The Perfect Run

He found Livia standing on the piers, facing the sea with a terrible look on her
face.
Ryan parked his not-so-suspicious black minivan near the old harbor, and quickly
looked around for any Killer Seven member. If Livia had brought bodyguards,
they hid well; the courier suspected Mortimer lingered nearby, buried below
ground. “Don't tell me you came on foot?” the courier told the mafia princess, as
he joined her in his full presidential costume. “We're a long way from Mount
Augustus.”
“But we're close to Optimates Tower,” Livia replied with a sad smile. Not only did
she look grim with the black circles around her eyes, but she also dressed the
part. Her dark coat and austere clothes reminded Ryan of a young widow. “And I
could only lose Mathias this way.”
So Mr. See-Through stalked her too? The glass-manipulator had made
increasingly frequent forays into Rust Town lately, though he never stayed long
due to the Land's interferences.
Livia examined Ryan's new costume from head to toe. “I love the suit,” she said,
though she frowned at the hole in his bowler hat. “Did someone attack you?”
“I had to put down a robot rebellion.” Ryan shrugged. “I have a back-up bowler
hat in my car, but I'll wait for tomorrow before putting it on. I only wear that one
for war.”
She chuckled, though her heart wasn't in it.
The courier glanced at Augustus’ daughter, noticing the red marks near her
eyelids. She had wiped off tears not so long ago. “He told you, didn’t he?” Ryan
guessed. “Kitten. He told you the truth, about how he felt.”
Her face strained, telling him he had hit the mark. “Can we sit for a while, Ryan?"
“Sure.” They sat along the pier’s edge, their feet dangling above the sea. Ryan
said nothing, knowing Augustus’ heir wanted an ear to listen to. One that wasn’t
part of the “Family’. Not even Fortuna.
Livia put her hands on her lap, facing the distant sun. A faint breeze flowed from
the west onto her face. She didn't say a word for a while, as she tried to express
her feelings into words. “I went straight to Dynamis. Something I never dared to
do, because it increases tensions between my family and the Manadas in my
predictions. If I didn't know this wouldn't matter in the long-term, I would never
have dared.”
“Story of my life,” Ryan replied.
“I refused to leave until Felix would talk to me,” Livia continued her tale. “My
bodyguards and the security were within minutes of starting a firefight when he
finally came down. He wasn’t happy that I forced his hand, but he agreed to sit
down and have a real talk.”
Ryan listened in respectful silence.
“I... I can see up to six futures at once, and I can switch them. My ability is
always on, and sometimes it reacts to my emotional state. It shows me options
based on what I want.” Livia looked away, her eyes wandering to Dynamis and II
Migliore’s twin towers. “I couldn’t convince Felix to get back together with me
willingly in any alternate world I saw. There were many where I could force him,
yes. But none where he would return out of his own free-will.”
She glanced back at the calm, peaceful sea, and the shadow of Ischia Island in
the distance. “It's... it's not that we're over, Ryan. There was nothing between us
in the first place. It was... it was just decorum, and my own feelings blinding me
to the truth. Whatever bond we shared, it's gone, and I can’t get it back.”
“I'm sorry,” Ryan said with a sigh. “I know it sounds cliché, but I understand.”
“You've been there too.” She looked at the courier sorrowfully. “I can feel it in
your voice.”
“Yeah.” Ryan slowly removed his mask and hat, putting them at his side. The
warm breeze on his face felt good. “I've spent centuries looking for Len,
because... because I loved her. And now that she remembers... while we still
share a close bond... the intimacy we had is gone.”
“What happened?”
“Her father happened,” Ryan replied. Just like Livia's ruined every chance she
might have had with Felix. “Nostalgia led me to New Rome. I longed for a simpler
past, and...”
He took a deep breath. “Don’t get me wrong, I'm happy to have a friend back. But
it's not the ending I'd hoped for.”
Livia gave him a glance full of compassion. “Love is a sweet poison, isn't it?”
