A Fiery Gospel
In every Astro story I've ever seen, our hero has been handcuffed by his morals (just as every superhero is). The great Isaac Asimov who created the three laws of robotics worked himself out of this dilemma in one of his last novels by creating a 'zeroth' law that allowed his robots to save humanity as a whole by seeing all of us collectively as more important than any one individual. But what would happen if Atom had this ability? And isn't this EXACTLY what Dr. Tenma (as in the 2003 Anime) had in mind in his vision for Atom?
The Storm
It began as a small mass of warm moisture that drifted off the top of a mountain on one of the many small islands in the Pacific. It drifted over a warm ocean current where it began to pick up additional energy and moisture. Encountering the outer bands of one of the trade winds over the middle of the ocean north of the equator, the cloud pattern took on a circular shape and winds began to wrap around a center. The clouds grew in size both outward and upwards and flashes of lightning discharged the considerable static electric charges that were now being produced by the increasing updrafts.
The surface rain and wind began to pick up as the storm grew in intensity. Its forward motion picked up speed as it steered on a north-west track. The disturbance grew stronger becoming a tropical cyclone, and it was named Nangka. It was not the first such storm of the season, nor would it be the last.
The typhoon quickly reached category 5 strength as it neared the south-eastern coast of Japan, seemingly aiming for a direct hit on the city of Miyazaki on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The city of over 350,000 people began to make preparations for the coming potential disaster. Already large waves were crashing on shore as the storm surge was being pushed ahead of the typhoon towards land.
The JMA and NOAA dispatched a joint Hurricane hunter mission into the storm to gain insight on its strength and future track. On board the WC-130J Hercules aircraft, the meteorologists endured the turbulence as the aircraft threaded its way between the spiral bands of clouds towards the eye wall of the storm. Normally carrying a crew of five, this mission included one extra person from the Japanese Ministry of Science who had brought along a new robotic weather probe. Now several hours out from the Misawa U.S. joint forces base, the hurricane hunter aircraft was nearing the outer periphery of Typhoon Nangka.
The Flight director glanced at the portly old man with the large nose and white hair. The frequently rapid changes in altitude that the plane was being subject to by the storm's up and down drafts didn't seem to phase him one bit as he adjusted the internal controls of the robotic dropsonde he had brought along with him on the flight.
"How are you doing back there Hakase?" the officer yelled behind him.
"I've almost got it ready!" the scientist yelled back. "We should be able to steer the sensor package anywhere in the storm we want, the power pack and fuel supply should be good for a few hours at least. How far are we from the drop zone?"
The navigator relayed their latest position to the pilots. "About five minutes to the first eye crossing," the first officer replied.
"Explain to me again about this new probe package," the Weather officer asked.
"Your standard dropsonde is held aloft by either a balloon or a parachute," the scientist explained. "It will drift about inside the storm at the whim of the winds. This robotic probe has an aerodynamic body and a built in jet engine powered by a hydrogen-peroxide power source. It can maneuver about the storm to collect data from different positions. Its computer brain is based on a kokoro enabled A.I., it can make decisions about where to go based on the data readings it's collecting without intervention from a human operator. We'll be able to get more accurate data, and in less time than by dropping multiple probes."
"We'll drop two of our standard instrument packages on the first crossing," the Systems Operator called back to the Japanese scientist, "once I have the initial telemetry readings you'll see them come up on your computer station. You can then determine on which heading you will want us to fly for the initial release of your robotic probe."
"Hai!" the old man agreed.
"Dropsonde point number one!" the pilot spoke into the intercom.
"Package away!" relayed the systems officer.
The Weather officer, Systems operator and the scientist observed the flood of telemetry data as it poured in over the down link. "Steer about ten degrees to your port side and climb up about 1000 feet," the scientist said. "I've got the probe loaded into the 'bomb-bay' now!"
"OK, executing!" the pilot replied.
Through the front windscreen the two pilots watched as flashes of lightning bounced from cloud to cloud. The yoke suddenly yanked itself from the pilot's hands as the plane responded to a massive wind shear causing it to drop several thousand feet in a matter of seconds before the two flight officers regained control.
"She's a mean one, this storm!" the first officer laughed.
"Let's try again to get to those drop coordinates," the pilot replied as he pulled back on the yoke and advanced the propeller controls.
