Chapter 16

Honey Lemon sipped on her tea as a tray of cookies were presented to her. Felony Carl smiled as he pointed out the two distinct rows.

"This row is chocolate chip only. The other has macadamia nuts. I like the crunch."

"Plain chocolate chip is fine, Carl." Honey grabbed a cookie off the baking sheet and took a bite, eyes rolling back in her head at the melty chocolate. "Mmm, these are good."

"Well thank you," Globby said as he poured Carl a cup of tea. "I experimented with the chocolate recipe a touch. Usually you have two camps, those that like milk chocolate and dark chocolate. But I managed to create a chemical combination of both!"

"Really? That sounds incredibly difficult."

"Nah, it was a sinch. Try some!" Globby turned one of his hands into a small bar of chocolate and offered it to Honey Lemon. She broke off a small piece and sampled it, nodding at the flavor.

"That is good!"

"I know, right? And to think I ever wanted to go back to normal!" Globby handed Carl his teacup as the larger man sat down on the couch in their shared apartment.

"While it has taken some getting used to, I'm glad that my friend has finally found a fulfilled life for himself. Striving to be the city's best purse thief wasn't much of a calling."

"Nor was being a supervillain…" Globby admitted glumly. "I'm so lucky to have friends like you guys. I'm going to miss you so much when you leave, Honey Lemon."

"Aww, me too, Globby. Our little get togethers are the best parts of my week."

"Speaking of get togethers, there is a request we'd like to extend to you." Carl said in between bites of cookie.

"Really? What is it?"

Globby put down his teacup and sat up a little straighter on the couch. "Well, next month's meeting is going to be right before you leave, and we'll have a bigger crowd than ever in attendance, so we were hoping you'd show up so we could give you a proper send off. You've just done so much for a lot of us there."

Honey nodded vigorously at the idea, she was so happy when she'd heard that Globby and Carl had taken to helping out the former criminals and villains in the city. "I'd love to! Who all is going to be there?"

"Some of the regular guys from the street gangs, a few people that quit Yama's crew, Sparkles, of course. But we also know that High Voltage will be there as well this month, the judge talked to us and cleared them for a visit."

Honey clapped in excitement. "Yay! Good for them, that makes me happy."

"I think it will do the group some good to receive positive reinforcement from one of the city's heroes." Carl said after Honey's clapping had died down. "You may have once punched and kicked some of us, but it's because you care."

"The punching and kicking is more Go Go's thing…" Honey said sheepishly.

"Carl's right though. No offense to the other guys, they care too, but you really care what happens to us. When I was helping Obake you were the only one who believed in me and thought I could be more. You thought that from basically word go. Everyone else pointed and yelled 'Monster', probably rightfully so, but you thought I could be more than that from the start. Same goes for everyone else. You always root for us to be better."

"Well, thanks. It's not always easy. You didn't always make it easy. But everything has worked out for the best. I'm proud to say that you've come a long way. And with that, I have a little request of my own."

"Oh really?"

"Well… a request of our own, as a team, really. They wanted me to talk to you about this today." Honey put down her teacup now that she was discussing business and tried to put on a serious face like Go Go had shown her. "I'm moving. You know this. But Wasabi is too. That means that in a little over a month, the team will have lost a third of its members, and with all the escaped supervillains running around, the city can't afford to be short staffed, even with the police. We're going to try our hardest to catch them all before we go, but it might not happen."

"Is this going where I think it's going?" Carl asked, glancing at Globby.

"Globby, you have come so far in the time we've known you. You helped save the city against Obake, Trina, Nega Globby, and then some. You're as much a hero as we are in our eyes, so we wanted to know if you would be willing to join the team in a semi-official capacity for right now and if needed later, full-time."

Globby's gelatinous chin hung open at the offer. Finally, he managed to collect himself and stammer. "You want me? As an official part of the team? I… I don't know what to say."

"The correct answer is yes, Globs." Carl said as he elbowed his buddy. Honey nodded encouragingly at him as the goo being looked between his two friends.

"This is one of the times I wish I still had tear ducts so you could tell how happy I am. Of course I'll join the team! It'd be an honor!"

