同章对照

Weeds had overtaken the ship like an abandoned garden.

As Ryan’s group advanced into the metal bowels of the Alchemist’s base, they ran into more and more alien plant life. Greenish slime leaked from the walls, while snakelike red roots and fanged purple flowers dug holes into the floor. Eventually, the corridors became so overwhelmed by vegetation that Sunshine moved at the front to torch a path ahead.

Often, they would find the broken remains of armored aliens, their helmets melted by lasers, their shielding pierced by powerful rounded projectiles. Yet they never found any trace of what killed them.

Their slayers didn’t leave corpses behind when they died.

“So if I follow correctly,” Shroud said, after Ryan had finished briefing his team. “This is an alien spaceship from a long-lost imperialistic civilization, and the creature we fought was one of its soldiers. The Alchemist pillaged their technology, but accidentally woke up the remaining troops left in stasis and now they’re fighting her for control of the facility. And an alien deity gave you a divine mandate to destroy this place before the prisoners can escape.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Ryan replied, while Len checked out the data the Panda had harvested from the Alchemist’s computers. The manbear himself advanced on all fours, an ear against the walls.

Mr. See-Through snickered, unconvinced. “Should I call you Joan of Arc? You did hear voices.”

“God loves the reptilians too,” Ryan preached, “so long as they stay in reptiland.”

“Why?” Unlike Shroudy Matty, who remained in denial, Sarin had listened to the explanations with solemn silence. “Why?”

Why did Eva Fabre make Genomes and Psychos possible? “I guess… I guess she wanted to protect us?” the Panda suggested, trying to be charitable. “To give us powers, so we could defend ourselves?”

“What good could have come from empowering people like Mechron and Augustus?” Leo Hargraves asked at the front, skeptical. “The former alone killed more people than both world wars combined.”

“Though Mr. Wave is thankful that she graced the universe with the brilliance of… Mr. Wave.” The boastful Genome paused briefly. “Mr. Wave didn’t find a way to avoid the repetition. Still, he agrees with the rising sun. The walk doesn’t match the talk.”

“The aliens aren’t coming either.” Ryan shrugged, as his armor picked up vibrations. “Well, except those inside this place.”

“And how do you figure we destroy this ship in the first place?” Shroud kept nagging him.

“I thought we might have a last minute desperate escape, with a digital countdown. Maybe a round number.”

“I would rather avoid that,” Shroud replied dryly, arms crossed. “Besides our own lives, if Elixirs are truly sapient, helpful beings, then blowing up the ship would kill them too.”

“Human life isn’t the only kind with value,” Sunshine agreed, having now destroyed the plant growth with his shining light. “I agree we cannot let the horrors of this ship escape into the wider world, Quicksave, but blowing it up should be a last resort.”

Truth be told, Ryan kinda hoped that reaching the ship’s control center would provide an alternative solution too. Nice Guy might have been grating, but Shroud was correct that it deserved to live.

However, the courier suspected his mere presence might cause the ship to collapse anyway.

Ryan’s Black power was a paradox, destabilizing reality with its very existence. The courier guessed that Earth’s dimension was ‘solid’ enough to absorb the damage, but the spaceship’s thin place was a small, artificial construct. Ryan degraded it a little further with each time-stop. Eventually, it might even collapse on itself.

Had the Violet Ultimate One foreseen this possibility? That Illuminati creature could control all of space and time, if Darkling was to be believed. It might very well be omniscient.

The Panda raised a paw. “Sifu, I’m hearing something through the metal!”

“My armor is picking up vibrations too,” Ryan said, analyzing the readings. “Where do they come from, my young pandawan?”

“The left,” his sidekick replied, using his sensitive bear ears to pick up sound. “Explosions.”

“They must be pretty powerful for their noise to go through the ship’s shielding,” Leo Hargraves said. “Considering the increasing number of corpses, we must be approaching the site of a battle. Can you offer more details?”

“I-I, I will try!” The Panda took a deep breath, intimidated by Sunshine. “I hear… I hear something big and heavy moving, and impacts.”

“From the form of the ship, and the way we moved inside so far, the left should lead us to the front,” Shroud pointed out. “If the architecture is anything like Earth’s aircrafts—”

“Then it should be where the command center is located,” Leo Hargraves guessed with a nod. “Timmy, can you bring us as close to the sound’s source as possible?”

“Yes, sir!” the Panda raised a paw to his forehead in a military salute. “Of course, sir!”

“The rest of you, stay on guard,” Sunshine said. “Neither side of this war is an ally.”

And so the Panda took the lead, an ear against the ground. As they took twists and turns, Ryan’s armor picked up more and more vibrations and other Flux energy activities. The very fabric of reality seemed to weaken the further they progressed.

“Riri, I finished analyzing the data,” Len said, as the group left the cramped corridor for the remains of a large hangar the size of an airport. The metal walls had been melted away, and Ryan could see the scrapped remains of robots and vehicles everywhere he looked. Clearly, a battle had taken place here. “It’s… it’s all we need.”

Sarin’s head snapped in her direction. “For me? You could make a cure?”

“Yes,” Len replied, before hesitating and avoiding Miss Chernobyl’s gaze.

She wouldn’t like what came next.

The Psycho in the group clenched her fists. “Go on, Nemo. Don’t sugarcoat it.”

“The Alchemist…” Len took a long deep breath. “The Alchemist already has a cure. Had it from the start.”

Sarin abruptly froze in place, causing Shroud to bump into her back.

