Episode Thirty-Seven

"Scan complete," replied Baymax after a couple of minutes. "There is a storm drain three hundred metres to the west." A map indicating the location of the storm drain appeared on his chest.

"OK," said Hiro, "let's go." He started walking and the others followed him. It took them them twenty five minutes to reach the storm drain, partially as a result of Baymax' slow gait. They could have crossed the Sycorax compound more or less directly and gotten to the storm drain in half the time, but they were uncertain as to how much attention they would attract doing this. As it was, none of the pedestrians streaming in the opposite direction toward Night Market Square and the entertainment district seemed to take more than a passing interest in a gaggle of teenagers, followed by two older men and a large white robot walking down the street.

They eventually worked their way around to the far side of the Sycorax campus. They eventually came to an open air concrete culvert. It was wide and mostly dry at the bottom, save for a few puddles here and there. It had rained the night before.

"The storm drain is one hundred metres this way,"said Baymax, pointing.

They carefully picked their way down the steep concrete bank of the drainage culvert. They reached the bottom, turned and eventually reached the storm drain that Baymax had detected earlier. They were brought up short up reaching the entrance to the storm drain. The mouth of the tunnel was blocked by a heavy metal grate. Hiro frowned and turned to Baymax. He began to say, "Baymax, see if you can find another way in," but stopped. Zack had unslung the heavy backpack he had been wearing all afternoon. He put it on the ground, opened the top flap and began rummaging through its contents. A piece of paper taped to the inside of the top flap read:

If lost please return to

Milo Murphy

5521 Druid Drive,

Danville, USA

06743

"So, this is Milo's backpack?" asked Hiro.

Amanda nodded. "Milo goes everywhere with his backpack," she said. "He repacks his backpack every day."

"So it's like his tool box?" asked Wasabi.

Zack's head was buried in Milo's backpack and his voice was slightly muffled as he answered, "yeah, kind of." Zack frowned slightly as he sifted through the contents of Milo's backpack. Among other things he found an extra sweater, Milo's usual spare change of clothes, a pair of steel toed boots, Milo's first aid kit, splints, bandages, several of Diogee's chew toys, several flashlights and a handful of batteries

"Milo's pretty good at planning ahead,"explained Melissa, as Zack continued to search through the contents of Milo's backpack. "He basically lives out of his backpack-,"

"Yeah,"said Zack in agreement, "I thought that he might have packed-," Zack's hand closed over something hard and cylindrical attached to a long length of heavy duty rubber hose. He pulled the object in question of Milo's backpack. "-yes," he said triumphantly, "a cutting torch."

Ferb immediately took Milo's cutting torch and the attached bottle of propane from Zack. "You might want to step back," he said. Everyone else took about ten steps back. He produced an pair of welders' goggles from somewhere and walked over to the heavy metal grate blocking the entrance to the storm drain. A bright blue flame appeared at its tip and sparks flew as he touched the nearly white hot flame to the metal.

Hiro, Fred, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Go Go traded surprised and impressed looks. Evidently Milo was much more resourceful than they had been initially led to believe. "So, what made him think to pack a cutting torch?" asked Go Go.

Zack, Melissa and Amanda all chuckled. "Good question," replied Melissa. "I've been friends with Milo since we were six, and honestly I can't figure out how he does it."

"So what happens if he packs the wrong stuff?" asked Wasabi, "I mean that must happen sometimes, right?"

"Not according to Milo," replied Zack, "well, OK," he amended, "it happened last year."

"Oh you mean that time you wound up dangling upside down from a statue?" asked Melissa with a chuckle.

"Yeah," replied Zack shortly. He preferred not to remember that incident.

Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda had volunteered to clean up Hamilton G County park after the school football field had been flooded with maple syrup and the school picnic had been threatened with cancellation. Murphy's Law had hit almost immediately and Zack had wound up suspended upside down from a statue. To his own very great surprise, Milo had packed mostly the wrong things in his backpack.

"Yeah, it happens occasionally," replied Melissa in agreement, "but it's pretty rare."

"That is statistically impossible,"interjected Baymax calmly. "It is not possible for an adolescent human to have to the predictive capabilities that you ascribe to Milo."

"Yeah, I have to agree with Baymax," replied Hiro. "No offence, but as far as I know that's not supposed to be possible." Hiro was interrupted by a defeating crashing as the storm drain grate fell inward.

Everyone flinched at the sound. Somebody must have heard that, thought Zack uneasily. He rummaged through Milo's backpack again and handed out flashlights. Ferb handed him the cutting torch and the bottle of propane. Zack noticed that it was substantially lighter. He repacked Milo's cutting torch and shouldered his backpack. It was noticeably lighter.

"Well, when we find Milo, perhaps you can ask him,"said Melissa.

