The actually final chapter, a remnant of a plan I mostly dropped (more on that at the bottom). And with the spoopiest month a few days away, it seemed like a good time to turn this "what if" installment of bad ideas into one last scene.
Disclaimer:
I don't own Marvel's Big Hero 6, or the additional characters and interpretations Disney created when adapting the concept. But I'm sure you knew that.
Bad Ideas: Genetic Memory - Bonus Chapter
Flying around the city was supposed to be fun.
Even in the most tense of supervillain crises, evil mechs and flamethrowers flying everywhere, there was a certain exhilaration that came latching onto a robot's back and rocketing through the sky. The wind would rush through his hair, adrenaline rushing through him as they reached peak speed together. And in the night time, the billboards and skyline lights would make a slide show with a view reserved only for him..
It was supposed to be an unmatchable experience. It was supposed to make him feel amazing. It wasn't supposed to do nothing but sink his spirits. Yet that's where Hiro was right now. His heroic duty of zooming over the San Fransokyo brought no enjoyment. That alone would've been a depressing realization, if the situation causing it weren't already just that bad.
There were barely any lights on in the buildings any more, not even poor executive assistants stuck working on presentations until the wee hours of the morning (usually the engine that kept corporate life breathing). People were sheltering themselves in their homes, afraid to venture out, too paranoid to even talk to anyone they didn't know - and even, sometimes, people they did. And who could blame them? No one wanted to risk lacerations just to say "good morning."
The city became one giant snail slowed to a crawl, and its soul was slowly being sucked away. This had been going on for days, and Big Hero 6 was no closer to figuring out why… or better put, how.
It started with Momakase. When last Big Hero 6 had met the sharp-witted thief she had honored their truce of sorts and left town, supposedly for good. Yet one night, they followed a "HALP!" alert downtown to find her in the middle of a rampage.
Momakase did have a history of getting violent when she wanted to, but always in her usual cool, collected style. The kind of wanton destruction they saw that day was the opposite of what she was about: visceral, uncontrolled mayhem. Her Sycorax issue graphene claws were back, not to mention the lion's mane, and she was using them to cut up everything in sight, thrashing like an animal all the while.
Not even Hiro could get through to her: in the end they had to tranquilize her. Last they saw her, Momakase was being carted away in a straitjacket.
Then, a few days later, they followed a call to the Pizza-Party-Torium to find the whole building engulfed in more shrubbery than even the bravest crusader could carry. It took hours to cut their way inside, and in the center they found Mr. Frank Sparkles: green again, just sitting there completely unresponsive, as if in some kind of trance.
Not long after that, Juniper of High Voltage called the "HALP!" hotline in fear of something huge and scaly chasing after her – something she swore up and down was really her mother.
Orso Knox had left town outright, holding himself up in a panic room somewhere halfway across the globe.
The reality couldn't have been clearer. The monsters were coming back. And it wasn't just the formerly monsterized villains. Even the regular citizens of San Fransokyo were… changing.
Nobody had grown claws and fangs, at least not yet, but people were angrier, wilder, and less restrained. They were snapping at the drop of a hat. The news told stories of block-wide pedestrian brawls starting just become someone bumped into someone else on the sidewalk. Like some sort of gothic plague, it was as if everyone had a monster side simmering inside growing bit by bit.
Obviously this was Diane Amara's doing somehow, but nobody could figure out what "somehow" meant. So far these incidents were triggering seemingly at random, with no sign of who was next. Meanwhile Di was still in jail, monitored 24/7 with no apparent escape. Hiro, the whole team, Chief Cruz – even Professor Granville, once – had all gone to interrogate the rogue clone, but she hadn't said a thing beyond the odd callous insult.
It was extremely frustrating - but then, it always was with Di Amara. So instead Hiro was out on patrol, doing whatever small part he could to keep the city from getting worse.
