同章对照

Aliens.

Of course it would be aliens! Everything made perfect sense now! Still, Ryan wondered if these visitors would look like tiny grey dwarves, or humans with ridged foreheads. If the eight-meters tall monster in the snow was any indication though, they were probably cold-blooded.

Wait… Ryan glanced at the monstrous creature’s corpse, and came to a sudden realization.

“I knew it!” He shouted, pointing a finger at the colossal beast. “I knew it was the Reptilians!”

These scaled bastards had tried to infiltrate human governments to destroy democracy!

“It can’t be aliens,” Shroud said in denial. “Maybe the Alchemist… maybe she’s building a spaceship to leave the planet?”

“That piece of crap obviously crashed years ago,” Sarin pointed out. “If I listen well to our jackass-in-chief, a good four-fifths of it is buried in the ice. Who would build a ship like that?”

“We… we know Elixirs came from alien dimensions,” Len said, trying to scan the ship with her power armor. “It’s… it’s not impossible.”

Shroud still shook his head. “Can’t be aliens.”

He could accept the existence of a time-traveler, but not extraterrestrial visitors?

In any case, Ryan activated his time-stop as his group debated. Although he sensed an opposing force struggling back against his power, the icy wasteland turned violet to his relief. Since the strange purple lightning bolts in the alien skies kept moving in the frozen time, Ryan guessed they were made of Violet Flux.

Much like his experience in Monaco, his time-stop would work as long as the Resonators kept the portal open, allowing him to converge the Purple World with this pocket dimension.

But something else caught the courier’s attention. The Black Flux particles produced by his armor seemed to devour the space around them, creating tiny, almost invisible cracks in the fabric of reality itself.

“Huh?” Ryan said as time resumed. Though the black particles vanished, the damage they had caused remained.

“What is it, Riri?” Len asked, noticing his confusion.

“It seems my power has an anomalous effect on this thin place.” Come to think of it, Ryan remembered Black Flux consuming Alphonse ‘Fallout’ Manada’s radioactive Red Flux during their fight.

All hints so far indicated that the Black Ultimate One had given the courier the power to kill what couldn’t die. But how far could you push that definition? Could you kill energy? Items? Ideas?

Black powers were paradoxes, and didn’t follow the rules. Lightning Butt himself had become more like an animated statue than a man, and yet Ryan’s power could damage him. It could even kill a ghost.

Maybe it could kill Elixirs, or the alien energies they produced.

“That power gives me a headache,” Ryan said, deciding to prepare his team for battle. Sunshine and See-Through observed the dome cautiously, Sarin looked tense, Len and the Panda didn’t hide their anxiety, and Mr. Wave barely restrained himself from going in guns-blazing. “Alright mooks listen up, who’s never explored a spooky alien spaceship among you? Raise your hand if this is your first time.”

Everyone raised their hand, except Ryan and Mr. Wave. “Mr. Wave caused the Fermi paradox,” the genome explained. “When alien civilizations see Mr. Wave, they go extinct.”

“Riri, why didn’t you raise your hand?” Len asked.

Sarin looked at Ryan with skepticism, which wounded the courier’s heart. “You saw aliens before, oh great and powerful leader?”

“Yes, but their ship was round and flatter.” Also, the passengers had kept trying to pay him in seashells for some reason. “In any case, rule number one for spaceships, and the most important one by far: don’t touch the eggs. A good egg is a boiled egg.”

The Panda gasped. “But Sifu, eggs are cute and rounded!”

“Eggs are the enemy, soldier!” Ryan snarled with the passion of a drill sergeant, the Panda adopting a military salute. “Any egg found in an alien ship is a potential W.M.D.! Boil them all!”

“Y-yes, Sifu!”

“Second rule, we don’t split up. Ever.”

“It wouldn’t change much,” Mr. Wave boasted. “Even if Mr. Wave faces an army alone, they will still be outnumbered.”

“I agree,” Ryan conceded, “but this is the principle of the thing.”

“I am usually more fond of dividing forces to cover a greater area, but in this case numbers might prove safer,” Leo agreed. “We have no idea what to expect within.”

“Which way do we use to move in?” Shroud asked, glancing at the blast doors.

“Mmm…” Ryan approached the gates to observe them. On a closer look, while the blast doors were mostly made of the same black metal as the rest of the ship, they showed hints of having been breached in the past. Someone plugged the cracks with a standard steel alloy. A cursory scan from his armor told the courier that the doors could probably survive extreme conditions such as atmospheric reentry. “Sunshine, we might need a solar eruption or two.”

“I see another perfectly good entrance up there,” Sarin said, pointing a finger at the hole in the ship’s metal dome. “If the lizard blasted his way out, then it means that path is clear, right?”

“Possibly,” Shroud conceded. “But we might find workers repairing the damaged area.”

“What bothers me is that nobody came to intercept us,” Hargraves said, his radiance dimming for an instant. “I expected more activity in the Alchemist’s base of operation, but the area looks deceptively empty.”

“Perhaps the thing killed everyone on its way out,” Sarin guessed.

But then, what killed the creature? The gash that slew it came from a claw. “I am tempted,” Ryan said. “On one hand, blowing our own hole would be good and proper. But using the other path would bring less attention.”

“Let us refrain from hostile actions until we can figure the truth out,” Hargraves said.

“Speak for yourself,” Sarin said, her fists clenched. “No way I’m not roughing up that bitch of a mad scientist along the way. She owes me more than a decade of pain with interest.”

