Hiro watches the bot fight from the back of the crowd, hood pulled up to avoid drawing attention to himself. It had taken him forever to work his way up through the ranks of the illegal gambling ring, testing his bot against every decent fighter in the city until he felt it was ready to take on the big leagues. And tonight was that night-tonight, he was going to take on the most well known (and most dangerous) bot fighter in the city-Yama.

Maybe he would have been a bit more afraid if he hadn't know that Megabot was completely unbeatable-and if he hadn't know that, should things go wrong, he had his magic to help him. It had gotten him out of all kinds of scrapes before, and an angry mob boss was the least of his worries after everything he'd experienced in his training with Aunt Cass.

Hiro could still remember the day that he'd discovered he had magic like it was yesterday. He and his older brother, Tadashi, had been out running errands for their aunt when Tadashi had stopped to talk to a cat on the side of the road. Yes, talk-as a kid Hiro had thought that his older brother (or nii-chan, as he sometimes liked to call him) was pretending whenever he told him that he was talking to cats. What neither of the boys realized at the time was that Tadashi had inherited one of the family gifts-one of the few that he had. Hiro, as they were about to discover, had inherited quite a lot of the gifts, even if the boys hadn't been aware that there were such things as family gifts until then.

It was talking to the cat that had saved their lives, or at least protected them from some serious injury. It turned out that there was an angry dog on the loose, and the cat had only just enough time to warn Tadashi and sprint off before the dog came right into their patch.

The dog didn't even give them a second to prepare themselves before charging. Tadashi had moved in front of Hiro, shielding him, and Hiro had been terrified that he was about to lose his older brother. And that was the first time that Hiro's magic had manifested itself. Without even knowing what he was happening to him, Hiro had felt an enormous power welling up inside of his body, and then it had burst out of him like a bomb going off. The next thing that he'd known he was waking up lying on the sidewalk, a large crater in the concrete around him and Tadashi leaning over him, shaking him by the shoulders and calling out his name.

Hiro had found out later that he hadn't actually hurt the dog, just given it a hell of a scare and caused it to turn tail and run (which was good, he didn't like the idea of using his magic to hurt anyone.) Tadashi had carried him home on his back and then, as soon as they could find Aunt Cass, told her exactly what had happened.

The pure look of terror on their aunt's face had placed a fear in Hiro's heart that he'd yet to fully forget-the fear that he was a freak, and that even people he loved would turn away when they found out about his then newly discovered abilities. But in this case, at least, he'd found out that Aunt Cass's fear wasn't of him-it was for him.

She'd sat the boys down in the living room and carefully explained to them about their family's hidden history-a long history of powerful witches. Years ago the family had been greatly sought after for their abilities, but as time passed people became afraid of their powers and the family was forced into hiding, still secretly training but making sure that no one outside of the family was aware of it. Aunt Cass went on to explain the dangers of their secret-it had been exactly the type of intolerance that had forced the family to go into hiding that had been the result of Hiro and Tadashi's parents' deaths. That was why Aunt Cass had never told the two boys about their family history-as both of them were male, and full witch powers usually only ever came to fruition in girls, she'd hoped to spare them the burden of the family secret. But now that it was clear Hiro had somehow inherited them, she explained that this meant Hiro would need to begin training in order to keep himself and the rest of the family safe.

Hiro could remember how terrified he'd been at the time. It was one thing learning that he was a witch, it was quite another finding out that people very possibly would want to kill him for his powers. That's why, when Aunt Cass had told him he would need to train, he'd eagerly thrown himself into his lessons. They were hard, but he wanted to believe that they'd make him safe, and Tadashi had been by his side every step of the way, encouraging him and helping him as much as he could.

Unfortunately, as he'd gotten older, Hiro had become much more disillusioned with the world. He'd quickly discovered that no amount of hiding was going to keep the world from seeing him exactly as they wanted to-as a freak. No matter how hard he'd tried to fit in, to keep a low profile, everywhere he went people avoided him like a disease-carrying vermin. Extremely intelligent for his age, much like his older brother, Hiro had graduated from high school with honors at the age of 13. But instead of teachers and fellow students being drawn to him for being a high achiever like they were drawn to Tadashi, they just used his intelligence as a reason to ridicule and bully him because they needed some name for his strangeness and "otherness" that their pitifully ordinary minds couldn't fathom.

Hiro couldn't blame Tadashi for this-if anything, Tadashi was his rock in the middle of everything, supporting him and encouraging him and loving him when no one else did. He made a point of daily telling Hiro how proud he was of him and marveling over every new spell and potion that Hiro learned. It was probably only because of Tadashi that Hiro had continued his training at all (well, that and the fact that Aunt Cass wouldn't let him quit even if he wanted to.)

