The Perfect Run

Snow. Snow, everywhere.

Antarctica was a land of ice without end, a white expanse of glaciers, frozen mountains, and plains so white that sunlight made them almost blinding to look at. It was utterly silent too. The few penguins and wildlife living on the continent nested along the coasts, and left the continent’s interior utterly lifeless.

Clad in the Saturn Armor, Ryan flew above the frozen wasteland with only Leo Hargraves for company. The courier remembered making a stop in Scandinavia and later Greenland during one of his lengthiest fetch quests, but the south pole remained a mystery to him.

“Have you found anything?” Len asked him through the telecom.

“Winter is coming,” Ryan replied ominously, as he and Sunshine flew over a tall glacier.

“Riri, you have been repeating that each time I call you.”

“Because people must know!” Ryan replied playfully. “I mostly see snow, but on the plus side, I haven’t seen any mosquitoes. Well, except the one we keep in storage.”

No wonder he never visited this place, there was nothing to do!

“I am highly disappointed.” The courier shrugged off a layer of frost forming on his armored arms. “I expected an ancient civilization buried beneath the snow, or maybe a mad scientist’s base.”

“What about the armor’s readings?”

“It actually picked up a spatial anomaly, but the signals are faint.” Truth be told, the entire region reeked of them. Whatever happened here had permanently damaged the space-time continuum in the area. “Sunshine and I are trying to narrow down the source.”

“I… finally.” It had been three days since they reached the continent, and quite a few members of the expedition had grown irritated with the lack of progress. “Don’t do anything rash.”

“Shortie, Rash is my middle name,” Ryan replied happily, “between Dashing and Immortal!”

Sunshine must have heard him, because the living sun looked over his shoulder. “Witty comes to mind too,“ he said.

“Witty is my son, Amusing my daughter,” Ryan replied, as he turned left after his armor picked up a stronger signal. Leo Hargraves quickly followed. “By the way, Sunshine, how is it you’re not melting the whole place with your mere presence?”

“I can control my own gravity and heat.” The superhero observed Ryan closely, his shining gaze both warm and intimidating.

“Do you want to shed light on some unresolved issues, my stargazing friend?” Though they had traveled together for a few days, the Carnival leader had remained surprisingly quiet so far. The courier had seen him gazing at Len while she didn’t notice, and his best friend had done her best to avoid the Living Sun. “Bloody issues?”

The Living Sun looked away, glancing at frozen mountains in the distance. “Is Len Sabino listening?”

Ryan had guessed right. “Shortie, the sun wants to dial you.”

“I’m listening,” she replied after a brief and tense silence, with Ryan putting on the loudspeaker.

“I wish to apologize on my team’s behalf,” Sunshine said. “To the both of you. What happened four years ago…”

“Wasn’t your brightest day?” Ryan sighed. “Believe me, it could have gone a lot worse, and you apologized already. At least to me.”

“In a previous loop?” Hargraves asked.

“So you believe us?” Ryan asked. The Living Sun hadn’t broached the subject since they set off from Monaco.

“I admit I find Shroud’s story difficult to believe, but I have seen many things in my life that I once thought impossible.” Leo Hargraves’ light seemed to dim for a brief instant. “You are within your right to hate us, and I would perfectly understand. I want to say that my teammates only followed my directions, and that I made the call that day. If you wish to blame someone, it is I.”

Len let the words sink in for a moment before answering. “Did you know who he used to be? That we were with him?”

“Yes,” Sunshine admitted. “I know Freddie Sabino was a good man, and that he traveled with his children.”

“Then why?” she asked, though her voice didn’t break. Ryan could tell that the subject remained painful for her, but not as much as it used to be. “Why did you come after him? Why didn’t you try to heal him? Your Genius… your Genius could have helped. Or at least tried.”

“We didn’t think curing him was even possible,” Sunshine admitted. “And time was not in our favor.”

“You predicted that he would cause a disaster,” Ryan said, remembering his conversation with Shroud at the loop’s beginning.

“Yes.” Sunshine seemed to hesitate about saying something, but eventually mustered the courage to. “And we had reason to think that he would kill you both, if we didn’t take action quickly.”

Ryan could almost see Len meditating on these words, reading between the lines. If let loose, Bloodstream would have killed his own daughter no matter what, and the Carnival saved her life.

On some level, she probably knew all along.

“I… I don’t know.” Len took a long deep breath. “I… I understand why you... why you tried to kill Dad. I do not support it, but… I understand. I’m… I’m not sure my father is even there anymore.”

