Big Hero 5: the Ghost Soldier

There was a hoarse scream in the dark room. Awoken from a nightmare, a teenager sat up in bed, looking around incomprehensibly. His head hurt terribly. Letting out a dissatisfied groan, he tried to put his hand to his head and did not immediately understand why nothing happened. In the next moment, the teenager screamed in fright, seeing in the semi-darkness that instead of his left arm he had only a bandaged shoulder. After a few more moments he started getting his other feelings back, there was dull pain, clearly blocked with something, and behind all the noise and pain in his head, shoulder and some other spots he knew that not only someone treated his wounds, they also gave him a painkiller. With his feelings coming back, there were also questions coming to his head, among which the main ones were two: who is he and why did he not remember anything? The teenager tried to remember at least something, at least his name, but his mind was blank, only giving him more reasons to panic. At first it seemed like it was because he just woke up and his head didn’t work properly yet, but after several minutes he realized that no, there was another reason for that. It seemed like he really didn’t have his memory anymore. Well, except for little bits of the nightmare that woke him up just a few minutes ago. It has to be a memory, he thought to himself, sighing. Just not the best one… Someone knocked on the door. Startled, he turned his head towards the sound and saw a man who seemed to be worried, enter the room. Maybe even worried about me, the boy thought, looking at the face of the visitor. The man looked tired, it was immediately evident. Perhaps he did not sleep at night. He was tall and rather thin, even too thin, perhaps, in dark clothes that made it difficult for him to quickly make out the silhouette once the door was closed. The teen noticed a red streak in his dark hair and mentally chuckled at the detail until he looked up at his eyes.  Was it just an illusion while his eyes were slowly getting used to the dark again, or did the man’s eyes actually glowing? “Oh, you’re finally awake,” the visitor said carefully as he took a step towards his bed. “How are you feeling?” He’s being careful with me, as if he’s afraid I can do something wrong if he approaches me too fast. Why? The teen glanced at himself again and hummed thoughtfully. “Well, the shoulder is beginning to hurt again. Looks like the painkiller’s effect is almost over. Plus my head, but I think it’s just after sleep issues,” he answered honestly, throwing another glance at his shoulder. The man frowned, not satisfied with the answer, and took another step closer, which made the kid flinch. He’s dangerous, he’s dangerous, he’s dangerous— Why was he dangerous? “You’re reacting calmer than I expected you to,” he noted, narrowing his eyes, and the boy just hummed again, hugging his knees with one arm. “I don’t know how I am supposed to react,” he confessed with a shrug. “I don’t even remember my own name, how can I remember why do I need to react less calmly?” And, perhaps, I should also be less calm about the very fact of my memory loss, the teenager thought to himself, closing his eyes. Guess I just don’t have enough energy to panic right now. He didn’t notice that the man opened his eyes wide to his last words, clearly not expecting this reaction. He didn’t remember? He could clearly read the question in his gaze as their eyes met again. After pulling himself together and clearing his throat, the man put his hands behind his back. “Your name is Hiro Hamada and right now you’re in my home,” he said softly, a little slower than before. Giving him a chance to process every bit of the information he was giving. Hiro. My name is Hiro. Hiro gave him a nod, asking to continue. “Do you really not remember anything?” The man suddenly asked, looking rather troubled by this fact. The teen nodded again. “One of my… coworkers brought you here after you got hurt and lost your arm in an accident,” he continued, pointing at the shoulder. Hiro frowned. “Sure, we don’t have perfect conditions to treat it properly, but she saved your life.” “How did I lose it?” For a split second Hamada thought he could see the visitor smile with the corners of his lips, but then he looked calm again, pretending to think about the proper answer. He was waiting for this question, he guessed, instinctively clenching his whole hand into a fist. In any case, the answer could not please him now either. “Your so-called friends left you to die, Hiro.” He blinked slowly several times, not realizing the meaning of the words immediately. Even without his memory, and so the ability to tell if the man was lying, it sounded… wrong? “What..?” Hiro shook his head in disbelief, trying to accept it after all, but failed. It couldn’t be the truth. At least… not the whole truth. “Tell me how this happened,” he asked, returning his gaze to the man. The latter  sighed and nodded,  settling on the edge of the bed that the shocked teenager hadn't occupied. “I can’t tell you everything right now, that’d be too many details,” the man began, placing his hands in front of him. Hamada slowly nodded in agreement. “In a nutshell, you were a part of the group of… vigilantes. I think that’s the most fitting word. I’m not sure how exactly you got there, maybe it was some sort of manipulation on their part, maybe you had your personal reasons to be there, but in any case you used to run around the city sometimes saving someone. At least, as they believed in the city, despite the destruction. I watched from the sidelines for a while, you were quite impressive for a fourteen year old, you know. One time they decided to save a civilian instead of their friend, or maybe they didn’t have enough time, who knows. But either way, you’ve been left behind in the debris. Then I asked my coworker to search there for survivors, because the police and others might not have checked everywhere if they had gotten to that place at all. And that's how you ended up here.” The teenager sat silently, listening to him, all of sudden feeling something heavy in his throat from the realization that he really did not seem to be lying. Perhaps there were simply too few details for things to not add up, but somehow, the thought was almost physically painful. Did his friends really leave him to die there..? “S-so, this means… you saved me,” he whispered, glancing somewhere to the side. “I guess you can say so,” the other shrugged, narrowing his eyes. He didn’t even doubt him for a second? “I don’t know how to thank you. And-and I have so many questions,” he exclaimed, lifting his head. The man gave a soft chuckle and shook his head at this. “Just get some sleep, that would be enough for now. We can discuss everything you want after this, alright Hiro?” With no better alternative, the teen just nodded his head and settled back into the prone position, suddenly realizing that he still felt terribly tired. The visitor got up from the bed and was already heading for the exit of the room, when suddenly Hiro got up again. “Wait!” Hamada leaned on his good arm as he stood up, and the man arched an eyebrow at that. “I… I don't even know your name.” He chuckled again, then turned to the boy as their eyes met. “You can call me Obake. Good night Hiro.” And with that, Obake left the room, leaving Hiro to think about everything he’d heard and felt until he fell asleep again. After all he was right, he needed to at least get proper rest to be able to do anything.

