Chapter Fifty Four: Over Thinking
Loki drove almost like a maniac, or like he was being chased by the Hulk. There was no way of knowing just how much time had passed inside the Hydra facility while he'd transmitted all the information he had to Kally's AI. It could have been a day, maybe several days. Either way, he needed to get back there as soon as possible to let them know the information had been received.
Then there were the plans of what they would do once the help arrived. There were things that needed to be taken into consideration, such as Hiro's condition, as well as figuring out just how many people were now inside the facility, and where they were keeping the DNA they hoped to use against humanity. Too many other possibilities popped into his mind as he drove full out. Anything could have happened in his absence, especially with that Kendrick woman. Oh how he wanted to rip her throat out and feed it to the dogs!
But that wasn't an option at the moment. Instead, he raced to return before anything too extreme could happen. It would go against everything he'd worked so hard to achieve, even if it wasn't exactly the typical egotistical plan he was used to employing. These two children were too much like him and he'd be damned if he let them share the same fate.
Finally, the mountain peak he sought came into view. Now that he knew the lay of the land, he needn't park in the same place as before. It was probably a wise move on his part anyway. It would be better to park somewhere less obvious, so he chose to go off road instead, thankful his chosen vehicle was up to the task. Once it was parked well out of sight, and covered over with camouflage, he dashed up the mountainside to the area where the door he'd used before waited.
Like before, there was a guard there, though he didn't stay long. It looked more like he'd just finished a cigarette break than like he was there to actually make sure no one had found that entrance. Since the time was so different between the two areas, he couldn't be sure. It would be a long break on the one side so maybe it was just a routine check. This, of course, suited Loki just fine. It meant they hadn't discovered the untimely death of their coworker. Or, if they had, they assumed he'd fallen over the incline and smashed into the rocks below. There was a bit of a drop off to one side, after all. So, as soon as the man went back inside, Loki was more than willing to follow, once more in the guise of a Hydra employee.
Kally woke much as she had that one night back in Stark Tower, though she had no idea how much time had passed since she'd last been conscious. Her eyes simply opened and her entire body remained still. Despite the relaxed state of her muscles, she could feel the same kind of tingly energy she'd felt before, now remembering what it felt like when those two Hydra agents had tried to take her the first time. It was almost as though that memory had unlocked itself so that she could view it from all angles, not just the ones Hiro had shown her in a video.
If she concentrated, she could pull up the exact sensations, smells, and other stimuli of that situation, almost like she was reliving it, except she knew she wasn't. Kally knew exactly where she was and why. She also knew there was only one other conscious person in the room with her, a medic who was more intent on the other patient in the room than on her.
She turned her head to one side to look over at this other medic, realizing they were in a different room than the one she'd originally thought they were in. This was not the front area of the medical lab, but a smaller, similar room. And the medic was intently watching Hiro Hamada, who lay unconscious on the bed opposite her.
The beep of two heart monitors filled the room, one hers, one his. And even though she didn't see any real changes from when Hiro normally slept, she knew there was a difference. Something had happened to him in-between the time she'd last seen him and now. In fact, she'd be surprised if it hadn't been in the last day or two, after Loki had left the area.
Kally breathed in and out deeply, filling her lungs to capacity. There seemed a lot more room than there used to be. That or she could hold it better than before. And, unlike the last time she was awake, her body didn't feel like it was made from jelly. It felt stronger, just inert, waiting for something to happen. And her shoulder no longer hurt. The only difference between that time and now was that she wasn't sure her muscles would obey any commands she gave them. There seemed to be a slight disconnect with anything below her shoulders.
Another medic entered the room and nodded briefly to the one by Hiro's bed. That medic got up from her stool and exchanged a few words with the new one before leaving the room. Neither of them looked Kally's way, until the door closed.
"I see you somehow managed to make your way here," the medic said. He looked more than familiar as Kally realized this person wasn't a medic at all. "Was it Ms. Kendrick again?"
"Loki," she said as she tried to sit up. Despite feeling more aware than usual, she couldn't make herself move more than an inch or two from the pillow so she fell back against it with a huff. The motion jostled the tubing stuck into her arm for the IV fluids and she grimaced. If she didn't think about it, she could almost ignore that it was there.
The man in question smiled. "I wondered if something would happen while I was gone." Then he frowned. "But you didn't answer my question."
Kally wished she could swing up into a sitting position to address the man in question, but she couldn't. It was certainly not a development she cared for, even after trying once more to sit upright. Her mental observation about the disconnect seemed to be accurate. "No, it wasn't Ms. Kendrick," she replied with a hint of asperity.
