Chapter 46, everybody! Little delay on this one thanks to AO3's outage (since I'm posting to both sites), but hey, it's back now so yay! Gotta laugh though—I've been so busy with everything thanks to it being summer that I didn't even notice anything was wrong until I tried to upload the chapter this morning. X'D
So I told the exchange between Hiro and Aunt Cass to Mom and it made her laugh, so that's nice. :D Also Aunt Cass is exasperated and annoyed and not putting up with three(?) teenage(?) boys today. XD Hiro's quoting Jurassic Park, by the way.
Yes, electrocution can cause complications and pain always hits harder the second day—compartment syndrome is something I read about when reading up on electric injuries for this batch of chapters. Same with concussions which kind of makes it funny to me that now the TV has a ton of those protect your melon commercials now.
So Big Hero 6: the Series and Kim Possible were done by the same guys (which was a big selling point for me), hence the HenchCo reference—they also get a shoutout in my fic Safe in Brother's Wings. Also every single villain has those green computer screens so yes my money is on villainous surplus. In other news…Excedrin makes me loopy too but it's the only painkiller that actually works for me so for one day per month I must Suffer. Obake's also quoting Suzie from Calvin and Hobbes, and the puppy-dog pout is another reference to Kim Possible. Also I can't ever write or read connection terminated without thinking of the Digimon movie. In other news, whether it's the recommended action or not, one of the bluntest and fastest ways to stop progress on something untoward on your computer is to unplug it.
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
Okay, for the record, this was the second ride tonight that involved him sitting between Tadashi and Honey Lemon in awkward silence. At least it wasn't to prison, although Cass's steaming silence made him wonder if the holding cell would have been the better option.
She finally broke when the truck was parked in its usual space beside the Lucky Cat.
"What is wrong with you?" she demanded, twisting around in her seat. "What happened how did Hiro become the good kid?"
"HEY," Hiro protested.
"I did not mean that the way it sounded."
"I see we finally tarnished your golden-boy image," Obake muttered to Tadashi.
"Oh that was so your fault," Tadashi snapped. "We went in there to save your sorry tail if you hadn't made that stupid detour we would have had the statue and been gone."
"What?" Cass asked, baffled.
"So, every year during Spirit Week SFIT steals the Shimamoto statue from SFAI," Honey Lemon explained, looking extremely uncomfortable. "Which was actually why we were there."
Cass squinted at Hiro. "Is this why I had to pick you up at that bus stop?"
"Er, kind of?" Hiro noised, wincing. "I mean the good news is we got the statue—"
"Okay that's it I revoke my previous statement all three of you are equally rotten."
"Hey."
"Okay, but can we be having the scolding inside?" Tadashi asked. "Because, you know, bangs, scrapes, Baymax is in there…."
He could tell that concerned was battling with irate right now in Cass's head. "Also all the food is in there," Obake added.
She pointed at him. "You people are why I stress-eat," she said, kicking the truck door open. "I have jeans I can't fit into because of you!"
"We're sorry, Aunt Cass," Hiro and Tadashi chimed.
"So," Tadashi said, looking at Honey Lemon. "I'm not entirely certain Aunt Cass will let me give you a ride home, I'm anticipating grounding, but you can at least come in and have Baymax make sure you're okay?"
"I'm more worried about you two," Honey Lemon said as they got out of the truck. "I mean, it sounded bad and there was a lot of you getting zapped—"
"It wasn't that bad," Obake said.
"Yeah your hair's all poofy," Hiro told him. "Obake, the human piece of toast."
Oh brother. "We need to put shockproofing the microbots on the to-do list."
"Yeah, after we're un-grounded," Hiro said, looking at the pile of empty muffin papers in front of Cass, her glaring as she worked on another one. "Because I'm pretty sure we're about to be grounded."
"You are so grounded," she said. "And you—" This with a jab at Obake. "I know you said you'd make the one you lost that cloak on a doozy but good night you didn't have to mean it. Which reminds me, I'm taking it back it is so going in my underwear drawer now."
"I…might have lost it," Obake admitted—wasn't sure what happened to it after High Voltage struck, most of that had been honestly a blur.
"You lost—HOW did you lose my invisibility cloak that was mine!" Hiro protested.
"One, I was preoccupied, two…think about it."
"Oh good grief all of you are grounded until you're ninety I swear," Cass said.
"Uh," Honey Lemon noised.
"Okay fine technically I can't ground you but you're on thin ice."
"Getting Baymax now?" Tadashi asked.
"Yeah fine," she sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I've got tea on."
"I'd rather skip the robot scanning me," Obake started.
