Chapter 4 Unmasked

IT WORKED!

The plan actually worked! After chasing this guy all over the city and then tracking him to the warehouse they were in now had paid off. Finally, they had managed to tag team it and knock their enemy down and the mask away from his face. Hiro had scrambled to grab it and once it was in his possession, he quickly got to his feet and backed away from the man clad entirely in black.

"It's over Krei," he stated firmly, "now stand up!" His voice carried more force than he thought it would, surprising himself. At last he could see the face of his brother's murderer and put him away, possibly for life, since the fire he caused cost him the life of his brother and that of his idol, Professor Callaghan. "I said get up!" he yelled.

"Be careful Hiro, you saw him dropkick Baymax! He got pounded!" Wasabi called from above. Baymax appeared about a yard away from Hiro so he wasn't too worried. Slowly, the young boy watched as the masked man got to his feet, the faint sound of metal clanking when he stood.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Yokai knew he was in trouble the moment the group had ambushed him and his mask had fallen away. His master had given him explicit instructions that he was never under any circumstances whatsoever reveal his identity to anyone. Period.

He was going to be so dead for doing this…

Hiro stiffened at the sound of the voice. That was a more menacing and threatening version of an angry voice that he heard whenever he got in to trouble. Like the time he got found bot-fighting by…

"Tadashi?"

The word was out of his mouth before he could clamp down on it. He shook his head slightly, still holding tight to the mask in his hands. Hiro's head began to whirl for a moment before his…no, it couldn't be his Nii-san, spoke.

"Who?"

"Tadashi…that's-that's your name. D-Don't you remember?" he asked, choking it out through the giant lump that grew in his throat. The man before him nodded and stepped closer to Hiro, the light shining on his feature. His skin was horribly scarred on the left side and his eye didn't seem to be able to open all the way.

"Whoever you think I am…I'm not. My name is Yokai," he said replying firmly, clenching his fists. All of the teen heroes standing before him seemed shocked at his appearance. "I'M NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM! I'M NOT THIS, THIS TADASHI PERSON!" he shouted with as much force and anger he could muster, sending the boy before him flinching backward toward the wall. However, as soon as the name Tadashi left his mouth, Yokai was sent into another wave of pain radiating from between his eyebrows.

Oh, not now! He yowled in his head. This was perhaps the worst time possible for an attack!

And him without his paper.

"Tadashi!" he heard the purple armor clad boy clamor over to him and put his hands around his shoulders. Yokai growled and pushed the boy off of him with his strong metal arm. The boy, called Hiro by his friends, slid back across the floor and bumped into the robot that contrasted his armor. His helmet prevented him from getting hurt, but he was shocked about the sudden refusal of comfort.

"Tadashi…" he whispered. Yokai looked back at him, a partially feral look in his eyes because of the pain. "Stop. Calling. Me. That. My name is YOKAI!" he ground, shouting the last word. Suddenly, he realized that the annoying boy had dropped his mask on the ground when he had been pushed away. One of the team watching shocked from above saw his line of sight and followed it to the mask.

"Hiro!" she yelled, leaping from where she was and making for the mask at the same time as Yokai. Both reached it at the same time, but she didn't reach it fast enough as he swiped it off the floor and secured it around his head, covering his face. She gasped at the closeness between them before a frown came across her face. "Baymax, capture!" another one of them ordered. The girl standing in front of him suddenly lashed out again like before, striking at him with one of her yellow discs. Yokai quickly blocked the attack with his arm and kicked her in the torso with one of his feet, knocking her back into a wall.

With his mask once again secured on his face, he commanded the microbots to come to him. They encircled him and crawled up his unfeeling legs before lifting him up away from the group. The robot called Baymax began to fly after him, but with a wave of his hand, Yokai knocked the red armored bot out of the air and crashing into the ground.

"He's getting away!" one cried, "Baymax! Track 'im!" Yokai was lifted through the opening in the roof that he had entered through and into the night before he could hear what the robot's reply was. Safely out of the warehouse, he rushed across the roof before jumping to the ground. His heavy metal feet left an impression on the pavement below them. With the possibility that the robot could have picked him up on its scanners again like it had done last time, he should probably be careful and take a slightly more interesting route to his next destination.

Using the enhanced strength in his right arm, he lifted a sewer lid off of a man hole and got down the ladder, pulling the lid back over him and descending into the darkness. The golden lenses in the mask that cast everything in yellow switched automatically to night vision, allowing him to see where he was. There was a good chance that the robot wouldn't be able to track him through the thick layer of metal and concrete concealing him. He knew he would have to hurry to get to the docks in time to meet his master. He broke into a run, his normally loud footsteps muted by the special boots he wore to dampen the sound of his clanking footsteps.

