The Perfect Run

What a bright day. As Ryan drove towards the ship graveyard and Shroud’s warehouse, he felt utterly happy with himself. The courier had the intuition that everything would turn out well for him this time around.

“I feel like you’re my lucky charm, my friend,” Ryan told Ghoul. “Like a rabbit’s foot, or a four-leaf clover. I should have kept you ages ago.”

The Psycho’s bodiless skull glared at him, hung on the rear mirror by a rope.

Surprisingly, it had cost Ryan less money to convince the Private Security to keep the Psycho for himself than imprisoning it. He guessed it cost more to feed a prisoner than to just ignore a vigilante.

Like all loops so far, Wyvern visited him, although she sounded a bit less enthusiastic this time, for some ghoulish reason. She had also insisted he deliver Ghoul for safekeeping, as a sign of trust—and for his own ‘safety.’ Vulcan followed with her own recruitment pitch, putting him firmly on the Augusti Path.

So far so good.

Ryan stopped in front of the warehouse, grabbed Ghoul with Fisty, and then stepped out of the car. “I will kill you,” Ghoul snarled. “I will kill you, I swea—”

He never finished his sentence, as Ryan started juggling the skull while whistling. He looked through the warehouse’s window, seeing neither the servers nor the friendly neighborhood assassin. If he didn’t have absolute trust in his power, the courier might have mistook the events of the previous loop for a feverish dream.

Instead of breaking in this time, Ryan knocked on the door, Ghoul’s nauseous skull under his arm.

“Hey, can you let me in, I have a car window problem?!” Ryan shouted. “Shroudy repair, Shroudy replace?”

He waited a full minute before the door finally opened, revealing a glass man and servers on the other side. “How did you know?” the Carnival member asked, glancing around as if expecting a hidden camera.

“Oh, I’m alone, my Carnival friend!” Ryan said, before showing him the skull. “Except Ghoul Wonder here, but it’s a package deal. Like Dresden and Bob, or Laurel and Hardy.”

“Get in.” Ryan walked inside, the Shroud closing the door behind them.

The Genome remained fully visible this time, perhaps believing the courier didn’t know about that trick. He sat in his chair, the screens of his many computers showing a map of New Rome with multiple locations marked. Most seemed to be Augusti fronts, like the Bakuto and Renesco’s place. A cup of camomile tea waited near the keyboard.

“Quicksave, how did you know?” Shroud asked him again, skipping the pleasantries and being all business.

“You don’t ask a magician to reveal his tricks,” Ryan replied, glancing at the cup. “Like this one: tea.”

He shook Ghoul’s head in front of the teacup until the skull let out a puff of white mist. The liquid turned cold, ice cubes appearing on the surface.

“Iced tea.”

“True genius,” Shroud replied with heavy sarcasm, although he didn’t touch the beverage.

“He also works with fridges, and it’s eco-friendly.”

“I will rape you, you maniac!” Ghoul snarled. “I will kill you, and then I will rape your corpse while it’s still warm!”

“You deserve the pain, asshole,” the glass manipulator replied, completely unsympathetic to the Psycho’s plight. “You killed at least seventeen people, according to my files.”

“Only seventeen?” The Psycho laughed, before bragging. “I killed hundreds! Hundreds!”

He sounded really proud of it too. You would think Ghoul would know better than brag about his body count while in his current position, but nope. Shroud observed the Psycho with cold disdain, before turning to Ryan. “What do you want me to do with him?”

“Why, interrogate him of course!” Ryan said, caressing the back of Ghoul’s skull. “Isn’t that right, Skellington? You’ll tell us everything about this big bunker your big bad boss wants so much?”

“A bunker?” Shroud asked, instantly interested.

“BLEEP you, Quicksave! BLEEP you!”

“Shut up slave,” Ryan replied, before slapping Ghoul.

“Y-you slapped me!” the talking skull complained. “You slapped—”

And Ryan slapped him again, the Psycho glaring at him with fury and humiliation. “Everything you can do to me, Adam can do worse.”

