Chapter 1 - Alleyway Broker
"Uh... Baymax, where are we?"
"This area of San Fransokyo has been known for its high murder rate. I would advise leaving immediately."
"Yeah, well, if I could do that right now, don't you think I'd be long gone?"
Hiro hid behind Baymax nervously, flinching at every distant yell or insane laugh that echoed from the alleyways. How had they even gotten to such a place?
The day had started normally. Big Hero 6 had stopped a few robbers who had broken into a bank. No big deal. Then he had went out for lunch with the rest, stopping occasionally to pick up some recent news of crimes, murders, gangs, etc. The group had split up to do their usual things after all the anonymous hero business, the majority of them going to their respective labs to work on whatever projects they were in the middle of doing. Honey Lemon was trying to make a tye-dye explosive (which was awfully surprising since it wasn't hot pink), Wasabi was probably being coached by Gogo on "how to drive like a woman, godammit", and Fred... well, he was probably out... eating pizza or something. Hiro really didn't know.
After a few minor additions to Baymax's flight program, Hiro had decided to test it out. Getting all their gear, the duo had decided to go flying. It was a great success - the trail that Baymax left was in neon green. No air pollution was caused. So, double win.
Then it had all gone downhill. Sure, the green stuff was great and all (after several loops and doodling in the sky, Hiro got bored), but after a few minutes of flying around, a painfully familiar sound echoed out of Baymax's carbon fiber armor. Low battery.
Since they were a very dangerous distance from the ground, Hiro decided not to test Baymax's durability any more than he already had and told the health care companion to land ASAP. And of course they landed in the ghetto of San Fransokyo.
And so began the epic stealth trek.
They had landed quite noisily - it consisted of a lot of trash cans, discarded bottles and cats. After Hiro had finally gotten himself off of the robot's back, he double-checked Baymax's armor and looked around and quickly came to a conclusion. He was totally screwed. Forget lethal rocket-fist healthcare robot - Baymax wouldn't lay a hand on another seemingly innocent human. Every criminal they had put behind bars was by immobilizing - or it was just the others in the group that had stopped them. And in the ghetto? No microbots to blow into a multidimensional space vortex.
"Baymax, I need you to find a way out as soon as possible." Hiro whispered, paranoid about what could be lying in the shadows. San Fransokyo was a nice place - if you ignored the back alleyways. There, the most dangerous gangs, most notorious drug dealers, most sneaky thieves made their hideouts. Especially the bot fighters.
When Baymax began to lose his stable footing, Hiro panicked throwing his hands onto the inflatable marshmallow, the teen tried to guide the robot around all the sharp, pointy objects on the ground.
"Baymax, buddy, I need you to just scan a way out...!"
"Hey, kid. What'cha doin' out here?"
Hiro froze the instant his brain processed the new sounds. The voice was slurred - definitely drunk. Baymax wouldn't be any help, considering he was walking around like he was drunk as well. Stupid robots and stupid batteries. It was decided - if they made it out alive, Hiro was expanding his power supply.
A tall man in ripped clothing stumbled out of an alleyway to the right, an empty glass bottle in one hand, a pointy, sharp object in the other. As he walked closer, Hiro backed away - partially because of the knife, partially because of the fact that he completely reeked.
"A kid like you shouldn't be out heeere," the drunk man said, a dazed smile on his face. "You're such a cuuutie, what would bad people do to you?"
"Sorry sir, I don't think I want to find out," Hiro replied back smartly, backing away quickly, pushing Baymax along with him.
"Aww, c'mon," the man cooed, reaching out for the teen's arm. "I'm sure we can have some fun."
Thinking quickly, Hiro grabbed a frying pan off of the ground and smacked the man's face viciously. A loud clang! resonated through the entire area, but he didn't fall back. Instead, the man snarled, hurling the bottle into the wall, sending glass shards everywhere. Flinching back, the black-haired genius raised the makeshift weapon up with one hand, grabbing onto Baymax's hand with the other.
"I'm gonna kill you," the drunkard hissed, his breath seeping out through his teeth. As he raised the knife, Hiro made a personal goal never to get drunk and threw the pan at his attacker while sprinting away with Baymax in tow.
"Low... battery," the robot said, voice changing pitches randomly.
"I know! Just run!"
"Your adrenaline levels are... high - I am your personal - Fluffy... fluffy baby. Hairy, hairy baby!"
"Come back here, you stupid shit!" The man roared from behind them, clearly having some trouble leaping over all the debris in his state of mind.
"Not likely!" Hiro yelled back, making a quick turn into an alleyway. At least he didn't have to worry about getting scratches from all the glass laying around. His suit did help, though the helmet was really irritating. He could still hear the man behind him.
