Chapter Text
Momakase wasn't sure how she ended up there; just moments ago she had been escaping from the police after deciding that her way of thanking her partner for helping her recover what was rightfully hers would be to get rid of the nosy police officers who were bothering him and his foolish friends. Because, seriously, who in their right mind would think it a good idea to put a manhunt on the only group of people who had kept this city running despite the numerous threats they'd handled?
She was rambling.
Even though she still didn't understand how she'd gotten there, she should take this opportunity to observe and secure her surroundings. Her first impression was that it looked like a twisted version of a movie theater. There was a giant screen on one of the walls, currently unlit, and a bunch of seats arranged in front of it, some facing the screen and others in random directions. The rest of the place was unremarkable, except that, for some reason, she couldn't see any doors or hatches, whether in the walls, floor, or ceiling.
(That makes her more nervous than anything else.)
She paces the room a couple more times, toying with one of her knives (which thankfully she still had with her; whoever thought of capturing her clearly didn't know her well enough), until she stops dead in her tracks when she sees a hole of bright, overlapping colors suddenly open in the wall opposite her.
From the pink and purple hole emerges (or rather, is expelled) a person she's grown quite familiar with, though she can't say whether her previously neutral opinion of him still holds true.
(Don't think about it, Momakase. It wasn't your business then, and it still isn't now. That was just a job.)
In front of her, the other person stands elegantly, a dead man staring back at her. He doesn't look much different from how she thought he'd look when the place exploded (at least that's what she heard from the hamburger robot when she saw it stealing metal parts in Good Luck Alley), but Obake seems to be the kind of person who, even covered in dirt and scratches, always looks presentable, and with a single glance can demonstrate in a room full of people that everyone there is inferior to him in every way imaginable.
She silently follows Obake with her eyes as he does the same thing she did when she arrived, observing the entire place with an analytical eye and probably also drawing his own conclusions, which he won't share unless he finds a way to profit from that information. After a few seconds, he approaches her, not with the gaze of a man who, just moments before, seemed to have one foot in the grave and was about to place the other, but with the eyes of someone determined to make the most of this hermetically sealed room filled with nothing but a random pile of chairs and a screen attached to the wall.
"Momakase," he began in a friendly tone, but his voice was somewhat raspy, probably from a combination of disuse and the dust it had accumulated, if she had to guess, "I must assume you don't know where we are or why we changed location, right?"
She rolled her eyes, already remembering how much she hated that tone of voice that always managed to sound contemptuous even when she knew it wasn't. She'd done her best to ignore it while working under him, and now she really didn't have to keep doing it, but she didn't think antagonizing (literally) her best chance of escaping that glorified box was a good idea, so she simply nodded.
Obake and she recapped what they'd been doing before ending up there, trying to find a common thread, but they had no luck. Both situations were completely different, not to mention the apparent time gap between them. Obake didn't seem surprised when she mentioned the number of months that had passed since the creation and death of his star, probably considering the implications of that himself. What certainly caused a change in his expression was the mention of the kid and his involvement in the last robbery she committed—a strange mix of glee and resignation.
Why? She didn't know, nor did she plan to find out. He had his own plans for the kid, which obviously failed. Who knows what he's thinking now, and she doesn't want to get involved either.
She opens her mouth to say something else, but is interrupted by the sudden sound of four more holes (portals, she corrects herself, remembering Obake's theory and explanation) opening again at the opposite end of the room.
A woman and three men.
She's at least superficially familiar with all of them, she's not sure about Obake, and she's not keen on the idea of making introductions, so she simply remains silent and watches the scene unfold before her.
Two wanted criminals, two civilians, a businessman, and a police officer.
The kid would probably say it's the start of a bad joke, she thinks, amused, but every second she spends in that room confuses her more. Is there really a purpose behind these kidnappings? The group's diversity is too strange and leaves little to the imagination. She simply wants the "mastermind" behind this to come forward and explain everything. What she'll do about the demands and threats made against her, she'll figure out later.
The new guests rise from the floor, each at their own pace. It doesn't surprise her that the first is the dean of SFIT. After fighting with her when she worked for the owner of Sycorax, she suspects there's more to her resume than teaching, but until it proves useful, she won't pry. Next up is Chief Cruz, who seems a bit more dazed than the dean (she wonders what situation he was in before being dragged here).
Once again, she has a dead person in front of her, although this Tadashi Hamada doesn't resemble the one in the photos from the kid's garage (how far back in time can those supposed portals go?). And finally, and much less importantly, a face she doesn't absolutely hate simply because Yama already occupies that spot: Alistair Krei. Although, for once, the guy isn't dressed in a formal suit, instead, he looks like he's just come from a hike (and not a very pleasant one for him, too) in the Muirahara forest.
Once they're on their feet, they repeat the whole process of observing their surroundings. Their expressions are varied, but all contain just the right amount of surprise.
She's grateful she arrived first; no one else was watching her end up in this place, and how she reacts—whether she ignores her kidnapper or not—she's not even really sure they're being watched. She was certain of that at first when she didn't find any hidden cameras or microphones, another odd thing in her situation.
"Bob?" She quickly fixes her gaze on the dean. "What are you doing here? I thought... What is this place?"
Now she's confused. Who is she talking to? There's no Bob there, unless that's the name of the police chief, but for some reason, she doubts it. Her suspicions are confirmed when she sees Obake's stoic expression sour almost comically fast. She mentally pats herself on the back for managing to stifle a laugh. What a name for the man who almost destroyed San Fransokyo, right? She watches Obake roll his eyes back and walk away to another part of the room. The dean follows him with a determined stride.
