A Wicked Halloween

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Halloween is about two weeks away. Time for an Astro Halloween crossover story!

A Wicked Halloween

Hamegg Cacciatore gave Skunk Kusai a poke in the ribs. “So? Are you with me?”

Skunk looked the man in the eyes. “I don't know, I mean I've done many rotten things in my life, but this?”

“It's a win-win situation,” Hamegg cackled, “We snatch a bunch of spoiled brats and then collect from their rich parents for their return. If they don't pay us the ransom, the Korean Mafia will pay us handsomely for the young waifs. The kiddie slave market is booming over there!”

“You realize that your plan will probably suck up a fair number of robot kids,” Skunk said.

“Even better!” Hamegg laughed, “Especially if I can get my hands on one of several that have slipped between my fingers in the past!”

“You know, you make me look like a saint!” Skunk sneered. “Well why not? Of course we'll probably have to relocate for a while after this caper of your's blows over.”

“But we'll have the money to do it in style!” Cacciatore pointed out. “Let's get busy, I've already planted the bait.”




Shib held the leaflet in his hand and pointed to the picture. “So you guys are coming with me aren't you?” he asked, “Or are you chicken?”

“I'm not chicken!” Tamao insisted, although you could tell by his voice that he wasn't really sure.

“I'll come with you!” Hosuke Sharaku replied.

“You should stay home!” Shib told the small boy. “You'll crap in your pants for sure!”

“No I won't!” Sharaku insisted. “Wato San will come with me!”

“I don't get it.” Astro said. “What's so special about a haunted house? Ghosts aren't real, they are just part of a scary story invented by people to scare each other.”

Shib stopped and turned about, and pressed his nose against Astro's. “I wouldn't expect you to understand. Robot's can't feel fear cause they don't have emotions.”

“That's not true!” Reno butted in. “Astro can get mad, and he can also cry when he's unhappy.”

“Yeah, but he's not capable of fear,” Shib said. “I've never seen Astro walk away from anything dangerous or frightening. He'd spoil the haunted house for the rest of us.”

“Hey Shib!” Kenichi cat called. “I bet that halfway though the haunted house you'll be wishing Astro was next to you.”

“Yeah, I second that!” Tamao added.

“And I third that!” Uran replied.

“Well, we'll see about that!” Shib replied. “Halloween eve I'll be waiting for you guys outside the haunted house and we'll see whose chicken!”



“So you're going to the haunted house with Shib and the other boys?” Uran asked Astro. “I've already talked Cobalt into coming along.”

“I don't understand why you want to go into that creepy place.” Astro sighed.

“It will be fun!” Uran laughed. “While Tamao, Sharaku, and especially Shib are scared stiff, I'll be laughing at them!”

“You'll be clinging onto me or Kobaruto!” Astro said. “You're scared of your own shadow.”

“Am not!” Uran answered.

“Yes you are,” Cobalt said. “I'm only coming because you need me to protect you.”

“Fine!” Astro said. “I guess I'll have to go and make sure that the both of you are safe.”



The old mansion was at the end of a dead end street. There were no street lights, but there was a full moon out which cast creepy shadows though the branches of several dead trees. About a block away from the old place several signs had been posted citing “This way to the haunted house!”

Astro and his friends had met at the park about a quarter mile from their destination. Reno and Shib had arrived first, followed by Sharaku and his older sister Wato. Kenichi and Tamao showed up just before Astro, Uran and Cobalt. The nine adventurers gave each other high fives as they left the park en masse to explore the haunted mansion.



Hamegg watched the street view though the closed circuit TV monitor that he and Skunk had set up earlier. “Looks like our guests have arrived!” the former circus ring master said, “and look who we've hooked, my former circus star!”

“Yeah, and he was kind enough to bring his older brother and bratty sister along too.” Skunk laughed. “Looks like payback time!”

“You can do whatever you like with the girl 'bot and that prototype,” Hamegg sneered, “Astro is all mine!” He gently fingered the trigger mechanism of his secret weapon.

“What about the kids that came along with them?” Skunk asked.