All of a sudden there was a howl from below Hiro's position, snapping him out of his thoughts. A little old lady had ripped a mailbox out of the ground and was trying to rend open the metal with her bare fingers, just to fit a tiny envelope inside. The actual flap to put such letters in flew past Hiro head, completely forgotten - and with impressive distance, seeing as he was several dozen feet up in the air.
One heroic swoop and magnetic net later and that problem was all wrapped up: one old lady ready for medical treatment. But that didn't help the knot in Hiro's gut. Things were getting worse. They needed a clue, or better yet a cure, and soon.
That wasn't happening any time soon, however, so he had to deal with it for now. With nothing better to do, he opened up a communication channel with the others.
"Hey guys. Any updates?"
It took less than ten seconds him to get a sarcastic response. "Not since ten minutes ago, the last time you called." It was Gogo, unsurprisingly, but the others quickly chimed in their agreement.
"She's right, Hiro," said Wasabi. "It's a stressful situation – trust me, I know – but there's jsut nothing to find out here."
"Well, besides all the people going coo coo bananas," Fred added. "But we already knew about them."
Hiro sighed. He knew he was being tense, but it wasn't as if he had no reason to be. Things were getting increasingly awkward with the team as well. They weren't foolish enough to think they were immune somehow to what was going on, and that led to… he hated to call it suspicion, but it was definitely tripping them up. Was Gogo more snappish than usual these days or was it just her usual brusque attitude? Was Wasabi freaking out more often, or the normal amount - for him? Even Hiro himself. He had a bad habit of obsessing. He knew this. He was obsessing right now. Was that a sign that he was affected too, or was it just his usual over-analytical personality?
Honey Lemon's sunny demeanor would usually help calm them down, but there was no word from her yet - not that they expected any. She was still at SFIT, which was in lockdown and kicked into scientific high gear. The best biologists, chemists and neuroscientists in the state were working non-stop on a way to reverse whatever Di was going: a list that included Honey.
Hiro would be proud of how renowned she was if he weren't so worried. But he knew she would agree with the others. They needed to relax, or they would fall apart.
So he breathed deep, and dug in. "Sorry, guys. I just hate seeing the city like this."
"Us too, Hiro." Gogo said. "But Honey Lemon and the others will have that cure."
"They have a better chance of doing it than we do at this point, anyway," Wasabi decided. His usual spin on optimistic fatalism, and it was almost reassuring.
"Fair enough." Hiro said, grinning. "Then how about we try to calm ourselves down? Movie night at the secret base?" There was a pause, which they used to think it over and he used for dramatic effect. "C'mon, guys. Skymax has a giant screen just ripe for mondo-sized explosions."
"I'm in." Gogo said. He had her at "explosions."
"As long as those explosions are the result of kaiju atomic breath, oh yeah!" Fred cheered.
Gogo groaned. "Not another kaiju movie, Fred. At this point I can practically recite the entire Kentucky Kaiju series line by line."
"Ah, yes. That was all by design…"
"I'd rather not have explosions at all, actually," Wasabi said timidly. That was their Wasabi: brave in the war against villains, shy in the war for movie selection. "How about a nice, calm romantic comedy?"
For once, both Fred and Gogo agreed on something. "NO!" "NO!"
"Come on, guys…"
Hiro chuckled, figuring now was the best time to cut in. "We'll figure it out when we get there. Let me just cycle Baymax around, and I can have it set up in-"
There was a sudden chiming from his helmet. His phone, the regular non-superhero one, was ringing. It was sitting in his pocket at the moment, but when on patrol he connected it through his comm system to make answering easier.
He glanced at the screen. It was Karmi.
He figured he should answer this quick. The moment they figured out Di was up to something Karmi had been put under 24-hour protection at SFIT, sequestered there with Honey Lemon, Granville, the real Liv Amara – that was an awkward meeting – and the other experts. She was part of the research team, but she was not happy about being stuck there, especially when Hiro let slip that it had been his idea.
He stood by it, and unfortunately was just stupid enough to say so to her face. Even if that put them on the outs for a while, they both knew there was no telling whether Di still had it out for her. But he wasn't so stupid the point that he would invite any more excuses for her to be mad at him.
