Disclaimer – This story, of course is property of Disney/Marvel, and I claim no ownership to the characters and story therein.
AN: This fanfic is a first… in how many years? Yes, I have written a fanfic! Two days off from work during the New Years was to blame - plus an itching need to fill in some of the blanks that bugged me at the end of this movie. No one else seemed to address it, therefore… *grin* (of course, there are some spots I decided to change frm the movie.)
I personally found this Disney movie appealing because I also loved the unique way the main characters were portrayed. I was greatly intrigued by the fact that Hiro and Tadashi were biracial. My kids are also biracial, myself being American and their Dad being native South Korean. I also had taken some classes in Health Informatics and ways to incorporate tech into the healthcare system, so the idea of Baymax sounds amazing! And as a student and instructor of Tae Kwon Do, I also know that martial arts are very good for the body and soul!
Chapter I
"First, Understand Yourself…."
The series of events that followed after ….. came as a blur. Even though the original plan was to make a break for it before the authorities arrived, Hiro's super hero team felt bad just leaving Abigail Callaghan for the paramedics to find. Hiro volunteered to stay behind with her since he had been the one to make the big save. What more could really happen? Famous last words.
Hiro's emotions were still in conflict with everything that had happened thereafter. Much to his surprise, the cops now were all over this incident like flies. Must have been something to do with a giant portal sucking up an entire building that got their attention. Now he sat by himself in the back of a cruiser, waiting for an officer to notify Aunt Cass about what had happened. Much to his delight. The officer originally wanted to take him back to the police department for questioning. The others in his group promised to keep in touch with their comm link to let him know what was going on, until he told them to stop before the cops noticed. Honey Lemon did reassure him that they will try to also call Aunt Cass and talk to her about this. At least this time there were no handcuffs.
After more time had passed, the officer finally decided to take Hiro back to the police station to wait for Aunt Cass to come in. He explained to the boy that since the traffic around Krei's building was so congested, she was advised to come to the station instead.
His aunt had come into the reception area, looking very much flustered. She at least restrained herself from making a big scene about what happened, which was expected. Hiro never really explained to her about how he and the others were moonlighting as superheroes. They were first taken to a security clearance area with a stern, older woman in a prim police uniform. The guard stepped out from behind the counter, but paused a moment before speaking.
"To ensure the safety of everyone, please remove your armor," She spoke to Hiro. Her voice was deep and rough, showing no emotion. But after giving him another good look, she decidedly added an additional clause. "And, anything else you may have on your person that would be considered threatening." She set a cardboard case box on the floor next to Hiro, indicating that his blue, battle damaged armor should go in there.
"I am going to get it back, right?" Hiro reluctantly placed his helmet in a square cardboard box. Part of him was thankful he also wore some tight-fitting compression clothing on underneath it all, otherwise this would have been even more awkward. He wanted to take it off back at the site, but the cops were there before he could stash it.
The gruff woman did not respond. She just looked at him in a manner that implied that no exceptions are allowed.
"Take it off," his aunt told him under her breath. "I will ask for it."
The young teen returned the guard's look with his own contemptuous gaze as he dropped his gloves in the box.
Once cleared, a more friendly looking officer guided them to a small sparsely decorated office with a desk, and a couple of chairs on each side. After they sat down, the officer set a form in front of Aunt Cass. "As his legal guardian, we need your permission before conducting this interview."
"Well, yes, of course..." She looked at the form, and Hiro could only imagine what could be going through her head. "What will the interview be about?"
"The events involving the use of Hiro's microbots during the most recent incident with Krei Tech," the officer responded. "Just to clarify ownership."
Oh man... Hiro had kind of forgotten about that report he tried to make a few days ago. He noticed Aunt Cass looking back at him with even more concern.
"Well... I'm sure he can explain," Aunt Cass signed and dated on the line.
"Do you also want to be present during the interview?" the young man picked up the form."Due to the nature of this interview, your presence is not required as long as we have your permission."
Hiro's mood sank a little more as he feared she would say yes. She looked at him, her dissaproval evident, and he sat up. "It's okay, Aunt Cass. I can handle this."
"I don't know," she was still considering the options.
Hiro continued to look at her, pleading silently.
"All right. But you are required to tell me afterwards what it was about, okay young man?" She always fell for that.
"Yes, ma'am," he held his solemn expression.
"Very well then. Come with me, Ma'am," the officer escorted her from the room.
