A/N: Okay, so, wow, thanks, guys! I'm so glad people like this! Also, I will be trying to do shorter, quicker updates, both because people asked and because I wanna get this out quick while my inspiration's high.

I'm open to suggestions for both song ideas for scene breaks and a better cover image. I threw it together very very last minute and wanna have something better.

Notes for this chapter: time is wonky (kinda jumping around here to cover the reactions to everyone's disappearances), lots of angst and panic attacks, Cass freaking out on an entire hospital, and slowly introducing the supporting characters (dammit so freaking many of them! And I realized just yesterday that I completely forgot Rhodey (whoops)). Oh, and a bit more Japanese, though mostly translated in-story or through context (if anyone notices any errors in the Japanese, please let me know! I'm working mostly from (bad) memory and Google translate).

This fic will eventually be upped to an M rating, but not for several chapters. I'll give warnings when this happens.

I hate feeling like this

I'm so tired of trying to fight this

I'm asleep and all I dream of

Is waking to you

Cass stared at the building before her, reading the sign for the fifth time to make sure she had the right place. Santa Rosawa General Hospital. According to the nurse on the phone, this is where she would find her supposedly-dead-for-a-year-but-really-comatose nephew. She glanced down to her phone, checking the time and doing a quick conversion, sighing when she realized Hiro would be just about to land and likely still had his phone off.

She'd just call him after. And she wouldn't get his hopes up this way if the doctors were mistaken.

The baker squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath, and marching up to the door.

Tell me that you will listen

Your touch is what I'm missing

And the more I hide I realize I'm slowly losing you

Comatose, I'll never wake up without an overdose of you

Pepper Potts was just this side of frantic. Tony had promised to swing by Stark Industries before their meeting this afternoon so they could go over everything. Even with his ridiculous reading speed and easy comprehension of just about anything he set his mind to, the four hour review was more to get his nerves out before he could possibly snark off to the wrong industry head during the meeting.

Another minute ticked away, and she called out the door. "Happy?"

Happy Hogan poked his head in, obviously having been standing at the door, waiting for an order. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Do you know where Tony is? He's two hours late." She huffed, grumbling to herself, "And while that used to be the norm around here, he's gotten surprisingly better at arriving on time lately."

Happy's brow furrowed. "…You don't think he's… relapsed, do you?"

She sighed. "He did mention wanting to hit a few bars last night, but I thought he was going with Rhodey."

"Rhodey's let him do stupid stuff before." He glanced over eagerly. "Should I call in the cavalry?"

She shook her head. "Not quite yet." Pepper's eyes darted upwards, asking the AI built into the building, "Jarvis, any news on where Tony is?"

A British accent answered her. "I am afraid not, Ms. Potts. He did head out to a local dive bar last night, but did not return home."

"Did he go with Rhodey?"

There was a moment of silence as Jarvis checked every available camera. "He did not, Ms. Potts. Nor with any of his newly acquired SHIELD friends."

Pepper bit her lip. "…Okay, now we may have a situation…."

I don't wanna live

I don't wanna breathe

'Less I feel you next to me

You take the pain I feel

Waking up to you never felt so real

Cass marched straight up to the information desk upon entering the hospital. "Excuse me," she called to gain the receptionist's attention, "I'm looking for a nurse Aja Rodrigo? She called me concerning my nephew."

"Name?" the receptionist asked, hands poised over the computer keys.

"Ah, mine's Cass de Gaia, but my nephew is Tadashi Hamada. He may still be in the system as a John Doe? Year-long coma patient?"

The receptionist blinked, but typed quickly, muttering, "He finally woke up? Thank God…."

Cass' brow furrowed. "You… know of him?"

"Uh, yeah, we all do," the receptionist replied, blushing a bit from being overheard. "Everyone's been hoping he'd wake up, he's the only coma patient we currently have, and we were getting concerned about needing to, well, move him out of the room soon—"

"Thank you, Debbie," a nurse said as she approached. She had noticed the color quickly draining from Cass' face and realized that she'd correctly assumed what 'moving him' would've implied. Still, the nurse smiled at the concerned aunt. "Hi, you must be Cass. I'm Aja, we spoke on the phone?"

