Recovery
As GoGo stood under the stream of hot water in the Institute's decontamination shower rinsing the alien gunk off of her, she silently wished that it could wash away the whole day and just give her a do-over. Not just that business about the alien invasion either, though that was bad enough (not to mention terrifying) even without this Julian's promise of even worse to come.
"Just what is the matter with you?" Honey Lemon asked her from the next stall over, and it was as if her friend had read the thoughts in her mind and said them aloud.
"I don't know," GoGo truthfully groaned, resting her head against the wall and wishing that she could just sink right through it and disappear.
"I mean if it had happened after the invasion I would understand your head not being in the right place, but this was before," Honey Lemon continued.
"I know," GoGo groaned as she shut off the water and heard Honey Lemon do the same beside her.
As GoGo stepped out of the stall and began toweling off, Honey did the same as she added, "I mean you've been waiting for him to ask him out for how long?"
"Two months," GoGo answered.
"And when he finally gets up the nerve to do so, you shut him down hard," Honey Lemon said as she wrung out her hair, "Please tell me that wasn't the point."
"It wasn't," GoGo replied, her voice muffled by the towel as she dried her hair.
"Then what happened?" Honey Lemon asked as she tied the barrettes in her hair.
"I panicked, okay!?" GoGo exclaimed as she plopped down on the bench, the towel still on her hair and partially covering her face, then she continued in a remorseful voice, "Yes, I'd been waiting for him to woman up and ask me out for what seemed like forever. However, when he did ask I had not been expecting it, and at the moment of truth I chickened out. You know what I'm like."
"Of course I do," Honey said as she sat on the bench in front of her, her towel wrapped around her modestly. She then placed a comradely hand on GoGo's shoulder and pushed the towel back on her head so she could look into her eyes as she continued, "I was the first one of our group to recognize that your stoic bluntness and sarcasm were used as shields you basically hid behind to protect yourself. If I had taken your attitude at face value, it might have taken longer for us to become friends."
"I doubt it," GoGo retorted in a lighter tone, giving her a half-smile, "You were so bubbly and outgoing, even back then, that I would have still become your friend just so you would give me room to breathe."
Honey gave her a small chuckle as she said, "Back then, you were the young kid on campus. But even though I've known you to be cold, tough, and uncompromising, I don't recall you ever saying anything you didn't mean."
"I did mean it, at least at the time I did," GoGo told her as she cast her eyes on the floor again, "I mean, I know that being a year and six months older won't mean so much to me in 20, 10, or even 5 years from now, but at the time he asked me it felt like it mattered very much."
"I know. I get it," Honey said as she lifted GoGo's chin back up so she can look in her eyes again, "But Hiro hasn't known you as long, so he IS likely to take your rejection at face value, and he is such a kind and sweet boy that he's not likely to ask you again and risk alienating you completely."
"I know. I'll….I'll think of something…" GoGo told her, adding with a sardonic smirk, "…assuming that we survive our current crisis, that is."
"Of course," Honey smiled at her friend, then she stood and said, "Well, we better finish getting dressed and get out there before one of the guys comes in for their turn at the showers."
GoGo's smirk then turned into the real thing as she stood and said, "Well they better be patient! If any of them walks in on us, then laser burns or no, I'll beat them black and blue!" GoGo then hugged Honey Lemon and said warmly, "Thanks for understanding."
Honey Lemon returned the embrace, saying, "Hey, what are friends for?"
As the girls exited the decontamination room dressed in their civilian attire, GoGo saw evidence that they need not have worried about being walked in on. In typical guy fashion, a hamper in the corner of the room was piled full of towels the boys had apparently used to towel the alien gunk off them. Surprisingly the boys armor (including Baymax's) was all in the bin & in the process of being recycled, even the undamaged pieces. Only GoGo's and Honey Lemon's were still remaining where they were left after removing them.
Curious as to what was going on, GoGo looked around until she'd spotted them over by the 3D sculpting machine, which was currently producing new pieces of armor, and started heading their way. Wasabi, who'd spotted them coming their direction, asked them in disbelief, "We only have a short while to prepare ourselves before those alien freaks return, and you girls take the time to take a shower!?"
"You would too, if that goo had seeped in the seams and cracks of your armor, gotten in your hair," GoGo retorted stoically.
"For your information, not all of us had full body armor," Wasabi said back to her, adding proudly, "My armor didn't even include a helmet, and I got rained on just as much as you. But a few minutes toweling off and I was just as good as new!"
