Hiro and Ari rushed back to Wendy's workshop in a panicked frenzy.
"Fred, something's wrong!" Hiro runs up to Fred.
"No I'm pretty sure that's what baking soda and vinegar are supposed to do," Fred gestured to his active volcano, the woweroos had been making toy volcanoes when they left.
"Aww I missed it," Ari frowned, she wanted to stick around to witness that.
"Don't worry Ari," Fred patted her on the shoulder, "we can make a volcano another day."
"Thanks."
"Ari, remember why we came back?" Hiro gestured, "Yama's back!" She yelped, looked around and hid behind Hiro fearing mentioning the name would cause the criminal to appear.
"Wait, 'Yama' Yama? He's back?" Fred questioned.
"Fred, how many Yamas do we know?"
Fred took off his safety goggles and glared at his partner, "you've won this round Brooke, let's go guys." He stands up, Ari just facepalms at him.
Michael walks up to them, holding his volcano. "I can hear the tiny screams…"
Hiro is creeped out (again), "uhh..yeah, cool.." But then he glances at everyone's volcanoes and gets an idea.
"Dr. Wower," Hiro walks up to Wendy, "we need your help, everyone's help, really, and uh, a bunch of volcanoes."
"Oh what for?" Wendy asked.
"It's a long story," Ari sighed, she walked up to her and whispered a short explanation into her ear, Wendy's eyes widened at the explanation.
"Oh my...Well of course you can have our help," she tells them.
Wasabi frowned, Trevor had given all of them blueprints to work on separately but he was stuck on his. "This isn't gonna work.."
"Make it work!" Trevor pops out from behind a curtain, causing Wasabi to yelp. "I mean, I could show you how, but then what would you learn? Nothing!" He closed the curtain, and Wasabi looked puzzled at his behavior.
Trevor peeks over where Honey Lemon is working, she notices that he's watching and stares back. "Dr Trengrove? Um, I don't really understand why we can't work together."
"Well you like selfies right? Well think of this like working by your-selfie!" He responded.
"But you took our phones.." and he moves away.
He then checks up on Gogo, who's focusing on a circuit board, "here, have a sports drink!" Trevor offers one to her.
"No." Gogo doesn't spare a glance, Trevor closes the curtain but places the sports drink next to her table, she just goes back to work.
Back outside, Ari was following Wendy like a little duckling. "Volcanoes on the move! Stay with your buddies woweroos!" She tells the kids who are in a single file line, holding their volcano models.
As Hiro follows everyone else, Karmi walks up to him and blocks his path. "Hi little boy, did you learn to make pretend volcanoes with a fake scientist from a kids show?" She spoke in a baby tone.
"Uhh, what are you doing here?" He questioned, when he looked on the periscope he saw Karmi and half of the student body outside eating ice cream angrily but had no idea what that was about.
"Just taking a break from all the cool grown-up science stuff," Karmi tells him.
"She lies.." Michael popped up out of nowhere and whispered loud enough for both of them to hear, Ari notices that he strayed from the group and gestures for him to come over. But she sees Hiro and Karmi and tiptoes over, curious what they're talking about.
Karmi sighs and slumps her shoulders, "Trengrove kicked me out.."
"Sorry," Hiro told her in a sympathetic tone.
"Thanks.." She smiles up at him, and Hiro returns the smile. They both stare at each other, smiling for a while, then realize what they're doing and turn away gagging. Ari snorts in amusement, finding their reactions funny.
Back in the other room, Trevor checks in on Honey Lemon again. "How's it going Honey Lemon?" She steps back because he had a wide smile on his face, which creeped her out.
"Well the schematics you gave me appear to be for a lightweight protected endoskeleton," she pointed out.
"Protective exoskeleton..yes! That's exactly what it's for!"
"It would weigh less and be more durable if you use colloid fluid as liquid armor."
"Right, right, which means..?" Trevor leans in, "chalk it out with me."
"Which means, if I stick this pencil in slowly, it will go through." Honey Lemon demonstrates, "but if I try to jam it in fast, the particles stick together!" The pencil breaks when she stabs the fluid with it.
"And it's pink because..?" He gestured to the color.
"Because pink!"
