A/N: Here you are, enjoy the chap! :D

Chapter 21: New Faces

It was a sunny Saturday morning and the sunlight shined brightly through Astro's window.

As the sun's robust rays shone directly at his eyes, Astro recoiled in his sleep in discomfort and gradually woke up and sat up.

He stretched out his arms and yawned. Astro then smiled as realization hit him. "Oh yeah, it's Saturday!" he lightly cheered.

Zoran came dashing into his room unannounced. "Good morning, Brother!" she spoke.

She was already dressed up in what looked to be like another new outfit; a grey dress shirt with long puffy white sleeves, and a new pair of dark blue jeans. She jumped onto his bed and smiled.

"Zoran, where'd you get the new clothes?" Astro asked.

"Dr. Hanna dropped these off for me earlier as a surprise! She's really nice, said I most likely needed more clothes so she picked them up last night! She's so nice isn't she so nice?!"

"Yeah that's great Zoran you really did need more clothes."

"Yup!"

Astro nodded and fell right back into a sleeping position.

Zoran creased her brows. "Hey, what're you doing? Aren't you gonna go get ready?"

Astro raised a brow as he threw a pillow over his head. "For what, it's Saturday?" he mumbled.

"Well, who's gonna take me to this Hamegg's place to watch that Monster Truck Rally?"

Astro sighed. "Zoran, that isn't until later tonight." He muffled through his pillow.

Zoran sighed in an annoyed manner. "Well then what am I supposed to do until then!" she asked.

"Gee, I don't know." Astro removed his pillow from his face and a smile suddenly creped onto his face as he sat back up. "Hey it's Saturday!"

Zoran looked at him strangely. "I know that, you just said that, you're more forgetful than I am."

"No, no, no that means I can hang out with Annie! I have to see if she's free today." Astro grabbed his phone from his bedside desk and began to text her.

"But still, what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know go find Cora she'll play with you."

"Ok…but wait, don't you want to hang out with Cora too, and the other-"

"I'll see her and the others later, Zoran." Astro got out of bed and started to walk out the room as he read the text he just recieved. "Yes she's free this afternoon!"

Zoran watched her brother walk out. "But I wanted to hang out with you too brother."

"Another time ok Zoran?"

Zoran sat quietly on Astro's bed and sighed.

Later that afternoon Zoran had found Cora and Liberty eating at a local deli bar.

She waved to them from the window, and ran inside to join them.

"Hey Zoran!" Cora greeted.

"Yeah hey!" Liberty said.

Zoran hugged them both and crawled next to Cora since they were sitting at a booth.

"Thank goodness I found someone!" Zoran said.

Liberty looked around. "Wait, where's Astro?"

"I guess you people here would call it as, he 'ditched' me."

"What? But, that's not like Astro at all, to ditch his new little sister?" Cora asked not believing that Astro of all people would do such a thing.

"Yeah well, he did." Zoran said sadly.

Cora hugged her.

Liberty rolled her eyes. "Honestly, that's just mean, and coming from me that means something."

"So what was more important than hanging out with you, Zoran?" Cora asked as she began to drink her milkshake.

Zoran sighed. "Apparently his new girly friend is more important."

On impulse, Cora spit out her drink across the table and coughed a bit. Liberty grabbed her food quickly in mild disgust.

Zoran raised a brow. "Is it something I said?"

Liberty rubbed her temples. "Whoa, whoa, whoa hold the phone…Astro, has a girlfriend?!" She looked towards Cora, who looked hurt.

Zoran tapped her chin. "Well maybe I'm exaggerating a tad. But he is hanging out with her this afternoon."

"Who?" Cora asked rather quickly.

"That Annie girl, Astro asked her if she wanted to hang out with him today, I guess since its Saturday." Zoran crossed her arms. "No fair! She's stealing my new brother from me." She pouted.

"So let me get this straight, Annie and Astro aren't a couple?" Liberty asked.

Zoran shook her head. "Not as of now." She began to drink Cora's milkshake. "Mmm this is yummy!"

"And what exactly do you mean by 'not as of now'?" Cora asked.

"I can sense strong infatuation by Astro towards her."

Cora froze and slowly shook her head. "No…no, no you're wrong Zoran, like I said before, Astro's just being nice to this girl," she looked down, "that's all."

"I don't knoooww." Zoran said slyly.

"Well, why don't we talk about this some more back at Hamegg's shall we?" Liberty suggested.

"I agree." Cora agreed.

Zoran stood up from the booth as she started to inquire Liberty. "By the way Libby, how come I barley hear you mention your love interest?" She said with a smile.

Liberty blushed. "Humph, well maybe that's because I don't have any thank you."

Zoran giggled. "So if I asked if you like Jeremy, would your reply be a 'no'?"

Liberty cleared her throat. "Uh, check please!"

Astro soared through the sunny azure skies, flying through the bulging clouds that casted over his beloved city, humming to himself.

This young robot was in a splendid mood indeed.

I wonder what she'll look like when she sees me. Will her eyes sparkle, and a smile be plastered on her face, and leap towards me in a surprising hug? Just like the way Cora would-

Astro's thoughts drifted from Annie for a moment, and wandered to Cora.

