As quick as autumn leaves turn red, Halloween is here in San Fransokyo.
Ari was especially excited to spend her first Halloween with Hiro, all she had about the holiday was memories of trick-or-treating with her parents. Dad would hold her candy bag when it got too heavy and Mom would hold her hand when they rang the doorbell of a really scary house with creepy decorations. Sometimes Ari wished she could photograph her memories and hang them on her wall, it'd make her feel a whole lot better.
It was evening, right before they were going out. At first she didn't know what she was going to do for her costume, but a group text from Mikan provided the answer.
Apparently the Fern kids were going with a theme, that being dressing up as the various villains Big Hero 6 had faced.
Wanting to jump on the bandwagon, Ari dressed up as none other than her favorite member of the High Voltage duo much to Hiro's dismay. He was mostly annoyed that she wasn't going as a pirate like him. Ari wasn't going to tell him where she got the outfit from, no matter how much candy he bribed. Sides, it was from Mikan, and I don't want to know where she got it from. Ebay or something?
Speaking of him, he was taking a lot of time putting his "pirate make-up" on.
"Hiro." Ari knocked on the bathroom door. "We're leaving in like, ten minutes."
She got a knock back in return. "Well maybe someone shouldn't have spent half an hour on make-up!"
Ari huffed in offense. "Hey! I'm not good at it!" It had taken her forever to replicate the same extensive eyeshadow her friend had for her "High Voltage" look, how Juniper pulled it off so flawlessly she just didn't know. Maybe it's maybelline.
The door opened. "Finally!" She squealed. "Oh my gosh, Hiro you did such a good job!"
Hiro had pulled off the pirate look to a T, he had the torn striped shirt and baggy pants pirates had. Along with a bandana and eyepatch, and to add flavor he added a scar on his cheek.
"Thanks." He smiled back at her. "You did a good job yourself."
"Well, only because you helped. A lot." Ari chuckled, her brother offered to help but she insisted on doing the make-up herself. "How'd you learn to do make-up like that?"
"Aunt Cass taught me a few tricks." Hiro shrugged. "Honey Lemon also showed me a few pointers."
She hummed. I wonder what he uses make-up for? "How come?" Ari decided to ask."To hide the bags under my eyes from a long night patrol so nobody questions my tired state."
"Ohhhhh."
They met up with the others a few blocks away. Fred was dressed as Captain Fancy, Honey Lemon went for Lenore Shimamoto, Gogo just put on white cat ears and called it a day, as for Wasabi..
"So, why a pineapple?" Hiro questioned.
"It's the only fruit that fits." Wasabi told him. Their brief exchange was interrupted by Fred literally leaping for joy.
"Guys! Guys! Did you see that?" Fred pointed to the trick-or-treaters across the street. "I am a Halloween costume!"
Sure enough, plenty of kids were dressed as the various members of Big Hero 6. "We're all Halloween costumes." Hiro hummed with amusement.
"This is officially the coolest day of my life!" The comic fan was grinning from ear to ear. The others smiled as Fred kept jumping up and down.
"Wait, we're missing one." Hiro paused, he looked behind him to see Baymax was interacting with a small trick-or-treater dressed as him. "Baymax! C'mon buddy!"
The robot turned around and caught up to the group, Ari giggled with amusement at the small interaction.
"So what are we doing first?" She turned to Hiro.
Gogo raised an eyebrow at her, then to the latter. "You didn't tell her what we're doing?"
"I thought she knew!"
"No I don't!"
"We're going to a haunted house." Honey Lemon told her.
Ari's eyes lit up with excitement. A haunted house? I've never been to one before! "Cool!" She glanced over to Wasabi. "I'm shocked you consented to this."
"It's a safe scare, not real." He argued. "So I'll only be half as scared as I usually am."
"Oookay, sure." She rolled her eyes. "We're gonna do some trick-or-treating first, right?"
"What kind of question is that?" Hiro chuckled. "One does not simply skip trick-or-treating. Unless you're too old or in college, or both."
"Hey!" The older college students chorused in mock offense.
They finally arrived at the haunted house, which was covered in gravestones and ghouls. Ari clung to Hiro when they walked past a few ghosts clinging to the trees. Fred was the brave soul who knocked on the door. An old man with coarse grey hair and a black suit swung it open.
