It was early morning. VERY early morning. The sky was just getting it's colours of light pink and blue. Cora's parents were practically drowning in their nervousness. Cora's dad, Mr. Jade, scrunched up his black hair in agony. "What could have happened to her?" Mrs. Jade walked across the blue tile kitchen to her husband, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Honey, it'll be okay!"

"OKAY?" he gestured to outside, a rumble on the earth sending the objects in the kitchen to rattle. "LOOK OUTSIDE! Metro City is getting destroyed as we speak!" Mrs. Jade frowned.

"Well, perhaps she ran unto Astro and they-" Mr. Jade smashed his hand on the table.

"ASTRO? I do NOT trust that kid!" he yelled.

"Well, he's not a kid, he's a robot, which means he can protect her."

"I don't care! From now on I will not-"

His anger was suddenly swallowed up by cheering from outside. The two shared a glance at each other before racing to the window. In the distance, a few giant buildings away, was the BlackBott, smashing its way through the city. But people were gathering out onto the streets, as a car zoomed across, on its way towards the killing machine. And behind it, flying at close range, was Astro Boy. The people were going crazy.

"GO GET 'EM ASTRO!"

"SAVE US!"

"CHUCK THAT BARSTARD WHERE HE BELONGS!"

"Oh sure..." Zane mumbled from the drivers seat. "Cheer him and not us..." Cora smiled and looked out her fully down window, to then see a familiar face at the back of the crowd. Her eyes widened.

"Oh no..." she gulped. Sluch looked over with Ember.

"What?"

"My parents..."

"CORA!" Mrs. Jade screamed out, causing much attention to be drawn at the parents.

"SORRY MOM!"

"YOU ARE SO GROUNDED!" Cora bit her lip. Everyone in the car stared at her. She frowned.

"Well, what are you waiting for? PEDAL TO THE METAL!" Zane jolted his foot on the accelerator and the car zoomed over to the killing machine. Astro landed on the road.

"Everyone, stay calm and please return to your houses!" Mr. Jade stepped forward in the middle of the speech.

"Astro, you don't come near my daughter!" Astro's calm face remained.

"Sir, I shall have to get back to you on that one,"

"YOU DISRESECTFUL-!"

"Okay! Hope we are all clear!" Mr. Jade took a threatening step forward. Astro's eyes widened.

"Oh shit-" he quickly jetted off into the sky as the people started to return quickly to their houses. Mr. Jade continued to yell.

"IF YOU HAVE GOT OUR DAUGHTER INTO DANGER, THEN YOU'LL WISH YOU'D NEVER BEEN MADE!"

"Zane, speed up." Cora ordered, leaning over the seat. Zoran squinted her eyes.

"And turn the head lights on! I can't see a thing!"

"I can't! The thing will see us!" Zane reasoned. Suddenly a huge black arm out of nowhere came and swung for the car.

"AHHHH!"

Zane quickly switched the lights on and swerved to the right...heading straight for a building.

"OKAY! BLACKBOTT OR BUILDING?"

"ZANE!"

CRUNCH!

The car suddenly jolted and the back of it started to cave in. Slowly, they got pulled backwards...

"Umm, why are you reversing?" Sluch asked, voice quivering. The all slowly looked out the back window to see what was expected, but dreaded. The giant red eye of the BlackBott. The booming voice was thrown at them.

"COME HERE YOU LIL RATS..."

"HEY!" Astro came powering at the arm, accelerating speed more and more. Black only grinned as he raised his other mechanical limb, poising it to his head as he charged. Just as Astro was about to make contact, a huge red force field shot out of the claws.

"ARRG!" Astro got blasted back, smashing into a building. Zoran gasped and pulled the back door open. She took a deep breath, and screamed as hard as she could.

Z twitched her fingers nervously as they all watched the news.

'OH! And Astro gets blown into the building!'

Z gasped and grabbed Tenma's arm. He looked down to her. "Bill, our baby's getting thrashed out there!" she cried. Tenma leaned close to her ear.

"Let's go." They both looked around the Whale Ship, before scampering over to the car storage room. A hand came down on his shoulder before they could disappear out the room.

"Tenma..."

Dr. Jet.

"Emma, I have to-"

"I know. Just," her eyes glinted with concern, "Be careful."

With a nod they raced down to the stairs and up to one of the small cars. Tenma was about to jump in the drivers' seat when he got pulled back. Z eagerly slipped in instead. "I'm driving." With a shake of his head and a smile, he quickly walked over and got in the passenger seat. The alarms sounded once again and the large pass way opened up. With a rev of the engine, Z squealed the car off to Metro City, the place she once called home.

Conner nit his nails frantically. He was staring out his window nervously, watching small glances of the fight. His window suddenly started to wobble and crack as a deafening scream could be heard. "AH! They're in trouble!" the nerd raced over to is door and pulled it open, running down to his front door, before first going into the study. In one of the corners was one of his inventions. Because he wasn't one of the most richest family (and due to his mother being a complete safety freak) Conner could buy his own hover board. So, he made one. He dashed over to the neon-green and black board, and ran out the door, not even making his parents on the couch flinch.

