In the Rosemary household, Rachel was having to restrain from bouncing literally off the walls.

"Rach, calm." Katie waved a paw. The reason for excitement is that Boss Awesome… Boss Awesome was going to come in a few minutes! How could she not be excited?!

In the wake of the monstrous attacks she had dealt with the past few weeks, it was a breath of fresh air in her life.

"I wonder if he's gonna say his classic line!" Rachel clapped her hands.

"His classic line? You mean cla-" Katie paused mid-sentence. "I hate you."

"Love you too Katie cat!" Rachel giggled. She paused as her mother entered her room.

"Rachel sweetie." Sarah flashed a warm smile. "You have a very special visitor."

She bolted over, Katie nearly falling off her shoulder as she hopped. "Is it Boss Awesome? Is it Boss Awesome?!"

Sarah nodded. "Yes. It's Boss Awesome."

"YES!" Rachel squealed. "I'm so excited oh my gosh I'm finally meeting Boss Awesome!"

"Settle down, Rach." She placed a hand on her shoulder. "Try to not overwhelm him, he's been a hero for a very long time."

"We noticed." Katie twitched her whiskers.

Sarah pointed at the blue and glared. "You especially better be on your best behavior Katie."

Katie just grumbled. Like she needed to ask… Katie liked messing with people, but she wasn't that dumb to mess with one of the city's greatest heroes.

Rachel found her hero patiently waiting in the living room. "Mr. Boss Awesome." Sarah greeted him. "My daughter Rachel would like to meet you, she was always hoping she'd catch a glimpse of your presence when we moved here."

Suddenly, her energy drained away. She was standing in front of a superhero legend! What was she supposed to say?

Like all best friends, Katie helped her out. "She's got a lot of your merchandise too." She winked.

"Katie!" Rachel flushed red from embarrassment.

Boss Awesome didn't seem unfazed, he just chuckled. "Well, it's always great to meet another fan."

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Sarah offered.

"I'm more of a coffee man myself, keeps me up in the early morning." He replied.

"Right. Would you like a cup of coffee then?"

"Yes." Rachel just watched as her mom poured Boss Awesome a cup from the already prepared pot, he took a calming sip. "Always gets you up and going in the early morning."

"I like hot cocoa myself." Rachel chuckled. "Mom says I don't need caffeine."

"Hyperactive children plus caffeine equals a recipe for disaster." Sarah stated. "I teach math, so I know this for a fact."

The superhero found the joke amusing. "Good call." He placed the cup down and glanced over to Rachel. "I understand you've been dealing with a lot as of late."

"Yeah…" She drooped, her mind thinking about the claws that nearly strangled the life out of her, or the maniacal laughter that rang in the air as she and Katie were presumably thrown to their deaths.

"You've dealt with way worse though." Katie slapped her head with her paws. "Ow!" She glared at the blue.

Katie was glaring back. "You still got hurt from it! Don't try and lie to me, cats can smell lies."

Rachel wanted to retort back, but Katie was right, those two near death incidents had scarred her.

The scruffy brunette wasn't afraid of many things, but she was scared of death, especially a death that would've been terrifyingly painful.

"You're a very brave girl." Boss Awesome gently told her.

She sniffled. "T-Thanks." She had to be brave, being a scared helpless child wasn't an option anymore.

"Mr. Boss Awesome, sir. Are you investigating the monster attacks?" Katie asked. She wanted them to stop so bad, before another attempt struck Rachel. Third time's the charm as they say, and I don't wanna test that theory.

But he shook his head. "Big Hero 6 have been doing a splendid job protecting the city when I'm away, I trust them to be able to handle the attacks." Boss Awesome reassured them when their faces fell flat. "Be careful however, those two attacks could not be a case of bad luck."

Rachel gulped. Of course he'd have a sharp eye to that. "Yes, but looking into it could cause unwanted attention." Sarah spoke up. "You understand, right? I don't want anything to happen to Elio, or my baby girl."

"I understand." Boss Awesome nodded. "You want to protect your daughter."

"I do." Her mother sat down. "Goodness, I didn't expect the conversation to talk about that."

"Yeah…" Rachel frowned, a heavy feeling in her chest now.

