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.”
“Your brother will kill us all if he knows!” Dr. Tyrano kept protesting, before
clarifying his fear. “He’s going to kill me for letting you in.”
Enrique didn't flinch. “I will take responsibility for Alphonse and assume
responsibilities for my actions today. You have nothing to fear, doctor.”
“It does! I can't let you do—"
Four laser rifles’ red pointers aimed at his head, and a fifth between his legs. The
scientist quickly raised his hands in surrender.
“Boris, how many times will I have to tell you,” Enrique told one of his bodyguards
with exasperation. “Not the nuts.”
“He's keeping a secret weapon there, sir,” the guard defended his choice of
target, which Ryan found the wisest of them all. “I can feel it in my bones.”
“In 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 and I will deal with... with the
source of it all.”
Ryan could almost see Len flinch behind the camera, but she followed without a
word as Blackthorn and Tyrano entered Bloodstream’s room.
And then, she saw what remained of her father.
Ryan couldn't help 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
glancing at Len. Could it still recognize her, even without the infectious agent in
her body?
“Father...” Len put a hand on the glass, her voice breaking. She faced the
creature's countless eyes, none of them showing intelligence. “Do you... do you
recognize me?”
Silence answered, and Len lowered her head in despair.
Ryan gave his sister some privacy and switched to the other feed. By now,
Wyvern's group 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. His bodyguards had hands on their laser rifles.
“What is the meaning of this?” Hector asked, immediately realizing something
was wrong.
Wyvern wasted no time in laying down the law. “Hector Manada, you are under
arrest for human experimentation, drug fraud, bioterrorism, funding organized
crime, weapon trafficking, and virtually every medical crime private courts have a
provision for.”
“Add crimes against fashion!” Wardrobe added, looking judgmentally at the
chairman's dirty shirt and pants. “That outfit is hideous!”
“Arresting me?” Hector asked, more shocked than afraid. “I sign your
paychecks.”
“We're doing this pro-bono,” Felix said with a shrug.
Wyvern handed her former CEO a paper document. “Here is our mandate.”
Hector’s expression deflated as he read. “This is Enrique’s signature,” he said,
his voice breaking. “My own son...”
“And the board's,” Wyvern added, pointing at other signatures. “We have
overwhelming evidence that you funded and armed the Meta-Gang, making you
an accomplice to their crimes, and poisoned the Knockoff Elixirs with a Psycho’s
biological agent. Either would be grounds for summary execution, but we believe
in the rule of law. If you surrender without a fight, you will be entitled to a fair
trial.”
“A fair trial? I run this city!” The chairman ground his teeth, before glancing at the
other members of Il Migliore. “Devilry, Reload—"
“Sorry, ex-boss,” Reload interrupted him with a hint of disgust. “I can’t close my
eyes on something this big, even for a billion euro. It's Lex Luthor-level shit.”
“I don't care much either way,” Devilry said bluntly. “But you ain't solvable
anymore.”
Hector clenched his jaw, observed the determined heroes facing him. His
bodyguards looked ready to open fire. “Are you really going to try fighting us?”
Felix asked, before pointing at Wyvern. “We've got a dragon.”
The bodyguards exchanged glances, realized they weren't paid enough to die for
a corrupt billionaire, and lowered their weapons.
Hector looked ready to protest, but by now realized that he was only one man
facing the powerful superheroes he had spent millions recruiting. “I'm calling my
lawyers,” he said, giving up without a fight.
“Of course,” Wyvern replied, unimpressed. “Wardrobe, if you would.”
Wardrobe manifested handcuffs out of thin air. “You have the right to remain
silent, criminal scum!”
“You've condemned this city,” Hector said with vindictiveness, as Wardrobe put
handcuffs on him. “My elder son will take over now, and there will be blood in the
streets. You will see. After me, the flood.”
“Don't push it, Louis XVI,” Felix replied, as he and Reload dragged the chairman
outside his property. “You deserve the guillotine.”
“Louis XV!" Ryan complained through his private line with Livia, furious at his
kitten’s error. “This is a reference to Louis XV, not Louis XVI! Livia, how could you
date this uncultured bore?!”
“Let him eat cake,” Livia replied, before emerging from 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 managing her jetpack though.
“Marry me, ma bourgeoise,” Ryan asked playfully.
“Mmm, maybe later,” she replied with the same tone, this time close enough that
the courier could hear without the intercom. “So? Do we start now?”
