Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. I do not need it. The only thing I need is a freaking drink.
Chapter 5 – Credit
The day had finally come.
On an appropriately overcast day, Fish Town was about to have the most eventful afternoon in its quiet history.
The stage was set.
...No, literally, the stage was right there in the middle, just in front of a giant mysterious something covered by a large gray tarp. Press from all around the city were huddled in front of that, waiting for the event to begin and making small talk. A much larger group of fans were making a much larger amount of small talk a few feet behind them.
But there was one important question to ask…
"Why are you here, Professor Granville?"
She looked over at Fred, hidden in his costume. "Two reasons, Mr. Frederickson. I sit as a member of the city council that voted on putting this statue together. Your family is also part of the city council, if you remember. I don't recall ever seeing you there."
"Well, I don't mean to brag, but I was too busy saving the world!"
"Clearly."
Honey Lemon came up on Granville's other side. "Professor, are we going to start soon? It's starting to get dark."
"Mr. Hamada specifically requested this time period, which also ties in to the second reason why I am here."
A sudden fangirl scream came from the crowd as Hiro and Baymax came flying into view. Hiro waved to the fans as Baymax made his landing, moving toward the rest of the team on the stage. Luckily, a lot of the young kids of the town took the opportunity to use the robot as their own personal playground, giving the young man an opportunity to go relatively unnoticed.
"Hey, everyone," Hiro said to the group. "Sorry I'm late; I had to take care of a couple of things first."
Go Go folded her arms. "You knew this was happening today; what was more important than this?"
"You'll see in a second." Hiro walked over to Granville at the podium. "Did you bring it with you, Professor?"
"Indeed I did." She took a very small pouch out her coat pocket and handed it to him. "And I presume that you have returned the proper one back into my possession, Mr. Hamada?"
"Yeah, it's back." Grasping the bag, he leaned forward to whisper to his teacher. "You know, Professor, you probably shouldn't call me by my real name out in public."
"...I was not aware that you had a proper alias, Mr. Hamada. Or would you prefer that I call you by your other name of Captain Cutie?"
Hiro's face flushed as the rest of the team snickered behind him. "Unbelievable. How do you even know about that?"
"When you have a semester as busy and rambunctious as the Institute did, we try to find the lighter side of things as often as possible. That is not something that is exclusive to the students." Smirking slightly, she turned away from the now embarrassed Hiro and tapped one of the several microphones in front of her. The crowd noise fell away to Granville's voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as a ranking member of the San Fransokyo City Council, it is my privilege to present this statue honoring our city's superhero team, Big Hero 6!"
She nodded to an attendant off to the side, who pulled the cover off to reveal a magnificent sight to everyone: the full team standing heroically in front of a miniature version of Globby as the wall, his face full of determination. In the center was a giant orb laying on the ground, presumably to simulate the star explosion.
"Wow, they really went all out for this, didn't they?" Wasabi looked at his stone duplicate as the crowd applauded.
"Yeah, I really like the detail they put in this." Honey Lemon squinted at the top of her counterpart. "But I'm not really that tall, am I?"
"...We're definitely going to have a talk about that once we get out of here," Go Go sighed.
After the applause died down, Granville returned to the podium. "As we gather here today, one of our heroes has taken the liberty of giving our tribute a special modification." She then turned to Hiro. "Whenever you're ready."
The teen genius opened up the pouch his teacher had given him before, and the rest of the team saw its contents for the first time. It was a very tiny version of Hiro's energy amplifier, barely the size of a battery. He walked over to his statue and bent over, putting it into a tiny hole down near its feet.
Almost immediately, the orb in the center began to levitate. It stopped just over their heads, artificial smoke spiraling around it and acting as an artificial base for it. Finally, the orb started glowing a soft purple hue.
The press's affirmation was accompanied by the hoots and hollers from the adoring fans. Under cover of the noise, Granville leaned forward to a confused Go Go. "Mr. Hamada wished to make some adjustments to this memorial, so he requested the energy amplifier to make a miniature copy. I relented on the basis that I keep the prototype until it was ready."
"Don't you think that's a little dangerous? We know what that thing is capable of."
"Of course, but I trust Mr. Hamada with the process. He is the one who originally made it, after all."
The crowd died down once again, and Granville resumed her place at the lectern. "This statue will serve as a reminder to all of our heroes from that fateful day. And may this beacon provide light and comfort to the people of this town...or at least until the charge runs out on the battery."
A few small laughs came from the crowd. Granville turned to her left, waving in Hiro's direction. "And now I would like to turn it over to the leader of Big Hero 6, who would like to say a few words to everyone."
She stepped off to the side as Hiro came forward. As he prepared to talk, Honey Lemon tapped her professor's shoulder. "I wasn't aware he was going to say anything, Professor."
"All of this was at his request, Ms. Rodriguez. I did not ask why." Granville nodded her head in the genius' direction. "But perhaps we'll find out."
"Hey, everybody." Hiro waved to the crowd, who responded with a flurry of camera bulbs. Rubbing the spots out of his eyes, he continued on. "As Ms. Granville said, I've made it so that you can adjust the brightness of the monument if needed. After all, we don't want to blind anyone. Also, it might be further useful since your lighthouse is out of commission."
More laughter spilled from the audience, causing Hiro to relax a little bit. "But in all honesty, this is such a great honor. I think I speak for all of the team when I say thank you for this. I'm sure Globby, wherever he is right now, would be glad as well."