“Repeat that,” the Psycho said. But now her armored gauntlets had clenched so tightly, that Ryan worried she might break them.

“It’s, uh…” Sarin’s heavy gaze troubled Len. “I should start at the beginning. If I understand the data collected… Elixirs come from the White World, but can naturally move from one colored dimension to another and immediately adapt to their new home’s Flux energy.”

“And they use this ‘Flux’ to communicate?” Shroud asked, trying to understand.

“Yes,” Shortie confirmed with a nod. “The Alchemist decoded the Elixirs’ language with the aliens’ technology, and with it, she can... how to say that… ‘educate’ them? Tell them how to recognize DNA, which species to bond with… If we associate gene therapy with the right Flux message—”

“We teach the Elixirs to patch out the bugs,” Ryan finished.

“It could… it could even work for you,” Len explained to Sarin. “Or Frank. It’s all about the right signal.”

Ryan had expected Miss Gasshole to be overjoyed. After all, she had spent a decade and a half as a cloud trapped in a suit. The possibility of becoming human again was a dream come true, and her previous self had been willing to consider murdering Ryan when she thought he wouldn’t deliver.

However, Sarin had picked up on a worrying detail and wouldn’t let it go.

“She had a cure,” she said, her voice low and furious. “That bitch had a cure-all along, but didn’t release it?”

Psychos weren’t a bug, but a feature.

Even Mr. Wave had turned serious. “Why would she do that? Why would anyone do that?”

“I… I cannot say,” Len replied. “All Psychos are sterile due to their unstable genetic code, so… so they can’t replace mankind the way Genomes will.”

“But what about the children of two Genomes?” Leo Hargraves asked at the front. “I only know a few who were born after one or both parents consumed an Elixir, Narcinia included.”

If a Genome was above fifteen years of age, they could only have earned their power from an Elixir. Even Fortuna and Felix had taken Elixirs, unlike their adoptive sister.

“If the creation of Psychos was intentional, do children of Genomes risk mutating too?” Sunshine asked, clearly worried for innocent lives.

“I’ve seen a few Genome children in my life, and all of them turned out fine,” Ryan said. “Also, in cases of one parent having powers and the other not, the child inherited a variant of the parent’s abilities. I couldn’t really figure out why exactly though.”

“It’s because Elixirs use asexual reproduction, Riri,” Len said. “Like jellyfish. But they can also alter their double’s make up during the duplication.”

Ryan blinked behind his helmet, as the truth dawned on him. “Wait, so if I had a child with a normie, my Elixir would duplicate and pass on to the kid?”

To his horror, Len confirmed the theory with a nod. “If one parent is a Genome and the other is not... the Elixir duplicates, fuses with the fetus, and slightly adapts the power to the new host.”

The thought of Ryan’s children inheriting his power chilled him to the bone, and made him thankful that he had taken precautions against having a descendant. His power in itself was both a blessing and a curse, but in the hands of a child…

It would make for nightmarish teenage years.

“If the parents are both Genomes…” Len cleared her throat. “If both parents are Genomes, the Elixirs communicate during conception to avoid the pitfalls of the Psycho condition. Instead of competing for a host, only one of the Elixirs duplicates, but takes some information from the other. Since the child doesn't yet have dreams and desires yet, the child’s Elixir creates a power based on the two ‘parents.’”

“So, to take Narcinia’s example,” Leo Hargraves asked, “she was born a Green Genome, but with her power also being influenced by her father’s Yellow ability?”

“Her mother could alter life, and her father could cut through anything,” Shroud said. “She can create life by cutting herself. Definitively Green, but with some Yellow inspiration.”

And since the children of Genomes were always stable Genomes, no matter the parents’ nature, their numbers would only increase with time.

Homo Novus would phase out Homo Sapiens, the way they did with the Neanderthals.

“Then what if…” Shroud crossed his arms. “And this is terrible to say it, but what if Psychos were meant to kill as many normal people as possible? If the Alchemist’s plan is to make Genomes supplant normal humans—”

“Psychos by nature target other Genomes first, Matty,” Ryan reminded him. And the random nature of powers meant creatures with world-ending powers like Bloodstream could arise. “It can’t be the only goal.”

While they had been arguing, the Panda had reached the northwestern corner of the hangar. “Sifu, we’re close!” He raised a paw at the wall. “I can hear the source in this direction!”

“Mmm, we might have to take a detour,” Leo Hargraves said, not finding any door. “Mr. Wave, could you quickly tour the room and—”

Sarin furiously raised a fist at the wall, and unleashed a fearsome shockwave at it.

The black steel, brittle and weakened, cracked and collapsed before Miss Chernobyl’s onslaught. A terrible noise echoed through the hangar, followed by a cloud of green and dark dust as the attack revealed a path into a new, gigantic corridor. The courier heard the sound of lasers, explosions, and most importantly, voices coming from it.

“I forgot to explain rule number four.” Ryan glared at Sarin, hands on his waist. “Avoid making too much noise!”

“Too late, nerd,” the furious Psycho replied before stepping through the hole, her hands shaking in anger. Now she didn’t want answers, but revenge. “When I find her there will be blood, and it won’t be my own.”

Ryan didn’t have the heart to deny her wish, the rest of the group cautiously following her. The courier closed the march with Len. “Shortie, would that cure work on You-Know-Who?”

