Chapter 7: The Strike

The time had come. The Bus had landed at San Fransokyo International Airport, and the strike team Coulson mentioned was waiting for them as soon as they walked out the doors. When S.H.I.E.L.D. sends a strike team, they sure as hell sent a strike team.

It did look a little sketchy, being in front of an airport and all. There were black armored vans everywhere, and there were about seven times as many soldiers. They were covered from head to toe in body armor, and all held assault rifles. This was clearly war.

As soon as the team (Coulson, Hiro, Skye, and May) walked out of the airport entrance, Coulson walked up to a man who looked like he was in charge of the strike team. Hiro couldn't make out what he was telling him, but he was sure it was about the situation at hand.

Coulson began talking louder now, trying to speak to all of the soldiers.

"Alright. I'm sure you all know why you're here. This HYDRA base is much larger that most of the ones we've seen so far. There will most likely be heavy resistance, so we will respond with a heavier offense." Coulson spoke like he had done this dozens of times before. Which, now that Hiro thought of it, he probably had. "The base is actually disguised as a large corporation, and it's gone for years without being discovered. The location is Krei Tech, and it's run by Alistair Krei, who, as we have recently discovered, is a head of HYDRA." Hiro couldn't believe what he was hearing. Krei was a head of HYDRA? Just six months ago, Hiro and the rest of the Big Hero 6 had saved his ass from Callaghan. Now, Hiro finds out he's a bigger threat than what he was being rescued from. Figures. Although, the more Hiro thought of it, the more it made sense. Krei Tech made more than just cheap laptops. Krei was building weapons for the military, and most likely HYDRA as well. Him being one of it's leaders shouldn't have been a surprise.

Coulson continued to speak. "Krei Tech is a five hundred story building, not much different than the Avengers Tower in New York. There will be teams entering through the ground floor, and paratroopers entering through the roof door via quinjet. Both Ansgar and Krei will both be trapped in the middle of the building with no means of escape. The only prisoners you will take are Krei and Ansgar, and the workers will be taken in for questioning. Anyone else, drop them on sight. Let's move." Just like that, all of the soldiers filed into the black vans, and some entered strange jets that Hiro hadn't noticed before. Were they allowed to just park jets in a busy parking lot? Man, S.H.I.E.L.D had perks.

When the soldiers were out of the parking lot, there was one van left. May hopped into the driver's seat, as Coulson, Skye, and Hiro got in as well. The van was soon on the road, and heading for the castle that was Krei Tech.

Something suddenly dawned on Hiro. "Hey Coulson. Now that we're back in the city, do you think I could call my friends and have them meet us there? They'd be a pretty big help."

Coulson sat in the passenger seat, and without looking at Hiro, he said, "As much help as they would give, HYDRA is still monitoring our communications. Most S.H.I.E.L.D. messages are untraceable, but I we can't make a call like that from here. HYDRA would immediately be alerted that we're coming, and they'd get Ansgar and Krei out of there before we could blink."

That made sense. But Hiro still wanted to see his friends. It had been so long since he had last seen them, and they were probably only a mile away. Maybe they would here about a major gunfight going down at Krei Tech, and come to help. Surely they couldn't miss hearing about that, right?

Hiro looked out the window, and watched the city slide across his view. The van was on a highway now, so HIro had a very amazing view of San Fransokyo. The city seemed the same, yet different somehow. It was like he had missed something while he was gone. But, he knew the city hadn't changed. He had been gone for so long, everything just looked like a distant memory. But this was real. Hiro was back home, and, while probably not under the best circumstances, he was glad.

In the distance, Hiro could see the gleaming towers that… towered above the city. One of which was Krei Tech, in all of it's glory. For the time being. HIro knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. was gonna tear that place up once they got there, and that would be satisfying to him. Even before hearing about the HYDRA thing, Hiro never like Krei. He had tried to steal one of his microbots… oh and also created the most ruthless criminal in San Fransokyo after ignoring safety and caused someone to go missing for a few years. Yeah, that was probably more major than the microbot thing.

After a few minutes of driving, the van finally reached the base of Krei Tech. Dozens of other Vans littered the street, and there were roadblocks set up to stop any traffic from getting through. From above, Hiro could see several quinjets soar by as men with parachutes jumped out and disappeared over the edge of the roof. Ansgar was trapped now, and Hiro was coming for him.

