"Luna!" Astro linked as the debris from the explosion settled on the ground.

"I'm okay," she responded, quickly pushing her way out of the mess and dusting off her clothes. "It's sure a good thing it happened when everybody was out. What was it?"

"It looks like maybe Mella's after me. I think it was a bomb."

"Oh great. I guess I'll phone Hamegg and let him know about his building. What'll we do about the kids?"

"Thank God it didn't happen when they were around. I guess we better let Hamegg deal with it. His connections are probably a lot better than ours." Astro turned back to Orkan shamefacedly. "I guess I'm too naive to be very good at this kind of fight. I thought I was being cute by leaving that message. Instead I was incredibly stupid."

Orkan stared at the ground. "I'm sorry I yelled, Dad," he said softly. "But Leader terrifies me."

"I know, but your, um, memory of evil could be real useful if you let it."

"Huh? How?"

"Like just now: you understood how Dr. Mella would think. If we're going to fight against him, we need that kind of understanding."

Orkan nodded. "I-I'll try, but it's like swimming in a sewage treatment pond. I hate it."

"Hamegg's on his way," Luna said as she walked over to them. "I've also called Emergency Services, so this place is going to be crawling with police and firefighters in a couple of minutes."

"Good," said Astro.

"Maybe they'll find a clue about the cause of the blast," said Orkan.

"You don't think it was Mella?"

"It's possible," said Luna. "This could have been an accident."

Astro slumped. "Oh man. There I go, jumping to conclusions. I am naive." He looked at Orkan. "And I'm scared too. What if I make a mistake and it kills someone? I've done it before."

Orkan gave him an understanding nod.

Hamegg came over to where Astro, Luna and Orkan were watching everyone dealing with the aftermath of the explosion. He looked very troubled, and was carrying the head of a robot. "Astro," he said, "the fire investigator over there says that the blast occurred on the sidewalk right at the doorway."

"A bomb?" Astro asked.

Hamegg nodded. "Most likely." Turning the head around to face them, he said, "It was probably carried by the robot that used to own this head, because the police found it a little ways down the street, and I don't recognize it. Now I know I've got enemies, but I never thought they'd resort to anything as low as this. My goodness, what if the children had been home?"

"Let me see that," said Astro, and he took the head in his hands.

Instantly, the eyes lit up, and Mella's head appeared, projected above it. "My greetings to you, Berq'an," he said in Suenisian. "How do you say it in your language?" Then he said in a thickly-accented Wesaiminish, "Tag, you are it."

Orkan lunged forward and smacked the head high into the air and away, where it exploded harmlessly.

Everyone stared at the puff of smoke, then ducked as the bits and pieces began to rain down on them. Several police officers ran over to see what had happened.

"What do you know, Astro," said Luna, straightening up. "You were right."

Astro dusted some junk from his hair, frowned, and said, "You know, that creep was mocking me." Then he looked at Orkan. "You saved Hamegg. That second bomb was the sort of trick Leader would have pulled, wasn't it?"

Orkan nodded grimly, then asked, "Could you come and see me at my place this evening? I need to talk about something."

"Sure."

"What's up?" Astro asked as he settled himself cross-legged on the dirt floor of Orkan's single-roomed hut.

"You and I are both scared, right?"

"Yeah."

"I figure we shouldn't be if we're living our best destinies. After all, I'm remembering Leader just when we need the information."

"You're right. God's been giving us the tools we needed every time so we could do what had to be done."

"Including stuff we didn't even know about," linked Luna from Dr. Tenma's house, where she and Astro were now staying. "Like what happened to you and me in Al-ferq'a." Astro fed the comment through his own mouth so Orkan could hear.

"Now, did you want to talk about anything else?" Astro then asked him.

"Yes sir: the casting aside of the 'unholy ones'. You've already sent out a warning. I think we need to be ready to help them with more."

"Like how?"

"I haven't got a clue." He gave a shrug. "We'll have to trust God for that."

"I had to ask. I guess the best way to start would be for me to go talk with Ran-tan, Evan-sa, Zog, and Dragon, and get them up to speed. Then we wait."

Orkan drew a squiggle on the floor. "There's another thing bugging me, Dad. If I'm like this now, do you think I should marry Ran-tan and Evan-sa's kid?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

"Because, when we link ... when we link, it'll see Leader." He wiped out the squiggle. "I haven't linked with it since this stuff started."

Astro thought for a moment, then said, "And what about when it sees Dr. Mella? Are you going to protect it from him too?"

"You know that's different. I was Leader after all, and if Baby's a luna, she'll be marrying me. She won't do that with Mella."

