Chapter 55, everybody! I promise there's a happy ending, y'all just might hate me before we get to it. D:
Yes Obake is making the Ant and the Grasshopper analogy there. And personally, all our built-in webcams are taped over for the exact reason Obake presents. Hiro's referencing Toy Story and the boys are very much discussing Arcane and the reason I immediately latched onto Silco. Also in watching Arcane I kept telling the buddy who hooked me up that Jayce and Viktor had a bromance going on and every time the two shared a screen I'd be saying things like "Bro when was the last time we had a bro talk I need to unburden I killed someone." "Same bro." "BRO." XD
In other news…oh hey, the start of the bot-fighter episode! Sort of.
Juxshoa, thanks for the review! It probably will not but I doubt that's going to stop him.
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
Obake woke up early, disoriented…took a few minutes to realize that he had fallen asleep. For several hours, it felt like—looked like, it was dark outside of this half-a-tent. Roll to his back, stare blearily up at the canvas above his head, at the little stars glowing softly and illuminating the pictures and stickers there. He didn't have time to waste on sleep, everything was coming to a head and he needed to stop it before it was too late. Drag himself up, shuffling for the stairs, noting his lack of shoes but not wanting to stop his forward momentum to look for them. Just…garage, start working, there had to be something he could do to stop this, maybe…reverse-engineer the hack, would he think of that and lay a trap—
Cass was getting the café ready, looked startled at the sight of him. "Obake! Are you okay?"
No, not really. Get ready to make his excuses…found he couldn't, was too tired to do so and was sick of lying. "A little hungry," he admitted finally, ducking his head a little. The terror of the San Fransokyo underworld, ladies and gentlemen.
She smiled at that though, steered him to his usual seat and gave him coffee how he liked it and the souffle pancakes he had expressed interest in. Someone who took note of what he liked and made something that wasn't likely poisoned.
He'd miss this.
Smile weakly at her, watch her go back to work—bury his face in his hands, leaning forward, begging—just—let me fix this please show me a way to fix this I'm sorry I should have—I never should have thrown it all away—
Finally brought himself to eat, slowly, stomach rebelling at having food reintroduced to it after so long—this feeling and the gnawing previously had become foreign to him, living here.
"Feeling a little better?" she asked, coming over with a cup of coffee and something for herself to eat.
"I don't know," he said, staring at his breakfast.
She nodded. "It's not going to happen all at once. Give it time."
Watch her as she took her own moment of silence. Time, funny—the one thing he no longer had. He had wasted away his summer and was now looking at a harsh winter he was ill-prepared for.
"I…wouldn't mind working in the garage, if that's all right," he hedged when she looked back up—oh good grief since when did he ask permission? What had this family done to him he was used to taking what he wanted—
Except you've learned, haven't you, that you can't just take whatever and have it work out for you—
She nodded again. "Sure. After breakfast."
Meaning: eat something you twig. Continue to pick at his breakfast, trying to muster up some appetite…Cass took pity on him when she finished, told him he could bring it with him to the garage. Nod, head that way, settled himself in front of the computer and took a few steadying breaths before getting to work. The webcam was thwarted easily enough with a bit of masking tape, but as for the rest of it…okay, what sort of thing would he not expect?...
Spent the rest of the pre-dawn gloom picking away at the computer, testing and discarding ideas, scowl deepening as he worked—barely registered the person in the room until Hiro scooted over and leaned into his line of sight. "Hellooo."
"Morning," he said, recovering from his flinch.
"So we need to discuss Halloween costumes."
"Must we?"
"Yeah—we can do like, Arcane-themed. Tadashi can be Jayce, Wasabi can be Ekko…think Gogo will probably be Vi and Honey Lemon would be Catlyn…I'll be like, a gender-swapped Jinx and you can be Silco."
Oi vey. "And you think I'll go along with this because?"
"Hey you liked the guy when we were watching it."
Yes, earlier in the year when all his worries seemed so far away. Now, however, all that seemed very petty in comparison to his current woes.