"Ground team, move!" Coulson yelled as soldiers began pouring out of their vans and into the Krei Tech lobby.

Alright, Krei was evil, but damn, he knew interior design. The place looked like the fanciest hotel in the world… times ten. Then Hiro began to look past that when he remembered that Krei was a head of HYDRA, who probably killed to get the money he has now.

"Hands in the air!" several soldiers yelled. Men and women in suits immediately stopped what they were doing, and also cups of coffee that spilled on rather expensive looking all held their hands in the air, and were on their knees on the ground. Coulson pointed to a group of ten soldiers.

"Keep them here while we advance. We'll get the rest when we're done with Krei and Ansgar."

Neither of the soldiers got to respond to Coulson after one was shot in the knee.

"AH! Damn it!" he yelled in pain. Blood was oozing from the bullet wound. Hiro nevr liked the sight of blood, he couldn't stand it. He looked to the other side of the lobby and saw several Krei Tech security guards filing into the lobby through a door that led to the stairs. Their uniforms said Krei Tech on them, but Hiro knew they were HYDRA. It was evidence enough that they were working for Krei, but they were also covered in body armor like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Either Krei took his security very seriously, or HYDRA was prepped for war.

"Get to cover!" Coulson yelled. Hiro and Skye jumped behind a receptionist desk, and Coulson and May found a large sofa to crouch behind. The rest of the soldiers found furniture, and columns to get behind, and the one who was injured was dragged to cover. Then the bullets started raining.

Hours. HYDRA attacked the team for hours. The café was a mess of destroyed tables, bullet holes, knocked out HYDRA agents, and what Wasabi hoped was spilled ketchup. After about two hours of fighting them, they began to disperse. The attack had stopped, at least for a couple of hours. In that time, Wasabi and Fred had grabbed the unconscious HYDRA soldiers and locked them in the basement. They weren't like HYDRA; they wouldn't kill. Gogo and Honey Lemon stood guard for anymore soldiers. Sure enough, they came.

"Are you kidding me?!" Gogo yelled. "Is HYDRA just pulling soldiers out of their-" BANG! BANG! BANG! Bullets were shot through the already destroyed window. Luckily, HYDRA had the aim of stormtroopers.

"Alright, we can't stay in here!" Wasabi yelled. "Most of them stay out there and shoot, while we just sit in here and play chicken with the bullets. We need to get out there and take the fight to them." Nobody had heard Wasabi talk so confidently before. They weren't sure if that was a good or bad sign, but no one had any better plans.

"Wasabi's right," Honey Lemon said. "We've taken out all the ones that have gotten in here so far. Imagine what we could do if we got out there."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Fred yelled as he jumped out of the café window and began spouting flames.

"Damn it Fred," Gogo said to herself. She didn't want to leave Cass all alone. Sure, she had Baymax, but Gogo doubted his ability to protect her. Wasabi was right. This was the only way to fight off HYDRA.

Gogo, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon all jumped out the window after Fred, and found themselves faced with dozens of HYDRA soldiers.

"Remember," Wasabi said, "don't kill them. That's not who we are."

Fred was being shot at by three soldiers, and he was blocking the bullets with his arm. "Uh, yeah, I don't think these guys have devoted themselves to that rule as much as we have." Fred moved his arm away and swung his tail towards the men, and they all went flying. Two of them hit the building across the street, while the other hit a familiar green sedan, causing it's car alarm to go off.

"Fred!" Wasabi yelled as he was slicing a soldier's gun in half. "I just bought that thing. Between Gogo sinking the other one, and you throwing dudes at it, i'll have to start taking the bus again." Wasabi then kicked the man in the head, making him go unconscious

"Uh, that was not my fault," Gogo said, throwing one of her discs at a soldier trying to shoot her. "Callaghan was the one who sunk your car." Gogo then raced to the man's legs and tripped him.

"Guys, I don't think this is the kind of conversation to have during a gunfight," Honey Lemon pointed out. She had just got done attaching a chemical ball to a man's back that formed some kind of foam around him, making him unable to move.

"We can multitask," Fred said while jumping onto a soldiers back and knocking him on the ground. "Besides, we're winning."

That was true. These were like your typical bad guys. They had a lousy shot, and could easily be taken out in one fell swoop. Unconscious soldiers littered the street, and there were only about three left, but they would probably send more.

"Nick, pick up!" a strange voice spoke. "Nick, we need your ass down here now!"

