I.
"Baymax...come, ON."
Gogo did not know how many times she had pulled on the botman's arm but she may as well have been trying to rip a fire hydrant out of the ground for all the progress she had made, her big friend clinging with one hand gripping the limo and his other hanging limply as Gogo tried to pull him out.
"I don't want to be rude," Honey whispered to Wasabi, "but maybe this isn't a good idea."
Fred adjusted his dragon-patterned tie, looked at the lit-up entrance and sighed.
"You know, I've been to a thousand fancy parties but I've never actually met a real monster."
Wasabi frowned. "You've met plenty of monsters!"
Gogo sighed roughly.
"Yeah, but scientifically-enhanced monsters don't count," Fred disqualified.
"Since when?!"
"I dont care if MARTIANS are invading — this is MY cousin's night to thank all those involved who helped to prevent the siege and WE'RE going! Fred, get Ji-Min and tell'im we're here; Wasabi, grab Baymax's other arm and Honey, text Hiro and tell him we'll send whatever footage-" she stopped.
Baymax had let go of the limousine.
"Okay, Maxie," she said in a conceding tone, "we need to get in before..."
"Hiro," he took up where she left off, then looked her in the eyes.
"He's out, isn't he?" Gogo scoffed.
"Well, yeah," Wasabi wasn't surprised, "you know him. He'll-"
He looked at Gogo and Fred's almost frightened looks.
Now was not the time for Hiro to be out on his own.
"Hiro," Baymax blinked at once, then materlized his suit from a band.
Fred sighed. "Sometimes I really miss the Skymax."
...
It had to be the darkest night Hiro could remember.
Not the coldest...
No.
And not the worst.
Pfft. A little fog never hurt anyone.
He didn't know where he was going exactly but he put the hoodie of the jacket he was rapidly outgrowing over his head. Maybe he didn't know what he was doing, but he sure didn't want to be locked inside his house. The city was peaceful; no doubt a product of 2 years of superhero activity.
One month of rogue revisionist regime.
Hiro stuck his tongue out to himself; he definitely sucked at alliteration.
The teenager didn't really have a destination, for once, he just let his feet take him where they wanted to. There was almost an instinct to keep moving forward as he rounded the water's edge and came over to the main wharf to see that the fog bank had settled in very heavily. He let a long stream of breath mist out of his lips before zipping up a little more and heading into the thick cover.
...
"I fear Hiro may be in trouble," Baymax said as they soared over San Fransokyo.
Gogo rode atop in her stealth suit, "Baymax, you know Hiro, whatever he faces he overcomes."
There was a moment's silence.
"Yes, but we are normally there with him."
...
Hiro could barely see his hands in front of his face, this fog...if he could call it that, was like some kind of wall, some otherworldly plane of existence that he somehow both recognized but could not recall from where the strangest sensation was. Exasperated, he started scrambling for his phone for a light when a frightened noise made him instantly look up. There was a gasp, then stumbling.
Without thinking, Hiro realized at once that this was what had pulled him in this direction. As was part of his nature and his sense of duty, he ran towards the sounds of panic. They were growing as he neared the longest dock. Past the wharf, nearing a marina, Hiro found a mother and her young son. He took in their looks of terror, then immediately scanned his surroundings for the source...
There was none.
"What are you both afraid of?"
The blonde woman in her twenties lifted a shaking finger.
Hiro saw the tendrils of electromagnetic energy.
"Could...could this be-?"
He turned hopefully in the direction she pointed, never once thinking he'd see anything...
A figure, a shadow as wide as a truck and the length of a railcar eased into sight.
Hiro squinted his eyes, looking for creases in the fur or mechanical whirring. His mind was going through a list of things like animatronics, projections...mutant- eyes that pierced fierce green, jaws that retracted to reveal a muzzle of elongated incisors, canines the size of sickles...Hiro fell back and the woman screamed, clutching her wordless child close; he made sucking sounds, breathless rasps for air...the color left Hiro's face, he could feel it on his cold cheek with his fingertips. This...
This very real creature was getting closer.
This...
This very real beast was focusing on its target.
Hiro stared at it with wide eyes.
He sensed the mother cover her son with her body...
