Chapter 20, everybody! In which Obake is stressed but honestly that's nothing new at this point. X'D

Honestly, I feel that if Tadashi had survived the source material he would have been good for staying on top of Hiro and his studies, thus avoiding the inciting incident of "Failure Mode." And from personal experience…you always find your level. When you finally hit a challenge, it isn't a failing, it's you finally finding the extent of your capabilities and testing your limits, which is Obake's point here. And yes, he's aware of the irony. And no never go with housing developments we know contractors who can attest to the fact that they're basically made of rice paper and popsicle sticks.

Waves, as I recall from science class, can be cancelled out if met with a proper opposing wave and yes, earthquakes do count as them. And, you know, since Globby isn't going to be using those goggles something had to happen to them…I recall one of my art classes saying that five things had to be different from the original to count as being different enough, so I can buy Krei's excuse but yeah still scummy. Also, small shout-out to my comic Obake and Tadashi Get Isekai'ed. XD

In other news as far as Cass knows she has a teen in her garage who doesn't seem to do anything all day so of course she's pushing school. The couch bit comes from Baby Daddy—that show was basically Three Men and a Baby: The Series and it's very entertaining. Also Obake's quoting Dead Man's Chest, although he probably doesn't realize it.

James the apple, thanks for the reviews. I accept your apology, and caution you to be careful with tone from now on, as written words can take on a different slant without expression and verbal tone to supplement it.

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

So failing to retrieve the anti-gravity device sucked. Not that Obake really knew what he'd do with it if he had it, but it seemed like the thing to have. For now, however, he had other things to focus on.

Okay, granted he didn't have the same level of resources he did before, but at the very least he was able to get a couple more drones scanning the city for potential hideouts and/or High Voltage, although he was starting to despair about ever catching the latter. Oi this shouldn't be this hard.

But doing what he did best did calm him down and make him feel a bit more comfortable—hence why Hiro coming in to slouch in the other chair wasn't exactly a welcome distraction. Especially when he started huffing.

"You seem troubled," he said finally, sparing the teen a glance when he bonked his head on the table.

"Okay!" Hiro groused, sitting back up. "So I'm making a building to resist earthquakes because it's part of an assignment, Tadashi stays on me about getting it done early which is totally annoying, and then when I do make it he trashes it!"

This felt like there was more to the story. "For no reason, or as an object lesson?"

"I…okay fine he told me Granville would test it and if it could survive him shaking the table it'd probably survive her tests."

"And I'm guessing it did not."

"No," Hiro groaned. "Now I have to do it over and come up with a better idea—what gives? It used to be I could just throw something together and it'd work just fine! I'm losing my touch, I just know it—off me before I become too pathetic, I won't be able to stand my downward spiral."

So that smacked too close to home for him to be comfortable. "Oh dear, washed up at twelve."

"Fourteen."

"And—hmm, I think I've heard of this before, what was it…oh yes—you finally ran into a challenge. Now what?"

"What do you mean, now what?"

"I mean, now that you've run into a challenge that could result in failure, now what? Do you press on, adapt and overcome? Or do you do as you're doing now and just give up?" Shut up brain he was aware of the irony of him lecturing Hiro on this.

Hiro groused at this, slouched back in his chair with his arms crossed. "Okay then…fine. Still need to figure out how to build a better building."

"Start with don't ask housing developers to build them," Obake snarked. "After that…I'm going to guess you went with the first thing you thought of, which made it the low-effort one. Not that it wasn't worth trying, but now that it's out of the way you need something a bit more percussive."

"Like?"

"Am I the one attending this class? You figure it out." Mostly because he didn't remember this bit from the original whatever.

Hiro gusted a sigh, toed the chair around a little. "Let's see…airbags and like, stabilizing goop would be too messy, wouldn't it?"

"And have the issue of reusability," Obake pointed out, cruising a drone high above a boulevard. "You can't make it too rigid or flexible either, since either extremity would result in the building breaking."

"UGH—I wish I could just like—cancel out the earthquake—"

Obake had to look over at the way Hiro cut off sharply at that, noted the teen looked like an idea had bonked him on the head.

"Earthquakes are basically waves, right?" Hiro asked.