“One second,” Ryan said, as he switched to Len’s feed. He wanted to witness
this, and to offer words of comfort to his sister.
Len had stopped mourning her father, and instead moved 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 underwater counterpart.
“Trying... one last thing,” Len said, before introducing a bottled, chemical agent
through a hole in the control panel. The machinery transferred the rainbow-
colored substance into Bloodstream’s prison.
This cure, developed through their group's research into the Psycho condition
and Mongrel's power, should in theory restructure Bloodstream’s genetic code
and make him human again. This was the last hope of a despairing daughter to
save the father she had loved.
But...
Some things couldn’t be changed, no matter how one tried. Ryan knew that all
too well.
“It's not working...” Len lamented, as the red blob absorbed the substance
without changing back. The creature had mutated too much, halfway
transforming into a denizen of the higher colored dimensions. The monster of
Ryan's childhood had become something beyond human, beyond reason. “It's
not working.”
She didn’t sound angry, or even surprised.
Just sad.
The father she had loved was long dead, and would never come back.
“I'm sorry,” Ryan apologized. Though he felt nothing but disdain for Bloodstream,
he understood his adoptive sister's palpable sorrow.
“I knew it.” He could sense the sob she struggled to suppress. “I knew it before I
tried, Riri. But... but I still hoped.”
“What will you do now?” Enrique asked. Somehow, Ryan had the feeling he
wouldn't interfere, no matter what Len chose. He probably believed, much like
the courier, that a daughter was entitled to deciding her father's fate.
Len’s voice turned deeper, firmer. She had moved from denial and bargaining to
acceptance. “What needs to be done.”
Ryan watched, as she slowly started activating Tyrano’s failsafe.
The good doctor quickly tried to protest. “Sir, there will never be another Genome
with this exact power combination,” the Genius pleaded with his superior. “Its
destruction will ruin years of research.”
“We have other means to make your dream a reality, doctor,” the CBO replied,
looking at Bloodstream. “Methods that won't compromise our conscience.”
Ryan half-expected Dr. Tyrano to fight back, but the reptile was no combattant,
and the promise of being allowed to continue working on his dream of
dinosaurhood mollified him.
When all that stood between Bloodstream and destruction was Len'’s finger, his
daughter sighed, and looked at her sire one last time. Perhaps she remembered
all the good times she shared with him, as well as the bad, before taking her final
decision.
“Goodbye, Father,” Len said with sorrow.
Shortie pushed the button, and sprinklers flooded Bloodstream’s container with
chemicals.
Without the added strength of Len’s blood agent to make Bloodstream immune to
it, Dr. Tyrano's security system worked as advertised. His cure destroyed the
monster's cells, grinding them down into formless organic goo. The red alien
shoggoth Freddie Sabino had turned into slowly started turning white, its eyes
losing their colors. The creature didn’t even seem to suffer.
This was euthanasia, plain and simple.
Ryan knew he should have felt happy and relieved. He had longed for his
adoptive father's demise, hated him with all his heart. He had nursed that grudge
like a worm in an apple.
But 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 to madness and
the Alchemist's cruel disregard for life.
And now, that man would only live in his daughter's memories.
“Whatever happens, I will always be there for 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 alone.”
“I... Me too, Riri. I'll always be there.” Len cut the video feed, though her voice
kept echoing through the communicator. “But... not today. Leave me alone a
moment with him. Please.”
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Ryan cut the communication,
focusing on the moment. Livia had
great difficulty ey stationary,
neg an ulous figures in
bps “w .
the air. “Are you done struggling to fly
? » c
straight?” the courier asked, before
. : f “
frowning behind his helmet. “Unless
) . "
you're trying to cheer me up?” The
content is on Novelxo.org! Read
the latest chapter there!
“A bit of both,” she replied while stabilizing her flight somewhat. “Seeing alternate
selves learning how to pilot does not equal gaining their skill. How did you end up
learning how to pilot a flying suit?”
“I don’t remember, to be honest,” Ryan admitted. “I mastered jetpacks like, three
hundred years ago.”
“Is there a skill you haven't mastered?”
“Ice-skating.” This made her laugh. “Miss Augusti, do you know how to skate on
ice and snow?”
“I do,” his girlfriend replied playfully. “And I could teach you... if you promise to
cheer up.”
Ryan looked in the direction of Dynamis’ HQ. “Il am cheering up.”
“Ryan...”
“I don’t know,” the courier replied. “I've hated him with all my heart. Wished him
dead. I should feel joy and closure, not... not this.”
