1Scare to Care
"Come one, come all to the final night of the Frederickson Frights for Fundraising charity event," Fred proclaimed loudly to people walking by on this Halloween night.
In the ever-increasing lists of benefits the young superhero's family sponsored, his parents thought to put on a haunted house in order to help raise money to build houses for the less fortunate. Once his mother told Fred about it a few weeks before, he eagerly asked his fellow superheroes (Globby included) if they'd want to help. Although there was some initial hesitation because of last year's incident, they all agreed to help with setting it up and helping to run it.
After Fred's parents took care of the renting an abandoned (but not condemned) large two-story building in a relatively high traffic area of San Fransokyo, the team went to work. It was dark brown in color that showed signs of fading with age as well as black shingles on the roof and there were a few windows broken that would surely need to be replace. Hiro, Wasabi and Go Go proceeded to work on outfitting the inside of the structure for the fake haunting. The teen genius came up with the idea to install a smaller version of Sim-Max inside the rooms in order to create a realistic (but safe) environment that could come in a variety of forms. The terror level would be based on what the customer wanted and would take age into consideration as to what might be scary or not. For each person entering, they'd wear a bracelet set to the appropriate mark and would act as the command to change Sim-Max's projections; in addition to the holograms, there was also the lighting, speakers and camera systems to set up for monitoring everything inside and out.
For the other heroes partaking in this event, Honey Lemon's job was creating fog balls for the spooky ambience prior to entering the building as well as would have a mad scientist room all to herself for creating scary-looking chemical reactions; Fred would be the master of ceremonies/barker, trying to get people to buy a ticket (if they hadn't already seen the advertisement for the event) and also help set the mood before they entered; lastly, Globby was for the end of the trek through the house where he'd surprise the patrons by turning into something they'd requested when they bought their pass and get a quick photo with them. Once the people were back outside, a decorative bucket of candy would be theirs to collect as they'd leave the bracelets behind; of course, with Globby involved, Felony Carl volunteered to help out too and handle the table so as to free up one of the superheroes should trouble arise.
When everyone was made aware of their parts and after a couple weeks of setting it up/making sure it worked, the haunted house was ready to run. With Halloween being on a Monday this year, the Fredericksons decided to have it run for 5 days from 7pm to midnight before ending on the beloved holiday. Big Hero 6 and Globby had already worked the first 4 nights without much trouble as there were only two times some of the heroes had to leave briefly in order to deal with Baron von Steamer and another to stop an armored car robbery.
Now it was Halloween night and although it was a school night for many a kid in San Fransokyo, that didn't stop them from showing up in costume with their parents along with various other citizens, most of whom were dressed up too; a long line about 200ft stretched back from the rusted gate doors that lead inside. Wasabi was on admissions duty tonight as he sat at the grey table outside the entrance dressed up as a banana this year instead of a pineapple (he had claimed it was a scary costume too on account of the radioactive potassium 40). Fred was off to his left next to the adjacent gate door doing his best to lure customers over. He was currently dressed as a zombie master of ceremonies, complete with a cobweb-covered black top hat, ripped pants and sleeves on his red and black suit, and had a sickly grey green paint job with a few stitches on his cheeks. Mini-Max was helping out tonight too since he didn't get to experience Halloween with everyone last year and him practicing his sneaking skills meant he could surprise the patrons before they even entered the haunted house. He was currently dressed as a skeleton and hiding among the various joke tombstones that decorated the front lawn along with Honey Lemon-supplied fog that creeped low to the ground.
"There you go," Wasabi politely said as he handed a mom and her daughter their bracelets.
"How's it going Wasabi?" Fred asked, taking a brief break to get a drink of water.
"It's going pretty well. Got a nice rhythm going and unsurprisingly most people want photos of Big Hero 6 or horror movie monsters," he answered with a sly smile as he waited for the next set of customers to fill out their photo request and scare level. The next person that stepped up was a teenage girl dressed up as a witch and wearing a dark green costume along with a hat and broomstick. She proceeded to give Wasabi the $10 fee and her slip.
