Chapter 8
After stepping out of the small elevator into a dark passageway, a secret passage cleverly hidden in the most inconceivable place (through a sliding door in the large marble shower stall of one of the guest master baths), they approached a heavy door that was dimly lit from the glow of a rectangular box on the wall next to it.
"At least it wasn't the toilet closet," GoGo remarked to Wasabi, who was still shocked by the location of the secret entrance. Fred showed them by turning the hot and cold water handles at the same time, but in the opposite direction from normal use, to make the shower wall slide away.
"Ooh, now being flushed down a chute would be totally radical. No one would ever guess that!" Fred laughed at that notion, flashing his cell phone's torch light around at them before redirecting it back to the hallway.
"But knowing you, Freddie... they probably would." GoGo sighed, shifting the weight of the box she was carrying in her arms.
"Hopefully the need for the use of this bunker would not be when someone was taking a shower," Wasabi shook his head.
Hiro laughed lightly at that mention, the more he thought about Wasabi's point. "Yes. Yes, that... would be awkward."
Ahead of them was a faint glow coming from a small box next to a larger frame. Fred shined his light on it to see where to swipe his security pass. It had unlocked, to reveal something that looked like a view finder. It was actually for the retinal scan. His dad went ahead and set him up to have clearance if and when the need arose.
"Just like that," Fred gestured as the door slid open. "Wa-la!"
"Looks solid... Was it originally a fall-out shelter from the 1950's?" Hiro wondered. He pushed the cart full of Baymax to one side, inside the compound.
"Probably," Fred shone his light around inside, trying to remember where everything was again. "Totally quake proof too."
"If you had LEDs lighting up the scanner by the entry, it has to have something powering this too. Like if you got solar or turbine fueled generators feeding into this." Hiro thought out loud as he ventured along the dark walls of the compound to look for a switch panel or closet panel.
"Found it!" Fred announced, opening the panel at the other side to access the switches.
The fluorescent lights flickered on overhead and slowly grew brighter to illuminate a large room divided into a few different areas. There was a lounge area, then a conference table, both looking rather dated. A full color panel of the world hung on one wall. But the other side of the compound was more high tech in design. There were also various types of computer machinery and monitors lining one wall. The others put down their boxes and equipment to also look around the area.
Like a moth to a flame, Hiro was first to approach the console area with monitors to figure out their purpose. "So the SHIELD organization is basically secret agents for super heroes and villains, right?" He asked no one in particular.
"Yup," Fred nodded, walking over to look at one of the locker compartments by the lounge area. "I wonder if any spy stuff is still here."
It didn't take long for Hiro, with the help of GoGo and Wasabi, to find the way to turn on the computers. The monitors flickered to life, displaying log-in screens.
"Did you get the pass-codes to this too?" GoGo thumbed back at it while looking at Fred.
"Yeah, gimme a minute," he trotted over to where they were. The fanboy accessed the main panel and typed in a series of letters and numbers. "What's awesome about this is that there's access to surveillance cameras around the city. We have a couple personal satellites too that are still active."
"Really?" Hiro stared at the monitors, as the systems loaded, then at Fred for another second, then back at the monitors again.
Fred grinned, just imagining what was formulating in his young friend's head now. He knew this place would become a goldmine of usefulness for them, not just a place of refuge.
"And SHIELD really is okay with this? Everything is still here, so you think if they were totally pulled out, they would have taken their tech with them." Wasabi asked again. He knew how Fred tended to operate, so there was always that moment of disbelief from the team when he presented new opportunities like this.
"They left it here as a 'just in case', a fall back, if something happened to an active base," Fred said, flopping into a padded leather chair.
"So there is still that possibility they may want it back," GoGo looked at him with a sideways glance.
"Yes... they might." Fred pursed his lips, raising a finger to rest on his chin in thought. "But I'm sure my Dad'll take care of it if that ever happens."
GoGo popped her gum, then shook her head.
"But... we can totally use this stuff, especially to check on how hard hit different parts of the city is…" Hiro found the applications and looked over the different icons and lists of the areas that he could access. "Of course, provided that the cameras are still active and not damaged from the earthquake."
"Well, somewhere, there's a television hook up to monitor news reports. And yeah, a feed into the police radio for any hot fresh news!" He stood up to step over the monitors again, since they were asking so many questions.