“As odd as it sounds, I agree with the Psycho,” Shroud declared. “While we might need her knowledge, there’s no way I’m leaving the person responsible for Last Easter unmolested. She has far too much blood on her hands, whoever or whatever she is.”

“The Alchemist might deserve our scorn,” Sunshine conceded. “But we clearly only know a small piece of the full truth, and an open conflict will lead us nowhere. Let us act cautiously, figure out what is happening, and then decide if we use force or not.”

The argument won out, and the group settled on exploring the dome by the open entrance.

“Alright, time to explain the third and final rule then. If it looks cute and cuddly…” Ryan loaded his chest cannon. “It really isn’t.”

The courier grabbed the Panda and flew with his bear inside the hole, followed by Shroud, Mr. Wave, and Leo the Living Sun. Shortie used streams of pressurized water to launch herself at the ship’s roof, while Sarin did something similar with a shockwave.

As it turned out, the dome was only the upper part of a colossal sphere with a diameter slightly more than two hundred meters wide. One end of a five-meters wide bridge extended out to a central platform equipped with strange biomechanical devices, while the other part led to smashed blast doors. The debris of the dome’s ceiling glittered at the bottom of the sphere, and huge, colored holographic projections hovered in the air all around the platform.

The place reminded Ryan of Mechron’s own holographic orbital monitoring systems, albeit far more advanced and damaged. The projections flickered, and all the platforms’ devices were deactivated. Whatever juice the ship used, it was starting to run out.

His group landed on the platform, with Len, Sarin, and the Panda crossing the bridge to secure the dome’s other entrance. Meanwhile, the courier and the Carnival members checked out the projections and tried to make sense out of them.

Ryan counted seven holograms, each using different arrays of colors; each representing strange and wonderful places.

A white shapeless cloud that lacked substance and permanency. It was as feeble and immaculate as a dream, but sometimes colored splashes gave it variety. A red star here, a green bird there. These phantom images only existed for an instant before returning to the white, and the shapeless blob at its core.

A crimson, vibrating storm of energy, full of lightning bolts, burning stars, and lights. A shining heart of nuclear chaos burnt at its center, the first and greatest sun illuminating the universe; and when Ryan squinted at it, he realized that this star had the shape of an eye. One that looked back at him.

A Rubik’s cube with countless stickers made of different matter: steel, glass, iron, stone, gold, zinc, water, gas… all metals, all liquids, all inorganic matters Ryan knew of were represented there. Other stickers contained substances he had never seen, crystals that shifted like living beings, blackened metal as dark as night, or pinkish liquid. Orange lines separated each pit of matter from one another.

A strange golden carnival of cubic angels, many-legged demons, cohorts of ghosts, and 2D picture-like worlds. It was the strangest of them all, a patchwork of chaotic ideas made real. Nothing unified the creatures and places of this realm, except that they only ever existed in human dreams and imagination.

A green sphere that superficially imitated a planet, but one where everything was alive. A pulsating cell with seas of green slime, teeth mountains, and forests of blood vessels. The atmosphere itself buzzed like trillions of microscopic flies, and the poles briefly opened to reveal eyes and jagged tongues.

A strange blue sphere of data, pictures, and numbers; a compendium holding all knowledge and information that ever was, is, and would ever be. The azure glow of a supreme godmind cast the light of enlightenment like a lighthouse in the night, while its neural tendrils constantly organized galaxy-sized libraries.

A familiar violet expanse of compressed space and strange mirrors closed this alien panorama, all overseen by an eerie, inverted pyramid at its center.

“The colored worlds,” Ryan said, recognizing the Purple World from his brief contact with it. “With one missing.”

“The Black?” Leo Hargraves asked, causing Ryan’s head to snap in his direction. “It’s a long story.”

Shroud, who had decided to float amidst the holograms, swiftly pointed a finger at the Orange World’s projection. “Here. Look at this one.”

Ryan’s eyes widened as he followed his friend’s finger. One of the stickers of the Rubik’s cube was made of a substance that the courier had already seen before. One that looked very similar to ivory, and yet with a unique texture.

“Doesn’t this remind you of anything?” Shroud asked grimly.

It did. The ivory sticker’s location was unusual as well. The substances that surrounded it were all metals, from iron to bronze and gold. It was at the very center of it all, the core of one of the cube’s faces.

“Augustus’ body,” Leo Hargraves whispered, astonished. “It’s the same color, the same texture… I would wager my life on it.”

One loop ago, Ryan had theorized that Lightning Butt’s body was made of an anomalous metal. It was the only explanation for why Frank the Mad’s ability to absorb these alloys had seemed to affect the invincible warlord. But doubt always remained, because how could an invincible metal make one immune to frozen time?

Now, it suddenly made more sense.

Augustus’ power gave his body the properties of a metal from the Orange World, the source of all inorganic material. A world made only of matter, without energy, without life...

“Death does not exist in the Purple World.”

A world without time.

“Adamantine…” Ryan whispered.

Shroud looked down on him from his vantage point. “Adamantine?”

“Hello, mythical material from Greek mythology, said to be harder than anything? Did nobody read the classics?” Ryan shrugged. “It’s as good a name as any.”

The courier stopped time by causing the Purple World and Earth’s dimension to align, creating an anomaly where he alone could affect causality. But that substance, the adamantine, didn’t come from either reality.

It was an unnatural metal from a higher realm where things like death, time, or the laws of physics held no sway. From its location in the cube, it might even be the ur-metal, the ultimate substance that all lesser ores derived from.

No wonder it behaved in such an anomalous way!