Cass sighed in relief. "Yes. Please tell me I can see my nephew?"

Aja nodded. "Of course, follow me. He should have just come back from his scans."

The two wandered down a hall, into an elevator, and up three floors before Cass asked, "So, why was he brought here rather than San Fransokyo General?"

"The night of the fire, there were also several bad pile-ups on the highways. SF Gen had to shuttle many patients to other hospitals due to the overflow. Your nephew was one of the patients transferred here."

"That makes sense, I suppose. But why weren't we contacted? There was nearly a week before Tadashi was switched from 'missing' to 'considered dead'."

"Apparently, when he was brought in, he was filed as one of the accident patients rather than from the fire. We didn't realize the mistake until after he was awake and told us what he remembered last."

"He… he spoke to you about that…?"

Aja gave her a small, sad grin. "It was part of the standard questions we had to ask. It was hard to keep him focused on that, though, he kept going on about you and his brother and how worried you two must be."

Cass smiled down at the floor. "Yeah… yeah, that sounds like him…."

The two stopped before a door, and Aja motioned for Cass to take the handle. "He's inside. Just let me know if you need anything, and try to avoid anything that may upset him, he's still on some strong painkillers and confused, especially about the date."

Cass nodded, slowly opening the door and peeking in, blinking at the darkness and hunting by the door for the light. Once she found it, she flipped it on and turned around, smiling widely. "There, that's a bit better. Now I can actually see—"

There was no one in the bed. No Tadashi, no patient at all.

"W—What?!"

Aja came in at the exclamation, worried and asking what was wrong before her own eyes landed on the bed. She immediately reached for a walkie talkie on her belt, calling into it, "We have a code yellow in recovery, repeat, code yellow!"

As nurses rushed about, trying to figure out what had happened and where Tadashi had gotten to, Cass suck to her knees, tears welling up in her eyes.

She'd lost him. She'd just gotten him back, and he lost him already.

I don't wanna sleep

I don't wanna dream

'Cause my dreams don't comfort me

The way you make me feel

Waking up to you never felt so real

Tadashi had talked until his voice gave out. He was positive that Bruce would've made him shut up hours before now, but apparently the older man realized how much telling these stories of his and Hiro's childhood was helping Tadashi forget their current situation.

But now, he'd run out of stories, and the weight crashed down on him again. They were trapped by some psycho with no idea what his plot was. They didn't even know if they were here for some future plan or just left to rot.

A crash echoed down the hall. Tadashi and Bruce shot each other a look and leaned against the door, trying to hear anything else.

There was grumbling and a soft, raspy sound, followed closely by muffled yelling. The door was too thick to fully understand what was said, but Tadashi could pick up bits and pieces.

"—tai! Hana—! Dare ka! Ta—kete kure!"

His brow furrowed, the Japanese portion of his brain kicking into gear and filling in the holes. Someone was hurt, they were begging to be let go, for help to come.

And he couldn't help them.

I hate living without you

Dead wrong to ever doubt you

But my demons lay in waiting

Tempting me away

Harry Osborn was not one to give up easily. Hell, he'd nearly killed his best friend in a misguided attempt to cure himself from his family's "curse"—a genetic disease that had killed his father and grandfather and nearly took him out.

He'd only survived thanks to said best friend, Peter Parker, also known as Spiderman. They'd had a long talk about why Peter's blood likely would hurt rather than help without trial runs, and the two had worked out a plan for testing a transfer process. They were even pretty damn close to a breakthrough.

Then Peter disappeared. At first, Harry didn't think much of it, assuming Peter was just busy doing patrols or something. Peter often got sidetracked for a while, but they had another test set for the weekend, so he had a day or two to turn up.

Aunt May called on the third day, panicked and babbling about Peter leaving for groceries and not returning, and why wasn't he answering her calls, and was he with Harry or had Harry heard from him recently?

After calming the elder woman, Harry immediately did his own research on his friend's disappearance.

What he found was nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. No reports of Peter or Spiderman in the past three days.

It took only seconds for him to set up a tip line and reward for any information on his friend.

Now to hope someone actually had information….

