The Matrix Resurrection (Complete, all chapters posted)

Five years after Neo made the Truce, Zion and the Machines witness a Resurrection...

A Resurrection of War. A Resurrection of Life. A Resurrection of the Mission.

Prologue: Five Years after The Matrix Revolutions

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Mega City

12-5-03

9:14PM

It was cold that night. Very cold, as a matter of fact. No one could remember the last time the weather was this bad. The snow fell from the sky like small pieces of glass, hitting people in the face with a cutting sensation that made them turn away if they made the mistake of looking into the opposing direction of the snow fall. One would say it was hail but it wasn't heavy enough. It was just the collaboration of snow, and really harsh winds. They crashed into the windshield of the black sedan driving down the dark icy street. The driver, a man in his late 20's, 29 to be specific, ignored them as the windshield wipers pushed them off to the side like someone making lines of cocaine with a razor-blade. Funny I should think that, the man thought to himself with a chuckle and a smirk, as he looked down at his Detective badge that was attached to the chain he wore. It read, "Detective" and underneath that, "Narcotics Unit". Oh well, he said to himself in an assuring tone. I guess I could say my mind is always on the job, technically. He laughed. He was such a poppycock artist at times, and he knew it. He did it on purpose to get out from being between a rock and a tight space. Most of the time it worked. Sometimes though, it backfired. Like when he had to explain to his girlfriend why he came home late the night he promised he'd be home for dinner that night and to go to bed with her at the same time, rather than coming in and sneaking into the bed after she'd already been asleep. She was still peeved at him for that. He thought of what had been said during that argument, while his eyes were fixed on the road ahead of him.

"Vince, what is the matter with you, you promised me you'd be home by 9:30!"

"I know Cheryl, I got caught up with work I couldn't help it!"

"You told me that no matter what, that even if it meant you would have extra work to do that you would put work on the side and come home to see me!"

"Yeah I know but--rrgh, Howard wouldn't let me off the hook he said if I left he'd suspend my pay for a month!"

"Oh bull, you know he wouldn't have done that, you always say how he tells you you're one of his best cops!"

That was only half of it. Usually Vince would be hearing that when it was attached to the bad end of a complaint from Captain Howard, the head of Vince's precinct. Something always along the lines of "You're a good cop Vince, but you get into so much *CENSORED* that I don't know what to do with you, y-you're driving me up a *blinking*' wall, listen to me I'm stuttering over here!" Always about his spontaneous way of doing things. He got a reputation in the precinct for that. The officers would say "Burnett? That guy's a loose cannon, I don't know how the Captain puts up with him." Or the other Detectives would say "Vince's chaotic, he'll shoot first and ask questions later." It all made him smile. But Vince couldn't blame Howard on his tardiness from home. He let him get away with too much stuff, any other Captain would have either suspended him and assigned him to a desk job or have him thrown off the force all together. It's Irvine's fault, he told himself. Irvine. The name had been his best friend for the past year. A search warrant was out for this guy, and he was one the more sought after convicts on the "Wall of the Wanted" back at the precinct. He was a suspected murderer, kidnapper, drug dealer, and hacker. This Irvine character was Vince's case, and he'd had no leads on the guy, just searches around the city that turned up with nothing. His mind went blank. Cheryl's voice came back into his head, like a reminder to come out of thinking of work. It was like purgatory was following him around, making sure he got more pissed off at Irvine for the stupid reasons that caused him and Cheryl to fight all the time.

"You're always late! If you're late one more time after you make a promise like this, I swear Vince, I'm getting out of here!"

"Babe come on, what am I supposed to do?"

"Straighten out your priorities and get your *CENSORED* together! Wake up already and get with the program."

The words echoed in his head as if he woken up from a nightmare. Who was to say he wasn't in one now? He chuckled and shook his head. What the hell am I thinking? He looked at the clock on his console, the time read 9:14PM. He checked his watch to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and it said the same. I finished early tonight? he asked himself. He couldn't remember leaving his office so early, but he shrugged. "Whatever," he figured. His apartment was around the corner and that meant he'd made it home early. He stopped at the red light, and looked to make sure no other cars were coming down the intersecting street. When he felt he was clear, he made the right turn and drove down the street until he came up to his apartment building. Parallel parking the car along the sidewalk, he shut off the ignition and hesitated before he got out of the car. He looked up at the window of his apartment and stared. I can't believe I'm home this early. I could have sworn it was eleven... he said to himself in his thoughts. He stayed there looking up at the window, as if there was some outside factor wanting to stop him from getting to his home early, and stay in the car for another two hours. Blinking, he shook his head and got out of the car, gently shutting the door.

The night suddenly seemed calm, despite the snow and the wind. His black leather blazer kept him warm enough to survive the 15 foot walk from the car to the door of the building. He looked down the dark street as he made it to the door, and saw nothing but black when he looked yonder. "Dark future down the road," he jokingly suggested to himself. He pushed the door open, and stamped his feet to get the snow off of his feet. His eyes scanned over the mailboxes on the wall, looking for his own mailbox. When his eyes fell upon the name "Vince Burnett", he stopped, and moved forward with his key.

 He shook his head. I've lived here for almost a year now and I can't remember where my mailbox is. He inserted his key, and after turning it, he slowly opened it a tad and peeked inside. Ever since he saw that Clint Eastwood movie where the black guy opened his mailbox and the bomb exploded, he was always afraid of nonchalantly opening his mailbox. However, like always since then, he saw nothing out of the ordinary in there. Actually, this time he saw nothing in there.

No mail, he thought. Maybe Cheryl got it. Closing the tiny door and locking it, he turned and made his way over to the elevator. Running his eyes over the buttons, he pushed the "6" button after the door closed, and waited for that sudden jolt that took place when an elevator first started to move. When it occurred, it rocked him a bit as he stood in his place. He reached under his blazer and grasped his gun, a black Colt 1911A1 with wood grips.

He looked at it for a few seconds before making sure the safety on the slide was secured. After he was sure that the safety was activated, he slid it back into it's holster, and then he felt that jolt of the elevator again. The next thing he heard was "ding", and the doors opened. Running his hand through his shoulder length dark brown hair, he stepped out onto thin carpet that covered the floor of the hallway. Cracking his knuckles like he usually did as he walked to his door, he counted the cracks as they went off. 1, 2, 3, 4...5, 6, 7, 8..9, 10. He stopped in front of his door and made claws out of his fingers, and extended them straight, and did this twice.

He got a hold of the doorknob and twisted it. To his surprise, it was open. He pushed it open and stepped in, immediately looking around the apartment. No one in the kitchen, which was a few feet in front of him. Then he noticed the TV on in the living room right in the next room. He peered around the wall and looked to the couches, and his eyes automatically locked with Cheryl's. She looks surprised, he registered to himself before thinking anything else. In reality, she was.

"You..you're home." She said in a gentle tone, with a touch of disbelief. It was as if she was whispering because it was too good to be true, and if that was the case, she didn't want to disturb this vision of Vince that stood before her, or else it might disappear. "Yeah, I'm home," he answered, to her surprise. She didn't know what to ask or what to say. So, to improvise, she got up from her seat on the couch and walked over to him. She was dressed in dark grey sweat pants and a random t-shirt, with white socks on her feet. She was shorter than him, but not too short, a 5'3 to his 6'0. She stood not even a foot away from him, and before he could react, she went up on her tippy-toes and gave him the tightest hug she could.

It startled him for a moment, he wasn't expecting it. After a few seconds, he let the fact seep in, and rested his head on hers, which she had pushed tightly into his chest. He blinked, breathing in through his nose and taking in the scent of her hair, the scent of peaches. He exhaled slowly and kissed her head, preparing to let go so he could get off his jacket, holster, and boots, so he could sit with her on the couch and relax, but instead she pulled him into a kiss. The sudden pull and the last sight of her head coming closer to his caused him to close his eyes tight, and as she wrapped her arms around his neck for better leverage, he relaxed and let them stay closed comfortably. As he wrapped his arms around her waist, he thought to himself, I honestly didn't expect this kind of reaction from her. Maybe I was underestimating her. Maybe I underestimate myself. When she let off of him, she looked at him in the eyes with a warm, caring look.

"Welcome home," she told him with a smile. He smiled back.

"Good to be home."

----

Chapter 1: Life's too short

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MCPD

12-6-03

5:30PM

Vince sat at his desk in his office. His elbow rested on the desk top as he stared at the blank screen on his monitor. The sign-in box was on the screen. The cursor blinked every second. His eyes glanced around. He looked at the walls, with the melancholy design and the dark brown stain finish, and large windows through which he could see a good amount of the rest of the floor he worked on. The wall all the way to his left was also the wall of the office to his left, same with the wall and the office in front of him, the wall his door was on. He had to walk through the other Detective's office in order to get to his. There were a few files cabinets behind him, and since he had a corner office, a window behind him. There was a space heater under this window in absence of a radiator. It was like that in a bunch of the offices around him. Someone went around and turned all of them on to low. The storm from last night was still there now in the morning. Wind and sharp snow flakes in everyone's face. To his left was another large file cabinet. On his desk was a phone, a calendar, a printer in the corner on the right side of the computer console, and a picture of Cheryl.

He looked around his office again and took all of this in. This isn't an office, he thought. It's a glorified cubicle. Shaking his head, he looked out of the windows to his left and saw Howard's office. Vince made a face to himself, and watched as Howard sat there talking on the phone to someone. I better at least look like I'm doing something, Vince decided, before I get bitched at because I'm getting payed for doing nothing. He looked back at his monitor at the blinking cursor. He typed his name into the first space, and "Vince Burnett" came onto the screen. He pressed tab and then it came to his password. The name & password check completed with a beep and the search interface came up onto the screen, with several fields and options for specifying whatever it was someone may be searching for, and an area for search results. He paused, staring at a blank screen again.

He knew that typing in "Irvine" would do him no good. He'd done it time and again and came up with nothing useful as to where to find the guy. He had no previous record, no location, no place of residence, no relatives, no name changes. The guy just popped up out of thin air it seemed, and it made Vince angry, how this guy could just slip in and out of his jurisdiction. He sat back in his chair and put his legs up on his desk and his hands on his head, staring at the screen, the blank search fields and that blinking cursor again. A fly landed on him, and he brushed it off. Another black pair of jeans, and the same pair of boots, but this time, a blue t-shirt. His gun hung from its holster under his blazer. I don't know where to start or where this stops. I forgot where it began, and I could only imagine where it'll end. But in the mean time, what the *CENSORED* am I going to do just sitting here looking for a ghost?

He leaned forward and put his face into his hands as if he were crying and slowly slid them down his face and into a sort of praying position, and rested his head of them. Then he repositioned his left hand and rested his head on it, his elbow on top of the desk in front of the keyboard. His right hand was on the desk, the other elbow resting on his right thigh, and he tapped his fingers and sighed. Out of the corner of his left eye he saw Detective Stanford coming into his office. He was about Vince's height, maybe an inch or two taller, and with broader shoulders. He was in his mid 30s and in his combed back brown hair, gray hairs were obvious. He had a serious look in his eyes most of the time, but that was only when he meant business, when he was working. Usually he was a friendly guy though, and now it looked to Vince as if he had something interesting to say.

"Hey, Burnett."

Vince stopped tapping his fingers and put his left elbow on his left thigh, and clasped his hands together under the desk. "What's up, Stanford?"

"You heard about the party, right?"

He arched a brow. "No..what party?"

"Carrington's getting promoted, we're throwing him a surprise party and the ceremony is this weekend."

"Really? What's he moving up to?"

"He got onto S.W.A.T."

"That's a promotion?" Vince said, as if to ask what put the S.W.A.T. team over the Narcotics Unit.

"Well, yeah. Figure, our Narcotics Unit is a tactical unit of its own, we're not just regular Detectives, we do that and our own kind of S.W.A.T. work. So now he's moving from being a regular Narcotics Detective to getting to see a little excitement."

Vince shrugged. "I guess you got a point. Is there time for the whole unit to just take time off and throw a surprise party?"

"We're not the only Tactical Narcotics Unit here, or did you forget that part?"

Vince pointed his finger at him. "Hey, don't get smart with me!" he said in a joking tone, the both of them smiling at the sarcastic humor and reaction. "So when is this party anyway?"

"Well, figure, it's about 5:45PM now, I think we're all going down to the party room by 9:00PM, fancy food'll be catered and ready and everything, music and all, the whole nine yards."

Vince nodded. Suddenly, Stanford looked as though he remembered something.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, no, I was just gonna say, I almost forgot, everyone in our unit is invited and their partners are welcome, so if you wanna surprise your girl you can suddenly take her out to dinner, and it's free!" Standford said with a chuckle.

A smile came over Vince's face. "Yeah, she'd like that. I think I owe her a few surprises," he said with a nod. He looked around for a clock. "What time do we get off if this party is at nine?"

"I think your shift ends in fifteen minutes. You've been doing paperwork all day since like six, right?"

"Yeah it sucks."

"Go ask Howard, he's not really busy, he told me to go remind everyone about the party tonight, you were the last guy left." Stanford suggested.

"Alright," Vince said as he logged out of his computer, turned it off, and got up out of his chair. He extended his hand and Stanford took it and shook his hand with a nod. "I'll see you tonight at the party," he said, to which Stanford replied "Alright then I'll see you tonight." He then left Vince's office to move onto whatever else he had to do. Vince rubbed his forehead. "Party tonight," he thought to himself. "I play my cards right I might get lucky." He walked out of his office and made his way over to Captain Howard's office. He knocked on the door, and was immediately greeted with a "Come in!" He opened the door, stepped in, and closed it behind him, looking out through the windows to see if Carrington was around.

"What is it Vince, what, what're you doing?"

"Ssh, calm down boss I was making sure Carrington wasn't around."

"Oh, Carrington? I guess Stanford told you about tonight."

"Yeah, I wanted to know when my shift ended for today, I forgot."

Howard checked his watch. It read 5:50. "It's ten to, you're done at six, get outta here you can go home now" he said all in one breath. Vince shrugged. "Alright then, I'll see you tonight then." Howard nodded. "Okay."

"Later boss." Vince said on the way out.

"So long." Howard called after him.

Vince made his way downstairs to his car and drove home.

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6:10PM

Vince walked into the apartment and threw his jacket and holster onto the couch. Cheryl heard the door slam shut, and she poked her head out of her room cautiously. Seeing Vince startled her, and his greeting made her jump. "Hey, honey what's up?" he said in high volume. "Vince, what're you doing here?" she asked, surprised. "I'm home, and tonight we're going to a fancy dinner" he said as he made his way closer to her. "Fancy dinner? What do you mean?" she said. He came over and held her in his arms and gave her a kiss. More surprises. He went into the bedroom and sat on the bed and began unlacing his boots. "One of the guys at work is getting promoted and my unit's throwing him a surprise party. Nice party, and good food, and it's all free."

"Oh.." she answered, a bit blindsided by the fact he was home so soon, and because now he was taking her out tonight, sort of. "What time do we have to be there by?"

"Nine o'clock. You got something nice to wear?"

"Uh, yeah, do you?"

"I'm sure I'll find something."

"What about your dress uniform?"

"No, no, that I have to wear for the official ceremony this weekend."

"Can I go to that too?"

Vince stopped. He looked up at her, and saw the hopeful look in her eyes. She really wanted to be with him, he realized. He extended his arms, his left out a little further than his right, and motioned for her to come to him. She came over and sat, leaning up against him, and he put her arms around her. "Of course you can come with me to that ceremony," he said to her, his eyes locked onto hers. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just.." she began.

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I miss you. Work's been taking up a lot of your time lately and sometimes I really hate when I can't see you."

He kissed her forehead and ran his hand through her hair. "Here I am. For the whole night."

She looked up to him and smiled and wrapped her arms around him. He laid back on the bed and took her with him. "I'm tired," he said. "I'm comfy," she answered. He closed his eyes. "Lemme know when eight o'clock rolls around, we'll get dressed then," he told her. "Why?" she asked. "Because staying here like this for a while would be nice," he answered. All she said was "Mhmm." They dozed off in each other's arms.

When 8:00 came around, Vince woke up to Cheryl shaking him gently, saying to him "Come on Vince, time to get ready." He rose up out of the bed and stretched his arms out with a relaxing sigh. He looked around, first to Cheryl, then the closet. Okay....what to wear...got my pants on...got a shirt in the closet..got my jacket..a little cologne, good to go. He walked over to to dresser and opened a drawer, and pulled out a grey tank-top undershirt. After this, he simply removed his blue t-shirt, revealing his in-shape but not jacked up upper body, and put the tank top on, but kept his jeans unbuttoned. Cheryl started getting changed into a little black dress. Vince reached into the closet and pulled out a short sleeved dark-purple button-up shirt, and began buttoning it.

"Do you always dress in black?" Cheryl asked him.

"Yup. Works with everything," he answered. When he was finished, all of the buttons were fastened, sans the top two. He pulled up his pants around the shirt and closed them up, turning to his hutch to go for his cologne. "There, almost done. All I gotta do is put some of this stuff on," he started, as he opened the small bottle and poured some into his right hand palm. He set the bottle down, rubbed his hands together, and then wiped the cologne on either side of his neck and on his chest until his hands were dry. He turned to Cheryl, who at this point was in her dress, pantyhose, and shoes. He had a double take.

"What?" she asked with a smile coming out on her face.

He smiled back and shook his head. "Come on we gotta stop *blinking* around we gotta go soon," he said to her in a joking voice.

"Alright you *CENSORED*, I gotta fix up my hair and do my makeup," she retaliated. He sighed and waited. This is gonna take a while.

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9:09PM

MCPD Party Room

When Vince and Cheryl walked in, the party had already started. Ah, this is good. No congratulatory speech to sit through. He turned to Cheryl. "Come with me, we gotta go say hi to the man of the hour, then we can sit." She nodded. She hooked her left arm around his right, staying close and getting some sort of a grip on the sleeve of his blazer. Some people were dancing, but he didn't mind, he cut through the dance floor, however in a nonchalant manner.

When they finally got over to Carrington, his wife was with him and he was being congratulated all around. He was a year or two older than Vince, and about an inch short. When Carrington noticed him, his eyebrows raised and he greeted him with a "Hey! Thought you wouldn't be here." Vince chuckled. "The party just started, I'm a few minutes late, no big deal." Carrington smiled "I suppose. And who's this?" he asked, his eyes shifting over to Cheryl. "Oh, this is my girlfriend Cheryl. Nice, right?" Vince said, raising his eyebrows with a mischievous smile, slightly tilting his head forward. Cheryl smirked, jabbing her elbow into his side under his arm that she had wrapped hers around, causing him to jolt a little. Vince frowned as if he were to say "Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?", and Carrington and his wife laughed. Cheryl extended her free hand to shake Carrington's, and he accepted, getting a good yet gentle grip and shaking lightly before letting go. "Well, you guys go get something to eat and sit down and enjoy yourselves. Vince nodded. "Will do. C'mon Cheryl."

With that, they made their way over to the table with all the food trays and got on the now short line. After scanning over the trays and getting what they wanted, they made their way over to a sparsely populated table and sat. "Do you know all these people here?" Cheryl asked. Vince looked up from cutting his food. "Yeah, most of them, all of these guys are in my unit and some of em have done work with us on big cases in the past. They all know me though," he said with a wink and chuckle, causing her to smile. "Why don't you have a partner?" she asked. "I wasn't assigned one. I could request one if I need a friend or something, but that won't be until I finish this case I'm working on," he said as he cut his food with a knife and fork. She nodded and got to working on hers.

He plucked a piece of food with his fork and put it into his mouth and started to chew. Good stuff. It was baked ziti. As he chewed, he opened his sense of hearing. Music was playing. People were talking. A lot of conversations going on at once. He studied this. Then he started analyzing every little thing he could and started comparing it to how animals in the wild would act. He didn't know why he did it, but it was a habit. They all come together as friends or members of a pack or a clan to celebrate the fact that one of their own has moved up a level. They gather and feed themselves and communicate, about all sorts of things as they eat. Just talking and eating for the most part, oblivious to what's going on outside. They gather like animals to a place where they know the food is at. Is that all? Why, though? What's the point?

"Vince," Cheryl called. He snapped out of his trance. "You alright?" she asked, a slight worried look on her face. He put his hand over hers, and nodded assuringly.

"I'm fine. Just, deep in thought."

At about 10:00 they had left at went home and went to bed. The thoughts repeated in Vince's mind as he fell asleep.

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 (Note to the reader: I know it's been a little slow in the story so far. After this chapter it speeds up and gets more like a Matrix story and less like a cop story, I promise.)

Chapter 2: The clues don't add up

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MCPD

12-7-03

3:00PM

Vince sat at his desk with his legs resting up on top of it. Leaned back in his chair, he tapped his pen on the desk as if he was antsy. He'd done all of his paper work and there was nothing for him to do. He could go and enjoy himself, but Cheryl was at work, so in reality he couldn't. "Why do you just sit there, Vince?" Captain Howard had asked him once. "If you got no work to do you don't have to come in, we'll contact you if there's something that needs to be done." Made him feel real useful. But today would be different, and Vince didn't have a clue. With his legs still up on his desk, he swiveled in the chair left and right for mere hip movement to keep him busy. His eyes drifted around again. Same *poop*, different day. He looked over to the Wanted posters up on the wall across from his office and the one to the left of his. The usuals, and a few weird ones. Some sleaze bag Italian grease ball. A few black guys. A couple juveniles. Handful of Latinos. And then one was missing. Vince arched a brow. The poster for Daniel Lancaster, a suspected serial killer and syndicate member, was taken down. Vince rubbed his chin and thought about this. Either he was arrested or killed. Wait, wasn't he being watched? Vince rose from his chair and walked into the Captain's office. Howard had two other detectives with him in. When he saw Vince coming to the door, he shook his head as if to say yes and motioned for him to quickly get into the room. When he did, he shut the door behind him.

"Burnett, good thing you're here, I was just about to call you."

Vince looked over at the other two detectives. Corallo and Hall. He gave them a nod before looking back over to Howard. "Why, what's the matter?"

"You saw the wanted wall, right?"

"Yeah, Lancaster's poster is gone, what's the deal?"

"These two were watching him. Now he's gone, and we can't find him anywhere."

"Yeah, and how do I fall into this?" Vince inquired.

"We checked his phone calls and we didn't find anything usual, so we tapped his phone." Corallo answered.

"He made contact with a person named Irvine and few times. The guy you're looking for."

Vince's eyebrows raised, a look of surprise and almost shock coming over his face. "...What?" Howard was first to snap him out of it.

"Listen, we think this guy is the reason why Lancaster is gone, he might have drugged him up and kidnapped him or killed him or something. Either way, you're all on this case now."

"Well, do you have recordings of his phone calls?" Vince asked anxiously.

"Yeah, right here." Hall said. He picked up a tape recorder and pushed the play button. It started with the usual fuzz from a recorded tape but then it picked up. Vince listened closely. It started with the phone ringing. Then someone picked up.

"Lancaster."

"Yes, hello Anubis." Vince frowned. Anubis? When was he ever called Anubis?

"Who is this?" Lancaster demanded.

"You know who this is. You've been expecting my phone call."

"Okay, stop playing games *CENSORED*--"

"Anubis," The man said in a bold tone, cutting Lancaster off. "You asked me about the Matrix on the internet a long time ago. Are you still interested?"

"Irvine...?" Lancaster suddenly asked, as if he were in the presence of someone highly superior than he.

"Yes. The phone is tapped, Anubis. I will contact you again." The click of the phone hanging up followed after, and Hall pressed stop.

All four men exchanged looks. "Anyone ever heard of the Matrix?" Howard asked. All three detectives shook their heads to say no.

"Hold on, there's one more." Hall said. He pressed play again. The phone ringing was heard again, and someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Anubis, this is Irvine. Are you ready to meet?"

"Yes."

"Meet me in the shut down storage warehouse in the slums district. I will give you the red pill."

*Click*

"Okay gentlemen, we have our work cut out for us," Howard started. "Corallo, Hall, I want you guys to go into his house and look for clues and see if we can get any evidence on this guy, here's the warrant, keep it with you." He handed Corollo the warrant, and he folded it and put it in his pants pocket.

Then he turned to Vince. "I want you to go over to that old warehouse and see if you can find anything. And while you're at it, find out what the hell they talking about and find out what the 'Matrix' is. After that, since you're narcotics, look into whatever sources and informants you have on whatever the red pill is. Move it!"

Vince nodded and left the office. He checked his gun to make sure it was loaded and the safety off. Hall chuckled. "Ready to shoot off again, eh Vince?"

"Just making sure. Whatever is takes to keep my *CENSORED* alive. I'll see you guys later."

----

3:30PM

The car radio was off as Vince drove to Appolyon, the part of the slums district where the warehouse was located.. He drove at a moderate speed, and wasn't in any sort of a rush. His eyes moved all over as he drove down the crowded city streets, looking from person to person, store signs, the road ahead of him, side streets, anything in his sight that was in front of him. He looked at the street he was on. Main Avenue. He made a left onto 36th street. Brick and 9th wasn't too far away, but the location was a good choice for something like a secret meeting. The area the warehouse was in was a run-down section of the city, somewhere you would go to only look for trouble. The warehouse itself had been shut down a few years ago but no one wanted to touch it because the people living in the area deemed it "historical" since it had been there for quite a while. Please. It was for storage. Why is it necessary to have incentives?

It seemed like the whole neighborhood was stuck in time. With the sunset in the background, and the dusty feeling of the place, the area had a sepia tone to it, boring and dull as if it was clay. There was a sign of life though, people walking up and down the sidewalks, and some cars. It wasn't abandoned. It just wasn't that great of a place either. It gave Vince the feeling someone was watching or something was out there. He passed 6th street and sighed. Vince was wary as he turned onto Brick avenue, always on the alert. Someone around here might not like him in these parts and decide to show off how many bullets they had in their gun. Was it a boring day or just the city that did it? It started to rain. Oh great. Make that the day, and the city.

He felt like leaving, but his assignment held him back, so he shook his head. Where is this warehouse? Then, as he came to 9th street, he saw it, standing there still as the rain cut through the sunset, as if were expecting him. He pulled into the lot and up next to the building's main entrance, and turned off the ignition. He thought about whether our not he should walk through the rain or cover his head. *CENSORED* it. He got out of the car and walked into the door. It was dark, there were no lights on. He moved over to flip a switch to his left on the wall. He toggled it a few times; nothing.

He scanned the inside of the room with his eyes. There were several racks with four or five large shelves on them that were made of steel, painted in orange and green. There were four rows of these continuous racks that ran from roughly the front to the back of the warehouse, with some space in between the ends of these rows and the main wall for walking, and cross sections between every three blocks of racks. The space in between the rows themselves was large, about nine feet of space between each.

He proceeded forward, cautiously. The only light was those coming through the windows, which were small in size on the walls and not many, and large on the ceiling, they few and far between. There was one large window in the middle of every set of rows separated by a cross section, and they were barred. It looked like a huge stock room in the back of a large department store. With the sun going down outside, it wouldn't be too long before it was pitch black in the warehouse. He stepped forward into one of the rows between two racks. After walking a few feet, he reached into his blazer and pulled out his gun and let his arm hang down at his side again, then pulled back the hammer. He had a funny feeling walking through this place. Just in case.

He passed the first barred skylight. Looking around, through the empty racks, up above him, and watching his back, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Then he saw something on the floor ahead, in the light of the second skylight. He picked up the speed in his step so he could get a closer look, and stopped in the light pouring down from above. It was a small white card, about the size of a business card. After he put his gun back into its holster, he put on the pair of rubber gloves he had in his coat pocket and flipped the card over. There was writing in black ink. A curious frown came over his face as he turned the card over right side up so that he could read it. It read "The Matrix Has You." The Matrix...

He arched a brow, and stared at it as he held it in his right hand while with his left he went for a small plastic zip-lock evidence bag. He slipped the card into the bag, fastened the top, and put it into his coat pocket. Then he removed the gloves, placed them into his other pocket, turned, and walked towards the door. He noticed the rain had begun to come down harder. The water ran down the window kind of like suds, each bead of water running down and leaving a trail, followed by another bead of water, all across the window in vertical rows. He moved on, and walked through the door, to the outside. The rain hit him all over as he walked to his car. He didn't waste any time standing there, as he climbed in and drove away.

----

4:10PM

Vince was last of the three detectives to get back since the place he had to go to was farther. When he walked in, Simpson, the guy at the front desk nodded to him. He was close to retiring. "Burnett, the Captain is waiting for you in his office with Corallo and Hall." "Thanks Simpson." Vince responded. He ran up the stairs to the second floor and made his way into Howard's office, as he walked in he heard Howard say "Here he is." He shut the door behind him.

"Burnett, did you find anything?" Howard asked.

"The place was empty, this is all I found," he said as he pulled out the white card in the evidence bag. He tossed it onto Howard's desk, and he examined it through the plastic. "The Matrix" he said to himself. "You didn't find anything on this Matrix though?"

Vince shook his head. "Nope, nothing. That's it. Whoever Irvine is, he was there, and Lancaster was with him."

Howard shook his head as to say yes. "Good, good, now we have a break in the case, these two didn't find much." He looked over at Corallo and Hall "You two go look up whatever info you can find on Lancaster's syndicate connections." He looked back over to Vince. "Burnett, I want you to look into whatever the red pill is. If we can get a supplier down or something, maybe we can cut him off, got it?" All three of the detectives nodded. "Then get to it. And somebody get this bag over to Evidence."

Vince walked out and went back into his office cubicle. As he sat there waiting for his computer to start up, he thought of the white card again.

'The Matrix Has You'....

What is the Matrix?

----

 (I'll take this moment to let everyone know, the rest of the story is written and complete. Instead of posting the whole thing up at once though, I'm putting it up piece by piece. Chapter 3 will be up as soon as I see some sign of life on the thread and get some reviews in between chapters, because I hate posting a story up all at one shot and no one reads it or says anything. Stay tuned!)

Chapter 3: The Man from the other side

----

MCPD

12-7-03

4:45PM

In the thirty five minutes that had passed since he had gotten back, Vince had began writing the report on the evidence he found and almost died of boredom reliving the moment. He included in the report the time he left, the time he got to the storage warehouse, the time he left the warehouse, and the time he got back to the precinct. He described the inside, including the power failure, and especially, the card he found on which was written, "The Matrix Has You." All of the important details, the literal stuff that anyone who needed the information would have some use for.

What he didn't include though, was that it felt as if he was being watched by unseen eyes. That feeling that creeped him out and caused him to take his gun from his holster. He thought it over as he typed and wondered: Am I still being watched?

He shrugged it off. Stop scaring yourself. That always happens when you feel spooked but can't see anything, he convinced himself. He looked at his screen and all of the black text against the white screen. The blinking cursor, blinking every second. The font control, the spacing. Nodding, he decided he was finished with the report. Saving it, he sat back in the chair and exhaled through his lips, his cheeks puffing up only until all of the air/carbon dioxide was out of his mouth.

He looked out of the windows surrounding him to see what was up. Then he noticed something, something he never saw before. Three men came to the upstairs floor and entered Howard's office. To Vince, they looked like secret service agents back from the 1960's, dressed in black suits, with generic black dress shoes. Under their jackets were white dress shirts, and black ties, pinned to their shirts via a silver pin with simple horizontal line design. They all wore their hair parted at their left, and they all wore white earpieces in their right ear, the coiled wire hanging down beside their neck and then being tucked in under their white shirts. The most notable and possibly intimidating feature of their outfits were the the square framed sunglasses they all wore, the lenses shaded black to the point where you couldn't see their eyes or tell if they were looking for you. But that wasn't the case for Vince. He saw Howard look in his direction and point towards his office, and the three of their heads turned; They were looking at him alright. It wasn't until they exited Howard's office and started towards his own that he started to worry.

Okay, he thought, What have I done lately that would get the Feds on my case.... haven't shot anyone... haven't blown anything up, no car accidents.. oh *poop*, here they come. The three men entered the office and stood in line from side to side, the one in the center a step in front of the other two. They all stood at at least six feet tall even. The one in the middle spoke.

"Mr. Burnett, I'm Agent Williams, these are my colleagues, Agent Davis and Agent Miller," he said, the other two nodding smugly as their names were mentioned.

Vince stood up from sitting in his chair to see eye to eye with the man, standing at least two feet from him. "Hi," he said wearily. "Something I can help you with?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is, Mr. Burnett." Agent Williams said. He spoke in a bold, direct tone, he didn't drag on any words or speak slow or fast, rather, at a steady rate, almost as though he were a robot. "We understand that you've been tracking an individual named Irvine for the past year and you haven't gained any leads on him until recently when a Mr. Daniel Lancaster went missing."

"Yeah, that's true..." Vince replied, in a skeptical tone. This news traveled fast for something that happened only so recently. "What about him?"

"Well, we understand he has charges of murder, kidnap, and drug use against him and currently there is a warrant out for his arrest and that you're the Detective who's been put on the case. We were wondering if you had seen anything unusual lately."

Vince recalled the warehouse and the white card. "No, nothing unusual. Why?"

Agent Williams took a breathe of air and sighed as if he realized he would be staying longer than he had planned. "The truth is, Mr. Burnett, this character Irvine is far more dangerous than he seems, especially according to the way you have him listed down in your files. Compared to your records, he is far worse than he appears. And of course, we all know appearances can be deceiving."

Vince raised an eyebrow at his last statement. "Yeah..What's he really like?"

"To make a long story short, the man is a known terrorist that has his own group of sorts that works with him. You are aware of the shoot outs that have been taking place all over the city, are you not?"

"Yeah, I've heard of them, they turn up from out of nowhere. Is he involved with those too?"

"Yes, actually, he is involved. A great threat to the public, and he isn't the only one." He swallowed, and took a moment to turn his head towards Agent Davis and Agent Miller. "However, we have a more important subject to talk about while we're here."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"We'd like to ask you for your help Mr. Burnett, in tracking this Irvine down and helping us take him into custody."

"Yeah, I think I can do that. Is there any specific procedures to follow?"

"Here's my number, Mr. Burnett. If any new information about him turns up, you know where to contact me." Agent Williams said, holding out a small white business card. Vince took it and looked at the phone number. It read (843) 797-8360. He looked back up at Agent Williams and nodded. "Yeah, sure, I can help."

"Thank you for your cooperation Mr. Burnett. We look forward to hearing from you in the future." Agent Williams concluded. The three men turned, and exited the office, walking toward the stairs. Vince looked back at the card for a moment and looked back to the three Agents. He called after them.

"What If something about the Matrix turns up?"

The three Agents froze in their steps. Vince's eyebrows raised, he took this in as if he just said something that was very insulting to them, and this now was the reaction. They all looked back in his direction. He narrowed his eyes and frowned slightly as though to analyze their reactions.

"The what?" Agent Williams asked.

"The Matrix...at the last known location Lancaster and Irvine were known to be at, I found this card that said 'The Matrix Has You', and we figured Irvine was linked to it. What should I do if anything about the Matrix turns up again?"

They looked at each other like they were deciding what to do about this. Agent Davis's right hand came to his right hand ear over his ear piece. Then, he looked over to Agent Williams and Agent Miller and nodded. Miller looked to Williams.

"He's planning another unplugging."

"He will be back."

"We can use this to finally get him."

Vince watched and listened to this and thought Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about the Matrix..sounds like they've been looking for him for a while too though.

Agent Willaims looked back over to Vince. "Mr. Burnett, would you please come take a ride with us?"

"Um.." Vince manged to get out, as he tried to think of a reason to not to go. He looked at his computer. He'd finished the report. The only idea he could think of was Howard. "I just have to let my boss know."

"He's already aware that you may be stepping out with us. It will only be brief."

Vince's eyes shifted from Agent to Agent and he stayed silent for a moment. They stared back at him through their sunglasses. It didn't really seem like he had a choice. "Yeah, sure. Let's go."

Agent Davis lead the way, followed by Agent Williams, Vince, and then Agent Miller. They made their way downstairs and towards the exit. Vince looked towards the front desk where Simpson would be, but he wasn't there. Where'd Simpson go? Must be on a *CENSORED* break.

Eventually they made their way outside and into a black sedan parked in front of the precinct. Vince and Agent Williams climbed into the back, while Agent Davis drove and Agent Miller sat in the front seat. They pulled away slowly and drove down the street at a regular speed. Vince looked around the car and out of the windows, seeing familiar buildings he would pass on the way to work, only this time in the reverse order. He looked over to the Agents. They all were looking forward with their hands in their lap, except for Davis, who was driving with his hands at ten and two.

Things were too quiet. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"It's nothing to be concerned of. We're almost there." Agent Miller answered. A

bout ten minutes passed, and they drove into an underground parking lot. They parked on a level that had a moderate amount of cars in it, Vince observed. The ignition was turned off. "Please step out of the car," Agent Williams said, and the three men exited the car. After seeing all of their doors opened and noting the fact that they all were moving out of the car at the same time, he opened his door and stepped out, closing it behind him. Miller and Williams made their way around to the side of the car Davis and Vince were on, and then they all stood in front of Vince, like they were cornering him. Davis was to his right, Miller to the left, and Williams in the center. Noticing that they were moving toward him and that he was stepping backwards, he got concerned.

"Hey, guys. What are you doing?" Then things got rough.

Davis and Miller violently shoved him at his shoulders and sent him back, hitting up against the car door. "Hey, what the *CENSORED* are you--" he managed to get out, but was cut off when Davis grabbed his face and his right arm and held him against the car. He turned his head so that the right side faced out to the Agents, and got a tight grip, configuring his fingers in a manner so Vince couldn't open his mouth enough to get any noise out at a significant volume. Miller grabbed his left arm and held it up against the car with the same painfully tight grip. Twitching under their hold, Vince couldn't move. Williams pulled out from the pocket inside of his jacket a small silver box and opened it, pulling out of it a small dark gray object that was two inches long.

