Chapter 11

San Fransokyo

SORA WAS RUNNING ALONG AN ENORMOUS RED suspension bridge.

“Whoa!” he cried out in glee and stopped. Each side of the wide bridge was supported by a row of thick suspension cables, strung from towers shaped like four crimson torii gates stacked atop each other. The sight was astounding, especially compared to the simple wooden walkways of the Destiny Islands. The sun was setting over a city full of skyscrapers in the distance.

Oddly, there were lots of empty cars along the side of the bridge…

“Cool!”

“C’mon, let’s go!” Donald griped, but the complaints did nothing to quell Sora’s enthusiasm.

“Aww, but I wanna take a look at the big city!”

“Yeah, it does seem pretty exciting,” Goofy added, strolling along beside Donald. Sora’s head was swiveling back and forth, desperately trying to take it all in.

“I feel so metropolitan! Uh, cosmopolitan?”

“Not-apolitan!” Donald spun back and snapped at Sora’s chatterboxing, which got a smile from Goofy.

Sora whipped out his Gummiphone and began tapping at the screen.

“Now what?” an exasperated Donald asked him.

“I gotta tell Riku what a blast this place is.”

“But we just got here. We haven’t even done anything yet.”

“Blast? I’ll show you a blast!”

But before Donald could complain any more, the bridge shook with a deafening noise. When the three of them instinctively turned to see what had caused it, they saw smoke and flames rising into the air.

And flying around it all were—

“The Heartless!”

“C’mon!”

The three heroes readied their weapons and charged into action. Just then, something came hurtling past them from the blaze—a person wearing some sort of protective helmet and suit. As they skidded across the pavement, a large, red, and slightly chubby…robot? landed next to them.

“Go Go! You okay?” A boy wearing a blue and black suit hopped down from the back of the red robot.

“What the?!” Sora said with surprise.

“Go Go.” The boy watched her with concern, then turned back to the robot. “Baymax!”

“Go Go’s suit has shielded her from a major injury, but the blow she sustained to her head has caused a mild concussion. We should take caution and not move her until we can fully stabilize her head.”

“Got it.”

The boy stood up, and as Sora came running over with his friends, he could see the look of relief through the boy’s visor.

“Oh, cool! That’s a robot!” Sora exclaimed with a grin, looking up at it.

“Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion,” it said back.

“This rules!” Sora couldn’t contain himself as he examined the large robot.

Goofy tried to bring his friend back to reality. “Uh, Sora. Remember our other problem?”

“The Heartless!” Donald added.

“Whoops! Oh yeah!”

Finally snapped out of it, Sora turned away from Baymax and ran off toward the Heartless.

“Hey! Who are you?” the boy called out from behind them.

The three of them stopped and introduced themselves.

“I’m Sora.”

“Donald.”

“And I’m Goofy.”

The boy smiled, then gave his own name. “Name’s Hiro. You…mind helping us fight those things?”

“Sure!” the trio replied.

Hiro then added, “Our team’s called Big Hero 6.”

After sharing a final look, Sora and Hiro headed off to face the Heartless. Baymax joined them, and together the five of them clashed with the Heartless amid the cars along the bridge. Some of the creatures came at them from the air, while others fired shots at them from the ground.

The heroes made their way forward, taking out Heartless and hiding behind cars to avoid attacks as they went, until all of their cover was suddenly swept away by a huge, robotic Heartless—the Metal Troll.

“Let’s go, Baymax!” Sora called out, and then the rotund robot let him ride on his back just as Hiro had earlier. Baymax launched into the air with the help of the jet thrusters on his feet, and the two of them went on the offensive. The Metal Troll swung its giant ax around threateningly, but a solid punch from Baymax soon stopped it in its tracks.

“We did it!”

Sora hopped down from the robot’s back and gave Hiro a high five.

After the battle, Hiro led Sora, Donald, and Goofy to a dimly lit garage, where news about their run-in with the Heartless earlier was displayed on a large computer screen. According to the article, Hiro and his friends had lost the fight.

“Not cool,” said Go Go, the first person Sora had encountered on the bridge, reading the article next to Hiro.

“People like spectacle, not truth,” lamented a girl wearing a pink suit.

“Yeah, who needs quality reporting when you can just make stuff up?” The complaint came from a young man who was dressed similarly, but in green.

“I don’t get it. I mean, didn’t they see how awesome we were?! Sure, those things landed a couple of good hits, but we had chem-balls, and laser hands, and fire breathing!” said a blue monster with the voice of a young man.

Baymax had removed his red armor and set it in the corner, revealing that he was actually pure white.

“Well, it really didn’t matter. They beat us,” the girl in pink said.

“Where’d they come from?” Go Go said with suspicion, her arms crossed.

The one in green looked over at Sora and his friends. “Why don’t we ask the guys who actually stopped ’em?” he suggested, and the girl in pink agreed.

“Hiro, you never introduced us.”

Hiro got to his feet. “Oh, right. Well, uh, this is…the gang!”

The girl in the yellow suit who had crashed onto the bridge when they arrived in this world was Go Go.

They called the young man in the green armor Wasabi, and the girl in pink went by Honey Lemon.

That left only the monster, who sauntered right up to Sora.

“I’m Fred. Don’t be alarmed. This is not my real body.”

The monster removed the head of its very unique suit.

The five of them plus Baymax made six—Big Hero 6. It seemed like a pretty cool setup.

