Chapter Summary: Tadashi and Baymax follow Hiro's microbot to an abandoned warehouse.
Disclaimer: I don't own Big Hero 6 and its characters.
Tadashi slowly picked up Hiro's microbot and examined it closely. He could not understand why it's still moving without the rest of its friends. He looked around and picked up a petri dish and put the microbot in it, covering it tight so it won't escape. He placed the petri dish on the desk so he could look at it closely.
"This doesn't make sense," Tadashi said finally. He turned to Baymax. "This is a microbot-Hiro's invention. This thing's attracted to the rest of his pals, and he used it for his demonstration. But they were all destroyed in the fire. So, why is it still moving...?"
"It seems your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere," Baymax pointed out.
Tadashi stared at him, incredulous. "What? Don't be ridiculous. Besides, where would it go?"
"Maybe to find the rest of of its friends," the nursebot replied.
"I told you, the rest of Hiro's microbots are destroyed in the fire. This thing is just... lost." Tadashi mood dropped at the last word, realizing how he and the small bot are not so different.
"Would finding out where the tiny robot wants to go would stabilize your emotional distress?"
"Baymax, please. I'm not distressed-I'm being realistic!"
The inventor could feel his heart breaking, moving away from Baymax so he can stare at the walls. Emotions began piling up inside his chest while head is filled with conflicted thoughts. He wanted to be left alone as usual, he doesn't want anything to do with Hiro's microbot since it painfully reminded him of the tragic accident. Yet a small part of him does want to know why the microbot is still working, even though it might lead him on a wild goose chase. He heard Baymax's squeaky balloon footsteps approaching him until they stopped. His robot is standing behind him. Tadashi turned around to see Baymax carrying the dish holding the lone microbot, still shaking.
"Tadashi, do you want to find out where it wants to go?" he asked kindly.
Tadashi stared at Baymax for one whole minute. He sighed and shook his head. "I must be out of my mind." The inventor grabbed his gray cardigan and dark green blazer, and put them on quickly. Taking the petri dish, he was about to leave the room when he heard Baymax following him.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I am going with you," Baymax answered. "You are my patient, I want to make sure your health is taken care of."
Tadashi shook his head and affectionately patted his chest. "Sorry, pal, you're too delicate to be taken around somewhere yet. I'm just gonna do this myself." At this moment, Mochi the cat came up from the stairs and cautiously approached Tadashi, meowing. The robotics student gently picked him and placed him in Baymax's arms.
"Here, play with Mochi while I'm gone. Just be careful not to let his claws pop you," Tadashi said, smiling a little. Then he went down the stairs, leaving a confused Mochi looking at the marshmallow-like being.
"Hello, fluffy feline, I am Baymax," said the robot.
Tadashi sneaked out the back door so he wouldn't let his aunt know that he's leaving. He was glad that the Lucky Cat Cafe is full of customers, so at least Aunt Cass is doing something to keep her busy for a couple hours before he comes back. He decided take his moped since it'll be quicker for him to find the unknown location where the microbot is going.
He went to the garage to get his moped. The same garage he and Hiro turned into a lab so Tadashi can use it for his college homework and projects, and Hiro using to make his battle bots. All the multiple computer terminals and 3-D printers were covered in cloth out of respect for Hiro's memory. Tadashi grabbed his helmet, started up his moped, and then drove into the streets.
He is unaware that a red portable suitcase containing a caregiver robot is following him on his own set of wheels under the box-shaped suitcase.
Tadashi made his way downtown, keeping a close watch where the microbot is leading him while avoiding cars and pedestrians. He noticed that the microbot seems to be point to one direction and its movements became more erratic each time he thought came closer to his destination. Tadashi had thought the small bot is malfunctioning but now he had to consider the possibility that it wasn't and something suspicious is up.
Now burning with curiosity, Tadashi now wanted to see where the tiny bot is leading him. It felt so strange doing this, as though it reminded of him all those times he sewed GPS trackers on every Hiro's hoodies so he could keep tabs on him. Sure he was being overprotective to the point it gets questionable, but he's always their to bail Hiro out of trouble. He started chuckling to himself when he remembered the last time he tried to drive Hiro away from Yama and his tough-looking goons who were part of an illegal bot fighting ring, the two brothers ended up in jail. Even though it wasn't exactly funny, he still found himself grinning and shaking his head.
