Chapter Two: Distraction

Hiro felt as though he were floating. It was rather surreal, especially after his body just suddenly crumpled under him for no reason. He hadn't been injured during the quake, well nothing serious at any rate. He probably had a few scratches, but nothing major.

He looked around him and only saw darkness, like he was lying in a giant puddle of ink. What was going on? Was he unconscious?

Fred's words buzzed around in his head, along with those of the news anchor. Isolated quakes. Super villain. How was it all possible? Everyone knew earthquakes had long reaching effects on the area around the initial fault, sometimes reaching hundreds of miles, pending on the line.

The only plausible explanation included the possibility that someone had somehow manufactured a device that could create area specific equivalents to an earthquake. But he wasn't sure if that was really possible. Wouldn't he have heard of such tech before, somewhere? Even if not through the conventional channels?

Trying to think made his brain buzz even more. But that buzzing was soon replaced with the incessant sound of falling rain. He grit his teeth, wanting to plug his ears against the sound.

His world seemed to shake and he saw Tadashi running ahead of him. A breeze picked up his cap and blew it free from his head, sweeping it back towards Hiro. He was running towards a burning building and Hiro screamed out a warning, but to no avail. His brother couldn't hear him.


Hiro sat up, almost bashing his forehead into Wasabi's nose with the force. He panted, like he'd been running the final sprint of some race, his heart racing just as fast. He stared ahead, looking almost blindly out the glass front of the café.

It somehow occurred to him that it was a miracle the glass panes hadn't come loose from their frames, crashing down to the ground. But those thoughts were replaced with the odd image of a tall man with brown hair running across the area in front of the windows. His dark coat trailed out behind him as he ran from the left side to the right, disappearing from view.

"Easy now," Wasabi was saying, more than grateful that the boy's sudden jolt back to consciousness hadn't bashed him in the face. All the same, he felt his nose experimentally, just to be safe.

The boy's breath caught in his throat as he realized someone had moved to hold him around the shoulders. "It's going to be okay," Honey Lemon's voice said in his ear. He could feel her thin fingers pressing into his skin.

Hiro shuddered, pressing a hand to his head. "What happened?"

"You fainted," Baymax responded, bending over the boy. "Scans indicate your blood pressure is now elevated, along with an increase in pulse and respiration. Please remain in your current position until any residual dizziness subsides. Might I suggest consuming something to help stabilize your blood sugar levels?"

Closing his eyes, Hiro let out a shudder. "I saw Tadashi," he admitted. "He was running towards the fire and I couldn't make him stop." Tears leaked from his eyes once more and Honey Lemon gave him an extra squeeze that made him open his eyes.

"Disturbing dreams are not uncommon in those suffering emotional or mental trauma," Baymax said. "Such events can occur at any time and may leave the individual feeling weak and exhausted."

The robot suddenly went more upright. "I have just received an update on your aunt. Her vital signs are stable and she is expected to make a full recovery. The hospital plans on keeping her overnight for observation."

Honey Lemon almost cracked his ribs with her hug. "Isn't that wonderful, Hiro? Aren't you glad you added in that protocol?" She was referring to the upgrade Hiro had added to Baymax, allowing him to access hospital records within certain criteria, mainly in the off change that one of them ended up in the hospital and they couldn't get answers from the staff.

Hiro moved away from Honey's hands and unsteadily got to his feet. He noticed the light outside had decreased. "How long was I out?" he finally asked, not sure if the sky was darker because of the storm or because of the time.

"Not long," GoGo assured, though she looked a bit guiltily at the cleared section of the café. With nothing else to do, she and Fred had worked on cleaning up some of the debris in the hope of making cleanup easier when Aunt Cass returned.

Baymax held up one finger. "You were out for fifty seven minutes and thirty nine seconds," he said helpfully. "I monitored your vital signs most carefully while you were unconscious."

Hiro patted the robot's nearest extremity, which happened to be the outstretched arm. "Oh yeah? Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it."

"I still suggest consuming some form of sustenance," the white robot said. "Your blood sugar levels are still low. This may encourage further disorientation and another fainting spell."

Rubbing at one eye, Hiro nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Something to eat." He looked around with an air of distraction. The oddest sensation niggled at the back of his mind that he was forgetting something. Something important.

"Have a lollipop."

Before the boy could protest, Baymax had plopped a red sucker between his lips. He looked up in surprise, blinking back the confusion. "Huh?"

