Chapter Eighty Five: Goodbye
Darkness, murky darkness filled Hiro's senses and he wasn't sure he'd done it right. Everything was dark, tinged with hints of a poisonous green. It reminded him of Ms. Kendrick and the miasma from Rachel mixed together. But then the black wasn't quite the same, more a murky brown than black, now that he thought about it. Perhaps it was the signature of the woman who'd set the bomb to detonate. And if he could push past that, then maybe he could reach the code.
He pushed himself further into the data stream, the murkiness giving way to blue waves of energy dissimilar to the Tesseract, but also not at the same time. A metallic tinge filled the air and he swam towards the largest concentration. Unlike his time in the Hydra base, the area was confined by the technology making up the bomb. There were no external connections.
Silence permeated his sphere of existence. Not even the external beeping of the bomb made its way here. It was just him and the code.
Like a surgeon trying to remove cancer from a body, Hiro delved into the largest congestion of code, removing bits here, bits there, rearranging things. He had no way of knowing how time passed here as compared in the waking world. All he knew was that he had to trick the code into either deactivating the bomb, or giving them enough time to either taking it far enough away it wouldn't hurt anyone or where they could safely deactivate it. He preferred the first option, but it was complicated. Not as complicated as the system in Hydra's base, but still not simple either.
Around him, the sounds of people moving, talking, tried to invade his thoughts, distracting him from the matter at hand.
"Focus," Tadashi's voice said in his ear.
Hiro didn't respond. Instead, he focused on shutting out any distractions, limiting the connection he had with his body so he could focus on the task at hand.
"I didn't really mean to kill all of those people," Rachel's voice echoed up out of nowhere. "I only wanted to belong to a cause. That's why I made them."
Sadness welled up in Hiro as those words impacted his mind. They weren't spoken, per se, but he could hear her voice as if she were right next to him. All of her regret, all of her desires. They were written into the code. All she'd wanted was to be noticed, by her parents, by her peers. Noticed and accepted, but she hadn't really known how to let them.
Now was not the time for that. Hiro pushed those thoughts aside for later. He had a task at hand that needed finishing. Or no one would make it home.
"I'm here," Loki said in his mind. "What do you need?"
The intrusion was not unwelcome, or unexpected. "Here," the teen said. "Hold this here." He indicated a string of code with one mental hand.
Loki was only happy to comply as he watched Hiro snip code here, reattach it there. The skill he saw was truly awe inspiring. Part of him had the temerity to wonder if this was how JARVIS worked, a consciousness able to slip into the stream of information. But he shook the thought aside, not wanting to distract his partner.
A few more strings of code wafted by, Hiro grabbing them and attaching them in a fashion Loki didn't understand. Perhaps Kally would, but there was no real time to wonder about that as Hiro's soul pulled back from the code as if studying his handiwork.
Before Loki could ask if he was done, the teen moved back in, rearranging a few things, snipping a few more. Bits of code drifted free, flowing away from the whole. And then the teen pulled back once more. This time Loki knew he had finished. He'd done his best and now it was time to go back and see if it was good enough.
Back in the tent, Honey pursed her lips as Loki seemed to sway where he stood. She braced him as best as she could, noting that his eyes were closed. She wasn't sure but thought it possible that Loki was somehow trying to help Hiro and she wanted to do everything possible to let that happen.
From outside the tent, sounds of approaching feet sounded and Fred, GoGo, and Kally turned to face this new potential threat. The side of the tent ripped open as enemy combatants lunged forward, unaware of what their leader had done. All they knew was that their enemies were falling back, and they could only hope it was because they'd bested them.
"Protect Hiro!" GoGo called out as she launched herself at the nearest assailant. She swung, throwing disks in hand as she spun clockwise. Kally wasn't far behind her, with her retractable pole coming to bear.
Fred jumped in front of another foe, upsetting a table in his way. It went down with a crash but he ignored it as he spouted flame to keep his assailant back. "Take that!"
Honey punched in a bunch of equations on her chem purse and threw the resulting orbs at someone trying to sneak up on Hiro and Loki from the other side. The woman froze as foam hardened around her, making her immobile. Baymax blocked a bullet meant to hit Honey, the metal ricocheting towards one of the other attacking party near Fred.
More thunks, thwacks, and similar sounds followed as the Big Hero Six team fought to protect their leader. Men and women went flying under Kally's influence while others ran from Fred's fire breathing kaiju persona. GoGo clocked those trying to get away while Honey immobilized the rest.
