David remembered when he got Skittles, his wild hognose snake, who was currently slithering around his arm playfully. She got him through high school, Sally offered him a pet snake if he pushed through and he succeeded.

Now he has a cute little snake that likes slithering around his arm that makes funny noises while eating. His sisters helped out with caring for Skittles, since both of them were chill with the snake. A small hiss from the hognose made him focus on who was walking into the room. It was his sister and his mom.

"Hey Dave." Sara sat next to him, he felt Skittles slither off of him to check her out. "Oh, hi Skittles."

"She's been doing loops." He stated. "I think she's been imitating Luigi Kart."

"Oh my gosh no she isn't."

That's when his mom entered the room. "Video games aside, I'm glad we got a more tamer snake." Sally suppressed a shudder. "No way I was getting a boa constrictor."

"They give good hugs!" David protested. "Why would you not want to hug a danger noodle?"

"So many reasons, so many."

Sara muffled a snort. "Anyways, besides the topic of noodles." She handed Skittles back to Sally. "Er, Aunt Sally…"

Their aunt sat next to them on the couch, frowning. "Did something happen again with that man picking on you?"

Sara shook her head. "No, not at all!" She hadn't even seen Chris in days, which was weird since he loved constantly visiting SFIT whenever could to spend time with Wasabi, but strangely, the assistant had been staying at Sycorax.

Not that she was complaining, but both her and Wasabi thought it was suspicious.

But that was a topic for another day. "I just wanted to ask some questions about Barb and Juniper, y'know before they… when we used to visit them, if that's okay."
Even if both siblings were curious about them, they didn't want to question Sally if it just made her sad.

But Sally had nothing but a smile on her face. "Of course you can ask about them."

"Did Barb like having us around?" Was Sara's first question.

"If she didn't, Mom and Dad wouldn't have brought us with them to New York." David pointed out.

She knew that! "Well, I'm sure she didn't like dealing with you-know-who…"

"Minerva never stuck around whenever Barb visited us, probably because she put that entitled brat in her place." Sally explained. "She always loved having you and David around, spoiled you two rotten to boot."

David chuckled. "I remember she gave me and Sara candy!"

The professor pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, too bad our attempts of bribing you with candy to get you to eat your dumb veggies didn't work."

"Mom I love you but nothing will make me eat those disgusting green things, not even candy!"

Skittles chittered in protest.

"Except when Aunt Sally got you a snake for your 15th birthday." Sara held up the hognose.

"Yeah that was my favorite gift of all!"

Sally continued with her story. "Somehow Barb was able to get you to eat your stupid vegetables without bribes, I'm sitll mad she never told me that magic trick, maybe it'd still work on you…" She muttered, ignoring a scoff from her son. "All jokes aside, she really did love you both, almost as much as she loved her own kid."

"Does that make her our aunt then?" David questioned.

"Well you both were always happy to see 'Aunt Barb' when we went to New York." Sally pointed out.

Both of them chuckled, but Sara looked down. "Do you think she misses us?" Sara asked. "I mean she and Juniper were in San Fransokyo a while before the monster crisis."

Sally couldn't answer that, who knows what went through her old friend's head all these years. "I'm sure she did, but I'm not sure Juniper remembers you." Her kids barely remembered the duo, and the teen was really little when they stopped visiting.

"We figured." That's when her kids gave her a hug.

"Maybe we can make new memories!" Sara exclaimed.

Sally sniffled as she hugged them both. "Yeah, anyways I think that's enough story time for today."

"Awwww." Both of them pouted.

"I know, but I have things to do."

"Even on weekends?" David questioned.

"Yes, how do you think your assignments get graded? A grade machine?"

"Kind of." They both chuckled.

Sally just sighed. "Kids these days… thinking technology is the answer to all your problems."

"It is!" They chorused.

"Too bad Mika's not here to hear this." Sara noted.

