Chapter 18, everybody! Oh thank goodness the weather broke finally and decided to be warm I ended up spending most of the day outside and I have missed it. :D

In other news, Obake discovers what Calvin did when the latter utilized his duplicator. Also yeah 'fell off the truck' means it was stolen, and the movie in question is Die Hard with a Vengeance. DIE HAAAARD! XD

Moving on—Hiro is not busy with Big Hero Six so Aunt Cass has no reason to suspect he's out doing things he shouldn't, although it bears asking the question why she would think he was bot-fighting when Megabot was at home. Also Mom thought the squirt-bottle line was funny so. XD My parents will say 'go around your thumb to get to your elbow,' so I'm guessing it's an older saying. Aka Buru is "Red Bull" in Japanese, according to WordHippo, and I feel like Aunt Cass would be offended by store-bought food on principle. Robot-wrestling thing with what's-his-face is Real Steel with Hugh Jackman, by the way.

Also real talk "Food Fight" was the first episode of the show I got my parents to watch and it was 100% because of Alton Brown and Gordon Ramsay I used to watch Good Eats ALL the time when I was little. Meantime Aunt Cass is channeling Pacha's wife in The Emperor's New Groove and Obake is channeling Shrek from the Christmas special. And the Okiru energy drink is from Baby Daddy—"Okiru—OKAY!"

James the apple, thanks for the review! 1) this isn't going to end up like the Pokémon discussion, is it?; 2) yes, but I give it a pass because the topic is pretty self-contained and trying to add something from the next chapter just gives us two short chapters instead of one; 3) no it isn't; 4) you put 2 twice. ^^

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Okay. So in other news, he was going to have to go shopping soon.

One drone was easy enough to machine up in the garage. Maybe two. But Obake wasn't going to be daft enough to say that he could fluff through this without having concrete information. If Fred was right (and it galled him to think that), every single thing he did was causing ripples that knocked everything off from how he remembered it going before. Just by getting rid of Big Hero Six, he might as well have dropped a nuke into the temporal swimming pool.

Note to self: stop talking to Fred.

So. Basically he needed a lot more information than he had, which meant he needed to hack and spy and steal and all those other fun things he used to do in his lair, all while avoiding…himself…doing the exact same thing. Oi add migraine medication to that list while he was at it because this was about to be a doozy.

Massage his temples, go back to his list as he tried to wring everything out. He was also going to need a base for all this, there was no way he was doing this in the garage because if…he…started getting suspicious the last thing he needed was to have it all tracked back to the Lucky Cat. Using the old restaurant was out of the question, he was aware of it so that meant no basing lairs in places that had been in his roster before. Probably needed to get back there and take the rest of the money out, he had some left over after buying the phone and laptop from someone in Good Luck Alley who had caught them when they fell off the truck…definitely needed some extra funds though. Might be able to shop for a base as well.

And maybe…once he had someplace going….

The Hamada brothers had the microbots squirreled away, yes, but he knew how to make them now…would probably be easier to machine some up here and then use them to improve some future base over 'borrowing' the existing ones. It'd be easier than constantly ferrying them to and from Akuma Island to cannibalize the remainder of the base for parts before it all went blooey—

Stare at a spider making its way across the ceiling as he considered that. Akuma Island was safely off the radar…but he'd either have to use the microbots to get over every time, which would have to be done in the dead of night, or take a boat. And honestly, he wanted as little to do with the bay as possible. Thoughts of how it ended aside, his old lair was down there, and he had no doubt that he would notice microbots scuttling across eventually.

Had he already noticed? What if he had and found the microbots?

Sigh, put check the microbot stash on his to-do list, which had gone from sizeable to insanity some time ago. Okay…okay. Just…start small, start with the immediate thing, he probably had some time before he started taking note, he needed to focus on getting the groundwork laid out. To do that, he needed funds.

