BALANCE

"YOU'LL NEVER stop me, hero!" Control Freak, a fat orange-haired man with multiple gadgets holstered in a large black coat, cackled as he flew over the San Fransokyo night skies on his jetpack, carelessly letting jewels spill out of a large sack he carried.

"This guy's getting on my nerves." Hiro muttered to himself as he chased after him in his armored suit.

The orange-haired villain laughed and drew out his remote control, aiming it at a street light and firing a ray that made it move on its own! Coming to life, the lamp stretched out at Hiro, shining a blinding light at him that caught him off guard. Reacting quickly, he fired a sonic blast from his right glove and shot metal clamps on the light, binding it to a building behind it! Opening his eyes, he looked around, seeing that Control freak was gone.

Groaning, Hiro brought up an overhead view of the city on his helmet's interface, finding Control Freak in a street to his right. Sending Microbots flying out of his suit's backpack, Hiro flew up into the air, making chase. Control Freak flew closer to the ground, startling women in the streets below as he made a sharp turn at a T-junction. With Hiro nowhere in sight, he chuckled to himself when the nanobots collected up in front of him and turned into a giant hand that grabbed him instantly!

Shrinking down into binds around his torso and legs, the nano-machines let him plop to the sidewalk, leaving him shuffling on the ground in vain. He tried to escape as people began to look his way when Hiro descended from the skies, raising his right arm and directing the robots to hold Control Freak up before him. He keyed coordinates on a touchpad on his right arm and scanned the bag of jewels that were stolen.

"Expected you to have stolen more with all those gadgets you have on you." Hiro stated.

"I would have if you hadn't gotten in my way, hero!" Control Freak yelled.

"Y'know, you could be a little less 2002."

"I'll be out of jail in no time, you'll see!"

"Yeah, they all say that." Hiro waved his hand dismissively and the Microbots flew off, carrying the man into the air.

Activating his jetpack and shooting into the air, Hiro went back on patrol, connecting to the police's radio frequencies to see if anything was going on. An alarm icon appeared on his visor and he clicked on a touchpad on his arm, seeing that it was a reminder he'd missed twice! "Ah, shit, I forgot!" He face-palmed and quickly flew to a street behind him.

Swooping below a large sign, Hiro landed in a market street, shrinking his armor back into its backpack and revealing his regular clothes underneath. He rushed through the crowd of people, some of whom recognized him, and he rushed into a small restaurant to his right. He looked around, trying to hide his panic, and saw GoGo rising from a table across from him and heading for the door.

Adjusting his shirt, he walked up to her as she noticed him. "Hey, you look great tonight." He pulled a smile, wincing as she scowled at him and exited the restaurant. He followed her quickly. "Okay, I know I'm late -,"

"Late? I've been waiting in there for forty minutes, Hiro." GoGo turned to him as she reached the corner.

"I'm sorry, I was caught up in -,"

"Don't even start with the excuses." GoGo cut him off, noticing his backpack. "Is that your suit?"

"Um, no, I just grabbed a present for you." Hiro said nervously.

"I know what your suit looks like, Hiro! God, you were still out on patrol?" GoGo frowned.

"I had to; there was a villain robbing a jewelry store and I -,"

"You can't keep playing hero anymore; the city is safe - let the police handle things for a change." GoGo said.

"But, I heard it on the police frequency on my way here; I had to do something." Hiro insisted.

"Hiro, it's been two years since there was a major attack; there's no reason to keep fighting."

"But what if there is? I have to be prepared." Hiro said.

"Well, you decide what's more important to you then." GoGo walked away from him.

He tried to follow her, but stayed behind, seeing her enter a cab and leave. He remained in the street and looked around, considering what she'd said.

THE NEXT morning, Hiro walked down a hallway on the Research and Development floor of Stark Industries, looking at the different labs with see-through walls he past each with scientists hard at work. As he walked, he saw Phineas and Ferb step out of an elevator, discussing something while looking at holographic charts they moved around before them.

"Phineas, Ferb." He greeted.

"Oh, Hiro, we haven't seen you around in a while." Phineas said.

"I've been around."

"Well, good luck on your project - we'll see who gets funding at the end of the month." Phineas grinned, walking away with Ferb.

