同章对照

Snow. Snow, everywhere.

Antarctica was a land of ice without end, a white expanse of glaciers, frozen mountains, and plains so white that sunlight made them almost blinding to look at. It was utterly silent too. The few penguins and wildlife living on the continent nested along the coasts, and left the continent’s interior utterly lifeless.

Clad in the Saturn Armor, Ryan flew above the frozen wasteland with only Leo Hargraves for company. The courier remembered making a stop in Scandinavia and later Greenland during one of his lengthiest fetch quests, but the south pole remained a mystery to him.

“Have you found anything?” Len asked him through the telecom.

“Winter is coming,” Ryan replied ominously, as he and Sunshine flew over a tall glacier.

“Riri, you have been repeating that each time I call you.”

“Because people must know!” Ryan replied playfully. “I mostly see snow, but on the plus side, I haven’t seen any mosquitoes. Well, except the one we keep in storage.”

No wonder he never visited this place, there was nothing to do!

“I am highly disappointed.” The courier shrugged off a layer of frost forming on his armored arms. “I expected an ancient civilization buried beneath the snow, or maybe a mad scientist’s base.”

“What about the armor’s readings?”

“It actually picked up a spatial anomaly, but the signals are faint.” Truth be told, the entire region reeked of them. Whatever happened here had permanently damaged the space-time continuum in the area. “Sunshine and I are trying to narrow down the source.”

“I… finally.” It had been three days since they reached the continent, and quite a few members of the expedition had grown irritated with the lack of progress. “Don’t do anything rash.”

“Shortie, Rash is my middle name,” Ryan replied happily, “between Dashing and Immortal!”

Sunshine must have heard him, because the living sun looked over his shoulder. “Witty comes to mind too,“ he said.

“Witty is my son, Amusing my daughter,” Ryan replied, as he turned left after his armor picked up a stronger signal. Leo Hargraves quickly followed. “By the way, Sunshine, how is it you’re not melting the whole place with your mere presence?”

“I can control my own gravity and heat.” The superhero observed Ryan closely, his shining gaze both warm and intimidating.

“Do you want to shed light on some unresolved issues, my stargazing friend?” Though they had traveled together for a few days, the Carnival leader had remained surprisingly quiet so far. The courier had seen him gazing at Len while she didn’t notice, and his best friend had done her best to avoid the Living Sun. “Bloody issues?”

The Living Sun looked away, glancing at frozen mountains in the distance. “Is Len Sabino listening?”

Ryan had guessed right. “Shortie, the sun wants to dial you.”

“I’m listening,” she replied after a brief and tense silence, with Ryan putting on the loudspeaker.

“I wish to apologize on my team’s behalf,” Sunshine said. “To the both of you. What happened four years ago…”

“Wasn’t your brightest day?” Ryan sighed. “Believe me, it could have gone a lot worse, and you apologized already. At least to me.”

“In a previous loop?” Hargraves asked.

“So you believe us?” Ryan asked. The Living Sun hadn’t broached the subject since they set off from Monaco.

“I admit I find Shroud’s story difficult to believe, but I have seen many things in my life that I once thought impossible.” Leo Hargraves’ light seemed to dim for a brief instant. “You are within your right to hate us, and I would perfectly understand. I want to say that my teammates only followed my directions, and that I made the call that day. If you wish to blame someone, it is I.”

Len let the words sink in for a moment before answering. “Did you know who he used to be? That we were with him?”

“Yes,” Sunshine admitted. “I know Freddie Sabino was a good man, and that he traveled with his children.”

“Then why?” she asked, though her voice didn’t break. Ryan could tell that the subject remained painful for her, but not as much as it used to be. “Why did you come after him? Why didn’t you try to heal him? Your Genius… your Genius could have helped. Or at least tried.”

“We didn’t think curing him was even possible,” Sunshine admitted. “And time was not in our favor.”

“You predicted that he would cause a disaster,” Ryan said, remembering his conversation with Shroud at the loop’s beginning.

“Yes.” Sunshine seemed to hesitate about saying something, but eventually mustered the courage to. “And we had reason to think that he would kill you both, if we didn’t take action quickly.”

Ryan could almost see Len meditating on these words, reading between the lines. If let loose, Bloodstream would have killed his own daughter no matter what, and the Carnival saved her life.

On some level, she probably knew all along.

“I… I don’t know.” Len took a long deep breath. “I… I understand why you... why you tried to kill Dad. I do not support it, but… I understand. I’m… I’m not sure my father is even there anymore.”

“If we can cure him, we will,” Sunshine swore. “We made a decision based on the information we had available, but now… now I doubt we made the right one.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Ryan replied. If anything, after seeing Bloodstream destroy New Rome in the previous loop, the courier thought that the Carnival hadn’t been thorough enough in stamping him out.

His armor suddenly picked up an electromagnetic reading near an icy rift below them. Bingo.

“I…” Len cleared her throat on the other end of the line. “Whatever happens, it will be my decision. Let me make it.”