"YOU sit. You look like you stuck your tongue in a toaster."
Scowl at that, at his reflection in one of the napkin dispensers, spent until Baymax came waddling in trying to flatten his hair down. Oi that wasn't a good look for him.
"I have been alerted to the need for medical assistance," Baymax announced.
"Yeah, Baymax," Cass said, fortunately slowing down on the muffins.
"Scanning," Baymax said. "Aunt Cass, your heart rate and blood pressure are: elevated."
"Not me, them," she said, gesturing. "I was not the one who got electrocuted and banged up and arrested."
"We weren't charged with anything," Obake pointed out.
"I didn't do any of those things, you can skip me, Baymax," Hiro said, waving.
"You're still grounded," Cass said.
Being grounded apparently involved doing whatever the robot prescribed—and unfortunately for Obake, since he had gotten zapped a few times, that involved a lot.
"Multiple instances of: electrocution, can cause complications," Baymax said, addressing him and Tadashi, Obake still sulking from having his watch taken from him again dangit supergeniuses did not. Sulk.
"Wait what?" Cass demanded. "Okay yeah that's it definitely grounded do they need to go to the hospital Baymax?"
"No hospitals," Obake said immediately.
Fortunately, they didn't need to do that (yet, Baymax stipulated), which then left the next bit of relevant action being deciding what to do with Honey Lemon.
"I mean I don't feel comfortable driving you back to your dorm or apartment this late at night," Cass told her. "Do you mind sleeping over?"
"No, I'm fine with it, I'll just send Gogo a text so she knows where I am," Honey Lemon said. "Thank you, Aunt Cass."
Obake rolled his eyes at that, grimaced when that aggravated the pounding headache he had had lurking for a while.
Which, unfortunately, Baymax noticed. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
"Whichever number gets you to leave me alone the fastest."
"Scanning—"
"Tadashi Hamada get your robot away from me."
"You stop that," Cass said, coming back with more blankets that Baymax had prescribed. "Now what hurts?"
"Pride, ego, feelings of adequacy…."
Baymax blinked. "I will add: therapy, to the prognosis." Look at Cass. "Obake has a: concussion, and will need to be carefully monitored."
"Not by you," Obake insisted.
"Obake let my robot work in peace," Tadashi groaned, kicked back in a chair with an ice pack to his face.
"So I've updated Gogo on the basics," Honey Lemon said as she came back over. "A lot of it I'm going to have to explain to her either over the phone or face-to-face, there was a lot to put in a text."
"We tried to get the statue, High Voltage happened, things went," Obake summarized. "It's not hard."
"Actually we did get the statue," Hiro said. "It's currently sitting in Granville's parking space."
"Cheeky boy—I approve."
"Yeah you are still in trouble," Cass told him. "But for now food, tea, then bed."
"Honey Lemon can have my bed again," Tadashi volunteered. "I'll sleep on the couch before some people can try for it."
Obake looked over to give Hiro a disparaging I can't believe your brother look, noted Hiro's horror-stricken one.
"Please tell me you have an extra pair of those noise-cancelling headphones," Hiro begged.
"I do, fortunately," Obake sighed—didn't really need a sleepless night on top of everything else.
Granted, he'd probably have one even with the headphones.
Death, dying, him frantically ripping pages out to plaster the walls with, to stop the bleeding, to stop the water gushing in—none of it was working none of it had to do something but what—
Spasmed, collapsing—tried to crawl back through the black water to Tadashi and Honey Lemon, bodies smoking and bleeding—
Hiro suddenly landed next to him in full armor, fists sparking.
"This is your fault," he spat, cocking a fist back and swinging—
Startle awake, slapping a hand to his face when he felt the telltale tingling—nightmare. That's all it was. The two lumber mills were fine, he hadn't fallen headfirst into some horrible unavoidable fate just yet.
But he would if he didn't get that journal.
Groan, sit up—groan some more as he stiffly rolled upright. Okay, firstly OW, and secondly, OUCH. Good to know that everything hit worse the second day. Shuffle down the stairs, relying heavily on the banister, shamble over to the café portion with the intention of picking the nearest chair to collapse in.
"Uh, ouch," Cass observed. "So now that I've had a chance to cool off I figure either the grounding lasts until you recuperate or the recuperation is the grounding because that looks like punishment enough."
"It's not fun," Obake reported, easing into a chair. Ow, ow ow ow, no bad body don't have time for this he had things he needed to get done—
Honey Lemon came over, bringing her breakfast—yay, of course the little ball of sunshine would be just fine.
