Chapter 6: Testing Phase
The afternoon sun hung heavy over the campus of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, casting it in a golden glow as the students and faculty went about their business. The light also reached into Hiro's lab, coming in through the circular window that took up a large part of one of the walls.
Hiro's lab was a square shaped room with three off-white colored walls and one made out of opaque glass, in which was the door leading out of the room which was directly across from the circular window. The three off-white walls were lined with workbenches, leaving the center of the room largely open, though tools and materials were scattered about and power cables criss crossed across it.
Standing at the center of the room, Baymax watched as Hiro hustled back and forth, taking things from the various cluttered workbenches as he went.
"Hiro," Baymax spoke up, "What task are you performing?"
"I think we're due to give you an upgrade, buddy," Hiro replied as he stopped in front of Baymax and grinned broadly at the android.
"But Hiro, I have just received an upgrade to my crime fighting equipment," Baymax observed.
"That's not what I was talking about!" Hiro hissed as he gestured for Baymax to keep his voice down, "And keep it quiet about the crime fighting, remember?"
"My apologies," Baymax replied in a quieter tone.
"Anyway these aren't those type of upgrades," Hiro explained, "These are upgrades for what you were actually built for. You know, medical stuff."
"But Hiro, I am able to provide top of the line medical care with my current functionality," Baymax argued.
"Right, and I wouldn't dream of changing something Tadashi built," Hiro explained, "Maybe upgrade is the wrong word. Maybe added functionality is better?"
"What added functionality?" Baymax inquired.
"Okay, so if hanging out with Riley has taught me one thing it's that if you really want to take care of someone, you have to connect with them," Hiro answered.
"Connect with them?" Baymax parroted as he cocked his head to the side in a quizzical expression.
"Feel what they feel," Hiro elaborated, "Empathize with them."
"But Hiro, I am a robot," Baymax argued, "I cannot empathize with people. I have no emotions."
"Normally, you'd be right," Hiro replied with an excited smile, "Until today!"
As Hiro spoke, he held up a yellow colored data chip on which he had drawn a depiction of a cartoon heart.
"What is contained on that chip?" Baymax inquired.
"Well, as much as I admire the mystery of the human experience, the fact of the matter is that emotions are just chemical reactions going on in a person's brain," Hiro explained, "So, taking all that into account, there shouldn't be any reason I can't program some emotions into you."
"There is logic to this," Baymax agreed, "But I do not have any more open dataports."
"Right, and I'm working on upgrading your mainframe to give you more dataports," Hiro explained as he indicated towards a piece of half-finished technology sitting on one of his workbenches, "But for now, since we're just testing it, we'll just switch one of your other data cards."
As Hiro spoke, he walked up and tapped on the port on Baymax's chest, causing a cylindrical device to emerge. The device was built with three dataports that were currently filled with data cards colored green, red and blue. Reaching up, Baymax grabbed the red data card, which had a skull and crossbones drawn on it, and pull it out before replacing it with the yellow one. After the dataports retracted back into Baymax's chest, the android went stock still for a moment as his eyes flashed yellow.
"How do you feel, buddy?" Hiro questioned hopefully.
"Emotional responses processing," Baymax replied flatly, "Please wait."
"Fair enough," Hiro commented with a sigh.
As he spoke, the door to his lab opened and Riley and Tip stuck their heads in.
"Hey, Hiro," Riley greeted cheerfully as she and Tip stepped into the room, "You wanted us to meet you here?"
"Yeah guys, come see this!" Hiro said as he gestured the girls over excitedly.
"Oh wow," Tip said sarcastically as she and Riley walked up next to the young man, "It's Baymax. What will you think of next?"
"Ha ha," Hiro faux laughed as he shot Tip a glare, "That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you…." Riley began to say before she trailed off as she felt a strange buzzing sensation in the back of her mind.
"What is that?" Fear whispered.
Turning her gaze towards Baymax, Riley's eyes widened in surprise as the buzzing sensation increased.
"Hiro," Riley began to say as she looked at the android in confusion, "What did you do to Baymax?"
"Wait, you can sense that!?" Hiro asked in excited astonishment, "Wow, I never thought that you'd be able to pick up artificial emotions."
"What do you mean artificial?" Tip asked in confusion.
Before Hiro could answer, the buzzing at the back of Riley's head suddenly became a buzzsaw cutting at her skull.
"Ah!" Riley cried as she grabbed hold of her head and scrunched her eyes closed, "Something's wrong!"
"Riley!" Hiro yelled in surprise as he ran over to Riley, "What is it!?"