A huge burden had been lifted off from his shoulders, yet it left a bitter taste in his
mouth.
“I guess I feel sad for Len and it bleeds through.”
His words didn't fool Livia “I don’t think so, Ryan. I think you feel pity for her
father, because you understand that unlike the likes of Adam, he didn’t choose to
become what he was. A part of you truly wanted to see him cured.”
Ryan remembered one of Bloodstream’s rants, when he had caught his daughter
taking her Elixir. The Psycho had said that he took two potions to better protect
her in a hostile world, and these words had stayed with his adoptive son years
afterward.
Maybe she had a point. A part of him still pitied Freddie Sabino for making an
uninformed choice for selfless reasons, and paying the price since. He had
moved beyond his burning hatred for his adoptive father, and found some
embers of compassion left.
“But if my words can’t cheer you up,” Livia said, shyly moving her hands behind
her back. “How about... we dance?”
“A dance?” Ryan asked, surprised by the offer.
“I like dancing,” his girlfriend admitted. “But I've never tried with a partner I can't
guess the steps of. Besides, we only have very little time left.”
Alphonse was on the way.
“Here's my offer.” Ryan extended his hand at her, eager to take his mind off
Bloodstream’s death. “I teach you how to dance in the skies, and you train me for
the winter Olympics.”
“That depends.” She giggled. “Are you a good dancer, Mr. Romano?”
Oh, she dared challenge him? “The very best,” Ryan replied, taking her hand into
his own. “Like no one ever was.”
And so, they waltzed in the skies.
As the couple made circles in the skies above New Rome, their armors’
backpacks opened and released a green dust upon the city below. The wind
carried it like pollen, spreading this strange cure to the population.
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Unknown to all, a new, friendly virus
5 , 5
had infected New Rome's population.
One that would destroy all traces of
LL : ,
Dynamis’ Knockoffs in people's
blood, purifying t (Vang wolld-be
IE
Genomes would wake up tomorrow
morning far more human than the
day before. They would probably
curse Ryan, unaware of the grim fate
they had been spared from...
unaware that they spread the cure
each time they breathed. On the
, x > 3
ground, Ryan's other allies distributed
the cure from high positions, or even
Fr)
through the city’s water system. The
content is on Novelxo.org! Read
the latest chapter there!
In weeks, all of Europe would have caught the Cure Flu, exorcising
Bloodstream’s ghost from the population.
The courier relished in his armor’s smooth controls and speed, as he and Livia
spread the cure to Rust Town, the Augusti’s territories, and the city’s center.
Thanks to data gathered in the Alchemist's lab, Ryan had added quite a few
surprises to his suit.
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Among other upgrades, he had
combined the Fisty brothers to the
gauntlets, which now included a Red
Flux shockwave projector based on
. , A
Bianca's power. ABlugh! uCgoveted
oprmputer all But eliminated lag time
inside the armor, making the armor
move like a second skin. Orange Flux
would reinforce the shielding in a
pinch, and Green Flux would heal
Ryan if he suffered internal injuries.
Yellow Flux should provide a defense
against conceptual attacks, and
White Flux made them all work
harmoniously. The content is on
Novelxo.org! Read the latest
chapter there!
Five Flux-based batteries, one for each color except Ryan's Violet, provided the
energy inside his backpack. Without his many allies to generate the necessary
Flux, this upgrade would have been impossible. From the to Jerome, and even
Shortie, everyone had contributed.
Last but not least, Shortie had included a miniaturized version of Dynamis’
Gravity Gun in his chest. Ryan intended to keep that trump card a secret until the
time came to send Lightning Butt to a retirement home.
He hoped it would make a difference in the fight to come.
“He's here, Ryan,” Livia warned, as she ended the dance.
Already? How? Even if he had been warned as soon as Enrique set foot in Lab
Sixty-Six, no plane or helicopter could fly all the way from Sicily in such a short
amount of time.
Ryan realized his mistake, as he noticed a bright red star appearing right above
the twilight sun. His armors camera quickly provided a larger image, showing a
titan of black metal propelled by a wave of Red Flux.
Alphonse “Fallout’ Manada had ridden the atom all the way to New Rome.
“Anxious?” Livia asked, as the red star became brighter and brighter.
“Abit,” Ryan admitted. “Last time we fought, he killed my entire team.”
“But you didn’t have me. Without false modesty, the two of us together?”
Livia put a hand on her waist, and adopted a fabulous pose worthy of a gangstar.
“We're invincible."