Meanwhile with Mika…

"Another day, another errand for Sycorax." Mikan stated. She and a few other employees were studying some of the organisms they had. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

"Boss!" Well it was, until Liv walked into the room. It was one of her co-workers Nicole, who spotted the CEO first. "W-what brings you here?"

"Calm down, I'm just doing a check-up." Liv waved her off. "How's progress?"

"Everything is well and accounted for, Ms. Amara." Another co-worker stated. "Not a lot of improvement though." A hand was raised. "Yes, Ms. Khan?"

"There's some improvement." She pointed out. "A few of the organisms in stations G52 and G48 have been reacting to the solutions."

"Yeah, the solutions you made, you've said it over and over." Nicole rolled her eyes. "Give it a break kid."

"Nicole, stuff it." Mikan muttered to her, she shrunk back. It was typical behavior of the smaller girl, but at least she didn't make those comments all the time.

She wondered why her co-workers had been iffy with Karmi lately, was it because she got extra attention from Liv? Or was it because things had been so awkward at Sycorax since they got accused of starting the monster crisis that everyone was suspicious of each other, even the interns!

"Interesting." The gears appeared to whir in Liv's head. "Karmi, may I speak with you about something important?"

"Of course!" Karmi beamed, following Liv out of the room. I should make sure she's okay. Mikan didn't feel comfortable leaving the biotech major alone with their boss.

She excused herself out and quietly trailed behind the two, until they got to another room. I've seen Liv use this lab a few times but no one else, strange…

"I wanted to ask for your help for a special project." Liv was explaining. "It's of the utmost importance to help a sick patient."

"Of course I'll help, especially if it saves someone's life!" Karmi eagerly nodded. "When do I start?"

The CEO just chuckled. "Tomorrow, meet right here when you arrive." Liv showed Karmi something shiny. Gold? Mikan frowned. "This is what we're using for the cure, Chris will give you more details, you can go back to your project now."

The biotech genius nodded. "Yes, Liv! I promise I'll do my best tomorrow!" Mikan had to duck away from the door to avoid Karmi seeing her as she ran out.

"You can come out now, Ms. Ferns." She yelped.

Knowing she couldn't run, Mikan shyly poked her head from the doorframe. "How'd you know I was there?"

"I saw you trailing us." Liv's face was colder than it was when she was talking to Karmi. "What were you doing?"

Frickfrickfrick come up with something Mika!

"Keeping an eye on Karmi." She mentally facepalmed. Idiot!

"Keeping an eye? You don't think I'd do something or say something." Liv narrowed her eyes. "Would you?"

"No. I just wanna make sure she's alright." Mikan nervously chuckled. "I worry about her, she's my work-buddy, like you worry about Chris who's your work-buddy!" She was just rambling now. "Can you blame me for making sure Karmi doesn't have a mental breakdown during work hours?"

Liv looked to have bought it… somewhat. "I see." She muttered. "There will be consequences if you tell anyone what you heard, or if I catch you 'keeping an eye' again." She glared. "Understood?"

"Crystal." Mikan gulped, she wasn't really intimidated, but not like she could say to Liv she wasn't scared. "I'm just… gonna go back to work, have a great day ma'am."

"Have fun, Mikan." Once Liv let her go, she quickly walked out of the lab. On her way out she noticed the back door in the lab. I wonder what that leads to… Before exiting out, no use spending time theorizing everything. Still she did not like the look in the CEO's hazel eyes.

What on earth is she doing?

Unknown to the eldest Fern kid, who had walked past Liv's closed office on her way back to the front of the building, there was suspicious activity there.

Said activity being Momakase staring into the glass fish tank that hosted two of her fellow mutants. "Our boss keeps saying something about how her work is almost complete." She muttered, her voice loud enough for the former crime-dancers to hear if they wished to tune in. "I hope for your sake, it doesn't involve any more casualties."

To say that she was eavesdropping on Liv after High Voltage's last gold heist was an understatement. Only to find out with horror that it ended up with someone dead, to make it more cruel, it was a friend of the dancers before their mutation too, that girl Ari.