“Those three are Sora, Donald, and Goofy, the, uh…,” Hiro said, introducing Sora and his friends.

Sora quickly finished for him: “Keyblade Hero 3!” then made his best attempt at a cool pose.

Donald and Goofy did their best to pose, too, but the members of Big Hero 6 didn’t seem impressed.

“I am detecting minute contractions in your faces and shoulders, perhaps due to the garage’s brisk temperature. To remedy that, I will give each of you a hug and warm you with my internal heat source.”

Baymax’s chest began to glow a warm color.

“Hey, why did you say that?!”

“Sora, you know Donald and I don’t have Keyblades.”

“So? Are we heroes, or aren’t we?”

“Not here, we’re not.”

Go Go interrupted the argument. “The monsters. Tell us how you managed to take them down.”

“They’re called the Heartless, and they’re drawn to the darkness inside people’s hearts.”

“Ooh, now we’re talking! Light versus darkness. Classic conflict!” Fred seemed strangely excited by Sora’s explanation.

“Would you calm down, Fred? This is serious,” Wasabi told him.

Honey Lemon sighed. “Very serious. We don’t have any way to fight them.”

“Wait. So we’re just gonna give up?” asked Go Go.

“With our current skill set,” Baymax said, “my analysis places our chances at 0.0000—”

Hiro cut him off, sounding less than happy. “Yup, we get it, Baymax.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it. The three of us will go take care of the Heartless for you. Right, Donald, Goofy?” Sora said cheerfully, then started to leave. The Heartless have a leader somewhere in this world, and it’s our job to take them out.

But Hiro stopped them. “Wait. We’re going, too.”

“It’s okay. We’ve got it,” Donald said.

Hiro looked at the floor for a moment before meeting their eyes again. “We have to help. My brother would have.”

The rest of his team nodded their agreement, and Sora knew better than to protest further. They still weren’t any closer to beating the Heartless, though.

Wasabi shrugged and asked, “Great, buuut…don’t we need a plan?”

“We train up! When heroes are brought low, they get new powers. It’s shugyo time!” Fred exclaimed, striking a ridiculous pose.

“Did you read that in Geek’s Quarterly?” Go Go groaned.

Hiro smiled and offered his own opinion. “Fred’s not actually wrong. I have an idea.” He walked over to a corner of the garage and retrieved a strange contraption that looked like sunglasses or spectacles.

“This is an AR device, Sora.”

“‘AR device’?” Sora repeated, confused by the unfamiliar term.

“Yeah. Cool, huh? It creates a CG overlay that augments your vision. While you wear it, this device sees everything you do and logs it.”

But the explanation only left Sora more and more confused.

“…You put it on your face,” Hiro said finally.

Sora followed the instructions and put the strange glasses…visor thingy…“AR device” on his face. He could see a weird display over his vision, but nothing too drastic—until Hiro stepped to one side, revealing a Heartless behind him.

“Heartless! Donald!! Goofy!!!” Though Sora summoned his Keyblade as he normally would, his two friends merely looked at him in surprise.

“Are you okay?”

“There’s no Heartless here.”

“Whoa! Chill. Sora. Just take the AR device off,” Hiro hurriedly called out.

When Sora did as told, the Heartless disappeared. He put it back on, and there it was again. After several more rounds of this, Sora finally figured out what was going on.

“Wow, I have no idea how you’re doing it, but this is cool!”

“Thanks. But so far the data only covers San Fransokyo. I need to expand it.”

“Now can we shugyo?” Fred asked, butting into Hiro’s explanation.

“Not yet, Fred. He’s still learning,” chided Hiro.

“Sora, all you need to do is run through some courses that Hiro scripted. Like a mini-game,” Honey Lemon told him, and Go Go picked up where she left off.

“We’ll put a tracer on your movements so we can—”

“Shugyo, shugyo, shugyo!” Fred interrupted, hopping around excitedly behind her.

She turned back to look at him and sighed. “So we can shugyo.”

“I guess shugyo’s like training. That’s a good idea. We could probably use the practice.”

“Speak for yourself.”

Goofy and Donald each had their own opinions on the matter.

“I can shugyo by installing new combat data,” Baymax offered, although Sora was just confused all over again.

What’s “installing”?

“Hey. Let’s just try it out,” Hiro said with a shrug, and then Sora started up the AR device.

Running all over San Fransokyo for their shugyo really did turn out to be like a game. There were Heartless everywhere, and the members of Big Hero 6 were right there beside Sora.

When he ran straight up a wall, Go Go stopped and watched him make his ascent. “Interesting. Gravity—not binding.”

When Sora shot down some Heartless in the distance using his Shotlock power, Wasabi looked down at his own arms and said, “Hey, wait. My laser hands…can be projectiles!”

Sora used a transformation of his Keyblade to defeat yet more Heartless, which brought Honey Lemon to a new realization. “Ooh. Change the weapon, change the attack.”

And when Sora cast some magic, Fred cackled with glee.

“A freeze attack! Fire…and ice. Diametrically opposed…or so we thought!”

Sora eventually reached the goal, where he hopped onto Baymax’s back and flew through the city. Man, this is fun! And this city is huge!

“Thanks, Sora. That should be enough data,” said Hiro through the AR device. The shugyo was complete.

At almost the same time, he could hear the other members of the team chattering excitedly to Hiro.