"Thank you," the physicist said as he entered the data into his tablet, put the money in the lock box and grabbed the appropriate bracelet for her. "Have a good time."
"Thanks."
Wasabi smiled and proceeded to move onto the next patron: a short-statured person in a black robe with a grim reaper mask who quickly gave him the sheet and money. The banana-wearing man typed and simply said, "Alright. Enjoy," but only receiving a nod in return. Wasabi then focused on a young couple in their early 20s dressed as Frankenstein's monster and his bride.
"Love the detail on your costumes," came the voice of Fred as he complimented them and garnering a quick thanks from them as they paid Wasabi. The zombie barker then heard a brief high-pitched scream that sounded near and gave a small chuckle. Mini-Max must have got the drop on someone, he deduced with glee.
While the line was moving, inside multiple people were getting a real thrilling experience. As the guests moved through the rooms, they would appear to be walking through a spooky forest, a crypt, a vampire's lair, a mad scientist's lab, and so many more. The sounds of heavy breathing, feeling like you were being watched, seeing glowing red eyes through the mist, or a coffin creaking open were just some of the added ambience settings that could make a room creepy to terrifying. Every room was decked out with Sim-Max except for Honey Lemon and Globby's rooms since theirs relatively remained constant.
Currently, Baymax was resigning with Hiro and Go Go in a top-floor room in the very back as they monitored all the people and the systems, making sure everything was working properly and that no one suffered any ill effects. The inflatable robot was without costume as it might hinder his healthcare capabilities while Hiro decided to go as an alien superhero. It was red for the majority of the outfit with silver on the arms and boots as well as a silvery mask that had a small fin and giant yellow eyes. (He had gotten the mask a couple years ago, but it was too big at the time to comfortable wear. He had also done a little trick or treating on the way over so he had some sweets to hold him over). Go Go had opted just to put on a simple devil horns headband, mainly because she didn't want to hear Fred claim she didn't care or was just going to wear the same thing she wore last year. In addition, all the heroes had their gear stashed away in the security office in case of emergency, but so far it was quiet.
"Looks like Honey Lemon's fully embracing her mad scientist role," the engineer commented as she watched the chemist make another blast of green smoke coupled with some unstable facial expressions.
"Yep. Probably for the best we keep everyone 10ft away while she's mixing," Hiro lightheartedly joked as he watched. The teen genius then felt his phone buzz as he got a text message, so he set his Sim-Max tablet down, pulled out his phone and read the notice. "Oh. Felony Carl says it looks like we're running low on buckets. Better alert Globby to make some more when he gets a minute. Good thing we went overboard on candy at least," Hiro informed Go Go as he began typing.
"Yeah, something tells me we'd have a problem if we gave out candy Globby made," the speedster smirked.
A moment later, they could see on the monitor their gelatinous friend give a wave to the camera as he saw the message and quickly produced a few dozen more buckets, each one in a festive Halloween color of orange, black, green, or purple and were shaped like jack-o-lanterns, skulls or bats. He then swiftly carried them to the exit door behind him and sat them outside for Felony Carl to pick up.
"Wow, guess we're good for a while now," Go Go flatly remarked before returning to the other monitors.
Baymax remained silent as the three of them kept to surveillance, watching the guests go room to room, huddling close and occasionally giving a brief scream; however, Hiro gave out a trouble hum a few minutes later.
"Hiro, is something wrong?" the inflatable robot inquired as he tilted his head.
"I'm not sure," the teen genius answered as he looked up from his tablet. "It says that one of the rooms hasn't changed for several minutes."
Go Go leaned over his shoulder and gazed at the data. "Maybe someone's bracelet came off?"
Hiro gave a doubtful expression and said, "It's possible but I-" He stopped as everyone heard a low muffled popping sound, like a firework that exploded far away. "What was that?" he wondered with concern as all three looked back to the screens that oversaw everything. Their eyes quickly fell onto Honey Lemon's room, where they could no longer see anything.
