[2] Running Under
The three hid under a group of dense evergreen shrubbery sticking out from a cliff. Pidge fervently hoped that was enough to hide the large red robot that she rode on. Fortunately, it was also misty in places, which helped limit visibility. The cool dampness of the fog hung around them, giving her chills and otherwise making her wonder if the thermo-regulator on her paladin suit had malfunctioned. That, or the reality from all the series of events was finally catching up with her, bringing on a state of shock. Much to her delight, the trembling made the pain in her ribs ache even more whenever her muscles contracted. No doubt she possibly fractured a couple, which also was just perfect. In fact, everything was starting to ache all over now from getting knocked around during the crash.
Drawing in a breath in an effort to calm herself, Pidge tried to relax her body as she lay on the back of the robot's smooth red armor. Her hands were held in place by bulky, almost-black gloves, electrically charged to hold fast in two magnetic portals. Her feet were fitted inside foot holds to give her more stability too. The foot holds must have also been magnetic, because she felt the metal in her armor attract to it. Not as strong as the electro-charge, but it was there. Sometimes she had to readjust her position to keep the pressure off her bruised knees though.
Somehow, after all the things she experienced over the last few weeks, all this didn't strike her as strange. What did make her wonder was how the robot felt much warmer against her body. She was certain his armor did not feel that warm to the touch earlier. Maybe that was what was messing up the thermo-regulation of her suit.
What did bug her was how this superhero boy insisted that they leave the safe confines of her cloaked lion to creep around in the brush. And then she went along with it. Hopefully this wasn't a sign that she'd put up with Lance's escapades one time too many, and had become immune to the nonsense. Green was not positive about the idea of them leaving her there, but as long as the cloak stayed up, she was hopeful her lion should be safe. If they got by Galra sensors without detection, the human variety really shouldn't be of no concern.
"Is it clear?" Pidge finally broke the silence to ask them.
"Not yet. Thought I saw something..." the teen whispered from below, where Baymax bent down over him protectively. He thumbed over to his right, where some mist swirled around larger tree trunks.
Their hiding spot was near a dried up creek bed that was covered in shale and otherwise very little mud for any tracks to be left. She had heard some voices shouting to each other earlier about not seeing anything around the site. The Green Paladin still hoped it remained that way, for the sake of her lion.
It occurred to her that she hadn't been in woods like this since the time she found her Green Lion, covered under a plethora of shrubbery and thick vines on some unfamiliar planet. Pidge didn't realize how much she missed trees, let alone grass, and now she somehow ended up in a forest full of the biggest ones on earth.
Hopefully the energy from the sun and this forested wilderness provided enough life force for her lion. Quintessence. The youngest Paladin had wondered at first what it was that kept the Lions replenished and able to recover after a hard battle. It wasn't until she made the connection between the crystal in the castle and the energy that living planets held.
Pidge finally convinced herself that her mind was not playing tricks. The robot did become warmer for her sake. Baymax must have detected her discomfort, and she felt a little grateful. The warmth stopped her shaking enough so that she didn't ache so much. But her suit still tried to contradict the heat by trying to also keep her cool. She pulled her right hand free and pulled up a holographic display to disable the thermo-regulator. That made her wonder if she could tweak it later so it could localize regions of her body, and make it really cold where she had injuries. Pidge sighed, finally admitting that she actually missed the idea of a healing pod... as well as that flying castle, and her teammates.
For the love of Pete, where were the others anyway? Why can't I contact them?
The paladin exhaled, but hopefully not very loudly as to not make her current company notice. It worried her when she heard Hunk say something about a witch attacking Shiro when they were escaping the ship. The way the Galra kept torturing him haunted her whenever she thought about it too long. Pidge gritted her teeth, blocking out the Black Paladin's anguished cries from when Sendak attacked the castle. Letting her emotions take over was not something she wanted now. She needed another distraction before her thoughts were consumed.
"You never told me your name," Pidge whispered to the boy again, hoping conversation would quiet her unease.
"Um… Hiro."
A straight answer, finally!
"Hiro?" she had to check, just to make sure she heard that right. Hiro, and not Shiro…. because there was a striking semblance, apart from the long strands of dark hair framing his face, much like Keith's hair. And because the way things have been going around here, also getting sent back in time was a possibility she was not going to rule out.