“I recognize some of them. That fat dumb one is the son of a rich land developer,” Cacciatore said pointing at Shib's image on the TV screen, “his old man will pay a nice ransom to get his son back. That small guy with the bandage on his forehead is the son of famous explorer. He should be good for quite a few Yen. Our Korean slave traders will be happy with the rest of the lot.”

[Little Brown Fox]

I believe his nickname is "Shib", being as his name is Shibugaki. And the word you're looking for is "en masse".

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Shibugaki bravely led the group though the front door of the old mansion. The doors creaked on their hinges as he put his weight against them to force them open. The front foyer was lit by a mixture of old style late 19th century Edison carbon filament lamps and flickering gas lamps. Sharaku gasped as he brushed against a cobweb. Kenichi kicked up some dust off the floor as he entered the room.

“Nice atmosphere,” Tamao noted, “just what one would expect in a haunted house.”

“This isn't Disney Land,” Wato muttered out loud.

A spider fell from the ceiling and hung in front of Uran's face by a single strand of silk. “Eeek!” she cried out, as Cobalt's fist closed around the arachnid and yanked it away from her.

“Arigatō, Kobaruto!” Uran sighed in relief, hugging her brother.

Somewhere in the distance came the faint sound of a door swinging on its rusty hinges, and a muffled scream of another human voice. Astro cupped his hands to his ears and turned up his hearing by 1000 times. “We're not the only ones exploring this place,” he explained.

“I guess there were a few other brave souls who got that leaflet,” Shib replied, “Let's push on! There is supposed to be a treasure hidden in this place!”



Skunk Kusai flipped a few switches on the control panel and observed the monitor. “I don't see why we had to go though all this trouble,” he said. “It took us two weeks to set up all of this high tech equipment.”

“Our guests expected a Halloween haunted house,” Hamegg said with a smile. “I certainly didn't want to disappoint them. You can blame the showman in me if you want, but it does serve a purpose. We'll need to separate the individual members of the crowd for the benefit of our sponsors, who by the way, will be here shortly.”

“The Asian Mafia?” Skunk asked.

“None other,” Cacciatore nodded, “Only please don't say that to their faces, it wouldn't be a healthy thing to do! Just refer to them as our business partners.”



Reno stopped to examine the two closed doors at the end of the corridor. He tried both of them and found that they weren't locked. “Which way from here?” he asked.

Shib scratched his head. “Does it matter? Maybe we should split up?”

“NO! Let's stay together!” Tamao demanded.

“For now at least,” Kenichi agreed.

Shibugaki placed his hand on the knob of the right hand door and leaned his shoulder against it. “We'll go this way!” he ordered.

The group followed their self appointed leader. The hallway behind the door was dark, lit by only a few flickering candles several yards apart from each other. Astro turned on the search lamps in his eyes and illuminated the passage way in front of them.
They entered what looked like a grand ballroom. Hanging from the high ceiling was an enormous chandelier. Reno fumbled along the wall and found a light switch. He operated it and the room became almost well lit as half of the old style Edison lamps in the hanging fixture glowed a dull orange color.

Everyone turned their heads en unity as an out of tune “G” minor chord sounded from a pipe organ set in the far corner of the room. Seated at the massive instrument was a tall, slender individual. The organist's skin was a pale green in color, his bloodshot eyes were deeply set in their sockets and his long wiry white hair wasn't thick enough to hide most of his scalp which was full of scars. The zombie like musician quickly broke into an eerie rendition of Saint-Saën's infamous tone poem.

As the music reached a cadenza, multiple ghostly apparitions began to float about the room, encircling their guests with evil smiles on their translucent faces.

“G-G-Ghosts!” Tamao stammered as one of the vaporous beings seemed to pass right though him. Shib's lower jaw dropped, almost hitting the floor. Kenichi slowly backed away towards the wall in Shibugaki's direction.