"So how's things?" Tadashi asked, sticking his head into the garage.
"We still need to figure out who Baymax and Fred will be," Hiro said.
"Pretty sure Fred's going to be Viktor so we can have the bro moments," Tadashi said, coming out. "Baymax can be Vander. Did you fill Obake in?"
"Obake's resistant to dressing up and demanding candy from adults."
"And we're even giving you the perfect role," Tadashi said, coming up behind Obake and pinning him with his arms so he could slick Obake's hair back despite his protests. "See? Get you the outfit and makeup and you'd be the perfect Silco."
"Oh hey you've got these two red stripes under there," Hiro said, pointing. "Did you dye your hair why are you hiding it are you hiding it from Aunt Cass?"
"OUT," Obake barked, flailing to get Tadashi off of him. Tadashi obliged, Hiro did not. "That means you too."
"Nope, sorry, not listening," Hiro said, scootching closer to look at the screen—Obake turned it a little to keep it away from him. "So I was thinking we could totally make the Doc Ock rig from Spiderverse, or maybe Infermon from Digimon with the tentacle tech. Also I'm thinking Shadow's shoes and Robotnik's gloves from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, that'd be cool."
"Can't, busy."
"With what?"
With stopping myself from destroying the city—like he'd believe that. Ah. "Due to house policies on anything resembling bot-fighting, I can't tell you."
"What? Oh wait the drone-fighting thing," Hiro said, leaning over again—Obake pushed him away. "Hey—I want to see!"
"Plausible deniability—you can't admit to anything you have no knowledge of."
"Hey I can keep a secret," Hiro insisted—shoved at his shoulder when he gave Hiro a yeah right look. "I can!"
"Prove it."
"I—no I can't, because if I tell you something then it counts as me not being able to keep a secret."
"Good, you're learning," he said, going back to his coding.
"So is this the coding for your drone?" Hiro asked, leaning over again. "Because it looks more like you're trying to hack something."
"Please go bother your brother for a while."
There was that fissure again—glance at Hiro, noting his expression—no dangit he needed to do this but if he lost the reason for doing it—
"I'm not one hundred percent," he tried finally. "Not yet. It doesn't happen all at once." Thank you, Cass, for the out.
Except Hiro's expression said it wasn't fully an out, either.
"Yeah," Hiro muttered, getting up and leaving. "But it doesn't happen by yourself, either."
Huff, winded—that wasn't—it wasn't fair he was just trying to keep this family safe—
Bury his face in his hands, trying to compose himself…he could apologize to Hiro later. If he didn't do this then none of them would be alive to apologize to. Deep breath…time to get back to work.
Hiro slouched back into the café, hands stuffed in his pockets and trying to keep his grumbling muted.
"You'd think getting some sleep would have made him less grouchy," Tadashi said, flipping through channels on the TV.
"Hey park that on the news," Aunt Cass said as she breezed by. "Watch your cartoons in the living room."
"Can't, we're going to be brainstorming costume ideas," Tadashi said. "Trying to debate on whether I can talk Fred into playing someone else and have Baymax be Viktor—for reasons." Look at Hiro again, concern starting to etch its way across his face. "Hey are you okay?"
"I don't know," Hiro sighed. "It's just…I'm worried about Obake."
"Hey he finally got some sleep so…that's a start," Tadashi said, tossing the remote in its tray. "He'll get straightened out soon enough, Aunt Cass says."
Maybe…look at the screen, hoping for a distraction—
"Hey wait," Hiro said, blinking. "I recognize that guy! That's Stan!"
"Who?" Tadashi asked, looking at the screen as Hiro dove for the remote.
"Stan—I know him from bot-fighting," Hiro said, turning the volume up. "Why is he being arrested?"
"Because bot-fighting is illegal? Careful, little bro, they'll be after you next."
"Hush," Hiro said, waving a hand at him as he focused on the TV.
