Chapter 14

Life used to be simple. It was her and her parents, a small loving family that dared to achieve greatness and beat the odds. Her father was a robotics genius, doing more for the field of robotics in five years than had been accomplished in thirty, and her mother was an award-winning photographer. Many of her awards came after she risked her life in war-torn countries, documenting the struggles of people caught in the middle. Photography was her first love, but she gladly gave it up for her new passion: her family. Her husband and young daughter became her new subjects. Thousands of photographs had to have been taken from the moment Abigail was born to the time she was seven years old. Digital photos meant she could snap a photo whenever, but for the important moments, she used real film. Birthdays, Christmas, fun trips to the park, she documented them all. It's when she no longer had the energy to take pictures that Abigail began to worry. One night as she was asleep, her father quickly came into her room and shook her awake. Abigail rubbed her eyes as Robert began packing her an overnight bag.

"Daddy, what's going on?"

"Mommy is very sick, Abigail. I need to take her to the hospital, so you're going to stay with Mrs. Johnson across the street tonight, ok?"

"No, I want to go with you!"

"I know, sweetheart, but I need you to be brave for me and I'll be back for you first thing in the morning, ok?"

Abigail summoned her courage and nodded for her father, who quickly wrapped her in a hug and kissed her forehead. Her parents were busy people, so Abigail wasn't unfamiliar with spending time with Mrs. Johnson while her parents worked. But she'd never had to spend the night before. As promised, Robert was there bright and early to pick Abigail up and take her to the hospital to visit mommy. It's hard to explain to a seven-year-old what a CT scan is, or why the machine makes an awful noise when it works. Or why mommy looked so pale as she went inside it.

According to the doctors, somewhere along her travels, mommy had come into contact with something she shouldn't have. Some form of chemical some bad people had used against their enemies, and mommy had photographed the grisly aftermath. She'd won an award for that and helped bring a local warlord to justice with the evidence, but now she was paying the price for her bravery. The cancer was too widespread, and they'd caught it too late to do anything about it. Only a few short weeks later, Robert clutched his weeping daughter at the funeral as friends and colleagues from all over came to mourn with them. Later that evening as they returned home, Abigail sat on the couch silent, completely spent without any more tears to shed. Robert gave her a PB and J to eat, but she wasn't hungry.

"Honey, you need to eat to keep your strength up," Robert said gently.

"Not hungry," Abigail answered.

"I'm not really hungry either," he set aside his own plate and set Abigail on his lap to hug her. "I love you so much, darling."

Abigail buried her head in her father's shirt. "Why did she have to die?"

"There are things in life that we can't control, Abigail. Things happen and we just have to deal with them. But I promise, I'll do my very best to protect you. I won't ever let anything happen to you, you're my everything."

Both father and daughter fell asleep on the couch that night. It wasn't easy, but they moved on and found a way to be happy again. Robert accepted a job at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology and the pair moved across country to the West Coast. While Abigail wasn't near smart enough to enroll, she hung around her father often and picked up a few things, mostly that she was pretty good behind a flight stick. By the time she was 18, Abigail decided to follow her father's early footsteps and entered the military as he had before discovering his love for science.

In no time at all, Abigail had graduated from the Air Force in the top of her class and was due to ship out to fly planes. Robert was immensely proud of her but worried all the same. The afternoon after graduation, Robert took her to their favorite restaurant in the city to celebrate.

"It's just… you're going to be so far away," Robert told her over lunch.

"I know, and I'm going to miss you, but I need to spread my wings and chart my own course now. I'm not a little girl anymore."

"Not even an hour after graduation and you're already using pilot metaphors…" he joked.

"I'm going to be stationed in Arizona. It's not that far away."

"I know. It's just hard to watch my entire world fly away."

"Now who's using the pilot metaphors?" Abigail teased.

The next week she reported for duty and began flying planes for the military. She enjoyed it, met some new people, had some fun experiences, but something just always felt off. She didn't feel at home. She missed her father. So, when her commanding officers came to her with an opportunity to help test pilot some of their new planes that they were producing with Krei Tech, Abigail jumped at the chance to come home. For months she was the go-to test-pilot. No craft too weird, no mission too dangerous. Finally, they came to her with the big one. A top top TOP secret experiment happening out in the bay on Akuma Island. Krei Tech called it Project Silent Sparrow, which officially was a new type of drone. Unofficially, Krei Tech had figured out teleportation tech, and were ready for the next phase of testing. Not only would Abigail be the test pilot, but she'd be making history as the first person ever to instantly teleport… even if it was only by like 30 feet. Her father had been so proud, and she'd managed to pull some strings that allowed him to attend the testing.

