A Japanese Futurama

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

While you're waiting for the next installment you can watch Futurama in LEGGO!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU5Hd7i3ga4

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

A few hours later, Cobalt and Uran rubbed their eyes and looked around.
“Don't be scared” Astro reassured his siblings. “We've been asleep nearly 1000 years. Professor Farnsworth and Bender have reactivated us here in New New York City.”

“I still have enough deuterium left to power up the little one.” Farnsworth said. I was saving him for last.”

“That was a good idea.” Astro said. “I think maybe Uran and I had better handle him, if you don't mind. If he wakes up scared, it could be a little dangerous.”

“How dangerous could that little bot be?” Bender laughed.

“Just imagine the sound of 10,000 sirens going off in an enclosed space.” Uran said. “You don't want to hear my little brother cry!”

“Guess I better break out the earplugs.” the professor said.

“They won't help much when the walls start to melt.” Cobalt told him.

“Oh my, he's really THAT loud?” Farnsworth gasped. “Well in that case, Bender you and I will go next door and finish unloading the ship!”

Astro carefully inserted the fueling hose into the socket in Chi-tan's posterior. He then opened the little bot's chest panel, as well as his own. Astro unrolled a power cable from inside of himself and plugged the free end into a socket inside of his baby brother.
“I'll use some of my electrical power to charge him.” Astro told his siblings.

Cobalt make funny faces while Chi-tan awakened from his long slumber. The little bot, rubbed his eyes and yawned. He smiled at Cobalt, and stuck his tongue out at him,

“TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB!”

“What was that!” Bender said, as he walked into the room. “Sounded like an atomic raspberry!”

Chi-tan saw Bender and started to laugh. The bending robot walked up to the little bot and smiled at him. “So you think I'm funny do you?”

Chi-tan extended his arms and begged to be picked up, which Bender happily obliged. Chi-tan grabbed at Bender's antenna and tied it into a knot.

“Hey, you're a strong one aren't you?” Bender laughed.

Professor Farnsworth walked back into the lab. “Now we have to figure out where you're going to stay.”

“You can move in with me at the Robot Arms apartments.” Bender said.

“I don't think that would be such a good idea.” Farnsworth said. “Not with the wild parties that you keep throwing.”

“Has Fry been blabbing about me?” Bender asked. “Yeah well on second thought, it might get a bit crowded, and maybe not exactly suitable for the little one.”

“Actually, I have an extra room here.” the professor said. “It will need to be cleaned up a bit, and you'll have to settle for some old surplus army cots, but it should do.”

“That will be fine, sir.” Cobalt said.

Bender and Astro got busy sweeping up the floor in the professor's extra room, which was a good sized storage room in the Planet Express basement that had been empty for years. Bender carried in four cots with lumpy mattresses that had come from the Army and Navy store. He also brought in a curtain room divider which he put in the middle of the room.

“The young lady might want her privacy.” he said looking at Uran.

“Thank you, Bender.” Uran said. “That was very thoughtful of you.. You can put Chi-tan's bed next to mine.”

“Very well.” Bender said as he unfolded the cots and set them up.

“Well, it's getting late.” Professor Farnsworth said. “Have a good night, and I'll see you in the morning.”

“Ditto” Bender said. “I've got to get going home myself.”


After being asleep for nearly 1000 years, Astro and his siblings didn't really feel tired enough to go to sleep, but with the building now dark and quiet the feeling of drowsiness slowly came over Cobalt and Uran. Even Chi-tan eventually nodded off. Astro, lay in his cot and stared at the ceiling, but his mind wouldn't power down. He got up and walked out of the room and started to explore the building.

Astro climbed the stairs that led to the control tower next to the main hangar. He found himself out on the ledge that circled the top of the round tower, which had a good view out over the river and the rest of NNYC. The urge to explore his new surroundings overcame him and Astro tried out his jets. He took off and flew over the landscape, looking down at the strange city unfolding below him. He landed in Madison Square and found himself in front of the Madison Cube Garden.

A large limousine driven by a robot pulled up and stopped next to where Astro was standing. The dark rear window rolled down revealing the face of a well dressed rotund robot smoking a large fragrant cigar. “Come here, I want to talk to you” the Don of the robot Mafia said to Astro.

“Who me?” Astro asked.

“I don't see anyone else around.” The Don said. “You're new around here, aren't you? “

“Yes, I guess I am.” Astro said. “I've sorta been asleep for about 1000 years in Japan. I was just re-activated a few hours ago.”

“Well in that case, let me welcome you to the thirty-first century and the city of New New York” the robot Don said, handing Astro a computer punch card. “Here's my card, you should look me up after you get settled in. I might have a business proposition for a nice robot such as yourself.”