"This is just the latest in a string of arrests related to bot-fighting," Bluff Dunder reported. "This one in particular, however, was charged with the extra crime of using his robot to rob Joe's Diner. Police Chief Cruz has been focusing on cracking down on these criminals, assuring the public that they have nothing to fear."
The bell above the door rang—Hiro and Tadashi looked over to see the police chief in question.
"Okay," Tadashi noised, moving a little to block Hiro from view. "When I said that, I was kidding. What have you been doing?" he hissed at Hiro.
"I have literally been with you all morning," Hiro shot back. "And bot-fighting isn't illegal—betting on bot-fighting is illegal. There's a difference."
"So I've been told," Chief Cruz said, coming over. "Where's your aunt? I wanted to discuss something with her."
"I didn't do it."
"Way to sound super guilty, little bro," Tadashi said.
"Hey you were the last one arrested."
"Oh hey Diego, what's up?" Aunt Cass asked, breezing by.
"Well I came here to talk to you, but now I'm just concerned about your nephews," Cruz said, eyeing them.
"Totally not my fault," Hiro offered.
"Obake's right—you have no chill," Tadashi said.
"I have PLENTY of chill."
"Anyway, can we discuss this? Alone?" Cruz asked her.
"Uhhh sure you boys go watch cartoons," Aunt Cass said, heading for the pantry and waving for Cruz to follow her.
"So that's sus," Tadashi said. "Betcha ten bucks it's an arrest warrant for you or Obake."
"Again, you were the last one arrested," Hiro said. "And I know how to find out."
Hiro's idea was a tiny robot bug that he said he had worked on with the intent to surprise Obake with, alerting Tadashi to just how much the other teen's withdrawn sullenness was affecting Hiro.
"So you're using it to spy on people?" Tadashi demanded as Hiro sent it back downstairs.
"It can also double as a tracker," Hiro said, working the controls as they sat at the top of the stairs. "Okay, so, pantry…."
The pantry wasn't soundproof (as they had neglected to tell Obake) but Aunt Cass and Chief Cruz were talking in such low voices that the bug could barely pick up on their conversation—lean close as Hiro tried to up the volume enough to hear.
"—I don't care, I want that guy gone."
"Cass, I told you, someone else is working with him—we're lucky Steve isn't dead."
"You're right, I'm sorry—where did he see him?"
"Near the waterfront, which is all we got—they stole his camera and last night a virus wiped out our recordings. Hey no chill put the knife down—"
"Who are they talking about?" Hiro asked.
"Don't know," Tadashi said, listening as Chief Cruz calmed Aunt Cass down.
"Sorry I just—I finally got him to eat something and I don't need this to undo all that. Either call me when he's arrested or call me when he's dead, but don't bring this sort of news where they can overhear."
"The pantry isn't soundproof?" Chief Cruz asked, sounding like he was arching an eyebrow.
Eat something—"They're talking about Obake," Tadashi realized.
"Why?" Hiro asked.
"I don't know," Tadashi said again, listening—sounded like they were leaving the pantry. "And I don't think we'll find out."
Hiro was scowling at the controller. "'Want that guy gone'—who? She's not talking about Obake. Is she?"
Tadashi considered this. Well, taking into account what he suspected Obake had done before meeting them, arrested or dead sounded about right. Attacking someone, using a virus to wipe out the evidence…coupled with his sullen and withdrawn attitude as of late and his roaming (made easier by the invisibility cloak)…except why would Aunt Cass let him have that? It didn't sound quite like him.
And Hiro was worried enough without this on top of it.
"She probably put a hit out on Bolton Grammercy," Tadashi said, ruffling Hiro's hair. "You remember what he said about her cooking."
"Hmm," Hiro noised, still staring at the controller. Tadashi hugged him close, shook him a little.
"Hey—hey we'll get through this. I'm sure there's something that'll get him out of his funk, we just have to find it."
"Yeah. Sure."
Great, now he had two teens in a funk. How did Aunt Cass handle this?
And better yet, how did he fix this?