A/N: I have no excuse. I hit a massive wall of writer's block then became very busy the past 3 years owning/running/updating an online game.

I've been on a huge Astro Boy binge the past couple of months and I took some time away from the game to work on this. My writer's block disappeared and I took full advantage of it, writing the last couple of pages of this within a few weeks. Yay me...?

I hope you enjoy the latest chapter! (Remember, if you kill me for not getting this done for...5 years...then I'll never be able to finish it!)

Disclaimer: Osamu Tezuka has the glorious honour of owning Astro Boy/Tetsuwan Atom, despite the fact that he is gone. I simply borrow his amazing characters now and then.

Chapter Three: Odd Occurences

The streets of Metro City were, as usual, busy, despite the early hour. When Astro had first showed Zoran around the city properly, she had been amazed by the amount of traffic. Astro had told her, "That's called rush hour traffic, except it's like that most of the time." Zoran hadn't really understood back then, but she certainly did now. She giggled as Astro's words came back to her, causing Astro and Dr. O'Shay to look at her oddly.

"Something wrong, Zoran?" O'Shay asked.

She shook her head. "No, nothing at all."

Astro wondered if Zoran had her own build up of energy that she could somehow access. It would certainly explain why his sister was rather hyper. He pushed the notion from his mind and contributed her strange enthusiasm and giggling to the simple fact that Zoran, despite being a robot, was a girl. Every boy in his class, including Astro himself, knew that sometimes girls were just plain weird.

Aside from the small spate of giggles that erupted from Zoran, the car ride to the Ministry was silent; each occupant of the vehicle dwelling upon their own thoughts. Zoran was thinking about all the things in the shops she could gawk at, and wondering how much money she could coerce Astro and Yuko to spend on her. O'Shay's thoughts kept lingering on the foot-tall stack of papers that awaited him in his office.

Astro's thoughts were much less simplistic. The doctor had told him to avoid using his powers until a solution for his stored energy could be found. But what would happen if a situation arose today where he would have no choice but to use his abilities? 'Dr. O'Shay would be mad at me for disobeying him, but there's no way I could stand back and watch something happen like that. I've never been able to sit idly by on the sidelines.'

That scenario begged the question of what would happen to him if he activated his powers. Would he fry from the inside out like Dr. O'Shay theorised? Astro didn't fancy testing that particular theory, so he found himself hoping desperately that the day went by with no major incidents.

The car pulled up at the Ministry and the three exited the vehicle, walking through the large entrance doors. They headed for the nearest elevator, returning any greetings they received. O'Shay took a deep breath before opening the door to his office and stepping inside.

Yuko was standing beside his desk; Momo faithfully at her side. After some greetings were exchanged, Yuko watched O'Shay get started on his paperwork. She told Momo to make sure he finished it, the bird-like robot chirping an affirmative. Yuko then lead the robot siblings back out of the building and into her car, driving it as far as the main shopping area.

Once the three reached the shopping area, Zoran bounded off ahead with a wide, happy smile plastered on her face. Astro wasn't exactly thrilled with things in general, but he followed his sister politely as his manners dictated. Yuko was not so restrained. Her face held a small, irritated frown, but Zoran's happy vibes were slowly infecting Yuko. Before long, she found herself smiling helplessly at the young robotic girl.

"Hey, get back here with that!"

The shout came from a little further ahead and instantly gained the attention of all three along with a few others. A young boy who looked to be eleven or twelve was running in their direction. Astro sighed as his chances of a peaceful outing began slipping down the drain.

"Stay where you are!" the boy hollered back.

Astro, saviour of Metro City, took a step forward but stopped. The boy was grinning and holding a ball aloft. He spun to face back the way he had come, waiting for something.

"Why?" shouted the voice, not quite as loud this time.

"I wanna see how well this thing bounces!" the boy replied.

Astro breathed an internal sigh of relief; the boy was only playing with his friend. He frowned lightly as he realised just how deeply his energy situation was affecting him. Zoran resumed her bouncing and Astro shook off his unpleasant thoughts as he walked alongside Yuko.

