Chapter 12, everybody! Time for Obake to start stopping…himself.

Technically Obake's got a point, his whole explosion was about twenty years before the events of the series, which takes place after the movie, but twice doesn't exactly make for a solid case. Also considering Obake's a twig as an adult too it probably wouldn't take much for Tadashi to haul him around.

James the apple, thanks for the review(s)! 1) YES now we're dealing with two; 2) YES—do it; 3) I'm sure if you asked Obake he'd deny everything, but we know better. ;)

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

"You seem preoccupied."

"Mm?" Obake noised, glancing up at Cass. They were heading to some shopping center and then the beach, enjoying themselves supposedly as the Hamada brothers were off being productive members of society. "Just thinking."

"Maybe of going to SFIT too?" she asked. "I mean it looks really cool when it's not on fire—okay wait that was just because of that one professor there's not like—a danger of a repeat—"

"No there isn't, SFIT only catches fire once every twenty years," he told her.

"Huh?"

Should probably not have brought that up. "They'll be fine. You are a question mark, but they'll be fine." For now, unless he did something about it.

Glance at the bay as the trolley passed a clear view—he as he was before was out there, plotting the destruction of the city, ready to put his grand scheme into motion, motivated by the sight of his old experiment in the papers. He, Obake, the one currently in the trolley, was going to have to stop him somehow.

Now if only that wasn't a huge question mark blotting out all potential paths.

"I know, I know," she sighed, crossing her arms. "Maybe I wasn't ready for the empty nest." Smile at him, nudge him slightly. "But hey, at least I still have you, right?"

He couldn't help the pained smile he gave her—yes, theoretically…but not if he couldn't stop the oncoming catastrophe.

No—no she was right, he was still here, and he was motivated to stop the doom barreling for them. It might have taken some boy genius to stop him before, yes….

But he was pretty sure he could stop himself if he was motivated—and he was most indeed motivated.

Okay. Okay first thing's first in ensuring his original self didn't succeed in the total destruction of the city: remove the means to do so.

This meant firstly removing the old energy amplifier from Granville's office, he had spotted it in the news and therefore knew it had survived, had sent Yama to get it because if that goon got captured it was no skin off his back and that's what he got for messing with him.

There were, unfortunately, snags to this plan. Firstly the idea of walking in and just plucking it off the desk himself was hampered by the fact that when he walked by she was in there and he was not stopping to explain to her how he hadn't aged in the twenty years since she saw him last because that was a can of worms he was doing his best to not open.

So that led to plan B, using his drone to sneak in after hours to take the amplifier, which saw him having to doctor it so it wouldn't be as affected if it accidentally activated.

This plan was hampered by the fact that the Hamada brothers just would. Not. Leave. Him. Alone.

"Nope!" Hiro cheered as Tadashi hauled him out of the garage and back into the house. "Party time, we're officially in SFIT and starting classes Aunt Cass is making pizza everyone's in the café you're not skipping out."

"Joy," he muttered, trying to make himself feel better about this current situation by telling himself that Tadashi could probably sling him around like a sack of potatoes even as an adult. This did not help.

But finally, eventually, the party dispersed and they were sent to their respective beds, Tadashi suspicious when he went to his without complaint.

"I've had enough of being slung over your shoulder for one day," he explained.

Tadashi didn't act like that was enough of a reason, but eventually his snores joined Hiro's. Wait, wait, wait….

After an hour he couldn't take it anymore, knowing this was going to be happening soon—scurry downstairs, activate the drone, and send it zipping to SFIT.

Saw he was right when he saw Yama and several others break into the labs via the drone's camera. Curse under his breath, angle it around—okay quick thinking what—

Breaking the window to trigger security would have the unfortunate side-effect of having the video capture his drone as well…and if Yama was here…think did he monitor this before?...No he didn't think so otherwise he would have seen Hiro and taken note of him earlier—

Finally commit to using a laser to cut a circle out of one of the panes, drift the drone in—even breaths to try to calm his frantically pounding heart, he wasn't sure where Yama was in relation to the room—glance at the door, making sure he wasn't being snuck up on in real life—last thing he needed was for one of the Hamada boys to startle him in the middle of this dangit this was why he had a secret lair—

Yellow lighting was the briefest of warnings, forcing him to shoot the drone up against the ceiling—camera was focused down, which gave him the perfect view of Yama finding the so-called 'paperweight.'

"Huh—this was easy," Yama said, taking it from its wooden base and pocketing it. "No challenge at all. Let's get out of here."

You complete waste of space, he thought, narrowing his eyes as he angled the camera to follow Yama out of the room. There was no challenge because I removed it all. Idiot. That last one mostly aimed at himself. Okay, think…Yama had the amplifier. Now what?

Now the next step, if things had gone smoothly the first time: Yama would be contacting him, and then conducting a delivery to a predetermined location that he'd send to his phone. Just a jagged little reminder that he knew everything about that idiotic mountain of a man—like the little bit of fun he had with him in the elevator hadn't driven that in well enough.

Wait….

Wait he could turn this in his favor.

