Chapter 43, everybody! Twas the update before Christmas, and all through the city, bird-kids were flying, I apologize for the ditty.

I think in my writing up on this I might be getting close to having it entirely written out…might bump it up to posting twice a week once that happens but in the meantime know that we have updates clean into the new year—and to this fic's first anniversary. :D

Continuing blanket disclaimer: I still have not finished Season Two. We're flying blind, boys. And again, a good chunk of these chapters were written before I had been able to bring myself to watch "Countdown to Catastrophe"…and in other news, yes I'm still in denial of the end of "Countdown to Catastrophe" don't at me. D:

But yeah, bits and pieces of this, specifically the bit with Krei at the beginning, were added thanks to watching the corresponding episode—by "Lie Detector" I decided to hold off on finishing the season until I finished this, since I wasn't entirely sold on how canon was affecting an AU that went off the rails a while ago. ^^; I may or may not regret that decision later, but what the hey. On that note: episode title-drop time.

Of course, saying that…the actual Muir Woods is a national park there's legit no way Krei could have ever actually purchased it the government doesn't give up real estate (please never get me started on the topic of eminent domain). And yes, the thing with Obake would have totally happened with or without Big Hero Six there, the kids were only directly responsible for Globby and the events of "Baymax Returns" ("Fan Friction" give or take only because Obake was directly working against the kids by then), so eat that, Cruz.

We have yet another reference to Homeward Bound this chapter—love that movie, highly recommend it, it was a lot of inspiration for this fic, somehow these references always seems to involve Violet in some capacity. And I have no idea what anyone's school schedule is in the show the only class we ever seem to see them in is Granville's class so…slight fudging.

In other news, Joni is an OC who is vaguely based on Walani from Don't Starve. She has a younger cousin who is real into bot-fighting but they don't really talk. Also I'm pretty sure I wrote that one line before watching the Mayoi episode in full so…still AU we can handwave.

ALSO! Forgot to mention last week, but there's some bird-people art relating to the fic on my DeviantArt account of Dr-Kineil-Wicks. Just check my gallery for Big Hero 6 Safe in Brother's Wings for related art, and apologies in advance for the mess that is Eclipse. XP

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! YES! I swear those two give me life best characters after Obake. Yes Baymax is best birdsitter 10/10 would recommend. Yes! And I shall do my best! :D

SilverPhoenix, thanks for the review! Me too. D: And yes! Love these two and that will be a glorious realization indeed. :D And yes all the juicy worldbuilding bits about species yaaas! (Real talk, been writing some original fic with bird-people because I love the concept too much). Yes, very much—and good question….CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Hexyah, thanks for the review! Yes! Two of my favorite dudes I almost didn't include them until someone mentioned them so that was one crime narrowly averted. XD And Carl is the master of the understated reaction. :D No problem! Feel free to ask for more I welcome all chances to nerd about bird-people. \ovo/

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Ducktales © 2017 Disney

The start of Hiro's next break hour saw him dragging his exhausted self to the labs with the intent of hitting his couch and taking Professor Granville up on her suggestion of catching up on his sleep.

That plan was quickly derailed by Wasabi waving him over.

"Have you seen this?" he asked, indicating the screen he, Honey Lemon, and Gogo were currently in front of. Hiro blinked, looked—

Felt his stomach flip-flop at the sight of Muirahara Woods smoldering—didn't really need that reminder of last night, even if his confusion at Krei on the screen as well was working to edge it out.

Krei, for his part, was gesturing with feeling at the burning woods behind him.

"Deliberate arson, threatened the lives of everyone currently on the trails!" he railed.

"Mr. Krei, our viewers want to know what you were doing in the woods yesterday," Bluff Dunder said, jabbing a mike at him.

"NOT setting them on FIRE—if you must know, Krei Tech is looking to purchase Muirahara Woods," Krei said primly. "Matter of fact I was planning to build there—but seeing the sad state it's in I'd rather preserve it and give it some PROPER security! Someone in there setting off—FIRECRACKERS is NOT going to be tolerated!"

Gogo muted the broadcast as Krei continued to rail. "So that clears Krei," she observed.

"Not that he was really a suspect," Hiro mused. "But he's giving Amara an out—yeah, I know, don't give me that look," he said, waving them off. "We're all in agreement that bird-kids had to have originated from Sycorax, but we can't use them against Sycorax."

"No one's disagreeing with you, Hiro," Honey Lemon said, one hand squeezing at the neck of her cardigan and bunching the fabric up. "It's just…this was big," she said, gesturing to the screen. "The sort of thing that would attract attention—why would she risk it?"

"Cleaning up loose ends?" Wasabi suggested. "Bird-people are harder to explain than a burning forest."

"Or some sort of endgame," Gogo added. "Maybe she's at a point where she doesn't think she needs to hide anymore."

"In which case, we're in trouble," Hiro concluded, remembering the last supervillain who had catapulted out from under the radar—he didn't think Liv Amara would try totally razing the city….

But he could totally picture her trying to turn it into a city of monsters.

Start at a touch to his shoulder—Honey Lemon winced apologetically.

