Parents Weekend: Part 2
People screamed and ran for cover as cars were thrown into the air and into buildings. The giant mechanical cobra slithered down the street, churning up bits of asphalt and concrete in its wake as it moved. A woman and her baby were almost crushed by a flying car but were thankfully pulled out of the way at the last minute by a gelatinous mass of sentient goop.
"Yoink!" Globby said as he deposited the mother and child safely behind cover. "Stay down, we'll take care of this!"
Globby extended his hand and shot it across the street, pulling himself into the path of the giant cobra to fire off bits of sticky globs. The globs stuck, keeping the mechanical monstrosity from opening its mouth. Fred leapt off a rooftop and bounced atop its head, causing it to crash into the ground. Globby held up a hand for high fiving, which Fred eagerly returned. Abigail appeared next to them, sizing up the robot as it struggled to get back up.
"So this is a distraction, yeah?" she asked.
"What makes you think so?" Globby asked.
"Lone robo-snake causing havoc without any gloating supervillains present? Seems too random, which so far hasn't been Cobra's m-o."
The robot cobra managed to finally get the goopy gunk out of its mouth and turned to glare at the heroes. Opening its mouth wide, it began firing lasers at them, causing the team to scatter. Fred leapt high into the air, launching flames at it to fight back the laser blasts. When he'd properly distracted it, he pointed at the snake from his new position on the opposite side of the street.
"Globby, now!"
Before the snake could fire again, more gunk covered its mouth. It whirled around to glare at Globby and began firing lasers out of its eyes instead. Globby yelped and dived out of the way as the lasers blew up a streetlamp. Abigail waved from her cover behind an overturned car.
"Globby, liquid nitrogen balls!"
The mutant nodded and turned his arm into an icy appendage and rolled two balls of the substance across the street to where Abigail was waiting. She picked up the chem balls and teleported on top of the robot, smacking a chem ball into an eye each. Teleporting away, she let the liquid nitrogen do its thing as ice crystals formed and began encasing the robotic eyes in ice. The robot struggled to remove the obstructions to its weapons systems and began beating its head into the street, causing Fred to make a hasty retreat. The impacts managed to break up most of the ice on one eye, and it began firing randomly. Abigail zapped Fred out of the way before he was hit, teleporting him to safety as laser blasts continued to pummel the street and surrounding buildings. Finally the mechanoid managed to get the rest of the ice clear and got the gunk out of its mouth, freeing up all of its main weapon systems. With Globby being the only one in its crosshairs, it warmed up all its canons and aimed them at the sentient glob.
"Oh crud." Globby moaned, completely caught out in the open. He knew he'd likely survive the blast, but boy was it probably going to hurt. Thankfully, before the snake could fire, a red blur shot through the sky and sliced through the metal skin with an outstretched sword. The building energy in the weapons dissipated as the head slowly slid off the body and fell onto the street with a clunk. The limp body quickly followed suit and laid on the ground motionless. Fred let out a loud whoop as Baymax touched down and returned his sword back into wing formation. Hiro patted the robot from his usual perch.
"See? Told you we could do it."
"Our flight stability was still affected by thirty-eight-point-seven percent with the removal of the stabilizers. I would not recommend doing that again."
"Lighten up, Baymax. We pulled it off."
"Activating flashlight." Baymax held out his hand and activated a flashlight in response to Hiro's command to 'lighten up'. Hiro laughed and jumped off the robot as the rest of the team approached.
"Turn that off, Baymax." Hiro turned to the team as Baymax deactivated the light and lowered his hand. "We good here? Can you guys handle the cleanup?"
"We got it, Hiro. Go have fun with Karmi." Fred answered, flipping up the top of his costume.
"Kid, wait." Abigail said before Hiro could turn and leave. "Doesn't this strike you as a little random? I don't think this is over yet."
Hiro frowned and looked at the sparking robot laying dead in the street. He walked up to it and considered Abigail's words, checking over the circuitry. "I hate to say it but I think you're right. Look at this."
