The Perfect Run

“So, let me get this straight,” Wyvern asked, floating above the street outside
Ryan's hotel bedroom. “You came to New Rome hunting for the Meta-Gang, who
managed to uncover a cache of Mechron tech beneath Rust Town. You also
strongly believe that someone in Dynamis, probably Hector—namely, my
employer—hired them to harass the Augusti.”
“Pretty much, yes.” Ryan nodded, wearing nothing but his underwear.
Wyvern smiled. “Am I being pranked?”
Was it because Ryan refused to wear a shirt? He had been replicating the plans
for Vulcan's armor when the superhero knocked on his window to make her sales
pitch. “I would like to joke about it, but no, I'm serious.” The courier raised a
thumb up. “Honest.”
Wyvern crossed her arms, a frown on her face. “Do you have any proof? These
are dangerous allegations.”
“You can ask Ghoul,” Ryan said, pointing at a cooler next to his bed. “He makes
the best ice cream.”
The superheroine’s frown only deepened. “But you didn’t let the Private Security
bring him in custody.”
“I won't surrender my favorite cooler,” Ryan replied. “Or else your incorruptible
mooks will let him escape.”
“This meeting is going as well as I thought it would,” Wyvern lamented. “Let's
assume for a second that this isn't some conspiracy theory and that I believe
you. Why are you telling me this?”
“Because somebody trusted you.”
“Somebody?” Wyvern put her hands on her waist. “Quicksave, it will be difficult
for us to build a degree of trust if you play your cards close to the chest. All in all,
I find your tale rather... flimsy.”
“Well, she said you were naive too,” Ryan said and shrugged.
“I will not set aside what you said, but I only have your word on it. While you have
a reputation for reliability, your psych evaluation implies you are highly unstable
and prone to attention-seeking behavior.”
“Duh, you can’t make life a comedy without an audience. If you're alone, it's just
a tragedy.”
Wyvern sighed, before offering Ryan the Dynamis business card anyway. “While
I'm not sure you will follow through after what you just said, I suggest you meet
with my manager. See if you are a good match, clear this up.”
“I hope he won't mind if I bring a bottle of weedkiller?”
Wyvern couldn't help but chuckle in response. “Il wouldn't try if I were you.
Enrique isn’t fond of aggressive negotiations.”
And with those unwise words, Dragon Mom flew away and left the courier alone.
She didn't believe Ryan, but at least the superheroine gave him the benefit of the
doubt. It didn’t surprise the courier all that much. Wyvern didn’t know him well
yet, and had been doubtful even with Mosquito’s testimony in an earlier loop.
And at long last, Vulcan called immediately afterward.
Ryan briefly hesitated to take the call, worried about how it would go. He
eventually braced himself for the impact and answered. “Quicksave Deliveries?”
“What did the bitch tell you?” Vulcan's encrypted voice asked.
The mere sentence sent a chill down the courier’s spine.
He had heard it before.
“My name is Vulcan,” the caller continued. “I represent the Augusti. We are the
organization that runs things in New Rome, and most of Italy. Whatever the
winged lizard promised you, we can offer more. We need people who get things
done.”
Ryan listened to his former girlfriend the way one did a recording. “I'm sorry,
mystery voice,” he interrupted her sales pitch. “But have we met before?”
Vulcan didn’t answer immediately. Perhaps he had called her out on a bluff.
Perhaps she was toying with him, only to reveal that the armor had worked. That
for once, things would be different.
Her next words hit him like a hammer.
“I think I would remember if we did.”
And like that, the last ember of Ryan's hope died out.
“Anyway, if you're interested, I sent you the Bakuto’s coordinates,” Vulcan said,
Ryan not even bothering to check the email notification. “We own the
establishment. Come tonight, alone, and don’t make us wait. We never ask
twice.”
Yet, she just did.
More than twice.
Door-to-door salesmanship was difficult. You traveled for miles to pitch the
perfect product to rednecks, only to be threatened with bodily harm.
A hand on a blue cooler, Ryan faced his meanest customer yet.
“What did you just say?” Shroud asked his visitor, a glass shard aimed at Ryan's
throat while his shack’s computer servers hummed in the background. It was so
cute, how he thought the courier actually cared.
“That for one Ghoul Cooler bought, you get one free, Mechron-made orbital
laser!” Ryan opened the box, with Ghoul's skull glaring at him from within. “Made
by Third World children paid five cents per hour and sold at the mere price of
ninety bucks, this cooler is perfect for all and any improvised pick—"
“Cut the chit-chat,” Mr. See Through all but ordered.