Shortie looked down at the metal floor. “Past a certain point, if a Psycho couldn’t stabilize their genetic code… the damage becomes so extensive that not even Elixirs can correct it. She…” She breathed long and deep. “The Alchemist has… she has others in storage.”

Other Bloodstreams. Psychos who had degraded to the point they had become an entirely different form of life. The more he learned about this place, the more Ryan was convinced it had to go by whatever means necessary.

The group followed the noise of battles all the way to a spotless, well-lit chamber deeper into the complex. All blast doors on the way had been torn apart, and Ryan had to leap over the wreckage.

The next room was a fortified security checkpoint, with more than two dozen troopers in futuristic, sleek blue bodysuits firing at a giant monster over improvised barricades of scrapped metal. Behind them stood a damaged blue gate nine meters in height, which unlike the rest of the facility looked relatively intact.

Some of the defenders wore helmets, others did not, but they all shared the same facial features. Short black hair, blue eyes, plain features, and a determined expression. Their weapons included rifles unleashing familiar red lasers, organic cannons identical to the ones used by E.T, and stranger devices looking like purple rods.

On the other side of the chamber, closer to Ryan’s team, an orange portal had opened in the very fabric of space, letting a colossal creature step halfway through. The entity reminded Ryan of a concrete cube more than eight meters in diameter, except with six tiny golden legs to carry it.

Lasers inflicted no damage to the creature, and it smashed one of the barricades with a leg. The blow sent scraps and troopers flying, the soldiers collapsing into blue particles when they hit the gate behind them. The survivors with rods used them to unleash violet projectiles tearing space apart. Ryan identified these weapons as focused Violet Flux, and unlike his Black particles, reality absorbed the damage they caused after a while.

When they hit the concrete creature though, the projectiles tore through its body as if it were made of clay. The barrage pushed the creature through the portal and it vanished into the Orange Flux rift, at least for now.

With the threat dealt with for now, the troops peeked over the improvised fortifications to observe the newcomers. Ryan’s group moved between the barricade and the portal, careful not to be close to any of them.

“Eva Fabre, I suppose?” the courier asked. “You have a lot of twins.”

“You are clones,” Len whispered.

“Quantum duplicates,” a trooper said. Since the doubles collapsed into Blue Flux, Ryan guessed that the Alchemist’s power followed the same rules as Livia’s. She created simulations indistinguishable from the real thing.

“Quicksave,” another Eva Fabre said, recognizing Ryan. “Living Sun.”

The time-traveler bristled, as his team took a fighting formation. Len and Ryan stayed at the back, the Panda, Sunshine, and Shroud in the middle, and a furious Sarin at the front with Mr. Wave.

“You know us?” Leo Hargraves asked, while keeping an eye on the portal as if expecting the creature to crawl out of it again.

“We have been watching you for a while, ever since you defeated Case-BiH-006 in Sarajevo,” a trooper replied.

BiH. Bosnia-Herzegovina.

They were talking about Mechron.

“Your power is of the highest interest to us,” another said, looking at Ryan. “Your time anomaly’s ability to affect our entire reality was deemed a milestone in our chronotech research.”

“We made plans to safeguard your genetic data for future storekeeping, but other projects demanded our full attention.”

“We saw you on security cameras, but the situation here is critical.”

“We would be happy to discuss that, after reasserting direct control,” a clone finished. “Will you help us?”

“Hell no!” Sarin took a heavy step forward. “Why?”

The Eva clones all raised an eyebrow at the same time, some exchanging glances. “Why should you help us?” one of them asked. “This facility is under attack by hostile extraterrestrial entities, that must be eradicated for the sake of the human ra—”

“Why the fuck?!” Sarin snarled, hands raised at the doubles. “Why the fuck did you turn me into this?”

“Who is she again?” one Eva Fabre asked her doubles.

“One of the mutants working with Case-USA-3682,” another trooper answered. “Codename ‘Adam the Ogre.’”

“Oh yes, I remember. But I don’t think we gave that one a case file.”

“Don’t think so either.”

Sarin could clearly barely restrain herself from murdering them all where they stood. “You don’t even know my name.”

“We didn’t need to,” an Eva shrugged, uncaring.

“We didn’t force you to take two Elixirs, if that is your question,” another had the gall to say. “If you experience discomfort, blame your greed.”

Sarin raised her gauntlets to blast them, but Mr. Wave quickly moved in the way to stop her. Leo Hargraves still had questions, though his radiance had turned into a more scarlet shade of crimson than usual. His body language radiated restrained anger.

“Why make it possible to create Psychos in the first place?” the Carnival leader asked, while Ryan observed the troopers. Something bothered him about them, but he couldn’t explain why. “Why all this sorrow?”

“For mankind to take their rightful place as masters of the universe,” one of the Evas answered calmly.

“As for Psychos, if by that term you refer to bicolored mutants, we wished to understand how Flux abilities from different colored dimensions would interact together,” another clone added. “We thought the potential synergies would greatly surpass monocolored powers, perhaps even lead to a Genome capable of overwriting reality itself.”

“But we couldn’t test the theory on a small sample of people. We needed something larger.”

“We… we were were lab rats to you?” the Panda asked, his cute bearlike face morphing into a horrified expression. “But you… you could have destroyed the world!”

“She did,” Mr. Wave replied, clearly not amused. “And she left it for Mr. Wave to piece it back together.”

“Do you think we are so careless?” One Eva asked, completely oblivious to her own hypocrisy. “The ecosystem damage was taken into account.”

