Bright lights burned into the broken boys eyes as he laid on top of a park bench in San Fransokyo. A warm breeze ruffled the long black hair protruding outside of the visor hiding his face. Many walked past the boy in confusion. Why would someone wear such a strange outfit and sleep on a park bench?
The boy stirred stiffly; his head was throbbing and his limbs were not much better. He attempted to turn on his side but fell off the bench. The boy in indigo quickly startled awake and gasped in pain. He did not remember being in a park; the boy had not seen a park in years. He did not remember there being so many people and blue skies and greenness everywhere around him.
This is not what his world looked like. His world was stripped down of everything good. Everything was dead; grass was dry and brown, the tall skyscrapers had been torn down for materials, and the sky was always an ozone color. He woke up to food rations and a dwindling population.
This new scenery did not make sense.
The boy jumped up and began to run around the park and through the bustling streets. He earned many glances his way as he tried to maneuver his way through the large crowds. His body protested against every step he took; yet, he continued on. He looked at everything. The old market street, the center of the town, suburban neighborhoods, everything.
The boy feared what happened to make him appear in this environment. That invention Yami made may have actually worked. He was in the past, but that would mean that the future was gone. The place where he called home for more than 3 years vanished; non-existent now.
The thought of everything that the boy had had was gone now pushed him to continue running through the streets. He would never get to spend another day with the family he created during hard times. The very few that the man in indigo had treasured were gone now.
The boy in indigo continued running until he ran into another person which promptly made him fall on his butt. The impact jarred the man's ribs and he let out a groan. A hand was shown in his peripheral vision and the man took it gratefully. He opened his mouth to let out a thank you quickly, but was stuck in place. The figure before him look familiar. Another raven haired teenager stood with a genuine smile on his face as he helped the indigo boy up. Behind the raven haired boy stood a blonde with a surprised look on his face.
"Oh my gosh! Are you a super villain?" The blonde asked getting close to the indigo man.
The boy in indigo quickly let go of the raven haired teens hand and backed up. He shook his head rapidly to the blondes' question. He needed to get out of this area. This was not right; the raven haired boy before him was not supposed to be here. He needed to leave now but he could tell that he would not be able to run anymore. He needed a distraction to slip away.
He ignored the blonde asking him more questions and the raven haired boys' questions as well, instead he quickly typed in a formula on his utility belt and a dark blue orb popped out.
"Hey! Where did you get that?" The raven haired boy accused and tried to grab it away from the indigo boy.
But the indigo man was too fast and threw it upon the ground where smoke immediately rose. He slipped between the pair and limped into the alley way making his escape to the top of the building.
He limped to a furnace close to him on the roof and slid against it. Finally letting his body rest again from all the stress it had endured over the past days. The boy reached up and removed the visor covering his eyes and nose and laid it beside him. With the mask gone one could see the bleeding gash from his left temple to eyebrow along with all the dirt on his pale skin.
Through the long black locks the boy looked at the sun set. It was beautiful. He had not seen the sun set in years. He missed seeing the blues, pinks, and oranges all mix together and turn into the starry night. The changing of the colors and clean air lulled the boy to sleep.
"And then he had something like your purse Honey!"
"How could he get that?" Honey Lemon frowned, "What did he look like?"
"That's what's even cooler about the guy!" Fred jumped off the couch the group was sitting on, "He had all his features hid in this cool mask thing and his color scheme was indigo!"
Fred rushed over to his bookcase filled with comic books and grabbed a stack full and placed them all in front of his friends. "As you all can see here none of these heroes have an indigo color scheme, so he's totally original!"
"Wait a minute Fred," Wasabi rubbed his face tiredly; he had so much homework he needed to do but an impromptu meeting was held at Fred's house, "How do you know this guy is good?"
Tadashi shook his head, "We don't know if he is good or not, he looked freaked out by us and fled after using something like Honey's chem purse."
"Obviously he is a hero Tadashi," Fred rolled his eyes, "Hiding his identity, accepting help, but fleeing when he is too close to someone, not speaking and being fearful of others! Basically super heroing number one."
"Alright genius, if you think this guy is a saint then prove it," GoGo shoved the comics back at Fred, "With real evidence; not your comic book evidence."
Fred raised his head high with a serious gaze, "I will."
The others rolled their eyes at Fred and began to collect their things to leave. While they all loved hanging out together, they all did have homework and midterms to study for. Tadashi was the last to leave, he walked over to Fred's enormous collection on comic books and stared at them. Tadashi had an odd feeling after seeing the man dressed in indigo. He felt like he should know who was under that mask, but he didn't know who it could be.
