Chapter 25
Megan held open her backpack and swept her arm across her desk, sending her various pencils/pens and notebooks falling into it. It was a big day for her, she was finally getting the chance to write another big story for her school paper. After hounding her editor (a stuck up Junior now Senior named James) last semester about doing an article to uncover the identities of Big Hero 6 and then changing her thesis right at the last minute, he'd been reluctant to let her right anything other than puff pieces about fundraisers and science fairs. He'd said something about not being confident in her 'lofty expectations', but she'd ignored him for the most part.
Sure, she technically hadn't delivered what she'd promised, but the story she'd written about Big Hero 6 ultimately was more important than the prestige an article in a rinky-dink high school paper would bring her. So she'd taken one for the team and not published the heroes identities, much to the annoyance of James and at the time, her father. Now after the summer and a little over a month into the new school year, her editor was finally giving her another chance. She didn't care much for the lecture on "journalistic integrity" that James had given her (he wouldn't know what that was if it bit him in the rear), but Super Sleuth Megan Cruz was finally on the job again. There was a knock at her bedroom door, and it opened a moment later as Megan zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.
"Are you ready to go?" her father asked.
"Sure am! Let's do this." Megan said, walking with her father out of the house and into the awaiting patrol car. Chief Cruz silently turned the car on and began driving. He kept his hands on the wheel perfectly at ten and two o'clock as per regulation and checked his mirrors every few seconds. As well as doing that, his eyes occasionally drifted over to his daughter as she texted on her phone. Megan noticed the looks as they traveled through the city, and finally she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Dad, I'm going to be fine."
"I know that, honey." Cruz said, more trying to reassure himself than Megan. "We'll be just down the hall, and I have Big Hero 6 on speed dial in case you need them."
"Dad, I don't think we could be doing this in safer place. It's the police station."
"Exactly, and that's what makes it a target. All of the people you're going to be talking to I've had some sort of hand in arresting at least once. You never know which one might get some revenge-fantasy in their head and try to kidnap you."
"I think if any of these villains wanted to get revenge on you, they wouldn't bother putting on a charade and coming to Globby's monthly villains anonymous meeting. They'd probably just go straight into the revenge part."
"I don't know; that Sparkles guy still strikes me as pretty devious." The police chief grumbled.
"And remember, Honey Lemon is going to be here tonight as well. So even if something happens, there'll be an official member of Big Hero 6 around."
"Good. She can skate you out really fast then."
"Dad, that's Go Go. Honey Lemon has the purse."
"Oh, right. I can't help but revert to their file names before we knew who they were."
"What did you call them?"
"Those two specifically were Speedy and Periodic Purse." Megan put her hand in front of her mouth to stop from laughing out loud. Diego couldn't help but smirk himself. "Yeah, I know. We were focusing on catching them, not on giving them good names."
"What were the others?"
"Blades, Lizard-Guy, the Robot, and Purple Leader."
Megan nodded along. "Yeah, those are only slightly better than some of the ones I've seen online. For as creative as some of those fanfiction writers can be, they're not all great with names."
"You read fanfiction? Since when?"
"I don't really read it, I just sorta browsed when I was working on the identities story to see what the public thought… and to brainstorm names for them."
"Oh really? What did you come up with?"
Megan snorted. "Like I'd tell you."
"Hey, I told you ours, it's only fair that you tell me yours."
"Fiiine. So a few of them I stole from a writer named KHeartsQT, she had a few decent ones. Go Go I called Speed Queen, Fred was Flame Jumper, and Baymax was Red Panda. Hiro I called Magnet Man, that I took from a writer named BH6rox11, and then Wasabi and Honey Lemon I came up with original names for. The Bandana'd Swordsman and The Goo-inator."
Cruz couldn't stop himself from laughing at the last one. "The Goo-inator?!"
"I wasn't real proud of that one, alright?" Megan huffed. Cruz tried to control himself.
"No, no, I mean, it's uh… applicable. She does use lots of different goos." The smile on his face didn't completely go away despite his best efforts to hide it. Megan rolled her eyes and socked her dad in the shoulder, a smile worming its way onto her face as well.
"I guess you guys had me beat with Periodic Purse. Even I'll admit that's better than Goo-inator."
Cruz pulled the car into the parking lot of the police station and parked. Father and daughter got out as the sun began to set behind the buildings surrounding them. Cruz opened up the doors and they walked into the front lobby and the tired looking desk officer nodded at the chief as they walked up.
"Evening, chief." The desk officer said.