“We had enough genetic samples to clone a human sustainable population if the worst came to pass, and projects for Martian colonies.”

“The chances of Earth’s destruction were considered slim.”

“Almost negligible.”

“An acceptable loss, if the worst came to pass.”

“Less drastic alternatives might have failed to establish a suitable Homo Novus population.”

“Mass release guaranteed Homo Sapiens’ decline within two hundred years, according to our projections.”

“You ruined this planet, you insane sociopath!” Shroud snapped. “You killed billions!”

The outburst didn’t even phase them. “Yes, a patient often experiences significant pain when a shock treatment is used, but in the end, what matters is that the cure works. Mankind’s temporary discomfort will be quickly forgotten in the next age, when we establish colonies in the solar system and expand—”

“You don’t care about mankind,” Sarin snapped. “You pay lip service to it, but deep down you don’t give a shit.” Energy built up in her gauntlets. “You’re just like Adam.”

“We don’t eat people,” a clone replied, completely missing the point. “Now, if you are done with your childish tantrum, we would be happy to teach you why this was necessary after we retake the facility.”

“Do you…” Though he couldn’t see her face beneath the armor, Ryan recognized the anger in Len’s voice. She hadn’t sounded this angry since she learned of how Dynamis turned Bloodstream into a product. “You killed billions… ruined my father’s life… all this despair and destruction… Do you feel any regret?“

The response was swift and chilling.

“No,” all the Evas answered at once.

“No, of course not,” one said, as if it had been a stupid question. “Imagine a time when humans will reshape the very fabric of reality, like painters with a canvas?”

“The universe is a dangerous place,” continued another. “A stress test was necessary to prepare mankind for the dangers ahead.”

And then came the coup de grace.

“We did what was necessary.” One shrugged. “It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. One day, you will understand.”

Ryan had met many monsters and megalomaniacs in his life. Bombastic Psychos, fanatical Genome warlords, god-wannabes. He thought he had heard it all.

But that woman’s voice… that complete, clinical disregard for human life… even Big Fat Adam and Augustus showed more emotion, even if it was cruelty. But the Alchemist didn’t feel even that.

Eva Fabre had destroyed the world for the sake of a pipe dream, and gave absolutely zero fucks.

“You’ve seen what those lizards were up to,” Ryan said, reaching a terrifying realization. “I wondered why you never even considered that following in their footsteps was a terrible idea, but now I understand. Elixirs grant people their dearest wishes, and yours was to have an army of copies telling you how great you are. You turned this spaceship into an echo chamber!”

“We considered that possibility and dismissed it,” the Evas all answered at once. “We all are simulations from different universes.”

“But you’re still somehow all Eva Fabre,” Ryan pointed out. “Don’t you get it? You may have different experiences, but there are enough similarities that you still count as the same person! Enough that you can complete each other’s sentences!”

If she truly created different simulations, then some would have protested against this horrifying course of action. But none of them did. Of course her power wouldn't summon copies that could oppose her, and whatever good intentions she might have had, years with only slavish clones for company had slowly erroded Eva Fabre's critical thinking.

She was even more narcissistic than Augustus!

“I have heard enough.”

Sunshine floated above the ground, no longer a warm morning sun, but a vengeful fireball.

“Carnival, arrest this woman,” he ordered. Shroud turned invisible, Mr. Wave cracked his knuckles and stepped out of Sarin’s way, while even the Panda looked furious. Len herself prepared her water cannons, thoroughly done with words. “Eva Fabre, you are under arrest for genocide, human experimentations, and crimes against humanity. If you surrender, you will be granted a fair trial before a citizen jury. Resistance will be met with lethal force.”

“You want to arrest us?” an Eva asked. The worst part, she sounded genuinely surprised. Years spent with only her clones for company had eroded all potential for self-reflection, to the point that she had expected the other Genomes to fall in line on principle. “We made you into gods!”

“Then you shall be smote!” Mr. Wave replied while turning into a laser, and charging straight at the barricades.

The Evas answered with a volley of lasers, and Ryan froze time while his team prepared to charge. The courier looked up at the orange portal still fluctuating in the frozen time, and then at the giant gate behind the Alchemists, as blue as the sea.

Beyond this door was the starship’s command center. He could feel it in his gut.

Now?

Now, he just had to fight his way inside.

杂草侵占了整艘飞船，仿佛这里是一座荒废的花园。

瑞恩一行深入炼金术师基地的金属腹地，沿途遇见的外星植物越来越多。泛绿的黏液从墙壁渗出，蛇一般的红色根须和长着獠牙的紫花在地板上钻出一个个洞。最后，走廊几乎被植被彻底堵死，阳光只得走到队伍最前面，用火烧出一条路来。

他们不时发现披甲外星人的残骸，头盔被激光熔穿，装甲被威力强大的球形弹丸击透。可杀死它们的东西，却始终不见踪影。

杀死它们的那些家伙，死后不会留下尸体。

“所以，如果我没理解错，”瑞恩向队友介绍完情况后，裹尸布开口道，“这是一艘外星飞船，来自一个早已灭亡的帝国主义文明，我们刚才打的怪物是它的一名士兵。炼金术师掠夺了它们的技术，却意外唤醒了剩下的休眠部队，现在双方正争夺这座设施的控制权。然后，一位外星神明向你降下神谕，要你赶在这些囚徒逃出去之前毁掉这里。”

