"Mr. Krei, why did you drag me out to Muirahara Woods?" Another internship day at Krei-Tech, but Hiro was not at Krei-Tech. Instead he was strolling through the disgusting woods with Krei.

The CEO seemed more relaxed than he was, somehow. "I've been considering buying some land out here for Krei Park, my new tech campus." Krei sniffed the air. "Ah! Smell that pine!"

Hiro took one sniff and covered his nose. "Smells like animal droppings." He hoped he didn't step in any, which made him feel sicker. I really, really hate the woods.

Krei ignored him and kept sniffing. "Or fir. Or ham. What is this?" He looked around. "Is somebody eating something around here?" He shrugged it off. "I've always loved the woods!"

Hiro flashed him a deadpan look. Sure you do… and I have a chicken obsession.

"Me too." Both of them were surprised as Liv Amara walked up to them. Accompanied by her assistant Chris, and Mikan for some reason.

"Hey, Hiro." She casually waved to him.

"Hey." He saw her eyes light up when he waved back. She must be happy to be on speaking terms with the group again.

The CEOs stared at each other neutrally. "Liv Amara."

"Alistair Krei." Hiro saw a swarm of bugs flying at him and he shielded his eyes and tried swatting them away, Mikan ran up to help him.

"What are you doing out here on my land?" Krei demanded.

"Sycorax wants to acquire this land for a nature conservatory." Chris explained, letting a bug land peacefully on his hand.

He handed the bug to Liv. "We infuse business with heart, and nature is Mother Earth's heart."

"I'm just here for life experience and I've been here a few times." Mikan shrugged, then went back to helping Hiro and his bug problem.

"Whatever." Krei waved a hand. "Find another 'heart.' I'm buying these woods. Putting in an offer, now."

"My offer will be higher." She smirked. "Chris?"

Chris flipped out his phone, giving Krei a smug smirk, but then his eyes widened. "I'm not getting a signal."

"Ha!" Krei exclaimed. "Well, if you were using a Krei-Tech phone…" Then he started not getting a signal. "Well, we're in the middle of nowhere. It's the signal's fault."

"Uh, no, it's Bessie's fault."

They look at Hiro as he walked back to the adults, Mikan helping him get rid of the last of the swarm.

"Bessie?" Liv raised an eyebrow.

"A meteorite that messes up technology." Hiro explained.

"So that's why Muirahara has a bad signal..." Mikan frowned. Both of them didn't see Liv and Chris looking at each other.

"Well, that's inconvenient." Krei grumbled. "Why hasn't someone gotten rid of it?"

"Well, there's this guy."

"Here we go." The snow-striped girl sighed.

Hiro shot her a look, but continued. "He protects Bessie by pretending he's a monster called the Hibagon."

"Fun!" For some reason, Liv's smile creeped him out.

He raised an eyebrow. "You haven't met Ned Ludd."

"Ned Ludd? The real estate guy?" Krei's eyes widened. "Ha! He used to be an old golf buddy of mine."

"Why am I not surprised?" Mikan deadpanned. "No wonder they say he went crazy."

"Okay I'm ignoring you Lichen-"

"Mikan." She corrected the CEO. "I'm one of Steven's kids."

"Oh. Well Ned won't take much convincing, he'll see things my way."

"Look, the woods changed him." Hiro explained.

"Oh, how much could he have changed?"

"Probably watching squirrels fighting to replace TV while eating pine cones." Mikan shrugged. "Something like that."

"Are pine cones even edible?" Hiro questioned.

"They are in some instances, have a bit of a nutty flavor." They gave Krei a look. "What?"

"Y'know what, I don't wanna know."

"Mikan!" She perked up seeing Liv call her. "We're leaving."

"Oh." She gave Hiro one last look. "Bye Hiro."

"Bye." He waved as she followed Liv and Chris out of the woods.

Krei rolled his eyes. "Shame one of Steven's kids works for uch… Liv of all people."

"Didn't you have his niece as an intern until you messed up?"

"Intern I told you to never bring that up!"

When they got back to Krei-Tech, Hiro went back to work. "So, Hiro." Steven walked up to him. "How was your trip?"

