The World Falls Apart (But We Can Fix It)
Part One of the Earthquake Series
Chapter Three
Beta Read - SpotlightAsagi and Shaitan Elnifi
Chapter Date Published - 3/1/2015
"Sooo….." Hiro started, quickly became distracted by Tadashi's lab. "Hey, is that your own fabricator?" He asked, walking over to the fabricator.
"Nope," Tadashi replied, joining his brother.. Hiro shot him an incredulous look. "You're looking at a whole set of fabrication units."
"So they can work together or individually? Cool." Hiro said, brain already working overtime on his inventions which could make use of them.
"Yup. Modular, and I can always add more if I need to." Tadashi patted one of the units, fondly.
"Wow, did the Institute provide them for you?"
"Wrong again. I designed them and made them right here in the lab."
"Okay then," Hiro took that as an invitation, hopping onto a nearby desk before taking one of the units in hand. "Let's see if I can't improve this old thing. Oh wait, I probably can."
"Really." Tadashi said flatly.
"Uh huh." Hiro didn't look at this brother when he replied. Instead he started taking the unit apart.
"Well," Tadashi drawled, "I mean, if you're busy with that-"
"Pfft, please. I could do this in my sleep."
"-then I guess you wouldn't be interested in all the spare parts that I've got laying around." Tadashi casually finished.
Hiro immediately put the fab unit down. "Spare parts?"
"Some really nice ones too," Tadashi continued, going to his desk . "I try to gather up what I can from the Institute and recycling centers, but if you're not interested… I mean I could give them to someone else."
"NO!" Hiro exclaimed, unable to stop himself.
"No?" Tadashi said back.
"I mean, nooo.. why go through all that trouble? I can just take them off your hands." Hiro said as nonchalantly as he could.
"Oh, you would?" Hiro knew that Tadashi could see right through him and Tadashi knew that Hiro knew, but they both played along anyway.
"Yeah, I would do anything for you big brother." Hiro said with a cheesy grin.
"You're the best, baby bro." Tadashi replied, grinning right back. He gestured to the tables next to the window, where the pile of parts sat.
Hiro's eyes widened. How had he not noticed them before?
The brothers made their way over to the piles. "So," Tadashi began, dusting off a box, "I think you might appreciate these specifically, but go ahead and take a look at everything. I've gathered a lot of stuff since I've been here-"
Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.
Tadashi's smile slid off his face, as he was interrupted by a noise coming from the comm unit in his cap.
He sighed. "One tic."
Hiro mumbled an affirmative back, already shuffling through the loads of parts in front of him.
Tadashi went to his computer set-up, doing something that Hiro wasn't concerned about. Probably Institute stuff. He opened the box that Tadashi was talking about. "Ooo, electric magnetic servos. They're a bit worn, but still functional. Where did you get these?"
"Gogo, they're slag from her past prototypes." Tadashi answered absently. "Hey Hiro? Do you mind if I step out for a bit?"
"Sure, sure."
"Be right back."
The doors softly shut as Tadashi slipped out of the room, making the lab became eerily silent. Hiro stopped working, suddenly aware of how loud his actions were. The clinking of metal on metal was amplified in the empty room. He looked at the box of parts in his hands, then at the door.
He tried to think about all the projects that he could finish with the servos alone, not to mention the rest of the parts, but he couldn't quite concentrate. Maybe it was his imagination, but Hiro felt like he could hear Tadashi's friends.
It was probably his imagination. Tadashi's lab was out of the way of the main lab and had soundproofing.
Unfortunately, that didn't stop Hiro's imagination from running out of his pictured, Fred, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Gogo hanging out together, smiling and chatting about something. They laughed, probably at something Fred said, and he could see his brother joining in on the joke, easily slipping into the interactions.
Without him.
While Hiro was lost in his imaginings, a small part fell out of the box he was holding. The sound managed to shake him out of his thoughts.
"Wha…?" Hiro looked at the box. The corner was worn down. He put the box back on the desk before bending down to look for the piece that fell. And of course it had rolled to the edge of the wall, in the hardest to reach place behind the desk. Hiro sighed, and crawled forward to get it.
