Chapter Seven: The Calm Before the Storm

"So is Hiro and GoGo really a new development?" Denise asked as she and Honey-Lemon sat in the backseat of one of Krei Tech's luxury cars as the driver took them to the police station. "Krei wasn't mucking about… entirely. I actually thought that they already were dating for the past few months."

"Aw," Honey-Lemon crooned before ruining the effect by giggling like a schoolgirl, "Does someone spend a lot of time thinking about us?"

"It's purely business," Denise said dispassionately, "My job is to make sure that you're all in optimal condition to fight and save lives. Monitoring your relationships is simply part of that job."

"Your devotion to our emotional wellbeing is touching," Honey-Lemon deadpanned.

"It's my job," Denise insisted.

"Denise, I'm just teasing," Honey-Lemon said good naturedly, "You're always so serious that it's pretty much the only way to get any kind of emotional reaction out of you." Denise rolled her eyes.

"I just don't think that work is a time for acting childish," she said coolly.

"Oh, boy," said Honey-Lemon, "I wouldn't say that around Fred or Hiro… Or me for that matter." She then deliberately smiled as childishly as possible at Denise. Her eyes suddenly widened as she noticed something. "Was that a smile?" she asked.

"What?"

"I think that I just saw a smile on your face," Honey-Lemon said triumphantly.

"There was no smile," Denise insisted.

"There was a smile, I know what I saw."

"It was a smirk," Denise said firmly, "Not a smile, a smirk."

~o~O~o~

"This is… wow. Why didn't you tell us that you were working on something like this?" Hiro asked in amazement as he admired Wasabi's work. It resembled a pair of silver rimmed sunglasses with a single green lens. The monitor was displaying the view that the cameras in the lens picked up with a heads up display that was currently monitoring the vitals of everybody present.

"I told you guys that this was just something I worked on when I was bored," Wasabi said, still smiling at the praise.

"I know but still, there has to be some serious code built into this," Hiro said, silently noting that he had once said almost the exact same thing when Tadashi had introduced him to Baymax.

"I've uploaded data on crimes committed all over the world from the past eighty years," Wasabi explained, "I've also had a couple of private investigators play around with the AI to give it some deductive reasoning."

"So this sucker's like Baymax?" Fred asked, "A full AI?"

"Not yet," Wasabi answered, "It's getting there though and soon if I actually put in some work. Although, speaking of Baymax, I did poke around with some of Tadashi's old notes about the big guy to get some pointers on starting up an AI."

"So what's are you calling this thing?" Hiro asked, "Because these things always need a name and since you're using some of Tadashi's notes it could be argued that this is Baymax's little brother or sister so I'm thinking that the name thing is kind of important."

"Fred, GoGo, Hiro," Wasabi proudly declared, "I'd like for you to meet Project Sentinel."

"Good name," GoGo observed, "So what do you need from us?"

"GoGo," he said, "I want you working on this thing's pool of knowledge. Get different occurrences of the same type of crime and upload the data on how they were solved. Try to walk it through the thought process of the officers in charge. Hiro, you've had more experience with AI than any of us so I want you to play around with its deductive reasoning and imagination. It can't just replicate previous cases as that will limit it, it needs that spark of human creativity that can think outside the box. As for me, I'll be finishing its safety protocols, that shouldn't take me too long but it still needs to be done. I've seen The Terminator enough times to know that unshackled AIs never end well for humans. Seek. Kill. Destroy and all of those wonderful things."

"What about me?" Fred asked.

"Ah…" Wasabi's voice trailed off for a moment as his mind whirled until he found an appropriate response. "Fred," he said finally, "You stand out in the hallway and act as a lookout."

"Right-o," the surfer dude said with a salute, "I am all over that."

With Fred safely out of the way, the others were now free to focus on their work without any distractions.

"Wait a minute," called Fred from the hallway, "What am I supposed to be looking out for?"

~o~O~o~

"Why on Earth would Krei Tech give a damn about apprehending a fugitive?" asked the desk sergeant at the police precinct. She was a tall, muscular woman that towered over even Honey-Lemon and was looking at her visitors with an expression of suspicion. Denise rubbed her forehead in irritation.