“I understand,” Leo Hargraves said, as he and Ryan landed near the rift. Snow melted beneath the Living Sun’s heels, forcing him to float above the ground not to fall. “However, you must understand that if there is a risk that Bloodstream might escape and threaten millions, I will have to make a call.”

Len didn’t say anything.

“But if there is a way to cure your father, then we will find it,” Leo Hargraves swore, ever the shining knight. “What Dynamis did was… inhuman. If we had known, we would have stopped it. You have my word on that.”

“It’s okay,” Len replied. “I… I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.”

“I understand. I am sorry to have opened old wounds.”

“Trust me, you haven’t even scratched the surface.” Ryan glanced into the rift, dark and foreboding. The crack spread on for miles, an ice canyon so deep that he needed to put on the armor’s lights to see the bottom. But most importantly, his systems picked up traces of Violet Flux in the area. “Well well well, what have we here...”

“Have you found something, Riri?”

“A Thin Place, but not a natural one,” Ryan replied, as he analyzed the energy readings. “And not the welcoming kind either.”

“What do you mean?” Sunshine asked, arms crossed.

“This kind of pocket dimension doesn’t just prevent intruders from moving in,” Ryan explained. Natural Thin Places, like the one where he had his fateful date with Livia, often opened during rare cosmic or electromagnetic conjunctions. But not this one. “It also prevents what's already inside from escaping.”

In short, it was a second Monaco.

The Living Sun quickly caught on to the implications. “She is keeping prisoners,” he guessed. “I can’t see any other reason to complicate evacuation otherwise.”

Neither did Ryan. Bacchus had told him that the Alchemist often set up illegal labs to test Elixirs. The courier guessed she probably did the same in her center of power.

“Can you get us inside?” Len asked, worried.

“I can open the way with my armor, and then keep it open with the Resonators.” Ryan always brought these devices with him on a trip, in case he ever found a way to commit Clown genocide. “This will create a pathway in and out of the pocket dimension, and allow us to communicate with the outside world while we’re inside.”

“In that case, Stitch and Atom Cat will remain behind on the other side of the portal, just in case,” Leo Hargraves said, immediately making plans. “The rest of us can look at what’s inside. If the Alchemist is smart, she will have defenses in place to repel intruders.”

“You don’t want to try talking it out first?” Len asked.

“I would,” the superhero asked. “But I have the feeling it won’t be an option.”

A sentiment that Ryan shared. “That woman has killed or driven mad everyone who tried to track her,” the courier said. “And she didn’t mind ending the world as an experiment. I doubt she’s going to cooperate with us.”

“I will tell everyone to prepare,” Len said.

“We’ll come back to pick you up,” Ryan said, taking flight again alongside Sunshine. “Perhaps we should have brought a robot army. They make everything easy.”

“And that’s the problem,” Sunshine replied. “When you make battles costless for those who order them, the results are always terrible. War should not be a computer game.”

Indeed. But Ryan still regretted condemning the bunker on their way out. Lightning Butt entered his full paranoia mode and sent soldiers to investigate the Junkyard soon after ordering the hit on Felix, trying to figure out what happened to the Meta-Gang. The risk of the Augusti finding out about Mechron’s armory had been too great, especially since they had the resources to take it over.

As for the other bases, Leo Hargraves had cleared out two of them by the time Shroudy Matty called him for reinforcements. With half of the Carnival deployed in Antarctica, the other members of the group remained in warmer places to destroy the remaining armories.

From what Ryan had understood, only the bunker in New Rome had been focusing on R&D. The others were standard armed robot production facilities, and capable of churning out armies in weeks. Sunshine was right, nothing good could come out of such installations.

With them gone, then Mechron’s legacy would be buried for good.

“Gotta admit, I’m a bit surprised you agreed to join this side-quest,” Ryan told his companion.

“A quest? Like a medieval one?” Leo asked, before shrugging. “A cure for Psychos would make the world a better place, and to be honest, if the Alchemist truly lives here… I want to ask her a question.”

“The Pink Elixir’s release date?”

“No,” Sunshine replied. “I want to ask her why.”

Ryan suspected that Sarin intended to ask the same question, but with far more violence involved.

The short flight ended half an hour south of the rift’s location, where a steel facility waited half-buried amidst a desert of ice and snow. The modular base consisted of two dozen cubes of metal joined together in an ‘L’ fashion, some of them breached.

Thanks to Bacchus and Simon’s information, it hadn’t taken long for Ryan’s group to find the lost Station Orpheon. The French government had stripped the research station clean after abandoning it, but left enough stuff for the team’s Geniuses to restore it to half capacity. Ryan guessed the military intended to reactivate the site at one point, but never got around to doing so before the world ended. For safety, the group had left Alchemo and the Doll with the submarine a few hours away in the south, moving in only with the group’s fighters.

Mr. Wave and the Panda, the only members of the team capable of surviving the terribly low temperature without special equipment, had made a campfire outside. And even then, Mr. Wave had to trade his fabulous cashmere suit for a trendy seal-fur garment. Ryan’s pandawan hadn’t changed outfit, though he remained constantly in beast form.

