zomg I am so sorry for the late delay in this update. I just started university and have been laptop-less due to a technical malfunction and I'm just so sorry that it took so long.
Pls. Forgive me.
Tadashi groaned as he shifted himself from under the broken glass, putting a hand to his pounding head.
"Tadashi? Hiro? Do you copy?" The frantic voice of Honey shot him awake and he blinked, looking around. His brother was in a similar heap like him, rousing from unconsciousness. He squinted and found that they were in a low light building, the place deserted probably by the order of the police. Office desks were in disarray and fallen plaster littered the space.
"Where's Baymax?" Hiro said groggily, sitting up.
"He must've fell to the ground when Callaghan used the microbots to knock us out of thin air." Tadashi tapped on the comms in his helmet, finding the one with Baymax's signal darkened. The rest of the team were still holding off Yokai and he couldn't see Ayako in any of their feed.
"Baymax? Buddy, you there?"
"Oh thank goodness, you're well," Honey said and he could hear Ayako gasp.
She didn't say anything else, keeping them updated on what was happening below ground. "Guys, I told Krei to find some shelter and stay low for a moment. Where are you?"
It took him a moment to realize that she was talking to him. "In the office building. Disorientated. Give us a sec."
He revved up his rocket boosters and found that they were still working. Lifting himself off the ground, he gestured to Hiro, offering his back where his little brother jumped on, piggy back style.
Baymax's feed came back to life and he could see the robot blinking. "Baymax, buddy, you're okay." He hadn't meant to sound so relieved, a small burden lifting off his chest now that he knew his creation wasn't hurt.
"Tadashi. Where is Hiro?"
"Here, big guy," Hiro quipped, ducking from a dangling lamp as his big brother shot out from the destroyed office and out into open air.
"My sensors have indicated and pinpointed your location. Please wait for me to find you."
Tadashi hovered in midair, worried that he was exposing himself and Hiro to Callaghan's wrath. He didn't have to worry much. A red dot from the distance grew bigger and Baymax flew by, stopping in front of both brothers.
"Hello."
"Hey, Baymax. Hiro, you wanna trade for Baymax?"
He nodded and jumped off Tadashi's back, landing safely on the robot's wide back where his magnetic gloves and boots connected him once again to his mechanical friend.
"Now come on, let's go save the day."
Propelling himself down, Tadashi aimed at the column of microbots supporting Callaghan, his friends having found a way to stop the attacks by cutting down the microbots and letting them be sucked into the portal. GoGo was madly splicing through them with her speed, Honey with her chemical balls and colorful explosions. Wasabi and Fred worked together to break through the block of microbots from the base, the bots disintegrating into individual pieces, floating up into the portal.
Streams of microbots shot around the area, like limbs from a mythical monster, twisting this way and that, trying to stop the team. Wide-eyed, she saw the team working in synchronization as they cut down the bases of the bots, everything moving in slow motion, chemical balls flying, explosions brushing across her face, hair whipping around her face from the force of the portal. Wasabi's lazers were a blue blur, Fred's fire arching over the team, GoGo zipping around like a lightning bolt, unidentifiable to the naked human eye.
Baymax and Hiro were zipping through the skies and debris, avoiding huge chunks of metallic frames and rushing framework, the nursebot an expert at deflecting them. Tadashi was busy by his side, swirling around the sky like a dizzying jet, disabling every single one of the microbot streams and protecting his brother, the microbots like dust motes that were hurtling through the portal.
It was overwhelming. It held a certain artistic beauty to it.
Callaghan was outnumbered and outmatched, the microbots limited enough that they couldn't do his bidding and when he lifted his hand up, none of them came to his call.
He growled, vunerable now and the team knew it. They advanced towards him, ready to disable the masked lunatic. Ayako raised her gun when she saw that Callaghan was not done yet with his little charade of destruction. From his coat pocket, she saw a detonator, which was sure to destabilize the portal even more and cause a mass wipeout of the city she had grown to love.
Ayako didn't even know she was rushing forward until she was skidding on the ground, gun raised up high, entering the red zone of conflict, Fred beside her churning up a new breath of fire, ready to hit Yokai, knowing that the moment his finger landed on the controller, this city would be up in a different dimension.
She had to do it. Muttering a quick prayer, she unlocked the safety from her stunning gun and aimed it at the professor. "Please, please let me have my aiming skills with me," she whispered, hoping that someone or something above would hear her request.
She fired from the gun, the bullet shooting like a torpedo, swiftly lodging itself from the barrel and harrowing straight towards the ex-professor. Holding her breath, heart thumping slow in the cavity of her chest like a living breath fighting through a cascade of sticky molasses; all her hopes and determination were hinged on that single bullet.
The bullet careened towards Callaghan, hitting him square in the chest. The older man heaved in a deep breath, freezing as the chemicals worked in his system. Pitching forward, Callaghan fell from the tower of microbots that he had constructed and straight into the battle ground. Fred jumped up, propelling high in the air and caught the professor's ankle, saving him from a bone crunching drop.
