Heeey! Thank you, Liz M! I've read some of your work, and I must say I'm impressed! I'm just waiting for you to update one . . . I think it was After the Fall of Angels or something like that. ^.^ Anyways, I know, my character (Halo) is a little . . . Mary-Sue(ish) right now, but I hope I can clear something up . . . And I'm trying to make this a little longer . . .
And another thing . . . I've seen lots of spellings of Marduk, such as "Marduk" and Malduk" but since I like it better the way I've been spelling it, it will stay that way in this story, ok? And the same for Zigguraut . . . Although that isn't even IN this story . . .
Metropolis: Fallen Light
Chapter 3. Fallen Rain
The little bit of light that came through the tiny window shone down into the room. Rock, who's face was full with that little sunbeam, turned over and jammed a pillow over his head. Only did he get up when his alarm clock began to ring. He leaned up, his hair disheveled, and picked up the clock. Only six thirty.
Damn it all . . . Damn it all to Hell, Rock thought, throwing the clock under his bed. He had just lie back down when Till knocked on the door.
"WHAT?!" Rock yelled.
"Hmph. Breakfast is ready and Duke Red is waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Till only barely heard what he said through his muffled voice.
"For you, dummy, what do you think?"
The next thing Till knew Rock was standing in the doorway and glaring down at her sternly.
"Fine, I'm coming." Rock went and got a quick shower, wondering when in Hell he would be able to sleep again.
Halo yawned and sat up.
"Come on!" Kenna pulled her to her feet.
"What?"
"Let's go."
"Go where?"
Halo looked at Fern and Karen and the three children, who still slept peacefully.
"We have a meeting."
"I wasn't told."
"Well now you were. Go get dressed."
Halo did as she was told, and when she was ready she and Kenna left the tower. They walked silently through Back-Alley and Halo noticed that it wasn't snowing. In fact, the sun was shining through the small gaps in the cramped rooftops.
"What is this meeting for?"
"I believe we're going to the town's mansion to meet with Duke Red and the head Marduks to try and work a few things out. Especially pertaining to robots. He allows those damn Marduk to kill all those innocent robots. They act like they are inferior to us."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"I dunno yet."
"Well . . . Where are we going?"
"The manor, of all places. I would have thought it'd be somewhere else in Back-Alley or a restaurant or something like that, but apparently I was wrong and he wanted to keep this all secret."
"Well, Kenna, it could ruin his reputation. And . . . What if it's a trick? Or even if he is ashamed of us because of . . . Well . . ." Halo looked down at herself. Her clothes didn't actually define her more sociable side.
"Ah, don't worry about it. Who cares what he or any of his Marduk think?"
Halo fell silent. She didn't like being different from all the other humans. Most of the other humans were against robots, unlike a small group of them, which included Kenna, Karen, Fern, and herself. They were against the Marduk and their kind of government.
"Well, this is apparently it."
Halo looked up. She had been standing on the doorstep of Duke Red's mansion and hadn't even noticed. Kenna knocked and some lady opened the door. She looked at them with one raised eyebrow, but proceeded to let them in. She led them down a long corridor and to a room. She opened the door as well and stood aside to bid them entrance.
"Duke Red, your party is here."
"Thank you, Till."
Duke Red sat at the end of a long table, two figures standing with their arms beside them behind him, looking straight ahead, standing in the shadows.
"You may sit."
Duke Red indicated two seats to his right. Halo and Kenna sat in them, Halo closest to Red. She heard one of the figures behind him, supposedly two head Marduk, shift his weight on his feet.
Halo looked away from the Marduk and back to Duke Red.
"I know your political leader sent me a protest."
"Yes, sir," Kenna said.
"About robots, is it?" Duke Red eyed Halo, although asking this of Kenna.
"Yes, sir," replied Kenna nervously.
"Tell me, why is it that you want to prevent my Marduk from destroying robots who are breaking and evading the Law?"
"Well, sir, robots are mostly like human, we believe they should be treated as equals. I'm not saying it's a good thing that they are taking humans' jobs, it's just there could be a limit to them in town."
"That's what we have Zone One, Zone Two, Zone Three, Back-Alley, and Upper-level for."
"I beg your pardon, sir, but I didn't mean that. I meant to allow the robots the freedom they want and be able two walk freely with equal rights among humans of Upper-level and Back-Alley. Just because they're artificial doesn't mean they have to become slaves."
"We've programmed robots for specific duties and robots that run astray. Those that oppose the Law are set to die in any case-"
"But you created them, why destroy them?!" Halo had stood now and was staring sternly at Duke Red, who stared back with an equally cold glare. The two Marduk who stood behind the Duke now stepped up protectively. Halo looked at them, irritated, but her eyes widened and she gasped.
"Rock?"
"That didn't go over so well," Kenna said, looking up at the clear blue sky.
"Sorry 'bout that."
"Ah, it's okay. President Harbin will just have to schedule another meeting for us."
"Why doesn't he just schedule a personal meeting for Duke Red and himself?"