"That countdown is getting really low," Honey commented as she glanced at the readout on the bomb display while typing in another chemical formula. "I hope that whatever Hiro's doing, he hurries."
Heat began to radiate out into the tent as the numbers counted down. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.
Hiro's body convulsed as he took in a huge lungful of air. His eyes opened, glowing blue, Loki reacting in tandem.
Six. Five. Four.
The teen removed his hand from the bomb and inscribed a symbol into the air, one Kally might have recognized had she been looking. Then, with as huge an exhalation as possible, Hiro clapped his hands together around the bomb, the sound seeming to shatter the air around them.
Something rippled through the air like a heat haze, only going out in a wave, like the anticipated blast. But no explosion occurred. The bomb seemed to warp, circuits fizzling and crackling as some inner fire ate them up from inside, the code destroying itself like a cancer.
Another pop, like the air pressure suddenly equalizing, sounded, and the bomb turned into slag under Hiro's hands. A wave of energy pushed all those near it to the ground, including Baymax, who toppled like a block tower knocked by a toddler's hands.
Silence filled the void, a high pitched ringing sounding in several ears as they lay there, stunned.
Thrusters reversed thrust as Tony Stark landed in the ruined ten, the roof blown away, poles flattened to the ground. "Please don't be dead," he repeated to himself over and over as he made his way to the nearest ally. It was Fred.
With a start, the mascot bolted upright, throwing his hood back as he sucked in air. He stared in shock for a moment, registering that Tony was there. He scrambled to his feet, looking around for GoGo, skirting around debris to reach her side. A slight limb punctuated his movements.
Kally opened her eyes with a start, staring up into Stark's worried face. When he offered her a hand up, she didn't refuse it, groaning as her body tried to adjust to the injuries she'd received from flying back against a chair.
GoGo had a trickle of blood running down the side of her face where a piece of shrapnel had cut her, but looked otherwise unharmed, just stunned. Fred knelt by her side, cradling her into his arms as she regained consciousness. She didn't push him away.
For her part, Honey had somehow managed to cushion her fall with a chem ball she didn't remember creating. She shook her head to clear the stars and slowly got to her unsteady feet. "Hiro?" she called out, looking around the devastation.
Loki had somehow remained behind Hiro, and how had him cradled in his arms as they both lay, unconscious, on the ground. Whatever blast the teen had created to displace the bomb's reactions had thrown them both back, severing any connection they'd both had with the bomb.
Baymax took a few minutes to reactivate and regain his feet. The blast had forced his system to shut down a failsafe Hiro had created should such an event occur, though how the teen had known one might was beyond him. He waddled towards his number one patient, scanning everyone as he went. Most of the enemy combatants were dead.
The teen groaned as he heard his name called, his eyes slowly opening. He had to shade them against the sudden brightness of the overhead sky. "Ugh," he said, letting his arm fall back as he closed his eyes once more. "My head is killing me."
Underneath him, Loki shuddered, his arms subconsciously tightening around the person in his embrace, before relaxing at the realization that the worst was over. "If it weren't for the fact I don't feel like moving right, I'd have shoved you off already," he said in a weak voice to Hiro. "As is, I'm having a hard time breathing, so if you wouldn't mind…"
Hearing that, Hiro did his best to roll to one side so he wasn't pressing down against Loki's chest. They both took in large breaths as they now lay side by side.
"Your injuries appear to be minimal," Baymax observed, "considering recent events."
GoGo suddenly woke in Fred's arms, struggling a bit so that he almost dropped her, until she realized they were safe. She gave him another minute to hold on before requesting he put her down, only to end up in his embrace.
After a full minute hug, everyone else starting at them, or trying to move, or not move, Fred released GoGo from his arms and went down to one knee. "I've been trying to find the right time to ask you this but I think I've realized there's no real one right time." He paused, swallowing hard as nervousness tried to assert itself. He quickly pulled his arms back into his suit, pulling the ring he'd kept in his pocket out for inspection. "GoGo Tomago," would you do me the honor of becoming my partner in crime for life?"
The adrenaline junky stared at him for a moment, her expression shocked before she slugged him in the shoulder. That elicited a grunt of pain from Fred but he didn't seem to mind as she pulled him towards her to give him a rather passionate kiss, not caring who else saw.
"I think that's a yes," Honey said, a small smile on her face as she extracted herself from the ground.
