Astro and Tobio

Chapter 2: Mastermind

"You see Astro, I owe this man my life," Tobio smiled. "He was there the day of my accident and he used his brilliance to save me from my injures." Tobio closed his eyes before continuing. "He then bribed the hospital staff to claim I was dead so he could take me away without anyone else knowing."

"Fortunately, they were all smart enough to take the money I offered them," smiled Sebastian. "If any of them had refused I would have killed them and simply taken Tobio anyway."

Astro stared at Sebastian in disbelief. His calmness as he spoke of potentially murdering innocent people was something even Astro had not witnessed before. "You'd have killed them just so you could take Tobio?" Astro uttered. "Why? You had never met Tobio before. Why was he so special to you?"

"I already planned on taking him. I needed someone with a genius mind and imagination of a child. Tobio was the perfect candidate," he explained calmly. "When an opportunity arose to allow me to take him without anyone even realising he was gone, well I could hardly let that pass by. And over the past eighteen months he and I have designed a large range of viruses that, when unleashed, will bring down the Japanese financial system. Regardless of how advanced and how well constructed the defence software programs are, the virus will dismantle them. The financial system will be ruined in a matter of hours. The Prime Minister and parliament will be rendered virtually powerless." He talked as if this was nothing more than a basic experiment.

As Sebastian spoke, Tobio's expression changed from a smile to a weary look. He prayed this would be the final time he would have to listen to Sebastian gloat. "To put it simply, he then plans to take power in a coup d'état," Tobio interjected, hoping to cut Sebastian's speech short.

"A coup d'état?" Astro exclaimed; his eyes wide. "Are you out of your mind?"

"He almost certainly is," Tobio sighed.

Astro glared at Sebastian. "It has been estimated you have earned more money than someone can spend in ten life times from the crimes you have committed. And yet you still want more, even though you will have to destroy millions of lives to get it?"

"Allow me to introduce you to a psychopath," chuckled Tobio.

Now Astro glared at Tobio. "You're a psychopath if you are willing to help him!"

A lot of weird things had happened to Astro today but he was still taken aback by what happened next. In response to Astro's statement, Tobio gave him a reassuring wink and mouthed, "I'll stop him, relax."

Astro blinked but otherwise managed not to react as Tobio stood up and walked over to Professor Sebastian. "Should we get the show on the road?" smiled Tobio, pulling a dark green memory stick from his pocket.

"Not quite yet," said Sebastian as he walked over to a long computer station and started pressing buttons on a touchscreen. After a few seconds the screen went dark except for a red button in the centre. "After you have witnessed the fall of the financial system, I will use the ring around your neck to blow your head off."

"This thing explodes?" Astro gasped in horror. His hand went to his neck and touched the ring still around his throat.

Tobio nodded. "By remote control but only when they are fastened around someone's neck. I wouldn't want them going off by accident." He jerked his head at Sebastian. "This is the one part of the ring that was his design not mine." He looked at Sebastian and held up the memory stick. "Now?"

Sebastian nodded and Tobio proceeded to insert the memory stick into a slot below another screen. Astro watched scowling. He was beginning to think Tobio had just been toying with him when he said to relax. He felt helpless lying there as he saw a loading bar appear on the screen and fill within seconds.

"That is not right. With all those viruses, even this advanced system should take a few minutes to complete the download," said Sebastian.

"Oh, I must have mixed up the memory sticks," smirked Tobio. "That must not be the one that hacks the financial system, that must be the one that hacks your computer system and gives me full control of the droids."

"It what?" said Sebastian, his voice still calm, turning to look at Tobio.

"Blast him!" shouted Tobio. One of the two droids fired a shot that struck Sebastian and he abruptly fell to the floor. "I got him," Tobio smiled. "Finally." Still smiling, he walked over to a stunned looking Astro. He pulled a key from his pocket and used it to unlock the metal ring on Astro which clattered to the floor. "Hold still for just a moment." He pressed a device to the side of Astro's neck, the same device Tobio had shown him when he first came to.

Astro felt a wave of pure bliss flow through his system. The power he felt was so strong he couldn't help immediately jumping to his feet. He looked at his hands as he felt them buzz with strength. "Wow," was all he could think to say.

"I thought you would like the feel of this device recharging your power cells," said Tobio. "Although I know it doesn't come close to making up for what I did to you earlier." He bowed to Astro. "Please accept my sincerest apologies for kidnapping you." Tobio looked over at Sebastian's limp body. "He wouldn't let me near that computer station until after I brought you to him and I couldn't get control of the droids otherwise. He would have killed me if I failed him. In fact, he was going to kill me either way."

"Kill you? I thought he saved you. Why would he do that just to murder you?" asked Astro.

"I found his plans," Tobio sighed. "He only wanted to use me as a scapegoat. He needed my fingerprints, digitally and physically, on the viruses. Then he would make my death look like suicide so no one would realise he was responsible for the financial system collapse when he was carrying out the coup. He'd be the saviour that restored everyone's wealth."

