"I can't believe we're going back to school!"
"You said that when we got back after break, get new lines Chad."
"It'll be weird going to the gym now, I mean there was that police investigation."
"I can't believe I got to see Big Hero 6 at our school! At our dance!"
"Speak for yourself, we could've died when those fish freaks attacked!"
"Jimmy!"
"What, Hank? Someone could've gotten hurt."
"That's still not nice to say, even if they were scary people."
Rachel rolled her eyes at the chatter. Even after a few days, her peers were still chatting about the dance as if it was yesterday.
She had to admit, it would be weird going back to school after there was a supervillain attack, but her dad reassured her that the department would be making sure no more attacks would happen at Bridgeton.
"I wish they'd talk about the weekend." She gave the blue in her lap a few happy scratches. "I am so sick of hearing about the drama."
Katie yawned. "They might chat about it for a while."
"Uch." Still her peers continued to gossip.
"I actually talked to one of them, she seemed normal, y'know?"
"Wow, and you lived?"
"Guys. You make it sound like there was an alien invasion. Stop being rude."
"Aww Claira, you know what happened."
"I know Ambrose. But a lot of us would like to return to normal student lives instead of harping about the school dance."
"Preach!" Rachel called out, she frowned when seeing several students turn around. "What? I was there too, just be glad no one got hurt."
Most of us… She thought about Ari, poor Ari, she hoped the sweater girl would be okay in classes today and that her gossiping peers would leave her alone.
She saw Jimmy raise his hand. "Yes?" Rachel pointed to him. I wonder if this is how Mom feels when teaching the class.
"Did you talk to them?" He asked. "I mean, you're pretty fearless, and I bet you would've recognized them."
"Why do you care?" She flashed a deadpan look. Jimmy shrunk back down, and the students continued to chatter amongst themselves. This was gonna be a long day.
By lunchtime, she was just done with everyone gossiping about the dumb dance!
Rachel got it, none of them experienced the superhero stuff personally and thought it was cool to see Big Hero 6 at the dance, sure. But could they stop talking about it every single minute?!
At least no one saw the connection between Ari's scar and the dance. The excuse she was using worked well.
"Ari! What happened to your eye?" Some of her classmates asked in math.
"Oh y'know, I was playing with my cat and some random cat bugged him so I defended him and got this, it's cool though." She nervously chuckled.
"Feel better soon!" If her classmates paid attention they would've noted how the claw markings were too large to be cat claws, and how deep the scarring was. I think our teachers noted, they looked really concerned.
A paw batted her face. "You were in cloud land." Katie mewed. They were sitting in the courtyard, and she felt how windy it was.
"Brrr." Rachel shivered, but she didn't feel like going inside. "Just thinking about Ari."
"I could tell." The blue's ears twitched. "She's fine, Megan won't snitch and no one suspects a thing."
"I think Mr. Copper suspected something."
"He won't snitch though, just go easy on her."
"Yeah, lucky gal." She crossed her arms. "I wish I had an easy time in science, it's hard!" Rachel placed her head into her hands. "I just wanna go home and lie down forever."
"Rach…"
"Don't worry I didn't forget the book club."
"Good."
Superhero Squad group chat:
Captain Cutie: Ariel how you doing?
Speed Queen: This chat is not for personal stuff dude.
Captain Cutie: Yeah but everyone is gonna scream in the public group chat
Ariel: I would be okay but everyone is chatting about the dance.
Ariel: I'm trying not to scream externally
Chem Girl: Ouch
Flame Jumper: Whoops I forgot to turn off my notifs. I'm at book club and everyone is giving me weird looks
Chop Chop: I would scream too
Chem Girl: I've heard Sienna talk about it a few times, she's mostly concerned about everyone
Ariel: Everyone but me is okay physically. Some people are a little upset that the dance got crashed by supervillains
Ariel: And some thought it was cool that Big Hero 6 showed up.
Captain Cutie: No one said anything mean to you right?
Ariel: Nah, I'm good. Can we drop it? How are patrols for you guys?
Speed Queen: Sure and fine.
Chop Chop: ?