"Just a sec, guys-" He said, switching off of the team's channel. It was a video call, but he had his helmet on and wouldn't be able to take it off for a while, so he accepted it as a voice call. "Hey, Karmi!"
Strangely, he didn't get a response. She didn't say anything at first, at least not to him. He almost thought the call dropped somehow, except that he could just hear her in the background. It sounded like she was moving something heavy around, and she was muttering something. "It's not going to hold. No, no... it's not going to hold!" Whatever that meant.
It was all a bit confusing, so he spoke up a bit louder. "I said, 'Hey, Karmi!'"
"Hiro!" She shouted his name with more relief than he expected - not that he was complaining, but wasn't she still mad at him? As he heard her footsteps hurry back to the phone, he started to wonder.
"There you are, Karmi! What's up?" Knowing she might just be calling with an update, he added. "What's happening with the investi-"
She cut him off. "I know how she's doing it!" Her voice was high, maybe a little wild. There was a definite edge of desperation to it, but Hiro was so stunned by what she said that he missed it.
"You what?!" Movie night dropped from his mind like a stone. "What do you mean?"
There was a slam, her hands against a desk. She hadn't picked up her phone. Instead, Hiro figured she was hunched over it screaming into the receiver for some reason. "I-it's the water! Hiro, it's in the water! We've been drinking it!"
No fool, Hiro quickly starting assembling the mental puzzle pieces. "The water? You're not suggesting she-"
"She added something to make her take control." There were more footsteps. Thumping, as if stuff was getting knocked out of her way. Was she pacing around over there? "Makes people loopy, aggressive, and then they turn. If the resist, they turn worse. A-and the monsters…"
"The monsters – that is, the people who Di mutated before – they would be the first to react. It would trigger their residual mutations, like… like some kind of genetic memory! And 'turning worse' sure explains the rampages." It all fit together, except for one part. "But wait. If Di is behind this, why haven't any of the affected people – I dunno – stormed the jail and broken her out?"
"No control!" Karmi said sharply. "She wouldn't be able to – urgh!" There was another thump. From the sound of it, he supposed she had banged her elbow against something in her enthusiasm. Wincing on her behalf, Hiro continued the thought.
"That's right. Di is in prison. She can't direct this… this monster army she's trying to create, so they're running wild." It seemed like the break they needed, but he had been a superhero too long to think he was that lucky. Sure enough, with a little more thought… "But it's only a matter of time before she gets one that does what she wants it to."
It was a long moment before Karmi spoke again, with a tremor he had barely heard from her before. The desperation in her voice was now so strong that even Hiro couldn't possibly miss it.
"You have to call to cops. Tell your friend Megan. Get in contact with Big Hero 6. They have to stop this, before it's too late. Before I…"
Hiro nodded. He knew that this was. She had to have been worried about Di coming after her, no matter what she had said before – or how hard she had punched him. He wouldn't let her down.
"I'll do you one better, Karmi." He said under his breath, tapping the communicator to switch over to another channel – just for a moment. Wouldn't want her to think he was hanging up.
With another chime in his ear came a message from Basemax. ""Hiro. An investigation of Sycorax' records show that the company took a grant from the city to install a new filtration system in the Miracle City reservoir approximately one year before the first monster sightings in San Fransokyo."
Hiro's eyes widened. A year before? How far back in advance did Di's plans go? If they hadn't stopped her back then, would the city have been a monster playground by now?
There was a pause, and then Basemax continued. "Liv Amara is sending over the pertinent files posthaste."
Despite the circumstances, Hiro managed a smile. At least the real Liv Amara had a good heart. "Good. Send everything to the others – and keep Honey Lemon in the loop. We're taking a trip to the reservoir."
He cut off the communication and quickly switched back to Karmi, happy to know it had been a short enough break that she hadn't even noticed he left. "Thanks, Karmi. I'll try to get this info the right hands. You-" He stopped and switched gears, sparing his friend's pride. "I mean we don't have to worry about Di any more."