“Matt, Matty, my friend, the sales won't last forever,” Ryan mocked him. “You're
wasting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The shard pushed against Ryan's throat, threatening to draw blood. “You think
knowing my name gives you power?” Shroud threatened. “I was ready to risk
discovery when I came to New Rome, and I fear nothing. So last warning: spill
the beans.”
“Cannibal Adam is trying to access the control panel of a Mechron-made orbital
satellite, called the Baha...” Ryan tried to look for the exact name. “The
Bahamut!”
The shack’s windows all fractured when he said the word.
Shroud remained silent for a while, before removing the shard aimed at his
guest's throat. He sank on his chair in front of the shack’s computers, hands
clenched. “Okay,” the vigilante finally said, at a loss of words. “Okay, how did you
know that name?”
“Well, as you guessed, I can see into parallel timelines, and select the one which
favors me the most,” Ryan lied. While he had grown to know the glass
manipulator through the various loops, he was still wary of confiding in him so
early in their relationship. “I've seen some ugly ones.”
“One where Adam the Ogre gets his hands on the Bahamut.” The mere thought
made the vigilante flinch in dread.
Wow. Ryan had never seen him startled that much before. That could only mean
one thing. “You believe me?”
“Nobody but the people involved in the Mechron raid knew about the satellite,”
Shroud declared. “It's possible there was a leak from someone like Nidhogg, but
you haven't been in contact with any of the survivors as far as I know. Also, if you
wished to deceive me, you would have found something less outlandish.”
“Hey, are you implying I'm not naturally outlandish?” Ryan asked with mock
outrage. “I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!”
“No, you aren't,” Shroud replied, his fingers fidgeting. The news really had him
worried. “Why are you telling me this?"
“So you can tell your Living Sun to hurry up because I can't destroy the bunker
alone.” At least not yet. “What is taking him so long anyway?"
Shroud let out a sigh. “Regularly fighting threats of Augustus’ caliber means our
team has a lot of turnovers. After our last outing, the Carnival doesn't have the
numbers to take on the August. We have heavy hitters, but so do our enemies.”
Ah, that explained their tactics. Why rely on asymmetrical warfare to weed out
the enemy if you were in a position of strength? “So, your leader is recruiting?”
“He's calling in favors from old allies, but they can't leave their own protectorates
for long,” Shroud admitted. “Leo didn’t feel confident he could have everyone on
board before the end of May.”
“Yeah, well, Hannifat Lecter is probably less than two weeks away from success
too,” Ryan added, like the cherry on the cake. The Meta-Gang destroyed New
Rome on May 18th, though the courier doubted it would happen on the same
date again. “Tell your sun to rise faster.”
“I will scout Rust Town and interrogate Ghoul. If I confirm your intel...” Shroud
joined his hands, his fingers intertwined. “If you are correct, then we can't afford
to wait, no.”
“How long?”
“A few days at most.” Oh? Well, that went a lot better than expected. Ryan
thought he would have to argue for hours, but the threat was dangerous enough
for the Carnival to finally throw caution to the wind. “If it's confirmed, I will contact
you.”
“Well, then, I will infiltrate the Augusti and deliver on my end of the bargain,” Ryan
said while moving towards the door, leaving the boxed Ghoul behind. “You still
owe me ninety bucks for the cooler.”
“No,” the vigilante replied, trying to shortchange the courier.
“Matty, I don’t do charity.”
“No, as in, the Augusti will wait,” Mr. See Through declared firmly, much to Ryan's
surprise. “If you are correct and Dynamis hired the Meta-Gang, then this may
only be the tip of the iceberg. Wyvern offered you a chance to join Il Migliore.
Take it and keep me informed.”
Ryan put both hands on his waist. “What about your planned hits on the Augusti?
Because I won't oblige unless I have your word that you won't target a few.”
“We don’t have resources to wage war on both the Augusti and Dynamis, if it
turns out they're the Meta-Gang's employers,” Shroud declared, although it
clearly wounded him to admit it. “Augustus is a monster and his business kills
thousands each year, but he will sit on his mountain unless challenged. That
bunker is an urgent crisis.”
“So, you will stop your serial apartment bombing spree until we've downsized
Dynamis?”
“How do you know about that?” Mr. See Through shook his head. “Whatever. You
have my word. At least, until Mechron'’s legacy is put to rest once and for all.”
Well, time for a Dynamis run then.
It was better this way. Ryan wasn't sure he could stand an Augusti run so soon
after losing Jasmine.
