Chapter 44, everybody, and happy Independence Day! :D
So I understand that in canon Fred commissioned the Kaiju from someone outside the team but in this case he's making use of the willing nerds before him. Plus since Hiro didn't lose the microbots in this AU he gets to make more use of them for science and entertainment purposes. :D
Okay give me a minute to rant here: yes, turpentine and oil paints are flammable, yes you have to be careful with how you dispose of them, yes you definitely need to make sure you work somewhere ventilated when you work with them. NO, they are NOT made from petroleum, they're made from plant oils, so those dips throwing tomato soup on paintings are nothing more than idiot vandals and should be treated as such.
In other news, Tadashi is a nerd who likes to quote eighties songs. Also, literally everyone knows about Honey Lemon but they're all too nice to say anything. And yes, in my experience, you grow into your own. And also interacting with people online is a bit easier than interacting in real life, from personal experience. Hiro's newest plot, meanwhile, was inspired by a Pinterest picture of a Tumblr post I found. And impromptu lecture on how stop-motion animation works, courtesy of Fred! :D The peeved set builders story can be found in the making of book for The Nightmare Before Christmas, which, being one of if not the first full-length stop-motion animation film, had a lot of learning curves. XD
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
Obake's attempts at getting back to SFAI and Shimamoto's house stalled over the next several days thanks in part to the brothers insisting they work on their projects together and roping him into it, which also required pulling out the microbots again which required him hiding everything before retrieving them. And then baffling their way through the nerd herd questioning this.
"We've been machining more up, working on improving the design and functionality," Hiro said—which wasn't a lie, good lad, finally learning how to bend the truth to better serve him. "Plus this speeds up kaiju production."
"Which, by the way, I am all for," Fred said, bouncing up and down.
"Still waiting for the reason as to why we need a giant kaiju," Wasabi said.
"Coolness factor."
"Fred, that can't be the only reason. That literally cannot be the only reason."
"Later we can convince the populace at large that there's a giant kaiju living in the bay," Obake offered drily, still working on the wiring for the control board and debating on just having the thing stomp on his old lair and get it over with. Couldn't cause a Great Catastrophe if he was a soggy pancake, now could he?
"So that's why you agreed to this," Tadashi said, squinting at him.
"I am confirming nothing."
"Yeah…gonna flake on this," Gogo said, getting up and leaving. "Granville asked me to work on the dynamo, and I'd rather do that than help Fred here live out his nerd fantasies. No offense."
"None taken," Fred said, waving her off.
"Ah…right. Can I go with her?" Wasabi asked. "Because I'm not sold on this either."
"Wasabi, you can't let us be the only ones working on this," Tadashi said.
"Even though my microbots will be doing most of the work," Hiro said.
"You hush I'm trying to be convincing."
Wasabi looked like he wanted to counter, cut off sharply enough with his focus elsewhere that the rest of them turned to look. "Honey Lemon, what happened?"
"Er," Honey Lemon noised, looking disheveled. "So…High Voltage was at SFAI? It was weird."
"What were you doing at SFAI?" Hiro asked—hmm, maybe he didn't get the memo.
"Uhhhhh scouting for uh, for Spirit Week!" Honey Lemon said, scrambling. "Yes, definitely there for Spirit Week and no other reason."
"Okay fine but are you okay?" Tadashi asked, going to her and touching her arm. "Baymax?"
"Scanning," Baymax said. "Despite some singed clothes and hair, Honey Lemon is: unharmed."
"Yeaaah…might have used some turpentine and other art supplies to make like…a poor man's firebomb to scare High Voltage off," Honey Lemon said, wincing a little. "It really helped that they were super-busy arguing with each other. Gosh I hope they work through their differences."
"Work through their differences refresh my memory weren't we just talking about how High Voltage is a pair of criminals?" Wasabi asked.
"Yeah, but they're mother and daughter and they should really be able to get along better."
"Okay go back to you making a firebomb out of art supplies I'm sorry I didn't see that," Tadashi said, hugging her one-armed and jostling her a little. "What did those art geeks think? Did you blind them with science?"
