Resistance: Into The West

by Tadashinfj

Part 4 of Resistance! Big Hero 6 was close to ending WWIII, even taking out Chasu Jeong. But a new enemy has emerged to take her place: her brother, Obake. And he is out for blood. Will Megan, Hiro, and Tadashi be forced to make choices they'll all regret to save the world? One of them may be WWIII's catalyst...but first they'll have to decide how far they are willing to go.

2. Chapter 2

hello, friends!

sorry it's taken me so long to post! i've been working on my collab with my sis :)

I hope you guys like this chapter! I really enjoyed writing it...it's so cute!

thanks to my sis helena for writing the momokase perspective! this is one of my favorite scenes in the whole book, and I'm so excited to hear what you guys think of it!

thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed! please give me your feedback, i'd love to hear what you think!

peace out!

—MOMOKASE—

I wake up and immediately know something is not the way it was before. A quick glance around the communal bedroom is all it takes for me to realize that Tadashi is not here.

I know if I decided to leave in the middle of the night, I would not want anyone to come after me. But he could be hurt or captured, and if I do not know he is alright, I will not go back to sleep.

I stand up and, as quietly as possible, leave through the back door. It helps that Basemax is built so near to the beach—Tadashi's footprints are obvious in the sand, leaving a trail down to the shoreline.

A silhouetted figure sits in the sand, looking out at the turbulent sea. I recognize Tadashi's familiar build and slowly follow the path of his footsteps, forcing my way through the currents of rain.

"Tadashi."

Tadashi yelps when he hears his name, and I struggle not to let a smile cross my face. Something about his clumsiness and inability to hear me coming is very sweet.

"Why are you out here?" I sit down in the sand next to him. "In a hurricane, no less."

He shrugs. "Couldn't sleep."

"Then we have something in common." I glance at Tadashi, for the first time realizing how beautiful he is. His pajamas do not include a shirt, given that it is late summer and blazing hot most of the time. The rivulets of water running down his skin combined with the sculpted muscles of his chest make him look like a statue in the rain.

"The, um..." Tadashi clears his throat. "The rain is nice."

His voice is calm, but his eyes are as restless as the stormy bay they reflect. His mind is somewhere far away.

I gently nudge his arm with my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Liar."

Tadashi sighs, his fingers winding through the dark hair plastered to his forehead. "We keep losing people. I'm a doctor. I'm supposed to help people. But wherever I am, everyone just gets hurt worse. Karmi, GoGo, Fred, Hiro, Honey—everyone."

He looks like he's about to cry, tears sparkling in his beautiful brown eyes. I tentatively reach out and intertwine my carbon fingers with his.

"No matter what happens in this war," I tell him, "it is not your fault. You are pure and kind, and if there must be war, there is no one I would rather have on my side."

Tadashi squeezes my hand. "I wouldn't want to be with anyone but you."

He is close, too close. His nose is almost touching mine, and I could count the faint freckles splashed across it. I feel the wind that has lessened to a soft breeze and the rainwater streaming down my face, and I dare to believe that I'm not dreaming as his eyes lock onto mine.

And then his lips are on mine, his hands woven into my hair, his warm, comforting touch pressing against the cold metal of my fingers, and my hand is on the back of his neck, pulling him closer, and he holds me against his chest while the rain pours down around us, and against my lips I hear him murmur "I love you."

I freeze. Tadashi pulls away, one hand lingering on my face. "Momo?"

"I—" I push away, breaking eye contact. "I'm sorry."

"What is it?" He gently turns my face back toward him. "Do you...do you love me?"

"I want to."

"Why can't you?"

I sigh. "Love is a human emotion, Tadashi. I am not human."

"You are—"

"No. I am not human. I am a girl with an iron heart, and—" My voice breaks. "I do not know how to love. Not you. Not anyone."

He looks at me, and the conflict in his eyes is fire and rain, passion and sorrow. He is a boy in love whose heart is breaking before my eyes.

