Chapter 31, everybody! Oh wait PLOT!
So Aunt Cass's neighbors probably have Breezeline *bricked* No seriously they suck and if it weren't for the fact that the other cable providers also suck we'd be dumping them in a heartbeat.
The overgrown balcony is actually a rooftop patio that you can see in some of the concept art for the Lucky Cat—really enjoyed that little tidbit when I saw it and have included it in fics ever since. Moving on…we've had a garden all my life so this section is just me nerding about garden experiences. The squash and other similar plants eat Mom up but don't bother me or Dad, you gotta stay on them otherwise they grow to immense proportions. Every garden should have at least one cherry tomato plant for snacks, compost bins and rain barrels are important garden tools, it is very fun and rewarding to grow your own stuff, mint deters bugs but for the love of all that is good CONTAIN IT. Also this year we're looking really far into companion planting and I have high hopes for the garden this year. :D
EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse, if you watched the George Clooney Oceans 11 you've seen one in action and if you've ever read One Second After by Wiliam R. Forstchen you'll also probably be investing in survivalist skills that book is scary. D:
Moving on…in canon, Obake shows up in the first two-three episodes (two if we count "Baymax Returns" as one full episode) and then doesn't show up again until "Failure Mode," five episodes later. After that he's in every other episode until "Kentucky Kaiju," where he's in every episode as a driving force with the exception of "Big Hero 7" and "Big Problem." So, basically, now we're going to have the conflict against OG!Obake kick into high gear, especially considering we've already addressed some of the alternating episodes like "Aunt Cass Goes Out." Only took until three chapters shy of the halfway mark.
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
Obake's immediate goal the next morning was erasing the Lucky Cat from the map.
The how of it simply involved keeping it from showing up in full-city scans, which he knew he would be doing in an endeavor to track down whoever kept snafuing his plans. He'd start here, do one on the warehouse where he was hiding everything, then a few more locations, hopefully, to throw him off the scent. After that…well going after his wiring and other supplies might not work, he was on alert now and probably knew that someone out there was gunning for him. Ah, if only Obake could explain to him just why he was trying to stop him. Fantasize about that a bit as he finished up the wiring—he'd be baffled and dismissive at best, murderous at worst, the concept that this, his greatest achievement to date, should be shelved would be absolutely ridiculous to his sensibilities because and I quote, a team of children want to stop me. And would he, Obake, be able to produce them? No, of course not, he had prevented their existence and would be going to him, basically, with the plea of don't destroy the city I like this family they make the ache inside less. He couldn't even explain it to himself how could he expect to explain it to…himself. Oi this was confusing.
"Hey!" Cass barked. "What are you doing up there?"
Look up from kneading his forehead, look down from his perch on the highest peak of the roof to see Cass standing in the overgrown balcony she called her garden and looking up at him. Great, how should he explain this? Look at the rig he was setting up, back at her. "Stealing the neighbor's cable."
"Oh please," she said, rolling her eyes. "I know the neighbors' cable providers, their cable is not worth stealing."
He couldn't help the snort at that, at her glossing over the stealing bit and going straight to they don't have anything worth stealing. Funny. "I'm almost done, let me finish."
"Can I at least scold you for being on the roof with no way to catch yourself if you fall?"
"If you must," he said, figuring that they actually wouldn't be out much if he did fall. He was an aberration, shouldn't even be here, was here now because of forces beyond his control or understanding. Still torn on whether this was a punishment or a redemption arc like Fred was insisting on, just knew that he had that singular goal he was focusing on, of preventing the destruction of the city so this family could go on living. Once that was achieved…well he'd burn that bridge when he got there.
"Okay good I can start breathing again," Cass said, patting him when he was off the ladder like she had to make sure he hadn't shattered himself on the way down. "Seriously? Going on the roof without permission?"
"I figured if I asked you'd say no," he pointed out.
"Well yeah but still," she said, glancing away. "Oh hey since you're here help me pick some produce? We can call it punishment for giving me a heart attack."
Bland look with raised eyebrows didn't seem to deter her, ended up taking the bowl she was holding out and tossing his tools on the nearest lawn chair. "Great," she said. "Do me a favor and fill that with the cherry tomatoes, okay?"
"And what manner of creature will you be fighting?" he asked, noting her putting on long gloves.
"Oh no this is because the squash eats me up," she said. "I would have asked Tadashi to pick them last night but you know how those tears get."
