Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!

Kent Allard was born to a wealthy heritage in the city of New York before his time in the War on Terrorism made him a sleeper agent for the United States government. His plane, a "lemon" as some would call it, had malfunctioned from a faulty engine and crash landed in the city of Shambalah, which was close to Tibet where he was found and taken under the tutelage of the Tulku. The Tulku was a holy man who had dabbled his uncontrollable lust into otherworldly powers to satisfy and bring balance to his personal needs and his people. When he had taken Allard in to his home; a magnificent temple with revolving floors and gadgetry, he had given him the chance to become a force for good, supplying him with a fortune in gold. When Allard asked why, the Tulku replied that he had heard tales of heroes from the like of Doctor Strange, Madame Webb and other mystical forces who used their powers for good. Some like Dormammu and the enchantress Amora used them for evil. Seeking to increase his wealth and spend some of his extra cash on charity, Allard underwent a seven-year period of training and conditioning under the Tulku. His new master threw everything at him: exorcising, grammar to expand his vocabulary, hypnosis, mind-reading, bending perceptions—all of which prove useful to his new identity…the Shadow.

Returning to New York with his extra fortune, he went to a dinner party at Rockefeller Center and was surprised to discover that the man he was sharing a table with was millionaire Lamont Cranston. Both men had the exact same handsome features, the same slick black hair, the same pale blue eyes, the same nose that was very round at the front, but not too round. They were even wearing the same tuxedo, a snow-white jacket with a coal black shirt, necktie, pants, socks, boots and a red rose lapel in the front pocket. After explaining their past lives, the two men came to a stipulation: that Allard use his identity to travel around the world and use his powers to purge his fellow men of their inner dark dimensions. Cranston, aware of his competitors that were going as far as to kill him out of pure jealousy, accepted the offer and received half of Allard's newfound wealth as payment for keeping his silence.

Now he was on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency in San Fransokyo, all the way on the other side of the country. He had been reminiscing on his career as the Shadow, which so far had lasted the same amount of time as his training, gathering enemies from the likes of Shiwan Khan and his granddaughter Batu, Grendel, Dr. Zorn, Monstradamus, Black Dragon, Crime Wizard, Stag, Voodoo Master, the Black Sparrow, the Clock, the Talon and his antithesis, the Light. The battles that he had faced against his enemies were long, hard and brutal as he had struggled to seek the darkness and purge them in the hope that they would redeem themselves into persons of good nature, in the process of attempting to purify the whole wide world.

Along with him was the beautiful Margo Lane, who was no more than thirty-one. Like him, he was traditionalist with curled golden hair, ocean blue eyes, cherry rouge lips, painted eyebrows, all of which made her appear straight out of 1939. It was in the presidential suite that she greeted him with a breakfast of bread and butter, while he noticed that there was nothing for her on her side of the table. No white plate, no toast and jam or anything less of a tulip glass of orange juice mixed with liquor.

"Morning!" she sang in a sweet princess-like voice.

Kent, feeling stunned by her surprise entrance, looked over his right shoulder at her standing by the doorway.

"M-morning," he stuttered, trying not give too much of himself away.

Margo seemed to know that Kent was the Shadow, but she kept the information hidden from him out of fear that it would cost their relationship. The very name of the Shadow seemed to have stuck with him as much as his own shadow, especially when he saw Margo wearing the darkest shade of aviator sunglasses covering her eyes.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked her.

"I am not hungry," she replied.

"Are you excited for this job?"

"Yes."

She nodded, smiling a genuine grin and her hands touched each other. Another reason for the pair to be in San Fransokyo was that Margo had applied for a job at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology as a hall and field monitor, teacher of science, law and gadgetry as well as substitute teacher for Professor Robert Callaghan, who was currently serving death row on Alcatraz Island for a serious offence. To prepare, she brought her father's old school books with her, as traditionalists were not too keen on using the internet given its unbalanced sense of reliability. A math book, a science book and a book on court practices were all she needed. She was about to head out of the door when Kent said again.

"Are you on something?"

"Yes," Margo began to show her sassier side. "Coca-Cola and lemonade. I'll see you later."

And with that, she was out the door before Kent could even think about kissing her goodbye.

With a black beret, a matching dress imported from France that went up to her neckline and pitch black high-heel boots, Margo hastily made her way to SFIT. She crossed the street where a bus was waiting and onto the other side towards the front office. San Fransokyo in her honest opinion seemed new and exciting; away from the jungle of enormous art deco concrete that she had seen far too much of back home in New York. After signing in at the front desk and clocking in, she made her way around the campus, studying every detail and building that passed her as her feet, walking as though they had been activated by remote-control, carried her body past cliques and loners with one reason to be so. Some of the students were even physically disabled, with crotches, wheelchairs and harness that allowed some of the more wealthier victims to walk again.

One detail that intrigued her was the three-story pagoda roofed building with the words "Tadashi Hamada Memorial Hall" written in a Gill Sans font above the entrance. Margo couldn't have cared less, she tried not to look like a slut with the way her hips moved back and forth, catching the unneeded attention of several men…and closeted lesbians.

When she made her way to the assigned classroom, Classroom 3A, a small brown room with four rows of seats and connecting tables ascending down to the chalkboard, her first thoughts were:

There's absolutely no one here.

This gave her the opportunity to remove her silky, yet hot black top, revealing a practical cotton white shirt with long sleeves and five pearl buttons down the middle. Thinking she had extra time before her class began, Margo placed her handbag of personals in the office, hung her top and beret on the wooden coatrack by the door and went outside.

At the outdoor track, which was about 80 feet long in width and had two rows of seats on either side going up by twelve stories. Observing the details of the structure, she found a handful of students in practice, three boys did somersaults, some girls practiced cheers and flips, a male/female duo ran along the track and right by the bench closest to the left side of the track was a small fifteen-year-old with black wavy hair trying the laces on his left shoe with both hands. She was close to the same bench when the triptych of boys, attracted by the bright glow of her hair, came up behind her.

"Yo, didn't know we had a traditionalist for a teacher."

"How about you show us some moves," one with dirty blonde hair asked teasingly.

"Sorry, boys," Margo replied with a professional tone. "But I'm taken."

Understanding, the three went back to gymnastics. Over by the bench on the opposite side, she could hear the song "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama blasting from a boombox radio, belonging to a girl with pink glasses and 5'5 long blond hair. Ignoring the girl, she went over to the boy who had been tying his shoe laces. He was also dressed in a dark baseball cap, a white t-shirt with no number or insignia, grey shorts and a four-foot-long bat was sitting on its front on his right-hand side. Margo approached the child and asked.

"May I help you?"

"No need," the young man was still focused on his shoe laces.

Then he looked up at Margo, taking the details of her beauty with an interesting flair before he studied her entire body (private areas notwithstanding), looking up and down before composing himself.

"Sorry, I have just realized that you were too old for me."

Margo chuckled.

"Well, in spite of your brash approach," she offered her right hand to him. "I would like to introduce myself as Margo Lane, your new teacher."

"Hiro Hamada."

Hearing the surname rung a tiny bell in Margo's memory, a bell that was without a bead line, making it useless. But she pushed the thought aside and encouraged a smile.

"Okay, Hiro. What do you intend to learn here?"

"Robotics, science and…"

He grabbed the base of the bat with both hands.

"Sports?"

"Like baseball?"

"Yeah, my brother was a fan of the Ninjas."

Before Margo could ask about this mysterious brother, Hiro was off and about, running to the center of the field. Knowing that she had better matters at hand then observing her students, Margo decided for the best to have herself properly introduced in her first class of the day.

When she got back to the classroom, she opened the door and nearly jumped at the sight of a woman holding a file folder under her right arm who spoke sternly and clearly like a highly educated individual.

"Miss Lane, I see you have taken the time to slack off on your first day on the job."

The woman in question had brown hair with brown eyes, brown-red lips and corresponding eyebrows with chocolate milk skin. She was thin, but not too thin and if Whitney Houston had taken on a career of teaching instead of singing, this would be her. She also wore a black long-sleeve shirt that contrasted with Margo's white with a grey skirt held by a darker grey belt with a golden strap and sensible black slippers covering her toes. She was also decked out with a golden wrist watch on her left arm, round gold earrings on both ears and wore a 24-karat gold necklace that had the shape of an eagle. Her name? Professor Granville.

Professor Granville came from a long line of teachers, her mother was a teacher, her grandmother was a teacher, her great-grandmother was a teacher (She in fact was the first African-American woman to teach a diverse class in the days before California was completely controlled by Emperor Hirohito after the war). Her grandmother, having been on good terms with the hidden figures who helped to make the Space Race possible for the Americans with the help of her fellow Japanese technicians, saw to it that her lineage would help change the world for the better. Her mother in fact, taught her everything she needed to know about science until the day she died. This, along with her agenda to prevent her fellow colored persons from being viewed as hipsters who spoke nothing but jive, hardened her heart and she was determined to educate the students of her alma mater (SFIT, of course) through strict discipline and commitment as her father of all people once advised her: "Remember…discipline, always discipline."

"I am sorry," Margo tried to get into her professional state. "But I was checking to make sure that the students were in perfect order on the playing field. No bullying, no horseplaying and nothing short of bringing a good judgement of character onto them."

Margo hoped that Granville would have least mustered a smile from her reply, but the pragmatic teacher, her eyes narrowed by two inches, kept her smile completely upside down.

"As your colleague, you will assist me when I need you the most and you will also serve as a substitute teacher should I be unavailable."

And she left to jot down Margo's tardiness with a black ball-point pen of death. The blonde woman, looking back at her, sighed in despair. This was going to be a rough job.


Hiro Hamada lived on the corner of Haight St and Masonic Avenue with his doting aunt and robot and their pet calico, Mochi.

Hiro used to live with his parents Tomeo, Maemi and seven years older brother Tadashi before their parents were fatally wounded in a truck collision caused by Pinkie the Stabber in the aftermath of an anniversary dinner and even though they had Tomeo's sister Cass to keep them company, Hiro felt empty inside, for his brother had foolishly thrown his life away to save his father-figure of a teacher, Professor Robert Callaghan, from a holocaust on the SFIT exhibition hall that Callaghan himself created using a bomb and a mixture of violent chemicals.

Tadashi's genetic coding, however, would live on in the creation of Baymax, a plushy healthcare robot who helped Hiro, and three visitors from another world, Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy Goof, discover that the fire Callaghan had created was nothing short of a ruse to steal Hiro's precious interchangeable microbots. Now under the alias of Lord Deathstrike (or Yokai as it was known to Hiro's friends who joined the fight against him), Callaghan had joined forces with the mobster Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice and the criminal Sandman to steal the many parts that were necessary to create a portal in an act of revenge against trillionaire entrepreneur Alistair Krei for the death of his daughter in a scientific malfunction.

The friends of Hiro, consisting of Aiko "Honey Lemon" Miyazaki, Leiko "Go-Go Tomago" Tanaka, Damion "Wasabi" no-Ginger and Fred Lee, formed a superhero team created especially for the mission called Big Hero 6. With the help of Spider-Man and his amazing friends from S.H.I.E.L.D., they were able to solve the riddle behind Yokai's identity and defeat him, but were too late to prevent him from killing Krei and several of his employees in a climatic showdown at a new building he had recently opened.

As of the first anniversary of the day they became that superhero team, Hiro was in his room, waking up to the dawn of a second coming. The second coming as in a second day. He first placed his eyes on the brown framed portrait of Tadashi wearing a yellow shirt against a background of pink cherry blossoms. When he saw Tadashi smiling like that, he got the feeling that everything was all right in the world. The amazing feeling that he was whole and he had everything he had ever wanted in his whole life. It lasted for about five seconds before he remembered what happened and his emotions turned to solemn.

"Well onii-chan, a new day for a second year."

With careful steps, he walked to the bathroom, took a bath, got his teeth brushed, got his hair combed, got changed and everything was settled into his backpack before forgetting two of his good luck charms: his blue hoodie and Tadashi's San Fransokyo Ninjas baseball cap, which he always wore outside the campus.

"Hiro! Your friends are waiting!"

The sweet, sweet voice of his aunt brought another smile to his face as he made his way down the wooden staircase of photographs of himself and his extended family from Okinawa, the genesis of the Hamada and Takachiho families. He found Honey, Go-Go, Wasabi and Fred waiting for him at a round wooden table with four seats. It was a perfect image of Hiro's very first day at SFIT just one year ago.

On the table were four plates of pancakes stacked to the equal number of four. Hiro came behind Honey and Wasabi, who were sitting before Fred and Go-Go.

"Hey, Hiro!" Wasabi was the first to call out. "Come on! Let's not be late."

As they made their way to the door, his chestnut-haired aunt came from behind the young prodigy, holding in both hands a brown paper bag that seemed to be the average size of one's stomach from the outside.

"I made you a meatloaf sandwich," Cass told him, holding out the bag.

As soon as Hiro's right hand took it, his aunt pulled him into a tight hug.

"Tadashi would so proud of you on your second year," she whispered into his right ear.

Hiro couldn't care less of how insensitive it would sound by anyone else, he just squeezed his eyes shut and after a quartet of seconds passed, the two relatives released each other and Hiro turned counterclockwise to the family sitting at the round table by the door on the right: Detective Richard "Dick" Tracy, his wife Tess and their adoptive ginger-haired son, Junior.

"Good luck, out there!" Tracy called after him.

Hiro's right hand waved goodbye before they went off to catch the trolley. Dick turned back to Tess, her stomach having grown a large bump that seemed to be about thirty inches wide: she was six months pregnant. Junior was hoping for a baby brother, but it was believed by various reports from the doctors that it would be a girl. A girl that would bring equality into the Tracy household. Tracy on the other hand, had little work to do, thanks to the additional help of Big Hero 6 the previous year and he even invited them to Chief Brandon's retirement party a mere three months after the Yokai incident. Tess did not stop looking at the five young adults out of curiosity until the trolley was out of sight.

The party of five arrived at the front entrance of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology thirty-eight minutes later. The thirty to forty-foot-tall white towers against the pagoda roofs met Hiro with a sight he had grown accustomed to since last August. The paintwork seemed to have been replenished with new coats of white to prevent the old color from turning into the color of cavities. A small group of students passed the team, treating them like normal folk instead of the heroes they were supposed to be, since they couldn't bother to tell anyone about it in order for Hiro and his comraderies to be treated like normal persons of the typical on-going society. Hiro had been staring up at the towers for about a minute when an impatient Honey Lemon placed her left hand on his right shoulder.

"Are you ready for the second day of the second year?"

Hiro looked up at Tadashi's girlfriend, his brown eyes taking in the green concealed by the lenses of her pink primed glasses. He also took a careful notice of the handbag she had bought last year after sacrificing her old one in the battle over the Krei Tech building.

