Safe in Brother's Wings

by Dr. Kineil D. Wicks

Tadashi doesn't die in the SFIT fire. However, waking up as he does, he's not sure if this is an improvement—especially being in charge of a bunch of bird-people, including a baker's dozen of kids. But there's a plan: gene-cleansers. All they have to do is navigate back to San Fransokyo, steal some from the people who did this to them, and go back to their lives—easy, right?...

26. Big Hero Six

Chapter 26, everybody! AND Y'ALL REMEMBER THE REST OF THE CAST OF BIG HERO SIX, RIGHT!?

Also, Baymax's line about healthy sleep times? This isn't the first time he's said that in one of my fics, and invariably it comes up when I'm writing late at night. It's like he's trying to speak to me (and scold my sleeping habits). :O

So disclaimer time: about ninety percent of the next several chapters was written before I had even seen "Countdown to Catastrophe," let alone Season Two. Most of it was extrapolated from the teaser on "Obake Yashiki" and what I pieced together from Tumblr. Saying that…"Countdown to Catastrophe" broke my heart and I miss Obake, okay!? *sob*

And bird-nerd time: since bird bodies are centered around their ability to fly, the muscles relating to their wings are the largest and strongest they have—you know how chicken and turkey breasts are so big? Yeah those are flight muscles. Grounded birds like ostriches and emus have huge thigh and leg muscles since that's their form of locomotion, and birds like chickens have a balance of the two.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! YAS! *screams and flails with you* Those two (sometimes three) are fun to write together. :D And YES! I was very much squirming in my seat when I was writing that. Looking at what I've written, that's mostly accurate…if not happening this week. ^^;

Hexyah, thanks for the review! Yes, Hiro, no! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's—TADASHI!?

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Ducktales © 2017 Disney

And it had almost been a quiet evening too.

Not that it had been a quiet evening mentally—but it was nice to have a dream, and for Hiro Hamada, a quiet mind was definitely a luxury, despite the efforts of Honey Lemon and Wasabi in getting him into yoga and meditation (the latter of which saw Wasabi now staying out of arms' length for).

But even with his suspicions, with the weird things going on in San Fransokyo, things were relatively quiet tonight. Sure, he had suspicions he wanted to level against Liv Amara and her company Sycorax—but right now he had nothing. Nada. Nothing that connected to her or her company.

So for now, skimming high in the sky above San Fransokyo on Baymax, above the turbines but not the taller skyscrapers, Hiro was able to somewhat let his mind drift.

And as it did so, so did his attention, until he found himself once again looking out to the bay.

Being kidnapped by his reprogrammed best friend, taken to an underwater base glowing green with numerous screens, facing down a man that had been the bane of his existence for months—

Managing to escape, to defeat him, to narrowly avoid the destruction of the city—

Knowing that the man had let him go, basically—

"Hiro?"

"Uh—yeah, I'm still here," Hiro said, touching a hand to his comm. "Kinda drifted for a moment."

"Oh good, so it's not just me," Wasabi said.

"Eight to ten hours of sleep is beneficial for most young adults," Baymax pointed out, lifting a finger.

"Aw, come on guys! Five more minutes?" Fred begged.

"Fred, forget it, nothing's happening tonight," Gogo said. "It's been quiet for over a week now."

"And NOBODY finds that MEGA-suspicious!?"

"Hiro, do you need to call it a night?" Honey Lemon asked.

Hiro glanced back at the bay—he had been getting better as of late, wasn't having nightmares as frequently—he could probably get a full night's sleep tonight.

But just in case.

"Let's give Fred his five minutes," he said, adjusting his position on Baymax's back. "If nothing happens by then, we'll call it a night."

"I will set a timer," Baymax volunteered.

"All right," Fred said. "Game-face time!"

"And you were doing what before?" Gogo asked.

"Hiro," Honey Lemon asked. "You're sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Hiro said, sitting back on his knees and crossing his arms—Baymax was angling around for one more lazy circuit of the city. "Just winding down for the night."