It only took a couple of more minutes for the three to reach the new store that Zoran had been talking about. The window display was full of cute, girly things, and Astro had to hide his look of horror.

Yuko put a hand on his shoulder. "I think we'll be alright in the shop without a bodyguard," she said with a smile, giving him a quick wink.

"Right, I'll stand guard out here just in case," he replied with a smile.

Yuko nodded and entered the shop, leaving Astro to his own devices. He knew his little sister would be a while, so he sat down on a bench a short distance away and looked around in an attempt to distract himself. No matter which direction he looked the scene was the same: ordinary people going about their daily lives.

Utterly boring.

Astro groaned and let himself sink down a bit until his head was resting on the back of the bench. He found himself gazing at the clouds, wondering how humans could pick shapes out of the masses of white. Astro let his eyes roam over the various puffs of white and tried to find any sort of recognisable shapes. After a solid two minutes of seemingly fruitless searching Astro gave it up as a lost cause, filing the activity away in a mental folder he had labelled 'human oddities'.

Astro brought his right arm up and closed his eyes, draping his forearm over them. This was not how he wanted to spend his day. Though there had been that one cloud that resembled Tenma's hair…

"What a distasteful attitude!"

Astro put his arm down and opened his eyes at the sound of Yuko's voice. Upon spotting her, Zoran trailing at her heels, it was not hard to tell that she was upset. Her eyebrows were drawn into a frown and her arms were crossed. Her entire demeanour screamed 'I am offended'.

"What's wrong?" Astro asked, walking up to the pair. He was thankful that they had finished so quickly, but if having Yuko upset was the price to pay to cut the trip short… To Astro there were some prices that he simply would not pay.

"It's nothing for you to worry over Astro. The lady behind the counter is one of those people with a dim view of robots is all. She served Zoran, though she did nothing to hide her contempt," Yuko said, some anger leaking through to colour her words.

Astro frowned but didn't say anything. Even though robots now had the same rights as humans, there would always be those who thought robots were simply machines to be used by humans and were to be shown the same level of respect that people gave to a toaster. There was nothing Astro could do except hope that these people changed their views.

"Is there anywhere else you'd like to go?" he asked Zoran while glancing discreetly at the small, solitary plastic bag she was holding onto.

"There's just one more shop that I wanted to visit," she admitted.

It was strange seeing the normally hyper girl subdued. The attitude didn't suit her at all and Astro sent a glare at the new store. He curled his hands into fists but forced himself to relax. There was nothing he could do and the helpless feeling did not sit well with him.

"Lead the way," he said, turning to Zoran with a smile on his face. He may not have been able to do anything about the lady, but he could certainly try to cheer his little sister up.

A grin slowly crept across Zoran's face and she nodded, turned on her heels, and briskly walked away. She stopped a few feet away and glanced back, continuing on once she affirmed that Astro and Yuko were following.

"That was very sweet of you," Yuko whispered to Astro.

"What? I didn't do anything," he replied with an innocent smile. His eyes, however, danced with a sly grin partially hidden within their depths. He jogged after his sister, calling for her to slow down a bit.

Yuko shook her head and increased her pace, softly humming a tune under her breath.

Astro went inside the other store with Zoran and Yuko, wanting to be there in case anything happened. The atmosphere inside the shop was bright and friendly, and Astro couldn't keep himself from looking around. Thankfully it wasn't a girly store like the last one.

Zoran broke away and headed for the back of the shop; her head turning this way and that, examining the shelves as she went. She was soon lost to sight among the small crowd.

With a quick nod to Astro, Yuko wandered away to look at some beautifully crafted bird ornaments leaving the boy robot to his own devices.

'Since I'm in here, I may as well look around.' There was certainly plenty to see. The shop seemed to contain a bit of everything. Ornaments, clothes, toys, kitchenware, pet accessories… 'Is there anything here they don't have?'