“差不多，就是这样。”瑞恩回答。蕾恩正在查看熊猫从炼金术师电脑里弄来的资料，人熊本人则四肢着地，一只耳朵贴着墙壁往前走。

透明先生嗤笑了一声，显然并不相信。“我是不是该叫你圣女贞德？毕竟你确实听见了神秘的声音。”

“上帝也爱蜥蜴人，”瑞恩布道似的说，“前提是它们老实待在蜥蜴国。”

“为什么？”裹裹马蒂还在拒绝接受现实，沙林却始终一言不发，沉重地听完了解释。“为什么？”

伊娃·法布尔为什么要让基因者和疯魔成为可能？“我猜……我猜她是想保护我们？”熊猫试着往好处想，“给我们力量，让我们能保护自己？”

“给梅克隆和奥古斯都那种人力量，能有什么好处？”走在前面的利奥·哈格雷夫斯反问，满心怀疑，“光是前者杀掉的人，就比两次世界大战加起来还多。”

“不过，波动先生还是心怀感激，毕竟她让整个宇宙有幸领略了……波动先生的光辉。”这位自负的基因者短暂停顿了一下，“波动先生没找到避免重复的说法。但他赞同那轮旭日。她的所作所为，跟她嘴上那套对不上。”

“而且外星人根本不会来。”瑞恩耸了耸肩，盔甲此时捕捉到了一阵震动，“好吧，除了这里面的这些。”

“再说，你到底打算怎么毁掉这艘船？”裹尸布还在追问。

“我想着，咱们或许能赶在最后关头来一场绝命逃亡，还配个数字倒计时。没准是个整数。”

“我宁可免了。”裹尸布抱起双臂，冷冷地说，“先不说我们自己的命，如果灵药真是有智慧、愿意帮助我们的生命，炸掉飞船也会杀了它们。”

“有价值的不只有人类的生命。”阳光赞同道，此时他已用耀眼的光芒清除了前方丛生的植物，“快存，我同意，不能让船上这些恐怖的东西逃到外面的世界，但炸船应该是最后的手段。”

说实话，瑞恩也有点希望到了飞船控制中心，能找到别的解决办法。好人先生是挺烦人，但裹尸布说得没错，它也有活下去的权利。

然而，信使怀疑，不管他们怎么做，光是自己待在这里，就可能让飞船崩塌。

瑞恩的黑色能力是个悖论，它的存在本身就在动摇现实。信使猜测，地球所在的维度足够“坚固”，能承受这份损伤，可飞船所在的薄弱之地只是一个小型的人造空间。瑞恩每暂停一次时间，都会让它进一步破损。到最后，它甚至可能自行坍塌。

紫色终极者预见了这种可能吗？如果暗灵的话可信，那个光明会生物便能掌控一切时空。它很可能无所不知。

熊猫举起一只爪子。“师父，我听见有声音从金属里传过来！”

“我的盔甲也捕捉到了震动。”瑞恩分析着读数，“声音从哪儿来，我的小熊猫绝地学徒？”

“左边。”他的小跟班用敏锐的熊耳朵捕捉着声音，回答道，“是爆炸。”

“声音能穿透飞船的防护层，爆炸威力一定相当大。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯说，“再考虑到尸体越来越多，我们应该正接近一处战场。你还能听出更多细节吗？”

“我、我，我试试！”熊猫在阳光面前有些发怵，深吸了一口气，“我听见……听见有个又大又重的东西在移动，还有撞击声。”

“从飞船的外形，以及我们进来以后走过的路线来看，左边应该通向船头。”裹尸布指出，“如果它的结构和地球上的飞行器类似——”

“那么指挥中心应该就在那里。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯点头推测道，“蒂米，能带我们尽量靠近声源吗？”

“是，长官！”熊猫把爪子举到额前，敬了个军礼，“当然可以，长官！”

“其他人保持警戒。”阳光说，“这场战争的双方，都不是我们的盟友。”

于是，熊猫把耳朵贴近地面，在前面带起路来。他们一路转弯绕行，瑞恩的盔甲捕捉到的震动和其他通量能量活动也越来越多。他们越往深处走，现实的结构本身似乎就越脆弱。

“瑞瑞，资料分析完了。”蕾恩开口时，一行人刚离开狭窄的走廊，走进一座机场大小的巨型机库废墟。金属墙壁被熔毁，瑞恩放眼望去，到处都是机器人和载具的残骸。显然，这里发生过一场战斗。“里面……里面有我们需要的一切。”

沙林猛地转头看向她。“能治我？你能做出解药了？”

“是的。”蕾恩答道，随后犹豫起来，避开了切尔诺贝利小姐的目光。

接下来的话，沙林不会爱听。

队伍里的疯魔攥紧了拳头。“说下去，尼摩。别粉饰。”

“炼金术师……”蕾恩长长地吸了一口气，“炼金术师已经有解药了。从一开始就有。”

沙林骤然僵在原地，裹尸布一头撞上了她的后背。

“再说一遍。”疯魔说道。她的装甲拳套攥得那么紧，瑞恩都担心她会把它们捏坏。

“是这样，呃……”沙林沉沉的注视让蕾恩很不自在，“我还是从头说起吧。如果我对收集到的资料理解得没错……灵药来自白色世界，但天生就能在各个有色维度之间迁移，并立刻适应新家园的通量能量。”

“它们用这种‘通量’交流？”裹尸布问，试图弄明白。

“对。”小矮个点头确认，“炼金术师用外星技术破译了灵药的语言，借助这种语言，她就能……该怎么说呢……‘教育’它们？告诉它们如何识别DNA，该和哪些物种结合……如果我们把基因疗法与正确的通量信息结合起来——”

