The Perfect Run

The room erupted into chaos the moment time resumed.

Red lasers and space-piercing bullets faced shockwaves, solar flares, streams of pressurized water, and a storm of glass. Yet it was a kung-fu-powered bear that made the most spectacular contribution, smashing through the Alchemist clones’ barricades right after Mr. Wave. The pulverized two clones while leaking blood from half a dozen lasers, transforming back and forth to regenerate, always staying on the move to avoid a fatal blow.

Ryan himself did his part, punching any clone within his reach while quipping. However, the situation had become so confusing that he needed to freeze time to check up on his allies. Mr. Wave was busy poking the Alchemist’s clones to death, Shroud shielded his allies with reinforced glass barriers, while an enraged Sarin fired shockwave after shockwave in a berserk rage.

Yet no matter the group’s ferocity, the Alchemist’s numbers only increased.

One Eva Fabre clone duplicated by a factor of ten, and the new doppelgangers followed her example. Most appeared unarmed, or with ‘human’ weapons such as rifles and guns. However, a few of the original doubles used strange gauntlet devices to teleport alien weapons to copy their copycats. Ryan figured that they used the same principle as Mars’ power, accessing an armory in a separate pocket dimension.

Which also meant that while the Alchemist’s power could replicate physical matter, Flux-based tech remained beyond her reach. It made sense in a way. Eva Fabre was a Blue Genome, so how could she replicate the source of Green or Red powers?

Ryan decided to focus on the clones’ suppliers first, but some of the new recruits materialized with suicide belts and attempted to blow themselves up in his face. The courier was forced to repel them using his armor’s weapons.

Unfortunately, this gave time for the clone army to organize. When they realized that Ryan was trying to make a beeline to the gate they were protecting, the suppliers among the doppelgangers distributed gauntlet devices to a regiment of new recruits. Two dozen Evas formed a barrier of bodies, their tools projecting a crimson shield. A beehive-like hexagonal barrier now protected the gates, one tough enough to resist Ryan’s gravity gun.

Guessing what Ryan had in mind, Mr. Wave attempted to assist, turning into a laser and smashing into the clones’ defense. The crimson shield repelled him, so he tried again, and again, prodding the barrier from all angles, even jumping into the air to strike the defenders from above. Though the doppelgangers held the line, their shields often flickered on impact. Much like E.T.’s technology, their machinery ran on a limited supply of juice and would eventually run out.

However, for once in Ryan’s life, time wasn’t on his side. Not only were the clones summoning more of themselves, they also organized better. Groups of energy-shield users formed security barriers around the arsenal suppliers, allowing them to arm the reinforcements with minimal interference. Two groups of six laser users each trapped the in a pincer attack, and though the manbear moved swifter than lightning, he couldn’t outrun light. The doppelgangers gave him no breathing room and pushed him back against the Orange World portal, slowly, but certainly…

By now, the dead released so many blue Flux particles that the whole room looked like a Smurf party.

“Riri, behind you!” Len shouted just as time resumed, the courier noticing two Evas raising a rifle with a two-meter wide barrel at him. He barely had the time to dodge to the side to avoid a Green Flux blast, which ended up turning the metal walls into wood upon impact.

“Oh, an eco-responsible weapon!” Ryan said, as Len beheaded the clones with a stream of pressurized water. Shortie moved to cover him, while he engaged the nearest doubles in melee. “I want one!”

If only they weren’t trying to exterminate the last the Evas might have been true planeteers.

His other allies didn’t fare any better. Some clones could see Shroud even while he turned invisible, and forced him to stay on the defensive by raising glass barriers to stop projectile volleys. Sarin’s shockwaves overpowered shield-users, but her power armor had cracks here and there. Only Leo Hargraves pushed the clones back rather than otherwise, bombarding them with blinding, fiery blasts.

Sarin’s repeated shockwaves ended up structurally damaging the room, and a good fourth of the floor collapsed to reveal a black sea of alien machinery and energy cables below the metal panels. Sunshine raised an advancing wall of flames, trapping hundreds of Evas between his fire and the floor’s hole.

In response, a clone threw a round silver device at Leo Hargraves. The Living Sun quickly melted it in midair, but his action caused the device to unleash a six-meters wide wave of immaculate energy.