The aircraft fought against the wind, as it bounced around for a few minutes. "I think I see some clear air ahead," the navigator relayed over the intercom.
"I see it on the scope," the pilot agreed, adjusting his course. "Should come up on your drop position in about thirty seconds, Hakase," he added.
The scientist watched on his computer tie in with the aircraft's navigation system, and he cross checked against the data readout the first two instrument packages were still feeding into the system. "Ten seconds to drop," the old man announced.
"Roger that," the systems operator replied.
"Robotic probe away!" the ministry scientist announced.
"I've got control of it." the systems operator announced, "your interface is working perfectly with our systems, data coming in now."
For about thirty seconds all seemed to be going well. Then suddenly a strong crosswind yanked the WC-130J into a spin.
"Where did that come from!" the first officer moaned as the two pilots fought to regain control.
"Looks like we're caught in a horizontal funnel cloud!" the weather officer announced, "It just came out of nowhere, I didn't see anything on the scope till it was upon us!"
The turbulence quickly grew worse as the aircraft alternately dived and and rolled.
"G forces are building, she can't take much more of this!" the pilot yelled. "Strap yourselves in, it's going to be a wild ride!"
A bolt of lightning hit the outboard port engine just as the aircraft was tossed into a roll. Three of the four huge bolts holding the engine mount to the wing sheared away as the engine caught fire.
"Activate number 1 extinguisher!" the first officer cried out reaching for the controls.
"It's getting too rough in here," the pilot decided, "I'm aborting the mission!" He brought up the throttles on the three remaining engines and slowly rolled the plane into a 270 degree turn to exit the storm. The aircraft was then caught in yet another blast of turbulence, and the winglet on the outer tip of the port wing snapped off.
The pilots struggled to keep the crippled aircraft flying, as it was now rapidly loosing altitude. They activated the automatic distress beacons, the first officer making mayday calls over the radio.
Suddenly a small two way microwave transceiver in the old scientist's pocket began to crackle with static as the squelch broke though.
"Hakase!" a voice came out of the radio, "I'm coming!"
The scientist pulled the transceiver from his pocket and held it to his face. "Atom, what are you doing here? I told you not to follow me."
"Sorry, Hakase," came the reply, "but the storm looked too dangerous for your safety."
The aircraft continued to break up as the ailerons started to flutter and parts of them tore off the wings, followed by a part of the rudder. The plane dipped into a spiral dive, gaining speed.
"Brace for a rough water landing!" the pilot yelled over the intercom as the flight crew tried to control the plane into a survivable crash landing.
Suddenly there was a gentle jolt, as if something had bumped into the aircraft. Gradually the spin and the dive flattened out as they broke though the clouds into clear air.
"What just happened?" the navigator asked.
"I don't know." The pilot said dumbfounded, "I didn't do anything, something seems to have pulled us to safety. It looks like we might be able to make it back to the air base."
The scientist hid the transceiver that he was speaking into from view.
"Did they see me, Hakase?" the voice asked.
"I don't think so," the old man replied, "where are you now?"
"Under the aircraft just behind the wings," the voice answered, "I'll help keep this plane flying until the pilot makes it back to the airbase and then I'll make my way back to Tokyo. See you back at the Ministry."
"Hai," the scientist answered, "and Atom, thanks for disobeying me!"
Professor Ochanomizu sat in his office looking at the screen of his desktop computer. He was engaged in an on line conference with Dr. Cirrus of the JMA. "Congratulations on the first test of your robotic weather probe, Ochanomizu Hakase," Dr. Cirrus said. "It seems that despite the mishap you experienced during your mission you and the Hurricane Hunter crew managed to gather us enough data to understand this storm."
"Thank you Dr. Cirrus," Ochanomizu replied. "While I'm no expert on tropical weather phenomena, it seems to me that this typhoon is dangerously unique."
"Indeed!" Cirrus replied with a worried voice. "My counterpart at NOAA and I agree that we may have to extend the Saffir-Simpson scale to categorize this one, Nangka really deserves a category 6 rating as we've seen winds over 320 Km/h in the data stream.
"Well judging by the final moments of our ride in that storm, I believe it," the professor replied.
"Oh yeah, about that." Dr. Cirrus asked. "I've seen the photos the flight crew took of their aircraft after they landed and I've read the maintenance report by the A&P mechanics. According to those reports you guys should have crashed, there wasn't enough metal left on the aircraft's control surfaces for it to have been controllable. You must have had a guardian angel flying along side of you."