“I don't regret tasting it though,” Ryan replied with a genuine smile. “All I wished
for was someone to remember me. Someone with whom I could share my joys
and burdens. Shortie agreed to help me carry some of the load, and... I'm fine
with that. Better than fine.”
“Why are you still in New Rome, Ryan?” she asked him. “You came to this city to
reconnect with your friend, and you did. Adam perished, and you could bury the
bunker for good. Leave all of this mess behind.”
“It wouldn't be the best ending, princess.”
“It would be a good one. For you, at least.”
“Would it be good for Felix? For Jamie, for Jasmine, for Yuki?” Ryan marked a
short pause. “For you?”
The heiress looked somewhat embarrassed. “Don’t worry about me Ryan,” she
said, “I will make things right.”
Ablatant lie. He could see it in her eyes. Livia expected to face more trouble
down the line, and to carry the burden alone.
“Well, you're part of my Christmas list whether you like it or not,” Ryan joked.
“And I'll ask you the same question. Why are you still in New Rome?”
“Same reason as you,” Livia replied, her eyes focusing on Ischia Island. “Too
many lives depend on it. If I leave, the throne will probably go to Bacchus or
Mars, and nothing will change. It will just be more of the same.”
“How far can you see into a simulation?”
Livia joined her hands, as if hesitating to reveal that secret. Eventually, she did
though. “A month or so if I truly focus. The predictions get increasingly unreliable
the farther into the future I look.” Her expression transformed into a grim scowl.
“Not far enough that I could learn about my father’s cancer before it was too late.”
So she had seen how the world would turn out in the future. While the butterfly
effect probably whisked possibilities away, seeing a world with Bacchus in charge
of the Augusti must have scared her straight.
“Can I confess something, Ryan?"
“You don't have to ask. I won't judge you.”
Livia's fingers fidgeted, as she mustered her courage. He could tell that she was
about to admit something she never dared to confess to anyone else before. “I...
I don't really feel comfortable around others. Even Fortuna, or my family. I love
them but... how to explain...”
“You know them, but they don’t know you,” Ryan guessed her problem.
She confirmed with a slow nod. “You have the same problem?”
“I lived lifetimes with some people across loops, only for them to barely know my
name in the last one.”
“I can process the realities I see at an accelerated rate, and I can’t turn my power
off. I've seen all the ways my loved ones can react to a stimulus, what they plan
to do. I know everything about them, but I feel like an outside observer in my own
life. The events I see happened to other “mes’. I didn't live these moments, I... I
only watched them.”
Their respective powers built walls with others. “Is that why you're telling me
this?” Ryan asked. “Because you can't watch me, that our moments feel
genuine?”
She chuckled. “It plays into it, I believe.”
“I feel the same,” Ryan admitted. “Honestly, I kinda hated you at first. I've grown
so used to controlling every aspect of a loop, that a foreign force like you
messing up with my plans... It felt maddening. But, well, I had forgotten that I
liked surprises.”
It felt nice to talk with someone who understood the loneliness Ryan had suffered
through all these years. While their powers might have been wildly different, they
did face similar problems.
Livia looked at him with an amused smile. “If I piggyback on your power as you
suggested in your messages, you will have even less mastery over what
happens.”
“Yes, but you said it yourself. Neither of us is getting what we want without
cooperating with the other.” The courier crossed his arms. “So, if we gave you a
map of your memories and a back-up of Len’s, would you go along with it?”
Livia's smile turned into a scowl. “I don't think that will work, Ryan. I know myself.
I will never accept having my thoughts overwritten voluntarily, especially not by
Dynamis-made tech. From my old self's point of view, I can only rely on notes
rather than personal experience. I will expect foul play.”
“Can't you write a fifteen-page long warning you won't read anyway, like search
engines?”
“I'm more likely to assume someone tampered with my notes. I will find it more
likely that you are a manipulative Blue capable of interfering with my ability. I'm
already very wary of people like Bacchus.” Livia considered the matter
thoughtfully. “How much does the Underdiver trust you?”