The two class leaders suddenly fell though the floor as a trap door opened up underneath them. The organ stopped playing and the room lights brightened. The remaining seven explorers looked about them. The ghosts and their musical leader had vanished, along with Shib and Kenichi. Astro examined the floor where his two friends had last stood. His sensitive fingers explored the surface of the floor. “There was an opening here, but it's gone now!” he said.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Shibugaki felt the floor cave in underneath his feet and he dropped a few feet and landed on his butt. He slid down a twisting tunnel with smooth walls that offered no opportunity for a hand hold. Shib felt himself accelerate as the narrow tube curved downwards. He landed on top of a pile of moldy mattresses. Before he could get up and stand Kenichi emerged from the same tunnel and landed in his lap.

The two boys looked around the dimly lit room to observe their surroundings. They were now standing in the middle of a large caged in area. Outside of their locked pen were two other similar cells, with perhaps a dozen other teenage boys and girls in each of them.

“Looks like we're not the only ones that have fallen into that little trap,” Kenichi muttered.

“Yeah, but who got the drop on us, and why?” Shib asked. He cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled in the direction of the ceiling to where he thought the tunnel's mouth had been, “Astro! HELP!”



Tamao started sweating in fear. “What happened to Shib and Kenichi?” he sobbed.

“I think we'll probably run into them again soon,” Wato said. “I bet the people that set up this haunted house have lot's of surprises for us, and that trap door was just part of the scary fun.”

“Have you ever been in a haunted house before on Halloween?” Tamao asked.

“Yes.” Wato said. “It's all special effects. Those ghosts and the creepy organist were probably both holograms.”

“She's right,” Reno said. “I bet that trapdoor dumped Shib and Kenichi into a room downstairs. They'll probably turn up later when we get deeper into this joint.”

“I hope so,” Uran said.

“I'll take the lead from here,” Reno volunteered.

“Be my guest,” Tamao replied.
Reno walked towards a door just beyond where the organ was. Astro followed close behind him with Tamao, Uran, Cobalt, Sharaku and Wato just behind him.




A long black limousine entered the street and stopped at the very end. Several well dressed mobsters emerged from the expensive stretched Rolls Royce and made their way towards the old mansion. They walked past the spooky looking front of the building and guided by their chauffeur who was carrying a powerful torch, they walked along a hidden path that led to the rear of the old mansion. Once there they made use of a much better maintained entrance whose door did not creek on rusty hinges when opened. Standing in the doorway, waiting for the new arrivals, Hamegg Cacciatore stood in the well lit entrance way.

“What gives with this old joint?” a heavy set mainland Asian man with a Fu Manchu mustache asked.

“Just some ambiance for the benefit of our young friends,” Hamegg laughed. “It's Halloween, you know, and tonight this old house is as attractive to young people as the pied piper's flute was in Hamelin.”

The former circus ring master bade his business partners to enter and they followed him down a well lit hallway into a room filled with computer screens and control panels. Skunk Kusai turned around from the closed circuit television monitor that he'd been studying to face the gangsters that had just entered the room. “We'll soon have a full house,” Skunk cackled, “Plenty of young kids for you to choose from.”

One of the mobsters leaned over Skunk's shoulder to observe the monitor that was connected to the basement camera. Skunk switched the view to a panorama so that all three of the cages filled the screen.
“We still need to subdue and separate the robot kids from their human friends, and then we will dump them downstairs.” Skunk explained.

“We also need to process the ones already down there,” Cacciatore added. “You're just a tad early, but that's OK. I'll be able to demonstrate the process for you.”

“Excellent!” the rotund man grinned.

[Fauna]

Yeesh, you're not trying to make any friends with Korean people over this, are you? Over everything else, the use of unnamed stock Korean people as child abductors is a little uhhhhhhhhhh.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Yeesh, you're not trying to make any friends with Korean people over this, are you? Over everything else, the use of unnamed stock Korean people as child abductors is a little uhhhhhhhhhh.

Well I had to pick SOME evil empire and North Korea is the current hot spot. Also I had this image of 'Odd Job' from Goldfinger in my head. Maybe, I'll try and invent a fictional country for a future story.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The seven remaining friends found themselves in what appeared to be a room filled with mirrors. They quickly became lost and separated from each other as the maze of tall reflective surfaces hid the geometry of the room. Reno walked a few feet and found himself looking down a long corridor that seemed to go on for infinity due to the multiple reflections between the mirrors. Astro had been following right behind his buddy, but he quickly lost him as he bumped into a mirror and ended up going down a different passage way.

