Hello again.
Back with another update, trying to move this story along.
God bless you all and please, enjoy.
Chapter 7: I'm not giving up on you.
Before getting in the car (or on top in Baymax's case) I ordered the bot to not mention anything about Hiro. His job was to lead us to the destination and get my brother back. Thankfully, that's what Baymax did, directing my friends to the place where Hiro's signal was last felt.
As we approached the towers of crates sitting around the docks, I had wasabi turn off his headlights. Having my friends here in the first place was risky enough. "Stay here," I whispered, motioning for Baymax to follow.
"What's going on." Honey pleaded on behalf of everyone. They knew me as the type to explain everything but that's just the mask I kept on. I couldn't let them get involved anymore than this and I hope they would understand that.
"You guys better go." I ignored them after that as I ran into the maze of freights, keeping my eyes peeled for anything suspicious. Baymax stayed close behind but didn't know how to keep his voice down much. "I'm going to need to adjust that after this is all over." I whispered to myself.
So much for stealth mode.
The place was dead. No workers were here and neither were there any security guards. It's like this region was blocked off and everyone on this part of town got that memo. A part of me kept picturing the movie 'Left Behind' as I made my way through, looking for my brother. As I was close to giving up on this place, thinking that maybe I messed up on Baymax's scanner, when I saw movement in the distance.
The city's fog hovered over the ocean, keeping the boats from being scene. Inside the murky clouds, however, I saw a figure gliding through it with ease. The figure was being carried by my brother's micro-bots and along with him, they carried a giant piece of technology. The man had no clue I was there, watching him. Maybe I should have been afraid, but once I saw the man did exist and he stole Hiro's work, I was the opposite of afraid. For the first time since I was eight, I felt true rage rise in the canal of my chest and it spread to my veins.
This is the man that stole my brother. He took Hiro's microbots and I bet, he's also the one that burned down the auditorium as well. Another thing dawned on me. Somehow, in some way, this man is also the one behind my brother's glitches. Which meant...he met my brother at chance...and somehow saw through the work I went through to make him as realistic as possible. If that theory is correct...that means all this is planned. He planned taking my brother.
This man is going to pay.
I promise him that.
"Ready, Baymax?" We were ready to pounce on this sicko and I couldn't wait to use the element of surprise to bash him from his blind spot. What I didn't count on was how stubborn my friends could get. Like my robot, my friends didn't listen to a word I said. They followed me into the maze, searching for me, while I kept my eyes on the man.
"Tadashi!" Lights flashed my way, putting me in plain view. My heart nearly exploded in fear as my friends got out the car and stomped their way to me. I tried my best to get them to leave but it was futile.
"I know you're upset about Hiro." Wasabi began.
"But let us help you." Honey finished.
I wanted to facepalm. Feverishly, I shook my head, hoping and praying they'll get it through their skulls that I didn't want their help. "You all need to leave, right now." It was a whisper/scream but it was too late.
My hope of having the element of surprise slipped and before I knew it, Fred screamed, pointing behind me. Spinning around, we saw another figure. It stood on a cart by us. The figure was skinnier and smaller than the masked man – and he was covered from head to toe in midnight black armor. Unlike the man though, this figure wore a helmet over his head with tinted glass to conceal his identity.
Our eyes bulged as the figure lifted a whole freight over his head and threw it at us. Wasabi scream pierced the night. "Oh my god!" I thought we were done for, but Baymax caught the giant metal of death, giving us time to get back in the car and drive off.
I wanted to stay but my friends pulled me and stuffed in the car with them. "Let me out!" I demanded. "Baymax had them!" But that wasn't reassuring when the younger figure kicked Baymax into the roof of the car. Looking up, we saw billions of microbots grouping together with the masked man at the center. He used the bots to lift his accomplice as well, throwing them at us.
"Drive, drive, drive!" Which wasabi did, getting us out of being pummeled in time. I looked through the side mirror. The accomplice got up from the ground but he didn't pursue us. Instead, the masked man lifted him with the bots again, this time carrying him as he chased us.
"Who was that?!" Honey lemon yelped. "Did you see that kid?!"
"That was no kid!" Wasabi screeched, paranoid, yet obeying the laws of the road still – to gogo's dismay. "Nobody could lift that giant freight like that! He just threw it as if it was a toy! Like a lego or something!"
Although I couldn't see the face under that helmet, I knew who it was. It didn't take much for me to figure it out. Like Wasabi stated: a kid couldn't lift heavy metal like it was nothing. A kid couldn't kick a robot like Baymax, whose ectoskeleton is titanium, into a car and dent it.