Oh how I adore you

Oh how I thirst for you

Oh how I need you

Comatose, I'll never wake up without an overdose of you

Pepper had sent Happy to start searching, shoving her papers to the side and canceling all her appointments for the day. With that done, she immediately pulled up the contact she was given to reach the Black Widow and dialed.

"Romanoff."

"Hi, Natasha? I know you must be busy but—"

A sigh crackled over the line. "What'd the Iron Idiot do now?"

"Ah, well, he apparently went missing after bar hopping last night…."

"Dammit, so Bruce isn't the only one…."

"Wait, what?" Pepper covered the phone, jabbing at the PA button on her desk and hissing, "Happy, get back here!" She uncovered the phone, rattling off, "Are you sure? I know he's often off the radar to begin with but—"

"He hasn't checked in in nearly a week."

"Really?"

Happy rushed in. "What's wrong now?"

Pepper covered the mouthpiece again. "Bruce is missing, too. For nearly a week."

Happy was scowling. "Peachy. If Big Man's AWOL, you know something's up."

"Pepper?"

Potts startled, quickly mumbling into the phone, "Ah, no, I'm still here, just—"

"We've gotten no ransom yet for Bruce. If it's the same person, you probably won't get anything, either."

"Really? Perfect…."

"Keep an eye out. SHIELD's got as many agents as we can spare on this."

"Will do. Good luck."

"You, too."

The phone clicked off, and Pepper hung up, turning back to Happy and relaying the information. Once she had, her lips pursed. "We need to start our own search. Tony might have been taken for his intelligence, maybe someone is trying to get him to recreate the Iron Man suits." She nodded to herself, figuring that if both Bruce and Tony were gone, it was likely someone wanted them to build something. "See if you can ind any news stories on people using suits like his, and I'll see if I can find any other missing reports that could be connected."

Happy nodded. "Right." He started out the door, but paused before exiting fully and glanced back at Pepper, worry written across his face. "Anything else?"

"…Find him, Happy. Please."

I don't wanna live

I don't wanna breathe

'Less I feel you next to me

You take the pain I feel

Waking up to you never felt so real

Cass stormed into the café after finally returning from the hospital. She'd spent nearly an hour yelling at the nursing staff for losing her nephew and another half hour demanding proof that it even was Tadashi and not just some impersonator or someone who'd been confused. The hour-long drive back was spent seething, and now, she was just done. She flipped the sign from 'closed' back to 'open' and moved over to the donut rack. "Stupid prank calls and stupid hallucinating med staff…" she grumbled to herself as she tore into a powdered sugar donut.

"…Something wrong, Aunt Cass?"

The woman jumped, yelping, and almost dropped her donut as she spun to face the voice. "W—Wasabi!" She threw up a fake smile, for once cursing the fact she'd given all of Hiro's friends a key to the café/house. "Hi! Wh—What're you doing here?"

Wasabi winced. "S—Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. But… Hiro didn't show up for classes today, so I was wondering if there was something going on or if he was sick…?"

"Oh." Cass ran a hand through her hair, sighing. Hiro. Thank God she hadn't told him or this whole Tadashi's-alive-but-not-really thing would've just—It wasn't worth thinking on. "No, nothing's—nothing's wrong," she murmured. "He went to visit his grandparents in Japan. He left late last night." She looked at her watch, seeing that it was a bit after two p.m., about six a.m. for Hiro. "With the time difference, he'll still be sleeping, though his grandparents should be waking up soon."

"Oh, okay. Glad he's able to get some time away." There was a moment's pause, then Wasabi glanced over at Cass again. "Um, what was that about hallucinating hospital staff?"

She huffed, taking another chunk out of her donut. "I go' a call f'om a hos'al 'at 'ada'hi was foun'," she mumbled, mouth full.

Wasabi stared blankly, blinking. "R—Really?" He shook his head, trying to focus. "But you… you said they prank called? What happened?"

Cass swallowed her mouthful. "I went all the way over there, only to find that there wasn't anyone there. It was all some prank."

The college student bit his lip, knowing that her denial was more about coping with possibly losing Tadashi again than about actually believing it was some trick. "But… hospitals usually don't do pranks. Particularly something like this." He glanced over at her. "Did anyone act like you were mistaken in going there?"

"Well… no, but—but he—he wasn't there, and no one could tell me what was going on!" The tears were starting up again.

