Hello again! Thank you all who have stuck around and put up with me. This is a head's up. As you will see, I switched the POV to first person. Third person is great for seeing the big picture but it was frustrating me. I'm the kind of girl that, when I read something, I want to feel connected to the characters in some way. So when I write, I prefer first person because then the story comes alive to me and I can work on the character's development. It may seem weird but it's my process and I would like your guys feedback on how you like this story.
If you guys would like me to rewrite the previous chapters in first person, since now I'm going to be writing in first person, or if you guys are ok with leaving the chapters as it is. Please let me know in the comments and God bless you all and please, enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 6: This night.
I waited for my brother to come out of the school. Knowing Hiro, he'll make a dash for home in order to lock himself in that garage again. I can't allow that, so once my class was over, I dashed out to the entrance that faced the direction of our home.
Here, I've been loitering.
Yet, still no Hiro.
In the first hour, I felt smug as I watched students walk out the school, imagining my brother's surprise when he'll see me. I went over the plan in my mind as I reached into my pocket for the deactivator. I was going to use this device to shut him down temporarily so I can work out those glitches. As I stood, waiting, I imagined how better things will be between us. With the memories of the past becoming a faded nightmare, we could go back to being brothers.
So I hoped but Hiro never came out the institution.
The student body began to diminish, except for some staying overnight to work on their personal projects. Looking up at the sky, the stars were playing peek-a-boo in anticipation for night to settle. It was late now and I feared that maybe Hiro thought of my plan before I did. Needless to say: my patience with this boy snapped.
"He is SO grounded when this is all over." He may not remember why he'll be grounded but his butt is grounded, I thought stomping back to the school. Despite my blood pressure skyrocketing, I managed to paste on my usual smile when Honey Lemon bumped into me.
"Who's getting grounded?" Honey lemon was rolling another chemical ball - trying her best to perfect her invention. She was one of my best friends and an amazing scientist, but sometimes I wished the tall girl wasn't so concern for everybody. It wasn't a bad quality - in fact, it's something I like about her - but the thing about Honey that makes her dangerous to be around is that not only does she care too much, but she's also very observant.
Out of all our friends, she's the one that's been with me since high school. She knows me best, yet not completely and I plan to keep it that. Still, there were times where she's been close to figuring me out. Since Hiro started avoiding us, she's been worried about him too and had too many questions about my brother that I wanted to avoid her too. It'll never cease to amaze me how I manage to hide from her these past years.
"Hiro's getting grounded." Keeping it short, I added, "We've been having a little argument, Honey, and today, he's been running from me so excuse me."
Walking past her, I was confident that the conversation was over and that I avoided her nose once more. However, I paused, when my dear friend commented, "It's sweet Tadashi, seeing how good you are to Hiro. You're always looking out for him." With that, she continued rolling her giant black ball to the lab, leaving me flushed with emotions I didn't want to deal with.
Those words hit me like a soccer ball I never saw coming. 'I'm not a good brother', I believed because if I were a good brother, then Hiro wouldn't have gone through that accident. He wouldn't be in that hospital right now, laying on that bed, connected to so many machines like some experiment! If I were a good brother, even just a bit, then my little brother would know that I love him. It would have been the last thing he would have heard me say.
Honey Lemon didn't know that...she only sees what I try to be so what could I say besides – "Thanks, Honey."
I continued my search, opting to check Hiro's last class but it was empty. The lights were out but before I turned to leave, my brother's bag caught my eye. The bag laid neatly on the teacher's desk. Grabbing the thing, I opened it, making sure it was my brother's. With no one around, I dropped my smile at the contexts I found. "Hiro is being ridiculous." My blood boiled as I looked through the blueprints he made, especially the upgrades he wanted to give Baymax. "He's grounded for the rest of his life."
He wasn't in the bathroom, nor have anyone seen him or said he was apart of any group projects. My last hope was professor Callaghan since he taught Hiro's last class. I ran, praying that he was still in the school and that he knew something about my brother's whereabouts. Approaching said professor's office, I heard him working on something inside. The low sound of a drill greeted me as I stood in the halls, catching my breath.