The white pulse destroyed any doppelganger it touched, and more worrying, instantly reverted Sunshine to his human form. The Carnival’s leader fell down and would have died hitting the floor below, if Mr. Wave hadn’t disengaged from his assault on the forceshield to catch his ally in time. Shroud immediately raised barriers after barriers of glass to protect his teammates, but this only allowed the clones to surround the trio, their focused lasers slowly melting the defenses.

Worse, the orange portal in the room flickered, and the same cubic monster from last time started crossing through; perhaps the chaos in the room had caught its attention. In any case, the was the closest to the rift when the creature stepped through, and it summarily kicked the bear out of the way. Clones tried to repel the Orange World creature with a projectile volley, but only managed to halt its arrival.

This was getting nowhere.

“The real one is not here!” Ryan shouted through his armor’s loudspeakers, pointing a hand at the gates. He had moved no more than a few meters away from it with judicious applications of his power, but the shield-users still barred the way. “She’s behind these doors!”

He doubted that any of his teammates heard him except for Shortie, until Sarin’s voice echoed over the melee. “Move out of the way, nerd!”

Ryan activated his armor’s jetpack and flew away, as a mighty shockwave pulverized the clone regiment guarding the gates, short-circuiting their shields and vaporizing the wielders. However, the blast failed to affect the doors themselves, with no crack appearing on their blue surface. Still, it allowed the courier and Len to reach the gates.

Then the firing stopped.

Ryan peeked over his shoulder, watching as a crimson and orange shape emerged from the hole Sarin made in the ground. A monstrous reptile in advanced power armor, whose very sight caused the unfazed Eva clones to freeze in terror.

E.T.’s little brother had come, and brought its nephews.

A dozen alien soldiers emerged from the holes gargling and roaring. Most were carbon copies of the creature Ryan’s group defeated earlier, but one of them was twice the normal size, a horned horror with nine eyes and great draconic wings.

A species instinct that never truly died awakened, as the humans in the room briefly stopped their battle to focus on the outside threat. The Eva clones pointed their weapons at the newcomers, while Sunshine managed to transform back into a fiery sun and bathed the alien vanguard with searing flames.

The extraterrestrial creatures responded by teleporting around the room, tearing through Eva’s doppelgangers with claws and beams. The winged alien instead chased after Sunshine, while an E.T. turned its armor into adamantine and attempted to tear the apart. Another soldier noticed Ryan and Len, but was forced to deal with a group of Evas before it could give pursuit.

If one of these aliens had been a match for his entire team, a whole group of them would tear through any opposition. Ryan’s group and the Alchemist could resist for a while, maybe even win, but if more of these critters arrived...

Well, Ryan was in no hurry to reload now.

Mr. Wave, who had raced across the room to get the to safety behind Shroud’s glass barrier, briefly stopped at Ryan and Len’s side. “Mr. Wave and co will hold them off,” the genome said, as an alien soldier roared at them. “Go get them, tiger!”

“You’re sure?” Len asked, worried. She understood that they would only buy minutes.

“Mr. Wave has never been happier!” The living laser raised a thumb up. “He can kill them more than once!”

Ryan didn’t find any fault with that logic, and answered with a thumb up of his own. Mr. Wave immediately tackled the approaching alien soldier head on, sending it flying backward, before reinforcing Sarin. The lively Psycho used shockwaves to push the concrete Orange monster back through the rift.

hack through these

reacted the moment she touched it. It slid open in

stop Ryan from reaching the door with a volley of projectiles. But he froze time, grabbed Shortie, and moved into the next room while dodging lasers. The gates immediately closed behind him when time resumed, isolating them from the chaos outside; the courier could barely see a glimpse of Sunshine

mainframe. A colossal biomechanical

found the real Eva Fabre connected to the

face and turned her black hair white, Ryan recognized her facial features. A human head was all she had left though. A hideous biomechanical body supported her skull, a grotesque parody of

technology allowed him to experience captured minds’ memories.

peaceful slumber. Ryan guessed that the body modifications enhanced her control over the alien

like a tick on a cow’s hide. Soaking herself in its technology, knowledge, and power, never interacting with the world outside except through the safety of a screen. She lived

over again,” Ryan said. He wondered how much the technology had affected her, though.

we…” Len pointed her weapons at

Eva Fabre’s eyelids opened.