"Let's go," the speedster ordered and already heading for the door without even waiting for the others. Hiro and Baymax swiftly locked the room and followed her, only stopping when they came into the chemist's lab. The setup she had going involved having classic mad scientist tropes such as Tesla coils lighting up behind her, a stretcher with a giant humanoid shape covered by a sheet and jars of miscellaneous fake body parts on the wall. She mainly just stayed in front of her giant chemistry bench, which had different sizes and shapes of beakers filled with a rainbow of colors as well as some Bunsen burners and test tubes. Currently, there was a layer of green smoke hanging in the area, but the heroes could hear their friend coughing a little, prompting them to go towards the sound.
"Honey Lemon, are you alright?" Go Go could be heard asking as the mist finally started to dissipate some. Baymax didn't wait for an answer as he was already scanning the young woman, who gave another small cough and whose lab coat (along with some of her hair and face) had green residue on it.
"She has suffered no permanent damage, but is experiencing mild irritation in her bronchial system from the chemicals," the healthcare companion diagnosed as he and Go Go helped her to her feet.
"Thank you-cough-Baymax," Honey Lemon choked out. They waited a few seconds as she finally answered, "I'm fine, really," letting out another cough. "I don't know what happened. I thought I grabbed the beaker of hydrogen peroxide to make some more super-charged glowing solution, but maybe I grabbed the glycerol by mistake. I'm not sure." She gave another cough before Baymax went to an empty beaker and filled it with water from his spray attachment.
"Here. This will help," he urged her as she grabbed the liquid filled glass.
Honey Lemon accepted it and drank it down, giving a satisfied exhale when she was done. "Thanks Baymax."
"You are welcome."
By now, things started to clear up as the chemist dusted herself off. The gang then heard a stranger's voice say, "Hello? Is something going on in here? Can we come through?" They all turned to find three young women standing in the entrance dressed up in goth-esque outfits in dark shades of purple, red and green mixed with black to go with their bracelets and necklaces.
Hiro hesitated only for a moment, but was able to reply with, "Oh, just go on to the other side. Sorry. Just a small accident. Everything's fine. Enjoy the rest of the house."
The three ladies looked between themselves and shrugged, convinced by Hiro's words as they walked to the other door and shut it. Go Go then pulled out her phone to message Wasabi and Fred to stop newcomers for a few minutes while they cleared up a little and tried to figure things out. While the speedster got a thumbs up from Wasabi, Fred felt the need to add he'd tell people some kid got a little too scared in hopes they'd be more patient. "Eh. Whatever. As long as he doesn't say it was so scary they wet themselves," she remarked before surveying the room. The others were already clearing the work bench of reaction residue as Honey Lemon checked all her chemicals.
"They don't seem out of order," she hummed anxiously.
"Well, if that's the case, did you leave anything alone for any period of time?" the engineer inquired, suspecting something was off given her best friend's expertise in chemistry.
The scientist pondered a couple seconds as she tried to remember. "I guess there have been a few times I had my back turned, but why would someone do it?" she asked innocently.
"Prank, chaos, for fun, take your pick," Go Go flatly responded. It was then that they heard a squishy-type sounds from below, where they saw pinkish slime come up from the floor boards to reform into their friend Globby. (His room was below hers, so the sound reached him too).
"Sorry I'm late guys. I thought I heard something. Everything…" he trailed off as he saw the partially cleaned up mess. "Yikes. Now I feel worse about being tardy. You okay Honey Lemon?" the shapeshifter asked with concern.
"Oh, I'm fine," she answered with a dismissive gesture. "We're almost done here."
"You sure you don't need any help?" he inquired, feeling guilty that he was tied up with getting a photo request downstairs.
"Yeah, probably just an error on my part that won't happen again," Honey Lemon said to try and reassure him.
Globby still looked a little worried and questioned, "Well, can I top you off on stuff while I'm here?"
