Chapter 1

~Everything Starts With a Bang~

Only thirty minutes ago, Hiro had begged his parents to let him watch the testing of their newest experiment. When they finally relented he punched the air with a large toothy grin of victory.

Hiro's father, Tomeo, was an inventor and Hiro aspired to be like him. Maemi, his mother, was a scientist. Together his parents had taken the engineering and scientific community by storm with their new inventions and groundbreaking research. As much as they loved their work, they treasured their family even more. Every spare moment they had would be spent with Tadashi and Hiro.

"Thanks mom, thanks dad." Hiro frantically ran up the stairs to get dressed but not before saying bye to Tadashi who was off to university.

Hiro was a child genius. He had graduated high school when he was 13 and had refused to go to university, instead investing his time in illegal bot fights, much to the dismay of his brother, Tadashi, who was currently 20 years old.

A loud knock could be heard from the front door. Hiro had scurried back downstairs to see who it was, swinging the door wide open, he was greeted by a familiar face.

Alistair Krei.

Hiro looked up in awe at the man in front of him.

"Y-you're Alistair Krei."

"That's right kiddo. Your parents home?" The businessman smiled politely.

Before Hiro could answer, his parents ushered Alistair, and the several other members behind him, straight to the basement lab. The basement had walls lined with metal and a control room, which towered over the main floor where the experiments were usually built. Hiro had hurriedly followed suit, not wanting to miss a second of the experiment.

From hearing and reading news reports, he always had high expectations of his parents work.

But now, just twenty minutes into the presentation of the experiment, Hiro was already bored. The concept of the experiment was interesting but the amount of time spent going into detail and explanation for the 'lesser minds' to understand, was tiring. He made himself as small as possible as he stood behind the seated audience in a corner. Blowing the bangs away from his face, he stuffed his hands in his hoodie's pockets and heaved a sigh.

The experiment was a portal; a hole they had ripped into another dimension, an alien world that was untouched by humans. It emitted an eerie green glow and you could see wispy patterns of swirls on the surface.

It wasn't until they had started the test portion that piqued Hiro's interest. A test pilot was asked to suit up and venture into the portal. He pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on and tried to peer over the ledge to see the pod that was preparing to launch.

"Ready to go for a ride Abigail?" Maemi asked.

"We've invited all these people, might as well give them a show." She cheekily replied.

Once launched, Hiro was captivated by the images the video feed was bringing back. There was green everywhere; it was never ending, no matter which direction you looked in. It got to the stage where it was dizzying to stare at one point for a prolonged period of time.

When inside the portal, Abigail discovered that she was weightless; there was no presence of gravity so it was as if she was in space. The experiments she conducted were progressing at a fast pace, and the readings taken were all more or less what they were expecting. All seemed normal.

But then, 15 minutes later…

"I think we've picked up a slight irregularity with the ectoplasmic concentration." Tomeo said.

Krei peered over his shoulder, glancing at the wide range of readings they were receiving. "Is that a problem?"

Tomeo was furiously typing away at the keyboard, looking even more at a loss for words as he analysed the data thoroughly.

"Sir, there's something in the distance and it's getting closer." Abigail narrowed her eyes; it was hard to distinguish green shapes from a similarly coloured background.

From the video feed, there was indeed a green mass hurtling in the direction of the pilot. Hiro's eyes widened, within the glowing green blob, he could see a pair of red orbs. Eyes that were staring directly at the camera, and this sent a shiver down Hiro's spine.

"Forget this, I'm getting out of here." The urgency in Abigail's voice rose as she feared for her life. She jumped into action and throttled the pod back towards the portal.

Maemi pulled the head of the microphone towards her. "How far are they?"

"They're right behind me." Came the hurried reply.

There was a tense atmosphere. Everyone was sat on the edge of their seats, staring intently at the portal, waiting for the pilot to reappear.

Abigail screamed. "I am not alone. Repeat. I am no- ."

