Hiro to the Rescue! (2 page)

R
ain hit the window of Hiro and Tadashi's room. It was quiet. Tadashi's baseball cap lay on his bed.

Hiro sat alone on his beanbag chair with his old battle bot in his hands.

Aunt Cass knocked on the door.

“Hey, sweetie!” she said. Aunt Cass tried to sound happy. She brought Hiro breakfast. She went to the window and raised the blinds. “You get any sleep?” She looked at his plate of food from the night before. He hadn't eaten a thing. “The university called again,” she added. “It's not too late to register.”

“I'll think about it,” Hiro said.

Aunt Cass quietly left. Hiro got up and closed the window blinds. School had started. But Hiro no longer cared.

Hiro headed toward his bed and dropped his battle bot on his toe. “Ow!”

Something moved near Tadashi's bed.

Baymax, Tadashi's robot, inflated to full size. He had been in the room since the showcase! Hiro's cry of pain had made him activate.

Hiro was so shocked to see him, he tripped.

“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” Baymax asked.

“Zero,” Hiro answered, wishing Baymax would return to his charging station.

Baymax scanned Hiro. “No injuries,” he reported. “However, your hormone and neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are experiencing mood swings; common in adolescence. Diagnosis: puberty.”

“Whoa! What?” Hiro said. “Okay, time to shrink now!” He pushed the robot toward his charging station.

Baymax continued. “You should experience an increase in body hair—”

“Thank you!” Hiro shouted. He did not want to hear about body hair!

Hiro tripped and fell. As he lay on the floor, he heard a noise coming from a hoodie peeking out from under his bed. A microbot was in one of the pockets! It was the one that Alistair Krei had handed back to him. It had survived the fire at the showcase because Hiro had taken it home.

The microbot buzzed! Hiro placed it in a petri dish.
It's rattling against the glass like it wants to join the other microbots
, Hiro thought.
But the others were destroyed in the
fire!

“Dumb thing's broken!” he said.

Baymax was interested in the microbot. “Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere,” he said.

Hiro sat down at his desk and began working on his fight bot. “Why don't you find out where it's trying to go?”

Baymax picked up the petri dish. The bot continued to buzz in one specific direction. It was like a compass. Baymax followed it out of the room.

Moments later, horns honked and tires screeched. Baymax was outside!

Hiro needed to go after him. But he had to get past Aunt Cass.

“Hiro?” she said. She was happy to see him out of his room. “Are you registering for school?”

“Uh-huh,” Hiro replied. He was afraid he'd get in trouble if he told her he was chasing a robot!

“Okay, special dinner tonight!” Aunt Cass said. She promised to make extra-hot chicken wings. But Hiro had already rushed outside to follow Baymax.

First, Baymax got on a trolley car. Hiro ran after him. Then Baymax went along some train tracks, and Hiro still couldn't catch him. When Baymax entered a mall, Hiro lost him in a crowd. He finally caught up with Baymax and the microbot at an old warehouse by the ocean.

Inside the warehouse, Hiro found barrels full of microbots. Someone must have stolen them! A giant machine was making even more!

Suddenly, the bots all came together and chased Baymax and Hiro! A man in a mask stood in the shadows, controlling the microbots.

“Run!” Hiro shouted to Baymax, who was moving slowly. “Go!”

Hiro pushed him and pulled him. The swarm got closer and closer. The microbots punched holes in Baymax.

Hiro and Baymax jumped out a window to escape. Luckily, Baymax cushioned Hiro's fall. They hurried to make a report at a police station.

The policeman Hiro spoke to didn't believe him. “All right. Let me get this straight. A man in a Kabuki mask attacked you with an army of miniature flying robots—”

“Microbots!” Hiro said. “Yeah, he was controlling them telepathically with a neurocranial transmitter.”

“Look, kid,” the policeman said, reaching for his phone. “How about we call your parents?”

Hiro couldn't let him call home! Aunt Cass would be furious.

Hiro quickly grabbed Baymax and left. The police weren't going to help him. He had to catch the masked man alone.

Hiro needed to think.

B
y the time they got home, Baymax was almost out of power. He was being difficult...and loud.

“Okay,” Hiro whispered to Baymax. “If my aunt asks, we were at school all day. Got it?”

Baymax flopped onto the stairs. “We jumped out a window!” the robot shouted.

Hiro tried to quiet Baymax, but Aunt Cass heard them go by.

“You home, sweetie?” she asked. She was cooking and had her back to Hiro. “Wings are almost ready!”

“Wings!” Baymax squealed. Aunt Cass turned to face Hiro. But she didn't see Baymax because Hiro had pushed him out of sight.

“Tell me everything!” she said.

“Uh, the thing is...” Hiro said nervously. He needed to move Baymax upstairs. He didn't want to get in trouble! “Since I registered so late, I've got a lot to catch up on.”

“Well, at least take a plate for the road!” Aunt Cass said, disappointed.

Hiro took the plate and pushed Baymax upstairs. He sighed when he had finally gotten Baymax to stand inside his charging station.

“This is crazy. It doesn't make any sense,” Hiro said, sitting on his bed. He pulled out his microbot and stared at it.
Who was that guy in the mask?
he thought.
And how did he get my microbots?

“Tadashi,” Baymax said. The robot looked around the room. He saw Tadashi's baseball hat on his bed. “Tadashi,” Baymax repeated.

“Tadashi's gone,” Hiro said.

“When will he return?” Baymax asked.

“He's dead, Baymax.”

Baymax pointed at his chest. “Tadashi is here—”

“I know,” Hiro said, “people keep saying he's here; he's not really gone as long as we remember him. It still hurts.”

But Baymax continued: “You are my patient. I would like to help.”

“You can't fix this one, buddy,” Hiro said.

Baymax went over to Hiro's computer. “I am downloading information on personal loss,” the helpful bot reported. “Treatments include contact with friends and loved ones. I am contacting them now.” The computer screen showed images of Wasabi, Go Go, Honey, and Fred.

Baymax gave Hiro a hug. “Other treatments include compassion and physical reassurance.” He patted Hiro's back. “There, there.”

Hiro smiled. “Thanks, Baymax,” he said softly. He remembered Tadashi's hugs.

“I am sorry about the fire,” Baymax said.

“It's okay. It was an accident.”

Saying it made Hiro think of that terrible day.
Why didn't I stop Tadashi from going into that building?
he asked himself.

Then he realized something: “The guy in the mask! He set the fire so no one would know he had stolen my microbots!”

Hiro hurried down to his computer in the garage. He wanted to teach Baymax some fighting moves—the ones his little fight bot had used to win. Hiro was ready to hunt down the masked man.

Baymax was curious. “Will apprehending the man in the mask improve your emotional state?”

“Absolutely.”

Hiro created a full set of armor for Baymax using his 3-D printer. Then he downloaded karate moves onto a red computer chip. He opened Baymax's access panel. A green computer chip was already inside, with something written on it:
TADASHI HAMADA
.

Hiro stopped.
Tadashi,
he thought.
Is this what Tadashi would do?

Hiro put the red computer chip next to Tadashi's green one, then closed the panel. Baymax began downloading the new data.

Baymax could now perform fighting moves. He was also protected by armor! Baymax practiced some karate.

“Side kick!” Hiro shouted. Baymax kicked a board in half. They were ready to face the masked man!