Chapter 10

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. - African proverb

(AN: another warning for graphic injury details (gunshot wounds, stitches) and ptsd triggers)


The Japanese couple walked into an underground garage adjacent to the mall, and paused to listen for a moment. It was still just the two of them in that part of the garage. The woman pulled out her phone again to bring up what looked like a navigation app, a specialized one that displayed a handful of different glowing dots on a grid.

The man nodded over to their left, motioning that they should cut in between a couple cars to take a shortcut and pass through the spot where one parking level criss-crossed with the level that was lower. After they were inside their dark silver Mercedes Benz, the man finally asked if she found their assignment.

The leader of the Fujita's smiled knowingly. "{It's him}," she spoke in Japanese as she showed her comrade the picture that had been taken of the disguised younger Hamada from one of his past bot fights. "{It's too bad. Zero is such a cute, sweet little boy.. when he's not bot fighting.}" The woman sighed woefully, which then turned into a sinister laugh.

"{And he had no clue?}"

"Ee…" she mused. "{It wasn't until his robot came that he started to get suspicious. You… you waited too long! A few seconds later and I would have been discovered!}" The woman punched him.

"{Hey, hey! Just making it all the more realistic,}" he snorted, not letting her sassy attitude get to him.

She looked at her phone again to check where the boy and his robot was now. If the boy did know, he wasn't showing it by chasing after her right now. A game of cat and mouse was also fine with her. She can play that game too.

"{This news will make the boss happy,}" she smiled, clicking her tongue. "Ikuzo!"

Her comrade nodded, and started the engine to leave.

Kimiko and her other female partner in crime, Mei, just arrived to San Fransokyo a couple days ago. She was part of his elite who had been in charge of Yama's original headquarters based out of Tokyo, Japan. The surging popularity of technology sweeping through the west coast had attracted him to take advantage of it. Apparently, these punks he recruited here had gotten thrown in jail, and otherwise failed him in one way or another. She had sent Rinchi over first to report on the situation, only for Yama to demand that all three of them be here right away.

Certain activities by particular individuals lately were really getting his mawashi loincloth tied in knots. So being of his most reliable staff, Kimiko advised him that watching these heroic wanna-be's in question first before advancing would be most effective. It did have its risks, but catching them when they least expected it would be worth the wait.


Fred and Hiro had walked into the back entrance of the mansion after landing in the patio. Baymax followed behind the others quietly, just to conserve his diminishing energy reserves. He was barely seventy percent before they left, so after the wide array of assignments they had accomplished, the healthcare robot was the first to make the call to head back. Especially since they also had to take a not-so-direct route, in the event that they were still being followed.

Even though Gogo and Wasabi alerted the three they were heading back before the sun set, and had asked again if they needed help or a ride back, Hiro declined the offer. While Fred was very willing to go home, Hiro wasn't so much. It was not the kind of successful run the young superhero had hoped for, and it really bothered him that he let his guard down. He needed to buy some extra time on how he was going to explain everything.

Before they left the mall, the young hero still felt uneasy, and finally asked Baymax to scan for any unwarranted technical devices on him. That was when the tracker on Hiro's chest armor was found. Fred was scanned too, but his suit was 'clean'. Hiro secretly told himself it must have come from the girl. Her slick tactic really bothered him because he did not remember her from anywhere before. The last thing he really wanted was to expose Fred's mansion to these people. But, the teen still did not want to tell his two teammates the whole truth. Because, the truth was far too complicated to discuss right now. So he lied with the assumption that he picked up the tracker from the gangs either at the drugstore or the sporting goods store.

Hiro decided the quickest way to solve this problem was to take off his indigo colored armor. Then just so that his suitor didn't get suspicious about it disappearing or not moving anymore, the superhero hid it in a bag and quickly tossed it into the back of an unsuspecting rescue truck. Of course, he advised Fred to be more stealthy as to not attract anymore unwanted attention.

It simply was just an exhausting day, and it was starting to show in Hiro's attitude. But Fred was determined as ever to keep Hiro out of his funk.

