#34 A Nice Visit

"Hmm-hmmm, hmm hmm hmm," Globby nonchalantly hummed to himself as he walked along the sidewalk. He currently was disguised as a man in his mid-20s wearing a pair of jeans, a black and white-striped shirt and had short, dirty-blonde hair. It had been almost three weeks since he along with his Big Hero 6 friends were labeled fugitives and frankly, he wanted to see them again since he had only visited them once in that time.

The shapeshifter had been journeying for a while now, traversing along a graffitied brick wall to the other heroes' secret headquarters, where it would be considered safe for them to meet up. It's still crazy that the guys have their own hideout; I can only guess how excited Fred was that his presentation wasn't for nothing, although I still don't know why he showed it to me when I don't think my vote would have counted, Globby wondered.

After another minute of walking along the desolate pavement, the mutant in disguise could spy the giant iron gates leading to the not so abandoned candy factory. "Sweet," he exclaimed out loud before he gazed around the area to see if anyone was around; when he found himself alone, he went ahead and pushed the gate open, followed by stepping through and shutting it with a loud creak. Wincing from the sound it made, Globby then turned to hurry along the courtyard towards the decrepit building. He still remained in disguise in case he was wrong about any onlookers, but eventually he made it to the large doors and pushed them open enough to discretely slip in.

"Hello?" the gelatinous man called out once he shut the giant wooden panel. There was at first no answer as he stepped further in and saw the broken vats and conveyor belts. Huh? Would have thought they'd be furth-

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" came the blaring voice of Base-Max as loud alarms began to ring.

"Ow! Wait. What?" the reformed criminal shouted as he reflexively covered his ears to block the warning sounds from up above.

About five seconds later, a panel on one of the vats opened up to reveal Hiro, Honey Lemon, Fred, and lastly Baymax rushing out to see what was wrong. Once Globby saw them, he raised a hand and shouted, "Hey guys," causing three of them to reflect confused expressions. Huh? Oh yeah, the disguised hero remembered as he finally shed his current form to change into his normal pink and purple one.

His friends' faces then changed to realization as Hiro proceeded to rush past the others as he typed something into a panel he failed to notice upon entering. A moment later, the teen prodigy pressed a few buttons, the alarm stopped and everyone but Baymax was left with a lingering ringing sensation.

"Sorry about that Globby. The security system's currently set to facial recognition for determining friend or foe, but I'll talk with Roddy about letting me switch it to biometric so this doesn't happen again," Hiro apologized as he scratched the back of his neck.

The gelatinous man made a dismissive gesture and told him, "It's all good. Better safe than sorry when trying to keep a place secure." He then put his hands on his hips and remarked, "That's cool though you've got a new security system. Hopefully you haven't had much trouble from outsiders."

Hiro shrugged and replied, "Yeah, it's been fairly quiet, which is a good thing after all."

"Agreed," Globby simply said as he then felt a tight embrace from Honey Lemon. Right on time, he happily thought as he returned the hug. "Glad to see you too." They held this position for a few seconds and pulled away just as Baymax and Fred made it to where they were standing. "Hi Fred. Hi Baymax."

"Hello."

"What's up Globby?"

The shapeshifter gave a casual shrug and answered, "Eh, keeping hidden, helping wherever I can, trying new disguises out, not much different from the last time. Say, is there a place to sit down or do I need to make some chairs because I want to ask you guys the same thing."

All the human members of the superhero team exchanged knowing looks, followed by more mischievous grins as Fred slyly said, "Well, we may have something like that. Come with us."

Globby's hand was then taken by Honey Lemon as she led him with the others in tow over to the rusty vat they came out of. The chemist proceeded to press her hand on a light blue scanner, causing the metal section to open up and reveal a bright, futuristic interior.

"Wow," the pink and purple man simply remarked, only to be met with another round of smirks at the show not being over yet. The five heroes all squished themselves inside the entrance, where they were met with a second set of sliding doors as the first ones closed behind them.

When the large aqua panel in front of them parted with a whoosh, Globby's mouth stood agape at the grandness of everything as they stepped into the conference room. He gazed around the area as they journeyed in, seeing their classic suits suspended in tubes off to his left, a larger fancy table surrounded by floating chairs in front of him and a giant computer hanging on the wall to his right. They slowly walked along the tiled floor so the shapeshifter in the group could spin around and take it all in.

"Seriously guys, this is amazing! And you've gotten all this done since the last time I was here," Globby gushed as he admired everything, even touching one of the chairs and making it rotate.

Hiro, Fred and Honey Lemon all nodded, followed by Fred excitedly telling him, "Yeah, I got us a professional lair builder to deck this place out. He's a little abrasive, but darn it I'm so happy with how it turned out!"

The teenager and chemist exchanged a knowing look before Honey Lemon gestured towards the floating chairs and said, "You can take a seat Globby. It's alright."