As Hiro asked this, the feeling in Riley's head took on a sudden, sharp clarity as her eyes snapped back open.
"Look out!" Riley said as she jerked her head up to look at Baymax with wide eyes.
At that moment, Baymax's own eyes turned bright purple as he threw his head back and let out a blood-curdling scream, his voice reaching such a high pitch that electronic distortions began to leak into the android's voice. A moment later, Baymax began to flail around while letting out panicked whimpers. As Baymax thrashed about, Hiro, Riley and Tip quickly retreated as far from the android as the room would allow.
"What's happening!?" Tip demanded as she grabbed hold of Hiro's shirt and looked at him with wild eyes.
"I-I was trying to install some emotions into him!" Hiro quickly explained, "I knew that there would be some bugs to work out, but I didn't expect this!"
"It's alright, Baymax!" Riley called as she cautiously approached the android, who had gotten onto one of Hiro's work benches and was now desperately scratching at the walls, "It's going to be alright!"
"Alright!?" Baymax exclaimed as he spun to face Riley, who saw that his eyes had now changed to a deep shade of blue, "Alright!? Nothing will ever be alright again!"
As the trio watched, Baymax turned around and fell off the work bench, faceplanting onto the floor, where he began to dramatically pound his fist and kick his feet while sobbing, his voice muffled by the ground. For a moment, the trio couldn't do anything but stare at Baymax's display in shock.
"Talk about mood swings," Disgust commented.
"It's okay, Baymax," Riley repeated, holding her hands out in front of herself to show she meant no harm, "We'll get that chip out of you and you'll be right as rain."
"Right as rain?" Baymax repeated as his sobbing stopped.
At that point, Baymax rolled over onto his back and looked at Riley with yellow eyes.
"Right as rain!?" Baymax giggled, "That's hilarious!"
As the trio watched, Baymax clutched his belly and began rolling around on the ground, laughing hysterically.
"We have to get that thing out of him," Riley said as she looked back at Tip and Hiro.
"Right," Hiro agreed with a nod as he began to move towards Baymax, "Let me just-"
"Oh, I'm laughing so hard, my stomach hurts! I don't even have a stomach!" Baymax declared as his eyes turned green, "I think I'm going to-"
Before Hiro could reach him, Baymax rolled over, holding himself off the ground with his hands as his eyes turned green. A moment later, Baymax began making a retching noise, as if he was vomiting.
"Did you really program him to vomit!?" Tip questioned in shock.
"No, I did not program him to vomit!" Hiro snapped back in frustration, "I was just trying give him something so that he could help people better!"
"You," Baymax snarled as he stopped retching and turned to look at Hiro, his eyes now scarlet in color, "You did this to me!"
"Uh oh," Fear muttered.
As Hiro looked at Baymax with wide eyes, the android stood up, grabbed a nearby chair and lifted it above his head. At that exact moment, the door to the lab opened, and Wasabi stepped inside, with Go Go following behind him.
"Guys, what the hell are you doing in-" Wasabi began to say before his eyes widened in surprise as Baymax turned his attention towards the young man and threw the chair at him. Letting out a cry of surprise, Wasabi dodged to the side while Go Go ducked, causing the chair to sail past them and crash into the room beyond.
Quickly assessing the situation, Wasabi charged forward, ducking as Baymax flailed his arms at the young man. Sliding around Baymax, Wasabi quickly grabbed the android's arms and locked him into a full nelson. Following Wasabi's lead, Go Go rushed forward before dropping into a slide on the lab's smooth floor. As she reached Baymax, Go Go swept one of her legs against Baymax's feet. As Go Go tripped the android, Wasabi lifted Baymax off the ground before spinning around and slamming the robot facedown on the floor. Baymax quickly began to thrash about in order to escape, but Wasabi lay on the android's back and held him firmly to the floor.
"What's going on!?" Honey exclaimed as she and Fred rushed into the lab.
"Baymax is going berserk!" Hiro quickly explained, "You guys need to hold him down so I can get a data chip out of him!"
Hearing this, Wasabi quickly rolled over, putting his back against the floor while he held the still squirming Baymax against his chest. A moment later, Go Go rolled onto Baymax's kicking feet as Honey and Fred ran over and pinned down the android's arms. As the four of them fought to hold Baymax down, Hiro rushed over and tapped the port on the android's chest. Once the mainframe was fully extended, Hiro ripped out the yellow data chip before he quickly backed away.
As soon as Hiro removed the data chip, Baymax stopped struggling and went still, his eyes returning to their normal black color.
