Frightened of the shadow on the wall
I think it looks a bit too much like me
Search my life for evidence of truth
Can you hear me, Can you hear me now?
Terrified my tongue will now betray
All the lies that I've been taught to say
Searched your eyes for evidence of love
Can you hear me, Can you hear me now?
Can you hear the child in tears
whose paradise was taken from his hands
Can you hold him in your arms
And tell him that you'll try to understand
When there's no way in hell you can
Can you hear me, Can you hear me now?
"Notarlin," Duke Red said darkly, "your bureaucracy has been most unhelpful."
Superintendent Notarlin had been stamping his approval on proposals and didn't look up right away, assuming his secretary with a new pile of papers. "Just leave them on the table, Luke," he said, looking down. The remark was greeted by a cough hiding equal parts annoyance and threat. Notarlin looked up in a hurry. "D- duke Red!" he exclaimed, "What are you- that is, why are you... er..."
The Duke stepped forward, glancing at the office's lavish furnishings. "Interesting," he said as he watched a Leviathan swim by in the window-tank, "weren't you telling me you needed more funds only a few days ago?"
Superintendent Notarlin turned from contemplation of his fish and gave the Duke a blank look. "Why Duke Red," he said, innocent, "whatever do you mean?"
The Duke began to pace slightly. "You know perfectly well what I mean. You kept me caught in red tape for over three hours this morning," He picked up and thoughtfully examined an elephant figurine on Notarlin's desk, "though perhaps they're just incompetent. Wouldn't surprise me in the least- but that isn't the point."
"Oh?" questioned Notarlin, wary, "and what is? No hostile takeovers planned for me, are there?"
"No. You misunderstand," Duke Red replied, "I simply require police assistance for a short time. You see," he tossed a crumpled bit of paper onto Notarlin's cluttered desk, "that was under my door this morning."
Notarlin looked shifty. "Why do you need my help?" he asked, "you have the Marduks. Let them find their own." Nevertheless, he unfolded the paper with his greasy fingers, then read and tossed it back. "A ransom note," he said, dispassionate. "If you do not give political equality to those in the zone slums, they will kill your son and Marduk leader Rock." Notarlin paused, "how long has your son been missing?"
"He is not my son. It was a matter of convenience at one point."
Notarlin frowned. "Fine. How long has he been missing?"
"A day or two. I think it would be very bad for publicity should the Metropolis Liberation Front manage to kill him- Stupid boy that he is," Duke Red sighed, "I fear I am forced to ask police assistance to retrieve him, as my Marduks are... perhaps too attached to their leader."
Notarlin considered. "He is only a Marduk, correct?" The Duke nodded an affirmative. "Then," said Notarlin carelessly, "let him die. We can't be maneuvered by terrorist groups, and he's replaceable." He shrugged, turning and tapping the Leviathan's glass prison, "just get someone new."
Duke Red looked cold, considering Notarlin's speech. "I have a better proposition. It would take too long to train a new leader. "What if," he said, "I gave you the chance to take the MLF at the same time as the prisoner is retrieved?" Duke Red smiled, guilelessly, and could almost see the gears working in Notarlin's head. "They could be destroyed entirely," he enticed.
Notarlin, with an entirely too cheerful expression, agreed.Myth looked suspiciously back and forth from Tima to Kenichi, cold.
"You told me," he said quietly, accusingly, "when we first met, you weren't Marduks, and had nothing to do with Duke Red."
"W- we're not! We don't!" exclaimed Kenichi. "I didn't-"
"Don't lie to me," said Myth, expressionless, "you must be Marduks or something like it- How else would she be able to do something like that, bend solid steel? Duke Red must have improved you to fight against us, all this time I trusted you..."
"Myth..." Kenichi edged forward and Myth whipped out a gun, training it on him. He jerked backwards, holding up his hands.
"Shut up." Myth said, deadly calm, "shut up and Don't come near me. I told you to leave me and my brothers out of this. I can't believe I let you into my house."
"Myth," said Kenichi, looking afraid, "we're not Marduks, okay? We didn't- didn't lie to you-"
"Then how did she do it?! Bend an inch of solid steel with her bare hands? You never even met Atlas before a few days ago, did you?"
"No!" cried Kenichi, "you've got it all wrong! Back before the fall he helped us- he hid us from the Marduks and Rock!"
"Oh," said Myth sarcastically, "and just why were they after you? Two kids- they don't normally go after the shoplifters."
"That's not why they came after us," said Kenichi, "Myth-"
"Shut up." Myth's hands trembled on the gun, but he grit his teeth. "You, whoever you are, don't move. I want the full story, and I want it now."
"All right, Myth," said Kenichi, "we'll tell you whatever you want to know."
"Okay," he said, "who are you, and why are you here?"
