Episode Forty

Ten minutes later they were crossing the large lobby that dominated the building's main floor. The lobby was a mess. The floor was covered with shards of glass from where a large skylight had fallen in. Furniture that had once been arranged in elegant clusters was haphazardly scattered everywhere. An ornamental pond in one corner had in congruously caught fire and not yet gone out. The flames were crackling loudly. For a second Zack wondered why the fire suppression system hadn't put out the flames, then realized that the building fire suppression system had probably failed. They quickly wove their way through the debris that Milo had left in his wake and made their way outside. The trail of wreckage continued outside. As it was late at night, the Sycorax campus was mostly deserted. The trash bins were crumpled like empty pop cans and the light standard were twisted into abstract shapes. Chunks of concrete were scattered everywhere. Sirens wailed in the distance.

Hiro turned to Baymax."Where are the sirens headed?" he asked.

"There is a disturbance in Night Market Square," replied Baymax, as if this were about as interesting as reading the phone book.

"That's definitely not good," replied Hiro, his face etched with at this hour, Night Market Square would be full of people. Somebody could definitely get hurt, Hiro thought and he quickly made a decision. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly began tapping and swiping through his apps.

At the same time, Wasabi was digging his car keys out of his pocket. He cast a look at Cavendish and Dakota. "Can either of you drive stick?" he asked.

Cavendish raised a hand. "I can," he said.

Wasabi tossed the time agent his car keys. "Take my car," he said.

Dakota was Googling the directions to Night Market Square. Zack was almost yanked off of his feet as Dakota thrust out a big hand and grabbed Mi¡o's backpack. Zack started to say, "but what about-,"

He was cut off mid-sentence as Hiro said, "it's OK. We'll meet you there."

Zack regained his balance his balance and caught up with Cavendish, Dakota, Melissa, Amanda, Phineas and Ferb. He cast a look over his shoulder at Hiro and his friends. They were all looking at the sky, as if they were waiting for something to happen. "So, what," he asked, "they're just leaving?"

"They'll meet us there," replied Dakota with a shrug. "C'mon, we gotta get going."

It took ten minutes to walk back where Wasabi's car was parked, in contrast the half an hour in had taken them to sneak into the building in the first place. The brightly lit skyscrapers strobed and pulsed with green and purple neon lights. They got in and Cavendish turned the key in the ignition. The engine came to life, Cavendish clunked his way through the gears, shifting into reverse and they backed out of the parking space. There was what seemed like an eternity of silence in the car. In actuality, it was only lasted as long as it took for Cavendish to pull into traffic.

Amanda took a deep breath and let it out slowly, as if she was weighing whether or not she should ask the question she clearly wanted ask. "What did they do to Milo?" she asked. She was sitting between Zack and Melissa looking straight ahead between Cavendish and Dakota in the two front seats. It was clear to everyone that the question was directed at Phineas and Ferb.

The two stepbrothers looked at each other. Zack got the impression that they were having a silent conversation. It wasn't the first time he had gotten that impression. They were very, very close, almost to the point of having a shared personality, even though they were very different in some ways, but Zack had the distinct impressing that they were arguing with each other, which was something that Zack had never known them to do. Ferb shrugged silently and Zack and Melissa both took that as a sign that Phineas had won the argument.

"I think they rewrote Milo's DNA," he said.

"But why would they do that?" asked Melissa.

That sparked something in Zack's memory. "Hiro said that Liv, or Di, or whoever she is, was selling 'upgrades.'" He paused. "What does that even mean. And how do you even know him any way?"

Phineas and Ferb exchange another glance, as if they were having another silent debate. After another minute or two of silence, Ferb shrugged again and Phineas spoke.

"We met Hiro the summer before last," replied Phineas with a shrug, "at a Mensa event in Danville." It wasn't lost on anyone else in the car that Phineas had chosen to answer Zack's second question first.

"OK," replied Melissa slowly, she traded a look with Zack, "but Hiro said she was selling upgrades. To who?"

Phineas frowned slightly, wondering how to answer Zack's question honestly without giving away what he suspected about Hiro and his friends. Hiro and Phineas occasionally bounced ideas and concepts off of each other. As far as Phineas and Ferb had ever been able to tell, Hiro didn't have the genius stepbrothers' lucky streak, but he was very smart and shared similar interests with Phineas and Ferb. Over the last year, however, Phineas had noticed a subtle shift in some of the ideas that Hiro had pitched him, such as a light weight carbon composite that Hiro had claimed was intended to be used as skin panels for a hypersonic suborbital aircraft. Phineas had reasoned that it certainly could be used that way, but upon closer examination, he had discovered that it was laced with titanium threads.

