Notes:
"Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about." — Jim Harrison
Wow, you guys hit me with a big ole' brick of support in the comments and via kudos. Thank you. I'm just beyond words. I really didn't expect such a wonderful response! Thank you to silvermist2008 and that one guest! I appreciate that so, so much! And yes, I'll be continuing this fic albeit with a weird schedule. Definitely plan to finish it.
I left off with Hiro rushing through finals and then was like, 'Wait a minute… I have finals.' All's good, though! There may be another hiatus later in the year. Or, I might switch to a monthly release. I'm not sure yet. (I have some super important life events happening all at once and it doesn't look like I'm slowing down anytime soon. I'm moving, changing universities, switching jobs... it's a lot! But we'll definitely get through a couple posts before then.)
The next few chapter releases are some of my favorite moments. (Chapters 9-13, specifically.) Gonna have some fun with S:R updates this summer!
And we've got one more awkward, experimental chapter to go! I'm a nerd; I need to express my vague love for physics somewhere. Trust me, this one's weird. (I should have gone on hiatus with this update instead. :/ ) After this chapter though, I'm hoping to relieve some of that anxiety that's been building up. You have questions and now it's time for some answers.
Again, y'all are just awesome. Thank you for indulging me in this random fic I happened to write. To quote Fred, "If I could have any superpower right now, it would be to be able to go through that phone and give you a big hug." Happy trails, y'all. TYSM.
Hiro had to leave. Another minute on campus would rot his brain to shambles. It wasn't even 10 AM, and his day already turned for the worst.
"Why would you tell everyone I'm having a hard time?" Hiro complained to Baymax as they walked towards a trolley stop. "Now they're all worried about me!" Baymax was still carrying the take-home box they threw together minutes before. The freshly 3D-printed armor sunk towards the bottom.
"My programming orders that I take care of my patients. Reaching out to friends and loved ones can help alleviate stress and anxiety. Would you like to avoid these protocols?"
"Kinda. Well, wait, no." Hiro sighed as he leaned against the robot's side. "Just not now. Let's just go home."
Baymax glanced down the street. He looked both ways as if he was checking to see if a ride was coming.
"Public transportation won't arrive until 10:25 AM according to the city's transit schedule. Might I suggest flying?" Hiro looked up. Why didn't he think of that? Leaving Tadashi home alone was dragging him further into his paranoia.
He was still flying around with his brother's SFIT project for pete's sake. Hiro rubbed his face. Giving the crisis more fuel wasn't an option. But Tadashi had yet to give any information. And suiting up wasn't exactly in his plans. However, they would be home in a matter of minutes. They could finally get over that weird, awkward feeling as a family.
Hiro could finally have answers.
"Let's do it." In a matter of minutes, the duo was ready to launch after switching into their gear. People happily pointed them out in a crowd. Hiro didn't acknowledge it. He was running through all the ways he would walk up to his brother and… apologize? No, argue. Prove his point? The awful decisions were limitless.
"You seem tense," Baymax said, the take-home box, as well as Hiro's backpack, tucked safely in his arms. Hiro locked himself onto his back and let out a sigh.
"What are you supposed to say to someone who knowingly stayed away from home?" Baymax tilted his head back.
"There is nothing in my databases that concerns runaways or missing persons' cases. Aunt Cass suggested, 'Starting with the basics.'"
"You weren't there to see how that went."
"People often leave their homes to start a new life, discover new opportunities, or to escape an unhealthy environment," he said as Hiro made a face.
"What are you saying?"
"Tadashi was a perfectly healthy adult. Were there any stressors in his life prior to his death?"
Hiro leaned back uncomfortably, "Uh, it's 'disappearance' now, buddy. And no? There wasn't anything I was aware of. Maybe school? Helping Aunt Cass around the cafe?" He understood what it meant to look after Cass. She was almost as reckless as him sometimes. University was challenging too, but that wasn't enough to convince Hiro what his brother did was justified.
Was it him? No, Tadashi loved him, he… Tadashi wasn't himself. The way he stumbled up the stairs wasn't characteristic of the brother he knew. There was no use trying to solve his own questions.
"Any stressors after the accident?" Baymax asked. Hiro grew silent; he didn't have a clue.
