JP - Riley is Missing

Mark approached the couple "we might have a problem."

“What’s wrong?” James asked Mark.

“I can’t get a hold of Riley and his van was found crashed on the side of the road with only Joel in it” he explained “plus Bumble told me that Thrane cloned Nero the only meta that can go toe to toe with Riley in a fight.”

“Fuck…” James muttered. “That isn’t good at all.”

“Should we try to get a hold of anyone that might know what’s going on?” Klaire asked, worry in her voice.

“Frisk is with Joel now, hopefully he’ll know something” Mark replied “I also hit up the rest of my contacts but nothing so far.” It was obvious Mark was trying to keep it together; he saw Riley like a brother and was worried that something happened to him.

“We’ll find him, Mark.” Klaire said calmly, gripping the blankets around her more tightly. “He’s a brother to me and I won’t let him stay gone for long. Besides…he still has to find Esther.”

“Yeah…” James said, grimacing at the mention of his daughter.

***

Delilah was yelling into the phone at some moron. “No, I don’t want a - ugh! Just shut up Roal, I am not asking for a…oh, sod off!” She hung up and pocketed the phone, looking at Tzeitel. “Hi!”

Tzeitel frowned at Delilah. She had not forgotten where their last conversation had left off.

“You want to return to the Underground, right?” Delilah asked.

“Yeah.” Tzeitel said uncomfortably.

Delilah nodded and called over to Klaire, James, Mark and Cody. “You coming with us?!” She asked. “We’re gonna head to the underground!”

Tzeitel gave a small wave, and frowned with their phones chimed or buzzed from the texts from Frisk.

Delilah pulled out her phone and looked at the text.

“Fucking Thrane took Riley?” Tzeitel did not want to believe it.

“Riley won’t let that last, though.” Delilah commented. She knew how the speedster was. In terms of stubbornness, he could give everyone a run for their money. “Come on!” She yelled at everyone. “We need to go!”

Klaire and James looked at each other, both too scared to defy Delilah when she was on a mission and followed to her car. Cody wasn’t far behind - just quiet.

Tzeitel put a comforting arm over her son’s shoulders. He was a healer, she thought that made it even harder for him to accept killing someone. As justified as it was.

Cody looked at Tzeitel, a bit of a haunted gleam in his eyes as he sat down next to her in the car.

Tzeitel wished she knew how to help him, pheromones were only a temporary fix. She wondered if Klaire would have any useful advice since Klaire had killed a lot of people, especially in MegaCorp, and Tzeitel was pretty sure Klaire had not wanted to kill all of them. She made a mental note to ask Klaire about it later. Tzeitel rubbed Cody’s shoulder.

Mark got into the car. It was evident he was trying to keep it together. But the news about Riley shook him deeply.

Klaire and James sat in the back of the car, which was more of a SUV or something.

Delilah got in the driver’s seat and began to return to the Underground. “Tell me all the information you know, Mark. I want us to be prepared if we gotta face Nero…”

Mark began to explain everything he had found out from both the hard drives the took while rescuing Susi to what bumble had told him. "What I'm trying to figure out is what he wanted Riley for."

“Shit…” It was all Delilah could say as they arrived at the Underground.