Pawn
By: Miss Special
Chapter 2: Trouble in the Emerald City
Hinge was well past having second thoughts. He was probably on twenty-second thoughts, but he'd lost count at eleven.
It was just a tad too late, though, as the transport ship set down in the spaceport on the outskirts of the main part of the Emerald City, which despite being called a city, was actually an entire planet.
Hinge stepped out of the ship, shielding his eyes as he walked into the sunlight. A tram was waiting to take him and the other tourists to the central city.
The green was surprisingly tolerable. He thought it would be some hideous shade that would pervade his very existence, but this was actually okay. Everything was bathed in a soft green light, giving the new world an exotic flair.
"Is it like this everywhere?" he wondered aloud, stepping into line to get on the tram.
"Pretty much," Sylvie said. There're a couple of places where you can go if you can't take it anymore, but that's a pretty rare occurrence."
Hinge looked up. "And the sunlight's filtered?"
"It's actually pretty simple. They rigged the moon to project light filters around the planet, which filters out the majority of the other colors of light. They could change the filters if they wanted, or they could turn it off."
"Sounds like a lot of work just to make everything green." Hinge, at the front of the line, took the nearest available tram seat. Sylvie sat down beside him.
"They initially made tourists wear visors, but that was way too complicated."
"Where did you learn all this?" Hinge looked down at his smaller friend, wondering why she knew so much about a place she'd never been to.
"I read up on it beforehand," Sylvie answered, shyly avoiding his gaze. "I was asking myself the same questions you are."
"Oh."
When the last tourist boarded the tram, it took off for the central city, winding among green fields and tiny green houses. Green groves of trees dotted the rolling hillsides.
Hinge thought it was all a little much. Tiny green houses?
"Munchkins," Sylvie said. "Read about them in the brochure. I also read about skiing on green snow, the clubs that are open all day and night, hiking in the green moonlight, exploring the green mountains and valleys, casinos, arcades,
"You can stop it with the green already."
"I'm just repeating what the brochure said."
"And we're here for a week?"
"Is that a problem?"
"It is if you're going to tell me about how green everything is."
"Honestly! Can't you just loosen up and relax? If you're going to be like this the entire time--"
"Okay, okay! Sorry!"
The tram slowed to a halt in front of the Grand Emerald Hotel, the most luxurious place to stay in the city. Hinge and Sylvie got off the tram and walked down the street to the much more conservative Emerald Econo-rooms, which was about all they could afford.
They'd reserved rooms next to each other for convenience's sake, but there was a mistake on Sylvie's reservation that lodged Sylvie on the far side of the hotel.
The friends parted ways to settle into their rooms. Sylvie was quicker about it than Hinge, so she met up with him at his room.
"Let's go clubbing!" Sylvie proclaimed, grabbing Hinge by the hand and dragging him to the club district.
Sylvie chattered incessantly along the way. "There's this one club I've been hearing about, so we have to go there-- I know you're not interested in clubs, but you have to come with me, just this once."
Hinge stayed quiet and went along, hoping that it would be over faster if he cooperated.
Sylvie suddenly dropped Hinge's hand, hurrying ahead. To the door of a club, the only one on the street without its lights on and flashing every shade of green imaginable.
"It's closed?" Sylvie wondered.
"What a pity," Hinge said, trying to sound honest. "Let's go somewhere else."
Sylvie frowned, obviously disappointed. "I really wanted to come here tonight... Oh well, I guess we'll try again tomorrow. You win, we'll go to the arcade."
Hinge was about to mention he never said anything about an arcade, but remembered his strategy of just getting it over with.
The massive arcade was much like the club district in that it had neon green, flashing lights every which way. The arcade, however, was much noisier.
Hinge merely stood while Sylvie picked out a game for them to play. They were all the same to Hinge, even though he hadn't played too many games.
"We'll play this one!" Sylvie declared, shoving a visor at Hinge. Without protesting, he took it and placed it over his optics. He was familiar with the interface, at least. He sometimes used one when a router suffered a particularly bad crash.
