#Karmi Coffee Morning

[rocksandrobots]

Phantoms of the Past: Ch. 5 - Best friends, Boyfriends, and Barons Part 1

"Hey Miss Itamae! Ready for a whole new school year? Hee...hee...eeeh.... yeah, fine." Hiro gave up trying to make small talk with the lunch lady as she unceremoniously slopped meatloaf onto his plate.

Today was the first day of the fall semester and the start of Hiro's second year at SFIT.  It felt odd to him, to look back and realize just how much time had passed; how much things had changed during the previous year.

A year ago, today, he had been attending Tadashi's funeral and now he was going about his life as if everything was normal. Well, almost normal. He was also moonlighting as a superhero, adopting an out of time teenager as his new big brother, and befriending deadly robots.

Life was weird.

Of course it wasn't as if he could ignore his loss completely. He had noticed the flowers and cards placed at the foot of Tadashi's memorial over by the exhibition hall. People still remembered that his brother had died a hero. Folks that he didn't even know had left their condolences today, though most of the gifts were from Tadashi's teachers and friends.

Hiro had particularly noticed a painting Honey Lemon had left, of her, Tadashi, and the rest of their friends. He also spotted Gogo sitting out there early that morning, lighting a candle in his brother's memory. He had given her her space, choosing not to interrupt. Gogo and Tadashi had been especially close.

Hiro remembered how excited his brother had been when Gogo finally agreed to go out with him. Tadashi had hurried about their bedroom, a couple of days before the fire, fretting over where to take her on their first date. A date that they had never gotten to go on. At the time Hiro had teased him relentlessly, never passing up the chance to deflate his brother's ego. Now it was just another bittersweet memory to look back on.

Fred abruptly snapped him out of his mournful reflection. "Steve." was all he said as he grabbed Hiro by the shoulders.

"Steve? Uh, my name is Hiro, remember Fred?"

"No, no, no, Steve was the name of the ninja robot that Trina found. She said he was held in a warehouse downtown, along with all the other ninjas. Don't you see, that's our big break! We find this warehouse and then we can track down the mysterious bosu!"

Hiro wearily placed his tray down on the table and took a seat next to Wasabi.

"Fred, it's the first day of school. Can't this wait for later?"

"But-"

"Hiro's right Fred," Wasabi interrupted, "Just because you have all the time in the world to play superhero doesn't mean that we do. We still got our own lives to take care of."

Fred looked hurt at that. "I'm not playing! This is important work. We have a city to protect and this crime boss is just going to keep coming after us if we don't figure out how to stop them."  

Wasabi rolled his eyes. "Then you just go on and do that. In the meantime the rest of us have class to attend. I'm heading early to set up for my first lab."

"But labs won't open for like another hour." Hiro pointed out, confused. "They're still cleaning up from the robot attacks last week."

"Ah, he just wants to get there early so that he can see his boyfriend again." Fred complained.

"Sam's not my boyfriend. He's just a colleague, and at least I'm doing something other than obsess over superheroing." And with that Wasabi stormed off, while Fred slouched into the cafeteria chair with a huff.

"Listen, Fred, why don't you go on patrol with Minimax for a while. I'll help you track down this warehouse after school is over with." Hiro said.

"Okay," Fred reluctantly agreed, "but I'm not 'obsessing'."

"I know Fred, but the rest of us also have school to worry about. We just don't have the same amount of free time as you do."

"I know." Fred sighed before walking off.

                                                ---------------------------

"Sorry Hiro, but we're kind of busy right now." Honey Lemon regretfully informed her friends.

Fred and Hiro had met up after school as promised. Wasabi had declined to join them on their quest and so they had decided to recruit the girls instead. Though this also seemed to be a fruitless endeavor.

"Yeah, we're kind of in the middle of something." Gogo finished as she leaned back in a reclining chair and placed two cucumber slices over her eyes.

They had found the girls at a spa. Honey Lemon sat next to Gogo with curlers in her hair, and they apparently weren't the only ones out having a beauty day.

"Can't you see we're having some girl time?" Karmi asked, annoyed, as she examined her nails.

"Yeah, Hiro, go take your weird superhero hobby elsewhere?" Megan added.

"It's not weird!" Fred insisted.

"If this is supposed to be a girls only event, then why is he here?" Hiro said, pointing to Varian, who sat next to Megan.

"Uh, getting a manicure obviously." Varian rolled his eyes and then leaned over to show Carol, who was beside him, two bottles of nail polish. "Do you think I should go with the midnight blue or just stick with black?"

"Hmmm... I think either would be nice," she replied.

"Ooooh, have you tried the seaweed wrap they have here? It's great." Fred chimed in.

Hiro rolled his eyes, "Okay, so what are you two doing after this? Could you take up patrol tonight?"

"Nope." Gogo said.

"I promised my brother Carlos that I would help him move into his new dorm room. He starts at UCLA this week and Gogo's offered to drive me there. We won't be back till tomorrow morning." Honey Lemon explained.

"Okay, well, we'll just-"

"Alright, I'm ready." A voice called out, interrupting him.

Trina walked out from behind a door at the back of the spa. Her bulky gigantic metal body was gone and in its place was the frame of a young woman, dressed in a t-shirt, pants, and a cropped jacket. She looked very much the same as the day Hiro had first met her, at the bot fights. Only this time her hair had been cut and styled into a short mohawk and dyed a light purple.

"What do you guys think?" She asked as she twirled around.

Everyone shouted encouragements to her, and Varian cheekily whistled.

"You look nice, Trina." Hiro complimented.

Trina snorted and rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, Hiro." She said, leaving the teenage genius confused by what he had said wrong.

Ignoring him, Trina walked over to the rest of the girls, "Thanks for the clothes... and for everything else." She sheepishly added.

"Hey, no problem." Megan replied. "They look good on you."

"Yeah, and if you need anything else just ask." Karmi added.

"Not to mention it's always fun to have a spa day," Carol piped in. "This was a good idea Varian, thanks for inviting me along."

"Sure thing. When Trina said she wanted help with finding a new wardrobe, I figured all of you would like to go shopping too.... and also y'all know more about clothes than I do."

"Hey, Trina," Fred interjected, "that warehouse where you foun- I mean, met 'Steve', do you happen to remember where it was located?"

Trina gave Fred a frown.

"Oooh, who's Steve?" Karmi asked, happy to gossip, "Is that your boyfriend Trina?"

"No." She said, "The place you're looking for is over in Good Luck Alley, next to Louie's."

"It must've been a bad breakup." Karmi whispered into Honey Lemon's ear, she wasn't very good at keeping her voice down.

"Yeah… he kind of... broke alright." Honey Lemon nervously added, unsure what to say.

"Uh, yeah, well thanks for the tip Trina. We'll be going now, bye." Hiro said as he hurried Fred out the door. He had had enough of awkward conversations and makeovers.

                                               ---------------------------

"Fred, wouldn't it be better if we brought our robots along at least?" Hiro whispered.

"You want to sneak around an abandoned warehouse with those two?" Fred whispered back, "I love him, but Minimax doesn't know how to be quiet, like at all."

Hiro sighed, Fred had a point. Baymax also wasn't the best at stealth missions. Hiro slid into the alleyway and peered through a dirty window. He couldn't shake the sense of deja vu as he remembered how he and the robotic nurse had tracked down his missing microbots a year ago at a similar warehouse. They had both been nearly killed by Callaghan when the villain had caught them snooping around. He would prefer to avoid such a scenario again.

"It doesn't look like anyone is here." He said.

"See any ninja robots?" Fred asked as he also pushed by to get a look, pressing his nose against the glass.

"No… Fred, this may be a dead end. Trina already raided the place and no doubt this Bosu would have abandoned the hideout if it was compromised."

Fred pouted, "Maybe… Buuuut, we could always man a stake-out and find out for sure!"

"Fred, I have homework to do. Maybe some oth-"

"Oh please! Just for an hour, or two? Please, please, please? Pretty please? I'll do your homework for you."

"I don't want you doing my homework."

"Okay, chores then; I'll wash Varian's dirty socks and underwear for a… a week… no, a month! Come on, I know how much you hate doing laundry."

Hiro sighed and watched his friend crawl on his knees and beg. "Does it really mean that much to you?"

"Yeeeesss."

"Okay, and no, you don't have to do the laundry either."

Hiro turned to walk out of the alley and Fred got up and followed him.

"That's good, cause I don't actually know how to wash clothes. Usually, Heathcliff does all the laundry. Last time I tried to, I just flooded the washroom."

"Do you have any survival skills? Like at all?"

"Nope. Unless it's kicking bad guys' butts! Ooh, hey, we can host the stake-out at Louie's across the street. I'm starved."

                                               ---------------------------

Hiro and Fred took up a window booth inside the restaurant. The establishment had recovered from the police raid from a few months back and was now serving food as usual; though Hiro had already spotted the advertisement for the next upcoming 'bot fight.

A couple of hours past and they had both eaten their meals, plus dessert, along with Fred going back for seconds. Now they were both nursing a couple of cups of coffee, though Hiro's was going cold; it wasn't great coffee.

"Fred…"

"Yeah."

"It's been three hours now."

"I know."

"No one's showed up."

"Not yet."

"Look it's been… 'fun', but I'm going home now."

Hiro got up to leave but Fred grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Oh but… uhh… we haven't even tried the uh… hot dog sushi special. I hear it's really good."

Hiro leaned his head back slowly and closed his eyes in frustration. He didn't want to snap at Fred, really he didn't, but he was quickly losing his patience.

"Fred… no one is coming. Let's just call it a night and try again some other time. Okay." And with that he yanked his hand away and began to walk off.

Fred didn't follow. Instead he sat in the booth, his eyes downcast, staring blankly at nothing. It wasn't his usual pout either. It was something else. Some deeper sadness that few saw from the usually optimistic teen.

Hiro began to worry. He walked back, and stood there waiting for Fred to jump back up all excited again for his return, only he didn't.

"Fred, what's wrong?"

Fred sighed but couldn't bring himself to answer.

"Look, I know that this superhero business is important to you, so much so that you'll probably wind up making a career out of it, which is great, but the rest of us are not going to be doing this for the rest of our lives. We also have to keep up with our studies, chores, our jobs, and what little shred of a social life we have."

"That's not it… I mean yeah, it's a part of it, but that's not why I asked you to come along."

Fred finally looked Hiro in the eye and tears threatened to spill.

"I just miss my best friend, okay."

Hiro looked at him confused.

"I didn't want to say anything, cause… cause he's your brother and I didn't think you'd want to be reminded about him being gone any more than you already have… but today has just been really hard… remembering what happened… I just thought getting out and doing something fun, getting both our minds off everything, might be better than just… just being alone. You know? Especially today."

Fred didn't even have to say Tadashi's name for Hiro to know who he was talking about.

Hiro sighed and slumped back down into the booth.

"I'm sorry…. I… I guess I just… I don't know. I didn't think...."

"No… no, don't. Of course you didn't think. I mean who wants to be reminded of that. The whole idea was to not think about it. And I just ruined it all by bringing it up. Gah…. I'm so sorry."

Fred put his arms over his head and brought his knees up to his chest as if trying to make himself as physically small as he felt. Hiro just had to laugh at the sight in spite of himself.

"It's okay Fred. You're not going to upset me just by talking about Tadashi."

Fred peaked his head out from between his arms. "I'm not?"

"No. I mean he was your friend too."

"My best friend! Man, Tadashi and I, we got up to all sorts of trouble. He was always down for anything. I mean, did he tell you about the time we crashed my cousin's bar mitzvah? As in, we literally crashed. He drove the sport's car into the buffet table by mistake… We couldn't find the parking and then there was this wet patch in the parking lot and we skidded… Oh and then there was the time Mole dared us to a drag race using scooters and Tadshi had the idea to attach rockets to mine and I went flying.. I tell ya, man, Mole wouldn't live it down for a whole week after. He kept demanding a rematch, but I mean it was fair. He was using his butler to ride for him in his place."

Hiro could barely contain his laughter, "Wait… wait… you and Tadashi did all this?"

"Yeah."

"Why have I never heard of any of this before?"

"I don't know, but he's the whole reason why I got the mascot job in the first place. I knew I could never get into the school myself, but I thought we could hang out together more if I went. He's also the one that introduced me to everybody else."

"Then how did you two meet?"

"Oh at the grocery store."

Fred said this as if it was the most obvious of explanations but Hiro looked as confused as ever. So Fred continued on.

"He was there getting chewing gum and I was buying a shopping cart. Like an actual shopping cart."

"Why?"

"Yeah that's what he asked too. So I told him, 'I'm going to ride down Dead Man's Hill in one.' And he said, 'Dude, that's so rad. You're totally going to die.' And I said, 'Yeah, I know. You wanna join?' And he did. We rode all the way down from the top of Lumbar Street to the docks… and landed right in the bay. It was awesome! We screamed our heads off the whole time. It was so awesome, in fact, that we walked back to the store and bought another cart just to do it again. That was back when we were both still in high school, and we've been best buds ever since. You know… until…"

Hiro looked at Fred sadly. There so much about his brother that hadn't known about, hadn't even thought to ask. What else had Tadashi not shared with him? Probably a lot, I mean why tell your kid brother about your social life? And there's no way that he'd have brought those crazy stunts up around Aunt Cass.

"I never knew any of that… Those are some really cool stories. Thanks for sharing them."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and you know, you don't have to drag me on some superheroing mission just to hang out and talk."

Fred looked guilty at that.

"I… I know… but it's like what you and Wasabi have been saying. Everyone else has something… something to motivate them, and y'all all do all these really cool things and I'm… I'm just me. I don't really have anything but superheroing. Unless you just need someone to make a mess."

"That's not true. Fred, you're great at a lot of things. You could go to school or get a job, if you wanted to. I just thought superheroing was all you wanted."

"Hiro, I can't even do laundry without messing up. I mean all you do is throw the clothes into a machine and push a button, and yet somehow I managed to screw even that up. All I know is comic books, and superheroing, and I'm not even the best at that! What would I even go to college for? I can't… I'm not a genius. I'm not a businessman. I'm not an accountant, or an artist, or an athlete. I'm not anything. I've no talent. I'm not even good at being rich. I've never fit in with the socialite crowd."

"Fred."

"Yeah?"

"You're good at being a friend, and if I have to sit here list off everything else you're good at then we'd be here for another three hours or more. So how about we head home and tomorrow I'll show you how to work a washing machine, and you can teach me how a stake-out is supposed to really go cause we're not getting anywhere here."

"Or are we?"

"What do you mean?"

Fred was no longer looking at Hiro but past him. He pointed to the window behind Hiro, and Hiro turned around to see for himself.

An elderly gentleman, dressed in an old fashioned military outfit, complete with a monocle, was entering the warehouse. He had a giant mechanical arm and a steam boiler strapped to his back.

"Baron Von Steamer."

                                               ---------------------------

Fred and Hiro found themselves standing in the alley peering through the warehouse's dirty windows for a second time that day. They saw Baron Von Steamer stomping around inside. He seemed irritated as he grumbled to himself and knocked boxes out of the way, as if searching for something.

