Chapter 53, everybody! Time to deal with Steamer (again).
So canonically Obake just absolutely detests Steamer (his exact quote is stupid name) and I don't see that changing with OG!Obake here. TT!Obake, meanwhile, appreciates the save.
Looking at the San Francisco airport, it's alongside the bay but it's also totally surrounded on every other side by city—Tadashi's reasoning was the same as mine when we were trying to find the San Diego Zoo and Mom asked "Who puts a zoo in the middle of a city!?" And for my generation back, grounding aircraft to protect against terroristic threatening makes sense after 9/11.
Moving on…me, trying to figure out how to work through this seeing as how there's no Big Hero Six to save the day, bad guys suggest one solution, good guys suggest another, it works. Obake is quoting the Green Goblin from the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man film (which Hiro calls him out on) and Hiro is quoting Linda from Becker (in that show she asked that after hearing Becker rant, on air, "Everything that comes out of my mouth is due to stupidity!" Meaning other people's, but still X'D). The Goblin quote still works, because in researching for a different fic, I found that San Fran has about eight million people—the same as NYC.
Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yeah I wish there was a bit more Baymax too, the boys need to be hugging a warm marshmallow more.
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
Oh good night save him from irritating senior-citizens with too much time on their hands.
Okay, let's go over this new wrinkle, shall we? He was pretty sure he had tracked down the one particular irritant to a specific neighborhood, was busy putting together a means to wrangle him (and using it as an excuse to finish this particular project) when this loser with the stupid name dropped this thing in the middle of the bay. Forget the fact that it was an eyesore and he was looking forward to vaporizing it alongside the rest of the city—now it was working on draining the bay so it could blast the city with steam and attract 'Boss Awesome' (as the idiot was announcing) to the scene for some 'epic showdown between good and evil.'
It was enough to give him a massive migraine even before you factored in what it was doing to his grand scheme. He was almost tempted to confront him and give him a what-for, maybe demand if he was in league with that brat, but decided against it. Other issues aside, he wasn't in the mood to hear senile ranting.
This, plain and simple, needed to go.
Momakase answered on the second ring. "I don't suppose I could convince you to get rid of this problem," he said after explaining the issue.
"I would, but I'm doing a job in Sacramento," she said. "I won't be there for another couple of hours."
And while he wouldn't complain about some idiot destroying the city and allowing him to come in and sweep up the remains, there was also the issue of that machine potentially tromping on his base. Did allow himself a moment after hanging up to debate on that course of action—allow this fool to destroy the city, present himself as the solution, achieve his goal and save the star machine for a rainy day. Couldn't deny it had potential….
Felt his eye twitch at the man's next inane comment. Yeah no we weren't doing that he didn't remotely have the patience for this. Let's see, what other options do we have for some idiot in an oversized tin can—ah.
Dial his next option, reflecting that if they failed he'd at least be rid of the whole song-and-dance routine. "Yes, remember how I said I'd be cashing in on that favor at some point? Today is payday."
So, good news, at the end of the day he'd be rid of at least one annoyance.
In the meantime…maybe find someplace else to be until the waters calmed.
The brothers and the nerd herd had been sent home early due to the issue of a giant robot threatening the city—Obake figured they didn't have a proper emergency plan, which surprised him because he was certain that incidents caused by giant robots had been one of the things brainstormed by sleep-deprived Robotics majors. Either none of them had made it to the dean or the dean had just rolled their eyes and told them to get more sleep.
Granted, the nerd herd was currently weathering this out in the Lucky Cat Café, which probably indicated how much of a threat they considered this.
"About us relocating to the other side of the country," he posed to Cass as she brought snacks over, making her glance down from the TV currently covering the event.
"Honestly I'm sorry I didn't take you up on the offer," she said, indicating the traffic report in a little window next to Bluff Dunder—apparently traffic heading south had slowed to a crawl, no one wanting to risk driving on the Torii Gate Bridge and by the robot.
"I did try to tell you."
"Since when did you predict a supervillain?" Gogo demanded.
Honestly if he had tried telling them this he would have been laughed straight out of the city. "Would you have believed me?" he opted to ask instead—Gogo considered this before shrugging, acquiescing that point.
"Yeah by the way a supervillain is attacking San Fransokyo," Hiro said to him. "Why are you so calm?"
Shrug, sip at his coffee—the honest reason was the fact that he did not have a clean way to get rid of this problem, this undid all his catching up and with any luck his old lair would be turned into a pancake by a villain with an idiotic name. Granted that was assuming he had any luck, and he knew better than that, but at the very least it gave him some time to formulate a new plan of attack.
