Chapter 16, everybody! Last update during a palindrome day, but that was cool while it lasted.

One of these days, I'll write out that theory I have about Shrek, but in the meantime let me say that the Digimon movie is good I liked it and it has a bangin' soundtrack. Also Jurassic Park was not only accurate for what scientists knew of dinosaurs in the nineties, it was also the most accurate depiction of dinosaurs at the time with a team of paleontologists working on it to ensure authenticity. The time marches on trope coupled with paleo-jerks wanting to rag on the movie that likely got them into dinosaurs in the first place is why you hear negative remarks about that movie now. Well, that and the Jurassic World movies, which totally abandoned the realistic animal approach of the first trilogy in favor of theme-park monster schlock (yes the JW movies disappoint me on a deep level and learning that the director of those movies actually lowkey despised the originals and the audience speaks volumes).

Moving on…yes Obake is petty. Meantime, Tadashi is channeling Hogarth from The Iron Giant when he's drinking coffee apparently. And yes, under severest technicalities there's only eight story archetypes and what makes the story interesting is how it's written—so if someone's already written a story using the tropes you want to use, go for it anyway because it's the writer that gives it that different flavoring. Obake's referencing Occam's razor, by the way, which in simplest terms is "the simplest explanation is often more likely than a more complex one." And oh look, High Voltage!

In other news Aunt Cass puts up with so much and I don't know what it is about someone working in the same room as you when you're trying to concentrate but for me at least it starts making my skin crawl. Hiro's quoting some of my friends from my first college—Mom called it a correctional center and I can't say she was wrong considering how the administration behaved and how little we were allowed off campus. Also cleaning windows does suck and has to be the least-favorite job in my family.

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Obake regretted this dearly and really should have checked to make sure the next day wasn't Saturday.

"So," Tadashi said, sorting movies out like he was dealing cards. "Jurassic Park is a must, obviously. Also Shrek, it's a classic—actually probably all four then I can explain my working theory about how Shrek probably had siblings."

"You know, you could just shoot me, it'd be faster," Obake offered.

"Tempting, but no. Also the Digimon movie don't listen to Hiro when he says it's lame Hiro's tastes are weird."

And he supposed he should be grateful that Hiro being sick upstairs meant that Baymax was busy with him, which was an improvement. "Well I suppose we should get started—"

"Oh no we haven't even begun to go through the movies—I mean yes this is like…twelve hours but movie night means we can go until dawn. Actually yeah we should start one," he said, putting in Jurassic Park. "And no snide remarks about the dinosaurs they were totally accurate for the nineties."

Obake hadn't been keeping up with paleontology, so he really didn't care. And no, Tadashi didn't allow him to get his laptop or phone so he was stuck actually sitting here and paying attention. Complete with Tadashi occasionally filling in this piece of movie trivia or that actor allusion or whatever.

"So?" Tadashi asked when it finished. "What did you think?"

Enjoyable, but not something he was going to tell Tadashi—there would be no living with him otherwise. "It was all right."

"That was it? Yeah we're definitely going to have to work with you. Fortunately, Shrek is a cinematic masterpiece and after the second one you'll get why I made Hiro's ringtone 'I Need A Hero.'"

Considering he had taken Obake's phone and rigged it so it rang as such when Hiro called: "I definitely need that explained."

Four movies and eight hours later, and Obake didn't think the knowledge had been worth it.

"We have enough time before dawn for one more movie," Tadashi said, checking his watch. "And seriously, I'm starting to wonder about you—not one time did you laugh in eight hours of Shrek. What, did you get your funny bone surgically removed? Do I have to ask Baymax to scan for it?"

"Keep your robot away from me," Obake said, jerking his head back up—ugh, it was easier to keep long nights when he was actually doing something.

Tadashi gave him an odd look but turned his attention back to the movie. "Okay fine, but we're really going to have to address this soon."

"No we're not," he said. "Dawn, you said—as soon as the sun's up I have twenty-four Tadashi-free hours."

"Seriously? I couldn't even get a cackle out of you was that the only thing you focused on?"

"It was required to keep my sanity." Not that he actually had any to begin with if he did then this wouldn't even be a thing, he was sure.

