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Chapter Text

In and out.

When Hiro had sat in the car that night, when his aunt had come to pick him and Tadashi up from jail, the only thing he could think about was the next bot fight. The next high of winning and getting some good cash. 

When Tadashi had offered him a ride and instead brought him to the nerd lab – as it was regularly called by Hiro and his brother's friends – he had at first been frustrated. Then intrigued, as he saw the inventions around him and after that awestruck when he met professor Robert Callaghan himself. The creator of magnetic bearing servos, Callaghan-Catmull Spline and Callaghan’s law of robotics. In the flesh. 

Ever since then he had only thought about getting to work in that nerd lab, and this was it, the moment of truth.

He cleared his throat. 

“My name is Hiro Hamada. I’ve been working on something that… that I think is really cool.”

“I hope you like it”, he added in an afterthought as he dug into his pocket for the little robot that nested there. He caught the sleeping bot in his hand and raised it for the audience to see. “This is a microbot.” 

The statement, though true, made Hiro feel small. He began to wonder if the audience could see the thing, even on the big screen behind him. His nerves catched his tongue and he could see some of the audience members leaving. Was this it? Had Callaghan already decided Hiro was a lost cause? As his eyes darted they caught on to Tadashi. His brother gently smiled and mouthed ‘breathe’ with the accompanying hand movements.

Right. 

In and out.

With a new supply of air, Hiro launched into the explanation, “It doesn’t look like much, but when it links up with the rest of its pals…” He let the words drop as the rumbling of hundreds of his microbots filled the expo floor as they rushed to fulfil his commands. 

Hiro smiled, not even looking at the rising structure next to him, “-things get a little more interesting”. The rest of the words flowed out of his mouth like he hadn’t been practising them a thousand times. “Microbots are controlled with this neurotransmitter”, he took the band off his head to make a point before putting it back on. “I think of what I want them to do – they do it”.

He made the giant hand he’d constructed wave and felt proud of himself as the audience wow’ed at him. The bot fighters sometimes cheered when he showed people like Yama up, but it never felt as if they truly cared for his robot or talents. They only cared that he won. These people had given him a greater reaction and he hadn’t truly done anything yet.

“The applications of this tech are limitless. Construction!” Hiro maneuvered himself behind the microbots, rising with them as they built higher and higher, putting together a miniature tower, “What used to take teams of people, working by hand for months or years, can now be accomplished by one person. And that is just the beginning”.

Hiro stepped forward off the tower, forming steps with the microbots as they led him above the audience, “How about transportation? Microbots can move anything, anywhere, with ease”. 

The microbots moved to the ceiling and Hiro let himself turn upside down. It was fun to see the expo like that even if Hiro didn’t have the time to admire all the other showcases nor the focus to appreciate them. He trusted his tech, even if experimenting in aunt Cass’ basement was a little… constricting. But he still didn’t need to lose his concentration and fall and break his neck before he’d gotten into the school. Preferably also not after.

He again spotted Tadashi in the crowd, holding up his hand, and Hiro made his way over to give him a five. He wasn’t going to leave his brother hanging, after all. The couple gasps and snickers from the crowd at the action were nice too.

“If you can think it-” Hiro raised some other inventor’s showcase up, deciding to give them a little bit of free advertising, before bringing the audience’s attention back to him, “-microbots can do it. The only limit is your imagination!”

He bowed and made his microbots do the same as one big microbot. The audience’s cheer buzzed in his ears and he couldn’t help the wide smile that overtook his face. 

He excited the stage as the lights shut down and was greeted by Tadashi. His brother had the same big grin and they did their customary handshake before Hiro was enveloped in a hug by Honeylemon and the rest of their crew congratulating him left and right.

“They loved you”, Honeylemon said, “That was amazing!”

“Yes.” Hiro turned his head to see a blond man in a business suit approaching them. “With some development, your tech could be revolutionary”.

“Uh, Mr.Krei-” It was Alistair Krei. It was Alistair Krei . Hiro wasn’t as big of a fan of him as professor Callaghan or other inventors, but there was no denying that Krei Tech had been responsible for some very impressive tech releases in the past few years.

“May I?” the man asked, extending his hand, and Hiro dug out one of his microbots to give him. Hiro fiddled nervously as the man examined his work.

“Extraordinary”, the man looked back at him, “I want your microbots at Krei tech”.

Hiro stood shocked. “Shut up”, he said, not caring at all if it came off as rude.

“Mr.Krei is right.”

Hiro’s head whipped to the side as professor Callaghan walked over. Seriously, when did it change that the biggest people in the room with Hiro were a renowned professor and a CEO of a tech company instead of the likes of Yama? Hiro shook himself internally. He really needed to listen to Tadashi more often.

“Your microbots are an inspired piece of tech. You can continue to develop them, or you can sell them to a man who is only guided by his own self-interests.” Callaghan’s voice veered off into venomous and Hiro watched as the two debated back and forth about something he had no clue of.

“Robert, I know how you feel about me. But it shouldn’t affect-”

“It’s your decision Hiro, but you should know that mr.Krei has cut corners and ignored some science to get where he is.”

“That’s just not true-”

“I wouldn’t trust Krei Tech with your microbots… or anything else.”

Professor Callaghan looked mad, but mr.Krei just silently scoffed before turning back to Hiro again, “Hiro. I’m offering you more money than any fourteen year old could imagine”.

Before Hiro would have flown to that offer like a moth to a flame. More money that he could ever dream of? Being able to do whatever he wanted? Participate in even more bot fights internationally? Maybe even bail himself out of jail? Live the life of luxury and never worry about anything again? It was a good deal, but…

He saw Tadashi approach from the corner of his eye and he knew. It wasn’t what he wanted. Besides, Tadashi trusted Callaghan and Hiro trusted Tadashi. If Callaghan said it was a bad idea, it probably was.

“I’m sorry mr.Krei, but they’re not for sale.”

“I thought you were smarter than that”, the man said and turned around to leave.

The jab stung a bit, but Hiro still felt like he had made the right choice.

“Mr.Krei”, Tadashi said, “That’s my brother’s”

Hiro looked confused as mr.Krei turned back around. “Oh, that’s right”, the man said, digging into his pocket and flinging one of Hiro’s microbots back at him. He caught it in his hands and looked at the man’s receding back. It was the bot Hiro had given him before. The bastard tried to steal from him. Hiro shook his head and sighed. Maybe mr.Krei should invest in bot fighting. He already seemed to know the ropes. 

Hiro looked at Tadashi and nodded his thanks. Tadashi patted him on the back and turned to professor Callaghan, Hiro’s gaze moving to the man as well. 

The professor smiled, “I look forward to seeing you in class”. The man offered him a letter and it only took a second before Hiro grasped it in his hands, a smile as big as the expo forming on his face. 

He had made it in!

—

The sourness with his encounter with “Mr. big CEO” had washed away almost immediately once Hiro had gotten the letter and now he, Tadashi, their friends and aunt Cass were making their way outside, enthusiasm radiating off all of them.  

“Alright geniuses, let’s feed those hungry brains! Back to the cafe. Dinner is on me!” aunt Cass announced to the cheers of the group. Hiro smiled and was about to follow behind her when Tadashi grabbed his shoulder. 

“Aunt Cass? Hiro and I- we’ll catch up with you later on my bike, okay?”

“Sure- ah I’m so proud of you!” she said as she enveloped Hiro in one of her tight hugs. She grabbed Tadashi into her arms as well, “Both of you!”

Hiro smiled as she ran off to cart the rest of their friends back to the cafe. Tadashi tapped his arm and he turned around, following his brother to a bridge in a more quiet part of the campus. Hiro couldn't help but roll his eyes. He figured this was going to be one of Tadashi’s “I told you so” -speeches. 

“I know what you’re going to say” he said, getting ahead of his brother. He leaned on the railing of the bridge and deepened his voice to a mock, not-at-all Tadashi voice, “I should be proud of myself, because I’m finally using my gift for something important”.

“No, no, I was just going to tell you your fly was down for the whole show”, Tadashi smirked.

“Ha ha, hilarious”, Hiro mocked, not amused, but then he looked down. “What?” he said, quickly zipping his pants up and hitting Tadashi on his shoulder. He was embarrassed, but he reminded himself that he had only gone to the bathroom after the showcase. He hadn’t made a complete fool out of himself in front of all those people.

Tadashi only laughed at him before leaning back on the railing, “Welcome to nerd school, Hiro”.