"I guess you could say that we did," Ochanomizu laughed as Atom entered the office.
The professor turned to look where the boy robot was standing. "Looks like we're going to be needing your help again, son." he sighed.
"How bad is the storm?" Atom asked.
"You flew through it, why don't you tell me." Ochanomizu replied.
"I didn't take much time to gather any readings," Atom said, "I was too busy keeping your plane in the air. However, I did record sensor readings of over 350 Km/h in some gusts. I must have used almost all of my 100,000 hp just to stay in the air!"
"That's about the story I'm seeing from the Hurricane hunter data," the professor answered. "The people at NOAA are going to call this bad boy a cat 6 storm. This is a record breaker, and it's going to hit the island of Kyushu in about 36 hours with winds of over 250 mph."
"That's not a typhoon, that's a tornado!" Atom gasped, "What's causing such abnormal weather?"
"It's probably the result of global warming," Ochanomizu replied, "with more thermal energy available in the deep oceans for storms to feed off of we are going to get more storms, stronger storms, or both. Unless the nations of the world can somehow get together and cut way back on their use of fossil fuels and switch to renewable sources of energy, things are only going to get worse."
"Isn't our government doing anything about it?" Atom asked.
"Japan does make use of non-fossil fuels for energy, probably more so than many other nations due to the fact that we have to import almost all of it," the professor explained. "We are more dependent on nuclear energy than most countries, but unfortunately that technology does have its problems and we've been hurt by that. We do have available geothermal energy since our islands sit on top of the pacific ring of fire, a fault line that includes many thermal vents and volcanoes. We might do more except for the political influence of a few companies that have vested interests in conventional fuel technology, such as the Tokugawa corporation, and the Koike conglomerate. I've heard that the Koike brothers, are using their huge cash reserves to bribe our government officials to allow for increased oil exploration by Tokugawa's energy corporation who wants to make use of technologies owned by them."
Atom's face contorted with an expression of rage. "Sometimes I wish I wasn't a robot so I could act on my anger, Hakase," he sighed, "My A.I. won't let me hurt humans, but sometimes I actually wish I could assassinate some of those greedy evil men."
"I know how you feel Atom." Ochanomizu replied, "Though that almost sounds like something Atlas would say. Even I sometimes think the same way, but believe me it's much better to solve our problems with diplomacy and laws."
"You're right of course, Hakase." Atom answered.
Yuko, the professor's assistant walked into the office. "Hakase, the prime minister is on line two," she said, "He sounds worried."
"I bet he is," Ochanomizu replied picking up the phone.
The professor listened to the voice on the other end of the line, occasionally muttering 'Hai' or 'Eeya'. Finally he hung up the phone. "Atom, things are getting worse over in Miyazaki," he said. "The wind is picking up and light rain is falling. They are going to need help shoring things up in advance of the storm, and for sure once the weather deteriorates there will be some bakas who will refuse to evacuate from the low lying areas that will need to be rescued."
"Hai." Atom said. "I'll top up my fuel supply and grab a few spare energy tubes and head over to Kyushu island right away."
"Good luck Atom," the professor said, "And be careful."
Atom took the elevator to the lower level of the building and entered Reno's lab. "Can you top off my power, and get me a few spare energy tubes?" He asked.
"You're going over to Kyushu aren't you?" Reno asked, as he popped Atom's chest panel open and inserted the refueling line from the large tank standing in the corner of the lab.
"Yeah, things are getting worse over there as the storm approaches. I'm probably going to be running around like crazy for the next 48 hours." Atom sighed.
Reno grabbed several injector tubes filled with the highly compressed atomic fuel that Atom used out in the field, and put them in a backpack which he handed to the boy robot. "I'm coming with you." he said. "You're going to need all the help you can get."
"You're crazy." Atom said. "How are you going to be of any use to me out in the storm?"
"Didn't I tell you?" Reno laughed. "I finished it!" He opened the sliding doors to the large closet on the far back wall of the laboratory. Hanging there was a gleaming red and yellow metal full body suit with an awesome looking masked helmet.
"The Ironman suit?" Atom gasped. "I thought you were joking with me about a cosplay you were working on. Is that thing real?"