"First dibs on the shower!" the sweat-soaked kaiju mascot called it. His blue kaiju suit was riding low around his waist as to cool himself off faster. Fred also limped slightly as he had developed some inflammation and pain in one of his knees after the sudden fall in the sporting goods store.

"Not going to argue with that, Stinku-san," Hiro wrinkled his nose to tease him, as he and Baymax followed after.

"You're not exactly a breath of fresh air either, B.O. bro," he tried to hug him, just to rub off some of the sweaty, wetness of his shirt to the little nerd.

"Aahhh… gross! Stop!" Hiro pushed him away and sidestepped a few steps over in the hallway they were in.

Fred chuckled a bit, but he stopped since Hiro looked even more annoyed.

"It is recommended to cool the core body temperature and increase fluid intake as soon as possible to prevent heat exhaustion," Baymax simply added his two cents to the situation.

"Did the cooling unit in your suit get messed up, Fred?"

"Maybe... oh, wait.. was that what this was?" the mascot paused to lift up and flip over a section with a couple buttons and a small temperature readout inside the top edge of his kaiju.

"Yes..." Hiro said, not even looking at it. He remembered how Fred complained about hot it got in his regular SFIT mascot suit, so the young genius initially built a cooling system into his supersuit.

"Can you fix?"

The teen just sighed. He really wasn't feeling all that great and this was just adding to his aggravation.

"S'kay, buddy," Fred patted him on the back a couple of times to show his appreciation.

Upon approaching his room, Fred had stopped, looking back to put his finger to his lips. Then he listened at the door for a moment.

Hiro just gave him a puzzled look, which was quickly replaced with an eye roll and a frown.

"Never know," Fred mouthed the words, looking a bit smug too.

It had been unspoken knowledge in the group that Gogo was flirting a lot with Wasabi earlier that year, something of which Hiro was mildly aware of as well. But he doubted they still were that serious anymore, unless Fred was jesting at the trend of how everyone seemed to be walking in on each other at inopportune times lately.

Fred opened the door slowly for a beat, then quickly as if he was bursting in. "Honey, we're home!" He wasn't referring to Honey Lemon, of course.


Gogo leaned on the back of the white couch, her phone in hand, while Wasabi sat at the other end of the couch, apparently growing more restless. She pretty much convinced the big guy to want to eat his words from earlier, since Hiro was not really communicating with them very much about his whereabouts. It had been dark for a couple hours, and the fact they didn't return until now gave her reason that something went wrong.

The tough girl did see a weird exchange of glances between the two boys after they walked in, but that wasn't all that concerned her.

"Finally! We were starting to get worried," Wasabi stood up to walk over, only to have his uneasiness quickly replaced with the look of confusion. The sound of Baymax's red armor hitting the floor as the rotund robot shed the pieces stole their attention for a moment before they looked back to the others.

After seeing their weary, pained expressions, coupled with Hiro missing half his wardrobe and Fred being wet, it took the speedster a moment before she just shook her head in defeat. But not without also shooting Wasabi another glance that said 'I told you so'. "I'm just not going to ask."

The young superhero went over to sit on the couch, dropping his helmet and gloves on the floor. He sighed as he rested his head heavily in his hands, clearly minding her remark to not give an explanation.

"Good.. because it is a reeeally long story. Kinda like those that start out with, 'It was a dark and stormy night'… except, well.. it wasn't very stormy ..or dark, yet," Fred explained instead, as he slowly climbed out of his costume. Then he walked over to the door to push a button on an intercom unit. "Heathcliff, bring up a round of Zillade for everyone, and about five ice packs, please!"

Baymax took his place promptly next to Hiro, most concerned about wanting to check on his injury. "Hiro, it is important to clean and dress your gunshot wound before it becomes infected."

"Aw no, no.. Baymax…" Hiro whined as he sat up in protest.

"Gunshot wound?" Both Gogo and Wasabi echoed at the same time.

"I thought you needed to recharge," Hiro muttered to his guardian.

"Not yet."

"'Yep, lots of 'fun' times," Fred confirmed, but wisely decided to not elaborate. Instead, he peeled off his wet shirts and looked around for something 'clean' and dry to change into. "Shower time!"