"Hey Tadashi you want something to take home and read?" Fred leaned against the bookcase and carefully placed the comics he had earlier back in place.
Tadashi looked down at his shoes then back up at Fred, "Fred, do you really think that person is good?"
Fred stared back and Tadashi and blinked and let out a chuckle. He guided Tadashi back to the couch to sit with him. He laced his fingers together and leaned back on the plush couch with eyes closed. Tadashi stared at Fred waiting for a response.
"I do and not just because of the cool color scheme he has going on." Fred leaned forward and stared back at Tadashi, "When we first saw him I hoped he was a big bad guy so we could all get back in out suits but then I started watching him as you tried talking to him."
"And?" Tadashi found it amazing when Fred was able to go from the goofy carefree person and flip to this deep thinking inquisitive person.
"And that means that I saw how tense he was, he had a pretty bad limp and I'm almost positive I saw blood on him," Fred looked down to his hands, "He was hurt and scared and quite frankly his presence didn't seem bad, I felt safe around him even if he did take Honey's invention."
"He seemed lost I think," Tadashi thought aloud, "I think he was scared when he saw us… almost like he recognized us."
Fred smiled softly at Tadashi and patted him on the back, "I think you are quite right, I think he is an Arakan."
"A hero?" Tadashi grabbed his book bag and stood again, feeling much better than he had earlier.
"Exactly," Fred smiled warmly, "A hero."
When the boy awoke he was greeted with beautiful stars in a cloudless sky. He was able to make out many constellations. He sat in his spot just stargazing wondrously; it had been so long since he had seen the stars.
A shout from below knocked the peace around the boy. He quickly grabbed his mask and put it on and forced his injured body to move to the edge of the building. Down below he was able to make out a group of robbers holding captives at gunpoint. No police had shown up and if no one helped then the people were as good as dead. With a simple press of a button two green disks appeared at the boys ankles and he was speeding down the side of the building. He leapt off the building and drew the one plasma blade from behind his back and sliced one of the guns in half. The boy landed behind the robbers and made quick work of disarming them all and trapping them all in a sticky substance.
The crowd around the hero took their phones out to take pictures of their savior. The man flinched from all the flashes before his eyes and looked around frantically for an escape. He did not want to be the news story of San Fransokyo.
The man in indigo typed in a combination and a blue orb popped out of his pouch. He rolled it towards the group and it exploded into smoke. With the distraction, he was able to slip away easily.
The street lights were enough to guide the boy to his new destination. He had many questions and the presence of one grave could answer his most pressing one. So, he weaved through the streets and alleyways until he was met with a stone pillar indicating he was at his destination. The boy walked briskly until he arrived at three small gravestones.
He dropped into the soft Earth in disbelief. How was any of this possible? How was he here?
The boy rose again and ran away needing to clear his head.
"Breaking News," Bluff Dunder smiled, "A new hero has appeared out of nowhere in central San Fransokyo and saved a group of civilians being held at gunpoint. He apprehended the criminals and vanished quickly after the incident around 10 o'clock last night."
"BOOM!" Fred yelled with a mouth full of pancakes, "I told you all that he was a superhero!"
Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and GoGo stared incredulously at Fred. They didn't believe that the masked vigilante had already made another appearance in less than 12 hours. It also made them upset that this new person was using their inventions as weapons against villains.
"I still don't know Freddie," Honey Lemon twisted her hair with a finger, "He did steal our inventions for himself."
Honey Lemon was conflicted. She wanted to see the best in every person and the fact that Fred and Tadashi believed that the boy was a hero, but it was hard to accept. If this boy had not made copies of their own gear then maybe she would have had stronger feelings that the boy was good.
"Yeah exactly, that's not fair for this newbie to show up and take away our ideas for his own use," GoGo crossed her arms disapprovingly.
GoGo had no doubts about the new figure in indigo. She did not like him. Not only did he show up out of nowhere, but he ran away from everything and hid his identity. He stole her friends' ideas and projects along with her own. That did not sit well with the fiery raven haired girl.
"Come on guys!" Fred sat back down at the table, "He could have let those people get hurt! If he's using out gadgets for good then why does it matter?"
Tadashi flinched, he knew exactly what was wrong with this man using his friends' projects as weapons. Tadashi himself was upset about the matter, but he also still believed that the man was good. Some part of him believed that this mysterious new figure was not here to cause trouble in the city.
