The next chapter of my fanfic!

Chapter 4

I sat in the curve of a branch in a tree next to the road. I was looking inside my hands, after I had figured out that if I concentrated hard enough, I could. So, I just that meant that I had x-ray vision, too. "It's true…" I murmured to myself, staring into my hands. I turned my hand around, seeing all the machinery piled into it. "Well…if I'm a robot, then how come I can cry? And be happy? Robots can't have emotions…can they?"

It was nighttime, and I felt guilty for not returning to Andy's house or my own. They were all going to be worried sick about me, if Andy's parents told my parents that I had gone missing after their roof imploded and disappeared.

"Toby! Toby, where are you?"

I jumped at the voice, turning off my x-ray vision. I looked down from the tree to see flashlight beams shining through the weeds in the field. Andy and his parents were walking around, searching for me. Well, at least they cared…unlike Ed.

I angrily stood up and snapped off a thick branch above my head, grunting with anger. I threw it on the ground below me and growled. I guess I had just figured out I had super strength, too.

"What was that?" Andy's Mom whispered in fear. I could hear her even though she was sort of still far away. The flashlight beams came closer, bobbing every which way, so I figured that they were running towards the noise. The weeds parted and I saw Andy and his Mom and his Dad each holding a flashlight. They pointed them at the branch on the ground. "Where did this come from?" his Mom murmured.

I sat back down on the branch quietly. I really didn't want them to find me. I still wanted to think about what I was just told. "You're a robot replica…Toby died…you're not really Toby…" Ed's voice rang in my head and I grabbed my head to make it stop.

Andy apparently knew that it was a branch and it came from a tree, so he shined his flashlight up into the tree. I drew up my hand to cover my eyes from the light beam, but I still saw the surprise and relief on Andy's face.

"Toby!" he exclaimed when he saw me. "You're alive!"

His parents shined their beams on me as well, and sighed with relief. "Toby, come down here, please," Andy's Dad said.

I jumped down from the branch, trying not to show that it didn't hurt when I did, because I was really high up in that tree. I stumbled a little for effect, because I didn't want them to know it didn't hurt me. "Yeah, obviously," I said as I stood up again.

Andy dropped his flashlight and ran over to me, hugging me. "You have to tell me everything that happened!" He pulled back and stepped back a step, clearing his throat with embarrassment. "But, um…yeah. It's good that you're alive, buddy." Andy's Mom giggled.

I sighed and stepped over to Andy's parents. "Are you still staying at your house?" I asked. "The roof came off when it took me with it."

Andy's mouth opened to say something, probably, 'Oh, my God, the roof took you with it?' but his Mom beat him to the talking. 'We're staying at a tornado shelter close to Mt. Sofia," she told me, putting her hand around my shoulders. "But we're just glad we found you. Your mother was worried sick about you."

I shrugged her hand off, but apparently she didn't notice. "Yeah." I fake laughed and looked at the ground. "I would be, too…" I looked up into the sky and saw that the sky was covered with clouds, but they weren't normally colored clouds. They were more of a greenish color.

Andy followed my gaze as we began walking towards the shelter. "You see them, too?" he whispered. I nodded and he continued again, looking at me. "I don't know what's wrong with them, but the police are looking into it." His eyes glowed in the dark as he beamed at me. "But seriously, you have to tell me everything that happened to you."

"I will, but not right now," I said. He looked hurt, so I added, "At the shelter, I will, okay?"

He nodded and we continued towards Mt. Sofia's shelter. I looked up towards the top of Mt. Sofia and noticed that that, too, was covered in those same murky green clouds. "That's odd…" I muttered.

"What is?" Andy asked, looking back over at me.

"The top of Mt. Sofia is shrouded in those strange clouds…" I blinked as I realized something. "Dude, Andy, I don't think those are real clouds."

He blinked at me in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Clouds shouldn't be that low. Mt. Sofia is really high up, but not that high. Just the other day I was looking at it, and the clouds were way above it."

Andy nodded slowly, having it all sink in. "I was actually thinking the same thing," he answered. "I think those are pollution clouds, actually."

"Pollution?" I echoed.

Andy's Mom shushed us as we came up to the building. "Be quiet now. You don't want everyone freaking out."

