The Modern Four

Chapter 39

The three didn't know where to start. They didn't know where violet went missing, and they didn't know where she could have gone. Hiro attempted to try and track her phone, using the find my phone app, but that only led them to a back alley. They looked around for anything that could give them a clue. They split up, checking around the area.

"You should've put like, trackers in our suits. That way we could've figured this out a lot more easily." Wilbur said, checking around a bag of trash.

"Oh yeah, genius. I'm sure you'd love it if I knew where you were 24/7. That would totally work." Hiro rolled his eyes, glancing over at Wilbur.

Wilbur crossed his arms, stopping in his tracks. "Listen man, I'm not saying that you would check all the time, I'm just saying maybe you should've thought about something like this instead of just letting my girlfriend go missing!"

"She's not even your girlfriend anymore! You act like I don't want to find her just as much as you do! Well, newsflash, I do! She's my friend too, so stop being such a jerk about it!" Hiro practically yelled, glaring at his friend.

"You're hardly acting like you care at all!" Wilbur did yell, throwing down a discarded coke can.

Penny looked up, a concerned look on her face. "Guys..." She frowned. Wilbur looked away, and Hiro continued to glare.

"If I didn't care, why would I be here, in the alley, looking through the trash for any small piece of evidence to where one of my best friends could have gone?" Hiro said quietly, his voice cold. Penny looked at Wilbur.

"He has a point, Wilbur. He wouldn't be doing this if he didn't care." She said softly, looking down.

Wilbur looked over at Penny, his expression still a glare. She sunk back, looking down. He softened his features, frowning once more. "I'm sorry..." He muttered, biting his lip. She shook her head, looking down.

"It's okay, I think we're all a bit worked up about this. I know I am. I want her back just as much as you do. But we have to work together to-"

"I think I found something!" Hiro shouted. Neither of them had noticed he had snuck away from them, and was now crouching near a trashcan. He held up a towel, holding it out far from himself.

"Dude, that's just a towel." Wilbur frowned, furrowing his eyebrows. Hiro shook his head.

"It's not just a towel! Don't get too close. I think it's soaked in chloroform..." He said, examining the cloth. "I'll have to take it back to my lab to be sure, but from the smell alone that's what it seems to be." Hiro frowned, looking down.

"And... what does that mean... you know, for Violet." Wilbur swallowed, glancing at the cloth. Penny looked as though she was about to cry.

"Well.. It's definitely not something good... but who knows.... Maybe this isn't... maybe this isn't hers. Let's keep looking. We haven't even found her phone yet. Maybe it was a fluke... maybe it wasn't her.." He bit his lip. The other two nodded, though they didn't look convinced. Hiro wasn't even sure he convinced himself. They began searching again, though this time with much less fever and energy. They now all believed the worse. They searched for a while more, until Penny gasped. The two boys looked over at her as tears formed in her eyes. She bent down and picked up a small purple and black circular object. Penny bit her lip, and held it up.

"I don't think she's okay..." She struggled to get out, and took a deep breath. Hiro took it from her and examined it.

"She wouldn't just leave that behind, that's not what she does..." Wilbur said, shaking his head.

Hiro sighed, looking down. "These are designed to be unbreakable, but...it shows signs of strain. Violet is not strong enough to cause this kind of damage to a metal so indestructible..." Hiro looked at the three, his face giving away everything.

"Something happened to her, didn't it.." Penny asked, feeling her heart drop to her stomach.

Hiro bit his lip. "We don't know that for sure... not until we run some diagnostics on the bracelet and the cloth... We can't say for certain whether or not she-"

"It's pretty clear that that's the case!" Wilbur exploded, shaking his head. "Stop using fancy words to hid the truth! I know that she's been kidnapped, and that I'm going to find her! We can't just stay here and talk about this, the longer we wait, the more she could be hurt or... or worse!" He said, clearly panicking.

"And how do you plan to do this? How are we supposed to find her?" Hiro replied. Wilbur looked down, staying quiet. "Let's head back to my house. We can test our finds and figure out where to go from there..." The other two nodded, and they began their walk back to Hiro's.