[Fall of 2014]

Helios stood nervously beside a stage as he waited for someone to come. He was tapping his feet sporadically, trying to calm himself down. A lot of people passed through his counter, but none came to stop what he’s displaying. Well, partly it’s because there’s nothing to display.

He traveled so far to Massachusetts to join a robotics exhibition in MIT. he got in through the recommendation of his teacher when they discovered what he and his ‘partner’ had been building in the past couple of years, and once the time had come, the team went to the campus.

There was also a boy standing besides Helios, and he looked 10 times worse than him.

“Where is she?!” Helios whispered rather loudly to the boy beside him, who is Peter.

“I don’t know!” Peter defended himself. “Last I saw her she went to the toilet!”

“Well the ‘thing’ is with her, how are we supposed to do this then?!”

Before Peter could answer back, the girl who was being questioned appeared, bringing a red box, she looked tired, possibly from the heavy box she was carrying.

“Finally!” Helios exclaimed, walking towards her and took the box from her. “Where’ve you been?!”

“In the toilet.” she said, catching her breath. “Then I went back to the car because I forgot my—”

“Okay okay I don’t care anymore.” said Helios, turning towards the counter, and putting the box on the floor. He then looked around, and saw the evaluation team walking towards them. “Okay, you guys ready?”

“Yeah,” said Peter, fixing his tie nervously.

“Yeah, how do I look?” said Gwen, asking Helios’s opinion. She was wearing a black turtleneck, a green coat, a purple skirt, and her usual black headband.

“Usual.” shrugged Helios. “But you look great.”

Gwen just smiled at him and fixed her hair a bit. Then, the evaluation team came.

“Are you kids ready now?” the leader of the team smiled at them.

“Yeah… sorry professor for the delay…”

“No problem, it’s normal to feel nervous.” a woman in the team commented. “Now, tell us what you have created.”

“Okay…” Helios breathed in some air. “Peter?”

“Right…” Peter mumbled. He took out some tape, and he put it on his arm. When the tape has stuck to the arm, he roughly pulls it, making his skin red.

“Ouch!” Peter shrieked, making the other spectator turn to him.

The evaluation team just raised their eyebrows, confused about what was going on. Suddenly, the red box that was laying on the floor expanded, and a fluffy white robot appeared.

When Gwen saw this, she looked excited. The robot cutely walked towards Peter, and it raised its hand, waving at him.

“Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said ‘ouch’.”

“Healthcare robot?” commented one of the evaluation team. “Interesting, what can it do?”

“A lot actually.” explained Gwen. “But let Baymax show what it can do on its own.”

A screen then appeared from Baymax’s stomach, and it spoke. “On the scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?”

“Three.” said Peter awkwardly.

“Very well, I will scan you now,” said Baymax. He stared at Peter for a few seconds, before speaking again. “Scan complete. You have a slight epidermal abrasion on your arm. Recommended treatment: anti bacterial spray.”

Baymax then sprayed some liquid to the irritated skin, and then he stared at Peter again. “You have been a good boy… have a lollipop!”

“Wait what?” Peter frowned, he turned towards Helios as he grabbed the lollipop. “Did you program this?”

“Just for you Peter.” Helios chuckled, making Gwen chuckle as well.

“I cannot be deactivated until you say, you are satisfied with your care’.”

“Well, I am satisfied with my care.” Peter sighed, making Baymax turn around, and enter the red box once again.

Suddenly, the three of them heard applause from all over the booth. They had just now realized that a lot of people gathered around, not just the evaluation team.

“Impressive you three.” said the evaluation team who was still clapping his hands. “You three made all this?”

“Uh yes… Theo did the coding, Peter did the building and material choosing, and I compiled the medical procedures and some other chips and gave these two the overall design on what Baymax will do.”

“What’s it made of?” asked an evaluation team to Peter.

“Uh… the skin of Baymax is made out of vinal for softness and so he doesn’t look threatening… the skeleton is made out of carbon fiber so he’s not too heavy, oh he’s also equipped with hyperspectral cameras, so the scanning will be more accurate.”

The evaluation team looked surprised. “Where did you get all that?”

“Oh, Theo’s dad is…”

“Ah, I see.” the man smiled as he wrote some stuff on a paper. “Can it only do healthcare?”

“Theoretically he can do many more things, I built the program so it can be expanded.” Helios spoke. He turned to Baymax, and said to the box. “Baymax, free mode.”

Baymax then expanded again, and he walked towards the evaluation team, waving his hand. “Hello, I am baymax.”

“Hello baymax.” the evaluation team smiled. “He’s like a huggable marshmallow.”

“I know right!” Gwen said with an excited voice, but then she realized that it was not appropriate, so she coughed and apologized. “Sorry…”

Helios shook his head, but then pressed a terminal on Baymax’s chest, revealing the chip slots. “You can theoretically put all you want here. Combat chip, Cooking chip, Cleaning chip, everything.”

“That is some remarkable coding you’ve done, Mr. Smith.” the evaluation team smiled. “Same goes for you, Ms. Stacy, Mr. Parker.”

“How old are you again?” another man asked.

“13” the three of them answered, surprising the evaluation team.

“So not even at high school yet? All of you have a bright future ahead. Well, I guess that’s it then. I’d say we all know who won this exhibition, but we shall see later. Good afternoon you three.”

The evaluation team left, leaving the three alone. Gwen looked very excited. “You think we can win?” she asked the other two boys.

“I mean… maybe?” said Peter nervously. “Yes, definitely.”

“Relax.” Helios shrugged, walking towards Baymax. “Baymax will definitely win, right Baymax?”

Helios raised his fist, gesturing a fist bump towards Baymax. For a second the fluffy robot just stared at him, but quickly raised his fist, and fistbumped Helios.

“Balalalala~”