Chapter 52, everybody, and happy August! Time for a dramatic reveal of the kaiju! This time with 100% less robot shenanigans.
The "I most certainly am not" came from a quote prompt on Tumblr, and…look in our family the 1998 Godzilla is the best one we do not care for the OG rubbery version (the one where he fights King Kong? Yeah we were rooting for Kong). Meantime Gogo's comment comes from the episode "The Impatient Patient" and Fred's quoting Miss Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. Town and school zone speeds are like 35 and 15 MPH in my experience but looking it up the school zone speed limit in California is 25 MPH. Guess California kids have faster reflexes.
So looking up the SF Bay area and there is an Albany, CA on the inner shore of the bay—also a Richmond, (Port) Chicago, Pittsburg, Concord, Dublin, Newark, and Sleepy Hollow, California in the area. Also Inverness, for anyone looking to make some Outlander crossovers.
In other news, the boys are nerds and singing Aladdin songs while they drive. And I don't remember if it was the case this time, but usually when Baymax is talking about sleep schedules I'm writing it at stupid-o-clock at night—it's like he's trying to speak to me. D:
Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Aunt Cass is very much being a mama bear right now.
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
Fred called them out to the pier the next night.
"My assorted dudes and dudettes, I have assembled you tonight for this, possibly the most epic moment of our lives to date."
"Is this you showing off the kaiju?" Obake asked, feeling threadbare. Yay, living with the Hamadas had made him soft and his body had decided it didn't like going back to subsisting on energy drinks and no sleep. "Because we're already aware of the kaiju."
"My dude a proper reveal is key."
"Yeah, Obake, you're better than this," Hiro teased.
"I most certainly am not," Obake said flatly.
"Well you probably aren't but, you know, pretend for like five minutes," Tadashi told him. "How are we doing this, Fred? Like the Matthew Broderick Godzilla?"
"Actually it's Gojira, and…yes," Fred said, hitting a button. "Baymax you're recording this right I want to remember this day always oh boy here it comes—"
Obake watched the swelling water approach, unimpressed, mentally going over everything he could be doing even as Wasabi and Honey Lemon started backing up, Hiro following a few beats later as something big slowly rose up out of the bay—yes he had helped to make this thing but that was only future-proofing against what was beginning to feel like an inevitability.
Stop this, he told himself. I can still stop it—there has to be something I haven't thought of yet.
"Behold!" Fred said, gesturing proudly at the Kentucky Kaiju. "Isn't he glorious?"
"Still need to know why you needed a life-sized kaiju," Gogo said.
"Coolness factor," Fred said promptly. "And, you know, technically this falls under want rather than need, but whatevs." Press another button on his remote, causing the kaiju to lower its head and its eyes to swing open. "So who wants a ride?"
"Me," Tadashi and Hiro said, hands up—Hiro was already crawling up into the thing.
"After working on this for so long, I totally deserve a ride in it," Hiro announced, poking his head back out. "Obake, come on."
"I don't know, I had other shenanigans planned for the night," he said, watching Tadashi and Fred shove Baymax up into it.
"You can shenanigan some other night," Tadashi said. "You can either ride with the cool kids or go home and get some sleep, those are your choices."
"What are you, my mother?"
"You do look like you need some sleep, Obake," Honey Lemon pointed out.
"You look like death go home," Gogo said flatly, climbing into the Kaiju.
"I'm fine," Obake insisted.
Tadashi's response to that was to grab him and toss him up onto Baymax.
"I'm going to murder your brother," Obake told Hiro, dusting himself off.
"No you're not," Hiro said. "You'd be the number-one suspect, you'd never get away with it."
This was true, unfortunately. Look at the docks with longing as the eyes swung shut, reasoning that he could have said he was heading back to the café and just did otherwise.
"All right—seat belts, everyone, we're going on a field trip!" Fred cheered, plopping down in the pilot's seat. "Okay also I'm going to need a co-pilot I spent all afternoon reading the instructions but I want a second opinion so I don't accidentally flame the city or something."
"Go back to this thing having a flamethrower," Gogo said.
"We couldn't actually have the nuclear breath for safety reasons," Tadashi said, claiming the co-pilot's chair. "Flamethrower was the next best thing."
"Nerd."
"Hey, it was necessary. At least it wasn't adding a turbo mode to Wasabi's car."
"Which I still don't understand," Wasabi said.
"It's for when Gogo drives," Obake said.
"Which gives me more concerns why is Gogo the backseat driver why are you the backseat driver?" he asked Gogo.
