San Fransokyo Part 2
Walking down the busy streets, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Twilight, Rainbow, and Sandbar marveled at the massive buildings they passed. With the sun beginning to set, many lights advertising nearby businesses and massive screens playing other sorts of ads for products lit up the city. While passing by many of the people, the visitors heard some spreading praise for them, even hearing them call them "Big Hero 6". They must have been a well-known superhero group, though it seemed like Hiro and Go Go were just average people.
They went from the big city streets to a lower suburban district across a straight splitting both sections of San Fransokyo. The smaller two story buildings paled in comparison to the skyscrapers looming from across the water, but it felt much more homey and less cluttered with people going about their business in the night. Soon, they arrived at Hiro's home, entering through the open garage door that had a supercomputer with a holographic screen against one wall and some shelves and desks storing miscellaneous tools or old mementos here and there.
"Make yourselves at home," Hiro offered as he began to take off his suit. "I'll get in contact with the others to report on the sudden outbreaks they took care of."
Sora and Goofy helped Go Go inside, letting her lean against a nearby desk. "You gonna be ok?" Sora asked.
"I'll live," she assured. "Thanks for the help."
"We're glad to help," Goofy said.
While Go Go remained suited up, she pressed a button on the side of her helmet, retracting her visor into her helmet. Baymax walked over to a section of the garage where a tall pod stood, stepping onto it and turning around. Several metal grips from the wall of the pod reached out, grasping onto parts of Baymax's armor and opening them. Beneath Baymax's armor, to the outsiders' surprise, the fighting robot inside that suit was a big, cushiony mass with long arms and stubby legs.
"That's what he looks like under all that bulky armor?" Rainbow asked.
"He looks like a giant marshmallow," Donald said. "Uhh, no offense."
"I am a robot," Baymax assured. "I cannot be offended."
Hiro was fully dressed in his normal clothes, wearing a red shirt with a dark blue-gray jacket, brown cargo pants, and a pair of black and white sneakers, his black hair a shaggy mess almost similar to Sandbar's that hid under his helmet. He got in a rolling chair near the supercomputer and began pulling up a few things, but he didn't need to contact the rest of their team as they returned moments after they arrived. Two of them were wearing matching suits of armor like Hiro, Baymax, and Go Go, but the last one was dressed in a strange blue and orange triclops monster costume. In the light green armor, the man was dark-skinned with brown dreadlocks, a red bandanna with white floral patterns, and a green visor. On his gauntlets, there was plasma energy embedded in them. The other armored member was a taller woman, her suit a pink and red with a pink helmet, her hair a dark blonde and reached halfway down her back. Over her shoulder was an oddly-designed purse with the straps several muti-colored orbs connected to each other on both sides of the purse.
"Aww man. The spirit is willing to fight crime and destroy monsters," the one in the monster suit said, letting out an exhausted sigh. "But the fire within me...running out of fuel."
"These things keep getting worse and worse, and popping up without any sign of slowing down," the dark-skinned man groaned. "My plasma blades are supposed to slice anything, but it's like they're made out of the toughest metal in all of nonexistence."
"Did you guys manage to get rid of the threats around the city?" Hiro asked.
"Barely," the other woman groaned. They finally noticed that they had guests as Sora gave them a friendly wave. Before they could ask who the new arrivals were, when she spotted Twilight, Rainbow, and Sandbar, her exhaustion disappeared as she let out an excited squeal. "Oh my gosh! Ponies!? Kawaii!"
"Uhh, what did she say?" Rainbow asked.
"H-Honey Lemon, those are-" Hiro couldn't explain in time when the woman hopped over to Sandbar, sliding on her knees and caught the colt in a clingy embrace.
"They're so adorable!" Honey Lemon squealed, petting Sandbar's head while he awkwardly sat in her arms silently. Noticing the bruise on his face, she let out a startled gasp. "Oh no! What happened to you, you poor thing!?"
"Uhh...I got struck by a Heartless?" Sandbar said.
Hearing him talk, the rest of the Big Hero 6 team gawked in surprise. "...That horse just talked," Go Go said. "...Is my concussion kicking in or am I already unconscious?"
Baymax approached Go Go and examined her. "You are fully conscious and recovering well after the severe injuries you had sustained on the bridge," he said. "I do fully recommend bedrest to decrease the risk of further cranial trauma."
"Uhh...If that one talked...does that mean those other two can as well?" the dark-skinned man asked nervously.
"Yeah. These guys helped Go Go, Baymax, and I on the Golden Gate Bridge with those monsters attacking the city," Hiro said. Since introductions were in order, Hiro gestured to his other friends. "You guys already know Go Go. This is Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred."
"A monster named Fred?" Goofy asked curiously.
"Oh! Heheh! Nah! Don't freak out, dudes!" Fred took off the headgear of his costume, revealing himself to their guests. He was a lanky man with long brown hair and wore a teal beanie with a monster face on the front. "I'm a normal human being like you...Well, one of you."
"I think we had a feeling you were somepony in a costume," Twilight said.
"And you guys are...?" Wasabi asked.
"I'm Sora," Sora said, then gestured to the rest of his friends. "That's Donald, Goofy, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Sandbar."
"They managed to fight off those things without any trouble?" Go Go asked.
"I've watched them, and they're really good," Hiro confirmed. "They seem to know what they're doing. Are you guys a crime-fighting team?"
"You could say that," Sora said.
"What's your team name?" Honey Lemon asked, subconsciously petting Sandbar.
The colt scrambled out of Honey Lemon's arms, left baffled along with his mentors as to what their team name would be to avoid suspicion. Glancing around, spotting a poster of Big Hero 6 the group had hanging in the garage, and with their reason for being here as Key Bearers, Sandbar had a brilliant name.
"We're Keyblade Hero 6!" he proclaimed as he struck a heroic pose, though his mentors gawked at him, Big Hero 6 staring at them awkwardly.
"...Dude...That name's so much better than ours," Fred whined.
"That is NOT who we are!" Twilight exclaimed. Sandbar winced, then yelped when Twilight tugged on his ear and dragged him over toward her. "Sandbar, that's the most ridiculous idea you came up with! You basically copied their name, and it makes no sense! Donald and Goofy don't have Keyblades!"
"But we are supposed to be heroes, right?" Sandbar asked sheepishly.
"Not here," Donald stated.
Releasing Sandbar's ear, Twilight turned to Big Hero 6, grinning and laughing sheepishly. "Excuse Sandbar. He's...quite eccentric despite him being an apprentice of ours."
"Apprentice? But...aren't you three animatronics?" Hiro asked, confused.
"I found no mechanical aspects to the miniature equines present," Baymax said, lifting his hand with a pointed finger as if giving a lecture. "Scanning Rainbow Dash and Sandbar during our conflict with the unknown creatures, they are not robotic or mechanical constructs. Though I have no veterinary medical information from Tadashi's data for my prime directive, I was able to administer first aid to Sandbar after sustaining an injury to his cheek."
Sora, Donald, Goofy, Twilight, Rainbow, and Sandbar balked at Baymax's explanation, but learning the ponies weren't man-made animatronics like Hiro thought surprised Big Hero 6. "...I thought he felt a little too squishy," Honey Lemon said.
"So, if they're not robots, then...what are they?" Wasabi asked.
"I got the perfect answer!" Fred said, getting everyone's attention. "...They're a secret experiment where they mutated to look small, adorable, but also very deadly."
Everyone blinked, not a single one of them believing Fred's crazy theory. But the fact that Baymax revealed that Twilight, Rainbow, and Sandbar are flesh and blood creatures, they would start to ask questions about who they really were. And if the Heartless have been around for the past week, the world order in San Fransokyo has already been broken, especially if the news detailed Big Hero 6 trying their hardest to stop them.
"...Well, we're gonna get in trouble back home," Rainbow mumbled. "And we didn't even do anything to reveal we don't belong here."
"We'll worry about that later," Sora said. "You guys have been fighting these 'monsters' for the past week, right?"
"Tirelessly," Wasabi groaned. "We keep getting our butts whooped by them, and it doesn't help that tabloids are doubting our heroism when we're just six people trying to save everyone as best as we can."
