The Perfect Run

By the time Ryan reached Ischia Island, the area had already turned into a warzone.

The Mechron submarine had made landfall before Ryan arrived, unleashing a motley crew of cured Meta-Gang members, Geniuses outfitted with advanced power armors, and berserk Pandas on Ischia Island’s shores. They were welcomed by inactive turrets, Augusti gunners on the walls, and a horde of zombies buried beneath the beach.

Ryan had never seen Mercury in the flesh, only through skulls he used as intermediaries. According to Livia, the old Olympian could infuse corpses with necromantic energy and pilot undead from afar. With Geist out of the picture, the Augusti had decided to raise all his victims: bloated corpses left to drown beneath the waves, skeletons cleaned of all traces of flesh, and the diseased remains of the island’s test subjects. A yellow glow illuminated their eyes.

And who better to lead the legion of the dead than the god of war Mars himself?

Still, this army faced powerful opposition. Vladimir had transformed into a metallic version of himself, and landed first on the shore alongside the The steel man absorbed Mars’ swords and spears into his body while stomping on any corpse foolish enough to get in his way, quickly growing from three meters tall to four. Suicidal undead tried to climb on his legs with explosive belts, but the quickly swept them off. The valiant bear tossed the kamikaze bombers into the sea where they exploded in fiery blasts.

Mars, after quickly realizing that most of his weapons wouldn’t affect Vladimir, switched from spears and swords to Genius-made weapons. A rain of Vulcan-made bombs fell on the iron giant, each with enough power to damage even Wyvern.

All of them turned to sand in a violet flash, while explosions rocked the Bliss fortress’ foundations.

Mars flinched in surprise, while a blonde woman stepped over the submarine and joined the fray. Acid Rain followed Vladimir and the on foot, and immediately worked to counter Mars’ power. Since she could switch items with those of equivalent mass with a wider radius than the Olympian, she completely neutralized his arsenal.

To his credit Mars tried. Bombs fell by the dozens, only to explode amidst his undead troops; he launched a gas trunk at Vladimir’s face, but it turned to sand midair; he even prepared to fight the giant in close combat with a thermal lance, but it transformed into a severed zombie’s arm within his hands.

In the end, the dreaded warrior that put Ryan and Felix on the run one loop ago could only retreat as a steel giant ran after him. “This is the Bay of Pigs all over again!” Vladimir snarled, as he fruitlessly attempted to catch the wily Olympian. The giant proved no better at the task than abolishing private property, his hands grabbing only sand.

Ryan couldn’t help but smile beneath his helmet, as the scene reminded him of an old Looney Toons cartoon; though he doubted Mars would have Bugs Bunny’s luck. And indeed, when the Olympian attempted to fly away by unleashing pressurized air, Acid Rain switched it with seawater. The helpless Mars stumbled on the ground and was immediately mauled by the

Livia had been correct. Genome powers were a rock-paper-scissors game.

It didn’t matter how powerful you were, someone out there had the exact ability to counter yours. Through intelligence gathered over multiple loops, Ryan had arrayed the perfect match-ups against the so-called Olympians.

Not that the normies in their employ fared better. Shortie had bubbled a dozen gunners, while a trail of explosions on the beach followed Felix as he blew up undead left and right. The Doll provided suppression fire with a Red Flux minigun, her own Mechron-made power armor shrugging off bullets.

Worse, Vulcan’s security system had failed to activate and intercept the invaders. At first Ryan thought his own Geniuses had done it… before noticing multiple Augusti trapped inside their own power armors, unable to move.

“Livia, you cheeky little spider, that’s who you called!” Ryan couldn’t help but laugh. Still, he wondered how Vulcan had the time to sabotage the defenses. Since the power armor she had created suffered from the same problems as the turrets, the courier assumed his ex-girlfriend had put a killswitch inside her creations since their inception. Insurance in case the Augusti leadership turned against her.

And she had cashed in.

Still, though the attackers were clearing out the beach, the defenders on the fortress’ walls held their ground. Having expected an assault by Dynamis, they had reinforced the ancient castle with anti-air defenses and heavy artillery. Once their allies on the ground were defeated and the risk of friendly fire reduced, they started dropping shells on the beach. Though their projectiles couldn’t hold off Vladimir’s advance—and in fact only fueled his growth—the others had to take cover or run behind the giant.

Some of the Killer Seven were among the defenders, with Vamp and Night Terror using rocket launchers, Sparrow unleashing deadly volleys of lasers from her hands, and Mortimer disdaining the heavy artillery for a subtle but deadly sniper rifle.

Ryan circled the fortress from above, trying to locate the more dangerous Cancel and Pluto. Some Augusti gunners noticed him and tried to shoot him down with anti-air cannons, but the courier froze time and retaliated with shockwaves. Cannons exploded one after another, sending defenders tumbling down the walls.

While he cleared out the anti-air defense perimeter, Ryan noticed a familiar red blur moving around the beach, pushing his allies out of harm’s way whenever projectiles threatened to hit them.

