"It's Doctor!" the man yelled, eyes popping wildly behind the goggles. "Doctor Chimera! And a pathetic child like you can't possibly hope to stop me!" he declared. He went into what sounded like a prepared speech, akin to one of Baron Von Steamer's. "I am the world's greatest genetic scientist! I've collected exotic specimens from all over the world! And soon I will make the ULTIMATE PREDATOR! One with the strength of the silverback gorilla and the venom of the Irukandji! Its fangs will be like the king cobra's! It's claws will be—"

Eyes and mouth flat, Hiro activated the taser setting on the capture cable.

"Hhnnngnghghhhghh!" the man blurbbled, flopping around rather comically before slumping with a groan. "Tingly..." he mumbled.

Wearily, Hiro dropped his right arm. He fumbled for a moment at his left side, clumsily finding the dart he'd been shot with and pulling it out.

The tube seemed thick... and worryingly empty. But Hiro put that to the side for a moment as he reached up to activate his comm piece.

"I found our animal thief. He's been put out of commission for now," he reported.

"That's awesome, Hiro! Because we like, totally found a whole bunch of other animals in here!" Fred's voice crackled in over the line. There was a repetitive metal groaning from the Fredzilla suit's springs as the young man apparently bounced all around. "Look at this, he's got bears and badgers and Bengal tigers! Oh! Is that a yellow-tailed black cockatoo? I LOVE those guys!"

"Looks like that missing Katanga lion from the San Fransokyo zoo is here too," Gogo told him.

Hiro's eyelids began to droop, and he pulled himself upright with a shake. "Go ahead and alert the authorities. Then we should..."

He trailed off, a tired feeling beginning to roll over him, heavy like a blanket.

"Hiro?" came Honey Lemon's voice, concerned. "Are you okay?"

Grimacing and blinking hard, Hiro stumbled back a pace and lifted the dart again. "Ah, bad guy here caught me with some kind of tranquilizer dart." There was tiny black lettering on the side of the tube. Hiro squinted at the words, his vision blurring in and out. "It's uh... Xylazine?" he read off.

"IIIIIIIIII don't think that's meant for humans," Wasabi said, sounding anxious. "Isn't that an animal sedative vets use?"

"Wasabi is... correct. Xylazine... is not approved for human consumption," Baymax confirmed.

"Great," Hiro muttered. His head tilted dizzily, helmet leaning to one side. "That would have been... great. To know. Beforehand."

"Hiro," Baymax called to him in concern. "You will begin to feel... excessively drowsy and... lethargic. I suggest obtaining a reclined position, so as to reduce injury."

"Got it." Hiro staggered, his knees suddenly unable to take his weight. Was it him or was the room leaning?

Oh. Oh wait that was right he'd been... tranqed...

What was it Baymax had told him to do? It was hard to focus. He felt so heavy. Weights were dragging down his limbs, gravity pulled at his chin, making his head droop forward. He was sloshing. His feet wouldn't stay underneath him.

"That's... not... a problem..." he mumbled, his own voice sounding dull and far away. Honey Lemon was calling from his earpiece but the words were blurry, watery... incoherent. He wanted to reply but his tongue felt thick.

His knees gave way and a rattle went though his armor and helmet as the floor came up to smack him in the face.

***

"Hiro? Hiro!"

Honey Lemon kept her fingers pressed on her earpiece, but couldn't hear any reply from Hiro's end. She turned to the others, green eyes rife with worry.

"He didn't sound good," she said.

Gogo nodded, face set seriously. "We'll clean up here," she promised. "You two go get Hiro." She pointed to Baymax and Honey Lemon, then snapped into action, skating for the industrial doors and pulling them wide open.

Honey Lemon gripped her purse strap tightly and looked to Baymax.

"Which way?" she asked.

The robot pointed. "Hiro is... there."

She took off, heels clacking on the concrete in a steady, frenetic rhythm.

***

Hiro sloshed back awake, lifting his head groggily. Even that small effort seemed to drain the energy out of him, but he kept his chin raised, blinking slowly and trying to comprehend the blur in front of him.

Metal... metal... concrete... Oh. He was still in the lab. Had he passed out?

He should move. He didn't like the idea of being unconscious while next to a supervillain, even if said villain was tied up and tased.

He tried to send commands to his arms but his weak push up just caused drowsiness to flood over him again. Hiro slumped back down.

Nope, that wasn't happening.

I guess I'll just... lay here, he decided, blackness seeping into his thoughts again.

***

Honey Lemon burst into the room and looked around frantically. She quickly spotted the crumpled figures of the villain and Hiro.

"Hiro!" she cried, rushing to him at once.

Dr. Chimera mumbled deliriously from his prone position as she passed. "Who brought the purple giraffe?" came his dazed question.

Kneeling down and folding her legs underneath her, Honey Lemon turned Hiro over onto his back and began checking his vitals. She pressed her fingers against his neck.

Pulse good. Relaxed but not fluttering.

She leaned down and squinted through the visor of his helmet, catching the faint vapor spots that appeared on the glass as he inhaled and exhaled.

As Baymax shuffled up behind her, she turned her head over her shoulder.

"His vitals seem stable enough but... do you think he's okay?" she asked. "Should we take him to a hospital?" She bit her lip as she made the suggestion. Even though their relationship with the police had stabilized and improved, that didn't mean it was safe to reveal their identities just yet. Would hospital staff honor their privacy? Baymax could probably give them any medical history they'd need but there was no guarantee they'd be able to keep a lid on their secret.

If Hiro's life was in legitimate danger though, that all went out the window, in her opinion.

She would gladly trade her privacy and sense of normalcy if it meant Hiro would live.

