Hey Guys, so I had to fix chapter 1 again. I rewrote the description of the suits and the their masks, made it a little bit more futuristic, hehe. It's exciting and frustrating at the same of when you get a new idea for chapters or the story. Through this past year I have learned so much in writing and so I'm trying to think of better ways to make a sentence sound better or fix the dialogue.

Crossover, The Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden/Astro Boy 2009

The Wraiths of the Lost City

Chapter 1/ A World Known but Forgotten.

Astro's POV

I was terrified. Not that being terrified was a bad thing, I was just worried mostly. I was in a submarine-powerboat hybrid. Reno, Alejo, and Ken sat on the left side while mirroring Cora, me, and my dad. Zane was helping Dr. Elefun navigate the small vehicle, descending lower beneath the ocean waves.

We all needed each other on this mission. I still remember, a week ago, when Dr. Elefun and my dad asked all six of us if we would accompany them. At the Ministry of Science, sitting at a table in a conference room.

"There was a message sent by Polaris Evette, somewhere in the ocean."

We all gave blank stares when Dr. Elefun said this.

"Is he lost at sea?"

"Who is he?"

"Why the ocean?"

"Is he in danger?"

Elefun waved our questions away, "Right now, the important thing is that we respond and get to him quickly. This mission is not going to be a piece of cake; it will be dangerous."

I leaned forward in my seat. "How dangerous?"

Usually, I was the one who handled the dangerous situations. Maybe occasionally, everybody would join in when a town was in danger, a kidnapping, or when something or someone was stirring up trouble. We've never gone on 'dangerous' missions before. Usually the 'missions' that Dr. Elefun took us on were educational or were to help us with our school studies.

"On this mission, we're going to travel into the ocean, going about 400 meters deep. Between the continental rise and the continental slope, and by 'how dangerous?' I honestly don't know. The signal seems to be coming from a radio transmitter. Here."

Leaning on his left, he pulled out a slim laptop, typed a few keys in, then pushed it towards us.

"Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? Come in. This is Polaris Evette. I repeat, this is Polaris Evette, we need help- "

The audio fizzled out before he could say anything else, all that was left was static.

"We tried to respond but the connection was already dead." Elefun said.

"Then let's get out there, let's find him and anyone else." I said. Elefun scanned each one of our faces, in return, we all gave a firm nod.

He gave a firm nod, as well. "Alright."

We didn't know what we were going to find down here, but I had my suspicions that my dad and Dr. Elefun knew more than they were telling.

Diving to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine made me a little bit claustrophobic. I had to keep reminding myself to calm down and breathe in and out. I wasn't used to being in tight places mostly.

I was brought out of my thoughts when a hand grabbed mine. "Are you okay?" I turned to Cora with a small smile, looking into her eyes. Those concerned, beautiful, sapphire eyes. "Yeah, I'm just thinking."

"You're worried, aren't you?" I smiled; she knew me so well. Somehow, she always knew what I was thinking, knowing that comforted me.

I squeezed her hand and whispered. "I'm just worried about going into this mission, mostly I'm just worried about our safety. I mean, Dr. Elefun said it could be dangerous."

"I'm worried too, Astro. Though, at the same time, a search and rescue in the middle of the ocean. It can't be any more dangerous than what we've been through before."

My eyebrows raise and I murmured, "Don't jinx us." I briefly looked around. "Where's a piece of wood I can knock on."

Cora giggled. "Hey, I'm trying to be positive in an uncertain situation."

"Positive in an uncertain situation? When did you try this new perspective on?"

"About ten seconds ago," Thrusting her chin out.

"Oh, my apologies. It looks good on you."

I felt her elbow dive into my side, making my own smile brighten. Her cheeks gave off a pink tint before she nuzzled her forehead on my shoulder.

"Ugh! They haven't kissed each other yet and they're already making me sick!" Zane muttered as he looked back at the two of us and smiled.