The tired boy slouched down into the chair and rested his head on a propped hand. He hoped this would not take long. It had been a long day already. He stared at the wall in front of him, then glanced around at the corners and ceiling. There are always cameras in these rooms, and his curious mind wanted to know exactly where. But more importantly, just what where they going to interrogate him about in regards to the microbots? Clearly there was something more about Callaghan's motives if they had to bring him here too.
Hiro sighed angrily, dropping his head between his hands. It still made no sense how a man everyone held with such high regard could do such things! Hiro had trusted him with everything he worked so hard on to develop. How could this have gone so wrong?
The door had suddenly opened. The abrupt noise caused Hiro to sit more upright again. A spiffy officer in a dark suitcoat sat across from him with binder in hand. Well, almost spiffy. The man wore no tie now, and he had noticeable stubble on his face.
Hiro just looked at him with a look mixed with concern and curiosity.
"Don't worry, this is just a routine investigation in behalf of this.. microbot case." The man looked down at some noted in the folder he had, then closed it. "Hiro Hamada… yes, you do know what I am talking about?"
The boy nodded slowly. However, at this point he wondered what was safe for him to say. This may only be his second time with the police, but he heard enough about how these interviews can go downhill quickly.
Then a baggie appeared on the table with one of his inactivated microbots. "This was yours, yes?"
"Yes." Hiro answered softly. This much he really could not deny, since the earlier incident when he tried to report them stolen.
"Were… all of them yours?" The man leaned closer.
"Who are you?" Hiro tried to turn the tables a little.
"Just a detective on the case."
"Which case?" Hiro raised an eyebrow. That did make a big difference to him.
"The one involving these, and the mess they made of the Silicone Chip District, of course." The detective sounded matter of factly.
Hiro stared at him for a moment. Of course, this had to do with the destruction of Krei's building, but he knew the person behind this was originally presumed dead after the explosion of the convention center at SFIT. Interestingly enough, there was no questioning of this caliber about how the explosion occurred after that accident over a month ago.
"What was your purpose for these microbots when you created them?" The detective made an effort to steer this conversation back on track.
This was a question that at the moment seemed unfair. Very unfair. "How is that going to help prove I did not help Yokai?"
"From as far as I can tell, you have a history of illegal robot fights. So we need to find out what your intentions were." The man looked Hiro square in the eye. The way The boy kept avoiding his questions was starting to irritate the officer.
Hiro looked down from his pressuring gaze. Of all the questions, why this one. The invention that was his key to greatness, a door to his future at SFIT, was now his biggest let-down. His biggest regret was failing to consider safeguards to prevent his microbots from falling into the wrong hands. If there was one thing he admired about Baymax's programming, it was how well Tadashi configured the robot's artificial intelligence.
Hiro fidgeted with his hands, drawing in a breath before replying, "It was an invention that I wanted to impress Professor Callaghan with, so I could be accepted into his IT school. And… it worked. He loved my idea."
"Yes. Yes…" the detective made a few quick notes. "So are you saying you gave the invention to Professor Callaghan? Did they become the property of San Fransokyo's IT department?"
There was that exchange where Callaghan stopped him from selling them, but no, he was not certain now if he agreed to that. He only left them there because there were so many to move around. Regardless, the very thought of Callaghan stealing them and hurting others in the process, angered him. "So you are confirming that they were stolen.. from me? Yes!" Hiro looked at the detective, then added with more sincerity, "They were supposed to help a lot of people… too."
"Again, you had no malicious intent when you created these microbots." The question came up again.
"No. Never!" And however many times that man will ask, Hiro wasn't going to admit to him that he had not taken the time to include a fail-safe. Or more like, he ran out of time. That was something he decided could be added later, because really, it just didn't seem that important at the time.
"What I am trying to understand, Hiro, is how Professor Callaghan stole these, when it appeared that you had left them for him." The detective leveled with him.
"How he stole them is that he went and made more. Lots more! I didn't give him the plans. And then he started chasing after me with them, with the intent to kill!" Hiro stood up, looking at the door. "Do you have someone talking to Callaghan too here? You have to. 'Cause he just told me that he used my microbots to survive the fiery explosions in the convention hall! He took them to save ONLY himself!"
They looked eye to eye for a second in silence. The detective nodded once, looking down to his notes. "Sit down, please."
Hiro hoped he finally made himself clear. "Just make sure you ask him about that." He sat down, reluctantly. "Are you done yet?"
"No," the man checked another page. "Your balloon robot... Was he another one of your battle bots?"
