The heavy metal doors of Hangar Four hissed shut behind me, cutting off the loud, rhythmic clanking of Trudy Chacon's helicopter. Trudy was cool. Actually, she was awesome. But now I had a bigger problem. I had to sneak all the way back to the science labs without getting stepped on by a giant robot suit or caught by the grumpy security guards.
Hell's Gate was not a playground. It was a giant, dirty, noisy factory right in the middle of an alien jungle. Everywhere I looked, there were massive bulldozers with tires taller than my house, stacks of metal crates, and soldiers marching around looking like they chewed on rocks for breakfast.
I stuck to the shadows, slipping behind a stack of empty fuel barrels. I felt like a spy in a comic book. I ducked under a yellow caution tape and tiptoed past a cafeteria where a bunch of miners were eating gray slop off metal trays.
"Just a little further," I whispered to myself, keeping my head down. I rounded the final corner, seeing the bright, clean glass doors of the Science Division just ahead. I reached out to press the door release button—
"And exactly where do you think you are going, Mr. Stark?"
I froze. My hand hovered an inch from the button. Slowly, I turned around.
Standing there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the metal floor, was Dr. Grace Augustine. She looked exactly like a teacher who had just caught a student trying to sneak away during a field trip to the museum. She wasn't holding a ruler, but the disappointed look on her face felt scary enough to shut me up...For a few seconds.
"Uh... hi, Doc," I said, putting on my best innocent, wide-eyed kid smile. "I was just taking a walk. Getting some exercise. You know, building strong bones! I am a growing boy after all"
Grace did not buy it. Not even a little bit.
"A walk," she repeated, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "A walk through a highly classified, heavily armed industrial military complex filled with toxic chemicals, live ammunition, and vehicles that could crush you into a pancake before the driver even realized they hit a bump."
"I looked both ways before crossing the hallways?" I offered softly.
Grace sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Tony, listen to me. This isn't Earth. This isn't a schoolyard. We are on Pandora. Out there in the jungle, there are animals that want to eat you. And in here, there are corporate bosses who would gladly lock you in a supply closet if they thought you were slowing down their mining quotas. You cannot just wander off!"
"I'm sorry," I said, looking down at my sneakers. I actually did feel a tiny bit bad. She was just trying to protect me. "I just wanted to see the ships. I like machines."
Grace's expression softened just a fraction. She dropped her arms and let out a long breath. "I know you're curious, kid. You've got a brain that's moving a million miles an hour. But you are my responsibility right now. If Parker or Colonel catch a glimpse of you just wandering around it'll be my ass on the line. If you go running around the flight deck telling mechanics how to fix their helicopters, people are going to start asking questions. And not always the good kind"
"Wait, how did you know I was talking to the mechanics?" I asked, squinting up at her.
"Because Trudy just radioed the lab asking if 'the little genius with the big mouth' made it back safely," Grace smirked. "Come on. Inside. Now. Before I give you detention."
I followed her through the glass doors. The science lab was a totally different world. It was quiet, cool, and smelled like clean chemicals instead of engine grease. Blue bioluminescent plants were glowing in glass jars on the counters. But the coolest part was the giant tank of blue water in the middle of the room, holding the ten-foot-tall Avatar body.
"Okay," Grace said, pointing to a stool next to a computer terminal. "Sit. Don't move. I have to finish running the brain-wave diagnostics on the Avatar. Read a book. Play a game. Do not touch my microscopes."
"Can I turn on my robot?" I asked, pointing to the corner of the room.
Sitting against the wall was a large, rectangular red box. It looked like a super heavy-duty toolbox. I had brought it with me when I was forcibly warped to this universe. It was the only piece of my own technology I had left.
Grace looked at the red box, then looked at me. "Your robot. Right. You said you built a medical assistant." She sounded skeptical. She probably thought it was a remote-controlled car or a toy that beeped and flashed lights. "Does it need batteries?"
"It needs a lot of power," I explained, hopping off the stool. "It's been asleep for a while. I need a heavy cable. Like, a really big one."
Grace rolled her eyes, but she walked over to a supply closet and pulled out a thick, black power cord. "Here. Plug it into the wall socket. It runs on the base's geothermal grid. Just don't blow a fuse, Tony, or the security guys will come down here yelling at me."
