The night air was close and still, the damp of it going strait to the bones and the chill settling in. It was the night air of a foggy morning, not uncommon in San Fransokyo. The streets were quiet, a few cars whizzed by, but no other pedestrians were around to ogle the sight of a tiny fourteen-year-old and a giant robot in ill-fitting armour running down the hills towards the bay, making odd twists and turns as they went. Hiro was so focused on the directions from the microbot he wandered straight through intersections and down thin alleyways. Behind him Baymax bounced along, tiny boots tapping against the ground, looking like a goat with a walking problem.
Hiro was unsure of where they were going but he wanted to be there already, damn it. The man in the kabuki mask needed to be caught, needed to pay for stealing his microbots, almost killing Tadashi, and killing Professor Callaghan. He'd burned an entire exhibition hall for what? One solitary project. He could have just taken it and no one would have noticed. Well, maybe someone, but with the microbots he could have made a clean getaway. Hiro's frustration grew and his world reduced to the tiny robot in the petri dish in his hands. He made several twisting turns, not noticing when a van began to follow him.
It crept down the streets behind Hiro and Baymax. Never less than a block behind, travelling slowly as it followed. Occasionally Hiro would loose it as he turned into a narrow alley or made a turn the van wasn't anticipating. Hiro made another sudden right turn down an alley where even Baymax had to turn sideways to fit and the van lost them.
Hiro wasn't sure where he was in the city anymore, and neither did he care. The microbot was leading him towards the man in the kabuki mask and he was going to catch him. He was startled out of his thoughts when Baymax seized the hood on his sweater and yanked him back.
"Be careful," said Baymax, a little late.
Hiro looked down and realized he'd been about to step off a pier into a very cold fall ocean. The microbot was straining out over the ocean, but Hiro swore there was nothing out there. Well, there was the island, but there was nothing on it. Maybe the masked man had a boat hideout. Hiro hadn't made Baymax capable of taking them both over water yet, which was a wrench in the works. It didn't matter as the microbot managed to break out of the petri dish and zoom away into the fog. Hiro peered after it, trying desperately to see where it went.
He didn't have to look for long as a curious splashing sound grew louder and louder. Hiro grabbed Baymax and pulled the robot behind a shipping container just as the masked man burst out of the fog. He was riding on the microbots and carrying something with him, a piece of machinery with a strange red bird-in-a-circle design painted on it. Hiro knew it was now or never and opened his mouth to order Baymax to take the man down but a bright light shone in his face, leaving the order to die in his throat.
Hiro blinked in the bright light, one hand up to shield his eyes from the harsh glow, trying to see what was behind it. He was just able to make out the fact that there were two sources of light when they disappeared, leaving him to blink bright spots out of his vision.
A car. It was a car. Hiro heard the doors open and expected the 'What are you up to, young man' speech from a couple of bored police officers. What he did not expect were Tadashi's friends.
"Hiro," called Honey Lemon.
"What are you doing out here?" asked Wasabi.
At least police officers would be helpful in catching the man in the kabuki mask. Tadashi's friends were going to get themselves hurt if they got in the way. What would Tadashi say then?
"You guys have to go," warned Hiro, not that they seemed to even listen to him.
"Why is Baymax wearing carbon-fiber underpants?" asked GoGo, popping her gum.
Hiro nearly facepalmed as Baymax tried to begin explaining, cutting him off quickly.
"It doesn't matter, you guys need to get out of here!"
Again Hiro found himself ignored, and the gang all came closer, their postures indicating they thought he was going to bolt like a skittish colt.
Hiro couldn't pay any attention to them, his mind on the masked man just on the other side of the shipping container. Hopefully he wouldn't hear all the racket from Tadashi's friends.
This hope died a very sudden death soon after its birth. Poor hope, being dashed out of existence by the masked man lifting a shipping container with the microbots to loom ominously down at the group. For a moment there was no sound aside from gentle waves on the pier and the flapping of the masked man's trench coat. Out of the corner of his eye Hiro saw Honey raise an arm and snap a photo with her phone, setting off the flash and spurring the masked man into action. A large shipping container came hurtling towards them, flung by the microbots. Hiro scrambled out of the way, brain too petrified to scream or curse. One of the girls was shrieking though. His money was on Honey Lemon until he looked to see Wasabi crouched and wailing under the container. Hiro's eyes followed the line to see that Baymax was doing his hero duty and holding up the red metal container that had threatened to squish them like beetles.