Hiro sat back in the chair, and then shook his head. "No. No, not really. My brother created him," he hesitated for a beat before continuing more quietly, "Then he left him to me. But what does that have to do with anything?"
"This is based off your history we have on you, son, about how-"
"Look, I upgraded Baymax because I wanted him to be able to protect us from the microbots! I wasn't using him, he wanted to help me look for... find who took my invention. But, his primary directive was to provide healthcare. He could not, would not hurt any-" Hiro had to stop and retrace his thoughts mid-sentence. The teen finally came full circle about understanding the one thing that made him no different from Callaghan. Both of them took and used benign inventions with the intent to harm and destroy others.
"Did you have anything more to say?" He noticed Hiro's abrupt hesitation.
The boy's anger was slowly being replaced with defeat now. He crossed his arms and slumped back, then shook his head no. He said too much at this point.
"Hmm, well, I do want to ask one more thing. There are no more of these?" He held up the bag with the one microbot.
"I don't have any more. You'll have to ask Callaghan about what he had." He looked down, fidgeting again. All this talk about things that reminded him about the disaster really did not help.
The detective nodded. He finally appeared satisfied with all that needed to be addressed. "Thank you, son," he shuffled together the files and held them close to his chest. "I don't think you will have to worry about anything more from us then."
With not much else being said, he was walked back out to the front lobby office area where Hiro saw Aunt Cass waiting for him. She was also standing next to two cardboard boxes, stacked on top of each other. The bottom was notably larger. The other one was his blue armor.
"Good news, you are cleared to go home," she said, briefly hugging Hiro when he came within her reach. "But you still have a lot of explaining to do, Mister!"
Hiro buckled into the front seat of Aunt Cass's little pick-up truck. It was dark now, but fortunately not too late into the evening.
As expected, his aunt began talking to him about everything, mostly due to her nerves getting the better of her. "I don't know... I don't know. It's exciting you were there to help save someone who was lost inside a portal, and also bring an end to the masked menace who somehow got ahold of your microbots.. but it was still scary watching that on the news. That strange portal sucking apart the building... And then when I heard from the police that it was you, and Baymax- no, a different kind of Baymax... I couldn't believe it! But... you did good. I'm glad. Yeah... Just, you have to let me know next time, okay, sweetie?"
"I'm sorry," Hiro responded quietly, after she had paused for a few long seconds.
"Good. Wow... I am really grateful for your friends from the lab now. They called and came right over to the cafe after I got the news from the police. Superheroes... really? All this time? Well, they offered to help at the cafe so I didn't have to close it to come to the police station. Honey, bless her heart, she has lots of experience working at restaurants before, and Eh, Wyatt? Very good managerial skills. I've really been thinking a lot lately about getting more help just so I can have more time to spend with you... Especially now that, well, you know. I just feel so bad I haven't made time -"
He had to put a hand on her shoulder this time to get her to break. "It's okay, Aunt Cass, just... You don't have to change your schedules again. I'm doing better now, really..."
"Well, I don't know," she gave him another good look when they stopped at a red light. At the moment, he just looked flat out exhausted. And badly in need of a haircut. She felt like she deserved the Worse Parent of the Year Award right now. "You must be famished too. I'll whip up something quick for you and the others when we get home."
"S'okay, really," Hiro looked away out the side window. He didn't know why, but he felt like he needed to say it, even if she may not know what he was talking about. "Baymax is gone."
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry about that too," she looked over at him again with that look that she wished she could hug him right there. "Wait, what was in that other box?"
"Just what was left of his armor."
"I see… Yeah, he definitely was a good thing.. for you." And there was that knowing look with a smile, telling him she did know. Somehow. "I couldn't help it, I spied on you working with him down in the garage the other night. You were suddenly acting so differently, I had to know why!"
Hiro nodded, despite his surprise of her revelation, and sighed. But that memory didn't really help though. It just made him feel even more depressed. He felt like he completely failed his brother now by taking advantage of Baymax. Deep down he still wondered if Tadashi would have been okay in knowing that he programmed Baymax to also fight. He had no real intent to actually take the big guy to a bot fight, at least.
The truck abruptly stopped in the parking spot on the steep incline, followed with the loud clicks of the emergency brake being set. He was already out of the vehicle before she turned off the ignition.
"Alrighty then, once we get some food in you and a good nights rest, you'll be feeling much better by tomorrow!" Aunt Cass walked up to Hiro and gripped his shoulders in an embrace on their way inside.