Hiro smiled at him, but sobered up, “Hey, uh, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you so… you know… thanks for not giving up on me”.

Neither of them managed to say anything else as an alarm went off. Tadashi raised his head, looking around, before running to the direction of the sound. They both ran in to see the main building engulfed by flames. They licked along the walls and ceiling, the windows already shattered by the heat, and screams rang out all around them as people ran out and away from the burning building.

Tadashi ran into the chaos, catching one of the people running away in his arms. 

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah”, the person nodded while catching their breath. They turned back to the building and pointed, “I’m okay, but professor Callaghan is still in there”.

Tadashi let them go and Hiro had to sprint to catch him by his arm, “Tadashi, no!”

Tadashi looked at him before glancing at the building and back again. His breathing was as heavy as Hiro’s. 

“Callaghan is still in there. Someone has to help.” 

His brother sounded so sure. Hiro couldn’t hold onto him even if he wanted to. Tadashi ran in, his cap flying off his head before he disappeared into the flames. Hiro tried to breathe. He knew he was panicking as he picked up his brother’s cap. Someone needed to help Callaghan, but what about Tadashi? Someone needed to help him too. 

But before Hiro could move, take a single step or even lean forward- the building exploded. The force so big and huge pushed him away, slammed him into the concrete. He clutched the cap between his fingers as his ears rang and his head throbbed as if a thousand marching bands had decided to practise in it. He tried to breathe, tried to gather anything that didn’t smell like smoke and carnage. Something that didn’t make his eyes sting. 

Finally after some time, he managed to open his eyes. He didn’t know where he was, but he could still see the fire. It was brighter now, but further away. His head turned around, a little bit of nausea kicking in, as he heard rustling from some bushes. 

The figure that emerged seemed like it was from a dream. There was professor Callaghan, no worse for wear than Hiro had last seen him. He looked Hiro over, his eyes landing on the cap in Hiro’s hands. His eyes widened and his gaze snapped to Hiro’s eyes, but all Hiro could do was to shake his head. 

Tadashi was gone.

—

Hiro was still holding on to Tadashi's cap. He had kept a hold of it through the trip to the hospital, through them checking him over only to conclude that he didn’t even have a concussion and swiftly moving on to treat those with worse injuries. Next the police had come, asking any people still around about the incident. Hiro said that he didn’t know anything. He hadn’t been there, only heard the alarm. 

Professor Callaghan had accounted his side of the story, but Hiro had not listened to the details. None of them would change the outcome anyway. Now it was just the two of them, sitting in some hospital hallway. It wasn’t deserted, but the previous buzzling had calmed down. Now all that could be heard was the distant clicking and squeaking of shoes on the tile or something being pushed around somewhere. 

“He went in-” Hiro suddenly started. He gulped in air, surprised by his own words, “He went in to save you”. 

Hiro could hear the man shift in his seat. “He was a brave young man.”

“I couldn’t stop him”, Hiro confessed through more gulps. He didn’t know why he was speaking. He just knew he couldn’t cry. 

The man shifted again. “There was no stopping Tadashi whenever he got an idea”, the man said, “As useful as his project, Baymax, first sounded there were many on staff and among students who were skeptical of his ideas. Your brother wanted to prove them wrong”.

Hiro sniffed, but didn’t say anything. The hall fell back into silence. There may have been a nurse who passed by at one point, but Hiro wasn’t paying attention. He focused on the silence to the point that if he tried hard enough he could lose himself in it. It was preferable to any sounds really. Hiro didn’t need sounds. He needed Tadashi.  

“You know”, broke his concentration and he turned his attention back to the man a couple seats away from him. The man sighed heavily, but continued on, “I had a daughter a little older than Tadashi”. 

Hiro looked up, not wise to the sudden topic change. 

“She was a part of this… this experiment that went wrong.” The man wasn’t looking at him, not that Hiro was properly looking at him either. “She didn’t come back.”

“I’m sorry”, Hiro sniffed. 

Callaghan shaked his head, “No need to be”.

“Hiro!”

Aunt Cass crashed into the hallway and with a couple of steps Hiro was in her arms. “I was so worried. When they called and told me that Tadashi had- oh let me get you home”. Hiro felt his aunt shift around, her grip still firm around him. “Thank you for staying with him.”

Hiro didn't see it, but he could hear the gentle smile on Callaghan's face.

“Anytime.”

Chapter Text

The next few weeks blurred together. Hiro lay on his bed, everyday following the same routine. Wake up, go to the bathroom, drown in silence.

Tadashi was never a particularly noisy roommate and most of the time he probably complained about Hiro making too much noise when he was watching bot tournaments on illegal sites. But Hiro could still hear him working on an assignment or a project or doing something else that his brother liked to do in his free time. The occasional quips Tadashi and him would throw at each other also filled the space. It got to a point that sometimes Hiro tried to drown the noise out by listening to music and when he truly needed to be alone, he would go to the basement.

Now it was just silent. No quips, no projects, no life. No Tadashi. Hiro preferred it that way. If he focused on the silence he could feel like he wasn’t there either. There was nobody in their shared room. There was no reason for there to be noise. 

It worked most of the days and it came as a surprise to Hiro when aunt Cass mentioned that the funeral service was going to happen in a couple of days. She had held off on holding it because she had wanted to gather as many of Tadashi’s friends and colleagues together. Hiro also suspected that she didn’t want to grieve alone. Aunt Cass had always liked being around people. That’s probably why it had only taken her a couple of days after the incident – after Tadashi’s death – to open the cafe back up again. 

It had made losing himself into the silence harder. Not because the cafe noise made it upstairs, but because of the knowledge that people were there. Were in the same building, living and laughing. It reminded Hiro that he was there too. 

The silence was suffocating on some of those days.

—

Hiro had come out of their room. That was enough for aunt Cass. She didn’t ask him to come down or ask him to even try socialicing like she usually would. It was nice. It was another reminder that something had changed. 

Hiro listened to the quiet conversations that happened downstairs. The occasional laughs people shared when they reminisced about something Tadashi had done. The sobs that weren’t hushed, just listened to. 

It was the most noise Hiro had heard in awhile. It would have been hard to focus on the silence and he begged for the lulls in stories and sobs to stop when they happened. He couldn’t take the silence now. 

“Thank you for coming, professor”, Hiro heard aunt Cass say, “I know Tadashi would have appreciated it”.

“No need to thank me”, professor Callaghan said, “It was the least I could do after what happened”. 

“It still means a lot”, his aunt said, but there was no response from the man. At least not one that Hiro could hear. 

He didn’t know how to feel about the man. There was still the element of admiration and awe that came with the man’s name. This was the man that had inspired Hiro. This was the man who Tadashi spoke of with such appreciation that it was almost laughable how casual some of his remarks about the man were. 

He was the reason Tadashi was dead.

Hiro shook his head, preventing himself from going down that path of his mind again. He knew he wasn’t supposed to blame people. Not Callaghan. Not himself. Aunt Cass didn’t like it. 

He looked up when he heard steps nearby and his eyes caught on black ones. Professor Callaghan’s. Hiro didn’t have the energy to try for anything other than a blank stare, but it seemed the man hadn’t really expected anything else. He watched Hiro. There was no gentle smile this time, which was his usual expression as far as Hiro knew. 

They just stared and it felt like the hospital hallway all over again. Though this time Hiro didn’t say anything. Callaghan continued to watch him for a bit before bending down and leaving something a couple of steps up from the landing. Then he left. 

Hiro blinked, turning his head seconds later once the man had already gone. He looked back to the steps. There stood a miniature robot who Hiro recognised as one of Tadashi’s assignments. He got up and rushed to pick it up only then noticing a piece of paper that was left underneath it. 

On it was a detailed sketch of a robot- no a bot. It was lean, clearly meant to be fast against bulkier opponents and the sketch detailed hidden compartments for blades. Some of the details had been crossed out and the paper was littered with grumbly comments about how things weren’t working or how there had been another loss. 

At the bottom, in much neater handwriting than the rest of the paper was a signature.

A.Callaghan  

It took a moment before Hiro recalled a name. 

Abigail.

Professor Callaghan had mentioned she had liked bot fighting – he said she hadn’t come back. 

Hiro grabbed the paper and Tadashi’s assignment and rushed into his room. He put Tadashi’s robot on Tadashi’s table and the paper in one of his drawers. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do with it. It didn’t feel like he should have it, but a selfish, greedy part of him also wanted to keep it. A reminder that he wasn’t the only one who had lost. A reminder that Tadashi wasn’t alone.