"I apologize," Baymax stated in his normal monotone as he looked around at everyone while his mainframe retracted back into his chest, "I hope I did not injure anyone."
"It's all good, buddy," Fred replied as he patted Baymax on the chest before standing up, "No harm, no foul."
"What the hell just happened though?" Go Go questioned as she rolled to her feet and looked at Hiro.
"I was trying to install some artificial emotions into Baymax," Hiro explained, looking down at the data chip as he fiddled with it, "I thought it might help him empathize with people."
"Hiro, you can't just go around messing with Baymax's programing like that!" Honey said sharply, catching everyone off guard as she stood up, "Your brother put a lot of hard work into him. What if you had done something that damaged Baymax irrevocably! You have to be careful!"
"I know that!" Hiro snapped back, glaring at Honey as he did so, "I was just trying to help!"
"Sometimes you just make things worse, Hiro!" Honey practically spat, causing Hiro's head to jerk back as if he had been struck.
"Honey!" Wasabi spoke up as he placed a hand on the young woman's shoulder as he turned her to face him, giving her a reproachful look, "That's enough."
Honey looked at Wasabi in surprise, blinking as if she had just been woken up from a dream.
"Mistakes happen, Hiro," Wasabi said as he looked over at the boy in question, who was now staring at his feet, "I mean, I almost cut the whole building in half once with one of my experiments. It's all part of the scientific process."
"I guess," Hiro replied with a dejected tone, looking up at Riley as the girl walked over and laid her hands on his arm while giving him a sympathetic smile.
"Despite the setback we have just experienced, I believe that these artificial emotions will be a welcome addition to my capabilities," Baymax spoke up, "I agree with the hypothesis that being able to empathize with my patients would make me a better healthcare companion. Even if the sensation is….peculiar."
"Thanks Baymax," Hiro replied as he looked at Baymax and smirked at the android.
At that point, most of the group gave Honey pointed looks, while the young woman had the decency to look ashamed.
"I'm sorry, Hiro," Honey apologized as she took off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes, "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."
"It's okay, Honey," Hiro replied with a shrug, "I know you can get a little….protective of Baymax."
"I suppose," Honey agreed with a small smile as she placed her glasses back on, "I think I'm also feeling a little on edge today."
"That's probably because you've been spending so much time in the lab lately," Go Go observed, "Between your experiments and our….group activities, you've been running yourself ragged."
"Yuri, we've talked about this," Honey replied with a tired sigh.
"We have," Go Go confirmed curtly, "That doesn't change the fact that I'm right and that you need to get out of the lab more."
"Would it really hurt you to come have some dinner with us, Pamela?" Wasabi questioned, cutting off Honey's attempt to argue, "Take some time to relax a little?"
"I mean, I wanted to get a few more things done in the lab," Honey retorted weakly.
"Come on, Honey," Fred pushed, "You can't spend your whole life in the lab or on patrol. You got to get out there! Live a little! Seize the day!"
There was a pause as Honey looked around at the pleading faces of her friends before she let out a defeated sigh.
"Alright," Honey answered as she gave her friends a smile, "I suppose I can spare an hour or two."
"Awesome!" Tip replied with a grin, "Now, let's get going, because I'm starving."
Together, the group left the lab, Hiro leaving the emotion chip on one of his work benches as he departed. Making their way out of the building, the group began traveling across the SFIT campus. As they walked, Honey caught sight of something.
"Hey, isn't that the new girl?" Honey questioned as she pointed at something, "Violet, right?"
Looking up, the others watched as Violet gilded down the sidewalk towards them atop a purple longboard, her raven hair fanning out behind her while her backpack was slung over one shoulder. Instead of looking where she was going, Violet's gaze was actually focused on her phone, apparently unconcerned with the chance of crashing.
"A skater, huh?" Go Go questioned as she crossed her arms and smirked, "I'm liking this girl more and more."
"She isn't wearing the proper safety equipment though," Wasabi pointed out as he crossed his arms and shook his in disapproval, causing Go Go to roll her eyes, "And texting while skateboarding? That's just asking for trouble."
"Hey, uh, we should probably get going, don't you guys think?" Fred questioned nervously.
"Why?" Tip questioned with a teasing tone, "You nervous to talk to your crush?"
"N-No!" Fred argued weakly as his face turned red, "I just think-"
"Too late for thinking now," Go Go interrupted as she held her hand up and waved at Violet, "Hey! Freshman!"
Hearing the call, Violet looked up from her phone and spotted the group. Smiling, Violet put her phone back into her pocket before slowing her skateboard, hopping off and flipping it into hand.
