Bruce almost hesitated to enter Tony's hospital room, not sure how he'd be received. After all, he had technically just left him there. Admittedly, he'd had good reason, needing to take care of the rest of the students, getting them away from the carnage. But he wasn't sure if the billionaire would see it that way.
"Are you going to skulk there are day or are you actually coming in?" Tony quipped, noticing Bruce outside his door.
Looking more than a little sheepish, Bruce entered the room, running one hand through his hair. "Hi, Tony," he greeted hesitantly.
Tony tried to sit up a bit and ended up using the bed's controls to make it tilt higher. "I was expecting you much sooner. Doesn't take that long to take a bus full of kids back to a hotel, even if they're inclined to disagree." He looked more than a little disgruntled.
"I decided to give the Hamada kid a visit," Bruce confessed, "since I wasn't sure how long they'd try and keep you."
Iron Man looked a bit impatient as he waved an arm for him to continue. "And? What did you find out?"
Bruce pulled up a rolling stool he found near the back counter, keeping far enough away that Tony couldn't lunge at him if he decided to get irate. The fact that the man had a few wire leads covering his chest, and an IV plugged into his arm did soothe him a bit, but he knew they wouldn't keep the man back if he were truly determined. "Well, I found him at that Lux place. I hope you don't mind but JARVIS decided to tag along." He pulled out his cell phone, cautiously setting it on the moveable table.
"I'm not sure how to explain what happened," the physicist continued. "But when I got there, I found that Lucifer Morningstar character and Hiro's aunt. Hiro was asleep so I couldn't ask him, and his aunt wouldn't let me wake him to ask. The best I can gather is that Hiro somehow managed to connect with the computer system at the airport, and that's how he knew the bomb was there."
Tony forced himself to relax. He supposed it made sense. After all, Hiro had somehow managed to merge with the computer system at Hydra. It was entirely possible, even if not probable, that he'd somehow managed to do it again with a completely different system. "Hmm," he mused.
Bruce looked down at the floor, twiddling his fingers together between his knees. "Without running some kind of test, I don't know if there's really a way we can find out how he did that. It would mean hooking him up to an EEG machine while he's somehow connected to another system, which I somehow doubt is going to happen."
The billionaire somehow doubted it as well. "Guess I'll have to talk to him myself," he decided as he started to remove the electrodes stuck to his chest. The monitor started to beep in protest but he ignored it. "Mind shutting that thing up for me?" he asked instead.
Bruce moved to comply with the request, turning off the monitor. He turned around just as a nurse entered the room.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" the nurse said, hands on his hips as he glared at Bruce.
"I uh..." Bruce looked far from comfortable as the male nurse stared him down.
Tony continued to remove the electrodes, sliding the IV line out from under his skin. "I'm checking myself out," he announced. "And no, I didn't call him to come rescue me. I was planning on doing this from the beginning. Now bring me my clothes."
The nurse left the room in a huff.
"You really didn't have to be that mean to him," Bruce admonished in a worried tone. "Who knows what he'll do?"
But Tony just ignored him as he slid off the mattress. "Nothing I can't handle. Now find me my shoes. We're going to get to the bottom of this."
.................................
Loki's phone vibrated and it took a bit to reach for it, but he was decidedly getting stronger. He activated the touch screen, frowning. "That is going to put a damper on things," he commented as he read the text message. "According to Lucifer, he and the detective are on their way over to talk to Hiro about the airport bombing. If I were you, I'd head down to your rooms before they get there."
Cass stood from the bed, brushing off crumbs. "What about you? You can still barely move!"
Hiro took the plate of sandwiches and set it on the bedside table. "How did they know I know anything about that?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know.
"Lucifer had to have told her," Cass said with a scowl.
But Loki shook his head. "I somehow don't see him as the type to tell tales without a reason," he countered. "But it's probably best to be in your rooms when they arrive. I really don't need more people knowing where I sleep."
"He will be all right," Baymax assured. "Loki is making remarkable progress." In comparison to Hiro's usual recovery times, he amended. "I believe he will be back to full function in less than an hour."
