(A/N: I'm not going to bother with excuses this time, as I totally had time to write this one, I just kept failing. I rewrote it and procrastinated on it several times because I just didn't really want to write it. I don't know why, I just want to skip ahead a few chapters to some of the stuff I've been excited to write for a while and just wasn't feeling this chapter, you know?

But I finally forced myself to get on with it, and when I got going, like usual, I couldn't stop and now I'm fairly happy with it. Hopefully you guys are too!

Man, twenty one chapters! How far we've come! And 369 reviews, holy shmoly when did that happen!? You guys friggin' rock! So sorry I take so long. I suck.

Enjoy!)

Everything was black, he could remember nothing.

Slowly, light. A man's face, staring down at him. Holding a hammer.

Then pain. Pain unlike anything he'd ever endured before.

And he was screaming.

~O~

Toby was starting to worry he might be on his own.

He tried to tell himself that was okay. It would be okay, wouldn't it? He didn't need Zane. He didn't need anybody, and he especially didn't need the likes of Cora, no matter how much her help might be warranted.

Because she wouldn't help. She was a selfish little Surface junkie who only cared about herself and her own goals. When it was about Astro, all the guns were out. When it was about his father…the well had dried right up.

But that was okay. Totally okay. Toby didn't need help, because he had never needed help before. The fact that he had sort of had friends for a day didn't matter.

Nope. He wasn't even upset.

He shuffled his feet and checked the time on his holo-pad again, ignoring the swirling dial that meant his hacking programs were failing to break into the Ministry of Science. Whatever lockdown had been initiated was not going to be easily brought down, even by him. It figured really. Toby had a bad feeling his father probably designed it.

He taped the screen lightly, zooming in and then back out again for no particular reason, leaning against the large sales bulletin he'd taken refuge by. Its lights flickered and changed colors as it switched between each advertisement. Three minutes. Zane had three minutes.

VURKOOM.

Toby started a bit and looked up just in time to see the butt of a black, skull-and-flame patterned hoverboard slip over his head and get hit with the pungent smell of its organic, blue waste. He puckered his nose distastefully.

Zane.

"Nice ride," Toby complimented him as he blinked rapidly, trying to rid his eyes of the sunspots the board's blue fire had given him. "Love the custom. Thanks for coming on such short notice by the way, it's kinda – "

He cut off rather quickly as the board touched down and clicked off, leaving Zane to turn around and look at him.

Except it wasn't Zane.

He must have sworn because she smirked at him.

Cora.

"What the Hell are you doing here?" he growled, quickly stuffing his holo-pad into the inner pocket of his leather jacket and scowling menacingly at her.

Cora sniffed, looking fairly unfazed. She crossed her arms. "Nice jacket," she said.

Toby had to stop himself before he accidently thanked her. He was pissed. Couldn't forget that. "I asked you a question."

"Yeah, I know, and I ignored it," Cora said, stalking forward uninvited and picking up one side of his jacket curiously. "Seriously, this real leather?"

"Hey, no touching!" Toby exclaimed, yanking himself out of her grip and smoothing his jacket self-consciously. "And yeah, it is, actually."

Cora sniffed again, crossing her arms with a hint of sass and grinning at him. "Rich boy."

Toby felt heat creep into his cheeks. "Why are you here, Cora? I called Zane, not you."

"He left his phone," Cora said easily, slipping the said contraption out of her pocket and waving it at him sarcastically. "So I answered instead. And if you're wondering, this is my board, not Zane's. Skulls are my thing."

Toby's eyes flickered to the sleek custom paint in interest, before putting his face back into a steely mask and crossing his own arms. "Whatever," he said lamely. "You can fly it back to your dumb apartment right now because I don't need your help."

"Really?" Cora said dryly, raising an eyebrow. "So your urgent text to Zane was just a social call."

Toby's face flushed again and he tried in vain to get a hold of himself. "His help would have been appreciated," he admitted, raising his chin a little. "But I'm perfectly capable of handling this on my own and I certainly don't need you."

