Chapter Text
The cafè was finally closing for an hour between lunch and dinner to clean. The last customer, a petite dark-skinned woman with braided black hair and a smile, waved a cheery goodbye and closed the glass-paned door behind her. Cassandra collapsed into a light wood chair and heaved a breath- just for a moment. Then I should help the bots with the dishes. She swiped back a stray strand of auburn hair. But… they sound like they have it under control.
Do I even need to be here any more? Cass laughed the idea off, standing and grabbing a wash rag out of a nearby pail of soapy water. I mean, Hangry could make the food, Crushroom is getting pretty good at not dropping dishes… even Noodle Burger Boy is doing a lot of the customer service. I'm grateful for Hiro finding me some help now that his friends are starting to move out, but I'm starting to feel a little useless.
"I can do that, Mother!" Came an overly cheery, distinctly high-pitched voice above Cass. Case in point. Hippo can do the cleaning. She mustered a smile. "It's fine, I can do it."
"I will do- I've got it, you go have some fun!" The hyper little hippopotamus zipped around the main room on her mag-levs, laugh as enthusiastic as ever. But her pitch had dropped scarily there for a moment. Cass frowned. Stood warily. Wiped her hands on her shirt. "Hey, Hippo?"
"What- yes, Mother?" There- it happened again! The robot stopped, hovering twitchily in midair. "Are… are you OK? Do you need Hiro to-"
"I'm fine, Mother!" But that sounded normal… maybe it's just some weird programming thing. It's probably nothing. I'll get Hiro to check them out later, when he gets back from school. Aunt Cass tried her hardest to not be paranoid of the four little helpers, but… she'd seen them on the news far too many times to instantly believe they were placid and harmless. I said I'd give them a fair chance. No jumping to conclusions.
"Maybe I should power you down just in case…" The cafè owner suggested, foreboding worming in her gut. She stepped towards the bot, who instantly zipped out of range. "That won't be necessary, Mother!"
Again. This is weird. Cass decided, retreating back to where she could put a table in between the fritzing purple robot and herself. Her voice keeps going all deep and weird and then back to normal.
Could just be an audio thing, she reasoned with herself. Still, I hope Hiro comes home soon. "And why shouldn't I? Don't you deserve a nap?"
"Because we made you something special!" That was Crushroom, yellow and red mushroom-shaped head spinning as she scanned the room for any more dishes that could be hiding. There was a fork, which she removed from the booth cushion and promptly pitched into the sink at the other end of the small house. Yeah, that's still not something I'm used to. Then she swiveled back to meet Cass. "Here! New smoothie from Hangry!"
"And- all of us sisses!" Hyper squealed, voice fluctuating again as she zipped closer. Burger Boy brought out a small green plate- That actually looks pretty good, Aunt Cass thought, taking in the bright orange slushie in front of her. "Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. But why all the fuss?" Even as she was speaking, Hangry scooted another chair closer so the only human present could put her feet up. They all looked on as she continued- "It's not like it's my birthday or anything!"
"Someone said it was a special day, so drink up!" Burger Boy crooned, swiveling his ramen patty-shaped head around gleefully. Cass obliged, taking a long sip from the drink and trying to think. How is today special? They came three months ago, so that's not it… it's not my or Hiro's birthday, it's not Founders Day or Shimamoto Day… it's not even Parent's Weekend! What could be special about May 18th?
Suddenly a sharp pang hit her stomach. Cassandra stiffened with a gasp, dropping the glass to the ground. It shattered. Her arms snaked around her stomach without her permission. What…
Her vision wavered and the four bots standing or hovering eagerly over her seemed to multiply, red light glowing from their eyes. "Our new mom told us today was special!" One of them crowed as Cass tipped forward, unable to stop her sudden descent. Hideous mechanical cackling filled her ears as the room around her faded. There was some great realization here, but she couldn't think for the life of her what it was.
Hiro, please hurry.
—-
"Come on, Baymax! If we hurry we can beat the dinner rush!" Hiro pulled the marshmallowy bot down the sloped street of his city, San Fransokyo. "I do not understand why- we must hurry." Baymax commented as he obligingly let himself be dragged past a dormant trolley car.
"It's nacho night at the cafè, remember?"
Baymax began to list reasons why nachos were unhealthy for human consumption, but Hiro merely grinned and tugged his large, white finger harder. Let the robot ramble- this was his absolute favorite night of the month at the Lucky Cat, and half the city's too. After his pizza nachos had been anonymously entered into the Food Fair, people had come flocking to try them and the other weird concoctions him and his aunt Cass came up with. It was a sort of mystery each month, but of course because he knew the owner he could get a custom order.