Cora…Cora is great and all, but…ugh why do I feel this way! I mean, I always thought Cora was…but Annie is…she's different! But, is it a bad or a good kind of different? He thought to himself.

As Astro grew more and more in his thoughts, he started to pay less attention to authenticity when suddenly it hit him.

BOOONNNGGG!

Yeah, literally hit him.

Astro flew straight into a construction crane and landed on the side walk.

"Uhhhh…" he groaned in slight pain as he wiped his hand across his face.

Bystanders looked at the boy robot in surprise.

"You okay Astro Boy?"

"Are you in need of assistance sir?" A service bot requested.

"What got lost in the clouds er' something?" A skater boy shouted. Astro knew him as Rick, an 11th grader at his school.

"He-he, no, no I'm fine really uh, uh onward and upward!" Astro announced as he wobbled slightly trying to stand up and blasted back into the sky.

Astro mentally hit himself. You made yourself look like a fool yet again Astro Tenma.

Zoran ran in front of Liberty and Cora as they were all walking back to Hamegg's.

Zoran laughed and rolled down every hill she can find, grabbing multiple different flowers and rocks, and placing them in her new navy purse she had gotten from Dr. Hanna. "I love this green stuff on the ground," Zoran took a big breath, "and it smells spectacular!"

"It's called grass hun." Liberty enlightened.

"So how's the script for your play coming along Libby?" Cora asked.

"Ubber-fantastic!" She replied. "Monday after school we're going to start working on the set."

From all the way down the hill Zoran shouted up. "And I'm going to help!" she shouted.

"Wow, it seems you have great hearing too!" Cora said as she made her way down the hill.

"Yeah, hmm I wonder what other powers you have." Liberty followed.

Zoran raised a brow. "Other powers?"

"Hey yeah, like during the Sparta- Bot battle, you found out that you're able to fly!" Cora added.

"Yeah I can fly I can fly!" Zoran cheered.

"But what else can you do?" Liberty asked.

Zoran stopped jumping and shrugged. "I don't know." She mumbled.

A moment of silence had passed. Cora and Liberty looked at each other, and then back at Zoran. "Let's see about that." They said simultaneously.

Astro landed right in front of Annie's apartment building. Before entering the building, he straightened his clothes and made sure his hair was in two perfect spikes. He then entered.

There were multiple people down in the lobby with him. All but one were wearing suits and dress clothes, and that one was a nervous young looking boy with dark red hair gelled back, a blue shirt with white sleeves and khaki pants but, with no shoes?

The boy looked around the lobby anxiously. This grabbed Astro's attention, and he went over to the boy.

Astro walked right behind the him. "Um excuse me, are you okay-"

"Ugh, where are they!" The boy whispered loudly.

Astro raised an eyebrow. "Where's what?"

"As you can obviously see, I am not wearing any shoes. I lost them."

"Uh, how?"

The boy sighed. "You sure like to ask quest-"the boy turned around facing Astro. His green eyes widened. "Hey I know you you're Astro Boy!"

The boy quickly grabbed Astro's hand and shook it kindly. "The name's Reno, nice to finally meet you Sir!"

"Sir? He-he you're like the same age as me. Just call me Astro."

"Sure thing, and to answer your question on how I lost my shoes, I'm an inventor!"

Astro slowly looked behind him and then back at Reno. "Uhhh-"

Reno laughed. "Allow me to explain," Reno cleared his throat, "Ahem."

Reno jumped onto a stair. "Tired of always running late to school or even work because you have to find your shoes, put em' on, and tie them?!" Reno announced as he started to make a scene.

"Heck yeah!" A man yelled from across the lobby.

Astro turned to the man, then back at Reno with a questioning look.

"Well my fellow Metro City folk, what if our shoes, can do those things, all on their own! I call it, Shoe-Me!"

People awed in fascination.

"That'd be something."

"Cool," a women laughed, "Show me or should we say Shoe-Me!"

"Yeah show us, where are those magic shoes huh?"

Reno's frown turned upside down. He creased his brows. "I uh, I actually have no idea where they are." He said in defeat. "I guess they walked out on me, since they're uh, able to do that now." He added while rubbing his neck.

The crowd of people laughed in mockery and continued walking around the lobby, doing what they were doing.

Reno sighed and sat down on the stair he was standing on. "One day I'm gonna create an awesome invention. One that actually works and people would be dying to have."

"Maybe…and maybe I'll be the first to use it." Astro said hoping to cheer Reno up.

"Thanks Astro."

Astro smiled. "Well you seem nice enough but I kind of got to get going, I'll see you around."

"Oh don't worry, you will be seeing me again; I'll be attending your school starting Monday."

"Oh cool, so you just moved to Metro City then?"

Reno narrowed his eyes. "Yeah he-he let's go with that."

Reno dashed by Astro in a hurry and ran straight towards the exit. "Wait, don't you live here?!" Astro asked.

"Nope!" Reno yelled as he ran through the doors, nearly tripping out onto the sidewalk.

Astro remained dumbfounded by the elevator, waiting for it to arrive. Strange kid. He thought to himself.

A/N: Yay Reno! Sorry if my Reno character seems a bit OOC, didn't really watch the series that much, but I like him this way

Well anyways, you know what to do, Read and Review!...Pretty please?