"Seismic waves, but yes," Obake said. "Why?"

Hiro launched out of the chair so fast that it crashed against the table. "Hold on I got an idea!"

"Good for you," he muttered after a beat, deciding he wasn't going to complain about being left to his own devices again—well, sort of, Hiro was being very noisy on the other side of the garage. Turn and watch him for a few moments, tempted to go over and help…finally sighed and turned back to the computer. Work before pleasure, he could expend all the time he wanted in helping the boy once he stopped his past self from destroying the city.

Unless it resulted in his death again—

Shiver at that, hating that thought—dangit dangit dangit Fred why did you bring up all those daft shows? Bury his face in his hands, trying to compose himself….

The irony was not lost on him. He had thrown everything away, had lost and thought he didn't care anymore…now he cared deeply, but in order for what he cared about to survive he'd have to die again.

Dear past self, he thought, sliding his hands to the side enough for him to glower at the screen. Yes, past self, this is your future self come to give you warning. Firstly, do not try to destroy the city, this will not end well. Secondly, might I interest you in a little family brimming with potential? Trust me, they're worth your while.

Debate on that, decide to figure out if that would be a good alternative or not. Depending on which nonsense of Fred's you believed, editing the past like that could erase himself from the present a la Marty McFly from Back to the Future (Fred had enlisted Tadashi's help in orchestrating a marathon of those movies). Alternatively, changing the past resulted in an alternate timeline, so the weirdness that would be his adult self being in the same room as his current self and oh his brain he didn't like this concept—

Was aware that Hiro had scooted back over, was bouncing up and down in his chair enough to make it squeak. "What, Hiro."

"Come on, check it out," Hiro cajoled, elbowing him. Look up at the madly grinning kid, who now gestured at a small mockup of a building. "Go on, shake it—shake the table."

Arch an eyebrow at him, debating…finally decided to humor him, shaking the table slightly—

And prompting two disks to come out of the building and go against the ground, making the table buzz.

"Stabilizers?" he asked, considering.

"Nope," Hiro said, grinning. "Earthquakes are shockwaves, right? Made from volcanic explosions or pressure releasing from tectonic plates shifting against each other."

"Right."

"But—they're still waves. Which means that a different wave, properly out of sync, would cancel it out." Gesture excitedly at the little building. "That's what this does—it detects the wavelength and then puts out a vibration to cancel it out."

Okay, now he was impressed. "And in doing so it not only preserves the building, but saves its neighbors as well. Very clever."

"Glad you think so," Hiro said, socking him on the arm before doing a sort of happy dance in his seat. "Oh man this is SO going to get an A Granville's gonna be totally impressed this would definitely survive a Great Catastrophe."

Actually, it wouldn't—the Great Catastrophe was caused by Shimamoto's star machine, a much smaller version than the one he had made and attempted to destroy the city with. It was a combo of explosion and intense gravity well—no amount of earthquake preparation could have averted it.

Of course, Hiro wouldn't know this. Hiro was prepping for an entirely different disaster, and while an actual Great Catastrophe would destroy this, an earthquake most likely would not. What he needed was an affirmation, which he was happy to give.

Now it was just a matter of making sure a second Great Catastrophe didn't actually occur.

Obake spent a chunk of the next day physically checking out some of the locations he had scoped out, trying to see if they'd be viable alternate lairs. Thus far most of them were either too far out of range of the café to be feasible or were otherwise unfit (the rats in the one, for example). Honorable mention went to the abandoned warehouse that Krei had walked right into with his assistant, necessitating Obake ducking for cover until they left.

It had the added bonus of some knockoff technology to steal though.

"Hmm," he noised, peering through the goggles. Okay yes if he fiddled with it the goggles gave him a HUD to work with but they weren't necessary—Krei was right, the only purpose was to differentiate it enough from Hiro's neurotransmitter to evade lawsuits. Turn the whole thing over, examining it…color and shape of the goggles was familiar, if he didn't know any better he'd say this had been part of what made Globby in the original timeline. Well, since he wasn't using it anymore….

Granted he was still faced with the question of what he would do with it now that he had it, same as with High Voltage's power sphere, but again he countered himself with the fact that right now he had zero resources compared to him (it was just better for his sanity to think of his past self as a separate entity) and needed to start building up something. He'd figure out what to do with all this later, hopefully, once he had a more concrete plan.