"We apologize for the procedure, Mr. Burnett. But in the end, you'll be doing us a favor."

Looking as far right as he possibly could, Vince saw Williams push a small button on the object. A red light lit up, and he thought it saw it shake at first. Then, many little spike like objects broke out from the sides of the object, and they too began to move, and it all together started squirming. It looked like a small robotic centipede. Williams held it out and moved it closer to Vince's head. He started moving about, trying to escape, but to no avail, his efforts were futile. He tried to scream but could only let out a low grumble. Williams held the centipede over his right ear, and let go. Vince felt it drop into his ear and begin to squirm and wiggle it's way inside of his head. He started to freak out, moving and kicking violently and putting out as loud of a noise he could muster.

He screamed out loud as he jumped up in his bed. Cheryl jumped up next to him, scared out of her sleep. Vince sat there with no shirt on, and the rest of his body covered by the comforter. In a cold sweat, he panted for air as if he was holding his breath under the water for too long. He looked around the room frantically, trying to place himself, letting out small yells as he calmed down, each more quiet than the one before it until it reduced to a heavy breathing. Cheryl came to him and put her arms around him. She ran her right hand through his hair and placed her left hand on his chest.

"Vince! Vince, are you alright?"

"Wh-what...where, where am I?"

"Vince, it's me Cheryl, you were having a bad dream. You're here, home in bed."

"..Huh? A dream? No, I..I was at work, and the three guys, the feds, Williams, and Davis, and Miller. They put some thing in my ear, and.."

"No no, you're fine. You scared the *poop* out me."

His senses came back to him, he felt her bare breasts upon his left arm. He looked down to them, and then up into her eyes. Still breathing heavily, he looked over to the alarm clock beside his bed. It said 10:36. He frowned. "10:36? It was about a quarter to five when I left the office. When did I get home?"

"You came home around eight o'clock and said you were tired and we went to bed."

"Eight? What?" He couldn't remember walking in. "What did we do?"

"Well, we didn't go to sleep right away." She said in an implying tone. He raised his eyebrows. He didn't remember any sex either. Giving up, he shook his head. "It must have been a bad dream. Realistic to say the least, huh? You almost set off all the car alarms on the block." She said in a kidding voice.

"Have you ever had a dream where you couldn't tell if you were awake or in bed dreaming the whole thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, it seems real, like this, right now, but you can't tell if you're dreaming or not. Kind of like when you have dreams and realize something was wrong and you were only in bed dreaming it up but you couldn't tell which one was a dream or not."

"Nope, never. You crazy head." She kissed his head on his temple and got up out of the bed. He looked over to her. Bare *CENSORED* naked he registered. "Where are you going?" He asked. "To get a drink," she answered. He decided he had to use the bathroom. He moved his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, realized he was naked too. Hm. He stood up and walked down the hallway into the bathroom. Standing over the toilet, he began to *CENSORED* and sighed, feeling exhausted and tired. He looked into the mirror at his reflection. He looked tired, he could tell in the way his eyes looked. When he finished, he stepped over to the right and rinsed his hands in some warm water.

As he stepped out, in the corner of his eye, he saw the mirror, and in the mirror, he saw his left ear, and it reminded him of his dream. He stepped back into the bathroom and leaned over the counter. Leaning forward, he turned his head so the right side faced the mirror, enough so he could still see when he shifted his eyes as far right as possible. He tilted his head in several directions in the light, looking for anything unnatural, like scars, or a cut, or a tiny mechanic centipede. Sighing after finding nothing, he shook his head, and turned the light off. Walking back out into the hallway, he went back into the room and saw Cheryl waiting for him in the bed. "Hey tough guy," she greeted him with. "Hi babe," he mumbled as he walked around to his dresser. He started taking out clothes and getting dressed.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I gotta go take care of something work related."

She sighed. "All you do is think of work," she claimed.

"Go to sleep," he answered. "You expect me to track down a nightclub owner during the daytime?"

----

 (Continued in next post)

(Chapter 3 continued) 

11:14PM

Since he didn't want to waste time brewing up coffee as a stimulant, Vince popped a caffeine pill once he got into his car and drove off. Tonight, his destination was Guiness Lake, in the Barrens District. He had a few questions for Indigo, the man who ran the joint at Club Dante, where he always liked to hang around. Vince had gone to him a few times in the past for information, and he needed his help with that again.

Westview, as the Barrens were formally known, was by no means as good looking as its actual name sounded, hence its new nickname. While the Slums District Vince was in the other day had a dirty, run down and dilapidated look of Urban decay to it, it was suddenly of admirable quality when compared to the Barrens. Regardless of this, people still lived and spent time there. An average person would wonder why, but Vince knew that the type of activity that went down in the Barrens, especially this late at night, was no cleaner that the area was. This was why he was paying Indigo a visit, because he had a good feeling Indigo would know about this new red pill substance that had come up.

Parallel parking the sidewalk opposite the club's front entrance, Vince switched off the ignition and opened the door. Before he got up out of the car though, he checked his pistol, making sure it had a full magazine with an additional round in the chamber, as usual. He'd never had to pull a gun on Indigo or threaten him before, having a well established undercover identity. However, the local gang in Guiness Lake, calling itself "The King's Men," has a persistent presence in the club and the entire Guiness Lake area. They protected the place and acted as Indigo's muscle, among other things Vince didn't have much trouble imagining. He stepped up out of his car, and closed the door, neglecting to lock it. If someone wanted to steal it, they would anyway.

He stepped up to the front door and waited as the Bouncer gave him the once-over. One of the most important things about going undercover was dressing like you weren't a cop. Vince did this in style, managing to look good no matter what the occasion or the disguise. The Bouncer nodded in acknowledgment.

"Been a while, Janus," he said in a deep, albeit greeting tone.

"Time's not something I have a lot of these days."

"You're not the only one. I've seen some nice ones walk in tonight, you'll have a nice selection," the Bouncer said with a grin.

Janus cut to the chase. "I gotta talk to Indigo."

Suddenly the Bouncer was all business. "What about?"

"Business as usual, what else?"

The Bouncer considered it. After a moment, he pulled a radio from his waistband, motioning to a fellow member of the King's Men to guard the door.

"Janus is here to see Indigo, says he's gotta talk." A few seconds passed while the Bouncer waited for the answer.

"Send him in," said an anonymous voice over the radio. The Bouncer nodded, and stepped aside. "He's in the back."

Janus, as he was known in these circles, nodded and walked inside. It was his undercover alias when dealing with these types of characters. He found irony in the alias he'd chosen, being that Janus was a god with two faces, and that was the same situation this Janus was in. One of these faces was Vince, the Mega City PD Narcotics Unit Detective. The other, his underground alter-ego, Janus. Although this was an undercover thing, he had to admit to himself that he let the lines blur sometimes. He enjoyed it. As Janus, he felt like he was free, free from the systematic routine that ruled everyone's daily lives.

Inside, the club was dark as any nightclub would be, with flashing strobes creating all sorts of different light pattern designs all over the place. Along with this, the techno music, and the pounding bass to go along with it. It seemed like the only sort of music you'd hear in this city's clubs, but Janus didn't let it get to him. He just blended in, something he considered himself good at. As if on instinct, his eyes scanned the club and all of its patrons, trying to assess any immediate threat. Right away he could pick out the gang members of The King's Men, posted all over the club and noticeable. It was obvious that they did a better job at deterring trouble makers when they were seen rather than being subtle.

He directed his eyes to the back of the club near the VIP sections, and it was almost as if Indigo was waiting for Janus to see him, because when he saw Indigo, he was looking right at him. Decked out in an outfit that was black and charcoal grey in color, he would have been nearly invisible in the darkness. However, the beanie cap he wore on his head was what made him distinguishable, something he was always seen wearing. Of course, this all was complimentary to the chilling stare on his face. When Indigo realized Janus had recognized him, suddenly his facial expression changed to seeing someone he was fond of, but not necessarily someone he missed. Upon waving him over, Janus cut through the crowd and made it over to his table.

"Well well, Janus, you finally show your face around here after how long? Doesn't matter, have a seat."

Janus knew the warm welcome was total bull, but he sat down and acted like he was happy to be there regardless. As far as Indigo knew, Janus was a man who knew things as good as he did, so their network of traded information was mutually-dependable one.

"So, to what do I owe the occasion?" Indigo inquired. He took a puff of his cigar, which Janus registered was strawberry flavored. Curled up next to him was one of the nice selection of ladies the Bouncer had mentioned earlier. Janus looked over Indigo's attire once more.

"You know, I would have expected you to wear something with a little purple in it, since you go by the name."

"Haha, what are you here for Janus, to give me fashion tips or talk matters? Besides, you're confused, it's my sister Violet that wears the color all the time."

Janus nodded with a grin. "Right, right. Anyway, speaking of all this color bull****," Janus began, a remark which made Indigo almost imperceptibly narrow his eyes as though he'd been insulted-- something Janus intended for, "There's a new drug being passed around that I don't know a source for. It's called 'the red pill,' you heard anything about it? Know where it's from, anything like that?"

Indigo seemed surprised at the mention of it, his eyebrows raising at the mere mention of the pill. Like Janus had reminded Indigo of something he knew very much about that hadn't crossed his mind in a while.

"The red pill, eh? Where'd this come up?"

Janus didn't like the way he'd put emphasis on the word red, but he didn't show it. "A friend of mine disappeared, and when I looked into it, it turned out that someone else was behind it. Said he'd give him the red pill."

"Is that right? Who's the other guy?"

"A guy who calls himself Irvine."

The look of familiarity on Indigo's face was so noticeable it was like shining a flashlight in someone's face. Janus knew he was onto something. Indigo sat there, pondering, but not saying anything just yet.

"Indigo," Janus called to him, trying to break him out of his trance. He snapped out of it and turned his attention to Janus. "Why did you say 'red' like that?"

Indigo grinned. "Cause the red pill's only half the bargain. There's also the blue pill."

The *blue* pill?! Janus thought to himself. *CENSORED*, this is bigger than we thought. Indigo cut in on his silent consideration, as though he knew what was going through Janus' head.

"You said Irvine offered your friend the red pill? That's why he disappeared. The blue pill is for people that want to stay behind."

The look on Janus' face had what-the-*CENSORED* written all over it. Indigo seemed amused.

"Not to worry though," he continued. "You don't give a *CENSORED* about what the pills do, you want to get in touch with the guy who's giving them out, correct?"

Janus nodded. Indigo was good for things like this. Through his large colorful family, he knew a lot of people.

"Yeah, I wanna see this guy. Can you set something up?"

"Oh, sure. I just need to make a few calls. Of course, there's the incentive I need to consider..."

"Yeah, you're worried about what you're getting out of it, I know." He reached into his jacket to grab something out, and a nearby King's Men member thought he was going for a weapon. When he moved in, Janus gave him a stare as he pulled out a small envelope, causing the gang member to stop in his tracks. It earned him a scolding look from Indigo, who motioned for him to get back in place with a simple tilt of his head. Janus placed the envelope down on the table before Indigo, who looked at it with curiosity.

"Inside the envelope you'll find some details on your father's agenda for the next week or so. Where he'll be, what he'll be up to, and when."

Indigo took the envelope with a smile, and nodded with a look of approval towards Janus. "Very good, you know what turns me on Janus. You'll get a call soon. Til next time."

"Right, thanks Indigo. Catch you later."

With that, Janus nodded to his host, got up from his seat, and made his way for the exit. When he stepped out, the Bouncer looked over at him as though he was wondering why that meeting went so fast. Janus smirked with a smart-*CENSORED* smile. "Business as usual."

The Bouncer shrugged, and got back to his guard duty as Janus stepped into his car, turned on the ignition, and drove off.

"Nice work," he said as he looked at himself in the rear view mirror. "One step closer to Irvine."

----

12-8-03

2:13PM

MCPD

Vince sat at his desk in his office again. He'd quit thinking of his dream experience and more about what it was that apparently got him into that situation: the Matrix. Accessing the FBI's database, since nothing could be found in the precinct's, he entered 'the Matrix' into the search field. The results that came up were interesting, enough to cause his eyebrows to raise. They were almost scary. All cases and information with any mention of the term 'the Matrix' were all missing persons cases, the evidence of such mention of the Matrix found at the site of supposed kidnapping. None of them mentioned Irvine though. He tapped his fingers on his desk. Obviously, whatever this Matrix was, it was all related to people that turned up missing. Where did they go? He sat back at his chair and looked over at the shelves with all the binders on them and noticed a dictionary. He arched a brow, and pushed over in his swivel chair, grabbed the dictionary from the shelf, and rolled back over to his desk. Flipping through the pages, he looked up the word Matrix and read the following:

"ma·trix or ma·trix·es

A situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained: "Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every form of freedom" (Benjamin N. Cardozo).

The womb.

Anatomy.

The formative cells or tissue of a fingernail, toenail, or tooth.

See ground substance.

Geology.

The solid matter in which a fossil or crystal is embedded.

Ground mass.

A mold or die.

The principal metal in an alloy, as the iron in steel.

A binding substance, as cement in concrete.

Mathematics. A rectangular array of numeric or algebraic quantities subject to mathematical operations.

Something resembling such an array, as in the regular formation of elements into columns and rows.

Computer Science. The network of intersections between input and output leads in a computer, functioning as an encoder or a decoder.

Printing.

A mold used in stereotyping and designed to receive positive impressions of type or illustrations from which metal plates can be cast. Also called mat2.

A metal plate used for casting typefaces.

An electroplated impression of a phonograph record used to make duplicate records."

Shaking his head, he couldn't make any sense of it. He put down the dictionary and asked himself again, What is the Matrix? His phone rang. He picked it up and put it up to his ear.

"Detective Vince Burnett."

"Is this Janus?" A mysterious voice asked over the phone. He recognized the voice. However, he wasn't sure.

"Who is this?"

"You already know who I am, Janus. You wanted to meet?"

"Irvine."

"Yeah. You must be saying to yourself, 'I finally come into contact with this bastard', hm? You've been searching for me for over a year now."

Vince looked over to Howard's office, and all around the floor, looking for someone to help him get a trace on Irvine's location. "How'd you get this number?"

"Don't bother trying to record and trace this phone call, you won't find me. I'm far beyond your reach, but if things turn out right, it won't stay that way for too much longer."

He looked around, trying to see if anyone was watching him and pranking his phone. Seeing no one, he went over to his window and looked out. Hundreds of windows from dozens of buildings. He could be anywhere.

"I'm not outside either. The question of why or how I can see what you're doing, or how I know your 'real' name is probably driving you crazy, but we both know that there's another question driving you even more crazy."

"What?"

"You know what the question is, Janus. But you've been bugged, and that unfortunately cuts our time short. I'll be in touch."

"But wait a minute!"

"I can't afford to, always been short on time to begin with."

The line went dead. He took the phone from his head and looked at it before placing it back upon the receiver. He sat back in his chair and tried to make sense of what just happened. He'd actually spoken to the guy, who somehow knew exactly what he was doing and thinking. He didn't get it. What the *CENSORED* was that?

----

Chapter 4: You never see it coming

12-8-03

5:30PM

MCPD

Without realizing that he was staring at the floor in his deep thought, Vince knew Indigo came through. Soon. He shook his head. Now he knew he was out there, but he hadn't the slightest idea as to where. He looked back up at his computer monitor and saw the search results and remembered what he was doing before he had gotten the phone call. Finding out what the Matrix was. He looked over out the window across the floor to Howard's office again. How many times have I looked over there in the past few days? He got up out of his chair and exited his office and went over and knocked on the Howard's door and was greeted with an immediate "Come in". He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Howard looked up from whatever it was he was doing at the moment and blinked as he took a moment to see who came in. "Whatcha got, Vince?" he asked. He seems calm.

"I just did a search on the FBI's database for the Matrix. Every case that came up was related by one specific factor other than mention of the Matrix."

"Yeah? What, what is it?"

"They're all missing persons cases. Every single one."

"This looks like it's deeper than just one guy who fell off the face of the earth with a drug dealer. Something's not right here."

"You have any suggestions?"

"Well you said all of the cases related to the term Matrix were all filed as missing persons cases. Obviously your friend isn't the only one doing all of the disappearing acts, so there's more like him out there, meaning that going after one guy might be a waste of time."

"A waste of time? People are disappearing and leaving no trace as to where they go and all we get to do is play around with our thumbs up our asses trying to figure out what the Matrix is."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, this isn't any walk in the park it's been happening all over the place it seems. Okay then, listen. You're in charge of this now."

"What do you mean I'm in charge of it?"

"The whole missing persons thing with the Matrix, I want you to lead the case."

"I'm a narc, I don't work in missing persons why don't you hand it over to them?"

"Because this Irvine guy is still in your hands and you've got a lead now."

Vince sighed. His facial expression became that of one who was concerned or worried about something else other than the situation at hand, as he thought about Irvine's phone call once again.

"What's the matter with you?"

He snapped out of it. "Wha-Oh, nothing, I'm fine. Yeah, I'll see what I can do with this. If I don't find anything you'll be the first to know about it."

"Do whatever you gotta do to find out where these people are going, who Irvine is, and what the Matrix is. Find out by any means necessary."

"Alright." Vince looked at the clock. It was 5:50. His shift ended at 6:00. "Hey I'm gonna get outta here okay?"

"What? Oh, yea, that's fine, see you tomorrow." said Howard, already putting his attention toward something else on his desk. He was busy in paperwork. Vince stepped out and went back into his office. He turned off his computer, and as he walked out of his office, he shut the door behind him and locked it. After he made it downstairs and went outside, he began walking over to his car. He reached into his pocket for his keys, and then his cell phone rang. He took it out and flipped it open.

"Hello?"

"I did say I would contact you soon."

Vince had a double take. "Irvine!!"

"You sound excited. And now it looks as if you're searching for me more now than you ever have in the past."

"How long have you been watching me?"

"Questions, questions. That's irrelevant."

"Questions?! You act like you think I'd have none!"

"Well, I did know you would have questions, and you'll have more soon, but I was looking for something more specific. I hear you're interested in the red pill."

I know what he wants to hear.

"Yeah. What is the Matrix?"

"Aha. Now we have progress."

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you what it is. You have to see it for yourself."

"What?"

"The Matrix is pervasive, it's all around you. You're staring at it as we speak. It's right under your nose. You've been living these past 29 years oblivious to its existence. It has you Janus. I can help you escape, but only if you want me to."

Vince considered this. Help me escape..?

"So where's this meeting going to take place?"

"Are you sure you're ready for the truth? I think you are, but I won't force you to do this."

"I'm sure."

"We'll meet tonight at 1:00. In Kedemoth there is a nightclub called Club Duality. I found it appropriate, don't you? I'll be inside. Until then, keep dreaming."

Irvine had hung up the phone before Vince could ask another question. He looked at his phone, and thought about what he said. He looked down the street as he put his phone in his pocket. He turned his head and looked in the opposite direction. He looked at the buildings in front of him, the cars parked alongside the street, and then all around him. Nothing seemed at all strange. Pervasive? He shrugged and moved to climb into his car, started the ignition, and drove off.

----

6:00PM

When he got out of the car, he slammed the door shut, but in the process, dropped his keys. When he kneeled down to pick him up, he thought he saw someone standing on the street corner in the corner of his eye. Maybe he's waiting to cross the street. After picking up his keys, he stood up and turned his head toward the person standing there. In a second, he scanned the man from head to toe. Black suit, white shirt, tie, glasses. Staring at him. Williams?! He had a double take. Then, a group of people walked in front of the man who was supposedly Agent Williams. When they'd passed by, he was gone. Vince looked in the direction he stood for a moment and shook his head. Just a dream... just a dream. He turned and crossed the street, and then walked up the steps to the apartment complex lobby and stepped inside. Down the block on the sidewalk on Vince's side of the street this time rather than the opposite stood Agent Williams, watching silently. A couple passed him by, and when he saw Vince make it inside the building, his right hand went up to the ear plug. He took a moment, registering whatever instructions it was that was coming over the link.

"Subject is inside home. Irvine nowhere in proximity. We will continue to watch Mr. Burnett until further instructions are received."

With that, he turned and walked away down the street, amidst every other non suspecting person.

----

1:00AM

Kedemoth

Pulling up in front of Club Duality, turning the engine off, and checking his gun all seemed like Deja-vu to Vince. He'd only just done this the night before, and although he was in a different area of the city, it didn't matter. The same setup. Meet in the club, discuss business, see where it goes. But unlike his meeting with Indigo, this wasn't for information. This was it. The break in the case, meeting the man he'd been searching for for a year now. He shook his head. Vince was going to sit this one out. Game time.

He had parked down the street from the club's front entrance, so he began walking down the sidewalk toward the place. It was crowded, but it didn't get to him. He noticed someone walk up alongside him to his right, dressed in rather outlandish fashion that seemed cool for being so out of the ordinary. He thought nothing of it until he saw another one in front of him, walking in his direction. Instinctively, he looked down to his side and noticed someone was also behind him, and didn't have to think twice about the person on his left. Not only were these people following him, they had him boxed in. He knew something was up, but he also knew they did too, based on their configuration. They had the drop on him, it seemed.

"Janus," the one on his right spoke. "Stay silent. Don't turn your head to look at any of us, focus on the sidewalk and just keep walking straight," he said. "We're what you might call friends of Irvine. We're taking you to him."

"We know you're armed," the one in front of him said. "So don't try anything funny. This is for our protection. Once we get you inside the club, head to the back. Irvine will be waiting for you there."

In his silent compliance, Janus offered no argument. They approached the door, and the man in front of this escort squadron presented some sort of card to the Bouncer. Upon examining it, he handed it back and stepped aside, allowing the group entry. Once inside, flashing strobe and laser lights pierced the darkness, with smoke machines doing their thing. Along with this, the fast paced, booming, almost hypnotic techno music.

"Rise FM, broadcasting LIVE from Club Duality! The 24/7, 365, off the hook stay up FOREVER party venue! WE MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE," the DJ yelled into his microphone, drawing loud cheers from those on the dance floor.

One of the escorts nudged Janus with his elbow, so he turned to look.

"He's in the back, behind the doors. Be careful in here, there's a lot of exiles in the joint."

"Exiles?"

The man smiled behind his sunglasses, something Janus thought strange for him to be wearing in this dark club.

"Never mind about that for now. Maybe we'll see you around again," the stranger said, before disappearing into the crowd. Janus pondered for a second, after realizing the rest of the team escorting him had also fell out of sight. Now alone, he turned and looked toward the doorway Irvine was supposed to be waiting behind. Wasting no time, he went straight to them, a set of tinted glass doors that you couldn't see through, like windows on a limousine. He pushed them upon and stepped inside. And the greeting he received wasn't what he expected.

(Chapter 4 continued)

Irvine stood in the center of the room with his arms crossed. He wore a simple three piece black suit, the jacket of which was knee length. His shirt underneath was red wine colored, with a matching tie. He grinned upon Janus' entry. "You finally showed up."

Besides Irvine, there were four other people waiting there with him. Three of them had guns pointed at Janus. He stood wide eyed looking at each of them trying to figure out what he'd just gotten himself into. One of these people was a black man that was maybe an inch taller than Vince was. He had a mustache, and sunglasses covering his eyes like the rest of them. His hair was short cut, almost like a soldier's would be but with the curled hair of a black man. He wore a leather ankle length trench coat. Under this was a black bullet proof vest made with leather covering the kevlar, and under that, what could be a black long or short sleeve shirt. He wore a generic pair of black pants that looked like they were made of denim and were slightly baggy, and pair of boots that looked like they were made from the Lugz company. He noticed a cylindric silver and black colored sword hilt that obviously belong to a sword coming up behind his head, strapped on his back. Black gloves covered his hands. But what Janus took major note of was the MP5-K with a 15 round clip that he had pointed in his face. He looked from the barrel of the gun, to the black guy's face. He had no facial expression.

Janus then looked to the next one. A female of oriental descent who was petite in size. Her jet black hair was tied back into a long french braid that went down to her waist line. She wore a skin tight body suit made of black spandex, and it was all one piece for ease of motion. Her boots were also skin tight and they looked like they were a part of the body suit except you could tell it was thicker leather material. They were definitely feminine, made for quick and agile activity, and they went as high as her calf. Over this body suit she wore a small leather jacket. She had a Walther PPK chambered for .380ACP aimed right between his eyes. The sunglasses made her look as if she were a stone cold killer. If the shoe fits..

He looked onto the last person aiming a gun at him. Another female. This one was about an inch taller than Cheryl was. Her hair was red, and up in a ponytail. She wore a skintight red and black leather pants, and a black leather corset, over which she wore a red vest. She stared at him through her red-tinted sunglasses as she held a Beretta 85FS aimed at his face in her hand. She wore gloves over her hands with the fingers cut half way.

Then there was the last thug of Irvine's pack. This one seemed laid back, or not at all worried or concerned about Vince than the other three did. Unlike the others with black or dark brown hair, this man had slicked back platinum blonde hair. He had black sunglasses in his own style like the others did on his face, along with an observant expression.. He had a long, ankle length black coat on. Under the coat he wore a black dress shirt with a raised collar that stopped just under his jaw, and over this, a vest. Under the collar of the dress shirt he wore a dark violet tie. The coat itself had no buttons to hold it closed but instead there was a gold chain that was attached and fastened at about the same level as the middle of his chest. The vest itself had gold buttons rather than black. Instead of a gun, his weapon of choice was a Katana, which was approximately 29 inches long, encased in a black sheath with gold thread wrapped around the base. He wore black gloves on his hands. His pants were black dress pants, and he wore black dress shoes with them. Rather than being ready to kill Janus at the first sign, he had the sword at his front with his hands placed over the top of the hilt, as if it were a cane. This man was Anubis, the man known in the MCPD precinct as Daniel Lancaster.

Out gunned, and outnumbered, Janus knew he had no chance. "Alright. Alright," he said to signify his surrender. Removing his gun slowly from his jacket holster, he released the magazine from the gun and let it drop to the floor with a *CHANG*. He slowly brought his free hand up to the slide on his gun, and pulled it back, ejecting the last round from the chamber. It fell to the floor and bounced once before finally resting. Then he dropped the gun itself. However, the three people still had their guns pointed up at him. He looked over at Irvine.

"What's the deal?" He asked, raising his arms.

"You've been bugged, you're being watched. This is for the safety of everyone here. Kira,"

Vince arched a brow when Irvine said Kira, but then realized he was talking to one of the people holding a gun to him. The one wearing the black and red leather put her gun into the holster and stepped towards him. He turned to face her. She pulled a syringe like object out from her coat and Vince eyed it skeptically.

"What is that?"

"Don't move." She answered with a serious tone. She brought the syringe up to his right ear and pushed it in. He started to worry, and heard a loud whining noise. She pulled back on the "pump" part of the syringe and the next thing he knew it felt like someone jammed a Q-Tip into his ear and pulled it out. Slightly stunned, he put his hand up to to his ear and looked at the syringe. His eyes widened with horror. Inside the syringe, the metallic centipede that Agent Williams dropped into his ear in his "dream" squirmed around inside like a trapped animal until it seemingly died and was lifeless and still. Kira threw the syringe away. Vince's hand was still over his ear.

"That thing was real?!" he yelled out, looking to Kira for an answer. She said nothing and stared at him again. The others hadn't yet dropped their guns. Irvine put up his hand.

"Blade, Solitaire, please, put your weapons down. Our friend here is no longer a danger."

In the respective order their names were mentioned, Blade and Solitaire put their weapons away under their coats. They turned their heads toward Irvine, and he smiled.

"Now, Janus, time to get to business. You probably feel as if you've gotten yourself caught up into something you have no knowledge about, but strangely, it doesn't feel wrong, no?"

"..Yeah."

"When we last spoke you asked me what the Matrix was."

Janus nodded.

"Do you really want to know what it is?"

"Yes."

"You're lookin' at it."

A puzzled look came across Janus' face, to Irvine's amusement.

"The Matrix is all around you. Here, now. On the dance floor. Outside, all over the place. You see it everywhere. When you drive your car. When you go to the precinct. When you have sex with your girlfriend. I told you earlier, it's pervasive. You would never know of it's existence until now. It's a deception, leading you to believe that you're living a peaceful regular life in the early 21st century. Sometimes, you can sense it, like there's something big or important around the corner, but it never comes. This can change."

Janus knew this feeling Irvine was talking about, about feeling so close yet so far from something you knew was there but couldn't see or know in any way. It wasn't something he only experienced at work. It was a feeling he had for as long as he could remember.

"It can?"

"Yes, if you want it to. I'm giving you the option to get out of the Matrix, and free your mind. Either that, or you can stay here in the Matrix and live the same life you've been living every day where you wake up, go to work, come home, spend time with your girlfriend, go to sleep, and start it over again the next day."

Janus looked at him and thought it over. This talk of truth and another world wasn't something he expected. He was anticipating a drug exchange, but the things he said had effect. They summoned idle thought Janus had always had about this life and place, idle thoughts that were buried and pushed aside by the life his work put him into. Irvine could see he was considering his words.

"Have you ever felt like you dreaming, and couldn't tell if what you experienced was real?"

What is this guy a mind reader? Janus remembered his experience with the Agents, and how life after that seemed aloof. "All the time."

"Would you like to wake up and find out?"

Janus arched a brow. He had no idea where this was going. "...Yeah."

Irvine reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver case, and poured its contents into his hand.

"This is it Janus. You've been searching for me for a year, and here we are. Once we've reached this point, there is no going back."

Janus continued to pay attention. The pain in his ear was killing him.

"You said you wanted the red pill..." he began, and opened his hand to revealed to Janus both the red and blue pills Indigo had mentioned to him the night earlier.

"If you take it, everything will change. Everything you've known your whole life will be revealed for what it really is. There is no going back. If you take the blue pill, the road ends here. You wake up in your bed, as if this was another dream, and keep living your life as you have been, searching for that which you cannot find. Choose your destiny."

Janus stared at the pills. After a moment, he reached out and took the red pill from Irvine's palm. He noticed that Irvine and the rest of his crew had their eyes on him, including Lancaster. He couldn't not take the thing now, it wasn't like he could put it in his pocket, go home, and say "I'll get back to you." Without any other option, he gathered saliva in his mouth, placed the pill on his tongue, and swallowed.

"Just a moment," Irvine said. He took a cell phone out from the inside of his coat and pressed a release button, and the face shield snapped up. He pushed a button on the phone and brought it up to his ear. It rang and the person on the other end picked up.

"Operator."

"Glitch, are you tracking him?"

"We got him, we see where he is, we just have to wait for him to 'die'."

"Very funny. Is the exit ready?"

"It's all set-- what the..."

A look of concern came over Irvine's face upon hearing this. After seeing this, Janus, and the rest of Irvine's crew looked to him to see what the problem was.

"What's the matter?" Irvine asked.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! AGENTS AND SWAT ARE CONVERGING ON YOUR POSITION NOW!!" Glitch screamed.

Without further comment, Irvine closed his phone and looked to his team. "Agents and SWAT are inbound, we gotta move."

"A *blinking*' sting operation?! He set us up!" Blade said in disbelief as he moved for the door.

"No, they probably tracked him here without anyone realizing it. Get to the Kedemoth Central exit," Irvine said. He turned to Janus, who was trying to figure out what was happening. "Janus, this goes against procedure but we have no choice, get out of here as fast as you can. We'll come back for you." With that, he turned and hurried for the rear exit the rest of his team had already escaped through.

"What the *CENSORED*'s going on?!" Janus yelled after him in confusion. Then, from the inside of the club, he heard yelling. He turned to look out the tinted glass doors of the VIP room and saw a team of men dressed in tactical gear clearing out the club, and coming in through the doors after them were three men he immediately recognized: Agents Williams, Davis, and Miller.

"Oh *CENSORED*!" he exclaimed, before escaping out the rear entrance as well. Without taking time to look back, he ran as fast as he could down the street. Outside it was dark, cold, and it had started to rain. Irvine and his team were nowhere in sight. He felt fear and adrenaline pushing him to run faster, and he felt lighter on his feet. He didn't know where to run, just that he had to get away and hide. The fear of knowing someone was chasing you, and that you had to get away by any means necessary was no stranger to him. He'd had dreams of this all the time throughout his life, running to get away from someone chasing him, and pulling all sorts of stunts like jumping extremely far and high distances to do so. That was something he wished he could do now. He knew those three Agents weren't on his team or looking out for his best interest. They'd used him to find Irvine. But now that Irvine was apparently safe, the only thing Janus was worried about now was getting himself out alive, having never fully known was he was getting himself into. He blamed himself for being foolish and impulsive, and told himself he should have known better.

His throat was getting cold, and now about three blocks away from the club, he was running out of breath from breaking into a sporadic top speed run. He heard someone calling out behind him.

"There's no use running, Mr. Burnett. You're only making things more difficult."

No way! He thought in his mind. How had they already caught up with him? Did they even bother to check through everyone else in the club? How did they manage to cover this distance so quickly? It wasn't possible, he told himself. Nevertheless, he continued to run, into the night, and the uncertain darkness that was ahead. He twisted down alley ways, hopped over fences, ran through moving traffic. He was feeling tired. His vision was getting blurry. He didn't understand why, until finally he remembered the red pill. What the hell was it anyway? Janus had no idea what kind of narcotic it was supposed to be, because right now it was giving off the effects of a large dosage of sleeping medication. By now he'd ran into the Moriah Projects area, and was crossing over a metal bridge that went over water. Ahead, suddenly, it seemed as though the bridge had vanished and a cyclone opened in the water, into which he was being sucked in like a vacuum. Was this some hallucination side effect the red pill? This is the Matrix? He felt his balance go, and he started to fall down forward. He blacked out.

----

(Chapter 4 concluded -- didn't realize it was this long!)

An hour had passed since Irvine and his crew had jacked out of the Matrix. They had to take emergency protocol procedures and drop from broadcast depth, and then locate a new place to hide the ship. It was either that, or sentinels would have came and destroyed them all. Now, the team was hunched over and crowded around the construct display monitors, watching.

"What's going on?" Kira asked, trying to read the screen.

"Looks like they're in the middle of refreshing the Matrix. All the code is renewing itself and starting it over, I'm seeing glitches and changes all over the place," Glitch said.

"Where's Janus?" Irvine asked. "Did they get him?"

"Hold on, lemme trace his signal. Hopefully the red pill didn't cut him off or cause him to wake up, or else he's dead," Glitch said as he banged away at the keys. After a short period of lag, he finally located Janus. "There he is. Looks like he's asleep in his bed. I guess they relocated him."

"He must have passed out," Solitaire added.

"Wait, wait a minute. Look," Irvine pointed out.

Glitch watched, and then a look of confusion washed over his face. "He's... moving? That's impossible."

"Why is that impossible?" Anubis asked.

"Because when the machines give the Matrix a refresh they're just cleaning out all the small glitches or sectors that display bugs. During this time, all bluepills are put to sleep."

"Put to sleep?"

"They can't wake up, they're put into a state of mind where it's like they're asleep in bed having a regular dream."

"How do the machines fabricate the dream?"

"It's a playback composed of whatever you did for the last 24 hours before the refresh."

"So what's the big deal?"

"Our friend here has somehow awoken during the refresh period, he shouldn't have been able to do that. It's like waking yourself up out of the Matrix."

"So he's sleepwalking..." Kira concluded.

"I guess so. Still, I don't know he managed to pull it off." Glitch said.

"We've gotta go in and get him." Irvine said. His words were like two cymbals being smashed together during a moment of silence. His crew looked at him.

"What are you nuts? That's never been attempted, ever." Blade said. "We could die in the process, we don't know how stable the uplink is."

"The uplink is going to be fine."

"How do you know!?" Blade returned.

"He's still alive. And if we intend to keep him that way, we've gotta go get him before Agents kill him."

"Uh, Captain," Glitch said. "I don't know if you know, or care, but our computers on this ship have been all *CENSORED* up recently. Either the hardware's screwed up and we need repairs or we need a firmware update, but they just haven't been cooperating. So if they cut out while you're in there, well..."

"Just shut up and jack me in already."

"Will do, Sir."

----

Janus stumbled around. He didn't know what was happening to him. His vision was blurry. He saw the hallway and his hands in front of him extended forward as though he could see through a vertigo effect, but he didn't feel his body moving forward. He felt like he was drunk and delirious at the same time. He could see what he was doing but he felt as though he had no control. The air in his lungs tasted like it was coming out of an air conditioner, but he couldn't feel any air in the atmosphere at all.

Where... where am I...? What's going on?

He made it outside of his apartment, by some virtue of not falling down the stairs on the way down. He tried to look around and take in his surroundings. All he saw was darkness, all around. Not a pitch black darkness, but the light was very dim, like walking around in the middle of the night. Cars on the road weren't moving, as though they were stuck in traffic. No people were around.

Where the hell is everybody? Why can't I move right?

Now, he was walking in the middle of the street, and noticed something he didn't seem to have caught onto.

What's that...?

It looked as though spots of reality were dissolving, revealing green strands of shapes, running over the surface of every single thing he could see. The shapes were changing every second.

What the hell is going on?!

And then, he heard a voice. It was behind him. His head felt like it was spinning as he tried to turn around.

"Janus. Come to me. It's safe."

That's Irvine's voice...

Before him, he saw Irvine. His vision began to get more blurry. He felt like he was staggering forward.

"Irvine.. what's happening...?"

"It's all a dream, Janus. And the whole world is in it."

"A dream..?"

"Come to me Janus, this way."

Irvine went to Janus and slung his arm over his shoulder to help him along. What he saw was odd. Everything in the Matrix looked as it should, but along with the darkness, everything was blurring as though he had slight double vision, and he noticed that there were patches of coding all over, giving the world a decayed look. No doubt that it was part of the repair process, with code renewing itself. It made things difficult to see, but it was easy for him to move around and find his way.