Wasabi noticed, nervous and unused to a distraught Aunt Cass. Even during the funeral, she didn't really let herself cry because she was too worried for Hiro. "Uh…."

"Oh, Wasabi, do you think I left too quickly? Maybe—Maybe he was actually there and I—I just didn't see him?" She was latching onto his arm now, practically begging for things to be okay.

He gave a slight shrug with his free arm. "I suppose that's possible. I can check into it, if you want."

"P—Please," she sniffled. "If—If Hiro comes home and finds out I—I just wrote it off as a joke when—when T—when he's really alive…."

Wasabi patted her shoulder gently. "Don't worry, Aunt Cass. Whatever the case is, I'll find out. If you talk with Hiro, try to act like there's nothing… wrong…."

"R—Right…."

He gave her a teasing smirk. "Besides, if you keep stress eating, there might not be a café for either of them to come back to."

She blushed, releasing his arm and brushing the crumbs off of her clothes while changing the subject. "Ah, wh—where are th—the others? D—Do they have classes today, or…?"

"They should be here soon. My classes finish first today."

Cass nodded. "Right, okay, I'll—I'll just work on some more baked goods for when the customers come back in…."

"Okay. Need a hand with anything?"

"N—No!" she quickly snapped. At Wasabi's surprised look, she mumbled, "No, it's fine. Just—Just sit, get comfortable, let me know if you'd like anything to eat or drink."

Wasabi smiled weakly, still a bit shocked but remembering Tadashi telling them once that baking was Cass' go-to when she was worried and couldn't stress-eat. "Will do, Aunt Cass."

She began bustling about, moving between the kitchen and the tables as people started coming back in for a late lunch rush.

Mere moments later, the door was shoved open and Gogo blazed in on her skates, calling a greeting to Cass before grabbing a chair as a fulcrum to spin around and into another chair.

"Don't ruin my café!" Cass ordered with a soft chuckle.

"No promises!"

Wasabi sighed. "Practicing for a drive-in server position, Gogo?"

She rolled her eyes back. "No, Hiro asked me to test out the newest version of my electromag skates. Surprisingly, they're almost faster than my bike."

Honey flounced in then, greeting Cass happily and being directed over to the booth the others were at. She sat beside them, grinning wildly.

"'Sup with you?" Gogo asked, recognizing the smile as Honey's I-just-did-something-dangerous-but-awesome look.

"I nearly blew up the lab today!" she declared.

Wasabi and Gogo shared a quick, long-suffering look before Gogo commented, "Isn't that usually a, I dunno, bad thing?"

"But it proved my thesis!"

Wasabi shook his head. "Let me guess, fire is fun?"

"More ice than fire."

There was another pause as the two gaped at the chemist. "Okay, I'm definitely having your thesis advisor sent to the psych department," Gogo stated. "This guy should not be encouraging your proclivity towards explosions."

"How'd you manage to nearly blow up the lab with ice?" Wasabi hissed, stunned and barely keeping from yelping.

"There's certain chemicals that allow ice to 'burn', so I decided to see if I could put together a compound to cause ice to explode. It was actually much simpler than I thought it would be."

"…I'm sending you to the psych department, too…" Gogo grumbled, sinking her chin onto a hand.

Wasabi sighed. "…Just when I think nothing will surprise me…."

Fred walked in at that moment, flopping down next to the others. "Afternoon, mi amis! That's German, for—"

"No, it really isn't," Honey quickly cut him off.

He didn't drop his grin, instead nudging the blonde with an elbow. "So, I hear Honey's still testing the limits of our lab!"

Gogo groaned, throwing her hands up in defeat. "You both need to see the school psychiatrist, I swear!"

A phone rang from the kitchen, and Cass moved off to get it. Wasabi noticed and watched, the others catching on that something was amiss.

"Okay," Gogo said, glancing between Cass and Wasabi, "what's up?"

Wasabi sighed. "…Tadashi might be alive."

They all blinked at him, in varying stages of shock, from Gogo's blank look to Fred's gaped jaw and Honey's hands thrown over her mouth.

"Come again?"

"She got a call a while ago, saying Tadashi was alive, but when she got to the hospital… no Tadashi." He shrugged helplessly. "Seems they were just as… confused as she was."