Tadashi gave a frustrated huff at that but didn't comment any further. Good.

And the moment the movie was over, the moment the first light of dawn broke, Obake's first move was to get back on the couch.

"Seriously?" Tadashi asked.

"Oh so sorry," Obake said. "But right now starts my Tadashi-free day. No comments will be fielded, please try again later."

"Could you be more petty?"

"Now what is that noise, I wonder."

"So I suppose that answers that question," Tadashi said, rolling over on his sleeping bag. "Jerk."

Okay so the couch wasn't exactly more comfortable than the pallet the Hamadas had set him up on but dangit yes he was that petty and he was going to take every dig possible—also, whoever was shaking him awake wasn't appreciated, stop it.

"Tadashi, go away," he growled, not opening his eyes.

"Ah, no," Cass said. "It's ten and you both are still asleep why are you both still asleep when you said movie night I didn't think you meant the whole night."

"Yes, that was very annoying," he muttered, blinking blearily. Sat up when he realized Cass had coffee, looked around and noted the discrepancy. "Where's Tadashi?"

"Sleeping on the couch in the garage—WHY is he sleeping on the couch in the garage?" she asked. "Did you two have a fight or something?"

"No, we had a discussion," Obake said, taking the coffee from her and downing it. "I suffer through movie night and he gives me twenty-four hours to myself."

"Oh…kay…that was actually my coffee."

"Oops?" he said blandly. "I don't suppose you could kick him out of the garage, could you?"

"I have many questions."

"I have no answers for you."

Cass did eventually humor him, if only to discuss the matter with Tadashi.

"So he and Gogo talked and then explained to me and Honey Lemon that sometimes people need time to themselves," he said, after downing a cup of coffee not unlike Obake did. "And I go sure fine you give me movie night and I'll give you that can you believe he's never seen Jurassic Park or Shrek?"

"That is kind of odd," she said, wondering if she might have given Tadashi expresso by mistake. "But I thought we agreed we had to take things easy with him—we don't really know what led to him living where he was…maybe he's got to adjust to the idea of normal life. Maybe he's got to work up to being around other people—like how you have to put the bag with the new fish in the tank instead of just dumping it in."

"Did you just compare Obake to a goldfish?"

"Mostly I've been comparing him to feral cats, to be honest."

Tadashi gave a sort of sideways nod like that was a fair assessment. "Or like Stitch—'he keeps staring at me, like he's going to eat me or something.'"

"Okay that's enough caffeine for you," Cass decided, taking the cup away. "Chill—you boys are fine, it's just…yeah sometimes people need some alone time. Try again tomorrow and I bet things will be different."

"Boy I hope so."

Oh thank you FINALLY he could get some work done he had not felt comfortable riding blind and having at least one drone monitoring the city made him feel a touch better. Finish it up, release it into the wild, go back to the computer and work the code before checking the video.

"Okay," he breathed. Quick recap—original energy amplifier was gone, finito, out like it had originally. That left Krei's amplifier—was going to have to redouble his efforts on hacking his company—the journal, and the painting. But he could do this. Maybe.

First thing's first though—taking stock of everything.

Huff as he navigated the drone, reflecting that he really needed a lot more if he was supposed to do this with any sort of economy—would have to draw up a shopping list, he wasn't sure how much of what he had would stretch, and the Hamadas would notice their house being stripped bare of resources eventually—

Glared at a knock at the door. "What?"

Door opened a crack, Tadashi sticking his hand out, waving a phone around. "Not interacting, just letting you know you have a call."

Oh for the love of—stalk over, snatch the phone away, very tempted to just hang up—glower at the other hand pushing a plate through. "Also this is from Aunt Cass," Tadashi added.

"Are you done?" Obake demanded, taking the plate away and putting it on the nearest flat surface.

"Yes, totally," Tadashi said, hand making an OK sign before slipping out. "Just going to wait here until you're done with your call so I can hang the phone back up—Aunt Cass doesn't approve of us cannibalizing it for parts."

Oh good grief. "Go away, Tadashi," he said, tugging the door shut. Glare at the phone a little before putting it to an ear. "What?"

"My dude did I call at a bad time?" Fred asked.