And then there was static, leaving an eerie silence in the control room.

"We've lost all contact with the pod!" Maemi shouted.

Suddenly the room was casted in a pulsing red light and a shrill alarm beeped. Hiro covered his ears, looking back and forth at his parents; he wanted to help but was afraid that he would just get in the way.

"Shut the machine down." Krei raised his voice and jabbed a finger at Tomeo.

"But the pilot would be trapped!" Tomeo stood his ground. "We have to give her a chance."

"No! We close the portal, now. You heard what she said; she's not alone. We cannot risk letting those things come through." His voice was now more forceful. "Shut down this machine, Hamada."

"I-I won't! Abigail still has a chance."

Alistair was furious. Forcefully, he pushed Tomeo away from his desk and took over his position. Krei's hands were a blur over the control panel, freezing then and again to read the number of red warnings that began to grow on the screen at an alarming rate.

Noticing this, Maemi got out from her seat. "Everyone, evacuate the building! The portal is overloading, it's going to destroy itself."

But it was too late. There was a deafening bang, in addition to the sound of metal being torn from the walls and glass being shattered. Behind the billowing black smoke from the control panel, the portal erupted blinding green light.

Time slowed down in front of Hiro's eyes. He could see his mother's hand outstretched towards him, the growing green flames licking at her figure whereas his father was already engulfed in it. He could feel the intense heat wrapping around him and the oxygen escaping his lungs. Hiro reached forwards to meet her and then everything turned black.

Tadashi was currently at university, enjoying his lunch with the rest of his friends when he received a call. Not recognising the number, he hesitantly picked up.

"Hello? Is this Tadashi Hamada?" A curt, clean-cut voice came from his phone.

"Yes. Who's speaking?"

"I'm Dr John Smith, I work at the San Fransokyo Central Hospital."

Suddenly the caller had Tadashi's full-undivided attention. Something was wrong. Immediately alert, Tadashi's back straightened and his eyes narrowed.

"It's about your family… There was an accident."

The experiment, he thought.

"There's no easy way to put this, but…"

From the tone of the doctor's voice, Tadashi could already hear the words that had yet to be spoken.

"Your parents are dead. I'm so sorry for your loss."

It took a moment to register, his eyes widening with realisation. His breathing quickened and his hands were shaking. Tears were already building up in his eyes. He couldn't believe it; his parents were fine this morning, excited about showing off their latest invention. How could they be here and gone the next?

"Mr Hamada?" The phone echoed.

His friends, noticing the sudden change in atmosphere and Tadashi's mood, began to look questioningly in his direction.

"H-Hiro?" he managed to breathe out. "My brother. What about him?"

"There is some good news. He's alive! Your brother has a couple of cuts, bruises and minor burns. He's currently unconscious, but I'd guess he'll be awake in a couple of hours."

"I'll be right there."

Tadashi snapped his phone shut and rushed out of the canteen, not even noticing the frantic shouts of his name from the rest of his friends. He jumped on his scooter and raced to the hospital with tears slowly blurring his vision.

His mind only concentrated on the one thing he had left.

Hiro.

Tadashi burst into the hospital room. His eyes settled on an unconscious Hiro covered in bandages. Tears flowing freely, he walked towards the bed. Tadashi thanked whatever Gods existed for at least sparing his little brother from a fiery death like their parents. He placed a hand on Hiro's head and ran it through the crow's nest that was his hair. Feeling relief from knowing that Hiro was physically here, alive, he sank into the chair beside the bed, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down.

There would be no more silly little moments with his family, no more of his mother's pancakes or building robots with his father. The photo albums of cheesy family pictures would be brought to an abrupt halt, and seeing their parents grow old well would never become a reality.