"Oh yeah," the gelatinous mutant simply stated with a short nervous laugh as he sat down along with the three of the other heroes while Baymax still stood next to Hiro.

Once seated, Globby then turned his chair to the right to face his yellow-clad friend and politely asked, "Okay, what's going on with you Honey Lemon?"

The bright young woman leaned forward and with a smile answered, "Well, we were given our final project guidelines for school, so I started working on making a universal pollutant test kit and neutralizer that hopefully can be used in dirty, contaminated water."

Globby stared in amazement at the other as he told her, "Wow, if I had even half your brains, I doubt I would have ever thought of become a thief."

Honey Lemon smiled warmly at the compliment before kindly telling him, "Oh, you give yourself too little credit Globby. I think you're very creative and a fast-thinker."

The shapeshifter blushed a little at the remark, but still made another dismissive gesture with his hand as he offered a rebuttal of, "Yeah, but still nowhere near any of your guys' level. How about you Hiro? I take it you're working on something too. You always seem to be busy."

The teen prodigy looked to Fred and Honey Lemon briefly before he said with a touch of eagerness, "Actually, I've been helping Roddy, the guy who's been making our headquarters, with something special, so I don't want to spoil the surprise on that."

"Ooo! Mysterious and exciting," the reformed criminal commented as he leaned forward now and wiggled his gelatinous brow in intrigue.

Hiro gave a small laugh as he scratched the back of his head and added, "But in regards to school, I've been working on my final project too with wearable robotic devices to help you do things while healing faster. I kind of got the idea from when my aunt twisted her ankle."

Hearing about his aunt, Globby appeared a little more nervous and apprehensively asked, "How's uh, how's you aunt doing by the way?"

"She's doing fine, although I think it's still weird whenever Chief Cruz comes into the café and flirts with her," Hiro replied and looking a little uncomfortable with it.

Globby could only blink as he stared blankly for a couple seconds before flatly telling him, "Yeah, I don't envy you." His smile returned though and said, "Still glad to know everything else is going well, and I'm sure those machines are going to be great; not that I'll really use them on myself." The superhero gave a wink on the last part, followed by twirling his malleable hand in a 360° direction to demonstrate, earning him a few chuckles.

He then looked over to Fred, who was practically wiggling in his seat as he restrained himself from interrupting the conversation. Globby proceeded to ask, "What's up with you Fr-"

"Oh, I have been just coming up with all sorts of ideas to make this place even cooler! Anti-gravity rooms in case we ever need to fight in space and need to practice, a lazy river so we can relax in the water during downtime, a giant kitchen for cooking, and of course a doomsday vault in case of an apocalyptic scenario; just so many things have been popping into my head!" He then folded his arms as a scowl appeared on his face and pouted, "But none so far have gotten passed the oh-so-brilliant Roddy Blair. He obviously can't see my genius in making the coolest headquarters even better."

Globby remained silent as he tried to process those rapid-fire statements, eventually settling on saying, "Wow…that's a lot of stuff Fred. You uh…doing okay?"

The comic book fan proceeded to lean back in his chair and grumbled, "I'm just going stir-crazy because we haven't been able to do night patrol in like a month! It just stinks and I can't convince anyone else here to do it even one time."

Hiro and Honey Lemon gave Fred sympathetic looks before the chemist gently said, "Freddy, I know it's been hard, but you really need to accept that we can't right now. I'll admit it was fun making that video with you, but there's nothing more we can do until things change."

Baymax then decided to give his advice on the subject by suggesting, "Perhaps another extracurricular activity could alleviate your excessive energy such as sports, crafting or nature walking."

Fred just let out a sad sigh as he sunk lower in his chair and replied, "Thanks Baymax, but the heart wants what it wants and I really want night patrol."

Globby offered the reptilian superhero an encouraging smile and told him, "I'm sure you'll be back out on the streets in no time buddy, and besides, I'm sorry to say this, but I think everyone's right about not going out. I literally can't show my face or body for that matter in public, so be thankful the threat of jail isn't nearly as present for you." The shapeshifter then slumped a little as he sighed, causing the others to now share worried expressions.

"Are you sure you're doing okay?" Honey Lemon asked as she extended a hand to pat his malleable mitt.

Globby looked at her then the rest of his friends as they stared at him with concern, soon finding himself smiling in appreciation. "Yeah, I'm good. Understandably not as great as I'd like to be you know, but it's certainly better than what it could be," he finally answered as he patted the chemist's hand to let her know he was alright. He proceeded to turn towards the healthcare companion and inquired, "So uh, anything new with you Baymax or has it just been more of making sure everyone stays safe and healthy?"

The inflatable bot tilted his head before he blinked and responded with, "I have been monitoring everyone's physical and emotional needs as well as establishing a more in-depth communication system with Base-Max."

