Quick Recap:

High Voltage was causing mayhem earlier, and caused a city-wide blackout. A certain receptionist has been missing for a while now, and waaay at the beginning Hiro hacked into her computer to access Karmi, Margo and Vicky's (her friends) research book for their project on the cloning of algae. Also, Karmi stress-ate all of Hiro's gummy bears! And right now, the gang is standing slack-jawed in the reception of SFIM, with Karmi refusing to tell them any information on goings-on at SFIM.

Chapter 4 - Cutiecator

"Unbelievable," repeated Hiro, pacing across the lobby in his armour. "If she won't listen to Captain Cutie, who will she listen to?"

"Ooh, I know this one!" interjected Fred. "No one. Right? So… talk it out with me here, Hiro. If she won't listen to anyone… "

Suddenly, Hiro stopped pacing. "Fred, you're a genius! If she won't talk to anyone, we'll just spy on her!" Immediately he began meddling with the communicator in his helmet. "I just have to quickly make a bug out of my comm…"

"She might listen to you," Honey Lemon ventured helpfully. "I really think she would, Hiro. And it's not the best idea to violate her trust right now."

"She'd kill you for that, man," said Gogo, translating what Honey sugar-coated. "Don't spy."

But Hiro had already fashioned an audio device that could receive signals from wherever it was placed, and feedback straight to his ear. He held it up in his palm. "The Communi Captain Cutie Cator," he said proudly, then faltered when he saw the looks on the teams' faces. "It's… it's a work in progress."

"No, it's not that we disapprove of the name," clarified Wasabi.

"Yeah, though honestly it's kind of terrible," interrupted Fred. "You might just want to go by Cutiecator or something."

Wasabi continued. "Seriously man. Don't do this."

Briefly, Hiro did consider it. But, see, if truth be told… he was a little scared of the prospect of Karmi trusting him more than his alter-ego. He and her had been getting along better than ever these few days, and that was a problem.

She had missed him. And he had missed her. And their previously snarky banter had taken on a different meaning, most of which he had himself to blame for.

He was not oblivious to what any of that meant, but he did not want to accept it. If she didn't like him back- which was most likely- she'd be proven right. She'd assume he'd liked her from day one, and she'd never let him hear the end of it. That would ruin even the friendship they had salvaged.

But there was more to it than his pride. In short, he did not know what he wanted, or what he wanted to do about it. He kind of just wished he and Karmi would stay friends, but also… he didn't know if he wanted something more. And it would be weird talking to her before he figured this out.

"Cutiecator it is!" he announced.

"Yes!" whooped Fred. "Wait. Are you just naming it that or are you actually going to spy on Karmi?" He now looked unimpressed.

As Hiro walked towards the building exit with Baymax, Fred could only conclude that it was the latter.

Once outside, he mounted Baymax, and flew out the automatic glass doors into the illuminated night beyond. They hovered at the window of the next level.

Through it, he saw Karmi and her friends eating gummy bears and comparing notes. She was laughing at something Margo had said, and Vicky was swivelling in her chair. Karmi opened her mouth, pointing at it, and Margo said something to which she pretended to take offence. A gummy bear sailed from Margo's hand into Karmi's mouth and she chewed it gleefully.

He found himself smiling, hesitating.

"Hiro," his companion interrupted. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yes, I am," he assured himself. "This is for the greater good." And he lifted the window slightly from the outside, placed the Cutiecator inside and sealed it shut. He could now vaguely hear the voices inside through his phone, which he had connected to it. But they seemed to be coming from further away than just through a glass window.

A few moments later, Baymax interjected. "Hiro. Should we leave now?"

"Yes. Yes we should." But Hiro did not want to return to his friends just yet.

"I think it's time to investigate that receptionist."

Back on the ground, Hiro's friends were waiting in the lobby. With no new leads to go on, it was all they could do to bounce theories off each other.

"This is just like in Issue 189," Fred commented, attempting to turn the ice balls Honey was throwing at him into water. A puddle was gradually growing in the lobby because of this, with the occasional chunk of melting ice. "Captain Fancy's just been in a fight with his brother when he gets tipped off that the guy might be hiding something. So he sends his alter-ego to do the scrutiny for him, and he finds out everything he needs to know without actually making up with his brother! He saves the day, the end."