But in more recent months, Hiro had finally found a place where he belonged-a place where everyone else was such an outcast that even he could fit in, and people respected him purely for his talent in bot building and fighting in the ring. The back alley bot fights, due to their unregulated and slightly illegal nature, weren't exactly safe, and it was mostly older teenagers and adults who came to the fights.. But if anything, the danger was even more of a draw for Hiro. He'd spent his entire life being told to play it safe and hide his abilities. Here, he could be whoever he wanted to be, and even if he didn't openly flaunt his magic (he didn't have a death wish, after all) his unexplained and narrow escapes when he'd pissed off a fellow fighter had made him something of a legend in the ring. And that's why tonight's fight with Yama was easily going to be the biggest of his bot fighting career-he was planning to leave tonight as a legend.

Hiro waited until all of the other bot fighters had squared off with Yama before making his move. As soon as he saw the remaining fighters purposefully disabling their bots as an excuse not to fight he knew it was his time to shine.

"C-Can I try?" Hiro asks, moving to the front of the crowd, making his voice sound nervous and shaky, as if he'd never been to a bot fight before-the more sweet and innocent he acted, the easier time he had throwing other fighters off their game. Was it playing dirty? Maybe. But everyone played dirty here, so he didn't feel any real guilt about it.

"I-I have a robot… I built it myself," Hiro says when Yama turns around, holding out Megabot, his prize fighting bot. Megabot was part of his act too-the robot looked clumsy and insubstantial, with a goofy yellow smiley face painted onto it's head to make it seem like a child's first foray into bot building. Little did anyone know just how powerful the bot really was, much like Hiro himself.

When Yama and the other fighters burst out laughing, Hiro shrinks back into his oversized hoodie, trying to appear scared and frightened, but inside he was smirking-good, his act was working.

"Beat it, kid," the lady with an eye patch who seemed to be running the fights tells him, looking slightly pitying but mostly annoyed at a child showing up and interrupting things. "House rules-you gotta pay to play."

"O-Oh…. Is this enough?" Hiro pulls a crumpled wad of bills out of his pocket-while it was actually quite a large sum of money (earnings from his previous fights), making it look like money that a kid had been socking away in a piggy bank made him look like a complete amateur.

"What's your name, little boy?" Yama asks with a mocking grin.

"Hiro? Hiro Hamada?" Hiro answers with what he hoped looked like a frightened smile.

"Prepare your bot, Zero," Yama snears, and just like that, the fight was on.

The first round of the fight, Hiro let Yama's bot slice Megabot to pieces, and he pretends to be completely crushed when he loses.

"T-That was my first fight… Can I try again?" Hiro asks, making his voice tremble..

"No one likes a sore loser, little boy," Yama sneers, stuffing his earnings into his tracksuit. "Go home."

"I-I've got more money!" Hiro holds out a large, professionally bank wrapped roll of bills this was always a gamble. The fact that he, a supposedly completely inexperienced teen, had so much money on him was sure to raise a lot of people's suspicions, and he had to weigh the risk of people catching on to his game with his knowledge that bot fighters' greed usually outweighed their common sense. Fortunately, Yama didn't disappoint him.

The money from the previous fight goes back into the house pot, along with Hiro's latest offering. The woman in charge announces the start of the battle while Hiro reassembles Megabot, and then the fight began. Only this time, Hiro completely drops his act.

"Megabot," he says, unable to hide a grin as he extends the robot's controller out to allow himself full controlling capabilities, "destroy."

The fight was almost too easy-Hiro was bored halfway through it. And here he'd thought that Yama would actually be a formidable opponent. But no, he was as under Hiro's league as every other self-important hack he'd faced until now. Still, at least he was going to be making bank off of this fight.

"No more Little Yama," Hiro says with a smirk as Megabot destroys the other robot, collecting his winnings from the house pot.

"T-This is not possible!" Yama cries, staring down at his never before defeated bot in shock.

"Hey, I'm just as surprised as you are!" Hiro answers, trying not to sound too cocky. "Beginner's luck! Do you want to go again- Yama?"

He freezes when he sees the mountain of a man that he'd just utterly humiliated towering over him. Shit, this had escalated a lot more quickly than he'd expected.

"NO ONE HUSTLES YAMA!" Yama shouts, throwing Hiro against a wall and confiscating Megabot before turning to three men Hiro could only assume were his goons. "Teach him a lesson!"

"H-Hey fellas! L-Let's talk about this!" Hiro says a bit nervously, hoping that he could find an easier way out of this but preparing a repulsion charm in case he was going to have to blast his way out of here, which it definitely looked like he was going to have to as the guys continue to advance, one of them cracking his knuckles for good measure.

Just as Hiro was about to let loose his magic, a bright light fills the alleyway and the goons have just enough time to leap out of the way as a red motor scooter screeches to a halt in front of them.

