Alternative Care

Chapter 8

The CuraTech Labs branch was in a large, rectangular, three-story building that sat at the southern edge of downtown, surrounded by nicely trimmed trees and shrubbery. Festive billboards that promoted products and services dotted the street that stretched into the distance to a freeway on-ramp. Baymax dropped in altitude to land on the roof of the building. Hiro and the others hopped off before he landed.

Baymax's scanners pinpointed exact locations of the people with precision. "I detect five life signs within the building's first floor," he informed the others.

"Thanks buddy," Hiro replied. "Someone's working overtime," he quipped to the others.

Wasabi looked over doubtfully. "Or it could be a trap," he noted quietly, and cautiously looked around, alert for any surprises.

A hum from one of Hiro's belt pouches prompted him to open it and pull out his phone.

When he answered, the sound of rushing wind greeted him. One of the girls flying with a jet pack.

"Hey, Hiro. The stolen stuff and robot isn't here," Clover said in a rush. "That guy actually is working under a big CuraTech exec. Don't have a name. They want to mess with people using healthcare robots." The line was quiet for a moment except for the rush of high-altitude air currents. "You can move in now or just wait for us. We're on the way to back you up."

"Alright, we're moving in. Thanks," Hiro answered, curious about the details of what he'd heard.

The others nearby heard most of the call, and as Hiro stashed his phone, they looked to him expectantly. "Guys, there's a second mastermind, and they're planning to mess people up with health care robots," he said in a low voice, "the girls are on the way. Let's move now."

The others murmured their agreement, and they made their way to a roof access door. Hiro reached out a gauntlet to the computerized lock to the side of the door and used a small electric shock to disable it. The door popped open and everyone filed in. Baymax brought up the rear and managed to fit through the doorway by twisting sideways, and shuffled through.

They moved quietly as they could down a flight of metal stairs into a hallway with an off-white floor. Walls were two-tone, white above a torso-high dividing strip, and grey below. A few doors, framed prints, and square pillars inset into the walls spanned the sides of the hall.

"Any movement on those life signs?" Hiro whispered to Baymax as they walked carefully, yet swiftly to a door leading to a stairwell. Though the building was only three stories, Hiro was wary of being trapped in a plummeting elevator. Go Go took a moment to remove the magnetic disks from her boots for the descent.

"Very little," Baymax remarked as they walked down the stairs.

"Messing people up with health care robots is so wrong..." Honey Lemon mused to the others.

"Sounds like an evil Baymax army or something," Fred replied in concern.

They soon reached the bottom and waited briefly as Go Go took a moment to attach her magnetic disks back to her boots. Baymax led the way, sensors locked onto the life signs, and they found themselves in a spacious, well-decorated front lobby.

"No trap yet, huh?" Wasabi said almost inaudibly as they took the center hall behind the reception desk that branched off from the room.

"Guess it'll be at the last stop," Hiro replied, and Baymax stopped before white double doors on the left. Hiro stretched out a hand, shorted out the electronic lock to the side, and the doors split open automatically. Baymax entered first, followed by the others.

The room was quite large, and impressive white and grey metallic robot construction machines filled up the back third of the room. Closer to them were compact computer workstations at desks with office chairs. The walls were in the the same white and grey color scheme of the halls, and potted plants were interspersed along them.

A middle aged Asian man of slightly athletic build finished up on the keyboard at his workstation. He stood from his chair and grabbed a small briefcase. Further back in the room, four men shut down machines, removed their lab coats, and gathered their belongings.

"Great work today. Thanks for the overtime," the man from the desk said to them. He turned to Hiro and the others in surprise. "Visitors," he said, and gestured to them with an open palm, "I didn't know we gave tours on the weekend."

Hiro frowned and walked to him. "You can drop the act, Mr. Siu," he said and came to a stop a few feet from him. "We know you're behind the expo thefts and are using this lab to build some kind of anti-healthcare robots," he said, visibly vexed at the idea. "Who are you working for?"

Siu nodded once and crossed his arms in thought. "And now you want an explanation," he replied, then cocked his head slightly. "Maybe a battle against the robots I just designed? And then save the day, right?" he guessed in a seemingly kindly tone.

Hiro and the others looked at him suspiciously.

The man blinked, then turned to grab his coat and briefcase. "Sorry, I shipped all my new robots away. They're roughly based off that bowling robot, you know," he said. "Well, gotta go. I'll walk you out to the exit," he said glibly and started to shuffle around Hiro to get to the double doors. Hiro simply moved to block his path.

The workers behind him were stunned at his words. One, a tall Latino man with short hair asked, "Why are they here? Is this true?"

"Hm? Y'all didn't know?" Fred asked the workers. He looked fairly ridiculous, chatting in his monstrous suit. "I assumed you were henchmen. You know, goons."

A weary man in his 20s grabbed his backpack that was propped against a workstation desk. "A goon?" he asked, offended. "All I did was work overtime. I don't know what this is, but I'm going home," he said and moved to leave.

Siu turned and looked to the workers. "Sorry guys, but I'm gonna need a little more work out of you," he said. He swiftly pulled out his phone and pressed a button. Hiro grabbed for his forearm a second too late. The workers, including the nearby man with the backpack halted their movement. Their faces showed shock in being seemingly unable to move.

"What's--?" started a broad shouldered man with a face covered by stubble. "Aah!" he yelled as metal gauntlets shimmered into existence over his hands. Boots formed rapidly, followed by heavy body armor and a helmet with a plexiglass faceplate. Within seconds, all four workers were in matching greyish metallic blue armor.

"Now you're goons.  I planted some special chips on you earlier," Siu said with an apologetic shrug.  He turned from them to Big Hero 6. "I was let go from that bowling alley because of robots replacing my old style of doing things," he said, and looked to the heroes bitterly. "Well, I've been hired to use that same technology to do something amazing for mankind; create an obedient private army. Ironic and cool, huh?"

His phone made a beep, which signified a timer had finished counting down, and Dave nodded in anticipation.

The four armored men lunged forth with surprising speed, fists aimed at Hiro, Baymax, Wasabi, and Fred. The heroes managed to block and dodge the powerful strikes, eyes glued to their unwilling enemies. Honey moved forward to help, and Go Go eyed the device in Siu's hand, a disk already cocked back to throw.

Gotta make this count, Go Go thought to herself as she silently tossed a disk at him. Honey Lemon noticed and threw a blue chemical ball in case he somehow dodged the disk.

Two tentacled arms appeared out of nowhere, and one swatted the disk aside from above. The other arm struck the freeze ball, and it became partially encased in ice.

Siu gave Honey Lemon and Go Go a hurt look. "I didn't forget about you two." Go Go glowered in frustration, and the familiar robot from the SFIT theft uncloaked itself completely.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed.  Your vote and comment matter to me, so feel free to do so.

Thanks so much for reading.