Riq

**Riq** is an anthropomorphic male tiger and Tag's father.

## History

### From Celebrity to Ghost

Riq was a racer in the days before the organization of the Rimba Grand Prix, and managed to win several championships. His mechanic, Miles, was also his best friend, and the two spent years working together. Eventually, Riq met and fell in love with Lily, and the pair eventually married. Determined to keep his professional and personal lives separate, Riq did his best to insure that nobody besides Miles knew about her or their son Tag. Eventually, however, Riq realized that he loved his family more than he did his sport, and resolved to retire.

Riq came clean to Miles on his decision shortly before what he intended to be his final race at Pinewood Reservoir, following a short practice race with fellow competitor King. After talking with Tag, who was in the process of trying to build his own engine, Riq explained his feelings to Miles, who proved less than sympathetic and warned Riq that he would come to regret his decision. Shortly afterwards, Riq was approached by Smythe, who offered him the chance to be the public face of a reimagined racing tournament. However, upon learning that Smythe and his benefactors intended to create a system in which races were set up with predetermined outcomes, he refused to take part, both because of the illegal nature of such a scheme and because it went against everything he loved about the sport.

Smythe warned Riq not to share the details of their conversation, and after a second encounter with him Riq became fearful. Just before his last race, he spoke to Miles, and made him promise to look after Tag if anything happened to him during the race. Riq was right to be anxious, as Xeno, on Smythe's orders, planted a device on his car that caused the engine to explode during the race. Riq's car went out of control and fell into the river at Pinewood, and a piece of debris smashed the visor of Riq's helmet and left him with scars on the right side of his face.

Riq managed to escape his sinking car, and made his way to Daisy's Diner after attending to his injuries. While he was seated at the counter, a news report came on detailing his crash, indicating that it had been the result of illegal modifications and that Riq may well have cheated throughout his career. Knowing that his apparent death would be heartbreaking to his wife and son, Riq prepared to call them from a payphone. However, remembering Smythe's threats and realizing that villains who could sabotage his car were more than capable of reaching his family, Riq instead headed out into the night after discarding a photo he carried of Lilly and Tag.

For the next fourteen years, Riq dedicated himself to hunting down and stopping the criminals who had attempted first to recruit him and then to kill him. Learning that Miles had sabotaged his car, but unaware that it was unrelated to the explosion, Riq refrained from contacting his old friend for fear that Miles was also in the employ of his enemies. In time, he learned that the secret powers behind the new Rimba Grand Prix referred to themselves using a term he had brought up in his objections to Smythe at Pinewood: the Ringmasters. At some point, he met Tamira and recruited her to his cause, employing her to work against the corrupt RGP from the inside.

### RGP XIII

Riq remained in contact with Tamira throughout the course of the tournament, giving her instructions to help her get closer to King and thus facilitate their scheme to eventually topple the false RGP head and his employers. When Tag, now an adult, joined the tournament, Riq becomes determined to protect his son from King's machinations. As such, in "Playing With Fire", he secretly orders Tamira to scare him away from the tournament, which she does by sneaking into Tag's garage and knocking him out with a blow to the head, before sabotaging the Ripper. However, this attempt fails, and Tag remains involved in the RGP. The similarities between Tag's driving style and Riq's become evident to keen-eyed observers, with Beaks, King, and Sonny all recognizing Riq's maneuvers in Tag's driving.

When Tag becomes disturbed prior to an RGP race at Pinewood in "Shakes, Rattles, & Rolls", Sonny-having deduced that Tag must be Riq's son-confronts Tag and persuades him to admit to their hidden connection. Just as Riq previously concealed Tag's existence from his fans, Tag acknowledged no connection to Riq in order to be judged as a racer on his own merits. In "Can I Get A Ka-Ching!", Riq apparently calls Tamira and instructs her to join King's team, something she vehemently opposes until Tag unknowingly persuades her otherwise. In "It's Good To Be The King", Tamira calls Riq to voice her unwillingness to remain in the RGP after Sonny ends up hospitalized, but ultimately agrees to remain for another week.

In "The New Order", Tamira-whether on Riq's orders or on her own initiative-encourages Tag to remain in the RGP, shortly before breaking into King's office and stealing information from his computer. In making her getaway, Tamira is assisted by Riq, who arranges for a motorcycle to be placed in a location to assist in her fleeing King's thugs. Afterwards, Tamira meets up with Riq, and alludes vaguely to his existence in a phone call to Tag. She then transfers all her RGP funds to Tag to enable him to return to the RGP following his recent departure, before setting to work with Riq on examining the information she obtained.

Presumably on Riq's instructions, Tamira sneaks back aboard the Ark in "Finish Line (Part 1)", in order to take part in a plan to steal King's black box, which contains vital and incriminating information that can be used against King and, more importantly, the Ringmasters. In "Finish Line (Part 2)", the heist is successfully pulled off, but the Ringmasters' operative Meika prevents their identities from being compromised. Tamira later informs Tag and Miles about the Ringmasters, noting that her partner has been trying to track them down for years. She then surprises Miles by opening his garage with a password her partner gave her. Entering, Miles is initially furious to see an apparent stranger at his computer, but both he and Tag are then dumbstruck when the figure emerges from the shadows and reveals himself as Riq.