"What's he doing?" Fred loudly whispered.

Just then Steamer found what he was looking for, a tea cup. He poured himself a cup out of a teapot he had placed on an old fashioned stove that was hidden towards the back and then sat down on top of a crate to sip his drink.

"It must be 'tea time' for him." Hiro said dryly.

Fred narrowed his eyes, "I bet he's just hatching his next nefarious scheme. Planning on how to take us and the city down. What do you think he wants with portals?"  

Just then Steamer stood up and ruefully kicked away a busted up robot that had fallen out of a storage crate in his previous hunt for the tea cup.

"I don't think Steamer is our guy." Hiro said, "He hates modern technology, so why would he build ninja robots? Also, like you said, what would he want with portals? All he's after is your dad, and so far the Bosu hasn't gone after Boss Awesome yet."

"But they might. Remember what Roddy said? That Kensei guy used to be active during Dad's heyday but never got caught. What if, it's because Steamer had two villain identities!"

"That seems like a stretch."

"Okay, well, what if Steamer works for this Bosu? Like Sue and Sparkles?"

"That's more plausible, I guess."

Hiro turned to peer through the window again, but Streamer was gone.

'Wait, where did he go?'

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A pair of interlopers." A curt British voice  came from behind them.

Steamer must have noticed them and snuck around the back, cutting them off.

Hiro grabbed his phone in order to call his super suit, but Von Steamer nabbed his hand and yanked him off the ground, causing him to lose hold of his phone.

Fred was just as unfortunate, as Steamer held him in a choke hold in his metal arm.

"Waaaait," Steamer said as he eyed them both up closely, peering at them through his oversized monocle, "I know you two. You're friends of Boss Awesome's baby child!"

"I am Boss Awesome's baby child!" Fred protested before Von Steamer gave him a hard squeeze with his cyborg arm. Fred wheezed in pain.

Hiro reacted quickly and kicked the steampunk baron in the shins.

Von Steamer howled in pain and dropped Hiro in surprise, though he managed to keep his grip on Fred. He also had stepped on Hiro's phone while nursing his injured leg.

Hiro ducked and ran as Steamer regained his senses and pulled out a brass gun that was connected to the boiler on his back with a hose. He pulled the trigger and scalding steam shot out. Hiro ducked again to avoid it.

As he ran out of the alley way he heard Steamer shouting after him, "Yes, run back to Boss Awesome little one. Tell his baby child I have their friend, and either he, or they, must show up to face me or else!"

Hiro spared a glace backwards and saw Baron Von Steamer dragging Fred back into the warehouse.

"Fred!"

"Hiro!" Fred called out to him before being pulled into the darkness.

Hiro panicked. What could he do? Finally, he decided that getting help was the best option. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, fighting back his worry.

[drkineildwicks]

Thoughts on Obake’s final S1 scene:

(disclaimer: I know very little on mental health, what I do know comes from cultural osmosis and web searches for writing for Baymax, also I wrote this early in the morning before I had coffee)

Me upon first watching “Countdown to Catastrophe”: No.  No you don’t go that hard and just give up.

Me now: …maybe you do if you have preexisting self-worth issues.

Hypothesis: Obake has emotional/mental issues stemming from a skewed view of self-worth, which he has been living with for years.

Potential evidence: Obake’s motivation for destroying San Fransokyo and rebuilding it from scratch was to emblazon his name on history.  His statement of the worthy survive was made at the time when it would be just him, Hiro, and his allies surviving, further underlying what he considers worthy (genius, yes, but limited to someone he could see himself in, and those he could use).  When this fails, he ceases to see himself as worthy and suffers a mental shutdown.

Evidence that these self-worth issues are long-term issues, possibly stemming from his time at SFIT. He learned to push the limits at SFIT when not downright ignoring them, was encouraged in this manner.  When this backfired and injured him to the point of near-death (i.e., a massively traumatic experience), this could have resulted in him blaming himself.  We see no evidence that Professor Granville visited him in the hospital, despite being the one to encourage him (this could honestly be from bigger legal issues at the time, seeing as how she took the blame for the destruction).  We also don’t see, from what little we see of his younger self, any indication that he socialized with others (which may have been what motivated Granville to ensure Hiro and Karmi did not do the same).  He was potentially alone and in pain with no outside perspective to keep him from making a logical fallacy and blaming himself (“I had no limits, the science was sound, therefore I must be the problem”).  Considering he tried to repeat the experiment that resulted in his injury, it is possible that he blamed himself over the experiment itself being unsound.  In addition, in the flashbacks he doesn’t seem much older than Hiro or Karmi (that they are listed as the youngest ever to attend SFIT may come from Obake erasing his records or the school itself expunging them to avoid lawsuits).  It is very easy for a younger person to make such logic errors and blame themselves after such a physically and mentally traumatic experience.

Such a mentality can result in extreme highs and extreme lows.  Him severing ties with everyone and falling off the radar could be one of these extreme lows, while his single-minded drive to complete Shimamoto’s star machine could be the result of one of those extreme highs.  The creation of Trina could be an attempt at alleviating his self-worth issues as it could be he tried to make something that looked at him with adoration instead of self-perceived loathing, with no danger of the latter happening (empathizing more with machines than people as machines have reason behind their operations and humans have failed him before).  His treatment of his allies, keeping them at arm’s length, could be a combination of these self-worth issues (I don’t deserve companions) and not wanting to get attached and hurt again.  After hearing Granville tell Hiro an abbreviated version of what happened to him, his expression and his increased aggression in altercations with Big Hero Six suggests he took that badly and expressed it in the same way (compared to his interactions after this conversation, his prior interactions were more toying than a need to rid himself of them).

When he fixates on Hiro, it’s because he sees himself in Hiro and perhaps a way to ‘fix himself.’ He views his own life through a skewed lens and feels as though he can avoid those issues with Hiro.  Hiro however does not have those issues with self-worth as he has a network to help him through his low points, and when he succeeds is when Obake gives up—the worthy survive, and once again he is not worthy.

Further hypothesizing: Baymax would have never left such an emotionally damaged person behind in a potentially dangerous situation, hinting that Obake had at some point theorized that things might go wrong for him and left a data packet behind to prevent Baymax from doing so (theorizing that he wouldn’t need to remove his chip unless things went catastrophically wrong).  Baymax, after learning about emotional health during his treatment of Hiro, would have recognized Obake’s issues and taken him to get help.

Conclusion: Disney is a bunch of cheapskates who didn’t want to pay for another season of Andrew Scott despite the fact that they could have put Obake on a bus like they did with Karmi.  Also, they missed a chance to address certain emotional issues like they did in the movie.

Secondary conclusion: No body, as evidenced in Ultimate Spider-Man, means he’s still alive. The buddy guards, which turn invisible, were also not recovered.

Hope: Obake is out there getting the help he needs so he can live his best life.

Final conclusion: Canon failed us, fanfiction will not.

[the-writer-nerd-ro]

Christmas Party Panic

Christmas/Holiday present and general OC fun for @brainyxbat and @spyrkle4 and @barely-nok read to find out which BH6 character or OC says the f-word.

Seth stretched, their back tingling and aching as they pulled a lush, soft Christmas sweater over their chest, where the scars of surgery had primarily healed, and their back, where the scars were still a little raw.

“Good morning my king,” Morgan mumbled, sleepily reaching for her tube of toothpaste and almost putting lotion on her toothbrush instead. Seth gently corrected her, far more used to being awake early in the morning than their drowsy girlfriend. 

“Morning, sugar,” Seth smirked, “Are you excited for the party?”

“For the… That’s today?” Morgan still didn’t understand how she’d been invited to this party. By all accounts, it didn’t make sense. Things between her and Hiro were tolerant, maybe even a tad protective, but not exactly warm. Wasabi and Fred kind of liked her, but all of them liked Seth and Seth loved Morgan, so Morgan made it to the guestlist for The Lucky Cat Cafe Christmas party.

The guestlist was actually getting pretty long. That was Ari’s fault. If it were up to Hiro, it would just be Big Hero 6, Ari, and Megan. Fred had insisted on inviting Seth which had landed Morgan on the guestlist as well, but Ari was the one throwing around invites to anyone who smiled at her. Which included all of the Ferns, Sienna, Rachel and her folks, and now some random coffee patron.

"You can't add strangers to the guestlist, Ariel.” 

“Doesn’t seem like she’s a stranger to me,” Ari smirked, jerking her head towards Wasabi, who was nervously stumbling over his words and rubbing his neck as he talked to a short girl with green streaks in her hair.

“Look at him,” Ari gigled, “he’s smitten. You’ve got to let him invite Venus. They’re so cute together. You got to invite Megan.” Hiro blushed at the mention of Megan. 

“That’s different. And isn’t he already inviting someone?” 

“No, that’s different, Khary is his brother. You’re inviting me.” 

“You’re not invited, you live here. Khary doesn’t live here. He’s cool though, and I know him, so it’s okay. I don’t know Venus. Too many people are coming to this party.” Hiro ran his fingers through his hair, seeming a little irritated and not very festive. Ari knew that this was difficult for him, his first Christmas without Tadashi. She’d hoped surrounding him with friends, old and new, would help him, but he just seemed uncomfortable. 

Ari placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

“Last year it was just different. I’m glad that you’re here, you’re the best change that ever could’ve happened. But last year… And Morgan…” 

Ari frowed. She hadn’t been around Morgan much but she liked her. Morgan was confusing and intriguing and always seemed like she was down for a good though slightly illegal time. Rachel had met her once and quietly commented that Morgan reminded her of Katie, if Katie was human and nice. 

“What about Morgan?” Hiro didn’t seem to like Morgan much, though Ari had never really understood why, until Hiro answered her.

“Morgan was Tadashi’s girlfriend. Now she’s what? Turned around and found somebody new?”

“Seth is really cool, you shouldn’t be upset at them.”

“I’m not upset at them! I don’t care about them. I’m upset that Morgan moved on so fast.” 

“I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her, Hiro. But maybe talking to her today will help.” 

Hiro was about to disagree when Wasabi came over, grinning like a fool.

“I got Venus's number! And she’s coming to the party.” Wasabi did a quick little happy dance. 

“Congrats,” Hiro muttered, disappearing upstairs. 

“Is he okay?” Wasabi asked. 

Ari bit her lip, wondering how much she should explain.

“He’s just nervous about the party,” she finally managed. 

“Ah. Well, me too, actually. I should, uh, I should go home and change…” The fact that this was kind of a date with the cute Botany Major had just occurred to Wasabi, and his face morphed into a panic.

“I’m looking forward to meeting your brother!” Ari called before Wasabi could run out of the cafe.

Wasabi hesitated, “What?”

“Didn’t you invite Khary?” 

His eyes widened, “I forgot my whole brother.” Ari stifled a laugh. She knew as well as anyone that love could make you do boarderline stupid things. 

"Well, don't forget him before the party."

"I won't," Wasabi promised, heading out.

Unlike her brother, Ari was excited about having so many people around for Christmas. While she loved Aunt Cass and Hiro, she knew her family was much larger than just them. It included all the wonderful people who had come into her life this past year. She wished Juniper could be on the guestlist, and that Karmi could be more than an unanswered invitation. She missed her dear friends and hadn't stopped worrying about either since the mutations, which had hit everyone pretty hard. They deserved a nice Christmas after everything that had happened. She just hoped Hiro would be a little more in the Holiday spirit later.

Hiro wasn't the only reluctant party guest. Actually, it seemed like reluctance was infectious. Morgan hadn't started feeling merry and Wasabi's last minute invite couldn't even leave her bedroom, too nervous and indecisive. 

"Sweetheart," Malia Woods said, putting a hand on Venus' shoulder, "you look wonderful. This Wesley fellow will be lucky to be your date tonight."

"Are you sure?" Venus spun in her Santa dress, looking like a million bucks, and her mom laughed.

"Yes, Cath, he's going to swoon when he sees you."

"Jack was making fun of me earlier," Venus frowned. She really did hate her older brother and his cruel jokes.

"Jack has been reprimanded. And he's out with friends tonight anyway, you have nothing to worry about. Come on, honey. Let's get you to your party." 

Venus nodded, taking a deep breath, mustering her confidence, and putting on a Santa hat.

"Let's go."

"Come on, Morgan, let's go! We need to leave now if we want to run errands before the party." Seth was many things but late was rarely one of them.

"Hold onto your horses, babe. It's not easy looking this perfect."

"It's not that hard, I do it all the time," Seth retorted, setting down three tins of decorated cookies and crossing their arms.

Morgan laughed, "I can't argue with you there…" Finally she emerged, makeup flawless, wearing a sweater that matched  Seth's. Seth's was green and said "All I Want for Christmas is You," with an arrow pointing at Morgan. Morgan's was red and said the same, with an arrow pointing at Seth. As tempting as it had been to buy even dumber couple's sweaters, they'd settled on something sweet that would still nauseate their friends and family.

"We look great," Seth said, grabbing the cookie tins.

"We're missing something, hold on." Morgan produced two pairs of reindeer antler headbands and plopped one down on Seth's head, before putting on her own. 

"Perfect," Seth agreed, though they knew it was cheesy. 

They were not half as cheesy as Sadie’s boyfriends, who opened the door to their apartment donned in a two person Christmas sweater that declared that Bennet was the naughty one and Dalton was the nice one.

“Oh my gosh,” Morgan snickered.

“Are you guys okay? Dalton? Bennet? Is this a punishment? Blink twice if my sister is holding you hostage.”

Dalton jerked his head at his slightly shorter boyfriend, “It was his idea.” 

Seth’s mouth formed an O, “Bennet, I thought you were the sensible one.” 

Bennet smirked, “This is great. Dalton has to hug me the entire time we’re wearing this.” While Bennet tended to gravitate more toward giving gifts and Dalton was more centered around acts of service it was obvious that one of Bennet’s love languages was physical touch.

“I’m touching his butt,” Dalton said with a shrug and a sly smile. 

“Is Sadie here?” 

“Yeah, but she’s being a real Grinch,” Bennet said, loud enough for Sadie to overhear. 

“You guys left me out of the Christmas sweater,” Sadie said, coming over.

“Sorry,” Dalton said sheepishly.

Sadie smiled, “I’m not mad at you, goof. What’s up, Seth, Morgan? You guys look adorable.” 

“Thanks. We brought you cookies! We have one more delivery to make before we go to this Christmas party later, so we can’t stay, but I’m really glad we got to see you!” Morgan seemed a bit more cheerful, but she was still nervous about the party. 

“I’m glad I got to see this,” Seth said, gesturing at Dalton and Bennet.

“Have fun at your party, I’m sure these cookies will be great,” Sadie said, taking the tin.

“Did Morgan make them?” Bennet asked, a bit skeptical.

“No, don’t worry,” Seth laughed.

“Hey, I can bake!”

“Mm, sure you can, sugar.” Seth kissed Morgan’s cheek, having to tiptoe per usual, though not as much since the incident. 