“I see where this is going,” Ryan said. “We send your consciousness back in
time, you keep a copy of Shortie’s memories, and then I convince her past self to
have her own overwritten.”
“Would she accept? You knew each other for years, while we met days ago.
She's more likely to go along with this plan than my other self.”
“I don’t know.” Hopefully, Len would figure out a way to send more than one
consciousness back in time and they wouldn't have to find out. “I'll... I'll ask her
permission first. It would feel a bit manipulative otherwise.”
“You use your foreknowledge to get others to move the way you want to all the
time,” Livia argued.
Len was a special case. “We'll see with her. What about the other thing?”
“Help you find a cure for the Psycho condition?” The oracle seemed a lot less
enthusiastic about that part. “Ryan, these people tried to blow us all back to the
stone age.”
“The ones who wanted to are gone, and the rest...” Ryan's thoughts turned to
Acid Rain, Mongrel, Frank, even Sarin. All these people were victims of their own
powers. “The rest deserve a second chance.”
And besides the Meta, how many Psychos were people who made a costly
mistake, or victims of circumstances? Bloodstream, Jean-Stéphanie, Adam, and
their kind had colored his view of Psychos. But now that he had seen the other
side of the fence, Ryan couldn't call a world where Acid Rain would remain a
demented killer a Perfect Run.
“I gave them hope, Livia,” the courier declared. “I don’t want to disappoint it.”
“You will take it away when you turn back time again,” Livia pointed out.
“I will make curing them part of my final loop,” Ryan argued back. “I will perfect
the process through multiple loops, and make sure they get a better ending.
Maybe they won't remember my promise, but I will.”
Livia hesitated for a full minute, joining her hands as she considered the
proposal. If Ryan wasn't mistaken, she used her sight to try to see the possible
consequences, and it seemed to mollify her resistance somewhat. “Alright,” she
said. “But in return, I ask for two things. First, you will involve me in every step of
the way. I don’t want to help create something I might regret.”
“That's fair.”
“And second...” Her expression turned playful. “Why do they keep calling you Mr.
President?”
Ryan couldn't help but chuckle. “You want me to declassify that secret?”
“I'm curious,” she admitted. “I'm sure there's an interesting anecdote behind it.”
Ryan explained to Livia the details of his coup d'etat, and her lips transformed
into a grin. “You force them to sing The Star-Spangled Banner every morning?”
“Frank is a surprisingly good singer, but Mosquito...” Ryan shuddered, the
infernal buzzing noise echoing in his mind. “If you didn’t want to slap him before
he sings, you will afterward.”
“I wish I could do silly things like that,” Livia admitted. “Everyone around me
walks on eggshells.”
“Can't you force them to amuse you, jester-style?” Ryan asked. “What's the point
of having authority if you can’t abuse it now and then?”
“They fear displeasing me, but they dread my father’s attention even more,” Livia
replied. “Although I admit Fortuna and I had some interesting adventures when
we were younger.”
“Like what?"
“We made wishes upon a star, and Fortuna asked for the star itself,” Livia
chuckled. “A small meteorite fell in the garden. My father was livid.”
“Her power is busted,” Ryan complained.
“I know,” Livia answered with a knowing smile, albeit somewhat nostalgic.
“Things were so much easier when we were children.”
Ryan glanced at Ischia Island in the distance. “Before your parents started
grooming you to take over?”
Livia answered with a sharp nod. “I would appreciate it if you destroyed that
island on your way out of New Rome. Once the Bliss Factory goes down, I can
finally start changing things for the better. Maybe even keep Narcinia away from
Bacchus, if I play my cards right.”
“You understand she will always remain the sticking point with the Carnival?”
Ryan pointed out the obvious. “And Bacchus is only part of the problem. Mars
and Venus also push her into making more Bliss against her will.”
“Mars and Venus, I can manage,” Livia explained. “They're... followers, so to say.
