Ministry of Science

11am

Astro twitched a little from the prodding at his head. "Find anything yet or are you just laughing?"

"Well…as usual you got more dents and dinks on your outer armor. You're supposed to avoid being a chew toy, which seems hard for you to understand." Reno said as he replaced Astro's hair piece. "Oh yeah, Nicky called me this time? She's wondering about your next date."

Astro sat up. "I made plans, told her I'd have a date set."

"Which…let me remind you…you broke?" Reni said as he pushed a finger into Astro's nose.

"You know it's not like I can control the climate or anything? One day it's Skunk, next it's some mad scientist with a grudge…it's not like I can just drop some emergency and go hopping off to a movie or something."

"Well you better learn how to handle the expense of making up to a girl and from what I can see? You're going to be paying her back for a few years. Reno said as he started putting his tools away. "By the way? Parts of your brain bucket were resetting themselves, what exactly happened in that fight?"

Astro scratched his head. "Well….I got zapped pretty good by that thing. I guess it was trying to cause a short, only thing I got was a headache and a ring in my ears."

"Let me do another test, just to make sure there's no damage we didn't know about." Reno said as he pushed Astro to lie back on the bed. "So how's things with Daichi Tokugawa and his Mom's jam?"

"Well it was the last meeting he was going to hold before allowing production. That crazy armor bot just showed up out of dumb luck, the military said it got loose from a new trainee driver. Smart huh? Giving a new guy a bot with weapons?"

Reno snorted. "And you believe that? A little too close to being suspicious don't you think?"

"I guess." Astro replied. "But the explanations fit."

Reno smirked. "I've got to teach you how to be less trusting. You shouldn't accept explanations so simply."

A knock on the door stopped Reno's work and as he opened it, Nicky pushed past him and grabbed Astro up in a vice grip hug!

"Eeesh! That's…..a little…..tight." Astro said as his eyes looked like they'd pop from his head.

"Are you ok? You're not damaged are you?" Nicky fretted.

"Reno's been using it as an excuse to brutally torture me." Astro said snorting. "I'm fine."

"I'll be the judge of fine right now." Reno said as he started attaching electrical wires to Astro's head. "This scan will take a couple minutes then you two can go find a hotel to frog around in ok?"

Nicky smacked him on the arm. "Keep it to yourself?"

It wasn't a minute into the scan when Reno gave Astro a contorted face. "Hey? I think I found something you might not like."

Tokugawa Industries HQ

12:30pm

"Just tell them we'll meet here tomorrow." Daichi told Mitsunari as they walked out of a conference room and down towards the nearby lunch room.

Daichi was just about to open the door when Astro came around a corner and almost pulled him of his feet and into a quick trot. "What the? Hey!" Daichi protested as he pulled against Astro's grip. "Will you stop? Astro, what's…"

Astro found an empty office, pushed Daichi inside and looked out into the hallway to see if Mitsunari was following them before he closed the door behind him.

"Ok…I'm lost, why the heck did you just drag me through the building?" Daichi complained as Astro rubbed his head.

"I think we may have a little problem."

"Ok…define little?" Daichi asked.

Astro played with his lips. "I just had a diagnostic done after that little fight I had with that armor bot and well…there's a few "hiccups" in my computer brain."

Daichi knelt down and shook his head. "You have to be more clear and blunt about things Astro…what hiccups?"

"Uh…blank spaces in my saved memory." Astro said worryingly. "As if…my mind was…probed?"

Daichi shot up like a rocket. "Copied?"

Astro shook his hands franticly. "Don't go crazy yet! It could be nothing at all…I just wanted you to know…"

Daichi ran his hands through his hair. "Don't go?...argh! Do you know what that could mean? Someone could have gotten the recipe for the jam! I haven't even finished the documents for the legal copyright yet!"

Astro watched as Daichi sank in a chair. "I said relax ok? It's not like someone's going to have an easy time getting to it unless they have a good cracking program, my brain's got a hundred different ciphering programs."

