Chapter 19

The last couple of days basically ran together into one long action sequence. Like those rides at amusement parks that always had some kind of new twist and turn that you could never predict. Fred certainly didn't remember actually sleeping either, because everything felt like a dream come true! He had been running strictly on his adrenaline and excitement surging through his veins. Food was not forgotten because of his stress eating - lots of stress eating - in between the reviewing of profiles and background checks on all the leads that had been dug up.

A small group of SHIELD agents had moved back into the secret location under his parent's house to focus on the case. The once forgotten son of a superhero felt totally stoked to be recognized by his father's elite, even if he was just an intern-level assistant. Much of this, of course, involved lots of 'gopher' work. Go for this, go bring that, go find those, go put it away (along with put it down and don't touch that.. again). It was all good, VERY good, because this helped Hiro (despite the reality that the SHIELD were essentially the police for supervillains). Seeing his friend get so beat up really shook Fred, further convincing his dad to help as much as possible to get back Baymax.

"So, here we are!" the fanboy beamed, acknowledging the others once they piled into the stretch limo. He was still so pumped about having all of them together like this to embark on a totally amazing mission like they never had before. Yes, even better than the very first time, when they banded together to go after Callaghan.

Aunt Cass waved her last farewell before the darkly tinted car window rolled up and they pulled away.

"Yey," GoGo commented dryly. Despite Honey's protests, she insisted on wearing her black leather jacket over her dress (because the black fuzzy cashmere sweater was a 'nope') along with her black, trademark leggings. Once they finally gave in and accepted the fact that GoGo wanted the punk look, she got away with a pair of laced black Doc Martens boots too. Her short, black hair was smoothed down a bit, her purple bangs looking more red in color. The speedster wore the neurotransmitter that now sported a few more brushed steel embellishments that resembled ivy leaves to one side, so it looked like a hairpiece. GoGo's bangs were not pushed back by the transmitter hairband, because that was also a 'nope', but instead allowed to lay neatly across her forehead. Her dark red lipstick stood out the most, as well as the equally bold eyeliner. GoGo simply looked stunning, which also visibly moved Hiro (from how much he was avoiding looking at her). Fred couldn't blame him since the feisty engineer rarely ever dressed up to this level.

To be fair, both GoGo and Honey Lemon looked out of this world. Honey Lemon went crazy with her curling iron to create some ribbon-like curls that looked so shiny and fun. Then she gathered the rest of her hair in a stylish bun. The dress Honey wore was a soft sparkly mauve color and had long sleeves that reached her shoulders. The fabric gathered up in a few folds that hung low from shoulder to shoulder, leaving her neck exposed. The skirt was long, like an evening gown style as well.

Both Fred and Hiro cleaned up just as surprisingly. Alas, Fred was accustomed to it, due to his parents high society functions he had to attend from time to time. Hiro didn't look as comfortable though. His Aunt ended up giving him a haircut, much to his 'delight'. She didn't take a too much off, but it was still noticeable to everyone else. Then to add 'insult to injury' (as Hiro put it) Honey Lemon felt it was necessary to go over his hair with a flat iron just so it would lay down better.

Yep, the hair, suit, and makeup combined made the little Hamada looked something like a Kpop star now.

But they weren't done with him yet. Hiro also had to wear his navy-colored sling, which was intended for his arm with the cast. His suit jacket had to be slung over that shoulder since they couldn't get his cast through the jacket sleeve. It really was for appearances, because he insisted that he had no problems using that arm otherwise.

"So it sounds like we are not staying very long at the restaurant then?" Honey Lemon confirmed the changes in their plans.

"Yup, we'll just be there long enough to eat some appetizers, send selfies to Aunt Cass, and then we split up to make our move!" Fred explained, all while using his hands to talk out the action moments. That part he hoped wouldn't be too much of a bummer, just because of all the time that went into getting gussied up. He then paused long enough to open a refrigerated compartment at one end stocked full of vending machine type of sandwiches, drinks, chips, and like snacks. "But there's more food here if you're really hungry… like me, mmm."

Wasabi just rolled his eyes with a sigh. He was wearing black suit pants paired with a dark green textured jacket with black velvet lapels. The big guy was happy with the first attire, but he wasn't sure how long that would last.

Fred's dad was on video chat, visible on the small flat screen built into the divider between the driver and the passenger area of the stretch limo. He had been debriefing them over the secured video fed to explain their assignments after they explained what they had in mind. With Honey Lemon wanting to join them, a couple changes had been made.

"Though I'm sure if Honey Lemon and Hiro would like to stay longer, they could," the veteran superhero chuckled.

Hiro just made a face, shaking his head 'no'. "That's okay."

"To confirm, you and Fred are going to look for Baymax while I bot fight to win with Ronin," GoGo pointed to Wasabi and Fred.

"Right. Just plan to keep winning until he's found," Hiro nodded.