She seemed to accept that, which was good, Hiro thought—of the lot of them, Honey Lemon seemed to be the first to sense when something was up, followed by Fred. It was annoying, really, he thought as the warehouse district came into view—he was fine, it wasn't like the SFIT fire, things were back to normal after that bad scare—

Except he wasn't certain that Obake was dead—that he wouldn't try again, try something awful, something underhanded, something—

A shriek ripped through the night, nearly startling him off of Baymax.

Baymax, fortunately, did not flinch, being a robot that therefore did not feel fear, but he did quickly adjust to make sure Hiro stayed on. As it were, Hiro was hanging on tight, reminding himself to breathe before pushing himself up.

"Baymax?" he asked. "Where did that come from—"

"The noise of alarm came from the warehouse district," Baymax said, pointing at what Hiro had just spotted—flashing lights, like those from laser cannons, dark things darting everywhere, looking like they were chasing specific shapes.

Hiro hit his comm. "Guys! There's something going on in the warehouse district! We're going to fly over, see if we can't get details!"

"WOO-HOO!" Fred cheered. "See, I TOLD you guys something was going to happen tonight!"

"FRED!" Gogo barked, sounding a thousand percent done.

Baymax shot high overhead, high enough that whatever was fighting down there didn't notice—Hiro craned his neck, leaned, tried to make sense of the tangled mess of action beneath them—

Saw two shapes break away, pursued by the darker shapes of drones and security guys in jetpacks, angling for the inner city.

"Guys!" he called. "A bunch of them are heading downtown!"

"On 'em!" the other four chimed.

"Great! Baymax, angle around, we're going to cut them off!" Look over his shoulder—the rest seemed to be dispersing, scattering after something else—still over the warehouse district, it'd be the ones downtown who'd cause the most destruction. "Don't let them get away!"

Baymax powered forward, shot a rocket fist at several drones, punched one away from a building it was angling too close to—Gogo was shooting more down with her discus, Honey Lemon and Wasabi splintering after several that split down a side street—

"Super jump!" Fred yelled—"WOAH DUDE!"

"What? What was that?" Hiro yelped, shocked out of using his magnets to deflect another drone. "Fred, are you okay?"

"I nearly had a head-on collision with a bird-guy THAT WAS SO AWESOME YOU GUYS!"

That was…odd. "Baymax, let's get ahead of these guys," Hiro said, hunkering down—Baymax put on another burst of speed, angled along a side road that would hopefully cut in front—

"I see it!" Gogo yelled. "It's going straight up—I can't get it from here!"

"We got it!" Hiro said. "Baymax, up! Don't let it get away!"

Baymax shot up, over the buildings, angled back down—

Hiro had a perfect view of a guy in some sort of winged flying rig, huge flapping mottled wings that looked like gold just found in dirt, or hot coals in ash—the guy was looking over his shoulder, probably busy trying to keep Gogo in sight—

And then the guy flying spotted them—

And Hiro was much too busy trying to process bird wings the size of Manhattan.

First instinct when those wings flared was to flinch back, eyes closed—felt, heard the tips snap together, so close he swore he felt the feathers stinging him—

When he was blinking and processing again, it was to find the wing-guy flying hard in the other direction, a tail with feathers angling every which way as he fled towards the warehouse district.

"After him, Baymax!" Hiro ordered, pointing. "Guys, one of them broke away—we're going after him!"

Baymax shot after the bird-guy, Hiro one-hundred-percent focused on him, watching how the wings and tail worked, trying to figure out how that rig was put together and how to slow it down—pretty impressive, if he had to say so. If he didn't know any better, he'd say those were—

Real….

"Baymax?" Hiro called, feeling his voice inching up. "Uh—those wings aren't—are those part of a flight rig?"

"The: wings, are organic," Baymax declared.

Oh boy.

"Baymax, don't let him get away," Hiro ordered, flattening himself against Baymax's back to cut down on drag—organic wings could only come from one source right now: Sycorax. If they caught this guy, they finally had something to use against Liv Amara.

Baymax didn't comment, but he did put on a burst of speed—the guy glanced over his shoulder again, wobbled in flight—dodged down a side street—Baymax angled up and over, curving pattern keeping the fleeing bird-person mostly in sight—

"Oh no."