"Have we dropped into some crazy backwards world?" Gogo demanded.

"How could he have been missing for so long without Cass finding out before now?" Honey murmured through her hands.

Wasabi shrugged again. "Beats me. Maybe he was critical for a while? In and out? Medically-induced coma? Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well—"

"What?! A—Are you sure?!" Cass' yell echoed through the café, causing the customers to fidget, unsure what to do. A few of the regulars looked torn between helping Cass and trying to get the other customers out so she could have some peace.

Mrs. Matsuda, an eighty-plus-year-old dressed in a ridiculously short skirt and a top with a plunging neckline, rapped her cane against her table, barking, "A'righ', a'righ', eberyone outo. Retto Cassu habe some puribacy." The group quickly obeyed the tiny but fierce woman, and she flipped the sign back to closed on her way out, gesturing to the Nerd Squad with her head to tend to Cass.

Honey excused herself to go to Cass, who had dropped the phone and fell into a seat, sobbing into her hands.

"Damn," Gogo hissed. "Like she really needed more bad news…."

"What d'you think the call was about?" Fred wondered, the far-off look in his eye telling them he'd already come up with dozens of conspiracies.

"Maybe something more about Tadashi?"

Wasabi shook his head slowly. "I dunno. She'd be a bit more… antsy about that, given how angry it'd mad her. This seems more… what, generally anxious?"

Cass sobbed louder, latching onto Honey in a hug and mumbling incoherently into her shoulder.

"…Yeah, I think we passed anxious a few minutes ago…."

"What's going on, Honey?" Wasabi asked as the rest headed over.

Honey rubbed the woman's back, rocking gently to try to calm her. "That—That was Hiro's grandparents on the phone. He—He never showed up at their house."

I don't wanna sleep

I don't wanna dream

'Cause my dreams don't comfort me

The way you make me feel

Waking up to you never felt so real

Bruce and Tadashi both tried to open the door, hoping to get out and help the, by the sounds of it, kid outside. The whole time, the newcomer was yelling frantically in Japanese, easier to hear now that he was closer to their door.

For a moment, Tadashi thought that the kid might be thrown in with them, but instead they heard another crashing noise, a yelp, and a door slamming. There was a slight pause, probably the psycho saying something to the newcomer, then the sound of someone walking away.

Then the pounding began. It was faint, obviously the kid didn't have much strength, but he was trying to be heard, eventually yelling as well. "Sono koto o suru to! Tasukete, kaeritai!"

Tadashi winced. The poor kid was terrified.

Bruce glanced over. "Any chance you can translate?"

Hamada blinked. "Um, what?"

"You speak Japanese, right?"

"Oh, um, y—yeah." Tadashi shook his head, trying to refocus. "He's calling for help. Says he wants to go home."

Bruce winced now, too. "Damn. Doesn't sound like he's even out of high school, the poor kid…."

"…Yeah…."

"Yarou!" the screech echoed out, followed by a flurry of banging. "Sotoni detara, bukorosu!"

Tadashi shook his head. "And now he's threatening the guy…."

The banging was getting louder, more frantic.

Bruce shot a glance over at Tadashi. "You—You don't think he's, uh, c—claustrophobic, do you?"

Tadashi winced. "For his sake, I hope not."

"Biggu hiirou roku wa boku wo sagashiteru ka mo!" It sounded like the kid was panting now, hitched breaths managing to be heard between his beating at the door. "Kuso, robotto shika kaeshinakutemo! Mo ii yo!"

The college student blinked. "Huh."

"What?" Bruce asked, glancing over at him.

"Sounds like he's got people looking for him, and some kinda robotic friend."

"Robot?"

Tadashi nodded. "Sounds important to him, too."

Bruce shrugged. "If it's one he made himself, he's probably attached. Or a companion bot. If he really is claustrophobic, or even just generally panicking in there, he's likely just wanting reassurance from someone—er, something he knows."

The pounding was slowing, and there was a scraping noise now, probably from the kid sliding down the door. Then, a very faint mumble, "Ni—Nii—Nii-chan, tasuke—kete ku—kure…."

