Chapter Text
Hiro stepped back from his 3-D printer with a smug grin on his face as he watched the final details laser onto the armored visor he was printing. He had already made shoulder plates, steel pants, and a belly plate for his marshmallowy partner-in-crime, and just needed to finish this helmet. It had been a pesky task to print all of the pieces without any of Tadashi’s friends, who had been coming to the cafe every single day for the last two weeks to check in on him, noticing or getting curious. Hiro didn’t think they’d be super fond of him turning Tadashi’s huggable, lovable medicinal invention into a vicious fighting machine to capture a random man in a kabuki mask. He didn’t think Tadashi would be too fond of it either if he was honest with himself.
“Alright buddy, let’s work on your moves while this thing prints, huh?” He said aloud, mostly to himself. He grabbed a small, red data card from a small drawer on the left side of his workbench and plugged it into his beefy laptop. He opened YouTube and searched for a video of two black belts fighting in a popular karate movie. It just so happened that this movie was one of Tadashi’s favorites. A pang of grief shot through Hiro’s heart as he traced the dojo master and downloaded his techniques into the USB card.
Tadashi had always been the kind of person to choose kindness over violence. Although Hiro knew and admired that about his brother, he could never react the same way. His temper got the better of him. He jumped to conclusions and preferred to exact revenge. While Tadashi had never judged him for his intense reactions, he’d always gotten on Hiro’s back about this kind of behavior, especially when it helped him swindle the competition at bot fights. So, Hiro knew that Tadashi was probably crossing his arms and shaking his head disappointedly as Hiro printed this last bit of armor. Hiro couldn’t bring himself to care.
The 3-D printer beeped, pulling Hiro out of his thoughts and indicating that the helmet was completed. He pulled it out of the casing and examined it closely. He smiled as his eyes scanned over the piece of armor, admiring his handiwork. He pulled the plug that connected the technology to his printer and sauntered over to Baymax, who was standing in his garage awkwardly. He climbed up a little step ladder and plopped the helmet over Baymax’s eyes.
“Okay buddy, how does it feel?” He asked, admiring the handiwork of his blue and black fiber-fabric armor that fit perfectly to Baymax’s figure.
“...I have some concerns,” Baymax responded with a slow, robotic blink. Hiro wilted his eyebrows in confusion and gestured for Baymax to continue. The robot did not need permission to continue, though, and continued to barrel on through his explanation. “This armor may undermine my non-threatening, huggable design.”
“That’s kind of the idea, buddy. You look sick!” He smiled as he stepped back to get a full view of his newest bot.
“I cannot be sick. I am a robot.”
“It’s just an expression,” Hiro replied exasperatedly. His computer dinged, indicating that the download was complete. He pulled the chip out of the USB port and examined the card. Its red hue reminded Hiro of the stripes on the kabuki mask he’d seen on the man who chased them out of the warehouse. He scoffed and pulled a white Sharpie off of his desk to draw a design on the label of the chip. He decided on a little doodle of a skull. Tadashi would have killed him if he found out Hiro was adding a death chip to his nurse robot. Unfortunately, Tadashi wasn’t here to tell him off.
Tadashi wasn’t here at all.
He pushed open Baymax’s data port and implanted the chip. The robot downloaded all the information to his database and then turned to Hiro. “Data transfer complete. I fail to see how karate makes me a better healthcare companion.”
Hiro shrugged again. “You want to keep me healthy, don't you? “ He asked with a sly grin on his face. He grabbed a piece of spare wood from behind his bench and furrowed his brows challengingly at Baymax. “Punch this!”
Baymax’s armor-covered fist immediately wound back and sprung forward, easily breaking the wood into two perfect pieces in Hiro’s hands without even coming near his face. He looked at it, and the Baymax, in surprise. He hadn’t actually expected this to work!
“Yes!” He cheered as he threw the wood aside and celebrated. He grabbed another piece of wood and placed it carefully on top of two blocks of cement. “Alright, next test. Hammerfist!” He shouted. Baymax wound his fist back and punched through the wood and cement with ease. Hiro smiled even wider, calling out more commands.
“Sidekick! Knifehand! Back kick!”
Baymax did all of the karate moves without missing a single beat. Every kick had perfect precision and every punch was lethal.
“Yes! Yeah!” Hiro shouted with a gleeful grin stretching from ear to ear. He had no idea if this would work or not, but now he was certain he could figure out the identity of the man behind the mask. He felt a rush of adrenaline course through his arms, up his back, and into his head. He jumped up and down and held out his hand in a fist shape. “Fist bump!”
“...’Fist bump’ is not in my fighting database,” Baymax commented, staring blankly at Hiro’s fist.
Hiro stopped for a second as he processed what had just happened. The way that he and Tadashi expressed excitement towards each other was a fist bump. They’d done it every single time an experiment went well or a hypothesis tested correctly, ever since Hiro was a little kid. They’d even gotten to the point where they tried to fist bump Aunt Cass once when she told them they’d done over a thousand dollars in sales at the cafe that day. She didn’t really get it, but Hiro and Tadashi did. Hiro remembered how they’d looked at each other and laughed the whole way up the stairs while Cass had just stared in confusion and mild amusement. His smile turned tender as he focused back on Baymax, who was still sitting and watching Hiro’s fist with a slight tilt of his head.
