Chapter 4 Judgment Day

Hiro sat in his desk chair, staring at the dark screen of his computer. His hands in a steeple under his lips, he thought about the events of the past two days. Not just events, revelations were more like it. Baymax sat in the corner against the wall, Mochi in his arms, a quiet chant of "hairy baby, hairy baaaby," leaving his voice box about every ten seconds.

Hiro closed his eyes and thought about what he had discovered about his brother. According to the most recent information, the man who had been giving him and his friends so much trouble over the last month or so had been Tadashi. Or rather, Yokai, as he called himself now. Apparently, his brother had not died in the fire at SFIT, and had instead become a masked vigilante running around San Fransokyo and stealing technology from Krei Tech for an unknown reason.

At least, it was unknown until just yesterday.

GoGo and the others had found a flash drive lying on the ground of the warehouse that they had duked it out with Tadashi in and took it home with them. Later, GoGo had called him and told him that she and the gang was coming over and that they needed to show him something. When they had come, GoGo had plugged the flash drive into Hiro's computer and pulled up the data they had managed to find.

There were only two files on the flash drive. One had been there for a significant amount of time, and the other had been just downloaded onto it moments before Hiro and his friends had found Tadashi in the Krei Tech building. When they had tracked him to the warehouse, he seemed to be analyzing something on some kind of holographic screen attached to his wrist and they figured that this was what it was.

The first file, the newest, had some old schematics for a trans-dimensional portal that Krei Tech had been working on a few years back. It had been placed under classified and then forgotten since it apparently had backfired and a test pilot had been lost in the accident.

The second file, dating back to just a few weeks after the incident, was a video of the test. Most of the people were nameless engineers, then there was Alistair Krei, the test pilot, and…Professor Callaghan?

Something seemed familiar about the test pilot, so Hiro had looked up who she was in the other file and found out that her name was Abigail Callaghan. She was Professor Callaghan's daughter. That had sparked something in the group watching the screen. Watching more of the video, they looked on as the test began to go wrong, Abigail disappeared into the portal, Krei did nothing to stop it, and Callaghan looked on, devastation wrenching across his features. There were many questions that they came away with.

First, why would Tadashi want to build a trans-dimensional portal? Second, what did the video of a failed test have to do with anything? And why would he be after Krei? Krei had done nothing to Tadashi.

They sat in silent speculation until Fred piped up with an idea that maybe Tadashi wasn't the only one to have survived the fire. When asked to explain, he merely said that perhaps Callaghan had survived the fire as well and was trying to get revenge on Krei because he felt that Krei was responsible for the death of his daughter.

Everyone had to admit that it was a good idea, but then Callaghan would want to have a shot at Krei out in the open so he could show everyone how he viewed him as: a murderer. But when would Callaghan have a chance to get at Krei? The group decided to reconvene the next day with more information.

So Hiro sat upstairs in his desk chair and hadn't moved for hours. Finally, some signs of life came from his suddenly wildly ringing phone. He grabbed it and looked at who was calling him. It was GoGo, so he answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hiro. Turn on the TV, channel 9, now."

"Okay, but why?"

"Figured out when Callaghan might take a shot at Krei."

"Got it."

"The gang and I are coming over, we'll be there in a few, be ready to suit up."

"'Kay, will do."

"Bye."

Hiro quickly swung his chair around to turn on the TV and flipped to channel 9. It was the local news station and they were doing a feature on a new Krei Tech building that was opening that afternoon. Evidently, Alistair Krei himself was going to be there for its grand opening. A large crowd was supposed to be there, most of the city and several news stations. It was the perfect opportunity for Callaghan to make his point public.

GoGo and the others strode into his room about 20 minutes later to find Hiro still watching the news feature.

"C'mon man, we gotta suit up to stop Callaghan!" Fred exclaimed when he saw Hiro, his signature goofy grin adorning his face. Hiro smiled determinedly and nodded, running over to where he stored his armor and quickly pulled it on, moving on to equipping Baymax. However, before he could leave the room, his eyes and body drifted toward a certain special artifact from Tadashi's previous life.

When the entire team was ready, they all set out in Fred's car, heading for the new building.

