The Perfect Run

The world turned purple, as time slowed down to a crawl.

Raindrops froze in midair, never reaching the ground. A lightning bolt coursed through the skies, a scar of light in the heavens. Ryan didn’t even hear the sound of his footsteps as he moved.

He had wished for more time, and the Elixir obliged. The boy knew it deep within his bones, an instinct as natural as breathing. Ryan Romano halted time itself with a thought, much like a player could pause a video game.

But not forever.

A flash of light overcame his vision, followed by the noise of explosions and cold rainwater falling on him. Time began again, and Ryan nearly tripped on a puddle of water. Damn, did he need to focus on his power to keep time frozen?

Whatever the case, Ryan kept following the noise. He caught sight of Leo the Living Sun floating above the sea, unleashing streams of fire at Porto Venere’s Marina. The place used to be a touristic walkway, with multi-story colored houses facing piers meant for yachts. Years afterward, the paint had turned grey and lifeless, and the boats into scrapped husks. Ryan could hardly see the battle with the downpour.

He activated his power, and the world turned purple. This time, Ryan started to count in his head.

One.

Five.

Nine.

Te—

And time resumed.

Ryan could halt time for ten seconds or so. Afterward, his power failed him again. The boy attempted to stop the clock again each second, finally succeeding on the tenth try. He could pause the universe for ten seconds, but had a cooldown period of the same length.

A pretty straightforward power, all things considered. But would it make any difference? Bloodstream packed a mean punch, but he was fighting Leo the Living Sun. Ryan heard rumors that the guy fought Augustus and lived.

Ryan searched inside his pockets and brought out a small revolver he always carried on his person. He took a deep breath, cursed his luck, and approached the battlefield.

He was fast.

Leonard couldn’t believe his luck, when he glimpsed at a boy matching the description of Bloodstream’s son Cesare scavenging supplies while on a routine patrol. The Carnival had lost track of the Psycho days ago, even wondering if he managed to flee Italy. Leonard had called his allies, and immediately tracked down the boy to his father’s hideout.

Leo went into battle with only the Cossack and Mr. Wave for backup. The former’s white power armor would protect him from blood infection, while the latter had no circulatory system of any kind. Ace stayed on standby in a safe location, ready to teleport the wounded to Stitch’s infirmary if needed. The Cossack had suggested burning the entire town to ensure Bloodstream perished, kids be damned, but his teammates put their veto to that course of action.

They would do this by the book.

Unfortunately, Bloodstream must have sensed the trio's approach and ambushed them near the town’s ruined Marina. Leo bombarded the walkway with flames, while the Cossack did the same with a laser rifle. They only managed to set a deserted restaurant on fire, as Bloodstream dodged all their attacks. The bloody slime leaped from one spot to another like a flea.

“Meddlers, annoyers! Why does everyone insist on harassing me?!” Bloodstream shrieked. His voice struck Leonard as shrilling and high-pitched, like a young child throwing a tantrum. “Has every man on this God-forsaken planet gone mad?”

The pressurized blood making up Bloodstream’s skin crystallized into spikes, which he launched in all directions. Leonard didn’t bother to dodge, his solar body incinerating the projectiles before they could even reach him. Even the raindrops formed a cloud of steam around him, the skies darkening above their heads.

The Cossack flew away with his jetpack, but one spike hit his chest; the blood spear turned into a drill and attempted to dig a path to the human below the armor.

While Leo immediately stopped harassing Bloodstream to burn away his projectile before it could infect his teammate, the Psycho moved towards a half-rusted car near the walkway. His fingers turned into tentacles as they seized the vehicle.

“Ever since I took these potions, this world has been tormenting me!” Bloodstream lifted the car above his head and prepared to toss it at the Carnival’s flying members. “Trying to take my children away from me!”

“And all your troubles didn’t prepare you for…” A new, costumed challenger appeared on the ground, a crimson blur. “Mr. Wave!”

The living wavelength ran towards Bloodstream, his body turning into a laser. Mr. Wave transformed into a mass of crimson light moving in a straight line that cut through anything in its path. The superhero’s laser form tore Bloodstream in half, the car falling on the bisected Psycho.