Janus had no balance however. He was still disoriented from the effects of the red pill. Finally, they reached the same phone booth exit Irvine used to get in. Lucky for him it was just around the sidewalk from Janus' location. He put Janus into the phone booth.

"I hope this thing rings..." Irvine said to himself. The phone rang with a noisy echo effect added to it. For a moment, Irvine worried an Agent might show up, but he remembered how all the bluepills were in a sort of stasis mode, this preventing an Agent program from entering someone's body. He picked up the phone and held it to Janus' ear.

"Irvi--..." Janus disappeared.

Catch you in the real, comrade, Irvine thought to himself.

----

Janus shook as if he was scared out of his sleep from his leg falling off the side of the bed. The world was just a dream...?

Something felt... wrong.

He looked down in front of him and saw his hands. Everything was red. There were tubes. He was confused. He saw a flash of light above and raised his hands toward it. He pushed up at what felt like some sort of sheet of jello. It stretched, and he put all of his effort into trying to break out of it, but all of his strength had left him. Finally, he broke out from the womb that held him in and sat up and leaned forward. There was some sort of a hose attached to his face. He pulled it off and he took a deep breath but fell forward with the weight of the tube and accidentally inhaled some of the red goo and closed his eyes. He began to cough and leaned over whatever it was he was sitting in the get it out of his mouth so he could breath.

He opened his eyes and his vision came into focus. He saw hundreds of thousands of red pods with people sleeping in them. He looked to his left and to his right. More naked bodies with tubes attached to them, each in an individual pod of red fluid. He looked down at himself. The tubes were attached to him to. And suddenly, as he looked in front of him and upwards to see colossal towers lined with millions of the pods, he realized that he wasn't dreaming anymore. He felt awake.

This is real...?

Lighting struck in the sky, the flash of light hurting his eyes. Static shocks burst randomly in between pods everywhere. The sky was black, charred, as if it were burnt. He looked down below and saw no floor.

Where am I....Where's Irvine?

He turned his head to look around but felt something holding his head back. He reached behind slowly and felt a large cable plugged into his head.

What..

Suddenly, a large machine rose up in front of him and extended four large legs from his body. It scared the hell out of Janus, he had never seen anything like it before. Then, it released a huge arm that was strangling him by his throat. A camera eye extended forward as if it were examining him. The plug in the back of his head detached it self and it felt like someone scratching nails on a chalk board. As a result of this feeling combined with fear, he began to twitch furiously. When the cable fell out, the machine let go and flew away.

Janus braced himself on his pod trying to breath. Then suddenly every other tube on his body had burst off, and it hurt, it felt like being shot, and he moved and jolted about as if that was happening to him. Then, something else happened. His pod drained, and he was sliding down some sort of a chute. He had no control. Nothing to grab onto. He was just falling.

Finally he was shot out of this chute and ejected into a pool of murky water. He tried to swim, but he couldn't. There was a bright light above. He reached for it as his muscles tired out, and he could no longer keep himself up. He began to sink, but a large crane came down from the light above and grabbed him just as his hand was about to go under. It reeled him up into the light, and then he heard a loud slam behind him as if something shut.

He could barely see. He was in some sort of a room. There was a blue tint everywhere. Someone was carrying him. Whoever it was had set him so all could see them. Then he saw them all: Irvine, Blade, Anubis, Solitaire, Kira, and two others he did not know. They were no longer dressed in black. Irvine came over him and spoke gently.

"Welcome to the Real World, Janus."

His vision and hearing blurred. He was cold. He passed out and fell once again into an abyss of darkness.

----

Chapter 5: A Pirate's life for me

Date: Unknown

Time: Unknown

Area: Tunnels of the Real

Janus lay on a table, completely bare except for the cloth covering his groin. The table was lined with white fluorescent light bulbs, giving off bright white light. The part Janus was laying on was covered by a thin white sheet. Small antennae were attached to each side of his head at his temples. In the time that passed, his eyebrows and eyelashes had grown in, with only a little bit of the hair on his head apparent. His head rested on a pillow. Irvine, Anubis, Kira, and another man all stood around the table watching over him.

Rather than their crafty black clothing they were wore when Janus first ran into them, they were now all dressed in rag like clothing. Black combat boots covered all of their feet, and they wore combat pants in several dark shades.

Irvine was wearing dark blue pants and a white baggy, raggy shirt that looked like it was made of homespun cloth but now tarnished. His hair was more messy in appearance than it was in the Matrix. Anubis was dressed in a brown shirt with black pants, and had short blonde hair still growing in.

Kira dressed in a black tanktop and black pants, her hair as long as it appeared in the Matrix, but not as treated looking. There were black plugs visible on her arms placed every few inches.

The other man standing there looked to be of haitian decent. He wore an outfit of fatigues, a B.D.U. jacket with cut off sleeves and combat pants in a matching dark shade of olive green. Under his vest he wore a black t-shirt, and combat boots of the same color like the others. He wore black knuckle gloves on his hands. His dreadlocks were tied back under a black bandana, and the surplus cloth that made up the knot was nearly as long as the dreadlocks themselves, which ran down to the base of his neck.

This man's name was Marley, and he was a ship crew assistant like Glitch, the operator. When the others were jacked into the Matrix, he would help out Glitch while he was operating, and that included anything from unplugging the others from their chairs, or piloting the ship when the ship was under Sentinel attack & pursuit while Glitch worked as fast as he could to set up an exit to get the rest out of the Matrix ASAP. He'd also help when none of them were in the Matrix, like piloting the ship or manning a turret. Sometimes if Glitch was piloting, Marley would sit in as Operator himself. The room they all stood in was an infirmary.

A fluorescent light hung above the table. There were medical supplies and cabinets here and there, and some monitors and consoles displaying the readings being taken from the antennae on Janus' head, such as heart rate, brain waves, and other important conditions that would be monitored on a newborn. The floor was solid steel, as well as the bulkheads. Black conduits ran across the ceiling, as well as pipes and mainlines, with some wires on the floor as well. A small cart stood beside the table, on which was several medical tools.

Janus opened his eyes, barely, and he squinted. He couldn't look around much, but he saw the others standing over him. He recognized Irvine, but Anubis and Kira were out of his path of vision. Marley looked down and made eye contact when he noticed Janus had awakened. He tried to speak, and could only do so in a whisper.

"What's going on?"

"Relax buddy, we're rebuilding your muscles." Marley answered. "You got a while to go yet."

"Irvine? Where am I?"

"We'll explain everything to you later, Janus. Sleep for now."

His head barely moved, but it was Janus' effort to nod. He closed his eyes, and in a matter of seconds he fell back into sleep. Hours passed. Every so often, Janus' body would twitch as a result of his nerves reacting to the muscle rebuilding process.

Irvine looked over to Anubis and Kira and nodded, and they left the room to go elsewhere on the ship. As Marley and Irvine removed needles from his body they placed them into a small basin filled with a sterilizing fluid. Marley yawned and rubbed sweat from getting into his eyes, his forehead reflecting the fluorescent light. Irvine looked up to him and cracked his knuckles.

"We have a lot of work to do still," he said to him in an assuring tone.

Marley nodded and looked down at Janus, who was still asleep. "How much longer you think this is gonna take?"

"An hour or two maybe. The hard part's over. All we have to do is get the rest of these needles out, and then work on the plugs."

"The plugs..." Marley said in a mumble, as if he had something against them. Irvine raised a brow.

"What's the matter?"

"They look freaky."

Irvine gave him a look that said "Don't go there."

Marley chuckled and shook his head. "Come on let's finish this guy up."

And so they continued working, and it took them two more hours to finish. After removing all of the acupuncture pins, they moved on to working on the plugs all over his body. This included closing up every plug on his body, except for the one located on the back of his head. The reason for this was to stop anything from getting into his blood stream that shouldn't have been there and to prevent infection.

When they finished, they covered him up in a cloth to keep him warm and left him sleeping on the table. The rest of the crew was busy attending to ship maintenance, monitoring sentinel activity, attending to themselves, whatever they could do to keep themselves busy, while Irvine and Marley did the surgery. When they came out of the room, they met on the main deck.

Here, the floor was made out of grated metal. Wires and conduits were all over the place. They ran across the floor, they ran along the walls, they hung from the ceiling, from the bridge up above that was part of the upper level of the ship. There were pipes everywhere. Metal supports all over the place, and they all had a burnt or tarnished look. Pipes were all over, huge pipes connected by flanges or thin pipes connected with through welding.

The main structure was the core. Every chair from which someone would sit in to be jacked into the Matrix was wired to this core. Several monitors were attached to it, about four per chair, and with these came a keypad, for keying in certain modifications and configuration set ups. Not far off from the core was the Operator's station, a plethora of monitors and several keyboards all connected together by many wires. It was a mess. But a clean mess at the same time.

"How's he doin'?" Blade asked, crossing his arms and standing tall. Here in the real world his hair was more natural looking. His eyes were gray, and he wore a dark gray sleeveless shirt and dark brown combat pants and the black boots. Everyone had black boots, it went without saying. He tilted his head slightly.

"He's alright now. His vitals are normal and he's doing okay. We still have to put some clothes on him and put him into his bed." Irvine answered.

Anubis took a seat in one of the chairs and took a moment to scratch behind his ears. He never said much to anyone and was rather anti-social. He seemed to have no care at all about the new crew member, and continued on lukewarm about it as usual with most things. Solitaire stood hanging onto a pipe with her right hand. She had a white tank top and blue pants on with suspenders, her hair done up in a high ponytail. "So, what's he gonna do for us?"

"Right now there's not much he can do, but it brings one more guy onto our side once we get him trained and everything. Besides, he wanted out." Irvine replied.

Kira sat there listening. "So what's that mean, he's just as effective as we are? That's not saying much," she said.

"With our position, with the way things are looking, I know what you mean. But he wanted the truth so I wasn't gonna deny him the fact." He looked over to Marley. "Marley, go help Glitch with the sentinel watch. I'm going to put Janus in his bed. Later, we'll give him orientation."

Marley nodded and walked off with a "Yes, Sir." Irvine went off to tend to Janus, and Marley made his way over to Glitch.

Glitch was young looking, about 25 years old. He was caucasian, and stood 6'0 in height. He had short combed back black hair, and wore a dark gray baggy shirt with blue combat pants, a headset, and brown leather gloves cut short at the finger. He nodded over to Marley.

"Whatcha got?" he asked.

"Ah nothing, Cap told me to come and help you, what's new?"

Glitch shook his head and looked at the three large central monitors displaying scrolling code strands that represented the Matrix. "Nothing special really. System refresh is finished, copper tops doing what they do, no sentinels on our *CENSORED*. We're doing good so far, so I guess it's just me and you watching people again and trying to fix this *CENSORED*."

Marley shrugged. "Better than nothing."

----

Janus slowly opened his eyes, and his blurred vision came into focus. He had a slight headache. As he stared up at the ceiling, he realized it wasn't his apartment ceiling anymore. Then he saw that he was sleeping up against a titanium wall. A long shelf-like mesh box on this wall contained a few articles of clothing. The titanium plates that made up the wall were bolted together. The top rim of the bed was also lined with bolts.

Where the hell am I?

He took a moment to try and gain his bearings. And then, in a flash, he remembered. The entire world around him blurring, with decayed looking patches of green symbols, and the tub of red goop with the tubes. Above his pillow was a light, and behind that, an empty black rack. There was a single monitor panel on the wall adjacent to that of the light and the mesh box. Two thin pipes ran along the wall that he slept against, the wall with the mesh box. Farther along the wall was a phone attached to a receiver but with no buttons to dial.

It must be like closed circuit or something.

There was a cabinet, and a small fan above it. He looked down at his bed. It was only big enough for him to sleep in, and he had one pillow and a large burgundy cloth that was a blanket. There was a little bit of space to walk around his bed, five feet out to the side, and four feet away from the foot of the bed was the door, which was fastened by a lever, the same way a Navy ship's doors are closed by.

This must be what a jail cell feels like.

He looked back down at his bed and looked at how big it was. He looked over his legs and noted his clothes. Now he was dressed in black combat pants, new boots, and a dark brown shirt made of the home woven material.

My clothes are gone... what the hell did Irvine do with them?

He looked down at his bed on his left side. Something caught his eye.

What the hell?

A tube was going into his shirt. He pulled up his sleeve and he was taken off guard by what he saw. The needle entered his arm where it should have, but instead of going in through the skin, it was inserted into a plug in his arm that was gunmetal in color.

What the hell is this?!

Getting a grip on the tube and needle, he pulled at it with hopes of getting it out of his arm, and he felt pain. Wincing, he pulled at it slower and more gently than before, until it had come all the way out of his arm.

Then the memory of waking up in the pod came back. He remembered the huge towers of pods filled with red fluid and naked people sleeping with tubes attached to them.

Tubes...wait...

Slowly he moved his hand to the back of his head to where his headache was coming from, that being right above where his nick connected to his head. Gently running his fingers across that area, he felt something he didn't expect. A round, metal plug, on the back of his head, with a small hole in the middle. His eyes widened, and he hit his hand down onto the bed from the spontaneous reaction.

What is this!?

He stood up from the bed and put his hand on top of his head and felt short tiny hair.

My hair's gone!

He began feeling his chest and his arms and felt more plugs, and pulled his arms away and looked at himself.

What the *CENSORED* happened?!

There was a knock at the door. Snapped out from his moment of hysteria, he looked towards the door. The sound of the crank turning came about, and the door whined as it was pushed open. There stood Solitaire, and smiled when she saw the freaked out look on Janus' face. To him it looked like she was holding back laughs, causing him to calm down and be more concerned as to why she was there.

"Hey newbie. You alright?"

The look on his face made it obvious that he had tons of questions. He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off.

"I'm Solitaire, I think we met a few hours ago," she said, and extended her hand to shake. He accepted and shook her hand, and then she took back her hand/ She gestured with her head for him to follow her. "C'mon, everyone wants to say hello."

She led, and he followed, leaving the door open behind him. He studied the hallway as he walked behind her, noting how it was all made of metal, and had a blue tint to it, and how it was lined with wires and pipes. They passed several other doors, and he assumed that this was the quarters level of whatever it was he was on. They came to a ladder and she climbed up, and he followed. They passed a level as they went up, and came up to the main deck on the opposite side of the floor from where Glitch and his set up was located.

Janus narrowed his eyes as he looked around, noting the wires and the pipes all over the place and shaking his head. That's a lot of wires.. He looked at the the core setup and how complex it was. His eyes roamed all over the place, from the floor to the ceiling, over to the chairs, of which he counted six. And then finally, he looked over to the others that were staring back at him. He saw and recognized Irvine, Anubis, Kira, and Blade. Solitaire joined the others, and there were two more he didn't recognize. Realizing he was standing alone, he began walking over to the others. It felt kind of weird to be walking, and why he didn't know, but he got used to it and in short time it felt like normal walking. He stopped about seven feet away from the rest of the group. Irvine stepped out and took his hand and shook it firmly.

"Welcome aboard, Janus."

"Where the hell am I? Is this a warehouse or some *CENSORED*?"

"This is my ship, the Nemesis. It's a hovercraft, but not the same as the kind you're used to."

"Hov-hovercraft?" This was ridiculous, it seemed. "What the *CENSORED*'s going on here, what'd you do to me? You cut my hair, you took my clothes, you put these metal things all over me. Tell me what this is! I had these insane dreams, cause of that pill you gave me. Is that what 'the Matrix' is? Your pet name for the trip you get off of the red pill?"

The crew couldn't help but get a laugh out of that. "Looks like he's got us all figured out, Boss," Glitch said with a laugh. Irvine himself smiled with a brief chuckle.

"We'll explain everything one thing at a time."

He nodded as if to be referring to something behind Janus. Janus turned his head and saw a bronze plaque attached to the center of the core and it read "Mark VII No. I NEMESIS Made in Zion Year 2202". 2202? He turned back to Irvine.

"What's the date?"

"Actually to be honest we don't know. We estimate that the year is sometime around 2203, two hundred years after your time. But we'll get to that later. Right now, it's time to introduce you to the rest of my crew, but in a more formal manner."

They all stood in line. First Irvine came to Blade. "This is Blade, my first-mate." Blade nodded. Then he moved onto Kira. "This is Kira." She gave a nod. Next he moved onto Anubis. "This is Anubis. He isn't too talkative but he might warm up to you." Anubis simply greeted Janus with a cold stare, and Janus gave it right back.

"Lancaster," Janus responded. Anubis continued to stare.

"His name is Anubis." Irvine said, guiding him a long.

"This is my Operator, Glitch." Janus nodded, and Glitch nodded back in return, replying with "Nice to meet you."

Next Irvine came to Solitaire. "You've already met Solitaire." She winked at him, and he nodded back.

Irvine then came to the last person. "This is Marley, secondary Operator and a great help among many other things." Then he turned to his crew. "You all know Janus. Let's make him one of us." They all smiled. All except for Anubis. He kept the cold stare.

What's his problem? Janus wondered. Irvine looked back to Janus and continued to speak.

"This is the real world. You have yet to see how it really is, but it's nothing to rush at. In this world, survival is a struggle. We do whatever we have to do."

Janus arched a brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We've broken off from a major fleet to take a neutral side in a war. However we are looked upon as rogue pirates."

"A war? Pirates?"

"We steal and salvage, we attack, we hijack, we hack, we crack, we shoot to kill. All of this is necessary to survive. It's the life we live, but the way we see it, the ends justify the means."

Janus thought this over. Still, he had many questions.

A pirate's life for me.
----

Since people seem only know how to read and not reply, I had to resort to bumping the thread myself by posting the next chapter. Thanks for the feedback to those who gave it.

Chapter 6: Reality Check

Date: Approx 2203

Time: -

Area: Tunnels of the Real

Irvine stood before Janus, studying his face and making note of how he was taking all of this. He grinned, for there were two things about this that amused him. One, how Janus was just standing there and listening to this like it was nothing. Two, the fact that Janus was only scratching the surface. He had yet to learn of the world they lived in and why they lived like pirates. He still did not know what the Matrix was, but Irvine knew this. He knew he would have many questions, and being human, some answers he would understand and accept, and some answers would confuse and possibly frustrate him.

"Janus, you asked me what the Matrix was. Are you ready to know?"

Janus looked back at him in the eye. This was all a roller coaster, and he figured it was only going to get better. Or worse. He knew he was going to find out what it was one way or another, so he answered Irvine by nodding his head.

"Good. Come this way." Irvine led him over to the chairs, and then walked over to the chair that was to the right of Janus'. He looked back at Janus.

"Sit, and lay back," he told him, before doing the same in his own chair. Janus sat down and laid back as he was told, and positioned himself so that he was comfortable. To him, it felt like a dentist's operating chair. He turned his head and looked to his left where Irvine was sitting. He watched as Marley walked over and pulled off of the pillar a needle with a handle the size of a man's fist. The needle itself was at least 5 inches long. Marley took this needle and inserted it into the hole in back of Irvine's head, to Janus' wide eyed state of surprise.

Blade had walked over to his chair and pulled the needle behind Janus' chair off of the cylinder, and Janus quickly turned his head toward Blade with a look on his face that said "What are you going to do with that thing!?"

Blade smiled and shook his head, placing his left hand on Janus' forehead whilst holding the needle plug with his right. As he brought his hand around the chair's head rest and set the tip of the needle down upon the entrance of the canal on the back of his head, Blade gave Janus a reassuring look, and Janus looked worried.

"Relax. It's like nails on a chalk board."

Janus arched a brow, and with that, Blade inserted the needle into Janus' head and it made a *ZZzzt* noise. Janus tightly closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, because the metal of the needle rubbing up against the metal of the canal shaft inside his head cause friction that made that *ZZzzt* noise to everyone else, but to him, it sounded like someone scratching a plate with a fork, or as Blade put it, nails on a chalk board. Blade looked over at the touch tone screen above Janus' chair that showed his vitals and pushed at the screen where it said "LOAD". Janus' face suddenly calmed as if he was sleeping.

The next thing Janus knew, the nuisance of the screeching noise had gone away as if someone has snapped their fingers. He opened his eyes and was caught off guard by what he saw. He no longer was looking up at the ceiling of the Nemesis' main deck. Now he stared at a blank whiteness.

He saw nothing. Nothing but white, everywhere he looked, in every direction. To him, it felt like when you fall asleep and don't even realize it, and when you wake up, hours have passed, but the last thing you remember was what you were looking at before your eyes closed, as if you had merely blinked.

Where am I?

"Welcome."

He heard a voice. It was Irvine's, and it sounded as clear as a bell, since there was nothing like background noise to interfere. It was the only thing Janus heard. He turned around and saw him, but wasn't dressed in the combat pants and the raggy shirt and the boots. He was dressed in the same outfit Janus saw him in when he met him at Club Duality. But that seemed like so long ago. Now he was confused, again.

"Where are we?"

"This would be the Construct. It's what we use to load equipment. We come here before going into the Matrix."

"Load equipment?"

"Yes, this is our loading program. Be it clothes, weapons, vehicles, training programs, whatever we need, we get it from here."

"Program? This is a computer program?"

"Indeed it is."

"But how...?" Janus was trying to figure this out faster than he could process.

"It's fairly simple once you think about it. It's no different than the Matrix where you came from. Take a look at yourself. You have different clothes on. Your hair's grown back, and the plugs on your body are no longer present."

Janus examined himself as Irvine listed the changes. He was wearing the same black pants, shirt, boots and leather blazer he wore before he was unplugged. He ran his hand through his hair and it was long, and felt the back of his head. No plug. It was as though he was back to his old self again.

"How did this happen?"

"It's your Residual Self Image. Your mind's projection of yourself. The reason you're in regular clothes and your hair is back and your plugs are gone is because this is how your mind sees itself, or how you're most used to looking."

Janus looked at himself over and it made more sense. But he still didn't get the whole computer program aspect. "If this is how I'm used to looking, how did it get into a computer program?"

"Not how 'it' got into a computer program, but how your entire mind was put into a program. The plug that is put into your head is like a bridge. Your mind is taken from your brain, translated into data, and is fed into the ship's online mainframe. Then it's inserted into the Construct program. The data re-translates and conforms so that it's compatible with the program and then you get your RSI. It works the same with training programs and the Matrix."

"So I'm not really here right now, and none of this is real?"

"Precisely. Now your getting the hang of it. Real is only what our minds tells us is real, and we get what it tells us is real through our five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, which are merely electrical impulses. Our bodies are back on the Nemesis in the chairs with wires plugged into the back of our heads connected to our cerebral cortex. Our minds are here. Our apparent bodies are merely avatars of our mind, like when you play an online computer game. It's not really you in the game, it's the character you're playing as that's in the game and you're controlling it. It's the same concept here only from an intense first person perspective where what you experience here and what registers through your five senses not only affects you here, but also affects you back on the ship. In other words, while it's false here, your mind makes it real on the ship."

"So if I'm shot in the Matrix, I'll have a bullet wound in the real world with the hole and everything?"

"No. You would have the bullet wound here or in the Matrix, but in the real world, your mind would tell your body that you were shot. Consequently, the nerves in your body in the same place you were shot would respond as if you actually were shot, and you would feel pain and bleed."

Janus tilted his head with a slight frown. He was beginning to understand. "So, if my arm was cut off in the Matrix, I wouldn't be able to use it here?"

"Yes, right. Your nerves in your arm wouldn't respond and it would be rendered useless."

"If you die in the Matrix, you die here?"

"Exactly. The body cannot live without the mind. If the mind is killed, it tells the body it was killed, which results in you being dead."

"Can the mind live without the body?"

This caught Irvine by surprise. He frowned thinking it over. "Honestly, I don't know. It isn't something I'd experiment with though."

Janus nodded. "Why though? All of this..the Construct, the Matrix, what's it all for?"

A sly grin crept upon Irvine's face. Janus was eager to learn.

"Pay attention," Irvine said to Janus. Suddenly, the world around them changed. The infinite whiteness of the construct was replaced by a city street where they stood in the middle of the road. There was the black pavement, the sidewalks lining the road, the six-floor apartment buildings, trees, people walking around, and over all this, a magnificent blue sky dolloped with clouds here and there. Janus had a double take, as the city around them had come out of nowhere. He approached a car slowly and put his hands on the top of the hood and ran his hands over to smooth surface. It felt real, it looked real. He could feel the cold of the steel begin to chill up his hands. He was amazed. It's not real...?

Irvine looked at Janus and chuckled. "Amazing, isn't it?"

Janus looked over at him and slowly nodded, before surveying the area around him again. One could say he was dumbfounded, but at the same time, it wasn't new to him. He looked back to Irvine and raised his eyebrows like "What now?" Irvine inhaled. Janus payed close attention as Irvine spoke.

"Look here Janus. Do you see this? This is the world as you know it, the way it was in the beginning of the 21st century. It now exists only as a virtual simulation that we call the Matrix. You've been living inside of a neural, interactive dream world your whole life. This is the world as it is today."

(Chapter 6 cont'd)

He snapped, and the buildings transformed from tall, strong supported structures to crumbled, charred towers of what remained. The sky was black with little light passing through the clouds. Lightning cracked the sky and thunder struck like a whip right after. Rubble and rock and metal and debris was the ground, in tremendous colossal heaps all around. Janus was shocked. No longer was he surrounded by the tranquility of the city. He was now in the world of post apocalyptic destruction he got a short glimpse of when he awoke in his pod. Quickly, he turned to see where Irvine was and he saw him still standing across from him as calm as a breeze.

"Where the hell are we?"

"This is the real world. Right now, we are on the surface, somewhere we seldom visit."

"What happened?"

"There was a war. Centuries ago, our technological prowess had reached its peak and we created Artificial Intelligence. As it developed, it eventually gave birth to a race of thousands of machines of all types, like androids, industry machines, construction robots, home convenience. For any task you could think of, there was a machine to do it."

"So then what?"

"Humans treated machines as though they were an inferior race. When one of these machines took a human life in self defense, it launched a genocide against the machine race, humans took up arms against them. It was a worldwide massacre. Eventually the machines built their own city where they could manufacture and develop themselves and thrive in piece without being threatened. It's not too far from where we're located, but no one dares to go there. No ship ever made it within 100 miles of the city without being destroyed. All except one, but that's another story."

"Then how did this happen?"

"From our understanding, the war began after numerous attempts to establish peace fell through.."

"The war?"

"Yes. We don't know who struck first. However, it was us who blackened the sky and blocked out the sun, with efforts to eliminate the machines' solar energy source. Apparently it didn't work out. Unfortunately, the machines had a greater understanding of our anatomy and our weaknesses, and in the end the machines slaughtered us. After a surrender, it was here that the Matrix began."

"Then why are humans in those red pods with all the tubes attached to them?"

"Do you remember how I said that the machines used the sun as their main energy source?"

"Yeah."

"Well, after we blocked out the sun, the machines had to find another source for power. Instead of wiping us out, they decided they would put us to good use. A human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat. Harnessing this power with a certain method of fusion, the machines could manufacture it. With this discovery, they found all of the power they would need, in those that created them."

Janus was blank. "..What are you saying?"

"I have no reason to lie to you, Janus. Look."

The scenery changed, and they were now on some sort of mountain top, overlooking what looked like a field of red dots with large octopus-like machines picking at these red dots with their long tentacles.

"What is that?"

"Those are the fields. Those red dots you see are humans. We're a crop now, Janus. No longer born, but rather, grown. We are, as an energy source, easily renewable and completely recyclable, the dead liquefied and fed to the living. All they needed to control this new battery was something to occupy our minds."

Janus looked at Irvine wide-eyed, but didn't say a word, as he came to a horrifying conclusion of what he was being told.

"You wanted to know what the Matrix was? This is it. Control. The Matrix is a computer-generated neuro-synaptic simulation, where the machines put your mind, while your body is used to power them. Our mission is to find a way to destroy it and liberate our people, as it has always been."

Janus took this in, and his forehead wrinkled. He felt surprised. Mad, angry even. Confused. Shocked. Caught up in a state of awe. The fabric of his reality had been unraveled and tied into a noose, and now it was choking him. He experienced trouble breathing.

"I don't believe you. No, I don't believe this. It can't be, this is fake."

"It's never easy to accept, but it's true. While it is hard to believe, you know you're an advocate of the fact that the truth can sometimes hurt."

Janus could only look at Irvine as though he was disgusted, leaving Irvine to wonder whether it was at him or what he had just told the new redpill. "We're finished for now. You need some time to rest and think this over." The world around them turned back into the vast whiteness of the Construct. "Take us out of here, Glitch."

----

Upon waking in his chair, Irvine got up and walked over to Janus, who was merely laying there staring up at the bulkhead. Marley unhooked the attachments on the chair so that he could get up, but he didn't move. Irvine stepped over and gently helped Janus up out of the chair.

"Are you alright?"

"Nausea.. and a migraine.."

Irvine nodded Glitch over to help him with Janus.

"It's normal. Come on, let's get you to your bed."

When they reached Janus' quarters, Glitch and Irvine helped him to his bed. Irvine nodded to Glitch. "Keep working on the ship's computer repairs."

"Gotcha," Glitch said with a nod, and left to get back to work.

"Janus," Irvine said as he turned to him. "Take as long as you need."

He nodded, and laid down to sleep as Irvine went off. That was all he needed right now. Time, and as much of it as he could get.

----

The Vehemens buzzed through the underground tunnels of the real, with blue wide rays of light coming out from several points on the ship. The hover pads left their blue trails behind that faded away only about fifteen feet behind the location of each pad. The ship was medium in size and had sixteen hover pads in total. Twelve of them were bunched in threes on four points on the ship. Several antennae and turret barrels stuck out from the ship. It stopped at one point where a large opening broke into the side of the tunnel, turned 90-degrees to the left, and entered the tunnel.

The tunnel was made almost entirely of rock and sediment except for the few pipe fragments jutting out from the rock. This area was uncharted territory that no one had actually traveled in, and therefore was unknown. The reason for the wide blue rays coming out from the ship was that the crew was mapping the unknown territory and writing it down to memory.

A bald caucasian man sat at the controls steering the ship. His controls were two joysticks and a keyboard in between. There were several other monitors and keypads in the cockpit as well. The man was built, with a red tone to his skin. He wore a white tank top, brown combat pants, and had black knuckle gloves on.

On his left sat a man dressed with black combat pants, and a dark blue shirt. He also had long hair and a goatee, and a scar under his right eye. Both men watched closely as the ship hovered onward.

"Iratus," the man on the left began, "set the ship down there in that cave," he said. Iratus nodded and worked the controls. The ship spun 270-degrees and backed up into the small cave in the wall of the tunnel. It set down with a rumble and then was finally still.

"Capitan, are we finished mapping for now?" Iratus asked.

"Yes, that'll be fine, I'll let you know when it's time to leave. Have Zero patch the cooling systems to the hard-drives and shut down whatever power we don't need, we don't want to waste any and it's a pain in the *CENSORED* to recharge as it is. Run a maintenance check and see to it that whatever needs to be worked on is repaired."

"Yes sir." Iratus said, and he left the cockpit. The Captain stared out the window out at the dim blue rocky tunnel they had just came from. The radio crackled and a voice came over the speaker with some static. "Com com, this is the Nosferatu calling in requesting a report of your current status." The man in the chair grabbed the receiver and pushed down on the button. "Check, we hear you. This is Ravage, we've taken a break from tunnel recon for repairs. Who is this?"

"Copy that Vehemens, this is Sideways, the Nosferatu's Operator, Captain Blood felt like checking everyone else's status."

"Oh, that's nice," Ravage said as if to retort. But he meant his sarcasm in jest. "While we're on the topic, how's everything over by you?"

"Everything's straight, we're just mapping and looking out for sentinels, our status is fine." The radio crackled again with more static and another voice came over the radio.

"Speaking of sentinels, we wiped out a few of them not long ago," the voice said. It was a female.

"Who's that?" Ravage asked

"This is Sigma, first mate on the Rebellion."

"Is Django there?" Sideways asked.

"This is Django," he replied over the radio. He had a deep voice but he sounded like he was in a good mood.

"Django how did you turn out?"

"We were fine, our auxiliary power kicked in right after our EMP set off, and the Vendetta came in to make sure we were alright."

"Any sign of more sentinels?" Ravage asked.

"Nope, nothing anymore. They were doing some recon on their own but we zapped em before they even knew we were here."

"What about Zion craft?"

"No sign of them, you know they don't like to go into uncharted territory, they don't want to get lost, that's what happened to the Logos."

"I remember. What about the Nemesis?"

"They're pretty good and keeping their distance, there's been no sign of them at all, they're probably miles from here."

"Yeah, probably. Well I'm signing out for some R&R."

"Alright, talk to you later Ravage." Ravage stood up and hung the receiver back up on the console and left the cockpit to go to his quarters. He recited the objective of all this mapping, quietly to himself. "The closer we can get to the machine city via untraveled routes, the better chance we have to EMP-blast it without the machines having a clue."

----

(Chapter 6 concluded)

Several hours later, Irvine went to check on Janus and found him sitting in his bed staring into space.

"You doing any better?"

Janus nodded his head. "I'll be fine. You mentioned a war before."

Irvine nodded. "What of it?"

"Is it still happening?"

"No, it isn't. There was one factor that changed it all."

"What was it?

"Inside of the Matrix, there's a consultant that we call The Oracle. She's been with us since the beginning of the war. She's a guide, and a large help to us. She told us that once upon a time, when the Matrix was first created, there was a man inside that could control the Matrix's reality by will alone. He was called The One. Apparently, it was this man who freed the first of Zion's people and showed them the true nature of the world."

"What happened to him?"

"When he died, The Oracle came up with this prophecy that said the return of The One meant the end of the war was near. Not long afterwards, we found the guy. His name was Neo. Under the tutelage of Morpheus, one of the more praised and respected ship captains of Zion, Neo reached his full potential. There were those who thought the prophecy was bull, and refused to believe that one man could stop an entire race of machines. When the time came, Zion was about to be attacked by huge machine army."

Janus merely watched and listened.

"It didn't happen, for some reason," Irvine said. Janus noted that he sounded distant, almost disappointed as he said it.

"Neo traveled to the Machine City with his partner Trinity. We don't know how he did it, but the machines ceased their attack; they were already inside of Zion and destroying it by then. The war was then declared over. We never saw Neo or Trinity again. A truce was made between Zion and the machines, and we existed together in peace. Those that wanted to be free from the Matrix were allowed to do so with no restraint. That was five years ago."

Janus nodded as though to say "Go on."

"Despite the fact that there was peace between humans and machines, there were some people that couldn't accept it. A whole bunch of different opinions from different groups. Some wanted to uphold the peace, some wanted to destroy it, some even wanted to go back to the Matrix. In particular, one group argued that we were still vulnerable, and that the machines could come and destroy Zion at any time. With Neo gone, it was widely held that there would be no way to stop it. The counter-argument was that as long as Zion did nothing to instigate, the machines would have no reason to attack. Well... that was easier said."

"....."

"Well, let me break this down. Three years into the peace after Neo made the truce, one particular group of people came with an undeniable point- the machines were still in control and they could attack if they wanted to and there would be nothing Zion could do about it. They said that since the Matrix still existed, and as long as humans were still being used as a power source, the machines still were in control. They didn't trust the truce, and they threatened leave Zion. But the High Council didn't take them seriously. So, said group got pissed that no one was listening to them, so they went off to prove their point. There were six captains, six ships, six crews. My crew and I were a part of the group. We felt that instead of being sitting ducks, we'd rather be prepared and at least be ready to warn Zion if the machines were going to attack."

"So that's how we fall into this?"

"No, there's more. After we left, the captains grouped up and decided on what to do. There were the six of us alone on our own, and we were trying to find something we only had a hunch about. So we set out to look for some kind of proof behind our suspicions. What we found... well for once it didn't feel good to be right."

"What did you find?" Janus asked.

"With six hovercraft scoping out the tunnels and the desert, we had a lot of area covered. That's how we stumbled across them. An entire army of sentinels poised to attack Zion, waiting on standby for the order should the truce ever fail, or as we figured, whenever the Machines saw fit.. We screwed that up big time."

"What happened?"

"We leaped before we looked. On an impulse decision, we set up an attack formation and struck at the sentinels. Our attack plan worked out, we managed to take out a majority of them since we took them by surprise, and we scattered before the rest could take us down. That was what did it though. We didn't think it through, we thought we were protecting Zion. The consequences of our actions were worse than we figured."

Janus raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"The moment we left port, Zion considered us rogues and refused to be involved in our expedition or give us any assistance. The machines, unknown that this split went down, saw this as an offense and a declaration of War. They sent a larger attack squad to Zion and when it arrived, Zion wasn't expecting it. Lock, the commanding officer of Zion's military, was quick to come up with a strategy and built up a large enough defense force to hold off the machine army from getting into Zion. We came to help out after we realized what we did wrong, and it was like a slap in the face to the Council, and added insult to injury because it also counted as an I-told-you-so. So then Zion began mobilizing and increased its military size to almost double the size it was during the first war. They insulated the dock, the living quarters, the temple, all of the main conduits, and all of the tunnels leading to the entrance gates, and surrounded Zion with EMP charges, in and out."

"An electro-magnetic-pulse. Automatically shuts down circuitry. SWAT uses weapons like that."

"Correct. Lock figured that if the machines were going to try to get into Zion again from any entrance point, they would be ready, and if they somehow got past the first few lines of defense, they would have the military ready for them. When the machines found out, they decided that since we were mobilizing for another war, then another war it would be."

"And we're neutral? How does that work out?"

