Chapter 31

Trina snapped the casing shut, completing construction on the second duplicate High Voltage orb. Thank goodness for her smaller body, the larger chassis didn't have hands tiny enough for this kind of work, and she didn't trust her cohorts for a second to get the job done right. She tossed the wrench onto the pile of tools and put her trecnhcoat back on. It always paid to keep her dramatic flair to make sure the others stayed in line.

"Are we ready?" Hardlight asked.

"We are." Trina answered, moving to her slapped together computer console. Both of the duplicate orbs were hooked up to wires so an electrical charge could be sent through to kick-start them. Once they were operational, they could be moved into position in Shimamoto's machines, and the collapse of San Franokyo could begin.

"The craftsmanship is impressive," Von Steamer said, flexing the fingers in his new high-tech mechanical arm. "I'm eager to see how this works."

"Oh, I can tell you how it works, Mister!" Noodle said, barely able to contain his excitement. He was rocking back and forth on his feet, arms swinging with him. "The thing goes zap from the inside, and then the sizzling makes its way to the outside, and it electrifies the taste buds! Yummy!"

"Does anyone have a clue what this thing is saying?" Steamer grumbled.

"Only about half the time." Cobra replied.

"Well, you want a more literal demonstration, Steamer?" Trina asked as she pulled the lever to activate the charging sequence. "Here it is."

A visible electric current traveled along the cables from where Trina had tapped into the local power grid and into the two new orbs. Like the original orb they were designed after, these two new ones began glowing with energy and slowly began to rise up off the ground as they became self-sustaining. When they had risen two or three feet in the air, Trina hovered her finger over a button.

"Disengaging power cables in three… two…" she pressed down. "One."

The cabled popped off of the orbs and they remained floating in mid-air, electricity sparking off them. Trina smiled, satisfied with the result as Noodle clapped. "They're so shiny!"

"Excellent work." Cobra congratulated. "Now what?"

"Now we move them into position, and when I give the signal, we'll start the process of-" Trina was cut off as the two orbs suddenly stopped generating power and fell to the ground. The group of villains just stared at the to objects for a moment in surprise before Trina growled and moved over to inspect them. Trina grabbed the wrench she'd tossed away a moment earlier and picked up one of the orbs.

She opened the casing and began peering around inside, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. She spotted something and sighed. She then reached in with her hand and plucked out a component. When it had been retrieved, she tossed the smoking object, where it landed at Hardlight's feet. Trina stood up and glared at him with her more human-like eye.

"The battery failed; it couldn't hold the charge. You said these batteries would work."

"In my defense, I said they would probably work." Hardlight said, defending himself from the potentially homicidal android.

"If you weren't completely sure, why did you recommend them?"

"Because you wouldn't like my first choice. You wanted to be all stealthy and remain under the radar, so that limited what my options were."

Trina did her best to hold in her anger and paused for a moment to collect herself. When she did, she crossed her arms and continued speaking. "If these batteries from Sycorax were your second choice, then what was your first?"

"Krei Tech designed a new type of experimental battery around the time Sycorax was. I was on the team that helped design them but got moved onto the three-dimensional holograms project when High Voltage stole the prototypes. Worked out pretty well for me, not so much for them."

"And what happened to these prototypes?"

"They were returned to Krei Tech when the police were done with them. As fair as I know, Mr. Krei just hid them down in the junk basement. Once a supervillain uses something of his for evil, he buries it to avoid the negative press."

"And you think you can get these batteries?"

"Probably, but Krei keeps the place locked up tight, so I'll need a distraction to keep Big Hero 6 busy when they inevitably show up."

"Well, after the disaster last time, we might as well do a smash and grab in broad daylight. Cobra, Steamer, go keep the heroes busy while Hardlight gets the stuff."

"I've been practicing on my glider; the heroes won't be able to stop up!" Steamer cried, practically giddy. He and Cobra rushed off to get ready, but Trina caught Hardlight by the arm before he could join them.

"Before you go: if you don't get my batteries and come back empty handed, or get captured, Big Hero 6 won't be able to keep you safe."

"Don't get your ones and zeroes in a bunch, Trina. I've got this." Hardlight ripped his arm out of Trina's grip and gave her a mock salute as he turned to join the other two villains. Trina shook her head as she watched the three of them go. Noodle waddled up to her and tilted his head in a questioning matter.

"What ya thinking, sis?"

"I'm thinking that when we're done and the city is destroyed, there's not going to be much room left for the biologicals. What do you think?"

