"What is it?" Hiro asks, watching with interest as his brother crawls underneath the bed.
"Can't be sure-give me a second," Tadashi answers, starting to dig through the rubbish that was piled up. "You really need to clean out from under here, bro."
"I'll clean out under my bed when you clean out under yours," Hiro responds with a tiny smirk.
"Fair enough." Tadashi smirks back before returning to his search. After a minute he comes out from under the bed, Hiro's favorite blue hoodie clasped in his teeth.
"Whoa, I've been looking for that everywhere!" Hiro cries. "How did it get under there?"
"I don't think it's necessary for me to make another point about your organization skills," Tadashi says wryly before pawing at one of the front pockets. "Whatever I'm hearing, it's in here."
"All right." Hiro nods and picks up the hoodie, carefully reaching into the pocket. Tadashi was right, there was something in there, and it was moving, at that!
"The hell?" he mutters, closing his hand around the object and pulling it out. Once he has his hand out of the pocket, he opens it to reveal-
"One of my microbots?"
"How did one of those get in there?" Tadashi mutters, frowning in confusion, before his eyes go wide with understanding. "I-Is that the one that Mr. Krei tried to take from you?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Hiro agrees, remembering-right after he'd made his presentation, one of the leading names in robotics, Alistair Krei, had offered to buy Hiro's microbots and develop them at his company. Hiro had turned him down, both because Professor Callaghan had warned him that Krei wasn't to be trusted and because the truth was that he'd rather go to school with his older brother than work for some stuffy rich guy any day. Krei had almost walked off with one of his microbots, probably planning to try to take it apart and steal his idea, but at the last minute Tadashi had managed to stop him. Hiro had shoved the tiny robot into the pocket of his hoodie and completely forgotten about it until now.
"Why is it still moving? The neurotransmitter and the rest of the bots were destroyed in fire," Tadashi mumbles, surveying the robot critically as it moves in short, jerky movements in Hiro's hands.
"I dunno," Hiro answers, grabbing a small petri dish off of his desk and trapping the microbot inside of it. "The dumb thing must be broken."
"It kinda looks like it's trying to go somewhere," Tadashi observes, seeing the bot repeatedly ramming up against the edge of the dish in a singular direction.
"...You think?" Hiro asks, looking doubtfully down at the tiny robot. "I think it's just malfunctioning."
"But why would it be moving without a reason?" Tadashi presses before declaring, "I think we should follow it!"
"You what? No way!" Hiro cries. "We need to stay here and keep working-"
"Hiro." Tadashi places a loving but firm paw on his chest. "You have been cooped up in here way too long. Even if this is nothing, you need to get out of the house before you turn into a vampire. And we both know how you feel about vampires."
"...Fine," Hiro sighs, standing up. "We'll do this your way. But only because I don't want to glitter in sunlight and have creepy girls hitting on me and wanting me to drink their blood!"
"That's the spirit!" Tadashi chuckles, eagerly heading towards the door. "C'mon! We've got a bot to follow!"
Hiro chases after him, trying to keep up-wow, for something so tiny Tadashi sure could move fast! "Wait for me!" the younger cries.
"Sorry!" Tadashi apologizes sheepishly, slowing down just enough so that he could catch up.
"All right, so, out the living room door?" Hiro asks when they reach the bottom of the stairs.
"Maybe." Tadashi frowns slightly. "Or maybe we should let Aunt Cass know that we're going out first."
"Do we have to?" Hiro groans, not exactly in the mood to see his aunt.
"It would be the nice thing to do-if we don't, she might think that we've just up and vanished and have a heart attack," Tadashi gently reminds him.
"Fine…" Hiro sighs dramatically. "But what are we going to tell her that we're doing? She'll never let us out on a wild goose chase!"
"Just leave that to me," Tadashi answers with a knowing grin.
"Aunt Cass? Aunt Cass, you in here?" Hiro asks as he enters the Cafe's kitchen, Tadashi riding on his shoulders.
After a moment of searching, he spots his aunt standing at the sink, washing dishes, and he's briefly caught off guard by how different she looked than he remembered. It wasn't any one large thing that really stood out. It was the small things, like the extra silver hairs in her chestnut hair, the slump in her shoulders, and the dark circles under her eyes. She looked exhausted. No, more than that-she almost looked old. And that scared him more than anything, realizing what a toll these last weeks had taken on her. It was almost enough to make him feel guilty about being mad at her.
