Chapter 10: The Void

The portal was as big as it was going to get.

It had covered the entire middle section of the portal device, and it looked like a portal to nowhere. There was nothing but eerie darkness. No land masses, no stars, just… emptiness. This was where Ansgar was trying to go?

"It's beautiful," Ansgar said to himself. His lizard voice was creepy. He still had his german accent, but now it was deep, and had lost all human quality. "Access to worlds we didn't even know existed or could exist. You would wish to stop this?"

Coulson ripped his focus from the portal, and his eyes were now on Ansgar. "We wish to stop you from angering beings that already don't seem to like us."

"They will cower when they are faced with the power I now possess."

"You're going to take on armies by yourself?"

"Of course I am. I am more powerful than any army HYDRA can muster up. Why did I not see it before? I'm above all of them now. I don't need weak soldiers when I have the strength of a dozen."

"The serum's made him insane." Coulson said to the team.

"Insane?!" Ansgar roared in anger. "I've never been more sane. This serum is the key to wiping out all that opposes this planet. All that opposes me."

"Yep," Hiro said. "I can see where you're pulling that insane theory from."

"Silence!" Ansgar swiped his claws at Hiro. The attack never came.

Baymax had a tight grip on Ansgar's arm. Hiro would have made a pun about it being a steel grip if it weren't for the fact that they were in imminent danger. Then Baymax did the most peculiar thing. He punched Ansgar square in the chest. Ansgar was sent flying into the viewing area of the lab. The one where Krei had watched, from behind safe the safety of glass, Callaghan's daughter disappear into the portal device. Apparently HYDRA had rebuilt it after the Yokai had decimated it.

"What the hell just happened?!" Fred yelled.

"I thought Baymax couldn't hurt people," Gogo said in confusion.

Hiro smiled. "Baymax's programming doesn't allow him to harm humans. Whatever Ansgar is now, he sure as hell isn't human."

"Correct," Baymax said. "Ansgar's DNA is now eighty five percent that of a lizard's. He was a danger to Hiro, so it was my programming to defend."

Hiro smiled. Baymax had never actually hit anyone before. He wasn't allowed to harm humans. But now, he was about to kick Ansgar's ass.

From the viewing area, a sound like metal scraping against metal could be heard. The sound was Ansgar. More precisely, it was Ansgar roaring. Ansgar was roaring. He rose from the broken glass and cement he had just flown through, and he did not look happy. He was more of a beast than he was human now.

"We don't have time for this," May said. "God knows what's going to come out of that thing. We need to shut down that portal before what happened in New York, happens here."

"Baymax," Hiro turned to his big red friend. "Can you hold off Ansgar while we shut down the portal device?"

"Ansgar seems to pose a threat to the well being of all of you. So I will 'hold off' Ansgar until you instruct me otherwise."

"Good," Hiro said.

Ansgar leaped out of the viewing area, and Baymax caught him before he could land a blow on anyone.

Hiro watched in awe as the two fought. Baymax grabbed Ansgar by the tail and swung him hard against the metal wall. Ansgar retaliated by lashing his claws out at the large robot. It left a scratch in Baymax's sleek red armor, but other than that, it didn't phase him.

"Hiro come on," Skye said, tugging on the boy's shoulder. Everyone rushed down the flight of stairs to get to the larger area of the lab. There were still about a dozen soldiers left, but they had stayed back to help Baymax. Hiro feared the worst for them.

They were all directly under the right side of the machine. Hiro looked like the portal was going to suck him right in, but it remained as it was. Nothing had come out yet, but who knows how quickly that could change?

"Alright Hiro," Coulson said. "How do we shut this thing off?"

Hiro gave a shrug. "I don't know."

"What!" everyone yelled. They all had a tendency to do that now. Hiro flinched a bit.

"Well I didn't make the thing. It's Krei's technology. Hell, I flew into it and I still don't know how it works. I never got a good look at it because it exploded after…"

"After what?" May asked.

"After it became unstable," Wasabi finished for Hiro. "You guys remember, it hit the ground too hard after Callaghan dropped it and it went haywire."

"Let's try to avoid haywire," Coulson said. "So it exploded. This Tesseract energy is dangerous. Krei's methods of making this thing work might've been harmless, but the Tesseract is the cause of what happened in New York. Any other ideas?"

"Why don't we just take the energy out of the portal device?" Skye offered. "Ansgar put it into it. Can't we just take it out? It's all still hooked up."

