...Louder Than Words

"Are you seriously trying to convince us that she is the one in charge?" Wasabi asked skeptically gesturing at the young woman who introduced herself as Mirabel of the Family Madrigal. Though he expected young Mirabel to react to the slight it was the colorful Isabella who surprised them (though with her earlier aggression Hiro belatedly that they shouldn't have been) when she got her back up and got in Wasabi's face and said angrily, "You have something against my sister, rope-head!?" The translation provided on this had Hiro raising his eyebrows. On one hand it could have entirely been intended to be a colorful insult against Wasabi's choice of hairstyle which, from a certain perspective, could have appeared to be a bundle of ropes. On the other hand it could have been a translation error (or, since Penni's uncle Ben had a hand in the development of the translators, it could be a deliberate act of censorship on his part) and the slur could have actually been much less PG and actually a reference to a certain part of the male anatomy.

"Nothing against her personally, but she's just a kid," Wasabi managed to bring up in spite of his withering under Isabella's glare. This comment made Hiro cringe, but before he or the others could tactfully point out what was wrong about it, Peni glared at him disapprovingly and said, "Wasabi-san, Hiro is not much older than her, and you guys have been following him for a while."

Wasabi grimaced as he realized his mistake, but before he could apologize he was cowering under Isabela's loud barrage of Spanish speech that both the audio and visual translators failed to clarify for him (or possibly refused to, as Hiro was beginning to suspect that Peni's uncle Ben had worked some sort censorship into their design.)

After a solid moment of diatribe that seemed to stretch on for eternity Isabella finally relented in her verbal assault, giving Wasabi a strange look as she asked, "Why are you acting like that, and what's going on with your voice? Just what kind of invaders are you?"

Hiro thought about explaining again how they weren't invading, that they were here to help but with the warning from this Bruno making everyone wary of them he realized that would be a hard sell right now. Then Isabella's comment about their voices entered his awareness, so hoping that his explanation might make them a little less wary and more open to trusting him Hiro said, "That would probably be our translators. I don't know how they sound to you guys exactly, but they..."

Isabela interrupted him with a sigh of irritation, rolling her eyes as she said in heavily accented English, "Let me guess: Americans?"

Hiro felt shocked as he asked, "You speak English?"

"Some," Isabella told him, "Abuela taught our parents, who taught us. She was convinced that someone from your 'helpful' country would come to our villa one day and she wanted us to be prepared."

"I think that America has been very helpful to a lot of people," Honey Lemon said optimistically.

"Tell that to Vietnam, or Korea," Luisa said sternly, her baritone voice reinforcing the impression of power that she gave off with her first appearance.

"Look, I understand your misgivings, but we didn't come as representatives of America, nor are we affiliated with those who have been aggressively been trying to enter your town uninvited," Hiro tried to assure them, "We're here because your government was concerned by the sudden appearance of your villa, which they were previously unaware of, as well as the interest of your less-than-savory neighbors in this place, so they contacted us directly to help them get things sorted out here."

"Well if they had been more proactive in their concern years ago our Abuelo would still be here with us, and we would have been raised in the village where where Abuela and Abuelo had met instead of being forced to flee to here by those unsavory neighbors who burned it down," Isabella responded, "so we have no interest in their sudden desire to get involved now."

"The point that everyone's trying to make is that we have no reason to trust you, and we've been living here quite peacefully without any help or interference for a good number of years," Mirabel said in a tone that was both understandingly kind and authoritative, "If you truly mean no harm to us or our friends then it would probably be best if you just go back to where you came from."

"We would, believe me on that," Hiro told her, "but I don't think that you fully..."

Before Hiro could finish voicing his concern that Isabella and her family wasn't equipped or prepared to defend properly against the drug lords trying to take it over, and that their leaving now would cause it to fall, a young woman came running up towards them. Isabela, who from the time she showed up had been laser-focused on Hiro and his group, for the first time she took her eyes off them and instead ran to meet the young woman who immediately began conversing in Spanish. At first Hiro was concerned that he didn't understand them until he recalled that he had put his translator in sleep-mode when he found out that they speak English. Upon re-activating it he saw in his visor the translation of the conversation between them up to that point, which went like this...

Isabela: ¿Camila!? You're supposed to remain inside! ¿What are you doing out here?

Camila: I had gotten worried so I came out to check on you.

Isabella: I am fine, mi ceilo, I am more than capable of taking care of myself.

When the young woman introduced as Camila smiled and laid her head affectionately on Isabela's shoulder Hiro saw that the young woman's beauty was disrupted by a rather bad scar on the left side of her face. Isabella didn't seem to mind it, however, as she ran her finger along it and even placed a kiss on its edge. Camila then noticed Hiro and his friends and whispered fretfully in Spanish, "¿Is that them, the ones that Bruno warned us about?"