When Yokai heard footsteps behind him, he knew he was getting followed. Evidently, they had picked up on his disappearing act through the manhole. Whoever it was had gained considerable ground behind him since Yokai could hear him like he was right there. He shifted his head to look over his shoulder and saw the boy dressed in the purple armor from before chasing after him, a stricken yet determined took on his face.

"Tadashi, please! Come back!" he shouted. Yokai stopped dead, just standing there. His fingers twitched, but he resisted the urge to clench them and turn around to scream at the boy. He waited patiently while the boy caught up to him until he heard him come up behind him panting.

"Tadashi I-' he began but Yokai cut him off in grabbing his arm as the boy reached out and touched his elbow. He yanked him closer to his face so that the kid was nose to nose with his mask. "I said don't call me that," he growled before once again throwing the boy back. This time however, the boy braced himself and didn't slide so far away.

"Please…Yokai. You know me! How could you forget? I know you're still in there somewhere!" he cried, looking vulnerable for a moment before his resolve seemed to steel and he looked even more determined than before. Yokai felt something stir within him, but he clamped down on it immediately, he wouldn't let his own resolve crumbled just because a small boy who he maybe knew from the past gave him puppy dog eyes, shed a tear or two, and claimed he knew him.

"I can prove it! My name is Hiro Hamada, I'm 14 years old and I always get into fights with bullies at my school! You always used to come and rescue me from them! I used to go bot fighting and get in trouble a lot, you would come and save me then too! Our parents died when I was little and you took care of me, we came here to live with Aunt Cass, she misses you very much and even closed the café that she runs and didn't bake for two weeks when she thought you were dead!" the boy's tone grew more and more frantic and desperate as he tried to prove to Yokai that he knew him.

Again a faint pain rushed through Yokai's head and he raised a hand to his temple. If only to stop the pain, he had to stop the boy from running his mouth. He moved into action, his sudden movement after having listened to him for so long surprising the boy when his left hand struck the boy in the back of his head. He had taken care not to use his metal hand for he could accidentally give the boy a nasty head wound that would cause him to bleed out and despite himself, Yokai knew that a sewer was not the place for this boy to die.

He scooped him up in his arms, resting his head over his shoulder and carrying him like a toddler. Something did strike him as familiar when he carried the boy this way, making him feel that the boy maybe knew what he was talking about. However, as eager as he was to learn about the past, he knew that it wasn't the time and he would have to wait until after everything surrounding Callaghan was over and he could be free of the man. He couldn't even remember why he had joined him before the fire. He shook the mutinous thoughts off and kept moving. He was late.

I didn't sign up for this, he thought begrudgingly as he reached the ladder that would lead to the man hole near the docks. He slung the boy even further over his shoulder and began to climb with both arms. When he reached the top, he set Hiro down on the ground and covered the manhole again. Standing upright once again, he gave one last look to the boy before retreating further into the docks to find his master.

When he found Callaghan, he was standing and staring out at the bay with his hands folded behind his back. He looked like a king surveying newly acquired territory. Yokai kneeled behind him out of respect for an older man and his master.

"Did you get the information on the flash drive?" Callaghan asked. Yokai nodded. "Yes, master," he replied. A chuckle rang out and seemed to echo through the docks, reverberating off the metal crates.

"Good. Now let's have a look at the data," he said, turning around and extending a hand to Yokai for the flash drive. Yokai reached a hand into his inner coat pocket and felt around. There was nothing there. "Oh blast," he whispered. He began patting himself in places where there were pockets but he couldn't locate a small hard bump near any one of them.

"You lost the flash drive?!" Callaghan was furious. Yokai feared for his life all of a sudden. He prepared to have his microbots shoot out and either protect him or blast him up to the roof. "Y-Yes master. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I battled the kids," he said, not thinking his statement through. Callaghan turned around face devoid of emotion.

"What kids?" he asked. Yokai swallowed. "A-A group of teenagers and a big robot they call Baymax, sir. They seemed to be surprised to see me and they said they knew me. One said that I used to protect him from bullies and insinuated that I was his brother. Is this true?" he explained, the final question coming out strong with a suspicious edge. When Callaghan didn't respond right away, Yokai grew annoyed. "I said, is it true?"

"No."

The simple answer annoyed Yokai. "Explain," he commanded. His master turned around. "Never use that tone again with me young man. But, I understand that your recent failure has made you upset and it is to be expected, so I will tell you what I know about them. The boy you encountered was and has been a trouble maker. You made the mistake of helping him once when he was being chased down by police after he got caught participating in an illegal bot fight. After that, he came by more and more often bothering you and causing you trouble. His friends went to the school that caught fire and consorted with that boy.

"I at first suspected that they might have started the fire that nearly ended both of us, but I do not believe they did. I hope that this explanation is good enough for you, Yokai," he finished. Yokai nodded, deciding it was best to leave it at that and not question his master any further.

After all, it was nearly time for justice to take its course.