Astro and Tobio
Chapter 11: Combined Efforts
Astro hovered over the factory where he was going to be forced to face the professor. He still had a few minutes to spare, so he went over the plan in his head. His mind travelled back to him and Tobio formulating ideas and scribbling notes. The factory was one of the places Tobio had obtained and copied blueprints and information on when he was still Sebastian's prisoner. Although there were no surveillance cameras inside, there were plenty on the outside, so no one could enter without being seen unless they used an underground passage shown on the blueprints. The passage had been added by Sebastian with the exact purpose of allowing someone to enter and leave unnoticed. Unfortunately, the passage had mostly caved in so the police could not use it. They did not have time to try and clear the blockage, and the noise this would cause risked alerting Sebastian and his droids. There was only a small gap in the rubble, just large enough for Astro. So, Tobio would enter this way while Astro kept Sebastian distracted.
At precisely the time Astro was given by Sebastian, the roof over a section of the factory began to open. Astro headed towards it. As he descended into a room with a very high ceiling, he smiled as he recalled his exchange with Tobio when they parted ways. He had said "Lets get Sebastian defeated as quick as possible, then you can be back by my side."
Tobio's face had lit up at the remark and he had smiled "Right. And since I came up with the plan, I think I'll deserve a chicken baguette." The two had burst out laughing at the joke, both pushing away the thought that this could be the last time they got to laugh together. Astro quickly returned to the present as he landed and faced the smiling professor.
Astro stood, returning Sebastian's gaze, patiently waiting for him to say something. He was in no hurry, so he was not going to say anything that might start the professor off. If he wanted to toy with him, Astro had no objection. He was happy to continue this staring contest.
As he waited, Astro took in the contents of the room, or rather the lack of contents. Besides himself and Sebastian the room was empty except for a computer station. There were no droids present, unless he had some hidden inside the computer station, something Astro doubted. 'Is he really planning on fighting me himself?' Astro wondered. He hadn't imagined he would be facing Sebastian one on one, he'd assumed Sebastian would have droids or something for him to fight. He saw Sebastian was holding an electrostaff in his righthand, currently held vertically with one end resting on the floor, and what looked like a high-tech contraption around his left arm, from his wrist to just below his elbow. 'Yes, he is,' Astro thought, answering his own question.
"I'm glad you could make it," Sebastian smiled, breaking the silence.
"You didn't exactly give me a choice," frowned Astro as he glanced up, and saw the roof close above them. "I believe the agreement was that you would release Dr O'Shay, if I came here and fought you."
"Yes, but only provided you didn't bring anyone with you, something you haven't stuck to. But don't worry, Tobio is already on his way to help O'Shay," the professor replied calmly.
"How?" Astro gasped.
"I'm afraid I was in your house when you came up with your plan. I heard every word," chuckled Sebastian.
'I knew it!' thought Astro.
"Not that I needed to. I have collected so much data on you both that I correctly predicted your entire plan in advance, but I decided not to take any chances and make sure."
"If you knew this would be our plan, why still go ahead with yours?"
"I wanted you to use that plan of course. You may have thought you were clever to work out where O'Shay was being held by using the view from the window behind him and that I would fight you in this room because of all the space, but the truth is," Sebastian's eyes grew wide with excitement and you could even hear delight in his voice, "I wanted you to work that out, so you would come up with that plan. If Tobio comes here and gets O'Shay to safety so the police can come and help you then he will be close by and easy for me to pick off once you are dead."
"So, you wanted us both but you were too cowardly to face us together," said Astro in an attempt to frustrate Sebastian.
Instead Astro was the one frustrated when Sebastian smiled, "That is correct" at him. "Rather clever of me not to put myself in unnecessary danger facing you both when I can crush you easily one by one. Thanks to this," he pointed to his earpiece, "I can hear everything going on in this building, so I will be sure to finish you before anyone else gets here. And to remove any remaining hope you might have, all communications besides those on my frequency are being jammed, so you won't be able to send any warnings."
"You are evil," breathed Astro.
"Indeed," replied Sebastian, "But ponder this before you die. If I were not evil, then I would not have been there that day to save Tobio after the accident. And if I had still been there by chance, I would not have faked his death after saving him. And if no one had believed him to be dead, you would not have been created. So, if I am evil, then at least one of you owes your life to evil."
Astro's eyes widen and his mouth opened in shock. But after a few moments his expression relaxed and he replied, "Well, since Tobio and I are only strong enough to defeat you when we team up and we are only together thanks to 'evil', then I guess you can credit evil for your downfall. Evil always brings destruction, even to itself."
Finally, Sebastian's calm demeanour faltered, a look of surprise appearing on his face as he wondered, "Why aren't you afraid?"
