Aftermath (a BH6 crossover)

Chapter Twenty Nine: Is that normal?

Jack paused across from the hotel. Dirk's story didn't make a whole lot of sense to him but he was trying to comprehend it. Well, sort of. He'd only partially listened to the man's ramblings as they seemed to ramble around as much as a drunk gazelle trying to pin its horns into the side of a barn and missing horribly. "Well, we're here," he said to keep the man from going off on some other tangent he didn't want to listen to.

"Hurray!" Dirk said, resisting the urge to give him a hug. "Now to find out if they're all still here or not."

Jack took a moment to process that, recalling how the man had mentioned leaving the majority of the Big Heroes back at the hospital. While it was possible they'd managed to get back to the hotel before them – the walk had been a long one – chances were good they weren't even heading in that direction. "Whatever you say," he responded, deciding to just go with it. He still wasn't sure what this weirdo wanted with Hiro, and the answer had become even less clear the longer he'd listened to him.

Still wanting to keep an eye on the guy, Jack followed him into the hotel lobby. But instead of heading towards the elevators, Dirk kept on going to the other exit, the one leading towards the ruined arena. "Um..." he was about to point out the guy was headed in the wrong direction but decided to just go with it.

Dirk continued on out the far exit and towards the ruined arena. He kept muttering to himself as he went, nothing coherent though. If Jack wondered about his sanity, he was as close to verifying his lack as anything.

Though there was still police activity near the hole in the ground, there weren't as many there as the day before. The whole area was still cordoned off with the hard-to-miss yellow and black tape. And just as he'd observed from the other side, there were fewer spectators this go around. Jack couldn't help but wonder at that, until he overhead one of the radios mentioning a secondary site. That certainly made things interesting. He'd have to look into it, when he had a chance. Until then, he had to make sure this strange bloke didn't end up getting arrested, or killing himself. He wasn't sure why but he somehow felt it important to make sure that didn't happen.

Dirk nodded to himself as he stopped to stare at the rubble-filled crater. "Just as I thought. I knew I should have said something back then." He then turned on his heels and headed in the opposite direction.

Sure the Brit wasn't about to head into an active crime scene, Jack felt more than okay with leaving him to his own devices. It was time to figure out what was going on with this other site. The best way to do that was to impersonate another officer. And if he was going to do that, he needed to nip back to his place for a quick wardrobe change. But first he needed to find out where this new incident had occurred.

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When Maze texted, telling him he had another visitor, Lucifer was about ready to have a pouting fest. It wasn't that he disliked being popular, but they were finally getting somewhere and the interruption was most unwelcome. And, knowing a bit of the history between Loki and Dr. Banner, he wasn't sure if he should have the man brought up or not.

"Something wrong?" Cass asked as their host held a hesitant finger over his phone's keyboard. She didn't know who the text came from, only that it caused him a moment of consternation.

Lucifer looked up almost absentmindedly. "Hmmm? Oh. Well, in a manner of speaking, I suppose you could say that."

Loki gave him a look, not sure what to make of this sudden change either. "Would you mind sharing with the rest of us? Or is it a personal matter?"

The devil let out a sigh as he stood from his perch on the couch. "Not personal," he clarified. "It's only that Maze just told me a Dr. Bruce Banner is looking for Hiro. He's currently down in the club and she wanted to know if I wanted him brought up."