"So Gogo called this morning and asked for clarification," she reported. "Also Fred and Wasabi ended up taped to the café wall and spackled with glitter."
"So they failed their mission."
"They got ambushed by SFAI's mascot. Gogo captured an SFAI student though, she and Granville interrogated them, and Gogo said something about her bonding with Granville? I'm kind of afraid to ask what she means."
"Possibly torture techniques," Obake said, trying to find a nice position where he could breathe without hurting so badly.
"That's kind of what I'm afraid of."
"Ow, ow ow," Tadashi groaned, shambling in.
"So the good news is, you two could go trick-or-treating as zombies," Cass said, pouring Obake some coffee. "The bad news is, I keep remembering why I grounded you in the first place and hopefully this teaches you not to mess with criminals from now on."
"Or at least the electrically-inclined ones," Obake said.
"How about an emphasis on none at all?"
"I can't promise that." Mostly because for starters his own personal choices, secondly because apparently the Hamada brothers came installed with weirdness magnets.
Speaking of, here came Hiro now—with Obake's phone.
"So your phone woke me up," Hiro muttered blearily. "And the noise-cancelling headphones don't stay on all night."
"That's because you're an unquiet sleeper," Obake said, taking the phone and making a face at the readout—oh good grief did he really want to deal with Fred this morning.
"Hey, I am totally a quiet sleeper I don't snore," Hiro protested.
"Are you saying that other innocent people do?" Tadashi demanded, trying to sit down next to Honey Lemon. Emphasis on try. "Oh ow that hurts."
"Muscle stiffness will be common as your body heals, as will numbness, tingling, and spasms," Baymax announced. "Please continue to monitor your limbs, as they may swell, leading to compartment syndrome, which will have to be addressed by a doctor."
Okay so maybe listening to Fred was an improvement over listening to the robot—answer the phone. "What, Fred."
"YOOOO did you see the news last night?! This morning!?" Fred demanded, making Obake hold the phone away from his ear. "There was an ENTIRE hidden basement in Shimamoto's house it really IS like National Treasure my dude we're going to have to go check it out."
So while that was important and he'd love to, stiff body and overbearing café owner and robot were conspiring against him. "I've already seen it, Fred, I had the distinction of being there while it was being discovered, and for my trouble I've apparently been grounded."
"You were grounded for a lot more than just that," Cass said.
"My dude, harshness," Fred noised. "I mean I'd love to go but so soon after getting spackled might be pushing it it took FOREVER to get down from the wall Granville just let us hang there and think about what we did wrong. Ooh hey whoever put the statue in her parking space kudos man she's been spending the morning torn about having her space occupied and chuffed that it's the statue."
"Fred liked your work," Obake told Hiro.
"Success!" Hiro cheered.
"Anywho my dudes can you at least watch the news a little? They're having a whole segment on the room and what they're finding my dude you were right Shimamoto was a scientist we can TOTES rub this into SFAI's faces—"
Obake was already gesturing at the TV, telling Honey Lemon "News, news" (since she was the only one who could turn around and face it without pain)—grimaced when he saw the pictures on the TV, Bluff Dunder reporting.
"Continuing on our top story: Lenore Shimamoto was secretly a scientist," Dunder said. "After a scuffle between High Voltage and some unidentified students—"
"Yay, fifteen seconds of fame," Tadashi groaned.
"Police and SFAI officials are scouring the secret basement hidden under the living room of the Shimamoto house. There have been many interesting things discovered, which SFAI officials say will be put in a museum, including—" A picture of a familiar book popped up. "Shimamoto's own personal journal."
Painful thump at that, roaring in his ears drowning out the kids' excited chattering about going to see it—the journal was still in play, it wasn't too late—
He had to get to it before they did.
She wasted no time in rubbing last night in his face.
"I heard High Voltage was bested by a handful of kids," Momakase said, absolutely dripping with smugness as she swaggered in.
"Oh, you're talking to me again?" he asked, sorting through stills of the newscast. "I was rather enjoying the silence." Flick through another picture—graphene knife buried itself in the screen, narrowly missing his finger. Turn slightly to glare at her. "That was one of my good screens."
"Oh yes, you can tell by how that one is greener than that one," she said, arms crossed as she tossed her head. "What is this, some sort of villainous standard? Sycorax has the exact same screens in the exact same color. Is there some sort of villain surplus store or what?"
HenchCo, technically, but he wasn't about to tell her this. "Is there a reason you decided to drop in, or was it just to stoop to gloating."
"The gloating was a big part of it, yes," she said. "Also, seeing as how there's now no danger of me slicing some historical house to ribbons because obviously I have no finesse—"
"I never said that."