Astro glanced at Sebastian. "His plan was to frame a ten-year-old? That doesn't sound very logical for someone who could bring down the financial system."

Tobio shrugged. "A genius ten-year-old who was the son of Doctor Tenma and was seemingly back from the dead. I guess that would sound logical to a mad scientist."

"Point taken," smiled Astro. "Anyway, no problem regarding the kidnapping. Right now, I feel better than I ever have thanks to your device. My concern is the droids you sent earlier. They could have seriously hurt Zoran."

Tobio laughed, "Oh don't worry about those harmless things. I made sure their blasters were set to stun."

"Oh, I see. Well, that would explain why the shots did nothing to the buildings," said Astro with a smile. He looked at Sebastian again. "So is he only stunned then."

Tobio nodded. "Yes, but don't worry. A normal human will be out for at least an hour." He turned and smiled with satisfaction at the two droids. "It will be fun having him in court knowing that the droids he forced me to design were what finally…"

"Look out!" yelled Astro, as he jerked to shield Tobio, a bullet, which was about to embed itself in Tobio's skull, ricocheting off his face. When he turned his head, Tobio was shocked to see Sebastian sitting up with a gun in his hand.

"You two think you can get the better of me that easily?" he smirked as he moved so he was sitting leaning against the computer station.

The two droids aimed their blasters. "Oh, hold your fire," said Tobio.

"I thought you said he would be out for at least an hour," Astro frowned.

"I said a normal human would be out for at least an hour," muttered Tobio. "He is not exactly normal."

"I may be finished but I will take the two of you with me," smiled Sebastian. He reached towards the touchscreen with the red button in the centre.

"You said the metal rings can only detonate when they are locked around someone's neck, so that button is useless at the moment, right?" Astro asked uneasily.

Tobio leaned to the side so he could see passed Astro and his eyes abruptly widened. "The rings are detonated by a literal remote control. I have no idea what that button does." Tobio finished just as Sebastian pressed down on the screen, activating the button.

A loud alarm started to blare throughout the building. Astro and Tobio looked around the room. "That can't be good," they both said at the same time. They looked at each other. "What gave that away?" they said sarcastically in unison, before laughing.

"I will see you in hell!" laughed Sebastian as he put his gun to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. Astro and Tobio stared for a moment in shock.

Astro turned his hand into his blaster and blew a hole in the roof. "I think we should be making our exit now. Hold on to me," Astro instructed Tobio.

Tobio walked up behind Astro and put his arms around his neck. As he did this he called to the droids, "Evacuate the building and tell the other droids to evacuate as well."

"Roger, roger," the droids replied.

As Astro's rocket boots burst into life, he and Tobio both joked, "His/My name is Tobio not Roger."

Astro carried Tobio out of the building seconds before an explosion occurred causing the entire place to go up in flames and smoke started to billow into the sky. "What was that place," asked Astro as he moved to avoid being engulfed by the smoke.

"It was an abandoned factory until Sebastian found it," replied Tobio. "He made a secret entrance and did up the inside. With it still appearing abandoned from the outside and seemingly nobody leaving or entering, no one looked twice." As Astro listened to this, he noticed the factory had a large courtyard and surrounding it were wide roads and pavements. This result in no other buildings being damaged by the explosion or the fire due to the long distance between the factory and the neighbouring buildings.

Tobio gripped Astro's left shoulder with his right hand, his right arm still being around Astro's neck, and used his left hand to point to a small storage container at the edge of the courtyard. "Before you take me to the police, could you please let me get something from there?"

"No," Astro smirked.

"Oh please," Tobio pleaded. "I just want to get the devices I designed."

"I am fine with that," Astro smiled, "but I can't let you do that before taking you to the police on account of the fact that I am not going to take you to the police."

Tobio blinked. "But… my crimes?"

"You said he would have killed you if you had not done as he wanted and it was you who stopped him after all. I don't think the police need to know about your role in this."

Tobio breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Astro. I am forever in your debt."

As Astro descended, he and Tobio were unaware of the man wearing a trench coat and matching hat standing down a road watching them through binoculars. "It looks like my robot double fooled them," smiled Professor Sebastian as he lowered the binoculars. He had made the switch when Tobio had gone to capture Astro. He took pride knowing that Astro, the most brilliant robot ever created, and Tobio, who had lived with him for eighteen months, had both failed to tell they were speaking to a robot and not a human. He turned and walked away, chuckling to himself, "Next time Astro, next time."

Astro landed in the courtyard and Tobio quickly retrieved a cardboard box from the container. Neither wanted to stay near the burning factory for long.

When Tobio opened the box Astro was impressed at the contents. "You designed all those gadgets yourself?"

Tobio nodded. "Sebastian had them put together but I designed and programmed every part of them."

"You might be almost as brilliant as me."

"Almost?" smirked Tobio, "Please remind me who made a fool of who earlier."

"You caught me off guard. Don't let that go to your head," Astro shot back with a smile.

"Then how about a rematch later in the form of a game of chess?"

"You're on," smirked Astro. "But first there is someone I want to introduce you to."

To Be Continued…