Intense light. Great peace.

Where am I?

Be patient; you will be returning in a moment.

Please, I want to stay here.

You must go; there are things you have to do.

Who are you, sir?

You will learn that in due time.

{Initiate (centre)}

I've got things I've got to do?

Astro opened his eyes, and his three favourite people were standing over him. "Dad! Cora!" Doctor Elefun was there too, beaming joyfully.

Astro sat up and glanced around anxiously. "What happened?" He looked at his father. "Is the Peacekeeper gone?"

Tenma nodded, and Astro grabbed him in a big hug. Then it hit him, and he pulled back. "How am I still ...?"

Everyone turned to Zog, looming over a cherry tree fittingly in full spring bloom, and it tapped its chest—the blue energy! Zog had shared its energy to bring him back, just as he had brought it to life. Astro ran over and leaned against it. "Thank you, Zog."

Zog nodded and said, "No biggy."

Trashcan, the twins, Zane and Cora ran over to Astro. Zane slapped him on the back and grinned; Sludge punched him in the shoulder, then yelped and shook his hand in pain; Widget smiled bashfully at him, and he patted her shoulder; and Trashcan ran around everyone, barking joyfully.

Cora held back, and Astro stepped over to her hesitantly. She gave a nervous half grin and said, "Hey, non-kid."

"Hey, yourself," he said, then sighed. "Sorry I didn't tell you I was a robot."

"That's okay, but why didn't you? I mean, we were friends and all."

"I-I know, but you're a robot hunter. I didn't dare."

Her jaw dropped, and she slapped her hand to her mouth. "I'm so stupid! I never thought of that."

"No problem," he said, and spread his arms in forgiveness.

She grabbed him and hugged him fiercely for a moment. "Thanks," she whispered, then let go.

Astro gazed at her and wondered if he would ever again share a moment with anybody like the one with her on the hood of Hamegg's car. Probably not, he thought grimly: she had opened up to his imitation humanity.

He looked around to see that they were in the middle of a field not far from Metro City, which sat slightly askew on the ground. "How did you guys find me here?"

She pointed at the car. "We flew all around the city five times looking for you after the Peacekeeper was destroyed, and then we spotted Zog standing over you here."

"We've been here for a while," said Zane. "Man, it was like at a funeral. Your dad showed up a couple of minutes ago. That short fat guy with him figured out to have Zog zap you. It's so cool you're back."

"No kidding," Astro said. "But I think this dying thing is getting seriously old. I hope I don't have to do it again soon." The kids laughed at that, and then Tenma caught his eye. "Gotta go," he said, and went over to his father.

Tenma smiled. "Welcome back, son."

"It's good to be back, sir." And he meant it.

His father stared away into the distance. "So like Toby, and yet so not Toby. I'm glad you took a new name ... Astro." He said the name as if trying it on for size. "It will give me a chance to ..." He stopped.

Astro touched his arm. "I understand. And I'll try to be a good Astro for you, Dad."

His father stared at him for a moment, then turned and walked purposefully toward the cherry tree as if to be alone.

Elefun took Astro's hand. "I think you've finally found your place in the world. You're a hero; a robot with the heart of a lion."

Astro smiled wanly. "I don't like being a hero: It hurts too much. I think I'll find something a little less exciting to do for a while." He glanced over at the fallen city. "You think they'll need any help cleaning up?"

Sobering, Elefun said, "They've started the search for casualties. Several hundred have already been found dead. And half the buildings have suffered some degree of structural damage, not to mention the power station."

"Oh, no." Astro sagged to his knees. "All because of this stupid blue core. I wish it had never been made."

"Don't. If it hadn't been this, it would have been something else."

"Like President Stone's war with the surface?"

"Yes." Elefun knelt down in front of Astro. "Like the war with the surface. Metro City desperately needed waking up. It has gotten too comfortable, too rich. This disaster is just what was required."

"I don't understand." Astro looked at Elefun pleadingly. "Metro City wasn't good?"

The old scientist put his hand on Astro's shoulder and stiffly pushed himself up. "You have much to learn. It's a good thing you have the appearance of a child; people won't mind explaining things to you. Just take your time."

Astro stood up. "Sure. But they do need help, right?"

"I'll take you to someone in the morning, and he'll assign you a suitable task."

Tenma came over and said, "I think it's time to go, son."

Astro looked over at Cora and the others. "What about them?"

"I don't know. Do you have any idea who's responsible for them?"

"Probably Hamegg." Tenma's eyebrows went up at the name, but he didn't say anything. Astro continued, "They've been living at his place for a while, I guess." He turned. "I'll go check."

"What's happening?" asked Cora when he got close.

"I'll be going home with Dad in a minute," said Astro. "You guys going to be okay?"

She shrugged and looked at the ground. "I guess we'll go with Zog back to Hamegg, if he'll take us, because we've got nowhere else to stay. I'm going to start searching for my parents tomorrow, now that it's easy to get into the city."

"Okay," Astro said, and thought grimly of the casualties. "I'm sure they're fine."

"Y-yeah." She turned her back to him. "Look after yourself," she said and almost ran to the car.

When she shut the door, something in his heart broke: he stood utterly alone on a great divide; he was too human to truly be a robot; but his humanity was only skin deep. There was nowhere that he truly fit in. He clenched his fists. He had things to do. He would have to accept where he was at and move on.