"I guess we'll have to ask him." He flicked his visor down, ignoring the questions building up in his head. "Ready?" Baymax slipped into position for takeoff as his reply. The crowds naturally made space around them as the thrusters warmed up. The vibration of the rockets brought back a familiar adrenaline rush.
In a matter of seconds, the two were well above the city's condensed streets.
The euphoria of flying lifted Hiro's mood. Wind propellers and skyscrapers lined the edges of his view. He loved the fact that his brother was back; he truly did. Yet, the entire situation was a confusing mess. Where was the starting point?
Plus, this all began because he was looking for something to take his mind off of Tadashi's anniversary. What would have happened if he never visited Krei's office that day? Or bothered to check the warehouses? Hiro's eyes burned. The sheer mass of it all was beginning to overwhelm him.
He hoped Tadashi would have chosen to come back on his own sooner or later. Two years missing didn't help his case. And Aunt Cass had a point. Tadashi did have a choice.
Just why? What was so important that he had to stay away?
And the lab run-in with his brother's old friends… everything was happening at once, and there was no way to slow down and analyze.
Obviously, dwelling on it wasn't easing the situation. Facing Krei's wrath about stealing his blueprints, however, was a million times better than bursting into tears so early in the morning. The two of them would stop by his office, just for a little bit.
And Hiro would hurry. Leaving Tadashi at home alone was stressing him out. He just needed a backup plan, just something to get his mind off why his brother never came back. Something to work on while he thought through every possibility of why this was happening. Agh, he couldn't keep thinking about it; Tadashi chose to stay away.
"Well, we don't have time," Krei half-yelled into his phone. Hiro barely crossed the threshold of his main office doors. The CEO of KreiTech was pacing around his desk as the person on the other end shouted back.
"Stay there," Krei mouthed as he continued to listen to his call. Hiro took a seat. The businessman was usually distracted by whatever businessmen got distracted by. Odds were it had to do with money and, of course, time.
Yet Hiro was familiar with the tech giant. Two years of saving his life from small-scale crimes and guarding his publicly hosted events were common. Krei was nearly a family member. He was like an uncle, a really eccentric, uninvolved uncle. The kind that sent checks on Christmas just so he could say he participated as a relative.
And sure, he threatened revealing Big Hero 6's identities as a way to keep their truce in check, but that was normal superhero stuff. Hiro recognized he was a good guy beneath the arrogance and the fraud.
Krei continued to shout into his phone. With every word, Hiro was confirming his worst fears.
"Which is exactly why we have to do it now!" he yelled. "If we don't follow through with this, my company will drown!" More mumbling from the other end interrupted his rant. "Well, tell the city I don't care. We need to move forward with this project or-! Of course, I'm aware of the risks! Why do you think we're following through with this?!"
Krei had to be talking about Silent Sparrow. Hiro still had the blueprints in his backpack… crumpled and distorted. So much for mending that issue. Besides, the papers he'd skimmed already proved this newer, hopefully improved, version was far too similar to be a coincidence.
And if Krei wasn't talking about Silent Sparrow's return, then whatever new project this was, added another failed prototype to KreiTech's list of debacles. Every second sitting in the office chair made the waiting unbearable.
The businessman pressed the hang-up button angrily.
"So," Hiro asked, "how are you doing?"
"I'm having a PR nightmare!" Hiro shuffled in his seat.
"Oh, come on. Public relations isn't that bad." Krei shot him a glare. "Oh. That bad, huh?"
"They think I'm just some volatile billionaire. Someone who made too many of the same mistakes." That was partially true. Krei did make the same mistakes over and over. It wasn't the kind of stuff that warranted an outburst, though.
"I've never seen you bothered by scrutiny," Hiro said, face scrunched up, "Why is this time any different?"
"Hiro," Krei smiled, "Usually, I'd tell you everything because you protect my company and my livelihood from perishing. But again, this is not your concern."
"It totally is my concern! How am I supposed to protect you if I don't know what's going on?" He could outsmart him. Hiro wanted details on the portal. He crossed his fingers Krei didn't notice the partial insincerity.
"Insight comes with a few downfalls," Krei said. "I don't expect you to know the intricacies of it."
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
"Constantly being in the public eye, for one."
"The public eye?" Hiro asked. "But that's so typical. What's the deal?"