Poor girl, I may not like anyone associated with Big Hero 6, but I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. The incident had been what stripped whatever rebellion High Voltage still had against their oppressor, and they were truly mindless puppets that only held glimpses of who they were now.

Am I any better? I may have my free will but only because Liv allows me to have it. Not to mention the threat hanging over her head if she stepped one toe out of line. When I get out of here, I am never working for any shady corporate CEOs or ambitious scientists ever again.

"Are you still having a conversation with the dancing fish?" She felt a growl come up her throat as that annoying plant-man Sparkles tiptoed over. He was the only one their boss treated decently, for willing to subject himself to this place, something no sane person would.

Momakase unsheathed her claws a little at him. "Scatter off, would you?"

He did not. "Can we have one conversation where we don't fight?"

"I'd prefer not talking to you at all." She hissed. "High Voltage may not talk back, but at least they didn't have a choice being here as much as I did."

Sparkles narrowed his eyes. "Hey, I might've volunteered for this, but that doesn't mean I find our boss to be the greatest person to walk this city, that's my job."

"Uch."

"You have to admit, what she did to them was…" He trailed off. "Well, I wouldn't have done that."

What is his game? Momakase wondered, did Liv send him to spy on her? Or was he simply showing human emotions for once. "We're villains, we should be used to cruel behavior. But there are some lines a villain shouldn't cross." Like torturing a child by having them murder their own friend.

"As much as being a villain gives you the spotlight, it does let you see some nasty stuff." Sparkles nodded in agreement.

"You've only been a villain for a few months." Compared to her, he was as inexperienced in villainy as a newborn. "But agreed, hopefully this whole thing ends soon."

"For once, I agree." She looked at him in shock. "What? Even I can tell our boss has a few screws loose, do you think I like taking so many annoying orders from her?"

"Yes, yes I did."

He shrugged. "Fair." Sparkles got back up. "Fair talk, let's not repeat this conversation to anyone."

"Who am I supposed to tell? Chris?" Both of them lightly chuckled at the thought. Then Sparkles left her alone with High Voltage once more.

I'm anticipating things going back to normal. She shot a glance back to the tank. But even if they do… it's never going to be normal for them thanks to her.

And the thought of that happening to David gave her more fright than anything Sycorax could do to her.

Superhero Squad group chat:

Chem Girl: Patrol went fine today!

Chop Chop: We had to fight 3 baddies dressed as ninjas

Chem Girl: It was fine because Gogo was with us : D

Speed Queen: Awww ily

Chem Girl: ily 2 3

Speed Queen: 3

Captain Cutie: Guys plz this is not the chat for that

Speed Queen: Mikan would joke about it if we posted on ferns chat

Ariel: Yeah she can be mean. Wait ninjas?

Flame Jumper: Yeah a bunch of discount Momakases

Chop Chop: You were not there, you do not know what they look like!

Flame Jumper: ANY NINJA IS A DISCOUNT MOMAKASE NOW

Captain Cutie: I hate it here

"What?" Hiro gasped. "Liv's having Karms on some sort of project?"

"Yeah, something about a sick patient." Hiro was just lying in his room after an afternoon at Krei-Tech, when Mikan gave him a call.

"Did you get any more details?"

"Not a whole lot, but one of the ingredients in the 'cure' is gold."

His eyes widened. "That's what the gold robberies were for?!"

"I guess so." Mikan sounded unsure, he didn't blame her. "The look in her eyes was not pretty, let me tell you."

He frowned, how did she get a clear look of her eyes- wait… "Did she catch you?"

Mikan paused. "Yeah, but I gave her a line about being a concerned friend and she just gave me a slap on the wrist. I'll be more careful next time."

"Mikan, Liv will not hesitate to dispose or mutate you if she catches onto you. You've helped enough, no need to spy on her anymore."

"Oh come on, I'm not scared of her!"

Hiro glared at his phone. "What if she sends monsters after you or your family?"

Mikan paused. "I see your point."

