The Perfect Run

Ryan’s vision blurred. It was hard to focus; darkness lurked at the edge of his vision, and his strength left him. He couldn’t even feel his legs, and his whole body felt cold.

Maybe it was the loss of blood, or the leftover damage he suffered from the battle with Pluto. Or perhaps it was Eugène-Henry’s doing, as the cat teleported right in front of Ryan. The feline looked down on the trapped Genome without a sound, like a guide to the underworld.

“Fortuna!”

Above the waterfall, a horrified Atom Cat held his sister in his arms, blood flowing from her chest. Pluto’s corpse fell down the waterfall, a hole in her forehead. The river pulled the Underboss downstream to her last abode; her curse had been canceled and the woods returned to normal, though it came with a cost.

Fortuna had made a lucky shot… but even luck couldn’t cheat death from her due.

“Fortuna!” Felix shouted, trying to cover his sister’s wound with his hand and prevent her from bleeding out. Ryan knew enough about medicine to know it was useless. If he had the tools and the energy, he might have saved her.

He would save her still. He would save them all the next time around.

In the end, only Ryan was cursed with immortality. Only he could carry that burden.

As he started to lose consciousness, Ryan noticed a metal shadow moving upstream. A mermaid in power armor crossing the river to rescue him.

“Riri!” Len shouted in horror while rushing at his side, immediately pushing away the debris keeping him down. “I’m here! I’m here!”

Len…

Always there to save him when all was lost.

“I must go now.”

For a moment, the courier thought he had spoken out loud, until he realized where the disembodied voice came from.

Something spoke through Eugène-Henry, using Ryan’s own voice.

“The rest,” the cat looked into the courier’s eyes, his feline gaze shining purple with the wisdom of the stars, “is up to you.”

A flash of violet light overwhelmed Ryan, and he lost consciousness.

When Ryan opened his eyes, it was to the tune of The International.

The ceiling was crimson red, and he faced a portrait of Marx and Engel. An intravenous device pumped his right arm with anesthesia, right next to a steampunk wheelchair of leather and tin.

Damn it, had he woken in a hidden Soviet lab again? Once had been enough!

Ryan’s eyes wandered around himself, his body feeling heavy; he had trouble breathing correctly, and his chest itched. Most importantly, he couldn’t feel anything below his waist, including his most dangerous weapon. Even Vamp died in an attempt to claim it for herself.

He was in a hospital bed, with a TV and a window leading into a dark undersea abyss. Sitting on a chair right in front of him, Little Sarah read Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. She hadn’t noticed him waking up.

Ryan turned his head, glancing at another bed near his own. Atom Cat laid half-hidden beneath the bed sheet, watching the ceiling with empty eyes. Bandages covered his torso, and he had an intravenous system of his own.

“Felix?” Ryan’s voice startled Sarah, who hastily closed her book. “Kitten?”

Nothing.

Atom Cat didn’t even respond. His gaze was a blank, empty abyss of nothingness, a thousand-yard stare.

“He has been like that since Ma brought you in,” Little Sarah said with a frown. “He doesn’t respond when people call him. I’ve seen that gaze before in Rust Town. He’s broken inside, and he’s not coming back.”

“He will.” Ryan knew that from experience. “Eventually, when it’s done chewing on you, the abyss spits you back.”

Of course, the courier would probably turn back time before Atom Cat finished that healing process. Even if she annoyed him, he couldn’t let Fortuna stay dead. Not after she gave her life to save her brother.

“Now you’re awake, get your ass out of bed,” Little Sarah said, before realizing the obvious. “Figuratively, I mean. How do you feel?”

“Without my legs, like Christopher Reeves.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“And that’s why I can’t stand you.”

“At least I still have le—” Little Sarah suddenly stopped, as she put the two and two together. “Oh wait, I get the joke! Can’t stand!”

“Now, if you can bring me the wheelchair,” Ryan said, glancing at his new Plymouth Fury. “I will let you push me around a bit, but please don’t talk behind my back.”

“Do you want me to find you a parking lot?” Little Sarah replied, as she put her book aside and helped Ryan get into the wheelchair. As he expected, the rest of the courier’s body hadn’t been spared either. He had almost as many bandages as an Egyptian mummy.

“It’s a start, but you need training in pun-fu,” Ryan said. “How long was I out?”

“Ma brought you in yesterday night,” she replied, grabbing the pole holding the intravenous system and attaching it to the wheelchair. “The other orphans made bets about your death. Most said you wouldn’t make it.”