For the first time in weeks Hiro cried. 

Chapter Text

“Hiro! It’s professor Callaghan!”

Hiro strolled down the stairs and took the phone his aunt was offering him. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up before disappearing down to the cafe. Hiro knew she just wanted to give him privacy since it was her day off and she usually didn’t go down unless she had to. 

He sighed before bringing the receiver up to his ear.

“Sup?”

“Hello Hiro”, the voice on the other side of the phone said, “I hope you’ve been doing well”.

“Hello professor Callaghan. I’m fine”, he said. It was close enough.

“Professors aren’t usually supposed to do house calls, but your aunt thought it would help”, obviously this was aunt Cass Hiro thought, “Have you considered attending SFIT?”

“I…” in all honesty Hiro hadn’t. It hadn’t been a question when he had held the letter in his hands, but that was before everything. Before Tadashi… “I don’t know. When does it start?”

“In a week.”

Hiro sucked in air. In a week? Since when? Hiro had thought that he couldn’t possibly wait for over a month before finally getting in and suddenly he only had seven days. Well… that was if he decided to attend. He hated to admit it, but he had started to watch bot tournaments once the silence had finally been less comforting and more straining. He hadn’t gone out. He knew Tadashi wouldn’t have liked that. 

Tadashi was gone.   

“If you can’t make it the first week, that’s fine. It’s an introduction week to the new students. You’ll be able to catch up whether you come next week or the one after.”

Hiro hummed, “Do I get to work on tech?”

The man on the other end chuckled, but it sounded sad somehow, “We don’t usually offer personal labs to first years, but since Tadashi’s lab survived-”

Sure, the lab survived- 

“-I think it would be fine to give it to you. You get to work on assignments, but we allow everybody to work at their own pace. If you’re as intelligent as your brother.. said you were then I’m sure you get to work on tech that interests you soon”.

“Fine”, he sighed, almost not believing himself, “I’ll attend. But I’ll drop out immediately if it’s boring”.

“We’ll be glad to have you”, there was a light shuffle on the other side of the phone and a breath as if professor Callaghan was going to say something, but in the end he only took a breath and said, “Goodbye, Hiro”.

“Goodbye professor Callaghan.”

He ended the call and put the receiver back on its place, turning around to see his aunt squatting at the top of the staircase. So much for privacy.

“You’re going to attend?” aunt Cass asked, the hopefulness flooding over her voice and smile. Hiro couldn’t help, but smile at her and nod. She rushed in with one of her customary hugs. “I’m so happy! I’m sure it will be fun to see your friends again!”

“They’re Tadashi’s friends”, Hiro murmured, but aunt Cass just humphed.

“Oh nonsense. They’ve been sending you messages and I know it. Go Go even dropped by though you were sleeping that time.”

Hiro detangled himself from his aunt. “She really did?” he smiled and aunt Cass nodded.

“I’m sure they’re all worried. Why don’t you send them a message. You could go school shopping together!”

Hiro rolled his eyes, “We’re not elementary students, aunt Cass”. 

“Oh, I know”, she squeezed his cheeks, “My big man is already off to university. Ah, I’m so proud”. Hiro shoved her off, but she grabbed his shoulder before he could escape, “Send them the message at least. I know they’d love to hear from you”. 

Once again Hiro sighed, “Yeah, yeah, okay aunt Cass”.

“That’s the spirit!” she smiled, before tapping Hiro on the back, and let him go up to his room. 

He glanced to the side where Tadashi’s cap still lay on his undisturbed bed.

“The things I do for you, bro”, he said even if he knew he wouldn’t receive anything back.

—

Hiro did send a message to the group. It was a simple text saying that he’d be coming to school next week. 

He hadn’t expected the flow of messages from everybody else. The hi’s, the how are you’s, the planning for a party – surprisingly not Fred, but Wasabi’s idea. To get him welcomed he’d said – were all things Hiro hadn’t even thought of. The constant and later sudden pinging got annoying and he turned off his notifications, deciding to deal with everything tomorrow. 

As he lay in bed he wondered how Tadashi ever dealt with it. Hiro wasn’t much for friends – nobody understood what he was talking about anyway – but Tadashi had always been and Hiro had to admit he liked their group. They (except maybe for Fred sometimes) understood his words, his thoughts and his ideas and sometimes (though rarely thank you very much) he found himself confused on what they were talking about. 

He looked back to his computer, but as the light indicating a new message flashed again, he let his head drop back down. Tomorrow. He would talk more with them tomorrow.

—

They decided to go to a sushi place for the party. Or by Hiro’s account he was kidnapped from his front door and driven to a “high-end” restaurant. Hiro probably would have regarded the place as fancy if he hadn’t just a couple of months ago won a couple hundred dollars in the alley behind it. He figured none of the regulars knew about the company’s bot fight tournaments and he prayed none of the staff were wise to it either. He might have taken some shrimp sushi from the kitchen with him without permission. He hadn’t got caught, but he didn’t need that petty crime to come back to bite him right before he was going to attend one of the most prestigious universities in the area.

Thankfully the waiters didn’t pay him any attention as one of them carted their group to a table. They were sat down and shoved some menus before the waiter nodded and left them alone. Wasabi glanced around the place before nervously leaning over to Fred and whispered, “I thought you said this was a casual place. I don’t have money to cover all of these!” He jabbed at the menu, but Fred just smiled.

He leaned back in his seat, “Relax. My dad’s covering this”.

“That’s very kind of him”, Honeylemon said and Fred nodded.

“He’s the best!”

Meanwhile Hiro was trying to figure out whether or not it would be too suspicious to order the same shrimp sushi or not. 

“Okay, okay, that’s fine”, Wasabi said, “Let’s order so we can celebrate. Hiro, what are you taking?”

“Uh, the shrimp- the shrimp plate”, he coughed, hoping that none of them noticed his awkwardness.

“The sea flavors plate for me please”, Honeylemon said.

“The exquisite plate for me”, Go Go said.

“And the all flavors extra for me”, Fred said.

Wasabi shaked his head, “If you say so Fred. I’ll take the vegetable plate”. 

Wasabi conveyed their order to the waiter and cringed as he counted the price in his head. Hiro was just glad he didn’t have to pay.

“So Hiro, SFIT huh?” Fred said and it made Hiro snicker.

“I’m sure we already established that through me working for weeks to get in.”

“Yeah, but it’s fun to get another science buddy to talk to!”

Go Go rolled her eyes, “You just want somebody that takes your suggestions seriously. Although I’m sure Hiro’s smarter than that”.

Hiro snickered again at Fred’s “Hey!”

Honeylemon smiled and turned to Hiro, “But seriously, it’s nice that you decided to attend. Maybe we can work on some projects together”.

“If they let me”, he half-scoffed, “Professor Callaghan said I can get Tadashi’s lab, but I still have to do school assignments”. 

Hiro didn’t miss the sombering mood at Tadashi’s name, but was thankful that nobody brought it up. 

“Well those are important in testing and honing your talents”, Wasabi said, accepting the plate that appeared along with a couple other ones. Only Fred was still missing his plate. 

“Blow them out of the park, kid. I wanna see some of those professors knocked down a peg”, Go Go said. The friends laughed at their shared joke that Hiro didn’t know of, but Fred promised to tell him who he needed to prove that justice still existed. 

“I’ll try my best. I mean it wasn’t too hard in high-school. Some kids even paid me!”

The group laughed at that and, when Wasabi managed to spill wasabi on his shirt again, it doubled to roar. 

If this was what having friends was like, Hiro could get used to it.

Chapter Text

Hiro made his way through the campus, straying along its edges as he walked from one class to another or to Tadashi’s lab whenever he could. He was less than happy that the lab, in which he felt the most comfortable, was so close to where the main building used to be. Sure, it was nothing more than a pile of scaffolding at the moment, but if Hiro looked at it a moment too long, he could still see the bright flames and feel the light sense of nausea that came along with ringing ears. 

Thankfully the group stayed with him most of the time outside of class, so he never really needed to pay attention when they were close by to the building. They didn’t share any classes since all of them had already been attending for a couple of years and didn’t need any of the recommended first year courses, but otherwise at least one of them would be there. Most often it was Fred because he had the most free time out of all of them, but sometimes Hiro would catch one or more of the others.