"Why do you always drive five miles under the speed limit?" Gogo countered, hanging on as the kaiju stood.
"Safety reasons," Wasabi said, grimacing. "Uh, hold on seat belts—"
"Wasabi, when I say you always drive five miles under the speed limit that also includes places like school zones where the average speed is like fifteen miles an hour. You crawl through town, Wasabi."
"Maybe I'm saving it for a special occasion?"
Gogo's disbelieving snort said everything about that conversation.
"YOOO this is so awesome!" Fred exclaimed, bouncing up and down as the kaiju worked its way along the bay. "Checkit checkit checkit hey think we could head downtown in this?"
"Power lines, Fred," Tadashi reminded him. "Also don't go too close to the shore right there, you'll step on the aquarium tunnels."
"Woops sorry my dudes!" Fred hollered. "Oh man but this is so great we can go on like vacations on this! We could walk all the way to Big Sur!"
Big Sur was definitely far enough away. "Let's do that," Obake said. "Bring Cass along for adult supervision."
"What, you don't think we can handle ourselves?" Tadashi demanded. "Besides, Big Sur is too far, we should try for someplace closer first. Like Albany."
"New York?"
"California," Tadashi said, pointing off. "General that-way direction, is mostly surrounded by bay and Berkley."
Definitely not far enough away. Slouch in his seat, aware of the fact that he was advocating running but good night he at least wanted some assurance that everything he cared about wouldn't be in danger in case he failed—
"Hey, are you okay?" Hiro asked him quietly.
"I'm fine," he hissed back.
"Really? Because you don't look like it."
Probably because he was sitting with his arms crossed and glaring at nothing, but he didn't really have the energy to do otherwise right now. "I have a lot on my plate right now."
"Like?" Hiro prompted, turning a little in his seat to better face him.
"Things." Couldn't explain this, there was no way to explain it, had tried and gotten it laughed off.
"This isn't related to Aunt Cass's weird stash in the garage, is it?" Hiro asked, looking concerned.
"I told her she was a terrible liar."
"Yeah, maybe don't give Aunt Cass pointers on that sort of thing," Hiro said, looking amused—sobered quickly. "Listen, whatever it is, we can handle it. But—" Gesture at their surroundings, at Fred and Tadashi singing "A whole new world" at the top of their lungs and slightly off-key. "We did a lot of hard work on this and you're not letting yourself enjoy any of it. Be here now. Please?"
He looked at Hiro, looking at him with such a mix of emotions—worry, concern, hopefulness—couldn't help but think of when he looked at him with disgust, terror, anger—
Couldn't help but think of how it was all about to come to a screaming end.
"I can't, Hiro," he said, hanging his head.
Hiro leaned against him. "Yes, you can. Whatever it is, we can fix it. Just—don't try to face it by yourself, okay? You have us, you know. You have me."
Yes, he did.
And very soon, he was going to lose it all.
The kaiju finally finished its tour around the warehouses nearest to the Lucky Cat, crouched down so they could all get out.
"So that was awesome!" Fred cheered. "Hey are we sure we can't like, use the kaiju as carpool? We'll call it Kaiju Karpool and it'll totally be us being environmentally responsible."
"Still got the power lines to deal with, Fred," Tadashi pointed out—hooked an arm over the seat back to look behind him. "So how did we do?"
Could see the answer for himself, Baymax was holding an obviously-asleep (or possibly-but-unlikely dead) Obake, glowing softly with heat and humming with a very soft lullaby.
"Obake: is asleep," Baymax confirmed.
"Success!" Fred cheered. "Oh wait quiet success," he amended when Baymax shushed him.
"Did we make this whole trip just to get him to fall asleep?" Gogo demanded.
"Hey don't knock it if it works."
"Poor Obake," Honey Lemon said, peering at the dozing teen. "Is he okay?"
Tadashi glanced at Hiro, grimaced at how worried he looked. "Well, you know, Obake is at that special stage where he doesn't realize that sleep is a normal thing that people need."
"Eight to ten hours is beneficial to most young adults," Baymax said.
"See?"
"Plus can totally get falling asleep in the Kentucky Kaiju, I know the big dude makes me feel majorly safe," Fred said. "Oh Tadashi dude here you can give the keys to the guy to Aunt Cass like—I don't know about leaving him in here but if you can get him like a full night's sleep I'd be okay with it."
"I mean so long as it locks," Tadashi said; waited until everyone else was out before going over and sitting next to Hiro. "Are you okay?"
"I…no," Hiro said, shaking his hanging head. Looked up at him. "I don't know what to do."