The bubbly woman nodded and smiled, pointing to her beakers and test tubes. Since he had been doing it for the past 4 nights, he knew what chemicals belonged where and how much. The gelatinous mutant simply stuck a finger in each vessel and filled it up with the desired ingredient, finishing in only a minute.
"Okay, I guess I'll get back downstairs now, but if you do need something, please let me know," Globby requested with sincerity. The others smiled (or rather three out of the four did) and nodded, prompting Globby to smile too before he slid back down the floor from whence he came.
Hiro looked back to Honey Lemon and asked, "You good with us leaving?"
Honey Lemon nodded again and simply replied, "Yeah, just need a minute to get the reactions started again."
"Okay," he responded, looking to Go Go and Baymax as they headed for the room's exit. "Come on. Let's check the security footage and see if we can find out what happened."
The trio closed the door behind them as they made the walk down the eerily lit and decorated hall back to the monitor station, noting the cobwebs all over the doorframes, flickering electric lights on the walls and faded/peeling wallpaper. They were almost to their destination when they heard screaming coming from across the hall and two doors back; the screaming itself wouldn't be unusual, but the fact that bright white flashes came from underneath was concerning. Hiro, Go Go and Baymax rushed over to see what was the matter, finding themselves needing to shield their faces upon entry. The simulation was supposed to be a haunted forest with fog and gangly trees, but any details or sounds were lost as the light and clamoring of its occupants were heard instead. Less than 15 seconds after the heroes arrived, the flashing stopped, leading everyone to rub their eyes in an effort to make the retinal pain go away and restore their vision.
"Everyone alright?" Hiro called out as he was still struggling to see, barely making out the others in front of him.
"Ugh, that hurt. Was that part of the room because ow," a male patron dressed as a vampire complained.
Hearing "Ow" of course sent Baymax's healthcare programming into effect as he shuffled over and began saying, "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I was alerted to your need for medical attention when you said 'Ow.'" He proceeded to scan the three people in front of him, and a few seconds later replying, "You have sustained no permanent damage nor do you show signs of an induced seizure. You have all been good patients. Have a lollipop." The inflatable robot then produced three cherry suckers and gave one to each of them.
Hiro stepped forward now and told them, "I'm so sorry for this inconvenience. There must have been a glitch or something. This won't happen again, I promise." The three costumed teenagers gave him a warily look for a few seconds, then finally turning to wander to the exit.
Go Go put a hand on the teen genius's shoulder and said, "I don't think this was anything you did. Smell that?"
Hiro proceeded to sniff the air, focusing on the scents and picking up traces of smoke. "Magnesium flash bombs. Definitely deliberate then," the robotist's deduced.
"Yeah. First Honey Lemon and now here. Whoever they are, they must have just got here and are working fast. We better get out of here and back to the cameras fast. There's bound to be something on the feed," the speedster suggested.
Hiro nodded and along with Baymax, followed her out the door they came in from. They made it back to the security office this time without issue as Go Go set up a separate monitor to play the footage on rewind. While she was doing this, the teen genius went for his tablet to monitor Sim-Max's condition. "Hmm," Hiro muttered at seeing the status of the second room on the ground floor.
"What is it Hiro?" Baymax inquired.
"I'm still getting some funky results for the ancient tomb simulation. It says that there's been a constant Level 2 signal with some additional Level 3 and 4 signals it's received whenever the last people entered, but the room's setting deferred it to the lower scare factor. It's saying it's been that way for over 20 minutes now."
Upon hearing this, Go Go spoke up with, "Well, if the perp removed their band and left it there, that'd give you your dual results. I'm betting this guy is just going room to room now, hiding in the holograms."
The young man furrowed his brow and replied, "Should we just cut off power to Sim-Max then and see where they're hiding?"
Go Go shook her head and responded, "We still got people down there and it'll ruin the night, which is probably what this creep wants; I would say do it room by room, but they may just duck out and try again. I think we should get the drop on them once we find where they are and then override the doors to trap them."
