The night sky was twinkling dimly above the city. Cherry blossoms were beginning to bloom, the first petals beginning to blossom as the last dregs of winter melted away. It was a perfect evening in San Fransokyo to end the perfect day.

A small river flowed lazily underneath a small bridge. The wood was a dull brown, weathered by years of rain and wind and time. Over a small hill or two, glowing like a lightbulb, was a large building with clear glass. A young man, somewhere between the ages of 18 to 21, with jet-black hair and of decent build, looked at the building from his spot on the bridge. A baseball cap sat on his head, bearing the symbol of the San Fransokyo Ninjas. He leaned against the wooden railing, relaxed and waiting for someone to join him.

A young teenaged boy moved with a self-assured pace toward the man, joining him on his left. They both shared the same hair color, but the boy's build was skinnier, with the last traces of baby face around his face.

"I know what you're going to say," the boy began in a cocky manner. His voice deepened, as though in imitation, standing upright with his chest huffed up, "I should be proud that I'm finally using my gift."

The young man barely turned his head, smiling through the act. He addressed the boy in a deep voice, "Actually, I was just going to say that your fly was down the entire time."

The boy rolled his eyes, "Oh, ha ha."

He looked down and gasped, zipping his pants up before elbowing the man, who merely chuckled. After a moment, the boy joined in quietly. They stood on the bridge, looking out at the view with content.

"Look," the boy started again, his anger already faded away, "I wouldn't have gotten in if it wasn't for you. So... thanks for not giving up on me."

"Welcome to Nerd School," the older man replied, looking at the boy with a proud smile, "Nerd."

They both laughed now. The boy opened his mouth to continue when he noticed a red glow from where the building before them was. Smoke pillared high into the air and sirens went off. The man followed his gaze and looked in growing horror.

They both ran as fast as they could to the building, their fear rising as they saw the smoke and flames. People were running out, tripping over themselves and coughing.

A woman stopped short of the two, heaving and hacking.

"Are you alright ma'am?" The man asked.

"I'm fine," the woman said between breaths. She pointed to the building with a shaky hand, "But Professor Callaghan's still in there."

The man stared past the woman and started running towards the doors of the building, but the boy pulled him back.

"Tadashi, no!" He cried.

The man stopped and looked back, his face giving way to panic.

"Callaghan's in there. Someone has to help!"

Without a second thought, he pulled away and continued trekking towards the burning building. His hat flew off his head, but the boy ignored it and raced towards his brother.

"TADASHI, COME BACK!" Tadashi turned around and stared with wide eyes as the boy ran towards him.

"Hiro, get aw –!"

The building exploded and flames engulfed them both, but Tadashi felt no pain. It felt like a warm breeze to him. His skin was untouched by the heat, same as his clothing. The boy wasn't as lucky, his body quickly became engulfed in fire. Tadashi watched in horror as the boy screamed in agony, his skin blistering and charring...

(0-0)

… Tadashi woke up screaming in wordless grief, his covers beginning to smolder and smoke. His mind was still halfway in-between dreaming and awakening as he reached an arm out, his hand glowing red as flames built up around it, shooting towards where he thought Hiro was burning alive…

Alarms went off overhead and the sprinkler system went off. The sheets and rug became damp while the walls turned slick from the downpour. Tadashi was barely aware as his hand was raised towards where the small fire was. There was the faint smell of smoke that lingered, even after the fire was extinguished.

The smell broke the spell and Tadashi looked down at his hand, still unsure of what was real, before his body shook and he curled up into a ball, feeling his bare skin against the cool water showering down.

The doors burst open and Fred came in, wearing kaiju-print boxers and a plain t-shirt.

"Tadashi?" He stared at where his friend was before barreling over to the bed. He gently shook Tadashi as he trembled, "Dude, you okay?"

Tadashi pulled himself away from his friend and curled up, coughing and sniffling.

"Hey, man, it's okay," Fred inched closer to the bed, placing his hands on Tadashi's shoulders, "You were having a nightmare. It wasn't real."