"Love it!" Trevor then checks in with Wasabi. "Hey buddy! How's it going with the mm…."
"The fast-paced projectile system?" Wasabi raised an eyebrow.
"Right! The mega fast-paced projectile system! See, that's where the M came from," Trevor gives a nervous chuckle.
"Well, if you use plasma instead of traditional projecticles," Wasabi starts to explain, "you can make the whole thing more powerful-" But then it activates and hits the wall, and also touches Trevor's shoulder, he yelped with shock. "Ooh sorry about that!"
"Science! I dig it!" Trevor isn't bothered and high-fives Wasabi. Then he checks on Gogo.
"Gogo!"
"Back off, I'm in the zone."
"Fair enough." Trevor steps out of the room to answer a phone call.
Yama was on the other line, "you have one hour!" The criminal tells him. "Deliver or this goes viral!" He holds up a flash drive to the screen.
"Hey, hey, put that away!" Trevor exclaimed, "I'm almost there." Yama ended the call and he huffed. But then switched his frown back to his smirk.
Meanwhile Yama stares at the phone with anger, "hey new friends!" He looks up to see Wendy and the rest of the woweroos. "These little guys have been working on a very special project all day, and we're hoping they can show it to you!" She gestures to the toy volcanoes all the kids are holding.
"Not interested," Yama huffed.
"Please mister?" Brooke gives him her best puppy eyes, "it's real cool!"
"The explosion will be magnificent.." Michael added in.
"Okay woweroos!" as Wendy instructs the kids, Ari, Hiro, Fred, and Baymax sneak around the back. "One, two…"
"I hope that works," Ari whispered as the volcanoes go off and the other minions are impressed, "otherwise we're dead." Hiro managed to get her up to the window and she tries to help the others get up, which causes a noise that alerts Yama.
"What was that?" He looks up and sees Baymax and Ari already on the window, and Hiro pulls Fred up, "Zero..and that girl Obake had me abduct!"
"HIRO!" Ari alerts her friend, he gasps and pulls Fred up the window in a hurry and gets in.
"I told Trengrove no fourteen year old brats to keep out that brat!"
At the room, the others were idling.
"What happens next?" Wasabi questioned.
"He said he had to evaluate our projects," Honey Lemon answered.
"Where's our ice cream?" Gogo popped her bubblegum with annoyance.
Hiro and the others enter the room at that moment, "something's up! Yama's outside!" They all gasp and Trevor comes back from another door.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be in here!" he exclaimed.
"Don't worry Dr. Trengrove, we'll get you out safely," Hiro informed him. At that moment Yama entered the room, Ari yelped and ducked behind Wasabi.
"Time's up Trengove! Where's my robot?!" Yama exclaimed.
"Robot?" Ari questioned.
"Wait, what?" Wasabi and the others turn to face Trevor.
"You should all be very proud of your work.." He stated, the wall next to him burst open, they all leaped back as it was Mega Yama. The robot they managed to defeat the night before but it was back, and this time in a magenta color and it flew over to Yama, him and his minions hopped onto the robot's back.
"Thanks Dr. Phony!" Yama chuckled, he blasted the wall open and flew outside.
"Was that?.." Honey Lemon walked up to the hole.
"Mega Yama? Yep." Hiro nodded.
"You were working for Yama?!" Wasabi exclaimed at Trevor.
"What's wrong with you!?" Ari added.
"Okay yes! But it was because he was blackmailing me with some very incriminating information on that flash drive!" Trevor explained, "so..so I think that makes it okay, right?"
"No! You tricked us into helping you build a weapon!" Honey Lemon walked up to Trevor, livid he tried to excuse himself.
"Uhg, to defeat Big Hero 6!" Gogo huffed.
"Now it's gonna be even harder to take it down.." Hiro mumbled under his breath, he turned to see Ari walking up to Trevor, he could hear her angry growling.
"Baymax?" Hiro turned to the robot, gesturing to Ari.
"You...two-timing rat!" Ari leapt at Trevor, but Baymax held her back, she tried grabbing at him though. "Hiro was dying to get into your stupid presentation! And you were working with a criminal! Baymax let me at him! Let me at him!" Ari growled, fury was in her blue eyes, Trevor took a few steps back.