"I think this is it," Wasabi was looking at another monitor that had a series of icons for each of the television stations in San Fransokyo. He clicked on one, which started a video player with streaming feed of the news coming through about the earthquake. Then they brought up a couple more stations to see if they are covering different stations.
"Oh, and this," Fred leaned over to tap numbers on the video windows. Two of the videos switched to play in different monitor screens apart from each other.
"Awesome, man... now that's better," Wasabi nodded. Now it was easier to watch without the audio having to compete with each other. He was never a fan of having more than two things going on at once, but this was a necessity.
"Hey, does this have access to the cameras on Akuma Island?" Hiro asked, his eyes still focused intently on the screens.
"If you can find them, then yes. Yes, it does." Fred stood back. He looked over his shoulder when Heathcliff walked in with a banquet cart. "Ooh, refreshments!"
There was a platter heaping with submarine sandwiches of various types, individual serving size bags of chips, and below, cans of pop, and a bowl of apples and oranges. Fred scooped up one of the sandwiches, pointing to it. "You gotta try this one. It's got the filling like a California Roll - crabmeat, cukes, and avocado. Delish!"
"Thank you, Heathcliff," Wasabi nodded to the never-tiring butler, before picking up on of the sandwiches. GoGo followed suit, also thanking Heathcliff.
Hiro had shifted his focus from the surveillance cameras to the monitors with the news reels. News channels were catching the roving reporters, of these involved some of the gangs and other people attempting to loot grocery and department stores now to get more food and supplies.
"They have got to be kidding me!" GoGo also noticed, when Hiro turned up the volume. "As if the emergency responders aren't having a hard enough time already... now they gotta do that!"
"It's the primal instinct of mobs, just like in those survival video games. As soon as the sun sets and if you don't have your house secured, they'll move in and grief your place." Fred shook his finger at the screen while watching.
Wasabi just looked at him, a little confused to how that related to the news at hand.
"Minecraft mobs," Hiro briefly stated. "With no power or no order... it becomes survival of the fittest." Of course, the boy genius would know what he was talking about, since he was also a gamer. He didn't have any more to add though, as he was further distracted by other responsibilities again. The younger Hamada grabbed a sandwich before going over to the cart with Baymax.
"So, that's our first location to address," GoGo crossed her arms as she watched the screens. "Anything else?"
"More collapsed buildings on the south side," Wasabi pointed to another screen.
"Yeah," she nodded, but was distracted by her phone chiming. All of their phones had.
"It's Honey," Fred was looking at his phone, to read the messages. She had them all included in a group chat. "She's finally out of the hospital. Knee's sprained, no breaks, but her ankle was broken."
"I'm telling her to stay home with her family," GoGo was texting back on her phone.
"Too bad," Fred sighed, texting his well wishes also.
[HLemon] You guys are so sweet! :D
[Kaiju] We will do our best to sling ur balls!
[Kaiju] Wait... that didn't sound right
[HLemon] lol
[HLemon] Is everyone else okay? Where are you now?
[Kaiju] we're good. everyone is at my place. I have power. Especially since they kicked us out of the labs at SFIT
[HLemon] wow.. whatever, works... right?
[HLemon] Hiro okay? He was getting edgy again earlier - I saw him take down a 6 foot guy like it was nothing!
[Kaiju] yeah, he was not himself after the lucky cat got shaken up really bad
[HLemon] Oh no! Is Aunt Cass okay?
[Kaiju] yeah, I stayed with her. We helped take care of every1 inside until the fireppl came. The house has a lot of damage thou.
[Kaiju] Havent told him that there's a wall missing on his side of his room yet
[HLemon] oh wow, No! That is not good! Aunt Cass is going to be out of business for awhile
[HLemon] Does she have a place to stay?
[Kaiju] she's welcome to stay here :D
[GoGoTomago] Or not. Wasabi also added his place is close to the lucky cat.
[HLemon] I gotta make sure to tell Hiro how much I appreciate him coming to help the next time I see him.
[GoGoTomago] Hiro started zoning out during the rescue too. Not as bad as the orphanage fire, but he was getting a LOT more temperamental this time.
[Kaiju] that explains... that
[GoGoTomago] shut up Fred
[GoGoTomago] He's more calm now - wasn't happy with the hospital at all
[Kaiju] PTSD again?
