"Welcome to Vivid Insomnia."

Zoran

The first fan fiction, part of "Vivid Insomnia", an Astro Boy fan fiction series by Emily "Astro-png" and Kaitlyn "Kaidraman".

Chapter One:

Birth

xx

The sun crept through Astro's window, illuminating his bed sheets.

Astro had been laughing and giggling the whole night while recalling a few memories in his dream. In the corner of his nightstand not too far from his bed, hid a vanilla scented candle that, even with it not being lit, still omitted a faint scent.

It was morning.

Monday morning, meaning if Astro didn't get up any sooner, he'd be late for school.

On-time-for-school streak, gone.

Soon though, Astro got up out of his bed and pulled the sheets back up, almost making it seem like he never even slept there in the first place.

With not even enough time to turn around, he yawned, flailing his arms all around.

"Astro, what are you doing?" A voice crept into the room after seeing him yawn and a thought of asking crossed their mind.

"Ah!" Astro jumped, screaming.

"Geez, for a ten year old, you're a huge scaredy-cat!" The voice walked over to Astro.

"I am not! You just kinda- you know….. surprised me…" Astro laughed nervously.

"Haha, nice try big brother, now come on, I'm starving!"

"Pffft…. fine." Astro followed them out of his room and downstairs.

Downstairs.

When you first stroll in, you're met with the stairs that were to your right side, which went straight in a privilege upwards heading, then it made a left turn and proceeded up.

On the off chance that you passed the stairs however, an entryway on your right met you which leads to the basement, and on the left? The living room. ((Keep in mind this is all an open floor plan. ~Emily)) ((And also sorry for the long descriptions I'm a control freak and I like everything to be a certain way, so I kinda wanted you guys to have the same vision of what Elefun's house looks like as I do xD ~Emily))

If you ever did continue past that though, you had the dining room which had only a semi-small rectangular table in the center, encompassed by seats and to your right was the kitchen.

There was an older man that sat at the end of that dining room table, sipping coffee as he read the newspaper. His name was Dr. Elefun, but he rather Astro and his sister refer to him as "Doctor", or "Professor".

"Morning, professor!" Astro greeted, making his way to the table.

"Good morning, Astro." Came a greeting in response from Elefun as he flipped a page in his newspaper.

"MORNING, PROFESSOR!" The voice from earlier yelled from behind Asto.

"Morning to you too, Uran." Replied Elefun with a slight chuckle.

Uran, the voice (and Astro's younger sister) sat across from Astro at the table.

Astro looked over at Elefun after noticing the table was empty.

Elefun put the newspaper down in confusion, seeing the table covered in nothing but placemats and a bowl of fruit sitting in the center of the table.

"Oh, your breakfast!" Elefun rapidly stood up and strolled into the kitchen.

He picked up two bowls from the counter and placed one in front of Astro and one in front of Uran.

Astro lifted up his spoon and watched Elefun sit back down and resume what he was doing previously before finally dumping it into his bowl of cereal.

Nothing was said at the table for a moment before Uran opened her mouth to speak.

"So what's the plan for today, professor?" She asked.

Uran was the childish type. Here, there, Uran was everywhere! Always curious, always energetic and always playful. But despite her energetic, childish nature, she had a huge heart and cared deeply about her family and friends, especially her older brother, Astro.

"Well…today I have to go fill out some paperwork and I hear the head of Biology, Dr. Claire, is expected to pay me a visit."

"Wow! That's gonna be so cool!" Uran exclaimed..

"sure will." Astro butted in.

Uran chuckled.

Soon enough, Astro was out the door and on his way to school.

Not long after in the midst of strolling the sidewalk, he heard a voice shout to him.

"Hey Brianna!" Astro called out back to her.