"Hey, guys," Violet greeted with a friendly smile, "What's up?"
"Just seeing how you're doing," Go Go explained with a shrug, "How's college life treating you?"
"Pretty good," Violet answered with a shrug, "Takes some getting used to but I'm making due."
Looking at the group, Violet's eyes fell on Riley and Tip.
"I'm sorry, I don't think we've met," Violet said, "I'm Violet Parr."
"Riley Andersen," Riley greeted with a smile.
"Tip Tucci," Tip added with a nod.
"Do you guys go here as well?" Violet inquired.
"No, we're just friends of Hiro and the others," Riley explained with a shake of her head.
"Yeah, we can't all be super geniuses," Tip said with a shrug.
"So, what are you all up to?" Violet questioned as she addressed the group.
"We were just heading to get a bite to eat," Wasabi answered, "You?"
"I was just taking a look around campus," Violet answered, "I haven't really had the time to explore much yet."
"Well, I would say that you're in luck then," Honey spoke up as she laid her hands on Fred's shoulders, "Nobody knows the ins and outs of campus like Fred here."
"Really?" Violet questioned in amused surprise as she looked at Fred, "He seemed to struggle with it last time we spoke."
"He was just having an off day," Honey argued gently, "Trust me, there's no one better."
As she spoke, Fred turned his head and gave Honey a desperate, questioning look. Looking down at him, Honey mouthed the words "seize the day" at him before winking. A look of realization crossed Fred's face before he took a calming breath and turned back towards Violet.
"Yeah, I can show you around," Fred stated.
"You can?" Violet questioned as she blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, sure," Fred replied with a grin, though his face was still red, "I know this place like the back of my hand."
"You sure?" Violet asked as she quirked an eyebrow at the group, "I don't want to mess up your plans."
"It's no problem," Wasabi answered with a shake of his head, "Honestly, we need a break from him every once in awhile."
"Hey!" Fred snapped as he shot Wasabi an annoyed glance, his friend merely shrugging and chuckling at him in response.
"We'll see you later, Fred," Go Go said as she began to walk away, prompting the others to follow her, "Meet us at the Lucky Cat Cafe later if you get hungry."
"Sure thing," Fred said as he gave his friends a wave.
Turning back to Violet, Fred felt his face heat up as he found her looking at him. There was a pause as the two looked at each other, Violet taking a moment to run a hand through her raven hair before giving Fred a smile that seemed to light up her face.
"So," Violet questioned, "Where to first?"
Meanwhile,
An old, beat up, grey van lumbered its way down the road towards the business center of San Fransokyo, where floating generators hung above towering skyscrapers. Inside the van, two men sat in the front while another half dozen sat against the walls of the van's back compartment. Each of the men were dressed in plain black clothes and ski masks, along with black gloves and boots. Over their clothes, each man wore black body armor, and they all carried assault rifles.
Sitting apart from the others, with his back to the partition separating the two halves of the van, was a large man. He stood taller than the other men and was far more rotund, dressed in the same clothes and body armor the others were wearing. His face was uncovered, revealing his Asian features and dark brown eyes, with his black hair pulled back into a small ponytail. Leaning against the seat next to him was a massive gun, almost as long as he was tall.
"Mr. Yama?" the man in the van's passenger seat said, speaking through the small window in the partition, "We're thirty seconds away from the target."
"Good," Mr. Yama replied with a grin as he turned his attention to the other men, "You hear that? We're thirty seconds out. You all remember the plan, right? We go in hard, and we go in loud."
"What happens if some heroes show up before we can get out?" one of the men questioned.
"That's what I brought this little beauty along for," Yama answered with a savage grin as he picked up the massive gun and slung the strap that was connected to it over his shoulder.
"Five seconds!" the man in the passenger seat informed them, prompting the rest to ready themselves and check their weapons.
A few moments later, the van jerked about as it mounted the sidewalk before it screeched to a halt. As lines of smoke rose from the van's tires, the back door was kicked out and Yama hopped down to the sidewalk, his displaced weight causing the vehicle to rock violently back and forth. A moment later, the rest of the men came streaming out of the van and went rushing towards the building the vehicle had stopped in front of.
As the men moved past him, Yama pulled out a black, ceramic, featureless mask and slid it over his face. Once it was secured, Yama looked up at the building before him, the words "KreiTech" written above the front door.
"Alright," Yama said to himself, his gun making an ominous clicking noise as he readied it and moved towards the building's front door, "Let's bring the ruckus."
A/N: A shorter chapter but still a fun one, hope you guys enjoyed it as well. As always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!