"Well, these monsters are actually called Heartless," Sora explained. "They're drawn to the darkness in people's hearts."
"Sweet," Fred uttered in awe. "A battle between light and darkness. Classic conflict!"
"Fred, now's not the time to geek out," Go Go scolded.
"But Honey Lemon went nuts over the tiny horse people mutants!" Fred whined.
"Dude, we're not mutated," Rainbow said with a frown. "I'm a pegasus, Sandbar's an earth pony, and Twilight is an alicorn. Normal ponies where we're from."
"And NOW they know we don't belong here, Rainbow Dash," Twilight grumbled with a facehoof.
"Ok, let's get back on topic, guys," Hiro interjected. "I want to know what's going on, but right now, these Heartless are more important to stop."
"I don't know how we can," Honey Lemon said. "They get stronger and stronger, and there's no end to them."
"With our current skillset, my analysis places our chances at 0.00000-" Before Baymax could finish stating his probability at Big Hero 6's survivability or claiming victory, Hiro got out of his seat and pulled the analytical robot's hand down.
"We get it, Baymax," he said.
"That's why we're here," Sora said. "The six of us will take care of the Heartless. I'm kinda shocked you guys managed to hold off the Heartless this long when they appeared without any casualties."
"They're very dangerous if you can't fight them off like we can," Twilight added.
"Just lead us to where they're spawning, and we'll take care of them in ten seconds flat!" Rainbow claimed.
Donald, Goofy, and Sandbar nodded, but as they were about to leave to get a head start on eradicating the threat, Hiro ran up and stopped them. "Wait. We're coming with you."
Pausing, the "Keyblade Hero 6" looked at the young teen. "I don't think it's such a good idea after what we saw on the bridge," Goofy advised.
"We've got this under control," Donald added.
Despite the danger they were warned of, Hiro just shook his head. "We have to help. I know my brother would have."
Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred all nod, refusing to back down after doing all they could the past week. "But...how?" Sandbar asked. "They're no ordinary monsters to fight."
"We train up, obviously!" Fred said, getting pumped up as he was eager to get back into the action. "When heroes are brought low, they get new powers and get their revenge on the villain."
Sora couldn't help but feel a bit of irony from Fred's claim. Several times, when he thought he wasn't able to get back up, he found something that helped give him the edge he needed; from Discord overpowering him with his chaotic powers and gaining his Harmony Form to counter him, up until just months ago when Sombra came back and the Elements of Harmony were destroyed. With more assistance from those who knew their way around San Fransokyo, they didn't know how Big Hero 6 would be able to assist them with the weapons they have.
"...I think I have an idea," Hiro said. He rushed over to the desk where the supercomputer sat, opening up a drawer and rummaged through it. He pulled out four pairs of visors, each one a different set of colors: black with red-tipped wings, purple with two shades of pink highlights in the center, cyan and red, and green with teal stripes. Bringing the visors to their guests, he held each of them out. "Put these on. These are AR devices."
"'AR'?" Rainbow repeated. "The hay does that mean?"
"It stands for 'Augmented Reality'," Hiro explained. Sora took the black one, Rainbow snagged the cyan one, and Twilight and Sandbar took the purple and green ones respectively. The ponies eyed the odd technology, Twilight starting to grow fascinated by the new technology of this world. "It creates a CG overlay through the visor. While you guys wear these devices, they see everything you do and logs it."
"Uhh...CG what?" Sandbar asked.
"Just put them on and see," Hiro said.
Sandbar placed the mask on, which adjusted to his head as his eyes were visibly seen through the clear visor. It lit up upon wearing it, gazing around curiously at the odd numbers that made up the coordinates from where he was facing and standing. He didn't know what they meant, but as he looked around, his froze when he saw a Shadow standing behind Honey Lemon. Its black body had a slightly blue hue to it matching the visor's lit up HUD, but he panicked, summoning his Keyblade.
"Heartless!" he cried out, startling everyone.
"Huh? Where?" Sora asked.
"Right there!" Sandbar yelled and leapt forward, getting in front of Honey Lemon and began swinging at the Heartless hologram. There were more that appeared in front of him through his visor. "We're under attack!"
"Sandbar, we don't see anything," Donald said.
"We're perfectly safe," Goofy added.
"But it was right here! Behind Honey Lemon!" Sandbar exclaimed. "And there's more right in front of me!"
"Sandbar, relax!" Hiro said as he stood in front of the colt, grabbing his visor and taking it off. "It's just a hologram. There aren't any here. See?"
Without the AR visor over his eyes, Sandbar found no sign of the Shadows. As he took it back and placed it back on, finding the hologram Heartless again, Twilight, Rainbow, and Sora put on theirs and noticed the foes Sandbar saw.
"Wow. A technological illusion," Twilight uttered in awe.
Realizing how badly he overreacted, Sandbar giggled sheepishly. "Uhh...T-This is...so new to me."
"Aww, I find it cute that you came to my rescue," Honey Lemon cooed, scratching Sandbar's ear, making him wince before he relaxed and leaned into her hand.
"Oooooh. That feels nice," Sandbar sighed.
The pleasant feeling faded as he tilted over when Honey Lemon removed her hand, flopping over on the ground, flustered. "So, what do we need to do?" Sora asked.
"You'll be running through a trial simulation out in the city, and the course will be shown to you through those visors," Hiro explained. "After compiling as much data as possible, we can use that to maybe make a few new upgrades for everyone."
"Heck yeah! We're gonna shugyo up!" Fred cheered, flipping the head of his suit back over him and began hopping up and down excitedly. "Shugyo! Shugyo! Shugyo!"
"Easy, Fred!" Wasabi scolded. "They're still learning about all this!"
"What the hay is 'shugyo'?" Rainbow questioned.
"Judging by their need to improve, I think it means 'training'," Twilight said. "This could be a good idea for us in the future instead of taking a trip to the Mirage Arena. Our battlefields just aren't going to be flat plains every single time. There are obstacles, hazards, some collateral damage-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, Twilight," Rainbow interrupted. "Can we just get to the super training already? I'm itching to beat these courses before anypony could blink!"
"Head to the roof of the tallest building in the city and I'll get the course started for you guys," Hiro said as he walked back to the computer.
"I shall accompany them to add more of a closer vantage point and provide medical aid for any injuries during training," Baymax offered before he waddled himself back over to the pod to suit back up in his armor.
"Good idea," Wasabi said, letting out a heavy sigh. "I could use a breather."
"It'll be interesting to watch what you guys can do on the monitor," Honey Lemon said.
"Prepare to be surprised," Sora said. "Donald, Goofy, you guys sit tight just in case any real Heartless show up around the neighborhood."
"You got it, Sora," Goofy said.
Once Baymax was all suited up, he began to step outside the garage, Sora, Twilight, Rainbow, and Sandbar joining him. "Sora, Sandbar, climb onto my back and hang on tight," he said.
Excited, Sora eagerly hopped on and clung onto Baymax's right shoulder. Sandbar leapt up and clutched Baymax's left shoulder, panicking slightly when he heard the medical robot's rocket thrusters at his feet hover them up in the air. Twilight and Rainbow flapped their wings, taking to the air with Baymax, and with a swift boost, were left in the dust by the robot as it sped off with Sora and Sandbar back toward the city.
"Whoa! That was a fast takeoff!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Oh, he is NOT faster than me. Wait up, you giant marshmallow!" Rainbow called out and sped off, making Twilight groan and fly after them before she was left behind.
"Don't exhaust yourselves before the trial starts," Hiro said, his voice coming through the wielders' visors.
"You can hear us from this far already?" Rainbow asked.
"Just from the other end of San Fransokyo. I kinda want to expand the map data more, but that'll have to wait until we put an end to these Heartless." From the garage, the rest of Big Hero 6, Donald, and Goofy could see four split screens of the current feed coming from the AR devices. The top two were from Sora and Sandbar's view, which both had two separate sides of Baymax's head along with the incoming city, and the bottom two were Rainbow's and Twilight's perspective, where the former was currently catching up to Baymax while the latter was watching the pegasus speed up. "Wow. I'm shocked Rainbow Dash is able to keep up with something as fast as a rocket's propulsion can give."
"Hah! I'm the fastest flyer where I'm from!" Rainbow gloated. "I could fly circles around Baymax if I wanted to!"