They approached the mouth of the storm drain. Zack stopped, suddenly feeling apprehensive. The storm drain yawned blackly in front of them. It seemed to swallow the light from their flashlights. Zack suddenly felt as if someone had placed iron bands around his ribs. He suddenly realized that Melissa and Amanda were looking at him with concern.

"Are you OK, Zack?" asked Amanda.

"Yes," he said, "I mean no, I-," he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Claustroavoidance again?" asked Melissa.

Zack nodded wordlessly.

"OK," said Melissa soothingly, "OK, just take a deep breath and think about Milo-,"

Zack inhaled and exhaled slowly, "right," he said.

"This is just a storm drain," said Melissa, "you remember that time you saved Milo and me from a cave-in in the subway?"

Zack nodded.

"This is just like that," said Melissa.

"We're right here beside you," said Amanda. She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Melissa nodded. "Amanda's right," she said. "You've got us and Milo's backpack and Cavendish and Dakota."

"Right," said Zack. "Right," he said again, this time with more confidence. "We're going to find Milo and everything's going to be fine." He took a tentative step forward and then another and another. Together, the three of them walked into the dark tunnel. The light from their flashlights played over the bare concrete walls and their foot steps echoed loudly. Zack continued to take deep steadying breaths. The weight of Milo's backpack on his shoulders was a comforting presence against the oppressive darkness, which their flashlights seemed to only just hold at bay.

"So how did the three you become friends with Milo?" asked Hiro. He was slightly surprised that he had asked the question, but at the same time, he couldn't help but like Milo's friends. The relationship they seemed to have with Milo reminded him a little of the relationship he had once had with his older brother, Tadashi, before he had been killed.

"Huh-," said Zack, who, was grateful for the momentary distraction, "oh, I moved into Milo's neighbourhood last year. We met at the bus stop at the end of Milo's street. We were almost run over by a section of concrete drainage pipe and eventually ended up in the sewer."

Amanda paused, wondering how to answer. She had peripherally know Milo since they had both been in the first grade, but she had always kept him at arms' length on account of his condition. Amanda had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder when she was seven. To any outsiders, that would have seemed to make a relationship between Milo, with his reputation as a walking disaster magnet, and Amanda, with her obsessive perfectionism, extremely unlikely. "I can thank Zack and Melissa for that,"she said at last with a small chuckle. "They roped me into planning his birthday party last year, and the rest is history."

"Oh, that sounds so nice," gushed Honey Lemon.

Zack nodded. "Milo's family doesn't usually do big celebrations-,"

"Really?" asked Hiro. That seemed to Hiro to be a bit lonely, but he thought it might a bit rude to actually say it.

Melissa nodded and continued "-Murphy's Law makes family gatherings complicated for Milo's family. Milo surprised his parents for Christmas last year by flying his his grandparents, his aunt and uncle and one of his cousins in to Danville for Christmas. The more Murphys there are in one place, the more chaotic everything gets, so they don't get together that often. It was kind of a big deal."

"That's a really a nice gesture," said Hiro, a little wistfully. He still missed Tadashi. "So what about you," he asked Melissa, "how did you first get to know Milo."

Melissa shrugged. "Actually, my story isn't that much different than Zack's," she said. "We were six, and we met on the way to school. Murphy's Law hit and a rocket engine became lodged on the roof of the school bus. We were thrown through the emergency door. Milo's grappling hook got caught on the back bumper and-,"

She was interrupted by the sound of Cavendish dropping his flashlight. It hit the concrete floor with a loud clatter and rolled away casting wild shadows all around them. The two former time agents looked at each other in surprise for a moment that seemed to last for several eternities. "You were thrown," finished Cavendish. It was not a question. He walked over to where his flashlight had stopped and picked it up.

Zack and Melissa looked at each other in confusion. "Cavendish, how did you know that?" asked Melissa.

"The two of you were airborne," continued Dakota.

Melissa nodded. "We were being dragged behind the school bus. It took a corner too fast and-,"

It suddenly clicked. "You two were there weren't you," asked Zack.

Cavendish nodded. "It was my time vehicle driving test," he said.

"The driving test is the last stage in the time agent training program," explained Dakota.

"Yes," said Cavendish, "in order to become a fully fledged time agent it is necessary to be able to operate a time vehicle safely." He paused and shot a sidelong glance at Dakota. "I nearly failed my driving test because someone wanted a burrito."

"Hey," Dakota held up his hands in mock defense, "I was hungry," he gestured at Melissa, "and we probably saved their lives."

"Yeah," said Melissa, "I-uh-thanks."

Cavendish waved away Melissa's thanks, "there's no need to thank us," he said. "We were just doing our jobs."

"Yeah," said Dakota in agreement, "what are you gonna do."