"How about after breakfast we toy with some new drone ideas?" he asked Hiro, who just looked confused at the change of topic. "Well us getting out of the city has to wait, unless Fred is willing to give us a lift."
"You mean using the kaiju?" Fred asked.
"Actually I meant your family helicopter."
"I mean that'd be an option if they didn't ground all air traffic," Fred said, musing. "Apparently there's a real worry Steamer will blast something out of the sky, and no one wants a 747 doing a bellyflop into the city."
"How did we end up with an airport in the middle of the city?" Wasabi wondered.
"Probably the same way San Diego got a zoo in the middle of the city," Tadashi said. "It starts off on the edge probably and then the city forms around it."
"The airport is south of here, and if a plane did do a bellyflop it'd be in the water," Gogo pointed out. "They probably just grounded all aircraft because technically this is terroristic threatening."
"Oh gosh this is serious," Honey Lemon said, hands hovering near her mouth.
"Super serious, mondo bogus," Fred agreed, nodding. "Hey what if we used the Kentucky Kaiju to stop him?"
Obake balked at this suggestion. "You're certainly not suggesting that we use the kaiju to fight a supervillain." Not that that wasn't his original intention but good grief at least he was saving that for an actual threat.
"YES—think about it," Fred said, fists pumping. "It's the same size, it's built durable, it has a flamethrower—it could totally stop that guy in hand-to-hand mortal combat!"
Obake started running through likely scenarios in his head, trying to find an excuse against it. It would tear? No they had made it durable. It wasn't waterproof? He had planned ahead against that cannonball it would do. It couldn't handle that kind of tactile strength? Well…actually yes it could. This wasn't a good idea, Fred? Since when had that ever stopped him?
Okay skip reasons not to and sort through who shouldn't go. Hiro and Tadashi, obviously, Obake because he didn't want it to go foul and him be out of commission for when the big showdown eventually occurred. No, he needed something that worked.
"We didn't test it for kaiju battles, Fred," he settled on finally.
"This is true," Tadashi agreed. "You could hurt yourself."
"Are you guys proposing we let this guy trash the city?" Fred asked.
"I mean he already has once—isn't this the guy that crashed your bro-tillion?"
"Yes and it was epic."
"Yeah I'd like to avoid a repeat of that," Wasabi decided.
"Fred," Obake said sternly. "For once in your life, listen to other people: don't go fighting Steamer."
Fred didn't listen.
Obake had talked Hiro into the garage, couching everything in the veil of we want some extra protection in case Steamer gets this far, correct? Not that he thought Steamer would have his robot leave the bay, he needed it to produce the steam he was threatening the city with. Hiro, of course, had asked about the drones they had already made, causing him to hem and haw until he hit upon the excuse that Cass wouldn't want them to leave the café right now.
"Besides, you're telling me you have no new ideas?" he countered.
"I'm a little preoccupied with the supervillain attacking the city," Hiro countered.
"Don't worry about it."
"Don't worry about it—he's a supervillain. You don't really think the police can handle it, do you?"
He already knew better. "Then what do you propose we do? I'm curious." Because what if this was—the original timeline or whatever trying to barge in, what if Hiro always had this hero complex and this need to help others—
Hiro didn't answer, flicked a few nuts and bolts around as he scowled at nothing—"I don't know," he gusted finally. "This feels way too big to handle…but we have to do something!"
"Why do we have to do something?" he demanded.
Hiro glared at him. "Because we're the smart ones, remember? What was that you told me a while back? There's eight million people in this city, and they exist to lift the few exceptional ones to their shoulders. If we're so exceptional, then why are we doing what everyone else is doing instead of, I don't know, helping?"
He blinked at having that thrown back in his face. "I—I'm surprised you remember that."
"Well yeah, you were ripping off the Green Goblin from the first Spider-Man film."
"Good to know I was derivative," he muttered. "Fine—we make a drone to harry this fool."
"No," Hiro said, pulling up a video of Steamer's robot. "We stop that right there," he said, pointing at a tube behind the statue. "That's gotta be how he's sucking up all the water for his steam."
"He could have backup systems in case that fails, and if he loses that he might move the machine into the city," Obake pointed out. "Oh wait I know what's bothering you all those perfectly nice sharks getting sucked up."
"YEAH that's also a big deal—you know, in addition to all the PEOPLE whose LIVES are being threatened."
