Chapter 18

Globby swung through downtown, moving towards the outskirts of the city. A flock of pigeons avoided him, now well accustomed to his preferred method of travel. When Honey Lemon had asked him a few days ago to join Big Hero 6 in a more formal matter, he'd been thrilled and honored. Now though, his stomach was doing little flip-flops as butterflies made him anxious. Oh… he'd picked up an actual butterfly at some point. Globby carefully picked the insect out of his gelatinous mass and allowed it to fly away on the breeze. Despite the bug being gone, he was still nervous. He'd stepped up when called upon to help the city, but now he was going to be one of the 6. And with that came expectations. It was a big deal.

As the buildings became smaller and fewer in between, Globby knew he was close. It wasn't too late; he could swing back home and call in sick. He knew Felony Carl would cover for him, lying was far from the worst thing he'd ever done. But no. Globby had had expectations thrust upon him the moment he betrayed Obake and helped save the city. There was no going back now, even if he was still a little nervous. Globby dripped onto the sidewalk in front of the old Frederickson's candy factory and oozed through the closed gates. The actual hideout was a little harder to get into, but thankfully he wouldn't have to try hard to get in.

Walking into the building, Globby spotted the one piece of current technology settled among the midst of oxidizing antiques. He placed his hand on the scanner and Basemax scanned him. After a moment, the door to the rest of Big Hero 6's hideout opened.

"Hello, Globby. Welcome to Basemax."

Globby smiled at the hexagonal eyes on the scanner as he walked inside. Everyone else was already present, even Mini-Max. Honey Lemon saw Globby enter and ran to give him a hug. He hugged her back as she bounced up and down on her feet.

"I'm so excited! I'm so happy that you're finally joining the team!"

"Me too! I told Honey this already, but it's a real honor to be officially invited onto the team, really."

Wasabi smiled as Honey Lemon and Globby walked closer to the conference table. "You've earned it, pal. Without you, I don't know how many times the city would've probably been destroyed."

"Oh, hush. I'm just happy to help. So are we going to get started?"

"Not yet," Hiro said as he tapped out a message on his phone. "We're waiting on one more person."

"Oh right! This new person on the scene. When's she getting here?" No one needed to answer as a person in a white suit and helmet suddenly appeared in the room. Globby jumped back in surprise, almost colliding with Baymax. The new arrival put her hands up to her helmet in surprise.

"Sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to startle you. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just a little spooked. Wasn't expecting that. Teleportation, right?"

The girl behind the visor nodded. "Yeah, that's right. And you're like a living version of Honey Lemon's purse."

"Guilty as charged. Literally. Me stealing her purse is what made me like this in the first place!" Globby reached out a hand to shake. "I'm Globby."

The other person hesitated, looking at the others for confirmation. Hiro nodded to her. "It's fine, you can trust him."

Satiated, the girl took off her helmet and reached out her own hand, grasping Globby's goopy one. "I'm Abigail."

"Pleased to meet you. Glad to know there's someone else with real powers out there. I was starting to get lonely."

"I'm just happy we'll have them to coach us. It'll be nice to learn from the professionals."

Hiro scoffed. "I'm not sure I'd call us-"

"Don't worry, you're in the safest of hands!" Fred said, interrupting Hiro. "Professional hands!"

"And with the meet and greet out of the way, let's get started." Go Go said. She handed each of them a small binder, the insides detailing how night patrol usually worked and the passcodes to get into Basemax and other areas. "These will help out a bit as we start. With all the supervillains out on the loose some of your training will need to be done in the field, but the stuff we do here, try to consult these."

Fred leaned close to Hiro. "I had the pages inside laminated. Pretty professional, right Hiro?"

Hiro shooed him away and walked up to the new recruits. "The last few pages detail a list of our allies and all the wanted villains still on the loose. I know that both of you know some of them, but it'll help to know all of them, just in case."

"Ugh, the steam guy." Abigail said as she flipped through the pages. "How long has he been trying to destroy the city? I remember him from when I was growing up."

