#14 We've Got a Lot to Talk About
Fred was still hugging his dad as so many thoughts and feelings swirled inside his head. Oh my gosh! My dad's a superhero! Maybe I can get to try his gadgets. Is that why I didn't see him too much growing up? Oh! Am I destined to inherit the mantle one day? I probably need to get more heroic deeds under my belt first before I earn it though, Fred rapidly pondered as his dad finally released him.
The billionaire was definitely on the older side, with wrinkles and creases earned from years of experience. He also wore a freshly-pressed grey-blue suit, rose-colored button-up shirt, red ascot and several gold rings on his fingers; lastly, he had gold-rimmed glasses with amber lenses to frame his sharp eyes and white-grey hair that went all the way around the lower half of his head, leaving him with a dark grey receding hairline on top.
"So, I assume you have many questions son," Mr. Frederickson said to Fred with a touch of melancholy, as if this knowledge was a great burden on him.
"Uh, yeah! First off, this is your secret headquarters, right?" Fred excitedly asked as a gleeful smile crossed his face.
His dad gave a smirk and answered, "Why yes son, it is, complete with gadgets, suits and up-to-date villain database; just because I'm out of the game, doesn't mean there aren't criminals to look out for." He then gestured to the aforementioned items that hung on the wall and the giant computer monitor.
"Whoa…so uh, is there a chance I can get to use some of these bad or should I say good boys?" the comic book lover inquired as he slowly reached for one of the grappling-hook devices.
The retired superhero raised an eyebrow and slyly said, "Maybe, but shouldn't you be focused on mastering your own toys before handling mine?"
Fred then stopped and slowly turned towards his dad with a wince on his face. "So, you know about that then huh?"
With a proud smile, Mr. Frederickson put a hand on his son's shoulder and replied, "Son, when this city got saved by a bunch of young superheroes, I tend to take notice and investigate; plus, Heathcliff keeps very detailed notes on how you're doing."
"Oh," Fred simply stated as he realized the obvious answer.
"Now, back to my story or rather, to actually start my story," the older man continued as his son stared at him in anticipation. "You see, a long time ago in the '70s, things had begun to spiral downhill for the city; criminals of all kind from the super to the average were running rampant and the police couldn't answer every call. Now, my rich upbringing would have many think I was unskilled in everything except signing papers and delegating blame, but I had spent years perfecting various fighting styles to ensure I would never be defenseless in an uncertain world." He paused as he couldn't help but demonstrate a couple high kicks and flips, even while wearing his suit; this made his kaiju-loving son go wide-eye in awe at his dad's prowess.
"The family has had generations of wealth behind it to try and help however it could with charities and benefits, but I saw the chance to do more for this city than just sign checks; and since I had the power, that meant I had the responsibility. There are some problems in this world that require action and that's what I did," Mr. Frederickson continued.
The older man then gestured for Fred to follow him as he went to his big computer monitor. He pushed a big yellow button and the screen came to life; with a few more button pushes, dozens and dozens of articles appeared before them. "I went by the name of 'Boss Awesome.' I know it can come off as arrogant, but I figured if I've got to make a name for myself, it should be something that gets the point across."
The comic book lover now gasped as he heard his dad's superhero name. He had come across many a superhero on his weekly checks on Heropedia, but Boss Awesome was in a category all to himself. No one knew who he was or where he went when he retired, but his actions were well documented and still had a lasting impression on this city even decades later. "Dad, you mean to tell me you were one of the greatest heroes ever to grace not just this city, but the world? The thrilling exploits, the countless villains, the amazing feats of heroism?" Fred excitedly inquired as he edged closer to his dad.
The shipping magnate gave a small, fond laugh at this reaction, as now he could tell his son his long-kept secret. "Yeah, the accolades are always nice, but what really matters is the good you do. Never forget that as you undoubtedly gain fame as time goes by," Mr. Frederickson informed him.
