Tears (A Tomadashi One-Shot)

Some tumblr users are organizing a Tomadashi week, and I caved. I have accepted my fate as multishipper trash, clinging on to AUs as a lifeline. I can now add Tomadashi to the list of ships for which I have written.

The first prompt was "Goodbye." Hello, angst, my old friend.

So this was how it ended. Her standing alone in an empty field.

Go Go didn't even know why she'd come back. She'd returned to the Lucky Cat with the rest of the funeral party, put on sympathetic smiles and accepted cups of tea, exchanged stories about the dead man that were dry on her lips. Then afterwards they'd disbanded to their own homes and own restless sleeps, but her feet had instead lead her back to the cemetery on the edge of the city.

On foot, because she couldn't ride her bike in a dress. Now the girl clenched its hem in her fist.

When had she even last worn a dress? Oh, right. Prom. Tadashi had insisted that she didn't have to if she didn't want to, but she'd insisted too, because she knew how happy it would make him, and of course she won. After that she'd endured hours of shopping with an overly enthusiastic Honey Lemon, as well as a spa visit that had been slightly traumatizing for both her and the spa worker. Yet the awed look on Tadashi's stupid face when she had shown up in a sleek black number made it all worth it in the end.

Now Go Go curled her fists tighter, digging her nails into her skin. "Well, I wore a dress for you again," she whispered. "I hope you're happy, Hamada."

Of course he couldn't be happy. He was dead. And now she was just being ridiculous.

But he had been happy, once. He'd been happy when she'd finally agreed to a date, she remembered. So happy that he'd tried to drag her to her feet for an impromptu dance number, and when she slapped him away, rolling her eyes, he'd done a goofy dance by himself, heedless of the other students' stares while she held back her laughter.

Go Go had been wary when he'd first asked her out, cagey, defensive. She'd seen too many girls have their hearts broken by pretty boys not to be. 

Of course Tadashi was far too good for that, too good for her, and too good for this world, apparently.

Still, here she was, with her heart broken after all. And this time he couldn't patch her back together the way he had when she'd run her bike into the wall and gashed her wrist, couldn't take her mind away from the pain with his smile like pure sunshine, couldn't kiss it better while she scowled in mock resentment. 

"You broke your promise, Tadashi," Go Go said, neither angry nor bitter, just stating the truth. "You said you'd never leave me." She should have been screaming, sobbing, something. Anything but this silent, soul-crushing emptiness that seemed to reach inside her and pull the memories out, under the same stars that they had once marvelled at together. Memories of tossed salads and held hands and the wind whipping through their hair as they sped through the streets of San Fransokyo. Memories of sunsets and messy handmade sushi and the two of them snorting at the sappiness, the sentimentality of it all. 

For a little while Go Go had allowed herself to imagine that the laughter and teasing and love (was she brave enough to call it love?) would never end. 

Not like this. Never like this.

Not with her a small, sad figure in a damp field. Not with the cold droplets seeping through her clothes, catching on her lashes, washing over the words of his name. Not with a heartbroken girl and a lifeless grey headstone standing together in the rain.

Go Go held back her tears like she always did, but the sky cried for her--and for him, and for them both--instead.

Life in the Nerd Lab Masterpost

And that concludes our seven-part series on Life in the Nerd Lab! Here is a masterpost of the fics from this week:

-Coffee Run

-Personal Hygiene

-Lab Tours

-Group Work

-Accidents Happen

-All Night Long

-Pizza Party

Hope you enjoyed this exploration of life at SFIT!

Life in the Nerd Lab: Pizza Party

source

The realization only struck Hiro when the clock struck eight. "Hey. I just remembered I haven't eaten dinner."

"Neither have I," Honey piped up, sticking her head out from behind the wall. A quick survey revealed that Go Go and Wasabi had forgotten as well.

"What is it with you people?" Wasabi exclaimed, seemingly unaware that he had done exactly the same thing. "You guys can spare the time to eat, right? Nothing's due?"

"Nope," Hiro said, waving off a chastise from Baymax on the importance of regular meals. "I just got carried away with this coding, that's all."

Honey picked up her purse, preparing to head out the door. "We can grab a quick dinner at the canteen, then, and come back to work. I'm hoping to finish this tonight."

The fourteen-year-old made a face. "Blech. I'm bored of canteen food. How about we--"

Before he could finish, the lab door burst open, and Fred swaggered in, bearing several flat square boxes. "Everyone hail the great Fredzilla!" he shouted. "You are forever indebted to me, because...I got pizza."

"Awesome!" Hiro was the first to react as Fred slipped a box into his hands. The friends gathered around him as he lifted the lid, revealing the joy of college students everywhere. A warm steam wafted up slowly from the jumbo-size pizza, which was covered in thick, gooey cheese and slices of savoury pepperoni. "Oh, boy," he whispered in almost reverent awe, before Go Go broke the anticipatory silence and pulled off a piece. 

"I can't wait any more," she said, before taking a bite. "Dig in."

For a few minutes the only sound in the lab was that of contented chewing, until the calories lifted them out of a work-and-hunger-induced stupor and loosened tongues. The five teenagers settled wherever they could find a seat: sprawled on the floor, crammed onto the armchair with two others, perched on the table. Baymax watched the proceedings quietly. Wasabi, his own plate perfectly clean, watched in horrified disgust as Fred crammed an entire piece of pizza into his mouth. Hiro, not to be outdone, devoured two slices in as many minutes. Baymax cautioned Honey against eating while messing with her experiments, while his owner accused Wasabi of downloading a lab safety database on the robot. Go Go scarfed her portion down quickly, and then returned to her work, but Fred stopped her.

"Exams are over, nerd!" he said, plugging in a laptop and opening Netflix. "Relax. Live it up a little. How about a movie?"

Hiro, already slightly overexcited, perked up. "What movie?" He leaned over the back of Fred's armchair and poked at the touch screen. "Let's watch Avengers 4!"

Go Go stretched out and leaned against the wall, yawning comfortably. "Hiro," she said, "You've seen that at least five times."

"Six," he corrected absently. "Hey, look! Star Wars Episode 8!"