“I know you have to leave but you’ll have to join us for hot chocolate and S’mores sometime after Christmas. Dalton makes the best,” Sadie said.

“We’ll hold you to it.” They had one more couple to visit before they headed to the party, which was already getting started. 

“Ari, this is my little brother Khary. Hiro, I guess you two probably remember each other?” 

“Yeah, what’s up, man?” Hiro and Khary exchanged a fist bump and Khary shook Ari’s hand. 

“Just vibing,” Khary laughed, “It’s nice to meet you, Ari.”

“Nice to meet you too. Wasabi talks about you all the time."

"Wasabi?"

"Oh that's their nickname for me. You can use it too, Khare."

"Cool. It's uh, it's nice to know you have friends who care enough to give you nicknames." Wasabi smiled a moment but it was clear he was distracted, watching the door, waiting for his crush. The door opened and Wasabi held his breath, but it was just Megan and Chief Cruz.

"Hey, I know you, you go to my school!" Megan said, coming over and striking up a conversation with Ari, Hiro, and Khary.

"Yeah? I think I might've seen you around… I'm Khary."

"Megan. You were in Mary Poppins, right? I wrote about your performance for the school paper."

"Oh, cool!" Wasabi was obviously overjoyed that his baby brother was getting along with the others, but he was more concerned about his date. What if she decided not to come? What if she thought all this was too much? But, sure enough, Catherine "Venus" Woods made her grand entrance, instantly taking Wasabi's breath away.

"You look amazing, Venus. I'm so glad you came."

Venus instantly blushed, "You look nice too, Wesley."

"Oh, uh, you can call me Wasabi, all my friends do."

She nodded and made a note of it, "I really like your sweater."”

“Oh, really? I made it.” 

“You made that? Whoa. You’re so talented.”

“You’re pretty talented yourself,” Wasabi commented, “I’ve seen the project that got you into SFIT. That’s crazy cool.” 

Venus instinctively pushed her hair in front of her face, nervous and blushing. 

“T-thank you.” Khary nudged Wasabi’s leg with his foot and Wasabi remembered that he and Venus weren’t the only two people in the universe. 

“Venus, this is my little brother Khary.” Wasabi affectionately grabbed the teen by his shoulders.

“Oh,” Venus smiled, “Nice to meet you!” 

“And these are my friends Ari, Hiro, and Megan. Ari and Hiro’s aunt owns the cafe”

“You work here sometimes, don’t you, Wasabi?” Venus asked, since he was the whole reason she’d become a regular here. 

“Yeah, it’s been my part time job since high school.” He frowned, momentarily, thinking about Tadashi who had gotten him this job and more importantly had gotten him to this point in his life. This Christmas would be hard. He glanced at Hiro, noticing for the first time that all these changes, all these new people that Tadashi hadn’t known were really shaking the kid. 

“We’re late,” Morgan said, her leg jittering in the passengers’ seat, “maybe we shouldn’t go. Maybe we should just drop off the cookies with Kei and skip the party.”

“We’re gonna drop off these cookies and at least make an appearance at the party. Fred asked me to come, and I’m sure everyone is going to be glad to see you.”

“Sure,” Morgan rolled her eyes.

“Hey, our friends love you.”

“Your friends,” Morgan reminded, “you’re the one everyone likes.”

“That’s not true. Hiro’s little sister likes you.”

“Oh, yeah, well she’s different. She’s cool. Have you seen what she can do with the…” Morgan mimicked water bending, and Seth laughed.

“Not sure if I have. Haven’t exactly been on the anti-hero scene as long as you, babe.” Seth kept Morgan talking, distracted from her concerns about the party until they pulled up at their second stop. 

“Kei’s gonna love these,” Morgan said cheerfully, still over the moon that she had met and befriended her favorite performer. 

“We did good,” Seth agreed. Seth loved that Morgan had gotten to meet her idol but DJ Parasite had become so much more than music they drank to, Kei had sort of become like a mom to Seth. A really weird, young, cool mom.

Morgan knocked on the door to Kei’s apartment.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, hold on!” Kei yelled across the apartment, and there was a crashing sound before the door was unlocked.

“Oh my gosh,” Kei said, eying the sweaters, “you two look adorable. I didn’t think I could ship this more but I do.” 

Seth laughed, “Thank you.”

“Mr. Claus won’t match with me, but, ugh, I’m loving this.” Kei drew Morgan and Seth into a hug without warning, pulling them slightly into the apartment.

“We made and decorated cookies,” Morgan said, holding up the tin.

“Oh! Thank you! I think I have your presents ready, hold on.” Morgan and Seth stood there, waiting, as Kei disappeared, yelling down the hallway, “BABE! DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE GIFTS FOR THE KIDS ARE?”

Seth couldn’t help chuckling at the response, “They’re under the Christmas tree, dumbass.” 

“Right, obviously.” Kei dashed over to the tree and came back with two matching gift bags.

“It’s simple but if you don’t like it tell me, or, well just I’ll probably end up getting you something else as well so that’s a placeholder for now.”

“Do you want us to open it now?” Seth asked, taking the bag addressed to them. 

“No, I don’t wanna see your faces if you’re disappointed in them.”

“I’m sure we’re going to love them, Kei,” Morgan assured.

“Hope so. Oh! Before you leave, look up!” Seth and Morgan looked up in unison, a blush tinting both of their faces when they saw the mistletoe over the door. Seth glanced at Morgan who nodded and leaned down for a quick but sweet kiss. 

"See? Moth uses the mistletoe!" Kei shouted down the hall to her husband. 

"I don't need a parasite plant to kiss my parasite wife!"

"Well, we'll let you get to kissing," Morgan snorted, "we have places to be anyway."

"So are you excited for the party now?" Seth asked as they walked back to the car, pulling out the bit of tissue paper in the bag and revealing a lovely little bird ornament with soft fake feathers, "Oh, this is cute! What did you get?"

Morgan opened her own bird ornament, which was made out of gears and other steampunk parts. Morgan giggled, "Kei is nutso. These are going on our tree immediately."

"Are you excited about the party?" Seth asked again, for the third time today, actually.

The rest of this story will be in the fucking reblog I guess

[lovetvshowsposts]

A Variro Story CH 1

Description: Varian (Tangled the Series) is a transfer from Germany and new to San Fransokyo and the Institute of Technology and the second 14-year-old to be inducted in the school.  He tries to keep things under control, so people won’t find out his secret.  Hiro can handle being a student and hero but now with these unknown feelings and them being toward the new guy he doesn’t quite know what to do. (I swear the story is better than the description) AU (Hiro X Varian=Variro)

This story is based off of Tumblr user @sinningcookie ship of Hiro and Varian (Variro).  Be sure to check out the art that has been done of these two it’s amazing.  If I was good at drawing, I would have made a Variro comic but here is the story of how the two meet, become boyfriends and each other’s heroes.  Complete AU from both of the series but they are represented in ways throughout this story.  

<> 

Beep beep! Beep beep!

Eyes open slowly at the sound of an annoying noise as it continues to sound.  Until they land upon the source.  The clock says 7:45AM making the eyes shoot right open.  “Ah no, I’m going to be late!!”  shouts Hiro as he jumps out of bed grabbing papers and cloths as he looks for his backpack.  He finds it hanging on his chair and starts to stuff everything into it, which makes the chair roll right onto his foot. “Ow!” He hops backwards to his bed holding his foot.

The beeping from the other side of the room drew his attention.  Baymax opens his eyes to see all of Hiro’s room and the state he was in. He steps out of his charging port and goes to Hiro.  “Hiro on a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain?”  he proceeds to show the chart on his chest.

“I don’t have time Baymax, I’m late!!  Hiro quickly gets up and starts to get dressed.  “Why didn’t you wake me up, anyway? The emergency alarm had to wake me.”

“The average amount of sleep the human body needs is eight hours.  You went to bed at two AM by my calculations you need another two hours to function properly.”

“I know Baymax, but I have papers, projects and classes that need to be done.” Hiro argues as he finishes tying his shoe, he gets up and sprints for the stairs.  As he was about to leave, Hiro remembers to grab his bag and Baymax in tow.

<> 

The Lucky Cat Café was as busy as usual for a Monday morning.  All the tables were packed as Aunt Cass tries to cut time by loading up a tray full of coffees and pastries.  She walks past the doorway that leads to their upstairs living quarters.

Hiro comes out of nowhere, yelling “Bye Aunt Cass.  Sorry no hugs, I’m late.”  Running right by his aunt who is able to dodge him, but once Baymax bumps into her she begins to fall, just taking the tray with her, until a helpful hand saves the both of them.

“Woah that would have been a disaster.  Are you ok?” a feminine voiced stranger says as she helps pick up the tray and Aunt Cass.

“Yeah I’m fine but when you have a nephew; somethings can go crazy.  Ah thank you…”  Aunt Cass looks to the young lady that was in front of her as she is helped up.  She wore black boots that led to grey skinny jeans.  They were held with a brown belt with the most peculiar belt buckle; a circle with three lines on it.  As she is still being lifted Cass see a maroon shirt that was tucked in and a black leather jacket covering the rest of the stranger.  Cass’s finally helped all the way up get the reveal of the stranger’s face seeing pale skin, dark pink lips, hazel eyes and raven hair that is in a bob-cut of layers with grey highlights.  Which Aunt Cass thought had to be the girl’s choice of dying it because the stranger seems to be the age of 23.  And that much grey hair on her did not seem natural.  

The stranger finally offers her name.  “Cassandra, and I kind of am going to be going through the same thing as I watch my friends’ kid.”  Cassandra fully gives control to the tray back to Aunt Cass, as she walks to drop off coffee and pastries at tables.  

“Ah, are you new here?  I haven’t seen you around.”  Cass asks as Cassandra follows her.

“No, I’ve lived here for a while and have heard about your place.  But I’m just not really a coffee person.”

Cass asks bewildered “Then what brings you in?” as she sets the last pastry down.

“You evidently have a tea other places don’t carry that helps my friend’s kid calm down. With it being his first day at a new school, he’s a bit nerves so…” Cassandra was cut off by a long car honk that came from outside.

“Speak of the devil.  That’s him now, can I get a large?”

“Say no more; I’m on it.”  Aunt Cass proceeds to make the tea as quickly as she could.

<> 

“Alright, Baymax, I’ll be back after classes.  The others might drop by throughout the day.  See ya!! Hiro says as he closes the door to Tadashi’s lab and runs to Professor Granville’s class.  He makes it through the door before he could be marked late.

“You; barley made it, Mr. Hamada.  Note; being punctual will help you be able to keep a job in the future, even if you are working for yourself.”  Professor Granville states as she pulls her lecture up on to the screen.

Hiro lets out a relived breath as he walks to his seat.  He pulls out his notebook and pencil for the lecture.  The class was going normally until almost the end of class.  There was a knock at the classroom door.  Everyone looks to Professor Granville.  She looks to the door window.

“Ah yes, come on in Mr. Müller.”  The whole class had their eyes on the door as it slowly opens.  A young boy walks to Professor Granville.  Hiro too, stares as the guy walks by.  Noting of what he could see, the student wore many layers of baggy clothes all consisting of teal and black.

A teal beanie sat on his shaggy black hair.  His bangs covered a majority of his face.  But one strand stood out because it was blue.  He held a few notebooks in one hand against his chest and a plastic cup in the other.  Hiro took a closer look to see the logo.  It was from the Lucky Cat Café.  Hiro’s scrutinizing gaze was broken when Granville spoke; “Now class, I don’t normally introduce new students, but this is Varian Müller a 14-year-old transfer from Germany.  As you can see, he doesn’t quite know campus so if one of you could show him around?” She looks around the room to see if anyone will volunteer.  Instead of volunteering everyone starts whispering.

Hiro looks around making out some of the whispering conversations that were: “He’s young.” “Is his look a fashion statement?” “Why did he transfer?”  “What’s his major.”  He then looks back to Varian to sees the guy was shrinking in on himself and the cups contents he was holdings was swishing around a bit.  Hiro noted probably from being nervous.

Just as Professor Granville was about to speak a happy go lucky “I’ll do it!” came from Hiro’s right. He looked over to see Karmi the 18-year-old bio-tech prodigy.  She was all to giddy to be the guide this new kid. No doubt to find out what he studies, or he must be new competition for her.  Hiro thought as he watches her head to the front of the room.

“Thank you Karmi. Alright class that is all for today’s lesson don’t forget to do pages nine though thirteen of your textbooks.” Granville states as class is dismissed.

<> 

“Argh; finally; the hard part of my day is over!!”  Hiro reports as he enters the lab hands full of his textbooks and new project parts.  He sets them down on the closest table knocking some other papers and blueprints over to the already messy floor.  He wipes his forehead with his jacket sleeve as he looks around the room seeing Fred laying upside down on a chair reading a comic as Baymaxs watches.  

All of a sudden Fred pops up saying “Hey!  What about this; could a person survive a blast of magma from there hands?” asks Fred excitedly.  

“The probability of magma emanating from a person’s hands is nonexistent they would suffer from third degree burns from the surrounding tissue and…”

Baymax was cut off when Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Gogo all barged into the lab. “Did you hear about the new guy!” Squeals Honey Lemon. “I heard he was too smart for his old school so that why he’s here.”

“Yeah this kid’s got a so many awards he’s probably going to win all the ones here.” Wasabi chimes in.”

“I heard he is an alien from the planet Malgo an here to suck out our brains!”  Fred says enthusiastically as he walks over to Gogo trying to scary her.

“No.” Voices Gogo as she stops him from getting closer by putting her hand on his chest.

“Freddy were you feeling left out because you don’t know what we’re talking about?” implies Honey Lemon.

“Yes; No; Maybe?” Fred shrinks down after each word knowing his guess were way off.  Which made everyone silent until Gogo announces “I just heard he was from Germany.”

“Wait you guys are talking about the transfer uh Varian…uh…Varian Miller.”  

“It’s pronounced Mueller since he’s from Germany Hiro.”  Politely corrects Honey Lemon.

“Whatever he’s Karmi’s new competition so I don’t care what his name is.” Hiro starts to dig through a box of parts to get started on a project.

“Oh, so you didn’t hear?” States Gogo as she crosses her arms.

“Hear what?” Hiro looks to his friends in confusion while he was still digging.  Fred shrugs because he is just as much in the dark as he is.

“Karmi released a whole report about this kid.  Its on the schools blog.”  Wasabi pulls out his phone and shows Hiro.  The screen shows a quick snapshot of the kid trying to block the camera with his fingerless gloved hands.  With the title New Prodigy Hits Campus!  Before he could read anymore Wasabi took it away saying.  “It says the kid went to Berlin’s Institute of Technology our number one competitor.  He’s won all sorts of awards.  Until a mysteries accident caused half the school to be decommissioned.  He’s now here to continue his studies.”

“Did he actually tell Karmi this?”  Hiro asks as he pulls out the tool he was looking for.