"Gotta get meat for the burgers somehow! Hehe. Hehe."

Hiro's jaw dropped as Rishi took in the conference room. He and the others had just been getting Karmi initiated into the group when the door had suddenly open and the young robotics whiz had just sauntered in like he owned the place. Baymax had summed up the situation pretty well:

"Ohh noo."

"So you guys are Big Hero 6?" Rishi asked, pointing to the suits hung up on the wall. "Makes sense."

"Rishi, what are you doing here?" Hiro asked.

"Well, I was tracking down Big Hero 6 so I could get pictures of them in action to help my chances of becoming the new king on the fanfic forums, but then I saw you three walk in, and now I think I'm going to have something a lot better than pictures."

"How did you even get in here?" Go Go asked, immediately suspicious.

"Yeah, I designed the security software myself." Hiro added.

"That explains it. Wasn't hard to hack into." Rishi said with a laugh. He then pointed to Karmi. "So you've been a fraud this whole time. Writing fanfiction based on people you know isn't exactly fair to the rest of us."

"What?!" Karmi asked, stupefied. "I didn't know they were Big Hero 6 until like three weeks ago. I didn't cheat."

"I don't think everyone on the forums will see it that way." The smirk that was on his face was too much, and it caused Karmi to crack.

"That's it!" she activated her glove and a holographic rope tied itself around Rishi, and a moment later a holographic chair appeared behind him. Karmi got up out of her seat and marched over to the still smirking boy, tapped him on the forehead, getting him to stumble backward into the chair. Hiro got up and walked over, rubbing his temples in frustration. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Rishi, you can't tell anyone about this, do you understand me?" Hiro urged.

"Why not? Wouldn't it be awesome to be known as the heroes of San Fransokyo?"

"No, we don't do this for the fame. If everyone knew who we were, it would put people we care about in danger."

"Oh c'mon, the secret identity thing is way dumb."

"DUMB?!" Fred yelled, standing up so quickly from the table that his hover chair went spinning backwards. He marched over to where Rishi was sitting and leveled a finger at him. "The superhero secret identity is one of the most sacred pillars of superhero storytelling. Without it, we wouldn't have comics like Captain Fancy 333 or The Human Fist 46. These are seminal issues not just for their respective stories, but for comics as a whole."

"Seriously?" Rishi countered. "It's an outdated trope. Besides, it looks like most of the people you guys care about are all in this room. So how is the secret identity going to keep them safe?"

"It means we don't have to worry about bad guys showing up at our house in the middle of the night, pipsqueak." Go Go said, becoming agitated by the kid's presence.

"That wouldn't happen anyway. Don't bad guys have to sleep too?" Rishi joked. Now Wasabi had had enough.

"Look kid, this isn't like the fanfics that you write. This is serious stuff, and we've almost died I don't know how many times."

"Wasabi is right," Karmi said. "You want to know the real reason I'm not going to do Big Hero 6 fanfics anymore? Because they're all my friends. I haven't had writers block the last couple weeks, I haven't been able to write because I realized that I knew these people. I can't write about people I know when they're putting their real lives on the line for us every day."

"I can." Rishi stated matter-of-factly. "Speaking of, while we're here, what do you want your superhero names to be? I really doubt blondie over there likes 'Tall Girl'."

Honey Lemon blushed slightly. "Well… I don't, but that's besides the point."

"Alright, enough." Hiro finally said. "Rishi you cannot tell anyone. Understand?"

"Fine, I'll keep quiet about who you are… for a price."

The entire room sans Baymax and Rishi groaned in response. Hiro crossed his arms and stared at Rishi for a moment before answering. "What do you want?"

"Pictures with all of you, in uniform, and of the hideout. I'll be the only person outside of the team who will have gotten to see the place. Do you know how many bonus points that's going to get me online?"

"We'll do pictures with you, but none of the hideout. If anyone realizes that you've been here, it can make you a target, but if we randomly bump into you on the street, it's not as big a deal."

"Ok, fine." Rishi relented. "Then instead I want Karmi to post that I'm her true successor in the community."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Karmi stalked forward and grabbed the kid by the collar, bringing them face to face so she could get her message across. "Listen kid, I told you, it doesn't work that way. I earned my popularity through hard work and good timing; I can't just transfer that over to you. People are going to make up their own minds about who they like or don't like to read."

"But they'll at least give me a chance if you recommend me."

"Ok, so what? You get a little boost to your numbers for a week? Maybe two? Then you're right back to where you started. I've read some of your stuff, and people don't typically like grammar mistakes in every other sentence."