Groan. "What do you want, Fred?"

"Okay real quick just letting you know that I'm going through my entire collection and scouring it for time-travel stuff—been doing some research into tropes and such too, totally letting you know I haven't forgotten."

What? "What?"

"Beta-ing for your fic, bro. I mean everyone always goes on about doing a totally unique thing but we learned in class that there's like, eight archetypes for stories and what really sells it is how you do yours, but I feel like being aware of like, the tentpoles of the genre would be important. Oh hey how does the dude go back in time? Is it like a vehicle like the DeLorean or the Tardis or was there like, a temporal displacement thing?"

Boy he wished he knew. "I haven't gotten that far yet."

"Ah, so it was like—inspiration struck and figuring out the fiddly little details is for later."

Right. Sure. Let's go with that. "Right, Fred," he said, rolling his eyes. "Now I really wanted today to myself—"

"Right gotcha bro—enjoy your decompress time, I'll get back to you once I think I've gotten all the basic stuff down."

Oh…kay. So in other news, Fred was weird. This wasn't a surprise or really anything more than stating fact, it just felt like something that bore repeating. Knock on the door, shove the phone at Tadashi when he opened it, pull the door shut again and flop down in front of the computer. Oi these dumb kids.

Continue his scanning of the city, cruising high enough that he could see the bay, knew that he was there already plotting against everyone…how did he take the loss of his amplifier when there wasn't some kid brigade to blame? Did he blame the loss on Yama and continue on? That would be much simpler.

Sigh, angle the drone a little lower as he cruised it through populated areas again. Yes he was in the habit of favoring Occam's reasoning, but he also knew better than to rely on that too heavily—peons did that, the rubes that stuck with the daily grind, and he was too smart for that.

If he was so smart, then why did a kid outwit him?

Scowl at that, shove those thoughts away—he had better things to do than dwell on that.

Like blink at the incident happening in front of a bank. What the—

Oh right, High Voltage—the mother-daughter duo who were one of Big Hero Six's first fights. And without Big Hero Six, they could continue on with their ridiculousness.

Although….

Mark the location on his map and recall the drone—he was going to need every edge he could get, there was no denying that. And while he might not find a use for that energy orb High Voltage was using, Obake certainly wasn't going to say no to snatching it for himself.

But to do that…he needed a means to contain that energy orb.

He had something rigged up by the time the drone came back, which then required updating the drone so it could more effectively grab the orb and run—basically the idea was simply bagging the orb and flying off, with him having to figure out where to keep it until he figured out what to even do with it.

But at the very least, he reflected as he sent the updated drone out hunting, every little bit helped. Right now he really only had his own smarts to rely on, didn't have the network he had so carefully cultivated, didn't have the resources he had culled together, didn't have the reputation he had built up. Right now he was a nobody from nowhere, and he needed to change at least part of that.

Cass came out at one point to swap out the empty plate and ask him what he was doing, to which he replied that he had boosted his drone's range and was testing it—which wasn't a lie. She accepted that, patted him on the shoulder before going back in, leaving him wondering at that bit of affection.

Shake it off, go back to the task at hand…sigh when he realized that High Voltage probably wouldn't be out and about immediately after pulling off a successful heist. He was going to have to wait until they struck again, which would be after this day to himself. Dangit.

Okay think—was going to need a means to scan for them, which meant he needed more drones, which meant he needed more supplies. Sigh, start casting about the garage…maybe had enough for one more, but after that he needed to go quote-unquote 'shopping.'

He was busy building the second one, first scanning the city, when Cass came back out with another plate.

"Hey I'm going to need you to get to bed early tonight, okay?" she asked, putting the plate down. "Seeing as how you two stayed up all of last night."

"That was Tadashi's fault," he pointed out.

"I'm aware. You still need to get to bed early."

"I'll think about it."

Prolonged silence coupled with her continued presence made him glance up, saw an expression he recognized from Granville. Concern, but with the conviction that she needed to put her foot down.

"I mean it, mister," she said, pointing. "I'm coming back out here at nine and you'd better be ready for bed."

Oh good grief—watch her as she went back in, check the time to see he had a little over an hour. Now for the little wrinkle of him being about her age and her treating him like a child. Forget that as far as she knew he was one, that still rankled.

