Return of the Prodigal Son

Hiro had been walking for hours before he came across any sign of life. Namely, the sound of helicopters. American helicopters.

Hiro yelled, waved, did everything short of a dance to get their attention. Luckily, they had appeared to have seen him because one by one, the three choppers landed.

The first soldier practically leaped from their helicopter, sprinting across the sand to reach him. Once she approached him, her face was all too familiar.

"How was the "fun-vee"?" Gogo beamed.

Something overcame Hiro in that moment. For the first time in his life, he fell to his knees and wept. Pure, shameless tears of relief and joy ran down his face as his closest friend embraced him.

"It's alright" Gogo gently spoke "You're okay"

In that moment, Hiro wasn't in Afghanistan. He was nestled in Gogo's arms like a little brother, like so many times before (more than he'd truthfully admit), and he was going to be okay.

Hiro opened his bleary eyes and looked up to the warm smile of his best friend.

"Let's get you home" she said, and that was the end of it.

The first thing Hiro noticed as he and Gogo got off the plane was that Tip and Fred were waiting for him. Fred had one of the largest smiles he had ever seen plastered across his face, while Tip looked ready to burst into tears.

Hiro strode off the plane, arm in arm with Gogo, much to her insistence, and his other arm in a baby blue sling, a purple beanie pulled over his head to hide the nano-reactor. Two men approached with a gurney, but Hiro convinced Gogo to wave them away. The young inventor smiled at Tip, who could barely contain her own smile.

"Your eyes are red" Hiro noted "A few tears for your long-lost boss?"

"Tears of joy" Tip assured him, before adding with a joke "I hate job hunting"

"Yeah well, vacation's over" Hiro chuckled back.

He and Tip got into Fred's car, Gogo settling to follow on her motorcycle.

"Where to, boss?" Fred asked

"The hospital" Tip requested

"No"

"No? Hiro, you have to see a-"

"No" Hiro cut her off again "I don't have to do anything. I've been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. First thing I wanna do is get to the nearest fast food place and buy a cheeseburger, and second is-"

"Oh my God" Tip sighed

"It's not what you think!" Hiro argued "I want to hold a press conference"

"Press conference?"

"Yes, a press conference" He turned to speak to his faithful driver "Go, Fred. Cheeseburger first"

"Look at you!" Callaghan cheered as he embraced Hiro in a rib crushing bear-hug. Hiro almost dropped his burger in surprise.

"Nice to see you too" he smiled as he waved at the surrounding paparazzi. He walked on into the building, Callaghan, Tip and the press all following behind him.

As the crowd began to settle, Tip heard a voice "Miss Tucci?"

"Yes" she turned to come face to face with a stranger. It was a large man of heavy build, with messy brown hair and a warm smile.

"Can I speak to you for a moment?" the man asked

"I'm not part of the press conference" Tip told him "But it's about to begin now"

"I'm not a reporter" The man explained "My name is Ralph Reilly, I work for the Guerrilla Assault and Recon Division"

"That's quite a mouthful" Tip noted, only partially paying attention.

"Yeah, I know" he nodded sadly as he handed her a business card.

Tip gave the card a quick look before talking again "You know we've already been approached by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA..."

"We're a separate division" the man explained "One with a more specific focus. Mainly we'd like to speak to Mr. Hamada about the circumstances of his escape"

"I'll put something in the book then, shall I?"

He smiled "That's all I ask"

They both stopped talking as Hiro approached the podium to speak, then much to the confusion of everyone sat down in front of it.

"Would it be okay if everyone just sorta sat down?" he asked "That way you can see me, and I can see all of you"

One by one, the press slowly and awkwardly sat down. "Perfect" Hiro sighed.

"What's he doing?" Gogo asked Tip, the two women both sitting near the back of the crowd.

"Don't ask me" was Tip's reply. The woman was just as equally confused.

Hiro looked to his right. There, looking ever so slightly uncomfortable on the podium steps, was Callaghan. "It's good to see you" the young scientist said to him.

Callaghan smiled "Good to see you too"

"I never got to say goodbye to Dad" Hiro spoke sadly, before looking to address the crowd "I never got to say goodbye to my father. There are questions I would have asked him. I would have asked him about how he felt about what this company did, whether or not he was comfortable with it, whether or not he agreed with it. I would have asked him if he ever, well, if he ever had doubts, if he ever felt conflicted about what his company did. Or maybe he was just the man we all knew and remembered from the news, from the tabloids" He was silent for a few moments before he spoke again, a slight crack of emotion in his voice "I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I had designed to defend and protect them. And I saw... I saw that I had become part of a system that could not be held accountable, and were okay with that"

A reporter at the front raised his hand "Mr. Hamada?" he asked in a quiet tone, seemingly afraid to break the silence that had fallen.