BOOM!
Hiro started at the sound, reflexively trying to stand, which brought his head in contact with the desk above him.
"Ow! What the slaggin'- Ughhh."
Unbeknownst to Hiro, who was clutching his head in pain, a red case next to the desk lit up. A few moments later, a robot carefully stepped out of the case, walking over to Hiro. A squeaking caught Hiro's attention.
"Huh?" Hiro looked up. "What!" The white figure filled his vision, startling him again, which caused him to hit his head against the desk, once again. "Owww..."
The robot held out a hand. "Allow me to assist you," he said.
Hiro looked at the hand, then back at the white robot's face. The robot stood unmoving, hand out.
He shrugged. "Sure," Hiro moved to place a hand into the bot's. "You sure you're strong enough to-" As soon as Hiro put his hand into the bot's hand, the bot easily helped him up, even steadying him when he was upright.
"Huh. You are strong enough." Hiro said curiously, taking the robot's hand and started poking at it.
The robot didn't pull away, instead using his other hand to give Hiro a small circular wave. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal health care companion. I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said 'ow.'"
"A robotic nurse." Hiro kept on prodding Baymax. "This really does seem like something Tadashi would make."
"On a scale from one to ten," Baymax continued, chest lighting up with the scale, "how would rate your pain?"
"I'm…" Hiro thought for a second, "horrible Baymax. Definitely a ten, " Hiro said with a smile, dropping the robot's hand. He wasn't in enough pain to warrant such a rating, but he was curious as to what Baymax would do.
"I will scan you now." Baymax said. Not even a second later,. "Scan complete. Diagnosis: you are not in immediate danger. However, if you are in pain, then I would first recommend that you sit down."
"Sure, Baymax." Hiro responded, amused. "I would love to sit down."
"One moment." Baymax said, then turned to face the rest of the lab. Hiro watched as Baymax's head turned, most likely scanning the room, before stopping at the chair in front of Tadashi's desk. Baymax started walking towards the chair, but bumped into a swivel stool. Looking down, the robot bent to pick up the stool, then turned to place the it out of the way. He then continued to Tadashi's desk, bringing the wheely chair over to Hiro.
Hiro sat down and pushed off so he drifted to the middle of the room. Baymax followed him, squeaking as he did. "Good job, Baymax."
"The treatment is not yet complete" Baymax continued. "You have a small cranial contusion and a small dermal abrasion, on your right hand." Baymax's chest lit up with a diagram of a male human; the head and the right hand were highlighted.
Hiro frowned, looking at his right hand. "Oh." There was a small cut on the back of his hand. "I must have scraped it against the desk."
"Recommended treatment; take care of dermal abrasion first. I suggest an antibacterial spray." Baymax moved to do just that.
Hiro stopped him. "Woah woah woah. What's in the spray specifically?"
"The primary ingredient is Bacitracin." The robot's chest lit up with the molecule's form.
"It's a bummer, I'm actually allergic to that," Hiro said with a grin.
"You are not allergic to, Bacitracin You do have a mild allergy to, peanuts." Baymax replied.
"Not bad." Hiro grinned, impressed. He allowed Baymax to spray his cut.
"The treatment is not yet complete," Baymax said again. "You still have a small cranial contusion. I have pain reducers-"
"Meds aren't necessary Baymax," Hiro interrupted.
"Then perhaps, a cooling source." Baymax recommended.
"Sure, but where are you going to get a cold pack-" Hiro started, until Baymax gently put his hand on top of Hiro's head. The robot's palm cooled, soothing the bruise on Hiro's head. "Nevermind then."
"Is this an acceptable temperature?" Baymax questioned.
"This is fine Baymax, it feels great."
Baymax continued to stare at him (as much as a robot could stare) and blinked.
"You have been a good boy," Baymax said. Hiro shot Baymax a look, but couldn't help but smile. "Would you care for a YuMMS?"
"You're offering me a YuMMS..." Hiro said flatly.
"Yes, a Young Men's Mineral Supplement. It is recommended for someone of your age and gender," Baymax replied.
