Tenma and Astro were approaching the store. Tenma looked back to his son, eyes still closed and still not moving. He sighed worryingly and looked back to the Surface. Suddenly Astro's eyes lids fluttered open. "Hmmm…" Tenma jolted back to Astro and smiled. Astro sat up and looked around. "What? Dad? What happened?"
"Astro, you're awake!" he said gleefully.
"How long was I out?" he asked, straining his back and rubbing the back of his neck.
"Around half an hour. We're nearly there. How do you feel?" as Astro rubbed the back of his neck, he felt that the infection in his neck had spread dramatically. His limbs still felt stressed and sore and he felt awfully tired. His head was fuzzy; he couldn't think straight.
"Yeah…fine." He lied. They spotted some glistening lights up ahead. Tenma smiled.
"There it is!" he exclaimed. After passing some old rusted buildings they pulled up to the supply store. Tenma hopped out and walked over to Astro's door. Astro opened it and slowly moved his legs out of the car. Tenma supported his by his shoulders. Astro tried to slide out but started to fall to the ground, but Tenma caught him and steadied his feet. "This is what you call fine?" he asked. Astro struggled a small smile. Helping his weak son along, Tenma made his way to the door of the store. He reached out and rang a doorbell. Quite an old fashion one, he noticed. They waited as some rustling and footsteps could be heard from inside, and then the door opened. Standing there was an old lady, dressed in a nice flower print purple dress with short brown hair, a little faded from age. Her blue eyes lit up when she saw them. "Why, visitors!" she said in a sweet voice. Astro lifted his head to them and stared at her. She frowned. "Yet so late at night? What may be the problem? Lost, perhaps?"
"I'm very sorry to disturb you, Miss-?"
"Oh! Just call me Rose." She answered.
"Well, apologies for the late night errand, Rose. We wouldn't be here if it weren't completely urgent." Rose looked to Astro.
"Oh my, he looks terrible…" she quivered.
"May we please come inside?" Tenma asked. She nodded quickly.
"Yes! Yes, come inside and let the young man rest!" she said, turning and hurrying into the building. Tenma helped Astro up the steps and into to the house. Inside they entered a kitchen, with white cabinets along the left and right with a blue dining table. Along the walls were pictures of Rose and another man, most probably the husband. "Come in here." Rose invited, leading them to a lounge room. In this room, a fire place was burning, along with three cream coloured couches and a shaggy warn out aqua carpet in the center. Tenma sat Astro on the couch and looked up at him with concern. Astro just took heavy breaths and blinks, each seemingly becoming more difficult. Rose walked into the kitchen and fetched a damp blue flannel. She came back and kneeled down in front of Astro, reaching out and dabbing his forehead. Astro moved his head away, pushing his back against the couch. "Ah-ah, it will do you good. What are your names again?" Rose asked Tenma.
"Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves. I am Dr. Tenma and this is Astro." Rose nodded. She tried to wet his forehead again, but Astro kept dodging, moaning tiredly. Rose reached out and held his chin, steadying his head, and wiped his face with the cloth.
"What on earth happened to the boy?" Tenma sighed. He decided not to tell her about Astro being a robot just yet, and get to the point of their problem.
"Well, that's why were here. You see, I need the proper tools to fix a Whale Ship engine."
"Oh! My daughter has the tools, and she will come with you to fix it, she's a wonderful mechanic! You know Tenma it's strange, she has the same last name as you…" Tenma jolted his head to Rose; still softly stroking Astro's face. Astro started to find this quite soothing, and took long blinks, closing his eyes and just listening, knowing that he could not respond. "Really? May we please see her? What is her name?" Tenma asked. Rose lowered the flannel and looked to the kitchen, Astro opening his eyes with a hum of confusion.