"I won't! Promise!"
I dragged the heavy cable over to the red box. My heart started beating a little faster. It felt like I hadn't seen my best friend in years, even though it had only been a short while. I found the charging port on the side of the box and jammed the thick plug into it.
I hit the big green button on the top.
At first, nothing happened. Then, a low humming sound started to vibrate from inside the box. The lights on the front panel blinked from red, to yellow, to a bright, happy green.
Hiss! The box unlatched, the two top halves sliding open. Grace jumped back a little, startled by the noise.
A thick cloud of cold, white fog rolled out of the box, spilling onto the lab floor like a spooky Halloween decoration. And then came the sound.
Squeak. Pffffft. Squeeeeaaaaak.
It sounded like someone was inflating the world's biggest woopy cushion. A soft, white material began to balloon upward from the box. First, a giant, round, marshmallow-like belly appeared. Then two thick, puffy arms. Then two stubby legs. Finally, a small, oval-shaped head popped up on top.
The white balloon smoothed out, standing almost seven feet tall. Two solid black dots connected by a single black line appeared on its face, blinking like simple cartoon eyes.
The robot slowly stepped out of his box.
Squeak. Squeak. Every step he took sounded like a rubber shoe rubbing against a gym floor.
He slowly turned his head to look at me, blinking his black dot eyes.
"Hello," a calm, gentle, robotic voice filled the room. "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."
I couldn't help it. A giant smile spread across my face. I ran forward and threw my arms around his massive, soft belly. It was like hugging a warm cloud.
"Hey, buddy!" I laughed.
Baymax slowly raised his thick, puffy arms and hugged me back, patting my shoulder gently. "There, there," he said.
I pulled back, grinning. "It's so good to see you online!"
Baymax stared at me for a second. Suddenly, a soft blue light shot out of his eyes, scanning me from head to toe like a barcode scanner at a grocery store.
"Scan complete," Baymax announced. "Tony. You have a slightly elevated heart rate. You are covered in dirt, machine grease, and sweat. My sensors indicate you have not slept for fourteen hours. I recommend a warm bath, a bandage for the small scrape on your left knee, and immediate bed rest."
"I'm fine, Baymax! I'm just excited!" I said, wiping a smudge of grease off my cheek.
"I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with your care," Baymax replied literally. "Would you like an antibacterial wipe?"
"What in the world..."
I turned around. Grace was staring at Baymax with her mouth wide open. She dropped the computer tablet she was holding onto a desk. She looked at the giant white robot, then looked at me, completely baffled.
"Tony," Grace said slowly. "You built a giant... balloon?"
"He's not a balloon!" I protested. "He's a highly advanced medical robot! His outside is made of super-strong, self-healing vinyl. It's soft so he doesn't hurt patients. Go ahead, poke him!"
Grace nervously stepped forward and poked Baymax's big belly with her index finger. Her finger sank into the squishy material.
Baymax slowly turned his head to look at Grace. The blue light shot out of his eyes and scanned her from top to bottom.
"Scan complete," Baymax said to Grace. "Hello. You are experiencing high levels of stress. Your blood pressure is above normal. My sensors also detect heavy amounts of caffeine and nicotine in your system. This is very bad for your lungs. Would you like a nicotine patch and a stress ball?"
Grace blinked, entirely speechless.
"I am also equipped with comforting gestures," Baymax added. Before Grace could say no, Baymax waddled forward—squeak, squeak, squeak—and wrapped his giant, soft arms around the grumpy scientist in a huge bear hug.
"Hey! Put me down! What is this?!" Grace yelped, squirming.
"There, there," Baymax said soothingly, patting her back. "Stress is the enemy of a healthy heart."
I burst out laughing, holding my stomach. Watching the toughest, smartest scientist on Pandora get hugged against her will by a giant marshmallow was the funniest thing I had ever seen.
"Baymax, put her down," I giggled.
Baymax let go, taking a step back. "Your heart rate has increased," he told Grace. "The hug was not effective. I will try giving you a lollipop next time."