Hiro gave a half-laugh before talking. "Pshh. No, those are disgusting, just no. You don't offer a YuMMS to your patients for comfort, even if it is good for them. In fact, that's like the opposite of what you want to do. Don't you have something better?"
Baymax tilted his head and blinked. "Would this assist in your recovery?"
"Yes, yes it would."
"Then I believe Tadashi has a compartment of concentrated fruit lollipops hidden in his desk."
-000-
Later, Tadashi opened the door to his lab to the sight of Hiro sitting at his desk, sucking on one of his lollipops, with Baymax's hand on his head.
Hiro saluted his brother with the lollipop. "Welcome back."
Baymax used his free hand to give a circular wave. "Greetings, Tadadshi."
Tadashi stood in the doorway, staring at the scene before him. Hiro waggled his eyebrows at his brother.
Tadashi raised an eyebrow in response. "Hey Baymax," he replied slowly. He closed the door and walked over to his brother. He raised a finger, as if he was about to say something, but stopped, shaking his head instead. Instead, he stuck his hand into a desk drawer and pulled a lollipop out of the secret compartment. "I see you've found my stash," he said, popping it into his mouth.
"Well," Hiro drawled, casually waving his sucker, "You should know better than to keep secrets from your family-"
"Baymax?" Tadashi interrupted.
"Hiro said that the lollipops would progress his recovery." Baymax automatically responded.
"Baymax! I thought you were on my side!" Hiro exclaimed.
"Recovery? Hiro are you okay? Baymax, diagnosis." Tadashi said, rushing over to check on his brother. Baymax rattled off Hiro's injuries and treatment, while Tadashi tried to peer around the robot's palm.
Hiro tried to bat his older brother away. "Ugh, Tadashi I'm fine. It's just a bump, Baymax took care of it."
After hearing that Hiro's condition wasn't very life-threatening, Tadashi gently lifted Baymax's palm off his brother's head and winced at the sight. "Ow."
"Are you in need of medical attention-"
"Just an expression, I'm good Baymax," Tadashi said, placing Baymax's palm back on his brother's head. "Just concentrate on my brother's recovery."
"I'm right here guys," Hiro sighed. "And I just have a bruise. It's nothing major. In fact, you can stop with the cooling pad, Baymax." He brushed the hand off his head.
Baymax's head tilted and he blinked. "I cannot deactivate until you say 'you are satisfied with your care.'"
"What?" Hiro asked, looking up at Baymax questioningly.
"I said, I cannot deactivate-"
"Why would I want you to deactivate?"
Baymax tilted his head in the other direction. "Are you not satisfied with your care?"
"I am satisfi- Wait. I mean, I'm not satisfied."
"Scanning-"
"I meant, you should stick around. You can just hang out with us. For uh…" Hiro said, unconsciously looking at Tadashi for help.
"Maintenance and upgrades," Tadashi quickly filled in. "But yeah, it's no problem if you stick around Baymax." He said, sending his younger brother a smile. Hiro returned the smile. "Although.. why don't you go charge first."
Baymax moved his head in what looked like a nod and walked back to his case. Hiro watched Baymax charge, while Tadashi watched his brother watch Baymax.
"Say, what kind of battery does he use?" Hiro asked.
"Lithium ion." Tadashi answered.
"You know, supercapacitors would charge much faster."
"Huh. We could probably do a design right now. Why don't you open up his designs,?" Tadashi gestured to his computer. "Let me grab another chair."
Hiro did just that as Tadashi went to get another chair. He scanned Baymax's specs, but his concentration broke when he heard a familiar squeaking moving towards him. Hiro watched as Baymax slowly walked towards him, then stopped at his side. "Okay, let's check out your specs." Hiro patted the robot's belly. Baymax gazed back at him.
-000-
"By the way, how did you injure yourself?"
"What?" Hiro looked over at his brother.
"How did you injure yourself?" Tadashi asked again. He had stopped working on the designs and instead had his full attention on Hiro.
Hiro chuckled nervously saying, "It's nothing-"
However, Baymax started, "Hiro had a-"
"It was nothing!" Hiro said louder, trying to drown Baymax out. Tadashi gave Hiro a look. "It was.. stupid. That's all. I dropped a part under the desk, went to go get it, there was an explosion, and I hit my head on the desk."
