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The grass underfoot crackled and gave way as every step pushed them to an icy death. The weather was unseasonably chilly to those who traveled there for vacation, but to Joel Robinson, St. Paul was hovering around it's usual temperature; below freezing. His breath moved in waves of crystalline vapor in front of him as he tried to keep his raw, red ears within the collar of his coat, and his hands tucked firmly in his pockets.
Stepping off the curb and into the street, Joel dodged his way between two parked cars and through the taxi cabs stopped at a nearby traffic light. In the distance, sirens howled and played against car horns of unhappy travelers wanting to return to their warm homes. He had no such idea in his mind to return to his cozy apartment; however, in the back of his mind, he knew somehow that he'd be returning to a place that was once more than a home to him, but a life.
He was on a mission in his own standards, having knowledge that he could no longer keep bottled up. After escaping the Satellite of Love and returning to St. Paul, Minnesota from Australia, Joel had found out that a fatal error in the programming of the ship was going to be used in Dr. Clayton Forrester's favor. Somehow, a fallacy had turned into a glitch that would cause the Satellite to break down and destroy itself.
Of course, it wasn't really Joel's problem anymore, but each day it ground itself into his mind and countless sleepless nights were spent thinking about how he could just sit around when so much was in the balance. To further his guilt, he had left his robots behind... his creations; his children. Beyond that, he hadn't given them any way to contact him or any way to keep themselves busy while he was gone.
He hadn't really meant to leave them alone on the huge ship, but when his ship crashed in the outback, all he could think about was living until he found a place to stay. Then he needed to get a job and get back on his feet before even contemplating a return trip to space. Within a short time, things began snowballing him and the next moment he realized that the 'bots would die if he didn't do something.
From then on, he began building a space ship from every spare dollar that he could afford. It took an upwards of three months, but he had done it. There wasn't much room in the ship, perhaps only enough for him and two of the robots, but he wasn't exactly sure if he wanted to make a return trip.
Crossing through the park, he forfeited a few coins to a man who had held out his hands for offerings and stepped to a doorway in a small building he'd been renting. The door was made of solid, cold steel and there was a padlock latched firmly at the handle, securing it from any outside spectators. Pulling out his keys, he worked the warm key into the chilly lock, doing his best to keep his bare fingers away from the frigid metal. Quietly, he removed the lock and slipped it into his pocket.
Opening the door only wide enough so his small frame could slip through, he then latched it behind him. The air inside the one room building wasn't much warmer than the air outside, and it smelled stale and musty, despite the excessive amount of use the room had gotten in the past few months. Along the walls were seemingly thousands of tools, ranging from screwdrivers to saws, while the middle of the room was almost completely contained by the humble ship Joel had built.
The vessel was nothing to be compared to the creations of NASA, but Robinson was proud to have been able to come up with it in such a short amount of time, and it had it's own touches to it besides having to be mostly rocket engine and fuel. Picking out only the tools he needed, he placed them into a bag and set them aside while he shrugged off his warm jacket.
Underneath his jacket, a maroon jumpsuit adorned his small stature with a familiar Gizmonic's logo on his lapel. The reds, yellows and blacks brought flashes of memory back to the inventor and nostalgia began to nip at him as he adjusted the collar of the white T-shirt that he wore underneath the crimson covering. It only felt natural for him to wear his old uniform when returning to his old life, even if it wasn't for the longest time.
Stepping into the ship, he took his seat, pulling his bag of tools up beside him and closing the door that automatically air sealed the compartment. Sitting back, he readjusted to himself, waiting for the pure oxygen to run through his blood and make him accustomed to flight. He was leaving the rat race behind, even if only for a short time, but in the end it should make him feel better... it had to make him feel better.
Within a few minutes the cabin of the homemade pod was to his liking, and Joel began switching on buttons. It would most likely make the news that something had been seen near the park, and someone would certainly raise an eyebrow to seeing a hole in the roof of the rented building, but the insurance would surely cover it, and hopefully no one would suspect Joel had done it.
Crashing through the roof, the ship shot up into the sky as quickly as a shooting star fell from it. It would be a long journey, but Joel was sure that he would be fine on the way. The coordinates were set and he was able to scramble the signals that would tell Air Traffic Control that something unidentified was making a flight into the upper atmosphere and beyond.
Truly, as he thought it would be, the traveling was driven by his own thoughts until he reached the top of the high clouds, and the stars appeared from no where. His breath caught in the back of his throat as he leaned forward to see the twinkling apparitions: Promises of galaxies far out of the reach of man. Or were they? It seemed to him that if he could just reach one hand out it would catch one of the stars, but alas every time he inched forward, a palm of some hydrogen/oxygen mix was all that remained. Sighing, he sat back in his seat and left the dreaming behind.
