Notes: Time in this chapter's a bit wonky as I'm trying to get everyone to the same temporal point, namely watching/participating in the roller derby. Please bear with me. Oh, also warning for heavily implied drug and alcohol usage by some OCs.
Chapter 7 - Ready, Set, Gogo
"Any more bets?" the bookie by the TV called out.
"How about Yama doesn't keep any of them because the police show up?" Wasabi suggested. The man next to him snorted.
"Pretty long odds. The cops in San Fransokyo haven't found that place yet. But hey, I'll take that bet."
"Sure!" Fred enthused as he put down a hundred.
"Fred!" Honey Lemon hissed.
"What? It'll keep us from looking suspicious," Fred whispered back before grinning and ordering another round of drinks from the bartender. Honey Lemon sighed but accepted the drink. The bar was getting crowded as more people came to watch the roller derby and they needed an excuse to keep their seats. As it was, people kept trying to shoulder their way past Wasabi, which had made him crowd up against his friends' backs.
Baymax, in the meantime, had been programmed not to push people unless absolutely necessary, which had resulted in him being pushed back by the growing crowd. This didn't bother the robot as he could still see and scan Honey Lemon, Fred, and Wasabi from his position as well as see the TV. What was a concern was that he was due for a recharge. There was a reason his creator had sent his case along, after all, and it wasn't just so he'd fit better in the vehicle. He'd been running for quite some time now and even standby still consumed some power, if not as much as his current mode nor the hacking.
Thus, Baymax turned to a random person standing next to him and said, "My programming requires me to inform you that my battery will need recharging soon." With that requirement satisfied, Baymax turned from the man, only to pause at the man's words.
"Whoa, man, that's... Whoa! I can help you with that, man!"
Baymax blinked and then followed the man because if there was a charging station available, he should take advantage. There wasn't a charging station.
"This is a hallucinogenic," Baymax pointed out as the man tried handing him a small plastic bag filled with said hallucinogenic.
"Yeah, man. It'll get you charged right back up on your trip," the man stated with a unfocused smile.
"Scan complete. You have some of this in your system. Recommended treatment includes a quiet place and support." Baymax wrapped the man in a hug and patted his head. "There, there. You will be all right."
The man leaned into the hug and said, "You're the best, man." He also let himself be led away to a quieter bar to sit with a glass of water, Baymax sitting next to him. Just in time, too.
The drunk on Baymax's other side raised an eyebrow as the robot started muttering, "Whee! I am Healthcare, your personal baymax!" Baymax's head hit the wooden top of the bar with another "Whee!" as he started to slowly power himself down.
"I think ya've had enuf, buddy," the drunk slurred before turning back to his own drink and downing it. The man on hallucinogenics giggled and laid his head on the bar as well. The bartender just sighed. It was going to be a long night.
Yama knew it was a dangerous game he was playing but he'd apparently been the one to start it by kidnapping the Hamada brothers or, rather, by arranging it at any rate. The Big Hero had a point, though. He should've realized they'd be keeping an eye on the kid who'd made some of their tech. Ah, well, fortune was smiling on him after all because, for whatever reason, he only had to deal with one of the Big Heroes. So he'd decided to take advantage of his luck and proposed the game.
The risk the Big Hero would actually win not only her freedom but both of the Hamada brothers was slim and he had the odds coming in from his casino in Los Edos to back him up on that. Yama had planned on recording the derby anyway but the Big Hero's insistence on it being live was no doubt her attempt to hold Yama to his word. Not that Yama planned on backing out. A person didn't get to where he was by being dishonorable. And it wasn't like the Big Heroes were exactly legal, either. Masked vigilantes, the lot of them and the only reason the city wasn't calling for their blood was because they came across as honorable and good for the city. But, if the Big Hero broke her word and on video no less... It would be priceless as blackmail. And if she kept her word, well, he'd managed to get one to play his game and Yama could probably get the others to do so as well as long as he kept his hands on the youngest Hamada.
"Sir?"
Yama turned towards the man he'd sent to get him some snacks to see him not only holding the snacks but also a piece of paper from the bookies in the other box. One of the downsides of keeping this place off the grid meant blocking cell phones, so they had to resort to paper to communicate with him. Yama took it and read it, and then grinned.
"Tell them, if the Big Hero loses, that it can be arranged," he told the man, shooing him off once he'd set down the snacks.
"Yes, sir."