It took them quite a while to pick a film. Wasabi quickly said no to Honey's offer of The Book Thief (because war movies tended to make him cry), and proposed Star Trek instead. They all felt bad shutting down Fred's suggestions, since he had brought the pizza and movies, after all, but no one felt up to sitting through three hours of explosions, monsters, and bad special effects. Finally Go Go put her foot down and told them to hurry up, and they decide on a compromise, also known as a potentially five-hour movie marathon.

"We can't watch three movies," Wasabi protested weakly.

"We can watch three movies," Fred replied, pointing out that finals were over and it was Friday night.

He then pulled out another plastic bag that nobody had noticed before, and produced potato chips and soda, prompting cheers from Hiro and Honey. They pooled chairs and cushions (Honey had somehow managed to stash three large floor cushions in her lab), rigged up a system that projected the movies onto a clear wall, and settled in for their impromptu party. 

The movie marathon had mixed results. It was hard to believe that Honey had persuaded the rest into watching Annie, but they seemed, surprisingly, to enjoy it, and Fred belted out "Tomorrow" along with the actress, albeit slightly off-key. As for Hiro, he fell asleep halfway, then jerked awake near the end. He reacted more enthusiastically to Jurassic Globe. Although the two girls kept commenting on how inaccurate everything was, Hiro and Fred got caught up in the formulaic but still exciting storyline, with the latter yelling "WHOO! DINOSAURS!" every once in a while.

By the time they got to the third film, however, the appeal of hobbits and dwarves had diminished somewhat. Honey rubbed her eyes--they had started to ache. "How about we wrap up, guys?"

"I'm good with that," Go Go said as Wasabi started to clean up the mess of candy wrappers and plastic cups. "'Kay, Fred. How much do I owe you?"

"Wha-?" The boy looked up from where he had been gushing about the dinosaur movie on his blog and frowned for a while before realising what she was saying. "Nothing, man! It's on me!"

"Come on, Freddy," Honey said, joining in the conversation. "We can't let you pay every time. And this was a lot of food. Expensive, too. If we split it up it's pretty manageable."

"I have money!" Hiro waved around a ten-dollar bill he'd found in his pocket.

Fred shook his head, putting his hands out to stop them. "I'm rich, remember? I'll let you pay next time."

"That's what you said last time," Hiro observed.

"Yeah, man," Wasabi chimed in as Hiro tried to force the bill into Fred's hands. Honey threw her hands up expressively as the teenage boy fought Hiro off.

"I'm paying and that's it!"

"I will fight you," Go Go said, making a rare joke but folding her arms in seriousness.

"I'll help," Hiro added, ready to chase Fred around the lab with a wallet. They took off, Fred ducking under inflatable weather balloons, Hiro swerving past counters, Go Go cornering them and holding out a few notes defiantly.

"Nope!" Fred said, slamming his laptop shut and making a quick escape. "Bye guys! Great having ya!"

They watched helplessly as the door swung shut.

"Guh." Go Go groaned and bent to pick up the last of the pizza boxes, but Hiro snickered.

"What?"

"He's going to have a...surprise when he next does his laundry. If he ever does his laundry."

~~~

Three days later, Fred was about to hand Heathcliff some clothes to wash when something fluttered out of the pocket of his cargo pants. Raising his eyebrows, he picked up the bunch of papers and then laughed for three solid minutes.

Attached to the fifty-dollar bill was a note in Hiro's enthusiastic print:

I win this time man. HA! IN YOUR FACE! 

You couldn't outwit the one and only Hiro Hamada.

Thanks for the party, though. We really needed a break.

Fred smiled. The little sneak.

Life in the Nerd Lab: All Night Long

Hiro emerged from his lab like a bear emerging from a long winter's hibernation--hungry, messy, and squinting.

The crucial difference, however, was that the bear had spent a good few months chilling out. He, Hiro Hamada, had been working for seven solid hours.

Sleep. That would be really nice right now.

"But I can't," he said aloud, not caring who heard. Then he remembered the real reason he had stepped away from his computer. 

"Oh, right. Coffee." The fourteen-year-old stumbled towards the vending machine in the corridor.

He paused midway when he saw a rare sight: Fred with his head buried in a book that wasn't a comic book. He instead slumped over The Complete Guide to Shakespeare. Not that he was reading it. Rather, he had rested his head on the pages, his eyes drifting shut.

"Hey, Fred, wake up," Hiro said, shaking him gently, knowing that the SF State English major would appreciate it, since no one could afford any lost time during the last week of project work.

Fred stared at Hiro through half-closed eyes, then wordlessly grabbed the can of energy drink next to him and chugged it down without taking a breath.

"Ugh," he moaned, letting his head droop back onto the book. Apparently the caffeine took a while to kick in, because when Hiro left him he was still muttering incoherently about symbols and and kings of Scotland.

He rounded a corner. The movement had woken him up slightly. Very slightly. But he was still walking like a drunk who had been spun around twenty times. He heard a distressed cry from Honey's corner.

"No, no, no," the usually cheerful Latina girl mumbled, banging her head against the wall. When she spotted Hiro, she grabbed hold of him desperately. "Hirooo!" she said, dragging out his name. "Hiro, I'm going crazy. I'm developing a glue that holds things together quickly but remains adjustable for about ten minutes, yes?"

"Yes," said Hiro, sleepily surprised at how uncomfortably strong her grip was.

"But what happens? I think I have it, then I overheat it by one degree. One degree, Hiro! I don't know what happens! I don't know if I mixed the ingredients wrong! It turns so sticky, my notes are permanently glued to the table!"

She went off into a string of agitated Spanish, none of which Hiro understood.

"This is due tomorrow. I cannot afford this time. I cannot," Honey cried, going resignedly back to her work, her shoulders slumped. "I don't even know what I am doing."

That sounds dangerous, Hiro thought absently, but he was too drowsy to take the train of thought further. As he left, he heard Honey shout in agitated resolve, "I will conquer you!"

COFFEE.

Wasabi seemed to fare no better. He looked fully awake--courtesy of several strong espressos, with just the right amount of milk and sugar--but he also looked ready to tear his hair out with his hands.

Hiro had seen a test of the project earlier in the day, when he had actually been lucid, and it'd seemed to work just fine. But apparently the inventor didn't think so.

"Listen to me," Wasabi said, glaring at the handheld laser cutter.

"Huh?" 

"You think you're smart, don't you?" he continued, and Hiro realised he was talking to his rebellious project.

"Man, I put in the calculations, and you produce the results! What part of this do you not understand?" He tinkered with the inner workings of the machine, frowning in concentration. Then a wire broke, and he snapped along with it, practically shaking with emotion, letting out a frustrated yell.

"I can't stand this any more." he gasped in a panicky voice, his hands tense and trembling.

Hiro tiptoed past the frantic physicist, hoping that Go Go wouldn't notice him either. She was particularly snappish when stressed. He narrowly avoided being hit by a flying disc, his reflexes dulled by sleep deprivation so he actually felt the object whiz past his ear.

"Whoa!" he couldn't help crying out, and then cursed inwardly as she turned, her eyes burning straight into him.

"Uh, hi," he said slowly, and breathed a sigh of relief as she went back to her work without a word.

He jumped a foot in the air a second later as she threw a screwdriver at the wall.