Wasabi was still not confident about Fred being his wing man on this endeavor, but Hiro reassured them he would also have a video feed tapped in through spy cams on the two. That baffled Fred for a moment, wondering how Hiro would keep track of their progress along with the assisting GoGo with bot fighting. That is, until he gained further understanding after remembering an earlier issue from the classic Ironman comics. They were spies going undercover in every way! Fortunately, they would find Baymax before it turned into something as out of control as an Ultron takeover.

"What if we don't find Baymax and he ends up in the fighting ring?" Leave it to Wasabi to ask the important questions.

"Hope he goes up against us?" Honey Lemon suggested.

"That is a likely chance… because if they think they know us, they'd do that to shake me up," Hiro told them, quite honestly.

"What are the chances that they'll get their hands on this?" GoGo asked him, tapping on her neurotransmitter.

"They can't," Hiro narrowed his eyes, emphasizing his point. "It's designed to respond to only your chemical signature in your neural synapses."

"Good, I was also wondering about that." Wasabi thought out loud.

"Remember when I was telling you guys how I wanted to use Baymax as a training bot? Same idea," the younger Hamada proceeded to explain. "Ronin will only respond to my voice commands, and GoGo's thoughts, voice, and actions."

"What about us? Can he respond to us?" Wasabi asked.

"He'll recognize that you are not 'the enemy'."

"So if you're not on his Friends List, you're toast?" GoGo raised her eyebrow, looking directly at him.

"When he has the bot fight programming… yes," Hiro responded, "For the BBB Championship, I removed his search and rescue protocol."

"How is that good?!" Wasabi gasped.

Fred had to cover his mouth to sniffle his laugh after noticing how high Wasabi eyebrows went. They were almost touching his hairline. What Wasabi worried about and what he didn't were exact opposites. Fred honestly could not wait to see how badass Ronin would be in action.

While their limo ride to the restaurant was in style, their exit was far less flashy. The young heroes left through an underground secret passage accessed from the basement of the restaurant. What made this restaurant so unique was its secret connection with SHIELD. There was an electric golf cart operated by another agent that drove them through the dimly lit hallway with grey cinder block walls. Once they reached a larger warehouse-style room with equally dim lightening and housed lots of occupied cubicles, they knew they reached their destination.

"Okey doke, this is where Hiro and Honey get off," Fred turned around in his seat to explain. He had sat shotgun in the front, next to the driver. "The rest of us are going to the garage, where we will be driven to the bot fight venue."

Hiro nodded, suddenly feeling a nervous flutter when he realized this was it. Gogo will be on her way. The agents had transported Ronin from his garage earlier. Once again, he wished he could have gone to the bot fight himself. He's always wanted to see one of these big bot championships in person! "Good luck!"

"We wish you the best!" Honey Lemon waved as they drove off.

"So…" Hiro looked up at the tall gentleman in a black suit, whose name he failed to remember. While it was nice to have this extra help, the younger Hamada kept getting that feeling he also was being monitored. That if he made the wrong move, they would be quick to correct him. Sure, he was an insanely smart genius whose inventions had that way of attracting all the wrong people, but he himself wasn't a bad person, not like a true delinquent. But if they kept making him feel so dangerous, then...

"We will have you stationed over here," the agent responded to his questioning glance, ushering the two further into the area to where their station was.

Honey Lemon had her crutches so she could move in pace with them, but Hiro secretly hoped it wasn't too far for her. She acted as though it wasn't a problem.

Once settled, Hiro checked out his video feed with Ronin and his tap with GoGo. Then he set up the video feeds for Honey. She was in charge of Fred's and Wasabi's report.

"Hearing you loud and clear," Wasabi's voice came in over Honey Lemon's audio. The video footage from both showed then inside another vehicle. They were headed downtown, the increasing number of signs and neon lights being one of the clues.

GoGo stayed silent and his feed for Ronin was still black. Hiro clenched his teeth in growing anticipation, not sure what to say to her right now. Maybe she also felt just as cautious about her every move being monitored. He did remember that the other two were going to be dropped off near the building, while she was going inside to park.

"We're almost there! Ohhh, this is going to be so awesome!" Fred chimed in again, not afraid to let his excitement be known.

Unlike the underground matches, the BBB championship was notably upscale. Being open to the public, it was staged in a basketball stadium downtown. Lights and neon shone brightly around it, illuminating the evening sky. This part of town had been built to withstand earthquakes, so the time it took to clean-up was minimal. It was like nothing had happened there.

Inside, two rings were set up on the court, and the VIP seating on ground level started at the outer edge of the open floor surrounding the rings. For safety reasons, there was a buffer zone between the rings and the spectator seating. A handful of large screen monitors hung high overhead the rings for a better view of the action.

GoGo walked to her assigned prep bay with an agent in black jeans and a weathered black biker-style leather jacket, posing as her maintenance technician and wanna-be boyfriend material. Ronin was wheeled in on a cart in his transport box mode. Keeping their profile low as they passed through the check-in counter was their foremost concern. The speedster was still in her red dress and her black jacket.

"Did you see the brackets for the matches yet?" Hiro's tiny voice came in, one that only GoGo could hear. He was still in the dark, literally.