The teen sensed his own tense for an automatic response.
...
Baymax scanned every place he could think of... The park, the tops of turbines, even poorly-lit allies and he was ready to go to SFIT. All he could do was listen dimly to Gogo trying to talk him down, all he knew was that his chipmate, his best friend, was in some kind of peril. He just knew somehow.
Finally something she said registered,
"Baymax, it's possible time in the portal damaged your scanner."
He thought.
"Hiro repaired it," Maxie looked up at her and said in a worried voice.
Gogo knew he seldom showed this...and to no one but her and Hiro.
"Let's go, buddy," she patted his arm and they descended.
...
Hiro didnt know how fast it had happened...
Blur.
His hands out.
Bigger blur, pain to his left shoulder...
Realization.
"No... NO!"
The pain was ungodly, unspeakable...
...
From where they cowered drenched in cool fog and pale sweat, the mother glimpsed the heroic boy being flipped over by the leg and then she covered up her own son. They trembled as a skirmish of some fast, oddly quiet violence took place. The city lights peeked through the heavy cloak of white.
They were about to look up when an awful, ripping noise was heard.
Fast raking...
Clawing!
She all but braced for the final attack.
...
Red.
That was the first thing he saw.
Pain.
A ruptured gurgle.
Pain on his backleg.
Fast eyes located the bloody gash quickly and a tongue instantly appeared to clean...
A shock of pain in his head and the being was down on his back, blurs and flashes made him dizzy but soon a more manageable pain hit his stomach. It was swift, fierce...a weak gasp and he located two blurs in front of him. His huge nose anchored and he assessed the air that was in front of him.
Visual blur cleared and he could make out two, cold blue objects.
Blue for weak...
But, his nose indicated, eniticing pink was underneath.
Stomach panging, leg stinging and senses demanding, he prowled forward.
...
With a horrifying sight of the boy's torn...no, shredded blue hoodie laying off to the side, a wolf as coal as night, as tall as a small horse and just as fierce as ever came near...that boy, oh, THAT. BOY.
She and her own child were right at the rim of the pier, cobalt water unforgivingly close, as the shaggy-haired creature with the coal ember-red eyes drew nearer, teeth glistening, nose flaring and shaking his muzzle as a tremendous hiss roiled out of his mouth. He was poising to strike when his claw tip slit something on the ground. The eyes shot down and he brought back his head serpent-like to see a round, white figure with black eyes looking up at him. Irritably, his muzzle wrinkled up and he lifted his thick claw tip to smell along the edge. A prick of conscious. The wolf craned his massive head and took another, stronger sniff. His nose crinkled. Two people stared. Then, the wolf was thrown like an invisible force had grabbed him and smacked him down. His head jerked about.
...
Flashes...glimpses...
Memories.
The familiar shape of —
...the oval face pressing into his hair...
Images of others who...who he didn't remember!
But one, one stood out!
His mind captured the image but—
A sharp pang of sadness hit his chest, seared through his heart...
The face!
BAYMAX.
Hiro awoke to a wet concrete ground, his senses buzzing, mind racing as he jerked his head back and forth, fighting to keep Baymax at the forefront. His heart cried for his best friend and he focused, the blur before him glowing gold as Baymax's drifted through him. He gasped in a voice that wasn't his, that was almost beastal, and saw his tattered hoodie on the ground. Hiro heard the instinctive whine issue out of his muzzle and was surprised when his right ear moved by itself...it, it was that family!
The thought sent a pang through his heart as a secondary pang hit his stomach.
Hiro turned from them to see that his favorite picture of Baymax, the one he snapped right after his best friend's first reactivation- "GO!" Hiro jumped to attention, looking up. The woman was waving her hands at him; something in his demeanor giving her unexpected courage. His felt his heart churn at the thought of leaving the trace of his best. She moved forward bravely, almost hysterical in her grief and anger now at him-he whined in a wounded way, hunching away like she might bite.
This seemed to infuriate her more and, with no other alternative, Hiro dejectedly was sent loping off from the growing blur of blue and her enraged fits of, "Leave NOW!"
He sped off to the left just as a gleam of fast-approaching red came into wider view.
To be continued...