"Have you discovered the identity of the mutant?"
"Not yet. But I am making progress. Luckily, he isn't too hard to find. The idea to look for a specific heat signature was brilliant idea, Naoki."
"Give yourself some credit, Erin. You're the one specialized on this mutant, not me. You provided the information, I helped provide resources and a solution."
Erin chuckled, thumbing through her files on a tablet, glancing up once in awhile at her monitor set up.
"True. Bird Boy is of extreme interest to me and I know the most about him." She pulled a picture The Phoenix, smiling softly. "But alas, I'll only be able to do so much before I have to hand him over to Liv." She sighed, resting a cheek against her hand. "I'll just enjoy it while it lasts." She shook her head, putting the image away. "Regardless, once I have more information I'll be sending her another report. Rather not send a light one."
"Sounds solid. Let me know how that goes."
"Will do." Erin looked up fully at the screen to her right, staring at the image of a man that was on it. "How about you? How's the research going on those bumbling group of life savers?"
"Getting there. Footage from one of my droids has been giving me quite the show." He smirked, pulling up an image of a group of people running into a burning building. "I'm starting to get results. I just need her to continue to follow them."
"How good are they in a fight?"
"Deadly." Naoki smirked, crossing his arms. "My girl won't let me down." His eyes narrowed. "Regardless, I'm going to get their secrets. My daughter's life relies on it. I've been promised a handsome grant and state of the art facilities if I bring it to Ms. Amara's attention."
"Such a wonderful woman, isn't she?" Erin grinned. "Giving us all so much, all in exchange for some small little things." Erin stretched a little, leaning back in her chair. "Well, I got work to do. I got a bird to track and you got some life savers to harass. Send Drake and Coilin my regards."
Erin closed the call with Naoki, turning her attention to her work.
"Alright, let's see if we can find you again, Bird Boy."
oooooo
Tadashi hadn't seen the streets of San Fransokyo in a long time. Almost a year if he remembered correctly.
It's had to have been six months at least.
Regardless, it was weird to be driving through them again with Eboni on her motorcycle.
Not much has changed. Still the same as I remembered it.
"Feeling at home?" Eboni asked, breaking the man from his trance.
"Huh? Oh uh… sort of. Feel more out of place to be honest."
"Understandable." Eboni looked at her instructions that were present on the visor of her helmet. "Okay… Right turn here at this light then our destination should be on our right."
"Cool."
Tadashi looked around, taking in everything he could. He knew he couldn't stay for long but he was going to enjoy every moment he could get being able to be back in his home city.
They soon came to a stop at an abandoned building that had clearly seen better days. It had holes in the walls and the glass of the windows it had were all shattered.
"Yeesh." Eboni parked her bike, getting off with Tadashi. "Looks like there was a bad scuffle here."
"And I think I can take a guess who one of the fighters were." Tadashi said, hurrying over to it, feeling at the edges of the holes.
It has to be Baymax's work. That rocket fist could break through anything.
Tadashi made his way into the building, looking around, pulling out his phone, turning on the flashlight. Eboni joined him, doing the same.
"So, we're looking for something that resembles him. That's what he said, right?" Eboni asked.
"Something that resembles him but is unpleasant to look-"
Tadashi jumped as his light landed on something. A robot that bore a striking resemblance to Obake, however, its outer platings were unfinished on one side, exposing the inner workings of the robot, including the skull area… and it was melted and burnt in some areas. It stared blankly back, not even moving a servo.
Eboni looked towards where Tadashi was, giving a flat look as she beheld the robot.
"Well… that's disturbing… and a hunk of junk." Eboni walked over to it, giving it a small kick in the head. "This was built by a genius, right?"
Tadashi shook his head, joining her.
"Blunt as ever." Tadashi looked over the rest of the bot. "From the looks of it, this was a rush job. Had to get it out as soon as possible. Dangerously armed though. I would not have wanted to get into a fight with this thing when it was still active."
"You could've melted its servos with ease." Eboni's flat look didn't falter. "Actually, you could've melted this whole thing easily considering what seems to have already happened to it. The metal here is cheap. Rush AND a hack job. Obake wants this robot back, why?"
