Chapter 49, everybody! So about Hiro's midterms….

Anywho Hiro is channeling Jonathan Carnahan from The Mummy Returns and Aunt Cass continues to be best aunt. Fred was telling Obake about Quantum Leap, by the way—the original, not the remake with the quality of baby's first college project. Obake's quoting The Animaniacs—the original, not the mean-spirited remake what is with the remakes all being shallow imitations of the originals I miss passion projects. T^T Hiro's quoting the first How to Train Your Dragon movie and SPEAKING of soulless remakes…we do not need a live-action HTTYD this will only end in tears.

In other news, Obake's advice is solid advice, during my dissertation presentation I had skipped an entire slide and realized it halfway through the next slide—"Oh sorry I accidentally skipped a slide" and then went back and discussed that one. Seeing as I'm now a doctor, if I got points off for that it wasn't many. Also getting the doctorate has basically erased most if not all fear of contacting or talking to people if you can survive that you can survive a phone call. And yeah Remoraid is trademarked since it's a Pokémon. If you've been following me on Tumblr you've seen a chunk of this before (might as well have that as a rolling thing because a lot of this was done up last October). And Hiro's reaction mirrors mine when I got my doctorate my exact words, after the incomprehensible happy screech, was Dobby has gotten a diploma Dobby is FREE!

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yes he is—and maybe! This could be a problem.

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

A new morning didn't really bring with it a fresher perspective—just a building sense of doom.

"Nope," Hiro said, dragging him out the door. "Nope, no doom, we have totally worked out all the kinks this is a good project and if anyone is going to be super-nervous to the point of being sick it's going to be me."

"Wow, way to say you're panicking without actually saying it," Tadashi teased.

"Hold it," Cass said, stopping them and dragging them back in. "Breakfast, here's your lunches, and…you. This is for you."

Obake blinked at the familiar bundle she pushed in his arms. "Wha—where did you get this?"

"Let's just say Krei owed me for a sour date and his secretary was willing to pay out for him," she said, winking. Hugged him close. "Be careful, okay?"

Be careful—as far as he knew she thought he had been evading an abusive household. Could that be true in a sense, that he himself had been self-abusive, telling himself that if he couldn't make a permanent mark in history he had no worth? Was it instead enough that he make a small mark, and in doing so create ripples that would have worth beyond his ever knowing? Was it like that one time-travel leaping story that Fred tried to explain to him, where it was enough to just improve the quality of life of one person?

He didn't know, and if he didn't act he would never know.

"Thank you," he muttered. "And…I'll try."

"I'll take it," she said, kissed him on the forehead, let go to attend to the Hamada brothers—tackled him again, to his surprise, going "Last hug." All things he didn't deserve.

He had to ensure that they would survive. He had to.

"Okay stay by me, okay?" Hiro asked. "Like all day—Tadashi's not being the right amount of supportive."

"That's because I'm not supporting his doom and gloom rhetoric," Tadashi said. "This isn't like your earthquake-proof building project, you worked on this until you got all the kinks out, you are fine."

"See? No sense of danger."

Obake couldn't help the glance at the bay at that comment. If he didn't stop it….

"Don't worry," he told Hiro. "You won't live to regret it."

"Ah," Tadashi noised. "So this is where it comes from."

He had no idea and hopefully never would, but by this logic…he needed a new plan, and fast.

Okay so yes FINE Tadashi had a point he had busted his butt on this project he had worked on it and worked on it and hopefully ironed out all the kinks they even had the Fredilus in a tank (complete with tentacles!) to stick the remora onto they should be fine but that didn't stop the fact that approaching zero hour was nerve-wracking.

"What if I forget something?" Hiro hissed, hugging his project and doing his best to keep from wringing it like a rag. "What if I mess up or—or I missed something—"

"What if you didn't check your pants before your presentation?" Tadashi offered, working on Baymax.

"Ha-ha," Hiro bit at him—thought about it a moment and checked just to be sure, didn't want to have a repeat of his microbot presentation.

"If you mess up, apologize, take a deep breath, and keep going," Obake told him. "If you forget something, just mention it later. If you're that panicky, then we should go over the notes again."

"I thought you guys lost the invisibility cloak," Gogo said.

"We did, Aunt Cass decided to resupply us," Hiro said. "Which was…weird. And weirdly solid…maybe that's the answer scoot over and let me hide under there with you."

