"Someone has to help," Tadashi stated firmly, his dark brown eyes showing deep concern as he stared at Hiro, his brother. Smoke rose from the fire in front of them, flames jumped higher and higher each passing second. Professor Callaghan, Tadashi's mentor, was still in the building, trapped.
Tadashi turned to face the school and ran toward the burning building, throwing off his hat as he went. He flung the doors open and glanced around frantically. The smoke burned his lungs and stung his eyes. He blinked furiously.
Just as he started into the fray, a girl raced into the room, doors banging behind her as she entered from the back. She darted into the front room, the room that Tadashi was in.
"Miki! Raeden! Where are you guys!?" The girl bolted deeper into the room and, as she spotted Tadashi, her panicked eyes hardened and she slowed immediately.
"I don't know who you are and, right now, I don't want to. You have to go. This place is dangerous if you hadn't noticed," she said calmly. Right after she finished talking, a beam fell from the ceiling and it would have killed her if she hadn't jumped away in time.
She was about 17, with light brown eyes that looked like they had gone through a lifetime of pain. Her blond hair went past her shoulders and her bangs hung in her eyes.
Tadashi heard his little brother cry out his name from outside.
"I can't leave. I'm trying to save my professor!" Tadashi stated. He was desperate to rescue Professor Callaghan and get back to his brother.
"Come on," she exclaimed. "I'm trying to save your life!" Suddenly, she stiffened. "This way," she yelled as she grabbed his arm and pulled him deeper into the building.
Just as she said those words, the doors exploded in a huge roar and debris from the structure flew at Tadashi and the strange girl. They dove behind a temporary lab that had been set up for the science fair. A bunch of chemicals had been knocked over, their different colors mixing in one huge puddle.
"Wait," Tadashi gasped, "who are you, anyway?" He hadn't seen that girl at the science fair earlier that day, but, he supposed, there had been over 500 people there, so he couldn't expect to remember everyone.
She just stared at him. "Nope, I'm not answering that. That would take all the fun out of the whole thing."
Outside of the building, Hiro was yelling Tadashi's name. The fire was still blazing and the entire building looked like it was going to collapse.
"My brother, he- he's looking for me! He'll think that I didn't survive!"
"Can't help you there. You see, we were supposed to create a distraction, so our boss can do some unfinished business, but some idiot decided to burn the place down. " Her voice broke. "We didn't want to hurt anybody. And I definitely didn't want any fire to be involved!" She took a deep breath. "Anyway, follow me." The girl crept out from behind the lab, with one hand latched onto Tadashi's arm, and ran to a door that led outside. She flung the door open and darted into the sunlit alley.
The alley was hidden from the street, and Tadashi looked around quickly. Tadashi blinked a few times. The light was blinding after being in a dark, smoky room for just a few minutes. It was hard to believe that just a few minutes ago, he and Hiro had been joking around about Hiro's presentation and now Tadashi was outside of a building on fire, being pulled around by a mysterious girl.
"Sis!" Another girl slid out from a side door, followed by a taller one. They were both wearing roller skates. Tadashi glanced at the blonde one, and, she too, wore skates.
The taller one looked familiar, and as she stepped into the sunlight, Tadashi recognized her. She was the ringleader from the bot-fight, the one that Hiro and Tadashi had gotten arrested at. Both girls scurried over to Tadashi and the other girl.
"Kono, are you alright? After Tatsuo set the fire, I was worried that one of us might..." She trailed off as she stared at Tadashi.
"Don't say our names. He's listening," the blonde girl said.
"I heard you say their names," Tadashi said helpfully. "Miki and Raeden, right? I just don't know which is which." He then turned to the tall girl. "You run the bot-fights, right?"
"Yeah, it's a sort of a part-time job," she said, brushing the hair away from her eye. The girl who had found Tadashi snorted.
"Anyway, your name is Kono?" Tadashi asked, turning to the blonde girl.
Kono glared at the shorter girl, who blushed.
"I'm still not answering that," Kono said.
"But, it's your name."
"Stop. Now, we're not going to introduce ourselves any further, but why don't you tell us your name?" Kono asked, but the tone of her voice made it clear that it wasn't a question.
The noise of a beam breaking in the building reminded Tadashi of the situation at hand. "Look, we don't have enough time for this! My- my professor is still in here! He could get hurt. We have to help him." Tadashi said, starting to walk to the door.
"Your professor- oh, you mean Robert Callaghan? That's hilarious," Kono said, shaking her head from side to side and letting out a small chuckle. She grabbed his arm yet again. "You see, Robert Callaghan, your esteemed professor, is our boss. He was the one who told us to make a distraction so he could steal some cool tech."
"No. You're lying," Tadashi said, pushing himself away from the girl. "My professor would never steal from his school."
"She's telling the truth," said the shorter girl, her eyes darting between the two of them. The taller girl put a comforting arm around her.
"Look, we have to get out of here. Tatsuo's supposed to pick us up at the meeting spot," the taller girl said.
"Callaghan won't like the idea of a free witness. He might rat out our plans." Kono said, her eyes dark. Her grip tightened on Tadashi's arm.
"What are you saying? And let me go! I have to rescue my professor!"
"I told you! I work for him. And... we can't let you go."
"I swear, we're not going to hurt you..." The shorter girl's eyes met Tadashi's.
"We just can't release you," the taller girl finished.
"Hey, you like your professor, right? Well, this will just be a way to spend more time with him. A lot more time." Kono muttered.
And with that, Kono slapped her hand over Tadashi's mouth and the other two girls each grabbed one of his arms. They pushed him through the alley, into a smaller one with a few crates lining the sides. At the end of the alley, a truck was parked. On the side of the truck, someone had painted, in big flowery letters, Fish Tacos, Only 0.50¢. Whoever had written that had also painted a small little fish.
Tadashi struggled, but it was three against one and as he was pushed into the truck, his last thought was:
Man, I sure hope Hiro's okay.
YOU ARE READING
Be A Hero
Fanfiction"Someone has to help." Those were Tadashi's last words, the words that first go through Hiro's head in the morning, the last words he thinks of before he falls asleep, and every moment in between is spent remembering his brother, who died in a...