Robbing the Federal Reserve like in that movie the Hamadas had watched the other night was an entertaining concept but not immediately viable. No, best to go with the option Occam would prefer, the simple one that would also have him in the place where most of the stuff on his 'shopping list' would be. Hacking and fudging those ones and zeroes could wait until he had a nicely hardened computer that the Feds wouldn't be able to track.

In the meantime…machine up a bot, put it and a controller in a tote, and head out to Good Luck Alley.

He had some shopping to do.

So. Under normal circumstances she'd be calling this a good night. Tadashi and Hiro were both in college, they were currently at said college working on an assignment, and she was inclined to believe that they had to stay late for lab work because Tadashi was the one who told her that and Tadashi did not have a history. Well, he did but it was a good history.

Except now Cass had an extra teenage boy to deal with, one who didn't exactly behave like he thought he lived here. It was like dealing with a semi-feral cat—she'd tell him to do something, like let her know where he was going, and he'd just give her this bemused look like I am not beholden to you. If he were actually a cat, she'd roll with it, maybe spray him in the face if he sat on the counter.

Obake was not a semi-feral cat, however, and spray bottles weren't actually recommended punishments for teenagers (despite being effective).

Hence the current issue of him not being home with her having no idea where he could be. Fortunately, she had gotten his phone number (had to go around her thumb to get to her elbow to get it, i.e., Hiro gave it to her because Obake just played obtuse) so she was able to call him. Call only, because asking one of the boys if it was possible to track him just showed that Obake had already thought of that.

He answered on the second ring. "Yes?"

"Obake?" she asked, pausing to give the phone a funny look. He sounded older on the phone.

"I would think that was obvious. You got this number from Hiro, did you not?"

"Yes, which is a problem because I was supposed to get it from you. Where are you anyway?"

Obake always paused for a few seconds before he answered anything, like the honest answer had to flit through his head before he actually presented one for the audience. "Shopping. Need me to pick up anything?"

"Shopping?" she repeated, baffled.

"Yes, that thing where you go somewhere and pay money for goods, that shopping."

"Why are you shopping?"

"It's not a nice thing to do?"

"You're…what, sixteen? Do you even have a list? How are you even going to carry anything? What, are you at the corner store getting some—some store-bought donut do you have any idea how much junk they put in that stuff?"

"Yes, that's precisely where I am," he said, and she could practically hear the eye roll. "And until you learn how to make homemade Aka Buru, this is probably going to be a thing." Pause. "Actually if you do figure that out let me know the one time I tried that it didn't end well."

Massage her forehead, suddenly understanding Tadashi's bellyache about swapping one truant kid for another. "Okay, for future reference sticking your head in and saying hey I'm going to the corner store for an energy drink does not take that long."

"I'll try to keep that in mind." Pause, and she thought she heard something in the background. "Now I do have to go—the proprietor is giving me the stink-eye. Am I allowed to take a walk, or do I have to report that too?"

It was cheeky and snarky and while it fit him it made her radar go ping. "What did I hear in the background?"

"Said proprietor is watching some robot-wrestling thing. You know, the one with what's-his-face in it. Anyway, must be going, be back in a bit, ta."

"Obake—Obake don't you hang up—"

Too late, he did. Massage her forehead, pacing—oi that rotten kid….

Was still grumbling to herself when she took the boys' laundry upstairs, sorting it out and depositing them on their respective beds (Obake kept everything of his hidden under his pallet, Tadashi put everything away, and Hiro was still apparently learning the concept of storage)—turned when she was done, intending to head back downstairs—

Caught sight of Hiro's old bot-fighting robot, Megabot.

It suddenly became very clear to her what Obake was busy doing.

Obake grumbled as he put the phone in his pocket, turned to glare at the ringmaster. "Fine, let's get this over with."

"What's the matter?" the ringmaster asked, apparently finding him amusing. "Had to call home to mommy? We're not keeping you past your bedtime, are we?"

Note to self, killing the ringmaster wouldn't help him in either the short or long term. Deep breath, decide to take out his ire on his opponent's robot instead.

The ringmaster handed him the cash bowl. "Please use this to get therapy."

