"What do you mean he's gone?" GoGo asked, her face showing just how incredulous she felt at the announcement. "He can't be gone. You were just with him! There's no way he could have just wandered off!" Her loud voice filled the hall like a bullhorn, causing those still in the dining room to peer out the double-doors to see what was going on.
She and Fred were headed back to their dinners when they'd run across Honey Lemon, Deanna, and Baymax. The two women had looked frantic; giving her ample reason to question what was going on.
Honey started at her tone, jumping back just a little. To say her friend was upset would be an understatement. "I don't know," she responded. "He was there one moment, gone the next. And I know he couldn't have just wandered off. We were right outside the only door."
Picard entered the hall, followed by the two Doctors, Q, and Worf. Data trailed behind them all, looking confused. "What in the blazes is going on?" he asked rather impatiently. The entire evening's events had left him more than a little unnerved.
"Hiro's missing," Deanna supplied. "We left him sleeping in the room only for a moment. Then there was a bright flash of light and he was gone."
Q stepped forward, his expression a mixture of horrified indignation. "A flash of light and he was gone? You can't be serious."
Baymax took that moment to confirm their statements. "That is correct," he asserted. "I can no longer detect his presence inside this building."
"What are we waiting for?" Fred called out. "We should start searching the house, top to bottom, just to be sure." Part of him hoped this would be just like when Hiro and Baymax had gone off only a few days ago, only to return with an unconscious Q in their arms. He didn't care of Baymax said he could sense his presence or not. At least it was something to do.
GoGo shook her head. "Won't do much good. If Baymax says he's not here, he's not here. Our best bet is to scan the city to see if we can find him."
Before anyone could make any further motions, however, Heathcliff approached bearing a silver tray with a letter on top. "Master Frederick, I found this at the front door," he said as he offered the letter to the young master.
With all eyes on him, Fred picked up the envelope and slit it open with a finger. Then, almost as if he were afraid of what was inside, he pulled out the plain sheet of paper. After a few moments of scanning it, his entire face seemed to fall. "Uh, guys..." He held out the letter for anyone to take.
GoGo was the closest as she reached for it, almost giving Fred a paper cut from the force behind her motion. Her eyes widened as she read it out loud. "Dear Mr. Whitmore, I just wanted to let you know I have taken your son. If you want him back, follow my instructions to the letter. No cops. Period. I'll be in touch soon." She handed the paper to Deanna, who held out her hand to receive it. "What kind of nonsense is this? You're the only child the Whitmores have!"
Honey Lemon let out a small gasp. "Oh no," she uttered, one hand going to her mouth as the realization set in. "Earlier this morning, when we took Hiro back to the store, Fred pretended to be his father. Maybe the kidnapper overheard and thought..." she trailed off, unable to finish.
Q stared impatiently at those gathered. "You do know what this means, don't you?" he asked in a rather presumptuous manner.
The two Doctors exchanged looks with each other. One had his hands clasped behind his back while the other had his hands thrust in his pockets. Their expressions were thoughtful but stern at the same time. Either way, it didn't look like they liked what was going on.
"Anyone?" Q said, breaking the momentary silence.
Worf glared at him. "Stop beating around the bush and tell us," he ordered, looking more than willing to tear the man apart limb from limb.
Rolling his eyes at the tone the Klingon used, Q took a step towards the center of the confusion. "Isn't it obvious? Whoever this person is, he's somehow managed to harness my powers." He paused at the varying looks of shock and disbelief around him. "What? It's true. Don't you see? Counselor Troi said she saw a bright flash of light before the little imp disappeared. What usually happens when I pull that same trick? A flash of light! I somehow doubt there is any other explanation that fits."
Troi felt an unusual amount of emotion coming from Q as she listened to his theory. "It is possible," she admitted. "The flash of light did resemble the typical appearances associated with Q's power."
Baymax shuffled closer as well. "I detected an increase in energy around Hiro moments before he disappeared," he admitted.
"There!" Q cried out as he clapped his hands, his expression showing triumph. "Don't you see! Someone has to have harnessed my powers." Then he became more somber. "Which means someone else is using my abilities in ways I would never condone. I can't take this lying down! Something must be done about this! Immediately!"