"Yeah, Hiro," the teen glanced up her way, before looking back out into the woods. He didn't seem very talkative right now. "Baymax, do another scan to see if anyone is near."
After a moment of long silence, the robot reported his results. "I detect someone. The life signature is: not human."
"Not human..?" Pidge echoed. She definitely had been in space too long, because her next thought was of something alien.
The sound of a small twig cracking from the cliff right above and behind her, combined with a noticeable snuffling sound, caused the green Paladin to react immediately. She slipped out of the gloves to scramble around to the front of Baymax, hanging from his neck. Baymax responded by bringing his arms up for support, to keep her from losing her grip on his helmet.
"What was that?" Hiro whispered, turning in place to look above them where roots hung down from the earthy ledge. At worst, it could be a search and rescue hound, and they would have no escape from its uncanny sense of smell.
"You are fast," Baymax told Pidge, and she could have sworn he sounded amused.
She held her tongue though, also realizing she was holding her bayard as it illuminated its soft green light into the mist surrounding them. Pidge quickly subspaced it and hoped that the glow didn't give them away.
The paladin still noticed Hiro's eyes shift back to her when she did, but his expression was more of curiosity rather than disapproval. Well, of course that would happen, but now she agreed that there was no room for idle chit chat. The Green paladin did feel a little silly now holding on to the red robot the way she was, and slid down out of Baymax's arms to crouch next to Hiro. Nevermind the fact her one knee was all stiff and swollen now.
The sound of an animal huffing and walking on leaves and branches continued above them. She couldn't tell what kind of animal, but it didn't sound like something small. Then a short guttural cry, something best described as sounding like a Wookie, had come from the lower ground in front of them.
Hiro stepped back against her, moving them under Baymax's cover.
"It is: a large, hairy baby," Baymax responded, possibly wondering why they were freaking out. Apparently there were some things about wildlife that the robot did not know yet. "Why are you afraid?"
"That is the reason to be afraid," Pidge corrected the robot once they recognized the furry, black bear cub amble closer to them. It could as well have been an unidentified alien, because the danger factor felt just the same.
"Yeah, the cub's mom might get protective and angry at us," Hiro further explained to Baymax. It was unanimously decided by the two of them that the sounds they heard from above was the mom. "No bear… go away. Shoo!" he whispered at the cub when it came closer.
Pidge groaned. This was getting evermore ridiculous.
"Oh... this might work," Hiro turned to access the storage compartment to pull out his bag of teriyaki.
"You're going to feed it?" Pidge blurted out. Okay, her trust in this kid's judgement just plummeted further. Only because Hiro didn't seem to be the type to have stress eating habits, like Hunk. And why did she keep comparing him to her teammates?
"No, I'm going to use it as bait, to lure him away," he was just as quick with his response.
Pidge still didn't think that would be to good of an idea, and crossed her arms.
"Then how about this, as soon as I get the cub away, we make a break for it. So.. can you get back up on Baymax?" Hiro suggested instead.
"Our patient needs to receive treatment as soon as possible," Baymax also reminded him of his top priority.
"Yes.. thank you, Baymax," Hiro sighed.
"And hopefully we will not be spotted..." Pidge reminded him also. But before they proceeded with this plan, there was one more thing that wasn't discussed yet. "Can I ask exactly where it is we're going to?"
"Yeah, it's San Fransokyo.. if you're okay with that," he shifted his stance, looking around them again to check on the bear(s).
"How long would it take?"
"About an hour?" he sounded rather questioning at that point.
She raised any eyebrow, because that did sound far away. What if the others came here in search of her? Hopefully they would be tracking the Lion first, and would try to contact her afterwards.. provided that the communication link on her helmet wasn't broken. And… well, the more she thought about it, the messier all of that became.
"Well, uhm... just no hospitals. Not ready for that level of 'what the heck?!' yet. But we are coming back here after I get fixed up, right?"
"Of course… yeah," Hiro nodded, but somehow he didn't sound as confident that time.
Rather than inquiring as to why that would be a problem, she let it slide. There wasn't a whole lot if time to waste right now anyway.
Finally picking up on her subtle message to 'move it', Hiro stepped out while opening the bag. "Here bear," the boy whispered, waving it at the curious cub. "Here, bear… yes.."
After mounting up on Baymax's back, Pidge looked around the red robot's bulbous wing to check on Hiro's awkward attempt to be a distraction. Here, bear? Seriously...