Astro took the card, opened his chest panel, and placed the card in a pocket inside. “Thank you, I'll keep that in mind..”

“You do that.” The Don said, “I'll make it worth your while. Be seeing you.”

The dark window of the limousine rolled back up and the car speed off into the night. Astro looked a bit puzzled. His computer brain could easily tell if a person was good or bad, but he was drawing a blank trying to decode the AI of the robot he'd just met.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Hey Mrs. Eclipse! This chapter is for you!

The Starship Nimbus was in Lunar orbit, having been summoned from its previous mission by D.O.O.P. due to a distress call from the lunar base. Rear Brigadier Zapp Brannigan stood in the bridge studying the transcriptions of the distress signal that had reached the D.O.O.P. monitoring post.

“This is very queer, Kif,” Zapp told his second in command. “We've had no reports of any alien invasion threats for over a year now, and no ships from outside our system have been spotted anywhere near the Earth-Moon area. Try contacting the Moon base on all channels.”

“Yes sir.” Kif moaned as he walked over to the communications panel on the bridge. “Lunar City, this is the Nimbus.” Kif spoke into the microphone. “Is anybody there?”

Unexpectedly, a response came over the orbital navigation channel.
“Nimbus, this is Lunar City approach. We were expecting you. You can stand down from red, yellow, or whatever color alert you are probably on at the moment. We much apologize for our distress signal earlier, that was sent by mistake. All is well.”

Zapp Brannigan grabbed the microphone from Kif. “That makes perfect sense.” He said. “Since we had no indication of any alien ships in the area.”

Kif shut down the communications channel.
“Didn't you read the transcript?” he asked Zapp. “It was clear and direct. They warned us of captives being taken, and booby traps set all over the base. They even warned us to keep away, but you insisted to D.O.O.P. control that you could quickly clean up the situation.”

“Come on Kif, it was obviously a practical joke on the part of the Lunar City commander.” Zapp said. “He must get pretty bored in his job and needed to give me an excuse to come and visit. We might as well take advantage of the situation and allow shore leave for the crew.”

“Don't you think we should make sure that all is in order first?” Kif said.

“Excellent idea!” Brannigan said. “You and I will beam down with a small contingent of the crew and observe the situation while taking our shore leave. If we are having a good time, we will invite the rest of the crew to join us.”

“That's not exactly what I meant.” Kif said.


Astro woke up to the sound of Chi-tan playing with some toys that the professor had left in the corner of the room. Uran and Cobalt were still asleep. Astro had flown back to the Planet Express building after exploring NNYC for a few hours. He'd managed to get a few hours rest, but was now wide awake. He quietly left the room and mounted the stairs to the buildings main level where he found the employee lounge occupied by the Planet Express staff. Leela and Fry were having their morning coffee. Amy Wong was reading the China-town news paper, while Hermes Conrad sat with a calculator doing the books. Bender was drinking a beer while smoking a cigar. A few seconds after Astro walked into the room, Professor Farnsworth made his entrance.

“Good News everyone!” Farnsworth said. “I have another milk run for you guys to make. This trip will be to Lunar City to make a delivery of green cheese.”

“I thought the moon was supposed to be made of green cheese.” Fry laughed.

“Is that what people believed in the 20th century?” Farnsworth asked.

“No not really.” Fry said. “Actually, that was just a common joke.”

“Oh I see.” the professor said. “Now a days we joke that the moon is made of Limburger.”
“Anyway.” he added, “You can take some shore leave at the Lunar City Disneyland after you make your delivery. Spend a few days there if you like.”

Leela noticed Astro standing near the door way. “Hello, who are you?”

Professor Farnsworth turned around and saw Astro standing behind him.
“Everyone, I'd like your to meet Astro Boy. He's a robot from twenty first century Japan.” He said. “Astro and three other robots were brought back from New Tokyo by Bender.”

“Oh, so THAT's what Bender was stealing from the Ministry of Science building.” Leela said.

“Hey!” Bender said walking over to Astro and putting his hand on Astro's shoulder. “This bot is a long lost cousin of mine!”

“Well now that he's here, what is he going to do with himself?” Leela asked.
Astro removed the card from his internal storage pocket that he'd gotten from the robot Don. “Well I did get a job offer from some robot I met last night.” he said

“Let me see that!” Bender said grabbing the computer card from Astro.
“Oh, oh. You might want to keep away from this guy.” Bender said. “He's the head of the NNYC robot crime mob. I've had dealings with that guy and his henchman Clamps.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Fry said. “That almost didn't end too well.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Astro said taking the card back and tearing it up.