"Probably not a good idea, but I guess we'll take your word for it." Soaring higher up, Baymax flew toward the tallest building of San Fransokyo in the center of the city. He began slowing down, reaching the top of a tall corporate building and landed on the roof with a light step. Sora and Sandbar climbed off the robot, the latter wobbling slightly. Despite having experience riding in a Gummi ship, to fly around freely without being seated or in a protected dome was much more exhilarating than he thought. Rainbow touched down beside them while Twilight eventually caught up, being smart and saving her energy unlike Rainbow Dash. "Ok. You'll see where the course will take you as you progress throughout different parts of the city on your AR visors. There will be rings to guide you, each one with different point values, along with virtual Heartless we've compiled since their arrival to block your way and reach the goal at the end."
Through their visors, Sora, Sandbar, Rainbow, and Twilight watched as virtual rings appeared in front of them at their "starting point". "Piece of cake," Sora said. "So, anyone want to go first?"
Rainbow was about to jump in, but Sandbar spoke up. "Can I go first?" he asked.
"Huh!? I want to go first!" Rainbow whined.
"Rainbow Dash, if you went first, you'd just race through it all the way to the end," Twilight argued. "They're trying to record our styles of combat, and fighting these technological illusions is part of it."
"I could set a timer to see how long it takes each of you to make it to the end while getting as many points as possible," Hiro suggested.
"To show off how awesomely fast I am?" Rainbow asked with a cheeky grin toward Twilight.
"I think letting Sandbar go first is better for part of his training," Sora interjected. "He hasn't had much experience like the others yet, but at least this time it's not just throwing him out to the wolves. Go ahead, Sandbar."
Sandbar nodded and got himself into position. Rainbow grunted in frustration, but she didn't want Sandbar to feel too pressured if she wound up beating the course at breakneck record speeds. Sandbar took a breath, summoning his Keyblade, watching a countdown timer counting down from three through his visor. As soon as it reached zero, Sandbar sprinted off through the first set of rings, leading to the edge of the building.
"Uhh, is it a good idea to let someone who can't fly or jump high to just plummet straight off a building!?" they heard Wasabi exclaim with concern.
Sandbar kept running, then made a huge leap forward as he went into a freefall, weaving through the rings on his descent. It was an incredible sight to see the city from such a tall height, but he had no time for sightseeing. This was a perfect opportunity to try to figure out what he could do in this training course to stand out as an outstanding Keyblade wielder. The rings grew closer to the ground as he fell several dozen stories, and as the others back at the garage were worried he was going to be splattered all over the pavement, Sandbar flipped and cast an Aero spell at the ground below. A small gust of wind swirled in place, landing perfectly on it and bouncing off of it, landing safely and continued running through the course, ignoring the shocked city folk while racing down the street.
"Was that magic!?" Honey Lemon exclaimed.
"That was an awesome superhero landing!" Fred cheered. "Would have been more epic with a powerful quake of a landing, but that's still pretty darn cool!"
Focusing on the course and ignoring the praise coming through his visor, Sandbar jumped and dove into rings to get himself a good score. Coming up to a four-way intersection, holograms of different Heartless appeared as he was barred from progressing. Shadows, Tireblades, Soldiers and Air Soldiers appeared, basic small enemies along with the new missile-launching wheelers they fought back on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sandbar shot a Thunder spell down on the Tireblades, stunning them while he went after the Soldiers. Air Soldiers tried to swoop down to ram into the stallion, but he reacted to their ambush and blocked their fists and feet. While stunned, he jumped up and latched onto one of them, flung his Keyblade at another stunned Air Soldier, then slammed the one he grabbed down onto a grounded Soldier. Destroying both virtual Heartless, Shadows popped up from the ground and lunged at him. Calling back his Keyblade, he cast a Fire spell around himself, swirling the flames in a defensive shield to burn the Shadows, then spun in a circular slash, spreading the flames and pushing the Shadows further back. Taking care of the rest of the stragglers, he shot Blizzard spells at the remaining Soldiers and Air Soldiers, destroying the last of them and opening the course back up to continue running.
Bounding off the walls and reaching up to the rooves of smaller buildings nearby, Sandbar followed the rings, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, launching himself off of vents from air conditioning units to reach taller storied buildings. Despite the intense stamina training, Sandbar was starting to get exhausted, but he wasn't going to stop until he reached the finish line. Another trail of rings while taking a personal tour of San Fransokyo and another stop or two with more Heartless, he was at the final stretch, leading back to the corporate building they started, but it was a steep climb up on the walls.
Hiro, Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred had no idea how someone like Sandbar would be able to pass through the rings going up the wall of the skyscraper without aid from Baymax or even Twilight or Rainbow Dash. Sandbar was determined to make it, running toward the building, then with a powerful jump, he leapt onto the building, and without stopping, kept his momentum going and sprinted up the wall. While in Yakyakistan, he and Yona did a little mountain climbing, and running up the steep cliffsides was easier for him with his smaller frame, a skill he had surely impressed his yak girlfriend. With it being a much more straighter angle, Sandbar wasn't able to run on the side of the wall with ease or else he'd risk losing his footing and fall off. He missed a few rings that made sharp turns to another set on the other section of the wall he was climbing, but he felt he got enough to get a good score and impressed Big Hero 6.
Sandbar reached the top, sprinting a bit too hard and launched himself higher than he thought. He yelled and flailed as he fell back down, passing through the finish ring and tumbled across the roof, flopping on his stomach and panting heavily.
"H-How...How'd I do?" Sandbar asked as he caught his breath.
"H-He...He just ran up the building!" Wasabi exclaimed.
"That is so cool!" Fred cheered.
"Is no one else going to ask what the heck that sword of his is?" Go Go questioned, unable to hide her own stupified tone.
Sandbar stood up, holding his Keyblade in front of him for the group to see clearly as Hiro's computer analyzed the weapon. "...I...call it the Lazy Turtle?" he sheepishly answered.
"It...looks like a giant key," Hiro noted.
Sandbar stammered, unable to come up with an excuse as to why it looked like a key he can swing around like a sword. "Alright, reset the course for me!" Thankfully, Rainbow chimed in to deter Big Hero 6's curiosity. "Make it as hard as you possibly can!"
"Uhh, ok, then." Thankful for the distraction, Sandbar sighed in relief, dismissing his Keyblade and returning to watch alongside Sora, Twilight, and Baymax.
Feeling like he did an impressive job showing off his skills with Big Hero 6, Sandbar thought his fire wall spread was a pretty interesting trick he came up with. Despite his on-the-fly technique, what he was able to pull off paled in comparison to his mentors. He should have expected he wouldn't pull off wilder stunts as an apprentice, but compared to Rainbow Dash, who had been given the Keyblade of Loyalty months ago and was more new to this than he was, she was more of a master than an apprentice.
For Rainbow's run, she obviously had her speed as a major advantage. She managed to rush through every ring without missing a single one, turning, twisting, and angling her movements to show off her superior flying skills as a Wonderbolt. Without Formchanging her Keyblade, she was able to wipe out the Heartless holograms swiftly and finished at an impossible record that Sora couldn't possibly break. From the sound of the hero team of this world's reaction, they were astonished witnessing her Mach speeds with the computer calculating her actual speed. Her mastery of lightning spells also gave her a powerful edge, zapping the Heartless and zipping up to each one with a single slash. Getting a perfect ring count and less than a minute clearing the hardest course Hiro could make up for her, she had a smug smirk, likely imagining how awestruck Big Hero 6 was.
Twilight decided to go next, but unlike Rainbow, she was going to do her best to follow through the course without showing off too much. Similar with mobility ascending and descending, Twilight passed through several rings with ease, and when the combat portions blocked her, she mixed physical strikes with powerful magic spells that decimated the Heartless in seconds. Twilight used the same Fire barrier Sandbar had done when she got ambushed, but as she spread it out, it grew into a massive wall of flames and crashed down on the Heartless holograms. Sandbar didn't have as much skill with magic as Twilight had, but to see it done so much better with her other powerful magic spells made him feel useless.
