Bianca farted all the way back to the Mechron submarine.
Proverbially of course, but Ryan couldn’t help but laugh at the sound she made each time she switched between gaseous and human form. Now, she was doing a live demonstration to the courier and the Carnival members deep in the submarine’s mess. Most of the group sat around white tables, while Mr. Wave prepared cocktails behind a short counter.
Bianca’s body, clothes included, turned into an orange cloud with a snap of her fingers. Unlike her time as a Psycho, the substance reminded Ryan more of faint colored mist than thick, toxic chemicals. Though she touched the thrumming metal walls of the submarine, they didn’t corrode into dust.
Ryan looked at his traveling circus. Leo Hargraves had taken back his sexy, handsome human form, and didn’t hide his joy. Stitch scribbled notes on a journal. Matty kept his arms crossed with skepticism, and their new recruit, the acclaimed Bianca with his paws.
“So?” Bianca asked as she returned to her human form, her cloud coalescing into flesh, hair, and clothes. Terrible clothes, by the way. How could she live with herself wearing only shaggy jeans and a tank top the courier would never understand.
“So I will introduce you to your lord and savior, Wardrobe,” Ryan replied. “I can’t, in good conscience, let you run around dressed like that.”
“Still better than a hazmat suit,” the young woman snickered, searching her pockets for a cigarette and a lighter.
“The corrosive aspect of the gas was probably the result of synergy,” Dr. Stitch said. “Now your powers act independently. You can switch back and forth between solid and gaseous, yes, and your chemical compound no longer degrades metallic material.”
“I ain’t going to rust any metal tool I get my hands on?” Bianca asked with a scoff, causing her cigarette to vibrate. Unlike her Orange power, the Red one worked shockingly the same. “Yeah, I won’t miss that part. Might need to change my name though.”
“May I suggest Lady Flatulence?” Ryan asked mirthfully.
Instead of pinching him, his former Vice-President answered with a joke of her own. “Only if you change your name to Butthole,” she said. “Wouldn’t we make quite the pair then?”
“How about Ass and Fart? You intoxicate them, I smother them. We will call our new superhero team ‘The Cheeks.’”
“Better than ‘The Buttkissers.’”
“Sifu, could I join?” the asked enthusiastically.
“Of course,” Ryan replied. “I shall grant you the honorable name of Ass-Kicker!”
Shroudy Matty kept his arms crossed. Though he had championed the treatment for the Psycho condition, seeing it in action filled him with doubt now. “I hope you all understand what this discovery means,” he said. “While it is preferable to having a psychopath with two powers, this means anyone can technically receive two powers now. The number of would-be Augustus wannabes will increase.”
“I doubt so,” Sunshine replied with optimism. “With Eva Fabre dead and her facility destroyed, nobody can make true Elixirs. Once the Mechron bases are destroyed and Dynamis is dealt with, Knockoffs will become a thing of the past.”
“Never say never, Sunshine,” Ryan replied, knowing that someone could always develop the right power to make more of them. “But I agree. The Elixir well will eventually dry up, and the problem with Lightning Butt isn’t the fact he has two powers. It’s what those two powers can do combined.”
Sunshine nodded in agreement. “Invulnerability and his destructive lightning make Augustus a danger to human civilization, but among the thousands of Psychos we encountered, only Bloodstream possesses a truly cataclysmic power combination. There will always be the likes of Mechron and Adam the Ogre, Psycho condition or not.”
“Point taken,” Shroud conceded.
“Considering the data we gathered and the projections on the Elixir distribution,” Stitch said, “Elixirs will more or less vanish from circulation within ten years. New Genomes afterward will be born, rather than made.”
The Elixirs that remained would be like buried treasures lost to time. The Alchemist had planned for Genomes to overcome Homo Sapiens, and they would do so. With a stable genetic code, former Psychos will also be able to reproduce, bolstering the new breed’s numbers further.
“I won’t speak for all Psychos out there.” Bianca lit her cigarette and enjoyed the taste of incoming lung cancer. “But I ain’t starting any more trouble, unless the nerd asks me too.”
“Moi?” Ryan asked, switching between his native tongue and French.
“You gave me my life back, jackass,” she replied. “I owe you a debt I can’t ever repay. Whatever you want from me, you’ll get it. But I’ll still punch you in the arm if you push your luck.”