What did that man do to you, Hiro?
"Did you just signal your turn?!" Gogo's scream brought me back to the situation at hand. We were still being chased by the 'super villain' as Fred called him. He's too happy for a situation like this, rambling on about how 'cool' it is being chased by some psycho with a mask.
"It's the law!" That was the last straw for Gogo. She had it with Wasabi's 'ocd'.
"That's it." Being a speed junkie, Gogo knew how to race, drift, and basically maneuver the car in ways we only see in theaters. Pushing Wasabi back, she got on his lap and took control of the vehicle. All of us got pushed back from the speed she decided to go. It was scarier than the masked man and that is no joke.
The man blocked us but Gogo did a sharp turn, drifting over the bots and onto a street on the bridge. "Let Baymax fight!" I urged, searching for any opportunity to get my brother back. What we didn't know was that as Gogo dodged the man again, this time drifting over some train tracks – Hiro managed to attach himself under the car. Slowly he climbed until he was under me, then like a wrapper, he broke my door off, and yanked me down.
My face would have contacted the cement if Baymax had not grabbed my mind-controlled brother. While keeping a hold on Hiro, Baymax pulled me up and sat me back in the moving car. "Seatbelt saves lives. Be sure to buckle up." He stated, buckling me up and patting my head. I would have cheered for joy over the fact that my bot got Hiro back but 1) I was shaken by the near death and 2) said brother kicked Baymax in his face.
The impact forced my robot to release him, thus losing any chance of retrieving him and turning him to normal. The seatbelt held me back from jumping after Hiro as he fell into a moving train and out the other side. I feared he was done for but the masked man caught him before he hit the main road. At that moment, we made eye contact. Even though the train prevented the man from chasing us again – it didn't stop the microbots from gathering under us and lifting us up from the ground.
Gogo continued speeding, doing her best to beat the bots from closing in on us. "We're going to make it!" Honey chanted.
"We're not gonna make it!" Wasabi feared.
The smaller the opening became, the louder Honey and Wasabi fought over if we'll live or die. Luckily, Honey was right. We did make it out of the tunnel of doom and into the ocean. As we sank to the watery floor, I realized too late that my seatbelt was faulty. It was jammed and refused to let me go.
Luckily for me, Baymax was clever. He took off the armor that weighed him down and managed to break the seatbelt. Grabbing us in his squishy arms, he did what he was designed to do: his marshmallow features lifted us up and out of a watery grave.
"I told you we'll make it!" cheered Honey and for the first time in my life – I wished she wasn't so cheery.
"Where do we go now?" Wasabi asked. He was the one most shaken by this night…at least he looked like the one most shaken. I stopped listening though as my eyes flew back to the boardwalk.
The masked man stood there watching us along with my brother that he stole. It occurred to me as I watch the unknown man pat my brother's head that if he really wanted it, he could have killed us. The man had billions of bots under his control. He could command them however he wanted and at the same time. We should be dead but we're not. We made it...shaken up but alive and unscratched.
He could have easily killed us tonight. Even right now, it'll be easy to just finish us - to drown us.
Yet he's watching us.
It wasn't his intention to spill blood.
This was a warning: back off or next time we won't be so lucky. He'll kill us next time and he will use my brother to do it.
Shifting my gaze to the boy I once knew, part of me wondered how much of Hiro was still there. Did the man change everything? Is Hiro still there subconsciously, fighting to come back? Does he know what the man is using him for? That he's not in control anymore? Is my brother suffering or scared? Does he blame me for this like he would for the accident?
I'll make this right. Glaring at the man, I promised myself that I'll get my brother back. I'll stop the masked man and save my brother. Promise. "I'm not giving up on you."
For a moment I thought that perhaps my whisper floated across the water and reached my brother. His covered head twitched as those veiled eyes met mine. I felt my body be pulled out the ocean but even then I didn't break contact. I needed Hiro to know that I didn't mean for this to happen to him. That I'm sorry I didn't believe him...that I won't stop until he's back home, safe. I'll make this nightmare go away and Hiro's world will be as good as new. He was the one to look away first. The man picked them up and together, they disappeared in the thickening fog.
"Dashi?" Honey touched my cheek. Coming back to my surroundings, Honey helped me up, concern laced her voice. "Fred's taking us to a place we can dry off. Come on," I was thankful she didn't ask me what was wrong. Then again, how can anything be right with the night we had? I allowed her to take my hand and lead me towards the others – each of them trying to make sense of what they were dragged into.