Hiro nodded and said, "Alright. Text Wasabi not to let anyone in for at least another 10 minutes. Baymax and I will go get the bracelet and see what picture they wanted or if you get the footage, we can see if Wasabi remembers what they look like."
The engineer gave him a thumbs up and added with a small look of annoyance, "Okay, but I better not mention us splitting up or Fred is going to have a field day berating us for following that trope."
Hiro gave a small smirk as he took this tablet and exited with Baymax right behind him. They made their brief walk to the closest stair case, cautiously keeping an eye out for anything suspicious as they made it to the first floor. He heard a door open and quickly turned to his right to find it was two teenage boys, one dressed as a professional football player and the other a doctor, both giggling at the bit of horror they were treated to. The teen genius let out a sigh of relief as they continued to venture to the front of the building, occasionally hearing a small scream or so to indicate the simulations were working.
They made it to their destination shortly afterwards, only encountering two more separate parties of guests so far enjoying the place. With the turn of the handle, the duo entered the tomb room, finding no one currently inside (which made sense as there were no new customers inside for a while now). The interior façade had many fine details, such as the crumbling statues of Anubis, the half-opened sarcophagus and flickering torchlights. Using his tablet, Hiro proceeded to sweep it around, trying to triangulate the signal; fortunately, Baymax had already took the initiative and scanned the room since his sensors were not fooled by the projections.
"Hiro, I have detected the bracelet in the corner over there next to the broken vase," the inflatable companion informed him and pointing to his left.
The robotics expert listened and walked over to the area, bending over and putting his hand through the light construct until he felt his desired object. "Got it," he declared as he stood straight again. "Come on. Let's get out of here," he told Baymax as they left the way they came. Once back in the hallway, Hiro pulled his phone back out and called Go Go. It rang two times before she answered with a "Yeah?"
"Found the bracelet. Any luck on your end?" he asked.
"I'm looking at it now. Hold on," she replied, getting about 10 seconds of anxious silence before she was back. "Okay. I went back five minutes leading up to Honey Lemon's explosion and I'm seeing 4 people entered her room. Let me check the forest one to cross reference."
Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted by the sound of loud heavy metal music coming from down the hallway, prompting Hiro to start running in that direction. He passed 3 doors and crossed the hallway, with the vibrations from the song getting more intense the closer he got. When he finally made it and opened the door, he quickly covered his ears as the loud screeching guitars and drums penetrated his sense of hearing. The teen genius gazed around the vampire-crypt simulated room and saw no one was there. Probably fled as soon as they started that thing, Hiro thought while wincing in pain. He attempted to venture in further to try and make the music stop, only to find Baymax holding him back. Initially puzzled, the robotics major looked from the mechanical man to the center of the room; a few seconds later, he found out why his friend stopped him as the phone self-destructed.
Hiro's auditory senses were still ringing as the healthcare companion now stepped forward to extinguish any possible fire. "Thanks Baymax."
"You are welcome."
"Hiro, you still there?" came the voice of Go Go since he hadn't hung up when the incident started. He fumbled it for a second and answered, "Yeah, I'm here. Got a disruptive phone, but it seems to have well…"
"I can see on the screen. Let me take it back a couple minutes. Hang on," the engineer stated as Hiro and Baymax headed for the door.
"Okay. We got the bracelet. We're only a few rooms away from Globby. We'll go check his log while you do that," Hiro informed her.
"Gotcha."
The duo left and turned to their left and made for the last door on their side; 10 seconds later, Go Go's voice rang out again as she said, "Hiro."
"Yeah, whatcha got?" he inquired.
"Looks like only one person was in there recently. I can't make out anything other than they were wearing a black cloak," the speedster replied, clearly unsatisfied. "I'll check the other incidents and–"
Ring. Ring.
"Hold on. Wasabi's calling. I'll conference him in. What's up?" Go Go gruffly asked.