Continuing to run for several minutes, Hiro finally found an empty corner and took the chance to lean against the wall, catching his breath again. Baymax simply sat in the corner, looking pretty innocently stupid with all the armor he had on.
The child prodigy smiled at the healthcare companion. "Well, we did it. Now, let's find a way out-"
"Goin' somewhere?"
Hiro's breath caught in his throat as he heard several pairs of footsteps behind him. Slowly turning around, his eyes met the eyes of several dangerous-looking men. Several of them had knives while the others simply looked muscular. They all smiled.
One of the taller men stepped up, brandishing a mohawk and too many piercings for Hiro's liking. Aunt Cass would have screamed.
"You goin' to a convention, kid?" He snarled, a sarcastic and mocking tone underlying his question. His eyes shifted to Baymax, who was playing with a pot. "Is that yer toy over there?"
"I got lost," Hiro replied quietly, wishing that he hadn't decided to run into a corner to hide. Oh, all the terrible things that would happen to him...
Mohawk Man let out an ugly laugh, his shoulders shaking. His henchmen laughed with him, ranging from snorts to snickers. "Kid says he's lost," the man laughed. "Whatcha doin' in the Alleyways? Meetin' up with some dealer?"
"Actually, drugs do terrible things to your nervous system. I took AP courses in biology and health, so..." Then Hiro's brain caught up with his mouth and he quickly sank back even further.
One of the shorter, fatter gang members cracked his knuckles. "Stupid thing thinks he's smart. I wanna beat the crap outta him." The others laughed in agreement.
"Well, I'm gonna go first." Mohawk Man latched onto Hiro's arm, causing the young genius to freeze. He was so, so, so dead. He could see the glint of the guy's knife. These people were even worse than the sore losers back at the bot fighting alley.
Hiro shut his eyes just as Mohawk Man raised his weapon above his head. Baymax simply cocked his head in confusion.
All of a sudden, a glass bottle flew out of nowhere, hitting the gang leader dead center in the face with explosive force. He collapsed while shrieking, grabbing his face as the rest of his henchmen backed up, giving shouts of surprise and panic. Hiro took the chance to grab Baymax and back away.
Dropping down from a low window, a girl with a hoodie casually walked over, two sleek, futuristic pistols strapped to her belt. Her knee-high boots crunched over the glass and cans as she ignored the situation completely. When Hiro examined her closer, he could see that her hoodie was only slightly torn unlike all the other people that Hiro had encountered. It had a galaxy pattern, varying in purples and swirls of other colours. A bold, black V was in the center of the hoodie, along with a white pocket which was surprisingly clean. The hood covered her face just so her eyes were completely shadowed.
"Hello, boys," she chirped in a cheerful tone, one of the pistols - a purple and red one - in her hand, spinning it around her index finger. "You should know by now that picking on kids is very, very mean."
"V-V-Visor?" Fat Shorty stuttered, dropping his knife in shock as he backed up.
The girl have a mock bow, a loose black ponytail falling to the side from her hood. "At your service."
"B-but... you..."
"I told you I was moving up to the Catacombs for a few months, didn't I? Right. Well, I changed my mind." Pointing the gun at Fat Shorty, the girl smiled as the gang members screamed. "The Alleyways are mine. They've always been mine and will always be mine. So, if you don't want to end up in the gutters..." She cocked the gun at the gang and rested her finger on the trigger.
"...Get the fuck away."
The gang sprinted out, Fat Shorty carrying Mohawk Man over his shoulder. Then, all was silent except for Hiro's ragged breathing.
The girl straightened out, stretching like a cat. After giving a yawn, she turned to Hiro.
Nodding her head, the newcomer smiled. She placed the gun in a holster on her belt. "Hm. Hiro Hamada, child prodigy, graduated from high school at age 13, currently attends SFIT. The only child after the death of his brother. Likes bot fighting and gummy bears."
Hiro quickly tried to make a run for it, but the girl grabbed his arm. Man, what was with all the arm harassment he was receiving?
"Also very antisocial and awkward," she finished with a bright smile.
The black-haired teen fummed, letting go of Baymax. "Am not!"
The girl shrugged. "My information never betrays me. But, firstly, child, what are you doing in my Alleyways?"
"I, uh, landed here on my robot."
"Mm-hmm."
Something told Hiro that the girl already knew. She was insanely suspicious, especially with her abnormal reaction to Hiro's choice of clothing. The purple suit along with the giant robot didn't tip her off at all. Also - guns. So yeah.
"Who are you?" Hiro demanded, making sure he had a firm grip on Baymax before the robot ran off. "How do you know so much?"
The girl let go on the genius's arm, crossing her own. "I'm Visor," she introduced happily, bowing her head slightly. "Information broker, head of the Alleyways. Pleased to meet you."
"A-Alleyways?"