Karmi said nothing, which was odd. Usually she would be crowing about her genius - though her boasts and jabs were much more good-natured now than they had been in the old days. She was the first, if not the only person to figure out the big scientific mystery at the heart of this disaster, arguably one of the people who would be most responsible for the city being saved once BH6 made use of that information. She had to already know that, so it was unlike her to be quiet about that kind of validation.
She didn't seem able to say anything, in fact. He couldn't hear anything but her breathing. Her heavy, haggard breathing. Slowly, but suddenly, a dreadful thought wormed into Hiro's brain. His stomach clenched, but he wasn't yet sure why.
"Wait… Karmi," he prodded further. "Why didn't you just tell Prof. Granville about this? She should be right there with you, it'd be faster. Why call me?"
"I can't. It's… it's not safe."
Hiro's throat hitched. Not safe? What was she talking about? He was starting to think that Karmi's desperation had nothing to do with Di's hypothetical revenge. "Karmi..?"
"I'm sorry. It's in me too, Hiro. I'm…" She couldn't bear to finish the sentence.
"Karmi…" He said again, slower than before. "How did you figure this all out?"
Her voice was quiet. "I usually drink bottled water. I usually never trust tap. I can't believe the one time I didn't..." Hiro knew that already. How many times had he heard her scoff about his lunch, and how "ridiculously germ-ridden" his food was. It was almost a game at this point, grossing her out with his lunch. "But I've been here for days, and I ran out. I'm so stupid!" Another loud thumb. This time, it was clear it wasn't an accident.
His stomach fell. "No. Nonono. Karmi, don't tell me."
"I could feel it right away. Like before. Everything started spiraling away from me, slower than before, but still too fast. It's too fast, Hiro! It's-"
Then she shrieked. Hiro's heart stopped. It was restrained, just barely, like a strangled screech. It also was clearly, terrifyingly, not entirely human.
"KARMI!"
This was bad. This was so very, very bad! And – Hiro realized with an emotional stab to his chest – it was his fault. He was the one who made sure Karmi was placed under protection. If she had stayed on her own and hadn't changed her safe routine, this wouldn't have happened.
Thinking fast, he switched back over to lair channel. "Basemax, send an alert to all the others. Let them know what's happening, especially Honey Lemon. NOW!"
Grimly, he recognized that there wasn't much Honey Lemon would be able to do. She was on scene at SFIT, but she was surrounded by other people with no way to slip into her hero identity. She hadn't even brought her chem purse with her. Honey was in the same boat as everyone else.
"It's not safe," Karmi had said. Hiro had to agree now. All of those people…
"Baymax!" He said to the robot flying below him. "We need to get over to SFIT right now!"
"We are already on our way."
Loving Baymax more than ever, Hiro gave his companion a quick pat and switched back to the phone call.
"Karmi. You gotta stay with me. We'll get through this."
"I ran off." She droned on, as if not quite responding to him. "As soon as I realized what was happening I found an empty lab and blast shielded myself in. I turned on all the security protocols. Granville probably thinks I've lost my mind." She chuckled, but it was a bitter laugh with zero humor. She sounded as scared and miserable as she had been that first time, back when she had called him about "Liv's" treachery. "But it's not going to hold. I'm going to break through it. Part of me actually wants to, to rip it to shreds, even though I'm the one who-" The paused, whimpering with dread. "Oh, no. I-I'm going to hurt everyone. I'm sorry… so, so sorry…"
Even in the moment he had to commend Karmi's quick thinking in keeping herself contained, but she was right. He vividly remembered what she had been like – they had even fought once or twice, not that she knew that. SFIT's security was built to contain out-of-control student experiments, not ten-foot tall monsters with claws sharp enough to split concrete. The Beast of San Fransokyo would tear through its "cage" like tissue paper.
It wasn't fair. They were so close to stopping all this. They had all wanted so much, Karmi especially, for her at least to get through this unscathed. The last time had been awful enough.
"Don't apologize. You can do this! I know you can, just keep focused! Fight it!"