Hiro barely had time to look forward at Baymax's statement before the robotic member of Big Hero Six had to start evasive maneuvers—drones skittering at them; round, not the sleek tripod versions—

Hiro put more vitriol into the repulsion attack than was strictly necessary—that memory coupled with frustration at potentially losing the bird-person—they weren't losing this guy, they were not—

Dispatch the last drone, cruise high overhead—

They lost the guy.

Hiro groaned in frustration, thumping his fist against Baymax's armor—think, think—

"Baymax, do you think you can find him?" he asked, still trying to see everywhere at once.

"Scanning now," Baymax declared—

There!

"There!" Hiro exclaimed, pointing—there, near the bay—a flash of orange and gold—it was impossible to hide a wingspan that big from this high up—

Baymax dove.

Away from the bird-guy.

"BAYMAX!" Hiro exclaimed—tried to gesture, had to hang on quick to keep from flying off—"Baymax! The guy's heading the other way! BAYMAX!"

Baymax didn't answer—Hiro had a sudden terror-soaked moment—not again, not again—

Baymax curved, slowed, angled over a warehouse with a broken skylight, descended—

He should have jumped free, if this was what he thought it was—but he couldn't, couldn't leave Baymax to that guy—carefully pushed himself up, reaching over Baymax's shoulder, reaching for his chip bay—

Baymax touched down.

"There is someone in distress," Baymax announced, looking at Hiro. "I have narrowed down the source to this warehouse."

Hiro twitched, coughed—reached the rest of the way to check his chip bay.

Still the two chips that were supposed to be there, instead of the one purple one that had been such a shock. And he knew that those chips were safe, he had checked, he had checked ten times over—

You could have missed something—you know you could have—

"A little warning would have been nice!" Hiro demanded, gesturing. "And we had that guy, Baymax! We had him!"

"I am a healthcare companion," Baymax said. "That is my primary function. The level of distress from this individual prioritizes them."

Hiro wanted to argue—wanted to rail—was it worth that guy getting away? They had to—

Someone has to help.

That was what Tadashi said—that had been his reasoning in programming Baymax. Tadashi had wanted to help people.

Which meant prioritizing whoever it was that was in distress.

"Okay," Hiro sighed, sagging. "Sorry bud, it's just—nevermind. Let's just deal with what's in front of us."

Baymax nodded, scanned the warehouse—started moving forward. Hiro clung to his back, adjusting his visor to make the most of the low-lighting situation—

Baymax stopped, waved. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Hiro leaned forward, craning his neck as Baymax went into his healthcare spiel—even with his visor adjusted, the shape was dark and irregular—it took until I will scan you now for him to pick out the eyes shining wide in the darkness.

"Scan complete," Baymax announced, before holding a finger up. "While my databases do not match up with your body type, my scan indicates that you have a: broken bone, in your wing."

Wing?

The shape suddenly made sense in the dark—the odd edges, the dark coloration—

They might have lost the orange one, sure—but they found another one of these bird-people, at least.

Which bore asking the question: how many were there?

Later—slip off of Baymax, gingerly approach, hands up, not above his shoulders—universal signal of surrender, but it also doubled as a means to hit it with a repulsor if it decided to attack.

"The: bone, will have to be set," Baymax said, mincing a bit closer. "A local anesthetic will also help with the pain."

The bird-person didn't react, pressed further against the wall away from them—curled up when Hiro got a little closer, whimpering, one wing dragging oddly.

Hiro hesitated…got down on his hands and knees before mincing closer, trying for unassuming. "Hey—hey, it's okay. My name's Hiro, and this is Baymax—we're here to help."

Wide eyes peeked over the wing's edge.

"Yeah, see? Not dangerous at all," Hiro assured them—he was starting to get assured himself that they wouldn't attack. "What's your name?"

The bird-person was trembling, scared—or maybe going into shock.

"Hiro," Baymax said. "In order to treat the injury, I will need my hands free."

"Right, sorry," Hiro said, running back to him and pulling the gauntlets off.

"Also, I will be needing bandages. There is a first-aid kit: there."

"Right—on it—don't go anywhere, okay?" he shot at the bird-person, dashing for the post indicated. Yank the first-aid kit off, nearly slip and fall in his haste to reverse course, skid to a halt next to Baymax and open the kit for him.

