Ari tapped the remote with frustration, "can we just start the dumb movie already?!" she asked Cass for the tenth time.
"No Ari, we have to wait for the popcorn to be done." Cass gestured to the microwave, she had a popcorn bag that was thirty second away from being done.
"I don't even like popcorn," she grumbled, looking up at the stairs she noted Hiro hadn't come down yet, "where is Hiro?"
"I'll call him down when the popcorn's done," Cass tells her, "he might've forgotten."
The microwaved beeped, Cass got the hot bag out, opened it up, and placed the popcorn in a bowl. She headed upstairs to grab Hiro. "It's movie night Hiro! I rented us Kentucky Kaiju vs. Zombiesaurus!"
"Yeah uh..be right down! Just putting on my uh..movie clothes!" Ari overheard Hiro from upstairs, at this point she could tell when he was lying, maybe he was working on another secret project. again.
As the conversation continued upstairs, Ari turned to Mochi, "I wish Hiro would tell me what he does, but it's not any of my business, I just worry about him n' stuff."
Mochi meowed in response, she chuckled and rubbed his belly, "you're lucky Mochi, you're a cat you don't have to work or deal with humans all day or get amnesia, you're just living your own life hakuna matata style."
Eventually Hiro and Baymax came down, the former was wearing a pair of pajamas, "is that movie clothes?" Ari smirked.
"Yes, for your information!" Hiro huffed, "I don't see you wearing movie clothes!" he gestured to her blue striped sweater.
"This is cozy," Ari crossed her arms.
"Yeah, but it's all you wear," he narrowed his eyes.
"It's cozy."
"Alright alright enough kids," Cass took a seat on the couch between the two, the bowl of popcorn in her hands, "we're starting the movie now."
"Can I hold the popcorn bowl this time Aunt Cass?"
"No Hiro, you spilled all the popcorn last time!"
"I was just sharing with Mochi."
Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Sara Ferns: UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG
Fredilicous24: You ok Sara?
Sara Ferns: NO
Sara Ferns: Uncle Steven is forcing me to come with him on the stupid Krei showcase whatever
TheLittleMermaid: Why do we hate Krei again?
Mikan Ferns: Because he's an idiot, Hiro didn't you tell her who Krei was
Hiro Hamada: I did!
TheLittleMermaid: You just told me to "google it" and all I got was that he's a generic CEO
Sara Ferns: A generic JERK
Fredilicous24: Hey we're going to the same presentation! Would that cheer your mood?
Sara Ferns: No
TheLittleMermaid: I'll sit next to you?
Sara Ferns: ...that would cheer me up a little
"Thanks again for coming guys," Fred told Hiro, Baymax, Gogo, and Ari as they were waiting in line to enter Krei-Tech Industries. "Dad's stuck at Chateau Frederickson, so I'm representing the family."
"Any idea what this is about?" Hiro questioned.
"I wanna know too! And if it's why Sara is so angry," Ari gestured to the girl who was brooding and had her arms crossed next to her uncle a few feet ahead of them.
"Pretty sure you're not gonna get an answer for that today," Gogo tells her.
"I've got no idea what it's about," Fred explains, "only that the invitation just said to 'prepare to have your worries disappear!'" he accidentally knocks into another person with his hands, "oh sorry."
"That would be an impressive therapeutic breakthrough," Baymax states.
"I think that was just clickbait," Hiro speaks up, "probably just some brand new thing he's trying to sell knowing him."
"Yeah that sounds like Krei alright," Fred shrugs.
Gogo scoffs, "looks like he invited every rich jerk in town," she notices someone and turns away, "as I was saying."
Two people passed by the group, Ari recognized one of them as Binky Mole, the snobby rich jerk that couldn't see Fred for the amazing person he was at his Bro-Tillion. The other person..she heard nothing good about him from both Fred, and Gogo.
"Uch, Richardson Mole." Fred gags, it was the first time Ari had ever seen him in person.
"Jeez lousie, is that a gremlin?" She whispered to Hiro.
Richardson flips up his shirt collar and raises his eyebrows at Gogo, who is unamused.