“就能教会灵药打补丁，把漏洞修掉。”瑞恩替她说完。

“它可以……甚至连你也能治。”蕾恩向沙林解释，“还有弗兰克。关键就在于发送正确的信号。”

瑞恩本以为臭屁小姐会欣喜若狂。毕竟，她已经当了十五年困在防护服里的气体。能够重新做人，简直是梦想成真。以前的循环里，她以为瑞恩无法兑现承诺时，甚至动过杀他的念头。

然而，沙林抓住了一个令人不安的细节，不肯放过。

“她有解药。”她的声音低沉，怒不可遏，“那个婊子一直都有解药，却没拿出来？”

疯魔不是漏洞，而是设计好的功能。

连波动先生也严肃了起来。“她为什么要这么做？谁会做出这种事？”

“我……我说不准。”蕾恩回答，“所有疯魔都因为遗传密码不稳定而无法生育，所以……所以他们没法像基因者那样取代人类。”

“那两个基因者生下的孩子呢？”前方的利奥·哈格雷夫斯问，“父母一方或双方服用灵药之后才出生的孩子，我只知道几个，包括纳尔西妮娅。”

如果一名基因者超过十五岁，那就只能是通过灵药获得的能力。就连福尔图娜和菲利克斯也服用过灵药，不像他们的养妹。

“如果疯魔是刻意制造出来的，那基因者的孩子也有变异的风险吗？”阳光问，显然很担心这些无辜的生命。

“我这些年见过几个基因者生下的孩子，全都好好的。”瑞恩说，“另外，父母中只有一方有能力的，孩子会继承那个家长能力的变体。只不过我一直没弄清楚具体原因。”

“因为灵药是无性繁殖，瑞瑞。”蕾恩说，“就像水母一样。但它们也可以在复制过程中改变复制体的构成。”

瑞恩在头盔后眨了眨眼，终于明白过来。“等等，也就是说，如果我和普通人生了个孩子，我的灵药就会复制自己，传给孩子？”

让他惊恐的是，蕾恩点头证实了这个猜想。“如果父母一方是基因者，另一方不是……灵药就会复制自身，与胎儿融合，并对能力作出轻微调整，适应新宿主。”

一想到自己的孩子会继承他的能力，瑞恩就浑身发冷，庆幸自己一直采取了避孕措施。他的能力本身既是祝福，也是诅咒，但如果落在一个孩子手上……

那青春期绝对是一场噩梦。

“如果父母双方都是基因者……”蕾恩清了清嗓子，“如果双方都是基因者，灵药就会在受孕时彼此沟通，避开导致疯魔状态的陷阱。它们不会争夺宿主，而是只由一种灵药复制自身，同时从另一种灵药那里获取部分信息。由于孩子还没有梦想和欲望，孩子体内的灵药就会以两位‘家长’为基础创造能力。”

“所以，拿纳尔西妮娅举例，”利奥·哈格雷夫斯问，“她天生就是绿系基因者，但能力也受到了父亲黄色能力的影响？”

“她母亲能改变生命，父亲则能斩断一切。”裹尸布说，“她可以通过割伤自己来创造生命。无疑是绿色，但也借鉴了一点黄色。”

既然不管父母是什么情况，基因者的孩子总是稳定的基因者，那么他们的数量只会随着时间增长。

新人类会逐步取代智人，就像智人取代尼安德特人那样。

“那会不会……”裹尸布抱起双臂，“这话说出来很可怕，但会不会疯魔存在的目的，就是尽可能多地杀死普通人？如果炼金术师的计划就是让基因者取代普通人类——”

“马蒂，疯魔天性就会优先对其他基因者下手。”瑞恩提醒他。而且能力具有随机性，也就意味着血流这种拥有灭世能力的怪物可能出现。“不可能只有这一个目的。”

在他们争论的时候，熊猫已经走到了机库的西北角。“师父，我们很近了！”他抬起爪子指向墙壁，“我听见声源就在这个方向！”

“嗯，我们可能得绕个路。”利奥·哈格雷夫斯没找到门，“波动先生，能不能快速绕房间一圈，然后——”

沙林怒气冲冲地举拳对准墙壁，释放出一道骇人的冲击波。

黑色钢铁已经脆化，强度大减，在切尔诺贝利小姐的猛攻下开裂坍塌。可怕的巨响回荡在机库内，随后扬起一团墨绿的尘雾。攻击打通了通往另一条巨型走廊的道路。信使听见里面传来激光声、爆炸声，最重要的是，还有人声。

“忘了说第四条规则。”瑞恩双手叉腰，瞪着沙林，“别弄出太大动静！”

“晚了，书呆子。”愤怒的疯魔说着，穿过了洞口，双手气得发抖。如今她要的已不是答案，而是复仇。“等我找到她，必定有人流血，而且不会是我。”

瑞恩不忍拦她，其他人也小心地跟了上去。信使与蕾恩走在队伍最后。“小矮个，那种解药对那个人管用吗？”

小矮个低头看着金属地板。“超过某个界限之后，如果疯魔还没能稳定自己的遗传密码……损伤就会严重到连灵药也无法修复。她……”她深深地吸了一口气，又缓缓呼出，“炼金术师还……还存着别的同类。”