"So I don't have a beta reader to proofread me. Big whoop."

"Consistently using T-H-E-I-R instead of T-H-E-R-E isn't something that can be fixed with a beta reader. Crack open a grammar book, maybe you'll learn something!"

"Ok!" Hiro said, pulling his girlfriend away from Rishi. "Karmi will tell her followers to check you out and we'll take some selfies in Night Market Square or something later, ok?"

"Deal." Rishi said smugly.

"What?!" Karmi glared at Hiro. "You can't let the little extortionist win!"

"We don't really have much of a choice, Karmi. Besides, maybe this is an opportunity for Rishi to improve."

"As a person or in his writing? Because I don't really see either being an option here." Hiro just gave Karmi a look until she relented, throwing up her hands in defeat. "Fine! I'll say the twerp might be worth checking out."

Karmi turned off the glove and the holographic ropes surrounding Rishi dissipated, setting him free. But so did the chair, and he fell down onto the ground. He shot Karmi as look as he stood up and brushed himself off, but his smug little smile returned soon enough. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Karmi just huffed and walked back to her seat, sitting down. Hiro sighed and motioned for Baymax to join him. "Come on, Baymax, let's walk Rishi back to SFIT. Guys, get Karmi caught up to speed, we'll be back later."

"See you guys later for our photo shoot!" Rishi waved. Hiro just rolled his eyes and grabbed Rishi by the shoulders, turning him towards the door. Before they could get anywhere, everyone but Rishi and Karmi's phones buzzed, and an alert appeared on Basemax's screen.

"Emergency at Krei Tech!" Abigail said, reading off the message on her phone. Fred jumped up in celebration.

"My alarm system finally came in handy!" he said, holding out his hand for a high-five that no one was in the mood to reciprocate. Hiro sighed and turned around, looking at Basemax's screen. The AI had already cut to live surveillance footage. Employees inside could be seen running from robotic cobras as Steamer swooped around on his glider, firing randomly into the building.

"Ugh, ok, new plan. Karmi, you're staying her to look after Rishi. The rest of us are going to Krei Tech."

"What?" both Karmi and Rishi yelled simultaneously. Karmi grabbed Hiro by the arm and tugged him a few steps away to have a 'private' conversation.

"Hiro, we talked about this. I'm part of the team, I'm going to help."

"Yeah, I know, but someone needs to watch after Rishi, I don't trust him to go back to SFIT and not run into danger trying to get pictures or something. I also haven't had time to design you armor or anything yet, so you'd probably need to sit this one out anyway."

"Ok, fine, you have a point about the armor thing." Karmi grumbled. "But is there a shovel around here? Because I'm probably going to end up murdering the kid when you leave us alone, and I'd at least like to be able to hide the evidence."

"Ok, I'm pretty sure you're being hyperbolic, but um… hold on one second." Hiro grabbed his phone and quickly fired off a text. After a moment it buzzed and Hiro looked up, spotting Abigail as everyone was running around and suiting up. "Abigail, I've got a pickup for you. Just sent the address and location image."

Abigail pulled out her phone as she zipped up the front of her suit and nodded, placing her helmet over her head. She blipped away and a moment later reappeared with a very disoriented Megan Cruz.

"Whoa, that was way faster than the train…" Megan slumped against the table and Hiro walked over to her and grabbed her by the arm, leading her to where Rishi and Karmi were standing.

"Megan, Rishi, Rishi, Megan. Rishi isn't supposed to be here, and Karmi hates him, so I need you to stay with them until we get back."

Megan looked between the two a couple times and sighed. "So I'm a babysitter for a babysitter?"

"Noooo, look at it as a… ok, fine yes. But we're kind of in a hurry, so please?"

"Sure. But if in a month there's an article in my school newspaper from an anonymous source talking about what it's like to date a superhero, don't be too surprised."

Hiro could only laugh nervously as he pulled the black bodysuit over his clothes so he could start strapping armor pieces on. A few minutes later the team was out the door and on their way to Krei Tech, leaving Megan alone with Rishi and Karmi, who were glaring daggers at one another.

"So…" Megan started trying to cut the ice. "Think they've got some board games hidden around here somewhere?"

Cobra sauntered down a hallway as her cobras chased employees out of cubicles. The security alarms were blaring, and police cars could be seen arriving out the window, but she didn't care. It was all a part of the plan. She made it to her destination and knocked on the door to the security office. The security guard inside stared her dead in the eyes, trying to look brave, but Cobra knew better. She tapped on the door again.