"That knucklehead, what was he thinking..." he muttered. He felt tears forming but he quickly wiped his eyes dry with one hand.
Tadashi parked his moped near a shop near the run-down industrial part of the city and continued on foot. Everything around him seemed abandoned but he had to continued forward. He heard a few faint sounds of cars hitting brakes and tire screeching, followed by confused shouting ("Did you see that?!" "It looked like a moving box!") behind him. He ignored the commotion.
The microbot is now wildly shaking and banging against the dish, leading the young man towards a grimy old warehouse. Tadashi tried to pull and push the metal doors. It was locked. He couldn't even pull the chains that were tied to the door. He cannot give up now, he's so close to solving this mystery. He stood back a little, looking at the huge building, thinking on how to get inside. Moments later, he piled up a couple of old wooden crates so he can climb on them and reach for an upper story window. The window was still far away from his grasp, and the crates were beginning to give away. He wondered if he could jump high enough to reach the window.
"Tadashi. Please exercise caution," a voice suddenly said. "A fall from that height could lead to bodily harm."
"Aaah!" Tadashi yelped and turned around, nearly falling off. He was shocked to see a familiar red suitcase rolling up to him. Then Baymax rose and stepped out from the suitcase. "Baymax?! What are YOU doing here? I told you can't come with me!"
"My programming does not allow me to leave my patient alone and unattended until they've been given enough care under my watch," Baymax replied. Then he tilted his head. "Did you find the source of your emotional distress?"
Tadashi jumped off from the crates. "No, not yet-now shoo, you cannot be here!" He tried to move his huggable robot back into his charging station, but Baymax wouldn't budge no matter how hard Tadashi pushed. He was about to deactivate him with the trigger words when Baymax offered a useful suggestion.
"I could help you reach for the window, if that is alright with you."
Tadashi was hesitant but he allowed Baymax to help him on this. Just this once, he hoped. Soon, he was now standing on the robot's head and shoulders; he easily pulled himself through the window and into the warehouse. In the dim light, he could see rusty metal staircases and other dangerous-looking machinery that had long been used and forgotten. He heard a sound and he jumped, thinking he was caught. He turned around and saw that Baymax had gotten stuck trying to get through the window.
"Oh no," Baymax declared.
"Baymax," Tadashi groaned, running a hand down his face.
"Excuse me while I let out some air."
Tadashi nervously watched as Baymax began to deflate, the sound of the air being released sounded obnoxious, and he began to worry that he and his robot might get caught before the inventor can even explore. Thankfully, nobody came and when Baymax was finished, Tadashi pulled him inside.
"It will take me a moment to reinflate," Baymax said.
"Okay, but keep it down," Tadashi said in a low voice. If I remember it, I must find an alternative way for Baymax to deflate faster.
After what seemed liked forever, Baymax is fully inflated. The two quietly went down a flight of creaky stairs ("This seems unsafe, an accidental slip-" "YES, BAYMAX. Now shush!"). Tadashi used the microbot in the petri dish to navigate and to his surprise, it stopped moving and laid still; despite how confused he is right now, he pressed forward after pocketing the dish into his blazer. He is getting closer.
They turned a corner and came into a huge area in the middle of the warehouse. Up ahead, Tadashi saw what looks like to be a tent made of vinyl tarps and something mechanical was inside moving. He and Baymax crept closer, the former peeked inside through the semi-transparent tarp rather than go through an opening slit he noticed in one side of the tent to enter. A large machine is manufacturing something, and two robotic arms that looked they could belong to SFIT were dropping tiny objects into a conveyor belt that were spit out from the large machine. Tadashi found this rather strange; the warehouse is old and abandoned, but this machine and the tent seemed recent.
"There's something shady and illegal going on here," Tadashi said, thinking out loud. He followed to the mouth of the tent, the small objects on the conveyor belt were then dropped into an open oil drum. Tadashi's blood turned to ice when he recognized them.
These are Hiro's microbots! And there are more of them inside the oil drum!
Tadashi noticed more oil drums, at least about twenty or thirty, filled with more microbots nearby. His mind is rapidly racing as he tries to process all these info. His body was trembling so bad, he couln'dt decide it was out of shock, fear, or anger.
"Hiro's microbots were destroyed... b-but someone's making more," he whispered.
Baymax's voiced alerted him. "Tadashi."
