Did I forgotten to mention this last time? All of Metropolis's characters and settings belong to the late Osamu Tezuka – except for Rock, Tima and a number of others that probably belongs to Tri-Star because they didn't appear in his 1949 comic…the plot belongs to yours truly.

Kenichi woke up what felt like hours later, but the small alarm clock Rock had placed on the broken down table read that it was only an hour. He wiggled back in the sheets only to find something digging uncomfortably at his neck. He reached behind his pillow and pulled out a small, worn leather wallet.

It was probably Rock's, he thought, searching through the contents. It had a few bills in it, coins, and a receipt for something from last year. Not that interesting.

Something caught his eye – something more colorful than the bills or the yellowed receipt.

Photos?

He reached inside the clear plastic pocket and pulled out several wallet size photos and he scattered them on the bed.

Was that Rock? He pulled the most-faded picture and looked at it. A younger version of Duke Red sat on a large, upholstered chair with – he squinted hard. The young, four or five year-old infant on his knees reaching up to his face was Rock all right. He could make out the messy brown hair and the large blue eyes. There was something so sickened painful and innocent about the picture that he had to put it away.

The next picture showed Rock in his early teens – probably thirteen or so in faded jeans and a white shirt, walking the streets of the Metropolis, looking casual but alert. Early Marduk training? Kenichi snorted and flipped it over to the next one.

Tima?

He nearly dropped the picture. Tima…Tima! His hands started shaking as he stared at the photograph.

It was Tima – Tima with the same golden hair curling at her neck and the blue eyes that were lighter than Rock's. She wore a light, strapless gown the color of cream and her hand curled on the arm next to hers. She looked up, a radiant smile, a human's smile on her pale coral lips as she looked up lovingly to the boy next to her.

Rock.

It was Rock, dressed in a black suit and looking rather stiff and nervous, but happy all the same. In confusion, Kenichi flipped the photograph over, searching for some date at the back, or some clue of what was going on.

Tima…and Rock? It couldn't be.

He looked at the picture again, and found that Rock looked younger than he was now, or maybe it was because of the innocence and joy on his face? And Tima – it shocked him of how human she looked.

"What the – what the hell do you think you're – "

He felt a whiz of strong wind on his face and he jumped back to see Atlas forcing Rock's hand away from his face, preventing him from punching Kenichi.

"Give me the pictures, damn it!" Rock shouted. "Give it to me, or I'll kill you!"

"Calm down!" Atlas roared, shoving Rock against the wall. "What's with you, you crazy Marduk?"

"You…and Tima?" Was all Kenichi could say, holding the photograph of Tima and Rock in his hands.

Rock stopped, limping against Atlas's strong hold, defeated. He slid down to the floor and cradled his head in his hands as if all strength had left him. Atlas looked at him and back at Kenichi with confusion in his eyes.

"Tima…that Tima is not the Tima you knew," Rock said softly. "That girl is Tima…Duke Red's daughter…my sister."

"What?" Kenichi said, confused. "I don't understand…"

"I don't either," "Atlas pulled up a stool and sat on it.

"I was adopted at a very early age…I don't know, three? Five?" Rock shrugged. "It was after the war…I didn't remember much, just this man with light hair and a very large nose picked me up and took me to his home."

"Duke Red," Atlas said.

"Yes, Duke Red," Rock took a deep breath. "His daughter – Tima. We were about the same age and I guess he wanted some sort of playmate for her. We grew up together, and while I didn't have any friends, she didn't either. We were always there for each other." Rock sounded like he was talking to himself. "Being the Duke's daughter, she didn't really fit in very well with the other children at the school we went to. She got bullied, and I was her protector. Despite the fact that I was a bastard – nobody's wanted child, Duke Red was pleased at how we were always together. When Tima was going to be next in his successor, he wanted me to always be by her side, as an advisor and protector. That picture there? That was the official announcement. I still remember that party – Tima held on to me all that time. She was so proud of it…and so innocent."

