For the BH6 Kinkmeme. (Which means some of you have probably already read it)
There were a few things that made Tony Stark turn his head. Usually it was of the female or food variety; the first, though, had been limited since he started dating Pepper, and the second was more following his stomach. It was rare for tech to turn his head. Mostly because any tech Tony would gawked over was something he had built. There was a reason why he was the leading manufacturer of technology in the world.
Still, it wasn't everyday someone saw a white marshmallow looking robot walking down the street.
Tony stopped mid-step and turned to look at the white blob he had caught out of the corner of his eye. There it was. A white marshmallow robot walking down the street. Tony stared in shock as people didn't even seem to be reacting to the said robot. Just a glance and they would move on. Tony felt his curiosity ignite. What did this robot do? Why were people ignoring it? Was it something they have seen often enough? Why was it walking around on the sidewalk? Was it just a walking robot? That would be silly.
Quickly crossing the street, Tony moved to intercept the robot. He quickly caught up to the robot and kept pace as he observed it. It was covered in vinyl, but Tony could see the delicate interior frame. Probably carbon fiber considering the weight.
Tony ran straight into the soft, squishy robot as it suddenly stopped. Blinking, Tony watched as the robot turned its attention towards him. Glee ran through Tony. It had sensors to detect someone was observing it and to actually stop its programming from continuing walking. It was already more sophisticated than Tony had anticipated. Most robots could only do one thing and one thing only.
"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion," the robot introduced itself. "Are you in need of assistance?"
Oh, this was getting better and better. Tony had to meet the person who made this guy now. An AI? An actual AI? Tony could count on both hands the number of people who could make a working AI, let alone one this complex. Personal healthcare companion?
"That depends," Tony said, poking the soft belly of the robot.
"I will scan you now," Baymax said.
'Scan? What would this robot scan?' Tony wondered. His question was answered seconds later.
"Scan complete. My sensors show that you have an old injury in your chest. There appears to be a cylindrical object that my sensors cannot read. It appears to be impeding with your lungs. It also detects metal shrapnel near your heart. I suggest heart surgery to remove all foreign objects."
Tony let out a low whistle. That was a fairly accurate description of the arc reactor and the health implications of having said arc reactor. That was some impressive sensors.
A picture of ten different faces appeared on Baymax's chest. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
Well, it was never a zero these days for Tony. It hovered around a one to four, depending on everything from the weather, Tony's sleeping patterns or what he ate the day before. It was something Tony had long grown accustomed to, though, so it might as well be a zero.
"It's a zero," Tony said, grinning. This was amazing work. Truly amazing work. He had to meet the creator of Baymax.
"Are you satisfied with your care?" Baymax asked.
"Yup," Tony said.
"Then I must return looking for my other patient," Baymax said. He turned to leave.
"Wait, wait!" Tony said, darting around Baymax to block the robot's path.
Baymax stopped and tilted his head. "Do you still need more assistance?"
Tony shook his head. "No, but I do want to know who made you."
"Who programmed me or who built me?" Baymax asked.
"Is there a difference?"
"Baymax!"
Tony turned around to see a young boy running toward him. He was a small Asian looking boy with messy black hair, a blue jacket and a red shirt. "Baymax! There you are. I've been looking all over for you!" the boy said, out of breath.
"Hello Hiro. Are you alright?" Baymax asked.
"Just fine, buddy." The boy, Hiro, gave Tony a small bow. "Sorry about that. I hope he wasn't bothering you."
"Not at all. Hey kid, are you the one who made Baymax here?" Tony asked. He was impressed. Kid geniuses came and went, but only a few caught Tony's eyes and fewer went and made a name for themselves. Tony pegged the kid to be in his early teens, definitely not older than fifteen.
A pained expression crossed Hiro's face. "Um, no. That would be my brother Tadashi."
Ah not a kid genius then. "Can I meet him?" Tony asked. "I got a bunch of questions about Baymax here."
Hiro's face morphed into distress. Tony mentally panicked, wondering what it was he had said. "I'm sorry, sir. Tadashi… Tadashi passed away just last year," Hiro said.
That… was a shame. Tony's shoulders slumped as he mourned the loss of what was a brilliant mind.
"Hiro was the one who rebuilt me," Baymax said.
"Baymax!" Hiro hissed.
"My sensors indicate you are upset, Hiro. It is good to remind you of positive memories to help cheer up your mood. Tadashi was very proud of you," Baymax instructed. He moved closer to Hiro to give him a hug.
"What does he mean by rebuilt?" Tony asked, curious. Baymax continued to impress him. The complexity! Not only could Baymax identify physical wounds, but moods as well? And to give advice on how to improve said mood.