"Zane, land this thing!" Cora ordered from the back as the robot still grasped on to the helpless car. Zane was pressing down on the pedal as much as his muscles allowed him.

"I'M TRYING!"

Zoran ran out of breath and sucked in more air. Astro activated his rockets and shot out his arm cannon, aiming for Black in his chair. The BlackBott pulled back.

"Why, Astro mate! No need to get all 'arm cannon' on me!" the voice sounded again, dripping with sarcasm. Astro just scowled with determination and shot the blue orbs, blasting over to the giant machine. But, once again, they just exploded on the blood red force field. His shoulders dropped. "This is gonna be a little harder than the last one..."

The BlackBott charged for the small robot, releasing Hamegg's car, which shot forward, headed for the building.

"WHOAAA!" Zane quickly pulled down, zooming into a narrow ally way and parking, shutting the lights off. They all eagerly jumped out, setting some distance from the car. Enclosed spaces didn't seem the way to go. Zoran didn't even give a warning before fleeing over to help Astro. Ember reached out to grab for her, but she was too fast.

"Zoran!" Widget cried. Cora scrunched her hair, walking around in the semi-darkness.

"Astro won't be able to beat that thing!" she screamed.

"He...could die?" Widget whimpered. Ember crossed her arms.

"Wouldn't be as interesting if he couldn't." The small girl let out a cry.

"HEY! Losers!" they all flinched to the sound from the black corners of the ally way. The voice was familiar...annoyingly familiar. "Keep it down!" shouted another desperate voice that made their ears prick up. Emerging from the dark...came Bruss.

Zane's shoulder's dropped.

"YOU?" he cried. Bruss looked just as un-grateful. From beside him came Keel and Luna.

"You guys? Orrrrr, that's just perfect that is! Last minuets alive and I get to spend it with the out casts!"

"Like, who's there?" Cora's eyes narrowed as Zibby, Amanda, Lisa and Stacy walked forward. Zibby stopped stroking her hair as she saw Cora. Her pupils narrowed and her body tensed, like a viper ready to strike.

"Zibby..." Cora addressed bitterly.

"Cora..." Zibby said with just as much poison in her voice. A loud explosion sounded from the fight, along with a powerful sonic scream from Zoran.

"What are you doing here! This is OUR hiding spot!" Bruss argued. Zane snorted.

"Oh look, Big Bruss is hiding! Poor baby..." Bruss stepped forward as a threat.

"Can it scavenger!"

"HEY!" Cora yelled, confronting Bruss. "Just because we're DIFFERENT from you Metro City kids, doesn't mean we're FREAKS or SCAVENGERS!"

"Errr, yeah, it kinda DOES."

"Yo, all you losers and putta sock in it!" Ember suddenly blurted out. They all looked to her. "Astro and Zoran are fighting for the safety of Metro City and thousands of lives, while we're all here fighting about where we come from, like it even matters! God you guys are racist..." Zane stepped up.

"Ember's right, we need to help Astro somehow."

"HOW?" Keel said.

"That's kind what I just asked..."

"We need a plan." Sludge piped up.

"Leave this for the big kids, shorty." Amanda snapped.

"Leave this for the smart ones, Blondie." Ember smugly replied. Amanda only responded in a flick of her hair and a fiddle with her nails.

"So, how do we defeat this thing?"

"GUYS!" they all looked around to where the sudden voice was. But no-one was there.

BEEP!

Slowly, they look up.

There was Tenma and Z, their car floating above the ally way. With a shuffle of legs the kids all crowded together while the car hovered down and landed. Cora and Zane's eyes lit up as the two people emerged from the car.

"Tenma!"

"Z!"

"Hello, kids!" Z said, walking over with her husband. Bruss' gang and the Blondies frowned.

"Z?" Luna said slowly.

"Who the heck are you?" Stacy asked rudely. Z examined her. Oh God. She knew their type from her high school years.

"I am Astro's mother, if you must know." She ignored their stares of disbelief and proceeded on to more familiar faces.

"Z, I don't think Astro and Zoran beat the BlackBott without some help." Cora informed. She looked scared for them, and she was almost more. I mean, she had just got to know her new son and daughter, and almost immediately they're in a life or death situation. Tenma rubbed his temple for a bit, walking away from the group to gather his thinkings. Suddenly, yet another voices sounded.

"HEY! I FOUND YOU GUYS!" The voice was immediately recognizable. Ember shot her head up to Conner and put her fingers to her lips.

"Shhh! Hiding from DEATH here!" Bruss groaned.

"We got loser central here!"

"Yeah, and you're the star attraction..." Zane smirked. Conner quickly jumped off his hover board and ran up to be apart of the group.

"I don't see how we can totally smash this Black guy!" Zibby said, gesturing to the giant machine.

"We're gonna loose fro sure..." Keel shook his head.

"No we're not." Tenma spoke up. They all looked to him.

"Umm, HOW?" Tenma motioned for them to gather closer. "I've got a plan..."