Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 and Aspen are owned by Disney Animation and Aspen MLT, respectively. All references to video games that may or may not be canon are not intentional.

Oh, who am I kidding? They are intentional.


Chapter 3 – Bow-Chaser

"We're still in position. They haven't left yet. What do you want us to do?"

The man in the car nodded his head, the phone to his ear. "Yes, sir. We will."

"So," his passenger said as he ended the call. "Can we go back now? We've been here for who knows how long. I'm getting tired of this."

"His orders were quite clear: grab the subjects and bring them back to him. You wanna tell him that we didn't do what he asked? Be my guest."

"I'm just so hungry. Re-hydrated food isn't my jam."

"Hey."

The driver slapped him in the shoulder, bringing a pair of binoculars up to his eyes. "I see them. They're exiting now." He put a finger up to the earpiece. "Bravo and Charlie, gear up. Prepare to move."


"Did you enjoy your stay, Ms. Matthews?"

"Yes, it was very nice to see everyone."

"I hope that you got everything taken care of while you were here."

Aspen took a quick glance at her driver, a small blush on her cheeks. "Yeah...I think I did."

The guard gave her an odd look before opening the gate. "Have a good evening, ma'am. And you too, sir."

Wasabi and Aspen made their way off of the base, turning back onto the bridge to head back to town. Night had fallen while they were busy in the pool, the lights of the San Fransokyo-Kyotoakland Bay Bridge shining brightly as they made their way to the mainland.

Wasabi was absentmindedly resting his arm on the console. Normally, they'd be at ten and two like always, but he found himself being a little more relaxed at this time.

Couldn't imagine why.

He felt a hand come down on his and gently squeeze it. "So, did you enjoy your stay?"

"I did." Wasabi changed over to the far right lane. "Although I could have gone without you trying to drag me into the deep end."

"Hey! You were doing good! You stayed afloat for at least three seconds. And I didn't even have to save you this time!"

"...You moved all of the water out of the way so I could walk up to the shallow part."

"Eh. Freak accident. You can't prove anything."

Wasabi smiled. If she hadn't shown her powers to him five minutes prior, the sight of Aspen making a hallway up the incline would've knocked him off of his feet. But it seemed like that every minute he spent with her, he wanted another ten. This was a dangerous road he was going down; it was much more dangerous than the road he was currently on, getting off the bridge and hitting the outer limits of San Fransokyo.

"So, what are you going to tell your friends?"

"About?"

"Me."

Wasabi glanced over at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you have been gone all day. Your friends don't know where you are. But you can just tell them you were with that weird water girl, and they'll instantly understand," she joked.

"I mean, you are that person."

Aspen looked out the window, lost in thought. For about the fifth time tonight, Wasabi thought he had gone too far, but she spoke up again, her voice wavering a little. "I just...I've never really been in this sort of position before. Someone knowing about me and my...gift. I just want to keep that between us for now, OK?

"Oh. I thought you were talking about something else."

"You thought I was talking about me and you, right?" She saw him take a quick look in the rear-view mirror. "Wasabi, I don't even know where to begin with that. I'm still processing it all."

He took a left down the next street. "Now that we're on the subject, is there anything else you want to tell me? Anything at all?

"No, I think that pretty much covers the gambit," she laughed. "Unless there's anything you want to tell me."

There was no response from him as he took another left. His eyes were still on the mirror, narrowed in concentration.

"Wasabi, what's wrong?"

"...I think we're being followed."

"Followed?" She went to turn her head backwards, but he grabbed onto her shoulder to stop her. "Wait, how do you know?"

"Because." He pointed down to his console, the screen mapping his route. "I've taken four left turns and this car is still behind us. It's also the same car that's been near us ever since we left the base."

"Are you sure?"

Wasabi stopped at the crossroads, the red light above them. Across from him at the light and to his right were two black sedans, identical to the one behind him. Almost as if on cue, all three cars turned their high beams on, shining them in their direction.

"...Yeah, pretty sure."


Hiro rubbed his eyes. The four of them were still in the process of finding a project, but their search had slowed tremendously. Everyone had pretty much given up on their normal drinks and raided the soda machine, including Honey Lemon. As a young teenage boy, it had helped a little bit, but to the normal college student, it had no effect.

