Next day at SFIT's Robotic labs, Hiro was whistling an old show tune as he grabbed materials to bring to his lab.
"Well looks like somebody's in a good mood," Wasabi noted his happy behavior.
"Yeah, we crushed our last mission!" Hiro exclaimed, "we scared Globby so hard he literally wet himself!"
"Hiro?" Honey Lemon speaks up, "not exactly." The others head over to her table, where she's applying a chemical mixture to a sample of Globby's...globs, and monitoring the change on her computer.
"The volatile chemicals that made him 'Globby' combined with the neurotransmitter, well Globby must've figured out how his thoughts can control his...globbiness?"
"He can turn into anything?" Wasabi widened his eyes, "that subpar villain is on his way to being a supervillain."
"I don't care if he's a solid, liquid, or gas," Hiro shrugs, "we can take him, we've beaten him before and we can do it again."
"I hope he does not turn into a gas," Wasabi is disgusted at the thought, "gross.."
"Hey? Where's Fred?" Hiro looks around and the comic/kaiju fan is nowhere in the labs today.
"Keeping watch at the museum, in case Globby strikes again," Gogo explains, "though most likely he's going to keep watch on that water fountain sculpture he made."
"Oh," Hiro hummed, "well anyways it feels nice to be good at something again, I really needed that." He grabs a tray and starts collecting materials.
"So you're finally ready to step up and crush that earthquake demo?" Gogo questioned
"Totally ready," Hiro doesn't look back to answer, instead continues to put items on the tray.
"Well, you're not going to just blow it off," Wasabi raised an eyebrow.
"I haven't considered that, but.."
"No no no!" Wasabi cuts him off, "forget I said anything! Stop looking like you're considering it Hiro!"
"I'm not," Hiro's about to leave the lab with his tray on a cart, but Honey Lemon causes him to halt.
"Wait Hiro! You can't quit!"
"Yeah do you really want to be known as a genius quitter?" Gogo adds in.
"No, but at least genius quitters are probably the best kind of quitters right?" Hiro shrugged, still not thinking of trying again, he'd just fail..so why even bother?
"I get it..you think that if you give up, it doesn't count as failing, but in actuality, it's worse." Wasabi accuses, pointing a finger at Hiro.
Baymax during all of this was painting something, he stops to glance at Hiro, "Tadashi, failed eighty three times before I functioned properly."
"Well maybe I'm not as smart as my brother!" Hiro exclaims, "you ever think of that?!" he pushes past the others and the door slams behind him as he leaves.
"Oh dear," Honey Lemon frowns, "one of us should go talk to him."
The door opens again and Ari walks in, she picks up the tense mood in an instant, "okay what happened?"
"Hiro," they all answer.
"Is this about the demo thing?"
"Yes," all of them answer again.
"Hmm," Ari hums, then walks up to Baymax who's finishing up his painting. "What are you doing?"
"I am painting," Baymax tells her, "perhaps art therapy would be beneficial to Hiro's emotional state."
Ari glances at the painting then back at Baymax, "let's go find Hiro and snap him out of it...again," she drags the robot with her out of the lab. When they leave, the others go look at Baymax's painting.
"Gah!" Wasabi exclaims as it's the skeletons of him, Gogo, Honey Lemon, and Hiro that Baymax painted, "should I be worried here?"
"He's painting what he knows?" Honey Lemon gives a small smile, "he's still getting the hang of what art is."
Back at his lab, Hiro was typing away on the computer.
"Hiro?" he doesn't glance as he hears Ari and Baymax enter his lab.
"Hiro, it is alright to become discouraged," Baymax tells him.
"Guys, I don't want to talk right-"
"Tadashi Hamada, test number fifty eight, Robotics project." Hiro whipped his head around at the voice of his older brother, Baymax had pulled up another one of Tadashi's test videos on his screen. Ari was also looking at the screen with wide eyes.
In the video, Baymax activates, "Hello, I am Baymax." His brother had a joyful grin on his face, "your personal healthcare-"
All of a sudden, flames appear visible on the sides of Baymax's screen. "No!" Tadashi runs and gets a fire extinguisher to put out the burning robot.
"Why?! Why do I put myself through this fifty eight times?!" Tadashi starts pacing around the room, his hand to his head as he's frustrated. "Maybe this'll never work..maybe I should give up.."
Hiro had wide eyes, he had never heard Tadashi so discouraged in his life! He always remembered back when he still was a bot fighter, time and time again Tadashi would try to get him to stop until the time it did. Seeing his brother feeling the same thing he was feeling with the earthquake demo felt so...alien.
The video still plays, Tadashi walks up to the robot and notices the tape still rolling, "you're not still recording are you?" he pokes the screen and the video ends.
"I never saw him like that." Hiro sighs.
