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.

flew so close to the water,

rital," his friend's voice answered while the courier dived to the left to dodge a crimson thunderbolt.

asked, as the Monegasque

"Really far. Why?"

might need to redraw

but illuminated streets of Monaco, the sun was all

source of these anomalies," Augustus said, before closing his hands around Ryan's armored neck and squeezing. The mob boss' eyes burnt with savage hatred, the glowing red splits across his

by surprise, making the electric maniac 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

the Monte-Carlo casino with a devastating crash,

The golden glow around the Saturn Armor vanished as soon as he crossed the Monegasque border and the fortifications Simon had set

save until after he slept and confirmed he

but thankfully, even

Livia to announce the news, when

An electromagnetic spike?

flash of violet light erupted at Monaco's border, and a furious Augustus

halted the march of time. But

How? Did Augustus' invulnerability grant him

far simpler had

had let Augustus go, either out of terror...

dimension would rather screw Ryan over

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, and the courier’s vision briefly blurred. A drop of blood fell down

he struggled to stand back on his feet. "Here is where you belong," Mob Zeus said while lifting his right foot like an executioner’s axe. "Under my

watermelon, and jumped back on his feet. Augustus’ heel shattered the

He swiftly backhanded the mob boss before he

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

promontory, their feet firmly anchored to the ground. Augustus didn't attempt to zap Ryan again, perhaps expecting the courier's armor to absorb

the lightning lord would rather beat the time-traveler within an inch of his life with his bare hands, to better feel his bones breaking

taking a step forward. From the height of his two meters, the ivory man towered above his rival like Mount Everest

Ryan sneered, before doing some

"What else?"

be happy." Ryan froze time, right as Augustus raised his right fist. "Because I want to make a great many people happy, and you're a threat to their

Black Flux, would

serve us; we don't exist to serve them. It is our will that decides what is right from wrong. It is our destiny, our

his countdown to end with a haymaker, but the courier

sneered in disgust.

I made Livia happy," Ryan replied, as he counted from nine to ten. "While you only ever brought her pain

mention of his daughter hurt Augustus more than

too!" Ryan froze time, Black Flux swirling around his fingers. "That you're an irredeemable piece of shit! Even

to himself. "Once you're out of the

Butt in the chest, making him snarl as a new crack

hours; the universe turned violet, then returned to normal, then switched back to violet again in an endless

Fallout. Lightning Butt’s style was rough and direct, almost

something priceless, an edge that

Experience.

Ryan didn't see the Genome suprematist he had grown to despise. He saw the boxers, judo masters, Psychos, ninjas, clowns, ninja clowns, gangsters, petty tyrants, and heroes that he 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

over seventy, but he was

tried to dodge and to parry Ryan’s blows sometimes, but his own reflexes worked against him. Having never needed to

Ryan’s reflexes had honed to perfection over centuries. The

cosmetic. Augustus' expression had long twisted into one of permanent pain, though rage was one hell of

Black Flux was damaging the gauntlets

an

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

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

their knowledge, their work, their very lifeforce to make this wonder possible. From Len to Jasmine, from Felix to Livia, all of them contributed. Their

raised his hand

blowing dust in all directions.

cloud dissipated, Lightning Butt had taken

that temporal anomaly of yours," Augustus said, a crimson electrical current coursing through his cracked skin. "Your other weapons

crimson lightning. The Saturn Armor absorbed it, but when Ryan activated his jetpack to catch Augustus, the warlord denied

the mob boss as he chased after him.

before the thunderbolt acted like a homing missile and hit him at lightspeed. 'Warning, storage capacity at half-percent!' the armor warned after absorbing the electricity

been a mistake, as a twisted smile flashed across

Saturn

a deadly course and pursuit over the French Côte d'Azur. Once a coastal and sunny paradise, the Genome Wars had left only ruins, muddy sand, and wild forests growing over both.

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

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