Cass wanted to pace but her knees still ached from the rough handling the past few days had thrown her way, so she remained sitting on the couch. Thankfully, her shoulder felt a lot better. Loki had joined her soon after Baymax had headed down the hall with her message, possibly crossing paths on his way to her side. He had one hand draped across her shoulders as he leaned back against the cushions.
"I could get used to this," Loki admitted, though he sounded a bit distracted. He'd had the chance to mull over the contents of Dirk's note most of the night. And, while not exactly troubling, it presented its own set of problems, creating more than a double agenda. He either had to take up the original goal or abandon it for the new one, and he hadn't yet made up his mind.
Smiling, Cass leaned further back into his arm, wiggling a bit to achieve a more comfortable position. She didn't fear anyone seeing something they shouldn't. GoGo and Honey Lemon were gone. And Fred was doing who knew what with Wasabi in their room. Kally and Hiro already knew about the pseudo relationship she had with the Asgardian. And she doubted JARVIS cared. "You and me both," she said in response to her companion's comment.
Loki looked at the top of Cass's head, at her brown hair, wishing he felt brave enough to stroke it, but didn't dare at the same time. It was something he could only do after he'd made up his mind, pending on which direction he chose to go. But that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the time while he had it.
Before anything further could happen between the two, however, Hiro and Kally joined them, Hiro leaning more against Kally as they made their way into the common area. Behind them, Baymax waddled as his usual sedate pace.
Not sure if Kally had the strength or not, Loki almost stood up to help but decided against it. Kally didn't seem to be straining, probably due to her Valkyrie blood. So, he waited while the trio made their way towards them, the young woman helping her companion sit in one of the armchairs.
"You wanted to talk with us?" Hiro asked as he settled himself. Having heard his aunt wanted to talk, he'd tried to finish his meal as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, his strength hadn't returned enough for him to walk on his own. And Kally had convinced Baymax to let her be Hiro's crutch in his place, something the teen wasn't going to complain about.
Cass straightened up, noting that Loki didn't remove his arm from around her shoulders. "Yes," she admitted. "I know you already gave the bare essentials on details, but I'd really like to hear what exactly happened yesterday. Fred would give me more embellishments than truth, and the other two who might tell me aren't here."
She purposely didn't look at Loki, knowing he was with Hiro the entire time. But she didn't know what had gone on in Hiro's head, and she definitely didn't know what had happened with Kally and her team. She'd seen GoGo's wounds when Baymax had changed the dressings, with Fred's help. But that hadn't given her much. That and Loki wasn't currently inside Hiro's head, which probably wasn't a bad thing.
"Where do you want me to start?" Hiro asked.
The two adults exchanged glances, Loki, once again, not revealing anything. "How about where you arrived at the college?" Cass suggested.
Now having a point of reference to start from, Hiro and Kally began to give Cass a detailed account of everything that had happened. Hiro gave more details about his side of things, assuming Loki had possibly mentioned them anyway. It wouldn't do to keep the details from his aunt, either, he decided, and so told her everything.
By the time they'd finished, Hiro actually felt like enough strength had returned that he could begin to pace the room, with a bit of help from the furniture to stay upright as necessary. "I admit," he stated, "I kind of wish I'd kept the fob so I could look into it myself, but I'm sure JARVIS has taken care of."
"Indeed," JARVIS spoke up.
"I'm just glad you're okay," Cass inserted. "That bullet could have hit you instead of the Reserve manager. Not that I'm glad he's dead, but I'm glad you're not."
Hiro raised a rye brow at that. "You and me both. I've had more than enough experience with that already."
"So, now what?" Kally wondered. "It's not like we can make any plans without the others. We don't even know what they're doing."
"When last I checked, the Detective and the others were still discussing yesterday's events," JARVIS supplied. "Apparently the Detective wishes to go over the details with a fine-toothed comb."
Cass rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?" she said under her breath.
"The police are also attempting to trace the money, though they do not have the benefit of the same information I have," JARVIS continued.
Hiro sat up a bit at that, remembering giving Tony the fob. "Any progress on that?"
"They appear quite determined to hide their trail," JARVIS stated. "However, it is only a matter of time before I uncover their location."
Before the conversation could go any further, however, Fred joined the party, followed by Wasabi. "Wassup!" Fred greeted as he settled in next to Loki on the couch, forcing him to move just a bit closer to Aunt Cass. Wasabi found an empty chair.
Rolling his eyes, Hiro glanced over at Kally, then at his aunt and Loki. "Oh, you know, just contemplating the vastness of the universe."
Fred nodded, his expression neutral, like he was talking that comment seriously. "Good. Good," he said. "Always a good thing to contemplate."
The Asgardian glanced at the mascot out of the corner of his eye, contemplating leaving the room now that there were more people there. But Cass put a hand on his knee, dissuading him. Part of him had the audacity to wonder if she hadn't read his mind.
"At the rate we're going, it could be days or weeks before anything else happens," the matron spoke up, looking a little distracted. "I wish there was a way to speed things up."
Looking a bit askance, Loki raised his brows at that. "Technically speaking, there might be a way," he admitted. His gaze focused on Hiro. "But it requires the willing participation of a certain member of this company."
Not sure what the god of mischief meant by that, Wasabi refocused his attention towards Loki's location. "Just what do you mean by that?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hiro squirm and wondered at the reaction.