"They do look like the ones in the prophecy he showed us," Isabella responded, still in Spanish, "but they don't seem to have ill intent, so there may be more to it that we don't understand yet, kinda like the one he had about Mirabel and then hid from us before vanishing himself."

Camila looked back and forth between Mirabel and Hiro, then she leaned close to Isabela and whispered, "You know I was thinking, nothing like this happened while Abuella was head of the family, so maybe Bruno had that vision about Mirabel for a reason. Maybe Abuela should have named you as her successor instead of her."

"I'm sorry, mi vida, but that's wrong. La casita collapsed and the candle went out went out while Abuela was here, because Abuela was so fearful of losing our Encanto and the miracle, of losing her family the way she lost Abuelo," Isabela said with a kind smile, gesturing to the skies overhead as she said, "It is likely then when those cabrones found out that we're here. It was Mirabel who had restored the miracle when she brought out fractured family back together, the miracle that is keeping them from entering our Encanto, and it was the miracle that chose Mirabel to protect it as much as it was Abuela's decision."

"¿But... what about them?" Camila asked hesitantly, "¿Why are they here?"

"I don't know, but there has to be a reason why they were allowed to come," Isabela told her, "I promise that we won't let them do anything that would hurt our home, whether they intend to or not."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to question," Camila apologized, "It's just that Mom told me stories about when her parents had to flee the destruction of their village, and I'm afraid of something like that happening here."

"I understand, Abuela told us stories like that too," Isabella said sympathetically, "That's why we will do everything we can to ensure that we don't lose our Encanto." Camila still looked troubled, so Isabella drew her in closer and smiled as she said, "Besides, if Mirabel hadn't given me the courage to be true to myself then I would probably be married to Mariano and we wouldn't have met, so I think that she's doing a fine job as head of the family."

"Yeah, I suppose that we owe her that," Camila conceded with a smile, "See you after dinner tonight?"

"You know that you're welcome to come join us for dinner," Isabella offered, the sad smile on her face told Hiro that she already knew the answer, "everyone would love to have you there."

Camila sighed and looked downcast, but she tried to smile as she said, "Sorry but... I don't think that I'm ready for that, not yet anyway."

"Then I will see you tonight," Isabella told her, and after exchanging a quick kiss Camila turned and walked back the way she came.

Isabella looked back at Hiro's group, but it looked like the previous conversation had dampened her earlier fire. Before she or anyone else could come up with anything to say another young woman, one just slightly taller than Mirabel came running up to them and, in Spanish, breathlessly said in a tone so soft that Hiro could barely hear without amplification, "I think that they're telling the truth. On their way up they were worried that one of the 'drug cartels' might have already invaded and that they could be facing a hostage situation."

"Thanks, Delores," Isabella responded, also in Spanish, "and they're Americans so they speak English, though they do have some translators."

"I know, I heard that too," Delores cheerfully replied in the same language. Then, in the same soft tone that made it hard to tell if she had an accent, Delores said in perfect English, "Hello, nice to meet you!"

This prompts a wave and a chirpy "Hello!" from Baymax, but something that Delores said to Isabella had Hiro dumbfounded. When he found his voice Hiro asked, "We were still five miles away from your village when we were talking about that, but you heard us from that far away?"

"The noise of your plane and the population of the city where you landed made it hard for her to isolate individual voices, but Delores had been eavesdropping on you since shortly after you left to make your way here."

"Super-hearing, that's awesome!" Fred said in admiration.

Without losing her soft smile or changing the tone of her voice Delores replied. "Thanks, but I already have a boyfriend."

This elicits laughter from everyone present, Hiro included. Still Hiro couldn't help but wonder how shortly after they got here they had encountered three individuals with abilities that ordinarily have been registered with this country's NSA. Of course it was likely whatever had been concealing this village had also hid the existence of these supers, and that was why the authorities didn't alert them to their presence, but what was powerful enough to hide a village like this from the entire modern world for over 50 years? Could this be what the drug cartels are really after?

Hiro felt the village around them starting to stir again and he glanced about to see the villagers nervously peeking through slats and from barely open doors and shutters. He was also sure that he saw the glint of potentially dangerous farming implements like hoes and pitchforks. Wanting to avoid the anxiety escalating to the point where a mob is formed amongst the people they were trying to help, Hiro suggested, "Perhaps we should go and discuss this further somewhere private so these people can go about their business?"

"Of course. Isabella, Luisa, why don't you two go and let everyone know that they can come out?" Mirabel told to her sisters with a wink aimed at Isabella that Hiro felt was not as subtle as she perhaps believed it was, "Delores, head up to Casita and let the others know about our company." As the others she had addressed nodded their understanding and headed off in different directions Mirabel turned back towards Hiro and said, "You guys come with me, it's time to meet the rest of the family."