"Forget that guy, let me tell you about the noodle robot. He was the worst." Globby said as he scanned through Noodle Burger Boy's bio. "It was always pickle this, burger that, time to sing the Noodle Burger song! I'm actually really glad I didn't land a job there…"

Abigail chuckled as she flipped through more of the binder, landing in the middle. She frowned and turned the binder towards Hiro. "Hey, what's this room?"

Hiro smiled as he saw what she'd turned to. "The first thing on the itinerary."

Hiro lead everyone through the doors into a darkened room, everyone now in their suits. Hiro clapped and the lights came on, the entire room powering up in a shimmering holographic display.

"Globby, Abigail, this is SymMax. This is where we train and keep up our skills during downtimes. Haven't needed it a lot lately considering the villains have kept us plenty busy, but it'll be a great way to get both of you used to working as a team."

"Fancy!" Globby said as he stared up at the hexagonal eyes of Basemax monitoring them.

"What's first, kid?" Abigail cracked her knuckles, eager to get started. Hiro smirked behind his helmet.

"I think I'll let Go Go take it from here." Hiro stepped away, allowing Go Go to take center stage.

"Both of you have your own strengths and weaknesses, some of which we've seen firsthand. But in order to really evaluate what you're made of, we're going to just throw you into the deep end. No better way to learn than through experience." Go Go pulled up the holographic control panel and pressed a few buttons. In response, a training dummy rose out of the floor as the room shifted to resemble Night Market Square. A hologram filtered over the dummy, turning him into a balding middle-aged man in a nice suit.

"Oh, that doesn't look so bad." Globby said, slightly relieved by the lack of challenge. Go Go looked at the target and grimaced.

"Oops, wrong variable. Hold on." She typed in a few more commands and the middle-aged man began to shift and change, growing into a hulking monster. Abigail and Globby took a cautious step backward as Go Go smirked. "Globby, Abigail, meet Orso Knox."

Abigail waved shyly. "Hello."

In response the monster roared at them and charged. Abigail dived out of the way as Globby expanded to allow the beast to charge right through him. The monster slid to a stop and turned, charging towards Abigail. Globby swooped in and grabbed her just as the test pilot was about to be trampled and put them on the edge of a building overlooking the city square. The holographic Knox looked up at them and roared, moving towards their position and getting his claws ready to climb.

"Any suggestions would be welcome!" Globby shouted in a panic.

"That's not what this is about!" Wasabi yelled back. "You gotta figure out how to stop it on your own!"

"And how do we do that?"

"Study it and look for its weaknesses!" Go Go suggested.

"Easier said than done." Abigail grumbled. The stand-in Knox monster had begun to climb up the building towards them, getting closer with each passing second. Globby shot goop at it to keep it from advancing as fast, but it kept coming anyway. As Globby tried distracting it, Abigail gave the beast a good look and started getting the faintest of an idea. "Hey, how can we tell where the walls of the room are?"

"You get within three feet and a warning will flash in front of you!" Hiro called back.

"Great. Globby, I've got an idea."

"Shoot."

"That thing is powerful but pretty much uses that power to propel itself forward. We can use that against it, get it to crash into stuff and hurt itself."

"Simple, but effective. I like it! Hang on, I'll get us down." Globby grabbed Abigail and jumped off the ledge they'd been sitting on. He gracefully morphed into a parachute and set her down, reconstituting back into his regular form. The holo Knox noticed their new position and jumped off the building to come after them. Abigail simply waved as the beast readied itself and charged. At the very last possible moment, Abigail teleported away to safety as Globby melted into a puddle of water, causing the beast to skid right into the front of a fake building. It grumbled and a holographic health bar appeared above its head, showcasing that it was down to 75% health after that hit. The beast roared in anger and turned around to find where his quarry went, discovering Globby reforming himself into a red blanket with a face for Abigail to swirl around, taunting him.

