The Inevitable

Storyline

Everyone knew it was gonna come someday. They just didn't want to think about it. A new threat is attack Metro City. Who would've guessed? Again, Astro appears to save the day... But after the threat is taken care of, Astro begins to feel strange. He is always tired and sometimes can find it hard to move... and then O'Sheay explains the problem.

Chapter 1

Punishment

Astro, Ken, and Reno were walking down the street, dotteling for the most part, not really paying attention to the world around them. They were talking about Ken's soccor game that had finished about five minutes ago, and the boys were heading for pizza and pop.

"Too bad Ambercrombie and Alejo couldn't come." Reno sighed. "They would've been cheerin' for you the whole time."

Ken laughed. "That's what happens when they don't finish a school project."

"No." Astro smiled. "That's what happens when they pair up to do a school project." The three laughed.

"Hey, Astro." Reno called over Ken's head, clearly easy because of his height and the fact he was two years older then boy nine-year-olds. "Did you ever get around to tellin' Zoran about Harley's big win the other day?"

Astro leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head. "Oops. I forgot." He chuckled.

"Nah, you didn't." He smirked, placing his hands deep into his pockets, a habit he had while talking with Astro, which made Astro feel a little intimidated, but he didn't bother telling Reno. "You just didn't wanna have to deal with a crazy, angry-happy little sister."

"Yeah, well, at least I had the choice." He said.

Ken nodded in agreement. "Yeah, some robots are still behind in the whole 'evolving into A.I and Kokoro' out there."

Astro looked at the sky and frowned. He never wanted to be programmed. He liked choices and freedom. Not that he had ever really experianced absolutly no control of himself, having to do everything he was told, whether he liked it or not, but he didn't like the idea of being a slave to whoever programmed him to do so.

He tilted his head in thought. He was really glad O'Sheay had found him, rather then someone like Skunk and told the reverse way of things, having to have been tricked then killed sometime later, or programmed to do as they said. He always had that little stroke of luck when it came to little troubles or close calls like those.

"Astro?" Astro looked at Reno and Ken, who were staring at him in worry.

"Hm? Oh, sorry." He quickly apologized. "I was thinking."

Ken relaxed. "Oh, yeah, we totally couldn't tell." He said with sarcasim.

"Astro. Relax. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. You aren't going to die, we aren't going to let you!" Astro smiled.

"Good, cause neither will I." He claimed. Ken chuckled.

"You better. I's be upset if anything happened to you.."

Astro rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah. Most powerful robot in the world is going to be taken down by a simple ripped wire."

Reno raised his eyerbows. "Did you forget who defeated the largest robot in the world? A tiny little package with enough pack in a punch can take anything down. Big things come in small packages, Astro. Look at yourself for an example."

Astro smirked. "Hey, I ain't getting any bigger."

"Or smaller." Ken reminded. The boys laughed.

"You're wrong." Boomed a voice from behind. Astro spun on one heel to turn around, but was too slow, even for his incredible speed, and was forced into a pole a few blocks down the street.

"Astro!" Ken and Reno cried in union and ran to their stunned friend.

Astro got to his feet and stanced. "Oh, yay. A hero just never gets a day off." He mumbled.

(WARNING: Battle scenes are not my best, but I'll try!)

He sized up his opponet. He was large, at least seven feet. About as tall as Pluto, maybe smaller.

Astro blinked. "Scanning." He looked as his opponet up and down. He blinked again. "Who are you!" He demanded.

"I... am... Itami!" The giant bellowed.

"And I am Kousen." A female, who looked no more then 20 with an deep, strong voice landed beside Itami. "We both are here to destory all robots."

Astro's head turned to the right in confusion. "But aren't you robot, too?" He questioned, noticing that Kousen had actually flown three seconds ago.

"Yes, but we don't like those with Kokoro. It makes them weak." Kousen hissed. "We want to rule the word with robots, but some with Kokoro and A.I are against the idea. So, we are going to take down all robots who stand against us."

"Hate to interupt you're... little speech or whatever, but I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Astro spoke confidently. "And there's no need to continue you're speech, I've heard it at least a million times, so, if you don't mind, I'm going to take you down right now."

Kousen laughed. "Yes. Even if you were lucky enough to surpass me, you cannot defeat Itami, a robot with five million horse power." Astro stepped back a stride.