"Zion wouldn't accept us back home. The Council ruled that everything was our fault, and our actions ended the truce and put on stake once again the lives of every person in Zion. We were outcast, and on our own without a home. Since we took matters into our own hands once before, we figured we could do it again, so we started calling ourselves the Resistance, as redpills were known before Neo ended the last war. The other five captains agreed that we should do what we could to destroy the machines and take down the Matrix. At this point, they weren't opposed to fighting or even killing Zion forces inside the Matrix. In fact, they were all for it. They figured that if Zion was going to try to stop us from completing our mission, then they were the traitors."

"What about you?"

"I thought it was crazy to even think of pulling it off. Finding a way to destroy the Matrix was one thing, but the six of us ships couldn't take on the entire race of machines alone. We would be destroyed in no time, and it had been done before to those that tried. Second, there was nothing I would get out of attacking Zion. Just because my crew and I were thrown out didn't mean I hated them or thought they deserved to die, and I wasn't willing to kill the very same people I was trying to protect. So I took my ship and my crew and left the group, and now we're neutral to both sides. We're like rogue rogues, and we have to look out for ourselves."

"How's this accomplished?"

"We don't attack anyone, we only defend ourselves, from the machines, Zion, and the Resistance fleet. We're only pirates because we do whatever it takes to survive. We're fringe in all this."

"What about the Matrix?"

"Everything I told you so far applies to the Real World only. Inside the Matrix it's a mess. The three factions are still fighting against each other in there as well, but when you throw Exiles into the mix it gets more hectic."

"What about the people that want to be free?"

"Stopping humans from escaping the Matrix was the first course of action within the Matrix that the machines took. It was right back to the old policies again. When that happened we had to start worrying about Agents again."

"Agents?"

"Do you remember the three men that came after you at work? Williams, Davis, and Miller?"

Janus frowned. He didn't think Irvine had any idea about them. Was he watching that? "Yeah..."

"Those are Agents. They're sentient programs designed to eliminate any soldier from the real world that plugs into the Matrix. They also go after exiles."

"What can they do?"

"They're stronger and faster than any of us. Their strength and speed is like no other. They punch through walls made of marble. You could fire off an entire magazine at them and never hit them once. You could square off against one of them, but you wouldn't last long, since they're not human. Neo could beat an Agent. He could take *CENSORED*-loads of them down. But for any one of us ‘regulars,' when you see an Agent, you run like you've never ran before unless you have no choice but to fight to maybe buy yourself some time. Regardless, you have a better chance of being killed than you do defeating one of them."

"Why did they put that thing inside of me?"

"They were trying to use you to catch me. They have a bad habit of underestimating us though. There's a few ways to get rid of them, they're not invincible."

"But you just said.."

"They can die like any man, since they're programmed to operate in the Matrix, and they have to blend in the people still plugged into the Matrix, and therefore, they're bound to the rules of the system. Those rules, however, we can bend."

"How?"

"Not now. We'll deal with that when the time comes, and now isn't the time."

"Then what do we do now?"

"Well, now we get out of here. Time to eat."

Irvine walked away, and Janus followed. Glitch came and caught up but not before he came up to Janus and gave him a play-punch in the shoulder.

"Well, you coming?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, I just didn't know where the galley was," Janus answered.

"Oh, well come on, I'll show you. By the way, I'm Glitch, I'll be your Operator."

Janus looked him over and nodded his head. "Nice to meet you."

"C'mon, this way," Glitch beckoned, and walked through a door out into a hallway. Janus promptly followed. When they had all reached the galley, Janus noted that it looked more like an old restaurant kitchen with a large table in it surround by stools than an actual galley. When they sat, Janus found himself sitting across from Anubis. He looked at him in a skeptical manner, but Anubis rested his head on his hands and stared off into space, not even acknowledging him. Janus could tell he was going to have to put some effort into getting to talk with this guy, but he didn't care to worry about it now. He was hungry. He looked over and saw Kira, Marley, Blade, and Glitch bringing the food over. When his plate was put down before him, Janus eyed the food and it looked like white meat chicken breast to him. Glitch sat down across from him, next to Anubis.

"Have a bite," he told him.

Judging by the sound of his voice, Janus figured it couldn't be anything at all too bad. He caught a piece on his fork and put it into his mouth and began chewing, and waited a few seconds for the flavor to set in. Remarkably, it tasted like chicken. He looked up at Glitch and held up his fork.

"What is this?"

Glitch grinned. "It's synthetic," he answered before taking another bite.

"Then what is it made out of?" Janus inquired.

"You don't wanna know. Just eat it, enjoy it," Kira said to him. She was sitting to Janus' left. Irvine spoke out.

"Guys, today we're fortunate to have another person join us after being freed from the Matrix, and we should give thanks for finding and saving him. We'll take our minds off of the war and our enemies today, to take a break and celebrate."

Irvine looked over at Janus, smiled, and nodded to him. "Happy Birthday, Janus."

This caught Janus off guard. Irvine's welcoming statement was followed by a few other Happy Birthday's from some of the other crew members, and it felt nice. Snapping out of his stupor of surprise, he shook his head and nodded. "Thanks," he told them, and went back to eating his food. It seemed as though only hours passed, but he was already settled in like he had lived this life for days.

"Listen, get a good rest, you're gonna need it for tomorrow," Blade said.

"Why, what happens tomorrow?"

"Combat training."

----

((Hmmm.. To be honest with you this is pretty cool. I wouldnt mind seeing this as an Anime or cartoon movie. Nice storyline and all. I tip my hat tp this. Good Work.))

Chapter 7: Free Your Mind

Date: Approx 2203

Time: -

Area: Tunnels of the Real

Janus awoke, and he realized that he was still in his quarters aboard the Nemesis. He'd been dreaming of his old life inside the Matrix, and waking up to this wasn't the most welcoming feeling. He took in a deep breath and yawned. Then he heard someone walking down the hallway towards his door. The person stopped there and knocked three times. Janus arched a brow and opened the hatch, and saw Glitch standing there with a smirk.

"Hey, what's up? You sleep good?"

"Uh, kinda. What do you need?"

"Oh, come with me, we gotta get your trained."

Janus' eyes darted around in several directions and then he blinked and nodded. "Oh, yeah, I remember. Let's go."

Glitch nodded, and then walked down the hall. Janus followed and blinked a few times after yawning. He watched where he was going with one eye while he used his finger to wipe the crust out from the inside of the other, and then switched to the other eye, repeating the same process over again. They reached a ladder, and he climbed up after Glitch, making sure to stay low enough so he wasn't hit by Glitch's feet. Finally, they reached the main deck. Janus looked around to see what was going on. Marley was at the operator station, Blade was welding something, Solitaire was tightening something with a ratchet, and the others he didn't see. Glitch snapped his hand over in Marley's direction and then threw his fist back slightly with his thumb extended as though to tell him to get out of his chair. He came over to them and nodded.

"What's the deal?"

"Newbie needs combat training. Where's Irvine?"

"Cockpit. I'll go see what he's doing." Marley nodded to Glitch and lightly punched him in the shoulder, and patted Janus on the back before he walked past them. Janus looked over to Glitch, who returned his look.

"You ready?" Glitch asked, and Janus replied with a nod. Motioning over to the chairs, Glitch told Janus to have a seat. He then grabbed the plug and inserted it into the canal in Janus' head, and chuckled when Janus' face cringed.

"You'll get used to it," he said.

"You're going to upload the training into my head?" Janus asked.

Glitch shook his head repeatedly in the yes fashion and with an assuring tone he said, "Don't worry, you'll like it, I promise." Then he made his way over to his control setup. He pulled out a small metal box containing several small square shaped disks. He picked one up that had "Basic Operations" written on it and smirked, dropping it back in and digging through the box some more to find a different one.

Finally, he said "aha!" and pulled a disk from the box. Janus looked over to see what the commotion was about, and Glitch grinned. He popped it into the nearest drive and pressed the engage button on his keyboard. Since his chair was located behind Glitch's station and to the right, Janus could see some of the screens. When Glitch put the disk in, one of the screens read "Jeet Kune Do."

"You're gonna upload it into my head? And I'm gonna know it just like that?"

"I hope you're strapped in." Glitch answered with a grin. Janus' forehead and eyebrows wrinkled as he tried to figure out what was about to happen. Glitch pushed the engage button again. Janus' eyes closed but his eyebrows raised, and then his face cringed, and then his eyes opened. He panted for air trying to figure out just happened, but one change he noted was he now knew Jeet Kune Do like the back of his hand.

"Whoa.."

"Ready for more?"

"Bring it."

Glitch nodded, and the uploading continued. Over the course of the next few hours, several different styles of combat were uploaded into Janus' head. Every so often, the words on the screen would change in accordance with what style was being loaded into Janus' head. Hapkido, Xing Yi, Drunken Fist, Mi Zong, Ninjitsu, Sambo, Tong Bei, Yuan Yang, Shuai Chiao, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Judo, Karate, Tai Chi, San Shou, Aikido, Eagle Claw, Ba Gua, Mantis, Shaolin Fist, Baji Quan, Lui He Ba Fa, Longfist, Wing Chun, Tae Kwon Do, Gun-Kata, Leopard, Fu Jow Pai, Tang Soo Do, Escrima, Nan Chuan, Jujitsu, Hung Gar, Crab, Pi Gua, Snake, Crane, Kenpo, Shotokan, Dragon, Kickboxing, Kung-Fu, Black Dragon, Judo, and Kendo, among many others, were all loaded up into Janus. Irvine approached Glitch as he was typing commands for the uploading procedures.

(Chapter 7 continued)

"What's his status?"

"He's doing pretty good, guy hasn't stopped yet."

"How long until he's finished?"

"You couldn't have come at a better time." He watched as a bar finished growing from one point on a screen to the other and when it did, the uploading procedures were finally complete. Irvine stood over Janus and his eyes opened, and he let out a sigh of relaxation as he looked up at Irvine with newfound knowledge in his eyes.

"How you feeling?"

"Like I could beat 50 Bruce Lees if I wanted to."

"Oh really?"

The next thing Janus knew, he was standing before Irvine on the rooftop of a skyscraper building. He looked around in amazement, in awe at the fact that this was all a computer program yet it looked so real. Real. What was real now? He shook his head, telling himself not to worry about it. He looked down at his clothes. He was dressed in a form fitting black t -shirt, black BDU pants, combat boots, and kneepads. It was night time. He turned around and saw Irvine standing there in his suit with the knee-length jacket, black in color with a cobalt blue shirt underneath and a matching tie.

"What is this?"

"This is the Jump Program. Our version is made a bit different, so that you're less likely to fail. Practice makes perfect."

"Practice at what?"

"Before you can survive in the Matrix, no matter how much combat and fighting knowledge you have, you must free your mind."

"Free my mind?"

"Yes. Open it up. Throw away your fears, your disbelief, your doubts. Concentrate on executing the improbable, and more importantly, the impossible. Free your mind."

Janus arched a brow, and then suddenly Irvine ran from him and jumped across the ten foot gap to the building across from the one he previously stood on. In response, Janus lifted his eyebrows. That looked easy..

Irvine looked back. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Janus was skeptical. Nevertheless, he shrugged, shaking his head, and took a few steps back so he would have a decent enough distance to get a running start. After walking a few steps, he stopped, turned around, and looked back. Irvine was standing with his arms crossed, looking around as if he had better things to do. Janus broke into a quick sprint, and eventually built up speed. When he reached the ledge, he stepped up onto it and pushed off, flying over the gap and landing next to Irvine. He looked back before looking to his mentor.

"That was it?"

Irvine grinned and shook his head. "It gets better."

Janus' forehead wrinkled when he tried to comprehend what he meant, but once again, Irvine broke off running and went from one end of the roof to the other and jumped up. He went through the air and landed on the next building. This time, the gap was about half of the width of a city block.

Ooookay.. Janus got into running position, and bolted off again. The closer he got to the other edge of the building, the faster he ran. The edge came, and he jumped. Up into the air he went, bringing his legs down in front of him before he landed, and with a "WAM" he landed on the next rooftop. He stood up and stopped for a moment, and turned around. He looked over the ledge and looked at how high up they were. Then he looked at the distance of the jump. How the hell did I do that? He turned back to Irvine as though he was expecting something.

"This is it," Irvine said. "This is the last jump. If you can do this, you can do anything." Janus nodded. And then Irvine was off. He repeated the same process, running and gathering speed, and jumping at the ledge, soaring over the gap that was literally a city block wide and landing on the rooftop across the street. Now Janus stood there alone. He inhaled, and sighed slowly, fixing his view on the rooftop. He remembered all the dreams he thought of when he was running away from the Agents out of Club Duality, the dreams of making super-jumps to get away, and realized that this was no different than those dreams. He felt a wave of confidence come over him.

Free my mind. I can do this... Irvine watched through his sunglasses. Janus began to run.

"Come on, come on...." Irvine said to himself. Janus got closer to the ledge.

Glitch, Marley, Anubis, Blade, Kira, and Solitaire's eyes were all glued to the screens, the suspense building.

"Here it comes," Glitch whispered.

Janus made it to the edge and pushed off and flew up into the air. Moving his legs as though he were running, he stared at the point on the rooftop next to Irvine. I have to get there.. Irvine looked up and followed Janus' path through the sky, and was eventually looking straight up above to his zenith. Janus touched down behind him and the sound of crushed concrete was heard. He had landed in a kneeling position, and it seemed as though he was waiting for something. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked around.

I made it.

"He made it!" Solitaire said out loud. "Our jump program beats the *CENSORED* out Zion's."

Blade nodded his head a few times. "This guy's got it down. How useful you think he's gonna be now, Kira?" She smirked and hit him in shoulder.

Janus stood up and Irvine came over to him with a smile. "Good work. See what happens when you believe?" Janus nodded. He looked at the rooftop he had jumped from across the street, then back down to himself, and all around.

"In this virtual reality, we can do anything as long as we believe?"

Irvine shrugged slightly and nodded at the same time. "Almost anything. The One could do whatever he wanted."

Janus nodded as though to say he understood. Irvine took his phone out of his pocket and opened the face shield. The phone rang, and Glitch answered on the other side.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Next training program, please."

Glitch nodded, typed in the command, and pressed engage, and the rooftop slightly changed around them. Janus looked at Irvine with a questioning look as he put his phone back in his pocket.

"This is a sparring program. Unlike the other ship captains who use a dojo for their sparring simulations, we use city locations like this one to be a more accurate simulation of the real thing, because the odds are, you're more likely to be defending yourself somewhere in the Matrix rather than a dojo. Therefore, this gets you better conditioned, like our version of the jump program. Before we fight though, there are a few pointers you should know. First of all, this sparring program is just like the Matrix in that both are virtual reality simulations based on rules. Some of the rules can be bent, and some of them can be broken, for example, physics like breathing and gravity need not apply, but that all depends solely on one thing."

Janus arched a brow and Irvine tapped his own forehead with an index finger.

"The more open your mind is, the more things you can do. Now, fight me, if you can. Remember: free your mind."

In an instant, Janus put himself into a random ready stance, and Irvine did the same. Then, the fight begun. They ran at each other. Janus punched for Irvine's head , but Irvine blocked and punched back. Janus pushed Irvine's arm down to his right, and executed a mid kick to Irvine's kidneys on his right side. The kick connected, but Irvine showed no expression of pain. Then Janus went to chop at Irvine's neck, but Irvine raised his left arm, wrapped it around Janus' oncoming arm, and pulled it down to his left, yanking Janus down in the same direction.

Janus' head was right in front of Irvine's now. Irvine punched his head twice, then followed with a knee strike to Janus' gut area, causing him to bend down forward slightly, so Irvine finished off the combo with an elbow strike to Janus' back. He fell sort of, but then came back suddenly and gave Irvine a hard uppercut, causing him to nearly fall backwards, his arms going up.

With the same fist, Janus backhanded Irvine's head, causing him to face toward his left, and followed up with a right fist to his gut. Irvine keeled over, and Janus chopped Irvine's mid back, sending him downward. Then he kicked Irvine back up to his feet, and struck Irvine right in his chest. From the waist up, Irvine tilted back. Janus went to follow up with a left fist towards Irvine's head, but he blocked, and wrapped his arm around Janus' arm and pulled Janus towards him, so that now the his left side was facing Irvine. He gave out a medium kick to the Janus' gut, causing him to bend forward and lean right into Irvine's follow up attack, which was a kick to the Janus' head. Irvine then let go of the Janus' arm and punched him right in the nose.

Janus spun around 270-degrees counter-clockwise, and was now facing Irvine. He delivered a palm strike to Janus' chest and sent him flying back. He landed on his hip, but he was unphased. Irvine dusted himself off and looked at Janus

"You did good. Solid, fluid motion, improvisation, yet you try to get too many shots in too fast. Your method wasn't the problem though.."

Janus got up and started running at Irvine. He got ready, and started running at Janus. When they had about 5 feet between themselves, they jumped up into the air in bullet-time.

Janus held his left arm out in front of him with a clawed hand, and his right hand was cocked back in a fist, ready to give out a punch. As he brought his fist forward, his left hand came back. Irvine had his arms wide open with fists similar to a Gorilla would have before pounding his chest, and his chest was facing Janus, unguarded.

Janus' fist smashed right into Irvine's head, in his left eye. His head snapped back, and Janus landed in front him. Irvine's head came forward, so Janus gave Irvine a roundhouse right elbow to the nose, causing him to look towards his right, and then Janus smacked Irvine's face back forward by using his left fist, with his elbow still pointed forward, executing a left backhand punch. Irvine was still trying to place himself from getting smacked up so much, so Janus used it to his advantage and gave Irvine a right hand forward punch into his chest, sending him back about two feet. Behind Irvine was the rooftop stairwell doorway and behind Janus was nothing. Irvine shook his head, and made a quick dash towards Janus with his right fist out forward, and came at him like a bullet. Irvine had just barely missed him, for Janus had leaned back slightly and Irvine's fist barely clipped his face. If Irvine had hit him, it probably would have had knocked him out and nearly took his head right off his shoulders. Janus jumped up when he was safely out of Irvine's range of attack.

Back on the Nemesis, the crew had rounded up around Glitch's control setup after they heard from Marley that Irvine was fighting Janus when they has asked where he was. Kira whistled. "Didn't think he'd be this good on his first spar match."

Blade smirked. "Beginners luck."

Marley shook his head, "Wow, he's got a lot of fight in him." He chuckled. "Maybe he can square off against an Agent."

Anubis arched a brow and glanced over at Marley before he looked back at the screens. "He'll never be that good."

Solitaire chuckled. "He speaks," she said as though she was amused.

Glitch spoke out, "Yeah okay we know guys, shut up. Fight's still on."

In bullet-time, as Irvine came by, Janus jumped up in the air and performed a spinning round house kick, with his fists up in karate stance fashion.

Janus' foot smashed into the Irvine's back, and sent him flying. His head would have smashed into floor, had he not put his arms up in front of his face prior to impact. Irvine got up as fast as he could and turned, now facing the city below, and when he looked behind him, Janus was running at him. It appeared as if Janus was going to punch him, so Irvine put his arms up ready to block a punch. But a punch wasn't what Janus had in mind. When he was 2 feet away from Irvine, he dropped. He caught himself on the floor with his hands, and with his right foot, sent a kick right up behind Irvine's arms. It would have been perfect, but he leaned back and Janus' foot went flying up past his head in front of his face. He grabbed Janus' leg by the ankle and started to spin, building up momentum and speed. Then he let Janus go and watched as he flew backwards through the air. He started to fall, but he missed the edge of the rooftop. So he kept falling. He kicked his legs and reached his arms around trying to find something to catch himself on, but found nothing to grab. As he fell, he screamed.

"IRVINE!!!!"

His body finally hit the street below, but it stretched like a trampoline and prevented his body from smashing. Then it rebounded and launched him back up about 10 feet or so into the air before he fell back down, this time onto solid pavement. The impact hurt, but he'd live. His body ached. As he picked himself up, he turned and saw Irvine approaching calmly.

"You handled yourself quite well. You're able to stand your ground, but an Agent would have thrown you off the roof like that in no time. Always remember that.

"Janus nodded again. "I understand."

"There is one more test you must take before you're finished."

Arching a brow, Janus thought of what he could mean. "What else do I have to do?"

Irvine looked around as though he was a tourist. "Whenever you go into the Matrix, you run two major risks: Getting killed, or getting captured, and that risk is as high as ever."

"Why?"

"Agents can move in and out of any body still plugged into the Matrix, and you've seen them before. But they've been upgraded, again. Originally they weren't as hectic, and we didn't have to worry much about them as long as we weren't traced, and if the situation called for it, we could briefly stand our ground against them. Now, they're practically impossible to fight, and they're frequently present. They'll either kill you on the spot, or if you're a ship captain, they may capture you to get Zion mainframe codes, and then kill you. Either way, we're more of a priority to them, and they are extremely dangerous."

Janus took note that Irvine had mentioned Zion again, that which he had no knowledge of. Now was the time to get out of the way. "You keep talking about Zion; What is it?" Irvine turned around to face him.

"Zion is the last human city. It's the only place we have left for refuge when we're not in our ships. It was once almost destroyed, but thanks to Neo we got lucky. It has more defense systems than it did before, but it's still treated as though it's always at risk."

"What for?"

Irvine's tone became more serious. "Those machines are still out there, and we're at war with them again. As long as they exist, Zion will always be in danger of attack. If it were to be obliterated, we would have nothing."

Irvine sighed. There never seemed to be an end to this living in fear. Living day to day, hour to hour, hoping and praying they would see the next. He called himself a fool for thinking that Zion was really safe and that their worries were over when Neo made the truce. He knew it wasn't. He knew that the machines could attack at any moment they pleased; The fear was still there. That's why he chose to leave Zion. Living as though the war had not ended was more comfortable to him and the other ships' crews than living where you weren't sure if it was over or not. Now, he got what he wanted, but at the cost of Zion's peace. It was a guilt that weighed on his shoulders that he didn't think he would ever be able to get rid of. The look of reminiscent remorse slowly crept over his face. Janus stood there waiting, and Irvine didn't seem to notice or remember Janus was there.

Glitch frowned. "What the hell is he doing, taking a coffee break?"

Blade walked over to the chairs and stood over the one Irvine sat in. He slapped Irvine on the cheek, but not too hard. "That oughta do it."

Irvine snapped out of his trance when he felt the small bit of pain on his face. He shook his head and looked back over to Janus. "I'm sorry, I--" but he was cut off.

"No, it's alright. I understand. What does this last training involve?"

Irvine tilted his head slighlty, and then remembered what he was talking about with a nod. "Oh! Yeah, that's right. Like I was saying, when you go into the Matrix these days, you risk your life, and the chance of getting captured. Should anyone be captured or held up and not able to get to their exit in time, the first available person from any of our ships will be sent in to get you out. Your objective here is to be the knight in shining armor. There will be simulated people who can turn into Agents at any possible moment. Cops can be called in and will try to kill you, their bullets will hurt, but if they hit you in an area where you would die immediately, the simulation will end. There will be a simulated redpill that you have to rescue, and if he is killed before you get back to the exit, you fail. You're to make sure he gets out of the Matrix before you do. You'll be given a pistol and two extra magazines. You'll have a phone to contact us with in case you need any help. Good luck."

As he stood there, Janus watched the world around him change. Irvine's image before him faded into a transparent figure broken up by particles of light and then disappeared. The new surroundings consumed the existing environment he was in like a huge expanding mass. The border of the new programmed reality as it swarmed over all of the buildings and streets and floor and sky was hi-lighted in a bright green light. Janus took a moment to look around him as the changes took place.

(Chapter 7 concluded) 

Now, instead of standing on a rooftop, Janus stood in a crowded street full of pedestrians and cars, and skyscrapers towered over him. There were changes on him as well. Adding to what he was already wearing, the bright green light came over his body and a black ankle length trench coat formed over him. It almost resembled a cape. On his head, the green light took the shape of sunglasses.

He felt the gun materialize in the back of his waistband, and the two clips attached to his belt in the back, both well concealed by the coat. Theses change happened in a matter of maybe five seconds tops. He looked around a bit more at the people and the buildings to familiarize himself with the new environment he was in, and then he heard the phone in his pocket ring. He took it out and pressed the button to release the face shield, and it quickly slid down with a *CHAK* He put the phone up to his ear.

"Alright, you all situated?" the voice on the other end asked. It was Glitch.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Tell me where he is."

"Okay. He's stuck on an apartment rooftop downtown from where you are, building 344. He was running from an Agent but he stalled it for now, but you have to hurry, because the cops are after him and they have a chopper."

"I'll need something fast."

"Coming right up. Anything else?"

"A full-auto AR-15 in a pistol configuration. Make it quick."

"The alley to your left."

Janus shut the face shield and put the phone back into his pocket. Looking over to his left, he saw an alley, just like Glitch said, so he made his way over to it, pushing his way through people as he went. When he finally made it to the other side of the street, he didn't waste time and went down it quickly and saw what Glitch left for him. It was a black ninja-type motorcycle. "I said fast, not a crotch rocket." He noticed the AR-15 pistol hanging onto the handle grips by its sling. He hopped on and started the ignition and revved the engine making a loud *VVVMM* noise. He slung the AR-15 pistol over his shoulder. The traffic and all the pedestrians in the street would be a problem, so he turned the bike and went down the rest of the alley into the less occupied back roads.

Speeding through the roads in the downtown direction, he thought of what Glitch told him, how the guy he had to go in after was stuck on a rooftop. He turned right and thought of how he could get up onto the roof in a manner that they could both get down. He built up speed, going about 50 MPH, and he could hear sirens a few blocks away.

Time was running short. He looked at the address number on one of the buildings he passed, and it read 426. He still had some way to go. He switched gears and kept going straight and then made another left. Looking to the number signs again, he caught a glimpse of 340 as he passed by, so he knew the building was just down the block.

The man stood on the roof dressed in black pants and boots and a patterned dress shirt tucked in. He had a two-tone P8 in his waist band, and black biker gloves on his hands that ended at his wrist. His hair was short, black, and spiked, and he had a goatee. His glasses were black framed with red lenses. He listened nervously as the sirens got closer, and he heard the whooping of helicopter blades. In the distance, he saw the helicopter itself. Looking around, seeing buildings with rooftops too low to jump on without hurting himself, and buildings that were tall enough were too far to make a jump to.

He clenched his fist. "*CENSORED*!" He tried his phone again, but it was dead, of no use. He threw it down to the street and it smashed into bits. A few blocks back he was being chased by an Agent, but he caused a ten-car pile up and that gave him enough time to run a few more blocks. He was unfortunate though to find after climbing up the fire escape ladders that the door to get down into the building was locked, and he couldn't jump. If he went back down, he risked another Agent getting a lock on his position.

Janus zoomed down the block past the building the guy was on. He saw a multi-story parking garage across from the building that was too far to jump from to get to the apartment rooftop, but he wasn't planning to jump. He stopped the bike in front of the parking garage with a fish-tail, and the back tire screeched. After switching gears again, he went forward and busted through the small gate and went up the ramp to the next level. There were five levels in all.

Kira watched the screens and arched her eyebrow. "What's he doing?"

Anubis shrugged. "I don't know. I would have used a grappling hook."

When Janus made it up to the fifth level, he saw a small ramp on the other side farthest from him. He backed the bike up, and he heard the helicopter and sirens getting closer.

"No way," Irvine said out as he watched.

Janus hit the gas and with a loud *VVVVMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM* filling the air, he sped across the rooftop and hit the ramp. He went flying up into the air. The guy on the other roof watched in awe. The bike slammed down on the roof and Janus swooped around, hitting the breaks. The pilots of the helicopter were in eye view now. The Agent was with them. The helicopter flew overhead and circled around to come back to make another pass.

"I'm Chip," the guy said.

"Come on!"

Taking the hint, Chip jumped onto the bike as Janus revved the engine again. He started to drive, and the pilot brought the helicopter around in the air in front of the building to stop Janus from making the jump, with the door facing Janus, the Agent facing him.

Acknowledging this, Janus pulled up the AR-15 out and aimed it up at the blade rotors and fired a stream of automatic fire. The bullets hit into the base of the rotor. It sparked and whined, and the helicopter began to spin out of control. The pilots flew forward and tried to move out of the way of the building.

Janus hit the gas, and the bike raced forward, off the rooftop of the apartment. They flew through the air and the bike went through a gap into fourth level of the parking garage. The pilots tried to control the 'copter, but it started to fall and it tipped forward, and crashed into a nearby building side with a loud explosion, killing the pilots inside.

When they landed on the top of the parking garage however, Janus looked back to see the Agent jump up into the window after them from the ground below.

"*CENSORED* it!"

He turned and drove down to the next level of the parking garage, but he knew it would be of no use. "We gotta ditch this bike," Janus said. He rode off into a corner and they both got off. Now they were on level three of the parking garage. Janus looked over all of the cars.

"We can sneak out behind those."

The Agent came down and saw the lone bike, hesitating for a moment, then began scanning the area. Janus and Chip were ducked behind the cars, moving ever so gently as not to make a sound. Slowly moving along, Chip slipped and hit into a car with an alarm. It sounded off, giving away their spot with loud sirens blaring and echoing.

"Oh that's bad," Glitch said as he watched.

Seeing the Agent look over in their direction, Janus first pushed Chip away and then dashed, quick enough not to get hit by the bullets sent flying his way. They both ran, ducking behind cars and hiding behind pillars, over to the nearest set of ramps leading down to the next lowest level. The Agent fired and they ducked, the bullets almost making their mark, concrete bits flying up into the air from the impact points. More car alarms sounded off. Janus looked out from the concrete pillar he hid behind and blind-fired his AR-15 pistol. The Agent's body suddenly blurred, and he moved in all sorts of positions, the bullets passing him by and hitting the wall far off behind him. Janus looked back to Chip.

"Go."

Chip nodded and jumped over the railing, falling down to the next ramp. He landed in a crouch and ran down the rest of the way to the bottom. Janus faced the Agent as he backed toward the ramp cutout, and kept shooting until he ran out of bullets. When he did, the Agent went from blurry to solid again and a sly smile came over his face. He raised his gun and Janus ducked back behind the pillar. Three rounds flew past where he was standing. Had he not moved, he would have been killed. He ran quickly and jumped down the same way Chip did, following the same path down to the bottom.

Putting his gun back into the holster under his jacket, the Agent walked over to where Janus jumped from to see where he might have landed. Smirking, with a nod, he walked off.

"Are you hurt?" Janus asked as he made his way over to Chip and reloaded his gun. He looked back to check for the Agent, seeing no sign of him. "Where did he go?" Janus asked.

"No, let's keep movi--DUCK!!"

Janus turned his head to see the Agent pick up a car as if it was as light as a feather. His eyes widened; he couldn't believe it. He jumped out of the way as the Agent hurled the car in his direction. It slammed through the wall of the parking garage, and that was all it took to get Janus moving again. He and Chip both started to run again, and the Agent ran right after them, fast. Very fast.

As they both ran, Janus pulled the phone out of his pocket as his coat billowed out behind him. After opening the face shield, he put the phone up to his face.

"Glitch!!--" *BOOM--BOOM BOOM* the bullets zipped past his head. "Where's the exit!?" he yelled into the phone.

Chip turned back and fired back *BAM BAM*

"It's two blocks away on 5th street. A phone booth. You're almost there."

Dropping the phone, Janus grabbed Chip's arm and pulled. They kept running, but the Agent was still behind them. Janus knew there was no way they were going to be able to run two city blocks away from this thing, so they had to find a short cut. He looked up ahead and saw one of those stores where the owner lives on the top of the store, where the door to get upstairs is next to the door that leads into the store itself.

Holding his gun up and aiming at the doorknob, he fired a few rounds until he saw it hang limp. Leading Chip, and unfortunately the Agent, he ran up to the door and kicked it in, running up the stairs and into the apartment. Chip followed, the Agent at least twenty feet behind him still, so he didn't want to give it the chance to catch up by shooting at him.

He followed Janus up the stairs and to the back of the house where he was waiting. "Up the fire escape!" he instructed, and up they went. When the Agent caught up, he was slowed down when he tried shooting at them and climbing the stairs at the same time. Every round he fired missed and made a loud *PANG* or *TWANG* noise when it hit the steel. They made it up to the roof, and without say, they ran to the edge and super-jumped across the street to the rooftop on the other side of the street.

When they landed, they ran and jumped one more time. The Agent was one roof behind them; The exit was on the sidewalk below. "The exit is down there. Go, I'll cover you," Janus said to Chip.

The simulacrum looked appreciative and nodded. "Alright. Thank you."

He ran over to the fire escape ahead, and Janus looked back at the Agent.

*BOOM BOOM*

Two shots whizzed past him and he fired back

*BAM BAM BAM BAM*.

The Agent's body blurred again, and he stood there like that until Janus had stopped firing, then solidified again. Janus ran over to the fire escape ladder and looked down to the sidewalk. He saw Chip enter the phone booth and disappear; Then he started his way down. The Agent stood there and waited for a moment. His head shook and his body transformed into the civilian he had originally taken over. When Janus was low enough, he let go of his ladder and fell down the rest of the way to the sidewalk, only a ten foot drop.

The phone booth was just down the block, so he started running. Janus looked back again to make sure he wasn't being followed; He saw a car pulling into a parallel parking spot. The driver's head began to shake, and it transformed into the Agent. He dropped to the floor as the Agent moved to open the car door. As he fell he aimed at the gas tank under the backside of a car, and when he fell , he fired a shot. The bullet ripped through the air and smashed into the gas tank making a small hole.

A *CLANK* was heard, there was a spark, and as the Agent passed the car, it exploded into a fury of flames. Janus figured the Agent was out of commission-for now.

"Check out this bad *CENSORED*! He's a regular action movie star," Glitch said, looking quite entertained.

Slowly, Janus got himself up off of the payment and walked over to the phone booth. The phone rang when he saw it, like someone was waiting to call him. He walked over to it, opened the doors and took the phone off the receiver. Hesitantly, he put it up to his ear, and felt his eyes close. The next thing he knew, he was taking in a deep breath and looking back up at the ceiling of the Nemesis. Irvine was staring down at him.

"You made it. So did he. Good job. You're ready to operate in the Matrix."

Janus nodded. "Thanks."

Anubis looked over at him. "Don't let it get to your head, it's nothing fun," he said as he passed by.

Janus' eyes followed him as he left. What's his problem?

"Don't mind him," Marley said as he walked over. "He's always in a bad mood. We just ignore it, he does what he has to. Congratulations. You're a full member of the team now."

Janus looked back up at him. "Uh, yeah. It's great."

----

"Balthasar, behind you!" *BOOM BOOM BOOM-TATATATATATATATATATA*.

"Come on, move!" Blood shouted. He wore a black tactical vest over a blood red t-shirt, and black BDU pants over his combat boots of the same color. He fired an UZI back at the Agent on the other end of the car garage so Balthasar could get over to the car so they could get to their exit.

Balthasar had long black hair that went to his mid back. He was dressed all in black: Leather pants and an ankle length black coat. A black t-shirt covered him underneath that and was tucked into his pants. The boots he wore went up to his knees, with four buckles going up the front of each over the laces. He was armed only with a Glock 21 and his magazine was running low. He was ducked down behind a dumpster with an Agent firing at him. Blood fired and the Agent blurred, giving Balthasar the chance to run. He did so in the fashion of rolling out of the way and diving over to the car.

He climbed into the back seat and Leon, the person driving the car, shouted out to Blood. "Blood, into the car, time to move!"

Leon and Balthasar aimed out of the window and fired at the Agent to keep him over on his end while Blood climbed into the car. He ran around, opened the door, and climbed in, slamming the door. Balthasar chucked a grenade out behind the car as they peeled out, for cover. As they drove up out of the garage, they heard a loud BAM behind them.

"Is the exit ready?" Blood asked as he reloaded his clip.

"Not sure, why don't you check?" Leon suggested sarcastically as he dodged cars and pedestrians left and right.

"Maybe if you actually learned to drive.." Blood started off.

"Hey, guys, shut up, I'm trying to call Sideways now, okay?!" Sonia shouted. She sat in the back with Balthasar, and was dressed in black and green. The phone rang and Sideways picked up on the other end.

"I know, I know, Exit right? I'm working on it," Sideways said as he typed DIAL.EXE into the keyboard so he could patch the exit. "Make the next turn on your left and drive under the overpass, it's right there. We'll be waiting for you."

She hung up the phone and repeated the directions to Leon. He followed them, but when they got to the overpass, someone was waiting for them. A black car.

"Who's that?" Blood asked. The doors opened. From the driver's seat stepped out Niobe dressed in her brown croc-print leather, armed with an AK-47 Beta Spetnaz; From the front passenger seat: Morpheus, in his purple suit and leather trench with a Tommy-gun. Out from the back came Ghost in his black suit and trench coat with two Walther P-99s, and Kid in a knee-length version of Neo's cassock, with an HK P2000.

"*CENSORED*," Balthasar said. "We can handle them."

Leon put the pedal to the floor and hit the car into the wall so that it made a sort of barrier in front of the phone, but so that no one was injured. As soon as their car stopped, the bullets started flying. Leon and Balthasar opened their doors up and everyone jumped out and got behind the car and started shooting back. The phone started to ring.

Blood shouted out over the gunfire: "Morpheus, you got a lot of guts trying to pull some *CENSORED* like this!!!"

Balthasar reached up over the roof and fired two shots over at Ghost, causing him to wince slightly even though he wasn't hit.

"Someone get through the exit!" He yelled.

"Blood, you go!" Leon told him. Blood nodded, handed his gun over to Leon and reached for the phone. When his RSI disappeared, Sonia hung up the phone so Sideways could load the exit again. When it rang, it was her turn. She left, and as Leon hung up the phone, Balthasar guarded him with cover fire.

