Big Hero 7

Chapter 8 - Helpless

Chapter 8

(Hiro’s POV)

“My hands out by your left side,” I explained. She took it and I brought her hand to my helmet, letting her feel the armor.

“What…?”Akira felt the helmet quickly, confused by it.

“You’ve heard about the Big Hero 6 on the news, right? I know you haven’t seen them, but you’ve heard, right?” I led her towards the answer as she felt my helmet.

“…Yes. Wait, are you…? All six of you are…?” She hesitated and took her hands off of my helmet.

“Yes. Exactly. All of us,” I answered.  She was still for a moment, absorbing it all. A huge grin crept up on her features and she swiftly and roughly pulled me into a hug.

“This is so cool! My best friends are heroes! You’re the Big Hero 6!” She squealed. She pulled back away and rushed to everyone else and quickly felt the others’ helmets and masks. “So Baymax is the one that flies, Honey is the one with the chemistry bag, Wasabi can slice things, Gogo is the speed runner one, Fred is the flame-shooter, and Hiro, you’re the leader, right?” She was practically bouncing with joy.

“Yes, and we’ve been talking all week, and we want to become the Big Hero 7,” I explained with the hint. (No, readers, this is not the surprise I came up with for her a few minutes ago. It’ll be a while.) Her smile quickly vanished and she was still.

“Guys, I… The offer is flattering, but I can’t do that. You should all know that,” she murmured sadly.

“Why not? You’re a great addition! You can use your hover board and your newly designed laser shooters,” Wasabi chimed. She bit her lip and looked down.

“I’m blind. I can’t do anything to help anyone. I’m the one who needs help. If I join your team, there are two things that could happen: I die because I can’t see a damn thing or one of you dies trying to help me. I’m a hassle. I’m useless to you,” she whimpered. A tear dripped down her cheek. “My parents gave me up because they knew how much trouble it was to keep my alive. You’re all smart. You should know that by now. I’m useless and just a hassle to everyone who meets me.” I watched helplessly as she dropped to her knees and broke into tears. All six of us immediately rushed to her side to comfort her, but before we could help, she stood up, rushed out of the garage, almost slipping on the wet sidewalk, and around the corner crying before any of us could reach her.

                “She’s gonna get herself killed running around like that!!” Gogo shouted. She bounced up from the floor and quickly sped around the corner, only to stop at the edge. “Dammit! She’s gone!” I rushed outside in the pouring rain to see the street full of cars and people with umbrellas, none of which were Akira.

                “Baymax, let’s go.” Baymax hobbled to my side and I jumped onto his back and hooked my knees in to place.  We took off from the sidewalk in front of Lucky Cat Café and left the others behind in the garage. “Scan the city for her,” I demanded once we were up high enough.

                “I cannot find Akira within the city,” Baymax reported.  I let out a sound of distress and slammed my fist into Baymax’s back armor. 

                “You are upset and scared,” Baymax pointed out the obvious.

                “Yeah, buddy,” I mumbled. “Where the hell is she? She couldn’t have left the city. Ugh. Why does she think she’s so useless? She’s not. She’s-“ Baymax cut me off.

                “Very important to you. You have said this before. When she is with you, your neurotransmitter levels are very high.  You also experience a faster heart pace, sweating, and a heightened temperature on your face, particularly your cheeks. These are common symptoms of a roma-“ A gunshot echoed through the rain. I jumped and looked at Baymax. Follow the sound! “The sound came from 4th Street, Hakaru’s Fresh Market. I will go there.” Baymax added thrust and we flew towards Hakaru’s Fresh Market and landed in the doorway.

                “Don’t move, Heroes,” a man in a dark cloak demanded and pointed a large gun at us. “I’ve done research on you. This isn’t an ordinary gun. It can pierce through your suits like a hot knife through butter. One shot and you’re dead.”

                I put my hands up in the air and urged Baymax to do the same. “Look, we don’t want any trouble, whoever you are. Just, why are you robbing a grocery store if you have that thing?” I attempted to distract him. He kept his gun pointed directly at us without wavering.

                “Oh, kid. You have no idea. I’m here to experiment. You’re half of the experiment. My boss has been watching you lately, and needed me to play a little for him. Now, I just need to test his hypothesis and we’re all done here.”

                “I’ve called for backup,” Baymax whispered through the helmet microphone.  “Backup will be here in seconds.”

                “Right, Gogo is fast. She’ll be here first, and then the others will follow,” I whispered back. The villain took safety off his gun.

                “Get the money in my bag, woman. I might as well get some cash out of this,” he ordered the cashier to bring him the store’s money.

                “No,” answered Baymax. “I called for slightly slower back up, but good back up.”

                “Baymax! No! Call the others!” I whispered back angrily.

                “I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m sorry, Hiro. The backup I called for will help more people in the future,” Baymax returned.

                “Baymax, who did you call?” I whispered as I watched the cashier bring the villain the money and as he pointed his gun directly at us.