"Failure to show up will result in an F," Obake pointed out.

Hiro grimaced at that.

"My dude, calm thoughts, happy thoughts," Fred suggested, playing with the controls to the Fredilus and watching it move in the tank. "Like how this dude is working I knew you dudes would get the tentacles working eventually! Hey is there something handy we could use as a boat I gotta practice with the tentacles so we get the scene working right."

"Uhhh my hat but I'm kind of attached to it," Tadashi offered. "Plus I'm not sure if you wouldn't laser it."

"I mean I do gotta test the lasers but not on the hat my dude."

"Here," Honey Lemon said, holding up a little pink crystalized boat. "Quick chemical construct!"

"NICE—put it in, put it in," Fred said, waving her on. "Okay so…movement is like this and then the tentacles are…uh hold on which one of these is the ballast again?"

Hiro was more than happy at the distraction. "This one right here," he said, hopping up and running over. "Right here—that one's the laser, pretty sure we kept it low-key but maybe don't point it at anyone."

"Got it," Fred said, giving him a thumbs-up. "Also glad you put the little shields on it was just a touch worried about hitting it by accident."

"The shields were my idea," Tadashi said. "Safety plus a little extra of that dork nerd flavor, as some people call it."

"Would I agree with these people?" Gogo asked mildly.

"You would," Obake offered. A beep. "Granville's coming."

"Ohcrudohcrud I'm not ready—" Hiro started—ran smack into an inflated Baymax.

"You are distressed," he announced. Hugged and patted him. "There, there."

"Tadashi."

"Hug the robot, hugging the robot helps," Tadashi counselled.

"Am I late am I late sorry Yoga ran long—need anything before the presentation starts?" Wasabi asked, hustling in and digging in his pack. "I've got breath mints, tissues, clean underwear—"

"So I'm curious, do you have underwear in multiple sizes in case someone has an emergency, or is that just something you have in there?" Tadashi asked.

"Look, unlike what some people say, personal hygiene is important," Wasabi insisted.

"Would I agree with these people?" Fred asked.

"Fred you are those people."

"Well, it's good to see that you all are so certain of your projects that you're taking breaks," Granville said as she came in, causing everyone to scurry to positions. Paused when she was next to the tank, taking it in. "I don't recall you submitting this design, Mr. Hamada."

"Actually, my fault," Fred said, waving. "I commissioned it—totes got a whole movie planned, you should come see it once we're done filming."

"Indeed," Granville said, arching an eyebrow. Turned to Hiro. "Mr. Hamada, it is the top of the hour—let's see your presentation."

"Uh-uh right," Hiro said, shooting a glance at Tadashi—he made that breathe gesture, same as during his microbot presentation. Right. Breathing was probably important. "Right. So…this is my…remora robot…we're still working on a name Remoraid is trademarked," he muttered. Cleared his throat. "It's purpose is to track sharks."

"And the reason current means for tracking sharks is inferior to this is?" Granville prompted.

"Uh—well yeah there's tracking devices, but those have to be implanted in the shark and sometimes they have to catch the shark and pull it out of the water. But a remora—well sharks like those and they'd happily let one come up and stick to it, so it wouldn't distress the shark. And—see here, the sucker, it has biometric scanners so it can scan the shark—"

The longer he went on the less nervous he got—everyone was right, he had this, he knew this, he had worked hard on this, and because of all that he was able to explain his project from tip to tail, from the eye cameras that would let people actually see the shark's progress to the GPS tracker that mapped its routes to the little taser that would protect the shark from any would-be poachers. After that it was handing off the remora to Fred for the practical demonstration.

"Good luck, little buddy," Fred said, putting the remora in the tank.

"So there's going to be two ways to get the remora on the shark," Hiro explained. "Steering it there personally or through biometric scanners for the specific species of shark we want to monitor. Since we're using the uh, the Fredilus as the test model, we're going to use the first one."

"Have you tested the second one, or is it in the theoretical stage?" Granville asked.

"Uh…kinda tested it on Fred."

"I wore a foam shark fin for authenticity," Fred offered.

Hiro glanced at Tadashi, who looked like he was trying to keep his snickering to a minimum as he focused on steering the Fredilus around. The remora approached, angled alongside the rotating squid, stuck itself on.

