Disclaimer: I do not own Big Hero 6: The Series. It is owned by Disney Animation. I also don't own the three cameos appearing in here, although you can probably guess who does.

Prologue – A Common Thread

It was a wonderful afternoon in San Fransokyo. The sun was shining, not a cloud was in the sky. She could see the students make their way out the front archway, ready to make the trip back to their houses.

Oh, how she could wish she was one of those people. Too bad she was the dean.

Grace Granville turned away from the windows. Such was the life of a person in an administrative role such as hers.

She grasped the large mailing envelope in her hands. Contained inside was some very valuable information that couldn't wait. Part of the job was using said information to look for prospective students to enroll into the university, and tonight was no different.

Granville cut it apart with her letter opener, bringing out the two smaller manila envelopes. She was just about to untwirl the twine on the first one when her laptop started to ring.

She raised her eyebrow at the screen. Her laptop? Who would be calling her at this time of day?

One click on her keyboard brought up the chat window, and another office came into view. A long wooden desk very similar to hers extended into the background, and a giant portrait was on the wall behind it.

In front of it was a young man, looking straight ahead as he appeared to be moving some things around in the air with his hands. His brown hair was thick and puffed up, a couple of strands hanging over his forehead. His eyes kept rapidly moving back and forth, as if he was trying to take all of the information in.

Granville waited a moment, amused. She knew who the person was, but it looked like he didn't realize that she was watching him. Time to change that.

"Ahem."

The man jumped out of his seat, wildly looking around before setting his gaze on the window. "Oh geez! Professor Granville! I didn't see you there."

"Hello, Professor Deol. Perhaps it would have been wiser for me to announce myself so that I didn't scare you."

"Not a problem." He poked a little bit at his desk. "I'm still trying to get everything in my desk sorted out and I must've called you by accident."

"How is that coming along?"

"See for yourself." He pushed the window up, and Granville now saw an overhead view of his desk. It looked completely empty, but with one swipe, it projected a myriad amount of windows and his keyboard. "I have everything I need in this sucker. I think I have more technology stuffed in this desk than half of the labs on this campus."

Granville looked down at her laptop. "I prefer to be a little old-fashioned. I guess that comes with the absence of youth."

"You are not that old, Grace."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Dinesh."

"It got me here."

"Yes, I suppose that's true." Granville grabbed one of the manila envelopes and continued to open it. "How is your first semester as the dean of the Neo York Institute of Technology going?"

The man rubbed the bridge of his nose, her view now coming down to rest in front of him. "Ugh. Things have changed so much since I graduated from here five years ago. A lot of turnover. The board is already been breathing down my neck about recruitment, and it has not even been three months."

"What did you tell them?"

"To shove it. Professionally, of course."

Granville finished with her folders, all of the papers now spread out on her desk. She was waiting for his next sentence to come out.

"Now that I have you on the phone..."

Yup. There it was.

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

"So you did mean to call me."

Professor Deol grinned sheepishly. "I did not know if you had already left for the day. I also...have heard things about you."

"Oh? Have your board of directors been talking about me again?"

"I try to not listen to them when it comes to personal opinions. John did speak very highly of you before he departed."

Granville looked at him again. "Then speak your mind, Dinesh. If you have something to say, then say it."

He widened the window with his hands, and Granville saw his hands for the first time. Even though they hadn't met person-to-person, he had heard a lot about him: an engineer specializing in prosthetics, a former security head at one of the islands off the coast of Neo York, and a very intelligent individual for someone so young.

All of that was impressive on its own, but he also built his own artificial appendages from scratch after a freak accident caused him to lose both of his hands. Everything from his wrists up were made of metal, shining from the lights above. They were also technologically advanced, with the ability to interact with a lot of the current technology his institute worked with.

Hence the desk.

"I am assuming you have heard about the two visiting us today."

Granville glanced down at the papers on her desk. "I'm not quite sure what you're referencing, Professor."

"Grace, I'm not dumb. I know that someone on your board called someone on my board; they mentioned it in our conference call yesterday. And you reached out to their high school for their academic profiles."

He glanced down at one of the far corners of his desk. "...And you also literally sent me an e-mail today asking about them."

"Professor Deol, I assure you that I am not attempting to poach your students. That would require you to actually have these students under your direction to begin with."

The man on her screen grinned. "Grace, are you spying on me?"

"I'm not, but if you're offering..."

"I was not."

Granville watched as he threw up another window, this one littered with a bunch of graphs and charts. "Since I know you are going to ask, their visit to campus was very promising. They are two of the brightest high school students in the entire country. Their current curriculum lags far behind what we can offer them here at NYIT."

She grabbed two of the papers from her desk, taking a glance at both of them. "We can offer them that as well, as you know."

"Grace." The young man leaned toward the screen, an amused eyebrow raised. "Is one teen genius not enough for your school? Can you not leave some for the rest of us? I may have only been in this position for a little bit, but John told me a lot of things about you before he left to join his dad at the paper. One of those things is that you are very... persuasive."

"Yes, I do have that particular gift. You can blame my mother for that."