Hiro pried something loose from the robot and held it up. Fred grabbed it and inspected the piece as Globby leaned in close to have his own look. "Yeah… this doesn't look like one of Cobra's regular bots."
"Remind you of anything, Fred?" Hiro asked.
"You're right. This looks like the work of..!" Fred paused, quickly looking around. After a moment he sighed and sagged his shoulders. "Darn it, I was really hoping there was going to be a dramatic entrance right when I was-"
Fred was cut off as the street around them rumbled and shook. The road a few feet away from them began to crack and open up, and before long, a second, larger robotic cobra rose out of the ground. Fred smiled and flipped down the hood of his costume, content enough with the entrance despite getting the timing wrong. Speakers crackled to life, causing feedback to ripple throughout the street as the cobra fully emerged. Once it had passed, familiar laughter filled the air, causing Hiro to roll his eyes. One of the cobra's eyes slid back, revealing an inner cockpit and a laughing Baron Von Steamer behind the controls.
"Surprise, Big Hero 6! I bet you didn't expect the cobras to be controlled by me, Baron Von Steamer!"
"Actually, we had just figured that out on our own!" Fred yelled up to his nemesis. Hiro sighed.
"And it wasn't a total surprise. You and Cobra did escape together. Where is she, Steamer?"
"That's none of your concern for now. In the meantime, why don't we give my new invention a test run?" Steamer punched a button on his control panel and several missile pods opened up across the bronze-colored snake. Laser sights activated and began training on the heroes, following their movements. Steamer hit the fire button and the missiles fired, scattering the heroes.
Somewhere in the distance Karmi heard something explode. She gulped and quickly checked her phone, not seeing anything urgent. Padme looked around, curious as to what the noise was.
"What was that?" she pondered.
"Thunder?" Karmi offered quickly. "I think it's supposed to rain later."
"I don't see any clouds." Harold said, looking up into the sky.
"The buildings block a lot of the view. The clouds are probably more inland, and you can't see them yet." Karmi offered, hoping her parents bought it.
"Ah, that makes sense." Her father answered, nodding along. Karmi quietly exhaled, relieved that her quickly made-up logic had stuck. The family rounded a corner and found themselves at their destination, one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city. A line was already formed down the street despite the establishment only having been open for a few minutes. The host standing behind the podium looked through a checklist and turned to a couple standing in front of him.
"I'm afraid the wait for walk-ins is at least two hours." He informed them, messing with his small moustache as he did so. The couple sighed and nodded, stepping back in line to wait. With no one else walking up to the podium, Karmi took the initiative and approached.
"Hi, we have a reservation."
"The name?" the host asked her. Karmi paused, realizing that she never asked Hiro for the reservation name.
"Hold on, let me check." Karmi said, pulling out her phone again. She quickly sent a text to Hiro.
Karmi, 11:26 AM: Hey, what's our reservation name?
Hiro, 11:28 AM: IDK
Hiro, 11:29 AM: Let me ask fred
Karmi patiently waited for the response, giving the host a pained smile as he waited (im)patiently. Finally the text came in and Karmi groaned at what she had waiting for her on the small screen. Swallowing her pride, she looked up at the host again. "The reservation is under Karmiro."
The man looked through his clipboard and nodded, grabbing three menus from the podium. He opened the door and politely smiled. "Right this way."
He led them to a table, and they sat down as soft ambient music played around them. Once the host had left after promising a waiter would be with them shortly, all noise from the outside world ceased once the door shut. The building they were in thankfully had excellent soundproofing. As the three opened up their menus, Padme glanced over at Karmi curiously.
"Dear, what was that name that our reservation was under?"
Karmi's face turned red, and she hid behind the menu. "Just a dumb inside joke. One that a certain someone is going to pay for."
"We're going to discuss that reservation name when this is over, Fred!" Hiro yelled as he and Baymax dodged another missile strike.