"It felt real," Tadashi said hoarsely, curling into himself like a hedgehog.

Fred frowned and slowly wrapped his arms around his friend, "I'm here for you, man."

Tadashi suddenly pushed him away. Fred fell off the bed with a thud! but pulled himself back up quickly. Tadashi looked agitated before he realized what he did, now looking apologetic, "Dude, I'm fine. I don't need you to worry."

"Tadashi," Fred started calmly, looking over his friend, "You're naked."

"I'll just get some clothes from the drawer, then," Tadashi got himself out of the bed, acting as if nothing was wrong with him being completely exposed to someone else in the middle of the night.

"Frederick Frederickson, what is going on here?!" His mother came barreling in, Heathcliff, their butler, close behind.

"Nothing, mom," Fred waved his frantic mother away, "Tadashi just had a nightmare."

"Nothing?!" Mrs. Frederickson screeched. Fred felt like groaning in frustration while Tadashi quickly covered himself with a pillow, "The sprinklers went off, for God's sake! How is this nothi - ?"

Her voice faltered as she finally looked at Tadashi, his bed charred from where he was formally sitting and his body sizzling from the water coming down.

"O-oh," Mrs. Frederickson blushed and had the good grace to look away, "I'll let you get changed, then…"

Heathcliff pulled out a remote from the front pocket of his bathrobe and pushed a button. The sprinklers and fire alarm immediately stopped, the heaving flow reduced to a slow drip. Tadashi smiled nervously in a way reminiscing to his brother, Hiro.

"Perhaps Mister Tadashi would like to spend the remainder of the night in Master Frederick's bedroom, madam?" Heathcliff suggested stiffly, though his face creased with worry.

"I... I'm fine," Tadashi tried, but his voice faltered as he looked around the room. His skin was steaming and almost dry.

"It'd be more like a sleepover," Fred's eyes lit up at the thought, "Oh! We could read comic books and play video games or even tell scary sto –"

He caught his mother's glare and stopped talking.

"I would be most upset if you were to become ill from sleeping on a wet bed, sir," Heathcliff added.

Mrs. Frederickson took a deep breath and turned to Heathcliff with a professional stance,

"Would you be a joy, Heathcliff and make the boys some tea? I need to get up early tomorrow for the charity brunch."

"It is tomorrow, madam. Three oh four, to be exact."

Mrs. Frederickson gasped and began pacing, "Oh dear. I'm not going to get enough beauty sleep, which means that I'll need to use more make-up to cover the bags I'll have and..."

"Mom..." Fred tried speaking up.

"...and Binky is going to notice and she'll never let me live it down..."

"Mom..." Fred raised his voice a little, but his mother continued pacing back and forth, ignoring everyone else in the room.

"...the charity brunch won't get the funds because the snobs won't bother looking past my looks –"

"MOM!"

Mrs. Frederickson stopped and looked at Fred incredulously.

"Remember the Bro-tillion?" Fred asked.

Tadashi mouthed What's a Bro-tillion? at Heathcliff. The butler mouthed back Later.

The change in Mrs. Frederickson was almost instantaneous. Her face softened and she shook her head in self-disappointment.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, "I know I promised not to care what Binky thought anymore...it's just...it's just so hard sometimes."

She took a deep breath and exhaled, "If either of you need anything, I'll be in my bedroom. Tadashi, I'm going to call my husband in the morning and see if there are any updates on his search. Fred, make sure to get your rest, you have to be at the campus in the morning. And Heathcliff, the tea. Preferably herbal."

"As you wish, madam," Heathcliff nodded and strode out of the guest room. Mrs. Frederickson gave one last look at the two young men and followed the butler out as well.

Tadashi's shoulders slumped, "I'm sorry."

"Nah, don't worry," Fred shrugged, "Mom's always been the self-conscious one –"

"I meant with the room and the…" Tadashi trailed off.

Fred walked over and put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Dude, this is the third time this week you set off the sprinklers. Are you okay?"

Tadashi shrugged the hand off.

"It's nothing," he replied.