"Then I activated." Baymax added.
"Yup, that's it." Hiro finished with a nod, before he returned to his work.
Tadashi nodded at the explanation, then thought about it. "Explosion?" He asked.
Hiro paused and looked back at his brother. "Yeah, it was super loud. Didn't you hear it?"
Tadashi shook his head no. "It must have been in the main lab, you get used to it. I was with my Professors discussing some things."
"Oh." Hiro said casually.
On the outside, Hiro looked like he was getting back into their project. Inwardly, he was thrilled that his brother wasn't secretly hanging out with his friends without him.
-000-
"About the ride home..."
"What about it?"
"Ask Gogo if we can borrow that prototype of hers."
"Hah, no way."
"Don't be so lame, come on."
"Fine, you ask her."
"What? I ask? Well, uh..."
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
-000-
"Wasabi's shield and lasers were really cool."
"Right? He's put a lot of work into his project."
"Think about all the things you could do with that sort of tech. And it wasn't visible."
"I'm gonna stop you right there, don't even think about it."
-000-
"Sooo… About Honey Lemon."
"No, Hiro."
"What? I didn't even say anything yet."
"No."
"Heh."
-000-
"You know, I could go for an invisible sandwich right now."
"Ha ha, me too."
"What's Fred's deal anyways? I mean, he's not even a student here, right?"
"Fred's special."
"You're telling me."
"Don't be like that. It doesn't matter what Institute he goes to, Fred's awesome."
"Okay, okay, I was just asking. And I really am getting hungry.. but I don't want to stop... I'll just have another lollipop."
-000-
"Baymax! Move!" Hiro tried shoving the bot, but he didn't move. For a marshmallow, Baymax was surprisingly strong.
"Your sugar levels are higher than necessary. It would be best if you stopped your intake." Baymax said, not budging.
Hiro grunted, trying to get Baymax out of the way of the desk drawer. "Come on!" He grit out. He took a short pause, then threw his whole body at Baymax. Instead of moving the robot, Hiro bounced off of him, into the awaiting arms of his older brother. Tadashi then proceeded to laugh in his face.
Hiro picked himself out of Tadashi's arms, but his brother kept laughing. "Don't laugh," Hiro grumbled.
Tadashi tried to stop laughing and was only mostly successful, letting out a soft chuckle every now and then. He moved over to the bot and patted his shoulder. "Nice Baymax, you can move out of the way now."
Baymax looked at Tadashi, but didn't move. His head did a quick up-down. "Tadashi, your levels are also high. It would be best if you stopped your intake."
Tadashi gaped at him, as Hiro started laughing. "Baymax!"
"You heard him, bro," Hiro said in between laughs.
Tadashi looked at Hiro, his eyes going wide and his lower lip jutting out into a pout.
Hiro sputtered at the sight, "Hey, don't look at me! Baymax is the one that's cutting us off!"
Tadashi sighed. "Baymax is probably right though, and it is pretty late. We should head back. No need to worry Aunt Cass. Again."
"Yeah, I guess we should," Hiro said. Even though he was hungry, tired, and ready to go back home, he was also disappointed. It had been a long time since the brothers had hung out. Ever since Tadashi had joined the Institute, it felt like they were growing further apart. (Of course it didn't have to do anything with the fact that Hiro was no longer in the Academy and had nothing to do all day.)
"I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care," Baymax chimed in.
"Thanks buddy," Tadashi said.
"Thanks Baymax. I am satisfied with my care." Hiro said.
They watched Baymax deflate into his case
"He's pretty cool Tadashi," Hiro admitted. It was a bit of an understatement, but he hoped his brother would get the idea.
"Thanks, Hiro," Tadashi said, a warm grin on his face. Hiro smiled back, glad that his brother got it. "Let's get going."
Hiro quickly went to stuff some of the spare parts he wanted into the pockets of his jumpsuit, while Tadashi started to shut down the lab. Hiro tried to fit as many parts as he could, and decided to carry Megabot by hand in order to grab more. They lapsed into a comfortable silence, though both were sad that the evening was coming to an end. As Tadashi finished, Hiro headed out the door so his brother could lock up.