Gogo was practising boomeranging disks around Fred's head. "That's a terrible lesson. We should check on Hiro."

Honey Lemon fidgeted, popping small chemballs with the heel of her boot. "I don't think he wants to be checked on. However much he needs to be."

Wasabi was about to speak, when the subject of their conversation burst through the double doors. Everyone sat up, alert.

"Guys, there's something I forgot to tell you. The receptionist here, I think it was her. She's the one doing all this- she's been missing ever since the power shortage started," Hiro stated certainly.

"You're sure about this?" Wasabi clarified. "She wasn't gone before?"

Hiro fumbled. "Well, I mean, she was… But she must have been somewhere preparing for it. I just know it- why would she have a security feed in all her students' labs? Why didn't I think it was weird before?"

"There must be a reason," Honey suggested. "You could ask Karmi, she'd probably know-"

"No," he interrupted. "We can do this without her. I already bugged her, so if anything relevant comes up during her conversation I'll hear it."

"Dude, you'll hear all her conversations," Fred interjected. "Like, even Captain Fancy didn't do that."

"Captain Fancy's dumb, but he's got a point. What's the likelihood she'll even talk about the receptionist anyway?" Gogo asked rhetorically.

Hiro looked to his robot companion. "Hey Baymax, can you scan for the receptionist?"

Baymax simply blinked at him. "Who is: the receptionist? I must have either a name or health statistics to locate an individual."

"Um, oh, she's… old. And- she has a hunched back! She's got white hair, but there are either streaks of blonde, brown or black in it- I can't remember…"

Baymax just tilted his head. "I am unable to find adequate data in my database of San Fransokyo's residents. There are: sixty-eight. Residents. Matching this description."

Hiro ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly. "Gah!"

"Hiro, guess what, I can read your mind," Fred quipped. He mimicked Hiro's voice, though not in a condescending manner. "I'm Hiro and I wish Karmi was here because then we'd actually be able to find my suspect, and maybe even find out if she is a suspect in the first place."

Gogo was unable to contain her smirk. "Hiro. We've literally been fidgeting and chatting about Captain Fancy without a new lead."

"It's not long before the power comes back on, and when that happens, something bad will almost certainly have gone down," Wasabi said.

Hiro's eyes widened. "You're right." Without explanation, he rushed to the receptionist's desk, hacked into her computer again and brought up her schedule. His eyes ran across the page as the gang looked over his shoulder.

Honey Lemon was the first to realise, her mouth forming a small 'o'.

"But how will we stop her by then? We don't even know what she's doing!" Wasabi fretted.

"Hopefully she's still in prison and this is impossible?" Honey said.

"Maybe this is linked to the Creator somehow," Gogo suggested.

Meanwhile, Fred was completely and utterly confused. "Um, guys? What's happening?"

Hiro pointed with his cursor to the 10 pm time block on the online schedule. "It's 8:56 pm now," he explained, "But at 10 pm, she's written Experimental Lab 2. Meet Dayan. Now of course she can't write exactly what it is she's doing- the department of education can access all work-related files in case she needs to bear witness for a case or something- but this is pretty clear. She's meeting Di Amara in the experimental lab for some reason, at 10."

"And that's probably when we can guess the power will come back on. Either then, or after whatever business they've got," Wasabi added.

"Hold up. Isn't Di's name Diane though? As in D-I-A-N-E?" Fred asked.

"We don't know that, we're not jumping to conclusions," Gogo stated. "But we can't assume that she is in fact Di either."

Just then, the gang was compelled to clap their hands to their ears as a deafening squeal pierced the air.

Wincing, Hiro turned down the volume on his Cutiecator. "Sorry guys, my bad. I just caught something, be quiet a minute…"

Ping!

Karmi sighed and peered over at her phone, looking away from the petri dishes she was counting. Dang it. She had lost count at forty-something. Whoever was texting her had better have good reason…

She flipped her phone over and grunted in exasperation. It was her parents.

Dad: Karmi it's nearly 9. It's too late to take the bus back, I'll pick you up as soon as I can.