“Mr. Wave?” Ryan shouted from above, his voice echoing over the battlefield. “You were supposed to destroy the Mechron bases!”

“God asked things of Mr. Wave too once,” the Genome replied, as he quickly pushed Felix to the side before one of Mortimer’s bullets could blow his head off. “And Mr. Wave replied ‘say please!’”

The man said it with so much style that Ryan couldn’t hold his blasphemy against him.

Once word of the Carnival’s presence reached Lightning Butt, however…

The appearance of two new figures on the main wall, right above Narcinia’s flower garden, caught Ryan’s attention. They emerged from a reinforced door, the first with the same cheery smile always plastered on her face, the second with a furious scowl.

“Matty, Cruella and her Dalmatian at twelve o’clock high,” Ryan said through the communicator, as the two killers joined Mortimer, Vamp, and Night Terror. No one answered, so the courier guessed the silent assassin was already in position.

“Sweet, I don’t know where to start,” Cancel shouted over the song of bullets, raising a bazooka towards the beach alongside her comrades while wearing riot gear.

Unlike her subordinate, Pluto didn’t bother with body armor. She didn’t need it, or so she thought. “Traitors first,” the Augusti underboss hissed while glaring at Felix. Already, Ryan noticed the sand below the kitten’s feet shifting in strange and dangerous ways. “I should have killed him long—”

She didn’t finish her sentence, as a tranquilizer dart hit her in the neck, and another hit Cancel right below the helmet. The latter instantly turned her bazooka at the attack’s source while Mortimer did the same with his sniper’s rifle, but saw nothing.

Pluto hastily tried to remove the dart, but her hands fumbled before they even reached her neck. The Augusti Underboss who had nearly killed Ryan in the past, and successfully murdered countless others, stumbled and collapsed. Night Terror dropped his cannon to catch his superior in his arms, but Pluto had already fallen into a catatonic state.

Though Ryan knew tranquilizers usually took minutes to affect their target, the Alchemo-made anesthetic spread through the Genomes’ bloodstream and nerves in seconds. The courier had seen Pluto’s power in action enough times not to take any risk with her. She had to be dealt with swiftly with no chance to activate her death curse. Cancel, who was just as dangerous, fell unconscious on the wall’s bricks.

An invisible assassin had taken out Pluto and Cancel before they could even enter the game, and brought a partner.

When Shroud became visible on the walls right behind the Killer Seven with a glass-coated tranquilizer gun in his hands, so did his lucky charm. Ryan had to admit that her glass armor fit her like a glove, especially when she removed her helmet and let her golden hair flow.

“Fortuna?” Vamp choked while drawing a handgun and pointing it at the couple. Mortimer and Night Terror exchanged a glance. “You’re working with them?”

“I am,” Lady Luck replied with a determined frown. After receiving Alchemo’s memory treatment, she had remembered how the Killer Seven had tried to murder her brother in the previous loop… and she didn’t forgive. “Morty, Richie, don’t make this hard.”

Mortimer immediately dropped his sniper rifle, to Vamp’s dismay. “Mortimer, you coward!”

“They’ve got a living luck charm and K.O.’ed our power-canceller,” he said with utter defeatism, before falling to his knees with his hands behind his head. “Poor ol’ Mortimer ain’t rolling the dice.”

Vamp snarled and tried to open fire at the duo, only to slip on a brick. She barely had the time to scream before she stumbled over the wall and fell on the sand below, head-first.

“See?” Mortimer asked with a shrug. “It’s quicker this way.”

Night Terror glanced at the unconscious Pluto, then at Shroud’s tranquilizer gun. “I surrender,” he said meekly. The sun was still up, and so he couldn’t use his power.

busy trying to keep the giant Vladimir away from the walls with suppression lasers to interfere. “This leaves only

with shockwaves. A faint mist slipped inside the fortress, almost invisible. “It’s been a while since

they confiscated her phone!”

he has range and your lucky charms won’t work on Bacchus. He did take an oath of celibacy.” That, and Fortuna’s power

sure?” Shroud asked while keeping Mortimer at gunpoint. “Your power won’t

replied, before stepping through the blasted doors and into the fortress.

would probably consider it a

the shadows of Shroud and Fortuna vanishing behind him. All guards had moved outside to defend the perimeter, so nobody dared to stop the

None but the voices.

didn’t see him anywhere. Nor did the armor’s sensors pick

confess my sins while hauling you out of here?” Ryan remembered the fortress’ plans from his previous visit, and suspected that the priest

the Wrath of

waste. “I should have called myself Joan of Arc,” the courier said before smashing through a blast door blocking his path with shockwaves. The steel doors fell on the ground with a loud noise, though only darkness awaited

realized something was wrong with the architecture, though he couldn’t put his finger on what. The corridor’s angles looked perfect, too

have turned away from It.” Bacchus’ voice sounded almost warm and soothing. “This place is a temple to Its glory, which your mere

world turning purple. The darkness in front of him vanished, a wall of dented

let you,” Bacchus said as Ryan let time resume and unleashed a shockwave to his left, dispelling the illusion. “She is a bridge between

thirteen? Fourteen?” Ryan snickered before continuing his progress. Lamps in the ceiling flickered, and shadows shifted all around him. “That’s

you now.” Bacchus’ voice let out a sigh, and the blast door magically reformed behind Ryan. “But