Fred stared at Hiro, his eyes wide. "Man, you were totally spacing out again. Maybe you should, I don't know, sit down?"

"Fred's right," Honey Lemon agreed, the concern obvious in her voice.

Wasabi found a chair and sat it in front of the boy. "You're kind of making us really freak out, you know."

Looking around again, Hiro realized all his friends had the same look in their eyes, like they were afraid he'd keel over or something. Well, except for Baymax. He did manage to look concerned, but his goofy body made it a little harder to take it seriously. With a sigh, he plopped down into the chair, the others letting out sighs of relief.

"Okay," GoGo spoke up. "So now what? I mean, we can keep cleaning things up, but I'm honestly curious about these crazy earthquakes. There haven't been any more, have there?"

Baymax straightened up from looking Hiro over. "My scanners have not detected any further anomalies since the last aftershock. I am scanning local police scanners and social media to confirm." His eyes seemed to stare blankly at space for a moment before he blinked again. "Scan complete. There are no further confirmed earthquakes in the area."

Wasabi almost melted into another chair. "That's a relief."

While his friends continued to dither about the cause of the quakes, Hiro's mind wandered off again. He absently sucked on his lollipop as his brain churned. What was he forgetting? Was it something he heard? Something he saw? Something he'd felt? What was it?

Images overlapped in his head, images from his dream and from just waking. There was someone running in front of the café, running with dark-ish hair and long legs. But with the overlapping images, they were running towards the fire-engulfed auditorium of the science expo. And it made it hard to tell who exactly was running.

Even when he saw Tadashi's hat come flying off the person's head, he still wasn't sure what was going on. Was it Tadashi? Was it someone else? He growled in frustration. Why couldn't he remember?

"Easy now," GoGo said, breaking Hiro from his thoughts. "You might want to take out that stick before you gnaw it to death."

Hiro pulled the tightly rolled paper from his mouth, realizing the hard candy was long gone and he'd been mashing it with his teeth. He spit out a segment of paper, making a face.

"Lunch's ready!" Wasabi called out as he moved into the café proper.

He'd somehow managed to whip up something that almost smelled appetizing, Hiro thought. Considering that Wasabi was actually a pretty accomplished sushi chef…. Well, that wasn't giving him the proper kudos, but in his current state, the boy didn't feel all that hungry.

"All right!" GoGo all but high-fived the dark-skinned man as he brought in the loaded tray of noodles and teriyaki chicken. "Let's get this grub on!"

Wasabi shouldered the tray onto a table, now surrounded by chairs. "Hope you don't mind I used a few things from your aunt's kitchen," he apologized, nodding to the stairs leading up to the living level of the café. "I would have asked, but you were kind of out of it."

Hiro smacked himself. "Don't tell me I zoned out again!" This was becoming a bad habit, and fast. What was wrong with him?

Honey Lemon breezed over, setting her broom aside. The area looked much better now. And someone had thought to put up the "closed" sign in the store's window. "No one's blaming you," she said with an awkward side hug before sitting down to eat.

"No biggie, Hiro," Fred said as he flopped into an empty chair. With the announcement of food, he'd also abandoned cleaning supplies. Fred never turned down free food, even though he could more than afford to feed the Hamada family for a month on his daily allowance.

Baymax moved to indicate Hiro should join his friends. "Periods of mental distraction are not uncommon in those suffering emotional trauma."

"Gotta admit, though," Fred broke in, "looking at you was kinda like looking at one of those wax dolls in a museum. Thought you might need to get checked out at the hospital or something but Baymax insisted you stay in his sights."

The robot seemed to blush slightly. "I detected no serious cause for alarm. Your vital signs remained stable, though your hormonal levels fluctuated. It is not unexpected."

Wasabi dished up a healthy serving of noodles and pushed the plate in front of the boy genius. "Eat up before it gets cold," he warned. "Got kind of annoying hearing a constant report on your blood sugar levels." He rolled his eyes towards the giant vinyl marshmallow,trying to hide just how worried he really was.

Hiro grabbed for a pair of chopsticks and stuffed his face to stave off any further comments from his friends. He'd eaten a decent breakfast, or so he'd thought. But, if so, that didn't make much sense either. He knew he wasn't hypoglycemic. Or was it hyper? He could never remember the difference.

The others visibly relaxed as he stuffed his face. Each took a serving and began eating with gusto. The food was pretty good, all things considered. And the place looked much better too.