The game, thank the Matrix, was in the full color spectrum. Hinge found joy in that. The premise of the game was lost on him the moment he noticed the purple flowers near his feet, the deep blue sky, and the gray castle looming ahead.
Maybe that was why the Emerald City was so popular. Maybe people came here so they'd appreciate color more when they left.
"Hinge, would you get moving already?" A polygonal Sylvie tapped her foot. Hinge obediently followed, trying to remember what the point of the game was. Something about a princess or a wizard or some other absurd scheme.
Fifteen defeated ghouls and bats later, no thanks to Hinge, he and Sylvie stood in the deserted throne room of the castle. Sylvie was trying to figure out how to move forward and Hinge was preoccupied with the red trim on the thrones.
Out of the corner of Hyde's range of vision, he spotted something quickly moving towards him.
It was right behind him. Why wasn't Sylvie noticing?
Something gripped the back of his head, and there was a crackling sound that quickly got louder, and then--
Running on instinct, Hinge grabbed at his optics, and was suddenly back in the loud, green arcade, smoking visor in his hand.
His head hurt.
"Hinge? Where'd you go?" Sylvie was still in the game. "Hinge? What happened?"
Hinge dumbly stared at the smoking visor.
"May I have that?" A bot came up. Hinge placed the visor in his outstretched hand. "This happens every so often," the bot explained. "You will be compensated for your trouble with free passage to Emerald Hills. Are you feeling any negative effects?"
Hinge shook his head and accepted the tickets he was offered.
"Good." The bot turned on his heel and disappeared into the depths of the arcade.
Sylvie had disengaged from the arcade a few moments ago.
"Hinge?" she asked. "What's going on?"
It took him a bit to find the words. "I got ...zapped... by the visor?"
Sylvie looked at Hinge's hand. "Hey! Tickets! Where to?"
"Emerald Hills."
"Neat! We can go there tomorrow! It's kind of like a nature preserve," she explained. "C'mon, you look tired. Let's head back to the hotel and call it a night."
Hinge nodded, still not sure of what just occurred.
"Except for the central city," Sylvie explained as the tram sped along, "The rest of the planet's pretty naturalistic."
Come morning, the previous night had seemed like a weird nightmare. Hinge's head felt fine. He was hoping for a nice, peaceful day among trees and streams, despite the fact that they'd undoubtedly be an unnatural shade of green.
"If the planet's mostly like this," he said, gesturing at the hills that stretched towards the horizon, "why's it called the Emerald City?"
"Because it just is, okay? Can't you just relax and have a good time?"
Can't you? Hinge thought glumly. He rested his head on his hand and watched the scenery fly by until the tram stopped at what looked like an old-fashioned Earth train station.
Those intending to go to Emerald Hills, including Hinge and Sylvie, got off the tram. A rustic path guided them away from the tracks, around a few hills, and came to a sign that explained a few rules and told the tourists to have a good time.
The day was enjoyable to Hinge, and Sylvie didn't seem to mind the lack of excitement. Hinge didn't even mind the green as much.
They returned to the station late that afternoon and watched the yellowy-green sun set against the blue-green sky.
The moment the tram let them off, Sylvie dragged Hinge to the nightclub they'd tried to visit the night before.
Sylvie was overjoyed to find it was open and active. When they went in, it looked like Hinge expected any nightclub to look like. There was an oil bar, loud, bass-heavy music, a dance floor hidden by smoke, mechs and femmes dancing and mingling everywhere.
Hinge couldn't think of a singe reason why he would want to be here, except for the fact that Sylvie'd dragged him here, just as she had just about every place they'd been to so far. Thankfully, Sylvie left him at the bar to go dancing.
Hinge sat down on a barstool.
"Something I can get you?" the bartender asked, doing his job.
"Something safe and non-corrosive, if you have it," Hinge replied. He wasn't into drinking. The bartender gave him something and he looked at it, not actually wanting it.
He scanned the crowd, looking for Sylvie. He hoped she at least was having fun. He couldn't find her, but that didn't worry him. The place was packed.
