Astro: Uh?...

Daichi: Yes! Say yes!

Astro: But...I wasn't expecting...

Daichi: Say yes!

Astro: I...I...

Astro stood rubbing his head. "Uh...oh...kay?"

Nicky grabbed his hands. "Great! My parents are working tonight at the hospital so they won't be home till like ten in the morning...

Astro suddenly waved his hands. "Now hold it! Nicky...shouldn't you call and tell em..."

Nicky gave Astro an evil looking smile. "What? Are you going to chicken out on me? I promise...nothing stupid's gonna happen ok? I'm just inviting you over for dinner...a movie...and a break from the usual super hero stuff!

"If you say no." Nicky warned. "Everyone will know by 9am Monday what kind of a coward you are."

Astro: Daichi?...what do I do?

Daichi: You shut up and go have some fun. Don't come looking for help, I'm not giving it.

Astro: I thought we were friends?

Daichi: We are...I just helped you nail a nice date...you can at least thank me?

As Nicky pulled Astro behind her, Daichi sat back on his bike smiling and laughing up a storm. At least he could run wild the rest of the weekend and not have to worry about Astro hovering over his shoulder!

Monday Morning

Metro City High School

Daichi didn't have to go far to find Astro. He was at his school locker packing his book bag for the next period and looking rather happy, judging from the cheery smile on his face as he turned to wave.

"Wow!" Daichi said with a smirk. "You're not dead!"

"Uh, uh." Astro replied as he closed his locker door. "It was wonderful! Though...I still don't know if the bubbles were for cleaning or soothing."

"That's for you to figure out." Daichi said with a wink. "So...she wasn't the fearsome threat you thought she'd be huh?"

"I never said that!" Astro replied.

"Oh?" Daichi replied with a questioning look. "You made it sound that way when you called me again. So when's the next date?"

Astro rubed his chin. "Next Saturday. I'm taking her to the movies and then to dinner."

"Did you get out before her parents showed up?"

"Well...I sort of slept a little late and the escape was...well...a little undignified dive into a bush?"

Daichi laughed softly. "Welcome to the wonderful world of girlfriends and adolescense my little man."

Astro then looked at Daichi with a scowl. "You were hoping I wouldn't chase you that night huh? Well I did after Nicky was asleep..."

"As I told you..." Daichi threw his arms out but Astro slapped a hand away.

"You're just bound and determined to mess everything up!" Astro snapped, which got the attention of passing students. He quickly stopped and walked Daichi out into the school's main courtyard. "You're so close to doing something by yourself Daichi! I keep telling you that hanging with that gang will get you into big trouble but you keep ignoring me!"

Daichi looked aside and pursed his lips. "It's the one right of freedom that I have, I've told you that before. I won't be lectured by my father on that nor by you no matter how good a friend you are to me Astro."

Astro frowned. "Then I'm pleading with you...I'm begging you as your friend to stop getting involved when those idiots are causing trouble Daichi...please! Sooner or later it'll only end in something horrible and nothing will come of that. Think of what your mom would have wanted..."

Daichi growned...the little metal and plastic kid was right and in his heart Daichi knew it wouldn't do any good to say otherwise...

"Fine...I'll...I'll try to resist the temptation." Daichi started to walk away but then turned back. "Astro? I've been thinking alot about something...the receipe for the jam? Mitsunari is right, it needs to be put in another place that's safe...I know I can trust you."

Astro pointed to himself. "You wan to give it to me?"

"Why not?" Daichi replied. "You are my friend?"

Daichi rested his hands on Astro's shoulders. "I can't trust a human to be careful...God knows my father's a crook and that Mitsunari guy's a distrusting slug. At least in you, it's fool proof."

Astro replied with a smirk. "Well...Nicky might be a Mata Hari, you'd never know."

"Slap!" Daichi slapped Astro off the head. "Never speak of your girlfriend like that even in jest! Now...do we have a deal?"

Astro nodded back. "Of course...You can trust me."

