The Perfect Run

First contact started with a fight, but to mankind’s credit, the aliens shot first.

Ryan barely had the time to activate his power and push Len and the down, as the mysterious intruder fired a crimson ray into the room. When time resumed, the laser had vaporized the computer’s chair and blown a molten hole in a metal wall. Mr. Wave, who could move at lightspeed, sidestepped to dodge the attack, while Sarin and Sunshine were immediately on high alert. Shroud turned invisible, as he usually did.

The creature quickly stepped into the laboratory, in all its inhuman glory. The horror was a biomechanical, humanoid abomination three meters tall, its entire body covered in crimson-orange metal armor. A strange, black biological growth taking the shape of an organic cannon covered the right arm, while the left arm’s humanoid hand had claws as sharp as knives. The armor showcased reptilian green eyes on the shoulders and the chest, while acid drooled down a fanged mouth where the stomach should have been. A cyclopean gaze peered through a green visor and a crimson helmet.

Ryan decided to call it ‘E.T.’.

“Well, I guess we’re too late for the boiled eggs,” the courier said as he rose back to his feet alongside his teammates. “We’re skipping straight to the omelet.”

“Sifu, what is this thing?!” the asked in horror, though to his credit the young pandawan had already adopted a fighting pose.

“It’s them!” Nice Guy answered from inside its tank, though only Ryan understood it. “They’re back! They’re back!”

“Who cares,” Sarin said, energy building up in her gauntlets. “It struck first!”

The alien answered with a gargling, inhuman roar.

“Mr. Wave guesses you will join all his dead enemies,” the boastful genome said, his body flaring red. “Deep down the extinct species list!”

Mr. Wave turned into a laser to smash into E.T. head on. However, the creature teleported in a flash of purple light before the Carnival member could hit it. Mr. Wave continued his course into the next room, while E.T. reappeared in the middle of the laboratory. Sarin raised her gauntlets, but Sunshine interrupted her before could strike. “Careful, you might hit the Elixirs’ containers!” he warned. “If any drop hits one of us—”

To her credit, Sarin didn’t open fire, and tried to position herself to avoid both damaging the facility and harming her teammate. Sunshine followed her lead, while the and Len attempted to engage E.T. in melee. Finding the area too crowded for his usual acrobatics, Ryan attempted to encircle the creature from the side.

E.T.’s body flared with an orange glow, and both the Panda’s claws and Len’s mechanical fists phased harmlessly through the creature. Yet when the monster’s left hand reached for the Panda’s throat, it turned solid. The claws sank into the manbear’s flesh like butter, lifted him above the ground, and tossed him at Len. Shortie caught the pandawan, but both were tossed back. To Ryan’s horror, Shortie’s back impacted on Nice Guy’s biomechanical container, but to his relief, the machine was much more solid than it looked. The vat stood firm, not even showing a crack.

While the quickly shifted between his bear and human form to heal his wound, the alien’s multiple eyes then started projecting a blue light that reminded Ryan of a sci-fi scanner. Each of the eyes analyzed a single member of the group, but E.T.’s visor snapped in the courier’s direction when his turn came. The courier immediately recognized the emotion within the alien’s cyclopean gaze.

Fear.

“Before you ask, I don’t have a phone,” Ryan replied, and the disappointed E.T. responded by turning red and charged at him. Though far larger than the time-traveler, the alien moved at a speed almost too fast for the eye to follow. Ryan barely had the time to activate his time-stop before the monster’s left claw reached out for his head.

And they kept going.

Ryan watched on as the claws slowly moved closer to him inch by inch, so slow the movement was almost imperceptible. The alien’s ocular organs glanced around them in slow motion, keeping an eye on the thin cracks that Ryan’s Black Flux particles ripped into the fabric of spacetime.

Damn it, could everyone move inside Ryan’s private time now? He should charge them for the privilege!

Though thankfully the alien couldn’t move very fast, unlike Lightning Butt. Ryan pivoted on the creature’s flank, aimed in the direction opposite to the Elixirs’ vats, and activated his armor’s chest weapon at point-blank range. A gravity projectile rushed at E.T. when time resumed, hitting it in the chest.

Ryan had seen that device blow a hole in Mechron’s bunker, but it failed to even damage the alien’s biomechanical suit. It only pushed E.T. back a few meters into one of the lab’s corners, the monster’s armored feet anchoring themselves into the metal ground.

“My homo sapiens will kick your pseudopod!” Nice Guy shouted through the telepathic link. The ‘my’ part made Ryan shudder, but he focused on the fight ahead. “Right between the globules!”

Shroud chose this moment to reveal himself, flying right above the alien. Using his glass armor’s extra mass, the vigilante manifested thick bindings keeping the surprised E.T. restrained. “Now!” he shouted.

Now their line of fire was clear, both Sarin and Sunshine struck right as Shroud retreated. The cornered E.T. took a blast of solar plasma and a powerful shockwave to the face.

Or it should have, if it hadn’t manifested a white, rounded energy field right before the impact. The protection took the appearance of a small sphere around the alien’s armor, and canceled the attacks the moment they hit it. Solar flares and red shockwaves were instantly canceled, while Shroud’s glass restraints turned to harmless glass dust.

