The Opposite of Falling
I remember feeling the opposite of falling. - Absolution Calling by Incubus
Chapter One - Changing Tides
The first week after the now infamous roller derby felt like the worst week of Hiro's life at the time. In retrospect, it had just been busy as hell during a time when he'd just wanted to curl up and deal with the mental and emotional fallout of what had happened, although it was also the time when a lot of different things changed. While SFIT had given him and Tadashi the week off, there was the lab transfer and their friends being busy trying to get theirs transferred as well which meant if they went to SFIT even without having to worry about classes, there was still having to spend time organizing their new labs or helping their friends move theirs. At home, Aunt Cass's café was being slammed by reporters, well-wishers, 'concerned' citizens, and various other busybodies and rubberneckers. It still surprised Hiro that Aunt Cass had found time to schedule and take them to their first appointments with the psychiatrist Detective Mazda had suggested.
Then there were the interviews. Hiro and Tadashi very quickly found out about the sign Aunt Cass had put up advertising for help just before the incident and quickly got very good at quick background checks. The first person to try and take advantage of the sign had been a reporter who'd taken advantage of the interview process to try and grill Aunt Cass for information. Aunt Cass had summarily kicked them out of the café and banned them from entering ever again. The others weren't reporters - except for the one who definitely didn't get past the background check and was also quickly banned - but they did seem more interested in the potential fame of working in the Lucky Cat than in actually working and one of them was a tech thief they were forced to make empty out his pockets before also banning him.
If they honestly didn't need the help, they probably would've have given up on hiring someone. But they did. Last night's Beat Poetry Night, always a big money maker for the café because of the standing deal that in exchange for staying open later than they normally did all of the customers had to buy at least one item, had what seemed like every single SFU student in attendance in addition to the regulars. They actually ran out of several items, despite Aunt Cass having anticipated there being a potentially large crowd. By the time they locked up for the night, they were all dead on their feet and Aunt Cass started crying as she tallied the register. Apparently they'd made more that night than in the entirety of last month.
It was because of all of this that, the next morning, Hiro froze in his act of bussing a table and got ready to flee to the kitchen or even upstairs after shooting off the first horrible non-excuse he could think of when a voice suddenly said, "Um, excuse me? Hello? I wanted to talk to you about your Help Wanted sign." Then Hiro did a double-take.
The person who'd spoken to get Hiro's attention was dressed in a style that Hiro wasn't certain was emo, goth, punk, or some combination thereof. Whatever it was, it involved longish black hair, androgynous looks, lots of black clothing that gave the impression of revealing while still concealing everything, and lots of chains and other jewelry, including a pewter dragon curling around one ear and a cross dangling from the other. They were also pulling it off, whatever the look was, because Hiro privately thought they looked kinda cool.
"Uh, yeah. You and everyone else on the block," Hiro stated without thinking before wincing. The person in front of him grimaced but nodded.
"I'll bet, but I'm on the up and up, I swear. I got dragged to the poetry night thing last night - I don't know if you recognize me, it was kind of crowded - but I noticed the sign and I've been looking for a job that doesn't, you know, care what I look like as long as I'm following the rules and getting the job done and this seemed like it might work. Besides, it looks like you could use the help."
"Huh," Hiro replied before calling out, "Hey, Aunt Cass? We've got another interview. I think this one might be legit!"
"Really?" Aunt Cass asked as she stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Oh thank God!" She disappeared for a second and then came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron before moving to shake the interviewee's hand.
"Cass Rudolph. I own the place. And you are?"
"Oh, uh, Yori Takagi, a man you can trust," he responded as he took her hand and gave it a firm shake. Hiro snorted.
"Don't say that to my brother," he requested.
"Say what?" Tadashi asked as he came out of the kitchen holding a tray of food that he swiftly distributed before coming over.
"Yori Takagi, a man you can trust," Yori repeated, shaking Tadashi's hand while giving Hiro a sly look only for it to turn to shock when Tadashi burst out laughing.
"Nice one! It's a pun based on the fact your name's a masculine one meaning 'trust', right?" Tadashi stated, beaming.
"Uh, yeah. Most people don't catch that," Yori replied. Tadashi nodded before moving back to work, ignoring Hiro's whispered, "Nerd."