Tadashi thought back to all the times he had gotten into fights with his parents or shrugged them off when they wanted to do something together. He wasn't perfect, even he had his rebellious stage, and although he had grown out of it now, he still regretted it deeply. The saying: 'You don't know what you have until it's gone' rang true. And now, Hiro was the only immediate family he had left. He would make sure to treasure his brother even more now.

Hiro clenched his eyes shut, the blinding whiteness of the room making his head hurt and spin. Attempting to open his eyes, he blinked rapidly and squinted at the ceiling. He tried lifting an arm to shield his eyes and found that he was unable to, he groaned and instead tried to bury himself deeper in the warm cocoon of the duvet.

Tadashi, upon hearing Hiro, jumped out of his seat. "Hiro?"

Said boy, suddenly realising that he was not alone, forced his eyes open. He turned his head to see a blurry image of what appeared to be Tadashi looming over him.

"Hiro! You're awake!" Tadashi enveloped the boy in a tight hug. "How are you feeling?"

It took a while for Hiro to get his bearings before even registering the question his brother asked. He looked down at his hands, each one was heavily covered in bandages. Flexing his fingers lightly, he winced at how sore they were. Eyes still clouded with confusion, Hiro looked around the room, squinting at the bright lights.

"You're in the hospital right now." Tadashi said, gently placing a hand on his little brother's shoulder.

And then it came to him and what had happened a few hours prior. Hiro looked at Tadashi with wide eyes filled with worry.

"Mom? Dad?"

And the look from Tadashi said it all. Tears were forming before he had even heard a word.

"They're gone, Hiro."

He couldn't comprehend what was happening. Hiro always treated his mind like a computer and it worked systematically. How could something be here and then gone the next. In computers there would always be a back up copy or something to revive the file. But in this case, the only copies of his parents were gone and they would never be seen again. He found himself wrapped in Tadashi's comforting arms. Hiro sobbed into Tadashi's chest and the older brother held him tight.

Hearing the sound of the door creaking open, they broke apart.

It was Aunt Cass.

Tear tracks could be seen on her face and her eyes were already red and puffy. As calmly as she could muster, she headed over to the boys. Without a word, she crushed both Hiro and Tadashi in a hug, stroking their heads softly.

"It's going to be okay, we'll get through this." She whispered, sniffling.

When they separated, she ruffled Hiro's hair.

"Are you okay?" Aunt Cass asked.

Hiro knew she wasn't referring to the situation at hand but instead on his injuries. He gave a teary smile and nodded before brushing the tear tracks from his face.

Aunt Cass turned towards Tadashi and pushed him to sit down in the chair beside the bed.

"I'm going to ask the doctor if Hiro can come home with us. I'll be right back." Aunt Cass sniffed. Straightening herself out, she walked out of the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

'Home.' Hiro pondered. 'Where was home now?'

In the next couple of days, Tadashi refused to go to university and insisted he stay to keep an eye on Hiro. Aunt Cass did not have the luxury to take a break and opened the café the next day, as it was her only source of income. They had dusted off and briefly tidied the room that they would stay in during the summers that their parents were away at conferences. Now they would be staying here permanently.

Hiro absentmindedly tinkered on an old robot. His mind was preoccupied, still trying to digest how much had changed since that fateful day; trying to ignore the twinge he would feel from his heavy heart. Not concentrating on what his hands were doing, he accidentally shocked himself.

Hiro jolted out of his reverie. "Ow!" He immediately felt a burning sensation going through his body, as if he were being set on fire on the inside, making him nauseous. But as quickly as the spike of pain came, it was gone again. (*1) He gripped his finger tightly as he breathed heavily, trying to quell the pain.

*Fwoosh*

Hiro slowly turned his head to the source of the noise. His eyes landed on a towering robotic marshmallow that blinked at him twice. The chubby robot's feet squeaked as he walked across the wooden floor. It smartly navigated its way around Tadashi's bed to Hiro, knocking a pile of books in the process.

"Hello. I am Baymax." The white marshmallow looking robot waved his hand. "Your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted to the need of medical attention when you said 'ow'. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?" The robot tilted his head.