Krei circled his desk. He kicked his office chair away before arching his hands, leaning across the table. "Do you know how many projects we've failed to follow through within this year alone?"
"Uh, a lot?"
"Exactly."
"So, you don't want people to know you screw up sometimes?" Krei sighed.
"No."
"So then, what is it? You working on something you're not supposed to?" Whatever information the CEO had probably wasn't open to discussion. Krei wasn't likely to talk about his company's endeavors without a lawyer present. Yet he trusted Big Hero 6.
"Do you remember the Callaghan incident?" Krei asked after a moment. Hiro froze. Krei's words confirmed Silent Sparrow really was making a comeback.
"Of course," he said.
"And, you know what happened before that?" That was a difficult question to answer. He couldn't blurt out that he trespassed on KreiTech's property before their epic showdown.
"Uh, um, yeah? Maybe."
"This company isn't about the pursuit of innovation anymore. Ever since the infamous portal incident, every coverage story, every press release, KreiTech is vilified into this scary corporate entity."
Hiro was kind of lost. Because, yeah, KreiTech was a giant, corporate entity, "Which means…"
"Which means, the public doesn't trust us. We have to deliver. We need something that will demonstrate we know what we're doing."
Hiro looked away. This was an entirely new mess that did more than distract from Tadashi. The whole reason he was here was to take notes and book it. But the exhaustion in Krei's face was worse than usual. Revitalizing Silent Sparrow wasn't a smart move by any means. Not unless… Krei needed to prove integrity. An awful, terrifying amount of Krei's trust was going towards a new approach - a new Silent Sparrow.
"I kind of get it," Hiro said. "Failed prototypes aren't really working out for you."
"Well, yes. That's partially it."
"But if you can pull something off truly innovative," he pushed, "something so advanced, that would cement you as someone serious in the tech industry."
"Someone that knows what they're doing," Krei pointed. "A CEO who doesn't 'cut corners.'" Hiro launched out of the chair. He paced the room, hands on his head, digesting the insanity of the project.
"I-I get it, Krei. I really, really do. But, is bringing Silent Sparrow really going to help your case? I mean, it's your most dangerous project to date."
Krei's exhaustion faded into confusion. "Silent Sparrow?" he asked. "No, that's not quite what we're doing." Hiro panicked.
"Then, uh, what is it?"
"Ugh, just, come take a look." The businessman led him away from his office. Time spent at KreiTech was becoming time wasted. This was going to take more than a few minutes, Hiro thought. A lengthy walk towards an elevator launched him into a spiral.
Tadashi's home. But, maybe not by himself; Aunt Cass was probably there already.
The lights per floor illuminated. The elevator was slowly climbing its way up. Floor 27... floor 28...
Tadashi had to be with Aunt Cass. He just had to.
Floor 32.
33.
34.
Please still be home. With Mochi even. Or, those weird crime shows he used to say were weirdly disturbing but never turned off. Just something.
Floor 38.
39... Agh, this was taking too long.
Hiro pressed the elevator button as many times as he could. Eventually, the stainless steel doors appeared and slid open. Krei watched from the corner of his eye, the leader of San Fransokyo's greatest crime-fighting team, shook his leg uncontrollably as Krei pressed the button to the laboratories.
"You seem in a hurry," Krei said.
"What? No. It's just... nothing. It's nothing. It's finals week."
"Must be one difficult final." Hiro didn't reply. He wasn't in the mood for small talk. He was here for details.
The silence became tangible. The only noise was the hum of the elevator shaft and Hiro's shoes tapping against the floor. "You know," Krei began, "when you get to my age, you get used to failing projects like these. Just know it's not the end of the world." Hiro glanced up at him. "These things happen. Mistakes, I mean. Here at my company, we've just happened to face too many to make up for." The elevator dinged.
Hiro burst through the doors. The bright, corporate-style lights faded into sterilized LEDs. The carpeted floor welded into uniform tile and smelled far too heavily of cleaning solvents. KreiTech housed a highly secured laboratory somewhere within its building. Where exactly, Hiro didn't care to note. The businessman in front of him already passed several key-carded doorways and a thick wall of plexiglass before Hiro retreated back into his head.
So, Silent Sparrow isn't the same thing. Okay, details. He would find out the details. He wanted information on Tadashi, though. He still had his brother's baseball cap on the dresser. Maybe he still remembered it? Maybe he could have his old brother back.
