The Calm
Hiro and Tadashi were in a frightfully good mood as the strolled through the front entrance of the café, casually shooting ideas back and forth to upgrade the advanced scanners in Hiro’s helmet with ones Tadashi had installed in Baymax. They had parted ways with the rest of their team shortly after eating breakfast together, everyone had work to catch up on or start.
“Welcome to the Lucky Cat Café, how can I help you today?” a familiar voice spoke from behind the counter, the tone flat and even.
The boys froze mid debate and focused their full attention on the man behind the counter of the store. Virginia hadn’t even turned to face them, his attention focused on measuring out the right amount of coffee grounds to put in the various machines.
Hiro giggled at the sticky notes above each machine, each covered with various measurements and instructions written in Aunt Cass’ handwriting.
Tadashi let out a noise somewhere between a groan and a whine, “Is that my shirt?”
“Yes it is. Cass lent it to me so I was dressed appropriately to work the counter.” Virginia didn’t spare them a glance, gingerly pressing the start button on the last machine before turning around.
“You stretched it out.” Tadashi grumbled, “I liked that shirt.”
Virginia frowned as he stared at the form fitting shirt, “I..apologize? I was unaware that it was a favored shirt.”
“It’s not.” Hiro snorted, walking behind the counter and pulling at the gray shirt, “He never wears that shirt. He’s just being a baby about it.”
“No children behind the counter.” Virginia said over Tadashi’s sputtering as he lifted Hiro back over the counter, “Did you have fun?
“Yeah!” The boys exclaimed at the same time, causing the few patrons in lingering around to shoot them a confused look.
“Good.” Virginia nodded to himself, “Your aunt is waiting upstairs. She is making you two lunch.”
At the mention of food, Hiro’s stomach rumbled and he made a mad dash up the stairs, shouting to his Aunt. Tadashi followed at a slower pace, shuffling his feet as he walked.
Virginia tilted his head as Tadashi walked by, “Tadashi, come here for a second.”
Blinking, and more than a little confused, Tadashi turned on his heel and made his way to Virginia, “Yeah?”
“The point of a pull-up is to catch what it can in case you don’t make it to the bathroom in time.” Virginia stated, keeping his voice low, “It leaking out the sides is usually a sign it is time to change.”
Tadashi went red as he found himself aware of the wet patch on the back of his leg and how uncomfortable the pull-up he had on felt between his legs.
“I-I didn’t notice.” He mumbled, his hands fidgeting with the collar of his shirt.
“It happens.” Virginia stated, “Go change and see your Aunt.”
Tadashi nodded and scurried his way up the stairs, trying his best to avoid walking funny.
Virginia nodded to himself, the gesture checking off an item on his HUD, and returned to the register. At the sight of a customer Virginia squared his shoulders and repeated the line Cass instructed him to use on customers.
“I wonder what that’s about.” Cass mused aloud as Tadashi bolted his way up the stairs.
“He leaked.” Hiro stated around a mouthful of pancake, “He just realized it.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Cass chided, “And if you noticed, why didn’t you say anything to him?”
“It only happened a block back.” Hiro shrugged, “Didn’t see the point.”
Cass shook her head, “Because it was more fun to see him embarrassed.”
Hiro’s smirk was all the answer Cass needed, so she busied herself making Tadashi’s plate for him before Hiro decided to eat all of the brunch she had made. Hiro had mentioned how they ate a light breakfast at Fred’s place, the butler had insisted on at least bagels, but they definitely had room for her pancakes, especially after the walk back home.
“I didn’t notice.” Tadashi grumbled as he made his way to his chair, hat pulled down low in embarrassment, “’s not my fault.”
Hiro snorted, “You left a trail on the sidewalk.”
“I did not!” Tadashi stomped his foot, “It was just a little bit!”
“All down your pants.” Hiro teased, enjoying his rare moment of having the upper hand.
“Aunt Cass!” Tadashi whined, shooting her a pleading look, “Make him stop!”
“Boys, not at my table.” Cass kept her voice firm and levelled both boys with a stern look, “Eat.”
There was silence for the next few moments as the boys dug into their food, Hiro making a bigger mess than usual and Tadashi using his fingers more than his fork, especially as his fingers got sticky.
“Tadashi, please use a napkin.” Cass sighed as she watched the boy wipe his sticky hands across his pants.
“Why is Virginia working the counter?” Hiro asked, a slight pout as the last pancake went to Tadashi.
“Oh, he spent the night here.” Cass replied, “When I talked about cooking you two food when you got home, he offered to watch the shop.”
“Why did he spend the night?” Tadashi asked around a mouthful of food, relishing in getting the last pancake over Hiro.
It might be childish, but he rarely ever got it so he was going to enjoy it.
“We were watching movies. Can you believe he’s never seen Tremors?” Cass shook her head in exasperation, “His movie education is sorely lacking. I’m thinking on starting him on monster movies next time, you know to keep with the theme of monsters and such.”
“Monster or Kaiju?” Tadashi frowned, “I’m not sure which he would like more.”
“Kaiju!” Hiro almost shouted, “They’re the best!”
What was left of their food was set aside in favor of the Great Debate. It was an old, comfortable, debate at the Hamada table that pitted one preferred movie genre against another. Tadashi smiled to himself as Aunt Cass leapt to the defense of her western monsters, while Hiro was adamant about the superiority of his Kaiju. Tadashi tried his best to stay out of it and eat the Last Pancake, his preference for Sci-Fi monsters precluded him from the purist version of the argument.