"Indeed I am!" he exclaimed in a chipper mood. "I've been through last year, how hard can a sophomore be?"

"You're only fifteen years old," Go-Go seemed to add unemphatically.

"Everyone is wanting to get close to you because your brother is legend," added Fred with quick syllables.

"Not to mention the new dean is a stuck-up bitch," Wasabi muttered quietly. "And she's an Afro."

And before Hiro could make his own reply on the matter, Honey pushed him all the way to the front office and the other three followed.

Diet Smith and Vitamin Flintheart, two of the school's well-meaning teachers, were glad to see Hiro again and Vitamin even tipped his black fedora to Honey Lemon as she ushered Fred, Go-Go and Wasabi to follow her. Other teachers and students greeted them back as well in a mixed manner of positive and pejorative, if not begrudgingly.

Hiro knew well about the entire layout of the campus. After taking his photographed portrait for the sophomore identification card (an improvement over his freshman's card since it featured his head from the nose up, with a left eye shut from a reactional reflex of the photographer's flash), he got the blue string to hold it around his neck from a bin and set off for a second retour of the campus. There was the VR lab, where people with headsets could study into the research of bringing the technology beyond it's full potential. The Quad where students could just laze around in the sun or even throw disks of the electronic kind, which was also a favorite past time of Go-Go in order to get the aims on her disks straight. It could also be used to study bio-genic life, as one would place an x-ray screen against a tree and study it's inner workings. Then there was the cafeteria (or "Fooding Zone" as Fred preferred to call it) where if one were to get at least one bite from a hot dog with ketchup, mustard and relish, they would have to get it from a food bot with a red, portly body with thin grey arms, pincers for hands and could travel by a black zip line or would float. It was also occupied with a plethora of round white and orange vacuum robots that could clean a mess in no more than four seconds flat. While it seemed like Fred's favorite, it was the streamline moderne Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab that was the favorite of Hiro where his life at SFIT really began.

Inside the silver-grey hallway, Hiro came across the third door on his left. On it was the turquoise sign bearing the name "Tadashi Hamada" on the top of the left-hand side door. Hiro, knowing that Baymax would be waiting for him inside since yesterday, took a long look at that name and wondered why it had not been removed since he first settled here. Perhaps the school wanted to immortalize Tadashi in every way possible, perhaps it would have been a disgrace to remove that name, or perhaps they were just complacent to leave it where it was, knowing that Hiro was the current occupant of that lab.

As Hiro drew a sharp breath of air, Wasabi gave his right shoulder a comforting left hand.

"We miss Tadashi too, you know."

Hiro held back the negative emotions and turned to the quartet.

"I'll catch up with you guys later, I have to check on Baymax."

The others left to their respective classes: quantum physics for Honey and Go-Go, biology for Wasabi and history for Fred. Hiro then seized the opportunity and gathered the strength to have his right hand grip the door.

And no sooner had he pulled the door open…when who should appear, but Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy Goof!

"SURPRISE!" the three chorused alongside Baymax.

Hiro could see no party favors, but seeing the three who helped him with the case last year nearly brought tears into his eyes.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy! When did you get here?"

"Last night," Sora smiled, crossing his arms and resting his back against Baymax's squishy exterior. "I mean it has been a year, hasn't it?"

"It has…" Hiro deadpanned, astounded by the length of time that had passed.

"So we thought we could give you an anniversary party!" shouted Goofy.

"You mean an impromptu surprise party," Donald reminded with a wagging right index finger. "We didn't even bring the favors."

Hiro shook his head, setting down his backpack as he walked closer.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're here for some strange reason."

"They thought they could need your help again," was the cute voice of Baymax that said. "Helping others is a common specialty that Sora and I share."

Sora gave Baymax an adorable grin and kneeled down to Hiro's eye level.

"So how have you been holding up this past year?"

Hiro sighed at the beginning.

"Well, I still miss Tadashi, Aunt Cass is serving more food than ever. The guys are starting to love me more and I am teaching Baymax other things besides healthcare."

"He has taught me how to cook and clean as well as teaching younger children the art of karate," Baymax confessed.

"Right," Sora's grin went silly. "Anything school related?"

Hiro removed Tadashi's cap from his head onto the lantern of a shrine and turned his focus back to Sora.

"Now that you mention it, I am trying to think about a decent project for school. One is expanding my microbots for superhero duties, the other is building another Baymax. So that way, they'll be two."

"Two?"

Saying this caused Sora's eyebrows to rise.

"A test model of sorts," Hiro explained. "One can go perform practical services at the general hospital and the other can stay with me to do superhero work…not that there have been too many superpowered criminals recently. It will be a perfect replica…unless, of course, I would have to encode my DNA onto a microchip the same way Tadashi did or I could just copy his."

And before Hiro could start work on the perfect replica, Sora looked over his right shoulder at the woman belonging to the voice of…

"Mr. Hamada! If you want to live up to your brother's legacy, you should start by getting to your classes on time."

Hiro's head, followed by the rest of his body, turned clockwise at the woman. It was Professor Granville, who had ascended to the position of dean about a month ago after the previous applicant had…well, let's just say, died of a heart attack. She stood tall and firm, with her hands clasped behind her back in the faultless stance of a military general. Her face was stern and it was a face that Hiro had known long before she even became a dean in the first place. Even Tadashi knew her when she was still a teacher, and she had high hopes for the co-employee that everyone dreamed of being before his cold-dead carcass was deep fried in a hot expo hall on flambé.

Keeping a professional state of his own, Hiro grabbed his backpack and followed Professor Granville out the door, waving a quick goodbye to Sora, Baymax, Goofy and Donald with his right hand.

"I couldn't agree more. Punctuality is very important."

Outside in the hallway, where no one else knew that they were there, Professor Granville, noticing that Hiro was still beside her for a split second, leaned her head ten inches away from colliding with his and spoke with the hidden emphasis of a harbinger of doom.

"Tick-tock, Mr. Hamada. You do not want to keep your thermodynamics teacher waiting. I hear she's tough, but fair."

Turning counterclockwise with her back to him, Professor Granville added a mutter.

"And a little too sweet for my taste."

Professor Granville walked five steps in the direction of the elevator before Hiro turned counterclockwise in the opposite direction and shot off like a jackrabbit to the thermodynamics class. He knew where it was. Classroom 3A was hidden by a brown door with a silver handle to push it and a light-lemon frame of glass. Hiro was nearly out of breath before he found his seat on the fourth row and saw his teacher: a younger looking woman with blonde hair, a white top and a jet black dress. Turning clockwise to face the new entry, Hiro recognized it as none other than the woman he met before on the playing field.

"Oh! Hello, Mr. Hamada. I'm sure you remember me from yesterday. I'm Margo Lane, the new teacher of law and thermodynamics…among other positions."

Her voice was sweet, placing her right hand on her heart as she introduced herself. Hiro would have expected someone of a greater threat, but she was just the polar opposite that he had in mind.

"Let's begin with Chapter 1."

Miss Lane had snapped Hiro out of his thoughts and the rest of the day went by, making Hiro feel like a microscopic being against the taller students and employees who worked there. He was in a happy, but confused mood when he told Sora and Baymax about it by sundown.

It was 7:00 at night when Fred invited Go-Go, Wasabi and Honey to his manor on 1000 California Street. With his parents away vacationing or on business trips for the umpteenth time, Fred had the house to himself along with his butler Heathcliff. Right now, he was crouched on his red plastic table held by a round grey crystal in his Fredzilla costume when Wasabi let his voice out.

"I didn't know a whole year had passed since we had done the whole Big Hero 6 thing."

"I know I did!" shouted Fred, before looking left and right. "Where's Hiro?"

"He had to do after-school business," Go-Go informed him, lounging from the white sofa in an almost emotionless position.

"But he's going to miss our anniversary!" Fred declared. "We have to do our night patrol! Has he forgotten already how cool it is being a superhero? That one year ago we sent a revenge-crazed villain and his cohorts up the river and had victory pancakes in the morning? That was awesome!"

"Awesome?" Wasabi's face was plastered with exasperation. "I remember it being scary! I nearly died from getting shot at."

"You didn't seem scared," Fred placed his hips to his fists.

"That's because I was pumped full of adrenaline," Wasabi explained under fearful pretenses. "Now I back to being a pantophobe with fears like heights, classes, strange things, even betrayal."

"And we almost let Hiro kill Callaghan and his cohorts," Honey added, disturbed by the memory. "A genius like him should have known that you have to have respect for human life, no matter how much they deserve it."

"So, he learned his lesson," Fred replied with no fear of the near-execution attempt. "But what if there is a super-villain out there—"

"FRED!" Go-Go stood up from in-between her friends sitting on the sofa to catch his attention. "Face facts! Ever since we locked up Big Boy, all the criminals on both sides of San Fransokyian society have been incarcerated. And since we're not living in one of your shitty comic books, there is hardly any supervillain that we have to deal with. Don't you understand that we live in the real world where supervillains do not exist?"

Fred was shocked.

"That is not true! There's Doctor Doom! And Loki…and Magneto…with a few rogue mutants to name a few."

But that was that, Honey, Go-Go and Wasabi did no more and left the room. Fred could only think about sleeping in his costume to get even with his slowly defecting teammates.


Yama, true to his name, was as strong as a mountain and he weighed about 317 pounds. He was the owner of a high complex in the downtown area on 1020 Pine Street, a little not-too-far from Ross Alley where he had his first defeat at the hands of Hiro Hamada just one year ago. Yama, mourning for the loss of Little Yama, could never forgive Hiro even after he ended up in an overnight prison stay along with his associates, the Fujitas, Mordecai, Yin, Diego, Larceny Lu, Big Frost and Haf-and-Haf. He hoped and prayed that the day would arrive, when Hiro Hamada would come back into his life and he would finally give the perceived hustler that beating he so rightfully deserved.

His domain was the interior of a typical Japanese home from ancient times, with authentic carpentry and a pair of small trees to name a few details. It also had a 30-inch television screen where could discuss business meetings with his own associates through an alternate means. A king on his throne without a seat, it was all he had to meditate…if it had not been for the triple knock of one of his associates.

"Come in."

Yama opened his eyes and the door slid all the way to reveal Dubbs, a corrupt traditionalist politician who wore a Prussian blue bowler with a yellow brim, a Dalmatian spotted necktie, a grass green polo shirt and a pink checkerboarded suit made to match his closeted status. Last but not least, he had a pretty gruff face. He was a founding member of the Apparatus who was close to Big Boy, but not that close, for he had some form of involvement in the events circulating around the Emil Trueheart case that sent Dick Tracy into his crime-fighting career. Specifically, he had helped to secure Big Boy's release from prison when his health began to decay and even if he seemed like a pretty rotten guy, he would have never stooped down to Big Boy's level…if not Yama's, who hired the politician to act as a spy on his traditionalist enemies.

Dubbs came into the room carrying a white bundle the size of a foot-long sub sandwich under his right arm, handing it to Yama.

"Your money, Yama-san."

Yama removed the wrapping, revealing a flattened bundle of $4,000 dollars in total. Fanning it after rubbing his fingers over the portrait for any signs of a defection, he spoke to Dubbs.

"Where did you get this?"

"Texie Garcia's safe. Right from under her nose."

"Big Boy's moll?"

"Yeah, she just reopened the Club Ritz. Got it as a reward from all that clean-up duty."

"Does she know for sure? Let alone suspect your motives?"

"Not at all…unless she decides to blackmail me like she did the last time over a matter of $20,000. I had to fake my own death with blank ammunition when the cops burst in."

"Just a reminder," Yama scratched his crown with his right hand. "How long have you been in my employ now?"

"Three months. Compared to last year, Big Boy wasn't even willing to have me or any of his lawyers other than Spaldoni to join his cause. Had he succeeded, he would have replaced all the honest politicians with crooked ones like us."

"And when I found you, you said you would be willing to keep an eye on any traditionalists that I myself am interested in."

"I did. And I did so by keeping a close eye on Texie, should she and Ribs try to take back Big Boy's assets, including the club."

"Then, if I were you, I'd go to her. That way, it will be less conspicuous."

"Okay, whatever you say."

That was all Dubbs had said before he tipped his bowler and closed the door on his way out. As the sounds of his footsteps died away into the corridor, Yama's iPhone began to buzz. Picking it up and holding it into his right ear, he seemed to have recognized the voice.

"Obake."

Yama's tone turned to worry. This bastard was a technological madman. But he nodded at the man's reply with good intentions.

"Whatever you need, I will get it for you."

The TV screen behind him flickered, briefly showing the television host, Mr. Sparkles in a gooey purple suit to go with his child-like smile. Then the screen created an orange red background, materializing the rotating computer-generated model of an iceberg blue crystal that was of a pyramid shape with a smaller ledge on the left and a garbled chunk on the right. Yama acknowledged the item in question and spoke into the phone.

"Where may I find this?"

The screen flashed to a sepia-toned photograph of the SFIT entrance in broad daylight. Yama nodded to his mysterious benefactor.

"It shall be done."

And so it would…but he reckoned without the previous antics of Big Hero 6 that were committed the pervious year.

On the third day of his sophomore year, Hiro met Sora and his compadres in the lab to go over the plans for a new Baymax. It was 5-3 in favor of expanding the microbots as well.

"This is all fine and dandy," Sora told him. "Although, I think a design flaw would be good in order to tell us the difference between the two Baymaxes."

"I'm not even sure if building another Baymax is fine," Donald reprimanded. "It'll just be confusing."

"Already confusing for me seeing two of 'em," Goofy added. "So I say we stick to the microbots."

But without another word from Hiro, he decided to balance both of his projects…by doing both. He began on the round feet of Baymax #2 and drew redesigns on the microbots during class to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands for the second time. On the morning of the fourth day, he was so tired that Cass, Mochi and Junior Tracy had to wake him up from burying his head into one of the café tables.

"Are you sure you're not studying too hard, Hiro?" Junior asked.

"I'm fine, I just have too many projects to take care of."

Junior saw this as another opportunity to get closer to Hiro's genius intellect. He hoped that Hiro could him improve his own grades at the local school.

"Oh, do you think I should help you with your projects? I could be like a younger brother to you."

Hiro didn't want a younger replacement of Tadashi just about yet.

"I'd love to," he said, standing up. "But I'm sure I can handle this myself and you've got your own baby brother or sister to look after."

Then he patted Junior's head with his right hand, Aunt Cass got him a small cup of coffee and he sent him to school. And when Hiro was out of sight, Cass went back into the kitchen to wash the dishes. Junior left the café as well.

Hiro began working on the right hand of Baymax #2 by joining two wires together in order to make it function, as he learned from the age of seven back in middle school. Then Sora and Baymax #1 helped him to fill an entire can of microbots, adding up to the previous thousand that Hiro had used during superhero missions.