"Yo Boss Awesome any cool superhero stories you have?" Katie broke the tension.

"Katie!"

The superhero just chuckled. "I have a few good ones, my old foe Steamer went to some interesting schemes to foil me, let me tell you…"

By the end of one of his stories, they were all giddy with laughter. "Did Steamer actually try luring you into a trap with cookies!?" Katie was rolling on the floor laughing.

"And then you turned the tables on him?! Good one!" Rachel giggled, the feeling in her chest replaced by bubbles of amusement. "Good plan, sir! Good plan."

"Classic." Boss Awesome grinned.

"He said the line!"

Sarah wiped a tear from her eyes. "Shame my husband couldn't attend, he's busy at the station, the woes of us both having full-time jobs."

"Meh, at least I can throw parties when you're both not here." Katie teased.

They all just comically rolled their eyes at the blue.

Elio rolled his eyes as he worked on his paperwork in silence.

"I am disappointed how our force could not catch Supersonic Sue, nor stop her when she abducted Steamer."

Nothing but peace and quiet...

"Worst of all, we had to resort to Big Hero 6 to do our jobs!"

Were it not for the chief ranting about the superheroes again, Elio would be getting actual work done by now.

"They walked all over us. Visiting one of our prisons gave Sue a trail, she followed them in and was able to kidnap Steamer because of that!"

Elio slurped his coffee rather obnoxiously loud at that comment, Diego whipped his head around in anger. "You've told us that for the past ten minutes. Can you finish the rant so me and my fellow detectives will be able to go over some of the monster sighting cases, sir."

Diego glared. "All I'm saying is that some of these officers need discipline. I didn't even approve of Big Hero 6 going to interrogate Steamer, they shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place."

Sure, and without them we'd have a black hole where Krei-Tech is, or die under an exploding star. Elio thought, unfortunately he was the only brave, or reckless enough detective to verbalize his opinion. "Technically, Big Hero 6 couldn't handle the two villains either. It was actually Boss Awesome who saved the-"

Slam!

He yelped as Diego got uncomfortable close to his desk. "Did you say Boss Awesome?!"

"Um, he's the best superhero and protector in San Fransokyo." Elio casually sipped his coffee in front of the raving chief. "Can you blame me for appreciating his good work?"
Diego just slapped his coffee off of the table, into the trash. "Hey!"

"Never mention that person again." Diego glared. "You might be well respected by the citizens, Rosemary, but I am your superior. You will respect me. So never bring up that excuse of a superhero in this office."

He gulped. "Yes, sir." Note to self, do not mention Boss Awesome within his ear-shot. What did he even do to Diego? A part of him felt that it was personal, for stupid reasons of some sorts.

"Good. You may go back to work." And Diego left the detective office.

His coworker Kato walked up to him. "Elio, you alright?"

"He had a bad morning." Elio grumbled, now mourning the loss of his favorite kind of coffee, Lucky Cat kind. "I've dealt with worse, Diego doesn't scare me."

But he was scared of what the chief of police could do, if he ever decided to take action for his thoughts about the city being better off without Big Hero 6, Elio heard that kind of talk before, and those who usually said such things turned into the villains they were trying to fight against.

Elio didn't like the chief, but he didn't want to see Diego turn mad with power. Imagine what that'd do to his family… who'd get dragged down with him.

"I'd be careful if I were you." Kato explained, snapping the detective out of his dreary thoughts. "When Chief Jones stepped down, a few people thought you were going to be the chief in his place until Diego came."

If he still had his coffee, he would've spat it out. "What? I would've put my money on you." He was just respected because he took famous cases, Kato had more experience in the field than him, and he was more familiar with San Fransokyo.

Kato smiled. "I'm flattered Elio, but I think Diego knows that, and sees you as a threat of some sort. So he's been keeping an eye on you as of late."

"He should be keeping an eye on Liv Amara." Elio mumbled.

"What was what?" Kato questioned.

"I mean he should keep an eye on Sparkles!" He quickly lied. "Y'know, because he's responsible?"

"Riiight." Kato knew he was hiding something, but they were close enough to know that when secrets were kept, it was for a good reason, and Kato knew he'd only hide something to protect others. "Well, if I see the chief do that again. I'll report it."