"It's fine, Wasabi. Really," Julian assured him, "I would be able to tell if the invaders were about to return, and we won't be able to head back out anyway until your new armor is finished."
"New armor?" Honey Lemon asked curiously, and GoGo had to admit that she was just as curious.
"Yeah!" Fred said excitedly, "Apparently this new armor will be totally alien-proof!"
"Well, more like 'alien-resistant," Julian corrected, "The design is basically the same, but I modified the formula of the materials just a bit, giving it a higher melting point and toughness against impact damage. The outer layers will also be better able to deflect the energy blasts they use, while the inner layers will soak up the damage and break off honeycomb fashion should the outer layers fail, providing an additional layer of protection."
"Cool," GoGo said, genuinely impressed.
"Yes, but this protection will not hold up indefinitely, so I would not go charge into battle recklessly thinking that you're invincible," Julian advised them, then he focused on Honey Lemon and said, "I've saved the formula and new designs in a hidden and encrypted folder on your computer, along with the formula you were interested in and anything else that was there that was Big Hero 6 related. I've also upgraded the security on your machine as well. While your computer still retains the same security measures it always had, in order to even see, much less access that encrypted folder, it now also requires a fingerprint scan, which I've hidden in your keyboard, and a retina scan, which is hidden in your monitor."
Honey looked rather impressed as she asked, "But how did you manage to get in in the first place?"
"Computer hacking is but one of many skills I've picked up in my travels," Julian told them, "I've even performed a life-saving surgery on a boy whose cuckoo clock heart was broken."
"His cuckoo clock….heart?" GoGo asked in confusion, certain that she must have misheard him.
"Such a thing would be a medical impossibility," Baymax countered in his usual voice, "The standard cuckoo clock does not have the capacity to sustain human life."
"I understand where you're coming from and would normally agree with you, but what I'm telling you really happened, so I must conclude that some sort of magic must have been involved to make it possible," Julian told him, "I had replaced the clock replaced with a kinetically-powered Swiss pocket watch, one I had specially modified to handle how emotions like love makes one's heart race better than his old clock heart did. Curious thing was that the clock heart he had was put in him by the woman who would end up raising him as her own, in order to replace the frozen heart he had been born with. Elsa might be interested in hearing that story. I'll have to remember to tell her, should I ever see her again."
"Who's Elsa?" Honey Lemon asked curiously.
"Just this queen of a distant kingdom," Julian told her, "She has powers over ice and snow you see, and one time she accidentally froze the heart of her sister Anna. This would have killed her, slowly freezing her to death from the inside out. However, Anna's act of love, sacrificing her life to save Elsa from a cowardly assassination attempt, saved not only Elsa's life but Anna's as well when the love thawed her frozen heart."
"Aww, that's nice," Honey said, looking on the verge of tearing up.
"Wait," GoGo said quickly, looking to not let this discussion spiral out of control, "You're talking about these places, of impossible anatomies and fairy-tale magic, like they're different worlds or something."
"That's right," Julian confirmed, "and as strange as it sounds, they really do exist."
"And does that mean that you're an alien too?" Hiro asked Julian, "Like those things that attacked us?"
"I guess you could say that," Julian conceded, "although I'm not 'like them' like them. I'm a human being from Earth like you, or mutant if your prefer. I'm just not from this Earth."
"What do you mean, 'this Earth'?" Wasabi asked him in confusion.
"Guys!" Fred interrupted, still as jazzed up as ever, "It's the Multiverse Theory!"
"That's right, Fred," Julian said, obviously impressed, "You know, you didn't strike me as being an intellectual like your friends here."
"He's not," GoGo told Julian, "He's just a big comic book nerd."
"Oh. I see," Julian chuckled, "Regardless, your friend Fred is correct. You see, the universe you know is but of one of many that exist alongside an infinite number of others, each on their own separate plane of existence, and their number is growing all the time. You see, in each instance where any event, no matter how small, can go in different ways, that is when a new universe is born. No where is that more evident than in the actions taken my sentient beings like humans. In one world, you see, Hitler could have been allowed by his father to pursue his dream of becoming an artist, in which case he would not have risen to power and the horrors of World War II would have never taken place. To use a more relevant example, Hiro, in one world your friends could have failed to prevent you from taking revenge for the death of your brother by having Baymax take Professor Callaghan's life. In that case you would have become a much different person, and Big Hero 6 would have ended before it even began."
Hiro stared at him in shock as he asked, "How did you know about that? Not even the press or the courts had…"
"I saw it, on my way here to help you," Julian explained.
"Whoa, so you can see the future too?" Fred asked in awe and wonder.
