Chapter 32, everybody! Technical difficulties will NOT slow me down let's goooo—

*ahem* Moving on, Obake has decided to emulate Nicholas Cage. "I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence—er, City Rises."

So originally I intended for them to go to the shindig in Wasabi's car, but when I got to this point Fred's limo just made more sense. For that matter, originally when I intended them to take Wasabi's car also had the last scene mostly playing out in the back of Wasabi's car but I feel like the final product works better.

Also yes Tadashi might have Baymax scanning for peanuts but shush Hiro's not supposed to call him out on it. And as it turned out the remora is going to be a persisting subplot point I wasn't expecting it but here we are. Tadashi and Fred are referencing Beetlejuice, by the way.

In addition to channeling National Treasure, Obake is also channeling a story I saw on Tumblr once where this woman, after trying to impress upon museum higher-ups the need for tighter security, walked in, stole some important letters right off the wall, went straight to her boss's office and said "I stole these in fifteen minutes." Obake's plan was basically to do that after getting rid of the blueprints. And then plot happened…and yeah Obake's kid is a more believable assumption, let's be real. ^^;

So. In Season 3 Momakase steals City Rises, which gives me the impression that Obake was some combination of suave and petty enough to send the painting back when he was finished with it…and yet it's also seen in his lair during "Countdown to Catastrophe," which bears asking the question of if it was salvaged and if it was, how—salt/brackish water would be damaging to it so that's a big question. Also, no confirmation that they found his body means that according to Marvel rules Obake is still alive and despite this fic I will die on this hill.

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Fred's butler picked them up in the limo, Tadashi hauling Baymax with them, ostensibly to teach the robot about art.

"And to scan the snacks for peanuts," Hiro muttered, cutting Tadashi a look.

"Well," Tadashi noised. "You never know."

"Tadashi I'm not made of glass I'll be fine."

"I'd like to point out that I never said Baymax was coming along to scan for food allergies, you did, you're making a mountain out of a molehill."

"I'm being persecuted," Hiro decided, scooting over so he was sitting closer to Obake instead. "I'll talk to you instead."

"Is this punishing me or your brother?" Obake asked.

"Oh it's going to be like that huh fine I won't tell you about how awesome my project is going to be."

"Yes you will," Obake said. "You have a need to show off your superiority and talk about your project and I'm guessing that at this point I'm the only one who hasn't heard all about it."

"It's a really good idea," Honey Lemon agreed. "It'll help scientists study sharks and help keep sharks safe!"

"She gave me a bunch of shark stickers for this," Hiro told Obake. "Fred got squid stickers I didn't think there were cutesy squid stickers but apparently they exist."

"I'm still looking for barracuda stickers but I have some jellyfish stickers," Honey Lemon said, pulling something out of her purse and handing it to Obake. He took it, had to work to keep his face neutral at a couple of sheets of stickers portraying jellyfish with smiley faces and hearts.

"Ah…thank you," he decided to say, working to keep I think from being said out loud.

"Here I'll put those in the side pocket here so you don't lose them," Tadashi said. "So see? There's more reasons to bring Baymax his charger has pockets."

Hiro made a face at Tadashi before excitedly giving Obake the blow-by-blow of pitching his idea to Granville, which took them to the museum and through most of the line. Tugged out his phone to pull up a quick picture he had taken of his blueprints so they could go over it while they waited to get in.

"So my main issue is getting it to stick to the shark," Hiro said as they walked in. "Like I've got the general idea for how to get it to work but it's also going to be on a different texture of skin while also being in the water. I can use the sucker to also double as a biometric scan and everything else feels pretty straightforward, but that's the part I'm worried about."

"I'm sure once you get it past version 1.0 you can ask someone at the aquarium nicely," Wasabi said. "From the sounds of it they'd probably be happy to help."

"Well this is swanky," Gogo observed, looking around the museum.

"Okay so do we go for the food first and give the crowd time to thin or do we get in line for the painting?" Fred asked.

"I vote food," Tadashi said. "Keep our strength up."

"Multiple smaller meals are good for your health," Baymax offered.

"See? That's two votes for food also Baymax make sure you scan the shrimp I don't trust it."

"It might come to life and attack us," Fred agreed, squinting at the middle distance.

"Your brother is weird and he has weird friends," Obake told Hiro.

"Don't lump me in with that mess," Gogo said.

