Despite Cruella being defeated, there was still one problem that needed to be resolved.
The problem being Hunter's home situation, as he was now technically homeless since Cruella was arrested and the company SeaPort was under investigation for their part in her schemes.
But thankfully Kirby had just the solution for that!
"Can Hunter please stay with us since his evil great-aunt is now in jail?" They were practically making puppy eyes at their aunt and mom. "I know he's a De Vil but he can speak to animals like Eleanor!"
"I'm starting to think I should change my name, I don't like being a De Vil." Hunter murmured. He didn't feel pride in that last name, as it belonged to a family of dognappers and corporate sharks, he didn't want to be like that anymore.
Felicia and Cobra glanced at each other for a few moments, then nodded. "You can put the puppy eyes away, Kirby." Felicia smiled. "Of course he can stay with us, I'd never let any kid go homeless!"
"And he'll fit right in since none of us have clean records-ow!" Cobra hissed as Felicia jabbed her on the shoulder. "Rude?"
"Not helping." Felicia hissed back.
Hunter glanced at Kirby. "Do they fight a lot?" He sounded concerned.
"Don't worry, it's just normal family bickering." They reassured him.
A small smile appeared on his face. "I think I'm going to like it here."
"I hope you do too." Hunter had been through a lot, he deserved nice things!
Meanwhile in the Momakase household…
Eleanor was frowning at his mother as Miste waddled onto the table. "You could've told me Miste was alive!"
"In my defense, he was sleeping for years, I didn't think he would wake up anytime soon." Eliana argued.
"I was grieving." Miste was frowning at his mother. "My friend had to leave me here to keep me safe."
Eliana raised an eyebrow at the wooden dog's barking. "You can understand him, don't you?"
"Yeah, and now I have several more questions." Eleanor nodded. "Was Dad a magic user?"
"Not in Earth magic but yes."
Now he was more confused. "What does that mean?!"
"It means that Norbert could not use earth magic because he used our realm's magic!" Miste exclaimed. "Earth magic tastes less spicy, but I know how to use it."
Every time Miste spoke an answer, Eleanor felt like he had two more questions. "I can explain to him." Eliana told the wooden dog, as if she knew what he said. "Eleanor… I didn't tell you about your father at first, because I didn't think you'd have the same powers as him."
"It still would've been nice for you to tell me with or without powers." He pointed out. "I can tell you miss him and you're sad about him being gone, Mum it's not healthy to keep that stuff bottled up."
Her kid had a point, but talking about things was something she didn't know how to handle. "I know… and I'm sorry that my mistakes have caused you stress." She bowed her head, the memory of her kid's heartbroken face and the horror that he didn't trust her to believe him in anything still rang in her head. "From now on, I'm not going to hide secrets from you anymore."
That put a smile on Eleanor's face. "Thanks… still upset about you lying that you knew I could understand animals, but thanks for being honest." Then he pointed to Miste. "Now Miste said something that implies dad is a witch and I have no idea what that means."
Eliana couldn't help but giggle, she had felt the same way when she had first met his father. "Well, Miste wasn't wrong… but I think a picture will be easier to explain."
She pulled out a photo from her purse, and handed it to Eleanor, his green eye's widening. The person in the photo was a red-haired man with a square nose and a small fang poking out from his lip. Just like me… He realized. "Is this-?"
"That's your father, Norbert Howler." Eliana smiled. "He hated it whenever someone took a photo with the flash on, claimed it blinded his eyes."
"I don't like flash either." Eleanor continued to inspect the photo, and that's when he noticed that Norbert's ears were long and pointed, unusual for a human. Unless… "Wait, is he-?"
"When Miste called your father a witch, he means it literally." Eliana explained. "Norbert is… he's not from Earth, he lives in another realm in a place called the Boiling Isles."
"Why's it called that?" Eleanor frowned, trying not to freak out at the implications that he was half-human and his dad was from another realm!
It explained so much about his childhood… why he was homeschooled, why he only went to his doctor relatives for check-ups, why his mom didn't want him to talk about his animal-whispering abilities at all!
Eliana shrugged. "Not sure, but Norbert told me that the rain and sea boils, so I suppose that's where the name comes from." She had never gone there herself, but Norbert had given her pictures.
"If Dad is from another world… how'd he get here?"
"He told me that there was a rare material in his realm that creates 'leaks' between his realm and our realm, he found a way to track those leaks and find a way to visit here, he always liked collecting stuff here…" She chuckled as a memory of Norbert stuffing old technology into a sack came to mind. "Said that the 'witches back home love collecting old human junk!'"