Love? Kenichi kept his mouth shut about that, even though he knew the answer. "So if Duke Red admired you so much why did he hate every inch of you?"

"He didn't – not until the last few years," Rock smiled grimly. "I remembered that day – we were down somewhere at night – just taking a walk when Tima said she wanted to marry me," Rock buried his head between his knees again. "It was that moment, when a malfunctioned android somehow came up to us and – " a large sob broke from his throat. "The damn thing tore Tima apart!" He screamed, raising his head and gasping in a breath of air. "It grabbed her and pulled her into tiny little pieces! I couldn't do anything – I tried shooting it, I ran into it and tired to pull its wires apart – I," Rock sobbed hard, gripping his hair into his fists. "It was all my fault! And the blood – her blood was all over the floor, all over me. I remembered the robot grabbing my neck and blackness…and when I woke up again, I was in the hospital. Tima was dead. She was gone."

Kenichi covered his mouth in horror. No wonder Rock hated robots! No wonder he was the leader of the Marduks!

"Duke Red never forgave me," Rock leaned back and laughed. "He nearly had me killed, and the only thing that kept him from doing it was that Tima would never forgive him if she was still alive. That was three years ago – and if he thinks that some android in the figure of Tima was going to replace her – well, he's wrong! No android will ever replace Tima…no…"

Atlas looked at Kenichi. "That girl…that girl you were with was an android?!"

"Yes, she was an android," Kenichi said. He looked at Rock and knew instantly that if he didn't do something, the young Marduk leader would fall deeper into his own insanity, to a point that he couldn't be drawn out. He needed to do something – and fast. He looked at Atlas with pleading eyes.

"Hey, Rock," Atlas cleared his throat. "This is your chance to have it against the androids…what's left of everyone of us – we're going to fight against them."

Kenichi gave Atlas a look of pure loathing.

Atlas returned it with a "Can you do better?" look. He grabbed Rock's wrists and pulled him up. "Come on, let me introduce you to my band of close friends that survived the revolt."

Surprisingly, Rock grabbed a heavy denim jacket off his wall, threw it on his shoulders, and obediently followed Atlas out. Feeling better, Kenichi stuffed Rock's photos back into the wallet and slid it into his own pocket before running after the two men.

Atlas led them threw a dirty street to what looked like a pub that had probably seen better days with a blinking neon picture of a sleazy, pink lion stalking a blue gazelle. Atlas pushed open the door and Kenichi followed close to Rock's shoulder.

"FREEZE!"

He yelped, hearing the sounds of a gun – no, guns cocking into their ready position in the darkness.

"Whoa, pals, it's me," Atlas said smoothly, no fear emitting from him.

There was the sound of an awful electrical buzz, and light filled the room. Three pairs of eyes stared back at them.

"Atlas!"

"Whoa, buddy, we thought you were dead!"

"What happened to you – "

"Who's that – "

"Whoa!" Atlas said. "All of you sit down and let me do the introducing."

Kenichi finally got a good look at them all, and realized they were an odd bunch. A very odd bunch.

"This is our residential hacker, Isaac," Atlas said, placing a hand on a tall, skinny man with long black hair and gray eyes with a fire to match Rock's looked up at him and Rock, giving them each a wary glance before returning to his computer. Kenichi stifferned a gasp – one of Isaac's eyes was made out of pure metal and had an optic laser flashing in it, like a digital camera! He swallowed, hard.

"Stephen," Atlas nodded to the strong, muscular man with a blonde buzz cut and green eyes wearing a white muscle tank. He gave Rock and Kenichi each a friendly hello.

"And this…" Atlas stepped up to the only woman of the team, probably in her mid-twenties, with wavy brown hair falling to her waist and clear brown eyes. "Is Leila, my cousin."

Leila narrowed her eyes. "You're a Marduk, aren't you?"

