Chapter One – Regular Routines

It had been a month since our robot hero defeated the one-eyed orange alien. Things had been going swimmingly in Metro City, and Astro was pleased that things were back to normal…almost. Cora had moved in with her parents, and Zane, Widget, Sludge and many of the other children from the surface were sent to an orphanage on the edge of the city. Even though he hadn't seen them in ages, he knew that they were still thinking of him. Dr Tenma continued his hard work at the Ministry of Science and had been gone for several days, which made Astro feel lonely even with Orrin there.

"Are you ok, Tob- Astro?" asked Orrin, watching Astro sit on his windowsill in silence. He tried his best not to let Toby's name slip out of his robotic mouth.

"Yeah, I just wish that Dad would get back sooner," Astro replied with a heavy sigh.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure your father will be home soon."

"I know."

There was a long silence before either of them spoke again.

"Is there anything you would like me to do for you?"

"No, I'm just going to go out for a flight. I'll be back in approximately ten minutes."

And with that, Astro let himself slip off the window and dived down the building.

He enjoyed the rush of wind that followed the excitement of being able to defy gravity. He spread out his arms and soared upwards toward the clear, star-filled night sky, gaining altitude at an amazing speed. He stopped and hovered once he was happy with the height he was at. He closed his eyes and let the gentle evening breeze blow against his synthetic skin. The calming silence of the night relaxed him, for keeping the city safe from crime is no easy task. It often stressed him out when dealing with certain criminals, a majority of which were "anti-robot" members. He was getting used to the "you're just a robot" line thrown at him every now and then, but it still upset him when he thought about it deeply. He needed someone to talk to who wasn't another robot, and with his father and his friends out of the question, he found himself feeling rather alone. Dr Elefun wasn't an option either, for he was helping Dr Tenma with his task. Oh well, he thought, it doesn't hurt to wait. He opened his eyes once again and decided to make a quick fly through the streets to be sure that nothing was out of the ordinary. It always made him feel better when the citizens of the city screamed his name as he flew by, because he knew that they looked up to him and he knew that they would be there for him. Just as he was about to make his way back home, several flashing police sirens caught his eye, and he flew down to see what the hubbub was about.

"Is everything ok over here?" he asked one of the officers.

"Oh, hey, Astro!" the officer replied cheerily. "You're probably wondering about the situation as well, huh?"

"You bet I am!"

"Unfortunately, I don't really know much about this so far, so you might want to go ahead and talk to the detective over there."

"Thanks!"

Astro smiled and walked over to where the officer was pointing. He stepped under the tape and found a tall man with a pretty large nose and moustache. He was wearing a long trench coat and fedora, and was busy righting who-knows-what on his notepad.

"Excuse me, sir?" Astro asked him, guessing that he was the detective.

"Yes, what is it?" the man replied, not looking away from his notes.

"Do you think you can tell me what's going on?"

He stopped writing and looked down at Astro, giving the boy robot a look that made him feel uncomfortable.

"This case is none of your concern, robot."

Astro was stunned that the detective addressed him like that. One of the officers walked over and tried to reason with the man.

"Detective Towashi, sir, I think you should consider letting Astro know about this; having saved the city numerous times, he could be a big help."

Huh, so that's your name, Astro thought.

"I know what he did for the city, but he's nothing but a robot. He's not worthy of a case we haven't even solved yet."

"A case you haven't solved yet? Could you at least tell me what happened?" Astro butted in impatiently.

"Fine, if it's going to stop you asking questions. Earlier this evening, a young boy of about seven years of age was sighted wandering down this ally-way and hasn't been seen or heard of since."

"That's awful!"

"I know, and something that really bugs me is that the boy left something pretty interesting behind. You can go check it out if you want."

Towashi began writing notes again, so Astro decided to check the ally out. It felt dark and cold, as if something was watching Astro's every move. He wondered why none of the officers were down there investigating. Are they afraid of something? he thought. It suddenly got so dark to the point where he had to turn his eye-lights on. Scanning the area for anything unusual, he couldn't see anything until he trod on something. He stepped back a bit, moved his eyes to where the object was and gasped at what he saw. There, lying on the ground, were several robot parts arranged in the most peculiar way, almost like it was lettering in a different language. No wonder they couldn't figure anything out. He made his way back to the officers and told them what he saw to make sure that he wasn't the only one.

"You sure that kind of pattern isn't in your database or something?" one of them asked.

"I'm sure. I've never seen anything like it before!" Astro replied. "Anyway, I need to get home, Orrin will be wondering where I am."

And with that, Astro activated his rocket boots and took off, leaving a large trail of smoke behind that left the officers coughing and waving their hands about like lunatics.

"Ah! There you are, Astro!" cried Orrin as Astro landed back inside.

"I'm going to call it a night for now. See you in the morning, Orrin." Astro replied, trying to sound sleepy.

"Alright then. Good night, Astro."

Astro made his way to his room and made sure Orrin wasn't following him. Before he got into bed his turned on his holo-computer and decided to do a little research.

"Ok, let's see if anything comes up with 'ancient robotic languages'."

He scrolled through sites and images but he couldn't find anything useful.

"Hmm, what about… 'robots in history'?"

He typed that in the search bar, but he ended up with the same result – nothing. He spent at least an hour searching with nothing good to store in his memories before he finally gave up and went to bed. He flopped onto the soft mattress and stared at the ceiling. He listened to the car honks and traffic robots giving commands down below. With his intensified hearing he could practically hear what people were saying from inside their cars, and two voices in particular made him shoot over to the window.

It was Dr Tenma and Elefun.