Tadashi flinched, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Poor kid, missing his big brother…." He sighed, massaging his forehead. "…At least Hiro's safe at home…."

The noise had dissolved into just sniffles and soft sobs.

"…I'm thinking my claustrophobia guess was pretty much right…."

The coma patient looked over to Bruce. "Is this how… he feels in tight spaces?"

Bruce blinked at first, then shrugged. "Kind of, but he can usually, uh, make a quick exit. The kid over there… he's gonna be stuck for who knows how long…."

Breathing life

Waking up

My eyes open up

Comatose

I'll never wake up without an overdose of you

Contrary to popular belief, Happy Hogan knew his way around technology. He had to, being the personal bodyguard of the most innovative technological genius of the time. And his CEO, who also knew technology well. So, when he realized that he would get nowhere just roaming the streets and following leads that were a day or two old, he instead turned to the Stark Industries private computers. "Jarvis, access the security cameras of whatever bars Tony was at the night of his disappearance."

"Yes, Mr. Hogan. Displaying footage now."

Surprisingly enough, only one bar popped up on screen, four cameras focused on different sections of the establishment. "Huh, didn't get to the 'hopping' part of the night, then…." Happy searched through the images, trying to spot his boss. When he finally found Tony, he ordered Jarvis to speed up the footage.

For about half an hour, he stared at the screen, watching his boss get steadily sloshed, accepting drinks from nearly everyone at the bar. Happy rolled his eyes, grumbling, "I thought he was done with this idiocy when he hooked up with Pepper…."

He was so annoyed, he nearly missed Tony leaving. "Woah, woah, back up some Jarvis, then regular speed."

"Of course, Mr. Hogan."

The footage played back, and Happy traced Tony's staggering route from the bar to the door. His boss basically bumped into every item in his way, giggling far more than normal, even for being wasted. "That's not right," Happy mumbled. "Jarvis, anyway you can read stats off here?"

"If you are referring to Sir's inebriated state, he is displaying far worse loss of perception than he should for the amount of alcohol consumed."

"Damn…." So someone drugged him. Too bad he'd accepted drinks from pretty much everyone, making Happy's suspect pool ridiculously large. He huffed a sigh. "Well, that's a bust, then. No cameras covering the outside, so we don't know what happened between him leaving and getting snatched…."

"Would you prefer to switch to Ms. Potts' suggestion of searching for suits now?"

"Yes, please."

"Running a search for all mentions of enhanced full-body fight suits."

Newspaper articles covered the screens, and Happy sighed and started to sift through them. "Mm, most of these are about Tony and Rhodey…."

Then he struck gold. "What's this?"

Jarvis pulled the article up, zooming in so it took up the whole screen. "A group of local heroes in San Fransokyo seem to be using similar suits as Sir's."

Happy read through the article, something about a near crash of the trolley system. "Jarvis, print this out and get copies to Pepper. Looks like I'm heading to California."

Oh how I adore you

Waking up to you never felt so real

Oh how I thirst for you

Waking up to you never felt so real

Oh, Gods, oh, Gods, the walls were closing in on him. It had to have been hours since he was dragged here and locked inside this cell, with walls at least ten feet high, but then they seemed to drop onto him as time slipped by.

The ceiling was brushing against his hair. The walls were pressing into his sides. No windows, no bars, even the door had merged seamless with the wallswallswalls….

Hiro curled in on himself even tighter, dry heaving as he tried to drag in some air from the cramped space, but it was no good. He had no air.

There were only walls.

Time continued to tick by, or at least, Hiro assumed it did, given time machines and technology to freeze time just didn't exist yet, but still he was trapped, suffocating, being squished slowly to death by these walls….

Then he started to smell smoke.

His breathing hitched, ratcheting up into hyperventilation, trying to get in all the air he could before the fire consumed it, panicking that Oh Gods, the others aren't here to save me this time, Tadashi isn't here, I'm going to die, burn to death just like—

"So, does this mean we're in Japan?!"

Hiro's breath caught again, choking on a sob as he blinked away tears he hadn't realized had formed. There were people here. He was saved!

Or, quite possibly, he was going insane and hearing things that weren't actually there…. It was likely 50/50 either was true.

"Possible," another voice came, from the opposite direction, "but I wouldn't count on it…."