Seeing them leave, he went up to the door of GoGo's lab, reaching for the handle and hesitating. He steeled himself and went inside, finding her in a lab coat and tinkering with the engine of a large yellow car that was vertically suspended on hovering maglev discs under its wheels. He was amazed as he saw this, moving past the tools and gadgets mounted on the white walls, checking out the car's 2000 horsepower engine, 15 inch tires and bright yellow paint job with her own symbol streaking across its right door.

"Whoa …" He exhaled.

"Oh, hey." GoGo said without turning to him.

"This's amazing." He walked up to her.

"I was planning on showing this to Mr Stark the next time he's around." She said simply. "Bet it'd blow his mind - a fucking flying car." She chuckled quietly.

"Yeah." He glanced around. "Look, I wanted to apologize about last night - you were right; we'd set the weekend off and I blew it for something trivial. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine." She said, still not looking at him.

He squinted. "… You sure?"

"Yeah, we're cool."

Hiro looked at her as she continued working, unconvinced by her quick reconciliation, but decided to leave it be, slowly leaving the room. He headed down the hall and took the elevator to his own floor, going to his workspace which was a massive lab he shared with Peter Parker and Amadeus Cho. The two in question were already in the room at the center desk monitoring a wristwatch wrapped around a small ball that rotated rapidly inside a glass cube and spurted out small amounts of electricity.

Amadeus noticed him and grinned, moving up to him. "Ah, you've arrived just in time, Hamada." He dragged him up to the watch. "We've finally gotten the watch to move at 1,234 kilometers per hour!"

"Whoa, really?" Hiro beamed.

"Yup! And if we can keep pushing it up to higher velocities, we can finally test it to see if it can harness YEAST energy." Peter said.

"Let me go get the samples." Hiro said, moving up to his desk nearby and booting up his computer.

"Ugh, can you tell me why Dr Cello named a phenomena of space-time after a fungus?" Amadeus frowned.

"Well, he was the first to discover the energy building up all over the world after the Flash closed the black hole over Central City and disappeared four years ago, so he could name it whatever he wanted." Peter crossed his arms.

"I still don't understand what makes it different from Neutrinos." Amadeus looked at the watch. "They share a lot of the same properties."

"There's still a lot people don't understand about YEAST energy really, like the way it can carry things like buildings and trees whenever it moves around." Peter said. "While people like Tony Stark and Bruce Banner want to seal it away, we'll find a way to use it." He touched the glass housing the watch. "Imagine travelling through dimensions with the click of a watch."

"That would be amazing."

"Yeah." Peter grinned. "Now, Hiro, how're we coming up with the -," He raised his brow as he saw Hiro nodding off at his desk. "Hiro?"

"You gotta be kidding me." Amadeus groaned and went up to him, slapping him upside the head. "Wake up, dumbass!"

"Huh, wha?" Hiro shot up, looking around in a daze.

"You were sleeping at work again! Gah! Do I have to do everything around here?" Amadeus threw up his hands.

"Do everything? All you've done is just criticize all my ideas; I was the one who designed the damn watch!" Hiro growled.

"Yeah, and since the designing phase, you've skipped several days and when you are here, you're sleeping on your ass!"

"I've been busy." Hiro scowled.

"With what? Your girlfriend's been far more consistent, virtually built that super car on her own and in case you didn't know, is the one who helped us figure out how to finally get the watch to accelerate on its own." Amadeus pointed out.

"What?" Hiro squinted in confusion.

"Yeah, Hiro, you haven't been very helpful lately; Amadeus has a point." Peter said. "Is something wrong?"

Hiro frowned, sifting his mind. "No. I'll just get the samples" He typed on his keyboard, opening an automated drawer behind him which had a small black box with orange glowing lines on it. Grabbing it, he went to the others and continued working on the watch.

HIRO SWIPED on his computer screen and looked closely at the enlarged schematics of the watch, trying to see where any flaws might be and if the circuits flowing with YEAST energy needed any adjusting. He didn't notice as GoGo entered the room and looked around, seeing that Peter and Amadeus had gone. Checking the time on her phone, she went up to him and hugged him from behind, startling him a little.

"Hey, babe, still working?" She leaned into him.