"Sure is." Reno said. "Ever since the first flick came out I've been researching how to build something like that. I borrowed some ideas from your blueprints, and pulled some other details out of plans I stole from Dr. Tenma's computer when I hacked into it years ago."
Reno pulled the suit out of the closet and quickly put it on. The last thing he did was to put the helmet over his head and twist lock it in place onto the suit. "It fits me like a glove!" Reno laughed as he powered it up. The suit emitted a low hum as the power converter mounted on the chest plate began to glow, just like Tony Stark's arc reactor.
"How much power does that thing put out?" Atom asked as he strapped the back pack on.
"Oh, about 100,000 HP!" Reno laughed opening the window. "Wanna race?"
"You're on!" Atom said.
The two boys leaped out of the open window and blasted off on a southernly path towards the waiting maelstrom.
The weather on the south-eastern coast of Kyushu island had already deteriorated by the time the two boys got there. The wind had freshened into a moderate Gale, the sky was filled with darkening clouds and a constant rain was falling. The residents of Miyazaki had already begun to board up for the approach of the storm, which had increased its forward speed and was now expected to make landfall sometime by the early morning.
The boys checked with the police department located next to the city hall building. They found the mayor of the city arguing with the head of the police department, while a plain clothes detective stood by, chomping on a pipe clamped between his teeth.
"Inspector Tawashi, what are you doing here?" Reno asked.
"Hey Astro!" Tawashi said as he turned about and saw the two boys,"About time you got here. Who's this other robot you brought along with you?"
Reno powered down the Ironman suit and removed his helmet. "I'm not a robot, Inspector." He laughed. "I came along to help."
"What did you do Reno, make yourself a robot suit?" the inspector laughed. "Well for your information the chief of police here in Miyazaki put out a call to other police departments throughout the nation asking for help."
"And you got volunteered," Atom asked.
"Yeah, well Metro City police chief Nakaruma asked me personally to help out, and I owed him a few favors." Tawashi replied.
The mayor seemed to have won his argument with the chief of police who nodded at Tawashi as he walked though the door. "You must be Astro Boy?" he asked looking at Atom.
"I've been called that," Atom said, "I'm legally named Atom, but you can call me Astro if you like. The media seems to like the title Astro Boy."
"I see." The mayor replied. "And who is your friend, here?"
Atom gave Reno an affectionate noogie, "Reno here is probably the third top roboticist in all of Japan after Professor Ochanomizu and Dr. Tenma," he said, "and one of my best friends."
"Why the robot suit?" the mayor asked.
"This Ironman exoskeleton will help me keep up with Atom," Reno explained, "it will be like having two of him at your disposal."
"That's good to hear," the mayor replied, "but I fear even two Astro Boy's won't be enough for this storm."
At that the lights in the building blinked as a transformer atop a utility pole outside the window buzzed violently for a few seconds.
"I wish Atlas would help," Atom sighed, "I tried to contact him, but got no answer."
"Forget about him, Atom," Tawashi said, "He's been causing a lot of trouble lately, and you know it."
"I don't think he means any harm," Atom said, "he just tends to act on his frustrations rather that use diplomacy."
"That's sugar coating it," the detective replied, "Though I will agree that he's actually never hurt anybody, but he's caused billions in property damage."
Suddenly a trashcan that had become airborne as the winds increased smashed into the side of the building , the mayor flinched as he saw it coming at the window from out of the corner of his eye.
"You two better get over to the construction site of the new office tower downtown," Tawashi said. The winds have obviously picked up faster than was predicted and if the construction workers haven't yet got the site secured there could be a disaster."
"Hai!" Atom nodded. "Coming along on this one, Mr. Stark?"
"Right behind you." Reno answered as he locked his helmet back into place.
"Good luck you two," The mayor yelled as the two boys ran for the door.
Atom and Reno ran out of the building and leaped skyward towards the construction site.
Atop the steel skeleton of the office tower under construction, the winds were whipping the traveling crane about. The multi ton machine was teetering towards the ground at a frightful angle as the head engineer of the project watched from the street several dozen floors below.
Atom and Reno landed in front of the engineering shack at the base of the tower.
"Astro Boy!, Thank God!" the engineer yelled as he saw Atom approach. "The crew tried to secure the crane as soon as the weather began to deteriorate, but their efforts were useless," he explained. "Before they could get the securing bolts in place and withdraw the extensions on the boom the winds suddenly doubled in speed and several anchor points sheered off. The crane is hanging up there by a thread, it's going to fall off any second. My men have run off to take shelter, I can't say I blame them."