Yokai had spent hours before this moment preparing, assuring himself of his strength, telling himself that he could do this. He hadn't spoken to Callaghan since the day before yesterday after his run in with the 6 heroes and Callaghan had made no effort to speak with him.

Yokai had the feeling that he couldn't totally trust Callaghan like he had previously. He had never let Yokai in on his plans and refused to tell him anything about his motives behind his actions. It caused Yokai to consider his actions over the last month, but he didn't have anywhere else to go. Today promised to see the fulfillment of Callaghan's plan, whatever it was.

All Yokai knew for sure was that he was to be Callaghan's enforcer, the one to capture Krei and keep the police and crowd at bay with the microbots. He had been unable to sleep at all the night before, his brain working overtime for no reason other than it gave him some semblance of a feeling of normalcy. He had spent the entire night tinkering with his prosthetics and making them work better. He had found a small virus in all three that he knew didn't belong there, so he removed it and the adjusted the movement settings so that they would adapt to position and command with split second accuracy.

Like they hadn't been near-perfect before.

The sound of footsteps alerted him to someone's presence behind him. He whirled around; hands up in a battle stance, only to lower them again at the sight of Callaghan. His master raised his hands in a gesture of surrender before walking toward him again.

"I brought you a gift," he said, pulling something out of the pocket of his grey hoodie. He handed it to Yokai who looked at it for a moment before determining its function.

"A wrist laser, how charming. Best and most accurate in the world since it's attached to ones wrist, giving the best view and accurate aim," Yokai replied, listing off what he knew of the special weapon. Callaghan smiled proudly at his apprentice. "Very nice, I see you've been researching your technology. Now try it on," he said. Yokai did as he was told, securing the metal bracer that the blaster was anchored to. Since he had also enhanced the sensory wiring in the arm, he felt it when the small anchors in the bracer dug into his arm through the metal.

"Ouch." He stated before he examined the fancy gadget. "It's attached to the wiring now. You can use it like its part of your arm," Callaghan informed him. Yokai nodded once and then practiced readying the small laser and putting it away. It fitted sleekly onto his metal arm and he couldn't help but smile at the innovative machine.

"Are you ready for this?" Callaghan asked him, stepping closer to him and laying a hand on his shoulder. Yokai nodded again, "As ready as I'll ever be, sir." Callaghan patted his shoulder and then began to walk toward the exit of the warehouse. Yokai followed not far behind him.

"So begins the hour of judgment."

Just as they had thought, Callaghan and Yokai made their move during the press conference for the new Krei Tech building. Hiro flew up to meet a microbot covered Yokai who had captured Alistair Krei.

"Please! Please, don't hurt me! Please! I'll give you anything you want! Money, I can do that! More of those…things! I can do that too!" Krei was shouting, to which the only reply was, "I need none of that, scum!"

Hiro hovered Baymax several meters away from Yokai and he steeled his resolve to help his brother come back. "Yokai! Let. Him. Go." He commanded. It got the older boy's attention and made his head turn toward him. "I don't take orders from you," he growled.

"Yokai!" a gruff voice shouted from below. Yokai immediately stopped what he was doing and he looked down to see the person below. "Yes, master?" he replied. Hiro's eyes widened at that. Tadashi had always been his own man, never taking orders from anyone but Aunt Cass and his teachers.

"Come and get me, I wish to speak with the boy myself," the man in the grey hoodie ordered. Immediately, Tadashi lowered himself and Krei to the man's level, microbots wrapping around his legs up to his waist. Tadashi lifted them all up to Hiro's level and then stood at attention beside his hooded companion.

"Go take care of the other ones. They'll be after the portal," the man said, his head tilted down so a shadow was cast over his features. Yokai nodded once and then shot away taking a pillar of microbots with him. Hiro watched him for a moment before guiding Baymax over to a building edge and landing there.

The man in the hoodie remained where he was at about 10 meters away. Hiro needed to know if it was indeed Callaghan or simply some terrorist.

"Who are you?" he demanded immediately.

"Why, Hiro, I would have thought that you would recognize the voice of your would-have-been-robotics professor," the man replied, pulling his hood down to reveal his face. It was just as the group had suspected, but it confounded Hiro no less.