She typed back a response immediately. If her dad got in the car, there was no stopping him. Or otherwise, actually.

Me: Dad we're rlly close to a breakthrough. Pick me up around 10?

I can take the bus if youre too tired, don't worry about me.

Dad: I'm on my way

Karmi furrowed her brow in frustration, then typed back frantically.

Me: No! Don't come, Margo and Vicky can't do anything without me.

And then there was the incoming call. Of course. Did her parents always have to be so predictable? She could tell what her father was going to say before he said it. And though her arguments were different every time, the outcome was always the same.

She pressed answer.

"Hi, dad," she sighed.

"Ah, Karmi," said her father, urgent and caring. "I don't think you should be at school this late. There's very little supervision, no teachers, no other students, and this is the time when alcoholics and drugies are on the streets. I can be there in twenty minutes."

"But I need to summarise the research that we did today!" she protested. "That will take at least forty-five minutes, and the clones will have progressed by tomorrow- the data will be skewed! Even the smallest inconsistency could make our project messed up!"

"Madam, you will be messed up if you don't get home soon. Your mother and I almost didn't send you to college early, remember? We did worry about the workload. Are you going to make us regret that decision? Karmi, you need to prove to us that you can handle it without compromising your safety, not to mention your sleep."

"It's only nine o'clock!" She heard herself sounding more like a whiny child now than a biotech genius. If only she was older, she thought wishfully. She could work as long as she wanted with no interruptions. There would be nothing standing between her and the Nobel prize she was sure she could one day earn. "Besides, Professor McGucket needs the results in by tomorrow."

"Well you can tell that Professor to McSuck It," her father retorted, and Karmi couldn't help but stifle a laugh. "Because my daughter's health and safety comes first. You can't work too hard, you're only sixteen! Why, when I was sixteen, I was playing cricket half the day and sleeping in the other half! Karmi, beti, I'll give you a bit more time. I'll be parked out the front by 10," he said softly, ending the call.

Karmi slumped back in her chair, skidding her phone across the table and groaning loudly. This was the sound that Hiro picked up on his Cutiecator, the loud sound causing the squeal in his earpiece. From here, he began listening intently.

"Karmi, that was your dad, right?" asked Margo. "Dude, he should chill. When I was sixteen I was partying until 2 am every Friday. My parents didn't care." She paused for a moment. "Huh. Maybe that's why I failed my entrance exam the first time around."

She shook herself. "Buuut this isn't about me. I can totally see his point of view. I mean, you were kidnapped by your ex-boss and forced to eat your boyfriend." She grimaced. "That sounded way worse out loud."

"Not my boyfriend," Karmi muttered. But she had bigger fish to fry. "I guess I have no choice." She was doing a lot of resigned sighing lately. "We'll have to wrap up the project, tell McGucket that we can't hand it in on time. I don't know if our marks will be affected…"

Vicky pulled out a chair next to Karmi, speaking quietly. "Karmi, you of all people don't have to worry about your marks."

"And don't worry about us, either," Margo quipped from the other side of the room. "I'm getting borderline A's- thank goodness my study habits improved- and Vicky's doing great, though she says she's failing."

"Your dad's just looking out for you," Vicky continued, smiling. "We understand."

"Yeah, Professor McGucket's out now for some reason, but he left his briefcase so he must be coming back," Margo said. "When he does, we'll go and let him know. I'm sure he'll get it."

Karmi smiled back. "Thanks, guys. But in the meantime, we'd better get graphing."

The three girls turned back to their respective sections of the project, working together as seamlessly as a cleverly stitched patchwork.

Back at the lobby, Hiro brought his hand to his ear, switching off the feed for now. He looked to his expectant teammates. Thank goodness they hadn't heard any of that.

"Guys, Professor McGucket," Hiro said seriously. "Ring any bells?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"I don't know, Hiro," Wasabi reasoned. "You do have a tendency to… jump to conclusions."

"And every time I did, I was right," Hiro replied. "So, from what I've heard, Karmi and Co are doing this project for one Professor McGucket. Karmi's leaving at 10 pm by car, and all three of them are going to see him to ask for an extension as soon as he comes back."

