Inside the car, the friends struggled to escape. They were losing air quickly. But just when things were looking hopeless, a big hand pulled them from their seats. Baymax had removed his body armor and inflated¹ to a larger size than he had ever been before. Wrapping his arms around them, he floated everyone to the surface.

Baymax bobbed onto his back and placed the friends, gasping² for air, on his stomach.

"I told you we'd make it!" Honey exclaimed.

"Your injuries require my attention," Baymax told them. "And your body temperatures are low." Hiro agreed. "We should get out of here."

"I know a place," Fred said.

They settled themselves on Baymax for the ride to the dock. Go Go saw her gum float to the surface and happily popped it back into her mouth.

Within an hour, Hiro and his friends were standing³ in front of a large mansion⁴ in San Fransokyo's most exclusive suburb. They looked around, confused. What was Fred up to?

"Where are we?" Honey asked, pushing her wet hair out of her face.

"And where are you going?" Hiro asked with a shiver as Fred went up the front steps.

"Welcome to mi casa," Fred said finally. "That's French for ‘front door.'" He pressed the doorbell.

"Listen, nitwit, a lunatic in a mask just tried to kill us. So I'm not in the mood for any—" Go Go said, stopping midsentence as the door was pulled open by a butler!

"Welcome home, Master Frederick," he said in a British accent.

"Heathcliff, my man!" Fred greeted the butler with a fist bump before turning and addressing everyone else. "Come on in, guys! We'll be safe here."

Baymax noticed Fred's greeting and fistbumped the butler, too. "Bata-lata-la."

The friends walked into the vast entryway, stunned⁵. "Freddie," Honey said, "this is your house?"

"I thought you lived under a bridge," Go Go said.

Fred shrugged⁶. "Well, technically⁷, it belongs to my parents. They're on vacay on the family island."

He led them into his enormous bedroom. It was a virtual museum of rare comic books, Japanese monsters called Kaiju, and sci-fi action figures. A huge painting of Fred dressed like a barbarian⁸ riding a white tiger hung on the wall.

Wasabi stared up at the painting wide-eyed. "If I hadn't just been attacked by a guy in a Kabuki mask, I think this would be the weirdest⁹ thing I've seen today."

The friends settled into comfortable chairs while Baymax tended to their cuts and bruises¹⁰. Hiro grabbed a notepad and started to sketch¹¹. "Your body temperature is still low," Baymax told him.

Baymax leaned against Hiro's back and began to glow red. Heat emanated¹² from his body. One by one, the friends were drawn¹³ to his warmth. Fred wrapped his arms around Baymax and laid his head on Baymax's back.

"Ahh. It's like spooning a warm marshmallow."

"So nice," Honey said with a smile.

Hiro's sketch turned into a picture of a bird, the image he had seen on the metal structure the microbots had been carrying. "Does this symbol mean anything to you guys?" he asked.

"Yes!" Fred said. "It's a bird!"

Hiro looked at Fred and sighed. "Yokai was carrying something with my microbots. This symbol was on it," he explained, hoping it was a clue to who might be behind the Kabuki mask. But for now it seemed like a dead end.

"Apprehending¹⁴ the man in the Kabuki mask will improve Hiro's emotional state," Baymax said."Apprehend¹⁵ him?" Go Go asked. "We don't even know who he is."

"I have a theory!" Fred said, and ran to his carefully archived comics collection. He held up a comic book and showed them a masked super villain¹⁶. "Dr. Sinister¹⁷?" he asked the group. Fred frowned and turned the page. "Actually, millionaire weapons designer Malcolm Chazzeltick!" Then he held up another comic. "The Annihilator¹⁸?" Fred asked, and shook his head. He showed one last picture. "Behind the mask, wealthy industrialist¹⁹ Reid Axworthy!"

Fred ran to his computer and pressed a key. "Don't you guys get it? The man in the mask, our Yokai, is none other than"—the group gathered around as Fred hit another key—"high-tech tycoon²⁰ Alistair Krei!"

"What?" Hiro said.

Fred nodded. "Think about it. Krei wanted your microbots, and you said no. Rules don't apply to a man like Krei!"