Loki seemed to relax at her words despite her tone. "I'm glad. I really don't need another reason to kill her." He gave her another odd smile before walking over and sitting down next to her on a wheeled stool. "So, what did happen? I doubt they'd bring you here just for the fun of it."
She bit her lip. She wasn't sure just how much to tell him about visions of her professor so she chose to leave those out entirely. "I'm not entirely sure," she admitted. "Dr. Bosch came to check on me, yesterday I think, though I'm not sure about that, and something happened. Maybe it was a genetic mutation or something, but whatever it was triggered a reaction inside of me that put me out of commission."
The god of mischief noted the absence of the shock collar and couldn't help but wonder at it, though it was decidedly not an unwelcome surprise. He could still see the marks from where it had been though. "Hmm." There was something decidedly different about her now as well, different from the previous times he'd been in the same room with her. He just wasn't entirely sure what until he realized she had a presence more like her mother's, watchful without appearing to do so. "And what is the good doctor doing about it?"
Kally snorted. "Last I recall, he was running fifty million tests to try and figure out what happened. I gather it interrupted something the upper ups had planned with their little DNA experiment."
Well, that was news indeed, Loki thought. It would not surprise him if they'd wanted to move onto a more practical test of the two's compatibility. Whatever it was they'd had in mind was likely more invasive and unethical, forgoing consent and all that. Part of him couldn't help but feel smug that their plans were at least temporarily thwarted. And the fact that Hiro seemed more out of it than usual confirmed the idea that those people would have to wait much longer for things to go their way.
But then he frowned, recalling the whispered instructions from the medic he'd relieved. The teen's vitals had not changed much, apparently, from the last change of guard, which meant they were watching him like a hawk. And that meant something else had happened in his absence. Since Kally appeared to only recently have entered this area, or at least come back to reality, he doubted she knew. He'd have to seek out the doctor to find out for himself, hoping this wouldn't put another wrinkle into their plans.
"Did you make contact with Sammy?" Kally asked, breaking the silence between them.
Almost as if coming out of a dark memory, Loki looked up and over at Kally. "Hmm? Oh, yes I did. She's agreed to pass the information on to whoever will do the most good. I don't know how your program intends to do it but I trust she will."
Kally nodded. "Sam's nothing if not efficient. She'll know who to talk to." Part of her wondered just where her program had gotten to during all of this. All she knew was that she was no longer inside her phone, which had been missing since her kidnapping. At least she hoped Sam had jumped ship. The program was smart enough to do it. The only question was did she know who to contact. She didn't exactly have much contact with Hiro and his friends.
Loki slid off the stool. "I probably shouldn't stay long," he admitted. "Another medic should be along in a moment. I somehow managed to slip between the actual shift changes it would seem. But please do your best to at least pretend to be an invalid. I somehow think it in your best interest to do so. I must be off to find the best way to shut this place down. But don't worry. I won't go far."
He gave her a bit of a wink as he helped her pull the disheveled covers back up to her chest before returning to Hiro's side once more. It was not a moment too soon as the doors opened again and another medic walked in. Loki gave one last smile in Kally's general direction, a somewhat mischievous one at that, and went to give the new medic the same information the previous one had given him before leaving the room.
Tony furrowed his brow as he sat on the edge of a bar stool. He didn't stay there long though as he periodically got up to pace, only to return to the stool. "And you're sure this information is reliable?"
Natasha walked around the 3D generated map JARVIS had put up in the middle of the room, which showed the mountain area in Pennsylvania where they were supposedly keeping Hiro and Kally. He'd downloaded it from Sam shortly after she'd projected into onto Baymax's stomach. "From a strategic point, it makes sense," she mused.
"I cannot verify the accuracy of this information against any database," Sam spoke up. "However, I believe the source to be legitimate. He passed my verification standards."
Thor looked over towards Tony before returning his attention to the puffed up marshmallow robot. "He? How can you be certain it was a male?"
A soft sound like laughter came from Baymax's belly. "The linguistic choices conform to a predominantly male speech pattern," she informed. "However, as my source has informed me, it will not be as easy as simply storming the area. They have done something to offset the base from the rest of reality."
Stark stood up again. "Offset it? How?" His brain started churning, trying to figure out how on earth they might have done that. The laws of science didn't exactly permit for it, unless there was some kind of outside force involved. "Wait." He turned to Thor. "You remember the battle we had here not too long ago, when we went up against your brother? Do you think that device they used to open a giant hole above New York might be capable of offsetting a small portion of space enough to put it out of sync with the rest of reality?" In his mind, he'd already confirmed the possibility, but since the device in question was something outside this world, he wanted to be sure.
