Chapter Four: Naïve
The next night, Astro found his green eyed friend sitting on the tin roof of Hamegg's building, a small ring of stones sitting in front of her. Almost warily he sat down beside her, aware of the dark cloud surrounding her and his mind still on the previous conversation with Cora.
"You're too trusting," Lilith said, not taking her eyes off of the stones.
"What do you mean?" Astro asked, tilting his head to look dreamily into the stars.
"You're good, Toby," Astro blinked, thinking about how she was the only one to call him that any more. "But almost too good. You're honest, and brave and kind, yes; but you're terribly naïve."
Indignant, Astro tried to glare into her strangely hard, green eyes, "S'that so?" he snapped. "Gimme one example!"
Said eyes finally left the stones, seeming to search for something in his gaze. "Hamegg. How do you know he's not going to turn on you? You're a robot after all."
"Thanks for reminding me!" the boy snapped. "Besides, he's good too!"
"He's human, Toby!" Lilith snapped back. "Humans always have alternative motives, no matter how much the guy sounds like Friday's Breakfast Menu!"
After a moment of silence, Astro tilted his head to the side, holding the girl's verdant stare. "You say that like you're not human either."
Shock rounded the green orbs, before uncertainty pulled them from his own. "I'm not entirely certain anymore…" she murmured softly, hands subconsciously brushing one of the stones.
Astro took in his friend's admittedly slightly haggard appearance, noting specifically how she'd curled herself around the barrowed painting smock she'd been wearing to decorate ZOG's back with a demonic, yet colorful, face. Gently, he set his hand on her shoulder. "What do you mean?" he almost whispered.
In answer, a hand reached out, a green-blue vapor curling around artistic fingers almost comfortingly, like a hug or sympathetic squeeze. The vapor wrapped around three of the five stones and lifted them gently into the air where they started to dance and bob around each other, faster and faster until they shot away, strait through a thin piece of metal that'd been leant up against the side of a car.
"Tell me, Toby," Lilith said quietly, the teal substance dissipating. "Have you ever heard of mutants?"
Still bemused by the display, Astro nodded slowly. "They were wiped out long before Metro City though, weren't they?"
Lilith laughed humorlessly, "Oh, yes, for the 'betterment of man,' they were killed off in cold blood because of human prejudices."
Confused, Astro shook his head. "They started the wars first, didn't they?"
"Erik Lensher and the Brotherhood fought against prejudices, eventually seeing themselves as more evolved and started calling themselves Homo Superiors. But they never succeeded in killing off the human masses. Instead, the world's governments came together to enact the Purge."
"So the governments just wanted to protect their publics," Toby surmised, thinking the point conceded to him.
"They were that naïve as well, Toby," the girl murmured. "They thought that by killing off those that'd already come into their changes that they could end it there and then. But this is evolution, Toby. It doesn't stop until the species that is best and meant to live does so, even if it has to restart a few times," Lilith finished quietly, standing and making her way to the side of the roof she'd climbed up on. "Do yourself a favor, Toby," she murmured, not looking back. "Two actually. Watch your back."
"And the second?" the boy asked almost hesitantly.
"Don't be so naïve."
AB x XM
Astro POV
"I thought it was a show, not a slaughter!" I said, panicking slightly.
"They're just robots, son," Hamegg muttered.
"I thought you liked robots!" I insisted, pretending my voice didn't squeak when I spoke.
"I do," Hamegg reassured. "But at the end of the day, they're just junk waiting to happen." Seeing the doubt in my face, Hamegg smiled. "I know, some of those more advanced ones from Metro City are programmed to smile and laugh, just like us."
I glanced back, seeing surprise in Cora's face, though Lilith's stayed carefully neutral. Though she had not expected this, her visage showed no sign of surprise.
"Really?" Cora murmured.
"Oh yeah," Hamegg nodded, looking straight at me. "Unfortunately, they don't have any real emotions," Hamegg turned and reached into his coat, the movement setting me on edge. "Which is why I have no problem doing this!"
I let out a gasp of pain and surprise as the bolts of his weapon surged through my circuits, locking my joints together and making me collapse, twitching, on the stone floor.
"Bastard!" I head Lilith shout, racing to my side. She ignored Hamegg's conversation with the rest of the children in favor of gently brushing her hands over my face.
Don't be so naïve, echoed through my mind as it shut down from overload.
The last sight I was able to see was Cora standing over me and the surprisingly gratifying crunch sound of Lilith's fist crashing into Hamegg's nose before Zane pulled her away.
