Chapter 7
Big Heroes, Big Mouths, Big Trouble
"IT'S THE BIG HERO 6!" the red rat squealed, nearly dislocating Remy's forelimbs as she shook him in wild excitement. "SOMEBODY PINCH ME! SOME. BODY. PINCH. MEEEEEE!"
Baymax was a blip of red standing out against the expanse of blue sky, propelled by jet-powered feet and carrying the rodents between fingers curled into a fist.
"Pass them to me," instructed Hiro, clinging to the robot's back with his magnetic gloves.
Baymax followed the boy's request and Hiro raised the glass of his visor, popped the rats into the side of his helmet and closed it behind them before enjoying a breath of the female rodent's delightful aroma.
"Uh, does this register as awkward to you?" asked Remy.
"He's Hiro!" she promptly answered. "Nothing he does registers to me as awkward!"
[I would not recommend placing the rodents in such close proximity to your face,] Baymax warned. [Such creatures are known to be unhygienic and carriers of diseases.]
Remy shrugged. "Well, to be fair, we did come out of a sewer less than half an hour ago."
"I am aware of that, buddy," Hiro declared. "But Tadashi smells too good to be filthy!"
[Tadashi is not here,] Baymax declared.
Hiro digested that statement in a moment of silence, reminded of the loss of his big brother.
[I am sorry,] Baymax empathised. [Technically, Tadashi is here, although you cannot smell him. He is within my healthcare chip.]
"Yeah, I know: you're talking about all those recordings he made while designing you," Hiro went on. "I know that Tadashi isn't physically here, but being so close to this little rodent, all the memories, the best memories of Tadashi come rushing back ... I don't know how to explain it, but it's almost as if this rodent actually is Tadashi!"
But ... she wasn't Tadashi, she thought. Even if she reminded him of his deceased brother, she could never fill Tadashi's shoes. Well, at least she could make Hiro happy for the time being ... right? She tried to rest assured in that thought, but all it did was get her gut churning with conflicted feelings. Was the Omega Aroma really a good idea? Of course it was, she quickly told herself! It made people happy, and she'd had a lot of time to think about what she was doing when she made it. Once the cool down period ended, the negative side effects would be gone. The Aroma was a good thing, full stop ... wasn't it? Oh boy. The sickening ambivalence was rearing its head again.
A short distance across the sky, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell watched the Big Heroes jetting into the distance.
"They're stealing our new victi- I mean friends!" Tinker Bell protested. "Do something, Peter!"
"Did you see the biceps on that tin can man?" asked Peter Pan. "Nuh uh! I didn't get to live over a century by being a dumb dumb. Let's cut our losses and head back to Neverland."
The fairy folded her arms and pouted. "Hmph! You're almost starting to sound like a grownup."
Peter almost had a heart attack. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
With that, he soared after Hiro and Baymax with speed the likes of which she had never before seen. Tinkerbell struggled to keep up as Peter pursued Hiro and Baymax across the heavens, between buildings, above streets, over rivers like a ravenous hawk. They were above a park's pond when Peter nearly reached the unwitting boy and robot, drawing his knife as he thundered his signature cry:
*COCKLE DOODLE DOOOOOOOO!*
"Did you hear that?" asked Hiro.
Baymax abruptly stopped and hovered in place. Unable to react in time, Peter and Tinker Bell crashed into the robot's outstretched wings. Hiro felt the jerk, but by the time he looked around the boy and the fairy had already fallen off of Baymax's wings. He heard a splash and stared at the pond below, but Peter and Tinker Bell had disappeared beneath the surface.
"Uh, Baymax? Did something hit us just now?" Hiro inquired.
[Yes,] the robot stated simply. [My scanner indicates that it was a flying boy and a tiny winged woman.]
Hiro gave the robot a skeptical stare. "Yeeeeaah ... that doesn't sound crazy at all. Not even a bit. Hey, buddy? Could you remind me to debug your system when we get back?"
[Of course, Hiro,] the robot passively agreed.