Fred nodded in understanding all while thinking, Wow, I'm getting some serious top-notch hero lessons right now. The kaiju fan then looked noticeably apprehensive as he asked, "So, is superheroing why we haven't gotten to spend as much time together as I would have wanted?"
His father's face fell some as a sad, almost regretful look replaced his smile while he put a hand on Fred's shoulder. "You matter to me more than I could ever show you. Admittedly, my superhero days are long since over, but that doesn't mean I gave up helping. The family shipping company often doesn't need me on a day-to-day basis, so I go where I can to be of greater service. I'm just sorry that meant sacrificing the time to see you become the young man you are now. I'm not saying I'd take back those past actions, but I sure wish I had found a better way to balance everything," he honestly told Fred as he took his hand off and gave him another hug.
The comic book lover let out a deep sigh and hugged him right back. Well, it doesn't make up for lost time, but I feel better knowing it wasn't because he didn't want to. Plus, now we can try to make up for it, Fred internally hoped. The embrace lasted for a few more seconds, then the beanie-wearing man proceeded with his next question. "Okay, so after you decided to become a superhero, how'd you manage to get to all of this," he inquired while gesturing around the room.
Mr. Frederickson gave a little chuckle and replied, "Well, the truckloads of cash at my disposal was a big help; as for the rest, I know a guy who supplied me with all manner of stuff for crime-fighting and another one who's great at building lairs. I can give you his contact if you and your friends ever need one."
"Ooo. I'll have to run that by the team first, but I better make sure everyone's one the same page since I don't think we've finalized any long-term plans. They seem…hesitant to say the least about making this a full-time thing," Fred informed him with a shrug.
His father gave a smile and remarked, "With the way you youngsters saved the city, there's no denying you all got something special."
Fred beamed with pride at what the superhero legend in front of him said. "You're right. Thanks dad. Clearly, we are meant to be more than one-time city savers." The novice hero then curiously asked, "So, what was it like to fight crime for all those years? I mean, we've got the one revenge seeking supervillain under our belt and all, but not nearly the level you've dealt with."
"Truth be told, it wasn't always easy. There were plenty of villains I had to outwit and out brawl in order to save the day. I'd say when it comes to big-bads, you've got to try and keep your eyes and ears open to any underground chatter; you never know who they've bragged to or who they tried to hire as henchmen," Mr. Frederickson informed his son, who was nodding and doing his best to mentally retain this advice. "For the small-time folks, they may come up more often, but so long as you got the training and an arsenal of strategies at your disposal, I doubt they'll be able to succeed. Now, don't you forget that the real goal of a superhero is to save those in danger. So, you'll need to be ready for all kinds of emergencies from car crashes to rescue operations. That also doesn't mean you should ignore first responders since they will most likely have more experience than you and can offer help, or rather you can offer them help," the retired hero added in a more serious tone.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh." Fred kept affirming what his dad said with more nods. "Just so you know, you may have to repeat this in the future because I may not get all the words right if I repeat this to my friends," the kaiju fan admitted while scratching the back of his head.
Mr. Frederickson gave a small smirk and replied, "Not a problem. It's virtually impossible to condense everything I've learned in one heart-to-heart session."
Fred smiled for a moment before another thought popped into his head, making his grin dip as he felt the need to ask, "So dad, given that you were so good at being a hero, why'd you step down as Boss Awesome?"
The older man then bore a tired, weighted expression, one that knew this question would come and the answer wasn't all happy. "Well, over time, my actions did a lot to deter supervillain scum and criminal underlings, so the police were able to get a better grip on the safety of the city." He then paused as he let out a deep sigh at what he had to say next. "But the sad reality is Fred, no matter how hard you try, you can't save everyone. There were times I was too late or things were too intense to handle alone. I'd get some help from fellow do-gooders every now and again, but not every time." The hero formally known as Boss Awesome then put a hand on his shoulder as he continued to impart his wisdom. "But that's why I kept at it for so long too because to do nothing would be so much worse. You can't save everyone, so you have to save the ones you can. Do you understand?"
