Cass Finds Out
It didn't matter how many times she told herself not to do it, Cass very often could not resist that final glass of water right before bed. She liked her sleep, preferably uninterrupted, so why she sometimes had a glass of water right before she went to bed was beyond her. To be honest, it had started as a way to check on the boys when they had been little. Get up at two in the morning to use the restroom and then sneak up to the loft to make sure Tadashi and Hiro were snug in their beds still had helped put her at ease and make those remaining few hours of sleep before she had to open the café and get the boys off to school all the more sweet. But those days were long gone.
Tadashi had… passed, and Hiro was more than old enough to look after himself now. But Cass on the occasion still found herself having that glass of water anyway, a habit that just wouldn't go away for whatever reason. So there she found herself at two in the morning trudging back from the bathroom to her bedroom once more. She rubbed her eyes as she made her way through the dark, yawning as she realized she was just a few steps away from the entryway into her bedroom and her lovely, lovely mattress. But in her tired state, she didn't notice the cat toy in her path, and stepped right onto the pole that connected to the toy mouse on the end of a string. She stumbled backwards as the thing went sliding out from underneath her. She tried to grab onto something to catch herself, but she was in the open living room, and just fell back against the coffee table instead, whacking her elbow. She hit the ground with a thud and grabbed her elbow as it throbbed.
"Ow!" she exclaimed louder than she probably should have at two in the morning. She got her bearings and rose to her feet. As she turned to make her way back to her bedroom however, she heard the telltale sounds of Baymax's cushy feet on the stairs. Cass sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what had woken the robot. She appreciated the robot always being around to look after the two humans in the house, but she wasn't really in the mood for Baymax's bedside manner at two in the morning. Regardless, she sat down on the couch and flicked on a lamp, no use submitting to Baymax's care in the dark. The robot reached the bottom of the stairs and waddled over to her.
"I was alerted to your need for medical attention when you said 'Ow'. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
"One. Sorry, Baymax, I just tripped on one of Mochi's toys and fell onto the coffee table. Didn't mean to wake you up."
"It is not a problem, I am programmed to help, and Hiro and I have only been back for twenty-four and a half minutes. I will scan you now." Baymax scanned Cass, and an outline of her appeared on his chest. "You seem to have a mild abrasion on your left elbow. I would recommend ice to prevent swelling, and to help the bruise heal."
"Wait, hold on…" Cass's drowsy brain was still trying to make sense of what Baymax had just said. "What do you mean you and Hiro have only been back for twenty minutes? What were you doing out so late?"
"Hiro and I were assisting in the defeat of Mr. Sparkles and his Mayoi in Night Market Square. Liv Amara and Karmi provided us with a serum to counteract their rapid growth."
"Mr. Sparkles? What were you doing getting involved with a supervillain?! I thought I told Hiro to turn the other direction and run if he ever saw a supervillain, you should leave situations like that to Big Hero 6."
Baymax simply blinked. "We ARE Big Hero 6."
Cass simply stood there and took in Baymax's statement, not believing something so ludicrous. Finally she laughed, a hollow empty laugh, trying to convince herself that it was all a joke. "No, that's… that's not possible. You two aren't Big Hero 6. Besides, who are the other four?"
"Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred are the other members of Big Hero 6. We have been protecting the city since we discovered that Robert Callaghan stole Hiro's microbots to attack Krei Tech. I will show you."
Baymax activated the screen on his chest, and a video started to play. The video was in first person and from Baymax's perspective. Giant Mayoi filled the screen as Mr. Sparkles presented himself on top of a building in Night Market Square, leafy green things sprouting out of his head. With a flourish of his arms, Sparkles threw himself off the building.