Hiro sighed. He was going to need more evidence than a guess from Fred in order to believe that the richest man in the world was also a crazed criminal. "There's no way. The guy's kind of high-profile."

"Then who was the guy in the mask?" Honey asked.

Hiro didn't have an answer. "I don't know," he said. "I don't know anything about him." He looked over to Baymax, who suddenly displayed Yokai's vital signs on his chest screen.

"His blood type is AB negative. Cholesterol²¹ levels elevated. Blood pressure one thirty—" Baymax said.

"Baymax, you scanned him?" Hiro asked, unable to contain his excitement.

The robot nodded. "I am programmed to assess everyone's health-care needs."

Hiro jumped up. "I can use the data from your scan to find him!"

Go Go was skeptical²². She snapped her gum. "You'd have to scan everyone in San Fransokyo— that might take ... forever."

Hiro sighed. He knew she was right. He began to pace. "No, no, no, no. There's always a work-around." With his fingers, he tapped his head, trying to force an idea to come. And then he saw one of Fred's toys.

"I'll scan the whole city at the same time. I just have to upgrade Baymax's sensor²³."

He looked from Baymax to his friends. "Actually, I need to upgrade all of you if we're gonna catch this guy," Hiro said, ready to head back to his garage.

Wasabi said, "Upgrade us? What are you talking about? We can't go against that guy. We're nerds!"

Honey approached the subject more calmly. "Hiro, of course we want to help, but he has all those microbots, and we're just ... we're just us."

"No," he said, "you can be way more." Hiro looked up at the superhero art in Fred's room, and his mind swam with ideas. Yeah, Hiro thought, way better upgrades!

Fred said, "Can you feel it? Our origin story begins!" He was giddy with delight. "We're gonna be superheroes!"

 

这群小伙伴在车里奋力求生，他们很快就会耗尽氧气。就在一切看似绝望的时候，一只大手把他们从座椅上拽了起来。大白脱掉了身上的盔甲，把自己充气成比以往更大的尺寸，用胳膊抱住他们，带着所有人浮出了水面。

大白背朝下摇摆着浮在水面上，把这群大口喘气的小伙伴放在了他的肚皮上。

“我早说过我们能行的！”哈妮柠檬呼喊着。

“你们的伤口需要我护理，”大白告诉他们，“而且你们现在的体温很低。”小宏赞同道：“我们得离开这里。”

“我知道一个地方，”弗雷德说道。

他们乘着大白安然地回到了码头。神行御姐见她的口香糖浮在了水面，很高兴地把它扔回嘴里。

一个小时后，小宏和他的朋友们站在旧金山高档郊区的一处大宅邸前。他们环视着，困惑起来。弗雷德在干什么？

“我们在哪里？”哈妮柠檬边问边把她的湿头发从脸上梳理开。

“你去哪里？”小宏打着寒战问道，而弗雷德已经走上了前面的台阶。

“欢迎来到米卡沙，”最终弗雷德说道，“这是法语‘前门’的意思。”他按了一下门铃。

“听着，笨蛋，刚刚有个戴面具的疯子要杀我们，我实在没心情和你……”神行御姐说着，刚说了一半门就被一位男管家打开了。

“欢迎回家，弗雷德少爷，”他用英伦腔说道。

“希斯克利夫，老管家！”弗雷德和管家碰了碰拳打了个招呼，然后才转身向大家说道：“进来，伙计们！我们在这里很安全。”

大白注意到弗雷德与管家打招呼的方式，他也和管家碰了碰拳。“吧嗒啦嗒啦。”

朋友们走进宽敞的入口通道后，都惊呆了。“弗雷德，”哈妮柠檬问道：“这是你的房子吗？”

神行御姐说：“我以为你住在桥底下呢。”

弗雷德耸耸肩答道：“好吧，严格来讲，这是我父母的房子。他们现在正在我家的岛上度假。”

他把大家带进了他巨大的卧室里。这里是个珍贵连环画册的虚拟博物馆，有被叫作“怪兽”的日本怪物，有科幻动作人物。墙上挂着一幅巨大的画，上面画着装扮得如野人一般的弗雷德骑在一头白虎身上。

