A/N: In the process of writing this, I realized that I know nothing of the workings of a university. So, this chapter may be slightly rushed as I cover the important points and move on...

This takes place a year after the movie and should work with movie canon. I do have a few people or elements from the manga. Since I haven't seen the cartoon, I'm going to treat that as if it didn't happen. So far, the only thing I've used from the cartoon is the fact that the university dean is a woman.

Some day, Hiro would invent an alarm clock that actually worked. Oh, his alarm clock worked well enough. Aunt Cass said it was loud enough to wake the dead, but apparently Hiro slept deeper than that.

"I'm so gonna be late!" were the first words out of Hiro's mouth most mornings, and this day was no different.

"Useless!" Hiro yelped for good measure as he slapped off the alarm.

Dressing was a hasty matter, and there was a high chance that this was the fourth day on the jeans that Hiro put on. He slowed briefly to grab Tadashi's hat from the bedpost and shoved it into his backpack beside the textbooks and Microbot.

He barreled into the cafe kitchen, jerking his university sweatshirt to face forward and rubbing Mochi in passing.

"Hiro, good morning," Aunt Cass greeted, dodging out of her nephew's way. "Sorry I couldn't wake you, the cafe has been a madhouse."

Hiro ducked backward to give Aunt Cass a quick hug. "No later than normal. Gotta go!"

"Max has breakfast!" Aunt Cass called as Hiro dashed away.

"Thanks, Aunt Cass!" Hiro grabbed the donut held up by Mini-Max, the tiny Baymax replica who kept Aunt Cass company. "Thanks, Max, watch out for thumbtacks."

Mini-Max waved jerkily. Hiro grinned, then looked at the clock. He bolted out the kitchen and down the stairs to the garage. He plunked a helmet onto his head, threw open the garage door, and sped off on Tadashi's old Vespa.

It was somewhat of a miracle that Hiro, driving faster than sensible and going one-handed as he ate his breakfast, never wrecked. It helped that pedestrians who regularly passed that way in the morning recognized the sound of the Vespa approaching and moved to the side to let him pass.

Even while he expertly avoided the slower pedestrians, bikes, and other vehicles, Hiro kept an eye on the rooftops. For the last few weeks, he had been seeing something or someone following him. He never got a good look, just a flash of light or a glimpse of something metallic, and the others assumed that it was sleep-deprivation was getting to him.

Which he found just insulting. Fall asleep in class two or three -dozen- times and everyone assumed he didn't get enough sleep.

The race to the university went without a sighting, and Hiro brushed the possible follower out of his mind. He ran inside, tugging on his jacket in an attempt to remove the wrinkles from laying bunched under his bed at night, then gave up to rub at a cream smear from the donut.

"I see Mr. Hamada has finally decided to grace us with his presence."

Hiro froze, sheepishly raising his eyes to peer through his bangs at the roomful of students staring at him. His eyes fell on Wasabi, who gave him a look of horror before burying his face in his hands.

"I am over here, Mr. Hamada."

Hiro turned slowly and straightened to give the Professor his most charming smile. Professor Aquino, of course, wasn't impressed. He waved a chubby hand at Hiro and turned back to the blackboard.

"Just sit down. Now, as I was trying to say before I was interrupted…"

Giving a silent sigh of relief and a quick bow, Hiro scurried to his spot and slid in beside Go Go.

Professor Aquino was a harsh man, despite his harmless and… squishy appearance. Shorter than half the students in the room and with enough width to make up for his height, Professor Aquino was as unassuming as they came. But he had the voice of a foghorn and a short fuse for disrespect.

Hiro had quickly learned that it was best to treat the professor the same way he treated a cocky, long-time bot fighter. Keep your head down and smart comments to yourself.

Besides, though the professor had a tendency to say "neuron" while writing "electron" on the board during his lectures, he was still a brilliant man.

Go Go, keeping her eyes forward, held an open hand out of sight under the desk. Hiro quietly low-fived her. Wasabi, sitting in front of the pair, put a hand against his forehead.

Hiro's favorite part of the day was when school ended, no offense to the teachers. Classrooms were quiet and sitting still while professors droned on. After classes, though, was open lab work.

Open lab work was interesting. Students experimented with the impossible, like jetpacks. They did the impossible, like the invisibility suit Nava was perfecting. They planned to do the impossible, like, say… time travel.

At the start of every school year, every student was given a section in the open lab and a private lab for more secret projects.

By the end of week two, most students had inevitably joined forces with other students with the same interest, spilled out of their section of the open lab, and abandoned their private lab altogether. Because of this, it wasn't unusual to encounter some… interesting situations in the open lab.

"Brody's on the ceiling," Go Go commented off-handedly.

