The Perfect Run

A part of Ryan always knew it would end this way, ever since he first set foot in New Rome.

He had tried to get away from this battle, to run circles around it, to delay it, to out-think it, but he couldn't run away from it. In the end, all he could do was stand his ground and fight.

And that he did.

A mighty crimson bolt struck him in the chest, the electricity redirected by his armor's circuitry. Though the lightning would have fried a man alive, it dispersed harmlessly to the false god's dismay. Ryan immediately activated the Gravity Gun in his chest while Augustus was briefly startled, firing a black sphere straight at his foe's stomach.

Augustus quickly caught the projectile with his left hand as if it were a tennis ball, and found himself trapped. The black sphere pushed him backward and above, higher towards the skies. Ryan gave pursuit, both foes flying above the clouds in a perilous ascent.

"Dynamis." Augustus clenched his jaws, his eyes ablaze with rage as he recognized the technology. "I knew it."

He attempted to crush the black sphere with both hands, but though its surface bent and cracked before the iron grip of his fingers, it resisted. Ryan calculated the angle as they ascended, the blue in the skies giving way to darkness. The stars became visible beyond the ozone layer, while New Rome's gulf looked no larger than a pond beneath them. The courier wondered if he would be able to see Ghoul's rocket from this altitude.

His hopes of watching Augustus follow the undead and Alphonse Manada into interstellar exile were quickly dashed.

"There it is!" Mob Zeus shouted, the electrical halo around him becoming so bright, so illuminating, that it would have burnt Ryan's eyes were it not for his helmet’s lenses. "The supreme lightning of victory! The absolute power, that sunk islands, turned castles to dust, and split the atom!"

Ryan's armor sent alarms about abnormal electromagnetic activity, so the courier immediately backed away and fled west. Augustus became a burning star above his head, and then exploded in a cataclysmic light show.

A burning supernova of crimson plasma set the atmosphere ablaze, unleashing a blast that rivaled Ryan's own A-bomb. A wall of fire erupted in the skies, expanding in a spherical wave of energy annihilating all in its path. Crimson thunderbolts coursed in all directions, tainting the black void of space red. The sheer thermal wave heated up the air, starting a blast of burning air stronger than a hurricane and faster than sound.

Ryan froze time, and though Augustus' crimson lightning kept working in the frozen time, it did halt the enormous blast of displaced, super-heated air. Putting all power in his jetpack, the courier broke the sound barrier and outpaced the fireball. Even though he managed to avoid the worst of the blast, the cashmere poncho over his armor went down in flames, and the heat made his armor's paint peel away.

Even though the fireball now spanned kilometers, the shockwave eventually weakened and died. Ryan glanced over his shoulder, to see a dying crimson sun fill up the heavens above him.

Was that why Augustus' Red Elixir had given him lightning manipulation? Because he associated it with godhood and power? Ryan supposed that the Orange one had made Mob Zeus' feeling of being untouchable uncomfortably real. Worse, the catastrophic detonation confirmed what the courier had long suspected.

Augustus' lightning generation had no upper limit.

Yes, Lightning Butt needed a little time to generate anything stronger than a thunderbolt, but he could produce enough power and heat to create nuclear explosions. Maybe he could even manipulate electrons to somehow break atoms.

No wonder Mob Zeus had managed to sink Malta. If given free reign, he could probably destroy human civilization on his own.

Ryan couldn't allow him to do so.

A shadow emerged from the blinding light, chasing after the courier and quickly gained ground on him. The sheer power and speed of Augustus' flight caused a small tornado to form beneath his feet, and no black sphere impeded the living statue anymore.

Ryan hastily turned around to face his nemesis, flying with both fists raised before him. Augustus answered the challenge by smiting the courier with a torrent of bloody lightning.

Instead of dodging, Ryan flew straight through the thunderstorm, pushing his power armor's resistance to the limit. The Saturn Armor stockpiled the lightning in an internal battery, but the sheer voltage strained it. Still, it allowed the courier to emerge from the lightning right in front of a surprised Augustus.