"Welcome, welcome to Mr. O'Hare's House of Scares!" He greeted them as eerie laughter played from some radio, it made chills run down everyone's spines. "Are you ready to be… scared?"
Honey Lemon clapped, Fred bounced up and down. Gogo just claimed "cheesy."
"How about you little kids?" Mr. O'Hare turned to Hiro and Ari. "Are you ready to be scared?"
"No?" Ari squeaked, her voice said otherwise.
"I'm fourteen." Hiro narrowed his eyes. Or eye, since the right one was covered by an eyepatch.
"Oh, well you are a little on the diminutive side." Mr. O'Hare then opened the door. "Anyway, enter… if you dare!"
The group walked into the house as wolves howled, Baymax stopped at the door to see that the host was responsible for the howling by clicking his phone. He was still on it when the robot entered the house, for some reason.
"Trick or treat."
The eerie laughter followed them into the haunted house. "Psst." Ari turned to her left, Hiro tugged her sleeves and gestured for them to slow down. She complied. "Did you tell the others about your water powers yet?"
Ari shook her head no, "haven't found a good time. No."
"Well, speaking of that." He bowed his head down. "I can't believe you did them in front of Trina."
"I think she knew all along." She winced.
"What are you gonna do? Throw water at me?"
"Yeah I can see that…"
"What do you mean by that?" Ari frowned. "You haven't talked about Trina since she showed her true colors."
"Well…" Hiro curled his lip, trying to ignore the flash of pain in his chest. The recent betrayal had hurt too much to think about. But what was even worse was learning that Mikan, Mikan of all people, was Trina's accomplice! A part of him wanted to confront or even warn the others about her, especially since Ari would spend the rest of her night in the company of the unstable woman. But he feared what she would do. Does her siblings, David and Sara know what she does? Then again… I feel like I'm missing part of the story. "It's nothing." He lied.
"If you say so." His sister hummed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The group jumped up as a skeleton popped out of the floorboards and screeched at them.
"This is not anatomically correct." Baymax being Baymax, was unfazed. Neither was Gogo too for that matter.
They then entered a room with a crystal ball, Hiro stepped in first to observe the ball and check if there were jumpscares. Instead his gaze went to several kinetoscopes plugged into the walls. "Um, I've never seen these in a haunted house before." His hands felt the binoculars, which were smooth and metallic, recently built by the looks of it.
"Have you been to a lot of haunted houses?" Honey Lemon asked.
He chuckled. "Yeah. Tadashi would take me to them all the time."
Fred flashed him a sad smile. "Mhmm. He always had a taste in the spooks." He walked up to the machines and looked into the binoculars. "Oooh a vampire. Check it out guys!"
The others followed suit, gazing into the binoculars. Aforementioned vampire cackled, turning into a bat and steam hissed as it lunged at them.
"Ack!" Ari yelped. "No wonder Katie hates vampires."
"Woah!" Fred jumped back. "Freaky."
"Eh. It just blew air in your face." Gogo shrugged it off. "It's a trick."
"I find your lack of fear disturbing, to be honest."
"Maybe Gogo's not afraid of anything, she is fearless and brave." Honey Lemon defended her friend, who blushed at the compliment.
"Everyone's afraid of something." Wasabi pointed out. "Come on Gogo, something must freak you out."
"What are you afraid of?" Ari asked him.
"For me? I'm gonna go with heights."
"I think you all know mine." Fred flinched at the memory.
"Same." Ari nodded.
"Spiders?" Hiro gestured to the former.
"Uhhhg, leggy little demons." He brought his cape to his face, the creaking of a coffin alerted his attention. He jumped back and yelled with the rest of them as a mummy popped out from the coffin and screamed!
Everyone but Gogo and Baymax screamed too, the robot just started wrapping the mummy's bandages tighter. "Your bandage is loose. This could increase your risk of infection."
"I'm afraid of hippos." They all turned to Honey Lemon.
"Hippos?" Hiro frowned, "I thought you loved all things cute."
"Hippos aren't cute! Hippos are-oh..." Honey Lemon shuddered.
"Why are you afraid of them?" Gogo raised an eyebrow, the others nodded in agreement, wanting to know the full story.