Tony strode over to Fred, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "Congrats," he said before moving on to Hiro and Loki's location.
The sound of people crashing through the trees diverted the majority's attention as Chloe Decker, accompanied by Lucifer, made their way into the battle ground. "See, Detective," the devil said as they walked, "they're fine."
Chloe's crutch caught on something and she almost stumbled but Lucifer steadied her and they continued on. "You could have let us know," she admonished as they got close enough, noting that GoGo and Fred were embracing each other.
With Tony and Baymax's help, Hiro sat up, leaning against the robot, not quite ready to regain his feet. "Wasn't time," he grunted, looking a bit pale.
"You've been radio silent for close to ten minutes," Lucifer pointed out. "When you didn't answer after five, the Detective insisted we look into the matter."
Hiro looked over towards Tony, who was helping Loki to a sitting position now, and looking less than thrilled with it. "Were we really out that long?"
Tony grunted, shoving a ruined stool behind Loki's back before calling it good enough. "Yes," he confirmed. "I circled the parameter to make sure everything was secure before popping down. Had to drop off a prisoner while I was at it."
"You did get her then?" Hiro couldn't help but ask, not knowing what had happened to the terrorist cell leader while he'd tried to defuse a bomb.
"She wasn't happy about it," Tony confessed. "But she's in police custody as we speak."
Jack joined them; also having been thrown by whatever force Hiro had created to negate the bomb's forces. He'd had an unfortunate incident involving a tree branch but was better. "I've got a cleanup crew coming in," he announced to no one in particular. "Time to head back to headquarters."
"Gonna need a minute," Hiro confessed. He didn't know where the energy he'd used came from but it had left him more than a little weak. He wasn't going anywhere under his own power for a while. Loki looked to be in the same fix.
It took some finagling, but they were finally able to get everyone safely back to the command tent and the nearby transport vehicles. A medic looked over all those who had survived, with commentary from Baymax about everyone's conditions. Once everyone was assessed, they packed themselves back into the trucks and headed back to the city.
Cass almost paced as she waited for word. They'd kept tab as much as possible via the comms Hiro had set up her for her and Wasabi, but it had been nerve racking waiting to see how everything ended. And even though she knew exactly when they'd headed back to the Los Angeles police precinct, she couldn't help but impatiently wait for Hiro and his friends to return to her.
Several hours passed before everyone was allowed to return to Stark's California mansion. But Cass was there to greet them when they arrived, only hobbling a little thanks to her knee. She'd thought about shedding the brace but then decided not to as she waited for her nephew to enter the house under his own power.
At the precinct, while debriefing everyone, Jack somehow provided lunch, which had helped out a lot. The painkillers a medic had given him also helped with the headache, which he suspected would take longer to go away, but Hiro was more than willing to let his aunt hold him in her arms for as long as she wanted.
When things began to get uncomfortable, Cass pulled away, only to pull Loki into a hug as well. "Thank you," she whispered into his ear, relief filling her that they'd both made it back to her.
While they were hugging it out, the others made their way into the back of the house and their respective rooms to change and shower. Each walked a bit stiffly but with a sense of pride in their steps. Reminded of the necessities, Cass let Loki and Hiro go so they could also clean up. She anxiously waited for them all to return and give their accounts of what had happened.
Halfway through explanations, once all were clean again, Chloe Decker joined the party, along with Lucifer and Jack. Tony sat off to one side while the Big Heroes had shared their story with the alarmed Wasabi and shocked Cass. The interruption of the others wasn't unwelcome.
"We've handed off their leader to the FBI," Chloe reported. "She's going to go away for a long time. And we were able to recover the bomb plans."
Lucifer gave her a bit of a nudge, that almost made her trip over her crutch. She gave him a look before continuing, having to clear her throat as she begrudgingly thanked them for helping them out. "The FBI is looking for the remaining people in her group, but I think we can safely say it's now all over. You can go home now. If you want."
GoGo and Fred sat next to each other but looked at Chloe as she spoke. "Good to hear," the adrenaline junky stated. "We need to start planning a wedding." She gave Fred a knowing look, not quite admiring the simple ring on her finger.
"We'll probably be heading home soon anyway," Hiro spoke up. "It's been a long week but I doubt Aunt Cass wants to trust the café to anyone for any longer than necessary. Isn't that right, Aunt Cass?" he glanced towards the woman in question.
Cass turned a bit pink, though that might have been from Loki putting an arm around her shoulders. "I wouldn't mind getting back to work," she admitted. "And since the threat is gone, maybe sooner is better than later."