“I don’t think so. I saw Karmi in the library on the computer.” Gogo says as she blows a bubble from her gum.  Hiro walks over to some parts that he has on a table and starts his project.

“What I’m shocked is he’s majoring in Chemical Engineering and Robotics.  Two majors is suicide at this school!”

As soon as the word Robotics left Honey Lemons mouth, he froze.  “What is he majoring?”

She repeats herself “Chemical Engineering and Robotics.”

“Ha looks like you finally have some competition man.”  Fred blurts out.  They all start to continue to talk about the new guy which seems to just fade to a hum to Hiro as things were swimming around his mind.  He puts his tools down and walks to the door.  “I’m going to go get some gummy bears I’ll be right back.”  If his face gave away sign of irritation his friends didn’t see it as they said see ya and went back to their conversation.  But Baymax knew and he follows Hiro.

“Hiro my scans indicate that you are slightly irritated.  What is irritating you?”  Baymax asks.

“Nothing buddy just got a lot on my mind.”  He says subdued until he states, “But not as much as that new guy I bet he won’t be able to last a week handling such difficult classes.”  Brightening his spirits as he walks to the vending machine.

Two Weeks Later…

“Man did you hear Varian made a…”

“That kid is smarter than anyone here.”

“Varian just combined a …”

“Varian”

“Varian”

“Varian”

“Aaaaaa” Shouts Hiro as he slams his head on the table. “Make it stop!” he muffles.

“Hey, did you hear…” Fred asks till he is cut off by Hiro.

“YES, I heard he made a unstoppable robot, he is smarter than anyone else here, I even heard that he is the cutest one here.  And I’m here to say; I have had enough.  I’m going to challenge him to show this nerd school who is the true prodigy of SFIT!”  Hiro stomps out of the lab Baymax following behind him.

“I was just going to say they had free tacos at the cafeteria.”  Fred announces to an empty lab as he takes a bite out of one of his tacos.

[kyreniacommentator]

Tulips/HTWCA share some of their Pink October 2017 events

Tulips/HTWCA share some of their Pink October 2017 events

Readers Mail From Sue Tilt and Carole King…

Hi,

Now that Pink October is almost on us we have a number of events supporting Tulips coming up during this next week and beyond:

30th September – Karmi Coffee Morning – 11am to 2pm

1st October – Pink Walk for Cancer – 10am – Girne Belediye Square. A 2.78km walk down to the harbour and Dome Hotel and back again

Pink walk

1st October the Lord’s Palace…

[insanely-creative-things]

Big Hero 7: The Series

Failure Mode

(Long Post)

www.fanfiction.net

*In the center of San Fransokyo, there is an Art Museum currently hosting an event in the early evening, cars are lined on the street as many well-dressed people enter the building.*

Fred: San Fransokyo Museum of Art, all is quiet... for now.

*Hiding in a man-hole just outside the museum is Fred in his Kaiju monster suit, while across the street on top of Noodle Burger is Hiro, Honey Lemon, Baymax and Cora.*

Hiro: Fred, why are we staking out at an art party? What could happen-?

Fred: Everything! Museum Galas are like in the top three favorite super villain things to interrupt! Right after big parades and experimental weapon demonstrations!

Honey Lemon: This is so exciting! I can't wait to see the new Shimamoto exhibit!

Baymax: Who or what is a 'Shimamoto'?

Honey Lemon: Lenore Shimamoto, she was an amazing artist and kind of my idol!

Fred: Never heard of her.

Honey Lemon: She painted 'City Rising', the first famous masterpiece they're unveiling tonight.

Fred: Never heard of it.

Honey Lemon: Oh! That's because it was lost for like a hundred years!

Fred: Still never heard of it.

Honey Lemon: ...It captures the city's rebirth after the great catastrophe of 1906. I'm a huge fan!

*The look Hiro is giving Honey Lemon gave her a signal that her phrasing is raising some concerns.*

Honey Lemon: Not of the catastrophe, that was-that was terrible... Of Shimamoto! What about you Cora?

*But when she turned to regard the younger girl, Cora is leaning on her hand dozing off as she stared at the building...that is until a loud sound emitted from the museum. This shakes Cora out of her near asleep daze in a snap.*

Cora: Don't steal my Cranberries!

*The other four stare at Cora's shout as she blushes over what she said, it's quickly forgotten when a guard came bursting through the door.*

Guard: The Gala is under attack by an inhuman freak! Out of my way!

Fred: Inhuman freak wha-?

*The herd of stampeding guests running for their lives closed the man-hole cover, prompting Fred to fall to the sewers below.*

Fred: Oh...there's the floor... Super villain! totally called it...*Collapses again*

Cora: And I think I have a pretty good idea on which Inhuman freak/Super villain both the guard and Fred are referring to. Globby's back.

*Once Fred is recovered from his fall, the five run into the building to face off the intruder.*

Fred: Nice try super villain!

*In front of them is Globby, the chemical human hybrid that Honey Lemon inadvertently transformed, covered in shards of glass from the skylight he broke into.*

Globby: Darn it!

Hiro: You know I don't know if I can call Globby 'Super', maybe Sub-par.

Fred: Well Sub-par villain isn't a thing. So what am I supposed to say?

Globby: *Still picking glass off himself* Oh there should be a warning on that skylight! Glass may shatter!...Time out guys, really appreciate this. You guys are looking sharp by the way...except you there however*pointing to Cora*, are you alright? You look pretty tired there kid. Have you been getting enough sleep lately?

*Cora's eyes widen before she returns to her usual glare.*

Hiro: Sub-par villain.

Cora: What does Globby even want here anyway?

Baymax: Broken glass can be hazardous.

Fred: Fine...we'll wait.

*Once the glass is removed from his body, Globby turns to the team.*

Globby: OK. I'm in on three. One...two... psych!

*Globby immediately uses his elastic arm to grab the Shimamoto painting and run down the nearest hallway to escape. Cora and Hiro climb on Baymax as Honey Lemon and Fred chase after him...but Baymax did not move.*

Hiro: Baymax go!

Baymax: He did not finish counting. Technically it is still 'time out'.

Cora: Ugh Three! Just go Baymax we don't have time for this!

*Baymax flies into the hall to rescue the painting, though Hiro sees that Cora is currently irritable.*

Hiro: Hey, are you feeling alright?

Cora: *Rubs her eyes a little* Yeah I'm fine, just a little tired.

Baymax: Actually-

Cora: Oh look Globby's there!

*Soon they joined Fred and Honey Lemon through the hall.*

Fred: Hey no fair you said time out!

*Globby immediately shoots out pieces of his goop which the team dodged but barely hit on the priceless antiques.*

Honey Lemon: We have to protect the paintings!

Fred: Ha! Fredzilla to the rescue!

*A large ball of goop is fired at the team, but Fred is quick to jump into action. His flame easily burned the goop...but unintentionally melted a water fountain just down the hall.*

Fred: Okay so I did that.

*Globby continues to shoot out more goop balls to which Fred fired back, but Hiro and Cora barely grabbed a painting down another hall from being burned into a crisp.*

Hiro: Fire and paintings, bad combo!

Fred: Right! Good call!

Honey Lemon: Anti-sticky ball ready!

*As Globby is exiting the hall, Honey Lemon pulls out the anti-sticky balls to turn Globby back to Dibs. The anti-sticky balls hit Globby and turn into a yellow foam, but Globby still remains Globby. The only result it had is the chem human hybrid dropping the painting. Honey grabs the painting before it can hit the ground.*

Honey Lemon: *Gasp* I'm holding 'City Rising'!

Fred: *Lands beside her* You talking about the famous painting? I've heard of that!

*Globby slowly slithers away, but Baymax is right behind him.*

Baymax: Do not move, you could be injured from your fall.

*Baymax picks him up.*

Baymax: I will scan you now.

Hiro: Don't worry Baymax, they can take care of him in jail.

Globby: Jail? They don't even make pants that can hold me!

*Globby melts under Baymax's hands and morphs into a ball, bouncing away to the exit.*

Globby: Boing, boing, boing everybody bye-!

*Globby attaches himself to bus just outside the museum, taking him away.*

Fred: Wait, he can turn into a ball? That's new!

*Globby morphs back into himself to taunt the heroes but his head smacks into a traffic light, temporarily dislocating it before it returns to his body.*

Globby: Darn it..

*The next day at the Lucky Cat Cafe, the rest of the gang converse over last night's events. Cora is stuffing her face with the breakfast Cass made and drinking Coffee, sweetened with honey, at a fast rate.*

Baymax: Cora, it is important that you slow down and chew more thoroughly.

*Cora pouted but continues eating but in a slower rate.*

Wasabi: Thank you Baymax. OK Hiro, you mean to tell us that Globby's back?

Gogo: And you let him get away?

Hiro: We saved the painting so let's focus on that!

Fred: The very famous painting, perhaps you've heard of it?

*Just then Cass places a big plate of what appears to be breakfast nachos.*

Cass: Guess what I made? Breakfast Nachos El Diablo!

Fred: Breakfast nachos? The unbalanced part of a balanced breakfast.

*He takes a bite out of the nachos and immediately starts breathing heavily for air to cool his burning taste buds.*

Cass: So what we're you guys doing out so late last night?

Hiro: We um-

Baymax: We were at the museum.

*Cora wipes her face with a napkin as she turns to Cass.*

Cora: Yeah, we saw Shimamoto's painting called the 'City Rising'. Grandmama told me all about it when I was younger, it actually inspired me on what to do with my project.

Hiro: *Turns to his girlfriend confused* Project?

Fred: *Mouth still burning from the nachos* Caliente! Muy Caliente!

Hiro: *Whispers* Smooth.

*While Fred is running to get either water or milk, Baymax's belly lights up to show a clock.*

Baymax: Hiro, this is your reminder that you have a school project due today that is currently 10% finished.

*Cora's eyes widen when she hears the news, worried over Hiro's project being nowhere near complete.*

Cass: What? Shouldn't you have been doing homework last night? Here at home? The work?

Hiro: Aunt Cass don't worry, it's me! I'll improvise.

Wasabi: *Deadpan* You mean scramble?

Gogo: At the last minute?

Hiro: Always worked in high school.

*But Cora's eye brows' burrow as she fidgets her hands over his confident claim. While she never attended high school herself, she has doubts that this will be an easy pass. Eventually they all got to SFIT where the two teens happen to share the same class with Professor Grandville herself.*

Grandville: Alright everyone, settle.

*Grandville activated a few buttons that lights up the chalkboard with a screen.*

Grandville: Good morning, I hope you used your three weeks wisely for this seismic project.

Hiro: Totally wisely.

*Cora spots Karmi, another teen prodigy they met before but never really got along with, present her project onto the table meant to simulate earthquakes.*

Karmi: My prototype uses nickel titanium as a shape memory alloy, which allows it to have increased plasticity under pressure.

Grandville: Very good Karmi, now lets shake it and break it.

*The project Karmi built stood its ground.*

Grandville: Our goal is to withstand an 9.0 or greater on the Richter scale.

*The earthquake scale continues to climb up until Karmi's project finally broke in pieces.*

Grandville: 8.5. Impressive, but Karmi I am confident that you can do better. Let's see version 2.0 next week. Your next Miss Mizichio.

*Cora took a deep sigh as she brought out her project, which by all means looks grey and not impressive looking, aside from the bottom resembling dark rocks. Hiro gives Cora a thumbs up as she takes a deep breath.*

Cora: The Prototype I've built has the adhesive strength of Barnacles that can be often found on rocks, ships, and whales which activate to hold the base. Also, because of the recent news about Shimamoto's painting being found, I want to commemorate the memory of 'City Rising', which is why I also added this.

*The earthquake simulation is turned on as it begins to shake the project which only shook a little. Cora holds her breath as the project begin to shake more. She finally closes her eyes tightly as she waited for the result, whether it'd be a success or a failure.*

Student: Woah that's so cool!

*Cora opens her eyes hesitantly to see that not only has her project survived to the 9.0, but it functioned exactly like she planned. The dull flat surface on top of the prototype transformed into a jade-colored roof with the structure turning from grey to a white pearl surface.*

Grandville: *Very Impressed by the display and the hard work Cora obviously put into it* I have no other words to say...other than you did a truly superb job Miss Mizichio and as for you commemorating this project after Shimamoto's 'City Rising', I'd say you succeeded that as well. You should be very proud.

*Cora's face beamed over the success and praise of her project, that all her trial and error over these last three weeks have not been for naught. She picks up her project and places it back on her desk, her heart still racing over the fact that she-*

Grandville: Your turn Mr. Hamada.

*Cora's happiness shatters in an instant as she remembers that Hiro did his project last minute. Her heart stops in concern over Hiro, but she still gives a somewhat shaky smile to show support for Hiro.*

Hiro: Elastimer Dampers.

Grandville: Is the paint still wet on your model?

*Cora's hands gripped on her skirt as she looks at Hiro with concern.*

Hiro: No... that would imply I threw it together at the last possible minute!

*Grandville however, knew better. But she activated the simulator none the less.*

Grandville: Perhaps your design will save our city from the next 'Great Catastrophe'.

*The model shook for what felt like a few seconds until it begins to break, Hiro tries to place the model back into place but Cora knew that his model building is as good as dead.*

Grandville: Or not.

*The piece completely falls onto Hiro's shirt, to which he immediately smacks his face. Which gives him a red mark, which he notices and nervously laughs. Cora turns her attention to Karmi who has pulled out her phone and is recording it. *

Karmi: And scene.

*Karmi then notices Cora glaring at her with her dagger eyes, but Karmi simply smirked. Cora then wrote on her hand to remind herself on what to do later today. After the rest of the presentations are done, Cora walks beside Hiro, her fist hiding the words 'Exact Revenge on Karmi as soon as possible!'*

*Back at the lab, Honey Lemon is showing Baymax a book documenting Lenore Shimamoto and her famous painting.*

Honey Lemon: Amazing! And we saved it.

Baymax: I do not understand the purpose of art.

Honey Lemon: Well, to create art is to be human, to be alive.

Baymax: *Blinks* I am neither.

Honey Lemon: Oh, I'm sorry.. I mean how can I put this so you'll um.. it could be you know really good for emotional health like art therapy.

Baymax: I am coded to expand my therapeutic capabilities. Perhaps I should increase my understanding of art.

Honey Lemon: Ooh I could teach you! To me, art is about expressing your feelings!

Baymax: Do you mean like this?

*His belly activates his famous pain scale.*

Honey Lemon: Hmm not exactly-

*At that instant, Hiro and Cora enter the lab, the teen girl giving a half-hearted smile while Hiro remained in his paint form.*

Honey Lemon: *Horrified thinking the red paint is blood* Ah! Hiro!

*Honey Lemon rushes to Hiro, thinking he had just been in a terrible accident.*

Honey Lemon: What happened?!

Baymax: Hiro is covered in red paint. Do not be alarmed. This red paint is non-toxic.

Honey Lemon: So I guess your demo wasn't a masterpiece?

Hiro: It's more of a disaster-piece.

Cora: Well Hiro-

Fred: Hey! Check out this funny video I found!