"OK, I'm done." Go Go set the latest soda can on the others, making a mini pyramid in front of her with all of their bottles and cans. "I don't even know how long we've been at this. Plus, I'm out of stuff to stack."

Honey Lemon stifled a yawn. "Yeah, I don't think I can go for much longer. And Karmi's already out."

Hiro looked around the plastic pyramid to see his classmate's head on the table, her arms folded under it. "When did that happen?"

"Shouldn't you know? You were staring at her for a good while."

"...I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

RIIIING!

Go Go's phone went off, the vibration causing it to hit the mountain of containers. They clattered to the ground, the clangs ringing through the lab...

"I'm awake! Chromosome chain analysis!"

And waking up Karmi.

The Korean put the phone up to her ear, the smile still there. "Hello?"

A very large amount of noise came over the speaker. Go Go stepped back a few steps from the table, the phone now at arm's length away. "Wasabi? Are you there?"

Another voice sprung up in the background. She narrowed her eyes. "Wasabi? What is going on?"

Hiro, Honey Lemon, and Karmi were suddenly very interested in the one-sided conversation. Go Go didn't give them any clues as to what was being said on the other end, only nodding and furrowing her brow. "Where are you two?"

She grabbed her coat off the chair. "Alright, you two hang tight. I'm heading out now. Be there in a bit."

As Go Go hung up the call, Karmi spoke up. "What's up? Is Wasabi OK?"

"He, uh..." She glanced at Honey Lemon and Hiro before talking again. "He's got a flat tire. Might be something else wrong with the car, and he wants me to take a look at it. Aspen's with him."

"Why was it so loud?"

"They're on the highway."

"It sounded like he was yelling."

"Oh, you know him. Overreacting and stuff."

Ignoring Karmi's "I...actually don't", Hiro really wished she would stop giving her the third degree. He had a suspicion that there was something more going on, but he had to be subtle about it. "Do you want to take Fred with you? The more people the better, right?"

Go Go stared at him for a second, then spoke up. "Yeah, you're right. I'll grab Fred. I don't think we'll need everyone, but I'll send you a text in case anything changes."

She made her way out the door, leaving the three in the lab. Hiro glanced over at Karmi, who was instantly back asleep on the table. "You know, we could have actually gone with her."

"And leave Karmi here alone? No, Hiro. We can't do that, not without her getting suspicious. Let's just hope Go Go & Freddie can take of whatever is going on."

Both Hiro and Honey Lemon's phones vibrated, a text coming in from Go Go:

They're getting chased around town. Not sure why. They're both freaking out. Standby.


"Standby. I'm going to see if I can lose them."

Aspen tapped the front of his phone, his contacts list open. "Why didn't you call the police? Why did you have me call her?"

"Ummm..." He didn't really feel like lying to her, but now wasn't really the time for his brain to tell her the truth. "She does know the police. Worked with them for a little bit on their vehicles. She can also get to them quicker."

He didn't get a response, but Wasabi had to focus on taking another hard turn. Only one of the cars was now following them, but he had seen all three weave in and out of the roads behind them at some point.

"Wasabi." She breathlessly turned toward him, her body slinging to the left as Wasabi went down a side road. "You remember about, oh, ten minutes ago when I told you I didn't have anything else to tell you?"

"Yeah!"

"Well...I take it back. There is something else you need to know."

"What is it?"

Aspen looked back at the car chasing them. "This...isn't the first time I've had people following me around."

"Wait, what?" Wasabi said. "How long has this been happening?"

"Ohhh...ever since I got to the city."

"I'm sorry?"

"It's not even the first time you've been a part of this," she continued. "The night we met...the night I came into your work...I was being followed then too."

"Why?" Wasabi said. "Do they know about you and your powers?"

"No! There's absolutely no way they would know. I told you I've never shown anyone else."

Wasabi's glovebox suddenly popped open, and the two looked down to reveal the bane of his existence: Go Go's remote for his car.

"Huh." He stared at the contraption with a frown. "I thought I locked that thing up."