"Thank you," Baymax said, blinking at the kit. "I have applied the local anesthetic, but the patient will still need to be restrained while I reset the bone and bandage it."

Which meant him. Holding the bird-person in place. Right. This would be easy. Maybe.

"Right," he said, mincing around, painfully aware of the eyes on them. "So I'm just going to…be here…for emotional support…so…."

Closer he could see the wings made up the bulk of the shape—the actual person they attached to couldn't have been much bigger than him. A kid—a stupid kid—did he volunteer for this? Or….

Or made him pause—no. No, they looked in-control, like High Voltage had been, at least at the beginning. This wasn't like Orso Knox, he was sure—

"Hiro," Baymax prompted.

"Right—sorry—listen, this is going to hurt a little, okay?" he asked the bird-person, trying to mince closer—flinched back at it backing up, feathers standing on end, hissing. "Hey, don't be like that—Baymax, distract him a minute." Work his way behind Baymax, around—

Had to work to pin it in place, glad for the armor protecting his arm from what sounded like scraping claws—managed to get his one arm wrapped around the good wing, screwing his face up against the strength in that wing and the screams ripping out of the bird-person—winced when it reared back, jaws clamping down on one of the fins poking up from his helmet—

"Baymax," Hiro wheezed, straining. "Hurry up…."

Baymax worked—Hiro tried to stay focused on keeping the bird-person pinned, on keeping those claws off of him—some detached part of his mind registered actual bird feet pushing against Baymax, claws scraping against the armor (gonna have to buff that out, he thought inanely)—momentary panic when it just gave up, losing all tension, the keening noise it was forcing through its throat stopping—it wasn't dead, he could still hear ragged breathing—

"I have finished setting the: bone," Baymax announced. Blinked at him. "You may let go now."

Hiro heaved a sigh of relief, lowered the bird-person to the ground, ran to put the gauntlets back on Baymax—

Turned to look at the bird-person when he was done; it was lying there, breathing uneven, wide eyes staring at them. Hiro hesitated….

Went to kneel next to them again, lowering himself so he could talk.

"Hey," he said gently. Wasn't sure where to go from here. "Hey, it's okay—Baymax had to do that so your…wing…would heal." This was so weird. "Are you okay? Can you say something?"

There was something oddly familiar about the expression, right before it did make a noise—a weak sort of squeak, like the kind a bird would make. Look the bird-person up and down, now that it had its wings folded in….

Bird-kid. Bird-kid, this guy couldn't have been older than Hiro, and that was pushing it. Young, injured, terrified—

They couldn't leave him like this.

Hiro put a hand on his shoulder—the bird-kid winced, watching him….

"I think you should come with us."

---

"Nox, RUN! I'll find you, okay? I'LL FIND YOU!"

Nox had needed no further impetus to flee shrieking—he knew it he knew this would happen knew something awful would happen the bay was bad-bad-bad and the warehouse was bad-bad-bad it had smelled like the bad-place and then 'Dashi had found that awful no-good poison—

It takes your wings.

No—no no no how could 'Dashi be excited about finding it finding poison it was bad why—

But that wasn't the worst part—the worst part was being chased by all these terrible dark things that shot burning light at him and singed his feathers when they got too close he had to fly he had to fly AWAY but they were making him fly away from 'Dashi 'Dashi would protect him 'Dashi was good and safe and in the other direction but 'Dashi said he'd find him he just had to get away WHY why was this happening sky was supposed to be safe but these things were flying too NO—

Sharp turn, like in forest when they were playing and branching—'Dashi and the olders always had them flying straight and lazy when they all flew together but he couldn't be straight and lazy right now right now he had to be evasive and flee and fast because it would be bad if these things caught him they'd take him back to her—

The bad-place smell kept wafting up out of the hole 'Dashi and 'Kase had disappeared down—enough to make him wilf tiny no—Grump was being all rumbly and irritable, told him to stop being stupid they'd be back—

Nox had hated the cave that 'Dashi and 'Kase had dropped into, but he had gone in after them, because with 'Dashi he was safe.

That thought flitted through his panicked mind full of birds flailing and crashing into each other in terror—he had to get to 'Dashi.