Tadashi turned his head to see Baymax pointing to a wall covered in papers full of plans, writings, and a mysterious red symbol of a bird. He peeked closer to them and could only get out the name "Project Silent Sparrow" when he heard a metal door opening somewhere in the warehouse. He realized there wasn't enough time to leave the area. Thinking quickly, he grabbed Baymax, pulled him inside the tarp through the slit he noticed earlier and closed it up. The two ducked close to the ground, Tadashi was sweating in fear; he prayed silently that he and Baymax wouldn't be caught.
They heard someone approaching and Tadashi recognized it as the sound of a woman's heels clicking every step. Then the footsteps stopped in front of the tent. Another pair of footsteps followed from the opposite direction, and they seemed to be heavier.
"It's just me, nobody followed me as usual," a woman's voice spoke up. Tadashi couldn't recognize her voice but she sounded formal. "I see the machine I smuggled in for has been working fine so far?"
The other person didn't say something, but Tadashi could picture them nodding their head.
"I'm surprised you managed to make this many in such a short time," the woman continued. Tadashi heard her walking around, inspecting the oil drums. "That Hamada boy only made two trashcans worth of them in three weeks. I got to give him credit for making these microbots sophisticated, but it doesn't take much for a genius such as yourself to figure out how to produce more of them, huh?"
Tadashi's pale knuckles tightened in fury.
"Anyways, let's get to the office. I got what you asked me to bring."
Soon, the woman and her silent partner left. Tadashi waited for a couple of minutes until he knows it's safe to come out, then he and Baymax left the tent. Tadashi wanted to leave the warehouse as soon as possible, but he had an idea. The woman mentioned the machine can produce a lot microbots in a short time, but what would happen if the machine were to malfunction...? Not only this will delay the progress, but he can back to get more clues of this warehouse and possibly what the mysterious people are planning to do with his brother's invention.
Tadashi went to the machine and the design appeared to be a little complicated than he expected. However, he managed to mess around the delicate program so that it would probably take a while for whoever's making the microbots to fix the machine. The machine stopped working and then it shut down with a low whistle. Then Tadashi took care of the robot arms by dismantling easily.
Tadashi turned to Baymax and motioned him to follow him. "Let's get out of here before anyone notices their machine is broken." He made dash headstart when he looked back and saw Baymax slowly waddling behind him. He groaned and slapped his face.
"I am not fast," Baymax said.
"I know, I know!" Tadashi muttered as he hurried back and pulled Baymax along. He thought wildly as he heard the oil drums began to shake behind them, Why didn't I give my robot-A CAREGIVER ROBOT-better speed! How was he supposed to handle medical emergencies if he were slow as molasses! What was I thinking, or better yet-how did I even overlooked this mistake?!
Tadashi could already picture Hiro's deadpan expression and snarky voice if he ever knew his brother's flaw in Baymax's programming. "Jeez, knucklehead, what did you expect from a walking marshmallow?"
He and Baymax headed to window they had come in through. Baymax tried to deflate again so he can squeeze through. Tadashi was panicking when he heard an ominous buzz and metallic clicking in the distance. He saw the microbots movingly menacingly towards them and they were halfway up the stairs. He ran his hands over his pockets to look for something to help Baymax get through the window faster. Without a moment to spare, Tadashi breaks a nearby window with his foot and grabbed a long piece of sharp glass. He ignored the stabbing pain in his hand.
They headed to window they had come in through. Baymax tried to deflate again so he can squeeze through. Tadashi was panicking, what if someone notices their presence. Then he heard an ominous buzz and metallic clicking in the distance. He saw the microbots movingly menacingly towards them and they were halfway up the stairs. He ran his hands over his pockets to look for something to help Baymax get through the window faster. Without a moment to spare, Tadashi breaks a nearby window with his foot and grabbed a long piece of sharp glass. He ignored the stabbing pain in his hand.
"Your hand is bleeding, I must tend to it," Baymax suddenly said.
"I'm sorry, buddy," Tadashi said regretfully before puncturing Baymax's balloon arms with the glass.
More air jetted out quickly. Tadashi shoved Baymax through the window just in time before the microbots can snatch them. Baymax cradled Tadashi as they fell, his body absorbing the blow as they hit the ground. Tadashi looked back up at the window and saw a tall dark figure in a white-and-red Kabuki mask looking down at them. Tadashi scrambled to his feet, grabbed Baymax and the red suitcase, and ran away as fast as he can.
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