"Please, Momo," he whispers. "I will move heaven and earth if I can stay with you."

His voice is desperate and rings with truth, and I know the moment he finishes speaking that he will fight to the death for me, and if I can love anyone, it must be him.

I take a deep breath and say, so softly the words are almost lost in the pouring rain, "I love you too."

It feels like a release, like water breaking through a dam, like all the pressure that has built up inside me has found a way out, and when Tadashi pulls me in and kisses me again, we are all that exist in this world, and my iron heart is his and he is mine.

—HIRO—

"You did what."

"I know it's crazy," Tadashi replies. "But I love her, Hiro, and I wanted her to know that in case we don't make it through this war."

"I guess that makes sense," I admit. "I just can't believe you're in love with a girl who used to be a villain—not to mention a spy and a member of Vortex."

"I don't care about who she was in the past," Tadashi declares. "I care about who Momo is now—a superhero, just like you. Just wondering, could you live with her as a sister-in-law?'

"You wanna marry her?" I groan, tearing a hand through my hair. "Oh my gosh, Tadashi, you just met her."

"I don't know—anything could happen."

I flop back down on my pillow, snatching a tissue from the box and holding it to my nose just as I sneeze. Throwing the tissue into the trash can, I turn my attention back to Tadashi. "Just promise me you won't do anything, you know, stupid with Momokase. We don't need any more babies."

"Of course I wouldn't do that!" Tadashi yelps, shocked. "I don't want to get anyone pregnant except my wife—and while that could be Momo, I wouldn't even want to have a baby until after we're married and this war is over!"

"Okay, I get it," I laugh, holding up my hands. "You have my approval."

"And you still have a cold," Tadashi replies, cupping my face in his hands. "Is it getting any better?"

"Don't worry about it," I tell him. "Yeah, it's getting better. But I think I might've infected a few people."

"You have," Tadashi confirms. "Liv, Krei, and Wasabi are all getting it. I hope no one else gets sick—we won't be able to fight if we need tissues every three seconds."

"Is the hurricane letting up?" I ask. "We might be able to do the spy mission soon if the storm's gone."

Tadashi sighs. "It's not any worse, but there's some flooding at the outer edges of the city, and the wind hasn't let up at all. I don't think it's a bad hurricane, but we might have to stay here for a few more days and let it blow past."

"But we've gotta figure out where those bombs are," I complain, rolling over and burying my face in the pillow.

"I know," Tadashi says sympathetically. "Don't worry, Hiro. We'll find them as soon as we can—it's just not safe to send a spy mission out yet. You've still gotta print Silent Sparrow, right? Why not wait until that's done?"

"We'd have to drag the portal around on the mission until we found the bombs," I explain. "So we'd have to deal with making it invisible for who knows how long, plus keeping the spies and the microbots invisible, too. It'd be a lot of work and a huge risk of getting caught."

"You're right," Tadashi agrees. "So you want to do the spy mission before the portal is done?"

"If the stupid hurricane will let us," I grumble into my pillow.

Tadashi laughs. "Don't worry, it'll go away soon. Sorry I woke you up—do you wanna go back to sleep?"

"Nope," I mumble, "but I don't think I have any choice. I'm super tired for some reason—I don't know why. I've been sleeping for the last, like, twelve hours."

"That's your body trying to get rid of the cold," Tadashi informs me. "You should probably listen to it. Don't worry, I'll wake you up if anything important happens."

He leaves the room, and I pull the covers tighter around my shoulders. I do really want to go back to sleep.

After what is probably a few hours—but it feels like two minutes—I'm jolted violently out of sleep. I realize that Tadashi is shaking my shoulder vigorously, calling my name.

"What—wha's goin' on?" I mumble, sitting up and running a hand through my mane of bed hair. "Is something happening?"

"Hiro, the hurricane—Basemax is about to flood!"

"What?!" I gasp, leaping out of bed. "We've gotta get everything out! The printer, Silent Sparrow, the suits—everything!"

