Disclaimers – This story, of course is property of Disney/Marvel, and I claim no ownership to the characters and story therein.

For timeline reference, this story takes place some months after the end of the movie, and based loosely from my first BH6 fanfic Tenets of Life. (This was written long before BH6 the Series also)

Chapter 1

"There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself."― Miyamoto Musashi, "The Book of Five Rings"

Hiro knocked on the door of the very assuming mansion, and hardly had to wait for the response. He must have been the first of the team to arrive this time, since it was an excited Fred who opened the door, rather than Heathcliff. Every Thursday, about this time in the morning, his teammates would meet at Fred's for a hero training session.

"Hey! How's it go, my friend?" Fred clapped his hand across Hiro's red hardcase backpack to welcome him inside. The lanky fanboy was not dressed in his monster suit just yet though.

"Totally chill, buddy," Hiro gave him the customary Fred response. Once reaching Fred's bedroom quarters, Hiro set down his skateboard to take off Baymax in backback form.

While Hiro did alter the design specifics on the robotic backpack enough so he could stay out of hot water with Stark Industries, the idea of redesigning the armor for Baymax in backpack mode did help solve the problem of how to transport both Baymax and the armor when the big guy wasn't wearing it. Not that he didn't mind having Baymax shadowing him during his morning classes before they came here for training, it was just kind of awkward when the billowy robot would go to the aid of any student that accidentally banged their knee on the desk, or got a papercut. Of course, just leaving Baymax at the Nerd Lab took longer than necessary to go back and get him before heading out. But really, he just needed an excuse to make a new and improved portable case for Baymax.

Using a combination of magnets and interlocking systems, the armor had become most of the shell of the new case. He was still working out the research on mass displacement mechanics for transformation combined with rocket science to perfect making everything more compact and yet still functional. All of these details that otherwise left his professors almost speechless as they tried to follow along with what he was proposing. So at the time being, he still had to manually fit some of the parts, like the rocket fists, until he had the rest figured out. Once this all worked out, he wanted to do something similar for their own supersuits.

"Baymax, suit up!" Hiro tapped on the red shell to alert him.

Fred fidgeted in the other chair he was sitting in, rubbing his hands in anticipation. "Wow... It never fails to amaze me every time I see this!"

"Thinking about making our suits pack up like that too," Hiro shrugged. Everything was still in beta phase, and clearly could be way better. He never stopped thinking of how ti make it better. The young genius waited to manually piece on the rest of the armor for Baymax's arms and shoulders. On the flip side, since Baymax was inflating while the pieces were assembling, it wasn't as hard to snap together. Baymax at least was also catching on to the process so that he could put on the rest of the armor himself.

"Hello Hiro. Hello Fred." Baymax greeted them, waving with his white hand visibly sticking out of the red arm without a rocket fist, which meant he missed a part.

"Forgot something," Hiro whispered and pointed to the arm piece still on the floor behind him.

"Looking good, robot buddy," Fred was lounging back in his chair and gave Baymax a thumbs up, regardless.

Hiro quickly changed out of his cargos to pull his armored pants on over his black compression shorts, and proceeded patching together the rest of his blue armored gear. Then something waifted his way, however, permeating the air and otherwise making it just a little hard to concentrate.

Hiro finally groaned, quickly putting on his helmet to block out the smell before he was able to get his gloves on. "What the...? Freddie!"

Fred just feigned innocence, his telltale grin more than confessing his crime. "Wasn't me, little buddy," and then he picked up the head part of his suit that was still laying next to him. He patted the head of his monster like it was his favoritest pet in the world.

"I looove my Kaiju, but sometimes he drives me crazy. Why? Because he just loves to fart. Small farts.. medium farts, and also... deadly farts. But sometimes, they are smelly too. Have you ever smelled a really smelly Kaiju fart?" The fanboy asked him, quite matter of factly.