"He has a deeper voice than I expected," Ari speaks up, he glances at her, "fifty eight times..that's dedication."
"There were, eighty four total tests before I functioned properly," Baymax speaks up, "failure was the result of eighty three of those tests."
"Was he always like that?" Ari asks him, "never giving up?"
Hiro nods, "yeah..he always tried getting me to apply to SFIT, and when I was stuck on what to do for the showcase he helped me look for a new angle. When we worked on the presentation project he always talked about how I'd love the school because of all the technology and that there were so many nice people.." Hiro sighs, holding his head down.
"Hey Hiro.." He glanced back up at Ari, "do you think…your brother and I would get along?"
Hiro hums, he never thought about that before. "I think Tadashi would love you, and the two of you would probably berate me over things."
"Like not running a diagnostic test which causes a robot skeleton to malfunction? Or letting this silly demo beat you?" Ari raised an eyebrow.
"Hey!'' Hiro gives her a light punch on the shoulder, "see? You both would get along great!"
"I wish I got to meet him," she stares at the picture of Tadashi and Hiro on his lab table, "it feels so weird being the only person not to know him on a personal level," there was a hint of jealousy in her tone.
The door opens, and they turn around to see Wasabi and Gogo. "Fred just called, the museum decided to put City Rising into storage," Wasabi tells him.
"Wise move," Hiro commented.
"That means it's in a truck crossing the city," Gogo pointed out.
"Not so wise move," he shakes his head.
"Yikes," Ari winces, "someone should call the superheroes on that, maybe Fred, he seems like the fellow who has a superhero hotline."
Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Fredilicous24: No Ari I do not have a superhero hotline I have a superhero spotlight
TheLittleMermaid: Close enough : (
Gogo: Oh calm down the painting will be fine, no way would Big Hero 6 let Globby get his hands on it
Sara Ferns: If he ruins any part he's about to catch these hands : )
Wasabi: Woah, didn't know you liked City Rising so much
Sara Ferns: It captures a historical moment of our city! And Lenore Shimamoto made it so it's 10x better
Honey Lemon: Shimamoto's art is so inspiring!
Fredilicous24: And it moves people, I do like the color scheme the painting has
TheLittleMermaid: Hey Sara, how's David?
Sara Ferns: Still moody even after a day, he says he's sorry for what he said Hiro
Hiro Hamada: It's fine, but seeing him angry was a little scary
TheLittleMermaid: I'm not scared of David, I'm not scared of anything!
Gogo: What about eels?
TheLittleMermaid: Don't even mention those things!
"Aha!" It was late at night, and Globby was attacking the truck that had the valuable City Rising painting as it's cargo. The driver of the truck swerved to avoid the globs thrown at the vehicle, the truck tires screeching and the painting shifting inside the vehicle as it's moving left and right. Globby threw a glob at the road, the truck skids and slides and hits a lamp, causing the horn to blare. He sticks to the front window of the truck and yells at the driver, scaring him off. Then he sits up and stands on the top of the truck.
"Acid!" he drops the volatile green substance on top of the truck and creates a small hole. Globby removes the locks on the City Rising painting and lifts it into the air. "Ha! Got it!" He exclaims, staring at the painting.
"Don't you ever get tired of losing?" Globby lifts it down and sees Big Hero 6, it was Hiro who asked that question, riding on top of Baymax as usual. Turning around he sees he's surrounded on all sides of the truck.
"No," he laughs, using extra limbs created on his back to grab the painting and stick it on his backside, "I think today's my lucky day."
"Aw! I love your positive attitude!" Honey Lemon exclaims, "sorry about this." She creates a chem ball and tosses it at Globby.
"Aha!" he bounces it back at her using his body, the chem ball hits her purse and deactivates it, the chemicals messing with the wiring inside. Honey Lemon stares at her broken purse in horror.
Globby steps off of the truck, Gogo skates after him, he turns around. "Careful! I heard the pavements a little rough!" he slams his hands on the ground, creating a line of rocky crystals that knocks Gogo off her balance and causes her to fall on the crystals.
"Time for a meltdown!" Fred leaps from building to building and blasts fire at Globby, who deflects it with a metal shield created from his left hand.
"Eh, shut your firehole!" he throws something green and sticky at the mouth of Fred's suit, which muffles him and prevents him from using his flames. Then Globby throws wet concrete at his feet which stops him from jumping.
"I got you buddy!" Wasabi runs to his stuck friend, but then Globby creates chem balls of his own and throws them at Wasabi as he's about to cut the sticky stuff on Fred.
"C'mon Baymax! It's up to us!" Hiro tells the robot as they're flying above Globby and witnessed all of their friends get taken down single-handedly.
