Sushi Train had been a grand place back in its heyday. Recognized by most everyone, the main attraction (spare for the food itself) was the neon lit lights that bordered the building from roof to foundation that made the sushi joint appear more like a 1950's diner. Ten years of being abandoned did not give the poor restaurant any sympathy; most of the roof had caved in, none of the neon lights were in a single piece and littered the ground unceremoniously, the sign that used to stand tall no matter what was now snapped in two with the screen that displayed opening times flickered with a numb life that still lingered. Suffice to say, a fence had been erected around the property to keep someone from getting hurt as nature let the building simply fall away.
Astro walked up to the fence and looked around. It certainly didn't look like anyone had been there for a while. Without a second thought, Astro placed his hand on the fence to get a better look at the building but the fence shocked him, much to his surprise, and Astro leapt away from the fence. From there, that was when he noticed an electric ticker that had been placed on the fence to keep unwanted intruders out.
"Yeah, I have an advanced AI." Astro muttered to himself bitterly, his sarcasm reaching high levels of cynicism as well. "I'm so smart that I like getting zapped by electric fences. It's like licking a spark plug, humans call them lollipops I think."
After taunting himself, Astro performed a scan of the fence for any other obstruction. There didn't seem to be another other warning to keep him out if he could go over the fence, as long as it didn't touch the fence himself, theoretically he would be fine… Right? Astro shook his head, getting the thought out. The android then took a few steps back and got a running start before activating his rocket boosters to get himself over the fence unscathed. Gently, Astro's feet touched the ground again on the other side. Almost immediately thereafter, a pure pellet of energy nearly hit Astro by a fraction of a centimeter. Then another energy pellet tried to hit Astro, then another in the opposite direction. Immediately, Astro activated his rocket boosters to get out of the line of fire, but the automated weapon system had a lock on him, and the pellets soon came from every direction.
Quickly calculating another route, Astro found that the best way to get through the defense system was to simply run for it. Using his boosters when he could, Astro tried his best to dodge the pellets as they came after him. Astro made it through the front door of the shutdown joint almost as a pellet grazed across his back. After he shut the doors shut and tight as he could, Astro let out a sigh of relief as he ran a diagnostics check on himself. Apparently, he had been hit just a little around his ankle, but it didn't seem to distort or change anything about his walking pattern so Astro chose to believe that it was nothing more than a scratch. After this, Astro took a look at the abandoned serving area of Sushi Boat.
Much like the outside, the inside of the old conveyor belt sushi place used to be very grand; two separate conveyors were arranged like a horseshoe, the center of the horseshoe was where the drinks and condiments were held on a large pedestal that was decorated at the sides and on top to show what the menu was. There were counter seats on the outer parts of the horseshoe, each seat was decorated with a napkin and some silverware as if they were still waiting for costumers to come in like in the old days.
The interior made Astro feel upset at the state the old place was left in, but as his eyes drifted to the conveyor belt, he realized that was sat there weren't the typical plates used. On the conveyor belt were robot parts. Stolen robot parts.
Astro carefully got a closer look to analyze which robots the parts came from. In a few seconds, Astro became aware that the parts were al from the stolen robots reported to the Metro City police. The android then looked along the conveyor belt to confirm that all the parts displayed had been stolen from a robot somewhere in Metro City. Astro followed the serving side of the conveyor belt system that led into the once kitchen. There in the kitchen was where Astro found some of the missing robots, all shut down, and a few where cut and sliced in horrible positions in process of having their guts ripped out of them. Horrified, Astro's eyes widened as he took nearly frozen steps backward, accidently tripping a trap that covered over top of him and began to buzz with a deadly electrical current.
"Congratulations." a voice said from the shadows. "You're pretty impressive for being such a small robot. Didn't think you had it in you really- considering all the… other mishaps that have happened around here before…"
"Show yourself!" Astro demanded, trying to sound braver than what he actually was. Complying at his own time, a man with a round, boyish face stepped out from the dark corner of the deserted kitchen. A thick mop of brown, shaggy hair was hidden underneath a black trilby hat.
"Skunk!" Astro exclaimed when he recognized the man from his mugshot. The criminal tipped his hat.
"The one and only you stupid little ro-" Skunk started to boast before he had a good look at Astro. Skunk placed his hat back on his head and got closer to Astro and looked him over before saying, "Stupid little human."
Astro found himself giving Skunk a boastful scoff. "You can't tell the difference between a human kid and a robot?" Astro cheekily questioned.
"Not sure." Skunk told him, recoiling a bit with a certain sneer on his lips. "Because, you see kid, it's illegal for robots to look human in Metro City. Something about the citizens not enjoying the uncanny valley very much; almost outlawed Barbie dolls and the like before if I remember history right."
"And what would you do if I was a robot?" Astro challenged. Skunk raised an eyebrow.
"It's quite simple really." The criminal told the android patiently as he pulled out a small remote from his coat pocket. "I just press this little button here on my remote, and it causes the little cage you're in to give a certain little buzz that can neutralize any robot and drain their battery. If you're human, it wouldn't hurt (obviously) but if you were a robot…"
Suddenly, Astro's confidence and bravery completely ran in the opposite direction as Skunk's thumb lingered over the button.
"B-but what if it does hurt me, and I'm human?" Astro asked. Skunk simply laughed.
"Then you fail to understand that I've tested it on myself." He said in a dangerously charming tone. "And I didn't feel a thing- ergo, if you are human, it wouldn't hurt at all. Kapeesh?"
Doing all in his power not to let out a squeak of fear, Astro watched as Skunk pressed the button on the remote and almost immediately Astro went down in pain. A code imbedded in sound waves that the cage gave off rushed through every part in his body and slowly ate away at most of it to shut him down.
"Well lookie here." Skunk then said as he released his thumb from the button. "Looks like we got ourselves a little humanoid robot. I wonder, just how much they'll pay for you outside of this regrettable city…"
Astro groaned as he looked up at Skunk, giving an expression of pain and anger as the android went into emergency shut down.