Predictably, school was boring,especially the beginner classes that every first year needed to take, but it was less boring than Hiro was used to. He actually had to pay attention now to be able to answer questions or to know what was expected out of his assignments. They said that getting to SFIT wasn’t easy and the classes reflected that.

Stuck in his mind, trying to keep his eyes on the ground on his way to his next class, Hiro bumped into something or somebody. 

“Excuse me”, he muttered, ready to leave and move along if not for the voice that greeted him.

“I didn’t see you there. How are you doing Hiro?”

“Professor Callaghan! Uh, I’m doing good.”

The man had his gentle smile and it made the awkwardness in Hiro’s chest slightly settle. 

“It seems you’ve taken to Tadashi’s lab”, the man said, quirking his lips, “Your lab hours for the first week are impressive”.

“What can I say?” Hiro shrugged, smiling, “Tech just calls to me”.

“I recall someone saying they were “kind of serious” about their bot fighting career.”

“Well, it is- was a hobby. You can’t find all the cool tech or machinery that’s here from the ring.” Hiro watched as Callaghan nodded along. He was lucky that the professor was fine with bot fighting. Despite it not being illegal in and of itself, people didn’t always take too kindly to the idea due to the increasing market of betting. He briefly wondered whether Abigail had ever joined fights with bets, but figured it was best not to ask.

“It’s good to see that SFIT has been treating you well, but there’s no need to overdo it. I don’t need your aunt hounding me for keeping you here all night”.

Hiro chuckled and promised to keep aunt Cass off of Callaghan’s back. He checked his watch and did a double take when he noticed the time. He wasn’t really worried about being late to class as much as he was just genuinely interested in that day’s lecture topic.

“Sorry professor, but I gotta go”, Hiro stepped past him and started to run, “See you later!”

“Good luck!” was what echoed behind Hiro and he managed to make it just in time, sitting down at the same time as his professor did. Thank god the lecture after was about the basics of robotics. Hiro could really use a nap.

—

By the sixth time his basics of robotics professor found him sleeping after the lecture he got to skip the course. Or more like the professor ordered him out and veered him to a different lecture hall where a test was shoved in front of him and he was given two hours to complete it.

Apparently it was supposed to be the course final, but since Hiro managed to get almost a perfect score, the professor decided that Hiro was no longer a necessary member of the class. It wasn’t necessarily anything new to Hiro considering his previous school life, but he hadn’t expected it to happen at SFIT.

So when he on a Tuesday afternoon stepped into the basic of robotics II, he felt a little nervous. His friends’ darkening expressions when he had mentioned it in the cafeteria that morning and Fred’s silent nod didn’t imbue him with confidence either. He sat down in a row with nobody else in it and was reading the notes on the previous lectures he had gotten a couple of days ago when the lecture hall door opened and in sauntered their professor.

He didn’t look like anything special, but when he opened his mouth Hiro understood his friends’ reaction perfectly.

“It seems” the man started with an obnoxiously smug tone, “that we have a new student in the class. Why don’t you raise your hand?”

Hiro wasn’t there to be treated like a kindergartener so he instead leaned back and said, “I’m right here, professor”.

“Ah, Hiro Hamada, was it? Good of you to join us even if you’re late”, Hiro was about to point out how he had only recently still been attending the first course and it was only luck that he was considered good enough to jump to the next ongoing one, but the professor didn’t give him a chance, “Though I didn’t expect much from a brat that would resort to something like cheating”.

Hiro’s jaw dropped, “What?”

“Rumor has it that you preferred to use the previous course’s lectures not as learning opportunities, no, but as nap periods instead. One wonders how one such as that could manage to even get into SFIT.”

Some of the other people in the room snickered even if some shaked their heads or rolled their eyes. Hiro didn’t care about them though. 

“I didn’t cheat! I was given the final test and passed. The professor said so herself and so did professor Callaghan.”

“Right”, the professor said, clearly not believing him in the slightest, “Because we all know professor Callaghan personally”. The professor shaked his head, “Nevermind that, we’ll just have to see if you can keep up”.

Hiro spent the rest of the lecture reluctantly listening as he silently fumed. He would keep up alright. After the lecture Hiro made his way straight to the lab and threw up all the course notes on the screens. He didn’t have access to all of the course material, but a little favor from Wasabi fixed that issue. 

The texts and recorded lectures were a little more complicated than what Hiro was used to, but he had had a snack for finding more info on class topics in middle school so it couldn’t be too hard.

—

The next couple or so nights were hell. He spent them in the lab, looking up terms, trying to figure out how things related to each other all while drinking a dozen and more energy drinks from the school cafe. 

The experience really made him appreciate Wasabi’s car and he vowed to himself to get a license once he was old enough. 

“This is not good for you, you know”, Wasabi said.

“Worth it”, Hiro murmured half asleep from the backseat.

“Uh huh”, he didn’t know if he imagined the eyeroll in the rear view mirror, “But tomorrow you’re leaving early”.

“Okay”, he said, burrowing to the backseat.

It was worth it though. After finally absorbing the information into his brain, he could get to the good stuff. There were three big assignments to the course in total. You were supposed to follow the instructions for the most part, but the outside shell of the machinery was up to the student. Hiro decided to model the designs after some famous bots.

The only fault in that plan? He didn’t know how to draw. Don’t get him wrong, he could make a sketch for a plan, but the lines didn’t need to be exact as long as the end result was. Luckily for him, his friends were to the rescue again with Honeylemon promising to do the drawing bits herself. Wasabi insisted he go home and by that time he was so tired that he figured that the face the professor would make when he saw what Hiro had done wouldn’t even register if he didn’t sleep for the next twelve hours. So he got in the car and was out like a light.

—

The lecture hall was the same as that first time Hiro had gone to the basics of robotics II. The three projects were hidden under white sheets and Go Go was there to scare anyone from coming too close. 

Finally, the professor showed up. He looked at the desk with the projects before smiling distastefully at Hiro. “What’s all this?”

Hiro nodded to Go Go and got ready for the pettiest presentation of his life.

“Glad you asked professor”, he motioned for Go Go to remove the first of the white sheets, “This is the assignment for next week. We had to figure out how to make sure the necessary computer chips wouldn’t sustain damage from overheating”.

Hiro used the project to project his work notes on a board behind the desk, “Now the assignment detailed how to do this and we just had to build it, but I realised that if I change some of the harder materials for lighter, but just as sturdy ones, and move two of the necessary chips around, the heating damage can be reduced”.

He motioned for the next project to be uncovered and Go Go pulled the sheet off, “Now our second assignment for the course didn’t need any changes or at least I couldn’t see any obvious improvements.” He turned to the professor who stood jaw wide open looking at Hiro and his two projects. Hiro gave him a relaxed smile, injecting just a little bit of false sincerity into it and his voice, “Please, professor, tell me if I missed something”.

He didn’t wait for any sort of response before pulling the final sheet off of the last and hardest of the course’s projects. Hiro was 99% sure that he’d done it right, but his beat down could come to a crashing halt if he had overlooked anything. He smiled at the few gasps that flew around the lecture hall as people were sure to recognize a replica of one of the most famous bots in the world. 

The final project had been about hammering in how important movement and flexibility was in a design. It wasn’t as easy as its fundamental nature would have implied, but to Hiro, knowing about movement and flexibility was second nature. Your bot didn’t survive if it couldn’t move. 

He activated the bot with a controller and had it hop on its legs before pressing into high gear and having it zoom around on the desk, dodging and attacking an invisible enemy while zipping between the other two projects on the desk. Despite it looking like a perfect replica, it didn’t move as fast or as swiftly as the original bot. Hiro had still tried to match the requirements of the assignment and building a world famous bot would have realistically taken him several months just to get all the details correct. 

Still, it worked to wow the audience who cheered for him as he and the bot bowed. Go Go was clapping her hands, a satisfied smile on her face. 

“You!” the professor sputtered. His face was red and he looked a moment away from exploding or alternatively sinking into the earth.

“Out!” the professor ordered and this time Hiro didn’t need to take a test.

—

“When I said that there’s no need to overdo it, I didn’t mean you should skip straight over two courses”, professor Callaghan said.

Hiro had been dragged to the man’s office by the other professor and left there once the professor had gotten all his curses out, but not have them reciprocated by Callaghan who had calmly told the other man to leave.

“With all due respect, professor, that guy was an asshole.”