Phineas had quickly crunched the numbers and realized a metamaterial of the specifications that Hiro had sent him would stop anything up to a shoulder fired rocket without leaving a scratch. He had wondered why Hiro would be interested in such a material for an aerospace application when there were other less exotic materials that could easily do the same job. There had been several other similar projects, all of which Hiro had claimed were homework, that had struck Phineas as odd in various ways. There had been an advance exoskeleton that amplified the strength of the wearer by a factor of ten, along with a handbag that could synthesize any known chemical compound or complex molecule. Hiro had claimed that it was intended to be used by first responders to synthesize drugs in emergency situations, but the "chempurse," as Hiro had called it appeared to be capable of much, much more than Hiro had let on.

A slight frown creased Phineas' face. Zack, Melissa and Amanda were clearly much more perceptive than he had given them credit had worked out that there was more to Hiro than he let on, much quicker than Phineas and Ferb had. Phineas wondered if being Milo's closest friends had forced them to learn to read between the lines as a means of looking out for Milo and each other. This wasn't the first time Phineas and Ferb had intentionally concealed the truth either. The previous summer, while camping with their parents at Mount Nose State Park, Phineas and Ferb had proved the existence of the Lake Nose Monster. They had then chosen to bury the evidence of their discovery so that Nosey might be left in peace. Phineas' frown deepened slightly as he weighed whether or not he should tell Zack, Melissa and Amanda what he knew, or at least guessed about Hiro. Phineas opted for at least some of the truth.

"You guys are really perceptive," he said, clearly impressed at their reasoning skills. He nodded at Ferb. "It took us a lot longer to come to the same conclusion."

Zack, Melissa and Amanda all traded a look. "What conclusion is that?" asked Amanda.

Phineas momentarily hesitated. He suddenly found that he couldn't quite bring himself to say the word "superhero," it sounded a bit silly. He traded a look with his stepbrother that the others couldn't read. "We think that Hiro is doing something that he can't really talk about," said Phineas.

"Like what?" asked Melissa.

"We don't really know," replied Phineas.

"But we've noticed that many of the ideas that Hiro has pitched at us have…..alternate applications," said Ferb cryptically.

Phineas quickly rattled off a few of the ideas and projects that Hiro had shared with them. "And you've never asked him?" asked Zack.

Phineas shook his head. "No," he said. He nodded at his stepbrother again. "We've talked about it a couple times," he said, "but we're pretty sure he won't talk about it,"

Sounds like Reggie and his art, thought Zack, remembering how delighted Milo had been that Amanda had been able to convince Reggie to give Milo one of his drawings for Christmas.

Zack, Melissa and Amanda traded another look. "But you trust Hiro?" asked Amanda. She suddenly looked stricken. "I mean how do we-," she stopped suddenly. She apparently couldn't bring herself to say the words, "save Milo."

Zack and Melissa both looked at Phineas. The young genius's eyes flicked from Amanda, who staring woodenly ahead between Cavendish and Dakota again, to Zack and Melissa who were both staring earnestly at Phineas and Ferb.

Melissa looked Phineas squarely in the eye. She took a deep steadying breath. "Phineas," she began slowly, "Milo has been my best friend since I was six. Tell me than we can undo this."

Phineas and Ferb traded another look that Zack was unable to read. Ferb reached out and gently placed a hand on Melissa's arm. "It's going to be OK," he said quietly.

Phineas nodded in agreement. "Milo is our friend too," he said, "and we're going to get him back."

It didn't take very long to drive from where they had parked to the edge of the Night Market District, where they were stopped unexpectedly. "You'll have to turn around," said the police officer, shining a flashlight into the car.

"What seems to be the problem, officer?" asked Cavendish.

The police officer shrugged. "Supervillains, again," he said. "The Night Market District has been cordoned off." The man's gaze swept the occupants of the car and took in the baseball-sized lump on Dakota's temple, as well as Ferb's broken nose. Phineas was clearly favouring his left side. He suspected that he had bruised a couple of ribs. Zack, Melissa and Amanda were clearly looking worried about something. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

Cavendish nodded a little too enthusiastically. "Oh, yes, officer," he said, "everything is just peachy keen!"

The police officer studied them for what seemed like several eternities. In actuality, it was only a few seconds. "You need to turn around," he said again and he gestured in the direction of his partner who was playing the role of traffic cop.

Cavendish clunked Wasabi's car back into gear and, following the waved directions of the traffic cop, eased into the flow of traffic going in the other direction.