Grace smoothed out her lab coat, her cheeks a little red. She looked at Baymax, shaking her head. "Okay. Okay, I admit it. He's... impressive. The sensor suite inside his head must be incredibly complex to diagnose blood pressure just by looking at me."
"He's the best," I said proudly.
Baymax slowly turned his head toward the center of the room. His black eyes locked onto the giant tank of water.
"Patient detected," Baymax announced.
He waddled over to the glass tank, looking up at the blue Avatar floating inside. He scanned the tank.
"Fascinating," Baymax said. "This patient is very large. He has blue skin and a tail. He appears to be in a very deep sleep. His bones are not like human bones. They are much stronger. Do you require me to wake the blue patient?"
"No, no! Don't touch that!" Grace stepped quickly between Baymax and the tank. "He's supposed to be asleep. Good robot. Just... stay over there."
"Understood," Baymax said, taking a squeaky step backward. He bumped his large bottom into a rolling tray filled with metal medical tools. The tray wobbled, and the tools clattered noisily. Baymax looked down at the mess. "Oops."
While Grace was busy picking up the tools and keeping an eye on Baymax, I walked over to the corner of the lab and sat back down on my stool.
I looked down at my left wrist. Strapped to my arm was a heavy metal gauntlet made of brass and gears, with a glowing green crystal in the center. The Transwarper.
I traced my fingers over the cold metal. This was the machine that had thrown me out of my own universe and dumped me here on Pandora and as I stared at it, the green crystal just pulsed softly. Like a sleeping heartbeat.
It was totally dead.
Well, not dead, but resting. It didn't have a manual. It didn't have any buttons. I had no idea what it could do besides open portals to other worlds, and right now, it didn't even have the juice to do that. It was just a heavy, glowing bracelet.
That meant I was stuck. I wasn't born with the X-gene so no powers. No Iron-Man armor...Yet. If I was going to survive on this crazy alien planet, I had to use the only superpower I actually had... my brain.
I looked back over at Baymax. He was currently trying to fit his giant, puffy body into a regular-sized office chair. It was going terribly. His sides bulged out over the armrests, and the chair squeaked under his weight.
"Tony," Baymax said, looking stuck. "This seating apparatus is not designed for my dimensions."
"Stand up before you break it, buddy," I smiled.
But as I looked at his soft, balloon-like body, the smile faded.
Grace was right about Pandora. Out there, past the metal fences of Hell's Gate, the jungle was filled with giant predators. There were Thanators—basically six-legged dinosaurs with teeth as big as my head. There were Viperwolves. There were flying monsters.
Baymax was a walking balloon. He was designed to work in clean, safe Earth hospitals. If he stepped outside on Pandora, a Viperwolf would pop him in three seconds. He would be shredded like a piñata. And underneath that vinyl skin, his computer brain and power core would be destroyed.
I couldn't let that happen. Baymax wasn't just a robot; he was my family now.
"Hey, Doc," I called out to Grace. "Can I ask you a science question?"
Grace was at her computer, typing quickly. "Make it fast, kid. I've got to review these brain scans."
"Remember how you were telling about that special rock. The Unobtanium. The stuff that makes this whole base so much money. How does it work exactly?"
Grace stopped typing and spun her chair around to face me. "I reall do talk too much sometimes" she grumbled, but her eyes lit up a little. She loved teaching. "Unobtanium is a room-temperature superconductor. But the simplest way to explain it to a kid is... magnets."
"Magnets," I repeated, acting like I wasn't a freaking super genious.
"Exactly," Grace said. "You know how if you take two regular magnets and try to push the north poles together, they fight you? They push away from each other?"
"Yeah, they repel."
"Right. Well, Pandora has a massive, invisible magnetic field. It's incredibly strong. Unobtanium is a special type of rock that acts like the ultimate wrong side of a magnet. It perfectly pushes away the planet's magnetic field. That's why out in the jungle, there are literal mountains made of this rock that just float in the sky. They are pushing away from the ground."
"Floating mountains," I whispered, my imagination exploding.
"Yep," Grace nodded. "The RDA mines it because back on Earth, we can use it to build super-fast trains that float on tracks, and perfectly clean power plants. It's the most valuable stuff in the universe."