***

None of them could sleep that night. Well, what sleep could there be if you almost saw your friend die just several hours ago? A couple of times they all took turns dozing on Fred's couch when fatigue took its toll, but each time, even the slightest rustle woke them up again, causing them to jump in fright. Gogo kept walking back and forth across the room, thinking about the night’s events for about the 100th time now. It still was hard to believe that Hiro was actually gone. It felt so… unrealistic. He had survived Callaghan, he had survived every villain they came across, it wasn’t even the first time he faced Momakase, but just this time… This time he didn’t have just a few more seconds to make it and now they lost him. They lost Hiro. Bang. Honey Lemon flinched, waking up from something hitting a wall, and frowned when she saw Gogo with tears running down her cheeks. She needs a break, she desperately needs one, the young woman thought, carefully approaching her friend to hug her. She didn’t resist. “You need to sleep, we still have a couple of hours,” Honey Lemon whispered when Gogo’s head rested on her shoulder. She shook her head in disagreement, pressing on her eyes as she felt the burning from the tears. It was just too much for her.  “I can’t. God, I… I can’t, Hon, h-he… he couldn’t… he couldn’t just die here…” She gave a quiet sob and then turned around to hug her friend tight, trying not to cry too hard, but everyone saw her silently shaking in Honey Lemon’s arms. The latter didn’t say a word, but gently placed her hand on Gogo’s back as Fred and Wasabi silently watched this scene. They never saw Gogo being like this. She even seemed to take Tadashi’s death easier. That day she only dropped a couple of tears at the funeral, but nothing more. After that, she put on an impenetrable mask of calm and, as it seemed from the outside, lived her life again. Losing Hiro became the last straw that broke the camel’s back and crushed all the illusions. Honey Lemon frowned, she could’ve sworn she heard something. She turned her head to her friend, who was still shaking, but not crying anymore. Instead, she whispered something in her shoulder that wasn’t heard too clearly. “Could you repeat that please?” she asked softly and heard another sob. “W-we… we need to… we need to tell Cass… about Hiro, ab-about Akuma,” Gogo whispered with a cracking voice, this time loud enough for everyone to hear. All of them managed to avoid this thought all night, but they couldn’t argue with that. Cass deserved to know, at least from the heroes. “We can tell her the same legend we gave Karmi, but… we can’t lie f-forever about how we found out…” “Or we could tell her that it was Karmi who told us everything before leaving SFIT,” Wasabi suggested, fidgeting his hands as his gaze darkened. “I mean, we’re his friends, after all if someone deserved to know it’s us… plus Karmi would be too scared to provoke Gogo, so she wouldn’t claim it’s a lie.” Each of them gave a nod, agreeing with the thought. They all knew lying in Cass’ face about how her second nephew died this year would be cruel, they knew it would hurt them too, but they couldn’t just tell her about all the Big hero 6 business. Maybe later, when they’re strong enough for this. Gogo gave a sigh and pulled herself from Honey Lemon, then covered her face with a hand to wipe her tears away. After glancing at everyone in the room, she shook her head and went to the exit, grabbing her jacket on her way. “I’mma take a walk. Try to sleep a little, you still have a couple of hours,” she said, and then left her friends. She needed some fresh air. All the rest could wait.