“Yeah! Hiro, I think there’s a way to reduce excess resistance to the level of superconductivity by polarizing the field of the magnetic suspension bridge. I’ll need to verify the numbers when I get back, but I should be able to drastically increase my speed. I can make use of the Meissner effect that occurs at magnetic poles.”

“Hey, get this! My calculations indicate that by switching the shape of my laser plasma emitters from a closed configuration to an open one, I can expand the effective range of their magnetic field. That in turn will resolve any Maxwellian distribution instabilities. Man, I never would have thought of that!”

“Adjusting the atomic arrangement using chemical reactions opens the door to phase transitions into different shapes! The only question is at what density adaptable isotopic substances can coexist in the same space. If we can get the conditions down right, then the possibilities for combinations are endless.”

“A hero that harnesses two powers, fire and ice, is invincible! No evildoer will be able to stand against them! Huh, don’t you think? Hey, are you even listening?”

Even though he had no idea what they were talking about, the enthusiasm was contagious.

Back in the garage, the team busied themselves making preparations for battle, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy lent a helping hand.

Meanwhile, Hiro removed a small chip from the computer and inserted it into Baymax’s chest.

“That…should do it.”

Only a few seconds later, a news bulletin played on the monitor, and everyone gathered round to watch:

“We interrupt your scheduled programming to deliver this breaking news. Moments ago, the city’s South District was attacked by numerous unidentified creatures. Witnesses describe losing sight of victims during the mayhem. Many also said they saw strange, floating heart symbols in the vicinity of the missing victims. City police are urging citizens to stay at home. For those just joining us, only minutes ago, the South District was attacked by—”

They all knew what to do.

“Go time.”

Okay, let’s get this party started!

The streets were full of panicked citizens fleeing from a horde of Heartless, which were attacking on the ground and from the rooftops.

Big Hero 6 and Keyblade Hero 3 decided to fight separately and cover more ground.

“Just try and catch me,” Go Go said as she picked up speed. She raced up a wall, then wiped out the Heartless chasing her with a single downward attack.

Wasabi unleashed rapid-fire bursts of laser plasma.

Honey Lemon took out a ball from her bag and threw it. “I’ve got an idea!” she called, and the ball exploded into a cloud of smoke.

“Hey! I can’t aim if I can’t see!” Wasabi complained, but Honey Lemon simply pulled out a second ball and threw it, too. The smoke turned solid, locking the Heartless in place.

“Better?” she asked Wasabi cheerily.

“Much better,” he said as he blasted the immobilized Heartless, dispatching them all in one go.

Now it was Fred’s turn.

“Freeze!” he yelled as he released a stream of icy breath from the mouth of his monster suit. Once the Heartless had frozen solid, he switched over to a gout of flame.

“Whuh?”

All that did was free them from the ice—so this time he tried breathing both fire and ice together at the same time.

“Oh, I get it… It’s a combo move!”

The stream of opposing elements made short work of the Heartless.

As for Sora, he was on top of a building, busy fighting a huge, dinosaur-like Heartless called Catastrochorus with Donald, Goofy, and a red-armored Baymax.

“We’re here!”

The rest of Big Hero 6 joined them.

“Ugh! Can’t we pick on one our own size?”

“It looks the right size to me.”

“Watch me scorch ’em with my freeze-nado! The only tornado made of ice and fire!”

Inspired by Fred’s enthusiasm, Donald couldn’t help but show off, too. “You took on the wrong court magician.”

Goofy joined in: “And the wrong captain of the guard.”

“Prepare to face Keyblade Hero 3!” added Sora.

“And the crime-fighting team of Big Hero 6! Together, we’re unstoppable,” said Hiro, and then the real battle began.

Each of the team members hit the Heartless with their powered-up abilities, and the fight wasn’t much of a fight at all.

Baymax landed a rocket punch on the Catastrochorus, and Sora followed up with a downward slash of his Keyblade. The giant Heartless vanished, releasing hearts into the air.

“Nice, Baymax!”

The robot stuck out his hand, which was still clenched in a fist.

“What?” asked Sora.

Baymax replied, “Now, we fist-bump.”

“Fist-bump?”

“To display excitement. Hiro taught it to me.”

“So like…this?”

Sora made his own hand into a fist, then touched his knuckles to Baymax’s.

“Bah-la-la-la-la-la-la,” the robot said, drawing his hand back and waving his fingers in the air.

“Bah-la-la-la-la-la-la?”

Sora mimicked the gesture, which got a laugh out of Hiro as he watched them.

The day was ending, and everyone took a seat on the bridge with chocolate Popsicles in their hands. The sun sank down below the horizon as they watched.

“Was that awesome…or was that totally awesome?!” Fred gushed as he bounced around excitedly. Wasabi stood to one side, watching in disbelief.

“Yeah, I was pretty good,” Donald crowed.

“Your magic was amazing. Do you think I could study it sometime?” Honey Lemon asked him.

“Why not?”

“You just made Donald’s day,” said Goofy.

A short distance away from the others, Sora sat with Hiro, Go Go, and Baymax on the highest part of the bridge. They all had ice cream, too—well, except for the robot.

“My brother wanted to help people. Now, we try to do the same,” said Hiro softly, almost to himself.

“Your brother?” Sora asked.

“Yeah, Tadashi. There was a fire, and now he’s gone. But he always wanted to make a difference. He cared about people. That’s why he worked so hard to create Baymax.”

“I’m sorry.”