“Well, I suppose he could join the delivery crew.” Leela said. “Providing he's strong enough and not a lazy bum like you Bender.”

“Don't worry.” Astro said. “I can handle the work.”



Zapp, Kif, and most of the Nimbus's brass beamed down to the middle of the Lunar City grand concourse to find the place empty.

“This is strange.” Kif said. “Normally, this area is crowded with people. Where is everyone?”

“Must be siesta time.” Zapp guessed.

Before any of the Nimbus crew could react by drawing a weapon, they were surrounded by a mob of can shaped robots with claw hands.
“Drop your weapons!” the robots ordered, as they pointed their own ray guns at the men of the Nimbus.

Zapp and his officers complied, seeing that they had little choice.

“Where did you guys come from?” Zapp demanded. “We monitored no alien space traffic approaching the moon.”

“Maybe that's because we've been here all the time.”
The voice came from a larger version of the robots that had made the ambush. It was a large can shaped machine with two claw like arms. It had two large square red eyes and a huge mouth.

“I was asleep in my laboratory for over a thousand years.” The large robot said. “I woke up to find that my home had been invaded by a civilization of humans who had come here uninvited. I built myself an army, and I am now going to take over the Moon, and then the Earth.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Zapp said.

“You mean you don't remember me? He asked. “I guess that's because my teacher is long dead. I'm known as the Master Cylinder!”

[MrsEclipse]

1) You're just as good at capturing the essence of Futurama as you are with Astro Boy's world ^u^. I wasn't following this before but now I can't wait to see more.

2) OMG, Master Cylinder! What are you doing here? Making it a triple crossover? Awesome!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The brakes failed on the borrowed car my daughter was driving (while she was parking, didn't cause an accident). My wife asked me what I thought might have failed, and I guessed that either a brake line blew out, or the master cylinder had failed.

Well this happened just as I was thinking about what to put in the next chapter of this story, and the words "master cylinder" sparked a memory that apparently goes back to 1959! Naturally I HAD to write him in here (I think he fits rather well with Futurama!). I also then remembered seeing your DeviantArt page with your rendition of Felix's Foe. (Hmmmm, can I work Felix into the story? Maybe as a head in a jar ....)

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The Planet Express crew entered the ships hangar and stared at the loading bay next door. The bay was filled up to the ceiling with insulated crates of green cheese.
“You guys better get this stuff loaded quickly into the ships cargo hold before it starts to spoil.” The Professor said.

Bender staggered into the cockpit of the anti-gravity fork loader and started up the machine. He over-revved the engine and threw it into gear, immediately stripping the gears and destroying the transmission.

“What the heck is the matter with you, Bender?” Leela asked. “You operated that machine like a surgeon yesterday.”

“Sorry.” Bender said. “Guess I had a little too much beer to drink.”

“Jeez!” Amy Wong said. “Just what we don't need around here. A drunk robot operating heavy machinery!”

“I guess we'll have to load this stuff by hand.” Leela said. “Everyone get to work!”

Astro entered the loading bay and surveyed the situation. The cargo was already palletized, but without the fork lift loader the crew would have to unload each pallet and carry the individual crates into the ship one by one. The ship's cargo hatch was about 15 feet off the ground, so they would have to use the ramp to carry the crates from the floor of the loading bay to the hangar and into the ship.

“This is going to take forever.” Fry moaned.

“No it won't!” Astro said. “Watch this!”

Astro ran into the loading bay and single handedly lifted up a a pallet containing 1000 Kg of cheese. He flew through the air, holding the heavy cargo over his head, and gently dropped it into the ships cargo hold. Astro then flew back for a second pallet. Leela's head rotated back and forth watching Astro zip between the loading dock and the ship's cargo hold. In less than five minutes the entire contents of the loading dock had been transferred to the ship.

While Astro had been flying back and forth, Cobalt, Uran, and Chi-tan had wandered into the hangar to watch their brother start his new job. “Atom-Ani!” Uran cried out, waving her hand.

“OK!” Leela said as Astro landed next to her. “That was fantastic! OK crew, let's get going.”

Philip Fry, Amy Wong, and Dr. Zoidberg got on board the ship and took their seats. Astro and Bender headed to the ship's hatchway, but Leela blocked Bender's path.
“Why don't you sit this one out, Bender.” She said. “You're too drunk to be useful on this trip, Astro will take your place.”

“What! And miss Lunar City Disneyland?” Bender said.

“You're grounded!” Leela told the obnoxious robot. “As long as I'm captain, I won't have any intoxicated robots on MY ship!”

“OK, then!” Bender said. “But don't ask for my help when you next need it, cause you won't get it!” Bender marched off to the kitchen and grabbed a six pack of Blotto Beer from the fridge.

