Prologue

The automatic doors whissed open, allowing Obake to step into his control room. The hue of the monitors bathed the entire room in a sickly green color, barely illuminating the various tools and half-finished projects scattered on the various worktables and computer consoles. Somewhere, something dripped water, a side effect of having a hidden underwater lair, but the mad genius paid it no mind as he started typing at his keyboard. Within a matter of days, the city of San Fransokyo would be decimated so it could be rebuilt as a utopia for progress and forward thinkers like himself. His plan was in motion, all the gears turning, and the machine could not be stopped. His victory was assured. And yet…

Obake frowned as he looked through all the details of his master plan. It was perfect, not a thing out of place. There was no way to stop it. So why did he have this weird feeling in the back of his mind? What was that? It wasn't the radioactive tumor in his head, he was well used to that feeling by now. No, this wasn't physical, this was something else. Was that… doubt? Absurd. Of course not. Obake hadn't felt that in years. Even when encountering minor setbacks, he still knew what he was doing. The only time when one of his plans went awry was when a component let him down unexpectedly, like a computer chip corroding due to overuse, or a hard drive failing. Although, while these types of complications were unpredictable, they were manageable. Obake always had spares of everything on hand and had five redundancy hard-drives as backups should something happen to his computer. He was nothing if not prepared.

If he were to compare his master plan to another of his tech projects, then that would make the people he'd been forced to involve in it the components same as any other tool he'd used thus far. And people are far more unpredictable than computer parts. Well… people might be a stretch, as not everyone he'd come into contact with recently could be described as human. The first was Yama, a small-time gangster that Obake had employed as an errand boy. The obese degenerate was far more interested in furthering his own greed than trying to contribute anything to society but had his uses. While he could be relied on to complete simple tasks at first, that quickly came to an end when a certain team of superheroes popped up. But Obake was getting ahead of himself.

The next "person" he employed was a two-bit criminal that up until recently had indeed been human. After an accident, the incompetent thief "Dibs" had been transformed into a gelatinous abomination and had been uncreatively been renamed "Globby". While unsettled at first, Globby took to his new powers and started to succeed where Yama had been failing, procuring items and seeding doubt in the city's self-proclaimed heroes. While he had proven useful, Obake wasn't sure that the creature had it in him to completely go through with the plan once he realized the extent of it. Somewhere down the line, Globby might become an issue, but where would he have to run? To a city moments away from being submerged under a tidal wave? Whatever issues Globby might create in the future would most likely sort themselves out.

The "Mad Jacks" were Obake's next henchmen, but they were mere mercenaries and left the city once their contract was complete. The second member of Obake's unruly band of would-be supervillains was not one he would have initially gone with, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. A mechanized robot mascot from the popular Asian-American mixed fast-food restaurant called "Noodle Burger Boy". The little twerp was equally as annoying to Obake as it was the city's heroes, leading to multiple instances of Obake just outright switching him off and leaving him sitting where he was until needed again. As he was now, in fact, leaning against the computer with the insolent smile permanently painted on his face. Obake used his foot to slide Noodle Burger Boy another foot or so away from him just so the bot wouldn't be in his peripheral vision. If Krei Tech hadn't been so lazy when asked by Noodle Burger to design them a robot mascot, perhaps Obake would've had a much more intimidating war bot instead of the burger clown the original militarized drone had been repurposed into. Still, everything has its uses, annoying or not.

The next addition to Obake's team would be his favorite. Agile, efficient, and with a sadistic side very similar to his, the ninja-like thief Momakase was in reality the only other real "person" on the team, as most humans would be averse to a plot designed to decimate an entire city. Momakase on the other hand didn't care. No bank, jewelry story, or rich socialite's mansion was safe from her skills at espionage or her graphene blades. She hardly cared for what she stole, however. She was in the crime game for the thrill of it, perhaps enjoying the chase a bit too much for Obake's total liking, but she was by far the most competent member of the team asides from himself.

The final member of the team was his soon-to-be second greatest achievement, an android so lifelike and advanced it could easily slip around in the city unnoticed. So advanced was the android that it had even developed a personality of its own, giving itself the name Trina. Trina had been invaluable in setting up many details of his plan, acting in his stead to stealth fully hack into many areas of San Fransokyo such as traffic cameras and Yama's building. Once New San Fransokyo rose from the depths of its predecessor, he saw big things in Trina's future as the one to carry his ideas forward, as unfortunately, Obake probably wouldn't be around long enough to see it.

The tumor in his brain chose that moment to pulse, causing the left side of his face to glow a bright pink. At the rate it was progressing, the genius had perhaps a few years left to live, if not shorter. That is why the second Great Catastrophe must happen now, or else he won't be around to revel in his victory, or even take credit for it. Everything is ready, his team has completed their tasks, and all the safeguards are in place… so why can't he shake the feeling that something is wrong? Call it doubt if he must, Obake knows what the cause of it is. An entertaining if not still troublesome thorn in his side known as Big Hero 6. He'd managed to use them to his advantage thus far, but they were tenacious and smarter than the average person, most of them geniuses in their own rights.

While unlikely… it was possible that the so called "Big Heroes" would do something to disrupt his plan. They couldn't completely stop it, but if they could even potentially lessen the blast radius of the overloading energy amplifier…

Obake swiftly typed at his controls to bring up the personnel files he'd collected on the team. In all honestly, what they had accomplished was impressive, amusing him when he watched their first exploits at Krei Tech some months prior. While he had collected the full names of the heroes, he couldn't stop himself from using the nicknames that had been assigned to them. Four of the six were students of his former alma matter the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology (or SFIT for short). The first, a biochemist nicknamed "Honey Lemon". The girl had showed promise from a young age and had the potential to revolutionize the field of chemical engineering. However, she had a strong sense of "right" and "wrong", and a devotion to her friends that unfortunately meant she was an obstacle that would need to be removed despite her potential.