"C'mere, Knox!" she yelled. Knox charged again and Abigail tossed Globby into the air. The gelatinous man morphed back into his regular form, grabbing Abigail with one hand and yanking her out of harms way as Knox crashed into the wall again. With Abigail perched on the same building ledge, Globby became an anvil and went plummeting down to the ground, smacking Knox on the head and breaking in two. The health bar now stated that Knox was on 25% life. The beast looked up at Abigail angrily as she disappeared and reappeared back on the ground. Having had enough of their tactics, Knox grabbed Globby off the ground as he tried to slink away.

"Uh oh!"

The Knox beast rolled Globby up into a ball and chucked him at Abigail. Not expecting this, she wasn't able to dodge in time and the two heroes ended up pinned to the ground in a sticky mess. Unable to move, they couldn't do anything as the Knox monster ran over to them and raised his fists to strike. As they came down, the room flashed red and Basemax's soothing voice simply said "Challenge failed."

The Knox monster disappeared, and the practice dummy reverted back to its original state as the room turned stark white again. Globby placed Abigail back on her feet and peeled himself off of her as the rest of the team walked up to them. Go Go gave them a slight clap.

"Not bad guys. That plan almost worked."

"Just be glad Hiro changed the announcer voice," Fred said. "The last one was super annoying."

"One thing you need to be on the lookout for is intelligence. If you looked really closely at Knox you would've noticed that deep down, he was still human, and wasn't just some mindless monster. The same trick wasn't going to continue to work." Wasabi critiqued.

"I thought the eyes looked a little too human." Abigail said as she stretched her back. "Hope we won't ever have to take on that guy for real."

"Mr. Knox is much better now, don't worry." Honey Lemon assured her.

"Now the six of us are going to run the same scenario." Hiro said, opening up the holographic controls again. "Take a breather and take notes. We'll compare when we're done."

Heathcliff pulled the limo into a parking space and opened the driver side door before stepping out. He pulled out a small ruler and measured the distance between the parking space paint and the car. Exactly three inches, which meant the opposite side was the same. Perfect symmetry and distance between the lines, as per usual. Heathcliff shut off the car and stepped out, looking at the sea of similarly parked limos surrounding the San Fransokyo Convention Center. After closing the door and making sure it was locked, Heathcliff strode into the building, hiding his excitement for the upcoming afternoon, as it was unbecoming of a butler.

Upon moving past the front doors into the center, he stood in line for the ticket booth. At exactly 12:15 PM he handed over his money and received an admission band and map of the show floor. He thanked the attendant with a smile and walked into the convention center proper, glancing up at the large banner that read WELCOME TO BUTLER-CON. All around the center were equally as dapper dressed people, moving about the different stands and chatting. A small line was forming at a kiosk selling tea while one stand proudly displayed a range of monocles. A few professional maids and nannies were also milling about, inquiring about child safety locks and antique carpet bags.

"Heathcliff, old boy!" a voice called to his right. Heathcliff turned and smiled as a butler with a dark complexion and fancy walking stick featuring a golden molded eagle waved to him. Healthcliff waved back and met the butler halfway, shaking the man's hand.

"Jacobson, how have you been?"

"Splendid, my friend. Splendid. I was so looking forward to this, I'm glad it wasn't cancelled considering the earthquake a few weeks ago, nasty business."

"San Fransokyo, as always, proves to be quite resilient. How is Dover?"

"Fine, but a tad boring if I do say. I read about all the excitement here and wonder why I don't transfer. Superheroes and whatnot, quite diverting."

"Well, it's not all it's cracked up to be." Heathcliff admitted. "The earthquake has been the least of our troubles, in all honesty. Mutant monster rampages, nuclear garbage trucks, a tidal wave that threatened to drown the city. Trust me, the quiet life in Dover is much more your speed."

"I suppose you're right. How's your charge doing?"

"Master Frederickson is thriving, and not to spread any gossip, but he's also found himself a lady friend."

"Much to Lady Mole's distaste." A third voice joined the conversation. Heathcliff and Jacobson turned as another butler approached them. This one had pasty white skin, a rotund neck, and a goatee to compensate for the lack of hair on the top of his head. Heathcliff and Jacobson silently sighed to themselves, not looking forward to the conversation.