"Not exactly," Julian corrected him, "While I travel through the time stream, which is how I can travel from one earth to another, I can view the events of the past and present. On occasion I may get a glimpse of the future, although it's usually from a 'road not taken', but for the most part the future of a time stream I'm on usually remains an unreadable mess. Probably because it's always in motion until we make a choice."
"So you can see anything that happened to us ever?" Wasabi asked Julian, "Even when we were kids?"
"If my brain was big enough, then yes I could," Julian answered him, "However, I'm only human, and my brain can take only so much information at once. Therefore, when I go someplace I try to focus on only one person, and only on the information I need in order to either help or simply observe. For this world, I focused on you, Hiro."
"Why me?" Hiro asked.
"Initially, it was because you were the leader of the team that was defending this world against the invasion, and I needed to know what kind of person you were," Julian explained, "However, while I was glad to learn you were of the good sort, I was surprised to find that we had much in common."
"Like what?" Hiro asked again.
"For starters, the fact that the path both our lives helping people had started on began with the death of our brothers," Julian told him, "But while you journey started with a quest to bring your brother's killer to justice, mine had begun with my brother dying at my hands."
Everyone flinched back from Julian in shock as Honey Lemon asked in a tone that was both sympathetic an horrified, "You….killed your own brother?"
"It was an accident, but yes. The responsibility for my brother's death lies on my shoulders," Julian confirmed.
"What happened?" Hiro asked.
"I'll give you the cliff notes version, since we may not have much time before the next wave," Julian told them, "I was really young back then, and as such I didn't have the kind of control over my electric powers that I do now. Of course I was too stupid to know that back then, and was even dumber for using my potentially dangerous gift like a toy to play with my brother, doing idiotic things like playing Ceiling Tag."
"Ceiling tag?" Hiro asked for confirmation.
"I'd charge us both up good with static electricity, then we'd use the cling to chase after each other along the walls and ceiling," Julian explained.
"Sounds pretty awesome!" Fred said.
"We thought so too," Julian confirmed, "until one day, when I was 'it', my brother's static charge got too low and he fell. I tried to catch him, but instead I accidentally stopped his heart with an electric jolt."
"I'm so sorry," Honey told him sympathetically.
"If an electric jolt to the heart was what killed your brother, then a second jolt done soon enough should have revived him," Baymax commented, then he rubbed his hands together to reveal his built-in defibrillators as if he wanted to demonstrate.
"You're right, but I didn't know that back then," Julian said, "All I knew was that my brother was dead and it was all my fault. I told my parents what had happened, but they wouldn't let me tell others the truth of what happened to him and assuage my guilt, so I did the only thing a dumb kid like me could think of: I ran away from home."
"What happened then?" Fred asked, and for the first time since meeting Julian his voice wasn't full of enthusiasm.'
"We don't really have the kind of time I'd like to spend telling you kids of the things I've seen and done in my travels, but I will say that I met a man who changed my life," Julian told them, "Charles Xavier, a man who possessed powerful psychic gifts, found me and took me in. He convinced me that I was not a monster, helped me to learn how to control my gifts, and taught me that it was my responsibility to use my talents to help others."
"That guy sounds pretty cool," Hiro said.
"He was," Julian confirmed, "But I did not come to tell you my life story. We have much more important thing to discuss."
"Of course," GoGo said, glad to get down to business, "Let's start with what those thing were that attacked us today. You acted like you've encountered them before."
"I believe so," Julian told her, "If I'm not mistaken, those were the Chitauri: a technologically advanced alien race that serves as warrior-slaves to the mad titan Thanos".
"Thanos? Who's that?" Fred asked.
"Pray that you never meet him," Julian advised them, "He's perhaps the closest thing to a god you'll ever meet, and not a benevolent one. Incredibly powerful, unbelievably resilient, and wherever he goes death follows, some of whom that survived an encounter with him claim that's literally true."
"So what does this guy want with our planet?" Hiro asked Julian.
"Out of all the planets he's tried to conquer or annihilate, only one in any universe had managed to thwart him time after time, and that's Earth," Julian explained, "With its numerous heroes, foremost amongst them being the team known as the Avengers, any attempt he's made at conquering or destroying Earth has met in failure. As such, he holds a serious grudge."
"But we've never even heard of these Avengers," Wasabi said insistently, "so why is he attacking us?"
"I believe part of the reason he's choosing to attack you IS the fact that there's no Avengers here," Julian explained, "The formation of that team was instrumental in his first humiliating defeat, and I'm sure that through the portals he's created with the Infinity Stone he's likely acquired he has seen that the same has held true against the other versions of him."