"Thanks Kato." He clapped him on the back. "Perhaps you should come over with you and your husband, Sarah would love to meet you in person."

"So would Chase." His fellow detective grinned. "My kid has been dying to meet the famous detective Rosemary himself."

"You flatter me."

I'm starting to hate going to school. Sara groaned, usually she enjoyed the walk to SFIT, the scenery always fun to look at on her journey.

But at the end it was soured by the sight of Chris and Wasabi making lovey dovey eyes at each other, and her romantic little heart wrenched.

"It's always good to see you off." Chris was saying to his boyfriend. "Have a great time at school, Roger!"

"Thanks Chris!" Wasabi chuckled, leaning in for a kiss.

Normally, Sara would be fine, but it was hard considering her feelings for the physics major, and the fact that whenever Chris noticed her he always found a way to rub it in with that stupid smug grin of his.

Sara hated it, it's like he was daring for her to make a scene and every time he was "showing off" her restraint was getting whittled less and less.

"Did that assistant bother you again?" Her aunt noticed her grumpy mood as she walked past her class.

"Yeah…" Sara looked down, feeling bad. "Sorry, I thought I'd be past that by now."

Sally frowned. "Sara, you don't have to apologize, feelings don't shut off in an instant."

Her aunt had a point, but that wasn't the only thing bothering her. "I'm just worried about Wasabi, he seems happy but Chris acts like he's just a prize, someone to be won, not treasured."

"Do you think he mistreats your friend?"

The fact she paused at that question was scaring her. "I don't know…" Sara mumbled. "They act lovey-dovey in public, but I heard from Fred that Wasabi used to agree with Hiro's theory about the monsters until Chris said something."

"Hiro said he thought Sycorax had a hand with the monsters, right?"

"Yes."

Her aunt's amber eyes darkened a little. "Hmm… well I think you should keep an eye on him, I'll ask Mikan later if she's seen anything suspicious too at her job."

Sara blinked in surprise. "You're not going to say I'm paranoid?"

"Sara, let me tell you something." Sally gestured for her to come in, and she took a seat by her aunt's desk. "I used to have a friend that I loved very much who married this guy I didn't trust, but I ignored my concerns since she was so happy with him."

This is sounding like deja vu. Sara realized. "What happened?"

She looked up at her aunt, and was horrified to see tears in her eyes. "Well, eventually I couldn't ignore the red flags, so I tried to warn her, but I was stupid about it and we fought, and never saw each other again."

Sally glanced back at Sara. "If you think Chris isn't treating your friend kindly, don't put it off like I did, and don't yell at your friend if they don't believe you at first, I did that and I lost an amazing friend."

I hope Chris isn't that evil to mistreat Wasabi… She knew how it felt to be mistreated by someone you were supposed to love, Sara wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. "Alright Aunt Sally."

She then reached over and gave her aunt a big hug. "I'm sorry that happened to you and your friend."

"It was a long time ago kiddo, nothing to apologize for." Her aunt wiped away a tear. "I'll be alright today, the weather is really nice outside."

Sara chuckled. "Yeah, today'll be a good day."

Ferns and Nerds group chat:

Sienna Kline: What is up my dudes?!

Hiro Hamada: my dudes?

Honey Lemon: I think that's a vine reference

David Ferns: Hi babe!

Sienna Kline: Hi cookie : )

Mikan Ferns: Gross, romance

Mikan Ferns: I am surrounded by the sickening illness that is romance, help me

Wasabi: I feel like that's an aro-ace joke

Mikan Ferns: Meh idk if I'm aro-ace. I think. But I don't go looking for dates.

Sienna Kline: You don't have to be aro-ace to not want to date, one of my gal pals likes the bachelorette lifestyle

Hiro Hamada: When did this become talk of romance?!

Honey Lemon: Hiro what's your take?

Hiro Hamada: Idk, sounds cool but scary?

David Ferns: Understandable, have a nice day

Gogo: He's not saying anything to not summon Ari the Karmiro shipper

David Ferns: WAIT THERE'S A SHIP NAME!?

Honey Lemon: GOGO

Gogo: Frick whoops

Hiro Hamada: DELETE THE TEXT!