"Violence is not the recommended source of action," Baymax told her, "I suggest deep calming breaths."
"I am calm!" Ari exclaimed, Hiro grabbed her arm before she could try to punch herself free.
"Woah, it's okay Ari." Hiro told her, "we're gonna go try to find the superheroes okay? You head back down to the woweroos and wait for us alright?"
Ari just glared back, but her gaze softened, "alright.." she mumbled, at Baymax let her go, "I just...that guy..and…" She held her head down low and exited the room.
"She's got some anger issues," Trevor commented, only for everyone else to give him dirty looks.
"C'mon guys, we gotta stop Yama," Hiro told his friends.
Downtown, Mega Yama was flying through the streets, with Big Hero 6 flying after them.
"I can't believe we upgraded Mega Yama!" Honey Lemon exclaimed.
"I wonder what Yama had on Trengrove?" Wasabi questioned.
"That his sports drink tastes like dumpster juice?" Gogo suggested.
Fred who was slurping one of his sports drinks stopped drinking, "oh! That's what that taste is." He shrugs it off and continues slurping.
"Guys!" Hiro pointed to the streets, where Yama glared back at the superheroes and had his robot head towards the docks. They landed on the ground in front of Mega Yama.
"Little Hero 6!" Yama taunted them, "Mega Yama's ready for our rematch!" He was flanked by two of his minions, "get them!"
When Ari walked back to the woweroo group, she saw Karmi was idling by the group, Wendy waved at her seeing she returned, all the kids were sitting down and talking to each other.
"Are you okay?" Karmi asked her as she walked up to her, Ari shook her head. "What happened?"
"I don't wanna talk about it," Ari grumbled, "but Hiro dodged a bullet by not being allowed into the workshop, it was a scam and that's all I'm going to say."
"Oh.." Karmi hummed, "I don't think I wanna know."
"Trust me..you don't, man I wanted to pop that guy in the mouth for keeping poor Hiro out..Not cool," Ari crossed her arms and grumbled. Karmi just stared at her, a curious look on her face.
"You care for Hiro a lot," Ari looked up, "more than a friend."
"Well, we're really close friends, besties!" Ari pointed out, "nothing romantic because that's gross!"
"No, I wasn't going to say romantic," Karmi shook her head, "but you and Hiro treat each other more than friends."
"What are you talking about?" Ari raised an eyebrow.
There was a neutral expression on her friend's face, "I'm trying to say that you and Hiro treat each other like siblings, and I should know because I have two younger siblings."
Ari just stared at her like a fish out of water, her eyes bulging and her jaw wide.
"..I swear I saw Mikan and all of your friends dropping hints, it shouldn't be that hard," Karmi was puzzled at her shock, "did neither of you consider thinking of each other as siblings?"
She shook her head, "I can't tell Hiro that!"
"Is it that hard?"
"Yes! Hiro already lost a sibling once! I can't-"
"Can't what?" Karmi sighed, "Hiro might be the most arrogant and annoying student on campus, but I can tell that he cares about you a lot. Just tell him how you feel."
"Easy for you to say Ms. I am the most antisocial person ever!" Ari snapped, she saw Karmi recoil and feel guilty. "I'm sorry, just..I don't want to end up hurting Hiro, if anything happens to me."
"It's alright, but if you keep agonizing over what to do..both of you will get hurt. The best thing to do is to just get it off your chest, maybe Hiro feels the same way."
"Who knows," Ari sighed, "he probably has other problems to worry about now."
Hiro had one big problem to worry about now, and that was Mega Yama.
"Oh, why did we have to be so smart?!" Wasabi exclaimed, as the robot was much more powerful due to their upgrades.
Mega Yama blasted Fred to the ground, "my volcano!" He exclaimed as his volcano model fell out of his suit's pocket.
The robot then turned its attention to Baymax and Hiro, who were flying towards it and it blasted them to the docks, Baymax crashing into a building wall and Hiro landing on the ground. The robot beeps as it scans Hiro and prepares to attack him. He yelped and shielded himself with his arms preparing to be hit but Baymax was keeping it at bay. However, Mega Yama prepared it's plasma blaster. As Baymax was getting shoved by the robot, Hiro noticed the volcano model.
