Still soaking wet, the gang followed Fred down a few blocks. They stopped when he approached a large manor that looked like it belonged to the richest person in San Fransokyo.

"Uh, Fred, what's this?" Max asked.

"Oh. Right." Fred said as he stepped up to the front door. "Welcome to mi casa. That's French for 'front door'."

"It really isn't." Honey Lemon corrected.

Aggravated, Gogo groaned. "Fred, this isn't the time for any of your…"

The door opened and an elderly man in a butler uniform walked out. He turned to Fred with a professional tone. "Welcome home, Master Frederick."

"Heathcliff, my man!" Fred greeted fist-bumping his butler. None of the others could believe their eyes. They followed Fred into the mansion where he guided them through the hallways.

"Wait, Fred. This is your house?" Hiro asked.

"Well, technically, it's my parents', but they're away on a condo vacation." Fred said.

"Wait." Ken said. "You're part of the Fredrickson family? They're SFIT's greatest sponsors."

"No wonder you hang around the school all the time." Max said. "Your family practically owns the place."

"Bingo." Fred said as he approached the door. "And this, is my room." He opened the door revealing a large bedroom decorated with all kinds of superhero merch.

"If I wasn't just attacked by a guy in a kabuki mask, this would be the scariest part of my night." Wasabi said.

"All right. Now that we're all safe," Gogo turned her head toward Max, "What's the deal with Max?"

Max frowned her head while her father groaned in frustration.

"I can't believe this is happening. And I just settled." Ken muttered.

"Buddy, we've had one crazy night." Hiro said. "A guy in a kabuki mask stole my microbots and attacked us. He took some kind of machine with a strange bird symbol on it. And on top of everything else, your daughter has a hidden laser inside of her arm. We need at least one thing to be explained."

"Okay!" Ken yelled out. He took a deep breath and sat on a chair behind him. "Up until three years ago, I used to work for the government. Department of Defense to be exact."

"You built weapons?" Fred asked.

"Nothing that basic. I was in computer software. I mostly did updates and programming upgrades. Then, I was having a slow day at the office. I figured I'd fool around with some abandoned programs to pass the time. I don't know exactly what I did, but whatever it was, it created some kind of chain reaction in my computer. All those different kinds of software began to merge. And when it was done, I managed to create… a perfect artificial intelligence."

"You're kidding!" Hiro gasped. "You made an actual AI?"

"He did." Max said. "And… that's me."

"You?" Wasabi asked. "But I thought Ais were supposed to be in computers. Digital."

"I'm getting there." Ken said. "I was so excited to have finally made an AI, I foolishly showed her to my superiors. Only…"

"They wanted to weaponize her." Fred guessed. "Classic government move."

"Tell me about it." Ken agreed. "I tried to talk them out of it, but since Max was made of programs that belonged to the department, they were the only ones with rights to her and I had no say in the matter. So rather than just let them take her away, I figured I'd do something about it."

"What did you do?" Honey Lemon asked.

"I set up an accident. I caused a programming incident that made it look like the AI was destroyed. But in fact, I created a dummy look-alike of Max and it took the fall. I, in the meantime, backed up the original Max to my own private server. My bosses blamed me for the accident, but they bought my act. They truly believed it wasn't on purpose, so all they did was terminate my employment which was fine by me."

"After that," Max continued, "I wanted a life of my own. I needed a body of my own."

"It was hard, but I managed to accomplish it." Ken said. "The department had a secret storage facility where they hid away abandoned projects, including a human-sized android with built-in weapons. I managed to sneak it out and take it to my lab. All that was needed was to graft some fake skin and to transfer Max into her new body. And so, Max the AI was a thing of the past. In its place was Max Grant, my daughter."

Everyone turned their heads in astonishment admiring Max. She blushed and chuckled quietly.

"Well, that explains some things." Gogo said. "But what about the arm? If she wanted to live as a human, why did she keep that laser?"

"I had no idea how to remove the weapons from her android body. I didn't design it and it was impossible to reverse engineer, so she and I decided to do our best to keep those weapons out of sight. If the government ever found out about her and that she was still active, they'd come after her and arrest me. So now, you see why we had to keep it from you… for as long as we could, it seems."

"Sorry, Dad." Max apologized. "When that masked man attacked, I had to use one of my weapons to make sure we'd survive."

"One of your weapons?" Fred asked in surprise.

"Yeah. The truth is, I've got several other weapons. In fact, this body comes with all kinds of applications such as rocket soles and thermal vision. I even have a second form."