Honey Lemon stood up from her chair and extended a hand for shaking. "Globby, it's my honor to welcome you to it."

Globby stood up and eagerly took her hand, shaking it quickly. But of course, that wasn't enough for Honey Lemon, who quickly pulled Globby closer and wrapped him in a hug. She'd have to get Wasabi to get the goo out of her clothes later, but it was worth it. Carl softly clapped from his position on the couch.

"My best friend is a superhero. Who would've thought?"

"He's been one for a long time, Carl." Honey said as she stepped back.

"So what happens now?" Globby asked.

"Well, we asked someone else to join the team recently as well. Here in the next couple days we'll bring you both in and get you caught up to speed and see what you can do."

"Oh really? Who else did you ask?"

"That's a secret for now. You'll meet her soon enough. She's kinda new on the scene."

"I've heard talk about some lady with teleportation powers. That her?" Carl asked.

"Where'd you hear that?" Honey asked.

The big man shrugged. "I know people who know people."

"Well it's fine, I get it. Secret identities and all that." Globby said as he sat back down on the couch. "Whoever she is, her secret will be safe with me. Just like yours and the others."

"We appreciate that, Globby. And you too, Carl."

"You've always done right by Globs, so I'll do right by you. Scout's honor. Now, who would like a celebratory cookie?"

Honey Lemon arrived home from Globby and Carl's place to find it empty. Go Go was busy with the Wowaroos today at the science center so she'd have the place to herself for a while. She was tempted to throw an impromptu sticker party but didn't want to irritate Go Go when she inevitably returned home from wrangling kids all day. Instead, she powered on a tablet and waited until a bunny-themed UI popped up on the screen.

"Good afternoon, Honey Lemon! I'm so happy to see you!"

"I'm happy to see you too, Bunny Bus!"

After Krei Tech had abandoned the automated public transit system she and Hiro had helped them build, Hiro had repurposed the AI and put it on a tablet just for Honey Lemon. The bus itself might've been scrapped for parts, but Honey couldn't stand seeing the cheery AI go as well. So now she had someone to talk to when she was home alone. And she technically wasn't talking to herself, even if the AI did share her voice and personality.

"How was Globby's?"

"Gooooood! He agreed to join the team!" The AI smiled big and joined Honey in an excited shriek. She also only talked to the AI when she was home alone because Go Go couldn't stand hearing the two of them at the same time.

"That's so exciting! I'll clear that item off your to-do calendar!" The bunny's face moved as Honey Lemon's electronic calendar popped up on screen and the item mentioning Globby was cleared with a green checkmark. "Anything else you want to do?"

"Open up the bookmarks on the browser. I still need to find a place to live when I move."

The AI brought up a series of websites for apartments and cheap houses in the city she was moving to. So far, she hadn't found anything that was in her price range that she liked. While her upcoming job paid well, it would be a while before she'd be able to afford some of the places she was looking at. And she wasn't looking at super lavish places, either. She simply wanted a decent place in a nice neighborhood, but so far, every place she'd looked at had been well outside her price range.

Those that were in her price range were… less than desirable. She hadn't realized how lucky she'd had it living at SFIT and then with Go Go until she started looking at her options for the move. It's not that Honey couldn't handle a rough neighborhood, her time as a superhero had seen to that, but if she could help it, she would rather stick to the better areas of town. So she scrolled through page after page of housing and apartment listings. Finally she scrolled to a listing that was perfect. It was only about a half-hour away from her new job, the neighborhood was good, and the floorplan was great. One bedroom, a decent living room, and a small but well-equipped kitchen. However, when she scrolled to the bottom of the page, she saw the listed price and cringed. All in all it wasn't awful, being just outside her price range. But even by being just outside her price range, it was still outside of her price range.

She sighed and tossed the tablet onto the couch, the tablet AI giggling at the sensation. There was a rattle at the door as a key was inserted into the lock and Go Go walked in, looking a little worse for wear. Honey checked the time on the tablet and saw that hours had gone by. She watched as her roommate shuffled into the apartment and slammed the door shut. Her hair was stuck to her forehead and matted with sweat, and a nasty bruise was forming on her left cheek.