Gogo could hear it coming from behind a yellow van across the street. Fred walked up from behind Gogo with two of the three remaining guards dangling from his hands...er… claws.

"Hey Gogo, I think this is the last of 'em." He then bashed the two men together, and they fell to the ground with no movement other than their slow breathing.

"Shhhh!" she said. "Listen."

"I can't exactly go anywhere right now, i'm in the middle of something." The voice was definitely coming from behind the van.

"Forget those kids. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s here, and they brought that kid we grabbed a few months back. They're tearing Krei Tech up, you need to get your team over-" The talking stopped when Fred jumped over the van and grabbed the man who was talking on the radio. The radio he was talking with dropped to the cement, and Fred smashed it with his foot.

"It is so rude to be talking on the phone in the middle of a gunfight," Fred said nonchalantly. Before the soldier could speak, Fred threw him against a building.

"That guy said Hiro was at Krei Tech," Gogo said with eagerness. "We have to get over there."

"Wait, Krei Tech?" Honey Lemon said. "What would he be doing there?"

"That guy on the radio said he was with S.H.I.E.L.D.," Wasabi said. "You know? They were those guys Hiro said were spying on us."

"What would Hiro be doing with them?" Fred asked. "He was always complaining about how they were idiots trying to keep people like us in check. Or, something like that."

"Who cares about S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Gogo said like she was the only one thinking logically. "Hiro's here, in the city, and you guys are going to stand around complaining about his beliefs? S.H.I.E.L.D. probably rescued Hiro from HYDRA. They're all at Krei Tech right now, and Hiro needs our help."

No one argued. Gogo was right. Who cared why Hiro was in the city. He was back. After three months of being held by HYDRA, he was back. Nothing was going to stop the team from getting to him.

"How are we supposed to get to him?" Wasabi asked. "Krei Tech is all the way across town."

"We'll ride Baymax," Gogo replied.

"What about Cass?" Honey Lemon said worriedly.

"Didn't you just hear that guy's radio? They don't care about us anymore. They're going to fight S.H.I.E.L.D. at Krei Tech. I'm sure Cass will be fine here on her own."

"I'll go grab him," Fred said eagerly as he ran into the decimated café. Cass was going to have a lot of repairs to make.

"I am not feeling confident whatsoever in this plan," Wasabi said.

"We didn't come up with a plan yet," Gogo replied.

"Exactly."

Fred returned moments later with Baymax in tow. "I really hope you know how to fly him," Fred said. "I've seen you drive things before, and it kind of scares me."

"Relax," Gogo said as she approached Baymax. "I've flown him before. Hiro taught me how" Gogo climbed on to Baymax's back. Hiro had installed small magnets to Gogo's suit that would help her stay on. "Baymax, wings." Gogo said. Red wings popped out of the robot's back, and the rest of the team climbed on.

"Gogo," Baymax said before they took off. "You had asked me to scan if Hiro was within the city limits. Over the past few hours, I have detected his signature in-"

"We know Baymax," Gogo interrupted. "That's why we need to go to Krei Tech. That's where Hiro is."

"Setting coordinates now," Baymax said. Gogo could hear a slight buzzing noise coming from his head. "I have set the coordinates for the Krei Tech tower."

"Alright then," Gogo said. "Take off." With that, Baymax's thruster activated, and the team was soaring through the sky. They were going to find their friend. They were going to find Hiro.

Hiro hated HYDRA. Sure, he's said and thought that before, but he really hated HYDRA. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team had managed to clear the lobby, and now they were making their way up the stairs. The elevator wouldn't hold all of them, and Hiro was sure they would end up being stuck in their, or HYDRA would do something to destroy it. The stairs were the only option.

There was very little resistance on the way up. The only time they ran into HYDRA agents was on the third floor stairs, and the fifteenth floor stairs. They were on the twentieth floor now, and they had only about three soldiers left. The others had either stopped at each floor to check to rooms for Krei or Ansgar, or they were dead. Hiro grimaced every time he saw a body drop to the ground. Those soldiers had given their lives to finding two people who didn't deserve to live. That mad Hiro furious.

May led the way upstairs, while, Skye, Coulson, Hiro, and the three remaining soldiers followed. When they reached the twenty first floor, Coulson stopped them.

"We need to check all of the floors," he said as he opened the door that led to the a large office space.

