No matter what Professor O'Shay could have said or done, Astro's mind had been made up.
"But who would you fight for?" the professor questioned, feeling a bit skeptical.
"Everyone!" Astro declared. "I'd help protect the humans, and defend the rights of the robots!"
"Astro…" Professor O'Shay started to say with a shake of his head, "I know it sounds easy now, but as robots blur the lines of what it means to be human, the world is going to pick a side. It is in your best interest if you do so as well; whatever your decide, it would be your choice."
"I want to help everyone!" Astro determinedly rebutted.
"You can't help everyone Astro, it's impossible."
"Says who?!"
Professor O'Shay gave Astro a slow blink. "There are currently over seven billion people on this earth right now," the professor started, "Every second someone is born, and someone dies. Right as we speak someone could be getting hit with a car, or perhaps won their first athletic match against the opposing team. You can't save them all Astro, it's physically impossible. And we're only talking about humans here. There a robots created every other second, slowly increasing past the seven billion humans out there. Robots are discarded, and tossed to the streets- some are living comfortably with their families and some simply linger. You have to choose which side you want to be on Astro. You can't win every battle by talking some ne'er-do-well down with kindness; what if they choose to fight back Astro? What are you going to do then? Would you still choose to play pacifist when your own life is at stake? Who would you be protecting if you can't protect yourself?"
The little android grew silent as he ran deep in thought.
"Do you understand now?" Professor O'Shay then said, quietly. "It would be imp-"
"No."
O'Shay looked at the android, almost as confused as he was angered that Astro had back talked.
"There is a way." Astro told the professor in a tone that nearly gave the old man chills. "You're just too blind to see it right now."
"Astro…"
The android backed up, his eyes giving out an emotion that the professor was almost surprised to see. Without any other warning, Astro blast through the roof and into the night sky. Ignoring the calls of the man that helped bring him to life, Astro flew through the night sky without a path to go on. Astro's mind was moving so rapidly that he almost couldn't think at all. Eventually, the android came to a tall skyscraper in town square and sat on the roof as he tried to recompile his thoughts.
Astro looked out to see the people down below as they went on with the rest of their nights as if nothing was wrong. A large monitor on a building opposite of the one Astro was on was giving the local news at the top of the hour, but whether or not the people could hear the newscast was up for debate. The people never stopped moving, out of the corner of his eye Astro could see or a robot or two helping a human out or walking a dog in the square. Watching them, Astro slowly let go of his anger as he observed them mingle and interact. Some of the humans were nice to the robots that worked among them, some others were not. But although some humans were rude to humans, some of the robots seemed to give out just as much respect to the opposing party. The robots, apparently, were more calculating in how they could annoy a human than simply acting on whim like the opposing team; watching them interact this way made Astro see how much alike they really were, even when they thought they were not the same.
"This just in!" the reporter on the news monitor declared, making Astro hone in on the report, "Cleanup of last night's failed Fall Festival for the Secondary School of Metro City was completed this afternoon. The only known casualty of the disaster was taken to the Metro Memorial Hospital and was soon identified as the daughter of the late Ambassador Zoran, Sarann Uran-Zoran."
Astro jumped a bit in surprise as the newscaster pulled up a picture of Sarann. She was familiar, but from where?
"Although no eye witness reports were known of how Sarann survived, there happens to be surviving footage of the incident." The newscaster continued before the feed changed to a badly recorded footage of a damaged security camera. Although fuzzy, it clearly detailed Astro as he held the beam from falling on Sarannn then letting it fall to the side when she was safe. Seeing himself on the feed made Astro well up with pride, knowing that he had been able to help her after all.
"Footage from earlier had also caught the apparent thief that started to catastrophe." The newscaster continued before the footage cut to a clearer feed than what was used for Astro's save as a man tampered several of the robots that went berserk several minutes later. "Although a clear view of the perpetrator's face can not be seen in the footage, the police suspect that it may have been the work of resident robotics expert and tamperer, Skunk. It has also been believed that Skunk is responsible for several other cases of robots going maverick earlier this month. If you or anyone else believe that they have seen Skunk, please let the local police office now- he may also go under the name Frederick Fink and conning several employers into tampering with their home robots. Please be on the lookout, and remember to stay safe during this uncertain time."
Astro looked at the picture of Skunk that the newscaster had brought up on the newsfeed and memorized it. This was how he was going to prove himself. This was how he was going to show Professor O'Shay that you could protect two different beings of life and help them understand that they can work together if they tried.
But first, there was something he needed to do at the Metro Memorial Hospital.
Hey! We interrupt this story to give a short author's note!
There will be NO updates November 3-8, 2015 because I have not completed any other chapters at the time! As soon as I figure out how to capture Skunk, updates should resume on November 10th (crime stories aren't exactly my cup of tea, honestly). In the meantime, I have a poll running on my page for a plot idea that may come up in the future and would like some early opinions on it. Thanks so much for reading this far and here's to another ten chapters!