"You ok?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Don't want to talk about it." Go Go said as she retreated to the kitchen. She whipped open the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap and downing the entire thing in one large gulp. Go Go wiped her mouth and chucked the empty bottle into the recycling container and took a good look at Honey Lemon. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Yes there is, your smile is missing. Did Globby not want to join the team?"

"No, no, he accepted. He was really happy to."

"Ok, then what?"

Honey Lemon sighed and picked up the tablet. "It's the house hunt. Everything I look at is either out of my price range or…"

"Garbage?"

"That's one word for it. I found this one place that's great, but it's just outside of my price range."

"Show me." Honey handed Go Go the tablet and she looked through the listing. "Yeah, this seems like its right up your alley. Good neighborhood, nice kitchen… how far is it going to be from work?"

"Thirty minutes if I walk, less if I take public transit."

"And how far is it out of your price range?"

"Two grand."

"That's it?" Go Go whipped out her phone and tapped a few buttons. After a moment, Honey's phone buzzed and she opened her Kash-aroo app, the little cartoon kangaroo showing her that Go Go had just given her four thousand dollars. Honey's eyes went wide and she looked up.

"Go Go!"

"And you'll have some leftover for groceries and junk. You're welcome."

"Go Go, I can't just take this from you!"

"You're not, I'm giving it to you."

"That's not…" Honey Lemon closed her eyes and removed her glasses, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Go Go, it's too much. Thank you, but I can't accept this."

"Why not?"

"Because it's four thousand dollars! It's not like you bought me a candy bar or something!"

"You're right, it's not. I'm helping you out so you have a good place to live. And I'm not going to miss four grand." Go Go crossed her arms, knowing she had a point. After selling her designs for mag-lev vehicles to Krei Tech, Go Go had become a millionaire overnight. With her usually meager spending habits, she wouldn't need to worry about money for a long time.

"I know you won't but it's your money. You should spend it on you, things that are important to you!"

"You are important to me!" Go Go said. Honey Lemon's retort died in her mouth as the smaller woman ran her hand through her unusually messy hair. "You know I don't do emotions. That's why it was so hard for me to just say I wanted you to stay when you had the opportunity to move back to SFIT. I've really liked having you here. It hasn't always been easy with your stickers and the Bunny-You AI, but you're my friend. I care about you. So if I'm finally getting my apartment back to myself, then I'm going to make sure that you're going to live in a place that you feel comfortable in. And if that means splurging a little so you have enough money to do so, then I'd say that's money well spent. You know Fred would do the same for any one of us. Heck, he has done the same for all of us since we've found out he was loaded. Friends help friends however they can, and so that's what I'm doing."

"I know… thank you Go Go." Honey Lemon opened up her arms and surged forward for a hug but Go Go stopped her halfway.

"Sorry, no hug right now. I reek and you've got Globby bits on you still." Honey Lemon looked at her clothing, sure enough, a few gelatinous globs were still on her.

"Oops. I should probably clean the couch then."

Go Go smiled slightly and rolled her eyes. "Great. I'm going to shower, then do you want to go out and grab something to eat? I don't feel like cooking tonight."

"I'd love to. And it's my treat, no arguing! As a thank you."

"Fair." Go Go smiled fully and made her way towards the stairs that led to her bedroom and the bathroom. As she took her first step up though she suddenly grabbed her head in her hands and groaned. Honey Lemon looked at her concerned.

"Go Go?" Honey Lemon didn't get a response as Go Go teetered and fell over backwards. Honey Lemon was barely able to catch her in time before she hit the floor and the taller girl cradled her friend as she frantically tried to wake her up.

"Go Go?! Go Go!" No luck, she was out cold. Panicking, Honey Lemon reached for her phone and fumbled through her contacts, finally reaching Hiro. "Hiro, I need you at the apartment now! Go Go collapsed, bring Baymax, you'll get here faster than an ambulance!"

"What happened?!"

"I don't know, just hurry!"

"We're on our way!"

Honey Lemon didn't bother to say goodbye and hung up as she cradled Go Go, waiting impatiently for help to arrive.