Hiro hummed, then blinked as the words sunk in. He turned from Wasabi's plasma gloves to look at the girl, who was staring up. Hiro and his friends followed her gaze.

Brody was, indeed, standing on the ceiling. The brown-haired boy was waving his arms in what was either excitement or fear. It was hard to tell with the jittery boy. The cause of his predicament was his experiment: the All-Terrain Shoes, or ATS for short.

"I thought those were for ground work only!" Wasabi yelled up.

"They are!" Brody's green eyes found Wasabi. "But they malfunctioned and, well, the magnetic grippers work!"

By then, most of the students had noticed Brody's situation. A few of the students clapped, assuming that Brody had succeeded on his two-year long project.

"Well, get down here, before you fall," Wasabi said.

"Um, I'd love to, but… malfunction," Brody said, letting his arms hang loose. "A little help?"

"Hey, Spider," Fred chimed in, using his nickname for Brody, "You did tie your shoes, right?"

An uncomfortable silence filled the room. As if on cue, Brody slipped slightly down. He looked down -or up- at the ATS.

Eight little legs sprouted from his shoes to grab onto whatever sort of surface they encountered. A rubber ball with suction cups and spikes on either side tipped each of the spindly legs. The shoes themselves were rather ordinary. And, currently, untied.

Brody quickly crouched and reached for the ATS', but the sudden action only jerked him out of his shoes. He was falling!

Honey Lemon bolted for her table, then there was a burst of fire from the group and a young woman in a metallic grey vest shot into the air. She grabbed Brody mid-fall and, with the help of the jetpack on the back of her vest, dropped them both gently to the ground.

Once her feet hit ground, she dropped Brody and scrambled to jerk off the vest. Another boy ran forward and tugged the vest off. The back of the young woman's shirt was smoking.

"That was foolish, Abigail," her lab partner berated, taking off his jacket and patting out the smoke.

"I'm here to make sure no one gets hurt, Jackson," Abigail said with an easy smile. She craned her neck to look at her singed shirt. "Field Test one went better than I thought it would, though."

Jackson sighed and tugged the older woman toward their station. The students started to drift away now that the excitement was over. Brody left in search of a ladder to retrieve his shoes.

"Good thing the teachers didn't see that," Go Go said as the team returned to Wasabi's station. "After Honey Lemon's explosion last week, they've been jumpy."

Honey Lemon giggled sheepishly as the team turned to her station. Hard, purple goo still clung to the wall and table.

"Isn't that why Abigail is here? To keep an eye on the students?" Wasabi asked, returning to working at one of the panels on his plasma gloves.

"I think Abigail is more student than us most of the time," Go Go said drily. "Jackson's more likely to rat us out than her."

"Oh, Jackson's not so bad," Wasabi defended.

"We could have cleaned up Honey Lemon's glowing goo before it hardened if he hadn't lectured us on lab safety for half an hour," Go Go argued. "No one would have known. What happens in the lab, stays in the lab."

"I'm pretty sure Abigail gives a report to the dean at the end of each day," Fred offered. He went on in a mysterious voice, "Every explosion, every combustion, she knows. Nothing escapes her."

"She's just trying to keep us safe," Honey Lemon said.

"Do you find it weird?" Hiro spoke up for the first time. He lowered his voice when the others looked at him. "Callaghan's daughter being here?"

His friends looked uncomfortably at each other and remained silent. There wasn't really an answer for Hiro's question, and any attempts in the past at discussion usually ended with frustration on all ends.

After a moment of silence, Hiro pushed away from the table. "I have to get something."

Hiro walked slowly from the room. He glanced at Jackson and Abigail's station, where the dark-haired boy was making adjustments to the jetpack while Abigail rubbed burn cream on her back.

Abigail was older than most students by at least five years. Officially, she had been employed to SFIT to be a mentor. To most of the students, though, she was one of them. She could be more reckless than Go Go, but knew the limits of herself and the students and was extremely helpful for solving issues.

Hiro was the only one who hadn't warmed up to Abigail. She sometimes approached him in open lab, but Hiro could never meet her eyes. On the rare occasion that he did look up, her eyes were averted as well. The whole lab would go silent when the pair talked, but no one knew how to fix the issue.

Besides, how was one supposed to address the tension between them? It wasn't like Abigail could have done anything to change the situation, but it was because of her that Tadashi was gone.

A/N: Professor Aquino is from the manga, as is Mini-Max. I added Mini-Bax, though.

I wanted to include Abigail in this because, unless she moved elsewhere, how Hiro might respond to her needed to be addressed. I will be having a confrontation between Hiro and Callaghan at some point as well.

Guest review responses!

Randon Fan: That's me: mystery! XD Be sure to let me know when you are able to post! I'm a willing reader. 0w0 Hopefully this chapter wasn't too dull for you, things will pick up in the next one!