With that, Baymax jetted on. Seconds later, Peter and Tinker Bell resurfaced, sputtering and flailing.
"Th-that's RIGHT *gag*!" Peter yelled after Baymax. "You *cough* BETTER run, ya big ol' tin can o' codfish!"
"If it's all the same to you, I think I'm ready to go home," announced a shivering Tinkerbell.
Meanwhile, Hiro radioed his team: "Hey guys, I think I've found the nexus of the global chemical reaction. How fast can you get to the meeting point?"
"Eons before you do, that's for sure," GoGo responded.
Oh, so she was in that kind of mood, huh? Not that he was complaining. A race was just what they needed to spice up the mission.
"Baymax, where is she?" asked Hiro.
[According to my scanner, she is roughly below us,] Baymax answered.
Hiro looked down to see the girl in yellow skating across the city for all she was worth. He shook his head.
"So sad," the boy commented. "I mean, sure she's fast, but you know who's faster?"
Baymax raised his pointing finger as he answered: [Perhaps that little boy from The Incredibles?]
"What? No! We're faster!" Hiro explained. "Step on it, buddy! We can beat her!"
[I cannot step on anything while in the air,] Baymax declared. [Would you like me to land?]
"It's just an expression," Hiro clarified. "It means go faster! Way faster!"
[I understand,] the robot confirmed.
GoGo looked up to see Baymax and Hiro rocketing ahead of her with staggering speed. In spite of that, she grinned, skated up a wall and back flipped onto the power lines above the streets. Suddenly, her speed wasn't a matter of low friction skating anymore. Arcs of electricity snaked from the wires and across her wheels, creating electromagnet forces that propelled her across the power lines with ravenous speed. In seconds, she shattered the sound barrier and a sonic boom tore across the city.
"Just for laughs, how far back is GoGo?" Hiro asked with smug confidence in his voice.
[She is almost directly beneath us,] Baymax declared.
Hiro gagged on his own shock. "W-what?!"
He looked down and spotted a rush of electricity blazing across the power lines. Was that ... GoGo?
"PEDAL TO THE METAL!" Hiro commanded.
Baymax looked around. [I do not see any pedals to-]
"I meant speed up!" clarified the boy.
With that, Baymax bulldozed the sonic barrier.
Hiro cast GoGo the occasional glance to gauge her progress. Unbelievable! She was even faster than Baymax! However, she had to follow the twists and turns of the streets while he and Baymax flew in a straight line. That got them a good distance ahead of her, until they were nearly above the virtually abandoned wrecking yard where the team had agreed to meet. Rather secluded, it afforded the perfect place to convene without drawing too much public attention.
Baymax dive with breakneck speed. Meagre seconds before he hit the ground, a death-defying yellow streak shot beneath him and he landed with a heavy thud. A cloud of dust fled his feet, veiling their surroundings. When the dust settled, there stood GoGo, arms folded as she blew a gum bubble and burst it with a victorious pop.
Hiro pointed at her, his finger shaking in shock. "H-how did ...?"
"Take it like a woman," GoGo commanded.
"But ... I saw you on the power lines!" Hiro gushed. "Your suit was converting the electricity into magnetic-driven kinetic energy! I didn't create it to do that!"
"That's 'cause I upgraded it," she explained with a smirk. "Face it, Genius. You're not the biggest brain on the team anymore."
"Actually, his I.Q. is technically the highest," a new voice cut in.
Hiro and GoGo turned to see Wasabi approaching, using his arms to walk on green plasma blades extending from the gauntlets like stilts. The plasma blades smoothly withdrew and he was lowered to the ground.
Responding to Hiro's stunned stare, Wasabi explained: "Yup. I upgraded my blades to lengthen. When they're green, they function as forces similar to tractor beams. I can use them to lift objects besides myself, and they minimise the strain required to do so."