Mars in particular chose to become my father’s subordinate early and never
wavered in his loyalty. He will only take responsibility for the family’s empire if it is
thrust upon his shoulders. If I inherit, these two will do as I say; even leave
Narcinia and Fortuna alone to do as they wish. They won't like it, mind you. But
they will obey.”
“But not Bacchus?"
Livia shook her head. “His obsession with Bliss borders on religious zealotry. He
believes he can contact God with that substance, and it trumps all other
concerns.”
Not a god.
An Ultimate One.
“Even then,” Ryan said, “if you really want to spare your family from a deadly
confrontation with Hargraves, we'll have to find a way to exfiltrate Narcinia from
your father’s grasp.”
Livia winced. “I'm seeing Hargraves in my vision lately.”
Sunshine? Already? “Where?”
“Rust Town,” she admitted. “I believe he intends to attack you, and the odds
increase with time.”
But the only reason Hargraves would appear so soon, would be...
If he knew about the bunker.
“So that's why Safelite was so active lately,” Ryan muttered out loud.
How? Did Ryan's presence among the Meta-Gang cause Shroud to pay more
attention to Rust Town? Or did the glass manipulator manage to interrogate
former thralls of Psyshock with the necessary knowledge to piece it together?
Perhaps he hadn't done so yet, but would in the following days. “How long until
the sunset?”
“Itis too early to tell yet, especially since you can make my prophecies wrong.”
Livia bit her lower lip. “Something else has been blurring my visions lately.”
Of course. One of the plushies had breached containment and escaped the
Junkyard. If it was anything like with Eugéne-Henry, the creature would probably
pollute her future sight.
“I see Dynamis attacking Rust Town too,” Livia continued. “Enrique leads them in
most possibilities, but others, his elder brother takes the lead. If he does come,
the city burns not long after. The flames of war consume everything.”
So Ryan's back-up plan of abandoning the surface and bunkering down the way
Hannifat Lecter did looked doomed to fail. He had to go on the offensive. “Well, I
have a plan to take care of Dynamis, and secure Vulcan's help on the same
occasion.”
“Vulcan?” Livia raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Why choose a road so
complicated? If you needed her help, you could have asked me.”
“Nah, I know Vulcan. If you forced her to help, she would have ratted us out to
Augustus out of petty revenge.” If anything, Jasmine’s irritability was one of the
things Ryan found cute about her. “She will only help reliably if someone goes
along with her wishes first.”
Livia immediately picked on the implications. “The two of you were close.”
Ryan avoided her gaze, staring at the sea. He felt still sore about losing Jasmine,
his Jasmine. “Yeah. Yeah, we were. But now she’s gone for good.”
“Now that you can safeguard memories, why not repeat the loop where you
formed a relationship?” Livia suggested. “Then you send her memories back.”
Ryan sighed. He had considered something like that, before deciding against it;
that kind of thinking led down the rabbit hole. “Besides the fact she made me
promise not to replace her, I cannot control your actions, so a perfect repeat is
now beyond my reach. If I tried to recreate my Jasmine through various loops, I
would probably obsess over every detail, and reboot if I find the result lacking.”
I'm afraid I'll start caring more about my idea of Jasmine, rather than the person.”
Much like how he had obsessed over Len, and what she represented to him.
“I... I see.” Livia looked torn about Ryan's choice, but appeared to respect it.
“Why do you need her?”
“We're in the process of figuring out how Mechron could enhance his lieutenants’
powers. If I combine his tech with Jasmine’s...”
“You could boost your power, and perhaps bring more people across time.” He
could tell that the possibility greatly interested Livia. “How will you proceed?”
“Well, I'll go full supervillain, take over Dynamis’ Star Studios, and livestream
Hector Manada'’s crimes for the world to see,” Ryan explained his evil plan. “I'll
also chew the scenery, probably hold the city for ransom, and confront my
archenemy Wardrobe in an epic battle. Or she will share the role with the I
haven't decided if I want my heroes exclusive.”
Livia's reaction was unlike anything Ryan expected.
