Aftermath (a BH6 crossover)

Chapter Seventy Nine: In Regards To....

"That certainly could have gone better," Loki observed as the door to Hiro's borrowed room closed behind him and the teen and his robot.

Hiro made his way to the bed and flopped onto it. "At least we're still in the game," he replied. "I'll take whatever win I can at the moment. And the others don't realize who you are, so there is that." He somehow felt that important. Too many people knew who Loki really was already. It was bad enough that Tony knew, and hadn't commented on keeping that quiet, but if the Detective found out.... That probably wouldn't end well. He had no idea if she even knew who he was but it still wouldn't bode well if she found out.

Brows raised as Loki gave the teen an appraising look. "Yes, there is that," he acknowledged. But they'd let just about every other cat out of the bag. "The real question is how we should proceed from here. Stark has that creation of his trying to run down where these people are. And, no offense, but that might take more time than we can afford to allow."

"JARVIS is pretty efficient so don't count him out," Hiro countered as he stared up at the ceiling. "Sammy, on the other hand, might be better. I honestly don't know. Maybe we should put them in a head to head contest or something." He almost smiled at that notion but didn't. He was too tired. The day's events had more than taken it out of him.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize the teen was spent. After all, the day's events had been more than trying. "You're tired," Loki observed, but remembered that Hiro should probably eat.

Baymax shuffled forward. "Sleep would be advisable," he seconded. "However, it would also be advisable to consume some form of nutritious food. Your blood sugar levels are low. And the last time you consumed anything was several hours ago."

A knock sounded on the door and both males turned to look towards the rectangular object, though Hiro did have to prop himself up first. But before either of them could even contemplate answering, the door opened to reveal Aunt Cass.

Hiro flopped back against the bed with a sigh as Loki quickly moved a chair for the injured woman. "Hey," the teen greeted. "I guess you came for a more in depth version of what happened."

But Cass only shook her head as she slipped something from her back pocket seconds before sitting down on the offered chair. "Actually, I just remembered Dirk gave this to me." She held out the envelope the British detective had entrusted her with, her arm pointing at Loki. "He said there was something important he wanted to tell you but couldn't since he had to leave in a hurry."

That did cause Hiro to try and sit up, body protesting at the effort. "Dirk's gone?"

Loki took the envelope while Baymax encouraged Hiro to lie back down. "For me? Whatever could he have to say to me?"

With a shrug that didn't hurt quite as much as it would have earlier, Cass grunted. "Who knows? Honestly, I think Dirk was more than a little off. But, to answer my nephew, yes, he's gone. He said something about having another case to solve."

"Guess that means he either gave up or figured out what he was after here," Hiro quipped, not sure if he cared which. The man had been odd in more than one way, and he wasn't sorry to hear he'd gone. Thoughts of their unfortunate encounter earlier that morning threatened to make his head split with a massive headache. For the briefest of moments, stars reflected in his eyes before he closed them against the spinning sensation of being thrown halfway across Tony's backyard.

Breaking the seal, Loki opened the paper container and pulled out the memo inside. He quickly scanned it, glanced over at Hiro, pursed his lips, and frowned, all in that order. "He's certainly a lot more observant than I originally thought," he admitted as he refolded the letter and stuffed it into his pocket. It wasn't something Cass should see, he'd decided, and so chose not to mention the contents of the letter.