"You just unlocked the glove compartment, didn't you?"

"Yup." She lowered her hand from the side of her helmet, grinning. "I know he doesn't like it at all, but hopefully one of them will take the hint."

"Spicy!"

Go Go was now armored up, Fred beside him in his normal costume. She had interrupted his so-called "Mount Snackamanjaro" in the food court to haul him off downtown to try to find Wasabi, Aspen, and whoever was following them.

"You made it sound like there was an action-packed chase sequence going on!" Fred turned both ways from the roof of Noodle Burger, looking down the road. "There's nothing going on."

At that moment, Wasabi's car sped by, its additional thrusters activated.

I'm going to take this remote out of this car once we done here and shove it right up

"That's weird." Fred tapped at his phone inside his suit. "The rest of the message got cut off. I wonder where he's going to put it."

"Fred." Go Go grabbed his arm and pointed to the two black cars coming up on them. The light in front of them had turned red, so the crosswalk was now beginning to fill with pedestrians. "You think they're going to stop?"

"Go Go, do you not read my comics? Of course they're not going to stop. That's not the supervillain thing to do!"

"Grr."

Fred and Go Go leapt from the roof and headed right for them. Luckily, the crowd noticed the loud noises and immediately retreated to the sidewalk. "Fred, burn their tires off! We need to slow them down."

A plume of fire erupted from Fred's mouth, running down the street right at the oncoming cars. Unfortunately, the sedans ran right through them, the tires looking no worse for wear.

"Fireproof? Really? Now that's some preparation!"

"Fred, move!"

He leapt straight in the air as Go Go dove out of the way, the two cars whistling by them. She wheeled her head around and tried to get a face inside, but the windows were too tinted.

"Ugh." She slammed her fist into the ground, now even more agitated. "Fred, we have to take them out. How-"

She only then noticed she was alone, her teammate no longer in sight. Sighting, she hit the comm button on her helmet. "You're on one of the cars right now, aren't you?"

"Go Go, I may be on one of the cars right now."


"Oooh. What does this button do? Make the car go even faster?"

"...I am going to have a long talk with Go Go once this is over!"


"Ugh, I lost them again!"

Go Go had spent the last couple of minutes tracking one of the mystery cars. She had made good progress with her speed, but the sedan was built for this sort of thing, gaining some distance if she got too close. Now, she sped onto Morimoto Avenue, seeing the tailpipe just turn the corner. "I can't keep this up for much longer. Fred, are you having any luck?"

"I'm still with the one that took me for a joy ride," Fred yelled, huffing and puffing in his costume, "But I can't get close again! They have shocky-sticks and they are not cool! I have to stay out of their reach."

Go Go stopped in the middle of the street. "Not cool...out of their-" Her face lit up at the sudden revelation. "Fred, you're actually a genius!"

"Can I get that in writing?"

"No." She quickly pulled out her phone and pressed the button to call her Skymax. "I have an idea. You stay on that car, OK? I'll stay on mine."

She turned her head up to the clouds as the yellow robot made its flyby, throwing two additional discs down to her. She caught them out of the air, switching them out with the ones on her legs and placing them on her back. The inner ring of the new discs began to glow yellow as she looked at the tall buildings around her.

"...Literally."

Go Go sped off like a bullet, jumped onto a car, and up the nearest skyscraper wall, the maglev discs doing their job. "Fred, you still got that liquid nitrogen canister in your suit?"

"You mean the bottle that I use to keep my hands cool in here? Yeah, why?"

Go Go smirked as she leapt onto the next wall. "Ready to get a little heartless?"

"Ooooh, thinly veiled references! I didn't know you had it in you, Go Go!"


"Alright, I think we lost her." The driver turned back toward the road. "You still have a bead on them? We've lost too much time; he's not going to be happy."

"Well, nobody said that Big Hero 6 was going to get involved!"

"It's their city, genius!" the driver yelled back. "Of course they're going to-"

WHAM!

The sudden slam of something hitting their car jolted them out of their conversation. They both looked up through the windshield to see a yellow-armored girl on top of their hood. The wheels that were on her legs were glowing a bright yellow, somehow letting her stay fastened to the car.