"No," her response was breathed out as she set up things in their space. She wasn't up for appearing as if she was talking to herself.

They were stationed in larger side rooms on the first floor under the stadium seating, apart from the main arena. It looked like a big locker room area, but without the benches. Thick portable walls separated her from the other competitor's bay areas, but the front was still open. People (namely, other competitors and VIP fans) walking by could see who they were, and could freely ask for pictures and autographs. GoGo personally hoped she didn't get that kind of attention. She had no idea what kind of reputation Hiro had with Ronin, or Mega-Z… nor did she want to know. All the same, she still listened to the crowds walking by in hopes of catching any clues.

"Lazer Bolt is going to own the night!"

"I have bets on…"

The way a couple passer-bys looked in on her made her feel uncomfortable, however. She could only assume that no one recognized either of them. Hiro had said he changed up Ronin from before, name included.

"..probably a new one."

"Who's that girl..."

"..where's the bot with-"

"..you know, it was the one with the tall..."

What pissed GoGo off was the masquerade that the whole BBB spectacle had put on. After seeing the underground version of a gangster organized bot fight, this felt so staged. The formal attire and public staging did not fool her as it may have for the rest of the ignorant civilians.

"Hey Gary, can you go out and check for the match lineup? I got this here," even though it was risky asking him to leave, she needed some time alone to talk to Hiro. Ronin should come online pretty quickly, but just in case.

GoGo pulled on her fingerless bike gloves as she waited for Ronin to come online and calibrate. The robot didn't need a controller, like an RC toy, but she just liked having the gloves on. They just put her more into the mindset for the competition. She also wanted to confirm one of Ronin power attacks. "Hiro, when there-"

Her sentence was abruptly off by a very unwelcoming voice behind her.

"Well, well… look at what the cat dragged in."

GoGo sighed, then turned around the face the haughty Fujita. They beat them on finding her first. She could tell who she was from the whiny, hard to forget voice. The shorter engineer really was not in the mood for this. "What do you want, bitch?"

"Funny seeing you here, Short-Z. I thought street racing was more your thing," said the proud woman dressed in black leather pants, a silky ruffled white blouse, and a distressed dark purple, tailored leather jacket. Her hair was neatly put up in a loose bun. Kimiko crossed her arms while looking down on GoGo, because the heels she wore only made her taller.

"Could say the same for you-"

"And now you're filling in for your cutie super-Zero? Aww.. how sweet!" the tall bitch overly exaggerated her voice tone to sound super cutesy, complete with folded hands and a gushing smile. The Fujita acted like another fan to the random passerby, but what she was saying was on a whole different level.

"Tch… what do you want?" the speedster rolled her eyes, hand on hip. The way she spoke about Hiro indicated that she knew they also moonlighted as superheroes. And that GoGo was close to him. All that made GoGo's blood boil, but she wasn't going to let that be apparent just yet.

"Just to say 'hi'. Can't I do that?" she cooed, seemingly driving the proverbial stake in a little more.

And to fuckin' spy on my shit, yes. GoGo set her jaw, and held her glare. She had to stay cool, calm. She was so on edge for being toyed with like this. The only thing holding her back was the plan they worked so hard to set forth. I'm saving it for the fight… just you wait, bitch!

"I also wanted to say that you certainly are not going to get very far here," Kamiko winked, and then turned to confidently walk away.

Gogo swore a few choice words of what she who like to do to counter the Fujita's threat.

"Language…" an almost teasing voice from her com warned her. Of course, Hiro overheard all of that.

"Well, call that a confirmation that they're here," GoGo huffed, turning in her spot to glance at Ronin. "Did you get something?"

The rest was an unspoken assumption that if they had 'something', then finding where the Fujita were with their bots would shorten the search. Even though Hiro said the search and rescue program was removed, Ronin still had an ID scanner and tracking program integrated as part of his battle bot coding. Like with Baymax, Hiro used the similar code that after a person had been scanned, he could track said person's location in the local vicinity with a compatible tracking software program.

The agent stepped up, also aware of what had happened, and listened in.

"Ronin has her marked as an Fujita thru her identity scan… but I can't seem to lock in," Hiro explained, an spike of confusion becoming more evident as he spoke. "There- there's some kind of interference. The marker for her location blips just for a bare fraction of a second, then goes out for while. It's not long enough to see where she is..."

"Great…" GoGo sighed.

"If they have Baymax… it's likely they figured out that scanning program, and found a way to block it," Hiro concluded with a sigh.

GoGo curled up her lip in disgust and crossed her arms. They were being baited in the worse way.

The agent looked to her shaking his head. "Continue with the original," he just said. That meant putting their hopes back on Wasabi and Fred in that they would find them, or at worse, GoGo would land a match against Baymax.

AN:

It's another short one, I apologize! I will admit that so many plot devices in the new BH6 Series sounded similar to what I had first thought of for this. That makes for a bit of a writers block in trying to think of something else now. I'll try my best to not be as predictable!

Next up, the BBB matches! ;D