The Perfect Run

Weeds had overtaken the ship like an abandoned garden.

As Ryan’s group advanced into the metal bowels of the Alchemist’s base, they ran into more and more alien plant life. Greenish slime leaked from the walls, while snakelike red roots and fanged purple flowers dug holes into the floor. Eventually, the corridors became so overwhelmed by vegetation that Sunshine moved at the front to torch a path ahead.

Often, they would find the broken remains of armored aliens, their helmets melted by lasers, their shielding pierced by powerful rounded projectiles. Yet they never found any trace of what killed them.

Their slayers didn’t leave corpses behind when they died.

“So if I follow correctly,” Shroud said, after Ryan had finished briefing his team. “This is an alien spaceship from a long-lost imperialistic civilization, and the creature we fought was one of its soldiers. The Alchemist pillaged their technology, but accidentally woke up the remaining troops left in stasis and now they’re fighting her for control of the facility. And an alien deity gave you a divine mandate to destroy this place before the prisoners can escape.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Ryan replied, while Len checked out the data the had harvested from the Alchemist’s computers. The manbear himself advanced on all fours, an ear against the walls.

Mr. See-Through snickered, unconvinced. “Should I call you Joan of Arc? You did hear voices.”

“God loves the reptilians too,” Ryan preached, “so long as they stay in reptiland.”

“Why?” Unlike Shroudy Matty, who remained in denial, Sarin had listened to the explanations with solemn silence. “Why?”

Why did Eva Fabre make Genomes and Psychos possible? “I guess… I guess she wanted to protect us?” the suggested, trying to be charitable. “To give us powers, so we could defend ourselves?”

“What good could have come from empowering people like Mechron and Augustus?” Leo Hargraves asked at the front, skeptical. “The former alone killed more people than both world wars combined.”

“Though Mr. Wave is thankful that she graced the universe with the brilliance of… Mr. Wave.” The boastful Genome paused briefly. “Mr. Wave didn’t find a way to avoid the repetition. Still, he agrees with the rising sun. The walk doesn’t match the talk.”

“The aliens aren’t coming either.” Ryan shrugged, as his armor picked up vibrations. “Well, except those inside this place.”

“And how do you figure we destroy this ship in the first place?” Shroud kept nagging him.

“I thought we might have a last minute desperate escape, with a digital countdown. Maybe a round number.”

“I would rather avoid that,” Shroud replied dryly, arms crossed. “Besides our own lives, if Elixirs are truly sapient, helpful beings, then blowing up the ship would kill them too.”

“Human life isn’t the only kind with value,” Sunshine agreed, having now destroyed the plant growth with his shining light. “I agree we cannot let the horrors of this ship escape into the wider world, Quicksave, but blowing it up should be a last resort.”

Truth be told, Ryan kinda hoped that reaching the ship’s control center would provide an alternative solution too. Nice Guy might have been grating, but Shroud was correct that it deserved to live.

However, the courier suspected his mere presence might cause the ship to collapse anyway.

Ryan’s Black power was a paradox, destabilizing reality with its very existence. The courier guessed that Earth’s dimension was ‘solid’ enough to absorb the damage, but the spaceship’s thin place was a small, artificial construct. Ryan degraded it a little further with each time-stop. Eventually, it might even collapse on itself.

Had the Violet Ultimate One foreseen this possibility? That Illuminati creature could control all of space and time, if Darkling was to be believed. It might very well be omniscient.

The raised a paw. “Sifu, I’m hearing something through the metal!”

“My armor is picking up vibrations too,” Ryan said, analyzing the readings. “Where do they come from, my young pandawan?”

“The left,” his sidekick replied, using his sensitive bear ears to pick up sound. “Explosions.”

“They must be pretty powerful for their noise to go through the ship’s shielding,” Leo Hargraves said. “Considering the increasing number of corpses, we must be approaching the site of a battle. Can you offer more details?”

“I-I, I will try!” The took a deep breath, intimidated by Sunshine. “I hear… I hear something big and heavy moving, and impacts.”

“From the form of the ship, and the way we moved inside so far, the left should lead us to the front,” Shroud pointed out. “If the architecture is anything like Earth’s aircrafts—”

“Then it should be where the command center is located,” Leo Hargraves guessed with a nod. “Timmy, can you bring us as close to the sound’s source as possible?”

“Yes, sir!” the raised a paw to his forehead in a military salute. “Of course, sir!”

“The rest of you, stay on guard,” Sunshine said. “Neither side of this war is an ally.”

And so the took the lead, an ear against the ground. As they took twists and turns, Ryan’s armor picked up more and more vibrations and other Flux energy activities. The very fabric of reality seemed to weaken the further they progressed.

“Riri, I finished analyzing the data,” Len said, as the group left the cramped corridor for the remains of a large hangar the size of an airport. The metal walls had been melted away, and Ryan could see the scrapped remains of robots and vehicles everywhere he looked. Clearly, a battle had taken place here. “It’s… it’s all we need.”

Sarin’s head snapped in her direction. “For me? You could make a cure?”

“Yes,” Len replied, before hesitating and avoiding Miss Chernobyl’s gaze.

She wouldn’t like what came next.

