Paige situated the earwig into Hiro's ear. "We'll talk you through it if you get into a sticky situation, okay bud?"
"Yeah, yeah. I've gotten out of them on my own," he shrugged.
"But you're going to let us help you this time. Okay?"
He shrugged again, grabbing his fighter bot and fiddling with the controller. Gallo gave him a few more instructions before Hiro left the black van, followed by Toby. The door flew open again, and Walter gave Toby a warning look.
"Toby..."
"What? I should be there to watch and make sure nothing goes south, and I wanna see how these things go down." he pulled a small, clunky robot from his leather coat pocket. "Plus, Happy made me a present to use tonight."
"It's got a camera in the face of it and will let us see all of the people involved in the bot fight." Happy explained. "It's not nearly as crappily-built as it looks, trust me."
"I helped build it, and can guarantee its design is infallible," Hiro puffed his chest out a bit.
"If you bet away your month's worth of wages, you're not getting reimbursed. Betting at these fights is illegal," Gallo warned.
"I won't..." he promised. When the van door shut, he pulled two fifty-dollar bills from his pocket. "This enough to get both of us in, kid? Don't tell Gallo."
Hiro grinned, grabbing the one bill he offered him. "Yep. And my lips are sealed."
"Welcome one and all to the fifteenth bi-monthly Yakunan Robotics Fight!" a wiry man with a bullhorn announced. "Twenty-five dollar registration fee per entry! Fighters, line up!"
Hiro looked around the group and stuffed the fifty into a baseball cap that was passed around, handing it to Toby. He saw a flash of a kabuki mask and cleared his throat. "Him. Yokai. Ten o'clock, Curtis." He smirked at Toby's last name.
"Okay," Toby mumbled, refraining from looking directly at him. Instead, he picked his robot up over the crowd, appearing to aim it towards a street light - the same light Yokai was standing by. "Hmm, this thing won't turn on. Do you see this?"
Happy's voice came in over Hiro's earwig, as well as Toby's. "Crystal. Yokai?"
"Yup. It's not turning on." he glanced at Hiro and shoved him with his elbow. "Kid, help me out."
Hiro caught on and figured out his play. "Dude. Just press that button right there."
"Oh! Okay," he nodded, pressing a button that sent a photograph to the group at the van before he pressed the on/off switch, which was wired right beside the photograph button.
Hiro smirked. This was pretty cool after all.
The fight wore on into the early morning hours, but Toby and Hiro were both in the final running for the grand jackpot...against Yokai.
"We've got a spectacular tie between Curtis, Hiro, and Yokai...who's going to win? It's a fight to the death, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer boomed. "Our first round will be between Hiro and Yokai."
Hiro sat cross-legged, setting his robot on the pavement between him and the masked man. Yokai set his nearly identical robot down and flicked a double deck out on his controller.
"Heard you stole your design from a professor. Isn't that illegal?" Yokai asked him. Hiro held back a shudder as he met the man's cold gray eyes. How did he know? Only if he was Callaghan.
"Isn't this illegal, too? By the way, you look like you stole your design from me, so..." he shrugged. "Shall we?"
They fought it out; the robots dancing around the small area between the opponents in some sort of ninja-death-dance. To Hiro's surprise, the opposing robot pulled out a small sledgehammer that packed a surprising punch...and Hiro's bot was mashed into the pavement.
"And Hiro is disqualified!" the announcer screamed. "There's a first time for everything! Sorry, kid! Curtis, you're up!"
Hiro bowed to Yokai and gathered the remains of his robot. He'd disabled the rebuilding option on his robot just so Curtis could do this. He'd turn it on later and let his robot rebuild itself.
Toby sat down. "I'm kinda...new at this, so...heh." he shrugged his shoulders up nervously, despite the fact that he'd beat almost every single person at the match. Yokai in turn jerked his chin up, and obvious sign of aggression.
"Then let's get this over with, eh?" he punched buttons on his controller, and the robot tottered forward. Toby started fumbling over his controller, giving Yokai the upper hand until the last possible moment. At that point, he pressed an 'X' on the controller, and his fighter bot went berserk. Pulling out a miniature ball-and-chain, it wrapped it around the other robot's head, clenching the chain until it crushed the head. Next, it sliced through the robot with a tiny saw repeatedly, disabling it.
"Okay, that...that...I think my buttons aren't working right, I didn't know it could even do that..." Toby stared with horror at the scene in front of him, trying to sell it. "But...I guess all's fair in love and war, right?"
"You're no dummy," Yokai growled. "You knew full well!"
"No, I-I...didn't, actually," Toby mumbled, standing up and putting his hands up.
"Scams and con artists aren't welcome here, you know that, right? Even an idiot could figure that out," Yokai stood and got in Toby's face. "Got it? So if you're a con artist, scram. Nobody messes with Yokai."
"Actually...someone is about to." Toby grinned, pulling the kabuki mask off of him in one swift tug. It revealed Professor Callaghan's face, just as expected.
Gasps surrounded them, and a few people scattered. The announcer, shaking, threw the bag of winnings towards Toby and ran.
Yokai - or Callaghan - was seething. He lunged for Toby, but Toby stepped around him, grabbing Hiro by the hoodie and yanking him along. "Run, kid! Run! Get to the van!"
They dove into the van and locked it. "Floor it," Toby yelled, panting and pounding the back of the driver's seat to get Gallo's attention.
He did, and Walter twisted in his seat to look at him. "What happened back there?"
"I took his mask off-"
"Nobody unmasks Yokai," Hiro explained.
"And he was gonna take care of us. We got out of it unharmed, though. And we got a nice little prize, too."
"Five hundred bucks!" Hiro grinned. "Right in that bag."
"I told you not to bet!" Walter scolded.
"I didn't, but I also won, and a lot of other people bet quite a bit," Toby said smugly. "Your robot was amazing, Happy."
"Yes it was," she nodded. "We got a good look at him and we have video proof that he's going to these bot fights."
"So what now? Can I go?" Hiro asked.
"Not yet, kid," Gallo said. "You have to stay with us until we bring Callaghan in for questioning. Plus, we're still trying to figure out what happened at the college the other night. We'll be bringing in Tadashi's friends tomorrow to question them, as well. But you did good, kid...both of you. We're one step closer to figuring out what's going on with this mess."