They did manage to get something to eat, circled around with the flow of the crowd to see the painting itself. Yes, it was impressive, he noted as Honey Lemon gushed about the technical parts such as brushstrokes and color choice.

But what was truly worth his time was what the painting hid—which is what he had to retrieve before he got his claws into it. Circle back around once the crowd started thinning and the others moved on to other paintings to consider how he'd do this, briefly glanced to the side when Hiro came up next to him.

"So, Honey Lemon's got a point," Hiro noised, looking the painting up and down. "That's…actually really impressive."

Yes, from an artistic standpoint and from the knowledge that Shimamoto's star machine was hidden behind it—more impressive was the appalling lack of security. No wonder Globby had been able to steal it.

"There's nothing here," he said. "No security, not even a glass to keep people from touching it! I bet we could take it off the wall right now and nothing would happen!"

Hiro eyed him with concern. "Uh, why are you looking like that? What are you planning?"

Knee-jerk reaction, something that would either impress upon this stupid museum the need for security or get the important keystone out of the way.

"I'm stealing City Rises."

"What?" Hiro asked, obviously thrown—more so when Obake ducked under the little rope and lifted the painting off the wall. "What are you—Obake put that back!"

"Later," he said, tucking the painting under an arm and taking off. Preferably after he removed the pertinent document from the back. "And stop being obvious."

"Stop being obvious you're running off with a whole painting under your arm—"

Tadashi had been trying to help Honey Lemon explain art to Baymax, happened to look over—took a double take and bolted for them. "Hey no—"

Obake's forward momentum was halted by a round of glass falling to the ground and shattering in front of him, someone in black and blue dropping down shortly afterwards.

"I'll take that," she said, straightening up, his mind finally making the connection—no wait, why, how—

"Oh no this is bad," he managed.

"You got that right," Momakase said, looking him up and down with amusement before snatching the painting from him. "I'll tell daddy you said hi."

And with that she kicked him in the chest, sending him, Hiro, and Tadashi sprawling—

Was gone back through the ceiling before anyone could react.

"Dude," Fred said finally. "We need to go to more of these."

Okay, so maybe teaming up with this guy had more benefits than she originally had guessed.

Yes, she had been peeved at some café owner being responsible for her going to jail, had been suspicious of some guy granting her the means to her freedom, had hunted him down once she was out to sus out what was up—

He had been surprisingly calm at a graphene blade pointed at his throat, still seemed superciliously smug and in control despite her only having to move two inches to end it all.

"Not that I'm not grateful, but what is this?" she demanded. "You said you had a reason for doing this—why?"

"Let's just say I have plans," he responded. "Big plans. Plans that require talented, like-minded people." Gently push her hand aside. "People like you, who don't operate with such pesky things as limits."

And already he was showing his worth, having her go after City Rises, possibly one of the rarest paintings in the history of the country, giving her all the resources her little heart desired for this, only calling in once to make sure she was settled.

"Everything's set," she said when she answered the line. "As soon as the little shindig showing the painting is done I'll be moving in—this time tomorrow you'll be the happy owner of a one-of-a-kind painting." Probably sooner—the security on this painting was so bad a child could steal it—

The thought had barely crossed her mind when a child did steal the painting.

"Actually you know what? Give me an hour," she said, hanging up and slicing a circle into the skylight. Dropped in, the kid skidding to a halt—

A kid with a very familiar facial structure and blue eyes.

Oh you have got to be kidding her.

She definitely had questions when she got back to his lair.

"Ah, excellent," he said, hands spread and looking pleased when she stepped in. "It seems I was right to place my faith in you after all."

"Was there ever a doubt?" she asked, handing the painting over. Watched him admire it for a moment before springing her suspicion on him. "Although if we're going to be working together I want more challenging jobs—a kid stole this painting without any problem."

"Well that's disappointing," he said.

"Yeah. Your kid says hi, by the way."

Okay, him having to blink and take a moment to process what she said was entertaining, as was the dumbfounded look he gave her. "What?"

"About yea high," she said, holding a hand slightly below her shoulder. "Same face and eyes. Ringing any bells?"

"No," he said, still looking somewhere between confused and irritated. "And a question for a later date."

And with that, he smashed the painting against a nearby table.

"HEY!" she barked. "I didn't steal that for you to tear up!"