"Hiro, I can't just ignore your ship name! The online SFIT community would riot if I didn't use that as your reservation name!" Fred responded as he used a manhole cover to deflect a missile.
"First off, you're not telling anyone at SFIT about anything today! Second, we are NOT having this conversation right now!" Hiro looked over Steamer's cobra mech. Give the old man credit that he was at least evolving a little bit. "Moving on, anyone see any weaknesses?"
"Not that I can spot." Abigail said from her position on a nearby rooftop. She looked at the busted piece of scrap she held from the sentry drone they'd defeated a few minutes earlier. "The circuitry looks like it's out of the ninety's, but its more advanced than Steamer's other work."
"The hull is reinforced, too!" Globby added, literally bouncing off the side as he attempted to crash into it. "It's going to take a lot to get past the armor!"
"Maybe we don't have to…" Hiro thought out loud, warming up his magnetic gauntlets. "Maybe all we have to do is fry his systems. Anyone ever accidentally put their phone through a really powerful magnet?"
"No." Was the chorused response. Hiro rolled his eyes and decided not to tell everyone the time in high school when he accidentally trashed his phone thanks to a homemade electromagnet he'd built in the garage.
"Well, point is, magnets and hard drives don't mix. So how much you want to bet Baron Von Cyber over here hasn't insulated his systems?"
"I see where you're going with this." Abigail said as she took a final look at the piece of scrap she was holding and tossed it behind her. "I'm in."
"Fred, Globby, cover us." Hiro commanded, pointing to them. "Abigail, Baymax, and I will get in close and attach my magnets to the armor. Then we'll cook the electronics from the inside out."
"We're on it, boss!" Globby said as he emerged from cover and began firing acidic globs at Steamer's mech. Fred leapt into the air and grabbed hold of the head, covering Steamer's view. With the distraction in place, Abigail teleported over to Hiro, who handed her several of his magnetic disks. When both had several in hand, they each chose a side and launched into the frenzy. Hiro tossed his disks onto the hull as Baymax flew past, scattering them everywhere. Abigail simply teleported to different spots and placed a disk before moving onto her next spot. When both were done, Steamer's robo snake was covered with dozens of magnets.
"Get clear, guys!" Hiro yelled. Fred and Globby quickly ran off, confusing the baron inside. The entire team regrouped in the middle of the street, and Steamer turned to face them. Before he could ponder what was happening, Hiro clicked a button on his gauntlet and all of the disks activated at once. They lit up and began humming, sending their magnetic waves through the mech. However, the thing didn't power down, causing Steamer to laugh.
"Ah, I see you tried to use your magnets to wipe out my internal systems. Very clever! However, I took the necessary precautions to make sure that couldn't happen. Did you really think I was stupid enough to not protect my computer systems?"
"I mean… kinda?" Hiro shrugged.
"You have broken free of your old shtick, Steamer." Fred said. "You've really been keeping us on our toes lately, so we don't really know what to expect from you anymore."
"Well thank you, Frederickson. That honestly means a lot. However, I'm afraid our time has run out and its time for me to go. Until next time, Big Hero 6!" Steamer turned his snake bot around and began slithering towards the hole he'd made earlier. Not wanting the baron to escape, Hiro inverted the polarity of the magnets, and suddenly dozens of magnetic lassos appeared in Hiro's grip. Steamer didn't seem to notice that he had been caught and continued moving, dragging both Hiro and Baymax behind him. Hiro started to panic and transferred the magnetic device to Baymax.
"Baymax, don't let go!" With the device transferred, Baymax was now holding onto the lassos and the snake slowed to a crawl. Warning alarms began beeping at Steamer in his cockpit, and in response he just turned the power up more. While this distraction meant that Steamer was no longer heading for his escape route, it did mean that the colossal copper cobra was now swiftly moving down the street, and Baymax's anchored feet began to inch forward. A little bit of asphalt broke around his armor, causing him to move forward slightly. Then a little more broke. And then a little more. When all of the slack in the magnetic lassos had finally given out, both Hiro and Baymax came to the same conclusion at the same time.
