Chapter 26, everybody! Time to spy on Krei….

I am reasonably sure Tadashi would have tried to get Karmi feeling comfortable at SFIT (I never did watch "Legacies" or "City of Monsters" so I'm not sure if this was confirmed) and would definitely try to get Hiro looking at things from the other side's perspective. Obake, of course, advises otherwise.

So in other news, Mel should have sold to Universal and marketed the flexible display technology as invisibility cloaks. *bricked* Meantime, Krei's actions and Obake's description of them smack pretty close to…I think Volume 2 or 3 of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, the one where he squares off against Kingpin for the first time. Judy's question, meanwhile, comes from an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will tries to get on a TV show—it's such a bait-and-switch moment that it has to be one of my favorite lines in the show. XD

Moving on—Tadashi's right, that particular line is from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Also please don't give out your SSN that's how identity theft starts. And yeah I know Disney probably couldn't make the reference but I do think of the song "Judy in Disguise with Glasses" by John Fred and his Playboy Band with Judy and I have been waiting so long to point this out.

And one more thing: a while back I saw one of those Pinterest pics of a Tumblr post, where someone was describing their teacher making them all sign contracts that they wouldn't use their phones in class; when this one kid kept using his phone and the teacher reminded him of the contract he signed, the kid went "a contract signed by a minor is not legally binding." And it isn't—so unless Aunt Cass went with Hiro when he went for that internship Krei legitimately has zilch on him and was just using Hiro's inexperience against him. Obake, of course, does not have this problem.

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yes, he would. XD

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Obake's way involved having the drones he was working on for Krei spy on Krei.

Hiro was all for this, it was excellent in his opinion and the irony wasn't lost on him.

"And if he asks, we're just testing the feasibility of the drones," Obake explained. "After all, what better sales pitch than telling people that these drones protected him for a full evening with no one the wiser?"

"Okay for the record I'm really loving this especially the bit where I imagine Krei's expressions when you're telling him this stuff," Hiro said, grinning.

"Oh it's definitely going to be entertaining," Obake assured him, watching as Krei and Cass cut to the front of a long line and went right in.

"Hunh, not fast enough," Hiro noised as the doors were swiftly shut behind them.

"So we find an alternate route," Obake explained.

Said alternate route involved knocking on the side door and then zipping over the head of the cook who answered it, looking around in confusion before muttering something about stupid kids.

"No to the first but yes to the second," Hiro said—glanced over when Obake's phone buzzed. "That'll be Tadashi don't answer it."

Obake looked, saw that yes, it was Tadashi—answered it. "Hiro has advised me to stop answering calls from you. I'm tempted to go with his advice."

"Har har very funny," Tadashi said. "Listen, I'm camped outside Café Snooty, see if Hiro wants to talk."

Obake looked over at Hiro, who was frantically shaking his head. "No, no, no, Tadashi is totally going to lecture me about Karmi and I don't want to talk about it," Hiro said.

"Hiro's indisposed," Obake opted to say.

"Hiro's sitting right next to you and shaking his head frantically, isn't he?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny this."

"Yeah sure. I don't suppose I could get you to talk to him about this, could I?"

Obake had already given his opinion on the matter—honestly he was surprised that in the original timeline Hiro had even bothered saving that particular thorn in his side. Ah, but Momakase had televised the threat, ignoring it would have been a severe blow to Big Hero Six's PR.

"You don't want me talking to him about this," he opted to say instead.

"I don't," Tadashi agreed, sighing. "Look, just tell him that Karmi's technically in the same boat he is, just not with his support group. I've talked to her a couple of times, she doesn't really have any friends outside of her viruses and you know you can't take those guys out for pizza—they do things."

Obake felt a muscle above his eyebrow twitch, glanced at Hiro maneuvering the drones around and positioning several in corners to better monitor the situation. Cover the phone. "Be careful of lights, those will still cast a shadow."

"Got it," Hiro said, briefly sparing him a thumbs up.

"Obake are you even listening to me?" Tadashi demanded.

"I am," Obake told him. "As a matter of fact, after we're done here I'm going to call Gogo and see if she can't give me pointers on what to do when my eye muscles get tired."

"What—oh wait let me guess, you've been rolling your eyes at me."