Whenever someone told Sora about something painful or sad, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of their sadness himself. But there was a strength underneath the grief when Hiro said, “He’s still here. In Baymax. In all of us.”

“Tadashi—he lives on in your hearts.”

Sora looked over at Hiro, who looked downward.

“Yeah. Right. He will always be a part of us in some way,” Hiro said, finally raising his head again.

“And when you’re not strong enough, he’ll make up the difference.” Sora joined him in looking up at the red sky of the sunset.

Suddenly, the sound of a familiar bell popped into Sora’s mind, and it was soon followed by a memory of eating Popsicles with someone else beside him. Only the flavor was sea salt, not chocolate. Wait, was it really a memory? Or was it a feeling—a precious emotion that belonged to someone else sleeping somewhere?

The ones beside him were Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

“Sora. You okay?”

Hiro’s voice brought Sora back to the present.

What am I feeling? What am I remembering…? We watched the sunset together that day, and…

“Yeah. Fine,” Sora replied, feeling a presence deep within him. He placed a hand on his chest and turned his eyes back to the setting sun. Yeah, this has to be his memory.

“I’m with you,” Sora whispered into the sunset.

Darkness fell over San Fransokyo. As the billboards and lights turned on, the mood of the city slowly transformed. Sora walked down one of the streets with Donald, Goofy, and the members of Big Hero 6. With the Heartless leader down, it was just about time to say farewell to this world—or so Sora thought.

Suddenly they came upon several large, shadowy forms swimming through the air on one of the city’s main thoroughfares. On closer inspection, they were composed of many small cubes that were constantly changing their configuration, and their colors also shifted from black to white to red in a dazzling blur.

“What?!” Go Go yelped.

“Great, they’re back,” said Honey Lemon.

“Oh, we got this,” said Wasabi.

“Time for a lesson,” Fred shouted, slapping the headpiece of his monster suit back in place. “Cheee-aaarge!” he yelled as he took off. Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Go Go followed his lead.

But Hiro called out for them to stop. “Wait! Uh, guys! That one’s not like the others!” Apparently, he had realized something when he observed the cubes.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy waited to hear more.

“It can’t be. Microbots?”

“Microbots? You know what they are?” Sora asked.

Hiro thought for a moment about how to answer. “Microbots are wired to do whatever you think via a neural transmitter that communicates what you’re…” He trailed off when he realized Sora and Goofy were not getting a word he said, and he tried to simplify. “They’re a kind of mini-robot I invented. Some bad stuff happened and I thought that meant they were totally gone. But those enemies are way too similar. Which means someone’s controlling them. The question is who… Could it be…?”

It looked like Hiro already had some idea of who the culprit might be.

“I’m gonna go back to the garage and look into it some more. You mind going after ’em?”

“Sure!” Sora, Donald, and Goofy answered in unison.

“We need you on the sciency stuff,” Sora added, which brought a relieved smile to Hiro’s face. Hiro then looked up at Baymax. “Baymax… Stick with ’em.”

The robot looked over at Sora and his friends, then said, “All right, Hiro. Sora, Donald, Goofy, I will be your personal healthcare companion.”

“Thanks, Baymax. We’re in good hands. C’mon, let’s move!”

With Baymax now accompanying them, Sora and his two comrades took off running after one of the masses of cubes. Unfortunately, Sora still didn’t know the layout of San Fransokyo very well. The city looked completely different at night.

“Which way did it go?”

“No idea.”

All the buildings looked the same to Sora, and the group quickly realized they were lost. Then, almost as if he were aware of Sora’s situation, Hiro contacted him through the AR device.

“Sora, I’ve marked the target’s position. You can check it with the AR device.”

“Roger!” Sora said back, then noticed that his display had a new location marked on it. The trio hurried toward the marker, and they found it in what looked to be the center of the city.

“Target acquired,” stated Baymax with a finger pointed toward the sky. The mass of cubes above them spread out like a starfish.

“They’re not microbots… Be careful!” Hiro warned through the AR device. The mass of cubes briefly gathered itself up into a ball, then unfurled again. Sora and his friends stepped forward to engage it, but none of their attacks had any effect whatsoever on this shape-shifting anomaly.

“It’s no fair! Why can’t we hurt it?” Sora complained.

“Magic is no good.”

“What do we do?”

How’re we supposed to beat this thing…?

As they struggled to come up with an idea, the cubes briefly took a shape like that of a heart before zooming off again.

“This is weird,” Sora said as he watched it fly off.

Hiro contacted him again through his headset. “Sora, you guys all right?”

“Oh… Yeah, but the target escaped. Have you got any leads?”

“Tons. Somewhere inside that thing, there is a core. It’s what powers the whole cluster. The core is the only way to hurt it.”

“Now he tells us,” Wasabi cut in during the middle of Hiro’s briefing.

“Wasabi! What happened?” Hiro asked.

“Let’s just say it’s a handful.”

“Team, check in,” Hiro called.

Honey Lemon answered, “So far, so good.”

Go Go and Fred weren’t far behind:

“Guys, I’m really tired of just dodging this thing.”

“Freddie getting frustrated!”

Everyone was having a tough time, it seemed.

“Guys, I’m on my way,” Hiro said, announcing his intent to get in on the action.

“No, Hiro!” Honey Lemon said quickly.

“Hiro, you analyze the Darkubes,” added Fred.

“Wait, did you just say ‘Darkubes’?” asked Wasabi.

“Yeah. They’re dark, they’re cubes. I call ’em like I see ’em. Every bad baddie needs a cool name.”

