This is the second time I had started to develop this idea, I did something similiar as the final chapter of my 'Prequel' story which was also in a one chapter BlackJack story 'Two sides of the same coin'. In that treatment, Tobio becoms Daichi (and hence Atlas) which would make Astro and Atlas not just brothers, but clones.
My other idea of how to develop a story around this idea is a much darker one. I'm going to try and finish my development of this story here on the forum. The first three chapters are already written, and I'll be posting more as I polish off this idea.
EDIT: OH BTW, this story is also a bit of a crossover with the "Diehard" movies, as I've used the title character of that movie in a role here.
Dopplegänger
I
It was the office of the principal in an expensive Manhattan private school for the students of well heeled parents. The parent of the boy who was being detained in the office of the school's headmaster had been through this ritual several times before, like many other parents of spoiled brats. The principal was all too familiar with this particular case. The mother was a divorcée, who had received quite a large settlement from her former husband. Her son had only recently been returned to her custody after having lived with her ex for sometime. The two of them had been living in New York City for only a few months, this was the child's first semester in the school.
The boy sat in the chair next to his mother, fidgeting. It was clear that he was annoyed to be there, but his mother wasn't happy about the situation either. The principal tried to avoid looking at the child, and directed his attention to the boy's mother instead.
She was a middle aged Asian woman, quite possibly Japanese, thought the head of the school, thought he wasn't certain of that, thinking that she might also be Korean. She was quite well dressed, in a snappy business suit, high healed shoes, and sported tastefully applied makeup. Her hair was dark, except for a few strands of gray hair. Her dark sunglasses were propped up above her forehead, ready to be dropped back into position as soon as she left the building into the bright sunlight outside.
The boy, was another matter. He wore designer jeans, with a brightly colored button up shirt not tucked under his belt, but hanging loosely over his waistline. His hair was well combed, except for two large cowlick tufts of hair sticking out at diagonal angles at either side of his head. He defiantly refused to remove the mirrored aviator styled mirrored sunglasses which hid his dark brown eyes from view.
“This is the third incident this month.” The principal began. “Your son was found in the bathroom smoking marijuana, I'm sure he was selling it to the other students as well.”
“That's not what he told me.” The woman quickly spoke back. “You do seem to have a problem in this school, and you also seem to be taking the easy way out by blaming my son! The older boys in this school are the problem.”
“If I had more proof than the word of the other hooligans he's been hanging with, I'd have called the police by now.” The principal responded. “However, that's not the only trouble your son has gotten himself into. He's become quite arrogant and rude, and is insisting on going by the name Tojo. Some of the younger students have identified him and the gang members he's been seen with as having held them up for their lunch money. Your son is a bully, and a thief. He's been hanging out with known juvenile delinquents. If you don't keep him in line, he's bound to find himself cooling his heels in a jail cell before long. By rights I should have him expelled.”
“But you won't.” The woman said in a threating voice. “I'm paying your school too much for his education, and your school board would have your job if you kicked my son out.”
With that final remark, the mother grabbed her son by the hand and yanked him from the chair.
“We're going home now,” she told the boy. “You're grounded for the rest of the day, until school tomorrow.”
As he watched them leave his office, the principal rested his face into his palms.
Astro dropped his suitcase, and those of the professor on the floor of their hotel room. They were staying in Manhattan for a week to visit a colleague of the professor's who was now teaching at Columbia university. Ochanomizu also wanted to visit many of the city's museums, especially the American museum of Natural History.
“We'll spend the day tomorrow with Doctor Hanamaru” Ochanomizu told Astro. “He's been dying to meet you, you know.”
“Yes Hakase,” Astro replied. “He worked at the Institute of Science before I was born, didn't he?”
“Yes he did.” the professor replied. “He left about the time that Dr. Tenma took over from Dr. Pavilion. The two of them didn't get along very well. I suspect he always wanted to work in New York City anyway.”