"Just continue to make sure Karmi is doing okay, but be more careful about it, like how someone would normally check on a friend. Just don't let her see Liv alone, again!"

Mikan scoffed. "Fine lover boy, your girlfriend will be safe under my watch."

"She's not my-"

"Bye!" And she hung up.

"Uhg. Mikan…" Hiro grumbled. He didn't have any romantic feelings for Karmi! I think… wait-no argh. I just don't want her to get hurt. He got up, might as well do a round of patrol since he's a little worked up. So many people are scared and hurt because of Liv.

I don't want my friends to get hurt too.

His phone ringing again interrupted his thoughts. He almost dropped his phone as he recognized the caller's ID, the same biotech major he was talking about with Mikan. "K-Karmi!" He stammered, thankful she didn't have the camera on so she didn't see his blush.

"Hey Hiro…" Was it just his imagination or did her voice sound nervous? "I need a favor."

"If it's related to your next Big Hero 6 fic, the answer is no."

She scoffed. "It's not that! My family is coming to visit to bring me to dinner and they said I could bring one of my friends."

"What's so bad about that?"

"If they think I've gone another semester without making friends, they're gonna make me do my classes online!" She exclaimed. "I can't study my viruses or complete my internship if I'm back in Port Angeles Hiro, it's like five hours away from here!"

He bit his lip. "It's technically three and a half-"

"You sound like Baymax." He bet she was rolling her eyes. "Look, can you come? I tried asking Honey Lemon, but she was going to go on a date, and I'd feel terrible taking her away from that."

As awkward as it would be hanging around his semi-friend/rival and her family, free dinner sounded nice. "I can go, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Never say that, you're gonna jinx it!" Karmi scolded him.

"Sorry." Hiro rubbed the back of his neck.

But the biotech major was chuckling. "Thanks Hiro, you're a lifesaver, I'll meet you at the bus stop near the cafe."

"Got it." As he ended the phone call, he noticed his little sister walking into the room. "Hey Ari, tell Aunt Cass I'll be out for dinner."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I'm going to dinner with Karmi and her-" Immediately he regretted his choice of words seeing the "shipping look" on his sister's face.

"Oookay, have fun on your date!" She was grinning.

He blushed. "It's not a date!"

"Sureee…"

Karmi was right, little sisters are a pain.

Ferns and Nerds group chat:

Rachel Rosemary: I'm bored

Fredzilla: hi bored, I'm Fred

TheLittleMermaid: dekskdskodisidkizxikz

Sara Ferns: Idk, play video games

Hiro Hamada: Says the nuzlocker

Sara Ferns: HEY!

Sara Ferns: I play non-Pokemon games too! Like Sonic

Gogo: Don't remind me

Rachel Rosemary: Meh I'm just gonna play Minecraft

Hiro Hamada: Mood

Fredzilla: Mood

TheLittleMermaid: You two are peas in a pod smh

Sara Ferns: And you're not!?

Mikan Ferns: She is the runt of the litter

Mikan Ferns: She will not survive the coming storm

TheLittleMermaid: Hey op wth

TheLittleMermaid: What does this mean?

TheLittleMermaid: Hey OP. Explain please

The bus ride was awkward at first, neither of them knew what to say to break the tension.

"Where exactly are we going?" Hiro was brave enough to speak up first.

"Some waffle house place, my parents always take me there when visiting the city." Karmi explained. "It's really funny seeing Ryan try to stuff his entire pancake into his mouth."

He chuckled at the image of a small child stuffing a pancake in general. "Uh, anything I should know before I meet your folks?"

"Don't mention Akuma Island." Karmi made a face. "Or Knox, I haven't told my parents what happened because they'd pull me out of SFIT if anything happened to me. And I don't want that."

"Understandable." Hiro wasn't a snitch. "Um, do I have to worry about getting shovel-talked?"

She made a "maybe" gesture with her hand. "Probably, but they just wanna make sure that I have good friends." Karmi glanced away. "I… didn't have good judgement in high school."

