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.”

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

“What?” the glass manipulator asked, stopping his needle as it reached the cornea,

know you want to play Jack Bauer, but that’s not how you torture a Psycho,” Ryan replied, searching

mesmerized, as the courier revealed a green potion, put inside a perfume-like

his teeth, but obviously, he couldn’t do it without legs. “You like it? I bought it this morning. It grants superhuman strength and stamina, and

junkie addiction taking over. “Give

uh, it’s contraindicated for quadriplegics,” Ryan taunted him. “I guess I will

genuinely horrified. “You won’t dare, do

maniacal laughter, chilling Ghoul to the bone. It made him laugh even more, with Glass Man

“You, glass man! You have to

give me information,” Shroud replied, removing his needle and switching to good cop mode. “I barely have any

bottle, letting Ghoul smell its sweet perfume, before tilting it sideways. Some of the product fell on the ground, the undead letting

“There’s a place below the

Ryan kept slowly spilling the product.

said, his desperate eyes on the Elixir. “It’s full of robots and

of the bottle. Ghoul let out a

the bunker?” Shroud asked, his

sounding truthful. “He only told a few. He

fortified place without knowing what’s inside?” Shroud deadpanned, although he sounded more and more interested as he listened. “Forgive me if

best,” Ghoul replied. “He always does. And he’s obsessed with it. He says it’s, how does he say it… the future, yes! The

said. “How about the sweet supply of Elixir you Psychos

know, alright!” Ghoul snarled, Shroud listening like a hawk stalking a dove. “Psyshock handles it for Adam. They distribute knockoff Elixirs regularly, so long as we play by the rules.

be impossible to generate a supply of genuine Elixirs, considering their rarity,” Shroud mused, his arms crossed. “Do they

give

turned towards the glass man, very proud of

will grant you that,” Shroud admitted. “I will look into it. Can I keep Ghoul

him a death glare. “Though I would like it if you kept me updated on

side but didn’t ask for details. Ghoul, meanwhile, grew

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

which warmed the courier’s heart with twisted 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

jar to imprison Ghoul’s skull inside. “Why are you giving me this information? What do you want

towards Shroud, until their heads were

failing to compute Ryan’s words. “That makes no sense,” Shroud finally spoke up, shaking his head. “That question, that whole situation, makes no

mean, Mr. Saint Gobain? I

shouldn’t…” He seemed to reach a eureka moment. “Is your power

Ryan said nothing.

if the world itself would bend to your whims. You’re clearly insane, yet somehow, you always get away with all the messes you leave in your wake. You knew where I was without me leaving any

looked at Shroud with curiosity. “Please,

stopping time,” Shroud argued. “Instead, I think you peek into various alternate realities, then select one that

plausible theory, especially as far as Violet Genomes went. Though Shroud made the error of believing Ryan had only one visible

I right?”

with a shrug. “But if you’re right, certainly you should listen to my wise words. Also, bet on the T-Rex tonight, and

the hen house?” Shroud

these words,

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

basin?” Ryan mused, his heart skipping

Basin,” the glass Genome confirmed. “The Underdiver, as she calls herself now, has an undersea

as he connected the

a new Kremlin?” Shroud

replied, completely giddy. Finally, he had

equipment, the place is full of mutant fish and other hazards. I didn’t look too much into it, since besides supplying and repairing their shipping submarines, she isn’t involved in

you actually told

Shroud froze. “Yes, and?”

ages ago! “I hope you aren’t planning anything harmful with that information,”

“Although I suspect you already know that part. If I targeted every private contractor in the city, half of New Rome would be wiped out, and she finances an orphanage in Rust Town. She ships them food and money every week. I

few things fell into place.

Shroud immediately tensed. “Why?”