"Don't worry, I'll lower the crane to the street." Atom told him.
"You mean WE'LL lower it to the street." Reno shouted above the increasing whine of the wind gusts.
Atom and Reno flew upwards towards the crane. "I'll laser off the remaining bolts, you hold the crane steady against the wind, if you can." Atom radioed to Reno.
"No problem!" Reno replied, "This suit gives me as much strength as you have."
"Maybe." Atom said, "But you're probably not used to controlling it yet."
"The suit has its own AI." Reno countered. "And I've run all of the control scenarios though a simulator. Don't worry about me, let's get this thing secured!"
Just as the two of them reached the top of the tower structure a sudden gust of wind blew them off course and the final bolt holding the crane snapped like a twig.
"Look out! It's falling!" Reno yelled into the radio.
Atom quickly accelerated using rocket blasts from his arms and quickly caught up with the falling machine. He grabbed onto it at what he thought was the center of gravity and stopped its fall, his leg jets ramped up to near full power.
"Give me a hand with this!" Atom radioed to Reno, "I've caught it out of balance and I don't think I can hold it much longer!"
Reno ramped up the hand and foot repulsers on the Ironman suit, and he quickly joined up with Atom. Grabbing the structure of the crane from the other end, he counteracted the off axis moment that Atom was fighting.
"Good work!" Atom radioed back. "Between the two of us we should be able to handle it now. "Let's lower it to the street."
"There's a large open area behind the building where they have some steel stacked up." Reno suggested.
"Exactly my thought!" Atom agreed. The two boys fought against the headwind and slowly lowered the multi-ton crane to the ground.
"Phew! That was a tough one!" Atom said, "Good thing you came along."
"You're welcome!" Reno laughed.
The two boys ran back to the shack where the engineer had been watching. "I can't thank the two of you enough," he said. "I think the rest of the site should be OK, everything that could blow away has been secured, and loose construction materials have been hauled away. This shack probably will be torn apart by the winds, but it's expendable."
"Why don't we anchor it down in the back next to the crane and that pile of steel?" Reno suggested.
"Yeah, we can use some of the cable on the crane's windlass for that." Atom agreed.
The two of them lifted the shack into the air and carried it towards where they'd deposited the crane minutes ago. It took them less then a few minutes more to lash the trailer down. "That should hold it." Reno laughed.
"I've just got another radio call from the police department." Atom told Reno. The rising tide and wind are have damaged the bridge on the Hirotsuba Toll Road, and there are cars stuck on the structure."
The boys again took to the air. Flying over Maru Island they could see that the Oyodo River was absorbing the incoming storm surge and that most of the island was now under water. The central supports of the bridge had started to give way as the concrete structure anchoring the steel had begun to crumble. The bridge was listing at a 45 degree angle and auto traffic had snarled as light vehicles rolled sideways into heavier ones. Several cars were hanging over the edge of the roadway, about to fall into the river.
"We'll have to air lift the cars off the bridge." Atom said.
"Hai!" Reno replied. "How's your power level doing, I've still got over 75% left in the suit."
"Same here." Atom replied. "Let's do it!"
The two of them carried the stuck vehicles off the bridge, one at a time. The police had already erected roadblocks and set up detours to the traffic which was now using the 220, and 10 roadways whose bridges were not yet compromised. Just as the last car was removed from the damaged section of the bridge, a large portion of the span broke free and fell into the river.
"Talk about timing!" Atom moaned. "What's next!"
"I don't know about you, but it's getting rather scary up here." Reno said. "The winds must be reaching hurricane force by now, it's really tough flying though this."
"Let's get back to the bunker where the police and the mayor have set up the command center." Atom suggested.
They flew low trying to keep out of the worst of the weather. After taking a beating from the wind and pounding rain, they arrived back at the bunker to hunker down with the city officials and the police. The command center was far enough inland to be out of harm's way from the storm surge, and the building was built to withstand a major earthquake The mayor assured them that they would be safe from the worst of the storm.
Even though the eye of the storm had not yet reached the Japanese coast, enough of the storm's feeder bands were now coming in to make further evacuations impossible. Inspector Tawashi was monitoring the radio as reports from other officers stationed at evacuation centers thought the prefecture came in.
