Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Mikan Ferns: I s2g if I catch ONE more student singing that stupid funky pop song I'm gonna scream
Fredilicous24: It's catchy though! Nice ring to it!
Gogo: -_-
Hiro Hamada: It was from crime dancers! Even Ari thinks it's catchy!
TheLittleMermaid: It's stuck in my head! I can't help it!
Sara Ferns: While David thought the song sounded cool and according to Ari the dancing was awesome, he is disappointed that it was just a crime dance
Gogo: Why isn't he on chat?
Sara Ferns: Still yet to replace his phone
Gogo: understandable, have a nice day
Wasabi: But them dance moves
TheLittleMermaid: IKR?! 10/10 can dance better than me
Hiro groaned at the group chat, putting his phone away. "They got applause… the bad guys! People clapped for the bad guys!" The gang were in the cafeteria as him and Gogo reported last night's fumble.
Gogo slouched on her chair as she popped her gum. "Telling a story through dance..." She muttered under her breath. "Yeah right."
"Well it was the story of kicking our butts." Hiro tried to sit up but his back flared from pain. He was still sore from where Barb hit him with electricity and what was even worse was that Ari… Ari thought the act was cool! He didn't realize she was there until he saw a video of the whole encounter, and almost threw his computer in the air when he got to the part Juniper was swinging Ari around the street. It… bothered him for a reason, perhaps because Ari kept singing their stupid funky pop song! She had joined them for lunch but Mikan dragged her away for some reason, so it was a good time to talk about superhero stuff while she wasn't in earshot.
"Ohhh and there's gonna be more butt-kicking." Wasabi placed his hands to his head, wincing. "Why did I choose a yoga elective over martial arts?!"
"One you centered yourself, two you strengthen your core and three, you love the big ball!" Honey Lemon comforted him, bringing up the positives instead of the negatives.
"Yeah." It worked. "I do love the big ball."
"Colorful villains-" They turn to Fred who appeared, dramatically narrating as usual. "Underestimated because of their ridiculous personas? Like so many things… it was foretold in comic books!"
"Really?" Hiro raised an eyebrow, but then again not like it's the first time Fred referred to comic book logic for solutions.
"Yeah! We should go run out and study a bunch of comic books to figure out how to beat High Voltage!" Gogo sarcastically scoffed. "Like that'll work..."
He drummed the table. "It'll work! In this case I choose one issue in particular, Captain Fancy Issue 188!"
"Don't ask… don't ask… don't-" But curiosity got the better of poor Gogo. "And what happened in Captain Fancy Issue 188?"
"Captain Fancy lost battle after battle to a mother-daughter acrobat duo!"
"Wow, that is similar." Honey Lemon noted. "High Voltage is a mother-daughter dancing duo that have acrobatic skills." Fred hummed in agreement.
"Did they have a floating shock generator as well?" Hiro dryly questioned.
"Close, they had a trained bear named Grizzlovitch! Real deadly."
Gogo popped her gum. "Shouldn't have asked..."
Hiro saw someone in the corner of his eye, and winced. "Speaking of fighting a bear..."
It was Karmi, surrounded by books and scribbling something down. He knew that he had to talk to her for the sake of finishing the darn journal assignment, but he wasn't going to like it.
He exhaled. "Wish me good luck." Then walked on over to the bear's den. "Hi Karmi! Hanging out in the cafeteria too I see, heh heh..." He nervously chuckled.
Karmi looked up, frowning. "Uhg." And looked back down to her book.
"So I was thinking…" He started rambling in a stubborn attempt to get some response. "Maybe Granville is right, maybe the two youngest students should-" His train of thought halted when he got a good look at Karmi's drawing that she was working on, an anime-style version of his hero persona surrounded by flowers and hearts, "Wait is that-?"
He reached his hand out but Karmi snapped the book and glared at him. "Eyes on your own work creeper!" She then grabbed all of her books and laptop, and walked away from him.
"That's it, I'm having a chat with her..." Hiro yelped as he turned around and saw Ari had got back, and she heard the entire exchange.
"Wait Ari-" He tried calling her back but the sweater girl ignored him and followed after Karmi.
