Episode Forty Four

Zack hit the concrete with a jarring thud that made his teeth rattle. Stars burst in front of his eyes and the air was forcibly driven from his lungs as Milo landed on top of him. Zack lay very still for several seconds, slightly amazed that he was still alive. Milo wasn't moving. Zack gently pushed Milo off of him and tried to sit up. Everything hurt and his vision swam momentarily. He winced as his muscles protested loudly. Zack felt nauseous and he was pretty sure he had a concussion.

"Zack?! Are you OK?"

Zack was suddenly bathed in a pool of yellow light and looked up to see Melissa pointing a flashlight down at him. He nodded. "Yeah, I'm OK," he called up.

"What about Milo?" asked Amanda. "Is he-." She broke off, her concern was palpable in her voice and she couldn't bring herself finish her sentence.

Zack turned and looked at Milo, who was still unconscious. "I don't know," he called up. "Let me check." He took hold of Milo, rolled him onto his back and ran his hands over Milo's arms and legs, checking for broken bones. Milo's left leg stuck out at an odd angle and Zack guessed that it was broken. He put his ear to Milo's chest and heard the faint beating of his heart. The steady throb of Milo's heartbeat allowed Zack to relax, at least a little, despite his aches and pains. Milo was at least alive, and this wasn't the first time he had broken his leg, but whether or not the rest of what had been done to him could be undone, was a question that Zack didn't even know how to begin to answer. "I need Milo's backpack," he called up, "Milo has a broken leg. He usually packs bandages and splints in his first aid kit."

Dakota nodded. "We'll be right down," he said.

When they arrived where at the spot where Zack and Milo had landed after after their fall, it was with Hiro and Baymax in tow. Zack immediately jumped from where he had been sitting next Milo's unconscious form. He took Milo's backpack from Dakota, and together with Melissa, quickly rifled through it until he found Milo's first aid kit and extracted a splint and some bandages. As Melissa took the bandages and a splint from Zack, he noticed that her hands were shaking slightly and she was focusing intently on Milo's leg and not looking anywhere else.

Zack put hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be OK," he said. He couldn't decide of he was saying it because Melisa needed to hear it, or because he wanted to believe it himself.

"Is it?" asked Melissa, "I mean how do we even-" she trailed off, as if she didn't want to think about it.

Zack shook his head, "I don't know," he said, "but he's in there somewhere."

Melissa momentarily stopped what she was doing. She stared at Zack. "How do you know that?" she asked.

Zack tried to shrug, but it hurt too much and he stopped with a grimace. "He talked me," he said, "or tried to at any rate. He asked me to help him."

Melissa slowly let out a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding. She was about to say something when Hiro knelt down opposite Zack and Melissa. He cast an eye over Milo's scaly features. "Baymax, perform scan."

"What would you like me to scan for Hiro?" asked Baymax.

He eyed the splint that Melissa had applied to Milo's leg. "Scan for injuries," he said after a moment, "and scan for active parasynths."

The blue laser grid appeared, tracing over over Milo's body from head to foot. "Milo has multiple internal bruises, a concussion and his leg is broken in two places," replied Baymax.

Hiro nodded. "And what about the parasynths?" he asked.

"The parasynths are in a state of low activity," said the big robot calmly.

"So, is it safe to move him?" asked Zack.

"I believe it is," answered Baymax. "I have already called 911."

Zack didn't really have a clear recollection of what happened after that. He vaguely remembered Baymax gently lifting Milo as he were made of glass and walking down the long sewer tunnel feeling dizzy and tired. When they emerged into the open air, an ambulance and two paramedics had been waiting for them. Baymax gently deposited Milo on to a quickly checked his vitals and loaded him into the back of the ambulance. They then turned to Zack. They cleaned the cut on his forehead, bundled him into the back of the ambulance and made him lie down next to Milo. Zack figured he must have blacked out completely after that because he didn't remember anything else.

By the time Milo woke up, it was mid-morning. A bright shaft of sunlight was streaming through a window. A TV was mounted on a wall bracket in a corner. It was turned down very, very low. Milo had to strain to hear the newscaster.

"Big Hero 6 appeared in Night Market Square late last night, along with Momokasse, Mr. Sparkles and Noodle Burger Boy-."

"Hey, buddy, glad to see you back to normal."

Milo started slightly and looked around to see who had spoken. "Zack? What the-I-what happened? And where's my backpack? And my body armour?"He looked down at himself. He had suddenly realized that he was wearing a hospital gown over his underwear and nothing else. A second a later he realized that Zack was attired in the same way. There were stitches above his left eye. "Oh," he said looking sheepishly at Zack's stitches, "did I do that? I'm-."

Zack waved away his apology. "No, it's OK, Milo," he replied, "this wasn't Murphy's Law. I was thrown by, well, I'm not really sure what it was exactly."

Milo looked at his left leg, which was in a cast. "Where are we?" he asked, "and when did I break my leg? And-."