Gogo immediately sat next to Hiro, her eyes intense on him as she studied the brown silken scarf and the blood encrusted texture of the black shirt on his left side. "What. Happened?"

"It- it's nothing serious! Really," Hiro answered, albeit nervously as he clamped his arm down against the side in question. "I was just snatching a gun from this thug, and it—"

"You're clearly not ready to do that yet," she responded bluntly, reaching out toward the knot on the scarf. "Lemme see."

"No, no.. I'm okay," he shifted further away defensively. "What do you mean, I'm 'not ready'? I still caught the guy!"

"'Cause you got shot!" She pointed to his chest. Gogo furrowed her brow, becoming more serious. Simply because the following thought of an angered Hiro with a loaded gun did not sit well with her. "Did you shoot back?"

He looked at her in disbelief and seemed to be thinking about his answer before responding. "No!"

"Okay, good. Now let me see it," Gogo taunted him, sliding closer again. Clearly it did not hit anything vital, but she just wanted to make sure it really wasn't that bad.

"No, no, really! It's fine!" Hiro got up to get away from her, only to find himself blocked by Baymax.

"Your wound should be cleaned and dressed before infection and scarring occurs, Hiro," the healthcare robot repeated again.

"Hey, stop being such a big baby about this,"Gogo firmly told him. Why was the Hamada boy so nervous now? Or was it that he did not like the idea of taking his shirt off in front of her?

The exasperated look Hiro gave Gogo after she said that was priceless. Baymax tilted his head, trying to understand these exchange of words and actions between the two. Hiro exchanged glances with her and an equally concerned Wasabi, then tried to puff himself up again. "I'm not a baby! Just.. let me do it, okay?"

Still keeping a wary eye on them, he picked at the tight knot for many long seconds trying to get it undone. Growing impatient, and briefly making eye contact with Wasabi, GoGo could not hold off anymore. She stood up to help Hiro with that.

"I got it," Hiro nearly yelled as he batted her away. That did it. He was about to turn from her, but Gogo grabbed him by his arm to stop him.

"Relax," she growled while glaring into Hiro's now fearful eyes. He dropped his hands to let her try untying the knot, but a couple more seconds passed before she gave up.

"Do you have scissors, Baymax?" GoGo looked over to the billowy healthcare companion.

"Yes," the finger of his right hand revealed a set of small surgical scissors that looked like they also came from a Swiss Army knife.

"You're not cutting off my shirt!" Hiro was very quick to protest.

"I'm just cutting off this," Gogo tugged at the scarf roughly, trying to make a space away from Hiro's body and shirt for Baymax.

"Ow.. oww, easy!"

"You tied it," she grumbled, waiting for Baymax to cut while she held up the scarf. As a distraction, she decided to ask about the other thing that was bothering her. "What happened to your armor?"

Hiro sighed. "I got tagged.. with a tracker."

"Sit down," Gogo pushed him back as she pulled away the cut scarf. He took a couple steps back to sit on the edge of the couch. She automatically assumed he did the right thing of loosing it before coming here. "By who? Why?"

"There were gang members looting the stores too," he explained, a little more softly. He looked up toward Baymax briefly when he moved in next to him.

"Can I see your wound?" Baymax pointed to his side.

Gogo stood where she was so Baymax could do his thing, but still watched closely as the boy gathered and lifted his shirt tail. Dried blood had stained his pale skin, and once he reached the wound he paused. The fabric was stuck to it, and trying to pull on it made him swear from the pain.

Baymax tilted his head, then raised his finger to offer spraying water than he had warmed to room temperature. "Using water will loosen it."

"Ow.. shit, this is bad," Hiro drew in a sharp breath as he felt more of the sting from the water coming through.

"Language, nerd," Gogo couldn't help but also tease him about his rash of expletives. She actually had seen her share of gunshot wounds from growing up on the streets of LA. It looked like this one just grazed his skin, fortunately. Unfortunately, it was a nasty split a few inches long in the tissue under Hiro's armpit. His build was still slight, but he had enough muscle there for the bullet to skim over. Just his luck to get hit where his armor did not cover.