"Have done, not fun, destroying something works better," he said, taking most of the money but leaving a sizeable chunk for the next bet. "Next victim."

Okay. So if she was going to go into Good Luck Alley after a truant teen she wasn't going without at least some protection.

Granted, mace or a taser or a gun was probably more effective than a bracer of carving knives, but she wasn't sure where the first was and didn't have the other two so she was sticking with the knives. Besides, they were sharp enough to carve meat up and go through a joint with little issue, so she was pretty sure they'd work.

That didn't stop her from clutching her purse straps so hard she lost the feeling in her hands the moment she stepped into Good Luck Alley. What did they say about it? Good luck getting back out alive. Why, why why did she keep playing host to teenagers with no sense of self-preservation?

Okay, okay—deep breath, just—go in, act like you belong, resist the temptation to outsource killing the kid because someone here would actually take that seriously. Okay. She could do this. Totally. Deep breath—

Marched right up to the first pair of bruisers outside a door and told herself to woman up, she could handle this despite her knees saying otherwise.

"Excuse me," she said in her best where is your manager voice. "Is this where the fight is?"

"Maybe," the bigger guy said, looking her up and down. Built like a fridge and could snap her in half oh she couldn't do this—

"HEY!" she barked as the second guy took her purse away. "That's mine—"

"Knives," the second guy told the first, handing her purse back to her and feigning obliviousness to her snatching it back. "She's a contestant."

"Sorry, didn't know," the first guy said, opening the door and shooing her in. "Can't be too careful."

"I—" Cass started—was steered down a hall. "No wait hold it I'm looking for—"

"Stand here," the fridge guy said, parking her on an X on the floor. Oh no she had seen enough Looney Toons she knew this would end badly. "Also these are for you," he added, handing her a cloth bundle.

"Uh, thanks?" she noised—started when the spot started going up. "Hey wait a minute—"

"Once again ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending this exciting round of FOOD FIGHT!" some guy in a kimono bellowed, striding over to where Cass had come up through the floor. "TONIGHT! Two chefs enter, one chef leaves—our first contender?" Held the mike to her.

"Uh…Aunt Cass?" she noised—maybe if Obake heard that he'd get his skinny butt over—

"Meh, heard worse—IN THIS CORNER: AUNT CASS!" Strode over to where someone else was coming through the floor. "AND IN THIS CORNER: DEFENDING CHAMPION BOLTON GRAMMERCY!"

"Wait what?" Cass squawked. "Bolton Grammercy!? What are you doing in Good Luck Alley?"

"Ugh, the café owner again," Grammercy said. "I thought tonight was going to be challenging."

Okay you know what Obake could wait five minutes she was SO schooling this jerk. "Oh, it's on."

So if you asked Obake this had been a productive evening.

For now, at least, he had his extra stuff stored in a crate in the warehouse they were using (probably going to have to move everything soon, their luck someone would be using that place in the near future). Had stopped by a corner store to pick up an energy drink to further sell his cover story, was now coming in the front way to give Cass some peace of mind.

Or he would, at least, if it wasn't locked.

Blink at that, look at the hours painted on the glass to remind himself that yes, he wasn't that late, took note of the closed sign on the door. Huh. So this might be his fault.

Dismiss that as he went around to the back door and fished the key out from under the mat—he was of no relation to her, she had no business getting worked up over him. As far as she knew, he was some random teenager she had decided to bring in out of the cold, and it was best they leave it at that.

Didn't stop him from going to the café portion of the house and checking the kitchen.

"So this is odd," he muttered when he found it empty—turned when he heard the front door rattle, saw Hiro and Tadashi looking at it in confusion. So it wasn't just him.

"Why is the café closed?" Tadashi demanded when he got the door for them.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Obake informed him.

"Yeah but usually Aunt Cass doesn't close early unless it's to bail us out of bot-fighting," Hiro said, looking around the empty café.

"Us?" Tadashi echoed—zeroed in on Obake's tote bag. "Now wait a minute—"

Tadashi's accusation was cut off by Cass coming in and squeaking in alarm at the sight of them. "What the—" Zeroed in on Obake. "Where have you been?"