"Oh you can keep the painting," he said, pulling it out of its frame and flinging it at her. "Shimamoto the artist doesn't interest me in the slightest." She scrambled to catch it, glaring daggers at him as she smoothed it out—

Blinked in surprise when she realized that him doing so had revealed a set of blueprints.

"Shimamoto the scientist, on the other hand," he said, grinning savagely, half his face flaring in a sickly skull pattern. "Now that has potential."

Okay, to say that they currently had major problems was a massive understatement.

The police were here, Tadashi was keeping a firm grip on Obake and Hiro's collars as he told the cop that Momakase was the one who stole the painting—

Momakase was the one who stole the painting.

On the one hand, this made sense—Globby was out of the picture, so he needed someone else to do his stealing for him, a renowned thief was obviously the best bet—

What had he done?

Okay okay think be rational—he had teamed up with Momakase in the original timeline anyway, this was just…so much sooner. And now the original Obake had the blueprints to the star machine—

Breathe, breathe—the blueprints would mean nothing without the journal. They were a start, not the final product. What he needed was to ensure he never got the journal. There'd be enough damage done with the perpetual energy device and the blueprints, but the journal was what he needed to finalize everything.

The journal that was currently in Shimamoto's hidden lab in her house on SFAI property.

Okay, two options—one, get it early and make sure it never fell into the wrong hands; two, make sure it was never found. The latter would be problematic, he had known that something important had been hidden in that house—

"OBAKE!"

"GAH!" Start, try to get away—got yanked back by Tadashi, jerking him back to the here and now and the realization that they were in the parking lot by the limo.

"Good, now that you're back here with us—you IDIOT what were you even THINKING were you even doing that?" Tadashi demanded.

Honestly…in retrospect no he wasn't entirely certain what his plan had been besides getting the painting out of there.

"Wait—why are we mad at him?" Wasabi asked.

"Because this idiot STOLE the painting."

"I thought Momakase stole it," Gogo said.

"Yeah, from him."

Okay at this point keeping mum was probably going to go farther it'd make Tadashi look the fool—so of course Hiro screwed it up.

"It didn't even have any security on it!" Hiro protested, probably thinking he was helping.

"Which is why I've got a hold on you too WHY did you go along with this?"

"Hey I was trying to stop him."

"Obake we're not mad—" Honey Lemon started.

"I am," Tadashi said. "I'm actually past that and to a word I can't say without paying the swear jar."

Honey Lemon held up a hand to him. "What I'm trying to get at is—why?"

He was not doing this, he was not being surrounded by a bunch of children and treated like a child, thank you whatever twisted karma was responsible for his current situation, couldn't humiliate him more if he tried and he hoped that burning in his face was from him being that word that Tadashi would lose money saying. Rub the side of his face, hoping he could at least hide the SK if it flared on him.

"I was trying to prove a point," he groused finally. "There was no security on it, anyone could have stolen it, and if they were stupid enough to put a painting up like that then they were going to be stupid enough to ignore someone just saying something."

"Petty," Gogo observed. "I can dig it."

"Not helping, Gogo," Tadashi groused.

"My dudes we are ignoring the bigger picture here," Fred said, waving his hands. "Momakase, scary knife-wielding thief, now has the painting! Now what?"

They all stared at him. "Now what what do you mean now what?" Obake demanded. "You're not going after a woman who could kill you before you realized you've been cut—she probably doesn't even have the painting anymore!" Probably ran it right to his original self as soon as she was gone. Great.

Especially when you realized that that statement prompted everyone to look at him. "How do you figure?" Gogo asked. Great, genius, now what?

"She stole the gravity device from Krei and was trying to sell it within the week," he pointed out, hitting on a good explanation. "It stands to reason she doesn't care about trophies, she cares about the bottom line. City Rises is gone. Period." Destroyed along with his lair—maybe he should have gone the petty route and sent it back, but then again he had been planning on the city being destroyed and his lair being fine which once again led to that nasty tangling feeling in his stomach.

Honey Lemon looking dejected and Tadashi looking absolutely furious didn't help those feelings either, saw him scrunched up in a corner of the limo and not looking at anyone, storming into the garage as soon as they were back, angrily ripping the tie from his neck and trying his best to keep his face from flaring—started throwing things when the anger became too much.