The chemist took a deep breath. "I went on a safari once, I got lost. And then I ran into one of those hippos..." She shivered at the memory. "It opened its mouth and bellowed and there were more of them and-"
"Okay okay okay." Gogo calmed her. "You don't have to say anything more." She took a deep breath. "Since you confessed your fear I might as well tell mine. I don't like… leprechauns."
They all blinked.
"Leprechauns?" Hiro raised an eyebrow.
"Leprechauns." Fred wore a neutral expression on his face. "Okay, kind of mundane."
"Excuse me if my darkest fear bores you-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" A screeching mummy falling from the ceiling caused them all to shriek and jump back from the crystal globe.
"I think we're done here."
They exited the haunted house in a hurry, Ari heard the host say something about leaving a good review. She saw in the shadows he was on his phone again, and giving them all wary looks. She wasn't gonna lie, it felt off to her.
"You guys." Gogo was on her phone. "Noodle Burger Boy's at the Krei-Tech shipyard." The rest of the members clicked their Skymax apps.
"Does this mean I have to find the Fern kids on my own?" Ari huffed, mentally cursing the small robot menace for ruining quality bonding time!
"Mhmm." Hiro hummed. "With David, Sara and Mikan..."
"And David's girlfriend Sienna." She pointed out. "She's meeting us at the corn maze."
"Weird question, has Mikan brought up anything about her family?" He had pulled her aside for a private conversation as the others waited for Skymax to arrive.
Ari pondered for a moment, a little confused by the question. "Well her dad's a busy businessman, but one time she had me run an errand to give Steven a letter saying she was moving back in with him and that was the whole 'High Voltage stole from Krei-Tech thing' y'know?"
"Uh-huh, and her siblings? Besides David and Sara."
"Well she never told me their names, but she and her sister have a lot in common apparently, and her new little brother is a noodle burger loving maniac."
Hiro's eyes seemed to widen at the words "noodle burger" but brushed it off. "Okay."
"Is something the matter?" She asked, a little concerned.
"I think something's up with Mikan." Those words did not make her feel better, "but just don't bring up her family. And don't bring up Trina or the robberies, got it?"
She nodded. "Will you tell me more later?"
"Pinkie promise." They both did the childish but sacred gesture, and parted ways as Skymax arrived and the team piled on Baymax's back (or cling to his arms in Wasabi's case) and flew to stop NBB.
I'm kind of tempted to go home and just pig out on my share of Halloween candy instead of going to the Fern Kids. Ari hummed, but Sara's filming for her vlog and I wanna hang out with Sienna. The only thing scary about this is how many times we're gonna get lost.
What else could happen? Ghosts?
She clung to the well-lit streets like a cat stuck in a tree. Halloween night was never a good time to go out alone, Ari was aware there were dangers of being by yourself on such a hallowed night. It didn't make her feel better as the bitter wind chilled her to the bone. Luckily she was a block away from her destination, and a few trick-or-treaters were going the same direction she was! It wouldn't hurt to stick close to the trio of costumed ninjas would it?
"Hi." She walked up to the group. "Is it okay if I tag along for a little bit? I'm getting close to my stop but uh… safety in numbers amiright?"
One of the boys flashed her a smile. "Sure. We're just going to the corn maze."
"Wait really?" They all nodded. "Me too!"
"Cool." The other boy, a curly ginger instead of the brunette nodded.
"I like your costume." The girl of the group who bore a family resemblance to the ginger male but with teal eyes instead of blue complimented her appearance.
"Thanks." Ari smiled. "I'm Ari."
"I'm Hank." The brown-haired boy with hazel eyes introduced himself, then gestured to his companions. "These two are Chad and Janice."
"We go to Bridgeton." Chad told her. "Are you a freshman? We're juniors so we mostly hang around the seniors and sophomores, not freshmen."
Ari shook her head. "Not yet. But I'm going to attend really soon, after my brother's done his first college semester."
"Sounds cool."
"Yeah, It'll be my first time in a public school, so I'm nervous." She chuckled. "But at least my friend Rachel goes to that school."
"Rachel as in Rachel Rosemary? That Rachel? The one who's dad is that famous police detective who solved the case about the genetically experimented animals?" Janice raised an eyebrow.