"That is not going to end well." Hiro groaned, but he was smart enough to not get involved with an argument between her and Karmi. So he went back to his friends table. They still needed to figure out how to beat High Voltage after all.
Uhg! Who does that guy think he is? Karmi grumbled to herself as she retired to her lab. Stupid Hiro… can he just leave me alone for five seconds? Take a hint already!
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. "If that's you Mikan you better leave me alone!" She snapped at it, but as the door opened it revealed itself to be Ari. "Oh uh… you're good."
"Hey Karmi." Ari nervously waved. "Can we talk?"
"Uh… sure?" The biotech major shrugged, a little confused.
"You don't seem to get along with Hiro." Ari noted. "Why is that?"
Karmi blinked. "Well… why do you care?"
"Hiro's my friend." The sweater girl glared. "I don't want to see him getting picked on." Oh great. it was the case of an overprotective friend.
"No I wouldn't pick on him!" Karmi rapidly shook her head. "I just want him to leave me alone!"
"Why do you want Hiro to leave you alone?" Ari stepped closer.
Why couldn't she leave it be? "I just do! I don't have to explain myself!" She stepped back in shock, her eyes starting to water. Karmi realized what she had done and felt the guilt worm into her chest. Dangit, she was just caring about her friend, even if you can't stand him. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that."
"It's fine." Ari smiled, which made her feel even worse. "I know that you're not the friend kind of person… but I wanna be your friend, you're really cool. So please?" Ohhh not the puppy eyes! Karmi winced seeing those blue eyes stare at her, it reminded her of her younger sister which made it even worse!
"I guess..." She looked away, not like she could say no to those eyes anyways.
"Yay!" Ari beamed which made Karmi feel better. "By the way, do you know anything about Big Hero 6? I've been in San Fransokyo for weeks but I still know little about them."
At the mention of the superhero team, Karmi stood up. "You like Big Hero 6?!" Ari nodded. "I am a huge fan of them too! Especially their leader!"
"Cool, do you know their names?" She asked. "I don't know so I've just been calling them by their colors."
"Nobody does, so people come up with their own nicknames, myself included." Karmi replied. "But they're super cool protecting the city!"
"Yeah, they are!" Ari then stared at the clock. "Gotta go now, can I come back tomorrow?"
"Uh… if it's no trouble then sure?"
The sweater girl squealed, then skipped out of the lab. "Bye Karmi!"
Karmi could only shake her head and chuckle once she was gone. "Ah, kids. Got to love them for their energy." At least Ari wasn't as judgy as Hiro.
Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Honey Lemon: Look at this adorable picture of Mochi that Ari sent me!
Honey Lemon: Cute_Cat40,jpeg
Sara Ferns: Awwww! I showed my aunt Sally and she loves it!
Hiro Hamada: Is that why she was smiling as she taught the class?
Sara Ferns: "No that means you will be getting a test in a few days" -David
Hiro Hamada: Dangit!
Gogo: Great….
"You know, I don't get it..." Hiro kept thinking about that doodle of his hero persona in Karmi's notebook, even as he was flying through the sky with Baymax and Fred on night patrol. "Why would she draw superhero me?"
"Because Big Hero 6 Hiro is a 'hero Hiro' and 'regular Hiro' is just some run-of-the-mill boy genius." Fred explained.
"But there is only one Hiro." Baymax turns to face Fred.
"In this dimensional timeline!" The buzzing of the comms paused the conversation. "Yes?" Fred answered the call.
"It's High Voltage, again!" Gogo exclaimed on the other line, sending the location.
"Let's go." Hiro nodded, and they were off to face the crime-dancers once more.
Meanwhile...
"Why did I agree to spy on High Voltage in a tree with you again Mikan?" Ari groaned. She was with the snow-haired girl in a nearby tree spying on the duo via binoculars. Mikan had proposed it during lunch and for some reason Ari agreed to it because not like she had anything else going on in her life.
"Because one, David doesn't like them, two, Sara doesn't like them, and three, Mom doesn't like them! She got really upset when she heard David was near one of those shows." Mikan rambled. "And I for one want to see why my fellow classmates like them."
"Huh, that's odd." Ari hummed in amusement. She still couldn't place the weird feeling in her chest as she watched High Voltage through the binoculars.