Data glanced inquiringly at the raving man. "What do you propose we do?"
Q all but bounced over to the android. "Why, go after this conniving human and get my powers back, of course! What else?"
Worf took that opportunity to move towards the man with a look of annoyance. "Captain, recommend we restrain Q and confine him to quarters."
But Picard raised a hand. "No," he replied. "Q's right."
His declaration caused all to stare at him with varying degrees of shock, the majority of which came from his crew.
"But, Captain!" Worf protested, his arms now down at his sides.
With an almost incredulous smile on his wife, Picard shook his head. "No. I can hardly believe I'm saying this but Q has a valid point. If we are to rescue Hiro, we will have to find the man who took him. To do that, we must find the highest concentration of this energy. We find that, we will likely find Hiro."
The two Doctors nodded in unison. "He's right, you know," the blue clad one said. "Our best chance of finding Hiro is to find the man who's using this man's powers." He indicated Q with a slight nudge of his hip. His hands were still firmly in his pockets.
Worf still didn't look convinced. "I must protest."
"Oh save your breath," Q retorted in kind, screwing his face up in a scowl. "By finding the man who has my powers, MY powers, we find your little infant whelp and everything can return to normal and we can all go home. Everybody wins."
Honey pushed her glasses back up her nose as she moved a little closer to the new center of conversation. "But how do we do that? We don't even know where they've taken him let alone who they are."
GoGo thrust her chin out as she popped a pink bubble. "We have Baymax scan the city. That way we'll know exactly where he is. Easy."
"I only hope you're right," Q said with a huge dose of skepticism as he looked at the inflatable marshmallow. His confidence in the robot was not all that high.
...............................
Two hours later, GoGo threw her helmet to the ground of the command center in frustration. She and Baymax had just returned from the upper strata of the city where they'd scanned the whole area from what seemed like fifty million angles. All for nothing. No signs. Nothing. Either Hiro was in some place Baymax couldn't penetrate with his scanners, like Akuma Island, or he was no longer in the area at all.
"This is bull crap!" GoGo yelled as she kicked at the helmet, sending it skittering across the floor.
Baymax stood back while she displayed her frustration, waiting patiently for someone to help him out of his armor. "Your blood pressure is elevated," he observed.
GoGo turned an acid glare at him. "No duh! All this time spent out there looking for the stupid kid and what do we come back with? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You bet my blood pressure is elevated!"
Fred walked into the command room, only to duck back as GoGo managed to send her helmet towards the door frame like it was some kind of soccer ball. He peered back in at the sound of the headgear skidding against the floor. "Wow," he said, his eyes wide as he took in her emotional state. "That bad?"
She strode over to him, her fist all but in his face as her whole body seemed to shake. But if she was going to let one fly, she chose not to, perhaps on principle. Or maybe for some other reason. Perhaps it was because he was the only one, aside from Baymax, in the room. Either way, instead of punching him, she let her body slump against his in defeat. "We couldn't find him," she admitted.
Fred wasn't really sure how to handle this situation because she'd already told him not to tell anyone about their little incident in the bathroom. But he couldn't just let her sit there against him without doing something. After all, he was an honorable dude. So he did the only natural thing and pulled her into a big hug. "Hey," he said as gently as possible. "We'll find him, okay?"
GoGo turned so her face was buried in his chest. It wasn't something she'd normally do. With anyone. But, for whatever reason, she needed it, needed that physical contact. She needed someone to tell her it was going to be okay, that she didn't always have to be the strong one. And though Baymax often provided that entity for Hiro, he just didn't cut it for her.
But even with that need for physical reassurance, she didn't let any tears fall. It wasn't her style. Crying was a sign of weakness, no matter what anyone said. It just wasn't her thing. So, after a good half minute of being held in Fred's arms, GoGo pulled away. She exhaled as she did so, trying to push out all the fear and frustration with it. "Thanks," she said as she patted the otaku on the shoulder. "Guess I'd better go tell the others."
Fred watched as she headed out the door. The moment she was out of sight, he turned to Baymax who was still patiently waiting for someone to divest him of his armor. "Um... hey," he said rather uncomfortably. He walked towards the robot, rubbing at the back of his neck. "So um... No Hiro?"
