Riley Ross

"Heh… hehehe."

Hannah had a social media account, but she barely posts anything on it due to the fact that her family was basically a celebrity family. Anything she posted would be shared and even reposted by all sorts of journalism companies, trying to find ways to skew her words.

Once, she posted a photo of a stray cat lying down on the street. She found it incredibly cute, and so she posted it on her page.

And just after a few minutes, people were already posting about how Bernard was using cats for world domination, or how Bernard was going to start an epidemic using the cats.

Of course, she was also targeted. Some of the people asked why she was abandoning the cat there and not taking it home, or better yet, creating an animal shelter for them.

And so, she chose not to use social media anymore, other than to chat with people.

But now… she was sharing the trailer of the show Riley was in, giggling to herself as she used the caption, "Look at my baby brother. Drown in jealousy."

Well, perhaps half of the hate she was getting was because of the cryptic and unhinged captions she was typing in.

Even with the cute cat post, she wrote—'lol. This cat is cuter than 75% of you.'

"Ah, shit!" She quickly jumped out of her bed, throwing all the dozens of pillows on her bed. She didn't even wear her home sandals and rushed out of her room.

"I should get Riley to share and like this!" She said to herself, leaping over the railings and straight down the living room, and even rolling on the floor before running again down to Riley's room.

"Riley!" She screamed, only knocking once before turning the knob… only for her face to slam nose-first onto the door as it was locked.

"Huh…?" Hannah blinked a couple of times, not really knowing what to think at all about what just happened. But after a few moments, she blinked a couple of times and then turned her eyes toward the knob and started shaking it.

"What the… Why is this locked?"

***

Back in the abandoned warehouse, Tomoe continued to wonder what Riley was looking at outside. She squinted, but she couldn't see any so-called visitors, much less thousands of them.

"Thousands… of guests?"

"Visitors… but I suppose guests sound nicer."

Tomoe stared at Riley for a moment before adjusting her mask and putting up her guard. She raised her hand to summon a wall of crystal in front of them, but Riley grabbed her wrist before a single fractal could form.

"No. You go and hide with your mommy," he said, pointing his finger to the back of the warehouse.

"But—"

"Only come out if you know I'm dead, or if I call for you." Riley tilted his head. "No one needs to know that I don't work alone, no?"

"That's… true." Tomoe squinted, thinking of a hundred ways it could go wrong if it were revealed that Riley wasn't working alone. All of her research and paper trails would go to waste. And so, without saying another word, she just yanked her mother's arm and started dragging her away.

Riley's eyes followed them, watching as they disappeared into the back of the warehouse.

"Hm." He then looked around, making sure that nothing was amiss. He saw some plastic wrap flying next to a broken window, and he flicked his hand to remove both.

He adjusted his helmet, made sure that his suit was incredibly clean, and finally stood at the very center of the warehouse and turned off all the lights to welcome the guests.

But apparently, it was… just a guest. One single guest.

A silhouette, slowly stepping inside the warehouse. Its shadow grew larger and larger on the floor until it turned and wrapped around Riley. The guest halted, seemingly surprised as to why his shadow became distorted when he could see nothing in front of him.

"H—"

The guest was about to say hello when a single spot of light suddenly turned on—right above Riley… who was now sitting on the chair that Tomoe had been sitting on earlier.

"Welcome…" Riley gently motioned with his hand to welcome his… "Guest."

"What the…" Of course, it was Ricky. His hair was completely disheveled, and there was an almost crazed look in his eyes. Well, at least a moment ago.

Right now, he looked extremely confused. He looked at the dark shadow in front of him that looked like it was swallowing the light falling upon it. There were a thousand words wanting to come out of his mouth, but before long, he was able to shake them all off as he pointed at Riley.

"You!" He roared, "I don't know what sort of games you're playing here, brat. But I know it's you, Riley Ross!"

"Oh?"

"Just because you're hiding behind that fucking freaky-ass helmet of yours, you think you can fool me?! I saw you flying out of your window! I know it's you, Riley Ross!"

"You repeating that doesn't make it true." Riley sighed, shaking his head dramatically as he shrugged, "I'm not Riley Ross. I am—"

"Shut the fuck up!" Ricky cut him off, "What you are is guilty! Guilty of ruining my life! You killed my wife, my friends, all of those people. You ruined everything! Look at what you did! Look at it!"

Ricky started waving his amputated arm, jabbing it in the air while pointing at it.

"You did this!"

"I did that?" Riley tilted his head, "I don't think so. I'd remember if I did… I have a great memory."

"Stop lying!"

"You'd be surprised to know that I'm not lying." Riley remained seated despite Ricky marching toward him while flailing his amputated arm, "Maybe if you tell me your name, I'd know who you are."

"Richard! Richard Rock!" Ricky screamed his name, letting his rage trail throughout the empty warehouse. It was loud and long enough that it even reached Tomoe and caused some of the loosely fitted metals to shake, "You took everything from me!"

"Ah!" Riley pointed at him, "You're the one in the news. Replica Ricky."

"I hate that name!" Ricky once again stretched his words, screaming to the point that blood splurted out from his throat.

"Really? I kind of like it." Riley shrugged, "I wouldn't be able to think of a better name for you. I sensed you coming half a mile away. Well, not only you, but your replicas. So, that's what I felt earlier. I couldn't quite put a finger on what was happening—but you were replicating yourself? And then your replicas… replicated themselves? I have to say… that's quite a strong ability."

"Y—"

"I actually thought you were from the FBI's Superpowered division. I have to admit, it made me a little nervous," Riley muttered, patting his chest as he let out a loud sigh. "I thought they were coming in here to arrest me with an entire army."

"You fucking yap too much! Just admit that you're—"

Replica Ricky exploded before he could finish his words, literally. Bits and pieces of him were blown away in every direction, and not even a single piece of flesh was stuck to each other… because there weren't any pieces of flesh in the first place.

"Oh?" Riley opened up his hand, letting a piece of Replica Ricky fly into his palm. He gripped the piece tight, and it crumbled in his hand like dirt—no. It was dirt.

"Interesting," he whispered, rubbing his thumbs on his fingers and letting the crumbs fall to the ground.

And soon, the entire warehouse began to rumble and shake. It started with the walls first, and Riley could see the rays of the moon that were seeping in from the broken windows being blocked by a large, creeping shadow.

And what followed was a series of thunder drumming across the wide roof of the warehouse.

"Huh…" Riley looked up, and all the dust that had probably been stuck on the ceiling rained down—leaving almost nothing to be seen from the curtain they've made.

The thunder became stronger and stronger by the second, leaving not even a single gap of the warehouse left unturned.

And then—everything just came crashing down… primarily the roof.

"DIE!"

At the same time, dozens upon dozens of Rickys all rushed from the entrance… from all of the entrances. And the thunder and the shadow from the roof?

Also Rickys, hundreds upon hundreds of them raining down on Riley like the dust that came before them.

And very much like the dust that came before them, Riley could no longer recognize anything but their faces.

But that wasn't what caught Riley's attention, however—it was the fact that his replicas dropped and landed on the floor without any problem at all, and even those who were crushed by the other replicas didn't flinch.

…They all just rushed toward him like a horde of zombies.

"Huh… Interesting."