She spoke over him, as though he wasn't speaking at all. She was overcome. "If you're right - if Di takes control - promise me you'll tell Big Hero 6 do whatever it takes. They have to stop me, before I hurt you..." She caught herself. "Before I hurt anyone again. I'm afraid, Hiro. I'm so afraid that I'll-"
He knew what she had really meant to say. Another time, and he would have appreciated the thought. But now he had to stop it in its tracks. "You would never hurt me, Karmi." He said, mentally willing her to take it to heart. "I believe in you, remember? We care about each-"
There was a series of bangs from Karmi's side of the call, but this time it wasn't the crashes of what he realized now were things being thrashed aside. It was knocking from the outside of her door, and along with it the muffled sound of Granville's voice.
"No!" Hiro shouted without thinking. He couldn't make out what Granville was saying, but he didn't think anything could have reassured him about this. What was she thinking?! Had Honey Lemon not told her yet what was happening? Or maybe she did know, and trying to do the same thing Hiro was and talk Karmi down?
It would be just like Granville to try to solve this problem alone and with words, putting as few people as possible at risk. Yet in-character for her or not, but if that was her intention it wasn't working. He heard another terrible scream that barely sounded like his friend. "GO awAAYY!" Karmi roared – literally roared – at the door, followed by the sound of heavy running towards the door.
"Wait! Karmi don't-"
An instant later he heard a rumbling slam from Karmi's line, and the shuddering of metal. A second after that, before he could shout again, a chime rang in his ear and Gogo's voice came in from the communicator.
"Hiro!"
He could've cursed, if Aunt Cass hadn't taught him so well. He switched over to the team comms quickly, while Karmi was distracted. "Not the time, Gogo!"
"Make the time, Hiro. We got your alert. We know what's going on, and its even worse than you thought."
"I'm having a very hard time right now believing that it could get any worse, Gogo!" Hiro hissed, taking stock of his location. Even at his current speed, SFIT was still too many minutes away. He had to go faster.
"Think again. Di broke out of jail." Gogo said, her blunt edge cutting straight through his anger. She was right - it was bad enough news that Hiro actually stopped. Even Baymax broke his flight pattern to listen. "Basemax told us about your theory that one of the affected could end up in Di's pocket. Well, it happened. A bunch of the prison guards went ragemonster and tore her out of her cell with their bare hands."
Fred's voice suddenly popped onto the line, much louder than Gogo's. Hiro jumped. "It was totally gnarly! The vid's already got half a million views online. I gotta show it to-"
"Fred."
Gogo's voice was surprisingly calm, and even more surprisingly Fred listened. "Sorry." He murmured, and - as Hiro gaped on the other end - the infamous chatterbox dipped out the conversation. It suddenly registered that none of the others were in the conversation. Usually, they would be chiming in with their own thoughts, but Gogo was the only one on the line.
"More importantly," Gogo continued, not bothering to explain why that was. "Now she's holed herself up, and guess where?"
It wasn't a hard question. It was far away, but Hiro still instinctively turned to stare at where he knew the villain responsible had to be. "The reservoir."
"Yes. And she's been busy. She's grown a small army of 'pets.' It's like a fortress there already, and she's only getting started."
Another bang, with some barely intelligible howling, came in the one ear he had still on Karmi's line. She was really wailing on that door. It was too much to hear both of these at the same time. "Okay. Okay…" He shuddered with mental strain, trying to figure everything out. He had to find some way to fix the puzzle and make it all work. "You guys got this. Head over there and hit her hard. I'll go to SFIT and-"
"No." Gogo said forcefully, but without raising her voice. "She's making a fight of it, Hiro, and it looks like a big one. We need you there."
"No."
It was forceful of him, but leave it to Gogo to dismiss the finality of that response. "Hiro..."
"I mean it!" He insisted. How could she even keep suggesting this? "Karmi is turning, in the middle of SFIT with dozens of innocent people in the crossfire. I have to be there!"
