The apartment was dark. It was obvious no one had been in it for a while now. Still, it was a mess. Drawers were pulled out and laying across the kitchen floor, silverware in every nook and cranny imaginable. The fridge was laying on it's side, it's doors hanging open. Pictures were strewn across the ground, glass from the frames shattered. In several places, large holes could be seen in the walls, and bolts from the studs in the wall lay on the ground beneath them. Even the handles on the doors were messed up, most ripped out of the wood or hanging by a single screw.

Stacks of newsprint littered the living room. Most of it was crumpled, like it had been discarded; sports sections, entertainment, the comics, the crosswords, coupons. But several of the front pages were heavily marked up with a red marker. If you were to go through each page, you'd see names and dates circled, even pictures. All the stories pertained to one subject; the recent floodgate of illegal activity that had been surrounding the Los AngelOsaka biomedical human trials scandal.

There was one piece of newsprint in particular, though, that had been written on the most. On it were two large, blown up pictures of the victims of the unethical human trials; a girl, named only as 'Tsukino', and a man, 'Ome'. The picture of the girl was circled several times, and had several large arrows pointing towards her. Underneath, the words 'Must Find' were written.

It would be another three days before the apartment door was kicked down by Los AngelOsaka police forces, and by then, the owner would be long gone.

"His name was Rino Ome," Aria said, holding Fred's tablet. She looked at the face of the other patient, eyebrows knitted together. "He was the other patient who underwent human neurological trials. His treatment started earlier than mine did, though. I'm not really sure what kind of cancer he had, but I guess I always just assumed it was brain cancer, like mine." Hiro came to stand beside her, looking down at the screen she held in her hands. He reached out and scrolled through the article the picture was attached to.

"It doesn't say what kind here, either," he mumbled.

"His treatment was probably a little worse than mine was. I was the second guinea pig, so I'm sure I got a more refined version of the procedures. He probably went through much more trial-and-error than I did." She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I only ever saw him in person once, when the two of us were signing our non-disclosure agreements. He didn't say anything to me. He hardly even looked at me."

"And now he's missing too?" Honey Lemon asked, and Aria shrugged.

"I guess so. I can't blame him. I ran away to find you guys, but maybe he just had to get away from everyone. Or at least any metal. It's terrifying, when you're pulling doorknobs out of doors and nails out of the wall. I can relate to wanting to get away from it." Gogo snatched the tablet from Aria's hands, and scrolled through quickly, skimming.

"Is that it?" she asked, giving Aria the side-eye. "Is that even the truth?"

"It is, I swear!" Aria replied, looking to Hiro. He was lost in thought, it seemed. "I didn't even say two words to the guy. He did seem…very broody, though. You know. Quietly angry."

"I would be too," Wasabi said, as Honey nodded in agreement.

"We've gatta find him," Hiro said, breaking out of his thoughts. Aria shot him a questioning glance.

"Why? He obviously doesn't want to be found. All of Los AngelOsaka is looking for him."

"The only reason you knew to try to find us is because you followed our stories in the papers, right?" Hiro asked, and to this Aria blushed slightly, and nodded. "Well, if he doesn't know who to turn to, who could help him, he's just running blindly. So we've got to find him! If I can help you, I can help him."

"All right!" Fred said, pumping a fist in the air. "Super hero road trip! Lemme get my suit!"

"Not so fast! Gogo held a hand up, halting Fred mid-stride. She walked up to Hiro, looking up to meet his eye. "Is this really a good idea?" she asked. Her face was set in the regular scowl she wore, but Aria wasn't totally fooled. Her voice didn't have the hard, angry edge it did when she was addressing Aria. This was more of an honest question, than a challenge to Hiro's suggestion. Hiro nodded, resolute in his idea.

"Aria was getting more powerful by the day," Hiro said, "without us, she could have caused tons of trouble. I'm talking, pulling cars off the road into buildings kind of trouble. Pulling steel gerters from building foundations kind of trouble. And look at her now," he motioned to Aria. "She's harmless. Better than harmless; she's got real, usable power here. I've been able to turn a powerful negative into a positive with a lot of potential! We owe it to Ome to try and do the same. Before he has a chance to get powerful enough to hurt someone."

"I'm with Hiro," Honey Lemon said, coming to stand beside him. "The thought of someone, alone and scared, with powers out of their control is too much!"