The alicorn's time was a bit lengthier than Rainbow's, but she bested Sandbar's, to his disappointment. Sora was ready to go, ready to show Big Hero 6 how well a human can race through their course without any technological gear or a pair of wings. Despite going into a freefall, Sora was able to fall through all the rings with as much maneuverability as Twilight and Rainbow. Just as he was about to reach the ground, he weaved over to a light pole on the sidewalk, using his momentum from the fall to launch himself forward, safely landing as he sprinted down the street, using the light poles and rails on the sidewalks to pick up his pace. His combat with the Heartless gave Big Hero 6 much more respectable data as the only human being among the group, slicing and dicing through the holograms, mixing a few spells here and there while parrying or dodging them. Sandbar really felt so outclassed compared to Sora, but between Rainbow Dash and Twilight and their runs, he felt like he could do better, but didn't know how.
Sora had impressed the hero group back at the base by running up the building like Sandbar had, but managing to switch from running up to running along the wall, collecting the rings going across without missing a beat. Reaching the ledge, he hopped up and raced to the goal ring, beating out Sandbar's time by a whole minute.
"Nothing to it," Sora said. "Let's just hope all those people down there aren't too weirded out watching us fighting invisible enemies."
"I bet they were wowed by how awesome we looked," Rainbow said.
"While we're trying not to show off to everypony in this city," Twilight grumbled, reminding the pegasus they weren't supposed to reveal their powers in the first place.
"I think that's...quite enough data to compile," Hiro said after he and his friends processed what they all were able to witness. "Head on back, guys."
After Sora, Twilight, Rainbow, Sandbar, and Baymax returned to the garage, Hiro wasted no time looking over every bit of combat data they got from the wielders. The moment they got back, Big Hero 6 was already discussing about some additional ideas inspired by what they had witnessed through their visors. They immediately got to work on upgrading their arsenal, and the visiting group of heroes got to learn about each member of Big Hero 6, both from their personalities and nicknames along with their own combat prowess.
Go Go was the more aloof and laidback, but incredibly serious genius in her field. She had a knack for speed, something that impressed Rainbow Dash despite watching her getting knocked out on the Golden Gate Bridge hours ago. The discs she had connected to her hands and feet were a modified version of her electro-magnetic wheels meant to increase the speed on a bike without the wear and tear of rubber tires and friction resistance. From how thin they looked, they seem impossible to wear them like a pair of roller skates, but sure enough, they function well enough, and were handy circular blades for slicing through things with enough acceleration and friction. From watching Sora and Sandbar being capable of running up walls, she modified her "wheels" for a unique "all-terrain" feel, using the speed from skating to help her gain enough momentum to ride up walls without the wheels binding to the surface to accelerate. Her nickname was well earned with her need for speed, and she and Rainbow had a short race around the cul-de-sac to see who was faster; Rainbow was the clear victor, but that only inspired Go Go to keep pushing those limits.
Wasabi was the more careful and clean nitpicker of the bunch, something Twilight definitely had much in common with making sure everything was just right. How he got his nickname was more of a blunder; he spilled wasabi all over his shirt at lunch in the university, and he was given the name Wasabi over that messy incident. His method of fighting crime was using plasma that took the form of a pair of blades that were activated by his gauntlets. Just a millimeter of plasma energy as a solid wall was much more dangerous to slice through just about any kind of material, including the hardest of geological stone in the world. He was stuck to fighting up close and personal, but watching Sora fire beams of light from his Keyblade from Hiro's visor recording them back on the bridge, he thought he could gain an edge both close and long-range by improving his plasma gauntlets to also fire plasma beams.
Honey Lemon was a bubbly, optimistic, and more sentimental member of the group, and she was a master chemist when it came to what she was packing. The purse she carried was more than that; it was a miniature chemical lab where, with a press of several buttons, mixes a multitude of chemicals stored inside and heats them up to create little balls that are more like chemical bombs that could have different effects. Sticky grenades, portable bounce pads, protective shields, all at the touch of a button. From what she witnessed with Twilight and Rainbow's Formchanged weapons, she could change the way her bombs work to deal some real damage to the Heartless with some well-crafted explosions. With the right chemical mixtures, and some additional brainpower from Twilight's vast knowledge of elemental compounds, Honey Lemon's chem bombs can now cause some serious damage.
Fred, ironically, isn't a student like the rest of the humans of Big Hero 6. He's not even intelligently brilliant to be a part of such a prestigious school mastering all sorts of technological advances, but he does have some brilliant ideas in his own way. He was even responsible for all the nicknames for the rest of the gang, especially Wasabi's. He loves comics, monsters, superheroes and villains, and, in a weird twist, he grew up in a rich family where his father was one of the funders for their university. It was hard to believe with his casual attire and his personality, but without his father's money, they wouldn't have gotten their gear they now wear today. His monster uniform gives him some springy jumps, helping him reach tall buildings nearby, and the mouth of the suit can breathe fire. Watching all the magic spells being cast, he wanted to add some ice to his arsenal, using both opposing elements in a dynamic display of raw power fitting for the hyper enthusiastic member of Big Hero 6.
Without so much as a break, Big Hero 6 had gotten their upgraded modifications for their specific gear by morning. A few tests here and there without any flaws, they felt more confident to get back out there and protect San Fransokyo. Hiro also gave Baymax an upgrade by utilizing the data from the test runs into a computer chip. After it was fully downloaded, Hiro approached Baymax with his new combat chip. Tapping on a circular segment over Baymax's upper left chest, a place where a heart would be located on the human body, it opened and jutted out a four-slotted device from within Baymax. Popping out of the far left one slightly was a green chip with the name "Tadashi Hamada" written on the top with a smiley face wearing a stethoscope. Sandbar grew curious to see how Hiro was going to give it to Baymax and noticed the chip, recalling Hiro mentioning someone named Tadashi who would do anything to help the world.
"There we go," Hiro said, pressing the chip into an empty slot and watched it recede back into Baymax's chest. "We should be all set to deal with the Heartless now."
"To an extent," Sora said. "There may be much bigger threats than what you guys may have run into. Leave those ones to us."
Suddenly, a window popped up on Hiro's computer, a news station releasing an emergency broadcast that caught the group's attention. "We interrupt your scheduled program to deliver this breaking news. Moments ago, the city's South District was attacked by numerous unidentified creatures." Glancing at the screen, they all watched as Heartless were running amok as a news camera on the side of the building recorded them causing havoc. The camera shifted to different sections of the South District, some of them also showing some hearts floating up in the sky and disappearing in a dark void. Twilight grimaced, having witnessed the horrible deaths Heartless can bring, and there were innocent bystanders who were being attacked by the Heartless as they watched the chaos unfold. "Witnesses describe losing sight of victims during the mayhem. Many also said they saw strange, floating heart symbols in the vicinity of the missing victims. City police are urging citizens to stay at home. For those just joining us, only minutes ago the South District was attacked by-"
Hiro cut off the video, none of them needing to hear or see anymore. "...Is...that what happens to somepony when they...?" Sandbar asked, noticing how pale Twilight looked.
"Those people need our help!" Rainbow exclaimed.
Hiro and Sora looked at each other, nodded, then looked back to their friends. "Go time."
Racing into the city, both teams split up down different roads to reach South District. Rainbow and Twilight flew on ahead, the latter fearing losing anymore people to the Heartless as her first experience watching someone she knew from an alternate universe lose their heart. While the pegasus and alicorn took to the air, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Sandbar sprinted through the streets, passing by fleeing people escaping from the Heartless in the attacked district. Turning into an alleyway, Sora spotted the Heartless about to harm a civilian. Summoning his Keyblade, he rushed forward, smacking away a Soldier Heartless, but its headgear was curved forward like a beak's with two jagged horns, darker patterns on its body compared to a normal Soldier's, and had spiked wristlets and sharper claws.
Slamming it into the wall of a nearby building, he pushed the other Heartless back with a strong Aeroga spell around him and the Heartless' next victim. "Hurry, get to safety!" Sora said.
"T-Thank you!" Running to find a safe haven, the rescued civilian ran past Sandbar, Donald, and Goofy as they joined with Sora, facing down the mass of Heartless.
"These Soldiers look a little different," Donald noted.