Mikan Ferns: I gotchu

Mikan Ferns deleted the following texts

Sienna Kline: Let's never do that again

Hiro Hamada: Plz

Sara Ferns: Why is a good chunk of the convo missing?

Mikan Ferns: You'll never know

"What are you chuckling about?" Mikan looked up from her phone as Steven raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, y'know. Shenanigans." She giggled. "Did you have group chats back in the day?"

"They had less memes." He tapped his knuckles. "Anyways, Sally wanted me to tell you some important news. We're having a guest over for dinner."

"A guest?" Mikan raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing it's not Krei."

"Ha! He'd never get past Sara, she's still upset at him, not that I blame her."

"So who's the guest then?"

"Sally's old SFIT classmate, Wendy."

She sat up. "Wendy as in Wendy Wower?"

Steven nodded. "Mhm. Sally used to take the kids to her shows when they were little, it was before you came into the family."

"Ah, I see." She never was interested in Wendy Wower until Trengrove was discovered to have stolen her work. "How is she after the whole scandal?"

"Too nice as ever, for not pressing charges against Trevor. Then again she said after her work got stolen it made her realize she wanted to teach the younger generation like her professor did."

"Good for her." Mikan yawned. "So we're having your famous pasta for dinner?"

"Mhm. I'm gonna start cooking now." He replied.

She got up. "Might as well help."

"That'd be nice."

"Hey Dad?" Mikan raised an eyebrow. "Krei-Tech hasn't been that bad, has it?"

"What makes you say that?" He frowned.

"You've been pretty gloomy lately." She pointed out. "I don't want to overstep David, Sara, and I are getting worried."

He chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm alright, no need to worry about little ol' me."

Mikan frowned, but she nodded. "Fine, but I'll still worry because you're my dad."

"Thanks Mikan." Steven smiled at her. "Now, this time don't drop the pasta on the floor."

"Dad, that was one time!"

"You almost burned your foot!"

"Did not!"

"Correction, you almost burned my foot."

"I said sorry!"

"Hey Ro', you okay?" Ari greeted the boy who was curled on the couch, a feline napping on his chest. For some reason her vision was so blurry, she couldn't pick out the finer details of the cat.

"Yeah, me and-" Rowan's voice sounded distorted as he gestured to the cat, like her mind was hiding the name from her. "Are just chilling."

Ari raised an eyebrow. "Did anything happen?"

"I'm… my parents pulled me out of school."

She blinked in surprise. "Oh, is that a good thing? I think it's a good thing, your school was mean!"

Rowan snorted. "I guess. Um, it turns out my grades are really ahead so I could skip a grade, which means yay, no more middle school, but also my parents don't wanna send me to that school district since my science teacher was sabotaging me and my other classmate's grades."

Ari scowled. "I hope they fired that lady!"

The boy's face said it all. "They uh… didn't." The cat on his chest hissed and he calmed it… they… down. "So I'm being homeschooled until further notice since Mom and Dad don't want me enrolling in Midtown."

"At least we can be classmates!" Ari beamed, trying to cheer him up. "Your parents homeschooling you is a good thing!"

But Rowan frowned. "Ari… they're not just 'my' parents."

She glared at him. "I don't care what you guys said, my mom and dad loved me, I'm not gonna betray them."

"You're not gonna-" Rowan hissed. "They were so mean to you!"

"They were not mean!"

"Yes they were!"

"Were not!"

"Were-"

A loud hiss made them freeze, the cat on the couch was glaring at them, Ari couldn't see their face, but she could tell that they were glaring with cold eyes.

Ari looked at Rowan, tears were in his eyes. "I'm-"

Her blue eyes shot open wide. "Not again…" She whined.

All Ari wanted was a nice nap after school and finishing her homework, but nooo, she had to have another weird dream featuring the mysterious Rowan!

The cat was new. She thought, but the memory felt dark. "What did he mean when he said my parents were mean?"

Every time her late parents were brought up in those dreams, Rowan would act cold… all he'd say is "they're not" or "they aren't" but didn't get to finish as dream-her threw a fit.

"Meow!" She looked down, Mochi was staring up at her with concerned eyes.

Ari picked him up. "Hey buddy, did you come to check on me?"