Mr. Wave returned to his humanoid form a few meters away, doing some footwork as if slowing down. While he could move at lightspeed in laser form, the superhero could only move in a straight line and needed to transform back to turn around. He had once confessed to Leonard that his greatest fear was to be ejected into space, unable to turn back.

“Ugh, Mr. Wave has bloodstains on his cashmere!” Mr. Wave complained while looking at his suit. Bloodstream’s two halves quickly fused back together, and he crawled out of beneath the car. “You have made a powerful enemy today, tomato juice!”

“Just die!” Bloodstream turned both his hands into sharp axes, extended his arms into five-meters long tentacles, and attempted to behead Mr. Wave with a scissor blade motion. The superhero put his hands in his pockets and dodged the strike with a backstep.

“Lady Death once had a near-Mr. Wave experience,” the superhero replied, as Bloodstream frantically pursued him like an enraged bull after a matador. “Mr. Wave is too good for Heaven, and too scary for Hell!”

Leonard had to resist the urge to tell his teammate to stop with the boasts. Mr. Wave was good-natured and powerful, but also an unrepentant showoff.

Still, his taunts worked. Bloodstream focused entirely on Mr. Wave and ignored his allies, giving them some respite. Once the Psycho got too close for the superhero to dodge in his human form, Mr. Wave tore through his foe again in laser form. No damage lasted long, the maddened criminal pulling himself back together in seconds.

“You’re alright?” Leo asked the Cossack after burning the blood-drill to ashes.

“How much blood does he have?” the armored man grunted back, as he glanced at the walkway below them. Bloodstream’s spikes had turned back into liquid blood, slithering back to their owner.

“I can’t tell.” Bloodstream compressed the blood making up his body, so he might carry tons of organic mass in that slender frame of his. “I could incinerate him with one fireball, if we can immobilize him. I don’t want to go all out in case he keeps his children hidden nearby, I might wound them by accident.”

Easier said than done though. Leonard and the Cossack flew above the walkway, trying to keep up with their ally’s duel with Bloodstream. Upon realizing he couldn’t damage the Psycho for long, Mr. Wave switched to a defensive strategy. One moment he stood in one place, challenging Bloodstream with hand gestures and lazy footwork; and when his foe threatened to slice him, the superhero took a step forward, turned into a laser, and reappeared a few meters away.

But though Bloodstream lacked finesse, Leo had a hard time tracking his movements. He was a red blur, a cheetah, his body twisting at impossible angles.

“Stop dodging!” Bloodstream leaped from a building’s wall to the walkway in an attempt to catch Mr. Wave from an unexpected angle, but the living wavelength saw it coming and dodge with a mere sidestep. He didn’t even need to transform.

“Mr. Wave doesn’t move at lightspeed. Light moves at Mr. Wave’s pace.”

“Sure,” the Cossack said, the back of his power armor opening to reveal missile launchers. A rain of rockets fell upon the walkway, alongside the rain and lightning. Concrete and stone exploded into a cloud of dust, obscuring Leonard’s sight.

Leo guessed his ally’s plan: to force Bloodstream’s parts to reform after blasting him to smithereens. Mr. Wave reappeared close to a ruined restaurant, wiping blood off his suit, but the enemy remained out of sight. The dust cloud spread over the Marina, obscuring both the boats and the pavement.

screamed from

across the skies in the flyers’ direction. Leonard and the Cossack blasted it apart before it could hit them, parts falling into the

building up strength like an elastic spring. He punched the Cossack in the chest before the armored warrior could retaliate, his empowered fist as powerful a cannonball. The blow cracked the Cossack’s chestplate, the armored warrior crashing on the walkway. Stone broke beneath

on the road, motionless. Worse, the hole in his armor left his

blood!” Bloodstream cackled upon landing on the ground. He immediately moved on all fours like a hyena and rushed towards the Cossack. “Sustenance, at long

forward and transformed into a laser again, hitting the Psycho from behind before he could reach the Cossack. The impact shattered Bloodstream like glass, but no sooner