Rock's eyebrows rose in surprise, but he kept his cool. "How did you know?"

"Cold, sunglasses…" Leila reached up and tore off Rock's black sunglasses before he could protest. "I hate it when people try to hide themselves behind shades…shows how insecure they really are."

Rock hissed and touched his damaged eye, making sure the patch was there. "You – "

"The name's Leila," she said. "Not "you" or "hey you"."

"This is Rock," Kenichi said quickly before Rock lost his temper. "And I'm Kenichi."

"Say, weren't you that one kid…" Stephen said. "I saw you when that deserted laboratory burnt down. You were with that old dude…"

Atlas quickly placed a hand on Stephen's shoulder to silence him, but it was too late. Kenichi barely turned away until he broke down again, the tears running down his cheeks. No one was there to comfort him…no one.

He felt a pair of hands take his shoulders and guide him to an empty seat. He looked up and saw that it was Leila, a concerned look on her face. She looked at Stephen. "Shut your mouth. The kid's got enough of a shock already. Atlas, whatever is going on?" She stole a sidelong glance at Rock.

"Down!!" Atlas suddenly yelled, grabbing Kenichi and shoving him down on the hardwood floor, smashing his face. A glass of Bloody Mary on the counter slid off the glass surface and hit the floor, shattering glass the color of rubies and the liquor across his face.

The sound of the door exploding filled the tavern.

"AH!" He gasped, shards of splinters rocking against his body. A large piece of wood clattered and landed on his legs.

"Over, over, over!" Atlas cried, grabbing him before he could protest and tossing him over the counter. More bottles of liquor crashed to the floor and Kenichi covered his face before any of it could scratch at his skin. Blinking away the stench of alcohol, he looked at the intruder.

It was an android.

The android was about three times as tall as he was, and would probably be about five or six times as wide if it wasn't so broken down and weathered – chunks of its outer covering was pulled out to reveal the inner skeleton and sparkling circuits. The head looked like an oversized human skull and it bared its teeth, which consisted of tiny pieces of metal sharpened to glittering fangs. The overlarge hands were claws – foot long sharpened claws that could slice through stone. Loose electricity crackled and buzzed, crawling over the metal surface.

"Don't touch it!" He heard Rock bark.

Atlas whirled around, his feet spread apart with the machine gun in his hands. Leila went down on one knee, pulling out a small crossbow and holding it against her waist, her other arm out in front of her. Stephen stood warily in front of the android, veins popping up on his skin.

"GET BACK FROM IT!" Rock shouted, the handgun in his hand, shoving Stephen away. "It can electrocute you, can't you see?"

"Stay back!" Isaac said. "I'll try to hack into the motherboard!"

Isaac's mechanical eye was illuminated with blue light, and optic fiber strands shot out from it and inserted into the android's open skin surface. An illuminated VR screen opened itself up in front of him like a transparent black box with small green lettering that ran across the screen.

"NOW" Atlas shouted.

Kenichi cried out, covering his ears against the sound of bullets against metal, and the sharp twang and CRINK of Leila's crossbow hitting against the robot's metal.

"NO, NO, NO!" He heard Rock shout. "What are you trying to do, kill yourselves?"

Kenichi stood up only to have a bullet whiz pass his ear and hit a bottle of blue liquor behind his ear.

"NO!" Rock grabbed his arm and pulled him back before flames from the alcohol could erupt on his body. He crash-landed on the broken Bloody Mary glass, cutting his arm.

"STOP!" Rock shouted. "STOP SHOOTING!"

Kenichi lifted up his head just in time to see a bullet bounce off the malfunctioned android and missed Stephen by the ear. Isaac cursed, still trying to hack inside the android's brain. He ducked to avoid Leila's electronic crossbow bolt, and the optic fibers ripped away from the robot. The black, transparent VR screen in front of hi face disappeared.

"NO!" Rock shouted. "Stop shooting! You'll kill yourself! It's – it's adamantine metal!"