[GoGoTomago] Maybe
[HLemon] Is Baymax also going to be okay?
[GoGoTomago] Hiro seems to think so
[Kaiju] Currently doing open heart surgery, then the big guy will be back in the game
[GoGoTomago] Heading back out again soon
[HLemon] You guys can do this. I have faith in you!
[Kaiju] we'll miss you!
Wasabi sighed, looking away from the monitor screens and otherwise getting annoyed of the buzzing of his phone from their texts. "Okay guys, how are we going to approach this? If we are splitting up, we definitely need a plan!"
"I think that greatly depends on whether Hiro can get Baymax operational." GoGo looked over to him. "How's it look?"
The robotics engineer had already split open Baymax's vinyl covering to expose a block of metallic bars and hydraulics. There were dark scorch marks on a couple places too.
"Going to swap out the battery... once I get to it," Hiro stood up to grab a couple more tools and his tablet laptop from one of the boxes.
"Need any help?" Fred asked his friend, squatting down on the floor to look at the naked, block shaped robot. He couldn't help but wonder if Baymax would find this embarrassing with everyone looking at him this way.
It was then he noticed how GoGo gave him that Look, like he said or did something he should not have again, which caused him to furrow his brow wondering just what. Asking about help? She surely could not have read his mind about a naked Baymax. He decided to ignore her that time since Hiro did not look bothered.
"Um, yeah. I need to run some diagnostics. Can you watch it?" Hiro gave Fred his laptop to hold, before turning back to lift the other battery from the cardboard box. Fred nodded, rocking back to sit cross-legged, even though he wasn't entirely sure what he should look for.
At that point though, Hiro straightened up to explain to the others what his plan of attack was. "What I'm thinking is for Fred and I to go with Baymax to get the looting under control, and then GoGo and Wasabi can go to the places hardest hit by the earth quakes." He looked to GoGo briefly, "And you can take Honey Lemon's chem-ball purse, the both of you using the helicopter to get in and out."
Wasabi liked this idea for unspoken reasons, nodding in agreement. GoGo, for some reason, did not.
"Shouldn't Baymax be with us, since we need him to find and take care of the injured?" GoGo asked the boy wonder.
"Baymax would be better at getting the crowds under control. Just his presence can be enough." Hiro simply told her. Aside from the fact he just preferred being with the robot.
"Wasabi is just as capable at doing that," GoGo reasoned, stepping closer to Hiro and Fred. Wasabi looked back over to them at the mention of his name.
"Well, he's also more comfortable flying in the helicopter than on Baymax," Hiro lowered his voice while stressing that point. His last statement was barely audible, "And maybe, I shouldn't be with you.. this time."
She was silent for a beat before answering. "Fine," the Korean clicked her tongue and stepped back from him.
Fred pretended he didn't hear that, resisting the urge to look to see how much the teen's statement bothered her. Those two had been stepping on each other's toes a lot more lately. He sighed, glancing at the strings of code stream by on the laptop screen. Hiro never wanted to talk about it, so the mascot could only assume that maybe their feelings for each other are starting to conflict with their roles for the team.
Then Hiro paused, looking at the other upgraded case for Baymax that they brought. "Wait... I have both of Baymax's visors here! I can use his old visor to retro fit one for you, Wasabi."
"You can do that?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I'll try, where's your shades?" Hiro looked to Wasabi, then briefly at the 3D printer. "I can make a helmet for you to put the tech in, like the nuerotransmitter, then I'll wire the output to display on your specs."
"Hah, sounds like a plan." Wasabi handed his green safety glasses to him. "It's not going to be hard for me to figure out, is it?"
"It shouldn't be." Hiro took them, walking over to Fred where his tools were. "Yeah, and Fred... I can rig your suit to spit the chem-balls instead."
Fred was still holding the laptop Hiro gave him from earlier. "Hey, sounds cool… event though actually spitting pink foam might be crazier."
"Right…."
"And um, your disks, GoGo... I had an idea to make them like a shield - Like Captain America's. If we can find a lighter, stronger metal later, I can magnetize the four disks to also make one shield to wear on your back, whenever you don't need the disks."
Naturally, Fred found this subliminal comparison of GoGo to Captain America to be amusing. She did throw her disks in the same manner too.
"I can work on getting the disks to combine with what we have, Hiro," GoGo insisted. "You still have Baymax to fix first."