Yes, he did, he had surprised himself by enjoying himself during it, banging out the blueprints for the various designs and figuring out how best to put them together so they'd work. "And then you interrupt us with movies."
"I've learned that I can't leave you boys unattended on these things," she said, digging in a big bush of a plant with leaves as big as his head. "If I do that then I come down at five in the morning to open the café to find that you all stayed up all night working on something."
"Circadian rhythms are for the weak."
"Pretty sure they aren't. Oh wow," she said, pulling out a zucchini that was at least a foot long and about half that around. "Okay you want to learn how to make zucchini bread later?"
"I suppose I could take some time out of my busy schedule," he said, finally picking a cherry tomato off the vine. "Ah. How important was it that these come off perfect?"
She came over to look. "Oh no you pinch them off above the caps like this—I can always pick that off later." Picked another one that had a scabbed-over split. "These go in the compost bin they go moldy real fast," she said, flicking it into a bin in the corner.
He considered the whole setup as she went back to the squash plants—compost bin, rain barrel with a hose, little shed, plants everywhere…."Is this preparing against societal collapse, or just being green?"
"Huh? Oh no—this started because the best way to get the fresh stuff outside of bribing a grower is to grow it yourself," she said, tugging out a yellow squash that hadn't reached behemoth size. "I couldn't afford to bribe a grower."
He smirked at that, coughing on a laugh.
"I found out that it was actually kind of fun growing your own stuff," she continued, tugging out a few more squash before moving on to what he figured were eggplants. "It's definitely rewarding. And okay yeah it's green and we'd probably survive longer during some horrible societal collapse but I'm counting those as bonuses. Besides, look at this pretty eggplant—no pesticides or anything like that, and I know exactly what goes on it. Plus it didn't cost me like five bucks a pound," she added in a mutter, glaring at nothing.
He considered the plants again. "Then how do you keep the bugs off?"
"Mint, garlic…turns out there's a whole list of plants you can include in your garden that's edible and keeps the bugs off," she said. "Plus if you boil mint leaves in water and spray it on they hate it and it smells good."
"You're secretly one of those survivalist women, you know this, right?"
"Hey, when we're still eating after everything goes blooey you'll thank me."
Huff. "Fair enough," he admitted, going back to the tomatoes. "You'd last longer in that situation anyway—I like technology too much." And come to think of it, he really didn't know what the SK would do in the face of an EMP—probably he wouldn't survive that what was he doing questioning his survival in what-if situations he had a very REAL situation coming up that needed addressing.
"Nah—you boys would probably be the ones getting everything working while the rest of us held off the zombie hordes," she said, collecting a few regular-sized tomatoes before trimming off what he guessed was onion leaves. "Can I tack on teaching you about ratatouille too?"
Wasn't sure what to make of her lumping him in with her nephews. "Trying to make sure I survive on more than just ramen?"
"Yeah that feels important."
Silence of the companionable type, that he was torn between wanting deeply and resisting mightily.
Could it be done, Fred's suggestion? Turned it over as he followed her down to the kitchen, nodding and feeling less inept than he had been during these little lessons. If he could achieve this, stop him from destroying the city and survive the altercation as well…well, this would be waiting for him on the other side. This warm, foreign feeling of belonging, that he hadn't really felt since his tutelage under Professor Granville. But that had been different, hadn't it? Then it had been teacher and student, comfortably arm's length, and here…here it was obvious that she was trying to get him to consider himself as part of the family.
He wanted it. He wanted it but it was dangerous. He had to stay at arm's length in case the worst happened and he didn't make it, to keep the damage he did on the way out to a minimum. But at the same time…at the same time he wanted it desperately, this warm feeling that made that icy ache in his chest hurt less.
Close his eyes when she hugged him, not resisting as much as he had been, open them to watch her serving the freshly-made bread to her customers, trying to untangle his feelings on the matter.
I'm tired of being vicious, he surprised himself by realizing. I'm tired of being vicious and…and yes, I want to be loved instead.
Ponder this as he worked on his machines in the garage. Was this what this feeling was? Love? If so, it was a foreign one that he had never before considered; before he had never really had any need to consider people outside of himself. Was it worth it? Would it be worth giving everything up to preserve the ones causing it?...Yes. Yes he felt so.
He had to stop the upcoming catastrophe. There was absolutely no room for failure.
Deep sigh—smile when Cass came in with a plate. There were three things that had to be kept from him—the painting, the journal, and the energy amplifier. The last one was safe and snug in a flash drive in his own possession, so that just left the other two.
