The Perfect Run

Chapter 107

Ryan wondered how many lives Felix ‘Atom Cat’ Veran had left.

He had died at the Meta-Gang’s hands at least twice, once to Fallout’s bombardment of Len’s underwater base, and probably alongside everyone in New Rome when Bloodstream escaped confinement. Which should leave him with five lives out of nine?

“Felix!” Narcinia almost rose from her seat, only for Mars to put a hand on her shoulder and force her back to her seat. The young teen looked at her adoptive brother and father in confusion.

Fortuna’s response was far less subdued. “Felix, you ass!” she complained so loudly that Mathias winced at her shrilling voice. “How dare you come to a family dinner dressed like that! You look like a plumber!”

“Glad to see you too, sis,” Felix replied as he rose up, swiping ashes and dust off his clothes. His eyes wandered to the table, meeting confused looks from the guests. “Jamie, Ki-jung… Dad.”

“You could have used the door,” Mars said, his eyes tense. To Ryan’s surprise, he didn’t immediately go for his son’s throat, perhaps because of his daughters’ presence. “We invited you.”

“And I’m sure the guards outside are for show. You would never have let me close to Narcinia if I went through the entrance.” Felix turned away from his father, before noticing Mathias and Ryan. “Who are you?”

“Your sister’s boyfriend,” Mathias replied with mixed feelings. His tense eyes met Ryan’s, silently waiting for a signal. He too understood that the situation would soon degenerate.

“Which one?” Felix asked, curious.

“The right one,” Fortuna replied.

Her brother rolled his eyes, before looking at Ryan. “And… who are you, a new member of the Killer Seven?”

Ryan considered a dozen ways to introduce himself; as Quicksave, as President of the Free World, conqueror of Monaco, immortal and all. All more dignified and flowery than the last.

But only one sentence came to mind.

“I’m BLEEPING your ex.”

The awkward silence that welcomed his declaration delighted the courier.

“Don’t give me that look,” Ryan said to Felix, as the younger hero looked at him with astonished eyes. “It was your ex or your sister, and she’s almost as pretty as you are!”

“Almost?” Fortuna asked angrily. “He doesn’t even groom his hair!”

“Whatever,” Felix said, though the revelation had clearly shaken him. “Narcinia, come with me.”

“What,” the younger Veran asked, “where?”

“Away. My current bosses are a huge disappointment, but working with them will still be way better than making drugs.” Atom Kitty extended a hand to his sister. “Now that that death factory has been burnt to the ground, you can put an end to this tragedy here and now.”

Narcinia didn’t answer, instead anxiously looking at her father. This frustrated her brother. “Narci…”

“Did you do it?” Mars asked his son, his tone dangerous. “Destroy our production center?”

Felix shrugged. “I had nothing to do with that, though I wish I did. Whoever blew up that toxic dump deserves an award.”

His father frowned, and Ryan felt a chill going down his spine. A mobile phone materialized in a purple flash within Mars’ hand, the Olympian immediately making a call.

Livia’s vision was turning into reality.

but the woman in question avoided his gaze, much to his annoyance. “And you, Jamie? I heard

flinched, her fiancé taking her hand into his own. “Why are you here, Felix?” Jamie asked, uneasy.

Bacchus needs chemicals from your division to make his drug. Just by taking that job, you’re enabling the death

took a deep breath. “I don’t think

time,” he protested, taking a step towards his adoptive sister. Jamie rose from his own seat, perhaps to

the phone with a scowl on his face. “He’s here, Janus, but he doesn’t know… he swears he’s not involved…

and though Ryan couldn’t hear what was said on the other end of the line, he could guess. Mars was trying to convince his boss one last time not to execute his godson, or to

the Carnival with the intel that made the devastating Ischia raid possible, and his organization’s myth of invincibility was in jeopardy. A brutal, public murder would carry a clear message to both

traitor shall survive, not even

the end, as Hector Manada once said, Lightning Butt was a gangster with too much power. When threatened, the answer was always more violence and

at the fireplace behind Atom Kitten, noticing the tip of a

Mars sighed, his face dark and sorrowful. He looked at his stubborn son, the phone in his hand. When faced with a choice between disobeying his invincible boss and paying the price, or offering a sacrificial lamb… the

of a revolver’s

from his seat, and pushed Felix out of the

on the wall, Fortuna screaming in surprise while Felix stumbled in

at the fireplace. Mortimer had phased halfway through the stone, a gun in hand.

answered with another pull of the trigger, and the room

as Ki-jung and Jamie hastily grabbed her and dived down below the table.

mask of steel to materialize over his skin. The

Felix

on the first floor, and so while the time traveler gracefully landed on the grass below, his favorite cat

feet. A storm of glass kept

car’s headlamps emerged from the night’s darkness on their left,

sky, shrouded in a cloud of crimson lightning. Lightning Butt looked down on the duo, his eyes flaring

spot, Ryan wisely activated his time-stop. Instead of moving within the frozen time, Augustus vanished from his sight, alongside his

of Night Terror’s

party standing near the mansion’s wall to the courier’s right, his black bodysuit meshing with the darkness. The

made him fall to his back, screaming. His illusion collapsed into nothingness, as if it had never been there. Felix blinked repeatedly. “Where

with me if you want to live,” Ryan said as the car approached. But to his surprise, it wasn’t his Plymouth Fury, but

them inside. “Quickly!

perfect was her face and voice, even the clothes… before realizing Cancel wasn’t with his girlfriend. Felix, too confused to

when things are heating up,” the

revolver hidden beneath her clothes. Ryan froze time and nailed her hand to the driving wheel by throwing his other knife at

impostor dropping her weapon and hissing at the

what was

everything, you ungrateful little…” Livia’s voice turned into Venus’, as the Augusti regained her true form. Great, she could also

to kill me?” Felix stood in place, too horrified by

self-driven car was making its way to their location. “Now, apologies, but we’ll

traitor the moment I saw you,” Venus hissed.

either because Mathias had been caught, killed, or something else. Mars stood at the window’s edge with a cold expression, purple rifts in space opening all around him. The tips of swords, arrows, spears, tridents, and other weapons peeked through

but he didn’t. Though it was nighttime, Ryan could have sworn he had seen

when he noticed his wounded wife, Mars quickly made up his

From what the courier understood, Mars could pull and summon items from a pocket dimension armory, but he had never imagined the speed at which he could throw them. The spears and swords flew in the air as fast

the initial volley, reaching his car. “Come in!” he ordered Felix as he swiftly took over the driving wheel, the

arm, trying to keep him

and legs. They quickly started to fall off her,

from the mansion, moving out of the Olympian’s range. Mortimer phased through the building’s walls, opening fire at the car with his gun, but his bullets only grazed the bodywork. While the Plymouth Fury escaped the property, Mars leaped outside the window, a

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