"Not going to wonder where that water is coming from," Wasabi commented. He had to step away for a moment too, as it was getting to be too much for him to watch.

The young hero ended up having to struggle with pulling his arm out of the sleeve to give Baymax better access. The gash started bleeding again, once the shirt was removed, and the fact Hiro was sitting on a crème-colored couch bothered Wasabi even more.

"Where is Fred?" the worried swordsman decided to be a little more proactive. He walked over to the door to look into the hallway. "We're going to need towels, or gauze at this rate."

"Shower," Hiro spoke through gritted teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. He had his left hand behind his neck to keep that arm up.

"You also require stitches," Baymax concluded, spraying more water on it to flush it out, and then prepared a needle to administer a local analgesic.

"Oh no..." Hiro responded to that with more whimpers. "Just don't shut down in the middle of it…"

Totally acting like a big baby again, the speedster thought again, but to herself this time. Both of them, she sighed, also noticing Wasabi's nervous pacing.

"Here," Gogo sat next to the injured teen and gently tugged at his damp shirt to get it the rest of the way off, despite his protests. Then she wrapped it around his waist so it would absorb the fluids from Baymax's spray. "Just use this until we get some towels, okay?"

Now feeling very much cold and frustrated about the awkward turn of events, Hiro audibly sighed in response. But the timing could not be better because Heathcliff arrived with the Zillade and ice packs that was requested.

"Great! We also need some towels and gauze too, sir," Wasabi told him.

Heathcliff nodded, understanding the situation, then stepped out into to hallway. He was back in a flash with a stack of maroon colored towels. Wasabi noticed those were not their usual ivory monogrammed towels, and laughed once. "Thanks."

The big guy set the stack on the table, and motioned for Baymax to slide back for a moment so he could place a towel by Hiro's side. Gogo took another to wrap it around the shivering teen. Heathcliff returned once more with a good-sized first aid box, and set it on the table by Baymax and Hiro.

"So, you guys started picking fights with more gang members?" Gogo sat on Hiro's right side as Baymax prepared to start stitching the wound. She grabbed one of the bottles of Zillade, broke the seal on the lid, and handed it to Hiro. "Were they the same ones from the hospital?"

"Maybe," he took a gulp of the red fruity drink before setting it back on the table.

"Just trying to understand now, why they wanted to track you," Gogo prompted again. She definitely had her guesses, but she decided to let him be the one to tell them.

"You will only feel a pinch," Baymax informed the boy.

"They recognized that I'm the leader…" his response almost sounded more like a question. Hiro winced again in discomfort from the needle and thread, showing how much he really did not feel like having a conversation like this now. "Can we talk about this later?"

Gogo studied his pale face for a moment. Even though Baymax didn't announce it, the younger Hamada did look like he was going into mild shock from the needles and the stress of all this. She surrendered by putting a comforting arm around his trembling shoulders. "Hey, you're gonna be okay. Just don't look. Deep breath in… breathe out. Breathe in…. and out," Gogo leaned into the younger Hamada, whispering words of reassurance to help him regain peace of mind.

Fred returned not long after, fully dressed and with a towel around his neck for his wet hair. He stopped at that end of the couch by Baymax, to look at the progress on Hiro's wound. "Oooh… ouch. Okay, Hiro wins the Biggest BooBoo Award this time," he frowned. Hiro opened his eyes to look at the redhead, and stuck his tongue out in response.

Gogo clicked her tongue, pushing the small nerd away. "Okay, you're fine. Just don't forget to breathe."

The fan boy smirked while he grabbed a bottle and a couple of the ice packs before sitting on the end near GoGo. "I just have cracked ribs, bruises, and a bum knee."

"From what?" Wasabi prompted.

"From when Rick's fell on me," Fred looked at his knee again before positioning an ice bag on it.

"Oh, right."

"Are you guys okay?" Fred asked Wasabi and Gogo, in between swallows of Zillade.

"Nothing that tiger balm, ibuprofen, and some band aids could fix," Wasabi leaned on the back of the couch near him. "I feel unusually super now after surviving two buildings collapsing on me."

