Riley Ross

"And cut!"

Silence. Total and utter silence.

Riley's character would only have a total of ten minutes of screen time for the entire show, and only featured in the very first episode. Still, that would usually involve an entire week or more of shooting—if it were from a normal studio, that is.

The studio handling the show was comprised of several supers who had the ability to create illusions. On-site effects designers were what they were called.

One of the most lucrative jobs in the world. But, of course, this wasn't about them.

It was about Riley Ross, who had just finished all of his scenes perfectly—not once was he the reason for the director cutting or asking everyone to take a break.

His acting was not only perfect, it was incredibly natural.

Hera was right to trust her instincts.

"Hera." The director pulled Hera closer to him, his eyes still locked onto the white hair kid at the center of the set, "Who… exactly did you bring?"

"I have no idea, Marv," Hera said, watching as Riley casually approached her with fake blood on his face. Fake blood wasn't the only thing on his face, however, as dirt and tears painted it too. One of the production managers rushed to wipe all the makeup from his face, but before she could even get near him, everything just slid down as if everything on his face were drawn from some sort of transparent paper.

"Did I do okay, Hera?" Riley asked, tilting his head to the side as he looked up at Hera. She couldn't answer her at first, and everything around her seemed to slow as she just stared at his face.

But after a few more moments, she blinked a couple of times and smiled.

"You did very, very well, Whitey," she said, a heavy breathing escaping her lips before she turned her focus back to the director.

"With the publicity Riley's going to get from this show, we expect an increase in salary. We—"

Marv turned around, cutting her off before she could finish her words as he walked away.

"Money talk later!" He bellowed, wagging his fingers in the air and gesturing for his assistant to follow him, "Call the trailer house guys and Michael! We need to do this trailer tonight. Tonight! Send all the footage we have! Center the trailers on Riley Ross, I don't care if they say it's clickbait! Do it now! In fact, let's do a sneak peek!"

And with that, the director's voice trailed into the distance, and everyone watched as he just left in a van and drove away.

"He left, Hera." Riley blinked a couple of times, standing beside Hera as he let the wardrobe undress and dress him there and then without even the slightest change of look on his face, "Are we not getting paid?"

"It… doesn't work like that," Hera whispered, chuckling as she placed her hand on Riley's shoulder, "Riley."

She slightly crouched down, making sure her eyes and Riley's were at the same level before she said,

"You're about to become very, very famous overnight."

"I believe I already am famous, Hera."

"Oh, believe me…

…You have no idea what I mean by famous."

***

"Ah! The celebrity's back!"

A few hours later, Hera brought Riley straight back to Hannah's dorm, where the Baby Crew were already waiting for him while hanging out. She initially planned to go in… but there was nowhere to walk on as the floor was filled with all sorts of snacks scattered around.

Well, not like he had a choice at all. She was holding Riley's hand, and Riley stepped inside the room and dragged her.

"I… was actually supposed to go," she said with an awkward chuckle, nearly stepping on a large bag of Megacrunchies. Fortunately, Riley was already clearing a path—using his telekinesis to push the snacks aside and neatly stack them at the edge of the room.

"How did it go?!" Gracey bellowed, jumping up from the floor before grabbing a soda from the refrigerator like she owned it, "Did they like Riley?! Did he get the part?!"

It wasn't only her. Everyone's eyes were on Hera, and she could see them growing by the second. If she didn't answer them, their eyes might eventually pop out of their sockets.

Gracey handed her the soda, but she once again awkwardly chuckled.

"You guys… are actually about to find out very soon," she said, waving her hand to refuse Gracey. "In fact, it should actually be out now."

"What is…? Did something—"

"AH!"

Victoria suddenly screamed before Hannah could finish her words. No.

Victoria didn't just scream, she screeched.

Everyone turned their eyes at her, only to see her covering her mouth while her eyes were locked onto her laptop. Each of the members of the Baby Crew turned to the person next to them, and then, without even saying a word to each other… they all rushed to Victoria's side, compressing their heads as they all stared at the laptop.

And there, they all watched Riley.

No one said a word. Everyone was so fixated on what they were watching that they even forgot to breathe for a moment.

Even after the video was done playing, their body was still locked in the moment.

It wasn't until another video played automatically that one of them moved. Hannah tapped the screen to go back and watch it again.

"This… is a trailer for a show," Hannah muttered, her words trailing quietly as her eyes turned to her brother. "Why… how are you already in a trailer when you were just supposed to go to an audition, Riley?"

"Technology, Sister." Riley shrugged.

"Tech—"

"A million views?!" Gracey's loud voice completely drowned Hannah before she could even say anything, "Wasn't that just a thousand when we first watched it?! It gained a million views in less than a minute?! What the…"

"Ain't no way. Is you, bro. Is you."

"C-congrats, Riley."

"I knew you could do it!"

"What the fuck…"

Hannah's eyes were as wide as they could be. The smile on her face slowly formed as she stared at her brother.

"What the fuck, Riley. What the fuck!"

Hannah then leaped straight into Riley and wrapped her arms around him, lifting him up in the air and almost throwing him around.

As for Hera, she just sighed and shook her head.

"You kids…" She whispered, "...All these snacks and no alcohol? You guys want me to tell you where to get them?"

"You… can get us alcohol?!" Gracey gasped, her voice almost shaking upon hearing Hera's words. But her eyes also quickly narrowed, and she soon shook her head and sighed.

"No. We're like… minors," she said.

"Don't be dramatic, I had my first drink while I was a freshman here. And also…" Hera glanced at Pauline, "I heard that one of you already got drunk."

"That…" Pauline muttered, immediately burying her face in her palms,

"...I don't want to remember that!

***

Meanwhile, at the same time, while the Baby Crew were jumping in joy and shock, Ricky was beneath the city—hiding in the sewers while staring at his phone.

He… refused the invitation of the Dark Millennium. He wasn't a villain after all—that's what he said when he refused the shadow who invited him.

Blood was already trickling from his lips, and one of his teeth was now crooked from how hard he was biting down. In truth, when he saw the video earlier, he had tried going to the police to report Riley—but that didn't really work out so well for him since he was a wanted man.

He had lost all rhyme and reason.

Just a few weeks ago, he was a normal man working an underpaying job.

And now here he was, hiding within the sewers and talking with himself.

No. Not exactly with himself, but with the eyes that were moving everywhere in the sewers.

The water couldn't even be heard, nor the rats… since there weren't any rats in the first place.

No rats—something explicitly impossible, even more impossible than someone winning a lotto three times in a row.

He was, after all, in the canals of New York.

And the reason there were no rats there… was that there was now another type of horde that lived there.

Thousands of them.

Thousands of him.

Clones, all of them whispering one single word—kill.

"I'm… I'm going to kill you, you brat," Ricky clutched his head, a maniacal smile crept onto his face as he stared at his phone and played Riley's scene over and over again,

"It's you. This is all your fault. Don't think I don't know this is you. You… you controlled me. You controlled me to kill my wife, my… my friends. All those people. It was you…

…it's time. I'm… I'm watching. I've been watching you. We've been watching you. We're… we're going to kill you soon. Just wait. I will… I will expose you, Riley Ross…

…and I will kill you right inside your home."