Coulson turned to Hiro. "Do you think you could get that generator to work in reverse?"

"I… I could try, but-"

One of the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers was thrown over the railing from the elevated lab space, and collided with the portal device. He fell to the hard concrete ground only a few feet away from the team. He wasn't dead, but he definitely wasn't going to be moving for a while.

"Yeah I can do it," Hiro said. Fred grabbed the soldier who had been hurt, and laid him against the wall.

"We might need to help these guys," Fred said. "Baymax can only hold him off for so long."

Hiro didn't like the thought of his friends going up against Ansgar. Baymax was barely able to take him on. But Hiro was going to need all protection he could get if he was going to rewire the generator. "Be careful," Hiro said. "Keep him from getting down here."

"Please," Fred said. "Careful's my middle-"

"Don't," Gogo interrupted. "Don't you dare jinx us."

"Buzzkill."

"Just go!" Hiro yelled. His friends ran up the flight of stairs leading to the elevated lab. He hoped for the best… but expected the worse. But he had faith in his friends.

"We'll stay down here with you," Coulson said. "We'll be your last line of defense.

"Do you really think you can stop Ansgar from getting to me?"

"I think we can try."

Hiro hated that word. Try. You either can or can't. Usually when people say try, they can't.

"You just need to reverse that generator."

Hiro went to work. He ran over to the generator located behind the portal device. It had lost its blue glow, which was actually a good thing, seeing as how Hiro wouldn't be blinded while he was trying to work. The machine was easily ten feet tall, and was a reflective chrome color. Hiro ripped a panel off of the machine's side and began rearranging the wires. This machine was more complicated than Hiro had anticipated. He had to hand it to Ansgar, but he also had to say he was an insane psychopath trying to mess with aliens.

Hiro couldn't see it but the fight in the elevated lab sounded rough. He heard a few S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers cry out in pain, and even Wasabi. Well it was probably more of a cry of fear than one of pain, but nonetheless the situation sounded bad.

Hiro continued to play with the wires, trying to find the right rearrangement that would cause the energy to be drained from the portal.

He was trying to connect two wires when he heard a deafening scream. Not like Wasabi's fear scream, but the scream of someone in pain. It wasn't one of the soldiers, it was one of Hiro's friends.

Hiro ran from the generator, almost ripping the two wires in the process.

"Hiro! What are you doing?!" Coulson yelled as Hiro ran for the elevated lab. He didn't care about the portal anymore. He didn't care what kind of hell it was going to raise. All he knew was that one of his very close friends had been hurt, and he couldn't, wouldn't sit idly by as that happened.

The lab was now in view, and even though it had only been about ten minutes since Ansgar and Baymax had started fighting, the place looked like a tornado had hit it. Hiro had heard all the noise the battle was creating, but he couldn't have imagined the place looking like this.

There had been many tables spread out across the lab, but now only one remained, and Ansgar was using it to hit Baymax. The rest were in pieces all throughout the room. There were large dents everywhere around the room, some very large, and others relatively small. A new one was created in the wall by the broken door when Baymax threw the table out of Ansgar's hands and bashed his head into the metal wall. Ansgar retaliated by grabbing Baymax's head, and ramming it into the same wall.

Hiro saw his friends helping to fend off Ansgar as well. Fred kept jumping on Ansgars back and breathing fire. There were no burn marks though. Was Ansgar fire proof? Fred couldn't stay on Ansgar long though, for he was being thrown off with ease. Fortunately, his kaiju suit protected him from any bodily harm.

Gogo was all over the place. She was circling Ansgar and whipping her diss at his face. Unlike Fred's attempts to phase him, Gogo managed to severely bother Ansgar. Every time one of her discs made contact with his face, he became distracted enough for Baymax to land a blow on him.

Wasabi, other than Baymax, seemed to be doing the most damage. He was sinking his plasma blades into Ansgars skin. Every time this happened, Ansgar roared in both pain and anger. Ansgars skin healed after every cut though. Wasabi had only been whipped back a few times by Ansgars tail. He was tough, so he could handle a few blows.

Covering Ansgar's entire right shoulder was some kind of pink crystal-like substance. Honey Lemon's work. Hiro couldn't seem to locate the last member of the team until his eyes fell on a pink figure sprawled out on the ground. Hiro ran to his friend's side immediately.