~~~

Hiro stuck a coin into the vending machine, popped the can open and drank down the thick black liquid like his life depended on it. Then he headed back to his lab clutching another emergency can and feeling the coffee jolt his system alive. On the way back he saw Fred talking animatedly to his empty mascot suit, also running on caffeine fumes: "I should totally get a donkey head, huh? Yeah..."

Sliding into his seat, Hiro cracked his knuckles, preparing for another four hours of torture. Suddenly he heard soft, padding footsteps behind him.

"Hey, Baymax! You finished charging?"

"Yes, I did," the robot said. "Hiro, your hormone levels indicate that you are stressed."

"Ya think?" Hiro ran one hand through his hair. "Hours more of work to do on this thing. I may not even be able to finish before dawn." He yawned. It would take a while longer for the caffeine to have effect.

"My scan also indicates that you are suffering from lack of sleep. May I suggest you take a short nap? What is often called a 'power nap?'"

"That sounds really good, but I can't right now," a bleary-eyed Hiro answered, trying to get back into coding mode.

To his surprise, the robot settled lightly onto him and turned on his heating function, surrounding Hiro with soothing warmth.

"Hiro, fifteen minutes of rest will not significantly impact your project. The caffeine will wake you up naturally after a short amount of time, but I can also set an alarm."

"I can't," Hiro murmured, but the warm, soft surroundings made his eyes droop shut.

"In fact, rest  will increase your cognitive abilities and help you to work more efficiently," Baymax added, tilting his head to one side.

"You got me there, buddy. Wake me up after fifteen minutes, okay?" Hiro smiled languidly, leaned deeper into the comfort of Baymax's vinyl, and closed his eyes.

Authorly Notes:

1. Hey, a fic ended "and closed his eyes" without being angsty!

2. Well, I bet the nerd herd felt quite a bit of angst, but still...

Life in the Nerd Lab: Accidents Happen

Honey yelped as a sputter of hot water hit her wrist. "Ow," she said, rushing to run it under cold water.

"You okay?" 

"Yeah. At least it's water and not acid or anything funny," the chemist said. She looked a little worse for wear, her fingers covered in plasters and part of her bangs slightly singed. As Honey treated her scald, she glanced over to where Go Go sat rewrapping her ankle bandage. Go Go glared back at her, but Honey didn't take it personally--the girl was just mad, and with good reason.

Right now, the reason was lounging in his favourite armchair, admiring the impressive bruise on his face. Yesterday, Fred had put on a new suit, one with flailing octopus tentacles, long, slender antennae, and squishing sound effects. When he stepped through the lab door, he had startled everyone, causing Honey to break a beaker and Go Go to lose control of her bike, crashing right into him. 

Fred had narrowly escaped a broken nose and Go Go had sprained her ankle. Neither had appreciated Wasabi's long lecture on lab safety.

It was clearly not a good week, and Baymax had been busy patching up injuries and warning the stubborn Korean girl to stay off her bike.

So far, only Wasabi and Hiro had escaped injury. The latter had just come out of his lab for a break, still wearing his neurocranial transmitter and followed by a train of microbots. Honey laughed, but her giggle turned into a cry of "watch out!" as the fourteen-year-old, intent on his hologram tablet, tripped over a pile of stray comic books and fell flat on the floor. The headband flew across the room.

"I'm okay!" he called as Honey, Go Go, and Fred rushed forwards anxiously. Then they all turned to watch in horror as the microbots, no longer under Hiro's control, dropped downwards, clattering onto the floor and onto Wasabi's project.

"Oh, no," Hiro said. His microbots would be fine--they were tough little things--but Wasabi's project was another story. He'd gone to pick up an important tool and had, uncharacteristically, left the cover of the machine open in his hurry. Now the bots had descended into the inner workings of his laser cutter, dodging multi-coloured wires and emergency switches to collect at the bottom.

Hiro picked himself off the floor and stared down into the deep, complicated mass of machinery, joined by the other three. With a sigh he picked the transmitter off the floor and placed it on its head. "The bots might have knocked a few wires out of place. Think I can get them all out without doing any more damage?"

Realising what he was about to do, Honey shook her head slightly. "Hiro, I don't think this is a good idea."

"Shhh, let me concentrate." The boy guided the bots out of the dense network of circuitry and wire as carefully as he could, while the others winced whenever a stray bot bumped into anything.

Finally all the bots were out, and Hiro let them fall into a pile on the floor, then peered into the machine again. "Hey, was that wire there in the beginning?" He poked experimentally at it with one finger. "Uh-oh. It's loose. Maybe I can solder it back."

"That," said Honey decidedly, "is definitely not a good idea."

Baymax agreed. "Hiro, it might be better to wait for Wasabi's return." This prompted a nonplussed "you don't trust me to do a simple solder job?" from the robot's owner.

"How do you know it wasn't loose in the first place?" Go Go challenged, folding her arms. 

Fred frowned and pointed. "No, I think it was attached there."

Picking up a solder gun that sat on Wasabi's tool table, Hiro hefted it in his hands. "All right, here goes nothing."

Suddenly he sensed rather than saw a large, forbidding form behind him. Hiro turned, clutching the solder gun and smiling uneasily up at the man. "...Hi, Wasabi."