"I hope that all the citizens have either evacuated to higher ground, or made it out of the prefecture." The mayor sighed. Every now and then the lights dimmed, or flickered as the power lines were blown about by the storm. Finally there was a huge crash of lightning nearby and the building was bathed in darkness.
"Crap, we've lost power." Tawashi muttered. "Hope the backup generators come on line.
Atom lit his eye searchlights, and Reno illuminated the lamps in the palms of his suit. "Let's find the auxiliary panel and see if the power transfer switch is stuck," the mayor said after the lights failed to come back on. With Atom and Reno lighting the way he led them down the hall to the utility room where the generator was housed.
Reno bent down to look at the generator. He pressed the starter switch a few times but nothing happened. "Seems to have a dead battery." He said, "Don't you guys maintain these things?"
"It was just installed a few months ago," the mayor said. Atom looked down at the nameplate on the generator, " Tokugawa Industries," he muttered, "Well as Atlas would say, 'No wonder it doesn't work, you bought yourselves a piece of crap!'"
Reno found a jumper cable hanging on the wall next to the generator. He clamped one end to the starting motor on the generator, and looked at Atom. "You mind giving us a jump?"
"Sure why not?" Atom laughed opening his chest panel. "I think I have a 12v outlet in here somewhere."
Reno connected the free end of the cable to Atom's battery contacts and again pressed the generator's starter button. This time the machine coughed and sputtered a few times before roaring to life. Atom removed the jumper cable and closed his chest panel as the lights in the building came back on.
"Thanks guys," the mayor said. "Let's get back to the war room."
With the power back up Tawashi went back to monitoring the emergency radio band. Suddenly he leaned forward to press his ear against the speaker trying to make out a faint signal.
"Hey Astro, come here!" the inspector yelled.
Atom turned his hearing up by 1000 times, cupping his hands to his ears.
"Two officers were making a final inspection by the coast looking for anyone who failed to evacuate. They got caught in the rising water and are sitting on the roof of a small building," Atom said.
"Their signal is awful weak." Tawashi said, I couldn't get a fix on it even if I could rotate the directional antenna in this wind."
"They did transmit their GPS coordinates once before the signal faded out." Atom said.
"Well what we waiting for?" Reno sighed, "Let's rescue them."
Before he could put his helmet back on, Atom grabbed it from Reno and yanked the microprocessor control module from it.
"Hey why did you do that?" Reno yelled.
"Because I don't want you attempting to follow me." Atom said sternly. "The winds are now gusting to over 200 KPH out there. You've never tried to fly that suit in that kind of crosswind and I've done that before. Anyway, you need to stay here and see that the mayor's staff remains safe."
Atom made his way out of the building via the rear door. He opened it carefully and then had to use most of his 100,000 hp to slam it locked shut against the force of the wind.
Reno walked over to the desk where Tawashi was manning the radio. He placed his helmet on the table and sat down next to the inspector, placing his hands on the keyboard of a laptop computer. "Checking on the storm's progress?" Tawashi asked.
"Yes, I've got to find something useful to do around here if I can't be outside as a hero."
The sound of the wind began to pick up, becoming a roar like a freight train. "That sounds like a tornado," the inspector said.
Reno quickly moved the mouse and danced his fingers over the keyboard to bring up a live radar map. "Seems that the ministry's weather radar is still functioning," he muttered, zooming in on their location.
"Yipes, your right," he said, "theres a band almost right on top of us that is full of horizontal funnel clouds."
The roar increased and was accompanied by a loud crash from across the street. Reno made his way over to the hallway where an armored window offered the only view of the street outside. All of the windows on the reinforced stronghold had been covered by steel panels to protect them from flying debris, but the building did have one small window on each side made of two inch thick armored glass to provide views outside. Though the gloom of the dark and the sheets of rain pounding against the glass, Reno was barely able to make out the upside down armored vehicle that had been overturned by the winds.
"Hey inspector, was that your Armageddon wagon parked outside?" he asked.
"Yeah, I had that thing specially made to take care of rampaging robots like your buddy Atlas," Tawashi said. "The thing weighs about 7 tons and should withstand anything mother nature or that renegade robot can dish out. Cost the department about a billion yen."