"Hah, awesome," Fred mused.

Gogo just rolled her eyes. She leaned forward to go through the first aid kit in search of gauze and tape to have ready for Baymax.


Hiro stared at the hot flames licking at the logs hissing in the fire pit before him for a moment before he had to close his eyes again to shake it off. It was a weird mix of familiarity combined with fear now. A log gave way and fell into the fire, and his heart rate jumped for a second. He pulled up the hood on his sweatshirt to block out some of it. The teen angled himself sideways on the bench and leaned back on Baymax to redirect his focus toward the night sky.

It's just a fragging bonfire, not a burning building! Hiro told himself again. He had to work through this. It was just a matter of retraining his mind to let go of the negative associations that the trauma had left on his psyche.

As novel as the idea was for them to cook dinner over a bonfire, he didn't realize it was going to become an issue. He used to love roasting marshmallows, and be mesmerized by the glowing flames flickering around and burning the logs into hot embers. The musky smell of the smoke in the chilly night air used to give him fond memories of fall, or Christmas break at the ski lodge with his cousins up in Washington state. It felt very different now. Maybe it was the depression also reminding him that his brother was no longer going to be there for that anymore.

But the young genius wasn't going to tell them about this new problem with the fire. This time he also managed to hush Baymax before they created yet another awkward scene. The whole team already knows now that he has a phobia with needles and stitches. And then, finding out that he was ticklish on his sides too when it came time to putting on the bandages. The whole thing could not have been any more embarrassing... or expensive, no thanks to his generous contribution to the Swear Jar afterwards (something that Honey Lemon had started awhile back). In fact, he found himself thinking of ways to get back at Gogo afterwards for that.

Hiro picked again at his cooled semi-charred marshmallow still on the stick while listening to the others video chat with Honey Lemon on Fred's and GoGo's phones. They sat across from him on benches at the other side of the fire ring, swapping stories about how the afternoon went. For dinner, they had grilled teriyaki meat over an iron grate along with other things. It could have also been the thought process that went into cooking the food properly that triggered his other thoughts.

"We should plan our next steps for tomorrow," Wasabi felt they needed to move onto more important matters now that they had finished eating. "I still need to make sure my apartment's okay."

Hiro sat up to also face the others in acknowledgement. He almost had forgotten that his aunt asked that he be back by tomorrow morning to help her. It was a task he did not look forward to, knowing now that there are gangs out there looking for him. "Yeah… Aunt Cass wants me back tomorrow also."

"When?"

"In the morning… late morning's okay," Hiro rubbed his face in thought.

"She needs help packing up some stuff," Fred recollected. He was on the next bench over, and turned slightly to face Hiro. "Let's just say that whole side of the house, the one your room is on? The walls and windows are cracked and damaged. So everything on that side needs to be moved away."

Hiro just groaned after realizing how much stuff that meant packing up, and that it may not just be his stuff.

"I can help," Gogo offered. "To be honest, if gangs are what we gotta look out for… then we would have better luck tracking them in the afternoon or evening."

"Yeah," he nodded, "I was thinking we would have to wait on the stakeout. But if you got other things to do tomorrow—"

"I hardly have anything at my place to worry about," Gogo shrugged.

"Oh, okay." The teen felt a little unsure about what she wanted from him, really. If the mechanic was set on watching his actions, he was going to make it difficult for her.

"I can find some people to help with her repairs," Fred suggested.

"That's going to be tough for Aunt Cass to not be open for awhile," Wasabi rubbed his chin with a frown. "Hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week too… triple rough."

Naturally, the bare mention of Thanksgiving gave Hiro another surge of anxiety. Because right after was when his final project was due that semester. The final exams, he could handle easily. But realizing how behind he had fallen from where he hoped to be with Geronimo initial design left him feeling panicked all over again. Nor was he anywhere close to presenting Baymax to any of the local clinics yet. After what had happened at the ER today, the younger Hamada was terrified of the reality that he blew it. Then the thing with the Asian girl happened, and his only guess was that it had something to do with him winning at too many of the wrong kind of botfights.