"Uhm, no.." Hiro just stared at him, deciding now that the triple shot espresso cappuccinos he and Fred concocted that morning at the Lucky Cat, complete with an inch thick of caramel syrup at the bottom, had now come back and haunt him. The next thing he knew, Hiro was buckled over on the floor, beside himself with laughter.

Baymax had no words for this extremely absurd boyish behavior. What he did observe was how their endorphin levels were skyrocketing, assisted by the unfavorable amounts of caffeine and glucose. But the rather noticable levels of methane in the air, without a doubt, had prompted him to say something.

"It is advisable to not use anything flammable in this room until the methane levels go down," the large red robot warned them.

That statement resulted in yet another round of hysterical laughter from the two.

"Oh man, yes! That is Kaiju's super secret weapon: Flatulent Flames of Fire!" Leaving his monster suit behind, Fred jumped up in great theatrics to pretend like he was spraying flames of spitfire across the room.

Hiro pulled his helmet off now, braving the air quality again just because he was getting flushed inside the helmet. He, on the other hand, had imagined flames coming out both ends of the monster. The teen flopped on his back, spread eagle on the floor, trying to catch his breath in between his bouts of laughter. His sides practically hurt from laughing so hard, and it occurred to him it was a long time since he laughed like that. Maybe that was why he got along so well with their resident man-child. Fred's unusually optimistic view of the world was so infectious.

"I fail to understand how flatulence creates the desire to laugh." Baymax spoke, now that the two wore themselves out.

"I dunno... it just is," Hiro sat up to wipe the remainder of the tears from his face.

"Because manly men just love singing with their assholes!" Fred shot a finger in the air, and totally referancing Monty Python now.

"No way!" the younger Hamada started giggling uncontrollably again. This was absolutely getting ridiculous.

"Yes way," the knightly Fredrickson tried to look most sincere, while gesturing to Baymax. "It is thy red wonder who keeps making the funnies."

"I am?" Baymax blinked. "I do not know what is funny."

"Maybe I can teach you," Hiro rubbed his face, regaining his composure from all the laughing. "After all, laughter is medicine."

"That is true. Both of your neurotransmitter levels are very positive right now."

"We can teach him some jokes!" Fred suggested, sitting back down in his chair.

"Yeah, okay." Hiro stood up, running his hand through his hair in thought. "So like jokes are like a play on words, or they make fun of stuff. Like... what do you get when you cross a vampire with a snowman?"

Baymax just blinked, confused.

"Frostbite!" Hiro answered, his voice cracking ever so slightly. "And then you are supposed to laugh, if you thought it sounded funny."

"No, no...man, you need a good joke," the English major leaned in, his elbows on his knees. After a moments thought, he began, "Knock, knock."

"Um, who's there?" he answered in kind.

"Up dog."

Hiro rose an eyebrow, and then finally had to ask, even if it meant breaking the flow of the joke, "What's 'up dog'?"

"Haaa! Gotcha!" Fred smired while pointing both of his fingers at him.

"Urgh... really?" Hiro facepalmed.

"Hiro is not laughing," Baymax observed. "But he does appear surprised."

"That's part of the joke! It's so unexpected, it makes you think 'How clever! That's funny!'" Fred explained.

"Exactly..."

Once again, Fred paused long enough for the others to take notice, then looked in the direction of his dresser and a table by the wall. "Oh hey, what's under there?"

Baymax turned, not sure where he was pointing. "Under where?"

This time Hiro was quick in catching onto Fred's next joke, and facepalmed, again.

Baymax blinked, tilting his head."That was the joke?"

"What you said sounds like 'underwear'," Hiro pulled down the top part of his pants to reveal the elastic of his underwear.

"Underwear is also funny?" This was very likely causing Baymax more confusion than clarity at the moment.

"It's the play on the words, that's what makes it funny!" Fred reasoned, talking with his hands for emphasis.

"I see," Baymax paused for a moment. Then a strange rumbling noise was heard from the robot, followed with "Bha- bha- ha!"

Fred's contained mirth broke out with more laughter. "Hee... are you laughing, good buddy?"