In the meantime—store the knockoff neurotransmitter with the rest of the stuff in the warehouse he and the brothers had been using, look over everything and once again reflect that he'd be needing to move all this soon. There had to be a better place to store all this, somewhere where discovery wouldn't be risked.

Sigh, slouch back to the Lucky Cat—he had forgotten how frustrating it had been at the bottom, scraping and scrabbling until he had wrangled enough of a reputation that people properly feared him. Now, as a nobody, he had difficulties he had entirely forgotten about, and because he didn't have enough problems he was also simultaneously going after the top dog of the underworld himself. Literally.

"Oh hey!" Cass said when he entered the kitchen through the back way, making a beeline for the fridge where she had stored the energy drinks. "Where have you been?"

"Out," he groaned, taking a Monster drink out and holding it against his forehead as he sagged against the fridge. Ugh this shouldn't be this hard. Maybe he should just skive off, leave this city to its fate. Maybe he could talk the Hamadas into taking a vacation on the opposite side of the country. Right. And maybe he could find himself in an alternate dimension catching those little monsters in tiny balls like that one game Hiro was currently obsessed over. How about some real ideas, Obake?

"Out where?" Cass asked.

Oi this again. "Walking. For exercise," he added when he saw that eyebrow go up.

"By yourself?" she asked, looking concerned. "Is that safe?"

"I need time to myself, and honestly I'd feel more concern for whoever stopped me."

"Uh…right. You know you're built like a twig, right? I don't have to actually tell you that?"

"You have customers waiting, did you know that?"

"Oh crud sorry!" she barked, sprinting back to the café. Well that was her out of the way…now back to business.

Sitting at the computer and sending the drones out was more habit at this point, he sincerely doubted he was going to get anything worthwhile from this endeavor but it gave him something to do while he brainstormed. Okay, so past him had the benefit of planning this for years, this was just him now putting everything into motion. He, himself, Obake of the present episode of The Twilight Zone, was having to scramble to catch up, it made sense that he'd feel panicky and way behind.

That, of course, did not mean it sucked any less.

Sigh, take another swig of energy drink as he scanned the different windows on the screen. Okay. Think of it this way: if five kids and a healthcare robot could sabotage his plan then Obake, scrambling for resources like he was, definitely could. After all, who better to stop him than himself, the one who knew how he thought?

How how HOW had this kid beaten him he had thought he had planned everything perfectly—

Groan, bury his face in his hands as he slouched against the desk. Okay okay, get yourself out of this tailspin for more than five seconds…Hiro had escaped because Globby had to go all noble, with no Globby in the picture there probably would have been no way for Hiro to escape and maybe he shouldn't have prevented that useless blob from being created.

Okay no think fourth-dimensionally or whatever—no Globby, and with any luck no Hiro to fixate on…no wait that was bad too he had delayed his plans on Hiro's behalf, toying with him as he debated on the merits of a protégé. The second Great Catastrophe would probably happen sooner without Hiro acting as a distraction.

Groan again as he flopped back in his seat—no, think—the amplifier, the journal, and the painting—all he had to do was keep those three things out of his reach. All this he was doing was his own manner of distraction, keeping himself focused on rebuilding so that when the issue came to a head, he could properly counter—

Sat bolt upright when he realized he recognized the activity on one of the windows. Pull it open—finally! High Voltage was back!

Monitor them as he sent the hardened drone with the capture net and a couple more equipped with bolos, vibrating in his seat from nervous tension—come on, come on, keep up with the grandstanding give him like five more minutes—

The moment the drones were close enough he shoved them into action, sending the one to snatch the energy orb as the other two fired bolos at the dance duo. The drones were gone by the time anyone in the area were able to react.

He, meanwhile, gave himself a minute to leap up and cheer before falling back into the seat and doing one of those happy flails that Hiro was good for when beating a particularly challenging level. Okay that's enough calm down you fool high emotion would make his face flare and besides, he was better than random excited flailing he was a supervillain, excuse you.

"You sound happy," Cass said, coming in with a plate of food. "What, playing a video game?"