GoGo zipped fast and came to a stop beside her, screen of her helmet 'whooshing' back and showing her grim smile. "Great job, 'Yako."
She nodded, too shaken up by what had just happened to say anything.
They had just stopped Callaghan. They had managed to save the city.
The speed junkie's expression changed from one of triumph to horror as Ayako heard metal hinges screeching. The portal was emitting sparks now, on the road to destruction.
"Crap. Hamada, the portal! What should we do?"
"We just let it be!" Hiro's voice cracked through the comm. "It has taken too much of a load and will close off by itself. Find something solid and hold on to it."
Ayako reached out and grasped onto a street lamp that had not yet been unhinged from the ground, GoGo following her lead. The rushing force of the portal tore at her clothes and threw her hair into disarray, stealing her shriek when a tray nearly flew into her face had it not been for her alerted reflexes. The wind stung her eyes and she closed them, squeezing them shut and praying once more that everything would be okay.
"I am sensing a life in the portal." Baymax's calm voice cut through the panic. Ayako's eyes snapped open.
Honey, who was being held close by Fred who was also grasping onto Callaghan's coat said urgently into he comm, "are you sure?"
"Abigail," Wasabi muttered, voicing the thought that everyone was having right now.
"I'll go get her," the teen leader said calmly. "Baymax will be able to power the rocket thrusters and save her."
"No!" Tadashi protested. "I'll go get her."
"Your suit is not highly powered enough to provide a strong momentum," Hiro countered. "Baymax would be far more suited for this."
"I am not letting you go in!"
"I have to!"
"You don't have to do anything, Hiro," Tadashi snarled and she looked up, finding the brothers floating in front of each other, presumably voicing their standoff.
"You always said to use my big brain for the better good and now I am!"
"I can't lose you!" Ayako gnawed down on her lower lip when his voice broke. "You're all the family I have left. I can't lose you."
"You won't," Hiro reassured. "Now stop wasting time arguing with me and let me go."
"Baymax," Tadashi said, relenting, "take care of him, okay. Those are new treatment orders."
"Yes, Tadashi," the nursebot said obediently. "I will take of my patient as best as I can."
Her head snapped up at the sight of Baymax and Hiro somersaulting into the portal. Hiro's breathing was steady and Ayako wandered what could have caused him to be this heroic and saving someone who's father had put his brother's life in danger more than once.
He's growing up, she realized morosely, awaiting the first signs that their leader had managed to bridge through the wormhole and into the connected tunnels of the next dimension. Hiro was doing this because he was following Tadashi's lead and both brothers were too damn heroic for their own good. It would be incredibly ironic if Hiro would have been missing in that portal and his last actions to his brother were exactly the same as Tadashi's previous ones in front of a flaming building.
No, she chastised herself. Don't think that way.
"Hiro, are you in?" Tadashi said tersely, flying around in a circle, working through the stress.
"Y-Yeah."
Everyone exhaled in relief and cast their eyes to the portal that was starting to whir.
"What do you see?"
Hiro breathed deeply, and chuckled once. "Everything."
Ayako frowned and adjusted her comm, sure that she had heard him wrong.
"There's oxygen in here and everything's in limbo. It's all pink and purple, like the inside of a cotton candy machine."
"That's great, but can you locate Abigail's pod?" GoGo asked, grounding them all once again.
"Scanning commencing," Baymax said and she could hear a soft buzzing. "The portal is into the left of this inter-dimension bridge."
Inter-dimension bridge. God, she couldn't wait to tell Lucy this. The red head wouldn't have believed a single word she said.
"We found her!" Hiro's triumphant announcement caught her attention and she let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.
"Good, now can you get her out?"
It was unbelievably stressful, waiting and wandering how their young leader was doing, having nothing to give a mental picture except his short words and minute descriptions.
"Baymax is attaching his rocket thrusters to the Abigail's pod right now as we speak."
"She's in a state of deep slumber. I scanned her and her heart appears to be still beating," Baymax chimed in.
"Oh my god, how long was she stuck in there?" Honey whispered.
"Never mind that," Tadashi bit out and she could positively feel the worry lacing his tone and drenching it with his impatience and fear. "Can you get out? The portal is looking worse for wear."
The metal lining was starting to disintegrate, being sucked into the wormhole.
"Hiro, hurry," she whispered.
A grunt. "I know, I know. The pod is heavy and - No, Baymax!"
She could hear a loud screeching, whining in her ear, grating on her eardrums with a painful metallic break and one feed disappeared.
"What's happening?" Tadashi said, panicking. "Hiro?!"
"Baymax g-got hit by a huge car and his armor is broken. Wait, what did you say?"
All was silent except for Hiro's ragged breathing.
"N-No," he said and knew he was shaking his head. "I-I can't leave you here, Baymax. Y-You're coming back."
"I know it makes sense Baymax, but we need to get out of this t-together."
Silence descended again and she could hear Hiro's ragged breath deepening.