His father and Dr. Elefun had gotten into the car, so he trotted over and got in. "Where's Arn?" he asked when he realized that Tenma was sitting in the driver's seat.

"I gave him the day off," his father said as he started to drive. "I've decided to be kinder to my robots, to set a good example to the people of Metro City."

Astro gave a discrete sigh. What was Dad up to now?

O_rrin wasn't at the door to greet them when they got in, which kind of bothered Astro, but on his way to his bedroom to 'compile and archive', he found the robot already parked in its recharge station, shut off for the night.

In the morning, Astro passed through the living room on his way to meet Dr. Elefun, and he overheard his father talking on the video phone to somebody he didn't recognize, though the man looked important.

"... and they still haven't been able to locate the president. As far as I have been able to determine, you and Doctor Elefun are some of the last people to have seen him. Do you know anything?"

"This is going to sound very odd," said Tenma, "but he was absorbed by the Peacekeeper right before it began its rampage."

Astro froze. He had been battling the president? So that's why the Peacekeeper had talked like that! But that also meant—he stumbled forward a step at the implication—he must have killed President Stone.

"Odd indeed," said the stranger. "What on earth do you mean?"

"I built the Peacekeeper with a very powerful adaptive technology, which permitted it to absorb almost anything and use it." He shook his head. "I never imagined that it would have been able to absorb a human."

"Then I suppose that we must presume him lost in that final blast."

"I would reluctantly have to agree, your honour."

"I see. I will have to convene the council then. There is much to be done, and we must get the acting president sworn in as soon as possible."

Astro had heard enough, and he headed to the front door, mulling grimly over his first killing.

"Master Toby," said O_rrin to him as he passed the kitchen. "Do you have a moment?" He looked distressed.

Astro sighed. "Call me Astro, Arn. I'm not Toby any more. What's up?"

"Very well, Master Astro. Bill gave me part of yesterday off after he located you. Why would he do such a thing? I exist to serve, and it left me with nothing to do, so I came home."

Bill? "I've got no clue what Dad's up to with that. Tell you what: I'll try to talk to him about it when I get home tonight, okay?"

O_rrin smiled with relief. "Thank you, Master Astro. But what will you be doing? Everything is closed today."

"I'm going to help with the cleanup."

"I see. Well, have a good day."

"Thanks, Arn."

"Hello, Astro," said Elefun as Astro got in the car.

"Morning, Doctor Elefun," said Astro as he sat down. "What am I going to be doing? Do you know?"

"I'm taking you over to where they're searching for survivors. I believe that they will find your power quite useful."

"Sounds good to me."

As they got out of the car, Elefun put on a hard hat, then led Astro over to a group of people who were examining a building layout.

"Hey!" a big man shouted at them and came storming toward them. "What's that kid doing here? Get him out of here now!"

"This is the robot I was telling you about," said Elefun calmly.

The man stopped in his tracks. "No kidding," he said feebly. "Um, but he's so puny. We need power, not a service robot."

Astro glanced at Elefun, who nodded. He then flew over and landed by a piece of wall lying on the ground that was about three metres by two metres in size. Picking it up easily, he turned and put it gently back down.

The man stared for a moment, then exclaimed, "Brilliant! Heavy equipment that isn't heavy!" Pointing at another man, he said, "Jeff, take this robot over to where they heard the voices. I'll bet it won't destabilize that weak floor." When Jeff hesitated, he shouted, "Move it!"

Jeff ran over to Astro, muttered, "Come on," and they jogged around the collapsed building to another group of people. Indicating Astro, he said, "I've got our heavy machinery here."

The people stared at Astro, but before anybody could say anything, Jeff pointed to where one floor rested on another. "If you can open that up," he said to Astro, "we can get to a couple of people trapped inside. Can you do that?"

Astro grabbed a corner of the upper floor. Testing its weight for a moment, he then lifted it and held it over his head. "I'm good," he called back.

"Now, let's go!" said Jeff behind him. "Grab your stuff and get in there!"

The next afternoon, Astro was standing and holding up a section of wall while rescuers scrambled to pull one more person out of the wreckage.

{System warning: Low power; protective shutdown immanent.}

What? How? Not now!

"Get out of there!" he shouted. "Get out! I'm losing power!" As soon as everyone was clear, he dropped the wall and sat down.

Jeff came over to him. "What's going on? Didn't you recharge last night?"

{Initialize(main shutdown)}

Looking up at his boss, he said, "I don't work that way."

{Complete} {Initiate(main shutdown)} ...

He opened his eyes to see Elefun hovering over him anxiously.

"Oh good," said Elefun. "It worked this time."

"What happened to me?" Astro asked as he took in where he was: the Ministry of Science laboratory.

Tenma came over. "Your blue core must need a certain critical level of energy to be self-sustaining. You were nearly out of power."

"I was able to recharge it a little," Elefan said. "But it took exposing it to the centre of our reactor for two hours."

Astro stared at the ceiling, feeling a strange emptiness closing in. "What do I do? If I don't have energy, I'll be useless."

"I built you better than that," snapped Tenma. "You just won't be able to do much heavy lifting or flying, that's all." He closed Astro's chest door and said, "By the way, did O_rrin say anything unusual to you this morning before you left?"

"He wanted me to talk to you about your giving him time off. Why?"

"He's disappeared."