The Perfect Run

Ryan drove his Plymouth Fury through dilapidated streets, while his partner-in-crime explained the plan in the back. He had put on the bowler hat, like a crown of pain and destruction.

“When Psyshock dies, the bunker will go in high alert,” Livia explained, checking on her phone. Cancel waited on the other side of the line to execute the metal squid. “According to Ryan, Adam the Ogre explicitly ordered the Land to close the bunker’s entrance if intruders get too close to it. This means we have only a short time window to either take down the Land, or reach the base’s entrance before she can close it.”

“How long?” Shroud asked, trying to disguise his voice by making it rougher.

“Minutes,” Livia replied.

“How do we prevent her from noticing our approach?” The vigilante was always such a downer. “Her range extends for miles. I checked.”

“The good thing about Ghoul, is that like with Lego toys,” Ryan said while opening the glovebox, “he comes in many parts.”

A skeletal foot wriggled within it.

“Oh, I wondered where the rest of him had gone,” Shroud noted from the backseat.

“W-what is this, Sifu?” The Panda asked, disturbed.

“It’s like a rabbit foot, it brings luck.” Ryan glanced at Fortuna in the rearview mirror. “Though less than the living charm over here.”

“Thank you for recognizing my superiority, though it is obvious,” Fortuna said with smug pride. “And this is disgusting.”

Ryan froze time and tossed the severed foot at her lap, causing Lucky Girl to scream when the clock resumed. She made a cute sound and grabbed Shroud on instinct, much to the vigilante’s confusion. He seemed torn between reassuring her and annoyance.

“I have a hand in the trunk, if you prefer it,” the courier mocked the blonde.

“I will show you a hand!” Fortuna complained before throwing the foot at the driver. She would have aimed true too, if Ryan didn’t freeze time to catch the projectile. “I will slap you in the face!”

“Anyway, as long as we have her tenant’s body parts in the car, the landowner won’t pay attention to us.” Ryan put the foot back in the glovebox. “She will think Psypsy picked Ghoul up and they’re now returning home. At least, until we crash through their front door.”

Livia answered with a nod. “The Reptilian, Acid Rain, Gemini, and the thralls should protect the Junkyard’s surface, while the rest of the gang is in standby inside their base. Psyshock’s execution will free his victims, the Reptilian shouldn’t be a problem, and I can handle Acid Rain.”

Ryan blinked. “You can?”

Though he couldn’t see her face with her helmet on, the courier was pretty sure Livia grinned in response. “I can see where she teleports before she does.”

In the end, the life of a Genome was a giant game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. One power trumped another, forming a delicate, complex web.

And then you had people like Lightning Butt, who just plain cheated at life.

“Gemini and the Land don’t have any hard counters though,” Livia said, as the group came within sight of the Junkyard’s walls of car piles and trash. “Fortuna, Shroud, can you take care of them?”

“Leave it to us, Livy,” Fortuna replied before frowning. “Now that I think of it, I should get a pseudonym too. I would have taken Diana if Felix hadn’t run off, but…”

“You should choose a name that fits yourself, not others’ desires,” Shroud said.

“You’re right, but I should get something that my boyfriend will like, since we’ll spend our lives together,” Fortuna said while checking her phone. “I’ll harass him with suggestions until he likes one!”

Ryan could tell that the boyfriend in question was strongly resisting the urge to facepalm, doubly so as the Panda started offering suggestions of his own. “How about Lady Luck?” the manbear proposed. “The Legend?”

“I would have said Almost-Invincible, but the last half is already taken,” the courier joked at the front.

“Excuse you? Almost Invincible?” Fortuna sneered arrogantly. “Nobody can hurt me. I’m the world’s luckiest woman.”

of the blonde model bleeding out after Pluto shot her in the chest flashed through Ryan’s mind. “Only if another Yellow isn’t involved, Goldie,” Ryan said. “The Land is one, and you should stay as far

“That can’t happen.”