Shake his head, keep working—this was important, little things like sleep were for the weak, he had gone much longer without it.

Cass did not care.

"Five minutes to shut everything down, and then I throw the breaker," she said.

"You're not serious," he countered.

Her response was to go over to the breaker box, open it, find the switch for the garage and check her watch. "Now you've got four minutes."

He considered her, decided she was probably serious considering she was already dealing with two intelligent boys, probably felt she could handle a third. Ah, if only it were that simple. Look around…finally had to concede that while he was willing, his environment wasn't able—he needed more supplies, plain and simple.

"Thank you," she huffed when he trudged into the house.

"I was enjoying my Tadashi-free day, thank you very much," he told her. "And you," he added, pointing at Tadashi. "No talking, my day isn't up yet."

"No," Tadashi agreed, already in his sleeping bag. "It's up in the morning, at which time you start glowing gold and vanish into thin air."

Blink a minute, turn to Cass. "Now see, I understand why you think he needs more sleep, considering the nonsense he says."

"That was from Shrek Forever After, we watched it, you should get the reference."

"We talked about you talking."

"Okay, both of you stop," Cass said. "Bed, now, catch up on what you missed, you have homework I'm sure," she said, pointing at Tadashi. "And you…I have no idea."

"I will be taking the couch again," Obake said.

"Hey wait no," Tadashi protested, sitting up. "It took forever to get you off that couch."

"My day is not up, Mr. Hamada."

"Oh boy why are teenage boys such a handful," Cass muttered, face buried in her hands.

Why indeed.

Sunday at least saw Tadashi preoccupied with homework, which left Obake some time to himself to finish up a second drone and send it off searching alongside the first one. Was it too much to hope that High Voltage would try again the day after a successful heist? Would they take Sunday off? The only good thing about having to wait until Monday would be that Tadashi would have to go to SCHOOL, Obake—

As if the thought had summoned him, Tadashi came in the garage. "Go away, Tadashi," he said flatly.

"Why, looking at something you shouldn't?" Tadashi asked. "I live here too and your day's up. Besides, I have to machine this up for SCHOOL, Obake."

So it had been years since he had been nagged by someone (Granville) about focusing on his assignments as opposed to whatever caught his fancy and he couldn't say that he missed it. Had to adjust the screen when Tadashi looked at it. "What are you looking at anyway?" he asked.

"Google Earth," Obake replied, deadpan. "You had other things to do."

Tadashi made a noise belaying his suspicions, but didn't act on it. Good. Go back to scanning the city, start debating heavily on the merits of kicking himself out of his own lair as Tadashi kept rooting around the garage, steadily grating on his nerves the longer it went.

"Any estimate on when the less-annoying brother gets better?" he asked finally, unable to take the noise anymore.

"Excuse you?" Tadashi asked. "Hiro is totally the more annoying brother although right now I think you're trying to take that title. Moving on, where is everything I could have sworn we had more than like three washers."

Oops. Again, the reason he was needing to go out shopping, an absence of supplies was going to be noticed eventually and it was just his poor luck that it was sooner rather than later.

Also his poor luck that Tadashi was squinting suspiciously at him now. "You were out here all day yesterday—what did you do?"

Oi vey. "I made a drone, now bug off."

"One drone doesn't take up everything we had out here. What did you do, make another Buzzmax?"

No, but it was…four of his at this point if we counted the now-dead one and the one Tadashi had dismantled—and unfortunately Tadashi would notice if he used the Buzzmaxes…dangit. "Next question: do you ever lock this garage?"

"We do, but again we can confirm that you were out here all day yesterday."

"We can also confirm that you snore, but that doesn't seem to make a difference."

"What does me snoring have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it you snore and keep me up nights and then to further punish me you don't allow me to sleep in another room. That is a problem."

"And yet left to your own devices you'd stay up all night."

"And the snoring is supposed to discourage this?"

"I do not snore."

"We recorded you—YOU DO."

"Boys, play nice," Cass called.

"Sorry, Aunt Cass," Tadashi called back—gave a pointed look at Obake.

"And what do I have to apologize for?" he asked.