“No, buddy… this isn’t a fighting thing. It’s what people do sometimes when they’re excited or pumped up!” He tried to explain, getting flashbacks of Tadashi’s accomplished smile when Hiro got his microbots to work successfully. When he realized that his explanation wasn’t working, he gently grabbed hold of Baymax’s arm instead to just teach him the move. He turned his marshmallow limb to face wrist-down, and then folded his balloon knuckles into a fist shape. Then, he used his own fist to gently bump against Baymax’s knuckles before making an explosion sound with his mouth. Baymax stared blankly at Hiro’s fist for a while, and then gently repeated the action, bumping against Hiro’s fist gently.
“...Ba-da-la-da-la-da-la,” He said, twinkling his fingers as he pulled away from the fist-bump. Hiro appreciated the effort. It almost brought a tear to his eye. He could feel Tadashi’s presence… just a little bit. It was bittersweet.
“Hey, now you’re getting it!” Hiro cheered, swallowing the lump in his throat. Baymax blinked at him again.
“I will add ‘fist-bump’ to my care-giving matrix.”
“Alright. Let’s go catch that guy.”
***
Hiro had only seen the streets of San Fransokyo this empty when he was walking around in the dead of night towards bot fights. He realized that it must have been at least one or two AM for it to be this dead. He hoped it would be a great time for a sneak attack. Now that he was with Baymax though, he was a lot more careful about avoiding those specific alleyways now - especially Good Luck Alley. The last thing he wanted was for Yama to find out that Hiro had a new, poppable robot.
They crept up to the front door of the warehouse and Hiro pressed his ear to the door to try and listen for any sounds. It was almost deadly quiet, besides the creaking of old, rotting wood and the occasional squeak of a mouse. This mission could have a lot of different outcomes. There was the one where the masked villain was here and Hiro was able to unmask him. But there were also so many probable cases such as losing this fight, getting hurt, or their suspect not even being here.
But… there was always a chance he’d unmask the person who killed his brother. He’d finally get closure - and revenge.
Hiro took a deep breath, and then nodded to Baymax.
Baymax used his freshly-learned karate skills to kick open the rusty door, and it fell with a crash! to the old floor.
“Get him, Baymax!” Hiro shouted.
No sound. No movement. No nothing.
Their guy wasn’t here.
Hiro sighed and put his head in his hands. He’d lost him. He’d never find out what happened to Tadashi now! He heard the mechanical blinking of Baymax behind him, but shook his head.
“We’re too late,” He muttered bitterly.
It was silent for a moment, but then Baymax piped up. “Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere.”
Hiro’s head popped up from his hands, and he whirled around to face Baymax. “What?” He asked as his eyes darted to the petri dish holding the microbot, which was currently wildly trying to fly off to the South - the exact way they’d just come from.
“Your tiny robot is trying to-”
“I heard you, Baymax,” Hiro shushed him. He studied the bot and then grabbed Baymax’s marshmallow hand to drag him out of the warehouse. “Come on!”
Hiro held the petri dish in front of him, weaving through the complex alleyways and curving streets of the San Fransokyo downtown district. His microbot tugged him along towards the edge of the city, away from the bright neon lights and flickering street lamps. He slightly noticed the air getting colder and the breeze stung at his cheeks, but he refused to stop. He couldn’t. Not now.
His gaze was locked onto the dish, following the microbot as it tugged him towards the person who’d stolen Tadashi’s life from him. He would figure it out. He would find out who was behind the mask no matter what-
He felt a hard tug at his collar, and suddenly his surroundings came flooding in. The microbot tugged and tugged on the petri dish until Hiro could no longer hold onto it and flew out of his hands and into the ocean's darkness. “Hey!”
“Always wait one hour after eating before swimming,” Baymax’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he quickly realized he’d almost walked off the side of a dock. They were at the San Fransokyo bay. Hiro yanked Baymax's arm and pulled him behind a shipping container as quickly as he could.
“Baymax,” Hiro whispered, peeking around the container. “Scan for life signs.”
Baymax’s helmet scanner blinked to life, his low voice humming. “One human life sign detected. Approximately thirty feet ahead.”
Hiro’s breath caught in his throat.
His eyes scanned the ocean in front of him. It was too dark for his liking. He couldn’t see enough and it was freaking him out. “Baymax, what do you mean thirty feet ahead?” He asked, squinting to try and see further. He was able to make out a figure appearing out of the darkness and fog like some sort of horror movie, but he couldn’t quite place exactly what it was yet. He ducked back behind the container and tried to regulate his breathing.
“Your heart rate has increased dramatica-” Baymax started, but Hiro shushed him quickly. Hiro needed this to work. He had no idea if this was going to be his last chance to confront the masked man who stole his bots and killed his brother. This had to be perfect. He had to catch this guy.
“Okay, Baymax,” Hiro murmured, looking his armored buddy up and down. “Time to use those upgrades.”