"I just hope the labs won't be closed for long," he summed up all his worries into that simple statement. He could fall back on his garage, but it would be harder to transport all the materials and things without everyone finding out.

"Everything going okay, little man?" Wasabi looked at him, appearing very concerned. Hiro's worry must have been plain on his face at that point.

"Just.. a little behind," Hiro ignored the weakening fire in between to look across to his elder teammate.

"Have you told your professors?" Wasabi asked. "I'm sure as long as you just meet at the requirements for the project, it'll pass. Afterall, you did start late."

"Yeah.. it's just, I really wanted to complete the goals I set."

"You're staying within your scope, right?" the physicist pointed with his hands.

"Yes…" Hiro sighed, looking over to Gogo suspiciously. Did she tell Wasabi about his problems earlier?

"It's more like a combination thereof, isn't it?" Gogo glanced from the fire's glow to them.

"Kind of," Hiro looked down away from the fire to take a deep breath, trying to calm his uneasiness as he thought about a diversion off this topic. "Are you guys on track?"

"Pretty much," Wasabi nodded. "I never overshoot a deadline."

"I just have to write a report that compares the Lord of the Rings to the Harry Potter series," Fred smirked.

"Aish.. shut up!" Gogo glared at him. The lanky redhead returned her hard stare with a sheepish grin.

"Honestly, apart from making sure the gangs aren't after us, I think we should take a break from this superhero gig until this semester is over," the big guy openly confessed to the others. "Especially since Honey Lemon is out of comission for awhile."

Gogo nodded. She had taken a moment to push a big log closer into the fire, causing a burst of sparks to fly upwards.

Oh man, don't do that! Hiro's eyes grew wide in response, and he shifted his glance from the sky back down at the patio tile again to redirect his focus. "Uhm, yeah… that might help, I guess."

Gogo looked at him oddly for a moment, apparently noticing his wierd reaction. "So yeah, just focus on what's important. No more supersuit upgrades until Christmas, okay?"

"Um, okay. Right," Hiro looked up at her with a hesitant smile.


Saturday - November 22, 2025

I will not lie when I say the last year at highschool was brutal. A whole year I wished I could have back to 'do over', because it had been such a waste. I was just done with the school system in general. It may be a great place to go for 'normal' people, but it absolutely was NOT for me.

My family… they acted like they didnt get it, and that made it worse. I didnt really have any other options since Aunt Cass couldn't afford to send me to a private school, or have the time to do homeschooling.

But ... I dont know. A lot of my resentment came from the boring subjects I had to take, and the constant scrutiny I got from the other kids. I guess what really drove me nuts was just how unfair things were. Most of it was how I hated how smart I was… if being smart was supposed to be a good thing, then why did I get so much hate about it?! Why did I even have to go to school? Just so I can have that diploma?

Somehow… I found stuff that helped me get by while I was there. The bot fight club was insane, after a few kids discovered the more challenging battles downtown outside the range of what was acceptable by the school. Then the group of us decided to ditch that lame school club to join in on this wicked online community.

Thats pretty much how I passed my time after I graduated high school. Hanging out online, ranking up on virtual and real time battles, and then ranking up to go to the live action ones. Essentially, the winner was free to take the losers best parts and armor, in addition to ranking points. I just loved the challenges, trying to figure out what it took to win while still staying within the rules. Most of those battles were low-key, until my schools group started to dare each other into going to the ones where actual money bets were placed. The longer I battled and stayed in the top ten, the more kudos I got in the online community. So when I started hustling the downtown battles too... it was sick!

But before I even got that far… that was when I also learned bot fighting was something that my brother did NOT get into. Go figure… he was such a nerd anyway. Even though it WAS robotics, because robotics is what we do, it was not "practical" enough. He was chill about it a first, prolly thinking I'll was just checking it out…. but after awhile, that's when things seemed to change between us.

Really, I thought it was going to awesome when nii-san got accepted to SFIT. He had so many ideas... and to finally be able to use them for the greater good, I was so excited. Everyone was.