"Everyone's working on it!" Tadashi tells me. "We're gonna go on top of Basemax—there's nowhere else we can go without being seen by the North Koreans! I know it's not the safest place to be in a hurricane, but it's all we've got!"

I pull on my hoodie and scoop up my printer, cradling it close to my chest like a baby. If we don't save this printer, we're dead. Literally.

Tadashi, after grabbing several blankets, leads me into the main room, and suddenly everything is chaos. Everyone is running around the room, grabbing weapons and armor. Callaghan has the neural transmitter on and is lifting Silent Sparrow and its frame into the air, ready to maneuver it out the door.

"Is that everything?" Krei yells. "Should I open the door?"

"Go ahead!" Megan calls back, holding my graphene processor above her head in case water comes into the room.

Krei pulls open the front door, and suddenly, what seems like the entire ocean rushes into Basemax. I let out a yelp and nearly drop my printer as the water knocks me over, pushing me under the surface.

"Hiro!" Tadashi yells, grabbing onto my hood and yanking me up before the water can sweep me away. I struggle to stay on my feet as the water gushes into the room, washing away everything that isn't anchored to the floor.

"We have to get out of here!" Honey wails. "What do we do?"

"Does anyone have a rope?" Granville demands, standing stick-straight despite the flooding.

"It's in the closet!" Wasabi gasps, scooping Honey up and holding her above the water. "Down the hall!"

Granville wades through the now-chest-high (for me, at least) water, pressing close to the wall so as not to get swept away. Tadashi wraps an arm around my chest and lifts me higher—the water will cover my head soon.

"We need to get to the door!" Momokase shouts. "Callaghan, get the portal out!"

Callaghan lifts Silent Sparrow, along with its frame, off the floor and through the front door. I assume it makes it to the roof, because only about half of his microbots come back in. The rest are probably holding the portal in place.

Granville fights her way back through the water, holding a rope. She manages to get to the door and tie it to the knob, then throws the other end back toward the rest of us. Tadashi catches it and yells, "Everyone get to the door! I'll hold the end! Hiro—you go first!"

I grab the rope, and Tadashi carefully releases me. Holding onto the printer and the rope proves to be impossible, so I take off my hoodie and tie the printer to my chest as tightly as possible, hoping it won't fall off.

I try to simply walk with the rope's assistance, but the water is too deep. I end up basically swimming with my feet and pulling myself along the rope with my arms, which proves to be difficult. My muscles are burning by the time I reach the door, slip outside, and brace myself against the wall, the water threatening to knock me over.

Meg comes out after me, the graphene processor strapped to her chest in a similar fashion to the printer. Momokase follows, then Wasabi and Honey. Callaghan helps Granville and Abigail out next, then Liv and Krei. Chief Cruz brings up the rear, with Tadashi at the end of the rope.

Momokase stabs two blades into the wall, then two more a few feet up. She continues this process until she's reached the roof, then calls down, "Climb up! Quickly!"

Meg, standing closest to the makeshift ladder, pulls herself up with the blades and gets to the roof in about thirty seconds. The ladder doesn't look easy to climb—the blade handles look really slippery. I'm pretty sure it's my turn next, though, so I don't have time to complain.

Tightening the knots holding the printer to my chest, I grab the first knife. Struggling to hold on, I pull myself up to the next handhold, fully lifting myself out of the water.

The climb seems to take an eternity, but I eventually make it about two-thirds of the way up. As I reach for the next handhold, though, my hand slips, and I yelp as I'm left dangling by one hand from a slippery knife handle above a raging flood.

"Hiro!" Tadashi screams.

"I'm okay!" I call back, gritting my teeth and stretching out my hand, trying to reach the knife that's just a few inches too far away. My fingers brush it, but then my other hand slips.

And I fall.

Several people below me scream, and I think I do too, but then a hand closes around my wrist, and I look up to see Momokase silhouetted against the rain, holding onto me for all she's worth.