The crowd was cheering as Barb collected money from a truck, the police were tied up beside the truck and nobody paid attention to that detail. "Juniper! Juniper!" The crowd cheered.
"My dreams are coming true!" Juniper exclaimed, throwing electric kisses to the audience. "You hear that Mama they love me! They really love me!"
"Us, Juniper." Barb threw her hands up in annoyance "They love us!"
"Hey!"
They looked up as Gogo, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon were there to face them. "You two got lucky last time!" Gogo told them, sliding down the rails for the attack.
"Juniper!" She turned to her mama. "Squat dance! With feeling!"
High Voltage!
Juniper backflipped and kicked electrical blasts at Gogo once landing, and once more Gogo got hit by a lucky blow and she fell to the ground.
"Probably not the best time right now-" Wasabi gestured. "But your dance moves are perfection!"
"She does have my thighs." Barb kicked bolts at him, he yelped and barely dodged.
High Voltage!
As the crowd cheered during the fight, a certain reddish-brown eyed brunette walked to the front, staring at the heroes with awe.
"Rubber insulates electricity!" Honey Lemon tossed one of her chem balls at High Voltage, but they dodge out of the way and the goop struck a nearby tree instead.
Juniper then grabbed the electric orb and fired blasts that sent Honey Lemon flying. Luckily Hiro, Baymax, and Fred arrive just in time for the latter to grab Honey Lemon's hand and they all land back into the fight.
The brunette snapped a photo of Hiro and giggled.
We've got dance power!
Barb and Juniper formed an electric orb and fired it straight at them.
"Watch out!" Hiro shouted as the orb homed in on him and Baymax, they flew up but got hit anyways. Once more the pain of the electricity caused Hiro to fall off, but once more Fred caught his fellow teammate.
"Baymax!" Hiro cried out to the malfunctioning robot.
"Power power surge, power power surge, power-" Baymax ended up firing a rocket fist that struck down the street lamp by the crowd. Everyone screamed and ran out of the way, except for one person who was so busy staring at the picture she took she didn't see the lamp about to fall on her. By the time she looked up it was too late to run, her reddish-brown eyes staring up in horror.
Hiro leapt out of Fred's arms, grabbing the girl and leaping before the lamp fell on them. Once safe, Hiro looked down at the damsel.
"Are you alright-AH!" He gasped as the person he rescued was none other than-
"I am now..." Karmi smiled, snapping a picture of her rescuer.
"Phew!" Mikan sighed with relief. "Looks like the little germ was rescued by Prince Charming after all."
"Wait, that was Karmi?" Ari stared at the girl who Purple rescued, but it was so blurry she had to rub the binocular lenses again. "I think you gave me a faulty pair,"
Mikan huffed. "Hey! They're Steven's!" Then looked back at the fight. "Oof, Big Hero 6 is taking a beating."
Yeah… Ari frowned. They are… No matter how hard the superheroes were trying, High Voltage kept zapping them. She should resent the dancers for fighting the good guys and using their talent for evil, right? But somehow she just… couldn't. Whenever she tried feeling any sort of negative feeling she just kept thinking of when Juniper pulled her into the dance, and that filled her with warmth.
It was… weird, Ari didn't like weird.
"Ari… don't move." Mikan's worried voice snapped her back to reality with confusion, but then she heard it.
Crack!
The sickening sound of the branch she was sitting on beginning to break. When Pink threw that chem ball at the branch, it started weighing on it! Another crack made her stumble, her body dangling as her arms barely clung onto the branch.
"What do I do?" Ari panicked, feeling the gravity of the situation weighing down on her.
"Calm down..." Mikan started scooting towards her branch. "I'm gonna grab you so stay pu-"
CRACK!
The branch snapped in two, taking Ari with it.
She screamed in terror as the ground hurtled towards her. "AAAAAHHH!" She shut her eyes, bracing for the sickening impact.
Her scream caught the attention of someone, who stopped blasting her opponent to catch the falling sweater girl.
She stopped screaming when the feeling of falling faded, someone had caught her, but who? Big Hero 6? Was it Yellow? There was a bit of blurry yellow in her vision, but she opened her eyes more to get a better look at her rescuer.