"Oh, GoGo!" He turned to her. "Is it lunch already?"

"Lunch? It's 7, Hiro." She chuckled, stepping back. "C'mon, let's head home."

"Huh … so, you're not mad about yesterday?" Hiro asked.

"Well, I am, but I wanna forget about that and just do something simple instead." GoGo smiled. "How's Chinese sound?"

"Uh, yeah, I gotta pass; been a little behind on work lately." Hiro said, turning back to the computer.

"Really? How can you always be busy?" GoGo frowned. "When you're free, you're actually not and when you're here, you always come back home late." She huffed. "Y'know what? I don't give a fuck; just forget it." She headed for the door.

Hiro glanced at her as she left and huffed, turning around. "Y'know, I can handle work tomorrow morning - let me catch you in the lobby."

GoGo looked at him and restrained a smile. "Okay, whatever." She left the room.

Chuckling to himself, Hiro shut down the computer and started packing up.

WALKING DOWN the small stairway, Hiro entered the hallway and headed for the elevator, seeing Phineas and Ferb running about in their workroom chasing after a flying robot cat on the loose. Shaking his head, he walked on when he noticed something in the corner of his eye, seeing the Archive Room door ajar. He squinted, wondering how it would be since it was automated and he looked at the key card slot to its right, seeing that it was damaged.

"What the …?"

He went up to the door and slowly pushed it open, stepping in as quietly as he could and looking around inside the room. The area was filled with several computer servers lined up in rows, the lights above flickering and letting the red flashes of the devices give an eerie atmosphere. Moving through one aisle, he began his search, wondering who had broken in.

He made a turn to his right and jerked back as he saw a man in a long brown coat over full black armor with a helmet hacking into one of the servers. Hiro quickly slid back behind one of the shelves and pressed his back against it, hoping he wasn't seen. Quietening his breathing, he looked out from his cover, seeing that the man had disappeared!

He became confused and turned around to see the masked man with a gun pointed at his face! Reacting quickly, Hiro grappled with the man and forced the silencer out of his hand, punching him in the face and knocking him back. The man was unfazed however and kicked Hiro in the gut, causing him to smash into a shelf and send machines falling to the floor.

Grunting, Hiro pushed himself up, frowning as he recognized the two vertical crimson lines on the man's mask. "Dave Callaghan ... You should be dead!"

The man in the mask didn't respond and reached for the gun only for it to be knocked aside by Hiro who threw his backpack at it, gaining his attention. Hiro got to his feet and threw a punch at the man, wildly missing as the man deftly stepped aside and kneed him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. The masked man grabbed Hiro's head and bashed his metal helmet into his face, drawing blood and dropping him to the floor.

Hiro held his nose in pain, trying to get back up and failing to as the masked man reached for the silencer and picked it up. He took aim when a small beep took his attention, making him turn back to the small flash drive he'd inserted in a server up ahead. The masked man looked at Hiro then holstered the gun, moving up to the flash drive and removing it.

"Hey, get back here!" Hiro tried to say when the masked man pressed a button on his right arm, causing alarms to go off around him.

Hiro looked around as red lights began to flash and he turned back to the man, seeing that he had disappeared again. Holding his nose, he rushed out of the room and entered the hall, seeing that Phineas and Ferb had noticed the alarms as well. "Hey, what's going on?" Phineas asked, squinting as he saw Hiro covering his face. "Hey, what happened to you?"

"Initiating full lockdown procedures! Initiating full lockdown procedures!" A computerized female voice echoed throughout the building. Security cameras slid out of the walls above and turned to the three below, zooming in on them. "Intruders detected! Solution: Eliminate!"

A/N

It's been a while since we've done a Big Hero 6 fanfic and it's great to be back. A lot of time has gone between books and we're finally coming to a head with things we set up in the first book. In a lot of ways, this feels like an end to a story, but there's still a lot more we'd like to do with what we'd consider the flagship story of our universe.

Have you read any of our previous books before? Which ones?

Do you like the writing this time around? Do you hate it?

What do you think about the Dave Callaghan reveal?

Tell us anything in a review! All feedback is appreciated and will help us make a better more fun story for you guys. Thanks for reading!