The Perfect Run

Mars and Venus’ home embodied everything wrong about their organization: rot festering beneath a nice veneer.

Oh, at first glance their manor looked like the height of casual opulence. Venus had tastefully decorated her home with luxuries such as English furniture, hardwood cabinets from Spain, Turkish carpets and Tunisian tapestries. The manor also housed billiard tables, private poker rooms, and even a Roman-themed art gallery. Ryan guessed they couldn’t help but pucker up to Lightning Butt’s obsessions.

But everything came from the pre-war era. The chairs were old, the rugs were worn flat, the stone foyers wrinkled. Even the main room’s TV was outdated. And while the staff had numerous employees, they were nowhere near enough to take good care of the estate. Most rooms felt empty and lifeless.

This place reeked of past obsessions and lost glory.

“Ugh, I can smell the dust,” Ryan said as he visited an empty ballroom, Livia holding his arm. “Wait, is that asbestos?”

“All the non-Genomes in the staff will get illnesses,” Livia confirmed with a sigh. “I warned Fortuna’s parents, but they wouldn’t listen.”

Huh, not only did the Verans deal in drugs and prostitutes, but they also knowingly gave their staff lung disease. They were truly irredeemable. Most worryingly, Ryan noticed Cancel and Mortimer shadowing him and Livia. While it was ostensibly to ‘protect’ the couple, when the courier tested his time-stop, it didn’t activate.

This immediately put him on high alert. Something was up.

“Can I shout, ‘it’s a trap?’” Ryan candidly asked his girlfriend, whispering in her ear.

“Maybe later,” she replied in the same hushed tone, resting her head against his shoulders while he put his arm around her shoulders. To outsiders, they looked like they were about to kiss. “Do you have weapons on yourself?”

“Yes, but not my best ones.” Though he came dressed casually, he always kept hidden knives beneath his clothes. “I can always drop my pants, that should blind them.”

Livia gave him a dirty look. “It didn’t blind me when I looked closely.”

“Because I put the safety on.”

“Keep your pants up, and your other weapons closer,” she replied, careful that Cancel and Mortimer couldn’t hear them. Thankfully, while they remained at close distance, the two hitmen gave the couple enough space for privacy. “And have Len be ready to evacuate you. You might need to go to Antarctica quicker than expected.”

“So this is a trap?”

“Yes,” Livia admitted with a dark look. “But not for us.”

“You could have warned me beforehand.” Then again, Ryan did interfere with her power. She probably had a hard time adjusting to his actions. “I like surprises, but not when our favorite power-canceler is nearby.”

The threat of dying permanently or worse still frightened the courier.

“I wasn’t sure until we entered the building,” Livia admitted, as they left the ballroom for a mirrored hallway. It reminded Ryan of the ruins of Versailles, which he had visited in a previous loop. There wasn’t a Genome assassin hidden in his reflection this time around though, much to his disappointment. “I foresaw some worrying possibilities, and Greta’s presence only confirms my worries.”

“Doesn’t our cheery sociopath prevent you from seeing anything in her vicinity?” Ryan asked, taking his cellphone and sending a text message to Len, the Panda, Shroud, and everyone else who would listen.

“She does, which is why Father sent her,” Livia replied darkly as her boyfriend put his phone back in his pocket, “but I saw all the ways this dinner could end before coming here. Except those where you interfere, of course.”

“Do some end with explosions?” Ryan asked hopefully, “because I can help with those.”

“I know you can,” Livia replied mirthfully, as they reached the dining room’s entrance. “But please don’t burn the carpets. I like some of those.”

A single guard stood watch over the doors, a man in an all-black bodysuit covering his entire body. Ryan wondered how he could see without holes in his mask. The guard flinched upon seeing the couple, while the time-traveler gave him a sadistic smile worthy of Jack Nicholson.

“Ryan, this is Night Terror of the Killer Seven,” Livia introduced them to each other. “Night Terror, this is Ryan Romano, my boyfriend.”

“We met,” the mansaid, spitting each word. “With all due respect, Lady Livia, your companion is a home-breaking asshole.”

“Wait, this is the guy who punched you in the face for no reason?” Mortimer asked from behind the group, suddenly interested. “Oh, that’s awkward.”

“For no reason at all!” Night Terror complained while raising an accusing finger at Ryan’s face. “I don’t even know him!”

“I’m sure my companion had his reasons,” Livia said, before glancing at her boyfriend. “Right, Ryan?”

The courier didn’t answer. Instead, he kept staring at Night Terror, the way a mongoose glared at a snake. He didn’t say a word. He just waited.

“Maybe he punches everyone?” Mortimer asked, trying to fill the silence while Livia raised an eyebrow.

“He didn’t punch me,” Cancel said. “I would have killed him if he had tried, sure, but he didn’t.” She sounded a little disappointed about that.

