Chapter 44, everybody! The LAST update of 2020! It's finally over! *sob*

Also, I got a Baymax sweater for Christmas. :D I am satisfied with my wear.

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, I am still in denial of the end of "Countdown to Catastrophe" don't at me this is how I cope, okay? D:

Anyway, back to the fic—Hiro is once again referencing Lilo and Stitch, which Karmi is apparently aware of since she calls Hiro a Trog. XD Also, Karmi's visualizing: hi, that me.

And yeah Sycorax did rip off Globby's thing with Nega-Globby he should sue. And all three shows Tadashi references has a habit of having weird stuff happen in a setting just slightly off of what the character's used to.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! I DON'T KNOW BUT WE'LL FIND OUT SOON AAAAA! I do too. :D And aww, you flatter me. :D I do too—and come to think of it, Sasha's voice is really close to what I was imagining, so good guess! Thanks, you too! :D Oh I'm going to have to do that sometime….

SilverPhoenix, thanks for the review! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LET ME YELL WITH YOU! :D They are! They do! Baymax was actually addressing Joni since he's able to scan through glass tho. They are. :D YES! I need to find someplace online to post that tho (I understand there's stuff like Fictionpress and Wattpad and AO3 supports original work but must do research). :D But at least it has one fan! :D

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Ducktales © 2017 Disney

Karmi was very much not happy with one Hiro Hamada, which he at least had the decency to notice when he walked through her lab doors a little before noon.

"Uh," he noised, taking in her stiff pose, her tightly crossed arms, and her stern face. "Did I…come at a bad time?"

She had to take a moment to remind herself that throwing things at people was not conductive, settled for slamming her textbook on the counter. "What are you trying to pull?" she demanded.

"Uh, what?"

"What is this, you don't have any proof so you decide to cook something up? Listen, genius, I know better, okay?"

He was still giving her that annoyingly dim look. "So…should I just wait until you start talking sense again, or…."

UGH, idiot. Sag and look skywards for strength before forcing her attention back on him—this time brandishing the petri dish that had given her such grief all morning. "I'm talking about this."

"Oh," he said—still missing the point. "So did you find out what bird it was from?"

Jab a finger at him. "You did this—this has your fingerprints all over it."

"I did touch it, so yeah."

Ugh. "You couldn't stand that I got the cool internship, is that what it is?"

"Not getting what that has to do with the feather."

Oi, she was actually going to have to explain this to him. "This—this feather—I spent like two hours trying to clean the human contaminants off of it, and I still didn't manage—and then putting it through every scanner I have has it being a hodgepodge of avian DNA, and there's still human DNA in there. This is not a real feather, it doesn't belong to anything on this planet. Now, what are you trying to pull? And don't lie to me, I see that smirk."

He quickly schooled his expression. "Uh…no-nothing, really, you know…maybe it's an alien feather."

"Aliens don't exist, genius."

"Not true, there's a bunch in Hawaii. And maybe it's just the machines here—maybe you'd have better luck at work."

"Ah-ha," she declared, pointing. "There it is."

"There what is?"

"There's the angle—you want me to bring this up to Dr. Amara, look like an idiot, and get fired. Is that it?"

"I legit have better things to do. A lot of better things to do," he said, crossing his arms before shrugging diffidently. "But hey, I guess not getting something figured out despite your oh-so-cool internship is better than asking someone who knows better a perfectly legitimate question. Oh, and since you didn't get it, I don't have to stick to my end of the bargain—I'm totally playing Fall Out Boy at max volume."

"I am not taking this to Dr. Amara—this is you being a sore loser and I'm not playing this game."

"Like you claiming I have a crush on you?" he countered, grousing—ah, it hurt when someone saw through you, didn't it? "I mean, if it wasn't for me you would have never been able to fix Professor Knox, but go off I guess. I'm done."

"This isn't even remotely like Professor Knox," she countered as he started to leave—huff when he turned on his heel, smug look on his face.

"Sure it isn't—we know exactly when and how and why Professor Knox got monsterfied—and everyone else that showed up looking like that afterwards. All perfectly good explanations, right?"

She was going to force-feed him the petri dish before it was all over, she knew she would. "And targeting the one person trying to fix the issue works because?"

"Because she's making the issues and then fixing them—she's selling the problem and the solution."

"Do you even hear yourself?" she demanded, taking a step to close the gap and better point in his face. "Now you listen here you little trog, I want you out of my lab, and out of my life."

"I notice you're not trying to tell me Liv Amara's totally perfect anymore."