Brianna was Astro's newest friend. She was blonde with green eyes, fair skin and long hair she wore in a fishtail braid. along with the typical T-shirt, jeans and yellow-and-white canvas shoes, she too was whimsical and fun loving like Uran despite being eleven. Astro did like her, and she did too, but they've kept that underneath their now developing friendship. Not to mention she's a bit of your typical fangirl. ((Brianna is my OC [Original Character], not to be confused with the Brianna from the 2003 series even though she appears in only one episode which I find total bullshit, but whateves, can't be picky in a world like the one we live in…. ~Emily))

Brianna finally caught up to Astro.

"So how was your weekend?" she asked

"Oh! Uh… great actually!" Astro replied.

"Haha, that's nice, I didn't do anything this weekend, because you know, with my mom and all, you know how she is." Brianna rolled her eyes.

Despite the fact that she seems, by all accounts, to be upbeat and happy, Brianna had a dark past and a mother that wasn't extremely decent to her, she was exceptionally oppressive and things didn't show signs of improvement when she heard Brianna was hanging out with Astro, she hates robots exceptionally.

But Brianna put up with her.

"Aw, well that's too bad."

Brianna sighed.

"I just wish she would stop hurting me…"

"Well then don't let her hurt you." Astro looked at her with a face that had seriousness plastered all over it.

"It's not that simple you know!" Brianna raised her voice.

Tenma..

It's a name no one chooses to utter, or even think about for that matter.

Be that as it may, he was a liberated person now, still insane, yet free.

And he had something on his mind.

He was planning a new invention.

And was calling it, Zoran.

Elefun may have shown up to the plate when he made Uran, but oh no, zoran was designed to be better!

He contemplated it for some time in his brain while secured up his little prison cell in solitude.

Be that as it may, how he got the thought was entirely odd.

After the entire episode at the Ministry of Science happened, Astro for reasons unknown started to feel odd.

Nothing he felt made sense.

He had never felt along these lines.

Maybe after Tenma had poured his heart out to him and confessed his mistakes, along with the truth, Astro had a change of heart about him.

Maybe what everyone had said about him was wrong?

Maybe he was just being, human, and making mistakes.

Maybe…..

"What if it was all my fault?"

Astro started to consider it at an increasing amount.

It came to the heart of the matter where he would sit in the corner and cry in light of the fact that he felt so regretful for being the reason Tenma became who he was.

Astro arranged to visit him after finding it quite unbearable to feel the sudden pain of guilt and regret that wrapped itself around him, suffocating and leaving him weak, helpless, and not really sure of how or when he was ever gonna bounce back.

Surprisingly, when you'd think at least one of them would have had something to say, nothing was even mouthed with the silence in the air the only thing even appearing.

Maybe…..

When it was at last time to leave, Astro exited with the same agony he strolled in with as he forced a smile to shroud his tears of blame and misery.

Oddly enough, the visit seemed to spark a light in Tenma's mind to construct something new.

And now, his plan was finished.

All that was left was to build it.

Tenma decided to start right away. After opening a few cans of energy drinks and leaving out a case of beer bottles, he began working on Zoran.

Astro looked down at the ground.

He sighed.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"No no, it's my fault, I should have never raised my voice, I'm sorry." Brianna replied.

"No, it's fine." Astro shook his head.

Both of them strolled up the progressions of the school which were trailed by the swinging doors that invited you into the school, with the main office to your left, a way to the cafeteria on your right side and another set of double doors ahead that led you into a hallway, showing you another entry into the cafeteria and the classrooms if you walked even further. ((this layout is actually inspired by the elementary school I went to before I first moved [like from Pre-K to like 3rd grade] so yeah hahaha i'm so creative xDDD ~Emily))

They both made it inside homeroom early and sat at their assigned seats.

Mr. Mustachio was sitting up at his desk holding a digital clipboard.

"Well it seems it's only you two today." He joked with a chuckle.

"Oh come on Mr. Mustachio, I'm sure everyone is gonna come, look there's Kennedy!" Brianna replied.