Daichi snorted. "It only takes a good hacker one time Astro! Are you absolutely sure nothing was copied?"

"Well if I was, I wouldn't have said anything." Astro replied frowning. "You should get that paperwork in as soon as you can though, I can help you finish it."

Daichi looked up and suddenly got out of his chair and started storming for the door. "Huh?" Astro reacted as he chased him. "What are you doing?"

"Going to see my father, what else?" Daichi replied as he walked towards an elevator.

"Daichi? You're not going to do something crazy?..Wait a second!" Astro jumped in front and blocked the elevator. "You can't just start pointing fingers and acting stupid!"

"Stupid? All I'm going to do is ask my father if he tried to hack your brain…which is exactly what I'd expect from him…that's all. Heck I may even bust a chair over his…"

Astro pushed Daichi back. "Please don't make me hog tie you and carry you out of here like a hobo sack? You have nothing to go on and worse your Dad could cut you off from doing anything. You're still legally under his boot remember?"

Daichi thought for a moment. "Guess you're right."

Astro wrapped his hands around Daichi's arms and spun him around. "Down to your office, finish those papers and let me worry about this ok? And don't try climbing up the side of the building?"

Daichi stood at his office door and looked back smirking. "You have to see that girlfriend of yours sometime."

"Get in there and type dufus!" Astro said as he pushed Daichi and shut the door behind him.

"tap" Astro patted his head till he got Reno's cell phone ring tone. "Reno? I need some help."

"Yeah." Reno replied. "I know. Unfortunately I couldn't do nothing about that armor bot. One thing? It's the military's. The other? That Tank buster rocket hit right where the CPU was and it's toast."

Astro brooded. "Is it possible that my own anti-tamper programming could have copied the sender or hacker's information? That's if I got hacked to start with."

"To find all that? I'd have to "put you to bed" for a weeks worth of testing. You….don't have a week do you?"

Astro leaned against a window. "Uh uh…"

"There's one more place we can try." Reno said. "Of course it sort of involves…breaking the law."

"Sort of?" Astro replied smirking. "How can I "sort of" break any law?"

"Well…." Reno replied. "Each military robot for the Metro City division is tied to Central Command Headquarters in Kushimi-cho, North Metro. Let's just say that through some fortunate stroke of luck…you….were kinda asked to play back-up hard drive and through some sly finger of fate you just happened to come across a file that you wanted to see information on but…is kinda classed as sensitive….see where I'm getting?"

Astro started sucking a finger. "Yeeeeahhhh…shaddy sort of legal/illegal. But if it's to safeguard a human's life? It's not so illegal."

"Gee…you're a smart little toaster." Reno said giggling.

"And you can fix this up?" Astro asked.

"Just forget about it for now." Reno replied. "At least a few hours or so."

"You're so great Reno." Astro said smiling.

"Don't mention it. But you will owe me a pizza."

Astro heard the phone click as he walked back to the office where he left Daichi. "You are working on that document right?" He asked as he poked his head in.

"Yes." Daichi replied. "Don't tell me you don't think my father isn't capable of anything sneaky?"

"That's beside the point." Astro replied as he pulled himself up on the desk beside Daichi. "My job is to keep you from being dumb, which isn't easy." Astro sat licking his lips. "And yes…I don't trust your Dad. But confronting him won't work."

Daichi patted his hands on the desk. "You have a plan?"

"You don't need to know." Astro replied smiling. "Just get that document finished. Oh….and forget Mitsunari, I'll take it to the patent office myself."

Ministry of Science

2:00 pm

"Beeeep…..beeeep…beep…." "Ministry of Science, Director O'Shay speaking."

"Good….I'm glad I caught you at work Doctor, This is General Red at the defense department."

"How may I help you General? And how's your daughter today?"

"She's doing well but here we're not. Our so called impenetrable, anti-tamper, hacker blocking software? Well…it's not so anti anything after all."