“Yeah, that’s not cool,” Honey Lemon said. She clearly had her hands full keeping track of the newly named threat, but she told Hiro, “We’ll gather as much data from the Darkubes as we can.”

“Hiro, figure out a way for us to beat this thing!” Wasabi urged. He wasn’t letting up on his attacks, either.

“But, guys, I can’t leave you out there all alone.” Hiro hesitated.

Go Go was quick to remind him what was most important. “Hiro. We are a team. And teams delegate. We need you at the garage. We trust you, so you trust us.”

“Fine,” Hiro replied. “I’ll look for a way that we can expose the Darkubes’ core. Just keep that data coming.”

“Copy,” Big Hero 6 said in unison.

Having overheard the entire conversation, Sora shared a nod of solidarity with Donald and Goofy.

“Hiro, what should we do?” he asked.

“You protect the others. I’ll mark their position for you on your AR display.”

The locations of the Big Hero 6 team appeared, just as Hiro said they would.

“We got it!” Sora told Hiro, then called his Keyblade to his hand. “Time to go, Baymax!”

“All right.” The robot hurried along with him.

“Sora, the Darkubes are gonna be tricky to bust open. You’ll have to assess everyone’s situation, and…”

“Improvise! I know. Don’t worry!” Sora answered cheerfully as he smashed his Keyblade down onto a Heartless that appeared in his path.

He started with Go Go. From there he helped Wasabi, then Honey Lemon, then Fred, and once everyone was safe, Hiro contacted him again.

“Listen, Sora! The Darkubes have converged on a single location. Whatever’s happening can’t be good. I’m almost done pinpointing the core. If you need me to help—”

“Nah, it’s okay, Hiro. We’re on it.”

“Thanks.”

All that appeared in the display of the AR device were the Darkubes, which were all flowing toward the middle of the city, shifting from one eerie shape to another as they went. Sora and his friends made that their destination.

“Okay, there’s a lot of them.”

Go Go couldn’t hide her astonishment as she took in the scale of the Darkubes.

“What do ya suppose they’ll do?” Goofy asked worriedly.

“I don’t think we wanna find out,” replied Wasabi as he arrived. It seemed the rest of Big Hero 6 had joined the party.

“I say we destroy this thing!” shouted Fred, striking a less-than-intimidating battle pose.

“Yeah!” said Donald, brandishing his staff.

Honey Lemon was not so optimistic. “But without a strategy, we’d just be wasting our strength.”

“If we knew where to strike…,” said Sora, and they all took a closer look at their foe.

Hiro contacted him through the AR device again. “Sora! I got it! I’m sending you an AR software update. It’ll show you where the core is—the Darkubes’ weak point. I’m coming to help.”

But before he could say any more, the transmission suddenly stopped.

“Huh? That’s weird. Is it busted?” Sora wondered out loud, when suddenly a figure in a black coat appeared. “Hiro, what’s that on the display?”

“That’s not the display. He’s really here,” said Goofy, answering Sora’s question. Sora got his Keyblade ready, and the rest of Big Hero 6 prepared to defend themselves.

“Are you done messing around?” said the hooded figure.

“What? Wait, that voice…” Sora would never mistake that voice for anyone else’s.

“Hold on. You…know this guy?” asked Wasabi.

“And now…enter the supervillain,” said Fred.

“He definitely has the vibe,” said Honey Lemon.

The mysterious boy stopped and calmly removed his hood.

“Funny.”

“Riku… But…”

Sora lowered his Keyblade when he saw his best friend’s face. This wasn’t the Riku he knew now, of course, but Riku as he had been about a year ago.

“As if this stupid experiment wasn’t already a hassle.” Riku held out his hand, palm up, and a small, red square popped into existence above it.

“Where’d he get that?” Hiro asked, shocked, the transmission working again.

“Hiro, do you recognize it?” Sora asked.

“Not quite ready,” stated Riku, taking the red object in his fingers and holding it up toward the sky.

“Yeah. That’s the first chip I made for Baymax. It’s full of combat programs.”

The members of Big Hero 6 shared a collective gasp at that.

“Programs?” Sora asked back.

Hiro answered, “Yeah, they tell Baymax how to react.”

Sora still seemed like he didn’t get it, so Goofy prompted him to clarify. “Does that mean…it’s like his heart?”

“Kind of…”

“More, then!” Riku said into the air, paying no attention to the rest of the group. He hurled the chip into the Darkubes and vanished into a shroud of darkness.

“Riku!” Sora shouted after him, but Riku could no longer hear.

The Darkubes changed shape and enveloped the chip, glowing and spinning. The shape they formed sprouted several flailing appendages that knocked the members of Big Hero 6 flying.

“Oh no!” cried Sora.

“Sora, I’m on my way,” Hiro called anxiously. “I’ll look after my team. You guys fight the Darkubes! Remember to use the AR device to target the core!”

“I got it!”

With their strategy decided, Sora turned to face the enemy.

He charged toward the Darkubes, then leaped upward and cast a spell. Baymax flew right behind him, and Sora landed on his back.

“Time to get to work, Baymax!”

“Power output to maximum.”

The robot delivered a punch, and the green light of the Darkubes turned to a deep crimson. The shifting mass then began to crumble, falling cube by cube to the ground, only to rise back into the air seconds later in the form of a colossal fist and seize Sora in a crushing grip. But Donald quickly fired off a succession of spells and sent the Darkubes falling to pieces again.