"Ok we gotta go, now!" GoGo began herding them towards the car, towing along a reluctant Hiro.
"Oh come on, Baymax can take this guy," defended Hiro, gesturing at Baymax without really looking.
Hiro was given four looks of disbelief that quickly morphed into fear. Hiro didn't need to turn around to find out what happened as Baymax crashed into the roof of Wasabi's van, leaving a sizeable dent the robot sat in.
"Oh no," Baymax said, as calm as ever.
Hiro thought the situation called for much stronger sentiment than that, but he wasn't going to argue with the man in the kabuki mask hovering ten feet above the ground threatening them with large metal boxes through the use of his worst invention ever. Hiro should have done something better, like a soothing cat grooming station. Every cat owner would need one, right?
Hiro didn't think too hard about the logistics of cat grooming as he scrambled into the van behind Fred and Honey. He was practically bouncing on the stiff fabric of the seats as Wasabi took off in reverse. The interior of the car was pine fresh and meticulously clean, but none of that mattered as a dark surge of microbots took off after them, the masked man seeming to float along weightless as he chased them.
They were travelling so fast in reverse Hiro felt a bit dizzy but there was no time to turn around. Until the man in the kabuki mask sent a pulse of microbots close enough.
"Baymax! Palm-heel strike!" Hiro shouted, hoping his idea would work.
It did, and the gang was zooming off in the properly oriented vehicle.
The streets were empty as Wasabi sped them along, not at a breakneck speed, but a perfectly acceptable 10 kilometers over the speed limit. Hiro would facepalm if he wasn't so concerned that he was going to be killed by the man who stole his invention through the use of said invention.
"How cool is this, a villain!" Fred was chattering excitedly in the back of the van, face pressed against the rear window to stare out at the man in the kabuki mask. "I mean, it's scary, yeah. But how cool."
They swung around a corner.
"Did you put your blinker on?" GoGo said incredulously from the front.
"I think we saw too much, he must be trying to kill us," said Fred, unconcerned that their getaway driver was being far too cautious to actually save their lives.
"Oh we don't know that," said Honey, ever the optimist. At least, until some poor hardworking person's car was used as a projectile by the man in the kabuki mask. "He's trying to kill us!"
They swung around another corner and down another –thankfully empty- street.
"Baymax can take this guy. Just pull ov-" Hiro was cut off in his protests as a swarm of microbots ripped off the door he had been leaning on, sending him out of the newly made hole in the van over the black asphalt.
Hiro thought he was going to die. He was going to turn into ground human on the road and then Aunt Cass would cry and there wouldn't even be enough of him left to burn he'd just be a splatter in the middle of the road to be washed away by a winter storm and oh god what would Tadashi do when he woke up and Hiro wasn't there anymore.
Hiro then realized he should not have had time to think all this and noticed a strong grip on the back of his hoodie. He looked up to see the comforting face of Baymax looking down at him. The robot, still seated in the dent in the roof, gently placed him back in the seat and did up his seat belts.
"Seat belts save lives. Buckle up every time."
Tadashi had literally made his robot quote a MADD commercial. Hiro gaped up at Baymax before being snapped to a stop.
Confused and scared that the masked man had caught them Hiro glanced around.
"Why did you stop?"
"The light's red. It's the law," replied Wasabi.
"There are no red lights in car chases!"
GoGo, fed up with Wasabi's driving, unbuckled herself and slid over into Wasabi's lap. She pushed the seat back, took a grip on the steering wheel, and made the little van launch through the intersection.
Hiro knew that GoGo was a bit if a speed freak. Just how much of an addiction to speed she actually had Hiro had never guessed as they flew down the streets, disregarding all pedestrian crossings, school zones, one ways, and sidewalks as GoGo drove like a professional rally driver through the quiet San Fransokyo streets.
Street signs whizzed by faster than Hiro could read, but they still couldn't loose the man in the kabuki mask. He was no longer chasing them, but rather haunting them, herding them down towards the bay once more. Hiro felt the panic bubble up in him once again as he realized they were being herded into a shrinking tunnel of microbots. Hiro kept his eyes fixed on the shrinking light at the end of the shifting dark tunnel, shutting out Honey and Fred's banter over whether they were going to make it. Hiro sincerely hoped they would.
With a last burst of speed the van pushed through the microbots. Hiro felt his heart sing with relief, then plummet with the rest of him as the car swan dived into the cold water of San Fransokyo bay.