The Psycho in the group clenched her fists. “Go on, Nemo. Don’t sugarcoat it.”

“The Alchemist…” Len took a long deep breath. “The Alchemist already has a cure. Had it from the start.”

froze in place, causing Shroud to

the Psycho said. But now her armored gauntlets had clenched so tightly, that Ryan worried

heavy gaze troubled Len. “I should start at the beginning. If I understand the data collected… Elixirs come from the White World, but can naturally move from one colored dimension

this ‘Flux’ to communicate?” Shroud

Alchemist decoded the Elixirs’ language with the aliens’ technology, and with it, she can... how to say that… ‘educate’ them? Tell them how to recognize DNA, which species to bond with… If we associate gene therapy with the

Elixirs to patch out the bugs,” Ryan

could… it could even work for you,” Len explained to Sarin.

and a half as a cloud trapped in a suit. The possibility of becoming human again was a dream come true, and her previous self had been willing to consider murdering Ryan when she thought he wouldn’t

Sarin had picked up on a worrying detail and

a cure,” she said, her voice low and furious. “That bitch had a

bug,

Wave had turned serious. “Why would

say,” Len replied. “All Psychos are sterile due to their unstable genetic code, so… so they

“I only know a

earned their power from

intentional, do children of Genomes risk mutating too?” Sunshine asked, clearly worried for innocent

fine,” Ryan said. “Also, in cases of one parent having powers and the other not, the child

jellyfish. But they can also alter

dawned on him. “Wait, so if I had a child with a normie, my Elixir would duplicate and pass on to

the other is not... the Elixir duplicates, fuses with the fetus, and slightly

and made him thankful that he had taken precautions against having a descendance. His power in itself was both a blessing and a curse, but in the hands of

make for

Len cleared her throat. “If both parents are Genomes, the Elixirs communicate during conception to avoid the pitfalls of the Psycho condition. Instead of competing for a host, only one of the Elixirs duplicates, but takes some information from the other. Since the

Narcinia’s example,” Leo Hargraves asked, “she was born a Green Genome, but with her power

said. “She can create

the children of Genomes were always stable Genomes, no matter the parents’

Novus would phase out Homo Sapiens, the way they

what if…” Shroud crossed his arms. “And this is terrible to say it, but what if Psychos were meant to kill as many normal people as possible? If the Alchemist’s plan is to make Genomes supplant

Ryan reminded him. And the random nature of powers meant creatures with world-ending powers

had been arguing, the had reached the northwestern corner of the hangar. “Sifu, we’re

to take a detour,” Leo Hargraves said, not finding any door.

fist at the wall, and unleashed

dark dust as the attack revealed a path into a new, gigantic corridor. The courier heard the sound of lasers, explosions, and most importantly, voices

glared at Sarin, hands on his waist. “Avoid

the furious Psycho replied before stepping through the hole, her hands shaking in anger. Now she

of the group cautiously following her. The courier closed the

at the metal floor. “Past a certain point, if a Psycho couldn’t stabilize their genetic code… the damage becomes so extensive that not even Elixirs can correct

an entirely different form of life. The more he learned about this place, the more Ryan was convinced it had to go by whatever means

complex. All blast doors on the way had been torn apart,

improvised barricades of scrapped metal. Behind them stood a damaged blue gate nine meters in

the defenders wore helmets, others did not, but they all shared the same facial features. Short black hair, blue eyes, plain features, and a determined expression. Their weapons included rifles unleashing familiar red lasers, organic cannons identical to the ones

colossal creature step halfway through. The entity reminded Ryan of a concrete cube more than eight meters in diameter, except with six

one of the barricades with a leg. The blow sent scraps and troopers flying, the soldiers collapsing into blue particles when they hit the gate behind them. The survivors with rods used them to unleash violet projectiles tearing space apart. Ryan identified these weapons as focused Violet Flux, and unlike

though, the projectiles tore through its body as if it were made of clay. The barrage pushed the creature through the portal and it vanished into the Orange Flux rift, at least for

newcomers. Ryan’s

I suppose?” the courier asked. “You have a

clones,” Len

duplicates,” a trooper said. Since the doubles collapsed into Blue Flux, Ryan guessed that the

said, recognizing Ryan. “Living

the back, the Sunshine, and Shroud in the middle, and

keeping an eye on the portal as if expecting the creature to crawl out of it

watching you for a while, ever since you defeated Case-BiH-006 in Sarajevo,” a trooper

BiH. Bosnia-Herzegovina.

were talking

us,” another said, looking at Ryan. “Your time

your genetic data for future storekeeping, but other projects demanded our

you on security cameras, but the

after reasserting

took a heavy step forward.

clones all raised an eyebrow at the same time, some exchanging glances. “Why should you help us?” one of them asked. “This facility is under attack by hostile extraterrestrial entities,

fuck?!” Sarin snarled, hands raised at the doubles. “Why the fuck

she again?” one Eva

with Case-USA-3682,” another

remember. But I don’t think we

“Don’t think so either.”

from murdering them all where they stood. “You

didn’t need to,” an

to take two Elixirs, if that is your question,” another had the gall to say. “If you experience discomfort, blame