***

“So, he…” “Doesn’t remember a thing, yes. Tsk…” Obake honestly didn’t expect this to happen, for some reason. He expected Hiro to act aggressive, to mourn his friends without any hint of knowing if they had survived the explosion on Akuma. He could’ve just ignored everyone in the lair, which, to a certain extent, would’ve been even obvious in his situation. He didn’t expect that instead the boy won’t remember a thing and so won’t feel much until he’s told a certain version of what happened. Suddenly the man smiled with the corners of his lips and turned around, placing his arms behind his back. Momakase frowned, realizing that her employer must have had some sort of plan now. Probably not even the worst one, considering that it was about this Hamada kid. “Well, guess we’ll have to work with what we have. It won’t be too hard to twist facts here and there and keep the main picture. We’ll give our young genius the story he needs to hear and he won’t even think about coming back to those, hah, heroes.” Momakase rolled her eyes and gave a soft chuckle when she saw the spark in her partner’s eyes and only waved her hand. Do whatever you want, he’s all yours. “Good luck with your perfect story,” she hummed and almost turned around to walk away, but saw him gesture her to stop with the corner of her eye. “What now?” “Tell your… coworkers not to talk too much when our young genius decides to join us. Or not to talk at all.” “Tsk. Right,” the villainess rolled her eyes again, finally leaving the lab. She didn’t need to be a part of all these Hiro-the-perfect-successor plans, yet.