"Rogers." Heathcliff coldly greeted. "I'm surprised the Moles let you attend this year."

"They're taking a week's trip to Switzerstan to go skiing before the slopes open to the drivel for the tourist season." Rogers answered blandly. "How are you, Jacobson?"

"Quite alright." Jacobson answered quickly.

"Have either of you seen the new nanny booths? The nerve, allowing their profession to mingle with ours." Rogers spat.

"I think that the combining of our professions into one trade show is a welcome idea." Heathcliff defended. "We could all stand to learn something from one another, especially you, Rogers."

"Here, here." Jacobson agreed.

"Butlering is much more than child wrangling," Rogers continued. "But you wouldn't know much about proper Butlering, would you Heathcliff?"

"How dare you, sir! I graduated with top marks same as you."

"Yes, but we all know that Frederickson helped you get into the institute in the first place instead of on your own merits, don't we?"

Heathcliff was about to respond when he was cut off by a female voice that sent chills down his spine. "Don't let him get to you, Mongoose."

Rogers turned so the three could look at the woman who'd butted into the conversation. She wore a dark purple dress and waistcoat with a large purple hat to match, disguising her face. Like Jacobson, she too carried a cane, only this one had a decorative Cobra on the hilt. She looked up and gave Heathcliff a wicked smile.

"Getting to you is my job, after all."

"Cobra!" Heathcliff readied himself for a confrontation, wishing he hadn't left his umbrella at home. Rogers didn't seem thrilled by the newest arrival either.

"I beg your pardon, madam, but we were having a private conversation, and-"

Rogers was cut off as Cobra raised her cane and slammed it down on the ground, the cobra figurehead spitting her special blend of venom at the butler. Rogers almost immediately went pale(er) and dropped, only for Heathcliff's quick reflexes to kick in, allowing him to catch the man. Cobra smiled. "Rude man, why don't you stay quiet for a while?"

"What do you want, Cobra?"

"Oh, not much. Just here for a bit of fun is all. The panel on proper posture at three sounds interesting. I'm sure it's going to go off with a bang." Cobra turned and walked into the crowd, quickly disappearing in the throng of sharply dressed attendees. Jacobson gave Heathcliff a confused look as he helped put Rogers into a sitting position next to the wall.

"Who was that? What was she talking about?"

"Her name is Cobra, and I think she just told me that she's planted a bomb somewhere in the convention center."

"Good heavens!"

"Stay here with Rogers. I need to make a call."

Abigail ducked and dodged, barely staying out of range of holo Momakase's attacks. She kicked out, striking the navy-blue ninja in her shin, successfully getting her to go down on one leg. Abigail reared back a hand to strike, but Momakase was faster and plunger her holographic sword through Abigail's chest. The room turned red with a buzz as the hologram fizzled out.

"Challenge failed." Basemax said. Abigail huffed and took off her helmet, eagerly grabbing the sports drink that Go Go offered her. Globby gave her a thumbs up.

"Cheer up, at least you lasted longer than I would have."

"Yeah? Something tells me she can cut you to pieces and you'll be fine though."

"Ok, that's fair." Globby admitted.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up." Go Go assured her. "It's your first day of training. You'll get the hang of it."

Abigail nodded in acknowledgement and downed another swig of her sports drink. Somewhere in the room a phone went off. Everyone looked around until Fred realized it was his. The arms of Fredmelion waggled around as Fred removed his arms from the suit arms so he could dig into his pockets and retrieve his phone. When he finally did that, he accepted the call and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello? Heathcliff, my man! How's Butler-Con?" No one else could hear what Heathcliff was saying, but Fred's lack of responses was worrying. After a minute or so he finally spoke again and lifted the head off the costume to look at everyone. "Ok, bye. So… Cobra is at Butler-Con and Heathcliff says she planted a bomb somewhere."