The fight continued for some time, and just as Sora, Donald, and Goofy began to run out of steam, the strange mass finally fell still.

The Big Hero 6 team eyed the Darkubes uneasily, waiting to see what came next. After a moment, the Darkubes crumbled apart, revealing the core inside—a cube-shaped Heartless. Sora dispatched it with a swing of his Keyblade, and the red chip came flying out.

Hiro tried to run over to pick up the chip, but someone else beat him to it—the Riku in black.

“Oh, this isn’t for you. At least not until we’re done.” Before the others could reach him, he leaped away from them.

“Riku… Is it you? Why do you look like that?” Sora asked.

“Looks are deceiving, but the heart? You know that it’s me,” Riku replied.

“I know Riku wouldn’t do this. Not without a good reason.”

“A reason? When did that matter? We’ve been trying to one-up each other since we were kids.”

“What…?” was the only response Sora could muster.

Donald and Goofy stepped in front of their friend protectively.

“Don’t listen to him, Sora!”

“The coat means he’s with Organization XIII! And that means he’s not really Riku.”

“Smarter than you look,” snorted Riku—or Dark Riku, rather.

“We defeated Ansem and Xehanort—every last one of ’em. But they still all came back anyway, right? So, maybe this ‘Riku’ came back, too, from the time when Ansem possessed him,” Goofy hypothesized.

He had a point. Ansem and all the others they’d defeated had returned. Sora turned back to Riku.

“Yeah, from the past!” shouted Donald.

“What? How?” asked Sora.

“Unlike a certain wizard you know, I had to play by the rules to travel through time. Which meant leaving my body behind.”

“I know about this…”

Sora recalled the words Young Xehanort had spoken during their encounter in the dream world.

“That is Xehanort reduced to just a heart—the being you and your friends called ‘Ansem.’”

Dark Riku picked up where Sora’s memory left off.

“Xehanort’s heart left his body in order to voyage back through time. He needed to tell his younger self of the great plans he had in store.” He was likely referring to the man in the brown robe. “There in the past, his heart stayed and waited out the years until you and I came along. Xehanort’s heart possessed me and became Ansem, the first adversary you faced.”

They had encountered the brown-robed man on that stormy night—the outset of their first adventure. He was the one who had led Riku astray so he could claim his body.

“The rest of him, the piece he left behind, took the name Xemnas and created the first Organization. It was all a part of a larger plan to bring Xehanort into contact with the right hearts—enough of them to form the real Organization XIII. They could come from anywhere, any when…just as long as he had the right vessels at hand to place their hearts in.”

Xemnas was Xehanort’s Nobody. A shell missing a heart, yet somehow still holding on to a mind.

There was one part Sora still didn’t understand, though. “Vessels?” he asked. And why does he need the “right ones”?

Donald and Goofy turned back toward Sora and said the answer at the same time. “Replicas!”

“That’s right. The Replica Program was a success. We are as real as people.”

“Then pack up and leave! What are you still doing here?” Sora asked in bewilderment.

“To see if we can re-create a heart from data.”

“What?”

That was the same plan the king and Riku had proposed for bringing back Roxas.

Dark Riku laughed as if he had read their minds. “Sorry, did we steal your idea?” He glanced at the chip in his hand, then over at Baymax. “That walking balloon over there has a ‘heart.’ At least that’s the nonsense I’m supposed to believe.”

Sora disagreed. “There are hearts all around us. You only have to see them for them to become real.” A heart can grow anywhere—even in a robot.

Hiro came up beside Sora. “Where’d you get that? That’s my chip. I made it.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry about that. But I promise I’ll put it right back where I found it,” Dark Riku said as he looked down at Hiro, then laughed again.

“What do you mean?”

Dark Riku shrugged. “I think I’ll be getting back to work now,” he replied unhelpfully before melting away into the shadows.

“Wait!”

“Sora! We gotta stop him. Guys—”

Sora and Hiro started to give chase, but then stopped and turned back to see that Go Go and the others were still struggling to catch their breath.

“You are all suffering from acute exhaustion. I recommend rest,” said Baymax.

Hiro looked down for a moment, then acquiesced. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s regroup.”

Back in the garage, the mood was heavy, even after everyone was rested.

It wasn’t long before the doom and gloom was too much for Fred. “C’mon, guys. What’s with all the long faces? Did you forget that we won?!”

“Fred. Not now,” Go Go admonished him.

“His name is Riku? And you know him?” Hiro asked.

“Yeah… Well, I know a ‘him,’” Sora answered. Whoever they’d just met only looked like Riku.

“That one is a fake!” Donald added.

“The fake one’s with Organization XIII, our arch-nemenies,” said Goofy.

That only gave Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Go Go more questions.

“Okay, but how’d he get Hiro’s chip?”

“And what did he mean about an experiment?”

“And what do they want?”

Sora’s eyes drifted to the ground as he explained things as best he could. “He said they’re trying to re-create a heart from data, but I don’t know what they really want. None of us do. These guys, they show up—and instead of fighting fair and square, they go for the heart and say things to try and get under your skin. They’re cowards. And now they’re doing it to hurt you, too. It’s our fault.”

Who knew what the Organization was after this time…

“No,” Hiro interjected. “This could be good. That chip might finally be able to give me some answers.”

“You said that you made it, right?”

“Yeah. This Baymax—he’s actually the second model,” Hiro said, turning to the robot in question. “Uh, no offense.”

