In all honesty Hiro should've seen this coming a mile away.

Liv almost got him and Karmi killed in sub-level 9 for poking too close for her taste, not even Rachel was safe from her, and the scruffy brunette was younger than him!

But seeing the teenage crime-dancer, his sister's close friend and her mother mutated into a monstrous creature like Knox made him sick to his stomach.

Could that happen to him… to Ari if she caught them in a trap they couldn't get out of in time?

"Go fish!" Sparkles snapping a command and lightning being shot at them brought Hiro out of his stupor to pay attention. Deal with villains first, feelings later.

"Now what?" Gogo turned to him for suggestions. Despite what little humanity they had left, Barb and Juniper still carried some of their dance moves, spinning together as they shot combined volts.

"Point forward." Hiro gestured to her hands.

"Okay… But why would I-" Gogo yelped as the moment she did the movement, her gauntlets turned into jets and her movements were fast as lightning in the water.

..No pun intended. "Pretty awesome." She dodged another bolt and sped towards the mutant eels. The force of her speeding past them caused their grip on their hands and tails to let go, separated, the two continued to shoot bolts at her.

Gogo rolled past the bolts and crashed into Barb first, Juniper had a look of shock on her face which turned to anger. But before she could fire a revenge shot, Gogo crashed into her with a punch.

"Not on my watch!" Gogo angrily tackled the mutated eel several times until she was swimming more dizzy than usual.

"Red Panda, sonic blaster!" Hiro commanded.

Once the engineer swam out of range, Baymax fired up his sonic blaster at the spinning circles eels, who growled angrily as they were blasted into the depths.

The trio then swam back to Sparkles, who had barely moved the crate an inch. "Got any more freaks helping you?" She taunted.

Sparkles glared at them. "Uh-huh. That big guy! Right behind you!"

"What?" They fell for it, Baymax's buzz pointing it out before they could turn to see nothing.

Gogo groaned seeing the former show host pathetically try to swim away. "Do you want to get him or should I?"

Hiro tapped Baymax's glass helm. "We've got it." In less than a few seconds, Baymax grabbed his leg and pulled him up.

"No touching!" Sparkles whined. A shot of electrical pain flew through Hiro, he saw High Voltage grabbing Baymax's legs by their tails and sending shocks, he quickly swam away.

"Oh no." Baymax was not as lucky and went down.

"That's it." Gogo activated her jets and swam around the mutant eels, forming a small whirlpool that managed to suck Sparkles in, before crashing into a rock wall. "So, had enough yet?"

Sparkles glared at the tied-up duo. "Aren't you two supposed to be the muscle? This is embarrassing!" Barb and Juniper angrily screeched at him as a response, not that it was undeserved. "Oh, fine. I'll take care of this myself." He snapped his fingers as his eyes glowed green.

"What is he-?" She looked up and saw giant crates crashing down on them. "Captain! Heads up!" They swam away from the crate, and saw more others coming down.

"Who's doing this?!" Hiro exclaimed.

"Most likely the Mayoi." Gogo pointed out, the sailor on the ship had no reason to shove his own cargo into the ocean.

"Oh, great." More crates came crashing down that boxed Hiro and Baymax in.

"Guys!" Gogo gasped, trying to move the crates but they were too heavy in the water for her to push, they were stuck on the other side.

She couldn't break them out now, so she did the next best thing. "You…" She turned to Sparkles, High Voltage were too busy trying to untie themselves at the moment, so the focus was on him.

"Hey, you should've stayed out of my way." Sparkles shrugged it off.

Gogo sped up and tackled him square in the chest as a result. "Do something useful and get her!" He commanded the mutant eels, but before they could react, Gogo managed to kick him hard across the ocean floor.

"That ones for the stunt you pulled with the Mayo-ahh!" She yelped as something pressed on her back and shocked her down to the floor. Gogo looked up and the eels were untied.

"Uhg, this is too much of a struggle, I'm out!" Sparkles cowardly swam away, still wincing in pain. High Voltage followed, a blur of mint-green told Gogo who gave the zap.

She swam back over to where Hiro and Baymax were trapped, an aqua fist firing out of the big crate followed by them swimming over gave her a sigh of relief. "They got away." Gogo told Hiro. "I got a few blows on Sparkles though."

"Nice! Wish I saw." Hiro grinned. "At least they didn't get what they came for." He swam over to the abandoned crate. "Can you open it, Red Panda?"

Baymax quickly opened the crate and a blinding light met their vision. Once they could see, Gogo was blinking at the shiny metal. "That's a lot of gold."