"Uh guys, we may need to wrap this up soon. Fred's doing his best to keep them entertained with jokes and such, but there's a line a mile long and people are starting to get antsy; I've even gotten some dirty looks from a couple 10yr olds dressed as princesses," Wasabi told them with panic laced in his voice.
"Wait! While we've got you, do you remember seeing anyone in a black cloak?" Hiro inquired as he and Baymax now stood outside their destination.
"Guys, it's Halloween. Half the people here have some dark robes, cloaks or caps on. The only one that currently springs to mind was someone who was dressed up like the grim reaper. Didn't say a word, they were alone and short; other than that, sorry," the physicist quickly responded as he looked nervously at the crowd near him.
"Okay. Hang in there Wasabi. You got this and thanks," Hiro said in an effort to comfort him before opening up the wooden panel and stepping through to the other side of Globby's room.
The area was kept well-lit to allow for better photos, but still had some spooky element such as cobwebs, faded portraits on the wall and creaky wooden floors. Upon hearing the door swing open, the gelatinous mutant got up from his foldup chair, surprised to see Hiro and Baymax there. "Hi guys. Is Honey Lemon still doing okay and was someone just playing music because I swear, I heard something," he asked while scratching his transparent head.
"She's doing good and yeah, it was another prank or sabotage as it were. Did anyone just come through here?" the teen genius wondered.
"Uh, no. It's been quiet for a few minutes but seriously? This creep has nothing better to do tonight?" Globby grumbled as he crossed his arms.
Ding.
All three turned to the small, half-mooned shaped table near them and where the sound of the request tablet notifying them of what transformation Globby would need to take. "That's probably us," Hiro stated as he held the bracelet they found up. "We were coming to see you since this likely belongs to our perpetrator."
"Okay. Let's see what it says then," the shapeshifter said before he stretched his arm over to grab the electronic device. Hiro and Globby peered at the screen and went "Hmm?" in unison.
"What is it?"
"AH," the two males yelped, caught off guard by Go Go's voice as Hiro was still on the line with her.
After regaining his composure, the robotic's expert answered, "The entry here is weird."
"Yeah, I mean, is 'Lizard Guy' some lame-named kaiju I haven't heard of or something?" Globby added as he squinted at the name.
"Wait. Read that back to me," the motorcyclist ordered.
"Uh, it says 'Lizard Guy,'" Globby reiterated, still not getting an answer to his question.
The trio heard the sound of a fist slamming down on the other end, followed by an exhaustive sigh. "Ugh. Guys, clearly it's Richardson. Who else but that little gremlin would do this and use 'Lizard Guy' when he's referring to 'Fredzilla,'" Go Go explained, clearly irritated as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Hiro and Globby went wide-eyed for all of a second at hearing this, then nodded and shrugged at realizing this made a lot of sense. "Let's count ourselves lucky Nega-Globby would think this is beneath him or else we'd be looking at a lot more damage," the pink and purple man flatly remarked while shaking his head.
The teen genius nodded again before he added, "Or have him request that he'd get a photo with Go Go." Everyone but Baymax shuddered at that notion, followed by the 15yr old turning to the inflatable robot and requesting, "Baymax, can you locate Richardson?"
Baymax then lifted his head as he scanned the building. "He is located here," the healthcare companion answered, pulling up a holographic map of the building and placing him in a room about 70ft away.
"Good. This all but proves it's him. Now, let's get him out of here and back to business," the costumed teenager stated as the three of them started to leave to catch the perpetrator.
"Wait," came Go Go's voice much to their surprise, making them look at the phone in Hiro's hand. "Richardson wants to mess with us. Well, I say it's only fair we return the favor. It is Halloween and I'm betting we can do it in under 10 minutes," the speedster coolly told the trio.
The heroes looked at one another before giving a round of "Sure, why not?" shrugs. "What did you have in mind Go Go?" Hiro asked with a touch of apprehension.