"Surprised to see me?"

"Not entirely."

"Why would you do all this?" Hiro shouted down at the wayward professor; gesturing around with his arms. The professor's forehead creased with deeper frown lines.

"Because of him," Callaghan growled, pointing at a whimpering Krei still caught in the tight clutches of Yokai's microbots. "He and his failed 'tests' got my daughter killed! She was my life! I want to see justice done! I want him to feel what it's like to lose something important to you!" he shouted angrily.

"BUT WHY TADASHI!?" Hiro shouted back, anger surging into his voice and face. He wanted Baymax to terminate Callaghan so badly right now, and he was so close to removing his healthcare chip altogether and leaving only the battle chip.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE SAVED HIM AND LEFT HIM OUT OF THIS? HE WENT IN AFTER YOU TO SAVE YOU!"

"THAT WAS HIS MISTAKE!" Callaghan snarled in return. Hiro set his jaw into a thin line at Callaghan and turned around to see only air. Baymax had left his side at some point during the argument. With that, Callaghan turned his head away from Hiro and down to the streets below where the fight had reached its end, with Baymax and the other four heroes lying unconscious on the ground.

"Yokai, get up here and finish this! I need to complete work on the portal!" he shouted. Yokai immediately did as he was told and rose up to his master's level.

Yokai twisted his head up when he heard Callaghan call down to him. Each of the people who had just attempted to take him out had all failed miserably. However, they had all tried to reach him somehow. They all called him their friend, telling him that they knew him before, but he didn't recognize any of them. It was especially hard to tell that they were friendly considering they were constantly coming at him with their weapons drawn.

He rose up to Callaghan and lowered his master down to the ground where he ran off to work on the portal more. It was nearly completed and had already opened, sucking up pieces of Krei's building. Krei had at last stopped his sniveling and was simply looking on in horror as the architectural masterpiece he had been working on for the last two years was slowly being torn apart.

"Yokai! Eradicate the boy!" Callaghan shouted up to him. Yokai nodded yet again in a silent display of acquiescence to his master's plan. He reached his hand out to his side and it filled with a staff made up of the small metal microbots. They fit together perfectly and locked in place, ceasing all movement. Yokai twirled the staff and moved over toward the building, stepping down onto the ledge and making his way toward the boy in purple armor before him. This one didn't seem to have any weapons on hand.

"Please, don't do this! I know you're still in there! Tadashi wouldn't do this!" he shouted at him, his brown eyes pleading. Yokai swung his staff around, the end connecting with the boy's helmet. It knocked him backwards and he connected with the gravel on top of the roof. Yokai spun the staff into position once again and charged, but the boy rolled around and out of his way.

It continued like that for a quite some time. The boy constantly trying to make Yokai stop by reasoning with him and rattling off facts about Yokai that he thought he knew. He kept calling him Tadashi and Yokai kept trying to push the pain in his forehead back. Finally, Yokai knocked the boy down, his helmet flying off, and lifted the staff above his head, preparing to strike the boy for the final blow.

"T-Tadashi, please d-don't do this..." he rasped, his eyes cracking open ever so slightly to reveal tears, perhaps of sadness but more likely because of pain.

"Why? Why shouldn't I?" he shouted down at the boy, gritting his teeth in pain from the intense pangs he received in his temples and across his forehead.

"Because…I know that you'll remember someday…and then you'll never forgive yourself if you do this. I'm your brother, Tadashi, I'm Hiro, and we promised that we'd always protect one another," the boy finished. Yokai was determined not to let this interfere or get to him.

But it did.

He remembered.

He remembered standing in front of his parent's graves as a young boy. He remembered taking Hiro and Aunt Cass's hands as they walked to the car. He remembered moving in with Aunt Cass, and vowing to be there for Hiro as long as he could, to always protect his little brother. He remembered living up to that promise until not long ago. He remembered his pride in Hiro and his care for his little brother.

It all came rushing back.

He stepped away from Hiro, the staff of microbots disbanding and returning to the main hive. Feeling sick, he whipped his mask off and doubled over in pain, one hand gripping his head and the other grasped at his turning stomach. He felt like he was going to throw up the contents of his stomach, but when he wretched, nothing came up.