“Would you submit to a trial?” Leo Hargraves asked.
“Yeah... yeah, I guess I would.” Bianca let out a cloud of smoke from her nostrils. “Will I?”
“Your crimes are nowhere near as severe as Adam or Psyshock, and you helped us a great deal,” Sunshine replied with wisdom. “I believe in second chances. Your captured teammates will be treated the same.”
“Only Geniuses with our resources and combined expertise can make this cure work though, sir,” Stitch pointed out. “We will need support to expand it across Europe.”
“Nidhogg’s?” Shroud asked.
“Dynamis’?” Ryan replied jokingly. “Get the best privatized healthcare in the world? Which isn’t saying much.”
His transparent teammate grumbled, as if a pigeon had assaulted his windshield. “They already have the infrastructure, Ryan, but none of the ethics required.”
“We could work with Enrique Manada, but not the rest of his family,” Leo Hargraves replied. “There is still time to think about the future. Let us first cure the Meta-Gang members in captivity, and see if the treatment sticks.”
Ryan left his allies to debate how to mass-produce the cure to sit behind the mess’ bar counter. Mr. Wave gave him a purple cocktail, with a tasteful blue drinking straw. “What is this?” the courier asked.
“This is the Virgin Wavemojito,” Mr. Wave pitched the cocktail. “Mr. Wave can make people drunk on non-alcoholic beverages.”
Ryan took a sip, closing his eyes in pleasure as the taste washed over his mouth. Such a perfect mix of grape juice, honey, and so many secret things! His idol’s exquisite tastes didn’t stop at fashion. “Delicious.”
“Mr. Wave only accepts the best,” the Genome replied, a hand on the counter. “The sun told Mr. Wave that you wanted to talk to him?”
“Yes, I did.” The noise of their allies’ debate drowned Ryan’s voice, as he dropped the bomb without warning. “I’m a time-traveler.”
The courier expected questions, but Mr. Wave was too good for that. “One cannot travel through time. Time waits for Mr. Wave, but only after he counts to infinity. And when Mr. Wave kills time, it stays dead.”
“Obviously,” Ryan replied. “Do you remember the day we met? You saved me from an explosion.”
The superhero joined his hands. “Mr. Wave has had that pleasure, yes.”
“You saved my life more than twenty times,” Ryan said, as he sipped the cocktail. “I lost count afterward. Sometimes I tripped, sometimes I dived down. You couldn’t save me all the time, but you always at least tried. When I die, I often remember the feeling of your cashmere suit pressing against my face to shield me from the flames.”
Mr. Wave listened in respectful silence, his wavelength head lacking anything like facial expressions.
“You were always present when I woke up,” Ryan continued his tale. “Sitting at my bedside, as if you had a responsibility towards me.”
“Mr. Wave had one,” the man replied. “If Mr. Wave had seen you earlier, you wouldn’t have ended up in the hospital in the first place.”
“If you had, you would all be dead.” And Ryan himself too. “Whenever I woke up, you always tried to help me in any way you could. At one point, you even toured all of Italy’s coastline at lightspeed to try and find Len.”
“There is no lightspeed. Light travels at Mr. Wave’s pace.” The colorful Genome’s voice turned from amused to serious. “Why did you run away, Ryan?”
“I wasn’t in the right state of mind,” the courier admitted. “You know the five stages of grief? I think I was stuck at the depression part for… thirty years? At least twenty. Took me a stay in Monaco to reach acceptance and enjoy the ride.”
“Mr. Wave has discussed this with Simon. You saved a great many souls from a terrible place, Ryan.”
“Yes, but it took a while. These guys needed a hero to get them out of hell, and… well, when I tried to think of one, you were the first that came to mind. My parents died when I was young, and Bloodstream was no one’s idea of a parental model.”
“Mr. Wave can imagine.”
“So I guess I tried to become a little more like you,” the time-traveler said, letting the truth off his chest. “I want to say thank you. You inspired me in my darkest moments, and I owe you my life more than ten times over.”
“You owe me nothing, Ryan,” Mr. Wave replied, his tone almost paternal. “I am proud of you. I’ve been keeping up with your adventures when I could, and you have saved more lives than you think.”
This made the courier’s head perk up. “You did?”