“Don't you think you were a little harsh on him, Leela?” Fry asked.

“I'm sorry Fry.” Leela said. “But I'm sick and tired of that lazy, drunk, useless robot screwing up on the job. If he's not being incompetent, he's being a thief.”

“Yeah, but if he hadn't been up to his usual shoplifting we wouldn't have had Astro to help out.” Fry pointed out.

“You're right, Fry.” Leela said. “I'll try and make it up to Bender when we get back. But for this trip, Astro is going to take his place, he's earned it.”

Astro turned to Leela. “Can my brothers and sister come along?” He asked. “I'm sure they would enjoy the theme park.”

“Sure, we've got a few empty seats left in the crew compartment.” Leela said, waving for Astro's siblings to join them.

Leela was about to close the hatchway when Bender came running up the gangplank carrying two large canisters. “I told you that you weren't welcome on this trip, Bender!” Leela said grabbing the door handle. Astro saw what he was carrying and spoke up.
“Bender has brought extra canisters of atomic energy for my siblings and I,” he said. “Thank you Bender! Please Leela, let him come along. He means well.”

Leela sighed and threw her hands up in the air. “Very well Bender, you can come along.” She said. “But as soon as we are out of Earth orbit you'd better get to the galley and drink lots of stuff with caffeine in it and sober up!”

Bender grabbed Leela and gave her a big hug. “Thank you Leela!” he said, taking his seat.

“Wow!” Amy Wong said. “He must have been really plastered to have apologized to you. He never does that when he's sober.”


The crew of the Nimbus were tied up and sitting on the floor of the grand concourse. They were being guarded by about a dozen of the 'mini' cylinder robots. Master Cylinder stood about twenty feet away from them, gloating.

“So just how do you think you are going to take over the Moon and then the Earth?” Zapp Brannigan mocked his captor.

“Actually, I'm in control of the Moon right now.” Master Cylinder laughed. “The commander of Lunar City is under my control at this very minute. He knows that I have his family captive, and is afraid of what I might do to them if he doesn't cooperate. As for the Earth, once I have my forces in place in low Earth orbit, I'll be able to threaten raining death and destruction down on the planet if they do not surrender.”

“Got you there!” Zapp laughed. “You don't have a space ship.”

“True, but after you order your transporter operator to beam my Army and myself up to yours, we will take it over.” Master Cylinder laughed.

“I would never give such an order.” Zapp snarled. “I'd rather all of my men died first.”

“I was rather thinking I'd try torturing you first.” Master Cylinder sneered.

“Well in that case.” Zapp said. “Maybe we might come to some sort of deal.”

Kif looked at Zapp and face palmed.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The entire crew of the Nimbus sat in the brig tied up with silly string.
“You traitorous coward!” Kif scowled at Zapp Brannigan. “How could you just allow those robots to be beamed aboard the ship and take control of it!”

“Easy Kif!” Zapp replied. “It's all part of my master plan! I now have them just where they want us!”

“Oy vey!” Kif replied.


The Planet Express ship was halfway to the moon when the collision alert warning began to beep.
“Bring up the forward long range viewer!” Leela said.

Fry activated the controls from his console and the screen slowly focused and the image of the Nimbus appeared.

“Not that idiot, Zapp again!” Leela sighed. “I'm sick and tired of his High School sexual advances on me! I'm going to take some evasive actions and get away from him pronto!”

Leela went to full throttle and changed course, but the Nimbus quickly reacted and kept pace with the Planet Express Ship.

“They're hailing us!” Fry said, as he brought up the ship to ship communications on the main screen.

Instead of the scourge of DOOP, it was the image of the Master Cylinder that appeared on screen.
“Attention Earth ship!” the can shaped robot demanded. “Surrender, or prepare to be destroyed!”

Leela made a quick 180 degree turn and hit the throttle.
“Oh Crap! They're gaining on us!” Amy Wong cried from her navigation station.

The Nimbus fired several rounds of laser blasts, but Master Cylinder's soldier bots hadn't quite yet figured out the Nimbus's weapons systems and they missed by a good margin. Astro stood up in front of the view screen.
“That guy kinda looks familiar to me.” he said.

The laser blasts were getting closer.
“I think they're getting the hang of the ship” Leela said “I don't think we can stay ahead of them for much longer. Any ideas?”

“Just one.” Astro said. “Get me out of this ship!”

“Allow me!” Bender said. He grabbed Astro and carried him towards the back of the ship and into the torpedo room. He opened up the loading door to tube #1 and stuffed Astro into it.

“Firing rear torpedo!” Bender cried and slammed his fist onto the firing button.