Ryan froze time, and punched Lightning Butt in the left cheek.

Black particles surged around the courier's fingers, swallowing his hand in darkness. In this punch, Ryan poured all his memories of watching Bliss victims wasting away, of finding Narcinia in a cage, of Augustus striking Hargraves while the world came to an end, of Mars trying to murder his own son, of Pluto successfully killing Fortuna, of all the hideous crimes he had seen take place under Mob Zeus's orders across his adventures in New Rome.

Ryan’s hand hit Lightning Butt with so much strength, so much weight behind it, that the blow reverberated across the Saturn Armor. For a brief moment, the time-traveler worried that his power hadn't grown strong enough to inflict substantial damage, that all his efforts had been for naught in the end.

And then the split appeared.

The left side of Augustus' face cracked around the impact, a red light glowing from inside the tiny rifts spreading across his cheek, his lips, and his forehead. The blow sent the god wannabe falling down, but he quickly regained control of his flight.

Yet instead of engaging Ryan again in melee, Augustus hovered in place as time resumed, looking up at the armored time-traveler flying above his head with surprise… and a hint of fear.

Their positions from the battle's start had reversed.

"You wounded me," Augustus said, half shocked, half angry.

"Really?" the courier replied, freezing time again and closing the gap between them. "Let's check!"

And Ryan punched Augustus again!

Lightning Butt tried to dodge, but his own reflexes worked against him. For years he had felt secure in his invulnerability, letting his foes break their hands against his metal skin as a show of strength. His survival instinct was fighting his arrogance, and Ryan’s hand struck before this internal battle could resolve.

This time, the courier aimed for the right side of the head, and witnessed more cracks appear. The electrical halo around Augustus briefly shorted out, revealing the old man underneath the luster of power. Red lines spread across his ivory visage, like a damaged statue. His haughty, arrogant expression had turned into a wince of pain. Ryan couldn't help but feel a deep sense of satisfaction at the sight.

“Remember,” the courier said, “you are mortal.”

Time resumed, and Augustus struck back with a bestial snarl.

His first blow hit Ryan's chest with enough strength to bend the reinforced metal, and the second sent the courier falling down to Earth at the speed of a cannonball. Ryan regained control of his flight after crashing through a cumulonimbus, floating above the vast blue expanse of the Mediterranean Sea. Instead of engaging his foe again, he fled west as fast as he could.

Augustus immediately pursued the time-traveler with feverish zeal, his fear replaced with murderous desperation. He couldn't let anyone capable of harming him live to fight another day.

so close to the water, and so swiftly, that the sea seemed to split

you asked, p'tit rital," his friend's voice answered while the courier dived to the left to dodge a crimson thunderbolt. Unfortunately, the lightning changed course and homed on to the time-traveler, though the armor

the

"Really far. Why?"

need

above the empty but illuminated streets of Monaco, the sun was all but gone from the sky. A golden glow surrounded

neck and squeezing. The mob boss' eyes burnt with savage hatred, the glowing red splits across his face making him look like a demon from Hell. The outside finally matched the

release his hold on him. Mob Zeus attempted to punch him in the time anomaly, but the courier swiftly drew upon decades of judo practice, grabbed his foe’s arm, and tossed the ivory man towards

the ruins of the Monte-Carlo casino with a devastating crash,

airspace, and delighted upon seeing Augustus disappear in a bright flash of violet light. The golden glow

he slept and confirmed he wouldn't wake up in Monaco,

Monaco as he gathered his breath. He had worried that Augustus would prove immune to that too, but thankfully, even an invulnerable man couldn't escape this cursed city's grasp. The time-traveler didn't wish an eternity fighting clowns on anyone, but Lightning Butt had more than earned

to announce the news, when his armor's sensors

An electromagnetic spike?