*The video happens to be the same one Karmi recorded earlier.*

Hiro: *Not at all amused* Uh Fred that's me.

Fred: Hey that is you! Maybe you can try to imagine-

*But he stops his voice as he spots Cora's purple orbs become heated flames directed right at him. Fred nervously takes a couple steps back to avoid provoking the young, and at the moment, scary girl.*

Fred: *Somewhat scared* Uhh...you know what, never mind...

Honey Lemon: It's okay Hiro, we learn more from our failures than our successes.

Hiro: Ah! You know what? It's no big deal! I've got a ton of better ideas, I'll just do one of those! The better ones!

*Hiro quickly went towards his lab to plan out his new and better model, but Cora sighs.*

Baymax: Optimism.

*Once the whole gang is grouped up in Hiro's lab, Hiro presented a much better looking model that can be used to counter a hypothetical earthquake.*

Hiro: Check it out! A mag-lev base isolation system.

*The building suspended from the ground.*

Gogo: Yup... that's what I did when I was a freshman.

*This is disheartening news to Hiro, who simply pushes away the table, causing it to fall down. He went back to the drawing board to design another way to protect the model from the earthquake.*

Hiro: And when any fractures appear they're instantly filled by a quick drawing, but flexible foam.

Honey Lemon: *Gasps* That's wonderful Hiro! I'm sure it's super different than when I did the same exact thing!

Cora: *Softly* Oh boy...

*Hiro throws away the other model into the trash as he goes back to the drawing board again, but he finds himself stuck on making sure his model being able to withstand an earthquake and at the same time being an original idea.*

Hiro: These high strength air bags cushion the people inside the building and also prevent floors from pancaking.

*Cora notices that the gang is silent, as if they know someone else that had also done this already.*

Hiro: So just to be clear, no one here has done the airbag thing? Right?

*The gang remain silent as Cora is fidgeting her hands. She is about to speak up until Baymax waddled over.*

Baymax: This approach will be highly effective.

Hiro: *Hopeful* You think so?

Baymax: Yes. This is exactly what your brother, Tadashi did. It was highly effective.

*Hiro groans in frustration as Cora simply face palms. Just then Honey Lemon spots Cora's project sitting off to the side.*

Honey Lemon: Oh my goodness! Cora, is this your project! This is so beautiful!

*The gang turn to Cora's project, impressed over the fact that it's beautifully structured.*

Fred: Wow Cora! This is so sick! Before it was all dull and grey, but now it's all pretty and shiny!

Cora: *Embarrassed at the praising and worried about how Hiro will take it* Guys it's fine-

Wasabi: The structure surely is sticky, whatever it is it defiantly stuck together.

Honey Lemon: It reminds me of 'City Rising'!

*Cora looks at Hiro with an embarrassed and guilty smile as she blushes, hoping it won't discourage him from trying harder to find his own solution. Hiro just face plants into Baymax's belly to which the robot patted his head in comfort.*

Hiro: This is hopeless.

Wasabi: Hey, you can do this little man! Maybe you never had to work this hard for something before.

Hiro: School's never been this hard before!

Wasabi: This place is tough, for everybody. I got lost finding my first class, why aren't the buildings in alphabetical order? Am I the only one who sees the obvious solution?!

Hiro: Wasabi...Is this supposed to be a pep talk?

Wasabi:...Sorry.. The thing is, You got in for being you. Be you Hiro.

Cora: Yeah Babe, you can do it!

Hiro: You know what? You're right! I've got this!

Cora: There's the spirit!

*But when it got time to return to Grandville's class however.*

Hiro: I've got nothing.

*Cora face palms in exasperation. Granville simply writes down on her notes while Hiro groans in exasperation, throwing his notebook away. But he has inadvertently hit another student's project, which causes Hiro to panic. But Cora rushes forward and catches the other student's project, yet in doing so causes her to knock off her own project and land on the floor, breaking it into pieces. The other pieces hit on the other projects, causing them to all break. Cora's face is stricken with a mixture of shock and fear over what happens next, and Hiro is on the same boat. He threw his notebook but because of his careless aim, Cora had to protect the one in her hands but inadvertently broke her own project and others as well.*

Hiro: Oh no...

*Then came a couple of snapshots coming from Karmi and some other students.*

Karmi: Got it!

*After the students pack up the remains of their projects Cora is standing by Hiro's side.*

Hiro: I'm just no good at this...

*Cora places her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.*

Cora: Hiro...

Grandville: Mr. Hamada, I'm the one who gets to tell people they're not good. Don't take my favorite part of the job away.

Hiro: Well go ahead... enjoy.

Grandville: No! I'm not letting you off that easily. You are going to rise to this challenge!

Cora: That's true Hiro, I know you. If anyone can pull this through it's you! Like how you made*Starts to nod off*...microbots...

*But Cora's words slowly turn to muffled words as her eye lids nearly close.*

Hiro: Uh Cora? *nudges her a little* Hey, you doing alright?

Cora: *Snaps back up* I'm fine! Really, I'm alright.

Hiro: But what if I'm really no good at this?

Grandville: Then you fail, after which you try again.

*Just then Karmi butts in with her project.*

Karmi: Professor G, My new prototype is ready to go! But if you want Hiro to say he's not good at-

Cora: *Cranky and aggravated* Karmi do us all a favor and just shut up!

Grandville: *Warning Tone* Cora.

Hiro: *Surprised at his girlfriends outburst* Woah Babe, are you sure you're ok-?

Grandmama: Cora?

*The four people turn to Cora's grandmother, who is looking with concern over Cora.*

Grandmama: Cora, have you eaten at all today?

*At this, Cora just looks down sheepishly and slightly shakes her head no signifying that she hadn't.*

Grandmama: *Sighs in disappointment* Oh Cora... *Reaches into her purse and take out a protein bar* Here.

*The old lady throws the protein bar to Cora to which she catches it with her eyes lit up, but it was thrown between Karmi, which causes her to yelp and drop her project to the ground, breaking it.*

Karmi: Oh no!

Cora: Grandmama what the heck?!

Grandmama: *Sternly* You did not eat your breakfast this morning young lady...again!

Cora: I'm fine Grandmama I'm not mmph-

*She doesn't even finish her sentence as she tears off the wrapper and stuffs the protein bar into her mouth. Confusion is ringing through the other people present.*

Grandmama: It's alright, she'll be fine. This sadly happens every now and then...especially when she hasn't eaten or had a good night's sleep...

*Cora sighs after she finishes the protein bar before she looks at the three, she blushes in embarrassment before helping picking up Karmi's project to put the table.*

Cora: *Somewhat monotone with her head down and her hair hiding her eyes* I apologize for my behavior and accidentally breaking your model Karmi. *Slightly turns to Hiro but not quite meeting his eyes* Hopefully I'll see you later Hiro?

Hiro: *Confused and slightly worried* OK...?

*Cora quickly walks out the classroom in silence with her head still down, leaving more confusion on them but Grandmama simply shakes her head.*

Grandmama: I'll explain later.

*Meawhile, Honey Lemon is with Baymax at the San Fransokyo Museum of Art showing him 'City Rising' as it's being hung back where it belongs.*

Honey Lemon: Ooh this is so exciting Baymax! 'City Rising' is back where it's supposed to be!

Guard: Don't worry! Nobody's getting it on my watch! Not this time!

*Honey gave a positive smile while Baymax merely blinks. Afterwards they walk down a hall to observe more paintings.*

Baymax: Honey Lemon, thank you for teaching me about art.

Honey Lemon: This is gonna be great! Okay, look at this portrait from the golden age what do you see?

Baymax: I see a man who suffers from Rosacea, a lack of exercise, and excessive consumption of red meat.

Honey Lemon: That's not what I-let me put it in another way. To understand art you have to feel it!

Baymax: Oh.

*Baymax turns his attention to a very spiky sculpture to which he is about to touch to 'feel it'. But Honey Lemon is quick to pull Baymax away from the sculpture.*

Honey Lemon: Oh no no no, let's maybe not touch that! Maybe we should try something more abstract... and less pointy.

*The next painting Honey Lemon shows to Baymax is an abstract painting of a man whose limbs are twisted in all directions. There are moments of silence as Baymax blinks at the painting.*

Baymax: This man was in a terrible accident.

Honey Lemon: No Baymax! He's painted that way to make you feel emotions!

Baymax: I am not programmed to feel emotions. Only to monitor emotions in others. You are frustrated.

*Despite her best smile, her eyebrow is twitching.*

Honey Lemon: I'm fine!

Baymax: I detect vocal tones that indicate frustration.

*Just then the two spot Fred heading down the hall where they encountered Globby last week, where the melted water fountain is currently still running like a fountain.*

Modern Shakespeare: Caution: Water Hazard. Such a bold statement about the futility of existence. I would give anything to meet the genius who created this masterpiece!

Fred: Allow me to introduce myself, Fred Frederickson the IV. Master of this piece!

Modern Shakespeare: *Gasp* A pleasure sir! You have moved me!

*The man kissed Fred's hand.*

Fred: Cool!

Baymax: Is this also art?

Fred: Well Duh.

Modern Shakespeare: Well Duh indeed.

Honey Lemon: *Sighs* Maybe that's enough for today. Let's just go.

*But while Honey Lemon drags away Baymax. Up in the air vents, Globby is crawling. He notices that his leg is stretched until it flips forward and hits his head.*

Globby: Ow.

Honey Lemon: *Gasp* Did you hear that?

Baymax: Art must be seen, felt, and heard? Art is complicated.

*Just then out of the air vents came Globby, who has the misfortune to land himself on the spiky sculpture that Baymax nearly touched.

Globby: OW!

Guard: Don't touch! That's all I'm paid to say! Don't touch! Did my job, everybody saw it now outta my way!*And then runs off*

*During all this, Hiro is at his home in the garage currently planning his project. But looking at the blank piece of paper he grows frustrated so he crumples it up and throws it away. Just then Cora, Wasabi, and Gogo come in which the cool woman quickly catches the paper ball and unfolds it.*

Gogo: Did you just crumple up and throw away a blank piece of paper?

Hiro: I was just trying to save some time.

Gogo: OK... This is gonna hurt you more than it's gonna hurt me.

*Gogo raises her hand to slap the sense into Hiro but Wasabi quickly catches her hand.*

Wasabi: What are you doing?

Gogo: Slapping him out of it.

Wasabi: You can't do that!

Gogo: You got a better idea?

Cora: I do.

*The two adults turn to Cora, who is crossing her arms as she walks over to Hiro.*

Hiro: Hey Cora, you...doing any better after earlier?

Cora: At the moment, yes. But I'll be even better after you get out of this funk you're in. Look Hiro, I get how frustrating it is to work on these things and not have anything to work with because you feel so blocked.

Hiro: So what's your point?

Cora: *Rolls her eyes in mild annoyance* So, what my point is-

*Just then Gogo's phone rings so she picks it up and reads it.*

Gogo: Globby's back.

Hiro: *Gets out of his chair* Let's go!

*Hiro runs out to suit up, leaving Cora shaking her head in frustration over failing to comfort her boyfriend.*

Cora: Dang it! *Sigh* Well maybe we can talk about this later.

Wasabi: Uh yeah but.. my car is still at the bottom of the bay?

*The memory of them being chased into the ocean by Callaghan pops in Cora's mind.*

Cora: *Winces at the memory* Oh yeah... oops...

Hiro: So how are we gonna get there?

*After they all suited up, they go and rent a little car to drive to the museum.*

Wasabi: Rick from the self-driving car project said we can use it for an hour.

Hiro: Can't this thing self-drive any faster?

Wasabi: Of course it can, its just programmed not to for safety reasons.

*Gogo, being the famed speed adrenaline junkie she is, looks at Cora who gets the signal. She pulls the wires out of the casing and re-wires them to increase the speed...which it did as it zooms down the street.*

Wasabi: It wasn't me Rick!

*The car zooms past the other cars until they arrive at the museum where Baymax, Honey Lemon, and Fred are waiting outside. The four sprawl out of the small car gasping for air.*

Fred: Tell me you brought our super suits!

*Wasabi opens the trunk to show that they did indeed. He goes to pull out the armor but its currently stuck.*

Wasabi: *Struggling to pull the armor out* It's a little tight!

Hiro: Where's Globby?

Honey Lemon: He's got the Shimamoto, but the museum's on lock down.

Gogo: So he's trapped inside?

Fred: Sub-par villain's gonna sub-par.

Wasabi: Gah! Gotta help me!

*Just then Honey Lemon's helmet hits Fred in the head, knocking him out. Inside the museum however, Globby is struggling to open the steel gates to escape with the painting but is unable to lift it and ends up pulling his arms right off.*

Globby: Ow! Come on!

*He transforms into a ball to break through the gate but is simply bounced into a wall where he is flatten to a pancake until he falls back into the same spiky sculpture from before.*

Globby: Ow! oh..hm nice piece!

*Globby grabs the sculpture to ram into the steel gate.*

Globby: I hope this works!

*But just then Baymax lifts up the gate from the other side alongside Hiro. So in the end Globby is sent running past the team and tumbling into the street.*

Fred: Ouch!

Cora: Sheesh!

Wasabi: Ooh...

Globby: You think?!

*Globby slings his arm and grabs 'City Rising'.*

Honey Lemon: He's going for the painting!

Gogo: Well he's gotta stick-to-itivness.

Cora: But why that painting alone?

*Globby throws his goop balls to which Wasabi slices them into tiny pieces. Honey Lemon brings out a chem ball and aims it at Globby, but he simply dodges it and thus the chem ball freezes Fred.*

Globby: Nope! not this time!

*Once again he morphs into a ball to bounce away.*

Wasabi: Yes this time!

*Wasabi blocks Globby's escape route but is simply rolled over.*

Wasabi: I've got some in my mouth.

Gogo: Just spit him out and lets drop this blob!

*Gogo zooms past Wasabi as Honey Lemon's tosses one of her chem balls to her to catch up with Globby.*

Honey Lemon: Get him!

*Hiro and Cora climb up onto Baymax's back and begin to chase after him*

Hiro: Right behind you Gogo!

Fred: Get on!

Wasabi: Ok.. but just don't jump-TOO HIIIIIGH!

*Fred jumps up into the sky to join the rest of the team. Globby continues to bounce down the street where Gogo is about to take aim. But the appearance of a bus makes Gogo quickly jump up to avoid a collision. The ball misses Globby as he happily bounces away.*

Globby: Hoh it's really happening! My first successful art heist! Who's number one now? I'm-

*Just then he splats right into Baymax in front of him.*

Baymax: That painting does not belong to you.

*Hiro and Cora grab the paining from Globby.*

Hiro and Cora: Thank you!

*Globby falls down to the street splattered until he regains form.*

Globby: Well this isn't fair! Oh why do I even bother?

*Just then Gogo arrives.*

Gogo: Honey! Let's freeze him and seize him!

*Honey Lemon had just arrived using the car Wasabi rented to catch up with the rest of the team. She throws the chem ball but Globby melts into water and escapes through the sewer drain nearby.*

Gogo: Did he just...melt?

