Astro Verdigenis

**Astro Verdigenis** (Born Atom Tenma), is one of the three central characters of the Neon Nexus universe.

Astro is a peace-loving robot male with human emotions created by former Science Ministry director Umataro Tenma. Astro is (or initially was) the robotic reincarnation of Tobio Tenma, created in the boy's image. Despite his rough upbringing, comprised of being rejected by his creator and sold for scrap before being rescued by Hiroshi Ochanomizu, Astro is embodiment of a hero, having a strong sense of justice and is always willing to defend the helpless. Despite his numerous amazing powers, Astro is a natural pacifist, usually attempting to solve problems in a diplomatic matter. He only resorts to fighting as an absolute last resort, and very rarely does he ever go past that point. Astro has a love for those who're living and wishes to protect those he loves.

## Appearance

### Original appearance

Although a robot, Astro was intended to look indistinguishable from a human being as he was designed to resemble Tobio Tenma. He was given many of the similar distinguishing attributes: his innocent eyes, jet-black spiky hair and light skin tone. His hair has two spikes, one on the the left of his head pointing directly upwards and the other on the right side just above his ear pointing out to the side, and a widow's peak. Since Astro is a robot and doesn't function like a biological being, the height of his body, his weight, and the length of his hair never changed.

Astro was created with what appears to be black athletic shorts and a metallic grey or green belt. He typically wore red knee-length boots, though in some appearances he may be seen wearing a pair of small, lace-less shoes instead. Whenever he isn't wearing some kind of outfit, such as his school uniform, this is usually how he looks.

### Upgraded and current appearance

Astro is given a significant makeover from his original look. His eyes are smaller and his eyelashes are less defined, and his hair is made up of smooth and fine fibers. His boots are segmented with a metallic finish, and his belt has a visible buckle. In place of his black, shiny shorts, he wears a pair of black boxer briefs made of a self-repairing smart fabric. He was aged up by four years compared to his original body. He prefers to wear jackets and shorts that hide his defined mechanical joints.

Original design (Built by Tenma)Upgrade design (Built by Andemil)
## History

### Life as Toby Tenma

Toby Tenma was born to Umataro and Hoshie Tenma in the floating and wealthy metropolis of Metro City on April 3, 2061. From a young age, Toby was isolated from his parents. Hoshie passed away when he was four, and Umataro's long shifts at the Ministry of Science meant that Toby was mostly raised by domestic robots. This isolation didn't stop him from becoming an intellectual prodigy, though. Thanks to his father's extensive library of academic and scientific volumes, Toby absorbed extremely advanced mathematics and scientific knowledge as a child. He was already a master of 4-dimensional calculus by the time he turned 13. Toby blew away his professors at the Metro City Academy for Gifted Children with his extensive knowledge of mathematics, engineering, robotics, physics, and coding.

### Astro's creation and early weeks

Umataro Tenma fell into a deep mourning episode after receiving the news of his son's death. Driven to a near-insane desperation to have him back, he spent two sleepless days designing and building a robot replica of Toby. The piece of resistance to this mechanical clone was the power source: A power core created to generate energy akin to a Blue Giant star. Tobio's memories were scanned and extracted from a collected strand of his hair. On top of all this, Tenma added weapons for self-defense. This included plasma arm cannons, two retractable 9mm rear machine guns, and rocket boots. Astro's power was quickly presented, the jumpstart of his power core caused severe damage to Tenma's laboratory. Nevertheless, the operation was a success, Astro was born.

To Umataro's dismay, however, he observed that this clone of Tobio did not act like the real Tobio. This copy did not enjoy learning from reading textbooks and novels. Instead, it was more interested in building and creating things like paper planes. This distressed Umataro further. Further distress was created when Tobio's clone discovered his ability to understand robots and fly. After an evening of flying across Metro City, he arrived back home to discover that Umataro reached a breaking point. Although Umataro's partner and best friend Hiroshi Elefun-Ochanomizu's objected heavily against it, Umataro sold Astro to a robot circus ran by entrepreneurial expat Brunard Hamegg for 314 million yen.

### Time in Hamegg's circus

Tobio's clone was welcomed rather warmly by Hamegg when it first arrived at his circus HQ in Kyoto. He gave the impression to Tobio's copy that he was a genuine supporter of robot's rights. However, in truth, Hamegg was simply coercing the Tobio clone to lower its guard. Once completely assessing the ability of the android, Hamegg made a complete 180 and transferred it to an underground robot fighting ring. With this ring, "Tobio" fought a countless number of robots from tens of countries. It also fought in tens of cities: Macau, Las Vegas, Marina Bay, and Prague for example. This is where "Tobio" shed his past identity and forged a new one: Astro. Astro was very hesitant to fight all these innocent robots, but Hamegg always managed to "convince" him via mental and physical torture. Although experiencing so much trauma and torture, Astro never lost his humanity. And now, he had a new motivation: Protect the ones who cannot defend themselves. Astro reinforced his resistance to Hamegg, and soon Hamegg reached his own breaking point. He forcefully deactivated Astro and sold him and his power core for scrap.

### Emancipation and meeting Olivier

Elefun-Ochanomizu heard of the android and power core on sale, and used his power within the Japanese government to rescue Astro and his power core. Astro was reactivated and sent to the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Las Vegas in Clark to hide from Tenma. Astro was left homeless in the bustling metropolis for a period, making some money through superhero work. One day, he was called to intervene in a violent bar fight in the Silver Servo. A cyborg bartender, Olivier Verdigenis, recognized Astro and offered a place to live in. They lived together for a few months, developing a Storge relationship. Soon, Olivier and Astro agreed to have Astro become Olivier's adoptive son. For the first time in three years, Astro finally had a parent who loved him for who he was.