“So… Augustus might be an Orange,” Sunshine whispered to himself. “I always wondered why Julie couldn’t…”

“Julie Costa?” Ryan asked.

“She could alter life with a touch,” Mr. Wave answered, his voice more somber than usual. “Create new life, or give people cancer. Pretty nasty power, but one that could have saved many.”

“I thought Augustus slew her before she could make contact with him,” Sunshine said, “but it may be that Julie’s power simply didn’t register him as ‘alive’ in the first place.”

“But how do you explain his aging and tumor then?” Shroud asked, having clearly done his research. “We know he doesn’t eat or breathe. If he is made of metal, how can he age?”

“Stone degrades and iron rusts,” Sunshine pointed out. “And if he had a latent cancer before he gained his power, the tumor might have gained his invulnerability too.”

“I think his power only gave his body the properties of that alien metal,” Ryan theorized. “Lightning Butt may not eat or breathe, but I know for a fact that he sleeps, creepily so. There are still chemical processes taking place inside him, they’re just no longer biological in nature.”

It could be that Lightning Butt’s body reacted negatively to the laws of physics themselves, causing a slow, almost imperceptible degradation. It could resist atomic explosions, but not reality itself trying to reject a foreign element.

It wasn’t a perfect defense either. Frank could affect Augustus, as did Livia’s time-skipping. Other conceptual abilities might bypass the invulnerable nature of this metal.

“If so, then Frank the Mad might be the only person capable of harming Augustus,” Shroud said, “or whatever ability you used to defeat Geist—”

“Over here,” Len shouted from the other end of the bridge, interrupting the discussion. “Look.”

Ryan’s group rejoined their allies, making their way into the next room in a tight formation.

The next area had a source of light, namely red crystals embedded in the ceiling. This laboratory was far smaller than the metal sphere outside, but large enough to house workstations, biomechanical servers, and heart-shaped vats full of swirling liquid. Alien orange crystal growths had started taking over the ceiling like an infection, while piles of Wonderboxes lined up the southern wall. A large hole led into a dark corridor beyond the room, with the remains of a shattered blue gate laying in the middle of the room.

Forgetting all caution, Sarin immediately moved to investigate the boxes.

“I’ve never seen so many Elixirs at once!” The Psycho whistled as she opened a wonderbox, revealing seven bottles inside; one for each Elixir color except Black. “It’s a full war chest!”

Ryan paid more attention to the strange vats, finding seven of them north of the laboratory. Each contained gallons of Elixir, one for each of the seven standard colors. Computers, human computers, were linked to the devices by nerve-like cables.

It appeared someone had connected Earth technology to alien devices with biomechanical technology. All of them joined up in a central computer, equipped with large control panels and a comfy chair. Though energy still flowed into the machine, the screens had gone dark.

“Can you access the database?” Sunshine asked Shroud, as they immediately moved to secure the vats.

The young game designer approached the computer and reactivated it, but quickly shook his head in denial. Only a white spot to write numbers and letters had appeared on the screen. “It’s password-protected, and that machine is clearly Genius tech of some kind. It might take me a while to figure out a way to extract the info with—”

The Panda calmly put a paw on the glass man, gently moved him aside, and took the seat for his own. How the chair managed not to crumble beneath a seven hundred kilos bear of mass destruction, Ryan would never understand, but it survived. The Panda typed three passwords in a row on the computer, before the screen let out a melodious ‘ding’ sound and revealed a hundred files.

“How did you do that?” Shroud asked in shock, as Len joined the Panda to examine the computer’s data.

“I, uh, I studied profiling, psychology, and behavioral sciences,” the Panda explained sheepishly. “I made a psyche profile of the Alchemist based on compiled second-hand information, tried to figure out the likely passwords, and one of them clicked!”

“What was the password?” Ryan asked lazily as he approached the vats, observing the Blue Elixir through the membrane separating it from the outside world. To his surprise, the slime created a tentacle and waved at the human. “WorldDomination666?”

“HomoNovus6MagnumOpus!” The Panda replied, before explaining his guess. “Six is a perfect numerical number and a better bet than seven, the exclamation point reinforces security, and since the Alchemist likened herself to a god creating perfection, I figured ‘Homo Novus’ and ‘Magnum Opus’ were put somewhere. Everybody loves latin!”

“Nice guess, nerd,” Sarin replied, unimpressed. She kept searching through the Wonderboxes like a child through Christmas presents. “Anything interesting?”

“It’s all encrypted, but I can figure it out!” The Panda said happily.

“Once you remove the safeties, could you transfer data to my suit’s computer?” Len asked the manbear. “This… this may contain all the information we need to understand Elixirs. This room… this room might very well be their birthplace.”

Leo Hargraves crossed his shining arms, before glancing at Mr. Wave. The laser genome had moved in front of the demolished door leading into the next part of the complex. “Do you see anything?”

“It’s quiet,” Mr. Wave replied as he peeked through the blasted hole in the walls. The corridor beyond had no lamp to light it, leaving only an abyss of darkness. “Too quiet.”

“Keep an eye open,” Hargraves said warily. “This place is too precious to be left undefended, and yet nobody intercepted us. Something happened here, something terrible.”

“I agree,” Ryan said, touching the vat. The Elixir swirled in its container in response. “I suppose you won’t tell us what happened?”

The answer came in French, of all languages.

“Are you a homo sapiens?”

The voice echoed in Ryan’s head, between his ears, and inside his neurons. The courier flinched, while the Elixir grew agitated inside its vat.