Loki tried not to squirm as he thought about the contents of a letter given to him by one Dirk Gently. He had things to set in order if anyone was going to come of it, but he wasn't yet ready to admit it.
Chloe moved to leave but turned back, holding out a large envelope. "The mayor wanted to offer you all commendations for bravery," she stated, setting the envelope down when no one immediately reached for it. Sure she'd said everything she needed, she turned to go once more. "Let's go, Lucifer," she called as she headed for the door.
Lucifer gave a sidelong glance, then a pointed look towards Loki. "We should have a chat," he said. He flipped a card towards the Asgardian. "In case you forgot my number." He then followed Chloe out of the room.
"What was that all about?" Cass wondered, looking up into Loki's face.
The Asgardian gave a nonchalant smile. "I'll tell you about it someday," he promised. "Just not today." And to take her mind off of it, he pulled her closer against him.
Tony let out an exclamation of disapproval before leaving the room. She was an adult, even if he didn't approve of her choices in men. There was really nothing more for him to do there.
"We should head home tomorrow," Cass sighed. The café needed her, and the others needed to get back to their lives. School was starting soon.
Kally gave them all a shrug. She was the only one left there out of those from her school. And, until Tony was ready to send her home, she had to wait. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready for bed." She stretched as she stood, heading towards her assigned room.
After some dithering, the others agreed that sleep would be a good idea and each left the room, leaving Cass and Loki alone. Neither seemed inclined to move from their current position on the couch. But once the others were gone, Loki stood and turned to face her.
"I have some things I need to take care of back on Asgard," he confessed. "And until those matters are settled, we can't be together."
Cass kept her expression carefully neutral, not sure what he wanted to really say. That she was attracted to him was obvious. But she still wasn't certain about his feelings for her. After all, he was the god of mischief. He did have a reputation.
"But when those matters are taken care of," Loki continued, "I want to return to your side."
Her heart palpitated inside her chest. Did that mean he really had feelings for her too?
As if to answer that question, Loki leaned in and gently kissed her on the lips. "I will return for you," he whispered before turning and leaving the room.
Cass touched her lips, her expression thoughtful as he faded from sight. She hoped he wouldn't be away for too long.
Morning came far earlier than some wanted, but it was time to go home. The van was packed, breakfast eaten, when Tony emerged to see them off. He pulled Fred off to one side as they others headed to the van.
"I wanted to apologize for some of my behavior," he said to the mascot. "I assumed a few things that I shouldn't." He glanced towards the van, where GoGo was giving Fred the "hurry up" look. He patted Fred on the shoulder. "She's the perfect choice for you. I expect an invite to the wedding."
Fred colored with pleasure. "You got it," he said as he shook hands with his billionaire friend before rejoining the others.
"What was that about," GoGo wondered as she slid into the van behind him. All she got was a shrug and a happy smile in return.
Kally stood off to one side as Hiro finished loading Baymax's case under one of the seats. "I wish we'd had more time," she said.
"We can always write," Hiro laughed. "But, just so you know, I don't have feelings for you like that. Not like Fred and GoGo. I mean I had a crush on you when we first met, but I think I'd rather have you as a friend."
Kally looked a little taken aback at that comment, giving him a wistful smile. "It's a start," she agreed. "And, who knows, maybe, someday, you'll change your mind."
"Maybe," Hiro smiled. "I just don't want to think about that kind of stuff right now. Maybe after I've graduated college in a year. There's just so much going on right now. But you're always welcome to be a member of our team."
She gave him a playful punch in the arm. "Alright," she agreed. "Guess that's the best I'm going to get for now. But don't forget you promised. Don't forget to write."
They hugged each other before Hiro took his seat in the van beside Wasabi, who wasn't in any condition to drive with his cracked ribs. Baymax sat on his other side, to keep an eye on things.
"We're all ready when you are," Honey Lemon called from the front passenger seat out the open window. She'd already given hugs and goodbyes.
Cass gave her final thanks to Tony for hosting them after the first few bombs before taking her place in the driver's seat. If nothing else, the past week had been memorable. She briefly touched her lips once more, remembering that oh so sweet kiss Loki had given her the night before. It was a promise. Someday they would be reunited and it would be as more than just friends.
"Let's get this show on the road," Cass declared as she started the engine. With luck, they'd be back home before they knew it. In the meantime, she had a lot to think about and most of it made her smile.