"It was… mediocre." He frowned. "I hate the woods, but we ran into Liv there-"

"Interesting…"

"And she brought Mikan with her." Hiro noted how Steven smiled at the mention of his oldest. "We didn't get to chat much, but she's doing okay."

"That's good, that's good." Steven nodded. "I don't know much about what was going on between her and the group, but I'm glad it seems to be over."

Hiro paused. "Do you know what happened?"

"You mean her helping Bobby?" Steven gestured. "She told us herself when the kids came back home, we were just glad they were alright."

"Who's Bobby?"

The mechanic sighed. "Sally's nickname for Bob Aken."

His eyes widened. "Oh…"

"I don't know exactly what went down, I didn't talk to him a whole lot as kids. Just remembered that he was distant after an accident" Steven explained. "But he and Sally were classmates."

"What was he like?" Hiro questioned. "Was he like… me?"

Steven burst into laughter, but tried composing himself when seeing the teen glare at him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But he was so shy and nervous, and you're very vocal and a daredevil. But I guess Sally's antics rubbed off of him sometimes, she was a hellraiser back in the day."

"Considering she's giving us this really long lecture with so much to memorize… I can see that." Hiro groaned. "She has no mercy on us."

"Oh, dear." He chuckled. "But why'd you ask that?"

He lowered his head, thinking back to when he was captured.

"I'm not like you."

"Aren't you?"

"Just curious." He lied. "He was a teen genius at the school, and there hadn't been any going to SFIT before me and Karmi."

"Yeah, that is weird." Steven nodded in agreement. "Maybe that's why your dean dotes on you and your friend so much, so there isn't another accident."

I almost could've caused one… He had worked on the energy amplifier at school, what if it blew up the entire lab wing and got someone hurt? Thank goodness I listened to Baymax and took all the safety precautions.

"Excuse me?" Judy walked up to them. "Mr. Krei would like to see you."

"Oh, is it about the woods?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.

"Yes."

"Hi Judy." Steven waved to her. "I like your new glasses."

"Thank you." She nodded. "Can you go check on Ian? He still needs to send a report about the new Buddy Guard shipment."

The mechanic nodded.. "Of course, I'll get right on that." He gave the two a wave goodbye then walked away.

So now Hiro was in Krei's office, because he was "part of the celebration" for Krei being able to buy the woods.

"This calls for good stuff." Krei was pouring a yellow liquid into a glass. "Sparkling lemonade."

"I was expecting expensive wine or something." Hiro commented, holding his glass of lemonade.

Krei scoffed. "Never was into that stuff." He held out his glass. "To the Muirahara Woods, which I officially own."

"To the woods." Hiro, Krei, and Judy made a toast before drinking their glasses. As Hiro went for a refill, he heard an "Exactly!"

"Huh?" He turned around.

"To the woods! Tomorrow!" Krei swung his glass. "I have to convince Ned Ludd to take Bessie and leave."

"Good luck with that." Hiro told him.

"Thanks! You, too, since you're coming." If Hiro was drinking any lemonade at the time, he would've spat it out. "Get some sleep. You need your wits in the wilderness."

Hiro winced as Krei tossed him a backpack. "Yeah. Uh, no."

"I'm so sorry. You're the only person who knows where Ned Ludd lives." Krei pointed out.

He gave Judy a look. "Is this the only reason you brought me to celebrate?"

"Perhaps." She nodded.

Hiro pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't wanna do it." I hate the woods.

"Oh, come on!" Krei protested. "I'll pay you double, and knock a few hours off next week."

He raised an eyebrow. "I am running low on snacks…" His sister kept finding where he stored the chocolate bars and gummy bears. "But can you also give Steven a break? He's been helping me a lot."

Not to mention the mechanic looked so tired lately...

"Already did." Krei shrugged. "But I guess he could use some extra time off."

"Okay, who are you and what did you do with Alistair Krei?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.

"What? Steven's worked here for a long time and has to raise three kids. I'll never understand how my cousin has even one!"

He sighed, classic Krei. "Yeah, give him a vacation and I'll bring bug spray."

"Excellent!" Krei grinned. "More sparkling lemonade?"

Hiro raised a glass. "Yes please." It really was the good stuff.

