From above, New Rome is gorgeous.

The city is full of life. Millions of people come home from work, and the sun begins to disappear beyond the horizon like the blood cells of a giant organism. The neon and streetlights of the casino form a sea of light, some red, some green, and all the other colors in between. The whole place is filled with the smell of sin, but most importantly, it is full of life. New Rome rivals the greatest metropolises of the Old World on a scale, making it a beacon of the New World. It is a beacon of hope for humanity and a promise of a bright future in which humanity will be reborn from its own ashes.

Ryan can't let the city perish. However, a virus is already at work, insidiously infecting thousands of genomes, setting the stage for a global pandemic. Although he safely carries the antidote in the backpack of Saturn's armor, dealing with this disaster will only invite another disaster.

"We're in place." Ryan announced through his armored walkie-talkie. Livia was playing with her own new Opis armor in the clouds to his left. "Wait for the signal, man."

Two videos appeared in his helmet, one projected on each shot. The sound on the left comes from the Elf's own power armor as she, Enrique, and a group of personal bodyguards climb the elevator to Lab 66; The image on the right shows Felix, Wyvine, and half of the "millionaires" waiting in front of Hector Manada's mansion. The latter feed is of poor quality and is provided by a drone as a dynamic camera.

"We're ready too," Felix said, before turning to his team-mate. The Wyvern nodded, and she flew up, followed by the Devil, while the Grenadier and Wardrobe remained on the ground. In Ryan's eyes, even a bad diet wouldn't ruin her; Her law enforcement uniform is the most fashionable.

"Oh, oh, can I wear Chuck Norris's costume?" Wardrobe" asked enthusiastically. "I think this is an opportunity not to be missed!"

"Next time." Wivin replied with a chuckle, then touched her headphones. "Enrique?"

"Go ahead with the arrests," replied the Chief Budget Officer, as his team arrived at the entrance to Lab 66. Enrique bypassed biometric defenses and allowed his team access to a monstrous counterfeit production facility. "Romano, you can start at any time."

"Are you sure your people are loyal?" Ryan asked. "I mean, they're called private security guards. They will not serve the public interest. ”

"This strike team was hand-picked by me, and I will trust them with my life," the corporate hero replied. "You shouldn't worry about my life. Your job is the most dangerous. ”

Ryan: Yes, very experienced. "Are you sure the fat man will know about this raid?"

"Definitely. He planted a mole in the building, as well as an alarm system that would notify him if someone broke into Lab 66. When he returns to New Rome, his anger will be uncontrollable."

This explains why Fallout was able to react so quickly to Ryan's raid during his superpower operation. However, at that time the living nuclear catastrophe had already been transferred to the city, and he should now be in Sicily.

Enrique paused for a moment, as if reconsidering the plan. "Are you sure you and Miss Augustus can deal with my brother alone?" He got into a fight with your girlfriend's father and is still alive and gone. ”

Ryan chuckled. Did he sense a hint of concern in his voice?" I never said my girlfriend was Augustus......"

"You're not the only one with information-gathering devices, help. Although yours is much better than mine, I agree with you. The manager cleared his throat. You know I'm taking a big risk by trusting you in this matter, and I want you to show kindness. ”

"I'm not going to kill your brother, don't worry." Although they may have to redraw the map after completing the task. "I fully support nuclear energy...... But only for peaceful purposes!"

"Good," Enrique replied, his tone suddenly less friendly. "Because otherwise, all I can say is that you will never see me coming."

"Well, if your shiny brother kills me, can you arrange flowers at my funeral?" Ryan asked. "Surprise me."

"I will bring lilies and carnations."

"By now, you should know I'm a flytrap guy," Ryan replied.

However, before the plan could be implemented, the courier contacted his sister via a private line. Stitch had removed the infectious blood factor from Ryan's blood, so she shouldn't be deformed even if she was around her father, but still ...... "Are you sure you want to go alone, Shorty?"

"Yes, Riley." She replied with bated breath. "I ...... I appreciate everything you do. Support me. But in this case...... In this case, I need to do it myself. ”

"I understand," he replied, watching them walk into Dr. Terranor's lair. The excellent reptilian doctor is typing on a computer in the room where Ryan's team fought Alphonse Manada in the previous loop. Clones of the "millionaire" members float in state-of-the-art mechanical barrels, and their bodily fluids are extracted to make imitation elixirs.

"Sir?" Terranor rose from his seat and hurriedly closed the computer screen. Sho

tie's feed captures the title of a file, "Mo

ste

Gi

l P

oject: Test Log”。 "I didn't expect you to come today."

"No, you don't," Enrique replied, with his hands behind his back, like a villain.

Ryan's gaze and video footage lingered on the clones in the pod. Quite a few people, under Enrique's escort, saw the scene and lowered their laser rifles. "Oh my God......" said one of Anrik's guards, immediately noticing Wynn's scaly double. Is that an eagle?" Are we raising her in the lab?"