Third person POV
Lilith sat, scowling, in the stands, petulantly sitting as far away from the others as she could and glaring at Hamegg as he flew around the packed stadium. It was terribly tempting to knock him off his hover craft, but she had a horrible feeling that had nothing to do with Hamegg. She forcefully ignored him, breathing out just a bit of her power with each breath, so little that really only Astro would be able to see it exit her lungs with each exhale.
As Astro rose and stepped off the platform, Lilith could see confusion and distraught and pleading in his eyes as he looked to Cora. He glanced to his green eyed friend briefly, relieved to see her safe, but confused even more to see a green fog wisp from her mouth as he met her gaze. A flash of understanding went through brown eyes as he saw wisps of greenish-teal fog circling the stadium, his mind flashing to a whispered conversation the two had had on their way over.
"I've noticed," Lilith said casually, "that the energy from your core affects my powers, makes them stronger somehow; which would explain why, around you, the mist is teal instead of green…"
Fighting and fighting, with one thought in mind, escape, was all that existed for the moment, before his friend, his ZOG, rose from the ground and made the robot boy freeze. No, he thought, I won't fight him.
Lilith's POV
I tensed as ZOG stomped closer, readying myself to tighten my power and hopefully protect my friend, but something at the back of my mind whispered, not yet.
As ZOG lifted him into the air in a symbolic tie, I relaxed slightly, but not entirely. The moment the first shot was issued by Hamegg, I felt my breath leave in a whoosh, an entirely too visible cloud of fog leaving with it.
Not yet, child.
Please, I begged it, eyes burning as Hamegg shocked him over and over again. Please.
When Astro stopped ZOG from crushing the man, I cursed him softly, knowing he was too entirely good to let that happen, but sure that Hamegg deserved some punishment.
Look up, child.
I felt my heart nearly stop before beating erratically at the sight of one of Stone's airships land smack dab in the center of the arena. At least twenty men filed out, pointing guns into the crowd as warning and surrounding Astro within seconds.
President Stone himself stepped out then, shouting, "Seize the rogue robot and secure the area!"
This time I disregarded the voice entirely, wrapping my power like a net around the soldiers and hauling them high into the air. Ignoring shocked gasps and shameless stares, I stepped from the stands, making small, glowing platforms down into the arena.
Third Person POV
Astro watched, near horrified as the soldiers were pulled into the air by the familiar teal mist. He saw his friend step onto thin air, watching in awe as her eyes glowed and the loose hair floated ominously around her head at the sheer output of energy.
"Lilith, please, stop!" he pleaded. He glanced to Cora, begging for acceptance, forgiveness, anything, but an emotionless mask had covered her features. He felt his Core ache, but sighed. "It doesn't matter anymore," he said in defeat.
Glowing green eyes met his, searching for something, before dimming to their normal shade in defeat. The soldiers fell, landing relatively safely before scrambling up. One gave Astro a shove towards the ship, making him stumble slightly. He saw his friend's eyes flare up again, sending the man flying before restraints were cuffed onto the girl's wrists. As the two were led into the ship, Astro looked back pleadingly.
"I'm sorry," he called to his friends. "I tried to tell you!"
As the ship rose into the air, Stone strutted over, teasing the boy and getting knocked on his ass by a green whip of energy for his trouble.
After ten minutes of near silence, Astro looked to his friend warily. Her eyes looked wild, darting around the room, practically snarling at anything that moved.
When they landed, the two were kept to the front to prevent backhanded attacks, though neither were about to; Astro seeing no reason and Lilith for the sake of her friend.
The girl kept perfectly still as the tall man laid her friend back on the table, a mask covering her anger and sadness at the boy's surrender.
Green eyes flashed as the man handed the core to the president, fighting the urge to snap the thin man's neck when he spoke of little toys.
Sneaky, sneaky, she thought as Tenma "passed" the Core to the shorter man. The red ring that had surrounded her pupil faded as she used her power to dissolve the cuffs and subtly follow Tenma to the table.
Stone looked positively enraged as both prizes were literally whisked from his grip behind a glass wall, ripping the gun from a guard's hands to point it at the stout doctor.
At the table, Lilith confidently grinned as her friend's eyes snapped open, disregarding the father-son reunion in favor of knocking each and every soldier on their ass as her cuffs finally dissolved completely.
"Lills," Astro said confidently, holding out a hand. The girl grasped it, throwing herself on his back as he made his exit.
In the lab, Stone breathed deeply through his nose, before turning away. "Arrest them immediately, I want them shot for treason. We're gonna have to use the Peace Keeper to get the core and mutant back," he said with conviction.
"Mutant?" Tenma said incredulously.
"The first in 150 years," Stone confirmed, reaching out to grasp the red core.