Robert wrapped her in a hug as she put on her specially made crash helmet. "I'm so proud of you sweetheart."

"Thanks dad," she said as she stepped back. "I'll see you on the other side."

Abigail walked up to the small test shuttle she'd be using to travel through the portal, which was already glowing and humming. As she stepped inside, her commlink clicked on, Alistair Krei's voice filling her helmet.

"Ready to go for a ride, Abigail?"

She smiled as she sat down inside the pod. "We invited all of these people. Might as well give them a show."

She flicked the switches on the pod to prepare for launch. The announcer in the command center announced 30 seconds to showtime.

"Sir, we've picked up a small irregularity in the magnetic containment field," she heard a voice say over the still open line.

"Mr. Krei, is there a problem?" her commander asked.

"No! No problem. It's well within the parameters. Let's move forward." Krei answered. Abigail pushed her doubts aside and took a deep breath as the countdown over the speaker reached zero. The pod surged forward, sending Abigail zooming toward the portal in front of her. She held her breath as the pod met the magnetic containment field and then… nothing.

A steady beep caught her attention as she struggled to open her eyes. Everything around her was white. A hospital room. Abigail was laying in a hospital, out of her test pilot's uniform and in a hospital gown. Confused she sat up, causing a machine somewhere to beep. A nurse ran in and urged her to remain lying down.

"What happened? Where am I?" she asked.

"San Fransokyo hospital," the nurse answered. "You were conscious briefly but passed out. Do you remember that?"

Abigail thought hard, starting to remember answering a paramedic's questions outside what looked like a warzone. Finally, Abigail nodded. "Yes, I think so. It's… fuzzy. What happened?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you."

"I can, though." Krei said as he walked into the room. His usually dapper suit was covered in small bits of debris and dust, and his face was far from his usually confident smile. "How is she?"

"Stable," the nurse said. "She was severely dehydrated, but she should be fine now that we've got fluids back in her."

"Thank you. Can you give us a minute?"

The nurse nodded and checked the machine Abigail was hooked up to one last time before she departed the room. Krei looked at her in concern.

"How are you?"

"Fine, I think. My throat's a little dry, though. Mr. Krei, what happened? Is everyone alright?"

"Abigail, there was an… incident. Project Silent Sparrow was a total disaster. We had to shut the project down."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"No, but we… lost you."

"Lost me?" Abigail raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean lost me?"

"You went into the portal, but you didn't come back out. It started to suck in the building, so we terminated the test. We thought you were dead."

"Oh… how long was I gone?"

Krei looked away before he answered. "Eleven months."

Abigail gasped and brought her hand up to her mouth. Krei sighed before he continued. "The emergency systems in the pod kept you alive in suspended animation."

"How did you find me?"

"We… didn't." Krei pointed to a TV that was hung up in the corner. On the news, footage from what looked like a battle in the city was being shown. Five freeze frames showed off some sort of team as they raced around and fought off a black mass. One with energy blades, a yellow blur, a tall girl clad in pink, what looked like a lizard costume, and someone in red armor with a figure in purple situated on his back. Abigail found the TV remote sitting on the counter next to her bed and hit the un-mute button.

"Early reports are coming in, with an anonymous source close to this group claiming that their name is Big Hero 6. Who these sudden heroes are and how they knew about the attack on Krei Tech's campus is currently unknown."

The footage cut to show an unstable portal sucking in debris around it as two of the heroes went inside.

"Two of these heroes managed to rescue a stranded test pilot. The government nor Krei Tech have released their name as of yet."

"These… heroes. They saved me?"

"They did. And me. Someone attacked Krei Tech with the portal technology. If it wasn't for them, neither of us would be here."

"Who would do such a thing?"

Before Krei could answer, Bluff Dunder put his finger up to his ear on the TV to listen to his earpiece before turning back to the camera. "The police have just released the name of the man responsible for the attack on Krei Tech…"

"Abigail, you should probably turn that off," Krei warned.