Fred definitely appeared to be a little more shaken at his dad being so upfront about the toll superheroing can take. Wow. I guess I didn't think about it much myself since it was originally about Tadashi, but stopping Callaghan saved a lot of lives. The rush of fighting a bad guy was awesome, scary at times, but awesome; I don't want to lose that feeling, but dad's right, it should be about doing the right thing for the people of this city, not just for the thrill of being a hero. He finally nodded and said, "I do padre, and I'll do my best to not let living out my lifelong dream cloud your lesson."
Mr. Frederickson gave a soft laugh and responded, "That's what having your friends are for; they can remind you if you ever forget, but I'm sure you'll do fine son." The older man with a softer smile added, "I know what I just said may seem a bit harsh and I'm not saying it to discourage you, in fact, quite the opposite. You need to know that no matter how dire the situation, you can't give up because just the slightest more will to get back up can mean all the difference. You just need to believe that you can do something, then find a way to make it happen; that's the other benefit you have of being part of team as you've got each other's back when things get tough."
His descendent smiled again before his dad looked a bit apologetic and said, "Sorry to get a bit off track there, but to answer your question, I did feel like it was time to retire once I felt the city didn't need me anymore, or at least not physically. That was when I decided to focus my efforts on rescue and relief missions wherever I could since the world's a lot bigger than San Fransokyo." He then said with a wink, "You know, I got some additional adventures during these expeditions."
Hearing this, Fred's eyes lit up with wonder again as he inquired, "Ooo ooo, did you get to see some crazy supernatural stuff that my sciency friends would say wasn't real?"
"You could say that," his dad answered with a knowing smile. "Plenty of crazy things have come my way over the years from lost temples, legends come to life and booby traps that look like they're out of those old 'Plundering Mark' movies." The grey-haired man then switched gears by saying, "But enough about me. I'm betting you're just dying to tell me how you and your friends saved the city from that portal disaster."
Fred was barely able to hold in a squeal of delight as a large grin appeared on his face. "It was so cool dad! We followed our friends Hiro and Baymax to the docks one night and witnessed some shady supervillain stuff, and to make matters worse, he was doing it with my friend's stolen ESP-microbots thingy. Then, we had a high-speed chase, making my adrenaline go through the roof as we avoided capture, but we narrowly escaped the car as it went plunging into the bay!" The comic book fan felt the need to demonstrate this moment of the story by using his hand and making it plummet downward.
Mr. Frederickson nodded and went "Uh-huh" before interjecting with, "Sounds to me like we have a villain forging the heroes situation. Pretty understandable reaction if you ask me. I'm glad you kids were okay."
Fred scratched the back of his head as he responded, "Yeah, it was thanks to Baymax we got out of there. Anyway, so I got to bring everyone over to see the mansion, meet Heathcliff and show my room as we dried off. Then, the best news of all happened when Hiro said we'd need some upgrades to catch the bad guy, but I knew that was code for we get to be superheroes." He got all giddy again as he brought up that memory and had to internally remind himself to calm down. "Next, we got all suited up and I got the amazing fire-breathing 'Fredzilla' for my theme. We then found the bad guy was out on Akuma Island, and if I'm being honest, it's a decent place to do villainy after abandon warehouses and subterranean lairs."
He paused for a moment to catch his breath before continuing. "So, we snuck in like total professionals, and after we found the main office with a bunch of security tapes, started to go through all this old footage; it showed Alistair Krei doing a teleportation experiment and not as I originally thought, a magic hat trick. They then did the main test with this young pilot, but of course, something went wrong and she wound up being lost to the portal." Fred's expression turned a bit sadder as he recollected witnessing that part of the video. "Unfortunately for us, while we had our backs turned, the bad guy goes ahead and tried to crush us; unfortunately for him now, we had Baymax and he saved us. Next thing we know, we're fighting the microbot-wielding villain on all sides and I even tried a 'Gravity Crush' body slam, but he saw it coming. By the way, with the mask he wore, I was thinking of calling him 'Yokai' since he certainly was mysterious and troublesome," he added as he got a bit off track.