When the head of Baymax #2 was finished around 8:00 pm, Hiro admired the endoskeleton with tired, but grateful thoughts. Donald, Goofy and Sora gave him a small applause. Baymax could only comment.

"The endoskeleton is complete."

Finally. Hiro could relax after giving it a test run, but all he needed to make the skeleton work was a chip. Copying Tadashi's would seem like the obvious route, but he was certain to add his own DNA to the chip he was preparing in order to distance #2 from #1.

"All we have to do is dress Baymax #2 and boom!"

"Actually," Baymax interrupted. "The diagnostics protocol will take seven to ten days."

"Seven to ten days?"

Hiro was not up for suffering another week of construction in favor of other subjects he could work on.

"Tadashi always ran an extensive diagnostics protocol," Baymax tried to explain. "The encoding of his DNA onto the healthcare chip would take about another day to scan, if not longer in order to achieve perfection."

"That does sound like Tadashi all right," Hiro sighed. "But I guess you do have a point. We'll start on the chip tomorrow and maybe I could find a quicker way of running the diagnostics protocol."

"Sure," Sora's eyes began to droop. "And while we're at your place, I can get your aunt to make me a cup of hot chocolate."

"It's August," Hiro told him. "Why would you need hot chocolate for?"

"Just a random thought," Sora admitted. "Unless she sells sea-salt ice cream, that would make even more sense."

But no sooner were they out of the robotics lab when Professor Granville and Miss Lane were standing beside the right-side door at the very edge of the entrance. They were on their way out from closing up the school.

"Mr. Hamada?"

Hiro's head looked over his left shoulder, conforming his fears to see an unimpressed Professor Granville holding a white folder in her left hand and a confused Miss Lane carrying the handbag on her right arm.

"What are you doing here at this hour with these people?"

But as you know, Hiro was so smart and so talkative, he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.

"My dear professor," the boy genius said smoothly. "I had been working so hard on a certain project that I needed to get some fresh air. But now, I am taking Baymax home to my garage. I'll fix him there and I'll bring him back to the lab first thing in the morning."

But the fib didn't fool the strong-minded and independent woman of African origin. She turned on her heels and opened the door back into the building.

"Follow me."

Margo did not hear a command from her and foolishly chose to stay behind.

"You too, Miss Lane," came the command at last.

Hiro was now torn between following the dean and going back home, but that was when Sora said.

"Why don't you go on and talk with her as quickly as you can? I'll take Baymax home for you."

Nodding, Hiro walked back into the lab, confident that Sora could handle Baymax without even so much as having to think about a second glance.


Professor Granville's office was brown, reminiscent of the Kiri-no-Ma from the Tokyo Imperial Palace with a sleek wooden floor that was so shiny, she could see her reflection in it without the need of a mirror. Behind her on the right-hand side, was a landscape painting of two trees varying in height from the Asuka period. Next to it was a bookshelf of two units and six shelves from top to bottom. The bookshelf also contained a small collection of table lamps, vases and small lanterns. In between the two units on the wall was an oil painting depicting a branch of purple leaves and underneath it was a potted bamboo plant on the bottom. Above her was a pentagon shaped lantern with four black stripes on each side. On the floor was a royal red carpet by Trent Austin Design that she bought online from Wayfair. On the opposite end of the room, being the entryway of the office, were a pair of white sofas on each side, with table lamps and a desk to provide light for visitors reading magazines while the wall above the table lamps held a series of ten sizable portraits, all of them being Professor Granville's predecessors. Her desk with a pair of thick upside-down triangles for support was far from interesting. Her right-hand side offered a dark turquoise dish while the left-hand side offered an iceberg blue crystal that most occupants referred to as a paperweight. Behind her was a square window festooned by a frame of balsa wood, where she could watch her students carefully with a close eye.

As she sat on her snow-white swivel chair (Margo preferred to stand), Professor Granville presented Hiro, who was sitting in the brown wooden chair, with a lipstick red binder that spelled bad news. Expulsion perhaps? Hiro had to wait to find the answer.

"When we first met, I was worried that you would become distracted by your own agenda….or worse."

In it was a file form from the San Fransokyo Police Department with Dick Tracy's signature on the bottom. Hiro could remember Pat Patton (who was now Chief of Police) and Sam Catchem cracking about his wrists slipping out of his handcuffs when Tracy had "unfairly" arrested him and Tadashi last year. Hiro looked up to Professor Granville, the two of them making close eye contact.

"You know about the bot fights?"

"But I have to admit," Professor Granville's tone turned to positive. "You have shown discipline. You are doing exceptionally well in your classes and should be very proud of yourself."

Hiro's thoughts were turning to Baymax and he began to express worry. He quickly designed a speedy-getaway in his mind.

"Please!" he protested, trying to show adulation. "Stop giving me compliments! I don't want my head to explode you know."

"Then all I have to say is…" Professor Granville mustered a smile that was as big as Miss Lane's. "Keep up the good work."

"I will!" Hiro gave a faux yawn, covering his mouth with his right hand while the left arm was stretched. "I'd better hurry on home. I do need my beauty sleep for tomorrow. Did I say beauty sleep? I meant 'guy rest'."

Walking seven steps backwards, Hiro turned counterclockwise and opened the door. As soon as he left, Margo turned her head to face her employer.

"I was going to say 'let him be fair' in case you were going to punish him."

Professor Granville's smile drooped and her eyes looked up at Margo.

"You have been in the courtroom too long, Miss Lane. Fair is for sports."

And with that, the two women left the office and walked the rest of the way home.

When Hiro had reached the front gate, the two women had just left the lab and his Samsung Galaxy began to buzz from his hoodie pocket. Holding it in his left hand, he held it to his left ear and asked.

"Yes?"

"Hiro, I need your help!"

"Sora? You sound like you just watched a splatter movie, what's wrong?"

"It's Baymax. I think he's on low battery! You'd better come quick!"

Hiro's feet began to accelerate with every word he said.

"Where are you now?"

"Downtown! Chinatown, actually. Just follow my instructions."

Keeping his phone close to his right ear, Hiro payed close attention to the locations given to him by Sora…even more so than his classes.


Meanwhile, around that time in Ross Alley, with only the lights of five red paper lanterns to shine upon them, Fred was regaling the tale of how Big Hero 6 came together to Wasabi, Honey and Go-Go. All four of them were dressed in their CMYK color coded costumes, making them appear as if they had stepped out of the pages of a 1960s comic strip. As he stood on an almost stilted oil canister that was black in mint condition, the three comrades could only express doubt at his hopelessness. Wasabi's eyes were closed in skepticism as he rested his green visor against his right hand, Go-Go placed her right hand on her hip and Honey just stood there gripping the miniature chemical factory of a pocketbook in both hands, looking awkward as Fred made his soliloquy.

"After unrelenting battering, the team came together! Now unified, they embark on the first anniversary night patrol! Knowing they are the city's last bastion of hope—"

"Dick Tracy's the last bastion of hope," Wasabi interrupted as he opened his eyes.

"Tracy's old school! We're new school!"

Fred was saying, keeping his eyes on the street from his perch until the screeching of tires filled his ears, almost delivering a strong surge of pain into the eardrums. A grey-blue Volkswagon Jetta was speeding around the corner at about 70 miles per hour, nearly colliding its rear end with the hardware store as it continued down the road.

"That my friends, is obviously a car thief!" Fred exclaimed as the car sped away. "After it!"

He ran in the direction of the Jetta with every ounce of speed that his extended legs, provided by the suit, could carry him. The others followed after him as Fred and the Jetta turned left down to Potrero Ave, Go-Go taking the lead no thanks to her magnetic disks which gave her all the speed she wanted.

"Pull over now!"

But her shouts seemed to have been drowned out by the Jetta's engine. And that was when Go-Go took the advantage of going around the car and placing her hands on the hood where the engine was. Pushing it down with the force of her disks, the driver had little choice but to screech the vehicle to a halt just outside the general hospital, which was exactly where he needed to be.

Catching up, Fred pulled the driver seat open with his right claw and his face underneath the top third eye of his mask expressed shock at seeing the chocolate-brown haired woman in a pink shirt with a stomach that looked as big as a bowling ball. She was hyperventilating, perhaps from the shock of stopping so suddenly, perhaps she was in labor. Her husband, a Caucasian male with brown hair, a pencil moustache and grey eyes who wore a dark blue shirt with a dusty-brown vest and black trousers, seemed either furious or frightened.

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?! MY WIFE IS IN LABOR!"

"Dios mio," Honey Lemon was aghast. "We are so sorry. Felicitaciones!"

She closed her eyes with a smile as she held her thumbs up for an extra amount of cheers, but the man was unimpressed. He got out of the car, walked around the front, unbuckled the seatbelt for his wife and helped her out of the car…but not before he turned back to the Spaniard girl in the pink costume and rose his left middle finger in an outrage before he and the woman disappeared into the hospital.

"Did he just flip the bird at us?" Fred asked to Go-Go.

"Are you that blind?" Go-Go asked back with a hint of sweet mixed with poison in her voice.

"No, but at least we showed some hustle. Then on the other hand, I just hope the lady doesn't suffer a miscarriage."

But the others were just about tired…for once in their careers.

"Fred," Go-Go sighed. "There is clearly nothing going on."

And the three of them left Fred in a sight of dismay. Had they looked over shoulders, they would have noticed Sora, Goofy, Hiro and Donald chasing a crazed and wobbly Baymax, but of course, they were too concerned with their own lives to think about them.

The search for the runaway Baymax took the foursome into the mouth of Good Luck Alley, where a store of red paper lanterns stood on the left-hand side, allegorically signaling that despite it's name, Good Luck Alley was riddled with danger. When Baymax threw himself straight into the belly of the beast, Hiro and Sora could see a wave of electric blue sparks emitting from the alley way.

"BAYMAX!" they cried.

Hiro's heart began to shatter at the thought of losing Tadashi for good as he dashed into the alley. Sora ran after him, while Donald and Goofy, who preferred to wait outside for any intruders, watched him from the entry of the alley as a vantage point.

Coming to the garage just fifty feet into the alley, Hiro could recognize the figures of Big Frost, Mordecai, Haf-and-Haf, Yin, Larceny Lu and Diego, standing around an incapacitated Baymax in confusion and bewilderment. Diego had been holding a tuning fork over Baymax's right thumb, explaining the outburst of electricity. The scene gave Sroa and Hiro a great amount of pain in their hearts and before they could rush in and rescue the robot from this display of ungrateful torture, the cocking of an SIG Sauer P226 rung in their ears, followed by a gruff voice.

"Where's your brother now, Zero?"

Hiro did not expect to meet the voice it belonged to for the first time in a year. Yama was looming over him and Sora like the mountain he truly was, his face leering in total anger.

"Ever since you locked my ass up in jail, I have been waiting for this moment to come."

Hiro plucked up courage.

"You're not still mad about that, are you?"

"About what?" Sora was curious.

"It's a long story."

And that was all Hiro said before his mouth found itself sucking on the barrel of Yama's SIG. One act of pulling the trigger down and he would be with Tadashi again, but in the world of the living, he had a purpose to keep up with and did not want to see his aunt all alone. Sora raised the Kingdom Key above his head with both hands, hoping to knock the fat bastard into a coma, but the mobster's free right hand struck his nose and forced him to the floor.

"How does it feel? Tasting the lead of death? I have waited for this moment for so long, so fucking long, that you will have nothing else to worry about."

Yama's eyes began to lose focus, concentrating on the ID card hanging from Hiro's neck. Surprised, he quickly withdrew the pistol and gave Hiro three seconds to breath before he asked.

"You go to that nerd school?"

He sounds like last year's version of me. Hiro gained his breath before responding in an angry tone.

"Yeah, my brother worked there before he died."

The mention of his brother aroused Hiro to the point of exhaustion from his anger, combined with the search for Baymax. Yama placed the gun into his right pocket and gave the boy genius a cheery façade.

"You and I are going to make a trade. You get me this paperweight…"

He pulled out his iPhone to reveal the iceberg blue crystal, which Hiro instantly recognized from Professor Granville's office.

"…and you can have your robot back."

Sora, who regained consciousness, struggled to his feet. He was just in time to witness Yama give one more detail to Hiro.

"And I'm warning you; you even think about telling Tracy about this. You're gonna get a bullet up your ass."

"Watashi wa gimudzukemasu."

Hiro bowed in the respectful posture of his Japanese heritage and dragged the groggy Sora out of the alleyway just as the dark clouds above them produced small drops of rain.

"What happened?" asked Donald as soon as they left.

"I'll explain everything when we speak to Fred," Hiro told him and Goofy.

And they took the next trolley down to California Street.

Through the wind and through the rain, it took Fred at least five jumps before he had made it into the topmost spire of the mansion, his hands on his hips and legs perched outward as he looked up to the sky and performed a solo soliloquy. A novel of sorts was forming inside his head.

"Alone, he stood…buffeted by the rain, unwavering in his mission, undaunted by the goddamned face that his friends don't value superhero culture in all of it's ass-kicking glory!"

Fred wanted to drown in the rain, if not commit suicide by jumping down to the front steps. Then again, he was thinking about taking his clothes off and let the cold, cold rain take his life when Heathcliff, an umbrella in his right hand and a tray holding a cup of hot herbal tea in his left, appeared below him.

"Master Frederick, a hot cup of tea perhaps?"

At that moment, Hiro, flanked by the heroic trio of foreigners, came running up the front steps to Heathcliff. The butler's face remained stuck in the same mood when Hiro asked him.

"Heathcliff, where is Fred? I need to speak with him."

"Up on the roof," he said as loud as his voice could be heard above the pouring rain.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" asked Hiro, cupping his hands to his mouth.

"Narrating!" Fred yelled.

Then he spotted Sora and his comraderies.

"And is that Sora down there with you? If so, hello again!"

Sora waved his right hand at the costumed superhero and called out.

"You know Fred, we can talk more about this if you just came down!"

After two minutes, Hiro held a pow-wow in Fred's room. Fred himself was the first to ask.

"So what wrong is Lady Justice calling us to right?"

Hiro's Adam's apple drew itself back before explaining.

"It's Yama. He stole Baymax for who knows what and he wants me to steal a crystal-like paperweight from Professor Granville's office."

"In other words," Sora added. "He made a pact with the devil."

Fred was interested.

"Go on."

"In order to do that I have to break into Granville's desk and take it."

"That," said Fred, giving Hiro an accusing right index finger. "Is what Lady Justice would call stealing."

"It's the only way I can get Baymax back. And as soon as we make the transaction, we'll steal the crystal back."

"Did it not occur to you that we could just attack Yama and steal Baymax back?"

