Gahhh I can't believe it's been two whole months! Where the heck is time going?

Anyway, let's not delay! It's time to burn this sucker down!

There's a grand total of six people attending Hiro Hamada's presentation.

To be honest, Tony's never experienced anything like that. He's had ideas panned by committee before, of course – no inventor in the world has had a 100% success rate, not even jackass supreme, Victor von Doom – but the history and significance of his last name meant that there were always people interested in what he had to present to the world.

It's a very inauspicious start for the apparently fourteen year-old prodigy. To make matters worse, only three of those in attendance are actually members of the audience – the other three are Callaghan and, he assumes, fellow members of the faculty, as a fairly informal panel of judges for Hiro's admittance.

In fairness, it could just be that no one's interested because the young Mr. Hamada seemingly has nothing to show the non-existent crowd. He climbs on stage, gangly limbs on a five-foot-nothing frame, a spiky mop of pitch-black hair crowning his head. Hiro's wearing shorts, sneakers, and a navy blue hoodie over a printed red t-shirt – not exactly formal, but maybe he's trying to go for the 'just another nerd' Silicon Valley executive look.

"Cute kid." –Pepper notes, joining him as he watches from a distance, leaning on a nearby information kiosk.

"Sure. Probably not enough to get him admitted, though."

"I'm sure there's something. Professor Callaghan wouldn't have taken such an interest in him, otherwise." –she muses.

"You talked with him?" –he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Pepper nods. "A bit. I wanted to see if he was doing any better since Abigail passed." –she says. "He looks like he is, but…"

"…yeah. Saw that, too." –Tony admits. "Don't know that it would've helped at all, but I wish I'd been here for her funeral. Ol' Callaghan was always there for me, same as Granville."

"You're here now, Tony. I think that counts for something." –she reassures him. He wants to believe that it does.

Hiro begins his presentation by introducing himself – and deafening everyone nearby when the mic spikes. He recovers quickly enough, though his nerves seem understandably frazzled. "…I've been working on something that I think is…pretty cool." –he says, his voice clearly shaking a bit. "…I hope you like it."

The kid grabs a metallic headband of some kind from behind him, probably hooked on his shorts' belt loops, adorned with circular designs. He slips it on, resting on his brow as it powers up, the circles taking on a soft blue glow. Tony's eyes narrow; if he had to guess, he'd say it's some sort of portable MEG scanner/transmitter, though he's never seen one with such a small form factor before – his latest suit designs actually use similar technology so he doesn't have to speak up and ask JARVIS to activate all of the suit's functions anymore, but the layered device takes up almost the entire top half of the helmet, just under the cushioning layer that keeps his head from bouncing against hard metal with every blow or turbulent flight.

He pulls something from his pocket and holds it aloft, so small he can't tell what it is – it just looks like a tiny metal sliver, maybe an inch long, if that. "This…is a microbot." –he says, and it twitches between his fingers. No one seems to know what to make of it – and one of the audience members straight up leaves, seemingly taking the wind out of Hiro. He glances off to the side, to a small group of people he hadn't noticed before; he vaguely identifies the closest one as Hiro's brother, Tadashi. Whatever the elder Hamada says, it seems to help Hiro re-center.

"…it doesn't look like much." –he admits. "But when it links up with the rest of its pals…"

And that's when Tony sees it – what Callaghan was talking about. He grins, much to Pepper's confusion. "What is it?" –she asks, as a sound like tiny chains clinking approaches them, and indeed, begins to fill the entire hall.

"Oh, this kid is good." –he says, smirking as what appears to be a stream of microbots climb over each other and onto the stage, assembling themselves into a large, latticed structure, almost twice as tall as Hiro himself.

He looks much more confident now – even a bit smug, to be expected of someone who knows that they're blowing people's minds. "…things get a little more interesting." –he says, as a crowd starts to approach the stage. Tony can't help it – he, too, walks forward, eager to get a closer look.