Suddenly curious, Astro began walking through the shelves and cataloguing everything he saw. He was determined to find out what the store didn't stock.

"Ooh, I want this and this and this… wait, no, not that. Oh, that's pretty!"

Zoran was pointing and exclaiming at various items, plucking quite a few things off the shelves. When she could safely carry no more, Zoran went off in search of Yuko; she didn't think her big brother would spend any of his money on her. Yuko, however, was a fellow female and surely understood the importance of buying lots of unneeded stuff.

She found the secretary examining a bird ornament that kind of resembled Momo and cleared her throat. When Yuko looked down, Zoran smiled and gestured to her laden arms.

"Oh, Zoran, what have you got there? Are you planning on buying the whole store?"

"The whole store? No, silly! I know you don't have that much money so I only picked a few things that I want the most," Zoran said matter-of-factly. She looked up at Yuko with big pleading eyes, using the puppy-eyes technique that she had pulled on O'Shay earlier that morning.

"And what made you think that I was going to buy you something?" Yuko asked lightly, though not unkindly, giving Zoran's items a cursory glance.

"Uh…" Zoran said, looking taken aback.

"I'll tell you what," Yuko said while crouching down to be eye-level with Zoran, "you can have one item. Just one."

The robot girl didn't look exactly happy, but she figured it was better than nothing. "Okay," she agreed, and went to put most of the stuff she was carrying back on the shelves while pondering which one to keep.

"I hope I have enough," Yuko muttered to herself. She picked up the ornament she had been looking at and followed the direction Zoran had gone.

Thankfully she did have enough, and luckily there was no incident at the register this time. The two girls called to Astro on their way to the door and he emerged from one of the aisles to accompany them out of the store.

Astro had only catalogued about a quarter of the store's wares and the feeling that he should finish doing so was starting to nag at him. There was a condition he had heard about that seemed to fit at the moment. 'Can robots even develop obsessive-compulsive disorder? A normal robot can't, but what about one with kokoro?' he wondered, debating whether or not to ask Yuko.

It was an intriguing thought. Now that there were robots with hearts and minds of their own, were they susceptible to mental illnesses the same as humans?

A sudden image of a robot lying on a counsellor's lounge with a bewildered human counsellor sitting there blankly filled Astro's head. He only just managed to smother the laughter that bubbled up. It was a good thing he was walking behind the others – he had a feeling that his face mirrored his thoughts perfectly, and his latest line of thought had made him pull a number of intriguing expressions.

The two females happily chatted all the way back to Doctor O'Shay's house and Astro let most of it wash over him. It seemed to him that girls could talk for ages about everything and nothing at the same time. At least boys talked about useful things that made sense, like cheering on a friend playing soccer or adding something cool to the tree house.

Yuko pulled up at the house and Zoran immediately grabbed her bags, hopped out of the car and skipped to the front door. Astro was about to follow her when the vid-phone in Yuko's car started ringing. Yuko glanced at Astro and gave a tiny nod, giving him permission to stay, before pressing a button.

A brief burst of static filled the screen before a shaky image appeared. A bunch of uneven letters came partially into focus. The letters were all different sizes and fonts, but what they spelled out was very clear.

yoUr WorLd Is wROnG

"Your world is wrong...?" Yuko read aloud in confusion.

Astro was studying the words when the screen went blank. He gasped in surprise and turned his attention to a stunned Yuko. "Who was that and what do they mean?"

Yuko closed her eyes and shook her head for a couple of seconds. She opened her eyes and met Astro's concerned brown orbs. "I wish I knew the answers to both of those questions," she replied, clicking through some buttons. "There's no caller ID and I can't seem to trace it back."

"We should tell Doctor O'Shay," Astro said.

"It may just be a prank, but better safe than sorry. Good idea," Yuko said with a nod and a smile. "I'll give you a lift and we can tell him together."

"Okay, I'll tell Zoran where I'm going!" Astro shouted over his shoulder as he exited the car and ran to the house.

