Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney TV Animation. Karmi's talkative phone partner is owned by Marvel Comics. The recap is a new thing I'm trying out.
What recap?
This recap.
Last time on Big Hero 6:
"What...what is this?"
"Only the coolest thing ever! Someone with the tag KHeartsQT wrote fanfiction...about us, you guys!"
Hiro clicked on the profile picture, and the one face that he didn't want to see came up, waving wildly to the camera.
"...Karmi."
"Big Hero 6 was in trouble. Their greatest enemies had teamed up...and they had a captive. You're in luck, Captain Cutie. I...am Lab Lady!"
Hiro smiled, pressing the heart at the end of the fanfiction chapter.
"I...just started this week. I just moved over with my family from overseas. I'm going to surprise my cousin with a night out on the town once I get enough money."
"A noble cause indeed!" Mr. Frederickson smiled. "And what is your name, young lady?"
The girl sheepishly grinned as she stuck out her hand. "Kamala. Kamala Khan."
Marvelous
"So when we last left the super awesome Big Hero 6..."
Tik tik tik tik tik.
"The fight against The Living Target has concluded, and our heroes had emerged victorious. The addition of their new ally Arrowette was the difference that ensured their victory. And our damsel in distress was imprisoned no longer..."
The sound of the keys tapping under her fingers filled the entire room.
"For her knight in shining armor Captain Cutie had saved the day!"
Maybe this was the one.
"And then, all of a sudden...
She drummed the tabletop, wondering what to write next.
"Sudden..."
And then a heavy sigh came out of her mouth.
"All of a sudden, the author ran out of ideas as to what to do next."
The young girl reached out to her right to grab the near-empty soda can. She had to remind herself to chastise Megan whenever they talked again for being a terrible influence on her.
On the other hand, Megan wasn't the one that went out to the store after her parents had left and bough the six-pack of grape soda.
Karmi rubbed her eyes. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to down several drinks with that level of sugar content; no doubt she would be bouncing off the walls st some point. It was a good thing that her parents were out of the house, or else they would be incurring her wrath. It was the first time her parents had gone out on a dinner date in a very long while, and she was very happy for them to get some time to relax from their work and travels.
Mostly because that left her with the house alone.
But even with the quiet and the distractions minimal, Karmi had the worst thing happen to her as a young artist.
Writer's block.
She had many popular stories, several animated shorts, and so many more ideas when it came to Lab Lady's adventures with her beloved Captain Cutie. But the only thing she had now?
A mini-pyramid of grape soda cans.
Which was now nearing completion as she went to put the last one on top.
Bzzzt!
Her phone vibrated, nearly knocking over her makeshift construction. She snatched it away and looked at the screen.
I don't think I can take this anymore.
Karmi recoiled at the message, but before she could do anything else, another one came in.
My aunt and her friend have been yakking on and on for this whole drive and I want to jump out a window.
She breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't that long ago that Hiro had ran away from home, and Karmi had only the updates from his friends for information. She had truly thought he was going to hurt himself in some way, and she made sure to let him have it when they spoke via video call a few days later.
Karmi shook her head. As much as she liked hearing from him, Hiro texting was the last thing her mind needed right now.
For...reasons.
But it had been a while since they had last physically spoke, so she quickly sent back a response.
Didn't you say you wanted to go to this reunion thing?
Yeah, he replied. But if I wanted to hear girls talk all night, I would have called you.
Was that a compliment? Or an insult? She wasn't sure.
So what are you up to?
Writing stories, Karmi typed. Wanna proofread them for me? :P
The response was almost immediate.
No.
Karmi chuckled to herself as she set the phone down. Back when she was overseas, Hiro had been keeping tabs on her fanfiction profile, and he was even kind enough to quality control some of her upcoming stuff. She knew he didn't like it a whole lot, but that was just the kind of person he was. Considerate, compassionate, gracious.
Cute...
She widened her eyes in surprise. Crap, she thought.
Everything OK?
She had been lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize Hiro had texted her again. It had been a couple of minutes since he typed that message.
I'm
Her finger hovered over the screen. What was her mood? Her mind was starting to swim again from all of the stuff that had happened to her: Sycorax, leaving SFIT, going back home, coming back, having to deal with court, her fanfiction.
Hiro.
Karmi let out a sigh.
I'm tired.
Either Hiro took that as a hint, or he gave up on whatever tangent he had wanted to go on. Well, don't let me keep you up, then. I think we're almost there anyway.