We entered the building, all turning off the flashlights. I looked around and saw that (literally) everyone in Metro City was in there (except maybe a couple people). I wonder if my parents are here? I blinked and looked at the ground. No, not my parents… Robots don't have parents.

Andy and his parents led me over to an area bordered off with red tape that said, 'Devon Family' in white on the tape. There were five beds for all of us. Robbie was already in one, sleeping and snoring loudly. I guessed that Andy's parents told the people that ran this place that there were five people in the family so I could have a bed, too.

Andy's Dad put his hands on my shoulders. "We've already contacted your parents. Your mother said that she had to go to a meeting and wouldn't be back until the day after tomorrow, and your father is out on a business trip. He won't be back until the same day, either, so you're going to have to stay here."

I nodded and he walked off with Andy's Mom. Andy and I sat on the beds as news bulletin music rang out all around us. The conversations in the building died down and the TV was the only thing you could hear. I watched as Jeff Cavanaugh came on the TV screen.

"This is Jeff Cavanaugh reporting to you live from in front of the Metro City Hall Shelter. Just looking at some of the damage this tornado has left just leaves me breathless. Even our studio is beyond repair." He chuckled a little, and then the screen turned to Mt. Sofia. "This has just been reported. The scientists at SLA have just confirmed that our city is, in fact, polluted beyond belief. The police are working with the SLA to figure out a solution for all of this. The toxic clouds will be predicted to touch down to the ground and cover our air we breathe in two days time. We will report back to you at the later."

The conversations began again, some people wailing and some people crying and shouting. It hurt my head just to try and figure out what some of the people were saying. I turned around to find Andy right in my face. "Oh—hi," I said, surprised.

"Toby, you know that if you'd never heard that tornado coming, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be alive, you know?" He gazed into my eyes.

I nodded and looked away nervously.

"Why can you suddenly hear things far away?" he asked. "I really don't understand. And ever since Friday, you've been acting strangely. And ever since the tornado happened, you've been acting even more strange."

I looked back up at Andy, concern on his face. I motioned for him to sit closer to me. He obliged and sat closer to me, leaning in close to my face with his ear. "What?"

"You promise not to tell anyone?" I asked, and he leaned out and looked me in the eye.

He nodded and held up his right hand. "I swear I won't tell anyone, Toby."

I sighed and spilled it out. "When I got picked up from the tornado…I almost died, and…" I sighed, looking into Andy's eyes. "Suddenly, the tornado just went 'poof', and it disappeared. I was falling to the Earth, and then I was bracing for the impact, but it never came. I looked down and saw that my boots," I said, pointing to my boots, "were on fire…only they weren't on fire, cause I was hovering in the air."

"Wait," Andy cut me off. "So you're saying that not only can you hear things far away, but you can fly, too?"

"Shh!" I hissed, holding my finger to my mouth. "Be quiet!"

He hesitated and watched me as I began to speak again. "I can fly, hear things far away, and I have…x-ray vision and super strength now, too."

"Are you like one of those people in the old myths and legends that, like, get bitten by some radioactive animal, or something, and then gets superpowers?" Andy asked.

"No, but listen, Andy—"

"I don't get it, though!" he interrupted, throwing his hands in the air. People looked back at us, and he quieted down. Robbie snorted a little bit, and we held our breath as we thought he was going to wake up, but he didn't, and he continued snoring.

"What don't you get about it?" I whispered.

He scoffed at me. "How can you do all these things if you're not a superhero?" He looked at me with a very confused look. "I've known you since kindergarten, and you've never done any of this," he paused, sweeping out his arm to indicate something big, "before!"

I sighed and looked down and away. "Andy…I'm not the real…" I paused, squeezing the bridge of my nose, squinting my eyes shut. "I'm not…" I stopped again and looked back up at Andy, sighing once more. "I'm not Toby."

He raised an eyebrow, clearly confused at what I just told him. "What? Of course you're Toby."

I shook my head. "No, Andy, you don't understand, and clearly…I don't either!" People looked back at us again, and then I lowered my voice. "The real Toby you knew…died, and I'm a… I'm a robot replica of Toby…" I looked down at my feet, and looked back up at Andy.

