Chapter Sixty Five: Give Me Your Hand
The moment Tony left the room, Hiro slumped onto the mattress. He'd definitely not intended to do any of the things he'd done to Tony. But he was too tired to feel entirely shocked by everything, mentally that was. Physically, his body seemed fine. At least as far as he could tell.
"I don't suppose you could tell us how you did that?" Lucifer asked, staring at the youth. He'd thought it best to wait until after the billionaire had left to ask, sure Loki and his aunt would want to keep it on the down low.
Hiro looked up, at a loss for words. He lifted his shoulders, hands in the air a bit as he shrugged. "Not a clue," he finally managed. "And don't ask me to do it again because I somehow doubt I can."
Cass got a funny look in her eye. "You were bluffing?" For some reason, she couldn't help but feel impressed, but then he'd also had a lot of practice.
The teen shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe? I mean I'm sure I could have if push came to shove, but it didn't." And he looked glad it hadn't.
"Instinct." Loki looked thoughtful as he contemplated the possibilities. "That's the only explanation that fits. Though why you'd use it to defend me is still a mystery."
Hiro shrugged. "I don't know. I just woke up and felt this almost fire flowing through me. I was in Tony's face before I even realized what I was doing."
Lucifer's eyes widened at that admission. "That doesn't bode well. If you don't even know you're doing it, how can you even hope to control it?" H exchanged worried glances with Loki, not sure what to make of this new development.
For her part, Cass sat back and watched the exchange in growing degrees of consternation. "There's something you two aren't telling me, isn't there." She didn't ask it but looked directly at the two supernatural beings, a hint of fire in her eyes.
The Asgardian god knew it was probably inevitable, though he'd really hoped she wouldn't' confront him about it so early on in the game. A sigh escaped his lips as he wondered just how in depth he should go. Once she knew, there was no turning back. And there was no real way of knowing how she'd react to the idea that her nephew was a god, more powerful than anyone he knew. To be fair, he wasn't sure how Hiro would take it either and he found himself more than reluctant to say anything.
Lucifer opened his mouth to comment but held off as the door to the room opened once more, Tony barging in just like before. But instead of marching in like he owned the place, which he technically did, the billionaire almost seemed hesitant as he looked at Hiro, almost as if he wasn't sure what the teen would do. And then a new sense of determination appeared to fill him and he strode up to the teen, looking down at him with arms folded in his most gruff manner. "We need to talk."
Hiro went stiff, his entire body almost seizing as his muscles tightened. His mouth opened as if to speak but no sound came out as his eyes went wide, his pupils dilating to pinpricks while the rest of his eyes turned that same blue color as before.
Not at all sure what was going on, and fearing a repeat incident, Tony quickly backed up a few steps, almost stumbling into Lucifer, who had come up behind him. "What in the world?" Tony exclaimed
The next moment, Hiro's eyes closed, his teeth all but smashing together, his muscles straining as his whole body shook, almost as if he were having a seizure. His head tilted back and the most awful sound of screaming escaped from between his lips. Sweat beaded up on his skin as his entire body flushed with color.
Baymax waddled over while the others stared in shocked silence. "Hiro is experiencing a high energy state," he announced, feeling it unwise to touch his young charge until it was over.
A fumbling sound came from the hallway, with Wasabi appearing in the open doorway only a few moments later. He stared in shocked silence at the scene before him, his chest constricting to the point he almost couldn't breathe.
Once more, Baymax waddled around the room, heading towards Wasabi this time. "Please concentrate on breathing in and out slowly," he instructed the physicist. "In and out. In and out."
Hiro's screams changed to something more strangled as he clenched his teeth once more. His body fell back against the mattress, arms and knees coming up to his chest as if to hold himself together.
Tony stared in horrified silence. He'd heard the teen had episodes, but he'd never actually seen one in person. Watching a video didn't do them justice, nor as this like the one he'd seen from said video. It was so much worse, like a heat haze had overshadowed him, leaving him immobile as he stared at the spectacle before him.
For his part, Loki had to take a moment to pull himself back together. The attack had come as suddenly as any of the others, more so than several. He moved to reach over and touch the teen but pulled back. The amount of energy radiating from him was almost visible, like a miasma of snake-green smoke trying to strangle him. He balled his hands into fists, willing Hiro to fight whatever force was trying to overcome him, fight it and master it.
Wherever this energy was coming from, whatever its purpose, it seemed to be doing a number on Hiro, and that wasn't good. The teen wasn't ready for this kind of confrontation, not by a long shot. But, ready or not, he had to battle whatever it was that held him.