"Is he for real?" Yori asked as Tadashi moved away.
"Unfortunately, yes," Hiro responded. Tadashi obviously heard them and gave them a fake pout. Hiro rolled his eyes so Tadashi put a hand on his head and firmly ruffled Hiro's hair as he walked back past with a tray full of dirty dishes.
"You're falling behind on bussing tables, shorty."
"Oi!"
"Boys," Aunt Cass sighed before turning back to her interviewee. "Shall we?"
They ended up hiring Yori. The background check showed he'd recently moved from a conservative area out east, was attending SFU as an undeclared major, and was actually a few months older than Tadashi. He was smart and picked things up fast and was a charmer to boot. Even Mrs. Matsuda liked Yori and she was notoriously picky. One of the reasons she was a regular to the Lucky Cat was because they found her sense of style amusing rather than grotesque or disturbing and had never once asked her to change. Yori hadn't even batted an eye before flirting with her the same way he did with everyone else he thought would be receptive, male or female. The rest, he was politely cheerful to, aggressively so if they irritated him. In fact, you could tell exactly how angry he was with someone by exactly how many teeth were showing. It tended to unnerve the offenders once he starting showing a few too many.
Hiro was just glad they'd found someone who could help out while he and Tadashi were busy at SFIT. His first day back at classes had been with the relieved knowledge that they weren't leaving Aunt Cass entirely on her own at the café. The second day probably would've been a great day as well if it hadn't been for her.
The board had taken their sweet time emailing them about moving their labs, apparently under the impression that they hadn't been hanging around campus and their friends just to get away from the media and had already rearranged the new labs to their liking. Honey Lemon, Gogo, and Wasabi were finishing up their own moves while Fred had taken advantage of the fact he was technically staff to break in and take over the breakroom of what the student body was starting to call the Hamada Lab.
The Lovelace Lab was smack dab in the center of campus, surrounded by gardens and one sole parking lot that was so hard to get in and out of that most people didn't bother. It required navigating a maze of other parking lots to even reach it and most students thought it was faculty-only while the faculty knew it wasn't so most people didn't try despite it being centrally located. The only people actually willing to run the gamut to park there didn't talk about it even to each other, although Fred was convinced the latter was because the people who actually parked there were in the middle of creating an elaborate secret language that consisted entirely of head nods. Sadly, Hiro halfway believed that theory.
Anyway, it was the classes that were currently the problem, specifically the World History one that had started off as a nightmare because a computer glitch had put the class before it as eleven-and-a-half hours long and majorly interfering with the rest of that day's schedule. Of course, Tadashi had helped him fix that mess ages ago but Hiro still complained about it because Gen Ed, ugh, and he no longer had an excuse for avoiding it. At least he had the sophomore-level robotics classes three days a week to make up for the fact Tuesdays and Thursdays were pretty much a bust aside from Open Lab.
Honestly, it wasn't that bad of a course. Just because a technology institute had general education classes didn't mean said classes weren't also tech oriented. Hiro had been pleasantly surprised when the World History I class had started off with Ancient Egyptian batteries and their likely usage (electroplating) and the likely tools and equations used to build the pyramids. And that was just the beginning. There had been discussions on the Antikythera mechanism and the stuff about the Banū Mūsā Brothers had both given him so many ideas and that much more determination that one day classes like this one would be learning about the Hamada brothers.
"Mr. Hamada?"
Hiro jerked out of his daydreaming at stared at the professor who'd called on him with a deer-in-headlights expression because Professor Squires only used last names when she'd been trying to get a student's attention and failed previously. What was the question? Hell, what were they studying today?
"Uh..." he managed as he tried to figure out what he'd been asked based on the notes on the screen overhead.
"Al-Jazari, who's also considered the Father of Robotics as he invented the first programmable automata in the year twelve oh six," a young, female voice suddenly spoke up.
"That's correct, Mary. Hiro, can you stay to talk to me after class?"
"Uh, yes, Professor Squires," Hiro replied. Professor Squires nodded and went back to the lecture, leaving Hiro free to glare at the person who had interrupted before he could answer, never mind that he still had no clue as to what the question was.