It wasn't an unusual thing to come across the professor working on inventions in the privacy of his office. He's an inventor still, so it was normal to hear the sounds of drills or banging of a hammer. Whenever we students hear the sound of a tool in use, we knew immediately that the door would be locked.
"Professor." I yelled out, banging on the door.
The drill stopped and after some shuffling, professor Callaghan opened the door slightly. He didn't invite me inside, but I didn't mind that. He was a very private man and plus, there was no time to waste. "Hamada." He greeted in his usual kind way. "Are you burning the midnight oil today?"
Shaking my head, I held my brother's backpack up. "I'm looking for Hiro actually. He never came out of school."
"I see." He breathed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Nodding in agreement, I asked him if he knew where my brother was. "I can't find him anywhere. Did he leave the class after it ended?"
"No." He shook his head, explaining. "Truth be told, Hamada, your brother was acting off today...he looked terrified as well. He spent the period flinching at the slightest thing and looking everywhere but the lesson. It was unsettling but when I asked if he would like to talk about it with me, he declined. He only asked if he could stay in the class for a few more minutes, so I let him."
"This doesn't make sense." I breathed, feeling a knot forming in my stomach.
"I'm sorry." The professor started but I shook my head.
"It's not your fault, professor." Because, really, what could he do? "It's not like you could force him leave." That wasn't this school's policy. Students could stay until midnight, especially if they had projects to work on. Besides, Callaghan wasn't the type to force a student to do anything. The man was a saint in its finest. Hopelessly, I walked back. "Thanks professor, I'll try looking around again."
"I hope you find him, Hamada and please contact me if you need anything, ok?" I nodded, thanking my professor once again.
I checked the school one last time but still ended up with nothing. By the time I left, fear draped over me, and I found myself thinking the worse had happened. What if my brother's glitches got worse and he's walking around the city again? What if he decided to run away or maybe…taking out the blueprints, I gulped. The knot in my stomach tightened, making me want to throw up. "…Maybe Hiro wasn't hallucinating the man." What if he went looking for that man...or that man got to him.
All the lights in the sky of Sanfrantokyo couldn't ward of the darkness sinking in me.
My heart dropped.
I failed Hiro again and now he's missing.
He came to me for help but I didn't believe him.
I believed it was those darn glitches messing with his mind.
I basically told him he was crazy!
"If I had listen to him – maybe if I had helped him or just…" None of this would be happening if I had heard him out. Hiro and I would have never fought or drifted and everything could have…I sighed in frustration. "How am I going to fix this?" I let him down.
I banged my head with my hands, looking for a new angle – any angle really. Glancing once more at my brother's bag, my sunken heart leapt as my brother's idea whispered in my ear. "Catch the masked man."
"How are we to do that?" I asked with no reply. Shaking my head, I pulled out his blueprints again. As always, my brother's ideas were nothing short of genius. He was inventive…taking the problems my friends had with their inventions and finding the solutions seamlessly. That was something I always envied about him. Rereading the upgrades for Baymax, I found my anger shifting to thankfulness.
This was my answer.
I can use Baymax, and with an upgraded scanner – widening it to scan the city - I can track Hiro's brainwaves like that and pinpoint his location! "This can work!" Not wasting anymore time, I grabbed my moped, and sped home. Once there, I pulled a Hiro, and locked myself in the garage. Baymax sat in the corner, charging in his case. This morning, I placed him here because Hiro began locking himself in the garage at nights. I trusted my robot to keep an eye on the boy and to stop him if he sleptwalk again.
Also my backup plan for fixing Hiro was Baymax using his defibrillators to temporarily shock his system, which would have given me enough time to shut him down and fix him. Let's not talk about that plan...that's why it turned into a backup plan in the first place.
"Ouch." I said, activating him. We gone through the usual procedures before I logged into the computer we had, and I got to work on the plans Hiro drew. I felt a bit silly downloading a martial arts video to a disk but if it works, then I won't complain. "Baymax." I called him over as the upgrade finished loading.
"Your blood levels are slightly elevated." Baymax stated, watching me curiously. "My scans suggest you are more stressed than before."