“Did you use your powers on my boyfriend?” Livia asked Night Terror with a falsely innocent smile.

The Darkling impersonator crossed his arms. He was trying to look strong, but Ryan could tell that the silent glare was slowly startling to unsettle him. “Maybe? I don’t keep track.”

“That’s why poor ol’ Mortimer kills his victims,” the wall-phasing hitman said. “When they come back to haunt him, at least he knows why.”

to start losing his nerve. “Don’t you have anything to

nothing. Instead, he kept staring at the man’s mask, until Night Terrorized started looking away. But he couldn’t escape Ryan’s stare inside a mirror gallery. “Stop doing that,” the hitman asked, unsettled. “You think you can make me

stretched on, more and

struggled not to laugh, but he only had eyes for

you ask this man to stop, please?” Night Terrorized tried to look down, but Augustus’

put a hand below his prey’s chin, and

There was no escape.

said, walking away

won’t like it,” Cancel said, while Mortimer chuckled like

followed him. His

he was gone, Livia couldn’t hold her laughter anymore.

better at

dining room turned out to be a large banquet hall on the first floor, with a sprawling table capable of housing two dozen persons. An unused fireplace faced three windows giving an impeccable view of the gardens outside, with Cancel positioning herself to look through the

‘Shroudy’ Martel stayed at his girlfriend’s side, having traded his transparent costume for tasteful blue jeans and a shirt. Considering how close he sat to his lucky charm,

ear upon seeing her best friend, while Mathias gave Ryan a sharp nod. He looked secretly relieved to see a friendly face, especially when he noticed Cancel and

picture of courtesy. “Mercury, Chitter, I am so

wearing a suit and a tie. His Korean girlfriend Ki-jung fidgeted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with either the situation or her sleeveless black dress. She had given up her glasses for contact lenses, but would rather stare at the table than at the other guests. The pressure weighed on her. “I don’t think

will come with time,” Mars reassured him. The older man shared his junior’s paternal aura, and Ryan had the feeling the two men were the same, a generation apart. But when the courier examined them both, he noticed a predatory glint in Mars’ gaze that wasn’t present in Jamie’s. “Though it’s a shame you took the job on the day we lost our Bliss production center. Darn

raise her head, like a dreamer waking up from a long nap. “Oh?” her boyfriend said, holding her

not to look pleased, but he was a terrible liar and Ryan could see his true feelings in

they killed Geist,” Narcinia complained, arms crossed. “I know

dead?” Ki-jung finally found the courage

said from experience. “Hopefully, eventually it

even if we rebuild the

himself. The courier’s chair let out a worrying sound, if it threatened to crumble beneath him.

Fortuna said with a bright smile. “We should savor

a sheepish glance. “We’re getting married soon,” Jamie

Ki-jung

he already learned the news in a previous loop. “When

laugh. “We’ll wait

only have married couples around this table,” Mars said while glancing at Mathias. “When will

when his mouth did. Unlike Jamie’s, his easy-going friendliness was all a

protested. “That’s not something

for tomorrow,”

you were a videogame designer?” Mars continued to fish for

still looking for sponsors,” Mathias

tried GoatVPN?”

raised an

protect your data from Dynamis and other heartless Dynanet providers,” Ryan said with a telemarketer’s voice. Which was to say, like someone who sold his soul for money. “With more than ten billion users, GoatVPN creates a wall of goats

remember an ad like this one on the Dynanet,” Ki-jung said with amusement. “Alongside one for Wyvern League

bigger than most third-world countries,” Ryan said. “Which, to be fair, isn’t saying

that sponsor issue,” Mars told his

soul wasn’t for sale. “I

my Mathias has something better than money,” Fortuna

she didn’t like Mathias any more than in the previous

future,” her sister admitted with an uneasy smile, while Mathias’ eyes wandered from Narcinia to her adoptive father. “Then I decided to give

of it, you could make a killing from palm-reading,” Ryan

giggle, “or when I open sheep entrails

“You’re

Livia reassured the young teen.

just in case, keep your sheep safely penned in at

Fortuna about how they met. With the guests distracted and the Killer Seven

think Fortuna is too good for him,” Livia replied with a shrug, speaking low enough that others wouldn’t hear. “But he makes her happy in most futures where they end up together. Or at least, the possibilities where I

eyebrow. “There are futures

more drugs, forced prostitution, intimidation, or

see that

I have

instead of saying this with a smile, Livia glanced at the fireplace anxiously. The courier followed her gaze, noticing

“Livia?”

back, so low

something was definitely wrong here.

I have seen how this dinner could go, and… it seems like this possibility might come to pass. If it does… if it does, someone will fall down the chimney’s shaft. Mars will make a call to my father, and when

the guards, climb over the roof, and move into