The man seemingly decided to forego chastising him for his language like aunt Cass would have and sighed, “It seems so”.

When the man didn’t say anything more, Hiro’s nonchalance attitude started to drift over to awkwardness. He hadn’t technically done anything wrong, but embarrassing a professor would probably not put him in the school’s good books. He shifted on his feet and glanced at them before looking at professor Callaghan again.

“Are you mad?”

The man shaked his head, “No. I must admit that I wish to show that a big image doesn’t always mean the best tech, or the best brains, myself”. 

Hiro laughed and his shoulders untensed. “You can say that again.”

“Still”, the man leveled him with a firm, but gentle stare, “No more skipping over courses. You don’t need to complete SFIT in a year. You’re welcome to stay longer than that”.

Hiro rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway, “Yeah, I’m kinda looking forward to seeing more cool tech from the other students. Did you know that somebody is trying to build an entire hover field for air hockey? Fred really liked it”.

“Ah, mr.Molano. I expect to see great things from him. Now”, professor Callaghan motioned at the door, “I’m sure you have better things to do than stay here”.

Hiro spun around and strode out the door. 

“Bye professor”, he said before starting his stroll down the school halls. He stretched his hands above his head and guided his steps outside and toward the lab. Since he no longer needed to prove anybody wrong, he could finally use the lab for his own projects again. 

He wouldn’t stay late. At least not today.

—

It was 11 pm on a school night. Most fourteen year olds were either getting ready for bed or begrudgingly setting aside their activities by their parents’ requests. Hiro though was working on a school assignment. Pros to being a university student meant that he didn’t need to wake up early and so, instead, he stayed up late into the night toiling and working in Tadashi’s lab.

His aunt and friends tried to keep his late nights to a minimum, but there was days that slipped through the cracks and that meant that Hiro was up and running until two in the morning.

It wasn’t a hard assignment and Hiro could have easily finished it tomorrow, but he enjoyed staying in the lab. Something about being surrounded by tech calmed him even if he didn’t know what. He leaned to the side to grab a wrench when his phone blasted with the alarm to remind him to drink water that Wasabi had insisted on.

“Auch!” he yelped, holding his foot that the tool had landed on, “Ou, ou, ououou”.

His slight woes were interrupted by a sudden beeping sound. He could hear something being blown full of air and he turned around to come face to face with Baymax.

Hiro remembered Baymax. What he was made out of. How he operated when Hiro had his first “check-up”. Callaghan had even suggested that Hiro try to work on it now, for Tadashi , but the idea felt wrong. Tadashi’s smile from Hiro’s first night here always mixed in with the bright and hot flames when he thought about it. He couldn’t do it. Not even for Tadashi.

Yet here he sat, the white marshmallow robot in front of him just like that day. It stepped closer to him away from its box that had sat in a corner and did its little circular wave.

“Hello. I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion.”

“Uh, hey… Baymax.”

“I heard a sound of distress” the robot said, regarding him, “What seems to be the trouble?”

“Oh, I, uh, just dropped something on my foot, but it’s fine now. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“On a scale of one to ten is your pain one?”

“Yeah, yeah, that or zero. It really doesn’t hurt.”

“Does it hurt when I touch it?”

“Woah, woah, big guy”, Hiro held his hands up to stop the robot from touching him, “I said I was fine. No need to touch”.

“I’m scanning to assess the damage.”

“No need to scan-”

“Scan completed.”

Hiro was starting to think that maybe Baymax actually did need his help to be finished. Tadashi had clearly not programmed it with personal space or privacy in mind.

“There’s no damage on your foot, however, you seem to require rest.”

“I’m fine.”

“A developing mind and body require up to eight to ten hours of sleep every night.”

“And I haven't gotten that amount of sleep since I was twelve. I'm fine.”

“You have ingested a caffeine product recently that will keep you energized for two hours.”

“Which is enough time to get back home and get to bed so you can go back in your box.”

He rolled past Baymax on his chair, stopping by the robot’s charging box. He pointed to it, but the robot just stared at him. 

“I cannot be deactivated until you say you’re satisfied with your care.”

Hiro sighed, “Fine, I’m satisfied with my-”

Suddenly a small clinking sound came from behind Baymax’s box. Hiro nudged the box to find one of his microbots hitting against it when the new path created allowed it to zoom past to the other side of the lab. He rolled after it, Baymax momentarily forgotten, and picked it up.

“What are you doing, little buddy? You shouldn’t be running around.” He examined the bot in his hand. It was moving as if it had intent, but that was impossible. All the other microbots and the transmitter had been destroyed in the fire. “Must be broken.”

He placed it in a small clear container with a lid. He could examine it tomorrow, figure out why it was acting up. Make more if he felt like it. He rolled back to the desk and picked up his discarded project, adjusting one of the bolts before deciding that it was probably time to leave for the night. 

“Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere.”

Baymax’s voice startled Hiro and he turned around to see the robot looking expectantly at him while holding the container in its hands. Right, he hadn’t deactivated it yet.

“It’s broken, Baymax”, he rolled his eyes and grabbed the container, “It’s not trying to go-”

But as Hiro moved the container in his hands, the tiny bot moved to face the same direction every time. He looked up at Baymax. 

“Where is your robot trying to go?”

Chapter Text

“Where is your robot trying to go?”

“I…”, Hiro looked at the robot in his hands, “I don’t know.”

He grabbed his hoodie and his bag, assuring that he had everything important before charging out the door, stopping only for a moment to let Baymax out and lock the door. He made his way outside, holding the little robot close to his chest as he watched out for any changes in its movements. 

It was strange. The movements his microbot was making would look random to anybody, but the fact it was moving in the first place and that those movements were consistent, only correcting itself once or twice, meant that there was something his microbot was chasing. Hiro tracked his brain for anything. Interference from other tech? But there had been none in the expo and that place had been swarming with machines and stray signals. Other microbots that might have somehow survived the fire? But no, the robot was going away from the campus, leading Hiro down the streets of San Fransokyo.

He could hear Baymax waddling behind him and he hoped that the robot’s presence would ward off any of the night dwellers coming too close. Maybe it could distract them with its touchy-feely tactics. 

They went down streets and alleys and they had just reached the warehouse district when the microbot stopped its movements. Hiro shaked the container to no avail, "C'mon. You can’t stop working now”. 

The robot only slid around the container, not listening to Hiro’s pleas.  

“Your tiny robot stopped moving”, Baymax said as he catched up with Hiro. He shaked his head, “I know, but we can’t stop now. We already came this far. There has to be something here”.

Baymax turned its head around, first to the right then left, before looking back at Hiro. “I have identified industrial sounds a couple of metres in that direction”, Baymax pointed and Hiro smiled.

“Great!” he patted the robot’s back and started briskly walking to the direction Baymax had indicated, “Let’s go”. 

It didn’t take long before they came to the warehouse where Baymax said the noises were coming from. If Hiro tried, he could hear faint buzzing coming from inside the building. He went to open the door, but thought better of it, and instead looked around for another way in. 

He spotted a window on the second floor. It was too high, but maybe… he glanced at Baymax, maybe he could still reach it. With a little bit of coaxing and effort, Hiro managed to position Baymax beneath the window and climb the robot up.

“Please exercise caution. A fall from this height could lead to bodily harm.”

“Well that’s why I got you, buddy”, Hiro said as reached the window. It was slightly open and it only took a little push before Hiro could climb inside onto a platform. The warehouse was dark, but at the middle of the bottom floor was a glass wall that emanated light. Hiro was about to step closer to the edge to see it better when he heard a rubbery squeak from behind him. 

“Oh no”, Baymax said, stuffed tight between the window like a balloon between two wooden plates. 

“Hssh”, Hiro said, looking around to see if anybody had noticed their entrance.

Baymax held up his finger, “One moment please”.

The big robot started to deflate. The loud letting of air echoed around the warehouse and Hiro prayed that nobody was there that night or they were both screwed. When nothing happened, he pulled Baymax in and left the robot to refill itself while he descended down the stairs to the ground floor. 

As he made his way in, he stumbled on a wrench. He kept his mouth shut through the pain of hitting the floor and picked the offending object up. He decided to keep it on hand just in case he had stumbled onto a murder house. He walked toward the illuminated structure and peered inside. 

He could both see and hear robotic hands moving, working on something that he couldn’t make out through the blurred class. He stepped to the side and came across a big container. It was almost impossible to see in the dark, but as Hiro reached his hand in, he could tell. These were microbots. This factory was manufacturing microbots. His microbots. 