"Let me in please, sweetie." She asked as nicely as she could. The man on the other side of the door simply shook his head no. His attempt at bravery didn't do him much good, however, as the grate to the airduct inside dropped down and one of her robotic cobras fell on top of the man, spraying him with the paralyzing toxin. The man went rigid and fell over, sending his chair rolling across the small room. A moment later the door was open thanks to her snake and Cobra walked in. With a few button taps, she lifted the security lockdown on the lower levels, and Hardlight walked past the booth, waving his thanks as he made for the elevators. Cobra picked up her snake and wrapped it around her neck like a fashion accessory and blew the incapacitated guard a kiss before stepping over him and back into the hallway.

Steamer was having a blast, flying through the air and blasting at random. With the wind through his muttonchops, he closed his eyes and did a loop-de-loop around the antenna on the top of the building before settling back in for glide.

"Oh, I should have done something like this years ago! I feel like I'm twenty-five again!"

"And when you were twenty-five, did you drive a dinosaur to work?" Fred asked as he landed on the building.

"Maybe you'll find out when I blast you back to the Stone Age!" Steamer fired at his nemesis, but Fred easily jumped over the blast and landed in the courtyard right when the rest of the team showed up.

"That's scientifically and historically inaccurate!" Wasabi yelled to correct Steamer. "The dinosaurs were long gone by the time the Stone Age rolled around."

"Wasabi, don't bother trying to correct the supervillain." Go Go chastised.

"What? It's true!" Wasabi complained. Hiro ignored the banter and directed his attention towards Steamer.

"So what's Trina want now, Steamer? Gotta admit, I never took you for an errand boy."

"Oh, I'm not the errand boy, boy! I'm merely the distraction! We require just a few simple components and then Shimamoto's machines will be operational again! And there's nothing you can do to stop us!" Steamer laughed as he attacked, swooping down and getting the heroes to scatter. Honey Lemon fired a scattered shot of chem balls at Steamer.

"Shimamoto? What are you talking about?" she inquired. Steamer opened his mouth to answer, but a cobra whizzed past him as a warning shot.

"Don't give away the plan, you old fool!" Cobra said as she joined the fight.

"Yes, yes, mums the word. Sorry, old habits." Steamer redirected himself and began chasing after Hiro and Baymax, keeping them separated from the rest of the team and unable to dictate orders. Abigail dodged a punch from Cobra and managed to hit back with a roundhouse kick. The older woman sized up her opponent as she regained her composure.

"Not bad." Was all she said.

"Gee, that's real insulting coming from an old crone like you. Gotta admit, you look good for your age."

"Moisturizer, darling. It's a lifesaver." Cobra pounced, diving straight in for a tackle, but Abigail simply teleported out of the way.

"Too slow, old lady."

"Am I?" Cobra smiled. Abigail looked down just as a cobra began slithering its way up her leg. Abigail shook it off and stomped through its metal head, but the distraction left her vulnerable to Cobra's incoming uppercut. Abigail hit the ground hard as Cobra chuckled. "Fast reflexes are wasted on someone without the experience to use them properly."

Globby came up from behind and wrapped himself around Cobra, sticking her legs together and then leapt back off. She wobbled as Abigail got back to her feet and Globby yanked the neural transmitter off her head. "Night, night robot snakes!"

Globby's victory was short lived, as the snakes surrounding the courtyard continued to slither forward. Globby and Abigail looked around confused and back at the transmitter in Globby's hand. "This doesn't make sense…"

"Exactly." Cobra grinned. Suddenly, a second Cobra sprang from the bushes and whacked Abigail in the face with her snake-headed cane. The Cobra that was stuck in Globby's goop dissolved into green pixels, including the fake neural transmitter in his hand. Globby pointed at Cobra's belt buckle, which was glowing with green energy.

"Hey, you stole Hardlight's thing!" Globby said accusingly.

"Actually, it was a gift." She replied, twirling her cane. "Sharing is caring after all. Now let's see how you all fare with a few new tricks up our sleeves."

Cobra laughed as a dozen new Cobras appeared, all twirling their canes and surrounding Globby and Abigail, who muttered under her breath. "I'm really starting to hate this woman."

Hiro had spotted the change in the rules and tried to warn the team, but Steamer came flying by too close for comfort once again, almost knocking Hiro from Baymax's back. Steamer laughed as he flew circles around the two.

"What's the matter, junior? Finding it tough to keep up?" Steamer flew off, obviously baiting Hiro into chasing him. Hiro groaned in frustration, knowing he didn't have much of a choice but to follow. If he tried to join the others, Steamer would just swoop in and attack again, which meant the airborne elderly needed to be dealt with first.