***

It didn’t take too much time for Hiro to get tired of the dead silence and boredom in his room after another awakening. Or was it a cell? He wasn’t too sure what to call it, but it sure didn’t look too bright. Functional, pretty much comfortable, nothing extra. At least he managed to deal with the lights and adjusted the brightness in the room. He rose up on his good arm and glanced at the door to stare at it for a few seconds, then got up and walked closer to inspect it for what seemed to be the third time in the last hour. Or something like that, it was hard to keep track of the time without a clock in the room. There was a panel with a sheet of frosted black glass with a few buttons and switches underneath near the doorframe. Looks like a scanner. Hamada didn’t know what the switches’ purpose was and didn’t want to risk breaking it right now, so he ignored the lower part of the panel and placed his hand on the scanner, waiting for something to happen. The scanner gave a short beep, then the door opened. “Huh. Not locked,” Hiro noted in surprise as he cautiously peered out into the corridor. It was a little colder and darker outside than he had imagined. Not that the corridor was too dark, the lights were just enough to see the walls and not bump into them. Not that there was much to run in other than the walls and several doors. Looked like something where people might have lived. Maybe there are just not enough people. Still kinda creepy, he thought to himself with a sigh and hugged his shoulders. Only one arm responded, causing Hiro to flinch and remember once again. Just one arm, right. Because my friends didn’t bother to save me with that other person and left me on that island. Now I’m here. Not sure where exactly. Not sure why Obake would even need me. Not even sure who I am exactly. Just… great. Hiro shook his head to drive the bad thoughts away and decided to go in a random direction with his hand pressed against the wall. Guess it was more of a labyrinth trick than an unknown building one… eh, better than nothing. Around the second turn, at last, there was a light brighter than the one illuminated the corridors, and soon he found himself in front of a door that led into a spacious room, lit by many green screens and several lamps on the sides. Must be a kind of a lab, the young genius guessed as he entered the room and started looking around. He could see the wires hanging here and there, going between the screens, lying on the floor and going somewhere in the dark. There was an unknown for Hiro code running on the smaller screens, yet he managed to recognize several elements in it, but not to understand the whole code’s purpose. The bigger screens above him were so bright that they seemed to be replacing the other lights in the lab, either shut off or not existing at all. “I wonder if I can,” he muttered as he lifted his hand to the touchpad, or at least what looked most like a touchpad, to try to open any file or program and the screen in front of him reacted to the touch, switching to the last opened file which seemed to be a research on several people and a robot. Colored suits, multiple mentions in the news, records from security cameras, all this looks pretty odd. As if these people…. “There you are.” Hiro yelped and jumped at the already familiar voice, rapidly brushing his hand down to press the file. He sighed and slowly turned around to see Obake coming into the lab. His anxiety skyrocketed as he realized that the man was clearly frustrated about something. How screwed am I? “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know I wasn’t all—” Hiro stopped at the middle of the word as he saw the man’s face change and gulped, carefully placing his hand somewhere behind him that didn’t seem to be a keyboard or a touchpad or any button. Just metal. Why is he dangerous? He came back to this question when Obake moved further and reached the screens with only several steps and then opened the same files on the vigilantes. “Sneaking out to get some information on your first day here, hm? I’m impressed.” He chuckled and turned to the young genius, which made him flinch. He wasn’t angry at me? “You… really?” “Do I look like I’m lying?” Obake raised an eyebrow and Hiro shook his head, not willing to know what is going to happen if he tries to argue. He’s still dangerous. For… some reason. He just needed to remember why. “They are those vigilantes, aren’t they?” Obake narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the teen, and then gestured to him to come closer. Then he turned on one of the recent records featuring a man in a lizard suit who was chasing a kind of pink slimy monster across the city. Didn’t he just look like a giant coin? The lizard guy was destroying everything he touched as if he was doing that on purpose. First some woman’s car caught on fire, then he smashed the wall an elderly woman was painting. The next victim was a big crab on a restaurant’s roof that nearly hit a girl coming by. After taking a look back, the ‘hero’ realized that the damage was even more severe: another car caught on fire, a hydrant blew up, even an overpass above him now had a hole. In other words, whatever was stolen by a walking slime, he wasn’t the one who caused more destruction. Hiro frowned and turned to the man when he turned the recording off, waiting for the reaction. He couldn’t tell exactly what emotion he saw on his face, but for some reason he was almost sure that Obake was at least partially satisfied with what he saw. “So, what do you think?” Hamada bit the inner side of his cheek, not sure how to respond. He didn’t know what exactly he felt about it, for some reason. Well, I can think about that issue later. For now it would be easier to be objective. “He did his job poorly. Didn’t do it at all, even. Not only did he let the monster escape, and here I assume that it’s a criminal, but he also caused major damage to the city, both private and city’s property. If that's the way they usually do their job, I’m surprised the police haven't started openly hunting them yet. And even if that’s the only case, the damage is too severe to just let the lizard go like this.” He flinched at Obake who gave out a chuckle at his words. He then raised an eyebrow as he noticed Hiro’s reaction as if he expected something different. “It’s interesting to hear this coming from you, knowing that you once were one of them,” he explained and then grimaced at the noise behind their backs and then a familiar pink monster appeared in the lab. “Did you have enough fun there?” The teen suddenly felt a wave of fear rising in him as the man’s voice became colder in annoyance. The monster felt the threat too and took a step back with a guilty look on his… that was a face, right? “B-but you said that—” he tried to explain, but couldn’t finish when Obake gestured him to shut up. Hiro decided to hide behind his back, suddenly feeling a strange headache from his voice. “I know what I said,” he cut off, narrowing his eyes and turned to Hiro, changing his facial expression to a softer one. “Hiro, meet Globby. Let’s say he’s one of my… co-workers.”  Hiro took his time to step away from his improvised cover, still feeling glimpses of fear in his whole body, yet he still took a step to the side, allowing the monster to see him. And the surprise in his gaze didn’t help his anxiety. He knows me. Or, at least, used to know. “Umm, hi,” he sheepishly smiled and waved his hand. Globby looked like he wanted to say something, but changed his might, terrified of what Obake could do if he made a mistake here. “Hello, Hiro. Glad you’re alright. Well, except for your arm, haha… ha.” There was an awkward pause. The monster cleared his throat and took a step back to the door, trying to avoid eye contact with the man. Hiro followed him with his eyes, deciding not to say anything for now, and then turned to the screen to see another security camera recording featuring Globby.  “I uh, I think I’ll go, not gonna disturb you anymore,” he chuckled nervously and left the lab with the two geniuses inside. Obake turned to the teen again and raised his eyebrow, surprised as Hiro was scrolling through recordings, quietly humming to himself. “What are you doing?” He asked and the boy yelped. “I, um… I’m watching other videos with Globby and uh, the six? Not sure what they call themselves haha… in any case, I’m just curious if this was a single situation or do these, hm, heroes always deal with their problems like that.” Obake hummed with his eyes open wider and glanced at the screen and then shook his head and locked it, which made Hiro give out a grumpy sigh. “I appreciate your curiosity Hiro,” he explained, placing his hand on the young genius’ uninjured shoulder. “But you better be easier on yourself, both physically and mentally, until we’re sure you’re stable. I will let you get into most of my files as soon as I can guarantee it’s not going to hurt you in any way, alright?” The teen sighed again, placing his hand on the shoulder that was bandaged, unable to cross his arms, and eventually nodded in agreement. After all, not that he had many options. “I erm.. I will find my way back myself,” he answered quieter than before. The man nodded in response and took his hand from Hiro’s shoulder. Then he got back to some work as soon as he made sure the boy actually left the lab. After all, there really was a lot to work on.