其他的血流。那些退化到极致，变成了完全不同的生命形式的疯魔。对这个地方了解得越多，瑞恩就越确信，不管用什么手段，都必须让它消失。

一行人循着战斗声，来到设施深处一间洁净无尘、灯火通明的大厅。沿途所有防爆门都被撕碎了，瑞恩不得不从残骸上跃过去。

眼前是一处设有防御工事的安检关卡，二十多名士兵身穿颇具未来感的蓝色流线型紧身服，正隔着废金属临时搭起的路障，朝一头巨兽开火。他们背后立着一扇九米高的蓝色大门，虽有损伤，却不像设施内其他地方那样破败，看着还相对完好。

守军有的戴着头盔，有的没有，但所有人都长着同一张脸。黑色短发，蓝色眼睛，平平无奇的五官，神情坚毅。他们的武器包括射出熟悉红色激光的步枪、与E.T.所用的一模一样的有机炮，还有形如紫色长杆的更古怪的装置。

大厅的另一边，靠近瑞恩队伍的地方，一扇橙色传送门在空间本身的结构中敞开，一个庞然大物已从中迈出半个身子。那东西让瑞恩想到一个直径超过八米的混凝土立方体，只不过下面长着六条小小的金色腿，支撑它行动。

激光伤不了那头怪物，它一脚砸碎了一座路障。碎片和士兵一同飞了出去，那些士兵撞上背后的大门，顿时崩散成蓝色粒子。手持长杆的幸存者用它们发射出撕裂空间的紫色弹丸。瑞恩认出那是聚焦的紫色通量，而且与他的黑色粒子不同，它们造成的损伤会在片刻之后被现实自行吸收。

然而，弹丸击中那头混凝土怪物时，却像击穿黏土一样撕开了它的身体。密集火力将怪物逼回了传送门，它消失在橙色通量裂隙里——至少暂时如此。

威胁暂时解除，士兵们从临时工事后探头，打量着新来的人。瑞恩一行走到路障与传送门之间，小心地与两边都保持着距离。

“伊娃·法布尔，想必就是你了？”信使问，“你的孪生姐妹可真多。”

“你们是克隆体。”蕾恩低声说。

“量子复制体。”一名士兵说。既然这些分身会崩散成蓝色通量，瑞恩猜测，炼金术师的能力遵循着与莉维娅相同的规则。她创造的是与实物毫无区别的模拟体。

“快存。”另一个伊娃·法布尔认出了瑞恩，“活体太阳。”

时间旅行者绷紧了神经，队友们随即摆开战斗阵形。蕾恩和瑞恩留在后方，熊猫、阳光和裹尸布居中，暴怒的沙林则与波动先生站在最前面。

“你认识我们？”利奥·哈格雷夫斯问，同时仍留意着传送门，似乎防备着那头怪物再次爬出来。

“自从你们在萨拉热窝击败Case-BiH-006以来，我们就一直在关注你们。”一名士兵回答。

BiH。波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那。

她们说的是梅克隆。

“我们对你的能力极感兴趣。”另一人看着瑞恩说道，“你的时间异常能影响我们所处的整个现实，这被视为我们时间技术研究中的一座里程碑。”

“我们曾计划保全你的基因数据，留作日后储备，但其他项目占用了我们的全部精力。”

“我们在监控画面里看到了你们，但这里的情况十分危急。”

“等我们重新取得直接控制权，很乐意讨论这些。”一个克隆体作了总结，“你们愿意帮助我们吗？”

“帮你妈！”沙林重重地向前踏出一步，“为什么？”

伊娃的克隆体们同时挑起眉毛，其中几人交换了眼神。“为什么要帮我们？”一人问道，“这座设施正在遭受敌对外星实体的攻击，必须消灭它们，以保障人类种族的存——”

“他妈的为什么？！”沙林朝那些分身举起双手，厉声咆哮，“你他妈为什么把我变成这样？”

“她是谁来着？”一个伊娃·法布尔问自己的分身。

“和Case-USA-3682共事的变种人之一。”另一名士兵回答，“那人的代号是‘食人魔亚当’。”

“哦，对，想起来了。但我们好像没给这个建档。”

“我记得也没有。”

沙林显然几乎压不住冲动，恨不得当场把她们全部杀光。“你连我的名字都不知道。”

“我们没必要知道。”一个伊娃满不在乎地耸了耸肩。

“如果你问的是这个，我们可没强迫你服用两种灵药。”另一人竟还厚颜无耻地说，“如果你感到不适，那就怪你自己贪心吧。”

沙林举起拳套就要轰过去，波动先生迅速闪到前方，拦住了她。利奥·哈格雷夫斯还有问题要问，但他的光芒已经变了色，比平日的深红更猩红。举手投足间，都透着压抑的怒火。

“你为什么从一开始就允许疯魔诞生？”嘉年华的领袖问道。瑞恩则观察着那些士兵。她们身上有某种让他不舒服的东西，但他又说不上来。“为什么要制造这么多苦难？”

“为了让人类成为宇宙的主人，取得我们理应拥有的地位。”一个伊娃平静地回答。

“至于疯魔，如果这个词指的是双色变种人，我们希望了解来自不同有色维度的通量能力会如何相互作用。”另一个克隆体补充道，“我们认为，潜在的协同效应将远远超越单色能力，甚至可能造就一个能够改写现实本身的基因者。”

“但我们无法只用少量人类样本验证这个理论。我们需要更大的规模。”