"You said it, not me."

"Hur hur. One week—tell Hiro he can be civil for one week. It's not like it'll kill him."

"You don't know that."

"Oh so he got that from you. You know you need to socialize more too, right?"

"And since when did this turn into a lecture aimed at me?"

"I figured I'd squeeze that in too since I had you right here."

"Goodbye, Tadashi."

"Okay fine but talk to Hiro okay—"

Obake hung up on him. "Tadashi wants me to lecture you about your relationship with Karmi."

"Let me guess, I should be nicer to her, put myself in her shoes, I'm better off than her—yeah but why do I have to do all the heavy lifting she isn't doing any of the work!"

"Good, we agree," Obake said. "So. When Tadashi asks, I talked to you about Karmi."

"Okay. By the way, used a drone to trip a waiter so he'd spill a dish on Krei, he's in the bathroom right now trying to clean up."

"Very good, I approve."

"Good because I feel bad kinda."

"We should work on that. Also if we must talk about Karmi I recommend learning how to be an effective nemesis."

"Oi this again."

"Yes this again do you have any idea how hard it is to find a decent nemesis nowadays? You might as well practice on her so you're ready for an actual one."

"What if I turn her into my worst enemy? What if she becomes a supervillain like in one of Fred's stories?"

"Then it turns out you're justified and you get to rub it in Tadashi's face."

"I feel like he'd turn it around and make it my fault."

"Tell him that your villainous origin story will be his fault."

"Pretty sure he'd blame that on you," Hiro said—blinked at the screen. "Hey, is Krei acting weird or is it just me?"

Obake considered the screen, picked a different screen and rewound the tapes. "Not only that, this one is perfectly spotless—unless Krei had a suit hidden in the bathroom, there's no way he'd come out that clean."

"Wait, so he's—Aunt Cass NO don't go with that guy!" Hiro squawked at the screen.

"She can't hear you," Obake said, directing a drone into the bathroom and scanning—found Krei all trussed up. "Ah, look here, the real Alister Krei."

"Real Alister Krei then WHO is that with Aunt Cass?" Hiro demanded, diving for his phone and frantically dialing. "Pick up pick up pick up—TADASHI!" he barked. "No wait the drones let me—"

"Hush let me listen."

"Whatever Tadashi don't let that limo out of your sight that guy isn't really Krei! I don't know! Clones or something—just follow them, okay!?"

"No chill whatsoever," Obake observed drily as Hiro hung up.

"No chill my aunt is being kidnapped I think I have a right to not chill."

"She's not being kidnapped," Obake said. "And I'd recommend breathing in the next five minutes."

"If she's not being kidnapped then what is this!?"

"Breathe," Obake ordered. "This fake Krei is coming back here—I don't doubt it'd be easy to separate the two and take that little faker down, do you?"

Hiro started processing this, breathing starting to slow…hmm, yes, despite all of his perks Hiro was still a child and prone to strong emotion, if Obake could ever get him past that he'd be cunning indeed, his own prior experiences had proven that much.

Prior experiences that resulted in his death—

"Okay," Hiro breathed. "So…what, we nail him when he gets out of the limo?"

"Hmm…I'm interested in seeing what he's after first—then we can nail him to the wall." Stood up. "Come on—I have my suspicions, and I have an idea. How fast can you machine up a remote for the drones?"

Soon enough—Hiro had calmed down and was focused now.

Now to test out how dangerous the two of them were together.

As Obake anticipated, the fake Krei made a beeline to the real Krei's office. It was, he explained to Hiro, the fault of his hubris (pride, he had to clarify when Hiro didn't recognize the word): Krei fancied himself untouchable and yet had no faith in his underlings; everything had to be where he could see it for his paranoid self to be satisfied.

And, considering he was daft enough, Obake had no doubt that Krei had put whatever it was away in front of whoever was planning on stealing it, meaning that the person would come here for it, that the person was likely a former employee, and that the former employee was someone who was fired recently. And since he had been paying attention, he was pretty sure he knew who this person was, despite not really paying attention to this whole debacle the first time around.

So when the fake Krei went straight for the file and had it in hand, Obake tugged off the sheet of flexible display cloth that had been hiding himself and Hiro.