"Base-Max?" Globby repeated with a quirked eyebrow.

Suddenly, the giant monitor in front of them came to life as two hexagonal eyes appeared before stating in a female voice, "Hello. I am Base-Max."

Taken by surprise, Globby involuntarily yelped for a moment until he quickly realized there was no danger. He then let out a deep, anxious breath to finish calming himself, followed by facing Hiro and sassily telling him, "And just when were you going to tell me about her?"

The teenager gave a small nervous laugh and replied, "Yeah, sorry. She's the AI that handles the base, scanning for people, monitoring criminal activity, and other sorts of things since we can't go out on patrol and all that."

"Hmph. Seems like a real handy-dandy thing to have," the reformed mutant casually remarked. He proceeded to cheekily callout to the giant screen, "So Base-Max, do you think I can comeback next time and not automatically set off the intruder alarms?"

The other human heroes gave a small set of snickers as the advanced computer system informed him, "I will add your biometric data to the approved entry list."

"Wow. Okay. That was fast," Globby said in slight disbelief and told her, "Thank you Base-Max."

"You are welcome Globby," she simply stated as she blinked herself back to sleep mode.

The pink and purple man then gave a small whistle and commented, "Dang, this place is just incredible. I don't think I could get used to having a giant on-demand Felicia though, seeing as I don't even have a normal-sized one."

Hiro shrugged, not really finding an issue with it himself, but Fred chimed in with, "Yep, this place is really coming together. Soon, we'll be able to say our headquarters is legendary and maybe even get it featured in a magazine."

"Uh, isn't this supposed to be a secret base though?" Globby asked with a puzzled look.

"Yeah, the location is secret, but showcasing how awesome it is will only make the villains fear us more," the comic book fan explained as he confidently sat up.

The other heroes could only respond with a "Whatever you say" headshake as admittedly they had nothing to counter with. Honey Lemon then sadly smiled and kindly offered to her friend, "Hey, you know you can stay here in the meantime if you want. We know you can't go home and all, but you don't have to be out there alone either."

Globby was stunned by such a proposition and even looked to find Hiro and Fred mirroring the same expression. He then couldn't help himself as he leaned over and wrapped the long-haired woman in a tight hug, which was quickly reciprocated. The shapeshifter held this position for a few seconds, but eventually let go as he exhaled a sad sigh. "Thanks for such a sweet offer, but I think for now though I have to say no. It's nothing against you guys of course, it's just that it wouldn't necessarily feel right to take a place here, not when I'm likely to get in the way and make a mess while you're still building it. I'd hate to potentially ruin something even on accident or have some of my tendencies grate you guys the wrong way," he tried to explain in a bittersweet tone.

Globby briefly looked to his side and added with a small smile, "Plus, being in the city means I can be able to help at a moment's notice if there's trouble, but still thank you so much for being such great friends; if I change my mind though, I'll be sure to let you know."

His fellow heroes all nodded as they heard his reasoning and Honey Lemon told him, "Okay, but still keep in touch, okay? We want to know how you're doing handling all this too."

"I will," he simply said back as he gave her another brief hug before relaxing in his chair again.

With the slight somber atmosphere hanging over them, Fred then piped up with, "Hey, before anyone even thinks of calling it a day here, how about we have us some brunch? Nothing like having breakfast and lunch at the same time."

"Sure, I could eat."

"Great idea Freddie."

"I'm in."

"I do not eat."

"Sweet! I'll call Heathcliff," the beanie-clad hero announced as he went to pull out his phone to make the arrangements.

Globby now looked around once more as they all waited for their meals, letting out a long, contented sigh as another conversation started up. It's nice to know I'm truly not alone in this. I'm so lucky.

NOTES

I hope Globby had visited the team during the roughly two months they were all fugitives because that would have been sad to think he was on his own all that time, especially since he has friends now that can be there for him. 3 Also, I know I'm mad that they didn't show Globby during the fugitive story arc except for "Legacies" because seriously, he was definitely doing things while on the lamb and would have made for an excellent surprise to see him pop in as well as maybe he could have heard some shady news on the street that could have been used to foreshadow future plot lines. :/ I still think it's sweet though that Globby has earned the teams trust and he's done a great job keeping their identities. Hope you enjoyed the references I did with all of Fred's anti-gravity stuff and Aunt Cass having a hurt ankle being from "Baymax!" ^_^333 You also probably picked up that "Felicia" is supposed to be this universe's version of Alexa. ;)

I think I'll wait 4 weeks to post the next "Cutscenes" since I plan on posting a Halloween story for a different fandom on that Sunday, so sorry you'll have to wait an extra week. :/ Plus, I need to get caught up on typing and may not have enough time to get the next one done in 2 weeks. :(

The next story will be Professor Callaghan receiving an unexpected visitor in prison. O_O