Yama turned to watch the track and the event about to start with a smirk, looking at the Hamada the memo had been about. Who knew the kid had such a high price on his head? This night was proving to be quite... lucrative. Yama chuckled to himself and signaled Tsubaki to start the match.
Tadashi hadn't been sure what to think when several men burst into the room he was being held in, although he fervently prayed it wasn't for the same reason as that woman, Botan, had come in for earlier. He was thus both relieved and alarmed when they pulled out a cloth rag like the one they had used earlier in the van to knock him out when he'd tried fighting his way to Hiro.
Tadashi jerked awake in another van - or possibly the same one from earlier; it was hard to tell - surrounded by various male thugs and Botan, his head in her lap. He immediately jerked upright into a sort of modified seiza, which was the best he could manage since his wrists had been handcuffed to his ankles. Apparently someone remembered his attempts to kick them. A quick glance confirmed he was still in the shirt and slacks from earlier and they weren't any more rumpled than one would expect from being tossed into the back of a van, which was a relief.
Botan giggled and leered as she said, "You know? I bet you'd make a lovely kinbaku-bi model. Dress you up in a karada and nothing else or an ebi if you needed to be punished for being a bad boy. Mm... I wonder if Yama will let me buy you after we take care of this Big Hero?"
Tadashi's eyes widened as he did his best to scoot away from the woman while the men surrounding them chuckled. At the same time, Tadashi's mind was racing. Big Hero? Did she mean Gogo? She was the only other one in town and Tadashi had seen her moving to protect Aunt Cass earlier. Had Gogo found them? Was that why they were moving him? He hoped she'd at least reached Hiro, but wasn't about to ask. Then the van stopped.
"We're here," one of the men stated unnecessarily before grabbing Tadashi and unhooking his wrists from his ankles and pulling him out of the back door the others were opening.
It was like being hit by a wave of sound. The back of the van was just inside a warehouse-turned-stadium that Tadashi wasn't sure how to even begin to describe. They literally dragged him up some metal stairs - the handcuffs on his ankles hobbling him enough that, while he could walk, running and taking stairs were a physical impossibility - one man on either side. They were taking him to some sort of pole positioned between the crowded catwalks above and what looked like a video game racetrack below.
"Tadashi!"
Tadashi's attention snapped to a matching pole on the other side of the building and he tried to lunge away from his captors as he shouted his brother's name. It didn't work and one of the men blocked his view of Hiro as they unclasped one hand and then re-cuffed him with his hands above his head. Once Tadashi could see Hiro again, he could see his brother had been similarly bound, but Hiro was so short that he seemed to be bouncing on his toes in order to give his wrists some leeway. Tadashi hoped Hiro hadn't been bound that way for long because that was a position all too likely to cause damage that even Baymax could only diagnose, not treat.
Then Botan was blocking his view.
"For good luck," she stated, forcing a kiss on him before he twisted his head away and glared at her. She laughed and waved as she walked away, only for it to turn into a scowl as Hiro - who was apparently trying to get himself killed - hurled invective at her. She was soon down on the track, though, which made Tadashi take a better look, only to pause because that was Gogo in her supersuit on a starting line quite a bit behind all of the geisha. He then felt his stomach drop as the announcer geisha talked about racing and prizes, namely Gogo racing for him and Hiro. This wasn't a racetrack. This was a deathtrap.
"I hope you know what the hell you're doing, Gogo," he muttered.
Gogo had half expected them to drive her into the bay when Yama's goons insisted she load up in the back of an unmarked van with a solid divider between her and the driver. It was impossible to see where they were going so she wouldn't have been surprised if they tried to kill her but, when the van came to the stop, it was just inside a huge warehouse that had obviously been used for this purpose before and she was quickly led to her starting position.
A quick, hidden look at her phone revealed what she'd suspected earlier. If the police couldn't find this place - and they obviously couldn't or it would've been shut down long ago - it was because they had a way to block cell phones and GPS devices. Sure enough, the brief glance at her phone had shown a big, red, 'No Service' sign. With no clue where she was and no way for anyone to track her, she had to hope her friends had gotten her message earlier and stall for as long as she could.
A look around showed catwalks up above being filled by people, as were several stands. Two boxes hung over the track. One was for an announcer and various bookies working on old, land-line-style phones while sitting at nice, new computers. Yama was already taking a seat in the fancier one. After glaring at the announcer, Tsubaki, for adding that stupid taunt to her name, Gogo noted where they were putting Hiro and Tadashi. Chains, she noted with a frown, and they were on opposite ends of the track, which meant she couldn't just grab them and run. It was starting to look increasingly like her best chance was winning the derby. Then Gogo took in the track.
