The 3rd chapter is here; and with the 3rd chapter come the problems...
Did I get you yet? Anyway, hope you will enjoy and leave a review if you've got something to say!
The next morning started off as usual for the two roommates as each followed her morning routine; with Go-Go dedicating a few minutes to a simple morning workout while Honey spent that short time of the day choosing what to wear while refreshing her mind about last day's classes just in case.
Until Honey finished getting ready Go-Go was waiting in the living room, already dressed in her usual black leather jacket and jeans, and was killing the time by watching TV. When she heard foot-steps coming down from the above floor, she turned around to see if it was her friend who finally picked something to wear, or her friend's mother. Un-surprisingly, the latter option was the correct one. "Good morning, Julieta." Go-Go called from the living room as Julieta advanced towards the kitchen in order to prepare herself something to eat. At the sound of hasty footsteps coming from behind her, Go-Go turned around and saw how the older woman was already wearing her white work coat before even leaving the house.
"Good morning." The woman replied rashly, her full attention focused on her meal and preparing it as fast as possible.
"Stressful day already?" Go-Go asked as she watched Julieta constantly moving her hands around the small kitchen, being half sarcastic while the other half was actually interested if the woman was alright.
"Kind of…" She said at the same time she applied the last piece of bread to her sandwich and took a big bite of it in order to finish it quickly. "I want to get to work early today…" Julieta said while constantly chewing on her simple meal. "Get ahead of everything."
"Woah, relax!" Go-Go told Julieta as she witnessed how stressed she was, almost choking on her breakfast. "You can still eat in peace. Work doesn't run away."
"But my deadline is…" Julieta quickly replied before swallowing the last bit of her sandwich, grabbing her purse and heading towards the door. As soon as she was about to open it and head out though, Julieta noticed something important was missing. "Seung, have you seen my name tag?"
At the mention of her real name, Go-Go turned her head around until she noticed something on the kitchen table. She quickly snagged the white badge which had Julieta's name written on it with a logo which said "Medicamentum Inc.", the factory Julieta worked at. "Here it is…" Go-Go handed the badge over to the scientist.
"Thank you." She thanked the young woman while attaching the badge to her white lab coat. "Tell Natalia I'm sorry but I had to head out early, will you?"
"Sure, leave it to me." Go-Go smiled at Julieta before she headed out of the door. A few minutes later, Honey finally made her way down as well, settled on a yellow skirt and pink high-heel shoes as her outfit for the day while her hair was done in a braid and her regular pink glasses were placed in front of her eyes. "You just missed your mother," Go-Go informed her while turning to face her friend. "All of that for what you wear almost every day?" She asked as soon as she saw what Honey chose to wear.
"Sometimes you realize a little too late that all you need is what you traditionally wear." Honey explained herself.
"I'll never get why it's such a big deal…" Go-Go rolled her eyes with an amused puzzlement about Honey's, and other girls', need to choose an outfit for any mundane thing. "We're going to college, not a rich people party."
"That's not an excuse to not look your best, Go-Go."
"I look best when I'm myself, thank you very much."
"I can't believe I still didn't give you a make-over after all these years." Honey suddenly wondered.
"And for that, I'm grateful." Go-Go smirked as Honey got her car keys and her back-pack. "You at least packed your suit, right?" Go-Go asked her blonde friend in order to make sure they're both ready for a Big Hero 6 emergency call during the school day.
"Like usual…" Honey confirmed with a nod. "Now, let's go pick up our little friend." She said, referring to their leader while on the job and their young friend during normal occasions, Hiro Hamada.
Hiro lived in the most known café in San-Fransokyo, known as "The Lucky Cat Café", alongside his aunt who also ran the business. Honey and Go-Go first met him through his older late brother, Tadashi, who attended the same institute as them. Following Tadashi's death in an explosion shortly after convincing his little brother to attend the same institute, Honey, Go-Go and the rest of Tadashi's friends agreed to aid Hiro in finding out who was responsible to the tragic event and thus they became the team they are today.
Not only were they working together to keep the city safe, but they were also great friends whenever crime wasn't raising its ugly head. Following their first big battle in the city, Hiro made the arrangements with Honey and Go-Go to pick him up in the morning on their way to the university. Honey agreed to help and she and Go-Go became regulars during morning hours at "The Lucky Cat Café", even though they were counted as regulars even before then, back when Tadashi was alive.
Arriving at the café was nothing out of the ordinary. The two would walk in and approach the counter, where Hiro's aunt stood like usual so that she could take everyone's orders. When she saw Honey and Go-Go arrive, she smiled her regular smile at them which they were used to see. "Good morning, girls!" She waved at them as they nodded at her as well.
"Good morning, Cass," Honey told her, Go-Go saying the exact same thing.