"Evening, Gerson." Cruz answered back. "Are they all here?"
"Pretty much, they're waiting in the gym. Just follow the trail of goo." Gerson pointed down the hall where a trail of purple footprints littered the slick linoleum floors. "I swear, I've been on the job for twenty-five years and somehow it just gets weirder."
"What all have you seen?" Megan asked, quickly getting out a notepad.
"Kid, what haven't I seen? Supervillains, kid and his inflatable robot running off with my tape dispenser, now I've got purple gelatin-man walking through the lobby leaving a mess… I'm not cleaning that up, that's for certain."
"Well, if you ever want to talk about your experiences working as a cop in San Fransokyo…" Megan said as she fished out a business card. "Give me a call. Might make for a good story."
"Eh, sure kid. I'll think about it." Gerson said with a smile as he took Megan's card. Cruz waved goodbye and led his daughter toward the gym.
"Why do you never ask to interview me?" Cruz asked.
"Conflict of interests, dad. Duh!" Megan said as she pushed open the gym doors. Inside were a dozen or so folding chairs in a circle, most of them already filled up. Honey Lemon spotted the Cruzes enter and ran up to them, leaving her cup of juice at her seat.
"Megan, hi!" Megan was quickly engulfed in a hug as the superhero gave her a squeeze.
"Hi… Honey Lemon." Megan managed to say once she was put down. Globby got up out of his own seat and walked up to the two.
"Chief Cruz, thanks again for letting us use your gym. This is a much nicer space to meet than some of the other places we've had meetings."
"Oh, it's not problem." Cruz said. He didn't necessarily have the heart to tell Globby that one of the reasons he wanted the meetings to happen at the police station from now on was so that it'd be easier to keep an eye on the various former criminals. "Maybe just be careful of the floors."
Globby looked down, noticing his distinct trail of goop left behind. He looked up sheepishly at Cruz and then formed himself some sneakers before returning to his seat. Honey Lemon smiled at the police chief as he looked nervously around the room.
"Don't worry chief. I'll vouch for everyone here. Megan will be fine." Cruz nodded reluctantly before turning to Megan.
"I'll be in my office if you need me, ok?"
"Okay, dad." Cruz took a few steps backward and exited the gym, finally leaving Megan alone with the room full of former criminals. And Honey Lemon.
"C'mon," the superhero said. "You can sit next to me."
Megan followed Honey Lemon over to the circle of chairs as everyone found their seats. Felony Carl sat down with a plate of brownies and nodded for Globby to get started. The gelatinous man stood up and clapped, getting everyone's attention and bringing the conversations in the room to a halt.
"Hello everyone, and welcome to our monthly meeting! Before we begin, I want us all to go around the room and introduce ourselves. State your name, what you got in trouble for, and what you're doing now to pay for it. I'll start. Hello everyone, I'm Globby. I tried helping an evil mastermind destroy the city, but since then I've turned over a new leaf and I'm now helping people!"
There was a smattering of applause from the assembled group. Everyone turned to Honey Lemon, who was to Globby's immediate left in the circle. "Oh. Well, hi everyone, I'm Honey Lemon. Most of your probably know who I am, and that I haven't really ever been in trouble. I guess technically you could say I'm a vigilante and that breaks a few laws, but Chief Cruz hasn't tried to arrest us for months now, so… hi!"
The former criminals laughed and clapped, knowing full well who Honey Lemon was. Next up was Megan. She cleared her throat nervously. "Um, hi. I'm Megan Cruz, Chief Cruz's daughter. I'm working on a story for my high school paper, and Globby said I could sit in and take notes. I know that some of this stuff can be private though, so if you don't want what you're saying published just mention if something you're about to say if off-the-record and I'll exclude it. Thanks for having me."
Everyone clapped and nodded, understanding the instructions Megan had laid out. Next to Megan was a man in his late twenties, tattoos covering his left arm and a stylized robot ripping another robot's head off emblazoned on his t-shirt. He stood up and waved. "Hello, I'm Bruiser. I helped run Yama's botfights, and I got arrested a few months back during the last raid, and it really made me wonder what I was doing with my life. So now I'm on probation and am thinking about helping underprivileged kids learn robotics."
As he sat down, the little man with pink hair and matching shirt sitting next to him stood up on his chair to be seen better. "Hello, most of you probably know me as former internet celebrity Mr. Sparkles, but now I'm just Frank. I kinda spiraled out of control when I got jealous of a cat being more popular than me on the internet, and from there I volunteered to be genetically modified into a fungi. Since then, however, I've talked with a few therapists, I'm on some medication, and now I work at the Pizza Party-torium and try and save the remaining Mayoi that are still in the city! Since they're plant based as well, most of them dissolved in like the rain and stuff, but every now and then they pop up, and so I try to save as many as I can."
