hey! here's part four, there will be one or two more parts, I'll let y'all know when this story will be done.
everyone PLEASE read and review...i would love to hear your feedback!
thanks, everyone!
It's one in the morning when I squeeze through the bars of my cell—my tighter hip brace makes it possible for me to do so without taking it off. I drop painfully to the floor, then get up and limp away from the doors, searching for another exit down the hall.
Eventually, I come to a heating duct. I'm gonna have to be really quiet, but I'm pretty sure this will work. Of course, ducts get narrower the further away they get from the air source—hopefully this one's not too tight.
I unscrew the grate (I always have a screwdriver with me, because who wouldn't) and slide inside it. It is a little tight—I hope my brace doesn't get stuck.
Squirming down the narrow tunnel, I try to keep my brace from hitting the sides of the vent. It's kind of loud. Finally, I can see a faint light up ahead—an exit, hopefully to outside. I take a deep breath and slam my shoulder into the grate cover until it falls off.
Immediately, sirens start blaring. I should have guessed there would be an alarm system. I squeeze forward, but just as my head and shoulders hit the open air, my brace gets stuck. I squirm furiously, trying to free myself. I can't get stuck now, not when I'm this close. But my brace is firmly wedged in the duct and I can't move.
I fall limp, almost giving up. But then I wonder if twisting my body around would work, and as soon as I do it, my brace comes free and I fall several feet to the grass. I land on my uninjured side, which is good, but now I have bruising all down both sides instead of just one.
Ignoring the pain, I get up and start to limp away from the building. I think I was inside an old warehouse or something. I'm still on the mainland of San Fransokyo, too, which is good. At least I won't have to swim back.
I limp through the streets back to the café, noticing that someone has tacked up missing posters with my picture on them. I was literally only gone for a day and they've put up missing posters. Awesome.
The café is dark and silent, and I open the door quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up. When I walk up the stairs, though, I see Megan and Aunt Cass sitting at the table, staring at untouched mugs of hot chocolate.
"Hey," I whisper hoarsely.
Both women's heads snap up and turn in my direction. They both seem to be trying not to scream.
"Hiro?" Aunt Cass says, her voice trembling. "Where have you been?"
Without waiting for an answer, she pulls me into a hug, squeezing so tightly I can barely breathe. But I hug her back anyway.
Megan approaches after I pull out of the hug and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "Where on earth, Hiro—"
"I was kidnapped," I say, cutting her off. "But don't worry I totally just escaped except my kidnapper doesn't know I'm gone so I guess he might come here so we might wanna be careful cause I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to kill us all and he wants the rest of Big Hero 6 and probably you guys too so yeah."
Both women stare at me, jaws dropped.
"Alright," Aunt Cass says eventually. "We'll be careful. Who kidnapped you, Hiro? What happened? Are you hurt?"
I finger my brace, suddenly remembering the pain in my hip. "I…I think my hip's broken again. But there's nothing the doctors can do about it, so don't worry." I don't mention the bruising all down my right side. My hip is the worst of it, anyway.
Aunt Cass sighs. "You know I can't not worry about you, baby."
I give her a half-smile. "I know. But I'm okay. Is it okay if I go to bed? I'm really tired."
Aunt Cass nods. "Sure, baby. I'm sure you're exhausted." She gives me a kiss on the forehead, and Megan helps me upstairs. I head into the bathroom to change into my pajamas, and I wince when I pull up my shirt.
My hip is bruised and swollen, and the dark purple-blue extends over my stomach and ribs. When I change my pants, I can see it on my thigh too. It doesn't look good. Neither does my face—my jaw is a dark shade of purple and my eye socket is bruised where Callaghan punched me. I don't have a black eye or a broken jaw, but they both hurt.
I go back into my bedroom, trying not to limp. My hip really hurts, but I can't sleep with the brace.
Climbing into bed, I curl into the fetal position and immediately fall asleep.
The next day, we go to the hospital to visit Honey—and Tadashi. He's been by his wife's bed for like three days straight.