gone too, replaced with black cameras. They glanced at the two Genomes, as soulless as anything else

nothing more than a soft rattle. Her artificial organs flared with red light, a thin layer of crimson

time and shooting

did the biomechanical monstrosity keep moving in the frozen time, but his gravity bullet also bounced off

powerful, Quicksave, but nothing unexpecte—” The Alchemist froze while her metal fingers were within an inch of Shortie’s head, for she had suddenly noticed the black particles and Purple Flux phantom next to

the danger and back away. The Alchemist’s metal hand smashed the floor, striking with enough strength

you don’t know everything about us,” Ryan said, as he opened fire again, Shortie assisting him

be stopped.” The Alchemist glared at the duo, none of their attacks bypassing her energy shield. “Why are you fighting me, my children? I created you, forged into gods. You should be fighting the aliens outside, not your

and to the

her, each carrying either a rifle or a submachine gun. “With this ship, I can restart

Alchemist should have been at least sixty years old, and Ryan could tell time inside this pocket dimension behaved abnormally. Yet the clones looked no older than thirty. All were humans, instead of a

quickly formed

doubles remained the same, because she

opened fire, while the original remained immobile, her head still hooked to the central brain. The courier’s armor sent alarm signals, as it noticed

was trying to hack

to make your new, improved version?” Ryan asked, attempting to destroy the clones only to realize his chest weapon had stopped working. She clearly cared more about

worlds beyond this dimension,” the Alchemist rasped haughtily. “In one of them, the nations of the world were laid low by a flu. No disease will ever ravage Genomes, nor will invaders from other worlds. You will not

some clones, then backing away to avoid a punch from the original. “I was democratically chosen by the plushie majority, gave universal healthcare to my Psycho followers, and fought bravely against the

while Len struggled to keep them at a manageable number. Half a dozen clones turned into twenty, and these started making copies too. “Most humans live a short-sighted existence, caring for nothing more than their own personal comfort. They do not have

no nation, inspired no follower! You wrecked the old world, and then you hid among the penguins instead of helping us get back on our feet! Hell, I’m sure you killed everyone at your old workplace when you couldn’t convince them to

from Bacchus, but the abomination’s eyes flared with annoyance. Ryan had struck a nerve. "You

couldn’t understand,” Asshole-Prime replied dismissively, while

him in the first place. Eva Fabre didn’t understand Ryan’s true ability, nor of all the possibilities where

the other, Ryan grabbed one of the neutral tendrils hanging from the glass tank. “Like for example, could you tell me what would happen if I tried to connect

“You are a Violet. Only Blues can pilot

wasn’t thinking of

froze time, Black Flux flying

touched the

Her giant hand moved to swipe him aside, and when Ryan attempted to jump away, his armor refused to move; she had hacked the

her fist hit him. Ryan heard the armor’s plates crack under the strain of the blow, and flew across the room like a wingless bird. He hit the blue door in a catastrophic crash, before falling on

But it changed nothing.

taint spread through the biomechanical brain, rotting parts of its

a blue hue, her biomechanical hand moving to the sides of her head, but she couldn’t halt the collapse. Her clones stopped attacking Len to rush

replied, unable to move his armor. Shortie, who still could take a step, moved

voice turning deeper like a broken machine. The clones echoed her screams, collapsing into nothingness. “This ship

couldn’t stop this, even

with her giant hands, perhaps trying to manually remove the black infection. But even her phenomenal strength couldn’t bypass the overmind’s shield. Half the biomechanical brain had darkened,

“But at least you won’t

darkened, while rifts in the fabric of space spread. An army of black holes opened all across

the Alchemist hastily removed the cables linking her to the mainframe in a desperate attempt

enough to create portals to other colored realms,” the

where the biomechanical brain used

I called for

something peeked

to devour all of reality. The darkness consumed a screaming Eva Fabre, tearing through her energy shield and swallowing her whole. The walls turned to dust around the courier, the blackness spreading through the ship. Ryan caught a glimpse of an alien pointing

as the darkness separated them. An alien cold entered his armor, yet it was

floated alone in a lightless void, like

called out to the darkness. “Darkling?

The void answered.

“I am… here.”

geometric chaos that gave Ryan a headache simply to gaze at it. Triangles turning into cubes, feathers of steel, and