Eleanor chuckled too, but a frown came to him as he glanced at Miste. "What happened?"
"He told me that his realm is under the rule of a cruel emperor who forces witches to only use one type of magic, there's a lot of different types out there." Eliana explained. "The emperor only makes them use one kind unless they join his brute force in enforcing his cruel laws, as your father put it."
Miste was upset too. "He also eats palismen!"
"He eats what?!" Eleanor exclaimed.
"I think Miste can explain this better, considering it's his realm's problems we're talking about." Eliana gestured for the wooden to continue.
Miste nodded at her, then turned back to Eleanor. "The emperor makes those who join his coven give up their palismen, and then he eats their souls! They tried taking me too, one shot a bolt and my ear fell off!" He gestured to the notch on his ear.
"That's horrible…" Eleanor's eyes widened. Miste had told him that palisman were beloved companions. To think that someone would force witches to give up their friends, their family, just so he could take their power and consume their souls… "Is that why my dad isn't here? They got him?"
"Dunno, he left me here because he was scared what'd happen if they caught me, and never came back because he was scared what'd happen if the emperor got access to the human realm." Miste shook his head. "I'm scared too, the emperor is a cruel man, he'd probably treat humans the same way he treated us!"
"And that is why I never told you about that, I was scared you would try to find a way to that realm, and then that monster that took Norbert away from me would get you too." Eliana snarled.
"But it would be nice to know what happened to Dad, if he's alive or dead…" Eleanor murmured.
Eliana remembered when she used to hope that he was still out there. "I don't think he is, if Norbert was still alive, he would've reached out to me by now." She sighed. "He was over the moon when you were born, he loved spending time with you whenever he could, the only reason he'd never come back is if… he wasn't around anymore."
Eleanor looked down at the ground, sad at the idea that he could never meet his father because of a cruel tyrant. "Here or not, he loved you very much!" Miste tried to reassure him. "I can tell you funny stories about him or things about your witch heritage to help!"
He chuckled at the wooden dog. "Thanks Miste." He smiled at him. "You must miss him a lot too."
"Miss him lots, but he'd want me to be happy, and he'd want you and your mom to be happy too!" Miste stated.
"Yeah, I guess he would." Eleanor chuckled.
Even if his dad wasn't here, or the fact that he had learned some interesting facts about his family tree to say the least, that didn't mean that he couldn't be happy.
At that moment, Eleanor felt happy next to his mother and his new friend and family.
Friendship Circle group chat:
Dolly D: GUYS I THINK CLARISSA GOT CLONED
Karmi K: Please never use the word clone here
Dylan D: She sent fancy kibble to our house and apologized for being jerk neighbors
Eleanor M: Huh ig what I said to her must've surfaced her humanity… dogmanity?
Kirby G: at least she's being nice, s2g if any dog was being mean to you all after the incident I'd have rioted
Dolly D: It feels weird now, I mean Hugo was still mean bc someone hijacked his car? But it'd be nice not having to deal with her mean schemes
Kirby G: Someone stole his car you say…. Have the police done anything?
Dylan D: PC Pearl said they closed the case and they'd pay for repairs
Karmi K: ooookay then,
Eleanor M: Also guys you will NOT believe what I found out
Eleanor M: idk if I should say this in gc but idk how to say it irl
Domino K: what'd you find?
Kirby G: is it abt your dad and the talking wood dog he has
Dawkins D: talking what
Eleanor M: So uhhhhhhhhhhh my dad is kind of really not human and is from another world?
Dawkins D:
Dolly D:
Dylan D:
Domino K:
Karmi K: o my gosh like the avengers
Dawkins D: WHY IS THAT YOUR GO TO RESPONSE FOR EVERYTHING?!
Kirby G: huh really? You must take after your mom a lot because nothing abt you pings the "not 100% human radar" on me
Eleanor M: well he kind of looks human-like, I can send a picture my mum gave me of him
Eleanor M: also avengers?
Karmi K: one of the avengers thor is a prince from another realm, so i find this really cool!
Dawkins D: there's more than one world out there?!
Dylan D: oh my dog that is SO COOL
Dolly D: and u broke my brothers
Eleanor M: SORRY D:
Dolly D: its fine but be prepared for questions when you see them
Eleanor M: uh i might share the rest in person,i expected u guys to freak out more…
Kirby G: Dude I've known you for months and you didn't freak out on me when I told u I came from a crime fam, I wouldn't freak out when you tell me about your fam
Karmi K: yeah and after Miste started talking I started to think maybe its the cause of otherworldly shenanigans
Karmi K: tho if you guys dont' mind I also have an announcement
Eleanor M: i don't mind, go ahead!