Chem Girl: We haven't had much except the occasional troublemaker! So we've been taking it easy
Captain Cutie: I for one am doing some extra training, you never know when the next thing is
Speed Queen: You're paranoid
Captain Cutie: Am I? Am I?
"I trust your funny book club was illuminating, Master Frederickson." Just like usual, Heathcliff picked Fred and Mini-Max up from the book club meeting. This time he offered Rachel a ride home, so she and Katie were just enjoying the perks of riding in a limousine.
"'Twas, indeed, Heathcliff." He told the butler. "We took a deep dive into the new Captain Fancy."
"Which is about him dealing with a bunch of copies running around." Rachel chimed in.
"Fred dazzled with his superior comic insights!" Mini-Max boasted.
"I was the only one who noticed that the artist, A.J. Dohertz, drew himself into the issue as the nosy neighbor, Mr. Cameo!"
"Oh. Delightful discovery, sir."
Katie lifted a paw. "Wait, he was called 'Mr. Cameo?' that's on the nose." She scrunched her face. She had been taking a cat nap during the club meeting so she didn't know what they were talking about in terms of comics.
Fred nodded in agreement. "Mhmm. But he used that to his advantage to make people think he wasn't there, so people looked the other way because they thought it would be too on the nose too! And the look on Richardson's face was-"
The limo then jerked. "Brace for impact!" Mini-Max pointed to the road. Heathcliff turned the other way before they hit someone, and Rachel saw out the window three fancy neon cars driving their way.
"You might wish to hang on." Heathcliff casually commented as he shifted the limo gears. He drove past the cars, swerving left and right as the police drove after the neon cars.
"Loud noises are exciting!" Mini-Max exclaimed as everyone else screamed and clung onto their seatbelts. Heathcliff then dodged another person and several cars plus a truck as the limo finally stopped twisting like a rollercoaster.
"Woah." Fred commented as it was all over.
"My apologies, sir. Please, continue your riveting story." Heathcliff replied, his face showing no shocked emotion after all of that.
"In a sec." The comic fan turned to Rachel, who had a hand to her mouth, her cheeks looking a little green. "You alright? I've never heard you scream like that."
"I don't do well on joyrides." Rachel mumbled. "I think I'm gonna…" She gave a nervous gulp. "No, I'm not gonna puke."
"Phew." Katie sighed. "It smells gross."
"I've seen those cars before."
Fred blinked. "Wait, really?!"
"Yeah, remember how I mentioned that sometimes my dad is really busy with robbery cases?" He nodded. "Well, at first Dad thought it was the Silver Ravens, but there were still some robberies after they all got stopped."
"He showed us a picture of those cars." Katie mewed. "This is the first time we've seen them in the day, or at all. They go speeding through the city at night."
"Huh." How had they not noticed before?!
"Sounds like villainy going on a joyride!" Mini-Max exclaimed.
"And my stomach, uhhhg."
Fred flashed a look of concern. "If you need to puke, we keep a few barf bags in here."
"I'm good Fred, I just need to lie down."
"I told you all those cookies at lunch were a bad idea." Katie huffed.
"I have two weaknesses! My stupid emotions and chocolate!"
Without much trouble, Fred had dropped them off at their house. Rachel was just happy to lie down and try not to think about the nausea in her belly.
Katie yawned, lying next to her. "What a day."
"Yeah." She groaned. "Is your leg okay?"
The blue turned to her leg. It would've helped by now if it wasn't for Sparkle's previous stunt, there was still some fur missing. "It's fine, doesn't hurt at all!"
"Good." Rachel had a distant look in her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm so mad about that dance." She gave Katie a pat on the head. "Stupid High Voltage for crashing the dance, why the heck did Ari think it was a good idea to befriend one of them? You just get hurt by messing with supervillains. I knew there wasn't anything nice about them, no matter how bubbly that girl seemed on the outside…"
She was so angry that poor Ari got caught in the crossfire and scarred for life, no one did that to her-
Katie jumped away from her. "Katie?"
"I'd really like it if you stopped insulting Juniper." Her fur bristled. "That's not really nice of you to do, Rach."