He gave a staggering sob. "N-No don't say that, please. You're more than just a nursebot, you're my best friend. You were there when I was so afraid...so worried and...please, come on, we can do this, Baymax-"
Ayako was horrified and worried at the same time. It appeared Baymax was hurt in some way and was asking Hiro to go on without him.
"No, I'm not leaving w-without you...I-I...we'll find a way and you'll be okay, we..."
Those ten seconds in between Hiro's words were the longest seconds in her life.
"...okay. Okay, I'll miss you Baymax, I'll-"
"Hiro," Tadashi whispered, broken too, knowing that his creation was going to be destroyed. Ayako flashed back to the moment when she met Baymax, when the white robot being a source of comfort and way for them to get Tadashi back.
"Okay." His voice was clogged with tears and Ayako felt her heart clench in pity. "I am satisfied with my care."
She hung her head, feeling the loss already swimming in her chest. The loss of a fellow comrade.
For a moment all was silent, everyone waited with baited breaths, eyes glued to the now vibrating portal. Anyone could see that something bad was about to happen and that something big was on the verge of being realized.
Nothing, and then...
A pod shot out, along with a small figure attached to it. The portal, having realized that it has lost one of its most precious cargo, started shaking with rage, like a foaming angry beast and gave one last upheaval of energy before going quiet.
The silence fell like a muffling rag, ringing like a siren in her ears. Everything was deathly quiet, so quiet she could hear her own ragged breathing and the rapid thrumming of her heart. Slowly, the team came back to life, letting go of their anchors and walking towards the pod that was thirty feet away, eyes stuck on the figure of a young teenage boy hanging his head.
Hiro had disabled his comm and she knew it was because he didn't want the rest of them to hear the aftermath of his loss. Baymax was nowhere to be found.
Tadashi practically tossed himself to the ground, removing is helmet and running towards his baby brother.
The rest of them came to a stop, forming a small circle around the pod, hesitant of what to do next. Ayako hadn't felt this raw ever since she discovered her father's missing paintbrushes and matryoshka dolls, his work desk empty and bereft.
"Baymax?" Wasabi asked in a hushed tone. Hiro looked up, and her heart broke when she saw his lower lip trembling, despite his brother's hand on his shoulder. She knew for a fact that among all of them, Hiro was closest to Baymax, having sought the robot's comfort to sooth him during those nerve-wrecking few weeks of Tadashi's disappearance. And now his best friend was gone.
Sorrow descended upon all of them, adrenaline running low.
The silence here was more deafening than any portal could ever produce out of cold revenge.
It was the sound of loss.
~~O~~O~~
The authorities came by to clean up the mess a moment after, the team leaving Callaghan in the midst of the rubble, detonator in hand to show who was responsible for all this destruction. Ambulance sirens sounded in the distance and Ayako knew that Abigail would be in safe hands.
They watched from a good distance away, on of top a building that they managed to climb, waiting for Heathcliff to come and pick them up.
"We did good today," he whispered and she looked up to find him beside her, eyes stuck on the scene below. Ayako followed his gaze and saw the destruction unfolding before her like the events in an apocalypse. Buildings were destroyed, smoke rising in thick plumes from the remnants of Honey's explosion balls. The new building was almost annihilated, with the fountain the only thing still standing, producing a thin stream of water from where the pipes must have been destroyed.
"Yeah," Ayako said in spite of all the things she had just witnessed. "Yeah, we did."
Sneaking a look at the brooding teen at the far side of the roof, she nodded her head towards him. "H-How's Hiro doing?"
Tadashi's grimace deepened, if that were possible. "Shaken, but he'll be okay. Baymax's sacrifice was unexpected."
She hung her head at the thought of the missing white nursebot, his body floating somewhere in oblivion. Was he still conscious in that vast artificial intelligence that was his programing? No, Hiro would never do something this cruel to a friend. She was sure that he had deactivated Baymax's every system before being propelled out of the wormhole on the last juices of the robot's rocket thruster.
She took a shaky breath. "He helped us a lot, you know?"
Tadashi nodded in her periphery, understanding. "I know. I miss him, too. He stopped me from committing something I was sure to regret."
"He saved us on numerous accounts," she recalled the ocean when she said this. "And he was always the one who gave us hope when we had none to find you. I wish I took more time to have gotten to know him the way how Hiro did."
Tadashi said nothing, and there was nothing to say.
In the distance, chopper blades sounded. Everyone perked up, and sure enough, the shape of a helicopter was slowly making its way towards them, Ayako already anticipating the strong wind currents coming from the chopper blades, shivering when it reminded her of the same energy currents that the portal emitted right before it destroyed itself and trapping a gentle nursebot in another dimension.
"Come on," Tadashi said softly, and his arm wrapped around her waist, armour cold against her soaked blouse. She craned her neck to look up at him, seeing his expression soften with tired weariness.
"Let's go back home."
Home had never sounded this good.
Thank you all for your sweet reviews and once again, I'm sorry for the epic long delay. Your continuing support for this story is perpetually appreciated.
Review, to show that there's no bad blood between us?
And yes, I'm making a puppy face rn.