Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 is the property of Disney Animation. The new character that will be joining the gang (as well as a few minor ones) is the property of Michael Turner and Aspen MLT.

Prologue – Ahoy

"So, did Professor Granville tell you why she wanted to meet us at the docks?"

"Absolutely no idea. The only thing she said was to bring all of you with me."

"Why?"

"I guess because I'm the one with the transportation."

The gang was all together in Wasabi's car (minus Fred), heading down to the shoreline of the city. The entire team had been summoned for unknown reasons by their dean, Professor Granville. As the Applied Physics major pointed out just moments ago, no one knew really why they were going there. The e-mail sent to him had given very few details.

"We will arrive at our destination in approximately two minutes."

"Thanks, Baymax." Hiro patted the top of his robot's case. "Good thing there's no traffic."

"Well, duh. It's the middle of the day," Go Go said. "If we were driving in the afternoon, we'd be in rush hour, and Wasabi would be taking even longer than usual to get there."

"Hey, you could've gone on on your own. No one was stopping you."

"Actually, guys, Granville was stopping us." Honey Lemon adjusted the strap to her Chem-Purse. "She wanted all of us together."

"Speaking of which, there she is."

The car pulled up right at the end of the parking lot, right near the large warehouses that stocked crates from the incoming freighters. Everyone got out (and inflated, in the case of Baymax) and started to make their way down to the pier.

Their professor was at the far end of the nearest dock, deep in conversation with another person in front of her. Wasabi couldn't see who it was, but as they got closer, Granville stepped to the side, revealing another student with her.

Wasabi grinned to himself. The e-mail had mentioned that Karmi would be joining them on this project, but he conveniently forgot to tell Hiro that.

Hey, Go Go wasn't the only one that could have fun at Hiro's expense.

The robotics major stared at her as they walked up. "What are you doing here, Karmi?"

Granville turned toward them, her eyebrow raised. "I wasn't aware that you were the gatekeeper of who is allowed to partake in these sorts of projects, Mr. Hamada."

Hiro didn't answer underneath the glare of his teacher. She grinned at him, taking her victory over to the side of the dock. She also conveniently didn't see Karmi sticking out her tongue at Hiro.

Or maybe she just ignored it. In any case…

"Now that we are all here, I suppose I should clue everyone in as to why I gathered you together today."

Granville began to pace the length of the dock. "I was contacted recently by an old friend of mine. He owns a company that specializes in oceanography and marine work. He mentioned to me that he wanted to do a study on the surrounding waters of San Fransokyo and any adverse effects that the recreation of the Great Catastrophe may have had. He wanted to see if I had any students who would be willing to work with them. I made mention that I had...a few."

"But we don't really deal with that sort of thing, Professor," Honey Lemon said.

"You are correct. However, combining the minds of my best students and their scientists, I thought, would provide the university with some expertise in that category. One that we have been sorely lacking in.

"I contacted him back and said to notify me when they would be making their way into the area and finished with their set-up. I received that notification yesterday. And so...here we are."

Hiro looked both ways before speaking up. "And where is this 'set-up', exactly?"

Granville glanced over her shoulder. "A liaison will be arriving shortly with transportation to the base of operations. That's all I was told. But we still have a few minutes before they are suppose to be here."

"Professor, what about my work at Sycorax?" Karmi said. "I don't want to leave Liv and my stuff on hold with her. We're actually quite close to a breakthrough on-"

"Do not worry, Karmi. I have already personally spoke to Liv, and we managed to come to a compromise when it comes to your current work with her. As soon as we have reached a conclusion with this project, you can return to your internship unabated."

Hiro made a motion to comment about Sycorax, but Go Go elbowed him in the gut, cutting him off.

"Now, as for the rest of you, I assured the captain that we would be able to assist with his research as best as we could. He wanted me to gather the best problem solvers that SFIT could offer...which is why all of you are here."

Granville stopped her pacing, looking out into the water. "If my calculations are correct, our transportation to the headquarters should be arriving at any moment. I was told to be here with you at this particular time."

The water around the dock began to bubble, and the professor smiled. "Ahh, it appears that they're here."

The six students looked around them nervously. "Umm...who exactly is 'they', Professor?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Everything will be made quite clear in a moment, Ms. Rodriguez."

Something began to surface on the left side of the dock. It was a portable submarine, the gray metal shining in the sunset. The vessel had two portholes on each side, and a few seats and control panels could be seen through the front end. The hatch on top flew open with a hiss.

"Allow me to introduce-"

"The totally awesome Freddy-boy!"

Granville sighed heavily, her grand introduction now ruined. "Mr. Frederickson, may I inquire as to why you are here? I was told that you were off on some family matter."

"This is the family matter." Fred leaned on his elbow as he looked over the group. "Mom has an investing interest in the company you guys are working with. Plus, she can't drive two submarines at once."

"She?" Wasabi looked around, not noticing anyone else. "Who is-?"

He got cut off as a giant geyser of water erupted from their right, accompanied by the sound of something landing hard right in front of them.

"Aaah!"

The water crashed over the dock, most of it harmlessly avoiding the group. Granville was able to stave off the rest with her suddenly appearing umbrella. Content that nothing else would be raining down on her, she shook of the excess water and folded it back up.

"Students, allow me to introduce the lead marine biologist of Fathom Blue Incorporated..."

She took a step back, and the new arrival came into view. The young woman was wearing a wetsuit, light blue on the bottom of her sleeves and dark blue down the front. A cream color was adorned on her sides and top of her arms, a large stylized blue F on her shoulder. She shook the water off of her body, her bluish-black hair coming to rest a little past her shoulders. She looked up at the group with her clear blue eyes…

And to Wasabi, very familiar blue eyes.

"Ms. Aspen Matthews."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: To the people who guessed that it would be Aspen showing up, congrats. For those who didn't...here's your introduction to her.

Unlike the other character cameos that I've had in my stories (Robbie Reyes, Silver Sable, and my future ones), Aspen Matthews is not a Marvel character. She is a property of Aspen MLT, who has done several covers of comics for both Marvel and DC (most notably the Superman/Batman: Supergirl cover), as well as their original works (Fathom being one of them). I would recommend you reading up on Aspen; her back story and comic adventures are really quite interesting. I would also recommend reading Chapter 4 of Part-Time, where she was introduced, albeit not by name.

I'm going to do something that I have never done in a story before. I'm going to ask that people be patient with me on this one. In an effort to Big Hero 6-ify Aspen, some of her background from the comics will be changed (mostly her age and her personal story). A lot of it will stay, taking the form of some exposition in Chapter 1 proper. This story is also going to be a little more action-y, although there will still be a little romance thrown in.

Also, if you do look her up to learn about her, a lot of her official art is...risque. Again, we're going to tone it down a little bit in here. That's where me asking the readers to be patient comes in; I'm (pardon the completely intentional pun here) in relatively uncharted waters here.

And I'm going to do something that the show (as good as it is) has failed to do so far: finally giving Wasabi some proper attention. And maybe Aspen will give him some attention as well. :)

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.