Rachel gave her a weird look. "Really? You weren't complaining when I said stuff at the Mole Hole."
"I'm not dumb to start a fight with Big Hero 6."
"Do you really like them that much?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you just liked their fancy dance moves and the weird music that they play."
"Well that too." Katie twitched. "But you weren't there, Rach!"
"I was at the dance too, we both saw her nearly claw Ari's eye out." Her eyes darkened. "Forgive me for not being sympathetic to someone about that."
The blue sighed. "That's not what I meant."
Concerned cocoa brown eyes stared with intense worry at the unconscious form, the brunette whimpering in her sleep. "I really hope she's okay, poor Ari."
Katie meowed in agreement. She kept a careful eye on the crime-dancer in case she did anything, but Juniper was extremely careful as she carried Ari somewhere safe. "Are you okay too?"
"Meow?" Katie winced at her fake mewling, but she didn't know what the blonde would do if she started to talk. The question did startle her a little.
"Those thugs ganged up on you and Ari, it probably scared you a little." She explained. "Thanks for doing your best to protect her."
Katie puffed up her chest with pride. She felt more comfortable following her since kindness and concern radiated off of Juniper. It was a little unusual for someone known as a supervillain, but at least High Voltage wasn't as bad as Sparkles was.
"As perceptive as you are, Rach, you don't have the observation skills of a cat." Katie told her, blue eyes serious.
"Well, Ari's my friend. I really enjoy her company and sending her letters, so it's the least I could do. I don't really have any friends… not anymore, so might as well help the one friend I got left."
"I guess you can be my friend too."
"I can tell there's good in High Voltage, good in Juniper." She explained. "Whatever happened at the dance it… it wasn't her. I know what it's like to have some mutation change your body and mind."
Rachel just stared back at Katie with wide eyes. "What?" Katie frowned.
"Nothing." She blinked a few tears. "You're right, the mutation must've affected their brains, and I was so worried for Ari that I just thought they were heartless villains."
"You're good. We both want to find out who's causing the monster attacks." Katie nuzzled the palm of her hand. "I don't want anyone else to feel the pain I did. Villain or not, no one deserves that fate on them."
"You're right." Rachel smiled. "When did you get so wise?"
"Well thought I'd take a page out of your book." Katie chuckled. "You try to act like an all-knowing cryptic all the time."
"Hey! It makes me sound cool."
"Dork." She sighed and started ticking the blue, who giggled. "Hey! Y-You know I'm ticklish-aaaah! Rach!"
She playfully stuck her tongue at the cat, feeling like the child she is. The two of them forgetting the darkness clouding San Fransokyo for just a while.
Next morning at SFIT…
Sara took a deep breath. "That's it! I'm gonna tell him."
"Tell what?" She yelped. "Don't talk to yourself Sara, it's weird."
"Mika!" Sara glared at her sister with annoyance. "Don't sneak up on me!"
Mikan just rolled her eyes. "What are you monologuing about?"
She took a deep breath. "I want today to be the day I confess to Wasabi."
"Aww, I'm so proud of you!" Mikan pulled her into a hug. "Baby is gonna get her first boyfriend!"
"You are literally just a few months older than me. I am not baby!"
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not-"
"Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys!" They turned to see Fred running to the table Hiro, Baymax, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Gogo were sitting at. The comic fan was bouncing up and down while holding his phone.
Sara blinked. "Is Fred okay?"
"Maybe there's another Captain Fancy movie coming up." Mikan shrugged.
"You should've seen these cars. They looked like they were from the future." Fred was showing the others a picture of the neon cars he saw yesterday. "Maybe they were from the future!" He gasped, slamming his hand on one of the trays.
Clatter!
Baymax stared at the green liquid that splattered on his chest. "Oh, no."
"Fred, that was a twelve dollar cold-pressed juice." Wasabi sighed, seeing the roombas clean up the liquid that fell to the floor.
"Sorry Wasabi." Fred dug into his pocket and pulled out a few dollars. "Buy yourself a new one, it's on me!"
