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.”

If the accelerator managed to send the plushie into another dimension, then it should allow the Plymouth Fury to do the same. Ryan could settle for an alternate Earth where his family and Len were both still alive. “Have

watch movies, I

to experience false memories. Ryan himself wondered if he should enter the market considering his wealth of experience, though

plushie missing, but instead, a brief, violet flash suddenly erupted

at its maker with its big, beautiful blue eyes. Ryan blinked,

plushie raising its ears as

its own. The time-traveler started hearing sound coming from the robot, strange whispers the time-traveler couldn’t decipher.

that dirty thing, except with a stick?” Alchemo replied, disengaging from the computer to observe this furry wonder of engineering. “Perhaps the energy blast

glared at the Genius, its blue eyes

it could even make an angry

ZAP!

vaporizing the brain inside. Ryan barely had the time to cover his head with his arms, shards cutting his

malice, the hidden lasers within

time!” Ryan complained, looking at

plushie clearly didn’t think it did anything wrong. “Let’s go to

failure. “Now

sigh, the courier casually headbutted the nearest jar and used a glass shard

woke up a few minutes earlier,

the time-traveler, orienting its ears at him instead of

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

Alchemo replied, moving towards the accelerator to look at

plushie’s eyes turned

save the Genius, but the plushie hopped out of the particle accelerator and onto a nearby table. Alien voices echoed through the room, as the rabbit’s left hand revealed

with a switchblade?” Alchemo asked. “Also, you have a weird choice in sound design for

replied, wondering if he should just use a

him. 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,

rabbit anymore. The shape didn’t fit any creature of

news, the particle accelerator

news, it had worked in reverse, bringing something in instead of sending a probe

is all this

echoed in the workshop as its door slowly widened, and a redheaded, green-eyed woman walked in. While she looked normal at first glance, with a lovely heart-shaped

was a robot, a gynoid animated by an artificial brain created by Alchemo; one advanced enough to pass the Turing test. Though he pretended to have created her to assist him in his work, Quicksave was sure the Genius actually wanted human

face, a featureless body, and called it quits. It had fallen to Ryan to

gave her a

behind its back and changing its eyes from red to blue.

the wiser. “Methinks you cannot

joining her hands together. “It is so adorable… what are you hiding behind your

slowly revealed

of a switchblade, it

it said to

flower. Wait, Ryan thought, where did it find a rose in

from the rabbit,” Ryan pleaded. “You don’t know where it has

look at it, it’s cute,” the gynoid replied, holding the rabbit on her shoulder like a child, and the tiny monster didn’t resist. She looked at Alchemo, who had observed the scene with some degree of amusement. “Can

Doll,” the Genius replied with a grunt, uncaring.

can’t dispose of my stuff like

stealing from my medicine stash, and we’ll

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

what was bound

A containment breach.

wanted to monologue. “My hunt for the plushie continues. The beast has eluded capture so far, but I

cuteness to 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

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

paths with animals like wild dogs and hares during the

most dangerous game of all, or something about homo sapiens

Ryan tracked the plushie to a farm closest to Alchemo’s. He didn’t have to look too hard; he had heard the voices when he

in front of her barn. The plushie had shoved

to struggle with lighting a match with its associated box, while its captive looked at

rabbit!” Ryan shouted, raising his rifle at the monster he had created. “Drop the

rabbit looked back at the time-traveler and

the match over the woodpile, seemingly entertained by the woman’s muffled cries. “I

“Mom?”