"I've got you," she assures me, and I realize that her hand seems abnormally…hard. It almost feels like metal, or maybe carbon fiber. I wonder if she's got some kind of prosthetic—that'd explain the gloves. Now's not the time to ask, though.

"Thanks," I whisper shakily as Momokase hauls me up onto the roof.

"It was nothing," she replies. "Get down and don't move."

I curl onto my side and press myself against the shingles, holding onto the printer as tightly as I can. Meg is next to me, her eyes squeezed shut against the howling wind.

Tadashi climbs up next, and I hear him whisper a heartfelt thanks to Momokase before she tells him he'd better get down if he doesn't want to get blown off the roof.

My brother gets down beside me, wrapping one of the blankets he rescued around both of us and passing another to Megan. The blanket is reasonably dry, and it provides some warmth as we huddle together on the rooftop.

When Callaghan comes up, he sends tendrils of microbots over all of us, pinning us to the roof so the wind won't blow us away. Pretty soon, all of us are secured and covered, and it's all we can do to ride out the storm.

I don't know how long we stay on the roof, the rain pounding and the water rising steadily. Lightning flashes in the clouds, and thunder splits the air every few seconds. The hurricane is a vortex of wind and water, and it's not letting us go.

Megan and Tadashi are both clutching me tightly, and I'm holding on to my brother's shirt for dear life. It's almost a chain—Chief Cruz is also holding onto his daughter, and Momokase has secured Tadashi's arm in a death grip.

At some point, the microbots start to weaken, and I hear Krei telling Callaghan to give him the transmitter, insisting that we can take shifts. It's gotta be hard to keep us all pinned to the roof and Silent Sparrow from falling off.

The microbots' grip tightens again, and I feel myself slipping into sleep. But I can't go to sleep—I have to stay awake, in case we need to move or the roof falls in.

I lay there, my eyes squeezed shut, for who knows how long. The shingles are digging into my cheek and shoulder, and my nose is still running, but I don't move. I can't.

Finally, a weak ray of sunlight streams through the clouds, and I realize I must have indeed fallen asleep. As I open my eyes, the microbots release me, and I sit up, blinking in the sunshine. My whole body is sore from clinging to Tadashi all day—all night?—and I'm soaked to the bone, but the hurricane is over.

Tadashi, apparently having also fallen asleep, opens his eyes and looks up at me. I muster a weak smile, and my big brother sits up and throws his arms around me, squeezing tightly.

"I can't believe it's over," Tadashi gasps as we break apart. "We've been up here all night—I bet everyone fell asleep."

"I didn't," says Momokase from his other side, and my brother turns and immediately wraps her in an embrace as well. To my amazement, she doesn't protest, only relaxes into the hug. I notice that she's wearing the neural transmitter now—she must have taken the last shift of keeping us all on the roof.

"Is everyone okay?" I call—or try to. My voice is weak and hoarse from lack of use, so I clear my throat and try again.

"I've been better," Krei yells across the roof. "My dignity has been destroyed."

"Your dignity was destroyed at least three weeks ago," Liv tells him. "But I'm sure you'll get it back when this is all over."

I laugh as Megan sits up next to me, rubbing her eyes. "Hiro?"

"Meg!" I exclaim, ready to give her a hug. But she beats me to the affectionate gesture, planting a kiss on my cheek. "I can't believe we're all alive!"

"Yeah," I breathe, trying to make my face stop flaming red.

Wasabi, sniffling a little with his cold, peers over the side of the roof. "The water's still really high, you guys! I think Basemax is totally underwater!"

"The water level appears to have receded somewhat," Momokase adds. "Perhaps we can begin to bail it out."

"It might be better to wait until it's down enough that we can all stand in it," Callaghan counters. "So about four feet or less. I'd say it's at around six feet right now."

"I could stand in that," Wasabi volunteers, then shudders. "But I don't want to. We have no idea what's in that water."

"Do you think we have any dry clothes anywhere?" Honey asks, shivering. "I know the sun's out, but it'll be a while before we're dry. We could look in the upper levels of Basemax—I don't think we've even explored them."