Besides, he wasn’t feeling up to a debate today, or a monster movie. Maybe he’d curl up on his bed and watch a Disney movie.
“The Kaiju in Pacific Rim do count!” Hiro’s voice rose an octave, “It’s in their name!”
“Then I can use the Predators!” Cass shot back, “You’re moving into Sci-Fi territory Hiro and I have more monsters!”
Yes, Tadashi decided as he picked up the last of his pancake with his fingers, a Disney movie would be awesome for today.
“Disney.” He stated, timing it with one of their pauses, “Today is Disney.”
Virginia furrowed his eyebrows as he focused his hearing back on the main floor of the Café. He had been starting to lose parts of the conversation when they started debating movies, which was unacceptable. He would have to pick up the pace with his own training again, it had fallen to the wayside with all the other things going on.
Unacceptable, something like that would get himself killed.
Then the bell to the shop rang and his attention focused on the crowd coming in for lunch. The number of people made his hand twitch towards the knife he had secreted away from upstairs, but he pulled his hand away and put on a disarming smile.
“Welcome to the Lucky Cat Café, what can I get for you today?”
Though he was curious as to what, exactly, a ‘Disney” was, he had to focus. This was just another form of training.
Virginia was, for the first time in weeks, training himself. He had been spending so much time with his newfound team, and the Hamadas, that his former training regiment had been watered down to the bare basics. It was unacceptable considering that he had a target to pursue.
The black iron staff was an oddly comforting weight as he strode to the center of his makeshift training room, doing a few warm-up flourishes as he walked.
“Run simulation Thermopylae Legend.” he called out as he performed one more complex flourish.
“Loading simulation. Current record is Five minutes and two seconds. Are you ready to begin?”
“Ready.”
“Beginning simulation.”
Virginia took a deep breath and focused as the simulation washed over him. Artifical wind blew at his clothes, a artificial sun beat down on him, and soon drum beats filled his ears. Half a mile away hordes of warriors, dressed as ancient Persian warriors, began to materialize and march forward. When the warriors were roughly two-hundred yards away Virginia charged, clearing the distance in seconds, and punched a warrior in the chest. Time seemed to slow down as Virginia’s fist ripped through the warrior and impacted the next with enough force to send him into the oncoming forces.
Time sped back up and Virginia used his momentum to flip into the air, whipping his staff around at the heads of the closest warriors. He could hear their skulls shattering but paid it no mind as he used the momentum from the swing to twist and plant a kick in the chest of another enemy. He landed in a crouch, sweeping his staff in a wide circle to give himself room to plan. Virginia took a ready stance as he watched the enemy ranks swell around him, the warriors banging their shields and making feints at his back.
Virginia took a deep breath and charged, his staff a black blur as he smashed and battered his way through the oncoming waves of enemies. The opposing AI wasn’t particularly intelligent, it merely adapted to tactics and responded within acceptable parameters to give the users a challenge. As a single unit proceeded to destroy half of its available units faster then they could adapt, the AI made the only choice it could within its constraints.
Wrenching his staff out of the latest body,Virginia watched dispassionately as it dissolved in a flurry of pixels.
“Time.”
“Four minutes, thirty seconds.”
Virginia tightened his grip on the staff, preparing himself for the dash across the virtual field, when a faint whistling reached his ears. His stance changed into a defensive one as the sky darkened with arrows.
“Exercise complete. Time was fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds.”
Virginia stretched out his muscles as the scenery faded back into the gray concrete walls, the barest hints of a frown marring his face.
Ten minutes and forty three seconds over his best. Completely unacceptable, even for one of his warm up simulations.
“Run it again.”
“Beginning simulation.”
“Exercise complete. Time was ten minutes and five seconds.”
“Again.”
“Beginning simulation.”
“Exercise complete. Time was eight minutes zero seconds.”
“Again.” Virginia grunted as he wiped the sweat off his face.
“Beginning simulation.”
“Simulation complete. Time was six minutes thirty seconds.”
Virginia took a moment to catch his breath, his training clothes drenched in sweat, “Again.”
“Beginning simulation.”
“Simulation complete. Time was four minutes fifty-nine seconds. New record.”
“Perfect.” Virginia muttered to himself as he caught his breath.
It had been a long time since he had pushed himself that hard, to feel his muscles burn that way, and he had forgotten how much he enjoyed it.
Being able to move and act without restraint was something he sorely missed.
Dismissing those thoughts with a shake of his head, Virginia moved towards the door fully intent on taking a shower; his own stench was giving him a headache.
“Why are you here.”
Gogo swore violently as she leapt back, her miniature disks flying from her fingers in the same motion. Three weeks ago, she would have stared in undisguised shock at how Virginia casually plucked them from the air before they reached anywhere close to hitting him.
Now it just made her scowl as she accepted the disks back, “Planned on training.”
Virginia’s head tilted slightly, in a very similar way to Baymax she noted, “Alone?”
“Nobody else interested.” she shrugged as she resumed pulling on her armor.
Virginia nodded to himself before turning on his heel and walking towards the exit. When he reached the door, he paused for a moment before looking over his shoulder at the suited up Gogo.
“Coming?”
Gogo refused to admit that she scrambled to follow him, but she refused to miss out on this opportunity