"No, I want to hear what happened." She argued. Krei hung his head in defeat as the footage showed a man in a black trench coat and kabuki mask controlling the black mass and using it to lift a portal over the Krei Tech building.

"For the last several hours we've been referring to this mysterious assailant as Yokai, but can now confirm that he is SFIT Dean of Students and Professor Robert Callaghan."

A shot of Callaghan being loaded into the back of a police car filled the screen. Abigail dropped the remote in shock.

"The police say he is also responsible for this spring's fire at SFIT that claimed the life of a student there, Tadashi Hamada. As for now, the police say he is cooperating and is on his way to jail to await trial."

"No… why would he do something like this?"

"Because of me…" Krei answered. "He said I took everything from him. And I suppose I did. You have my sincerest apologies, Abigail."

Abigail didn't hear what else he had to say as she focused on the image of her father being led away in handcuffs.

Life used to be simple. Then Abigail woke up in a twisted new world where her father had done unspeakable things and she hadn't seen him since their goodbye on Akuma Island. And now on top of that, she can teleport at will. After calling in sick, she spent the morning testing out her powers. She'd easily reached DC, so she could feasibly go anywhere. But there were a few issues with that. First off, she discovered she needed to be specific in where she wanted to go. She thought about popping over to Japan for lunch, but nothing happened. Then she thought about the sushi place she liked downtown and had appeared there almost instantly. Thankfully she'd been disguised by a bus stop, so no one saw her.

So in order for her powers to work, she had to know exactly where she needed to go and preferably already be familiar with the area. In terms of San Fransokyo, that wouldn't be an issue. Partially growing up there, she knew the place pretty well. She also discovered that using her powers too much in a short period of time left her woozy and dehydrated. After chugging her fifth glass of water in twenty-five minutes, Abigail slumped down on the couch and decided to give it a rest.

Now that she knew how her powers worked though, now what? Would she use it to get to work faster? As awesome as it was to instantly appear in a different location around the globe, the physical affects it had on her body didn't make it practical for constant use. Just an every now and then type thing then. So if she forgot her phone at home, no problem. Outside of that? She wasn't sure. Abigail turned on the TV, wishing to distract herself from her newfound abilities and to give herself some time to process everything. Having spent most of the morning teleporting around the city, it was a little past noon, meaning that the news was on, right where she'd left it earlier in the morning. Bluff Dunder repeated his story from earlier in the day about the jewelry store robbery and that's when it clicked.

Someone out there was using teleportation tech to commit crimes. Even if Big Hero 6 managed to track down this thief, they might have a tough time catching them. So maybe they needed help doing so. Someone who could disappear and reappear at a moment's notice to chase down after the thief. Or even any thief for that matter. She wasn't quite sure how she'd ended up with powers in the first place, but now at least she knew why she had them,

Abigail was going to become a superhero.

Hiro typed on his computer in his private lab. Expanding the search parameters of Baymax's scanner took time, which was why he had to skip lunch to work on it. He could eat when Sirque was in jail. Of course, Baymax hadn't been totally accepting of that answer, so Hiro had him shut down for a midafternoon charge while he worked. Peace and quiet usually helped him get things accomplished quicker. So, Hiro was a little annoyed when the doors to his lab opened and Rishi walked in.

"Hey." Rishi said.

"Hey." Hiro mumbled back as he continued working.

"You didn't show up today."

"Didn't show up to what?"

"Our weekly meetings? The meetings that Granville wants us to have?"

Hiro stopped in his tracks, fingers hovering over the keyboard. He groaned and leaned his head back. "Was that today? Sorry, Rishi, I sorta have a lot going on right now. I got sidetracked."

"It's fine, I'm doing great in all my classes so it's not a big deal. What are you working on?"

"Just an update to Baymax's scanners. Always tinkering, ya know?"

"Yeah…" Rishi looked at the lines of code on Hiro's screen. "You know if you run a debug on this line here and change this…"

Rishi leaned past Hiro and typed several commands into the console. After a moment, the command console flashed green and all of the data began running across the screen at a much faster pace. Hiro's jaw dropped as he looked at the running code.

"Wait… what did you..?"

"Solved your little problem. You were wanting Baymax to scan for particles, right? Well, he can scan for particles now. So, what, you want him to be able to detect germs in the air or something?"