"I'm fine, Baymax." This wasn't my first time telling my creation that. Since I got him to work, Baymax been telling me my stress levels were abnormal and they've been times were I had to stop my robot from dialing my friends about it. He thinks a 'group support' was the best treatment for me but it wasn't. My friends couldn't know about Hiro.
No one can.
Quickly I made some armor for my bot – it wasn't as high tech as I would like but it would protect Baymax from any serious damage.
As the armor was being made, I took out the finished disk from the computer. "What are you doing?" He asked as I opened up his memory case.
"I'm giving you an upgrade." As it opened, my medical disk sat proudly, and I debated with myself to remove it. Baymax was made to help people, not harm them - people needed Baymax. Billions of people get hurt in this world and the death count rises each year, which is why I built Baymax in the first place. I want to bring those numbers down and save as many families as possible but this was my brother on the line too. If I don't save him, he'll never wake up. If I don't get his body back, then that meant I would have to watch the doctors pull the plug. My brother would die...that body I made is the thing that's keeping him alive.
With that, I placed the new disk beside my medical one.
Just until I get Hiro back, I promised myself.
The moment my brother is back with me and this masked man is brought to justice, I'll reset Baymax. Upon placing the new upgrade, Baymax took mere seconds absorbing the information before questioning why I gave him fighting ability. "I was not designed to cause harm to others." He reminded me.
"I know, Baymax." I assured, tired. "But we're going to need it. Hiro's in trouble."
"Will the 'martial arts' help Hiro?"
I nodded. "Yes, it will and as far as I'm concerned, Baymax, your mission from now on is to protect Hiro." I stressed the last. "Hiro is your priority now, got it?" I need my brother to be ok. I need to fix what I broke.
"I understand." I sighed, relieved that I wouldn't have to fight more than one thing tonight.
I placed the armor on Baymax, then began adjusting his scans which took the longest. Eventually everything got done and now it was time for the biggest challenge: locating Hiro. "How will we do this?" I murmured, scratching my head. We can scan farther now but how are we going to get enough height for that? We can't walk around the city to scan various areas one by one, it'll take forever. My head felt light and the gloom in my heart became heavier with this snag in the road. "Maybe we can try scanning from the roof?" It was high enough - we can get a good range from there.
"My diagnosis states that you have 'emotional trauma'." Baymax startled me with a hug. "Research suggests a hug can help elevate your 'emotional turmoil' along with therapy and close friends." Oh no. "Contacting list of 'friends."
Not again. "Baymax – no!"
It was too late. "Message sent."
"Unbelievable." Who knew my robot would turn out so stubborn.
Immediately, my friends called – their faces popping up on Baymax's stomach. "What's wrong." Honey Lemon (of course) said first. "We got Baymax's message. He said you and Hiro were in trouble."
"Tadashi has 'emotional trauma.'" I cut him off.
"Things are fine." I covered up but it didn't deter my friends from demanding an answer. So I had to come clean about this situation – but I kept the rest of my secret just that: a secret. "Hiro's missing and I'm trying to find him."
"We'll be there shortly." They gave me no time to persuade them not to come when they hung up. I huffed, feeling more tired than before.
"Looks like this will be some night." I whispered, not looking forward to my friends arriving. "Come on buddy, let's start scanning the city." I pulled the now, poorly armored Baymax into the house, and lead him to the roof of the building. Aunt Cass was in the living room, watching some horror movie, unaware of what I gotten myself into. On the roof, Baymax scanned as much region as he could but we still weren't high enough to get the whole city. I made him try different directions, desperate for anything to pop up - I'll take straws at this point.
"Brainwave detected." My bot pointed, "There's an interference but my scans detect 'fear' and 'confusion' coming from that direction."
Following where he pointed at, I could barely make out the thin outline of the ocean. Despite the poor vision, I knew where Baymax was pointing - it was the Sanfrantokyo docks where the boats loaded and unloaded freight carts. At that moment, my phone went off.
"We're outside." It was Honey.
Not taking my eyes away from the direction of the docks, I nodded, not caring that my friend couldn't see me. "On my way down, I located Hiro." Hanging up, I took Baymax's arm, and pulled him downstairs with me. This was it...I'm going to fix this and this night will be like my past; a faded memory.