She couldn't help but smile. There he went being considerate again.
Oh, I almost forgot! Fred got the tickets to The Collection. Are you still coming?
Right. Hiro had invited him to some comic thing that was happening in a couple of days. She quickly looked at the calendar off to her left.
If you guys still want me to.
Again, a rapid response.
Of course I want you to.
She stared down at her phone.
WE. We. Not just me. We.
Karmi shook her head, a grin from ear to ear.
I know what you mean, Genius Boy.
She could imagine Hiro sitting in the back of his aunt's truck, sweating from his mistype. If she had been there, she would give him the same smirk she was sporting on her face right now.
Good. That's good.
The three dots came up again immediately after.
I should probably go. Let the great author cook up some more work. I'll text you where to meet me at the Convention Center, OK?
Before she knew it, she had already typed out and sent her last text.
It's a date, then.
Oh boy. That was going to break his brain. She saw the "Read" message, so she was sure he had seen it.
Karmi saved her document, thinking hard. She was so conflicted when it came to that boy. On the one hand, she enjoyed teasing him about their friendship. Making him squirm. Putting him in awkward situations. On the other...she was putting herself into the exact same ones.
The conversation she had with Captain Cutie at the comic store flashed in her mind. The entire confession had slipped out by accident; she hadn't meant to tell him about her...whatever...with Hiro.
To be fair, the superhero had listened to everything she said, given her some comforting advice, and left her with at least a little bit of worry off her mind. But the days and weeks that followed, that worry went back and nestled into the back of her brain.
What was he to her?
What was she to him?
Karmi grimaced. Now she was getting a headache. Maybe it was the carbonation rearing its ugly head.
Or maybe she was just hoping it was.
She glanced down at her clock. Again, the time seemed to have slipped away. It was only eight o'clock, but she had spent the last ten minutes in her personal head space. She had told her parents she would wash the dishes and some other miscellaneous chores while they were out, and she hadn't done any of that yet. Karmi got up from her chair, taking the plate that had her food on it...
And then turned back to her pyramid of cans.
A minute later, Karmi was at the foot of her steps, the six cans trapped between her plate and her head. She turned around the couch, trying to ignore the tab digging into her chin.
"Not to self: drink one soda a night so you don't have to worry about cleanup later," she muttered.
Everything made it to where it needed to go (the cans to the recycling bin outside and the plate to the sink), but now began the task of actually washing the dishes. Normally, everything was just thrown into the dishwasher, but things had been piling up, and she wanted to take some extra care in getting them clean.
That and ninety percent of the dishes were hers, so she felt guilty.
So Karmi started her Dishwashing Ritual, as titled by her mother. She started filling the sink with water, tied her ponytail back, got her two pairs of rubber gloves out of the drawer and slapped them on, and dreaded the possible chance of her bare skin coming in contact with wet food crumbs.
She shuddered at the thought. Maybe she should get three pairs...
Nah, the dishes weren't going to wash themselves. With the sink full of water and suds, she dipped her hands beneath the surface, ready to start scrubbing the first plate.
And then her phone vibrated.
Karmi growled under her breath. That genius boy had the most impeccable timing...
"Alice."
The AI on her Krei Phone lit up.
"Read my last message."
"Your last message reads...'Hello there, Genius Girl.'"
Hold up. Hiro wouldn't dare call her that, unless he wished for a quick and painful death. But who else would be calling her that? Karmi leaned over the sink and peered at her screen.
"...Kamala?"
Sure enough, there was her contact right on top of the screen. Kamala K.
Karmi stared down at the name. How was she going to navigate this?
Kamala was her cousin, born on her dad's side of the family. When her mom and dad made the trip over to America, most of the rest of her family had stayed behind, including Kamala. Frequent return trips back overseas when she was younger were good times with the entire Khan clan.
The trips would eventually stop when Karmi started focusing more on her studies and her parents on their law work. Luckily, at some point, Kamala would move over to the East Coast and Jersey City, where she would start living an alarmingly normal life and definitely not one filled with danger and ninjas with glowing blue swords or anything. On one of her surprise trips to California, she had even masqueraded as a photographer's personal assistant, hoping to see her cousin again.
Of course, Karmi didn't know about any of the later stuff until her parents had taken her out of school and dashed halfway around the world under the guise of a "future restructuring". That was when she had run into Kamala herself in Islamumbai after almost a decade of no contact whatsoever. That day had been spent running around the city with her and Mira, the youngest cousin who had a keen eye for mystery and-
Karmi shook her head. That was a story for another time.