"Give me your hand!" Loki demanded, turning back to stare intently at Lucifer. The only other supernatural or god-like person in the room, he somehow knew their combined efforts were the only thing that could tether Hiro's soul. If Dirk had been there, he'd have pulled him into it too, but the man had an uncanny ability to be precisely where he couldn't help with these kinds of things.
Almost hesitantly, and decidedly not sure what Loki had in mind, Lucifer took the few steps between them and grasped Loki's outstretched hand. "What—"he asked, but didn't get a chance to finish as Loki reached out a hand and touched Hiro's leg.
Energy shot through the both of them like an overload of electricity. Their bodies went just as rigid as Hiro's was, every inch of them tingling painfully. Their eyes opened wide in tandem, mouths doing the same as their eyes shared the same blue of Hiro's. Identical screams came from their mouths, one lower in tone than the other, but in perfect harmony.
Tony reached out as if to join the human chain but Cass barked out a warning to stop. He stared at her like she'd gone mad. "Someone has to stop this!" he protested but her gaze rooted him to the spot. He could no more move than the other two could.
And then it was over. Like someone had thrown a switch, the three males went limp as one. Hiro, since he was already lying down, simply seemed to melt into an unconscious form resembling normal sleep. As for Loki and Lucifer, their bodies threatened to buckle to the floor, limbs feeling much like they'd turned to jelly.
Baymax was next to Lucifer in what seemed like a blink of an eye. "I have got you," he stated as he put his arms round the man's middle to support him.
Without thinking, Tony did the same for Loki, leaving the weight of the man pulling him down. Despite the Asgardian's slender form, he weighed more than the billionaire had thought possible, though it might have been from something besides the man's actual weight. He sort of staggered them both to the ground, landing with a bit of an oof.
Lucifer shook inside Baymax's supporting arms, shuddering from the sensation. "What in the world was that?" he asked with a shaky voice, his limbs feeling a bit steadier after only a few moments. His entire countenance appeared shaken, eyes still wide as he stared at the unconscious teen on the bed.
Sensing that Lucifer's strength was returning, Baymax released his hold on him. "Hiro has experienced an unknown energy influx," he stated. "I do not know why. However, the energy signature is similar to other incidents he has experienced over the past several days."
Tony looked up from the floor at that announcement, still uncertain of his ability to move. He felt like he'd experienced some kind of shock, whether metaphysical or something else, he wasn't sure. But his entirely body felt like static electricity tingled along it. "What does that mean?"
"It means Hiro's experienced another premonition," Loki answered, not quite able to move just yet, though he wasn't sad to feel Tony's arms release him. This particular incident seemed a lot more intense than any of the others, unless he counted the teen's collision with Dirk's energy. Something had somehow interceded there, but he doubted that was the case this time.
Cass struggled to her feet and made her way over to her nephew's side. "Is he… he isn't?" Her worry shown in her eyes as she hesitated to reach out her good arm to touch him, not sure if she'd receive the same kind of shock Loki and Lucifer had.
Before Baymax, or anyone else for that matter, could answer, Hiro sat up with a groan. "That was so not fun," he said in a gravelly voice. He put one hand to his head, wincing against the light. Unlike his previous experiences, he didn't feel quite like his body was made of water, but he wasn't about ready to stand up and dance around either.
"What did you see?" Loki asked, feeling his energy returning. He'd hoped by combining his strength with Lucifer, he could help relieve Hiro of the strain and it seemed to have worked. It was a gamble he'd hoped the devil had understood. And, from the looks of things, the man had suffered less of a backlash than he had, which was good. He'd intended to take the brunt of the impact when push came to shove.
"Sir," JARVIS spoke up from Tony's phone, "I have just had several requests for an update from the various security personnel on sight. I have told them to standby for now. Would you like me to tell them differently?"
Tony shakily got back to his feet, still not sure what had just happened. He rubbed his hands against his clothes, staring momentarily at Loki, not sure he felt willing to believe he'd helped the man. "No, tell them it was a false alarm. We don't need more people crowding in here." He turned to look towards the door, remembering Wasabi had witnessed everything.
Slowly, Tony made his way to the physics student, who looked a lot like a fish out of water. "Wasabi," he said as gently as he could, a hint of gruffness still in his voice he couldn't quite dispel, "take a breath. There's an explanation for all of this." Though why he was the one trying to reassure the man was beyond him.
Cass took up a seat next to her nephew, helping to support him against her good shoulder. "Sweetie, I know this may be hard at the moment, but Loki's right. We need to know what you saw."
The teen looked over at his aunt, his eyes back to normal. "Another bombing," he stated. "There's going to be more than one, all in the central part of the city. I saw one near the college campus the others are staying at, another at the arena the other hotel guests are at, and a third near a bunch of hotels." He shook his head as if to jog something loose. "There was something else too but it's all jumbled up, like I got a bad transmission or something."