Wato and Sharaku held hands so they would not become separated, but they quickly lost sight of the other members of the team.

Tamao looked around himself and saw nothing but reflections. Realizing that he had lost sight of his friends he sat down and cried out, “Where is everybody?” His voice reverberated for awhile as if he was in an echo chamber, but he got no reply. Suddenly the floor below him slanted downwards and he found himself sliding down a long and winding chute towards the basement. He landed on top of a pile of mattresses inside of a large caged area.

“Hello,” Shibugaki said.

“Where am I?” Tamao asked, looking around.

“We seem to have fallen into some kind of trap,” Kenichi told him. “There are some other's locked up in the penned in areas next to us, but they seem to be drugged. At least they haven't responded to our calls.”

“I'm scared!” Tamao shivered.

“Astro will find us,” Shib said, “I hope.”


Uran, and Cobalt stumbled into a doorway at the edge of the maze of mirrors. They looked around for their friends but could not see or hear them. “Maybe they found their way out of this maze before us,” Cobalt suggested as he tried to open the door.

“I hope so,” Uran sobbed, following her brother through the exit.

There was a flash of light accompanied by a loud explosive noise. Uran and Cobalt blanked out as the burst of energy shorted out their electronic systems.


Skunk Kusai lifted his finger from the trigger on the control panel. “That's two of our robotic kids,” he laughed, “One more to go!”

“I'll take care of Astro myself.” Cacciatore said. “What about the others?”

“The short kid with the glasses just dropped in with the other two,” Skunk replied. “That leaves the boy from the Institute of Science, the little guy with the bandage on his forehead and his sister.”

“As soon as they are all rounded up and deposited in the holding area they'll be given a little sleeping gas and tied up.” Cacciatore explained to the mobsters. “I've already sent a ransom request to the father of the tall dumpy looking kid, the others are all yours.”

“Very well,” the man with the Fu Manchu mustache replied. “But throw in that robot girl, she might be useful to us.”

“Sure,” Skunk smiled. “but it will cost you extra, she's Astro's kid sister!”

“Worth the price.” the man said taking a long drag on his pipe.


Uran and Cobalt opened their eyes. They were not able to move their limbs but they were able to turn their heads and look around themselves.

“We seem to be in some kind of jail cell,” Cobalt said, “That must have been some kind of EMP discharge that hit us.”

Uran tried to make out what lay beyond their holding cell in the darkened basement. “Is that what it was?” she said, “It hurts, my head is spinning and my body feels numb.”
“EMP will do that to you,” Cobalt sighed.


Reno rubbed the top of his head and winched with pain. He didn't know where he was or how he'd gotten there. It was dark and he couldn't see very much, so he carefully reached out with his fingers to feel his surroundings. The first thing that he touched felt familiar to him. His fingers reported a hard but pliable surface with gentle curves. Feeling along the surface his hands recognized the two spiky features of Astro's head. Reno's eyes slowly became adapted to the low light and he made out the dim outline of his robotic friend lying face down next to him.

“Astro?” he said, shaking his friend.

Reno slowly rolled the android boy on his back and felt for the latch on his chest panel. He managed to open it in the dark and carefully felt inside. “Don't worry pal, I'll fix you!” he whispered.

After several minutes his eyes and fingers managed to find the power reset switch and he activated it. Astro moaned and opened his eyes.

“Where am I?” he asked.

“wherever I am,” Reno answered. “It's too dark to see very much, but it smells dank. We must be in the cellar.”

“Help me sit up,” Astro moaned.

Reno grabbed Astro by his shoulders and leaned him against a wall. Astro switched on his eye search lamps and revealed their surroundings.

“We seem to be in some sort of caged area.” Reno said. “Can you bust us out of here?”