"Wow!" Fred exclaimed. "That's awesome!"

"Not awesome!" Ken yelled out. "Max risked exposing herself and had the government quarantine all of San Fransokyo just for her! Who was that masked man anyway?"

"I can probably answer that.. sort of." Hiro said. "You see, just the other day, I noticed one of my microbots that I had in my pocket was reacting to something. Baymax and I followed it and it brought us to some kind of secret hideout where that masked man was making more microbots. I figured out that whoever that man was, he's responsible for the fire at SFIT."

"And Tadashi." Gogo stated sadly.

"Exactly. I tried to add in some fighting programs so Baymax could take that guy on, but it clearly wasn't enough. That's when you guys showed up."

"Why didn't you take it to the police?" Ken asked.

"I tried, but they didn't believe me. Now, I lost my only microbot which can help us find that masked man who we don't know anything about."

"His blood type is AB-negative." Hiro raised his head looking at Baymax who gave a medical report digitally on his chest. "Cholesterol levels are…"

"Whoa! Baymax!" Hiro yelled out. "Did you scan the man in the mask?"

"I did. I am programed to assess everyone's healthcare needs."

"This is perfect!" Hiro cheered. "I can use the data from your scan to find him!"

"Hiro, that's impossible." Wasabi said.

"He's right." Max said. "You'd have to scan every single person in San Fransokyo."

"Then we'll scan the whole city all at once." Hiro said. "All I need is to upgrade Baymax's sensors." He looked at his friends with another idea flashing in his head. "Actually, if we're gonna catch this guy, I need to upgrade all of you."

"Upgrade us?" Max asked.

"Well, not you, Max. You already have a lot of gadgets. But the rest of you…"

Fred fidgeted his feet excitedly. "Okay. I like where this is headed."

"We can't go against that guy." Wasabi said. "We're nerds. We're just us."

"No." Hiro said. "You can be way more."

"What about Max?" Ken asked. "If the government noticed she was still alive…"

"They won't be able to find her." Hiro said. "You said she had a second form, right? Does it look anything like the way she looks right now."

"No." Max said. "I look a lot different than my second form."

Gogo paused for a moment before standing up with her friends. "Tadashi Hamada was our best friend. We're in."

Ken sighed looking at his daughter. Her pleading looks made him give in. "All right. But my daughter better be safe after this."

"Great. I'm in too." Max said.

"Can you feel it, guys?" Fred asked vigorously. "Our origin story begins. WE'RE GONNA BE SUPERHEROES!"


For the next few days, Hiro has been helping his friends work on their new equipment. For Honey Lemon, he gave her a purse that shot out chemical balls. For Gogo, she rode on her magnetic disks as if they were skates. Hiro made Baymax a whole new suit of red armor that was much more advanced than his last one. Fred got a lizard-themed costume that could spring to great heights and breathe fire. Lastly, Wasabi had a pair of gauntlets that used his plasma as blades.

After everyone else got their shot at practice, it was time for Max. Everyone sat back and waited for her. She stood in the middle of Fred's courtyard and took a deep breath closing her eyes. When she opened them back up, she revealed a pair of blue lights that glowed out of her sockets. She reached out as her human parts began to shift. She gained a fair amount of height by about a couple of feet and her outer parts became metal. In only a matter of seconds, Max's new appearance was a tall, dark-blue robot with glowing-blue outlines and visor along with a feminine figure.

"Wow." Gogo said admiring Max's new look. "You go, girl."

"Awesome!" Fred cheered. "We should call this your Mecha-Mode."

"Mecha?" Max asked with a slightly deeper voice.

"Yeah. As in the cool abbreviation for 'mechanical'."

"Okay, Max." Hiro said pointing at Heathcliff who wore a mask similar to Yokai's. "The object is to take the mask off. That's how the masked man is controlling the microbots."

"Hiro, I'm on your side, but I'm not shooting my guns at Fred's butler." Max said. "Here, let me show you with something else." Before Hiro could say anything, Max rocketed off the ground with her rocket feet and pulled out a laser cannon from her wrist. She aimed it and fired a very powerful beam at the bushes on the side. She returned to the ground with a superhero landing.

"Wow. She even lands like a superhero." Fred admired.

"Max, I hope you know what you're doing." Ken said.

"Don't worry, Dad." Max said changing back into her human form. "I'll be back. I promise."

One quick rocket ride on Baymax later, and Hiro found the man they were looking for.


Author's Note: And there you have it, Max's origin story and her Mecha-Mode. Any and all comments are welcome.