Copy, (An Astro Boy Story)

Chapter 15: The Fifth Color

The sun had just begun to really shed its light on the world by the time Toby and Cora made it to the Ministry of Science. It was still early, five-thirty or so, but Toby seemed confident that Dr. Elefun would be there and his father would most definitely not, much to Cora's obvious relief.

They managed to reach the main entrance without opposition, a set of blue double doors made of some sort of slick metal before them. Cora pushed on one hard, hoping against hope that it would swing open at her touch.

It didn't.

Realizing the attempt was fruitless, she stepped back and frowned.

"Well, that's a setback," she commented, crossing her arms.

"No worries," Toby said, waving her concerns off as he ignored the doors all together and moved to a small panel on the silver wall next to them that Cora had completely overlooked.

He studied the panel for a moment, which was alight with many little buttons on its blue holo-screen pad, asking for complex codes and scans.

Cora's head spun just looking at it.

But Toby seemed completely unfazed and whipped out a holo-pad from his backpack—which Cora had hardly noticed he had with him till this point—and connected it to the holo-screen panel with an old-fashion wire to the side of the building.

Once it was connected, the small genius let go of the holo-pad, leaving it floating in midair on its own devices and began to type on it fiercely, glancing up at the panel's screen now and then.

Cora watched his fingers fly, completely unable to follow his progress as pop-up screens appeared and then disappeared faster than she could comprehend. It gave her a headache.

"I really hope what you're doing is hacking," she said, after a moment of watching him work.

Toby responded with a small nod. "Give me another sec..." he murmured, distracted, before his face broke into a smile.

"There!" he said, looking up and grinning at Cora with eyes sparkling with victory, before unplugging his holo-pad dramatically.

He looked to the doors and stared at them for a moment, counting silently in his head.

"Open sesame!" he then said grandly at the precise moment, spreading his arms.

The doors swung open automatically, as if on his command.

Toby's grin widened and he put his arms down, raising an eyebrow at Cora.

Cora vaguely realized her mouth was hanging open and closed it quickly.

"C'mon, genius," she muttered sourly, grabbing Toby by the sleeve and dragging him into the building. The doors shut by themselves behind them.

"What, you didn't like my performance?" Toby asked, sounding a bit hurt.

Cora rolled her eyes, but smiled a bit without thinking. "No," she admitted. "I did. I just don't like it when boys upstage me. I prefer to be the one on top. Comes with being a Surface gal. We're tough as nails."

There was a small silence as Toby considered this.

"I see," he said finally, sounding satisfied. "I can see that. You aren't like most girls, that for sure."

Cora's brow furrowed at his words and she glanced at him for a moment, before regretting it. Looking into his eyes was just like looking into Astro's. She quickly looked away.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered lamely, beginning to walk at a brisk pace and starting to make her way out of the building's spacious, richly-decorated lobby and into the main complex. She didn't have the slightest clue of where she was going and didn't care. She couldn't get the look of understanding and agreement she had seen in Toby's eyes out of her head.