Cora: Something tells me this isn't the last we'll see him...

*Later on that day, Globby ends up on land nearby the golden gate bridge.*

Globby: I can turn into water? Woah! What else can I do? Ummm...metal!

*Globby uses his mind to morph his hand into a large piece of metal. It weighs down his hand until he thinks it back to his regular globby self.*

Globby: Yes! What else?!

*Immediately he spent the early evening morphing his body to do whatever he wanted.*

Globby: Ice! Rock! Chocolate! Wood! Brick! Chocolate! Cookie dough! Cotton candy! Chocolate with ice cream and caramel! and whip cream!

*Globby eats his ice cream hand to which he gains an idea.*

Globby: Oh this could be very useful! I'm delicious!

*He then morphs his hand into a hammer to which he breaks the drain he crawled out of.*

Globby: And powerful!

*The next day at the lab, Gogo is testing out her discs with Cora looking over her gloves as Hiro whistles through his way. *

Wasabi: Alright! Someone's in a good mood!

Hiro: Well yeah! We crushed our last mission, we had Globby so scared he wet himself!

Honey Lemon: Not exactly.

*Hiro and the others walk towards Honey Lemon as she is currently using her chemistry experiment.*

Honey Lemon: The volatile chemicals that made Dibs turn into Globby combined with the neurotransmitter.

Gogo: Right?

Honey Lemon: Well, Globby finally learned how his thoughts can control his...mmm...Globbiness?

*This raises concerns for the rest of the team.*

Wasabi: So he can turn into anything? That villain is on his way to being super.

Hiro: I don't care if he's a solid, liquid, or gas! We can take him!

Wasabi: Oh.. I hope not gas!

Cora: Hey, where's Fred?

Gogo: He's at the museum, in case Globby strikes again.

*However Fred is merely guarding the unintentional sculpture he made from the drinking fountain.*

Fred: *Blocking a kid from taking a drink out of the drinking fountain-turned art* Up up up up! Fine art, it moves people. So keep moving.

*Back at the lab*

Hiro: Anyway, it's great to feel like I'm good at something! I really needed that.

*Just then Cora notices that her boyfriend is grabbing some stuff from the lab.*

Cora: Uhh...Hiro, what are you doing?

Gogo: So you're finally ready to step up and crush that quake proofing demo?

Hiro: Totally ready! I just don't have a plan of any sorts so uh..

Wasabi: Well of course you're not just gonna blow it off.

Hiro: I hadn't considered that but...

Wasabi: No no no! Forget I said anything! Stop looking like you're considering it!

*Hiro takes some of the stuff but is blocked by Honey Lemon, and behind him is a slowly irritating Cora.*

Cora: *Slightly growling* Hiro...you better not be doing what I think you're doing...

Honey Lemon: Hiro wait! You can't just quit!

Gogo: Yeah. Do you really want to be known as a genius quitter?

Hiro: No... but at least a genius quitter is probably the best kind of quitter right?

*Cora stands up from her chair as her eyes begin to slowly burn.*

Cora: *Growling more* Don't you dare...

Wasabi: I get it. You think that if you give up, it doesn't count as failing. but actually it's worse.

Baymax: Tadashi failed 83 times before I functioned properly.

Hiro: Well maybe I'm not as smart as Tadashi!

*Hiro storms his way out of the lab leaving the rest of the gang behind.*

Baymax: Perhaps art therapy would be beneficial.

Cora: I'm joining you Baymax.

*Cora walks over and grabs Baymax by his hand, dragging him towards the door.*

Honey Lemon: Umm...You okay Cora?

*Cora turns her head sharply as her purple eyes entered full on flame mode.*

Cora: *Extremely irritated now* No! I am not doing okay! If he doesn't snap out of it, my 'genius quitter' of a boyfriend will become my 'genius corpse' of a boyfriend instead!

*They both leave to follow Hiro to his lab, leaving the other three behind.*

Wasabi: Is it just me or does she seem more irritable than usual lately?

Gogo: It's not just you. Cora's been pretty moody lately and I think half of it has to do with Hiro.

Honey Lemon: And the other half?

Gogo: Can't say for sure, but hopefully getting Hiro out of his funk will help her out with whatever's going on with her...if she doesn't end up killing him first.

*The three than walk over to see what Baymax's painting is.*

Wasabi: *Slightly disturbed* Guh! Should I be worried here?

*The painting is of Wasabi, Hiro, Cora, Gogo, and Honey Lemon. In skeletal form...in vivid detail.*

Honey Lemon: He's painting what he knows?

*Hiro is currently typing away on his computer when he heard the door slam open causing the boy to yelp and turn. There he sees the face of his angry girlfriend and Baymax on her hand.*

Hiro: *Slightly nervous now* Cora! Is uh...is something..wrong?

Cora: *Firm and irritable* You and I need to talk. NOW!

Hiro: *Still slightly nervous* A-about what exactly?

Cora: Look Hiro, we've been dating for almost a year now. Are you seriously thinking of quitting?! Oh no. This 'quitting' is the cowards' way out, and I know you Hiro. YOU are not a coward!

Hiro: *Starting to get irritable as well* Well maybe I am and you just never knew it!

Cora: Oh please Hiro! What kind of a coward would start a superhero team to track down and take down the madman who killed his brother and then go straight into an unstable inner-dimensional portal just to save said-madman's daughter?!

*Hiro eyes widen in shock at what his girlfriend just said to him and than glares hard at her, but Cora glares back just as hard. Neither say a word as they stare hard at each other that you could actually start to see sparks fly between them. Luckily, Baymax speaks up to try and ease the tension.*

Baymax: It is alright to become discouraged.

Hiro: *Having enough, he breaks eye contact with Cora and turns around in his chair* I don't want to talk abou-

*Suddenly Baymax pulls out one of the test videos of Tadashi Hamada, Hiro's brother. Shocking both Hiro and Cora out of their irritation as they watch the video together.*

Tadashi: Tadashi Hamada test number 58, robotics project.

Baymax: Hello, I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare-.

*In the video it seems like his project was finally working until it bursts into flames, which causes Tadashi to panic and quickly put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.*

Tadashi: No! Why? Why do I put myself through this 58 times!? *sighs* Maybe this will never work... maybe I should give up...you're not still recording are you?-

*The video pauses as Hiro looks at Tadashi's frustrated and defeated face, which Cora notices as she looks at the video of Tadashi with sad eyes. *

Hiro: I never saw him like that...

*Cora takes a deep breath before she turns to Hiro.*

Cora: Hiro, you can do this, I know you can. And if Tadashi were here...he'd tell you the exact same thing. *Puts a comforting hand on Hiro's shoulder and gives him a small, comforting smile* Just...look for a new angle, remember?

*Hiro looks at her and gives a half-hearted smile back to her.*

Hiro: I guess...all I can do is..try...right?

*Cora's smile widens a bit as she nods to him. Just then, Wasabi opens the door.*

Wasabi: Fred just called! The museum decided to put the painting into storage.

Hiro: Wise move.

*Just then Gogo comes in.*

Gogo: That means it's in a truck crossing the city.

Hiro: Not so wise move.

Cora: Downright stupid move if you ask me.

*That night, Globby is swinging across the streets chasing after the truck containing Shimamoto's painting. Globby throws his goop balls at the truck and finally manages to causes to skid the truck to a halt, crashing it strainght into a light pole in the process. The driver runs away at Globby's face.*

Globby: Acid!

*He drips one drop of acid to create a hole in the truck and grabs the painting from its casing.*

Globby: Ha! Got it!

*Globby takes a moment to admire the painting before he notices Baymax with Hiro and Cora.*

Hiro: Don't you ever get tired of losing?

*It is also when Globby notices that he's surrounded.*

Globby: No. No I really think today's my day.

Honey Lemon: Aw! I love your positive attitude! Sorry about this!

*Honey Lemon pulls out a chem ball and throws it at Globby, but he uses his elasticity to bounce back the ball and thus splashing Honey Lemon in yellow goo, which causes her chem purse to malfunction. Gogo chases after him but Globby uses his hands to morph into and grow crystals out of the street.*

Globby: Careful! Pavement's a little rough!

*The crystals causes Gogo to fall flat on her face. Then Fred jumps into action.*

Fred: Time for a meltdown!

*Globby uses his arm to form a shield to fend off Fred's flames, he then turns his other hand to block Fred's mouth.*

Globby: Eh shut your fire hole!

*Wasabi comes to Fred's aid as both his fire and jumping abilities had been disabled.*

Wasabi: I got you buddy!

*Globby brings out his own chem balls that immediately encase Fred and Wasabi together. Baymax flies over Globby.*

Hiro: Come on Baymax! It's up to us!

Baymax: We will protect the art that is valuable. For some reason.

*Baymax launches his rocket fist at Globby, but he uses his hand to twist the rocket and land it to the ground, causing an explosion. The goopy debris lands on Baymax's face.*

Baymax: Oh no.

*This causes him to drop Hiro and Cora, but luckily they land into the larger piles of goop safely. They look up to see that Globby transformed into a rock to protect himself. With the explosion over, Globby returns to normal.*

Globby: *Laughs triumphantly* If at first you don't succeed, learn to turn yourself into chocolate.

*Globby morphs his hands into chocolate to which he gives to Cora and Hiro. But that's when Cora brings out the biggest question on her mind ever since this whole thing started.*

Cora: Wait a second! Why do you want that painting so badly? I know it's very famous but you could have easily stolen the other art pieces at the museum! So why just that one painting? What's so special about it that you'd only go after it?

Globby: Ooh look at the time! Would love to chat but my boss isn't the patient type.

Cora: Wait wha-?

Hiro: Huh?

Globby: Enjoy! Catch ya later! Gotta bounce!

*Globby did bounce away into the street, evading the team with his prize. The two unsticky teens rush to help their friends out of the stickiness Globby left behind.*

Honey Lemon: Oh no...that was awful!

Fred: I know! 'Gotta bounce'? I mean it fits but come on! Dig deeper!

Honey Lemon: We've failed! And worse, we failed Lenore Shimamoto!

Fred: I don't know Honey Lemon that kind of makes us sound like losers.

Wasabi: Well we did lose.

*Wasabi and Gogo are currently stuck on the underside of a nearby street bridge.*

Hiro: Ah come on guys! It's not the end of the world! Look at Globby, he failed again and again. But he figured it out... Eventually. It's okay to get discouraged. But you have to pick yourself up and try again... *Looks at Cora when he's says this next part* And look for a new angle.

*Cora smiles and nods proudly at her boyfriend.*

Wasabi: That's a great speech Hiro. But can you get me down? I'm about to pass out.

*Both Hiro and Cora pull Gogo and Wasabi out of their goopy imprisonment as Cora brings up something they learned.*

Cora: By the way guys, when I asked Globby why he wanted that painting so much, he said it was for his boss or something...

Fred: Wait?! Did you say he was stealing it for his boss? Oh man...this is really getting curiouser and curiouser...

*It is the very next day where Hiro is currently working on his demo model with Cora by his side eating her bento. He turns to her and smiles brightly, to which Cora gives a thumbs up back. *

Gogo: Hey how's it going 'genius whose not a quitter'?

Hiro: Honestly not great... but failure worked for Globby. So why not for me?

Wasabi: That's the spirit!

*Just then, Fred comes in with a large check under his arm.*

Fred: Hey Honey Lemon, my art thinging, 'Caution Water Hazard', just sold for a million dollars!

Gogo: Really? I guess art must be in the eye of the beholder.

Baymax: Fred's art evoked many emotions today. It might be more accurate to say art is in the heart of the beholder.

Honey Lemon: Aw you've really learned a lot about art Baymax. That was very poetic.

Baymax: What is poetry?

*Honey Lemon and Gogo look at each other before Cora finishes her food and speaks up.*

Cora: It's okay guys, poetry lessons are next week.

Honey Lemon: What are you gonna do with the money Fred?

Fred: I'm giving the check to the museum. I don't need it and they could use a new fountain. Plus they just lost a priceless painting.

*Just then, Cora's grandmother is standing by the open door.*

Cora: Oh! Hi Grandmama!

Grandmama: Hello Cora...Would it be alright if I borrow Hiro to talk for a moment?

Cora: *Confused* Sure..go ahead?

*Hiro hesitantly walks away to converse with the old woman, wondering what she wanted with him. They finally got outside into the open air where the cherry blossoms are bathed in warm light.*

Grandmama: Do you remember how I came to check on Cora a while ago..you were with the Dean and some other student or whatever...I said I owe you an explanation.

Hiro: About..Cora?

Grandmama: Yes. I already explained this to the Dean a short while ago before I came to you Hiro, and now it's your turn. Did you notice how she's been feeling sleepy lately? Or how the slightest thing would irritate her? Or how she's not been eating much?

Hiro: *Concern* Actually, yeah I have. Is something wrong with Cora? Does it have anything to do with me?

Grandmama: *Sighs*...I'll tell you the full story one day.. but for now..you must know that Cora was born...a little premature...and different from the other children..and that led to having these..effects in her life...But ever since you came into the picture, it seems to have become fewer and fewer, and it just seems to be getting better with all your friends. However, that doesn't mean she doesn't fall into...*Sighs* I suppose the proper term would be..'relapses' from time to time... But as I mentioned before, meeting you, your...brother... and your friends has been helping her greatly. Even though you and her have your disagreements or tiffs from time to time, that's normal from anyone who's in a relationship. If anything it proves that no matter what is going on either between or just one of you, you two always manage to talk it out and work together to make it better. That is the key to any good and functioning relationship Hiro. So to answer your question about whether or not Cora's recent behavior has anything to do with you, I would say it only had half to do with you. the other half was just something she...had to work out on her own. And apparently helping you out with whatever was going on with you seems to have help a good bit. But all-in-all Hiro Whatever you and your friends are doing to help Cora overall, keep up the good work. Now I think it's about time I let you go about back to your business, you have presentation to go to after all.

*Grandmama walks past Hiro, giving a knowing smirk at him before she goes on her way. Hiro raises an eyebrow in confusion and looks back at the old woman for a moment before he runs back inside to finish his project. Time passes by until finally Hiro is ready to present his project to Grandville. He carries his model, peering inside to see Grandville with her notebook and Karmi, who's pulled out her camera ready to see him fail. But Cora quickly gives him a kiss on the cheek as their usual way of saying good luck to each other, to which he smiles brightly.*

*Hiro puts his model on the table. Cora being on his left holding his hand while Karmi is behind him ready to capture what appears to be his next magnum opus. The model puts out two stabilizers as soon as the quake simulation got a little rougher.*

Karmi: What?

Hiro: My building has sensors to measure the seismic forces, then it sends out the exact sonic pulses needed to counteract them.

*The Richter scale simulation quickly goes down in numbers. Cora smiles brightly at Hiro's success.*

Karmi: So your solution is cheating?

Hiro: No! My design was to the shaking by dealing with the problem at its source.

Grandville: Not only will the structure save itself, but it would also save the other buildings around it. This is an excellent solution.

