Meeting Astro

Chapter 1: How It All Began

It was a stormy May afternoon. 15-year-old Peyton was watching one of her favorite movies. She was extremely bored, and would rather be outside. But due to the rain, she had to stay inside. So, Peyton decided to watch Astro Boy instead.

She enjoyed watching Astro, a robot teenager, fly around Metro City and battle The PeaceKeeper.

"Ugh. How long can the rain keep up?" Peyton asked, taking her eyes off the screen and looked out the window.

Her parents appeared at the doorway. Both of them had worried, but serious, expressions on their faces.  "Peyton, we're in a Tornado Warning. Help us clear out the hamper!" said her mother.

Peyton felt her stomach grumble. "C-Can't we just head up to the school?" she asked.

Her father shook his head and said, "No. There's not enough time."

Peyton helped her parents clean out the hamper. It was very crowded, especially with the fact that there were five of them total: Her father, her mother, her brother Riley, and her little sister Marley who was still too young to understand the situation they were in.

The loud roar of sirens made Peyton's heart beat like a drum. She could still hear the horrifying sound of thunder, which made her very nervous.

She hated that dreadful feeling of wondering what's going to happen to her, of wondering whether or not she'll live to see tomorrow.

Suddenly and quickly, everything became silent. No birds were chirping, no sirens were warning people to take shelter, and no hard and heavy rain.  Just complete dead silence.

Peyton stared, her eyes wide. "What's happening?" she whispered.

"I don't know," her father said, "maybe the sirens just stopped working or something."

Peyton didn't think so. "But I can't hear the thunder or rain! Maybe it's safe now," Peyton suggested.

She put her hand on the doorknob. "I'll go see what's happening," she said.

There were a few gasps from her parents. Her mother grabbed her arm. "NO! We don't know for sure if that Tornado is gone!" said her mother.

Peyton looked at her. "I have to see what's going on!" said Peyton. Once Peyton made up her mind in doing something, there was no way anyone could change it.

She twisted the knob and opened the door. The door flew open, and Peyton left her little shelter.

Peyton couldn't believe what she saw. There, in front of her, was a big metropolis. A futuristic city. Cars flew three inches off the ground, and trains zoomed by on the tracks.  It was a beautiful large city, though the colors of the buildings were white with blue windows.

"No! It can't be!" Peyton said to herself.

Her family came up behind her. "What is it?" Riley asked.

They all stared at the city in awe. This couldn't be real.

"Where are we?" her mother asked.

A huge smile grew on Peyton's face. She knew exactly where they were. "We're in Metro City!" said Peyton.

Riley frowned. "Where?!"

Peyton grinned. "You know! The place where Astro Boy lives!" she told him.

Neither her family, nor herself knew exactly how they got there. They didn't even know how they were going to get back home.

As they walked through the streets of Metro City, four out of five of them were thinking about whether or not they should ask someone for help. But Peyton knew she couldn't tell anyone about where she and her family were from. The people of Metro City wouldn't understand. She knew that if any little sign of trouble happened, the movie would change. Peyton didn't want that to happen. She secretly made a vow that if anything bad were to happen while they were in Metro City (and she knew for sure that something bad was going to happen eventually), she would be there to make things right again. So, it looked like she wasn't going to get help this time. Peyton and her family were going to have to figure things out on their own.