"Hey Gogo, were you just talking about me?" Richardson walks up to her, "dream girl? My ears were burning."
Ari imitates a vomiting sound, sticking out her tongue in disgust at his behavior.
Baymax waddles over to inspect Richardson, "burning often indicates infection," he scans him. "There is no infection, however your ceruminous glands are overproducing ear wax."
"Oh gross!" Richardson holds his hands to his ears, "shut it about my glands!" He runs away, catching up to his mother Binky.
Ari smirks as he leaves, "no wonder you hate him Fred, he's a creep."
"Yeah," Fred nods in agreement.
"Nice save Baymax," Gogo smiles, high fiving the robot, who stared at his hand after the high five.
As they enter Krei-Tech, each of them are given name tags. Ari waves goodbye to Hiro as she takes a seat next to Steven, Sally, Sara, and David, she notices Mikan is not with them.
"Hey where's Mikan?" she questioned, both Sara and David shrugged.
"She didn't get an invitation," Sally answers her, "but Mikan showed no interest in attending this in the first place."
"Lucky her," Sara grumbled.
David pats her on the shoulder.
"Can I ask again why you don't like Krei?" Ari questioned, "I'm curious."
"That's a conversation for another day," Steven speaks before Sara can, "and I would prefer if you didn't insult my boss while in the same vicinity as him, I don't want to get fired."
"See?" Sara points to her uncle, as if trying to validate her point.
Sally sighs, "not again…"
Ari decides to not push the subject, "so um..miss Sally? You teach at SFIT right? What do you teach?"
"I teach Physics with Electricity and Magnetism," Sally explains, "I was a student at SFIT you see, so I thought I'd stick around and teach future generations."
"Oh wow!" Ari exclaimed, "you were a student at SFIT?"
"Yes," Sally nodded, "it was a long time ago."
"Did you go to school there too?" she glanced up at Steven, who shook his head.
"Nope, I went to another type of school, I did try to go to SFIT but it wasn't right for me..so I went somewhere else."
"It would've been nice if we went to the same school however," Sally smiled at him, "you would've gotten along with Wendy and Bobby very well."
"Didn't you have another friend in your group?"
"Yeah but he became a real jerk."
The lights go off, the audience clap as they bring their attention to the screen.
"What does it mean to..be rich?" the screen shows a picture of Alistair Krei in front of Krei-Tech Industries. "It means having things, lots of things, expensive things," Ari notices the CEO in front of the screen in person, "things that other people want."
The audience claps for some reason, "he should've just gone with riches," she hears David whisper to Steven.
"It could all disappear in an instant!" Krei exclaims, "all of your precious things!" ninjas with swords appear out of nowhere and surround Krei, she's startled for a moment but realizes it's part of the act.
"If only I had someone looking out for me, if only I had...a buddy." Then all of a sudden nets appear out of nowhere and capture three of the ninjas. How did he do that? Ari wondered, was it some sort of invisible bodyguard?
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor to introduce..Buddy Guard!" he clicks a button and it reveals a round robot with one eye and blue and yellow circuitry, that looks like a flying pill to her. "It's more than protection, it's the friend you can depend..on, the slogan isn't final."
"What did your boss invent this time?" Ari whispered to Steven.
"I don't know.." Steven frowned, "but I know how he's making them invisible.."
"The Buddy Guard is a military-grade drone, capable of countering any attack." Krei explains to the audience, as the Buddy Guard nets the last ninja on stage. "But who wants that eyesore hovering over them while taking a stroll on your private island?"
"So we gave ugly here the ability to turn invisible," Krei clicks a button, and the Buddy Guard disappears yet again.
"But how? You may wonder, great question!" Krei's assistant Judy walks up to the stage, holding a purple cloth. "Flexible display technology," he holds the cloth up, it and the Buddy Guard shimmers, "a high resolution miracle, it can look like anything!" Krei puts on the cloth, clicks his button and then his face looks like Judy's, they make eye contact for a few moments and then Krei removes the cloth from his head.
"Or it can look like nothing at all," Krei holds the cloth to Judy's face, making it disappear and causing her to look like a headless horseman without a head or a horse. "So be smart, buy yourself a buddy!" The cloth displays a Buddy Guard and the words, "buy now!"