## Appearance

Riq has a similar build to his son, Tag, and is similarly covered in white or orange, brown-striped fur. Riq's stripes have a different pattern from Tag's, and the white marks around his yellow eyes are connected to the white on his lower face, unlike Tag's. He also has a pattern of stripes on his chin. He has several scars on the right side of his face-one across his mouth, one on his cheek, and two more on the side of his head-from the accident that was thought to have taken his life.

As a racer, Riq wore a light gray jumpsuit with orange and brown decoration on the legs, arms, and sides of his torso. His boots were gray with orange and brown stripes, and his gloves were gray with orange palms and stripes across the back. His racing helmet was also gray, with brown lines around the transparent visor and orange decoration on the sides, chin, and back. Following his accident he was seen wearing black shoes, jeans, and a dark red hooded jacket with gray sleeves over a black shirt.

In the present, Riq wears similar shoes and jeans, but now sports a brown jacket with dark brown patches on the front and dark brown stripes on the arms. He wears this over a sleeveless white top; the same attire-minus the jacket-doubles as his pajamas.

## Relationships

### Lily

Riq loved his wife, but purposefully made sure the media were unaware of her or Tag, wanting his son to have a normal life. Ultimately his longing to be with them more outgrew his passion for racing, and he determined to retire so he could be with them. Sadly, his refusal to sign on as the Ringmasters' front man prompted them to attempt to kill him, and he was thought to have been killed. Though Riq initially wanted to call his wife and son and let them know he was alive, he realized that the Ringmasters would go after them. As such, he allowed the world to go on believing that he was dead, while seeking to pay back those who had forced him from his family.

### Mr. King

Riq and King were competitors in the days before the Rimba Grand Prix was organized, with Riq always managing to beat King. Despite this, their relationship seems to have been fairly genial. Unfortunately, King was all too eager to accept the job Riq refused as figurehead for the Ringmasters' schemes. He thus convinced Miles to sabotage Riq's car, while the Ringmasters employed their own means to try and kill Riq. To his credit, King did seem to feel it was unnecessary to kill Riq, though he didn't do much more than weakly protest.

Years later, King apparently came to suspect a connection between Tag and Riq from their similar driving styles.

### Ringmasters

Riq learned of the Ringmasters many years ago, and became dedicated to uncovering their sinister agenda.

### Sonny

Sonny was a huge fan of Riq's racing career, being so familiar with Riq's style of driving that he was able to detect the similar style Tag employed. Upon meeting Riq, whom he had thought to be dead, Sonny was overawed, and Riq was pleased to meet such an enthusiastic fan. However, the revelation-among others-did anger Sonny, as his friends had been keeping him out of the loop.

### Tag

As Tag's father, Riq kept his son out of the public eye, not wanting him to be mixed up with the fame of Riq's career. Wanting to be with them, he decided he would retire after winning his fourth consecutive championship. Unfortunately, the Ringmasters' scheming interfered, and Riq was forced to keep himself apart from his son in order to insure Tag's safety. After Tag entered the RGP XIII, it is possible that Riq had Tamira sabotage the Ripper in an attempt to get Tag out of the tournament and away from danger, though the effort failed.

After the end of the tournament, Riq finally revealed himself to Tag and Miles, as well as telling his son about Miles' sabotage of his car prior to his final race. At another encounter, the full story came out, and despite his anger at Miles Riq thanked him for watching over Tag. Tag later brought his father aboard the Ark to give his friends info about the Ringmasters' operatives. When Riq had to leave, Tag expressed disappointment at not being able to spend more time with his father. Riq sympathized, reminding him that it was the Ringmasters' fault, and that only when the villains were taken down would the two be able to truly reunite.

### Tamira

At some point, Riq enlisted Tamira in his efforts against the Ringmasters, and she served as his agent to try and take down the RGP from the inside. Tamira carried out Riq's orders, and he subsequently provided her with equipment to escape after she was caught breaking into King's personal computer. Tamira subsequently returned to the RGP and, aided by the Tag Team, continued to seek a means of bringing down the Ringmasters. She also brought Tag and Miles to Riq so he could reveal he was still alive, and later smuggled him aboard the Ark.

### Xeno

Acting on behalf of the Ringmasters, Xeno planted a device on Riq's car that caused it to overheat and shut down, which landed Riq in the Pinewood Reservoir river. The official report blamed the accident on an illegal device for improving the car's performance, and Riq was slandered as having cheated his way to his numerous victories. Riq later used his secret network to determine that Xeno had been engaged in criminal activities for some years, and recognized one of his devices as bearing the same marking as the one that caused his accident.