As it turned out, superpowered pandas were powerful enough to survive in Antarctica without power armor. Their indestructible fur and fat shielded them from the cold, alongside radiation, rainwater, and cupcakes.

Ryan had checked.

“Once, Mr. Wave turned up the heat,” the superhero told the Panda, as the manbear gorged himself on warm seal milk. “That was the start of global warming.”

“Is, is it true?” The Panda asked naively. Though his power had given him a great deal of insight, he still had the adorable tendency of believing everything his heroes said.

“Mr. Wave never lies, he enlightens,” the superhero replied, as Ryan and his sunny friend landed near them.

“While Sunshine lights the way,” Ryan joked.

“Only in the dark,” Mr. Wave added.

Leo Hargraves chuckled, before glancing at the Panda. “How is the milk?”

“H-he’s noticing me!” The Panda lowered his head to avoid meeting Sunshine’s gaze, all but putting his nose in his milk. Unfortunately, the frost was such that the boiling liquid quickly started to freeze on his fur. “He’s talking to me!”

“I…” Leo Hargraves looked a bit uncomfortable. “Yes, I am.”

“You can go blind if you stare at the sun too long,” Ryan said. “My pandawan is only taking care of his health.”

“Sifu, is he still looking?” The Panda asked, too afraid to raise his head.

“Don’t worry, his vision is based on movement,” Ryan added. “You should be safe.”

“I’m… I’m flattered, but this reaction is uncalled for,” Leo argued, highly embarrassed.

“But you are the Living Sun, Earth’s greatest hero!” said the Panda, as he took a deep, chilly breath. “I have a poster of you in my bedroom!”

“Heroism is not a popularity contest,” Sunshine argued. “And you have proven your worth when you fought the Meta-Gang, Timmy. Mathias spoke highly of you. In fact, I would like to invite you to the Carnival. We need people like you, with their hearts in the right place. Of course, this is dangerous work, and I would perfectly understand if you refu-”

The Panda dropped his cup in shock, the milk turning to ice within seconds. The poor manbear began to hyperventilate, falling to his back and rolling in the snow. Then he let out a squeal so powerful, that Ryan wondered if penguins could hear it from across the wasteland.

“Mr. Wave believes you just committed pandacide,” Mr. Wave told his confused teammate.

“This is the first time I’ve gotten such a reaction,” Sunshine replied as the station’s doors opened. Len walked out first alongside Sarin, both wearing their evolved power armors. Atom Cat and Shroud followed. The former wore a white second skin of Stitch’s conception which covered his entire body, even the eyes; somehow it allowed him to see anyway. From what Ryan understood, the protection was made of trillions of bacteria adapted to the cold. Shroud, meanwhile, had thickened his suit with additional layers of reinforced glass to keep the heat inside, turning his costume into a heavy and nigh-impenetrable armor. Stitch closed the march, carrying heavy insulation clothing over his plague doctor outfit.

“Are you sure you wish to come with us, Atom Cat?” Sunshine asked upon seeing Felix. “We are about to face great danger. If the Alchemist truly makes her lair in this region, then she is certainly not defenseless.”

“I owe you one,” the young man replied while glancing at Ryan and Mathias. “And I have questions I want answers for.”

“Me too,” Sarin snickered. “I can tell there’s stuff you’re keeping for yourselves. Like a secret nerd conspiracy.”

“The orange is in the henhouse,” Ryan replied ominously.

The lovely Sarin stared at him. “I didn’t get it.”

“Exactly.” Ryan whistled, even as the Psycho raised her gauntlet in his direction.

“I still can’t believe it,” Felix said, crossing his arms. “Livia would never cooperate with the Carnival. Something isn’t right.”

“Things change,” Shroud replied with a shrug.

“And you’re dating my sister,” Felix added. “Somehow, I find that to be the strangest part.”

Ryan decided to hold off on telling him about time travel.

One shock at a time.

---

When the team reached the rift on foot with the Resonator devices, Ryan froze time, purple and black particles swirling around his body. Much like when he opened a path to the Black World in the previous loop, he quickly found the pocket dimension’s entrance, and forcefully opened it with his bare hands.

After tossing a Resonator inside and keeping the other in the snow, a stream of particles formed between the two ends of the portals and slowly opened it. When time resumed, a purple portal ominously floated above the icy rift.

“So?” Ryan asked. “Who goes in—”

“First!” Mr. Wave said while immediately jumping through.

“Damn it!” Not to be outdone, Ryan immediately followed his idol and the world around him brightened in a bright flash of purple particles. The transport lasted an instant, but the contrast between the two sides couldn’t be starker.

While it had been daylight in Antarctica, the other side of the portal had a black, starless sky overseeing it. Streaks of purple lightning thundered above the group’s heads, while Ryan almost mistook the howling wind for screams. A foreboding structure stood alone surrounded by a vast expanse of ice which seemed to go on without end.

Yeah, such a warm, welcoming place.

Ryan had received a brief vision of the Alchemist’s base when he tried to open the path to the Purple World a few loops ago, and he immediately recognized the structure. A colossal dome of black metal emerged from the snow, with reinforced blast doors large enough to let a plane through serving as the entrance. All in all, the structure was among the largest Ryan had ever seen, and gave the Egyptian pyramids a run for their money.