“Are you a homo sapiens?” The alien voice repeated. It was neither male nor female, more like a robot trying to imitate words it didn’t fully know how to vocalize.

Ryan glanced at his group, but none seemed to have heard the Elixir. As he guessed, the creature used telepathy. “I have the pleasure of being one, yes,” the courier replied in the French tongue while he focused back on the Blue Elixir.

The answer came swiftly, and with a very different tone.

“I’m so happy!” The Elixir let out a psychic sound that could pass for a squeal of joy, and its voice turned cheerful. “Do you want to bond with me?”

Even though the voice sounded like nothing human, the tone reminded Ryan of an overactive child. “Uh, maybe later,” the courier replied, taken aback. He sensed his comrades’ gazes on his back. “What happened to the door?”

“It fell down,” the Blue Elixir replied, before instantly returning to the subject that truly mattered. “Can we bond now? Has later become now? That concept of time is so weird!”

“No, it hasn’t,” Ryan replied. “Can you tell me what happen—”

“Look, I really, truly, deeply want to bond with you. Can we bond now?”

“I’m… no!” Ryan said, finding the creature’s insistence oppressive. “No!”

“Why don’t you want to bond with me?!” The Elixir whined, annoyed and disappointed. “Don’t you want to be happy?”

“Riri, what is it?” Shortie asked. “Who are you talking to?”

“Why in French?” Somehow that was the part that bothered Shroud the most.

“Ignore him,” Sarin said, not even paying attention to the scene. “It’s better for everyone.”

“All I want is to have a passionate bonding session with you,” the Blue Elixir continued to court Ryan, not taking no for an answer. The courier was tempted to call it Nice Guy. “I want to be with you. I want to be inside you, to know everything about you. I want to fill all your cells and molecules, until we become one! It will be great! I will learn everything about you, know you, love you! I will always be there with you, for you!”

The wording sent shivers down Ryan’s spine. “You can’t force someone to bond!” The courier protested, and this time half his team looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Or at least even more so. “You need consent!”

“But all you have to do is let me out, so I can slip inside you!”

“I’m sorry, but… I am already in a committed relationship with my Violet Elixir.”

The Blue Elixir didn’t answer instantly, and when it did, its tone had suddenly turned into something far less friendly. “It only wants you for your cells,” it said.

Ryan sighed, and he suddenly realized that Elixirs being unable to talk might have been the Alchemist's intended feature, rather than a bug.

“It only wants you for your body. It doesn’t appreciate you like I do! It doesn’t know what you like! It can’t make you happy, but I will make you better! I will make you super-duper smart, or warn you of all dangers, anything you need to be happy!”

“I’m sorry, Nice Guy, but I am Elixir-monogamous.” Wait, did Ryan getting a Black power count as cheating on his Violet Elixir with Darkling? The courier never considered it that way, but now he felt slightly guilty.

“We can share!” The Blue Elixir tried to haggle. “If there’s not more than one, I’m sure we could share. Even if your Elixir doesn’t understand what you need, I’m sure I can teach it! I can fix you!”

Alright, this had gone on long enough. “Look, I’m not interested but I know people who might be,” Ryan said, trying to distract the creature. “There is a girl called Sarah, who I’m sure you’ll get along with. Or Simon.”

“Oh?” The Blue Elixir calmed itself. “Are they homo sapiens too?”

“Yes.”

The Blue Elixir let out a happy squeal. “When can I bond with either of them?” it asked. “Can I bond with them now?”

Ryan glanced at his comrades, their embarrassed silence music to his ears. His eyes then wandered to the Psycho in the room.

“What?” the lovely Sarin asked.

“Don’t look at me like that, you double-timer,” Ryan replied in his native tongue, before glancing back at the other captive Elixirs. Since one of them could talk but not tell homo sapiens apart, the courier wondered if they were in the process of being conditioned.

“On a second thought, I don’t even want to know,” the Psycho replied, grabbing a Wonderbox for herself. “Are we done yet?”

“Almost,” Len said, trying to find a spot to link the computer to her suit.

“Shush, Mr. Wave is hearing something,” the genome said, his body shining with bright red light. “Mr. Wave knew he couldn’t pass unnoticed.”

Indeed, Ryan’s suit picked up sounds approaching from the corridor. A thump, then another.

Footsteps.

The Elixirs suddenly started to get agitated, and Ryan sensed something familiar through their psychic link. An emotion as old as life and time.

Fear.

“It’s them…”

A green visor appeared in the darkness of the corridor, followed by an alien gargle.

外星人。

果然是外星人！这下全都说得通了！不过，瑞恩还是很好奇，这些访客究竟长得像灰色的小矮人，还是额头上长着骨脊的人类？但从雪地里那头八米高的怪物来看，它们多半是冷血动物。

等等……瑞恩看向那头怪物的尸体，忽然恍然大悟。

“我就知道！”他指着那头巨兽喊道，“我就知道是蜥蜴人干的！”

这帮长鳞片的混蛋曾试图渗透人类政府，摧毁民主制度！

“不可能是外星人。”裹尸布不肯相信，“也许炼金术师……也许她正在造飞船，准备离开这颗星球？”

“那破玩意儿明显在好几年前就坠毁了。”沙林指出，“要是我没听错咱们这位首席混账的话，整整五分之四的船体都埋在冰里。谁会这么造飞船？”

“我们……我们知道灵药来自异次元。”蕾恩一边说，一边试着用动力装甲扫描飞船，“这……这也不是不可能。”

裹尸布仍在摇头。“不可能是外星人。”