Kirby G: yeah tell us
Karmi K: I'm leaving tomorrow
Eleanor M:
Kirby G:
Dolly D: And now I think you broke your friends.
"I should not have said that over text." Karmi could mentally imagine her friends panicking as they realized that she would be gone from Camden by tomorrow.
Molly didn't seem bothered. "Text or not, your friends knew you wouldn't stay forever, right?"
"Yeah but they thought that it wouldn't be now."
"Well I do like it here, but we do need to get back to our jobs back home." Zachary pointed out. "But we can always visit again!"
They had a point, but Karmi would miss her friends, even if they were a phone call away. "We could really visit again?"
"Of course!" Her dad reassured her.
"Now that we're almost packed, there's one more thing to do." Molly sat down on one of the hotel beds. "The superhero thing."
Karmi winced, she still had to explain that. "Right, that."
"What on earth made you decide to become a superhero of all things?"
She nervously fiddled with her bracelet as she took a deep breath. "Well, I kept thinking about what happened at Sycorax, if it wasn't for Big Hero 6… I don't know what would've happened, but it wouldn't have been good." She began. "Watching them help people in the city for a semester… it made me decide I want to help people like how they help others."
Her dad looked confused. "You can still help people without being a superhero y'know."
"I know! But I want to help them too, there's still a lot of danger back in San Fransokyo." Karmi stated. "Danger that's now hurting my friends, Kirby's aunt is really good at fighting, she taught me a few things."
"Did she know you were going to use those skills to fight bad guys?" Molly questioned.
"Yeah she did, I know that there's a lot of bad people out there… some even as bad as Cruella." Karmi winced, remembering those cruel green eyes. "But like a very brave person once said, someone has to help."
Both her parents exchanged looks. "Well, I'm still not happy about it." Molly stated. "But if you're sure-"
"And you're really okay with doing this." Zachary added. "We won't stop you."
Words could not describe the joy in her heart as Karmi wrapped her parents in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She sniffled. "You guys are the best!"
"It's no problem." Molly waved it off. "But I am concerned… there are some nosy people out there who are ruthless when it comes to finding superhero's identities."
But thankfully Karmi had come up with a solution long ago. "No worries, there's an agency that protects superheroes and their families so they're safe, even if the superhero's identity is out!"
"Wow, you really thought of everything, huh?" Zachary raised an eyebrow.
"You bet I did!"
"You're leaving?!" That had been the first thing Karmi's friends said when she met up with them at the park, after she finished talking to her parents.
Karmi felt bad at how heartbroken they looked. "You guys know I didn't live here, right?" She pointed out.
"I know but we thought it wouldn't be until…" Eleanor trailed off. "I dunno, but not now!"
"It won't be the same without you, we're like a trio now!" Kirby exclaimed.
The animal whisperer agreed with that statement. "Yeah, we're like the Camden crew!"
"It's not that we won't ever speak to each other again." Karmi reassured them. "And I can always visit, heck maybe you can visit me in Port Angeles!"
"I hope there's no crazy supervillains there, the stories you told us are crazy!" Eleanor wondered.
Karmi shook her head. "No, no supervillains." But it did make her wonder what she could possibly do to help the city as Lab Lady if there weren't any villains to defeat. Don't go thinking like that, there's lots of ways to be a superhero that helps people without having to beat up bad guys! She mentally argued, she could help with other things like helping lost people get home, help solve problems and rescue any cats stuck in trees.
Her first act as a superhero had been to save a dog stuck on a moving crate, so it wouldn't be weird to her! "Well we're going to miss you." Kirby told her.
"And I'm going to call you every day, so you better keep your phone on hand!" Eleanor added.
The biotech major chuckled. "Alright…"
"Okay now that's out of the way, Eleanor said he wanted to share more of what he found out from his mom." Kirby turned to the animal whisperer, gesturing for them to speak.
Eleanor chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well I did take a picture of the photo Mum showed me of my dad." He held it up so the two could see.
"You definitely have his smile." Karmi stated.
Kirby hummed as they observed the photo. "Wow, when you said your dad wasn't a human, I didn't think he'd look humanlike." The only odd things they could point out were the ears and eyes, and the latter was a rare thing in humans, so it wasn't odd enough to be classified as something inhuman.
"According to Miste here-" Eleanor gestured to the wooden dog on his shoulder. "My dad's a witch from a place called the Boiling Isles, but it's under the rule of an evil tyrant emperor."