Every one of them stopped at that moment.

Rock skidded down, shoving his body on the wet liquor on the floor and slid underneath the robot.

"NO! What the HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Atlas shouted.

The android glared down at Rock, baring its fangs.

Rock flipped himself up behind the robot; there was a small clicking sound, and then a single gunshot.

The robot stopped, and fell right on its face. Electric crackled once – twice…and it didn't move again.

Rock stood behind it, gun still in ready position, and his feet spread wide apart. He took another deep breath and looked at them.

"It's adamantine lined, you idiots," he said, dangerously quiet. "If one of YOUR bullets or YOUR crossbow bolts," he hissed at Atlas and Leila, "would have bounced off and hit one of us, we would've been dead."

Leila decided to explode and Atlas had to grab her arm. "Well, how on earth am I suppose to know it's adamantine lined?!" She screeched, Atlas holding her back from hitting Rock. "It's looks like damned metal to me!"

Rock kept his cool, but Kenichi could see he was close to breaking point. "6893WQ," he pointed behind the robot's jaw. "One of the newer combat models, but I have no idea where the fangs came from. Stupid though – 789 MB of RAM, one of the older models," he slid his gun back on his belt and looked at Isaac, who was still staring at his torn optic fibers. "Trying to hack into it is worthless with a high-tech device like yours. The only way to stop it is to hit the power button on the back – and seeing it was jammed, I just shot it. It's the only part that isn't coated in adamantine. And the thing isn't even connected to the main power stream of Metropolis, like all robots are supposed to be. This one is illegal and dangerous."

Kenichi wasn't the only one gaping at Rock.

"Hey – being a Marduk isn't just about shooting guns at robots," Rock shrugged. "You have to take classes on robotic knowledge and android cyborgligy (Author's note: a word I made up. Think biology – the study of life. Now thing android cyborgligy – the study of androids and cyborgs.)"

Rock picked up a large chip of broken Bloody Mary cocktail glass. "You all think you're going to start a revolution against the robots when you don't even know how to get rid of a malfunctioned factory-made war android?"

Kenichi looked at Atlas and suddenly knew what was going on. The team he made up consisted of almost everything he needed for a revolution. Atlas and Leila were remarkable marksmen for shooting at a distance, Stephen was the main physical strength behind them for close-combat, and Isaac had some sort of inner electronic device in him that allowed him to control nearly matter-less optic fibers that could hack into the brains of robots. All they needed was someone who was an expert on how androids functioned, and it looked like they got what they needed.

Rock.

And what was he suppose to be? Some sort of…fifth wheel? He took a shaky breath and sat down.

"Hey – someone get the kid something. He's bleeding," Leila pulled her sleeve over her crossbow and picked up a bottle of liquor that did not explode in the fire or broke among Atlas's bullets, and walked towards him, pulling out the cork stopper in the process.

"Wha – "

Kenichi felt her strong hand grab his shoulder and pin him down.

"What the – " He said.

She poured the green liquor over his face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He shrieked in pain as it came in contact with his flesh.

"Just cleaning it," she let him go and he clutched at his cheek.

"That glass had Bloody Mary in it!" Kenichi nearly jumped up and down in frustration. "It already had LIQOUR in it for idiot's sakes!"

"That's not the point!"

Fire and anger burned inside him mixed with the pain on his face and the weariness in his heart made him pull his fist back to hit at Leila's face, but the ice that came from her brown eyes made him stop, and he dropped his arm.

"Rock?" Atlas said softly.

Rock was crouched down, looking at the robot, one knee on the floor and a gloved hand on his face.

"It's the same one, he said, his voice muffled through his hand.

"Same what?" Kenichi asked.

"Same one!" He stood up, his face red and his teeth gritted. "Same on," he hissed.

Kenichi looked at Atlas who shrugged.

"It's the same one, damn it!" He shouted. "It's the same android that killed Tima!"