"Me too," Wasabi said, and Fred nodded vigorously as well. Gogo's eyes flitted between her friend's faces, and she sighed, giving in.

"Alright. If you all think it's a good idea…it must be," she said, and Honey squealed and hugged her.

"Well, if that's the case, then how come you didn't think my invisible sandwich was a good idea?" Fred asked?

"Because everyone else thought it was stupid, because it is," Gogo said. Aria chuckled, as the tension began to loosen in the air. But there was still a little knot in her stomach.

"Hiro," she said, tugging at his shirt sleeve, pulling him a little ways away from the others. He cocked an eyebrow, puzzled, though still followed.

"What's up?" he asked, taking note of Aria's worried expression.

"I don't know about this," Aria said, "For once, I sort of agree with Gogo. I don't know if finding Ome is such a good idea."

"Why?" he asked, genuinely confused. He would have thought Aria would have been the first to agree with him. Surely, she could understand the need to help Ome more than anyone else? "Unless you know something else about him?"

"No! No, no more keeping things from you, remember?" she said, shaking her head. "It's just…I feel uneasy about it. I don't know if it would be better to just let sleeping dogs lie? I found you because I wanted to, Hiro. If he's hiding, it's for a good reason."

"Aria, you've gatta trust me on this," Hiro said, taking both of her hands. Well, that set her more on edge than ever! "I know this is the right thing to do."

"I do trust you, Hiro," she said, looking away. "…But I don't think I trust Ome."

'In, two three four. Hold, two three four. Out, two three four. In, two three four…' Aria stood, feet shoulder-length apart, just breathing. It was quiet, of course it was. It was the middle of the night. Hiro was asleep at his desk, head resting on one arm, and his back rose and fell steadily. He'd been dozing off for a while now, too tired to continue to code the boots he was working on. Aria didn't blame him, he'd been working so hard, had so much on his plate right now.

But she couldn't sleep. Her mind was too riled up; she was thinking about her powers, Gogo, the discovery, but most of all, she was thinking about Ome. She couldn't explain it, she just had a bad feeling about the whole thing. She could really understand Gogo's feelings, now; this wasn't a good situation. And so, here she was, out in the driveway outside the open garage, donning her regulator and her channellors, just breathing. Concentrating. Focusing.

It was easy to focus like this. No noises, no lights, nothing to distract her. Hiro was always a distraction, but with him asleep, she could really get to work trying to master this ability. Her hands hung at her sides, loose and relaxed. Her head was level with the horizon, her eyes closed. She could feel the midnight breeze ruffle her bobbed hair by her ears, and again, she started another breathing cycle. It all felt very surreal. She was very attuned to the blackness and silence of the night.

Her hand rose, almost of it's own accord, with her palm facing outward. This time, it didn't require so much mental effort; she could feel the power concentrating in her limb, and it was almost too easy to exercise that power; her hand flexed almost infinitesimally, and immediately, one of the nails in the nearby fence flew from it's place, imbedded in the board, right to her palm. Just that single nail. She could feel it, flying through the air to her hand, and once she'd caught it, she reigned in the power, and let it go. It dropped to the ground, just like that.

'This is incredible,' she thought, looking at her hand, almost admiringly. 'I can just feel it so much better like this, when nothing's bothering me or distracting me. It feels…almost natural.' She let a small smile creep onto her face, and tried again, though this time, as soon as she felt another nail whizzing through the air, she held that power, halting it, but not withdrawing it. The nail hung rigidly in the air, halfway between her and the fence.

'Back in you go,' she thought, this time, pushing the force back out through her hand, instead of pulling it in, and the nail whizzed backwards, back to the fence post. Her control over her power was improving drastically, but wasn't yet so fine-tuned; the nail hit the wood without going back into it's hole, and bonked off of it, falling back to the ground. 'I still have a ways to go,' she thought, 'but it's getting there.'

"Very good."

It wasn't Hiro who had spoken. Wasn't Baymax, or even Aunt Cass. The voice was incredibly soft, but low. It sounded almost musical, and had a hint of amusement to it. It wasn't a voice Aria had ever heard before. And when she spun around, startled, she couldn't even see the face of the man who'd spoken. He was too far into the shadows of the alleyway.