"You implied it."
Probably true. "Are you going to wait until tonight when everyone goes home, or are you going to wait for a child to steal it first?"
She glanced at a screen that had all his current information on the miscreant in question—which, regrettably, didn't add up to much. "You ever figure out what night led to him?"
"Cute," he said drily, feeling half his face burn. "But I know better."
She narrowed her eyes at him…probably felt it was better not to be needling at this point. Nod at the screen. "You'll have that journal tonight, barring any more unforeseen nonsense."
"Good," he said, tapping a box on the table next to him. "Can't say I'd be adverse to keeping this particular project."
She eyed the box before leaving—hmm, going to have to keep a closer eye on her. Momakase undeniably had use…but if she planned on turning around and stabbing him in the back, then he needed to be ready.
After all, he thought, looking at the screen that was starting to more closely resemble a conspiracy board, nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of his triumph.
Nothing.
Obake just barely managed to drag himself to the garage, liking that idea a lot better than dragging himself back up the stairs and to his laptop. Ouch, ow, still stiff, Ibuprofen wasn't working, and he was not upgrading to Excedrin that particular painkiller made him loopy and he needed his faculties for this. Drummed his fingers while he waited for the computer to boot up, stop when that pulled on sore muscles. Oh, typing was going to be fun….
"Hey, how grounded are we?" Tadashi called from the couch. "Because if I'm gonna be stuck on the couch then I want to at least expand Obake's movie knowledge."
"Leave me out of your life plans, Tadashi Hamada," Obake said, pitching his voice to be heard.
"You know you want to watch movies I have excellent taste when it comes to movies."
"Okay we're going to have to go over the basics of grounding again," Cass said, sounding like she was in the living room. Ignore her, start working to access his drones.
"Come on, Aunt Cass—isn't staying home from school enough of a punishment?" HA!
"Okay you weren't seriously planning on going to school like this were you you can't even manage anything above a shamble right now Baymax can outrun you."
"Okay to be fair I did kinda speed Baymax up a bit—come on, Aunt Cass!"
Long pause, tempting enough that he almost leaned over to look but for the fact that it'd pull on sore muscles—instead blink at the odd message on the screen: unable to connect. Scowl, try again—
"Now don't go trying the puppy-dog pout on me that is so not going to work I'm trying to make a point here. Now if you want me to get you your textbooks so you can work on your homework, that's a different story."
"Pretty much everything left due is stuff I gotta machine up, which would require moving from this spot and Baymax told me not to."
"Rest would be more beneficial," the robot said. Obake went through everything, made sure it was connected—why was the camera active? Turn it off, go back to trying to access his drones, failed again…start sorting through the coding, wondering just what had gone screwy.
"Yes but I'm really trying to discourage the sort of activities that result in you being in the back of a police car and being interrogated by the police chief," Cass said.
"Look, for the record the intent last night did not even remotely include tangoing with superpowered criminals, that only happened because we had to save Obake's bacon," Tadashi insisted. Oh no don't be pulling him into this—
"Where is Obake anyway?"
"Scanning," the robot said—something looked wrong with that particular bit of code, fix it and get ready to try again. "Obake: is not here."
"WHAT!?"
Oh no no no—hunch forward, trying to type faster—come on, come on—
Cass burst into the garage, scanning it frantically—spotted him. "Wait a minute—no it's okay he's right here—wait why are you here you're not supposed to be on the computer you are GROUNDED."
"Now's a bad time," he ground out—why wasn't this connecting don't tell him he had to go check the drones he didn't have time and he certainly couldn't shamble there right now—
"He's got that stupid watch on again!" Tadashi hollered. "It keeps Baymax from scanning him."
"Okay gimme," she said, coming over with a hand out. "And get off that before I throw the breaker."
"I could really use another five minutes," Obake said, trying to figure out why this wasn't working—
The camera was on again.
"I'm serious, now," she said—glance at the camera, at the screen—he had barely managed to brute-force his way in finally—
Lost it with a message reading connection terminated.
Blink, thrown, Cass already heading for the breaker box and going fine I'll do it like I said I would—related windows closed—
He saw a very familiar symbol on the desktop.
If he had been dropped in a vat of liquid nitrogen he couldn't have been colder—caused Cass to squawk in alarm when he dove for the electric strip, sore muscles forgotten—
"Throw the breaker!" he hollered, yanking the plug out—heard the devices surrounding him grind to a halt—
Heard the rest of the room quiet as it lost power.
"Hey, what's going on in there?" Tadashi called.