"What are you doing?" Wasabi took the gun from Hiro and placed it firmly back on the table. 

"Uh, nothing?" Caught red-handed, Hiro subconsciously moved backwards.

Honey stepped forward to explain, while Go Go turned away resignedly. "Well, some of Hiro's microbots fell in, and he was worried they'd broken something, so he was about to fix it." She shot Wasabi a hopeful expression, but his face darkened.

"Without me?" Hiro opened his mouth to defend himself, but Wasabi hurriedly pushed past him and dropped to his knees before the enormous cutter, his frantic eyes searching the machinery as he muttered to himself. "You can't do that, Hiro!" he said in a panicky voice, twitching slightly. "Only I know how to work this thing! How many times do I have to tell you not to mess with my stuff?" After a few minutes he stood up. "Everything looks fine," he said grudgingly, glaring at Hiro, "but I'm going to run a test, just in case."

The physicist replaced the cover and switched the laser cutter on. It whirred to life as he fed in a sheet of clear acrylic and punched in a design. After he pressed the button to start cutting, though, the machine rumbled stubbornly for a few minutes but produced nothing.

"That's not good, right?" Fred asked. No one answered--they were all occupied with watching Wasabi try to fix the issue, his fingers flying across the buttons to no avail. The machine's whirring rose to a high whine, and it seemed to tremble slightly while Wasabi's expression grew increasingly alarmed.

"Guys, it's starting to overheat," Honey warned, putting a hand to the increasingly warm metal.

"IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Fred yelled, ducking for cover.

"No it isn't," Hiro protested, but a loud crack and a shower of sparks cut him off. Then the machine, and the lab, went dark to the sound of students' surprised cries.

Groaning, Wasabi pressed his forehead. against the dead machine.

Snapping into action, Go Go commanded Hiro to go get a flashlight and come with her. Honey rushed back to her lab, worried that the power failure would affect the reactions sitting in her fridge.

Go Go looked down at Hiro and shook her head, even though he couldn't see her face in the dark. "You should probably apologise to Wasabi."

Giving a little shrug, Hiro nodded assent. "Okay. I will."

A couple minutes of work, and the lights flickered back on. Students cheered, and quickly returned to their routine. Meanwhile, Hiro took Go Go's advice.

"Sorry, 'Sabi. I should have waited for you to get back."

"That's okay. I think I can fix it with a little more work. Accidents happen, buddy," Wasabi said. He seemed to have calmed down somewhat, surprised that Hiro was actually apologising. "Just...never do that again!"

"I can cross 'caused a school-wide blackout' off my bucket list, though," Hiro added with a characteristic smirk.

"Has it been a week," Go Go sighed, examining her ankle.

Fred clapped his hands together and sauntered off. "Well, show's over."

Just then a shriek sounded from the other end of the lab, followed by a string of excited Spanish. The team rushed over to see Honey staring down at her lab table, which was covered in shattered glass and bright blue liquid. She shrugged and then giggled.

"It blew up."




Authorly Notes:
1. Is this even how machines work?
2. 3-D laser cutting is very cool. The joys of being a writer--you get to research awesome stuff!

Life in the Nerd Lab: Group Work

The team had long since learnt to work together as superheroes, fighting crime in perfect synchrony. But when a teacher slapped a project on them that required them to build something together combining their different fields of knowledge, they sat stumped for several hours. The prompt--military use--narrowed down their options even more.

"This can't possibly be so hard," Honey said, after they had gone through about seven different ideas. "I mean, we built six superhero outfits together."

Hiro stopped twirling his pencil and tapped it on his chin. "Yeah, but they wouldn't count as a single project, would they? We've got to find a way to integrate all our work." He sighed and propped his feet up--they had found a nice table in the lobby to work, one of the many features that SFIT hoped would encourage collaboration. "I think our brains are all fried from finals."

Wasabi frowned at Hiro in an attempt to make him sit like a gentleman, but the younger boy ignored him (whether intentionally or unintentionally it was impossible to tell). "Define integrate."

Although not the target of the question, Baymax helpfully stepped in, bearing several bottles of mineral water. "Integrate. Verb. To make up, complete, or combine to create a whole or larger unit." Placing the bottles on the table, he added, "It is important to stay hydrated. Please have a drink."

Sighing dramatically, Fred stood up and thumped his hands down on the table, assuming a power stance. (They'd agreed to count him as their sixth member just so he could write the paper for them.) "If you guys had just listened to my idea--"

"We are not making a giant war machine shaped like a velociraptor that will take ten soldiers out in a single blow, Fred," Go Go said tersely as Wasabi nodded in mute agreement.

Taking a swig from the water bottle, Hiro swallowed and pointed his pencil at Fred. "Military, yes. Ethical, no."

Though her optimism had dulled after hours of unproductivity, Honey tried to maintain a smile. "I know it's an awful idea to make killing robots. But what else can we do with a military theme?" She trailed off as Hiro put up a hand to stop her.

"Guys, we need to look for a new angle. Sure, they need weapons in the military, but the soldiers are human too. You know how they often have to carry huge packs of supplies? How about we make carrier robots that will do that instead?" As he spoke, the idea took shape in Hiro's mind. "Then, we can integrate all your tech to perform different functions."

Catching on to the idea, Honey brightened. "You're on to something! Providing for the needs of soldiers as humans rather than just fighters. I can develop a material for the robots that will be light but strong. And bulletproof!"

"It's not like we have any better ideas," Go Go concurred, sitting up straight. "I can work on making them fast and silent."

"'Sabi can make something that will detect threats at night! Or the robots can set laser traps!" Honey exclaimed, as a flow of ideas started. "That way, they may even be able to serve as night sentries and give the soldiers a rest."