"Wait, are we clones too?" Another soldier in power asked. "Is that why our wages are so low?" Because we've been set to shut up since birth?"

"No, you don't get much money, because my father wants to cut corners," Enrique replied coldly. "If you do what he wants, you'll get half paid. I made up the difference out of my own pocket. ”

"But are you sure you want us to take this picture, sir?" A private security guard asked anxiously. "If only the whole world knew we were behind closed doors......"

"I know, but it has to be done," Enrique said with a sigh, then glanced at Terranor. "Pack your things, doctor. We will terminate the copycat project. ”

"What?" Dr. Tellano choked at this. "But sir, you can't!" I didn't get orders from management!"

"I can, and so will I. As for management, we are currently facing some personnel changes. ”

"If your brother knew, he'd kill us all!" Dr. Terranor had been protesting until he clarified his fears. "He's going to kill me for letting you in."

Enrique didn't back down. "I will be responsible for Alphonse and for my actions today. You have nothing to fear, doctor. ”

"It's useless!" I can't let you—"

The red pointers of the four laser rifles were aimed at his head, and the fifth between his legs. The scientist quickly raised his hand in surrender.

"Boris, how many times am I going to tell you," Enrique said angrily to one of his bodyguards. "Not nuts."

"He's hiding a secret weapon there, sir." The guards defend their chosen target, and Ryan feels that this is the wisest of them all. "I can feel it in my bones."

"In any case, Doctor, we have ample evidence that this project will lead to a disaster. If I were you, I would be more worried about the weapons pointed at you than the anger of my brother. Enrique turned to his men. Put the explosives away. I want nothing on this floor to be usable. Sabino and I will deal with the root of it all. ”

Ryan could almost see Ryan flinching behind the camera, but she followed without saying a word when Blackthorne and Tyranor entered the bleeding room.

Then, she saw her father's remains.

Ryan shuddered when he saw him through the video. The blood of this alien creature floats helplessly in a giant tempered glass container; Its body was blood-red, and its human eyes glanced at Ryan. Even if she doesn't have an infectious agent in her body, will it still recognize her?

"Daddy......" Ryan choked as he put his hand on the cup. She faced the creature's myriad eyes, none of which showed intelligence. "You...... Do you recognize me?"

Silence answered, and Len bowed his head in despair.

Ryan gave his sister some privacy and switched to another channel. So far, Wyve

The team is already in Hecto

Ma

Ada confronted him in the garden. When superheroes surround him, Dy

Old Amis was busy pruning his roses. His bodyguard is armed with a laser rifle.

"What does that mean?" Hector asked, immediately realizing that something was wrong.

Wyve

Laws were immediately enacted. "Hector Manada, you have been arrested for human experimentation, drug fraud, bioterrorism, financing of organized crime, arms trafficking, and medical offenses regulated by almost all private courts."

"Plus the crime of anti-fashion!" Wardrobe added, looking at Ah's dirty shirt and pants with a judgmental eye. "That outfit is so ugly!"

"Arrest me?" Hector asked, not so much frightened as shocked. "I sign your payroll."

"What we do is pro bono," Felix said with a shrug.

Wyve

Hand her former CEO a paper file. "This is our mission."

Hector read as he read it, and the expression on his face became deflated. "It's Enrique's signature," he said, his voice choked up. "My own son......"

"And the board's." Wyve

Pointing to other signatures, he added. "We have solid evidence that you financed and armed the Psychic Gang, making you an accomplice in their crimes, and poisoning counterfeit elixirs with biologics from psychopaths. Either circumstance can be grounds for summary execution, but we believe in the rule of law. If you surrender without a fight, you will be entitled to a fair trial. ”

"A fair trial? I'm in charge of the city!" Ah gritted his teeth and glanced at the other members of the "millionaire". "Evil deeds, reload"

"I'm sorry, former boss." Reload interrupted him with a hint of disgust. "I can't turn a blind eye to something so big, even if it's a billion euros. It's Lex Luthor-level shit. ”

"Either way, I don't care." Deville said bluntly. "But you're no longer solvent."

Hector gritted his teeth and looked at the determined heroes who faced him. His bodyguards looked ready to fire. "Are you really going to fight us?" Felix asked, pointing at Wivan. "We have a dragon."

The bodyguards exchanged glances, realized that they weren't paid enough to die for a corrupt billionaire, and laid down their arms.

Hector looks ready to protest, but now realizes that he's just one person facing the mighty superhero he's spent millions on recruiting. "I'm going to call my lawyer," he said, giving up without resisting.

"Of course." Waven replied, unmoved. "Wardrobe, if you will."

Handcuffs appeared out of thin air in the closet. "You have the right to be silent, scum!"