“I am a robot. I cannot be offended,” replied Baymax in the same gentle tone as always.

Hiro smiled back, then began to explain again. “It’s a long story. But the first Baymax and the chip I made…vanished into another dimension along with the microbots. The chip’s back…” Hiro paused for a second. “So the first Baymax might be back, too.”

He seemed upset by this—maybe the disappearance of the first Baymax was connected to some painful memories for him.

A somber mood instantly fell over the members of Big Hero 6.

Until Baymax dispelled it with a few words. “Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones.”

A sudden rumble shook the garage. Hiro dashed over to the monitor and typed frantically at the keyboard. An image of the Darkubes trashing the city again appeared on-screen. The battle wasn’t over, after all.

“Guys, c’mon!”

Everyone quickly answered the call.

Meanwhile, in another part of San Fransokyo, Maleficent and Pete were walking along the highway as two rather distinctive figures in the urban landscape. The Corridors of Darkness opened behind them, revealing Dark Riku.

“Why are you snooping around?” he asked.

Maleficent glanced back. “That would be none of your concern.”

“Overstep, and darkness will consume you again.”

The witch gave Dark Riku a long look. “What an interesting thing to say. I shall do anything I please. As should you,” she retorted, completely unfazed.

Dark Riku’s reaction was equally confident. “Oh, I intend to.” With a smirk, he vanished back into the darkness.

“Who’s he? Friend of yours?” Pete asked.

“Yes. Though I could not tell you from ‘when,’” Maleficent said in reply as they continued on their way.

The Darkubes hung in the blue sky the next day over the rooftop of a building in the middle of the city.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Big Hero 6 team looked up at their adversary.

“Hope it’s learned some new tricks,” said Go Go.

“Yeah, now it’s gotta face all of us,” Wasabi added.

“That’s right,” Honey Lemon agreed.

“Freddie want to destroy!”

“Our probability of success is—”

“You don’t have to crunch the numbers, Baymax,” Hiro said, cutting off the robot before he could finish. “It’s not the sum of our parts. It’s the sum of our hearts.”

“Yeah,” Sora agreed with a nod.

A familiar voice suddenly spoke to them. “Which adds up to what? Show me.”

When they turned their eyes in the direction it came from, they found Dark Riku standing atop a floating turbine modeled after traditional carp-shaped wind socks.

Dark Riku leaped down from his perch and struck the core of the Darkubes, instantly shattering the construct. The glowing red core then burst into three. Dark Riku held the red chip in his hand. “Almost there.”

“What?!” Sora asked, but Dark Riku merely kicked the pulsing crimson cores.

“This pile of junk collected the data we needed… The terror of being attacked without warning… The despair of having no place to run… The longing for vengeance…”

“A heart’s more than that!” Sora shouted at him.

Everyone from Big Hero 6 had something to say, too, starting with Wasabi. “It’s working together.”

Donald and Goofy joined in: “Smiling at something funny!”

“Trusting friends,” Hiro added.

Sora spoke last. “In every heart, there’s hope.”

As the group of heroes nodded resolutely, Dark Riku only smiled back.

“You’re right,” he agreed, holding up the chip before him. “That’s why I made sure our creation fought you. Now the data contains a complete heart.”

“A heart made from conflict? That can’t be real,” Sora shot back at him.

“What was it you said? I only have to see it for it to become real?” Dark Riku smiled and said, “So let’s see it.”

He thrust his hand skyward, opening a portal to the Corridors of Darkness in midair that began sucking up the Darkubes.

“First, we need a vessel.”

The red Darkubes then dropped back out of the dark portal in a spherical form.

“What’s going on?” Go Go asked nervously.

“Another Darkube form?” Honey Lemon theorized, curious despite the danger.

“Doesn’t look as bad as the last one,” Fred said, trying to reassure himself.

As the captain of the guard, Goofy made sure everyone was on their toes. “It could be a trick.”

“Usually is,” Wasabi agreed.

“We can stop it!” Donald exclaimed.

Sora summoned his Keyblade, and Hiro took an anxious breath.

“Wait!” Hiro suddenly shouted. “That’s…Baymax.”

Everyone froze in place.

“What?! No way.”

The whole team turned their eyes nervously toward the sky where the Darkubes were gradually shifting into the form of a jet-black Dark Baymax with sharp spikes on his shoulders.

“Baymax…,” Hiro called to the robot.

But Dark Riku turned back and coldly dispelled his hopes. “Don’t bother. This puppet has lost his heart. He won’t wake up.”

“He’s not a puppet! Baymax, he’s like my family. Please! Give me back my friend.”

Dark Riku laughed at Hiro’s heartfelt entreaty.

“Yes… I did promise I’d put this back where I found it.” The chip flew from Dark Riku’s hand and slipped right into the port on Dark Baymax’s chest. The robot’s eyes instantly began to glow red. “But there’s one piece missing. Sora, you’re the one who’s going to complete this heart.”

“Yeah right,” Sora said back, his Keyblade ready for battle.

“You can’t have a heart without sadness…without loss. You see, you’re going to destroy Hiro’s friend right in front of him.”

With that, Dark Riku disappeared into a dark portal, laughing all the while.

“Wait!”

Sora tried to go after him, but then Dark Baymax shot into the air, aiming to deal Hiro a crushing blow with his fist.

“Hiro!”