It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to her; of course she did. But her hands were submerged under soapy water and lined with an larger-than-normal amount of gloves.
Busy doing genius stuff?
Maybe if she used her elbow, she could type out a response...
Hands fully? Here, try this out.
A new icon popped up next to her last message, a 3D emoji staring up on a brown background. Karmi pecked at it with her nose.
In an instant, letters started floating above the surface of the phone. Indistinguishable at first, the shapes strung themselves together to form three words:
Is it working?
"What in the world is this?" Karmi asked aloud.
As if by magic, her question materialized in front of her, big bubbly letters outlined in pink. After a moment, they lowered down into the phone and were replaced by other words, this time outlined in blue:
HoloText. Bruno came up with it.
Karmi smirked. "So your boyfriend?"
Immediately, a yellow face erupted out of her phone, the cheeks flaring red and steam pouring out of the ears.
She wasn't a complete stranger to social media; being away from San Fransokyo allowed her to get caught up on her cousin's escapades, and that meant going through her social media account. When she first saw it, it was like she was looking at Fred's. Her backdrop was Boss Awesome-themed, and even her profile picture had her standing proudly, hands on her hips, wearing what looked like a replica Boss Awesome chest piece.
Yeah, the girl liked superheroes. Fred would probably enjoy picking her brain.
She also had a best friend. Karmi knew his name was Bruno, and they had met in second grade. She also knew that bringing him up in anything but a friend tone got Kamala really bothered.
It was a predicament that she should've seen coming.
What about that boy who you yak on about all the time? the phone was now reading. Hiro?
"He's not-Ah!"
Her fingers had wrapped around the sharp end of a steak knife. Yanking her hand out of the water, she held her finger up to the light. The blade had gone through two of the gloves, but thankfully not the third. Realizing she had interrupted herself, she looked down at her phone...
And froze.
Seven words were now hovering, accompanying by several digital beating hearts:
"Oh really? How hot is your boyfriend?"
It was then that Karmi realized too late that the most embarrassing thing she could've imagined didn't involve Captain Cutie. Or fanfiction. Or even Hiro.
It was autocorrect.
"Gah!" Karmi yanked her arms out of the sink, slammed her hands down onto the towel, and wildly stabbed at her phone screen. "Not not not not not!"
It was too late; the lowercase i's were already being pushed in from the right, the sarcasm almost dripping from the letters.
Riiiiiight.
Karmi's face was now crimson. Kamala must have taken the hint because smaller words were appearing, as if she was whispering:
Hey, why don't we do this? Let's not worry about the boys. We don't talk about Hiro...
Hiro and Bruno's profile pictures came up, crossed out with a painted red X.
And we don't talk about Bruno.
For the next fifteen minutes, that's what they did. As the pile of dishes got lower and lower, the two Khans got to chatting about everything, from school (or lack thereof), to hobbies, and even to shows that they were catching up on. Most of the conversation was one-sided, but Karmi didn't mind; Kamala was able to carry it fairly well on her own.
It was strange how her cousin seemed like a completely different person on the phone. Karmi knew that her aunt and uncle were strict when it came to Kamala; she would see her posts about her going to mosque and reading the Quran and feel bad for her. She was lucky that her parents never forced her to do that much when it came to her religion. She did suspect it had something to do with not being overseas when she was born. Kamala, not having moved to the US until she was eight, still had that attachment.
Karmi still had her religious choices, of course, but she never felt pressured to have any of them. Her East Coast counterpart, on the other hand...just wanted to be normal.
And then Boss Awesome comes and kicks all of their butts!
Well, normal as anything passed for these days.
She looked up to see a chibi Boss Awesome punting something across the screen. "You should talk to Fred. He's one of Hiro's friends. I bet you two would have a lot of fun. He's a big comic nerd."
A yellow face popped up, both hands over its mouth. Does he know Boss Awesome?
"He might."
Large pink hearts replaced its eyes.
Yeah. Kamala was a superhero buff. No other proof was needed.
Karmi grabbed the last of the silverware and put it in the basket. Right past her hand was the microwave, the green numbers designating the time. It was almost 8:30; her parents would be back soon...
Hold on.
"How come you're up this late? Isn't it past your normal bedtime?"