"Oh! Welcome to class Kennedy." Mustachio greeted as Kennedy walked in. ((When I wrote this on paper, Kennedy's name looks like Kemedy i'm not even kidding holy shit xDDDD ~Emily))

"Sups homero-" He couldn't even finish his sentence before letting out a huge burp.

"Whoo all that soda is making me burp up a storm!"

Kennedy sat at a desk next to Astro.

"Sups, Astro?"

"Nothing." Astro shrugged.

"Well that's *burps* dang it, I tell you, all you need to do is drink a few cans of cola and you'll be burping like crazy!"

Alvin soon walked through the classroom door.

"Welcome to class, Alvin." Came yet another greeting from Mustachio.

"Morning!" Alvin walked to his seat and sat down.

"Sups *burps again* Alvin-o?"

"Geez, talk about burp central!" Alvin said as he moved away from Kennedy.

Astro couldn't help but laugh the whole time.

"Pfft, watch, I'm gonna get an award for greatest burper and be filthy rich while you're on the side of the road holding up a 'will work for food' sign!"

"Ha, not possible, everyone knows I'm the burping champion!"

"Oh! Hi Brianna!" Alvin flirtatiously waved at Brianna.

She rolled her eyes and turned back around.

Astro looked around "Hey, where's Theodore?" He asked.

"Oh yeah, Theo! Where's the little rascal?" Kennedy too circled around the room.

"Ooo a text! Yeah, he says he's not at school yet."

Alvin, after looking at his phone for a moment, glanced over at Astro and Kennedy as he spoke.

"WHAT?! No No, he needs to get his fat caboose OVER HERE!" Kennedy immediately began typing away on his phone.

"Get...your...giant...fat...caboose over...here...or...we're...gonna...gang up...on you...and..you won't...live...to see… tomorrow, SEND!" As he typed, he spoke the words out loud.

Soon, Theodore walked in.

"Theodore, welcome to class!" Mustachio greeted as he walked in. ((Again, my terrible handwriting made it seem like "as he walked in" look like ashe walked in" great job Emily, great job….. ~Emily))

Theodore adjusted his glasses as he strolled to his desk and sat down.

Alvin, Astro and Kennedy stared at him.

"What?" Theodore asked, confounded.

They continued to stare at him.

"What? They had a traffic jam on the way here and my mom's road rage was up to here, you know she's crazy!"

"Oh what a pleasant surprise, welcome to class Mindy!" Mustachio smiled at her as he walked into class.

She had been sick for a whole week.

"Thanks… Mr. … Mustachio." Mindy walked over to her desk.

"Is this whole class on drugs?" Kennedy asked.

Alvin, Astro and Theodore stared at him. ((Yes, this is in alphabetical order, and yes, I am having some severe typing and spelling issues, go figure xD ~Emily))

"What? It's the perfect explanation for why we're all crazy nutjobs with an IQ lower than Barney!"

"Pfft, I'll have you know, I am excelling in my classes and received Principal's honor roll twicemy friend…" Astro butted in.

"Pfft, sure sure, bet you anything he watches porn while he studies…." ((Kemedy pls….. ~Emily))

"What?" Astro questioned disgustingly backing away for a second, a squeamish look on his face.

"Yeah, you can check for his stash in his bookbag."

"Oooh, I see what this is…" Theodore butted in.

"Huh?" Kennedy turned around.

"You like Astro!"

"No…. NO!"

"Brianna, looks like you got competition!"

Brianna turned around.

"If you guys are gonna be jerkfaces, I'll see you after school!" she said as he pounded her fist against her hand.

"Geez, just trying to help you, sometimes when you gotta kick out the competition, even if they live two houses away from you and does nothing but text with screamo music in the background."

"What kinda friends do I even have?" Astro muttered in distress.

"He's lying!" Kennedy in a defensive manner.

"Maybe you're the one that's on drugs… just saying…"

Afterschool, Astro was at home finishing the last bits of his sandwich before Elefun and Uran walked through the door.