"The usual, I assume?" She asked them, receiving a nod before heading towards the coffee machine and starting to make the girls' drinks. Honey and Go-Go used the time their coffee was being made in order to get themselves a table to sit by until Hiro would come down. It wasn't long before Cass handed their orders to them. "Enjoy your coffee." She told them in her usual happy tone.
"Thanks." Go-Go thanked her before taking her plastic cup and slightly sipping the hot drink from it.
"How's Hiro doing?" Honey asked after tasting a bit of her own order.
Cass sighed for a bit at the question. "The poor kid barley slept last night after you came back from the patrol." She told them. "As soon as he came in he remembered he forgot to do some project that's apparently due to today and he stayed up late to finish it."
"Wow…" Go-Go said surprised, not believing that Hiro would be the one to forget doing a college assignment.
"Do you know when he went to sleep?" Honey asked Cass, who answered with a head shake. "Well, I'm going to check on him." Honey volunteered. "We don't want him to sleep in and be late as well." She said before getting up and heading upstairs towards Hiro's room.
"Thank you, Honey." Cass told her as she headed back to work while Go-Go just leaned in her chair and enjoyed her coffee.
While looking around the place as a means of killing the time until Honey gets back, hopefully with a non-sleeping Hiro, Go-Go noticed that one of the customers sitting by a nearby table had the morning newspaper just laying around on the table, untouched. "Excuse me," She told the man. "Can I have the newspaper if you're done reading it?"
"Yeah, sure." He replied while handing her over the paper. "Say, aren't you one of those Big Hero 6 fellas?" The man asked, seeming to recognize Go-Go from somewhere.
"Yes, I am." She replied with a proud smirk while taking the paper from his hand. When the team first formed, all members agreed that a secret identity wasn't needed and they would just be known as themselves, so every once in a while one would recognize them in public.
"Well, I always come here in order to see the robot; but meeting you is also a sight." He told her while getting his phone out. "Can you wish my daughter a happy birthday? She's a big fan of you and Honey Lemon."
"I don't see why not." Go-Go told him, always happy when people reacted positively to their actions as a team, and she was also glad to make fans happy. "Honey is actually here today, she'll be back shortly and I'm sure she'll be happy to participate as well." She informed him.
"Oh, wow. Thank you so much!" The man told her, excited that she has agreed to cheer for his daughter. "You should jump to the middle of the newspaper, by the way." He told her. "There's an article about your actions last night."
"Oh, well thanks…" Go-Go told him, not sure how to react to the fact. Big Hero 6 had their names mentioned in the newspaper several times, but the fact today's paper talked about last night woke the girl's curiosity.
Flipping through the pages, Go-Go's eyes landed at the described page. "Big Hero 6's Go-Go Tomago and Honey Lemon assist police in a car chase" The title said, encouraging further reading. "It is not the first time the well-known vigilante group, Big Hero 6, are making headlines by stopping crimes in San-Fransokyo; but this one holds a bigger story within it. Last night(Wednesday), reports of stolen property were received by the police from local medicine factory, "Medicamentum Inc."," The name of the factory was way too familiar to Go-Go, realizing that she has seen it this morning on Julieta's name badge. She thought last night was the end of it all after her talk with Honey, but now it seems like her fears were just beginning.
"The Big Hero 6 ladies, Go-Go Tomago and Honey Lemon, immediately took action and helped stop the car. The fugitive driver(Picture to the left)" Go-Go scrolled her eyeballs to the left of the article in order to see a picture of a guy highly resembling the driver from last night, making her quickly turn her eyes back to the written words. "has been arrested for a period of five days before the judge will decide what his punishment should be. The driver has been confirmed by the factory to have been recently fired from there due to personal reasons which were decided to not be shared with the public. It is currently unknown what the ex-worker stole from the factory, but the police tells us that Big Hero 6 were on the case of taking care of it."
Go-Go's eyes went wide at the last few lines of the article. With the reasons of the guy's arrest being un-stated, the feeling that he was probably innocent came back. The factory workers confirmed that something was indeed stolen from them, but they didn't admit what was exactly taken and neither did the police who was aware of what the guy took; well, the two cops which Honey and Go-Go helped anyway.
Something was just off about this entire thing being covered up, like the factory didn't want anyone to know what was going on inside of it. As Go-Go kept trying to let this entire thing go, her mind just didn't let her, continually bringing her back to the subject. The only time she managed to stop thinking about this, was when Honey came back along with the young leader with the messy black hair. In a quick instinct, Go-Go managed to convince herself to act naturally and not bring up the newspaper. She teased Hiro about forgetting the project he had to do, talked to both of her friends while finishing her coffee and she even stood by her word to let the man film her and Honey wish his daughter a happy birthday.
Though she didn't talk about it, her mind didn't stop thinking about what she just read. Something wrong was going on in Julieta's factory, even if it pained her to think that was the case, and even if it meant she'll have to bring this up to Honey a second time.