"Surprise," they chimed, Obake cackling a little at the guy starting and nearly tripping over his own feet at the sight of them.

"I—now wait see that's my whole point with the flexible display technology!" the fake Krei exclaimed, gesturing at them.

"I'm sure," Obake said drily. "By the way, thank you so very much for cleanly identifying yourself—Dr. Mel Meyer, I presume?"

"Who?" Hiro asked.

"The unfortunate whose lab we've been using for the past week."

"Yeah, while we're on the subject what's Krei doing hiring a couple of kids anyway?" Mel demanded.

"Seeing as how you're here, pretending to be the man for the purpose of robbing him, I don't rightly think you've got the room to ask us any questions."

"Oh please you're just a couple of kids."

"Oh now it's on," Hiro said, pressing a button on the remote he was holding—Mel balked as the room full of Buddy Guards became known.

"Okay now this is creepy and the whole reason why I want my technology back," Mel said.

"Your technology?"

"The flexible display technology, I presume," Obake said. "The invisibility cloak," he clarified, using Hiro's term for how they had snuck up here.

"Okay yeah that's cool."

"I wanted it to be used for fun things! Like surprise parties!" Mel griped. "Krei twisted the whole point of it and instead he's using it to guard rich people's—pool parties or—or whatever it is they do!"

"So in response you steal his identity for the purpose of stealing your designs back," Obake said. "You know he has backup copies, correct?"

"Dangit," Mel wheezed.

"Uh, actually I'm with him on this," Hiro said, pointing at Mel. "Because, you know, Krei did steal my neurotransmitter designs, so I'm not actually feeling—what's that word you use? Charitable towards him right now."

"A fair and understandable point, there's hope for you yet," Obake observed—looked over his shoulder at the doors sliding open.

"Mr. Krei I noticed the lights on so—" Judy started—stopped as she took the room in. "Did I come at a bad time?"

"Hi Judy," Mel said, waving.

Judy's eyebrows were lost in her bangs. "Okay so that's not Krei."

"That's some guy named Mel, he's stealing his designs back, we're debating on whether we should let him," Hiro explained.

"Actually we're past that," Obake said. "Anyone interested in pulling off something entertaining? Judy if you wouldn't mind calling the police in…oh, say fifteen minutes?"

"Is this going to humiliate Krei in some way?" Judy demanded.

"Oh my goodness yes."

"Will you be needing wardrobe?"

Obake couldn't help but grin at Hiro and Mel's confused faces. "And this is why you're always nice to the secretaries."

Tadashi did not appreciate that last call, was doing his level best to not be riding the limo's bumper as he followed it back to Krei Tech, paused for a few minutes outside the gates, watching the action before motoring in and rapping on the limo window, startling Aunt Cass out of showing the limo driver pictures of Mochi.

"Tadashi?" she asked, confusion giving way to consternation. "Wait have you boys been spying on me?"

"Not important," Tadashi said, waving that off. "Aunt Cass we need to leave, like right now."

"Well I was waiting for Krei but considering how weird he went I'm willing to call this date a bust," she said, getting out of the limo. "At least I have a backup ride home. Tadashi."

"Yeah sure so anyway—oh crud get behind me."

"Excuse me what?" she demanded—cut off when two Kreis approached, one from the building, another from a taxi.

"YOU!" both of them exclaimed, pointing at each other.

"Don't you you me—you stole my face and left me tied up in a bathroom!" taxi-Krei accused.

"And you!" building-Krei squawked. "You stole me! I'm here to steal me back!"

"Excuse me? That makes no sense!"

"It's from Pirates of the Caribbean," Tadashi supplied, feeling vaguely confused by this whole situation.

"Uhhh…yeah I'm ready to go now," Aunt Cass said.

"Now wait a minute I can prove I'm me—" taxi-Krei started.

"So can I!" building-Krei insisted.

"No you can't!"

"My security guard let me right in! He wouldn't do that for just anyone!"

"Yes he would he's a useless tub of lard and the only reason I haven't fired him yet is because he works for cheap!"

"Okay now that's just mean."

"Yeah I agree with him," Aunt Cass said, pointing at building-Krei and looking at taxi-Krei.

"Ah—that is—what I meant to say was—now wait a minute Cass it's me!" taxi-Krei protested. "We were having a nice dinner! There was origami!"