"Honey Lemon!" Hiro called his friend, "I need a ball of sodium hydrogen carbonate, and a ball of acetic acid!"
"But that's just baking soda and vinegar!" Honey Lemon pointed out.
"Yes! Hurry!"
Honey Lemon prepared the two chem balls, and tossed them into the air, Fred grabbed them. "Volcano time!" He placed them into Mega Yama's blaster, "I love science! Yes I do!" The reaction caused Mega Yama to explode with the volcano formula flowing out of the robot's limbs, the blast caused Yama himself to be knocked back into the water, he swam away with anger.
"Oh I wish Brooke were here to see this," Fred and the rest of the team admired their handiwork.
"We better get back to SFIT," Gogo held up the flash drive she managed to snatch from Yama during the fight, "and get this back to Trengrove."
Back at SFIT, Ari and the kids were sitting down and listening to another song. But it wasn't Wendy who was singing, it was actually Karmi, who actually knew how to play a ukulele.
"Pest resistance, fuel production, and bioremediation, those are just some practical applications of biotech, and the field of agriculture," the other kids looked at each other while she sang, while Michael and Ari rocked out to the song. "Yeah, yeah yeah," Karmi ended the song.
"That was...very catchy," Wendy commented.
"I liked it!" Ari chirped, "you have a great voice Karmi!" They all glanced as the building door opened and Trevor walked out.
He noticed them in an instant, "Wendy?" she crossed her arms at him as he walked up to them, looking rather guilty. Ari glared at him with anger, still livid he used this important event to the students as a way to pay off his blackmail.
However there was a whooshing sound and all of Big Hero 6 arrived on the scene, Karmi dropped the ukulele at the sight of their purple leader.
"It's him!" She gasped, he walked past her.
"Hello Karmi! You know, you should be nicer to people, like that genius kid at your school." Purple told her, but she didn't pay attention.
"He knows my name!" Ari just giggled at her fangirling.
"Welcome to the club," she chuckled, "we have cookies."
Purple walked up to Wendy and Trevor, "Doctor? I think this belongs to you," he had a flash drive that Trevor picked up with reluctance.
"Trevor?"
"Yes! The flash drive is proof that the thesis I built my career on was stolen from you, okay!" Trevor exclaimed, for the second time that day Ari's jaw dropped open.
"I was just going to say it's good to see you," Wendy took the flash drive. "But I'm glad to hear you admit that after all these years."
Purple was in shock as well, "you stole her thesis?"
Trevor rubbed his head, "I based my entire career on her work. I haven't felt great about it, if it helps," he got a glare in response, Trevor sighed. "Wendy, I'm sorry," he turned to his old friend, "and I wanna try to make things right, it's time for the world to know the truth."
Wendy smiled up at him, "I-"
"Oh now he admits it!" they both whipped their heads around to see Sally standing there, her arms crossed and her golden eyes burning holes into Trevor. "Was fame and fortune too much for ya Dr. Trengrove?" She spoke in a mocking voice.
Trevor just stared at her in shock, "S-Sally?"
"Yep," she walked up to him, "guess you forgot I teach here nowadays, then again you don't bother to check up on old friends."
"Good to see you again Sal," Wendy greeted her, "please don't give Trevor a hard time."
"Oh I won't," Sally shrugged, then she got rather close to his face, "you're lucky that I am more mature than I was in my youth, otherwise I would've slapped your jaw off."
"Do it," Ari commanded, Purple just shook his head at her.
"No."
"Rats.."
Later that night, Wendy, Hiro, and Ari were walking around campus. "Trengrove was a fraud, and you're the real deal." He commented when told the truth by Ari, "heh, I can't believe I had it so wrong."
"You and me both," Ari chuckled, "but I thought you took it very maturely Dr. Wower, by finding something to do and teaching kids like me about science!"
"Thanks," Wendy smiled, "come on, I wanna see how SFIT's changed since I was a student."
"Still in shock you went to class with one of my friends' parents, who also teaches here." Ari mumbled under her breath.
"Well, the robotics lab of course," Hiro gestured around campus as they walked, "there's Tadashi Hamada Hall," he started drinking from the water fountain.
