Lockedown

The Hangout

     Mal's living room had erupted with a combination of panic, screams, cheers, and some banter that would put an episode of the Kardashians to shame, "how did you even hit me through that?" Mikey's fingers glided across his controller, while Morris' frantically mashed every button he could to get away from Mikey. He escaped the combo, "now you're done." His paw drifted over to the Y button and he pressed it with a smirk. Mikey was caught up in a whirlwind, which left him at 1 hp. Morris gave a sly smirk. "You're done! There's no way I'm missing my next special!" Mikey laughed, "what's so funny?" Mikey simply pressed one button on his controller, he caught Morris' next attack.  "That's...impossible! How did he negate all of that with one Y press!"Mikey's chuckled, "wanna hear my secret?" Morris looked at him with a mix of confusion and burning fury. ".You may have landed that ultimate, you even landed a few attacks, dear Morrison, but that's your problem. You think of the now and the now only. He pressed Y, "but I've built up to this the entire game! VAHALLA, SIGNATURE KILL! ULTIMATE POWER!" Mikey's stats increased with his ultimate, making him faster than any attack Morris tried to land. His fingers flew across the controller and hit the A button and he gave Morris one last kick, taking out the rest of his hp. "GAME!" Mikey did his signature pose, "over." Morris angrily pounded his fist on the floor. Mal walked in from the kitchen, "I uh, hate to interrupt but I've made pancakes if you all want some." They both looked at her, "oh sweet." Mikey walked in excited, while Morris trailed behind. Mal put one paw on her son's shoulder, "remember son, he might have won this fight, but he won't win the war. Train hard, and show him what you're truly capable of!" She looked back to the kitchen, "but for now, please eat. The food is getting cold." Morris smiled at her and continued into the kitchen, where Mary and Cosmic were already cleaning their plates. Morris and Mikey sat down after getting their food. Mikey gave him a smug smile, "had enough yet?" Morris gave him a side-eye in response, "I see. Same time?" Morris nodded his head. "But seriously how did you hit that?" Morris asked. "Broken hitbox." Morris facepalmed, "of course it was." As they all talked at the table, Mal worriedly glanced at her and Clare's text messages and looked at the time.  Clare had sent a message at 3:00 p.m. which read, "important info, meet at the department by. 11:00 a.m." Because Clare had sent this message without realizing that it was Saturday, Mal suggested that everyone would meet at her house instead, which Clare hesitantly agreed to. She worriedly looked at her messages. "Are you worried about something?"  She snapped out of her daze and realized that Cosmic had been right next to her. "Oh! I'm just thinking."  Cosmic's ears perked. "You're worrying about Clare, aren't you?" Mal sighed. "We'll, I don't know if she'll make it." She shrugged, "I think she's been working late at night again." Cosmic nodded her head. "You're probably right. Red's "show" took its toll on everyone. Working is her best distraction." Mal nodded, "thinking about how Clare would work tirelessly when confronted with uncomfortable situations. Before Mal could send her a message, she heard a knock on her door. Mal opened the door to see Clare zoning out on her doorstep. "Clare! We were wondering when you'd be here. I've prepared some food in the kitchen if"—Clare walked past her and sat down at the table. Mary walked over to her and tapped her shoulder. "You didn't wipe your paws." Clare looked down at her paw tracks and then looked at Mary. She walked back to the door, wiped her paws on the doormat and walked back to the table. "Clare? Are you okay?" She didn't respond. "Did you  sleep well?" No response. "Could I have everyone's attention?" Cosmic and Mikey walked over to the table. Clare took the duffel bag off her back and pulled out her notes from the previous night. "While I was looking for more information about the caterpie, I found out that they went missing while they were going to a rehabilitation center." She flipped through the pages of her notebook "This wouldn't have mattered to me if it wasn't for the fact that several victims that also had depression went missing while going to Lakeview rehabilitation." "If everyone went missing at Lakeview, why didn't anyone notice?" Cosmic questioned. "People did notice." Clare noted. "But to keep them and the police off their track, these abductions spanned over every few months." "So this has been a year-long abduction process?" Mikey asked. "Yes it has." Clare answered. "And I intend to keep looking into this."
"Wait!" Everyone stared at Mal, "who sponsors this center?" Clare froze. "I didn't even think about that." Clare quickly took out her laptop and looked up the center. "The sponsor chose to remain anonymous." "That's got to be it!" Cosmic exclaimed. "This sponsor of their's has to know what's going on." Hearing this, Mikey rushed out of the house. "Where are you going?" Clare asked. "You've given me enough proof, Clare. It's time to pay these bastards a visit!" Mal stopped him, "Mikey, we don't have anything else against them." "She's right, Mikey. These people have a clean reputation and no one else knows about this. It could just be a loose lead." Mikey stopped, "so what do we do then?" Cosmic chimed in, "the best thing we can do is keep Red from killing anyone else on-screen. While everyone else calmed Mikey down, Clare continued to stare at the "GG" on Red's podium.