“Yes, though I wonder why you crashed a plane while making a delivery,” Mr. Wave replied with a shrug. “Even I didn’t go that far.”
“I swear, the alternative was worse!” Or at least Ryan hoped so, as he played with his drinking straw. He didn't fully remember that particular run, truth be told. “I thought the first person couldn’t contain your almighty power?”
“I was a comedian before I became a living spotlight,” Mr. Wave replied, breaking character. “Life on the road is hard. Out of our group’s newbies, one out of four usually dies before the mission is done. Leo still feels guilty about not being there to save the Costa family from Augustus, Mathias watched his mother become a vegetable, Ace has her own demons, and even the good doctor feels down sometimes. It’s depressing when you think about how fragile life is… so I make sure that my teammates never do it.”
Ryan sighed. “When everything goes to shit, the only way to go on is to laugh off the pain and power through.”
“Exactly. Someone has to carry on the show when everyone else feels down.” The living wavelength glanced at the Carnival, and most specifically at Bianca. “The challenges are different when you move from one-man shows to a troupe, but I think you’re doing very well for yourself.”
“I had my fill of one-man shows. I love the spotlight—”
“But you hate solitude more?” Mr. Wave guessed.
Ryan nodded. “You knew about the time-travel part.”
This made him laugh. “Only half of my boasts are exaggerations, Ryan,” he said. “I keep the real stuff secret, because nobody would believe them. I’ve seen way crazier things than time travel. Have you been to Quebec?”
“No, but I’ll probably invade Canada when I get elected president of the free world again.”
“Whatever you do, Ryan, don’t go to Quebec.”
Shortie’s voice echoed through the mess’ loudspeaker. “We’re approaching Italy’s coasts,” she said.
“Ooh, I will have phone coverage again!” Ryan said happily, leaping from his seat and leaving an empty glass behind. “Sorry, I need to call my girlfriend.”
“Mr. Wave understands. He has his fangirls too.” Mr. Wave raised an index at Ryan, like one of those ‘Uncle Sam wants you’ posters. “Don’t let her go, Ryan.”
He wouldn’t.
Ryan walked out of the mess and through the submarine’s metal corridors, making its way to the exit. No sooner did he open his phone, than he received a message from Livia.
LiviaLove: Ryan? Ryan, are you alright?
They must have reached the Mediterranean Sea.
PlushieTamer: Hi princess. I’m fine.
LiviaLove: Hearing from you is a relief, my knight. Is everything going well?
PlushieTamer: My mission was a total success.
LiviaLove: That makes one of us :(
PlushieTamer: What happened?
LiviaLove: You will understand when you see New Rome’s coast.
LiviaLove: I… I tried to stop it, Ryan. I tried, but I couldn’t. He won’t change. He won’t ever change.
A chill went down Ryan’s spine, as he realized what had happened.
PlushieTamer: Where are you?
LiviaLove: I’m in Sorrentos with Narcinia and Fortuna. Come back soon.
LiviaLove: I miss you :(
PlushieTamer: I miss you so much too :( I’ll be there soon.
LiviaLove: I can’t wait. I want you, Ryan. I need you.
PlushieTamer: I’m coming.
Ryan closed his phone, before crossing paths with Alchemo in the corridor. “Sending nudes again, meatbag?” he asked.
“How did you—”
“Because I understand your vile thought process, you hormonal hominid,” the Genius replied with annoyance. “I have a breakthrough to report.”
“Go ahead, Father Brain.”
“We now know that a Genome’s consciousness exists in an intangible Flux state. Your gaseous groupie confirmed it. Now, with this information in mind, I believe I can refine the Chronoradio mechanism which the Underdiver developed to send minds through time. Make the signal more efficient.”
Ryan immediately caught on. “You could send more than one mindmap back.”
“Yes.”
The courier couldn’t keep his excitement in check. “How many?”
“I would say… five? Maybe six, but I don’t guarantee it.” Ryan didn’t hide his disappointment at the answer, causing Alchemo to shrug. “The more mindmaps are sent back, the harder the computations. Even my boundless intellect can only do so much on that front.”
Ryan would have hoped for more, but this still changed everything.