"Infinity Stone?" Fred asked curiously.
"The Infinity Stones, and yes that's plural, are gems of immense power. In fact, the power one can wield with them is practically….well, infinite," Julian explained.
"Sounds pretty cool," Fred commented.
"Yeah, well don't go getting any bright ideas, Fred," Julian warned him, "Even if you could find any of those in this universe, the power contained within the Infinity Stones is too great for most mortal beings to handle. Nearly everyone who has tried had been overwhelmed by the power and destroyed. In the different universes I've seen, only Thanos and Adam Warlock had been successful in wielding them, although I heard that Peter Quill, a.k.a. Starlord, had managed to channel the power of one of them briefly. Of course Starlord had the help of his friends, a group of misfit aliens who call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, and it didn't hurt that he wasn't entirely human himself."
"That's a cool hero team name," Fred complimented.
"But if this Thanos has one of these powerful gems, then why doesn't he just come and wipe us out himself?" Hiro asked.
"Possibly because he doesn't have the right one," Julian answered, "You see, each gem contains a certain power, likely a certain aspect of the universe that came before. One, the Tesseract, has the ability to open doorways in time and space. It was through his alliance with Loki that this gem was used to create the doorway Thanos' Chitauri used to invade that Earth, which lead to aforementioned defeat by the Avengers. I think that we can rule out Thanos having that one, though, as he likely would have used it instead to challenge the Avengers directly. Likewise we can probably rule out the one Starlord had recovered, as Thanos could have used its power of eliminating organic life directly instead to wipe everyone here out and pave his way for the invasion of the Avengers' world."
"That, I believe, is the other reason he chose to invade your world. While he seems to have managed to get enough energy from the Infinity Stone to create a portal to travel through, the machinery he's likely using isn't like powerful enough without the Tesseract to create a wormhole clear to the Avenger's world, at least to remain open long enough to allow a large enough force to overwhelm them for Thanos to claim victory. However, your world is relatively close dimensionally speaking to his, and yours is practically next door to the Avengers'," Julian continued, "By conquering your world, he gives himself a perfect staging area to lay siege to theirs. Then all he needs do is wear them down until he can go and finish them off himself."
"Well we were certainly lucky that you came along when you did," Hiro said gratefully, "I'm not sure what I would have done against that huge beast otherwise."
"Yes, those Leviathans can be rather troublesome," Julian agreed, "Even Iron Man had trouble dealing with them until the Hulk's punch created an opening for him and revealed that they're not so tough on the inside. Of course you kids were doing pretty well for being new at this. The only thing you're lacking is experience. That and a real heavy hitter."
"Baymax is pretty strong," Hiro said.
"Yes, and the ability to lift 1000 pounds sounds rather impressive," Julian agreed, "but his pacifist nature tends to work against him in that regard. What we need to help us currently is someone who not only has experience in this kind of situation but also has someone who's both strong and won't pull his punches. Fortunately I know where we can get someone like that."
"Really?"
"Yes," Julian confirmed, "There's this team situated over in Metroville, and the founding members have had years of experience before the Superhero Relocation Program forced them to retire for a while, but they've been back in action for a while, and I do believe that they would be happy to lend us a hand. I just need to get them here."
As Julian scanned the lab for a bit Honey Lemon asked, "What are you looking for?"
One moment later, Julian stopped by a sink and announced, "This'll work." He then bent the faucet neck up and turned it on full blast, causing a wide but thin stream to shoot from the distorted end and cascade onto the floor mere feet before them.
"You need to flood the lab in order to call your friends here?" GoGo scoffed, "You couldn't just create a portal in the air like the one you used to get here in the first place?"
"Not really," Julian told them, "When Thanos created the wormhole to attack you, I merely took advantage of the fact that anyone could use the open door to pass through. However, in order to create my own portal I require running water." Julian then charged his hands with electricity and fired them at the manmade waterfall, resulting in a door-sized rectangular area of glow to appear in it. As she watched, five figures stepped from the glowing water. Dressed in matching red and black uniforms, they were all of varying ages, some appearing rather young, but GoGo thought that the two older ones looked rather familiar. Fred, on the other hand, looked as though he'd died and gone to Geek Heaven.
"Oh…my…god…!" Fred breathed, then he started squeaking in an increasingly high pitch, "OhmygodohmygodOHMYGOD! I can't believe it! You….you're…?"
The older male stepped forward and said, "Mr. Incredible, at your service."