"Mhmm."
"Coolio, we know of her." Chad grinned. "Hank here is a good soccer player. And she's the team's biggest fan. And also we have painting class together."
Ari was surprised. I didn't know Rachel was a soccer fan, then again I didn't think Hiro and Aunt Cass were baseball fans either. "That's nice, maybe when I'll see you around when I start school there." Her grin then turned into a worried frown. "Uh, Bridgeton isn't run by a social hierarchy, right?"
The trio of juniors chuckled. "Nah dudette, we have a few well-known students but none of that popular Mean Girls type of trope. Closests is that certain groups have their own tables, but it's mostly clubs and sports teams that follow that, and it's not enforced much."
"Yeah, at least we don't have a group of Plastics running around." Janice nodded. "I'd be so done if someone started acting like Regina George, like I'd start looking for a Cady to help take her down."
Ari nodded in agreement. "wouldn't blame you."
The "Hayden Haunted Hay" corn maze had a few groups of people waiting by the entrance. An attendant in a scarecrow costume was at the front, a familiar group she knew was waiting for Ari.
"There she is!" Sara greeted her, she appeared to be dressed like Globby, having a long purple sweater and purple pants, green tinted goggles and purple glitter across her cheeks. David was dressed like his mom, and she suspected he got the outfit from her based on how the clothes were bigger than him.
Mikan's costume made her laugh. "Oh don't judge me, if it weren't for that stupid paper in 'rock-paper-scissors', Sara would be dressed like this." The snow-haired girl was NBB, and had the head as a doodled cardboard box, which fit her very comically.
"Wasn't your brother supposed to be escorting you?" That was Sienna who spoke up, the only one out of their group who wasn't dressed like a villain. She was dressed as a vampire with plastic sharp teeth and two red marks on her neck, and a black cape that went to her feet.
"He was busy." She lied. "But these guys escorted me." Ari waved to the students. "Bye guys!" They waved back as her group entered the corn maze.
After a few minutes, the group entered the corn maze themselves. After Sara had gotten her camera ready and began filming for her vlog.
Ari put on the best "professional" smile she could when Sara introduced her to the camera, and then they entered.
"Relax, it's not a real corn maze." She heard Mikan talking to Sienna. "Chill out girl."
"You're not the one with a crippling fear of scarecrows," Sienna shivered.
"It does look real." Ari frowned, it wasn't big as the corn mazes she saw on some videos. Torii Gate Park had been turned into a giant corn maze, filled with jumpscares, dead ends, and the sound of chainsaws.
"Well we're off to a great start." Sara huffed. "We lost two of our group." She pointed behind her, David and Sienna were gone.
"Wh-what!" Mikan stannered. "I was just talking to her!"
"Did the scarecrow get them?" Ari stepped away from the corn, fearing a hand would grab her.
"Hmm." The blonde narrowed her brown eyes. "My bet is that they're breaking the number one trope in horror movie history."
"Yeesh." Mikan huffed. "I expected better of David."
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Nothing!"
Both of the Fern girls were rather wrong on their opinion of where lovebirds of the group went. Sienna did drag David, but not to smooch in secret, but to enjoy the corn maze themselves. Plus the art student enjoyed having her boyfriend as a shoulder to hold as they travelled through the haunted maze.
Speaking of her boyfriend, he had a perpetual frown on his face. "You okay David?" Sienna turned to him.
"Hm? Oh, it's nothing." He shrugged it off. But Sienna saw through the lie.
"Is it something family related?" She stared at him deeply.
He sighed. "Nothing related to my mother. But uh… Mikan's been a little wei-"
"BOO!" A ghost in the corn popped out, causing Sienna to scream and cling to David. Who was startled by the screaming and they both were crying their lungs out in horror.
"Found them!" Mikan's obnoxious smug voice popped up behind a corner. David groaned in response.
"You like seeing us suffer, don't you?" There was a bitter tone in his words that Sienna barely managed to pick up.
"Maybe."
Sara poked her heads through the corn next. "Did we interrupt something?"
"No!" The couple chorused.
"Jeez! Get your minds out of the gutter." David turned a bright shade of pink at the thought, "what do we look like? The horror movie couple that goes off into the woods and dies first?"