Livia said, shocking her best friend. “The Land is a Yellow/Orange Psycho who can

he had learned that the Land could also telekinetically manipulate earth, but her precision was inversely proportional to her range. While she was near impossible to destroy while fused to the earth’s soil, she could only create quakes

Yellow powers, it follows esoteric rules. Which means

don’t get it,” Fortuna said with a

alters probability and events to protect you, under the guise of luck,” Shroud explained. “But the Land has supreme spiritual control

harm me?” Fortuna asked shyly, her pride replaced with doubt. She felt suddenly a lot

protects you during the battle. The Land will need to take back physical form

with Fortuna was due to her power foiling his assassination attempts. “Unlike your

Fortuna said, regaining her bravery. “If I die, I swear

the idea away into a corner of his mind. Maybe the former

take out the Land, then the Meta-Gang didn’t have anyone capable of bringing down Lucky Girl. With that walking four-leaf clover on their side, the battle would

Ryan could take care of his former bodyguard, but he could only hope Fortuna and her long-suffering boyfriend could deal with the former two. He

reached the Junkyard’s entrance fence. The Reptilian and Gemini stood watch over the entrance, with Lizard-boy’s

hoped for one of them to shout ‘you shall not pass’, and was deeply disappointed when

and tossed Len’s water rifle at Fortuna with

get them!” Livia encouraged her best friend, while Fortuna opened the windows

right there!” The Reptilian panicked, but Ryan

hit true nonetheless, trapping the Reptilian in a sphere of water. The water phased through Gemini however, the ethereal woman of light vanishing as the car approached. Her monstrous shadow chased after

still carried the reflexes from his first suicide run, and experienced an impression of déjà vu. Someone should sound the alarm in

Livia said, typing

bell raised

spot, freeing the thralls and sowing confusion into the ranks. Ryan didn’t understand how much until they reached the bunker’s entrance without

shouted at the Plymouth Fury’s sight, her face twisted into an expression of

trembled as an

invisible pressure overwhelmed Ryan’s crew; it felt like being out in the woods, stalked by a wolf pack. The courier abruptly stopped the car near the bunker’s entrance. “Go, go, go!” he shouted, all but leaping out

fly into the fray, but the lock

Acid Rain’s toxic raindrops fell from the skies while the Land caused a nearby trashwall to collapse near the Plymouth Fury. Ryan, Livia, and the Panda quickly moved out of the way, while the flying Shroud carried

wasn’t so

screamed in horror, as piles of trash entombed his beautiful companion. “You

Did the Meta-Gang have

Fortuna, who tossed the water weapon at her best friend. No sooner did the Augusti princess catch it that Acid Rain

So Ryan stopped it.

hearing her real name, but she teleported out of range before the clock could freeze. The courier quickly grabbed the paralyzed Livia and moved

throat. “You piece of shit!” she snarled, as a shiver went down the courier’s spine. “I’ll

Time skipped forward.

from his starting location, and Acid Rain’s knife stabbed the transformed Panda’s arm; though her blade cut deep, it didn’t do

having positioned herself right behind the teleporter. A sphere of water swallowed Helen, and when she attempted to teleport away atop a hill of junk, the prison followed her. Acid Rain covered her mouth in an attempt to hold her breath,

late to save Ryan’s bowler hat though. Acid raindrops had wormed a hole in it, and

said while the Panda removed the knife in his arm. Livia’s secondary power allowed her to skip time forward, creating an anomaly where everyone followed

a flying Shroud and Fortuna. The Land seemed to have singled them out as the real danger, trying to

power, I simply had to wait for her to reappear.” Livia rushed at the bunker’s entrance tunnel, which the

me!” Ryan shouted at his sidekick, while shouting one last observation to Lucky Girl and Looking Glass. “Windshield, the Land

let her go anyway,” the glass manipulator replied. He looked truly dashing, holding his girlfriend like a bride before the altar.

to like it one bit though. “I know how you feel,” she told her masked beau, her arms

replied with heavy sarcasm, gathering a cloud of glass shards from the trash walls to

time,” his oblivious girlfriend repeated, deaf to both sarcasm and common sense. “The sight of me dazzled you, because you are poor and your life is meaningless. But though you have that dark, mysterious charm, it cannot be. I am not the kind of girl that cheats on

shouldn’t be a problem,” Ryan heard Shroud deadpan back, before the courier entered the tunnel with the transformed Panda rushing

but Livia didn’t seem worried. She must have seen them prevail in her visions. In any case, the courier’s group quickly arrived in front of the bunker’s blast door, while