Fred guided him out of the room, his face scrunched with doubt.

"Hey, just 'cause the others don't want you fighting crime with us yet doesn't mean you can't go to them for help. We had to practice in our suits before we…" Fred stopped, realizing he was about to enter awkward territory. He tried again, "I mean, they'd understand."

"Like Go Go did?" Tadashi asked.

Fred stumbled and looked at Tadashi incredulously, "Dude, she said she was sorry."

"I'm not going to dump more stuff on their plates to deal with than I already have," Tadashi said firmly.

"We can talk to them about this. We could try in the morning... er, when the sun's out, I mean," Fred began to feel a little desperate, "I mean, the sooner you learn how to control your powers –"

"I told you, Fred. I can handle it," Tadashi said lightly, "I just need to look for a new angle is all."

Fred had the feeling that his friend wasn't telling him the whole truth. But he knew that if he pressed the issue, Tadashi would eventually get defensive.

"Just don't start another fire," Fred suggested half-jokingly, "At least until I get a bag of marshmallows."

That got a chuckle out of Tadashi. Fred turned around to let his friend get dressed and followed him out of the room.

They made their way into the kitchen just as Heathcliff pulled the singing kettle off the stovetop. He addressed them without looking back,

"Mister Tadashi, how do you take your tea? Two sugars like Madam, three like Master Frederick Senior or eight, like Master Frederick the Junior?"

"That was one time!" Fred pouted and looked away.

"And the living room has yet to be restored to its original state," Heathcliff said drily.

While Tadashi and Heathcliff stayed in the kitchen, Fred dashed back to his bedroom and pulled out his phone.

(0-0)

"Cat loves food! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Cat loves food, y-yeah! Cat loves food! Yeah, yeah, ye –"

Wasabi groaned as he saw the caller ID on his phone. He pressed the call button and held it to his ear with the delicacy of handling a pressure bomb.

"What is it, Fred?" He yawned.

"Hey man," Fred whispered, "Hope I didn't wake you up."

"Oh no," Wasabi's voice now sounded incredibly cheerful, "I don't mind being woken up in the middle of the night when I have class in the morning!"

"Oh, good!" Wasabi palmed his forehead and bit back a groan, "Look, I wanted to talk to you tomorrow about something."

"If it's about the invisible burrito, I'm going to turn you down."

"No, but that's still high on my priority list," Fred continued, "It's more about fire hazards."

Wasabi's eyes widened as he connected the pieces, "Fred. We all talked to him about it –"

"Not that," Fred interrupted him, "Helping him make a better fire alarm. So Tadashi doesn't lose his lab."

"Oh," Wasabi pinched the bridge of his nose, "An immediate solution or long-term?"

"It's a surprise for Tadashi," Fred answered, "Can you help me? I'm not good on this stuff on my own."

"That bad?" Wasabi hoped he sounded sympathetic despite his mood.

"I'll take that as a yes?" Fred asked hopefully.

Wasabi sighed, "Yes, Fred. I'll help you. See you in the morning –"

"Wasabi, wait!"

"Yes, Fred," Wasabi asked patiently.

"Don't tell Tadashi about this. It's a surprise."

"Alright, alright," Wasabi nodded, "Night."

He hung up and placed his phone back in its designated area taped and labeled. Now the hard part was getting back to sleep before the sun came up.

(0-0)

Go Go pounded at the punching bag, satisfied as it swayed hard back several inches. She had lost count of how long she had been doing this, but she knew she wasn't ready to go back to bed. Go Go counted in tens each time she managed to get the punching bag to swing back as far as she liked. She kept telling herself that each punch was the last one for the evening, but she kept at it. She wiped the sweat off her brow, trying to ignore how her eyes and body were aching when someone cleared their voice.

She turned around, fist raised, but stopped when she saw Honey Lemon standing at the top of the stairs with a nervous look on her face.

"Go Go," Honey Lemon began, "Do you...typically do this at night?"

Go Go sighed and lowered her fist. She began to fumble with the gloves before wincing as she noticed how sore her hands were from being clenched up for some time.