"I think so," Hiro just shook his head and feigned a smile over this.

"Was it a good laugh?" Baymax tilted his head, doing his best to understand this.

"Uhm, could use more work to sound a little more natural, but yeah.. good start, Baymax," the youngest cleared his throat, noticing his voice cutting out again. That happened sporatically, but it was so annoying when it did.

"This is great," Fred mused. "I think we should try this joke on the next person who gets here."

"Like a dare?"

"Yes!" Fred nodded. "Have Baymax ask 'What's under there?' Because they will never suspect it from him."

Hiro smirked, not really seeing a problem with that. He liked little challenges if no harm was involved.

"What if it is GoGo?" Baymax felt this really was not that wise of an idea, due to previous instances. "I have concerns for your safety."

"Pray that she doesn't come in first?" Hiro refuted, weakly.

Fred cleared his throat, then took a step closer to Hiro to whisper. "I don't think she wears underwear-"

"Oh no, shut up!" Hiro turned away from him, suddenly wishing to not go there. Just because.

"You have much to learn, little grasshopper," Fred laughed, slapping Hiro's shoulder.

Healthcliff paged Fred, letting him know two guests have arrived.

"I am still asking this question, regardless of who?" Baymax tilted his head.

"Absolutey!" Hiro said, before he started to think twice about it.

They had heard Wasabi, but it was GoGo who was first through the door. The two were also fully dressed in their suits and otherwise ready to begin (unlike Fred and Hiro).

"Hey," GoGo greeted, setting a bag that held her helmet and disks on the couch.

"Sorry about the delay," Wasabi explained. He had made a subtle face, noticing an awkward smell about the room. Well, it was Fred and that was often expected. "Honey Lemon had a hang up in the lab. Something exploded and she needed to clean it up. We helped where we could."

"Nice," Hiro frowned.

"She'll catch up later," GoGo popped her gum.

Then there was that pause, followed with Baymax acting like he was clearing his throat. "Wait, what is under there?" He pointed his white finger in the random direction of the furniture that Fred had gestured at earlier.

"Under .. what? Where?" GoGo actually bent down, looking below the dresser.

"See, no panty lines," Fred gestured to Hiro, unexpectedly, making him look at her backside.

"Fred- no!" Hiro squeaked as he pushed him away. Even though GoGo didn't say the answer they hoped for, it suddenly felt that the joke was now on him. His face turned a hot red when the speedster turned to glare at the two. There was no hiding the truth as to what just happened that time.

"Say what now?" GoGo took off her helmet and stuck her gum on it, before setting the helmet on top of her bag.

"Uh, I.. I can explain," Hiro made the mistake of taking a step back, looking even more vulnerable.

"And this is where I say 'sayonara'!" Fred nervously side stepped away from the two. He made a break for it, and GoGo promptly took chase after him. They all had their weaknesses, and unfortunately for GoGo, it was her short temper.

In two steps, the parkour champion tackled Fred to the floor, causing him to faceplant. "What did I tell you about that kind of stuff?"

"It's okay, GoGo! We were just trying to teach Baymax what jokes were," the younger Hamada called out to her, hoping that would redirect the blame.

"Really?" the speed queen got off of Fred to look at Hiro.

"Ugh... yeah, that's all we were doing," Fred stood up from the floor next, dusting himself off.

Gogo just shook her head and crossed her arms, giving both of them The Look.

"What just happened?" Honey Lemon finally spoke up. She and Heathcliff came in right after GoGo brought Fred down to the floor. It was also apparent Fred, Hiro, and Baymax weren't even fully dressed and ready, so she doubted the training had started.

Wasabi shook his head, his arms crossed and his hand massaging his brow.. "You're better off not knowing."

"C'mere," GoGo walked over to the fanboy and pulled him over to Hiro. "Both of you, fifty pushups!"

Hiro automatically knew this was her method of getting back at them for being idiots.

"No girly ones either. Knees up, nose to the ground!"

"Right," Hiro responded through clenched teeth while he got down into position.