“Hiro.”

Hiro almost jumped out of his skin, but the only face he turned around to see was Baymax, glowing blue in the dark warehouse. 

“Baymax”, he breathed in relief, “It was just you”.

“Your energy levels are low.”

“What? No, that doesn’t matter. Baymax, we have to do something. Someone is manufacturing my microbots. We have to figure out-”

“Your energy levels are low. You require rest.” Baymax picked him up beside his protest and cradled him in his arms. He tried to squirm out.

“Your energy levels are low. I will carry you to bed.”

“My bed? I hate to break it to you, but my bed is at home. Not here.”

“Calculating the path to “home”.”

The marshmallow robot waddled forward in the darkness, almost slamming Hiro into a wall or a table multiple times, before finding a side door and squeezing both of them out of it. Hiro tried to pry himself free again, but the soft, firm grip of Baymax didn’t let him go. He resigned himself to his fate as he was slowly carried through the streets towards his aunt’s cafe. 

The soft rubber wasn’t that uncomfortable and it did beat having to pay for a taxi. 

—

Fortunately aunt Cass had fallen asleep on the couch. Hiro didn’t know how else he would have sneaked Baymax into his room, especially since the robot had refused to let go of him before he could put him on a bed. Once in and once Hiro’s pleas that he would soon go to sleep were heard, he tiptoed back down to the living room area and laid a blanket over aunt Cass’ figure. Tadashi used to do it, but Hiro supposed now it was his job. 

He washed his teeth before going back to his room and finally allowed himself to fall into the bed. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath in, but before he could fall asleep, he felt something staring at him. He opened his eyes and saw that Baymax stood next to his bed, watching him.

“Uh, I’m trying to sleep here.”

“That is good. A developing mind and body require up to eight to ten hours of sleep every night.”

“Yeah, so, could you maybe not stare at me when I sleep.”

Baymax blinked and raised its head, staring ahead instead of Hiro. 

Hiro smacked his lips, “Baymax-”

“Yes, Hiro?”

“Turn around”, he waved his arm around to the robot, “Yeah, just like that and- there. Stay like that and don’t go anywhere before I’m up”.

“Will this help you feel more comfortable while sleeping?”

“Yeah, sure whatever”, Hiro murmured. It wasn’t ideal having the robot stand beside his bed like some sort of guard, but Baymax had been right about Hiro needing rest. He would sort the robot and the factory and his microbots out tomorrow.

—

The next morning found Hiro and Baymax back in the warehouse district, Hiro climbing on Baymax’s shoulders to reach the window. He had packed his phone and a couple more small containers to take some microbots in. He figured he could try to trace where the signal moving his microbots were coming from with them and the phone was to take pictures for the police as evidence.

It was a solid plan right up to the point where he found the warehouse empty. Completely empty. Even the things he was sure had been there in the darkness the night before were gone as if no one had ever used the warehouse for anything. Hiro told Baymax to stay still and went down the stairs, trying to look for anything, any clue as to what he had previously witnessed. 

It almost felt like he had just imagined everything, but Baymax was there when he woke up and the robot itself said that he had carried Hiro home from the warehouse once Hiro had gotten too tired. 

He walked around the ground floor, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t manifest the machinery or his microbots to appear. He had almost given up hope when a spot of red caught in the corner of his eye. He whipped around and walked to the side of the warehouse to find a piece of paper with a picture of a red bird on it. 

He turned it around in his hands, “What is this?”

“Hey!”

The shout came from outside the warehouse, but it got Hiro’s heart thumping. 

“What are you doing here?”

Hiro sneaked to that same door they had exited the building last night and peeked around. He stepped outside and rounded the corner to see someone yelling at Baymax.

“Answer me! I’m talking to you, you big dumb robot!”

“I’m Baymax, your personal -al -al healtcareeeee… companiooon.”

“Baymax!” Hiro yelled, rushing to the robot’s side as it started to sway side to side.

“Hey, kid. Is this your bot, is it? You better not think that this area is for bot fighting or nothing.”

Hiro looked at the yelling man and shaked his head, “No, no, just walking my robot”. He looked down his watch and then pushed by now drooping Baymax forward, “Would you look at the time! I need to get this guy into a charging station”.

“You better scatter, kid. I’d do well to report you for illegal activities and loitering around.”

“No illegal activities here”, Hiro asnwered, desperately trying to push Baymax’s heavy body away, “Just science”. 

He didn’t stick around for long, hurrying back to SFIT and slamming his lab door open. He pushed Baymax in and into his charging box, repeating “I’m satisfied with my care” until the robot deflated, just in time for somebody to step into his lab.

“Hey Hiro, I was wondering if you’d be interested in my new idea!”

Hiro whipped around to see Fred in his mascot costume standing at his door. “Yeah Fred, love to, but now I gotta”, he looked around, his eyes landing on his discarded assignment and he grabbed it, “work on this. So maybe come back later or tomorrow. Doesn’t matter, just not now”.

“I could hang around and keep you company while you work. I’m sure that project isn’t too hard for you.”

“Thanks Fred, but not now”, he walked to the blond boy and pushed him out the door, “It was nice to see you-”

“But-”

“Bye!”

Hiro shut the door and put the blinds on their darkest settings. He fell on his chair and dragged his hands across his face. 

What was he going to do?

He had no proof of what he had seen and if he told the police they might go around asking the workers and then Hiro might need to convince them that no, he wasn’t there to participate in a bot fight, and no, he had broken into the warehouse for a good reason. He threw his hands in the air. They would never believe him. Just one word about a bot fight and a background check later and Hiro might find himself behind bars again.

He looked at Baymax’s charging box. If only Tadashi was here, he would know what to do.

“I’d ask a professor for help.”

“I bet you’re a real teacher’s pet, aren’t you?”

Tadashi pushed his shoulder, but smiled.

“It’s the sensible thing to do when you need help. They’re experienced and know what you should do when you’re in trouble.”

“Okay. Whatever you say, bro.”

That’s right! He could ask professor Callaghan for help! The man knew about Hiro’s microbots and if they had to get the police involved, they would far more likely listen to a renowned professor that didn’t have a criminal background than him.

With his mind made up Hiro ran out of his lab and made his way over to professor Callaghan’s office. He catched his breath before knocking on the man’s door. The door opened and Hiro launched into his speech, “Professor, I-”

“Hiro”, the professor stopped him and rubbed his eyes, “Can this wait for a moment. I’m currently caught up in something and I have no time for whatever antics you have gotten yourself into now”.

The man’s tone stopped Hiro momentarily and he looked the man over. He looked tired and he sounded like he was frustrated. Hiro didn’t want to bother him, but it was important. “Sir, I’m sorry, but-”

“Not now”, the man ground out, “I’m busy”.

He shut the door and Hiro was left behind it wondering what had just happened. After a moment he turned around and started his way back to the lab. Whatever was going on with professor Callaghan, it must have been big, because Hiro had only seen the man that angry when he had talked to Alistair Krei in the showcase expo. 

He shaked his head and quickened his step. Sure, it would have been nice if the man could have helped, but Hiro could manage alone. He just needed a new plan. He walked into his lab and sat back down on his chair. His shoulders slumped and he pushed himself back and forth with his legs until his eyes landed back on Baymax’s box.   

“Hey, kid. Is this your bot, is it? You better not think that this area is for bot fighting or nothing.”

Maybe he didn’t need the police or professor Callaghan. Maybe he just needed to look at things from a new angle.

Chapter Text

Getting Baymax out of the lab without anybody noticing was easy.

Or it was easy when everybody else had either gone home, fallen asleep or were shut in their own personal labs doing who knows what. 

It wasn’t as easy when it was the middle of the day. The students didn’t need classes to convince them to come to campus to work on their projects and even if they did, many showed up early or stayed after just to come to their labs. Hiro had loved the fact that everybody seemed to be as into making tech as he was.

But now? He would have rather had it that everybody hurried home like it was summer vacation. Carrying Baymax’s box had been his first and quickly abandoned idea when he found out that the charging station was much, much heavier than he’d thought. Tadashi hadn’t even considered adding wheels so his second idea was out the window too. 

Defeated by his teenage physique, he decided that Baymax could carry his own box. He didn’t need the robot to almost fall asleep on him again. This left him having to guide a very big and very slow robot, carrying a big, red and noticeable box through campus. 

He decided to strike at lunch.

