The Perfect Run

New Rome looked gorgeous from above.

The city breathed life. Millions of people returned from work as the sun started vanishing beyond the horizon, like the blood cells of a giant organism. The lights of casinos’ neon signs and street lights formed a sea of light, some red, others green, and all the other colors of the rainbow in between. The whole place smelled of sin, but most importantly, it smelled of life. New Rome rivaled the greatest Old World metropolises in size, making it the New World’s lighthouse. It was a beacon of hope for mankind, the promise of a bright future where humans would rise from their own ashes and rebuild.

Ryan couldn’t let this city die. Yet already a virus was at work, insidiously infecting thousands of Genomes, laying the ground for a worldwide pandemic. And though he had the cure safely contained in his Saturn armor’s backpack, dealing with this disaster would only summon another.

“We’re in position,” Ryan declared through his armor’s intercom. Livia was playing with her own new Opis armor in the clouds to his left. “Waiting for the signal, buddy.”

Two video feeds appeared inside his helmet, one projected on each lens. The left one came from Shortie’s own power armor, as she, Enrique, and a group of Private Security bodyguards climbed the lift to Lab Sixty-Six; the right one showed Felix, Wyvern, and half of Il Migliore waiting in front of Hector Manada’s mansion. The latter feed was of a poorer quality, as a Dynamis camera drone provided it.

“We’re ready to move in too,” Felix said, before turning at his teammate. Wyvern nodded as she took flight, followed by Devilry, while Reload and Wardrobe remained on the ground. Even a poor feed couldn’t ruin her in Ryan’s eyes; her law enforcement costume was the acme of chic.

“Oh, oh, can I wear the Chuck Norris costume?” Wardrobe asked with enthusiasm. “I feel this is now or never!”

“Another time,” Wyvern replied with a chuckle, before touching her earcom. “Enrique?”

“Go ahead with the arrest,” the CBO answered as his group reached the entrance of Lab Sixty-Six. Enrique bypassed the biometric defenses, allowing his team to move inside the dreaded Knockoff production facility. “Romano, you can start anytime.”

“Are you sure your men are loyal?” Ryan asked. “I mean, they’re called the Private Security. They don’t work for the public good.”

“I hand-picked this strike force myself, and I would trust them with my life,” the corporate hero replied. “It’s not for my life you should worry. Your job is the most dangerous one.”

Well, Ryan had a lot of experience with A-bombs. “You’re sure Fat Man will learn of this raid?”

“Certain. He has moles inside this building, and an alarm system to inform him of any breach of Lab Sixty-Six he didn’t authorize himself. When he returns to New Rome, his rage will know no bounds.”

Well, that explained how Fallout managed to respond so quickly to Ryan’s raid during his Meta-Run. However, the living nuclear disaster had already moved to the city at that time, while he should be in Sicily right now.

Enrique marked a short pause, as if reconsidering the plan. “Are you certain you and Miss Augusti can handle my brother on your own? He fought your girlfriend’s father, and walked away alive.”

Ryan chuckled. Was there a hint of concern he detected in his voice? “I never said my girlfriend was an Augusti…”

“You’re not the only one with an information-gathering apparatus, Quicksave. Though yours trumps mine by a wide margin, I will grant you that.” The manager cleared his throat. “You understand that I’m taking a huge risk by trusting you on this, and I expect a show of goodwill.”

“I’m not going to kill your brother, don’t worry.” Though they might have to redraw the map by the time they were done. “I’m all for nuclear energy… but only for peaceful purposes!”

“Good,” Enrique replied, his tone suddenly much less friendly. “Because otherwise, all I can say is that you will never see me coming.”

“Well, if your shiny big brother kills me, could you do the floral arrangement for my funeral?” Ryan asked. “Surprise me.”

“I will bring lilies and carnations.”

“By now, you should know I’m a flytrap guy,” Ryan replied.

However, before moving on with the plan, the courier contacted his sister through a private line. Stitch had removed the infectious Bloodstream agent in Len’s blood, so she shouldn’t transform even in close proximity to her father, but still... “You’re sure you want to go alone, Shortie?”

“Yes, Riri,” she answered before gathering her breath. “I… I appreciate what you’re trying to do. Support me. But in this case… in this case, I need to do it on my own.”

“I understand,” he replied, watching them enter Dr. Tyrano’s lair. The good reptilian doctor was typing on a computer in the room where Ryan’s team fought Alphonse Manada in a previous loop. The clones of Il Migliore’s members floated in advanced mechanical vats, their body fluids extracted to create Knockoff Elixirs.

“Sir?” Tyrano rose up from his seat and hastily covered his computer’s screen. Shortie’s feed caught a file’s title before he managed to do so, ‘Monster Girl Project: Test Log.’ “I didn’t expect you today.”

“No, you didn’t,” Enrique replied, hands behind his back like a corporate supervillain.