"Hey, are you alright?" Warm cocoa brown eyes stared with down with honest concern, blonde hair a little messy from the fight.
"Umm…" Ari felt her face turn to mush as Juniper's soft expression made the funny feeling in her chest grow tenhold. "M'fine…" She could only look back at the beautiful face staring back at her-wait what?
Juniper smiled. "Thank goodness. It would be awful if something bad happened to someone so cute." She gently placed Ari back on the ground, then backflipped to her mama as they escaped the scene with the stolen money once more.
Mikan slid down the tree as the superheroes circled over with concern. "Woah! That was close!" She rushed to Ari's side. "Are you okay? Are you in shock?!"
"She called me cute..." Ari mumbled, placing a hand to her cheek as a goofy grin was on her face.
Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Hiro Hamada: MIKAN FERNS
Mikan Ferns: Oh snap D :
Hiro Hamada: What did you do to Ari?!
Sara Ferns: I can't believe you were spying in a TREE during a dangerous fight!
Sara Ferns: "And didn't invite me!" -David
Hiro Hamada: That's not the point I was trying to make!
Honey Lemon: I think what Hiro means is that you both could have gotten hurt.
Wasabi: Yeah! We should be lucky that someone caught Ari from falling out of a tree!
Fredilicous24: Who caught Ari?
Hiro Hamada: This conversation is over
Mikan Ferns: Is the noodle angry that their friend was rescued by High Voltage?
Hiro Hamada: Shut up!
Next day at SFIT…
Ari looked around for Hiro, she didn't get a chance to talk to him last night about what happened last night due to her exhaustion. There wasn't a chance this morning either because he and his friends rushed out of the cafe before she could walk off the drowsiness. She needed to talk to him for help, there was this weird fluttering feeling in her chest and she didn't know what to do! It wasn't a bad feeling, it even made her feel nice. But the problem was the feeling kept showing up whenever she thought Juniper!
"Looks like I caught you Genius Boy!" Ari whipped her head around as she heard Karmi accusing Hiro of something, her finger pointed to him and her eyes narrow.
"Oh uh… hey Karmi," Hiro was sweating bullets. "Is there any chance I can convince you to keep this secret?"
"Eww, do you think I want people to know you have a crush on me?" She gagged. Ari was surprised. Did Hiro have a crush on Karmi?
"Eww what?! No!" Hiro exclaimed, he looked disgusted at the thought. Maybe not… or does he?
Like her, Karmi didn't buy it. "It's sooo obvious, you're always talking to me all 'hey Karmi, we should work on our project.' N5-4 totally called it." Who's N5-4?
"I do not have a crush on you! I was asking about this!" Hiro snatcheds the phone from Karmi and pointed to a picture on it, it was too far for her to get a good look.
"That guy saved my life!" Karmi grabbed her phone back and stared at the picture in a funny manner. "He could say 'hey Karmi' to me any day."
"Um… okay?" Hiro looked weirded out. "Bye Karmi." He sped away in the direction of the labs. Maybe I shouldn't bug Hiro. But maybe Karmi could help?
"Um… Karmi I need your help." The biotech major looked up from her phone to see a conflicted Ari.
"Are you okay?" Karmi felt concerned. "Was Hiro bothering you?"
The sweater girl shook her head. "No it has nothing to do with Hiro..." She noted the new wallpaper on Karmi's phone. "Is that the purple one from Big Hero 6? How did you get his picture?"
"He saved my life yesterday! I was in the area and noticed a crowd and saw Big Hero 6! Then a lamp almost fell on me and he saved me from it! It was both the scariest and best thing to ever happen!" Karmi squealed.
"Oh" Ari raises an eyebrow, at either Karmi's fangirling or her lack of fear of getting squished. "Why do you like Big Hero 6's leader so much? I'm personally a fan of the yellow one."
"Well, it's just that he's so brave for saving the city and a hero for doing that..." She looked like she could ramble for hours on why she loved Big Hero 6's leader, she just could.
"Oh, does that make you have a crush on him?" Ari raised an eyebrow. "How does that make you feel?" Karmi blushes and looks away from the girl.
"Oh, it makes me feel this warmth of happiness everytime I think about him! Don't judge me." Karmi glared, as if she expected her to start saying taunts.