Stupid stupid stupid—he should have rigged up the drones to catch her, should have had them monitoring the situation as soon as he learned of the painting—Globby had tried to steal the painting on the night it was being shown, he should have been ready—

He had let himself be derailed by all this, by this family, by things he didn't deserve and would never earn. He couldn't do this—he had to be smart, be cunning—

Had to be his old, vicious self. That was the only way he'd get ahead and stay ahead.

"Obake?"

Twitch—no, no, don't look don't fall for it don't—

Sag, look over at Hiro standing in the doorway, shuffling his feet and looking hesitant.

"Can…is it okay if I come in?" Hiro asked, looking around at the mess he had made of the place.

No. "It's your house," he said.

Hiro nodded, shuffled a little more before mincing down the steps—no don't do that, don't do what the others did where they treated him like a wounded animal that was going to bolt—

Looking at him with some combination of terror and disgust, not awe and appreciation like he really should be, body language saying he saw him as some wild animal that would attack him if he twitched wrong—

Looking at him with some combination of pity and sympathy, still a little worried at the evident temper tantrum he had just had.

"I get it, okay? I didn't like him talking like that either," Hiro said, rubbing his arm and looking down and away. "That was his you went bot-fighting AGAIN voice, I hate hearing it."

"What are you doing," Obake demanded, aware he sounded tired.

Hiro huffed, still looking anywhere but at him. "Because I get where he's coming from too. She could have killed you first, you know that right? Cut you up and then took the painting. That was…kind of scary."

He snorted at that, crossing his arms as he looked away. "Please, that scared you?"

"Uh, yeah," Hiro said, coming around to be in his line of sight again. "Because we could have honestly died and that was a problem."

Consider the boy in front of him. In saving Tadashi and preventing the forming of Big Hero Six he had given Hiro his childhood back, saved him from the shadows and pain he had before. But apparently, in doing so he had defanged the boy as well—before he had willingly gone toe-to-toe with Momakase without a second thought.

Even with keeping him in the dark, he probably wouldn't be able to trust Hiro to help him. He would be on his own in this endeavor.

"Hey," Hiro barked as he turned and walked away. "Hey—stop!" Caught his arm and yanked back. "Listen—I would have a problem if you died, okay?"

"No you wouldn't," he said. "You don't need me."

Something about his expression was between confusion and anger. "Oh really? Anything else I don't need? Anyone else?" Throw his arm away, fling his own up. "You can't do this—you can't act like you don't need anybody because you do, Obake, you can't just…forget it," he spat, turning on his heel and heading back to the house.

"Hiro—"

"I said forget it!"

Couldn't help the wince when Hiro slammed the door, looked around at the trashed garage…yes, this was more his speed. Left alone in the ruins of his own making.

Screens shorting out as they were crushed, bay water spraying in—

Shudder mightily, slapping a hand to his face when he felt it flare—no. No. No we weren't going there today or any other day forget it—

I said forget it!

It would have never worked even without Big Hero Six's interference—everything he touched turned to ruin.

Sigh, stoop down, turn over one of the little containers he had thrown, start picking up everything he had scattered and trying to ignore the burning in his chest and throat.

Door opened, closed, soft tread. Don't look don't look—

Cass crouched down next to him.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" she asked.

"Do I ever?" he rasped.

She nodded. "Tadashi said scary knife lady was at the museum and stole the painting." Squint at him. "He also said you lifted it first."

"I had a point to prove."

She nodded, watched him for a few moments…started helping him pick up. "Maybe I should have gone, schooled her again."

"Don't—stop—I can do it myself!" he snapped. Turned away, a hand pressed to his mouth as he tried to get his emotions back under control. No. No he had to stop this, stop these people from wanting to help him or be around him or anything else—it was time to cut ties again, he had to in order to protect them—

Hand to his shoulder.

"That doesn't mean you have to," she said. "There's people who care about you and are worried for you."

"You have better uses for your energy," he told her, voice brittle.

"Uh-huh. Well I choose to use that energy on you. So does Tadashi and Hiro. People wanting you in their lives…it's not some weird anomaly, Obake. You're allowed to have people in your life that care about you."

He wanted to yell at her, wanted to shove her away, focused on keeping his face covered when she hugged him. Breathe, breathe…he had failed to keep the painting away from him. He now had the blueprints to Shimamoto's star machine. If he got the journal…then that was it, it was all over.

He couldn't afford to fail again.