"Right," Cora nodded with a clear roll of her eyes. With a flick of her foot she brought her hoverboard to her hand and stashed it out of sight behind the bulletin board. "And I'm the president of Metro City." She sighed, running a hand through her short, highlighted hair before leaning against the board languidly.

"Look, Toby," she said, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry."

Toby raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

Her eyes snapped back open. "I'm sorry, okay?" she emphasized, looking rather annoyed for having to re-apologize. "For everything I said back in the apartment. You were right. I was being selfish."

Toby laughed humorlessly. "I'll say."

"Seriously, Toby," Cora said forcefully, taking a step closer to him. "I'm actually sorry. I was being narrow minded, okay? I'm only human."

Something stirred in Toby's stomach a bit suddenly. Something icky, something he'd suppressed for a while, brought on by those three words.

"So am I, Cora," he whispered menacingly, and the words came from his gut, his subconscious. Not him. "Astro isn't. But sometimes I think you get that flipped around."

Cora stopped dead in her tracks; hurt flashing in her blue eyes. "Astro is human," she choked out weakly.

"Not more than I am," Toby argued, and this time his face was flushed more with pain than anger, but there was some of that too. A trace of venom. "So stop treating me like I'm the robot, okay?"

Cora's eyes flashed and Toby waited for the barbed-tongue retort.

But there wasn't one. "Okay."

Toby started a bit. "Sorry?'

"Okay," Cora sighed, shaking her head and running a hand through her bangs again. "Okay, I'll…I'll stop treating you like…like a robot. Sorry."

Toby swallowed. "Forgiven," he strangled.

Cora's eyes snapped up. "For real?"

"For real," Toby agreed, smiling weakly even as his voice broke. "Just…let's just save my dad, okay?"

Cora nodded and this time it was genuine. "Okay."

"Cool," Toby said. Then he jumped off the building.

Cora's scream reverberated above him and he grinned as he rolled easily out of the loaded dumpster and onto the concrete.

He looked up. Cora peered back down at him with wide blue eyes.

"Thought I was suicidal?" he called.

"I hate you!" Was the response, before there was a flying streak of purple, green and blue and Cora had joined him.

"We have to find Elefun," Toby told her, stalking off the moment she hit the ground.

She matched his stride easily. "Where is he?"

"Well, the Ministry of Science is in complete lockdown," Toby informed her, bringing them onto the main intercity street before back into another alleyway. "I've been trying to hack it for the past twenty minutes with no avail. I can't get past the lockdown procedures, but the log does say that the building had been completely clear of personal, so I bet Elefun's home."

"And where does he live?" Cora asked as the two of them reappeared on a new street, one Cora didn't recognized. "I assumed it would be more by your…penthouse, or whatever."

But Toby shook his head. "Nah," he said, smiling. "Elefun always did prefer modesty."

He came to a sudden stop in front of a shady-looking, rundown metal one-story. Cora had to backtrack, having walked right past it.

She gawked at the rusted, tiny door. "Elefun lives here?"

"I know, right?" Toby laughed, eyes glinting with nerdy obsession. "Genius, really. If anyone wanted to come after him, they'd never find him. Totally inconspicuous. You could do anything, and I mean anything here, and the government would never be able to hunt you down."

He walked forward and knocked loudly. It reverberated the whole house's frame.

Cora was still gawking. "But if you know where he is," she said slowly. "So does Tenma. And the Ministry too, right? They'd be able to find him?"

Toby shook his head. "Nah," he grinned. "Sure, my Dad knows, but the Ministry doesn't. Elefun refused to tell them his address. They were furious, of course, but…well, he's a genius scientist, and they couldn't just fire him. They'd lose a ton of money if they did."

SWUNK. The door slid open suddenly and Elefun's overly large nose peeked through. Blue eyes surveyed them suspiciously before widening in recognition.

"Toby?" he exclaimed.

"And Cora," Toby confirmed, smiling at him. "Can we come in? It's about the Ministry lockdown."