The original plan relied on transferring Livia’s mind back in time, recreating the brain-scanning machine, and then using her stored brainmaps to help their allies remember. This, however, significantly delayed the assault on Mechron’s bunker. Big Fat Adam sent captured denizens of Rust Town to their demise in his attempt to unlock Mechron’s bunker, and a day lost meant dozens of innocent casualties.
But if Ryan could bring more people, then a team could confront the Meta-Gang as soon as he reloaded.
Who could he bring though? Sunshine? Even if he received his future self’s memories, the Living Sun would be hours away from New Rome, and each minute lost increased the Meta-Gang’s death toll.
Shroud was already active though, and a safer bet. It would also end his assassination campaign before it began.
Livia and Shortie would get a time-travel ticket, which left two to three spots available. Having Bianca onboard would make taking down the bunker easier, but if Ryan could secure someone in Dynamis too...
“I need to think about this,” the time-traveler said. “Can you send anyone?”
“Of course I can,” Alchemo replied arrogantly. “Brain matter is no longer mandatory, though I would suggest bringing a few Geniuses.”
“Do geniuses with a small ‘g’ count?”
“Your funeral.”
Ryan climbed out of the submarine’s tower, taking a breath of fresh air. The Milky Way’s stars shone brightly in the skies above the courier’s head, while the moon made him hungry for a French croissant pastry.
Felix already beat him to the observatory spot, sitting at the tower’s edge. He glanced in the coast’s direction, noticing the lights of New Rome in the distance.
“I thought cats were afraid of water, Atom Kitten?” Ryan said, sitting next to Felix.
“I never crossed the ocean before,” he admitted. “I never even left Italy, and now I moved halfway through the world and back.”
“Next episode, we will go to Australia. Then you can call yourself Atom Kangaroo.”
“You can’t fathom how much I regret choosing that nickname,” the young man replied, his beautiful blue eyes examining Ryan carefully. “Who are you, really?”
“A time-traveler from the future. Or the past, if you look sideways.”
Felix squinted, considered his fellow Genomes’ words, and then reacted with denial. “I don’t believe you,” he said.
Unsurprising, but disappointing. Atom Cat had accepted the truth pretty quickly in a previous loop, but this current iteration hadn’t bonded much with Ryan. “Then how else do you explain, well, everything?” the courier asked.
“Livia. You’re clearly working with her, dating her, and it wouldn’t be the first time she makes one of these circuitous plots work. Though I can’t explain the endgame you’re aiming for.”
“Saving the city, and overthrowing my future father-in-law.” Ryan made a note to officially duel Lightning Butt for his daughter’s hand in marriage, if appropriate.
“Livia would never do that,” Felix replied with scorn. “She’s her father’s daughter, trying to mitigate Augustus’ damage rather than stop him.”
“And yet, she helped me save your skin from your parents, and form an alliance with the Carnival,” Ryan shrugged. “Things aren’t black and white.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you can’t be a time-traveler.”
“I can literally stop time for the entire universe, and you think turning it back is implausible?”
“Then prove it,” Felix said. “Take me back, if you can.”
“That’s a bit harder than you think, so let me suggest something else.” Ryan looked at the crescent moon. “Once, while you and Jamie were still friends, intelligent rats stole Bliss batches from Mercury’s division. You tracked the animals to their mistress and… it was a horrible sight.”
Felix looked at the courier as if horns had sprouted from his skull, which only encouraged him to carry on. “Ki-jung was squatting in an abandoned apartment infested with rodents, suffering from an overdose of Bliss. Blood poured out from her nose and eyes, and mold grew on her skin.”
Felix’s hands clenched into fists. “Who told you that?”
“You did,” Ryan replied. Even now, he could remember that conversation word for word, like so many lost to time. “You rushed to the hospital, and the first thing Ki-jung did upon waking up was to ask for more Bliss. It was, in your own words, a wake-up call. You tried to get Narcinia out of the business, but her parents always pulled her back in.”
“What did they say?” Felix asked, his voice turning distant.
“It’s for the greater good of the family, honey,’” Ryan quoted. “‘Addicts kill themselves because they can’t help themselves.’”
Atom Kitten spent the next few minutes considering the courier’s words in grim silence. Many emotions flashed on his face, from anger and doubt, to grief. Taking a page from Mr. Wave’s book, Ryan let his friend process his feelings in respectful silence.