"They're outnumbered!" Kid yelled as he shot for Leon's head as he answered the phone. The bullet traveled through the fading avatar though. Balthasar was the last man left. He grabbed Leon's UZI and aimed over at Morpheus and fired through the windows, hitting him twice in the stomach region. Morpheus yelled out; "AGH!"

The others stopped firing for a moment, just enough time for Balthasar to hang up the phone and pick it up again. He faded away, and the four Zion fighters were alone. Niobe tended to Morpheus.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "I'll be fine. Did he get out?"

She nodded. "Barely, but yeah."

He sighed. "*CENSORED* it. Call Sparks, tell him to set up the exit. Then have Link ready to get the ship back to Zion, we'll need to recharge."

Ghost took out his phone. "I'm on it."

----

Chapter 8: Other than the Matrix

Date: Approx 2203

Time: -

Area: Tunnels of the Real

The Nosferatu sat dormant on the composure of rock and metal that made up the ground it sat upon, and the walls that surrounded it. The tunnel was dark and damp, hues of depressing blue fading off into black as the rock and wires and pipelines stretched off into the dark. The Nosferatu itself was one of the larger hover crafts, the largest hovercraft Zion had next to the Mjolinr, both ships in the large class. It had at least 12 pads, and it looked like a large control center building as it sat in the dark with steam all around it on the floor. Aside from all the pads, there were four antennae for transmissions, and fourteen gun turrets.

Since it was the largest ship the Resistance had with them, it was crowned their flagship, and it's Captain, Blood, the main Captain of the fleet. Blood was one of those tough-as-nails types of people. One could tell by the scars on his face that he had experience with this life and how to live it. He was a man they could depend on and trust, wise and with a few tricks up his sleeve for anyone who tried to come after them, man or machine.

In the core of the ship, the four who had just had a run in with Morpheus's crew were being unplugged from their chairs. Blood got up from his chair and looked at the others. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.

Balthasar sat up from his chair and pushed his hair away from his face and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about the others?" Sonia's eyes opened and she inhaled. After blinking a few times, she exhaled.

"Are you alright?" Blood asked her, looking at her vitals screen.

She nodded. "Mhmm."

Leon shook his head when he sat up and looked around. "What an unexpected pain in the *CENSORED* that was." He looked over to Sideways. "Didn't you see those guys waiting for us?"

Sideways, the Nosferatu's Operator, looked up from his screens. "I was concentrating on getting that exit up fast enough before any Agents began to chase you again, alright? I can't do everything, I'm only human."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Whatever.."

"Hey!" Balthasar called out. "Both of you shut up, I'm not in the mood to hear it, I was just getting shot at."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Nitro said as he put the last insertion needle back onto its rack. "Hot shot over here hit Morpheus, twice."

Sideways chuckled. "Yeah, that was great. Score for Balthasar!"

Balthasar grinned and nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I did hit him. Maybe he won't be so zealous and macho next time we meet."

Blood walked around so he could join into the conversation. "I couldn't believe he had the balls to show up and try to kill us right there. If we find his ship he'll be sorry."

Leon arched a brow "Oh yeah, when was he allowed to get a new ship?"

Blood scratched the back of his neck to take care of an itch. "He was granted a new one when Hamann made him the head of Zion's Matrix Corps shortly after this war began. He believed our job wasn't over in the Matrix even though there was peace, and Hamann thought the same. Remember when he let the Nebuchadnezzar leave after Lock called back every ship because he thought something about the oncoming sentinels could be done in the Matrix?"

Sonia nodded. "Yeah, I remember watching it leave and wondering why it was being allowed to leave in the first place. Both of them are crazy."

"You can say that again," Leon claimed. "In either case, now our reason for going into the Matrix is the same as it was before: To find a way to destroy it."

"A lot of work five ship crews are going to have to do." Sideways said.

"We'll pull it off, trust me. A free mind's more effective than a closed one. It'll be destroyed before you know it."

"Okay, enough with the wishing and hoping, we're off. Let's see if we can find something new besides uncharted tunnels. Nitro, come with me."

Nitro nodded and he followed Blood off to the cockpit. The other three looked at Balthasar.

"Sideways, I want you to monitor sentinel activity," Balthasar ordered.

"Sonia, Leon, do whatever you want, I don't care."

Leon gave Sonia a suggesting look with a nod, and Sonia shrugged back. Leon tilted his head forward slightly, and Sonia's eyes widened a bit. Leon shoved her and she smirked and shove him back. He went to shove her back again but she ran off and he chased her. You could hear their giggles as they ran off down the corridor.

Sideways looked at Balthasar and he rolled his eyes. "I can't be a hypocrite. Why deny it?"

Sideways shrugged. "I don't know man, you just go with the flow." Balthasar shrugged and walked behind the consoles, grabbing a swivel chair and setting it behind Sideways before sitting himself down. Rather than being situated in some random spot on the ship, the consoles and monitors were wired and attached to the wall a few feet from the chairs, on top of a grated floor, with wires hanging down above him and pipes all around him. The chairs were over to Sideways's left. Behind him, the ship's fuses. He typed in a a few commands and the three central monitor panels displaying the code script of the Matrix switched to three different HUD screens. One displayed sonar readouts, one displayed radar readouts, and the other displayed what the camera's in front of the ship could see, that way, Sideways could see what they saw.

A few of the smaller screens switched to display things such as proximity, power display, and hull integrity. Some of them also displayed the matrix script code so that it could still be checked on without being in the way of monitoring sentinel activity. Sideways spoke into the headset. "Alright cap, me and Balthasar are ready. Nothing near us at the moment."

"Alright. We're setting off," Blood answered. He flicked the right switches and pushed the necessary buttons while Nitro started up the ship's holographic and navigational systems. Blood flicked three main switches to his left on a panel full of the critical controls, and Nitro pulled back on an overhead lever. The lights glowed as they lit up, luminating the inside of the cockpit, and the hum of the pads coming to life followed. The ship rocked and dropped a bit when the landing gears were taken up into the ship, but remained hovering nonetheless.

Gripping his controls, Blood spun the ship around 180-degrees while Nitro kept it steady, and then they headed off down the tunnel the same way they had come earlier before landing in that area. The pads gave off light blue trails as the ship flew, and the light that came from them lit up the tunnel before them. It wasn't long before they came to a crossroad of sorts. One path leading straight up from their current position, one going down on a slant, and then the tunnel continued forward and downward. Since they had previously come from the path leading down, Blood and Nitro exchanged looks as they thought of which way to go.

Blood nodded his head forward and Nitro nodded. Turning back to the paths that lied before them, they continued on the path leading forward. The ship buzzed as it flew down the tunnel, lined with pipes jutting out from the top and bottom and running along the path. The tunnel began leading downward, and so, the ship tipped down with it. It straightened out after a while, so Nitro tipped the ship's rear down slightly to prevent crashing and causing a ruckus. The radio began to crackle, and someone's voice came through.

"Heading off?" the voice asked. Blood identified it as the voice of Vega, Captain of the Merciless. He grabbed the receiver and brought it up to his face.

"Affirmative. We're seeing if we can find anything interesting. What about you?"

"Same thing, we'll be heading opposite your direction though. Going anywhere special?"

"We're taking an uncharted route that's currently just going straight ahead. Looks like it'll stay that way. Any sign of anything we should be worried about?"

"We thought we detected another ship before but whatever it was it left pretty quick. Crew started scaring themselves saying it was a ghost ship."

"Heh, you never know out here. We'll see you later, we're gonna maintain radio silence from here on out."

"Alright, good luck. Don't do anything I wouldn't."

"Right, right." Blood sighed as he hung the receiver back up and switched off the radio. Nitro listened in on that sigh. "Something the matter cap?"

"It's just the irony of it all," he answered. "What do you mean?"

"We left Zion because we thought living there with the machines at large would be a risk. We're at more of a risk out here going into uncharted areas than we were living in Zion."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point. But we're out here for a good reason. The ones back at Zion don't want to be a part of this anymore. So, leave them behind. Those fit will be the survivors."

Blood simply nodded in response as he thought of it. The tunnel stretched on forward and remained this way for a while with no tunnels branching off on the sides for about a hundred miles. They were the bullet, slowly traveling down the barrel of the gun. Blood turned on the microphone on his headset.

"Anything Sideways?"

"Nothing boss. Smooth ride so far."

"Good. Tell me when something comes up."

"You got it."

He shut the microphone off and typed a command into the keyboard before his piloting joysticks, speeding the hovercraft up a bit.

"Getting impatient?"

"Getting bored."

Nitro chuckled and checked the holographics. "This should bring some sunshine to your day."

"Don't play with me."

"No, I'm serious. The tunnel moves up and branches off up to the right. To the left is what looks like a desolate factory that was used for construction."

"Where are we?"

"300 kilometers below a stretch of mountains."

"A construction factory in the middle of the mountains? Never mind, the turn is coming up now." Gripping his controls, Blood turned the ship so that the stern swerved 90-degrees left, while Nitro took care of stabilizing the ship. The climb before them was pretty steep.

"Gee you really find the good spots don't you?" Blood asked.

Nitro's forehead wrinkled. "What? You wanted to go this way!"

Blood hit him in the shoulder. "No bitching. Don't make me drop you off before one of the Zion gates."

Nitro shuck his head. "Alright, alright."

Blood turned his headset on again. "Balthasar, Sideways, hold something, we're going up and we're making a tilt that might throw you into a wall."

Balthasar and Sideways exchanged looks. "Uh, thanks," Sideways responded.

(Chapter 8 continued)

Balthasar rose from his seat quickly and poked his head down the hallway leading to the quarters. "Hey! Love birds! Vertical tilt, find something to hold onto!"

Leon and Sonia, who lay under covers, looked at each other with an alarmed look. They both frantically looked for something to hold onto before Leon came up with an idea. "Let's just sit up against the wall!" So, they did. Needless to say, their bare upper bodies were exposed, but nonetheless, if the ship tilted any, they'd be in a reclined position. After letting a few minutes pass by, Blood and Nitro pushed the ship forward and up. The whole ship tilted back until it had nearly turned upwards 90-degrees going straight up.

"Boost power to the pads!" Blood shouted, but Nitro was two steps ahead of him, already typing in the commands. The pads glowed brighter, with more white and electric blue bolts moving from the pads to the tunnels that surrounded the ship. After increasing the ship's speed, Blood pushed his joysticks forward. Balthasar and Sideways held onto their chairs for dear life, and Leon and Sonia laughed as though it were a roller coaster ride.

Blood and Nitro were doing all of the work and it wasn't a walk in the park. Soon enough, they came out of the top of the tunnel, and they straightened the ship out so that it floated as though it were idle. Blood and Nitro took a look at what they were in. The ship floated amidst a waste factory, compacting, melting, and burning wasted over materials the machines had used for power and construction. The chamber was rather flat in shape, and lined with furnaces. Steam and smoke rose from underneath the ship, and went out through the shaft that was above the ship in the chamber.

Nitro studied the holographics. "This is new. Well, ancient. It's been around for years according to the return readouts, but we've never seen it before. You know what it is?"

Blood looked at the furnaces and noted how the steam and smoke moved from under them and rose above them. He looked up the shaft, lined with pipes, grates, conduits, batteries, and tried to see what it lead to. Then there was a flash in the smoke. But then Blood realized it wasn't smoke. Thunder cracked like a whip. It was then he realized that the shaft led up to the surface. "We're in an exhaust shaft. The furnaces are disposing the waste from that factory we passed before. Boost the power to the bottom pads, we're going up."

Nitro's eyes widened. "We're going to the surface!?"

"We're so far away from Zion and the rest of the ships. It's worth a shot, we've never seen this part of the world before."

"Well, I guess we have no choice. Let's go."

Shifting the power to the lower pads, Nitro made sure the ship didn't tilt or slide as it floated up in it's regular horizontal position. Blood's eyes followed the pipes and cables that lined the shaft as they ascended, and he kept alert. The ship was moving slow, but steady none the less. Static bolts generating from the pads would every so often zap out onto the shaft's inside. The shaft itself was big enough to fit two Large class hover crafts into. Above the opening of the shaft, lightning broke the clouds followed by the rumble of thunder, highlighting the wreckage below.

The Nosferatu rose out with steam and smoke from the top of the shaft, that was lined with a teeth-like crown of sorts. Spinning the ship around, Blood and Nitro surveyed the land before them. Huge, destroyed towers rose up from the ground, amidst the fallen debris. Buildings lay decimated and crumbling, with parts of machinery all over the place. It was rare that any of them saw the surface. It gave gave them a creepy feeling, a feeling that said "This is what lays above you while you are deep underground. The graves of your fallen ancestors," as though their ghosts may be walking amongst the ruined cities.

Lightning flashed again, and something caught Blood's eye. In the mountains that were the wall behind the city wreckage, he saw a carved out passage tunnel, just big enough for the Nosferatu to fit into.

"There," he pointed. "The tunnel. Something's behind the mountains."

Nitro nodded and pushed the ship forward, and with a loud buzzing hum, the ship sped quickly towards the hole. "It's conveniently big enough," Nitro commented.

"It could have been used by people once with ships like these," Blood answered. Nodding, Nitro drove forward into the hole, and the pads brightly lit the narrow space with a blue tint. They came out the other end, and the sight took their breath away. A huge, almost endless city lay out before them. It was obvious that the structures were human made, but it had been overrun by machines.

The scary part was, it was so much in any bad condition as it was abandoned. Power lines, nearly 1/5 the size of a Small class hovercraft, wound and twisted throughout buildings and structures. That was another thing, the buildings. Insanely tall towers rose from sections of buildings, and in between each of these square shaped sections were gaps. Very deep gaps.

"You sure you wanna go down there?" Nitro asked.

"The place is abandoned. The machines have already passed the place over. As long as we're quiet, they won't suspect a thing."

Nitro shrugged. "Can't hurt."

Blood brought the ship down into the city and in between two sections, turning around a corner as he descended. The both of them stared at the structures as they passed them by, and also looked down deeper into the gaps at what was below them.

"This is intense...." Blood managed to say in his state of awe.

"You can say that again.." Nitro replied.

Balthasar and Sideways said nothing as they watched the display. They were both alert and hypnotized by the images of this unseen city at the same time.

"We'll set down over there," Blood said pointing ahead. There sat a tremendous dome with a large 04 painted onto it. There were more power lines leading into it and out of it on the opposite side. There was a hole in the top of this dome, so Blood flew the ship in and swooped around before going in. When they did, he found a place to land and with a rumble they did so, setting down under the hole from which they entered. Sideways spoke up on his headset.

"Everything alright?"

Blood turned his headset on. "Yeah, we're fine. Any sign of sentinels?"

Sideways checked the readings, and saw no sign of anything. "I got nothing, but the readings are saying that there's a huge amount of electricity in whatever you landed us in. Do you know why?"

Blood looked at one of his side monitors to verify Sideways' claim, and he was right.

"We'll check it out," Blood said, and turned off his headset.

"So what is it?" Nitro asked. After a moment, he spoke out again. "It looks like the inside of Zion's dock."

All Blood could say was "Hmm.." Inside of this dome, a large generator sat in the center, and power lines lining the inside of the dome were all wired to it. Every so often, bolts of electricity would spark from a random power line to the generator. Considering what Nitro suggested it looked like, he compared the size of this dome to the size of Zion's dock in his head.

"This used to be a dock," he said. "When the machines came through they cleaned it out and put this huge generator in here. There's millions of volts passing through here. Now it's a power station."

Nitro's eyebrows raised up. "Are we gonna blast it?"

Blood sat there considering the effect it would have, both on the ship and the machines. "Yup." He switched on his headset again.

"Sideways, charge the EMP."

He and Balthasar exchanged looks, and Sideways shrugged, pushing down the button marked "ARM". It glowed red after being pushed down, to signify that the EMP was now ready for fire.

"EMP's armed," he responded.

Blood sat there and waited a moment. "Punch it."

With the loud sound of an electrical explosion, the blue shockwave flashed out from central area of the ship and consumed the entire dome in its blast radius. In the same instance, orange sparks exploded from every single point in the dome creating a super bright flash that could have blinded Blood and Nitro if they didn't look away.

There was a loud noise, a *BAAMMMMMMM*, from the millions of volts of the electric power suddenly being strangled and killed. Electrical fires broke out all over the dome and it suffered structural damage.

----

Sitting in his black chair surrounded by hundreds of screens sat The Architect, monitoring activity and anomalies all over the Matrix. Suddenly, in red blinking letters reading "ALERT: POWER LOSS" came up on all of the screens. Arching a brow as he read the message, he hit the button on his pen, bringing up damage detail. It read: "Damage suffered: 03/04 Mid-area. Time: 23:09:27:12. Cause: EMP." He sighed as though he was bored, or annoyed. "They knocked out a serious power station. Sentinels will be deployed."

----

Alarms in the ship went off, and Blood stared out at what was becoming an inferno inside the dome. Their power was out, all except for their headsets and the radar. The power array within the ship was insulated to survive an EMP. "What happened to the ship?!" Blood yelled.

"Nothing happened yet besides a power loss, but it's about to get the Osiris treatment if the auxilary power doesn't kick in soon!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Sentinels coming in fast. Whatever you did, you gave away our position and pissed them off. I count ten sentinels incoming."

"How long before they get here?"

"I'd give 'em four minutes"

"*poop*. How long before the auxiliary power kicks in?"

"Three minutes!"

Blood looked over to Nitro. "Some sunshine to light my day huh?"

All Nitro could do was shrug with a "heh.."

Blood shouted back into the headset. "Is there anyway you can get that auxiliary power to charge faster, we're sitting ducks!"

Sideways typed like there was no tomorrow, accessing the ship's power setup. "I can try to reroute the power, but it might take me a few minutes."

"You have two!"

"Got it!"

Sideways began reworking the ship's power shift path, and then Leon and Sonia entered. "What's the matter, we heard sirens," Leon said.

"Turrets, now!" Balthasar answered, and the three of them ran to the nearest ladders and dropped down to the turret stations. Outside, the sentinels were getting closer and closer with that familiar whine as they tore through the air. Blood looked at the holographics.

"Where the hell did they come from?!"

Nitro shook his head hitting all sorts of switches as he turned on the ship's front turrets. "I got no idea sir, all I care about right now is getting out of this *CENSORED* city before I get torn apart limb by limb."

Blood turned back to his controls. "Sideways, the power?"

(Chapter 8 continued)

"Almost finished..." Once he accessed the final circuitry path, he switched the root path so instead of the auxiliary power spreading out to the entire ship, it would go directly to the priority emergency systems and then worry about secondary circuits. Once this was finished, there was a distinct repetitive beeping noise that confirmed that the new path would work out, and the power rushed back to the ship. As the sentinels drew nearer, the Nosferatu rose up from where it landed, spun 180-degrees and flew up out of the old dock and now useless power station. Buzzing through the city sections in the deep gaps, the Nosferatu fled, with the sentinels in pursuit.

"Can we lose them in the city?" Nitro asked as he checked the proximity of the sentinels.

"I wouldn't waste the time. If we're lucky we can get them in the tunnels."

"The tunnels? You know how far that is?"

"Yes I know how far it is, don't worry about that just worry about helping me fly this thing. Is our power back?"

"100% power, got any ideas?"

"Increase the speed."

As the Nosferatu entered the passage that was in the mountains, Nitro increased the speed to make the ship go as fast as it could go. The g-force threw him back into his seat.

"Whoa! What are you doing up there?" Sideways asked.

"Hauling *CENSORED*!" Blood shouted. Coming out of the passage and passing through the wreckage of towers still standing, Blood could see the exhaust vent up ahead when he saw the smoke and steam rising out from the ruins. Nitro checked the rear visuals and saw 150 small red lights in the dark of the passage chasing after them. "Not good...They're still after us." The Nosferatu was coming over the ventilation shaft now.

"Alright Nitro, on my mark take power from the front pads and reroute it to the rear, I need a 90-degree front tilt when I come around that vent shaft."

Nitro typed in the commands. "Reroute to rear pads...90-degrees front. Waiting for your signal.."

Blood swerved to the right of the vent shaft and turned left to bring the ship so that it was facing the shaft. "Now!" Nitro activated the set commands and the stern went up into the air bringing the ship completely vertical. Nitro held onto his chair.

"Ah..*poop*...." he mumbled as he nearly fell out. The Nosferatu rolled as it flew deeper into the tunnel as though it were a screw. The sentinels weren't far behind. The tunnel began to bend, and they were getting closer to the point where the tunnel would cut left and begin to straighten out for about a hundred miles.

"How are we going to lose them in that tunnel?" Nitro asked.

"Get ready to tilt the ship again. Route all power from the pads to the top pads, were gonna hug the wall when we make that turn," Blood answered. He was worried about getting the ship steady before worrying about sentinels. The turn came, and a plethora of blue bolts sparked out from the pads on the bottom of the ship, pulling it closer to the wall and scratching up against it a bit, making screeching noises.

"That didn't sound so good.."

"Did we lose any pads?"

"No, hull integrity is 97%. Turrets are firing away."

Bullets luminated in an orange glow flew from the turrets and were shot into the swarm of sentinels.

"Now that the ship is moving straight, it should be easy to take them out!" Blood said into his headset.

"We're working on it..!" Balthasar said through gritted teeth as he tried to stay in his seat and shoot at the same time. One of the red blips on his targeting screen disappeared. "Got one."

Leon shot down another. "Make that two!" Blood tilted his head over to Nitro as he looked straight ahead. "Find out how close we are to the mapped tunnels and increase our speed."

"Speed's as high as she goes. 17 miles from mapped territory."

"Using Zion's dock EMP's are too risky, the ship won't be able to get out and we could be captured."

"So what are we gonna do?"

The holographics console beeped, a new image was on backup display. Nitro checked to see what it was; It was the Rebellion. "Rebellion's close by."

"Call 'em." Nitro typed in "OPENTRANS\:REBLLN," and a communications link was set up. "Django you better be there I need your help!" Blood shouted into the headset microphone. He turned right into a side tunnel and cut another left. The radio crackled and Django called back. "What's wrong?"

"I have about seven sentinels chasing me, we need to set up a trap for them."

"Alright, I see you, go down the tunnel and go down the first chance you get, I'll be waiting there."

Remembering the directions Django provided, Blood sped the ship forward. "He better have a good plan."

"He's Django," Nitro said. "He's always got a good plan."

Django activated the Rebellion's propulsion system and retracted the landing gears. The ship rocked and the rest of the crew looked around.

"What was that?" Sigma asked, looking at the others. She was about 5'5, and wore dark blue pants and a white shirt.

"He's taking off," said Cable, the ship's operator. He was wearing a black short sleeved, wide collared shirt with dark blue pants and brown boots.

"Sit tight, I'll check it out," Masai said, and he went off the the cockpit. He wore a red long sleeved shirt with black pants. The ship lifted off with a forward tilt and moved out into the mainline tunnel, adjacent from where the Rebellion had taken off. Masai moved into the cockpit and sat in the passenger seat. "What's going on?"

"Nosferatu's coming in, being chased by sentinels. We gotta help him out."

"This should be fun." He grabbed an headset and turned it on. "Cable, arm the EMP, we're gonna need it in a minute."

Cable answered with an "uh-huh" and pushed the ARM button, turning on the light under the red switch. The Rebellion moved in and set down on the ground in the tunnel in a small ditch in the rock, and it sticked out just a few feet above the surface of the tunnel lining. Up ahead, Django looked out the window and saw the Nosferatu turn down into the tunnel. Then the sentinels followed after it.

"Alright Blood, you see my ship? Pass overhead and when you're out of my EMP range I'll burn the squids."

"Thanks."

"Bring up the holographics on our EMP range, Masai."

Masai brought up the holographic image and it showed an image of the outside surrounding area. It showed the tunnel, with a red ship in the middle showing the Rebellion's position. Another red ship was approaching, and that was the Nosferatu. A clear, blue tinted bubble surrounded the red icon that was the Rebellion, which showed the ships EMP range. The blast radius was 200 meters from the ship. "Here he comes.." Django said under his breath.

The Nosferatu approached and Django watched the holographics. It passed over and was almost out of the EMP blast range, while the sentinels were just coming in, not knowing the Rebellion was even there.

"Stupid squids.." Django said as the Nosferatu came out of the EMP range. "Now, Cable."

Cable turned the key and the blue electric shock wave exploded out from the ship, rocking the surrounding area. The sentinels sparked and shook violently for a moment in mid air as electric bolts passed through them. They dropped lifelessly to the ground with a "CLUNK".

"Thanks Django, I owe you," Blood said into his headset.

"Don't mention it. What happened out there?"

"We found something, then we wrecked it."

"What was it?"

----


Nothing like the taste of pure Italian wine. Captain Raven of the Vendetta thought to himself, sipping the glass he had poured, placing the bottle on his oak desk as he drank. He savored at the sweet and yet sour liquid, the same liquid that nearly a millenia ago that had been drunk by Julius Caesar and the great Emperors of Rome. Or at least, it was supposed to be, had Raven not known better. As one of the Resistance captains, he was fully aware of the Matrix and the conflict going on in the outside world, but he didn't let it deny him the pleasures of his life.

There he was, in his office at the top of the tower. Right now, he was posing as the CEO of a software corporation called the Rivermore Corporation, a proud company that boasted for its support to the United States military and several other large groups around the simulated world. While the real President of the company was currently on vacation with his secretary on a 'business trip', at least as a phone call between the President and his wife described it, Axe, the Vendetta's operator, managed to alter the last given orders so that Raven would be named CEO in his absence, at least for sometime.

It was the perfect way to create undercover operations within the Matrix that would tie the Resistance closer to the machines, as well as other things. Raven particularly enjoyed the setup, being at the top floor that overlooked the city in an office with black tile, an oak desk, a flat screen drop down TV/entertainment center with surround sound and two glass visors that surrounded the office at 90 degree angles, being divided by the entry way to the secretary's office and hall way, and the wall behind the desk that held the President's various awards, certificates and diplomas, plus three pictures, each of a friend of the Presidents. It originally had a picture of the President too, but Raven had Axe hack that out of the office and replace it with a picture of himself.

From his view point, Raven could see evening was beginning to set in through the clear sky, as darkness start to creep into the blue. He sighed at that, wishing the sky around Mega City would be more like how it was in Arizona, which had a mixture of pink, orange and yellow colors in the evening. Then again, Raven probably wouldn't have been able to put up with the simulated heat, or the desert for that matter, so he didn't complain about the chosen location for this job.

The door opened to reveal a man dressed in a white suit with knee high black boots, and a crimson red cape slung over his shoulders. If this were the ancient world, one would mistake the man for a german kaiser of sorts, judging from the ornate black lining around his white suit and the fur on the top end of the cape, which encircled the man's neck before ending at the sides. The suit was split open to reveal a black undershirt, but barely enough that one could just see a line of black in the man's attire.

At his right side, he had a single Colt Single Action Army revolver holstered, and though it could not be seen, there was another "Peacemaker" revolver at his left, except that one was on the back of the man's left side, covered over by the cape. He had a stern look on his face, which was squared and somewhat broad, definitely specifying the man as Austrian decent. His hair was combed back, and his mustache was neatly trimmed. And finally, he wore a pair of shades that had long, slender lenses which covered his eyes entirely. He gave Raven a nod.

"What is it Arius?" Raven asked, adjusting his square shaped, shaded glasses a little.

"Our dealer is here, Captain." Arius said in a thick Austrian voice, booming and strong.

"Excellent, send him in at once." Raven spoke in a cool, yet happy tone. He himself wore a black business suit here, with a dark green dress shirt, black tie and slender black slacks with dress shoes. Everything he had on was black and dark green, aside from the gold buttons, cuff links and the button on emblem on the tie. His hair was also black, parted to the sides to make him look more like a gentleman to females and a negotiator with males. And as always, he wore glasses so no one could see to his eyes in conversations.

Arius stepped to the side and allowed a man dressed in a black jacket, black slacks, a tan dress shirt and his hair pulled back into a tight pony tail, to walk through the door. As he did, Arius took out his right revolver and began to pistol twirl it up and down in similar fashion to a cowboy.

Following was another man, dressed in an overcoat that extended to his knees, a black dress shirt and black dress pants. Curiously, the sleeves of his overcoat both had white crosses embroidered into them. Other than that, there wasn't much to discern. He wore a pair of square shades similar to Raven's, except his were reflective. As the man with the pony-tail had learned, it was impossible to see past those shades to the man's eyes, as they were as dense as a blind man's.

"Ah, Captain Anome, a pleasure that you finally arrived." Raven began, "Please, have a seat, we have much business to discuss."

"I prefer to stand." Anome stated.

"Sit down." Arius barked with thunder.

(Chapter 8 continued)

Anome immediately jumped at the man's voice, to which Raven held his arms up in the air. "It's alright, Arius. If he doesn't want to sit, then we should honor his decision. After all, Captain Anome is technically sitting down at this very moment, if you think about it. Still, for the sake of appearances, I must request you to reconsider, Anome." Raven tipped his head down to give Anome a view of his eyes, showing his enjoyment at watching the man sweat.

Anome hesitated for a moment, but complied with Raven's request, taking a seat at the front of Raven's desk. "Thank you." Raven said, also taking a seat at his chair, then proceeded to pour some more Italian wine for himself. "Would you like some as well? I know it's simulated, but one should not deny the body the enjoyment of taste."

"No, I'm here on business and business alone, Raven." Anome said in a low growl, trying to hold back the venom he felt toward this man.

Raven sipped his wine and then took a cigar out from the desk, and with it a pair of clippers. "Always business, Anome?" he sighed as he clipped the tip off the cigar, "For once, I wish Zion would get a man just like me. Someone that I can enjoy a glass of wine or smoking a cigar with."

"You never offered me a cigar."

"You want one?"

"No."

"My point exactly." Raven said, raising an eyebrow at Roland. He took a wooden match and lit the cigar, then placed it in his mouth, taking a long drag. He let out a puff of smoke and smelt the aroma. "You know, I've always wondered why Zion treats the Resistance with such hatred, like you're treating me now," he said, taking the cigar out of his mouth.

"But I can understand why you think we're villains, just..." he looked up in the air as if thinking, "What if, in the middle of the story, the protagonist decides to quit in his quest? What if, just before he fights his nemesis, he decides he doesn't want this anymore and just goes back to his home. And better yet, who is there to take his place?"

Raven grinned. "There will be no one else but the villain to take his place. Granted, the villain's role was originally to make the hero's life more difficult, but in this case, the so-called heroes quit ahead of time, leaving only the villains to slay the dragon. So tell me Anome, if the villain is fighting for the hero's cause, does that make him a villain? Even if the title remains, would it be a sin for the villain to win?"

"You, Blood and the rest are nothing more than terrorists." Anome said with an accusing tone, "Disturbing the peace between Zion and the machines just because you can't lay down your guns."

"Please, you call that peace?" Raven laughed, "To me, it takes more than a deal to create true peace. It takes an agreement between the two parties on the matters they originally disagreed on, the building of a relationship between the two races. Not some deal made between Neo and the great Lord of the Machines itself. That's why 'villains' fight on, to continue the work 'heroes' like yourself started and abandoned for some cheap *CENSORED* excuse. 'Neo saved Zion... Neo this and Neo that....' Pah, the thought of a whole treaty made because of one heroic act, such hypocrisy on the heroes' part for believing it."

"It wasn't until you and the rest of your fleet went active that our relations with 01 have turned for the worse." Anome sneered, "Frankly, I don't want any part of this war."

"Then why are you here? Why did you want to make this deal with us?" Raven wondered.

Anome sighed, "Because 'General' Morpheus still thinks our job isn't finished in the Matrix, and he has ordered the remains of Zion's navy to deploy."

Raven laughed at this, "Oh, this is rich. Very rich. Like a divine comedy even." he leaned forward, "No matter what side you're on, the Matrix is still the center of attention. Tell me, is it your homesickness for Zion fueling your decision, or just your hatred for Morpheus?"

"Neither." Anome said, "I'll make this point right now, I hate the machines, and I hate the Matrix. But I don't give a *CENSORED* about your crusade. If you want to fight the Matrix, that's fine with me, but I'm not on your side."

"And yet you are."

Anome sighed, "I'm merely giving you an advantage in the war." He pulled up a briefcase that he had carried into the room before, placed it on the desk, and opened it to reveal several CD cases stacked together like dollar bills, "Each of these discs contain simulacra programs that were created by Zion's coders to help its redpills fight the war. You'll be one step ahead of Morpheus and the machines, because you'll have dozens of renewable soldiers at your disposal."

"Very interesting." Raven said, pulling a CD out and looking it over, seeing his own reflection on the plastic cover. He then looked over to the man in the black overcoat. "Magnus, is he speaking the truth?"

Magnus slowly walked over to the case and looked at it. Immediately, Anome felt a cold tension wash over him, as if the coding that his RSI consisted of had fluctuated. His heart beat quickened as a result. Just what was this guy doing?

"He speaks the truth." Magnus assured, "However, our friend's neural patterns have sped up some."

"So I see." Raven smirked at the sight of a nervous Anome, "You must disregard Magnus, he has some 'sensitivity' in the Matrix. He can feel out coding and impulse patterns the same way an operator can at the console." He looked back at Magnus, "That's all I needed to know."

The man in black nodded and stepped back next to Arius, who was still pistol twirling his revolver. Raven continued to speak, "Now, the question is what's in it for you? You gave us what we want, but why did you on your own accord?"

"I want your word that you'll end this war," Anome declared.


"And how do you suppose I do that?" Raven asked.

"Figure something out." Anome said. "I don't care about Morpheus' ideals or yours, I'm sick of living like this and I want it to end."

"Please, no sob stories, they don't do anything for me." Raven griped, contemplating, "I tell you what. One of my sources in Zion is in a rather close position to your Lock. And you know how close 'Deadbolt' is to the High Council. I'll work something out with him, and you'll be on your way back to your precious city. Do we have a deal?" he reached across the desk with his right hand.

At first, Anome hesitated, feeling as though he had just sold his soul to the devil himself. As he recalled in old mythology, ravens were birds that carried the souls of the dead to heaven or hell, and right now, he didn't trust this raven at all. Still, if he or his crew were to see Zion again, then he had no choice but to make a deal with this demon.

He took the hand. "Alright," Anome said, "If you'll excuse me, I must get back to my ship." He got up and turned, walking out the door, past Arius and Magnus.

"Ever a prudent man, don't you agree?" Raven asked his two crew members.

Magnus just smirked, "I can sense his fear. Right now, he's regretting making negotiations with us, trying to find another way out of our deal."

"Shall I shoot him boss?" Arius asked, immediately grabbing the handle of his Colt in mid twirl and pointing it at the doorway.

Raven shook his head, "No, we made a deal, so we must honor it, even if he regrets it. After all, honor is one of the traits that we have that will put us above the machines." Just then, his cell phone rang. He slipped it out of his pocket, opened it and placed it at his ear, "This is Raven."

"Axe here, Captain. Just got word from the Nosferatu, I think it's something you want to hear..."

----


Morpheus sat topless on the table in the infirmary. Two wires were taped onto his chest with medical tape, taking his heart rate. Another plug was inserted into the canal in the back of his head. On a screen his vitals were displayed, recording his heart rate and brain waves. Zee came over with a syringe filled with white fluid and injected it into one of the plugs on his forearm. Morpheus gritted his teeth at the annoying sting of the needle. "Don't be a baby," Zee told him. "You'll be fine."

He smiled. "You know, for a crew mate you sure do take the liberty of making fun of your captain," he said to her.

"Yeah, well, I volunteered to come on board as a medic. Someone has to watch you guys to make sure you don't kill yourselves."

"You're just here because you think I'm crazy," he said.

"That may be a reason, but I just figured the more help you had the better."

Morpheus laughed. "Do you think we can't handle ourselves out here?"

"No, that's not it," she said as she disposed of the needle and checked the area he had been shot in. "One of the main reasons is so I know Link is okay. I figured if he wouldn't stop operating for you, then at least I could go out with him. I can handle myself around here."

He nodded. "That's true. How long have you been with us?"

"Two years."

"Ah, that's right. Two years of dependable service and not a second of doubt." She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she smiled. "Are you still hurt?"

He shook his head. "No, not really. I've been at this game long enough. Knowing it isn't real takes the pain away."

Zee came back up and began taking the wires off of him. "Yeah, well, at least it was only a 9mm round. Could have been worse," she said suggestively. There was a creaking noise of a hatch being opened. They looked over and saw Niobe coming in.

"You know," she began as he walked in, "There wouldn't be any pain if you didn't create the Matrix Corps."

Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? I suppose you have a point, but then again, our presence in the Matrix during this war is just as important as it was during the last, maybe even more so." Zee unplugged the coaxial from his head.

"Yeah, maybe, but it's a lot more hectic. I mean, why do we even fight in there anymore? New Agent programs are so deadly, it's obvious they want us out. Five years ago I thought we had peace, and we wouldn't have to fight and live like this anymore. Don't you get tired of it sometimes?"

"Part of me agrees with you, and I want to say yes, but at the same time, I can't."

"Why not? Didn't your prophecy say The One was going to end the war and destroy the Matrix too? That turned out to be lame anyway."

Morpheus sighed, remembering how the prophecy he believed in so much was just a measure to keep him under control. "He ended the war. He did what he had to do. This wasn't planned by either side." He took a moment to think. "The reason is that the Council also thinks we need to be in the Matrix, to take care of the ships that left. That's why I'm sitting on this table anyway."

"Oh yeah, that's right. 'General Morpheus of the Matrix Corps'," she said in a mocking tone. "Jason couldn't believe that, you becoming his equivalent in another field," she said with a laugh.

"Oh yes, who could forget," he said in a concurring manner. "Victory never tasted so good. Besides, someone has to oversee Matrix activity."

"Yeah, who better than you?" she asked, drawing a look from him.

"Are you mocking me?"

