Chapter Text
Karmi's POV
Karmi's cursor hovered over the comment section. Most of the comments were filled with things like "amazing!" Or "Captain Cutie is the best!", and a lot from @FredaLicious24 who's profile pic looked a lot like one of Hiro's weirdo friends. Seriously, like half of the comments were from this guy.
There was only one that concerned her.
@h@rdlightthebe$t
Love the work, Karmi.
And thx 4 the inspiration.
Big Hero 6 will never know what happened.
After a little googling, she found a news clip. He was a video game based villain who had tried to defeat Big Hero 6, and lost. Like every other villain.
Even so, Hardlight's comment was concerning. Richardson Mole had reached out to her earlier that week to talk about an opportunity to do a meet-and-greet at his store in San Fransokyo. Karmi still had no intention to miss this. An opportunity to go back to San Fransokyo, even if just for a little bit, would be awesome. So she had to come up with a plan.
Tapping a pencil against her chin, she spun around in her chair. A falling piano might be effective, but not practical. She really didn't have anything that could relate to this.
Frustrated, she turned back to her computer. For about the hundredth time, she replayed the clip with Hardlight. Big Hero 6 was positioned below him, while Hardlight was sitting on a little floating table thing. He was holding a sword made of little pink pixels. With another click, she moved over to a Krei Tech page. With a little digging, she had found a failed experiment to make technology like Hardlight's.
Slowly, an idea started to grow in Karmi's brain. If only she could-
The thought was interrupted by a shout from the kitchen.
"Karmi!" Her mom shouted.
"Coming!" Karmi hid the tabs on her computer, and then pushed herself out of her chair and towards the door. On the way out, her eyes caught on her phone. It was still open to text, with Hiro's number at the top. It was stupid, she knew, she would probably never see him again. But still, she resisted the temptation to click the little green "call" button at least a few times a day. Each time, she told herself that there was no reason she should want to call him. After all, she hated Hiro. Right?
With a sigh, Karmi headed into the kitchen.
Both of her parents were sitting at the table, neither looking happy, but neither looking mad either.
"Sit." Her mom said. "We need to talk."
Karmi slid a chair out, and sat down. "If this is about that pathogen I spilled yesterday, I promise I disinfected-"
"No, no." Her mom pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn't exactly love Karmi's experiments, especially once she came back from SFIT. Karmi had nowhere else to put all of the things she had brought back, so all of her equipment went to her mom's old office. Which was a fitness room while Karmi was away, and became a laboratory when she returned.
"Okay," Karmi ventured. "Then what?"
Her mom pursed her lips together. "Your father and I have decided that maybe, it's time."
"Time for what?" Karmi felt the barest glimmer of hope in her chest. Maybe, just maybe.
"We've decided that it's time that you return to San Fransokyo." Her father finished.
"What?" Karmi exclaimed. "Seriously?"
"And," her father continued, ignoring her outburst. "By extension SFIT."
Karmi jumped straight out of her chair. "Seriously? You mean I get to go back?"
"Yes." Her mom wiped a sudden tear from her cheek. "Big Hero 6 seems to have everything figured out over there. And you seem so lonely, it'll be good for you."
"Thank you so much." Karmi wrapped her mom in a hug, suddenly feeling a little weepy herself.
Karmi was so excited, she barely slept. She had to notify professor Granville, and get all of her stuff packed and-
Her eyes landed once again on her phone. She picked it up, staring once again at Hiro's profile. She debated for a second, and then clicked on it.
It rang one or two times, and Karmi was almost about to cancel it when the call went through.
"Uh, hey, Karmi," Hiro's voice came through.
"Hi!" She squeaked. She cleared her throat. "How have you been doing?"
"Fine. Great. Boring." Hiro paused. "It's been pretty boring since you left. Only one monster tried to attack my Aunt Cass's cafe. Which is good. Usually it's like 5. It's a popular spot."
Karmi could feel her chest loosening, and a laugh escaped. "That's good."
"Yep. The bills are happy, at least. So why are you calling? Not that I'm sad. But just, yeah?"
You can do it. "I got invited to do an event. For my series. Big Chibi 6? And I was wondering if you wanted to come?" Stupid stupid stupid stupid.
"Uh, yeah, sure.
Frustrated, Kami hit her head against her desk a few times. And for good measure, she chucked her phone at her bed.
"Why didn't you just tell him?" She asked herself. "Instead you had to invite him to your stupid event!"
Karmi collapsed on her bed, trying not to wallow in self pity. She only did it for maybe 10 minutes. Then it was business time. Her call with Hiro had reminded her of something. After working on the Liv project with Hiro, Karmi had realized how cool and useful robotics could be. She had spent hours on courses claiming to teach you everything you needed to do. With much trial and error, she had mostly figured it out. Mostly.
