Chapter 3: The Hero's Lair

"So, where exactly is this secret abandoned superhero lair?"

"It is not far from here. It is only a few blocks away in an abandoned warehouse."

"Really? I've never been to a warehouse so close to here that hosts bot fighting."

"They do not host bot fighting there."

"Well, why not?"

"There are rumors going around that the place is haunted."

"Is it really?"

"I can assure you that the warehouse is not haunted."

"Yeah? How do you know that?"

"I made it up."

Hiro looked up at the robot and sent him a playfully serious glare. "You made it up huh?"

"It is said that making patients laugh is the best way to cure them. Was my attempt adequate?"

Hiro laughed. "Yeah buddy, yeah it was."

The two were standing on the first floor of the Lucky Cat Cafe. It was closed for the day so that meant that Hiro and Baymax could sneak off to the new headquarters unsuspected. Well, as unsuspected as they could get being a fourteen year old boy and an adorable marshmallow robot.

Hiro knew that each of his hoodies had a tracking device sewn inside of them, courtesy of Tadashi, so he wasn't planning on wearing one. There was no way he was he was going to endanger the hideout before it was taken over. The clouds had turned grey and had taken up the whole sky. It was threatening to rain so they had better hurry. The two walked out the front door and tried to look normal.

"So why exactly don't they host bot fights there? I mean, it is an abandoned warehouse after all."

Baymax blinked. "The warehouse had originally belonged to the legendary superhero, Stan Lee, but he is retired. He had made it so that only superheroes could enter."

"Whoa, the Stan Lee? We're going to be using his hideout? This just keeps getting better and better."

Hiro couldn't hide the huge smile that made its way across his face. He was going to be an actual superhero just like the legendary Stan Lee. And like his favorite superhero of all time, Sunfire. He wasn't necessarily into reading a ton of comic books, but why read one, when you could be in one.

He could start his own legend and become a legendary superhero. That sounded like a good idea. And he didn't even have to do it forever, he could retire when he got older and his fame would continue to live on even after his time. Hiro smiled at the thought. This was going to be the greatest thing he had ever done. Even more than becoming a legendary bot fighter. With his high intelligence, he should be able to form a team and stop this Yokai, whoever this guy was.

Deep down inside however, he knew that his brother wouldn't approve, and deep down inside...He was okay with that.

If Tadashi never listened to him when he was trying to start a conversation, then why should he listen to him when he told him not to get into trouble. Tadashi had started this game and Hiro was just going to play along until he won. And he was sure that it was going to happen. There was no way that Tadashi was going to win this and he was going to make sure of it.

They arrived at the warehouse a few minutes later. It really wasn't that far from the cafe, which was convenient if he needed to get there quickly. "The headquarters has been set up for our arrival." Hiro slightly pushed the door open and saw nothing but an empty warehouse.

"This is Stan Lee's hideout? I thought it would be more, what's the word? Awesome."

Baymax blinked and followed the prodigy inside. "This is just the top floor. To enter the hidden floors, insert the code on the padlock." Hiro saw as Baymax pointed to a padlock on the back wall of the warehouse. He approached it and eyed it.

"What's the code?"

"The code is: 286"

"Thanks Baymax."

The young prodigy punched in the code and saw the walls move as an elevator appeared in front of them. "Okay, I definitely think that this is a superhero lair now." In a normal elevator, it would have been tricky to ride down in with Baymax taking up most of the space, but this elevator was huge. It had to be since they were recruiting a whole team.

"This building contains four floors. The surface floor on the top, a relaxation floor, a surveillance floor, and an underground emergency bunker." Yup. Now Hiro was a hundred percent sure that this was the greatest idea he's ever had. Once the elevator stopped, they were on the relaxation floor Baymax had mentioned. "Whoa, this place is sick." Baymax looked down at Hiro. "It is the relaxation room, it cannot get sick."

Hiro laughed. "No Baymax, it's just an expression. I mean this place looks awesome." The room was a bit cluttered but it was also huge. "If we're going to be forming a superhero team, then we need to make this place fit to hang out in. We should get started as soon as possible."

"I agree. Team bonding will help better our chances of defeating Yokai."

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, who exactly is the Yokai?"

"Little is known about this villain, but studies show that he is planning on getting revenge on Krei Tech."

"What? Why would he want to get revenge on Krei Tech?"

"That information in currently unknown, but hopefully we will soon find out." Hiro nodded in understanding.

"Well, lets check out the rest of the floors and get set up."


Hiro and Baymax were later going out to by supplies and things for the relaxation room. They had cleaned out all the old papers and got rid of them. If they were going to be a team, then they needed the bonding essentials, such as a fridge, a fuse ball table, a couch, a pool table, a T.V., a microwave, a ping pong table, and a lot more to sustain themselves.

"So Baymax, I was wondering, since I was the specific hero, do I have any specific teammates?"

"Yes, you will have four other teammates. The Speed Demon. The Laser Cutter. The Chemical Mixer. And The Fire Breather. I do not know who they are exactly, but if they are assigned heroes, then they should be near San Fransokyo."

Hiro nodded in understanding. He had to use some of his bot fighting money to pay for all of the supplies but he had saved up more than enough. And if he ran out of money, he would just go back and bot fight for some. Behind Tadashi's back of course, not that he would care anyway.

Since Baymax could carry at least a thousand pounds, he had to carry the fridge back to the headquarters, which wasn't a problem for him, except he couldn't see what was in from him. Hiro had to guide Baymax and tell him where to go. So much for trying to look normal. They probably got a bunch of strange looks from passerby's, but Hiro was too busy helping Baymax to pay attention.

They eventually arrived at the warehouse and were thankful that the elevator was so huge. They had put everything in its place and soon, the relaxation room was turned into a cool hangout area.

"Now this place really does look sick."

"The expression, right?"

"Yes Baymax, the expression."

Up next they were going to work on the surveillance room which would also serve as a room for making the suits. They would need tons of supplies and gadget ideas, but Hiro was already working on some designs. He wanted to look cool and awesome so he was going to have to think long and hard about that. The bunker was there to use in case the hideout got attacked or something like that.

If Tadashi ever found out, Hiro could brag about how he was one of the first people in years to ever set foot in Stan Lee's old hideout. Tadashi would either be really angry with him or just beg him to let him see it. Or both. It didn't matter though because Tadashi was never going to find out. Or at least he hoped he wouldn't.

Soon, in almost no time at all, the headquarters was finally finished and ready to be used. It took a while but in the end, it was worth it.

"Finally, now I can just come here to escape whenever I have to clean my room." He said, laying on the couch.

"Hiro, it is advisable that you not leave your room in such a mess, otherwise you could fall and hurt yourself."

"I was kidding Baymax." Hiro said before he silently coughed a "Sort of."

Hiro sometimes wondered if Tadashi would ever notice that Baymax was missing and what he would do if he ever started freaking out about it. He thought it would be fine to not worry about it and for now, just continue on holding in the secret that he would soon be a superhero.