"Oh Astro, you're home early?" Elefun asked.

"No, I always get home at this time." Astro replied.

"Oh, I guess that presentation added more time to my workday, not to mention traffic was a pain." Elefun hung his coat up as Uran walked upstairs to her room.

"Yeah, how was the presentation?" Astro asked.

"Quite fine actually." Elefun walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge.

"So anything else new?"

"Well… they uh, just released…um… he who shall not be named this past weekend, not really in favor of it, but what can you do?" Elefun shrugged.

"Right."

"Well I think i'm gonna go start on my homework now…" Astro quietly walked away to his room.

He closed the door behind him.

"Come on Astro, you know you can't do this to yourself, you need to get it together." Astro quietly said to himself.

"Come on Tenma, you can do this…"

Dr. Tenma was standing in front of a metal table, stressed out and clueless.

"You have a plan, stick to it!"

He walked over to another table filled with tools and one giant rolled out blueprint in the midst of it all.

The phone rang.

Tenma refused to answer it.

He cracked open another energy drink and took a sip as he reviewed his blueprints.

Astro was sitting at his desk doing homework, still trying to keep the pain and agony within himself.

His hand began to shake.

Everything was becoming blurry.

Astro felt like he was going to faint.

He attempted to get up yet fell to the ground once he made it up the seat.

Knocked out unconscious, he envisioned waking up, opening his eyes and struggling to figure out what happened.

"Astro?"

"W-wha? Where am I?"

"You had an anxiety attack."

"O-o-oh, no, no, NO!"

"ASTRO!"

"NOOOO!"

Astro suddenly woke up back on the floor again where he was previously.

He brought his knees up to his chest.

"I'm losing it." He muttered.

He couldn't help himself any longer.

Astro put his head down and began to sob.

The next day Astro stepped out of the bathroom and headed downstairs for breakfast.

There was no one there.

Astro fixed himself a small bowl of cereal and sat down alone.

He had decided to take a mental day off, to sort things out in his head and really get over what was holding him back.

Uran and Elefun had already left, it was just Astro alone it his thoughts and the many things that troubled him.

At the same time Astro sneezed, the doorbell rang.

He got up and walked to the door.

"Oh, you must be Astro?" The person said.

"Uh… yes?" Astro replied.

"Great! Dr. Elefun sent me to keep an eye on you."

"Oh yeah, come in." Astro moved out of the way to let the person in.

"Not sure why he wanted me to come watch you, you seem like you can take care of yourself, besides, I have school-y college-y stuff to do, boy do they not give you a break in engineering school…." They said as they walked inside the house, looking at Astro with a confused look on their face.

"Not sure either, must have serious trust issues." Astro replied, closing the door behind them and walking back to sit in the same seat he sat in not too long ago.

"So you took the day off, huh? Quite surprising if you ask me."

"My head is just a mess, I really just need time to straighten it out completely."

"Well I guess you're not getting that perfect attendance then, hmm?"

"At this point I could really care less." Astro got up and headed for the stairs.

"Oh uh, don't kill yourself or get into trouble, alright?"

"Sure, why not?" Astro slammed the door.

He sighed as he was greeted by the troubles within him, causing great stress and pain.

Astro walked over to his computer and played a little loud music.

He reached over for the pen lying next to the mouse and spent a good minute writing on his wrist, then sat in his chair and let the loud music take him and let him doze off to sleep. ((This is legit as close to self harm as Astro will allow himself BTW ~Emily))

After a while of sitting in the chair and sleeping, Astro started to squirm in his seat, making him antsy and uncomfortable.

"Shit!" He suddenly yelled as he cringed, bringing his knees up to his chest.

"Mmmmmm nocursey, Asstorio-y…" Astro mumbled to himself, falling back asleep.

"I could have this done in a month if I could just pull together!"

It suddenly got quiet in the basement.