"That's a lot of proof they're working for Liv." He declared.

They swam back to shore, changing back to their regular attire. Hiro was sitting down by the docks, Baymax waddling nearby as the few fishermen interacted with the healthcare companion. "So." Gogo sat next to him. "Wanna talk about that water battle?"

"No, but I should, before Baymax gets back." Hiro looked over his shoulder. "Did you like the jets?"

"Yep, they were cool." Gogo nodded. "You're working on making gear for the others, right? It'd be cool if Honey and I went scuba diving."

"Yeah, I'll speed it up." Hiro chuckled, then his gaze darkened. Couldn't avoid the subject forever. "I didn't expect Liv to actually do that to her."

"Who?"

"Juniper." He sighed. "And Barb, I mean we saw them at the dance, but at least they still had control of themselves… mostly" As when they had fought the dancing duo at Bridgeton's school dance, both of them acted more vicious than usual.

"Seeing them like that was terrifying."

Gogo met his eyes. "Yeah, that scared me too."

His shoulder sank as he buried his face into his palms. "What am I gonna tell Ari? 'Hey sis I found your old crush, bad news she's gone full-monster now?'" He threw a rock into the water, skipping a few steps before sinking into the depths. "It'd break her heart."

"You could just not tell her." She suggested.

"I don't have the spirit, Gogo." He bit his lip. "I'd want to know if it was Karmi who went missing then turned into a monster."

Gogo's eyes widened in realization as to why Hiro had been so horrified, not just because of the mindless state of the mother and daughter duo.

"Are you scared that could happen to Karmi or anyone else?"

Hiro didn't speak, but he did nod, the look of terror shown in his eyes.

"We're not going to let that happen, Liv or not… we'll stop the monsters."

Back at Sycorax…

"You idiots!" Liv did not take news of their failure in getting the gold very well. "You had one job, and you blew it!"

Sparkles flinched, so did High Voltage, the dancing duo had seen Liv's true colors before so getting chewed out wasn't anything new.

But Sparkles had yet to realize the situation he had gotten into, and as the CEO was staring down at him with a destructive rage, he was starting to second guess his choices. "Er… hey we didn't expect Big Hero 6 to crash the party!"

"Well you should have! That group has been the biggest threat to my plans, was it that hard to defeat all of them with the Mayoi?"

"No only three showed up but-"

Liv's eyes witched. "What?! Only half of them showed up and you still lost?!"

Sparkles flinched again, that had been the wrong thing to say, especially as the CEO was angry enough.

"Useless, all of you." Liv glared, clearly disappointed in them.

At that point, Chris chimed in. "Don't punish them too hard darling, we know where the gold shipment was heading, it's not a total failure."

Liv paused, humming as she brought a hand to her chin. "You do have a point." She gestured to Sparkles. "I guess you're off the hook… for now."

"Phew." The former show host sighed with relief, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. If Liv had yelled at him even more, he would've started sweating in terror!

He started taking steps out of the office, glancing back at High Voltage, the two mutated eels were staring at Liv in terror for some reason.

What's their deal? Liv wasn't screaming at them anymore, so seeing their fear was odd to Sparkles.

But then Liv walked towards the duo. "As for you…" She trailed off, her voice void of any emotion.

"Grrrr…" Barb was hissing, placing herself in front of her daughter, as if daring the CEO to try anything.

Then she did, Liv's eyes flared with malice as in one quick moment, she lifted up her heel and stomped on Juniper's tail.

The teen shrieked in pain, scrambling away to the fish tank in the office, Barb hissed angrily at Liv before following after her daughter.

"Hey that was too much!" Sparkles protested. He didn't like working with the others in Sycorax, but he didn't want them to get hurt like that.

Liv sent a glare his way. "Get out of my sight before you're next."

He squeaked in terror and sped out of the office.

"We're going to the lab." Liv turned to Chris.

"Of course." He nodded, then looked at her shoes. "You got a bit of blood on them."

"Uch." Liv lifted up a heel. "Next time, you punish them. Not worth it getting my hands dirty." He nodded as they walked over to the elevator. "I am sick and tired of Big Hero 6 getting in our business!"

"I know, right?" They entered the elevator.

"We need gold. And we're running out of time."

"I know, right?"

She glared at him. "Would you stop saying 'I know, right?' and be helpful!"

Chris smirked at her. "I'm sorry, right?" Clearly he was trying to cheer her up, but was failing miserably.

"Not helpful."

"Chris Cake?" He offered, she just stomped out of the elevator. "It worked before."