"She's not serious, is she?" Fred whispered, within Hiro's earshot. GoGo usually did this to tease them, and would tell them to stop after ten or so.

"At least they aren't burpees..." he muttered, pausing on the up stroke. He still felt like a T-rex trying to do push-ups. The young genius had gotten a lot stronger than before they started the hero training, but he was nothing yet like Wasabi, or even his brother. Hiro held himself in the up position for a moment again, his arms shaking. Only twenty five down... and...man, she wasn't giving in yet. Nyrugh...

"I give. Can't.. get... up.." Fred whimpered after his twenty-second one, exhaling ever so loudly like he just died.

"Aw Freddie! You can do it!" Honey encouraged him. "Both of you are doing great!"

"Come on, Fred. You're tougher than that!" GoGo groaned, walking over to lift him up by his belt to make it easier.

"Oh.. great. Thanks!" he rose back up more easily, unashamed of his awkward position.

"You're just a big baby..." she grumbled, still holding him up.

Hiro rose back up on his own, before they helped him like that... because he didn't want it. He gritted his teeth, counting out loud each time he lowered. His arms gave out again, but he forced himself back up, yelling to psyche himself up. He always wanted to be stronger, not a whimp, and this was the only way to do it. Exercise, his least favorite. But the younger Hamada had to prove how much stronger he was getting. Impressing GoGo was just half of it.

"Ugh, I'm not holding you up, Fred," Gogo let go of Fred's belt, dropping him to the floor when he started milking her assistance even more. "Get up, you two..."

After rising up from the floor his last time, Hiro stood up and then faced the short, lady engineer. GoGo returned his heated glare, holding onto it to for a long moment before asking him.

"More focused now, Leader Boy?"

"Crystal," Hiro didn't take his eyes off of hers, thoroughly relishing the fact once more that he had grown just tall enough so that he wasn't literally looking up to her.

"Good," her response dripped with sarcasm. "Let's finish with what's left of this training session."

Hiro exhaled, noticing the relieved looks from the others during that exchange. He turned to give a hand to Fred, and helped him the rest of the way up.

"That was still worth it," Fred tested his luck.

Hiro just rolled his eyes, deciding it better to keep his mouth shut now. Shaking the soreness from his arms, he looked at the clock again and frowned. The time was half over, and his original plan to use the first part to talk about new strategies before trying them wasn't going to happen today. Unless, he just called off physical training for now and just talked 'business'.

"So, okay.. there was some stuff I was going to talk about. A new idea for training," Hiro paced about, appearing a little uneasy now as he improvised on the spot. "It might be better to cancel training today just so I can. Then next Thursday we can do double time."

GoGo just clicked her tongue in disapproval, but she didn't say anything else. Wasabi and Honey went ahead and sat down on the couch. "Yeah, that's fine. What are you thinking about, Hiro?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Well, basically, I've been thinking we need to increase our level when we train." Hiro took their motion as a sign to continue. "Right now, just battling each other, we're getting pretty good at predicting our strengths and weaknesses... Right? Well, to change that up, I've been developing a new program that turns Baymax into a training robot. Now we try to attack him, and try-"

"Wait! Uh-uh... No!" Wasabi immediately resisted the idea.

Hiro had predicted it would have been GoGo who would be first to protest, but she probably was done with him for the day.

"I knew you guys might not like this idea, but it's okay. I tested it through so that Baymax is not gonna hurt us." Hiro was confident that once he was able to explain how it worked, it was really wasn't going to be anything like their first fight with Yokai. He just wanted to add more of that level of unpredictability that kept them on their toes. Some of the things they have going up against lately seemed harder to resolve on the first go.

AN: Forgive GoGo.. she was having a bad day. She'll explain herself later. (now edited for family friendliness)

Alas, Fred and Hiro, if left alone together for too long sometimes is not a good thing, me thinks. (The first part of the farting bit was taken from an actual child's book, I kid you not.) For some reason, they make me think of Bill n Ted, or Timon & Pumba. Almost. ^^;