Sigh, hug him close. "Neither do I," he admitted. "But we can start with being there for him…I guess tricking him into taking care of himself, seeing as how he won't do it himself." Look up at Baymax. "You can take care of him tonight, right? Unless you think we can get him home without waking him."
"I will take care of the patient," Baymax assured them. "Although I am having difficulties scanning: Obake."
"Oi that watch again," he muttered, crossing over and carefully removing it.
"The: watch, may offer some comfort," Baymax offered.
"Okay fine you can keep a hold on it but you need to be able to monitor him okay? I want him to get a good night's sleep for once." Look over at Hiro, kneel in front of him, hands on his knees and trying to get him to look at him. "Hey—hey listen. We'll get through this, okay? We can fix this, it's just going to take some time."
Hiro didn't answer, only really offered a weak, watery smile…let Tadashi scoop him up and cart him home, could tell by the way he was clinging to him that he was staring after them, still trying to see Obake long after they had lost sight of the kaiju through the warehouses and were back home.
He found Hiro sitting on his bed and staring outside once he came upstairs from explaining things to Aunt Cass and giving her the Kaiju keys (she was torn between trusting him on the security system and running out there to keep him safe herself).
"Hey," Tadashi said gently, sitting next to him.
"I don't know what to do," Hiro said. "I know something is bothering him but I don't know what to do to fix it." Look at him. "And we have to fix it, you see what's happening to him, right?"
Tadashi nodded, hugged him close. "We'll fix it. I promise."
There had to be something they could do.
He was walking through SFIT, everything bright and sunny, feeling real good about himself—wave at Wendy, cackle at Trevor still taped to the ceiling, ducked into his lab—
This was wrong, his lab didn't look like this, this was messy and unkempt on one side and neat as a pin on the other—feet taking him to a drawer, him pulling it open, pulling a familiar device out—
"No!"
Turn, expecting to see an armored pair—instead saw a betrayed-looking Hiro.
"You can't do this!"
He didn't want to—not this time—look down at the device—it shouldn't even exist now why was it here—
Familiar thin hands plucked it out of his grasp—look up sharply, barely register the scene changing—
"Bob?" Granville asked, stunned.
No—no—tried to yell, to rail, watching himself as he had been sneering in her face, even though the version of her he was doing so to was that of his youth—try to stop him, was rooted to the ground, no words coming out—
"Why are you doing this?"
Hiro in front of him, demanding this, even as he watched himself outline his great grand scheme to Hiro, steering him around to the various screens as he described the grandiose plan to destroy San Fransokyo and rebuild it even better than before—
"You're just going to leave us to die?"
No—no—shake his head at the accusing glares from Cass, Tadashi, everyone—he was trying, okay, he was trying but nothing seemed to work—
Suddenly free, running to the computers, convinced there was something he could do, trying to throw everything together, rip it apart, trying to stop his machinations from coming to fruition—
Why?
Screaming in frustration—nothing was working why wasn't it working!?
You wanted this.
"I don't want it anymore!" It was what he wanted to scream, but it ripped soundlessly out of him—round on his own skeletal remains, raging—he didn't want this, this wasn't his goal anymore, there were other things to want, to need—people he cared for—
You care for no one. You never have. People are a means to an end. Nothing more.
Not this time—not this time—scramble for the next computer, maybe this one—
The screen died, turning into a black reflection—
Him, staring blankly at a reflection he no longer recognized, that of himself as an adult, as he was before—
Nothing has changed. Nothing will change.
You are incapable of change.
"Baymax, destroy."
Impact slamming him into the monitor, bouncing back to the floor as water gushed from the cracks—try to roll to his feet, gasping as water quickly flooded in, as debris started falling—reach out for the armored shape before him—
Stare at his own rotted hand.
"You're right where you belong," the little armored shape before him said. "In a ruin of your own making."
No—no no no he could stop this he could—he needed more time just give him more time—
"Time's up."
Death crashing in—
Jolt awake, gasping—
"Hello."
Startled bark, shove away—harder when he realized who had him. "Let GO of me!"
Baymax gently put him down, politely ignored the way he scurried away from him, trying to place where he was—the kaiju. The kaiju and it was daytime outside what was going on what—
"You fell asleep," Baymax explained. "It was thought that you would derive more comfort from sleeping here." Blink at him. "You are distressed."
"Leave me alone," Obake muttered, face buried in a hand as he lowered himself to the floor in one of the corners made by the dashboard. He couldn't afford to fall asleep he couldn't afford to waste time there was too much to do and far too little time to do it in he should have been working from the very beginning if he had only known—
If he had only known that there were people worth getting invested in.