His dad then gave a short laugh as he proudly replied, "Well, what do you know? First villain and you already got to name him. I say it's fair game if they don't announce what you're supposed to call them; makes potential future battles awkward that's for sure. Be sure to keep me in the loop so I can add them to my database."
Fred's eyes got wide again as he repeated, "Database?"
"Yep." The older man proceeded to type a few button commands on the large computer console. A moment later, a large panel opened to their right as a giant, bulky machine with lights sticking out of it emerged along with boxes of punch cards. "It may be old school, but you can't hack it and I keep it up to date," Mr. Frederickson explained.
"Ooo," the comic book lover remarked as he briefly went over to look at the reader and cards. He then came back to where he was and continued to recollect. "Where was I…oh yeah! So, we tried to fight him, but none of us were making any progress until Hiro managed to topple on top of him, which knocked his mask off and saved our lives quite frankly. Then, in a surprise turn of events, the bad guy was Professor Callaghan who we all thought died in the fire! We all were surprised and were just like, 'What?! We know this guy and he doesn't have a problem with attacking us?!'" Fred exclaimed as he seemed to still be grappling with the shock. Mr. Frederickson just nodded again as his expression got sadder as he had experience in seeing how low people could sink.
"It seemed like we actually had won, but then Hiro got down the path of revenge as he ordered Baymax to destroy him. I mean, I know he's hurting and Tadashi was his brother, but killing someone is not something we were cool with. Next thing we know, we're all trying to stop this rampaging robot, letting Callaghan get away in the process and clearly indicating we need to have a talk with Hiro, but what does he do? He takes our ride and leaves us stranded in this creepy, wrecked place," Fred informed his dad as he crossed his arms. "For a good few minutes, we went back and forth on what to do with Wasabi doing most of the panicking. Then, I fortunately remembered how we have a chopper and it could totally pick us up; so, after I called home, we figured we'd do some exploring in the control room again while we waited and managed to salvage some security footage before Heathcliff arrived not too long afterward."
The new superhero in training proceeded to let a small smile appear on his face as he remarked, "Heathcliff sure is amazing, isn't he dad?"
Mr. Frederickson got a grin on his face too as he said, "Yeah, him and me go way back. Definitely one of the finest people I know."
Fred nodded before he continued his story. "Anyway, we're flying back and poor Wasabi's got his eyes closed since we're so high up and Go Go was giving directions to Heathcliff on where to fly; we all kind of figured that Hiro went home and we were right. So, there was some emotional hugging and talking before Honey Lemon pulled out the flash drive with the old video. We got to see it on the island, but it was Hiro's first time and it showed the pilot was Callaghan's daughter! I was like 'This is a revenge story,' and it made his actions way less random. Next, we all head down to Krei Tech campus where Callaghan was obviously going to be." Fred once again paused to catch his breath as his father waited patiently, determined to hear the whole story. "Unfortunately though, he had already activated his machine by the time we got there, so everything was getting sucked up into it. Hiro tried to talk him down using the old shared pain method, but he wasn't having it. All of us are then fighting a crazy number of microbots as they're trying to crush us, stab us or pull us apart. My adrenaline was through the roof on thinking this may be it, but fortune smiled on us as we got out of our individual trouble. Not to brag, but mine was pretty cool and involved using my sign-spinning skills to slice through those tiny terrors," the comic book fan informed his dad with a satisfied smile.
"If I wasn't out of the game, I may have to ask you for a lesson or two then," Mr. Frederickson commented politely as he gave his son a wink.
Fred scratched the back of his head as he looked away bashfully before asking, "So, uh, do you think you could teach me some of your moves one day?"
The older man gave a small, warm smile and answered, "In due time, but remember to be the best you first rather than completely copy someone else's style."