Only slightly reassured, Cass moved to smooth the covering near her friend. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"
Loki tried hard to not look a bit impatient. "Yes, I'm sure," he said with a bit more emphasis than was probably necessary. "Now go!"
With only one last back, Cass left Loki to his own devices. She only hoped Baymax was right about that, vowing to go check in on him the moment the detective left.
"Come on!" Hiro urged as they left the suite and entered the hallway. The elevator wasn't too far away but they had several floors to go down before reaching their room, not to mention a long walk as they were halfway down the long corridor. "We should be back in time to make it look like we were there the whole time."
Baymax waddled behind them both, not making any comments about the elevated vital signs in both of them. They were understandable, given the circumstances. Chances were good they'd need at least a moment to calm down before the detective and her partner arrived. And since Baymax was more privy to some of the things that had transpired that day, he hoped Lucifer would keep to his word about not mentioning them to anyone.
............................................
The pool deck had been relatively nice and relaxing, until the other students from NYU showed up that was. They came out of the elevator like a herd of cattle on stampede, yelling and running towards the nearest pool, only a few wearing swimsuits that were likely borrowed from the hotel, or purchased in a rush as they didn't all seem to fit correctly.
"Looks like the others made it back," GoGo observed as she finished off her soda. "And I don't know about you, but I really don't want to be around a bunch of brats who've been pent up for hours on end."
Honey found she had to agree. Most people didn't do well in any kind of captivity, for good reasons or ill. She knew from their previous experiences in New York what cabin fever could do to a person. "I think you're right. We should head back down."
Fred nodded as the students engaged in some kind of war game in the main pool, splashing and throwing water at each other so that it sloshed up on the deck. "Let's get out of here," he stated as he took his trash to a receptacle set aside for that purpose. His gaze didn't leave the rambunctious students as he walked, almost causing him to run into a lounge chair.
Kally followed behind them, clearing out the rest of their trash. She pocketed her phone in the shorts she'd thought to bring, only slightly mollified by Sammy's declaration that Baymax said they were still in the hotel and doing fine. She wasn't exactly keen on watching her fellow classmates making fools of themselves, acting more like kids on Spring Break than responsible young adults at a serious competition.
Thankfully, no one else had called the elevator so they didn't have to wait for a car. Instead, it answered the call button the moment it was pressed, allowing them all to shuffle into the small metal box before the doors closed.
"So much for a nice, quiet afternoon," Honey lamented as the elevator started to head down. GoGo had pressed the appropriate button to take them to their floor. Part of her wished they'd been able to stay up top a bit longer, but understood the others needed to get out too. She was just glad they'd made it back to the hotel without incident.
The elevator dinged their floor and the doors opened. Ahead, a flash of color filled the hallway, until it disappeared behind a door. Kally pursed her lips; sure she'd just witnessed Hiro and his aunt returning to their hotel room. But since there were a lot of rooms on that floor, she couldn't say it was them with one hundred percent certainty, and could only wonder if the others had seen them as well. Well, she'd find out in a moment, since she was headed there anyway.
They stopped just outside Honey and GoGo's room, Fred looking uncertain. "So uh... what should we do next?" he asked. "I mean, we obviously gotta get changed but we still need to find Hiro and let him know what's going on."
"I think he already knows," Kally spoke up. "I'm sure Baymax has told him by now."
Fred nodded slowly. "You're probably right."
Honey slid the key card to her room. "I don't know about you but I'm thinking of taking a nap. Maybe we could all meet up for dinner later?"
Everyone agreed to this suggestion and headed into their respective rooms, leaving Kally standing outside the one she shared with Cass. Should she bring up how they'd all worried about Hiro or just let matters be? She wasn't sure. The feeling she'd had earlier had dissipated a bit and she wasn't sure now if it had anything to do with the bombing at the airport or something else. Either was possible. With a shrug, she slid her key card and opened the door.