"We will protect the art that is valuable for some reason," Baymax fires his rocket fist at Globby, who deflects it by turning his arm into a slinky and redirecting the rocket fist onto the ground. Which causes an explosion that knocks back Big Hero 6 and causes globs to fly everywhere, a piece hits Baymax on the sensors and Hiro falls off, "Oh no."
Hiro's fall is broken by a pile of globs he landed into, and slides right in front of a metal block just as Baymax crashes to the ground nearby.
The metal wall reforms into Globby, he laughs as he stares down at Hiro. "If at first you don't succeed, learn to turn yourself into chocolate!" he creates a chocolate bar and gives to Hiro, "enjoy! Catch ya later Big Hero 6! Gotta bounce!" he gives an evil laugh as he turns into a spring and bounces away with City Rising still stuck to his back.
Hiro tosses the chocolate bar to the side of the road, he didn't need a supervillain's pity chocolate.
"Oh no that was awful!" Honey Lemon frowns, still stuck in goop, Hiro goes over to get her unstuck.
"I know, 'gotta bounce?' I mean it fits but come on! Dig a little deeper Globby!" Fred complained, he was stuck in goop as well.
"We failed," Hiro manages to get Honey Lemon free, who's emotionally distressed about Globby stealing the painting. "Worst of all, I failed Lenore Shimamoto!" She was borderline on tears.
"Honey Lemon calm down," Fred tries to comfort her, "that kind of talk makes us sound like losers."
"Well we did lose," Wasabi pointed out, him and Gogo were dangling upside down, the latter trying to escape the goopy grip.
"Oh, come on guys! It's not the end of the world!" Hiro exclaims, staring at his teammates in shock of their bummed out behavior. "Look at Globby," he points to the direction the glob monster bounced away, "he failed again and again but figured it out, eventually."
Gogo and Wasabi exchange glances, as Hiro was speaking like they were to him a few days ago.
"It's okay to get discouraged, but you have to pick yourself up and try again." He had a smile as he spoke, realizing what his friends and professor were trying to teach him all this time as he struggled on his seismic project.
"That's a great speech Hiro," Wasabi tells him, "but can you please get us down?!" him and Gogo were still stuck upside down, "I'm about to pass out.."
"Oh right sorry," Hiro gets on top of Baymax and helps get his friends down.
"Took you long enough to figure out the meaning behind us pep talk-ing you back into action," Gogo chuckles, "you ready to face that seismic project now?"
"Yeah," Hiro nods, "I think I am this time."
As Hiro worked on his seismic project, his friends were checking up on him. He also paid attention to their conversations as he worked. From Fred getting a million dollars from his art and giving the check to the museum, to Baymax having an understanding of what art is then asking what poetry is, and Honey Lemon telling the robot it was a topic for another day.
A knock on his door brought his attention, but the visitor was not who he expected.
"Oh, hey Mikan," he waved, "are you looking for David or Sara?"
"No," she shook her head, there was an awkward silence, it was just them in his lab now, his friends and Baymax were somewhere else.
"Is there any reason you came to visit?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.
"Um, a little," Mikan shrugged, "I heard you finally stopped feeling sorry for yourself and you're getting back to trying again at the seismic project."
"Yeah? I'm doing that right now," Hiro narrowed his eyes, "if you want to say something then stop dancing around the issue Mikan." It was always a song and dance talking to her, the unofficial member of the Fern family who peered from the shadows.
"Well enough on that," she shrugged, "how do you feel about your friend Ari?"
He blinked, "wh-what?"
"You claim she's a friend but she's more than that," Mikan explains, "though clearly it's anything but romance, you got any clue or do I have to hint to you."
"Of course she's a friend!" Hiro exclaims, stepping away from his demo, "she's as close to me as Gogo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Fred, and Baymax! What are you talking about?!"
Mikan shakes her head, "oh Hiro, you dense noodle."
"You're as close to her as you were to Tadashi.."
His eyes widened at the mention of his brother, he just gasped at Mikan with his jaw open.
"Oh gosh you really are clueless," Mikan rolls her eyes, "mmmm it's not fun just telling you, so good talk!"
She leaves the lab, "Good luck on your project!" He stares at the door in silence after she leaves.
"What on earth was that about?" Hiro shakes his head, "jeez Mikan is so weird."
There's a heavy feeling in the air as Hiro's demo was on the scale. Granville begins to test the model, a smile on her face as the scale starts going up.
Hiro smirks at his project, behind him Karmi has her phone whipped out prepared for another hilarious failure as it had been for the last few attempts. As the model vibrates, two mechanical parts appear on the side and press down on the scale.
"What?" Karmi raises an eyebrow, not expecting that to happen.
"My building has sensors to measure the seismic forces, then it sends out the exact sonic pulses needed to counteract them," Hiro explains. Granville glances at the scales at goes from 6.0 back to zero.
"So your solution is cheating?" Karmi gestures to the model.