The young hero's face fell a little at realizing he'd have to wait, but he understood and continued with his tale. "So, we all started smacking microbots left and right and I even got flaming signs to deal out some Fredzilla justice, but Honey Lemon's was probably the coolest since it involved a giant explosion! Then, as Hiro predicted, the bots got sucked up into the portal, leaving Callaghan with nothing to fight with and allowing Baymax the chance to grab the headband and smash it. Next thing we know, everything's falling to the ground and the giant machine's still on as it kept pulling everything in. Man, it was crazy," Fred recalled as he looked more in disbelief at how insane his first mission was. "We then tried to get to a safe distance, but Baymax says there's someone in the portal and that can only mean it's Callaghan's daughter; it quite frankly was a miracle if you ask me. So, Hiro and Baymax do the ultimate hero move and flew into the machine to save her; for us on the outside, it was definitely scary as the wind and debris kept flying past us while we hunkered behind some rubble."
The comic book fan then paused as he looked sad once again as he remembered what came next. "It wasn't until after the portal imploded that we realized the cost of saving the pilot was our friend Baymax, who sacrificed himself to whatever void that hole led to."
Mr. Frederickson looked sympathetic as he put a hand on Fred's shoulder yet again. "It seems as though you've already learned the losing someone lesson after all, but it was your companion instead of a civilian. You doing okay son?" he asked concern.
Fred nodded and sadly replied, "Yeah, but I'm sure Hiro's feeling worse about it. I was actually going to see him later and talk to him about getting back out into the superhero world since it might help him."
"Not necessarily a bad idea, but things can't be rushed when it comes to healing son. Just make sure you all are there for each other and you'll overcome this hurdle of grief in time," his dad wisely advised as he pulled Fred in for another hug, to which he reciprocated. The comic book lover closed his eyes as he let the tight embrace help alleviate some of the pain.
"Thanks dad."
"You're welcome son."
They continued to hug for a few more seconds before they released each other. Mr. Frederickson then looked at Fred again as he said, "Now, I may know about you being a fledgling superhero, but this is still my secret headquarters and there are still those that harbor ill will towards the Boss Awesome name. For your own safety and mine, it might be best to keep this secret between us, okay?"
Fred looked a little hesitant before he gave a look of determination and honestly replied, "I'll do my best."
"Well, I guess I can't ask for more than that," his dad responded with a smirk. He then went to get his briefcase before putting his arm around Fred's back and began leading him out.
"I'm really glad we got to talk dad," the kaiju fan informed the older man.
His dad smiled warmly again as they both went through the secret door and shut it. "Me too son. Now, how about we go see if Heathcliff has lunch ready. I requested pasta primavera," he responded with a touch of eagerness.
"Ooo, ooo! Let's go. I haven't eaten since breakfast."
The retired superhero gave a short laugh as the two of them headed for the kitchen, both feeling a little more connect to one another and both hoping to continue strengthening their bond from there.
NOTES
Since this was the end credit scene of the "Big Hero 6" movie, we never got to see more of Fred and his dad until the series came out, and with Stan Lee playing his dad, it was a real treat that they brought him back. (I'm sure we would have gotten even more moments had Stan Lee not passed away, but it was nice that they dedicated an episode to him as well as could show off some of his superhero skills. His moments with Fred were often over video-chat, but I'm glad they got some more bonding time together). I of course had to bring up the "With great power comes great responsibility" line too because it really is some sage wisdom on doing the right thing and is so iconic. I did laugh pretty hard that Fred can't seem to stop telling people about his dad's secret headquarters and even had it as part of his pitch for BH6 to get their own (and sure, they are his friends, but his dad didn't look too pleased about it). XD Lastly, I hope you enjoyed getting a Fred-recap of the movie since he does have a knack for pointing stuff out and giving an honest reaction to things. ;)
The next story will have High Voltage being summoned to talk with the warden about something. ;)