"Hiro? Are you almost done?" Tadashi nervously paced the alley between two buildings as he waited for Hiro to plant the EMP. Everyone was stationed around the financial district, waiting for Everwraith's attack. They hoped at least one of them would find where he was coming from from their vantage point.

"I'm fine Tadashi, relax," Hiro's voice crackled over the intercom. "I'm setting the detonator now and there's no one in sight."

"Just remember, you'll have ten minutes to get to safety before Gogo can set it off."

"He knows the plan Tadashi, we've been over it four hundred times," Gogo interrupted.

"Breathe, Tadashi! Hiro will be fine." Honey added.

Tadashi knew Hiro could take care of himself pretty well. He hadn't gotten himself killed while Tadashi had been gone, and he seemed to have matured in that time too. What Tadashi worried about was his mental state and recent panic attacks. Baymax had told him Hiro hadn't had any until the cafe had been burned, so Tadashi knew he would still be learning how to deal with it.

Tadashi wasn't just worried about whether Hiro would be unharmed or not, what if he had an attack when he was still in the radiation zone? No one would be able to help him, it would be far too dangerous. Hiro would be all alone.

"Come on Hiro..." He muttered to himself.

A moment later and Hiro's disembodied voice sounded over the intercom again.

"Alright it's set. I'm on my way out. When I reach Baymax we'll fly above the city and try to see if Everwraith is coming."

Tadashi shifted his weight from foot to foot, restlessly waiting for Hiro to report his safety.

"Does anyone else feel that?" Wasabi sounded nervous in Tadashi's ear.

Tadashi stopped moving long enough to feel a rumbling under his feet. An earthquake? He wondered. In all his years he had only been through one memorable earthquake, and even then it hadn't done too much serious damage.

Suddenly, across the street a manhole cover popped out of the ground with a startling clang. Tadashi jumped as the unexpected noise reached his ears.

His mouth dropped open in shock as, one by one, the bots emerged from the sewers under the city.

Tadashi shook himself. He had to warn everyone else. He had to warn Hiro who still hadn't said he was out of the EMP's range.

"Whoa... Does anyone else see the bots coming out of the ground, or is that just me?" Fred drawled over the intercom.

"Yeah, we've noticed Fred. Stay hidden, we need to let them get to the radiation zone." Gogo was level-headed as always, unlike Tadashi who was getting more and more worried about Hiro's wellbeing.

"Hiro?"

"I'm almost out Tadashi! Hang on!" Hiro sounded frantic which did nothing to calm Tadashi down. The knot that had been forming in his stomach grew tighter and he was choked with apprehension.

"Hiro, at the rate you are moving now, you will not make it out in time. Would you like me to come and get you?" Baymax added his voice for the first time over the intercom. Hiro had left him outside of the EMP radius so his programming wouldn't be destroyed too.

"No! Baymax don't move, you'll be destroyed if you come anywhere near here." Hiro huffed, out of breath.

"Hiro? Where are you what's going on?" Tadashi couldn't stay quiet anymore.

"I'm fine, don't move!"

"Hiro, I can come get you. I'll leave my purse behind and nothing else will be affected." Honey sounded worried now too.

"Guys, everything is in position. If we don't set off the EMP now we'll lose our chance." Gogo was monitoring the streets through the city security feeds that she had connected into her helmet visor.

"Do it! I'm fine, don't miss our chance!" Hiro shrieked.

"We'll come find you, Hiro," Gogo promised.

Tadashi heard the muted beep over her intercom as the electromagnetic pulse was detonated. Everything went eerily quiet as the electric grids in the financial district were wiped out. Tadashi had never realized just how loud San Fransokyo was. It was all background noise to him, but now that it was gone, the silence was overwhelming.

"Hiro!" Tadashi ran out of the alley he was hiding in and onto the street. Further into the district, hundreds of bots littered the ground, their electronics fried by the EMP.

"He can't hear you, Tadashi. His comm unit would have been destroyed along with his tracker. He's pretty much invisible to us," Gogo reminded him.

"I can scan for Hiro to locate him faster," Baymax suggested gently.

"Yes! Just do it!" Tadashi hated not having contact with Hiro. He hadn't exactly sounded calm the last time he had spoken over the intercom, Tadashi had no idea how he was now.