"Hey buddy are you going to pay me or what?" the taxi driver demanded.

"Do you mind we're in the middle of something."

"Okay fine but I'm charging you triple."

Taxi-Krei's comment was cut off by a new voice. "Oh dear, two Kreis—better play it safe then."

Which was when both of them went down to bolos wrapping around them, several funky drones fading into existence.

And then Hiro was tugging some cloth off of him and Obake, grinning brightly. "Surprise!"

"Hey!" taxi-Krei protested. "What are you doing tying me up!?"

"Safety precaution," Obake said, toying with a remote and having the drones circle them. "We'll just keep you both busy until the police arrive. Unless, of course, you can prove you're who you say you are."

"I—of course I'm Alister Krei you idiot!"

"Hey!" Aunt Cass barked.

"There's at least one person who'd contest that," Obake said, totally ignoring the jab. "Tell me something only the real Krei would know."

"Like what?" taxi-Krei demanded.

"Date of birth, social security number—"

"Obake," Tadashi said warningly.

"Secretary's real name," Hiro suggested, grinning, something remarkably like Harry Potter's invisibility cloak wrapped around his shoulders and hiding most of him still.

Taxi-Krei started to respond—paused, obviously having to think about it. "It started with a J," he tried.

"It's JUDY!" building-Krei snapped at him. "Her name is Judy and she wears glasses—it's not that hard to remember, ESPECIALLY when the song exists!"

"What song?"

"'Judy in Disguise with Glasses,'" Obake said. "Also, Mel."

"Sorry," building-Krei sighed. "That's been building up for a while."

"What—Mel!?" taxi-Krei snapped. "Oh I am SO pressing charges against you—"

"While we're at it, we're pressing charges against you," Obake said, indicating himself and Hiro. "Seeing as how we happened to find some of Hiro's designs on your database. Unless you can explain how they got there?"

"Excuse me?" Aunt Cass demanded. "Okay you know what this date has been over Jerry can you take us home?" she asked the limo driver.

"Now wait a minute you can't press charges—" Krei started.

"Oh, it's either that or we take everything of interest—and there were quite a few interesting things in there," Obake said, having the drones untie 'Mel.' "For the record, this won't fool the police for very long, so I'd take this time to hoof it if I were you."

"Oh uh—right," Mel said—looked at Aunt Cass. "Can I call you?"

"I would actually rather forget this whole night happened, if it's all the same to you," she said.

"Okay fair."

"Do I get to keep the invisibility cloak?" Hiro asked.

"Sure—already have one of my own! See ya!"

"Speaking of, we can still see your feet," Tadashi said, looking down.

"How do you know they're my feet?"

"Mel, I'd start running if I were you," Obake said flatly. Turned to Krei once Mel was gone. "As for you—congratulations, you now have fully working drones, as promised, complete with test run."

"I am so not impressed," Krei said, struggling upright as Obake had the bolos undone. "You let Mel get away you tied me up—and if you were watching the whole thing WHY did you let it get this far!?"

"For all we knew, Mel had a hostage," Obake said, indicating Aunt Cass. "It was more prudent to follow from a distance and intervene once they were separated."

"You—you—you are so not getting severance pay—"

"Okay that's enough," Aunt Cass said. "Boys, in the limo. No, you can't call me either," she told Krei as Tadashi wheeled his scooter around.

"Fine," Krei muttered, turning back to Obake. "But back to you—"

"Back to me," Obake agreed. "I'm growing bored of this conversation, and seeing as how my consulting is now done."

Which was when Krei went down to a bunch of bolos again.

"The police will be along to untie you eventually," Obake said. "Seeing as how Judy should be calling them about now."

"And hey, it's not like you have any complaints about your drones," Hiro said, climbing in the limo and helping Tadashi get his scooter inside.

"Oh I have plenty of complaints you signed a contract!" Krei shot at Obake.

So. To be fair it was nighttime and the lighting was weird but there was something unnerving about Obake's grin as he leaned down to be face-to-face with Krei.

"A contract signed by a minor is not legally binding," Obake said with relish.

In other news, Tadashi was never going to tell Hiro this but Krei's expression then was very satisfying.