"Maybe you should get some sleep, Hiro," she offered. "We can wake you for lunch."

He glanced at his watch. "No, no…I have to get to Karmi's lab."

"Seriously?" Wasabi asked. "What happened to you two hating each other?"

"We still do, don't worry," Hiro assured him, heading for the door. "It just gets temporarily suspended when you're using each other."

"Seems legit," Gogo said. "Hurry back."

"Will do."


As soon as he was gone, the others exchanged glances.

"I'm worried about him," Honey Lemon started.

"Me too," Wasabi agreed, rubbing the back of his neck. "He gets so stressed about everything and it kind of just—like snaps and wrecks him."

"He's still at that learning stage," Gogo offered, opening her e-mails. "We worked through it—he'll get it eventually."

"Uh, sure, but Gogo, when we were working through it we also weren't moonlighting as superheroes."

"And we were several years older than Hiro," Honey Lemon pointed out. "This is a lot to take in at our ages, let alone fourteen."

Gogo sighed, rubbed at her face. "Look, I'm not arguing that this isn't stressful, because it is—for everyone involved. But we're invested now, and at the very least you can argue that the incident with Obake would have happened whether we were superheroes or not. By the way, don't tell Fred I said this because that means he's right and those words are to never leave my mouth."

"Yeah, but—you know I'd like someone else to do the superhero stuff for like, five minutes," Wasabi said. "Or at least during midterms or finals. It'd be really nice to just—hand this off to someone who knows what they're doing."

"Do you think Freddie's dad will do it if we asked nicely?" Honey Lemon asked.

"At this point I'm kind of convinced his mom and Heathcliff would do it if we asked nicely," Gogo said.

"Yeah, that is kind of weird," Wasabi agreed, looking down at a tugging at his shirt. "What?"

"Up!" Violet ordered, arms up.

"Uh yeah no we've established I have to work up to these things," he told her. Looked up to address Gogo and Honey Lemon—

Gogo blamed not getting any coffee in her system for the length of her reaction time, was willing to bet that was Wasabi and Honey Lemon's reason as well.

In the meantime.

"What are you doing here you're supposed to be at Fred's no bad bird-kid," Wasabi squawked, jumping back onto the desk—Honey Lemon reached to scoop her up—

Apparently it occurred to Violet that she was in trouble, because she took off.

"No—HEY!" Gogo barked, launching out of her chair and running after the little purple bird-kid. "Wasabi, Honey Lemon! Other way!"

"Got it!" they barked as she rounded the corner, Violet disappearing around the next corner—good gravy she was fast! Run, skid, nearly collide with Honey Lemon—

Violet easily swerved around Wasabi when he stepped out in front of her.

Five minutes in it became painfully clear that they wouldn't be catching her without a great deal of effort—she was easily running circles around all of them, dodging every attempt to catch her and slipping away before they even had a chance to turn around.

And considering the end of that five minutes had them all on the floor after a collision, Gogo was motivated to suggest a different tactic.

"Are we sure this is going to work?" Wasabi asked—to be quickly shushed by Honey Lemon. Keep the doors almost shut, watching through the crack—wait until Violet walked by, focused on the open bag of chips on the floor, until the crackling said she had it—

"Now!"

Jump out, skid, Honey Lemon throwing her cardigan before tackling it, Gogo grabbing a handful of green sweater—

Unfortunately that handful of green sweater belonged to Wasabi, who had Honey Lemon, who was currently hugging Gogo, cardigan sandwiched between them. And no Violet.

A crinkling noise made them look—spot Violet at the end of the hall, beak in the bag before looking up at them.

"No," she declared, before marching off.

"Did we just get outsmarted by a bird-kid?" Wasabi asked.

"I won't tell if you won't," Honey Lemon offered.

"Not yet," Gogo said, squirming out of Honey Lemon's grip in pursuit of Violet. "Come on."


Finally finally FINALLY they got out of the stinky moving-box that went CLANG-CLANG-CLANG—and did it again as it trundled away. Keen distress at Baymax—

Baymax looked around, down at his chest where something interesting flashed. "According to Hiro's schedule, he is currently in a: free period," Baymax announced. "As he normally eats lunch at noon, this means he will be in his lab." Blink, look, start moving. "This way please."

They walked through a gap in small cliff that turned out to be wall, chirped with interest when this turned out to be like Fwah-nest with trees and grass and bushes all laid out just so with rock-paths for bright-eyed monsters that for some reason never came in nests like this—freeze when one came huffling along, watch as it purred by calmly, not interested in them.

Lena went phew in relief—Nox tugged on Baymax's paw, pointing after calm-monster and chirping why-why-why—

Baymax looked where Nox indicated, back at Nox. "That is a: car. Cars: are a manner of vehicle used for transportation. They are useful for when walking the same distance would have a: negative impact on one's health, but should not be used for short distances when weather permits."

"Kuh," Nox echoed—the way Baymax talked car was tame and nice but Nox knew better there had been that one that tried to eat 'Dashi and Louie and then all the ones that had tried to eat him WHY did Baymax talk like car was nice why.