I smiled back. "Zane, would you like to enjoy the view from behind the submarine?" Everybody's laughter echoed off the walls. Zane would sometimes tease us whenever Cora and I shared a kiss or whenever we were caught up in a moment. Cora would always give him a death glare or a punch in the arm. I'm not kidding you when I say she has a strong arm because she has a strong arm. I've seen her bad side and it's not the prettiest. Well... it's kind of cute when her nose twitches or when her lips go into a pout. Whenever we have an argument or when she's mad, I have to turn my head, or I start smiling non-stop.

Zane smiled and raised his hands in the air like he was surrendering. "Nope, I'm good. I'll stay right here.

"That's what I thought."

Everybody calmed down and the silence returned. The submarine had been diving for about to 200 meters to almost 1000 meters, making that about 45 minutes. Entering the Mesopelagic or known as the twilight zone, was losing light from the sun. There was still light but going down further made it darker, making me feel uneasy.

Zane and Dr. Elefun directed the submarine into a canyon that went further downward. The canyon was a little bit narrowed but Zane and Dr. Elefun managed to get through without even a scratch. I was both shocked and amazed. They seemed to know where they were going out in the middle of the ocean.

"Are you picking up anything on your radar?" My dad's question directed to Elefun.

"No, nothing out of the blue. Are you, Zane?"

Zane shook his head, "Nope, just a lot of fish and ocean."

"Good."

Are we looking for Polaris or are we avoiding something else, entirely?

Looking through the 5 to 10-inch-thick glass, I could see the ocean before me. Fishes of all kinds swim in front of us or away from us. Some were clownfish, barramundi, angelfish, panther grouper, and the billfish. There were many other fishes that I couldn't name. I was surprised some of the fish could survive this deep.

We came upon a land formation in the continental rise about 800 meters above the abyssal plain. Rock formations came into view looking like mountains underwater.

The next thing I see is an unfinished steel railroad bridge. It's steel trestles with plate girder Spans and double-bent steel towers, holding the bridge 200 feet off the ground.

"What is that?" Reno asked. Curious like the rest of us, we all leaned forward in our seats.

My dad leaned forward too and pointed ahead. "Land the sub underneath the bridge at the end the cliff. We'll explore more when we get out." Zane nodded his head in response. Dr. Elefun pushed some buttons to his left on the control panel.

"Are you sure that such a good idea?" Elefun turned back in his seat and looked at my dad with uncertainty. My dad sighed and pressed forward.

"Right now, we don't have a choice." My dad never lost his bravery or determination when something needed to be done. My dad leaned toward Elefun and whispered.

"Something would have picked up by the sensors by now, they would have been picked up by the sensors by now." Elefun sighed and agreed.

"Alright."

They? Who's they? What did they mean by that? What were they hiding that they wouldn't tell us? I was getting frustrated with the lack of information I wasn't receiving. I leaned my head back against the head rest. I knew it was something more than just a search and rescue. Every time I asked him about it, he would get nervous and stumble on his words. It was not like him at all.

Zane landed the sub underneath the bridge, steading it with all the strength he could muster, landing it with a thud. Elefun turned to Zane with a smile of proud ness.

"Job well done, Zane!" Zane's face flushed in embarrassed.

"Thank you, Doctor." Zane was known to be a goofball from time to time but at his heart he was kind, hardworking, and always willing to help another.

Dr. Elefun and my dad unbuckled their seat restraints, stood up, and faced us.

"Alright, let's stay together. Everybody have their earpiece in?" We all nodded our heads in agreement. "Good. Everybody suit up."

Everybody unbuckled and followed Elefun and my dad to the back of the sub where we retrieved our flippers. Everyone had a black dry suit on, including me. (A dry suit keeps you warm and doesn't let any water in) Though, I couldn't wear the flippers since my red boots were literally molded to me. I watched as Cora slipped off her pink converse and I had to chuckle. She wears those converse like they're her prize possession, not caring if they've been scuffed or faded.

She blew a lock of black blue hair out of her face as she slipped on a pair of dry shoes. "What."

"Nothing."

She raised her eyebrows. "Have your sensors picked up on anything yet?"