Meanwhile at Sycorax…

"Incredible!" Liv was toasting with Chris and the two were drinking fine sparkling lemonade, aka the alcoholic kind. "Six months of searching for that meteorite, and Krei's intern just shows up and tells us where to find it."

No wonder they couldn't find it before, it was being protected by the "Hibagon" himself! Well she just knew how to fix that.

"What about Krei and the kermit?" Speaking of the devil, Chris questioned that. "I mean hermit."

She shot him a look and turned to face the fish tank, the eels inside scurrying under the kelp and rocks to escape her cold hazel eyes. "We'll kill two birds with one stone."

"So I guess we'll need a pretty big stone." Chris nodded.

Liv finished drinking her glass of lemonade and smirked. "Monstrous."

She placed the glass down on a newspaper, which was detailing Bessie falling over Muihara Woods, as well as papers about Ned Ludd and the Hibagon.

If the city wanted to believe in cryptids, they'd get one.

Ferns and Nerds group chat:

Sara Ferns: Who's ready for a nuzlocke update?

Wasabi: Everytime I think I'm safe it pulls me back

David 19: Oh just mute the chat, man

Sienna Kline: David!

TheLittleMermaid: Spill the nuzlocke update!

Sara Ferns: I beat the game with no more deaths!

Mikan Ferns: You should've seen her face she was crying

Honey Lemon: aww omg

Sara Ferns: MIKA YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T GONNA TELL THEM

Mikan Ferns: I said I wouldn't type it tho!

Mikan Ferns: wksaddfdldajmasdjkfmoaskid

Sara Ferns: DKASKASIDIDISAISDAJ

Hiro Hamada: The girls are fighting!

TheLittleMermaid: Whyyyy?!

Rachel Rosemary: You two are weird.

"I'm home!" Hiro greeted the semi-crowded cafe as he opened the door, the regular customers who recognized him gave a polite wave as he made his way to the counter.

"Hey Aunt Cass."

"Hey Hiro!" She hugged him. "Did you have a good time at your internship?"

"Mhm." He nodded.

"Good." Cass smiled. "If Alistair isn't treating you right, he's gonna hear from me…"

"I'm fine, I do have to go with him to the woods tomorrow." Hiro explained. "Just letting you know."

She raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Okay." As his aunt went back to serving the customers, he walked over to Ari, who was cleaning up a table.

"Hey, Ari!" He waved to her.

"Hey!" She waved back. Ari looked to be much better than she was in the last few days, keeping busy in the cafe sure kept her mind focused on work.

"I hope you got homework done before helping Aunt Cass." He smirked.

His sister groaned. "That was one time! And I did, I actually got it done at lunch."

"You made sure to eat, right?"

"Of course! But when I'm done with lunch I like to get my homework done since all my homework giving classes are done before lunch. And of course when Baymax is home to help me with health class…"

"I get it." Hiro yawned. "I'm gonna go lie down. I need to mentally prepare for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Ari questioned. "Is it the dentist? I thought that was last week."

"It's internship stuff." He chuckled. "Nothing to worry your head about, the worst thing is that I'll be complaining for a while."

"Okay. Have fun with your nap."

"It's a nap, sis. They're meant to charge your batteries."

"Batteries? Are you actually Baymax in a Hiro costume?"

"Oh, hush."

He needed all the rest he could when it came to going through the woods with Krei.

I hope that it's just one simple trip. Hiro thought while going up the stairs. It'd be nice having one normal experience in that neck of the woods.

It probably wouldn't but hey, a robotics genius could dream.

AN: And we're back with HOF updates! Life is still p' crazy rn... but I'm feeling comfortable enough to continue updating this fic!

And back to the COM arc... this chapter is mostly Hiro-centric with him just unaware of what's about to happen

It was interesting writing the conversation with him and Steven about Obake, bc Steven (And Sally) knew Obake before he went all supervillain, and I sprinkled in some personal hcs

After the incident with Obake, there weren't any other teen geniuses attending bc they heard what happened and were discouraged to by their parents. Karmi and Hiro kind of broke that tradition, coincidentally around the time of some supervillain plots...

And yes, I had to do that little joke w/ Chris' dialouge, bc why not.

QOTW: tell me your favorite thing about Obake, speaking of scary glowface man n.n

See you next week for part 2! Hehehehehehe