"Hiro, Tadashi?" Aunt Cass looks up from the sink, a shocked but almost relieved expression on her face as she sees her nephews standing just inside the door. "Y-You're up! What are you-?"
"Hiro thought that it was finally time," Tadashi quickly answers, lightly whacking his brother with his tail to keep him from asking questions.
"Time?" Aunt Cass repeats before her eyes go wide with understanding. "H-Hiro, are you registering for school?"
What? No! What was Tadashi doing? But Hiro knew that his brother had something up his sleeve and so he just smiles awkwardly and answers, "Uh, yes?"
"He thought about all the stuff we've been saying about how he shouldn't let all of this keep him down and how he really should start working on his future, and it really inspired him," Tadashi adds with what Hiro would definitely classify as a shit eating grin.
"Oh, honey, that's so great!" Hiro stiffens as his aunt abruptly pulls the two of them into a tight hug.
"Uh huh, sure…" he answers helplessly-he was going to absolutely throttle Tadashi when they were alone. What was he thinking making up all this stuff about him planning to go to school?
"Okay!" Aunt Cass was beaming now, pulling away but still keeping her hands on Hiro's shoulders. "Special dinner tonight! I'll whip up some chicken wings with the sauce that makes our faces numb!"
"Okay, sounds good…" Hiro agrees, trying but failing to resist the feeling of wanting this-wanting his family to be normal again, wanting them to be able to just have dinner and joke around and enjoy spending time together. But they couldn't. Not until Tadashi was human again, and right now the biggest obstacle in the way of that happening was Aunt Cass so he couldn't get all happy and cozy with her again when he was still incredibly angry with her.
He was just starting to back up and head towards the door when his aunt reaches out and pulls him in for another embrace, whispering softly, "Last hug."
What the hell was Hiro supposed to do with that? He just sort of lets himself go limp, not returning the hug but not being rude enough to push her away, until she finally lets go, and then with an awkward smile he waves and heads for the door.
"What was that all about?" the teen demands as soon as they're outside, glaring over at his brother. "School? Seriously?"
"I figured it was the best way to get her to let us out of the house, no questions asked," Tadashi returns with a shrug, looking incredibly smug. "And if after we solve the mystery of the microbot you happen to feel inclined to go by the school and actually apply for classes…"
"No way, bro. Not happening." Hiro shakes his head in disgust. "The only way that I'm going back to that school is when you're human again and can go with me."
He hears his brother sighing, obviously not pleased with his answer, but at least he didn't fight him on it.
"Come on!" Hiro says, trying to get his brother's mind back onto the task at hand. "Let's find out where this little guy wants to take us!"
"Right!" Tadashi agrees, his smile returning, and together they start off down the street.
They use the tiny microbot like a compass, changing direction whenever it did. It led them on quite a winding path-across busy streets, through the bus terminal, and finally down some deserted alleyways in the rougher part of the city. Hiro felt perfectly comfortable here-he'd spent many a night navigating these streets back in his bot fighting days and they were a lot less intimidating during the daytime-but he could tell his older brother was starting to feel a little bit concerned by their surroundings and so he keeps up a brisk pace, hoping that they would be out of this part of the city soon for Tadashi's sake. In spite of his hopes, the trail grows cold at an old abandoned warehouse. There was no way around it-the bot's destination wasn't on either side of it or even behind it, the bot wanted to go inside.
"Well, that's just great," Hiro quietly grumbles to himself as he tugs on the heavy padlock holding the chains on the door together. "We can't get in. It's a dead end, Tadashi."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Tadashi frowns thoughtfully. "We just have to look for a new angle…"
"What new angle? I don't see any new angles," Hiro groans-why did his brother always have to be so gosh darn optimistic all the time? Couldn't he ever admit that something was a lost cause? Well no, because he was Tadashi and Tadashi never gave up. Which is exactly how they found their entrance.
"I see a window!" Tadashi eagerly declares, pointing to a square opening near the top of the building. "And it's propped open, we can get in through there!"
"Okay, but how do we get up there from here?" Hiro asks. "That's really high up!"
Tadashi gives him a disbelieving look. "How do we get up there? Hiro, are you a witch or not? How many times have you put a levitation spell on yourself to get to the top shelves in the kitchen and given me a heart attack in the process?"
"Oh, right!" Hiro finds himself turning pink with embarrassment. "Levitation spell it is! I'll carry you so we can get in together, okay?"