Her idea was now fully formed. Taking inspiration from Hardlight's glove, she started to create one of her own. Using YouTube tutorials, she figured out most of it, with the help of the Krei Tech schematics.
After hours and hours of work, it was finished. Karmi had nothing to test it on. She only knew that it hadn't blown up, which was definitely a good thing. The only way she would know if it worked was if she got to try it out. That was a little terrifying, but Karmi had a good feeling about it.
After one last goodbye to her parents Karmi boarded the plane, taking her all the way across the country to San Fransokyo. Her parents were way too scared to try and come over there, especially with what happened to her. But she was fine now, and Big Hero 6 would be there anyways.
It took forever to get there. When she finally touched down, Karmi took a deep breath of San Fransokyo air. It didn't taste any different than other places' air, but it felt significant.
Karmi shouldered her backpack, and bushed her hair out of her eyes. It then occurred to her that she had forgotten to get a ride out of the airport. Or too SFIT, which was across the city. That was...unfortunate.
On her phone, she pulled up a map of San Fransokyo, and traced her path. And what were those green lines again?
She almost slapped herself. She could either take the [name of metro thing], or one of the many cable cars around the city. Back where she had lived, it was a car or your own two feet. After a 10 hour flight, Karmi didn't feel like using them.
She quickly found the stop by the airport, and boarded the next train to SFIT campus. Along the way, Karmi could barely contain herself. Anxiety was pulling at every fiber of her, taking over every artery and cell. Professor Granville had requested that Karmi come meet with her, to discuss schedules and a dorm. She then had to move everything into her room and back into her lab. And what if her lab wasn't hers anymore? Maybe Professor Granville gave it out to someone else, and she was going to have to wait another semester for one? What then?
Her thoughts kept racing until the train skidded to a stop in front of SFIT, the doors opening to reveal the same school that had been there before. Nothing had changed.
Karmi let out a big, shuddering breath, then lugged her luggage off of the platform. Everything about it felt wrong. When she left, well, the circumstances weren't great. Being turned into a monster-thing by your boss really dampens the mood. She hadn't gotten to say any goodbyes before she had woken up in the hospital when her parents' panicked call informed her that she was leaving.
From here, Karmi could almost see the Sycorax building. She could imagine the green glass panels, and the high tech robots flying everywhere, and all of the people discussing what she thought was a better future. Instead, she had helped the bad guy. It could have been her fault that Hiro got hurt. Or worse.
Without thinking, Karmi started walking the path she had taken every day from SFIT to Sycorax. Many times she had run down, her mind filled with some new way to impress Liv Amara.
No, she corrected herself. Not Liv. Di. She had trusted the person she thought was Liv to the point of helping, unknowingly, with her monster projects. She believed every lie that came out of her mouth, every single excuse she had for why Karmi needed to stay away from that, or work on this.
A shadow fell over Karmi, and she looked up. The Sycorax building. It looked completely different from what it had looked the last time she had seen it. There was a sign in front of it that said "CONDEMNED", and spray painted over the big Sycorax sign was "Krei Tech". Krei Tech. That was ironic. That was the competing company for Sycorax, the one everyone had thought was the one doing the shady business dealings and cutting corners. Turns out Sycorax was the one making literal monsters.
For a minute, Karmi considered going in. But she quickly shook herself out of it.
"Time for a meeting." She told herself sternly, then checked her watch. "And it's going to have to be a short one."
"Sit down." Professor Granville gestured to the seat in front of her. Karmi quickly took a seat, pressing her knees together. She had forgotten how small Granville's office made her feel.
"Now, about your reapplication to SFIT,"
Karmi tensed, waiting to hear that it had been declined.
"We are very excited to have you back. You did incredible work here, and you would be a great re-addition to our school. And if you ever need to talk to anyone here, I'm always available. We also have a resident medical robot," Granville paused here, her eyebrow raising slightly. Karmi could feel her cheeks grow red under Granville's eyes. "Who is regularly available." She continued. "Your dorm should be ready. You were supposed to have a roommate, Honey Lemon, I suppose you've met her. She was supposed to be your roommate, but she decided to stay off campus, so you should have a room to yourself. And your lab is just as you left it." Granville stood up, her briefing apparently over. "You should have received an email with your dorm information enclosed. I shall see you in my class, next week I hope." She ushered Karmi out, leaving her standing back in the hallway with her luggage.
She checked her phone, and she saw the email. And again, it was all the way across campus. Slowly, she gathered back up her things. On her way out of the hallway, she heard talking coming from Professor Granville's office. Strange. She hadn't seen anyone else go in there after her.
Probably just a TV show or a call of something, she told herself, brushing it off.