The World Falls Apart (But We Can Fix It)

Part One of the Earthquake Series

Chapter One

By - Night Foliage

Beta Read - SpotlightAsagi and Shaitan Elnifi and Tohdoh

Chapter Date Published - 1/8/2015

Warnings - In general this fic should be rather light (with a rating similar to the movie). It's a K+ rating mostly, maybe T because there is some language. However, this rating may change as the story progresses.

Disclaimer - I'm very happy that Disney now owns Marvel and therefore Big Hero 6. If they didn't, then such an amazing movie would not have come out.

Pairings/Characters - No pairings as of yet. In general this fic is Hiro centric like the movie, and all the characters from the movie should show up.

Spoilers - This is a rewrite of the movie. However, due to change in the world, the story won't follow the storyline of the movie for very long. Be aware, if you haven't watched the movie, it contains some pretty big spoilers about the plot and the characters.

Cross posted to Ao3.

-000-

Summary - [Dystopian Earthquake AU/Movie Rewrite]

In 1922, a series of earthquakes devastated the earth, causing land to split apart along the fault lines. As a result, San Fransokyo became a part of a series of islands off of what was the coast of California. Unable to reach or communicate with the mainland, San Fransokyo and its inhabitants were forced to adapt in order to survive.

Now, the year is 2035, where fourteen year old Hiro Hamada is bored out of his mind. Having already graduated from the Academy the year beforehand, Hiro has no desire to join an Institute. Sure, he would learn a trade that will later place him into a Sector. But really, what else could he learn? So, Hiro spends his days designing whatever the hell he wants and going to underground bot fights, wasting the days away until he is forced to join an Institute when he turns eighteen.

Meanwhile, Tadashi has his hands full trying to keep Hiro from getting caught by the Keepers, the Underground, and everyone else his younger brother has annoyed. One day, the boy was going to get himself into a situation where Tadashi couldn't save him. Hopefully, Tadashi's project would be able to help Hiro when Tadashi wasn't there...


Prologue:

The first of the earthquakes hit Japan in the year 1893.

The earthquake was devastating. It tore Japan apart and caused thousands of deaths. Many of the smaller islands were destroyed and the largest island, Honshu, was split in half. What wasn't destroyed by the earthquake was ruined by the tsunamis that followed.

Many citizens of Japan had survived, but the land did not.

Refugees flooded out of Japan and into the neighboring countries. As they left their homeland, countless promised to return and rebuild their country.

However, their hardships had just begun. The sheer amount of refugees that needed to be evacuated and given new homes was unprecedented. Countries accepted as many as they could, but many countries held some bitterness at the forced amount of immigrants entering their borders.

Until the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

Although this disaster did little damage to the land (especially in comparison to the one that destroyed Japan), an estimated three thousand people died and most of the buildings collapsed in the affected area.

Miraculously though, some still stood. Specifically, the ones in and near the Japanese ghettos. As others would find out, the Japanese had been designing counter-earthquake architecture for their future Neo-Japan, and implemented as many methods as they could to their homes. As a result, their area suffered the least amount of damage.

With the designs from the Japanese engineers (and if rumours were to be believed, support from the yakuza), San Francisco made an unexpectedly swift recovery. The city honored these engineers by making the city more Japanese-esque and changing the name of the city to San Fransokyo, in memory of the still desolate Japan.

For years, most of the world forgot about these earthquakes, calling them "tragedies," and "unfortunate events," as if they hadn't happened recently.

The Japanese never forgot and neither did the inhabitants of San Fransokyo. They pushed their architecture further and further, improving anything they could. And when they couldn't? They drilled the desire to improve into the children, who would later take the mantle. In the subsequent years, San Fransokyo became a leader in innovation, both in the United States and in the world.

Then, the world fell apart.

-000-

For San Fransokyo, it was Tuesday, March 21st, 1922, the day of the Spring Equinox.

It started with a rumble, soft and insignificant, except this rumble didn't stop. The ground kept moving, and the rumbling ever so slowly grew in intensity. The shaking intensified and the ground began to split around the fault lines. It was happening again. What was once thought to be a freak incident in Japan was now occurring all over the world.

