Control Alt Delete (A BH6 crossover)

Chapter Seven: A Total Loss

"Hiro," Tadashi called again, finally breaking into his thoughts. "Come on. We need to go before someone starts asking questions." He firmly took Hiro by the hand and began leading him, once more, back to the moped.

This time Hiro let him. He had a lot of thinking to do. If he could get photo proof of the theft, he could convince Tadashi and the cops that Callaghan had started the fire. If he could do that, maybe he could end this whole mess before anyone got seriously hurt. Part of him knew he was forgetting something important, but he pushed that notion aside. He'd think about it later. Right now he had to come up with a way of getting out of Tadashi's radar so he could go down there and see if his theory was correct.

..............................

When they returned to the Lucky Cat Café, Hiro was quiet. Perhaps too quiet as he thought out his latest plan. Tadashi didn't comment on it, though Hiro was sure he'd noticed.

"Where do you think you're going?" Tadashi asked as he parked his moped.

Hiro had already jumped off and was about to disappear around the corner when Tadashi's question stopped him in his tracks. He turned around a bit sheepishly. "To the garage," he hedged, grasping his neuro-transmitter in one hand.

Strictly speaking, what he'd just said was true. He was headed to the garage, though he didn't plan on staying there long.

"I'll come with you," Tadashi said as he took off his helmet. "They've cancelled classes for the day. Might as well find something to do."

Hiro did a double-take at that. "They did?" Why was he only hearing about this now? Bad Tadashi! It wasn't fair. How was he supposed to slip out now?

Almost dutifully, Hiro strode to the garage. He struggled a bit to open it from the outside, until Tadashi helped him flip the door open. He hated being short!

Tadashi walked inside, pausing near the middle of the open space. Only yesterday, twelve blue bins had housed almost all of Hiro's microbots as they sat waiting to go to the showcase. Now there was nothing except swept concrete.

Thinking about the stark contrast, Hiro slumped into his swivel chair, dejectedly putting his transmitter on the computer desk in front of him. It wasn't hard to pretend his negative emotions. Everything was going wrong anyway. He let out a deep sigh to add texture to his mood.

"Hey," Tadashi said as he walked over and cuffed him lightly on the shoulder. "You can always rebuild them. You still have your transmitter. It's not like it's a total loss."

Hiro gave a weak smile at that. "Yeah." And it was true. It wasn't a total loss. Tadashi was alive. He had the transmitter. But with Callaghan still at large? Everything could change. He had to fix that. But he couldn't if Tadashi was going to watch him like a hawk. And, knowing him, he'd stick to Hiro like glue, just to make sure he didn't do anything reckless.

The boy let out another sigh as he made his chair spin. Life was so not fair! He'd been trying so hard to keep his brother safe! And he'd only managed to possibly make things at least more complicated. But Tadashi hadn't died in the fire, he reminded himself once more. There was that at least.

"So, what are you going to do?" Hiro asked his brother as he stopped his chair to face the older Hamada.

Tadashi ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know," he admitted. "I didn't lose anything so I guess I could go back to my lab, but it doesn't feel right leaving you alone, knowing you lost so much because of that fire."

That confirmed it. Tadashi was feeling guilty about something he didn't need to feel guilty about. "It wasn't your fault," Hiro protested. "It was that guy in black. I'm sure of it."

Hiro's announcement made Tadashi snort. "Oh you are, are you?" He ruffled the boy's hair. "I suppose it does seem suspicious. But whoever he is, he's probably long gone by now, especially since he hasn't stepped forward to claim responsibility."

That wasn't something Hiro expected to hear and he sat up. "What do you mean? Why would he do that? Don't most arsonists want to stay out of the lime light?"

Tadashi shook his head. "I somehow don't think this was a case of "most arsonists"," he replied. "If you had been paying attention on campus, there's speculation that he might be some kind of terrorist. If so, he should have come forward with a group protesting something or other. Something like experiments on animals or similar. But he hasn't."

This was news to Hiro. In a way, Callaghan could be considered a domestic terrorist, but not until much later. Not unless he succeeded in getting the portal up and running again, placing it in the middle of the city. Hiro shuddered at that idea.

"Come on," Tadashi suddenly said, moving towards the door leading to the living level of the house. "We should probably grab something to eat before it gets too late. You know Aunt Cass hates it when we skip a meal."

Hiro's stomach rumbled in response. He'd completely forgotten about breakfast in light of news of the fire. But, now that he thought about it, he was actually quite hungry. "Yeah," he agreed. Food was good. It was a nice distraction, and maybe, with a full belly, he could find a way to convince Tadashi to go do something productive so he could do something productive, like tracking down Callaghan.