The rest of Big Hero 6 ran over to shield their friend from the attack, but they were quickly scattered. Sora, Donald, and Goofy hurriedly joined in the defensive effort and finally managed to stop Dark Baymax’s onslaught. Their own Baymax was last to arrive, dishing out a blow that sent his dark counterpart flying.

“Hiro…”

Go Go and the rest ran over to their young friend. Dark Baymax had disappeared from view when he tumbled from the roof, but he had recovered during his fall and flew back up to the top of the building. His disproportionately large right hand appeared to be composed of Darkubes, glowing with a menacing light that hinted at the power it contained.

Donald and Goofy rushed over to confront him.

“Hiro, tell us. What should we do?” Sora asked, his Keyblade still at the ready.

Clenching his fists nervously, Hiro took a step forward where Donald and Goofy were doing their best to keep Dark Baymax away. “Baymax means everything to me. But that chip isn’t who he is. I already made this mistake once before. Tadashi wouldn’t want there to be a Baymax that hurts people. Sora, he has to be stopped.”

Sora nodded in understanding. Still, I know it hurts to fight someone who means so much to you. Hiro doesn’t need to go through that. “Okay. Help Go Go and the others. You can leave this guy to us.”

“Thank you,” replied Hiro with a smile.

Sora hurried over to face Dark Baymax. The robot launched himself into the air, knocking Donald and Goofy away in the process.

“Oh no!”

A battle in the sky put them at a disadvantage.

Hiro looked up at their foe, then shouted, “Sora, take Baymax!”

“Okay! Baymax!”

The red robot heeded Sora’s call, running out and then taking to the air. Sora jumped onto his back, and the two of them flew off toward Dark Baymax.

Baymax chased his dark counterpart through the skies above San Fransokyo, and Sora could even see the ocean off in the distance. Every so often, Dark Baymax would send black cubes to throw them off his trail, forcing Sora to knock them out of the way as they wove between the buildings.

Dark Baymax’s left hand glowed red—apparently made of many small cubes—then detached and shot toward his pursuers. Sora and Baymax evaded it as they closed in on their foe.

“We have to stop him! Let’s go, Baymax!”

“Roger. Increasing power output to maximum.”

The robot hit Dark Baymax with a devastating punch, while Sora leaped from Baymax’s back and hammered his Keyblade down from above. Black cube fragments scattered from the point of impact, and Dark Baymax fell still.

Baymax sped after the corrupted robot, which continued to plummet toward the ground.

Suddenly, Dark Baymax sprang to life and seized his red counterpart by the leg.

The two robots grappled for a moment as they dropped, eventually ending up locked in a position with Baymax underneath. If they continued to fall like this, the heroic robot would be the first to hit the ground.

Fortunately, Baymax fired his left arm into Dark Baymax at point-blank range. The blow separated the two, inflicting grievous damage as it did so. Once he was free, Baymax righted himself and landed safely, while the limp Dark Baymax crashed loudly to the ground nearby.

Hiro and the rest of Big Hero 6 came running over—but they were mostly concerned about Dark Baymax. Sora wondered what it was that made the first Baymax so important to them. He guessed it wasn’t really Baymax at all, but the connection he represented to someone else—probably Hiro’s older brother.

“So…did we stop him?” asked Wasabi.

Hiro walked over to where Dark Baymax lay, a sad look on his face. The robot’s body was giving off sparks and black smoke, as if it had shorted out inside.

“Safety mode kicks in if he’s put under too much stress, so he’s probably just in stasis. We’ll have to destroy the chip if we want to be certain.” Hiro knelt down beside the fallen robot.

“But…are you sure?” Honey Lemon asked.

“Yeah, dude…,” said Fred, “you don’t need to go that far.”

“Maybe we can find another way,” added Go Go.

But Hiro simply shook his head. “It’s the right thing to do.” He removed the chip from Dark Baymax’s port.

The black cubes covering the robot’s right arm began to vanish, while the dark armor turned into cubes and disappeared in a burst of red light.

All that remained was another Baymax, completely white. His eyes were closed.

“Tadashi would’ve done the same thing,” said Hiro, placing a loving hand on the robot’s body.

“But, Hiro…isn’t that Baymax’s heart?” Sora asked.

Hiro shook his head gently, then replied, “It’s okay. Baymax is here.”

He put a hand to his own chest, then looked down at the chip.

“I…should be the one.”

Hiro curled his fingers around the chip—and crushed it.

Back in the garage, Hiro gave the last input to activate Baymax.

“Ow?”

“Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion.”

Sure enough, the robot woke up, and cheers erupted all around.

The all-white robot reached out for Hiro and gave him a hug. The other Baymax then came and gave him another hug from behind. The whole gang was elated.

“Two Baymaxes!” Fred was the first to exclaim.

“This is great, Hiro!” Sora said.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Sora took this moment to try and ask a favor. “So, uh, do you think I could take one of them with me?”

Both of the Baymaxes looked at Sora.

For his part, Hiro was a bit caught off guard by the question, perhaps unsurprisingly.

“Uh, that’s a no.”

“What? Come on.”

“No. Who’s gonna repair him?”

“One. Just one of them. C’mon, please?”

“He’s my healthcare companion?”

As Hiro and Sora went back and forth, everyone else in the garage laughed.

Aw, guess I won’t get a Baymax of my own after all. Flying around with him on other worlds would have been super fun.

Oh, well. Maybe I’ll see ya again sometime, Baymax.