"They have guns!"

"So? Bring your suit."

"No, Fred. I want to handle this in a civil manner. The transaction needs to be done without Big Hero 6 for once."

Then Goofy spoke up.

"How do you plan to steal the crystal from Granville's office? Isn't it like uh…locked?"

"I need to add her code to my ID," Hiro explained. "And we'll do it tomorrow."


And so it was arraigned. When Hiro arrived at the school, he did his studies without hesitation while Sora, Donald and Goofy, hiding in Tadashi's workspace, went over a short list of plans to get Professor Granville's code, which would take place at around 7:30 in the night. With Fred's help, they would be able to pull the job off with a microchip that was installed into every student's ID card in order to gain access to almost everything that was limited to a student's standards. This had been put into a stronger effect after the robbery of the microbot plans committed by Flattop and his gang on the night of that fateful showcase that took Tadashi away from Hiro's life.

Hiro, meanwhile, was growing increasingly worried for Baymax, hoping and praying that Yama and his cabal were not even thinking about dismantling him. His worries were quelled when Fred came into Tadashi's lab. The time was 7:23 and Hiro's plan was close to being put into action.

"In order to add Professor Granville's code to my ID. I need to get close to her."

"How close?" asked Fred. "Are we talking in the same general vicinity or are we talking uncomfortably close?"

"Uncomfortably close," Hiro added sheepishly. "But not the way you are thinking of. A May-December romance between me and Professor Granville is completely out of the question."

Two minutes later, Hiro was in the hallway, stuffing the ID under his shirt to avoid suspicion. Fred's voice came into the intercom that lodged into his right ear.

"Hiro? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can," Hiro retorted. "You and Sora just wait for the signal and hit the button."

Fred was sitting in front of the blue LED computer, his fists trying to contain his excitement.

"This is so exciting," he whispered to Sora. "I have never been a hacker before."

Then he asked through the intercom.

"Which button was it again?"

"The right shift button," Hiro whispered from the other end.

"I knew that," Fred scoffed, looking at a square piece of yellow paper written by Hiro that said "push me" with an arrow directing itself onto it.

The sound of the laboratory door that was two labs away from Hiro came open and there stood both Professor Granville and Miss Lane finishing up the nightly inspection. She slid her cream yellow card down the grey door scanner in her right hand and that served as Hiro's cue to get what he had needed.

"Target spotted," he tried be as quiet as he could. "I am going in."

"Roger that. God, I love saying those words."

Hiro wasted no time casually approaching the dean and her assistant, ignoring Fred's deep, Gloucestershire accent impression of "Roger that."

"Excuse me Professor Granville and Miss Lane."

The two women shared opposing expressions of greet upon seeing him.

"Yes, Mr. Hamada?" asked the dean.

Hiro's words were concise and clear.

"I was thinking about what you said and it's very nice to have someone here who believes in me. So all I have to say is…arigato."

He stretched his arms wide open and intended to give her the same type of hugs Tadashi would give him whenever he was feeling sad. But Professor Granville, who believed that she was too old for hugs (if not a total haphephobe), took two steps back when Hiro's arms closed in on her. She spun a 180 on Hiro just as Honey, Go-Go and Wasabi took their curious time to watch them from the hall. Hiro tried to group his arms around her bodice, but Professor Granville was fast and feisty and Miss Lane stepped in from behind her to intervene.

"If you want a hug Hiro, you can always hug me."

Hiro wasn't certain if Miss Lane had any access to Granville's office the same way she did. He just gave her a polite smile and spoke with a tone to go with it.

"That's very appreciative, Miss Lane, but I think your boss deserves a hug more than you do."

Then Sora's voice came on the other line, whispering.

"Think of Tadashi. That'll get the waterworks flowing."

Almost immediately, Hiro turned clockwise by 125 degrees and rubbed his eyes, searching his memories for Tadashi's death and the last words he ever said to him. Even in times like this, it was so painful that Hiro's tears were authentic. He turned back to Granville and Lane with a sad kind of look, sobbing.

"I'm so sorry, it's just that…with Tadashi dead and everything, I am going through a lot of hardships. I miss him so much."

And with that, he cupped his arms around Professor Granville's neck, surprising both her and Miss Lane. The dark-skinned woman was so startled that she reluctantly patted his back with her right hand five times over. Margo, expressing sympathy for the young boy, finally understood the connection between her star pupil and the namesake of the memorial hall.

As they waited in the laboratory, the whisper of Hiro's voice came on the other side of the intercom.

"Now."

Fred had forgotten that he had bought a Styrofoam bowl of Nissin Cup Noodles from the cafeteria that he had already eaten halfway through. By the time he had heard Hiro's reply, his left hand jumped forwards in surprise and the hot liquid spilled all the way down from the middle of his shirt to where his privates would be, with some of the broth spilling down to his thighs.

"My balls!" he shouted, causing Sora to jump back.

Sora wasted no time trying to help Fred, he had to help Hiro get Baymax back. He stared at the right shift key, and knowing that Hiro would not be able to hold onto Professor Granville for all eternity, aimed his right index finger on the shift key and quickly pressed it down, the transaction having been completed.

"All right now," Professor Granville assured the teary-eyed teen. "Pull yourself together."

The screen read complete and the code was all his.

"We got the copy!" Sora confirmed.

That was all Hiro needed to hear as he pushed himself back from Professor Granville, who was trying to repost herself and said.

"There! All better now. I don't want to keep you waiting!"

"Thank God," she muttered to herself.

The two women lead themselves away and Hiro ran off back to the lab to wait for the next phase of his plan. He was excited and anxious as he gave Sora a silent cheer. Baymax would be coming back to him and things would return to normal at last.


Professor Granville and Miss Lane left the office at around 8:15. The latter was wearing her black beret and top and did not speak until they were at the end of the hall, with Professor Granville asking.

"You ought to introduce me to Mr. Cranston sometime, Miss Lane. I hear he is a very good philanthropist."

"And a man of secrets," Margo's eyes darted to the ceiling before going back to her chief.

"Secrets?" Professor Granville was very inquisitive over the subject.

"Secrets as to how a man can keep his successful rate going."

As soon as they had reached the elevator, Hiro, watching their departure from behind, waved the card in his left hand in front of the door lock and quietly entered the office, almost fearful that she could come back to reclaim something that was missing. The paperweight was all his as both hands balanced it carefully off of the stand and lifted it up to the level of his neck. His eyes studied the intricate details, but whatever Yama wanted to use it for could only be guessed.

"Did you get it?" the whisper of Fred came on the other line.

"Yes," Hiro replied. "And it's heavier than it looks. But why would Yama want this?"

"Maybe it's very valuable," came Sora on the other line. "Perhaps we will find out once we give it to him."

"No, Sora," Hiro's voice was stern and clear. "I need you, Goofy and Donald to cover for me while Fred and I take it to Yama alone. Fred, meet me outside the gate."

Dejected, Sora slumped into the chair as Fred got off and rushed out of the lab. He turned to the duck and dog and uttered pathetically.

"I don't know about you, but I think Hiro is about to make the biggest mistake of his life since last year."

Hiro and Fred took the bus to the mouth of Good Luck Alley without even so much as a questionable remark from the driver, who kept his eyes on the road even after he dropped them off.

"I have to warn you, Fred. Yama and his gang are dangerous people, so I suggest you let me do the talking."

"Sure, I'll keep my eyes peel and my lips sealed."

And so he did when they came face to face with Haf-and-Haf. Recognizing Hiro, he inquired.

"What the fuck do you want."

"We would like to speak to Yama," came Hiro's reply.

"And tell him that we are very dangerous types and we do not like to be kept waiting."

Hiro's mouth was agape at Fred breaking his own rule like the true hypocrite that he was. But he wasn't too much of a hypocrite since he often kept his word. But soon, Haf-and-Haf opened the sliding door and the two entered the lair of Yama with nervous steps. Fred eventually gained some of his courage when Hiro spoke to him.

"Why wouldn't you let me finish?"

Fred had fully regained his confidence when he replied.

"We both know that it was never going to work."

Back in the lab, Go-Go and her curious companions hoped to have a word with Hiro about his scene with Professor Granville and Miss Lane. Honey opened the door with her right hand, speaking her voice into the empty room.

"Hiro, we're going to Noodle Burger, do you want to come—Sora?!"

Sora, who had been pondering over Hiro and Fred's ultimate fates, snapped out of his trance to see the three powerhouses of Big Hero 6 standing before him. The Keyblader nearly fell out of the chair when his head spun at them. Goofy and Donald, who were sitting by the window, also jumped back as well.

"Honey?"

"Goofy?"

"Go-Go?"

"Donald?"

"Wasabi?"

"What are you all doing here?" everyone present spoke in unison.

"I came to celebrate your anniversary," Sora confessed.

"Forget the anniversary!" Wasabi argued at the foreigner's tone sounding like Fred's. "Where's Hiro?"

Sora tried to be quick.

"He and Fred went to see Yama to get Baymax back and told me and my friends to cover for him. But now the cover is blown so we have to get him back before he makes a tragic mistake!"

"And where do you suppose we'll find Yama?"

"How should I know?" Sora faltered. "We might have a chance of interrogating someone just to get him back."

Go-Go pondered over the mention of interrogation for a short three seconds.

"I think I have an idea."

Her friends peered closer towards her, worried over the outcome.

"Why not we get all gussied up and go to the Ritz?"


Texie Garcia was as beautiful as Dolores del Rio on the night she made her Hollywood debut, pale as Texas Guinan the day she died in Vancouver just a hundred years ago, and her hair was as black as Joan Crawford the morning she was to arrive on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in full makeup. Her eyes were a lustrous blue, her lips blood red. She was dressed head to heel in black with the exception of her gloves, ruby earrings, pump shoes and harlequin diamond bracelets on each wrist which shared the same shade of bright red. Her flat pocketbook was also red, hanging by her right hip from a black strap, camouflaging it if one were to look at her from a profile view.

For the past year or so, Texie had been sentenced to community service around Broadway Street since none of the bullets found on the victims of last year's attack had been matched up with her Mauser C96. The same went for Ribs Mocco, another close associate of Big Boy with a prominent nose and an almost heavyset build with a plum bowler and a checkered suit to go with it. Most of their duties went from cleaning the streets to washing the windows of shops and cars for a small fee, which made Texie long for her days of power and lounging. At long last, two of Big Boy's shysters, Hy Habeas and Dan "The Squealer" Mucelli, agreed to have Texie released, while Ribs would spend an extra day of street sweeping before all four of them would bring Club Ritz and Big Boy's surviving associates back under management.

The founding Apparatus members had been operating the club for at least eleven days when the half members of the team showed up. Club Ritz, as it looked on the inside, had a black marble floor with art deco light fixtures. A small stage for the band was placed before the five sets of tables all neatly done in an impeccable setup. The black grand piano where 88 Keyes once played his tunes on the Club Ritz radio stood dead and silent without its master.

But it was on the third floor where most of the action was taking place. Dubbs was having his own blood stained on the red fiberglass table of the conference room where sit downs took place. Dan's right hand was gripping the back of his throat and shoving his nose onto the table.

"I still care for you as much as Big Boy did," Texie explained to the wounded underling from the right corner of the table. "But all I want to know is, where's my money?"

Dubbs gave three stifled breaths, then came the answer she wanted to hear.

"Yama."

Texie pressed her head closer to him, her right hand holding a grip on his throat.

"Where?"

"Good Luck Alley."

The mobstress smiled at this before a bouncer in a bottle green suit and cap came in.

"Miss Garcia, we have visitors waiting for you downstairs."

"I'll see to them. You watch over Dubbs for me."

And with that, she made her way down the stairs, leaving her male subordinates to watch over the snitch. Her first sight was that of Honey, Go-Go, Wasabi sitting at one table while Sora, Donald and Goofy sat next to them on the right-hand side.

"Well," she smiled. "Big Hero 3. Where HAVE you been?"

"3?" Sora was perplexed. "Don't the additional three of us make six?"

He pointed at himself, Goofy and Donald with his right index finger, but Texie just laughed.

"I know you're not the official members of Big Hero 6. You just helped them."

Go-Go was far from being a proper lady at the sight of seeing a criminal like Texie out of jail. Still, she was just about as impatient as ever when she asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're looking for Hiro and Fred. We believe Yama's holding them captive."

Texie beamed.

"Well, what a coincidence! One of the club's staff members has been laundering money from me and giving it to Yama. He says you can find him at Good Luck Alley. I heard he set up shop there after the last time he got arrested, no thanks to Hiro and Tadashi."

The sudden mention of his name sent a small, icy chill through her veins, but the team members held them back.

"Do you know the exact address?" asked Honey.

"1020 Pine Street."

"Then that's where we're going," Sora said standing up.

Go-Go took the lead in front of him.

"I know the way."

"It was good seeing you."

Texie waved her right hand in "goodbye mode" with a sweet voice and a hinting smile of gladness as they left, but once they were out the door, she placed that hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. There was something about Yama that she wanted to know, but it was known only to them.

In his dojo of an office, Hiro and Fred stood before Yama, who was admiring the paperweight in his right hand, enamored by the details. Towards the room on their right was Baymax suspended by two chains connecting to his shoulders, denuded of his inflatable skin and as dead as a doornail. Mordecai and Larceny Lu stood behind Yama, guarding their boss at the plausible cost of their own lives.

"That's Baymax's skeleton?" Fred asked out of sheer stupidity. "It looks so….naked."

As much as he tried to push back thought of seeing what they had done to his brother's magnum opus, Hiro stomped his way to Yama and shouted.

"What do you do with Baymax's skin?!"

"Threw it out. But I don't think that will be any of your concern anymore, Zero."

Yama snapped his left index and thumb fingers, summoning groups of four from the three entrances on all sides excluding Yama's: one led by Big Frost on the far right away from where Baymax was being held, one led by Haf-and-Haf behind them and one on their left led by Yin and Diego. They were all carrying an individual firearm…aiming right for their heads. Things began to coalesce in Hiro's mind.

"We had a deal!"

Yama scoffed.

"Bitch please. Did you really think I was going to give you back your robot? I think I might have use for him."

This was enough to arouse Hiro's rage.

"I swear on my onii-chan's grave, I will neuter you of your balls."

This gave Larceny Lu the opportunity to fire a single warning shot just six inches away from Hiro's right foot with her silver-plated Harrington and Richardson Model 733. She blew a placating breath into the gun's barrel and asked Yama.

"What do we do with them?"

"Lock them up and file a ransom note."