"The microbots are controlled with this neural transmitter." –he explains, as the column beside him easily shifts between geometric structures. He takes off the diadem, and the tower instantly collapses into a formless mound, reassembling itself almost as quickly when he puts the device back on. "I think what I want them to do…" –he says, and the column morphs into a chunky, cartoon-like hand that waves at the crowd. "…they do it!"

Tony loses track of the speech after that, focusing on the invention itself; now that he's closer, he can more or less see the individual microbots, each consisting of what must be tiny magnetic bearing servomotors attached to two diamond-shaped rods, allowing them to flex around and connect, presumably via electromagnetic forces, with other microbots around them. They're too small to house much of an AI, so he concludes that the bulk of the processing, if not the entirety of it, must be done at the neural transmitter – it must take Hiro's brain signals, interpret them as a three-dimensional structure, and command the legions of microbots to fill the desired volume, each taking their place in the design.

It's almost hard to believe, the sheer potential in these tiny robots; Tony figures that there must be some significant limitations – like, he'd assume Hiro had to rehearse all of these various shapes, and it must take quite a bit of brain power to imagine designs robust enough to be translated to the real world, meaning the average Joe wouldn't be able to get the same results – but Hiro immediately shuts his inner voice up, showing off some of the near-limitless applications of his technology; he builds a simple but robust tower from prepared materials hidden nearby, then steps off from the top of it, swiftly caught by a stream of microbots that follow his footsteps and then grab hold of his feet and turn him upside down, grabbing onto a nearby light fixture and transporting him like a conveyor belt over the audience.

Part of him, admittedly is a bit jealous; he could do it, he's sure, and the kid has obviously derived a lot of his project from the advancements of others in the field (Callaghan first and foremost) but from what he understands, Hiro can't have had more than a couple months to put these things together – and the hyper-complex algorithms necessary to keep up with a human brain at all, let alone the design engine capable of conceptualizing, rendering, executing, and modifying three-dimensional designs on the fly, would almost certainly take him longer to create than Hiro had to figure it out. It's a near instantaneous process that, even now, after all his upgrades, would take JARVIS at least an hour to get through, without even counting the subsequent machining and assembly.

There's no understating it: in all likelihood, Hiro Hamada basically just jumped humanity twenty or so years ahead in the field of nanorobotics.

So, perhaps he feels a bit overwhelmed by the prospect. But to be honest, his pride can suck it. The Hamada brothers – and this kid in particular – are exactly what he came here looking for. They're brilliant, they're driven, and most importantly, he can already tell that they have that special something he's seen in people like Bruce, Lena, and Peter. Whatever it is that makes people like them go above and beyond the contributions of their already accomplished peers in the scientific community, the Hamada brothers have it in spades.

Pepper looks on in awe, clapping along with everyone else as Hiro finishes his mind-blowing presentation. "I think you've got some competition, Tony." –she teases.

"Pepper, I think I just lost the competition." –he shakes his head, grinning like a madman. "And for once, I couldn't be more excited about it."

As the showcase dies down, and after Granville's closing statements, Tony and Pepper make their way towards the Hamada brothers and their friends and/or family, hanging around by the Baymax booth. They're starting to pack everything up – a bit early, perhaps, since the show floor will be open for at least one more hour, but Tony gets the distinct feeling that they were all mostly here to support Hiro. Tadashi's project is practically finished by now, after all, and he already has the grants to see it through – though Tony's more than willing to bankroll as many improvements as are needed to fully realize the young man's vision for Baymax.

His mood instantly sours as none other than Alistair Krei beats him to them, though. One glance at Pepper and he can tell she's experiencing a similar kind of dread.

Krei is…something of an odd duck. Despite having studied at MIT and graduating as a distinguished alumnus, he's kind of a moron, by most accounts – confident and self-assured to a fault, largely owing to being the richest person in San Francisco. Krei Technologies is one of the bigger tech firms in the country, but Alistair himself is an idea man first and foremost, having the scientists under him be the ones to actually figure out if his 'inventions' are even feasible. He's kinda like baby's first Justin Hammer, except his now disgraced rival was actively stupid and even more of an egocentric dick, even before narrowly avoiding charges for accessory to murder and straight-up manslaughter because of Vanko's rampage.