"So..." I started, spinning a pencil on the desk. "If you made, like, a box out of Unobtanium. And you hit the box... what happens?"
Grace raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning on building a box, Tony?"
"Just wondering!"
"Well, because the rock pushes away energy so perfectly, it's incredibly tough," Grace explained, humoring me. "If you built a box out of it, and hit it with a hammer, the energy from the hammer wouldn't break the box. The rock would absorb the hit, slide the energy around its surface, and push it away. It's practically indestructible."
Indestructible. The word echoed in my mind like a giant church bell.
I looked at Baymax again. He had finally managed to get out of the chair and was now holding a small potted plant, staring at it closely. "This plant requires water," he announced to the room.
I needed to build him an armor.
Not just any armor. I needed to build him a super-suit. If I could get my hands on some of that Unobtanium rock, and mix it with strong metal, I could make plates of armor for Baymax to wear.
I pictured it in my head like a comic book panel.
Panel One: A giant, scary Pandoran wolf jumps at Baymax, snapping its huge jaws.
Panel Two: The wolf bites down on Baymax's new Unobtanium armor.
Panel Three: CLANG! The magic magnetic rock pushes the bite force away! The wolf hurts its teeth, and Baymax is perfectly safe.
Panel Four: Baymax offers the wolf a lollipop.
It was brilliant. It was perfect.
But there was a catch. I couldn't tell Grace.
Grace was nice, but she worked for the RDA. If Parker Selfridge, the greedy boss of the base, found out I knew how to make indestructible magnetic armor out of his precious rocks, he would steal my idea. He wouldn't use it to protect medical robots. He would put the armor on his giant soldier-suits and use it to destroy the jungle and hurt the Na'vi people.
No, this had to be my secret.
I was going to have to be a ninja once more. I was going to have to sneak around the base, find pieces of scrap metal, steal little bits of Unobtanium that the miners dropped, and build the armor in hiding. It was going to be the hardest science project I had ever done.
"Tony? You spaced out on me," Grace said, snapping her fingers in front of my face.
"Huh? Oh, sorry," I said, shaking my head. "Floating rocks. That's crazy."
"It's science, kid," Grace smiled, turning back to her computer. "Now, stay out of trouble. I have to go to a meeting with the security chief in ten minutes, so you and your squeaky friend need to behave."
"We will," I promised, crossing my fingers behind my back.
As soon as Grace turned away, I motioned for Baymax to come closer. He waddled over, his big tummy brushing against the desk.
"Baymax," I whispered so Grace couldn't hear. "I need you to scan the base's computer network. Look for the garbage dump. The scrap yard. Wherever they throw away broken metal and old rocks."
"I am a healthcare companion, not a search engine," Baymax whispered back, leaning down so his face was close to mine. "However, I can access the base directory. Processing... The primary scrap reclamation yard is located on Level D, near the exhaust vents."
"Perfect," I grinned.
"Why do we need to visit the garbage dump, Tony?" Baymax asked, tilting his head. "Garbage dumps are full of tetanus and sharp objects. It is not a safe environment for a child."
"We're not going to play in the garbage, buddy," I whispered, patting his soft vinyl arm. "We're going shopping. You're a great nurse, but you need an upgrade. I'm going to build you an iron suit."
"An iron suit," Baymax repeated. He looked down at his very round, very squishy belly. "Will this suit make me look... tough?"
I laughed quietly. "Yeah, Baymax. You're going to be the toughest marshmallow in the universe."
"Excellent," Baymax said calmly. "I will prepare my tough face."
He stared straight ahead, keeping his two black dot eyes exactly the same. He didn't look tough at all. He looked like he wanted to give me a hug.
"We'll work on the face later," I whispered.
My heart was racing with excitement. I didn't have magic portals. I didn't have a giant lab. All I had was a big, squeaky robot and a brain full of ideas. But as I looked out the reinforced glass window of the lab, out into the wild, dangerous, beautiful jungle of Pandora, I knew that was going to be enough.
The RDA thought they owned this place. They thought they were the smartest people in the galaxy.
They had no idea what Tony Stark was about to build in their basement.