He thought she would laugh, show skepticism, pat him on the back and leave
him to his fate.
Instead, the oracle took his explanations without a word, as she digested them.
Livia opened her mouth to say something, hastily closed it, and then joined her
hands together on her lap. A flash of hesitation briefly crossed her face before
her expression turned shy, like a precocious child afraid to ask something stupid
and suffer mockery afterward.
Ryan squinted at Livia, reading her mind. “You want to come.”
“Can I?" the Augusti princess pleaded with a sheepish smile. She looked so
adorable at that moment, that Ryan couldn't deny her.
Still, the idea of someone as proper and dignified as Livia participating in
something so silly clashed with the idea he had of her. “You're sure?”
“You haven't said no,” Livia said with a grin.
“You do realize the danger involved?”
“Which is exactly why I want to come,” Livia said. “I will never have the
opportunity to do something like this outside of a time-loop, due to all the ways it
could go wrong. If you worry about my father, I can wear a mask and stick to my
time-leap ability. Nobody else outside my family knows about its details.”
Ryan crossed his legs and slouched on the pier, regretting not to have brought
his cat with him. “Miss Augusti, do you truly have what it takes to be a
supervillain? It's not just a question of power, but presentation. Style, charisma,
screen presence... We'll need to find you a costume, and a fearsome name.
Minerva won't cut it.”
“I have an extensive wardrobe,” Livia said before trying to think of a good alias.
“As for the name, how about Timestamp?”
Ryan stared at her without a word.
“Timezone? Time-Out?” Livia asked, growing more and more awkward with each
new proposal. Her cheeks turned red at his continued silence. “O'Clock?”
Why couldn't she see it? The perfect name, the one most appropriate for her
power? One that oozed style and would transcend the realm of pop culture? The
perfect household name, to go along with a power nobody could explain?
“Queen Crimson.”
The one and only.
“Isn't that a bit pedantic?” Livia asked with a frown.
“Trust me,” Ryan smirked while putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, “it will
do just fine.”
“So?” Len asked, as a blast door closed behind Ryan.
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« : .
Well, our Disney princess agreed to
help with our cancer cure project, and
. , si
to star in tomorrow's movie.” The
testing area reminded Shell
interrogation charhber Here he and
Jishiine tested the power-boosting
armor. A reinforced window
separated a control room and its
computers from an underground
dome, where robotic arms
manipulated a Dynamis-made
PRT) :
knockoff Elixir. “I'll swap her with
: »
Rakshasa as our ace in the hole.” The
content is on Novelxo.org! Read
the latest chapter there!
“Not the Doll, you ruffian?” Alchemo’s voice echoed through loudspeakers. “Why
do you keep dragging her into your messes?”
“Trust me, she'll do well.” Tea had been his main choice of a getaway driver
during his drug cartel phase. “Besides, she accepted when I asked nicely.”
“She is too nice to say no to you, you disgusting excuse of a bioform!”
Perhaps, but from Ryan's experience, the Doll would enjoy the trip. She
suppressed strong criminal tendencies. “Anyway, how are things going with
Mosquito?”
“The synthesized, nutrient-rich blood does bolster his enhanced strength, as you
suspected,” Alchemo confirmed. “Early results are promising, though the effect
does not last long. One hour on average.”
One hour was a long time, if exploited to its fullest. Ryan intended to bring Frank,
Sarin, and Acid Rain to Star Studio, but an additional heavy hitter would always
help.
The courier approached the window, standing next to Len. His best friend kept
her arms crossed, observing the green knockoff beyond the glass with
apprehension. She tried to keep her composure, but her true feelings were
written all over her face.
“Shortie, I'll ask one last time.” Ryan took a deep breath. “Are you sure you want
to do it? Or rather, do you want to watch it?”
“I told you,” Len said with a frown. “I... I need to know, Riri. To get closure.”
“I'm more worried it will open old wounds. Or that it will cause a dangerous
reaction.”