"And then why was High Voltage there to begin with?" Fred asked. "Suspicious—we should investigate."
"Should we though?" Honey Lemon asked, grimacing a little.
"So you and I are apparently the only ones still working on the kaiju," Obake said to Hiro.
"Yeah, apparently," Hiro said, looking baffled. "What's turpentine doing at SFAI anyway?"
"Turpentine is a paint thinner—it stands to reason it's used for painting."
"Hmm. Honey Lemon—how does turpentine relate to art anyway?"
"It's a paint thinner used with oil painting," Honey Lemon said.
"So…your firebomb was made from oil paints?"
"Oil paints are made from linseed oil, Hiro. I mean yes you have to be careful when disposing of old paint rags but, um…."
"Both: turpentine, and oil paints, are made from: plant-based products," Baymax offered, pulling up schematics. "There are no fossil fuels used in the making of: oil paints."
"So how does she make a firebomb out of that?" Hiro asked Obake.
"Turpentine fumes are highly flammable," Obake said. "And as I understand it most old oil paints were mixed with toxic ingredients—hence why most artists died young and insane."
"Boy I hope that doesn't happen to Honey Lemon," Hiro said—suddenly panicked. "Y-you know, from messing with that stuff—"
Ah. "So you do know about her extracurricular activities."
"Yeah but don't tell her," Hiro hissed. "Tadashi told me to leave it until she felt like sharing."
"Considering Spirit Week is coming up, it might be nicer for you all to inform her."
"Yeah," Hiro noised. "Kind of unfair to make her pick like that."
"Indeed. Now, we were putting this together?"
Hiro grinned, reached into a box and handed him a second nanoreceptor. "Yes, we are."
Obake considered this, accepting it and turning the device over. Yes, he was aware of his cranial diagnosis, and honestly he was willing to buy into the insanity bit after everything that had gone down. Honestly, it made him wonder how the device would react to his own brain waves, or if it would negatively react with the SK. So many questions.
And of course, one way to find out.
Hiro grinned when he put it on, holding up his fist—obliged him on the fist bump, struggling to keep his expression neutral.
"There's one for Tadashi too but we can get some work done before he gets his lame thoughts all over the microbots," Hiro said, brimming with enthusiasm. "So we're using the same articulated joints for the tail like we are the squid tentacles—"
It was a nice enough distraction, at least until the others came over and started helping, still discussing the High Voltage attack and occasionally straying into Gogo working on the dynamo. Obake wondered if she had been assigned to fix the damage he had done to keep it from tempting him.
Also worth wondering: what High Voltage was doing at SFAI.
He could guess: he had assigned them to go after the journal. If they failed, no skin off his back. If they succeeded, then he had the journal and the only major obstacle to making the star machine was powering it. But why would—
A terrible thought occurred to him then.
Was High Voltage's energy orb strong enough to act as an energy amplifier?
In other news, making an energy orb that did everything that the videos of the original did was properly difficult and was a good exercise to bend his mind around. Hadn't quite gotten it figured out yet, but from the sounds of it High Voltage had yet to succeed, so he still had some breathing room.
Granted he also had blessed silence—Momakase had skivved off to do a job elsewhere, biting off some barb about how he'd appreciate her talents better if he caught himself without them. Had to wonder about her getting worked up about it.
No matter—High Voltage was still technically in play, and if he could get this energy orb working…well, there was nothing stopping him from making a second one to help power the star machine. He was in the market for a new energy amplifier, after all, and while that dynamo at SFIT was tempting, it would take a lot of effort to move it.
No…something much more compact would serve his needs much better.
"I'm going to have to thank you," he mused, thinking of that little brat as he turned the orb casing around. "Adversity breeds innovation, after all."
Of course, this wasn't going to change that brat's fate once he found him.
The good news was, High Voltage went underground for a few days after their failed attempt at the journal. This was good, he needed this, the Hamada brothers had been insistent on dragging him along for machining up parts for the robots and working out the kinks. Hiro's remora had once again swum through Fred's pool, Fred volunteering to be the 'shark' and inanely wearing a foam shark fin on his head when he jumped in the pool.