I sighed, "No, nothing yet. I feel weird though, like, I've been here before or I'm revisiting one of Toby's old memory's... I can't describe it really." Nothing familiar surfaced from Toby's memories, but the feeling of belonging was still there.

Cora nodded in understanding and took a step closer to me. "What did your dad say to Elefun?"

I looked over to my dad. His face was masked with worry, his hands were slightly shaking. I wanted to be there for him as his son. I would have gone over to his side and asked him what the matter was, but I knew he would shrug it off.

I gazed back at Cora, her blue eyes looking into mine. "He said, they would have been picked up by the sensors by now."

Cora furrowed her eyebrows as she listened. "What do you think he means by that?"

"-who means by what?" Ken overhearing our conversation walked over to me and Cora, his arms folded across his chest.

"My dad and Elefun." Ken nodded his head as if understanding what was going on.

"I heard what he said to Elefun, something seems off. The last week I never seen elefun so distracted, I mean I seen him stare off into space sometimes when I work with him but not like this." Ken shook his head, his eyes scanning the ground. "I'm worried about him."

"Same with my dad, too. Every time I ask him about it, he just shrugs it off and doesn't tell me..." I didn't want to admit it.

"What is it, Astro?" Cora asked.

I hesitated to say it. "I think he's been here before."

After looking over each other to make sure we had our equipment properly secured, we walked into another room to our right. The decompression chamber was small, holding up to 9 people, there were 8 of us so we had to squeeze together. Locking the door behind him, Elefun turned towards a handle and put his hand on it. He turned his head back toward the group and locked eyes with me.

"It would be safer if you went ahead Astro." I nodded my head in response and stepped between Elefun and my dad. I had grown in height over the years coming up to 6'2', while my dad stood at 6'8'. It honestly unnerved me how much I had changed since I was...created. Just one small reminder that things were different.

I looked up at my dad. In his eyes I saw pain, loss, anger, and grief. My circuits twitched. You're not Toby. You're a copy of Toby. You're not my son, and I... I don't want you anymore. I remember that night; feeling confused, hopeless, lonely, and... lost. A son feeling lost without his father. A father feeling lost without his son. Toby's death changed my dad from the inside out. I knew it pained him every day. My dad still had nightmares of the day Toby died. Screaming and tearing at the sheets like... like a shield. I knew that it wasn't only Toby's death that weighed so hard on my dad. It was also Madeline. Toby's mother.

After she died giving birth to Toby, my dad swore he would never lose love like that again. But not soon after, he closed himself off from Toby and lost him as well. It was unbelievable that he managed to hang on to that sliver of hope inside him. Creating me was his sliver of hope.

My dad gave me a small smile.

A flash of blue light caught my attention, and I looked behind me to find Alejo had clicked on his holographic mask. Not one second later, more holographic masks were glistening over my friend's heads. Here we go. I reached up to cup my neck, rubbing my fingers over the snake-like material. The bumpy surface makes it almost impossible to find the small button. Click, and I was suddenly encased. I could hold my breath for over 30 minutes without the mask, but I wouldn't be able to exchange conversation.

The chamber started to slowly fill with water, past our knees, chests, and finally above our heads. Air bubbles coming out of every bodies mask, except mine. I nodded my head toward Elefun to open the door. Elefun let go of the handle and instead pushed some buttons. An alarm sounded and the door opened slowly. I stepped out of the submarine onto the ocean floor. An instant pressure collapsed onto my body, along with the piercing cold temperature of the water. Holy Circuits, it was freezing! In spite of my drysuit, the winter-like temperature still seemed to bleed into my suit, robbing any warmth it could find. I scanned the corner of my blue screen. 10 degrees!? It was colder than I thought. If it was cold to me then...

"Ahh, holy crap, it is cold!" Reno exclaimed.

"Oh, oh my gosh." Cora breathed into my earpiece.

I chuckled as Alejo and Ken gasped in surprise as they entered the water.

After everyone tried to get a custom to the cold temperature, we started stroking through the thick waters.