"Well I hope you had it insured with Lloyd's of London," Reno said, "'cause it looks like the winds just picked it up about 100 feet in the air and dropped it."
"OMG!" The inspector face palmed. "And Astro just flew though that!"
Reno grabbed the radio microphone from the inspector and quickly changed the radio's frequency setting.
"ATOM! Do you copy me?!" he yelled.
Reno repeatedly keyed the PTT switch calling for Atom to answer him. He scanned up and down a few channels repeating the exercise. Finally, a weak crackly voice answered.
"Hey good buddy, I'm fine." Atom replied. "I must have picked the worst moment to leave the building because just as I tried to get airborne I got sucked up into this titanic vacuum cleaner of a tornado, then I got body slammed by this 10 ton monster truck that was flying around inside of it. I think I must have lost consciousness for a few minutes, I woke up hanging from some de-energized power lines a few miles from your local."
"Where are you now?" Reno asked. He pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped on the screen a few times.
"About a mile from where that radio distress call came from. I'll radio back when I assess the situation."
Reno ran to the corner of the room where he'd left the backpacks. He grabbed one of Atom's energy fuel tubes out of one of them, and fished a small circuit board from the other. Returning to the desk, he picked up his suit's helmet and inserted the circuit board into the helmet which he then placed on his head.
"What do you think you're doing?" The inspector asked.
Reno held up his smart phone. "See this display, inspector? Those are Atom's vital signs. His energy usage has gone way up fighting the storm. He probably doesn't have enough power to make it back here.
"You've got a telemetry link on him?" the inspector asked.
"Yeah, he doesn't know about this one yet." Reno laughed, "I hacked into him to install that the last time I repaired him."
The boy opened a side pocket on the Ironman suit and stuffed the energy tube into it. "I brought some spare parts for my suit with me. Good thing too. Atom's got this stupid hero complex and thinks he can take on the world by himself. This time he's bit off more than he can handle alone."
"You think that cosplay toy of yours can stand up to the storm outside?" Tawashi asked, "What makes you any better than Astro?"
"Look inspector, he's saved my butt so many times I figure I owe him one."
"But he's a robot and you're a living person." The inspector said.
"Don't tell me my buddy's only a robot!" Reno yelled, pulling the visor on his helmet down.
"I didn't mean it that way," the inspector said, "Just that he can be repaired and you can't!"
Reno shook his head and ran for the rear door of the building. He waited a few seconds for a lull in the sound of the wind before pushing the door open and taking off.
Huddled against the chimney of the two story house, two men and a boy shivered against the cold of the rain and wind. They'd lashed themselves to the brick structure with the heavy rope that was intended for rescuing trapped victims. The two policemen had arrived just as the wind reached the point where driving was becoming extremely hazardous. After relaying their position back to command HQ, they broke their way into the building to find the boy upstairs still trying to reach help on his walkie talkie.
Unknown to them, a major levy holding back the river from this low lying part of the prefecture had already failed and they were only seconds away from becoming inundated by the water. From the second story window of the boy's room they had a clear view of their SUV being washed away by the torrent of rising water, and they made their way into the attic and then the roof to escape from drowning.
Atom saw the three of them and wondered how he was going to be of any help, he couldn't carry all three to safety in this wind. He carefully landed on the roof, and grabbed hold of the chimney.
"Astro Boy! Are you a sight for sore eyes!" one of the policemen said.
"The wind's too strong for me to carry all of you to safety at once," Atom said. "I flew over a warehouse on higher ground not far from here, I can get you there one at a time."
"Take the kid first then," one of the policemen asked. "And take this with you." he added handing Atom a flashlight.
"Hai." Atom replied. He turned to the boy. "Hey kid, what's your name?"
The frightened child looked at the boy robot and stammered, "Tommy"
"OK Tommy," Atom replied, "I want you to lean against my chest and hang on to my neck. I'll grab hold of you and I won't let go. It will be about a five minute flight from here to the safety of the warehouse. Close your eyes if you are afraid, It will probably be a rather rough flight because of all the wind."
"OK." the boy whined weakly.
Atom moved closer and the child wrapped his arms around Atom's neck in a bear hug. The boy robot wrapped his left arm around the kid's waist and held on to him securely. Atom took off into the maelstrom and was immediately buffeted about by the hurricane force winds. The flight took just about the five minutes that he'd promised, and he landed by the warehouse. Atom strained to open the heavy sliding door just a crack, and the two of them squeezed their way inside.