Both of them winced. "Jeez, I'm so sorry Ellie." Kirby frowned. "Is that why you never knew your dad?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I wish I could visit, and see the place my dad grew up in, but that would be too dangerous."
"I'm sure you'll find a way one day." Karmi at least hoped there would be, even if she had to tag along for the trip and punch a tyrant emperor in the face. "But I'm glad that you have a part of him with him."
Eleanor glanced over to Miste. "Yeah, I do." He smiled.
"If all the feels talk is over, why don't we spend one last day together exploring the town?" Kirby suggested.
Both Eleanor and Karmi looked excited by that. "Yeah!"
"Sounds great to me!"
Meanwhile with the Dalmatians…
"I can't believe you're leaving!"
"Don't go Domino!"
"We'll miss you very much!"
Domino could barely breathe in the pile of pups he was buried in. "Guys I'll miss you too but I also need oxygen!"
The pile disperced a little and he felt someone pick him up by the scruff. "Alright, give him room." He heard Delilah tell the pups.
"I know we're all going to miss Domino, but don't forget we can always call him!" Doug reassured the pups.
"It's not the same!" DJ argued.
Domino could relate, he would miss seeing his family, but he had to go back home. "My human family wants to visit again, so it's not like we can never see each other again." He reassured his littermate.
"I'm still gonna miss you!" DJ cried out.
"I'm gonna miss you too." The moment Delilah placed him back onto the ground, he hugged his brother. "But we can always keep in touch."
"I guess…" DJ mumbled. "Promise to come back, okay?."
Domino smiled at him. "I promise."
And that's when he got dogpiled again. "We'll miss you Dom!" His siblings cried out.
"Gah, guys!"
As much as the Khans wanted to stay in Camden longer, they had to go home, but they did spend their last day saying goodbye to friends until they had to go to the airport.
"You guys didn't have to come follow me to the airport…" Karmi murmured to her friends.
"What're friends for?" Kirby smirked.
She chuckled at the response. "Thanks."
"Come back and visit as soon as you can, okay?!" Eleanor exclaimed.
"I will, I will!" Karmi reassured them, giving them one last hug. "Thanks for everything." If it wasn't for the friends she made in Camden, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to follow her dream of being a superhero.
"I should say the same for you!" Kirby argued. "You definitely saved the day a few times."
"Yeah, I don't think I would've learned everything I know about my dad if you weren't there to help out." Eleanor added.
That got a blush to appear on her face. "You give me too much credit…" But maybe things would've turned out not as well if she wasn't there, and the incident with Cruella might've been…
Don't think about that, things are fine now. She mentally reassured herself.
"One last hug?"
As soon as she said that, she heard a stampede of paws.
"Hug! Hug! Hug!"
And pretty soon the trio was buried in a mountain of pups. "Gah!" Kirby scrambled out of the puppy pile.
"You weren't kidding about that!" Eleanor chuckled.
Karmi giggled. "I was not." She was going to miss all the dog hugs she had gotten from the Dalmatian family.
"Guys! We told you not to do that!" Dylan ran up to his siblings, Dolly and their parents following behind.
"You guys had to get one last goodbye in?" Karmi teased.
Dawkins approached. "We're gonna miss you, but I'm sending you a surprise when you get home!"
When Eleanor translated, she sent the scientist pup a smile. "Can't wait to see it then!"
"Our flight's about to land." Molly told her.
This was it, this was goodbye. "See you guys later." Karmi waved to them.
"Goodbye Karmi!"
"Farewell!"
"Bye! I'll miss you!"
With one last smile, Karmi turned around. Goodbye Camden. Her stay there had been full of adventures, it had been a wild ride of highs and lows, she wished she could stay longer, but every adventure had to end eventually.
But it wasn't the end forever, one day she would see her friends again, and they would have new adventures together.
A few days later…
"I miss the park here!" Ryan exclaimed as he hopped onto the swing.
"Me too!" Haley added, hopping around the sandbox.
Karmi chuckled as she watched her siblings run around the park, it had been awhile since she had gone to the park with them. And it's the least I can do since I'll be going back to San Fransokyo soon. Since the paperwork had been sent and approved by the SCPA, there was no worry for her to go back to the city and begin her first debut as Lab Lady.
Well first debut in the country, as she had a newspaper from Camden titled "Lab Lady saves the fabled 101" printed on her wall, which her friends had thankfully sent her.
She missed her friends back in Camden just as Domino missed his dog family there, but at the very least they were able to message them by phone.
Just like Dawkins had promised, his gift had arrived, her very own superhero weapon. It was a technology powered staff that could transform into other weapons like a bow. The scientist pup had sent her a packet explaining all the things her gift could do and she couldn't wait to try them out!