Here it was. The place where it all began.

Ryan might have felt a sense of wonder at the sight, but a few worrying details immediately caught his attention.

First of all, the dome had been breached, with a hole more than fifty meters in diameter blown open on its left side. And from the way the metal bent, whatever explosion caused the structural damage came from the inside. Second, though Ryan noticed reinforced, stained portholes here and there, he couldn’t see any light within. Third, the building’s blast doors leaned on the left, as if the whole dome was sinking into the snow.

And fourth…

“What is this?” Len said as she crossed the portal, immediately noticing it.

The dead husk of a colossal monster more than eight meters tall laid in the snow. Ice and frost had preserved the creature’s flesh, even though half its body was made of cybernetic implants. The left arm was a cannon, the right a technological blade large enough to cleave a tank in half. The creature had scales red as blood, curved horns like a bull, three rows of fangs, and eight spidery eyes. A large gash had split its black armor from shoulder to the waist, letting brown alien organs spill out on the ice.

When everyone except Stitch and Atom Kitten crossed the portal, the group carefully surrounded the husk, with Sarin pointing her gauntlets at its face in case it would wake up. It didn’t. By all measures, the monster had been dead for a while, though Ryan couldn’t tell how long due to the ice.

“It looks like one of Mechron’s warbeasts,” Sunshine said.

His teammate was less certain. “Mr. Wave never killed that model, and he slaughtered them all.”

“At least it’s dead,” Sarin said before wiping away snow covering the monster’s shoulder. “Look, on the shoulder.”

Leo approached the husk to provide light. A mark similar to a cross between the ‘M’ letter and the omega symbol was engraved on the monster’s armor. Somehow, looking at it unsettled Ryan for a reason he couldn’t explain.

“What’s that?” Mr. Wave asked. “A reversed ‘W’?”

“I have mastered linguistics, Sifu,” the Panda informed Ryan, trying to help. “If I have more information, I could figure it out.”

“Perhaps we could hack into the implants and find out more from them,” Shroud suggested. “They must have recorded what happened.”

“That technology is…” Len shook her head. “I don’t even know where to begin. But it’s not…”

“It’s not Mechron tech,” Ryan said. His own armor couldn’t connect to the monster’s cybernetic implants.

“Mmm…” Sarin glanced at the hole in the dome. “Do you think it blew its way out? Could be a failed lab experiment. Don’t you Geniuses love them, eh?”

“Too early to say,” Sunshine replied, before taking flight. “Shroud, with me. The rest of you, try to secure the perimeter. If the Alchemist still lives there, she probably noticed us.”

The group spread around the portal to secure it, finding the remains of old defensive turrets either broken or buried in the ice. Ryan himself had his armor’s systems run an analysis of the structure, the various sensors slowly providing a larger view of the full thing. And the more the courier saw, the more he squinted. Sunshine and Mr. See-Through flew around the dome while maintaining a respectable distance.

“First of all, the portholes aren’t made of glass,” Shroud said upon returning to the portal. “I cannot control them. And on a closer look, I do not think they are portholes at all. They look like lenses or cameras.”

“They appear to be inactive,” Sunshine added. “As for the wasteland, it loops on itself past a certain point.”

“The defenses haven’t been maintained in years,” Len declared while examining a broken turret.

“Whole place looks empty,” Sarin replied grimly. “And to be honest, it gives me the chills.”

Ryan glanced at the cyborg’s husk. The cuts weren’t clean enough for blades or lasers.

Claws.

Claws killed this thing.

The base had been active when Ryan saw it in his visions, but not anymore. At one point, something went wrong.

“Why are the doors leaning?” The Panda asked with worry, the whole place intimidating him.

“Because it’s not a bunker,” Ryan said, as his armor’s readings came back with a simulation of the building.

The dome was just the tip of the iceberg; a submarine’s tower, hiding a larger structure buried beneath the ice. The full base was a colossal, kilometers long war machine with great metal wings and reactors larger than most skyscrapers.

“It’s a spaceship.”

雪。到处都是雪。

南极洲是一片无边无际的冰原。冰川、冰封的山峦和平原连成一片白色大地，阳光一照，白得几乎让人睁不开眼。这里也寂静得彻底。大陆上寥寥无几的企鹅和其他野生动物都栖息在沿海地带，内陆则全无生机。

瑞恩身披萨图恩装甲，在这片冰封的荒原上空飞行，身边只有利奥·哈格雷夫斯作伴。快递员记得，自己曾在一次格外漫长的跑腿任务中去过斯堪的纳维亚，后来又到了格陵兰，但南极对他而言仍然是个谜。

“找到什么了吗？”蕾恩通过通讯器问他。

“凛冬将至。”瑞恩阴森森地答道，和阳光一起飞过一座高耸的冰川。

“瑞瑞，我每次呼叫你，你都在重复这句话。”

“因为大家必须知道！”瑞恩嬉皮笑脸地回答，“我看到的基本都是雪，不过好处是，一只蚊子也没见着。呃，我们收着的那只除外。”