"Hiro, get on!" the man driving it shouts.

"Tadashi!" Hiro cries, eyes lighting up as he sees his older brother and quickly hopping onto the back of the scooter. "Oh, good timing!"

Without answering, Tadashi jams a helmet onto his head before taking off down the alleyway. Hiro quickly pushes the visor out of his eyes and uses his controller to call Megabot back to him. As soon as he has the bot in his hands, he focuses on hanging onto his older brother.

"Are you okay?" Tadashi asks, not fully turning around so he could keep his eyes on the road ahead, but even without seeing his face Hiro could hear the panic in his voice.

"Yeah!" Hiro reassures him.

"Are you hurt?" Tadashi presses.

"No!"

"Then what were you thinking?! Knucklehead!" Tadashi reaches back to punctuate his reprimand with what even Hiro had to admit were a couple well deserved blows.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Hiro answers, not feeling in the least bit sorry but trying to keep up appearances. "How did you find me, anyways? That creepy magical homing beacon you claim you have on me?"

"All witches can locate each other when they're in distress, so it's not creepy, and no, I actually got tipped off by Mochi because a few cats saw you heading into a dangerous part of town!" Tadashi shouts back. "And it's a good thing that they did, you could have been killed!"

"Wait, you have your citywide cat information network spying on me now? That's even more creepy, bro!" Hiro cries. He still wasn't sure sure how Tadashi had what seemed like over half ot the city's cats answering directly to him, but he suspected there was a lot of bribery going on. (Tadashi called it showing them kindness to earn their trust, but Hiro wasn't going to be so generous when it meant he couldn't go anywhere in the city without being snitched on.)

"We're getting off the subject!" Tadashi tosses back-damn, Hiro had been hoping to distract him, but no such luck. "You graduated high school when you were thirteen, and this is what you're doing? Bot fighting is illegal, you're going to get yourself arrested!"

"Bot fighting is not illegal!" Hiro protests. "Now betting on bot fighting… That's illegal. But so lucrative!" He pulls his night's winnings out of his pocket to illustrate his point. "I'm on a roll, big brother! And there's no stopping me!"

That is, there was no stopping him until Tadashi jerks to a stop to avoid crashing into the police cars that were blocking the exit to alleyway.

"Oh no…" Tadashi whispers, sounding completely horrified as officers start to get out of the cars.

"Shit…" Hiro whispers-no, tonight couldn't end like this! He had one option, and he knew that Tadashi wasn't going to like it, but he doubted Tadashi would prefer going to jail so he hurriedly whispers, "Tadashi, hang on."

"Hang on? What do you mean- Oh no. Oh no, Hiro, don't you dare-!"

But before Tadashi could protest any further, Hiro squeezes his eyes shut and, rapidly chanting the spell, teleports himself and Tadashi from the alleyway out onto a main street a ways from the bot fight. He would have sent them all the way home, but even his magic (powerful as it was) had limits, and just doing this much had seriously drained him.

"Hiro, what the hell?!" Tadashi cries, and he knew that Tadashi had to be pissed because he rarely heard his older brother curse.

"What?" Hiro gasps out, clinging onto his brother's back and trying to catch his breath. "I-I got us out of there, didn't I?"

"Hiro, you just did major magic in front of the freaking police! And we're technically evading arrest right now! They saw our faces, they're going to be looking for us!" Tadashi shouts.

"Quiet down, will you?" Hiro hisses. "Look, they didn't have time to see us clearly, and even if they did you know now stupid normal humans are-are they really going to believe that they saw two guys on a scooter vanish into thin air? No! Of course not! They're just going to tell themselves that they imagined it and arrest the guys who actually deserve it, so as long as you keep your mouth shut we're going to get off scot-free!"

"I'm not sure that some jail time wouldn't do you good," Tadashi grumbles, although Hiro could tell he didn't really mean it. "Maybe it would get your head on straight and stop you from going to these stupid bot fights. When are you actually going to start doing something with that big brain of yours?"

"What? Go to college like you so people can tell me stuff I already know?" Hiro fires back.

"...Unbelievable," Tadashi sighs, shaking his head.

"Look, Dashi, as much as I'd love to keep having this conversation out in the open where the rest of the world can hear it and the police can come find us, do you think we can go home now? I'm pretty worn out from that spell," Hiro says, partly to try to garner Tadashi's sympathy and hopefully get himself out of the hot water that he was in and partly because he truly was drained from the spell.

"Fine," Tadashi says after a moment's pause. "But I've got to stop somewhere on the way home to pick something up and since you're the one who decided to go bot fighting you have to deal with it and come with me."

"Fine…" Hiro groans. "Let's just get this over with…"