"You don't happen to know when, do you?" Lucifer asked urgently. The usual amount of time between one of his 'visions' and the actual event had varied, though the gap had grown larger between each incident.
Hiro shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. I just know it's going to be sometime in the afternoon. I sun was casting a shadow indicating that."
"I need to call the Detective," Lucifer announced as he pulled out his cell phone and quickly moved into the hallway for some privacy. He almost ran into Wasabi, who was clinging to the door jamb like a lifeline.
Now that Lucifer no longer needed his services, Baymax waddled back to Wasabi and escorted him into the room and Cass's vacated chair. "There, there," he said. "It will be all right. Please continue to breathe in and out normally."
Wasabi tried to do as instructed, though what he'd walked into was so outside of anything he'd ever expected that his brain still had a hard time trying to wrap around it. He pointed a shaky finger at Loki. "When did you get here?"
Loki let out a bemused sigh. "I've been here the whole time," he confessed, momentarily transforming into the personae of Samuel Jackson, and then returned to his normal form. "I've been keeping an eye on Hiro all this time."
"And you knew about this?" Wasabi asked, pointing now at Cass and Hiro.
The two Hamadas exchanged brief glances before Hiro answered. "Well, yeah. I guess. I mean it was a mutual idea."
That seemed to give Wasabi pause. "Well, all right then," he finally said, looking a little calmer than he had before. "Do the others know?"
Hiro shrugged. "Maybe Kally? But we haven't told the others, though I guess we should now." He glanced questioningly at his aunt.
"Might as well," she sighed. "Do you want me to call them?"
But Hiro shook his head. "I think I should be the one." He looked over at Tony. "Do you know where they went?" He somehow knew they hadn't come back with him, partially because they hadn't come running when Wasabi had.
Tony looked as though he were still trying to wrap his head around everything. "They wanted to go see some of the museums," he said in a distracted manner.
"I will contact them," Baymax stated as a text icon flashed on his screen. "Your friends have been contacted." He didn't add that he'd silently communicated with Sammy to let them know the general gist of the situation. Chances were good that would get them back faster.
Lucifer reentered the room at that moment, looking grave. "The Detective wants more information," he stated. "I don't suppose you could tell me which hotel you saw being attacked." He didn't look like he had much confidence in that request but had to make it all the same.
Hiro pursed his lips in thought as he tried to look back at the images now scattering in his head. "It was tall," he hesitated, sure that wasn't exactly helpful. "It looked like one I'd seen in a movie or something before. Maybe somewhere near Hollywood? I'm not sure. I thought I saw the Chinese theater."
The information didn't seem to make the devil happy. "Spreading us thin," he muttered to himself. He wasn't sure they had enough people to cover that amount of ground without involving more local precincts. Well, it couldn't be helped if they were going to avert another catastrophe. "I really wish we had a better idea of when." Unfortunately, that meant the mayor's evacuation plan would come out in full force, extending to the neighboring areas.
As they were speaking, Chloe was relaying what information she could to the appropriate people. Chances were good they'd start evacuating immediately, which was sure to cause mass panic. "I need to get back to the precinct," the devil announced. "They're going to need all the help they can get to keep things from getting out of hand." With that announcement, he left the room.
Tony bit his lip, contemplating. Lucifer was right about them needing all the help they could get, which meant he needed to go help out. But that left Hiro and his friends. He felt a strong urge to forbid them from helping, but knew it would be ignored. At least Cass and Wasabi were likely to stay out of the fray, though he wasn't sure Hiro should join in with everything. At least they could rule out their group as a target, unless the enemy was trying to divide their forces so they could strike somewhere else while everyone else was distracted. The Big Guy would certainly help with matters, but that still left those who couldn't and shouldn't help unprotected.
"I'm leaving Krei's bodyguards here," the billionaire decided. "There's a bomb shelter in the basement if it comes down to it. I want you to promise me to go down there and stay there until everything is over."
Cass gave him an impassive look while she calculated what all that meant. Chances were good he meant to have all of them go down there and just wait things out, but that wasn't going to happen. "We'll do what we feel is best," she answered for the group.
Well, it would have to do, Tony thought. He didn't have time to argue. Chances were good they needed him out there to help get as many people away, or to look into those locations while everyone else got out of the way. He liked the idea of doing the latter better.
For a brief moment, he contemplated calling up the rest of his usual group, Natasha and the others, but pushed it aside. They were busy doing something else equally or more important. But he was going to call up the Big Guy and have him bring the other students to his house as a safety precaution. His mind made up, he had JARVIS call Bruce Banner.