Tojo removed his sunglasses and breathed heavy on the lenses to fog them up and wiped the moisture off on the front of his shirt. He replaced the glasses on his head, and then pulled a comb from his shirt pocket. Tojo combed his hair, gathering each of his two cowlicks into neat bundles sticking back from his head. He looked around him, taking in the scene on the street. The traffic on Amsterdam avenue was light, and few pedestrians were on the street. It was an off hour, late in the afternoon, yet not quite quitting time. He looked across the street and saw the three older members of the tong waiting for his signal. The had their ski masks ready to slip over their heads to hide their identity. Tojo waited until the right customer rang the bell to the jewelry store's locked front door, and raised the signal to the three gang members that lay in waiting, leaning against two street light poles. His accomplishes rushed to the door of the store behind the customer just as the shop owner buzzed the door open. Tojo wrapped a silk scarf around his face hiding everything below his glasses.
Tojo walked through the door as the largest of his three cohorts smashed open a display case with a small sledge hammer that he had been holding under his belt. The other two gang members brandished knives, making threating gestures at the shop owner and the quivering woman who had been buzzed in. Tojo groaned at the mess the boy with the hammer had made. He'd managed to completely shatter the display case, sending all of it's contents to the floor. The diamond jewelry was now mixed up with all of the pulverized glass that had once been a display fixture. Tojo quickly scooped up a few of the larger rings and quickly pocketed them. Giving the shop owner a wave of his hand, he walked out onto Amsterdam Avenue, followed by the other three youths. They took off in a run, heading uptown on Amsterdam Avenue. Tojo veered off west onto toward the Colombia campus, while the while the other three turned toward the east.
Police inspector John McClane had been working the streets due to the mini crime wave that had hit the store fronts. It was the reported work of a gang of school age punks who had taken to crime. Most of the eye witnesses had described the ring leader of the gang as a well dressed 9 to 11 year old kid with a slight Asian accent. Nobody had gotten a good look at his face because he always wore mirrored sunglasses with large aviator style lenses, and a silk scarf below that. He did have one distinct feature though, his hair had two prominent cowlicks that stuck out at radial angles on either side of his head.
So far the problem had been limited to petty larceny and there hadn't been any violent attacks. He knew that could change in an instant however. So it wasn't unexpected when he received a call on his cellphone alerting him to the jewelry store robbery. McClane wasn't far from the scene, he ran quickly up Amsterdam Avenue and into the jewelry shop whose silent alarm had just gone off. He entered the establishment to find he'd arrived just a bit late to apprehend the perpetrators of the crime. Shards of glass littered the floor where a display case had been smashed open. Diamond jewelry lay on the floor, intermingled with the broken glass.
“What did they get?” McClane asked.
“Not much,” the shop owner told him. “Stupid punks. They followed a customer into the shop, smashed the display case and grabbed one or two of the larger settings. They left behind stuff much more valuable.”
“Can you describe them?” the inspector asked.
“Punks!” the shop owner said. “Asian teenagers. They were led by a younger kid. Well dressed, wearing mirrored sunglasses. He had this crazy hair.”
“Two large cowlicks sticking out?” McClane asked, showing the shop owner a police artist drawing put together by earlier witnesses.
“Yeah, that's him.” The shop owner said. “If you hurry you might catch them. I think they were running uptown in the direction of Columbia University.
Astro and Professor Ochanomizu sat on a bench with Doctor Hanamaru. The three of them had spent the day together touring the university and Astro and the professor had sat in on one of the Doctor's classes.
“I'm really impressed by your lectures, Dr. Hanamaru,” Ochanomizu said. “You really manage to keep your students interested in what can be a very difficult subject to comprehend.”
“Why thank you, Hakase,” Hanamaru replied. “All the time that I worked at the Institute, I always had wanted to teach others. I'm actually grateful to Dr. Tenma for giving me the spark I needed to leave.”