"Grace, I did read your e-mail before I called," Deol said. "I am not against them exploring their options for higher education. I just want it to be their decision, you know? They both have had it rough. Part of the same program. One of them has been in foster care all their life. The other has been living with her aunt and uncle since her parents died at age 9. I'm worried about what a cross-country move would do to them. They are still kids, after all."

Granville put the papers down, thinking hard.

"I am sorry about your student's departure from your school. I truly am."

She narrowed her eyes, the frown apparent even to him.

"I know that you have not made a lot of the details public, and that is understandable. It is always difficult to lose someone so gifted, for whatever reason. But you do not have to immediately replace them. Especially because you seem to think that their departure is going to be temporary at best."

Granville didn't answer immediately, instead swiveling her chair back towards the open window.

"Grace." His tone was softer, even a little pleading. "I really like these kids. They are a good fit. I believe we can give them the education they so desperately crave. I mean no offense to your institute, but they belong here."

"Well, you said it yourself, Dinesh..."

She crossed her arms over her body, brow furrowed.

"Why don't we let them decide?"

Granville turned her attention back to her NYIT counterpart. "Let me fly them out here, on my own dime. No expense to you. Give them a few days to see what we can offer them, and what they can offer us. Both of our schools would be better with their addition to our ranks. Maybe they'll even find something in the city to enjoy."

"I've seen what's been happening over there, Grace. Glob monsters? Growing plant creatures? Secret cloning experiments from shady corporations? Your city does offer a lot; I just do not know if it's all appropriate."

"Ahh, I thought you didn't read his paper. Was I wrong?"

Professor Deol rolled his eyes. "Believe it or not, that is one of the reasons why John left. To reel in his dad a little bit. Although I am not sure how much that will do."

Granville shook her head. "All I am asking for is a little patience. As someone who has dealt with criminals in your previous job on the island, you have that in spades. That's also quite similar to what you're doing now. Minding the asylum, if you will."

His eyes widened, the sudden realization hitting him. "Oh dear. They are eerily similar, are they not?

"How about also building two highly-advanced artificial appendages by yourself? That also requires a lot of patience...and clever workmanship."

Deol tilted his head, bringing his hand up to the screen. The metal glowed a soft green, still connected to the technology in his desk and office. "Grace, it is quite scary how much you have learned about me in only a few months."

She smiled at him through the camera. "I do appreciate your understanding of wanting to be...off the grid, so to speak. But you're in the limelight now, Dinesh. People like us can't stay in the shadows anymore. We're here to teach the next generation, whoever that may be."

He made a motion to answer, but a noise came from the background, and he looked up to see who it was. Granville looked away out of courtesy, instead choosing to delve further into the files on her desk. A profile picture was in each, along with their complete academic career. The young girl on the left had dark skin, stylized gray hair, and brown eyes. She had an interest in computer science, having written her own code for hacking and viruses.

The other girl's unkempt black hair matched the school uniform at the bottom of the frame. The white hairclip kept it out of her eyes, a small arachnid icon over the top of it. Her desired major was also something all too familiar to her.

"My apologies, Grace..."

She looked up to see the headmaster's attention back on her. "I must depart. It appears that some of my students have laid waste to their shared lab. Again." He sighed, his hand on his face. "Please tell me it gets easier with time."

Granville only smiled, her finger hovering over the keyboard. "Namaste, Professor Deol."

As she closed her laptop, she focused back on the briefs in front of her. Two great students.

Er...prospective students.

She looked at the file on her left.

Name: Adeline Brock
Referred As: Addy
Interests: Cybersecurity, computer science
Known Relatives: N/A

And then the one on the right.

Name: Penelope Parker
Referred As: Peni
Interests: Robotics, Artificial Intelligence
Known Relatives:
1.) Benjamin Parker

She looked a little closer.

"Well...this should be an interesting visit."

2.) May Parker, née Hamada

AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Give a warm welcome to the newest member to the Big Hero 6 universe...Miss Peni Parker, cousin to the one and only Hiro Hamada. Building giant robots with red armor runs in the family, I guess.

The intention was always to add one of the Spiders to the BH6-verse, but I didn't want to just throw Peter in there, or one of the more well-known ones (Miles, Gwen). And then I watched Into The Spider Verse, and saw Peni, and immediately knew who I was going with.

This fic is going to have quite a few cameos in it, some of which you may recognize. John (the previous dean of NYIT) and his father, for example. Dinesh Deol as well isn't a random name; he corresponds to someone in the actual Marvel Universe. I would encourage you to go look him up.

Now, I'm not going to lie; I'm actually a little scared (but very excited) to write her here. Her personality will be an attempt at a mix between her comic portrayal and the movie's. Exactly how much of a mix it will be will be made clear soon enough. And it's not like I'm putting an unknown character into here like Aspen. She's gained in popularity since the movie, and the fact she's a Spider is only going to complicate things.

Even though this does take place after "City of Monsters", Karmi will be appearing in this story, albeit a little different than what I imagined before. Still have to have a little bit of Hiro/Karmi thrown into the mix.

I don't want to give too much away, but I can't wait for you guys to read this story. I hope you come along with me for the ride.

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