"Ohh noo."
Despite the calming music in the restaurant, Karmi was anything but calm. She balanced her phone on her leg, watching as the online news report gave the play by play of the battle downtown with the giant robot snakes. Plural! Karmi was broken out of her trance when her mother cleared her throat.
"Find something you like, dear?" Padme asked.
"Uh…" Karmi stammered, her eyes quickly travelling back up to the menu. She scanned it briefly and came up with an answer. "I hear the trout is really good."
"Goodness me, look at the price, though!" Harold said, shocked. "Thirty bucks for a fish!"
"Order whatever you like sir, the meal has already been taken care of." The waiter standing behind Karmi answered. She jumped slightly, having forgotten that he'd been there.
"In that case I'm having the lobster." Harold answered happily, handing over his menu to the waiter. Padme hummed suspiciously before answering.
"I'll have the tomato bisque." She said, handing over her own menu.
"And the trout?" the waiter asked Karmi. She quickly nodded in response.
"Yes, thank you."
The waiter took her menu. "Of course. Your bread will be out in a moment."
When he had cleared earshot, Padme leveled a look at her daughter. "You're not telling us something."
"What do you mean?"
"This whole thing." Padme said, motioning to the whole establishment. "We somehow get a reservation at one of the most popular and expensive restaurants in the city, and not only that, but the meal is also being paid for? I know you made a little money off your silly superhero cartoon for a while, but this is something else. How'd you manage to do all of this?"
Karmi's panic level subsided slightly now that she knew what was concerning her mom. Taking a quick deep breath, Karmi put on a neutral expression and began speaking. "Well, it wasn't really me. Or Hiro, either. One of our friends set this up for us. He has lots of connections."
"Really?" Harold asked. "Who is he? How'd he end up with so many connections?"
"His name is Fred. As in… Fred Frederickson." While not an outright gasp, both of her parents made very surprised noises. Thanks to the shipping business and other ventures, the Frederickson name was known worldwide and not just in San Fransokyo. "Fred offers to lend us cash or do things for us on occasion, but Hiro and I don't really like to use his money or status for ourselves. With you guys in town though, we thought now of all times is when it was probably best to cash it in."
"That's… very mature of you." Padme finally answered. "How'd you meet… Fred?"
"He was friends with Hiro's older brother first and we've become acquainted since. Everyone on campus knows Fred because he's the unofficial mascot, but not many people really know him. I didn't know he was rich at first, and he takes some getting used to, but he's a really supportive friend."
"So Hiro has an older brother?" Harold asked, intrigued. "Does he go to SFIT too? What's he like?"
Karmi winced inwardly, having not intended to step into that minefield. "Um… remember the fire last spring? Hiro's brother… Tadashi was the one killed that night."
"Oh." Harold said, sitting up straighter in his chair. "That must have been hard for him."
"It was. But Tadashi's friends welcomed Hiro into their group very quickly, and from what they've told me, he's doing better than ever. But those first few months after his death were rough for him. And I wasn't the nicest person to him at the time, either." Karmi looked down at her folded-up napkin in shame. Her parents shared a look between one another, and Padme reached out to grab Karmi's hand.
"Karmi?" Padme asked quietly. Karmi looked up to meet her eyes. "What made you change your mind about Hiro?"
"Um… well, after he saved me from Sycorax, he didn't care about how mean I'd been to him or the things we'd done to each other. He just wanted to make sure I was ok, and I realized that I might have misjudged him. From there I guess we just… clicked."
Padme nodded and let go of Karmi's hand. She smiled, but something lurked behind her eyes that Karmi couldn't quite make out. "Well, he seems like a very nice boy. I'm glad you two were able to sort out your differences."
"Me too." Karmi smiled, a little more reserved than before. A waiter walked by and dropped off a basket of bread along with a serving dish of butter. Harold rubbed his hands together and reached for some.