Astro blasted out of the rear torpedo tube heading straight for the Nimbus.
“I can't just destroy the ship,” he thought “there are innocent people on board being held captive by those robots.”

Leela kept dodging the laser fire from the Nimbus. Suddenly three photon torpedoes appeared on the radar screen.
“Oh Crap!” she yelled as she yanked the ship around to avoid the incoming missiles.

The Nimbus fired another salvo of torpedoes. Astro flew toward the cluster of missiles and hit the first of them with a right uppercut knocking it off course. He kicked the second of the group into the third and the two torpedoes exploded a safe distance away. Now getting close to the Nimbus he headed straight for its torpedo port and smashed his way into the weapons bay. Fighting his way past a group of the can shaped robot soldiers, he used his arm cannons on the weapons control panel.

Suddenly the salvo of laser fire and photon torpedoes from the Nimbus stopped.
“I bet Astro just took their weapons systems off line.” Bender said with some pride.

Astro made his way through the ship and headed for the brig. He had to fight his way past another group of soldier bots that suddenly surrounded him at the junction of four intersecting corridors. Astro wheeled quickly about on the balls of his feet, his butt guns blazing. Within a few seconds the floor was littered with out of commission soldier bots.

Astro reached the brig and used his finger lasers to cut open the locked doors, freeing the men of the Nimbus. He untied a few of the crew, including Zapp and Kif.

“Who are you? and thanks for coming to our aid.” Zapp replied.

“I'm Astro, a robot from New Tokyo.” Astro said.

“Look out, behind you!” Kif cried out, too late!

Suddenly two heavy claws grabbed Astro from behind by the neck. He found himself being throttled by a giant can shaped monster robot. A magnetic laser beam hit him and he felt his energy being drained.

“NOBODY DEFEATS THE MASTER CYLINDER!” came the voice from behind Astro.

Zapp Brannigan and Kif watched in horror as Astro fought against the power drain of the magnetic laser being fired at him, and the grip of the two heavy claws around his neck. He slumped forward, and fell limp. Master Cylinder shut down his magnetic ray and was about to toss Astro's limp form aside when suddenly he was hit by a hail of armor piercing shells. Astro extended the two hip guns from his butt and emptied both clips into Master Cylinder!

Both of the huge robot's arms were shot off, and his power supply shorted out. Master Cylinder fell to the floor and started sparking and smoking.

The crew of the Nimbus ran out of the brig and quickly shut the doors behind them, leaving Master Cylinder inside. Just as the heavy doors of the brig snapped shut, the large robot exploded.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Zapp Brannigan led the crew of the Nimbus toward the transporter room.
“I'm volunteering all of you for a detail to beam back down to Lunar City to free the city from what remains of Master Cylinder's army. With their leader now dead, we should have an easy time of it!”

As the crew grouped themselves onto the transporter pads, Kif yelled to his commanding officer.
“You don't really expect that you'll find the Master Cylinder's army that easy to overpower do you?” The second in command asked.

“Certainly!” Zapp replied. “they are now leaderless, and confused. We must hurry before we loose that advantage!”

Astro motioned to Kif, who stepped off the transporter pad just as the beams were energized.
“Put on a spacesuit.” Astro told the slender green officer. “We'll fly over to the base and sneak in thought the back door, so to speak.”

Astro and Kif watched as Zapp and his soldiers dematerialized from the transporter and were beamed over to the very same point on the moon base where they had first arrived.

The Nimbus boarding party materialized in the middle of the Lunar City grand concourse to again find themselves surrounded by armed robot soldiers. This time both armies had their guns drawn to a Mexican standoff.

“Surrender, we've got you surrounded!” Zapp yelled out.

“No, YOU surrender, we've got YOU surrounded!” a deep electronic voice called out from behind where Zapp Brannigan was standing.

Zapp quickly turned his head to see Master Cylinder standing behind him, holding a rather large anti-matter ray gun.

“What are you doing here?” Zapp asked. “You blew up on the Nimbus!”

“I've been here all this time.” Master Cylinder laughed. “My clone beamed up to your ship to take it over. No matter, we can simply try the matter all over again.!”

Kif held on tightly to Astro with his arm gripped around his neck while the boy robot flew towards the Planet Express ship. Strapped to his back was a duffel bag containing firearms from the Nimbus. They entered through the rear airlock behind the cargo bay.

“How did it go?” Leela asked as the two of them entered the ship's bridge.

“Astro over powered the Master Cylinder and the crew quickly captured the robot army that had taken over the Nimbus.” Kif explained. “Only now my duffus CO is about to beam back to Lunar City, right into the middle of the lion's den.”