light erupted at Monaco's border, and a furious

place for a split second and instinctively halted the march of time. But Lightning Butt didn't slow down and tackled his foe,

How? Did Augustus' invulnerability grant him

far simpler

go, either out of terror... or

Ryan over one

flight ended at the Tête-de-chien promontory where the courier's adventure in Monaco first began. Augustus smashed Ryan's head against the pavement with enough strength to crack the helmet's lenses,

towered over Ryan as he struggled to stand back on his feet. "Here is where you belong," Mob Zeus said while lifting his

his head like a watermelon, and jumped back on his feet. Augustus’ heel shattered the pavement in a

the hand you deserve!" Ryan replied before freezing time. He swiftly backhanded the mob boss before he could adjust his position, his Black Flux-infused fist hitting the Genome supremacist

the mob boss stumbling. Lightning Butt quickly regained his footing, and touched his chin as if expecting to bleed. When time resumed, neither

Augustus didn't attempt

an inch of his life with his bare hands, to better feel

than most, but your efforts are for naught," Augustus said before taking a step forward. From the height of his two meters, the ivory man towered above his rival like Mount Everest above

I'm fighting you for?" Ryan sneered, before doing some

"What else?"

"Because I want to make a great many people happy, and you're

his head to dodge his deadly punch and retaliated with an uppercut. The blow, shrouded in Black Flux, would have shattered a normal human's

the notion. "The likes of us stand above lesser men. They exist to serve us; we don't exist to serve them. It is our will that decides what is right from wrong.

Ryan while he waited for his countdown to end

sneered in disgust. "Such weaklings are

from nine to ten. "While you

his daughter hurt Augustus more than the punches

too!" Ryan froze time, Black Flux swirling around his fingers. "That

to himself. "Once you're out of the

him

for minutes, perhaps hours; the universe turned violet, then returned to normal, then switched back to violet again in an endless cycle. The two duelists stepped down the hill's steel slope, one punch at

was no martial art expert, he had far more experience with hand-to-hand fighting than Fallout. Lightning Butt’s style was rough and direct,

lacked something priceless, an edge that

Experience.

had bested across the years. He saw all the people he had fought in close combat over more than eight centuries of main quests, side-quests, random encounters, optional boss battles, and adventures across Europe. Ryan’s body reacted on its own, drawing upon decades spent perfecting boxing, Krav Maga, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, street fighting, and all martial arts known

seventy, but he was the child among the

rifts spread over a white wasteland. He tried to dodge and to parry Ryan’s blows sometimes, but his own reflexes worked against him. Having

overwhelm almost anyone, but Ryan’s reflexes had honed to perfection over centuries. The

expression had long twisted into one of permanent

Black Flux was damaging the gauntlets as much

had to bring an end to the

unfocused, desperate. When his punches missed Ryan and hit Monaco’s hills, the very ground trembled before his might. His

flew alongside a tooth. "Because for all your might, your fists only carry the strength of your arrogance behind them. While mine carry the weight of centuries, and

work of dozens of people, who each gave their knowledge, their work, their very lifeforce to make this wonder possible. From Len to Jasmine, from Felix to Livia,

Ryan raised his

blasted the ground with lightning, blowing dust in all directions. Ryan's fists hit

cloud dissipated, Lightning Butt had taken flight and

works through your hands, and only within that temporal anomaly of yours," Augustus said, a crimson electrical current coursing through his

his jetpack to catch Augustus, the warlord denied him the privilege of another brawl. Lightning Butt bravely ran circles around

the mob boss as he chased after him.

to overcharge the armor's limited stockpile capacity, the courier dodged to the side, but like before the thunderbolt

a mistake, as a

Saturn

d'Azur. Once a coastal and sunny paradise, the Genome

any closer than ten meters. Since he flew even faster than the time-traveler and resisted his Violet power, there was

When Ryan tried to hide behind a hill or a tree, the lightning always struck him from an unexpected direction. Mob Zeus