She smiled. "Relax tiger, playing with you." Zee laughed to herself while she cleaned up her equipment and unplugged the heart rate monitors. Morpheus looked over and paused for a moment, then he nodded. "Alright, playtime's over. Niobe, Link is in the cockpit getting the ship ready, we're going back to Zion and you two are flying like usual, so get going.

"Yes, Captain." She said in a cool tone. She turned to walk out but just as she was about to walk through the door, she stopped and looked back. "Or is it General?"

"Move it." He said with a stare and a deep tone. She smirked and went to the cockpit.

----

(Chapter 8 continued) 

Niobe and Link sat at the controls in the cockpit. They slowly drifted down an entrance tunnel approaching Zion gate six. Wires hung like vines from junctions and metal criss-crossed to form frames that loomed overhead like rafters. The gate up ahead was closed, with two turrets on either side. Every 250 feet a small cylindric object came out of the top of the entrance tunnel with a blinking blue light. These were the EMP charge defenses, some of many that surrounded Zion. Link put on a headset and turned on his holographics monitor.

"Zion control this is the Nabonidus on approach requesting access through gate four."

Behind the gate operators plugged into their chairs sat another operator, hovering over his keyboard and listening in to the conversation on his headset. His screens displayed blue code strands falling down the screen, and he logged in that the Nabonidus was incoming, then patched Link through to the control, and then monitored the procedure.

In the construct sat the six Zion gate operators clad entirely in white. An asian man pushed, pointed and dragged several boxes on the interface before him that formed pictures of the gate, the turrets, the tunnel, several trickling numbers that were statistics, and the oncoming ship. "Nabonidus, your request is confirmed, standby."

"Roger that, control." Link responded. He looked at Niobe and they smiled as if to laugh, at how many times they'd gone through this same procedure.

"This is gate control ordering a weapons stand down at gate four, the Nabonidus is coming through. Open the gates." As the Nabonidus passed by, the gun turrets disengaged. "Nabonidus, you are cleared through gate four to bay six."

"Roger that control," Link said again. The doors began to open with a loud rumble, blue light peering through. "Welcome home Nabonidus, good to have you back."

"Good to be back," Link replied.

As the Nabonidus passed through the narrow opening in the tremendously thick bay doors, some bolts shot from the pads into the doors. "The Nabonidus is through," said the operater watching the screens of blue coding. Up in the tower in the center of the dock, a gate control operator nodded upon seeing the ship pass through. "Roger that control. Zion control, standby for gate four lockdown."

The giant gears marked "ZION FOUNDRY" and the counterweights and the chains began to churn slowly. As the gate began to close, an APU stood by, armed, its guns aimed down the entrance tunnel. The huge gates closed with a *SLAM*, and the APU's pilot turned around and disengaged his weapons. Drifting the ship in and taking it down ever so slowly, Link guided it down into bay six. It shook as it came down, and touched down smoothly.

"The Nabonidus is down in bay six," said the gate control operator. "Roger that," the operator behind the screens of blue coding responded.

The hatch opened with a hiss. The crew- Morpheus, Niobe, Ghost, Kid, Link, Sparks, Gizmo, Hacksaw, and Zee, all walked down the ship ramp with their bags slung over their shoulder. They looked out at the dock, seeing that some other ships were also back, such as the Freedom and the Validus, two of Zion's newer ships since the others had been destroyed. Since the other five left, Zion was left with six hovercraft, not including the new ones still being built, or the hover barges. Civilians and soldiers walked around peacefully. Calm was in the air, and the light shined down upon the dock crane on top of the gate control tower, creating quite the welcoming atmosphere. It was good to be back. Morpheus was greeted by a passerby, then he turned to the crew.

"Go on ship's liberty. Meet me in the Dead Duck at 21:00 hours, drunk or sober." Smiles came out amongst them.

"Alright!" Link said, and he turned to give a high-five to the hearest person, that being Kid. He laughed. As they began to walk away, Morpheus began walking in another direction, and Niobe arched a brow.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to speak with the council. I'll be with you shortly."

She nodded and Morpheus walked off. Niobe joined up with the rest of the group as they walked down the street suspension past several people. Civilians and soldiers gave them nods as they passed by, acknowledging the fact that another crew had come home. It was a custom among the people that lived here. The mumble of the voices of so many people drowned out the sound of the footsteps clanking against the iron plated street.

Carved into the street level were innumerable stores and shops, above them, apartments and balconies that lined the cylindric area of living space that housed thousands. People flowed through the streets. Their clothes of homespun wool, denim, and leather. Carved into the solid granite walls, between homes and around red steel doors, were intricate and beautiful carvings. They navigated through thick crowds of people, humanity melting into one race.

This was the main street, full of fighters, some even children. As they walked by, they passed a workshop with children approximately twelve and thirteen years of age working on a machine. They stepped into an elevator, and came down to a street full of shops. Stepping out of the elevator, they walked down the street and stepped into a club, Dead Duck. It's a sailor joint. A not so shabby place, with beer on tap, and rum. Crew members of other ships recognized them, and greeted them with nods and hellos. They took a booth in the corner and the waitress arrived.

"Welcome home, brothers and sisters. First day back?"

"Yes, lovely." Sparks said with a wink.

"On the house then. Eight rums?"

"Sounds good." Niobe said. The waitress nodded and walked off.

"Good to be home.." Sparks said with a relaxed tone. "You can say that again," Kid added.

"What do you think Morpheus is up to?" Link asked.

"Nothing important, he went to check in with the council. Probably giving them an update." Niobe told him.

"Oh. Nothing special." Link said. He looked over at Zee. "You look better when we're here, you know that?"

The others came back with a loud "Aww!" Link and Zee smirked.

"Don't be jealous!" She said. The others laughed, and the waitress came back with their drinks. Tall glasses of rum. Hacksaw picked up his glass and the others rose theirs up.

"Live free or die fighting!" They hit their glasses together and slammed their drinks back in one gulp, and hit the empty glasses onto the table.

"How about one more round?"

They all said "Yeah!"

----

Morpheus stood before Zion's high council. "General Morpheus," Councilor Hamann called out. "You have something to report?"

"Yes Councilor, I do. An update on the war front."

"Good. How are things looking?"

"My crew and I ran into Blood's crew in the Matrix. A shootout ensued, but no one was killed. They were being pursued by an Agent, for what reason I don't know."

"Do you have any insight on their activity?" Councilor Danzer asked.

"We don't know what they are doing in the Matrix for sure, possibly looking for a way to destroy it, but we do believe they are up to something in the tunnels and on the surface that could be very dangerous."

"What do you mean?"

"Intel between our ships still out in the tunnels report that several of the Resistance ships have been moving into uncharted territory and to unseen areas on the surface to look for a way to destroy the machine city itself."

"That's preposterous!" Councilor West called out. "How do they plan to do such a thing?"

"We were wondering the same thing. The other day, Captain Jade reported that the Nosferatu passed by and was being pursued by several sentinels, and the readouts that her sensors took read that the EMP had just been fired off. After tapping into their radio frequency, it was revealed that they had taken out some sort of power station for the machines."

"They didn't even call in the attack or ask if they had the go ahead!" Councilor Undila claimed.

"Why would they? They left Zion, they wouldn't listen to us or take orders from us." Councilor Hamann said.

"We will continue monitoring their activity without their knowing as best we can. Until then, I have nothing further to report."

"Thank you General, you're dismissed." Councilor Dilliard said. Bowing his head slightly, he turned and left the chamber.

"If we don't stop them quick they'll get us all killed," she said.

Councilor Hamann let out an irritated "Hmm."

----

(Chapter 8 concluded)

On the main deck, Glitch, Kira, and Janus were hanging out. Janus leaned against a bulkhead while Kira stood up on a ladder. Glitch was standing, pacing around, quizzing Janus.

"Okay, the Construct..."

"Holding program used to load things like clothes, weapons, and training simulations. We go there before going into the Matrix."

"Right. The Matrix is..."

"A virtual reality program that's made to keep the minds of the enslaved oblivious to the fact they're in a prison and being used to power machines."

"Hmmm, yeah."

"What?"

"Well, you can't really tell someone what the Matrix is. They have to see it for themselves after they're unplugged to see it for what it really is."

Janus thought about it. It made sense, sort of..

"Your eyes felt weird when you were unplugged because.."

"I never used them before."

"Good. Now what's this?" He pointed over at one of Janus's monitors.

"Life systems monitor, glucose levels."

"What's that?" He pointed over to the giant silver ball over in the back.

"Main power supply to the core." He followed Glitch over to the operator's station, where there were vines of coaxial hanging and snaked to and from huge monolithic battery slabs, a black portable satellite dish among banks of ship systems and keyboards and computer monitors. He pointed over to the red key-switch.

"How about this?"

"Power systems self destruct. Uses all remaining power to generate an E.M.P"

"Our best weapon against the machines. The problem is if someone is still in the Matrix when that thing goes off, they're not coming back."

Janus nodded. He looked over and stared at the screens displaying the huge syllabus of green Matrix code characters that fell in strands. Over the past few days he'd been struggling to learn the complex codes. "Ka equals 9. But reverse Ka is point-nine, right?"

Glitch nodded. "You catch on quick man"

"I know these symbols from the hacking trainer. But why's it so hard to find them on the keyboard?"

"Your brain knows what to do," Kira said. "But it has to associate the characters with your body."

"It's muscle memory, Janus. Think of the space bar and your thumbs nail it, because they've hit the space bar millions of times. But think about reverse ‘ka,' and your fingers don't automatically hit the reverse key and the ‘ka' key in one shot. It's kinda like the shift or caps lock function."

"Where did these symbols come from anyway?"

"Most of it is from the old Japanese. It's Katakana. See, the machines aren't binary, no zero and one. They're quantum-based, so instead of an open-close base of zero or one, open and closed, they use all numbers between zero and one."

"All numbers between zero and one. That could be an infinite number of numbers."

"Not could be, it is." Janus was astounded.

"Holy *CENSORED*. How many calculations per second?"

"How many CPS...well, that's kind of hard to estimate. Put it this way: picture all the particles in the known universe. Not just atoms, but sub-atomic particles that compose atoms."

"Okay. At last count that was like, billions right? Trillions?"

Glitch let out a "heh" with a smile. "Well, it's up there. In any case, the number of calculations per second the Matrix can perform is greater than the estimated number of particles in the known universe. I'd say around a googol."

"*CENSORED*."

"That's how they have the operating power to create entire worlds within their mainframes." Kira said.

"That's why it looks like reality huh. They have the computing power to create entire worlds."

Glitch nodded. "Right."

"So, if we hack into the Matrix, why can't we just change the code while we're at it?"

"No, no. See, it's not that simple. We broadcast a signal to hack into the matrix, which is what this satellite dish is for. If a hack is discovered, security measures are taken to secure the breach, like for instance, sentinels may be dispatched to the ship location or Agents might be distributed to the hard line location. The sentinels may logically decide to watch that location going forward, terminate it, or change some codes to access it. The Agents would sever the hard line, thereby setting a trap, refusing entrance or exit. It's like the wireless internet. It frees you from connecting your machine to the internet with wires. Kind of like how remote controls changed the way people interacted with their TVs. However, some people do not secure their access point."

Janus nodded as though to say, "I'm listening."

"In our case, we try to secure the access point before sending you in, and then if it becomes compromised, either we find another one or we hack it and patch it again. Now, the reason we can't just change coding around when we hack into the Matrix; The machines, the programs that code, create, and maintain the Matrix, they are code. There are different types of programs at work, many unseen with no interaction in the Matrix. Then, there are the enforcers, the ones we all know as Agents. In simple terms, think of the game battleship. You can see your field, and I can see mine. But we cannot see each other's and yet that is the goal of the game, to locate your opponent's coordinates and remove their pieces. If there is a third party watching along with us who is not participating in the game proper, then they can see the picture in its entirety, 'they' being the machines and programs that operate in the Matrix. They have the overview that we are trying to attain. They have uploaded all the information and can be arbiters of what is to happen. They are the server. They are the control."

"..Right."

"Well, my point is, the machines code and recode the Matrix by pure will. Interaction with the Matrix, the physical act of being there, by default, allows people to change their environment - The Matrix. They move objects, make sound, affect cause."

"Like reality."

"Almost," Kira began. "Reality is unalterable. But the fabric of reality in the Matrix can be rewoven. Some can reach beyond normal cause. Their affects on the Matrix are deeper than the average. They have learned to change it according to their needs. But they don't have total control. That's why we need operators like Glitch here."

"Oh. What makes us able to change the Matrix when we need it?"

"A free mind," Kira said with a smile. Caught off guard at first, Janus paused for a moment before smiling back. Glitch looked up to see Irvine walk in as Blade went to his quarters.

"Whatcha guys talking about?"

"We just finished the operation programs and he's showing great retention. I'm trying to teach this guy some programming. He's stuck in the 20th century. He's got no skills."

Janus smirked.

"Don't worry, he'll learn in time. But we're done for the night, so get some rest." The others nodded and went off to their quarters. Glitch went in first, and Kira and Janus were still on the way. He swallowed a knot in his throat.

"Hey, Kira," he called out.

She paused for a moment and turned around. "Yeah?"

He looked down and first but shook his head and looked up, his eyes meeting hers. They both paused for a moment then. "Uh, this life you live. The cold ship. Never knowing when danger will show up, and fighting in the Matrix...Why do you do it?"

She thought about it for a few seconds, looking down to break the eye lock. "I don't know, really. I asked for the truth, and this is what I got and there's no turning back. I wouldn't have it any other way. I know it sucks at first, but you kinda get used to it. Have you ever felt like you couldn't find your niche in life?"

"...Yeah."

"Well, after Irvine found me, I felt like I found my place." His eyebrows wrinkled as he thought about it. He knew exactly what she meant, and found himself nodding his head in agreement

"Like when you live day to day waiting for something to happen in your life, but when nothing happens, it just seems meaningless?"

She looked up at him, sort of surprised. "Yeah...just like that. How did you know?"

"I felt the exact same way until I came here. After that...this life is exactly what I've been waiting for. I didn't care what it was, I just wanted something to happen. I always knew it was there, I just didn't know how to get to it."

Kira looked at him like he was a whole different person. In a few seconds, he put her whole life into a few words. She felt like she knew him for the longest time.

With a smile she said "Goodnight, Janus" and left to go into her room, leaving him standing there in the hallway.

He heard a voice behind him say "Make a hole," and he turned around to see Marley coming down the hall. He let Marley pass and then went into his own room.

He took off his boots and climbed under the covers, put his head down on the pillow and closed his eyes to go to sleep.

Things were looking up.

----

Chapter 9: A Glitch in the Matrix

Date: Approx 2204

Time: -

Area: Tunnels of the Real

The Vehemens slowly cruised through the tunnels of the unknown region, the bright search lights and the blue energy generated from the hover pads providing the only lights in the tunnel. Being a medium sized hovercraft, it was a little harder to maneuver in tight spaces than the Atlantis, a small hovercraft Ravage was put in command of before receiving the Vehemens. At times like this, he really, really missed the little ship, since he was currently deep within the unknown territories, probably somewhere around what used to be Russia.

Next to him, on the co-pilot's seat, Iratus was laid back, with a pair of operator headphones over his ears, listening to some music downloaded from a file sharing program in the Matrix. The large, well built captain let out a small grumble at the sight of his so-called first officer, silently wishing he had the same "bad luck" as Irvine when it came to crew assignments. While Iratus was an expert gunman and fighter, since he was a former bounty hunter in the Matrix, he lacked any enthusiasm toward his job, and had over time adopted a lax nature, even around Ravage. Not that Ravage minded this, it was just in situations like flying through an unknown region that he wished Iratus would take his job more seriously. Or at least, take off the stupid headset and talk to him, so Ravage wouldn't feel so goddamn bored at the helm.

The Resistance captain then noticed that the tunnel began to extend upward, toward the surface. He keyed in the intercom to the main part of the ship.

"We're going up, hold onto something." Ravage said, in his usual, nearly booming tone. After a moment, he pulled the medium sized hovercraft up along the tunnel's curve. He fought the urge to suddenly turn the ship to the side, just to throw the now snoring Iratus out of his seat. He didn't have to though. The ship was angled back so much, the co-pilots chair turned ninety degrees, forcing Iratus to fly out of it, and roll along the deck until he fell against the entry way.

"If you're going to sleep like a dog, then you can sleep on the ground," Ravage said, now in the tone of a master training his pupil.

Iratus merely blinked a little at his statement, "You could've dumped water on me," he said, before yawning.

Ravage just shook his head, as he angled the ship out, so that they flew along the rugged terrain of the region. Unlike the area surrounding 01, this point was a more mountainous region, with large peaks stretching over the land, as far as the eye could see. And also unlike 01, this area was much, much cooler. The black atmosphere remained abundant, but the ground was littered with black ice and snow. In fact, at that moment, both Ravage and Iratus could see small drops of snow hit the view port.

"I hope this doesn't turn into a storm," Iratus complained, getting back into the co-pilot's seat, slipping his headphones back on.

Ravage nearly ripped the headphones off his head. "We're near our objective point, stay alert!" he ordered.

The first officer held his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright. I'll go back and make sure everyone's ready," he replied, wanting to avoid Ravage's trademark temperament. He got out of his seat and paced out of the bridge, walking down the hall until he got to the main deck.

It took him a few moments to get to the main area of the Vehemens, where the rest of the crew were. Including Ravage and Iratus, there were six crewmen: four Matrix fighters, one operator and one crew assist.

The first one that Iratus saw was Zero, the Vehemens' operator, sitting at the main console, monitoring a duel between Reiko and Alucard. Or at least it looked like it, because he kept switching in between the monitor that displayed the duel to another one which had code on it. As far as looks went, Zero wasn't anything special, and because of his attitude, many had considered him a lowlife of sorts. His messy brown hair and the many stubbles on his chin hinted to his spending hours on end at the operator's screen, or in the medical ward before leaving Zion as a volunteer nurse. Iratus grimaced at that last part, knowing he wasn't a real medical man, and at the same time, he was usually posted in a room where there were lots of comatose woman. Which was probably why he was on the Vehemens, to escape life in the stockade. His only saving grace was, he was a lowlife with computer skills, the best out of Zion arguably. Who else could hack timed explosives into a government facility in the Matrix, without alerting the Agents, like he had done on more than one occasion?

As Iratus approached, he saw that Zero was shivering, keeping his arms crossed and his knees up to them in an attempt to conserve body heat. "Why did it get so *CENSORED* cold all of a sudden?" Zero asked.

"It's snowing outside, that's why." Iratus replied, "We're near the operation point, so call off their little fight and get back to work," the first mate ordered in cold monotone.

Zero grumbled, looking over at that side monitor again, "Dammit, Iratus, you know how hard it is to hack a pornography file out of the Matrix!?" he complained, "Especially the kind that you carry home in a brown paper bag?"

"How far are you on downloading it?" Iratus rolled his eyes, feeling like he was a father, telling his son to get up from the TV set on a Saturday morning to go mow the lawn.

"76% right now," Zero replied.

"Alright, I'll let you keep it on, but concentrate more on the sensors." Iratus said.

Zero nodded to this and keyed into the training simulation, "Okay, fun times over you guys. Back to reality."

Without waiting for a reply, he deactivated the simulation program and brought the two fighters into the construct, before jacking them out. The first to wake up was a pale skinned man, in his mid-30s, with combed back black hair, and a calm looking exterior, although the other crew knew better on that last part. He was plain looking, but a cunning thinker underneath. He was dressed in a white uniform sweater with black pants and black boots, as if he were still in the Zion military.

The other one was a young teenage girl, 17 years in age, something of a rarity to see on board a ship. She was oriental, with dark brown eyes and a long mane of black hair. As well, despite her age, she had fully developed breasts, which an observer would first notice do to her chosen outfit: a pair of uniform pants with boots, and an olive green tank top that barely drew down to her waist, fully showing off the size of her chest. She followed the man in waking, stretching her rather-built arms out in order to get blood flowing again.

"That was a fun break," she said, looking at her left arm, running her right hand index finger down, indenting where a scar had been. "Although I'm getting really tired of your knife tricks, Alucard. Why can't you use a handgun like everybody else?"

"And why can't you fight in a close-range battle, Reiko?" Alucard shot back, speaking in a pure Romanian accent, "Hiding on a roof top with a PSG-1 isn't exactly very bushido," he simply put, in an amused tone of voice. "Although, you shouldn't complain," he wiped his hand across his mouth, turning it around to reveal blood to her.

Reiko smiled at her handiwork. "I can't help it. I love watching the little people run up and down the city through a sniper scope, because no matter what they're doing, their lives are in my hands."

"Will you two knock it off? We've got work to do," Iratus said.

"What kind of work do you mean?" a new voice said. In came a woman with blonde hair, late-30s, dressed in a gray outfit that signified her as the ship's crew assist. There wasn't much to discern, she wasn't very beautiful, with her built exterior and aged expression, but one could say she looked deadly and at one point had her looks. However, where right eye would have been, there was a black eye patch, and a scar the size of a Sentinel claw going down through her eye to the bottom of her cheek.

"Trancing around an unknown region is a lot of hard work indeed. I honestly wonder how we'll ever survive, Iratus."

"Shut up, Artemis," Iratus put out. "I'm only following the Captain's orders. We're to remain alert in case we find anything 'important'."

"And what's so important that Blood would sent us all the way out here?" Artemis shot back. "This place is a waste zone. There hasn't been any machine activity in this region for decades. Hell, even Commander Lock chose not to explore further into this area, because the climate is more of a threat than the chance of Sentinels operating here!"

Iratus merely gave a "whatever" smirk and shrugged. "I'm not going to question Blood on this one, because he was so *CENSORED* sure about it. As much as I hate asking machines for guidance, following the Oracle's advice is a lot better than wandering around the region blindly."

"With all due respect, 'sir'," Artemis seethed, "I don't believe in her prophecy mumbo-jumbo. A program that can predict the future... heh, right."

"She's proven useful so far." Iratus said.

"Hey, I got something!" Zero yelled out, breaking up the conversation. Iratus gave Artemis an 'I told you so' look, before everyone in the room gathered around Zero, looking at the main monitor. It was displaying a large red area on a black landscape, which nobody but Zero knew.

"Okay, I'll start," Artemis said. "What are you using, and what have you found?"

"To answer your first question, Arty, this is infrared," Zero replied. "It's a sensor system that detects heat, instead of sound like Sonar or objects like radar. I just copied some data from the Matrix and wrote my own program for it. As for what I found, it's some kind of facility."

Zero typed further, switching over to RADAR.SEN. Angling the radar over to the location, he got a general outline of the facility. It was square shaped and generally uncovered, outlined by a perimeter of metal. The main building itself looked like a bunker of sorts, since radar couldn't scan further into the base line.

Zero then remembered they were still flying, so he keyed in the intercom. "We struck pay dirt, Captain. Better land here. We have a big heat signature in those mountains."

"Alright, I'm putting her down." In a few moments, everyone felt the forward motion of the ship slow, and eventually drop down onto the soft, black terrain below. Although they were well out of the range of infrared, everyone could feel the spot they landed in was warm. Rather strange, considering this territory was a frozen wasteland. Another few moments went by, and Ravage emerged from the cockpit as the sound of the Vehemens' hover pads winding down echoed across the ship.

"Okay, so what are we looking at? Volcanic activity?"

Zero shook his head, "I'm not detecting any movements in the ground. Whatever it is, it's on the surface. And it's very, very hot." Everyone, without a word, looked at Ravage for orders. "You want to find out what it is?"

"Of course I do. Reiko, Alucard, Artemis, join me at the exit hatch and get suited up. Iratus, stay with Zero on the ship. If this is a trap, I want you to fire the EMP and get the hell out of here, with or without us."

"Why does he get to stay behind? He could fly off witho..." Artemis began to complain in her scathing tone. Before anyone blinked, Ravage grabbed her shirt with his right hand, yanked her into his grip and threw her on the right side of the operator's console. Seeing Artemis' expression turn from anger into fear and shock made Ravage feel self-satisfaction inside, and also told him she was now more than willing to listen to him.

He continued. "Out of all of us, Iratus is the best at flying the ship, thus our best getaway driver. But, assuming he is a traitorous bald-headed caucasian bred dog for a moment, as you think of him, I'll clarify. Yes, he could fly off without us, but he wouldn't get far. The closest ship to our position is the Nosferatu, way back in the 01 region. Since I'm the only one that knows the route back to the 'Bloodsucker', he'd most likely end up getting lost. And if he gets lost, chances are, sentinels will find him. Without Reiko, Alucard and yourself, he'd have one hell of a time to fight them off."

"Even if he didn't have all that to deal with, Iratus is the first mate of this ship, and your fellow comrade, so you better put as much trust into him as I do. Because that, my dear Artemis, is what will keep you alive."

Ravage wrapped up with an even deeper, more intense voice, "Do I make myself clear?" he said, returning to abnormally calmer vocation, as calm as he was anyway.

Artemis grimaced at that part. Ravage was very well known for his disciplinary methods, and she didn't really want to know what the big oriental man was capable of. "Yes Sir," she growled, in pure, unjaded irritance.

"Good," Ravage said, dropping her, "Now, if everyone will join me..."

After some time, the Vehemens' loading ramp lowered, revealing Ravage, Alucard, Reiko and Artemis clad in environmental suits. One of the latest designs from Zion, the environmental suit was made to allow humans to explore some of the more hazardous environments on the planet. Originally made for the lava tubes that were around Zion, they could absorb a great amount of heat, making them ideal for this situation.

"Alright, let's go." Ravage ordered, after taking a moment to survey the scenery.

Hesitantly, the others followed him as he walked toward the ruins ahead of them. The complex wasn't very big really, but it looked extremely sturdy, built in an age where the force of an explosion was mankind's most powerful weapon. It was rectangle shaped with rounded edges, and a large shutter type door at the end of the building. Despite its durability, time had taken a toll on the building.

The metal walls that had been designed to absorb missile attacks were now rusted over, with some tears appearing around the sides. Only a few metal bars remained of the chain linked fence that once surrounded the facility and an empty checkpoint post was all that evidenced a gate being there. Aside from that, there were some remains of EMP-Tesla Tanks, perfectly lined and parked in front of the complex, and the wreckage of a VersaTran attack-craft scattered across the landing pad.

Everyone ventured past the wreckage and approached the shutter door. Alucard was the first, reaching out and wiping the black frozen ash off a sign. Although the sign was written in Russian, Alucard stumbled back when he recognized the black fan-like symbol. Ravage rose an eyebrow behind his visor, showing great interest, while Reiko remained indifferent. Artemis was the only one that didn't know what it meant. "What is it?"

"That explains the heat signature." Ravage said, "It's a nuclear waste facility, left over from the Man-Machine War," he pointed at the HazMat emblem.

"Looks like the machines haven't got here yet." Without saying another word, Ravage reached down, and with his immense strength, forced the shutter upward. Being over two centuries old, the shutter was almost rusted tight, but Ravage managed to open it all the way, doubting he could pull it back down though. But that didn't matter, it was inside that counted.

All around, there were tight-sealed boxes, almost perfectly preserved thanks to the armored structure. All of these boxes had the same emblem on the warning sign, the radioactive HazMat symbol.

"I understand now." Alucard spoke up, "This was probably a disarmament or storage facility at some point. A lot of these places were abandoned when the machines won the war, since there was no organized functioning military to staff the place."

"Captain," Reiko called out. She pointed to one of the boxes that had been crushed open in it, probably from a shard falling on it, "That explains where the radiation is coming from."

Although nobody saw it, Ravage had a very large grin on his face. If he were religious, he would've thanked God, Allah, Ryujin or whatever God had led him to this place on the spot. This would be useful against the machines. "Okay, we're going to take a few boxes with us back. Alucard and Reiko take one box, while Artemis and I take another."

"You're not serious, are you Captain?" Artemis griped, "It could endanger the crew..."

"We'll be fine, as long as its in the case." Ravage shot back.

"Out of curiosity, Captain Ravage, how do you know so much about nuclear weapons?" Reiko chimed in, "You know how much I love intelligent men."

Ravage grinned. "Believe or not, I was a military officer before I got my mind freed, in charge of a nuclear facility, so I know a fair share of information. But most importantly, I know how to put these to good use," he waved his hand around at the various boxes. "Now get to work."
----

(Chapter 9 cont'd)

Raven couldn't have been more pleased with himself at his accomplishment. Before him, he watched as Axe, the ship's operator, was typing with great hype at his monitor, browsing through the simulacra Raven had obtained from Anome, like a fourteen year old looking over his dad's porno mags. Arius gave his nod of approval, highly anticipating the usage of these programs in the future. Magnus, however, remained unphased at this.

"I've got to hand it to you, Raven, this is some cool *poop*," Sideways said with great excitement. "Zion actually had some decent programs in their arsenal."

"All in a days work my dear Sideways," Raven said with his usual charisma. "You will relay these babies to the other ships, won't you?"

"The one's that I think are useful, sure," said Blood, who's face was displayed on one of Sideways' monitors. "The rest we'll save for when we get into Zion's mainframe. Just a little 'thank you' for all the support they've given us," he said with sarcasm.

"That ought to be entertaining." Arius said in the background

"So, what do you want us to do now? We've still got that office building for a few more days, and if not that, we can always get another one," Raven said.

"Just do what you're doing right now, keeping an eye inside the Matrix," Blood replied. "We just got word that the Nabonidus is in Zion right now, so that'll take Morpheus off our backs for a while. However, Sideways' been picking up some abnormal activity in the Matrix, and I want that investigated."

"Axe has as well. Unfortunately, not even Magnus can figure out what it is, though it does seem to put pressure on him. Some new type of reaction to the code fluctuations I assume."

"Whatever it is, Raven, I want to know about it yesterday, so head back into the Matrix. Nosferatu out." The comm. screen ended there, and the monitor Blood's face was on at Axe's consoles switched back to flowing green code strands.

"So much for our benefit." A black woman with a ponytail complained, "Can't the guy cut us a break for once?"

"If he did, Kahn, he wouldn't be Captain Blood," Raven chimed. "And if he wouldn't be Blood, then this would all be a waste of time anyway."

"Whatever," Kahn said, looking at Magnus. "What about him? You just said the waves are having some effect on his brain..."

"I'm fine," Magnus simply replied, not turning to look at her, "The pressure doesn't hurt, it just doesn't feel normal. The whole reality fluctuates to this wave, like an ocean. I myself want to know what's causing the waves."

"You sure, Magnus?" Raven said, his usual demeanor now traded over for concern, "I can do this without you."

"No, Captain, I have to find out what this is." Magnus looked up at Raven with his pale blue eyes, "Because I can feel the pressure now, even outside the Matrix."
----

The Nemesis sped through the tunnels, and as Marley typed in the commands to bring up sensor readings, he noted the temperature was dropping.

"Temp's dropping Cap, we're getting closer to the surface."

Irvine let out a hiss of air through his nostrils as if the news were obsolete.

"Only thing that matters right now is getting as far away from that swarm as we can, got it?"

Marley nodded and in a more serious tone he answered, "Yes sir."

From their last location, Glitch suddenly picked up readings that sentinels were swarming the ship from all directions in a circular shape, so Irvine had the crew get ready and got the hell out of there. Problem was, they were leaving a heat signature behind and since the area they were in was cold and only getting colder as they went, it would be easier for the sentinels to find them.

The ship rumbled and those on the main deck stumbled into a wall or fell.

"The hell was that?" Anubis asked, clinging onto a ladder.

Glitch brought up the ship's hull integrity and it showed damage in the tail. "What's going on up there Irvine?" Glitch asked into the microphone on his headset. "Did we hit something?"

Irvine's radio voice crackled over the head phones. "No, a lump of rock and metal just rose up from the ground and hit us in the *CENSORED*," he said. Noting his answer was saturated in sarcasm, Glitch took the hint.

"No further questions," he answered, and rolled his eyes as he shook his head. "Can't provide a good explanation, 'nub."

Anubis glared, and would have went over and hit him if it wasn't for the fact he had to stay at the ladder, or else he's have a fun time trying to get over to him without falling on his *CENSORED*, so he had to improvise.

"Don't call me that."

Janus, hugging the corner of two walls meeting, looked over when he heard Anubis's rash reaction to Glitch's choice of nickname. Anubis shot him a look that had "What the hell do you want?" written all over it, but Janus continued to look in his direction with no words, only coming up with analytical conclusions. When Anubis saw that he hadn't looked away, he stared back. Janus never got why he was such a loner, but figured he'd find out one day. Carefully guiding himself, he went off to the cockpit to join Irvine and Marley.

"Cap, over there." Marley pointed out. There was a small cavity in the tunnel wall up ahead and it was big enough to fit the Nemesis in. "You think we have enough time to stop to park this thing, shut it down, and charge the EMP?"

Irvine frowned.

Marley shook his head and blinked with a sigh as though to scold himself for coming up with such an idea. "I guess not. You got a better idea?"

Light flashed from the sky followed by a rumble, lighting up the wall coming up ahead. A crack to the surface.

"Now I do," Irvine answered.

Marley smirked and readied the ship to hover vertically. Once Irvine brought the ship into the ravine leading to the sky, he turned it 90-degrees and it began to ascend. As it went up, it hit into wires, cables and rods that jutted out from either side of the ravine, scraping along the surface of the hull.

"Which way do we go?" Marley asked. "They're getting closer".

Irvine's eyebrows wrinkled as he surveyed the land before him displayed on the holographics.

"East."

Marley nodded, and so, the ship was turned in said direction, and off they went. They passed over wreckage and debris that stuck up from below, and lightning struck again. Ahead of them, the land mirrored the sky and everything above it when it flashed. Marley had a double take. The thunder rumbled.

"What is that?"

Irvine moved his head forward slightly, his forehead and eyebrows wrinkled. "That's a body of water. A big one." He moved the ship forward and Marley looked confused.

"A body of water?"

Irvine looked over to him as though to say "what do you mean?", then he remembered, Marley is from Zion, and had never seen a body of water before.

"I forgot for a moment that you aren't from the Matrix." Marley arched a brow.

"Don't worry," Irvine told him. "Just keep your eyes open."

The Nemesis buzzed forward and as it passed over the water, its image was reflected on the surface in the dark, the reflection of the hover pads standing out the most. Lightning flashed overhead, showing the ship clearly against the water for a brief moment against the bright white sky.

"I've never seen so much water."

Irvine chuckled. "Neither have I. At least, not here anyway."

Marley glanced over at him. "They have water like this in the Matrix?"

Irvine nodded. "All over the place. Those sentinels still after us?"

Marley spoke into the microphone on his head set. "Glitch, update on the squiddies?"

Behind Glitch stood Blade, Anubis, and Janus, all watching Glitch's screens displaying sensor and radar outputs. He shook his head. "No sign of em. Better stay alert though, these guys are like cops. You never know if they'd alert another sentinel bunch in the next area to be on the lookout."

Marley looked over to Irvine. "We lost em, but we should stay on alert anyway."

Irvine nodded. "Good."

Marley scanned the area. "Where we gonna land?"

Irvine spotted a large charred building off in the distance, big enough to safely store one of these ships in. "Over there, the building wreckage." As Marley and Irvine directed the ship over in the building's direction, Marley thought of something.

"What about Resistance ships, should we look for them?"

Irvine shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about them. They can't hurt us."

Marley again arched a brow. "You sure?"

Irvine looked over at him with a face that demanded to know why he was being questioned.

"Of course you are," Marley said, looking ahead again. He noticed a sign on the ground among the wreckage. It once read "Paradigm City", but now, only the portion that read "Paradigm" was visible. Once they guided the ship into a hole in the side of the building, the set it down and it landed with a rumbling thud. Marley began shutting down the hover pads and navigational systems and prepared the auxiliary power for standby.

"How long until we have to recharge?" Irvine asked as he sat back in his chair in a rather relaxed posture, examining the world outside, visible through the hole they had just come in through. Marley glanced over to Irvine before checking the power supply, because he knew there were two meanings to that question.

"We'll have to go back to Zion pretty soon," he said, conscious of what Irvine was thinking. Irvine arched a brow and looked over at him with a smirk, but sighed reminiscently and looked down at his feet, figuring Marley knew why he cared so much. He looked back over to him and nodded his head toward the cockpit's exit. "C'mon. Let's go see what's new." Marley nodded and when Irvine left, he followed.

But the time Irvine and Marley made it to the main deck, Kira and Solitaire had joined the party and they were all huddled behind Glitch watching the screens of code strands. This irked some curiosity in him, and he arched a brow as he walked over. "What's everyone looking at?"

Glitch spoke up, keeping his eyes on the screen. "I found some sort of glitch in the Matrix."

Kira smirked. "How fitting," she added.

"What's going on?" Irvine asked as he came over to the console setup.

"Well, look at this here," Glitch said as he typed in a command. The center and left screens froze while the right screen kept going in real time, a section from the center screen was highlighted, and transferred onto the left screen, and the center screen resumed displaying real time code. Glitch pointed to the playback footage on the left screen.

"Watch this."

Irvine removed his USP Compact from his shoulder holster and proceeded down a hallway. It was dark and dirty, and it looked like the place hadn't been cleaned in 30 years. Slowly approaching a doorway, he leaned with his shoulder on the framing of the doorway, and tilted his head in to see what was inside, with his gun ready. Nothing. Then he heard something strange, like the scrambled sound of Matrix coding, only it sounded more..infected.

He looked down the hallway, and in the dark, all the way at the end, he saw, or at least he thought he saw, a ghost like figure come out of wall and into the hallway. He frowned, and took a good look for a moment to make sure he'd seen right. He put his glasses back and put his gun up, disengaging the safety. The ghost snarled as bullets shot through its transparent body, in full rage. It solidified into a silver clothed male, though Irvine didn't have enough time to get to the details of its appearance. It quick drew a gun from its coat, what Irvine identified as a Taurus PT945, and fired back. Irvine strafed and jumped behind a support beam at the corner, and the entity continued to fire its weapon.