Ack, no. He couldn't think about that right now. Details. Details and then home.
Krei ignored the silence. He managed to walk up to a safe before pulling out a titanium briefcase from a vault. A click from the last keycard swipe snapped Hiro out of his trance.
"I'm just holding it here for safekeeping," Krei explained, his voice echoing off the walls. "We won't use it for another month, if we stay ahead of schedule." Hiro peaked over the casing. A metallic frame decked out in wires, and charred fissures were tucked neatly inside. It almost looked like his old bot-fighting remote control, but with extra knobs and switches. The thing was small and compact, nearly portable. Hiro could practically imagine walking out the door with it.
"Just another headache for you, isn't it?"
"Tell me about it," Krei said. "Now, it's based on Silent Sparrow's teleportation capabilities. But, we're not doing the same project. Not again. All of our research will go towards this new approach and under a new name."
"Which is?"
"None of your concern."
"Right, right. So, uh, it's the same device?"
"Not quite. It's intended to affect the user remotely. No portals required." Krei set down the casing before leaning against the vault. "The only problem is the remote panel still responds to the portal's reactor. Which means-"
"No way," Hiro said, "It's all theoretical. You're dealing with entanglement."
"Yeah, that thing," Krei said with an air of spite. "And the risks are limitless. Do you know how many things can go wrong with quantum-anythings?"
A quantum, spacetime altering-anything was definitely bad news. And Hiro's discussion with Granville, unaccounted-for variables were a liability. But this shrunk in comparison to his other problem. His biggest concern was whether his brother was still home. He had to leave, this time with the remote control in tow.
Krei cupped his head in his hands, ignoring the kid in front of him. "I need this to work," he mumbled. " I need this to succeed." Hiro watched him as he hunched over.
"Hey, uh, if it makes you feel any better, I-I, um, took your blueprints the other day. Forgot to mention that earlier. Sorry about that." Krei almost smiled but nodded his head anyway.
"Ah, so that's where that went." He slowly stood up and walked towards Hiro; a little less pep in his cadence. His tone turned serious as he put his hand on the teen's shoulder. "Don't think I didn't notice. And I'm not showing this to you because you need to be aware of it. But, I was hoping you'd understand. Hoping you'd understand... why I'm taking so many risks at once." Hiro scrunched up his face as he took a step back.
"No," he replied. "No, I don't understand. Krei, I get trying to make things work, but this is crazy. You're willing to risk citywide, and possibly planetwide, destruction just so you can say, 'Look what I can do?'" Hiro watched as the businessman began to turn away. "Come on!" he pleaded. " Why this project? It's literally the worst one you can pick. "
"Desperate times call for desperate measures."
"Then pick another desperate measure! This could be a mistake. A huge mistake!"
"And at some point, the mistakes pile up. What else am I left with? If we achieve this, KreiTech will be safe."
"And if you fail, KreiTech will tear at the seams. You're not really following through with this, are you?" Krei was about to say something snarky back but was interrupted by his phone ringing.
"Stay," he ordered. Hiro rolled his eyes as the businessman placed the briefcase back into the vault, the locks not set yet. The titanium casing practically stared back. He watched as Krei half paid attention to the case and his call.
Oh, it was too easy. Krei was already making his way back towards the elevator; too careless to put the remote through safety protocols.
Hiro slowly edged his way closer to the vault.
He knew Krei was exhausted by constant mishaps and scrutiny. Attention and perfection were no longer a part of his image; the reward outweighed the dangers. But he shoved the situation far away from the forefront of his mind.
Tadashi was back.
He looked between Krei and the case. The remote was guarded behind several unlocked barriers of titanium, steel, and other metal barriers. The blueprints only added questions as to how such a tiny control panel was his last resort.
How bad could it be? At worst, Hiro needed backup. The team would ask questions, sure. He could deal with that later. If Krei was right about the panel, then all he needed to do was shut down the project manually, possibly remotely. It was pretty much a dicey science fair project - the perfect not-so-small scale distraction after all.
Hiro already snatched it before he could think of the repercussions. The briefcase found itself within his hands. He shut the locks and the panels, making sure not to set anything off.
Krei barely noticed him leave. Hiro would bring the case back, of course. But he was also planning to stop the entire project before it had a chance to take off.