Did neither of you consider thinking of each other as siblings? Just tell him how you feel. Karmi's words came back to Ari as she observed Hiro, was she right? Were they close as siblings?
"This place is so special to me," Wendy hummed, "it's where I really learned to believe in myself. All thanks to the most caring, loving, enthusiastic teacher I've ever had..Professor Granville." Hiro spat out his water in shock.
"Granville? I thought she started at SFIT this year?" He questioned Wendy.
"Nope. She was here twenty years ago," she explained, Hiro just stared, frowning.
"Wow, Granville is older than I thought," Ari hummed, "I thought she was in her late twenties, mid thirties at max."
"Between you and me I think Sally learned a thing or two about looking young from her then," Hiro whispered to Ari.
"Speaking of Sally.." Ari looked up to Wendy, "you said you had a friend at SFIT who had amnesia once, and you said she was doing better, is that friend Sally?"
Wendy chuckled, "how did you guess?"
Hiro's eyes widened, "how many more plot twists am I going to hear today?"
"How did Sally lose her memories?" Ari questioned, perhaps it was connected to her memory loss? No, just a coincidence, really weird though.
"Hmm," Wendy frowned, "she had amnesia for awhile before I met her, so I'm not sure. Though her intellect was just as sharp, it was just her memories that weren't. Sally told me once she and another friend tried forcing the memories back but that ended up causing some of her memories to be lost forever, and it made her amnesia longer, so just let yourself remember naturally."
"I will," Ari promised, nodding her head, "was Sally a good friend?"
"She was the eccentric one of the group," Wendy chuckled, "me, Trevor, her, and the youngest genius at the time Bobby. We had a lot of fun here at this school, sometimes it hurts to look back at the past, but I try to remember the good instead of the bad."
"Like Trengrove stealing your work?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.
"That wasn't the worst thing that happened, but it can be counted."
They waved Wendy goodbye and Hiro started looking through the school archives. He found a yearbook from twenty years ago and saw Granville in one of the photos, next to a student with long black hair and cold blue eyes with a red scarf.
"Why didn't she tell us.." Hiro mumbled under his breath.
"Hmm, maybe so nosy students like you wouldn't ask questions," Ari teased, Hiro chuckled.
"You're always lightening my mood Ari," he smiled, "I um..that reminds me, I have something to tell you, something I've thought about for awhile."
"Hmm?" Ari stared at him puzzled.
"We're good friends, I know, but I think of you in a more familial bond," Hiro told her, "I kind of think of you as a younger sister of some sorts..Mikan mentioned I was close to you as I was close to Tadashi once, and after seeing some of the kids at Wendy's workshop, I figured it out." He then saw her reaction, "Ari?" he gestured to the tears on her face.
"Um.." she wiped them away, "I don't know why I'm doing that but.." Ari pulled him into a hug, "I think of you as the older brother I never had! But I didn't want to say anything because I don't want to feel as if I'm replacing your older brother."
"Hey it's okay Ari," Hiro hugged her back, "I'll always remember Tadashi, but he's not you, and you don't have to act like him for my sake. I think of you as my sister because you're Ari, you're smart, funny, and you see the good in people. And also have a really bad taste in crushes."
"Now you bring that up," Ari blushed, "will you ever let that go?"
"Hmm, maybe."
"Hiro!"
They both giggled, feeling a weight lifted off of their chests at the realization of their strong bond. While many shocking things happened today, the best of all was the knowledge they were both close as siblings. And they would continue to see each other as such until the end of their days, as nothing or nobody was going to break their bond anytime soon.
AN: Show of hands who expected that ending.
ReeReeWithAngst managed to predict the direction I was going with Hiro and Ari so shout-out to them!
And holy heck I LOVE writing Wendy Wower! I bet y'all wanted Sally to punch Trevor tho. And gee I wonder who "Bobby" is, HMMMM?!... Eh you guys are smarter then I give you credit for so I bet you guys know (I can't hide stuff from y'all omg).
Question of the Week: Since it took this long for Ari and Hiro to acknowledge their sibling bond, how long do you think it'll take for Ari to figure out Hiro's a member of Big Hero 6 :3?
Have a great week y'all! And give your LGBTQ+ friend (online or irl) a big ol' hug! It's still Pride Month after-all.