When we get inside, Tadashi screams, "HIRO!" and flings his arms around me. I hug him back, realizing how terrible he looks. Dashi hasn't shaved for a few days, and there's stubble on his jaw. There are dark circles under his eyes, and his abdomen looks a little distended. I bet he's been stress eating—Tadashi does that when bad things are happening. It's probably healthier than my habit—I don't eat anything when bad things happen. So Dashi will put on weight while I lose it. That's really not good for either of us.
"Hiro, where have you been?" Dashi exclaims, worried.
"I was kidnapped," I mumble, staring at the ground. "By Professor Callaghan."
"But he's in prison!"
"People can break out of prison," I say. "But how are you? How's Honey?"
"I'm fine," Tadashi sighs, rubbing his neck. "But the doctors aren't sure when Honey will wake up. The helicopter crash didn't help her head injury and it was already pretty bad. Speaking of which, guess what?"
"What?"
"The doctors found out that the guy who was flying our helicopter was tranquilized. They analyzed him or something. But they're not sure what happened, because there was no one else in the plane. So anyway, I think we might wanna look into it."
"For sure," I breathe. "I wonder if Professor Callaghan had anything to do with it. Actually, he probably had everything to do with it. Maybe he was trying to get revenge."
Dashi looks confused. "Revenge for what?"
I hurriedly explain the story Callaghan told me, about Abigail being murdered and about us being responsible because we weren't there.
"That doesn't line up," Tadashi mutters. "There would have been something to let us know—some announcement or news story. Especially if it was a murder, not just a death. And Callaghan just up and told you she was dead and it was your fault?"
"Yeah. And he beat me up when I wouldn't tell him where the rest of the team was." I don't tell him that Callaghan broke my hip.
"Did he? How bad did he hurt you? You're limping, Hiro—you know that, right?"
"Yeah. It's okay. It's not too bad."
Tadashi doesn't let it slide, though. "Hiro, did he break your hip again?"
I nod sheepishly, staring at the ground. Seconds later, I feel Dashi's arms around me, pulling me into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Hiro. I can't believe he would torture you—he's not a good guy, but I didn't think he would sink that low. And—I get it if you'd prefer not to—"
I anticipate what he's going to say next. "I didn't tell him anything, Tadashi. Nothing. He was going to keep going this morning. Of course, I'm not there, so that didn't work out."
Dashi sighs. "That's good. But I wouldn't be angry even if you told him everything."
"Thanks," I mumble, deciding to change the subject. "How's…how's Honey? And how're you?"
Tadashi tears a hand through his already messy hair. "Not good. The doctors aren't sure when she'll wake up—she's got some brain damage, and it might be a while. Or…or it might be never."
He seems to push the thought away. "Me? I've been stressed. Really stressed. I haven't left this chair except to go to the bathroom. And Aunt Cass keeps bringing me pizza and donuts, which is nice, but it's not good for my physique." Dashi looks down uncomfortably at his stomach.
"You and your physique," I laugh, then wince as the bruising on my stomach protests. My hand flies to the injured skin, and Tadashi notices. "Are you okay, Hiro?"
"Just a little bruised," I manage. "I got kicked in the gut. It's okay."
Dashi steps forward and pulls up my shirt, examining the huge bruise on the soft skin of my stomach. "Does it hurt when I touch it?" He gently touches his fingers to the injury.
It does hurt a little, but I tell him no. There's no reason to worry him any more than he already is.
"You should come back to the café," I say, changing the subject again. "I've been bored without you. I mean, you do live in your own house now, but you should come for dinner sometime. We can have hot wings if you want."
The way Tadashi's eyes widen in anticipation is hilarious. "Really? Could I bring the kids?"
"Well, duh! Where else are they going to go?"
He grins and rubs the back of his neck. "Can we come…actually, I don't know when. It might be a while."
The next week, Tadashi brings his kids over for dinner. Teddy doesn't like the hot wings, so Aunt Cass makes him chicken nuggets. It's not a surprise, because Teddy never likes anything we make. He's such a picky eater. I was a really picky toddler too, though, so I can't really blame my nephew.