Julieta was sitting in her lab, her eyes focusing on her computer screen and nothing else. She was close, she knew she was close, but at the same time things just didn't work out. Maybe she should try and combine these ingredients with these chemicals? Or take this one thing out and add something new? Every time she typed something else into her formula on the computer, she was shown a success percentage which just didn't cut it.
She didn't give up though, she kept trying. Every possible combination was tested out, even ones which weren't all that plausible were given a chance just in case, but it still wasn't enough. As Julieta sighed at the negative results, the sound of her boss's voice was heard calling her to his office through the intercom. Apparently, this day could have gotten worse than it already was.
It didn't take Julieta long to appear near the door to her boss's office. She looked at the door for a few seconds, reading the name written over it a few times. "Aron Fu", the head of the place. It wasn't the first time she has talked to him, being the lead physician on development of the brain pill that he conceptualized, but considering their last talk the previous day and various other meetings, there was no reason for her to not worry about going inside that office.
"You wanted to see me?" Julieta asked as she stepped inside the large room. The place didn't look different from any other time she was called in there. It still had the big round table with all of the black chairs surrounding it, the window which was located right near the door and supplied a view for how high-up the building they were, and there was also a TV screen which at the moment showed the company logo. At the head of the table, sat the boss with his back to the door Julieta came through.
Upon hearing her voice, Aron turned his chair around in order to face his worker. Nothing about him seemed that much different either; he was still bald, he was still wearing the same black suit and tie he always wore and he still had the same dull expression on his face which made it clear he wasn't happy about anything. The only thing that was different was the fact he was holding a newspaper.
"Julieta, please sit down." He gestured to the chair which was closest to her and faced him directly. "You know what I'm going to ask; how's the medicine coming along?" Aron asked her, his expression never changing and his voice being as low, soft and threatening as it always was.
"I'm sorry, Aron. But I'm still working on it; we haven't reached good enough results in order to move on with the development." She admitted, knowing full well that he was going to snap at her. But to her surprise, he just sighed and turned his back to her.
"You are disappointing me a lot today, Julieta." He stated, confusing his worker even more.
"I told you yesterday we are closer than ever, Aron. There's nothing I could do when the results are negative, I just need more time." Julieta tried to reason, but he just sighed at her words.
"We don't have time." He told her, spinning his chair back so he could face her and let her have the morning's newspaper. "I want you to read the article at the top of the page…" He said, confusing Julieta who turned her eyes to the requested part of the page. "Big Hero 6's Go-Go Tomago and Honey Lemon assist police in a car chase." He said in his calm voice, but at the same time he raised it in order to emphasize what Julieta has just read. "Isn't one of those girls your daughter by any chance?"
Julieta's face turned immediately from the paper to Aron. "What does this have to do with anything?" She asked, starting to fear her kid might have done something bad for the place.
"Read on and you will find out…" He told her to read on. She did, seeing how they stopped a robber who stole something from their factory. Looking at the picture of the guy, Julieta recognized him as one of the people who worked under her. "I should have known this Keji would try to bring us down somehow." Aron suddenly said.
"Wha… What do you want from Natalia, then?" Julieta immediately asked, not caring about the theft. "She stopped him! Why are you mad at her?"
"Because our factory being involved with a crime gives us bad publicity! If she and her friends would have kept their noses out of this, we wouldn't have to worry about the press being on our tails."
"But she stopped Keji from stealing something from us. You have no reason to blame her for anything! What did he steal anyway…?"
"That's not the issue, Julieta." He said, returning to his soft voice from before. "The issue is that with this headline everywhere, our company gets a bad rep. Our name gets damaged; the medicine won't be successful at the market. So I will tell you, again, hurry up with this thing."
"I told you many times before, I can't rush it so you could sell it and cause problems…"
"Three days." Aron cut her off while raising his finger. "That's what I'm giving you. If you don't come back to me with successful results on that time, you can start looking for a different job."
"You can't fire me!" Julieta shouted at him. "I'm the one who developed the formula! You can't continue my research without…"
"Oh, I can!" Aron raised his tone back at her. "You sold your research to us the moment I assigned you the job. You attempt to take it, and the next place we'll meet will be in court." He threatened her before leaning back in his chair and turning away. "Three days, and also tell your daughter and her friends to keep their noses out of our business."
Angered, confused and frustrated, Julieta got up from her seat and stormed through the door. She had no choice; she had to hurry up her work in order to protect her research and more importantly, her daughter.
Like I said, problems start to arise. Not only for Go-Go, as even Julieta seem to face some troubles.
So what is up with this factory? Will Go-Go do the right thing? Will Honey be in trouble because of her involvment? And why did I choose such a complicated name for the factory? All of these questions (With the exeption of the last one because I have no idea what I was thinking) will be answered in the next chapters!
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and please leave a review!