They had lost too many friends already.

Fortunately Baymax's quick scan led to the diagnosis:

"He will be all right. The dosage of Xylazine he received is not fatal."

Honey Lemon breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"He will, however, be extremely tired for several hours, and may need to sleep the sedative off." Baymax tilted his head. "I would also recommend administering an antidote, to counteract the sedative's effects."

"Right." Honey Lemon scooted back a bit, hand hovering over the keypad of her purse. "Xylazine is... not an opioid," she remembered, rambling, brain running down quick thought trails. "But a lot of street drugs mix it with opioids so... naloxone?"

"Naloxone is the current recommended treatment for suspected Xylazine overdose," Baymax confirmed.

Honey Lemon's fingers started tapping at her keypad, carefully counting each element.

"Carbon... 19," she muttered under her breath, being very precise, her purse switched to "small batch" mode. "Hydrogen, 21..." She really would have to thank Hiro again for making her this purse; she still wasn't sure exactly how it worked but somehow it kept each individual element completely contained from the rest, only took the wanted amount from its stores each time. Being ever-conscious of just how many things inside the device would explode without those precautions she had to marvel again at the boy's genius.

Tadashi would have been so proud, she thought ruefully.

"Nitrogen... and four oxygen," she finished.

The purse popped out a tiny capsule, no bigger than the nail on her pinky finger, a single dosage of the antidote. Honey Lemon pinched it in her fingers and then carefully pulled Hiro's helmet off.

He stirred as she did so, blinking up with grimy eyes.

"W...ha...?" he said, bleary. "Whassat?" He squinted, and despite Baymax's reassurances Honey Lemon's heart panged at how vulnerable he looked. "H'ny L'mon?" he slurred.

She gave him a warm smile. "Hey Hiro," she chirruped. She held up the capsule so he could see it. "I need you take something for me okay? It's gonna help get that tranquilizer out of your system."

"Nnnnnmmmmm..." he hummed for a long moment, as if unsure. "'nkay."

Honey Lemon slipped the capsule into his mouth, which puckered as the outer coating dissolved and delivered the medicine down his throat.

"Hgnl, grozz..." he complained.

Honey Lemon's smile widened. She grabbed up Hiro's helmet, sticking it to her armor with another chem ball, then scooped up the boy himself, settling his head against her shoulder.

She returned to the others. Wasabi and Fred alerted anxiously to her arrival and even Gogo looked over in concern.

"Baymax says he's all right, just tired," she told them, and they relaxed.

"Well, good thing tomorrow's a Saturday!" Fred quipped.

With a small smile, Gogo explained, "Chief Cruz has a unit on their way."

Honey Lemon nodded. "I'll go ahead and get him home."

Baymax instinctively extended his wings and let the young woman hop on, and moments later they were streaking over the cool windswept streets of San Fransokyo.

***

Sneaking Hiro and the several-foot tall Baymax into the house was harder than Honey Lemon anticipated. Baymax couldn't remove his armor by himself and couldn't fit in through the door—or the upper story window for that matter—with it on. Honey Lemon had to set Hiro down on a chem ball cushion splatter and painstakingly remove each armor piece one by one, leaving them in the open garage under a tarp. From there it was a relatively simple process of dissolving her spatter and carrying Hiro very quietly up past the living area and into his room.

She stowed his helmet and armor under the bed, but left his undershirt and the rest of his clothes on; she didn't really feel comfortable undressing him while he was out.

Baymax tugged off Hiro's boots and then pulled the blanket over him. He stirred a little, cracking open his eyes.

He froze, breath hitching a little. Honey Lemon guessed he was disoriented, and confused about where he was.

"It's okay," she told him, sitting down in a chair next to the bed and patting his hand softly. "You're at home, Hiro. You're gonna be fine."

"Lab...?" he asked, groggily.

"The others are taking care of it." She smiled. "Just lay back okay?"

Relieved, Hiro sagged back into the pillow. He seemed slightly more coherent than before, but still delirious and watery-eyed.

"You may depart, if you wish, Honey Lemon," Baymax's neutral voice piped up. "I will monitor his symptoms."

Honey Lemon shifted in her seat to get up, but Hiro's fingers unexpectedly grabbed at hers.

"Don't..." he said, tone quiet and pleading. "Donngo. Don' wanna be 'lone."

Her heart splintered at that. "Oh, I..." She looked anxiously at the door and then back at Hiro. "I don't think..."

Her voice trailed off, watching him shift sleepily, bangs falling over his face to tickle his nose.

She gave in easily, leaned in with a smile.

"I'm right here, Hiro," she promised, brushing the bangs away from his eyes. "You can rest now. I'll stay with you."

His eyes stayed closed, but his mouth twitched with a faint grin. "Th'nks... H'ny L'mon..." he sighed, words blurring together. "Ynnow 've... 'lways.. kinda hadda crush... onyou..."

"I know, Hiro," she said, patting his hand indulgently, amused despite herself at how loopy the tranquilizer was making him.

"Sle'py..." he mumbled, sinking into the pillow and relaxing.

Within a few moments, he was breathing deeply, in total slumber, oblivious to the world.

Honey Lemon slipped her hand out from Hiro's and tapped her fists in front of her face, brows scrunched with concern.

"He won't remember this in the morning, will he?" she asked Baymax, slightly anxious, pointing down at Hiro.

Baymax tilted his head and blinked. "I do not think so."

"Oh good," Honey Lemon breathed in relief. "That would be so embarrassing for him." She stood up from the chair, stretching her long arms over her head. "Wake me before Aunt Cass gets up, would you?" she instructed the healthcare bot, before stepping over to the bean bag chair and sinking into it for the night.