"To counter Big Hero 6, I need something special." Liv entered the room where they had the floating, broken Bessie. She was a little smaller due to her energy being drained for certain experiments, but a good chunk remained for what she had in mind.

"Oh, you're good." Chris told her.

Liv smirked back at him. "I know, right?"

Ferns and Nerds group chat:

Gogo: Hey guys I suggest keeping your gold locked up

Sienna Kline: Why?

Hiro Hamada: The news said so.

Sara Ferns: They're referring to Sparkles trying to steal a gold shipment

Rachel Rosemary: Uch. Sparkles

Mikan Ferns: I hope Big Hero 6 smacked him good

Gogo: Pretty sure they did

Mikan Ferns: Good

Wasabi: "Uch. Sparkles" is a mood

TheLittleMermaid: a big one

Hiro Hamada: Hey Ari, are you home?

TheLittleMermaid: Yeah why?

Hiro Hamada: Need to chat, too complicated to explain via text

Gogo: That makes two of us

Honey Lemon: I will be your emotional support gf, Gogo

Gogo: 3

Sienna Kline: Was that a heart emoticon

Sienna Kline: From YOU?!

Gogo: Yeah. What about it

Mikan Ferns: Honey has officially melted the ice queen

Honey Lemon: Hey! You don't get to call me Honey.

Mikan Ferns: Honey LEMON has officially melted the ice queen

TheLittleMermaid: XD

Wasabi: Ouch, burn

Gogo: I'm leaving this group chat

Hiro Hamada: You're stuck here with the rest of us

Ari was waiting on her brother's bed when he walked upstairs, leaning on a battery-depleted Baymax and Mochi next to them. "Hi-hhi I am bal-lala-hairy baby!" Baymax scooped up Mochi, she giggled seeing Hiro try placing Baymax into his charging station.

"Sorry about this." He patted the calico's head. "Thanks for helping, Mochi."

"Meow." Mochi flicked his tail nonchalantly as Baymax started charging.

"Does Mochi help you charge Baymax, normally?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Sometimes." Hiro sat next to her. "Um, sis. So you know how Sparkles was stealing gold in the bay?"

"Yep." Ari nodded. "Did he say something mean?"

"Not more than usual but…" He paused before speaking again, as if it was difficult for him to bring this up. "Ari… I saw them."

She was confused, who was the 'them' her brother was talking about?

"High Voltage." Ari was stunned, while Hiro continued. "He tried escaping in the water, we followed him, and… well, we saw them."

H-He saw them? There had been no sightings of them since Bidgeton… Ari almost feared the worst at one point.

"Did Juniper say anything?!" Ari questioned. "Did she talk about the dance? Did she talk about me? Did Barb say anything too?!"

Hiro raised his hands for her to cease the questions. "I don't think they could've…" He glanced over to the charging Baymax. "He has footage for more proof, but Ari… they weren't there anymore."

"What does that mean?!"

Hiro grimaced. "They were like Knox, mindless, feral animals that only have echoes of who they were inside."

Ari could only stare at her brother in horror, that couldn't be true… not to her friend. "Hiro, if this is a joke I'll-"

"I wish I was."

That's what got her to crack, and start the waterworks as she buried her face into her brother's chest. Barb… Juniper… they ended up like Knox and all I did was give up on them!

"I'm sorry sis." Hiro gently stroked her hair to try and give her some comfort, it worked to a small extent. "I didn't want to tell you, but you deserved to know."

"It's not fair! They didn't deserve to end up like that!" She sniffled. "Why did I think Juniper never cared about me?! I'm such an idiot!"

"Hey, you were grasping for straws, don't blame yourself for picking the wrong ones." Hiro told her. "It's gonna be okay."

She looked up, tears still swimming in her eyes. "How?!"

"We're gonna make sure everyone turns back to normal like Knox." He answered. "If he managed to be cured after being turned into a monster, then so can High Voltage and everyone else."

Her brother had a point, there was a cure but Ari was still worried, Knox almost got put down by the others for being a threat to the public.

What if the same happened to Barb and Juniper?

"Does that make you feel better?" Hiro asked.

She shook her head. "Not really…"

Hiro frowned, but then a lightbulb lit up in his head. "One second." He went under his bed and got a few bars of chocolate. "Would these help?"

Immediately, her eyes brightened as a comforting sweet was offered to her. "Yes!" Ari beamed, taking the bars and digging in carefully. "I love you so much."

"I hope that was at me… and not the chocolate."

"I'll never tell!"

Hiro chuckled. "Hiro!" He perked up as their aunt entered his room. "Megan's here to see you!"