"Let's knock this guy out of the sky, Baymax." Hiro ordered. Baymax pushed his thrusters to the max and followed Steamer. Down on the ground, the other heroes were becoming overrun by robotic cobras. Wasabi sliced one in half as it jumped for him, but it just allowed another to latch onto his gauntlet and start eating through the armor, disabling the energy blade on his right hand. Wasabi sliced it off with his remaining blade and looked at the number of bots still coming toward him.

"We've got a problem here, people! There's too many of these things!"

"Wasabi's right!" Go Go grunted, using one of her disks to slice a snake in half. "Honey Lemon, we need a perimeter!"

Honey Lemon typed at her purse and then started firing, creating a barricade of large brightly colored chem balls. Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Go Go backed up as the wall began forming, closing them off from the snakes. Abigail and Globby came running in at the last second, joining the three right before they were shut out. Honey Lemon lowered the barrel of her cannon and looked at her structure. "That won't hold them for long, we need a plan."

"I'm open to suggestions." Wasabi said, looking at the top of the goo wall nervously. Fred leapt over the barrier and landed in the middle of the group, a snake stuck to his suit.

"Cobra and Steamer are using a new bag of tricks, we need to figure out how to stop them." Go Go said as Fred dusted himself off.

"Cobra's using her headband to control her robots and hologram constructs." Abigail reported. "If we can get that away from her, then its game over."

"Easier said than done…" Globby grumbled, investigating the holes in his mass the venom had left.

"Well, whatever we're going to do, we need to do it fast. Looks like Cobra's getting ready for a counterattack." Fred pointed, and through the gooey wall, they could see Cobra's silhouette reading her snake army for an attack on the bubbly fortress.

Back at Basemax, Megan, Karmi, and Rishi sat around the conference table and could only watch what was going on. The voice comms from the team were also filtering in, giving the trio a play-by-play of what was happening. Karmi groaned in frustration and pounded one of her hands into the table.

"This is dumb, I should be out there with them!"

"Living out our collective fantasies, are you?" Rishi asked, only somewhat jealous.

"It's not a fantasy you little troll. Not anymore."

"Yeah, it's a dream come true. You got your superhero boyfriend and his friends to hang around with. Guess you're always going to be the queen of the community no matter what I do."

"Oh, grow up. This isn't about online popularity contests anymore; those are our friends out there!"

"I'm probably going to regret asking…" Megan said, raising her hand slightly. "But what are you two talking about?"

"Rishi is just jealous that I'm a better fanfiction writer than he is, so he's been gunning after my top spot in the community for months now. A spot that I didn't ask for, by the way."

"Wait, you're KHeartsQT?" Megan asked, stunned, sitting forward in her chair slightly. Karmi blushed.

"I was. I'm not doing that anymore. I guess you're a fan?"

"Sorta. I don't really read fanfiction, but I did research when trying to uncover Big Hero 6's identities, so I browsed a lot of stuff."

"Ah, you're a lurker." Rishi nodded, understanding. "Read any of my stuff? I'm BH6rox11."

"Oh yeah… you had the big team split up story, right?"

"Yep." Rishi beamed with pride.

"That was pretty good." Megan acknowledged, much to Rishi's delight. "Lot of typos though, you might want to get someone to proofread your stuff. It'd make it way easier to read."

Rishi's face fell as Karmi burst out laughing. She finally got control of herself and she smiled vindictively at the younger boy. "Told ya!"

"I will say though, the self-insert stuff in your fanfics could be a little much sometimes, Karmi." Megan added, shutting the bio-tech genius up. "Like how many times can you swoop in and save the day for Captain Cutie to then shower you with love and admiration. Kinda felt like you were compensating for something."

Karmi shuffled in her seat and broke eye contact, putting her chin in her hand. "I'm kinda starting to think I was…"

Now both Rishi and Karmi had their backs turned to Megan as they continued to watch the fight. Megan looked between the two and sighed, realizing what she'd done. "Ok, lighten up you two. No one is a perfect writer. If you think that, then you should look at some of my stuff when I first get done with it. Run on sentences, spelling errors, the works. But then I sit down and refine it before publishing. But I'm just a journalist. You two are the real creatives. The stuff you come up with is awesome, and you don't have to go digging for facts or sources like I do, you just make stuff up and it works. Do you know how much I wish I could do that?"