For the first time in their entire conversation, Kamala fell silent. Or at lesat the words didn't materialize immediately. She thought she had said something wrong. She didn't want her to get into trouble.
I'm working on something.
"Wow. How incredibly vague of you."
If you MUST know (the Caps Lock was lit up just a bit more), I decided to write something. A certain work of...
A big pencil stylized out the last word.
Fiction.
Karmi gasped aloud. "Kamala, are you writing Big Hero 6 fanfiction!?"
Maybe.
Now she was excited. One of the things she hated was not having anyone personal to talk to about her stories; Hiro and Megan were the closest ones, but Hiro despised it and there was only so much you could do over messaging on the site with Megan. Maybe she could-
I don't know, though. I'm kind of afraid people won't like it. And it won't be as good as your stories.
A digital cloud of rain started to drench and deflate the words on her screen, and now Karmi's mood had taken a complete reversal. It wasn't like Kamala to be so filled with self-doubt. If being with her overseas had taught her anything, it was that Kamala was confident in herself, no matter what anyone else said.
Maybe she just needed a pep talk.
"Kamala..."
She stared at her reflection in the nearest clean plate, her mirrored self judging her words.
"Everyone's gotta start somewhere. A lot of my early stuff wasn't very good, but they made me better. Don't be afraid just because you think that people will make fun of you or you don't think you're good enough."
She picked up the plate and stared at it, thinking hard.
"The only way you can get better is to just do it. Write what you want to write. Don't let anyone else, including me, tell you what to do. Have fun...and be fearless."
For a moment, she forgot that she wasn't actually talking to Kamala directly, so she was expecting some sort of verbal response. Instead, she looked down at her screen to see another emoji, the eyes swirling in place.
OK, that was a very long text message that came through. Almost broke the HoloText. I'll have to get Bruno on that.
Karmi softly laughed.
But...thanks. I appreciate it.
She set the plate back down into the drying rack.
I would have appreciated it even more if I hadn't just uploaded it to the website as you were talking, but I will most definitely take your words into consideration in the future.
Karmi shook her head. This girl...
But I gotta go. It's way too late for me to be up. I'll talk to you later!
As soon as that came through, the front door to the house opened. Karmi turned to see her parents walk in, dressed to the nines.
"Hey guys. How was dinner?"
"Oh, it was fantastic!" her mom said, putting her coat up on the rack. "We went out to this fancy restaurant near the bay with the most amazing seafood. And then we went for a walk on the beach. It was so romantic." She cupped her hand around her mouth. "You would not believe this, but your father is such a big softie."
Her dad walked past to his recliner, saying nothing.
"You're right," Karmi quipped. "I wouldn't believe it."
"Who's on the phone?"
She looked back down to see Kamala's goodbye message still lighting up the countertop. "Huh." She waved her hand through the letters, causing them to dissipate. "I was chatting to Kamala."
"Oh? What were the two of you talking about?"
Karmi paused. It wasn't like her parents understood much about what she did; superheroes and fanfiction weren't exactly easy concepts for them to relate to. Either way, her mom sensed the pause in the air. "It is OK, Karmi. You can say you were talking about boys."
Both of them turned to the man in the chair, his newspaper blocking his entire head.
"One of these days, we will get a rise out of him." She winked at her daughter. "But not today."
Karmi unplugged the sink of the water and discarded her gloves. "Well, I'm glad you had a good time. You should go out more often."
"And let you consume an unnecessary amount of soda?"
Panicked, she saw her mom with one of the empty cans in her hand, shaking it side to side. "Whoops." She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah...I meant to take that outside before you got home."
"Hmmm." She set the can back into the container. "I hope you can at least contain yourself tonight. We do not want a repeat of the Great Chocolate Bar Incident of-"
"Yes, Mom. I get it." Karmi grabbed her phone off of the counter. "I'm going upstairs. Chill for a little bit before bed."
"Well, I will be watching my favorite game show." Her mom grabbed the remote off the coffee table. "I cannot wait until the host asks a question and someone responds with something dirty and the host freaks out. It never fails to make me laugh."
Leaving her parents to their own devices, she started walking up the steps to her room. She could already hear the host asking the first question from the TV. Maybe tonight would be a headphones and relax sort of night.
Her phone vibrated from her pocket, and Karmi brought it up to see that she had two notifications. One from the fanfiction website:
SlothBaby is now following you!
"Nice username."