"Yes. The Alleyways. Lucky kids like you would never come to the ghetto." Gesturing around the trashed pathways with her right hand, Visor continued. "But the ghetto is unofficially split into three parts by us inhabitants. There's the Alleyways, which is the southern district, the Catacombs, which is the northern district, and the Graveyard, which is a tiny little place in the center. It's kinda like an abandoned mall, so yeah."
Hiro's jaw dropped. Big Hero 6 had been working so hard to stop criminals in the city, and now there was literally a whole society of them? And they had organized groups? Then what was the Visor girl doing?
"Again, I'm the head of the Alleyways." Visor spoke with pride, uncrossing her arms and sliding her handguns out of the holsters. "Unofficial? Yes." Then, spinning both of them professionally, she pointed them at street lights in the distance and pulled the trigger. Two tiny vials shaped like darts shot out and exploded against the metal structure. After the container completely broke, the metal started melting corrosively.
Hiro backed up quickly. "Was that acid?!"
Visor shrugged, dropping her hands to her sides. "Eh. The Alleyways have a bunch of random shit. I pick up some stuff here and there."
It was only then that Hiro examined the pistols more carefully. They were both very sleek and had different colour schemes. While one was red and purple, the other was blue and silver. The first one had the words "Looking Glass" engraved into the material and the other had "MHB". But the most surprising part was that inside the nozzles, the space inside seemed to swirl. At the nozzles, outside, there were metal circles that floated around, not touching the gun at all. Three of them circled around, each one getting smaller as they reached the opening.
Seeing Hiro's piqued interest, Visor smiled and lifted Looking Glass up. "Wormhole-condensing handguns," she announced. "Each can hold a huge amount of mass. The circles condense the portals and make sure that the energy released doesn't, you know, create a black hole and devour the universe or anything."
Hiro stayed with his mouth open before popping his helmet off and leaning in closely, eyes full of shock and wonder. But that was impossible! The last wormhole that had been artificially manufactured... well, it hadn't gone very well, with the whole Yokai situation. How had a homeless teenager managed to stabilize it?
"That's insane," Hiro breathed out, still in shock. "H-how'd you do it?"
"Oh, I stole some theories from a few laboratories. Then I asked a few of my friends. And I stole a bit more stuff. And after some forging, test runs, and stabilizing, it kinda just... happened." Visor spun the gun carelessly around her index finger, shrugging. "Not that big of a deal, really."
"You're a genius!" Hiro exclaimed, his hand still on Baymax's arm. The robot had started to go limp. "You could do so much with that kind of technology!"
"Oh, Hiro, child, you don't understand." Visor pulled out a clean cloth from her pocket and started polishing the red and purple gun - Looking Glass - and shook her head with a sigh. "I don't do things for humanity or whatever heroic stuff you do. Everything I do is to benefit myself. If I don't get anything out of a situation, I won't participate." The black-haired teen raised her head and Hiro could tell that her eyes were on him. "So don't try to convince me."
Hiro gulped as he felt waves of silent anger and killing intent roll off of Visor. The girl definitely wasn't like the usual ghetto brokers. No... there was something... off about her.
"Well, this does give me a chance to advertise myself," Visor chirped, voice changing tones instantly. She pulled out a small card from her pocket, placing it in Hiro's palm. The boy started at it before reading it aloud.
"'Head of the Alleyways - Visor. Information Broker. If a meeting is required, go to one of the two Visor Keeps. 313 Alleyway Road from 2 - 5 pm every Tuesday and Friday. 65 Jugora Street from 12 - 4 pm every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. Bring money or items for trade."
"Right," Visor nodded after Hiro finished. She finished polishing Looking Glass and kept it in her hand, leaning back along the brick wall. "I work at those times. Any other time I'm collecting information. But you're a smart kid. In fact, I'll give you my personal contact number."
Hiro just stared as the information broker pulled out a notepad and scribbled down some numbers with a pen. How much stuff did she keep in her pockets?
Visor ripped off the sheet of paper she wrote on and gave it to Hiro, who looked up with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you bother giving this to me?" He asked, curious as to know why Visor was being so pushy.
"Well, I won't spoil it all for you," Visor smiled, a cunning grin on her face. "But let's just say that there's a certain darkness coming. And sooner or later, you're going to need me to help you."
"Wait, what-"
"No spoilers!" The teen laughed as she bent her knees and jumped, causing her to somehow bounce onto the roof of the building. Hiro's eyes widened when he saw the electrical charge. It was like quantum levitation and rocket shoes at the same time. Just how much gear did Visor have?
It was only then that Hiro realized he still didn't have a way out of the Alleyways. Then, flipping over the paper that Visor had given him, the young genius gave a sigh of relief when he saw that she had drawn a quick map that allowed for quick escape out of the ghetto and into the city.
But seriously, what?