Although they couldn't see her, they all had a feeling their friend bore a devious smile on her face to go with the devil horns on her head as she replied, "Oh, I have some ideas."
Heh-heh. Those idiots still haven't found me. Oh, these stink bombs are sure to be the final nail in Fred's stupid coffin, Richardson gloated to himself as he sat in the corner of an abandoned hospital-themed room; he still kept his mask and cloak over his face and body to minimize being caught/recognized. Now he was ready to pull his most repugnant stunt at the haunted house because while this may have been an event for charity, the thought of ruining Fred's night and making him look stupid was too much for him. He had already done so many pettier (and expensive) things in the past, so what was one more?
Richardson was fishing out his smelly prank when the door leading to the hallway creaked open, causing the 12yr old to stop his search. "Huh?" He waited for a few seconds, expecting to find someone looking in but seeing just an empty hallway. He started to stand up when the projections in the room began to change; the strap on the gurney unclasped and clanged on its frame, the lights flickered on and off with a dull buzz filling the air and the swinging doors into the ward had red pools forming at its base. The rich kid was admittedly scared for a moment before scoffing and reminding himself that it wasn't real.
WHACK!
Startled, Richardson turned his head to the left and right as the doors between rooms now began to slam open and close rapidly, threatening to hit anyone that got close.
Breathing a little more rapidly now, the prankster said to himself, "Maybe I should do this in another room," before cautiously leaving through the still opened entrance, wary that it might close on him too. Once he was back in the hallway, the door did shut behind him, making him yelp as he still refused to admit he had been rattled. He was about to turn to his left when the door one down from him swung open, almost hitting him in the face. "Eep!" he squealed, making him turn around back towards the front; but by now, several of them began seeming to act of their own accord and Richardson could see each one led to burning infernos. Maybe I've done enough for tonight. Can't pull any pranks if I can't even get in, right? he nervously justified as he started to rapidly make his way out.
Richardson almost made it to the set of doors that would be his freedom when he caught sight of a familiar someone leaning against the doorframe to his left. Inches away from grabbing the doorknobs, the 12yr old stopped and turned to fully face Go Go, casually blowing her bubble gum while her arms were crossed. With this new development, Richardson's fear dissolved along with his sense of needing to remain inconspicuous.
"My, my, gorgeous dream girl. What might I say brings you to this eerie establishment? I hope you're not schlepping it for that awful Fred now," the rich brat attempted to swoon while throwing his rival under the bus.
She didn't say anything beyond blowing another bubble and maintaining a bored expression. The speedster then properly stood up and proceeded to walk into the room she was just outside of.
"Wait! You didn't answer my question," he called out as he quickly followed her, not noticing the door closing behind him. Go Go took a few more steps until she was just off center with Richardson still on her heels.
"Come on, it's Halloween. What if your number could be my treat instead of candy?" he pleaded unsavorily. He then stopped talking when the motorcyclist's hands started to twitch; a moment later, to his horror, large dark claws started to grow out of her nails as her body started to elongate. The sound of bones breaking filled the air as her clothes began to rip and a menacing growl escaped her throat. Go Go then fell on all fours as her body continued to enlarge, making Richardson stare unblinkingly with his mouth agape, too shocked to properly scream.
The transformation continued as sleek black fur began to grow throughout and a long, curved tail popped out from her shredded clothes, already swishing back and forth; during this time, her mouth began to produce a set of razor-sharp teeth that protruded from a snarling maw while her ears became tall and pointy. Lastly, Go Go's eyes no longer looked human as they shifted to a sickly yellowish glow that stared menacingly at the small pre-teen. Richardson, in a cold sweat now, began to back away slowly, never taking his eyes off the wild beast that lay before him. Finally, he hit the wall and gave a yelp, which was made worse when he noticed the Lycan take slow, heavy steps towards him, still growling and baring menacing teeth.
"This isn't real," he whimpered to himself, trying to calm down and slow his breathing. "Every other room was just harmless holograms; this one's probably too. Nothing to be scared of. It can't hurt me." His belief was crushed as a loud roar escaped its mouth and directed it at Richardson, carrying with it a hot, wet air that could only be real breath.
