment is a success?” the courier asked, before remembering something important. “Also, you should stop abusing that metaboost drug you designed. The side effects will catch up to you.”

“How do you kno—were you looking into my stash? You thief, I should have you expelled from my property!”

“Sure, sure,” Ryan replied, knowing the cranky genius’s bark was worse than his bite. “Alright, so the particle accelerator should send the plushie to that alternate dimension I told you about. It is equipped with a camera and the best artificial intelligence hardware I could find.”

“Knowing you, that’s not saying much.”

Ryan eventually put on a red shawl around his waist, though only because Braindead refused to activate the machine unless he covered his most powerful weapon. Once they were ready, Alchemo transformed his fingers from syringes to USB keys and hooked himself to a computer. The particle accelerator made a terrible sound as it activated, like the roar of a living engine.

“So far so good,” Braindead said, processing data directly into his brain. “Energy readings are stable.”

“Did it teleport?” Ryan asked, hands clenched in excitement.

“I wouldn’t say it teleports, but it coexists in two dimensions so long as the accelerator is active,” Braindead replied with what could pass for a shrug. “Are you sure you want that device hooked to a car’s engine? Seems like a waste of promising technology.”

dimension, then it should allow the Plymouth Fury to do the same. Ryan could settle for an alternate Earth where his

don’t watch movies,

right, the old Genius hooked his brain to artificial ones to experience false memories. Ryan himself wondered if he should

and finally subsided completely. Ryan expected to find the plushie missing, but instead, a brief,

its maker with its big, beautiful blue eyes.

controlling my rabbit from afar?” Ryan asked, the plushie raising its ears as if it was

play together!” said the plushie, raising its tiny hands on its own. The time-traveler started hearing sound coming from the robot, strange whispers the time-traveler couldn’t

I touch that dirty thing, except with a stick?” Alchemo replied, disengaging from the

plushie glared at the Genius, its blue

it could even make an

ZAP!

glass skull exploded as a laser went through it, vaporizing the brain inside. Ryan barely had the time to cover his head with his arms, shards cutting

shone with malice, the hidden lasers within

fifth time!” Ryan complained, looking at Alchemo’s

think it did anything wrong. “Let’s go to

deeming this experiment a failure. “Now I have to

a sigh, the courier casually headbutted the nearest jar and

minutes earlier,

time-traveler, orienting its ears at

happened? Why did Ryan reload now instead of the day before? He hadn’t created a new save point since yesterday night! Did… did the experiment force him to save

Alchemo replied, moving towards the accelerator to look at death once

eyes turned red

immediately attempted to activate the switch on its back and save the Genius, but the plushie hopped out of the particle accelerator and onto a nearby table. Alien voices echoed through the room,

it with a switchblade?” Alchemo asked. “Also, you have

Ryan replied, wondering if he should just

The time-traveler didn’t program the plushie to react like this! Had the accelerator damaged the hardware inside? It was as if something else, something intelligent, controlled it from

he realized it didn’t belong to a rabbit anymore. The shape didn’t fit any creature

the particle accelerator worked.

had worked in reverse, bringing

all

with a lovely heart-shaped face, one only had to give a

her to assist him in his work, Quicksave was

and called it quits. It had

even gave

and changing its eyes

none the wiser. “Methinks you cannot

joining her hands together. “It is so adorable…

plushie slowly revealed his

of a switchblade,

love you!” it

Ryan thought, where did it find a rose in this lifeless dump?

the rabbit,” Ryan pleaded. “You don’t

the rabbit on her shoulder like a child, and the tiny monster didn’t resist.

you want, Doll,” the Genius replied with a grunt, uncaring. “Do as you wish with

can’t dispose of my stuff like that!” Ryan

stealing from my medicine stash,

Ryan over Doll’s shoulders, its eyes turning from blue to

what was bound

A containment breach.

He didn’t record anything though; he just wanted to monologue. “My hunt for the plushie continues. The beast has eluded capture so far,

lull Tea into a false sense of safety, and then immediately ran away when she wasn’t looking. Ryan had

the corpses, strung to trees with their

collapsing under the weight of their owner. The newest ones were thicker, stronger, more complex.

attacked Alchemo on sight, Tea didn’t trigger a hostile reaction. Ryan had also crossed paths with animals like wild dogs and hares during the search,

humans to be the most dangerous game of all, or something about homo sapiens infuriated the creature on

to Alchemo’s. He didn’t have to look too hard; he had

woman named Sarah, tied up on a bed of broken wood right in front of her barn. The plushie had shoved an apple down her throat, like a pig ready for roasting. The responsible

with its associated

his rifle at the monster he had created. “Drop

rabbit looked back at the time-traveler and

the match over

“Mom?”