He can't believe Hammer is out on house arrest. They only managed to pin fraud and reckless endangerment charges on him, so he gets to serve out his sentence in luxury.

In any case, Alistair is a mostly harmless blowhard, his enterprise succeeding by way of having a crap-ton of cash to throw around, a killer jawline, and a bunch of formerly starving STEM workers willing to put up with his technological pip dreams in order to try and make their mark on the world. Tony's vaguely aware that Krei Tech is maybe a week or two away from inaugurating their brand new, state of the art headquarters, so they're clearly not hurting for cash.

His fellow billionaire seems to be in the process of offering Hiro more money than he's ever seen in his short life to pledge the microbot project to Krei Tech – an admittedly smart move, if terribly misguided, judging by Hiro and Tadashi's very apparent unwillingness to work with him. He's not too keen on talking with Krei, but saving the Hamadas from his unrelenting schmoozing is worth it.

"Look over there! A reporter with a Forbes press badge!" –he says, mock excited.

Krei, predictably, switches gears. "Where!?" –he demands, then spots him smirking. "Oh. Tony! Such a prankster, you." –he says, fiddling with his cufflinks. "If you're here about the microbots, I'm afraid Krei Technologies just beat you to them!"

"Looks to me like Krei Technologies has got jack squat, buddy." –he says, raising an eyebrow. "I know I'm rusty on the business side of things, but surely you can tell Mr. Hamada's already rejected your offer? What do you think, Pepper?"

"I think a project like that is worth hanging onto." –she says, diplomatically. "Too often the brilliant ideas of aspiring young inventors get co-opted by men with more money than they know what to do with – and a lack of decent ideas of their own."

Krei chuckles. "Oh, I think credit ought to rest with all the people who make progress happen. Having a good idea doesn't mean much without the means to see it realized, now does it?"

"Kinda depends on the means, Mr. Krei." –Tadashi says, pointedly.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Stark is right." –Hiro says, nervous but determined. "My microbots are not for sale."

A flash of anger passes through Krei's eyes, but he plasters on an amused smile and a condescending chuckle. "That's…a shame. I thought you were smarter than that, Hiro."

"I think you're the only one here who thinks he isn't, Krei." –Callaghan says, joining the tense conversation.

Now it's panic that briefly pulls at Krei's features; Tony's not really sure why, but he has a feeling it might be related to Abigail, since Callaghan has always been a rather stoic man in all matters except for his daughter. Krei's not exactly notorious as a ladies' man, but maybe he made an exception for the late Air Force pilot. "Robert." –he greets, his voice forcibly smoothed. "Still angry at me, are you? Understandable, of course, but you shouldn't let your personal feelings get in the way of this young man's promising career."

Callaghan doesn't dignify that with a response, turning to Hiro instead. "You've made the right choice, Hiro. Your project has so much potential – potential that would likely go right down the drain with the shortcuts and limitations Mr. Krei's company would impose on your microbots in the name of profit." –he says, caustically.

Krei sighs, dramatically. "Well, it's rare, but I know when I'm not wanted." –he jokes. "Congratulations on your presentation, Hiro. Rest assured, I won't let this unfortunate missed opportunity harm your chances, should you reconsider making a career at Krei Technologies in the future."

He turns to leave with his assistant, but both Tadashi and Tony pipe up. "Hey!" –Tadashi calls out. "Seriously, Krei?" –Tony adds, baffled.

"You've got something that belongs to my brother." –Tadashi says.

Krei pretends like he's just noticed he's pocketed one of Hiro's microbots. "How'd that get in there?" –he wonders, putting on a charming smile, then glaring at the others. "Robert. Tony." –he says, marching off to be a jackass somewhere else.

Pepper sighs. "Y'know, I would be offended that he completely ignored me just now, but then he might've stayed a single moment longer. That just wouldn't have been worth it." –she says. "He's not wrong in congratulating you, at least, Hiro. That was an inspired presentation."

