Note: I do not own Big Hero 6 nor receive monetary rewards from this story. Posted August 31, 2015 by NursingStudent.
十
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
The quote reverberated in Professor Callaghan's head, he remembered the long recording sessions he'd overseen with Tadashi Hamada. His student had cherry-picked a voice actor to record the health robot's dialogue, quite unaware that his own – Tadashi's – voice was excellent enough. Callaghan remembered Tadashi's insistence that Baymax's voice not sound mechanical, but convey empathy, because it was necessary for the patients to feel they could tell Baymax their subjective symptoms. Now, this voice with its too human associations incessantly clanged in his memory like an out of tune gong, demanding he quantify his pain by numbers – but it could not care – Callaghan's answer would merely be a number cataloged in a database to enact another segment of the robot's programming. It would count his responses just as Callaghan's science students counted a proton's quarks and distant stars: all was finite and quantifiable. Not that Callaghan disapproved, he could count his fifteen pairs of shoes to his twenty-two official and honorary degrees – but none of that mattered, his daughter was dead: a family minus one was not a family, and his pain was incalculable.
九
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Hiro's head thumped his desk, he was tired but it was hard to sleep. The kabuki mask seared into his memory like a cattle brand, infuriating him, irritating his sleep-deprived mind. It was a good thing he was working with a 3D printer instead of manufacturing Baymax's armor by hand – his mouse had already taken a number of shaky-handed nosedives off the desk. His brother hadn't just died, he had been murdered by a nameless guy who wanted Tadashi's inventions. He blinked his eyes, blearily scanning the coding for bugs to repair from his previous coding. He was tired, but wanted to press forward. Hiro hardly noticed himself slumping to one side, Baymax catching him before his head could nosedive into the garage floor. Baymax quietly carried Hiro to his room in his warm, pillow-soft hands.
八
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Aunt Cass hid her face behind a napkin, but it wasn't the hot "wings that make our faces numb" that brought the tears – it was her nephews – her brave, smart, reckless nephews. She'd always feared that they'd be hurt in their illegal bot-fighting escapades. Everyone had their flaws, she just hadn't expected Tadashi's to be heroism. Or maybe she had, after all, the boys' dad had once lost his car to a pretend stranded motorist. When he'd finally found a ride home (a couple hours later due to the skeptical drivers who suspected he might be a pretending to be a stranded motorist), he'd hung his hat on the rack and pretended it didn't matter. Later that night, though, his wife had found him looking sadly at his car title… But what did it matter? That wasn't this; then his insurance had replaced the car, but now nothing could replace the loss of Tadashi or his parents. But Aunt Cass was strong, she felt that Hiro was suffering more than she was and although upset at Hiro for missing the hot wings dinner, she wanted to let him have some time to himself. She couldn't fix everything with food, but she was going to be here for him, because their family was the greatest treasure to her in the world.
七
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Go Go Tomago sped down the SanFransokyo dispersal loop, weaving through cars at one-hundred miles per hour on a "test-drive" of her motorbike. It irked her that she had to be the one to pull them together, forcing them to continue their work. Whether it was during their lab work, or ordering during lunch, she felt she was always the one that had to re-orient the others to their goals. She pretended she was tough, to keep them together. She would be their rock, their "go-to" for problem solving, and most importantly, keep them moving forward. She felt an unheard vibration in her pocket, and the words: "BAYMAX CALLING" monogrammed the inner glass of her visor. Scaring the drivers in the right lanes out of their seats, Go Go slid off the highway onto the grassy margins beside the shoulder of the road, inwardly pleased the motorbike's nearly imperceptible change in handling off the concrete. Of course, the motorbike could always be improved.
Go Go halted and read Baymax's message. Hiro needed them. Okay, she could do this, she texted the others. They would come. She was their leader, even if she had to bury her sorrow for Hiro's loss under a tough leather jacket.
六
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Honey Lemon gulped a mouthful of air as their small car clattered along the pier boards, crashing into the San Fransokyo Bay. Just as she reached into her handbag to pull out her chemical reaction inflated inner tube, she felt something bouncy pushing against her glove. Although it was hard to peer through the murky water, she saw Baymax's comfy arm, and she hugged it with both her arms as he moved through the coldness to bring them all together before he popped off his armor and floated to the surface.
