"You'll never get away with this Yama!" Sunfire shouts as he uses a blast of fire to keep the mob boss at bay.

"When are you going to figure out that we're never going to let you break into Krei Tech?" Hiro adds, directing his army of tiny robots to block one of Yama's goons.

"When you learn that I'm not giving up until I get that experimental ray gun Krei's building so I can sell it to the highest bidder," Yama answers, looking for an opening.

"C'mon Sunfire," Fred whispers, eagerly turning the page to his comic. "You've got this! Take him down!"

It was a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon in San Francisco and Fred was enjoying his afternoon catching up on the latest issue of Big Hero 6 before going in to work his evening shift at Toybox Comics, the comic shop he worked at part time during the school year and as much as he was able to during the summer months. It was a job he desperately needed-the scholarship that he'd won as a part of a writing contest for Megazon comics back in high school mercifully paid for most of his school expenses, but food, clothes, and anything else he had to pay for himself. And with no family to help him out (he'd never even known his parents and no one had wanted to adopt the skinny, gawky kid who spent all his time reading comics) he needed all the help that he could get.

Well, at least he didn't have to worry about paying for his comics anymore. He gratefully glances down at the mailing envelope this most recent issue of the comic had come in. Even when he'd been living in foster care, he'd somehow always managed to scrounge up the money to get the new issue every month. He'd discovered Big Hero 6 at the beginning of third grade, and he swore that it was the only thing that had kept him going sometimes. Reading about the adventures of Sunfire (a super with fire powers who was also known as Tadashi as his civilian name), Hiro (Tadashi's genius younger brother who specialized in robotics), Honey Lemon (a chemistry whiz and fashionista), Gogo (a speed demon who could outrace anyone), Wasabi (a super who used laser induced plasma blades to fight the bad guys), and Baymax (a nursebot turned crime fighting machine) had given him a world to escape to even on his darkest days.

No matter how many times he was yelled at by his foster parents, had been sent to bed without supper for forgetting chores, or been locked in his room for weeks at a time for his dismal math and science grades, he'd always been able to escape to the technological mecha of San Fransokyo and bury himself in one of the teen superheroes' adventures to forget about how depressing his own life was. And when he'd won Megazon comics' writing scholarship contest, he not only got financial aid towards his classes and housing, he'd also won a lifetime subscription to the comic of his choice, and of course he'd chosen Big Hero 6. Even though he got an employee discount at the comic shop, it was nice having one less expense to worry about. And speaking of the comic shop…

"Oh, shit!" Fred cries as he looks up at the clock and realizes that he's running late for work. Trying not to panic, he quickly puts his comic in his bag to finish reading later and hurries out the door to catch the streetcar. Andy Davis, the comic shop owner, was an extremely nice and understanding guy, but it still wasn't a good idea to test his boss's patience.

On his ride over, Fred manages to finish the comic. As usual, Big Hero 6 caught the bad guys, which was always a relief-it was so nice to know that, as awful as real life could be sometimes, things would always end happily for Sunfire and the rest of the team.

Ah, Sunfire… Fred does his best not to drool as he turns back to a particularly well drawn action shot of the superhero. Fred had had a major crush on the character for as long as he could remember. And who could blame him? Not only was Sunfire completely gorgeous (without being overly bulked up like most male superheroes, which was a nice change) and had a brilliant mind for robotics, he had an extremely good heart-he took great care of his little brother as well as helping his aunt out at her cafe without even being asked, and he also had a soft spot for looking out for kids who were in danger. Sometimes when he'd been younger, Fred had imagined that Sunfire would come and rescue from his own personal hell-even though they were the same age, he knew that Sunfire wouldn't care, that he'd come to find him and when he did he'd take him home to live with a family who would take care of him and love him like his own foster parents never had…

Oh well, so unfortunately that fantasy had never come true. In the back of his mind, Fred had always known it was just a dream and he had to rely on himself to survive in this world. Still, it was interesting to know that Stan Lee, the writer of the Big Hero 6 series (which was a continuation of his earlier series, Magnet Man), actually thought of Sunfire/Tadashi as one of his favorite characters too. Fred had been lucky enough to meet Mr. Lee on multiple occasions-working for the comic shop, he often volunteered to work at their booth at local conventions, and he used the money that he saved on the entrance badge to buy the meet and greet session with Mr. Lee whenever he was in the area (which was often as he actually lived in San Francisco.)