"Okay so it should stick on no problem and come off the same way," Hiro said as he sent the remora swimming after Fred.
"So, question," Wasabi noised. "What happens if it doesn't come off easy?"
"We spray Fred with Teflon," Tadashi offered.
"I got a fishy friend!" Fred reported.
"Okay swim around a bit while we see if everything's reading correctly."
"You might want to add that he can lay off the Jaws theme while he's at it," Obake grumbled, focusing on the computer.
"What? No, the Jaws theme sells it."
Groan, scrubbing at his forehead—he didn't have time for this, he had to get to that journal and he was wasting his time on inane idiocy—
"Okay good news!" Hiro reported, leaning to watch the data. "The biometric sucker is totally tracking Fred and recording everything, GPS tracker is working…hmm, Fred, are you okay with taking a trip around the city so we can see how well the GPS does?"
"On it!" Fred said, giving them a thumbs-up before crawling out of the pool. "I'll ask Heathcliff real quick if we can take the limo, I'll sit in the hot tub so we still have the wet shark experience."
"The limo has a hot tub?" Wasabi asked blankly.
"Oh wait lemme disable the taser real quick," Hiro said, tapping out a code on the computer. "Okay go."
"And maybe by the time I get back Gogo and Honey Lemon will be here for movie night—my dudes, I think Gogo fell in love with that dynamo pretty sure they're getting registered," Fred said as he left.
"And Honey Lemon is probably still trying to decide who to side with on Spirit Week," Tadashi said. Looked at Obake. "Of course, we require your silence."
"I am aware, she is aware that I am aware, and I've been aware for a month now," Obake said irritably. "Tell her already so she can stop being all stressed out and calling me WHY did you give her my phone number?"
"He gave everybody your phone number," Hiro said.
"Seriously?"
"Look, I've already vowed never to call you," Wasabi said. "And he's got a point, Tadashi—Honey Lemon is never going to tell us on her own, and as one easily-stressed person can attest, it is way too easy to get worked up about these things."
"You being the easily-stressed person," Hiro said.
"Me being the easily-stressed person the Yoga elective is only doing so much."
"I am surrounded. By children," Obake ground out, eyes tightly shut as he tried to block out inane yammering.
"Well good news, Fred tells me he's got a writing teacher who apparently was exactly like you growing up, you'll either find people you can stand someday or do all your interacting online," Tadashi informed him.
"I do so very much doubt they've had my exact experience."
"Yeah, you at least have the awesome experience of knowing me," Hiro offered.
"Wow," Tadashi noised. "Swelled head much?"
"Look, we've already established that you're a nerd, it's written in the stars, bro."
"No it isn't."
"Oh yes it is."
Hiro, of course, could speak with such conviction because he had gotten those glow-in-the-dark stars and had already spelled out nerd over Tadashi's bed, enlisting Obake's help in getting the stepladder to their room—had to struggle to keep a straight face at the thought of Tadashi's reaction later tonight, might have to stick around long enough to see that.
Granted, Fred making the night into a movie marathon put a cramp in all other plans for the night, and then the next day Hiro dragged Obake to SFIT to help plan their assault on SFAI. Great, just what he didn't need, for events to play out exactly as they had before.
At least he had the invisibility cloak to help with evading Granville.
"Okay. So," Tadashi said, hands up. "Before we get started, I just want to say that having the Kentucky Kaiju steal the statue is probably too obvious."
"Okay fair," Fred said, holding the replica posable Kentucky Kaiju they had machined up for him. "But can I still be Kentucky Kaiju on the map?"
"Sure, sure—Hiro is the bottle cap—"
"I don't want to be the bottle cap," Hiro said.
"Fine, you're the wingnut."
"That's not any better."
"Lugnut then."
"Tadashi."
"Oh just pick something and move on," Obake complained.
"Dude," Fred noised.
