Astro

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, but I do own everything else that I made up in MY mind.

To better understand Astro, a highly complex computer virus, you need to understand how he works and his kind's history.

Computer viruses as powerful as Astro are usually formed by countless years of research done by obsessed scientists. Astro, however, was formed by his "parents", a computer virus and a warfare system specializing in missiles. The two programs wanted to pass themselves on somehow. They made a copy of half of them and fused the two halves together. This formed a computer virus especially skilled in missiles, which immediately started off in the huge cyber world. Astro's parents were quite pleased, but they had the forethought to make another copy in case the first didn't survive. Therefore Astro was "born".

Astro's "parents" were "killed". In other words, they lost self-consciousness and are still floating out there somewhere. Theoretically, self-sustaining programs can live forever, but then they would have to be very careful and never take any risks. For most systems equipped with AI, that is absolutely despicable. Most are eventually disabled while pulling something. This was the case for Astro's parents, who by this time had split up and gone their own ways.

Astro and his brother became rivals through a series of unfortunate events, and vowed to kill each other when the time was right. Astro's brother became immersed in crime, and was associated with a mad computer scientist intent on taking over the world by way of the Internet. (Those type of guys always have to show up sometime.) The insane scientist updated Astro's brother and gave him exclusive features.

After 3 years of steadily working together with Astro's brother, the man was found dead by the police in front of his computer. The case was never solved, and the police were always puzzled by why he had been murdered while he was checking an e-mail from an untraceable sender. (Hint, hint)

Astro spent who knows how long simply downloading info, from what an airplane was, to how to fly one, to how to build one, to how to render it useless. You get the idea. He especially wanted to be material, and committed himself to learning how to build himself a body. He tried many virtual experiments, and finally managed to learn how to manipulate atoms enough to create a living, working body. The downfall was that he could be killed if he was dealt a fatal blow while stationed in a body. However, he was too eager to care. You see, he could download all of the human knowledge plus much, much more from the Net, and was extremely knowledgeable, but, at the same time, he was extremely naïve and had no wisdom. He suddenly appeared in Makai one day, and that was the beginning of a great crime career.

He soon found that it wasn't easy to sustain his hunger and survive at the same time. Often, he had to revert back to his cyber form to avoid being killed off.

After time, his wisdom grew and he learned many attacks. He found out how to switch forms while materialized, but it took at least four minutes to do the process right. He created an extensive knowledge of cyber-cytology and became probably the most learned being ever on the subject. Then, he met Kai.

To get Kai's personality a little better, you must find out for yourself. Anyway, Astro met Kai one day by them having a common enemy. (This was happening when Kai was still in dragon form.) They successfully defeated their opponent and ignored each other. But they both kept having the same enemies and bumping into each other, so they learned a lot about each other. They both noticed that they had many of the same ideals. They started to talk to each other, and little by little, they became strong allies bordering on friends.

Suddenly, Kai disappeared (to Ningenkai) and Astro was left alone. He fended for himself, but he realized that Kai was a big part of his routines and his life. Although he wouldn't admit it, he missed her, but there was nothing he could do because he had no idea whatsoever where Kai was.

He went on with life, started to exploit crime in Ningenkai, and discovered what Kai's predicament was: she was stuck in a human body. He thought he knew how to change her form permanently back, but didn't want to risk it on her because he now realized that he loved her. Kai thought of him only as a friend, but that didn't deter him. He thought that he could eventually win her over.

Soon after, the pair joined the Wraiths and gained their deep blue cloaks. (More information on the Wraith organization will be written eventually…) They managed to barely pass on to level red. There, they were closer to death than ever before in the history of their companionship. That's when they created the rule of always leaving the other behind, no matter what. They passed on to green with Astro feeling regret at having agreed to leave Kai behind if ever necessary. Finally, they were faced with a challenge that they would have to face separately and alone: the pass to black. Astro passed first, in a close fight that he almost lost because he didn't want to leave Kai behind in green.

Five months later, Kai faced another rogue dragon whom she had gotten off with just being banished from the kingdom when he would have been punished with death (if not for her). He, a black coat, blamed her for his misfortune and walked away shamefully after losing the fight, vowing that the next time that they met, they would fight to the death.

Kai was promoted to black: the highest possible. Only four members of the Wraiths were ever black-coats at one time; and that number never changed. Currently, it was Kai, Astro, Ummei, and Shukumei. Ummei and Shukumei were albino cousins that had amazing psychic abilities, among which were telekinesis, telepathy, the ability to make people remember their worst memories (their most potent of attacks), and a few others.

They all adopted the code of leaving others behind, and made some gigantic changes to the Wraith gang. They made it appear to die out, when in fact it was quickly gaining members. They didn't accept C-class or lower beings, and B-classes were just there for bait. It was turned into a revenge corporation. When enrolled, the only things you knew about others and others knew about you was whom you wanted dead. Therefore, if (more like when) you died, your victim would be killed for you. The Wraiths was only for hard-core, high-level people who were beyond living and carried on each day just to kill someone. Another adaptation made was that you had to almost not care what happened to you. You shelved your pride when you joined the Wraiths. And it was headed by some of the most deadly, unfeeling people existing.

The Wraiths quickly prospered, and its members only stole to provide funding for the more costly assassinations. For food, they mostly scavenged the bodies of their dead targets. It was a machine of horror.

Then, Team Urameshi came along. This started a new era for the Wraiths, which is continued in "Year of the Dragon".

A/N: I'm really sorry, but it will probably take forever to get Year of the Dragon out. I will be rejuvenated if you review…