Wasabi had no complaints as he took the money. "Thanks, Fred." He got up to buy another one. "Oh boy, that's a longer line than when I first got there…" He mumbled while walking over to where the drinks were served.
Baymax scanned the line. "My scan indicates the line is a ten minute wait."
"I could not wait that long." Fred whistled. "Well, maybe I could. But twenty minutes in line is my limit, otherwise I start freaking out."
"Woah." Hiro had pulled up his phone. "There was a bank robber last night. Maybe those were the getaway cars."
"From the future…" Fred whispered. "Or the past, Rachel told me they were part of the serial robberies her dad had been investigating."
"I thought those were the Silver Ravens." Honey Lemon frowned.
"Yeah, same. But apparently some of those robberies were related to cars from the future!" He explained. "But they usually show up at night, for some reason."
"So I guess we're going on night patrol." Gogo commented.
"Yep." Hiro nodded.
"In the future… wait, no. I mean, tonight. Let's do it tonight."
"I feel terrible, but I can't make it." Honey Lemon told them. "I'm throwing a sticker party. It's BYOS. Bring your own stickers."
"Great. Not another sticker party." Gogo mumbled under her breath.
"What was that Gogo?"
"I was just saying how sad I am to miss it." She lied. "But duty calls."
"Don't worry. We'll have a sticker after-party, just you and me." Honey Lemon reassured her.
Gogo sighed. "Fine."
"'Fine' is Gogo for 'yay!'" Honey Lemon pulled her into a hug.
Sara then walked up to their table. "Hey guys." She waved, and got a few waves back. "Where's Wasabi?"
"Wasabi is waiting in that line." Baymax pointed to the drinks line, Sara blinked.
"Oh, guess I'll talk to him later." She replied. "Or tomorrow, why can't I tell him what I'm thinking…" Sara muttered.
"What was that last part?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing! Just talking to myself, ha-ha silly me!" Sara gave a nervous giggle, then slipped away from their table.
Fred frowned. "Huh, she's acting weird today."
"You don't say?" Well, whatever was bugging Sara, he'd have to question it later.
They had weird cars to worry about tonight.
Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Mikan Ferns: my crops are flourishing my skin is clear
Mikan Ferns: I got invited to a sticker party
David 19: Lucky!
Honey Lemon: Do you wanna come to a sticker party?
David 19: Maybe
Sienna Kline: Aww I thought it was a girls night, but cookie is the best exception.
David 19: The only exception
Rachel Rosemary: Explain plz
TheLittleMermaid: Sticker parties are HL parties! You get to place stickers everywhere, eat good food and watch funny movies!
Hiro Hamada: "Sticker partes are HL parties" what a statement
Honey Lemon: I'm honored : D
Sienna Kline: This is my first one so thanks for the summary.
Mikan Ferns: Is Ari not coming?
TheLittleMermaid: No I've got plans
Hiro Hamada: And by plans I mean scrolling the internet reading fanfiction
TheLittleMermaid: DON'T CALL ME OUT LIKE THIS
Hiro Hamada: COVER YOUR TRACKS BETTER
Rachel Rosemary: Why are you like this
Several hours had passed until the sun dipped over San Fransokyo. And just as Gogo ran some errands before night patrol, Honey Lemon started to prepare for her sticker party. Sienna arrived first, then Mikan and David shortly after.
"Okay, what do we do first?" Sienna raised her hand.
Honey Lemon flashed a grin. "Sticker everything!"
"Why are some of them missing?" Mikan held a roll of stickers, some of the stickers gone.
"Um…" She thought to when she decorated Gogo's superhero gear before she headed to night patrol. "I don't know?"
And so the group planted stickers all over the apartment before pizza arrived. "Am I playing with the stickers right?" David asked.
"You're doing great, sweetie." Sienna replied. Her boyfriend had placed some of them upside down, but he had the spirit.
Honey Lemon awed at how cute they were! "You guys are such an adorable couple!" She squealed.
"We're not that cute…"
"I can see the appeal." Mikan shrugged. "Romance isn't in my life goals though."
"Aww, how come?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I have things to do?" Mikan gestured. "Like, I'm really enjoying my internship at Sycorax, I really wanna work there full-time when I graduate."