"Who are you!?" Aria squeaked, her voice barely able to rise above a whisper. Shock and fear slowly began to spread across her body, starting at her fingertips, and nearing her chest as the figure chuckled softly, but did not move. "Who are you?" she asked again, her voice sharp from fear. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

"Now now," the man said, raising an arm, and pointing towards the garage. "Wouldn't want to wake your little friend, would you?" he asked, but that was exactly what Aria wanted, she moved to take a step closer to the garage, Hiro's name on the tip of her tongue, when the man tisked behind her. "Tsk, tsk, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You don't want to drag him into trouble if you don't have to, right?"

'I also don't want to drag myself into trouble alone!' Aria thought, but realized he may be right. Hiro had done so much for her already. If this weirdo was targeting her, there was no reason to bring Hiro into it. Not when she had this newfound power at her disposal. 'I can take him,' she thought to herself, her fear quelled slightly. 'I've got this. He's a creep…and I've got all this power in my corner.'

"Who are you," she repeated one last time, turning back towards him, and taking a step closer, "and what do you want with me?" Her fists clenched, tensing for anything she might have to do. The man just laughed.

"Relax. I'm not here to hurt anyone. Quite the opposite, really." He took a step out of the shadows, though his face was still obscured by his hood. "So calm down, Aria Tsukino. No need to clench your fists so hard." She couldn't see it, but he was smirking. Immediately she unraveled her fists, shocked that he knew her full name.

"I'm not gonna ask again!" she said, face falling into a scowl.

"I think you may already know who I am," the man said, and slowly made his way closer. As he did, he pulled his hood off. And he was right, his face was quite familiar.

"Ome," she whispered, shocked to see him in the flesh. "You…you've been missing. We were just talking about it…" Her mouth hung open, and Ome smiled wider.

"Who isn't? But I'm not here to talk about me," he held a hand to his chest, before flourishing it out, to indicate Aria, "I'm here about you. Look at you, all outfitted in prototype tech. Very futuristic-looking, very chic," he said mockingly, as he started to circle her. Aria shrunk away from him, feeling very much like a seal, being circled by an orca. "A shame you needed it, really. Oh, I'm not talking about the magnetic radiation…it's a shame you needed technology to learn to control it."

Aria bristled at this, her expression growing angrier. Ome stopped his circling, and held his hand in front of his own face, as if examining it. Then, without warning, he held it out towards the two nails Aria had left on the ground. With a few sharp hand movements, the nails lifted slowly, before flying back to their original positions, imbedding themselves perfectly back into the fence posts.

"You're being held back by that tech, Aria," he said, in almost a sing-song voice. "This of what you could do with that power, if you only learned to control it organically…"

"I don't want to DO anything with it!" she snapped, "I WANT to be normal again!"

"Then why were you practicing like that?" Color instantly jumped to her cheeks, but she thanked God it was too dark to tell. He was right, though. She was trying to control it better, but for what? She kept telling herself it was to subdue it, get it completely under control and pack it away. But was it really? Was she really considering joining Big Hero 6? Ome saw the confusion flash through her eyes, and seized upon it. "You're a smart girl, Aria. Think of the possibilities!"

"…There are no possibilities," she said slowly, looking back up at Ome's face.

"Oh, but there are!" He chuckled, before stooping, and placing a hand on the ground. Aria took a step back, but nothing seemed to happen. "Come, feel the ground beneath your feet. Come on." Squinting cautiously at him, Aria slowly stooped, setting her palm on the pavement. "Without the glove," he said, nodding to the channeller. She was reluctant to take it off, but when she did, and set her palm back on the ground, she looked at Ome quizzically.

"What, the concrete's cold?" she asked, and Ome shook his head.

"Concentrate, Aria. Feel the ground. Feel deep beneath the concrete, the soil. Let your powers extend down, all the way down." He closed his eyes, and while Aria felt that it might have been a mistake to follow suit, she too closed her eyes, concentrating. At first, she felt nothing but the cold pavement of the driveway. But slowly, as her breathing steadied, and she let her focus leave the alleyway, and become once again entwined with the gentle silence of the night, she could indeed feel more. It was like she could feel every vein on the Earth's surface, and then some. Down, deeper than the crust even, and she could suddenly detect something grating, or shifting deep below them. "Feel the plates of the Earth move, the subtle shift of the electromagnetic field. It puts the hair on the back of your neck on end, doesn't it?" Aria's other hand immediately flew to her neck, and he was right. This was eerie.