Except this time, instead of a series of islands being destroyed, all the large land masses were affected. The earth spread apart in huge chasms.

In California, the San Andreas fault line would cause most of the coast to separate from the mainland and the resulting gaping maw in the ground would be quickly filled by the waiting ocean. This and the subsequent aftershocks would further damage the coast, changing it into a line of islands. While a lot of people were killed by the crumbling land and its aftereffects, many survived by sheer luck of their environment. The areas that were mostly farmland, flat and without any excess that would collapse on people. Others lived on land held together by the deep rooted trees and vegetation.

In some cases, it wasn't luck at all. Out of all the islands on the new California Archipelago, San Fransokyo's city suffered the least amount of damage. In fact, it had suffered little to no damage from the earthquake. However, the separation had knocked out most forms of communication within the island, let alone to the mainland.

Unfortunately, while San Fransokyo had done its best to prepare for earthquakes, it was less prepared for the apocalyptic weather that followed. Rarely a dry day passed after the earthquakes. As hurricanes and storms whipped the sky and the sea into a frenzy, the city lit up with flashes from lightning strikes. Every day it was buffeted by harsh winds and tall ocean waves. As San Fransokyo endured, it was clear that there would be no traveling to the mainland. And as time passed, they accepted that there would be no help coming for them.

Rather than giving in, they started adapting, pushing their resources and intellect into creating a life for themselves in this harsh new. Those with leadership, intelligence, and most importantly, the will to improve their god-forsaken lives, quickly rose to power. The San Fransokyians had to throw out a lot of their old rules (some of them gladly) and their society morphed quickly.

The end result was unusual, but not unexpected. San Fransokyo became the center of innovation amongst the islands. They were the main source of energy and technology, thanks to lightning rods that drew off energy from the storms. They also developed barriers to filter out the elements. However, their lack of agricultural land made them unable to sustain themselves. Thankfully travel, while dangerous, was still a possibility between the islands, and the islands became reliant on each other for different resources.

Once trade was established, San Fransokyo fell into a state where invention and the pursuit of knowledge became more frenzied than it was before the earthquake.

They changes schools, creating the Academy, which pushed students toward the right job that would later become their life. After that came the Institutes, where graduates worked in order to showcase their ability to excel in their chosen field. Finally, at the end of their Institutes days, they would apply to a Sector, each one dedicated to the improvement and betterment of an aspect of San Fransokyo life.

This system created intellectual and charismatic powerhouses and made sure that the stars and future leaders of San Fransokyo were propelled into their proper place. And those who couldn't keep up? The ones who fell when they couldn't climb as high as society wanted them to? They were snatched away by other islands or the Underground. And, if rumours were to be believed, a Resistance that wanted to rebel against the system.

But rumours were rumours, and the normal people of San Fransokyo kept their eyes on the future, not noticing when any of their falling brethren failed to meet the system standards.

So what could make the everyday people of San Fransokyo take notice? It would have to be someone who was beyond the system; bright and flexible, someone smarter than the system could have anticipated. Someone, who had to have a good reason to change the status quo.

Until that day arrived, life in San Fransokyo would remain the same.

-000-

Now:

"What were you THINKING, knucklehead! You're going to get yourself arrested or worse!"

"Well big brother, I was thinking that I could win big in bot fighting. And I did!"

"Oh yeah? And how were you going to stop yourself from getting beat up by the Underground, who, by the way, are chasing us right NOW!" Tadashi couldn't help but bellow out the last word, even though it did nothing to help the situation. If anything, it just made him more out of breath and alerted Yama and his followers to the brothers' position.

"Aww, we can outrun them," Hiro said, even though he too, sounded like he was getting winded. "By the way, some rescue operation on your part. Although I have to admit, the flashbang was impressive. I didn't know you had it in you"

"Just keep running unless you have any bright ideas, genius," Tadashi snarked right back.

And despite the admittedly life threatening situation, they managed to share a smile. Which disappeared, as they rounded a corner straight into a ten foot tall wall.