"Hello, boys."

The two men screamed in unison.


Go Go couldn't entirely hear the two people in the car, but their wide mouths definitely indicated that they were yelling really loudly. And really girly. But in any case…

"Fred, your car still on course?"

"Yup! Steering it toward where you said to."

"Good. I'll keep mine busy."

The car continued to speed along, but Go Go revved up her wheels, the maglev mechanism keeping her atop the car. The passenger rolled down his window, a baton in his hand casting sparks from it. "You think you're so clever, you know that?"

"More clever than you."

"Dude! Get back in here! Don't talk to the superheroes!"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You guys don't even realize you're going into a trap."

"Wait, what are you-"

Without another word, she jumped off the car, their vision now restored...just in time to see the identical sedan heading straight at them.

"Ahhhh!"

The two drivers slammed on their brakes, just narrowly avoiding a head-on collision. The cars sat smoking for a few seconds, and the other two occupants shared their looks of horror. Before they could react further, a shadow started looming over them, and the four men looked up together to see an ominous sight: Go Go riding on Fred's back, seemingly hovering in the air above them.

Go Go had grabbed the two discs from her feet to hold them in her hands, the discs on her arms also glowing yellow. In one smooth motion, they jettisoned off of her, landing in a square around the cars.

"Fred! Now!"

A blast of cold air shot down from the sky, the temperature around the artificial magnetic field dropping even more than normal. Before the men could react, they found themselves encased in a giant dome of ice, the two superheroes landed right on top. The civilians that were standing around started clapping and cheering for the two, Fred already basking in the glory.

"Thank you, thank you!" He took a deep bow toward them. "All in a day's work, citizens!"

Go Go only rolled her eyes. "I didn't think that would actually work, but thank goodness it did." She put her hand up to her comm again. "Wasabi, we got them. You should be good to go."

The loud noise on the other end told her that they weren't good to go. "Wasabi, what's-"

Fred was so busy working the crowd that he didn't see Go Go's arm slap him in the back of the head. "Hey! Watch the spikes!" He looked up to see his teammate's frustrated face. "What?"

"...There was a third."


"You didn't tell them there were three cars?"

"I'm sorry, I was a little busy trying to get away from them!"

Wasabi and Aspen had made it all the way back down near the water, the last black sedan still chasing them hard. He still hadn't been able to get a glimpse at the driver, but to be fair, his attention had been somewhat diverted.

His car turned down one of the main hills leading down to the docks. An idea had been brewing in his head for about two miles. It was a really bad idea, but without knowing how far away Go Go & Fred were, he didn't really have a choice.

He sped down the hill, overtaking one of the cable cars to the left. Aspen put her hand on the roof of the car to steady herself from the frequent bumps.

"Wasabi."

He pushed the pedal down even farther.

"Wasabi, you're heading straight for the water."

He started to hunch over the wheel, even more focused than before.

"Wasabi, I don't know if you heard me, but we're heading straight for the water."

"I did hear you." She pointed down to his dash. "When I tell you to, press that button there."

Aspen looked down to see a set of three buttons: one green, one blue, and one yellow. He was gesturing to the middle one, a water droplet symbol on it. "How is windshield wiper fluid going to help us?"

"Now!"

She hadn't noticed that her windshield view was now filled with the bay, Wasabi's car about to impact the surface. In a panic, she slammed her hand down on the button, a loud scream escaping her mouth.

His car barreled into the water, Aspen fully expecting the car to simply sink to the bottom of the bay. Instead, she opened her eyes to see the vehicle continuing on as if nothing had happened. She looked out her car window to see a wing had come out from underneath, the car using them to smoothly travel around.

"OK, wait just a freaking minute!" Aspen turned toward him, her eyes blazing. "When were you going to tell me that your car could turn into a freaking submarine!? That is so cool! This almost makes up for putting me in a car chase around the city!"

Wasabi put his hands up as she started to furiously slap him in the shoulder. "Hey hey hey! Still gotta drive here!"