The teleporter grabbed

in a laser to stop blood bullets in midair before they could hit

rotated on himself, and gored through the Psycho

couldn’t keep this up forever, Leonard gathered plasma in his hand, forming a shining fireball hot enough to vaporize every

was now or

again, as Ryan powered through

thrashing of his life from a crimson blur too fast for the eye to follow. Ryan barely caught a glimpse of the fighter responsible for one second as it turned around, a humanoid mass of red energy held together

rift in spacetime itself a few meters away, with Ryan noticing an immaculate clinic on the other side. Leo the Living Sun floated above the area, shaping a miniature star in

dust, smoke, and heavy rain hiding him. And for a second, he was tempted to sit back and do nothing. This might be his only chance

die, and the Carnival… the teen couldn’t rule out

what

firing a warning shot at the skies.

faltered, as he noticed Ryan. “Mr. Wave, the

a phantasmal face. The Psycho regenerated, while ‘Mr. Wave’ raised a hand at Ryan. “Kid, get back, it’s

made a terrible mistake. The Carnival never

was all it took for

one of his projectiles hitting the woman’s throat while she finished dragging the armored figure through.

into Bloodstream’s midway through

The Living Sun shouted while the portal closed, the fireball in his hands

sidestepping to dodge Bloodstream’s sharpened claws. “Fall

from Bloodstream to Ryan, and he muttered

Bloodstream, though it disgusted him

you to protect your sister!” Bloodstream snarled, apparently perfectly fine. Whatever damage he had suffered healed in an instant. “You must listen to

this monster. This was the perfect chance to get rid of

Len more than he

Ryan replied, lowering his gun. “Len’s submarine will leave soon. We have to

Bloodstream froze in place. He looked at his adoptive

are you?” Bloodstream asked with a shaken

in the boy’s blood had broken the man’s delusion. Or perhaps it caused him to

“Dad, I—”

could finish his sentence. The Psycho’s grip was strong as steel,

neck cracked under the strain. His hand failed to

boy attempted to freeze time and escape Bloodstream’s grip, but the delirious Psycho slammed his head against the pavement. A pain greater than anything Ryan ever felt coursed through his head, his vision

“WHERE IS MY SON?!”

All went dark.

his eyes as he died. Events rolled back, from his death, to that messed up battle, to the moment when the

And then it stopped.

middle of the walkway. The pain had vanished, and air filled his lungs once more. The rainwater fell on

was

he made the wrong choice? That sounded like too much of a Blue power to him, but it had felt so real. Ryan had died,

checkpoint, like video games. It had granted him a new chance he couldn’t

the maddened Psycho prepared to strike the freckled woman with a blood volley. But this time, without the boy to distract him, Mr. Wave hit Bloodstream before he could even twitch. The woman closed the portal after dragging the armored knight through,

Living Sun, the fireball in his hands so bright it hurt to look at it. Bloodstream attempted

the times the bloodthirsty monster hit him and Len in the past. How helpless the children had felt, always cowering at his approach. How the Psycho had lapsed back into his violent madness, each time Ryan thought he

hand on his throat. He could almost feel Bloodstream’s claws squeezing the life out of his

this monster

he turned around, and abandoned Bloodstream

been too late. She would despise him, but it was for the best. Ryan had seen the future first

tossed his fireball at the walkway, the

as

fireball hit the walkway and

ever had before. The universe turned

wall of flames consuming the walkway, with Bloodstream burning to cinders at the

man in a suit, running after Ryan in a vain attempt to shield

all from above,

so much that the teen feared he would collapse midway. Seconds stretched on, but Len was so far away, and the fireball

from eight to nine. “More

didn’t run fast

shattered like glass on the tenth second, and the

a white wall, he thought he had perished for good and ascended to Heaven. Though Shortie didn’t believe in such things, her boyfriend always kept an open mind.

least, nobody but Ryan

shining holographic face

a few times as he regained control of his mental faculties. A bed sheet covered his body, and it looked like he recovered inside a hospital room of some kind. The teen thought he would suffer from burns, but his skin seemed healthier

you—” The wavelength Genome paused, as if he had said something stupid. “Mr. Wave thought

thought so too.” Ryan glanced at his hands. “I’m… I’m

he is good,” Mr. Wave said. “His life is a perpetual struggle to keep Mr. Wave’s suicidal comrades alive. Mr. Wave is too powerful to die,

Bloodstream… is he gone?” Ryan

his hands. “Your father…” His voice broke.

father, Ryan thought, and my name is not Cesare. “Good,” he said

horrors Ryan went through. “Mr. Wave has to ask, is there another clone running around? Because Mr. Wave