And then she checked the text:
Hope you enjoy yourself at The Collection!
Karmi's foot screeched to a halt, hovering over the last step.
Shoot. She knew she had forgotten to do something.
That whole thing that she was going to with Hiro and his friends? It would probably be best if she actually asked her parents if she could go to it.
Karmi swore under her breath just as the buzzer erupted from the contestant's incorrect answer.
Oh well. Best to get this out of the way now.
When she got back to the living room, her mom was laughing and pointing at the screen. "Ha! He said the word again!"
"Hey, Mom. Dad."
She turned her head to look at Karmi. Her dad, still engrossed in whatever was on page ten of the newspaper, didn't move.
"There is something I wanted to ask you." Karmi slowly walked over, stepping around her dad's legs. "So my friends are going to this comic thing at the San Fransokyo Convention Center in a couple of days and they want me to come with them."
"Will there be boys there?"
"I...would assume so," Karmi said. "But there's going to be a lot of people there. Not just boys."
"So like the thing that you did in the city last month?" her mom asked.
"Sort of, but a lot bigger. And I'm not doing anything for it. I'm just there as a patron."
Silence greeted the young genius.
"All of my friends will be there. I'm not going by myself. Hiro, Honey Lemon, Go Go-"
"You mean that crazy Korean girl who kidnapped you right before we left to go visit your grandmother?" Her dad spoke up for the first time.
"Oh, for crying out loud." Karmi pinched the bridge of her nose. "She didn't kidnap me. She came here and told you guys she was taking me out to be with friends and wasn't going to take no for an answer."
The top of his face came into view, one of his eyebrows raised.
"...OK, from that description I can see how you could interpret that as a kidnapping. But it's not like that now. I will be perfectly safe the entire time." She clasped her hands as she turned to her mom. "So...please?"
The woman smiled, but she also nodded toward her dad. Karmi got the silent message, even though she didn't like it. Undeterred, her attention was now at the other chair, his face back to hiding behind the newspaper. "Dad?"
No response. It was time to resort to drastic measures.
The next thing her dad saw was his daughter's fingers curl the paper down, her upper lip trembling...and the biggest puppy-dog eyes she could muster.
"Please, Daddy?"
She hated going this route. Heaven forbid Genius Boy ever found out she did this. But sometimes to defeat evil, you had to do a little evil yourself.
Her dad, without turning his head, moved her eyes over to his wife. "She learned this sort of begging from you, you know."
"The only thing I beg, dear," she responding, barely containing her smile, "is to differ."
His eyes came back to her. He knew he couldn't get out of this, and Karmi knew that he knew. But because he was her dad, he had to put on somewhat of a front.
"Very well. You may go."
"Yay! Thank you!" Karmi wrapped her arms around his neck.
"However..."
He raised a finger up.
"I want you to make sure to keep your phone on you at all times. And I don't want you out all day. Please try to be back at a reasonable time."
"I will!" She gave him a quick hug and beelined for the stairs. "Thanks, Dad!"
As she exited, he put his attention back on his wife, who was giving him her best teasing smile. "What?"
"...I knew you were a big softie."
"I am not."
The siren of the buzzer once again rang out into the living room.
"I believe they would disagree with you," her mom laughed.
Karmi, of course, heard none of this. She was instead back in the confines of her room, now dressed in her pajamas. There weren't any plans to leave for the rest of the night, but she didn't feel particularly tired.
Perhaps that was tempting fate, given the amount of soda she had drank.
She pulled her hairtie out, letting the ponytail scatter across her back. She flopped back onto her bed, sighing heavily. She didn't feel in the mood to write anything else. But that didn't mean her night could be fanfiction-free.
Karmi picked up her phone and opened the website app. There it was, under the New banner: SlothBaby.
"You always did have a thing for sloths." Karmi tapped on the username. "Let's see what we have here..."
As our heroes continued to struggle against their bonds, the sharks swam faster and faster around their tiny little island. They had been depowered, deweaponed, and de-everything else-d. Their fearless leader, Captain Cutie, was right in the middle of the group, arms bound together next to his awesome girlfriend Lab Lady. Speed Queen and Tall Girl were on their right, and Chop Chop and Red Panda to their left. Flame Jumper, being the most rambunctious of the bunch, was hogtied with an apple in his mouth.
"It's no use," Captain Cutie lamented. "Techno Arachno and Arrowette aren't answering my distress call. And I don't even have Skullface's number. We're all doomed."