"Oh no," Hiro said. The sounds from Yama and his men were suddenly closer than he thought.

"Come on," Hiro felt Tadashi tug on the neck of his jumpsuit and then he was unceremoniously shoved towards a small alleyway he hadn't noticed before, since the opening was a little less than a foot wide and barely kept two buildings from touching each other. Hiro got the idea, tucking Megabot into his jumpsuit, then turned sideways to shuffle along the narrow path. Tadashi quickly did the same, but it was a bit of a squeeze.

"At least Yama can't follow us now." Hiro said as they slowly shuffled their way to the other side.

Tadashi groaned, "Really? That's- okay, yeah, I thought the same thing," he admitted. "Even I'm having some trouble here." Tadashi started, before stopping that train of thought. He did not want to jinx himself when they were only half way through.

"I'm not surprised, I mean all those hours sitting on your butt at the nerd Institute must not be helping." Despite the tight space, Hiro managed to turn his head to look at his brother. "Is that why your jumpsuit is a slimming black?" Hiro couldn't resist pointing out. Even though everyone wore the same pseudo-one piece outfits, his brother's usual colors tended towards what Hiro thought was bland; soft pastel earthy tones with little to no patterns.

"You shouldn't be jealous baby brother, your clothes are turning into a flattering shade of black via alleyway. Aunt Cass is going to love it." Tadashi said, making Hiro look down at his, admittedly, filthy clothes. It was one of his favorites too, a (formerly) white hand me down jumpsuit from Tadashi that he had just started to properly grow into. His hand brushed against his pants, feeling the paint from the red and black lines he and his brother had painstakingly worked on. While Hiro paused to mourn his favorite outfit, Tadashi stepped closer and gave him a shove out of the narrow alleyway.

"HEY!"

It was not a moment too soon, Yama and his men caught up just as Tadashi managed to wriggle out into the open. His lackeys started to shuffle into the tight space after them, while Yama yelled profanities at the retreating Hamada brothers, clearly unable to follow.

"Ha!" Hiro couldn't help but laugh, there was no way they were going to catch up to them now. He didn't notice that Tadashi was staring in a different direction.

"We have to keep moving." Tadashi said, pushing Hiro forward.

"What?" Hiro followed Tadashi's gaze. "She's a Fighting Fujita? That explains a lot." A group led by a familiar one-eyed woman, ran towards them. However, instead of holding a decorative umbrella for bot fights, the umbrella she wielded clearly had a knife at the tip.

"Yeah, great, now let's go, before-" Tadashi was cut off by the sound of a siren. The two shared a look of alarm, before they started sprinting down the path.

"Keepers too? You know, things never get this exciting when I'm alone"

"Keep your voice down," Tadashi hissed. "And don't let them see your face," he said, pulling his hood up over his cap. As the hood stiffened then locked into place, a half visor slid out from under his cap and over his eyes. Hiro rolled his eyes, but pulled his goggles up from around his neck, then slid his hood up to let it lock into place.

"And by the way, there isn't going to be a time more exciting than this-"

"Because we're gonna get arrested by the police."

"-because you are going to stop bot fighting."

"Ha. Ha. Yeah, like I'm going to stop bot fighting…." Hiro trailed off, as his brother started to slow down. "What are you doing?"

"Our ride's here." Tadashi replied, pulling something out from behind a dumpster.

Hiro stared. "A bike. What, are you going to try to out pedal a glider? I mean they both have wheels, but there's no way we're going to be faster than the Keepers."

"You'd be surprised. Come on." Tadashi straddled the bike, clearly waiting for Hiro.

"Okay," Hiro said, hopping on. He moved his feet to rest on the back axles, but was met with air. "What the…"

"You can put your feet on my calves, just make sure to hold on tight." Hiro frowned, doing so. As Tadashi started pedaling, Hiro tried looking the bike over again. He couldn't see very well, it was dark and the bike was moving, and all he could tell that it was a black bike with orange, maybe yellow rims.

Hiro was interrupted from his thoughts, when Tadashi pedalled onto the main road. "Tadashi! What are you doing!? The Keepers are going to catch us for sure if we're out in the open!"