Doctor O'Shay shook his head. "Hackers always stay one step ahead of any defense measure General."

"This is a serious situation O'Shay, we're on the verge of losing precious data because of this vandalizing freak. We need a storage system of great capacity to save all our files until we can clean and reboot the central computer. So in thinking I decided to ask you about Astro."

O'Shay sat rubbing his hair. "You want Astro to be a storage unit? How long would this take General? We really can't afford to tie Astro up like this."

"Two hours at the max, I promise you Doctor. There's no one else I can trust with so much sensitive data."

What the two men didn't know or see was the 13 year old boy deviously smirking over the lap top in his apartment at the ministry. "Hey….you should be getting a call probably in about five minutes." He said into a head microphone.

"You're sure you won't get yourself in trouble over this?" Astro answered back. "I won't be there right away though, I'm waiting on Daichi to finish a few important papers and then I have to take them to the legal office at City Hall."

Reno huffed. "Piece of cake! I can't believe they fell for so simple a program as this anyway, a 6-year old could block it! Our tax dollars at work like always."

"There's the Doctor now Reno. He's calling me." Astro said as he landed in front of City Hall. "Should I kinda complain so it's not obvious?"

"Don't worry about it." Reno replied as he reached for a cup of tea. "And by the way? I sort of tipped somebody off that you'd be at City Hall."

"What?" Astro replied as he walked in through the front door and got punched on by a giggling girl. "Hey! I was going to call her later on!"

"Won't do." Reno replied. "Nicky was bugging me all morning. She thinks you've been dodging her."

Nicky nodded with a smirk. "Yeh…what about our follow up date? Any more excuses?"

"I've been kinda tied up. You know how it is." Astro said with a shrug.

Nicky wasn't having any of that. She suddenly kissed him…much to the giggles of passers by who laughed at Astro's apparent shock. "Mmmah! Uh…can't we do this in private?" He asked as they walked holding hands.

"What's in the folder?" Nicky asked.

"Some important papers I have to take to the legal clerk. And…I think tonight's out. The….military needs me to play storage drive for a few hours."

Nicky pulled Astro to a stop. "It's a little unfair don't you think? I mean you have a life too besides playing everyone's emergency bell hop."

"Bell hop? Now that's being harsh don't you think? It's a duty of us robots to be of service when we're asked. Or should I bring up the 3 times in the last few days where you're doing Red Cross stuff?"

"But it's not all the time!" Nicky replied. "Might it worry you if I just might have another boy bot in mind?"

"Hmmmm….then dinner tonight's kinda out huh?" Astro replied with a smile as he walked to the clerk's office.

"Dinner? Where?" Nicky asked.

"The Tap N Root restaurant." Astro said smiling. "Then another place all to ourselves but since you got another boy in mind?...oh well…"

Nicky pulled him to her again and gave him another long kiss. "Blackmailing slug."

"I….did mention I was a genius right?" Astro said giggling before Nicky thumped him off the head.

"You renig on this one and I will so kill you." Nicky said smirking.

"Take a number." Astro replied as he waved bye to her. "8pm! I'll pick you up at your place!"

Headquarters Metro City Defense Division

4pm

Astro walked up to the front desk and waited for General Red to appear from a security door behind it. "You called?" Astro asked with a smile.

"I'm sure the good Doctor filled you in on what we need?" The general said as he walked Astro through the door and down the hallway. "It shouldn't be more than two hours at best."

"I hope so. I have a date at 8 tonight and if I stand her up again she'll have my head." For a joke, Astro grabbed his head and pulled it up off his neck.

"Would you please?" The General said as he waved Astro through a door. "That freaks me out."

Astro stopped and pursed his lips. "This isn't the computer room. Looks more like a lounge."

"Well we modified things a bit so you'd be comfortable. I heard how they hook you up to this crazy looking wall when they download and upload into your brain. I didn't know if you'd enjoy being hooked up to another "torture rack."