This was the first time that Hiro had seen Baymax other than from his brother's sketches that he had sneakily rifled through. Tadashi must have brought him home after the funeral to continue working on him, he guessed.

"Uhh, hi Baymax. I'm fine, y-you can go ahead and shrink now."

"I will scan you now."

"No, don't sca-"

"Scan complete!"

"Unbelieveable." Hiro's palm met his forehead.

"It appears your temperature is low and you have a small, minor burn on your index fingertip. I would suggest running it under cold water and applying – "

"It's okay, I can handle it." But Baymax was not finished.

"You are also infected by an unidentified substance in your bloodstream and DNA."

Hiro shook his head, wishing that the robot would finish his diagnosis and shrink back into its case.

"Uh huh… infected with an unknown substance." His expression was incredulous; Tadashi probably hadn't finished programming Baymax and updating his medical knowledge. "Oh really, can you tell me it's chemical composition?" Hiro said, playing along with the robot.

A picture showed up of the chemical structure on Baymax's chest.

Hiro rolled his eyes as he placed his old robot on his desk and turned to look at the projection on Baymax's chest.

He froze.

"That's…that's ectoplasm." Hiro immediately recognized it from his parents' experiment.

"Ectoplasm." Baymax repeated. "I will add this to my medical database."

"But how can that be?" Hiro's brows furrowed as he scratched his chin. His mind was already recounting the events from the day of the experiment. During the explosion, who knew what sort of chemicals had infected him or what kinds of side effects he would suffer. He started pacing back and forth with Baymax's head following his movement.

"Your cortisol levels are rising. It would appear that you are stressed. Can I suggest-."

"I'm fine, Baymax," Hiro waved the robot off.

"Hiro are you okay? Who are you talking to up there?" Tadashi's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Quick, how do I get you back into your suitcase?" Hiro said, launching himself on Baymax's head, applying as much force as he could muster to push Baymax back into his red case.

Baymax blinked. "I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care."

"Then, I'm satisfied with my care." Hiro said quickly in hushed tones.

"Hiro?" Tadashi asked, reaching the top of the stairs.

"Yeah? I was just talking to myself." He nervously laughed, a hand at the back of his head.

"Okay." Tadashi raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you want anything to eat, come downstairs. Aunt Cass is letting us raid the rejects."

"Awesome, I'll be right there." He grinned.

After taking a plate and filling it with a more than generous amount of oddly shaped cookies and doughnuts, Hiro made his way back up the stairs. Placing his plate on his bedside table, he eagerly stuffed a bite of the doughnut into his mouth, relishing at the sweet taste of the custard filling.

Digging out an old microscope and slides, Hiro quickly cleaned the equipment from the dirt and dust that had settled there. He wanted to see for himself if what Baymax said was true. Was he really infected with ectoplasm? Following that, he carefully pricked his finger, letting a droplet of blood fall on to the slide before placing it under the microscope.

What he saw was confusing. His blood appeared normal, but upon closer inspection, there were little green neon flecks inside which must be the ectoplasm, he deduced. Hiro was captivated by the fact that the ectoplasm making up another world had somehow integrated itself into Hiro's chemical makeup.

Over time, Hiro became obsessed with the subject. As his research continued, he moved on from what he recalled from his parent's observations and notes, and started collecting journals from other researchers. Strangely, most of it would lead to the supernatural, but Hiro had no proof that ghosts existed and so dismissed it as a dead end.

He refused to tell Tadashi. With all that had happened, his older brother had taken on a lot more responsibilities and Hiro knew he could be a handful. He didn't want to add to Tadashi's plate.

Days passed, and everyday he would hide himself away in his shared room, buried under books and sheets of notes. All that was on Hiro's mind was his parent's research. But today was different.

Today was the funeral of his parents.