"Don't use the red core!" Elefun warned. "The negative energy – we can't know how it will behave!"
"Doctor," Stone growled. "In any conflict between positive and negative energy, the negative always prevails! Look at human history; look at me!"
"My point exactly," Elefun responded dryly, silently wondering how the man learned his physics from a children's cartoon.
AB x XM
After a quick stop at Lilith's house ("You still sleep with a plush toy?" "Bite me, sparky."), the two friends flew comfortably in silence, accidently knocking a pair of robots away in their haste.
"Sorry guys," Astro said, fighting a smile.
"Ah, no," the squeeze-y bottle whined. "It's the crazy flying kid again!"
"Yeah, and this time he's got a girl with him!" the squeegee said suggestively.
Glad for once his friend couldn't understand robot, Astro rolled his eyes. (In the movie, at first the squeegee and squeeze-y bottle just whirred and buzzed, 'member?) "I'm a robot, like you!" he explained. Before he could ask what the two were doing all the way out here, Lilith tapped his shoulder and pointed back the way they'd come, unable to speak above the wind that pushed at their backs. Without another word the two took off towards Metro City, leaving a certain "Mr. Squirty" to concede his friend's point.
The duo landed on a dilapidated street, blinking as a man ran by them without so much as a glance. They turned to see the "Spirit of Freedom" round the corner to hover in front of them. "Oh, no," Toby muttered, bracing himself to run.
As the Peace Keeper rose up, Lilith pusher her friend away, using her power to wrap around the elevated street and launch herself over the side. Trusting his friend to keep herself safe, Astro began his battle with the Peace Keeper.
AB x XM
Below the now crumbling highway, Lilith was starting to doubt her plan. Her green cord held tight, but chunks of cement rained down on her, forcing her to split her power to make a shield.
"Need some help, Princess?"
Green eyes snapped open to see Cora smirking at her from a blue hover car. Lilith scowled. "Not from ya, Hermit!" the mocha-skinned girl snapped.
Blue eyes gave a roll before Zane helped pull the girl into the car.
"This doesn't mean we're friends," the mutant frowned.
"I know," Cora said dismissively, looking out the window casually. "Allies?" she asked, glancing back.
Lilith shrugged. "Something like."
AB x XM
"Cora, I have to take care of this."
"Astro, no!" Cora said pleadingly,
"Oi, rust bucket," Lilith snapped. "I'm going with ya." Without waiting for a response, the mutant grabbed the robot boy's arm and pushed them both through the open side door.
Trying a first, the girl let go, wrapping her power around herself and willing her body aloft. She joined her friend under the bulk of the city, pushing with her power to lift the massive structure. A red ring appeared around her pupil, growing until it engulfed her iris, then leaking into her power. Finally, the floating island touched ground and the girl enveloped them both in a cocoon of energy. Slowly, the cocoon spun, spear pointing and drilling faster and faster until it broke through the street, where Astro carefully laid his half-conscious friend down before taking off again.
Lilith opened her eyes slowly, taking a minute to comprehend, then panic at, the sight of the Peace Keeper pulling her friend in, wrapping her power around herself again in order to race up and catch the boy as he shot from the monster's chest, sending them both careening towards a – well –half of a building. The mutant helped her friend up, eyes going wide as Tenma appeared.
"Toby!" the man said in relief.
"Dad!" Astro said, collapsing in his father's arms.
"I don't get it," Lilith muttered. "Why didn't it absorb him?"
"Because it can't," Tenma explained, looking at her warily. He looked back to Astro. "If the red and the blue Cores come together –" he hesitated, unwilling to admit, "well, you both die."
The two friends shared a glance before Tenma continued. "Come on son," he said, throwing a glance at Lilith, "we need to get you two far away."
AB x XM
"This is it," Astro breathed, meeting his friend's, then father's gaze. "This is what I was created for. This…is my destiny."
Shaking his head, Tenma insisted, "Toby, now!"
"Sorry, but this is who I am. Onward and upward, Dad," he said, turning to go.
"Oi, brat!" Lilith snapped, smacking his shoulder. Astro didn't turn, his resolve already hardened. The girl let out a sigh, laying a hand on top of the robot boy's head. "Don't get yourself killed, 'kay?"
"…Okay," Astro said, grinning.
"Promise?"
"Promise."
AB x XM
(Skippy I know, but this is how it played out in my mind)
The explosion was beautiful in its own way, but the mutant felt tears running down her face and turned, burying her face into Tenma's shoulder. She desperately wanted her friend to live, but her own words rang out like a death bell through her mind.
Don't be so naïve.