"Good question," Cass said, coming over and patting Obake's legs, still sticking out from under the desk. "Obake? What happened?"
Didn't answer for a long while, keeping his face buried in his arms until he was sure the one side stopped flashing…finally lifted his head slightly. "Nothing," he muttered. "Downloaded a virus."
Cass seemed consternated at that, like she suspected that it should be more with the way he was shaking…fair enough, because that had rattled him mightily. How had he gotten into his drone software? Did he know about this place? The camera—had he seen something incriminating—
And then Fred came barreling in with news that made everything a hundred times worse.
"Guys guys guys—"
"Fred, what happened to you?" Tadashi demanded, sounding like he had managed to shamble halfway to the garage.
"SFAI shenanigans, not important right now—listen, listen my dude High Voltage stole the journal!"
And that was when Obake's body became a hollowed-out shell of ice.
They picked out a different warehouse for the delivery, him leaning against a table with Momakase poised on top of a nearby crate. Just in case they tried to renegotiate.
"There's a good chance they'll be caught by the police on the way here," she pointed out.
"Then you get to tear up the precinct when you retrieve the journal," he retorted.
"Hmm, can't say that'd disappoint me," she mused, considering. He ignored her, focusing instead on the door as it started sliding open—arch an eyebrow when High Voltage appeared, pulling off invisitech similar to what Krei had on his Buddy Guards as they came in.
"You come bearing gifts, I presume."
Barb pulled the journal out, gesturing a little with it. "One musty old journal, as promised."
He tipped his head at that, considering it. "Show me."
Barb huffed, came over and handed it to him as Juniper danced around them eagerly—he was pleased to note Momakase giving the girl the stink-eye as well.
"There was this whole hidden room beneath the living room," Juniper reported as he thumbed through the journal. Yes, this seemed accurate, the glasses he was currently wearing was picking up on the hidden writing inside. "It was incredible—like out of some movie!"
"Yes, yes, very nice," he noised. Oh yes this was—this was the bridge he needed to get the machine working—
"Your kid was there too," Barb said.
Snap the journal shut at that declaration. That thing again….
"Oh good, I'm not the only one who thought that," Momakase said, smirking.
"You can be replaced," he hissed at her. "And that has no relation to me. Now, you can persist with this conversation, but in doing so you forfeit your prize."
That statement got High Voltage's attention. "So where is it?" Juniper asked, fists pumping.
"Regrettably, the orb Momakase liberated was a fake—wherever your original orb is located is unfortunately a mystery."
Barb started sparking, fueled by the inferior Krei batteries. "If that's the case, I'm needing that book back—no pay, no product!"
"I never said I wasn't going to pay you," he said, hooking a foot behind him and shoving a case forward, sliding to a halt in front of High Voltage. "One energy orb, as promised."
Both mother and daughter eyed him warily, probably feeling like this was a hoax—Juniper started to stoop down to open it, was stopped by Barb, who gave him one last suspicious glare before opening it herself.
The replacement energy orb immediately set the air buzzing, sparking and charging the area—snickered at Momakase's hair poofing out, even as he felt the side of his face tingle—
"It's just the one," he reminded them. "Sort out any disputes amongst yourselves."
"Oh we're past that, aren't we sweetie?" Barb asked, lofting the orb into the air, where it hung like a miniature sun.
"Oh yeah!" Juniper said, toying with some of the electricity before shooting it out in a ballooning shockwave. "High Voltage is back in business!"
Which was when something crashed to the floor between them.
Okay to be fair he wasn't the only one who leaped back, but at least he kept his surprised exclamation to himself, unlike present company. Blink at the drone laying inert on the floor, black crumbs scattered around it—
Look up, realizing that the hole in the ceiling wasn't exactly a hole in the ceiling, but rather a hole in the black mass that was layered thinly across the walls and ceiling, just out of notice—
And holding several very familiar drones in place, alongside several other things he was banking on being important.
"Hey wait a minute, I know this drone," Momakase said, crouching to poke at it—she had leaped forward at the initial crash. "This looks like one of yours."
"Indeed," he said, picking up some of the black crumbs—not crumbs, but what looked like tiny servos.
Tiny servos that twitched and danced under the energy being put out by the orb.
"What on earth is all this stuff?" Juniper asked, sticking close to her mother as she looked around, like she expected more to fall on her head soon. He considered this question, looked everything over—the black servos as one seething mass holding familiar drones in place, these crates possibly holding more juicy secrets…his secrets, the little fool.
"This," he said, feeling his face glowing as he grinned. "This will be entertaining at the very least."