Sharp turn again, away from the bay bay was bad there was something bad-bad-bad about it and his body screamed at him to get away from it get away from these things get to 'Dashi get to safety FLY FLY FLY! Scour the sky, fear screaming through him—'Dashi—'Dashi please—

One of the dark things bashed into him, throwing him off balance, sending him careening—

Dazed, winded—could hardly gather his thoughts instincts rattled—couldn't register whether to pull wings in or shove them out for balance—

And before his scrambled brain could make sense—

CRASH!

CRUNCH.

White-hot—blinding—

Pain-snap-bend-WRONG—

He knew this—knew this from when Della had disappeared down the slope, when she had broken-leg—because with their language what you said was what you said he knew that right now, this dazed floatiness, after the white-hot flash—

Pain was coming.

And then it did—sizzling through him, making him suck in a hard breath after the wind had been knocked out of him—the ground had rushed up much too fast, he had fallen through into one of the caves—pain—too hard, too hurting, making his fingers and toes curl up making his limbs curl up as he screamed and shrieked—wings pulling in—worse, much worse—

Because his one wing was moving in the exact wrong way.

Realization stabbed him hard in the chest.

He had broken his wing.

No—nononononoNO NO NOT THAT—

His screams intensified—he didn't care that the things might hear right now he wanted 'Dashi 'Dashi would hear 'Dashi would fix this PLEASE 'Dashi fix this—

But 'Dashi didn't come—and his hiccupping howls started to die when he realized no one else was echoing them back to him—not like how they had echoed Della's shrieks because what you said was what you said and her shrieking had meant her pain was their pain—

It was just him—he was only.

He wilfed tight at that, wheezing into silence, scanning the cave with frightened wide eyes—only was dangerous, bad things happened when you were only—

She could get you when you were only.

Quiet wheezing whimpers as he tried to pull tight to himself, broken-wing refusing to cooperate—no no no not his wing he needed his wings to fly and he needed flying like he needed breathing needed 'Dashi—

Scrape and scramble until he had good-wing pressed against the cave-wall—he needed to be able to watch his surroundings he was only he had only his own eyes and ears right now—pain was too much, pain was eating him from the inside out making it so he couldn't suck in a proper breath or keep a thought in his head he wanted 'Dashi 'Dashi please 'Dashi where was 'Dashi?

He tried crying for 'Dashi again—pain was constricting his chest, squeezing it tight—no—no he needed to call 'Dashi what if he didn't know to look in the caves for him 'Dashi had told him to go to the little island at the mouth of the river and if Nox wasn't there—

I'll find you, okay? I'LL FIND YOU!

Shivering—try to curl up, try to cling to that hope—'Dashi would find him, 'Dashi would make this right, 'Dashi was good and safe and older-brother and Nox wished he was here right now—

Because if 'Dashi wasn't here, then Nox might as well be at the bad-place.

He curled up at that, hiccupping and sobbing—not there, not the bad-place—'Dashi please PLEASE where was 'Dashi he needed him please come find him—

He was startled out of his imaginings of 'Dashi coming—of finding him and putting a paw on his shoulder like he had when he rescued Nox from the bad-place—startled by a whooshing whining noise coming from high out of cave high in sky—

Broken-wing.

The pain of broken-wing the pain of not-flying the fear of being 'Dashi-less the fear of whatever new thing this was made him wheeze out a whimper, press tighter against cave-wall, hiss weakly in defiance of whatever new thing this was—

Something red and huge came down through the cave entrance, slow enough that it barely bent knee on landing. Wings folded in, it had ears poking up like they did—but it wasn't like them, it didn't have feathers he didn't know what this was 'Dashi help—

Stay still stay quiet stay safe—the part deep inside that told him how to fly told him this, that if he stayed still stayed quiet he'd stay safe—his wings were dark-dark-dark in no-light, pulled up close he'd blend in, still and shh keeping him safe—

Trying to pull in broken-wing resulted in a pained hiss before he could stop it.