"Oh great." Wasabi groaned. Go Go clapped twice and then pointed at Globby and Abigail.

"Ok you two, training is over for today. We're going to continue this in the field."

"Whoa, already?" Abigail questioned.

"Cobra is on the list of escapees from the earthquake." Hiro explained. "That makes this an all-hands-on-deck situation. That includes Mini-Max too."

The small robot raised a fist in the air from his position on Fred's shoulder. "Wherever there is villainy, you will always find Mini-Max ready to stomp them!"

"Small problem." Wasabi interjected. "How are we all going to get there? Baymax can't carry all of us anymore."

Hiro turned to Go Go with a raised eyebrow. "Is it ready?"

"I got it done last week, spent some time working on it during my night patrol times… and then some."

"Go Go-"

"Hey, lay off, I've gotten eight hours of sleep for the past three days in a row, and time's wasting."

"Fine. Everyone, follow me to the garage."

The group left SymMax and travelled through the base into the hangar/garage area where MegaMax had been hastily constructed to help stop Trina. Flipping the lights on, nothing as impressive was waiting for them this time, but what was made Wasabi extremely happy.

"MY CAR!" he screamed, sprinting forward and hugging it. Go Go had to struggle not to smirk.

"As a rule, it is not allowed to go near water ever again. Hiro and I wanted to get it ready before you moved, we know how you are about rented cars."

"So unsanitary." Wasabi shuddered slightly but turned to his friends with a smile. "Thanks, I really appreciate this. Again."

"Honey Lemon, Go Go, Abigail, go with Wasabi. Baymax, Fred, Globby, and I will travel by air." Hiro said. Everyone scrambled to get into position as Hiro hit the button for the hangar roof and garage to open. Hiro hopped onto Baymax as everyone looked at him, nodding that they were ready. "Let's go team."

People ran for the exits as the fire alarm blared. Well, ran might be a bit of an overstatement, as the prim and proper butlers and nannies and the like calmly evacuated as per the rules of any emergency situation. Heathcliff helped Jacobson carry Rogers outside as firetrucks and ambulances arrived. A paramedic with a stretcher met them halfway through the parking lot and they lifted the man onto it. The paramedic started to look him over.

"What happened?"

"A unique cocktail of chemicals that causes temporary paralysis. The supervillain Cobra is inside, I'd advise you get this information travelling through the ranks. Big Hero 6 should handle this."

"You're telling me, I ain't tangling with no supervillain. Thanks, man." The paramedic led Rogers away as he began relaying the information through his radio. Jacobson looked at Heathcliff questioningly.

"What now?"

"Now I go in there and try to stop Cobra while we wait for Big Hero 6."

"Stop her? On your own?"

"Jacobson, I must admit that I was not always a butler. But I can handle this. And when Big Hero 6 does get here, it shouldn't be anymore problematic than the lap-dog incident of '04."

"Well, I don't know about that, but I think you're right. I think I should stay in Dover."

Heathcliff gave his friend a smile and then turned to run back inside. With everyone evacuated, it was easy to find Cobra, she was still on the show floor, paroozing the various kiosks and stands, snatching a few freebies that caught her eye. Robotic cobras began to slither around, but they didn't make a move to attack him yet. Heathcliff reached into his suit pocket and withdrew his wallet, taking out the proper amount of cash, and laid it on a table selling high-end umbrellas. He then selected one and twirled it, getting used to the weight. With that done, he aimed it at Cobra as she tried on a new hat.

"Where's the bomb, Cobra?"

"Weren't you listening, Mongoose? I told you where."

Heathcliff reached into his jacket again and withdrew the map of the convention floor, which also contained the event schedule. Posture Seminar, 3 PM. Room 212, second floor. Heathcliff returned it to his jacket and looked back at the smirking Cobra. She was twirling the snake-cane in her hands, lazily walking around in circles. "So you did. What's your motive for this? This goes beyond petty revenge on me."

"So perceptive. Let's see if your big hero friends can figure it out." She pointed, and all six members of the team made their way down the aisles of booths. Hiro put his finger up to the side of his helmet, activating his commlink.