"Perhaps we could enter through a nearby window," Granville suggests, but Momokase cuts her off. "No need."

Her blades flash, and then a perfect circle of roof drops into the room below us. Momokase leaps after it, calling back up to the rest of us, "I believe it is safe!"

I peer into the hole, realizing that the floor seems like a very, very long way down. I don't really want to jump into that—I think I'd sprain or even break both my ankles. If I land badly, my neck.

Chief Cruz voices my fear. "How are we supposed to get down?"

Momokase sighs. "I'll do it."

I yelp as a tendril of microbots curls around my waist and lifts me off the roof, lowering me down into the room. They deposit me unceremoniously on the carpet, and a cloud of dust billows up. Of course, I inhale it, and I burst into a coughing fit as everyone else starts to come down.

Once I stop coughing my lungs out, I straighten up and look around the room. It looks like any old, abandoned building—dust everywhere, faint light streaming through the windows, spiderwebs in the corners. I wouldn't trust any clothes we find in here.

"At least it's a little less wet in here," Meg remarks as the microbots set her down on the floor. "Are there stairs down to Basemax?"

"Yeah, but they're boarded up," Wasabi tells her.

"We could cut through those, though," Momokase mutters, twirling a graphene blade.

We search the upper floor for clothes but unfortunately find none. There are a lot of old blankets, though, so we use those for warmth. Krei actually manages to start a fire on the hearth, and that helps us all dry a little faster. Thank goodness for survival skills.

By the time night falls, my clothes are dry, and I desperately want to go to sleep, but there is no way in heck that I'm gonna sleep on one of the ancient beds on the upper floor. Who knows what's in those things?

Callaghan reports that the water level appears to have gone down considerably and that we can probably walk in it. Momokase slices through the boards over the door to the downstairs, and we cautiously step inside.

Before stepping into the water, I take off my shoes, tie them together with the laces, and hang them around my neck. Upon testing the depth of the water, I roll my cargo pants up so as not to get them wet. The water is maybe eighteen inches deep, a lot shallower than it was before but still soaking nearly everything in Basemax.

"This is disgusting," Wasabi shudders, dipping his toe in the water and immediately pulling it back out.

"It didn't go all the way up to the top bunks," Honey calls from the bedroom. "We can sleep up there. The bathroom looks okay, too."

"We should start trying to bail the water out," Callaghan calls from the front door, which Silent Sparrow is being carefully maneuvered through. He sets the portal and its frame down, the bottom of the portal sitting barely two inches above the water.

"Do we have any buckets?" Krei asks. "Or a vacuum?"

"We do have a vacuum," I tell him. "And…I guess I can print some buckets. Unless we have some and I don't know about it."

Upon further inspection, we do have a few buckets, so I don't have to use any filament. I'm glad—I've had to print literally everything lately. I've still gotta make some throwing stars, an inordinate amount of tranquilizer darts, and finish Silent Sparrow. I kind of want to add some kind of knives to my gauntlets, too—maybe I can attach my graphene blade to one and use purple plasma. That'd look pretty cool.

We start to bail the water out of Basemax, dumping it back into the ocean. It takes at least four hours to get most of it out, and by the time we're done, it's two in the morning and all I want to do is sleep.

I drag myself up the ladder to a top bunk, relieved to find that the water didn't touch it, and curl up under the covers. Tonight, the sound of the ocean lulls me to sleep, instead of the thunder and wind it's been for the last few days.

It's the first peaceful night I've had in a long time.

---

The next morning, I wake up to find that my nose has stopped running and I don't feel like sneezing every three seconds. My cold is finally gone—I had it for maybe five days, but it felt like an eternity.

I sit up and see the printer sitting at the end of my bed, practically begging to be used. I pull up the design for the next segment of the portal and start the printing, hoping I'll be able to finish the whole thing in the next few days.

Looking around the bedroom, I realize I'm the last one awake—again. Great. A good leader wouldn't be sleeping while his team did all the work.