He laughed. "Good one, Toby! That made my day."

I stood up angrily, my fists balling up at my sides. "No, Andy. I'm serious. I'm not Toby. The real Toby died, but I don't know when. I'm a robot!" I whisper-hissed the last word.

Andy stared at me with wide eyes, letting it all sink in. "When did you… When did you find out?"

"After I learned I could fly, I went to the SLA and Ed told me I was a robot." I sat back down on the bed, leaning on my legs with my arms. "I didn't want to believe it, but he made me believe it…"

I felt the bed shift beside me, and I looked up to see Andy had stood up. And then I heard yelling outside the building. Not the bad kind, but the kind of joyous yelling. Everyone in the shelter got up and ran outside to see what all the commotion was about. Amazingly, Robbie was still asleep in the bed next to us.

Andy followed the group and I followed Andy outside. I saw a cheering group of people gathered around the SLA scientists and some of the police officers, with maybe a dozen or so reporters, too. "What's going on?" I asked Andy.

He shrugged half-heartedly. "Beats me."

I sighed and turned to listen to the conversation that began. "Yes, we have a solution to the pollution problem," Ed explained to the reporters and citizens, but mostly just to the reporters. "We have come up with a plan."

"What is this plan?" a reporter asked that I recognized as the lady from the seven o'clock news, Tracy Roberts.

"We are going to soar to new heights."

Murmurs of confusion swept through the crowd and I blinked with confusion. Soar to new heights? I don't get it. What's he planning?

"What do you mean?" someone else from the group asked.

Ed answered with the craziest answer I could ever think was the craziest answer someone could ever give. "We will make Metro City fly into the sky." Conversations struck through the crowd at this statement, but he continued talking. "We are going to dig tunnels under the city, which will take about two days time, enough time to allow us to get everything situated before the cloud gets here. Then, we are going to attach hover boxes—about one hundred of them—to the bottom of the city to make it fly."

More questions broke out among the people gathered, mostly the reporters, though. I looked over at Andy, but I saw that he wasn't there. He was parting his way through the crowd towards the building. I followed him, and brushed by Robbie on my way in. He was finally awake, I guessed, wanting to see what was going on. "Andy, wait!" I shouted over the loudness outside.

Andy turned his head a little to see who It was while he sat down on his bed. "What do you want?"

I sat down next to him, my mouth wide open. "What the—? I didn't do anything to you! I didn't choose this path for me!" I paused and thought for a split-second. "I didn't choose whether or not I wanted to be here. I didn't want the real Toby to die for me."

He glared at me. "I know you didn't do anything wrong, but I just wish I could know what happened to Toby…" He looked at the ground. "We were friends since—"

"Kindergarten," I finished for him, and he looked up at me. "I know. I know everything the real Toby knew. I'm still Toby," I reassured him, "but yet…I'm not really him, huh?"

Andy shook his head. "No. You're not Toby. You may look like him, sound like him, and act like him, but you're not him." He sighed. "Now I know what really was different about you. You're a robot… I don't even know if I still want to call you Toby!"

I looked out the door to the building. The crowd was still there, cheering for the SLA and the police. I sighed, turning back to Andy. "Think of a name, then," I told him.

"I don't even know if everyone will…" He broke off, looking at me.

"Go ahead," I said, throwing my hands in the air and bringing them back down again. "Go ahead. Tell everyone what I am." I suddenly found that the floor was very interesting. "It doesn't matter anymore…" I felt a hand resting on my shoulder and looked up to see Andy smiling at me.

"I won't tell anyone that you're a robot." He looked over at a poster that was covered with stars and planets. "And I think I know what to call you."

"Well?" I asked Andy. "What is it?"

He turned to me and stood up, his hand still on my shoulder. "You may not be Toby, but you're still my best friend…Astro."

I nodded and smiled. "Astro, huh? Yeah…I like it. It's modern; a little space-age." We laughed together and looked up as the people of Metro City began filing in the doors.

"You won't say anything?" I asked him, standing up, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"I promise," he said, smiling.

As everyone got situated in the building, it was time for me to sleep (but I didn't even know if robots could do that, but apparently I can, because I did it the night before). Andy and I crawled into our makeshift beds and fell asleep.