Notes

Ok, so yeah, short chapter today. Sorry. My explanation/excuse:

The purpose of giving other characters besides Hiro their own focus chapters/arcs is so we can explore them a little bit more and expand on their stories. We've already seen this with Fred and Wasabi in this story, and we've also already seen it with Honey Lemon. Ch6 focused a lot on Honey Lemon and kickstarted the need for new team members storyline, so there wasn't much left to do with her, IMO. At first to counteract this, I considered really diving into Globby, but looking at his story throughout the show, there's already been a lot done with him too. So the next logical step would to bring him onto the team officially, making him one of the more obvious additions to BH6 that I teased last week. However, that's not something that should really be squished into a single chapter. Globby is great, and one of the early moments that got me into the show for the long-haul.

Over time, I've learned to stop trusting Disney Channel/Disney XD marketing. It's pretty bad. While I enjoyed the movie when it came out in 2014, I wasn't quite sure where else the story could go and wasn't really interested when it was announced that the series would be happening. Then the first promos dropped, and it was essentially a chopped up out-of-context clip focusing on Baymax being able to dance from "Fred's Bro-tillion". The early ads for the series seemed to be pushing this as the height of comedy and that the show would focus on it instead of being story driven (ironically what S3 ended up becoming, seems like that's what the execs probably wanted from the start), so I didn't bother watching the show at all. This same marketing strategy also turned me off of "Tangled: The Series", "Star vs. The Forces of Evil", and "Amphibia". And while all three shows do have their comedic elements, they also have good on-going stories and character work as well. The same can be said for BH6: The Series. Like the movie it has comedic relief, but (the first two seasons) uses that to reinforce the characters and provide levity. Not knowing this, I ignored the show until March 2020 when I was sick and had nothing else better to do. Not that kind of sick, mind you. Coincidentally, that week the US went into what turned into a year-plus long lockdown, I ended up with a stomach bug. Go figure.

So having just finished "Tangled: The Series" on Disney+ and catching up with the show on the Disney NOW App, and finding myself pleasantly surprised, I decided to give BH6 a chance too. If the marketing for the Tangled show was misleading, what were the chances that the marketing for BH6 was too? And to my sort-of surprise/relief, the pilot didn't focus on comedy, instead on story and characters, teasing an overarching big-bad for the season. I was intrigued. Cue High Voltage and Fred's meta commentary on colorful villains making the heroes overconfident and getting them beat. Ok, potential here. Then Momakase, then Von Steamer, and with each new villain we got new avenues of the world opened up, making it feel a little more alive and the characters fleshed out. Then Globby. What other shows would've used as a one-and-done bad guy, BH6 spread his story throughout the entire season. He was selfish, sure, but was he really evil? Debatable. He was a great combo of funny yet threatening and really gave the team a run for their money early on. But he never really wanted to hurt anyone unlike some of the other bad guys, which gave him wiggle room for redemption. He was just a lonely purse thief mutant that wanted friends, really, and he was taken aback by the idea of murdering an entire city. While I had enjoyed the movie, it was really the three part "Countdown to Catastrophe" finale that cemented my love for BH6. It felt like a natural extension of the movie, carrying the characters and themes the film had started out with forward in realistic ways. Season 2 was largely the same, although I know people debate back and forth about certain characters like Chief Cruz.

So that's a long way of saying part of the reason this chapter is so short is because the show has done a pretty good job with the characters featured in this chapter, and if I'm going to carry them forward, a single chapter isn't going to be the way to do it. Globby may be on the team, but having a membership and pulling your own weight are two different things, which we'll be seeing some of soon. So shorter chapter yes, but it served the purpose of getting Globby officially on the team. Also, while this is the shortest chapter in the story so far (asides from the Prologue), it comes immediately after the longest chapter in the story, and also, chapters from here on out are going to get longer on average as well. Most chapters prior to now have been somewhere in the 4k-5k word range. Starting next week, the next five chapters (aka the ones I have written, who knows, things might fluctuate again after that, but I doubt it) are all 5k-7k words in length. So you get a little short shrift this week, but you'll get lots more on average in the weeks to come. Speaking of...

NEXT WEEK: What's going on with Go Go? Who beat her up and why did she faint? You'll have to keep reading to find out...