Chapter 4: Big Hero 6+1

Hello dear readers! (Or should I say ridaas? XD Inside joke sorry :P) As it turns out, I didn't have any school today so that means I could finish this chapter! Lucky, right? :D Yes, I know my chapter title sucks but I couldn't think of anything! The original title was "The Temporary Member" but that sounded too cliché-ish in my head. Plus, "Big Hero 7" is the title of two other Big Hero 6 fanfics. I just got lucky, right? (sarcasm XD) But anyways, hope you'll like this one! This is where all the excitement starts! (sort of)

Once Friya had something set on her mind, she doesn't stop until it happens. When she was creating a certain invention for her early application into SFIT about eight years ago, she stayed up day and night for twelve months just so she could finish it. And now, for the past five days, she has been spending all her time in her lab room, working on her new invention, and she hasn't come out since.

"I've never seen her work this hard," Honey commented during lunch one day.

"She's like a little tornado on auto pilot," Wasabi sighed, sipping coffee. "I went into her room last night to ask how she was doing and she replied with, 'No, I don't want orange soda!'"

"Oh, wow," Hiro laughed. They were all right. Friya has never been this serious and so zoned in.

"This all better be worth it," Gogo said as she was drinking tea. "She's been missing all her classes. I know the teachers want all of us to just focus on our showcase projects and all that, but there's no way they would let Friya be as focused as this."

"Maybe I could take some books to her," Hiro suggested. "I could help her with some of the classes she's taking and teach her while she's working."

"Good luck with that," Fred said, who was passing by in his SFIT mascot costume. "I entered her room just a few minutes ago to ask her about her invention, but she pushed me out almost instantly, saying it was top secret."

Hiro frowned and placed a hand under his chin, deep in thought. What could he do to get that girl's attention?

The teenage boy knocked on Friya's door and poked his head inside. "Friya? I'm coming in."

There was no response, so he opened the door fully and went in. He stared at all the whirring machines, chemist sets, and test subjects messed all around the room. At the corner, there was something hidden under a white cloth, but he didn't dare try and guess what it was. But other than that, the rest of the room was just in complete disarray. He knew Friya was an untidy person, but this was just ridiculous.

"Are you in here?" Hiro tried once more. Again, no response. "I have food!"

Suddenly, the whirring stopped, and a figure appeared from behind all the mess. It was Friya, all covered in oil with a pair of goggles on top of her head. Pulling them off, she eagerly asked, "Food, you say?"

Hiro rolled his eyes, chuckling at her. "Well, if you count a jelly sandwich and orange juice, then yeah."

"What, no peanut butter?" Friya smirked as she set aside some stuff.

"Well, I'm sort of allergic to peanuts."

The two sat down on Friya's bed and Hiro unwrapped a homemade whole-wheat bread jelly sandwich from its tissue covering and a jug of orange juice. Friya eyed the food for a while, turned to Hiro, and said, "What if I say I'm allergic to grapes?"

Hiro glared at her. "Just be grateful I got you something."

The inventor laughed, "Thanks, Hamada. Haven't eaten in a while." She hungrily took a big bite of the bread.

They just sat in silence for a long while until Hiro recognized something from the pile of test subjects in her room. "Where did you get liquid iridium and indium substances?" he asked.

"I don't tell you everything," Friya said, smirking. "I can only tell you it was hard to find, and extremely hard to cooperate with. But I needed it in my procedures."

"What for?"

"Secret~" Friya sang. After gulping down the last drops of orange juice, she said, "Thanks for the snacks, Hiro, see you!" She hurriedly pushed him out the door.

"Wait!" Hiro said, stopping her. "You've been missing your classes, the least you could do is let me help you keep up."

"No need," Friya promised. "Before you guys go on Big Hero 6 stuff tomorrow, I need you guys to come over. I can finally show you my invention!"

"Wait, what? Really?"

"Tomorrow evening, don't be late!" And with that, she closed the door.

"She's done?" Fred asked with a grin. It was after classes the next day and the gang was on their way to Friya's lab room, as instructed, with their suits carried in their packs.

"She said she wanted us here," Hiro said. "She seemed really eager yesterday."

"Of course she is," Wasabi said. "Five days of nothing but trying to accomplish a project with only tools, machines, and electronic gadgets?"

"Sounds like tech-heaven," Gogo said, half-smiling.