Fortunately Mr. Lee never seemed to get tired of seeing him, and Fred liked to think that maybe they had even become something close to friends-one time after a convention, Mr. Lee had actually taken him out to dinner, which had easily been one of the best nights of his life. He sometimes wondered if maybe it was because of their relationship that he had won the scholarship contest, although he liked to think that it was on the merit of his own writing that he'd gotten it. Whatever the reason, he was incredibly grateful for it, and he hadn't been about to turn down the funding that he needed to stay alive and off the streets.

Fred was half zoned out, thinking about his last time seeing Mr. Lee and wondering if he'd have the chance to run into him at another convention coming up, when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw-but no,that was impossible-Sunfire winking at him from the pages of the comic. Fred jerks upright, shaking his head. Wait, had he actually just seen-? But no, he must have been half asleep and imagining things. There was no possible way that a drawing had just winked at him unless he was at Hogwarts, and he'd long since given up on hoping that he was living in the same world as Harry Potter. Just as he was trying to decide if he needed to have his eyes checked (or possibly his head), his stop was announced and, quickly pushing what he thought he'd just seen out of his head, he shoves the comic in his bag and gets up to head into work.

"Hey Fred!" Andy's wife, Hannah, greets him with her usual friendly smile as he walks in.

"Hey Hannah!" Fred returns. "How are things going today?"

"It's been pretty slow, but we got in a new shipment," Hannah answers. "Go ahead and clock in, and then you think you can help Andy in the back unboxing everything?"

"More than happy to!" Fred answers, determined to do everything he could to earn his keep here.

He spends the next few hours busy with work. It wasn't hard work, just time consuming, and it was nice having something to keep him busy. As hard as school was, at least it gave him something to do. During the summer, he hardly left his apartment except for work. He didn't have any friends to speak of, and he didn't have the money to go anywhere unless he was volunteering at a convention. Some days he had to wonder if anyone would even notice at all if he just up and disappeared…

It was about thirty minutes before the end of his shift that the door to the stockroom flies open and Hannah comes hurrying in, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Hannah, is everything okay?" Fred asks, frowning in concern when she fails to say anything.

"I- T-There's someone here for you…" Hannah finally stumbles out.

"What? Someone here… For me?" Fred repeats slowly-who on Earth could possibly want to see him?

"I-I think you'd better see for yourself," Hannah answers shakily. "H-He's in the break room…."

"Okay…." Fred wasn't quite sure what was going on but, hoping that something horrible wasn't happening, he leaves the back room and heads to the break room as directed.

As soon as he opens the door, he understands Hannah's state of shock.

"O-Oh my gosh…" he whispers, wondering if he'd hit his head and was imagining things.

"Hello, Fred." There, seated at the tiny breakroom table and standing up to greet him, was Stan Lee. "How are you, my boy?"

"F-Fine…" Fred answers weakly before stammering out, "W-What are you doing here?"

As soon as the words came out, he realized how rude that they sounded, but fortunately Mr. Lee just chuckled and answered, "I'm here to see you."

"D-Did I do something wrong?" Fred asks. He couldn't think of any other reason that the famed figure would seek him out like this, and he did have one of the security guards that Fred had seen at a lot of his conventions with him standing in the back corner of the room.

"Not at all, not at all," Mr. Lee answers, patting Fred's shoulder in an almost fatherly manner and gesturing to the table. "Come, sit. We have much to discuss."