"Finally, I'm starved!" he said. His wife promptly reached for a piece as well, and when they were thankfully both distracted, Karmi watched as a giant robotic snake slithered by outside the window. Being dragged behind it was Baymax, Hiro, Fred, and Globby, the latter two of which had grabbed onto Baymax to try and slow the giant mech down. Karmi quickly slapped a hand over her mouth before she could say anything, and her parents turned to look at her in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Padme asked, and both she and her husband turned to look out the giant window. Seeing nothing, they turned back to her, noticing that her shocked expression had changed to that of relief.
"Oh, uh… a car almost ran over a squirrel. It got away though. Yaaaaaay…" Karmi could only pray that her parents bought her overexaggerated smile.
How Hiro managed to hang on with all of the bumps, he didn't know. Even the magnets keeping him lodged on Baymax's back didn't help keep him in place, but Steamer had managed to drag most of the team across town.
"This is not working." Baymax said calmly.
"I'm open to suggestions on how to stop him!" Hiro yelled over the noise of churning concrete. Globby turned to look at him, an idea obviously having popped into his head.
"If someone can get me ahead of him, I can wall off an intersection and get him trapped."
"Do it. Fred, throw him." Hiro nodded. Fred and Globby let go, quickly falling behind. Fred held out his clawed hand and Globby rolled into a ball, sliding into his grasp. Using the suit's powerful agility, Fred threw Globby ahead of Steamer, where he landed with a splat. Globby quickly reformatted and began spraying quick-dry cement along the intersection, walling off Steamer's escape route. With the road blocked, Steamer made a sharp right turn and began heading down another street instead. Fred jumped over the fresh concrete barrier and grabbed Globby, moving to repeat the same maneuver. Fred bounced onto a rooftop, and with the vantage point, he managed to throw Globby ahead of the robo snake again. This time though, there wasn't an escape street for the baron, with buildings keeping him in once the fresh barricade had been created. Not backing down, though, Steamer went full speed and rammed the barrier, shattering it into tiny pieces.
"He's heading for the docks!" Hiro noticed. "Don't let him get there. If he gets into the open, we'll lose him!"
Globby raised his arms to begin firing more sticky blasts to try and slow Steamer down, but before he could, brightly colored gooey barricades appeared in the street in front of Steamer. Globby looked at his hands confused, since he knew he hadn't fired those shots. Steamer was also barreling toward the barrier again, hoping to break through. A yellow disk flew through the air and severed the connection to Hiro's magnetic disks, sending the robot and human tumbling, but in a more controlled crash. They sat up as they watched Steamer's mech bounce off the goopy barricade and hit the street hard, down for a moment. Fred and Globby arrived to help the duo to their feet as Go Go slid in on her disks, wielding Honey Lemon's backup chem purse. Hiro brushed himself off and raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you were retired?"
"Selective retirement. I said I'd still help out when it came to the big things, and a giant robot snake rampaging through the city counts as a big thing. Plus I needed a break from homework…" Go Go trailed off as Abigail arrived, jumping out of Go Go's mag-lev cycle. She tossed the keys back to Go Go, who caught them.
"Ok, that one is my favorite. Wish you'd sold that one to Krei Tech." Abigail huffed. Hiro could tell she was tired.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I've been getting stronger lately, but we've had quite the workout so far. I've probably only got one or two jumps left in me."
"Noted." Hiro confirmed as the team turned to face Steamer. The mech's systems had rebooted and it was rising back up to its full height again. Steamer glared down at them from his cockpit and activated the speaker systems.
"I was only meant to serve as a distraction today, Big Hero 6, but if it's a real fight you want, then it's a real fight you'll get!" the old baron growled. He flipped a few switches and turned a dial, and various more weapon ports that had previously gone unused opened up and glistened in the early afternoon sunlight.
"Globby, Go Go, keep him pinned down and stay moving." Hiro said as the team scattered to avoid the incoming lasers. "Fred, Baymax, and I will focus on taking out the weapon systems. Abigail, hang back. When we figure out how to kill the power to that thing for good, we'll see where you can help. For now, see if you can maintain a perimeter."