“我们……我们在你眼里，就是实验小白鼠？”熊猫问，他那张可爱的熊脸满是惊恐，“可是你……你可能毁掉整个世界啊！”

“她已经毁了。”波动先生答道，显然毫无玩笑之意，“然后丢给波动先生去把世界重新拼起来。”

“你们觉得我们会如此草率吗？”一个伊娃问，对自己的虚伪毫无察觉，“生态系统受到的损害，已经纳入考量。”

“即使最坏的情况发生，我们也有足够的基因样本，可以克隆出能够持续繁衍的人类种群，而且我们还有火星殖民计划。”

“地球毁灭的概率被认定为极低。”

“几乎可以忽略不计。”

“即便最坏的情况发生，那也是可以接受的损失。”

“更温和的替代方案，可能无法建立起规模足够的新人类种群。”

“根据我们的预测，大规模投放能确保智人在两百年内衰落。”

“你毁了这颗星球，你这个反社会的疯子！”裹尸布怒喝，“你杀了几十亿人！”

这声怒吼甚至没让她们有丝毫动容。“是的，病人在接受休克疗法时，往往会承受相当大的痛苦。但说到底，重要的是治疗有效。等我们在太阳系建立殖民地，并向外扩张，进入下一个时代，人类暂时的不适很快就会被遗忘——”

“你根本不在乎人类。”沙林厉声道，“嘴上说得好听，心里压根就他妈不在乎。”能量在她的拳套里积聚。“你跟亚当一个德性。”

“我们不吃人。”一个克隆体答道，完全没听懂重点，“好了，如果你们幼稚的脾气已经发够，等夺回设施，我们很乐意教你们理解这一切为什么必要。”

“你有没有……”尽管看不见盔甲下的脸，瑞恩还是听出了蕾恩声音中的怒意。自从得知迪纳米斯把血流做成产品以来，她从未再这么愤怒过。“你杀了几十亿人……毁了我父亲的一生……这么多绝望，这么多毁灭……你有过哪怕一点后悔吗？”

回答来得迅速，令人不寒而栗。

“没有。”所有伊娃异口同声。

“没有，当然没有。”其中一人说，仿佛这是个愚蠢的问题，“想象一下，人类终有一天能重塑现实本身的结构，就像画家在画布上作画？”

“宇宙是个危险的地方。”另一人接着说道，“压力测试必不可少，只有这样，人类才能做好准备，应对前方的危险。”

接着，便是那记致命一击。

“我们做了必要的事。”一人耸肩道，“这活儿不光彩，但总得有人做。总有一天，你们会明白的。”

瑞恩这辈子见过许多怪物和狂人。大放厥词的疯魔，狂热的基因者军阀，妄想成神的家伙。他以为，自己早就什么都听过了。

可这个女人的声音……那种彻底的、冷冰冰的对人命的漠视……就连大胖亚当和奥古斯都都比她更有感情，哪怕那感情是残忍。炼金术师却连这个都没有。

伊娃·法布尔为了一个不切实际的幻梦毁掉了世界，而她他妈的一点都不在乎。

“你见过那些蜥蜴都干了些什么。”瑞恩说着，意识到了一个可怕的事实，“我一直奇怪，你为什么压根没想过，重走它们的老路是个糟透了的主意。现在我明白了。灵药会实现人最深切的愿望，而你的愿望，就是拥有一支复制体大军，天天告诉你有多了不起。你把这艘飞船变成了回音室！”

“我们考虑过这种可能，并排除了它。”伊娃们同时回答，“我们都是来自不同宇宙的模拟体。”

“可偏偏你们全都是伊娃·法布尔。”瑞恩指出，“还不明白吗？你们或许经历不同，但相同之处依然多到足以让你们算是同一个人！多到你们能替彼此把话说完！”

如果她创造的模拟体真的各不相同，那么其中总会有人反对这种骇人的行径。可她们没有一个反对。当然，她的能力不会召来可能违抗她的复制体。而无论伊娃·法布尔最初是否抱有善意，长年累月只有唯命是从的克隆体相伴，都已经逐渐磨蚀了她的批判性思维。

她甚至比奥古斯都还要自恋！

“我听够了。”

阳光飘离地面，不再是温暖的朝阳，而是一团复仇的烈火。

“嘉年华，逮捕这个女人。”他下令道。裹尸布隐去了身形，波动先生捏得指节咔咔作响，迈步让开了沙林前面的路，就连熊猫也满脸怒容。蕾恩架起水炮，彻底不想再说一句废话。“伊娃·法布尔，你因种族灭绝、人体实验及反人类罪被捕了。如果你投降，我们将保证你在公民陪审团面前接受公正审判。如有反抗，我们将使用致命武力。”

“你们想逮捕我们？”一个伊娃问。最糟糕的是，她听起来是真的很惊讶。多年只有自己的克隆体相伴，她一切自省的可能都被消磨殆尽，以至于她原本以为，其他基因者理所当然就会服从她。“是我们把你们变成了神！”

“那你就领受神罚吧！”波动先生答道，随即化作激光，径直冲向路障。

伊娃们以一轮激光齐射回应，队友们准备冲锋的同时，瑞恩暂停了时间。信使抬头望向那扇在凝固的时间里仍不断波动的橙色传送门，随后又看向炼金术师们身后那扇海一般湛蓝的巨门。

门后就是这艘星舰的指挥中心。他的直觉如此告诉他。

现在呢？

现在，他只要杀出一条路，冲进去。