Chapter 90: Past Fragment: The First Run (1/2)

The world turned purple, as time slowed down to a crawl.

Raindrops froze in midair, never reaching the ground. A lightning bolt coursed through the skies, a scar of light in the heavens. Ryan didn’t even hear the sound of his footsteps as he moved.

He had wished for more time, and the Elixir obliged. The boy knew it deep within his bones, an instinct as natural as breathing. Ryan Romano halted time itself with a thought, much like a player could pause a video game.

But not forever.

A flash of light overcame his vision, followed by the noise of explosions and cold rainwater falling on him. Time began again, and Ryan nearly tripped on a puddle of water. Damn, did he need to focus on his power to keep time frozen?

Whatever the case, Ryan kept following the noise. He caught sight of Leo the Living Sun floating above the sea, unleashing streams of fire at Porto Venere’s Marina. The place used to be a touristic walkway, with multi-story colored houses facing piers meant for yachts. Years afterward, the paint had turned grey and lifeless, and the boats into scrapped husks. Ryan could hardly see the battle with the downpour.

He activated his power, and the world turned purple. This time, Ryan started to count in his head.

One.

Five.

Nine.

Te—

And time resumed.

Ryan could halt time for ten seconds or so. Afterward, his power failed him again. The boy attempted to stop the clock again each second, finally succeeding on the tenth try. He could pause the universe for ten seconds, but had a cooldown period of the same length.

A pretty straightforward power, all things considered. But would it make any difference? Bloodstream packed a mean punch, but he was fighting Leo the Living Sun. Ryan heard rumors that the guy fought Augustus and lived.

Ryan searched inside his pockets and brought out a small revolver he always carried on his person. He took a deep breath, cursed his luck, and approached the battlefield.

He was fast.

Leonard couldn’t believe his luck, when he glimpsed at a boy matching the description of Bloodstream’s son Cesare scavenging supplies while on a routine patrol. The Carnival had lost track of the Psycho days ago, even wondering if he managed to flee Italy. Leonard had called his allies, and immediately tracked down the boy to his father’s hideout.

Leo went into battle with only the Cossack and Mr. Wave for backup. The former’s white power armor would protect him from blood infection, while the latter had no circulatory system of any kind. Ace stayed on standby in a safe location, ready to teleport the wounded to Stitch’s infirmary if needed. The Cossack had suggested burning the entire town to ensure Bloodstream perished, kids be damned, but his teammates put their veto to that course of action.

They would do this by the book.

Unfortunately, Bloodstream must have sensed the trio's approach and ambushed them near the town’s ruined Marina. Leo bombarded the walkway with flames, while the Cossack did the same with a laser rifle. They only managed to set a deserted restaurant on fire, as Bloodstream dodged all their attacks. The bloody slime leaped from one spot to another like a flea.

“Meddlers, annoyers! Why does everyone insist on harassing me?!” Bloodstream shrieked. His voice struck Leonard as shrilling and high-pitched, like a young child throwing a tantrum. “Has every man on this God-forsaken planet gone mad?”

The pressurized blood making up Bloodstream’s skin crystallized into spikes, which he launched in all directions. Leonard didn’t bother to dodge, his solar body incinerating the projectiles before they could even reach him. Even the raindrops formed a cloud of steam around him, the skies darkening above their heads.

The Cossack flew away with his jetpack, but one spike hit his chest; the blood spear turned into a drill and attempted to dig a path to the human below the armor.

While Leo immediately stopped harassing Bloodstream to burn away his projectile before it could infect his teammate, the Psycho moved towards a half-rusted car near the walkway. His fingers turned into tentacles as they seized the vehicle.

“Ever since I took these potions, this world has been tormenting me!” Bloodstream lifted the car above his head and prepared to toss it at the Carnival’s flying members. “Trying to take my children away from me!”

“And all your troubles didn’t prepare you for…” A new, costumed challenger appeared on the ground, a crimson blur. “Mr. Wave!”

The living wavelength ran towards Bloodstream, his body turning into a laser. Mr. Wave transformed into a mass of crimson light moving in a straight line that cut through anything in its path. The superhero’s laser form tore Bloodstream in half, the car falling on the bisected Psycho.

Mr. Wave returned to his humanoid form a few meters away, doing some footwork as if slowing down. While he could move at lightspeed in laser form, the superhero could only move in a straight line and needed to transform back to turn around. He had once confessed to Leonard that his greatest fear was to be ejected into space, unable to turn back.

“Ugh, Mr. Wave has bloodstains on his cashmere!” Mr. Wave complained while looking at his suit. Bloodstream’s two halves quickly fused back together, and he crawled out of beneath the car. “You have made a powerful enemy today, tomato juice!”