"W-What exactly do you want to discuss?" Fred asks, shakily taking a seat. In spite of Mr. Lee's cheerful tone, he could sense a tone of seriousness underneath it, and Fred could only imagine the worst. What if something had happened and he'd somehow lost his scholarship? No, he couldn't have lost his scholarship! Where would he live without his rent being paid? And he still had two years left in his English degree, if he ever wanted to be able to get a decent job-!

"Take a deep breath, son," Mr. Lee says gently, obviously noting the somewhat panicked expression on Fred's face. "Like I told you, everything is absolutely fine. If I could, I'd tell you right now exactly what I'm doing here, but what I have to tell you is going to take a bit of explaining, so you're just going to have to be patient with me."

"O-Okay…" Fred agrees, nodding and doing his best to take Mr. Lee's word for it.

"Where to even begin…" Mr. Lee muses, rubbing his chin as he sits down across from Fred at the table. "I've thought this conversation through so many times, but I never could settle down on the best way to explain everything…"

"Explain what?" Fred asks, his natural sense of curiosity starting to overcome his anxiety.

"What do you think of San Fransokyo?" Mr. Lee finally asks after a long pause.

"S-Sir?" Fred blinks in surprise.

"San Fransokyo-what do you think of it?" Mr. Lee repeats.

"I-I think it's amazing," Fred answers. "It's the most amazing world I've ever seen-and I've read a lot of fantasy worlds, believe me. There are so many times that I've thought… Well, that I'd love to live there…"

"I think I remember you writing something like that in the letter you included with your scholarship story," Mr. Lee says with a smile. "And quite a wonderful story it was too-very well written, and you have a remarkable grasp of all the Big Hero 6 characters."

"Y-You read my story?" Fred gasps-in all of their meetings, Mr. Lee had never mentioned that he had actually read it!

"I did, and I found it very, very impressive," Mr. Lee answers with a nod. "I especially liked your original character, Fredzilla. He was definitely a great addition to the world-I like that he was inspired by classic kaiju, that was a stroke of genius."

"T-Thank you," Fred manages to get out, feeling his cheeks flushing. "I've always loved kaiju… And I don't usually indulge in making original characters, but since that was a part of the scholarship requirements…"

"That was actually exactly the point of the essay contest," Mr. Lee explains. "To see just how good a grasp the contestants had on the already existing world and how well they could build on it."

"Okay…" Fred agrees slowly, glad to hear that Mr. Lee had liked his character but still trying to figure out where exactly this conversation was going.

"I can see that you're still confused," Mr. Lee says with a kind smile. "And I'm sorry if I'm sounding cryptic-I don't mean to, it's just that I never thought I would have to actually explain all of this to someone… I just grew up learning all of this from my father, and he learned it from his mother, and so on and so forth… But I was never able to have children of my own, and I'm not getting any younger, so I finally decided that it was time to find an heir, someone I could teach-"

"W-Wait, an heir?" Fred stammers.

"Exactly," Mr. Lee agrees. "Someone to continue my work-someone to inherit the gift, and the responsibility. That's why I created the scholarship contest-to start looking for someone who would be worthy of it."

"Is this like… Willie Wonka?" Fred blurts out. He still had no idea what was going on, or what "gift" Mr. Lee was talking about, but somehow the words came out before he could think them through.

"I suppose that is where I got the inspiration for this, yes," Mr. Lee chuckles. "But my selection process was slightly less random-I personally reviewed all of the story submissions myself. And after our many meetings, I was quite impressed with your grasp of the world so I did make sure that an application for the scholarship made it into your hands."

"Y-You were the one who did that?" Fred gasps, remembering how the scholarship application had mysteriously shown up in his foster home's mailbox one day.

"I hope that wasn't too forward-but I truly believed that you would be the best candidate, and I wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to apply if you had any interest in it," Mr. Lee answers, his voice full of an earnestness that surprised Fred.