"I know you want to, but Honey Lemon is already there." Gogo said patiently. "Trust her. She has a plan."
"A plan?" Hiro abruptly lost control. "Honey Lemon DOESN'T EVEN HAVE HER GEAR!" By the end of it, Hiro was shouting at the top of his lungs. But Gogo didn't audibly react, almost as if she was expecting this at some point. She didn't have to say a word anyway. After a moment Hiro felt a enough shame hit him, but he but pushed it down.
"You're not hearing what I'm hearing, Gogo." He said weakly, absently tapping the earpiece which was even now still playing the grim feed from Karmi's phone.
"Maybe not, but Honey Lemon is keeping us filled in. It's bad. We know. But we…" He heard her gulp, something she never did. "We have to choose. Trust her and Granville, or fail." She paused again, and it hit Hiro how strained she sounded. It was hurting her to say this as much as it hurt Hiro to hear it. They all cared almost as much as he did, and it wasn't just Karmi on the line: it was Honey Lemon too, alone against a rampaging monster. "We have to believe that they can hold Karmi off, because Honey Lemon definitely can't be with the team and without you too the three of us left cannot do this alone. You rush in now and we might lose the whole city. The city, Hiro!"
Hiro suddenly realized why the others hadn't joined the call. They must have all come to this conclusions on their own, and left it to Gogo – with her blunt and cold, but realistic and understanding, brand of kindness – to convince him to make the same hard choice. She was the only one who could get through.
His head fell down, his teeth grit to the point where they almost hurt. This wasn't fair. It hadn't even been part of Di's plan, the clone just got lucky. Terribly, horribly lucky, and Karmi paid the price. "You don't understand. This is all my fault."
"No, it's not your fault." Gogo said firmly. "It's Di Amara's. And the best way to save Karmi is to stop her. Once Di is out of the picture, everyone goes back to normal."
He sighed. His head knew she was right, even though his heart was bellowing objections. And his head was winning, painful though it was. "She… she made me promise not to let her hurt anyone."
"Honey and Granville will fight as hard as they can to keep that promise. They don't want her to do something she'll regret any more than you do."
A sudden flash of insight hit him as a memory came back. You'd never hurt me. Hiro's eyes went wide, then narrowed in thought. "Maybe Honey won't have to do it alone." Gogo almost objected, so he quickly clarified. "Not what you think. I might still know a way to help, though... I wish I didn't."
He couldn't explain any more than that. They didn't have the time, and he didn't really want to say what he was thinking out loud. It was bad enough as an idea. He switched back to Karmi, hating the plan forming in his head, hating himself for knowing he had to do it, and hating Di even more for making it the only way.
He grabbed his helmet and pulled it off of his head. Baymax could hold it for a little while. Now was no longer the time for caution. With his face now fully visible, he lifted his physical phone to his head and switched to video chat. Anyone looking at it would only see his head, not his costume, thought if Karmi noticed his hair whipping around in the wind he wouldn't care.
The video came on instantly. He was looking at the ceiling of one of SFIT's labs – Karmi, just as he thought, had left the phone on a desk. There was barely any light there, just a red glow that was probably from the security systems. There was also no sign of Karmi - just the muffled sound of Honey Lemon and Granville's voices, alongside low, indistinct wails… or maybe those were sobs… from just off camera.
"Karmi." He tried, anxiously hoping his voice was getting through.
She didn't respond, but he could definitely identify her now. She was somewhere between the phone and the door, murmuring to herself. "Professssor Granville… Honey Lemon… nnoo… go away... I'm sso sssorry… in my way… iN mY WAY…"
He tried again, but louder, in a surge of deja vu. "Karmi!"
It took a minute, but a shape slowly stepped into view. Hardly anything was visible in the darkness of the room, but even so he could barely recognize the person looking back as his friend. She was like something out of a horror movie: hunched over and ragged, her hair whipping, discolored, around her head. Her face was cloaked entirely in shadow, except for her eyes. The eyes were the worst part. All black, with piercing yellow irises.
They were not Karmi's eyes, but were just human enough that it was a fright to look into them.