"All right," Tadashi agrees, allowing his brother to scoop him up.
"Okay," Hiro says, holding the cat tight. "Here we go!"
He casts the spell, and within moments they slowly start rising through the air.
"Genius!" Hiro declares eagerly when they reach the window and he grabs hold of the frame to keep them from going any higher. "Awesome work, Tadashi!"
"I try!" Tadashi laughs, climbing in through the window before moving off to the side so that Hiro can climb in next. "Now c'mon-let's see if we can figure out what all this fuss has been about!"
"Right!" Hiro pulls the microbot compass out of his pocket where he'd put it for safekeeping and holds it out in front of him. The bot was still indicating for them to go forward, into the heart of what had turned out to be an abandoned factory of some sort. The dark, murky interior was enough to give anyone the creeps, and by silent agreement both boys keep completely mum as they start down the rickety stairs leading down to the floor from the catwalk that they were currently standing on.
"Looks like something out of one of Aunt Cass' old monster movies," Hiro observes, trying to lighten the mood as they follow the microbot across the dusty floor.
"Ugh, don't make it worse!" Tadashi, who was looking not at all at his ease, hisses up at him.
"Sorry!" Hiro apologizes, putting his hands up in mock surrender.
"Thank yo- Wait. What's that?" Tadashi whispers as they round a corner and spot a glowing screen in the distance with dark shapes moving behind it.
"I don't know!" Hiro whispers back, coming to a stop and glancing down at the microbot in his hands. "But I think it's where this little guy wants to go!"
"Do you think it's safe?"
"Probably not."
"...You're going anyways, aren't you?"
"Yep!"
"...Fine. But we need some sort of protection!"
"Uh, bro? I'm a witch, remember? We've got magic!"
"...Right. Duh. How did I forget that?"
"Now who's forgetful?" Hiro teases.
Tadashi glares up at him. "Shut up! Let's just get this over with-I've got a bad feeling about this, and the sooner we get out of here the better!"
"Right!" Hiro agrees before silently starting forward, Tadashi tagging along at his heels.
As they finally reach the screen, Hiro leans closer, trying to see through it. He could see mechanical arms and what looked like an assembly line of some sort, but he couldn't tell what they were making from his current vantage point.
"What do you see?" Tadashi whispers.
"I don't know-I'll have to get closer to know for sure!" Hiro whispers back, continuing forward.
What he found as he rounded the corner was the end of the assembly line, a grey conveyor belt that was dropping small black objects into what was already an almost full bin. Hiro stepped forward to get a better idea of what this strange setup was making, only to feel a spark of alarm as he realized what he was seeing.
"What is it? What's going on?" Tadashi asks, unable to see from his position on the floor.
"My… Microbots?" Hiro answers, digging his hands into the bin and feeling the familiar form of his invention sliding through his fingers. And then he looks up and sees the tens, if not hundreds of bins lined up in rows in front of him, filling almost half the factory's empty floor space, each one filled with copies of his creation.
"Your microbots?" Tadashi repeats, eyes going wide with shock. "What are your microbots doing here?"
"Someone's been making more," Hiro whispers, glancing around the empty factory and having the unnerving feeling that they were being watched. After a moment, though, he almost forgets the feeling as he notices a wall covered in bits of paper-pictures and news clippings and hastily written notes covering a gigantic map of the city-all connected by red string held in place by thumb tacks.
"This looks like something out of one of those crime dramas Aunt Cass loves," Tadashi mutters, tentatively moving towards it to get a closer look. "What do you think it all means?"
"I have no clue," Hiro admits honestly, following after him. He was about to take a closer look when he sees the microbot in the petri dish he was holding going haywire.
"Uh, Hiro?" Tadashi turns back in the direction they'd just come from, his expression quickly morphing into one of horror. Hiro glances up and feels terror coiling in his stomach as he sees the hundreds if not thousands of microbots in the waiting bins rising up into the air as if of their own accord.
"Run!" Hiro shouts, racing back in the direction of their only exit. Tadashi was right behind him, meowing in terror as the microbots started chasing after them.
"Hiro, what the hell?! Why are they doing this?" Tadashi cries.
"How should I know? I'm not the one controlling them!" Hiro shouts back.
