I. In Fred's room...
"Are you scared for your safety?" GoGo asked.
Her unusual concern for Hiro's physical well-being didn't strike a cord with him, he rubbed the top of Baymax's red charger loyally. "He'd never hurt me, no matter if he had free will or not," he still peered with his own mixed concern into Baymax's optics.
He wondered if he was watching and listening.
"There shouldn't be secrets in the team," Wasabi scratched the giant green "W" on his robe's breast.
"Speaking of which, Honey and I got here like ten minutes ago. What's your excuse?" GoGo gestured.
The three lounged on Fred's wrap-around while he rummaged through his fridge. Wasabi fidgeted out of habit. "Honestly... the dude can't bathe himself."
"What?!" Honey turned to him from the middle.
"It's true," Wasabi whispered with his hand up as Hiro tried to access Baymax's chip port and Fred was entering with a tray of goodies. "I gotta run it, check it, mix some bubble bath in it, stir it all up-,"
"Check it again," Fred listed casually from behind him, making Wasabi jump, "Make sure Mr. Quack Quack has his little life vest on; and Heathcliff's on the mend from measles, so another week tops bro."
He plopped down in between Honey and GoGo.
She leered at Wasabi flatly, "You've been here how long?" When he explained that he had been kicked out of his apartment because he hadn't paid his rent on time, Hiro perked up. "Besides, I've got a ride and Fred's got a room; Works out perfectly."
"Dude, by the way. We gotta go shop for mayo."
Wasabi wilted.
"I didn't know you were in hot water, Bi." Hiro approached him. "If you want, Aunt Cass has our old room for rent." When Hiro realized what that would mean, Wasabi smiled sagely and told him thanks anyway. "Is hero work really interfering?"
"We wanna keep helping, Hiro, and we will. It's about sacrifice, remember?" Honey shrugged and smiled, albeit wearily. "You have a new dream to continue Tadashi's legacy, that's what we support."
"We'll take good care of Baymax," Fred promised.
As the four started into their sandwichs, Hiro let out a sigh. He waved away their offer and turned one last time to Baymax. "Do you think he's mad?"
"He can't hear you, Hiro." Honey offered.
"But what if he's overidden his programming?"
"Where's his diffuser valve?" Wasabi asked, again the team was more concerned with Hiro landing a spot in jail then a possible Baymax uprising. "We all know Tadashi's bot is harmless, but if you think this is for real, Hiro, Baymax needs to be scanned."
"I know, he keeps reminding me."
GoGo got up and moved Hiro's chin to look into her eyes. "We don't keep secrets, Hiro." When she said and looked at him this way, he froze in place.
Hiro had to wonder if she, too, could pull the truth out of him. The truth that the only valve that was compatiable with Baymax was floating off forever into hyper space, that he'd realized too late that his friend was indeed free-willed and that if Baymax went out in public it was bound to be revealed. If Hiro left now, leaving Baymax with someone he trusted, and built his own Baymax... or better yet, Hiro brightened. If Hiro retrofitted diffusers into a new set of bots, his could work eventually isolate key microscopic components - every diffuser was different in a robot - and possibly make a new one.
The portal being destroyed wasn't a total loss!
Hiro kissed GoGo square on the lips, was smacked hard across the chops and then happily unplugged the charging robot to take with him to H.T.T. He'd work day and night to make a new diffuser valve to repress Baymax's budding free will if he needed to scan Baymax a million times. He wheeled Baymax around, bade his friends goodbye and took off now.
"Don't worry, buddy, I'm going to take you with me and let you know what we're gonna do once we get in the airport bathroom. You and I are gonna come up with a plan that will stop your-," he spotted the Lee's coming home. If they saw him they might let Aunt Cass know. Hiro dove for the perfect hedges.
"Dear, what are we going to do if Tony comes over tonight? Heathcliff can't shop and you know he and Bruce don't care for pizza." Fred's mother asked of her husband as they started up the stairs past them.
"We can always ask the other Bruce-,"
"Oh, stop that!" She swatted him.
Hiro noticed how bright it was out.
Dang it, He checked the time on his SharpPhone.
8:31!
Some minor relief came when he heard the sound of a helicopter starting up and thrumming away; if it had been the other way around they'd been sunk.
"Hiro," The voice of Baymax made him tense up even more then before, their strange ailenation the last couple days made his eyes prick when he saw that Baymax had reinflated behind him. He gasped.
Baymax blinked and tilted his head just as normal as ever. This wasn't some rogue robot or someone who would in a million years lay his hand on him.
This was his friend.
The teenager grasped the soft, taut care bot around the middle. "Come with me, okay?" he urged him.
Baymax only hovered one hand over his back this time before dropping it to his side. "I have scanned Callaghan's wavelengths 268 feet from us." Hiro in that moment didn't care how Baymax had inflated or that his body scanner was suppose to be wonky.
"We gotta warn the others..." He stumbled out.
As Baymax went on to tell him that it was not the Callaghan he thought it was, a large black creature loomed in the opening to the cream-brick and iron fence that surrounded the Lee residence. Hiro was about to call for his friends when large appendages the color of the creature spread out and two green, highly expressive eyes met his. The teen gawked.
"Oh no," Baymax voiced Hiro's surprise.
Evidently he didn't know what to make of it either.
To be continued...