"Not helping," Hiro retorted.

"This is really exciting," Honey said enthusiastically.

When they arrived in Friya's room, Hiro realized it was cleaner and tidier than from yesterday. Everything was put away and in its place. But standing in the middle of the room was Friya, completely upgraded in a brand new suit.

"Whoa!" The gang stared at her in wonder. "Friya?" Hiro asked, grinning.

"What do you think?" she asked cheerfully, arms out wide.

"It's awesome! It's almost like ours!"

He was right. Friya's suit looked like the usual Big Hero 6 gear, only in her own personal way. On Friya's head was a gold helmet with two antennas shaped like devil's horns, a hole in the back for her ponytail, and an orange zigzag painted across it. Her body armor was also gold and orange that protected her torso. On her arms, she had silver arm guards that were made heavily built. She wore silver leggings and knee-high gold boots that looked large in the soles. The suit completed with silver gloves and belt for handy purposes. On Friya, she looked dashing in it.

"But what does it do?" Fred blurted out. Everyone turned and shot him a look.

"All right, check this out," Friya picked up a glass of water, which seemed to be there intentionally. Quickly, she flung it towards them.

"Whoa!" The team flinched away and braced for a good soaking, but nothing happened. When they looked, they were surprised to see Friya holding that water in her hands, completely in solid form.

"How did you…" Hiro stuttered. He thought she simply just used something cold to freeze it but when he took a look at the solid water, he realized that it didn't even turn to ice. It was just one solid piece of water.

Friya held up her arm guards. Two guns, one on each guard, popped out. "The left one fires a gas that can solidify liquid while the left can liquefy solid," she explained. "The tiny functions on my gloves release the same gases whenever I need them to."

"Cool!" Honey squealed. The chemistry enthusiast seemed to be excited about that bit.

"That's not all," Friya grinned, clearly excited. She then mimicked going up an invisible stair. Instantly, some kind of clear liquid splattered out from the soles of her left boot. At the heel, the gas she was talking about was also released, and the liquid turned to a solid state. It all happened so quickly as Friya continued walking up, the clear liquid continuing to multiply.

"That is sick," Fred said, gazing up at the new figure in awe.

"Wow…" Hiro said inaudibly.

Friya smiled proudly as she jumped off the stairs. Immediately, it shattered and disappeared into the air. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"How did you even do that?" Wasabi asked.

Friya's smile turned into a smirk. "Now, that is a secret. But…" She looked towards Hiro. "It has something to do with the iridium and indium." When she winked, Hiro grinned, knowing they shared a secret the others didn't know about.

"Wait, what iridium and indium?"

"Oh, nothing," Hiro replied.

"Either way, this is a pretty amazing invention," Gogo commented.

"Thanks," Friya took her gloves and helmet off and looked at the others nervously. "So, do you think this is good enough?"

"Good enough?" Fred said. "Dude, you're gonna knock everyone's socks off!"

"I agree," Wasabi said, nodding.

The young inventor broke into a huge grin. "You really think so?"

"Of course!" Honey smiled brightly, clasping her shoulder reassuringly. "You really worked hard!"

"It's not half-bad," Gogo said, giving her a half-smile.

Friya was glad to know her friends supported her. As she looked towards Hiro, who hadn't spoken anything yet, she became serious. "What do you think, Hiro?"

The boy was still glancing at Friya's new armor. He paused for a while, broke into a smile, and said; "I think…we need you on our team."

Later on, Friya found herself gathered around with the Big Hero 6 gang, all of them fully geared up and ready to fight crime. Grinning, the members high-fived each other and proceeded on their first mission with their new member.

"Anyone we need to bust today?" Fred asked slyly, prepared to kick some butt.

"Well, since we have a new member…" Hiro started.

"Temporary," Friya corrected.

"Yeah, right…we should go somewhere more exciting than most."

"Like the burning building wasn't exciting enough," Gogo said sarcastically.

"It kinda was," Friya piped in. "I mean, I got some of my suit ideas just by being there."

"Yes, but I'm talking about something even bigger than that. After all, it's a special night. Baymax, what can you find for us?"

"Scanning area," Baymax mused. "Scan complete. I have detected a series of recent illegal bot fighting in abandoned and illicit areas. One of the most prevalent locations is about a 28 kilometers away from here, in an alleyway."