"Don't journalists do that anyway?" Rishi snarked. Megan responded by throwing her pen at him, but it bounced off the table and fell in the floor.

"The good ones don't. But you guys get like unfettered creativity and the ability to do whatever you want. That's pretty cool, and each of you from what I've seen has your own strengths and weaknesses, just like any other writer. Maybe you guys have more in common than you think."

"Déjà vu…" Karmi muttered.

"Alright, maybe you've got a point." Rishi agreed. "Maybe I was always a little jealous."

Megan looked at Karmi, waiting for her apology. Karmi noticed the look and shrugged. "What?"

"Your turn, Karmi."

"My turn?! He's the one that came into my comments just to start fights." Megan just shot Karmi another look until the girl finally relented. "Fine. I guess maybe I can look past his online behavior and try to accept Rishi for the whole him and not just the stupid online troll he acts like."

Megan smiled and tapped her chin. "Kinda reminds me of someone else we know…"

"Hush." Was all Karmi said, but she didn't attempt to hide her smile. The trio didn't get to discuss anything further as the comm chatter from the team started to become frantic. Honey Lemon had ended up creating a temporary refuge for the team since the villains were using new tactics.

"Cobra and Steamer are using a new bag of tricks, we need to figure out how to stop them." Go Go said over the comms. The three looked at each other as the footage showed Cobra getting ready to attack in full force.

"That's a lot of robotic snakes." Rishi said.

"They'll never be able to stop all of them without help." Karmi muttered. Megan smiled as she got an idea.

"Then help them." She said, pointing to both of them. "Use your fanfic powers and help them think of a new solution."

"We can't do that!" Karmi argued. "We can't just Dues Ex Machina up a solution that will magically fall in their laps!"

"Exactly." Rishi agreed. "They only have so many tools at their disposal in the field, we'd need to know what they have exactly to even begin thinking of a solution."

"Alright then." Megan smiled. "Basemax?"

"Yes, Megan?" Basemax replied, her hexagonal eyes appearing on screen.

"That's so cool, I didn't know if that was going to work or not." Megan giggled before she regained her composure. "Bring up everything Big Hero 6 has at their disposal right now."

"Accessing armory files." Basemax brought up the current suits that the team was wearing and everything they could do. Rishi snapped his fingers and pointed at Fred's costume.

"There! The lizard suit's floodlights!"

"What about them?" Karmi asked.

"The Halloween special from your fic, when Big Hero 6 defeated the vampires, we can do that!"

Karmi scrunched up her face, skeptical. "I don't think blinding the robo snakes with Holy Water sunlight is going to help here."

"No, but if those panels could be modified, they could be used to transmit a pulse that could cancel out Cobra's commands…"

"And shut them down at the source like the android army from Chapter 15 of your fic!" Karmi finished. Rishi looked at her, stunned.

"You read my story?"

Karmi looked away and drummed her fingers on the table. "Well, I needed to know for certain that your writing was garbage before I started saying so online. And overall, it is, but your story ideas aren't… terrible."

"Well… maybe you could help me with my writing style sometime? It'd be nice to learn from the best." Rishi asked hopefully. Karmi nodded, which got Megan to smirk.

"Great little bonding moment guys, maybe we'll turn you into friends yet. But can we get back on task here?" Megan asked, pointing to the screen. Karmi snapped out of her sheepishness and sat up straight.

"Right! Basemax, open the comm channel and contact Big Hero 6."

The robotic cobras had started ramming themselves into the side of Honey Lemon's fortress of gooiness as others tried slithering over the surface to get at them. While the structure would hold for some time, it wouldn't last forever.

"We're running out of time, here!" Abigail noted. Go Go was about to snap back at her when their commlinks opened and Karmi's voice filled their ears.

"Ok guys, listen up. Rishi and I have figured out a plan, but there obviously isn't much time, so you need to work fast. Fred, deploy your floodlights."

"Uh, ok, but not sure what help these are going to be." Two lights popped out of Fred's suit, but he didn't switch them off. Karmi continued speaking.

"Go Go, Wasabi, open up the back panels and look around for a yellow wire." Wasabi activated his plasma blade and cut open the back of Fred's lights, exposing the circuitry and wires behind.

"Found the wires. Now what?" Go Go asked.

"Unplug them from their source and connect them directly into the power, this will…"

"Create a feedback loop and send out a pulse that will disrupt radio waves in the area! Karmi, Rishi, you guys are geniuses!" Wasabi said, clapping his hands together as he got to work. Fred gasped, realizing the plan.

"It's just like the vampires from the Halloween special from Karmi's fic!"