The soldiers moved in first, their guns raised. Unlike the lobby, this place was deserted. All of the cubicles were empty, and the only sound came from the quiet footsteps of the team. That quietness was disrupted when loud footsteps sounded from the other side of the room. HYDRA soldiers. Hiro's quick mind counted twelve in total. This small team wasn't going to be able to fend them off.

The team had made it to the middle of the room, allowing the HYDRA soldiers to surround them. This was bad. May, Coulson, and Skye were only equipped with pistols. The soldiers had larger firearms, but were definitely outmatched by the HYDRA agents. Hiro had his repulsors, but he doubted he had enough time to take out all the targets without someone getting shot. They were trapped.

"Drop your weapons!" a man who seemed to be in charge yelled. His gun was only a few feet from Hiro's face, so he really wasn't in any position to make an argument.

Hiro looked to Coulson, hoping there was some kind of backup plan. But Coulson just nodded. They were outgunned and outmatched. They had no choice but to drop their weapons. The pistols and assault rifles were dropped on the ground. The guards didn't seem to know about Hiro's repulsor, seeing as how they didn't react in any way when he didn't do anything. Maybe he could use this to his advantage. But not now. Now, they were beaten. Hiro just had to wait for the right moment.

The universe answered his prayers when the large window to Hiro's left exploded with glass, and six of the twelve soldiers went flying into the cubicles. Hiro didn't wait to see what it was that crashed through the window. He quickly turned to face the guards behind him and shot two of them them with his repulsor blasts. These ones weren't on stun. He wasn't messing around anymore, and besides, Coulson or someone else was just going to kill them anyways.

May understood what to do. She picked up her dual pistols off of the ground and shot a soldier square in the chest. Coulson and Skye did the same, and the remaining guards were filled with lead.

Hiro looked at the wrecked cubicles. It was like an airplane crash or something. He walked through the cubicles. The guards that had been blown away were all unconscious, and about halfway through the wreckage, Hiro could hear voices.

"You said you had a plan!" a familiar voice yelled.

"I did have a plan," another voice argued.

"Flying a robot head first into a building isn't a plan! You were just winging it."

"Yeah, winging it was my plan."

Hiro saw who was speaking, and he couldn't believe his eyes. "Guys?" he said quietly.

Gogo and Wasabi had stopped arguing, and looked at Hiro open-mouthed.

No one spoke, but Honey Lemon squealed. It was ear shattering. She jumped off of Baymax, who was laying on the ground, and squeezed Hiro in a tight hug.

"He's here guys!" she cried. Then she became quieter. "He's here."

"Yeah, Honey, it's good to see you too. But can you stop choking me?" Hiro managed to say through Honey Lemon's death hug.

"Oh , sorry," she said, quickly letting go of Hiro. But not too quickly.

Gogo walked over to Hiro. As strange as it was, he expected a hug. But, as he should have seen coming he got socked in the arm.

"We thought you were dead," Gogo said. "Where were you?"

"I know, I know," Hiro said putting his hands up. "I will tell you guys what happened, but now's not a good time."

Fred looked around at all the destroyed cubicles and knocked out guards. "Um, I can see that. What… uh… what's goin' on?"

"Oh, uh, you know. Stuff. I'm glad you guys are here… wait, why are you guys here?"

"Why do you think?" Wasabi said. "We're looking for you man."

"Really?" Hiro looked at the destroyed window. "I would've figured you guys were trying to kill me for being gone so long."

Everyone had eyes on Gogo. "What? Baymax said he picked up Hiro's signature. How else were we going to get up here?" she said defensively.

"The glass on the outside of the building is black. How did you know you weren't coming straight for me?"

"I took a chance-"

"No no no," Wasabi said. "She was 'winging it'".

"I will knock you out," Gogo said, causing Wasabi to immediately shut up.

Hiro couldn't believe this. After three months of complete hell, he was back with his friends. He missed how Gogo was always being so pushy, how Fred was always so nonchalant about everything, how Honey Lemon was always so happy and go-lucky, and How Wasabi was always pointing out people's flaws. Okay that was pretty annoying, but Wasabi was still one of his best friends.

"Wait," Hiro ran behind his friends. "Is Baymax alright?" He was now at the red armored robot's side.

"Window. Gogo. Bad idea. Remember?" Wasabi said, earning a slap in the head from Gogo.

"Hey, Baymax. Are you alright?" Hiro was tapping the side of the robot's head.

Baymax sat up and stared at Hiro. "Hiro, you've returned." The robot said.