怪不得他从没来过这地方，根本没什么可干的！

“我非常失望。”快递员抖掉装甲双臂上结起的一层霜，“我还指望能发现一个埋在雪下的远古文明，或者某个疯狂科学家的基地呢。”

“装甲的读数呢？”

“确实探测到了一处空间异常，不过信号很微弱。”说实话，整个地区都透着异常的气息。不管这里发生过什么，都已经对这一带的时空连续体造成了永久性损伤。“阳光和我正在试着锁定源头。”

“我……总算有进展了。”他们抵达这片大陆已经三天，迟迟没有收获，让探险队里的不少人都烦躁起来。“别鲁莽行事。”

“小矮个，‘鲁莽’就是我的中间名，”瑞恩欢快地答道，“就夹在‘潇洒’和‘不死’之间！”

阳光想必听见了这话，因为这颗活体太阳回头看了他一眼。“我觉得还可以加个‘机灵’。”他说。

“‘机灵’是我儿子，‘有趣’是我女儿。”装甲捕捉到更强的信号，瑞恩便向左转去，利奥·哈格雷夫斯迅速跟上。“话说，阳光，你人在这儿，怎么没把整个地方都熔了？”

“我能控制自己的引力和热量。”超级英雄仔细打量着瑞恩，明亮的目光既温暖，又让人心生畏惧。

“想给某些悬而未决的问题投点光吗，我这位仰望星空的朋友？”虽然已经同行数日，嘉年华的领袖却出奇地沉默。快递员见过他趁蕾恩没注意时望着她，而他最好的朋友则一直尽量避开活体太阳。“那些带血的问题？”

活体太阳移开目光，望向远处冰封的山峦。“蕾恩·萨比诺在听吗？”

瑞恩猜对了。“小矮个，太阳想跟你通个电话。”

一阵短暂而紧绷的沉默过后，她回答：“我在听。”瑞恩打开了扬声器。

“我想代表我的团队道歉，”阳光说，“向你们两位。四年前发生的事……”

“算不上你光辉灿烂的一天？”瑞恩叹了口气，“相信我，当时的情况可能糟糕得多，而且你已经道过歉了。至少向我道过。”

“在之前的某一轮循环里？”哈格雷夫斯问。

“所以你相信我们了？”瑞恩问。自从离开摩纳哥，活体太阳还没提起过这个话题。

“我承认，裹尸布说的那些事很难让人相信，但我这一生，已经见过许多曾经以为不可能发生的事。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯的光芒似乎暗淡了一瞬。“你们有权恨我们，我完全理解。我想说的是，我的队友只是听从了我的指示，那天作决定的人是我。如果你们要怪谁，就怪我。”

蕾恩沉默了一会儿，消化着这番话，随后才开口。“你知道他以前是什么样的人吗？知道我们跟他在一起吗？”

“知道。”阳光承认，“我知道弗雷迪·萨比诺曾经是个好人，也知道他带着自己的孩子们一路同行。”

“那为什么？”她问，声音却没有哽住。瑞恩听得出，这个话题仍然让她痛苦，只是不再像过去那么深了。“你们为什么要追杀他？为什么不试着治好他？你们的天才……你们的天才本可以帮忙的。至少可以试试。”

“我们根本不认为有治好他的可能。”阳光承认，“而且时间不等人。”

“你们预见到他会引发一场灾难。”瑞恩想起了这一轮循环之初，自己与裹尸布的谈话。

“是的。”阳光似乎在犹豫要不要说些什么，最终还是鼓起了勇气。“而且我们有理由认为，如果不尽快采取行动，他会杀死你们两个。”

瑞恩几乎能想象出蕾恩思索这番话、琢磨其中含义的模样。如果放任不管，血流无论如何都会杀死自己的亲生女儿，是嘉年华救了她的命。

在内心某处，她大概一直都明白。

“我……我不知道。”蕾恩长长地深吸了一口气。“我……我明白你们为什么……为什么想杀了爸爸。我不赞同，但……我明白。我……我甚至不确定，我认识的那个父亲还在不在了。”

“如果能治好他，我们就一定会去做。”阳光发誓道，“我们是根据当时掌握的信息作出的决定，但现在……现在我不确定，当时是否选对了。”

“事后看，谁都看得一清二楚。”瑞恩答道。真要说起来，在上一轮亲眼看过血流毁掉新罗马之后，快递员反倒觉得，嘉年华当年没把他除干净。

装甲突然在他们下方的一道冰裂谷附近探测到了电磁信号。找着了。

“我……”蕾恩在通讯的另一头清了清嗓子。“无论发生什么，都该由我来作决定。让我自己决定。”

“我明白。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯说，他和瑞恩降落在裂谷附近。积雪在活体太阳脚跟下融化，迫使他悬浮在地面上方，以免陷下去。“但你也必须明白，如果血流有逃脱、危及数百万人生命的风险，我就必须作出决断。”

蕾恩没有说话。

“但只要有办法治好你父亲，我们就一定会找到。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯发誓道，依然是那位光芒万丈的骑士。“迪纳米斯所做的事……惨无人道。如果我们早知道，一定会阻止。我向你保证。”