Reno's choked. "That's fifty times Astro's!" Ken turned to face Reno.

"Is that bad!" He asked, a hints of dread and hope in his voice: dread for the answer yes, hope for the answer no.

"Astro! You don't stand a chance!" Reno called out. "Make a run for it!"

Astro didn't need to be told twice. He whipped around and blasted his rockets, full speed up to the sky. Reno's right. He thought. I'm going to die if I stay and fight.

He saw something begin to form in front of him and he forced himself to a stop. Twenty feet ahead of him was Itami. Astro began to feel an emotion he wasn't used to feeling. He couldn't explain it. He had felt it before in times of great danger, but this was overwhelming.

Small noises escaped from his mouth and he began to quake. How was he gonna beat this guy? This was like fighting Archeron all over again! He only got lucky in that battle against Archeron and Pluto. Pluto had refused to fight and Archeron had appeared. Pluto could've let Archeron kill Astro, but at the last second, Pluto grabbed Archeron and threw him into the volcano, at the cost of his own life.

Yes, Pluto was living once again, thanks to Shadow and the Blue Knight who had rebuilt him to add him to the Robotonia Armies against humans. Pluto and Atlas decided to stay with Astro to defend Earth...

Astro snapped back into reality and backed away as slowly and as unnoticably as possible. Suddenly, Itami was in front of him, Astro staring right into his chest plate, then looked up at his face. He gasped before he could even see the blur of Itami's fist collide with Astro's face, hurling him towards Earth at a great speed.

But Itami still had speed leftover. He raced down past Astro then stopped, bringing his knee up into Astro's back (famous DBZ move). The force of the punch and gravity against the force of Itami's knee ripped many circuts on the inside of Astro's body, causing a deafening scream of excruciating torture to be released.

Astro rolled off the tyrants knee, Itami grabbing the collar of his shirt and holding Astro in front of his face. Astro hung lifelessly at the mercy of the enemy... until he tightened his eyes, then opened them. "You have some bravery to open those beautiful brown eyes of yours, Astro Boy." Kousen laughed, approching the captured boy and the large evil man.

Itami looked at Kousen in annoyance, then back at Astro, hatred in eyes. Astro stared back, eyes filled of fear. Itami pulled his fist back and thrusted it foreward into Astro's stomach. He repeated the action continueously against him.

"O'Sheay!" She cried, sprinting into the office. "Doctor O'Sheay!" She burst into the office and ran to the desk.

"Yuko? Is something wrong?" O'Sheay asked, standing up from his chair. Yuko nodded.

"Turn on channel 24!" She demanded. O'Sheay obeyed and gasped at what he saw. A giant man beating on a poor boy. "Astro!" He turned and pressed a button on the speaker. "Send Atlas up here right now!" He yelled. He turned back to the t.v. "I hope it's not too late."

Ken's eyes were closed and his ears were covered, unable to continue watching his friend get hurt. Reno's fists were clenched in worry. Why wasn't Astro fighting back?

He pulled the fist back and continued to throw rapid punches, hitting Astro either in the face or the stomach, not once releasing his grip on his shirt. Astro let out gasps and cries of pain and fear with each attack apon his body.

Long moments passed... and Itami pulled a punch but didn't throw it. Instead, he put his fist down, and stared at the unconscious Astro. "If that is all you can give me, then you aren't worth my time." Itami released Astro's shirt and allowed the boy to fall to the ground by gravity's force.

Astro hit the ground left shoulder first, landing on his side, motionless.

Itami stared down at Astro, before announcing, "Next time we meet, Astro Boy, you will not be so lucky." Then turned and flew away with Kousen.

Everyone gathered around the beaten robot.

At that time, Atlas had appeared just to see Kousen and Itami fly off. He growled.

Ken and Reno made their way to the front. "Astro!" They cried in union. Atlas turned to see Astro lying unconscious on the ground, surrounded by humans. Reno lied Astro on his back. He landed by Astro's side and lifted Astro's head off the ground, into his arms. Reno opened the panel. Ken yelped when a small explosion in Astro's system erupted and smoke began to rise. Reno shut the panel and shook his head.

"He needs some serious fixing up. Could take days." Reno muttered sadly. "The sooner we get him back to the Ministry of Science, the better."