“Just die!” Bloodstream turned both his hands into sharp axes, extended his arms into five-meters long tentacles, and attempted to behead Mr. Wave with a scissor blade motion. The superhero put his hands in his pockets and dodged the strike with a backstep.

“Lady Death once had a near-Mr. Wave experience,” the superhero replied, as Bloodstream frantically pursued him like an enraged bull after a matador. “Mr. Wave is too good for Heaven, and too scary for Hell!”

Leonard had to resist the urge to tell his teammate to stop with the boasts. Mr. Wave was good-natured and powerful, but also an unrepentant showoff.

Still, his taunts worked. Bloodstream focused entirely on Mr. Wave and ignored his allies, giving them some respite. Once the Psycho got too close for the superhero to dodge in his human form, Mr. Wave tore through his foe again in laser form. No damage lasted long, the maddened criminal pulling himself back together in seconds.

“You’re alright?” Leo asked the Cossack after burning the blood-drill to ashes.

“How much blood does he have?” the armored man grunted back, as he glanced at the walkway below them. Bloodstream’s spikes had turned back into liquid blood, slithering back to their owner.

“I can’t tell.” Bloodstream compressed the blood making up his body, so he might carry tons of organic mass in that slender frame of his. “I could incinerate him with one fireball, if we can immobilize him. I don’t want to go all out in case he keeps his children hidden nearby, I might wound them by accident.”

Easier said than done though. Leonard and the Cossack flew above the walkway, trying to keep up with their ally’s duel with Bloodstream. Upon realizing he couldn’t damage the Psycho for long, Mr. Wave switched to a defensive strategy. One moment he stood in one place, challenging Bloodstream with hand gestures and lazy footwork; and when his foe threatened to slice him, the superhero took a step forward, turned into a laser, and reappeared a few meters away.

But though Bloodstream lacked finesse, Leo had a hard time tracking his movements. He was a red blur, a cheetah, his body twisting at impossible angles.

“Stop dodging!” Bloodstream leaped from a building’s wall to the walkway in an attempt to catch Mr. Wave from an unexpected angle, but the living wavelength saw it coming and dodge with a mere sidestep. He didn’t even need to transform.

“Mr. Wave doesn’t move at lightspeed. Light moves at Mr. Wave’s pace.”

“Sure,” the Cossack said, the back of his power armor opening to reveal missile launchers. A rain of rockets fell upon the walkway, alongside the rain and lightning. Concrete and stone exploded into a cloud of dust, obscuring Leonard’s sight.

Leo guessed his ally’s plan: to force Bloodstream’s parts to reform after blasting him to smithereens. Mr. Wave reappeared close to a ruined restaurant, wiping blood off his suit, but the enemy remained out of sight. The dust cloud spread over the Marina, obscuring both the boats and the pavement.

“Catch!” Bloodstream screamed from within the smoke.

A second later, a rusted boat flew across the skies in the flyers’ direction. Leonard and the Cossack blasted it apart before it could hit them, parts falling into the sea. However, the Psycho leaped at them while they were distracted, emerging from the dust cloud with a maniacal laugh.

Bloodstream had stretched his right arm and twisted it on itself, building up strength like an elastic spring. He punched the Cossack in the chest before the armored warrior could retaliate, his empowered fist as powerful a cannonball. The blow cracked the Cossack’s chestplate, the armored warrior crashing on the walkway. Stone broke beneath him on impact.

“Cossack!” Leonard shouted, his teammate laying on the road, motionless. Worse, the hole in his armor left his chest exposed. “Ace! Evacuate!”

“Below the steel, the sweet blood!” Bloodstream cackled upon landing on the ground. He immediately moved on all fours like a hyena and rushed towards the Cossack. “Sustenance, at long last!”

Mr. Wave took a step forward and transformed into a laser again, hitting the Psycho from behind before he could reach the Cossack. The impact shattered Bloodstream like glass, but no sooner had Mr. Wave regained his original form did the blood drops instantly fused back into a humanoid form.

With a small opening, Ace opened a portal behind the Cossack. The teleporter grabbed the armored warrior and started pulling him to safety through the gate.

“Incinerate him, Sunshine!” Mr. Wave shouted as he engaged Bloodstream in a duel again. He dodged a crystallized axe by sidestepping, transformed in a laser to stop blood bullets in midair before they could hit Ace, and tore through Bloodstream like paper. “Mr. Wave will provide!”

Indeed he did. When Bloodstream threatened to pull himself back, Mr. Wave returned to human form, rotated on himself, and gored through the Psycho again. The superhero kept repeating the process, preventing the criminal from fully regenerating.