I tried to adapt to the new life after he was accepted there, but it never really occurred to me how much I was going to miss having him around at high school. Going to, coming back... by myself. Eating lunch.. by myself. Doing homework or working on random new inventions... by myself. I also had to take the long way in between classes, just to avoid any unwanted attention from those ass-wipes. On top of all that, I also had to help out MORE at the café... :p

It took like a couple months after he started, but I finally got used to Tadashi getting home late from classes, if he came home at all. He would go on about how amazing it was, the crazy inventions people would come up with, the new friends he was making, and the opportunities to meet so many guest scientists from around the world.

To say that I wasn't a little jealous would also be lying. Nii-san would say he would bring me by the lab sometime, but yeah, things got crazy busy and he would sound like a broken record with the apologies about forgetting.

So yeah, I got even more resentful. We used to do so many cool things together, and then it all became SFIT this, SFIT that. Stupid Fragging Nerd Lab.

The bot fight community never got old though. After I came up with this rock-solid idea to use high torque electro-magnetic motors in robotics, those amateur rookies were so floored. Literally. Yeah, I tried to show Megabot to nii-san too, but he didnt seem as impressed.

He just wasnt happy with what I was doing with my free time out of school in general. It wasn't anything bad, unlike the other losers at high school selling drugs and causing the administration all kinds of trouble. Bot fighting in itself was a growing, profitable business in San Fransokyo and surrounding cities. I just...

Okay, I did realize things were not good between us anymore. I was mad that he had something going for him that was way better than my suck fest... so that made me want my own life even more. I was getting tired of just being known as Tadashi's really young, annoying, brainiac brother.

But he figured that out, somehow... who am I kidding, nii-san's the only one who really knows me. That, and yeah... I had a way of leaving my stuff all out in the open, everywhere, for him to see. My subliminal way of still wanting his attention, his approval… I guess.

The suck thing though... When I took a break from the bot-fights for the SFIT showcase, I totally lost my ranking. I was already yesterday's news, and no one cared who I was anymore when I came back afterwards. Go figure.

That's ... That's what really gets me. I hope Tada-nii understood. I never told him just how much I missed having him around, and that I was sorry for being such a bonehead. I tried to that night at the convention. I really hope he understood... I was mad at him before, but I got over it when I was working on the microbots. Especially after he invited his friends over to help too.

But… that part still feels wrong though... that now, his friends are my friends. His robotics project, his stuff, his lab... all mine. I never wished for it to be like that. Cause that doesnt make it better…. I just miss him more.

I just… I never got the chance to apologize. I hate that so much! He had to leave and find out what that alarm was for. Why? Just why?

Nii-san didn't have to go... I mean, if he only knew. If ONLY he knew...

The convention hall had to have been rigged to explode like that... debris and flames went shooting everywhere, like it was full of a flammable gas. Then the shockwave...

I got blown away by that blast, and the wind was knocked out of me. It was so hot, the flames were so bright…. and it smelled so bad. I couldnt breathe. All I could really remember was how bad my head and my chest hurt. It felt like a long time before I could breathe enough to shout his name into the inferno. I wanted to go up the stairs to get closer and look, to find him, but my legs kept going out under me.

I think it was a firefighter that pulled me back, but I still couldnt walk. So I got carried away from there, and that's when they said I just lost it. Fighting, resisting, not wanting to stay in the ambulance. They somehow figured out that my brother went inside. But that whole part is still unclear...

I did not come out of it until I was in Aunt Cass's arms... she was holding me tight while stroking my hair. I slowly realized that I was sitting on the edge of a stretcher that was stationed outside the ambulance. My arms were tucked against her chest, with nii-san's hat still in my hands.

"Tada-nii .. T'dashi's... he's..." All I could see over and over again was the fiery explosion swallowing him up.

She stepped back to look at me, carefully wiping the damp soot from my face. I winced because my face hurt from the touch. Everything hurt.

"Shh, sweetie... They don't know yet."

"He went inside... I tried to stop him. He went inside.. then it exploded... Tadashi's..GONE," I'm crying now, because I witnessed it. I saw it. I will always see that explosion, every time I close my eyes too long.

It seemed like it exploded right after he went inside. How could he have survived that? How? How could even Callaghan manage to live, unscathed? Or… was it just at the entrance…?