“If we can cure him, we will,” Sunshine swore. “We made a decision based on the information we had available, but now… now I doubt we made the right one.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Ryan replied. If anything, after seeing Bloodstream destroy New Rome in the previous loop, the courier thought that the Carnival hadn’t been thorough enough in stamping him out.

an electromagnetic reading near an icy rift below

other end of the line. “Whatever happens, it will be my decision. Let me make

melted beneath the Living Sun’s heels, forcing him to float above the ground not to fall. “However, you must understand that if there is a risk that Bloodstream might escape and threaten millions, I

Len didn’t say anything.

then we will find it,” Leo Hargraves swore, ever the shining knight. “What Dynamis did was… inhuman. If we had known, we would have stopped it. You have my

okay,” Len replied. “I… I don’t want to talk about it.

understand. I am sorry to have

foreboding. The crack spread on for miles, an ice canyon so deep that he needed to

found something,

one,” Ryan replied, as he analyzed the energy readings. “And not the welcoming kind

you mean?” Sunshine asked,

from moving in,” Ryan explained. Natural Thin Places, like the one where he had his fateful date with Livia, often opened during rare cosmic or electromagnetic conjunctions. But not this one. “It

was a second

caught on to the implications. “She is keeping prisoners,” he guessed. “I can’t see any other reason to complicate evacuation

Alchemist often set up illegal labs to test Elixirs. The courier guessed she probably did the same in her

us

trip, in case he ever found a way to commit Clown genocide. “This will create a pathway in and out of the pocket dimension, and allow us to communicate with the outside

the other side of the portal, just in case,” Leo Hargraves said, immediately making plans. “The rest of us can look

don’t want to try talking it out first?” Len

would,” the superhero asked. “But I have the

tried to track her,” the courier said. “And she didn’t mind ending the world as an

will tell everyone to prepare,” Len

up,” Ryan said, taking flight again alongside Sunshine. “Perhaps we should

make battles costless for those who order them, the results are

hit on Felix, trying to figure out what happened to the Meta-Gang. The risk of the Augusti finding out about Mechron’s armory had been too great, especially since they had

for the other bases, Leo Hargraves had cleared out two of them by the time Shroudy Matty called him for reinforcements. With half of the Carnival deployed in Antarctica, the other members of the group

R&D. The others were standard armed robot production facilities, and capable of churning out armies in weeks. Sunshine

then Mechron’s legacy would be

agreed to join this side-quest,”

Leo asked, before shrugging. “A cure for Psychos would make the world a better place, and to be honest, if the Alchemist truly lives here… I want to ask her a

Elixir’s

want to

ask the same question, but with far

location, where a steel facility waited half-buried amidst a desert of ice and snow. The modular base consisted of two

guessed the military intended

the the only members of the team capable of surviving the terribly low temperature without special equipment, had made a campfire outside. And even then, Mr. Wave had to trade his fabulous cashmere suit for a trendy seal-fur garment. Ryan’s

to survive in Antarctica without power armor. Their indestructible fur and fat shielded them from the cold, alongside radiation, rainwater, and

Ryan had checked.

Wave turned up the heat,” the superhero told the as the manbear gorged himself on warm seal milk. “That was the start of

true?” The asked naively. Though his power had given him a great deal of insight, he still had the adorable tendency of believing everything his heroes

he enlightens,” the superhero replied, as Ryan and his sunny friend landed near

the way,” Ryan

dark,”

Hargraves chuckled, before glancing at the “How is the

lowered his head to avoid meeting Sunshine’s gaze, all but putting his nose in his milk. Unfortunately, the frost was such that the boiling liquid quickly started

looked a bit uncomfortable. “Yes, I

if you stare at the sun too long,” Ryan said. “My

he still looking?” The asked, too afraid

vision is based on movement,” Ryan added. “You should be

but this reaction is

as he took a

worth when you fought the Meta-Gang, Timmy. Mathias spoke highly of you. In fact, I would like to invite you to the Carnival. We

manbear began to hyperventilate, falling to his back and rolling in the snow. Then he let out a squeal so powerful, that

believes you just committed pandacide,” Mr. Wave told his

Sunshine replied as the station’s doors opened. Len walked out first alongside Sarin, both wearing their evolved power armors. Atom Cat and Shroud followed. The former wore a white second skin of Stitch’s conception which covered his entire body, even the eyes; somehow it allowed him to see anyway. From what Ryan understood, the protection was made of trillions of bacteria adapted to the cold. Shroud, meanwhile, had thickened his suit with additional layers of reinforced glass to keep the heat inside, turning his costume into a heavy and nigh-impenetrable armor. Stitch closed the march,

Sunshine asked upon seeing Felix. “We are about to face great danger. If the Alchemist truly makes her lair in

replied while glancing at Ryan and Mathias. “And I

“I can tell there’s stuff you’re keeping for yourselves. Like a

orange is in the

Sarin stared at him. “I didn’t get

whistled, even as the Psycho raised her

his arms. “Livia would

replied with a

you’re dating my sister,” Felix added. “Somehow, I