"Scan complete. Hiro is approximately five hundred metres north of where I am," Baymax announced.

Tadashi pulled up the map in his visor and located Baymax's red dot. From where he was, Hiro was farther from him than he was from Baymax.

"Go find him Baymax, you're closest." Tadashi switched off the map and his comm unit and started running for where Baymax had estimated Hiro was.

I'm coming for you Hiro, I won't give up on you.

I'm not going to make it. Hiro frantically turned in a circle on the spot, looking for a clear path out of the district. Bots that had appeared from nowhere were coming at him from all sides. Hiro was surrounded, the only way out was up, but there was no way Hiro was going to risk Baymax in the radiation zone.

"Hiro?" Tadashi's voice crackled over the intercom, an octave too high.

"I'm almost out Tadashi! Hang on!" Hiro tried to reassure him, but his voice was frustratingly panicked. He tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down as the bots drew closer with every second.

"Hiro, at the rate you are moving now, you will not make it out in time. Would you like me to come and get you?"

Timing Baymax. Baymax was only trying to help, but that would do nothing to help Tadashi. Hiro told him to stay away as his panic threatened to consume him and took his breath away.

Not now, why now? Hiro pressed his hands to the side of his helmet and squeezed his eyes shut. His friends spoke in his ear and he responded with half a mind, continually telling them to stay away.

"Guys, everything is in position. If we don't set off the EMP now we'll lose our chance." Gogo's level voice calmed Hiro slightly and allowed him to think for a moment.

"Do it! I'm fine don't miss our chance!" Hiro had no choice. The bots had him surrounded with nowhere to go. If they didn't set off the EMP, he would be overwhelmed in only a few seconds and probably wouldn't make it out.

With a final promise, Hiro could hear Gogo detonating the device over her intercom before the wires sparked in his ear. He was forced to yank his helmet off as the short circuiting electrical wires burned his skin. Sparks flew from exposed wires around Hiro, and the few lights in shop windows flickered and went dark. Hiro felt a small weight lift when he remembered the district had been evacuated.

Around him, the bots lurched violently and dropped like flies. Their circuitry was no match for the electromagnetic radiation.

After what felt like hours but was only seconds, the last bot fell and everything went silent. Without the steady hum of electricity in the city, it was uncomfortably silent. Hiro had to scuff his hands and feet against the pavement where he was sitting to settle the nerves he was getting from the quietness.

He had no way to contact anyone now. His comm unit was fried, and his holographic map was useless now. He wouldn't be able to find his friends, so he figured his best shot was to stay put and wait for them.

Finally, a whoosh broke the silence and Baymax landed gently in front of Hiro.

"Hiro, are you alright?" Baymax tilted his head as he scanned Hiro, looking for any serious injuries.

Hiro let out a breath. Baymax had listened and stayed away, he was still okay. Hiro hadn't realized how much he had been worrying about that until Baymax had landed in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm alright buddy." Hiro pushed himself up and stumbled towards Baymax.

"Your heart rate and blood pressure levels are elevated, and your breathing is irregular. You may be about to experience another panic attack." Baymax was right, Hiro was desperately trying to push down the panic that was threatening to bubble up his throat. Baymax was good at seeing through Hiro's lies.

"What am I gonna do Baymax? How am I going to fight this Everwraith guy if I can't even control how I'm feeling?" Hiro rested his head against Baymax's arm, the last few days finally catching up with him.

Tadashi had come back, and everything was supposed to be better. Then it all came crashing down around him. He lost his home, his friends, his family. Everwraith was systematically wiping out San Fransokyo for who knew what reason and everyone was depending on Hiro to stop him. He couldn't handle the stress of it and he couldn't handle the panic that threatened to consume him if he couldn't calm himself down in time.

Hiro ran a hand through his messy hair, and felt tears burn down his cheeks. He felt Baymax try to wrap an arm around his shoulders as he cried. It was awkward with the armour, but Hiro felt better knowing Baymax was still there, was still his friend. In the farthest reaches of his mind he had worried that Baymax would only care about Tadashi now that he was back. Tadashi had invented him after all, so why wouldn't he favour him?