“没关系。”蕾恩回答。“我……我不想谈这个。至少现在不想。”

“我明白。很抱歉揭开了你的旧伤。”

“相信我，你连皮都还没碰破呢。”瑞恩朝裂谷里看去，里面黑沉沉的，透着不祥。裂缝绵延数英里，俨然一道冰峡谷，深得让他必须打开装甲的照明才能看清谷底。更重要的是，他的系统在这一带捕捉到了紫色通量的痕迹。“哎呀呀，瞧瞧这是什么……”

“你找到什么了，瑞瑞？”

“一处薄弱之地，不过不是天然形成的。”瑞恩一边分析能量读数，一边答道，“而且也不是什么好客的地方。”

“什么意思？”阳光抱起双臂问道。

“这种口袋维度不仅会阻止入侵者进入。”瑞恩解释道。天然的薄弱之地，比如他与莉维娅进行过那场命中注定的约会的地方，往往会在罕见的天体或电磁交汇时开启。但这里不是。“它也会阻止里面已有的东西逃出来。”

简而言之，这是第二个摩纳哥。

活体太阳立刻领会了其中的含义。“她在囚禁什么人。”他推测道，“否则，我想不出还有什么理由要给撤离设置障碍。”

瑞恩也想不出。巴克斯告诉过他，炼金术师经常设立非法实验室来试验灵药。快递员猜测，在自己的大本营里，她大概也在干同样的事。

“你能带我们进去吗？”蕾恩担忧地问。

“我可以用装甲打开通路，然后用共振器让它保持开启。”瑞恩每次出门都会带上这些装置，万一哪天找到了对小丑实施种族灭绝的办法，就能派上用场。“这样就能造出一条进出口袋维度的通道，让我们在里面也能与外界联系。”

“那就让斯蒂奇和原子猫留在传送门外面，以防万一。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯立刻开始安排，“其余人进去看看。如果炼金术师够聪明，她一定布置了防御，用来击退入侵者。”

“你不想先试着谈谈吗？”蕾恩问。

“我倒是想。”超级英雄说，“但我有种感觉，我们恐怕没得选。”

瑞恩也有同感。“所有试图追踪她的人，不是被她杀了，就是被她逼疯了。”快递员说，“而且，她不介意为了做实验把世界毁掉。我很怀疑她会配合我们。”

“我会通知大家准备。”蕾恩说。

“我们回去接你们。”瑞恩说着，和阳光再次腾空而起。“也许我们该带支机器人大军来。有了它们，什么都好办。”

“问题就出在这里。”阳光答道，“一旦发动战争的人不必付出代价，结果总会很可怕。战争不该成为电脑游戏。”

确实如此。但瑞恩仍然后悔离开时封死了地堡。闪电屁股已经彻底进入疑神疑鬼的状态，下令追杀菲利克斯后不久，就派士兵调查废料场，想弄清楚超能帮出了什么事。让奥古斯蒂发现梅克隆军械库的风险实在太大，尤其是他们还具备将其据为己有的资源。

至于其他基地，在裹裹马蒂打电话求援时，利奥·哈格雷夫斯已经清除了其中两座。嘉年华有一半成员被调来南极洲，其余人则留在较为暖和的地方，负责摧毁剩下的军械库。

据瑞恩了解，只有新罗马的地堡侧重研发。其余都是标准的武装机器人生产设施，只需数周就能造出大军。阳光说得对，这样的设施留不下什么好东西。

等它们都消失了，梅克隆的遗产也就会被彻底埋葬。

“得承认，你居然答应来做这个支线任务，我还挺意外的。”瑞恩对同伴说。

“任务？像中世纪冒险那种？”利奥问，随后耸了耸肩。“能治好疯魔，会让世界变得更好。而且说实话，如果炼金术师真住在这里……我想问她一个问题。”

“粉色灵药的发售日期？”

“不。”阳光回答，“我想问她，为什么。”

瑞恩怀疑沙林也打算问同样的问题，只是过程中会多出许多暴力。

短暂的飞行在半小时后结束。他们一路向南，来到一处钢铁设施前，它半埋在冰雪构成的荒漠里。这座模块化基地由二十四个立方体金属舱拼成，整体呈L形，其中一些舱体已经破损。

多亏巴克斯和西蒙提供的情报，瑞恩一行没花多久就找到了失落的奥菲昂站。法国政府在放弃这座研究站后，将它搬了个精光，但剩下的东西也足够队里的天才让它恢复一半功能。瑞恩猜，军方原本打算在某个时候重新启用这里，只是还没来得及，世界就毁灭了。为安全起见，他们把阿尔凯莫和人偶留在南边几小时路程外的潜艇上，只有队里的战斗人员进驻了这里。

波动先生和熊猫在外面生了堆篝火，队里只有他们不用特殊装备就能在如此可怕的低温下生存。即便如此，波动先生也不得不把那套华丽的羊绒西装换成了时髦的海豹皮衣。瑞恩的熊猫学徒倒是没换衣服，只不过始终保持着兽形。