Go Go just smiled as she grabbed the wire and directed it to the on-board power source. She nodded to Wasabi when she was ready and he began the countdown. "Honey Lemon, be ready to bring down the barrier in five… four…"

Honey Lemon aimed her cannon as Wasabi's count got further down the list. When he said one, Honey Lemon launched the destabilizing agent at her globs, and it dispersed right when a high pitched shriek emitted from Fred's floodlights. The bulbs began popping the longer the shriek went on, but the army of robot cobras stopped dead in their tracks as Cobra's headband visibly powered down. Annoyed, Cobra took the thing off her head and smacked it a few times, trying to get it to restart. With their job done, however, the heroes sauntered forward, the army of cobras no longer an issue. Fred collapsed his floodlights back into their storage in the suit and struck a heroic pose.

"Don't bother evil doer, your tech is broken beyond repair."

"Actually, that's not true, Freddie, it's just going to be off for a few minutes." Honey Lemon whispered. Fred slumped briefly but then resumed his heroic stance.

"I stand corrected!"

"Well, it seems like this still works well enough." Cobra said as she motioned to her belt buckle. She tapped it, pressing buttons along the side, and a dozen clones of Cobra appeared. "An emergency failsafe if it ever gets disconnected from the neural transmitter. Just copies whatever was last created. So, how are we feeling about the odds now?"

"Not great, but I'll take them." Go Go smirked as she surged forward. The other team members ran after her, everyone gunning for a Cobra in hopes they could stop the real one.

Baymax did a barrel roll to avoid a stun blast from Von Steamer, who had led them far away from Krei Tech at this point. Deciding that they'd gone far enough, Hiro fired one of his magnetic disks, getting it clamped onto the bottom of Steamer's glider. He had to time it right as the buildings whirled past them, and Hiro held his gauntlet at the ready, waiting for the perfect shot. Just when Steamer turned a corner, Hiro fired, and the disk clamped onto the building that Steamer had just passed. In range, the two disks connected, and Steamer's glider stopped suddenly. His feet being strapped to the thing, the old man lurched forward as the glider shot backward as if it were attached to a bungee cord. Steamer managed to get the glider to stop and tried to get it moving again, but a second magnetic connection soon found him stuck in place. Baymax came to a stop and hovered in front of the villain.

"Time's up, Steamer. What's Trina planning? What's she want with all the things she's stolen?"

"Ha! Like I'd tell you! I'm much more afraid of her than I am of you, boy."

"That's probably smart, she helped her father try and flood the city and then she tried to melt it with nuclear powered garbage trucks. She hates organics. Now do the smarter thing and tell us what she's planning."

"After today, you'll find out soon enough. And when you do, all of you will be shaking in your boots." Steamer fired the laser cannons on the glider, forcing Baymax to dodge. With the heroes distracted, Steamer reached underneath the machine and ripped Hiro's disks clear, allowing him to fly away into the early evening sky. Hiro groaned when he looked up to see Steamer way too far away to catch now.

"Alright Baymax, back to Krei Tech." he commanded. Baymax turned and blasted off, moving as fast as he dared in the dense area of buildings, they were in. Hiro wasn't sure what he'd find when he got back to Krei Tech, but it certainly wasn't his team fighting an army of Cobra and her clones. He motioned for Baymax to move in and the robot swooped down and grabbed one of the clones, but the second it moved out of range it shattered back into green pixels. Looking back down, the number of Cobra clones was quickly dwindling, and soon the team had the original backed into a corner. Hiro had Baymax land on the grounds as Cobra looked between her now eight foes. "It's over, Cobra. Stand down."

Cobra scowled and raised her hands in surrender when the ground around them began to shake. Cobra simply smiled as Hardlight came crashing up from underground. He hovered in the air above the heroes, his palms crackling with electricity. He pointed his fingers and electricity shot from them, hitting the entire team and sending them flying backwards.

"UN-LIMITED POW-ERR!" He screamed viscously as the team of heroes came to a stop. He let up his barrage and giggled. "Sorry, I've always wanted to do that. C'mon, Cobra!"

Hardlight conjured up a giant hand and grabbed Cobra, bringing her up to his platform and placing her on it. She grabbed onto him as Hardlight saluted the heroes and the two villains fled the scene. Thankfully, Hiro had long ago added extra insulation to their suits after dealing with High Voltage, so no one was seriously hurt.

"Everyone alright?" Hiro asked.

"A little crispy, but fine." Fred answered, getting up off the ground.