"Oh hey, "Cass spoke up as she came around from the sleep area of the hotel room. "I thought you guys were up at the pool."
Kally closed the door behind her as she headed towards her bed and a change of clothes. Even though she hadn't joined her friends in the pool, she'd still changed into swim attire in the off chance they could convince her to get wet. "We were but the other students came in and things got a bit rowdy."
Cass nodded, knowing exactly what she probably meant. She let out a sigh. "Ah, college," she mused. She hadn't graduated, but she'd been on campus more times than she could recall when her brother had been in school.
"So, what were you guys up to?" Kally asked as she moved to the bathroom to change. She left the door partially open so she could still chat. "I noticed you guys weren't here earlier."
Of course she'd notice, Cass thought, mentally smacking herself. It was hard not to. "We decided to visit Loki in his room," she said, deciding the truth was better than lying.
At that moment, Hiro tapped on the door between his and his aunt's room, entering a bit hesitantly. "Hey, Aunt Cass, did you move the muffins from my mini fridge? I was going to snag one."
Cass gave a bit of a shoulder nudge, indicating the partially open bathroom door and Hiro turned a bit red as he quickly turned around just in case Kally wasn't decent. "No," she replied to his question. "Maybe Baymax moved them."
Baymax shuffled back a still blushing Hiro. "I did not remove the items in question from the refrigerator," he informed.
Kally exited the bathroom, thankfully fully clothes, her bathing suit in hand. She paused, blinking as she saw Hiro with his back turned to the room in general. "Hey, Hiro," she greeted, not sure why she caught a hint of red in his cheeks.
Hiro waved from where he stood, not daring to turn around, just in case. "Hey, Kally." He sounded a bit nervous, though it was understandable. "Are you decent?"
The girl laughed. "Yes, I'm decent." She put her swim things away, moving to sit on the edge of her bed while Hiro slowly turned around.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Hiro felt his face returning to a more normal color. "I still want to know who moved those muffins." And then he smacked himself in the head. "Oh wait. I ate the last one this morning."
Kally winced, knowing he'd knocked himself around pretty good the day before. "Didn't that hurt?" she inquired, trying to see if she could still see the bump on the side of his head. Either his hair was hiding it or she was looking in the wrong location.
But Hiro just shrugged. "Not really."
She gave him an odd look, not sure if she believed him or not.
"Hiro no longer is suffering from a concussion or any other side effects caused by his concussion," Baymax announced, causing Kally to look up.
"And before you ask, now I haven't developed the ability to rapidly heal like you have," Hiro said, holding up a hand to stave off any comments. "I had a little help from Loki. That's why we were visiting him. He felt bad and offered to help out." Not strictly true, but enough to count, he told himself.
Kally looked thoughtful. "I didn't know he could do that," she confessed. But she supposed, with the right runes, it was possible. She at least couldn't dismiss the possibility.
Someone knocked on the door and all three humans turned to look at the entryway. Cass pursed her lips. "I was hoping it would take them a little longer," she confessed as she went to answer the door. "Oh well."
The woman called out in surprise as she opened the door. "Oh, Mr. Stark, Tony. I wasn't expecting to see you." She moved to one side as the man, followed by Bruce Banner, strode into the room. "Come on in," she added as an afterthought.
"I'm looking for Hiro," Tony said as he strode into the main area of the hotel room, all but bee lining towards Hiro, who had decided to take a seat next to Kally on her bed.
Hiro gave a bit of a wave. "I'm here. What's up?" He gave his characteristic crook-toothed grin, trying to look as innocent as possible. He had no idea what Tony was there for and wasn't sure he really wanted to know either, especially not if it was another lecture on how he should be careful.
Seeing his cheerful smile, Tony checked himself. He'd heard the encounter with Banner and Lucifer, thanks to JARVIS recording the event, but there were still too many questions left unanswered.
But before he could get into any of those, the sound of someone else knocking came from the door. Cass had barely closed it and started towards the rest of them when the sound came. She gave a funny kind of look as she turned back around and answered the door. "Oh, detective. What a surprise."