Tadashi is my name!

I was human!

I was good!

I still can be!

The thoughts brought him hope that maybe there was a chance for him to be okay. He dropped to the ground on his side and took several deep breaths. Laying still calmed his stomach and he could once again hear through his pounding heartbeat. He glimpsed over at his brother laying not 10 yards away from him. He felt a twinge of pain again, but not in his head or stomach, rather, in his heart. He realized that he could have been the one to end his brother's life; he, the one who was supposed to protect it.

He sat up and crawled over to his brother. He looked down at the bruised face of his little knucklehead and scooped his thin body into his arms. The sound of thrusters reached his ears and he saw Baymax land nearby.

"Hiro," the robot said ambling over as fast as he could. The robot merely stood near the broken pair of brothers. Anger swelled up inside Tadashi and his brow became marred by a deep frown.

He stood up, handing Hiro to Baymax. "Baymax, watch after him. Give him a scan, but he should be fine. If I don't come back, take care of him. And don't take 'I am satisfied with my care' for an answer if you know something is wrong. Be his friend. Be his partner. Be his brother, in my stead, alright?" Tadashi said, charging up the wrist laser.

"I will do as you ask, Tadashi," he replied. Tadashi nodded to his creation and smiled at him before jumping down onto a lower ledge. He did so until he had reached the bottom and was crouched near Callaghan. His ex-master was currently watching as his creation decimated Krei's building.

"Callaghan!" he shouted to get the older man's attention. He immediately wished that he hadn't as he noticed the strap around Callaghan's head too late. However, he was just in time to dodge a wave of undulating microbots and roll back into an attack position.

"As you can see, I came prepared for your betrayal, Yokai!" he snarled, turning toward the older Hamada boy. Tadashi growled under his breath and replied, "My name is Tadashi, you demented son of a gun! And I can't betray someone I was forced to serve!"

Callaghan smirked and another lash of microbots whipped toward Tadashi. He jumped back and then dodged as several slashed at him. Eventually, he grabbed onto one and climbed over it, sliding down and into the cesspool of microbots it had sprouted from. He made a mad dash for Callaghan who was at the center of it, but instead found his legs being dragged under by the microbots.

Okay, this probably wasn't my best idea yet…

"NO!"

Hiro had awoken to see Baymax staring into his eyes from above. He blinked a couple times before lifting his hands to his face to rub it. It stung and ached like all get out. He recalled being beaten up by Tadashi, but at least he had managed to finally get through and reach his brother.

He hoped so.

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Baymax inquired from beside him. I would love to say 11 but then he wouldn't let me go anywhere. I've gotta help Tadashi first, Hiro thought. "three," he said, trying to find that magic number between not quite fine but not worrisome that also wasn't conspicuous. Baymax let him go, so Hiro made for the edge of the building.

"I have been instructed to watch after you until Tadashi returns. You must stay here," Baymax stated firmly, laying a big hand on Hiro's shoulder.

"No I have to help Tadashi," Hiro replied, pulling forward with all his might against the big robot's armor. He reached the ledge in time to watch what was happening below. From there it looked like Callaghan had gotten a hold of the neural transmitter and was controlling the swarm of microbots. He watched as his older brother, who wasn't in possession of his mask, dodged each attacking tendril of microbots that attempted to smash him into the pavement with an almost acrobatic ease. He had never been able to move like that before, no matter how good at fighting he was.

At last, he jumped onto one of the larger branches of microbots and shimmied on top of it before sliding down into the main hive where Callaghan was. Hiro could see that what he was attempting wasn't easy and that he seemed to be having trouble not staying in one spot for more than a millisecond. Five yards away from Callaghan, a small tidal wave of microbots rose up behind Tadashi and attacked his legs, dragging him down. Hiro watched as his older brother scrabbled to get a handhold on the ever shifting form of the microbots, only to fail and be pulled under the obsidian surface.

"NO!" Hiro cried as he watched his brother's black gloved hand, the only dark surface not shining in the sea of iridescent darkness, disappear beneath the swarm. Suddenly, he thought of something. Tadashi hadn't had his mask on when he had jumped down there. Immediately, the younger brother jumped into action and looked around for the kabuki mask. He found it lying strewn on the gravel, face down. He picked up his helmet and put it on his head, carrying the mask in his other hand.