"So that's freaky," Wasabi said, looking around.
"Obake's lurking in the invisibility cloak," Hiro offered. "He's been hiding from Granville."
"Okay so my next question is why."
"Can't kick me out if she can't find me," Obake said.
"Okay fine that checks out moving on please," Gogo said.
"Okay so the way I see it we have options," Tadashi said. "Like Baymax can lift a thousand pounds but we also have the microbots which we could use to sneak in and liberate the statue that way without ever presenting a target—we send in a drone too and voila! Able to monitor everything without ever being seen."
"I don't know, there's been an increased police presence at SFAI," Honey Lemon said—started when she realized what she had said. "Er—which I know from scouting—"
Tadashi gave her a sympathetic look before glancing at the others, back to her. "Uh, yeah. Truth time, we know you've been attending SFAI too."
"Oh we're finally telling her?" Gogo asked. "Good I'm sick of pretending otherwise it's been annoying."
"Wait—you know? All of you?" Honey Lemon asked, looking at them. "I mean I know Obake and Fred did and Fred said you knew—" This directed at Gogo.
"When you're not snoring you're talking in your sleep," Gogo said. "I've taken to wearing the noise-cancelling headphones late on Sundays."
"Sorry."
"We're not mad, Honey Lemon," Wasabi said. "We know you like art, it's a thing you do, and if you want to bow out of this we're not going to hold it against you." Started at Honey Lemon hugging him, gently patted her on the back. "Okay, okay, we're good, calm down."
"Just to be fair though, you can't help SFAI spackle the Café with glitter again," Tadashi pointed out.
"I'm just glad I don't have to hide anything anymore," Honey Lemon said, almost bubbly with relief.
Obake rolled his eyes—glanced at his watch when it beeped. "Granville's coming."
"Oop—quick, act natural," Tadashi ordered.
Fred's response to that was to put the Kentucky Kaiju in the middle of the little model SFAI—by the time Granville came in, the little Lego figure that had been representing the statue was gripped in its articulated paw.
"So basically the thing with stop-motion is you have to basically take a bunch of pictures for every second of frame depending on how smooth you want the animation to be," Fred said, acting like he was smack in the middle of a lecture. "Since you want animation to have at the very bare minimum eight frames per second—and that gets you some janky animation to be fair twenty-four frames per second is the industry standard and thirty is supposed to be butter-smooth—anyway that's eight pictures per second, and then the movements have to be tiny—like this. One frame, one frame, one frame," he said, slowly moving the Kentucky Kaiju. "So one of the big reasons we don't see stop-motion come out very often is because there's so much work that goes into making it and making it look good. Like yeah there's some tech that's made it a bit easier but at the same time you have to totally have everything finalized in the storyboarding process because even a slight adjustment of the camera means you have to build more background and then you get a lot of peeved set builders after you."
"So what you're saying is we should really be more impressed by Aardman Studios," Hiro said.
"They gave us Chicken Run and Flushed Away, we should be very grateful for Aardman Studios."
"Thank you, Mr. Fredrickson," Granville said. "But I do hope that the plan for stealing the Shimamoto statue does not involve a giant kaiju—it would be a tad too obvious."
"See, that was my point," Tadashi said. "Oop."
"I am very disappointed," Granville told them. "In each of you." Took the Lego character from the kaiju before putting it where the statue would be. "For not fielding all attempts through me first. What have you got?"
So Hiro's baffled expression—honestly, all their baffled expressions—were highly entertaining, had to work to keep from laughing at them. "Um—well I have my microbots that we uh, were going to use to sneak in and take the statue out—"
"With a drone monitoring so we could see it without actually being there," Gogo said.
"Very good—I approve, good luck," Granville said. "As for you and you," she said, pointing at Wasabi and Fred. "I'm enlisting you to help protect the Café from SFAI interlopers this year. Meet me at five PM tonight for your orientation. Good luck, all of you," she said, heading back out. "And do not fail me!"
Dead silence for a few long beats.
"Ohhh I do not have a good feeling about this," Wasabi said.