It was insane, it was high-risk, and it all amounted to normal superhero stuff again. Plus, Krei's projects were never difficult to handle alone. He would mess around with the new project's tech and then report. For now, though, Hiro was going to face Tadashi.
He finally left the offices and mounted the magnetic clips on Baymax's back outside. It was barely 10:35 AM. Perfect timing. It was just enough to convince Aunt Cass he attended class if she was already home and enough time to think about what he would say to his older brother.
Rocket launchers snapped him out of his thoughts once more as the engines sprung to life outside KreiTech's headquarters. The pair blasted above the skyline, the wind overwhelming Hiro, this time in a good way.
Everything was finally falling into place. It wouldn't be long until he was back home.
Yet several minutes into their ride, Hiro's hope began to dwindle. The titanium briefcase housing the remote started vibrating.
Baymax continued to weave his way through the buildings as Hiro turned the case around and popped it open. A tiny, red light flashed at the top of the panel.
'Testing' was smudged directly beneath it.
Hiro frowned. Testing what exactly? He glanced up, the color draining from his face.
A familiar blue swirl appeared directly in front of their path. A portal, a real, functioning portal opened like Krei's blueprints suggested. But… those were just blueprints. It wasn't like it would actually work, right? Krei said no portals were required. Where was the steel framework? Or... or the regulations-?
Hiro started tapping the robot's helmet, begging for a response or a change of direction.
"Baymax?" he yelled. Before he could protest, the two flew straight inside.
The hollow feeling returned in full. Hiro saw the remaining debris still floating within the same, familiar pocket dimension. The larger fragments of old skyscrapers managed to smash themselves into rubble and tiny pieces of shrapnel.
Hiro's eyes were wide in terror. This wasn't supposed to be operational. Silent Sparrow's return wasn't supposed to be some big event the entire team needed to cover.
They couldn't go through that again. Not on his watch. Not now. Not ever.
Daylight started to creep through the other side. The faint, unsettling feelings finally vanished as they neared the end of their detour. San Fransokyo came back into view with its everyday orange and blue hues. Baymax flew out as quietly as he came in. Yet now the skyscrapers really were gone. Instead of being surrounded by the city, Hiro and Baymax were several hundred feet above Akuma Island, where the portal technology originated.
The adrenaline rush that usually lifted him refused to comfort him now. This was completely and utterly unprecedented.
The portal worked.
Hiro tapped Baymax's helmet again; this time with more urgency.
"Baymax, please tell me this is all some weird stress-induced hallucination?" The robot took a second to reply. He was gathering and analyzing the data he captured.
"My scanners show testing off the coast, located at one of Krei's testing facility sites," Baymax said after processing. "It appears KreiTech's invention is functional."
Silence followed. No. No, that wasn't even possible. Krei was… better than that. It wasn't like he would actually follow through, right? He should've learned something from the Callaghan incident. And the portal… that was years ago. How did he even manage to make it operational without it collapsing on itself?
Heh, no. No. Hiro flashed a smile. But it wasn't out of amazement or wonder. It was a nervous smile; the kind that was fueled by pure fear.
"That's not possible," Hiro said.
"All of my data suggests the portal is operational and stable by KreiTech's standards, albeit with a time delay."
Hiro blinked. "...A time delay?"
"Yes, the entry point recorded at 10:42 AM and public records show the current time as 12:42 PM."
Hiro flicked his visor open, trying to catch a breath. The wind only made it harder to try to relax.
Krei's unregulated project did more than distract. Silent Sparrow 2.0 was already getting out of hand. Hiro looked down as he pushed the remains of his oncoming headache away.
Just great. Great! Now he was two hours behind, his brother was unsupervised, and... whatever this was, somehow added itself to the list. The whole point of leaving school early was to get home as soon as possible.
"No," he said, voice cracking. "N-n-n-n-no! Silent Sparrow can't-? No. It just can't! Krei can't do this!" Hiro slammed the briefcase shut. Silent Sparrow 2.0, or whatever it was called, was operational. Which, was insane. This week wasn't supposed to play out like this.
Hiro took a deep breath. Panicking didn't work anymore. Aunt Cass already told him that. They needed a game plan. Okay, okay, okay. So, the briefcase was nothing to play with. It was definitely, and beyond a doubt, a teleportation device. Krei's recklessness paired poorly alongside it.