“It's obvious that the Master Cylinder that I destroyed on the Nimbus was a clone of the the one on the moon.” Astro said. “Zapp was too full of himself to consider the possibility.”

“Tell me about it!” Leela face palmed. “So now what do we do?”

“Take the ship in for a landing on the far side of the moon.” Kif explained. “There is an abandoned base there that has a tunnel connection to Lunar City. With any luck the robots will not have discovered it, as it has been abandoned for centuries.”

“Right, we can surprise them.” Leela agreed.

Uran remained behind with little Chi-tan, while Cobalt joined his brother in the assault. Leela, Amy, Fry, and Zoidberg donned spacesuits as the old tunnel had been depressurized for years. Astro took the point position and lead the small army through the abandoned tunnel. He illuminated the way through the dark passageway with his eye searchlights. Each member of the contingent carried a laser rifle Kif had brought with him from the Nimbus arms locker. Bender carried the largest one, a monster that looked like a cross between a cannon and a tuba. Clamped in the obnoxious robot's mouth was a big fat cigar. He also had put an NRA badge on his chest.

The army finally reached the airlock leading into the old section of Lunar City. Bender tried to crank the door lock open, but it was rusted shut.

“Let me give you a hand with that.” Astro said. Astro added his 100,000 HP to Bender's and the two of them cracked the door open.

“We make a great team!” Bender laughed, punching Astro on the shoulder.

Once inside the city, the humans stripped off their spacesuits, and Bender lit his cigar.

“Must you?” Leela moaned, coughing from the smoke.

Astro's feet squeaked quietly as they snuck towards the city jail where the robots had imprisoned the city officers. There was only a small group of robots guarding the jail and they quickly overpowered them with minimal gun fire (except for the tremendous blast from the BFG Bender was armed with).

“Why the hell did you bring THAT thing along?” Leela asked Kif, pointing to the huge melted pile of robots in the middle of the corridor.

“You never know.” Kif answered.

“Now we need to find where the crew of the Nimbus are being held.” Cobalt pointed out. “I hope that Master Cylinder hasn't transported back over to the Nimbus.”

“That isn't going to happen.” Kif said proudly. “Just before Astro and I left the ship, we disabled the transporters on the Nimbus and activated the cloaking shield. The only way back on board is though the airlock that we exited from.”

Kif pulled out a tricorder from his pocket. “Each member of the Nimbus crew has a nano tracking device implanted under his skin." He explained, "I've got my tricorder tuned to Zapp's right now. Follow me.”

Kif lead the way along the back corridors of the Lunar base. They soon approached the Grand Concourse where they had first beamed down earlier. Once again, the crew of the Nimbus had been disarmed and tied up by the robot army. Master Cylinder stood with his back facing where the advancing column was hiding from view.

“Now what are we going to do?” Leela asked.

“I actually think that Zapp had the right idea.” Kif said. “Knock out the leader and the rest of the robots will be helpless without direction.”

“All right, then.” Astro smirked, morphing his left arm into a particle beam cannon, “He's not getting the drop on me again!”

Astro aimed and fired a quick blast at the huge robot. Master Cylinder was stunned, but he quickly turned around. Bender opened fire with the BFG at the same time that the other members of the Planet Express crew fired their laser rifles. Cobalt took careful aim with the weapon he had been issued, hitting Master Cylinder squarely in the ass where his recharge port was. The giant robot started glowing red hot.

“Great shooting Tex! Kif cried out. “He's going to explode!”

Astro flew forward and grabbed Master Cylinder, blasting through the roof of the building. He dropped the now white hot enemy about fifty miles from the base and flew back to join his friends, just as Master Cylinder self destructed with a 20 Kiloton detonation.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Back on the Nimbus, Zapp Brannigan reported to D.O.O.P. HQ that he had put down the robot uprising on Lunar City, and that the colony was slowly returning to normal. Kif face palmed and sighed.

“Prepare to return to patrol duty.” Brannigan told his second in command. “We are going back to our regular route about this part of the galaxy.”

“Yes sir.” Kif sighed.

The crew of the Planet Express ship watched from the Lunar City dome as the Nimbus left orbit and entered warp drive, leaving an aurora trail behind as it entered hyperspace.

“Well, at least that big fat blow hard Zapp is out of my hair,” Leela said.

With the un-pleasantries over with, the crew proceeded to unload the green
cheese from the ships refrigerated cargo bay. Astro again helped with the unloading. They then volunteered to assist with the general cleanup around the base. It took a week before things were totally back to normal.

“Hey Professor!” Leela radioed back to her boss on Earth, “Now that we've helped get things back to normal around here, and managed to deliver all that smelly cheese, we're going to check out Lunar Disney.”