"Because," she said in a measured, deliberate voice, "If you had been paying any attention you would understand that Krei Tech has a vested interest in bringing this woman to justice."

"As we've explained," said Honey-Lemon, "We're working on a device that we hope will be able to track Skylark down but to do so we will require some of DNA and even then it will be a long shot unless it's a decent sample but it's still better than any other idea that's been suggested." The sergeant suddenly glared at her.

"And when did you become an expert in law enforcement, Missy?" she hissed, poking Honey-Lemon roughly in the chest, forcing the blonde back a step, "You have no idea what it's like dealing with this kind of scum every day. It's a war!"

"Step away from her right this instant!" Denise said sharply, her voice cracking like a whip.

"I want you both out of this building immediately," the sergeant barked, "And I don't want you sending down anymore representatives here either."

Honey-Lemon couldn't stop her hands from shaking.

"What was that?" she demanded as soon as they had retreated to the safety of the car, "It was like she thought that we were the enemy. They're supposed to be… Police officers are supposed to be… not that!"

"She's embarrassed over Skylark escaping," Denise said calmly, "Odds are that her superiors have been raking her over the coals in response to this. As for the attitude… Well, what do you think happens when you start trying to turn the police into the military? Small minded people that couldn't get into the army thinking that they're at war. She shouldn't have touched you. Are you alright?"

"Oh I'm fine," Honey-Lemon replied, "Just angry. I'm sorry, I should have just let you do all of the talking. She exploded when I suggested that we had a better plan."

"Nah," Denise disagreed, "She was going to go ballistic any second no matter what. However, this trip wasn't a total loss. My phone's computer might have copied and downloaded some, well technically all, of their security video footage from the night that Skylark escaped. It might give us a nudge in the right direction."

"Isn't that illegal?" Honey-Lemon asked worriedly, "Like really, really properly illegal?"

"Says the vigilante who runs around the city in pink body armour, throwing ginormous balls of goop at evildoers," Denise replied dryly.

At least Honey-Lemon had the decency to blush at her statement.

~o~O~o~

Two Hours Later

"Oh this guy is clever," said Denise, scowling as she reviewed the security footage. She could see men in SWAT gear rush the police officers, shooting at them and clubbing them down with their assault rifles. And then the man that Denise assumed was their leader entered the scene. Unfortunately, she had no way of determining his identity.

"Is something wrong with the monitor?" Honey-Lemon asked, leaning down next to Denise to get a better look, "I can't make out the guy's face." Denise sighed. Honey-Lemon was indeed correct, in the otherwise unblemished security footage, where the man's face should have been was a ball of white light, completely obscuring his features.

"Unfortunately, the monitor is working perfectly," Denise replied, scowling, "That man, whoever he is, is wearing some sort of transmitter near his head that obscures it from the camera. It's invisible to the naked eye but to a camera it sends out a signal that prevents anything within the transmitters range from being seen. It's actually a brilliant bit of technology in all honesty. If not for the fact that he was a murdering, criminal psychopath I'd actually offer him a job."

"However, seeing as he is actually murdering, criminal psychopath I think that, instead of offering him a job, we should probably try to apprehend him," said Honey-Lemon, grinning.

"Fair enough," said Denise sheepishly.

"Can we try to clear up the footage at all?" Honey-Lemon asked, back to the business at hand.

"There's nothing to clear up, unfortunately," Denise replied, "As far as the camera was concerned, all that was there was a ball of white light. We can play around with the video all we want but, short of actually putting in our own footage which would defeat the purpose of security cameras, at the end of the day there will still be a big ball of white light there."

"Bummer."

"Yes," Denise agreed, "Bummer."

~o~O~o~

The Next Day

"Okay," said Hiro as the circuitry that he had been working on burst into flames, "That one was my fault. My bad."

Baymax helpfully put out the fire with his built in fire extinguisher that Honey-Lemon had thoughtfully installed in him earlier that year.

~o~O~o~

"Ah-ha!" said Denise triumphantly, "I knew that there was something that I didn't like about this guy."