"Hhhhiro…" She hissed, now struggling to talk. "Fffforgive me…"
"There's nothing to forgive, Karmi. Your insight is going to save everyone. You're a genius, and you've never, ever let me down."
She tensed, and there was an awful wrenching sound – claws against the metal desk.
"I-I still remember what you did the first time this happened. Do you?'
The eyes bulged. He almost saw something glint in their corners before she threw her head against the desk, trying to shake out the memory. "… hhhurt you!"
"No, you protected me!" He barked, hoping to snap her out of it. He had to keep her attention. "Didn't you know that? You saved me!"
She looked back up, her eyes trained on the phone again, and with them the first hints of a deranged resolve that he forced himself to accept. "… sssaved you… protect… Hiro… n-no…"
"Yes! That's right! That's what you've always done. Help me, even protect me. And…" He gulped, feeling like dirt. He hated this. "… and I need you to do it again. Can you do it again for me?"
For a second, she looked happy. Then, she was horrified. She gripped her head, as if squeeze hard enough could kill the ferocity out. "N-no, this is wrong… cccan't let it in…"
"All the people there, only you can protect them. You have to hear me! They…" He bit his lip. "They belong to you, all of SFIT does, just like I do. And if you don't hurt them, I'll..." he sighed. No way back now. "... I'll come there to join you. Then you can protect me too, just like you want. Isn't that what you want?"
It was a decent speech, but there was a part he chose not to add. But yes, it is wrong. You're right, again… Hiro thought to himself.
Manipulating her while she was in a state like this, using these compulsions against her, it was a lousy plan. It was the only way he could think of to stave off tragedy and help Honey Lemon, but was it worth it? He didn't even know if this would work. As far as he knew Karmi would turn right around after all this and still rip everyone there to shreds, he would have failed her trust for nothing, and why-oh-why couldn't he just be there when she needed him?!
And because he really wasn't that lucky after all, finding out if it worked would turn out to be beyond him. Karmi stared at the screen for a long time, long enough for him to wonder if he really had gotten through to her. But then she roared again – bigger and worse than before – and threw herself back, tearing and raving around the room.
"Nonono, Karmi! You have to listen!"
She didn't listen. Instead, part of her swooped towards the phone and it went flying into the air. She must have upended the desk, for a moment later something heavy fell onto the screen and the call went dead.
"Karmi! Karmi!" He shouted, but he knew that it was too late. He was cut off. He sunk into Baymax's harness, and blankly dropped the phone back into his pocket. "Be safe." He said to nobody in particular.
Yet again he was floating almost alone above the city, and he felt none of the euphoria he should have. The air in San Fransokyo had never felt worse.
"Hiro." Baymax said from below him. He had allowed Hiro to have that moment, for which Hiro was very grateful. "Are we moving to help the others at the reservoir, or continuing to Karmi and Honey Lemon at SFIT?"
He knew why Baymax had stated the choice out loud - as a robot, he too needed to be sure - but it was still painful to hear. If he had known when he first suited up that becoming a hero could mean having days like this, he might have thought twice.
But he swallowed his sense of dread and guilt, and patted Baymax on the shoulder. It was the closest he could get to a hug in flight position. "No." He said, mostly to convince himself. "Gogo was right. If we stop Di, we save Karmi. We save Karmi, we save Honey Lemon and Granville. This just puts us on a clock. But speaking of which." He tapped his earpiece back to Gogo's channel. He knew she would already be there waiting. "Gogo, I'm on my way. But make sure either Honey Lemon or Granville sends as many status updates as they can. If either of them doesn't call in every ten minutes, I don't care if we need the resources: I am sending Mega-Max after them."
"Way ahead of you. And look at you being underprotective. I told her every five minutes," Gogo said wryly, but the strain was still there. "But seriously, Hiro. I'm sorry about this."
He shook his head, more for himself as she wouldn't be able to see it. "It's not your fault. Like you said, it's Di's." His mind went set with determination. If they were going to do this, they were going to have the best plan he had ever concocted. "So, let's go make sure she knows."