他能接受时间旅行者的存在，却接受不了天外来客？

不管怎样，趁众人争论时，瑞恩暂停了时间。尽管他感到有一股力量在竭力抵抗自己的能力，冰封荒原还是变成了紫色，让他松了口气。异样天空中那些诡异的紫色闪电，在暂停的时间里仍旧游走不息，瑞恩猜测它们是由紫色通量构成的。

与他在摩纳哥的经历一样，只要共振器维持传送门开启，让他得以将紫色世界与这个口袋维度重合，他就能暂停时间。

但另一件事引起了快递员的注意。装甲产生的黑色通量粒子似乎在吞噬周围的空间，在现实的结构本身上撕出一道道细小到几乎看不见的裂缝。

“嗯？”时间恢复流动，瑞恩疑惑地出了声。黑色粒子虽然消失了，它们造成的损伤却依然存在。

“怎么了，瑞瑞？”蕾恩注意到了他的困惑。

“我的能力好像对这处薄弱之地产生了异常效应。”这么一想，瑞恩记起了与阿尔方斯·“辐尘”·马纳达交手时，黑色通量吞噬对方放射性红色通量的情景。

迄今为止，所有线索都表明，黑色终极者赋予了快递员杀死不死之物的能力。但这个定义究竟能延伸到什么地步？能杀死能量吗？物品呢？思想呢？

黑色能力本身就是悖论，不遵循任何规则。闪电屁股与其说是人，不如说更像一尊会动的雕像，然而瑞恩的能力照样可以伤害他。它甚至能杀死幽灵。

也许，它也能杀死灵药，或是灵药产生的异界能量。

“这能力真让我头疼。”瑞恩说道，决定先让队友们做好战斗准备。阳光和透明人正谨慎地观察穹顶，沙林看上去绷得很紧，蕾恩和熊猫毫不掩饰心中的不安，波动先生则几乎按捺不住，想一路开火杀进去。“好了，小兵们，听着。你们谁还没探索过阴森森的外星飞船？头一回的举手。”

除了瑞恩和波动先生，所有人都举起了手。“费米悖论就是波动先生造成的。”这位基因者解释道，“外星文明一看见波动先生，就会灭绝。”

“瑞瑞，你为什么不举手？”蕾恩问。

沙林怀疑地看着瑞恩，深深伤害了快递员的心。“你以前见过外星人？哦，伟大而强有力的领袖？”

“见过，不过他们的飞船是圆的，也更扁。”而且不知为什么，船上的乘客老想拿贝壳付钱给他。“总之，探索飞船的第一条守则，也是最重要的一条：别碰那些蛋。只有煮熟的蛋才是好蛋。”

熊猫倒吸一口气。“可是师父，蛋圆滚滚的，多可爱啊！”

“蛋就是敌人，士兵！”瑞恩拿出了操练军士的气势，大声咆哮，熊猫立刻敬了个军礼。“外星飞船里的每一颗蛋，都可能是大规模杀伤性武器！统统煮熟！”

“是、是，师父！”

“第二条，不许分头行动。任何时候都不许。”

“分不分都差不多。”波动先生夸口道，“就算波动先生独自面对一支大军，寡不敌众的也还是他们。”

“这我同意。”瑞恩让了一步，“但这是原则问题。”

“我平时更倾向于分散人手，扩大搜索范围，不过这一次，人多在一起或许更安全。”利奥赞同道，“我们根本不知道里面会有什么。”

“从哪儿进去？”裹尸布看向防爆门。

“嗯……”瑞恩走近大门，仔细观察。细看之下，防爆门虽然主要由与船体相同的黑色金属制成，却留有曾被破坏的痕迹。有人用普通合金钢堵住了裂口。装甲粗略扫描后的结果告诉快递员，这些门很可能承受得住再入大气层这样的极端环境。“阳光，我们可能得来一两场太阳喷发。”

“上面不就有个现成的好入口吗？”沙林指着飞船金属穹顶上的洞说道，“要是那头蜥蜴一路轰了出去，不就说明那条路是通的？”

“有可能。”裹尸布承认，“不过，也可能碰上正在修补受损区域的工人。”

“让我不安的是，到现在都没人出来拦截我们。”哈格雷夫斯说道，身上的光芒短暂地暗了一瞬，“我以为炼金术师的活动基地会更热闹些，可这里却空得不太真实。”

“也许那东西逃出来的时候把所有人都杀了。”沙林猜测。

可这样一来，又是什么杀了那头怪物？致命的裂伤分明是爪子留下的。“我有点动心了。”瑞恩说，“一方面，自己轰个洞出来才像话。不过，走另一条路也能少引起些注意。”

“在弄清真相之前，先不要采取敌对行动。”哈格雷夫斯说。

“那是你。”沙林攥紧了拳头，“那个疯科学家臭婊子，我非得顺手收拾她一顿不可。她欠我十多年的痛苦，得连本带利还。”

“听起来或许很奇怪，但我同意这个疯魔。”裹尸布表态道，“我们也许需要她的知识，但我绝不会让造成最后的复活节的罪魁祸首安然无恙。她手上的血太多了，不管她是谁，或者是个什么东西。”

“炼金术师也许确实该受我们唾弃。”阳光承认，“但显然，我们知道的只是全部真相中的一小部分，公开冲突解决不了问题。先谨慎行动，查清楚这里出了什么事，再决定要不要动武。”

这个说法说服了众人，大家决定从现成的入口进入穹顶探索。

“好，那该讲第三条，也是最后一条守则了。要是有什么东西看起来可爱得让人想抱抱……”瑞恩给胸炮上了膛，“它绝对不是那么回事。”