He returned less than a minute later and Yuko set off for the Ministry of Science. The traffic was fairly light and they made good time. They were both a bit preoccupied as they entered the Ministry, crossed the main hall and took the elevator all the way to the top floor.

Yuko fully snapped to attention as she exited the elevator with the little robot and strode up to O'Shay's office door with her usual brusqueness. The Head of the Ministry of Science was sitting at his desk, data blinking steadily on his computer while he poured over a thick stack of papers. He was leaning on one elbow and staring at the paper with a fierce frown like the paper had insults written all over it.

Astro suddenly felt bad bringing a strange mystery to the old man that would probably give him another frown-wrinkle. Still, his electronic brain was telling him not to ignore the strange message that had appeared on the vid-phone. He greeted the scientist and stood by quietly as Yuko explained the strange scene in the car. Astro internally winced as Yuko finished and Doctor O'Shay frowned.

"It certainly sounds like a prank, but I don't understand the meaning behind it," he said. "You may have been a random target, but pranks usually have a reason or message behind them. Pranksters are often children or teenagers who use pranks as a way to work through problems. I can't figure out why they would send such a message to someone they don't know."

Astro locked his fingers together behind his back and slightly tilted his head. "But what if it isn't a prank, Doctor?"

Doctor O'Shay looked at Astro and blinked. "Well, there's no way to tell if it's a serious message from someone or just a young person playing a nasty joke. I'm afraid there's just not enough information to go off."

The small robot had the distinct feeling that the conversation was over. He was thinking on how to fill in the rest of his day when the door slammed open and Reno ran in.

"Doctor O'Shay, we've got a big problem!" Reno shouted, running right up to the desk and slamming his hands down on it.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds.

Reno appeared to realise O'Shay was not alone and sheepishly waved at Astro and Yuko. "Oh, hey there! Hehe..."

O'Shay coughed surreptitiously into his hand. "What's the problem that brought you running all the way here, young man?"

"Uh..." Reno hesitated, his blue eyes flicking over the doctor's assistant and surrogate son before resting on O'Shay's face.

"I need to check some things. Excuse me," Yuko said, catching on to the situation. She quickly gave a small bow and left for her own office desk.

"Yeah, I might go for a walk. Later!" Astro said, fully intent on following Yuko's example and leaving post-haste.

"Astro, wait!" Reno said quickly. "You might be able to help."

The robot boy stopped short, baffled and curious, as O'Shay asked, "What is this all about?"

Reno seemed to deflate before Astro's eyes. "You know that project you had me working on?" he asked O'Shay.

Astro was itching to know what the project was about as this was the first he'd heard of it, but the scientist simply nodded in response so Astro kept quiet while Reno plowed on. "Well... I was just working on it, trying to smooth out some kinks... I don't know what happened!" he exclaimed anxiously, his hands waving about. "All the screens went fuzzy, then they went blank and everything turned off but the lights. I rebooted everything, but all the files related to the project were gone!"

A/N: This part here: When Astro had first showed Zoran around the city properly, she had been amazed by the amount of traffic. Astro had told her, "That's called rush hour traffic, except it's like that most of the time."

Yes, that is a line Astro actually said way back in 1964 in episode number 25 of the English version - "The Strange Birthday Present" - when he received a sister named Astro Girl. (Episode no. 37 - "Uran" in the original) He was showing Astro Girl around the city. To watch this, take the brackets out of this link: htt(ps:/)/youtu(.be/)lW9z3UQkH1E?t=3m32s

Yes, it's black and white. If all you know of Astro is the 2003 series or 2009 CGI movie then you're seriously missing out! Go watch! Shoo!

I honestly hope to get the next chapter done in a much, much shorter timeframe than 5 years.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this! Please review - I gratefully accept constructive criticism but flames are duly ignored as they aren't helpful.

NOTE: If you want to know when the next chapter is coming out, head to my profile and scroll down until you find the section 'Story Updates'. I'll have my current progress posted there and I update it regularly.