Fair enough. "We'll think of something—a flock of drones to get his attention away from the city, maybe." And get him stomping around in the bay and hopefully get rid of the other major problem plaguing the city—
Tadashi stuck his head in. "We have a problem."
"We're aware, we're working on it," Obake groused, pulling wiring out as Hiro sketched up a new drone idea.
"What?" Tadashi asked, blinking at their actions. "No we've got a different problem."
Oh good grief. "What now?"
That was answered when they went back in the café to see the TV. Obake grimaced at the sight of the Kentucky Kaiju squaring off against the Baron's robot.
"Oh no you don't!" Fred's voice echoed. "If you want to get to the city then you're going to have to get through ME!"
"I'm gonna kill him," Obake decided.
"Pretty sure you're going to have to take a number," Tadashi said, dialing frantically.
"I can't look," Honey Lemon said, hands under her glasses and covering her eyes. "I can't look tell me when it's over—"
"Your foul reign of tyranny ends here!" Fred announced, posing the kaiju.
"Oh-HO!" Steamer said, angling the robot to better face the kaiju. "Not Boss Awesome himself, but his precious baby-child!"
"Excuse YOU!" Fred barked, having the kaiju point at the robot. "I had my bro-tillion! I am not a baby-child—I am a MAN-child!"
"Did he mean to say that?" Hiro asked Obake.
"Pick up pick up pick up," Tadashi muttered into his phone. "FRED—Fred I know giant robot fight is on your bucket list but this is a bad idea—" Yanked the phone away from his ear when the robot shot a fist at the kaiju, sending it rocking.
"My dude I'm gonna have to call you back," Fred said over the phone.
"Fred no—FRED," Tadashi barked at the phone. "Fred I am gonna LET Gogo kill you this time!"
"You're going to let me?" Gogo asked.
"'This time'?" Wasabi echoed.
"Please focus on the fact that one of our friends is FIGHTING A MAN IN A GIANT ROBOT, please this is a problem," Tadashi said, pointing at the TV.
Obake was very inclined to agree, right now the two were equally matched, the kaiju's flamethrower keeping the robot's steam blasts at bay ("Okay so maybe the flamethrower was necessary," Gogo muttered)—but at this point Fred had absolutely zero experience in taking down supervillains Steamer would kill him and destroy the kaiju on top of it this was a problem—
A bolt of lightning struck the robot from behind, making it spin around to focus on the bridge—the camera from the news helicopter zoomed in, focusing on—
"In a stunning turn of events, High Voltage has entered the fray!" Bluff Dunder announced.
Do. What.
Okay Barb was real nervous about this it wasn't every day you faced down a giant robot with no real hope of success but if that second giant robot was any indication they might have a shot and if this got them out of hock with that guy then she was more than willing to give it the old college try.
Hence why she and Juniper were on the bridge, her talking Juniper through this and emphasizing that she run if this went south.
"What about you?" Juniper asked, looking concerned.
"I'll be fine—I won't be if something happens to you," she said honestly. "Now swallow that stage fright, we've got a show to do!"
Their electric shots made the Steamer robot move jankily and caused it to round on them—the kaiju robot grabbed its arm.
"Oh no you don't—remember me?" the guy operating it asked—started punching the other robot's head and chest. The Steamer robot broke free, fired steam at the bridge—
Barb had already run one way, Juniper the other, aiming their shots at where the steam was shooting out, because steam meant water and water meant conductivity—
The kaiju robot dipped beneath a swipe at its head and swung low, taking the other robot's legs out and causing it to splash down in the water—brought both hands up, swung down hard, sending a spume of water up. Go to the railing, peer over cautiously—
Part of the robot broke apart, the Steamer guy trying to make a break for it—she tried shooting a bolt after him, the kaiju robot stomped after it…gone.
"Mama!" Juniper called, running up to her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine—are you okay?" Barb asked, looking her over to make sure she was all there and in one piece—both of them flinching away from the kaiju dancing in the bay.
"YES! supervillain driven off AND redemption story!" it cheered, posing with a foot on the defeated robot.
"What is that guy talking about?" Juniper asked dubiously.
Barb felt like she had some idea as the crowd started forming around them and cheering, a reporter running up to them and asking what led them to saving the city—
And if she had to be honest, this seemed like a better route for her and Juniper. At the very least, it got them away from him and his weird machinations.
"Juney, I'm sensing a change in careers," Barb said, posing for the cameras. Juniper grinned, started posing with her as the kaiju continued to cheer in the background and the crowd cheered to their front.
High Voltage, protectors of San Fransokyo, definitely had a nice ring to it.