快递员抓起熊猫，带着自家的熊飞进洞口，裹尸布、波动先生和活体太阳利奥紧随其后。小矮个靠高压水流把自己推向飞船顶部，沙林则用冲击波做了同样的事。

原来，这座穹顶只是一个巨大球体的上半部分，整个球体直径略超两百米。一座五米宽的桥，一端伸向中央平台，平台上装有奇怪的生物机械装置；另一端通向被砸烂的防爆门。穹顶天花板的碎片在球体底部闪闪发亮，巨大的彩色全息投影悬浮在平台四周的空中。

这地方让瑞恩想起梅克隆的全息轨道监测系统，只是先进得多，损坏也严重得多。投影闪烁不定，平台上的所有装置都已停止运行。不管这艘飞船靠什么供能，它的能源都快耗尽了。

众人落到平台上，蕾恩、沙林和熊猫过桥去确保穹顶另一处入口的安全。与此同时，快递员和嘉年华的成员们开始查看那些投影，试图弄清它们的含义。

瑞恩数出了七幅全息投影，每幅的色彩分布都不相同，呈现着一个个奇异而瑰丽的地方。

一团无形的白云，既无实体，也无恒常。它如梦一般脆弱而纯净，偶尔又有色彩泼洒其中，为它添上一点变化。这里一颗红色星辰，那里一只绿色飞鸟。这些幻影只存在一瞬，便又归于白色，融回中心那团无定形的东西。

一场猩红色的能量风暴，震荡不休，其中充斥着闪电、燃烧的恒星与光芒。风暴中央，一颗混沌的核能之心明亮地燃烧着，那是照亮宇宙的第一轮、也是最伟大的太阳；瑞恩眯起眼仔细看去，才发现这颗恒星的形状竟是一只眼睛。它也正回望着他。

一个魔方，上面有无数由不同物质构成的贴片：钢、玻璃、铁、石头、金、锌、水、气体……瑞恩所知的所有金属、所有液体、所有无机物，都能在那里找到。另一些贴片则包含他从未见过的物质：像活物一样变幻的晶体、漆黑如夜的金属，还有粉红色的液体。橙色线条将一个个物质池分隔开来。

一场奇异的金色狂欢，里面有立方体天使、多足恶魔、成群的幽灵，以及二维图画般的世界。这是所有投影中最古怪的一幅，杂乱的念头化作实物，拼凑成了这一切。这个领域里的生物与地点毫无共同之处，唯一的共通点是，它们原本只存在于人类的梦境和想象之中。

一个绿色球体，表面上模仿着星球的样子，可其中的一切都是活的。那是一颗搏动的细胞，有绿色黏液组成的海洋、牙齿构成的山脉，以及血管形成的森林。连大气本身都像数万亿只微小的苍蝇一样嗡嗡作响，两极则短暂张开，露出了眼睛和锯齿状的舌头。

一个由数据、图像和数字构成的奇异蓝色球体；一部囊括过去、现在与未来一切知识和信息的总集。至高神智的湛蓝光辉，如暗夜中的灯塔般投下启迪之光，它的神经触须则不停地整理着银河般庞大的图书馆。

最后一幅异界图景，是一片熟悉的紫色天地，其中布满压缩的空间和奇异的镜面，中心一座诡谲的倒金字塔俯瞰着一切。

“那些色彩世界。”瑞恩说道，凭着短暂的接触，他认出了紫色世界，“少了一个。”

“黑色的那个？”利奥·哈格雷夫斯问道，瑞恩猛地扭头看向他。利奥又道：“说来话长。”

裹尸布已经飘到了全息影像之间，很快便指向橙色世界的投影。“这里。看这一块。”

瑞恩顺着朋友的手指望去，睁大了双眼。魔方上有一块贴片，它的材质快递员以前见过。那东西看上去很像象牙，却有一种独特的质感。

“有没有让你想起什么？”裹尸布沉声问道。

确实有。而且，那块象牙色贴片的位置也非同寻常。它周围的物质全是金属，从铁到青铜，再到黄金。它位于这一切的正中央，占据着魔方其中一面的核心。

“奥古斯都的身体。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯惊愕地低语，“一样的颜色，一样的质感……我敢拿命打赌。”

上一轮循环时，瑞恩就曾推测，闪电屁股的身体是由某种异常金属构成的。疯子弗兰克吸收这些合金的能力，似乎能影响到这名无敌军阀，唯有这个理论能解释得通。但疑点始终存在：无敌的金属，怎么能让人免疫时间暂停？

现在，这一切忽然合理多了。

奥古斯都的能力赋予了他的身体一种金属的特性，那金属来自橙色世界——一切无机物的源头。一个只有物质，没有能量，没有生命的世界……

“紫色世界里不存在死亡。”

一个没有时间的世界。

“精金……”瑞恩低声道。

裹尸布从高处俯视着他。“精金？”

“喂，希腊神话里那种传说中的材料，据说比什么都硬的那个？你们都不读经典的吗？”瑞恩耸耸肩，“反正叫这个名字也挺好。”

快递员通过让紫色世界与地球所在的维度重合来暂停时间，制造出一种只有他能干预因果的异常状态。但这种被他称作精金的物质，并不来自这两个现实中的任何一个。

这是一种非自然的金属，来自更高的领域，死亡、时间、物理定律之类的东西在那里都不起作用。从它在魔方中的位置来看，它甚至可能是原初金属，是衍生出一切低等矿石的终极物质。