Hiro grinned and took his feet off the table, knowing that once they broke "inventor's block," they would have plenty of ideas to choose from. "That's what I like to hear." He pulled a pad of paper out of his backpack, and tossed a handful of pencils onto the table. "All right, team, let's get this party started!"

~~~

And when they broke "inventor's block," they broke it with a vengeance. The team continued discussing the project with almost rabid fervour, the intoxicating spirit of innovation coursing through their veins as they covered sheet upon sheet of paper with intricate drawings and spidery notes. Baymax only allowed them to go for half an hour past nine before insisting on dinner, but they simply sent Fred to go get take-out. He returned with several bento boxes and a sketch of a "totally rad" design to put on the side of the robots. 

"That...kind of defeats the purpose of the soldiers wearing camouflage," Wasabi pointed out truthfully.

Fred's face fell, but Hiro quickly jumped in. "There's no reason why we shouldn't make the robots as awesome as possible, though, as long as they can blend in!" He spent the next half an hour or so making the designs sleeker, then scanned it onto his tablet so he could add camouflage pixels. Honey read up on bulletproof materials over teriyaki chicken, while Wasabi researched night vision. Finally, they came up with several permutations and spread the sketches out on the table to study them.

No one noticed the clock's hands slowly marking the hours until Professor Roe came by. "Well, you're all working hard," he said kindly. "Don't you think it's about time to wrap up?"

"Huh?" Hiro jerked himself out of "the groove" and blinked confusedly at the professor for a few seconds before turning his head to look out at the darkened campus. "Oh." 

"It's one in the morning," Roe prompted.

Hiro gave him a roguish grin. "But sir, we're just getting started."

~~~

In the end, they dragged themselves out of the lab at three, satisfied with the night's work. They'd finally settled on a basic design, something that looked like a miniaturized walker from Star Wars. And when Honey proposed that they input some knowledge of medical procedures, the five had been in unanimous agreement--Hiro said with a smile that they could modify Baymax's database for a war setting. The bot wouldn't be able to perform most procedures, but it could at least guide the soldiers.

They took the trolley home, since Wasabi had yet to get a new car, where they continued their discussion for some time before lapsing into comfortable, drowsy silence. Hiro got off last, Baymax in tow, and unlocked his house door, tiptoeing upstairs as quietly as he could.

He'd planned on starting the formal blueprints as soon as he got back, but he found himself collapsing on his bed instead. 

"I think that's enough work for tonight," he told Baymax, who was stepping into his charging pod.

"A full night's sleep is necessary for optimum performance the next day," Baymax agreed.

"Okay. G'night, buddy."

~~~

Baymax was right--that sleep was necessary, because when they all got together again the next day, they started talking like they'd never stopped. Over the next few months the gang went from an idea to a functioning prototype. The process involved arguments (Go Go had punched Fred once), 3D printing (Hiro had filled his garage with junked parts), hard work (Honey had gone without sleep for thirty-four hours), and incredible amounts of coffee--but they made it.

The finished product--dubbed Trooper by general consensus--could travel rough terrain, move underwater, detect threats at night, carry over forty pounds, and look awesome at the same time. 

Hiro surveyed their joint creation with pride. "We did it, guys." 

"We actually met the deadline," Wasabi echoed, sounding faintly surprised.

Honey looked down at the machine, which stood just above her waist height, and beamed. "Forty-five tests. It's got to work. I can't believe it can carry such a huge supply pack, but it does!"

"It's all about balance," Hiro said, and then the lab door opened and Professor Saito walked in.

Wasabi gulped. The professor was a nice lady--perhaps, with her endearing chubbiness and smile-wrinkles, the epitome of nice ladies--but she was also known to have very high standards. She'd never chew you out, but then she would go back and give you a less-than-stellar grade.

Now, however, she looked like a perfect angel as she clutched her clipboard and tipped her head to one side. "Group 5! So, what do you all have to show me today? I understand your prompt was 'military'? Oh, I thought your introductory paper was very well written!" she added, which gratified Fred greatly.

Hiro, the designated spokesman, nodded, and then gave a quick review of the robot's functions with the best showmanship he could muster. When he'd finished, Professor Saito clapped her hands together. "All right! Aren't you going to give me a demonstration?"

"Yes. ma'am!" Hiro said, bending to switch the robot on. It rose off the ground on spindly legs, then turned as though looking about the room. 

"It's designed to follow the troops' movements," Hiro explained, "but for now we've programmed it to run through this obstacle course." He gestured towards the course that Fred had set up, the last of about fifteen they had tested the robot on over the past few months. He'd gone all out, adding bumpy rocks, swinging vines, some of Honey's sticky foam, a large tank of water at the end, and a very impressive sign that said "Trail of Doom" in flaming letters.

(They'd all been slightly...alarmed when they saw it first.)

"Oh," Professor Saito breathed, clasping her hands to her chest in surprise as Hiro fastened a weighty supply pack to the robot.

"Let's do this!" Honey said from the sidelines, and Trooper responded to the verbal command, starting through the course.

"Just so you know," Hiro said, "Trooper isn't programmed for this specific course. It's simply responding to external stimuli." He stopped talking as the robot skilfully kept its balance, avoided traps, and emerged from the water dripping but fully functional, all in relative silence. Everyone breathed an involuntary sigh of relief as Trooper finished the course and came to a halt in front of the professor.

"Very impressive," she said. The five friends exchanged nervous glances as she made notes on her lecture pad, then the nerves turned to mild panic as Trooper started emitting a soft but noticeable whine. 

That isn't supposed to happen, Wasabi's alarmed glance said.

Honey's eyes widened as Trooper started to lean a little to one side. Spotting it too, Hiro rushed forward to support the robot as inconspicuously as he could. He winced as Trooper started to lean into his hip. It was light, but not that light.

Hoping that any further malfunctions wouldn't happen, they all waited anxiously for the verdict.

"Well," said Professor Saito, finishing up her notes, "I'm really very impressed with the practical aspect of your project, and I can see how it would help a lot of soldiers. I can't say how it will compare to the others, but I think you should all get a good grade." She smiled slightly as she stood up, preparing to leave the room, then eyed the tipsy robot suspiciously. 

Following her gaze, Hiro plastered a big, confident grin on his face while trying to nudge the robot back onto its own two feet. "Thank you so much for your time, Professor Saito!" he said, simultaneously shooting "help!" messages at the others with his eyes. 

Go Go leapt up to open the door. "Yes, thank you," she echoed, with an unusually wide smile, while Wasabi and Fred quickly moved into position to block the rebellious robot from view. Once the professor left, they all relaxed, and Wasabi just barely saved the robot from toppling to the floor after Hiro let his guard down.

"What went wrong?" Honey asked, kneeling next to their apparently incomplete project.

Hiro poked at it. "I think the knee joint got knocked out of place, that's all. I'll work on reinforcing it later. But great job, everyone! That went...pretty well!" 

Cheers and fistbumps ensued, before Wasabi remembered something. "We forget to write our names on the project."

Honey smacked her forehead mid-celebration. "You're right. We're lucky you caught that in time before the showcase." She went over to her lab space and pulled out a permanent ink stamp. "Put in your names, everyone!"

After their five names had been proudly emblazoned on the bottom of the robot in neat block letters, Hiro stepped back proudly, his hands on his hips.

"Being superheroes was one thing," he said to his friends, "but I think we make an equally good team off duty, too."

Authorly Notes:

1. Definition of integrate.
2. I'm so not a science student; how does one science?

Life in the Nerd Lab: Lab Tours

source

"Open house! I love open house!" Honey trilled from her corner, carefully arranging her bottles of chemicals and stooping to pluck something out of a low cupboard. "I would have volunteered to show the kids around, but I was so busy last week and didn't know if I would be free. I'm going to give them a spectacular demonstration, though!"

"I don't love open house." Go Go was busy lugging her bike into an inconspicuous corner so that none of those little punks could get their sweaty hands on it. "Besides, half the kids will probably be dragged their by their parents."

Honey flung an arm around her friend. "Aw, come on, Go Go! It's such a great opportunity to inspire these kids. They'll come here, they'll be amazed at what they see, and then they'll enrol and grow up to change the world. Just like Hiro did! Doesn't that sound worthwhile to you?"

That managed to coax a half-smile from the Korean girl. "Okay, whatever. I'll do my best...not to scare them away."

"I'm sure they'll love your tech," Honey affirmed as she skipped back to her work.

The door to the lab swung open, and Wasabi entered, leaning back under the bulk of a few large boxes. Letting them slide to the floor next to his work table, he proudly patted the topmost one with a satisfied grin.

"What's in those?" Hiro asked curiously as he perched on Baymax's shoulders to tape up a poster advertising admission talks, steadying himself by digging his heels into the soft white vinyl.

"Safety goggles, gloves, hand sanitizer, free safety pamphlets..." Wasabi took inventory of the boxes as Honey giggled and Go Go raised an eyebrow. "And," he added, pressing a few buttons, "I've increased the magnetism of my work table temporarily so that they won't be able to take the tools off or mess them up."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey," Wasabi said defensively, "if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. Safety is our top priority here."