"Of course, m'boy, right away, right away!" Elefun rushed, opening the door fully and ushering the two of them in quickly. He checked the street both ways conspicuously before disappearing inside himself.

He was still in his lab coat, so he didn't look any different to Cora, but his living quarters told a starkly different story. She gaped openly at the large mishmash of tech that spattered the whole of the place. There was no sort of house-like objects at all, not even a couch. A TV was plastered to the wall, on and displaying the news on mute, but it was largely outdated and Cora had a feeling Elefun wasn't one for watching more than documentaries.

The whole place actually reminded her much of the Surface. Its disorderly array was almost homey, but she couldn't focus on that now. Instead, she followed Elefun on his stubby legs as he led her and Toby into another room, jabbering away.

" – complete emergency shutdown, lights still on but all the systems unreachable and all doors locked. Even physical keys are ineffective; God knows what could have set that code into play. Your Dad designed it, you know, but you need serious mojo to set it off. He's not answering his phone, either, not that he usually does but this is an emergency and I'd have thought he'd call me by now, especially with Stone on the loose and all, he may be involved, who knows, who knows, and – "

"Elefun," Toby stopped the man gently as Elefun sat down, flustered, on his computer chair in front of an impressive array of monitors. They were in a steel, dome-shaped add-on, or at least Cora guessed. It was more or less the same as Elefun's office in the Ministry of Science, if not even more high-tech, if that was even possible. It looked like it, but Cora wasn't the one to confirm such things.

"My Dad is missing," Toby explained, his face grave. "When I went home, he was nowhere to be found, and then I found out about the lockdown."

Elefun's face immediately grew into that of horror. "Tenma's missing?" he choked.

"He only ever goes two places," Toby confirmed solemnly. "One's empty and the other in lockdown. I can do the math."

Elefun looked a tad panic-stricken and he began to sway back and forth a little bit in his chair. Cora began to wonder if she should get him a paper bag to throw up in. "Do you think…" he breathed. "Stone…?"

"I don't know," Toby admitted, leaning against the computer table and looking vexed. He squeezed his hands in and out of fists. "Maybe. But does he have enough mojo to set off the lockdown sequence?"

Elefun shook his head. "No," he said, looking relieved. "No, he doesn't. Firepower. You need major firepower to set it off, and he just escaped jail. There haven't been any break-ins in the armory, he doesn't have firepower."

"But someone must have gotten in," Cora argued, curling and uncurling her hands as well, but more from inaction than anything else. "A person has to set it off, right?"

"Or some sort of internal explosion," Elefun agreed. "But we would know that, there would be damage reports. Those aren't turned off by the lockdown."

There was a small silence between the three of them as they all tried to think up what the Hell they might be dealing with.

Suddenly, it hit Cora like a ton of ice bricks. That same ice poured into her veins. Pure panic. "Oh my God."

Two pairs of eyes flicked to her. "What?" Toby asked.

Cora's hands shook as she grabbed the computer table for support. "Firepower," she got out. "Like, if Stone busted in with the Peacekeeper? That would set it off?"

Elefun looked a bit befuddled by this question but he nodded. "It would need firepower matching the Peacekeeper to be triggered, yes," he confirmed. "Or an explosion worthy of a shot from the Peacekeeper."

"But the Peacekeeper's destroyed," Toby said slowly, furrowing his brow at her. "Stone can't possibly have used it."

"No," Cora agreed shakily, her gaze unfocused. "No, he can't have. But what do we know that holds the same amount of firepower as the Peacekeeper? And was just shipped into the Ministry not long ago?"

Both Toby and Elefun grew quickly pale.

Oh.

"Could Stone have activated him?" Toby breathed.

"He wouldn't have even needed to," Elefun realized, putting a clammy hand up to clutch at his unruly grey hair. "All he would have needed was to sneak in with the guard's bringing Astro in and activate the panic button. Bringing in such a powerful robot…the shutdown sequence is ready made in the transaction, just in case something goes wrong before the robot reaches a secure lab."