"Definitely tougher versions," Sora said, watching the Soldier he knocked back already back on its feet, ready to go another round. "Let's call them High Soldiers."
Up above, Rainbow and Twilight swooped down onto the rooftops, grouping up with Baymax with Hiro riding on the medical robot's back. Popping in from the rooves and the sides of the buildings, Pole Cannons extended and took aim at them and the others down below.
"Uh oh! Heads up, everyone!" Hiro warned through his visor. "We've got threats about to snipe from the rooftops!"
"Time to show these creatures of darkness our new power!" Fred cheered.
Rainbow and Twilight sped toward the Pole Cannons, providing cover for those on the ground. Several buildings across, they could see Fred leaping around, using his new mix of fire and ice "breath" to take out the Heartless cannons near him. Zipping from Heartless to Heartless, Rainbow made short work of a line of them diving down the side of the building, then angled herself back up to chase after some Tireblades flying in a formation to launch missiles at their next targets. Twilight helped take down another group of Tireblades, unleashing a Firaga spell and used her magic to hone in on the leader, the impact causing it to explode and destroy the first three in front while the other two at the tail end spun out of control. Honey Lemon bounced up onto the rooves with her chemical bounce pads, taking out the last two with a well-timed throw of an explosive fire chem bomb.
Down below, Sandbar grunted as he slashed a few Shadows in front of him. After taking them out, he ducked as Tireblades swooped down, nearly striking him. He turned around to blast them out of the sky, but they were quickly shot down by Wasabi using his new plasma launchers. With the aerial threat around them taken down, he unsheathed the plasma blades and began slicing at some nearby Heartless that rushed toward him. A High Soldier pounced on the distracted colt, slamming him down to the ground. It raised its claws to strike, only to be intercepted by a yellow blur crashing into it. Go Go rammed the Heartless into the side of the building, then skated off, dragging it along the building while the discs on her forearms began to spin rapidly. Reaching the next building, she leapt up, her newly modified wheels magnetically connecting to the surface and began racing her up to the roof with the dragged High Soldier helplessly carried along. When Go Go reached the top, she flipped back and flung the Heartless, letting it flail around as it slammed into the ground, disappearing in a puff of smoke and releasing its heart while Go Go landed on the side of another skyscraper and skated back down to the alley, picking up speed and jumping off to slice through some more Soldiers and Shadows.
Sandbar got back up, grateful for the save. "That was close," Sandbar uttered.
"You good, Sandbar!?" Goofy called out.
The teenage colt nodded, getting back into the fray. Up above, Hiro kept an eye out for anymore Heartless that appeared as backup. He spotted something on one of the nearby rooftops that Twilight was heading toward, these Heartless looking similar to minotaurs, though their metal armor seemed to look more mechanical.
"A new species is up on that one!" Hiro pointed out, warning the alicorn. Twilight didn't waste any time and headed toward the marker Hiro created through her visor. Baymax flew off to assist her, but once she landed on the rooftop, a barrier suddenly appeared around it, causing the robot to bump into it, startling Hiro. "H-Huh!? What was that!?"
"It appears as though a barrier has been erected by a mysterious phenomenon," Baymax concluded. The minotaur Heartless Hiro spotted had three others appear and surround Twilight. Twilight could see the resemblance these ones had to the Satyrs from Olympus, bearing darker skin and the mechanical suit of armor it wore. "My sensors indicate no possible way to breach this mysterious barrier from any angle. It is like a dome keeping Twilight prisoner."
Twilight grunted, summoning Harmony and the Keyblade of Magic. Focusing on her H-Links, Kindness's link began to glow, just in time as all four Mechanitaurs charged at her. Both her Keyblades spun around rapidly, creating a barrier that shot out just before they could touch her. From the pink barrier, it formed into a massive sea serpent, hissing and spinning rapidly, smacking the mechanical minotaurs with a sharp whip of its tail. All four Heartless smacked into the invisible barrier while Twilight hovered in the center of the small battlefield, holding both Keyblades in a defensive cross, her dual-wielding stance changing when activating either of her friends' links.
Switching to link with Loyalty's chain, both Keyblades unleashed sparks as she swiftly slid them in opposite directions. Now wielded backhanded, she dropped to the ground, her wings spread, then suddenly zipped off in a purple blur. Several sharp slashes rang out rapidly in the few seconds they echoed around her, reappearing back to her starting position while the Mechanitaurs seemed frozen. Flipping both Keyblades, she then slammed them onto the roof, causing the Heartless to jerk as they were slashed at rapidly at the aftershocks of her blinding speed finally catching up.
With another flick, she sent both Keyblades hurtling toward two Mechanitaurs that were on opposite sides. Embedded in their chests, she used Magnega to pull them toward her Keyblades, sending them flying toward her. She jumped into the air, summoning her Keyblades before the Heartless made contact, their bodies glued to each other from the magnetic spell affecting their metal bodies. She did the same to the other two, flapping her wings to gain more height as the other two crashed into the first two, trapping them in a giant magnet ball. Tapping into the Honesty Link, Twilight yelled as she flipped rapidly, wielding both Keyblades in her hooves. Turning herself into a rolling meteor as her blades caught fire from the intense speed she was flipping in, she dropped down on the Mechanitaurs like a flaming meteor, slamming them all with enough force that caused the air to shake from the tremor she unleashed.
In the explosion, four hearts floated out of the smoke, the barrier that trapped her disappearing after the Heartless were completely destroyed. Flapping her wings to clear the air, she was seen holding both Keyblades together as they were hoisted over her shoulder in one hoof. Hiro's jaw dropped after witnessing more of Twilight's power than he had anticipated through what she showed them last night.
"That...was awesome," he uttered.
Dismissing her H-Links, Twilight flew over the alley, finding no sign of anymore Heartless in the district. "Is that the last of them?" she asked.
Before they pat themselves on the back, they heard more screaming further into town, along with some loud thuds that could be felt for half a mile. "Uh oh. We got something big coming!" Hiro said. Tapping on the keypad of his gauntlet, he got a wider view of the city streets outside of the alleys. From the cameras, he gasped, spotting a massive Heartless barreling its way forward, causing citizens in their vehicles to speed down the road to get away from the gargantuan monster. It was like a tyrannosaurus rex, colored brown with yellow zigzag marks separating its torso with its lighter colored arms and legs. Its opened maw had what looked like magma making up its inner mouth, three different protrusions that resembled volcanoes on its back, and it had strange outlet-like appendages on its sides and tail. Twilight and Rainbow could clearly see it from above while the others got a good look at it through their visors. "Very big!"
"That's a job for us," Sora said. "Guide me to where it is! Big Hero 6, you handle any stragglers that are still hiding around here!"
"Uhh, yeah, that's all you," Wasabi said.
"Be careful!" Honey Lemon said.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Sandbar sprinted out of the alleyway and headed toward where the Heartless was running around. Rainbow and Twilight dove down as the Heartless jumped onto the overhead bridge on the main road, letting out a roar as it terrorized the people fleeing from it.
"Hey, big, tall, and ugly!" Rainbow called out, slamming into its forehead and sending it toppling off the bridge and on its back on the road. Shaking off the blow, it rolled itself back onto its feet, inhaling and roaring as it released a deadly fire breath toward the pegasus. Rainbow flew high, avoiding the stream of flames with ease. "That's right, focus on the pony that's gonna make you extinct!"
"I really don't think Heartless like this can fall for taunts," Twilight mumbled to herself.
While Rainbow was keeping it occupied, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Sandbar ran out onto the street where the Heartless was spotted. "Oh, that's a deadly one," Sandbar said.
"A giant fire dinosaur. Not a problem," Sora said. The Heartless got frustrated trying to jump and bite Rainbow Dash, unleashing another roar as the volcanoes on its back shot out dozens of molten lava rocks into the air. "Uhh, never mind! That's an issue!"
Rainbow yelled, swooping down to avoid nearly getting singed by the rocks erupting and falling all around it. Getting away from the falling rocks, Twilight spotted something weird with its tail. While it had a blue jar-like shape, there was an opening, and the alicorn thought she saw a pair of yellow eyes peeking out from inside.