"Z!" only calling just one letter, footsteps could be heard down a long hall. Tenma stood up as a young woman appeared. His eyes widened. She was rather short, with deep brown curly locks going to her waist. Her face was pale, with a set of big, beautiful brown eyes, which reminded him of his son. Seeing him, her eyes widened too. Only one thing escaped Tenma's mouth.
"Z-Zoran?" he said in disbelief.
"Bill?" Z did the same. They took a moment, looking at each other with a shocked expression…then grinned. "OH MY GOD!" Z screamed, running up and wrapping her arms around Tenma. Rose still kneeled beside Astro, frowning in confusion. Astro winced his head towards them, feeling weaker and weaker…
"Zoran! What happened to you?" Tenma asked in a watery voice. They still hugged each other tightly, Z's head buried in Tenma's chest. She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. She sighed. "They all thought I was dead in the crash, but I was actually stranded on the Surface. My mother found me, she disappeared in 2045, remember? Anyway, well, we started a business here. I was going to come to you as soon as I had made a car, but Bill, Rose, I couldn't leave her. She's so fragile, she needs me. Oh, Bill…I-I'm so sorry…"
"No, don't be…" they hugged each other close again. "You're alive, I'm alive…it's all okay." Z sobbed a little and smiled at him.
"Mom?" Astro chocked out. Z looked over to Astro. She frowned at him and then grinned. She walked up to him. "Oh my god, Bill, is this our son?" Tenma sighed and tried to look away, covering his eyes with his hand in guilt. "Look how big you've gotten? Oh, and so handsome…" Astro looked up to Z and smiled. She looked back to Bill with a grin.
"But you told me your son was called Toby." Rose said. Tenma sighed a little to loudly. Z frowned at him.
"Bill, what's going on? What's wrong with our Toby?" she walked up to him and looked him in the eye.
"Um, Zoran…Toby…he…I…" she leaned closer.
"Yes?" Tenma took a deep breath.
"Toby passed away." He finally managed to say. Z just frowned and looked back to Astro.
"Bill, that's absurd. He's right here, pure proof he's still living." She defended, walking back over to Astro and placing her hand on his shoulder. Tenma took another breath, this one more difficult. He walked up to Z and held her hands. Looking up into her big eyes, he finally confessed. "Zoran…Toby died, this is…a…a…"
"You can tell me, Bill…" Z's words spoke one thing but her expression showed another, like she didn't want to know.
"He's a…a robot." Even though Tenma deliberately made the word softer, Z's eyes still bulged out. She gasped and looked at Astro. Rose looked at him in shock and moved a bit away. Z kneeled down to him and looked up at his face. "T-T-Toby?" she quivered. Astro's mind by then just made everything a blur; he didn't know what was happening and lost all his senses of what was going on around him. Bill came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. But she pulled away from it, turning to him. "Bill…" she said in a quivering voice. "What have you done?" she whispered. Tenma sighed and looked at Astro. He was getting weaker.
"Z, there's something wrong with him-"
"Well yeah there's something wrong with him!" Z argued, standing up. She pointed to Astro accusingly. "OUR SON IS A ROBOT! WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING? HOW DID HE DIE IN THE FIRST PLACE?" she yelled in his face.
"Calm down…"
"CALM DOWN? ARE YOU CRAZY? I leave and you go and get our son killed!"
"ZORAN!" Bill yelled, grabbing her shoulders. "Astro is gravely ill. Can you help me find the problem?" Z scowled at him and looked back to the weak robot. Looking at how much he looked liked Toby just made her eyes swell up with tears. How long has he been living with that thing? She couldn't bare the thought of it. She pulled away from is grasp and walked over to Astro. "Well, only because its my job. And it's Z, NOT Zoran…" she remarked, picking Astro up with arm under legs and hand behind back. The sound of his robotic limbs whirring as she moved him made her angry, but looking into his near death face made her feel sorrow and the urge to hurry. She looked at Tenma with a scowl, but quickly dropped it and sighed. "Com'on. Follow me." Rose got up to follow. "Mom, no. Its late at night, why don't you go and get some sleep?" she more of ordered then asked. Seeing already the extreme awkwardness of the situation, she nodded and walked down the hall. Z led Tenma to a set of stairs. "This is the lab." She said as they walked down them, entering a room quite like Tenma's back in Metro City, with many high tech desks, boxes full of tools and a huge lab table in the center. She walked to the table and placed Astro on it, lying him on his back. "Very impressive…" Tenma complemented.