After dinner, Tadashi bounces Trev up and down, trying to calm him. Trev is wailing incessantly—poor little guy. He's really sad about his mom not being able to feed him and having to use a bottle.
Finally, Trev falls asleep and Dashi puts him in the baby bassinet. The kids curl up in Tadashi's old bed, and he climbs into mine with me. I promise we're not doing anything—we always used to sleep in the same bed as kids, especially when it was cold. I was always a really skinny kid, and Dashi was bigger and stronger. So he'd always sleep in my bed so I could stay warm. Besides, it's not like there's anywhere else for him to sleep.
I've drifted into sleep by ten, proof of how exhausted I am. But I've only slept for a few hours when I'm woken up by a loud boom.
I bolt upright in bed, shaking my hair out of my eyes. My phone reads four am. I drag myself out of bed and stumble over to the window, pulling the blinds up so I can see.
My eyes widen. I'm suddenly fully awake.
Fire burns in the street, and I keep hearing earsplitting booms and crashes. More fire explodes in the streets of the city, and smoke is filling the sky.
Oh my gosh.
San Fransokyo is being bombed.
No. No. The hurricane was only four years ago—it completely destroyed our city. Bombs will for sure do the same thing. Who's bombing us? What's going on?
Whatever it is, I need to wake everyone else up. I race back to my bed and shake Tadashi's shoulder furiously. "Wake up, Tadashi! Seriously, you gotta wake up!"
Dashi groans and rolls over. He's a really deep sleeper, so it's always hard to wake him up. I slap him gently across the face, and his eyes open.
"Hiro? Wuzzgoinon?" Tadashi says sleepily.
"Bombs," I say, and his eyes widen.
"Seriously?" Dashi asks, sitting up. "Like, right now? Our city is being bombed?"
"Yeah, right now! Get up, get dressed, get the kids outta here! I'll get Megan and Aunt Cass—just hurry!"
After that, Tadashi springs into action. He hurriedly wakes up the kids, and I throw on a t-shirt and cargo pants, then buckle my hip brace on. I limp downstairs and wake up Megan and Aunt Cass, then activate Baymax and get his armor on. I'm lucky I'm such a light sleeper, or I would have no idea what was going on.
As soon as everyone is dressed and has grabbed everything we might need, we realize that we're gonna need to get Honey from the hospital. But we can't take her off life support—she'll die.
"We need to move the life support somehow!" Dashi says, rushing us all to the car. "We have to get Honey out of there, if they bomb the hospital—"
"There's no way to move it!" I gasp as I buckle my seat belt and we speed off. Teddy is in my lap, still half-asleep. We don't have enough seats for everyone.
"If there is, we've got to do it," Tadashi says determinedly. "We're not leaving without her. And if we can get other patients, too, that'd be good. We have to get everyone out that we can."
Man, my brother is perfect.
Suddenly, as we drive down Main Street to the hospital, a bright light shines down on the car and a magnified voice booms, "I know you're in there, Hiro. Stop the car."
"I advise that we stop the car," Baymax says. "Professor Callaghan would like to speak to us."
I signal to Dashi to stop. He does, and we all step out of the car.
Professor Callaghan is leaning out of a helicopter, using a megaphone to magnify his voice.
"Surrender your team now, Hiro," he calls. "Or the city will be destroyed so completely that you won't be able to recognize it. I've already blown the bridge. No one can get out. If you don't surrender, everyone in this city will die, including you. Hiro, this is the difference between thousands of lives and six. What will you choose? I don't have all day, so I advise that you make your choice soon."
"I can't—Callaghan, what did I ever do to you?"
"You weren't there!" he roars. "You should have been there, and you weren't! I don't care where you were, what you intended to do! You could have saved her, and you didn't!"
"I'm sorry about your daughter. I regret that I wasn't there to save her life. And I'm sorry—I can't give anyone up."
I take a deep breath. "But I can try to stop you."