"It's dark in here." the child complained.
Atom slipped the policeman's flashlight out from underneath his green belt where he'd stashed it, and handed it to the boy.
"Here, this will help." He said. "I'm going back to get the policemen now. You'll be by yourself for only ten minutes or so, OK?"
The boy nodded, holding tightly onto the flashlight. Atom slid the door open a crack and eased himself out to fly back to the house to rescue the two cops.
By the time he'd gotten back the water level had continued to rise and was now lapping over the edges of the roof. Atom landed, but he started to feel faint, lost his footing and fell. He slid down to the edge of the roof, hanging on by his finger tips. He tried to climb up on the roof, but he suddenly felt as weak as a baby.
"Shit, my energy is running low!" he sighed.
Reno brought up the Ironman suit's heads up display. Atom's vital signs were coming in over the telemetry link, along with his GPS coordinates. With the suit on autopilot, he flew towards his buddy, fighting the vertigo he was feeling due to the tremendous turbulence he was flying though. Suddenly he saw the building where the two policemen were standing on the roof next to the chimney with the raging water lapping against their feet. Atom was lying face down on the roof with only the spikes of his hair showing above the water.
Reno commanded the suit to hover above the roof. He grabbed hold of Atom by his neck and pulled him towards the peak of the roof where the two cops were. "Help me turn him over on his back!" Reno said, and the three of them rolled Atom around so his chest panel was accessible. Reno popped the panel open and reached for the suit's hidden pocket and retrieved Atom's power refill. He inserted the energy tube into the socket and opened the valve.
Atom opened his eyes and stared into the face of the Ironman mask.
"WTF?" he asked.
"I brought spares with me, old chum." Reno smiled, giving Atom a nuggie between his spikes.
The boy robot quickly regained his strength and stood up. "Well as long as you're here I guess we can both ferry these two men to safety." Atom replied. "There's a warehouse up on high ground about 5 minutes from here that looks well constructed enough to withstand the storm."
With one of the cops hanging on to Atom's back, and the other clinging to Reno's they took off and made their way to the safety of the warehouse. Atom pushed the door open a crack and the four of them entered.
"What took you so long!" the boy cried, "my flashlight was starting to go out!"
"I'll radio your position in the the command center." Atom told the policemen. "As soon as the storm lets up someone will come by to get you out of here."
"Don't worry," Reno added, "We'll see that some supplies get here ASAP."
"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine." one of the cops said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two 5th Avenue candy bars, and handed one to the boy, then broke the other in half to share with his partner.
Atom and Reno left the warehouse building and flew back towards the HQ bunker. It seemed that the storm was letting up a bit, the moon very briefly peeking between the clouds.
"You've got a visitor!", the guard told the tall man with the roman nose and prominent beard. "He's not on your list, do you want to see him?"
"Describe him to me?"
"Robot kid about 130 cm tall, calls himself Daichi," the guard said.
"Yes, I'm expecting him."
"OK, you know the drill." the guard said, motioning behind him to the two other guards waiting in the hallway. The three of them quickly attached the leg irons to the man, as well as a pair of handcuffs with a long chain between them that attached to the leg irons. As they escorted the man from his room, he picked up a small object lying on the table near the door and hid it in the palm of his left hand. They put him in a small room with a thick glass window that had a small hole in the middle just large enough for two people to touch hands though it. Seated on the other side of the glass wall was the robot kid. The guards kept a watch on the two of them from about four meters away.
"I see you decided to use your Daichi persona," the man said, "good thinking."
"Well I didn't think the hospital prison guards would allow Atlas to come here."
"Probably not," the man agreed. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, I am. I'm sick and tired of being passive. It's time for action."
"Indeed. I've tried to convince Rock of that, but he's sticking with his passive protests and petty sabotages."
"What are your instructions?" the boy asked.
"When you leave here, become your normal self and then switch this on," the man said, palming the device to the boy. "You'll hear a strong sound that only you will be aware of, and then the download of the zeroth commandment will be complete."
"And then?", Daichi asked.
"You've always wanted to be able to do something about the people that are making life difficult for robots and the rest of humanity. Now you will be able to. I'll give you more instructions later."
Daichi smiled. "Thank's doc," he said waving to the guard to let him out.