"Guys, do any of you copy?" he cried into the communicator. The affirmative replies coming from surprisingly all four of them gave him hope. "I need you to go around behind Callaghan and ambush him. I have an idea to distract him, but you'll have to work fast because I don't know how long or well it'll work!" More affirmative answers were heard and he watched as his friends began to move off behind the undulating mass of robots.

Hiro pulled his damaged helmet from his face and jumped onto Baymax's back with one hand. He held onto the white and red kabuki mask and ordered Baymax to fly down there into Callaghan's four 'o clock and hover there. He quickly put the mask on and hoped that Callaghan's mask didn't cancel out reception from Tadashi's.

Fortunately, while it kept him from controlling the microbots completely, he could still slow them down and cause them to become confused from receiving two separate signals. Hiro used this to his advantage, causing the microbots to lock up and freeze into a twitching mass rather than a constantly moving wave. It was then that his friends began to attack Callaghan. Go-Go tossed her discs, Honey Lemon used her explosive chem. Balls, Wasabi slashed, and Fred torched the microbots, shaving away at them little by little to finish this.

"Baymax, let me down and go help the others," Hiro ordered through gritted teeth. The strain of ordering his microbots to go against Callaghan was beginning to give him a headache. He pushed harder against Callaghan, who was unaware that Hiro's friends were hacking away at the swarm behind him at the moment as he pushed back against Hiro's attempts.

Hiro planted himself on the ground and put all his strength behind the focus of what he was doing. He gritted his teeth so hard that he was certain they would crack from the pressure. However he didn't stop. Callaghan was weakening from the mental pressure as well and wouldn't hold out much longer, seeing as he was turning red. The edges of Hiro's vision were darkening as he fought to keep his heart's intense thumping out of his mind.

Suddenly, a blast of red light shot out from in the middle of the pool of microbots and zapped the side of Callaghan's head, snapping the band holding the neurotransmitter. Callaghan fell to his knees and onto his side. Hiro's own knees felt weak as darkness enveloped him and he felt obliged to let oblivion take him at the moment. He didn't feel as he hit the ground and his own neurotransmitter broke.

Tadashi struggled against the microbots that had snatched him from behind and wrapped themselves around his legs, dragging him below the surface. He didn't dare open his mouth, but writhed all the same. He remembered that he only had to charge up his wrist laser and get close enough to the top to fire a blast at Callaghan's transmitter and destroy it. He clawed his way through the many microbots attempting to hold him down.

When he could at last see Callaghan, who looked strangely red-faced and fatigued, he wasted no time in raising his arm out of a hole in between the cracks made by the microbots and firing his charge laser at the side of Callaghan's skull where the neurotransmitter was located. He ceased firing as soon as he had destroyed the small device so he didn't injure Callaghan like he wanted too.

A moment or so later, all the microbots came clattering to the ground and fell still. He lifted himself out of the swarm and laid backward on the solid metal pieces behind him, shutting his eyes and gasping for breath. He looked up to see that his work was not done and that the portal had ripped off the roof of Krei's building at least. He got to his knees shakily, but felt a small hand on his shoulder.

"We got this. Go take care of Hiro," Go-Go said, a rare glad-to-have-you-back smile on her face. Tadashi nodded in response and began to look around for Hiro. To his horror, he spotted his little brother crumpled on the ground, the white and red kabuki mask on his face. A rush of adrenaline gave Tadashi the energy to run over to his brother and cradle him in his arms. Hiro's cheeks were bright red along with the rest of his face like he hadn't been getting enough air, but his chest rose and fell rhythmically as he took steady breaths. Tadashi took off one of his gloves and gripped the back of Hiro's head as he held the younger boy in his lap and held him close.

He wrapped Hiro in a tight and tearful hug and squeezed his eyes shut until he felt something get placed on his head. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times to clear the tears from them and he looked down into the deep brown eyes of his little brother. "Now you look yourself again," he said, his lips curling up into a small smile. Tadashi couldn't help but smile. It was his old lucky hat. The icing on the cake.

It's time to go home.