Chapter 1

Hiro and Tadashi watched as Dr. Callahan walked away from Tadashi's lab. Hiro just stood in shock until his brother finally grabbed his arm and started pulling him down the hall.

"Where are we going now?" Hiro asked.

"There are two more people you need to meet. Then we'll go to your botfight." Tadashi said through a smile.

When they finally stopped Hiro looked up at the sign above the double doors "Specialized Robotics."

"This is where students who know what they want to do with their talents, and what they want to do with their lives." He opened the double doors and a girl ran up to him with a wide grin. Her eyes wide and clutching to a piece of fabric like it was the answer to every question in the universe, she came to a stop in front of them shoving said fabric in Tadashi's face.

"I did it!" She squealed. "I finally did it! A fabric able to withstand fire for... I don't know it's been going for six hours so far!" Her black braid flew behind her as she bounced happily. Tadashi grinned.

"That's great Sweet Tea!"

"Tadashi, please, I'm a serious scientist... it's Akiko..." Her face went serious for a moment, and she posed dramatically before breaking into a wide grin again as she playfully shoved him. "Kidding!" Her eyes landed on Hiro and she tilted her head. "Who's the short one following you?"

"Sweet Tea this is my brother. Hiro."

"Oh! Hiro! The botfighter. Got it. Short one, come see the lab." She started to walk further into the lab, pulling Hiro by the sleeve. "You're gonna love it in this section. Panda? You in here?"

A second girl poked her head out from behind a large square metal box. "Yeah? What?" she stepped out and for once it was clear to Hiro why she had the nickname she did, her hair was pulled into two buns that sat perfectly on top of her head just like panda ears.

"Panda, Tadashi brought in his brother..."

Panda smiled "Hi. I'm Hikaru. But panda is what everyone calls me here."

"Because of Fred?" Hiro asked smiling.

"Well yes and no. It was Half Fred Half Akiko."

"I can't help that you look like a panda. I've tried, but you won't let me..." Sweet Tea pouted slightly before whisking off to her experiment again staring at the square of fabric currently sitting over a bunsen burner.

"I thought this was a robotics lab..." Hiro said, following her the short ways.

"It is. I'm working on a new skin for fire fighting bots. Also fire fighting bots... those haven't done well so far..." She pointed to several piles of melted metal behind her.

"She almost set fire to our room twice while testing it out." Panda said, walking over and grabbing a wrench off the work table. "It's not like we needed the life size cutout of Matt Smith anyway."

"Of course you bring that up, but what about the poster your ruined while trying out the new new neuro adapters for your crazy prosthetic arm?" Sweet Tea said sarcastically.

Hiro just blinked "Neuro adapters for a prosthetic arm?"

Panda smiled "I've been improving the tech since my admission. Small Neuro Sensors placed where the prosthetic meets the skin picks up on any signal that the brain sends thus making the limb move." She led him over to her work station, letting him look over the arm she was working on.

"Cool!" He grinned.

"Ok Hiro. Let's go!" Tadashi said placing a hand on his amazed brothers shoulder.

"Come and visit again Hiro." Panda said "Not a lot of people come to specialized. We like the company. Right Sweet Tea?"

"Yeah! Come back soon short one!" Panda rolled her eyes and batted at the other girl with a frown. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Be nice! Fred should be the one to give him a nickname not you." She said seriously before getting back to work.

Pushing one of the garbage cans full of Hiro's project, Sweet Tea followed the group to the stage.

"Hiro, you're gonna be amazing! This project is going to blow them away." She said. "Trust me, you got this." Hiro smiled back at her, worry barely detectable for the moment. "Isn't that right Panda?"

"Totally! I mean I only had a prototype, but having complete tech will blow them away. and if Callahan doesn't accept you, he and I will have words."

"You can do that?" Hiro asked.

Panda looked off to the side "No...but wish I could."

"Don't worry Hiro. We'll be here every step of the way." Tadashi grinned, patting his brother's shoulder.

"Next presenter, Hiro Hamada."

"Okay, Picture time!" Honey Lemon called, gathering the group to grab a quick picture before they all head out to their positions with words of encouragement trailing behind them.

"Rock their socks short one!" Sweet Tea called, waving at him as she quickly rolled the can to its place.

Once everything was set she returned to the stage with the others, grinning as Hiro took the spotlight.

"Hi... I'm H-" The mic screeched, causing everyone to wince. "Sorry... I'm Hiro Hamada and this is... A micro-bot." Callihan and the other judges squinted at the stage and the tiny black device in Hiro's hand. Sweet Tea glared as one man even walked away. Hiro met Tadashi's eyes and took a deep breath as his brother instructed. "It may not look like much, but when combined with his friends..." The cans fell over and thousands of the small black robots rolled across the floor and up the stage. "They can do anything." Grinning as Hiro explained the bot's abilities Sweet Tea watched the amazing little robots shift and link together to build everything Hiro directed them to do.