"So…" Z sighed, clicking metal cuffs attached to the table across one of Astro's wrists. "How is everyone? Dr. Elefun?" Tenma nodded, watching Z from a distance.
"Yes, everyone is fine."
"So… tell me what the hell happened." She ordered, bending another cuff over Astro's ankle. He sighed.
"It was President Stone's Peace Keeper." She turned to him.
"Whose Stone? What happened to Harry?" she asked, walking over the over side of the table. Astro moaned in exorsted pain. Hearing him made Z frown, forcefully slamming another cuff over his wrist. "Stone is the most utterly horrible person you could ever imagine. Toby followed me to the Ministry of Science, where the Peace Keeper got out of control and he got stuck behind the emergency glass wall. Look Z, I don't know what came over me…" Z looked up from Astro's ankle with a hand on her hip.
"Look, if you regret it then why don't we just shut him down now?" she asked. Tenma looked to her in alarm.
"NO! Z, that's not the end of the story. Astro is powered by the BlueCore, a very rare substance. I downloaded all of Toby's memories into Astro, and he unfortunately fell out of his bedroom window, finding out his rocket boots…" Z looked to Astro, bending the last cuff and smiled. Just the thought of her son falling out of his window and wondering why flames were coming out of his feet made her laugh. Tenma looked up, confused at the laughter. She smiled. "That's sounds very much like Toby to me!" she laughed.
"Yes well, after that I rejected him, feeling exactly what you feel now. He was never, and never will be, Toby. Long story short, Z, Astro went to the Surface trying to escape Stone who was trying to get the BlueCore. He went through a lot of pain, being rejected again by his only friends when they found out he was a robot, being put into the Robot Games in brutal battle, and then having me deactivate him. And yet, he doesn't blame anyone accept him self, for not being a better Toby. " Z looked to Astro and stroked his fore head. Astro looked up at her with tired eyes and smiled a bit. "He saved the city, but most if all, he saved me. He taught me that when you think you're at the very bottom of life, the good thing is you can only travel up." By now tears were dripping down Z's face. She ran up to Tenma and hugged him. He hugged her back.
"He's a better Toby then ever for Me." she whispered. She looked back to him. Suddenly the infection chips struck. Astro's body got electrocuted horribly.
"AHHH!" Astro tensed his arms, being held down by the cuffs. Tenma and Z raced up to him. They looked at him in alarm.
"Oh God…ummm…THERE!" Z said, pointing to a box of tools. "Look in there and try and find a deactivate machine!" Tenma nodded, running up to the box and grabbed a small device, coloured blue with a long horizontal pole poking out. He ran back and slowly lowered the machine to Astro's chest…
In the car, Zoran was awakening. Her eye lids fluttered open. "Hmm… what?"
"ZORAN!" everyone cheered. Sluch hugged her. "Dude, you're awake!" Zoran looked around, her body still feeling weak.
"Whoa. Where are we?" she asked. "I didn't know they could re-model a mall that quickly…" they laughed.
"No, Zoran." Cora said. "We're on our way to Tenma and Astro. They're somewhere along the Surface."
BEP! BEP! BEP! BEP!
Cora's phone suddenly went off, the red dot showing there location flashing. "We're near." She said. Zane nodded and sped up a little. Suddenly Zoran's body was covered in electricity.
"AHH!" she screamed, jolting her legs and arms. All the kids moved away, trying not to get electrocuted them selves.
"ZORAN!" they gasped.
