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, and so swiftly,

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 absorbed

far?" Ryan asked, as the

"Really far. Why?"

might need to redraw

illuminated streets of Monaco, the sun was

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 inside. "Good. I

electric maniac release his hold on him. Mob Zeus attempted to punch him in the time anomaly, but the courier swiftly

with a devastating crash, collapsing

upon seeing Augustus disappear in a bright flash of violet light. The golden glow around the Saturn Armor

considered delaying his save until after he slept and confirmed he wouldn't wake up

sigh and took a moment to observe 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

to announce the news,

An electromagnetic spike?

at Monaco's border, and a furious Augustus materialized barely ten

startled courier froze in place for a split second and instinctively halted the march of time. But Lightning Butt

Did Augustus' invulnerability grant him immunity to

far

had let Augustus go, either out of terror... or most probably,

screw Ryan over one last time than have a

with enough strength to crack the helmet's lenses, and the courier’s vision briefly blurred. A drop of blood fell down his forehead, while his last reserves of Green Flux coursed through his

as 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.

aside before Lightning Butt could stomp his head like a watermelon, and jumped back on his feet. Augustus’ heel shattered the pavement in

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 in

stumbling. Lightning Butt quickly regained his footing, and touched his chin as if expecting to bleed. When time resumed,

feet firmly anchored to the ground. Augustus didn't attempt to zap Ryan

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

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 all other mountains. "There can only

for?" Ryan sneered,

"What else?"

raised his right fist. "Because I want to make a great many people happy, and you're

with an uppercut. The blow, shrouded in Black Flux, would have shattered a

exist to serve us; we don't exist to serve them. It is our will that decides what is

tried to strike Ryan while he waited for his countdown to end

happy? You sound like Hargraves." Augustus sneered in disgust. "Such weaklings

made Livia happy," Ryan replied, as he counted from nine to

mention of his daughter hurt Augustus more than the punches ever did. "You

warn you about me because she knows it too!" Ryan froze time, Black Flux swirling around his fingers. "That

to himself. "Once you're out of the

him snarl as a new crack

switched back to violet again in

Butt’s style was rough and direct, almost robotic, but nonetheless effective. His body didn't feel fatigue, and each of his

edge that allowed Ryan

Experience.

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

over seventy, but he

a white wasteland. He tried to dodge and to parry Ryan’s blows sometimes, but his own reflexes worked against him. Having never needed to dodge an attack or protect himself in over twenty years, Augustus

perfection over centuries. The courier focused on dodging the enemy strikes, and counterattacking whenever an opening

cosmetic. Augustus' expression had long twisted into one

his armor sent alarms. The Black Flux was damaging the gauntlets as much as the repeated strikes against Augustus’

to bring an end to

rage, his movements growing wilder, unfocused, desperate. When his punches missed Ryan and hit Monaco’s hills, the very ground trembled before his

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 the

gave 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 strength coursed through

raised his hand to deliver

with lightning, blowing dust

the cloud dissipated, Lightning Butt had taken flight and loomed over the

anomaly of yours," Augustus said,

it, but when Ryan activated his jetpack to catch Augustus, the warlord denied him the privilege of another brawl. Lightning

Ryan taunted the mob boss as he chased after

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

had been a mistake, as a twisted smile flashed

the Saturn

pursuit over the French Côte d'Azur. Once a coastal and sunny paradise, the Genome Wars had left only

prevailed, but Mob Zeus refused to let the courier get any closer than ten meters. Since he flew even faster than the time-traveler and resisted his Violet power, there was little Ryan could do to close the gap. He attempted his usual tricks, blowing up dust from the ground or trying to make

Ryan feigned retreat, Augustus gave pursuit only to back down whenever the courier turned around. When Ryan tried to hide behind a hill or a tree, the lightning always struck him