"Oh." He got up from the bed. "I'll be right there, thanks for telling me."

"No problem, are you two going on a date?" She winked.

"Aunt Cass no." Hiro deadpanned. "I can be friends with a girl without us dating."

"I know I'm just teasing!" Cass chuckled, patting his shoulder. "I won't keep you for much longer, besides, I have to run the cafe." She then noticed Ari's messy face as Hiro went downstairs. "Sweetie, are you alright?"

"Yeah, Hiro cheered me up." She mumbled, taking another chocolatey bite. "With candy."

Cass smiled in relief. "That's Hiro for you."

Megan was sitting by one of the tables by the window. "Hey, Megan." He scooted up to her. "Baymax is charging right now, long day."

"Don't blame him." She shrugged, plopping her notebook on the table. "But least I got a good salad while spying on Liv and Bluff."

"I hope it wasn't expensive, I can pay you back." He knew that restaurant was really pricy despite it's food being the same quality as more cheaper but equally fancy establishments in the city.

"Nah, I'm fine." Megan chuckled. "Anyways, they didn't talk much about that 'gold project.'" She gestured with air quotes. "And that attempted gold robbery on the news is adding to evidence."

"Yes, it is." Hiro nodded. "What did you find?"

"Mostly some other junk. She was telling the truth that investments were for research, but lied that it was research they'd give to the medical department." Megan explained. "Also, Bluff brought up that time Knox broke out and asked if her employees were okay."

Hiro winced. "And?"

"The watch ran out of battery then, but I felt like Liv was lying about caring about her employee's safety and that it was just a 'wrong place wrong time accident,' she answered that way too casually."

He growled with anger. She really was trying to kill us in sub-level nine... "I can go over the rest another time. Thanks for helping out."

"No problem!" Megan grinned. "I'm thinking about showing this to my dad, he needs to know!"

Hiro felt a flare of panic. "Maybe hold off on that!"

"Why?"

He thought back to his conversation with Rachel, warning him about the dangers of getting too close to the truth, or if Liv noticed his meddling. "Well, what if she hurts your dad? Or if we try to catch her too soon, she'd cover her tracks harder."

Not to mention he didn't want the superhero-wary chief of police getting involved. I'm sure he wouldn't arrest us or anything, but he'd make our jobs harder.

"Ohhh." Megan nodded in understanding, she hadn't thought about that. "Good point, but when are we supposed to reveal the evidence?"

Hiro was glad Baymax was charging right now, otherwise he'd catch him lying. "Well… maybe this information can go to Big Hero 6, they can reveal Liv to the public and our involvement will go unnoticed!"

That sounded like a good plan to Megan, even if her dad wouldn't approve. "I'm okay with that, but promise to be careful Hiro…" She warned, expression growing serious. "Not even my dad can stop me if anything happens to you."

"I feel safer already."

Superhero Squad group chat:

Chem Girl: Hey Ari, Gogo told me what happened, you okay?

Ariel: Yeah I'm doing better, still sad though : (

Speed Queen: Me too kiddo

Flame Jumper: What happened?!

Captain Cutie: er let's just say we saw someone at the docks.

Flame Jumper: High Voltage is back?!

Speed Queen: Yes and no, you can connect the dots knucklehead

Flame Jumper: o h

Chop Chop: That's really concerning, now I'm wondering if the same also happened to Momakase.

Captain Cutie: Oh no! D:

Chem Girl: nooooo David is gonna be heartbroken if that happens!

Ariel: We live in the darkest timeline : (((

Speed Queen: Thanks I hate it

Flame Jumper: At least we still have Noodle Burger

Speed Queen: For now

Flame Jumper: :C

"Your next meeting is downtown at 3:00, then you have a conference call-" Outside of Sycorax, Chris was listing Liv's schedule to her as she was about to drive into the city.

"About my 'special' project." She cut him off, taking the phone from him. "I have a mission for you."

Chris grinned when she gave the phone back. "Ooh, this should be fun. I'll have it by tonight."

"Good."

"Ms. Amara! Do you have a minute?" They turned to see Hiro running up to them, with Baymax and Ari following behind.

The assistant blocked them as Liv got into her car. "I'm so sorry, but Liv has a very tight schedule today."

Hiro kept trying to get past him. "But it will just take a second. If you just let me-"

"Sorry Liv!" Ari called out to her. Chris shut the car door as Hiro managed to get to the window.

"Wait!" He cried out. "I want to know if Liv Amara is creating the monsters!"

Liv rolled down the window, glaring at him. "No, Liv Amara is not creating the monsters."