"Remember, the cobras shoot paralyzing venom, and she controls them via the neural transmitter on her head. Get that and this is over."

Cobra chuckled. "Oh please. Even with seven of you, I'll still be one step ahead."

"Yeah, I don't think so. Now!"

Cobra prepped herself for an assault from the front, so she wasn't expecting something to wrap around her from the side. She looked down in surprise as a goopy mess smiled up at her with green eyes, and then was forced down on her knees as someone suddenly sat on her shoulders, ripping the neural transmitter headband off. The dozens of robot cobras that had been slithering around the convention center stilled with the loss of command. Abigail jumped off Cobra's shoulders and held up the neural transmitter proudly.

"Got it!"

Cobra sneered and took count of everyone in the room. "So what, you're Big Hero 8, now?"

"Technically the two of us are sort of trial members." Abigail told her, pointing to Globby who was still wrapped around her.

"We're new." Globby said proudly.

"Well, allow me to formally welcome you to the team." Cobra managed to activate her cane, the venom hitting Globby, causing him to shriek in pain and move away from her.

"Yikes, that burns!" He yelled. Cobra moved swiftly, kicking Abigail's feet out from under her and grabbing the neural transmitter back before the girl had even hit the ground. She slapped it back on her head and the army of robotic cobras came alive again, slithering quickly to attack the heroes. The convention floor turned into a madhouse as heroes began smashing cobras left and right as their leader took off running.

"Master Frederick!" Heathcliff yelled over the din of battle. "The bomb is in room 212, second floor!"

"Got it!" Fred yelled as he sliced a cobra in half with the suit's tongue. "We'll handle the bots and the bomb. Go get Cobra, Mini-Max will go with you!"

"Let this Cobra try to escape justice again!"

Heathcliff nodded and took off running after Cobra. Fred turned to Hiro, who had jumped off Baymax to magnetically tie up some of the robots. "Hiro, you get that?"

"Yeah, I did. Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Globby, go to room 212 and see if you can disarm the bomb. The rest of us will deal with the cobras!"

The team split off, moving to take care of their tasks. Cobra meanwhile burst through the door of an emergency exit, ending up in the tunnels underneath the convention center that led to safety shelters. Heathcliff and MiniMax soon ran in after her, and the two began fighting with umbrella and cane. MiniMax flew around, distracting Cobra when he could and dismantling robotic cobras that were moving to incapacitate the butler. Cobra parried a blow from Heathcliff but was left vulnerable to attack from MiniMax, who quickly flew in and punched her in the face.

"How did the righteous fist of justice taste, vile criminal?"

Cobra growled and leapt back into the fight. Upstairs on the second floor, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Globby burst into room 212. A table and a few chairs were set up on a small stage, and dozens of folding chairs filled the rest of the room. There wasn't much room to hide a bomb, except under the tablecloth sitting over the table on stage. Honey Lemon ripped it back, and sure enough, a large bomb sat underneath the table, counting down. Wasabi sighed in relief when he saw the time left.

"We've got two hours until it goes off. Plenty of time to diffuse it."

"Still, let's get this done as soon as possible." Honey Lemon said. "It's still a bomb."

"Globby, cover our backs in case some cobras come in. I'll hold it steady so you can find the detonation wire, Honey."

The girl nodded and began searching frantically for the important components. Back on the show floor, Baymax was tearing through robots left and right, not giving any a chance to get near Hiro. Abigail however wasn't doing so good. She'd picked up a chair to use as a shield/weapon, but the cobras were quickly tearing it apart.

"Guys, I could use a little help!"

"Coming, Abigail!" Fred said. He jumped over a table and stomped on a cobra making its way towards Abigail. The suit's tongue then shot out, grabbing another drone and sending it crashing into three that were slithering towards them. With the robots gone, Abigail dropped her now wrecked chair and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks."

"No problem, teammate!" Fred gave her a playful punch on the shoulder with the suit. Abigail looked over Fred's shoulder and spotted another drone leaping at them.