Mochi meowed again, pawing at her arm. "I keep having weird dreams, something related to my parents, uhg… what was Rowan trying to tell me?"

That's when another memory came to her head, this one not about the mysterious boy, but of her parents herself.

It was just after the Wendy Wower show at the aquarium. "Dad, why don't I go to school?" Ari was looking up at her dad with curious eyes.

"Schools are nothing but junk, why do you care?" He had scoffed.

"S-Some of the other kids at the show talked about school…" She mumbled, fiddling with her sweater sleeves. "I wanna go and learn about new things there."

He was scowling now. "What's wrong with learning from Mom at home?"

"Nothing it-it's just-"

But he had interrupted her. "Schools are nothing but good, only thing in there are bad people and bad kids, do you wanna be a bad kid Ariel? Do you wanna break your mom's heart by saying she's not a good teacher."

Immediately, she burst into tears. "No! N-n-no I just wanted to-"

"Wanted to what? Hurt me? Hurt your parents?" He glared down at her. "Going to the aquarium was a mistake if it puts thoughts like that in your head."

"No!" Immediately she panicked, not wanting to lose her freedom. "I'm sorry I want to learn from Mom I don't wanna be a bad kid I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!"

Her dad's expression became more calm. "I know Ariel, just remember that we know what's best for you, okay?"

"Okay Dad."

He smiled, pulling her into a hug. "I love you sweetheart."

"Love you too…"

The memory left a bad taste in her mouth, how cold her dad was, how scared she was, it made her cling to Mochi for comfort. "He was wrong, school isn't bad."

Maybe Dad thought that because he and Mom went to bad schools. "Why did he call me a bad kid? I'm not a bad kid…"

Mochi was frowning at her. "Mrow!"

"Do you think I'm a bad kid Mochi?"

Immediately he shook his head. "What are you trying to say?"

He meowed again, pawing at her arms. "Meow, meow!"

Was he…? "Are you saying my parents are bad?!" Mochi nodded.

Ari's eyes widened in horror, was that what Rowan was trying to say to her?

Ari, they weren't good parents.

Ari, they aren't good to you.

"No! No they're not!" She bristled. "They're kind and sweet and loving and the-they're not bad! They're not!"

Mochi frowned, leaning in closer as she started sniffling. "They're… they're not bad."

"My parents are good people, they wouldn't hurt me… they wouldn't hurt me."

But it was getting hard for Ari to believe that, with her memories so faded and all that she was remembering were bad ones that turned her dreams into nightmares.

Later that evening in the Ferns household…

The sound of the doorbell ringing made David stand up. "Wendy!" His mom greeted the visitor. "Glad you could make it!"

"Nice to see you again, Sal!" Wendy exclaimed. "Thanks for inviting me over to dinner."

"No problem." His mom chuckled. "We have got to catch up more often, how's it been for you lately?"

"It's been great! I've been able to reach more audiences, it's so nice getting to teach more kids about science!"

Sally smiled. "That's amazing, come on in before it gets too cold!"

Wendy took off her coat and placed it on the coat rack as Steven poked his head from the kitchen. "Hey, how was traffic?"

"Not too terrible." Wendy then noticed David on the couch. "Hey David, it's nice to see you!"

He chuckled. "Um, hi, nice to see you too."

"Pasta is about ready by now." Steven reported. "Why don't you call your sisters down. I'm sure they'd like to have dinner."

After a few minutes, everyone was sitting by the table. Sally was next to her former classmate, Steven was next to his girls, and David was at the far end of the table. He preferred eating by himself these days.

"It's nice having you over Ms. Wower." Mikan stated.

"Oh you don't have to call me 'Ms.' You can just call me Wendy." She reassured her. "How has classes at SFIT been?"

Mikan shrugged. "Eh, still a headache but they're not too painful. What's really hard to juggle is doing my work while managing my internship."

"I still think you should quit." Sara argued.

Her sister gave her a deadpan glare. "Can we not argue about this?"

"Oh, where do you intern at?" Wendy asked, to try and break the tension.

Sara gave her sister another look as Mikan answered. "Sycorax."

"Ohhhh." Wendy tried to hide her wince, barely. "I see."