~~~

For the next few hours, SFIT was a whirl of activity as yawning students set up club booths, arranged chairs for the talks, practised performances, and whisked dangerous experiments out of the way. Hiro tried to park himself at the cotton candy stall, but Fred dragged him back to the lab--the school mascot given his friends a boost as a candidate for the open lab tours, much to Honey's excitement and Go Go's chagrin.

At eight, the school doors opened, and the visitors streamed in under the banner emblazoned with the words: "San Fransokyo Institute of Technology Open Day--Come and See how to Change the World!" 

A few hours later, Fred managed to tear himself away from his adoring fans to get a soda. Then a breathless Professor Williams stopped him in the hallway.

"Fred!" the professor cried. "I really, really need someone to take this group around, but all the designated tour guides are gallivanting somewhere. Can you do it? Please?"

"A school mascot's work is never done!" Fred said cheerfully, taking the wide-eyed teenagers in tow as Professor Williams shouted a hurried thanks over his shoulder.

"All right, folks!" he said, clapping the clawed hands of his mascot suit together. He was met with blank stares. Then a tall, willowy girl let out a nervous giggle. Taking a breath, Fred realised he would have to up his game.

"You all have the extra-special privilege of being with the one and only Fredzilla today, so sit tight," he boasted, showing off some of his sign-spinning moves. "You're in for a wild ride!"

As it turned out, however, the labs and classrooms of SFIT spoke for themselves. At first the newcomers just kind of stood around awkwardly, despite Fred's best efforts, but he soldiered on through the winding corridors, and soon they were ooh-ing and aah-ing over all the cutting-edge tech. Except one. The school mascot grinned as the tall girl excitedly pointed out something to a friend, gesticulating wildly, but he noticed with a slight frown that even the delicious smells of cheese and sausage failed to drag one particular girl away from her cell phone.

Having piqued their interest, Fred decided the time had come to take the kids to the nerd lab, feeling sure that his friends would put up a fantastic show. Maybe their tech would even be good enough to drag pull that girl out of her shell. "Lab tours this way!" he called, and the now-enthusiastic teenagers trailed behind him, chatting animatedly. "You guys are lucky. You get to see one of the most awesome labs we have!"

~~~

Fred threw open the lab door and the teens let out a collective "wow," taking in the large, powerful machinery, the ping-pong playing robot, and the inflatable...shark? This didn't last long, however, because a yellow blur shot past them at death-defying speeds, causing them to jump back in fright.

Swerving dangerously, Go Go skidded to a halt, narrowly missing the cupboards that lined the room. She shook her purple-streaked hair out of her eyes as she dismounted and approached the students, who looked simultaneously terrified and awed.

"Hey kids." 

The visitors glanced silently from the school mascot to the small--but obviously formidable--girl.

"Um...this is Go Go!" Fred said brightly, hoping that Go Go's intimidating entrance wouldn't undo his good work. Attempting to keep the ball rolling, he suggested, "Go Go, why don't you tell them about your bike?"

Grunting assent, Go Go hauled the vehicle nearer so they could get a better look. "Electro-mag suspension," she explained, not unkindly. "Makes for zero resistance, so it's a lot faster."

"Whoa!" One of the kids, a small, olive-skinned boy, stepped forward to examine the bike, though glancing anxiously at the bike's owner. Fred shot Go Go a dubious look when he ventured, "Can I...touch it?"

Then the usually protective girl said something that took Fred completely by surprise. "We can do better than that," she smirked. "I'll let you ride one."

"Ah, hang on," she qualified, as the boy's eyes widened in delight. "Not this one. It's too delicate and hard to handle." Go Go gave the bike an upwards boost so it attached itself to the magnetic holders that hung from the ceiling, then wheeled another one out, this time black with deep purple accents. "I'll let you ride this one. Only partial suspension, but speedy. Finished it up a couple semesters back. I hope you're a good rider. What's your name?"

"Tod," the boy said eagerly. "And I've done mountain biking! And won a couple of contests!"

"You should be fine, then," Go Go said, handing him the bike. "Just a quick spin, okay?" She leaned back as he found his footing. "Go on."

"Yeah!" Tod took off, a crazed grin on his face as he set off. He wobbled slightly at first, and almost crashed into a cabinet. Fred leapt forward in alarm, wondering if letting this kid ride Go Go's bike would end in disaster, but then Tod recovered wonderfully, and made a smooth semicircle around the lab, stopping easily at Go Go's feet.

"That was awesome!" he exclaimed. "The electro-mag thing really works! I barely had to pedal!"

The visitors clustered around him, clamouring to get a closer look at the risky new tech, running their hands over the smooth frame and marvelling as a slight touch sent the wheels spinning. Only the girl with the phone hung back, examining her perfectly manicured fingernails. Go Go took the opportunity to step back and nod at Fred. "How'd I do?"

"Fantastic," Fred whispered back. "And no one got killed."