Did Hiro really need her? Was she simply a tag-on? The others at the University had received more praise with their engineered inventions than she had, maybe because the applications of their work were more visible. When visitors came it didn't matter that Honey Lemon had tested the chemical properties of a new compound first, or that her work was used by NASA, they just nodded their heads, letting her explanations phase through their minds without trying to understand.
As she offered her hand to help Hiro back onto the pier, he grinned his thanks and she knew she was appreciated. A smile could take Honey Lemon a long way in life.
五
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Fanboy Fred led the others to his home, expecting to help them, but was happily surprised when Hiro decided to turn them all into superheroes! Hiro spoke to them all, blending their best fighting techniques with their academic area of expertise – although Fred didn't actually have an academic area in which he excelled. That didn't matter to him; he got to be part of the team, and he'd use his firepower to capture the man with the kabuki mask.
Three days later they found the thief's lair, and the man himself. But instead of simply capturing him, Hiro ordered Baymax to destroy the man. The others were mortified by Baymax's chaotic programming but were able to stop Baymax. The man in the kabuki mask was not injured, but escaped, angering Hiro and he left them stranded on the island. They'd helped Hiro out of their love for Tadashi, but Hiro was not Tadashi; Tadashi would never order Baymax to destroy someone else. Fred grimaced, trying to hold back tears, forgetting no one could see them forming under his superhero outfit… Heroes were never supposed to die.
四
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
When Tadashi ran into the burning convocation hall, he hadn't expected the room to have already filled with smoke; and it scratched his throat, making his cries for Professor Callaghan hoarse and muffling his amplitude. What was he thinking running into a fire unequipped? He turned, wanting to be a hero and a good example for his brother, but how could he rescue Callaghan now? Tadashi was not one to fail – he'd passed all of his university exams – but he hadn't felt so powerless since his parents died. For a moment the smoke cleared enough for him to barely make out the neon EXIT sign above the doors. He stumbled toward it, but a fiery rafter blocked his escape, he was trapped – hopefully his family would understand his sacrifice.
三
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Wasabi felt relief when they defeated Professor Callaghan; now they could relax. The bad guy was captured and they could all go eat at a diner or Fred's family's mansion for the standard superhero after-party. After a quick glance to make sure the girls and Fred were safe, he pushed himself up to his feet to turn to Hiro and Baymax, who still stood near the portal.
"My sensors detect signs of life." Baymax said, pointing towards the self-destructing teleport, "In there."
Hiro tightened his hold on Baymax's shoulders, looking back at the team, and Wasabi saw a look he recognized. For an instant Hiro looked like Tadashi, then the boy and the robot followed the debris into the gaping portal.
Wasabi yelled for Hiro to come back. No one had ever survived teleportation before, and a disintegrating portal was not the best place to practice.
二
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Callaghan's daughter had a bad headache. How long had it hurt? Days? Weeks? Months? She could barely open her eyelids, and her world looked strange, as if she had shrunk to the size of a microbe.
Sometime later, she thought she heard voices. Opening her eyes again, she saw a dark-haired boy peering curiously at her.
一
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Baymax scanned Hiro, "Are you satisfied with your care." The boy protested, he didn't want to leave Baymax behind, but it was the only way Hiro and the girl could return to Earth.
It was a few weeks later that Hiro received Baymax's armored fist back in the mail and found the Healthcare Program drive in its "palm." It must have been there the whole time Baymax was asking Hiro if he was satisfied with his care, but why would he ask that if it only had the Fight Program drive left? How had Callaghan's daughter survived in the portal's pocket universe and why did it waylay humans from teleporting? There were so many mysteries in the universe, but that left more for Hiro and his fellow science students to discover. Their world is chaotic, but maybe one day they would find the meaning in the heart of the universe and understand.
零
End Note: and that is the end. As a nursing student, one learns the universality of pain, and that prompted my story where pain idealistically lessens as the story proceeds. Whether or not the characters are sequenced accurately is up to debate, please comment and tell me what you think!
I also wanted to explore the idea that the portal led to a miraculous area of the Universe, after all, Callaghan's daughter survives for a time within it and Baymax is concerned about Hiro even after he has removed the healthcare programming to send back with Hiro. Running with these ideas, I supposed that the pocket universe could have a soul that could sustain life, stop living objects from passing through, and give Baymax the humanity a robot could never have.
Thank you for reading.