Chapter Two – An Unusual Assignment

The morning light poured in on Astro as he lay in his bed, dreaming whatever robots dream about. He slowly opened his eyes, focusing on the person who sat waiting at the end of his bed.

"Dad!" Astro cried, and he leapt up to hug his father.

"Good morning, Astro! I'm sorry I've been gone for a while. How are you?" Dr Tenma asked, hugging his robotic son back.

"I'm good, and I know you have important business to take care of at the Ministry. Speaking of which, what was it you had to do?"

"I'm glad you brought that up. Elefun and I received an important call a few days ago about something the ISRB discovered."

"ISRB?"

"The Intergalactic Science Research Base."

"Cool!"

"Yes, and they specifically asked me to bring you along to the base."

"Wait what?!"

"I'm not sure what exactly it is they found, but they need you to assist them with some apparent difficulties they are experiencing."

"Ok, I guess. Where about is the ISRB?"

"It's on a remote island several miles away from Metro City."

"Wow! I'll actually be going overseas!"

Dr Tenma nodded with a smile and instructed Astro to get ready. When he left the room, the young robot raced over to his wardrobe and began looking through his clothes. Last night he slept with just his black shorts and red boots that were a part of him. Just another disadvantage of being a robot, he thought with a sigh. He picked out a black t-shirt with a blue stripe pattern down the side and his ordinary blue-grey jeans. Before he closed his wardrobe, he glanced over at the red hat that was lying on the bottom and sighed. He flashbacked to the day that Dr Tenma had told him to go to his room after he said that he didn't even like the hat. He shut the wardrobe door shut and walked out to the kitchen where he found his father eating breakfast.

"Good morning, Astro. Did you sleep well?"

"Morning, Orrin! Yeah, I slept fine," Astro replied with a smile.

Dr Tenma put his spoon to rest in his empty cereal bowl and asked Astro if he was ready.

"Yes, sir!" Astro cried.

"Alright then, let's get going," Dr Tenma replied.

Astro gasped in amazement when he set foot outside the plane that had taken his father and him to the ISRB. The island was flourishing with greenery, which surprised Astro since this was a research base. Beyond the trees and bushes he spotted the ISRB itself in all its glory. It was a humongous dome-looking building with other smaller buildings connected to it by what seemed like gigantic glass walkways. Before his father could even say anything, Astro began racing over to the entrance on foot and waited for the tour guide that was going to lead Astro and his father around the research areas.

"Didn't I ever tell you to not rush ahead?" asked Dr Tenma once he had caught up with Astro.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself," the young robot boy replied.

The large glass doors to the entrance slid open and out stepped the tour guide, who was wearing what looked to be some kind of greyish-brownish uniform.

"Welcome to the ISRB, Astro, Dr Tenma," he said with a smile.

Astro was practically bouncing up and down in excitement; he couldn't wait to see what kind of cool gadgets and machines were inside. The tour guide allowed them through the doors and led them towards the centre of the reception room. The rounded metallic walls were lined with incredible and unusual displays that were found from many different parts of space.

"Alright, now we will be moving onto the first research floor. If you would please make your way to the doors over here then we can proceed," said the tour guide again.

He led them into a large elevator that reached every level of the main building and motioned them inside. Once it had reached their destined floor they were greeted by the head of the project that Astro had been assigned to.

"Ah, so you're the famous Astro! My name is Dr Collards, and I'll be in charge of your assignment," said a tall man in the typical white lab coat. He had brown hair with small hints of blonde and he had dark green eyes that looked almost black.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself that famous," replied Astro, rubbing the back of his neck and shrugging his shoulders.

"Don't you know that you're starting to make headlines worldwide now?"

"I am?!"

"Of course you are!"

"Whoa… Anyway, what's the task I've been assigned?"

"Ah, yes. Follow me, I'll explain while we walk."

Astro remained beside Dr Collards as he made his way past a lot of meteor remains that were being carefully studied. Dr Tenma stayed with the tour guide to see the rest of the building.

"A few weeks ago we discovered something from the far corners of space. At first we believed it to be an alien, but resent studies show signs of human DNA. Many tutors have been assigned to teach and look after her, but none have been very successful."

"Her?"

"Yes, you'll understand everything a lot clearer once you meet her. We've been trying to get her to tell us what happened to her before we found her, but all we got out of her was her name and some of her personality traits. Her name is Aurora, and she's the same age as you too."

"And I've been assigned as her next tutor?"

"Correct. Knowing your kindness, we are hoping that you'll be able to get her to open up about her past. There's just one other problem with you being her tutor, though…"

"What's that?"

"Well…it's the fact that you're a robot."

They stopped at another set of doors that led to a smaller room, and from inside Astro could hear voices.

"Will she know me?"

"I'm afraid not. She refuses to watch the news or anything from the outside world."

"Why not?"

"She says she's afraid, we don't know why, though."

"So, what's the problem with me being a robot?"

"She doesn't exactly like robots so much, and that's the thing we would like to know most about."

The voices from inside the room went quiet, and a stern-looking woman exited in a huff. Dr Collards spoke softly to someone else in the room who was purposely staying out of sight.

"Come on out, Aurora. Your new tutor, Astro, is here."

A young female voice cried back in defence.

"No, he'll only laugh like all the other tutors!"

Since he was her new tutor, Astro decided to try and get her to come out himself.

"Why would I laugh at you?"

"You haven't told him much about me, have you, Doctor?" she spoke to Dr Collards.

"No, I thought it might be best if he sees for himself rather than me telling him."

"I won't laugh, I promise! I'm sure we'll get along really well," Astro said, hoping to make whoever was hiding feel better.

The girl sighed, placed a foot in sight and gradually stepped into view. Astro continued speaking to make her feel more confident.

"After all, we're both the same age and I'm a really nice p-tg-uh…" he stuttered and began blushing furiously when he saw her face. She had long, dark brown hair that reached down to her hips and she had a long fringe that was gracefully brushed upwards out of her face. She also had stunning emerald green eyes and she stood at the same height as Astro. But the one thing that Astro was most amazed by was the fact that she had large bat ears the same colour as her hair and she had a pair of dark grey bat wings on her back, too. She even had a tiny tail to match. Astro shook his head and did his best not to stare – not out of bewilderment by her features, but in amazement of her beauty.

"I'm a bat cross-species, alright?" she said unexpectedly.

Wow, Astro thought.

"Now, since Astro here is a robot he'll be able to-"

"WHAT?! YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT A ROBOT BEING MY TUTOR!" she yelled, and stepped back from Astro in fear.

"Calm down, he's not what you think."

"I don't care! They're all the same and there's no changing that!"

Astro stepped forward and tried to calm her down.

"Aurora, I won't hurt you, I promise."

Her eyes widened in pure terror and she stepped back until she was up against the wall.

"Stay away from me!"

She ran past Astro and kept running until she was out of sight.

"AURORA!" Astro called after her, but he got no response.

"Follow her, Astro. We need to find out why she's so afraid of robots," Dr Collards instructed Astro. The robot nodded in response and ran after the runaway bat cross-species.