The red thing looked right at him—looked at a smaller blue thing with ears like Nox's as it climbed over its shoulder, scolding and gesturing—Nox watched, twitching at pain still dancing up and down him, trying to make sense of what he was seeing but not able to string two thoughts together pain kept stopping him—

They were coming closer now—try to lock his muscles stay still stay quiet stay safe—

The big red one stopped, waved a paw at him. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Maybe it wasn't talking to Nox, despite looking right at him and being only a few feet away—maybe talking was good, talking meant no eating—except Louie had said that cougar had said things—

New pain—he missed Louie he missed the others he missed 'Dashi he didn't want to be only he'd take Grump at this point—

The smaller blue one had slipped off, come around—hiss, try to back up staying still and shh wasn't working—crumple when movement pulled on broken-wing.

"Hey," the blue thing said. "Hey, it's okay—I'm Hiro, and this is Baymax. We're here to help."

It was talking like 'Dashi would talk it was talking so much like him it hurt—he wanted 'Dashi. 'Dashi would fix this 'Dashi was good….

It was talking with the red thing now, tugging its hands off to reveal smaller white hands, running away coming back with tin that rattled interestingly like the little tin 'Dashi had had—Nox was drifting, he could feel it—he had to stay here, had to stay focused this was danger he couldn't give up not now—

And then the blue thing grabbed him from the back—

NO.

NononononoNO this was what happened at the bad-place they were taking him BACK to the bad-place NO no he wasn't going back NO he'd fight first NO not there not there NOT. THERE—

Flailing for all he was worth, one wing dangling useless and broken—other one was pinned—claw, thrash tail, push with legs—managed to get enough leverage to swing his head around and bite down hard on ear, trying to clench down hard and rip—it wasn't working though—the ear looked like his but it was hard and his teeth scraped uselessly on it—the big red one was closer now—tried shoving away with his feet push it away from him—that wasn't working either, claws were scraping uselessly there claws scraping uselessly on the blue one they didn't have feathers they had skin that was like rock that stopped claws and didn't even have good scratch—

It was like when Della had stopped struggling and scared 'Dashi so bad—go limp, limp from giving up—he couldn't—he couldn't fight anymore, claws curling in—couldn't struggle, couldn't break free couldn't flee from pain, all his strength had left him and his only hope was that 'Dashi would come save him soon.

And then they left him alone—he was back on the floor, laying there, world blurring and spinning, numbness eating through him eating through his wing and crawling up his spine he wanted to go to sleep wanted it to end wanted 'Dashi—

Paw to his shoulder.

Blink—blink again, try to focus—the smaller thing had its paw on his shoulder, was peering at his face—

"I think you should come with us," it told him, tone like 'Dashi.

All he had energy for, all he had sense for was a weak squeak—words failed him, words had failed him the moment he had to flee. Words were difficult, took effort—their language took no effort, just came out….

The big red thing was carefully scooping him up, cradling him against chest—he tried to cling, but everything was so heavy and not wanting to work—want to twitch, to move, but too hard…tail hanging limply…sleep…no, no sleep, still danger—

The smaller one had crawled back onto the bigger one's back, was saying let's get out of here Baymax—

Familiar feeling, good feeling, the feeling of the ground dropping away—sky was safe….

The big red thing had good grip on him, wasn't letting him slip or fall—head lolled uselessly, trying to see around see everything…couldn't see, everything blurry….

'Dashi. Try to squeak for him, try to call, but the only thing that came out was a weak aark.

"It's okay little guy, okay?" the smaller one called down.

Okay…okay….Couldn't respond…heard the smaller one chattering, vaguely heard others, everything sounding like when they had played in river and Dewey had shoved him underwater…had to hang on…couldn't…had to….

Water—scented water—'Dashi—the bay—

Panic—death—near-death—

Tried to struggle, to cry out, but the all-encompassing numbness had taken him, lethargy had taken him, could barely move could barely make noise sleep was becoming a better and better option—

"There, there," the big red thing that had him said. "It will be all right."

No…maybe…it sounded like 'Dashi too….'Dashi….

Smaller one was talking, calling the one that had him something…Baymax…Baymax and…Hiro. It had called itself Hiro. Hiro-Hiro-Hiro—why did that sound familiar? Hiro…Hiro….

I ever tell you you remind me of my little brother Hiro?

One final weak squeak, calling for 'Dashi and hoping he'd come….

And then darkness.