"I-I did, I absolutely did!" Fred answers. "And I'm truly grateful that you chose my story and for everything you've done for me-I don't know if I'd be alive without the scholarship! But… I'm still really confused about why you're here, at my work, and what kind of 'gift' you keep talking about… You said something about looking for an heir… A-Are you looking for someone to take over the writing of the Big Hero 6 series?" It was almost too much to hope that this was what Mr. Lee was talking about. And yet…

"That's exactly right," Mr. Lee agrees with a nod and a smile. "I'm glad that at least I made that much clear. I still intend to keep writing the story as much as I'm able to, but as I said, I am getting along in years and I need to know that I have someone reliable who can gradually start taking over the story and continue it when I can't anymore."

"I- W-Wow…" Fred stammers, heart pounding in his chest. Was he really hearing this right? Stan Lee-the Stan Lee-thought he was worthy of working on and eventually taking over the Big Hero 6 story?

"Is that not something that you want?" Mr. Lee asks, a slightly apprehensive look crossing his face. "If I misjudged the situation, I do apologize, I'd never ask you to take on something that you don't-"

"O-Of course I want to!" Fred cries, jumping up from his chair in his excitement. "It's been my dream ever since I was a kid!"

"Wonderful!" Mr. Lee beams up at him, seeming pleased by his enthusiasm. "I'm very glad to hear that. However…"

"However?" Fred repeats, his euphoric mood plummeting as he slowly sits back down at the table-how many twists could this conversation take?

"There is something that you should know before you commit to this," Mr. Lee answers slowly, as if reluctant to continue. "Well, many things, in fact, although they're all interconnected. It has to do with the 'gift' that I mentioned-something that has been passed down in my family for many generations and has always been passed on to the most worthy successor of it. Unfortunately, it is not easy to explain, and if I tried to you might end up thinking that I'm just an old man with a few screws loose after all these years of writing comics."

"There's no way that I would ever think that!" Fred cries. "You're my idol, and I would never doubt anything that you had to say!"

"I appreciate that, but what I have to say is probably a bit beyond even your realm of belief," Mr. Lee responds with a wry smile. "Maybe it would be easier if I showed you and then explained."

"O-Okay," Fred agrees with a nod, wondering just what Mr. Lee was going to show him.

Mr. Lee turns in his chair and beckons to his assistant, who steps forward, looking almost… eager? Was that the right word for it?

"Fred, there's someone I'd like to introduce you too," Mr. Lee says, turning back towards the young man sitting across from him. "Although you've never been officially introduced, I do believe that he's something of an old friend of yours."

"Wait, what do you mean by tha- HOLY SHIT." Fred's eyes go wide with disbelief as the assistant removes his ever present hat and sunglasses that Fred had always thought covered more of his face than was necessary. Fred had always wondered why the guy never took them off, even indoors-was it just a security guard type thing to make him look more intimidating, or did he possibly have some sort of light sensitivity? But as Fred finally gets a clear view of the man's face, he suddenly understood exactly why he was going for as much anonymity as possible-especially at comic conventions.

"Hello, Fred," the assistant says as he holds his hand out to Fred, a warm, if somehow excited expression on his face. "It's great to finally get to actually speak with you after only seeing you from a distance at conventions for so long! I would have spoken with you sooner, but Mr. Lee insisted that it wouldn't be a good idea until he knew for sure that you'd be the one to continue the story. I had no doubts about you myself, but I don't have the authority here in this world to make that decision."

Fred numbly shakes his hand, still not fully believing what he was seeing. Surely this was a dream! But the rough, slightly calloused skin of the other man's hand (almost like the leathery skin of a blacksmith or someone who had worked with fire or high temperatures for a long time) was too real for his mind to be imagining, and there was no mistaking those sparkling brown eyes that were the color of melted chocolate.

"Y-You're Sunfire," Fred finally manages to squeak out, still hardly believing that this was possible.

"Please," the other man answers, his smile widening slightly and his hand still gently, almost tenderly wrapped around Fred's, "call me Tadashi."