"Honey Lemon!" he yelled as knelt beside his friend. Hiro could see now that she had a large gash in her left leg. There was blood everywhere. "Oh my god. Alright, Honey Lemon. You're gonna be alright… um…" Hiro didn't know what to do. There was so much going on at once, such as Coulson and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team screaming at him to come back, the racket his team's fight with Ansgar was making, and Honey Lemon's bleeding leg.

"Hiro," Honey Lemon grabbed Hiro's arm. "Don't… don't worry… about me. Go… kick Ansgar's ass." She seemed to be breathing heavily.

"But… I can't just-"

"I'll… be fine. There's nothing you can do to help me right now. You wanna help someone? Help… help them." She pointed to their friends, who were risking their lives to take down Ansgar.

"You'll be fine?" he asked Honey Lemon.

"It's not that bad a cut," she said. Clearly the cut was huge, but if Honey Lemon thought she could handle herself, than who was Hiro to question her?

He got up to face Ansgar, but quickly turned to look at Honey Lemon.

"Don't worry about me," she said. "Go."

Hiro didn't hesitate that time. He ran full speed into the fight between the rest of the team and Ansgar. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team that had been up in the lab were all either dead with vicious looking claw marks, or were knocked out. Dead was the majority of that ratio.

Hiro realized something at that moment. This problem wasn't going to be solved simply by shutting down the portal. Ansgar was the problem. He needed to be taken out. S.H.I.E.L.D. planned to arrest him, but at this point, even Coulson had to know that wasn't an option anymore.

Fred was in the process of breathing fire on Ansgar while Baymax was trying to get up from being knocked down. Wasabi noticed Hiro first.

"Hiro?!" he yelled. "What are you doing here?!"

Hiro didn't have time to answer the question, because Ansgar had knocked Fred back with his tail, and Hiro had to dodge his friend who went flying.

Hiro had to slide under Fred, and while doing so, shot two repulsor blasts at Ansgar's face.

"ARRRRRRGH!" Ansgar yelled in pain. He pulled his hands to his face as if to ease the pain.

Hiro kept running toward Ansgar. Bad idea.

Ansgar had taken his hands away from his face, and instead had them lash out at Hiro with extended claws. Hiro was knocked to the side, and he crashed into Wasabi.

When they both got up off of the floor, Wasabi looked furious. "What are you doing?!" he yelled.

"I think it's pretty obvious that i'm trying to help," Hiro replied.

"You're supposed to be shutting down the portal."

"No you're not!" Ansgar yelled as he slammed his forearms into the space where Hiro and Wasabi had been standing, but they had both leaped out of the way. Baymax had finally gotten up, (he could fly, punch through walls, and detect any disease imaginable, yet he couldn't get up in under five minutes) and he was now on Ansgar. Literally, Baymax had jumped on Ansgar's back. Hiro never taught him that, where did he… Gogo.

"What are you doing here?" Gogo had noticed Hiro's presence. "You're supposed to-"

"I already tried," Wasabi said.

Fred had run up to join the group. He was breathing pretty heavily. "I'm… gonna… take a breather. Baymax… looks like he has this. Wait what's Hiro doing-"

"I came because Ansgar's the bigger problem here," Hiro interrupted. "Shutting down the portal's not enough. If we take Ansgar down, the portal won't really be a problem."

"Oh yeah?" Gogo said skeptically, her arms crossed. "What happens if something comes out of that thing? We all saw on the news what happened in New York. Do you really want that to happen here?"

"If something was going to come out of the portal, it would've done so by now. I will shut down the portal, but Ansgar comes first."

"Hey has anyone seen Honey Lemon?" Fred asked. Had he heard a word Hiro had said?

Wait a minute. Honey Lemon was still hurt. Hiro had just left her there. He knew she told her to, but looking back at it now, it seemed like he had left his friend to die.

"Over here," Honey Lemon said weakly from across the room.

Everyone ran to her. Her cut looked like it had gotten bigger, or maybe that was just Hiro's imagination.

"Holy shit!" Fred yelled. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Clearly a lie.

"That," Wasabi motioned to the large cut, "doesn't look 'fine'."

"Here, I gotcha." Fred picked Honey Lemon up off the ground.

"Hiro we can't hold out much longer," Gogo said. "Baymax can fend off Ansgar, but I don't think he has much battery left."

