Hiro looked around as Tadashi drove through the gates of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, often called SFIT for short. "What are we doing at your nerd school?" Hiro asked. "Bot fight's that way."

Hiro couldn't help himself. He had to touch the bike. "Whoa… electro-mag suspension," he said. "Who are you?"

"Pit stop," Tadashi replied as he pulled up to a gleaming steel-and-glass building.

Hiro impatiently followed Tadashi into SFIT's robotics lab. "Is this gonna take long? Megabot wants to fight!"

"Relax, you big baby. We'll be in and out," Tadashi said as he led Hiro into the enormous lab.

"Oh, great. I get to see your lab," Hiro said sarcastically. Out of the corner of his eye, Tadashi saw Hiro's attitude change. His lab was high-tech heaven. Tadashi smiled.

"Heads up!" said a girl with purple-streaked hair as she whizzed by on a bike. She stopped short and tossed the bike onto a rack. Tadashi walked over to her and smiled.

Hiro turned around to look at the girl. "Um, I'm… Tadashi's brother."

"Whoa. Do not move. Behind the line, please."

Go Go spun the bike's back wheel. In place of an axle, the wheel was suspended between two magnetic forks. The wheel seemed to float like magic between the magnetic frames.

"Go Go, this is Hiro."

Go Go Tomago chewed her gum and nodded. Hiro looked back at her bike. "Never seen electro-mag suspension on a bike before."

"Zero resistance," Go Go told him. "Faster bike. But not fast enough." Then she took the wheel off and threw it in the trash. "Yet."

Hiro stared as she fired up a 3-D printer on the spot and began to create a new wheel. Then he heard a high-pitched hum coming from the other side of the lab. He saw a large, muscular guy with dreadlocks experimenting with lasers there. His work space was immaculately organized. Hiro headed for the machine.

Hiro stopped and looked down. He took one step back behind a white line that was taped on the floor.

"Hey, Wasabi," Tadashi said to him. "This is my brother, Hiro."

Wasabi, a physics student, nodded. "Hello, Hiro. Prepare to be amazed. Catch."

Wasabi tossed an apple up into the air, but when Hiro reached for it, the apple fell down in hundreds of wafer-thin pieces.

"Wow," Hiro said.

"I have a system. A place for everything; everything in its place," Wasabi said.

Hiro nodded, noticing that Wasabi carefully placed his spray bottle back into a particular circle on the table.

Honey was thrilled. "Omigosh! Hi," she gushed. "Perfect timing! You're going to love this!" She pushed the ball onto a hydraulic lift. Then she dashed over to a large machine that held many chemical elements and used the touchscreen to select several of them.

Wasabi grabbed a bottle and sprayed its contents into the air. Hundreds of green lasers were immediately visible. "There has never been an optic system so precise."

Just then, Go Go grabbed something from Wasabi's table. "Need this," she said as she whizzed past him.

Hiro and Tadashi turned to see Honey Lemon, a blond chemistry genius, rolling a large ball of metal across the floor. They stepped aside. Tadashi smiled. "Honey, this is my little brother, Hiro."

"Hey, what are you…" Wasabi shouted, and went after her. "You're messing up my whole system!" The boys were watching Wasabi chase Go Go when a sweet voice said, "Coming through."

The boys saw a stream of chemicals shoot out of the machine and spray the metal ball. Instantly, the entire orb was encased in a bright pink glow.

"That's a whole lot of tungsten carbide…" Hiro said.

"Four hundred pounds of it," Honey responded. They watched as the machine combined the elements. Honey smiled and said, "Super-heat to eight hundred degrees, and voilà!"

Honey nodded enthusiastically. Pink was her favorite color. "And here's the best part," she said. With one touch, the metal ball disintegrated into dust.

Hiro didn't know what to make of it. "So… pink," he said.

"Pretty great, huh?" Honey asked, and used her cell phone camera to snap a selfie of the boys and herself standing in front of the ball.

"Wow!" Hiro said, stunned.

"Not bad, Honey," Tadashi said with a smile. Hiro thought Tadashi's friends were nice, but he was a little confused about their names.

"I know, right?" Honey said. "I call it chemicalmetal embrittlement."

"I spill wasabi on my shirt one time, people -- one time!" Wasabi said.

"Honey, Go Go, Wasabi…?"

Wasabi shook his head.

"Hey," Tadashi laughed, holding up his hands.

Honey nodded. "It's really not."

"Talk to Fred. He gives out the nicknames."

"Laser eyes? Tingly fingers?" Fred asked, following him.

Fred plopped down on a couch strewn with comic books. "Oh, I'm not a student here," he said, grinning. "But I am a major science enthusiast! I've been trying to get Honey to develop a formula that can turn me into a fire-breathing lizard at will." Fred sighed. "But she says that's not science."

Hiro nodded. "Hey. So what's your major?"

The monster took his big head off, and the smiling, friendly-looking kid underneath said, "Do not be alarmed. Name's Fred. School mascot by day." He spun the SFIT sign he was holding. "But by night, also school mascot."

"This guy!" someone said behind Hiro. Turning, Hiro came face to face with a giant Japanesestyle Kaiju monster -- and screamed!

Fred called out to Wasabi, "Right. Then I guess the shrink ray I asked Wasabi for isn't science either, is it?"

"Who's Fred?" Hiro asked.

"I'll show you."

Tadashi smiled and led Hiro to another part of the lab. "What have you been working on?" Hiro asked his brother.