Despite being a university many people left to go get lunch at the same time. Not everybody, not everyday, but consistently enough that the lab building was as empty as Hiro could hope it to be before nightfall. He opened the lab door and peered around, gesturing for Baymax to come through and follow him. They made it to the elevator and all the way down to the bottom floor before they encountered a problem.

“Hey Hiro!”

“Crap, crap-”, Hiro pushed Baymax down one hall and into a storage closet. He turned around and tried for an innocent smile when Fred walked around the corner.

“Hey little dude! The group’s meeting at the cafeteria right now”, the man gave a lazy grin, “Maybe I can tell you all the details of my cool idea on our way there”. 

Hiro nodded. “Yeah, yeah”, he leaned so the door to the storage would stay closed, “That sounds nice. You know, why don’t you go ahead and I’ll meet you guys there. You can tell the idea to all of us at the same time”.

“You’re sure that you don’t wanna come along? The mascot suit doesn’t bite you know.”

“No, I still need”, Hiro tried to figure out a lie, “I forgot to return one of my assignments so I really need to do that. No need to come with me, I’ll be quick”.

Fred shaked his head and sighed, “Okay. But you have to give my idea a chance now!”

“Of course”, Hiro stretched his cheeks for a smile. He watched as Fred disappeared around the corner before he dropped it and yanked the door open. He grabbed onto Baymax and they were out the door quicker than the speed of light. 

Once they managed to escape campus Hiro decided that keeping Baymax hidden would be a fool’s errand and instead let the robot ride freely next to him on the bus. They got off at a stop near the cafe and after a couple streets they were finally home. Hiro pushed Baymax down an alleyway and into the garage. He breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could finally-

“Tadashi.”

Hiro turned to look at Baymax and then at Tadashi’s motorbike that had been towed back to the cafe after the accident. Neither he or aunt Cass had touched it, not knowing whether or not it should be kept or not and therefore left it alone. It sat there, a reminder that there used to be someone that loved to drive, loved the thrill of speed as much as Hiro could love anything. 

“Tadashi.”

“Yeah, that was his bike”, Hiro said, sitting down while not averting his gaze from the bike.

“Why did he give it away? Did he get into an accident?”

“What? Oh, you wouldn’t know…”

Baymax tilted its head, “Know what?” 

Hiro didn’t know how to explain it to the robot. He hadn’t really needed to explain it to anyone. Everyone either knew or he didn’t talk to them. He didn’t imagine that saying it out loud would be so hard. He’d already accepted it. “He’s… dead, Baymax.”

Baymax blinked. “Tadashi was in excellent health. With a proper diet and exercise he should have lived a long life”.

“Yeah, he should have.” Flashes of a smile and then fire entangled themselves in Hiro’s mind, but he shaked them away. It was just an explanation. And he’d managed with Baymax for this long without them. “There was a fire… now he’s gone.”

“Tadashi is here.”

“I know”, Hiro turned around with his chair, “”He’ll always be in our memories”. I know that.”

“You sound upset.”

“I’m not-”, Hiro breathed in, and then out, “I’m just sad Baymax. That happens when you lose someone”.

“Downloading database for personal loss. Download complete.”

Hiro swivelled around. He stared as Baymax removed one of its hands from a computer. The robot turned its gaze on him, “I’m sorry about the fire”.

“It’s okay, Baymax. It was just an acci-” Hiro stopped talking. The expo, the fire, his microbots being reproduced in a random factory- He dug into his pockets for the small container still holding his microbot. It wasn’t moving, but that didn’t matter because it had. “Somebody has my neurotransmitter. Somebody is making more microbots. Somebody is controlling them for… something. It wasn’t an accident. Somebody stole them.” He breathed in harshly.

“They’re responsible for Tadashi.”

—

His plan to make Baymax into a bot fighting bot had been in the heat of the moment, cobbled together mess of ideas. He thought that Baymax could keep him safe while he figured out what was happening with his microbots. Now that he’d realised someone had taken them and could actively use them, the idea no longer seemed like a daydream, but something that he might need. 

He turned to look at the marshmallow robot in his garage, that had after condolences moved on to hugs and then personal stories from the internet, and figured that it wouldn’t do. Whoever had taken his microbots wasn’t afraid to get their hands dirty. If he wanted to stop them, Baymax needed upgrades. 

Hiro scanned the robot and uploaded the scan to the computer in the garage. He looked the little generated 3d model over, running it through some of the software’s test animations. Hiro was used to working with more nimble and quick bots, his latest though not first robot reflecting exactly how much he loved to use his opponent’s bot’s bulky size or complicated weaponry against them. 

Baymax had the size, but lacked the weapons of his opponents. It was soft, it was slow and it was big. The only thing really going for it was its strength. He could use armor to up the defence and the test animations showed that Baymax’s movements could match that of a human’s.

He rolled over to one of the other computers and booted up the 3d-model program. He dug through the files and online store until he found a pre-made flexible yet firm armor that he could size to fit Baymax’s features. He transferred Baymax’s model over for the resizing and then plugged in their 3d-printer before kicking himself back towards the first computer.

He grabbed some martial arts movie clips for basic fighting moves, but also some clips of people fighting aliens or giants and even found one clip of somebody fighting a robot octopus. There was no telling what a person with his microbots could do or produce in the middle of a battle and they needed to be ready. He transferred them to the app and sectioned what moves Baymax’s model should copy.

He rolled over to the 3d-printer and grabbed the first piece of the armor to sand, pressing the next piece in the queue to start printing. Before long he had fully armored Baymax standing in his basement and a plate of chicken masala he snuck from the kitchen. 

The robot looked itself over, “I have some concerns. This armor may undermine my non-threatening huggable design.”

“That’s kinda the idea, buddy.”

Hiro pushed the plate aside as he heard a ping signifying that the movie clips had finished scanning. He downloaded the file into a chip similar to Baymax’s and pulled it out. For a moment he thought about writing down his initials, but figured that if the police showed up he could always claim somebody else stole Baymax and made the chip. He drew a simple skull on it instead. He went to put it in when he noticed Tadashi’s chip still in its slot. For a moment he thought about removing it, but then decided to just insert his chip to the slot next to it.

He patted the robot and smiled, “You look sick”.

“I cannot be sick. I am a robot. I also fail to see how martial arts and fighting mechanic marine life make me a better health care companion.”

“First, just an expression. Second, you want to keep me safe. Right? To do that you need to be able to practise some self-defence. Now, come, we need to practise! I need to see if you need any adjustments.”

Hiro grabbed a random wooden plank from a corner that might have previously been a part of one of his or Tadashi’s projects. It would do the trick to train Baymax’s martial arts. The rest they needed to learn on the go.

—

It was in the middle of Baymax breaking one of Hiro’s do it yourself training dummies when Hiro heard a little clack sound. Then another and a quick dig through his pocket revealed the thing he had been hoping for. His microbot, in its little container, was moving. The thief was on the move. 

They left through the garage door and made their way first through one and then a second narrower alley. They entered the warehouse district, Hiro only half-glancing around him to make sure there were no yelling workers nearby. They passed by the warehouses until they came upon the docks. Hiro was so focused on his little robot that he almost fell into the ocean if not for Baymax yanking him back.

“Always wait one hour after eating before swimming.” 

Hiro nodded at Baymax, stepping one step back on the dock, and focused back on his microbot. Its movements started to quicken and then it violently jumped, causing Hiro to lose his hold and the microbot. He didn’t have the time to contemplate the loss before something in the evening fog catched his eye. He leaned forward. A slowly appearing figure emerged from the fog and Hiro pushed Baymax to run behind one of the shipping containers around the area. 

He looked as the figure rose with a splash to the dock, not walking but riding what seemed to be hundreds of microbots beneath them. They were wearing a long black coat and Hiro could make out a white mask of some sort. The figure turned around, guiding with its hands microbots that were carrying a piece of equipment Hiro couldn’t identify. 

Whoever was behind the mask Hiro knew he had to act now.

“Baymax, charge!”

The masked figure whipped around and moved back as if to escape, but then they stopped. They looked at Baymax and then Hiro. They tilted their head and with a wave of their arms one of the shipping containers rose over Hiro and Baymax. 

“Baymax run-”

The container came down, the open doorway swallowing them whole. Hiro sucked in air as he opened his eyes to be met with darkness.

“Are you okay Baymax?”

