Control Alt Delete (A BH6 crossover)

Chapter Seven: A Total Loss

A flood of activity met the two Hamada brothers as Tadashi drove his moped onto the SFIT campus. Just as he'd thought, the fire-ruined showcase building was still under active investigation. Though there were no fire trucks on scene, there were plenty of firemen running around, along with a long police line cordoning off the area.

"See. What did I tell you?" Tadashi said to his brother, giving him a gentle smack on the arm.

Hiro shook his head. From what he could see, the building was a total mess. Shattered glass lay all around, with the blackened metal frame making an almost gaping maw where various people in uniform kept entering and exiting. He couldn't help but let out an exclamation of surprise.

Tadashi continued to drive around the area, heading towards the Ito Ishioka lab. "If you want to have a chance of even getting close enough to try and attract your microbots, we're going to have to walk over. I don't think they'd take too kindly to my parking in the middle of everything."

Luckily, there were plenty of spectators milling around, trying to figure out what was going on and what had really happened. And not all of the spectators were from the local media. Students stared in silent misery, probably mourning the loss of their creations. Or so Hiro figured from their downcast faces. Some were even crying, friends holding them in comfort.

"I have no problem walking," Hiro said as he slipped off the bike the moment his brother had parked. Looking around, just to be sure no one was watching, he slipped the transmitter band onto his head, hoping his hair would hide it from prying eyes as he ran towards the ruined building's back side.

"Hiro!" Tadashi had to run to catch up, grabbing him by the shoulder to slow him down. "You promised you wouldn't get too close," he admonished, making sure they were well enough back to not get in the way or catch any undo attention.

At his brother's insistence, Hiro slowed down, stopping as they came within fifty odd meters of the building. He reached up to switch the transmitter on, willing any nearby microbots to come to him. His pocket began to shake, then the small bot inside flew out and into Hiro's hand. But no more microbots showed up. Either Tadashi was right about them being destroyed in the fire or Yokai had taken them out of range. He let out a sigh of frustration.

Tadashi placed a comforting hand on his brother's shoulders. "See? What did I tell you? They were probably destroyed in the fire. We should get back to the café. Aunt Cass will have breakfast soon. You know how she worries when we don't check in."

But Hiro didn't hear him. He tried to concentrate harder, willing any microbots within range to do something, anything. His face almost turned red with the exertion. But nothing came of it. Finally, he took off the metal headpiece, deactivating it. "I was really hoping you were wrong," he confessed as he held the circlet loosely in one hand, his shoulders sagging.

"Come on," Tadashi said, steering him gently back towards the lab building. "Let's go back. We can talk about it over breakfast, okay?"

Hiro's shoulders sagged even more. He didn't want to talk about it. There was no way Tadashi could understand what was going on. It was impossible for his microbots to be destroyed. He knew that, which meant Yokai had them. He had to have them. But there was no real way of finding him now.

Last time, he'd had the microbot to help him. It had been attracted to the others because they were still connected to the transmitter, which had been in Yokai's hands.

Wait. Hiro dug in his heels at the sudden realization. If Yokai had them, he'd probably go to his base of operations like before and start replicating them. It might take him a day or two to get the schematics down, but he'd do just that. And Hiro already knew where that base of operations was, the warehouse. He just had to figure out a way to go there without Tadashi knowing about it or following him.