It took Lu and Diego just twenty-six seconds to throw Hiro and Fred into a cell, located outside of Yama's office. As soon as his back made contact with the stainless-steel floor, Hiro got to his feet and pounded at the door six times with both hands shouting "LET US OUT!" in a pungent Japanese. Fred, standing up, took in the futuristic details of the cell that contrasted with the traditionalist look of Yama's quarters. The cell was made of German steel and had at least five lines of white florescent lights travelling from the ceiling to the floor. The wall on the right side was flat while the left side was curved in an almost 70-degree angle. The door, which was close to the right side of the wall, looked like it had been shouldered with handprints with a number code and a red monitor on its left to indicate that it was locked. All Hiro could say about it was…

"Great, just fucking great. No windows, no air ducts…it seems that the only possible escape would be an unlocked door."

Then his frown turned into a smile as his eyes went back to the numbers code by the door.

"I think I might need to crosswire it."

"Good," muttered a doubtful Fred. "I'll just be over here whistling."

And before he could whistle to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy", Hiro had pulled the security code plating off with both hands, and wielded the orange and yellow wires together, certain that were just about as correct as he had predicted. Sure enough, the door slid open. On quiet feet, they left the cell with the door open.

The lighting in the rooms behind the screens were dimly lit, no one seemed to know that they were there. The quiet wind of the ventilation shaft filled the corridors as it seemed that Yama and his subordinates were all having sweet dreams about blood and robberies. To Hiro and Fred, it seemed like they were about to face a winding maze.

"After we get Baymax back," Fred whispered into Hiro's left ear. "What is our strategy? Fists or legs?"

"I would suggest running. We don't even have our suits on and those guys are packing heat."

And no sooner had they turned to a left-hand side corner where they spotted Larceny Lu, posing like a model in front of them. Her right hand was resting against the wall, while her left hand was clutching her hip and both of her ankles were crossed. Her face was uglier than ever with that disapproving glare.

"Can I help you two boys?" she asked sounding annoyed.

Fred kept a brave face.

"We were going nowhere."

Then Hiro noticed the hilt of the H&R Model 733 sticking out of Lu's pocketbook, which was zipped open. Hiro's right hand quickly grabbed the gun and before she could put both of her hands up, he and Fred ran back the same way they came…right into the waiting eyes of Mordecai, standing there as still as a very hard statue made of the strongest Carrera marble.

Hiro held the H&R to Mordecai's chest, but Larceny Lu was fast as she came from behind and reclaimed the pistol with her right hand.

"I'll take that," she said doing so. "What should do with 'em Mordy?"

"Take 'em to Yama."

The command was as swift as the movements Hiro and Fred faced upon being taken to Yama's office. The fat bastard was sitting crisscrossed on his olive-green pillow, dismayed and quietly furious.

"If you look at it from a certain point of view, Yama," Hiro's explanation attempts were feeble. "I did you a service by testing your security system."

"Thank you," Yama's reply was calm before shouted to his heavies. "Get rid of them!"

Fred lifted his right index finger to the ceiling, curious.

"One quick question: When you say 'get rid of us' do you mean throw us out or…"

He paused, instantly knowing the word.

"Death?"

"Death…" Yama echoed sinisterly.

And before Fred even knew it, his right ear was now blocked by the barrel of the Heckler & Koch USP Compact held by Mordecai. The same went for Hiro, whose left ear was lodged by Lu's own pistol.

"Well, it was nice knowing you, Hiro," Fred had happily accepted his fate with a smile of greatness. "Now we can see Tadashi again together."

Poor Hiro looked up at Fred and accepted his impending death as well, but before the trigger could be pulled down. There came a crashing noise of debris and stones, from a familiar plasma blade cutting the roof open in the shape of a circle. Belonging to none other than Wasabi, he came first, followed by Sora, then Go-Go, then Goofy, then Honey and finally Donald. The team took action poses with Sora in front of them, holding his Kingdom Keyblade out with the teeth in the direction of Yama's heart. Had it had been the dark Keyblade wielded by Riku a long while back, there would be a chance that Yama's heart would have been removed from his body almost instantly.

"I knew you could not resist the call of being a superhero!" Fred congratulated them.

But there was no time to celebrate as the doors slid open to the gangs of three, lead by Big Frost, Haf-and-Haf, Diego and Yin, their guns aimed at the hearts of the intruders. Mordecai and Larceny Lu aimed their firearms at the intruders as well.

Sliding back by ten feet, Go-Go threw her right-hand disk at a tow-headed heavy in a swamp-green suit before he could fire off his Glock, firing the bullet right into the roof. Then the other criminals jumped into the scene as the disk returned to Go-Go. Bullets flew and ricocheted across the room as Honey's left hand threw a ball of ice at Big Frost, literally freezing him on the surface. Haf-and-Haf tried at the very least to wound Wasabi with his lupara, but he was fast enough to grab the criminal by the armpits and throw him above his head and onto the floor. Then Mordecai joined the fight with a well-aimed shot to Go-Go's heart, but she was fast enough to use her disks as a deflector shield against the bullet that fired directly back at it's shooter. It was the bullet that, a split-second later, drilled into his chest, pierced through his heart and came out the other side in a wind of blood that splattered against the wall, some of it even getting onto Yama's left shoulder. Then with wide eyes, the man fell on the left side of his body at the exact same moment that rigor mortis had set in. Mordecai was dead.

Ignoring their fallen member, Yin and Diego rushed towards Wasabi before Honey threw another chem-ball that spilled a large puddle of ice-green glue onto the floor, trapping their legs from toe to ankle. This gave Wasabi the opportunity to throw a swift right jab at Diego and a left one at Yin.

Donald seized the opportunity to throw a half-minute sleeping spell on Yama and Goofy's shield clipped Larceny Lu's chin, weakening her to the floor. Sora rushed over to the youngest of the team.

"Hiro, are you all right?"

"Yes," Hiro hugged him like he was Tadashi, having come back as a guardian angel to watch over him. "We're fine. But how did you find us?"

"Were you on night patrol without us?!" Fred angrily accused Go-Go with his right index finger.

"Texie Garcia told us."

This came from Go-Go.

"Big Boy's moll?!" Fred was appalled.

"Go-Go figured that she knew where you two were," Honey tried to explain.

Hiro observed Baymax still hanging from the chains to the left of where Yama usually sat, he and Fred rushed to the captive robot, but Larceny Lu, her chin bleeding from Goofy's shield, weakly aimed her 733 at the two males. She intended to aim for Hiro's head, followed by Fred's neck, knowing that such shots would be fatal. But given the weakness of her current state, she inadvertently pulled the trigger down, the gun went off, the bullet rocketed from its barrel and grazed the top of Fred's right arm, completely destroying the specific section of the white sleeve and leaving a trail of blood in it's wake. Fred yelped in pain and Hiro jumped forward as the former tried to hold the blood back in with his left palm.

"Oh my God! I've been shot! I'VE BEEN SHOT!"

Larceny Lu lapsed into unconsciousness and Hiro's hands were instantly in contact with Baymax's right leg as the spell on Yama wore off and he shot himself up towards Hiro, his left hand grabbing him by the hood of his hoodie.

"As I told you before, shōnen, nobody hustles Yama!"

"And gets away with it?" Hiro's smile was sly but fearful.

Before Yama could do anything else, the teeth of Sora's Keyblade stuck his crown and he fell backwards to the floor.

"Way to go, Sora!" Fred hissed through the pain.

Grinning over his victory, Sora swung his Keyblade twice at the chains and helped Hiro remove Baymax from the wooden clamps suspending him from the floor and towards the center of the room close to the hole in the roof was. They attached Baymax's shoulders to a pair of silver clamps hanging from a Bell Jet Ranger X waiting for them outside and with Hiro on top, Honey on his left, Go-Go on his right, Wasabi on the bottom left and Fred on the bottom right, they took off into the air. Sora activated his Keyblade Glider and followed after them with Goofy and Donald holding onto the wings. The pilot of the Bell, being none other than Heathcliff, gave the team a left thumb up and took off back to the robotics lab where the team would strike a confession out of Hiro.

In Tadashi's lab, Hiro, Goofy, Donald and Sora were met with crossed arms and mean expressions from Go-Go, Honey and Wasabi (Fred joined about four seconds later), impatiently waiting to hear his confession. Hiro bowed his head in remorse and spoke at last.

"Guys, I am sorry that I did not tell you earlier…"

Honey pursed her lips and took a step forward with the tone of a stern mother.

"You could have gotten hurt."

"Not as badly as Fred?" Sora asked.

"Not as badly as the heart break you almost gave us," Wasabi pointed an accusing left index finger at him before it went to Fred. "And you helped him steal that paperweight from Professor Granville's office! NOW YAMA HAS IT!"

Hiro knew that he had to calm him.

"Actually," he uttered, reaching into his hoodie pocket with his left hand. "I got it from Yama's desk when Donald put him under that sleeping spell."

And he presented the crystal, enamoring the party present in the room.

"I must admit," smiled Go-Go. "I am impressed, but I would not want you making deals with the gokudō again."

"Don't worry," Hiro reassured her. "I won't. All I need to do now is return the crystal, reskin Baymax and it will be like nothing ever happened."

Hiro's plans for building another Baymax had ground to a halt the moment after he had carefully placed the paperweight back into Granville's office. He spent the next day with Sora making microbots while Professor Granville herself was writing a study sheet for the final semester of school. Doing such work ahead of time would give her and Miss Lane more time to keep up with their social lives as well as overseeing the progress of her students. By 4:14, she had noticed that the paperweight seemed to be about an inch away from it's usual position. Assuming that it had been that way from a small, unnoticeable earthquake that she never felt, her hands pushed the crystal back into it's usual position and resumed work, looking forward to a well-deserving dinner with Miss Lane and "Lamont Cranston".

At the end of the day, Hiro had refitted Baymax with his new skin and the robot repaid Hiro and the Keybladers Three with a big hug that lasted until the sun went down. Hiro felt safe and snug in Baymax's arms, knowing that everything was all right in his world.

Yama and his heavies dropped Mordecai's corpse off at a morgue and the coroner arraigned a small funeral with five of his relatives attending. They had been told from the priest that Mordecai had been caught in the crossfire of a shooting, but paid him little mind considering how self-centered and unpleasant the man had been during his childhood years. By 8:27 pm, Yama had presented his cronies with a brand-new project that he hoped would emotionally hurt Hiro.

"Mordecai's death will prove nothing compared to what I have in store."

And he presented a small factory producing copies of Baymax's skeleton that were close to being finished. After making his deal with Hiro, Yama had begun work on cutting Baymax's skin open with a carving knife and immediately place him into the factory where every last detail of his skeleton would be copied, including an equal supply of battle chips, which he had removed the socket. All of the inner workings and exterior plating were copied to the same quality the skeleton had been in when it had been captured…with a few deadly modifications.

"First, I'll get Zero, then Tracy and finally have the whole table of governors and the mayor executed on national TV. I'll own this town!"

Yama smiled, bearing a wicked grin as he said this. Everything, as it had seemed, was coming up roses.


The next morning, things were looking up as Aunt Cass got the Lucky Cat Café ready for brunch. She came out of the kitchen, shouting over the usual small talk of her usual customers, carrying four bowls, two on each side of…

"Guacamole and tuna nachos, coming through!"

She gave the bottom right one to B.O. Plenty, who rubbed his hands together while licking his chops. But before he scarf down the whole bowl, Cass covered his hands, which were roughened from work, with a pair of white kitten mittens. They had a cat's smiling face on the palms with a paw for the thumbs and a black squiggle on the back representing a paw.

"Careful!" Cass warned him. "It's hot!"

Mary Steele, Toby Townley and Mrs. Matsuda were sitting at a round table, sipping on cups of lemonade through straws that were quickly emptied.

"Refiller! On it!" Cass shouted before they could even speak.

She rushed right over to the refrigerator and grabbed the glass pitcher of lemonade, pouring it into the glasses halfway through and completely emptying the pitcher. Then she gave a bottle of ketchup to Tess and Junior who were sitting nearby and went back into the kitchen. She had just dusted her hands upon leaving, when she noticed a red container of dirty dishes standing on a small round table by the stairs. There were at least nineteen cups, bowls and dishes stained with brown splats from customers not having finished every last bit of their meals and a family of three flies were hovering around it. Swinging her left forearm while holding the upper part with her right hand, Cass grabbed the container and prepared to lift it off the table.

But try as she might with her inferior muscles, the container would not leave the table by another inch. Then Cass used her knees to push the container upwards, and before she even knew it, she was lifting the container effortlessly into the air by four feet. Underneath, she could see an extra right hand pushing it along with her own. The hand belonged to none other than Sora.

"Need an extra hand?" he asked with a friendly beam.

"Sora?! You're back!"

Cass was surprised.

As soon as Sora carried the dishes into the kitchen, Baymax and Hiro came in with Goofy and Donald waiting outside.

"How come you two didn't tell me that Sora was back?" Cass asked, not showing signs of anger in her voice.

"I got caught up with school," Hiro explained. "He came to celebrate the anniversary of me and the guys saving San Fransokyo from Callaghan and Big Boy."

"Sure," Cass sounded a bit unfazed. "But as I said before, I don't want you going out on dangerous missions, it's not safe."

Hiro, having heard this at least sixty-six times before, rolled his eyes and saw Sora walking out of the kitchen with free hands.

"Miss Hamada, why don't you carry on with work, I'll speak to Hiro about the whole superhero thing."

Cass glanced at Sora for two seconds before going back to work as they and Baymax made their way upstairs to Hiro's room, which hadn't changed much since the last time he had visited it. Sitting on Hiro's bed, Sora spoke first.

"You know, Hiro. If you ever someone like Tadashi in your void, I would be happy to accept the task of being your big brother for a day or two."

"That's very nice of you, Sora, but I think Baymax is all I need, he does have Tadashi's genetics."

"But Baymax is not human, no matter how much he tries to act human."

"I have had some human moments," said Baymax, pointing his right index finger to the ceiling. "Like the time I suggested to Hiro to keep reminding himself that there are no dead ends."

"See? Hiro told him. Baymax is all I need. You're welcome to help me anytime, but no one can really replace Tadashi."

Sora understood this, but his unending desire to help had completely gone to his head.


Yama had a rough day; the bot fights were becoming less and less interesting, even with at least ten of the various opponents that he had faced in the past. His mind was currently obsessed with Hiro and lust for revenge that the young genius had escaped from. He found business with the other criminals to be dull and thought he would be better off on some private island away from Hiro, his allies and his mysterious benefactor. His Lincoln limousine arrived at his Pine Street headquarters by 7:13 that night and when his uniform clad chauffer opened the right-hand side passenger door to him, he stumped out of the limo looking bored and displaced. At the same time, he was sulking over the loss of the sculpture that he needed for his caller. He sulked all the way to the elevator, listening to the low whir of the elevator rising to the 88th floor-the top floor.