"Look out!" She wrapped Fred in a hug and the two vanished, the drone smashing into the wall behind them instead. Instantly they reappeared on the other side of the convention floor, safe from the cobra.

"Whoa, did you just teleport both of us?!"

"Yeah, I guess I did… and I feel really dizzy." Abigail teetered and fell, Fred catching her before she could hit the floor.

"Guys, Abigail is down! I think teleporting both of us took it out of her!"

"Get her clear, Fred. Baymax and I can handle the last of the drones." Hiro said. The number of robots was quickly dwindling, they weren't coming as frequently anymore. "MiniMax, how are you guys doing?"

"I wish I could reply optimistically." MiniMax said over the comm. The little robot had been impaled to the wall thanks to a robot cobra jamming its teeth through one of his wings. This left Heathcliff on his own, but Cobra's strength was beginning to wear down. With one bad move, Heathcliff disarmed her, sending the cane falling to the ground. Now held at umbrella tip, it was over.

"Surrender Cobra, and disarm the bomb."

"Mmm, I think not." Cobra quickly reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a detonator. She popped the clasp to expose the blinking red button of doom. "I press this, the bomb goes off a lot sooner than it should."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me." The two stared at one another, willing the other to make the first move. Finally, ever the gentleman, Heathcliff relented and tossed his umbrella aside. Cobra chuckled. "Too predictable."

A nasty uppercut sent Heathcliff flying through the air, landing hard on his back. Cobra turned and ran down the corridor, opening a door and running up a flight of stairs into daylight. Her custom cobra themed convertible drove up, with the robotic snake chauffeur tipping his hat at her. She jumped over the doors and into the backseat, commanding the cobra to drive. She smiled wickedly as the convention center began to grow smaller behind her, holding up the detonator.

"Thanks for playing, heroes." She clicked the button. Inside room 212, Honey Lemon was frantically searching for the proper wire to cut but couldn't find it.

"This doesn't make any sense. It doesn't even seem like the detonator and the timer are connected, and I can't tell what the explosives package is!" She complained.

"Can you disarm it?" Globby asked.

"I think so. It's going to take a few minutes though." As if on cue, the timer on the bomb buzzed and their two hours suddenly dropped to thirty seconds.

"That's not good!" Wasabi shrieked.

"We need to get clear, we don't know how large the radius will be!" Honey Lemon said.

"We don't have time, we need to stop it!" Wasabi argued.

"We don't have time to stop it!"

"Stand back!" Globby said, pushing both of them out of the way. He quickly began firing sticky globs at the bomb, building up a cushion between them and the device. Honey Lemon followed suit and began spraying at it when her chem launcher. Soon, a giant multicolored pile of goop rose several feet off the floor and dripped over the stage.

"Think that'll hold it?" Wasabi asked. The ticking of the timer could still be heard even through the mass of chemicals.

"I don't know." Honey Lemon said, fear in her voice. Globby wrapped both of them in a hug, ready for the worst.

"I love you guys!" he cried, shutting his eyes as the three of them mentally counted down to the end of the timer. With a final beep, there was a sudden POP from within the gooey mass and then silence. They waited but nothing happened. Cautiously they stepped forward, and Wasabi cut the top off the protective bubble so they could peer inside. The device had gone off, but the only explosion had been the hatch opening to spray confetti everywhere. Honey Lemon found a white piece of paper sitting amongst the scattered confetti and looked at it, holding it up for Globby and Wasabi to read.

Thanks for playing my little game, heroes. -Cobra

With the threat cleared, Big Hero 6 (plus a few) sat back at BaseMax trying to piece together what had just happened. Hiro looked at the note Cobra had left and frowned. He looked up at Heathcliff, their resident expert on the villain.

"Has she ever done anything like this?"

"I'm afraid not. However, Cobra seldom does anything without a reason. What purpose this little charade served concerns me, however."

"Yeah, me too." Hiro said. Baymax scanned Abigail as she sat with her head in her hands, a killer headache having followed her first successful two-person teleport.