Hiro looked around. The destroyed lab where a slowing Baymax was getting his ass handed to him by a giant lizard. The portal, in which something horrible might emerge at any moment. And then Honey Lemon's leg. Everything was going to hell, fast, and Hiro didn't know what to do.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hiro saw Coulson, Skye, and May come up the flight of stairs, guns raised.

"What the hell are you doing?" Coulson asked Hiro. "We need that portal shut down."

Hiro was silent.

"Hiro."

"No," he said.

"What?"

"No," Hiro said a bit louder. "We need to take Ansgar down. He's kidnapped me, forced me to build a weapon, threatened my family and friends, and is now a nine foot lizard trying to show aliens how tough he is. He's the priority. He needs to be shut down." Hiro didn't feel to sure about that last bit. He was just trying to sound cool. But his words were enough to sway Coulson.

"Alright then. Then what do we do? If we don't shut down the portal then what do we do?"

Hiro looked to the portal, than to Ansgar, who had Baymax in a headlock. A plan had formed. A beautiful plan involving aerial maneuvers, movie logic, and hopefully explosions. "Ansgar wanted to go to space so bad, well we're gonna give him a first class trip."

"What?" May asked. "We're trying to stop Ansgar from going in there. Putting him in would be giving him what he wants."

"We're trying to stop armies from coming through that thing, but if I close up the portal after putting Ansgar through it, he'll be trapped, and nothing can get through."

"It can't be that simple," Skye said.

"Oh but it is," Hiro said, sounding like some sort of a professor giving a lecture. Movie logic: check.

"Alright, so how do we do it?" Fred asked, Honey Lemon still in his arms.

"Gather 'round children, gather 'round." Hiro had everyone in a huddle now. He explained how he was going to have both of the teams draw Ansgar near the portal, giving Hiro and Baymax enough space between Ansgar and the end of the room to push him into the portal. Simple.

"Why don't you just have Baymax carry him into the portal?" Wasabi asked. His question was answered when Ansgar grabbed Baymax by the arm and swung him around like a rag doll. It was miraculous that Ansgar managed to stay focused on Baymax this entire time.

"Right," Wasabi said. "Element of surprise it is."

"Okay," Hiro said. "You guys go draw him down there. I'll get Baymax ready, and when he's close enough to the portal, we're gonna push him in."

"What about Honey Lemon?" Wasabi asked.

"I'll watch her," Skye offered. "Simmons has been teaching me to help wounds heal without any equipment. It won't work for long though, so we'll have to get her back to the bus."

"Can he hear us?" Fred asked, eying the battle between Baymax and Ansgar. "I mean, he's like a giant lizard now. Can't lizards hear really well?"

"He doesn't even have ears now," Gogo pointed out.

"I don't think now's the time to be discussing the physical appearance of a giant lizard," Coulson said. "Let's go."

Fred put set Honey Lemon down on the other end of the lab, away from the fight. Skye stayed with her

Coulson went into the center of the room, where Baymax and Ansgar had been fighting.

"Baymax stop!" Hiro yelled. He needed Baymax to stop fighting Ansgar so that Coulson could get his attention. As soon as Baymax stopped, Ansgar threw him across the room. Hiro hated to watch his brother's greatest creation get tossed around like that, but he needed Baymax for what he had planned.

Coulson fired off three shots into Ansgar's right arm, and May did the same. The bullets did the same thing they had done when the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers had fired; they popped out of Ansgar's body, and the wounds healed. But, it was enough to get his attention.

Ansgar roared with rage. Now that he was a lizard, he seemed to do that more than he talked. Coulson and May ran for the flight of stairs with Ansgar in tow.

"Guys, go with them," Hiro said as he began helping Baymax off the ground. "Get him near the portal."

"Dude we got it," Fred said. "You just do your flying thing."

Hiro watched as his friends jumped over the rail and into the larger lab area. He needed to do his part as they did there's. He climbed on to Baymax's back, and activated his wings.

Now that he was a bit higher, Hiro could now see what was going on beneath the rail. Ansgar was being circled by both teams. He was being easily distracted by everyone attacking him one at a time, making it hard for him to pick a target. Hiro began to wonder if the lizard serum was the best thing to ever happen to him. Sure he was stronger, faster, and more agile, but he wasn't as smart. He was being easily distracted by something that had nothing to do with what he was trying to accomplish. Ansgar would've never been so easily sidetracked. But that played into the team's hands whether Ansgar knew it or not.

"Baymax, thrusters," Hiro said.