Baymax blinked at him. "I was unable to find him," he admitted, his head seeming to drop. "I performed over one hundred scans of the city. Unless he is somehow shielded from my sensor, I do not believe he is in San Fransokyo at this time."
Careful not to damage anything, Fred began to take the red armor off his vinyl friend. "Yeah, kinda figured that's what happened." His head hung down as he carried each piece of Baymax's gear to its designated shelving space. "What about GoGo? Think she'll be okay?"
Quickly accessing his most recent scan of the athlete, Baymax hung his head. "I do not know. Her emotional state has degraded drastically. I believe the only way to change this is if we find Hiro."
"Yeah," Fred agreed. His whole body felt heavy, like he was dragging through sand. "You're probably right. Guess we'd better go join the others." He slouched over even more as he headed to the door, the white marshmallow following close behind.
................................
After GoGo reported what had happened, and how they couldn't even detect any of the weird energy floating around, both of the Doctors insisted everyone try and get some sleep. Baymax added his two cents agreeing to that point. There was obviously nothing else they could do at the moment so the majority agreed.
Despite admonitions to try and get some shut eye, Fred couldn't seem to make his brain shut up. Part of him wondered if it wasn't his fault this had happened. Maybe if he hadn't pretended to Hiro's dad at the store, the kidnapper wouldn't have taken Hiro. And if that was the case, it had to be his fault. So if anyone had the right to feel guilty about the whole situation it was him.
He stared almost listlessly up at his bedroom ceiling. Where was Hiro now? Was he scared? Was he okay? Had someone hurt him or was he being taken care of? He had no answers, which left his imagination way too much to draw on.
Finally, Fred decided he had to do something. He didn't know what. Anything would do. So he headed back to the command center. Baymax's charger had been returned to that room shortly after he'd completed a final scan of those injured in the car accident earlier. Without Hiro, he wasn't necessarily needed to keep an eye on anyone while they slept.
Fred slipped into the room with slipper-clad feet. He hadn't bothered to change out of his pajamas, a two piece pants and top set with a Godzilla theme printed on the fabric. "Hey, Baymax," he said rather dejectedly as he slumped into his recliner.
Baymax blinked curiously at the hero, scanning him as per usual. "Hello, Fred," he greeted in kind. "Is something troubling you? You seem distressed."
The otaku ran a hand over his face, his fingers momentarily catching on the band aid on his nose. "I guess you could say that," he sighed. "I think Hiro's being kidnapped is my fault."
Not sure what his companion meant, Baymax stepped free of his charger to approach the dejected man. "I do not understand."
Fred's body seemed to go limp, conforming to the chair with one leg over the corresponding armrest, his head resting just on the other. "If I hadn't pretended to be Hiro's dad back at the store, this might not have happened," he confessed. "I was careless and it got Hiro in trouble."
Contemplating what Fred had just said, Baymax tilted his head to one side. "I do not believe you are to blame for Hiro's disappearance," he stated.
Fred looked up, his face still showing clear signs of his emotional state. He raised one hand and patted the robot, who had moved much closer. "Thanks, Baymax. But I still think it's my fault. It has to be. And because of me, GoGo's been hurt too."
It took the vinyl marshmallow a moment but he made the connection. "Are you more upset that Hiro is missing or that GoGo is distressed?"
That got Fred's attention in a hurry and he sat up part of the way. He had to think about that. Which was he more upset about? Hiro going missing was obviously a big deal. He was the leader of the group, the one who'd pulled them all together when Tadashi died. But GoGo was someone he also cared about deeply. He'd never admitted it to anyone, but he thought he was beginning to develop feelings for her. "Um..."
"Having clarity of thought will help you to see things more clearly," Baymax stated helpfully. "It is alright to be upset. I do not like that Hiro is missing. I also do not like that GoGo is suffering."
Fred gave a slight smile at that. "That makes two of us," he admitted. "I just can't stand to see her like that. I mean, I've never seen her look like that before. She just looked so... I don't know... defeated."
"It will be alright," Baymax said. "We will find Hiro."
Still not feeling it, Fred slumped back into the chair once more. "Yeah. We have to."