And Bacchus attacked.

feet, making him stumble into a black abyss with fangs and teeth. The courier activated his jetpack, but a serpentine tongue caught his ankle

Ryan thought, but his own brain wouldn’t

fangs closed around his stomach and

his time-stop, and when the world turned purple, the courier stood inside a

even

time-stop briefly dispelled illusions. The courier suspected that telepaths worked by ‘broadcasting’ thoughts through Blue Flux,

themselves the moment time resumed. The next telepathic attack took the shape of a tide of blood swallowing Ryan and seeping into his armor. The courier instinctively held his breath, but the red liquid bypassed his lips

an illusion, and unlike Night Terror, it didn’t look like Bacchus could inflict real damage through hallucinations. However, the priest didn’t have to harm the time-traveler, only to delay him. If Augustus fell on

dispelled the red flood, and Ryan used shockwaves on the floor below his feet. The ground collapsed when time resumed, but when the time-traveler fell the hole went on and on forever. A hideous alien cacophony erupted around him, as strident as the scream of children.

as the cacophony

Insanity.

or other mental illnesses, destroying the victim’s

pain through centuries of time-looping, but a normal mind would have shattered under these psychic assaults. “You tortured her, until she forgot who

him with ten thousand voices in one. “Some in the Holy Church believed that only through pain

armor should have stopped them, they flayed the skin beneath the steel. Their

can do?” the courier said with a grunt. “My girlfriend scratches me

the one true God,” Bacchus replied softly. “It took days for her to accept this divine grace, but in the end,

your hiding room!” Ryan activated his power again, finding himself facing a steel floor with four animated, putrid corpses striking his back with

Mercury.

joint or weak point in the armor, Ryan thought, as he blasted the undead to pieces in the frozen

the courier already felt mentally exhausted as if he had overslept. The

sheer headache, Ryan realized, as he tried to remember his current location inside the maze-like facility. Thankfully, his

and

Ischia Island. The Plushie was crucified to his left, a half-rotten Len to the

it,” the priest said, as he stabbed Ryan in the chest. The courier clenched his jaw not to scream as the spear’s tip twisted between his ribs. The illusion was so vivid that it fooled his nerves. “This world, this crooked

the hallucination, but it only made the priest stab him harder. “She wrecked your mind when you gained your powers.

twisting into a skull with a blue, alien light peering out of the eyes. “She was a prophet, and

she’s dead.” Or she

needle,

saw heaven,” Ryan reminded him. “A bright Yellow realm

turned a blinding Yellow, the courier’s eyes burning

saw a heaven with angels, maybe your old God

collapsed into a bed of flowers. Their petals were blue, their cores yellow. The courier noticed a hole in a glass ceiling above his head, and two undead with

of his way. He had somehow made his way into the Bliss labs in the facility’s heart, and

sense. His body had kept moving towards its destination like a sleepwalker, even if Bacchus assaulted his

save

ten undead bodyguards all equipped with submachine guns. The fossil dressed astonishingly well, wearing a cashmere back suit and a bowler hat, though he needed an ugly wooden cane to stand. His white beard couldn’t cover all his face’s warts and wrinkles, and his tiny eyes squinted at the glass

Mercury.

traveler to reality, the assembly lines turning into streams of shining data, the ceiling into the water, and the floor into an empty sky. Rain fell down on the

thought fearfully, before suddenly remembering he had his armor on. Or at least, he

him, the harder it became to

wasn’t it?” The time-traveler taunted his tormentor. “Or maybe

know what you speak of.” The pale blue world shifted into a spiral, a whirlpool sucking Ryan’s very soul. “Don’t you see that my work is for the

believed himself the tool of a higher power,

blue spiral turned into the face of Andreas Torque, his eyes ablaze

“I guess you were too much

and started choking the life

twisted into an abomination with four eyes and

hurt when he tried to. His vision blurred, as fingers tore into his skull to rip open his brain matter. And Bacchus kept ranting, his eyes dividing into a nightmarish kaleidoscope. “I can’t stand this reality!” he shrieked. “It’s all wrong! It’s all twisted and broken! Somewhere in that brain is

and Ryan didn’t

them trying to remove his helmet with welding tools. Mercury observed the process from a safe distance, still

forced the undead off

resumed, Mercury’s eyes widening

break his jaw. The ancient Genome dropped his cane and fell on his back, completely still. His undead collapsed at the same time as him, the yellow light in

stumbling from the mental pain. A Green Flux flash blinded him for a second,