"Yeah… something like that. Thanks, Rishi. You did in thirty seconds what I'd been working hours on."

"What can I say? I'm a genius." Rishi turned to leave. Hiro swiveled around in his chair to catch him before he could go.

"Hey, tomorrow morning. Weekly meeting. Promise."

"We don't have to, Hiro. Granville just wanted you to do this so I'd adjust. I think I'm adjusted."

"I know, but a mentorship is more than just talking about schoolwork. You have anything else going on and want to talk about it, that's what they're for."

"I'll keep that in mind. See ya tomorrow then, Hiro." Rishi said as he left. Hiro waited until he was far enough down the hall and then grabbed Baymax's superhero chip out of the adapter. Thank goodness Rishi hadn't looked too close at some of the code. He tapped a button on Baymax's charger, and the robot inflated. He blinked at Hiro.

"Hello, Hiro. Did you stop to get something to eat like I recommended?"

"No, but I'll grab an apple or something on the way to class." Hiro opened Baymax's chip port and slid the superhero chip back into place. "Send a message to the rest of the team. If Sirque tries to steal anything tonight, we'll be ready for her."

Later that night, Big Hero 6 had assembled near Night Market Square, standing on the rooftop of one of the buildings. Fred, as per usual, was giddy, bouncing back and forth on his feet ready to spring into action. Tonight, he'd donned the Fredmelion costume since Fredzilla was being repaired after a run-in with Trina a couple days prior. This meant that in his excitement, the tongue on the suit was flopping around from place to place as he bounced around excitedly. Almost getting whacked by it a few times was starting to test Go Go's patience.

"Honey Lemon, can you give me a sticky ball? Fred's bouncing around is driving me insane."

Wasabi grabbed Fred by the shoulders to stop him from moving around. "Yeah, you may want to save some of that energy for Sirque."

"Sorry, guys." Fed apologized. Honey Lemon looked down on Night Market Square with a pair of binoculars.

"Explain to me how we're going to capture her this time, Hiro."

"Right. So, today I upgraded Baymax's scanners. Whenever we've encountered teleportation tech before, be it Project Silent Sparrow or Sirque, Baymax's systems have detected a weird background radiation unique to the magnetic teleport field. The only problem is, the particles the field gives off are so tiny they don't last long, which is why I upgraded his systems and not Basemax's. So now if he detects the particles, we go racing to wherever he detects them and catch Sirque in the act."

"And even if we don't, we can probably use the scanners to then find out where she went afterword." Wasabi theorized. "Smart."

"So now all we got to do is wait," Go Go said as she unwrapped a new stick of gum. Hiro peered over the edge of the building.

"Probably not for long, this is about the time she struck last night. So if she keeps her schedule consistent…"

"Hiro, I am detecting teleportation particles."

"Right on time. Where, Baymax?"

"Two blocks east of here at a jewelry store."

"Jewels are a little different than her M.O. from last time…" Honey questioned. Hiro jumped up on Baymax.

"We can ask her why she changed from cash to diamonds when we catch her. C'mon, we don't have a moment to lose!"

The team sprang into action, Baymax carrying several members to their target as Honey Lemon used a chem slide to get there and Fred used Fredmelion's tongue to swing around the buildings like Globby. The team arrived at their destination, a free-standing jewelry store on a street corner. The alarm inside was blaring, and the flashing emergency lights allowed the team to see Sirque's silhouette as she ran around and stuffed jewels into a sack. Since she'd teleported in, there wasn't anywhere for the heroes to enter from, which meant they'd need to make their own entrance.

"Wasabi, cut the lock so we can get in."

"Sorry, store-owner!" Wasabi activated his blades and sliced through the lock on the door, allowing the door to swing open and get them inside. The team ran inside and Honey Lemon found the light, turning it on and illuminating the store. Sirque looked at them in surprise, not expecting them to have shown up so soon. The surprise quickly melted into a sly smile.

"Ah, Big Hero 6," Sirque said in her French accent. "I'm surprised you got here so fast. I would've thought you would have other things to worry about."

"Your portal technology makes you a priority, Sirque." Hiro answered. "Now give up your tech and come with us willingly."

"Mmm, no. I have perfected my tech as I said I would. The containment field issue has been resolved."

"I doubt that. We've seen firsthand how unstable it is, it's safer for everyone if you never open a portal again."