事实证明，超能力熊猫足够强大，不用动力装甲也能在南极洲生存。它们坚不可摧的皮毛和脂肪既能抵御严寒，也能挡住辐射、雨水和纸杯蛋糕。

瑞恩验证过。

“有一次，波动先生把温度调高了。”超级英雄对熊猫说，后者正大口灌着热海豹奶。“全球变暖就是从那时候开始的。”

“真、真的吗？”熊猫天真地问。虽然能力赋予了他许多见识，但他还是保留着一个可爱的毛病：自己的英雄说什么，他就信什么。

“波动先生从不撒谎，只负责启迪，点亮心灵。”超级英雄答道，这时瑞恩和他那位阳光灿烂的朋友落在了两人身边。

“阳光则负责照亮前路。”瑞恩打趣道。

“仅限天黑时。”波动先生补充。

利奥·哈格雷夫斯轻笑一声，随后看向熊猫。“奶怎么样？”

“他、他注意到我了！”熊猫低下头，不敢与阳光对视，差点把鼻子埋进奶里。可惜天实在太冷，滚烫的液体很快就在他的皮毛上结起冰来。“他在跟我说话！”

“我……”利奥·哈格雷夫斯显得有些不自在。“对，我是在跟你说话。”

“盯着太阳太久会瞎的。”瑞恩说，“我的熊猫学徒只是在关心自己的健康。”

“师父，他还在看吗？”熊猫问，连头都不敢抬。

“别担心，他只能看见会动的东西。”瑞恩又说，“你应该很安全。”

“我……我很荣幸，但实在不必有这么大的反应。”利奥劝道，尴尬得不行。

“可您是活体太阳，地球上最伟大的英雄！”熊猫说着，深吸了一口冰冷的空气。“我卧室里还贴着您的海报！”

“当英雄不是比人气。”阳光说，“而且，你在与超能帮作战时已经证明了自己，蒂米。马蒂亚斯对你的评价很高。事实上，我想邀请你加入嘉年华。我们需要像你这样心地正直的人。当然，这份工作很危险，你要是想拒绝，我也完全能理——”

熊猫惊得失手掉了杯子，奶在几秒内就冻成了冰。可怜的熊人呼吸急促起来，仰面倒下，在雪地里打起滚。随后他发出一声威力惊人的尖叫，瑞恩不禁怀疑，荒原另一头的企鹅是不是都听见了。

“波动先生认为，你刚刚犯了谋杀熊猫罪。”波动先生对满头雾水的队友说。

“我还是头一次遇上这种反应。”阳光答道，这时研究站的门开了。蕾恩和沙林率先走出，两人都穿着升级后的动力装甲。原子猫和裹尸布紧随其后。前者穿着斯蒂奇设计的白色第二层皮肤，全身包得严严实实，连眼睛也没露出来；可他不知怎么还是看得见。据瑞恩了解，这层防护由数万亿个适应严寒的细菌构成。裹尸布则在战衣上加了好几层强化玻璃，用来留住热量，把它变成了一套沉重、几乎无法穿透的装甲。斯蒂奇走在最后，瘟疫医生装束外面还套着厚厚的保温服。

“你确定要跟我们一起去吗，原子猫？”阳光一见到菲利克斯就问，“我们即将面对巨大的危险。如果炼金术师真的把巢穴设在这一带，那她绝不可能毫无防备。”

“我欠你们一个人情。”年轻人说着，看了看瑞恩和马蒂亚斯。“而且，我也有些问题想找到答案。”

“我也是。”沙林嗤笑道，“看得出来，你们有些事瞒着大家。像是什么书呆子的秘密阴谋。”

“橙子在鸡舍里。”瑞恩阴森森地答道。

可爱的沙林瞪着他。“没听懂。”

“就是要这样。”即使这个疯魔已经朝他举起了臂铠，瑞恩仍吹着口哨。

“我还是不敢相信。”菲利克斯抱着双臂说，“莉维娅绝不会跟嘉年华合作。肯定有哪里不对。”

“事情总会变的。”裹尸布耸肩答道。

“还有，你居然在跟我姐姐交往。”菲利克斯又说，“不知怎么，我觉得这才是最离谱的部分。”

瑞恩决定暂时不告诉他时间旅行的事。

震惊的事，一次来一件就好。

---

众人带着共振器步行抵达裂谷后，瑞恩暂停了时间，紫色与黑色粒子在他周身盘旋。就像上一轮打开通往黑色世界的道路时一样，他很快找到了这个口袋维度的入口，徒手将它强行扯开。

他把一个共振器扔进里面，将另一个留在雪地上。传送门两端之间随即形成一道粒子流，缓缓将入口撑开。时间恢复流动时，一道紫色传送门悬浮在冰裂谷上方，散发着不祥的气息。

“那么？”瑞恩问，“谁先——”