"Yeah buddy. Yeah, i'm back. Are you okay?"

"I have sustained minimal damage. All of my primary functions are working properly."

"That's good. It's good to see you again buddy." It really was. Baymax was his brother's best and final creation. If anything were to happen to him, Hiro wouldn't be able to go on. But now he was here. He wasn't going anywhere again, and neither was Baymax.

"Hiro." Hiro turned and saw Coulson. "We need to move, we're… oh." Coulson was now looking at the eight foot tall robot and the five four armored people in front of it. "I see you found your friends. Let's hope it's just as easy to find Ansgar-"

Coulson was cut off by loud footsteps coming from behind a door on the far side of the room. More HYDRA agents Hiro presumed. Just what they needed.

The door was kicked open, and then one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers fired his rifle, but it missed and hit the walls.

"Whoa! Whoa! Friendly fire!" One of the presumed HYDRA agents yelled. Hiro looked more closely at them and realized they were S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers.

Coulson walked over to them to talk. "Did you find Ansgar or Krei in the lower levels?" he asked.

The soldier looked confused. "Sir, we're the paratrooper team. We checked all the levels above this one and didn't find anyone." Now Coulson was the one who looked confused.

"What?" Coulson reached for his radio. "Has the ground team found any sign of Ansgar or Krei. The responses were all 'no sir' or 'nothing here'. "Damn it. Where else could they be? We were told they were at a Krei Tech facility, and this is the only one in the city."

"No, it's not." Hiro turned to see Wasabi with his thinking face on.

"What do you mean?" Coulson asked.

"Well, i'm not sure who it is you guys are looking for, but there is another Krei Tech facility in San Fransokyo. Hiro, you remember."

"Hiro thought about it, and then it clicked. "Akuma Island," he said

"Excuse me?" Coulson asked, still confused.

"There's an island off the coast. Krei used to test his government projects there until one of them went wrong. If he and Ansgar wanted to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D., then that's where he would be."

Coulson went for his radio again. "I need all agents to converge at the base of the building. Ansgar and Krei are not in Krei Tech. All pilots, we'll need quinjets on the ground, and I will provide coordinates."

"Wait, what are we doing?" Fred asked.

"Look guys, it's complicated i'll explain on the way."

"On the way to where?" Gogo said, aggravated. "Hiro, what's going on?"

"I just said where we're going. We're heading to Akuma Island." Then Hiro talked quietly to himself. "We're going to find Ansgar."

Krei was worrying. He was pacing back and forth inside the large lab, waiting for Ansgar to come back. He had plenty of guards with him, but seeing how things have gone so far, they wouldn't stand a chance against S.H.I.E.L.D.

Ansgar walked through the lab doors with two HYDRA agents at his sides.

"There you are," Krei said, no longer pacing. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s at the tower. It's only a matter of time before they figure out that we're here. What exactly are we going to do then?" Ansgar didn't reply at first. He snapped his fingers, and one of the guards handed him a mask.

"It's not what we're going to do Alistair." Ansgar handed the mask to Krei. "It's what you're going to do."

Krei inspected the mask. It was the exact same one that had been worn by Yokai, except the white parts had been painted black, and the eyes were now red.

"The microbots," Krei said, staring dumbfounded at the mask.

"The boy never got to finish all of them, so we couldn't use them for what we originally had planned. Although, given the circumstances, they can be useful in protecting the asset."

"You want me to use them?"

"Do you think I would trust any of these fools with such delicate technology? No. You are going to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. and whoever else comes your way from getting into the facility. I will be in here when everything is ready."

Krei looked over the railing, and gazed at the larger area of the lab, where scientists and engineers were putting the finishing touches on a large, circular machine.

"I hope everything you're doing here will be worth it," Krei said.

Ansgar too looked at the large machine, and he smiled. "Believe me, Alistair. When the time comes, we will be at the same level as the gods."

(A/N) Okay, honestly, that last part was really fun for me to write. I wonder what Ansgar's planning OOOOOOOOOOH (spooky foreshadowing noises) Anyways, thank you guys for reading and I hoped you enjoyed. It feels like forever since I last updated, but I think it's just because I had a lot going on. I really tried to get a Baymax and Hiro moment in there because some people were saying how Baymax, wasn't really involved enough. I thought the same thing, and that's why I hope that moment I put in there satisfies. That's DaydreamDepartment out of your hair! ;)