Honestly, though, I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be leader now. So much has happened lately—we haven't done almost anything actually related to the war. Should I be planning an attack or something?

Well, I guess we can't do that until we know where the bombs are. So I should really be planning the spy mission—maybe we could even do it today. The hurricane must have done some damage to the North Korean base—we could sneak in while they're all trying to fix it.

I climb out of bed and change into clean clothes, then traipse into the main room, where everyone is still cleaning up the water and mud left by the hurricane. I grab a wet cloth from a pile on the table and start scrubbing at the floor, where a considerable amount of mud is smeared across the sleek surface.

"Hey, Hiro!" Megan greets me as she wipes dirt off the wall. "Are we gonna start planning the spy mission today?"

"If Professor Granville and Abigail want to," I reply. "Everything's ready, so we just need to get started on training. Momokase, were you gonna take care of that?"

"Yes, of course," she tells me. "If our spies could come with me into the training room, I'd be happy to advise them."

Granville and Abigail follow Momokase down the hall to the training room, and the rest of us are left to continue scrubbing the walls and floor. It'll be a while before Basemax is totally back to normal.

Once I've cleaned most of the floor up, I retreat into the bedroom to work on the robot for Abigail. It shouldn't be hard—I just need to design a little FlexiRex with a camera in its eyes. We can watch through it and warn the spies if there's North Koreans around. The robotic dinosaur should be small enough to slip under doors, and pretty easy to control.

I make the FlexiRex black, with tiny yellow eyes to match Abigail's suit. After it's finished, I pull on my virtual reality visor and test the cameras, sending the tiny dino into the main room. No one seems to notice it, so I bring it back in and add little propellers—it'll have more capabilities if it can fly. I don't think I can make it invisible—it's too small—but it's tiny enough to go unnoticed.

By the time I'm done, Momokase has finished the stealth training, and Granville and Abigail look ready to go, outfitted in their black armor.

"I finished the robot," I tell Abigail, handing her the FlexiRex and its controller. "You can activate the propellers with this button, and here's the steering mechanism. It has cameras in the eyes, and we'll be watching from Basemax. You can use it to go under doors and look around corners so you don't get caught."

"Wow, Hiro," Abigail breathes, looking closely at the little dinosaur. "This is really cool!"

"Your dad came up with the idea," I tell her, rubbing the back of my neck. "I just designed it."

"Are you ready to go?" Callaghan asks, coming over to us.

"I believe so," Granville tells him. "We have completed our training, and I do not think there is anything more we can do to prepare."

"We should probably head out," Abigail says. "I promise, you guys, we'll find the bombs. If they're not at KreiTech, we could look at the prison, or see if we could track down Obake's base. But whatever happens, we'll find them."

She gives Callaghan a big hug, and I'm reminded of the security footage we got from Akuma Island—it looked almost the same as this. The risks are, if possible, even greater.

"Mr. Hamada," Granville says, and I look up at her, half expecting her to tell me that I forgot to hand in my thermodynamics homework.

"If anything happens," my professor begins, "I want you to know that it was an honor to teach you. You have great potential, and I truly believe that you can end this war. Whatever happens, Hiro, do not give up."

"I won't, Professor," I whisper, and before I can stop myself, I wrap my arms around her. Granville goes rigid for a moment, then hugs me back.

When all the goodbyes have been said, Granville and Abigail leave, going invisible as soon as they step through the door. I pull up the video feed from the FlexiRex on Basemax's screen, watching as the spies get farther and farther away.

I can't explain it, but I have a really bad feeling that this isn't going to end well, despite all the safety measures we've implemented. What if this is a bad idea? What if the spies are caught?

I guess worrying about it isn't gonna help—this is war. Sometimes we have to take risks. And this is a risk I know we can take. We have every protection we could possibly have in place.

But then I remember something Professor Granville said to me a long time ago, and my fear is doubled.

Sometimes it's not a question of can.

Sometimes it is whether we should.