"What the...?" The dino's body began to glow red, the extra Heartless hiding within poking its head up, connected to an afro cloud that began sparking with electricity. "It's two Heartless in one!?" While the bigger Heartless charged forward and tried to burn the four on the ground with its fire breath, the smaller one began shooting down lightning bolts where they were. Twilight flapped her wings, avoiding a bolt that almost struck her. "What kind of Heartless is this!?"
"A catastrophic one!" Donald squawked, yelping slightly as a lightning bolt nearly zapped him as he ran for cover.
Dubbing it as the Catastrochorus, they kept avoiding lightning bolts, but it got more enraged as it began charging after Sandbar. Sandbar panicked, sprinting away while hearing it chomping its jaws behind him. Leaping onto a nearby lightpole, copying Sora's many Flowmotion techniques, he picked up speed and launched himself away just as the Heartless chomped on the pole and tore it to shreds. Landing with a roll, Sandbar quickly turned and fired a barrage of Blizzard spells. The frigid ice caused steam to billow from its heated body, tearing away at the enraged armor it had similar to the Metal Troll.
"Whittle its defenses with ice and water magic!" Sora exclaimed, running toward the Catastrochorus and gave it a stronger dose of Blizzard magic on the Heartless in its tail. Hitting it disrupted its lightning storm, but that made the dino more aggressive as it turned its attention on him. Ready for its charge, it roared and ran forward, unleashing more lava rocks while slamming its tail down violently behind it. Twilight flew at a safe distance as she tried to cool down the volcanic spouts with Waterga while Sora dashed backwards, blasting its face with more Blizzaga spells. Rainbow zipped around and stabbed at the tail end to keep its Thunder spells from zapping everyone, her own resistance to the spell much more tolerant from her work dealing with thunderclouds back home. "Come on, chill out already! I'm not turning into another monster's chew toy!"
After several more spells, the Heartless let out a groan in exhaustion and was left vulnerable, the part of it in its tail retreating back in its hiding spot to recuperate. Sora took the opportunity to whack its face, knocking its head around as it growled and roared in pain. Shaking off its daze, it chomped on Sora's Keyblade, flicking its head to fling him back, then made a mighty leap that startled the wielders, mage, and knight. Landing on the roof of one of the taller skyscrapers, it let out a roar as the dinosaur portion went into a coma, the creature in the tail fully popping out, writhing about and began unleashing lightning bolts down on the city.
"Whoa! These lightning bolts nearly made me wipe out!" Go Go exclaimed.
"There's more of these Heartless things running around as well!" Fred said. "Challenge accepted, you demons!"
"Darn it," Twilight growled. "This thing's more ruthless than the Titans in Olympus combined."
"Let's hack off that tail of his and stop this thunderstorm, Twi!" Rainbow said. Raising her Keyblade just as a thunderbolt came down on her, her Keyblade absorbed the spell, then she slammed it down into the ground, Formchanging it into its spear form, then splitting them into dual lightning bolt daggers. Twilight nodded, Formchanging Magic into its smaller wand before extending it into its bow form. "Race you to the top!"
Rainbow sped off with Twilight hot on her heels. Sora dashed after them, leaping from building to building at breakneck speeds, leaving Sandbar stunned and sighed heavily.
"I-I don't think I can pull that off," he groaned.
"We'll let them deal with that one!" Goofy said. "If more Heartless are appearing in the city, more people are in serious danger!"
"He's right!" Donald agreed. "Split up and lower their numbers!"
Sandbar nodded, separating from Donald and Goofy as he ran down the road to look for people in peril. Through his visor, he heard Hiro telling the rest of his friends where more Heartless were spotted from higher up, sometimes yelping while riding on Baymax as his robot companion flew around to avoid getting the both of them struck. From the distance, Sandbar could see Rainbow and Twilight already reaching the top of the skyscraper, the former zipping around wildly around the dormant dinosaur while the latter fired several different elemental arrows at Tireblades and Gold Beats that appeared to protect the Catastrochorus from them. A flash of light running up the side marked where Sora was, shifting into his Formchange with the Crystal Ultima Keyblade, gunning down Heartless appearing in his path as the shards of the Keyblade turned into Laughter's bubble guns.
Sandbar began to slow down, watching his mentors going all out stopping the tail end of the Heartless from unleashing its lightning storm. While lost in his thoughts, pondering how to improve himself to stand out like his friends, a stray bolt nearly zapping him snapped him out of his blind daze. There were people in trouble and he needed focus on his role as a Key Bearer. His ears perked up, hearing a few people crying out for help around the bend. Sprinting toward the sound, leaping and boosting himself on the light poles and rails, he found a family surrounded by Soldiers, Gold Beats, and Pogo Shovels. The parents were trying to keep their two children safe, a young boy who was only a couple years younger than Sandbar, and a little girl who was just a few years old.
Throwing his Keyblade, Sandbar struck a Soldier, getting the rest of the group's attention as he ran in to save the family. Calling his Keyblade back, he blasted any of the Heartless too close to the helpless family with Fire spells, stunning them, then slapped them away with hard swipes to their heads. Crouching in front of them, he startled the distressed family, but were grateful for someone coming to their aid. Watching the Heartless carefully, he struck back when he caught one of them attempting to lunge at him. Keeping on the defensive, he smacked each Heartless back, blocking a stray blow and fending them off with magic spells while keeping the parents and kids safe.
He was doing well before a lightning bolt from the Catastrochorus up above struck Sandbar, stunning him as he yelled. Left open, the Heartless tackled the colt and tried to dogpile him, worrying the mother, father, and the boy.
"D-Don't worry about me!" he assured, smacking the Heartless back. "Get somewhere safe!" Trusting him, the father took his daughter in his arms, he, his wife, and his son running away to find somewhere safe to hide. With enough effort, Sandbar managed to shove the Heartless off of him, getting back on his hooves and struck them all down. Above on top of the skyscraper, Sora, Twilight, and Rainbow managed to deal enough damage to the mage-like creature causing havoc with lightning magic. The dinosaur woke up, only to flail when Sora blasted its side with his weapon now transformed into Laughter's party bazooka. Losing its balance, it fell off the side, Sandbar looking up at it, then back down to the family, who were unfortunately going to get crushed by it. "Oh no! Look out!"
He ran forward, only for his tail to get snagged by a High Soldier, forcing the colt to flop on his stomach. Grunting, his eyes widened as he looked in abject horror at the casualties that would be added to the Heartless' attack, intentional or accidental. As he expected the worst, a rainbow blur quickly swooped down, ramming into the Catastrochorus's body hard enough to send its fall to land far away from the fleeing family, crashing it painfully on the street while saving them from getting flattened.
"Whew. That could've ended badly," Rainbow sighed, hovering over the Heartless as it tried to get back up. Several elemental arrows shot at the Heartless behind Sandbar, destroying them with the High Soldier that held him back getting launched up into the air, releasing the colt, followed by Twilight diving down and slicing at the Heartless with Harmony. Sora dove down from the rooftop, taking aim with his ethereal launcher and unleashed a burst of confetti that scattered all over the Heartless, which then blew up in a messy concoction of explosive magical cake batter. Flipping backward, he landed as the launcher reverted into its multi-sharded orbit around him, but even after that, the Heartless still fought back. "Let's take this volcanic lizard down with a grand finale!"
Rainbow shot herself up high into the air, flapping her wings as she picked up speed with her lightning bolt daggers trailing along with the streak of rainbow tailing her. Reaching the apex of her ascent, she angled herself down, speeding off at Mach speeds in seconds. A cone of air formed around the pegasus with electricity scattering from her blades in a rainbow of colors. Faster and faster she dove until she unleashed an explosive sonic rainboom, ramming down onto the Catastrochorus in a powerful explosion of lightning while a shockwave of rainbow light scattered from the impact point to every corner of the city. That powerful finisher was enough to destroy the Heartless, releasing its massive heart in a painful roar as its body faded into nothingness.
Flying out from the colorful blast, Rainbow flipped and swooped back down to the ground, spotting one of the cameras around the city on one of the nearby buildings. Her Keyblade returned to normal as she struck a pose for all the people watching the action. Sandbar got back to his hooves, feeling Twilight using Cure around him to heal his injuries. He was glad the family wasn't hurt, but failing to come to their rescue and got caught by the Heartless made him feel disappointed in himself. If Rainbow didn't knock the Heartless away in time, they wouldn't have survived getting crushed.