"I'm Kenichi- I came to Metropolis from Japan with my uncle Ban," he said, voice trembling, "my uncle Ban is a detective. We came to find Dr. Laughton to arrest him, he was wanted in seven countries..." He trailed off.
Myth glared. "go on. Where'd she come from?"
"She... I met her in Dr. Laughton's lab after the Marduks set fire to it. We ran from the flames and fell through the floor. Then Rock chased us, we hid, and Atlas hid us from them. Then came the revolution, the Marduks caught us, and we escaped the falling Ziggurat." Kenichi drew in a deep breath. "That's what happened."
"Then how did she-" Myth gestured vaguely to Tima with the gun, "manage to do that? She can't be an ordinary-" Myth's eyes suddenly widened in understanding, "human..."
Slowly, he lowered the gun to face the floor. "A robot..." he trailed off quietly, "But she looks real- how can she..." Shaking his head in amazement, he stared at her, then back at Kenichi. "I don't know what to do with you," he said, "strictly speaking, I'm supposed to hate robots, but..."
Myth tucked his gun back into wherever it had come from and looked as if he were making a decision. "All right," he said, "I'm taking you down to the headquarters."
Kenichi made as if to argue, and Myth shook his head. "No," he said, "don't worry. I won't harm you or-" he cocked his head to the side, "her? Anyway, I just thought you might like some official protection from us. If the Marduks want you that much, you must be a friend of ours."
Kenichi half-smiled, looking down. "Thank you."Rock was sitting on the second-floor landing of a crumpled staircase, knowing in an abstract way that he was dreaming. He faced the rubble a floor below and pointedly did not look up at the dark hallway, not even turning around when the voice called him.
"Go away," said Rock, wondering if he could get down without injury, "leave me alone. I don't want to talk to the voices in my head." He paused a moment, thought about what he'd said and realized just how crazy he sounded. Shaking his head, Rock moved back as an errant bit of wood crumbled from the torn floor.
"You know," the voice said, "you can't get out of here until something wakes you up, either here or in the real world."
Rock, having realized there was no way down, sat cross-legged on the floor. "Then I stay here. I don't like you, and I don't like this place. I'm not going any farther in."
"That could get boring."
"So what?" said Rock, incredulous, "I'd rather be bored than eaten."
The voice took on a decidedly plaintive note. "But nothing ever happens when you're not here! I'm bored out of my mind... Your mind, that is. I think."
Rock was lost. "What?"
"Er... Ignore that. Not really important. So, are you going to do what I tell you this time?"
"No," said Rock, "because I'm not even starting down that hallway. I'm staying right here."
Rock sat in silence for a while, refusing to admit that he was getting cold and not just a little bored. Then the voice started up again.
"You're really not going to do anything?"
"No! And could you stop doing that?"
The voice seemed puzzled. "Doing what?"
"Being invisible," Rock sighed. "I feel crazier than Laughton, talking to a disembodied voice like this. Don't you have a body?"
"If you like," said the voice, and Rock felt a hand on his shoulder- He spun around and came face to face with himself.
"You-" he asked, confused, "you're me?"
"Nope," the Rock-copy smiled. "I can look like anyone I want," he pulled a pair of sunglasses out of thin air and put them on, "just wanted to freak you out. I haven't played a practical joke in far too long."
"Can you stop that, please?" said Rock. "I'd rather not talk to myself."
"Oh, all right," he said, and his body began to blur like an out-of-focus camera, then sharpened into the image of Duke Red. He spread out his arms and looked at himself. "Hmm..." he said, "Duke Red. How about this one?"
Rock looked uneasy. "Not that one either."
Duke Red's image looked at him sternly. "Oh, come on," he said, "I'm just pulling pictures out of your head here. You're supplying them, I'm just becoming anyone you think of." And he shifted again. When back in focus, Rock saw Tima, not his sister but the creature. Her face half-melted and in ragged clothes, just as she had been when... When-
"No!" he cried, "No! stop it now! I don't want to see this-"
"Is this better?" A soft voice asked, and Rock turned, dreading it. Tima, his sister this time, watched him.
"No," he said, "no... Please, can't you just be someone else? Don't you have your own body?" Rock laughed, a sound halfway like a sob, and looked away. "I don't want to see her. I failed her. My sister's death was all my fault."
"All right," said the voice, suddenly deeper. "All right. I'm sorry, I was only trying to make you more comfortable. You might not like me as I am."
Rock turned and looked the new body up and down. The man standing there couldn't be over nineteen, wearing faded and patched clothes. His eyes were brownish and hair tied up in a ridiculous style... but somehow he himself didn't look strange at all.
"So," said Rock, frowning, "you have a name?"
He smiled. "Atlas."