The continuing trip ended as he pulled his ship up next to the Satellite of Love's docking bay. Of course, he couldn't just board the ship without talking to the 'bots, so he sat and contemplated, doing his best to communicate with the vessel that orbited around the earth. To no avail, the system failed the first few times, and every try for at least a half an hour after that. Boy, he was sure it was going to be a long night.
Half snoozing, but doing his best to make his way through the communications barrier, he yawned as a crackling came over the speakers, causing him to bolt upright in his chair. A voice... Tom's voice! It took a moment before the picture cleared up and Joel could see onto the bridge of the Satellite, "Look. Behold! It's... it's... it's... it's..." The little red 'bot stammered, standing next to his gold counterpart.
"Oh, it's just Joel," Crow finished, nonchalantly.
"Yea, I'd better get..." Tom cut himself off. If it had been possible, he'd surely have been blinking.
Joel smiled to himself, looking over the two little robots. Boy, that hadn't changed since he'd left. "Hey, you guys," he replied.
"Joel!" The two robots exclaimed in unison. Servo went on to yell, "It's Joel!"
"Joel!" Crow continued.
"Hooray, it's Joel!"
"Joel's back, Joel's back, Joel's back!"
"Oh, it's good to see you man," Tom calmed down, taking a breath.
"Oh thanks," Joel smiled, but soon a look of questioning faded onto his face, "I... Crow, your voice kinda sounds different."
Crow tilted his head, trying to imagine his own voice, "Wow, weird. Huh."
"Oh, I get it, you changed your bowling pin. Smart. And uhm Tom, it's good to see your hoverskirt's still operational." Robinson observed, feeling slightly out of date.
"Yep." Tom hovered around in his spot.
Grinning, Joel looked them over once more. "It's just great to see you guys, all bright and shiny and in proper working order." He hadn't thought it was possible for them to look so good after all the years they were left there.
"Good to see you too, Joel," Crow nodded. "Say, how'd ya get up here?"
He thought to himself for a second, running over the details in his head, but then decided it was better to keep it simple. "Well, I won't go into too many details, other than it cost me a ton to get up here."
"I'll bet." Conversation was definitely lacking for the red robot.
"When I was down on Earth," Robinson explained, "I found that Dr. Forrester had sabotaged the Satellite of Love so that a lot of the working components would self-destruct in ten years."
"I knew there was something weird about that guy."
"Yeah. So I came up here to fix it for you." He nodded.
"Well Joel, hehe, hadn't you better get started, then?" Crow asked, looking to his first human counterpart.
"Oh, I mean, we've got some time, I mean, uh... What've you guys been up to?" In the back of his mind, he felt almost as if he was being shrugged off.
"Ah, you know, same old, same old," Servo elaborated, "And you?"
"Right." Crow affirmed.
Joel, doing his best to fit back in, began some small-talk, "Well, you know, after I crash landed on the Outback, I kicked around Australia for a little while, and then I hooked up with the band Man or Astroman?, doing pyrotechnics. I finally made my way back to the Midwest, where I now manage the hot fish shop in Osseo."
"Cool," was their reply, and as quick as he had seen them, they disappeared. Sighing, he docked his ship with took his tools to begin his work. He made his way to the bridge with ease, and when the 'bots returned from their movie, they introduced their creator to the new test subject on the ship, Mike Nelson.
He seemed like a fairly decent guy to Joel, but still inside Joel felt resentment in the fact that the 'bots had adopted a new friend. They were selfish thoughts, of course... how could he expect them to stand by him when he'd left them so long ago? Then again, he did bring them to life and spend five fabulous wonderful years with them... He sighed as he worked on fixing Gypsy and the others had once again gone. Who was he kidding? He wasn't a very good father at all.
His time as he fixed the different parts of the ship moved swiftly; passed him as he thought. Mike, Tom, and Crow all came and went, as did Gypsy after she was fixed, but Joel's mind remained in its own guilty little world, even after he had seen TV's Frank once again and reprimanded Mike for not taking care of the Satellite of Love properly. Even after he said his bitter, dejected replies to his friends, his mind was elsewhere.
Somehow he felt betrayed, but it wasn't by the robots that he had built, or even by Mike, but by his own mind and conscience. His guilt had driven him back to the Satellite and his shame drove him away. Sure, on the outside he seemed like he was alright, if not a little pompous, but inside his heart was eating away at itself as he began the procedure to reenter the atmosphere.
Behind him, the stars faded away as the clouds consumed the little ship, and tears stung the eyes of the man that had gone into space to do good, acquired his goal, but still came off feeling as though he was the lowest living specimen on the planet. He had left a potential friend behind, and worse, a family. He would make it up to them someday, however, even if it took him the rest of his life.