"Aww, don't you trust me?" Tadashi called back to him. The bike seemed to gain a burst of speed in response.

"Well, yeah, but I thought you were trying to stop us from getting arrested." Hiro looked back to see a beam of light, most likely from a homing bot, much closer than he would have liked. The Keepers wouldn't be too far behind.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Tadashi said, as the bike seemed to gain another burst of speed.

"Huh…?" Hiro looked down again as the rims of the wheels started to glow brighter.

"Hey look, there's our other ride." Tadashi said, a small motion from his shoulders showed that he was probably pointing at something. Hiro looked up, but didn't see anything but the mag-tram tracks in front of them. "Hold on." Hiro yelped and held tighter onto his brother as the bike put on a final burst of speed.

And they were going to ram straight into a recycling pile!

But no, they actually hit an incline causing them to go up and straight into the air. Tadashi couldn't help but chuckle as Hiro whooped with glee when they went flying. The younger brother grinned widely, checking his reflection in the second story building window before noticing a circle of light in the corner. He whipped his head around and his fears were confirmed. The bikes trajectory was going to land them right in front of an incoming mag-tram.

"Last warning Hiro!" Tadashi yelled, so he could be heard over the tram and sirens and the odd hum that seemed to be permeating the air. "Hold on as tight as you can!"

"Fine!" Hiro yelled back, not taking his eyes off of what was surely going to be their imminent deaths. He wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around Tadashi's chest, then decided he might as well wrap his legs around him too.

As the tram reared closer, Hiro's life may have flashed before his eyes. He couldn't quite tell. There was a distinct lack of meaningful memories he had besides the ones about his family. If he got out of this alive-

But of course he couldn't finish the thought because they were about to slam straight into the side of a speeding mag-tram.

Then Tadashi leaned forward, causing Hiro to lean forward, letting the younger brother get a better look at their imminent doom.

Suddenly, the bike jerked up and it started to climb the slagging side of the tram

Tadashi quickly maneuvered the bike so that they were speeding on top of the tram, moving fast enough to catch up with the front. As they reached the front, they jumped off the tram, the bike moving at an impossible speed in the direction of their home. They were moving so fast that not even their laughter lingered in the air behind them.


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Comments:

1) The term "Keepers" is a reference to the Hunger Games', Peace Keepers. However in this world, they are still called police officers. Keepers is a slang term that mostly the younger generation uses, due to some of the curfew restrictions placed on those who have not yet entered a Sector. The curfew isn't very "serious," either, the reason given to the public is they want to prevent people from being in areas where the Underground may be found.

2) Slag is a swear and it's typically only used among the younger generation. It can also mean tired when written as slagged. This was taken from the Batman Beyond series, though the meaning isn't quite the same.

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Author's Notes -

When I read the official art book for Big Hero 6, I immediately thought of this concept for an concept of San Fransokyo actually being San Francisco, but changed, was so interesting. There are so many dynamics to play with and so many things that aren't explained in the movie. Like why did they rename the city? Does San Fransokyo have a large criminal underground? Would they involve the mafia or yakuza, or perhaps the triad? Why were most of the people in power white, when the city was so obviously interracial?

All these questions inspired the concept for this fic (and hopefully will inspire me for future fics to come).

So there are a few things I want to mention. First and foremost, this dystopian idea is not based on any specific book, although there are some concepts and terms that I am going to pull from other stories and published works (any similarities to other fics are not intended, unless they are tropes). Secondly, I would love feedback, but then again, who wouldn't. Specifically, I would love feedback about the world itself. This is not my first fic, but this is my first AU where I completely change the world, so I've never had to deal with plot holes concerning world creation. Feel free to ask questions about the world or point out any things that might be off.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. The second chapter is in the works, but I don't know when I'll finish it. And I think you'll notice that the next chapter will definitely be more of the movie rewritten, as opposed to this chapter. It can't be helped with some of the scenes coming up. As for the timing of each chapter, I hope to post one chapter a month, but we'll see where that goes.

Again, if you liked the fic, subscribe, favorite, and/or review :)