The audience applauses, "Pre-orders in the lobby! Get them before they disappear!"
As the crowd gets up from their seats, either to order a Buddy Guard or take advantage of the free snacks in the lobby, Ari rejoins Hiro and his friends after waving goodbye to the Fern Family.
"Did you guys like the presentation?" Ari asked them.
"A bit," Hiro shrugged, "I'm just gonna ask Krei what safeguards he uses." They walk up to the stage, where Krei is speaking to his assistant.
"That seemed to go well," the CEO remarked, smirking as he watched the crowd dispersed.
"Mr. Krei, that was impressive tech." Hiro walks up to him.
"Thank you Hiro," Krei smiles, "that means a lot coming from you."
"How are your programming safeguards?" Hiro questions.
"Safeguards?" Krei raises an eyebrow.
"You know, so your buddy doesn't turn into an enemy," Gogo elaborated.
"Oh, that kind of programming safeguard, well yeah," Krei shrugs it off, "there are many awesome, really safe, safeguards." He then rubs Hiro's head, "anyways thanks for coming," then Krei walks off.
As Judy follows, Hiro calls to her, "um excuse me? Uh question, is there really any safeguards?"
"Officially, there are many, and they are awesome!" Judy also rubs Hiro's head, and walks away.
Hiro and Gogo exchange eye contact in confusion, none of the group noticing Ari slinking away and following after Krei and Judy.
As Krei goes back to his office, he gets a visitor, a-
"Surprise!" a man with curly brown hair, dark blue eyes that had square glasses covering them and wearing a lab coat appeared from a purple cloth.
"Aah!" Krei yelps in shock but recognizes the man, "Dr. Mel Meyer? What are you doing here?"
"When I sold you my Flexible Display Technology, you gave me your word my invention would be used for fun things," Mel points at Krei, "like hiding people at surprise parties!"
"The Buddy Guard is fun," Kei replies, "what's more fun than a buddy?"
"You're using it to hurt people!" Mel argued.
"Hurt people?" the CEO frowns, "no I'm using it to defend people," he gets up from his desk. "Thanks for stopping by Mel, may I call you Mel?" he starts to lead the scientist out of his office, "we should go for muffins sometime."
"Going for muffins isn't a thing, you're just trying to get rid of me!" Mel accuses, "I demand you give me my plans back!" He crosses his arms, then notices his plans on Krei's desk. However as he goes to retrieve it Krei snatches it first.
"Sorry Mel, the Buddy Guard's going to be huge." Krei uses his ID to place the blueprints in a cabinet, "oh look! Here's a few!" He clicks a button and several Buddy Guards appear as Mel tries to lift a finger to argue.
"See Dr. Meyer out," Krei tells the Buddy Guards, the drones grab Mel by the arms.
"You haven't seen the last of me!" Mel declares, then a purple cloth is tossed on him, making most of his body including his head invisible.
"Pretty sure I have," Krei smirks, watching the Buddy Guards take Mel away from his office.
"This unacceptable, and unpleasant, and-" Mel argues as he's being taken away, the door shuts behind and Krei smirks.
As Krei goes back to his desk to get some work done, he hears the door open again.
"Um, excuse me?" As the CEO looks up, he sees Ari is standing in front of his desk.
"Do I know you?" Krei questioned.
"Oh um..I'm Ari," she introduces herself, she turns to the door, "what was that about? That guy did not seem to like you."
"It was just a disagreement," Krei explains, "is there something you need?" he narrows his eyes at her.
"Well I know that Steven Ferns works for you, correct?" Ari questioned.
"Yes?" Krei nods.
"Judging by that, you know his niece Sara Ferns right?" she takes a deep breath, "just wanted to know why she doesn't like you for some reason."
It was not what Krei expected, "huh, well frankly I don't talk to any of Steven's kids, so I don't have a clue."
"Oh," Ari's head drops down, "darn."
"If that's all, you can go now." Krei gestures to the door, "I've got some work I need to do."