"How much do you remember?" asked Zack.

Milo thought for a second, trying to piece together what had happened to him. "Well, I remember being in a field in Danville with you. Then I blacked out. When I woke up, I was in that creepy lab, then I must have blacked out again. The next thing I remember was I in some kind of jail cell, and you guys showed up with my backpack." Milo paused. He had suddenly realized that his backpack was missing. "Where is my backpack?" he asked.

"Oh," replied Zack, "Dakota has it. Do you remember anything after that?" asked Zack.

Milo shook his head."No," he said, "I don't remember anything else until now."

Just then, the door opened and a gaggle of people piled into the room. Melissa and Amanda pushed through the little knot of people and threw their arms around Milo, almost knocking him backward on to his pillows. "Milo,"said Amanda, "thank god you're OK-."

Melissa nodded, "-yeah," she said. She took a steadying breath. "We were really worried about you."

Milo surveyed his friends. Ferb's nose was wrapped in bandages, Phineas's right arm was in a cast and there were bandages around his chest under his orange and white striped T-shirt. There was a lump on Dakota's temple and Cavendish had a black eye. They all looked disheveled, grimy and tired. After they had been patched up at the hospital, and Milo had been taken off to have the parasynths removed, Hiro, who had already been working with Karmi on a way to deactivate and remove the parasynths when she had been taken, had been able quickly develop an effective procedure for restoring Karmi and Milo. Afterwards, he had taken the others the his aunt's café, The Lucky Cat. Zack had wanted to go with them insisting that he was fine, but the ER doctor who had examined him insisted that he needed to stay in the hospital overnight for observation, due to his concussion.

Milo's nose wrinkled instinctively. They all carried the strong odour of a sewer. "So, what happened to you guys?" asked Milo. It took them half an hour to fill Milo in on everything he had missed. They took turns telling the story, but as if by unspoken consent Zack did most of the talking. When they were finished talking, Milo couldn't help but feel a little unaccountably guilty. He knew that the thought was irrational as soon as it occurred to him. He was, as ever, grateful that Zack, Melissa, Amanda, Cavendish, Dakota, Phineas and Ferb had flown across the country to look for him, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel a little bit responsible for what they had gone through anyway. Milo's thought's were interrupted by the sound of the door opening again. Everyone's head turned to see a boy of around Milo's age with a slender build, a dark blue hoodie, knee length cargo shorts, battered running shoes and an unruly mop of black hair. Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Baymax followed Hiro into the room.

"Hi," he said, "mind if we join you?"

"Oh, hi, Hiro," said Phineas. He turned to Milo. "Milo, this is Hiro Hamada. He's a friend of ours and he helped us find you."

Hiro shrugged. "It actually wasn't that hard," he said. "Baljeet's tracking algorithm needed some fine tuning, but it worked pretty well overall."

"What happened to you guys after we left Sycorax?" asked Zack. "I thought you were going to meet us at Night Market Square."

Hiro suddenly looked a little uncomfortable, and Zack once again had the sense that there was more the Hiro than he let on. He remembered the conversation that they had had with Phineas and Ferb and he thought he saw Melissa and Amanda exchange a look. He guessed that they still had the same questions about Hiro that he did.

"Yeah, we're really sorry about that," said Honey Lemon, with what appeared to be a slight pained look on her face.

Hiro shrugged. "We were caught up in the police cordon and they wouldn't let us through."

"So what happened to you guys after we got separated?" asked Wasabi.

For the second time in forty-minutes, Zack told them what happened. Wasabi suppressed a slight shudder and seemed to want to throw up a little. "I can't imagine anything worse than having to go down into the sewer."

Milo shrugged in response. "We end up in the sewer in Danville fairly often," he said. Wasabi shuddered again.

"Oh, that reminds me-," said Dakota.

Melissa nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Doctor Zone filter masks? Really, Milo?"

Milo chuckled. "I'm just glad they came in handy," he said.

"There's one other thing we found out," said Dakota slowly. Cavendish, Dakota and Melissa exchanged a significant look.

"What?" asked Milo.

Melissa took a deep breath. "We think that Cavendish and Dakota saved our lives."

Milo's face wore a look of momentary confusion. "What, yesterday?" he asked, "Yeah, thanks for tha-."

Melissa shook her head. "No, Milo," she said. "I meant when we were six."

Ten seconds of ringing silence fell over the room. Melissa thought that Milo looked a little like a deer caught in on coming headlights. He looked back and forth between Melissa and Cavendish and Dakota. "But, I-how did you-," he began.

Melissa shrugged and nodded at Hiro. "Hiro asked us how we become friends, so we told him."

Cavendish nodded. "Our story tallies perfectly with yours," he said. "A most remarkable coincidence."

"Yeah," said Dakota, nodding in agreement, "that's a weird coincidence."

"What," asked Milo, "does this mean something?"

"As we've been banned from using time travel, its hard to say for sure," replied Dakota, "but no it probably doesn't mean anything."