"Out," Obake said flatly, shaking his energy drink lightly to punctuate this and remind her of their earlier conversation. "Now you—where have you been?"

"Out looking for you—it does not take that long to get a drink."

Something in her voice suggested she had been doing more, but it was probably best he deflect this. "I did say I was going for a walk as well."

"At this time of night?"

"I—hey!" he barked when Tadashi took the tote bag.

"Yeah sure," Tadashi said, flipping it open. "You sound just like Hiro when he was in his bot-fighting phase so excuse me if I don't believe you." Reach in—

Looked very confused when he tugged a box of bolts out.

"I did say I was going shopping," Obake said. "Someone complained about me using up everything in the garage," he continued as Tadashi tugged out more boxes, making Obake glad he had gotten rid of everything incriminating beforehand. Especially considering how much this made Tadashi look the fool.

Wasn't really prepared for the snarly feeling Cass's expression left him as she processed this, eventually burying her face in her hands as she composed herself.

"It would not have killed you to let me know before you left," she said finally, lifting her head back up.

"Well you were busy," he started—subsided at her look. "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Now, all of you—I don't know. Dinner and then bed. I have to go…cook something," she muttered, retreating into the kitchen and leaving Obake feeling vaguely scummy.

"So," Hiro said, tone suggesting he found the silence as awkward as Obake did. "I uh, think we learned a valuable lesson about making assumptions today."

"Whatever," Obake muttered under his breath, as Tadashi mumbled something about putting his shopping up, scooping everything back into the tote bag before scurrying off to the garage. Obake watched Hiro stand there, swinging his arms and bouncing on his heels a little, before the awkwardness was apparently too much and sent him scuttling to the bathroom, saying something about washing his hands before dinner.

Which left Obake alone with his thoughts. Debate a moment…sigh, turn and head into the kitchen. It would be insincere, he had no reason to apologize, but staying in Cass's good graces helped keep him in the general good graces of the family as a whole, and he supposed that was still important.

Did have to pause when he heard Cass say "Okay Bolton's a pain but his nan had good knives."

Okay, that was weird and probably worth addressing sometime in the future, but currently he wanted to get this done before the brothers came back and gave him annoying pointed looks. Clear his throat, causing her to start and turn around. Okay, how did this work again?

"I'm sorry I don't consider my activities any of your business." Hmm, didn't sound quite right, and judging by her expression it wasn't. "What I mean to say is…look. Can we pretend that I actually gave a heartfelt apology? I don't want to be having to deal with Tadashi giving me looks over dinner."

Cass gave him a look that was almost bemused. "Ah, your apologies need work."

"I'm aware."

Consider him…sigh, look away. "I'm sorry too—I assumed the worst and thought you were out bot-fighting."

To be fair, he was, but it didn't feel like she was done yet. Wait a moment, was rewarded by her continuing.

"It's just you never tell anyone anything," she gusted in exasperation. "You just—go off on your own like no one cares but we do care and we worry and wonder like what if he's bleeding to death in a gutter somewhere with all his organs gone and I just—" Buried her face in her hands again, didn't look up until he tapped her on the arm and handed her a donut. "Thank you. Look at me, I'm stress-eating."

"I noticed," he said drily. "But I'm used to the things I do being my business, not other people's."

"And I get that, but you do have other people now," she told him. "Letting someone know is just common courtesy. And, you know, if you get kidnapped we can send out the search party sooner."

"Bold of you to assume anyone would want me."

Okay judging by her expression that delivery was all wrong, but by this time the brothers were back downstairs and peering into the kitchen like they were wondering if it was safe to come in. "Oh…kay you know what we're going to have a serious discussion about that later. For now—oh crud the dumplings are burning."

So this was weird, but the important thing was probably that it didn't feel prickly anymore, so he was going to chalk this up as a win. No matter how nonsensical it seemed.

Just one of the quirks of this family, he decided.