"That's nice." David smiled. "I'm not sure what I'm gonna do when I graduate from SFIT."
"Me neither." Honey Lemon added. "I think I could be a teacher, but I've got plenty of time to figure out what I'll do."
"That's the spirit!" Sienna clapped her hands, she was about to say something else, but then there was a knock on the door. "Is that pizza?"
"Lemme check." Mikan ran to the door and opened it. "It's pizza."
Honey Lemon ran upstairs. "I'll get my wallet!"
After paying for the pizza, the partygoers were sitting down on beanbags by the couch, a silly animated movie playing on the tv.
"Y'know, I'd pay money to hear what the board of directors were thinking when they scripted this." David said, his voice a little muffled by the pizza in his mouth.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, you might choke." Sienna gently scolded.
He gulped down his food and blushed. "Sorry, love."
"You're forgiven." She leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. David smiled and leaned into the kiss.
Mikan interrupted the sweet moment. "Get a room!" Both of them jumped back and turned beet red.
"Mika!" David whined.
"Yeah, that was rude." Honey Lemon told her.
The snow-striped girl mumbled something. "Sorry."
"It's fine." The SFAI student told her. "At least it's just lighthearted teasing."
"Yeah, anyone who harrasses couples that aren't problematic have issues." David groaned. "I hope when Sara starts dating she doesn't deal with any heckling, or secrecy." He hid into his jacket. "It weighs you down when you're hiding stuff…"
He recalled how he was terrified to tell people he was dating Sienna since their schools were rivals, and his mom worked at SFIT. But he was relieved that both her and the rest of his family were accepting.
Sienna patted his shoulder in a comforting manner. "Have you ever dated anyone, Honey Lemon?"
"I had a boyfriend in high school, the foreign exchange student. Andre…" The chemist giggled at the memory.
"Anyone else?"
She shrugged. "Not really. I dated him at my third year in high school, I went on a few dates after, but none of the guys or girls really 'clicked.'"
"What about Gog-"
"Okay! Let's continue the movie!" Honey Lemon cut off Mikan and unpaused the movie, which got paused by David. "Hey!"
"Were you about to say Gogo?" David turned to Mikan. "Mika, they're just roommates."
"Just asking. I mean they are really close." She pointed out.
Honey Lemon sighed. "You caught me, I do really like Gogo more than a friend." She ignored the dramatic gasp from Mikan. "But I'm not ready to tell her, besides I can tell Gogo is really annoyed with me lately."
"Aww, I'm sure she isn't." Sienna reassured her. "What makes you think you're annoying her?"
She blushed. "I keep making surprise portraits of her…"
David whistled. "Wow. That's not subtle of you, eh?" Mikan snickered in amusement.
"Can we finish the movie please?" Honey Lemon was a blushing mess.
Gogo then noticed there were stickers on her armor and groaned, plucking the ones on her arms off.
Baymax scanned her. "Gogo, your clenched jaw indicates you are frustrated."
"That's because I just can't with Honey Lemon's ba-gillion hobbies." She snapped.
The gang gave her questionable gazes. "Oh, come on. How bad can they be?" Wasabi asked.
Gogo glared. "I don't know how many how long you've known Honey-"
"Since middle and high school."
"But I doubt you know about the electric harp, the butterfly aviary in her closet, and don't forget her smile-ates."
"What are smile-ates?" Hiro questioned.
"It's Pilates, but you have to grin like a nit-wit through the entire workout."
"Eee!" Fred flashed his widest smile, his suit hood up. "Guys, I can feel it. My cheeks are getting so swole. Eee!"
Gogo flipped his hood back down. "What did we talk about?"
"Keeping my hood on during superhero stuff." He recited. "Eeee-"
Hiro coughed. "That doesn't sound so bad, Gogo."
"I didn't even mention the part of her painting surprise portraits of me without my permission!" Gogo exclaimed. Before anyone else could speak up, they turned to the road as three neon cars whirred past them.
"Let's go!" Hiro hopped on top of Baymax and took to the skies. While Gogo skated and Fred bounced after the cars.