The evening had become a lot more interesting, when on the elevator screen above the floor numbers was a logo, depicting a horned cyclops with tear shaped nostrils, four sharp teeth on the top and two on the bottom. In-between the bottom teeth was a tongue that stretched to the right side of the chin and pointed downwards. The logo was against a mint green background of computer characters such as numbers and letters, 20 rows in total going up and down between the odd and the even numbers. Yama did not seem to notice this until the elevator's bright lights were replaced by a blood red tinge and body of the elevator began to rumble, its brakes having activated upon manual control.

Then, he recognized the insignia.

"Did you get the item?" a distorted voice belonging to an English fellow asked.

"No," Yama hoped that Obake would not hear him.

"So you failed…and you know what I intend to do with failures."

The screen went orange and the elevator shook violently as brakes released themselves from the track…and in three seconds flat the elevator plummeted back down to earth, intending to crash and claim the life of its sole passenger.

"WAIT!" screamed Yama. "I HAVE SOMETHING BETTER!"

He pounded the screen with his right fist, praying that Obake would heed his words. The sudden stop of the elevator on the fifth floor brought him to the ground. Noticing that the lights were on, Yama pushed himself up and Obake's voice sounded again.

"Show me."

With his heart now beating at an incredibly fast rate, Yama, not wishing to die from a heart attack, brought the elevator back up to his office on the 88th floor where six of the skeletal Baymaxes were practicing karate chop actions. They stood upon recognizing their master, their pupils glowing a crimson color.

"I see potential," came Obake's voice as the three-dimensional model of the crystal appeared on Yama's widescreen TV.

"I think it's better than that piece of shit," Yama smiled slyly.

But it turned into a frown when the screen changed to the schematics of the Baymax skeleton.

"No, but most useful for obtaining it. And Yama….do not. Fail. Me. Again."

Yama frowned. His sad, pathetic self had come to the concern that he was being enslaved.

At Lee Manor, after getting his wound bandaged thanks to Heathcliff, Fred invited Wasabi and the girls into his room for a demonstration of a recent purchase. To his left in front of Heathcliff, was a round object covered in white cloth. Fred addressed his small audience in his own impression of a regal tone.

"Ladies and gentleheroes…on behalf of the fact that we kicked so much ass at Yama's place, I took the liberty of designing our very own…"

His hands gripped the cloth very tightly, pulling the sheet off the object with one swift thrust. The object was revealed to be a grey spotlight. Fred pointed both of his index fingers at it, exclaiming "Superhero Signal!" as the sheet fell on his feet.

Honey clapped out of force of habit, Go-Go blew her bubblegum until it popped and Wasabi was less than impressed.

"Heathcliff, hit the lights!"

At Fred's command, Heathcliff turned off the lights with an ornate remote control as Fred imitated a drumroll. Then, at least no more than three seconds later, the light of the spotlight turned on in yellow glow and on the beam was "助けて" which meant "Help" in Japanese.

"You sure anybody will be able to read that?" Wasabi asked doubtfully.

"We do live in a Japanese city," Fred explained. "And as a respectable Ainu, we must respect the Emperor's wishes."

And he said this by placing his right fist to his heart.

"Freddie," Honey snapped him out of his respectful state. "I heart your enthusiasm, but you got shot yesterday and almost died."

"So what? I can live with a few scars. And for the record, this is no way for Big Hero 6 to talk, so I suggest we have like our own secret handshake or something like…to the power of six!"

He held out his right hand, waiting for the others to put theirs above his.

"Come on, guys, you know you want to," Fred pleaded, his fingers twitching with each syllable.

But Honey, Go-Go and Wasabi stood where they were, perfectly still like statues. Go-Go spoke first.

"Look Fred, as much as I enjoyed being a superhero for the past year or so. It was a one-time thing saving you two shitheads from Yama and there are hardly any criminals out there that have the balls to challenge us."

Fred crossed his arms, almost mimicking Go-Go in an obscenely rude way.

"Wasn't stopping Callaghan and Big Boy a one-time thing as well?"

"To be politically correct," Wasabi admitted. "It was a two-time thing…not counting all the night patrols we went on."

"And that's it," finished Go-Go. "We don't need to be superheroes for the rest of our lives. We need our own lives to think about."

And so they left, for the third time leaving Fred to drown in the waters of disappointment. Another twenty minutes later, he ordered Heathcliff to take him to the Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab where Hiro was working on some additional modifications to the red chip he had created just one year before, including some grey shades of morality to prevent him from going on a killing spree. He was overseen by Baymax, Sora, Goofy and Donald as Fred rolled around the room in a yellow swivel chair.

"So the team is less than interested in a secret handshake. But I am not giving up, as a matter of fact, I think Big Hero 6 should be commercialized."

Hiro and the other could care less about Fred's thoughts. The modifications on the red chip were finished.

"Done!"

And he placed the chip into Baymax's fours slots with his right hand.

"I am now capable of self-defense with the proper morals as well as performing other heroic deeds."

That was all Baymax said as he pointed his left index finger in the direction of the ceiling before Fred offered his right arm out to him.

"To the power of six!"

Baymax, understanding this as a fist bump, curled his left fingers into a fist, and gently collided them against Fred's and pushed them into a fist, responding with the signature send-off as he twiddled his fingers away.

"Balalalalalala!"

"Not what I had envisioned, but you have definitely put your own spin on it."

As Hiro checked his 3D printer for some of the additional microbots he was cooking up, the lights in the hall came from the outside, which could mean one thing or two: Professor Granville and Miss Lane were making their nightly inspection before closing up the school. In a matter of minutes, the lab would be next.

"Kuso!" Hiro whispered before raising his voice by notch. "We have to hide!"

But it was too late, the shadows of Miss Lane and Professor Granville had already reached the door, and opening it up, were surprised at the sight of Hiro, Baymax, Fred, Donald, Sora and Goofy staring at her in awkward action-esque postions. Professor Granville then turned on the light and asked.

"What are you still doing here? Miss Lane and I were about to close up the school."

"Kawaisōde," Hiro muttered, looking down, hands behind his back and rubbing the floor with his right toe by swinging it back and forth. His guilt was all he had to express, but Professor Granville could care less about his innocent façade and could only care more about his role for the remainder of the semester.

"Balance," as she said putting up a magnetic jar connected by two red wires to a generator. "is hard to achieve."

She demonstrated this by putting a washer head above the jar. Sure enough, it floated above the top by four inches, hovering ever so delicately that Hiro did not want to disturb it.

"Once tiny wrong decision and…chaos."

Professor Granville leaned down to the washer and blew a puff of breath, which spun the washer violently and swung up to the air and crashed into the very edge of the front LED lantern.

"Your brother did not allow himself to be distracted, he worked hard to build that robot. But since I am a rather generous woman, I can give you a choice: you can follow in Tadashi's footsteps or you can choose your own path."

"Now I wish I got the chance to know him more," Margo muttered under her breath.

Then the two women turned clockwise on their heels and walked out of the room.

"You might as well look on the bright side, Hiro," Sora comforted him. "At least she didn't punish you."

"My thoughts exactly," Fred added. "But I say we grab a couple of noodle burgers and get our night patrol on. Unless you want something healthier like Yaki Taco."

Hiro's mind went back to Professor Granville's words, wondering…to take Tadashi's path or his own. His head was confused as he tried to balance his self-consciousness going on the path Tadashi had given for him last year, which seemed like a wise choice or going back to bot-fights and delinquent-related activities; which was the immoral choice. But since it was apparent that he could never be an exact replica of his brother, he was at an impasse.

"Fred…I need to focus on taking the right path…I don't even think Tadashi would even want Baymax to become a superhero. He's better off as a nurse-bot."

But Fred was not about ready to give up just yet. His own mind was brainstorming with promotional material, the type of material that would be used to help attract visitors from all over the world to San Fransokyo. So while Hiro studied on his six textbooks, Fred worked on at least eleven sketches on a page of his notebook. One had the name of Big Hero 6 covered by an explosion, another his own Fredzilla costume, his mascot breathing fire, the name of the team on a scroll and two of them in box-shaped parenthesis had the number of the team name spelled out in letters. Hiro simply pushed the ideas away and discarded it with a negative shake from his head.

"You sure won't even consider about wearing your helmet again?" asked Fred during VR Class.

"Sorry Fred, nothing you say will make me change my mind."

Then another thirty-seven minutes later at Hiro's locker, Fred presented a pamphlet sized poster of Big Hero 6's logo, which Hiro almost instantly ignored and the final straw came when 7:34 arrived and Hiro was going to bed when a bright light came into his bedroom. Opening the shutters with his right hand, he saw Fred, in-costume with the "Help" spotlight across the street. Tired, he went back to bed and the following night, Fred moved the spotlight to Downtown atop the Hobart Building via elevator to the roof. A large majority of San Fransokyians noticed the signal's light at first, then moved on with their business. Some even took pictures of it and posted it on social media websites. Fred could only express dismay at his perception of the city failing to notice something so large and bright.

"So much for an answer," he sighed, letting his binoculars fall from his right hand to the street below.


In the art deco conference room of Club Ritz, with it's fireplace burning the oak wood logs until the morning would arrive, Texie and Ribs were drinking tall glasses of highballs. Ribs was sitting in Big Boy's seat while Texie sat on his right.

"Bless your heart," she said, taking the glass in her right hand after Ribs had poured it.

Ribs just gave her a smile and sat down to drink the first sip. Texie took a swig of the drink and looked back out at the window.

"Big Hero 6 continuing their business for the past year is such a bad sign for everyone out there, both on the sides of law and larceny. The police haven't been doing a lot of raids since they showed up and now the amount of discipline in the police department will be softened as well. Once he has served his sentence, Big Boy will be old and soft, so I think the time has come."

Ribs eyed Texie with close ears and what she said next, would add a new chapter to the history of the Apparatus.

"You know, someone has to take over. It might as well be me. Imagine it, Ribs. Me, the Godmother of San Fransokyo."

"I agree," Ribs nodded, taking another sip. The liquid went down his throat, embracing the alcoholic sins that it had to offer.

Then Texie asked out of the blue.

"Do you remember who was the youngest member of our cabal. Of last year, I mean?"

"Measles?"

Texie's blood red smile was as big as a butterfly's wings.

"That's him. He could be like a son to us. The classic rebel without a cause, unlike Tadashi Hamada who actually had a cause."

Ribs spoke next, concerned over Tadashi being mentioned.

"The one thing I don't understand, is that after everything we did for him and he did with us, why would he leave us just to let himself be killed."

"We were foolish last year…up until we found out that Callaghan was the one who pulled the trigger. And while Big Boy was the verge of achieving the crime of the century, they betrayed us. It's almost as if somebody had snitched to Big Boy that a fire would be planned and saw it as the perfect trap to bump off those turncoats."

And before she could say anymore, Texie felt a rumble. To confirm her oncoming fears, she saw the highball shaking every three seconds. The sounds seem to grow louder and the vibration of the highball seemed to grow violent at a hypertense rate.

"It's obviously coming outside," Texie uttered, her eyes turning to the left.

She and Ribs rushed over to the window, and what they saw drew a mix of fright, confusion and anger: An army of 150 Baymax skeletons were parading down Broadway Street, crushing, pushing and above all destroying everything in their path and one unfortunate mailman across the street was shot at by a ball of pink plasma energy from the right-hand palm of the leader, leaving nothing but a skeleton that quickly turned into ashes. Texie placed her fists to her hips and muttered loudly.

"What in the name of Alphonse 'Big Boy' Caprice is going on around here?"


Sitting down to dinner at the Lucky Cat, Hiro, Sora, Wasabi, Goofy, Honey, Donald, Go-Go and Fred were watching Action 7 News on the widescreen television monitor located above the left hand side of the counter. Bluff Dunder, a newscaster in a sangria colored suit with a white shirt, black necktie and square glasses over his grey-blue eyes with dirty blonde hair and pencil moustache, spoke rapidly and dramatically.

"Seemingly indestructible robots have invaded Night Market Square, annihilating everything in their path. Similar reports are occurring on Shimomoto Boulevard and all citizens are to be reminded to stay away from that area."

As he said this, three of the Baymax skeletons jumped from a billboard advertising Flakey's Explosive Flavor and jumped into the screen as it turned into static, apparently killing the cameraman. The audience watched in fear, but Hiro's mind quickly began to coalesce the identity of the very person responsible for this mass destruction.

"I should have seen this coming," Hiro narrowed his eyes. "It's the microbot theft all over again."

Donald was surprised.

"You mean Yama bootlegged Baymax?"

"That means Baymax has succumbed to the darkness in his heart," Goofy said to him.

"I would think of something else,' Fred added, snapping into action while gesticulating. "With all these killer robots loose in the city, I say this is a job for Big Hero 6!"

Go-Go was less than happy to continue her superhero duties. Her reply was:

"The police can handle this."

Then, as if the all-mighty All-Father had been listening to them, the screen switched to a close up of Detective Dick Tracy having gone through a hailstorm of blood and sweat.

"This is Detective Dick Tracy saying that we cannot handle this! And Tess, if you are watching, all I can say is… 'you're one in a million.'"

Watching this from the safety of their apartment, Junior and Tess watched with worried confessions in their hearts. She couldn't bear to lose her husband when she was expected to give birth in another three months. But this scene was all Fred needed to fully convince his teammates to continue on the road to helping others. Go-Go gave into this scene with a begrudging response.

"Fine, let's suit up."

"I'll get Baymax," added Hiro.

"And we'll go with you," Sora told him, with Donald flanked on his right and Goofy on his left.

Hiro seemed to acknowledge this before he and the three travelers dashed out of the café, followed by the remaining human members of Big Hero 6.

When the four arrived at the laboratory, Baymax came out of his luggage, acknowledging the four visitors without hearing any of them say the word "Ow". Perhaps Tadashi's encoded DNA was making him more human.

"You appear to be agitated," he greeted them, tilting his head to the right by five degrees. "What is the matter?"

"The city is under attack!" Hiro tried to be as serious as could, taking his cues from comic books that were darker than normal.

Baymax took two steps out of his luggage and tried to placate him.

"And you feel responsible for Yama taking your idea of duplicating me."

Hiro's guilt began to increase towards a strong level of angst.

"Easy for you to say, Baymax, you're a robot, you cannot even imagine how it feels."

A slumped doodle of a body appeared on Baymax's screen.

"No, but your body level and lack of eye contact tells me that you are experiencing guilt."

Then Hiro looked back at Sora, almost angrily and turned his head back to Baymax.

"If I hadn't forgotten to charge you before we left that night, none of this would have ever happened."

But as per usual, Baymax lifted his right index finger in the direction of the ceiling and said.