"AHH…MAKE IT STOOOPP! AHH!"
"There it is!" Cora pointed to the old store just ahead. Zane started slowing down as they pulled up to it.
Blue electricity clicked and the electrocuting stopped, Astro falling limp and unconscious. Tenma and Z looked at each other breathing heavily from the sudden attack. "What was that?" Tenma asked. Z shrugged.
"It must also be the thing contributing to the weakness and ill appearance to Astro." she smiled. "Astro…" she repeated, as if trying the new name out.
"I jut don't understand…" Tenma said, shaking his head. Z reached out and turned Astro's head for her eyes to meet with the chipped area. She gasped. It looked horribly painful. The small ditch in his skin had electric blue lines erupting, reaching to the base of his hair. She softly ran her fingers across. The lines felt like grooves as if someone had imprinted with a knife. "Um, Bill?" Tenma looked over and saw the injury. "I think we found our problem."
"DR. TENMA!" both of them turned towards yelling and the start of the stairs. There was Zane, Sluch, Widget, Cora and Ember, with Zoran in the arms of Zane. "Kids? What are you doing here?" Tenma asked. They ran up to the lab table.
"Zoran's passed out again!" Widget cried.
"Was there electricity?" Tenma asked. They nodded. "Then you were right, Cora. Astro and Zoran must feel the same thing…Z, help us save Zoran, too."
"You mean she's another robot?" Z asked. He nodded.
"Astro found her outside our apartment building."
"Who are they?" Z asked, looking at the children while Tenma ran over to the other side of the lab to a sliding table. He pushed it along until it was beside Astro. "Place her there." he said, wiping his fore head.
"Well, we're all friends of Astro's. I'm Cora." She said.
"I'm Zane, and that's Sluch and Widget, the twins."
"I'M OLDER THEN HER!" Sluch exclaimed. Widget pushed him.
"By NINETY SECONDS!" she yelled. Sluch huffed and crossed his arms.
"Jealous much…" he smirked. Z laughed. Cora pointed to Ember.
"And that's Ember." she rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." They all looked to Z.
"Who are you?" they asked.
"Well, I'm Zoran, like your friend there, but do call me Z. I'm Astro's mother. Well, Toby's mother, but I'm getting used to Astro…" all their moths gaped open.
"But…but…" Zane pointed.
"Astro said you were dead!" said Ember. Z smiled.
"Nope. Now com'on, we've got for important matters to deal with. Astro is, well, dying. Your friend Zoran looks much better then him, though. I'll have to run a scan."
"But if they feel the same thing then why is Astro more ill?" Zane asked.
"That's why we're running a scan, to get to the bottom of this." Tenma said, walking over to a control board. A light shined on the tabled and moved down their bodies, and then disappeared. Cora went up to Astro's face and stroked his cheek. She sighed. "Com'on…don't give up…" she whispered to him. As if on cue, Astro's eyes flickered open, same as Zoran. Ember, Sluch and Widget went up to Zoran, while Zane joined Cora. "Cora?" Astro asked. Zane patted him on the shoulder.
"We're all here for ya." He said comfortably. Zoran looked to the faces surrounding her. She exhaled a long breath and stretched her arms.
"I wasn't sleeping…" she mumbled.
"Oh no…oh god no…" They all looked towards Z and Tenma, staring at the scan results.
"What?" Cora asked urgently. The two scientists turned to the desperate kids with a frightened expression.
"Infection chips…there in Zoran's system. But the two robots have the identical personality chips, so they do feel the same pain. The thing is that Astro also has another infection on the back of his neck from a dis-power machine."
"Mrs. Harris used that!" Widget gasped. Ember started to punch her fist against her palm.
"She is SO going down…" she mumbled.
"And also the infection chips are headed for Astro's BlueCore. Because Astro has so much more…its sure to destroy all of his systems." Z said sadly. Cora gasped and looked down to Astro. Astro, hearing this, looked at her with fear.