Sparkles pulled a sleeping Mayoi out of his pocket and began stroking it, waking it up. It blinked and stood up, waving to everyone. "Mayoi!"
The room erupted in a chorus of "awws" as Sparkles gave the little plant creature a kiss on the forehead. "I may not be telepathically linked to them anymore, but the little darlings still love me. Used to I'd do anything for that kind of attention, but it's nice to know what real love it now."
Sparkles sat back down with his Mayoi and everyone clapped. Next up were two buff biker types similar in build to Felony Carl. One of them stood up and cleared his throat, speaking for the two of them. "Hello, I'm Scott. This is Lou."
"Yo." Lou said as he waved.
"We tried robbing an ATM a month ago, but Big Hero 6 came in and stopped up. It was kinda nice to be noticed for once, ya know? So after that we swore to stay out of the dirty business and go clean. So now we're working sanitation and we ride around and pick up garbage cans."
"I like the juxtaposition that in an effort to lead a better life, you have taken on a morally acceptable but physically dirtier job as opposed to your cleanlier but morally unacceptable job." Felony Carl interrupted. "I give you props for your efforts, gentleman."
"Thanks, Carl." Lou said. Scott sat down and motioned to the mother-daughter duo sitting in their comfy clothes and ankle monitors.
"Hello, I'm Barb." The older woman said.
"And I'm Juniper." The younger said.
"And together we were High Voltage. We had a little bit of fun with our electricity orb, robbing places and getting some quick cash, but after awhile the criminal's life lost its luster. Juniper should be focusing on her senior year of High School right now, but instead I helped her get locked up in prison and forcefully mutated into a gross eel-mutant." Barb stopped herself, forcing the tears to stay un-shed. When she regained her composure, she continued. "But that's in the past. From here on out we're going to live up to our promise, and we're going to go good."
The applause they received did more for them than the others in the group, being the performers that they were. The group continued going around the circle until everyone was introduced. Megan was fascinated by the number of street thugs and other common criminal types that were in attendance, most of them sharing similar stories about having wanted a way to leave crime behind but having been somewhat forced into it through Yama's criminal grip on the city. Money talks, and Yama's rates were decent for an egomaniacal crime boss.
Most of the conversations that evening were about everyone's struggles to stay afloat financially. There wasn't tons of work for former criminals, especially former super villains. Sparkles had found employment, but High Voltage were still forced to complete their community service and were living on monthly checks from the city council. Globby gave tips and recommendations for cheap priced grocery stores in the area that sold brand-name items for less than the larger chains and pointed to a stack of job applications he'd put on the refreshment's table. He'd been where everyone else was currently, and it surprised Megan how well equipped both Globby and Felony Carl were for this task. Finally, the evening began drawing to a close. Everyone had said their peace and Megan had an entire notepad's worth of notes ready for her story. Globby stood up a final time to address the room.
"Now, before we say goodbye, I wanted to thank Honey Lemon for joining us tonight, and she has something that she wants to say." Globby motioned for Honey Lemon to speak and sat back down. Honey Lemon cleared her throat and looked at the various former criminals sitting in their chairs, waiting to see what she had to say.
"Well, tonight has been wonderful. I'm so glad that you all have an outlet for your frustrations and that you're working on being the best versions of yourselves. It makes me really proud to know you all, because this is exactly what I've wanted and why I've done the whole superhero thing. Yes, I've fought with some of you and put you in jail in the past, but it was never about the fighting or the violence. The reason we do what we do is so that hopefully you can see what you've done is wrong and can change. Yokai changed, Globby changed, and now all of you have changed for the better as well."
Honey quickly batted her eyes with a tissue before she continued. "It's partially because I know you're all capable of change that I feel confident in what I'm doing next. Not many people know this, only the team and a few others, but I'm moving away soon. I accepted a job in another city, and in less than three weeks I'm going to move. I wish I could stay, and I'm going to miss all of you, but I know that you and every other former criminal in the city are in good hands since Globby is going to take my place on the team."
The shock from all the attendants quickly gave way to happiness at the news that unfolded. A small smattering of applause and a shout of "Congrats, Globs!" from Lou got the newest member of Big Hero 6 to blush as Honey Lemon joined in the clapping. When it subsided, Honey Lemon continued. "Thank you all so much for having me here tonight. I've really enjoyed getting to know all of you better."