Lab Lady squeezed his hand and nuzzled against him. "Not to worry, my love. We'll get out of this. We just have to believe."
Tall Girl screamed as a great white nibbled at her toe. "I'm going to lose a few inches after this...providing we get out of this at all."
"It's all meaningless, anyway." Speed Queen stared off into space, her voice monotone. "I wanted to ride my mech suit one more time."
"I would give my right arm to get out of this," Chop Chop cut in.
"And my voice module," Red Panda added.
"Mmph mmm mph (And my axe!)" came the muffled response of Flame Jumper.
"Enough talk!" Momma Crazy yelled from the rafters, a giant laser blaster of death in front of her. "I finally have you right where I want you: tied up surrounded by sharks with nothing between us! An incredibly specific circumstance that has now come to fruition!"
She targeted the tiny platform, the head of the laser glowing ominously. "Any last words, Big Hero 6?"
"Don't worry, guys! Captain Cutie will get us out of this!" Lab Lady exclaimed. "He's had a secret plan all this time. Isn't that right, beloved?"
"Exactly!" Captain Cutie announced. "In fact, the newest member of our team is right over there!" He pointed to the opposite side of the room, where...it was empty.
"...I do not detect a presence in that location."
"Well, that was an interesting few seconds." Momma Crazy resumed her death glare as the laser grew in power. "Any other objection?"
"THAT'S FAR ENOUGH, EVILDOER!"
"What?" Momma Crazy wheeled around at the echoing yell. "Who said that?"
"It was I, enemy of justice! Allow me to introduce myself!"
A giant spotlight suddenly turned on, erratically moving around the room.
"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the black fly in your chardonnay! The trap card to your one hit kill!"
"The long-winded speech to your inaction," Speed Queen mumbled sarcastically.
"Hey! No interrupting the rescue mission!"
Momma Crazy lost her patience, shooting a massive laser at the spotlight. A giant shadow of a hand smacked it in response, causing the column of light to make several sweeps around the room.
"Ahh!"
The first one caused the crazed knife ninja to fall over, the laser contraption comically falling over.
The second dried up the water around our heroes, turning the sharks instantly into fish sticks.
The third and final sweep burned all of the restraints, freeing the team from their bonded predicament.
"Awesome! Fresh fish!" Flame Jumper grabbed the nearest stick and gobbled it down. "Anyone have any tartar sauce?"
The slicing of the machinery interrupted his snacktime, and Momma Crazy unearthed herself from the wreckage, her swords ablaze. "That's far enough, Big Hero 6! You can throw everyone you have at me. It won't be enough!"
Suddenly, the spotlight shined again, landing directly on the villain. Blinded, she dropped her weapons to cover her face. "Ahh! My beautiful eyes!"
The team looked up at the sky to see a shadow forming in the light. It looked like a mess of fingers, flapping to make it seem like some sort of avian creature.
"It's a bird!" Chop Chop guessed.
It instantly transformed into something more metal, with twin propellers twirling on either side.
"It's a plane!" Flame Jumper exclaimed.
SMACK!
"It's not either of those things, morons," Speed Queen said to her teammates, now sporting two matching bumps. "It's a person."
"You are correct!"
The figure moved in front of the light, her voice triumphant and true.
"I am the protege of Lab Lady! The sidekick to the sidekick!"
Captain Cutie looked back at his totally awesome girlfriend, who could only widen her eyes in surprise.
"I am..."
They stepped into the proper light, and the team saw her for the first time: a young girl dressed strikingly similar to Lab Lady, but with a few key differences. The boots and and dress were still blue, but her pants and arms were both red. The goggles were substituted for a thick black domino mask, barely keeping her bangs out of her hair. Since capes were so last year, a fluffy red scarf was wrapped around her neck, the ends flapping in the breeze. And instead of the dark blue stripes on Lab Lady's dress, there was a thin, yellow lightning bolt running down the front of her costume. It shined with the brilliance of the spotlight as she made her identity clear.
"Mrs. Marvelous!"
She pulled a giant bag from out of nowhere.
"And I come bearing gifts for everyone!"
She threw her hands into the bag and whipped out syringes, discs, and magnets galore. In an instant, everyone was rearmed and ready for action. Lab Lady closed the last of the pockets on her utility belt and turned to the newcomer. "Mrs. Marvelous, huh? I didn't know I had a secret admirer."