The team quickly sprang into action to shut Steamer's new creation down.
"That's probably the best meal I've had in ages." Harold said as the family exited the restaurant. "How was yours, honey?"
"Good." Padme said quietly. Harold turned to look at her, and she had a far-off gaze in her eyes. He'd seen that look a few times during their marriage, and knew she was mulling over something, so he didn't push it and moved on. He nudged Karmi as they began walking down the street.
"How was your trout?"
"Good." Karmi answered quickly. He could tell that she too was busy thinking about something, since she shared a similar expression with her mother. Both Padme and Karmi were walking side-by-side, lost in their own thoughts. If one didn't know any better, they'd think a younger version of Padme had time travelled from the past to walk next to her future self, which on one hand Harold found cute, but on the other he found their lack of communication frustrating. He pivoted, changing the topic to something he knew would get their attention.
"So what do you think of Hiro so far, dear?" Harold asked. They both looked at him, surprised at the blatant topic switch. Harold hid his smile as Padme began collecting her thoughts.
"Well…" Padme began. "He's nice. Very polite. Smart, obviously. I think he's… acceptable."
"Acceptable?" Karmi questioned loudly. "What's that mean?"
"It means that I approve. Isn't that what you want to hear?"
"Well, yes, but only if you mean it. If you really liked him, you'd say something like 'oh, he's a good match for you' or 'oh, you two are so cute together', not… acceptable. So what's wrong with him? What do you not like about him?"
"Oh Karmi, it's not really him I don't like, it's… what he represents. One day you tell us everything; we spoke every weekend and you'd text us non-stop about school and homework and that annoying kid that kept bugging you. Then suddenly you're friends, and we don't hear from you as often, and then out of the blue you've suddenly become more than friends and…"
Padme stopped walking to collect her thoughts. Karmi stopped just ahead of her and Harold put a hand on her shoulder. Padme took hold of it and squeezed, thankful for the comforting gesture as she looked back at her daughter.
"I just feel like since that incident with Sycorax, you're not telling us as much anymore. I can't shake the feeling that you're… hiding something. Especially today with how both you and Hiro have been acting."
Karmi tried to speak at first, but only exasperated sounds came out. She paused and took a breath, trying again. "Hiro has only been acting 'weird' because he was nervous about meeting you guys for the first time. And I have not been keeping anything from you, that's ridiculous! You don't think the same, right dad?"
Harold looked away as Karmi turned to address him. Her mouth opened slightly as she watched him avoid the question. "Really, dad?"
"Your mother isn't wrong." He finally said. "We can both tell you're not telling us everything, and I understand why."
"You do?" Karmi and Padme asked in sync. Harold nodded.
"Yes, I do. You like this boy, which… as your father I still have reservations about but we'll move past that for now. Naturally you want to be together, so you've neglected to tell us certain things that have happened in the city."
"Such as?" Karmi asked quietly.
"A rampaging lizard monster at your school dance?" Harold probed. Karmi looked away and rubbed her arm. "Of course we found out about that, Karmi. And we were both hurt when you didn't tell us about that. Or a rash of other incidents around that time as well. Big holographic man attacking downtown, various costumed fiends constantly breaking into banks or attacking Krei Tech…"
"Not to mention Liv Amara not being sent to prison." Padme added.
"It was Di's fault, not Liv's." Karmi mumbled.
"Evil clone or no, ever since that fire at SFIT this city has been nothing but a hotbed for trouble, and we don't want our daughter caught in the middle of it just for a simple crush." Harold said firmly. He sighed and tried to look Karmi in the eyes, but she looked away. "Look, I like Hiro. He's a bright young man and I see why you like him so much, so I don't have a problem with you continuing to see him. However, it's going to be through a phone screen or a laptop from here on out."