With that, the meeting was over. Several people went straight for the doors or for the left-over snacks on the refreshment table, but some came over to Honey Lemon on their way out to shake her hand or to wish her luck. Sparkles of course couldn't resist and gave her a big hug, which she gladly reciprocated.
"Thanks for believing in us, Honey Lemon. You're going to kill it at your new job! Uh… figuratively, not literally."
"Thanks, Frank. Say hello to Sarah at the party-torium for me."
"Will do!" Sparkles said as he left, giving his Mayoi chin scratches. Barb and Juniper were up next, the younger wrapping Honey Lemon in a hug as well.
"Will you come and visit us?" Juniper asked.
"When I can, sure. And Globby will tell me when you're done with your community service so I can make that call to SFAI like I promised."
"Thank you so much." Juniper said as she stepped back. A worried look came over Barb's face and after a moment's hesitation she spoke.
"Did you ever manage to track down our orb?"
"No, sorry." Honey Lemon answered with a sigh. "After the earthquake and all of the villains escaping, we've been really busy. But we'll find it eventually, don't worry."
"I'm just worried what someone would do with it." Barb said. "I know for a fact that we weren't using it to its fullest potential. Someone smarter or more devious than us could really do some damage with it."
"We have our scanners constantly searching for it, so if whoever took it decides to use it, we'll know."
"Thank you. Good luck at your job, sweet-pea."
"Bye!" Honey waved as the dancing-duo left, an officer meeting them at the door to drive them home. Megan fished around for a fresh notepad and a pen and looked up at Globby.
"So, wanna give a statement on being the newest member of Big Hero 6?"
"Maybe later, Megan." Honey Lemon said before Globby could answer. "We're still trying to keep the roster change on the down-low for the moment. We trust you, but there's no telling what might happen if one of the other villains realizes that there's a shake-up on the team. Better for them to figure it out after the fact."
"Totally get it." Megan said, slipping the notepad in her backpack. "But when you are ready to talk about it…"
"We'll make sure you get the exclusive, don't worry kid." Globby said. Cruz chose that moment to walk in now that the meeting was over. Being the overprotective father that he was, he didn't want his daughter to linger around a bunch of former criminals for long.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah, dad. Thanks again for letting me sit in, guys."
"It's not a problem. You're welcome back anytime." Globby said.
"Your daughter has the right stuff, chief." Felony Carl said, giving the elder Cruz a hard slap on the back. Cruz glared at the behemoth of a man and took a few steps closer to Megan.
"Um… thanks." He finally said. "Now if you'll excuse us, it's a school night, so someone needs to get ready for bed."
"Dad, it's 8:30!"
"Don't you still have homework to do?"
"Besides the point!" Megan said as father and daughter walked out of the police gym and to their car to go home.
It was fitting that Barb had asked Honey Lemon about their orb, for at the same time in the abandoned subway tunnels under the city, Trina, Noodle Burger Boy, and Hardlight were looking over it. Most of the repair work on Shimamoto's machines had been completed, meaning that Obake's contingency plan was a step closer to completion.
"Gotta say, this thing is fascinating." Hardlight said, moving his hand underneath it to allow the orb to hover slightly higher off the ground. "Never got a chance to see it up close, just on TV."
"This is what we think it's made of," Trina said, pulling up a holographic scan of the orb. Hardlight skimmed through the materials, nodding at what he read off.
"Seems likely. Can't help but admire the love/hate relationship with this thing's energy output. Super powerful, but also hard to get a detailed scan on. Even if we're not exactly correct on our measurements or the materials, we should be able to build copies that are close enough to do what you want. And it's not like they need to run infinitely, do they?"
"No, just long enough to wreck the city." Trina agreed.
"I'll start putting together a shopping list. See where we can get what we need. I know already that the conductive material we need will be tricky, there's only going to be a few places in the city we'll be able to go to get that."
"Such as?"
"Krei Tech for starters."
"I'd rather avoid Krei Tech for right now," Trina said as she crossed her arms. "I know you've got a vendetta against Krei, but we can't keep ripping the place off. Eventually Big Hero 6 will just move in."
"I agree. Thankfully, I know of one other place in the city where we can get what we need. It won't be raw material like we'd be able to find at Krei Tech, but we can probably salvage what we need."
"Where?" Trina asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Sycorax. I snooped around the building once or twice while it was still in operation. While the fuzz carted off most of the equipment there, I'm sure there are enough goodies left over for us."