Sally didn't like her friend's reaction, even Wendy had heard about the recent rumors about the biotech company. She wasn't sure if Sycorax had a hand to play with the monsters, but Sally would prefer to be safe than sorry.

"Maybe we should talk about something else." The professor suggested. "So Wendy, have you run into any of your fans more often?"

Wendy looked relieved for the topic change. "Yeah! It's always nice to meet any woweroos in public, I even met one at this cat cafe that had really good coffee!"

David tapped Sara on the shoulder. "I bet she's talking about Ari." He whispered.

"Lucky Cat isn't the only cat cafe in the city you dummy." Sara whispered back.

"Glad you're doing well." Sally smiled. "You deserve all the loving attention in the world, unlike some frauds…"

The show host glanced over to Steven. "She's still upset at Trevor, isn't she?"

"Yep." He took a bite of pasta.

"Surprised you didn't press charges at him…"

"It happened years ago, Trevor apologized and told the truth, he felt bad enough about it without adding legal charges." Wendy argued. "We both know he only stole my work because he wasn't thinking clearly after what happened with Bobby."

Mikan winced at the mention of her pops, focusing on her food and trying to not show any sorrow on her face. She doesn't know what happened to him… she didn't mean it.

"Yeah, let's not mention Bobby." Sally muttered, staring at her glass of water. "I still miss him."

Wendy's eyes widened. "Right, sorry. I miss him too."

"Remember when we visited that dog shelter and he kept petting all the dogs despite his allergies?"

That got them both to chuckle. "Yeah, he wasn't allowed anywhere near the biotech labs because of all that sneezing!"

"I didn't know that about my pops." Mikan perked up. "He never told me he was allergic to dogs."

Wendy smiled. "He was in denial about it."

"He was!" Sally exclaimed. "Steven, do you remember when we asked him about that?"

The mechanic nodded. "Oh yeah, he went 'no I'm not allergic to dogs! I just get colds often!'"

Mikan choked on laughter. "I miss him… I bet he'd still deny it to this day."

"Yes, yes he would."

The conversation had paused a little as everyone finished their pasta, but it picked back up at dessert. "No thanks." Sara declined a bowl of an ice cream sundae. "I've had too much ice cream lately."

"You sure, sweetie?" Steven asked her. "There's nothing wrong with ice cream."

Sara merely nudged the bowl to her brother, not saying a word.

"You okay?" Wendy could see a sad look in her eyes.

The wavy-haired blonde looked up. "Oh uh… it's nothing, just boy problems."

"Boy problems is an understatement…" Mikan grumbled, which got a slap from David, she glared at her brother, who simply glared back.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll get better soon." Wendy reassured her. "And if it doesn't, there's more to life than romance!"

That got Sara to smile. "Thanks, hey have you ever dated anyone?"

Sally shot her niece a look. "Sara!"

But Wendy waved her off. "Not anymore, I'm not really much of a romantic."

"Being a romantic is hard." Sara complained. "How do you stop being one?"

"Just try to focus on other things in your life."

Sara hadn't thought about that. "Ohhhh, thanks for the advice!"

Wendy smiled. "I try to give good advice, but not everyone follows it." She gestured to Sally. "Sal here has taken my advice dozens of times, but she rarely follows it…"

Sally puffed up in offense. Okay that's enough Wendy-"

"I mean, we all told you that the fireworks combined with a rocket launcher was a bad idea. But you had Bobby had to explode the lab and-"

"Wendy!" Sally was a deep shade of crimson as her kids and even husband were barreling over with laughter.

She was starting to regret inviting her friend to dinner. But… seeing the happy faces of her family, a little embarrassment was worth it.

AN: before you ask no HOF isn't back from hiatus, but I am posting a chapter before I start bh6 month on my tumblr, just thought I'd throw you guys a bone. I'm planning on returning HOF updates in March (And I'll finish TOH, yay!)

I don't rly have a QOTW for this update, but I do wonder who Sally was talking about, hmmmm...

Maybe I'll like make a prequel story of HOF that takes place during the Boss Awesome era where I can share the adventures of Sally and friends XD, and speaking of Boss Awesome I couldn't help but foreshadow Diego's distaste on him.

this chapter in general has done plenty of foreshadowing hahahaha n.n'

hope you guys enjoy this surprise update, see you in March!