"Indeed it was. SFIT is proud to welcome you, Mr. Hamada." –Callaghan says, and pulls a letter from his back pocket. Tony smiles warmly to himself – the man was so confident in Hiro's project that he didn't bother printing a rejection letter, from the looks of it. "I look forward to seeing you in class."

Hiro manages a small, nervous smile. "Thanks." –he says.

Callaghan nods. "Now, if you'll all excuse me, I do have a project or two I'd like a second look at before they're gone." –Robert says, turning to him. "…it was good seeing you again, Mr. Stark. Miss Potts."

Tony's heart breaks a little at how morose he sounds. He smirks and nods, though, and Callaghan walks off. I really oughta do something nice for him, he thinks, but that'll have to be something for future Tony to worry about. For now, he has a couple of his intellectual peers to talk to. "Not to belabor the point, but I hope you're very proud of your invention, kid." –he tells Hiro, then gestures at Tadashi, making sure Baymax's portable form is secured. "Yours too."

"You…watched the presentation?" –Hiro asks, timidly.

"The whole shebang, yeah. Smart move, holding off your reveal like that; I don't think I could've kept myself from just surfing into frame if I had those microbots of yours." –he says.

Hiro rubs the back of his head. "I thought about an entrance like that, but…well, to be honest, I wasn't sure I wouldn't just splatter onto the stage. The microbots work best with slow, controlled motions – otherwise, they can become a jagged mess with a lot of power behind it." –he admits.

"He accidentally punched a hole in our garage wall, slapping a mosquito with the transmitter on." –Tadashi says, deadpan.

"Unfortunate, but that means they still follow commands on a dime." –Tony points out. "That's seriously impressive."

The praise seems to embolden him. "Well, I preloaded a ton of simple shapes and designs, kinda like key frames in animation, and the software in the diadem designs the in-between shapes – really, my proprietary design software is just a bunch of algorithms trying to guess the best way to change from one shape to the next, taking into account the available microbot volume and the constantly updated three-dimensional environment around the user."

"How the hell did you fit all of that in the transmitter?" –Tony balks.

"Oh, Tadashi helped with that!" –Hiro says. "He's been doing some crazy work with miniaturization, meta-material components, and parallel processing – Baymax's whole architecture fits in a processing unit the size of a fist!"

Tony hums, crossing his arms. "That so? Maybe you'd be interested in spinning up a project for me? JARVIS' footprint could really use some trimming – I haven't touched it in a while, I've only worked on localized server nodes for the suits. His actual neural network takes up half my workshop at the Malibu house, with backups at Avengers Tower and our facility upstate." –he says. "And beyond that, I'd be happy to fund any further development, marketing, and distribution costs for Baymax's eventual launch."

"Stark Industries has a very robust business incubator program." –Pepper clarifies, seeing his uncertainty. "If you're worried because of Krei's usual MO, I personally guarantee we won't slap our brand on your project unless you decide to pursue a partnership down the line."

Tadashi's eyes almost bulge out their sockets. "Wow, I…I mean…I don't know what to say."

"Say yes." –Tony advises. "You two have incredibly bright futures ahead; I'd like to do my part in removing as many obstacles in your path as possible."

They exchange a few more pleasantries (it's refreshing that very little of it has anything to do with Iron Man) and, of course, their contact information before their mother – scratch that, their aunt, actually, and quite the looker – drags the siblings and their friends away to celebrate Hiro's success. Pepper wants to chat with Granville about maybe reinforcing SFIT's cooperation with Stark Industries, since Stane's death kinda put a damper in that relationship, so she heads out of the hall. While he waits for her, Tony considers perusing the booths that haven't been removed yet, but people are starting to recognize him, so he decides to avoid making a scene and wait outside.

He's barely shooed away his fans when the screams start.