"Aside from the fact that he's a murderous psychopath?" Honey-Lemon asked dryly.

"Yes, aside from the fact that he's a murderous psychopath," said Denise, smiling, "Look at his left wrist." Honey-Lemon did as instructed and shrugged.

"So he has wristwatch," she said, "Big whoop."

"Big whoop indeed," said Denise, ignoring the sarcasm for the time being, "That particular wristwatch is the Königlich, an absurdly expensive watch that very few people on the planet can afford. It's used more as a status symbol than as a time piece. If we reach out to Untersuchung, the company that makes them, and broach the subject in the right way, we might even be able to get a list of their buyers."

"Even if it's an expensive watch, there could still be many, many buyers," said Honey-Lemon doubtfully.

"Unlikely," said Denise, "The Königlich only came on the market six weeks ago. And you're just a little impressed that I can correctly pronounce Königlich correctly with the right accent." Honey-Lemon bushed.

"Just a little," she admitted.

~o~O~o~

The Next Day

GoGo pressed her lips against Hiro's with a fierce intensity. Her tongue was pressing for entry and he let it in as he cupped the back of her head.

"I thought that you didn't like big, dramatic kisses," he said, grinning. Still high on the fact that he was actually dating her.

"They're starting to grow on me," she replied before pecking him lightly on the cheek. She put on her helmet, turned around and hopped onto her hike before turning back to him and winking. "You have fun with Wasabi and Fred," she said, "I'll see you later tonight."

~o~O~o~

An Hour Later

GoGo sauntered into the office that Denise and Honey-Lemon were currently occupying and asked, "Did Unter… er… Unter, however you pronounce the watch making company's name, get back to you yet?"

"Untersuchung is how you pronounce it and we were able to speak to them earlier this morning, actually," Denise replied, "And while at first they were not huge fans of giving out their customers' names –"

"The lady we spoke to called us, and I'm directly quoting here, 'arrogant Americans who think we own the world,'" Honey-Lemon helpfully added.

"I'm not sure that's relevant," said Denise, but she smiled faintly all the same.

"I agree since I was actually born in Seoul, which is about as un-American as you can get," said GoGo.

"Anyway," continued Denise, "They became more amenable to our requests once we broached the idea of a joint business venture, a luxurious, status enhancing watch with all of the comforts of cutting edge technology. Side not, I now have to spend the next week actually making up the plan that I told them that I already have but it's beside the point. They're willing to give us the names of everyone that has bought the watch."

"Seeing as you haven't actually got the names here I'm assuming that there is a "but" coming next," GoGo stated.

"But," Honey-Lemon said, "They absolutely refused to transmit the names, citing their customers' confidentiality."

"So how do we get the names?" GoGo asked.

"We have to physically go to their headquarters in Switzerland," she said before grinning, "Sounds exciting if you ask me." She suddenly frowned.

"What's wrong?" GoGo asked.

"Nothing," she replied, "It's just… You look a little different. Have you…? Oh, that's it! You're not chewing gum."

"Really?" GoGo asked, before searching around her mouth with her tongue. Honey-Lemon was right! "I don't understand," she said in confusion, "I distinctly remember putting it in my mouth earlier today."

~o~O~o~

"Hey, Hiro, when did you start chewing gum?" Wasabi asked as worked on Project Sentinel's emergency protocols.

"I didn't," Hiro replied before realising that he was indeed currently chewing gum. "Where did that come from?"

~o~O~o~

"Howard! Howard!" Skylark called out excitedly. He man who had essentially acted as her butler for almost three weeks came rushing into the lab.

"What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" he asked immediately.

"Nothing's wrong," she said happily, grabbing his hands and spinning around, "I've done it!" His eyes widened at her words.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "So soon?"

"Take a look," she said, gesturing at her creation and its blueprints. He let his gaze wander over them for a minute before looking back at her and smiling.

"I do believe that our employer is going to be very happy with your work," he said approvingly, "And then the real work begins."

~o~O~o~

I hope that you enjoyed his chapter and please remember to review.

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