There was a girl there, about his own age, which made him blink because Hiro was pretty certain he'd never seen her before because he would've noticed another teenaged genius sharing one of his classes. She looked primarily Caucasian with brown hair tied up in big, face-framing pig tails and greenish-brown eyes, but there was a definite East-Asian cast to her features, particularly the shape of her eyes which he could barely see behind the large red frames of her glasses. She blinked in surprise when she realized he was glaring at her before she gave him a smug smile. Oh, it was on. Except then she ignored him for the rest of the lecture, which thankfully wasn't that much longer. After putting his stuff in his bag, Hiro approached the professor.
"Uh, hey, Professor. You wanted to see me?"
"That's right," Professor Squires agreed, glancing at the students filing out before quietly asking, "Are you sure you're okay to continue in class? You seem a bit distracted and I'd understand if you need a little more time."
"Huh? Oh, no! I'm fine. Really! It's just..." Hiro racked his brain for an excuse before mentally shrugging and asking, "Who was that girl? The one who answered the question?" He immediately regretted asking when Professor Squires' expression turned from worried to knowing and a little bit sly.
"Oh! That was Mary Ito. She was slated to attend Columbika until her father accepted a teaching job with us and then there was a bit of a scramble to transfer her over here. I think she's into the Computer Sciences, you know, designing new hardware and the programs to go with it. I must admit, I was a bit worried about nepotism when I heard we'd have to transfer her in order to get Dr. Ito in to replace Callaghan, but she's proven to be a rather adept student so far."
"Oh. Uh, thanks, Professor. Can I go now? I have Open Lab after this and Professor Sato's a stickler for making sure we're actually there for at least the minimum of hours and I'm a week behind on my project."
"Oh, right. Try not to be so distracted next class, okay?"
"Sure, Professor."
Two days later, when he found out Mary Ito was in his Calculus for Engineers class as well, Hiro quickly answered a question posed to her, determined to make up for the last class. Then he looked at Mary, who was glaring at him, and sparks flew, the type that causes wild fires and extensive damage to the surrounding areas.
Hiro had never had a rival before or, rather, had never had one that required any effort on his part. Tadashi was too much of a role model to be a rival, despite the teasing about his height and such and everyone else had been so far below Hiro it had been ridiculous. But now he was actually putting some effort into his Gen Ed requirement classes and it was all because of Mary Ito. There was no coasting if he wanted to keep a step ahead of her and even that wasn't always enough. She'd answer his question, he'd answer hers better; he'd get a ninety-nine on a pop quiz, she'd get a hundred. It was infuriating.
"Grah!" Hiro cried out as he plopped face-down on the couch in the breakroom. Tadashi's eyebrows rose as he looked over from where he was making roasted barley tea. Gogo, who was downing an energy drink before running to her next class, lowered the drink long enough to say, "He's your brother" before booking it. Tadashi shook his head but propped himself up against the arm of the couch and asked, "What's wrong, buddy?"
"She's driving me nuts!" Hiro complained as he rolled over so he could look up at Tadashi.
"Who?" Tadashi asked with a slight frown. He hadn't noticed Hiro having any problems with Gogo or Honey Lemon, so who...?
"Mary Ito! She's in all my Gen Eds and she thinks she's so smart. Well, I'm smarter and I'll prove it!" Hiro threw himself to his feet, snatched up his bag, and stormed out.
"Huh. So that's why he's trying harder in those classes," Tadashi muttered to himself. Wasn't Mary Ito Professor Ito's daughter? Well, maybe a healthy challenge would be good for Hiro. With that thought, Tadashi drained his tea because he had class to get to as well. He would be surprised when he was stopped.
"Tadashi Hamada?" Tadashi turned to see a man in a military uniform and lots of stripes standing there. He tugged slightly on his messenger bag as he replied with a confused frown, "Yes? Can I help you?"
"I certainly hope so. General Schneider," the man replied, holding out his hand. Tadashi took it and shook it but was still frowning, wondering what the man wanted.
"My people are working on a project that San Fransokyo seems to be the leader of but whenever I ask around about autonomous mobile systems, I always end up being told to talk to you."
"Let me guess, someone at Krei Tech told you to talk to me."
"Yes, actually. You do know what I'm talking about, right?"
"Yes. You're talking about AIs in the military. I'm sorry, though, but the way I do the programming would make them useless to you."