"What…?" she asked vaguely, not knowing what exactly to say to this. She felt like she could feel everything.

"Our entire planet is infused with the same kind of power, Aria," Ome explained, opening his eyes to watch her marvel at the feeling of everything. "We have been given the extraordinary gift of perceiving that power. And if you let me help you, I can help you extend that gift, to manipulate that power." Aria's eyes flew open and she gasped, and as she did so, Ome's hand once again touched the ground, and an almost imperceptible movement travelled down from his shoulder all the way through his fingertips like a wave. Immediately, Aria's stomach dropped, and her hand lifted from the concrete, but it wasn't just her hand. To her shock, she could no longer keep herself pinned to the very surface of the Earth, and her scream died in her throat. Her eyes darted to the garage, where Hiro and the rest of his tech in the garage was similarly untethered from the Earth.

In the same instant, Aria fell back to the ground, landing hard on her knees with a groan. Everything that Ome had allowed to lift from the ground dropped as well, including Hiro, and the jolt shocked him awake. He swiveled his head around in disorientation and surprise, and when he saw Aria on the ground, at the feel of a man who looked vaguely familiar, he jumped to his feet.

"Aria!" he shouted, running over. He was stopped in his tracks as Ome turned to face him, though, and he realized where he knew that face from. "Ome!?"

"Hiro, stay back!" Aria said, shakily getting up to her feet. "What the hell was that!?"

"Impressive, no?" Ome looked quite proud of himself, and crossed his arms. "I could teach you as well, you know. Just get rid of these useless do-dads. Together, we could be unstoppable."

"I don't want to BE unstoppable!" Aria said, stepping away from him. "Ome, this isn't right! Please, Hiro could help you-"

"I don't need help!" Ome's somewhat smug, genial manner vanished in an instant, and his smirk was replaced with an absolute snarl. "The last time anyone 'helped' me, they made me a freak! Isolated me from my family to keep me quiet! They made me insane!" His hands balled into fists, and as he took a step closer, Hiro moved inbetween him and Aria. "I'M the only one who can help me! And I have! Ha ha! I've helped myself to all the power their little mistake has offered me!"

"Calm down, we aren't-" Hiro started, but Ome's expression darkened further, and he grabbed hold of the front of Hiro's shirt.

"This doesn't concern you," he said darkly, shoving Hiro to the side. Hiro was about to protest this treatment, but Ome's arm didn't lower, and with his palm extended towards Hiro, he flexed his arm again, causing the boy to go flying backwards. Aria let out a soundless shriek, covering her mouth in both worry and amazement.

"How…he's…he's not magnetic," Aria stuttered, looking from where Hiro lay, tangled with the desk he'd collided with, to Ome's hardened expression. "How did you-"

"This is exactly the kind of thing I can teach you," Ome said, his voice going soft again. "This isn't your run-of-the-mill magnetism we have, my dear. This can be so much more than some cute little party trick. If you'll only let me help you…" He straightened up, holding out his hand for her to take. As if she'd accept it. Her eyes lingered on Ome for a moment longer, before she turned, and sprinted to where Hiro had landed. Baymax had already inflated from his charging pod, and was helping the boy to his feet.

"Hiro!" she cried, grabbing his arm as he stumbled back to his knees. "Hiro, are you alright?"

"What a shame." Ome shook his head, staring at the ground. "But it's like they say…if you're not with me…you're against me." He afforded one last look to the girl who could have been his prodigy, before turning, and strolling back out into the alleyway. Not before Baymax could get a good look at him, though.

"He's getting…ow…away," Hiro moaned, trying again to stand, leaning heavily on Aria's shoulder.

"Hiro, we're not chasing after him," Aria said quietly, pulling him over to the couch, and dropping him onto it. "Lay down, let Baymax look you over."

"What…what was he?" Hiro looked at the darkness in which Ome had escaped through, grasping at straws for explanations.

"I don't know," she admitted, moving so Baymax could scan Hiro. "He…he disrupted gravity, I think. And then, with you…I just don't know, Hiro." She watched as Baymax listed off his injuries, thankfully nothing too serious. But now she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hiro was right. They did need to find Ome. If not to help him…then to apprehend him before he hurt someone. On purpose.