Gotta stop doing that, Hiro admonished himself. Spacing out certainly didn't help his friends out. "So, uh," he hesitated, causing all eyes to turn his way. "We uh, figure out anything about the quakes yet?"

"Not really," Wasabi spoke up. "Without going to the actual epicenter, we probably won't either. But we all agreed there's no way they occurred naturally."

Hiro stuffed more food into his mouth at a look from GoGo. "Okay," he said the moment his mouth was empty again. "So we suit up and check out the area."

"You mean areas," Fred corrected as he held up a fork dangling noodles. "News reports say there were a lot of them."

Hiro blinked. "Right. So we suit up and check out the epicenters and see if we can find anything."

Honey Lemon exchanged glances with GoGo. "You sure that's such a good idea? I mean, with you spacing out and all that."

Baymax stepped forward. "Hiro's blood sugar levels are stabilizing. As long as he keeps the correct balance of carbohydrates to protein, I do not believe there will be any further problems."

"What he said," Hiro shrugged as he speared a piece of chicken for emphasis. "Guys, I'm fine. Really. Just got a little preoccupied is all."

All eyes turned to Baymax for confirmation. The robot blinked. "I will continue to monitor Hiro's vital signs. If I detect the possibility of relapse, I will immediately transport him back here. Is that acceptable?"

The resulting nods and exclamations of support drowned out Hiro's protests. He hated to admit it, but Baymax would probably keep tabs even if he wasn't spacing out. After all, Baymax considered him his number one patient.

"Fine," Hiro reluctantly agreed, finishing his helping of chicken. He shook his head when Wasabi moved to give him more, and then patted his stomach.

Wasabi tsked. "You don't eat enough for a growing boy," he complained but left off when Hiro burped. "Now that's just gross."

Hiro smirked a little but excused himself and went to find the bathroom. He could hear the sounds of the others cleaning up as he walked up the stairs.


Looking in the bathroom mirror, Hiro observed a gangly boy with a pale face hiding behind dark, unkempt hair. No wonder the others looked worried, he decided. If it were someone else, he'd be worried too. With a sigh, he finished his business, and then splashed cold water on his face to try and make himself more alert.

By the time he returned to the main floor, the others had moved to the garage. He found them helping Baymax into his red armor.

"What took you so long?" GoGo teased. "We're all just about ready to go." She toyed with one of her flying discs before settling it back in place.

It was true, though. The others had already donned their gear. Fred flipped back his lizard mask, grinning like a mad man. "Oh man! I can't wait to get going! This is so exciting! Think we might come across a super villain trying to set off another quake?" He practically danced inside his suit.

Hiro quickly ducked into his gear, pulling the helmet over his mop of hair. He double-checked the seals on Baymax's armor, then climbed on his back. Securing the matching magnetic bearings, he ordered Baymax to open the garage door. Luckily, it had stopped raining, though clouds still scudded across the sky.

The rest of the group followed them out onto the driveway while Wasabi made sure the door flipped back into place behind them. Just as the plasma-blade wielding hero was about to suggest he just driver over, Baymax picked him up with one arm, depositing him next to Hiro.

Additional magnets secured the acrophobe in place as the others scrambled to their positions. Once everyone was ready, Baymax fired his repulsers and they were off.

"I hate this part!" Wasabi all but screamed as they rocketed up into the air.

In a matter of moments, Baymax leveled out and began scanning the area. He dove towards one area of destruction a good ten miles away from home base, closer to the coastline.

When they were less than ten feet from the ground, Fred leapt down, landing like a hobgoblin, splashing mud as he landed. "Wow!" His eyes went large as Baymax settled on higher ground. "Check it out."

The long fissure they'd landed in looked more like a crater. Melted slag filled the lowest part with a dull colored metal. A light layer of mud coated the surface.

"What in the world," Wasabi said as he flipped up his visor. "You can't tell me that's not man-made."

Hiro jumped free of Baymax's back and moved to inspect the mass before them. "Almost looks like it dropped from the sky," he observed, "super heated, then crash landed." He turned to his red-clad robot companion. "Baymax?"

Baymax shuffled for a better view. "I concur with your observations," he said.

Honey Lemon moved closer to the metal, giving it a critical look over. "We should take a sample," she said, pulling out a specimen bag from her pocket. Always the chemist, she'd certainly came prepared.

With a nod, Wasabi activated his plasma blades and carved out a small chunk of the metal, letting it cool before handing it to Honey. "I wonder if the others look just like this."