He could do this. He could absolutely do this.
The alternative was just too terrible to imagine.
Obake drifted back into the café later in the afternoon, ostensibly to bring his plate back in but also with some notion of securing Hiro as soon as he came back and dragging him to the garage to work. Two sets of hands were better than one, after all, and while he wouldn't fill Hiro in on the actual motivations, he couldn't deny that he enjoyed working with him. Scowl a bit as he recalled his old plans for making him a protégé—yes he had gotten that, mostly because he wasn't asking Hiro to destroy a city containing his aunt anymore. Having gotten to know her, he could understand that. Let her rope him into helping with potstickers (she was right, they were starting to get less ugly) as he waited—just about dropped the one he was working on when Hiro bounded into the café, waved him over when he bounced up, winced as Hiro nearly had several collisions as he darted into the kitchen.
"Your spatial awareness is as bad as your coordination," Obake teased.
"Granville approved my project!" Hiro yelled, totally ignoring the jab and waving a fan of blueprints around. "She totally approved my project she said it sounded great like it'd really help out people and the environment and she said that it would make a great midterm project!"
Midterm?
Obake was aware that his initial mirth at Hiro's enthusiasm had just blown out like a bulb, scrambled to pull that mask back up—no, no it couldn't be that late already—if that were the case he only had a few more weeks until—
As though his panic summoned him, Fred came barging into the café. "My dudes I have cool news!"
"Oh no," Obake moaned.
"I'm sure it's nothing dire," Hiro said. "Maybe he's announcing that he's going for the giant kaiju, he wouldn't shut up about the squid today."
It wasn't the kaiju.
"Check it out, my dudes," Fred said, showing the newspaper. "The super-duper-ultra rare painting City Rises is being shown at the San Fransokyo Museum of Art!"
"THE City Rises by Lenore Shimamoto?" Honey Lemon exclaimed. "But that painting's been lost for over a century!"
"Well now it's not!" Fred said, as proud as if he had found it himself. "They're having a party showing it before opening it to the public, who wants in?"
Considering he had been waiting for months for this—"I wouldn't mind seeing it," Obake volunteered.
"Aha!" Fred exclaimed, pointing. "See? See? That's one vote for cool painting! Technically two since I vote yes too."
"I mean I wouldn't mind making a whole evening of it," Tadashi said. "It's just the question of getting in to see it."
"It'll be open to the public after the showing, right?" Wasabi asked. "We can get in then."
Oh no—sure Globby was no longer in play but he didn't doubt that he was already plotting on how to get the painting—he needed to get in there and figure out how to stop him, needed to plant his blocks—
Fred, surprisingly, waved Wasabi off. "No big, man, the Fredricksons donate a ton to the museum, we can definitely get in and sample all the fancy free food."
"Going back to you being rich," Gogo said.
"Yeah," Wasabi said. "You can totally afford to do laundry more WHY DON'T YOU."
"It's called recycling," Fred countered.
"I'm for the fancy free food," Obake said. "Plus it won't be as crowded then."
"Very true very true—oh wait it's black tie everyone's still got their fancy clothes right?"
"Yes, Fred," Tadashi said. "So I guess we're going to fancy black-tie stuff—no stealing things."
"Why did you look at us?" Hiro asked, gesturing between himself and Obake. "We are perfectly well-behaved."
"Embellishing the truth doesn't help your case," Obake pointed out.
"Hush you you're supposed to be backing me up."
"Then it's settled!" Fred exclaimed. "Button up your cummerbunds, for tonight we ride!"
"Cummerbunds don't button," Wasabi told him.
"Didn't peg you as an art guy," Tadashi said to Obake as the discussion on what, exactly, a cummerbund was went on.
"I have my reasons," Obake told him. And he did.
Because if they knew about the painting…he did too.
It was all over the news: Lenore Shimamoto's famous painting City Rises had been found and was ready to be revealed to the public.
And if the painting had been found…what it was supposed to hide had been found too.
It was what he had been waiting for, priority enough that he put tracking down that miscreant on hold to consider this. He needed that painting, preferably in a way that didn't have him splitting his attention between that and keeping whatever tool was out there snafuing his plans from interfering.
He knew just the person.
The call picked up on the second ring. "Who is this?"
"Remember how I told you there'd be a price tag on your escape?"
"Ah. I was wondering when you'd call. What do you want?"
"To make use of your services," he said, turning his attention back to the screen. "Trust me when I say you'll find this worth your time."
"We'll see."
Yes, we will.