But she didn't. "No I wouldn't! But thanks for telling me, I think I know what my problem is now." Ari's cheeks blushed red. "I've… got a crush."
"On who?" Karmi questioned, Ari didn't mind telling her.
"On-"
"Ari!" Both girls turned their heads around as Hiro came running back. "What are you doing there-" He saw Ari's red face and jumped to conclusions. "Karmi have you been harassing Ari about something?!" The former gave an offended gasp.
"Hiro!" Ari exclaimed. "She hasn-"
"Come on!" He started dragging her away. "Stay away from my friend Karmi!" One gone from sight, Karmi gave a gloomy sigh, looking back at the photo of her hero to try and cheer her up a little.
After Hiro shoved her into the robotics labs, Ari glared at him. "Hiro what the heck was that for!?"
"I was saving you!" Hiro snapped back. "You've been acting weird for the past few days and if it's because of Karmi I'll-"
"You'll what?" Ari cut him off. "Hiro, Karmi wasn't doing anything! I was asking for help with a problem!"
"You could have asked me for help!" Hiro exclaimed, he noted his friends in the lab were watching but not getting involved.
"I tried! But you were too busy working on your dumb journal assignment with Karmi, and you give me flack for interacting with her?" Ari felt her blood boiling, she wanted to slap Hiro in the face for his stubbornness. "I'm aware that you both don't get along but for the love of god leave me out of your bicker-" She yelped in pain, bringing a hand to her head as she fell down. "Ow… headache." Hiro went to grab a water for her and a water for him, and handed her the bottle which she gulped down.
"That was a bad one." He noted. "Did you at least remember something from it?" Sometimes Ari's memories returned in the form of severe migraines, most of the time she only got flashes. I hope she remembered a bit, I feel bad stressing her out.
She nodded. "A little. I remember a sandy beach, someone laughing, and... that's it." Ari sighed. "That someone was really familiar."
"Were you able to get a good look at who it was?" Hiro questioned
"Their hair looked like mine." She drank the rest of her water. "Sorry for yelling."
"Hey, I should apologize." Hiro frowned. "You're right, I might be having trouble talking to Karmi but I shouldn't drag you into it, and I don't blame you for asking her for help with your problem instead of me."
Ari just smiled back. "It's fine. I actually found a solution to my problem thanks to both of you!"
"What was the problem?" Hiro frowned.
"Oh, some weird feelings that I've now figured out is just me having a crush." She smiled.
"A crush?" Hiro didn't even think she was crushing on anyone. "On who?" He took a sip of water.
"Um it's…" Ari was deeply blushing. "Juniper, from High Voltage."
At the sound of the crime-dancer's name Honey Lemon and Wasabi whipped their heads around, their faces wide as dinner plates.
As for Hiro? He just started spitting his drink out from the shock.
Muhahahahah! Plot twist! Bet you guys didn't see that coming..well I think one of you..
Little Ari developed a little crush...wonder what'll happen next chapter hmm?
Comment below if you think this is going to develop into a romantic relationship or not
Anyways time to answer some questions I got in the inbox! Well the ones that aren't spoilers
smooch119: Why was David frowning at the High Voltage display?
He wasn't frowning at their display, just frowning that his classmates were applauding and cheering for a bunch of criminals. David thinks less of his fellow student's intelligence atm lol
Angelxoxo8: Why was Hiro so disgusted by Karmi's question about Ari if she was his girlfriend?
A few reasons! A. Ari is younger than him (he's 14 1/2 and she's 13..close to 14 but still) and very mentally younger, the idea of dating her is gross because her mindset is similar to a child. So it would be like dating a child and that's gross. B. it would be an imbalanced relationship because Hiro literally has more power than Ari, she literally depends on staying at the cafe to avoid being on the street. So it would be an unhealthy relationship and he couldn't do that to her. C. Ari isn't even attracted to guys, at all. She's a lesbian, which she just learned today lol (fun fact: this is her first crush..that she remembers at least XD)
Got into a rant there but I myself am a little grossed out by the idea of shipping Ari and Hiro together, just..nope..not happening, NOTP!
Next week: The conclusion of the Issue 188