Turning up the music on his earphones, Hiro skipped to his favorite song- Legends Never Die. They turned the last corner to their home-
And froze.
There was a gaping, smoking hole in the window, clearly fresh and not good. Hiro vaguely heard Baymax's "Oh, no." in the background as he dropped his backpack and ran inside, skidding to a stop as he caught sight of overturned tables and chairs, a few with blackened scorch marks on them. He rushed forward, Baymax following at his heels. "What on earth-"
There was a note. There was a note. Hiro bent down, ignoring the glass shards and- was that mango juice?- coming through his cargo pants, and picked up the tattered scrap of paper.
"I have your relative." He read, voice and posture tense. "And if you don't come get her, she'll be like another of your special 'someone's. What… what does that even mean?" Hiro flipped over the page, gasping when he found more- a sketch of a very familiar sticker-like neuropad.
"No." That's… that's impossible. She's in jail. "Besides, Karmi and I aren't…" Hiro muttered lamely, grasping for reasons to disprove this. "And w-where are all the bots? And how-" Knees buckling, Hiro found himself stumbling back into Baymax's plush frame.
He didn't know how to explain it, but he knew.
"Di has my aunt."
—
Minutes later…
Wrenching one hand from the powerful mags that held him to Baymax, Hiro pressed one hand to the comms of his purple and red helmet. "Guys, I need you right now. Where are you?"
"From Wasabi- 'I'm at the grocery store, why?'" Hiro's auditory readout system played as he flashed through the city. Moments later- "From Go, Go- 'I'm chasing down a loose kid. It's the cool one.'" The others didn't respond, and Hiro let out a ragged breath before replying. "Di Amara is back and she has Aunt Cass. I need all of you out helping me look for her now- please." This time the replies were instant and short. "On my way."
Hiro barely gave himself time to smile in appreciation before he continued. "I'm gonna track her via Baymax. If my signal disappears for any reason, I want you in there searching our last known location. OK?"
This time Gogo, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon replied over their comms, having picked up their suits from Skymax within moments. "Got it."
"Oh, I hope she's OK…"
"Be careful, Hiro."
His eyes narrowed. "I'll do my best."
Just then a bleeping sound hit his ears. "Baymax, you got something?" He asked, leaning down. "I have located- Aunt Cass."
Hiro nodded, face set grimly as he readjusted himself. "Let's go."
—
The first thing Cassandra heard was a faint dripping sound. Grunting, she tried to wipe a bead of sweat away that was trickling down her face, only to find that she was unable to move. Now her eyes bolted open, hazel gaze taking the small room she was in. Her head was pounding, but at least she wasn't hurt.
What… happened? Squinting, Cassandra struggled to remember how she'd gotten herself in this dark, dank room. Currently, she was tied up with a purple cord, arms to the back of the chair she was sitting on and legs to the seat of another. Her eyes travelled down the deeply ingrained grooves, took in the sloping arch of the back… Wait. These… "These are the chairs from my shop!" As she spoke she began to struggle, memory coming back to her in a flash.
"Hey! Guys! Let me out!" She cried, wrenching her wrists back and forth in their surprisingly malleable, soft, almost slimy wrapping. "What's the crazy idea here?"
A menacing chuckle hit her ears and she glanced up to see a small hovering droid descending from a gray hatch above her. Perched atop the small domed frame was a tall, thin woman wearing a gray jumper that matched the walls around her, with long, straight blonde hair and a smirk. Aunt Cass gasped, trying to wrack her brain for the name of this person. She looks so familiar… The woman stepped off her ride, allowing it to whir off as she stepped closer
"Please, take all the time you need. I'm only one of the most prestigious villains of the past two decades at least." With that, it finally clicked. Aunt Cass stared up at the woman, mouth agape. "You're… you're Amara. Dianne Amara?" A nod confirmed her suspicions. "But… but you're supposed to be in jail!" Cass sputtered, only widening her captor's smile. "How- when- you didn't break out… did you?" A small shake of the head. "Then how on earth are you here? How did you get my bots to turn against me like that?"