"Are you alright, Sandbar?" Twilight asked, noticing his frown.
"...Yeah," he mumbled. Sandbar watched the family approach Rainbow Dash as they praised the pegasus. They didn't bother to properly thank Sandbar earlier for getting them out of harm's way earlier, though he didn't pay attention to the little girl paying more attention to him. "Just great..."
The rest of the day, Big Hero Six and the newly dubbed Keyblade Hero 6 cleaned up the rest of the city from Heartless stragglers. With their new skills, Big Hero Six was able to handle the Heartless with no problem now. They did run into another Metal Troll that spawned in the middle of town, but together, they were able to best the giant Heartless, a much more simpler foe than the Catastrochorus. With their actions caught on the news, once San Fransokyo was liberated from the darkness threat, the heroes rewarded themselves with some ice cream and hung out up high on the Golden Gate Bridge's arches.
Sitting on the highest segment of the arch were Hiro, Baymax, Sora, and Sandbar and one section below them were Go Go, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Fred, Donald, Goofy, Twilight, and Rainbow. Sandbar tuned out the excited chatter going on down below, his ice cream barely eaten as he stared at the water glowing from the setting sun in the distance. Though he was tired from lack of sleep, Sandbar was too distracted by his worth as a Key Bearer. The family he saved reminded him of himself and his own family. He wanted to do his best to protect his own mother, father, and baby sister, but the close call made him second guess his potential. He shouldn't let his inexperience among his mentors bother him, except Rainbow was far newer with the Keyblade than he or his friends, yet she can pull off insane stunts with tremendous power as if she had trained as long as Sora had.
"Your ice cream's melting." Hearing Sora snapped Sandbar out of his daze, gazing down at the chocolate popsicle that was already starting melt.
"Oh...I'm...not really hungry," Sandbar mumbled, setting his treat on the wrapper, leaving it to turn into a chocolate puddle.
Sora didn't like the morose tone in the colt's voice, grimacing slightly as it sounded like another pupil who was having themselves an existential crisis. "Oh no. Don't tell me you're questioning yourself as a wielder."
"By the look of Sandbar's human-like posture, tone of voice, and distant gaze, Sandbar is experiencing a lack of self-confidence," Baymax pointed out.
Hiro winced, forgetting how blunt Baymax can be when it came to the therapeutical health of any patients. "Probably not best to say that aloud if you observe something wrong with someone, Baymax."
"You had also required psychological healing from the loss of Tadashi clouding your judgements and hindering the closure you needed," Baymax added.
Sora looked at Hiro after the medical robot mentioned Tadashi. "Who's Tadashi?"
Hiro let out a sigh, taking off his helmet, running a hand through his messy hair. "My older brother," he said. "He was the one who invented Baymax. I updated Baymax to be able to fight; he was just meant to be a helpful and swifter aid in the medical field."
"Huh. I'm sure your brother must be pretty proud to know his creation is doing a whole lot more than just be a doctor in a hospital," Sora commented. Hiro frowned, lowering his head. Knowing that look, Sora realized that Tadashi might not be "around" anymore. "...Oh...Uhh...Sorry."
"It's fine. I'm alright now...even though it still hurts," Hiro said.
"Talking about what happened may result in a much more healthier mindset when it comes to grievances of losing a loved one," Baymax stated, making the teen leader groan.
"Did Tadashi make you an off button somewhere to get you to stop over-explaining things?" Hiro questioned.
"I will only shut down if a patient is satisfied with their care," Baymax said.
"And with all the upgrades I gave you, you're not gonna be satisfied unless your battery runs low," Hiro said with a small laugh. While it was a rough ordeal to discuss how someone lost someone close in their family, Sora knew it did help a lot after telling someone he trusted with what happened to Kaito when he was a kid. Hiro took a breath, finding it best for Sora and Sandbar to know about his brother and what brought Big Hero 6 into the limelight. "When I was little, my parents were involved in an accident. Tadashi and I were took in by our aunt, and we both grew up to be technological geniuses. He was enrolled at the local university of robotics, where he built Baymax, but I used my creative inventing to make fighting robots...and competed in illegal bot-fighting competitions in the shady parts of town."
"Illegal bot-fighting?" Sora questioned.
"There was lots of money involved...Not really my proudest moment a year ago, and I got into a lot of trouble while Tadashi tries to keep me out of it," Hiro said. "He tried to convince me to enroll in the same school as well, but I didn't think it would be up to my level. He then introduced me to Baymax, and I met the man who led the way to the future of robotics, Robert Callaghan. There was a showcase held every year to show off ingenious inventions to revolutionize the robotics industry, and I went with a cool idea involving nanobots and controlling them with one's mind with a neural transmitter. I caught every eye with my presentation and I was ready to learn and create more for the world to see.
"...But, after we took a breather, the building caught on fire. Tadashi was worried Callaghan was trapped inside and went in to try to help him...There was an explosion, and...I got knocked out from being close to the blast...My brother didn't make it." While Hiro leaned forward, still feeling the grief from the traumatic experience, Sora and Sandbar pitied the teen. Sora understood exactly how he felt after watching his father in the past "die" out at sea in that storm. "I was...in a really bad place. But Baymax was there in our room...Little did I know that something much bigger was going to happen in San Fransokyo, and my nanobots were the catalyst for someone's nefarious plans."
"Someone stole your nanobots?" Sora asked.
"No. The ones I made were destroyed in the fire...Or so we thought," Hiro said. "While I kept one, it suddenly reacted strangely, and Baymax, being the overly curious robot that he is, followed where it wanted to go. It led us to an abandoned factory, where it was filled with billions upon billions of my nanobots. Someone in black wearing a Kabuki mask mass-produced them and planned to do something with them. After that, I got Baymax fitted with martial arts skills and some armor to protect his inflated body, and he also got the others involved by contacting them, putting all of us in danger when I found the masked man pulling out some large bits of metal from near the docks.
"He attacked us, and we barely managed to make it out alive. After that, we went to Fred's place, who none of us ever knew he grew up in a rich family, and to combat him, we made our armor and weapons and became Big Hero 6. Once everything was all good, Baymax picked up where he was hiding out." Hiro looked out on the horizon, pointing to a small island that wasn't too far from the mainland. "Out there is an abandoned, ruined research facility. There was an experiment done with transportational portals that went awry, and in the test run to send a live person through it, something went horribly wrong. One of the portals malfunctioned and began destroying part of the testing room, then blew up."
"W-What happened to the one who went through?" Sandbar asked.
"...Surprisingly, she was still alive," Hiro said. "In a cryogenic state inside of the ship they used for the testing trip. Baymax and I went in when that same villain rebuilt that portal to destroy a wealthy businessman, Alistair Krei, who funded and oversaw that portal experiment." Hiro glanced over to Baymax, sighing sadly. "...Well, my brother's version of Baymax, actually."
"Huh? Your brother's?" Sora asked, confused as he glanced at the robot watching them silently. "What does that mean?"
"I rebuilt Baymax using the schematics Tadashi had in his room at the university," Hiro explained. "The second portal was becoming unstable after stopping the masked man, but Baymax sensed life readings from the woman who was supposedly lost in the experiment. There was so much debris flying around as we tried to make it back, but Baymax got hit, losing most of his armor and the thrusters in his boots malfunctioned. So, to save me and her, Baymax was able to use his remaining gauntlet's thrusters to push us back out before the portal collapsed and imploded...He was...the only memento I had of my brother, and I didn't want to lose him either."
"Tadashi will never be gone," Baymax said. "Tadashi will always be here."
Baymax pointed to his chest, over the circular latch where his programming chips were installed. "Yeah. You're right, Baymax," Hiro said with a smile. "...It's weird to think that it took me this long to fully understand that meaning that wasn't technical. But, thankfully, the first Baymax had secretly stowed Tadashi's chip in that same gauntlet. So this Baymax is just like the original."
Sora nodded, glad to know Hiro was able to keep Tadashi's memory in his heart. "That's good. Though, what about the bad guy who tried to use an interdimensional portal to destroy everything?"