Hiro didn't pry, but he could relate. "High school sucked, some kids are too lazy to do their own work."

"I know, right?!" Karmi exclaimed. "What's worse is that the teachers don't even notice that they didn't alter the handwriting!"

"No way!" He gasped. "And they got away with it?"

She nodded. "Yeah, jokes on them. I signed the paper with my name and they were too smug to check until they turned in 'their' work in."

That got him to cackle. "Oooh that's genius! I wish I thought about that, I just got the thing wrong on purpose every time someone made me do their work."

"And then what happened?"

"Well, they stopped making me their lackey." The bus halted. "Is this our stop?"

Karmi glanced at the window. "Looks like it."

They got off the bus and Hiro followed Karmi down the street until they stopped at a restaurant with strange acronyms on the top, he squinted his eyes at it. "What does IHOW stand for?"

"International House Of Waffles." Karmi explained. "There was this one time they changed their name to promote sandwiches, it was weird."

"And how do you know this?"

"My dad was a kid when it happened, he complains to this day about it." Her eyes then lit up. "Speak of the devil, there they are!" She ran across the door of the restaurant, Hiro followed seeing it was her parents, and little siblings.

"Karmi!" Her dad scooped her into a hug. He was a dark-skinned man with short reddish-brown hair and ice-blue eyes, he had a small beard growing under his chin. He also had a plaid shirt and khakis on. "You've gotten so tall!" Hiro didn't know what to say, so he just tip-toed closer.

"I haven't gotten that tall, Dad." Karmi chuckled, it was the happiest he had ever seen her.

She definitely got her looks from her mother, her hair didn't have any stripes in it, and her eyes were an intimidating dark red. She was wearing a lavender long-sleeved shirt and also khakis. Then there were her twin siblings, who seemed to be half her age.

Haley, the girl, seemed to take after her mother too, except her eyes were a lighter shade of blue than her father's and she had his reddish hair that was swooped up a little, her outfit consisted of pink, from her shirt her to her skirt and shoes, the only non-pink thing was her leggings that went up to the knee, making her look like a little ballerina.

Ryan, the boy, seemed to have his dad's look and build, even from a young age, his eyes were the same shape and color as his mother's, and he shared the same shade of brown Karmi's hair had. His outfit was more blue, and his shirt had darker stripes across it. He had noticed Hiro watching, and pointed to him.

"Oh, right." Karmi chuckled. "This is my classmate Hiro, he's the other teen genius at our school. Hiro, this is my mom, my step-dad, and my younger siblings!"

"Hello." He awkwardly waved, not sure what else to say.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Zachary, or Zach. But most people just call me Zachary." Her father chuckled. "This is the love of my life Molly, and our youngest kids, Haley and Ryan."

"I'm the oldest twin though!" Haley exclaimed, Ryan just shrugged, and Molly just stared at Hiro, he flinched at her intense gaze.

"I wasn't aware there was another kid your age at school, Karmi." Molly turned to her daughter.

"Professor Granville introduced us last semester." She gestured. "We mostly tolerate each other, I'm mostly friends with his sister."

"You have a sister?" The oldest twin looked up at him. "Why didn't you bring her?"

That was a good question, Hiro glanced over to Karmi.

Karmi glanced away. "She's shy." But she leaned over to whisper to Hiro. "Also I think my mom would scare her, she can be intense."

"That's fair." Hiro whispered back

Haley was oblivious to the secret conversation. "Ohhh, so she's like Ryan!"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "M'not shy." He muttered, it was so quiet that Hiro could barely hear him.

"Well, it's nice to meet both of you." Hiro waved to the twins.

Molly got their attention. "Anyways, I'm sure you two are hungry, how about we get food?"

"Waffles!" Both twins cheered, Karmi just chuckled at that, Hiro did too. So far, so good.

He just watched cautiously as Karmi got into a conversation with both her parents, while he just nibbled his appetizer.