It didn't take long for the captain of the Nemesis to figure out this was the disturbance. Or it was at least a part of the disturbance, as worst case scenario dictated there might be others like it. He'd worry about that later though. Irvine fired three more shots at the program, and as he saw, it phased into its transparent form to let the bullets fly through. At the same time, though, the Taurus it was holding also went transparent. So it can't shoot me, Irvine thought. He spun out from the corner and fired another pair of .45 bullets at the program, forcing it turn into its ghostly form as it fired a three shot burst. The bullets flew through the entity's body, not effecting any of his internal organs.

After the burst, the entity saw that it had used up all eight bullets in the magazine. No, wasted them, though it really didn't matter. It seemed to enjoy a good sport. It threw the weapon down, and leaped at Irvine while transparent. The human fighter dodged, but instead of flying past Irvine, the entity resolidified, turned toward him and kicked his gun out of his hands. Irvine blocked the following punch, and threw his own punches and a kick at the head. The program blocked all the punches, but it didn't react fast enough to block the kick, which made its head fly back. Irvine followed this by grabbing the program by the face and head butting it in the forehead three times, with the last so hard that the program almost stumbled back. Seeing it was no match for the human's unorthodox fighting style, the program phased, again, and flew around the room like a ghost, then dove and picked up its Taurus. It resolidified, reloaded the weapon, and fired two shots at the slightly confused Irvine.

Fortunately, Irvine snapped out of the trance at seeing the thing fly around when it turned back into a human, diving for his own gun and firing three shots at the thing. It phased, letting the bullets fly past, then turned human again. What it didn't realize though, was it had returned into a solid state just in front of one of the metal structural beams that held the building together. All three bullets ricocheted off the beam and shot right into its back. One bullet impacted with such velocity that it blew the right hand off, which was holding the Taurus, and the last two had shot through the torso.

Irvine didn't waste the opportunity. He made one last shot into the creature's forehead, in between the eyes, the shot having enough force to actually send it flying backwards a few feet before it hit the floor.

"So much for interrogation." Irvine sighed, walking over to the corpse. As he came over it, the corpse phased, and sank into the floor.
----

(Chapter 9 cont'd)

Anubis made his rounds as though he were taking a stroll in the park. His gun remained in its shoulder holster, and his sword remained sheathed. His shoes were the only noise that could really be heard as he went down the hallway, looking into each room finding nothing at all particularly interesting.

He was looking out for basic things he would consider glitches in programming, like flickering walls or disappearing objects, basically faulty coding, but kept in mind that whatever it was they were looking for also went through things and could teleport. Letting out a bored sigh, he turned a corner and began down another hallway, the lights overhead flickering in the dark. The only light other than those was the daylight from outside, which obviously couldn't get into all parts of the building, notably his.

Looking into the first room he came to, he saw his reflection in a mirror, which made him scoff a little. He wasn't jumpy enough to get alarmed by the mirror like many other people would be in this situation, but in his opinion, it seemed like a bad joke. Why was there a mirror placed there? Then, behind him, he heard the infected code noise, but didn't turn around right away because he'd never heard the noise before. As he tried to identify it, he saw what was making the noise in the reflection of the mirror. A transparent, blurry figure rose from the ground. It had a slender face with bony cheeks, and in place of its eyes were dark shadows. One of the more eye catching features of this thing was it's long hair, rose up and on end like a sentinel's tentacles in attack mode.

"What have we here?" the program quipped in a grainy voice, "A lowly snake masquerading as a human." It appeared to smile at him, and then showed what looked like razor sharp teeth behind its lips. Wouldn't expect any less from a haunted house, Anubis thought as he saw the image in the mirror. In a split second, he spun around and charged at the entity head on.

He ran at the "ghost" and made a drawing slash at the thing's torso with his katana. As he partially expected, the sword flew through. His adversary laughed at that, then in a mere second, unphased into an RSI of a male dressed in a classy looking ankle length trench coat that was fashioned after a suit jacket, along with a dress-shirt and tie, and slacks. Every article of clothing was colored silver. The waving hair turned into thick silver dreadlocks, extending down to the man's mid-back, and its 'eyes' formed into a pair of frameless shades. His skin was a pale white color.

The ghost started out by throwing a punch at Anubis' head, which Anubis blocked with his right elbow, and countered with a kick to the stomach. He followed this up by performing a three slash combo, the first two aimed at the ghost's shoulders and the last at the head. The ghost program dodged the first two slashes and then turned back into its transparent form when Anubis slashed at the throat, since Anubis' last slash was too fast for it to dodge. When he resolidified, he grabbed Anubis' sword arm and forced it out of his hands, throwing it to the side.

Without his sword, Anubis punched at the ghost's face, and then at his torso, all of which were blocked by the ghost. Worse off, the ghost seemed to be enjoying the fight, as he wasn't punching back or countering, rather, he merely blocked all of Anubis' attacks. It laughed a little when it gotten a hold of both of Anubis' hands and forced him into a face-to-face standoff.

"You're testing me, aren't you?" Anubis' mouth crept into an almost unnoticeable smile. "That's rather rude."

He broke the ghost's grip, and focused into a long dive at his sword. After grabbing it, he spun so that he was upright, quick drew his Colt Government M1911A1 from his right holster with his left hand, and fired five shots at the ghost. The ghost went transparent again, as expected, then reforming once Anubis' assault was over. That would prove to be a fatal error. Anubis flipped and landed into a crouching position, just as the program was reforming, then went into a focused dash, both hands gripped on his sword. The ghost tried to go transparent again, but it was too late. All it could do was dodge, as Anubis made a horizontal slash at the gut. In one last move, the ghost used its left arm to knock the sword away from its torso, before jumping away in a similar move to what Anubis made.

Blood dripped from a long scar on its left arm from Anubis' slash.

"So you bleed after all," Anubis said, in a serpent's voice rather than his usual cold tone. The ghost attempted to go transparent again, but Anubis didn't waste the second. This time, he slashed off the left arm entirely. The ghost was disoriented, allowing Anubis to slash off the other arm, with the same result. The ghost felt shock that this human could strike it down, which was over-riding it's though to phase and repair itself. It stumbled onto its knees as a result, barely landing on the floor and looking up. That's when Anubis made one last stroke, this time through it's neck, and a red ring of blood formed around the circumference. As the body then slumped over, it phased, sinking into the floor.

"It only takes one bite from a snake," Anubis said simply to the corpse, "One bite for its venom to flow into your veins." He whipped out the blade of his sword to throw the blood off, then re-sheathed it.

Back on the Nemesis, Glitch was impressed as he watched the ghost's code disappear, reading out how Anubis destroyed it. "Nice."

----
Janus and Kira walked down a hallway side by side. Janus looked into the rooms on his side of the hall, and Kira did the same with her side. Janus coughed to clear his throat.

"I've been gone for...how long has it been since I came here? It's difficult to tell when a full day goes by without sunlight or anything."

"I think you've been with us for seven weeks now."

"Seven weeks.. They've probably considered me dead now. At least, I have."

"Why?"

"I don't live that life anymore. I'm Janus now, and I can't be two people."

"Hah, you sure about that?"

He realized the irony of what he said. "Oh. Maybe I am."

They turned a corner continuing their search, and stopped. Before them now, instead of the rest of the hallway, was a wall 15 feet away from them. "That's weird.." Janus remarked.

Then they heard the noise of infected code.

"Hey..what's that noise?" Kira asked. Out from the wall in front of them came another ghost-like entity, the wall glitching and blinking as it came through. Behind their sunglasses, both Janus and Kira's eyes widened at the site. The entity stayed there floating for just a moment, and then it assumed a normal, human looking form, and looked the same as the one Anubis had just dealt with. Janus and Kira exchanged looks, and when they looked back, a creepy smile crept over the entity's black lips.

"Well then," he began, speaking in an upper-crust british accent. "You don't belong here.."

"Who are you?" Janus inquired in a demanding tone, his facial expression accented by his sunglasses made him look all the more serious.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He let out a "Heh." Testing the patience of this human who had the fortitude to challenge him seemed like a fun idea.

Janus let out a huff of air through his nose. I guess we found the glitch. But I don't have time for Sterling's poppycock right now. He looked over at Kira, and she looked back at him.

What is he looking at me for? Shouldn't we be worried about-- she saw him slowly reaching for his gun.

"What are you doing here?" The silver clad program asked.

Janus stared back at him, making sure to establish some sort of mutual eye lock past the lenses of their dark glasses, enough to keep the entity from noticing him going for the gun.

"Don't be rude. I asked you a question!" He yelled. Janus didn't say a word.

The ghost became impatient now. "I'll take care of--"

He was cut off by the blast of Janus' gun. *BAM-- BAM BAM*

However, as soon as Janus fired, the ghost phased again, and the bullets flew through it and smashed into the wall behind it.

Janus had a double take. "What the...?"

The ghost unphased and with a frown, punched Janus square in the jaw. He staggered back, dropping his gun. As it slid a few feet from him, he looked back up in time to see the bottom of the program's white croc-pattern boot come flying at his face. Moving to the side, the kick flew past him, and Janus struck the ghost in the chest and followed up with a high round house kick, but missed since the ghost ducked.

Just as it came back up, Janus dealt it a palm strike to the center of its rib cage. It stepped back a step or two, and Janus moved in to attack again, but this time the ghost kicked out once more, connecting with Janus' face. As he was knocked back, his glasses flew off, and the ghost turned towards Kira, flashing his creepy grin.

He sent his fist flying at her but she moved out of the way in time, and it went into the wall. Side stepping to her left, his right, she sent a hard mid kick to the program's stomach region while he was still stuck, but he was unaffected. In one fluid motion, he ripped his hand out from the wall and back handed her across the face with his knuckles, knocking her to the ground.

He wasn't as powerful as an Agent, but he still dished out pain nonetheless. As she hit the ground with an "Agh!", he reached into his coat and pulled out his Taurus PT945, and while aiming it at her, he pulled the hammer back. He smirked at the sound of it locking into place, and snickered. "What a waste.." She stared up at the gun barrel.

*BAM*

And the ghost started to fall before her. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out what had just happened. Then, the ghost's body phased again, sinking into the floor. She looked over to her right and saw Janus, laying back on the ground with his gun in the air, smoke leaking from the barrel, and they exchanged looks.

Glitch watched the program's code fade away as it ran down the screen. It didn't come back in any other location. "Good shot.." he said to himself. Marley nodded in agreement.

----

Three black SUVs drove down the street single file toward the school. Each car contained one of the three men sent in by Vega, and as many of the simulacra that could fit with them. The simulacra, originally developed by Zion, were to be used as backup and distraction forces for Morpheus' Matrix Corps, but since the Resistance had acquired them thanks to Raven, they'd been reprogrammed to be used against Zion and Anti-Human Programs within the Matrix, thus giving a tremendous advantage to the Resistance that neither Zion or the Nemesis crew was currently aware of.

They all seemed as though they were redpills, and you wouldn't be able to notice a difference unless you were informed. Due to their various outfits and different yet dangerous but styled looks, they fit in with the rest of the Resistance, each taking on an individual appearance, making it look as though the Resistance had suddenly gained new free minds into their ranks.

When the trucks pulled up to the abandoned school, Glitch became confused. "Who the hell are these people?"

The doors swung open, and those inside exited the vehicles. Gash was the first one out, since he was in charge of the attack. He wore the outfit of a WWII Nazi S.S. Officer, complete with knee high officer boots, black pants and gloves, and jacket. Over this was the trademark leather trench coat that made the S.S. all too recognizable, except it lacked the Swastika arm band, and Gash wore it closed.

On his head was a German panzer helmet, the headgear used by the Nazi troops that became their trademark during the war. However, this one had a mask on it, something like a gas mask yet without the tube, and an angled extension on the mouth area, black armor that covered the entire face, and black circular eyes.

Kane wore a black military field officer uniform with a dark red shirt under the jacket, and over this, a black double breasted overcoat.

Stealth was dressed in a dark gray ankle-length coat over a t-shirt and cargo pants both charcoal grey in color, and standard military combat boots, worn over his pants.

The simulacra, armed with all different kind of guns, were now all out of the SUVs. Everyone had a different pair of sunglasses on.

Gash spoke in a deep and filtered sounding tone. "Is everyone ready?" he asked.

Watching through the goggle eyelets of his helmet, he saw everyone nod as they either readied their guns or stood there waiting. "Then let's go. Shoot to kill."

Glitch's eyes widened. "Oh...*CENSORED*..." was all that managed to escape his voice box.

Marley couldn't believe what was going on. "Holy hell..call Irvine, now!"

Glitch nodded, and dialed Irvine's number and waited, but instead of a ring, all he got was static. "What the hell?"

He tried again. Still, static instead of a ring tone. "Why won't the call go though!?" he asked frantically. "The glitches in the code must be disrupting the area and preventing calls from getting through, like a dead zone."

"They've got no service...There's no way to warn them!"

Janus and Kira ran down the hallway, looking for a staircase.

"What was that thing?" Kira asked.

"You're asking me? I'm the new guy, remember?"

She shook her head with an grumble. "We gotta find the other two and get outta here before more of those ghost things show up," she said. As they came around a corner, they stopped in their steps, for Kane and his band of programs had come around the corner of the parallel hallway. Kira knew who it was. Janus had no clue.

"*CENSORED*." Kira whispered

"Going somewhere?" Kane asked smugly. They saw the other men bring up their guns and on instinct, both jumped out of the way, Janus one way, Kira the other. The spray of bullets just missed them as they jumped out of the way, the loud noise of gun fire filling the air.

Janus rolled as he landed and ducked behind a corner, and Kira landed across from him on the other side of the hallway. Janus held his SVI out around the corner and fired three .45 shots into one of the simulacra. All three shots hit through the chest, and the program dropped to the floor. Janus noticed, as the program died out, it sprawled onto its back, its arms and legs twitching in all directions like some sort of dying animal.

Kane held up his Colt Anaconda and fired a round at Janus, the bullet smashing a chunk off of the brick edge of the corner, however he had moved out of the way in time.

"Get them!" Kane's voice roared over the gunfire. Kira ducked out and fired, and two .380ACP rounds from her Beretta 85FS went into a combat program's chest and he dropped onto his back.

Janus came up and fired twice and ducked back down again, unsure if whether or not he had hit anything. On the other side, one of the combat programs noticed that its M16 assault rifle had run dry, and it threw to the side. Reverting to "close combat mode" as Syx referred to it, it crouched to the ground on all fours, then jumped into the air, landing on the left wall, then leaping again onto the opposite right wall.

"What the hell?" was all Janus could let out before the program pounced on him, and pushed him to the ground. Janus struggled at its grip, as the program opened its mouth to reveal large canine teeth that in no way fit into a human, and at the same time, letting out a hiss of hot air into Janus' face. Janus kicked the thing off of him, but it spun in midair and landed on all fours, then pounced back at him. The ex-detective reacted fast, jumping into the air just as the program pounced and kicking it in the face with enough force that it literally keeled over and fell to the ground on its back. Janus then promptly finished it off with a single shot to the forehead.

----

Pagan, the Merciless' crew assist, was watching the whole ordeal while standing behind Syx, who was still seated in front of the operations consoles. "*CENSORED*, Syx, what the hell did you do to those simulacra?"

"I played with their coding a bit and styled some of them after a few of the more exotic exiles we've seen in the Matrix. Looks like they have a pack of the Lupine-types with them."

"Nice thinking," Pagan said. He rolled up a chair and took a seat next to Syx, as though they were watching a movie.

----

(Chapter 9 concluded)

Wincing behind his glasses as more bits of debris flew in his face from a bullet hitting the floor in front of him, Janus reached to his belt and pulled out a fragment grenade. He pulled the pin as Kira fired three more shots around the corner, and when she came back to reload, he tossed it around the corner. It bounced down the hall unnoticed at first until it landed in front of the four gunmen.

"Ah, *CENSORED*!" Kane yelled, and drew back behind the corner. Before the simulacra noticed, the grenade exploded, and the building shook. Kira looked back at the damage through the smoke and looked over to Janus. After checking his magazine to see how many rounds he had left, Janus looked back around the corner and saw that the grenade had killed the rest of the programs that were with him.

"Who were those guys?" Janus asked.

"Resistance. The one in the black suit was Kane, but I didn't recognize the rest. Must be new redpills," Kira explained.

"Bastard, I'm really going to enjoy shooting his balls off..." Kane said to himself, his ears ringing from the blast.

Figuring he'd try his luck anyway, he fired in their direction three times. His shots hit the wall opposite from Janus and Kira in the center of the hallway twice and the floor once.

Janus glanced over at Kira, and nodded down the hall where there was an open hole in the ceiling. "One's alive. I'll cover you."

She nodded and ran for it, going down the hall to the hole. She jumped up and grabbed onto a pipe, and pulled herself up to the roof. Janus followed, backed against the wall and fired through the smoke left over from the grenade blast as it cleared.

Kane ducked away from the bullets and they smashed into the concrete wall behind him. He shot back twice and when he pulled the trigger again and heard *click*, he snorted.

"Rrgh.." he grumbled under his breath, remembering that his weapon of choice only had six shots to it. How the hell does Arius put up with this *poop*? It'll take too long to reload, better get out now, he thought to himself, and escaped down the hallway.

Once Janus confirmed Kane had left, he followed Kira up to the roof.

"Come on, there's a fire escape on the side of the building," she said, nodding over to a ladder that was leading to the roof. They climbed down and reached the fire escape, continuing their way down until they made it to the ground.

----

Anubis and Irvine, however, weren't as fortunate as Janus and Kira. Since the captain of the Nemesis was the primary target for the Merciless' crew, Gash had focused the other six simulacra onto him like hunting dogs on a pheasant. He and Anubis had managed to make it to the lobby of the building before Gash caught up with them.

"To whom do we owe the occasion?" Gash's filtered voice emanated out to them. Seeing they were outnumbered and cut off from escaping, Irvine went for his phone. Putting two and two together once the connection failed, he and Anubis both realized there was no way to contact the ship or get an exit.

Four of the programs held back behind a wall with Gash, firing their guns at the two redpills, while two of the programs had went into to close combat measures after running out of ammunition. They crouched down on all fours, leaping and rebounding off the floor and walls, dodging shots from Anubis and Irvine's handguns, then pounced at the two humans.

Anubis back flipped before the program could land on him, and instead, it hit the ground with its open hands piercing through the concrete.

Irvine had shot his attacker in midair while Anubis drew his sword and beheaded the simulacrum attacking him. Anubis' actions, though, left him open to a shot from Gash's Walther P38. A single 9x19 Luger bullet shot through his left arm, just missing the shoulder blade, but managing to slow Anubis down some.

"Anubis!" Irvine yelled, firing two more shots at the masked fighter. Gash ducked back behind the corner as a result, allowing Anubis to dash behind a support beam. One of the programs couldn't resist attacking the weakened fighter, not when its blood was spilling. Foolishly, it pounced at Anubis, and was swatted down by his sword. The program gave out a dying hiss as it keeled over on the ground, before Anubis slit open its throat.

"We gotta get out of here!" Irvine called out to Anubis. "Cover me!" he ordered.

Anubis complied, sheathing his sword and continuing to fire with his 1911 while Irvine drew a high explosive grenade, armed it and threw it at the wall.

*BOOM*

The grenade detonated, punching a large hole through the side wall. Irvine pulled another grenade out and threw it at the corner that Gash and the last three programs were behind. This time, the three programs jumped away as the grenade landed, with only Gash standing above it as it exploded. Irvine took the opportunity to run out the hole, followed by Anubis, and the simulacra gave pursuit, seemingly bouncing off the ground at great inhuman altitudes like three werewolves. Gash quickly recovered from the blast, being unwounded thanks to the armor he wore under his overcoat, and gave chase.

Now Anubis and Irvine were running down the streets, avoiding the public areas as much as possible as the programs continued to jump at them, firing their assault rifles. Once again, Irvine tried calling the Nemesis for an exit, but all he got was the default, seemingly cynical female computer voice that said "This number is no longer in service. Please try your call again later."

Irvine snarled at that voice. Got to get to an open area. Then he remembered one such area close to their position. Reloading a magazine into his USP and firing shots to keep the simulacra back, he waved at Anubis to follow him, and the former syndicate assassin had no problems doing so. He knew what Irvine was thinking, remembering the construction area not too far from the abandoned school building. They had no choice but to retreat for now anyway, seeing as they were now heavily outnumbered.


After running down the streets, the two ducked into the elevator that led to the top of the building, which was still in framing stages, the support beams and concrete blocks and plywood still visible. Irvine threw a third grenade out the entry way to keep the simulacra away as Anubis activated the elevator, raising them up above the ground. All three of them leaped back, just as Kane and Gash drove up in one of the SUVs. They both walked out, watching as the simulacra continued to fire their weapons up at the elevator. The bullets bounced off with *PANG* and *TWANG* noises. Gash took out his cellphone and contacted the Merciless.

"Operator," Syx said.

"We have them cornered, Syx. Can you spare a few more programs from there?" Gash asked.

Syx shook his head from the other side, "Sorry, Vega advises against it. You'll have to make due with what you've got. And hurry up too, before the cops show up."

Gash cursed to himself, saying a random phrase in Vietnamese.

Syx laughed at that, "What are you complaining for? Two fighters cornered in a construction complex with one wounded. That shouldn't be any trouble."

"We can't exactly close in on them until they waste ammunition, and if we send simulacra in, then they'll either be gunned down or cut apart by the *CENSORED* with the sword," Gash replied. "And where the hell is Stealth?"

"How should I know? You know how he operates. Just finish them off quickly and get back here. Merciless out." With that, Syx hung up.

Gash closed his cellphone, and looked at Kane, sighing, "And I was so enjoying this hunt."

Kane laughed a little, "All things must come to an end, Gash. Those two can't hold out forever, they only have handguns and maybe one or two grenades."

"I know," Gash said, pulling out his two MAC-10s. "Let's get it over with."

"Gladly," Kane said, drawing both of his black Colt Anacondas, gun twirling one of them in a similar manner to a cowboy. With that, the two casually walked toward the construction building, as the simulacra began pursuing the cornered Irvine and Anubis...
----

Chapter 10: Freedom isn't free; We pay the price in bullets

Date: 2004 Matrix time

Time: -

Area: The Construct

When Janus and Kira answered the phone to exit the Matrix, they wound up back in the Construct instead of waking up on the ship. Glitch nodded over to Blade.

"Okay, the other two made it back," Blade walked over and checked the screens. "Alright. You know what they gotta do."

Janus pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the number for Glitch. The phone rang once before he answered. "Operator."

"Glitch, why are we still in here?"

"You two have to go back in and get those guys out of there." Janus' eyebrows went up, surprised.

"What is it?" Kira asked him.

"We're going back in to get them," he answered.

She arched a brow. "How are we gonna get them? They have three top soldiers with them and those other guys."

"You guys are gonna need some equipment," Glitch told Janus.

"Yeah, you got any suggestions?" he asked. Glitch typed in "B:\ GUNS" and hit the "(" key.

Janus heard the sound of something loading and turned his head to the left to see hundreds of rows of racks come flying in his direction from out of nowhere, and they stopped a few feet from him. He saw that they held thousands and thousands of guns and other weapons. He also noticed his clothes had changed into a black ankle length trench coat over a black thermal-fabric shirt, with black BDU pants tucked into jungle-type combat boots, and kneepads, along with holsters strapped to his thighs and his belt.

"Nice."

Kira rolled her eyes at his reaction, as she was used to the equipment's form of loading in the Construct, and at the same she understood Glitch's suggestion that Janus asked for.

"I was hoping you'd be more specific," Janus said to Glitch.

"Heh. Just pick out the hardware you'll need, make a game plan and call me when you're ready. Hurry." With that, Glitch hung up.

Janus looked at the phone before closing it and returned it to his pocket. "Well, we better get started."

"What do we need?"

"A lot of guns," he said in an apparent tone as he picked up a double shoulder holster off of one of the racks.

"You're just planning for the both of us to run in there and shoot the place up to get them out?"

"Yeah," he answered, now putting his coat on over the double shoulder holsters. Once he was done he grabbed thigh holsters for each leg off of a rack. Kira was appalled, at the fact that Janus, the new guy, who only immediately after his first mission back into the Matrix, was ready to do something like this. She didn't understand it.

"You better start getting your gear," he said, pulling two Glock 21s from a rack and placing them into his shoulder holsters.

"What makes you think that we'll be able to get Anubis and Irvine out of there without backup? There's only one time something like this worked, and that was when Neo did it, and he was--" she was cut off.

"Good for Neo, I don't care what he did," Janus said in a stern tone. Kira narrowed her eyes at him. "We don't have time to wait for backup. I may not be anyone special, but if I don't try to help Irvine, then I'm not even what I think I am."

"What are you?" Kira asked.

"His friend." He pulled two Beretta 96s from a rack and placed them into his thigh holsters. Kira watched as he moved on to remove two UMP45's from the racks and held them up in front of him, testing their weight, and finally clipping them to his belt after folding the stocks. He wasn't going to back down, and she couldn't help it.

"Janus, this is crazy," she said.

He pulled a short-barreled SPAS-12 with a pistol grip from the rack and looked at her.

"After all that *CENSORED* you were saying about having a free mind? It's crazy enough to work," he said, followed by the *CHICK-CHACK* of the shotgun being pumped.

Kira's eyebrows raised questionably at his confidence, and she scanned over the racks, selecting a set of shuriken.

----

As Gash and Kane were climbing the second large concrete staircase, lined with walls of plywood and red support beams, the simulacra were one floor ahead of them in the chase after the two stranded fighters. Kane pulled a speed loader from his jacket pocket after holstering one of his revolvers, popping the cylinder out and loading six fresh rounds with a twist.

"Pain in the *CENSORED*.." he mumbled as he popped the cylinder back in with a flick of his wrist, and repeated the process with his other revolver.

"Perhaps you should use a handgun that has a magazine," Gash said suggestively in his deep cybernetic voice.

"No, that'd be too easy. Using a revolver requires some skill, never mind two," Kane retorted, twirling one on his right hand in a quick and fancy manner.

"Or you could join a circus.." Gash said sarcastically. "

No, you're the freak with the gas mask on, you'd fit right in," Kane answered, following up with a "Heh."

"Silen--"*BAM BAM* Gash was cut off by gunshots, and he immediately looked up. "They're on the top floor and they've probably run out of ammunition."

Kane looked to him. "All they have is that sword.."

"Irvine's probably killed them already, I don't hear anything else." Gash's helmet did enhance his senses by 50%. "I'll fill him with so much lead he'll sink to the bottom of the river before you can blink."

"Of course."

They made it to the top floor and walked a few feet beyond the steps, surveying the area. The three bodies of the simulacra lay scattered all over the place. The floor was solid concrete, with plywood walls here and there, and red support beams running along the ceiling and connecting the ceiling and the floor. The perimeter of the floor was surrounded with wooden scaffolding, and the outward walls made of glass. Several stacks of supplies, wood, steel, and other items were placed here and there.

"Where could they be...." Gash said to himself.

"Irvine, why don't you come out and have a chat with us? We'll give you some bullets....of course, they'll be shot at you, but it's all in your head, right?" Kane taunted, walking around slowly, twirling his pistols. He heard a noise and looked in its direction, catching Irvine running to a new hiding spot. He watched as he ran and fired a shot at an adjacent vertical support beam. The bullet ricocheted off the iron and hit Irvine in the ribs.

"Rrgh!" he roared under his breath, keeping in what would have been a yell of pain.

Gash scanned around, looking in all possible places someone as silent and crafty as Anubis could hide.

Peering out from the sacks of mortar he crouched behind, Anubis watched as Gash began turning in the opposite direction from his location. When he figured the timing was right, he jumped out from behind the pile and went to run behind a stack of wooden boxes, but he wasn't fast enough.

Gash heard him move and he turned around, following Anubis in the lined up sights of his MAC-10, and then fired. Hit in the arm twice, Anubis growled in pain, dropping his sword as he ran. He nearly tripped over himself as he fell behind the stack of boxes.

"Well..what have we here..." Gash said questioningly, walking over to the sword. He put away his MAC-10s and picked it up off of the floor with both hands. Taking a moment to study the sheath, he removed the sword, examining the blade, noticing the razor sharp edge and that it lacked the stain of blood.

"Very nice....a trophy indeed." Re-sheathing the sword, he took out his phone and dialed the ship.

(Chapter 10 cont'd)

"Operator," Syx answered.

"Syx, this is Gash. I want you to send more of those programs to fill the building. We'll lure their friends into a trap and take them out all at once."

Syx looked up to Vega to see what he should do.

"Alright, do it." Vega told him, and Syx responded with a nod.

"Okay Gash, I'll send you about 30 of em, that should be enough."

"Excellent. Make sure they're normal ones, no more of those animal-freaks." Gash hung up.

With the push of a button, the simulacra loaded into the building, ten per floor. Immediately after, the others arrived.

----

"You're on guard duty, but I want you to encourage them to fight you anyway, the idea is to trap them. However, don't hesitate to make kill shots, understand? Report back when you finish your first rounds," Gash's voice emanated from one of the simulacra's cell phones, which was in its "walkie-talkie" mode for the others like to hear.

"Understood sir, we'll be ready for them," the simulacra said, and hung up once Gash killed the connection on the other side.

"You heard him, weapons ready." They all loaded their guns, which were either handguns or sub-machine guns. Taking patrol positions throughout the floor, they began their watch, waiting for any other parties to arrive.

Dark glasses. Game faces. Janus and Kira approached the building in a bad *CENSORED*, almost "western" stride. With stacks of supplies and building material all over the place in the building, there were several hiding places they could go to and from.

I'm not in the mood to play hide and seek. Janus nodded his head to the right and Kira split from him, heading in that direction. He came up to the side of the rather wide entrance to the first floor, big enough for loading vehicles to pass through, and wasn't noticed. As he peeked his head around the corner, he saw two guards speaking to one another in the middle aisle out of three, the aisles formed by stacks and stacks of crates and building equipment acting as walls.

He could only make out mutters, and he figured they were going over guard positions and patrol routes. He noticed, on the other end of the room, Kira was peeking behind the doorway opposite the one he was peeking from, and nodded to her. The guards nodded their heads and did an about-face, walking down the aisle in the opposite direction from each other.

Janus waited as the one guard walking in his direction came close enough, and then came out from his hiding spot. The guard looked at him with a surprised, almost confused look as he tried to determine who this man in the long black coat was. Before he could move however, he was met by the muted spit of a silenced Beretta, and fell to the ground with a thud. The whistle of a razor sharp shuriken pierced the air followed by a *THAK*. Janus looked up to see the other guard drop to the ground with the shuriken in his forehead. Kira walked over and examined the body. She picked up his MP5-K.

----

Gash looked over at Kane, though his impatient facial expression was hidden by his mask. "They haven't reported anything. It's been 30 minutes."

"So maybe they aren't done yet," Kane suggested, and looked over to the direction Irvine last ran to.

"You're lucky Gash is being so generous, Irvine. With all these guards, if it was up to me you and your friend would already be dead."

Anubis smirked in his hiding spot, checking his 1911. He had no more ammo, and without his sword, he couldn't do anything against twelve men armed with guns.

Gash grumbled. "What the hell are they doing down there.."

His answer came at the door. Gash and Kane turned their heads as they heard it slowly creak open. There stood Janus, staring at them behind mirrored lenses, a UMP45 in each hand. The simulacra guards looked over, and everyone had a confused look on their face, except for Janus. He held each gun up in front of him, picking random targets.

"Damnit..." Gash said under his breath, realizing why the guards weren't responding. He and Kane jumped out of the way. Bullets began flying all over the place. One guard jerked around in his place as blood burst from his chest before he fell, and another went flying back into a vertical support. As Janus moved from the doorway and strafed to his right, Kira came out behind him armed with two P-22s and fired at the guards taking aim at Janus as he moved.

Return fire started coming back, and Janus moved behind a vertical support to cover himself, fired out from behind it, and the guard he hit went crashing into a wooden crate. Kane came out from his hiding spot only to quickly duck back behind it as Kira fired in his direction, the bullets' velocity dying as they smashed into the stack of wood. One guard ran out with a TEC-9 and fired at Janus without aiming, and Janus proceeded to gun him down before he could take more than a few steps.

"God *CENSORED* it! How did they make it up here!?" Gash yelled from his cover.

Anubis and Irvine didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Syx!" Gash yelled into the phone.

"Yeah, more guards, you got it."

As Gash hung up, more of the guards loaded into the room. As two of the new guards ran at Janus, he used up the rest of his UMP ammo on them and sent them falling back down on themselves.

He saw Anubis in his hiding spot and nodded over to him, pulling two Glock 21s from his shoulder holsters. Holding them up in front of him, he ran into Anubis' direction, firing at whatever guards in the way. One of them jumped up into the air in a pounce, gun in hand. Two shots later from Janus's guns, and he fell back through the air through a crate.

Another guard popped out in front of Janus with a shotgun, cutting his run, and he quickly hid behind a vertical support as the shotgun round that would have ripped him apart smashed into the iron beam. He peaked out to his right, and quickly went back as another shotgun blast missed his head. He looked out to the left and the same thing happened, so figuring the guard would guess he would move out to the right again, he turned and stood out to the left again. As the guard was ready to blow Janus open on the right side, Janus came out and lit him up. He heard a yell behind him as another one of the simulacra came at him from behind. He jumped and twisted in the air, jump kicking it in the chest. As it flew back, Janus fired off the rest of the bullets into its chest, blood spurting out as it flew back and fell. Throwing the empty guns to the ground, Janus took cover crouching down next to Anubis.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Here, these are for you," Janus answered, pulling two new M1911A1's from the back of his waistband.

"What about my sword?" Anubis questioned.

"I'll get it, just work with these for now."

He pulled out his SPAS-12. "Ready?"

Anubis nodded, and they both stood up from the hiding place, back to back and firing. Janus blasted the head off the shoulders of a guard firing at him with a CAR-15 as Anubis broke a guard's spine into pieces with a few well placed shots. They nodded to each other and split up.

Now, there were many targets of choice in this situation. The masked guy in the Nazi SS uniform, the simulacra and even the potential Agents that may or may not show up, but there was only one Anubis wanted, and wanted dearly. And that was the ingrate with the Colt Anacondas. As he had heard on the Nemesis, the one called Gash was supposedly one of the best Matrix fighters in the human race period, second to another man in the Resistance that Anubis kept hearing about, "the Potential," whom he hadn't seen yet.

After seeing the man in action, Gash was simply too arrogant for the syndicate ninja to have an enjoyable fight with. In fact, the only reason he considered going up against the iron masked assassin at all was to get his sword back. It didn't matter how skilled or strong his opponent was, if the mind is set elsewhere, then all that special power is put to waste. To Anubis, the one called Kane was a much more interesting opponent. But first, he wanted to get back at those simulacra just for being *CENSORED* annoying.

He ran at one of them, rolling on the ground while avoiding its machine gun fire, before popping a .45ACP round into its skull, specifically into its nose area. Since the nose wasn't the densest part of the human body, the bullet went straight through it, into the brain and out the other side, leaving a nice trail of sprayed blood on either side. Anubis then acted fast and grabbed the corpse before it could fall over, then ducked behind a steel beam.

As he expected, Kane took notice of his little escape, as he drew both Anacondas in a cowboy-style quick draw, and squeezed off two bullets, one from both guns at the steel beam. With little time to dodge, Anubis yanked the dead program's assault rifle and ran to another beam.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Kane taunted, firing another shot at the beam as he walked through the center. The sound of his boots along the floor gave off a distinct metallic sound for some reason, like those of cowboy spurs, even though Kane's boots weren't tipped with steel. It was very distinct, but the Resistance gunner didn't mind, because his opponent was wounded and cornered behind a steel beam.

(Chapter 10 cont'd)

"Die!" Kane laughed, jumping out to where Anubis was kneeling and firing off three bullets from his left gun. However, much to Kane's shock, Anubis wasn't there, but the corpse of that simulacra he took out. The corpse was leaning against the beam, appearing to be standing, but when Kane opened fire, it fell to the side.

"Where did-?" He was answered by a bullet shot into his shoulder socket, then another one into his hip. A third bullet was also shot, but at this point, Kane instinctively rolled.

Son of a *CENSORED*, how did he get over there!? Kane's mind roared, seeing Anubis directly across from the beam Kane had cornered him at. It was fairly obvious that the redpill had made his way across from the beam Kane was at now, but what the gunman didn't understand was how he did it without being detected. Much more, how did he move the corpse from that one side to this one?

To Kane, it was like one of those Japanese comic books or animations, in which whenever an acclaimed ninja got hit by an attack, there would be a puff of smoke and the ‘ninja' would turn out to be some random object, usually a piece of wood. Then, the real ninja would pop out from another direction and nail the attacker in the *CENSORED* with shurikens. Only, Anubis was using a pair of Colt 1911A1s and a CAR-15 assault rifle.

There was no way Kane would know he wasn't too far off from his thoughts on Anubis. When Anubis seemed to grab the assault rifle and run for it, he managed to keep the corpse as well. He then ran across the relative short distance to the opposite pillar, keeping the corpse concealed on the opposite side of Kane's view. Once he got to the pillar, he stood the corpse up and made it so its silhouette made it appear to be standing. After that, Anubis simply snuck around Kane while he was focused on the silhouette behind the beam, using stealth techniques he had learned while working in the syndicate.

Now though, Anubis was exhausted, and what felt like hours of fighting started to catch up with him.