"Absolutely," Hiro turned around to face his work area, where Fred sat. "Just wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing first."
"Oh, Heathcliff?" Fred called to his butler, suddenly remembering something. "Can you bring down my superhero Kaiju suit, for Hiro here?"
"Yes sir," the butler nodded before turning to go upstairs.
"Is it still running?" the younger Hamada asked the bored red-head.
"I think," Fred straightened up from his slouch. "There's a percentage on top here that says 87%."
Hiro nodded, popping out some of the metallic rods to access the core CPU that contained the battery, processors, and access port. He used a screw driver to carefully pry the cover off to get inside.
"That part look okay?" Fred leaned over to get a better look.
"Yeah."
Fred's phone started ringing, playing the chorus line from an old Katy Perry song.
"...dancing through the fire. Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me ROAR!Louder, louder than a lion, cause I am—"
Hiro looked over to Fred, almost glaring at him, for having such a tacky selection of music for his ringtone now.
"Yeah, Hiro's here. We're fine Aunt Cass. Well, except for Honey Lemon - her ankle is broken..."
"Oh my, that's not good news. I hope she is somewhere safe with her family now."
"Yeah. Yeah, she's okay now, staying with her family."
"Where are you now? Did everyone get something to eat too?"
"Yep. We're at my house, making repairs and upgrades. Going to head back out afterwards."
"Okay, I see. Can I talk to Hiro?"
"Sure." Fred held his phone out to Hiro. "It's Aunt Cass."
"Katy Perry... Really?" The younger Hamada whispered as he took the phone.
"You gotcha!" Fred pointed both of his fingers at Hiro with a wink and a smile.
"Hey Aunt Cass," he greeted, only to fall silent as she spoke for some time.
"Yeah, uhm... I should be okay staying at Fred's, if you are okay with it. So you're going to your friend's house instead? ... Okay, I'll let them know you got a place to go."
Fred watched Hiro's face grew solemn, listening to her. It probably was another small lecture on how much she worried about him and wished for him to be safe. It was times like this he wished they hadn't told her about their superheroing endeavors now. But what could they do? The police had this unexpected intention to take him to the station, after Hiro had made the bold decision to stay with Abigail until the paramedics arrived.
"Yes, yes I will, Aunt Cass. We'll be careful. …. Don't worry. I'll call when we get back, okay? ... Yeah, okay. I love you.. always ... Bye."
At that, Fred decided the mood needed to be changed again. And, because that song was stuck in his head now.
"Floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee, I earned my stripes—"
"No…"
"So I went from zero, to my own hero.. and you're gonna-" Fred dodged a screwdriver hurled at him, but did not stop. "Hear me ROAR! Oh, oh, oh, oooh, ooh! You're gonna hear me roar!"
"For the love of…" Hiro continued grumbling.
"Fredrick Lee… seriously," Wasabi also added his sentiments, before GoGo physically made him shut up.
"Hah! No." Fred sassed back. "It's totally our theme song!"
"Is not! I said the 'Eye of the Tiger', by Survivor," Hiro countered. "Big difference!"
"But that's like my Dad's music," Fred furrowed his brow.
"Aunt Cass's music is better?" Hiro grimaced, showing his gap tooth frown in disapproval.
Fred pouted to tease him.
"You sure this is going to work?" The stout man in a khaki jumpsuit said to his comrade as they walked.
"If the boss believes it would, it's what we do."
"I could think of better ways to get the attention he wants, though." The taller Japanese woman following them complained in suit.
AN part 2:
I also will confess, my kids have been into non-stop Phineas and Ferb on Netflix lately. It was all I could do to not turn SHIELD into a silly reincarnation of the spy agency in that cartoon. There are some references in here, yes. :p
I also finally accepted the fact that there is a Big Hero 7 movie with Tadashi slated to come back as some evil villain persona. Which, to be honest, makes me wonder how (because I am of those who accepted the fact that he was dead). But with that being said, I have tweaked a few things in my outline, from what I originally had planned. Just subtle hints, nothing more. (This also must be me too... cause I often think Tadashi is like the Man in the Yellow Hat, from Curious George. I kid you not. That is prolly why I am not like madly crushing on him like the rest of the BH6 community is. Nyar. ;p )
Now… to actually get the rest of my house chores done. I admit to postponing that stuff in my effort to get this posted!