Sighing again, Hiro frowned and furrowed his brow in anger. He took a few deep breaths, keeping his emotions in check after what they did for him before.
"...We confronted him in that factory," he said. "We outnumbered him and knocked the mask off. We all thought it was Alistair Krei when he was gathering the pieces of the destroyed portal in the sea, but when I saw his face...my heart sank when I discovered who he was." Clenching his fists, Hiro swallowed the lump in his throat as the painful reveal still startled him to this day. "...It was Professor Callaghan beneath the mask."
"HUH!?" Sora exclaimed, taken aback while Sandbar's eyes grew wide in shock. "Wait, hold on a second! Didn't that guy also die in that fire!?"
"...We all thought he did," Hiro muttered. "He survived the explosion using my nanobots. They're much more resistant than I gave the material I made them out of for. He found the neuro transmitter and used them as a shield..."
Despite wanting to explain more, Sora didn't need to hear the rest to know that Callaghan's selfish act, and him most likely being the one to purposefully blow up his own building, had caused Tadashi to sacrifice himself for nothing. "...I'm so sorry," Sora said. "...But why did he do all this in the first place?"
"The test subject for the experiment was Professor Callaghan's daughter," Baymax answered. "He had sought vengeance for the failure of the experiment when it malfunctioned and used that same portal to go after Alistair Krei and his company. Currently, he is facing a life sentence for his crimes, but his daughter is well and has recovered from being in stasis for several years."
"At least you left out what I wanted to do to him when I found out who he was," Hiro said.
"Uhh, what did you do?" Sora asked.
"I took out Tadashi's chip and forced Baymax to attack him like a killing machine." Sora grimaced, glancing at Baymax. He couldn't imagine the literal and friendly robotic medic to turn into a psychotic robot wreaking havoc by their master's will. "...Yeah. That was probably the lowest point in my life. In my depression. It wouldn't have helped me feel better avenging my brother."
"I'm kinda glad he's on our side," Sora chuckled nervously.
"Even though Tadashi's gone, we wanted to make sure his dream didn't die with him; he wanted to help everyone, and Big Hero 6 is going to help keep that dream alive," Hiro said.
Sora nodded in agreement with their goal. Sandbar, however, felt like he wasn't able to after what almost happened earlier. He thought he was at his best, that he was ready to help everyone, but his skills pale in comparison to his friends'. If he was faster, if he was stronger, he would have been able to help in time if Rainbow Dash wasn't able to step in. Baymax looked at the teenage stallion, blinking his eyes while they scanned his behavioral patterns.
Sandbar stood up, leaving his melted ice cream and headed for the side of the arch to the long, thick ropes of steel connecting both arches across the massive length of the bridge together. "Sandbar, where are you going?"
"...I...need to take a walk," he said. "Just...want to make sure no more Heartless show up."
Sora wasn't convinced after seeing Sandbar in a dour mood. "Jiminy, you wanna keep an eye on him?"
Hopping out of his pocket, Jiminy gave Sora a nod. "Seems like all of them are having a little trouble with something going on around them," he stated, then hopped off and hurried after Sandbar, grabbing his tail just as Sandbar hopped onto the rail and slid down, heading back into the city.
"Is he alright?" Hiro asked.
"...I hope so," Sora mumbled.
While the two boys wondered what's eating Sandbar, Baymax's eyes flashed as he looked through the news footage catching everything in their battle against the Heartless earlier. Witnessing a camera catching Sandbar racing through the city and helping a family in trouble, then witnessing the Catastrochorus falling off the building and nearly crushing the fleeing family before Rainbow dove in to slam the Heartless away and save them.
The city of San Fransokyo was much more lively this evening after the Heartless threat had been annihilated by their local heroes. Sandbar didn't pay any attention to the people wandering the busy streets, he himself wandering aimlessly to try to clear his mind. Looking through the windows of all the establishments, there were some restaurants, arcades, shopping centers, everyone having forgotten the traumatic afternoon that transpired moments ago.
Sandbar eventually wandered into an open space of the city that had a small park for children to play in. There was a playground, where there were a few kids playing tag on and around it with some swinging on the swing set. Their parents were watching them from a distance, including a very familiar couple whom he saw earlier during the attack. While he was distracted, he felt something touch his side. Glancing down, he was surprised to see the little girl of that family approach him and tried to pet him.
"Uhh...hi?" Sandbar greeted.
Hearing him talk made the girl giggle and try to wrap her small arms around his barrel. Dumbfounded, Sandbar remained perfectly still, not wanting to spook her while she cuddled with him. Soon, the other younger kids at the playground spotted Sandbar, all of them rushing over and surrounded him excitedly. He felt all their hands pet him out of curiosity, from his head down to his flanks. Thankfully, most of the parents came to his rescue and scolded them not to spook the poor thing. The little girl who first started it was still petting him, making the colt sigh.
"Hey. You tried to save us earlier." Behind Sandbar, he looked back to find the little girl's older brother walk up to him.
"Y-Yeah," Sandbar uttered. "...Not as well as I hoped I could."
"Well, you distracted those monsters for us, so that was something," the boy said.
"I wanna ride horsey!" the girl begged.
The boy wanted to scold her, but Sandbar didn't mind it as he lowered himself down for her to climb on. "Ok, but hold on tight." She struggled a little bit, but with a little boost from Sandbar's hoof, she got up and settled herself on his back, grasping his mane as he carefully stood back up. "I don't mind it."
"I just didn't want her to be rude," the boy said. "Oh! It's more rude not introducing ourselves to one of our saviors! Sumimasen!" he then bowed his head swiftly to Sandbar, baffling him with the odd apologetic-sounding phrase. "My name is Mako, and my little sister's name is Sakura."
"...I'm Sandbar," Sandbar greeted. "Nice meeting you two." Sakura bounced up and down on Sandbar's back, her feet lightly kicking at his sides to make him go forward. Indulging the little girl, he began to walk around while Mako followed him, both to talk with Sandbar more and make sure his sister didn't lose her balance. "I'm surprised you two were taking what happened earlier this well."
"I was scared outta my mind, but watching you fight them off was the coolest thing ever!" Mako said. "Almost straight out of a video game! Except I expected someone from Big Hero 6 to drop in to save us."
"It was...a little hectic in the city," Sandbar said.
"And that big dinosaur thing was menacing! It almost fell on top of us before that one with wings slammed it and blew it up with a rainbow nuke!" Mako's praise for Rainbow's heroic save made Sandbar frown. To be reminded of how slow he was and too weak to pull away from a High Soldier only made the stallion feel worse about himself. "Today was the best and worst day I've ever experienced, but it was definitely awesome!"
Stopping, Sandbar sighed miserably. "So far, my whole day since winter break ended hasn't been great for me," he mumbled.
"Huh?" Mako uttered.
"...It's...complicated," Sandbar answered vaguely. "I just...If only I was stronger, I could have saved you two and your parents."
"...Uhh, we're still alive, so...no harm, no foul," Mako said.
"You don't understand," Sandbar said. Feeling Sakura rub the back of his head, he lowered himself down and gently wiggled her off his back. "I have such a huge responsibility as a warrior. I thought I had caught up with my friends doing something cool or powerful when fighting the Heartless, but if I can't shove a group off of me when someone else is in peril and they get killed, I will never forgive myself for failing everypony."
Both kids had no idea what Sandbar was talking about. Sakura just gently pet Sandbar's head to make him happy, though it didn't do much to assuage his confidence as a Key Bearer. Lamenting over his prowess, Sandbar's ears twitched when he suddenly heard a strange whooshing sound coming from above. Looking up, his eyes widened when he spotted a large cluster of glowing blocks flying overhead, the hundreds of thousands of metallic cubes connecting to form a giant jellyfish. Something about it didn't seem like the advanced technology of this world.
"Whoa. What is that?" Mako asked.
"...Nothing good," Sandbar uttered. He stood up, startling Sakura as she stumbled back slightly. "Get your parents and head home where it's safe. I don't think this city's safe just yet."
Sprinting off, Sandbar summoned Lazy Turtle and chased after the new threat. "Good luck, Sandbar!" Mako called out.
As the boy and his sister waved to the colt, neither of them noticed a dark figure watching them around the corner of a building nearby.