The gang could help. But not while his brother was returning from the dead. Not even 24 hours had passed yet. This was getting too weird; too out of his control. Hiro was done dealing with his frustration; done with the questions too. He snapped his hands firmly back onto the magnetic grips along the robot's back; the briefcase looped within his grasp.
"Get us home," Hiro ordered. "Fast." The briefcase would sit by the furthest corner of the garage, untouched. As for his brother, Hiro needed to get the ugly, difficult conversation out of the way. It should have been the happiest moment of his life to see Tadashi again. Instead, he was angry, overwhelmed, and unprepared.
Silent Sparrow, along with his brother's return, bothered him. It was too disturbing to handle alone.
But no, he made a one-sided promise to his friends; he could handle this. Krei wasn't a threat. Tadashi wasn't a problem either. It was just a situation they had to work through together. Hiro could face his brother and his misshapen legacy. And it could turn out in his favor. Forget the awkwardness and the dread. He could have his brother back and save the city again, possibly single-handedly.
And Krei's multiple mistakes… Tadashi went through that with Baymax. Just not that scale. Not with so many variables that could end up horribly. Failure was never supposed to be so terrifying.
Hiro wiped his eyes clean. Hopefully, Aunt Cass was home. She was better at easing the tension anyway. They just had to survive this moment. Once the whole reunion was behind their family, they could finally see all the ways they helped other people.
No more drama, or death, or crazy supervillain-esque plots rising from beyond the shadows. The Hamadas could make peace with the mayhem. They would survive this. It wasn't like they never experienced tragedy before.
But someone still had to help. He just couldn't keep up appearances anymore. Not while his family was in a crisis, not when his friends were overly worried, and not when his studies had taken a backseat; the very thing his brother pushed him to do.
No more secrets. It was beginning to tear Hiro apart.
Once this was all over, Hiro would finally tell them everything.
Notes:
Apparently, this is a reveal fic too. Uh, surprise! And yeah, this is a weird chapter. Definitely a deviant from the rest of the bunch. I have my notes, blah, blah, blah. Let me have my fun.
I definitely wanted to depict the boys at different stages of failure. Krei is so used to error, it no longer shocks him, Tadashi knows how to handle screw-ups (but is a little exhausted), and Hiro is still young with a surprisingly optimistic perspective. They'll eventually have to come to terms with unfavorable outcomes. Krei has to grow from his tactless behavior, Tadashi can't win-over every mistake, and Hiro has to allow others to chose for themselves. There's a lot to debate here. There's, like, a gold mine's worth of character analysis waiting to be discussed. Ultimately, we'll see where this thread goes. More details in later chapters.
And anyone ready to see Tadashi lose control? Because, I sure am. (I'm so sorry, Tadashi. It's for your own good.) Again, not my favorite experimental writing but experiment we must! I spent forever on this chapter. And by forever, I mean... forever. I struggled to nail this one down. Several drafts and several plot points later, I kind of ended up info-dumping. Not my favorite. Chapter 7 and 8 have major flaws in my opinion. There's a lot of echoes of an earlier, completely different draft present and I think that's why I don't like it as much. Yet I would love to get back into the tension-driven plot points. Chapter 9 will definitely have more of that. But man, this chapter went through the most changes and I don't gel with it.
In good news, I know what I want to do when it comes to this scene. This fic is basically writing practice for me. You guys get to read my personal version of the 83 mistrials. A lot of screwing up before reaching success. Hopefully, I can get into those action scenes and elevate from there. I'm looking forward to it. :)
Plus, lots of yelling and panicking will occur in the next few updates. So, there's that. All in good, pyrokinetic fun! I promise, I'm definitely returning back to the Sunfire reveal plot we touched up on from the first quarter. There's a lot more I want to explore. Next chapter will either be posted on June 13 or July 7, a little after midnight as always. And, IDK, bring popcorn or something. Maybe marshmallows to roast on the dumpster fire of a life event that's about to occur to your boy.
Again, I really appreciate all of the interactions. I love hearing what you guys think. :D
Additional, unrelated notes I have from old drafts: Movie Krei would con a child out of a million-dollar invention and Series Krei would literally throw hands with said child if it came down to it. Pick your fighter.