"Baymax!" came a voice somewhere off screen. Cass couldn't help but gasp, immediately knowing that it was Hiro's. The screen began moving rapidly as Baymax flew to catch Sparkles, but a giant Mayoi caught him first. She'd seen the rest of this play out on the news, but no one could possibly have this camera angle unless they had been there. A melee broke out between the heroes and the formerly cute and fuzzy creatures that had suddenly shown up a day or so prior. The entire team was calling in, their voices recorded through the comm frequency. Cass knew them all, and without a shadow of a doubt knew that Big Hero 6 was her nephew, his friends, and his pet robot. Liv Amara then showed up with reinforcements, canisters holding a serum that transformed the Mayoi back into cuddly creatures.
Hiro jumped off Baymax's back and stepped in front of the robot, the top of his helmet barely visible in the frame. Baymax then bent down and got closer, more of Hiro's back filling the frame. Cass couldn't see his face but knew that he wasn't happy with the situation.
"It is currently the only option." Baymax's recording told Hiro. Her nephew then relented and started issuing orders, grabbing a canister himself and disappearing from frame again to jump back onto Baymax. Things went rather quickly after that. The Mayoi were cut down to size and Sparkles escaped as the crowd cheered Liv Amara, the hero of the hour. The recording ceased and Baymax looked back at Aunt Cass, who was just standing there with her hand over her mouth in shock.
"You appear to be in distress. May I recommend some breathing techniques to calm you down?"
"Calm down? How can I calm down?! My nephew and his friends are superheroes! How can you be okay with this? Doesn't this go against like all of your healthcare protocols?"
"Tadashi designed and programmed me to help people. By acting as a superhero, I am able to help more people than before, and prevent serious injuries."
"But… what about Hiro and the others? Isn't it dangerous?"
"Since becoming the city's superheroes, we have been placed in several dangerous and life-threatening situations, yes. However, without our intervention, more innocent lives would be lost, which my programming does not find acceptable."
"But what if one of the others gets hurt?"
"Should any injuries occur, I am there to assess their medical needs and provide treatment to the best of my abilities. So far, our armor has protected us from serious injuries and damage that might have occurred otherwise. Hiro's designs are very durable."
Cass fell back into the recliner next to the lamp, stunned by the new information that she was being presented with. Fear crept up her throat, giving her a queasy feeling. She turned and looked back at Baymax, fear overtaking her features.
"What happens if… if one of you has to make a choice between saving someone at the expense of your own lives?"
Baymax was silent for a moment. "That would not be an optimal situation. However, if possible, my programming dictates to keep my patients safe above all else. Should it be necessary, I would sacrifice myself again to keep the others safe. I am expendable."
Cass was about to retort when she got caught up on something Baymax said. "Wait, what do you mean again?"
"My original body is lost in an interdimensional void. It was necessary to save Hiro and Abigail Callaghan from being trapped there when Krei Tech's portal was destabilizing. Thankfully, I managed to salvage my healthcare chip, or what Hiro refers to as my 'soul'."
Baymax opened his chip port, displaying the two chips that were installed. Cass tentatively reached out and took the green chip, knowing exactly what was written on it. The marker had faded a bit and the scotch tape was curling at the edges slightly, but the name Tadashi Hamada was still very clearly written on it. Cass sucked in a breath, the first she'd seen the little plastic chip since Tadashi had proudly shown it to her when he'd first completed it.
"Hiro… Hiro told me that your original body was lost in the fire."
"That is inaccurate. I was in Tadashi's lab when the fire happened, and regret that I was unable to help. The others put me in Tadashi's bedroom sometime later, and I did not reactivate until months later when Hiro alerted me to his need for medical attention."
"Why… why did he lie? Why has he lied about this for so long?"
"I do not understand all of human behavior, but I do believe that Hiro has spoken about this subject before."
Baymax looked back down at his stomach again as his chest screen began playing. The image that appeared was Hiro's face, VERY close to the camera, but after a few moments he backed up and nodded.
