JP - Looking for a lost Dog Girl

Delilah would bump into him in the hall. “Oh, hey, Bronte. Have ya seen Bella? She never showed up for her appointment earlier.”

“No, she was gone when I woke up.” Bronte said worriedly.

Delilah blinked. “Shit!” She bolted for one of the security rooms.

Bronte ran after Delilah. “What’s wrong?”

Delilah went through the security with one of the men in the room and watched as Bella wandered outside. “Damn it! Why didn’t anyone stop her?!” She seethed.

“We didn’t realize…I’m sorry!” One of them said, a guilty look on his face.

Bronte watched the footage with worry. At least it looked like she left on her own free will but he worried. He did not know if Bella knew anything about surviving outside of MegaCorp.

"Get a search party together and go find her!" Delilah ordered and the men bolted to do just that.

“I should probably go…” Bronte said. “She doesn’t know any of them.”

Delilah looked at Bronte, concern in her eyes. “I’ll come with you then. I’m not losing you again, Bronte. You’re the closest thing to a son I’ve ever had.”

Bronte flushed slightly. “Okay.”

“Let me call Mark so he knows what we’re doing.” Delilah informed and went to make that call.

"Everything alright honey?" Mark answered.

“I’m going to head out with a team to look for a meta known as Bella,” Delilah said. “Bronte wants to come along because he’s the only person she trusts at the moment. She had a broken leg. Are there any reports of a girl with a broken leg?”

"Give me a couple of minutes and I'll send you everything I can find" he replied "also don't open the photo I sent you in front of anyone."

Bronte heard that, and looked away, blushing.

“Got it…” Delilah blushed, pretty sure she knew what he meant. “Just be careful. One of the medical staff here used to be stuck working for MegaCorp and knows the kind of program Bella was in…”

"I'm aware just be careful dear as much as I love seeing you in handcuffs and straps I don't like seeing you in a megacorp prison."Mark replied, sending her the information.

Bronte cleared his throat, wondering if Mark would be speaking so freely if he knew Delilah’s ‘son’ was there.

“You do realize that Bronte is in the room, right?” Delilah laughed softly. “I love you too, Mark. Be careful and I’ll keep in touch.”

“Love you too” Mark replied hanging up.

Bronte blushed and studied his feet.

Delilah swore she heard a smirk in Mark’s voice before rolling her eyes and smiling. “Lets get going, Bronte, but first…do you want clean clothes?”

Bronte shrugged. “We’ve already lost time.”

“Then lets go!” Delilah took Bronte to a truck, the team already waiting. They even had Riven along to help sniff her out. “Did they give you her scent?”

“Yeah…but I ain’t smelling much of her, which bothers me.” Riven replied, looking at Bronte and giving him a nod in greeting.

“Her scent shouldn’t have faded much, right?” Bronte asked worriedly.

“No, it should still be strong, so I don’t get why it seems to have already faded.” Riven bit at a piece of jerky he had with him. “The only way that could happen is if there is a smell canceling meta out there…”

“Are there metas that can do that?” Bronte asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna assume yes.” Riven said and sighed heavily. “This means I can’t find her…” Though, he kept sniffing the air.

“What about footprints? She had a broken leg, that should have slowed her down unless someone… took her.” Bronte frowned.

“No one sees footprints past this area we’re stopping at.” Riven explained. “I tried to sniff down who might have taken her, but couldn’t smell anything.”

“That’s bad.” Bronte could only think of one organization with access to metas with powers like that, besides the Underground. “She just got out.”

Delilah was cursing and sending Mark a text about all of this.

Bronte reluctantly switched off his collar, hoping to hear something.

There were only Delilah’s frantic thoughts and worries over him and Bella, trying to figure out what to do next. The others were thinking of what they could do, how they could help, but kept coming up empty and deciding it was best just to keep Bronte safe for now.

The only other thoughts were that of wild animals focusing on food or…mating.

Bronte was grateful that Delilah was focused on him and Bella instead of Mark and… other things. It was disappointing to not learn anything useful so he switched his collar back on.

The last thought he would catch was Riven’s, his mind going back to the memory of how Thrane killed him…

After that, everyone got back to the underground and Delilah went off to find Mark.

Riven chose to walk with Bronte. “You hungry?” He asked.

"Not really…" Bronte answered, looking at Riven in confusion.

Riven shrugged. “Delilah suggested I show ya around. Things have been moved around a lot since your last visit.” He explained. “I figure you’re in need of a shower? I can show ya where the shower rooms are.”