Daichi reached into his pocket and handed Astro a ZIP strip. "I've encoded it so you'll have to use the program on this to get into it. And don't be careless ok? Like giving it to your little sister, I know how much she likes to yap."

Astro smirked. "So do you."

"Riiiing!" The school period bell rang.

"See you after school. We have to meet Mitsunari to finish tying things together. You know how that makes me feel? Like pulling my teeth with a horse."

"Now why do something that dumb?" Astro replied.

Tokugawa Industrial HQ

Noon

"That far, that fast? I'm impressed." Tokugawa said as he stared out his office window. "How well he's learned."

"Indeed." Mitsunari replied. "I'm almost feeling incapable, even too deceitfull to deny him success. Sir...if I may be bold, why stop him?"

Tokugawa turned with a scowl. "Because this is not what "I" want. I don't want my son to aspire to something so...the mark of a simpleton. Presiding over a simple food creation? What success is that! Is it not the desire, no...the right of a parent to see their children exceed them! I have not worked all these years to watch my legacy roll backwards down a hill because my son dares to do something less than I wish!"

Tokugawa stopped to pick up a picture of his wife from his desk. "I loved my wife, you know the extent of my grief for her Mitusnari. But when I look at my son I see the very infections that made her weak. I will not see my son turn into a spineless, emotion driven, charity infected invalid. I will stear him to follow my desires and when I'm gone it will stear him to become the most feared and dangerous man of industry the world has ever known...that will be my monument."

Tokugawa faced Mitsunari. "I entrusted you to this purpose. I want him to know what failure is like and how crushing it can be. Most importantly...I want that weak minded, meddling robot out of the way. This "Astro" is like a tick, and like a tick I want him squashed...Don't fail me...Mitsunari."

Mitsunari bowed and walked from the office.

After school

above Metro City

Nicky was squeezing as hard as she could and screwing her eyes tightly as the weightness sensation caused her to panic. "Maybe this was a bad idea after all..."SQEEEEELLL!"

"Well you had to ask!" Astro said chuckling as he looped and rolled over and over through the sky. "Boy...if Reno finds out I'm fooling around like this, he'll be mad!"

Nicky snuggled the back of Astro's head. "As if that was a problem?"

Astro smirked as he landed on the roof of Nicky's house. "By the way?" She said slyly..."My parents are gone."

"Oh no..." Astro replied waving his hands. "I'm not risking that. The last time you said that, I almost got caught! Uh, uh...no more bush diving, I have a reputation to uphold remember?"

Nicky smiled and gave Astro a gentle kiss..."Yes...your "reputation" is important isn't it?"

He tried to leave but Nicky pulled him backwards into a hug and a lip lock...

"I...I got homework to do." Astro said as he pulled back...then went back to kissing.

"Forget it." Nicky said smirking. Then they kissed again.

"I...gotta go meet Daichi."

"Forget him too." She said giggling. "I'm more important."

Then a beeping sound came from Astro's head. "Can't ignore that." He said as he tapped his head. "Yes Inspector?"

"Are you busy?" Towashi snapped."

"Well...sort of." Astro replied, shoooshing Nicky as she giggled.

"Well get downtown as soon as you can! We have a mess on our hands!"

Astro shrugged. "Duty calls."

"I'll have the bathtub nice and hot when you're done." Nicky said seductively.

"Sure you will." Astro replied as he jumped up, waved to her and flew off towards the downtown area.

Metro Industrial Zone

Astro came down like a bullet and slid across the wet asphalt to a stop behind Inspector Towashi's car, narrowly colliding with Reno as he huddled with a palm computer in his hands.

"Was that a cool entry or what?" He said smiling.

"No." Reno replied as he looked over his shoulder after the ground under him shook. "You wanna hear this one?"

"Not really." Astro replied smirking. "I thought you'd have it handled by now."

"Security code's being a pain." Reno replied calmly. "It's a dockside crane bot gone loony. Too much weight and it shorted out or it decided it wasn't getting paid enough."

Astro suddenly dove for the ground and cringed as a piece of building flew over the car and crashed into a truck behind it. Reno didn't flinch...