That got Karmi's attention, and she looked at her parents in shock. Taking a half-step backward, the gears in her head quickly turned and she came to a realization. "You made up your mind before you even booked the hotel, didn't you? Probably since that morning over text when you agreed to wait until this weekend!"
"We wanted to let you two have a little more time together." Padme admitted. "And to see if it would fizzle out in the meantime. Relationships at your age tend to be over quickly."
"We wanted to wait and have this conversation later, but… San Fransokyo is just too dangerous. You need to come home, Karmi."
"No… no!" Karmi was on the verge of tears as she took another step backward. "I can't believe you two! After all that Hiro and I have been through, you can't just-"
Karmi was cut off by a shriek from a pedestrian further up the street. Karmi turned to focus on the commotion and spotted several people pointing at someone quickly making their way through the crowd. Karmi gasped as she caught a glance of Cobra running through the street, a burlap sack of something slung over her shoulder. From the newsfeeds she'd stealthfully been following, she recognized the direction Cobra was traveling in as where her teammates were still trying to take out Steamer's new mech. The tears that had been in her eyes were suddenly gone, replaced with grim determination. She sniffed as she mentally ran through her options.
"Was that one of the supervillains?" Padme asked, shocked. Karmi sighed, her decision having been made for her.
"It is. Her name is Cobra and she's dangerous, but I know how to deal with her. Follow me." Karmi said as she marched up the street.
"No." Harold said, beginning to move in the opposite direction. "We should go back to the hotel and-"
"Follow me now!" Karmi yelled behind her. Stunned by the outburst, her parents followed. They weaved in and out of foot traffic for a minute or two until they came to an alley and followed Karmi into it. Karmi opened an app on her phone and tapped a button as she lead her parents further down into it. A Mayoi skittered past, causing Harold to jump in surprise.
"Karmi, what are we doing here?" Padme asked.
"You two are going to wait here. I'm suiting up." Karmi answered. Her parents stared at her, confused. Harold opened his mouth to ask another question when a rocket pod flew in and landed between them. Karmi quickly opened it up and shimmied out of her sweater, tossing it into the open pod, and leaving her in just her orange dress and leggings. Then she tapped on one of her bracelets, and a skin-tight mesh flew out of it and covered her from her neck to the tops of her ankles, covering the dress and leggings while retaining their shapes. Karmi's left hand began glowing blue as she reached into the pod for her armor pieces.
"Karmi, what is this?" Harold asked.
"A smart synthetic micro-mesh that Hiro helped me upgrade. Makes it faster and easier to get my gear on." Karmi explained as she began attaching armor plating onto her midsection.
"What gear? What are you talking about?" Padme asked, flabbergasted.
"You said I was keeping something from you both, and you're right. I told you I was done writing Big Hero 6 fanfiction because I moved on, and that's partially true. But I moved on from writing fanfiction about Big Hero 6 because I am Big Hero 6 now." Karmi slid her helmet on and closed the doors to Skymax, allowing the drone to fly off again. Her parents looked her up and down as she stood before them in full armor, a holographic diagnostic appearing in mid air thanks to the glove. Karmi dismissed the notification and it fizzled out as she accessed the team's location on her HUD. "While we've been eating there's been an attack going on, and Hiro and my friends have been dealing with it, but they need my help. The city needs my help. So pull me out of SFIT if you want, but before you do, I need to do this."
"When did this happen? Have you always been a superhero?" Harold asked, still trying to process everything.
"No, it's a relatively recent thing. I couldn't really tell you because I knew you'd freak out."
"But… why do this? Why put yourself in danger like this?" her mother asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"Because without Big Hero 6 the city would've been wiped out a long time ago now. Because we can't just let the bad guys win, or else there'd be a dozen or more Di Amaras out there. Because someone has to help." Karmi activated her glove and began hovering on her jetpack. When she'd risen a few feet, she looked down at her parents. "Stay here, you'll be safe. I'll be back for you."
And with that she rose up higher and flew off, leaving her very stunned parents behind.