“I hope you bet on me.”

to die, and Ma… it would have hurt Ma, if you didn’t wake

Ryan said with a sigh. “Can you bring me

towards the ‘hospital’s’ door, while Ryan sent one last glance to Atom Cat. Felix had stopped looking at the ceiling, and now glanced at the undersea abyss

had signed his death warrant, and a sister he left behind died for him. It would shake

talk,” Kitten said suddenly,

the time. Maybe

his best friend tinkering on her diving armor, which she had linked to the Chronoradio and Dynamis’ brain-tech with cables. Some of the suit’s parts had been

stood atop a server, like

Len’s face was almost palpable.

ever doubt?”

mouth shut. “Yes, I did,” she said with a frown. For the first time, he noticed the red shade around Len’s eyes, as if she had repeatedly wiped away

a glare. “I would kick you in the

pinch me in the arm if you

before looking at Len with concern. “Ma, you should rest. I can bring

okay. Thanks, sweetie.” Len forced herself to smile at Sarah. “Can you…

clearly didn’t want to obey, but did so anyway. The workshop’s

Ryan said

couldn’t save her. The girl. She was already drowning in her own blood

hand on Len’s arm. To his surprise, she didn’t immediately back away from the physical contact. “Shortie, it’s not

pushed his hand away. “If

have died,” Ryan said. “Who told you where we

“I hacked your phone. After you turned it off, I had to search for

glanced at the device, and then at Eugène-Henry. The cat seemed delighted to see his master again, but his gaze had returned to

declared with a frown. “But

gone?” Ryan asked with

a normal cat now.” Len shook her head, while Eugène-Henry showed them his royal ass. “Whatever caused

World entity had possessed Eugène-Henry like the plushie, and then left the

Ryan couldn’t figure it out, but he would in time. “How are things on

only changed for the worse. “Riri, you really want

“Yes, I want to.”

the servers, typed on the keyboard, and showed

it came from a sea-based probe. But the quality was enough for the courier to see the disaster in all its

warring in the streets. The Private Security’s helicopters rained bullets on superpowered gangsters, who retaliated with fireballs. Flames consumed buildings, including the Il Migliore HQ, which Vulcan and an armored squadron bombarded with missiles. A horde of cybernetically enhanced dinosaurs soon emerged from the

over the rooftops. Spatial tears opened around the centurion wannabe, raining swords and spears upon the vegetal abomination. Yet the creature retaliated with vines as thick as trucks, and pollen capable of melting steel. As Wyvern freed herself, Mars jumped from one rooftop to

a tidal wave, and corpses washed up on an artificial shore, only to rise up again to attack Dynamis facilities. Neptune himself rampaged across Rust Town, having shaped an astronomical quantity of water into the shape of a colossal squid. A living laser cut one of its tentacles, and was soon joined by Devilry. But in spite of their best efforts, the liquid elemental quickly pulled itself back

villa atop Mount Augustus had transformed into a fuming crater, over which two lights dueled to the death; a raging sun, and a crimson lightning bolt. Their fight was by far the most fearsome, both moving so fast even the camera had troubles following them. Mighty thunderbolts and plasma blasts rained

on screen. A horrifying eldritch mascot with swirling tentacles for a beard, great dark wings,

“CTHULHU FHTAGN!”

the apocalypse suit. Things were

coast,” Len admitted, as she sank in a chair of her own. “Not just

delayed the inevitable. So long as events remained on their current track, Dynamis, the Carnival, and the Augusti were

Run looked so far away still. “I’m sorry Shortie, but Lab Sixty-Six will be for next

she replied with a frown. “It was like this? The previous

is the same. Adam just provided a bigger matc—” The computer let out a

call,” Len said, frowning as

ray of hope, in the middle of another bad ending?

Rome’s apocalyptic landscape, to a young woman

But it wasn’t Jasmine.

screen. “Thank goodness, since I couldn’t see you, I… I

while Ryan took it in stride.

hadn’t told me the entire truth,” Livia replied with a joyless smile, before it

into deep grief. “Felix is alive,

down. “I… I foresaw it,” she muttered to herself, holding back tears, “but I hoped… I hoped I… is

would have killed Felix too.” Though it was blunt, Ryan thought she needed to hear the grim truth right now. “Your father gave the order, and Pluto didn’t think twice about carrying it

never wanted this,” she said, joining her fingers. “I never… I

sympathy, even if she clearly disliked Livia; perhaps because she empathized with the mafia

make it alright,” he said,

truly no other way?” she asked, her tone breaking. “Nobody will remember. Nobody but you. If nobody else remembers…

She had guessed his thoughts, and disagreed with the idea. Livia was sharp enough to catch

tell you,” Len said before Ryan could open his

composure as she focused on Shortie, putting on her poker face. Perhaps she had started using her power

I was against him

distrust me, especially after… after what my aunt did.” Livia’s fingers fidgeted, the young woman unable to hide her shame. “But I swear, I never

much.

usually listens to me. But not on this. No argument, in any possibility I’ve seen, could cause him to

asked with a frown. “How can we be sure that

I assure you. Vulcan’s private line, and she is too busy to listen.”

did you know… how did you know Ryan was here?”

afterward. I looked for a possibility where

“Shortie, I think that’s enough.