"You condemned the city," Hector said with a grudge, the wardrobe handcuffing him. "Now my eldest son will inherit the throne and blood will be shed in the streets. You'll see. I was followed by the Flood. ”

"Don't push, Louis XVI." Felix replied that he and Revel dragged Ah out of his house. "You deserve to be guillotined."

"Louis XV!" Ryan complains to Livia on his private phone, angry at his kitten's mistakes. "This refers to Louis XV, not Louis XVI!" Livia, how can you date this uneducated person?!"

"Let him eat the cake," Livia replied, and she emerged from the clouds with a full red glory. Opis's armor suited her better than Ryan had imagined. Smooth crimson steel envelops her body, like a second layer of her skin, while her retractable tentacles wait to activate. She struggled to manage her jetpack, though.

"Marry me, bourgeois wife," Ryan said jokingly.

"Well, we'll talk about that later." She replied in the same tone, this time close to the courier and could be heard without a walkie-talkie. "So what? Shall we start now?"

"Wait a minute," Ryan said as he switched to Ryan's channel. He wanted to see it all with his own eyes and say something comforting to his sister.

Lunn has stopped mourning for her father and has stepped over to the control panel overseeing this biological prison. Enrique and Dr. Tirano stood by and watched her; The former is full of guilt and sympathy, the latter is full of curiosity. "What are you doing?" The reptilian genius asked his underwater companions.

"Try...... Do one last thing," Ryan said, then injected a vial of chemicals through a hole in the control panel. The machine transfers the rainbow-colored substance into the prison of blood.

The treatment, developed through their group's research into mental illness and the abilities of hybrid dogs, should theoretically be able to restructure the genetic code of the blood and allow him to become human again. This is the last hope of a desperate daughter to save her beloved father.

But...

Some things can't be changed, no matter how hard you try. Ryan couldn't be clearer about that.

"It's useless...... Blue lamented, the red specks absorbing the substance and not turning back. The creature had mutated so much that half of it had become a higher-dimensional resident. The monster of Ryan's childhood has become something beyond humanity, beyond reason. "It's not going to work."

She sounded neither angry nor surprised.

Just sad.

Her beloved father has long since passed away and will never return.

"I'm sorry," Ryan apologized. Although he had nothing but contempt for blood, he understood the obvious grief of his adoptive sister.

"I knew it." He could feel her sobbing desperately holding back. "I knew it before I tried it, Reli. But...... But I still have hope. ”

"What are you going to do now?" Enrique asked. Somehow, Ryan felt like he wouldn't interfere, no matter what Ryan chose. He may have been like the messenger in believing that daughters have the right to decide their father's fate.

Ryan's voice became low and firm. She has gone from denial and bargaining to acceptance. "What needs to be done."

Ryan watched as she slowly activated Terranor's safety device.

The good doctor was quick to protest. "Sir, there will never be another genome with such a combination of powers." The genius pleaded with his superiors. "Its destruction will ruin years of research."

"Doctor, we have other ways to make your dreams come true," the Congressional Budget Office replied looking at the bloodstream. "Those methods that do not go against our conscience."

Ryan half-expected Dr. Terranor to fight back, but the reptile wasn't aggressive, and the promise of being allowed to continue his dinosaur dreams reassured him.

When there was only Ryan's finger between the flow of blood and destruction, his daughter sighed and took one last look at her father. Maybe before making a final decision, she remembers all the good times she spent with him, and she remembers the bad ones.

"Goodbye, Dad." Len said sadly.

Sho

Tie pressed the button and the sprinkler filled the container with chemicals in the bloodstream.

Without the extra power of Ryan's blood preparation to make the blood immune to it, Dr. Terranor's security system worked just as advertised. His healing method destroys the monster's cells, grinding them into invisible organic slime. The red alien Freddy Sabino slowly begins to turn white, and his eyes lose their color. This guy doesn't seem to be uncomfortable at all.

This is euthanasia, simple and straightforward.

Ryan knew he should be happy and relieved. He always wanted his adoptive father to die and hated him from the bottom of his heart. His resentment grew like a worm in an apple.

But now, as he watched Ryan silently put his hand on the glass, life had left the creature, and the messenger could only share some of her grief. Ryan knew him, but there used to be a good guy in that thing. A mad father and alchemist with a cruel disregard for life.

And now, that man can only live in the memories of his daughter.

"No matter what happens, I'll be there for you," Ryan assured his sister. He wanted to stay in the same room with her, hold Len in his arms, and comfort her one last time. "You're not alone."

"I ...... Me too, Reli. I'll always be there. Lunn cut off the video feed, but her voice still echoed through the communicator. But...... Not today. "Let me be alone with him for a while. Please. ”

Ryan cut off the communication and focused on the present moment. It was difficult for Livia to stay still, instead making ridiculous gestures in the air. "Are you done struggling to fly straight?" The messenger asked, then frowned behind his helmet. "Unless you want to make me happy?"