Tenma grabbed his last bottle of beer and took a sip before pouring the rest all over himself, then carelessly threw it, landing on the ground, the glass shattered.

He groaned, walking over to the metal table where he stared at the unfinished Zoran.

If she were finished, she would look at him with fear.

Astro soon woke up to his loud music still blaring from his computer, he got up and turned it off before rubbing his eye.

He walked out of his room, making his way downstairs.

"So I never got your name?" Astro asked.

"Oh! Well um… I'm going to be Dr. Meyer in a few years, i'm in the middle of college right now." The man from earlier replied.

Astro sat down next to him on the couch.

"So you like robotics?" He asked.

"Well it's not too shabby, could use some work though."

Astro chuckled.

"Thinking of working at that new robot hospital they're building right now!"

"Oh yeah I heard they're building one, finally, the professor says the ministry gets really busy, so I assume that's why it's being built."

"Hmmm, now that you mention it, the ministry does seem to get quite an influx of robots daily…" Meyer scratched his head as he spoke.

"You said it, wonder if anyone else is gonna work there?"

"Oh I'm sure they will, not like they wouldn't, they'd need a large staff anyways."

"Hmmm… you have a point."

Astro got up and walked to the kitchen to get a drink.

He sat himself down in a stool and stared off into space as he took a sip from his cup.

Later on in the day when Elefun returned from work with Uran, and Meyer took a leave, Astro was sat at the dinner table playing with his phone as Elefun babbled on about his day.

"So they asked me if I had anything for it and I thought I'd use you!" Elefun began.

"So they're gonna clone me?" Astro asked, sarcastically showing his disinterest through the tone of his voice.

"Well of course, they haven't worked out all the details, but they plan on doing it in May, of next year, obviously."

"AW that's gonna be so cool, I've always wanted a clone of myself!" Uran exclaimed.

"I dunno, seems a bit complex, and what if things go wrong or something?" Astro quickly contradicted Uran's excitement.

"Pft please, don't be such a downer! And besides, the professor says if your clones a success, then we can keep him, instead of him being dismantled and all….."

"Meh." Astro shrugged.

A loud beeping noise came from the oven.

"Oh! Guess dinner's done cooking." Elefun got up and walked to the oven.

"I'm not eating today…" Astro began.

"Hmm, fine. But you're gonna eat tomorrow, right?"

"Sure." Astro rubbed his back of his head as he stood up, pushing his chair in and going to his room.

The middle of the night came around and Astro tossed and turned in his bed, contrary to how peaceful he slept just a few days ago.

"HELP!"

Astro abruptly woke up when he heard a voice yell.

He looked around the room.

"Y-yes? Are you there?" Astro asked, stuttering with his words and cowering in sudden fear.

No response.

Astro left his room after getting out of his bed and walked over to Uran's room.

He saw she was dead asleep, peacefully sleeping in her bed while clinging to a teddy bear in one of her arms.

Astro let out a quiet chuckle as a faint smile appeared.

He closed the door and quietly walked downstairs

"Is anyone here?" He whispered.

Again, no response.

Astro sighed. "I wonder if they're outside?" He thought.

He walked to the front door and left the house.

"HELP!" Yelled the same voice that rung in Astro's head like church bells on a Sunday morning.

Astro cringed, it was as if something was messing with his mind.

He was determined to find out who the voice was, and why exactly were they in such distress. ((Yay I finally finished everything that I wrote down! Now I can just type freely! ~Emily))

"I-I-I'M HERE, SOMEBODY HELP!"

Astro collapsed to the ground, cringing at the pain and the seriously bad headache he was enduring

He sighed, letting the tears stream down his face.

Astro felt defenseless.

Zoran had quite recently been near completion, when you work for a really long time, no rest, the procedure was certain to pass by quick.

Sure, she still needed a few parts and what-not, but her system was done.

"Well you did it Tenma, halfway done."

He seemed proud but knew this was only the beginning.

xx