"What? My brother cant die!" Zoran whined, kicking her legs.
"How can we save him?" Sluch asked in a quivering voice. Z and Tenma looked at each other.
"The only solution is to give him more power. That will kill the infection chips."
"Then let's hurry and get some power hooked up!" Cora urged, looking around in distress.
"No, Cora. It has to be the same energy. And we have no more BlueCore." Tenma shook his head. Zoran hopped off the lab table and weakly hobbled over to her brother. They all surrounded him, Z and Tenma walking over as well. Zoran shook her head and hugged him. "You'll never leave me, right?" she cried. Astro smiled.
"No, I'll always be with you…" he whispered. Cora breathed heavily.
"W-we can get Zog down here! He has some more in him!"
"Cora, Zog's all the way back at Hamegg's…" Sluch whispered, placing her hand on Cora's shoulder.
"Well, how long do we have? We can try! If we just-"
"Cora…" Z said. Cora looked up to her, tears swelling up in her eyes. "Umm, he's got about ten to fifteen minutes left…" everyone's eyes widened. They looked to Astro, taking deep breaths and looking at Cora.
"Well," he said. "A life has to end some day…it just so happened to be me today…"
"Hero's don't talk like that Astro." Ember spoke up. Astro looked to Ember; for the first time shedding tears.
"You all are the best friends anyone could ever need. And you tell Conner nerds will avenge." Ember scoffed out a small laugh. Tenma smiled. Astro looked to him. A tear was streaming down his face. "Great scientists aren't supposed to cry…" Astro mumbled.
"Yes, but a farther has all the right to." He answered back. Astro smiled and looked to Z.
"You have to look after Zoran for Me." he said. She nodded.
"I promise." Astro laid his head back for a bit, feeling weakened. He looked to Zoran.
"I've always wanted a sibling." He said. "And you're the best sister anyone could ever ask for. Now don't get into any more trouble with Mrs. Harris, okay?" in an answer Zoran buried her face on Astro's shoulder and nodded. Astro looked over to Cora. Cora looked back. Astro took a deep breath.
"I think I may have found the words that are good enough for you…" he tried to say, but it came out as a whisper. Cora sobbed more.
"Ah-huh?" she nodded.
"I…I…" he didn't finish the sentence, as the infection chip had reached the BlueCore. They penetrated it, slowly destroying the fallen star. Astro moaned as blue lightning bolts started to show up on his body. "AHH…AHHH…" all anyone could do was watch. Except Widget, who buried her head in Sluch's arms. Cora looked into the face of her best friend, and scenes flashed before her eyes.
When they first met, untangling him from the robot net.
FLASH.
Astro, dusting his hands together as he walked back up the hill, behind him a now working Zog.
FLASH.
Their first kiss in the RRF hide out.
FLASH.
Them talking on the car, and when he finally got her phone to work using his BlueCore…
WAIT.
Cora thought for a bit. She looked back to Astro, his movements becoming slower and slower. Zoran grabbed his arm as the electricity died down. "Astro!" she cried. "No! Astro!" Z hugged Tenma, crying. Astro leaned his head to the side as his final seconds came.
"WAIT!" Cora yelled franticly, digging her hand in her pocket to retrieve her phone.
"911 aren't going to help, Cora…" Zane said.
"No, drone brain, my phone! Astro used his BlueCore to get it working again!" Z and Tenma's eyes lit up.
"How much would be in there?" Z asked desperately. Astro was getting weaker and weaker, his eyes closing and his body finally relaxing, only a few glitches of blue energy erupting from his chest. "He's got it started twice now." Cora answered quickly.
"It will work! Save my brother!" Zoran answered for the two scientists. Cora leaned over to Astro, holding the phone over his chest. Everything went silent. She reached out and lifted his heavy head to hers. More tears streamed down her face. "Com'on…com'on, com'on, com'on…" she whispered. Everyone leaned in closer…
Nothing.