As he was instructed, Baymax, after getting a running start, leapt into the air like he was doing a dolphin dive, and his thrusters roared to life. Aerial maneuvers: check.

Ansgar was right in front of the portal. Right where Hiro needed him to be. Ansgar turned around when he heard the roar of the thrusters, but not soon enough. Baymax's fist collided with Ansgar's chest, and the world felt like it was going on slow motion. Ansgar was flying toward the dark, murky portal, and the look on his face was priceless. Well, all his faces looked the same now, but Hiro had a wild imagination.

Hiro was about to pull up, but something grabbed his arm. Ansgar's teal, scaley hand was wrapped around Hiro's arm, and threatened to rip it off if Hiro tried to tug away. As Ansgar flew into the portal, as did Hiro without Baymax, who had pulled up in the nick of time.

He didn't quite know how to describe it. Going through the portal was like opening a freezer, and feeling the cool icy blast hit you. As soon as Hiro passed through the portals edges, that's what he felt. Ansgar tumbled, and Hiro along with him. At least there was solid ground.

Hiro had landed on his chest, and his eyes went wide when he lifted up his head to check his surroundings.

The landscape was nothing but barren rock. It looked like the entire place was made out of dark concrete, with large and small rock formations here and there. About fifty feet or so feet from where Hiro landed, a very large, rock formation stood tall, like a mini-mountain. What made this one different from the rest was the fact that it seemed to have stairs carved into it. Was someone… something living here?

It wasn't what was around Hiro that astounded him. It was what loomed above that made Hiro question everything he knew about outer space. The sky wasn't all black. In fact, much of it was covered in a streams of bright red, like nebulas that had been smeared across the sky. Rock that must've been from the land he was standing on floated through the air… er… space. The place looked like it wasn't holding together very well. Hiro saw island sized pieces of the rock floating in place. But what really caught Hiro's eye were the planets. They dotted the dark-red sky above Hiro, about eight or nine. They were all so close to where Hiro was, that he was afraid that one might fall from the sky and crush him. Another thing was, they seemed to be on the verge of crumbling. All of them were covered in cracks, and a few even had mile long holes, like something had ripped out entire chunks of land. None of them looked like they were supporting any life.

Everything around Hiro astounded him. He only got to take in the view for a short while, and then he noticed Ansgar get to his feet. Hiro would've thought his first instinct would be to kill him, but instead, he was gazing at the bright desolate sky as Hiro had.

"Magnificent," Ansgar said to himself. Hiro wondered if Ansgar had forgotten if he were there. "Entire worlds that we had no knowledge of. Entire worlds that we have yet to discover. Creatures that wish to attack us at first sight. They have another thing coming."

"It only happened once Ansgar," Hiro said. He stood up now and face Ansgar. "That was one species of aliens that tried to kill us. And we defeated them."

Ansgar craned his head toward Hiro, much like an alert parrot. "Once? That's a lie. First, it was the Destroyer, that came all the way from Asgard and leveled a small town. Then the Chitauri came, and they left New York in ruins. Then came the dark elf that almost plunged this universe into darkness. All of this S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to hide from us. All of this we should know, but didn't. The world doesn't really know what's going on, but I do."

"You think you can change all of that yourself? Man, lizard serum's one hell of a drug." Hiro tried to joke to stop himself from freaking out. Here he was, in an unknown part of space, facing a nine foot lizard who was already a psychopath beforehand. None of this made sense.

"I will change more in one day than S.H.I.E.L.D. has in years. Look around you. This is the same area the Chitauri came from. They were living in holes in the ground. Mankind is more civilized in every way."

"Riiiiiight. Because you're perfect example of that."

"Can't you see? We've been fearing these neanderthals. Why? They're nothing but beasts seeking destruction."

"You actually are a perfect example of that."

"I'm a man representing the human race."

"You're nothing but asshole guided by fear."

Hiro touched a nerve.

Ansgar lashed out at Hiro. He sprang from his spot a few feet away from Hiro, and would've sunk his claws into his skin if Hiro hadn't leapt out of the way.

Hiro spun around and shot a repulsor blast that made contact with Ansgar's chest. Not as effective as the face. Ansgar charged Hiro, and Hiro began to play matador with him. Every time Ansgar charged at Hiro, he would move out of the way at the last minute, causing Ansgar to stumble over his own weight.