Thor stroked his chin, understanding exactly what his friend meant. "The teseract has that ability, yes," he confirmed. "However, it remains in the vaults of my father's palace, which would mean they are likely working with whatever energy they managed to harvest from it."
Iron Man went back to his stool and sat down hard. "Well that will make things difficult."
The Big Heroes watched the Avengers in silence. While it was great knowing where their friends were being kept, it definitely put a damper on things if there was no real way to get to them because of some unknown technology, even if they had some semblance of a floor plan, albeit incomplete.
Natasha walked around the map until she was facing Baymax head on. "Would it be wrong of me to believe there isn't more to this message than just a location and information that almost makes it impossible to enter with any sized force?"
Baymax turned his head down. Having a second AI living inside his system was a little awkward at times and he was more than ready to find Sam a place of her own to inhabit. But, for the here and now, he understood the wisdom in sharing the space. It was nice that Sam had also shared the entire conversation she'd had with their unusual informant with him. "I believe this informant intends to somehow break down their defenses from the inside," he stated. "However, I do not believe he gave any details as to how that would be accomplished."
"Great," Wasabi spoke up, lifting his hands up in almost defeat. "So we know where they are and all that, but we can't get inside unless whoever this third person is can somehow turn off whatever it is inside that is keeping them apart from us. This is never going to work."
GoGo gave him a look. "Don't say that," she admonished. "If he's got Hiro working on it, I'm sure it will work out."
"And don't rule out Kally either," Honey reminded. "She's also a genius. If this inside person can help them escape on the inside, maybe they can figure out how to reverse whatever it is that is keeping us from getting in."
But Tony shook his head. "There's too many if's going on here," he said. "It would be easier if we had more information."
"I do not believe it possible to give more accurate information," Sam spoke up once more. "From what I understood of our conversation, because this particular location is offset from the rest of the world, time runs differently. In fact, I believe it was mentioned that time there moves much more quickly than here. He seemed quite anxious to get back to Hiro and Kally because of this."
Wasabi let out a loud sigh. "Even better! Now we have absolutely no idea how long they've been in there. For all we know, it could have been years! And if they're timing is so offset from ours, how in the world are they supposed to know when to open up whatever it is on their side so we can go storming in to their rescue?"
Fred gave a somewhat agreeable nod. "He does make a good point. I mean what if time has passed so much faster in there that they're now as old as our grandparents? That would totally suck!"
GoGo rolled her eyes at him. "I somehow doubt that's a possibility," she retorted. "She didn't say time moved that quickly there, just that it moved differently. But, like Wasabi said, it does make things more difficult on the timing."
"Perhaps you are all over-thinking the situation," JARVIS spoke up.
Tony gave a humorless laugh. "Oh? And why would you say that?" He looked up towards the nearest camera so he could give his AI butler a look.
"The greater risk lies with Hiro and Kally," JARVIS reminded. "While their time is accelerated, they will have to wait longer for outside forces to be in place. This will, of course, cause them complications in their plans. From what Sam has reported back to us, I gather there is some kind of plan in the works on their end. From their perspective, they must wait for our forces to be in place, with no idea of how or when that might happen."
Natasha nodded. "It makes sense. If this source can be trusted not to double-cross anyone." She folded her arms as she contemplated the map once more. "If we're going to give them the best chance, we need to move as soon as possible and put our forces in place and hope it gives them the right amount of time to do whatever it is they're doing on the inside. I'm sure we'll know if they succeed."
"That is precisely what I was trying to get across," JARVIS confirmed.
Wasabi shook his head. "I don't know guys. That's still a lot of ifs. I mean, what if we don't get there in time?"
GoGo looked around, her expression serious. "Then I suppose that means we need to get going as soon as possible."
Tony began pacing again, everything filtering through his brain in an attempt to make some semblance of sense. "I think you're both right," he finally agreed. "Better sooner than later. Any wait time we have will surely be less than what they have to deal with. But I still don't like the idea of bringing you kids along."
Fred stood from his spot on the couch. His expression was serious as he faced his older friend. "We already told you we're going," he asserted. "You'll have to tie us up to keep us here."
"We've already been over this," Thor reminded. "Let them come. I am certain they will find a way regardless of how you try to restrain them."
Tony rolled his eyes dramatically. "Fine. But don't say I didn't try to avert a potential catastrophe."
Honey worried her lip, hands wringing in her lap. "I only have one question," she inserted. "What are we going to do about Hiro's aunt?"