"Th—There's others out th—there?" Hiro called quietly, still trying to gain control over his breathing.

"Yeah, you're not alone, kiddo," a different voice replied, coming from the same direction as the first.

"Ari—" Hiro cut himself off, shaking his head and trying not to think of how close he'd come to scraping his cheeks against the too-close walls. English, these people spoke English. "Er, th—thank you."

"No prob, kid," the first answered. "Now, unless I'm mistaken, I heard the word 'robot' earlier, yeah?"

"Nihongo o hanaseru?!" Hiro asked eagerly, the Japanese portion of his language center still mostly in control due to his trip.

"…What?"

The third voice chuckled. "You seriously weren't expecting him to think you knew Japanese?"

"Shut it, brat."

"I doubt he does," the second voice stated. "Most likely just knows the word 'robot' in multiple languages."

Hiro folded his arms, keeping his eyes closed to avoid seeing the walls brush against his sleeves. "Aho dayo. Omae wa…."

"…Was that an insult?" the first voice demanded. "That sounded like an insult!"

Hiro couldn't help but tease back, "Kamo ne!"

The second voice chuckled, and Hiro decided he definitely liked the second voice better. Y'know, provided it actually was a person and not just a hallucination.

"Seriously, this kid's insulting me!"

Okay, the dude was just asking for it now. "Baka busu, baka baka busu!"

The laughter got even louder. "So, he's pot, you're kettle, right?"

Never mind, the second voice sucked. "Chigau yo!"

"Atarimae yo, nakkuru!"

Hiro gasped, jolting upwards before remembering the closed-in walls and tripping over in his rush to avoid hitting them. A clatter echoed around the tiny room as he fell, but he still stammered out, "Na—Nakkuru?!"

Why—How—How did this person, this random voice know Tadashi's nickname for him?!

Guess that just proves they were hallucinations. Hiro should've realized he wasn't going to be rescued. Hell, his friends only barely made it last time, they sure as hell weren't gonna get to him now, when he was supposed to be safe at his grandparents' house….

The smoke smell grew stronger around him, seeping into the cell and taking up his valuable air space.

"Okay," the first voice broke in, "is there a Japanese version of the SAP button, 'cause I am lost."

"Sorry, dude," said the Japanese-speaking voice, "some things are best left untranslated."

There was a huff, then the first voice grumbled, "You brats suck. This is why Pepper and I aren't having any."

A fourth voice gasped from the same direction as the second voice. "Pepper—? Tony?!"

"…Bruce?" the first voice asked. "Dude, why not just smash your way out?!"

"Can't," the newest voice replied. "Big Guy's sleeping."

"The hell kinda excuse is that?!"

"No excuse," the second voice, the Japanese voice, the impersonator, shot back. Hiro shrunk in on himself even more, whimpering. "Our illustrious host obviously did his homework. Gave our friend, here, a dose of something that keeps the Big Guy in dreamworld."

The third voice grumbled, "Just perfect…."

Hearing the other voices argue finally pulled Hiro out of his own mind long enough to question them. "Big Guy? What are you talking about?!"

"Kid," the first voice called, "you're in the presence of greatness! …Or, well, in a cell adjacent to greatness…."

"He's talking about himself, isn't he, Bruce?"

"He's always talking about himself."

"I would disagree, but it's true," the first voice admitted.

Hiro couldn't take any more of this. "What the hell's going on?!" he screeched.

But the others were ignoring him now.

"At least he's honest?"

"Yeah, he's a regular George Washington."

"Oshiete kure! IMASUGU!" Hiro slammed a fist back into the wall.

"Seriously, we know you can speak English," the first voice huffed, "so fricking speak English!"

"Koko wa nihonjanai," the second voice answered softly.

Hiro blinked, digging a hand into his hair in disbelief. "Oh, man… my grandparents are gonna freak…."

"My girlfriend will put out a rescue squad for me," the first voice—Tony, one had said—bragged.

"Well, how great for you, then," Hiro spat back, trying to ignore the fact that he was arguing with what were most likely hallucinations.

"Sounded like you had your own search and rescue group, kiddo."

"Some robo friend, right?" The third voice scoffed, "Not much help if he let you get caught."