Hiro paused to catch his breath. His next sentence probably wasn't going to go over very well with the people, and he didn't mean the ones in front of him.
"I do want to take a moment to acknowledge one more person that deserves some credit for what happened that day..."
He turned his head slightly behind to glance at his professor, and then went on.
"And that person's name is Robert Aken."
A confused murmur began to disperse through the crowd. Hiro could tell without looking that his friends shared similar looks of bewilderment.
"I don't expect a lot of people to know who that is. Robert Aken was a student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. He was the first person to develop and study the amplifier technology that we used to help save the town. If it was not for him...the outcome of that day would have been very different."
Hiro paused again, the still image of the collapsing lair from Baymax's video coming forward. "Unfortunately, Mr. Aken could not be here today. He is a very...private person, and did not want his presence to take away anything from the town or us. But I know that he and his daughter Trina..."
"Wait." Wasabi leaned sideways into Go Go's ear. "Did he just say what I thought he said?"
She nodded slightly, not responding.
"They would be very happy to hear that his work affected the lives of so many people in a positive way." Hiro stepped back and waved to the crowd. "Thank you guys so much."
The light bulbs went off once again, but luckily Hiro turned to avoid them. Instead, he was now in the view of the team and Granville, who all had various looks of concern on their faces.
"Look, I can explain-"
"You don't have to explain anything, kiddo." Go Go patted the top of his helmet. "We understand." She nodded in the direction of their professor, who was now kneeling down next to him.
"That was a very brave and selfless thing you just did, Mr. Hamada." Granville lips were pursed, and the clench on her papers was almost airtight, but the smile on her face was genuine.
"Yeah." Hiro couldn't help himself, though. "I mean, it's true, right? If he hadn't tried to make it twenty years ago, I don't know if I would have been able to come up with our solution to stop him. I...would like to think that Bob Aken and Obake are two separate people, right? That's how we all should treat him."
"I think that is a very mature way of thinking about it."
"Captain Cutie!"
The shrill cry from behind them could only belong to one person. Hiro glanced through Fred's arms to see the top of Karmi's head trying to climb up onto the stage.
"Oh geez." Hiro looked up at Granville, but the unasked question, it seems, already had an answer.
"I was perfectly willing to be flexible with you when it came to the amplifier. I believe the best course of action here would be for me to recuse myself." With that, she walked off, a slight smirk on her face.
"I...don't want to deal with this right now. Wasabi, can you-?"
"Yeah." Wasabi turned and headed off in her direction. "I got it."
Hiro took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. Baymax was back in the clutches of the kids, but they had a new jungle gym in the form of Fred. Honey Lemon and Go Go were deep in talks with one of the reporters, Granville closely behind them.
And Wasabi? Well, he was talking to Karmi. He could see through his legs that Karmi kept glancing in his direction. He also, in response to something Wasabi said, mouth the words "Is he OK?". No doubt she saw the look of anguish when he mentioned Obake's civilian name.
She was only concerned. Nothing nefarious. Maybe they could even have a conversation without her hyperventilating.
"Hey." He motioned to Wasabi, who craned his neck to face him. "It's...fine. I'm coming over now."
Wasabi raised an eyebrow in objection, but Hiro shook his head. Content, he walked off, leaving the boy genius with his number one fan.
"Hi, Captain Cutie!"
"Hi, Karmi." Hiro remembered just in time to switch to his superhero voice as he bent down to her level. "Did you like the speech?"
"Yeah, it was so humble and awesome and super and everythingaboutitwasgreat!"
"Woah!" He held up his hands. "Breathe. Take a second."
"Sorry! It's just that I don't really see you except when you're fighting a giant monster or saving my life."
"Well, we're here now." He took a look around at the crowd. "Although you have to share me with everyone else here."
Karmi bent forward, bringing her face much closer to his. "Chop Chop mentioned that you weren't feeling that well. Is everything OK?"
"Oh." Hiro looked away for a moment. "It's just...it's sort of difficult to come back here. Luckily, everything turned out OK in the end, but...when you're in the moment, it's hard to think like that."
Karmi clutched her fist close to her chest. "I know that we're not really...that close, but if you ever want to talk..."
"I know where to find you," Hiro smiled.
Her own smile widening, she gave a gentle squeeze to his hand and ran off, her ponytail flapping behind her. Hiro watched her walk into the crowd, his smile not leaving his face. Sometimes, that girl-
The immediate flashes and deluge of questions knocked him out of his daydream.
"Do you have any comment about the alleged incident on Akuma Island?"
"Will you be opening to adding additional members to your team?"
"Was that your girlfriend?"
"Unbelievable," Hiro muttered under his breath as the reporters hovered around him. "That better not get into the papers tomorrow."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Spoiler warning: it's going to be in the papers tomorrow.
Oh, and I'm not even going to talk about the last name I gave Honey Lemon. You don't have to look far to see why I chose it.
Back on my Year in Review journal, I originally said I was going to add a few more chapters onto this story. While I will still be adding some stuff, I will regrettably have to cut a couple of chapters off of this. It's not for any malicious reason; it's merely because I have other stories that I want to work on and get out. The ideas behind said chapters will be integrated into other stories. That is also part of the reason why this chapter is coming out so late; reworking the outline of this story threw off the timeline a little bit.
So I will have two chapters after this one. One will be Hiro/Karmi related, and the other one will showcase a member of Big Hero 6 I haven't really gotten to yet.
And no, I'm not talking about Mole.
Hopefully one of them will be coming out on Friday.
Read and review, if you like. Until next time.