The three remaining people are still where they were, though they're currently in their own worlds. Krei seems to have seen a ghost, which is fair enough; the police chief still looks incredibly confused (Momakase doesn't know whether to be surprised or offended that she hasn't been noticed yet—is this really the man who claims to arrest the Big Hero 6?); and the boy's brother simply looks lost, covered in grease and paint—he was probably working on some invention before being dragged here.
Suddenly, the sound of a device being switched on echoes throughout the room, drawing everyone's attention to the giant screen on the wall. All that can be seen is flashing text.
SIT, WATCH, AND LEARN.
Immediately the room fills with noise (not from the screen, thankfully; she believes that in that case she would have gone deaf simply from the sheer volume of the previous action), a multitude of people trying to raise their voices above each other, but all partially expressing the same thing.
Confusion.
Obake, sometime between the device turning on and the shouts of the others, had ended up by her side again.
"What do you think about this?" simply asks.
"I don't know, but I think it will be interesting anyway."
The text on the giant screen changes; the shouts have now subsided enough for the dean's voice to be heard.
"Take a seat, observe, understand." She reads.
Everyone watches the screen a little longer, but the text remains the same, so they silently reach a unanimous vote and all move to the center of the room.
"What do they mean by 'learning' and 'understanding'? Are they planning to show us something incredibly revolutionary?" It's Brother Hamada who says this, his voice drawing glances, some analytical, others barely concealing their terror.
"It seems so, at least." This time it's Chief Cruz. "Perhaps it's invaluable information."
"That probably depends on the value each person places on that kind of information, and I doubt we all have the same value. It must refer to something else." The dean says, without a doubt or contradiction.
"Well, I doubt we'll get anywhere just by talking," Krei exclaimed, using his businessman's voice. "I think we should do what the screen says."
She and Obake exchanged a glance, agreeing with the proposed method, but they didn't want to draw attention to themselves just yet—that would be problematic with a police officer in the room. Obake might go unnoticed; Chief Cruz wasn't even part of the San Fransokyo force during his active duty. But she was a different story, especially considering she was still wearing her stealth suit.
The other four continued debating what to do, still without reaching an agreement. Momakase partially distanced herself from the conversation, glancing around the room again. Her eyes sharpened as she noticed something new. She quickly caught Obake's attention, and they headed to the table in front of the screen, which certainly wasn't there before. On top of it was a remote control, and the text on the screen had changed again.
PLAY?
YES NO
She sighs to herself; there goes her temporary anonymity.
"The text changed again, and a remote control appeared," she says dully, rolling her eyes as she hears the officer shout her name and multiple threats of arrest. The other people, excluding Obake, finally notice her.
The dean frowns, which is incredibly fair after what happened the first (and last, technically) time they met. The kid's brother (she will simply call him Hamada, she doesn't know him and doesn't plan to) looks confused, but no less suspicious, and the businessman simply pales enough to worry a blood pressure specialist.
She'd be flattered if the guy she was running from probably no more than half an hour ago wasn't yelling at her at an incredibly loud volume as if he weren't already standing next to her and she were deaf.
Just rude.
The police chief continues yelling as he pulls handcuffs from his pocket. Seeing this, she wastes no time dodging him, moving to the other side of the room in seconds, the handcuffs now in her own hand. Cruz looks confused as he registers the change in his situation. Momakase just smiles; she always finds it hilarious to mess with these particular types of idiots.
She locks eyes with Obake, who just shakes his head, his brow furrowed and everything! Someone needs to remind him that he's not her boss anymore, but Momakase has better things to do than mock an incompetent cop, so she puts the handcuffs in one of her pockets and speaks.
"Since neither I nor anyone else here has time for your games, I'm going to summarize our situation. We're all trapped here, and whatever we do to escape will be a team effort, so I think the most convenient thing right now is... to put our differences aside." She takes a deep breath before continuing, fed up with the whole thing. "Sure, you can keep trying to arrest me, but sooner or later you'll run out of handcuffs, and everyone else here will get bored of hearing you scream. It's your choice."
The police chief looked like he'd bitten into a lemon, judging by the way his expression tightened. He seemed to ponder what she'd said for a few seconds, while the rest of the room waited for his verdict, some more bored than others. In the end, he arrived at the only possible conclusion based on the points she'd made clear.
"Fine! But I want to make it clear that I don't like any of this situation, and if we were in the city, you'd already be on your way back to prison."
"Of course, chief. Remember, this will only be necessary until we figure out how to get out and we manage it."
The man snorted and addressed the others, including Obake, which was an amusing sight. He warned them that she was a dangerous criminal and obviously not to be trusted. Krei thought it appropriate to add a description of their previous encounters, and she thankfully managed to stifle the laughter provoked by the expressions of the policeman and Hamada. The dean was obviously not surprised, but she didn't add anything further either (which makes sense; she met her when she tried to save the Big Hero 6 after locking them up on Diane's orders—not exactly information to share with an officer who hates vigilantes and their associates).
Then the conversation was interrupted by a cough. Obake, back at the table in front of the screen, drew everyone's attention to what she had said earlier. The rest had no problem listening to a supposed civilian like most of them, so they decided, with her listening at a safe distance for the officer's comfort (more out of her own need than to follow her wishes of not having civilians near her), to each go to one of the available seats and press Play on the video on the screen.