"Oh, you mean like this?" Sirque pointed her arm behind her, ready to fire up a portal.

"Baymax, rocket fist!" Hiro commanded. Baymax fired a rocket fist, the projectile coming in too fast for Sirque to dodge it. Just as it was about to hit her, however, a figure leapt through the store and crashed into Sirque, knocking her out of the way. The two tumbled to the floor as Big Hero 6 watched, dumbfounded.

"Where the heck did they come from?!" Wasabi asked. The new arrival wore a pair of camo-colored trousers and a fit work-out t-shirt to match. A black bandana covered the lower half of their face, but the baseball hat and sunglasses didn't do much to hide the brown ponytail they were sporting. The interloper got up and leaned on a display case for support, noticing Big Hero 6 for the first time.

"Oh… uh… hi guys." She said sheepishly.

"Great, Sirque's got a sidekick." Go Go said as she readied a disk to throw.

"Sidekick? Wait, no, I'm not-" the interloper was cut off as a portal opened on the floor. Sirque did a handstand and flipped into the portal to escape, saluting the heroes as she did so. Fred fired his tongue after her, but it only bounced off the floor as the portal closed and ricocheted to hit him in the face.

"And she got away, fantastic." Wasabi groaned.

"You, whoever you are, you're coming with us." Hiro said. The stranger in the room backed up, starting to panic slightly.

"You've got this all wrong, I'm not-" she was cut off as a chem ball hit her in the arm, sticking her to the shop's wall. Police sirens could be heard outside, getting closer.

"Baymax, scan for teleportation particles, we'll let the police deal with whoever this is and go after Sirque."

"Scanning."

A police car arrived outside of the store, the officers getting out. Wasabi opened the door for them to enter. The interloper looked around at everyone and the officers entering the building.

"Sorry guys," she said and then… vanished. Everyone looked around wildly.

"Where'd she go?" Fred asked.

"Stealth tech?" Honey theorized. Hiro activated his helmet sensors, scanning for the Krei Tech camo tech. His search came up empty.

"No, that's not it. She's gone."

"Hiro, I have detected two new traces of teleportation particles. One near Tori Gate Park…"

"That's got to be Sirque," Go Go said. "She used that as an escape route last time too."

"And the second trace is…" Baymax pointed at the wall where the masked interloper had been. "Right there."

"She… teleported." Wasabi said. Honey Lemon scratched her head in confusion.

"But she didn't open a portal, she was just… gone."

"Which means we've got a new form of teleportation tech on our hands." Hiro sighed.

Abigail appeared back in her living room and groaned in frustration.

"That… could have gone better." She said to herself. After tapping into the police scanner (which her Krei Tech credentials made very easy), she sat and listened for a new reported sighting on the 'Sirque' criminal that had been talked about on the news. Finally, she'd gotten something, and an address as well. Firing up her online search engine, she got a satellite and street view look at the place and concentrated. Wanting to make a dramatic entrance, she'd taken off running in her living room and teleported across town, unbeknownst to her, right into Sirque when she was about to be subdued by Big Hero 6.

They thought she was a criminal. Abigail looked down at her attire and had to admit… they sorta had a point. Maybe her old air force fatigues and a bandana to cover her face had been a bad idea. If she was going to make up for letting the bad guy get away and try again, then she'd need something a little more obviously good guy.

She went to her closet and began looking around. Nothing she owned would really work that well. If she was going to get into potential fights, nothing she had would really protect her. Maybe a trip to the store in the morning was called for. Pick up some hockey pads or something. As she turned away to head to her bed, her foot brushed against something. She bent down to inspect what it was and found a box with her name on it. Instantly she remembered what it was, having shoved it into the back of her closet the moment she'd gotten out of the hospital once she'd been rescued. She hadn't wanted to think about it then, but…

Abigail grabbed the box and opened it. Inside was her white test suit and custom fit pilot's helmet she'd worn in the test pod. When she'd gotten out, she didn't want to look at it because of what it had come to represent. But now it could represent something new, and Big Hero 6 would recognize her as a friend in this. Abigail picked up the helmet and looked at the name inscribed on the side: "CALLAGHAN". After what her father had done, that name had become synonymous with terror and villainy. Now, she'd make that name stand for something else, or she'd die trying.