Tony's first thought is that he's led a supervillain here. He's pretty sure he doesn't have any pending confrontations, but historically, his rogues haven't exactly asked him to RSVP before striking. He summons his armor through his watch – it'll take a minute or two, but at least the days of having Happy carry around a fifty pound suitcase everywhere they went are in the rearview mirror. Pretty soon, though, the cause of the screams becomes apparent; a fire has broken out somewhere towards the back of the hall, dark grey and black smoke rising and staining the ceiling.

Now, you'd think an Avenger wouldn't exactly be challenged by a fire, but there's a lot of extenuating circumstances at play here; Tony's seen a lot of volatile chemicals and highly combustible materials around the show floor, there's still dozens of people in the building, and apparently, the automatic fire suppression systems aren't kicking in. This may not be an alien invasion or a supervillain with a grudge, but it's no less serious and dangerous a situation, so it's time to get to work.

The Mark XLII suit blasts through the ceiling, tracking him down and assembling around him. "Emergency services are on their way, Sir." –JARVIS says as soon as the helmet seals.

"Good. Map out the hall, tag civilians on my HUD, and try to figure out why the sprinklers aren't working." –he says, taking to the air with a brief pulse of his jet boots. The fire is spreading fast, eagerly lapping up the nearby booths – he can't immediately identify a cause, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was simply an unfortunate malfunction from one of the prototypes.

Iron Man starts heading towards the fire, but all of a sudden, something near the flames explodes, tossing flaming debris up and spreading like live coals. Almost immediately, the fire grows from taking up maybe 10% of the hall to nearly half. He curses, tapping into the PA system. "Everyone out of the hall!" –he barks, priming his brand new Freon Beams and blasting off towards the worst of the fire.

He lands by a man in his thirties, shaking off his disorientation after the blast. "That-a-way, buddy." –he says, nodding at the nearest exit, then pointing his arms at the fire; fist-wide beams of frost (actually, a series of lasers blasting particles with photons and reducing their energy state to near zero) wash against the flaming exhibits, instantly putting out every flaming object they touch. He purses his lips, though; it's effective, but not very efficient – the beam output, as it turns out, is much better against single or horizontally arranged targets than a fairly omnidirectional inferno.

Engineer's reminder, he thinks, mentally kicking himself, some things work a certain way for a reason. Like fire extinguishers, for example.

Still, he makes progress. The fire is still spreading, but at least he's keeping the worst of it from destroying the building's supports, so the hall doesn't collapse. He ushers people outside, fearlessly diving into the flames and clearing a path for them wherever necessary by blasting away with his repulsors. He finds a young woman pinned under a collapsed exhibit, easily lifting the structure; the girl desperately clings onto his leg, unfortunately – a really bad move, as the metal has, of course, heated up to match its surroundings. She hisses as she burns her hands, but stubbornly holds on and pulls herself out of the rubble. Tony grabs a nearby tarp – fire retardant, thank god, someone did their homework – enveloping the girl with it and flying her to the safest exit, where a few others he's rescued take her from him so he can get back to it.

Tony grabs a fire extinguisher and throws it up, blasting it with a repulsor beam. It explodes, dousing a sizable area, but like everything else he's done so far, it's not enough. Stark Hall is pretty much doomed, which feels uncomfortably like a metaphor for actual Tony Stark. "I have acquired remote access over the fire suppression system." –JARVIS announces.

"Finally. Go for it, Jay." –he says, somewhat relieved, as the sprinklers and foam dispensers finally activate. He checks for life signs, but finds none inside the hall. He's almost satisfied, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees what appears to be the prone form of Professor Callaghan.

His stomach drops. He can't be dead. Not on his watch.

He starts to rush towards him, but JARVIS pipes up. "Sir! Someone has entered the building!" –the AI says. He turns, and sees a young man, rushing inside.

It's Tadashi Hamada. And he's running towards some kind of half-melted machine that's bloated, surrounded by boiling chemicals, and seems to be violently shaking. It'd be almost comical, if it weren't unequivocally deadly.