A shadow shot over their heads. Their eyes darted to its owner as he landed - Fred. However, the red rat scarcely noticed him. She was too fixated on a small, pink orb that dropped from from a mound of cars. It looked a lot like one of her "berries", albeit big enough for her to fit inside of it. Upon hitting the ground, it exploded into a glob of glowing amber substance that quickly turned turquoise before its light dimmed to nothing. Not a moment later, a girl in a pink super suit leaped from the top of the car mound and used the glob to cushion her fall.
Luckily, humans were deaf to the higher frequencies of a rats voice. If they weren't, Hiro probably would have lost half his hearing after the red rat's ear-piercing scream of ecstasy. Unfortunately, Remy's smaller, far more sensitive ears got the full brunt of it. After the first few seconds of screaming, all he could hear was white noise.
"IT'S HONEY LEMON!" shrieked the female rodent.
"WHAT?!" Remy shouted back.
"SHE'S MY ROLE MODEL!" she explained.
"WHAAT?!" Remy repeated.
She looked at him with a note of realisation and remorse. "Oh ... I temporarily rendered you deaf with my screaming, didn't I? At least, I hope it's temporary ..."
"I think you temporarily rendered me deaf with your screaming!" Remy stated. "Not that I'm complaining! There's no one who I'd rather be rendered deaf by!"
"Sorry," she apologised, despite the fact that she knew he couldn't hear her.
"WHAAAAT?!" yelled Remy.
"Is there anyone here who hasn't upgraded their suit?" asked Hiro.
"Not me," Fred answered. "The others did it for me. Now I don't have to shout 'super jump' every time I want to activate that ability. Sure, I never had to shout it in the first place. I could have just said it quietly, but I preferred to shout it. In fact, I just might keep shouting it anyway!"
GoGo rolled her eyes at Fred's childish antics before returning her attention to Hiro.
"You know ..." she began. "The only one on this team who hasn't got an upgrade is you, Hiro."
The boy glanced about at his teammates self-consciously, before rubbing the back of his head with an awkward laugh.
"Heh heh. I always wondered what it would be like to be outdated," Hiro stated.
Suddenly, he lifted off the ground, drawing startled gasps from his friends. After hovering in place for a few seconds, he landed and shrugged.
"I guess I'll just have to keep on wondering," he declared.
"Mic drop, ha ha!" the red rodent cheered.
GoGo pretended to be unimpressed. "So you ripped off Tony Stark? Big whoop."
"Where's the propulsion system?" asked Wasabi.
Hiro gestured their surroundings. "You're looking at it."
The team glanced around before exchanging confused stares.
"You're saying your propulsion system is the wrecking yard?" asked Wasabi.
"Not the wrecking yard. The planet," Hiro explained. "My suit manipulates and concentrates Earth's geomagnetic forces. Basically, I can hack the planet's magnetism."
"So you reinvented the concept of flight?" asked GoGo. "Big whoop."
She crossed her arms and looked away, keeping up the air of indifference. Then she broke character and cracked a grin before giving Hiro a chummy shove to the shoulder.
"Heh. Nice work, Genius," GoGo finally admitted. "So, you said you found the source of the global chemical reaction? Where is it?"
Hiro lifted his visor and pulled out the two rats, holding them in either hand.
Wasabi was flabbergasted. "Wait a minute ... there were rodents in your visor? Man, that's just nasty!"
Then red rat's perfume wafted into his nose.
"Whoa ho ho!" Wasabi exclaimed. "If that's the mice smelling like that, I can see where you're coming from. They smell like the definition of cleanliness, times ten million! Disinfectant, air-freshener, hand sanitiser ..."
"Okay, either we're living in two different universes, or you've got it all wrong," GoGo interrupted. "The rats clearly smell like kale salad, rare steaks and burnt tires."
Fred chipped in. "I'd say it's more of a taco-nacho combination with an undertone of freshly-bought comic books."
In Honey Lemon's opinion, the rats smelled more like her favourite bakery, among many other favourite things. That was the key word - 'favourite'. Clearly, this situation was more complicated than it seemed. For that reason, she didn't argue with the others. Instead she silently activated her suit's ChemiCalculator and analysed the rats. The blue rodent's chemistry was unremarkable, but the red rodent's? What she discovered shocked her.