"Wait." Wasabi paused before running after them. "Can we go back to the surprise portraits for a second?"
"Hey, quick, important question. What year are you from?" Fred called out to the neon cars as the group bounced after them.
Poor Wasabi was the slowest of them all. "Really should've brought my car!" He panted.
Baymax flew past the cars and landed in front of them. "This is unsafe speed." He held out his hand in a "stop" motion. The purple neon car leapt over him. "It jumped."
Hiro turned on the comm. "Uh, guys. These cars can jump."
"Yeah? Well, so can I!" Fred bounced on top of the blue neon car, but then it started swerving. "Oh! I should've come up with the second part of this plan!" He exclaimed, trying to fight back the motion sickness.
Then the car flipped over, and Fred flew onto a target painted billboard, he landed on the bulls-eye.
"My swole cheek saved me." He groaned.
Gogo skated after the orange neon car, which tried driving away. "Nuh-uh!" She threw a disk at the tires. The car screeched as it lost its speed. "Huh?" She looked ahead and saw an old lady on the other side of the road in the crossfire.
Baymax and Hiro flew ahead, the teen genius quickly launched two magnets that pulled the car above the old lady, and it thudded back to the street. They quickly circled the vehicle.
"Alright. Out of the car." Gogo demanded. When no one got out, Hiro opened the window, and the front seat opened to reveal…
"Remote driver?" Hiro blinked. "Huh."
Wasabi then walked up to the group after hitching a taxi to catch up. "Sorry, guys. There was a lot of traffic."
"You really need better transportation." Gogo told him.
"Or I get faster." He replied.
"Hey, guys. I found something!" Fred dug into the car and pulled out a purple coin.
Baymax blinked at it. "What is that?"
The comic fan hummed as he read the small print on the coin. "Maximum Insane Driving Challenge…" Fred read aloud, then gasped. "Mr. Sparkles!"
Hiro groaned. "Oh, god. Not that guy…"
Meanwhile…
Sparkles laughed maniacally on the giant screen, the three drivers turned off the VR set as a spotlight shined on one of them. "Too bad, so sad. Wah-wah-wah! Racer numero uno you are black-flagged!"
"Not fair!" He whined. "Big Hero 6 got in my way!"
"Hey, the Maximum Insane Driving Challenge is a real-time race, on the real-live streets of San Fransokyo." Sparkles explained, dropping down from the ceiling by a blue fabric. "There's gonna be obstacles, and the occasional superhero!"
"Still not fair." The spotlight shut off.
"I know. Like life!" A buzzer buzzed which caused the chair the first driver was sitting on to drop him into the pool of water below. The driver screamed as he fell in.
Sparkles held out a pair of driving gloves. "Only the winners of Maximum Insane Driving Challenge win a pair of these fabulous cashmere-lined driving gloves." The two remaining drivers turned to each other with glee, while the eliminated one clapped.
"Not you. You go now." Sparkles glared. The poor driver trudged through the pool out of the warehouse in shame.
"I'll find a new driver worthy of these luxurious, cashmere-lined driving gloves." Sparkles rubbed the gloves against his face, the grin on his face a little unsettling.
The other two drivers cringed at the scene.
The deranged host glared at them. "This is a private moment between me and the gloves!"
AN: Ah yes, Fate of the Roommates.
As you can probably tell, there will be some focus on Honey Lemon and Gogo's relationship : )))
And also Sara trying to confess her feelings. QOTW if you think she'll be able to tell Wasabi in this ep or not.
For some other notes, yeah even tho HV isn't going to appear, I'm still going to mention them a lot bc I'm obsessed.
And also it's important bc Rachel is like "I can't believe these villains hurt my friend" and Katie tells her off like "Wait that's not what happened."
Rachel was in the same boat as Hiro/the rest of the gang, mostly upset for Ari's sake. But she and Katie def think something more's going on...
As for the rest of it, I hope you guys enjoy all the foreshadowing for future romance. I do like the canon show for not being too focused in romance, but in this fic, I just really wanna write some cute romantic relationships. (for now)