"The hell kind of roller derby track is this?" Gogo muttered to herself because damn, it looked like someone had decided to make a real life Dario Cart track, never mind the death toll. Gogo was positioned on a line by the stands - which were growing crowded as more people came in - and where the track sloped up to its highest point. Past the line where the Fujitas were starting to congregate, the track went down sharply into what at first look was a skateboard park except it looked like there were things in the walls. She was fairly certain she could make out flames near where they were tying up Hiro.
Over by where they'd just finished tying up Tadashi, even the walls disappeared from sight, which made Gogo frown. Then she scowled as the red-haired Fujitas forcibly stole a kiss from Tadashi for 'good luck'. Gogo's hands twitched with the urge to throw a wrist disc at the Fujita but it was too far for her to throw, especially accurately.
Two years ago, she and Honey Lemon had made it their job to chase off the girls who were a little too forward with Tadashi, partially because Tadashi had only been seventeen at the time and thus technically jail bait, but mostly because he'd admitted to them that he'd been somewhat traumatized when his one and only ex attempted to force him to be the Romeo to her Juliet, complete with attempted death scene. It had made them rather protective of their friend and they weren't the only ones.
"Hey! Keep your filthy mouth off my brother, you old hag!" Hiro shouted at the Fujita.
"Hiro, what are you doing?" Tadashi shouted back, obviously not impressed with his brother's attempt at defending his virtue.
"What? You're not defending her, are you? She's sexually harassing you!"
"You seem to be forgetting who has the weapons, little boy," the red-headed geisha hissed.
"Yeah, yeah, because you obviously need to threaten someone to just to get some, Ugly!" Hiro taunted, making the red-head screech in anger.
"Hiro!" Tadashi shouted again, this time in a very dismayed tone while Gogo felt her eyebrows rise because really? Wasn't she supposed to be the one laying down the smack talk?
"Botan! Go join the others," Yama sudden called out from where he was sitting. The fuming Fujita obeyed, using the catwalks around the side of the building to get over to the starting line.
Meanwhile, the Fujita named Tsubaki was acting as the announcer for the live feed and was naming off Gogo's opponents and reiterating the rules. It was like a standard roller derby in some respects - the Fujitas had to skate together as a team with no one getting too far ahead or falling too far behind the pack, Gogo had to lap them to score, and there was a timer - and different in others, such as the fact she had to pass all of the Fujitas to score, they were all carrying weapons of some sort, and there wasn't a pivot Gogo could rely on if things went sour.
They were setting a time of five minutes up on the big fancy scoreboard hanging over the middle of the track. While bouts went on for thirty minutes, five minutes was a lot for a single jam. Then again, this wasn't a normal track and Gogo had a feeling she'd need every second even if she could go full speed. There wasn't going to be time to properly feel out all of the traps she had no doubt existed and Gogo was going to have to face them head on.
"Everyone ready? On your marks."
Gogo crouched on her starting line, hand out for balance and all too aware of the Fujitas on the line several meters in front of her.
"Go!"
They were off, the Fujitas taking advantage of the sharp drop in front of them to gain speed while Gogo had to start on the straightaway. She got enough speed going by the time she hit the downslope that she was skating up on the wall on the U-turn, which was the only thing that allowed her to miss being barbecued by the first blast of a flamethrower built into the far wall. Gogo managed to avoid three more gouts of flame and cleared the flame throwers only to be in range of the Fujitas' weapons.
Gogo dodged two ball and chains, ducked under Botan's bat and knocked the metal fan and spiked parasol away with her discs before managing to break free in time to get a slight lead before hitting the sharp corner (and it was sharp, she noted, probably a few degrees acute of ninety) and nearly got herself squished by the stomper that came down on the track. She barely got past it, putting it between her and the Fujitas hot on her heels, only to be stopped by stompers number two and three.
Gogo suddenly wished Wasabi was here to whisper the timing of this thing through her helmet's radio. She frowned and got ready to dash. Once number two was high enough to get under, Gogo flung herself under it and kept going because the third was already on the way down. She got through, only because she laid her selfflat like a limbo dancer and took advantage of the discs on her wrists to keep going. By the time she got back upright, she was entering a section with spikes on the walls.