"Uh, guys?" began an astonished Honey Lemon. "I ... I think you're all right about what you smell. The red mouse is emanating an aroma that combines with the global chemical reaction for a polymorphic effect. It's almost like her scent shape shifts into whatever you like, or at least it tricks your nose into smelling what you like. Honestly, it's more complex than anything I've every seen!"
Wasabi whistled in awe. "So you're saying this little guy caused the global chemical reaction? What kind of mouse is he?"
[That is not a mouse,] Baymax pointed out. [It is a rat. Furthermore, she is female.]
"THANK YOU!" the red rat exclaimed.
"I'm not sure if she caused the reaction," Honey Lemon countered. "That would imply that she knew what she was doing, which would suggest vast intelligence. Maybe someone did this to her. Maybe ... Oh ... Wow ..."
"What?" asked Hiro.
"My ChemiCal is yielding further results," Honey Lemon explained. "The red rat is somehow channelling neurological signals through the atmosphere! The global chemical reaction is like a giant brain - her brain. It's interfacing with every other brain that it touches!"
"Oooh! Mind control!" Fred commented. "And so the plot thickens!"
"It's more subtle than outright mind control," Honey Lemon corrected. "But here's the spooky part. It's crazy, but perhaps ... perhaps we all knew to come to Paris because she knew she was in Paris!"
"So you're saying she's smart? Like a human?" asked GoGo.
"If she created the chemical reaction, 'smart' doesn't cut it," Honey Lemon went on.
They took a moment to digest the ramifications, not even noticing the group that approached them.
"Then it's settled," Hiro declared. "We have to take these rats back to the lab for a thorough analysis."
"I don't know about that," came a new voice. "I'm sure the labs here in France are just as good."
The red rat froze.
That voice ... it instantly struck a chord of recognition. Several titles came to mind: 'Mom', 'Helen', 'Elastigirl', 'Mrs. Incredible'. Of course, they all belonged to the same person.
Everyone turned to see none other than The Incredibles and Frozone. Instead of freaking out the way she had upon meeting the Big Heroes, the red rat was calm yet the sight of them deeply warmed her heart.
In her quest to find the necessary ingredients for the Omega Aroma, she had spent some time on Nomanisan Island, scouring Syndrome's systems for useful chemical formulae. She didn't expect her mission to be much of a challenge. After all, who cared about a trespassing rat? Well, it turned out that he had a rather impressive pest control program in place. Nothing she couldn't handle. In fact, outfoxing his rodent countermeasures turned out to be a fun test of the mind. However, those involved in pest control slowly came to grips with the fact that this was no ordinary rodent. Their first hint? She wouldn't die. Their second? Her resourcefulness and occasional offensive use of chemistry. One particularly persistent pest hunter had an inkling that the mysterious, unauthorised user of employee computers and the rat were one and the same. They were dangerously close to zeroing in on her until The Incredibles arrived. Their focus shifted and so did hers. She observed the supers from afar and even tweaked fate behind the scenes to give them a better chance of victory. In her own small way, she liked to believe that she was saving the world with them ... as a family. It was a fundamentally absurd thought, but it soothed her lonely soul. Throughout the adventure, she had scarcely shown herself. They, in turn, had scarcely noticed her. However, they noticed her now.
Mr. Incredible's eyes were fixed on the rat in Hiro's hands. Somehow, she reminded him of the Glory Days when supers could be supers without fear of prosecution. She gave him hope that those days could return, but it was a strange, volatile hope. Knowing that it was somehow solely connected to her, he found himself fearing that it would disappear like a vapour the moment she left. Or, rather, the moment she was taken away by the Big Heroes. Not knowing how to navigate these complicated emotions, Mr. Incredible was glad when his wife began to do the talking.
"This phenomenon surrounding the rats occurred on French soil," Elastigirl continued. "We have liaisons here who can take the matter to the government. Given that this is a national concern, I'm sure the French would like to look into it first."