难怪它的表现如此反常！

“所以……奥古斯都可能是橙色系。”阳光低声自语，“我一直想不通，为什么朱莉没能……”

“朱莉·科斯塔？”瑞恩问。

“她只要触碰，就能改变生命。”波动先生答道，语气比平时沉重，“创造新的生命，或者让人得癌症。相当可怕的能力，但也原本能救下许多人。”

“我以为奥古斯都在她碰到他之前就杀了她。”阳光说，“但也许，朱莉的能力从一开始就没把他判定为‘活物’。”

“那他的衰老和肿瘤又怎么解释？”裹尸布问道，显然已经做过调查，“我们知道他不用吃饭，也不用呼吸。如果他是金属做的，怎么还会变老？”

“石头会风化，铁会生锈。”阳光指出，“如果他在获得能力之前就已经有潜伏的癌症，那肿瘤也可能一并变得刀枪不入了。”

“我认为，他的能力只是赋予了身体那种异界金属的特性。”瑞恩推测道，“闪电屁股也许不用吃饭或呼吸，但我确切知道他会睡觉，而且睡相很瘆人。他体内仍然有化学过程在进行，只不过本质上不再属于生物过程。”

或许，闪电屁股的身体与物理定律本身产生了不良反应，导致身体发生缓慢、几乎不可察觉的劣化。它能抵御核爆，却挡不住现实本身试图排斥异物。

而且，这也不是完美的防御。弗兰克能影响奥古斯都，莉维娅的时间跳跃也可以。其他概念性的能力，或许也能绕过这种金属刀枪不入的特性。

“如果真是这样，那疯子弗兰克可能就是唯一能伤害奥古斯都的人。”裹尸布说，“或者，你用来打败幽魂的那种能力——”

“这边。”蕾恩从桥的另一头喊道，打断了讨论，“快看。”

瑞恩几人与同伴会合，保持紧密队形，进入下一个房间。

下一个区域有光源，是嵌在天花板上的红色晶体。这间实验室比外面的金属球体小得多，但也足以容纳工作站、生物机械服务器，以及盛满旋动液体的心形培养槽。奇异的橙色晶簇像感染一样，开始侵占天花板；南侧墙边摆着成堆的奇迹盒。一个大洞通向房间之外的黑暗走廊，屋子中央散落着一扇蓝色大门被击碎后的残骸。

沙林把谨慎全抛到了脑后，立刻上前查看那些盒子。

“我从没一次见过这么多灵药！”疯魔吹了声口哨，打开一个奇迹盒，露出里面的七瓶灵药，除了黑色，每种颜色各一瓶。“这可是一整套作战储备啊！”

瑞恩更在意那些奇怪的培养槽，他在实验室北侧找到了七个。每个里面都装着好几加仑灵药，七种常规颜色各占一个。一根根神经般的线缆，将电脑——人类的电脑——与这些装置连在一起。

看来有人利用生物机械技术，把地球科技与外星装置接了起来。所有设备最终都连入一台中央计算机，它配有宽大的控制面板和一把舒适的椅子。虽然能源仍在流入机器，屏幕却已经黑了。

“能进入数据库吗？”阳光问裹尸布，两人随即上前，确保培养槽的安全。

年轻的游戏设计师走到电脑前，将它重新激活，却很快摇了摇头。屏幕上只出现了一块白色区域，供人输入数字和字母。“有密码保护，而且这台机器显然是某种天才科技。要提取信息，我可能得花点时间想想办法，用——”

熊猫平静地将一只爪子搭在玻璃人身上，轻轻把他挪到一边，自己坐了下来。那把椅子是怎么在一头重达七百公斤的大规模杀伤熊身下撑住、没有散架的，瑞恩永远都想不明白，但它确实挺住了。熊猫接连输入了三个密码，随后屏幕发出一声悦耳的“叮”，显示出一百份文件。

“你怎么做到的？”裹尸布惊讶地问。蕾恩也凑到熊猫身边，查看电脑中的数据。

“我，呃，我学过人物侧写、心理学和行为科学。”熊猫不好意思地解释，“我根据汇总的二手信息，给炼金术师做了一份心理侧写，试着推断她可能用的密码，其中一个就对上了！”

“密码是什么？”瑞恩懒洋洋地问，一边走近培养槽，隔着将内外分开的薄膜观察蓝色灵药。令他惊讶的是，黏液生出了一根触须，冲他这个人类挥了挥。“WorldDomination666？”

“HomoNovus6MagnumOpus!”熊猫答道，随即解释起自己的猜测，“六是完全数，比七更值得一试，感叹号可以提高安全性。而且炼金术师把自己比作创造完美之物的神，我猜她肯定会往里面放上‘Homo Novus’和‘Magnum Opus’。人人都爱拉丁语！”

“猜得不错，书呆子。”沙林毫不动容地答道，继续翻着奇迹盒，像个拆圣诞礼物的小孩。“有好东西吗？”

“全都加密了，不过我能破解！”熊猫高兴地说。

“解除安全措施之后，能把数据传到我的装甲电脑里吗？”蕾恩问熊人，“这里……这里也许有我们理解灵药所需的全部信息。这间屋子……很可能就是灵药的诞生之地。”

利奥·哈格雷夫斯抱起发光的双臂，看向波动先生。那位激光基因者已经走到被摧毁的门前，门后通往这座设施的下一个区域。“看见什么了吗？”

“很安静。”波动先生一边回答，一边透过墙上炸开的洞往里看。那边的走廊没有灯照明，只有深渊般的黑暗。“太安静了。”

