Hello once more! Thanks for all the support on this story, I really appreciate it. Read on!
Hiro stared for a moment, shock registering through his brain for a moment. Then he shook it off and opened his mouth. "You idiot! Why in this world would you kidnap me, let alone tie me to a freaking chair? I thought I was about to die!" She smirked, gesturing behind him. He turned around, seeing several figures.
"I had help, though," Go Go said, "so don't go blaming it all on me." Wasabi, Fred, and the insanely tall Honey Lemon stepped forward into Hiro's front view. Honey smiled sheepishly and waved her hand nervously, the other resting on her yellow purse. Wasabi looked like he was going to violently throw up, and Fred . . . well, Fred just looked like Fred. That is to say, excited, lazy, and smiling stupidly.
"Guys!" he whined, but couldn't help grinning a little bit. "Can't someone just be left alone for a little while without his friends?"
"Yes," commented Wasabi, "but that doesn't count for if you are saving the world together! Seriously! Why were you going by yourself?!"
"Um," Hiro gulped, trying to rack his brain for something, then lamely said in an attempt to steer clear away from the subject, "I wasn't alone. I had Baymax."
"However," Baymax announced, "I am just a lowly robot, so I don't count!"
"Speaking of Baymax," Go Go said, hand on her hip in a sarcastic manner, "why in the world is Mr. Marshmallow acting so weird?"
"I . . . may or may not have designed and put a malfunctioning chip in his access port that apparently he refuses to be removed."
"Nice going," she scoffed in response, but grinning.
"Sweet!" added Fred. "So, like, your robot is now your sassy sidekick!" They all gave him a weird look.
"I mean, if like some guy is totally dissing you, just bring out Baymax and wham! Personal comeback maker and insulter! Plus, if you pound the guy into the sidewalk after insulting you, then Baymax is totally there to be the healthcare companion part! Win win!" Go Go sighed in exasperation, putting her face in her hands. "And afterwards you can go and get some ice cream, hang out, you know . . . it's all cool."
"Oh, and uh," Hiro said, looking around, trying to face all of them at the same time, "can you please untie me now? I think my circulation is cutting off. Plus, my leg is falling asleep." With quick moments, Honey Lemon went off working on the knots.
"But really, Hiro," she said gently as the last ropes fell off, Hiro rubbing his wrists, "why would you be sneaking out so early in the morning without us?"
"Well… if I tell you that, can you at least answer some of my questions?" She nodded.
"First, where in the world are we? And what is that . . . thing?"
"We are in my personal invention testing room, which I built for some really random reason. So far, in all honesty, it's been practically useless to me. But I sometimes come here to think, test out my inventions, and to angrily scream in frustration," Go Go answered promptly. "Plus, that is the prototype of my awesome voice changer thing that can perform any accent or how the voice sounds - even animal noises or different languages. The kabuki mask I had lying around for no apparent reason, and I knew that would freak you out! The look on your face was priceless! The robe is from last Halloween, to appear more . . . Callaghan-y, obviously. Serves you right!"
"How did you get me here?"
"A lot of attempts to drag you here without : hurting you, destroying your puny brain cells, and/or giving you a concussion or brain damage. That is, if you even have a brain, I suppose."
"Why is there a shoe in the ceiling?" he continued, trying in vain to ignore the insult.
"No comment," she said, looking at Honey Lemon, who looked like she was going to burst out laughing at any moment. "Let's just say, never trust me to properly use things that aren't supposed to be a weapon, but could be."
"And finally, how did you even know that I was sneaking out in hopes of saving the world?"
"Um…" Go Go looked at Baymax, a bit nervously. Hiro shot an angry look at the robot, who was currently holding the brown mouse in his hands, smiling a little.
"Baymax!" The robot regarded him calmly. "I thought you wouldn't tell!"
"I didn't," he replied. "Telling would include physically speaking to them in person about your motives. Instead, I just sent them a message on their cellular devices informing them about your motives. There is a difference."
"Unbelievable," Hiro muttered, staring at the ceiling . . . before realizing that would be exactly what Tadashi would have said if he was in his situation. He didn't know if that fact excited him or slightly horrified them.
"So, what villian were you going to be defeating this time?" questioned Wasabi, folding his arms in an attempt to appear intimidation - which was fairly hard, since he had a food smear on his face. Hiro decided not to inform him about the offending spot.
"Um . . . " he hesitated, not quite sure on what he should say. Go Go frowned again.
"It's not that hard of a question, Hiro."
"Oh, for heaven's sake," sighed Baymax. Hiro sent him a slightly hostile warning stare, mouthing 'shut it.' However, the robot didn't really have a mouth that could open nor close, therefore the reason he announced the next words.
"Tadashi is alive and we are gonna go rescue him!"
Go Go spit out her gum, where it landed on Hiro's sweatshirt, much to his dismay.
"Ha! Yeah, Tadashi's alive, pigs can naturally fly, and you're taller than Honey. Keep dreaming, Baymax. I wish it was true, but . . ." she glanced at the others, who had stunned looks on their face.
"But it is true. Watch." With that, Baymax turned on his recorded footage of Hiro and Tadashi's call.
As Hiro plucked off the wad of wet gum in distaste, flicking it away, he tried not to watch the video - and failed. He couldn't help but sneak a peek at Tadashi's horrible state. Next to him, he could hear his friends' intake of gasps at the sight of not only their friend alive again, but how he looked. And he wasn't quite sure, but it looked like Go Go was going to spill a tear or two. She didn't, but Honey did, however.