"Hi!" He saw Haley speaking to him.

"Hey." He could start to see why the little girl reminded Karmi of his sister, they both had that enthusiastic gleam in their eyes.

"Are you a good friend to Karms?" She asked.

Hiro was a little unnerved by the question. Kids, so brutal. "Uh, yeah. I try to be." He chuckled. "You should ask if she's a good friend to me, though." Haley just frowned at the joke.

"I don't get it." But he saw next to her, Ryan muffled a snort, at least someone got it. "I think you're a nice friend! You didn't say anything about us being half-related to Karmi!"

He frowned, he did recall Karmi saying that Zachary was her step-dad, so logically the twins would be her half-siblings in a biological sense. "Why would I comment on that?"

"Haley…" Molly warned, but the little girl continued.

"Well, sometimes my friends act weird when I just call Karms my sister, and not my half-sister."

Some people… He bit the urge to scoff. "Wanna know a little secret?" Haley nodded. "Technically my sister isn't related to me at all, but I still call her my sister even if we're only related by adoption. So don't let your friends bother you if they get so hung up by technicalities, family is family."

"That's a first." It was the quieter twin who commented, he didn't say more than that.

Haley was looking at Hiro with a big grin. "Thanks!" She went back to her waffles.

"That was sweet of you." Karmi told him.

He raised an eyebrow. "It was?"

"Not everyone has the same mindset you have about family, let's just leave it at that."

"Ah." He went back to eating.

Well, tried to, if it wasn't for Molly speaking to him. "So, what do you study at SFIT?" The intense gaze in her red eyes gave him stage fright.

"I'm a robotics major, I have some physics classes but it's mostly robotics!"

"You two must not share a lot of classes then." Molly glanced over to Karmi, then back at Hiro.

Karmi sheepishly nodded. "Yeah, but we're both in Granville's class!"

"Must be nice sharing a class with your friend so you can work on projects together." Zachary commented.

"Granville's class doesn't have a whole lot of group projects." Hiro shook his head. Well the recent writing project could've been a group effort but there was no way he'd ever work on any writing project with Karmi of all people! I don't want to end up writing myself in one of her Big Hero 6 fanfiction-whatevers, that's just asking for her to find out my secret identity.

"How did you two become friends?" Haley questioned.

Both of them exchanged awkward glances, it was a mutual understanding that they'd skim some of the details. "Granville introduced us, because we're the only teen geniuses at SFIT." Hiro explained. "Which is also how my sister met Karms here."

"That's cool!" Haley had a toothy grin, then frowned. "Hey, only Ryan and I can call her Karms!"

He gave the younger kid a look. "Really?"

Karmi just shook her head at her younger sister. "I don't honestly mind Haley, it's fine."

"Oh okay." She didn't argue anymore after that.

"I'm glad you're doing well this year at SFIT Karmi, I was worried you'd have trouble making social connections." Molly stated. "Your friend is very polite."

Karmi nervously chuckled. "Haha yeah, Hiro and I definitely got along right off the bat!" There was a slight increased pitch in her voice, but thankfully the older woman did not pick up on the obvious lie.

"Man these waffles are good." Thankfully Hiro changed the subject before anyone else could question the biotech major's nervousness.

Zachary nodded. "Mhmm, I always loved this place as a kid. My favorite thing to get here was the chocolate waffles, shame this location doesn't sell them."

"I don't know what chocolate waffles are but I want them now." Hiro declared.

"You haven't tried them?" Karmi raised an eyebrow. "Maybe that's a good thing, all that sugar would go to your head."

"It would not!" He protested as the entire table giggled.

Despite getting teased and the awkward moments, Hiro would definitely brag to his sister later that he got treated to free waffles from Karmi's family.

AN: Bit of filler with Karmi and her family before next week... and me dropping hints of plot here and there

It was so fun writing the Karmi's family! You'll definitely see them again in another story

Be prepared for next week... muahahahahaha

QOTW: favorite kind of treat (can be a dessert or otherwise)