Okay, it didn't matter how freaked out Hiro was, no one insults Baymax. "He is too helpful!" he snarled. "More than any of you would know!"

"Yeah, kid, sure."

"I'm serious!"

"In any case," the fourth voice—Bruce, maybe?—cut in, trying to play peacemaker, "we're still stuck he—"

There was a clang, and suddenly the wall—door—fell out from behind Hiro.

"Hiiiiiii!"

CRASH

Someone moseyed out from a door at one end of the hall, smirking down at Hiro as he rubbed his head, grumbling, "Itaiiiii…."

The man chuckled, stating, "Yo, kiddo, this is why you don't lean against doors."

"Urusee!" Hiro huffed back.

Another person came out from a door at the opposite end of the hall, scolding, "Tony, can't you leave the poor kid alone for five minutes?!"

Wait… Tony? And that sounded like Bruce….

"Hmmm…." Tony thought it over for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah."

Holy hell, he wasn't hallucinating them?!

Another person, this one only a couple years older than Hiro himself, came from Tony's door, locking eyes with Hiro. "You okay?"

The oldest one, Bruce, came and kneeled in front of Hiro, both to check his eyes and reactions and to separate him and Tony. "He seems okay," he declared.

"Just bumped my head is all," Hiro mumbled.

Tony smirked. "Wish I'd seen that, I could use a good laugh."

"I. Will. Hurt. You."

The unnamed one grinned at Hiro. "Leave that to our host, whoever that is…."

"Some jackass with bright red hair and creepy yellow eyes," Hiro answered with a shrug.

Tony blinked. "Wait, you saw him?!"

The unnamed one, the third voice, Hiro realized, shrugged. "He certainly seems more lucid than any of us were."

"That'd be 'cause I was awake."

"He didn't tranq you?" Bruce asked at the same time Tony demanded, "He didn't drug you?"

Hiro rolled his eyes. "Nope. Threatened me with a knife and—" He seemed to choke himself off for a second, then shook his head and finished, "And made me get in a van."

"Dam—"

"O—Otouto?"

Tony and the third voice turned to see the last member of their little hostage situation coming into the hallway. Bruce's eyes widened as he glanced between the two Asian-Americans.

Hiro's eyes were the size of hockey pucks when he slowly turned, gasping.

"N—Nii-chan?"

Oh how I adore you, ohhhh

The way you make me feel

Waking up to you never felt so real

A/N: Okay, I just really, really wanted that to be the last line in this chapter and for a while, I thought that'd make this be a ridiculously short chapter, but I kept remembering a bunch of stuff that needed to happen with supporting characters, so I'm now happy with length. I doubt the next chapter will be out this quick, 4-H Fair is coming up so I've got a ton of stuff to accomplish, then family vacation for a week, so mid August will likely be the next update, though I'll hopefully get a buffer set up and be able to post fairly regularly after that.

Japanese translations -

—tai! Hana—! Dare ka! Ta—kete kure! - (Itai! Hanase! Dare ka! Tasukete kure) - It hurts! Let go! Help!

Sonna koto o suru to… Tasukete, kaeritai - You can't do this! Help! I want to go home!

Sotoni detara, bukorosu - Asshole! When I get out of here, I'll kill you!

Biggu hiirou roku wa boku wo sagashiteru ka mo! - Big Hero 6 will be looking for me!

Kuso, robotto shika kaeshinakutemo! Mo ii yo! - Dammit! At least give me back my robot!

Nii-chan, tasukete kure - Big brother, help please

Nihongo o hanaseru?! - You speak Japanese?!

Aho dayo. Omae wa. - Geez, you're an idiot.

Kamo ne. - Maybe yes, maybe no

Baka busu, baka baka busu! - a teasing song, means ugly idiot

Chigau yo!- Hey, I am not!

Atarimae yo, nakkuru! - Yes, you are, knucklehead!

Oshiete kure! Imasugu! - Explain! Now!

AKoko wa nihonjanai - You're not in Japan, kid

Urusee - Shut up, jackass!

Some words will be used a lot, so I'll only be listing them here the first time, like nii-chan or itai, etc. Big thanks to Savannah Silverstone for help with the translations!