Knowing Mr. Wave couldn’t keep this up forever, Leonard gathered plasma in his hand, forming a shining fireball hot enough to vaporize every last drop of blood.

It was now or never.

Time resumed again, as Ryan powered through dust and smoke.

The Carnival and Bloodstream had transformed the walkway into swiss cheese, with craters all over the paved street. Len’s loving father got the thrashing of his life from a crimson blur too fast for the eye to follow. Ryan barely caught a glimpse of the fighter responsible for one second as it turned around, a humanoid mass of red energy held together by a purple suit. Bloodstream exploded in a shower of blood, reformed, only to explode again as his foe ran into him.

A freckled woman dragged an armored figure through a circular rift in spacetime itself a few meters away, with Ryan noticing an immaculate clinic on the other side. Leo the Living Sun floated above the area, shaping a miniature star in the palm of his hands. He would incinerate the Psycho so utterly, that naught but ashes would remain.

None had noticed Ryan yet, the dust, smoke, and heavy rain hiding him. And for a second, he was tempted to sit back and do nothing. This might be his only chance to watch the loathsome, immortal Psycho perish for good.

But… but Len wouldn’t leave without her father. She would never forgive Ryan if he left Bloodstream to die, and the Carnival… the teen couldn’t rule out the possibility that they would go after Shortie and him next.

Damn it, what should he do?

“Stop!” Ryan shouted, firing a warning shot at the skies. He couldn't make a decision. “Stop fighting!”

The fireball in Leo’s hands faltered, as he noticed Ryan. “Mr. Wave, the child!”

The wavelength Genome stopped hitting Bloodstream to look at Ryan, the energy making up his body assembling into a phantasmal face. The Psycho regenerated, while ‘Mr. Wave’ raised a hand at Ryan. “Kid, get back, it’s dangerous—”

The horror was raw in his voice, and Ryan realized he made a terrible mistake. The Carnival never intended to harm him or Len. They were true heroes, coming to save them from a bloodthirsty monster.

But a moment of distraction was all it took for evil to prevail.

Bloodstream unleashed a volley of blood bullets at the portal, one of his projectiles hitting the woman’s throat while she finished dragging the armored figure through. She barely had the time to gasp before her skin ruptured, crimson blood covering her skin.

Her voice turned into Bloodstream’s midway through her final scream.

“Ace!” The Living Sun shouted while the portal closed, the fireball in his hands dissipating. “Mr. Wave, fall back!”

The other Genome stepped back in disbelief, sidestepping to dodge Bloodstream’s sharpened claws. “Fall back?!”

“Mathias and the others are at the base!” The Living Sun shouted back in alarm, flying north at extreme speed. Mr. Wave’s gaze moved from Bloodstream to Ryan, and he muttered something too low for the time-stopper to hear. The superhero transformed into a living laser, tearing through buildings in his teammate’s direction.

“You’re alright?” Ryan asked Bloodstream, though it disgusted him to even ask.

“Cesare, I told you to protect your sister!” Bloodstream snarled, apparently perfectly fine. Whatever damage he had suffered healed in an instant. “You must listen to your father!”

The teen sneered in bitterness, as he realized that he would never be free of this monster. This was the perfect chance to get rid of Bloodstream for good, perhaps the only chance, and he threw it all away.

But he loved Len more than he hated her father.

“We don’t have time,” Ryan replied, lowering his gun. “Len’s submarine will leave soon. We have to go now.”

Instead of answering, Bloodstream froze in place. He looked at his adoptive son with disturbing intensity, sending a shiver down Ryan’s spine. “Dad?”

“Who are you?” Bloodstream asked with a shaken voice.

Ryan froze, as the Psycho didn’t recognize him. Perhaps, the Elixir in the boy’s blood had broken the man’s delusion. Or perhaps it caused him to fall into another delirium.

“Dad, I—”

Bloodsteam’s hand grabbed Ryan’s throat, before he could finish his sentence. The Psycho’s grip was strong as steel, choking the life out of him.

“Where is Cesare?!” The Psycho’s maddened words became a distant echo, as air failed to reach Ryan’s brain. The bones in his neck cracked under the strain. His hand failed to hold his gun, the weapon falling on the pavement. “Where is my son?! What have you done to my son?!”

The boy attempted to freeze time and escape Bloodstream’s grip, but the delirious Psycho slammed his head against the pavement. A pain greater than anything Ryan ever felt coursed through his head, his vision blurring, brain matter flowing on the pavement. He couldn’t think, couldn’t—

“WHERE IS MY SON?!”

All went dark.