"Ah…let's say I beat a particularly difficult boss," he said, closing the window showing the trussed up High Voltage and recalling the drones—he'd have to slip off later to the warehouse and store everything properly, he did not need to risk that energy orb frying everything else there.

"Ah…hah," she noised, putting the plate down next to him—and then pulling up the other chair and sitting down in it. Probably not good. "You don't mind telling me if you plan on anything resembling school soon, do you?"

Don't look don't acknowledge…dangit. Do a slow take, arching an eyebrow. "Did Tadashi put you up to this?"

"No, me being the adult in this relationship put me up to this." HA! "You're a bright kid! You don't need to be spending all your time in the garage, or—or wandering around with a sign that says mug me—"

"Did Tadashi put that there?"

"You hush. My point is, you're too smart to be in here all day playing video games. At least humor me and look at colleges. Tag along with Hiro and Tadashi, even, I get the feeling you'd like SFIT."

She legitimately had no idea, and he wasn't sure if he'd survive explaining it to her. Forget the fact that she'd never believe him, she'd have every right to be furious at the idea of an adult her age worming his way into their lives. Did have to arch an eyebrow at her eating one of the dumplings on the plate. "I thought those were mine."

"Yeah well now you've got me stress-eating. Congratulations."

He didn't exactly think she was stressed out right now. "Does this work on the brothers that often?"

"Usually," she muttered. "But they have more experience with the negative results than you do."

He might have seen this once—both brothers plopped on the couch when he came back one day, explaining that whoever left the couch first before Cass came out of her room was officially worst nephew ever and shunned by all society. Which, granted, seemed excessive and possibly not truthful, but from a child's standpoint it would be world-ending.

And he, Obake, had already had enough world-ending moments in his life to make this look trivial.

Take note of the expression on her face, decided to at least play at contrite. "I'm…working through some stuff right now." Which wasn't a lie. "Once I get that straightened out…I'll think about it."

She arched an eyebrow at him.

"I'll think about it intently," he amended.

"That's all I ask," she said, ruffling his hair before standing and heading for the door.

"I suppose going for a walk is out of the question," he called after her, scowling as he straightened his hair.

"Not after dark!" she called back. Oh good grief now there was a curfew.

"I am an adult!" ripped out of him before he could think that statement through—and how do you explain that to her, pray tell?

"No you're not!" she countered. "Not for another two years, and even THAT'S pushing it."

Ah, right, she had no reason to believe otherwise. Well, at least there was that. But for now….

For now, he reflected, grabbing a couple of dumplings and heading out, he had an energy orb waiting for him.

So to be fair him prepping a container for the energy orb was him thinking unusually positive. Yes, he had planned ahead like this before, but that was when he was confident in his own success and convinced that absolutely nothing could or would derail his plans.

Boy THAT worked out, didn't it?

Scowl, shake that thought from his mind as he carefully took the energy orb from the bag to put in the hardened briefcase, the one side of his face prickling from the powerful electric current thrumming under his fingers. Good grief how did this work better yet how could he dissect it without utterly destroying it this would actually make an effective power source maybe—

Okay brain shut up now, he told himself, yanking his thoughts away from yet another star machine—already established that we weren't doing that today. Carefully put it into the new holder, close the briefcase—huff a sigh of relief as the powerful current was cut off from the rest of the world. Sit back, tug the gloves off, run his fingers through his hair….

Pat himself on the head a couple of times, making a face at how his hair was sticking up. No wonder High Voltage had hair like that.

"Okay," he sighed, scrubbing at his hair in an attempt to get it back under control. For whatever base he got in the future, the energy orb was definitely powering it. As for now….

Look around the warehouse, considering. He had been running himself ragged trying to find someplace else workable, but was this location so bad? Obake had personally been wanting to swap this warehouse out, but would a different warehouse work any better? Most likely he was expending energy on something that wasn't as dire as he first thought. Far better to direct that energy more towards stopping a definitive problem than working around a what-if. Besides, this place was close enough to the Lucky Cat for him to walk that distance.

Huff—okay then, new base was now the lowest priority. Higher priority…well the painting was still missing and he was still working on hacking Krei…time to humor Hiro and scope out SFAI.

He needed that journal out of the running.