"No," he turns to face her, "my design withstood the shaking by dealing with the problem at its source."
Granville walks over to the model, "not only would this structure save itself, but it would also save the other buildings around it." She writes the score down in her notebook, "this is an excellent solution."
"Uhg!" Karmi exclaims, now it's Hiro's turn to have his phone out, he snaps a picture of Karmi's puzzled face.
"And scene," he smirks, he noticed that David was not in class, "Professor Granville? Where's David?"
"Mister Ferns is having his project graded at a separate time," Granville explains, "perhaps a more isolated environment will prevent any class outbursts, he will be making a formal apology to you both after his project receives its score."
"Is David in trouble?" Karmi questions, he found it odd she was asking about it, she wasn't friends with David after all.
"Why do you care?" Hiro narrows his eyes at her.
"I don't!" she glares, "I'm asking because Ari was curious!" However it sounded suspicious, Ari could just ask Sara or Mikan about it.
"Uh-huh."
She just huffed. "He's annoying and doesn't respect personal space, but he's a good person. He shouldn't get punished for one hissy fit."
You do have a point there Karmi.. Hiro didn't voice the thought aloud.
"He will not receive any formal punishment for his behavior, however he has been given a warning." Granville explains, "if that is all, Karmi please present your model."
As Karmi goes to get her model from her desk, Hiro says something to her, "you'll probably pass."
"What's that's supposed to mean?" she frowns at him.
"Well your project is not as good as mine, but it'll at least pass," Hiro shrugs.
"For your information my demo will do better than yours!" Karmi exclaims.
"Sure, good luck," Hiro picks up his demo and goes back to his seat.
Granville has a smile on her face during their exchange, ah to be young and full of fire.
However, as this was going on, there was another meeting happening in an abandoned building. The front of the building was covered by a purple glob, which then slips under the door to let himself in.
"Oh why couldn't he just pick an alley?!" Globby grumbled as he entered, "less of a hazard to enter," he realizes that his globs were stuck on the City Rising painting. He tried to wipe them off but it just kept getting more globs attached.
"Well?" his eyes widened, in the corner of the room were a pair of cold blue eyes, "did you bring it?" the man stands up, revealing a slender male with pale skin, his hair was black with a red streak.
"Ahh!" Globby yelps, the stare giving him chills, "oh, uh, yeah, here it is." As the man walks over he hands him the City Rising painting.
"You've succeeded," he grins at the painting.
"Sorry about..y'know, the globs," Globby apologized.
The man stares at the globs, "huh, fascinating." He grabs Globby's arm and cuts a sample for himself using a plasma knife.
"Ow!' Globby recoils from the pain, "rude!"
"Hmm," he stares at the glob sample in a beaker, "further study might unlock more potential," he glances back at Globby.
"Potential huh?" there's a smirk on the glob monster's face, "I told mom she was wrong about me!" Then brings his attention back to the man.
"Lenore Shimamoto the artist is no use to me," he smashes the frame of the City Rising painting. "Ehh!" Globby shields his eyes from the wooden debris.
"However Lenore Shimamoto the scientist is of great interest," he rips a chunk of the frame away. "Like so many things in life, you have to look beneath the surface to find real value," he peels away the painting, to reveal blueprints underneath, placed there by Shimamoto herself.
"So," he turns to Globby, "have you thought of my offer?"
"Well you and your kid did teach me how to turn into a ball so...yeah!" Globby nods, "I'll join your team Mr. uh…" he realizes he never got the name of the man, only that he paid him to steal the City Rising painting.
"You may call me Obake," the man smirks as the left side of his face glows a violet hue in the darkness.
AN: 18 chapters in and the big bad's name has been revealed! Dun dun dunnn. XD
Before I start on good stuff I'm gonna answer this question
Guest: Is David going to interact with Momakase again and will she reform w/ Globby?
Who knows! But speaking of that Globby's not gonna be the only villain to reform ;3
Question of the Week: Your guess on which other villains will reform
Now for me to get to the goooood stuff
This chapter is technically the chapter Obake has been revealed! I was originally going to wait until Rivalry Weak (as an inside joke to how it took me that long to find out his name bc I missed that part in Baymax Returns) but decided against it for reasons you'll see next chapter.
Also this chapter low-key introduced a running gag that will be hilarious to ME: Ari's fear of eels. If you didn't catch it, it was mentioned in the only group-chat segment of this chapter. And yeah it will be mentioned again in the future. Y'all can guess the obvious reason tho. Just wanted to point it out so you guys can get a mental image of the inevitable. Muahahahahah :Dc
Sidenote: I'm surprised there weren't any negative responses to David throwing a fit last chapter. I'm not really used to writing flawed characters so it felt nice. I hope I can continue the trend of good work. This AN has been rly long but I have a lot on my mind.