~~~

Rounding a corner, Fred cautioned the visitors to stay behind the yellow and black safety line, knowing that his friend would appreciate the gesture. All he could see of said friend, however, was a mop of black dreadlocks, as Wasabi was crouched behind his table, digging through a cardboard box. (And replacing the contents in exactly the right places.)

"'Sabi! I brought some people to see you!" Fred called, just loud enough to alert Wasabi but not loud enough to startle him.

"Oh, hey. Didn't see you there." Wasabi straightened and grabbed a neat stack of pamphlets off his work desk, handing them out to the newcomers with an affable smile.

"Safety brochures!" he announced as the visitors took them from his hands somewhat hesitantly, his heart sinking as one girl only looked away from the screen of her cell phone long enough to wrinkle her nose and mutter, "that's lame."

Fred tapped his foot impatiently as Wasabi finished distributing the pamphlets and suggested the visitors get a dollop of hand sanitizer. Finally Wasabi picked up a pear from a fruit basket he had sitting on the table, shifting it a little in his hand.

"Ready for this?" he said, lifting an eyebrow with all the mystique of a magician.

"Yes!" the group (and Fred) chorused. If this was anywhere as good as Go Go's demonstration, it was going to be great.

Without a word, Wasabi tossed the pear towards the gathered students, between two mysterious devices that almost met his height. A couple of the teenagers flinched as though expecting to be hit, but then gaped in wonder as the pear split into paper-thin slices, floating gently to the ground. A girl with two bouncy ponytails caught a slice and crunched it between her fingers. "But there's nothing here!" she said, stepping forward. "How did you--"

Panicking momentarily, Wasabi threw out his hands to stop her. "Please!" he said sternly. "Behind the line!"

"Oops, sorry." 

"And, to answer your question," Wasabi said, looking relieved and flipping a switch. Instantly, a network of parallel, glowing green lines appeared. "Lasers. Plasma-induced."

The kids all exchanged suitably impressed looks. Gratified, Wasabi added, "Right now, I'm working on a more portable, handheld model. I hope to get it made commercially before I leave college."

"Wow!" Even more impressed, the visitors speculated about the uses and potential dangers of such a product. 

"You planning on moving on to Honey's station?" Wasabi asked Fred, who nodded.

"Then I suggest you take these," the physicist said firmly, plopping a bunch of safety goggles into Fred's hands. "Honey has some great stuff planned, but she isn't the best at lab safety. You'll need these. Avoid the lawsuits."

"Aw, man!" Fred protested. Usually he'd complain that Wasabi was a party pooper, but he had seen the mad glint in Honey's eyes when she started experimenting. Her own safety was one thing. These kids' was another.

Thus, as he so rarely did, Fred took the sensible route and bestowed each visitor with a pair of safety glasses, saving one for himself so he could lead by example. "Onward, troops!"

~~~

They had barely taken a few steps when Honey rushed over to them. Fred noted that she'd made the effort to put her hair in a safe bun, which she so often forgot to do--open days made everyone sit up a little straighter.

"Hi!" she said, beaming widely. "I'm Honey and I'm in chemical engineering! And boy, are you guys going to have a blast!"

At that telltale last word, Wasabi looked up in alarm. "Honey, what are you--"

"For our first experiment...something we call elephant toothpaste!"

That at least was fairly harmless. Wasabi turned back to his work.

Glowing with excitement, Honey shook the contents of four small vials into a large graduated cylinder as the visitors exchanged nervous glances. Suddenly a long tube of foam shot out, draping itself over the table like a giant spaghetti strand and settling into soft coils. Fred grinned widely as he noticed that Honey had upped her game by adding glitter and multiple food dyes to an experiment she had done many times before.

Before the visitors had time to linger long over the sparkling, rainbow-coloured foam, Honey was dragging them over to the next experiment. The hunk of dull metal sitting in the middle of the table didn't look nearly as interesting as the past demonstration, but the bubbly chemist was already spraying the block yellow and flipping a switch on the wall.

"Poke it," she said, staring at the metal with gleeful eyes.

"Wha-?"

"...If you're not afraid of getting yellow stuff all over your clothes, that is," Wasabi cautioned. He had worked next to Honey Lemon for too long to not know how many of her experiments either ended in disaster or an enormous mess (which to him seemed pretty much the same thing.)

His words split the group of teenagers up, with some hastily backing away and others moving closer. Finally one gave the metal an experimental jab with a pencil.

The results were instantaneous and spectacular as the tungsten carbide transformed into a cloud of bright yellow powder, floating down slowly onto the table and floor. Thanks to Wasabi's warnings, most of the students escaped the downpour, but Honey herself seemed unfazed at her white lab coat turning the colour of a ripe banana. "Last experiment!" she chirped, dragging a tank filled with water out of a corner and picking up a large chunk of dull silvery metal. "Everybody stand back, please! Behind the safety line!"

By the time Wasabi realised what Honey was going to do, it was too late. "Honey, wait, you can't--"

She dropped the metal into the water with a splash. It blew up. Flames licked the surface of the water as the explosion shook the sides of the tank. The students gasped in unison, their eyes taking on the gleam that explosions generally seemed to cause. Wasabi mopped his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. "Please, nobody try this at home."

Fred frowned as he noticed that even Honey's best efforts had failed to impress that one particular girl, who now shook her hair out of her eyes as she fiddled with the keychain on her phone, but there was nothing to be done.

"Sodium in water, ladies and gentlemen!" Honey said cheerily, waving goodbye as the teenagers followed Fred to the last stop--Hiro's lab.