"It will be okay Hiro. You are my patient, and my friend, I will always be with you," Baymax gently reassured Hiro.

Hiro drew a shuddering breath and felt his chest warm at Baymax's words. He remembered when Baymax had shown him the recordings of Tadashi's tests. Baymax was his friend, he would take care of him not only because that was what he was programmed to do, but because somehow in his robot heart, he genuinely cared for Hiro.

Hiro took a step back and smiled his gap-toothed smile up at Baymax.

"Thank you, Baymax." He meant it.

"Hiro!" Hiro turned as Tadashi skidded around the corner. He doubled over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

"Told you I'd be fine," Hiro tried to make light of the situation, hoping he would get out of the trouble he knew he was in with Tadashi.

"You bonehead, you could have died! Why didn't you tell us you were surrounded? We could have done something." Tadashi covered his eyes and forehead with his hand and wiped it down his face. He looked up to the sky, and appeared to question his existence.

Hiro opened his mouth to respond but at that moment, Gogo rounded the corner at full speed and came to a stop.

She nodded when she saw Hiro, not needing to say anything to see that he was okay.

"Well, now what do we do?" Hiro looked back at Tadashi who was walking towards where Hiro was standing.

"As far as we know Everwraith hasn't made his appearance yet so we need to be careful. We have no idea what he's capable of doing still and we have no idea where he'll come from." Gogo fell silent as she listened to something someone was saying in her helmet. Hiro hated not knowing what they were saying, he was supposed to be their leader and now he couldn't talk to anyone unless they were standing right in front of him.

"Hey, you okay?" Tadashi had apparently noticed Hiro's annoyance.

"Yeah, just wish I could talk to everyone too." Tadashi gripped Hiro's shoulder as whoever was speaking on the intercom kept talking. Hiro could hear the faint, tinny voice and Tadashi's grip tightened partway through a sentence.

"What? What's going on, what's wrong?" Hiro felt left out, Tadashi was looking around them worriedly and Hiro had no idea why.

"We need to get out of here now." Tadashi steered Hiro back towards where he had come around the corner.

"Why? What's happening?" Hiro half-shouted, starting to worry now too.

Gogo skated up to Hiro and fell in beside him. "Honey and Wasabi are saying the ground is rumbling again where they are. Fred said that he's already seen more bots coming out of the sewers."

"Wait, the sewers? That's where they're coming from?" It made sense, it was actually pretty smart. What better way to move an entire army, practically unnoticed, through a city than underground? And with the army being robots, there wouldn't be any complaining either.

"A better question would be how many robots does this guy have?" Tadashi ground out. He pulled Hiro along faster and faster until they were running through the empty streets.

Hiro could feel the ground rumbling underneath him. He looked back to where they came from, making sure Baymax was following too. He was, trailing a few metres behind them as fast as he could.

The four of them rounded a building and were met with a wall of robots, rushing straight for them.

"Run! Go the other way!" Gogo shrieked and they turned and ran up the street in the opposite direction.

Hiro couldn't run fast enough. He was tired, tired from lack of sleep, tired from trying to stay calm. Tadashi and Gogo got ahead of him as his legs weakened and turned to jelly beneath him. He tried to keep running, but only a few steps further and Hiro tripped over his own feet, and fell hard to the ground.

The bots rushed forward, surrounding Hiro. They pressed in close, he couldn't move his arms or legs. Baymax was nowhere to be seen and Hiro could hear Tadashi screaming his name.

He waited out the wave, covering his head and trying to protect himself the best he could. He didn't have his helmet, he had left it behind in the street, and his armour wouldn't do much good against this many bots.

After a while of bot after bot passing by, Hiro realized the bots weren't harming him at all. Not a scratch or a bruise was on him, the bots only passed by and moved on.

Finally, the last of them passed and Hiro was left sitting alone in the middle of the road. Why hadn't the bots hurt him? What was going on?

As the adrenaline wore off, Hiro felt something pressing against the inside of his ear. He reached up to feel what it was and then his vision went white.

A/N: And the elusive author is back! Sorry for the wait everyone, last week was hectic. I had a huge robotics competition and I missed school and I was trying to catch up on homework, but here I am now! Hope you liked it!