White Flux. The creature could use a variant of Cancel’s power.

Ryan almost activated his power, but decided against it. If that shield allowed the monster to move at normal speed inside his time anomaly, then it would massacre his allies. At least E.T. had stopped moving while it kept the shield up, its multiple eyes glancing in all directions.

“I can’t feel my glass inside that shield!” Shroud shouted as Len and the joined him, the group surrounding the alien from all sides.

“White Genome!” Leo shouted, while Mr. Wave returned to the laboratory, ready for round two. Neither Sunshine nor Sarin had interrupted their barrage though, keeping the creature pinned to its corner. Perhaps they hoped to short-circuit the shield too. “Don’t enter its range.”

the trapped Elixir said, it could clearly

open fire with his gravity gun. The creature exhausted Flux the way a car used oil, which meant it could

Len did the same with a jet of pressurized

teleporting away before any attack could connect. “Above!” Shroudy shouted

reveal a dozen mouths on all sides, each

to take an unnecessary risk, and right to do so. When the projectiles hit the ground, their spikes immediately expanded into fanged roots capable of shredding through the steel. One landed among the Wonderboxes, and to Ryan’s horror, it seemed to gorge itself on the Elixirs. That particular

like he saved Ryan during his first loops, Mr. Wave used his astonishing speed to move the slower members of the group to safety. Ryan and

of Nice Guy’s vat. E.T. must have noticed the group’s unwillingness to damage the room’s equipment, and now using its position as a defense while it continued its bombardment. The alien’s chest-mouth

repelling a seed by creating a weak shockwave around

as he barely managed to dodge an organic projectile, his power allowing him to grab the basics of the alien’s language. “I think it said ‘peace

kind of peace. Wonderful. While Ryan’s experience with the Elixirs had taught him most

his armor, deciding to engage E.T. in close

the alien stopped its onslaught, an orange hue spreading through its armor. When it receded, the suit had changed color. From the plates of crimson to the visor, all parts of the armor had turned

Into adamantine.

material on

on the ground, hand raised to engage Ryan in

presence, the living laser bouncing off its indestructible armor like a tennis ball on a wall. The alien charged at

it in the helmet. E.T. didn’t even attempt to dodge, as arrogantly confident in its invulnerability as Lightning Butt. Its adamantine armor allowed it to move normally in

dodge E.T.’s claws, while his fist smashed the alien’s visor. A crack spread on

of multi-colored energy in the stopped time, sending Ryan stumbling backward. The creature

Sarin snarled, creeped out by the scene. She unleashed a shockwave at E.T., but the attack had no more effect than a breeze against the

surface, revealing nearly invisible circuits surging with Flux. The courier noticed streaks of white, red, blue, and all the

were

use

think I caused an oil spill,” the courier admitted

collapsed around it, cutting the monster in half and

but her movements slowed down, her sentence left hanging. Though the world around Ryan hadn’t turned purple, everything had frozen in place. Sunshine flames consumed the seeds without ever finishing the job; Shroud gave a hand to Mr. Wave, but their fingers never reached one another; Sarin’s gauntlets shone with red energy, while the Panda’s head peeked from behind the room’s computer. Even the alien’s body remained trapped

swirled inside their containers, and Ryan himself. The courier looked around himself, but his body neither produced

was unrelated to his power, and it

I accidentally break time?” Ryan asked, before glancing at the trapped Elixirs. He focused on the violet one. “Any idea how to

with a telepathic message of its

sighed. “No, I’m a

sarcasm was still beyond an Elixir’s power. “The Black

hole, in case he could close it the same way he had once opened a gate to the Black

“My friend.”

Nice Guy, or the Violet Elixir. The

the black hole, a speck of darkness no bigger than a finger. It was no

called out into the

what could pass

is not

is,” Ryan replied, though he let out a breath of

have little time…” the alien warned, going straight to business. “When the Black Flux has finished consuming this creature’s Flux reserves… the door will collapse

of relief, thankful he wouldn’t need to reload to put time back on track. “How is it even possible?” he asked. “We needed a particle accelerator to open a portal

had probably summoned something she couldn’t put down. That would also explain why Ryan’s Black Flux particles had such an easy time destabilizing the pocket dimension. “I have observed this place

this place is?” Ryan asked,

the higher realms…” Darkling struggled to find the words. Though it had spent quite a lot of time around Ryan, he still had trouble with human concepts. “They learned to use Flux to fuel their technology… before trying to enslave my kindred to ascend

story, Ryan put the two and two together. “The Alchemist found this ship after it crashed,” he muttered to himself. “She used their technology to create Genomes, so

she

“What do you mean?”

answers… the empire that built this ship collapsed many decades ago… overthrown by their slaves… nothing remains.” Darkling marked a short pause, its words heavy. “No invasion

the armored warrior, the black hole slowly consuming its edges while leaving the courier unscathed. “It’s a

“What is a… Japanese?”

or a

didn’t answer immediately. “Whatever… an ember can still spark a fire if left unchecked… this Alchemist had the opportunity to destroy this place once and for all…