Still looking a bit uncomfortable at the line of thought, even though he'd been the one to bring it up, Loki seemed to withdraw into himself just a bit. "We have discovered that Hiro has the ability to sense individual energy signatures," he began cautiously. "We believe that is why he's been able to predict the bombs, because they all resonate with a specific frequency put out by the original bomb maker."
"Rachel Amesbury," Kally inserted, looking grim.
Wasabi couldn't help but look towards Hiro like he had something on his face. "Is this true?"
It was Hiro's turn to look far from comfortable as several sets of eyes focused on him, namely those who hadn't been privy to his and Loki's mental excursions. "Maybe?" With wide eyes, he looked more like the innocent youth of three years ago, far from confident and way out of his element. It was anyone's guess if Loki meant to delve into his thoughts again and the idea made him far from comfortable.
"I believe," Loki continued as if no one else had spoken, "that if we can tap back into your inner consciousness, we might be able to trace that signature back to the source."
Fred gave an odd look. "But I thought Rachel was dead."
His words brought a bevy of emotions out on all in the room, minus Baymax, who merely blinked. "While Rachel may be dead," the robot spoke up, "it is still possible that her energy signature remains tied to her work. If there are more bombs she worked on, theoretically, Hiro could track down the point of origin."
"You can do that?" Fred asked in awe, staring at Hiro like he was some kind of lost relic or an alien.
Once more, Hiro squirmed in his seat. "I have no idea," he admitted. "I mean, when Loki helped me look back at my memories, I was able to identify her energy at the bot tournament, and with several of the bombings. But that doesn't mean I can just find it like a blood hound or something!" he added hastily.
Cass glanced at her nephew, then at Loki. "Do you really think he can do it?"
The man shrugged. "I don't see why not. With a bit of guided meditation, I'm sure he could discover even the finest of threads of energy. He's done it before, even though it was in his memories."
"Aren't you even going to ask me if I'm okay with this?" Hiro protested as everyone seemed to focus in on him once more. "It's not like it's exactly the most comfortable thing to do."
Looking a bit thoughtful, Fred leaned forward. "True. But, outside of waiting for JARVIS to track down a location, which might not even be where they are, what other option do we have? No offense, JARVIS."
"None taken," JARVIS replied in a dry tone.
"If Hiro's going to do this, shouldn't we wait until the others get back?" Kally wondered.
Hiro rolled his eyes. "You know I'm right here, right? Do I get a say in the matter?"
This time Loki did get up from the couch. "Of course you do," he assured. "Though I still think it worth a try. If you were to merely enter a meditative state, I believe it would be less awkward all the way around. It's not like I'm asking to delve into your head."
Rolling his eyes once more, mostly because he knew there was no way he was going to allow that to happen again anytime soon, and definitely not in front of anyone but Aunt Cass and Baymax, Hiro scratched at the back of his neck. "When you put it that way, how can I say no?"
.......................................................
At the precinct, Tony paced the conference room. While the briefing had provided more details to the events the day before, he felt sure both Honey Lemon and GoGo were holding back details. But, short of torturing them, which he wasn't sure would actually work, there was no way to know for sure.
Now that Detective Decker knew about the Big Hero 6, they'd had to explain to her all of their involvement since the events at the arena, including their help in clearing out the instigating building. And, in many ways, it helped the puzzle pieces fit together a bit more naturally than they had before. There was no denying they'd been a lot bigger help than anyone was willing to admit.
"Well, now that we're all on the same page," Lucifer spoke up, "we might as well take this one step further and start planning out a strategy to take care of this once and for all."
Tony stopped pacing long enough to face the devil. "And how exactly are we supposed to do that when we don't even know where they are yet?"
GoGo rolled her eyes. "Hasn't stopped you before," she said under her breath, giving Honey a knowing glance.
From across the room, Jack gave her a look. "I've got our best people following the money. It's not been easy though. Whoever these people are, they're good. Cyber's having a hard time keeping up." If he'd had his vortex manipulator in working order, he could have gone back in time and used that to his advantage; mainly cutting things off before they could get the money, or giving his men more time to track it down.
"I've got JARVIS working on it on my end," Tony inserted. "Nothing yet though." He didn't miss the look Chloe sent his way, sure there was no way he'd ever get into her complete good graces. "But I'll let you know if that changes."
Chloe resisted the urge to stand and pace. The previous day's events had decidedly caught up with her, leaving it likely she'd have to sit out any of the action. Unless it took them longer than a few days to figure out just where these guys were. "I hope that won't take long," she sighed. "The longer it takes the less likely it is we'll be able to do anything about it. For all we know, they've moved out of state."
Now it was Lucifer's turn to give her a look. "Look who's being all Johnny Rain cloud. Of course we'll find them before they move out of our jurisdiction. Aside from that, I highly doubt Jack would want to pull in a new team when he already has one who knows more about what's going on than any other person on the planet."
Jack conveniently didn't answer, choosing to ignore the pointed looks in his direction. He knew Tony would do whatever anyway, and probably Hiro and his group as well. As for the Detective and her people, well, he had no real control over that should things change venues.
"Maybe we should look at what we know about these people," Honey spoke up. "That way we can list out strengths and weaknesses. We already know they don't care about collateral damage. And they have no problem killing innocent people."
The reminder set them all to thinking. Regardless of how things turned out, the overall answer wouldn't be easy.