"First question, I have a biologically identical creator who was the perfect patsy. Second, all it took was a little bio-technical engineering. I'm sure you know Karmi Saahan?" Aunt Cass paused for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, she's a biotech student- oh. She's a biotech student. Got it. Wait- is she working for you? That-"
"Is entirely irrelevant." Di snapped, turning away and taking a deep breath. "But no, she is not working for me any more. I merely want to draw her in."
"So what do I have to do with any of this? I'm just a cafè lady!" The menacing woman turned to meet her gaze, eyes sparking with hidden knowledge. "I'm using you as bait."
"But Karmi barely knows me! How am I helpful?"
"Because to catch her, I have to catch the person she cares about most." Aunt Cass froze for a moment, eyes drifting to the cracked concrete floor as she thought. Then it clicked. Her gaze snapped back up to meet Dianne's, horror churning in her stomach. "You're going after Hiro." On the one hand- I always knew they would get together! But on the other, so very much more important one… "What are you going to do with my nephew?"
The smirk she got from that was the most frightening one yet. Di clapped her hands together, rubbing them in circles before responding. "Oh, nothing… if Karmi comes through, that is. If not…?" Leaving the obvious threat hanging in the air, Di turned and summoned another droid with a flick of her fingers, rising up toward the hatch as even more of the green and white bots surrounded Aunt Cass.
"Watch her."
Then she disappeared, the gray pieces of metal sliding together so smoothly you almost couldn't tell there was a hatch there. Leaving Cass in almost pitch-black darkness, surrounded by a dozen droids, unable to move or do anything about her situation. Disoriented. Alone. Panic surged up and Aunt Cass found herself struggling again, ripping at the restraints. It seemed like the more she pulled, the harder they got, but still she kept struggling. She gave one last massive tug, yanking hard enough to knock herself on her side. A hiss came from somewhere behind her, and then one of the droids beeped, and everything went black again.
—
The team had been searching for hours, giving them the chance to process what little information they had received. The bots had gone haywire and started working for Di Amara? Gogo had pointed out that it was impossible, she was still in jail. Wasabi had gone to check, and the others were still scanning.
"Wait- I think I found something!" Hiro squinted at his visor, struggling to see the readout in lieu of the bright setting sun. "It looks like… it looks like some sort of room in the sewers!"
"There are- two life forms inside." Baymax stated, pointing in the same direction as Hiro.
"That's gotta be a trap. Di covers her tracks better than that." Gogo replied, zipping past Good Luck Alley. "Any chance she went back to underground cooking?" Fred chuckled. "That sounds so weird."
"Guys, focus." Came the snapping retort over their headsets. "I agree that it's probably a trap, but I can't call her bluff. She has Aunt Cass."
"That's exactly what she wants you to do, Hiro!" Fred yelped suddenly, sending a burst of feedback over their headsets. "It's classic comic book stuff! Take something the superhero cares about and make them chase it! You're gonna get caught!"
"I know. And I'm still going." A clicking sound told the team Hiro had muted his comms. He wouldn't be able to hear them any more. Gogo sighed. "Alright, guys, new plan. We go after Hiro so we can scope the place out and bail his butt out when he gets caught. Got it?"
"Yes! Undercover rescue mission!" Fred shouted.
"More like bust the doors down and knock Di's block off."
Honey frowned, taking a sharp corner on her ice slide. "I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that she's out of jail. I thought maybe with her mission completed, she would change."
"Yeah, how did that happen?" Fred asked.
"Guys, Amara's still in jail." Wasabi's voice suddenly came over the headsets as he jumped into his boxy beige car. "Or one of them is."
Stunned silence met his words. Except for Fred. "Woah! I… don't get it."
"Whoever's in that jail cell is convinced she's Liv, not Di. Either Di's gone crazy, or…"
"Or they swapped."
"If that's true," Wasabi replied, "It wasn't willingly. She's desperate to be let out, almost hysterical. I couldn't get anything else out of her."
Gogo sighed, checking Hiro's still steadily moving blip and adjusting her course down a steeply sloped side street. "Hiro, you idiot, turn your comms on. You needed to hear that."
"That is his personality." Wasabi deadpanned. "Hiro the heroic idiot."
Honey leapt over a building, using a squishy quick-dissolving goo to break her fall. "We do love him."
"Yeah, we do." Gogo begrudgingly replied, zipping down the docks. Everyone was silent for a moment, then- "Woah…"
"Hiro, what is it?" Nothing. Gogo groaned. "He's still got his comms off!"