"Harbin isn't in Metropolis. Hell, he isn't even on the same continent. You really think he'll fly all the way over here just to have a stupid meeting with the Duke when he could just get us to do it? Halo . . . Don't ask stupid questions."
Kenna began to walk away and Halo watched him.
"It's wasn't a stupid question, it was an honest question out of curiosity!"
"It was stupid!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Forfeit."
Halo didn't feel like arguing with him and making him feel better about himself. Instead she decided to just roam Metropolis, maybe even go and see Zone Three.
Rock sighed and looked at the door which he had just stepped in front of five minutes ago. Duke Red was waiting for him on the other side of that door, and Rock felt a heated verbal attack coming his way.
He knocked on the door . . .
And turned the knob . . .
And pushed it open.
"Ah, Rock. I've been waiting. Come in."
Um . . . Okay, Rock thought moving into the room and shutting the door behind him. It was incredibly warm in that room, especially for the uniform Rock wore.
"You didn't know that little rat of a girl, did you?"
"Yes, sir, I met her in Back-Alley on duty."
"Ah. And tell me, are you friends?"
Rock paused a minute, then continued.
"No, sir."
"Well, she certainly seemed . . . Interesting. Even a little . . . gullible."
"Sir, you're not thinking of . . ."
"Ah, but Rock, don't great minds think alike." Duke Red gave a laugh. "You may leave."
Rock stood there for a moment then gathered himself and walked from the room.
He stopped on the steps to the mansion, snow still covering a thin layer over the stone.
Outside it had begun to rain, most of the snow already melted. Tiny stocks of grass were showing through the thin layers and the sidewalk could now be seen.
Rock started down the narrow street until he came to the more crowded part of town. Rock could see no robots out on the street . . . Although . . . Wait . . . He pulled his gun out of its holster and held it up, firing a single shot. It reverberated off of a metal figure, and Rock knew at once when it began to run it was a robot out of its Zone .
Rock began to chase after it, pushing people harshly out of his way. It headed to that secret gate leading to Zone Two and Rock followed it all the way down . . . Running through the huge crowd in Zone Two, Rock wasted a lot of bullets for that one robot as he was led down into Zone Three. Rock, although out of breath on teetering on the edge of giving up, was still in hot pursuit of the criminal robot.
He was rather surprised when it stopped. He had his gun pointed at it, but only a moment before he was about to squeeze the trigger he was knocked off his feet and to the ground. Him and this seemingly small, light figure rolled across the ground, Rock fighting to get up and get his gun back, and the other one trying exactly the opposite.
When the figured squealed he knew it was a girl. He rolled her over, pinning her down, and stared menacingly down into her eyes through his glasses and his mouth dropped slightly open and his eyes widened behind those shades as he recognized her as Halo Silo Kane.
"You!"
"Get off me!" she screamed at him, her voice very high pitched. She pushed him forcefully, although he didn't budge, but he moved off anyway.
"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" said Rock as he stood and walked a few feet to retrieve his gun.
"My job."
"Which would be?"
"To stop you asses from shooting every robot off the planet!" Halo stood up, but then her angry face twisted to form the look of dismay. "Although I don't really know why. It's not like you or your Marduks will stop anyway. Duke Red's government is far too powerful for us to fully stop the hatred and the unruly treatment you give the robots. They were created by you, programmed by you, and destroyed by you. It's merely a pointless war." She turned from Rock and prepared to walk away. "Are you coming?"
Rock hesitated then followed her. She led him back up to the Upper-city level of Metropolis and stood there, just beyond the outer gate.
"You see, the robots in Upper-city Metropolis are treated more fairly than those of Zones One or Two. They have more meaning than to 'just take up space' as you would put it. There are robots here to clean and take care of the city, much better than an ordinary human could do. But those are basic robots. The far more advanced robots, like the ones programmed for actual work such as police, detective, carpenter, and the like are treated inferior because they look like us, act like us, take our work, but are NOT like us. They're artificial, artificial everything. They can barely even think for themselves.
"And then you have the ones who are 'strays.' They do think for themselves and they're tormented for it. Because they want to think and act freely on their own and be different and treated highly you and your Marduks and your government think that they are breaking the Law. This is not true. Just because they're different and want to do what they want doesn't make them criminals and doesn't make them eligible for de-programming or being shot beyond recognition." She paused for a moment and turned back to him. "The racism is so thick and variated it makes me sick."
Halo walked out from under the cover of the gate and stood on the sidewalk. Rock didn't know how to respond to her. Was this really what Halo was about? Protecting all robots from him or his Marduks? He saw her looking up at the sky as he pondered this, then she spoke again.
"Peace or pacifism is like rain in Metropolis . . . It never comes."
Author's Notes: I know, it sucked. It's a little longer though!! ^.^; Anyway, I can hear that little purple button at the bottom of your screen saying 'push me! push me!' so push away! remember, the word is review here, folks! so review! it would make me so happy. And THANK YOU to those who have reviewed my poem Human to Robot and my Rock one-shot Waking to Hell. I really appreciate it. But keep those reviews coming! I know you hear this a lot, but the more reviews, the bigger my confidence and the faster I update!