At the phrase "they took me," all of them (including Fred) looked like they wanted to kick whoever took part in his kidnapping across the country. Preferably with a swift kick in the face.
"Oh, my god…" whispered Honey Lemon, bringing her hand up to her mouth. "What did they do to him?" No one answered, watching in increasing horror.
Finally, it came to the part where they were banging on the door. "Watch out, Tadashi!" whispered Fred, even though it was on video.
'Open up! Or maybe we'll find Hiro Hamada and his friends sooner than later! Now!' All four, including Hiro, gulped involuntarily. "Why . . .?" questioned Wasabi quietly. "Tadashi . . . ."
'I wouldn't do that, Hiro! I want, need you alive… even if it means I will die.' Honey, much to their surprise, went up to the video, placing her delicate, manicured hand on Baymax's stomach. Clearly, the tall, perky girl was the one most affected by Tadashi's state. Then, the part where he was tased. Tased! What savage would do such a thing? It pained Hiro to watch it again, feeling like 1,000 volts of electricity was rushing through his own head. The screen froze, static running through.
"Would you like to watch again?" Baymax asked. They shook their heads. Once was more than needed.
"Well," said Hiro raggedly, "do you believe us now?" Silence gave him his clear answer. "Now you see why I was sneaking out."
"Yes, but why would you go rescue Tadashi without us?" asked Wasabi.
"I . . . I don't know. I guess," he lingered off for a second, "I feel like it's my mission. To rescue my brother from certain doom. And . . ." Hiro stopped there. After all, there was another reason why he didn't want his friends there to save Tadashi. "And . . . that's it." Go Go snorted, slightly amused.
"And you thought, what? You thought that you could prance in this so called secret facility, just walk in, and demand for them to release him?"
"Um, I had Baymax . . .?"
"Wrong!" she sang. "Try again."
"Fine!" he snapped back. "I did. And stop yelling at me! I was just trying to get my brother back!"
"Oh, and you think I don't want to, either?!"
"Guys, stop fighting!" They turned to look at Honey, who had tears threatening to spill over. "It doesn't matter whether Hiro was going without us. The point is, Tadashi's alive, and we have to go get him." Hiro suddenly felt deflated, feeling horrible for bickering with Go Go when they were wasting precious time.
"Well…" he said, frowning at the thought of endangering his friend's lives, "I guess . . . go get your gear. We're taking a trip to Biraben College."
26 minutes and 41 seconds later, according to Hiro - not that he was counting or anything...
"So, what's our game plan?" asked Wasabi, now in his suit, like the others. They were standing outside Fred's place, having raided his kitchen for snacks and other essentials. (Including Hiro's Gummi bears, of course, along with many junk food items.) The lights of houses, strangely, were turned off, so the only light shed was the moonlight. Baymax stood next to them, still holding the mouse. Strangely, Go Go's randomly placed invention testing room was only a two minute drive in the busy city of San Fransokyo.
"Fly to this facility, kick some butt, rescue Tadashi, and leave with all our limbs intact," Go Go replied fiercely.
"Well, do we have any other plans that have a 100% success rate of us not getting maimed and/or having all our limbs by the end of it?"
"No such thing," Hiro said gravely. "Besides, do any of our plans ever have a plan that completely works the way we want it to, let alone with any extremely high success rates?"
"No," he admitted, "but it's always good to check. Everyone got their stuff?" They nodded.
"Can't we stay here for a little while?" Wasabi requested, a little whiny. "You know, to make a plan, get ready, and, well, maybe eat some decent food before our journey?"
"Nah," Fred replied. "Besides, it's not exactly our first adventure, is it?"
"Fred's right," admonished Honey, beginning to head onto the sidewalk. They followed. "After all, they are going to find us soon, and we want to be far away from here as . . ." she trailed off, peering into the still-dark morning.
"Honey?" Hiro whispered, getting a nerve-wracking feeling in his gut. She didn't respond. Without any signal, all five plus Baymax got into position : Honey reaching for her purse, ready to type in an encoding, Go Go preparing herself to burst off, Fred ready to burst out flames, Wasabi activating his plasma laser blades, Hiro bringing out Nightblade, and Baymax, now with his chip, getting into fighting poise.
The morning was mostly silent. The ghost-white, pale moon glowed luminously above their heads mysteriously, stars twinkling and winking in the darkness. Crickets chirped, an occasional honk in the distance. Breathing from the six slowed down, but the beating of their hearts sped up immensely. Salty sweat glistened in Hiro's palm, his mouth drier than the Sahara desert. With some difficulty, he quietly spoke in a croaky voice. "Sword." Shink. "Maim." Nightblade began humming softly in his hand, as if anticipating what was about to happen. He squinted, searching for any signs of life. Peering around him, he realized something. The crickets . . . they had stopped chirping. Something . . . something was wrong. Very wrong.
With a mighty burst, about 2 dozen or more hooded soldiers jumped out, from behind bushes, off the roof, out of the trees. As they dashed toward the stunned heroes, weapons ready, the special song of the crickets began again, drifting through the night softly, as if nothing in the world could possibly be awry.
Please don't hate me for the cliffhanger... but at least this chapter was fairly long (2,148 words! New record). Next chapter will be posted Wednesday. Feedback is welcomed. See you later! :)
-DragonFire0102