Keeping track of Yama and his men as they retreated back to Good Luck Alley was easy enough: none of them ever looked up and were as obvious as if they lit up a signal good night what had he been thinking asking this man to do anything this man was incompetent at best, really nothing more than an alleyway bully.

Dear past self, he thought as Yama went into the building that worked as his lair, circling the drone around until he found a spot where he could laser his way in. This is a missive from your future self. Firstly, must needs let you know that current trajectory is unsatisfactory, please rectify when able. Secondly, I know it is tempting but do NOT, under any circumstances, employ Yama when you want something done because the man is about useless.

Huff at that as he directed the drone down a flight of stairs, scanning the building to find out where Yama was and what goons to avoid—his thought process at the time was that literally legitimately no one could possibly be that incompetent. After all, that one pink-haired idiot managed to obtain a rocket—said rocket was to launch a cat into deep space, but still, death traps were death traps. Still an idiot.

Glance at the blueprints he had pulled up from a quickish hack—Yama and his goons had done nothing to warrant full attention on the way back to Good Luck Alley and therefore left him time to find schematics. Compare with where Yama was…okay should be close careful, careful….

"You bring good tidings, I presume."

Ice flooded him, squeezed his chest at that—no—he was expecting this don't be acting this way breathe, dangit—

But knowing that it was coming still didn't prepare him for the shock of hearing himself speak, knowing it was him but also…not. Not anymore. A past self on a divergent path, barreling towards a future that the current him was bent on preventing.

It was enough to make his blood run cold.

"Uh—y-yeah, I got your fancy paperweight," Yama said—could almost picture the man shuffling nervously.

Pause, and he could guess at his own thought processes regarding Yama calling his energy amplifier, the project that ended his career at SFIT and sent him spiraling off to his current position, a paperweight. "Show me."

So tempted to edge the drone around and through that door, but he didn't doubt his past self would spot it. Listen carefully, infrared scan and audio giving away nothing—

"Well well," his past self noised, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Perhaps you're less of a disappointment than I first thought."

"I—what?" Yama barked, offense starting to push against intimidation.

"Perhaps I should have put it into simpler terms: you're the dog, that was the ball I sent you to fetch." Allowed a moment for him to splutter. "I will be sending you the coordinates shortly, do try to continue this surprising trend."

The call ended, obviously, if the way Yama spluttered and railed and paced was any indication. Okay, okay, think, what was his original plan he had one—

Lightning shot through him, a better plan striking him in a clandestine moment—

Scrambled for a headset and shot the drone into the room before he could think better of it.

"Change of plans," he said, savoring Yama's squeak and startled leap, having to scramble to pick up the dropped amplifier—good, he still sounded roughly the same. "I don't trust you enough to deliver that halfway across the city, I'll be taking custody of that 'paperweight' now."

"Now wait a minute!" Yama said, making a cutting motion with his free hand. "I've had just about enough of you! No one insults Yama—OW!"

Which was the usual reaction to a laser burning your shoulder. "My patience is wearing thin."

"Uh—okay fine, here take it!" Yama said, tossing the amplifier onto the desk and scrambling out. Manipulate the drone, pick it up with the claw, check the schematics before angling for the nearest window—

The drone sped for it, bursting out and slamming into a nearby wall, its sturdy design the only thing saving it. What—

Angle the camera down to see the amplifier sparking. The amplifier that had been roughly handled in the past few minutes.

Oh no.

Okay new plan there wasn't any fixing that and in two seconds he'd be losing control of the drone—send it shooting upwards, city growing smaller as the amplifier kept glowing—ran outside himself as its brightness filled the screen—

Winced, throwing up an arm out of reflex at seeing the bright green explosion far above the city.

"Ah," he noised, watching it fade. So much for his drone.

Hopefully no one noticed.

He gave the idiot an extra ten minutes. One had to account for the slowness of such dregs, after all.

And when those ten minutes came and went, when he looked up that miscreant's information to see that he was right where he had been thirty minutes before—when he reviewed the tapes to see the glowing green destruction of his amplifier high above the city….

Well, he was sure to make his displeasure known.

"It wasn't my fault!" the idiot wailed after a suitable punishment time.

"Oh I would love to hear this one explained," he said drily, pausing the punishment—for now.

"I—you were the one who sent the drone and said you didn't trust me to deliver it!" Yama accused. "It was perfectly fine when I tossed it on the table!"

Doubtful. And untruthful, as he could see through some security footage.

What was interesting was the drone design. Very familiar. If he didn't know any better, he'd say he believed Yama's story.

Except he did know better, and therefore he didn't believe Yama's story.

"Then this means you're further in my debt," he said icily. "I'd start digging my way out of this hole very soon if I were you."

Disconnect, muttering darkly to himself as he examined the drone again—lost thanks to the amplifier exploding, he wouldn't be able to get to the bottom of this.

And yet he needed to—he had ironed out his plan, had come back to San Fransokyo years ago to properly entrench himself in the underworld, the plan had not accounted for some random wretch to involve themselves.

No matter. His old project would have been convenient, but he had other resources to tap. Step one had hit a snag, but the most likely concept, the one Occam would prefer, was that this was a one-off incident, someone who snuck into Yama's place, heard a deal go down, and convinced themselves that there was something worth stealing.

This changed nothing.