"So, that was fun." Hiro said.
"That was fun, you should come over more-"
"Burning the midnight oil ?" Someone said behind them.
Both brothers turned around and were met by a middle aged man with a warm smile.
"Professor, I-" Tadashi didn't know what to say for a second, "I didn't realize you were staying so late."
"Well, I have my things to take care of too," the man said to Tadashi. He then turned to the younger brother. "You must be Hiro. Bot fighter, right? When my daughter was younger, that was all she wanted to do. May I?" He gestured to the bot in Hiro's hand.
"Uh, sure." Hiro handed over Megabot.
The professor lifted up the bot, inspecting every inch of it. "Hm, magnetic bearing servos."
"Not bad, right?" Hiro said smugly.
"They're very impressive. I invented them, and I haven't seen them used in such a way before." The man said casually.
"You invented..." A lightbulb went off in Hiro's mind. "You're.. Robert Callaghan."
"That's right," THE Robert Callaghan answered back.
Callaghan handed back Hiro's bot. Hiro took it back, still gaping at the man in front of him. "Have you ever considered doing some work here in the Institute? Your age wouldn't be an issue."
Tadashi stepped into the conversation. "Hiro doesn't have to make any decisions now, he's only fourteen. And he loves bot fighting."
"Well, I mean, bot fighting is cool…" Hiro managed to say.
"I can imagine why. With your bot, winning must come easy." Callaghan replied.
"Uh, yeah, I guess." Hiro admitted.
"Well, if you ever want a challenge, then I would suggest my program. We push the boundaries of robotics here, my students go on to shape the future." A soft beeping started to fill the hallway. "Oh, sorry, that's mine." Callaghan said with a chuckle. "I should get going now. Nice to meet you Hiro, good luck with the bot fights." He stuck his hand out. Hiro looked at it, before eagerly giving the man a handshake. Hiro's look of awe slowly turned into an admiring smile.
"If you ever decide to come here," Callaghan continued, "then there's an event coming up you may want to consider joining. In fact, ask your brother about it, I'm sure he'd be glad to fill you in on the details." At the last part he looked at Tadashi. "And I'll see you later, Tadashi," he said, turning to address the young man in question. Callaghan stared at Tadashi, then gave a nod to Hiro before walking back the way he came.
Hiro couldn't tear his eyes away from the man. He had just met THE Robert Callaghan.
Tadashi stared at Hiro and shook his head.
"Come on, bonehead. Let's head back home." Tadashi said, taking a few steps toward the exit, then stopping when Hiro didn't move. Hiro managed to rip his eyes away from his idol and started to follow after his brother.
The two stayed silent, as they headed back.
As they descended the steps of the Institute, Hiro stopped to look back at the building. He burst out, "I have to go here! If, if, I don't go to this nerd Institute then I'm going to lose my mind. How do I get in, Tadashi?"
Comments -
1) "Tic," is slang. A lot of the young generation says "tic," instead of "second." I've heard this terms used a lot in quite a few things, but I think the first time I've seen it used is with the Akaelae webcomic series.
2) I've been doing very little introspection in my fic, because so far we've only explored what's in the movie. If there are any parts that are not in the movie, I will try to add more.
3) I hope I made it clear, so for the parts that are only dialogue, Hiro always speaks first. Then Tadashi speaks, the it goes back to Hiro, and so on and so forth.
4) usagiko-jovi dot deviantart dot com/art/BH6-Begging-and-Being-Desperate-496271761
Usagiko-JOvi's art is what imagine whenever one of the brother's look sad at the other.
-000-
Author's Notes -
I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot, especially the interaction between Baymax and Hiro. I hope I conveyed how the two had this easy connection with each other. I was originally going to make this a part of the previous chapter, but I thought it deserved it's own chapter. (Then I was surprised, because this chapter turned out much longer than I was expecting, like, more than twice as long. It's so much longer, I was expecting this chapter to be shorter than the first one.)
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, read and review :)