Chapter Thirty Nine: Our primary objective

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By the time Tadashi's stipulated three days were over, Hiro had completed both his and Baymax's suits. If his older brother noticed anything though, he didn't say much about it. In fact, Hiro rather thought he'd been home a lot less lately.

When Tadashi returned late for the fourth night in a row, Hiro couldn't help but be curious. He watched his brother hang up his helmet and goggles as he sat on his bed and tossed a ball into the air over and over again. "What've you been up to?"

Almost guiltily, Tadashi started as he turned to face the room. "Hiro! Don't do that!" he admonished. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry," the boy apologized. "That still doesn't answer my question." He sat up, setting the ball to one side. "You're not usually out this late."

Tadashi crossed the room to his side as he took off his hat and fumbled in the dresser for his pajamas. "I'm working on something with one of my professors," he replied. "But don't even bother asking what. I don't have permission to talk about it yet."

That made Hiro even more curious, but he knew asking anything else would shut his brother down faster than a failing motherboard. He decided to change gears. "Any news about the project thief?"

Shaking his head, the older Hamada came back around the dividing screen, already wearing his night clothes. "Unfortunately, no. The police think someone just wanted to strip them for parts."

So much for that, Hiro sighed. Not that anyone could get anything useful from his destroyed microbots. "That's too bad. I was hoping they'd found something."

Turning off the light on his side of the room, Tadashi ventured far enough to ruffle Hiro's hair. "Try not to worry too much about it," he advised. "Besides, it's getting late. You should head to bed before Aunt Cass comes up to check on us."

Aunt Cass had checked in on Hiro as often as was possible over the past few days. Not that anything had happened to cause alarm. But Hiro knew Tadashi was right. He didn't want Aunt Cass coming up to check on him. Not tonight.

"Good night," Hiro called to his brother as he switched off his lamp. All he had to do was wait until his brother fell asleep, then he could sneak down to the garage where Baymax was waiting. Assuming Aunt Cass didn't stay up too late either.

...............................................

In the end, Hiro had to wait for over an hour before the telltale sounds of Tadashi's snoring had evened out. Figuring his brother had finally drifted into a deep sleep, he flung off the covers and quickly headed for the stairs.

Being as quiet as he could, Hiro crept downstairs to the garage. Thankfully, the light to his aunt's room was off, indicating she'd gone to bed as well. Sometimes she stayed up late watching old-school horror movies with Mochi. He paused only long enough to grab a high powered flashlight from the hall closet, hoping his aunt really was asleep and not just reading or something.

Once inside the garage, he called Baymax out of the far corner where he'd hidden in full armor. It would have taken too long to put it on after the others had gone to bed, the boy had reasoned. And, luckily, there was a niche big enough for the robot to hide in should someone come down to investigate.

Carefully, Hiro attached his own bits of armor, then secured his helmet in place. "You ready?" he asked the healthcare bot as he made some final adjustments.

"I am ready," Baymax confirmed and moved to open the garage door, ducking under the frame because his suit gave him several more feet to his original height.

Hiro closed the tilting door with a tug on the rope intended for that exact purpose. It wouldn't do to leave the room open to potential looters. Then he circled around to the robot's back to climb on. "First, I want to check out the warehouse," he instructed as he made doubly sure he had the heavy duty flashlight secured to his belt. He'd need that for later.

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