“If I ever see, Umataro again, I'll tell him you said that.” Ochanomizu laughed.
Just as they were about to get up from the bench, a boy just about Astro's size cut though the campus from Amsterdam Avenue, running quickly and nearly bowling over several older men. He ran quickly by and disappeared around the corner of the building behind them.
Several moments later, John McClane turned the same corner, and ran into campus area. He was rotating his head as he ran, grabbing a glance at every person in his path. He spotted Astro and the professor and skidded to a halt. McClane quickly walked up to the three subjects on the bench, and flashed his badge.
“Can I help you, Inspector?” Dr. Hanamaru asked, before McClane could open his mouth.
John took a deep breath to restore his equilibrium. “You!” he said pointing to Astro and reaching into his pocket for a pair of handcuffs.
“Now what do you think you are doing?” Hanamaru said, stepping between the policeman and Astro.
“I'm arresting this kid for felony robbery.”
“Really? When did this crime take place.”
“About ten minutes ago. An eye witness saw him running in this direction.”
“That's hardly likely, since the boy has been here with us all day!” Hanamaru told the policeman.
“And I can vouch for that as well!” Ochanomizu said.
McClane stared at Astro and pulled out police sketch drawing. He held the artwork at arm's length, and compared the boy with the drawing. Except for the glasses, they looked almost identical.
“Well either you two are lying, or the kid has a twin brother.” the inspector said, presenting the two men with the police sketch.
Professor Ochanomizu examined the drawing and scratched his head.
“It does bear an uncanny resemblance to Astro here, but I can assure you that this boy isn't the criminal you've been chasing.” the professor answered. “We've both arrived from Japan just yesterday to visit your city.”
“In that case, I suppose he can't be the one I'm after.” McClane sighed. “This person of interest has been identified in several other crimes extending back a few weeks now. I'm sorry to have troubled you.” McClane started to walk away, but turned around.
“Listen, I need to know where you are staying.”
“Still don't really believe us do you?” Ochanomizu replied. He pulled a business card from his wallet and wrote on the back. “Here is my card, and where the boy and I are staying, as well as contact information for the Japanese Science Ministry where I work. You can contact them if you like, they will vouch for me. We'll be here for the rest of the week. Is that OK with you?”
McClane took the card from the professor, quickly looked at it and pocketed it. “Yes, thank you.”
The policeman walked away, talking to HQ on his cellphone.
Astro turned to the professor.
“Hakase, you look worried.” Astro said.
“More like confused and puzzled, actually, Atom” the professor replied. “That police drawing looked very familiar. I almost feel like I've seen a ghost.” He turned to his friend and said “I'm sorry that our visit ended on such a weird note my dear Hanamaru. Atom and I will be taking in the city for the next few days. We'll stop by again before we leave.”
“Enjoy your stay, Ochanomizu.” the Doctor replied. “And I'm very glad to have finally met you, Astro!”
“I'm happy to have met you, Hanamaru Sensei” Astro said.
Tojo entered the pawn shop on 11th Avenue and waited for the shop owner to recognize him. Jörg Lampe finished counting some loose change and slammed the cash register closed. He looked up at the Asian boy in the mirrored sunglasses and curtly asked, “What do you have for me today?”
Tojo, removed the diamond rings from his pocket and laid them out on the table. “Must be at least 20 carats” Tojo said hopefully.
“We'll see.” the shop owner said placing the items on a scale. He picked each one up and held them up the magnifying loupe clamped to his right eye.
“Not bad quality, but only about maybe 5 carats total. Cheap gold, only 10 or 12 carat” he said. “I'll give you $500 for the lot.”
“Cheap bastard!” Tojo said to the fence.
“Take it or leave it.” Lampe offered.
“I'll take it.” Tojo hissed. “Next time I come here, I'll have something that will make your eyes pop out!”
“Fine.” Jörg replied. “If you bring me really good quality stuff, I will pay you better.”