"Afraid of you? Not as long as I know Tobio's got my back!" Astro yelled. Sebastian's mouth opened as he remembered Tobio saying the same thing, except with Astro's name substituted in for his own. "Sebastian…"
Elsewhere, Tobio ran down the hallways of the building. He used a deactivator he and Astro had made to take care of any droids. With it shutting down robots in a short range without needing to be in contact with them, he made short work of the droids. In his other hand he held a shield, something else he and Astro had made, that could deflect any blaster fire, but he didn't need it, thanks to the deactivator. He hadn't brought the shield for himself. He looked down at the remains of Sebastian's "soldiers" as he ran passed them. He knew Sebastian could hear him, so he yelled, "Sebastian…"
And even though Astro and Tobio couldn't see each other, they both yelled the exact same thing at the exact same time, "…even if you do kill me, our combined efforts will defeat you!"
For just a moment Sebastian looked stunned. 'Perhaps, I underestimated the bond between them.' Then his calmness returned. 'It doesn't matter. I am about to sever that bond once and for all.' "If you're so sure. Then let's begin," he smiled, clicking a button on the device on his arm and the jetpack he was wearing started. He flew up and hovered in the air, his staff sparked as the two ends lit up with electricity. "Once I am finished with you, I will execute my plan to become emperor and with the funds that will be at my disposal I shall manufacture an entire droid army."
Astro flew up and around the professor. He came at him from behind but just as he was about to reach him, Sebastian swung his staff backwards. Electricity crackled as Astro was struck in the face, sending him backwards before he righted himself. Sebastian turned and smirked at him.
Astro tried again, this time moving faster. The result was the same, the staff striking Astro right in the nose. "You cannot sneak up on me Astro," said Sebastian as he turned again. "I can know where you are, using just sound."
Astro fired a laser beam at Sebastian with his hand blaster. In response, he simply raised the arm that wore his device. The beam hit a glasslike patch on the device and was absorbed. When the attack ended, the professor clicked a button and the energy was fired back at Astro, sending him spinning into the wall. He recovered, hovering in the air, glaring at Sebastian.
"You can't win because you don't have the desire to kill me," smiled Sebastian.
"I will not be like you," replied Astro through gritted teeth.
'Let's see if we can change that,' thought Sebastian. "Once I am done here I can kill Dr O'Shay and your four friends, Reno, Kenichi, Alejo and Abercrombie." Astro clenched his fists but he held his rage in check. "And," the professor continued, "Tobio will be easy prey without you helping him and with both of you gone, there will be no one left to stop me killing little Zoran!"
"No!" shouted Astro, firing his blaster. The professor blocked it just like before, but this time Astro also fired his other hand blaster. Sebastian barely moved out of the way in time. Astro then began to move his hands while still firing the beams, forcing Sebastian to swerve around in the air to avoid them. He shot a beam of energy from his device at Astro but he easily dodged it and flew straight at Sebastian, grabbing him by the chest and left arm and pushing him until he slammed against the wall. Sebastian, though, had anticipated this happening, so had designed the part of the jetpack that was against his back to be soft and cushion the blow. The jetpack itself was badly damaged by the collision.
"This is your last chance to surrender," Astro warned.
'He is still trying to avoid killing me. The fool.' "Does having power over me bring you joy? It is a shame there is one thing that can take that power away," the professor smiled. He brought his righthand to his face and used his chin to press a button on a device under his sleeve. A dark blade suddenly extended from beneath his sleeve. "Me!" he laughed, finishing his previous statement as he slammed the blade into Astro's chest.
Astro felt pain shoot through him as his chest was sliced open. "No way!" he exclaimed as he fell back, his power draining away as he crashed onto the floor.
Meanwhile, Tobio was running down another hallway, now using a blaster to fight the droids and telling Dr O'Shay the directions to get out of the building. He abruptly came to a halt. His hand flew to his chest, a look of horror on his face. He took off again even faster than before. 'Hang in there Astro.'
Sebastian landed on the ground just as his jetpack gave out. He took it off and tossed it aside. "Do you want to know what was in the briefcase from last time?" He asked as he picked up the electrostaff he had dropped and started to walk over to Astro. "Chemicals that, when mixed and reacted together in just the right way, create a substance so dense that in a sharpened form it can cut through even your metallic body," he laughed, gesturing to the blade.
Astro wasn't really listening, all he could hear was the warning Tobio had given him earlier, "Sebastian knows how to kill a robot for good. If he strikes you in the right way, your memory will be deleted and my brother will be gone forever." Astro placed his hand over his chest where his circuitry was now exposed. With this no longer protected, he had never been this vulnerable before.
Sebastian kicked his hand away and then pressed down on Astro's wound with his foot. "How does it feel when I put my foot down?" he laughed as Astro cried out in pain. He removed his foot and let Astro gasp for a few moments, before pressing the electrostaff into Astro's chest. With his system no longer protected, the pain was like nothing Astro had ever felt before. 'This is almost too easy,' thought Sebastian as he watched Astro suffer. The boy's screams and the sizzle of the electricity prevented the professor from hearing the door behind him open.
He dropped the staff and then pointed his blade at Astro's face. Drawing his arm back he laughed, "Enjoy your trip to hell."
He brought the blade towards Astro as a voice yelled, "Stop it!"
To Be Continued…