“It’s too vivid,” Felix said. “Livia would have gotten the details wrong, and I never told the full story to anyone. Either you can read my mind in addition to stopping time, or you’re really a goddamn time-traveler. I don’t see what a mind-reader would have to gain from telling such a nonsensical story.”
“Hey, my life makes sense in its context!” Ryan protested.
“I have doubts,” Felix replied dryly, a sad smile forming at the edge of his lips. “How does your power work?”
“I create a save point, and when I die, I live again,” Ryan replied. “I believe it is my sixteenth time reloading in New Rome.”
Felix scoffed. “That’s messed up.”
“By my standards, it’s quite the safe zone.”
Felix squinted at Ryan, as if suddenly figuring out the implications of the courier’s words. “We were close,” he realized. “I wouldn’t have told you so much if I didn’t trust you with my life.”
“We formed a team called Quicksave the Pandas, as formidable as it was stylish.” Ryan closed his eyes in mourning. “I miss Yuki so much.”
“I can imagine the two of you getting along,” Felix mused, before frowning. “Wait, did she force me to wear a new costume?”
“Unfortunately, you remained a fashion disaster to the end.” Ryan looked at his former sidekick in the eyes. “Your sister died to save your life during that loop.”
Felix’s hands clenched. “Father?”
“Pluto. Or Cruella, if you prefer.”
The superhero looked down at the dark sea. “Augustus is always going to send someone after me,” he said. “And people will die in the crossfire.”
“Not if I have my way.”
“I… I never made up with Jamie and Ki-jung,” Felix said, his voice breaking. “I slammed the door behind when… when they chose to support the Bliss business. I still think I was right to do so, but… but they still died trying to protect me. The last thing I did was to condemn them, and now that they’re dead, I can’t take my words back. They died thinking I hated them.”
Tears formed in the young hero’s eyes. “Hey, kitten, it’s alright,” Ryan said, putting a hand around his friend’s shoulder. “You couldn’t know.”
“No, I…” Atom Cat closed his eyelids and wiped away the tears. “I loved them, man. They were my friends. Jamie was my best friend, and Ki-jung, she was such a caring woman. I wanted them to do the right thing, take a stand against that soul-destroying drug, but I… I never wanted them to die.”
Ryan hugged his friend, consoling him. “It’s not too late,” the courier said. “I will give you another chance to make this right.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” Felix asked, before pushing the time-traveler’s arm away. “If I don’t remember any of it, then it means you didn’t bring me back with you the first time.”
“I couldn’t bring back your memories through time in that old loop,” Ryan replied. “But I might do so now. It took a few tries, but we have the technology for it.”
Felix didn’t answer immediately, instead glancing at dancing lights on the horizon. “Do you think it’s too late for me to make up to them?” he asked Ryan.
“I think they can turn away from the Augusti with the proper nudge.” Jamie and Ki-jung reminded Ryan of Bianca, who had followed Big Fat Adam partly out of fear, and partly out of denial about her boss’ true motivations. Zanbato and Chitter had taken a stand to protect Atom Cat, unlike his own parents, showing their loyalty to the Augusti wasn’t unshakeable. “But they will need your help, kitten.”
“I…. If I have any chance to make this right… if I have any chance, I must take it.” Felix’s eyes turned determined. “That’s why you and Livia are working together. This kind of mess happened before, and you’re trying to avert it.”
“Livia is a better person than you think, kitten,” Ryan replied with fondness. “It took a while, but all the pieces are in place. Our happy ending is finally within reach.”
“Can I help?”
“Yes, but I won’t lie, we’re probably going to fight your parents, your godfather, and dozens of villains before we can call it a day. This is going to be a boss rush, and half of them will be people you know. You better sharpen your claws.”
“The good thing is, I hate almost everyone I know.” Felix’s gaze turned determined. “Where do I sign up?”
The submarine approached closer to the coast, the light getting brighter, the smell of smoke filling the air.
“Wait,” Felix said with a frown. “Something is wrong.”
Ryan had noticed it too. The bright colors, the hue reflecting in clouds above the coast. He had seen this picture two times before, as events repeated again and again.
These weren’t the lights of glamorous casinos, but the brightness of flames.
New Rome was on fire, and Ryan only had one word to say in response.
“Again?!”