"While your DNA has been altered, the rest of your biology remains enough the same that I can safely diagnose you. You are dehydrated. I recommend electrolytes and bed rest."

"Will do, doc." She mumbled. "Sorry we let you down, kid."

Hiro looked at her questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"The bad guy got away." Globby said.

"It happens." Go Go said matter-of-factly.

"And it's annoying, but we don't beat ourselves up over it." Wasabi continued.

"You guys were great!" Honey Lemon cheered for them. "Abigail, you saved Freddy, and Globby, you tried your best to smother the bomb blast. That was really smart thinking."

Globby's entire form turned red, a giant blush. "Oh, stop."

"You guys thought on your feet and handled yourselves really well." Hiro said. "I think I speak for all of us when I say we're confident in our choice to bring you guys on now more than ever."

Abigail managed a smile despite her pounding head and Honey Lemon hugged Globby. The door opened and Fred walked through, an uncharacteristically dark look on his face.

"I just got off the phone with my dad. While we were busy at the convention center, the shipyards were broken into and one of the Frederickson freight ships was hit."

"The convention was a distraction." Wasabi mumbled.

"Question is, a distraction for who?" Hiro asked.

Sari looked over the supplies her goons had stolen from the Frederickson docks. She'd had her doubts about associating with another extremely wanted supervillain, but she had to admit, they got results. A mechanical hiss drew her attention, alerting her to Cobra's arrival. The woman was flanked by four robotic cobras, providing backup in this sketchy part of town.

"I see you got what you wanted. Now I'm ready for what I want."

Sari picked up a small duffel bag and tossed it to Cobra, who caught it one handed. "It's all there."

Cobra zipped open the bag anyway and checked through it. Heaps of cash stared back at her through the open zipper, making her smile. She looked back up at Sari. "A pleasure doing business."

Sari stopped her as she turned to leave. "There's more where that came from."

"Go on."

"I have an… associate. They're the one who pointed me in your direction. They might need help with a little project soon. We can pay you that plus more."

Cobra smiled, but didn't immediately take the bait. She liked the sound of more easy money, but didn't want to appear too eager. Better to negotiate her price that way. "Let's keep in touch, shall we? Call me again soon and tell the robot girl I'll consider it."

Cobra didn't bother waiting for a response as she and her robotic minions left.

Notes

Well, for a first outing with the whole new team assembled, I think that went pretty well. Cobra was a fun addition to the roster of villains on the show, and I was disappointed that she only had one outing, so her escaping with everyone else early in the story opened up opportunities to make use of her. Her playful banter with Heathcliff makes for a fun dynamic, and the ever-gentlemanly butler is fun to write for. I haven't really been able to use Heathcliff yet in this story, so it was something to look forward to when I was writing, and we got a little bit more of a look into his personal life. When coming up for concepts for what Cobra should attack to get BH6's attention, I thought originally about a comic-con that Fred and Olivia would be attending, but I'm not sure Olivia is quite ready to be thrust into the main action (yet). But the convention idea stuck with me, and Butler-Con was born. And not only did we meet one of Heathcliff's friends, but also someone else he's not too fond of, the Mole's butler Rogers. And of course he's just as stuck up and snooty as his employers. Rogers was a character that just all of a sudden leapt onto the page without much prior planning, and now I'm kinda looking for ways to include him in other ways just to see how he and Heathcliff can butt heads again. We'll have to see what I end up figuring out.

Meanwhile, Abigail and Globby started to get into the groove of how to operate as a team, and while it's not easy, they're off to a good start. Any other villains that think about popping up here in the near future are going to be in for a little bit of a surprise by the extra help that BH6 now has. But the question is, will this help bring the escaped villains to justice sooner, or give our team of heroes an overconfident edge that might cost them? I guess time will tell.

NEXT WEEK: I'm not going to be coy about this one. Get your life jackets and sailor hats ready, because the Hiro/Karmi ship is about to set sail!