"True, but you aren't Leader now; you're my adopted son Orkan."

Orkan went to say something, then stopped and scowled. "That's basically what Mom said. Okay, forget I said anything. Thanks, Dad."

"Astro," linked Luna. "What about Hamegg's place? Is there anything we can do about it?"

Astro stood beside Hamegg the next morning with his hands on his hips and staring at the exposed foundation of what had been Hamegg's building. "This place was really cheaply built," he said. "It came down like a house of cards."

"I suppose that's why I got it at such a good price back then," said Hamegg ruefully, and he nudged a piece of sheet metal with his foot. "What do you propose we do about it."

"I'm going to see if us androids can rebuild it. I remember where we took the junk from that old theatre me and Luna demolished back after Metro City fell, and maybe there's still other stuff there we could salvage for you."

"How long do you think that will take? I have the children and Zane to think about, not to mention my business."

"I know. I'll get right on it." Astro switched to radio and called, "Hey everybody. Meet me at Hamegg's lot right away. We've got work to do."

A few minutes later, he and Luna faced the other five androids. "I want you all to search Robovale for demolition and construction sites, and study what they're doing," he said. "Then come back, and we'll use your new knowledge and any material you find to put this building back up." He pointed at the pile of debris from the blast. "Me and Luna will see what info's on the web while you're away, and look through this mess to see if we can salvage anything here."

"Cool," said Zog. "Sounds like fun. Let's go." They were gone in a couple of moments.

Astro and Luna ended up spending the day digging out from the debris whatever they could find that would be useful, like bedding and clothing—since the fire caused by the bomb had been small, and was extinguished quickly—as well as Hamegg's and Zane's tools and manuals.

That evening, everybody took a look at what they'd found.

"Whoa! That's pretty good," said Zane as he admired the size of the pile.

"Yeah," said Ran-tan. "They were tearing down an old factory in the north industrial park, and they were happy to let us take whatever we wanted."

"So we took everything," said Evan-sa. "I guess we'll have to toss whatever we don't need later."

"What do you think?" said Hamegg. "Should we build it the same way as it was before?"

"I wanted to talk to you about that," said Zane. "Me and Jerry think it'd be way safer for the kids if we build the shop separately, like where your building used to be. And since we've got all this," he indicated the pile, "we could put up a place for everybody to live in in the back lot."

Ran-tan pulled out a small computer-screen projector and, connecting himself to it by radio, spread out an overhead view of the lot. "Let's see," he said. "The shop goes here ..." He waved his hand over the spot, and a grey block appeared. "The, um, dormitory would go ... here?" A larger block appeared in a back corner.

An enthusiastic discussion took off from there as decisions were made and building regulations consulted.

"Let's leave that stuff to them," said Zog to Orkan after they had watched for a while.

"Yeah," said Orkan. "They'll do fine without us." He led the way to a pile of girders, where he, Zog, Dragon, and Evan-sa with three-week-old Baby, all sat down to wait for developments.

"How you making out with Leader?" Zog asked Orkan. "You're not so depressed any more, so you must be doing okay."

"That's right; I am," said Orkan, nodding. "I think I've remembered everything now." He shuddered. "Some of it's pretty gross."

"No doubt," said Evan-sa. "From what little I've heard, he was a nasty piece of work."

"What's really incredible is that he had no interest in helping anybody else; he was in it for himself completely—the power, the wealth, the honour, the killing. I've got the memories, and I find it hard to believe that he could really have been that ... bad."

"I can't even imagine such an attitude," said Evan-sa. "I'd link to you to find out, but that's just something I don't want to get into." She called to Ran-tan, "Where's that rock you brought? Baby's hungry."

"I noticed," he replied, and pointed towards the exit to the street. "Over there."

"Thanks," she linked, and strolled over to the spot, carrying Baby. Abruptly a car pulled up beside her, and a dark-skinned man in a nice suit stepped out.

"Excuse me, young lady," he said to her. "Does Astro Tenma live around here?"

She pointed over towards the huddle in the centre of the lot. "Yeah. He's over there." She then radioed, "Hey Astro: someone here to see you."

"Thank you," said the man, and he strode over as Astro separated himself from the group.

"Joseph!" Astro said and ran over to him. "Long time, no see! What brings you here?"

Joseph's solemn expression grew grave. "Your warning came just in time to allow me to get away before the government moved in."

"Moved in? What do you mean?"

"They closed our churches, arrested our church leadership, even blamed us God-fearing folk for what Leader Orkan did."