"Interesting choice. Hamada has a personal interest in making sure it never becomes operational again, so he'll be sure to have it under surveillance. If we move on it, we'll need extra muscle just in case."
"And I suppose that's where I come in," a new voice interrupted. Out of the darkness of the old tunnels, Cobra walked in, her robotic snakes following her. Noodle clapped his hands and jumped toward the drones.
"Ooohhh, slithery pets! I always wanted a little Noodle Burger sidekick!" Noodle reached out for one, only to immediately retract his hand when it hissed at him.
"Python, was it?" Hardlight asked.
"Cobra," the woman corrected. "And with our mutual friend gone, lass, I'm afraid my rates just went up. One less crime boss in the city does paint a little bit of a larger target on our backs."
"Sari getting captured was going to be necessary eventually anyway. I never gave her the full details because I think she wouldn't have agreed with what we're planning." Trina said.
"And what are you planning?" Cobra asked.
"For now, that's none of your concern." Trina answered, her second larger robot body delivering a duffel bag full of cash to the woman. Cobra looked at the contents of the bag and smiled.
"When do you want us to strike?"
"In a few days. We'll need time to prepare everything else. We'll contact you when we're ready." Trina tossed a cobbled together communications device and Cobra caught it, slipping it into a pouch. She took the bag of cash and turned to leave.
"Until then."
Notes
So yeah, not a whole lot to talk about this time around in regards to the chapter itself. Of note this will be the last "fluff" chapter where we cool down for a bit and take things slower. From here on out, it's going to be full steam ahead as Trina ramps up her plans. I didn't want to move straight into more intense stuff right after Momakase's second focus arc, so now was the perfect time to capitalize on Globby's villain's anonymous group he had assembled and check in on some of our former baddies, as well as further strengthen why Globby is such a good choice to join the team. With him on board, Big Hero 6 will never lose a caring figure in the group, as Honey Lemon always believing in Globby is part of what helped him reform, and now he can repay her in kind by keeping that legacy on the team intact. So with my major thoughts on the chapter out of the way, we can move onto other matters.
Hi. My typical username on the internet is Prentice1215, as you've probably noticed by now thanks to the recent name change here. When I made my FF account years ago, I didn't bother linking usernames to my other social media profiles just because I didn't think I'd be doing much on here once I was done with my now ancient How To Train Your Dragon fics. And for a long while, I was correct, and this account sat dormant until I got the idea for Sophomore Slump. Now however, I feel like it's time to unify things a bit, because I've got a little treat for you all.
My main creative outlet on the internet prior to this has been a YouTube channel I started in 2008 when I was just 10 years old. My focus on that channel is stop-motion animations, and as time has gone on, I've slowly branched out to other things such as toy reviews and video game stuff since the stop-motions take so long to produce. Throughout my 13 years running my channel, I've learned a lot about animation and even went to school for a film degree, and I have enough skills now that I've decided to start a new branch of this project. Because this story has always been intended to be a Season 4 of BH6 The Series, I will be recreating some key scenes as animatics to help represent what some of this story would have looked like on screen. I will preface that these are not going to be fully animated, but rather they'll be animatics, which is essentially an animated storyboard to give the animators something to go off of when they really get to work. This means that not all of these will have voice acting (to be honest, most of them probably won't), great sound effects, or music, but will at least offer a glimpse at what "Sophomore Slump" could have looked like. I'll also warn you that while I'm an animator, I'm not an artist by any stretch, so any assets that aren't traced from the show are going to look a little wonky, but again, these are supposed to be animatics and not finished animation. The first of these, representing the cold open to what would probably be the hour-long season premier (Prologue-Ch7) and an updated S4 intro reflective of some of the characters with focus in the story is available to watch now with the link below.
watch?v=k_WufbWXbmA
I don't have a set schedule on when these will come out, and will be sure to inform you all on when a new one arrives, but of course the best way to keep track of when they're uploaded is to subscribe to the channel :P I feel safe in assuming that anyone reading this is probably a big nerd like me, so chances are there might be something of interest to you on my channel besides my upcoming BH6 content. If so, I'll be happy to see you there, and if not, I at least hope you enjoy the animatics for this story.
So yeah, that's pretty much it for this update. I'm really excited for the chapters that are coming up, especially since as of last week, I've actually finished writing the story! You guys are in for some great stuff, and thank you for reading and enjoying the story so far.
NEXT WEEK: Baron Von Steamer has finally come up with the best revenge scheme of all time! There's no way that it can backfire and blow up in his face for the millionth time, right?