芥末无疆瞪大眼睛看着这幅画：“如果不是刚刚被一个戴着歌舞伎面具的家伙追杀，我会认为这是我今天看到的最不可思议的东西。”

小伙伴们坐在舒适的椅子上，而大白则在护理着他们的伤口和小擦伤。小宏抓过一本记事簿开始画着。“你的体温还很低。”大白告诉他。

大白伏在小宏的背上，开始发热。热量从他身上散发出来，小伙伴们一个个都被他的热量所吸引。弗雷德张开双臂抱住大白，头放在了大白的背上。

“啊，像是抱着一团热乎乎的棉花糖。”

“真舒服，”哈妮柠檬笑着说道。

小宏画了一只小鸟的图案，这正是他从微型机器人运送的金属物体上看到的那个标志。“你们知道这个标志是什么吗？”

“我知道！”弗雷德说道。“这是只鸟！”

小宏看了看弗雷德，叹了一口气。“妖怪之前在用我的微型机器人运送什么东西，上面有这个标志，”他解释道。他本希望这是一条能够找出歌舞伎面具后那家伙的线索，可现在看来似乎是陷入了僵局。

“逮捕那个戴歌舞伎面具的男人会让小宏的情绪好转，”大白说道。“抓他？”神行御姐问道，“我们连他是谁都不知道。”

“我有个推测！”弗雷德说着跑向他仔细存放的连环画藏品。他拿起一本漫画书向他们展示了一个戴着面具的超级大坏蛋。他向大家问道：“邪恶博士？”弗雷德皱着眉，翻动了几页：“实际上他是个制造武器装备的百万富翁！马尔科姆·佐狄克！”然后他拿起另一本漫画书，又问道：“毁灭者？”他随即摇了摇头，将最后一张图片展示给了大家：“其实面具下是实业家里德·阿克斯沃西！”

弗雷德跑到他的电脑前按了一个键，说道：“你们还没明白吗？戴着面具的那个人，我们的妖怪不是别人，正是——”，所有人都凑了过来，弗雷德又摁下另一个键：“高科技大亨阿里斯泰·格利！”

“什么？”小宏说道。

弗雷德点点头:“想想吧。格利曾经想要你的微型机器人，而你没有同意。像格利这样的人是不会遵守规则的！”

小宏叹了口气。他需要更多的证据，不想仅凭弗雷德的猜想就认定世界上最富有的人竟是个疯狂的罪犯。“这根本不可能，这个家伙太高调了。”

“那么那个戴面具的家伙是谁呢？”哈妮柠檬问道。

小宏没有答案。“我不知道，”他说，“我对他一无所知。”他看向大白，大白突然将妖怪的生命特征呈现在了他胸前的屏幕上。

“他的血型是AB阴性。胆固醇偏高。血压130……”大白说道。

“大白你扫描了他？”小宏问道，他无法抑制他的兴奋。

机器人点了点头：“我的程序要求我评估每个人的健康需求。”

小宏跳了起来：“我可以用你扫描的数据找到他！”

神行御姐有些怀疑。她啪的一声咬了一下口香糖。“那你得先扫描旧金山的所有人，那可能永远也扫不完。”

小宏叹了口气，他知道神行御姐是对的。他开始踱步。“不，不，不，不。总有解决办法的。”他用手指轻敲着头，强迫自己想出个主意来。随即他看到了弗雷德的一个玩具。

“我可以同时扫描整个城市。我只需要升级大白的探测装置。”

他的目光从大白身上转移到他朋友们的身上。“事实上，如果我们去抓这个家伙，我需要把你们也升级一下。”小宏说道，他已经准备好调头回他的车库了。

芥末无疆说道：“升级我们？你在说什么？我们打不过那家伙的。我们只是书呆子！”

哈妮柠檬倒是更加冷静地探讨起了这个问题。“小宏，我们当然很想帮忙，可他拥有那些微型机器人，可我们只有……只有我们自己。”

“不，”他说，“你们比自己想象的厉害得多。”小宏看着弗雷德房间里的超级英雄摆件，脑中浮现出很多想法。对，小宏想着，更好的升级方式！

弗雷德说：“你们能感觉到吗？我们的传奇开始了！”他高兴得发狂：“我们就要成为超级英雄了！”

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