The spiked walls weren't actually that bad as long as she stayed in the center of the increasing curve, but Gogo made a mental note not to get caught in that section with the Fujitas. Being body-checked there would be deadly. Then the walls fell away and Gogo came to an abrupt stop because who the hell put a tightrope over a pit in the middle of a roller derby track? Okay, so it was actually a beam but it was narrow enough that only one foot would fit at a time.
Gogo glanced up at Tadashi, who was bound practically above the other end of the beam. He gave her a worried look and an encouraging smile.
"You can do this," he stated. In the distance, she could hear Hiro shouting, "Go, Gogo! They're catching up!"
Right. She needed to get on with it because the clock was still ticking. Gogo backed up a bit, took a deep breath as she aimed herself, then sent herself barreling at the beam, crouching at the last second with one foot in front of the other - practically crossed because of the location of her wheels - and down the beam. She wobbled slightly at the end as she lost her momentum but she made it.
"Yes!" Tadashi cheered before warning, "Be careful around that corner. The floor looks weird."
Gogo nodded and worked on getting her speed up enough to take the wide curve up on the wall. The floor did look weird, but she wasn't going to be able to stay up on the wall, what with another U-turn coming up. She was glad she got her speed up, however, because it meant when she crossed over she was moving fast enough that she didn't fall when the floor gave way, although she cursed like mad. Who the hell designed this place?
Then Gogo was in the second U-turn and several more flamethrowers suddenly turned on, prompting her to throw her discs at them in an attempt to turn them off before they burned her face off. It worked, although she had to dodge two others while waiting for her discs to return. Thankfully the floor was stable in this section. Then she was past a soft turn and on a straight away. There was a short wall of spikes she'd have to travel down the middle of and at some speed if she wanted to be able to make the jump right after. Gogo grinned and shot down the middle only to realize once she was surrounded by the spikes that they were moving in on her. She put on a burst of speed and barely cleared them before hitting the slight ramp that would give her the air she needed to avoid a pit of spikes. Gogo hit the landing perfectly and yelped as the floor immediately dropped and tried to dump her into the pit of spikes behind her.
"GOGO!" both Hiro and Tadashi yelled in alarm while the crowd jeered and hollered, although Tadashi quickly added, "Fulcrum!"
Right, find where the thing pivoted. Her sudden weight had sent the floor down but she still had just enough momentum to roll up to where the floor was hinged like a teeter-totter and slightly past. To her relief, the floor started to swing the other way, although it kept going. Gogo scooted back so she was at the center of the fulcrum but she'd seen enough to know the next section was also hinged. With a glare, she calculated where the center would be and jumped. The floor wobbled but didn't try and kill her outright, which was a plus. A shift of her weight to make the far end dip down showed the next section of floor was solid so she jumped to it and continued on. There was a soft incline up back towards the starting section and the stands where the crowd booed her as she zoomed past and back down into the death trap.
Gogo barely caught a glance at the time-clock as she did and she grit her teeth. She'd taken way too long figuring out the traps. No time to pause any more; she'd have to take them all head on as fast as possible. She had some Fujitas to catch up with.
Notes: I had way too much fun designing the track. *evil cackle* I even sketched a rough and ugly sketch so I'd know for certain where everything was.
Kinbaku-bi (lit. 'the beauty of tight binding'), as you might have guessed from the translation, is Japanese-style rope bondage. A karada is a rope harness and usually patterned. One, for example, is based off a tortoise-shell pattern. An ebi is a shrimp tie. It's probably the oldest form of Japanese rope bondage and actually started out as a way to punish and torture people because the position, if held for too long, is very painful. You can easily find images in various places, including Wikipedia, but none of them are terribly safe for work, so search at your own risk.
The treatment for someone on hallucinogens really is to get them to a quiet place and offer support - albeit the support is probably different than what Baymax offered - along with benzodiazepines if the person is extremely agitated or experiencing seizures. That's usually for bad trips, though. People on good trips don't tend to seek out healthcare professionals. And of course, Baymax is going to find the one person in the crowd who might need his help. Not that he's going to be terribly helpful now...
Oh, and since someone asked in a review and I forgot to mention it earlier, Ms. Rudolph is Aunt Cass. Yama refers to her as Cass Rudolph in an earlier chapter. I have her name as that because I have her as the boys' maternal aunt and there's no sign of the last name in the movie, including the credits, so I borrowed her voice actress's last name.