"Come, now, I'm prepared to make you quite the offer, Mr. Hamada."
"The answer is no, General Schneider."
"But wouldn't it help people if the only ones involved in battle were robots?"
"That's assuming the battlefield is someplace where no one lives. No one fights over that kind of place. And how exactly would the other side have access to the robots unless you plan on selling them?" Tadashi asked with a sharp glare. There was an embarrassed pause while the general found his voice.
"Well, the opposition always manages to catch up eventually."
"The answer's still no. I created Baymax to help people and that's what he's going to do; by helping the sick and injured and not war hawks like you," Tadashi stated with a disgusted look at the man before storming away, making it clear his decision was final.
"Don't be a fool and throw away this opportunity, Mr. Hamada!" the general called as he quickly tried to catch up. "Someone will eventually figure it out anyway!"
"Maybe, but not from me," Tadashi replied. "Goodbye, General."
"Initial contact went poorly, but I'm hoping that will change," General Schneider informed his contact.
"Hmm... We'll give you some more time, General, but if you do not make satisfactory progress, we will start moving other plans into play."
"Understood. Schneider out."
"Got enough bleach?" Harry asked the slim young woman of Asian descent checking out through his register.
"I think so," she replied as she frowned calculatingly at her purchases. She was buying more than just bleach in bulk. The amount of cleaning chemicals was staggering.
"So what's it all for? Got a hugely messy house?" Harry asked, chatting as he scanned.
"I've just started running my own cleaning company!" the woman proudly announced before digging into her purse and pulling out a business card, one of those ones you could get like five hundred of on the cheap. Unlike most of the things given him, he tucked it away in a pocket. Then again, most of the things given to him were religious pamphlets from people who didn't even care enough to find out what religion Harry was much less that he already attended a church.
"Good luck," he said as she paid and left.
"Thanks."
A day later, Harry's eyebrows would rise again as an older man, also of Asian descent, who looked vaguely familiar for some reason came through his line with several clocks and watches. Seeing Harry's expression, the man admitted shamefacedly, "I keep loosing my watches. And I'm really rough on my alarm clocks. I kind of pound on the snooze button until I break them."
"Huh. Well, this looks like it might last you for awhile," Harry offered as he rang up the purchase.
"I hope so."
A few days later, while Harry and the other members of his church did their own evangelical work in the form of helping the poor, destitute, and needy, he saw Frederick Lee. Harry was one of the few people to know the kid was rich despite not looking it, mostly because Harry didn't actually need his job and his family ran in some of the same social circles as Fred's family.
"Hey! How're you?" Harry asked as he fist bumped Fred.
"Great! And you, man?"
"Not too shabby. Hey, did you ever find someone to replace that maid? 'Cause I got a business card the other day from a girl starting up her own cleaning business. Bought a huge amount of cleaning supplies. You might want to look into it," Harry said as he offered the card.
"Thanks, man," Fred said as he took the card and then read it out loud. "'Happy Cleaners, Yuri Nakamura proprietor.' Nice. I'll definitely check it out."
Fred did check it out later that night and was oddly disappointed when he got a recording saying the number was disconnected.
"I hope it was a wrong number and not because they couldn't pay their phone bill. Oh well. I'll try again later." It wouldn't occur to him until much later that the company didn't actually exist.
"The Fujitas made bail," Mazda announced with no preamble at their first 'official' meeting as consultants for the San Fransokyo Police Department.
"What? How?" were the main questions in response. Tadashi had paled at the news and Honey Lemon didn't blame him considering one of the women in question had assaulted him.
"The how is pretty easy; a guy walked in and paid their bail. We think he's one of Yama's goons but can't prove it, so we had to allow it. Still, the judge refused to set a bail on Yama - too much of a flight risk - so he's not going anywhere just yet."
"Well, that's something," Wasabi agreed.
"Maybe, but I don't like that the Fujitas are all back out on the streets," Gogo stated darkly, unconsciously rubbing her shoulder despite it having healed well by all reports.
"Nor are we," Mazda admitted. "That's why we want to arrange for you to patrol as your superhero identities. Hopefully that will do one of two things: keep them from stepping out of line or freaking them out enough to try something before they're really prepared." There were several nods of agreement to that.