Hiro was currently fumbling around with his tie, taking care to straighten out his suit carefully. He looked at himself in the mirror. However it wasn't warm chocolate brown eyes that were staring back at him. They were piercing neon green eyes that were glowing. Not expecting this, Hiro yelped and jumped back.

"Hiro? Are you ready?" Tadashi called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Coming!" Hiro called back, when he looked to the mirror again, his green eyes were gone. He blinked hard, as if to check if the green would come back. When nothing happened, he pinned it to his imagination; his mind playing tricks on him from the result of a stressful day.

"Hiro?" Tadashi called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah?" Hiro quickly hid his blood sample and roughly tidied his desk.

"It's time for dinner!"

Hiro had been waiting for dinner ever since the smell of Aunt Cass's chicken wings wafted into his room. Finally deciding that his desk was the perfect balance of clean and messy, Hiro made a dash for the stairs, only to find that he was roughly tugged back and the next thing he knows is that the ground is coming to greet him.

"Gah!" He yelped.

Trying to shake off the confusion, he struggled to stand upright, wincing when he found that he couldn't move or feel his right foot. He peered over his shoulder, eyes widening at the sight before him.

His right foot from the ankle downwards had disappeared below the floorboards and was slowly beginning to sink even further.

"What…? WHAT?!" Hiro couldn't comprehend what was happening.

Tadashi, who had been setting the plates, stopped when he heard a thump from above his head. "Hiro? Are you okay?" Placing the plates down on the table, he slowly makes his way up the wooden stairs.

Thud, thud, thud.

Hiro panicked. He pulled on his leg, but it refused to budge. His brain was racing for ideas, trying to hide his predicament from his over protective brother.

"Hir-," Tadashi began. "What are you doing?"

Hiro was sat cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed.

"I'm meditating. What else would it look like?" Hiro laughed nervously.

"Okay…?" Tadashi looked at Hiro with suspicion and searched for any signs of madness. "Well, dinner's ready. Better come down before it gets cold." Tadashi nodded in the direction towards the kitchen.

"I'll be right down." Still laughing shakily, he grinned a large toothy smile at Tadashi who was shaking his head as he made his way back downstairs.

As soon as Hiro heard Tadashi reach the bottom of the stairs, he released a breath he didn't realise he was holding. Focusing back on his leg, Hiro gave one last firm tug and his foot finally came free. Falling back with an 'oof', he scrambled to see the damage he had done to his leg.

Hiro flexed his foot; everything appeared to be in working order. There were no scratches present or any red marks except for where his hands were previously, desperately prying his foot from the floor. He skeptically tested the floor in the exact spot his foot fell through, expecting it to be an illusion. But to his surprise, it was solid.

'It must have been your imagination,' Hiro repeated in his mind like a mantra. It was physically impossible for his solid leg to have gone through the floorboards. Yet, he could not put it down to his imagination. It felt too real. His could still feel his heart thundering in his chest.

'Focus Hiro. Look at this from a new angle. Eliminate all the factors and whatever remains must be the truth.'

There was one clear answer that remained in his head. It was one that could be neither fully explained nor actually possible, but it was undeniable…

He had just turned intangible.

End of Chapter 1

AN: Thank you for taking the time to read this chapter! This fic is kind of a crossover with Danny Phantom but you don't need to have watched the show to understand it. ^^ Any questions then ask away either on here through PM or on my tumblr, a link can be found in my profile. This has not been beta-ed, so if you could leave me some feedback, that'd be great! I feed off reviews ^^"

(*1) – Sort of deviated away from the DP logic here. When Hiro was caught in the explosion in his parents lab, he gained ghost DNA, but it stayed dormant until this electric shock sort of kick started the ghost powers coming into play. Please don't take this story seriously; I haven't done any human biology for a few years and I have no in depth knowledge about the supernatural either.

Disclaimer: I do not own Big Hero 6 or Danny Phantom

~Midnight Glider

(6/02/15)