*Cora is quick to pull out her phone and take a picture of Karmi's 'unbelievable* face. Cora and Hiro are walking out of the room once its over to take a walk around the quad to talk.*

Cora: *Smiling evilly* And scene...and revenge achieved.

Hiro: *Looking over at his girlfriend's phone and sees the picture. He than smiles smugly and puts his arm around Cora's shoulders and kisses her cheek.* That's my girl.

*As they walk outside into the quad, they walk in comfortable but still somewhat awkward silence as they both in their own minds try to figure what they were going to say. Hiro then looks over at Cora in a side glance and decides to start.*

Hiro: Um...Cora? There's...something I wanna-

Cora: *Cuts Hiro off as she stops walking, causing Hiro to stop walking to as she stands face-to-face with him and she fidgets with her hands in front of her and looks down almost ashamed-looking and only taking quick glances up at Hiro as she talks* Hiro wait. Before you say anything...there's something I should say first... About what I s-said...b-back at the l-lab...before Baymax s-showed us that video of Tadashi... I just...w-wanted you to know that...I-I was way out of line w-with what I said to you. I w-was just REALLY irritated and annoyed with how you were acting, along with some...other things I was going through. But that's still no excuse for what I said to you... And I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for it.

Hiro: *Surprised at his girlfriend's apology, but quickly got over it as he places his hand on Cora's shoulder.* Cora... *Sighs* It's okay Cora, I've already forgiven you for that. But to be honest with you, there's really nothing to forgive with what you said to me, because...you were right.

Cora: *Surprised at her boyfriend's words as she looks up fully to him.* I...I was?

Hiro: Yeah, you were. I-I do admit that I was just...*Sigh* I just felt humiliated... I mean first my model breaks at the beginning of the stimulation, to which Karmi took a video and posted it online.

*Cora frowns at the memory. She wanted to punch that self-absorbed biotech student for humiliating Hiro like that.*

Hiro: Then when I couldn't think of anything to make up for it, I ended up destroying the other students' projects by accident.

Cora: Technically, it was my project that kinda destroyed the others Hiro.

Hiro: Which wouldn't have happened if I hadn't throw my notebook away so carelessly...not to mention destroying your project in the process too...all of which Karmi took a photo of again...

*The teen couple grumble at the memory. Finally Hiro sighs*

Hiro: I just thought that... If I quit I wouldn't be put through that again... B-but you were right...by quitting, I was just acting like a coward...which, as you clearly pointed out to me back at the lab, I'm not. A coward wouldn't have done all the things you mentioned before, and not to mention that it would have made Karmi's day if I really was one.

Cora: Well I'm glad you didn't and that you understand what I was trying to tell you. But the thing about quitting, is that sometimes it's not always cowards who do it. Grandmama once told me this: There are actually two kinds of quitting. One is the cowards' way out as I mentioned before, where you give up because you couldn't handle it and felt it's not worth it at the cost of your own dignity or life. The other one however, is the one where it could save your's and others' lives if you're smart and do it right, where you realize that what you're doing, what your about to do or even what you think about doing could really get you or others hurt or worse and that you simply have to walk away before that can happen, even if others tell you otherwise. Does that make sense?

Hiro: *Thoughtful look in his face* Yeah, I guess.

*Cora smiles as she rests her head on his shoulder.*

Cora: You are not, nor have you ever been a coward babe. You are and always will be, my brave Hiro.

*But somewhere in the dark and abandoned undergrounds, Globby goes through the desolate building and brings in the painting. He then notices that he got a bit of himself on the priceless painting, to which he tries to clean it up but failed.*

Obake: Well? Did you bring it?

Globby: *Startled* Woah! Oh oh ah! Ah yeah! Here it is!

*Obake grabs the painting from Globby's hands and observes it.*

Obake: *Pleased* You succeeded.

Globby: Sorry about..you know...the globs!

Obake: Hm?

*He notices the pieces of Globby's globs.*

Obake: Fascinating...

*Obake grabs Globby's hand and takes off a piece of the glob using small light blue plasma tweezers.*

Globby: Ow! Rude!

*Obake places the glob into a measuring cup to study at a later date.*

Obake: Hmm.. further study might unlock even more potential..

Globby: Potential huh? I told mom she was wrong about me.

*Obake raises the painting up above his head.*

Obake: Lenore Shimamoto the artist is of no interest to me.

*He smashes the painting, causing pieces of wood to break off as it flies off everywhere.*

Obake: However Lenore Shimamoto the scientist, is of great interest... Like with so many things in life... you have to look below the surface to find real value...

*When Obake broke the painting he pealed off the paper to reveal schematics for what appears to be an ominous looking machine that Shimamoto had crafted 100 of years ago...*

Leave comment, reblog, or like if you enjoyed it! Love you!

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 39 - Finale (Part 1)

(note: This is only the season one finale, not the end of the series)

A fast yellow blur sped along its way; knocking out cars, smashing through brick walls, and plowing down trees as the mysterious speeding streak caused destruction in its wake. Though it was not out of any intentional malice that the human wrecking ball caused such vast property damage, it's just that the superhuman speedster didn't know how to control his powers fully.

The muscle bound hulk finally came to a screeching stop right outside of the maximum security facility, causing a trench to form as he slammed on the breaks of his high powered roller skates.

"Ok Stu, you got this! You're dressed to impress! You smell great! And everyone says you're as smart as a bag of hammers! So what could possibly go wrong?"

The villain finished hyping himself up as he looked towards the jail. He then punched his fists together and took off like a flash, barreling towards the concrete walls at breakneck speeds. He crashed through the barricade and kept on going; smashing through walls as if they were cardboard. He didn't stop until he reached the cell he was looking for.

"Hi Nana!" He loudly proclaimed in a childlike manner as he busted down the wall and saw the elderly lady dressed in an orange jumpsuit laying on the cell bunk.

"Stu!" The woman gave a large smile and came over to give the overgrown galoot a hug. "My what a good grandson you are, bustin' your poor old granny out of jail."

"Awe, I try." Stu said as he blushed and sheepishly grinned. "Anything for you Nana."

He handed his grandmother the knapsack on his back. She eagerly opened it and pulled out a pair of rocket skates same as the ones he was wearing.

"Oh yeah! Supersonic Sue is back in business, baby!" The woman laughed and then sweetly asked of her grandchild as she put on the stakes, "Oh, however did you come up with such a clever escape plan, sugar plum?"

"Well, I wish I could claim all the credit, but I kinda got help from one of your old supervillain buddies. They gave me the new gear." He handed her a note and then quickly added, "But I'm the one who thought to smash the walls with my noggin!" He knocked on the top of his helmet with his knuckles.

Sue gave him an encouraging smile and a pat on the cheek before reading the note. "Dear Sue, hope you're doing well. Do you mind picking up for me a certain prisoner on your way out? He's being kept in the solitary detention block…."

"Welp, looks like we need to make a little detour before finishing our escape, Pookie." She chirped as she finished strapping on her own helmet. "After all, I'd hate to disappoint an old friend."

                                                 -------------------------

"Ok, bathing suit, sandals, change of clothes, uh… Am I forgetting anything?" Aunt Cass asked as she gathered up her suitcases.

"Don't forget your sunblock." Varian helpfully said handing her the bottle of coconut smelling cream.

"Oh thank you. Yes."

"Hey, Tracy just pulled up." Hiro shouted from the other room, and as if to confirm this a car horn sounded from below, blaring out La Cucaracha.

Aunt Cass half heartedly rolled her eyes at her friend's over eagerness and tried to carry everything out of the room and down the stairs in one go. Varian followed behind her picking up whatever she dropped and stuffing it back into pockets of her purse.

"Now you both know what to do while I'm gone." She instructed the boys as she scurried out into the currently empty cafe. "No wild parties, no sneaking out past midnight, no tinkering with the appliances...The café is only open for breakfast tomorrow and Wasabi will be over to help with that, oh and there's dinners already made up in the fridge if you don't want to cook later. And if anything goes wrong…"

"Call Officer Cruz or Professor Granville," Hiro finished for her. "We know Aunt Cass."

"Right, and Krei's promised to bring over pizza later tonight and check up on you two, so no giving him a hard time. He's been very gracious in giving me this trip and for helping out wherever he can. Okay?"

"Don't worry about a thing, Aunt Cass." Varian assured her. "We got everything under control."

Just then the car horn sounded out again reminding Cass to hurry up. She ran to the coat rack where the keys hung up and took one pair for herself and handed another to Varian.

"You're in charge of opening up at six," she told him, "and making sure the doors are all locked before going to bed. Have the café closed by noon. Also don't forget the upstairs dishes, make sure to feed Mochi and Ruddiger, and if you can get around to vacuuming that'll be great."

"Got it." He nodded and then Aunt Cass turned her attention to her other child.

"Hiro, I know you're already helping Varian and Wasabi tomorrow, but I also need you to take out the trash, clean your room, and do the laundry before I get back."

Hiro protested this. "The laundry?" He whined. "Oh please Aunt Cass I'll do anything else. Let me clean out the rain gutters instead."

"Okay, you can clean the gutters, and do the laundry." Aunt Cass said with a tone to her voice that told him this wasn't a matter up for discussion. She slipped on her jacket and put the keys in her pocket before stopping and staring out at the middle distance as she tried to remember what it was she was forgetting.

"You left your phone on the charger upstairs." Hiro answered for her.

"Oh, right." She exclaimed as she ran up to get it.

"I don't get you man," Varian said as she ran off. "You have a machine that literally washes clothes for you. What's so bad about doing laundry?"

"Have you smelled your socks?! A person needs a gas mask just to get near them."

Varian screwed up his face, fully offended. "Please, you're just looking for any excuse to get out of doing house work. You got it easy here, and you don't even know it. Try milking a goat every morning for ten years and then come complaining to me about washing socks."

"Boys, boys," Aunt Cass soothed as she reentered the room and placed an arm around each of her kids' shoulders. "Can you please, more than anything, just get along? For my sake hun? I'll only be gone for three days and I would very much prefer it if I didn't have to come home early because you two decided to start world war three in my house."

Both teens looked away sheepishly at that request, before mumbling their agreement apologetically.

"Thank you." She said before getting misty eyed and wrapping them into a group hug. "Oooh I'm going to miss you both so much."

The car horn sounded a third time interrupting the family moment.

"You better get going before Trace leaves without you." Hiro joked.

"Okay, Okay." She gave them each a kiss on the cheek before grabbing her things and heading out the door.

"I love you! I'll bring you both back souvenirs." She called after them as she loaded up the car.

"We love you too Aunt Cass." Hiro said as he and Varian stood at the door and waved goodbye to her.

She stuck her head out the car window and shouted, "I'll call you when I get there!" As the vehicle sped away.

"Bye, have a safe trip!" Varian shouted back and continued to wave until she and the car were out of sight.

Once their aunt was gone Hiro gave Varian a confused look and asked, "Did you really have to milk a goat?"

Varian rolled his eyes and walked back inside instead of dignifying the question with an answer.

                                                -------------------------

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. Hiro went ahead and finished up his list of chores with Baymax's help, while Varian made sure everything in the cafe was stocked and ready to open for tomorrow. He baked a coffee cake, some blueberry muffins, and a batch of biscotti for the breakfast rush.

"That way I don't have to wake up before sunrise to make donuts." He explained to Hiro as he fixed them a couple of tuna fish sandwiches for lunch.

Aunt Cass called soon after to let them know she had made it safe to the spa. She was full of nervous questions about what they were up to and how things were going at the Luck Cat without her. The boys reassured her everything was fine for what felt like the bajillionth time that day. However she was still reluctant to let them go and it took Tracy threatening her with a dunk in the pool to get her to hang up.

"I swear Cass you're going to lighten up and have fun on this trip even if I have to force you!" The boys heard the nasally woman yell over the phone.

Finally free to their own devices they spent the rest of the day lazing about. With the finals done both teens had to find new things to take up their free time. Hiro tried to reach the leaderboards on his video game, Mind Smith Turbo 3, while Varian read a new book that Karmi had given him; A Crease in Time.

Krei did show up at around nine as promised, pizza boxes in tow.

"Sorry I'm late, the pizzas might be cold, but I just couldn't get the Maharaja off the phone. I'm trying to get new investors and trade deals don't make themselves, am I right?" He chuckled at his own joke even though both boys knew nothing about stocks and trade.

Hiro grabbed the pizza boxes from the tycoon only to turn his nose up at the pineapple and anchovy pizza within. Fortunately for him there was also plain cheese in the second box.

Keri stuck around for dinner and they watched a movie together. As they finished watching an old western that Keri had picked out, one that admittedly turned out to be more engaging than Hiro thought it would be, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Hiro said as he walked backwards from the room, his eyes never leaving the tv. It was at the climax and the hero was about to face down his sworn enemy in a shootout. Hiro's steps instinctively timed to the actors own as the sidekick counted down the paces, "10, 9, 8,... "

Hiro tilted his head around the corner of the banister as he made his way down stairs, then he heard the bang of the gun shots. Only no one fell down. The villain hugged his wounded hand as the hero stood there, gun still raised.

"Well what are you waiting for?!" The scoundrel bitterly yelled back, "End it!"

The camera hovered over the stone faced marshal and his still raised gun, only Hiro never got to see the protagonist's final decision as the person at the door took to banging on it instead  finally gaining his attention.

It was Chief Cruz at the door.

"Hi Hiro, is your aunt here?" He asked. He tried to sound nonchalant but Hiro could tell that the man was on edge.

"Sorry no, she's on vacation to that spa remember?"

"Oh right… then who is here watching you two?"

Hiro tried to suppress an eye roll. Officer Cruz was just as bad as Aunt Cass was sometimes with being over protective, arguably even more so. "Krei is "babysitting" tonight."

Cruz raised a skeptic eyebrow but declined to comment on his rival being in his crush's home. "Then can I speak with him then?"

"Sure." Hiro hesitantly said and ran back upstairs to get the businessman, wondering all the while what was going on.

                                                -------------------------

Both Hiro and Varian huddled in the kitchen by the swinging door of the café as they listened in on Cruz and Krei's conversation.

"You wanted to see me?" Krei asked.

"Yes, I came by to inform Cass of the news but this probably concerns you as well." Chief sighed before cutting to the case. "Callaghan escaped prison today."

There was an awkward silence as the news sunk in. Hiro felt his own heart race as his grip on the door tightened.

"How?" Was all Keri asked.

"He had help. Two other villains, a grandmother and kid team up, also busted out at the same time. They're called the Supersonic Skaters; thieving speedsters, the pair of them."

"That doesn't sound like Callaghan." Krei said matter-of-factly. "I've known the man for years. When would he have ever befriended common thieves?"

"Yet you didn't know about his half a decade long revenge plot to murder you." Cruz pointed out.

Krei huffed and Hiro could see the billionaire fold his arms across his chest.

"I have lots of former employees who want to kill me. It's not like most of them actually follow through with." Krei mumbled.