She ground her teeth, trying for calm—ugh, how did he always get under her skin like this? Glance up at movement behind him—

Twitch at the sight, causing him to turn too. "What the—"

She stumbled back, startled at the thing's scream—he did too, scrambled upright and out the door as it took off.

"Uhhh—I just remembered I have to go—do something," he blurted, running out. "Nice chat!"

"Hey wait!" she barked, running to her lab door—he and whatever that was was gone.

Except….

She looked at the petri dish again.

No. No, he was just being a jealous jerk, that was a thing.

Except something biological on this level was way beyond him—she knew better, he was a robotics major, and the closest thing he and that little clique he had to biology know-how was a chemistry major. Genetic manipulation of this level was way beyond his expertise. Like, from here to the moon and beyond.

And that was just a single feather—let's not get started on what she had just seen.

Huff a sigh, leaning back against the doorjamb.

He was getting under her skin because he was asking the same questions she was, that she had already asked and had been given the runaround on. They both had questions, the same questions, and no answers were forthcoming from the leading expert on the matter.

What if…what if there was a reason?

Okay no, think this through—go back in, close her door, go over it with some of her viruses, scribble out a vague outline as she tried sorting through it as she usually did, through the lens of a Big Hero Six fanfic—

"Just because he's jealous of your smarts doesn't mean he's wrong!" Captain Cutie said. "You're asking the same questions—if a robotics major has come to the same questions a biology major has, then there's a problem to be addressed!"

"A problem that's definitely a job for Big Hero Six!" Fire Jumper declared, leaping into frame.

She sighed, putting her pencil down after a while. She had tried tackling it from a few different angles, but it always came back to the same result: confronting Dr. Amara. And if she did that, she'd lose her internship—she'd probably be blacklisted forever or some other horrible thing.

"You have valid concerns," Red Panda pointed out. "If Dr. Amara is innocent, she will have no problem reassuring you and answering your questions."

"And if she does try something, then we'll be there to save the day!" Captain Cutie declared.

"And doing the right thing is ALWAYS worthwhile in the end!" Chop-Chop added.

Yeah, she thought, putting her notebook in her backpack before shouldering it and grabbing the petri dish. Now if only it wasn't so hard.

"Tough times are the mark of a true superhero!" Speed Queen announced. "Woman up and do it!"

"We believe in you!" Tall Girl added.

"Glad someone does," she muttered, opening the door—glance back at her viruses. "Wish me luck, guys."

The viruses were silent, but she liked to think they were doing so on a microscopic level. Alternatively, she imagined a choruses of good lucks from Big Hero Six.

Sag a little before steeling herself and marching off—it would be nice to have what she wrote in her fanfics, yes.

But sometimes, you just had to do things yourself.


Tadashi was vaguely aware of the fact that he had fallen asleep on hard concrete, more so when consciousness started being a bigger thing, knocking on his door and just generally being annoying. Yes, he was aware that he was sleeping on pavement, probably in some back alley and it was dirty and disgusting and gross but come on, five more minutes?

Nox and the others—

Finally jerked awake—groaned as his body informed him that it had not liked sleeping on the pavement yes he was aware—have a moment of panic when there was an absence of bird-kid against his chest. Scramble up, looking around—

Okay, good news, there was Huey and Louie, and they were mostly behaving. Questionable news was them crawling all over the motorcycle and the big guy, Felony Carl, but at least they had gotten past trying to eat Globby. He hoped.

Sit upright, trying to get everything firing again—'Kase was still sleeping, trembling a little—reach out, shake her shoulder until she started awake.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she sighed, laying back down—a couple of the saddlebags from the motorcycle had been acting as their pillows, he noticed inanely—remembered where they were and jerked back upright. "Wait no ew—"

Tadashi couldn't help the sort of coughing laugh, kept an eye and ear on the weird guys who were totally cool with bird-people why.

"You think maybe hanging with those two might be better than hanging with Mister I break scary ladies out of prison?" he asked her quietly, mostly jesting.

The look 'Kase gave him promised something painful and would have made Grump proud. "I will hurt you badly if you leave me with them."

He stifled a laugh, glanced back at the two guys in question—apparently locked in a heated debate about something that was actually pretty inconsequential in the long run before Globby noticed them awake and tapped Felony Carl's arm, prompting him to look—

"'Dashi!" Huey cheered, sliding off of Felony Carl's back and bounding over to tackle him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm up," Tadashi muttered. "How long were we out?"

"A few hours," Felony Carl said, accepting the saddlebag being handed back to him. "General consensus was to let you sleep undisturbed. And then babysit the kids when they woke up first."