"It's not right that he's using our gear, I do agree with that," Tadashi glanced at his friends, "But I don't think that this guy is bad."
Wasabi cleared his throat, "Well what are we going to do about it?"
Everyone stared at Wasabi in shock. Their friend that always wanted to stay on the sidelines where it was always safe was asking what they should do with the new masked man in San Fransokyo.
"I guess that means we need to find this guy and figure out who it is," Tadashi looked Fred in the eyes and saw him barely holding in his excitement.
"Does that mean what I think it means!" Fred was vibrating in excitement in his chair, "Night patrol!"
"Hey sweetie," Aunt Cass called out from the doorway, "Are you planning on going somewhere tonight?"
Tadashi jumped and tripped over a pile of books on the floor, "Uh yeah, I was going to go to Fred's tonight."
Aunt Cass walked further into the room and offered a hand for the raven haired boy to get up. She smiled warmly down at the boy and chuckled at his antics. Tadashi nervously chuckled back and raised his hand and grabbed his aunt's hand. She hoisted the teen onto his feet and then peeked around his shoulder and furrowed her eyebrows.
"What's Baymax doing in your room?" Aunt Cass tilted her head in confusion, "I haven't seen the marshmallow in forever."
Baymax blinked at Cass and raised his hand in the air with a finger sticking out, "I am a personal healthcare robot, not a marshmallow."
Tadashi chuckled at Baymax's response, "We know buddy, just give me a moment, okay?"
Baymax simply turned and faced the opposite direction. Tadashi ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath he was holding in. The teen was really hoping to be able to sneak Baymax out without being seen from his Aunt. He did not like bringing Baymax near her due to his touchy speaking capabilities; mainly of what Baymax would say. The last thing the raven haired teen needed was for his robot to spill to his aunt of all the dangerous activities he put himself into.
"Well, I made a few new adjustments and I was going to let everyone see him," The lie rolled off his tongue leaving a bad taste in his mouth, "Maybe run a few tests with someone other than myself."
His aunt smiled at him and engulfed him in a huge hug. She was so proud of her brainy nephew. He had gone through so much the past year and she just wanted him to be happy. He had been so upset and sad and just started to smile and go out more with his friends. It brought joy to Cass that he was finally putting himself back out there.
"Ok well have fun," She let go of him and brushed a few hairs out of Tadashi's face, "Don't do homework all night and have fun; text me when you plan on coming home 'kay?"
Tadashi grinned and shook his head in agreement which Cass took as her time to leave the boy to get ready for hanging out with his friends. Once Cass left the room and the boy heard her gentle footsteps cease he quickly ran to the door and shut it. He let out another deep breath and closed his eyes. That was too close; Tadashi had one of his breastplates laying on the floor close to the door and if his aunt had asked about that then the boy did not know what lie he would have been able to concoct.
"Tadashi," Baymax had turned back around and stared at the teen, "Your cortisol levels have increased drastically in the time Aunt Cass was in your room, I suggest sitting down and taking deep breaths."
The boy nodded and walked over to a spiny chair and sat down then began taking deep breaths. When he felt his heart slow down he reopened his eyes and immediately stood up. He had not realized he sat down on his brother's side of the room and felt sadness wash over him. Tadashi ran a hand across his eyes and let out a sigh. He missed seeing his brothers face every day; no matter how annoying the boy tried to be or how reckless he was Tadashi loved him and would give anything to get him back. A soft presence suddenly wrapped their arms around Tadashi's shoulders and he leaned into the embrace.
"There, There." Baymax rested his head on the teens.
"Thanks Buddy," He wriggled himself out of the embrace and shook away the sudden sadness, "Let's go grab the rest of our stuff from the garage, we gotta get to Fred's."
Baymax led the way first and squeezed through the doorway while Tadashi lingered in the room. He looked at Hiro's side of the room and let some of the sadness seep back into him. Tadashi had not moved a single item of Hiro's, the only item that had been a jacket he gave Tadashi before the fire that held a single microbot. That microbot was the evidence that helped Tadashi find out that his brother's death was not an accident and helped him stop Callaghan. Everything else in the room remained the same. The same random pieces of paper littering the desk with advanced equations and blueprints for little inventions and bot ideas.
The boy shook his head and walked out of the room making sure to turn the light out and close the door on his way out. Right now he has a job to do. He needed to figure out who this new person in the city was and what they were doing here with all of his friends' inventions.