“Enjoy yourselves!” Farnsworth replied. “But make sure you get back here in a week. You know what day it is, don't you.?”

“Oh yeah!” Leela said. “Don't worry, we'll be back in time tho help you board up the place so we will all be safe.”

Bender overheard the conversation and pulled a calendar out from inside of his chest cavity to look at it. “Well, I don't have anything to worry about!” he smirked. “I'm a robot!”

Uran kept a close eye on Chi-tan at the theme park. The little bot did manage to wander off once while Uran was on one of the E-ticket rides, but Bender caught him and kept him amused until Uran returned.

When the Planet Express ship landed back at the hangar on Earth the pre-panic had already started to set in. Astro and Cobalt recognized there was something wrong in NNYC right away. Astro inquired the professor about this.

“Farnsworth Hakase,” he asked “I couldn't help but notice that everyone seems a bit jumpy. Did anything happen here while we were on the moon?”

“No, nothing unusual.” the professor answered. “It always gets a bit crazy this time of year.”

“Why?” Astro asked.

“It will be Xmas eve in a few days.” Farnsworth said, “And Santa will come.”

“Santa Claus is just a story told to children.” Astro said.

“A thousand years ago, in your time, he was.” Farnsworth replied. “In the year 3000, he is very real. Some years ago, around 2801 I think, the Friendly Robot Company designed a Santa robot for one of the department stores. They equipped his AI with software to judge how naughty or nice a person had been for the purpose of present selection. Unfortunately someone hacked into their computer and modified that code so that the robot would think everyone was evil. The robot escaped to Neptune, but he comes back to Earth every Xmas to punish the naughty with extreme prejudice. We've lost count of the number of people that Robot Santa has killed. Funny thing though, Robot Santa always leaves a nice Xmas present for Zoidberg. Anyway, now everyone has to board up their houses on Xmas to keep Santa from breaking in.”

“That's horrible!” Uran said.

“Yeah!” Cobalt added. “Astro, we've got to do something about him.”

“I don't believe this.” Astro sighed. “I've only been re-awakened for two weeks and I'm going to have to fight yet another evil robot!”

“Let me bring up his design spec's on my computer.” the professor said. “I've tried to find a weak spot in his armor for years, but so far I haven't been able to design a weapon to destroy him.”

Farnsworth activated the holographic monitor display on his computer and hacked his way though the Internet. He soon had Robot Santa's blueprints displayed on the monitor, hanging in the 3D space in mid air.
“You can page trough the document by moving your hands though the image.” he told Astro.

“Hey Cobalt, come over here!” Astro said. “I need your help!”

The two robot brothers read through all the pages of Santa's design documentation.

“I sure wish Reno was here.” Astro sighed. “This guy is going to be every bit as tough to fight as Pluto was.”

“He doesn't have any built in weapons.” Farnsworth said. “But he sure does know how to build them. He will have several anti proton guns, and surge cannons in his sled, as well as conventional lasers and bombs.”

“I'm not too worried about those.” Astro said. “It's his shielding and armor systems that make him a pain in the butt. I'd have to hit him point blank with both of my arm cannons at full charge to have a chance of putting a dent in him.”

“Yeah he is a tough cookie.” the professor said. “He wasn't designed as a walking tank, but after he escaped to Neptune he enslaved the local population and made them rebuild his defense systems. The Neptunians now have to dress like elves and kiss up to that fake Claus.”

“Well that settles it!” Astro said pounding a fist into an open palm. “I'm going to have to destroy him and free the people of Neptune while I'm at it.”
Astro noticed Bender trying to sneak out of the room. He grabbed the robot by his neck and yanked him back towards him.
“I'm going to need your help on this, Bender!”

“No way!” Bender yelled. “I'm not going to help you destroy a fellow human hating robot.”

“You know what Bender?” Astro said, “You remind me of a robot I once knew who hated humans so much that he was always acting as a terrorist. The police were constantly after him, and I ended up fighting him so often that I needed my own private repairman on a 24/7 retainer.”

“I just kid around about that.” Bender said, “I never really meant it. I mean, some of my best friends are humans.”

“I thought so.” Astro said. “So you will help me?”

“Yeah, but don't tell anybody. I don't want to ruin my reputation!” Bender said.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Astro helped Professor Farnsworth get the heavy panels out from the basement where they'd been stored since last Xmas. Astro and Bender installed the panels over the windows and doors under the professor's directions. Only the already heavily armored side door didn't need any additional protection, and it could be bared from the inside.

“We'll be safe in here now.” Professor Farnsworth said. “Now what?”

“Come Xmas eve I'll be outside waiting for Santa!” Astro said pounding a fist into his palm. “This is going to be Santa's last Xmas raising hell on Earth!”