The next week went fairly smoothly with this new approach of tell Cass you're going out and for how long. On the one hand, it rankled a bit, having to report to someone. On the other, she was more inclined to let him go with some admonition like okay have fun or don't stay out too late. It was enough to let him go out and rack up enough earnings to get everything sorted out insofar as supplies and funding were going.

Now if only work towards finding a new base was going as smoothly—currently he was hiding everything in the warehouse with the microbots and drones, but eventually it would occur to the brothers to move that stuff and then they'd find his supplies and then he'd have some explaining to do that he'd much rather avoid.

Fortunately, his own drones allowed him to shop around from the comforts of the garage and hunt for High Voltage besides—he hadn't forgotten about that energy orb, but he was still at a loss as to what he would do with it once he had it. Maybe it'd occur to him then.

It was during one of these little shopping runs that Cass came in, holding up a pack of drinks. "Huh? These work, right?"

Glance up, realize she had a pack of Aka Buru. "Do what?"

"I also got some Okiru and a couple of Monster drinks but those come in a ton of flavors and I have no idea which ones to get so maybe we work through those." Squint at him. "So you aren't tempted by a bunch of over-processed junk during your drink runs."

Blink, realize that she had gotten them because that had been his go-to excuse for going out nights. "Ah. Uh, thank you?"

She beamed at that. "I'll just go put these in the fridge, okay? At least I think they're all supposed to be refrigerated—"

He stared at her as she disappeared back into the house, thrown somewhat. Let's be real, he wasn't used to the idea of someone just…doing that. It felt strange.

Granted, it wasn't the only strange thing she was doing this week.

"Aunt Cass, this is the third time this week!" Tadashi protested, running around the café and getting the tables ready as she scrambled about the kitchen. "You never sleep in, what gives?"

"Uhh—no reason!" she squeaked. "Can't talk, rolls are burning!"

"Okay that's it Baymax scan her."

"Hey—young man no scanning me—"

"Scan complete," Baymax announced. Blinked at Cass. "You need more sleep."

"Sleep is for the weak I have orders to fill Tadashi Hamada you open that door, let customers in and get your butt to school or so help me…I don't know but I'll think of something."

"Aunt Cass," Tadashi groused.

Granted it was strange enough, seeing as how it wasn't the norm for her to be behaving like this, but he didn't really care enough until Fred came in announcing that Krei had been robbed.

"No one knows who did it, just that his place got sliced to ribbons," Fred said, bouncing excitedly. "But it totally sounds like some sort of supervillain don't you agree please tell me you agree this is awesome."

"Okay no caffeine for you," Tadashi told him. "Now come on, we're going to be late."

"Right right—hey Obake my dude I'll see you later okay?"

"Don't threaten me," Obake said, reflecting. Let's see, that would be when Momakase robbed Krei, he thought…aha.

After that it was just a matter of waiting for her to slip out, and then confronting her when she slipped back in to add to a growing and oddly familiar knife collection.

"So," Obake declared. "This is where you've been slipping off to."

"Ah!" Cass gasped—glanced at the door before shutting it behind her and standing in front of it. "I'm sure you're wondering…wait how much did you see first?"

Enough to tell him that the boys got their lack of chicanery from her. "A room dedicated to sharp objects, firstly?"

"Right. That is…to keep Mochi out of it. That darn cat!"

"That 'darn cat' you locked in there?"

Cass gasped, spun and let the yowling cat out.

"Does this have anything to do with you sneaking off to those underground cooking competitions?" he asked, feeling the need to move this along.

Oh yes, the boys definitely took after Cass, her reaction to that left no room for denial of guilt. "What? What makes you say that?"

The timeline matched, firstly, this was about the time Momakase was running the thing for a lark, and speaking of Momakase, she had had a knife collection very much like that one in the base (he wondered how she was taking the loss of it, come to think of it).

"Call it a hunch," he said finally.

"Ah," Cass said, wringing her hands. "Ah…please don't tell the boys."

Obake arched an eyebrow at her. "How much is my silence worth to you?"