"I don't have time to deal with the likes of you." Ansgar looked to the large mountain-like rock formation with the carved out stairs. "Is there anyone here to face me?!" Ansgar screamed. "Anyone to show me your worth as a species?!"

Nothing happened at first. Then came the thumping. It was almost like miniature thunderstorms. Then a large, dark figure came down the stairs. The shadow the rock formation made covered the figures body, but Hiro could tell it was huge.

"And who might be foolish enough to want to face me?" The voice was the deepest thing Hiro had ever heard. But it wasn't the voice, it was the language it was speaking. Aliens knew english?

Ansgar hesitated before answering. He must have been just as surprised about the english thing as Hiro was. Or maybe it was just solely the fact that someone had answered his calls. "I… I am Ansgar Teufel. I've come to… represent the strength of Earth."

Everyone was silent for a moment. This was actually happening. Hiro was only a mere fifty feet from an actual alien. It, or rather he from the sound of the voice, didn't seem like one of the aliens that had attacked New York. The figure was much larger. What was Ansgar going to do now? He said he was going to play the offensive for Earth by attacking any alien that came his way, but from the looks of things, he didn't expect to actually find anything to fight. He seemed scared shitless now that he was faced with one.

"Earth?" the alien said. "I was told that Earth wasn't something to trifle with. I wasn't sure if it was because they had skill that allowed them to defeat the Chitauri, or if it was just dumb luck. But now that I see that two of them came to my sanctuary to face me, i'd have to say dumb luck."

"You're the fool if you think you can just talk to someone of my importance like you are," Ansgar spat.

"Don't lecture me about importance. You are just a microscopic blip in space and time. Nothing would change if you were to just… disappear."

"Is that a threat? Yet another example of the savagery of the extraterrestrial-"

In the blink of an eye, the figure was inches away from Ansgar's face, clenching his throat with his large hands.

You come into my domain seeking war, and you think you can talk down to me? You're weak." Ansgar was thrown to the ground, hard. "Ignorant." The alien kicked Ansgar in the gut, harder. "And you're supposed to represent the human race?" Ansgar retaliated. He leapt off the ground and decked the alien in the jaw. The alien didn't seem hurt. He quickly turned around and punched Ansgar in the chest in an uppercut motion. Hiro could see the alien clearly now. He was just as tall as Ansgar, maybe even taller. He was downed head to toe in what appeared to be golden armor, and his skin was a dark purple color. Hiro probably wouldn't find him menacing had it not been for his display of strength against Ansgar. He seemed to notice Hiro's presence, but was more focused on Ansgar.

The two clashed. It was most definitely the most impressive battle Hiro had ever seen.

"Hiro," a soft voice spoke, causing Hiro to jump. Standing behind Hiro was Baymax, in all his reed glory.

"Baymax? How did you…?" Hiro looked behind the large robot. The portal was still open. Oh no. The portal was still opened. If that weird purple guy got through, who knew what he could do? "We need to get out of here."

"It would not be wise to stay here any longer," Baymax said. "The temperatures here are severely low." Hiro hadn't even noticed the cold except for when he first went through the portal. Wait, forget the cold!

"Come on!" Hiro yelled as he sprinted to the portal. Unfortunately, he had forgotten how slow Baymax was. "Oh for god's sake!" Hiro began pulling on the robot's arm.

The alien wasn't as distracted as Hiro thought. He quickly noticed the portal after Hiro began running to it.

"What is this?" he said, causing Hiro stop dead in his tracks. He could've kept running, but for some reason, he found himself stuck to that one spot. "Tesseract energy? I've gone through the trouble of sending an army to find the cube. Now I find it here in my very dwelling."

"Baymax, he's not human right?" Hiro asked.

"No," the robot replied. "He is not human, but I am having trouble determining-"

"Than rocket fist him."

"Does he pose a danger to your life."

"He just kicked Ansgar's ass, and would most likely snap me like a twig. So yes."

Without any more questions, Baymax extended his right arm, and his fist shot out at the alien. WHAM! Right in the chest. The alien was sent flying, crashing into the mini-mountain he had originated from. That seemed to catch him by surprise. Baymax's fist quickly returned to him via mini-thrusters.

"Let's get out of here!" he told the robot as he dragged him to the portal. The alien was dazed. Good. That bought Hiro some time to close the portal.

The two ran for the portal, and Baymax finally began running by himself, and even jumped through the portal, taking Hiro with him. Hiro looked back and saw nothing but the dazed alien and the bloody, unmoving form of Ansgar.