"You disturbed Aunt Cass and there are consequences for that."

"Excuse me? I was sitting here minding my own business. You were the one causing trouble."

"I was not!"

Cass stuck her head out. "What did I just say?"

"He started it," Tadashi said, pointing—oi what were they three years old? "All I did was ask him what he did in here yesterday, and then accused him of being suspicious when he started acting all defensive about it."

Oi vey. "Seriously?" Obake demanded.

"I have no supplies out here thanks to you. Seriously, what were you doing out here?"

Hmm. "I was building a giant robot for the express purpose of convincing the world at large that a kaiju lives in the bay."

Okay, the nonplussed expressions were worth it. "What?"

"Nonsense questions get nonsense answers."

"Nonsense—all the machine supplies are gone."

"Which reminds me, you need to go shopping."

"Okay OKAY!" Cass hollered, directing attention back to her. "That's it, both of you out of the garage, you've lost garage privileges for the day."

"I was doing nothing," Obake protested.

"And I had something to do for school," Tadashi said, giving Obake a pointed look.

"And I do not care," Cass said, hands on her hips. "If you two can't learn to play nice then I'm converting this back into a garage. Both of you, inside, now. Ah-ah—no," she said when Obake made to grab his laptop. "Seeing as you two can't get along, I have something else for you to do."

The something else was cleaning windows, unfortunately.

"Wow," Hiro said, grinning at him through the glass and still looking like death warmed over. "You guys must have really peeved Aunt Cass—window-cleaning is like the worst punishment, up there with having to clean Mochi's litter box."

"Oh shut up," Obake groused. "How long do you plan to be out sick I have problems with having to deal with your annoying brother." Silence. "Well?"

"Oh am I allowed to talk now?" Hiro asked cheekily. "Baymax, how much longer am I stuck here?"

"Scanning," Baymax announced. "You no longer have a: fever, which means you are no longer contagious. It will take: three to four days, for you to be back at full health."

"Well that sucks." Look back at Obake. "So what'd you do to make Aunt Cass mad?"

Huff, debate on bellyaching before deciding he had missed talking with the least-annoying Hamada (although that wasn't by much). "Tadashi gave me yesterday to myself and then had the gall to be nosy about it today."

"You used up all the supplies in the garage, I have a RIGHT to be nosy!" Tadashi hollered from where he was cleaning the glass sliding doors on the garden balcony.

"That doesn't sound like cleaning!" Cass hollered from inside.

"Seriously?" Hiro asked, nose wrinkled in amusement (and red from too many Kleenex). "What were you even doing?"

"Did you miss the part where this started because I didn't feel like sharing?" Obake asked.

"No, but I've been out of the loop for a week I'm starved for news of outside," Hiro said, affecting the desperateness of a prisoner in solitary. "What's it like on the outside? Are there still clouds and trees and stuff?"

"You're about as ridiculous as your brother."

"Hey I'm sick give me a break."

"Well maybe this will teach you not to get sick."

"Lame—you're as bad as Karmi."

That name sounded familiar…ah right the little fanfic-writer they had used to lure Big Hero Six to Akuma Island—oh right couldn't use the location anyway Krei was planning to blow it all up. There went using the old complex as a base.

But of course, he had to pretend he didn't know any of this. "Who's Karmi?" he asked, smirking at Hiro knowingly as he focused on a stubborn piece of dirt.

"Uhhh no one," Hiro said unconvincingly. "Just some annoying classmate—oh wait she did this to me she works with viruses. If I die I need you to avenge me."

"You are not dying," Baymax said.

"Fine so this attempt on my life failed but at least you're informed for next time."

"Only if you agree to help me in my revenge scheme against your brother," Obake said.

"Well yeah that's a given," Hiro said, nodding. "Brothers are annoying—I should know."

"Because you are one? Or because you're annoying."

"You hush before I agree to help Tadashi with his revenge scheme."

"And what scheme does he have?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm sure it's coming."

"Oi," Cass barked, coming up with a bowl of soup. "That's not cleaning windows."

Oi vey and then some. Especially when it took until Hiro was allowed out in public again for his arms and shoulders not to be sore. Ow.

What a wasted week.