"His work. Guess he wanted to improve on it."
"Well, I better be in that lab room to help then because this is just embarrassing." Eboni stepped away, gesturing to Tadashi. "You pick it up, I'll get him a helmet so people don't look at us weird."
Tadashi nodded, doing as told, lifting the robot up with ease into his arms.
"Huh, surprisingly light."
"Probably used carbon fiber or something for the framework." Eboni said, hurrying out, soon returning with a helmet, putting it on the robot's head. "There, now that stupid red eye can stop staring at me."
"So I wasn't the only one being bugged by that."
"It's just so… lame. That's all I got. But I feel like I've said that enough." Eboni turned, giving a wave of her hand. "Come on, let's head home before certain people start staring."
They were soon outside again, securing the robot into the side cart. Just as they were about to leave, a car zoomed by them at top speed, buffeting the two.
"Hey! I'm trying to drive here!" Eboni shouted, shaking a first at them. "Stupid reckless idiots!"
ZOOM!
Eboni and Tadashi's eyes went wide a big red winged robot zoomed past them, pursuing the car.
"... I'm not the only one who saw that, right?" Eboni asked.
"Nope. And if you know what's right, you're gonna go after it." Tadashi answered, putting on his helmet, wrapping his arms around Eboni's abdomen.
Eboni didn't waste a second to start up her motorcycle, chasing after the robot.
The car sped up, keeping ahead of the robot as one of the passengers leaned out the window, hurling something at a figure on the bot's back.
"GET A LIFE YA FREAKS!"
The robot sped up, flying right beside the car.
"Pull over now and maybe it won't end in attempted assault charges too!" The figure screamed back.
"You little-FLOOR IT!"
Eboni sped up, pulling up next to the car, Tadashi starting to loosen his grip.
Just melt the tires a little, make it sneaky-
"Oh, that's it! Get me higher! I got this!" the figure on the robot shouted.
The robot pulled up as the figure leapt down, landing on top of the car, using magnetism to hang on.
"I SAID!" He pulled a sai out as it crackled with electricity. "SLOW… DOWN!"
He slammed it into the side of the car as sparks started to surround it. The car started to swerve before being forced to come to a stop as the perps tried to make a break for it.
The robot was faster, landing in front of them.
"You are under arrest." it said.
The perps were soon surrounded by 4 other people, all dressed in colorful armor. Tadashi and Eboni were wide eyed as they beheld the group. There was no need for questions. They knew who they were.
"Big Hero 6…" Eboni whispered.
Hiro…
Tadashi remained silent, his eyes locked on his little brother as he and his friends worked on clearing the roadway, cuffing the two perps to a lamp post with a set of magnetic handcuffs.
"The cops will be here to pick you up soon." Hiro said, twirling a sai in his hands. "You can think about your life choices till then."
The two perps growled at him but were unable to do anything with their restraints.
"Alright, let's go team." Hiro said, getting onto Baymax.
The rest of the group nodded, setting off.
"Hey!"
Hiro looked over his shoulder, seeing Eboni waving at him.
"Nice work! Keep it up!" She shouted.
Hiro smiled, giving a salute.
"Stay safe, citizens!" Hiro looked to Baymax. "Let's go Baymax. Full thrust!"
Baymax nodded, doing as told, taking to the skies in seconds.
Eboni smirked, crossing her arms.
"You got one heck of a brother, Tadashi."
Tadashi smiled, pride shining in his eyes.
"I sure do… He's growing up so fast."
I just hope I can see him again soon.
Eboni elbowed him gently.
"And one day, I want to see you running right beside him. Ya got it?"
Tadashi was taken aback by this but soon let out a chuckle, wrapping his arms around Eboni's abdomen again.
"Got it. How about we start with getting this robot back to Saga, hm?"
"That's what I was thinking."
Eboni revved her motorcycle, taking off. Tadashi looked back one last time, catching a glimpse of Baymax and Hiro in the sky.
I'll be back one day, Hiro.
Just keep doing what you're doing.