***

“...this is truly horrifying news for all of San Fransokyo. What future our city holds now that there is proof of our heroes being so vulnerable?” Obake was only half listening to the newest report about Big hero 6, no, now that they don’t have Hiro, Big hero 5 is a more correct name, and their version of how both Hiro and their captain died on Akuma island while he was working on another project. To be honest, he expected their story to be far less convincing than what it turned out to be. At least, most of the people there might even buy into it. That was the exact moment he heard a quiet chuckle behind his back and tensed with his whole body, ready to attack the intruder. All of his tension suddenly disappeared as soon as he saw familiar unruly curls, and after a few seconds another man stood in front of him, glancing both at the screen and the lab’s owner. “Woah, these heroes turned out to be better actors than I thought. Their friend died there and they seem to be perfectly fine with it. Or maybe they all are psychos there and they really are fine, hm?” Obake only gave a sigh and returned to his work, while the visitor was watching him, making a thousand notes in his head about what he was seeing. “You haven’t taken good care of yourself recently. Do you even get out of your lair when it isn’t about messing with these kids?” He asked, not so amused anymore, with his arms crossed. “Glad to see you after all these years too, David,” the other responded, straightening his back and taking a look at the blueprint he was supposed to work with later. Sure, it still needed a lot of work on it, but honestly? Not too bad for something that wasn’t his usual area. “And I promise, you will have a lot of time to rant about my health, but say… what do you think about experimenting on children?” Obake barely held back a chuckle when he saw sparks in David’s eyes at this question and then he glanced at the robotics genius’ work again, connecting the dots. He was working on a prosthetic. Perhaps, even for a said child. “I’m listening,” he drawled with a dark smile.