Astro grabbed the bars of the cage and tried to bend them. “Sorry pal,” he said moaning, “Seems most of my power is gone.”

“I was afraid of that.” Reno sighed. “I managed to get your backup reserve on line, but most of that seems to be drained as well.”

“Yeah, I think I was hit by an EMP burst.” Astro said.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Wato – San noticed an opening between the panels of mirrored glass and pulled Sharaku though behind her. She held tightly to her brother's hand as they crept along a narrow corridor. Wato felt along the wall and her fingers detected a crack.

“Stand still Sharaku!” she whispered. The small boy muttered “I'm scared.”

“I know!” his sister replied. “Something isn't right here.”

A fingernail found an opening in the wall panel and she carefully ran her hand along the edge. The panel slid sideways and the two of them squeezed into the hidden passageway.

“Hello!” Skunk smiled as he grabbed Sharaku from Wato's hand. The teenage girl was quick on her feet and landed a karate kick into Kusai's groin. Skunk released the boy and fell to the floor holding his private parts with both hands. Wato grabbed her brother and turned quickly to run for an exit she thought she had noticed out of the corner of her eye, when a sudden wave of electric pain overcame her.

Standing in the shadows, Hamegg held a taser gun and watched as the girl lay on the ground in pain. Sharaku stood frozen in fear just long enough for Cacciatore to grab him by his neck with his free hand and toss him to the ground. “Help me drag these two brats downstairs,” the ringmaster yelled at Skunk who was still moaning with pain.


The smell of the knockout gas was still in the air as the lights above the holding cell came on full strength. Shibugaki was tied up in one corner of the cell by himself. Tamo and Kenichi were tied up with their backs against each other, and nearby Wato and Sharaku also had their hands and feet bound.

“Very nice,” the heavy set man in the three piece suit said as he puffed on a large cigar and pointed to Wato. “I like her.” His two business partners, also dressed in expensive suits nodded in agreement.

“What are we going to do?” Shib moaned.

“I wish Astro were here,” Tamao sobbed.

Sharaku was scared, and he started to sob. “Be brave,” his sister said.

Wato – San wiggled about to move closer to her little brother. “Sorry, Sharaku, this is the only way!” she said. Wato leaned closer to the small boy and placed her mouth against his head. She used her tongue to loosen the X shaped bandage on his forehead.

“What are you doing?” Kenichi asked.

“What I have to,” Wato said, “My brother has a deep secret that he isn't aware of while he wears this bandage!”

She grabbed the corner of the bandage with her teeth and pulled. The X shaped piece of adhesive cloth pulled free revealing the small boy's third eye.

A magical transformation suddenly occurred. Sharaku stood up as a glow appeared about him. His timid face transformed into that of a maniacal tyrant. He raised his arms, wrists still bound, above his head. “Red Scepter appear!” Sharaku cried out.

Suddenly a seven foot long spear like weapon materialized between his hands. The blood red staff, capped by a rounded trident glowed with a brilliant red light, and the ropes binding Sharaku's hands melted away! Sharaku seemed to grow a half foot in height and he now wore a flowing black cape.

“You think you can hold me hostage!” the boy laughed. He pointed the head of his staff at Tamao and Kenichi, and it threw a soft beam their way. Once the light faded the two boys easily yanked their wrists free as the ropes binding them disintegrated. Sharaku then quickly freed Shib and Wato, and then swung the head of his red weapon at the door to the cage, causing it to fall off of its hinges.

“What is going on, stop him!” Cacciatore yelled running after the three eyed boy.

“I think not!” Sharaku laughed. He was already across the room and stood by the cage where Reno and Astro were being held captive. The wizard in the black cape pushed the business end of his staff though the bars and rested it against Astro's chest. He muttered some words in a long dead language and caused a ball of green light to appear around the nearly comatose boy robot.

Astro felt a surge of energy flow though his circuits. Now rejuvenated, he quickly got to his feet and looked around him. Astro flew to the roof of the cage, lifted it up and carried it over to where Skunk, Cacciatore, and the three mobsters were standing, dropping the jail on top of them.