Astro took a seat in the lounge chair. "This is nice of you. So what should I do?"

General Red snatched a USB cable and gave it to Astro. "Just hook up and take a break…watch television or go to sleep. I trust you understand the nature of security right? No peaking, no surfing, no Tweeting during the process?"

Astro nodded. "Of course. I'll be very careful." He said as he slipped onto the soft lounge chair and hooked up the USB cable to his chest panel. The very careful comment of course was a white lie. Astro already knew what he wanted to look at and the scan would only take a microsecond, faster than any surveillance program could detect the intrusion. He sat with his eyes closed, a radio station attuned in his internal speakers, his hands patting the arm rests as the streams of data flowed into his processor.

It was an hour later when the right stream triggered his snap shot gathering program and fell harmlessly into an encrypted file. "There we go." Astro said to himself as he allowed the remainder of the time to play out till General Red walked back into the room.

"Enjoyed your nap?" He asked as he unhooked Astro.

"Yeah..that was trouble free." Astro replied as he got up and shook the general's hand. "So no problems clearing your system?"

"Oh it was bothersome enough, trust me." The General replied as they walked out of the building. "I must commend you with how you handled that run-a-way armor bot this morning."

Astro stopped. "Do you have any idea what happened? I thought those weapons were under tight control?"

"Trust me we're all over it right now. There's evidence of tampering though we don't know if it was external or local in nature. But we'll find out sooner or later at any rate. We've taken precautions to prevent a repeat performance. I wouldn't want to bother you further would I?"

"Unless you like torturing me." Astro replied smiling. "Glad I could help you though Sir."

Astro took off while dialing Daichi on his radio. "I have the documents in. They say it'll take a day or two to process."

"But it'll protect the copyright?" Daichi asked.

"You know how things work." Astro replied. "Typos, questions, all the dumb things that can happen with legal documents. But I can't see why it won't."

Daichi groaned. "I'd feel better if you could learn to lie."

As Astro flew towards the Ministry of Science, he checked the time and pursed his lips. "I got a date tonight with Nicky, can you do something for me?"

"Shoot." Daichi replied.

"Find out anything you can on that Mitsunari guy?" Astro asked.

"I already have and trust me, he's a snake." Daichi said snorting.

"Well I have to see my friend Reno about something else but you can tell me when I call you later." Astro said as he landed on Reno's window sill. "And don't do anything?"

Daichi replied smirking. "How about I throw a few stink bombs in his car?"

"I said….nothing. Have some patience will you?" Astro said as he slipped through the window. "I'll call later."

Reno was working at his electronics bench as Astro walked up. "I got it."

"Wasn't hard was it?" Reno asked as he passed Astro a USB cable.

"Not as long as they can't figure out who did the hacking." Astro replied as he connected himself to Reno's lap top. "So we should be able to get a location from this?"

"Hopefully…if the guy on the other end of the input stream didn't work hard enough to cloak his location." Reno said as he typed on his lap top and worked on the data stream Astro was sending. "The Tap Rock huh?"

"What?" Astro asked. "She told you?"

"She's probably told half the city about now. Insurance so you don't try welching out of it." Reno snickered. "So what did you two do at her house?"

Astro pursed his lips. "That's privileged information."

" I could hack you?" Reno snickered.

" I could turn your lab into a moonscape?" Astro replied smiling.

Reno huffed as he continued to tap through the windows on his computer. "I've isolated the traces from where the orders were coming from though…it's gonna take a little time to give you a location."

"I knew you could do it." Astro said as he shoved his hand into a chip bag and munched.

"Hey! That's my snacks!" Reno snorted as he tore the bag away.

"Gee…growl!" Astro replied as he got up and walked around the apartment. "What do you give a girl on a second date?"

"A ring." Reno snickered.

"Shut up. I'm serious." Astro replied giggling. "I have to give her something besides dinner right? What does human behavior demand?"