“保持警戒。”哈格雷夫斯谨慎地说，“这么重要的地方，不可能毫无防备，却一直没人拦截我们。这里出过事，很可怕的事。”

“我同意。”瑞恩说着，碰了碰培养槽，里面的灵药随之旋动起来。“想必你也不会告诉我们发生了什么？”

回答传来了，偏偏说的是法语。

“你是智人吗？”

声音在瑞恩脑海里回荡，在他的双耳之间，在他的神经元内部。快递员一惊，缩了缩身子，培养槽里的灵药则躁动起来。

“你是智人吗？”那个异样的声音又问了一遍。它没有男女之分，更像一台机器人，试着模仿那些还不完全懂得如何发音的词语。

瑞恩扫了一眼众人，似乎谁也没听见灵药的声音。果然，这生物用的是心灵感应。“没错，我很荣幸，正是其中一员。”快递员用法语答道，将注意力转回蓝色灵药身上。

回答来得很快，语气却截然不同了。

“我好开心！”灵药在精神层面发出一声几乎可算是喜悦尖叫的声音，语调变得欢快起来。“你愿意跟我结合吗？”

那声音听上去全然不像人类，语气却让瑞恩想起一个精力过剩的小孩。“呃，以后再说吧。”快递员有些错愕地答道。他能感觉到同伴们的目光落在背上。“那扇门是怎么回事？”

“它倒下来了。”蓝色灵药回答完，立刻回到了它真正关心的话题上。“现在可以结合了吗？现在已经是以后了吗？时间这个概念真奇怪！”

“还没有。”瑞恩答道，“你能告诉我发生了什——”

“听我说，我真的、真的、打心底里想跟你结合。现在可以结合了吗？”

“我……不行！”瑞恩被它缠得喘不过气来，“不行！”

“你为什么不愿意跟我结合？！”灵药又恼火又失望地抱怨，“难道你不想幸福吗？”

“瑞瑞，怎么了？”小矮个问，“你在跟谁说话？”

“为什么用法语？”不知怎么的，这居然是最让裹尸布介意的部分。

“别理他。”沙林根本没留意这边的动静，“对大家都好。”

“我只是想跟你来一次激情的结合。”蓝色灵药继续向瑞恩求爱，完全不接受拒绝。快递员很想管它叫“好人先生”。“我想和你在一起。我想进入你的身体，了解你的一切。我想填满你的每一个细胞、每一个分子，直到我们合为一体！一定会很棒的！我会了解你的一切，懂你，爱你！我会永远陪在你身边，为你守候！”

这番措辞让瑞恩背脊发凉。“你不能强迫别人跟你结合！”快递员抗议道，这一次，有半支队伍的人都像看疯子一样看着他。至少是看一个比平时更疯的疯子。“你得先征得同意！”

“可你只要把我放出来就行了，这样我就能钻进你身体里！”

“抱歉，可是……我已经跟我的紫色灵药确定了忠贞不渝的关系。”

蓝色灵药没有立刻回答，再开口时，语气已突然变得远没有先前那么友善。“它只是馋你的细胞。”它说。

瑞恩叹了口气，忽然意识到，灵药不能说话，也许是炼金术师刻意设计的功能，而不是缺陷。

“它只想要你的身体。它不像我这样懂得欣赏你！它不知道你喜欢什么！它给不了你幸福，可我能让你变得更好！我可以让你变得超级无敌聪明，或者提醒你所有的危险，只要能让你幸福，你要什么都行！”

“抱歉，好人先生，但我对灵药实行单偶制。”等等，那瑞恩从暗灵那里获得黑色能力，算不算背着紫色灵药出轨？快递员从没这么想过，可现在，他有点内疚了。

“我们可以分享！”蓝色灵药试图讨价还价。“只要你身上的灵药不超过一个，我们肯定能分享。就算你的灵药不懂你需要什么，我也一定能教会它！我能修好你！”

行了，这场对话已经拖得够久了。“听着，我没兴趣，但我认识一些可能有兴趣的人。”瑞恩试着转移这生物的注意力，“有个女孩叫莎拉，我相信你们一定合得来。还有西蒙。”

“哦？”蓝色灵药平静了下来。“他们也是智人吗？”

“是的。”

蓝色灵药兴奋地尖叫了一声。“我什么时候能跟他们中的一个结合？”它问，“现在能跟他们结合吗？”

瑞恩看向同伴们，他们尴尬的沉默在他耳中宛如天籁。随后，他的目光飘向了屋里的疯魔。

“干吗？”可爱的沙林问道。

“别用那种眼神看我，你这个脚踏两条船的。”瑞恩用母语答道，随后又看向其他被囚禁的灵药。其中一个能说话，却无法区分不同的智人个体，这让快递员不禁怀疑，它们是不是正在接受行为塑造。

“算了，我根本不想知道。”疯魔说着，拿了一个奇迹盒给自己，“咱们完事没有？”

“快了。”蕾恩答道，正试着寻找能把电脑连上装甲的接口。

“嘘，波动先生听到动静了。”那位基因者说道，浑身亮起鲜红的光，“波动先生就知道，自己不可能不引人注目。”

果然，瑞恩的装甲捕捉到有声音正沿走廊靠近。咚的一声，又一声。

脚步声。

灵药们突然躁动起来，瑞恩通过精神链接感受到一种熟悉的东西。那是一种与生命和时间一样古老的情绪。

恐惧。

“是他们……”

走廊的黑暗中浮现出一张绿色面甲，紧接着传来一阵非人的咕噜声。