"Microbots!" The crowd cheered as Hiro and the large version of the bots both bowed to them. Their Aunt Cass loudest of all.

The group swept Hiro up in a hug and grinned.

Panda was the first to break out of the hug and notice someone making their way towards Hiro "Guys Alistar Krei is coming this way." The group split to allow the tycoon through to talk with Hiro.

"Hello there son." Keri said as he held out his hand for Hiro.

"You're Alistar Krei. CEO of Kreitech"

"That I am and I think that those microbots of yours could make a big difference. May I?" he reached out his hand towards Hiro who handed him a Microbot from his pocket. "I want to buy your Tech."

Hiro's eyes widened "Really?"

"Hiro. Let me give you a piece of advice." Dr. Callahan said walking up to the group. "You could sell your tech or develop it more. I wouldn't trust anything in a man like Krei's hands who knows what he would so with it."

Hiro looked from Callahan to Krei to Tadashi then back to Krei "I'm sorry but they're not for sale."

Krei nodded smirk on his face "I thought you were smarter than that. Well Good-bye." he turned and began to walk away.

"Mr. Krei!" Tadashi said. The tycoon looked over his shoulder. "I think that. Belongs to my brother." Krei fished his hand out of his pocket where he still held onto the microbot.

"Of course." he said as he threw the small piece back to Hiro.

"Good choice Hiro. We'd be happy to have you here at SFIT next semester." Callahan said with a small smile, pulling an envelope from his pocket and handing it to the boy.

"Really?"

"Really. Have a good night Hiro, and I'll see you in class." Callahan smiled again and walked off, leaving the group to celebrate.

"Congratulations, short one!" Sweet Tea cried, catching him up in a bone crushing hug and spinning him around.

"Eh, thanks Sweet Tea... Could you uh... let me go...?" Hiro asked, struggling to get in a breath.

"Oh, right, sorry." She winced, releasing him to the rest of the group.

"Alright gang, let's get get some food in those bellies! Dinner at the cafe, come on!" Hiro's Aunt Cass called, leading them towards the exit.

Tadashi pulled Hiro away as they made it to the stairs. "Hey Aunt Cass, we'll catch up with you in a little bit."

"Alright. See you at the cafe."

Hiro and Tadashi went one way as the rest of the group headed towards the parking lot. Fred was leading the group with Cass right behind ready to point him to the right car once they reached the right aisle.

"So Sweet Tea, Panda. How's the specialized lab compared to our humble abode?" Honey Lemon asked.

Panda smiled "It's ok. I really miss sharing a lab with you guys. The specialized lab gets too quiet."

Sweet Tea nodded with a small frown. "It does get pretty quiet, most days we just... sit around in silence working on our own stuff, and theres only like four other specialized robotics majors at SFTI, and they only come in once or twice a week. I'm contemplating moving my work bench into the joint lab, just so I can have some interaction with you guys again. Even if Specialized Robotics has some better equipment..."

"And plus then you'll know where to find everything because of the wonderful Wasabi's organization." Panda said, earning several chuckles. "Seriously though, I can never find what I need."

"Can't be all bad, you have individual work rooms when you need them... Not like the joint lab where everyone's lumped together regardless of project." Gogo said.

"True. True." Sweet Tea smiled.

The group was almost to the car when Panda suddenly just stopped.

"What's wrong?" Honey Lemon asked

"I just realized I left my keys on my workbench. I'll be right back I'm going to go run and grab them." She said turning and running back down the aisle towards the school.

"I should go with her, if she doesn't have her keys she probably doesn't have her card to get in. Good thing i always have mine in my…" She patted her side "Purse….great….it's on my workbench. Be back in a minute!" She shouted as she ran after Panda.

Just as the two were passing the exposition building it burst into flames, and the two watched as people ran out of the building screaming.

"Tadashi!" a voice rang out.

Sweet Tea and Panda looked for the source knowing exactly who shouted. Hiro stood in front of the building, clutching a baseball cap as his brother ran in.

"Hiro!" Sweet Tea raced to the boy's side, eyes wide as she looked at the burning building. "What's Tadashi thinking?"

"Professor Callahan is still in there..." Hiro said, "Tadashi went to help... I gotta get him out of there-"

"No!" Sweet Tea and Panda grabbed his shoulders, and pulled him back just as the building exploded.

*boom*

The world went white and muted for a moment as they were thrown back by the force of the blast. Sweet Tea gasped as her grip on Hiro slipped and she rolled over the concrete.

Panda tried to keep ahold of Hiro even when she felt her shoulder hit the pavement, she secretly prayed that nothing was broken but also that Hiro was ok.