"Yes?"

"What happened to you over there?" the reporter asked

"I had my eyes opened" Hiro answered, rising to his feet and stepping behind the podium "I came to realise that have more to offer this world than just death. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Hamada Industries until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be, what direction it will take, one that I am comfortable with and one that benefits this country as a whole!"

And with that he marched away, ignoring the frenzied questions of the press, Callaghan's attempt to restore order, and the shocked faces of both Gogo and Tip.

Hiro was at the Hamada Industries lab when Callaghan found him. He was observing the fusion reactor powering the building, gazing into the constant shifting light within, as if it were some holy light.

"Son," Callaghan said "What happened back there?"

"Did I just paint a target on my head?" Hiro asked him, deliberately avoiding the question.

"Your head? What about my head?" Callaghan's tone wasn't angry, but the way he paced the room told enough about his mood. He was worried, and not just about the company "What do think the over-under on tomorrows stock drop will be?"

"40 points?" Hiro suggested optimistically.

"Ha!" Callaghan barked a humourless laugh "At minimum"

Callaghan approached Hiro, and draped an arm over his shoulder "Hiro, we're a weapons manufacturer. We make weapons. It's what we do"

"Callaghan, I don't want a body count to be my only legacy" Hiro argued

"It's not your legacy" Callaghan assured him

"It's my name stamped on the bombs" Hiro countered

"We're keeping order"

"No we're not!" Hiro almost shouted, before lowering his voice again "Not based on what I saw. We need to do something else"

"Like what? Make robot nurses?"

"I think we should take another look into fusion-powered technology"

Callaghan's bushy eyebrows shot skyward in disbelief "Fusion power? That's your big idea? Hiro, the fusion thing was just a publicity stunt, remember, to shut up all the hippies!"

"It works"

"As a science project! It was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it, everyone did. It's a dead end"

"Maybe"

Callaghan stopped and looked at Hiro. In all the years the old man had known him, he had come to recognise the look in the young prodigy's eyes when he had an idea "There hasn't been a breakthrough in years, at least for us"

The two stared at each other for a while before Hiro broke the silence "You have a lousy poker face. Who told you?"

Callaghan just shrugged his shoulders "No one told me anything"

"Was it Gogo or Tip?"

"Hiro..."

"It was Gogo"

"Just show me it"

Sighing with a smile, Hiro removed his beanie, the faint light of the nano-reactor glowing from his temple.

"You lost a bit of hair" Callaghan noted the shaved area around the reactor.

"I'll grow it back" Hiro shrugged "Might take a while though"

Callaghan smiled, it was one of those funny smiles that meant he was planning something. Taking Hiro's hat, he carefully put it back on his young friend's head "Okay" he said.

"It works" Hiro stated again for emphasis.

Callaghan wrapped his arm around Hiro as he spoke to him "Listen, Hiro. We're a team, you and me. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together"

"Are you upset because I didn't give you a heads up?" Hiro asked him, referring to his announcement.

"A little" Callaghan admitted "Hiro, no more of this "ready, fire, aim" business, okay?"

"Wasn't that one of my dad's lines?"

"Yeah, but he was right. Hiro, let me handle this, okay? We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. I'll deal with the board, you just promise me you'll stay low" the old man seemed to plead.

Hiro smiled, touched by his friend's concern "I promise"

"Hey Tip!"

Tip was watching TV in her boss's lounge when Hiro called her over the intercom. It was surprisingly loud and Tip almost dropped her fries.

"Yeah?" she responded.

"How big are your hands?" he asked

Tip was understandably confused "What?"

"How big are your hands?"

"I don't understand what.."

"Just get down here. I need you"

Without another word, Tip made her way down to Hiro's workshop. There, she found him lying on his side, across a table, and hooked up to a heart monitor.

"Hey" he smiled as she approached "Come on, show me your hands". Tip raised her hands "Wow, they are small. Very petite"

"What are you doing?" Tip asked him "What is this?"

"I just need your help for a second" Hiro said, fiddling with a small glowing object in his hand.

"My God," Tip just noticed the nano-reactor in his head. The entire time she had seen him since his return, she had only ever seen him wearing his beanie "Is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"

"It was" Hiro admitted "It's now an antique" He held the device in his hand to the light. It was another nano-reactor, smaller and more streamlined in design "This is what's gonna keep me alive for the forseeable future. I'm swapping it for an upgraded unit, it's just that Baymax ran into a little snag"

"Snag? What does that mean?" Tip looked across the table to Baymax to explain.