"You've always had one!" she responded enthusiastically. "But it's amazing to be fighting by your side for the first time!"
"The only thing that will happening for the first time..."
The entire team whirled around to see Momma Crazy now standing over them, an impressively large sword being held on her shoulder.
"Is Big Hero 6 going down!"
"Uh, I think that says more about you than us," Captain Cutie said.
"SHUT UP!" She slammed a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. "Now, time to be destroyed!"
As the deranged swordswoman geared up for an attack, everyone stood at the ready. The new girl stood at the ready beside her idol Lab Lady.
"How are you feeling about your first battle with us?" Captain Cutie asked.
Grinning, she put her thumb in her mouth and blew. Like a balloon, her fist blew up to monstrous proportions, ready to dispense some justice and truth and all that jazz.
"I'm feeling...Marvelous."
Will Big Hero 6 (along with their fantastic new addition) be able to defeat the crazed Momma Crazy? Or will Mrs. Marvelous not be enough to turn the tide? Find out next chapter!
The next morning...
Peace and serenity. That's all anyone wants in the morning, right? Especially for girls with the last name of Khan.
"Knock knock!"
A woman's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Are you going to join us downstairs? Or are you going to stay in bed all day?"
"That was the plan," the mumbled response came from beneath the covers.
"Well, I am going to have breakfast ready in a few minutes, if you would like to grace us with your presence."
The footsteps went away from the door, and a perfectly normal-sized hand came and pushed the comforter off of its body. She stretched her arms over her head as she stuffed her feet into her Boss Awesome slippers, the mustaches hanging limp from the amount of time she had worn them.
Yes, this was a Khan. But her hair was a bit shorter, her feet were a bit bigger,, her eyes were smaller, and the face was a bit puffier in the cheeks. Not to mention she didn't go to a school made for geniuses. Just normal, everyday non-genius school.
That's right; this Khan was just about as different as the one that lived on the other coast.
Kamala, eyes still halfway closed, dragged herself over to her desk. She shook the mouse to wake her desktop up, and the image of Boss Awesome standing proudly greeted her. She clicked on the internet icon and waited for her inbox to load.
"Time for me to check my story. I wonder if Karmi got a chance to read it..."
She had spent almost the entire day tweaking her story, and in a crazed rush had uploaded it to the site. Now that she was awake and properly aware of her surroundings, her nervousness was coming up. What if people hated it? What if people found out where she was and egged her house for how bad it was?
Only one way to find out.
She went to her home page, and...
Wait a minute. This couldn't be right.
Kamala blinked rapidly.
She had a hundred new messages in her inbox.
"Holy cannoli."
The likes, the favorites, the comments...there were a ton of them. It was amazing. It was surreal. It was...
"Awesome," Kamala whispered.
And in the very first spot, right at the top of the page, was a comment from the person that she reconnected with all those months ago:
KHeartsQT, chapter 1
This is such a great start to this story! The action, the romance, the cute talk between Captain Cutie and Lab Lady. It's all so good! I can't wait for these two heroes to have more adventures together! There's one word that I would use to describe this story...
Kamala's grin grew even wider as her eyes landed on the very last word of her cousin's review.
Marvelous.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, hello there, everyone. It has been quite a while, hasn't it? For the first time in more than a year, I have an upload for you.
No, this isn't going to blow anyone away in terms of the continuity of my previous stories. And no, the Big Hero 6 fandom isn't what it once was in terms of numbers. But I've said it before and it will bear repeating: as long as I have one person reading my stories, I will continue doing them.
As you can also probably tell, this was suppose to come out during Ms. Marvel. Oh well.
For those long-time readers of my stories, you'll remember that I introduced Kamala all the way back in Immortal. Fun fact: she was never suppose to appear again after that. It was merely suppose to be a reference to the theory that I have regarding her and Karmi.
And then Ms. Marvel happened, and this happened.
This version of Kamala is a fangirl of both KheartsQT and Boss Awesome. Her fanfiction costume is...well, come on. You can't mess too much with the iconic Ms. Marvel costume.
I don't want to bore you forever with everything, but I will say that this doesn't mean Kamala will be a constant presence in my stories. She'll be around...just not in the forefront. The story about Karmi and Kamala back home when she went overseas? That's a whole different adventure that will be coming down the road.
It feels good to be back, and I hope that you guys like the story. I have a couple more in store in the next few weeks, so be on the lookout for those.
Ladies and gentlemen, until next time.