The bots continue to chase them through the factory like an angry swarm of killer wasps, the two brothers just barely managing to stay ahead of them. At one point some of the bots start going under the panels making up the floor, and before the brothers can even realize what's happening they find themselves being catapulted through the air and up onto the catwalk above. When they both land safely, it seems like a miraculous stroke of luck. Only, as they pick themselves up, they realize maybe it was less luck and more of a plan as they see a dark robed figure in a red and white kabuki mask staring at them from further down the catwalk. It quickly becomes evident that he must be the one controlling the robots as the microbots swarm right along with him as he starts walking towards them in slow, measured steps.
Hiro had so many questions. Who was this guy? How had he gotten ahold of the designs for his microbots and started making more of them? More importantly, why was he making more of them? But now wasn't the time for questions. Tadashi's panicked yowling brought him back to the reality of the situation and together they race towards their exit with everything that they have in them. With great relief, they reach the window-only to realize that they hadn't exactly thought about how to get down from here.
"H-Hiro…" Tadashi whispers, eyes wide with terror as he looks back and sees the microbots and the masked man drawing ever closer. "Do something!"
"Hold on tight, Dashi!" Hiro grabs his brother and then, taking a deep breath, jumps out the window, chanting a softening spell as they fall, praying that it would make the ground squishy enough that they wouldn't break multiple bones upon impact.
By some miracle, the spell works-when they make contact with first the tin roof below them and then the concrete of the sidewalk, they actually bounce a little. Hiro silently rejoices that they had made it out of there alive. But he couldn't celebrate just yet-they still had a madman after them! Keeping a firm grip on Tadashi, he takes off running down the street, praying that he knew these back alleyways better than whoever was after him and could actually manage to get them out of here alive.
Half an hour later and almost ten city blocks away from the factory, Hiro finally dodges into small enclosed bus stop, feeling like his lungs were about to give out and his heart was going to burst right through his skinny rib cage.
"D-Did we lose him?" he barely manages to gasp out as he collapses onto a bench, knowing that they were done for if they hadn't because he couldn't take another step at this point.
"I-I think so," Tadashi answers, looking frazzled but all the same lovingly (and worriedly) nuzzling up against his younger sibling. "Oh my gosh-Hiro, you just saved our lives!"
"I-I guess I did, huh?" Hiro says weakly, giving his sibling the best smile that he can manage before letting his head fall back against the bench. He was so exhausted. What he wouldn't give for just five minutes of sleep…
"Rest," Tadashi tells him firmly, putting two paws on his chest to make sure that he didn't get back up. "I'm pretty sure that we're safe now, so you need to get your energy back up."
"But if that guy comes after us again-" Hiro starts to protest.
"I'll keep watch-if I see even the smallest sign of him, I'll wake you up, okay?" Tadashi answers, gently nuzzling his face.
"All right…" Hiro finally concedes, too tired to argue and letting his eyes slide shut as his heartbeat ever so slowly returns to normal.
The next time he opens his eyes, the sun is much lower in the sky-it looked like it was almost sunset.
"Tadashi?" Hiro groggily whispers, sitting up on the bench. "Tadashi, where are you?"
"Right here, little bro." Hiro looks down and smiles gratefully when he sees his elder sibling next to him, although he was a bit surprised to see him nudging a plastic water bottle towards him. "Here, drink this, you're probably super dehydrated right now."
The younger teen accepts the drink without even questioning it, screwing the lid off and then starting to gulp it down. It was a testament to how water depleted his body was that he downed the entire thing in just under thirty seconds, wiping away the remaining wetness as he pulls the now empty container away from his mouth.
"T-Thanks, Dashi," he manages to get out, offering his brother a small smile before looking back down at the bottle and asking curiously, "Where did you get this?"
"I… May have nicked it from a cooler in the park where someone was having a barbecue," Tadashi admits, ducking his head and looking a bit ashamed of himself.
"Tadashi Hamada. You mean that you actually stole something?" Hiro felt a mischievous grin crossing his face and he couldn't resist the urge to rub it in just a little bit.
"It was for a good cause!" Tadashi argues, the fur on his back rising up slightly. "I didn't want you dying on me on the walk home!"
"I know, bro," Hiro hurries to reassure him, realizing that he had hit a nerve. "Sorry. Didn't mean to upset you. Seriously-thanks. I'm really grateful that you were looking out for me like that."
"You're welcome." Tadashi offers him a small smile, seeming appeased, at least for the moment.
"So-any sign of the crazy kabuki guy?" Hiro asks, glancing around them.