However her parents were being oddly vague about the details of her going back to San Fransokyo, but they did reassure that she would be able to go back to SFIT and continue her classes there. And I can't wait to see the look on Hiro and Ari's faces when I come back! She smiled at the thought.
Her thoughts paused when Haley approached. "Hey Karmi, I can't find my friends."
"Aww bummer." Karmi frowned, there were some kids around her sister's age that she hung out with at the park. Karmi herself had seen one of them a few times when her parents visited their family restaurant. "Maybe they're not here?"
Haley then shook her head. "No, I think I see them now!"
"Where?" She glanced around the park.
"Um… they're behind you now." Haley pointed behind her, towards the bushes in the park.
Before Karmi could turn around, she heard a kid cry "Ambush!" and suddenly she got tackled by a pair of small children.
"Ow!" Karmi grumbled, rubbing her head as she got back up, then frowned when she recognized who the ambushers were. "Marcy, Anne, seriously?"
Marcy and Anne were some of the kids that hung out with her little siblings, Anne being the one whose parents owned a restaurant named Thai Go, and Marcy was her partner-in-crime. "Haley said that you were leaving again!" Anne pouted.
Karmi raised an eyebrow at her sister, who was nervously chuckling. "Um… they wanted to give you a big goodbye tackle?" She weakly protested.
"Very funny." Karmi snarked, then turned back to the other eight year-olds, one of them was one she hadn't seen before. "Who's this?"
"This is our new friend Sasha!" Marcy pointed to a blonde wearing a small blue jacket, who had one eye brown and one eye blue. "She saved us from bullies!"
As sad as it sounded that the two adorable kids in front of her were getting picked on, she was glad someone was there for her. "You're quite the little hero, aren't you?" Karmi smiled.
"Um, I guess?" Sasha looked confused. "I dunno if I'd be a hero…"
"Well you're off to a good start, I'd say!" She reassured the young girl.
But the two other girls were frowning. "Why are you leaving again?" Marcy questioned. "Is it because of college?"
"Yeah, it's because of college." Karmi chuckled.
"I'm mad about it too." Ryan chimed in, approaching the group. "You were able to do college at home, you can't do it again?"
She could see why he came to that conclusion. "It's complicated, I have friends in San Fransokyo that I wanna see again." Karmi told him. "It's not fun missing friends."
"I'd miss Marcy lots if I couldn't see her everyday!" Anne chimed in.
"Me too!" Marcy added.
Ryan seemed to buy it, but he was still frowning. "I'm still gonna miss you."
"It's okay, we can always talk to each other by phone." She reassured her brother.
That cheered him up, as a smile came back on his face. "Can we go play tag now?" Sasha turned to him.
"Yeah of course!"
Karmi chuckled as the kids started a game of tag. "Karmi, come play with us too!" Haley got her to join in, for how could she say no to those puppy eyes?
"Alright, I guess one game before I leave again won't hurt."
As nice as it was spending time with her family, with the trip to Camden and everything in-between, Karmi missed the craziness that happened in San Fransokyo.
It was fun having her own little adventure, and she couldn't wait to hear the adventures her friends had on their own too.
After-all, life was one big crazy adventure, wasn't it?
AN: And that's the end of Karmi's Camden Adventure! Man I was SO glad to finish posting, there was a time I thought I wouldn't finish this story bc it took MONTHS to write out, and there was a time I didn't touch the document for like, a year but I'm so glad I got done, hope you guys enjoyed the ending!
Some final notes
-Yeah Hunter is staying with Kirby's family, I thought perhaps staying with people who know what it's like to be on the wrong side of the law might help Hunter post season-1, not that Cobra did anything like kidnap puppies, but there was that whole volcano thing
-Forgot if I mentioned this or not in a previous AN (goldfish brain I have) but for those of you curious why the Camden gang never found out about what really happened to Karmi during COM, I just felt like it wasn't important, they did know something bad happened to her during the incident, but not that she was turned into a monster, because I wanted to focus on Karmi healing from that in this story, perhaps one day she talks about the full story to her friends, but she just wanted to have a fun time in Camden
-And yeah there were some TV references/cameos in this fic, the Owl House cameos like the giraffes and Miste the palisman being one, and secondly if you picked it up in the epilogue, the Calamity Trio from Amphibia made a small cameo! Timeline wise it is 5 years before the events of the show, dunno if I'll write a fic that focuses on the maybe potential TOH/Amphibia crossover material, but its an idea for another day
Thank you so much for reading! And I'll see you when I continue Fallen From Power!