The Perfect Run

Chapter 32

Ryan woke up on a terrible mattress, with a cat on his chest.

The animal looked at the courier with its big blue eyes, as he emerged from his deep sleep. The Persian cat had a coat of fur of the purest shade of white, and the lazy expression of a creature sleeping eighteen hours a day without shame.

It was...

It was the perfect Bond Villain cat!

Ryan immediately let out a cry of joy, while the cat looked at him with noble curiosity.

“I’m gonna call you…” Ryan briefly raised the feline above ground to check if it was a male or female, and then let his imagination do the rest. “Eugène-Henry von Schrodinger!”

Eugène-Henry meowed in response.

“The name sucks,” someone complained from the ‘room’ right next to his—another animal cage repurposed into a prison cell. Ryan recognized the voice as Sarah’s. “It sucks hard.”

“Much like many geniuses, I’m way ahead of my time,” Ryan replied, scratching Eugène-Henry behind his ears. “You like that name, don’t you? You like it, don’t you?”

“Is that the white cat?” Sarah peeked into Ryan’s private space, finding the courier sitting on his bed sheet, the cat on his lap. The courier promised himself to work on his diabolical mastermind pose, though he needed to get a cashmere suit first. “It has a sixth sense to find suckers willing to feed it. That’s why it’s so fat.”

“Hey, he’s not judging you on your appearance!”

“Once, I showed him a rat, like one meter away from his face, and that lazy furball didn’t even react.”

“Slander!” Ryan defended his new sidekick. “Is there a shower though? I think I caught fleas sleeping on that bed.”

“Yes, but the water is muddy. Ma says she will fix it today after she checks your car.”

Check his—

“Goddammit, I hope she doesn’t find the bodies,” Ryan said, rising up from the bed. Eugène-Henry instantly took over his place and moved below the bed sheet, to better protect the mattress from intruders.

“There’s a spot for that,” Little Sarah said casually. “The druggies call it the Happy Hole.”

As it turned out, Rust Town did have tourist spots.

Ryan started dressing, but immediately noticed something wrong. Namely, his A-bomb was missing, and some of his weapons weren’t at their place. Someone had clearly checked on his belongings while he was asleep.

Shortie may be willing to help, but she didn’t fully trust him yet.

The courier emerged from the orphanage to find Len tinkering with his car, having opened the car hood to look inside. She had put the water gun aside, to her right.

“Comrade Shortie, just because it’s an all-American car doesn’t give you the right to wreck it,” Ryan said. “Find yourself a Lada.”

Len turned her head away from the engine, and Ryan's playful demeanor disappeared instantly when she grabbed the water gun. “Riri, what have you done?”

What did he do?

What didn’t he do?

Ryan glanced inside the car hood, his old friend keeping her weapon aimed at his head. Unfortunately, Len had found the brain and jumped to the wrong conclusions.

“Riri, have you…” Len clearly didn’t want to finish her sentence but forced herself to. “Did you put someone in there?”

“You wouldn’t believe how many tries it took before I found the right person.” He immediately raised his hands while Len made a mortified face. “Relax, I’m kidding, I’m kidding! It’s not even sentient!”

“Riri, don’t, don’t joke about this,” she sputtered, keeping her weapon raised.

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologized. “I default to humor when I’m stressed, and I didn’t have my morning coffee.”

Len remained as stiff and grim as ever. “Riri, where did it come from?”

“It’s vat-grown, a gift from another Genius.” No answer. “Shortie, I’m not a serial killer, and I don’t abduct hobos off the road to experiment on them.”

“Riri, I… I want to believe you’re not crazy. I really want to.” She shook her head. “But you keep a thermo-nuclear device with children nearby.”

plushie. “Len,

if you jump into another universe

I’m not jumping into an alternate universe whenever I die. I checked. I wouldn’t do like, half the stuff I pull on a weekly basis if I knew I left a mess behind. My power only affects our universe, and all

still struggling to understand his power’s full scope. “If what you say is correct, then you can rewrite the

get water guns for Christmas, while I got a Fat Man,” Ryan said, putting a

behave while you stay here,” Len said. “I… even if there are no consequences from your

“Len, they have guns.”

Genius replied. “But that

it over to Vulcan, as a sign of friendship. “Can you give it back then? I swear you will never see that bomb

the bomb. Ryan put a hand on it, their gloves brushing against the other. The courier sensed

him, she wanted to. He wouldn’t disappoint

like that?” she asked, as the courier

I was bored, and I thought it would be

with your time-stop? You

I said an early restart, I meant an early restart. Have you never wondered why I called

finally caught on. "That's how you

the time the courier had caught on to this mechanism, he had already burnt a lot of bridges. "And since

of pity, sadness, and compassion. “Do you think your

good, he would have picked a fight with someone like

uncomfortable silence, Len abruptly changed the subject.

way worse places,” the courier replied, before shuddering as he remembered one of his worst deaths. “Whatever you do, Len, don’t

“Monaco? Why?”

the car, and a flustered Len started putting the engine pieces back in their proper place. “Should I expect a mounted water turret? Please tell

was just checking the Chronoradio and its associated parts.” Only then did Ryan notice that while she had stopped pointing

Baby steps.

putting a hand on the hood. “You’re the last Genius in a long line to work

that. There’s a lot I could work with, actually.” Len closed the hood once her work done. “Riri, why did you hook up a miniature particle accelerator to your

story. Ryan worked many loops

various dimensions,” the

pulling them from these

are alternate histories Earth

“I don’t follow you.”

love so much, ever

you never considered...” Len trailed off with a worried frown, unable to say it out

of the horrors involved. It was a rabbit hole of depression, questionable ethics, and self-misery.

timeline where things went well for

a sigh, opening his car’s door. “But I never found a way to reach an alternate Earth, even with a custom particle accelerator. All I can do

she think he would get himself killed? Then again, they were close to the Junkyard. “What about that undead madman in

to receive a recruitment offer from Wyvern and then Vulcan, but I’m not sure if she will follow through if I’m in Rust Town. After that, I need to have my windshield cleaned, and

Len answered with a deeper frown

jailed you, so I investigated,”

them for dangerous work with just enough euros to feed themselves, but provide neither

practices.” Even the junior heroes he had met during the seminar seemed more self-obsessed

her head. “Not all criminals wear

attacked one of

caught me. Somebody ratted me out and led the Private Security to my

the people you tried to fight for?” Ryan guessed, his friend

out,

only one way to kill Psyshock permanently, and it’s an Augusti-exclusive option as far as I

Vulcan, she clearly had no love for her organization. “We could capture

a thermo-nuclear device. Besides making the world a better place, taking down Psyshock would also prevent him from piloting that Mechron mech later on. “And while I don’t believe it, Vulcan

need more

out my power,

“I want to help you, Riri. I really do. No one else should have to

genuine warmth. “The fact that you want to help at

little. “But the thing is Riri, even if we succeed in helping you,

We.

time when Ryan believed they had a future together. He thought his feelings for Len had changed after so many restarts, moved past the realm of teenage romance. But every time he looked at his old partner, the courier always wondered what

could never

she admitted. “My father, that stuff

me,”

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