"Speaking of which, do you have any bodyguards you can call?" Cruz asked.

"You know, I've gotten in the habit of tasking Big Hero Six as my usual bodyguards."

"You've been employing vigilantes as your personal security?" The frown was evident in Cruz's voice.

Krei snorted. "That would imply that I pay them. No, they volunteer their services. I told them they could make a killing as a private security taskforce but they wouldn't hear of it."

"Well maybe you ought to call them cause my men will be too busy tracking Callaghan and his accomplices down to provide you with any personal escort." Cruz spat, though Krei seemed unfazed by the police officer's irritation.

"So why did you come here first instead of calling my office?" Krei asked in an unusual display of seriousness.

"Gerson already called your secretary. I guess she just hadn't given you the message yet."

"You know she might have," Krei interrupted off handedly, "I need to get more into the habit of reading Judy's memos."

"Uh-hun, well anyways I thought Cass should know too. Seeing as how Callaghan is.. well is responsible for what happened to her nephew." Hiro heard the police chief heavy a weary sigh before changing the subject. "You know, Cass told me she was going on a trip, I just didn't know she asked you to babysit?"

"Well I volunteered. I just figured I do something nice for a change, as unbelievable that may sound to you."

You could have cut a knife through the unspoken tension in the air as each man eyed the other.

"So, you, what, put everything on hold to play the responsible parent for a day?"

"Well, seeing as how Hiro and Varian are teenagers, Cass and I figured they were old enough to handle themselves for a day while I worked, and then I came over after I was done at the office to check up on them. Why, do you have a problem with that Chief Cruz?"

Peering through the small crack in the door, Hiro watched Cruz close the distance between himself and Krei. He stopped just inches from the other man's face.

"I don't know what she sees in you, or why on earth anyone would entrust you with children, but mark my words if anything happens to those two boys…"

"Nothing is going to happen." Krei said eveningly. "And you may not trust me, but you could try trusting Cass and the boys just a little bit more."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Did you have any plans of telling Hiro what was going on?"

Cruz seemed taken aback by that question.

"No." He admitted reluctantly. "He's just a school boy. He shouldn't have to worry about things like, escape convicts and murderers.."

"And yet he does." Krei interrupted. "This concerns him just as much as it does myself. You can't just hide things from him just because he's young."

Cruz casted Krei a searing glare. "Last time I checked you weren't the boys' father."

"And neither are you." Krei shot back. There was another awkward pause as both men sized each other up, until Krei added, "Ten to one both teens are eavesdropping behind that door."

Keri shrugged and nodded his head towards the kitchen. Cruz casted a bewildered look at Krei before walking towards the swinging doors. Both teens scattered and ran out the back door in a rush.

Chief Cruz walked into the empty kitchen and looked around for the two boys. He then noticed the back door was opened just a crack and went out into the alley to check. He found nothing but a blonde raccoon running out from behind a trash can, followed by Varian's own pet racoon scurrying out and climbing up the fire escape into his owner's bedroom.

"Gee, I could have sworn they'd be out here." Krei cheekily commented as he pulled out a ten dollar bill and vaguely waved it towards Cruz.

Cruz snatched it out of his hand in annoyance. "Just because you're an overgrown kid yourself doesn't mean you know anything about them."

"Ouch." Krei said.

Cruz rolled his eyes. "Look can I just trust you keep an eye on the boys for tonight and then I'll watch them tomorrow. Call Big Hero Six to keep lookout if you have too, but don't let Hiro know about Callaghan."

"Yeeeah, those two things might not be possible toge-"

"I mean it. He's been through enough. Him and Varian both. They don't need this."

Krei sighed. "Alright. You're the boss here. You'll let me know as soon as you found out anything about Callaghan's whereabouts."

"Of course." And with that Cruz left.

                                                -------------------------

Hiro and Varian sat under Varian's bedroom window. They were breathing heavily from their hasty retreat up the fire escape and from the rush of just barely avoiding being discovered by the adults. As they heard the chief of police's car drive away, Varian let out a sigh of relief and then nuzzled the pet raccoon in his arms.

"That was close." He breathed only to stop when Krei opened the door, flooding light into the little bedroom and casting a spotlight on the two teens.

"I knew you two were snooping." Krei said.

                                                -------------------------

There was a big debate over what to do next. Hiro wanted to suit up and go investigate the breakout himself.

Krei wouldn't have it though. "Look I promised both Chief Cruz and your Aunt Cass. I'm trying to be the responsible one here."

"Cruz also told you to call Big Hero Six and that's us."

"Yeah, you seem to be missing five other members there Hiro." Krei pointed out.

"I've already texted Wasabi." Varian interrupted the argument. "He said Fred and Gogo were already on patrol tonight and that they would swing by the jail to investigate."

"There, ya see?" Krei said. "You already got two members out there on the case, and Baymax is here to keep watch for the night. Besides didn't you and Varian promise your aunt to mind the café in the morning?"

Hiro let out a defeated sigh as he slouched back down into the kitchen chair, but he gave no further protest.

Krei rubbed his eyes and gave a yawn. "I'll take the couch tonight. I got to be up by five and at the office by six. Please don't do anything dangerous until after leave. I would prefer it if I didn't have to listen to Cruz lecturing me on proper parenting, thanks."

"Oh don't worry," Varian said, "he'll just find something else to lecture you on."

"Prefect." Krei said as he got up from the table, walked into the living room, and flopped onto the couch for the night.

                                                -------------------------

Hiro thought noon would never come. He had barely slept through the night and working the café this morning had been torture. It hadn't been especially busy today, but time seemed to crawl along at a snail's pace as he waited till time to close up shop. The whole while keeping his eyes glued to the tv that was in the café, just in case the news announcer brought up Callaghan.

He didn't. Though he did mention Supersonic Sue breaking out. The long time super villain was apparently more noteworthy to the masses than his brother's murder going free.

"Aaaand done." Wasabi said as he topped the last cappuccino of the day with whip cream. "There you go sir."

The customer took the coffee and Hiro rushed him to the door with a plastered smile on his face. He waved goodbye to the man before slamming the door close and locking it with a sigh of relief.

"Hey, thanks for helping out today." Varian told Wasabi, as he finished sweeping up.

"No, problem. I like working here now and then. It's peaceful." As if to counteract this statement, Ruddiger snuck up onto the counter beside Wasabi and tried to grab the can of cool whip out of his hand.

"Hey! Oh no you don't!"

Hiro ignored his friends' tug-a-war with the pesky raccoon as he ran upstairs to get Baymax and his armor. Only for Aunt Cass to call while he tried to snap on the chest plate. He fiddled with the phone through his gloves and juggle it while suiting up.

"Hey, how's things going?" He heard his aunt say over the phone.

"Fine." He grunted as he buckled his utility belt. "We just closed up shop for the day."

"So, no problems then?"

"No." Hiro said distractedly as he looked for shurikens he hid under the bed.

Aunt Cass heaved a sigh. "I talked to Chief Cruz this morning, he told me some news that was a little upsetting…. Did he or Krei tell you?"

Hiro paused, he didn't know what answer to give that would be the least disastrous. Aunt Cass plowed on thorough though.

"He said that, Professor Callaghan broke out of jail yesterday."

There was a long and awkward silence between the two.

"Hiro? Are you still there?"

"Yeah.."

"Do you want to… to talk about it?"

Another uncomfortable pause.

Aunt Cass sighed again, "Look, I can come home early. It's not a problem-"

"No! I, mean, no. You shouldn't let some bad news ruin your vacation. It's not like Callaghan is going to come over here or anything, and whether or not the police find him has nothing to do with you being here at the Lucky Cat or not."

"I know, I just, I'm worried about you. You and Varian. If you need me, then I'll hop in the car right now and I'll be there, lickity split."

"We're fine Aunt Cass. I'm fine." Hiro lied. "You don't need to drop everything and rush over. Everything is under control and Varian and I are just going to hang out with Wasabi for the rest of the day."

"Ooh, fun. Whatcha got planned?"

"Uhhh, the park?"

"Okay, well, text me if you need anything. I'll call later to make sure you're still alright, oh and before I forget, Cruz and Megan are coming over tonight for dinner. Just put the frozen casserole in the oven at say, eight?"

"Alright. Bye Aunt Cass."

"Bye, I love you."

"I love you too." Hiro ended the call as he leaned against his desk in silence. He glanced over at Tadashi's side of the room. It was relatively neat compared to his own side which was already a mess of dirty clothes and papers despite having cleaned it just yesterday. All that is, save for the visible dust that was beginning to collect on Tadashi's things; a disturbing reminder of how much time had passed since the other teen had slept there.

Hiro blinked back tears as he pulled himself out of reprieve, put on his helmet, and pressed the on switch on top of Baymax's charging case.

                                                -------------------------

Big Hero Six, plus Varian, sat around the desk at their headquarters as they watched the security footage of the prison-break up on their viewing screen.

Roddy had done a great job on the briefing room and it's connected laboratory, and was finishing up the training room next door. After that, all that would be left would be to add the bedrooms so that the team could crash there of need be.

"Yeah that's Sue alright." Rodney said as he walked in on them carrying his tool box.

"Yeah we kind of figured that." Gogo said deadpan. "Who's the new guy though?" Roddy peered at the screen, "Oh hey, it's that dimwit of a grandson of hers. Boy he sure grew up. I remember when he was yay high."

"I wish there was sound on this." Fred said. "That note she's reading is probably a clue."

Then the scene on screen changed. Callaghan was shown reading in his cell, then the two speedsters burst in, grabbed him, and then skated away before the screen went to black.

"He doesn't look like he was expecting that." Honey Lemon hesitantly said.

"Almost, like he wasn't in on the plan" Wasabi confirmed her suspicions.

"Roddy, you know Supersonic Sue, do you know of any connection she might have to Callaghan?" Hiro asked.

The red-bearded construction worker just shook his head. "I mean, he's not one of the old villains that Boss Awesome used to face. I'll tell ya that much. Buuut I don't make it a habit to know all of my customers' personal lives. I'm just here to build lairs; not gossip."

"Says the one other guy who knew that mom was a former supervillain," Fred said as he eyed Roddy suspiciously. "You know, besides my dad, and Heathcliff apparently..."

"Dude, someday you're going to, like, have to have a big family therapy session or something." Wasabi butted in.

Fred ignored him and marched over to Roddy. "Spill it." He ordered as he poked the larger man in the chest.

"What's to tell? So maybe the word on the super lair forums is that Sue got busted out by an old buddy of hers. One of the old gang, you know. I've know idea how Challagan figures into that though."

"Old buddy?" Hiro asked.

"They go by Kensei. They're a master thief and assassin. Never been caught. Used to be real active back in the old days for a few years but then went quiet for decades. Most thought they was dead or retired until just a few months ago."

"Why? What happened a few months ago?" Gogo asked.

"Back in April, was it, this new crime lord started filling in the power vacuum in the city. I got approached by Yama to build a lair for the new big boss, but I turned it down to do yous guys headquarters. Anyways the business card he gave had Kensei's old logo on it, the samurai's sword."

Hiro's eyes went wide. "We need to know everything about this Kensei guy."

Roddy rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I don't know much. In fact no one knows much. Like I said the guy never got caught. No one knows who they really are or what they even look like. Unless you were one of the very few supervillains working the circuit back then and happened to team up with them."

"Wait, if this Kensei guy and the new Bosu are one the same person then..." Honey Lemon mused.

"Portals." Varian said, startling everyone. They had forgotten he was even there. "They'd paid off Supersonic Sue to kidnap Callaghan, same as Yama kidnapped me."

                                                -------------------------

"Well ain't this nice and cozy?" Sue said with a smug smile as she sat on top of the desk and peered down at tied up Callaghan. "Lot better than that nasty old jail cell wouldn't you say?"

Callaghan just glared daggers at her. The three convicts were inside a dimly lit, dingy office, in some old abandoned warehouse. As the elderly lady tried to persuade the former school teacher to join them, her beefy grandson kept watch by the door.

"Lets just cut to the chase shall we? You're the top in your field when it comes to portals and a friend of mine is willing to pay you handsomely to build one, on top of helping to smuggle you out of the country. Think of it, a fresh start! Whatta say?"  She slapped a wad of cash onto the table along with a fake passport.

Callaghan starred at the tempting offer on display before shutting eyes tightly and kicking over the desk with a snarl.

Sue jumped back in surprise and Stu covered his mouth with a gasp.

"Hey that's not very nice. No one treats my nana that way."

He stalked towards the other man but Sue stopped him with a hand. "Now, now, snookum, let's give Callaghan a chance to explain himself."  

"If you think I'm going to help the likes of you, then you're crazy." Callaghan spat.

Sue only turned up her nose at the rebuff. "My, my, aren't we all high and mighty all of a sudden, mister "I was in solitary confinement". You think the police are going to care that you suddenly grew a conscience? It ain't even like we're asking you to hurt anybody."

"Those portals are dangerous." Callaghan said through gritted teeth.

"So," Sue shrugged, "that's your benefactor's problem not ours."

"It's a problem for everyone, and I wouldn't debase myself to working for a has-been hack and her dunce of a kid no matter how much you paid me."

"I'm not a dunce." Stu said. "I got in A in penmanship. Tell him nana."

"Of course you're not sweetums." Sue patted her grandson on the head before turning to Callaghan with a scowl on her face. "You know, you gotta pretty smart mouth to go with that big brain of yours. But of the two of us, I'm not the one wanted for manslaughter and attempted murder, so I'd be awfully careful about who I'd go insulting here if n' I was you. I'm liable to turn you back into the police myself.``

Callaghan didn't rise to the bait but met her gaze steadily. After this staring contest Supersonic Sue sighed and turned to walk away.

"Come on Stu, let's let the man wallow in his self pity for a while. We can come back and try this again later. But mark my words Callaghan, we got other ways of making you cooperate. Ways that aren't so nice." And with that the two speedsters left the room leaving Professor Callaghan alone with his guilt and misery.

[kyreniacommentator]

Tulips/HTWCA announce the amazing start to Pink October 2017

Tulips/HTWCA announce the amazing start to Pink October 2017

Readers Mail From Sue Tilt and Carole King

It was amazing to see 166 people attend the Karmi Coffee morning at the Crows Nest on Saturday 30th September 2017 in aid of Tulips, which helped to kick off Pink October.

This was so successful that a massive amount of 8,176TL was raised!

The Crows Nest staff

We would like to say a huge thank you to Andrew Clarkson from the Crows Nest, Janine…

[kyreniacommentator]

Karmi are organising a coffee morning for Tulips/HTWCA on 30th September

Karmi are organising a coffee morning for Tulips/HTWCA on 30th September

Karmi are organising a coffee morning

for Tulips/HTWCA

Reader’s mail……..

Hi,

The residents of Karmi are organising a coffee morning at the Crow’s Nest on 30th September from 11am to 2pm in aid of Tulips/Help Those With Cancer Association.

In addition to tea and coffee there will be some mouthwatering cakes and scrumptious pastries, a fabulous tombola with superb prizes.

There will also be a…