"It's not just a national concern," Hiro corrected. "The red rat is part of a global chemical reaction. Our lab in San Fransokyo is second to none. We've got the situation under control."
"And should we remind you of the legal standing of 'supers'?" asked a confrontational GoGo. "I'm not so sure the French would be happy to see you here."
"Oh really?" asked Elastigirl. "Well, if we're in hot water, so are you. We're all supers here."
"Technically, a 'super' is defined as an individual possessing inhuman powers," Wasabi stated. "The only 'powers' we've got are our brains."
"So basically you're a pack of nerds?" asked Dash. "Ha! Burn!"
GoGo smirked. "Cute. You know what? You're right. We should step down and let the authorities handle this. Oh!" She snapped her fingers as if in realisation. "That's right! You don't have any authority! You're not even supposed to be here! The situation is in our capable hands, so quit whining and woman up! Let's go, guys."
The Big Heroes winced at GoGo's abrasive manner. Nonetheless, they followed her as she leisurely began to skate away, until ...
*Whoosh!*
A rush of wind and GoGo's hands were empty. She and her friends turned to see the rats held by a very smug Dash.
"Oops! I thought you said the situation was in your hands," the boy mocked. "You musta dropped it."
Without warning, GoGo threw her maglev discs and they sandwiched the rats between them before returning to their owner. Understandably, the rodents' heads were spinning with an acute case of motion sickness after that.
"Cool! I mean, HEY!" Dash exclaimed.
A stream of frost shot over his head and the Big Heroes were engulfed in rock-solid ice, with the exception of GoGo's hands holding the rats. The Incredibles stared at the responsible Frozone, who merely shrugged.
"What can I say? That girl was really starting to chip at my chill," Frozone explained.
A cobweb of cracks exploded across the ice before Baymax's rocket fist shattered through it, narrowly missing the supers.
"You could have hit the baby!" Elastigirl snarled.
Baymax's fist hovered back to his wrist as he explained: [That shot was calculated so as to avoid hitting the baby.]
"Played like a true hero," Mr Incredible commended. "That's why we're giving you one more warning. Stand down. We're taking the rodents."
"And we're taking you to SCHOOL!" GoGo roared.
Elastigirl hastily handed Jack Jack to Frozone. Knowing her thought process, he quickly put the baby down and surrounded him in a protective dome like a mini igloo. That was about all he could do before GoGo's disc came hurtling at him, but he casually raised a hand and summoned a pillar of ice for a shield. The disc bounced off and before it even returned to GoGo, Frozone was forcing her to dance and weave as he cast frosty flurries with a vengeance. Narrowly avoiding his attacks, GoGo retreated. He gave chase and the two skaters disappeared into the wrecking yard.
"This has gone too far! Let's be reasonable!" Helen argued.
"CIVIL WAR!" Fred cheered heedlessly.
Elastigirl smacked her palm against her face. "This isn't a 'Civil War'! We're not even on the same tea- Force field! NOW!"
Violet surrounded her allies in a bubble barrier that quenched Fred's incoming fire breath.
Even as GoGo exchanged frenetic attacks with Frozone, the rats in her hands heard the din of technology clashing with super powers as the two teams converged in an all-out brawl. Guilt flickered in the red rat's mind. She knew that she had caused this, but there were more pressing matters to ponder for the time being. The simple fact was that a couple of rats probably couldn't survive this kind of battle for long.
They had to get out of there!
Thanks for reading!
Yeah, we all know Baymax's "Tadashi is here" line, but I think he meant that quite literally for numerous reasons. When he said what he said in the above chapter, I gave you the gist of that theory (although Hiro misinterpreted it).
By the way, Gogo's power line-skating upgrade wasn't entirely my idea. You can see her in Big Hero 6 concept art skating across what appears to be power lines. I don't think the power lines made her faster per se, but I decided to take the concept a step further and turn it into a new ability.
I hope you find this interesting. Review and let me know how you feel. Until next time!