Sometimes, he wondered why he kept clinging to false hopes when clearly the
odds didn’t favor him. Time and time again, the courier had thought he could
confide in someone, and not have it all wiped away with his inevitable death. Yet
he kept reopening old wounds, instead of just... letting it go.
“I guess hope is a scoundrel's last refuge,” Ryan muttered to himself, exiting
Shroud's shack with a heavy heart. Hope was all he had, once the loop had
stripped him away of everything.
Ryan moved to his Plymouth Fury, only to find someone had beaten him to it.
A white, Persian cat slouched on the car hood, his magnificent blue eyes
dazzling Ryan with the splendor of their nobility. The creature meowed
ferociously at the courier, who immediately recognized him.
“Eugeéne-Henry?” Ryan approached the Plymouth Fury, examining the cat
carefully. It... yes, it was Eugéne-Henry. The courier could recognize the noble
animal's lazy, prideful attitude anywhere.
How could it be? The cat should be in the orphanage at this moment, and he
never showed up at the old harbor in any previous loop. What was happening?
Eugene-Henry let out a loud “meow’ sound, demanding to be petted. So Ryan
obliged, raising his hand to scratch the animal between the ears.
Pop.
Ryan's hand touched only air.
There was no flash, no warning. One second, the cat was right in front of him; the
next he had vanished.
Was he hallucinating? Or...
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Wait, Eugéne-Henry had been
exposed to Violet dimension energies
at the end of the previous op even
perhaps that Steande. Glien“entity the
hee glimpsed. Could
they have changed him somehow?
Ryan knew cats were superior
creatures, especially compared to
dogs, but could these furballs truly
gain superpowers like a Genome?
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Read the latest chapter there!
He had to go to the orphanage and check on the cat, just to be sure. Ryan sat on
the driving seat, and prepared to make a short trip to Rust Town before meeting
with his favorite cashmere supplier.
“Riri.”
At least, that's what he planned for until her voice came out of the Chronoradio.
And this time, it wasn't pre-recorded.
Ryan's fingers clenched around the driving wheel, and he moved the car away, to
get out of Shroud’s range. He had no intention of letting the vigilante eavesdrop
on private matters. “Shortie.”
For an agonizing minute, Len didn’t seem to know what to say while Ryan drove
through New Rome's crowded streets. Finally, she mustered her courage. “I
heard the broadcast. Through your chronoradio.”
... she did?
Of course she did, she had been listening to his communications since he arrived
in New Rome.
All these years, he had hoped for someone that could remember him. And now...
“Is it true?” she asked. “Can you... time-travel?”
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I » : .
Yeah,” the courier said bluntly,
tensing up. He should have felt
relieved, even happy b that om
inoresepasiedoinin; but the
bserir between them had risen up
again. The loop had washed away all
: «
their progress. “It happened before. I
) §
don't know how the recording went
3 W 5
through time though.” The content is
on Novelxo.org! Read the latest
chapter there!
Maybe Len had managed to complete her invention before the Bahamut wiped
Ischia Island off the map, or it was a side-effect of Ryan's own experiment.
Len considered the news, before asking another question. “Why didn't... why
didn’t you repeat it?"
“Repeat that conversation, you mean?”
“You... you and I..." He could almost picture her biting her lower lip on the other
end of the line. “It worked before. It could have worked again.”
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« » . :
I told you before,” Ryan said with a
a : ,
sigh, though that didn’t make much
. . [2
sense from her point of Weasiiis
the breqdaRy hated this
chavérsation had been genuine. If I
repeated it, it would have been fake.
Even if it worked, if it was necessary
for us to become friends again, it
. . »
would have been manipulation.” The
content is on Novelxo.org! Read
the latest chapter there!
Though it killed him inside, he couldn't replace the Jasmine he lost either. Ryan
may see it as mere amnesia, his old girlfriend had a point. If you forgot actions
you didn’t commit yet and chose to go on another path, were you truly the same
person? Or would you become someone else?
“I guess I wanted our relationship to remain true,” Ryan admitted, speaking with
the heart. “Even if it hurts.”
He knew it was a lot to ask for, but that was what the courier wanted above
everything else. He didn’t want to save the world or anything like this, though he
would. Ultimately, all that Ryan desired, was to be happy.
“Where are you going, Riri?” Len asked, her voice breaking. She tried to keep
her composure, but his words had clearly affected her.
“To the orphanage,” he said. “I have to check up on something. And make sure
the kids will be alright.”
Psyshock was alive again, and if Ryan committed to Dynamis this loop, he
couldn't rely on Cancel to kill the bastard permanently. He had to figure a way out
of this conundrum.
he
Another short silence.
“I will be there too.”