“Are you sure you handle him?” Bender asked. “The police and military bots hid from him on Xmas eve. Santa comes to Earth armed and loaded for bear.”

“Years ago I had to stand up to a monster robot that was designed to destroy other robots.” Astro said. “Pluto had ten times my strength, but I had my creator increase my mine to one million horsepower and he also gave me some additional fire power. Yeah I can take this Santa bot on. With any luck I'll be able to get him to see the light of day as I did Pluto. If not, well if I have to destroy him I will!”

The Nimbus returned to her patrol between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Zapp Brannigan was pissed off. Once again D.O.O.P. command had assigned him and his crew patrol duty during the Xmas holiday.

“You know Kif,” Zapp waxed in thought, “I'm sick of this Xmas patrol every year. What the hell is D.O.O.P. thinking?”

“Maybe they're hoping you can prevent Santa from making his usual Xmas strafing run on the Earth,” his first in command suggested.

“You know, that's right!” Zapp laughed. “Well the crew can use the target practice! Put the ship in orbit around Jupiter Kif, when Santa passes our way in route to Earth from Neptune we'll blast him out of existence with full phasers and photo torpedoes! Tell the weapons officer to fine tune the targeting computers. HO HO HO!” he laughed.

Right on schedule Santa left Neptune for his night of retribution across Earth. His sled-space ship was loaded with bombs, rifles, lasers and lots of ammo. He also had packed a nice present for Zoidberg.

The Nimbus lay in waiting around Jupiter.
“Sensors report Santa's sled in route” Kif reported from navigation bridge.

“Prepare to break out of orbit and follow that sled!” Zapp ordered. “Plot me an intercept course!”

The Nimbus fired up her warp engines and got behind Santa's sled just as the renegade robot passed the giant planet.

“Weapons officer reports we have a target lock on Santa!” Kif replied.

“Good, let him have it!” Zapp ordered, “Fire all weapons!”

At the last moment Santa's sled accelerated and quickly pulled away from the Nimbus.

“Looks like he's on to us, sir!” Kif said.

“Well go to a higher warp factor and catch up to him!” Zapp ordered. “I want to see his butt on my view screen!”

“He's pulled into the asteroid belt to hid!” Kif reported.

“Follow him, damn it!” Zapp yelled.

For the next few minutes Santa's sled and the Nimbus played a game of chicken dodging asteroids, with the Nimbus slowly drawing closer to its prey. Santa-bot reached into the back of his sled and picked up a huge phaser cannon, and turned around to aim it at the Nimbus.

“In coming!” Kif yelled as a phaser blast tore a hole through the lower decks of the ship.

“Return fire!” Zapp yelled.

The Nimbus fired off a barrage of photo torpedoes and several quick blasts of phaser fire. Santa bot flew a quick zig zag course and managed to avoid the Nimbus weapons fire. Two of the torpedoes blasted against a large planetoid sending fragments of it in all directions setting up a chain reaction that caused other asteroids flying toward the Nimbus. Two of the wayward rocks knocked her engines off line, the Nimbus slowed down and drifted in space.

“Shit!” Zapp moaned. “He got away again!”

“That's not the worst of it.” Kif sighed.

“You mean there's more bad news?” Zapp asked.

“Yes. One of our photon torpedoes knocked a minor planetoid out of its orbit sending it inward.” Kif replied. “I'm tracking it now, it looks like it will hit NNYC in a few days.”

“Oh crap!” Zapp sighed. “I don't think D.O.O.P. will like that very much!”

A few hours before Xmas eve found the Planet Express crew hunkered down in their HQ building with the doors and windows barred. They were both scared and bored at the same time. Leela and Fry kept busy by playing strip poker, Leela had so far given up only her tank top, Fry was down to his underwear. Uran was trying to keep Chi-tan amused with some toys that Bender had found in the basement, Cobalt and the Professor were monitoring the space band radio. Astro stood by the door, waiting to walk out and face his adversary.

“Hey Astro!” Cobalt yelled out. “We've got another problem.”

“Now what?” Astro asked.

“I just heard a report on the space band that a rather large asteroid is on a collision course with the Earth.” he said. “Looks like it will impact in NNYC late Xmas day!”

Leela overheard Cobalt. “Where is that stupid Zapp Brannigan when you need him?” she moaned.

“What do you mean?” Cobalt said. “The Nimbus was the cause of that asteroid changing orbit, and the ship is now dead in space.”

“Yeah, I should have guessed that!” Leela laughed.

“So after I destroy this Santa bot, I've got to divert an asteroid!” Astro moaned. “Great!”