"This is crazy…" Came the younger, awed voice, slightly grainy. He must've gone underground. Gogo assumed. "Oh my gosh. Aunt Cass!" The worry in the teen's voice sent shivers up Honey Lemon's spine. But what was even worse was the cackling sound that came behind it. An all too familiar laugh. "Goodnight, Hiro." The only other thing they heard was a cry of pain.
"Hiro!" The team yelled in unison, watching as the little purple dot on their screens disappeared. Gogo sped up, leaping over a stack of freshly caught fish in crates. "Let's go after him."
But that wasn't all. Suddenly a crackling sound hit their ears and Di's voice was in all of their sets, voice sickeningly sweet. "Hello, Big Hero 6."
"What did you do to Hiro?" Wasabi demanded, turning the wheel hard to avoid a red light. Amara took a moment to respond. "I made a little… slip. Hiro was just exposed to a deadly mutated virus, and the person from my company who was working to fix it was… can't you guess?"
"Uh, no…" Fred replied.
"Karmi." Honey Lemon interjected, hazel eyes wide. Gogo growled. "How do we know this isn't another trap?"
Liv's breathy chuckle sent chills down their spines. "You don't. But I need that antidote. You will have my word that I will not further harm any of them if you bring me the girl. I will let them all go afterward."
This is crazy. Gogo grunted. No time to think. This is our life. "You want her help?"
"To oversimplify it, yes."
Growling, Gogo skidded to a stop in front of a large concrete pipe. They knew from a previous 'adventure' that it held an entrance into the sewers. This was where Hiro had disappeared. "I don't buy it. They'll know where your base is!" She glanced around for a moment, eyes catching a flash of red- Baymax. He was standing outside the entrance to the tunnel.
She skated over to him. "Baymax, where's Hiro? What are you doing out here?" Honey gasped. "He's alone in there?"
"Hiro told me to- wait here. So, I am waiting."
"Well, you come with me now, OK?"
"Hiro is my- primary patient. I cannot-"
"You're coming with me."
Baymax paused for a moment, internal processors whirring. "Alright."
"Are you quite finished?!" Amara snapped.
"The two I currently have in my lab were brought in unconscious, and I trust you will blindfold the third." Wasabi's incredulous laugh was followed by a scathing reply. "You think we're gonna send her in there blind? You're crazy!"
Amara sighed heavily. "Very well. It will not be too difficult to move bases. She may see. But know if Karmi ever leaks anything she has seen to the public, I have ways to… remove the threat."
"You'll kill her, we get it." Gogo snapped. "We can't promise she'll come either way!"
"Well, she better. Because I'd say Hiro has… oh, forty-eight hours to live? Give or take a few." Wasabi's brows furrowed, deep coffee-brown eyes shining in worry. "We'll think about it."
"Do hurry, Big Hero 6. Otherwise, you might just end up being Big Hero 5…" Gogo practically screamed into her headset, the sound almost enough to hide the click as Hiro's headset went back offline. "What are we supposed to do now?!"
"We could… go find Karmi?"
"Freddie, we can't just ask her to come risk her life for us! Plus, she'd find out that we were Big Hero 6, wouldn't she?" Honey squeaked into her pink and yellow helmet, tone nearing hysterics.
"Oh, right. Gotcha."
"So what do we do? It's Karmi or Hiro and Aunt Cass!"
"Or all three of them!" Wasabi retorted fearfully, driving up to where Gogo was just in time to see Honey glide in, Fred just behind- now they were all congregated in front of Hiro's last known location. "Can we risk that?"
"I think we have to." Gogo ground out, fear and anger clear on her face. Honey stepped up to place a comforting hand on the tough woman's shoulder plate. "Let's at least give Karmi a chance. If she says no, we'll figure something out."
"I won't let her say no. This is Hiro we're talking about. He's what keeps us together."
"And we in turn keep the city together. I'm sure she'll understand." Wasabi interjected, shouldering his way to the center of the group. "Let's go talk to her. If this is real, and her finding out our identities is the worst that could happen, then it's worth it." Most of them piled into his car without a second thought, Gogo skating off toward the biotech labs on her own.
"We're hurrying, Hiro, I promise."
A/N: First chapter done! I don't know why my Big Hero 6 writing has been in such a slump lately- but I promise you it gets better. COPIOUS amounts of Karmiro in the upcoming chapters, so if you want that, come back for chapters 4-5 ish! Love you guys.
New A/N: So... I didn't hate this! It's actually so fun rereading this :)
God Bless!