“I am okay, but your heart rate has spiked due to adrenaline. It is recommended to remove yourself from the stressful situation.”

“No! I mean yeah. You’re super strong. You should be able to push the container over.”

“It is best to exercise caution. Pushing the container could lead to bodily harm.”

“Yeah, but”, Hiro searched for Baymax in the darkness until his hand caught on one of the armor plates, “If I stay next to you then there’s less chance that the container could strike me, right?”

Hiro could almost imagine Baymax blinking before the robot replied, “It is possible. Stand back”. 

He didn’t see anything, but suddenly he was blinded by a bright light as he heard the container falling on its side. He was ready to duck for cover when he heard no other than Wasabi yelling his name.

“Hiro!”

He blinked as the blurry figures in front of him changed into his friends. He shaked the rest of the blurriness off and looked around to see where the masked figure had gone. His eyes swept around, seeing no sign of the person until he looked up to catch the figure on a roof turning around.

“There”, he pointed, “We need to go after them”.

Hiro took a step forward, but Wasabi’s hands wrapped around his shoulders, rooting him in place.

“What’s going on Hiro?” Honeylemon asked.

“There’s no time to explain. We need to catch them.”

Go Go rolled her eyes. “Okay, everybody in the car. Now.” She didn’t wait to hear protests as she funnelled them into the car, Baymax clambering with Hiro’s help onto the roof. She sat behind the wheel despite it being Wasabi’s car and then they were speeding down alleys and roads.

“It’s that guy on that roof yes?”, she pointed and Hiro nodded dumbstruck at the woman’s perceptiveness, “Care to tell why we have to catch them and why is Baymax out of his box fumbling about like an action figure?”

“They have my microbots.”

“What?” Wasabi asked from the backseat.

“I found that somebody was producing my microbots and then I found that masked person using them for… okay I don’t know what they’re using them for, but the important thing is that they stole my microbots from the expo and caused the fire and now they’re doing something probably very illegal with them.”

“Hiro”, Wasabi said, “When we saw that container come down, we thought you got seriously hurt. You could have died!”

“Exactly! We need to catch them.”

Hiro’s body jerked forward and almost slammed to the dashboard. 

“Hey! What’s going-”

“They got away”, Go Go pointed to a wall in front of them in an alley she had driven into, “Unless your upgrades to Baymax make him fly, it’s a dead end”.

Hiro glared at the wall as if that could make it disappear before slumping back on his seat. 

“Great. I lost the only microbot that could lead to them and now they know I’m after them too.”

“Maybe that’s not so bad”, Honeylemon said, “It might not be a good idea to just run after them. They could hurt you like Wasabi said”.

“Oh c’mon guys! We have a supervillain on the loose! And we're the only ones that know about their plans for world domination!”

“And what do you suppose we should do about that Fred?” Wasabi sighed.

“I have just the idea.”

—

“Where are we?”

Honeylemon asked the question that was on Hiro’s mind as Go Go drove them to the street Fred had instructed. He had been happy that at least one of his friends seemed to agree with him about catching the masked figure, but as they drove past tall and grand houses, he started to wonder whether trusting Fred was the best idea. The man’s ideas weren’t bad. Just a little silly and impractical.

“Welcome to HQ”, Fred proudly announced when they parked in front of one of the big houses. He got out and waited for the rest of them to do the same. He marched to the front door and then turned around, motioning for them to follow.

“What are you doing?” Wasabi asked, glancing around the place, “We can’t just go to someone’s door like this”.

Fred looked at his friend and blinked before laughing, “Oh, sorry guys, this is my mi casa a.k.a front door in french”.

“That’s not what that means”, Honeylemon said. Fred shrugged, but Go Go shook her head.

“Fred, you can’t just say that you live here and expect us to-”

“Welcome home master Frederick.”

“Heathcliff, my man! Come on in, guys. We can plan our next move in here.” 

The group watched dumbfounded as Fred fist-pumped the butler that had appeared through the door. One by one they followed Fred inside, Hiro gauging Heathcliff’s reaction to Baymax, but the man didn’t seem to be bothered by the robot or the armor it was wearing.

The inside was large, almost seeming bigger than the outside, and decorated with pristine floors, chandeliers and big paintings of landscapes and people. Hiro had only seen such scale and interior in movies.

“Freddy? This is your house?” Honeylemon asked. 

“I thought you lived under a bridge”, Go Go remarked. 

Fred, like what was now usual, only seemed relaxed. “Well, technically it belongs to my parents”, he waved to a painting on a wall, “They’re on a vacay to a family island. We should totally go sometime”.

They followed Fred to a room that could only be described as Fred. There were comics on shelfs, figurines large and small littered the room and displays of random objects from superhero suits to katanas lined the walls. Hiro would have laughed at the sheer Fredness of it if the thoughts of their adventure from an hour prior didn’t make their way back to his head.

The masked figure had gotten away and Hiro had lost his only remaining microbot to track the guy. He dug out the picture he had found in the warehouse that morning. The red bird spread its wings as he opened the crumbled paper up, but it didn’t manage to tell him anything. 

“What’cha got there?” Fred asked, taking the paper, and squinted at it.

“The warehouse where I found my microbots was emptied out when I got there this morning and only this was left behind. Do you know what it could be?”

“It’s a bird”, Fred announced and it made Hiro chuckle. 

“Yeah, but I was thinking maybe about something else. Something that could lead us to the masked figure”

“You’re serious about wanting to catch them”, Go Go sighed, “We don’t even know who they are”.

“Well, I have a theory”, Fred said. He led them to the sofa and motioned for them to sit down before going over to one of his shelves and grabbed a bunch of comics. He handed each of them one, even Baymax, and stood proud like he had just solved the problems affecting the use of fusion power. 

Wasabi looked down at his one, "Dr.Slaughter MD?”

“Actually, millionaire weapons designer Malcolm Chastletick.”

Hiro looked at the comic in his hands, “The Annihilator?”

“Behind the mask industrialist Reed Axeworthy.”

“Baron von DeStruct- Oh just get to the point!” Go Go said as Fred circled behind her. 

“Don’t you guys get it? The person in the mask who attacked us is none other than”, Fred motioned to the big TV screen in the room. On it, clear as day appeared- “Voila! Alistair Krei!”

“What?” 

“Think about it. Krei wanted your microbots and you said no. But rules don’t apply to a man like Krei.”

“It can’t be”, Hiro said, looking at the image of Krei pictured from his latest project site, “He’s too high profile”.

“Then who is the masked figure?” Honeylemon asked. 

He looked down from the screen, “I don’t know. We don’t know anything about them”.

“Their blood type is AB negative.”

Hiro looked up.

“Cholesterol levels are-”

“Baymax! You scanned them?”

“I am programmed to assess everyone’s healthcare needs.”

Hiro watched with bright eyes as the information that Baymax’s scan collected appeared on the screen on the robot’s chest. 

“Yes! YES! I can use the data from your scan to find them!”

“Ahh, you’d have to scan everyone in San Fransokyo. And that might take, I don’t know, forever”, Go Go deadpanned, but Hiro was too excited about his discovery to let something like that stop him. 

“I just have to look for another angle.”

Hiro looked around the room, seeing the multiple figures of random superheroes and robots and he felt dumb. How had he not thought about it before? If your bot couldn’t win a fight you would update it, push its limits, enhance its abilities. Baymax might have been slow and soft, but it had the capability to tell a lot about anybody who it scanned.

“I’ll scan the whole city at the same time. I just have to update Baymax’s sensor.”

He looked up from one of the robots to a row of figurines, his friends’ faces reflecting from the glass cover, and he got another crazy and wild idea. 

“Actually if we’re gonna catch them, I need to upgrade all of you.”

“Upgrade who know?” Wasabi asked.

“Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones”, was Baymax’s answer.

“Ooh. Okay, okay, I like where this is heading!” Fred said and Hiro smiled at his enthusiasm. The others though were less than encouraged. 

“We can’t catch someone like them! We’re nerds!” Wasabi said.

“Hiro, we want to help”, Honeylemon continued, “But we’re just us”.

“No. Look”, Hiro pointed to the figurines and then another picture of heroes on Fred’s wall, “You can be more. Way more”.

“Tadashi Hamada was our best friend”, Go Go looked at each of them and then turned to Hiro, “We’re in

Fred smiled wide, “Can you feel it? You guys, do you feel it?”, his energy capturing each one of them in its embrace, “Our origin story begins. We’re going to be superheroes!”