Baymax was a 6-foot tall robot that could only be described as a walking marshmallow. Designed to work as a nurse, Baymax was an inherited gift from Hiro's father. Serving Hiro, Baymax now resided in the workshop, tending to the injuries that Hiro inevitably inflicted upon himself.

"Upon attempting to remove the reactor, I discovered an exposed wire underneath the device" the robot explained "It is causing a electric shock everytime it touches the socket wall, which is hurting Hiro"

"You can't take it out?" Tip asked

"No" Baymax was blunt

"He's all thumbs" Hiro elaborated "So I need you to reach in and just carefully pull it out"

"Is it safe?" she asked

Baymax moved to speak, but Hiro spoke first "It'll be fine. It's just like Operation; just don't hit the sides or it goes "beep""

"What's Operation?"

"You don't know what Operation is?"

Tip shook her head.

"Nevermind" Hiro sighed "Just gently lift the wire"

Tip nodded in understanding. She reached into the small socket, but yanked her hand back "You know, I don't think I'm qualified for this" she said somewhat panicked.

"Hey, it's alright" Hiro spoke in soothing tones "You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I have ever met"

The two spent a moment awkwardly staring at each other before Hiro spoke up again "Am I asking too much? Because I really need your help here"

"It's okay" Tip breathed "Okay" She reached into the side of Hiro's head, before grimacing in disgust "Oh God, there's pus!"

"It's not pus" Hiro argued, his voice remarkably casual and calm for a person who was currently having another person reaching inside his head "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, it's not from my body"

"It stinks" she complained

Hiro only shrugged "You got that wire yet?"

"I think so"

"Good, now don't let it touch the- nyaah!" Hiro gave a involuntary yelp as he felt a shock go through him, followed by a small "Sorry" from Tip "... Touch the sides on the way out"

Tip had managed to pull the majority of the wire out when Hiro spoke up again "Make sure when you pull it out, you don't pull out the..." There was a "thunk" as Tip tugged the last of the wire out, along with a small copper-coloured object "That was a magnet" he finished his sentence "I kinda needed that"

"Oh God, sorry!" Tip gasped

"Don't try and put it back" Hiro instructed her through gritted teeth "Just hurry up and put the new one in"

"Hiro, what's wrong?"

"His vitals are beginning to drop" Baymax explained

"What?" Tip looked at Hiro with panic strewn across her features "You said this was safe"

"It is" Hiro argued "Now hurry up"

Tip took the new nano-reactor in her hands "Hiro?"

"Yeah?"

"It's gonna be okay"

"I know"

"It's gonna be okay"

"Tip..."

"You're going to be fi-"

"Tip, just do it!"

With shaking hands, Tip managed to fit the nano-reactor into her boss's head, Hiro giving off a quick bark of pain as she did so.

"Hiro's vital signs are now stabilising" Baymax said

Tip exhaled a massive breath she hadn't realised she was holding, while Hiro just chuckled

"That was fun" Hiro chuckled "Here," he said, moving Tip hands away from his head "I can finish the rest"

"Are you okay?" Tip asked

"Yeah," he gave her his best smile "I'm fine"

"Don't ever ask me to do that again" Tip sighed

Hiro's gaze dropped to the floor as he sat up "I don't have anyone else" he admitted quietly.

Tip's look softened with his admittance.

"Thank you" Hiro looked up at her, with a warm smile.

Tip returned his smile "What do you want me to do with this?" she asked him, holding up his old nano-reactor.

Hiro shrugged "Melt it down. Incinerate it"

"You don't want to keep it?"

"Tip, I've been called many things, but "nostalgic" was never one of them"

Tip nodded "Will that be all, Mr Hamada?"

Hiro smiled "That will be all, Miss Tucci"

Tip left as Hiro turned to his nurse "Thanks Baymax, I'm satisfied with my care"

Baymax nodded, and like that, he shut down.

"Oh" Hiro called out to his AI "Are you there?"

"Of course, sir" Oh's voice called back

"I want to open a new project file" Hiro told him, approaching his worktop "Call it "Mark II""

Pushing a couple of buttons on the worktop, the desk came to life as a holographic 3D image of Hiro's armour appeared.

"Shall I store this on Hamada Industries' Central Database?" Oh asked

"No" Hiro told him, as he fiddled with the plan, picking pieces of the image apart with his hands "I'm not sure who to trust right now. Keep it all on my private server"

"Ah," Oh conjured a small bin to appear on Hiro's worktop, which Hiro used to bin pieces of unessential/excess parts of the armour's plan "Working on a secret project, are we sir?"

"I don't want this falling into the wrong hands" Hiro explained as he worked "At least in mine, it might do some good"

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long guys, college is a nightmare.

This will be finished. I don't know how long it will take, but it will be finished