"Last year, my original body was destroyed in an accident," Baymax said. "While Tadashi was the one who built my original body and created my programming, after the accident and Tadashi's death, Hiro built me a new body." Next to him, Hiro flushed a bright red color.
That… was fascinating. So kid genius after all! "Interesting," Tony said, stroking his chin in thought.
"Baymax is still my brother's creation," Hiro defended.
That may be true, but Tony knew how difficult it was to replicate another person's work. To rebuilt something, something that was clearly a prototype to begin with that still took skills. The kid was smart. Real smart. And if he had a fraction of what his brother had in coding skills, he would still be better than all of Stark Industries' IT department put together. Baymax was impressive work. Most people would go 'wow' just at the very concept of Baymax, but Tony was a genius and a inventor too. He could see the sheer amount of work that went into Baymax. This wasn't something any engineer could have come up with, so it was staggering to think Hiro's brother (who couldn't have been that much older then Hiro) could come up with such a complex creation.
"Hyperspectral cameras?" Tony asked, peering into Baymax's head.
Hiro nodded. "Yeah." Surprise was colored in his tone as if he wasn't expecting Tony to recognize that.
Tony smiled to himself. The kid hadn't made the connection yet that he was Tony Stark. That was good though, it meant Tony could wow the kid a little.
"Carbon fiber for his frame right?"
"Yeah."
"How much can he lift?"
"A 1000 pounds."
"Battery?"
"Supercapacitors. That's the one of the few changes I made to Baymax," Hiro said softly. Pride rang in his voice. "He's got over ten thousand different medical procedures programmed into his medical chip. It was Tadashi's dream for him to help people."
"Do you know the inspiration behind Baymax?" Tony asked. People rarely invented things on a whim. There was a reason for it. It might be a silly or stupid reason, but a reason. To make a personal healthcare robot though? There was a story behind that.
Hiro hesitated. "Tadashi never told me, but I can guess. I use to hate hospitals as a kid, still do actually. They remind me too much of the day my parents die, even if I don't really remember it. I use to throw the biggest tantrums over going to the doctor for just a check up. Tadashi… probably wanted to make a medical robot that could help people, was non-threatening and fun for kids and was always present. That was my big brother, always looking out for me." He trailed off, lost in the memories.
Tony would forever deny it, but his heart melted a little at the story. Pepper would have been a sappy gooey mess at this kid's story. "Want to make your brother's dream come true?" Tony offered.
"What?" Hiro asked, skeptical.
"A Baymax in every household by the end of next year," Tony said. "I don't say this often, but I am impressed. If you want, I'll help you make your brother's dream of helping people come true."
"How are you going to do that?" Hiro asked.
Tony grinned and stuck out his hand. "I'm Tony Stark, nice to meet you."
Hiro's jaw dropped open and he weakly shook Tony's hand, stunned. "Tony Stark?" he squeaked. "As in Iron Man? As in the owner of Stark Industries?"
"The one in the same," Tony said, puffing out his chest. "And you kid?"
"Hiro, Hiro Hamada. And well you know Baymax," Hiro said, still in awe. "You'll do that? Make Tadashi's dream come true?"
"Yeah, kid. Tell you what. You call whoever you need, your guardian, your lawyer, a friend and you tell me where you want to meet and I'll be there in an hour with my charming girlfriend and CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts. Heard of her?" Tony asked.
Hiro nodded, still dumbfounded. Tony pulled out his wallet and handed him a business card with his personal cellphone number. "Good. She will love you. Call if I'm running late or you're running late. We'll be good. Now, where are we meeting?"
"Um, Lucky Cat Café?" Hiro said. "It's just two streets down from here and take a right. It's on the corner."
Tony punched in the directions into his phone. "Great. Now a couple things before we break to grab our respective people. Where are you attending school?" Tony wanted to keep an eye on this kid. The minute he was out of college, Tony would probably offer him an internship at Stark Industries. Probably smooth out the pathway to college for the kid too; too many kid geniuses got lost in college, from the pressure of being a child among adults, to just burnt out. Tony did not want to see that happen to Hiro.
"SFIT."
An eyebrow went up. "SFIT? As in the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology?" Tony asked. The kid was in college already? Definitely kid genius. Maybe offer the internship now? Didn't want other people offering Hiro a job.
Hiro only nodded.
"When did you graduate high school?" Tony asked.
"Thirteen."
"Hiro just turned fifteen," Baymax interjected. "He has attended SFIT since this past semester."
Tony grinned as Hiro glared at the white robot. Did Tony mention how much he loved Baymax? Honestly. JARVIS was the only one who could read Tony and anticipate his next question, but Baymax was pretty good at it too.