"I'm also arranging self-defense classes for all of you. You're tech's impressive but I want to make sure you know how to escape a hold and how to fall without hurting yourself. And then there's this."
A massive book hit the table with a thump.
"That's a big book," Hiro stated, wide-eyed.
"Yes, it is. This is the latest edition of all the rules and laws you'll need to be aware of if you're working with us."
"Wow, that's some fine print," Fred exclaimed as he cracked open the book.
"Yep. Lucky for you, you're all getting the electronic version. I'm sure one of you will figure out a way to program it into Baymax so he can quote it at you need because I'm certain at least one of you won't be reading this. I will insist you study at least the basics, however, and, yes, I will be testing you on this."
There were more groans as they accepted the USBs Mazda passed out. After going over various rules and expectations, Mazda finally wound down the meeting with, "Any questions for me?"
"Yeah, any advice on how to chase off reporters?" Hiro asked.
"Put up a No Trespassing sign," Mazda suggested. When Hiro gave her a look, she shrugged. "The bottom level of your house may be a business, but it's still private property and you have the right to insist people leave your property. At least, your aunt does. And you can call for assistance if they refuse."
"Thanks, I think," Hiro replied with a sigh.
"Sorry, kid, but that's one of the perils of fame."
They left soon after and Honey Lemon was please to note that Tadashi nudged Hiro's arm with an elbow and Hiro smirked and nudged him back. Honey Lemon just smiled. She was glad they seemed to be doing better after what had happened. They'd both been a bit jumpy and touch-shy for a few days after the kidnapping and Baymax had spilled that they both sometimes had nightmares. She hoped this was a sign things were turning around for the better.
Dinner had been good, great even, but a full stomach was making Hiro sleepy which was not helped by the fact patrol was boring. Flying around on Baymax, while cool, didn't constitute patrolling according to Mazda so instead they were kind of hovering over the others. Gogo had also expressed frustration until they figured out having Tadashi use the microbots to give Fred, Honey Lemon, and Wasabi a ride sped things up considerably. Some of the people they went by shot pictures but the highlight of the night was breakup up a drug deal and waiting for Mazda's people to pick up the perps.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Tadashi asked while the police picked up the drug dealers and Gogo berated Fred for rushing in without a plan.
"I dunno. I guess it just felt anti-climatic considering everything else we've done."
"I, for one, am glad about that," Wasabi announced.
"He's right," Fred surprisingly agreed, although it made sense when he added, "Now's the time to build our superhero reputation with the citizens of our fair city so they won't believe the bad guy when he tries to turn them against us!"
"What bad guy?" Honey Lemon asked Fred even as Gogo stated, "We're still recovering from our last adventure. Don't go borrowing trouble."
"Besides," Tadashi added, nudging his brother, "We're still making a difference."
Hiro glanced at the criminals being taken away.
"Yeah, I guess we are. Good job, guys."
He'd take a bit more pride in their patrols after that.
A second board had joined the picture-covered first. More pictures of the Big Heroes and the Hamadas had wandered over from the first board, but the main focus on the second board was a map of the city with some routes marked out in string. Notes theorized possible patrol patterns and times certain landmarks were likely to be passed. Most alarming of all was a note by one such marked neighborhood that stated, 'Bombs at this location ready to go.'
Notes: I know I should be working on Father Knows Best, but that story's depressing me for some reason right now so I ended up working on this one instead.
Lots of new characters in this one, many of them working at cross purposes. Several are loosely based off of characters that show up in the comic the movie's loosely based on. Also, if you haven't guessed from the previous story, I don't tend to throw in characters unless they serve some purpose to the plot. If I did, you guys would've gotten a thing about Hiro and Tadashi's first session with their psychiatrist (which will probably show up as a one-shot instead considering I have most of that written).
Again, Mary Ito is actually Marys Iosama from the comics with a slight name change and updated to fit the BH6 movie-verse. She actually does have medium-light brown hair and greenish-hazel eyes in the comics, despite her father being obviously Japanese. The implication is obviously that, while being of Japanese descent, there's definitely some Caucasian in her as well. Considering how Japanese Hiro and Tadashi look despite obviously being of mixed race themselves, I decided Professor Ito's actually half and half himself and Mary(s) is actually only about a quarter Japanese.