~~~

Fred flung the door open without bothering to knock, which caused the petite boy hunched over his work table to jump in surprise. As if in response, a handful of small black robots rattled the sides of their glass container. 

"Fred! And hi, guys!" Hiro said, getting up from his seat.

"What are those?" a girl with two long braids asked,  appraising the tiny bots.

"My microbots," Hiro explained, adjusting his headband and making them dance in a spiral within the glass cylinder. "I'm rebuilding them because they got destroyed, so they can't do very much now." He stayed quiet for a few seconds before shaking his head and straightening up, removing the transmitter so the microbots clattered to the bottom of their container. Then he bent down and hauled a box onto the table. "Why don't I show you something else instead?"

Opening the box, Hiro carefully lifted out an arm. A couple of the visitors grimaced. 

It was a prosthetic arm, remarkably realistic, with an almost gruesome weight and feel to it. Hiro laid it down on the table and picked up a different transmitter. 

"It's controlled by a combination of the myoelectric method--using the muscles left at the amputated area--and mind control." To illustrate this, the fingers waggled in unison without Hiro having to move a muscle. He then attached the arm to a bare metal structure so it hovered a few inches above the table. "I tried to make the joint movement as close to a human hand as possible, so it can perform tasks beyond those of current prosthetics on the market. Anyone have a pencil I could borrow?" 

A kid with a buzz cut dug one out of his pocket and offered it to Hiro. "Nuh-uh," Hiro said. "Hand it to the hand."

"Ba dum tsh," Fred couldn't resist saying, and Hiro snorted, folding his arms as the prosthetic easily took the pencil. 

"Whoa!" said the teenager, moving his hand back, surprised.

Then the hand lowered, and, within a few minutes, produced a very passable sketch of the buzz-cut kid. "You can keep it," Hiro said, picking up the paper and giving it to him.

"Thanks, man," said the teenager, who towered over the fourteen-year-old Hiro but suddenly felt very small.

"This arm," Hiro elaborated, taking it off its stand, "combines the best features of fully functional prosthetics and cosmetic ones. When I finish it, I plan on making it as close to an actual arm as it can get."

Then he dropped his professional demeanour, breaking into a gap-toothed grin. "It's gonna be pretty rad."

As Fred ushered the students out of the lab room, well satisfied with the outcome of his tour, someone accidentally bumped into the door with a sharp shout of "ow!"

It was that kid. She'd being staring down at her phone and hadn't been looking where she was going. Frankly, Fred didn't feel that surprised as he rushed over to help.

Then all eyes turned to the corner, as the room filled with a soft hiss and a giant, puffy robot rose from a red case.

"Hello. I am Baymax." the robot said. "I am a personal healthcare companion and was alerted to the situation by a cry of distress. What appears to be the matter?"

"What?" the girl asked, protectively cradling her injured elbow with the hand that held her sparkly pink cell phone.

"He's asking you if you're hurt," Hiro simplified, wondering if he shouldn't make Baymax's speech less...complex.

"No, it's just a scrape," she said, lifting her hand to reveal a red scratch, caused by the rough surface of the lock mechanism. "Ooh. There's blood."

"You should let him treat you," Hiro suggested.

She sized up the robot suspiciously before letting out a reluctant "okay," then watched nervously as Baymax stopped the bleeding, applied antiseptic spray, and added a band-aid with a practised hand. Once in a while she glanced out to where Fred was regaling the students with school horror stories as they waited.

"Wow. Thanks," she said as Baymax finished the job. "That's really cool. Did you build him?"

Hiro shook his head, smiling. "No. My brother did. He wanted to help a lot of people. Baymax has over ten thousand medical procedures, can diagnose illnesses, and provide appropriate treatment for many conditions. I'm working on getting similar robots in the market."

The girl looked impressed for the first time all day. "That's amazing. It really is."

~~~

Fast forward a few months, and the team were hanging out in the foyer on the first day of the new school year, wondering if they'd see anyone familiar. 

'That kid--Tod--was a smart one," Go Go said, popping a new stick of gum into her mouth. "I hope he comes here."

"Go Go, literally all he did was ride a bike," Hiro said.

"Shush. I can tell."

"Hey, is someone waving at us?" Honey asked, sitting up straighter in her seat. "Yes, someone is!"

A girl with a long black ponytail ran up to them, waving, clutching a glittery pink phone. "Hey! I was here at the open house and went for a lab tour. Remember me?"

Fred stood up. "Yeah! So you're coming here? That's great!" Secretly, he felt a bit surprised, because she'd been by far the least enthusiastic visitor.

"I know I didn't pay much attention," the teenager admitted. "But that was because, well...I didn't really want to go here at first."

Wasabi pulled up a chair, and she took a seat. "My number one dream was medical school, but I didn't make it in. I was so disappointed. My mom suggested I come here, especially since I studied robotics in high school. I wasn't really interested, though, and I guess it showed." She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and grinned down at Hiro. "Then I saw the limb you made, and your brother's bot. It helped me realise I could still heal people, just in a different way. It really got to me, and I applied for SFIT the day after. And, well, I'm here now!"

"Wow," said Hiro, smiling at how Tadashi's invention was still inspiring others.

"Wow is right," Fred said, giving her a congratulatory hi-five.

"We're so glad you're here," Honey said warmly

"Yeah," said the girl. "I'm glad, too."


Authorly notes:

1. Is this too close to the nerd lab scene?

2. Ah well.

3. I feel like Wasabi goes HONEY NO a lot.

4. Information on prosthetic limbs found here. I'm actually learning from these fics, ha! But whether the writing is scientifically accurate is still highly dubious.

5. I KEEP SAYING RAD.