"I see," Tadashi said, also taking note of the fact that the motorcycle, Felony Carl, and Globby now took up the bulk of the alley entrance and hid them effectively. "What are your rates?"

"I'm good."

"We were also discussing the best approach going forward!" Globby announced. "So far it involves an apartment for rent at Carl's place."

"Hard no," 'Kase interjected. "Your breath smells like garbage."

"Okay, harsh…second plan is to contact Big Hero Six, they're good with stuff like this."

Tadashi couldn't help the dumbfounded look. "Are you sure about that?"

"Oh yeah totally—they helped with the whole conversion from villain to hero thing I had going on—it got real bumpy somewhere in the middle, let me tell you."

Okay, so now Tadashi had more questions—but first.

"We still need to find the others," he said, looking at 'Kase.

"Ten bucks says most of them are at Sycorax," 'Kase said sourly.

"Oooh I hate those guys," Globby said, looking the angriest Tadashi had seen him. "They totally ripped off my thing! It's why it's trademarked now."

"That definitely showed a distinct lack of respect," Felony Carl agreed. Looked at Louie, still crawling around on his arm. "And that level of disrespect means them having more of these is a bad thing."

"It is," Tadashi said, standing, bracing himself momentarily against the wall. "So—you haven't seen a little bird-kid, have you? Besides those two," he added, when the two guys looked at Louie. "Dark hair, dark feathers, blue eyes—answers to Nox."

"Speaks only bird," 'Kase offered, stretching.

"Regrettably, no," Felony Carl said.

"Honestly, dark hair and blue eyes sounds like my old employer," Globby said, pensive. "But ooh! Big Hero Six would totally be able to find this kid!"

Tadashi was still hesitant about trusting the group that he had not had good relations with thus far. "Are you sure about that?"

"Totally—this is absolutely their thing. Did I mention I know them personally?"

"He does actually," Felony Carl said, accepting the other saddlebag. "So do I—they're good people."

Tadashi couldn't help exchanging glances with 'Kase, who still didn't look convinced—was he? Part of him wanted to throw all the responsibility on an adult for like two seconds, please, he was barely an adult he had no idea what he was doing…but did he trust these guys, and by extension this Big Hero Six?

Yes. Yes because they hadn't been judging, had fed them, had kept watch while they slept some of the stress off. If he had met them on the street, minus the feathers and the total insanity that preceded the meeting…still yes. His built-in ability to read people had only been fatally off once, as far as he knew.

Figured it was the one time that counted.

"Okay, I guess," Tadashi said finally, glancing away. "But we have to get Della and Dewey first."

"No problem! You do that, I'll do this, I'll call Carl with the meeting place," Globby said, saluting before bouncing away—like literally bouncing away, like turning into a ball and actually bouncing.

"Maybe I'm in an episode of Sliders," Tadashi decided. "Or—or The Outer Limits, or The Twilight Zone."

"Some things you learn to roll with," Felony Carl said, handing Tadashi a helmet and indicating the sidecar. Tadashi got the helmet on Huey, accepted a second one and put it on himself when he saw Louie already had one and wasn't too thrilled about it.

"It's a safety thing," Felony Carl told Louie.

"Yeah," Tadashi said, working around the little fact that bird-person anatomy didn't agree with sidecars. "'Kase."

"I think I'd rather ride on the back," she said, watching his struggle.

"Your tail will get caught in the wheel."

"It's a possibility," Felony Carl told her—watched Tadashi for another few seconds before picking him up like a kitten, adjusting the seat, and then putting him back down. "Better?"

"I have no idea," Tadashi said honestly, still processing being picked up like that.

"You'll get over it," 'Kase said, finally relenting—and scowling at the helmet she had to take. "Also, I blame you for all of this, we've been skulking all over when we could have literally walked straight up main street and no one would have batted an eye I've had to breathe in dumpster air because of you."

"Excuse me, but the last time I was in San Fransokyo there were no superheroes, glob-people, or bird-people for that matter," he shot back—looked at Felony Carl. "We're at the end of a very long and stressful road trip."

"I get it," Felony Carl said, handing a protesting Louie over.

"Thanks—Louie in here with Huey okay?"

Louie chirped, gripped the windshield of the sidecar and peered over it with determination.

"Okay," Felony Carl said, putting on another helmet. "Where are we going?"

"Other end of the Golden Gate Bridge—we should be able to pick up the other kids there."

"Right. For the record, I approve of the naming conventions."

