Big Hero 7

Chapter 27 - Threatened

(A/N: Major spoilers! I don't give the spoiler exactly word for word, but it is technically in this chapter. If you're alright with movie spoilers, read on. If you've seen the movie, read on. If someone has already spoiled it for you, read on. If you don't want spoilers, please do not read this chapter until you've seen the movie. Again, i don't state it directly, so most of you should be fine to continue on, but I needed to give the warning just in case.)

Chapter 27

(Hiro’s POV)

                I double checked my watch. It was exactly 7 AM and I was standing at my girlfriend’s door. I knocked at the front door and waited for an answer. Almost immediately after my knocking, the door swung open to reveal Akira – who was in her usual sweater and shorts with her backpack over her shoulder. She quickly shut the door behind her and I pulled her into a loving hug. She blushed slightly and giggled.

                “Good morning,” she cooed. I grinned and released her from my arms.

                “Good morning, Akira,” I cooed back. She reached out and shyly took my hand in hers. We began walking. “Are you excited for your first time being able to see clearly at school?” She grinned and nodded.

                “Again, thank you, Hiro.”

                “You’re welcome,” I answered. We walked in blissful silence until we reached the school. We kissed each other’s cheeks briefly before entering our first class – one that we happened to share. I shared every class with her except for the last block of the day. We had math, chemistry, lunch, robotics, and then I had computer programming while she had physics.  We entered our first class, and sat down next to each other. The professor had a habit of showing us the daily local news clip before we started math because her husband taught civics in the local high school.  Akira and I pulled our laptops out and placed them in front of us.

                “Alright, you students know the drill. Daily local news and then class begins,” the professor reminded and then hit play on the video. The video began by discussing the weather, then the upcoming holidays, and then an onsite news reporter was displayed on the screen at the ruins of the building where Akira and I were last night.

                “Last night brought a tragic chain of events to San Fransokyo. At 11:53 PM, a bomb was set off at Corebank Robotic Equipment Manufacturers. At the moment, the official report is that there are no deaths and only a few very minor injuries. A witness stated that there was a suspicious man who entered the building and asked for the closing time of the office. Another witness says this same man showed up at the scene after the explosion where our local heroes, Big Hero 6, fought him. Unfortunately, he escaped and police are now searching for the man. On that same note,” he said as a picture of the entire group fighting the man was displayed on the upper left corner of the screen. “It appears that Big Hero 6 has become Big Hero 7 with the addition of a new member, who is pictured above with the rest of the team. Unfortunately, there was another event of crime that my coworker, Adam, will discuss now.” The screen switched to another reporter outside the San Fransokyo Prison.

                “Thank you, Lee. I’m standing outside the San Fransokyo Prison, where a strange set of events has occurred that has caused everyone, including the police, to be confounded. Only hours after the bomb went off, Evan Borowski and Robert Callaghan hanged themselves in their prison cells. Many prisoners attempt suicide, but the odd part about this is that the two men hanged themselves at the same time. And, as seen in the above picture,” he explained while a picture was displayed on the screen of a prison wall blown side open into two cells. “Their two prison cell walls were destroyed by an unknown physical force from the inside. Yet, all prisoners are accounted for. This has been puzzling police and investigators all morning. At the moment, there does not appear to be any correlation between the bombing at Corebank and the suicide and escape at the prison, but I’ll be following the investigators all through the day to keep you updated.” By this point in time, Akira and my mouths were wide open in surprise. She glanced at me confused, and then the news went back to a reporter talking about the new businesses in town. Akira quickly typed the news website’s IP address into the search bar while watching the rest of the news broadcast (she was able to type perfectly without looking at the screen or keyboard because she grew up blind). She clicked the “follow story” links on the explosion and the suicide and showed her screen to me to show me that she had signed up to be notified on updates on the events.

                The professor turned the news off and began reviewing the calculus techniques that we were supposed to study over the weekend – Akira and I already knew the material, so neither of us bothered studying. Once class was over, we walked together to chemistry. Honey Lemon sat with her lab partner at the other side of the room and waved. Akira and I waved back and sat at the lab in front of them. We concluded chemistry, and then walked with Honey Lemon to lunch.

                “Did you hear the news today?” Akira asked her.

                “The local news article about the suicide and the bombing from last night is what you’re referring to, right?” Honey whispered. We both nodded. “That’s so weird. Wasn’t that Eric guy the man that attacked you two at the marketplace?”

                “Yeah, and he worked for the same person that the bomber worked for. I’d be willing to bet that the two events are connected in some way,” I observed. The two of them nodded in agreement as we sat down at the lunch table that we always sat at. We sat down to join Gogo, Fred, and Wasabi, who had been at the table only for a few minutes longer than us. As I sat next to my girlfriend, I double checked that everyone in the group had heard the news too. Akira pulled out her laptop to check for updates on the cases. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened.

                “G-guys… We have a problem…,” she whispered. She turned her laptop screen to face us, and we all read the article’s update.

                “While originally thought to have committed suicide, Callaghan and Borowski’s bodies have been identified as life-like robotic fakes. This is suspected to have been used as a distraction as they made their escape. Investigators say that the robot look-alikes are able to shrink into small penny sized objects. It is hypothesized that they were slipped to the two men and then used as bait for the cops while the fugitives ran,” the article read.

                “That means…” Honey began.

                “The two events were connected. They must have used the bombing at Corebank as a distraction to occupy the cops while they set up their distractions to escape. That means Borowski, Callaghan, and the bomber were all working together. And now, they’re all free. From what we experienced, it looks like they’re specifically targeting Big Hero 7,” I concluded. We ate lunch in silence as we all worried about the outcome. “Callaghan knows how Baymax’s scanner works now. He’s probably found a way to hide. They’re all dangerous. Everyone, please be careful. Keep your phones on at all times until this is handled, and keep your suits in your backpacks.”