"Okay so technically the squid is a robot so it's picking up the electrical currents in the wiring, but we also have an organic example," Hiro said, pointing at the second set of readings.

"Ta-da!" Fred said, pulling his shirt off to reveal a second remora. "Oh wait hold on lemme get my shark fin on—"

Hiro coughed a few times to buy himself a moment of recovery, noticed Wasabi with his face buried in his hands. "So…yeah as you can see it's monitoring his heart rate and a few different biometrics—the program is modified after Baymax's scanning protocols but with more of an emphasis on constantly monitoring and sending the information back to the computer for recording, so more long-term studies can be conducted. So not only can people see how a shark normally lives, they'll also receive information if the shark's in trouble."

"Right—sorry in advance Fred, promise it's fake," Tadashi said, before throwing something up at him.

"What is—AUGH THAT'S A SPIDER!" Fred wailed, flailing a little—started to tip into the tank before the remora launched the taser wires.

"Uhh…right. So for safety purposes we turned the electricity off but under normal circumstances that would have been a taser that activates if the shark is detected to be out of the water and distressed, to deter shark poachers. Also when the shark registers distress the remora logs it and sends a distress signal with the location to the main computer, so people can go, you know, help it."

"And what if researchers were to pull the shark out of the water?" Granville asked.

"Most researchers would try not to distress the shark, but there's also a little remote that they can carry that will deactivate the taser while they're checking the shark," Hiro said, holding out his left wrist and showing the little band with the shark decal—an idea he had from Obake's spy watch. "Since everything is going to be monitored, then them finding it would also be monitored so theoretically it would be people already aware of the remora. Plus the taser is programmed to be nonlethal, just enough to knock whoever's after the shark on their tail. It cuts off once it's discharged, as you can see—" Here he pointed at Fred climbing out of the tank. "So it doesn't tangle up the shark once it gets away."

Granville had more questions after that, which Hiro did his best to answer—had to concede that one or two things he hadn't thought about, which made him inwardly panic, but Granville was smiling when she accepted the paperwork and then the box with the remoras and all the pertinent attachments.

"You've obviously put a lot of work into this, Mr. Hamada, you should be proud of yourself," she said, putting the paperwork in the box alongside the thumb drive with all the coding. "With a few improvements and tweaks, it could be ready to help researchers very soon."

"So…what kind of grade does that translate to?" Hiro asked hesitantly.

"We'll see," she said, eyebrow raised. Started to walk out. "But I'd anticipate a passing grade, Mr. Hamada."

Hiro gusted a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, suddenly feeling dizzy—Tadashi tackled him, spinning him around and cheering with all the others—yes YES he did it he did it!

Finally flopped down on the couch against Obake, who had tugged the invisibility cloak halfway off after Granville had left.

"So I totally knew I'd do fine," Hiro said.

"Sure you did," Obake said, looking at him with that peculiar expression he had been having lately—like he thought he'd never see him again.

"Hey, you have to have realistic expectations," Hiro countered. "Otherwise, you know, you don't panic the right amount and leave something out."

Obake made a pensive noise at that.

"Hey, what's been eating you lately?" Hiro asked. "You've been acting really weird. Well, weirder."

Obake glanced at him, away again. "Nothing you need to worry about." Look at him, smiling. "Besides, today is about your success, is it not?"

"It is and you should totally work on your enthusiasm."

"I'll put it on my to-do list. The bracelet was based off my watch, wasn't it?"

"It works," Hiro insisted—got tackled by Fred insisting that they celebrate with PIZZA! "Come on, pizza."

"Eh."

"Don't eh it's pizza."

"Celebratory pizza!" Fred exclaimed. "Celebrating Hiro's success, the Fredilus being finished, and the Kentucky Kaiju being done super-soon! My dudes how much is left?"

"Fiddly detail work, Hiro and Obake can work on it now that Hiro's presentation is out of the way," Tadashi said, waving at them. "I, meanwhile, have to wait until tomorrow because she's doing it alphabetically."

"You'll be fine," Honey Lemon said, patting his shoulder.

"And even better, I know this without the bellyaching."

"Hey," Hiro said. "I know when I'm being mocked."

"Good," Tadashi said, ruffling his hair. "Congrats, little bro—now all you have to worry about are your other classes."

Way to ruin a good mood, Tadashi.