It was the opposite feeling going through the portal the other way. Hiro was met with a wave of warmth when he breached the portal, but then landed on the hard metal floor, so it was a win-lose situation.

"Hiro!" he heard Gogo scream as she ran up to help him off the floor. "Are you alright? What-"

"No time!" he yelled as he scrambled to get to the generator. If he didn't shut down the portal, that thing was going to come through and raise all sorts of hell. Hiro began working on the wires. Just a few more twists and connections and the portal would be no more.

"Hiro what the hell is that thing?!" he heard Fred yell. Obviously he was talking about the large purple alien that was going to jump through the portal at any moment.

"Uh, you won't have to worry about that if I can get this to work," Hiro said, trying to connect two wires.

"It's getting closer," May said.

"I'm trying."

"Hiro hurry!" Coulson yelled.

Hiro didn't know what else to do. That thing was going to come through the portal at any moment, and Hiro still couldn't reverse the portal. He could only think of one option at that moment.

"Baymax!" he yelled, giving up on the generator. "Smash the portal!"

"Hiro, that would not be very safe, The energy-"

"Smash it!" Hiro yelled once more. This time, Baymax didn't argue.

He lifted his large fists over his head, and smashed them against the side of the portal. Hiro ran up to see the effects. The portal was still active. And the alien was still running towards it.

"Again!" Hiro yelled.

Baymax rammed his fists into the portal device. This time the side cracked a bit, causing the portal to waver. It wasn't shut down yet.

"Again!"

Once more, Baymax's fists were rammed into the portal device. Then it was all over. The device's side had completely given way, causing the portal to fade away, and the alien was left yelling in anger. Nothing was coming through that portal. Not ever again

All was silent.

"What did you just do?!" Coulson yelled

"It's called thinking on my feet," Hiro said. "I couldn't reroute the energy fast enough, so destroying the portal was the second best thing."

"Where do you think that energy is now," May asked, motioning toward the remains of the portal device. Hiro saw what she meant.

The blue glow that had once been in the portal device was now seeping out of the wreckage. It was eating away at the ground, and was getting bigger.

"We need to get out of here," Coulson said as he began running toward the staircase. Everyone else followed. Hiro didn't look back as he ran but he could hear the noise of the energy expanding, and soon it would cover the entire island.

The view was amazing.

Hiro and everyone else had gotten to the quinjets before the energy had reached the outside of the facility. Fred had grabbed Honey Lemon on their way out, and any surviving S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers were taken as well. Hiro watched as the energy swallowed the entire island in a blue glow.

Pretty soon, the land island had completely caved in on itself, leaving nothing behind but the… well nothing. The island was gone, and nothing but ocean remained where it once was. Hiro saw his microbots become consumed in the blue glow. At least no one could get their hands on them now. That eased Hiro a little.

Ansgar was gone as well, most likely beaten to death by the alien. Hiro was still trying to process that. It was funny really. Ansgar had gone through all of that trouble to go to outer space so he could prove how strong he was, only to have his ass handed to him by the first alien he came across.

"Now what?" Hiro asked, sort of to himself as he gazed out the window.

"Now," Wasabi said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "we go home."

"He's right," Coulson said. "I think you've just about completed your goal of taken Ansgar down one way or another. And HYDRA most likely has bigger problems to worry about now than you. I'd say it's safe to return home."

Hiro was still looking out the window. Home. Home to Aunt Cass. Home to his normal life. Well about as normal a life as a superhero can have. He'd been so used to the action of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent lately, he didn't know if he could adjust.

Then he remembered how much he didn't like seeing so many god damn explosions and giant lizards. And he also remembered how much he missed being with his friends and his Aunt Cass.

He was going home now. For real. No obstacles, no surprises.

Just return.

(A/N) You guys know how when you're writing, and you don't like what it is you wrote? Then during a different time of the day you write something else on the same chapter, and you really like it? That's how i've been feeling ALL this week writing this. I hope you enjoyed it. Seriously. ENJOY IT! It took me so long to write this one. 17 whole pages. This isn't the last chapter. There's the next one, and maybe an epilogue if i'm up for it. I'm sure most of you can guess who the alien was. I dropped enough hints so i'm not going to tell you. Seriously if you don't know… Google it or something. Or ask someone. That's DaydreamDepartment out of your hair! )