“I have incinerators ready,” Alchemo said, four flamethrowers dangling from the
testing ground’s ceiling. All pointed at the knockoff. “If the worst comes to pass, I
can send robots or call your black slime.”
“Riri, if our hypothesis is true... then Dynamis didn’t just capture my father.” Len's
worried expression turned into one of anger. “They packaged him. Turned him
into a product. Even if it's not... even if it's not him, I can’t let that stand. It's
inhuman. I... I hope we're wrong. But I want to be sure.”
“And if we're right?” Ryan asked the right question. “If he’s really inside Lab Sixty-
Six, what will you do? Let him out so he can kill again?”
Len didn’t offer an answer.
She had no idea herself.
“If you ask me,” Braindead said, although nobody did, “if you truly think we can
cure Psychos, then why not one more?”
If there was something left to cure. If Dynamis truly used Bloodstream to make
knockoffs, then they kept him in storage for almost four years. Who knew what
Dr. Tyrano did to the bloody slime?
And truthfully, Ryan didn’t want to help Bloodstream even if he was alive. He
wanted the slime dead and buried.
In any case, the testing would soon begin. A robotic arm dangled a pipette full of
blood above the knockoff, while another opened the container.
Len’s blood.
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Preliminary tests showed no match
) i
between Mechron’s knockoff Elixirs
Chal ;
and Dynamis’; both achieved the
same result through different m
: O
methods The hunker § dobiots hadn't
©) Nied os
yet Ranioad to analyze Dynamis
substance, so Ryan suggested a
more direct approach. If his theory
. )
about Bloodstream altering Len's
blood to track her was correct, then it
should react to the knockoff in some
way. Subtle or obvious, a change
should follow, and hidden cameras
would film everything. The content is
on Novelxo.org! Read the latest
chapter there!
Ryan's eyes focused on the green, swirling liquid inside the knockoffs glass
flacon. Wyvern had served as this “Hercules’ Elixir's template. He wondered if the
draconic knight in shining leotard would have participated in its creation, had she
known how it was made.
The robotic arm pressed the pipette, a single droplet falling from it. Ryan and Len
held their breath, watching the liquid fall for a moment that seemed to stretch
forever.
The droplet hit the knockoff, and the Elixir screamed.
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,
The knockoff's container exploded
into a dozen shards, as its green
content turned bloody red. The
contents spilled all ove the-testing
floor, gia asteinan
oven! The minuscule amount of liquid
grew, and grew, and grew as fast as
Darkling when it devoured Adam. The
shape of a twisted parody of a
. )
human face formed on the slime’s
surface, its deafening scream
echoing through the reinforced
window. The content is on
Novelxo.org! Read the latest
chapter there!
A chill went down Ryan's spine, as he was brought back to his dark past. Back to
the same terrible memories that Night Terror had awakened again, one loop ago.
He could never forget that voice.
Len let out a horrible scream of her own; not one of pain, but of pure fear and
horror. The scream of a traumatized victim, living through a four-years old
nightmare all the way again. Her skin turned even paler, her nails scratching her
cheek.
“Len!” Ryan immediately held his best friend in his arms, hugging her tight
against his chest. “Len! Calm down! I'm here!”
The howling slime crawled on the ground towards the windows, sensing Len,
smelling its lost daughter like a bloodhound desperate for a warm meal.
The flamethrowers activated, torching the testing room. Flames as hot as Leo’s
surface vaporized the blob to dust, its horrifying scream turning into death throes.
Only ashes and silence remained.
Ryan didn’t know how long he held Len in his arms afterward. Her scream had
turned to tears, her hands covering her face as if she could shield her gaze from
the terrible truth. Her nails had dug deep into her cheeks to draw blood. She was
so fragile in his hands, he thought she might break in half.
The courier let her cry into his chest, his eyes staring at the Elixir's ashes. A
terrible thought crossed his mind, alongside the sheer magnitude of Hector
Manada’s crimes.
How many people in New Rome had drunk a knockoff Elixir?