It was probably because he was lost in thought that he didn't react when the first gunshot rang out. It took the collective gasps and cries of the clubbers to call him out of his reverie. By the time the second third shots were fired, some of the dancers were cowering on the floor.
To Hinge, it was like watching a show. It didn't occur to him that what was going on could be real. Things like that never happened to someone like him.
Chaos ensued. Some fled for the exit. Some looked for the gunmen. Some hid.
Hinge just sat there until a hand reached up and grabbed his arm. Surprised, he jumped and looked at the owner of the arm.
"Hinge, you dummy!" Sylvie said from her spot on the floor. "Get down here! You could get shot!"
As if on cue, an energy blast hit Hinge in the chest, a little right of center. Hinge fell into the bar and then to the floor.
"Are you okay?!" Sylvie propped him up against the bar.
Hinge had never been shot before, and he couldn't say he liked the experience.
The bartender, who had come out from behind the bar, put his hand on Sylvie's shoulder.
"I know where we can go and be safe," he told her. "Is your friend functional?"
Hinge managed a nod. He didn't think he would die.
"Follow me." The bartender went back behind the bar. Sylvie and Hinge followed. On the other side, a chipmunk waited for them.
Actually a bot in beast mode, it grumbled while removing a large wall panel. "And we'd just repaired the damage from the last attack." She gestured into the passage the wall panel had hidden. It wasn't large enough to accommodate a standing transformer as tall as Hinge, but their beast modes would fit fine. "After you."
The bartender transformed into a puma and went in. Sylvie, in her fox form, followed after. Hinge reluctantly transformed and went third. The chipmunk sealed the passage from the inside, leaving the chaos behind them.
"Stay quiet," the puma said, "They might be looking for us."
When Hinge had decided he was used to having a beast mode, he meant he was used to having it, not using it. His panda gate was ungainly, to say the least. In the dim light, he could see Sylvie and the puma getting farther and farther ahead of him. The chipmunk passed him and caught up to the others. They had to stop and wait for him.
Don't trust them.
"What?" Hinge looked around, looking for where the voice had come from.
"Shh!" Sylvie hissed. Hadn't she heard it? Maybe he was imagining things. He had been shot, after all.
The passage was very dim (though not green, thankfully) for a ways, then lightened up a lot. They passed a couple junctions with other passages.
"A panda," the puma commented. "Cute."
Hinge tried to frown, but he didn't think it worked.
"My name's Diablo," the puma said It was apparently safe to talk now. "That's Rattle." He indicated the chipmunk.
"I'm Sylvie, and this is Hinge." Sylvie seemed awfully calm, considered what had just happened, but then again, Hinge wasn't as distressed as he thought he'd be.
"How's the damage?" Diablo asked him, not sounding very concerned.
"It's better." Hinge tried to frown again.
"Internal repairs. It's a good thing you've got a beast mode."
"What exactly happened back there?" Hinge asked, wondering why Sylvie hadn't said it already.
"Anti-Liberator action. It happens a lot."
"Liberator?" He didn't understand, but it didn't sound good.
"We'll explain later," Rattle said.
The passage seemed to turn into a labyrinth. Diablo and Rattle navigated the twists and turns easily, no doubt because they'd been through here many times before.
By the time the confines of the passage widened into a hidden city, Hinge had lost all sense of direction.
"This is the Liberator headquarters," Diablo said, turning to Hinge. "You should rest. We'll fill you in later."
Hinge didn't much like the idea of resting surrounded by unknowns-- there must've been fifty or so bots bustling here and there-- but then again, they had helped him.
Rattle led Sylvie and him to the sleeping quarters.
"Take it easy, Hinge," Sylvie told him once Rattle'd left. "I'll watch over you while you sleep. You're going to need to sleep so the damage can heal."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Hinge wished he could frown while in beast mode.
"Don't be such a stick in the mud," Sylvie said affectionately. "I'll be here."
Hinge remembered his resolution to just go along with what Sylvie wanted. He curled up and fell into an uneasy sleep.