"Congratulations," 'Kase muttered to Tadashi as they motored off. "You finally found someone who doesn't think your name ideas are lame."

"You and Grump are the only ones who think they're lame," Tadashi muttered back.

"Are we wrong?"

"Yes. Totally."

But the important thing was, they had a plan. It was a thin plan, and one that relied on other people to work…but maybe he could take that.

Someone has to help.

Someone was.


Webby had been exploring the new-place with Violet, had agreed that temporary split-up would cover more ground but was important to be shh and careful

Different paths all looked the same though, all samey and boring, sometimes with SHINY that was behind hard clearness that was like mirror but see-through, sometimes with lots of door that wouldn't open—huff in frustration, glaring at small box next to door that she thought might have something to do with getting inside—

Excitement was starting to give way to antsy that 'Dashi accused them of when they were bored-bored-bored but she was NOT bored maybe a LITTLE bored but more so she was nervous because she was only and that was no-good—keep sniffing—faint 'Dashi's-Hiro scents, crisscrossing everywhere…was this nest? Was this 'Dashi's-Hiro nest? This didn't feel like nest nest was supposed to be cozy and warm and safe this just felt confusing like the spaces between cage and pain in the bad-place—

Nearly leaped out of her feathers at Violet's shriek, feeling cold-cold-cold at what she shrieked—

BAD-PLACE-WAS RIGHT-FLEE-RUN-NOW!

No.

No-no-no why-why-why was 'Dashi's-Hiro at bad-place HOW was this bad-place it hadn't smelled like bad-place didn't look that much like bad-place but all that paled in comparison to the overarching need to RUN-FLEE-HIDE!

Scramble and scurry down hall, knowing in the back of her mind she needed to find Violet couldn't leave Violet behind couldn't let her be only—spotted a side-cave open YES that meant window meant freedom—

Dart in, skid to a halt and spin around, half-puffed up and ready to charge danger—huffing, breathing heavily from fleeing, ears pricked…no noise, no danger—

"May I help you?"

Webby squawked, spun—

Tipped her head at the no-feathers sitting behind a big square wooden thing, paws together in front of her face like 'Dashi did when thinking, looking at her with a little surprise and edge but not lots like other no-feathers.

Webby shuffled a bit—this no-feathers didn't feel dangerous. "Hi! I'm Webby," she decided to try.

"Hello Webby," the no-feathers said, lowering her paws to the top of the big square wooden thing, still with fingers laced. "Might I ask what you're doing in my office?"

None of that sounded like name, 'Dashi said if she gave her name that would make others give their name hi Webby I'm Tadashi!

This no-feathers didn't feel like threat—pad up to behind chair, peek around—still no-threat, had an expression like 'Dashi did when he was wondering what they were doing but suspected trick or some other play, almost-amused—pad up to the big square wooden thing, go tap-tap-tap on the side, hook fingers on top and peer over at the no-feathers.

"Hi! I'm Webby!" she tried again.

Eyebrow went up—this no-feathers radiated authority, like Fwah's-Mom did like 'Dashi and Beth and Sue did this was a listen-close and do-this this was in charge—that was SHINY and different stretch a little to paw at the long shiny thing with scribblies on the front—

The no-feathers picked it up and set it back out of Webby's reach. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Webby, but you still haven't said what you're doing in my office."

Webby gnawed on the side of the big square wooden thing where it jutted out, thinking—this no-feathers radiated authority, but Webby didn't see flock or flight anywhere, but she was in charge and Webby thought she must be in charge of something was there a flock a flight somewhere Webby didn't know about?

Maybe it was worth asking this no-feathers for what she wanted.

"'Dashi-Hiro," Webby declared, lifting her beak above the big square wooden thing again. "Want 'Dashi-Hiro."

Big sigh from the no-feathers, like 'Dashi when he was aggravated at them. "I should have known that Mr. Hamada had something to do with this." Stand up, come around the big square wooden thing, extend a paw to Webby. "Come along—I imagine I have an idea of where he might be."

This was promising, and she was nice-authority-no-feathers, not like her in the bad-place—go fwee, put a paw in hers, follow and try not to trip on weird ground this ground was like the ground outside there was no give at all and her feet went tk-tk-tk on it too but Webby didn't see any claws her back paws were in weird wraps too was she given the no-good bad poison too?

"Hi," she tried again, still not sure what to call this no-feathers. "I'm Webby."

"Hello Webby—I'm Professor Granville."

"Grah," Webby tried. "Fress-grah."

"I suppose we'll have to work on that."