“Oh, really?” Accepting the challenge, Shroud separated a glass shard from his armor, shaping it into a thin needle. The object floated right in front of the Psycho’s skull, lining itself with his left eye. “If you don’t tell me everything, that needle will work its way into your eye, and then the brain. Slowly, painfully. Then I will work on the other.”

have survived decapitation, bitch,” Ghoul replied, unimpressed. He stared at the weapon as it

glass manipulator asked, stopping his needle as it reached the

torture a Psycho,” Ryan replied, searching inside his trench coat

changed from confident to mesmerized, as the courier revealed a green potion, put inside a perfume-like receptacle.

obviously, he couldn’t do it without legs. “You like it? I bought it this morning. It grants superhuman strength and stamina, and I heard it feels like drinking a liquid

me!” Ghoul snarled, his junkie addiction taking over. “Give it to me

Ryan taunted him. “I guess I will have to flush it down the

horrified. “You won’t dare, do you know

into maniacal laughter, chilling Ghoul to the bone. It made him laugh even more, with Glass Man looking at the scene in disturbed silence. “Life isn’t

“You, glass man! You have to

removing his needle and switching to good cop mode. “I barely have any control

its sweet perfume, before tilting it sideways. Some of the product fell on the ground, the undead letting out a snarl of

caved in. “There’s

kept slowly spilling the product.

of robots and laser turrets, they

time, Ryan stopped spilling the knockoff on the ground, having kept half of the bottle. Ghoul

the bunker?” Shroud asked, his

replied, sounding truthful. “He only told a

a fortified place without knowing what’s inside?” Shroud deadpanned, although he sounded more and more interested as

future, yes! The future! The automated defenses sense Genomes and we lost a few people to them, so Adam

“How about the sweet supply of Elixir

handles it for Adam. They distribute knockoff Elixirs regularly, so long as we play by the rules. If we disobey or we look into it,

rarity,” Shroud mused, his arms

I don’t know! I don’t give

the glass man,

you that,” Shroud admitted. “I will look into it.

my trunk.” Ryan chuckled at his own joke, doubly so when Ghoul sent him a death glare. “Though I would like it if you kept me updated on your progress. I promised someone I would

the side but didn’t ask for details. Ghoul, meanwhile, grew even more agitated. “Give it to me now! I told you

and into his tiny, adorable eyes. “No arms,

schadenfreude. “Hopes are like breakfast eggs,” he told Shroud, as he put the knockoff on the other side of the desk, too far for Ghoul to reach. “You can’t start

it into a jar to imprison Ghoul’s skull inside. “Why are you giving me

hands behind his back and leaned towards Shroud, until their heads were within inches of one another. “Where is

answer the question immediately. His brain seemed to have frozen in place, failing to compute Ryan’s words. “That makes no sense,” Shroud finally spoke up,

Gobain? I believe it should

shouldn’t…” He seemed to reach

Ryan said nothing.

yet somehow, you always get away with all the messes you leave in your wake. You knew where I was without me leaving any hints, that the Psycho’s intel would interest me, and that I had the information you needed. It can’t be a coincidence,

Ryan looked at Shroud with curiosity.

argued. “Instead, I think you peek into various alternate realities, then select one that favors you and overwrites the current one. Advanced reality manipulation. The transition just looks like

the error of believing Ryan had only

right?” the

if you’re right, certainly you should listen to my wise words.

is in the hen

you remember these

Genome greatly, much to Ryan’s amusement. While he mentally pondered on the matter, the glass Genome turned toward his keyboard and started typing. A map of the west and the Tyrrhenian Sea appeared on the screen, and Shroud put his finger on a spot, in a maritime area roughly equidistant from New Rome, Sardinia, and

Vavilov basin?” Ryan mused, his heart skipping a

as she calls herself now, has an undersea base somewhere

connected the dots. “An

think this is a new Kremlin?” Shroud turned his head, quite

completely giddy. Finally, he had reached his goal. “How do I get

disappointing the courier. “Even with diver equipment, the place is full of mutant fish and other hazards.

actually

Shroud froze. “Yes, and?”

“I hope you aren’t planning anything harmful with that information,” the courier said, changing the subject, “Because if you

If I targeted every private contractor in the city, half of New Rome would be wiped out, and she finances an orphanage in Rust

into place. “The

Shroud immediately tensed. “Why?”