"A little bit of both," she replied, steasing herself a little. "Seeing another person learn how to drive is not the same as gaining their skills. How did you learn to fly a flight suit?"

"To be honest, I don't remember," Ryan admitted. "I mastered the jetpack about three hundred years ago."

"Do you still have skills that you haven't mastered?"

"Ice skating". It made her laugh. "Miss Augusti, do you know how to skate on ice and snow?"

"Yes," his girlfriend replied jokingly. "I can teach you...... As long as you promise to cheer up. ”

Ryan looked in the direction of Dinams' headquarters. "I'm very happy."

Ryan ......

"I don't know," the courier replied. "I hated him to the core. Hope he dies. I should feel happy and relieved, not ...... Not so. ”

A huge burden was lifted from his shoulders, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

"I think I'm feeling sorry for Lunn and that feeling will creep in."

His words couldn't fool Livia. "I don't think so, Rya

。 I think you'll sympathize with her father, because you know he's not like Adam, he's not chosen to be like that of himself. A part of your heart really wants to see Him healed. ”

Ryan remembered a roar of blood flow when he found his daughter taking the elixir of life. The psychopath said that he had taken two potions to better protect her in this hostile world, a phrase that would haunt his adopted son's mind years later.

Maybe she has a point. A part of his heart still sympathizes with Freddy Sabino for making an uninformed choice for altruistic reasons and paying for it. He had moved beyond his burning hatred for his adoptive father and found that there were still some embers of sympathy left.

"But if my words don't make you happy," Livia said, shyly putting her hands behind her back. "How... Shall we dance?"

"Dancing?" Ryan asked, surprised by the proposal.

"I love dancing," his girlfriend admitted. "But I've never tried to be with a partner who I can't guess the dance steps. Besides, we don't have much time left. ”

Alphonse is on his way.

"That's my proposal." Ryan reached out to her, eager to take his attention away from the bleeding death. "I taught you how to dance in the sky, and you trained me for the Winter Olympics."

"It depends." She chuckled. "Are you dancing well, Mr. Romano?"

Oh, how dare she challenge him?" The best," Ryan replied, taking her hand in her own. "Like no one has ever been."

So, they waltzed in the sky.

As the couple circled over New Rome, their armor backpacks opened, and a puff of green dust fell on the city below. The wind blew it like pollen, spreading this strange treatment to the crowd.

Unbeknownst to everyone, a new friendly virus has infected the inhabitants of New Rome. It destroys all the Dy in people's blood

Traces of amis counterfeits, purify them. Many potential genomic people will wake up tomorrow morning more like humans than the day before. They may curse Ryan, not knowing that they have escaped a terrible fate, not knowing that they are spreading a cure with every breath. On the ground, Ryan's other allies distributed the antidote from high places, even through the city's water system.

In a few weeks, all of Europe will be infected with the "curing flu", the specter of blood being driven out of the population.

The courier enjoys the smooth control and speed of his armor, and he and Livia spread the cure to Rusty Town, the territory of Augustus, and the heart of the city. Thanks to the data collected by the Alchemist's Laboratory, Ryan added quite a few surprises to his suit.

Among other upgrades, he combined the Fist Brothers with the Gauntlets, and now also includes a red flux blaster based on Bianca's powers. A Blue flux-powered computer virtually eliminates the lag time inside the armor, making the armor move like a second skin. The orange flux will strengthen the protection in a pinch, and the green flux will heal Ryan if he is internally injured. The yellow flux is supposed to provide defense against conceptual attacks, and the white flux makes them all work in harmony.

Six Flux-based batteries power his backpack, one each in all colors except Ryan's Violet. This escalation would not have been possible without his many allies generating the necessary flux. From pandas to jerome and even dwarfs, everyone contributed.

Last but not least, Sho

tie put a Dy in his chest

A miniature version of the AMIS Gravity Gun. Ryan intends to keep this trump card a secret until sending Lightning Ass to a nursing home.

He hopes this will make a difference in the next fight.

"He's coming, Ryan." Livia warned as she ended the dance.

Is it so? How is it? Even if Enrique had been warned as soon as he stepped into Laboratory 66, no plane or helicopter would have been able to fly the entire distance from Sicily in such a short time.

Ryan realizes his mistake when he notices a bright red star appearing above the twilight sun. The camera on his armor quickly provides a larger image, showing a black metal giant being propelled by a wave of red flux.

Alphonse Manada rode the atom all the way to New Rome.

"Uneasy?" As the red star grew brighter and brighter, Livia asked.

"One thing," Ryan admitted. "The last time we fought, he killed my entire team."

"But you don't have me. There is no hypocritical modesty, the two of us together?"

Livia put one hand on her waist and struck a beautiful pose worthy of a gangster star.

"We are invincible."