Finally he gave up on trying to draw away the cub, and just tossed the contents of the bag far away from them. The presence of mama bear coming into view very likely was the motivator. "Okay, it's a go!" she took that as the signal, and Hiro's alert came a few seconds later to confirm it.
Baymax hovered a couple seconds before coasting over to pick up Hiro. He held the teen close in his arms, and then the speed really picked up. Instead of going straight up right away, the robot continued his flight through the forest, zipping and weaving through the trunks as they traveled along the mountain side. That was just short of scary.
Pidge likened this to riding at top speed on a hover bike, due to how she felt like she was going to go airborne when the robot bobbed. Even with the magnets! That was absolutely not a feeling she enjoyed – at least not as terrifying as taking a nosedive off a cliff on an overloaded hover bike (no thanks to Keith).
Then Baymax took a sharp turn that just continued right into a barrel roll in between a couple close tree trunks that had the girth of a whale.
"Holycowohmygod.. really?!" the words flew from her mouth but she doubted they were actually heard. The Green paladin clenched her fists tighter, and feeling very thankful for the magnetized gloves at this point, not to mention fully understanding why there were magnetic ports holding her in place. The upper cuff of the gloves also had become more snug so she did not slip out of them, something she was sure Hiro had activated with a wireless link after they took off. It was like that in her lion too. Some type of magnetic connection with their armored suits, if not also centrifugal force, had held the paladins securely in their pilot seat so that they didn't get all jostled around during their crazy maneuvers.
But this was not at all like piloting a lion. Not even close… how was she even supposed control the robot?
Just when she had become aware of a small clearing in the trees, and hoped that this would let up, Baymax suddenly banked upwards toward the sky. The red robot really began to pick up speed and she was literally breathless from the wind blowing over her partial visor. She activated her visor to completely cover her face to remedy that.
Once reaching a satisfactory altitude over the Pacific coast, Baymax leveled out. Their altitude had dropped gradually as they moved further out over the coastline. That made sense though, just to stay out of the range of major air traffic. Or being picked up on radar. Pidge tried to relax, feeling a little more positive that they would maintain their cruising speed at this point.
She did not have the frequency with Hiro's com-link, but she could imagine the two were talking with each other. The robot turned his head slightly as if to check on her a couple times already. Then she saw just the hand of the boy giving her a thumbs up as if to say things were okay. She couldn't see or hear very much of him, since he still was down below in Baymax's arms. But if she was daring enough to let go, she would have gave Hiro a thumbs down. Or worse.
This was going to be a long flight.
After rocking back so she could lay against the robot's back and take the weigh off her knees, Pidge gazed out at the mountainous seaside below. Some places looked very rugged and unforgiving, while other shores were edged with narrow, sandy beaches. The smell of the ocean was noticeable from time to time, causing her to remember a particular conversation with the guys. Or more specifically, it was one that had turned into another competition of who had the best 'insert the blank here'. This time it was about beaches. Lance grew up , and Hunk's family was from Hawaii. Keith rolled his eyes and left that argument, since he always lived in a big city inland, from LA to Las Vegas, before going to the Garrison. Unless you wanted to be funny and say that a desert was just one big beach without water. The same held true for herself, and she got up and went to find a quieter location to work on her laptop.
The whole thing was awfully ironic, really. The two paladins who wanted to go back to earth the most were not here, but instead she was. She shook her head, wondering why.
This wasn't her first time there either. A few years ago, her family went on a vacation driving along the coastline of California, from the Big Sur up towards Oregon. Since she had lived most of her life in the desert region of Nevada, seeing such mountains, trees, and rocky shores was amazing. Just being all together with her family made it even more memorable. That was the last real time she could remember feeling so connected with each of her family members, with no worries from school or work. Pidge closed her eyes and swallowed, in an effort to push back her emotions. Being back on earth stood as a unfriendly reminder of her first mission, to find her dad and her brother. This was not fair, being right back where she didn't want to be. The Green Paladin was so much more hopeful of finding them when she was out in space, hot on the tail of the Galra.
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Hiro readjusted his body again, growing stiff from his cramped position in Baymax's arms. Traveling like this for a long time was anything short of comfortable, but considering the circumstances, he didn't have a choice. Fortunately, San Fransokyo wasn't that far away now.
He did wonder if Baymax was holding up on energy reserves too. There wasn't much time to check on that before shuttling out of the forest, not to mention give him the chance to recharge, and now he's carrying extra weight.