"What did they want?" Honey Lemon asked, looking at the hole that went through several sublevels of Krei Tech.

"Whatever it was, they got it." Wasabi groaned. "And since when did the villains start sharing powers? Cobra has Hardlight's tech and now Hardlight is a discount High Voltage? I don't like this."

"Me either." Hiro replied. "But we have other things to worry about. Abigail, talk with Krei, find out what was taken. The rest of us, back to Basemax."

Rishi gulped as the heroes stared him down, various different looks on their faces. Go Go was outwardly hostile. Honey Lemon and Wasabi seemed to be trying to make up their minds, a range of emotions visible on their faces. Fred was too busy nerding out with Karmi over the plan he'd helped her come up with, and Hiro looked stern but… impressed? Globby and Baymax didn't really have an expression, both of them more or less waiting to see what everyone else did.

"So, you broke in." Hiro finally started. "Then you extorted us. And finally, you helped save the day."

"Um… I'm not sure if I should apologize or not." Rishi admitted.

"You should definitely apologize for the first two things." Go Go muttered.

"But that was a good plan you and Karmi hatched up." Wasabi said.

"Good job, Rishi." Honey Lemon added.

"Um… thanks?" he answered sheepishly. Go Go just glared at him. "And I'm sorry for causing trouble. You guys don't have to take pictures or anything with me. I get it. I won't say anything to anyone, I'll just go."

Rishi stood up out of the hover chair and walked to the door. Hiro's hand came down on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. He sucked in a breath, waiting for a telling-off, but it didn't come. "Ask next time, and maybe we'll give you a tour of the place."

Rishi turned around in surprise, Hiro wearing a friendly smile. Rishi smiled back and nodded and walked to the door, more confident than most eleven-year-olds that he'd be able to find his way home alone in the big city. When the doors closed behind him, Go Go turned to Hiro.

"I don't trust him. He's been a troublemaker from the moment he started at SFIT, and he likes to tease. I'm not sure he's capable of keeping our secret."

"If you recall, I was a troublemaker as well. I'll keep an eye on him, Go Go, don't worry." Hiro assured her. Karmi came up and took Hiro's gauntleted hand in hers.

"We'll keep an eye him. I may have been too harsh on him at the start; that seems to be an ongoing problem with me."

Go Go smirked. "Just started dating and you've already adopted a kid. Well, congrats he's you're problem now."

Everyone laughed as Hiro and Karmi went red. Megan slapped Hiro on the back as she headed for the door. "Hey, chin up. We could be teasing you about a lot worse."

"True. Thanks for helping out today."

"No problem. But you owe me a juicy interview about the life of a superhero someday."

Hiro laughed as Megan left, calling after her. "Deal!"

"So who's up for some Yaki Taco?" Fred asked. "I don't know about any of you, but I'm starved."

"I could eat." Globby agreed.

"Alright, we'll get cleaned up and then go eat. Dinner's on Fred though." Hiro laughed.

"Of course it is, he eats like a slob." Go Go joked, earning a laugh from the whole team.

Hardlight handed over the batteries to Trina, who accepted them with an evil smile. "Not bad, everyone."

"Big Hero 6 adapted to our new tricks faster than I would've thought." Cobra complained.

"Yes, I agree." Steamer said. "They're all pretty smart, it's possible they might figure out what we're up to."

"Even if they do, it'll be too late." Trina reassured the gathered villains. "Besides, they're going to be too busy to worry about us pretty soon."

Hardlight caught on quick. "What do you have planned, Ms. Glorious Leader?"

"I have a lead on their secret base. If we destroy it, they'll lose an advantage over us, and a lot of their toys."

"Did you replace one of them with a robot duplicate to discover their base?" Noodle asked excitedly. Trina rolled her eye.

"No, that'd be stupid and obvious, they'd see through it in an instant. Only an idiot would come up with a plan like that."

Noodle looked down on the ground and kicked a foot into the dust on the floor. "Hehe, yeah, total idiot. Who'd be stupid enough to do that?"

"You tried that, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

"Anyway, it doesn't matter." Trina said, getting back to the main topic at hand. "For now, rest up, I'll tell you when we're ready for the next phase."

The other villains nodded and left to go recharge in the little hovels and side rooms they'd claimed for themselves in Shimamoto's dungeon of a workshop. With them gone, Trina put the batteries down on her workbench to be inserted later, checking in on her source. She went to her cobbled together computer and opened up a fanfiction forum website and hit the login button, a message displaying on the page as it loaded:

Welcome back, RobotLover23!