“我先！”波动先生说着，立刻跳了进去。

“该死！”瑞恩不甘落后，立即追随偶像而去。紫色粒子猛然闪耀，照亮了周遭世界。传送只有一瞬，但两侧的反差却大得不能再大。

南极洲还是白昼，传送门这一边的天空却一片漆黑，不见星辰。一道道紫色闪电在众人头顶轰鸣，瑞恩差点把呼啸的风声听成尖叫。一座阴森的建筑孤零零地矗立着，四周尽是仿佛无边无际的冰原。

嗯，真是个温暖又好客的地方。

几轮循环之前，瑞恩试图打开通往紫色世界的道路时，曾在幻象中短暂瞥见炼金术师的基地，因此立刻认出了这座建筑。一座巨大的黑色金属穹顶从积雪中隆起，以足以容纳飞机通过的强化防爆门作为入口。论规模，这是瑞恩见过的最大建筑之一，足以和埃及金字塔一较高下。

就是这里。一切开始的地方。

眼前的景象本该让瑞恩心生惊叹，但几个令人不安的细节立刻吸引了他的注意。

首先，穹顶已经破损，左侧被炸出了一个直径超过五十米的大洞。而从金属弯折的方向来看，破坏建筑结构的爆炸来自内部。其次，虽然瑞恩看见各处散布着污迹斑斑的强化舷窗，却看不到里面有任何灯光。第三，建筑的防爆门向左歪斜，仿佛整个穹顶都在向积雪中下沉。

第四……

“这是什么？”蕾恩穿过传送门时，立刻注意到了它。

一头八米多高的巨兽横尸雪中。冰霜保存了它的血肉，尽管它半边身体都是机械植入体。左臂是一门炮，右臂则是一柄高科技利刃，大得足以将坦克劈成两半。这头生物的鳞片鲜红如血，弯角形似公牛，长着三排尖牙，还有八只蜘蛛般的眼睛。它身上的黑色装甲被一道巨大的伤口从肩部剖到了腰间，褐色的异种脏器流落在冰面上。

除了斯蒂奇和原子小猫，所有人都穿过了传送门，小心地围住尸骸。沙林将双臂铠甲对准怪物的脸，以防它突然醒来。它没有。从各方面看，这头怪物都已经死了一阵子，只是冰冻让瑞恩无法判断究竟死了多久。

“它看着像梅克隆的战兽。”阳光说。

他的队友没那么肯定。“波动先生没杀过这个型号，而他可是把它们全杀光了。”

“至少它已经死了。”沙林说着，拂去怪物肩上的积雪。“看，肩膀上。”

利奥靠近尸骸，为众人照明。怪物的装甲上刻着一个标记，像是字母M与欧米伽符号的结合。不知为什么，瑞恩一看到它，心里就涌起一种无法解释的不安。

“那是什么？”波动先生问，“倒过来的W？”

“师父，我精通语言学。”熊猫想帮忙，便告诉瑞恩，“如果再多些信息，我也许能弄明白。”

“也许我们可以入侵它的植入体，从里面查出更多信息。”裹尸布提议，“它们肯定记录了这里发生的事。”

“这种技术……”蕾恩摇了摇头，“我都不知道该从哪儿下手。不过这不是……”

“这不是梅克隆的技术。”瑞恩说。他的装甲也无法连接怪物的机械植入体。

“唔……”沙林看向穹顶上的大洞。“你们觉得，它是一路炸出来的吗？也许是实验室的失败品。你们这些天才，不就喜欢搞这个吗，嗯？”

“现在还不好说。”阳光答道，随后腾空而起。“裹尸布，跟我来。其余人设法确保周边安全。如果炼金术师还住在这里，她大概已经注意到我们了。”

众人散开，警戒传送门周围，发现了一些旧防御炮塔的残骸，不是已经损坏，就是埋在冰里。瑞恩则让装甲系统开始分析建筑结构，各种传感器逐渐勾勒出全貌。快递员看得越多，眼睛就眯得越紧。阳光与透明先生绕着穹顶飞行，始终保持着相当一段距离。

“首先，那些舷窗不是玻璃做的。”裹尸布回到传送门前说，“我控制不了它们。而且仔细看过之后，我觉得那根本不是舷窗。倒更像镜头或者摄像头。”

“看起来都没有在运行。”阳光补充道，“至于这片荒原，越过某个界限之后就会绕回原处。”

“这些防御设施已经很多年没人维护了。”蕾恩检查着一座损坏的炮塔，作出了判断。

“整个地方看着空无一人。”沙林阴沉地说，“说实话，这里让我心里发毛。”

瑞恩看向半机械怪物的尸骸。那些切口不够平整，不像刀刃或激光所为。

爪子。

杀死这东西的，是爪子。

瑞恩在幻象中看见这里时，基地还在运转，如今却不再如此。某个时候，事情出了岔子。

“门为什么是歪的？”熊猫担忧地问，这整片地方都让他心惊胆战。

“因为这不是地堡。”瑞恩说，装甲根据探测数据构建出了建筑的模拟模型。

穹顶不过是冰山一角，就像潜艇的指挥塔，在冰下还藏着更庞大的结构。基地的全貌是一台长达数公里的巨型战争机器，拥有巨大的金属双翼，反应堆比大多数摩天大楼还要庞大。

“这是一艘太空船。”