"Your battery level okay, buddy?" the young genius spoke through his comm-link.
"Battery level is: 42%."
"Not good… is that enough to make it? We're almost there," he frowned, noticing that they have been dropping in elevation significantly.
"Marginally."
That was not reassuring. Hiro bit his lip, considering his options again. Earlier, he had texted his first picture of the Green Lion in the crash site to his teammates, on his secured Big Hero 6 channel. Of course, GoGo in her snide level of sarcasm, wondered what the emergency was if he already rescued the space pilot. Hiro figured she wasn't in the mood to get up for something that trivial. Then Wasabi had to ask if space pilots were better known as astronauts. All Hiro wanted to know was where he could take her. He was hoping for Fred's place.
The fact he slipped up and indicated 'she' in his text, that got Fred talking (just when Hiro thought he was ignoring them because he was asleep). Trying to explain that Hiro wasn't sure if the space pilot was a 'she' only made that conversation even more awkward.
Then in mid-text, his aunt called. He let that go to voicemail, because a couple beats later it was followed up with a text in all caps asking why he still wasn't home yet.
So, the younger Hamada conceded and told his teammates he'll have to talk with them later in the day about this. Aunt Cass was ordering him to come home first. He has learned now that not minding his Aunt, when she was already pretty upset, was really not a Good Idea.
Then to make matters worse, Baymax's battery was scary low. If by a miracle they make it to the San Fransokyo docks, then that could be another thirty or forty minutes to lose their super suits, and take the subway and a bus line back to the Lucky Cat. That can't be an option, especially when Pidge can't walk.
How quickly could he get Heathcliff to intercept them in the helicopter instead?
Hiro pulled out his cell phone again to alert the team, hoping someone would respond again, quickly! It was rather humiliating to admit to this, but he really had no other choice.
G: This better be legit
F: Is ur space pilot actually an evil alien? And now she's attacking u?
G: Seriously, Fred
Hiro paused a second to think of the best way to explain this. If they were in range of his comm-link circuit, he would just have asked them to grab their helmets so he could explain better. Hopefully they would understand the urgency just from the texts.
Hiro: I need your help Fred… I know its sudden but its an emergency. Can Heathcliff come get me w the chopper?
HL: What happened?
Hiro: Baymax is loosing power. We r not gonna make it to SF
W: What did I tell you about the car battery?
Hiro: I have 1. Its just.. its a really long story. I need u to get us please Fred. My rescue can't walk well.
Fred wasn't responding so Hiro hoped he was busy negotiating things with the parties involved.
G: Unbelievable…
Hiro: Shut up GoGo
HL: Where are you?
Hiro: North of SF, near the coast
G: Fly to the shore before u crash into the ocean, genius!
W: By Bodega or Point Reyes?
Hiro: Baymax will send a GPS point
Hiro lowered his phone, glancing up to Baymax to ask over the comm-link. "Baymax, Fred's going to come with the chopper. I need you to send them your GPS location."
"Battery level is: 29%."
"Yeah, I know buddy," Hiro sighed, patting his guardian's arm. "Hang in there… if you can't make it, just fly to the nearest land."
Hiro: Did you get the coordinates?
F: We R coming!
"Electro-magnetic ports are: disabled.. to r-re-serve eneergee," Baymax's voice was starting to sound distorted as well.
"Great…" Hiro set his jaw as his anxiety levels increased. This rescue was going to be such a spectacular epic fail at this rate. He squinted to the shore line some distance away. "Okay, you gotta fly over there to set down, Baymax. Now."
"Weeeee!" Baymax responded by banking hard to the left. And while stretching out his right arm that had been holding up Hiro 's feet.
"And don't let go of me!" Hiro added, clinging tighter to the big red arm. He also prayed at this point Pidge was able to hang on through all this.
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AN:
Thank you everyone for all the interest in this fic! I apologize for the delay since I have a pretty busy schedule IRL. Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait, despite the shortness. Here's to hoping things slow down for November so I have more writing time on this!
I also realized this... upon watching Return of the Jedi, the Humboldt National Forest was also where the planet of Endor was staged. So… the references were dropped. (Is a hopeless nerd)
Thank you for reading!
(Update 1/21/2017: Still planning to update! Once I post something to my BH6 fic, Indomitable Force.)