"No, none, thank goodness," Tadashi answers with a tiny sigh of relief. "Hopefully that's the last we'll ever see of him."
"Maybe…" Hiro frowns, biting his lip and frowning.
"What do you mean maybe? Hiro, that guy is obviously very disturbed, promise me that you are not going to try to track him down!" Tadashi cries, looking alarmed.
"It's just-I'm still trying to figure out how that guy got my microbots in the first place," Hiro tells him. "The only place that I took them in public was the Expo, and all of them were destroyed in the fire! He would have had to have grabbed one of the bots while he was running out of the building in order to get one of them and figure out my design from it. But who would try to steal something while they were running for their life? Unless…"
"Unless?" Tadashi presses, trying to keep up with his little brother's train of thought.
"Unless that guy in the mask was trying to steal my microbots and set the fire to cover his tracks!" Hiro cries, all of the pieces sliding together.
"W-What? No! That- That's impossible!" Tadashi cries, eyes going wide. "No one would do something that drastic just to steal an invention!"
"This guy just tried to kill us with an army of my microbots! Who knows what he's capable of?" Hiro argues back.
"...All right, I see your point," Tadashi finally admits after a minute. "But what are we supposed to do? Call the police? I doubt that they'd listen to us if we told them that we were just attacked by an army of tiny robots being controlled by a guy in a kabuki mask using ESP!"
"...Sadly, you have a point," Hiro quietly groans. "But we can't just let him get away with this! He set the fire that killed Professor Callaghan, and he's the reason that you're stuck like this! And we don't know what he's planning to do with my microbots! We have to find a way to take him down!"
"But you saw what happened today-we almost died in there!" Tadashi weakly protests even though he could see that his brother had already made up his mind.
"Because he caught us by surprise," Hiro counters. "Next time, I'm going to be ready for him! If I have enough spells and potions prepared, I'll actually stand a chance against him!"
"Oh no." Tadashi frowns and shakes his head. "There is no 'I' here-if you're going to insist on going after him like a crazy person, then I'm coming with you!"
"Uh, bro?" Hiro gives him a pitying look. "I really appreciate the sentiment, but you're kinda… tiny right now. And I'm afraid you'll just be putting yourself in danger if you come along with me like that."
"Fine. Then I won't come along like this-I'm going to come along as your fully human older brother!" Tadashi declares, a determined glint in his eyes.
"But Dashi, how? We still haven't found a spell that's worked," Hiro reminds him, frowning in concern-had his sibling hit his head at some point in the chase and had a few gears knocked loose?
"There's one spell that we know will work," Tadashi answers. "And I say that we finally use it, Aunt Cass be damned. I'm not letting you do this on your own, and if we have to break some rules, well, so be it."
"Wow-I like this side of you, bro!" Hiro declares with a grin. "Okay, let's do it! We'll break into the restricted section of the library and steal the spell that we need!"
Tadashi nods his head in agreement, looking very determined. "We'll go after she's asleep tonight, we'll have less of a chance of getting caught that way. I'll talk to Mochi, see if I can convince him to let us in so that we don't set off the alarms."
"And if we do set off the alarms, we just take the book and run," Hiro continues. "We'll find someplace where we can do the spell and by the time she finds us it'll be too late for her to stop us!"
"Exactly." Tadashi offers him a small smile.
"Should I ask who you are and what you did with my perfect older brother who would never dare break a rule if his life depended on it?" Hiro jokes wryly.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Tadashi shrugs in reply. "And protecting you is the most important thing that I can think of."
"Thank, bro." Hiro gives him a grateful smile.
"You're welcome." Tadashi smiles back at him before his ears perk up. "Oh, I hear a trolley coming! C'mon-let's try to catch this one so we can head home. The sooner we get home, the less suspicious Aunt Cass will be, and the less suspicious that Aunt Cass is the easier time that we'll have getting away with this."
"Sir, yes sir!" Hiro gives him a mock salute before standing up, his heart thumping eagerly in his chest. They were actually going to do this. They were going to get the spell. They were finally going to turn Tadashi back! By this time tomorrow, come hell or high water, he was finally going to fully have his nii-chan back. And he absolutely couldn't wait to finally feel his brother's strong arms around him again, telling him that he was okay and finally having the burden of being the responsible one lifted off of his shoulders. He was going to have his Dashi again. And that thought was more than enough to scare away any lingering thoughts that he had about the creepy guy in the mask.