"Fuck." –he hisses. Time stops as he realizes what's about to happen; the device is moments away from exploding, likely killing the brilliant young engineer. He has just enough time to save his life, but that means dooming Callaghan, the flames already licking at his body – and sure, his scan doesn't register him as living, but the heat must've just messed with it. He looks unharmed, probably having simply passed out from smoke inhalation.

Part of him wants to consider saving the old man, return the favor for helping him survive his harrowing teenage years, but he knows the choice here is clear. Tadashi has, hopefully, over half a century ahead of him, while the professor has lived a long and full life. It's a horrible decision to make regardless, but he knows the right call, here – he just has to hope that he's tuned the repulsors correctly.

He puts everything into the thrusters, getting between Tadashi and the device in the blink of an eye. "Sorry about this, kid." –he manages to say, as he prays to whatever deities are listening that he's not about to murder Tadashi, and blasts at his chest with both of the gauntlets, throwing him clear of the building as everything around him explodes.

I agonized *so much* over whether or not to save Tadashi's life. On the one hand, everyone and their mother has written a Tadashi Lives AU, and it really does feel like I'm cheapening the movie's message a bit by having him survive - BH6 is a beautiful tale of grief and our ability to cope with and survive loss, which of course doesn't make much sense if Hiro doesn't lose Tadashi in the first place. On the other hand, I wholeheartedly believe that 90% of the time, the future story potential of a character is worth more than the short-term gain of killing them off.

In the end, I couldn't do it. I want Tadashi here for future adventures. Having him survive also spurs the story along some; if he doesn't die, Hiro isn't as morose, and would probably decide to take matters into his own hands as soon as he figures out there's been some foul play behind Tadashi's condition, which in turn would probably happen much sooner because a) Callaghan has been putting this together for some time, and b) Tony Stark was in the middle of the crime scene. I understand if you're a bit disappointed with this, but the Kryptonverse is, after all, all about changes like these, and I can't say I regret it. If it helps at all, Tadashi's still very much dead in the original BH6 dimension.

Some trivia for y'all:
-Maybe a tidbit better suited for later, but since we're doing a compressed story here, Callaghan has already manufactured most of the microbots - he obtained the design after consulting on the project during the two previous months, and he's of course very familiar with the tech behind them. He lacks the neural transmitter though, which as Tony alludes to, is Hiro's true genius invention here. Callaghan simply couldn't replicate it on his own.
-I like to think Abigail actually worked closely with Rhodey, since they both dealt with experimental weapons tech provided by eccentric billionaires.
-A lot of people write Tony as being haughty and jealous about his own tech compared to other people's - personally, I think it greatly depends on who's tech it is. Hammer's products? Worthless trash, try again in 20 years, honey. A brilliant 14 year old revolutionizing nanorobotics without even really meaning to? Well that just reminds him of himself.
-Some updates Tony has made to the armor: his helmet now reads his brainwaves and matches them with pre-recorded commands (like "repulsor blast" or "prime missile launcher") so he doesn't need to have JARVIS do it anymore. JARVIS is also no longer completely a live feed - the suit stores a local copy of him that's connected with his closest mainframe (or a satellite amplifying his range globally), so that in case they become disconnected (like going through a wormhole and ending up light years away), JARVIS can still help control the armor if needed.
-I thought it was so interesting, writing Iron Man trying to fight a fire; even with the addition of his Freon Beams (he kept that name, stubborn ass), the suit just isn't meant for that kind of thing - even just being in that environment is dangerous for anyone he saves, as illustrated by the girl who burned her hands on the piping hot armor. This plus the earlier bit of him trying to tone down the yield on his repulsors so he doesn't punch holes through people he blasts is meant to illustrate the need for him to diversify from a deadly but ultimately fairly simple war machine to a more heroic guardian capable of taking on any situation.
-If you feel like the fire spread a little too quickly, that was on purpose! There may have been some shenaningans at play (and just a crap ton of highly flammable materials in the showcase)
-Callaghan is in his early sixties at the moment. He had to *really* train himself up in the months leading up to his plan so he could pull it off.