"Kind of." Ari spoke up, her words were humorous, her tone in a teasing manner. "Neither of you are blonde-haired, so you're safe."
Said blonde of the group patted her hair. "I'm offended." She joked.
"I think Sara's more of the Final Girl." Her brother defended. "She's smart enough to take on the killer. And win."
"Your confidence in me makes me feel better."
They continued through the corn maze for another twenty minutes, however it was enough for everyone but Mikan and Ari so it was just them left in the maze. She had noticed the older girl giving her strange and… pitiful stares for some reason. It kind of disturbed her. What is going on through her head?
They hit a fork in the maze. "Oh no. Two directions." Mikan sarcastically mumbled.
"That was weak." She huffed, Ari was having enough of this. "I'll take the left, you take the right."
"Sure. Sure." Mikan shrugged.
Ari squinted her eyes. "You alright Mikan?"
"I'm fine!" Some of the snow-haired girl's anger returned. "Just tired." Ari didn't push the matter and went her direction, the scariest thing in her path was the giant fake tarantula that would have Fred screaming like a woodpecker.
"I am so tempted to head back." Ari huffed, "I bet Hiro and the others are done by now." She almost wished she could watch them beat the bolts out of NBB, key word being "almost." As last she heard, NBB was equipped with laser eyes, and you don't mess with laser eyes.
The fog rolled in, and Ari saw a figure in front of her. It was too misty to pick out the finer details of the man. Must be another scarecrow.
He looked up, his emotionless brown eyes slightly covered by the black tufts of hair poking from his San Fransokyo's Ninjas hat. She knew those eyes, in the portraits all over the house.
A scream rose up her throat, and she bolted. Ari continued to screech until she exited the corn maze, and crashed into Sara.
"Woah-woah-woah what's the matter?!" Sara pulled her into a tight hug. "It's okay, just breathe.
"G-g-g-gh-ghost-" She stuttered, trying to breathe properly and not have a panic attack. You were just tired and seeing things, it's not real. It's not real. IT'S NOT REAL.
"Oh jeez, thought I heard a mouse." She barely registered Mikan's comment, but the haunted look in her eyes made Ari feel as if her friend was full of guilt.
Sara dropped her home, she managed to mumble out a thanks and headed upstairs, too tired to talk to Aunt Cass or pet Mochi. Hiro was upstairs as well, he shared the same startled look she had.
They didn't speak any words as Ari took off her Halloween costume and switched to her regular blue striped sweater, and placed her rosemary hair pin back where it belonged. She went into her candy stash and pulled out a bag.
"Gummy bears?" Ari offered to her brother, who was burning holes into the wall.
"No thanks." She gasped.
"You turning down gummy bears?" Ari dramatically exclaimed. "Who are you and what have you done with Hiro Hamada?" She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey Hiro?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you… see anything weird tonight? Like a figure in the fog?"
Hiro faced her, there was a haunted look in his brown eyes.
The Krei-Tech crates had blocked NBB's path, smoke and fog flew in the air as he and Baymax landed. "Golly mister. That sure wasn't swell." The former customer happiness robot turned to them.
"Noodle Burger Boy, it's time to reprogram you." Hiro declared, "you're coming with-"
He then noticed the figure above them, to the right was a figure he thought he'd never see. Their head was faced down, but he recognized that hat, green blazer, and brown jeans he wore the day of his death. It shook his core seeing a single cold brown eye stare up at him.
"Tadashi?"
"I think we're both just tired and still freaked out from the haunted house. We'll both be fine in the morning."
Somehow, both of them knew it was just a comforting lie, because neither of them wanted to face the truth.
AN: HALLOWEEN!
I did NOT expect to be posting this ep at Halloween. So early update because second part will be on Saturday. MUHAAHAHHAHAHAHA!
Reason why Fern kids and Ari were dressed as supervillains is bc of my hc that if the kids dressed up as heroes for Halloween, they could dress up as villains either. Somewhere on my tumblr is a drawing of the Fern kids in their costumes, Ari's is yet to be posted XD
The Bridgeton students Ari runs into to her walk to the corn maze are based off the background students in "Something's Fishy" see if you can guess which kid is which!
QOTW: On a scale of spooked to TERRIFIED, how do you feel about what'll happen next?