FOOOM!

Hiro was suddenly engulfed with a wave of heat, noise, and incredible force. As if the air itself had suddenly attacked him, the fourteen-year-old was peeled off his feet and thrust backwards.

A ringing that only he could hear consumed him and dizziness swallowed his vision. Realizing he was lying on the ground, Hiro slowly and weakly pushed himself up. Pain, as much as fear, shook his weak limbs, and he collapsed on his elbow, staring at the building in front of him. He only vaguely felt the pulse of his head injury and the tingling sensation of blood creeping in his hair as he stared at the flames that clung to the walls and doors and attempted to lash outward, like a raging dragon trying to pull itself free from a chain.

Panic crawled under his skin as he realized his brother was in there. That somewhere inside that building, heat, fire, pain, possibly death was consuming his brother.

Without thinking, Hiro stumbled to his feet. Immediately, the world warped and swam in his brain, and he subconsciously felt himself tilt with it. Attempting to shake it off, he ran towards the steps and ducked around the flames like they were simply pesky obstacles, not walls of heat that could burn him.

"Tadashi!" he screamed. "Tadashi!"

He reached the building, and he could feel himself melting in the heat. Billowing smoke wormed its way into Hiro's eyes, throat, and lungs. It stung, resulting in coughs and tears streaming down his face. The door was covered in fire. Even in his panic-driven mind, he knew he couldn't physically get in.

"Tada . . . Tadashi . . . " His cry was cut off by another weak cough that tried to eject the smoke from his lungs.

Arms closed around him and began carrying him away from the door. Down the steps, away from the building, away from his brother.

"What are you doing!?" he screamed in desperation, irrationality seizing him. "You can't leave him there! He's gonna die! You have to get him! Tadashi! Tadashi!"

Words poured out of Hiro's mouth. He didn't know what they were; he just knew he had to convince them to go back. His brother was in that building: They couldn't just leave him there!

"Tadashi! Tadashi!" The pleads for his older brother dissolved into straight screams of the agony that was suddenly crashing over him: the bristling and boiling of his burned skin, the sting of the abrasion on his head as blood crawled over the damaged skin, and the tearing of his heart as he realized that Tadashi was gone. They weren't going back for him.

"Hiro!" The voice coated his ears, but he couldn't focus on it. It wavered like the sight in front of his eyes, a twisted, dream-like fragment of his broken reality.

He saw his Aunt Cass standing over him, and he realized he was lying on the ground, but he was too weak to get up.

"Hiro," cried Aunt Cass, but it was fading.

Ringing was taking over instead, drowning out everything, and the figures around him were outlined in fluctuating lines. They flew towards him and fell back like ocean waves.

"Aunt Cass, Tadashi . . . he . . . you have to . . . " He struggled to tell her.

"Hir . . . "

The last thing he heard was the ringing as it descended on him.

A/N:

Update: While this was originally intended as a one-shot, I was encouraged to continue. At first, I didn't know what the plot would be, but I have finally found my inspiration: Therefore, it is official that I have a direction to go with this story. :D