"Mistakes are common in human matters. Robots, as humans fit to see them and depending on common opinion, are completely flawless." Hiro found a flat silver credenza holding Baymax's armor in perfect shape. It almost seemed to Sora that another Baymax was standing in there before he, the dog and the duck realized that it was only the armor.

"Time to suit up," Hiro said.

And this time, Baymax deflated by at least fifty pounds in order to making the dressing easier for his master.

On Shimomoto Boulevard, an elderly couple hid behind a red Toyota as three of the exo-skeletons approached them and when it seemed like a Hispanic woman would meet her death from the shot of a plasma cannon, Go-Go swooped into the fray and brought her onto the sidewalk. Then she fired a right disk at the neck of one of the skeletons, which seemed to loosen its head as it shook in a field of purple electricity, exposing its wires.

After Go-Go retrieved her disk, Honey Lemon took over by throwing a cherry red chem-ball that turned ice blue and grew at a precise measurement of nine feet, picking up two of the skeletal Baymaxes and rolling them down the street.

Fred and Wasabi, using an upside down Jeep colored maroon as an impromptu trench, looked over at one of the Exo-Baymaxes facing the girls. Fred had an idea come to his mind.

"Wasabi, one of us has to be a decoy."

"You mean a distraction?"

"Actually, what I mean is—we need a flip point."

Speaking of such things, the Exo-Baymax grabbed a dark blue Honda and thrust it twenty feet into the air. It twirled at least eleven times before it landed on it's roof.

"I could have predicted it," Fred smiled from beneath the eye of his suit. "A flipped car always lands with its wheels up."

Wasabi and Fred went in opposite directions. Fred crawled away on the left while Wasabi rolled to the right, activating his plasma blades. The armor of the exo-skeleton was fireproof as Fred had found out for himself, so Wasabi's left hand blade decapitated the bodice of the skeleton which sent the upper half falling to the floor. The moment gave Wasabi the excitement that had been lost to him over the course of a year.

"I feel great! In fact, my adrenaline's pumping again!"

He stood up with both plasma blades glowing like the hero he was meant to be.

"Okay! Who's next? Bring it, bitches!"

As Wasabi fought off the robots while on his "adrenaline wave", Hiro placed front piece of the upper right leg onto Baymax. The bottom half of the soon-to-be warrior robot was complete.

"Are you sure we couldn't just help you?" asked Sora, who had been watching from the door for any sign of Professor Granville and Miss Lane.

"I am perfectly fine of assembling Baymax's armor on by myself," Hiro told him. "To me, its as easy as solving a puzzle. A puzzle that I can memorize."

"Do you feel any better now?" Baymax asked.

The sound of the doors being flung open by a strong, opposing force rang into their ears. Hiro had to investigate.

"Hold on, Baymax, Sora and I won't be long. Donald, Goofy; you watch over Baymax. I don't want our unwelcome guest to make any attempt at purloining him again."

Goofy and Donald stood by the doorway, watching Sora and Hiro disappear into the hall.

Tiptoeing their wait to the front of the hall, they could see Yama, flanked by three skeletons.

"You! Guard the door!"

The one on his left went off to obey his master's command while the other two on his right stayed to watch him operate a screen displaying a map of the robotics lab. It spoke in calm syllables.

"Welcome to SFIT Virtual Guide. This Saturday: Miraharu Woods Fun Run."

Yama, his patience growing thin, pushed another three buttons before Sora and Hiro felt a familiar touch of vinyl rubber behind their backs: Baymax with Goofy and Donald behind him.

"You were supposed to watch him!" Sora whispered.

"He wanted to help," Goofy tried to explain.

As they conversed quietly, things began to click for Hiro.

"Yama must have sent the other bots as a distraction."

He pulled out his Samsung Galaxy with his right hand from his hoodie pocket and called the others. It had been upgraded to provide radio contact with the team through their helmets.

"Guys! Yama broke into the school! I think he really, really, really, wants that sculpture from Granville's office."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Wasabi shouted from the other line. "That sculpture is nothing more than a paperweight!"

"You should help us, Hiro!" came the voice of Honey.

But Hiro was determined to keep Yama from getting his way.

"No thank you, Baymax, Sora, Goofy, Donald and I will hold off Yama."

Turning over his right shoulder, Hiro spoke to Baymax.

"Time to be a superhero."

"Without the rest of my armor?" Baymax questioned.

"No time!"

They found the exo-skeleton guarding the door, it's back turned to them as they used the right-side corner of the hall as a vantage point.

"I'll take him out my staff," Donald quacked with a wicked smirk on his beak.

He extended his right hand and aimed the tip at the Baymax skeleton. His following command was loud enough for the bot to hear.

"THUNDER!"

A bolt of yellow lightning struck the head of the Baymax skeleton, slow causing it to turn clockwise at its attackers as it jolted and convoluted from the bolt. Slowly but surely, it walked in jagged steps and Hiro's Samsung began to ring. Hiding behind the corner, he answered it as Sora, Goofy and Baymax rushed into the fracas.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Hiro!"

"Aunt Cass? I'm kinda busy."

"Me too! The seafood market was completely jammed, but I got the most amazing deal on butterfish! Also I just got on the train, so I should be home soon, okay!"

"Okay!"

And just like that, Hiro hung up.

Now it should be well known that when there is a great deal of dead butterfish in a bag, their odor is powerful that it creates a horrid smell and while Cass had a strong nose, her fellow passengers had to suffer a half-hour long ride by holding their noses.

Anyway, Hiro watched the fight from the safety of the corner. Baymax, locking his fists with his skeletal brother, turned it around, allowing Hiro to rush over, jump onto the skeleton's back and pull the wires of one yellow, two reds and two blues out. Surrounded by purple electricity, the robot's right hand began to rip through Baymax's vinyl body from the top of his stomach, metaphorically letting his intestines fall out. Seeing the damage done, Baymax looked over to Hiro with a suggestion.

"I am in need of repair."

But the exposed skeletal structure of Baymax only gave Hiro the idea that he could obtain the sculpture right under Yama's nose. And so, he pulled the rest of the skin off with both hands, leaving Baymax completely exposed as he was before.

Watching the events of Hiro's fight against the bots unfold from the safety of the Club Ritz windows, Texie and Ribs turned to face each other as it had seemed that she had a moment of brainstorming.

"Remember when Dubbs told us the location of Yama's hideaway?"

"Yeah, 1020 Pine Street. Why do you ask, Texie?"

Texie placed her hands together and formulated the plan out loud.

"This could be the opportunity we need to get my money back. After that, we can ensure that Dubbs won't turn his back on us."

Ribs was confused.

"You mean kill him?"

"No, I'll have either Hy or Danny watch over him. Let's take the car and go."

Leaving from their seats and with their respective firearms already loaded in their pockets and pocketbook, Texie and Ribs rushed down to the garage into Big Boy's blue Cadillac. Fortunately on their part, Yama had left the hideout unguarded, having relieved his human foot-soldiers from duty in light of his Baymax army being superior in comparison.

Close by, Honey had finished off the last member of the Baymax army with a pink chem-ball, encasing it into the substance. Then by pressing her right index finger onto the left shoulder blade, it dissolved into a magenta substance of smoke. She looked over to Fred and asked.

"You okay, Freddie?"

"Yes, I am, thanks to you. You may not see it, Honey, but underneath, there is so much winking going on in here."

Honey raised her right eyebrow by an inch, unsure of the authenticity behind Fred's words.

Back at the campus just outside of Professor Granville's office, almost every loose object was being ransacked by the Baymax army. A green swivel chair, a blue broom, a computer monitor, hairspray cans and other menial devices were all that Hiro and his cabal could see as they watched Yama and the two skeletons approach the office to the left of Granville's. Yama's left hand grabbed the door handle and shoot it with frustration. He needed that crystal.

"It needs a key card," he whispered.

Then his tone went loud as he snapped his left thumb and index fingers to signal the closest skeleton.

"Here's my key card!"

The skeleton's right arm curled into a fist, reached way back and pushed it forwards, knocking the door down.

"Search every nook and cranny!" came the second command before the two bots went in and Yama followed after them. This would be Baymax's cue to enter.

"Baymax," Hiro whispered to his brother's creation. "I need you to act like one of the bad ones."

Baymax, aiming his left index finger upwards, rebutted.

"I am afraid that is not a command I understand."

"Just do what they do and get the sculpture!" Hiro muttered calmly.

As Baymax passed Hiro on his way towards the office, Sora confronted Hiro over his left shoulder.

"You could have sent us, you know. We could have taken Yama out just like that."

He snapped his right fingers as he said this, but it seemed that Hiro had a point.

"It'll be easier this way. Baymax will grab the sculpture and we'll take it to Tracy for investigation, he'll know what is so special about it."

Baymax passed the office to find the two skeletons throwing out files, paperwork and manuscripts into piles behind them. Insecure, he rotated his head back to Hiro, whose left hand motioned for him to continue to the next room, which would be Granville's. Taking eight steps forward to the next door, Baymax looked back to Hiro, who nodded with a left thumb up and with his own right hand, Baymax opened the door without effort.

The door creaked open, bringing light into the darkness. Baymax's eyes gave a mint green twinkle as a scan ray from his photoreceptors scanned the left-hand side of the room and found the crystal on the desk. It stopped right there and with a match from his readout, he had found the sculpture, picked it up with his right and before he could turn…

"You! Weren't you supposed to be guarding the door?"

Yama and his skeletal bodyguards were standing before the door and before he could take great account into the lack of red in Baymax's eyes, he ordered the two clones:

"Never mind! Search the room!"

One took the left while the other took the right, knocking down the shelves and searching vainly for the crystal that was in Baymax's right hand. Knocking over the desk with the crystal, Yama walked to the right and the original Baymax began his trek to leave the room. The mission would have been successfully…if it had not been for the hardcover copy of Thomas Moore's Utopia, falling on Yama's crown while he tried to search the bookshelf. Hearing the "OW!" Baymax was one foot away from leaving, when his duties of helping others above everything else came back to him. Hiro saw him turn clockwise back to the room and cringed as he cursed in Japanese.

"Kuso robotto!"

As Yama smoothed his forehead with his right hand, Baymax took the opportunity to introduce himself.

"Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Yama turned to face him.

"I was alerted to the need of medical attention when you said 'ow'."

But as he said the final word, his right hand holding the crystal went up, exposing it in front of Yama. His face lit up as he craned his head ten inches closer to him and snapped his left fingers, ordering the robots.

"Kill him."

The two skeletons on both sides restrained him by the shoulder joints. Baymax, his head rotating left and right, knew that there was nowhere else to go.

"Oh no."

The two evils pushed him down to the floor, restraining him as Yama's left hand obtained the sculpture. Looking up to see Hiro and Sora standing before him in the doorway.

"Game's over, Zero!"

"The name is Hiro, motherfucker! Get him, Sora."

Brandishing the Kingdom Chain in his left hand, Sora rushed in and before Yama could reach for his gun, he felt the teeth slamming into right cheek, knocking him and the crystal to the floor. A quarter portion of the sculpture shattered as it made contact with the ground, revealing a bright green glow. It's shining reflection marked Hiro's face. He leaped into the air by five feet, extending his right hand to reach the crystal…and he was three inches close to it when Yama did the same.

Their foreheads collided with each other as the movement of their hands pushed the crystal into the air, then like a magnet to a refrigerator, the exposed area of the sculpture found itself moving to the back of the exoskeleton restraining the Baymax on the left. It seemed to resist the crystal for a second or two before it exposed the network circuitry in the same color as the sculpture's interior. The eyes turned light green as well, taking it over as it delivered a right jab to Baymax's photoreceptors. With quick thinking, Baymax rolled out of the way. Then grabbing him by his neck, his evil twin, spun him around counterclockwise at a breakneck rate. After a second, it stopped and threw Baymax towards the window, which shattered into a hundred and eighty pieces upon impact and fell into the concrete below.

"Baymax!" screamed Hiro upon seeing this.

He, Goofy, Sora and Donald rushed over to Baymax, who was hanging from the frame by his left hand, intending to pull him back up.

It was fortunate for him that the Baymax twin that had been engulfed by the power of the crystal, became too much for it as the power began to leak into rays from its behind, it stopped, jolted, convoluted and its head fell off in the front. Then Hiro saw the rest of the skeleton's body kneel to the floor and fall front first. Yama picked the sculpture up with his right hand, taking in this newly discovered detail of a hidden treasure.

"No wonder he wants it," he whispered in a voice he hoped that Sora and the others wouldn't hear.

Satisfied with this reason, Yama turned counterclockwise to leave the room with the surviving Baymax skeleton.

Hiro was now torn between going after Yama and saving Baymax from a thirty foot drop to the pavement and Sora felt the same as did his friends. All four agreed that they would be successful in pulling Baymax back to safety as he said.

"This is not safe, if you do not let me go. You might fall."

Hiro strained to pull him back up; refusing to let his brother's creation die.

"But then you will fall too!" Hiro tried to reason.

His head went back to Sora and said.

"Ready? One, two, three. PULLLLL!"

The chain of living organisms, pulled the machine up over the balsa framework. First Baymax's head came to the other side, then his mid-section and finally his legs were resting on the overturned desk. Having fallen on their backs from the final thrust, Hiro and the others sat up just in time to see the rest of Big Hero 6 entering the school from the window.

"This seems like a positive outcome," was all Baymax had to say.

Honey, noticing Baymax looking over them from the window, urged the team to rush into Granville's office, taking them a half-minute to reach the others.

"So what happened?" asked Go-Go

"That paperweight of a sculpture seemed to have some type of source of power inside it."

Fred processed Hiro's words with his own thoughts.

"Whatever plot device the villain wants to get is never what it seems. Granville's sculpture probably has some untold power."

Wasabi almost found it hard to believe, asking.

"But why would Yama want it and why would Granville have something so dangerous on her desk?"

"To create the most powerful robotic army in this world," was Sora's guess.

"And the power Granville uses it for, is to hold down papers."

"We can come to the conclusions later," Hiro told them before leaving for Tadashi's lab. "Right now, we have to get that sculpture from Yama and see if Detective Tracy knows exactly what it is."

Once he was in Tadashi's lab, he reskinned Baymax, taped the damage on his body and found his purple suit in the closet that held the rest of Baymax's armor as Sora, Goofy and Donald went after him to help dress the robot. First he dressed in his jumpsuit, placed the right glove on as he strapped it around his wrist, changed his shoes, then the other glove, the chest and shoulder plates and finally, his helmet. After Baymax had inflated to the approximate limit that his armor could hold, Hiro removed Tadashi's cap from the desk lamp, holding in both hands as if Tadashi's own spirit had come to him like that.

"Don't worry, nii-san, I'm going to set everything right."

So while Hiro and Sora raced off to find Yama, his unguarded headquarters were invaded by two unsuspecting guests.