"What were you doing between the ages of 13 and 15?" Tony asked.
Hiro bit his lip, unsure.
"Kid whatever you did, I assure you, I probably did worse," Tony said. It was probably true. Tony had done a lot of wild things when he was younger. Everything from partying, drugs, stupid illegal car races and other questionable things. Chances are whatever Hiro was doing, it wouldn't even rate in the top twenty stupid things Tony had done.
"I was trying to get into bot fighting for a little while. Tadashi didn't approve of it. Use to ask me when I was gonna start doing something with that big brain of mines," Hiro said, not meeting Tony's eyes. "Then Tadashi died and I was in a bad place for a while. It… wasn't pretty. "
Bot fighting? This kid was after his heart. Tony ignored the last part of Hiro's sentence. As if he didn't know about being in bad places. No need to judge or ask questions about that. The kid looked like he was pretty functional though. No lasting scars that Tony could see and Tony was good at reading people. The kid was more well adjusted than Tony was at his age. "Were you any good at bot fighting?" Tony asked.
"I won my first couple fights," Hiro said with a cocky grin. A dash of pride danced on his face. "They didn't stand a chance."
"Still got the bot?" Tony asked.
Hiro nodded. "Yeah. Megabot, he uses magnetic bearing circles. Three of them put together and I can control each part separately. I reinforced his body with steel alloy so he could take whatever beating the opponent dished out."
Magnetic bearing circles! "Bring Megabot to the meeting too, if you can," Tony instructed. Baymax was awesome, but Tony wanted to see what Hiro could do by himself and Megabot sounded promising.
"What about your microbots, Hiro?" Baymax asked.
Microbots? Tony perked up at that. This kid was a gold mine. Tony would have to kidnap Hiro one day and drag him into the lab. Oh the things they would be able to create! It would be so much fun. Tony was itching to pick at Hiro's brain. This was a kid that would be able to keep up with him.
"I don't think so, Baymax," Hiro said. Tony visibly deflated. "The world isn't ready for my microbots. I don't think they ever will be."
Baymax tilted his head to the side in a questioning manner. "But Tony Stark is a superhero. Superheroes help people, yes? It will not be abused like it was in the hands of Callaghan."
Hiro shook his head. "No Baymax. That Callaghan used them that way, it was already enough to prove that kind of power shouldn't be used lightly. I may be able to trust Mr. Stark with them, but who's to say there won't be another supervillain that comes along to steal them again and causes the same destruction that Callaghan did."
Tony mentally filed away the name of Callaghan to look up later. It sounded familiar. Where had he heard it before? He understood what Hiro was saying though. It was the same reason why Tony would never fully disclose the full capabilities of JARVIS or the design of his personal arc reactor. There were just some things that the world should never know about and Tony would take those things to the grave.
"I'll be able to keep this version of Baymax, right?" Hiro asked, dropping the other conversation.
"Of course," Tony said. Tony would never separate the original (or 2.0 in this case) from the owner. The first was always the best and clearly this version of Baymax had its own personality and quirks, no doubt from following Hiro around all the time.
"Then I'll see you in an hour?" Hiro asked. His voice was skeptical, like he didn't really believe Tony would keep his word.
"Of course," Tony agreed. The skepticism was well placed and Tony approved that the kid wasn't as naïve as other people were. True, Tony had promised to show up to certain people in the past and never bother to actually show, but Tony had learned his lesson from Killian. There was no need to create more enemies down the road.
"You know kid, once this all gets squared away, remind me to invite you to Stark Industries in New York. I got a big lab we can play in and you can create to your heart's content. If they're in you can even meet the other Avengers," Tony said.
Hiro's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Really. Now get going!" Tony said. He ushered the kid into walking. "I'll be there in an hour. Lucky Cat Café."
Hiro waved a quick goodbye and ran off with Baymax following after him. Tony barely suppressed his gleeful grin. That kid was going to go places. Ah, youth! He whipped out his phone, already firing off orders to JARVIS to remind him about an internship for Hiro, playdates and to get his own personal Baymax. Baymax in red and gold? Iron Man colors? So many different possibilities. Maybe he should invest into multiple ones for the entire team. The team got injured more than often enough. It would be good to have an entire team of Baymaxes on standby. This would cut down on time spent in SHIELD's infirmary! Something Tony knew his teammates could get behind. Bruce would probably be tickled pink at the idea of Baymax.
He dialed Pepper's number and waited for her to pick up, bouncing on his heels. It had been a long time since Tony had truly gotten this excited over a future project.
"Tony?"
"Pepper. Meet me at the corner of 5th and Sakuyo Avenue in an hour okay? There's a kid you just gotta meet."