Aunt Cass had hugged me tighter again, and I felt her body shake when she began to sob. It was a long time before w


"You okay, buddy?" Fred's tone was respectfully sober, but it still jarred Hiro from his thoughts.

The glowing light from his tablet must have got Fred's attention. That, and the frequent sniffling. Fred got up from his bed and gingerly walked over to where Hiro was sitting on his sleeping bag on the floor. The younger Hamada ended up sleeping in Fred's room, while the others took the other two available guest rooms. Hiro finally admitted he rather not stay in the reading room that was accented with dark oak bookcases and lots of medieval armor complete with swords and axes. While it did look cool at first, it got rather creepy-looking in the dark, making it hard for him to sleep there.

Fred placed hand lightly on the teen's back as he closed his tablet. The mascot didn't say anything more as he pulled Hiro in closer for a hug. Hiro leaned in to the comforting embrace, but then drew in a deep breath and leaned forward as he wiped the tears from his face. He felt like he wanted to hide again, as he still struggled with trying to open up to his team about all of this.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fred's hand stayed on his young friend's shoulder.

"Bad dream," Hiro whispered, nodding. Who was he to fool at this point though, he sorely missed having someone to confide in. While Baymax came close, a lot of topics still required some backstory before his robotic companion fully understood. Fred at least, he was laid back enough to roll with the punches. From what he could tell, the eccentric fanboy was an only child who also had been struggling with his own brand of loneliness, and very likely the reason why Tadashi befriended him. But yet, there were some things that he may never have the nerve to tell Fred, or anyone for that matter. So those details went down into his journals, often times to be deleted later.

"Baymax said it would help if I wrote down the events from that night. Like it could help me understand how it happened, what happened, why the dreams keep happening..."

"Is it helping?"

"I dunno... I still have the dreams. And I was flipping out over everything big time today," he rubbed his face, talking into his hands. He could practically write a book about everything today, if he were to write about that. This was the third time of writing just about the explosion, each time from a slightly different perspective, but he wasn't going to tell Fred that. "I don't wanna see a shrink," Hiro whispered as he looked up a little.

"Today was tough.. really tough," Fred sighed, patting Hiro on the back. "I wouldn't worry too much yet."

"It's changed my understanding about the accident though."

The two just looked at each other for a beat, before the younger Hamada finally whispered. "I don't think he died... in the fire."

"You... don't think he..?" Fred asked at a slightly higher octave of a whisper, turning to face him more.

"Yeah.. there's one thing that doesn't make sense... no bodies, or even remains. They were the only two who had died that night. Everyone else survived with just injuries!" Hiro didn't wait for a response to explain further. He decided he was carrying this burden long enough, and he felt Fred was worthy enough to know. "It's self explanatory what happened to Callaghan – he used my microbots to save himself. But what about Tadashi?"

"Then where would he be, if—" Fred interrupted him to ask.


AN: No, no, no! If you believe Tadashi should be dead, don't worry! I too am one who believes he was dead. But with all these rumors running amuck with Tadashi coming back in a Big Hero 7 movie (as a possible villain named Sunfire), well... I just could not resist poking fun at this 'hot' BH6 fanfic topic. ;p To be honest, from what is being hinted at, I still would say the good-guy Tadashi that Hiro knew is dead.

Also, this is a completely ambiguous idea right now (because this wasn't in my original story plan) Hai... (Twisted Evil Grin) Don't expect me to actually carry through with it though….

Funny thing about the bonfire... in my first draft, I didn't realize what I did by having them sit around it. Not until my Hiro headcanon started squirmingetting more about it... and so I changed it to include the ptsd. Poor kid!

Oh… and that one song from Wiz Khalifa "When I see you again", totally fueled the last part of this chapter.

Cybercorpsesnake – Thankyou for your review! I really hope to make the relationships between each of the team members to have so much more meaning, in how they know and work with each other. And yes, Hiro felt really stupid afterwards for not realizing it sooner. This is a prime example that even though he may be a genius, he is not 100% foolproof. Hiro also had not seen the Fujita girls before – new game plan. ;p