While Astro took care of their would be abductors, the three eyed wizard had made his way over to the cage where Uran and Cobalt sat, and he used his magical scepter to restore their energies. Astro then ripped the doors off the cages holding the other teenage captives in the dungeon, and his friends untied them.

Sharaku stood in front of the cage now holding Skunk, Hamegg and the gangsters. “Now I shall have my revenge!” he cried out as he waved his wand. Before he could utter a magical incantation, Wato's hand had slapped him on the forehead, reapplying the bandage over his third eye. Sharaku, looked up at his sister and smiled. “Can we go home now?” he asked.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Inspector Tawashi chewed on the end of his unlit pipe and scowled at the five men sitting handcuffed in the back of the paddy wagon. “You people disgust me!” he said as he slammed the rear door to the police van and banged hard against it as a signal to the driver to take off. The vehicle started to roll, the sound of its siren 'red shifting' towards the lower frequency as it speed up.

A crowd of relieved parents surrounded the some two and a half dozen students that were standing in the street outside of the old mansion along with a several police detectives who were busy getting statements from the children.

“Good work Astro,” Tawashi muttered, placing a hand on the top of Astro's head.
Astro was about to deny his role in capturing the criminals when Wato – San looked him in the eyes and mouthed something at him. “Sure, thanks.” he told the detective. It wasn't exactly a lie, he did drop the cage on the group of the five gangsters, and he'd already promised to keep Sharaku's secret.

Professor Ochanomizu herded his charges into his waiting automobile. Reno, Astro, Cobalt, and Uran quietly took seats in the car while the professor spoke to the inspector. “I don't quite know what got into them,” he laughed. “I've never seen them take such interest in human obsessions such as Halloween,”

“Yeah, it's like your robot kids are trying to act human.” Tawashi said.

“You know, I'd never realized it before,” the professor admitted. “Astro and Cobalt were the first robots designed with Kokoro. Dr. Tenma wanted to create a unique form of A.I. and it looks like he's succeeded. Of course I always knew Astro was special, and Cobalt was after all his prototype. I tried to copy his work when I created Uran, and now I know that I succeeded.”

Ochanomizu turned and looked at the old mansion. “Tell me Inspector.” he asked. “When you were a teenager did you ever spend the night in an old haunted house on a dare?”

“You promise not to tell anybody?” Tawashi replied.

“Certainly,” the professor agreed.

“I hung out with a bunch of guys on the high school football team when I was a kid. We were dared by a bunch of geeks to prove how brave we were by visiting a haunted house on Halloween. We didn't know the geeks had rigged the place with a lot of high tech special effects. Scared the crap out of me, and when I found out that it was all faked I really got mad. Guess it was a rite of passage, you know.”

“I suppose.” Ochanomizu laughed. “When I was in high school I helped the guys in our science club prepare a haunted house for Halloween. Our creation wasn't put together just for the purpose of scaring a bunch of jock's that were always bullying us though. We charged the general public 100 Yen apiece to tour the place and enjoy being scared. We donated the proceeds to charity.”

“Nice.” The inspector said, slapping the professor on the back.

“Well, I have to be going.” Ochanomizu said.

“Good night.” Tawashi sighed as he got into his squad car and drove off.



Wato – San yanked Sharaku along by the hand. “I hope you've had enough of an adventure for one night!” she told her little brother.

“Yeah.” he said Thanks to the transformation he'd been though he didn't remember very much, something that Wato was glad for.


Shib wanted to forget the night's events entirely. His heavy set mother didn't seem very pleased at having to show up at the request of the police to take him home. Kenichi and Tamao were luckier in that their parents showed up after the police had already left the scene. The two of them each went home without much of a 'Spanish inquisition' scene.

As for Skunk and Hamegg, going to jail was a bit of a relief as they had been given separate cells from their friends in the Asian Mafia. “Once again, you never cease to amaze me!” Skunk told Hamegg. “I should have known not to go along with your usual schemes. And this time you can't blame Astro for it blowing up in your face!”
“Don't remind me!” Hamegg said as the cell door was slammed shut and locked.

The End