Len’s gaze, and the video feed, lingered on the clones in the pods. Quite a few members of Enrique’s escort lowered their laser rifle weapons at the sight. “Holy…” One of Enrique’s guards said, before noticing Wyvern’s scaled double. “Is that Wyvern? Did we grow her in a lab?”

“Wait, are we clones too?” another soldier in power asked. “Is that why we’re paid so little? Because we were programmed to shut up from birth?”

“No, you aren’t paid much because my father is trying to cut corners,” Enrique replied dryly. “You would have been paid half less if he had had his way. I covered the difference from my own pocket.”

“Still, you’re sure you want us to film this, sir?” A Private Security member asked, anxious. “If the world learns we’re doing this kind of stuff behind closed doors...”

“I know, but it has to be done,” Enrique said with a sigh, before glancing at Tyrano. “Pack your things, Doctor. We’re terminating the Knockoff program.”

“What?” Dr. Tyrano choked at this. “But sir, you can’t! I received no order from management!”

“I can, and I will. As for management, we’re currently facing some turnover.”

will kill us all if he knows!” Dr. Tyrano kept protesting, before clarifying his fear. “He’s going to kill me for letting

take responsibility for Alphonse and assume responsibilities for

can’t let you

red pointers aimed at his head, and a fifth between

you,” Enrique told one of his bodyguards with

guard defended his choice of target, which Ryan found the wisest of

any case, Doctor, we have ample proof that this project will lead to a disaster. If I were you, I would worry more about the weapons pointed at you than my brother’s wrath.” Enrique turned to his men. “Put up the explosives. I want nothing on this floor to remain usable. Sabino

the camera, but she followed without a word as Blackthorn and

she saw what remained

but shudder upon seeing him through the video feed. The alien creature Bloodstream had become floated helplessly inside a large, reinforced glass container; its body bloody red, and its all-too-human eyes

a hand on the glass, her voice breaking. She faced the creature’s countless eyes, none of them showing intelligence. “Do you… do you

lowered her

was already confronting Hector Manada in his garden. The old chairman of Dynamis had been busy working on his roses when the superheroes surrounded him.

of this?” Hector asked, immediately realizing

for human experimentation, drug fraud, bioterrorism, funding

judgmentally at the chairman’s

me?” Hector asked, more shocked than afraid. “I sign

doing this pro-bono,” Felix

a paper document. “Here is our

is Enrique’s signature,” he said, his voice breaking. “My own

the Knockoff Elixirs with a Psycho’s biological agent. Either would

city!” The chairman ground his teeth, before

“I can’t close my eyes on something this big,

care much either way,” Devilry said bluntly. “But

him. His bodyguards looked ready to open fire. “Are you really going to try fighting us?” Felix asked, before

realized they weren’t paid enough to die for a corrupt billionaire, and

now realized that he was only one man facing the powerful superheroes he

unimpressed. “Wardrobe,

“You have

with vindictiveness, as Wardrobe put handcuffs on him. “My elder son will take over now, and there will be blood in the

XVI,” Felix replied, as he and Reload dragged the chairman outside

Ryan complained through his private line with Livia, furious at his kitten’s error. “This is a reference to Louis XV, not Louis XVI!

a cloud in her full, red glory. The Opis armor fit her even better than Ryan thought. Its sleek crimson steel espoused her form like a second skin, while her retractable tentacles waited for activation. She had a hard time

me, ma bourgeoise,” Ryan

she replied with the same tone, this time close enough that the courier

said, as he switched to Len’s feed. He wanted to witness this, and to offer words of

to the control panel overseeing the creature’s prison. Enrique and Dr. Tyrano stood nearby, observing her; the former with guilt and compassion, the latter with curiosity. “What are you doing?” the reptilian Genius asked his

bottled, chemical agent through a hole in the control panel. The machinery transferred the rainbow-colored substance into

in theory restructure Bloodstream’s genetic code and make him human again. This was the last hope of a despairing

But…

be changed, no matter how one tried.

transforming into a denizen of the higher colored dimensions. The monster of Ryan’s childhood had become something beyond human, beyond

didn’t sound angry, or

Just sad.

she had loved was long dead, and would never come

Though he felt nothing but disdain for Bloodstream,

struggled to suppress.

no matter what Len chose.

had moved from denial and bargaining to

she slowly

another Genome with this exact power combination,” the Genius pleaded with

doctor,” the CBO replied,

to fight back, but the reptile was no combattant, and the promise of being allowed to continue working

and looked at her sire one last time. Perhaps

Father,” Len said with

button, and sprinklers flooded

Tyrano’s security system worked as advertised. His cure destroyed the monster’s cells, grinding them down into formless

euthanasia,

longed for his adoptive father’s demise, hated him with all his

now, as he watched Len silently put a hand against the glass as life left the creature, the courier could only share some of her sorrow. Though Ryan knew him, there was a good man inside that thing once. A father lost

would only live in his

you,” Ryan promised his sister. He wanted to be in the same room as her, to hold Len in his arms and comfort her one last time. “You’re not

cut the video feed, though her voice kept echoing through the communicator. “But… not today. Leave me alone a moment