The Nightmare Crown

Chapter 20: Langstrom Krei's True Intentions

"Ah, Hiro Hamada, what perfect timing." said Langstrom Krei.

"Why are you here, Langstrom Krei?" Hiro asked. "Is it not obvious?" Langstrom said. "I am here for the crown. Robert Callaghan, collect the goods, please."

Hiro's eyes popped. "Callaghan?!" Callaghan sighed. "I'm sorry, Hiro." he said. "Langstrom needs it." Hiro carefully handed him the crown.

"What's going on, Langstrom? How did you find us?" Wasabi asked. "Is it not obvious?" Langstrom said. "Robert Callaghan has been working for me the whole time."

The team gasped. "It's not possible!" Honey said, shocked. Even GoGo's eyes widened.

"It is." Langstrom said. "I was also the one who got your ex-professor out of prison!" Robert Callaghan handed him the crown, and then Langstrom put the crown on his head. "A perfect fit." he said.

"Callaghan?" Hiro said, shocked. "Why would you...?!"

"This is what's best for San Fransokyo." Robert said firmly, as he walked over to Langstrom Krei. He waited for Langstrom to thank him and shake his hand, and give him the reward he was promised.

But Langstrom didn't thank him or shake his hand. He turned to Robert and grinned smugly. "Oh, Robert." Langstrom said, "If only there was somebody out there who'd help you."

"What?" Callaghan asked, quite surprised. "I thought you wanted the crown."

"I did." Langstrom said. "You, Callaghan, were so naïve, you didn't even know that I've been planning to find this crown ever since your attack on my feeble baby brother!"

"That isn't true!" Hiro shouted.

"Au contraire, Hiro Hamada, it was perfectly true. All the time I spent studying the research... and all the evidence you found..." he paused. "And you never even found the tracking device I put in Fred's underwear drawer!"

Fred gasped. "Plot twist!" he said.

"You don't mean..." Hiro started. "Yep." Langstrom said evilly. "I've been following you from the beginning.

the team, and Callaghan, stared with shocked expressions.

"I have to admit, Hiro," he said, "you & your friends were doing a much better job at finding the crown than I was! In the end, I decided it would be easier to let you do all the work and find it for me." He started to laugh. "I mean, come on, 'Yamuba'? I can't believe you even fell for that!"

"What about Abigail?" Hiro said.

"Oh you didn't honestly think my brother sent her to the mountain range?" Langstrom said. "It was actually me! I disguised myself as my feeble baby brother to trick both her, and you!

At that moment, Robert realized. "Of course!" he said. "You were the one who sent my daughter off to the mountains, not your baby brother!"

"Finally, all the puzzle pieces fit." Hiro said, as shocked as Callaghan. "We were tricked from the start."

"You're one smart kid, Hiro, I'll give you that." Langstrom said. He sighed. "Look, you and your friends and your professor have the eternity to spend together before I destroy San Fransokyo with the crown you found, so let's not start off by pointing fingers, shall we?"

"So You WEREN'T really trying to find the crown, were you?" GoGo said, both shocked and angry.

"You wanted us to do it!" Wasabi said.

"I totally knew he was gonna do it." Fred said.

"Fred!" GoGo said angrily. "What?" Fred said. "Even if we didn't know he's tricked us, at least we get a good laugh out of it." GoGo nudged him on the ribs hard.

"Langstrom Krei, this isn't fair!" Hiro snapped.

"Fair?!" Langstrom roared. "I'll tell you what's not fair: your parents, your former professor, and my feeble baby brother denied me the one chance I had to use the Crown of Nightmares we worked on for what I wanted: to take over San Fransokyo! And I spent nearly 11 whole years without the powerful life that I wanted!" He glared angrily down at the team and Callaghan. "Well, until now, all my waiting has finally paid off, and now that I finally have the crown, I am going to use it to get what I want, and no idiotic group of teenage superheroes is gonna mess it up for me now!"

"But what about Mom & Dad?" Hiro said.

"Your pathetic parents were just pathetic setbacks! Just like your pathetic brother Tadashi! And Robert's pathetic daughter Abigail!"

Robert remembered the explosion at the lab the crown was in. "But... but Ryan went back in there to save his wife!" he said.

"That was HIS mistake!" Langstrom snapped.

Hiro gasped. The memory of finding out about Callaghan being the masked villain flooded back to him; when he remembered discovering Tadashi had died for nothing.

'He went in there to save you!'

'That was his mistake!'

Callaghan felt shocked. "And Robert," Langstrom said sternly, "your services are no longer required."

"But Langstrom, you promised me I could have everything I wanted!" Robert protested. "You were my friend." he muttered sadly.

"I say a lot of things." Langstrom said. "I don't always mean them."

Robert stared. "No..." he said sadly.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Langstrom said, "I'm gonna use the Crown of Nightmares for world domination, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Hiro glanced at Callaghan, who was showing a look of remorse, like he did when he was arrested. Then, he teleported away.

"Callaghan, wait!" Hiro shouted.

"It's too late now, Hiro!" said Langstrom. "That stupid Professor Candlehead can't help you or your friends now!"

"His name is Professor Callaghan!" Hiro shouted. "Whatever!" Langstrom growled. "I always hated his family name since the crown incident."

With that, he teleported off, back to San Fransokyo. "This isn't over, Langstrom Krei!" Hiro shouted. "Come on guys, we're going back." he said. Honey just so happened to pick up a small memory stick nearby her location, before joining Hiro and her friends on Baymax, as they rocketed off to San Fransokyo.