Meanwhile, the last black sedan pulled up to the edge of the water, the two occupants getting out. The driver was stabbing at his ear with his finger, static filling his senses. "Bravo and Charlie, do you read me? What's going on? Why are you not responding?"

A yellow disc ricocheted off of the car door and slammed into his back, cutting him off. It careened off of the wooden dock post and returned to the wrist of Go Go, her and Fred a little bit away.

"Sorry, they had to take a message."

"You didn't go with a cold pun?" Fred slapped his forehead. "Aww man! You had a prime opportunity there!"


Ten minutes later…

Wasabi sat down on the rear bumper of the ambulance as he got checked by the EMT. Other than a small contusion on his forehead, he hadn't suffered any other injuries. He had been lucky.

Aspen wasn't. Not physically, anyway.

He looked over at her, her eyes down as she continued her conversation with the officer. The adrenaline rush of the chase had worn off, and she had started shaking not two minutes in. Luckily, it looked like he was just about wrapped up.

"Hey."

Wasabi turned to see Go Go had replaced the spot of the EMT right next to him, her arms crossed. "Hey. Where's Fred at?"

"Unthawing the rest of those guys that were chasing you. Turns out the police can't arrest them until all the ice melts."

He said nothing, returning his attention back to Aspen.

"Wasabi, what in the world is going on?" she whispered. "And don't tell me nothing, because ever since she came into town, things have been going off the rails with you. And that's putting it lightly."

He rubbed his temple, smoothing out the scar on it. "Go Go...I-"

Fred took the opportunity to slam down onto the roof of the ambulance, jolting them out of their conversation. The Korean looked up at him with a frown. "Fred, do you know any way to silently enter somewhere?"

He was uncharacteristically quiet, one of his hands sticking out of his mouth. Go Go held out hers, and he dropped a round piece of fabric into it. Wasabi looked over her shoulder to spy on it. It was a black shoulder patch, no doubt ripped off one of the men chasing them.

And the blue, stylized capital F was all too familiar.

"I pulled that off one of the guys. They were wearing it under their combat gear. And I recognize one of them here." He pointed a claw over to the cop car housing the two men from the last car. "He was one of the security guards that I saw down at the base. One of the first two we saw. 'Mr. Stick-In-The-Mud', as HL put it."

She had no chance to respond, because Aspen had finished with the officer and was walking toward them. Her face brightened as she saw the two superheroes. "Oh my goodness! It's Big Hero 6!" She ran up to Go Go and almost tackled her with her hug. "You guys are so awesome!"

"...Thanks." Go Go's sides were getting squeezed by her rather tightly. "You can let go now."

"Aspen, can you give us a minute? I need to talk to them."

"Oooh! Superhero planning with the big guns? You're even more cool than I thought!"

Wasabi looked up at Fred, who got the silent hint. "You wanna see how high I can jump, young lady? I'll show you what a true superhero can do!"

"Totally!" She jumped into his arms automatically. "Let's do it!"

As Aspen and Fred rocketed off into the air, Go Go's attention went back to her friend, grimacing slightly as she rubbed her sides. "Wasabi. You like her. I get it. But you can't be hiding stuff from us. One of you is going to get hurt even more, and it's not going to be her."

He stood up from the ambulance to face her. "You don't really think she's involved in this, right?"

Go Go sighed, her breath fogging her face mask. She glanced over at the other two and watched as Fred flexed for Aspen, no doubt trying to show off. "No. Unless she's a really good actor, I don't think so. The terror she had on her face before...you can't fake that. But something is up with her; you can't deny that."

Wasabi followed her gaze over at her. Even with everything that had happened that evening (the car chase, the rescue), he still didn't know which was more shocking: all of that, or what happened at the base.

If only you knew, Go Go, he thought, the memory of her glowing eyes still fresh in his mind. If only you knew.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now, I'm not saying it's canon.

But it sure is fun to mix things up a little bit, right?

Not really much to say about this chapter. A little bit more action in this one, plus some much needed Freddie banter. I forget how much I like him sometimes.

The mystery continues in the next chapter, as well as a severe escalation, another confrontation, and a shocking revelation. Will there be more rhyming in there as well? Who knows?

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.