The next, Wasabi, who excelled in applied physics. His energy beam would make the world a cleaner place if applied to something such as waste management, disintegrating garbage without the side effects of burning or crushing and compacting it. Wasabi had the potential to become very rich, or make another company very rich, with his designs and make the world a better place at the same time. Despite all evidence to the contrary, however, the young man continuously overcomes his fears of danger and uncleanliness, following the other heroes into whatever danger they find themselves in. At one-point Obake had thought it would be possible to recruit him, but after further study, he discarded that hypothesis.

The speedster of the group Go Go Tomago was never going to be a candidate for recruiting. While she is quite skilled at mechanical engineering, her tough exterior, stubbornness, but kind heart means that it was only a matter of time before she found herself in some form of public service. Go Go isn't the type to back down from a fight, either, and would likely be the first in line with an armed fist if Obake had publicly announced his plans to the world like the cretin Baron Von Steamer was known to do.

Tangentially related to Steamer, Obake shifted his eyes over to the next profile and simultaneously rolled them at the much-too-happy face of Frederick Frederickson IV, or just "Fred" for short. Son of the wealthy Frederick Frederickson III and heir to the Frederickson fortune, Fred obviously acts as the team's benefactor. While the boy has a similar moral code to his compatriots, he dons his lizard costume more for the fun of being a superhero, taking delight in the battles and life-or-death situations he finds himself in. Despite preferring to stay on his own and believing solitude to be a healthy thing, Obake still thinks Fred probably needed to socialize more when he was younger instead of reading comic books in his room. The man child will probably at least take heart knowing that he will end up going down in history as one of the six heroes that failed to stop the second Great Catastrophe.

Finally, the last two members of the team. One, a robot named Baymax that while advanced in many areas, pales in comparison to Trina. The other, the bot's owner: Hiro Hamada. The boy showed… promise. He was nearly as smart as Obake himself, graduating high school at 13. He briefly wasted his talents as a bot fighter before his late brother Tadashi encouraged him to enroll at SFIT. Following his brother's death in a fire and wanting revenge, Hiro and his friends formed the "Big Hero 6" team to take down the person responsible for the fire, a professor at SFIT, Robert Callaghan. Since "Yokai's" defeat (Obake will never understand needing to give silly names to everything), Hamada and his team have divided their time between being students at SFIT and defending San Fransokyo from the various criminals and super villains that have popped up, many of them indirectly working for Obake himself. Everything about Hamada's intelligence and upbringing suggest that Hiro would be perfect to carry on Obake's legacy. Together, he and Trina could make San Fransokyo the oasis of progress and unfettered technological advancements Obake had always dreamed of.

Society doesn't progress by abiding by guidelines or restrictions. His former professor had taught him that. If humanity is to evolve, it needs a push like this. A massive disaster to give way to something better. Hopefully Hiro would see it that way.

Obake pulls up a live feed of Hiro's private workstation at SFIT and grins. Already the boy is working on the energy amplifier based on Lenore Shimamoto's notes, and within a few short days, or even hours, Obake would be ready to strike and use it for its true intended purpose. He was confident that everything would go as planned. But still…

Obake lowered his head and growled in frustration. Why is the doubt still there? That nagging feeling at the back of his mind that Hamada won't see reason and disrupt his plan? Obake threw a stack of notes off the computer console in a rage.

Fine.

His plan is going to work, he knows it will, but it never hurts to be prepared for any eventuality. So, on the off chance it doesn't… he needs a backup. A contingency. Something to assure that his work and legacy will live on. Obake begins furiously typing in commands on the computer, bringing up Trina's profile and original code. She's advanced enough that no matter should anything happen to him, she'll keep fighting for his ideas and forming her own. But letting her find her own path seems so… impersonal. It lacks his own touch. Somehow, someway, he needs to be involved.

Obake pulls up the file on Shimamoto and flips through the digital pages of her journal. He stops on page 47 and frowns. Scrawled along the top is three sets of numbers. He'd seen them before but hadn't been able to decipher their meaning. They weren't combinations of elements from the periodic table, they weren't dates or times, they weren't even references back to previous pages in the journal. So, what were they?

The computer pinged, showing one of the Big Hero 6 team members on the move. The Fredrickson boy, leaving Yaki Taco with an order of lunch. The exact coordinates popped up in real-time, tracking him as he traveled throughout the city.

Wait. Coordinates.

Obake punched in more commands on the computer. Simultaneously, three stolen Buddy Guards from Krei Tech left their hiding spots in the city, each traveling to one set of digits that Shimamoto had left in her journal. After a few minutes, live feeds from the Buddy Guards came in, night vision mode enhancing the images. Obake smiled. This was promising. Very promising. Obake recalled the buddy guards, a new plan already forming in his mind. As much as he'd prefer for Trina to carry this information, should she be captured, her data would most likely be searched and scoured. Globby or Momakase wouldn't do either. Globby would probably forget in his stupidity, and Momakase might decide to move on and forget about his plans once Obake was gone. So that only left one option. Hide it where no one would ever think to look.

Obake reached down and flipped the power switch on Noodle Burger Boy on. Time was of the essence as Hamada continued work on the energy amplifier, but he should be able to get this accomplished. Noodle's eyes glowed purple as he powered on, straightening up to regard Obake.

"Howdy and hello, mister!" Noddle said enthusiastically with a disgustingly cute little mascot wave. "Do you have another special order you want me to get for you?"

"Yes, I have a very special order in mind."

Obake grinned, his face glowing pink.