"Which should be…" he bit his lip, sprinting to the still unoccupied computer at the reception. "I can do an internet hack. This might take some time though…"

Meanwhile, the gang decided to try and get some homework done. Their superhero exploits had left them rather behind on their schoolwork, and luckily most of their work was online. Honey Lemon and Gogo settled into a comfortable pale green couch in the lobby, crouched on either end with a laptop each, their socks meeting in the middle. Wasabi sat down on a clean black chair, quizzing himself on particle physics terms on his phone. And Fred proceeded to try his best to distract them all.

It was nearly 15 minutes before the boy in the chair showed any signs of an outcome.

Hiro's face was making all different kinds of expressions, each one more perplexed than the last. At last, he threw down the mouse on the desk with a clatter and folded his arms.

"There's nothing! No texts, no emails, no scheduled appointments, not even a trace on the internet!" He ran a hand exasperatedly through his hair.

Fred rolled over in a second chair he had gotten from who knows where. He peered over his shoulder. "Wait, so you're saying this guy doesn't use technology? He must be super old."

"No no, he does. He just hasn't left any records of what he's doing today, or when he'll be back."

"Um, isn't that most people?" Gogo said.

"I mean, yeah, I guess. But that was our last hope."

"Last bastion of hope!" Fred exclaimed. And then he read the room. "Oh," he said, getting down from his chair, where he had previously been standing in a power pose.

"Guess we're out of leads then," Hiro sighed.

Across the room, Honey Lemon stared at him. She was, frankly, annoyed. Not at how long this was taking- no, she was all good with that- but at how much Hiro was willing to do to avoid the problem rather than face it. He was not out of leads, and he knew it. She knew he knew it. And she would not stand for another show of ignorance. Those two kids deserved to be happy. And she was going to make sure that they were, or so help her.

She stood up, and without a word, stormed over to Hiro. She lifted him by the armpits out of his chair, and did not stop when he called out, "Hey!". She grabbed both his shoulders and walked him over to the stairs.

Hiro knew where she was taking him. It was the only place left for him to go, anyway. And so he submitted to her manhandling.

"Up the stairs, Hiro!" Honey encouraged, giving him a final push.

Hiro smiled grimly, stopping one stair up to look back at her. She gave him a cheery thumbs-up, and he knew he was only postponing the inevitable.

Of course he had to ask Karmi for help. Why did he have to keep getting thrown curveballs by the universe? Couldn't a ball ever just come straight at him for once? Because right now, Hiro genuinely didn't know what the right thing to do was. If he didn't ask Karmi for help, the whole city could be in danger. He knew that. But if he did, then she would be in danger. Involving her in this at all meant whoever the bad guy was (probably either the receptionist or Di, but hey, maybe not) might harm her for information. And if her biotech smarts were being exploited, it wouldn't be the first time. But even if no harm came to her, and she was just involved, her parents might take her away once they learned what had happened, and something was bound to happen. Then she would be gone.

Probably for good this time.

Hiro felt like scrunching up his hair in his hands. Who was he, anyway? Was he Captain Cutie, leader of Big Hero 6 and fighter for justice? Or was he Hiro, a more-or-less regular kid who didn't want his friend to leave again? If he was both, then that just made the decision so much harder.

But Karmi only knew him as Hiro Hamada, boy genius and friend. If he dragged her into this mess, she would lose faith in him. She'd never trust him again.

She'd storm away from Hiro too, just as she had done with Captain Cutie.

Hiro took a deep breath in, then out. He wasn't ready, but then again, he never would be.

He grabbed the door handle.

Time to face the bear.

Author's Note

sigh Yes, Karmi's dad is based pretty heavily on my dad. But I find that characters based on people in real life come to life much better. So, thanks dad! For always looking out for me… too much…

'Beti' means 'daughter' in Hindi, in case you were wondering!

I quite like the idea of Honey Lemon being the 'mom' of their group of friends. Maybe Tadashi would have filled that role before he died, but Honey's starting to grow into it. She's deeply caring, but fierce about it too.

I know the updates are coming slow, but they are coming, so hang tight! I've got a lot planned for the finale, so follow if you don't want to miss it.

Thank you to all those who have reviewed so far! ️