"Oh yeah...he's just a little bit pissed off."

"You think!" Astro replied as he pushed himself up.

Inspector Towashi and Sergent Deutadi were running down the street and flew over Astro's head as another crumpled piece of wreckage flew right behind them!

"Ugh!" Towashi scrambled from his landing and snatched Astro by his hand. "What are you doing?"

"Trying not to laugh." Astro replied sarcasticly.

"Well...stop it from trashing the district!" Towashi snarled.

Astro rolled over the hood of the squad car and calmly walked towards the towering crane with his arms out. "Hey big guy! Don't you think you're taking this temper tantrum a little too extreme?"

The crane swooped up a nearby car and slammed it down onto the street but Astro deftly sidestepped the wreck with a one foot hop and stood shaking his head.

"You know, this isn't exactly the right way to complain about things?" Astro said. "Now how about we calm down and..."

"SLAM!" The crane's huge lifting arm came down with a ground shaking, concrete breaking collision on Astro's head!

"What is he doing?" Towashi could be heard screaming. "Is he trying to have tea and crumpets with this crazy thing?"

As the dust cloud stirred up by the impact cleared however, it was obvious that Astro was past the negotiation stage! He stood holding the monster arm over his head. "Some one's gotta teach you how to tickle properly!"

Astro took off! snatching the arm in his powerful grip, he flipped the crane onto it's back, ripped a power cable off a nearby string of power poles and hog tied the crane's four legs before Reno could get his watch out of his pocket!

Then he calmly walked into the crane's control cab and came back out with a power box tucked under an arm. "Hmph! Didn't even sweat."

Reno and Inspector Towashi came running up. "Did you find out what made it go nuts?" Reno asked as he stopped.

"Oops...guess I should have before I ripped this out?" Astro replied as he pointed to the power box. "Sorry Inspector."

"Well...at leats you stopped it, though probably half the city's out of power now."

Astro shook his head. "That was an out of use line. I checked it before I ripped it down." As if on cue, one of the power poles fell over. "Then again they might want to check those things for termites?"

Towashi shook his head and took Astro aside. "Would you mind explaining to me why you are allowing Daichi Tokugawa's gang to run amok in the city?"

"Huh?" Astro replied. "I'm not. Well...at least not Daichi any way. The other ones are your job, you seem to point that out to me a lot remember?"

"Well..." Towashi snorted. "If my memory serves me right, it's your responsibility to report lawbreakers? And Tokugawa's kid is no saint."

"It's also my responsibility to look after humans and Daichi's just a response to my programing Inspector. If I'm trying to keep him from trouble and tweek him right, doesn't that meet my requirement?" Astro gave the inspector a doughy smile.

"You're pushing it." Towashi snorted. "I'll let you handle that for now but don't think I'll give you forever...my patience is rather short these days."

Astro smirked. "Like your love life?"

"Watch your mouth!" Towashi snorted back. He stomped by Reno as he chuckled loudly. "And you watch yourself too you little eggheaded freak!"

Reno walked up to Astro and palm slapped him. "That was priceless."

As Reno looked over the crane and sat atop the control cab, he threw Astro a glass jar. "I want some more jam."

"What do I look like? A Safeway?" Astro snorted back as he climbed on the cab.

"How was your date?" Reno asked.

"Uh...interesting." Astro replied.

"Interesting?" Reno questioned. "Not fantastic, awesome or great...just...interesting?"

"She can cook." Astro replied. "In more than one way."

"Oh." Reno replied. "Well...guess I don't need to know."

There was a little moment of silence between them before Reno broke it. "So when's the wedding?"

"Oh shut up!" Astro snapped back.

"Giggles"..."Aren't you worried about big Tokugawa? Who knows, this crane might have been his idea. You know he despises robots right?"

Astro poked his head into the control cab as Reno was hooking up his computer to the control board. "He can bark all he wants. As long as Daichi keeps asking me to help him, his Dad can't say no."

"Well be carefull." Reno replied as he climbed out. "If you even think he's trying something stupid, call me?"

Astro gave Reno a quick salute. "Always!"