Texie and Ribs had taken the elevator to the top, accurately assuming that Yama's office was there. Sliding the door open with both hands and turning on the light switch, they scoured the office, Texie taking the front and Ribs to the back.

"Where could Dubbs have put my money? I'll bet some of it is still on his person."

She wondered out loud as she placed her right hand on the left drawer of the desk before her. Pulling it open, revealed to be a pile of eight documents with Yama's signature on it…his assets.

"These could come in handy," she said to Ribs. "Got a pencil?"

Before Ribs could comply, she saw a black pall point pen with a white eraser in its rear right by the left of the documents.

"Never mind."

Her dainty hands began work on erasing Yama's name from each signature, first the insurance, then the deed, among other legalities before folding them into her pocketbook.

"What do you suppose the documents are for?" Ribs asked as they left the office.

"I figured I could pay Yama out by declaring ownership of his assets. Should anything happen to it, I will be the one to collect the insurance. All I have to do is show these documents to the company and the money is as good as mine."

But no sooner had they left when they heard pounding footsteps followed by the death throes of a cat crying out from being squished. Texie and Ribs plastered themselves to the wall as Yama came running through the water-logged alleyway, holding the iPhone in his left hand.

"This is not just an alloy! You could have told me!"

The voice on the other line, Obake, was calm in direct contrast to Yama's rapid-fire emotions.

"Why would I do that? You are nothing more than a dog fetching a bowl, bring me a bowl."

With the coast clear, Texie and Ribs raced back to their car as Yama stopped at the other side of the alley.

"I would love to," Yama continued before noticing the glow of the crystal in his pockets. "But I'd better go. Little Yama's broken!"

Flying from his Keyblade Glider alongside Baymax, Sora called Detective Tracy on his cell phone. It was fortunate that he still had his number from last year as a reward for the capture of Yokai. Holding to his right ear, he waited patiently for the reply, keeping his eyes on the path ahead of him.

"Leave a message," came the recording.

After the beep was heard, Sora spoke carefully into the receiver.

"Detective Tracy, if you want to catch Yama, you can find him at…"

"Scanning for Yama," was the voice of Baymax coming into his ears. "He is at Downtown Station."

"Downtown Station," repeated Sora before closing the phone. Luckily, Tracy had picked up his message while on patrol nearby and called the chief through his two-way wrist radio.

Baymax's readout also picked up the contents of the crystal in a very complexly written diagram. Hiro picked this up in his wrist computers.

"Nano induction."

"Could you please explain that?" asked Fred, hopping three times over to him.

"That's what's happening inside that sculpture. I could amplify anything electronic to a very dangerous level."

But he was even more horrified by the fact that Aunt Cass was on the el train, which was due to stop at the very spot where Yama was heading.

Onboard the train, Cass' strong nose compared to her unfortunate passengers only urged her to sing as she held the damp bag in her lap, her right leg crossed over the other.

"Butterfish…butterfish…"

"WOULD YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING ASS!"

Cass turned to the afro in the bright yellow tank top and resumed her ditty at a very low volume.

Yama's breaths were huffed by the time he reached the station entrance. His right foot had just touched the first step of the escalator when there came a creepy voice, that was hollow, ghostly and godly.

"Yama…the spirit of justice awaits."

"What spirit?"

Yama initially believed that was reliving a scene straight out of A Christmas Carol, in which a ghostly trio would put him on the path to an unneeded redemption…

But what he saw in front of him made his heart stop…

The figure that stood before him wore a black fedora with a long brim and a matching trench coat with gloves, boots and a cape that seemed to be of floor length. The only color found with in the figure was a blood red scarf that covered his mouth, his long nose extending over it and the rest of his face, most notably his eyes and eyebrows, were shadowed by the brim. The hilts of a twosome of bleached Colt 1911s could be seen in pockets on either side close to his elbows, yet he looked pretty menacing and a clear threat to the corrupted soul who ever dared to stoop far below the common morals that made humanity a decent kind.

Yama stepped back from the figure, his fears overcoming him.

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not letting you take this!"

When he said "this!" his right hand reached for the crystal and pulled it out of his pocket, holding it in plain sight for the figure to see. The figure just gave Yama a long, infectious yet evil laughter and drew his breath back in.

"You have no idea what that even is."

His left hand pulled out the Colt on that side and fired one bullet at the crystal, which broke off five pieces upon impact and Yama, losing his grip, watched it fall to the escalator. The sudden speed increased to twenty miles per hour and the figure disappeared into a cloud of grey smoke just in time to let Yama pass onto the train tracks. He watched it fly over his right shoulder and in the distance, it collided with the front grill of the el train. The express, glowing with green energy, rocketed through the station on a breakneck speed of 90 miles per hour. Seeing this, Yama rolled out of the way, letting the train pass him by and assuming that the figure was still there, hiding somewhere in particular, he ran down the escalator and through the entrance, falling before the lower half of a familiar yellow trenchcoat belonging to Detective Tracy. Yama, now seeing Tracy as an angel of mercy, stood up and grabbed him by the lapels of his coat, almost shaking the hawk-nosed, plainclothes detective out of his wits.

"Lock me up! Lock me up! Just get me away from him!"

He felt his wrists being cuffed by Sam Catchem, almost sighing in relief.

"Him who?" Tracy asked indignantly with his hands on his hips.

"He was all black and everything!" Yama's voice was genuinely frantic compared to the policemen.

"I'll see to that," Tracy gave him a sly smile before turning to his squad car and walking away from him. "But I hope you'll enjoy a week of prison food for turning yourself in."

The thought of prison food almost made Yama regret his decision.

Up above them, Sora and Baymax, with their compadres riding alongside them, hey spotted the runaway train zipping around a curve and down a straight line. Cass held on for dear life, hugging the bag of butterfish close to her chest. The electricity spawned a branch that connected to a titanium cable, bringing down one of the twenty wind turbines that provided clean to the city. Now, unless an insurance company would demand its reconstruction, there now about nineteen of them.

Baymax, Sora, Goofy, Donald and Big Hero 6, all flew above the third passenger car of the train, the train itself heading straight towards Central Terminal. Any minute and there would be a bloodbath of a crash. Hiro was not willing to lose another family member, so he ordered his commands:

"Go-Go! Wasabi! Cut off the engine from the rest of the train! Fred and Honey, you try to slow it down! Sora! You do the same!"

Donald looked over at Hiro, watching Baymax drop Go-Go and Wasabi from his left side before his eyes peered at the engine and he summoned his mage's staff.

"I know what to do…"

After carrying Wasabi on her back, Go-Go threw him onto the rear of the train and began to slide her way to the right side just as Donald fired a spell from the staff.

"STOPGA!"

Everything had come to a complete stop and it only took Go-Go six seconds to realize that the train was perfectly motionless. While it effected the passengers inside, those outside where unaffected due to not being within the spell's range. This gave Wasabi an opportunity to find his own courage and rush to the coupler connecting the passenger cars to the engine before the spell had time to wear off.

After running for a mere seven seconds, Wasabi looked down to find the coupling. His right hand activated the plasma blade and he leaped down to the rear platform, easily slicing off the coupling. Then, while preparing for the spell to die, he plastered himself against the passenger cars in a crucified position.

It did not take any longer than another twelve seconds for the passenger cars to resume their normal speed. Honey, holding onto the top of Fred, dropped from Baymax onto the track and shot a yellow chem-ball at the rapidly moving passenger cars. With shut eyes, Wasabi braced himself against being encased in a rubbery honey-colored substance that took the wind out of Aunt Cass, expressing the tantamount emotions excitement that a child would find after riding on a roller-caster.

None of the passengers were seriously injured, but a strong smell of butterfish hung in the air. Cas went over to pick up all eight of the fishes from her now disgruntled travelling companions, apologizing as she placed them back into her bag.

As for Hiro, Goofy, Donald, Baymax and Sora, they knew that they would be the only ones left to stop the engine, whose driver was in a state of panic to activate the brakes. When he saw the heroes, they would be the brakes for him.

Baymax landed on his hands and feet as soon as they were about fifty feet away from the engine, nearly a half-mile away from Central Terminal. The engine pushed into them ad Baymax used his own eight against it. Sora, from his glider, aimed the Keyblade at the damaged rear coupling and fired a chain hoping to at least slow it down by pulling it back with a chain. He did not have be a science major in gravity to know that pulling on it would stop the incredibly speeding engine.

The lights of Central Terminal grew closer and closer by ten feet each. Hiro holding his breath, held out his right hand and commanded it.

"Magno-locks on!"

A struggle of four seconds passed, then the crystal began to shake and soon it had stuck into Hiro's right glove.

At last the engine came to a complete stop just fifty feet before the terminal and all seemed to have become a complete success before the power of the crystal engulfed Baymax in green energy, holding him in a stasis position.

"Overcharge," he said before his right hand flew from his real one.

"Overcharge," then the other one.

"Overcharge."

With that final word, Baymax shot into the air, quicker before Sora, having retracted the chain could say.

"Hang on, Hiro. We'll save you!"

3,000 feet up, taller than any skyscraper or wind turbine, Hiro did not dare to let go of the crystal, grimacing before he grasped it with both hands, using the readout from his visor to perform a manual override.

"Reverse polarity!" was his command.

The crystal grew bigger, almost changing in shape from the way Hiro's hands motioned it back and forth before he let it all go and thrust it another 2,000 feet into the air. His vision was nearly blinded as the crystal expanded into a bright light that pushed him off of Baymax's magnetic back. Baymax's rockets also cut off and the both of them were sending their bodies back to Earth.

Looks like I'll be seeing you again, Tadashi. Unless something happens to me.

And it did…in the form of Sora on his Keyblade Glider. Hiro landed in his arms and move to the back of Sora with the glider rushing down to reach Baymax before he would shatter into hundreds of pieces upon impact. Sora aimed the tip of the Keyblade at Baymax's back and the chain spawned out of it. At a thousand feet, the chain whirled to Baymax's right side and wrapped around his bodice, squeezing it like a snake. The power of the glider proved it's worth and Baymax found himself hovering above the ground by three hundred feet.

"Sora, you were wonderful!" Hiro hugged his new brother-figure from behind.

Sora took this with admiration, he had gained Hiro's trust for the first time in a year.

They brought Baymax safely down after finding the four other members and a switcher had been sent to collect the depowered engine and the detached passenger cars. Wasabi peered to the girls, expressing his thoughts on the events that had recently taken place.

"We were this close to disaster today," he told them, making "ok" shapes with his hands.

"Fortunately, it wasn't," Go-Go smiled, her personality relaxed.

"Not to mention we saved the city," Honey's smile was as big as her friend's.

"I was right all along," Fred told them. "Together we can make a difference."

He extended his right hand out and this time, all the others, save Sora, Goofy and Donald, given their status as honorary members, joined him.

"To the power of six!"

The rest of the night passed quickly for Hiro having getting used to the pungent odor of butterfish for dinner, but in the morning, he found Professor Granville in her office, surveying the damage done to her property with Miss Lane.

"I wonder what could have happened here?" he asked the professor, feigning surprise.

"There are many unanswered questions," Professor Granville was peering into the base where her crystal should have been as Miss Lane took her own time to re-sort the bookshelf. The blonde teacher turned her head over her left shoulder to Hiro, who was approaching Granville.

"Can we help you in anyway, Hiro?"

Hiro faced the two women and gave his thoughts in a clear, condensing speech.

"I have been thinking about you have said about balance, Professor Granville, and I think it is time I forged my own path with Tadashi's. Tadashi found his own balance by taking risks, one of the last things that he said to me was that 'somebody has to help' and he will always be my inspiration. But since I am just a separate person instead of a carbon-copy like you would expect, I have to figure out how to exactly be my own self. To prove this, you may expect some mistakes from me."

Miss Lane gave Hiro a loving smile, but Professor Granville, as stern as ever, accepted the speech as fact before asking.

"You mean like impatient shortcuts and dangerous risks?"

"To be specific," Hiro replied sheepishly before going serious again. "Yes."

"Then it will be good for you," Professor Granville began to display a smile that was warm and welcome. "And for the rest of the year as well. Perhaps Tadashi's legacy will serve as a reminder for your mistakes."

And before Hiro even realized it, Miss Lane had pulled him into a bear hug, which took some five seconds for him to adjust before he wrapped his arms around her in return. Then, confident, inspired and motivated, he left the office and looked forward a brand new day.


Only one being stood before the light energy green monitors of his lair, watching Big Hero 6 in action the following night. Obake had been muttering the name six times as he stood before the controls. He was not alone, mind you, for he had help from a force that had connections with the supernatural (hence his name) and would seek audience with this ally by turning clockwise to the chamber behind him.

The chamber was large, but dark, with six pillars, three on each side, surrounding a rotunda that seemed to be about thirty-three feet in length, the floor being marked with a myriad of ancient symbols from Asian culture and mythology. Above Obake just after the other side of the circle, was a stained-glass window modelled directly after the type seen in the halls of Hollow Bastion. The window was round and had sixty petals of purple, mixed with red, blue and green surrounding a cross. It was lit by eight sets of white neon lights, bringing life and color into the chamber.

The only other light was in the middle of the room, shining off of a woman kneeling with shut eyes and her hands clasping a silver katana with a golden guard. The woman was clad in a nun's habit that was as white as snow, and her mouth was concealed by a matching balaclava that only exposed her nose, her eyes of blue purity and black eyebrows.

When Obake appeared before the nun, bowing in deep homage to her religious background, she spoke in a voice that was soft, yet it seemed to echo across the chamber in small vibrations. Obake did not dare to meet the eyes with his own, keeping his focus on his black boots.

"Sister Esclarmonde, I want you to know that—"

"I have already sensed it."

Still keeping his eyes to his boots, Obake asked in confusion.

"You have?"

"Yes." Sister Esclarmonde emphasized the danger as she continued. "Our situation is most precarious. We have a new enemy in our midst. Without a doubt, they and the young Keyblader are the same belligerents who had defeated Robert Callaghan in his successful attempt at purging the original Alistair Krei of his sins."

"Big Hero 6," Obake muttered for the seventh time that evening.

"In spite of their name, they do not seek the same route of vengeance and justice as I have done before. We must purge their souls into the afterlife or they will be our undoing."

Obake reflected for a moment. Perhaps there was a way they could use Big Hero 6 to aid their cause.

"Perhaps we could use them against our own enemies once the city becomes ours. They would make a powerful ally against the traditionalists."

Sister Esclarmonde considered the possibility.

"Yes…they would make a great asset when they see the mission of justice from my eyes. Can it be done?"

Then Obake took the moment to look deep into the eyes of the Light.

"They will join us, or we can kill them."

With that, the encounter had come to an end.