Soft wiff-wiff noises made him look up, see Baymax leaning down to peer at him.
"My scanners indicate that you are: upset," Baymax observed. "Would you like to discuss it?"
"No," he muttered, blearily looking at his wrist—watch was gone. "Idiot boy. Where—" Blink when Baymax held the watch out. "Thank you," he said reflexively, taking it back.
"While it impacts my ability to help, you seem to derive comfort from the: watch," Baymax said. "Are you sure that I cannot be of assistance?"
Barked a mirthless laugh at that. "You? When you—" When you offered last and I sent you away—"You'd never be able to handle it. No one believes me, why should you? The robot." The robot he had so callously reprogrammed, simply thinking that it was the most expedient way to get Hiro where he wanted him—
Baymax blinked, looked around—
Sat down next to him, watching him. "Unburdening is part of the healing process."
Huff, cough a few more dry laughs out. "There's no healing from this. I'm getting what I deserve."
Blink. "Do you really think you deserve pain?"
It was a question that stabbed right through him. "Yes," he gasped, looking away. "People like me do."
Blink, tip of the head. "Before you put the: watch, on, my scanners picked up brain trauma—"
No—no no no he wasn't having this conversation again—push himself up, force himself to pace away—
"The injury is treatable," Baymax persisted—
"NO!" he yelled, rounding on the robot. "No, it is not—nothing about me can be fixed! Leave me alone!"
Blink. "I cannot deactivate unless you say that you are satisfied with your care."
Blink, blink—feeling everything crumbling as he processed this—no—no—
"I am satisfied with my care."
Collapsed against the opposite wall, curled up on himself and sobbing—couldn't bring himself to say it, he wasn't ready—not then, not now—especially not now, not with everything he had grown to care for being wiped out by his own callous self—
You did this.
Heard footsteps—no, no you stupid robot stay away—
"Obake."
Gentle voice, gentle touch made him start upright, staring blankly at Cass kneeling next to him.
"Baymax called when you woke up," she said. "Are you okay?"
His own wretched-looking self must have answered that, because she hugged him close soon after asking. "It's okay," she said. "It'll be okay."
"No it won't," he said brokenly. "None of this will be okay." Felt more fracturing inside. "It's all my fault."
"No it isn't," she said sternly. "It's not your fault."
There was no way to explain this to her, she'd never believe him—and if she did…if she did he could easily picture her absolute fury at him worming his way into her house. The instrument of her and her family's destruction, who had fully intended to let her die before—
"If it's any consolation, she won't suffer long."
He fully understood Hiro's disgust with him now—his previous comments on how family only held one back souring in his throat now. This woman knew nothing, didn't know the depths of his depravity—all she saw, all she thought, was that he was a child whose life had been shattered. And maybe she was right—in the end, his dismal view of the world had been childish. It took so much more effort to hope, to look at the brighter edges of the storm clouds, to grasp for the good and risk the crushing defeat if you missed.
Awareness that he had been crying again came when he finally calmed down enough to note his own ragged breathing, blinked blearily at her when she shook his shoulder a little bit.
"Do you want something to eat?" she asked. "I brought some food if you want to eat here, but I also brought the invisibility cloak if you wanted to go home." Look around. "I mean I don't know if Fred has a bathroom in here…."
Her home, she meant—not his, not really. Oh she probably wanted it to be, but it could never be. People like him didn't get such cozy endings. "It doesn't matter."
Concerned look at him, concerned look at Baymax—stand, tugging him along with her. "Then come home. No," she said when he opened his mouth. "You don't get to say it's not my home—it is, I pay the bills and I say so, end of story."
Cough at that, the closest he could manage to a laugh right now. "Decided this by yourself, did you?"
"Yes," she said, enlisting Baymax's help in getting out of the kaiju before dragging him over to the truck. "And sorry, but this decision doesn't get vetoed."
Huff, sag against the window as they drove off—he wanted what she was offering, a place to belong, something that chased off the cold that had taken residence in his chest…but it was too late, it was all coming to a head and with him powerless to stop it—
Blink, blink again, look at the radio now crackling with a news report.
"The statue dedicated to Boss Awesome has turned into a robot and is now broadcasting demands to the city," Bluff Dunder said. "Someone by the name of Baron Von Steamer requests the presence of Boss Awesome, or his steam-powered automaton will destroy the city."
"Oh thank you," Obake gusted, sagging back into his seat.
"What?" Cass asked, confused. "What's going on? What is it?"
"A reprieve, such as it were."