"AAAH!" he screamed as he closed his eyes, only to open them a second later and frantically search for a way out. His gaze fell upon the exit door, which conveniently was left ajar and the nighttime skyline could be seen. The rich kid ran as fast as his legs could carry him, somehow managing not to trip as he slammed it completely open, screaming as he rushed past the candy table, leaving the attendant Felony Carl to raise part of his unibrow up in confusion. Richardson still refused to look back as he made it to the outside sidewalk nor did he pay any attention to the dozens of people watching him as he blurted out nonsense like "WEREWOLF!" "TEETH!" "GIRL!" "AAH!"
Once he was driven far away, Fred turned towards the perplexed people and announced, "Don't worry people. He requested a solo, extra scary package in advance and is the reason for the delay. Please, go in and enjoy a haunted house like no other!"
His words seemed to placate the restless line as an excited/relieved murmur rippled through them and they finally were allowed to pass through the gate to go inside.
Back in the final room of the repurposed building, the Go Go werewolf watched Richardson run away in fear before letting out a snicker as it shrank and shifted back into the gelatinous mutant Globby.
"Nice job. Now he'll think twice before he hits on me, or at least until he figures out what happened," the real Go Go said with a smirk as she stepped into the room along with Hiro and Baymax.
Globby sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and replied, "Yeah, but I hope I didn't overdo it…but then again, he was messing with a charity event, so…"
"It is Halloween after all and he did pay to get scared, so I say it's fair game if he wanted to do tricks instead of treats," Hiro added with a slightly mischievous grin.
Baymax proceeded to raise a finger and robotically stated, "I was concerned by the elevated heart rate and profusive sweating Richardson Mole displayed."
Go Go merely crossed her arms and told him, "He's fine Baymax and gross, I didn't need to know about the sweating."
The shapeshifter then let out a little chuckle as a thought occurred to him and remarked, "You know, this whole situation is reminding me of that old show from the late 60s about these teens going around, unmasking greedy bad guys that were trying to scare people away. Man, that show was a classic. Guess that would make me 'Scooter the Scaredy Cat' though seeing as I'm the only one who could actually turn into him."
While Hiro and Go Go gave a small short laugh now at the comparison, Baymax tilted his head and asked, "Who is 'Scooter the Scaredy Cat?'"
The teen genius smiled, patted his back and answered, "I'll tell you later buddy. For now, we better get back upstairs while everything isn't falling apart. Globby, you good?"
"Yep. Just gonna check on Felony Carl real quick. Be right back," the pink and purple man replied as he rapidly turned to go outside.
The remaining heroes then proceeded to head back to the security office to finish the rest of their shift, but not before Hiro turned to Go Go and eagerly asked, "Hey, when we're done for the night, do you think you and the others would be up for trying out the nightmare mode I programmed?"
The speedster smirked and simply said, "Sure. How scary could it be?"
NOTES
I hope you enjoyed this little Halloween story and I know it was probably obvious that it was Richardson, but in all honesty, this is the sort of thing he would do. I also hope you were able to deduce the easter eggs in this such as Hiro's costume being Ultraman, which I chose because he has an Ultraman mask and doll in his room in case you never noticed before; the references to "Scooby Doo" were probably the most obvious ones, but I also had that trio of teenagers when they were in Honey Lemon's room be dressed as the Hex Girls, who I always thought were cool. ^_^
In addition, I REALLY wanted to have Globby be in a haunted house scenario just because his power lends a lot to the craft of scaring people, but since he's a good guy at this point, would only use it to bring joy more than frights; of course, I also wanted Richardson to get the pants scared off of him in karmic justice and having Globby do it would made it all the more effective with Go Go providing the devious plan. ;)
So, all that's left to say is even though it may be past October 31st when you read this, I hope you have/had a Happy Halloween. :)