"There, I think the camera is working now." Hiro was in his private lab at SFIT, the one that had been Tadashi's before him. The date in the bottom left-hand corner read that this had been recorded at the beginning of the fall semester, right when Hiro had officially started there. Parts were strewn about the lab, part of Baymax's carbon-fiber skeletal arm being halfway constructed on the ground behind Hiro. He shuffled his feet slightly and looked around before he bent down and picked up the arm, starting to work on it again as he pulled up a seat.
"Um… hey, whoever is watching this. I'm Hiro Hamada. This is a continuation of my brother's video diaries working on Baymax, and I guess that someday these might be important. I uh… just thought I'd fill you in on what's been going on since the last entry, and why I'm having to rebuild Baymax. It's kind of a long story, but well, this is going to take awhile to get this done so I've got the time. Anyway, it started about two weeks ago. I was pretty depressed after Tadashi's passing still and was kinda just keeping to myself in my room when I discovered one of my microbots was still online…"
From there, Cass was enraptured as Hiro wove his tale. From the car chase that ended with a swim in the bay, to the fight on Akuma island, all the way to getting the test pilot out of the void alive. Hiro had to stop at points to compose himself, but by the end of the story the arm was complete, and Hiro was testing the servos as he finished up.
"We didn't set out to be superheroes, but sometimes life doesn't go the way you planned. Good thing is my brother wanted to help a lot of people, and that's what we're going to do. Who are we?" Hiro paused as he chuckled. "Fred gave us the name Big Hero 6, and I think he even anonymously gave it to the news. I'm not sure we're really going to continue being superheroes, but now more than ever we're all committed to helping where we can. But who knows, if the city needs us, maybe Big Hero 6 will stick around."
Hiro paused in his testing of Baymax's arm and thought for a moment, a grimace coming over his face. "Regardless, there's NO WAY that my aunt can ever find out. She'd freak out for sure. Hopefully whenever you're watching this is like waaaaay after the statute of limitations has run out and she can't ground me anymore. Or maybe no one is ever going to see this except me. That's fine, I guess. Either way, I hope that when you look me up if you are watching this someday way in the future, it'll be said that Hiro Hamada was always there to help. That's what Tadashi lived for, and also what he died for. I wouldn't be a very good brother if I didn't try to live up to that."
Cass choked back a sob as video Hiro checked his phone and turned back to the camera. "Well, I'm hungry and this is going to take me awhile to get done yet, so I'm going to take a break and get something to eat. I guess I'll see you in the next video diary… if there is one. Guess we'll find out."
Hiro moved toward the camera and disabled it, ending the video. Baymax looked back up at Cass, noticing the tears. He turned and grabbed a nearby tissue box, holding it out to her. She took one and tried to blow her nose as quietly as possible. As she dried her eyes, she looked at the clock on the wall. It was now a little past three in the morning, but she had barely felt the time go by with how wrapped up she'd been in Hiro's story. The idea that her nephew and his friends were constantly out there saving the city from bad guys scared her, but it also made her feel incredibly proud. After hearing Hiro explain it, she knew why they did it, and that she couldn't stop them. And for the time being, it was probably best that Hiro think his secret remain kept. He obviously had enough on his plate to worry about with a city full of monsters. Cass tossed the wadded-up tissue into a nearby waste basket and stood up, looking Baymax dead in the photoreceptors.
"You watch out for all of them when you're out there, ok, Baymax?"
"That is my primary programming directive. I will always look after my patients."
"Good." Cass said before she could start crying again. She took a few steps forward and wrapped the robot in a hug, which he reciprocated as he was programmed to do.
"There, there." Cass smiled at the statement and stepped back.
"Now, I think it's time we go back to bed. Goodnight, Baymax. I am satisfied with my care."
"Goodnight, Aunt Cass." Baymax waved and then turned, waddling back up the stairs to his charging port in Hiro's room. Cass turned off the lamp and went back to her own room, scooping up Mochi to cuddle as she found her way under the covers. She was probably always going to be conflicted with Hiro's job, but as she finally fell asleep again, she let the warm feeling of pride wash over her, knowing that Tadashi would be very happy with how Hiro had turned out.