Hiro froze as soon as he heard that. Bot fighting was something he used to love doing. Sure, he quit a long time ago, but should he really come as close as putting an end to it?

"I've never done bot fighting before," Friya said. She tried to hide the sad look that came upon her face when she suddenly recalled a bad memory.

"I don't think any of us have except for Hiro here," Gogo said, almost accusingly. Everyone turned to him.

He only laughed nervously. "Let's just get this over with," he said.

Friya scoffed. "Says the person who wanted this night to be special."

As soon as they arrived at the alley, Hiro felt as if he recognized the place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "I feel like I've been here before," he deliberated.

"You did say you used to do a lot of bot fighting," Wasabi pondered. "Probably explains why."

"Maybe…"

When they made the right turn, the team burst into the base of the bot fighting and came across a large crowd, gathered around a large battle ring. When Hiro saw the man in charge of it all, his eyes widened. "Mr. Yama?"

The giant man, who apparently still hasn't lost weight, glared at his old enemy. "Zero has returned," he snarled.

Hiro felt his old cocky state return to him. "Still haven't accepted the fact that my bot totally beat yours, I see."

"Well! At least I'm not the one playing dress-up!" He burst out laughing at his own joke as a chorus of oohs filled the room.

Hiro crossed his arms. "Oh, yeah, that's really charming," he said, sarcastic mode on. "So yeah, we were actually going to take you to jail. So, if you could please make our job easier for us…"

Mr. Yama grunted. "Not a chance! Boys…" Just like from last time, his team of bodyguards walked up to the seven of them, threateningly cracking their knuckles.

"Still being a coward, huh?" Hiro sighed. Then a deadly look came onto his face. "All right, guys…attack!"

It started with Gogo throwing a disc at one of the guards to knock him out. After that, everyone else charged at them. Honey used a Chem-ball to shroud them in a camouflage cloud, causing everyone to cough and get distracted.

Friya took her time to use the new functions of her suit and began to melt all the bots that were there. By now, most of the smarter people were running away, trying not to get caught, while those who stubbornly stayed got handcuffed by Wasabi; which included the giant Mr. Yama. He shot a really nasty glare at Friya when he saw her melting his prize-winning battle bot.

The young inventor was happy to see she and her suit were being put to good use. While the others kept fighting, she scanned around for more bots to melt…until she caught a glimpse of something in the crowd.

It was a hand. Not just any kind of hand. It was completely black-colored and it was fleeing away. She would have just let whomever this person was go, but she recognized that hand. She didn't hesitate to chase after it. The figure was fast, but not fast enough for Friya to at least catch up with it. Though she could only see its hand, that was enough.

Suddenly, the figure took a turn at a dead end. Friya realized that it must be taking the chase on the roofs. Using her boots, she activated her special liquid and gas, creating another set of stairs that helped her run over it. As soon as she reached the top, the stairs shattered into tiny pieces and disappeared.

However, Friya was too late. As she scanned around to look for the figure, she saw that it managed to escape. She stamped her foot in frustration as she took her helmet off.

But now, that got her curious. If that hand belonged to who she really thinks it was, then there's a chance that her opportunity for a better future would have to take another turn back to the past.

"Friya!" She turned around to see Hiro and Baymax flying up to her. "Are you all right?" Hiro asked, concerned.

Friya chuckled. "I'm fine…I'm good."

"I have scanned you for injuries," Baymax said. "You seem to have sustained none, but your heart rate levels have increased. Did you spot something that frightened you and caused you to rush away from us?"

"What?" She actually had to hesitate before answering. "No, it must have been my imagination. Sorry if I got you guys worried."

"Well, everyone's captured and cuffed, so we can take them to the jailhouse now," Hiro confirmed. "Good job melting all the bots, by the way. Your suit really is helpful!" He smiled at his friend but frowned when he saw her distant look. "Are you sure you're OK? You seem pretty off. Is there something wrong?"

Friya immediately shook her head. "Nothing! Just…" She took one last look around, just to make sure if she wasn't hallucinating or if the figure was still hiding somewhere. There was no one else but the three of them. "Nothing."

On to the next chapter! I don't know how long it will take for me to write it, though, but I'll do my best! And, I may sound selfish right now, but please review if you have the time! I really wanna see how you guys really think! :) (Seriously guys, I'm desperate, I have a bet with Riduu D:)