"Stone," Toby wavered, knuckles white on the tables side. "Stone has my Dad?"

"And Astro," Cora gulped, horror coursing through her veins. "Oh my God, Stone's got him."

"We need to get into the Ministry," Elefun gasped. "But the shutdown can only be shut off from the inside, or by – "

"My father," Toby sighed.

"There's no way," Elefun lamented, slowly bringing his face into his hands and rubbing his head. "No way."

There was a deadly silence in which Cora almost collapsed into tears again, her chest racked by emotional pain. She didn't need this. Not again. Bring back the emptiness, please.

Suddenly, the whole room was filled with a deafening crash.

All eyes went to Toby, who was only half-standing, one hand still clutching the computer table and a littering of now-shattered motherboards surrounding his feet. His eyes were wide and glassy.

"Toby?" Elefun asked, concerned.

"Astro," Toby coughed, looking up to Elefun with unfocused eyes.

Elefun frowned. "What about him?" he pressed. "Toby, I do not understand – "

"Astro!" Toby repeated again, before laughing such a maniacal laugh Cora actually stepped back as the tinier Tenma lunged for Elefun's computer, pushing the little man and his wheely chair out of the way.

"Whuff, Toby, what in the world – " Elefun huffed as he struggled to regain control of his mobility. His legs were not quite long enough to reach the ground.

But Toby was paying him no attention. He'd stuck something into the computer and was typing furiously.

"Astro, Astro, Astro, Astro," he repeated again and again, a crazed look in his brown eyes that reflected his computer screen. "I have Astro!"

"Sorry, what?" Cora exclaimed, thoroughly confused. "Toby, just tell us what you're – "

"Blueprints!" Toby screamed, laughing as he whipped around suddenly, clutching his head and separating his gelled hair from their spikes, eyes bloodshot. "I have Astro's blueprints!"

Before his words even began to register, a map of Astro's insides popped up on the screen behind him.

It was Elefun that was laughing maniacally now and Cora was just staring at him in shock. He did. He did have Astro's blueprints. She had known that.

With purpose, Elefun stood up and wheeled his chair back to the computer and plopped himself back down, staring at the monitor screen like a child in a candy store. "Oh, this is beautiful!" he exclaimed. "How – "

"I got them a while ago," Toby rushed. "The important thing is he has a communication device in his ear. I saw the notes on it when I was sifting through it all earlier. Basically, looks like my Dad made identical ports in Astro's ears that he could access to hear what Astro is hearing. Same goes for his eyes."

"So basically, Astro's got a built in spy camera?" Cora confirmed.

"Yeah, basically," Toby confirmed, grinning with an unhinged look in his eyes as he began to type again. Elefun looked on with the same expression.

Cora was apparently the only one remotely horrified. "Don't you realize how messed up that is!?" she exclaimed. "Who even does that, spy on their own kid!?"

"Um, every parent ever?" Toby answered. "Besides, what kind of parent makes a robot copy of his supposedly dead son?"

Cora had no answer for that. "It's still sick," she said stubbornly.

Toby merely shrugged. "I wouldn't complain," he said, typing rapidly again. "That sick, twisted move is our ticket into the Ministry."

With one final, dramatic key stroke, Toby stopped typing and a black window popped up.

Toby quickly enlarged it, eyes wide with anticipation.

"This is it?" Elefun rasped, his blue eyes mirroring Toby's.

"This is Astro's vision," Toby confirmed. "I'm completely in. This is what he's seeing, right now. Audio's coming in as we speak."

"His eyes are closed…?" Cora started at a whisper, but cut off as the monitor's speakers crackled and the distinct sound of footsteps could be heard through them.

The steps grew louder and closer before stopping suddenly, echoing, like in a warehouse.

Cora held her breath.

Slowly, disoriented, Astro's eyes flickered open. His vision – on the screen – spazzed a hazy, electric blue before he blinked again and everything focused.

Or actually, a face came into focus, looming above him.

Stone's face, smirking widely from the shoulder up.

And holding a large hammer.