"Right," she starts to walk away, "sorry for bothering you sir, and thank you for at least answering to the best of your ability!" and Ari leaves the office.
Krei stares at the door for a few moments, "she was rather polite, wait didn't I see her hanging around Hiro?"
Ferns and Nerds group chat:
Mikan Ferns: Buddy Guards? Really?
Sara Ferns: I KNOW!? We're gonna have another robot attack!
Mikan Ferns: I told you Krei's an idiot
TheLittleMermaid: But he said he had safeguards…
Gogo: Oh you sweet summer child
Sara Ferns: He's a liar! A stupid liar!
TheLittleMermaid: That's kind of mean
Sara Ferns: GOOD
Mikan Ferns: Change of subject, who wants Noodle Burgers on Saturday?! My treat.
Fredilicous24: ME
TheLittleMermaid: ME TOO
Ari smiled at the group chat, "yes!" she raised a fist to the air.
"What are you smiling about?" Cass asked her, they were on their way to SFIT to hand Hiro his homework that he accidentally left back at the cafe.
"Oh nothing, just some free food courtesy of Mikan." Ari grins.
As they enter the Robotics lab however, Cass bumps into someone exiting.
"Woah!" Cass manages to catch the person before he falls, Ari gasps as she recognizes the falling person as Alistair Krei.
Krei looks at Cass and smiles, "uh..nice catch,"
"Thanks, nice fall," Cass smiles back. Ari felt weirded out at their behavior. Why do I hear saxophones in the background or is that just me?
Hiro walks up to them, "uh hey Aunt Cass wh-what are you doing here?" he wedges himself between Cass and Krei. He stares at his aunt, who's still making eye contact with Krei.
"Oh, you forgot your chemistry homework," Cass clears her throat and hands the notebook to Hiro.
"I think I'm feeling a little chemistry right now," Krei tells her.
Cass giggles, "are you flirting with me? Wow this feels like flirting."
"Yeah real cheesy flirting," Ari rolled her eyes, Hiro glared at her, "what?"
He glances back and forth between Cass and Krei, "okay thanks, haha you can go now Aunt Cass," Hiro attempts to drag his aunt away but she doesn't budge.
"Aunt...Cass, what an enchanting name," Krei smiles.
"Thanks, but people who aren't my nephew just call me Cass." she replies.
"Or maybe don't call her anything, at all," Hiro glares.
"Way to be dramatic," Ari facepalms.
"How about dinner tonight, Cass?" Krei offers as he pushes Hiro to the side, "say around seven?"
"Uh she's busy, forever!" Hiro continues to argue.
"Well, I am busy, I own my own business," Cass explains, "I mean of course you own your own business too, a bigger business."
"That's a good point," Hiro nods, "and I bet Krei is even busier."
"Oh come on!" Ari argues, "I could take care of the Lucky Cat for a few hours!" Hiro turns around and gives her the angriest glare in the history of angry glares.
Cass turns to Ari and smiles, "aw thanks Ari," she turns to Krei, "well if you can make time, then so can I, I'd be delighted Mr. Krei."
"People who aren't your nephew call me 'Alistair."
Hiro lifts up a finger to argue, but can't think of anything.
"Looks like you got what you wanted," Gogo tells him as she walks up to him, "congratulations."
"Thanks I hate it," Hiro crosses his arms.
AN: I'm gonna start off this ending with something serious *sigh*
So if you guys may not know, I wrote a Honeygogo one-shot named "Andre" awhile ago. And I kept getting harassed by this anon about a particular ship..that involves a minor and an adult.
Sidenote I also kept being harassed over the same thing, with different characters over what happened in Failure Mode
and seriously?! Is romantic love the only kind of love people thing is out there?! What is with people and shipping minors with adults-GET OUT OF MY FACE
uhhhg. had to get that out. I've been getting my patience run thin for the past few days.
Anyways I memed at the end because why not
Question of the Week: Why do you think Sara hates Krei so much?
Oh yeah since I didn't get 100 reviews before chapter 20 no twice a week updates n.n'
I might do that one-shot with the Fern Kids eventually. I'm tempted to make some HOF one-shots for events I can't fit in the story