Baymax kicked it into high gear and the two heroes rocketed through the sky towards the San Fransokyo reservoir, prepared for yet another battle for their lives. When they arrived Fred no doubt would say something witty about this being a "Season Four" problem, Wasabi would almost lose his nerve and then come back twice as brave as ever, and Gogo would rush in with a barb a cuttingly sharp as her wheels.
As they always did, his friends being beside him would lift Hiro spirits and make him feel like he could do anything. And maybe that was good enough.
But maybe he was imagining it, but as they left the skyline behind he could've sworn he heard a shriek echo over the horizon, something animalistic and savage. Whether it was real or not, it left a chill in his spine. Like a dire omen.
"I just hope this wasn't a bad idea…" He murmured. He would keep saying it again, over and over in his mind, until this was over. Baymax had nothing to add. For once, the robot had no real answers either.
All they knew was that meanwhile, somewhere far across the city, something vicious was stalking though narrow hallways. What it would come to do was a mystery, and so who could say if it would, or even could, be stopped in time…
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the really-for-real last chapter of Genetic Memory!
It's funny. I've had the idea of making a bonus chapter to this for a while. Ever since way back during the break between Seasons 2 and 3 of the show. The primary concept of this fic was "what if they chose to go the Curt Connors direction with Di and Karmi," something I thought had enough of a chance of happening to be worth exploring, so I figured even if they didn't actually do it I'd bounce off of whatever they did for Di Amara and Karmi in the third season and make a "what if?" chapter to round this out.
Imagine my surprise when they only gave Karmi a cursory episode, and didn't even touch Di again at all. That idea fizzled after that, but since I'd already put the concept in my head I eventually got the urge to finish it. Still, that's why this one is especially one-shot focused, with few references to the last chapter: I had originally intended this to be more in line with the show.
Since this fic was so Curt Connors inspired, I figured to instead just finish with a Lizard homage and keep the "superhero horror" angle going. This whole chapter is inspired by one of my favorite "scary" Curt Connors moments, from Spider-Man: Feral. There Connors, affected by a strange radiation, desperately calls Peter Parker for help as he is actively changing into the Lizard, with Peter unable to do anything but listen. There's a couple other nods to that comic as well - and since last chapter had a bonus passage, here's another bit of that story BH6ized as a bonus on top of the bonus:
The problem wasn't that he could barely recognize her. It was that it was all too easily recognize her. She looked like Karmi. She talked like Karmi, with that same biting sarcasm. She acted like Karmi, the same little tics he had gotten to know. She had the same familiar smirk on her face. But her eyes, they were still wrong. Still all black, with those horrible yellow irises peering at him.
Not to mention that she had kidnapped him and tied him up. That was pretty unlike her. But either she didn't know, or more likely she didn't care.
"I can't believe that all this time I've had it wrong."
He didn't fight his bonds, not yet. He knew that would only provoke her. He had to keep her talking. "Had what wrong? You're not making any sense."
"This whole time, I've been trying to fix myself. To cure my... condition in fear of what I might do to you. But that was wrong." The smirk became a smile, showing a row of jagged, inhuman teeth. "I should've embraced it, like a real scientist. I should have been making you like me!"
"Don't do it, Karmi. That's Di talking, not you!"
She snarled, and for the first time the monster inside came bubbling to the surface. "Di doesn't control me! I am in control. You'll understand in a moment." Then, to his horror, she advanced towards him. In her hands, a familiar biochip danced between her fingers - pushing towards his neck. He was out of time. "Don't worry, it only hurts for a minute. Then you'll be my masterpiece..."
In the words of Bugs Bunny, how Halloweeny can you get?
This was fun, and really got the cobwebs cleared away. Writing this has really made me want to get back into writing The Amazing Chan Adventures, since I wrote Xu-Lin kind of similarly to this, but let's just say there's another fic I really need to finish before I start thinking of any of the others. But I hope you readers have enjoyed all of these!