Hiro grinned. Got her!

But as the window rolled up and Chris went back inside, he turned and saw Baymax had a yellow smiley face. "You didn't buzz?" He placed a hand on Baymax's screen. "This should be red."

"She was telling the truth." He stated.

Hiro had wide eyes, it was impossible. Right? Who else would be making the monsters, if not Liv?

Ari however looked ecstatic. "Ha!" She pointed to the smiley face. "I told you Liv wasn't responsible! Who's not making any sense now!?"

Hiro glared at her. "Evidence says otherwise. When Liv left sub-level nine with Fred, Knox immediately got out, she was trying to kill us!"

"That was a coincidence." Ari shook her head. "Liv told me herself that all she wants is to cure the monsters. Let's face it Hiro, you've become so paranoid after Obake you think anyone is a villain."

"I am not!" Hiro growled. She thinks she's soooo high and mighty, time to knock her down a level. "And you're one to talk."

Ari frowned. "One to talk?"

"Well, at least I'm not constantly in denial about my parents behavior." He crossed his arms.

Immediately, his sister's face went red with anger. "I'm not!" Buzz. "Shut up Baymax!"

"Don't yell at Baymax!" He chastised her. "He's just pointing out you're lying about it!"

"I'm not lying!" Buzz. "He's lying!"

"I did not lie." Baymax pointed out. "Ari, I do not think it is a good idea to be dishonest about this subject."

"See? He gets it!" Hiro gestured to the robot. "You need to stop lying to yourself."

Ari clenched her teeth. "Big talk from someone so paranoid!" She pointed to him. "You're too into the theory that Liv is behind the monsters that you're talking crazy!"

"Because she is!" He exclaimed. "She's got you wrapped around your finger, and not to mention Chris is shady too-"

"You got that from Sara!" Ari huffed. "Everyone knows she's jealous of Chris!"

"Jealous, yes. Wrong, no." Hiro frowned. "He's been making Wasabi act weird, no human being can be that perfect!"

"Clearly, since you're a mess!" Oh, that's it.

"Shut up!" Hiro shouted. "This isn't about me, it's about you! For the past few… I don't even know! You've been excusing your parent's bad behavior."

"Don't bring them into this!"

"It's about them, they're terrible people!" He ignored Ari's sharp gasp. "They never let you outside or go to school." Ding! "They punished you for the smallest of things." Ding! "And they make you think you're a burden!" Hiro shouted.

Ding! "That is true." Baymax turned to Ari. "Ari, based on your behavior, I believe that your parents behavior towards you could be counted as abus-"

"They're not abusive!" Ari cut off Baymax, still red with anger and glaring daggers at her brother.

"Why are you still excusing them?!"

"Because they're dead Hiro!" She threw her hands in the air in exclamation. "They're dead and gone! Stop making me try to hate my dead parents, they might've not been perfect but they didn't abuse me! They never hit me!"

"Maybe they weren't purposefully abusive but they didn't treat you right!" He wanted to cry, cry at how much in pain his sister was in, but Ari wasn't letting those wounds heal. "Just because they're dead doesn't mean you can ignore their flaws!"

"You didn't know them!" Ari protested. "You never knew your parents, you don't get to judge me!"

He froze, that was too much for him. Ari seemed to realize that as she placed both hands to her mouth in horror. "I-"

"I know what it's like to lose family, Ariel." He took a deep breath, getting angry at his sister wouldn't help things. "I lost my brother, it's not the same as losing a parent, but he was still family I lost."

As he walked away from her, he gave her one last look. "All you're doing is just making yourself miserable."

"Goodbye Ari." Baymax waved as they left her all alone.

Alone with nothing but her thoughts and scattered memories for company.

AN: Well... that escalated quickly

Poor kids : (

Yeah Hiro did end up voicing his concerns about Ari's past, but it was at the wrong place wrong time. And speaking of Ari, I felt so sad writing her reaction to her finding out her bestie/crush went full eel, considering it had been awhile since that dance, and Liv messing with her head a little didn't help matters.

Oh "Liv" it is so fun writing her being a villain, but yeesh things are tense at Sycorax, as Sparkles noticed (I'm in the belief that he reformed in S3 because Sycorax was an eye-opener of what the villain life can have in store as it's not making him super happy atm... and wanted to show that in HOF)

I need to give these children a break omg... but hope you guys enjoyed this rollarcoaster of a chapter!

QOTW: Thoughts on Megan's involvement in this ep? (Ik I made a comment of it last AN but I was stuck on this week's question)