Copy, (An Astro Boy Story)

Chapter 5: Toby

Tenma sighed as he got out of his car, struggling to keep his weary eyes open. Stifling a yawn, he pulled out his ID as he approached the apartments front door, Orrin driving away to fly the car around back to the garage. The robot had seemed almost relieved to get the call from Tenma to bring him home. He had seemed at loss of what to do with the day off Tenma had given him in celebration of Toby's...return. Tenma hadn't been really surprised. Orrin wasn't the smartest of robots, and wasn't programmed for much else than to take orders. But having his new Toby had changed his look on robots, and he had felt like Orrin deserved a day off, whether he knew what to do with it or not.

Smiling tiredly, Tenma shown his ID at the card reader next to the door. The little blue square of technology scanned the card with a quick flash of blue light before bleeping, its little red light turning green in recognition of Tenma's ID. Next, Tenma leaned forward, putting his eye up to the retna scanner just like he had done every day since he had first gotten his job at the Ministry of Science, just a couple days after he had graduated from the Metro City College of Science and Mathematics, top of his class.

Probably just like Toby would have, Tenma thought sadly, his thoughts drifting painfully to his dead son. Even though he had his robot Toby now, the pain of losing the real Toby was still fresh and raw. Tenma knew he was never going to get over Toby's death. He had lost his son. There was no getting passed that.

Sighing again and forcefully moving his thoughts away from Toby, Tenma rubbed his eyes as the retna scanner finished its scan and bleeped in recognition. Automatically, the front door opened, and the tired Doctor Tenma gratefully stepped inside. He had been working three hours straight at the Ministry, trying to fix the power grids and get everything that was still offline working. Everyone's power was back, but the massive engines embedded in the ground beneath the city that kept the floating metropolis in the air were still offline, and the work involved in getting them working again was overwhelming. After three long hours of constant problem solving and working out all the kinks and equations involved in getting the city back in the air, Dr. Elfun had finally convinced him to go home, rest, and tackle the problems with a fresh mind in the morning. Reluctantly agreeing, Tenma had come home.

He yawned again, making no attempt to stifle it this time. Trudging down the hall tiredly, he made his way to the living room to check to see how Toby was doing before he went to bed.

Reaching the entrance where he had left his son three long hours ago, he entered it quietly, smiling to see Toby on the couch, watching TV peacefully. He looked up as Tenma entered, a relieved smile tugging at his lips. "Hey Dad!" he said cheerfully.

"Hello Toby," Tenma said, smiling tiredly and yawning again.

Turning off the TV, Toby shifted on the couch to look at him, frowning. "Are you okay?" he asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," Tenma sighed, discarding his original thoughts of going straight to bed to come talk with his robot son. He sat down on the couch next to him, sinking into the soft plushness of the couch gratefully. "I'm just frustrated. Frustrated and tired. I can't seem to get this stupid city back in the air!"

Letting out a small grunt of frustration, he let his head rest against the back of the couch, staring dejectedly at the ceiling.

Toby didn't say anything, and after a moment Tenma looked at him, surprised at how silent he had become all of a sudden and about to ask why. But he stopped when he saw the extreme look of confusion written across his robot son's face. The little robot's forehead crinkled in bewilderment as Tenma locked eyes with him, eyes shinning with confusion.

"Back in the air?" Toby repeated slowly, his forehead still crinkled.

Tenma blinked in surprise. "Yes, Toby," he said in exasperation. "Back in the air. We've been over this already. We can't leave the city sitting on the Surface."