"Here," Honey Lemon walked over and took Go Go's hands into her own, "Let me help..."

Go Go stood obediently as Honey Lemon gently took the gloves off and helped unfurl her fingers, testing each one tentatively and ignoring the hisses of pain that she got in response.

"I thought you were asleep," Go Go spoke up as Honey Lemon placed a frozen bag of peas over her hands, "You do snore pretty loudly."

"Well, I typically do," Honey Lemon agreed, "but the punching was a lot louder. So... anything on your mind?"

Go Go kept her eyes on the table, "I just couldn't sleep. Didn't get enough of a workout earlier."

"Go Go, you and I both know you're a terrible liar," Honey Lemon smiled as she wiped her friend's face with a clean dishcloth, "Now you could tell me now, or I could host a sticker party right now. And you and I both know you don't leave the apartment this late at night."

"And I thought I was the mean one," Go Go said with a huff.

"So, what's it gonna be?" Honey Lemon's grin became a little bigger, "There're some cute kitty stickers I just bought. Mochi's been getting popular since that video's been posted."

"I had a nightmare," Go Go sighed, "Happy now?"

Honey Lemon's grin slid off her face, "Oh... do you want to talk about –"

"No."

"Not even a little bit?"

Go Go clenched her fist, realizing too late that it was a bad move as her bruised fingers ached. She looked at the table with intensity, trying not to think too much about that stupid dream.

"You know," Honey Lemon began, "It's a bit lonely downstairs by myself. Would you mind staying with me tonight?"

That brought a smile to Go Go's face, "Sure. But what about my hands?"

Honey Lemon blushed, "Um, after we get them bandaged up, of course."

As Honey Lemon tended to her friend's fingers, she couldn't help but notice how Go Go still seemed tense, like she was on the verge of cracking. She hoped that whatever it was, Go Go would be able to get past it. As her friend, Honey Lemon was determined to help Go Go get through whatever was haunting her.

That's what friends are for, after all.

(0-0)

Hiro yawned as he worked on a new blueprint. It was funny how his mind worked, sometimes. He told himself that once he got the basic outline, he would go to bed.

He looked up at the clock and sighed. Nearly three thirty in the morning and he had a class at eight thirty. The blueprint still needed work, but Hiro told himself that he did enough for the night, er, early morning. Mr. Rogers liked to keep telling him that he had to prioritize his health above all else and Hiro hated to disappoint his therapist.

He stood from the chair and stretched, feeling his bones crack, already ready to sink into his bed. Hiro crept up the stairs, one at a time, flinching when he stepped on a creaky floorboard. Thankfully, Aunt Cass didn't wake up, and he continued this pace until he reached the bedroom.

A month ago, Hiro was still the only one who lived up here anymore. Nothing had changed up till now, but a burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

A month ago, Hiro thought Tadashi was gone forever. A month ago, he couldn't handle the idea of the pain he, Aunt Cass, and everyone else went through was for nothing.

Hiro, Mr. Rogers' voice said in his head, just because you go through pain doesn't mean you can't learn from it in some way.

What do you mean? Hiro asked. I thought I had to remember that my brother was still with me as long as I remembered him and he's still here.

What did you want more than anything during that time you were alone? Mr. Rogers asked gently.

…to tell my brother I loved him. And wished that I didn't take him for granted. My brother did so much for me and I rarely thanked him. Hiro sounded ashamed.

Never take anyone for granted, Hiro. You'll never know what your last words to them will be.

When his brother came home, Hiro would make sure that Tadashi was given the respect he deserved. He had sacrificed so much of his time to keep his little brother safe, Hiro was confident that the new suit he was working on would help him protect Tadashi.

(0-0)

Author's Note: At long last, the first chapter to the sequel of Shock has arrived. I'm using elements from a MLP fic called Families by DarthLink22 for inspiration (really loved how it was written and had to rewrite some scenes to draw out the drama a little better). And I'm warning you that this is going to be longer than the first fic.

Stay around for the fun and don't forget to review!