"Car," Baymax repeated, like how 'Dashi repeated a word he wanted them to know, calm and with weight, like word was as important as flying was key to happiness.

"Kuh."

"Dashi-Hiro," Lena said, not having patience or desire to learn new word chittering that the sooner they were back in Fwah-nest and away from smelly noises and car-monsters the better.

Baymax blinked at her, resumed waddling, blinking at whatever Nox pointed out and chirped interest-THAT-what? about.

"That is a robot," he said of something small with four limbs running after a round flying thing with no wings HOW—"Robots can perform many tasks. For example: I am a robot that is programmed to assist in all healthcare needs."

Lena and Nox both looked at the little four-legged thing Baymax called robot, looked back at Baymax who was big and soft and squishy and warm and very much not like that, warbled in confusion—interest when they reached a bunch of flat rocks all lined up against each other and leading up to big shiny square strange cliff.

"These are steps," Baymax explained. Looked at something SHINY that followed the steps at Nox's eye level. "Please always remember to use the handrails, especially during inclement weather. Snow, ice, and rain, may negatively impact your ability to use: steps."

Nox reached out with his free paw, gripped the SHINY thing that was cool to touch but also warming in sun, chirped at Baymax, who carefully put a paw on nearest step, put other paw on step, pause, put other paw on step, other paw on step, pause—

Lena groused that steps didn't look dangerous, would be more easily navigated on all four paws what was this why. Nox reported that the SHINY thing made interesting noises when tapped with claw, making Lena want to look but couldn't navigate around Baymax want-want-want—

Finally make it to top of steps, chirp in alarm at sight of other bird-kids, interest when they realized that it was themselves this must be mirror like 'Dashi had shown them—rush up and tap against, chirping and preening as Baymax pushed at something before looking in mirror and moving a paw in a circle. "Hello."

"No," Lena said, going over and patting Baymax before tapping on mirror. "Mrr-rrr." Not really you-for look-at-see.

Nox agreed, tapping on mirror and resting claws against—chirp interest when the shadow of his paw showed something else—lean in close against mirror and shade eyes with paws—

Lena! he squawked. Lena-Lena-look-look-look-not mirror-look—

Which was when part of mirror opened, sending them both darting behind Baymax in alarm.

"Aw, Baymax, did Hiro run off and leave you outside again?"

"Hello, Joni," Baymax greeted, moving his paw in circular wave. "We are here to see: Hiro."

"We?" the no-feather asked—spotted Nox and Lena peeking around Baymax. "Uh, hi?"

Nox wasn't sure how to interact with this no-feather—she didn't seem mean and scary, made small wave…decide to imitate Baymax's wave.

The no-feather still seemed confused. "Are they…related?..."

Baymax blinked, looked at them, back at the no-feather. "Nox, and Lena: share a genetic donor."

"That is…not what I meant but okay," the no-feather said, stepping aside. Baymax considered the opening, turned sideways, waddled in. Nox and Lena exchanged glances, followed close behind—Baymax was still best bet Baymax looked soft but his paws had sharp poke and sometimes he was big and red and could fly so that had to mean he could protect them if he needed to.

"Uh," no-feather-Joni noised, staring openly now. "Are they from the…biology department?"

"They are not," Baymax said.

"Okay…and they're with you because?..."

"I am: babysitting." Look at them, back to her. "During the course of: babysitting, they requested to see: Hiro."

"Yeah he's upstairs—please tell me they're not related to Hiro."

"They do not share any genetic donors with: Hiro."

"Okay…I…guess I could check them in…th-they're housebroken, right?"

Checking in involved no-feather-Joni writing their names down and then giving them things to put around their necks that had SHINY squares at the end that were no don't eat that—tap-tap-tap the SHINY things, whistle question

"Now, kids," no-feather-Joni said, handing them lollipop before standing with paws on knees like 'Dashi did. "The only reason I'm going along with this is because I trust Baymax, so it's very, very important that you don't tell anyone I let you in, okay? You never saw me."

"Joni," Nox said.

"Yeah that's the kind of thing you don't say okay? No Joni Joni wasn't here I bought your silence with the lollipops yeah?" Look at Baymax. "Please don't tell Professor Granville I let these in I'm still in trouble for the Mayoi in the cafeteria."

"Nox, and Lena: do not share any genetic similarities with the Mayoi," Baymax said. "There is no danger of any repeat incidents." At no-feather-Joni's desperate look: "I will not tell: Professor Granville."

"Oh, thank you Baymax," no-feather-Joni said, tackling Baymax in a hug and burying her face against him.

"You are welcome," Baymax said, returning the hug and patting her head.

Nox and Lena exchanged glances, a little confused—who was Professor Granville and why were they so scary? Were they like her

Ears pricked, spines stiffened, eyes pinned at a terrified shriek—

"What was that?" no-feather-Joni asked—"Hey wait where are they going!?"

Going to protect flock protect flight, speeding up more steps and shreeing coming-hold on-we help—

Because that was danger-terror shriek, that came from flock from flight—

Something had happened to Violet.