"Bastard!" Kane roared, running from his cover spot and firing his revolvers rapidly at Anubis' position. He ran and rolled, attempting to draw out the CAR-15 he swiped from that simulacra, but one of Kane's shots sliced off the strap while another shot hit the rifle itself, sending it flying back a good distance away. Anubis drew his own M1911A1s and ran again, firing strafing shots at Kane, as the two made it to opposite beams again.

Kane took the opportunity to reload his guns, but with the shots Anubis sank into him, he had trouble even with the speed loader. *CENSORED* ninja, He thought. After finally reloading, he jumped back up and fired three shots at the beam he saw Anubis duck behind in, but none of them hit human flesh. He looked around from his position, and saw the syndicate assassin running back to a different area.

"Oh no you don't!" he snarled, firing more rounds at Anubis, but the assassin evaded each shot. Kane, not taking people running from him, gave chase.
----

Kira ran along the wall firing her handguns, hitting whatever guard she could. As she came to a stack of wood a guard was hiding behind, he came out ready to put one in her skull, but instead her heel smashed up into his face and sent him staggering back. She aimed and pulled the trigger but her handguns were out of ammo. He grinned at this, aiming his revolver, but she grabbed the barrel and pulled it towards her, smashing his face with a roundhouse elbow strike, following up with a backhand punch to the side of his nose. This disoriented him a bit, and when she had the chance to finish him off, guards began firing at her, so she ran. When she safely made it to cover, she pulled out two USP Match handguns and was ready to go. She ran out from behind the wall and did a no-hands cartwheel, firing as she flipped, taking down a pair of guards shooting at Janus. When she made it to Irvine, she kneeled beside him.

"Are you alright?

"Just a hit in the ribs but I'll live."

"Oh yeah? You might need this." She handed him the MP5-K she had taken from the guard downstairs earlier.

"Thanks."

"Ready?"

"Hell yeah."

Kira grinned. At that moment, both Irvine and Kira both ran out into the open, firing at the simulacra on each side of the construction building, with Irvine covering the left portion and Kira covering the right. The simulacra programs strafed from their fire, returning fire while others charged at them. Those that close were gunned down by the duo, while the rest were forced to cover. Otherwise, they were gunned down anyway.

Three simulacra did manage to avoid fire and get past the hail of bullets, but since their primary target was Irvine, the three attempted to gang up on the Nemesis captain. Kira covered for Irvine by shooting holes into the programs, but it was Irvine that did the real damage. As one of the programs aimed a punch at him, Irvine dodged the blow and grabbed at the program's throat, quickly crushing it. He then whipped the body around to the other simulacra and ‘kicked' its head with the corpse's feet. It stumbled back from the blow, giving Kira enough time to nail the bastard with one of her USPs.

The firing continued, until their part of the building was cleared of renegades, and only Irvine and Kira were left standing over the corpses. As if the timing weren't convenient enough, Irvine's cellular phone rang, to which he looked down at, arching an eyebrow. He then looked at Kira, earning a shrug from his comrade.

"Figures." He griped, picking up the cell phone and pressing the ‘send' button, "Irvine."

"This is the last time I let you go out on a school night, young man," Glitch mock lectured, giving off his best ‘angry Grandmother' impression.

"Glitch, you bastard, where the hell were you all this time?" Irvine berated.

"Sorry, sir, I was trying to save car insurance by switching to Geico."

Irvine rolled his eyes at Glitch's poor attempt at a comeback. "Look, just what the hell is going on up there?"

"It's the Merciless, sir. They picked up your broadcast signal and sent Kane, Gash and possibly a third fighter along to hunt you. And if that's not bad enough, they now have some kind of programs working for them."

"*CENSORED*," Irvine grumbled, "Are there any other ship crews near our position?"

"Not at the moment, but if they reported your position, you can be sure as hell Blood's going to show up."

"Great..." Irvine said under his breath. He didn't want anything to do with Blood at this point, especially since he had "the Potential" in his crew, and one of the most powerful human made ships at his possession.

"Alright, get Blade and Solitaire in here, we're going to need some help getting out. And tell Marley to arm the guns, in case Vega or the other Blood-hounds pop up out of nowhere." Irvine then looked around the area he was standing in, "And try hacking some weapons into this place."

"Alright sir, I'm on it." Glitch said on the other end, immediately typing on his console.
----

Janus fired at a guard, sending his guts flying all over the place, pumped the shotgun, ducked, and rolled. One of the simulacrum guards was crawling on the ceiling above him ready to pounce, but Janus saw him and blasted him down.

Gash came out armed with his two MAC-10s flanked by a few guards, all firing at Janus. Janus took one more out before he had to move for cover, but he had to be quick. Scurrying around before they could get to him, he popped out from behind, wasting the other three guards with the remaining shells he had left in the shotgun.

Gash quickly turned to face Janus, holding up his guns in front of him ready to fire as Janus ran at him. Before he could fire though, Janus grabbed his arms, pushed them out to his sides, and in the same motion he back flipped and kicked him up in the chin. There was a *CLANK* noise from the contact of Janus' steel tipped boot with Gash's mask, and his head was knocked back slightly. As he slowly brought his head forward, Janus was back on the attack.

First he struck Gash's guns out of his hands with cross-body strikes, then sent a palm strike to his chest. It wasn't so effective however, as Gash only took a step back, so Janus sent a high kick at Gash's head which he automatically blocked with his forearm, as well as the follow up kick aimed at his ribs, one after the other, and punched Janus in the face with a right hook and spun quickly to follow up with a left roundhouse kick to his chest.

Janus took two steps back from the blow. Taking out Anubis' sword, Gash got a two-hand grip and swiped down at Janus, but he leaned all the way left from the waist up, so Gash swung out to his right. Still ducking, Janus moved under it, dodging again and now leaning to his right. Angered, Gash swung down overhead, but Janus grabbed onto Gash's hands as the sword came down and stepped back to his left. When the sword came down and missed, Janus struck Gash in the face with his elbow, knocking his head back and causing him to let go of the sword.

Pulling the sword away and gripping it, Janus quickly spun around as Gash was standing up straight again, and as he spun and faced him, in the same swift motion he swung out left slashing across his neck and then brought the sword back swinging out right and cutting into his torso. Struggling for air, Gash brought his hand up to his throat and looked at fingers to find blood stained on the black leather. He looked back up to Janus, who turned and sent a hard left kick to his chest. The kick sent him flying and he smashed through the wall of windows behind him.

Gash screamed as he fell, the cybernetic roar of his voice through his helmet accompanied by the sound of blood gurgling in his throat. His body slammed through a pile of debris, and was impaled upon a sharp iron rod through his back and out his chest.

Anubis came out after gunning down another guard program, and Janus turned to him. Anubis returned the look as he checked on his crewmate, and as he did, Janus tossed him his sword. Anubis caught it and looked at it, and then back to Janus, finding himself surprised. Janus simply nodded to him as he pulled out his two Beretta 96s, and then turned to get back to work.

(Chapter 10 concluded)

The receiver began to ring suddenly at Sideways's workstation aboard the Nosferatu. Puzzled, he looked over to Blood as it rang a second time.

"Well what are you looking at me for, pick it up," Blood told him. Off to the side, Balthasar, leaning against a wall with his arms and legs crossed, rolled his eyes.

"Operator," Sideways said as he answered the call.

"Sideways, this is Stealth. Let me speak to Captain Blood."

Sideways's eyebrows wrinkled and he turned to Blood. "It's Stealth, he wants to talk to you, Blood."

"Where's he calling from?"

"Where are you Stealth?"

"I'm in the Matrix. I have some news he'll want to hear." Stealth said in his cool-toned voice. Sideways looked back over at Blood.

"He's got something for you."

Blood arched a brow, and walked over to take the headset from Sideways. Once he put it on, he spoke up. "What is it Stealth?"

"Roughly an hour ago, the Nemesis crew entered the Matrix in a strange area effected by some sort of glitch, they were probably investigating. Syx saw the same glitch, and reported to Captain Vega that the Nemesis crew was also inside. He decided to send in Gash, Kane, and Myself, with a few of those program entities that Captain Raven copied and gave to us, the ones he got from Anome."

"He did what!? I didn't give the authorization to anyone to use those!" Blood yelled. Balthasar snickered too himself off in his corner.

"There's more. Once we got there, we made contact with the Nemesis crew. There were also some sort of exiles, all dressed up in silver."

"Well what happened once you made contact?"

"Shooting started, and before long, the four from the Nemesis crew escaped. Irvine, Kira, and two new crew members I've never seen before were there. Gash, Kane, and the simulacra went after them, they split up."

"What about you?"

"I parted from the group to watch from afar for recon so I could provide this accurate report of the situation."

"Good thinking. What happened then?"

"Kira and one of the new guys got out, while Irvine went with the other new guy, a blonde. They ran to a construction site where they were trapped by Gash and his entourage. They played cat and mouse with them, both Irvine and his crew mate suffered bullet wounds. Then, the other two that got out earlier had come back, armed this time, and they silently infiltrated the building, which was now filled with more copies of the simulacra, acting as guards. Once they made it to the top floor where the others were, a gunfight started, which was part of a rescue attempt to save Irvine and the blonde guy. Many of the simulacra were killed in the fight, but Syx kept loading them into the Matrix to help Gash and Kane out. Gash took the blonde guys sword before the gun fight started, and during the gunfight, he went to fight the other new guy that was with Kira. He was disarmed, and with the blonde guy's sword, the new guy cut open his throat and his chest, before kicking him out of a large window paine. He fell many stories down to the ground and was impaled upon a piece of metal debris."

Blood was dumbfounded, at a loss of words, and it became obvious on his face. All he could let out was a "Huh?"

Balthasar arched a brow. "What's the matter?"

"Gash is dead."

Balthasar's eyes widened. "Who killed him?"

"A *CENSORED* new guy!" Blood yelled. He gritted his teeth. "Is there any more?"

"Afterwards, the blonde was given back his sword and he started fighting with that as well as the guns he was given by the new guy earlier when they first got in. The blonde guy cut Kane's arm and then Kane escaped, while the Nemesis crew finished off the rest of the simulacra. Authorities, and possibly Agents, are now proceeding to the area."

"Are they still inside?"

"Trapped on the top floor with authorities surrounding the ground level, they have no way out besides up, and the building's too far for them to jump to any other rooftops."

A slight grin came over Blood's face. "Perfect. Stealth, we'll take it from here. I'll have Sideways hack an exit for you that will patch you back to your ship. I have that idiot Vega to take care of. Don't worry about an excuse, I'll tell him we noticed from the monitors."

"Understood." Stealth hung up the phone.

Blood turned to Sideways. "You get that exit ready." He then turned to Balthasar. "You get your gear ready, you're going in."

"To do what?

"To kill Irvine and his friends."

A mischievous grin crept up on Balthasar's face. "Yes, Captain."

----

Kane's eyes opened quickly and he took a breath as he lay in his chair on the Merciless. You could see in his eyes, first, a look of confusion as he placed himself and tried remembering where he was, a side effect of jacking out of the Matrix, much like when you first wake up from a deep sleep. Once it all came to him, he exhaled a sigh of slight relief. When he went to get up, pain shot up through his left arm and he looked at it with gritted teeth, remembering how Anubis cut him earlier with his sword.

The sword... he remembered, an angered look forming on his face as he remembered its owner whom he now despised, and how he caught him in the arm with it. He looked over to Gash's chair, where Gash's body lay motionless with no breath, and that look of death on his Vietnamese face, blood all over his chin, neck, and shirt from gurgling it up after his throat was slashed open by Janus, the man only known to them now as "the new guy", using Anubis, "the blonde guy"'s sword to do it.

That new guy... Kane thought as the quiet sound of a flat lined vitals monitor whined in the background. Behind his stone face of anger, you could almost see in his eyes, a touch of sadness or depression in the death of his friend.

"Ar you okay?" he heard a voice say from behind him. He turned to look and saw Pagan. He was about 6'0, dark hair, in his late 30s. He wore old olive drab fatigues and a black t-shirt, along with his boots and black gloves. On his head she wore a black bandana. He could see Kane was distressed.

"Kane?" he asked again.

He shook his head, coming out of his trance. "Yeah...I'll be alright, just need to fix up this arm. Why haven't you guys cleaned him up yet?" he asked, waving his hand at Gash's body.

Pagan sighed, it wasn't like Kane was the only one who cared. "...We'll get to it."

Syx's receiver rang. It was Blood. "What is it Captain?" Syx asked.

"GET VEGA ON THE LINE RIGHT NOW!!" Blood yelled. Vega's eyes widened when he heard it, and Syx winced from the sound blasting into his ear. He handed Vega the headset and he put it on.

"You shouldn't yell that loud, sentinels might hear you," Vega stated.

"No Vega, I think I need to, because apparently, common sense and logic doesn't sink into your thick head!" Blood berated.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid with me Vega, you're already an expert. Why did you use those combat programs Raven gave everyone?"

"Because, 'Captain', it was a good opportunity to squash the Nemesis crew."

"I never gave you the authorization!"

"Why do you think I didn't ask for your permission? Sending in three men would have been stupid, they would have been outnumbered."

"One of them died anyway, you *CENSORED* *poop*!" The look on Vega's face said "*CENSORED*, he caught me there."

"Do you have an excuse for that too Vega? Of course sending in three men would have been stupid, but apparently, according to you, so is thinking!"

"Blood, the--"

"Wrong answer, there is no excuse. Gash unnecessarily died today, and it's your fault because you have poor judgement. He was our best fighter after Balthasar, and now, because you had to try and play hero, he's no longer with us."

"Don't give me that *poop* about Balthasar, Teacher's pet is more like it."

"You don't get it, do you Vega? Gash is dead. Because of you. You basically killed one of your men."

"I didn't think he would have died, I thought he'd be able to handle himself."

"That's the problem, you didn't think. If you told me, I would have established a crew of guys to go in and take care of them with a plan. Instead you went on your own, sent your men in with a crew of simulacra that were poorly programmed, and two of our men were hurt, one of them dead. There's no excuse for that."

"How the hell did you find out anyway?"

"We were watching the whole thing on our monitors. You didn't think anyone'd notice did you?"

"Hey you listen Blood, I'm tired of your *poop*, acting like you're the boss and that everyone has to answer to you, just because you have the biggest ship. I'm a captain the same as you, I didn't intend on anyone dying today except Irvine and his crew mates."

"Don't give me that **bullcrud** Vega. I'm the leader around here because I'm the one keeping us alive, not because I have a big ship. If you were in charge, we'd be dead already. You're a captain, and have your own ship? Go back to Zion and listen to Morpheus babble about Neo and his greatness for all I care. The fleet's suffered the loss of a ship already, and we've been fine, we wouldn't suffer greatly if we lost another. Hell it might even do us some good, because now anyone around you has a death wish."

"Go to hell, Blood."

"Look around you. We're already there. I'm just the devil that's here to make life worse for the ones who have their heads up their asses. Today that's you." Blood then hung up.

Syx looked up at Vega. "You alright?"

Vega was furious. With a "RRAARRGH!", he threw the headset hard down on the floor. Kane and Pagan looked over fast.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Kane asked.

"Blood was watching the whole thing on his monitors and I just got chewed out for using the programs without asking him, and for Gash being killed."

"Sounds...orthodox.." Kane said in a suggestive, yet sure tone.

Vega looked over at Stealth in his chair. "Where the hell is he?"

Suddenly, Stealth's eyes opened as he took a breath and then looked around. Syx looked surprised, as well as everyone else.

"How the hell did you do that?" Syx asked. "I never made you an exit."

"When Blood saw the situation on his ship, he had Sideways make me an exit and reroute it to here so I could get out."

"Well, he's doing everyone favors today, isn't he?" Vega asked sarcastically. He looked over at Pagan, who was helping Stealth out of his chair. "Get Kane's arm fixed up, and then clean up Gash's body. We have to say goodbye."

He sighed. He'd never felt so guilty.

----

Blade opened his eyes and found himself looking out of a phone booth on an empty street. Across the street parked in the alley he saw the truck Glitch gave them, a black Chevy Silverado. He checked his gear: An MP5K with a 15 round clip hanging by a strap and three extra clips, sword in sheath on his back under his coat, cellphone. He hung up the phone and stepped out of the booth.

"C'mon Solitaire, we ain't got time..." he said to himself.

Soon after, her body formed in the phonebooth, in the same way people's bodies disappear when they leave the Matrix, but in reverse. She checked for a gun, and found a Walther PPK. She stepped out and looked to Blade. "Are we ready?"

He nodded in the direction of the truck. "You drive. I got a call to make."

They walked over to the truck. Solitaire climbed into the driver's seat, taking the keys down from the overhead visor and turning on the ignition. Blade hopped into the bed of the truck and found an M240 with a full box magazine of 200 rounds. "Not bad," he remarked as he kneeled down on one knee against the cab and rested the M240 atop his thigh. Solitaire got the truck rolling, and Blade pulled out his phone. He dialed Irvine.

On the top floor of the skyscraper in construction, Irvine and the others could hear the sirens from the other end of town. A look of knowing the impending doom came over Irvine's face.

"Cops," Janus said.

"We'll never get out of here in time," Anubis added.

"How the hell are we gonna get out of here...?" Irvine asked out loud. He tried not to show his panic. Then, his phone rang. He hesitated before finally answering it.

"Hello?"

"Irvine!" Blade said out loud over the engine of the truck. They were moving pretty quickly down a street, passing by a block of apartments going over a face renovation.

"Blade? Where are you?"

"Coming your way with Solitaire."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well I think everyone knows you have no time to get down there before the police get to you, so we got some favors for you."

"What do you mean?"

"By the time we get there, the cops will already be surrounding the building. We'll drive by and try and get some heat off your tail."

"That won't get all the cops away."

"That's what the helicopter's for."

"What helicopter?"

"Glitch hacked one onto the roof, that's your ride out of there. Call him up, he'll have directions for your exits." Blade then hung up. He could tell by the streets they were taking that they were almost there, and he could hear the sirens. Up ahead, there were patrol cars speeding down the road.

"Follow them!" Blade yelled. Solitaire nodded and picked up the speed.

----

Irvine hung up his phone and put it back into his pocket. "Come on, we have to go to the roof."

"Why?" Kira asked. "We can't jump, we'll die."

Irvine sighed at the irony of her statement. "I know, we're not going to jump. Just come with me. Janus, Anubis," he motioned for them to follow him, and to the stairs they went. On the roof, they found a Black Hawk military helicopter, sitting as though it was always there. Irvine removed his phone from his pocket once again. This time, he dialed Glitch.

"Operator."

"Glitch, wanna give us a hand?"

"Alright, listen up. You guys are gonna take the helicopter and fly to separate exits I'm gonna establish in different points of the city, you guys decide who goes with who, you're going in pairs of two."

"Why don't we use just one phone?"

"You guys are all together, you're at a greater risk of attack and death if you all stay together, you'll be splitting up for safety. Which one of you are planning on flying that helicopter?"

Irvine looked at the others. "Who wants to fly?"

"I will," Anubis called out. Suddenly his eyes closed and his eyelids flickered, the pilot program for the Black Hawk downloading into his brain. Once it stopped, he shook his head slightly.

"Okay," Glitch said. "Get going, and stay on the phone, I'll tell you where to fly for the first exit. Hurry, we'll be lucky if this works."

"Come on, let's go." Irvine said to the others. They all got into the Black Hawk, Anubis and Irvine in the cockpit, Janus and Kira in the back. Anubis flipped all the switches, and the rotors began to spin, slowly at first but then they got faster. The helicopter was ready to go.

"Get us out of here," Irvine said. Anubis nodded, pulling back on the joystick. The helicopter lifted and inconspicuously pulled away from the rooftop, unnoticed by the police below.

----

Epilouge: The End is the Beginning of the End

Date: 2004 M.T.

Time: Evening

Area: Mannsdale Housing Projects

The black Silverado fishtailed and it moved around the corner with a *SCCCCRRRRRR*. As they drove down the block toward the construction site, Solitaire could see that there were squad cars and S.W.A.T. vans all over the place around the building. She looked back to Blade.

"Are you ready?" She yelled.

He pulled back the action on the M240 and nodded. She pushed the pedal to the floor. The Silverado's engine revved and they went faster down the block. Some cops at the building heard the sound of the speeding truck, and turned to see where it would be coming from. As they came in front of all the cars, Blade opened fire.

*TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA*

The M240 roared as Blade held down the trigger, hitting several of the squad cars, causing some of them to explode even. Cops ducked and jumped out of the way, and 7.62x51mm bullets ripped holes into the sides of the cruisers. Some of the cops returned fire from their hiding places, but even if they did hit the car, their measily 9x19mm rounds wouldn't do the truck any damage.

As Solitaire rounded the corner to turn down the adjacent street, Blade continued to fire as long as there was some sort of a law enforcement vehicle in his sight. He let go of the trigger when he could no longer see them. Solitaire looked into the rear view mirror.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. They should be coming to follow us any second now."

When the truck had gone, the cops came out from ducking. There was confusion, questions being yelled all over the place such as "What the hell was that?!" and "Who were they?" Finally a decision had been made to go after them, and one of the officers spoke into the radio on his shoulder.

"This is Carter, a speeding vehicle just passed by the construction site at 5th and Bayview in Mannsdale, a pickup truck. There was a gunner in the bed of the truck with a machine gun and he messed up our cars pretty bad, unknown if anyone was hit or killed. Squad cars have been dispatched, over."

In no time, the squad cars were in pursuit of the truck. Blade heard the sirens, and behind them he could see two squad cars chasing them down the street, no sign of a helicopter or any other units. Solitaire's phone rang, so she pulled it out and answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Solitaire, it's Glitch, listen, the others got out of the building by helicopter, you guys just gotta get out of there. There's two squad cars behind you now."

"Which way should I go?"

"Make a left, now!"

She complied, and the truck swerved left. Blade slid from the little corner he was sitting in, trying to hold on. "The hell are you doing?!" He yelled.

The squad cars sped up, and they got closer to the truck. "Can we get any backup?" one of the cops driving asked his partner

"No, everyone's tied up at that *CENSORED* construction site, this was a clever little maneuver."

They yelled as their bodies suddenly twisted and transformed into those of Agents Williams and Miller. In the car behind them, the policemen transformed into Agents Johnson and Thompson. Blade had a double take.

"*poop*!" Blade yelled.

"What's the matter?"

"You got Agents tailing you, four of them," Glitch told her. "Tell him to put that gun to good use, and make a right."

"Take 'em out!" Solitaire yelled as she turned the car. Blade tried to stay in place and get the gun up at the same time. Williams saw this, and gave a quick glance over to Miller. Miller took out his Desert Eagle and aimed straight in front of him, taking out the windshield as he blasted at the truck, putting large holes into the hatch, nearly hitting Blade.

"Whoa!" He yelled. Deciding accuracy wasn't important, he just pointed the gun in their direction and fired. Williams swerved the car left and right, dodging most of his shots, although some of them put decent sized holes into the hood of the car. Miller shot back, this time he took out the glass in between Blade and Solitaire, and she was startled.

Blade tried to return fire again but the truck swerved around another corner as he fired, resulting in him totally missing Williams and Davis's car, but instead hitting the side of Thompson and Johnson's car. One of the bullets went through the door and into Thompson's leg, causing him to grit his teeth.

"You feel pain?" Johnson asked in a robotic tone.

Thompson wrestled the wheel to turn the car without crashing. "Redpills are a nuisance," he muttered.

Blade tried to shoot at Williams again, but the weight of the gun, along with the recoil, and the fact that Solitaire was driving like a madwoman, made it all too difficult to work the gun.

"*CENSORED* this!" Blade said as he threw the gun down. He pulled out his MP5K and ducked again, as more of Miller's shots nearly hit him. Blade pointed his gun at the shot up squad car and fired, hitting Miller in his left arm, just as his clip ran dry. Some luck though that the Agent was shooting with his right hand. The Nemesis' first mate smirked, but his moment of grief was cut short when Williams ran the front bumper into the back of the truck, sending Blade slamming into the back of the cab.

Williams reached into his coat and pulled out his gun, handing it to Miller. "Keep shooting," he ordered.

Miller brought the gun up just as Blade came up again.

(Note to readers: "~" denotes bullet time sequences beginning and ending).

~The spray of bullets from Blade's submachine gun sizzled through the air as Miller aimed his gun. Three of them slammed into the Agent's chest, blood bursting from underneath and staining his white shirt, while the others headed his way ripped into the seat. The rest hit Williams, two in the chest, one in the head, and one in the neck. As the bullets hit Miller's chest, he grit his teeth and closed his eyes tight behind his glasses, losing his aim as he pulled the trigger twice. The .50AE rounds flew back at the truck, missing Blade, but hitting the rear left tire and clipping the gas tank~

The truck bounced from the bullet hitting the tire. Williams lost control of the car and "died", while Miller's body transformed back into that of a cop with a flurry of electric volts. Williams transformed also, and his host body's foot slammed into the brake. The squad car immediately stopped in a dead halt and began to turn horizontally in the road.

Thompson and Johnson's car smashed into the side of the car in front of them and as a result, the back of the car bumped up into the air, turning the whole vehicle upside down, landing on top of the first car and killing the Agents as the windshield smashed down onto the hood of the first car.

"*CENSORED*.." Blade said. The truck bounced slightly again though, and Solitaire lost control. Blade fell as the car swerved and fishtailed, eventually rolling onto its right side. He fell out and rolled onto the ground before stopping. As he got up from the ground, he grabbed his left shoulder, and pain was shot through it.

"Ahh..*CENSORED*.." he said to himself. He looked over to the truck and saw that Solitaire was climbing out of the car, having sustained little or no injury. "Come on," he told her, and she went to him.

"We gotta get outta here." She said. Blade's phone rang, it was Glitch. Solitaire had left her phone in the car.

"You guys alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, we're alright."

"You'll live, but you need new exits. You guys aren't even close and staying together would be a risk, so I'm gonna give you two different exit points, now get moving."

"Pain in the *CENSORED*..." Blade muttered. They started to run down the street when the truck exploded. They stopped and looked back for a moment. "'Like a rock'.." Solitaire said sarcastically, before they started running again.

"Okay, you guys are in Camon Heights. Blade, your exit's gonna be at Camon North. Solitaire's will be at Camon Central, go."

Blade closed the phone against his hip and put it back into his pocket, then he looked over to Solitaire. "You're at Camon Central. See you when you get there." They nodded to each other before they split up, Solitaire down a back alley, and Blade down the street to his exit at an intersection further down. He reloaded his MP5K with a new clip.

----

Balthasar opened his eyes and found himself in an empty downtown subway station. The pay phone rang in front of him and he picked it up. "I'm in," he said.

"Alright, listen Balthasar, get upstairs and to a secure area, I'll call you back to tell you which pairing from the Nemesis you're closest to, you go after them from there," Sideways told him.

"Right." Balthasar answered. He hung up the phone and ran to the stairs leading to the city streets above.

----

Anubis flew the Black Hawk over the downtown area. They passed by several tall skyscrapers, and luckily, they hadn't been noticed yet. Irvine listened to Glitch over the phone.

"Okay, up ahead there's an empty enclosed parking lot boxed in by a few buildings, do you see it?"

"Yeah, I can see it." Irvine told him as he nodded in the direction of the lot. Up ahead below, amongst some lower buildings, Irvine could see the parking lot down on the ground below. Irvine looked over to Anubis and he nodded too, also seeing where Irvine had nodded to.

"Alright, take the helicopter down there, and drop off Janus and Kira. I'll tell them where their exit is and get back to you guys." Glitch explained.

"Where's Blade and Solitaire, did they make it out alright?"

"They had a bit of a car accident but they should be okay, they're headed to their exits as we speak. You got the plan down?"

"Yeah, we know what to do," Irvine answered. He hung up his phone and pointed to the parking lot. "Head down there, we have to drop these two off," he said to Anubis. The ex-syndicate member nodded as he heard Irvine over the spinning rotary blades. Irvine turned around to Janus and Kira.

"Listen up you two. We're dropping you off, Glitch will contact you and tell you where your exit point is."

Janus and Kira exchanged glances before looking back at Irvine. "We'll be alright," Janus told him.

Anubis brought the helicopter down deeper into the city as he moved closer to the parking lot. Once he was over the lot, he steadily brought it down so that it hovered a few feet off of the ground.

"Okay you two, out," Irvine told them. They moved to the edge of the opening and jumped out, Janus first, then Kira. Janus squinted his eyes as the winds from the helicopter blades blew his hair all around. Anubis looked down to him and nodded, before pulling back up into the skies. Janus and Kira stood and watched as the helicopter lifted off, then turned to each other once it had turned in the opposite direction.

"We better get moving," Kira said to Janus. He held up a finger as though to say "wait a minute." His phone started to ring, and he pulled it from his pocket.

"Movie-fone," Janus answered.

"Very funny. Zia South," Glitch told him.

"Right," replied Janus. The call then ended. He turned to Kira as he put his phone away.

"C'mon, this nightmare's almost over. Follow me." They both ran to the street.

----

Balthasar walked through the crowded street. Shoving past some businessman, he made his way into a small alley which lead to a small lot, boxed in by the walls of the surrounding buildings. He removed his phone from his pocket and dialed the Nosferatu. After a ring, he heard Sideways pick up on the other end.

"Talk to me Sideways."

"There's a pair headed to an exit at Zia South, they're the closest." Having received the info he needed, Balthasar killed the connection and put the phone back into his pocket.

As if on cue, three Agents, one from each door in each "wall" of the lot, came out and approached him. They were Agent White, Agent Bird, and Agent Lewis. White stopped in front of him, Bird to his left, Lewis to his right. Balthasar didn't seem surprised or worried in the least bit, but rather annoyed that Sideways didn't see it coming. He looked at each of them behind his black lenses.

"White, Bird, Lewis. Nice to see you again." He told them in a cocky tone. They all smirked.

"You know the rules, Mr. Daniels. You may have escaped last time but this time we'll be happy to put a stop to your unauthorized entries," Agent White told him.

Balthasar rolled his eyes behind his glasses, letting out an impatient sigh. "Please."

Agent White was the first to attack. He punched out with his right fist for Balthasar's face, only for him side-step to the left. Grabbing White's still-extended arm with his right hand, Balthasar punched him in the jaw with a left hook.

Turning in the same motion while letting go of White's arm as he was knocked back, Balthasar reached for his gun and as his back faced White, Balthasar having turned 180-degrees, he pulled out his handgun, an all black SVI 2011, and turned to his right to see Agent Bird coming for him. Quick on the trigger, he fired five shots into the Agent's chest before the Agent could realize he'd taken his gun out.

As Bird fell, Balthasar was now just about to complete the 360-degree turn, he looked over his right shoulder and saw Agent Lewis moving in for a punch, so he right-roundhouse kicked him in the face, knocking the Agent down to its left. When he was down and Balthasar's circle was complete, he looked down as Lewis looked up in time for Balthasar to shoot him five times in the face. As he looked down at Lewis' body transform back into a civilian, he re-holstered his gun.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Agent White's right fist coming at his face. He leaned back, the punch flying past his face, and pushed the arm forward. To counter this, White spun counter clockwise planning to execute a high left roundhouse kick to the back of Balthasar's head. Predicting something like this from the Agent, Balthasar ducked forward, the Agent's foot and leg flying over his back.

As the Agent's foot came down, Balthasar came up and in a counter-clockwise roundhouse fashion, smashed his right elbow into White's nose, busting it open and causing blood to gush out.

While White was phased and his arm still tucked in from the elbow strike, Balthasar gripped his gun. As White came back, Balthasar smashed him in the face with his elbow again, knocking the Agent back and giving himself enough room and time to pull his gun out.

Three quick shots into the middle of the Agent's chest and he dropped down to his knees, and then fell onto his face. When he re-holstered his gun, Balthasar noticed the blood stained on the leather of his trench coat on his elbow. He let out an annoyed hiss, and left the alley to access the street.

"Time to find those rookies."

----

(Epilogue cont'd)

Anubis brought the helicopter down on the drop off point, hovering a good twenty feet from the ground.

"Get off, we don't have time!" Anubis yelled to Irvine over the rotor blades. The captain of the Nemesis agreed, slipping out of the helicopter's passenger area and dropping to the ground below. The syndicate assassin hung in the air for a few more minutes, watching as the captain's trench coat flew up from the air sliding through the gap between Irvine's back and the coat, then dropping down again when Irvine touched the ground. He would've waited a little longer, but the proximity alarm on the Black Hawk's radar display began going off, then followed by Glitch on the cell phone.

"You got two F-16C Falcons coming in hot, and their pilots have been overridden by Agents! Get out of there!"

Anubis didn't give a reply. He ascended a little and shot forward, weaving in between buildings and street areas to keep the F-16's from getting a missile lock on them. "Did you equip the Black Hawk with on board countermeasures!?"

"There was no room. Black Hawks weren't designed to carry offensive ordinance!"

Anubis growled, wishing the operator had put in a Hind or some other gunship that he could use against the Agents. Even though they were Agents, he could take on two F-16s with a gunship if he had something to fire at them.

Forget it, just use what you got! He told himself.

Then Glitch came back on him, "We also got another problem."

"What?"

"We got Blade out, but a SWAT team has cornered Solitaire at Camon Central. They're keeping her from the exit."

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Anubis spat.

"*CENSORED* it, ninja boy, why are you asking me? Help her out, man!" Glitch ordered on the other side.

"Solitaire is a competent fighter, she does not need my aid." Anubis gave a cold reply.

"Usually, I'd agree with you, but she's taking too long fighting them off, an Agent can pop in at any moment." Glitch stated.

Anubis was about to reply, but another alarm went off. "*CENSORED* it," he muttered, before taking evasive maneuvers. One of the F-16s had locked onto him, and fired a missile. Judging by how close it was, it probably fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder, a heat-seeking missile that had a good reputation for pulling hard maneuvers. Anubis didn't think at that point, he started to unbuckle from his chair.
----

From the cockpit of his F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter, Agent Harper only grinned at seeing the Black Hawk burst into a cloud of flames on his HUD. He pulled his fighter up and over the cloud, gaining some altitude while the second F-16C, now piloted by a freshly formed Agent Davis, leveled out with him, pulling into formation.

"Any sign of him?" Harper asked his comrade.

"It doesn't matter. There are still three more. They are to all be eliminated." Davis stated.

"Intercept the target Vince Burnett. I will destroy the other female," Harper said in a cold mechanical tone that surpassed even the usual Agent tone.

Both F-16s broke formation, heading for different directions, before the two Agents both dropped away from their host bodies, leaving a pair of confused Air Force pilots.
----

The SWAT leader shot the knob off the door, then shoulder tackled through the wooden frame. He didn't make it far though, as a mysterious force shattered his face mask and sent him flying backwards. The rest of his team looked to see who would dare make such an attack, only to find a petite oriental woman dressed in a leather jumpsuit and jacket, grinning at them as if they were applauding her. She gave a theater-styled nod-bow to them, then burst into action, running at her first target and punching him square in the jaw, so hard that it broke on contact.

The four other SWATs brought their machine guns up and opened fire, but by that point, Solitaire had rolled herself behind the body and let the bullets rip into the SWAT man, before she kicked it into one of her attackers. The force was enough, combined with the bullet proof vest and gear that it effectively broke the man's ribs on contact. That left three to deal with.

As she half expected, they didn't make any attempt to dodge, they merely stood there firing their machine guns at the girl, as if they would hit anything. She flipped and landed, much to their shock, on the brick wall opposite of them, running down toward the street, but instead of running that way, she flipped off the wall and drew her Walther PPK. Although one would look down upon the gun due to its small size, she showed how effective it was, firing a pair of shots into one of the SWATs' neck, taking him out of the fight. She then merely ran to another SWAT and jumped, landing her foot on the tip of his helmet, and causing his partner to blast him in the face while bringing his machine gun up to her level. When she jumped off the man's helmet, she flipped in the air again, slipping her gun away for a moment before landing behind the last SWAT.

The guy, a rookie fresh out of the academy, drew his combat knife in an attempt to slash her. Rather than dodging, Solitaire simply brought her right hand up and caught the man's wrist. Slowly after that, she started to twist the arm behind the trooper, the sounds of pops and crackles from the bone structuring giving way to stress playing vividly. The man screamed in the slow pain, dropping the knife when Solitaire got the arm all the way to the man's mid back line. The oriental woman was then about to kick the man into the opposite wall when his body fizzled and wavered.

"Oh *poop*.." was all she managed to let out as Agent Harper formed in front of her.

The first thing Harper did was punch her, with enough force that sent her flying through the brick wall. Then, using his left arm, he began to twist the right back into place, the sounds of bones cracking once again filling the air. Difference was, they were cracking back into place, and Harper did not make any signs of pain. Solitaire gaped at this, through the dust, knowing full well that she was done for now. She drew her gun again and fired shots at Harper, but the Agent weaved to the sides, dodging each bullet that flew at him, until Solitaire's pistol finally ran dry.

"Not bad, human," he said, while pulling out his Desert Eagle.

Solitaire threw herself from out of the hole and somersaulted past the two bullets that Harper fired at her, jumping up again and punching the Agent across the face. It felt as though she had punched a steel pipe, but she didn't let it slow her down, instead following it up with a punch combo to the stomach, then a karate chop to the right shoulder and finally a round house kick that had enough force to make Harper stumble back. Even then she didn't let up, continuing onto throwing a flurry of palm strikes at targeted nerve areas to disable Harper from moving, before finally she gripped his tie and head butted him. Strangely, her attacks did have an effect, as Harper was sent flying back into the wall opposite from the one she made a hole in, causing it to dent.

However, the force of the head butt left the Chinese girl disoriented, making her stumble and rubbing out her vision. This allowed Harper to recover quickly, but he decided to be a good sport. He waited for her to recover, all the while dusting himself off and cracking his neck.

"Amusing, very amusing," Harper said. "I've never been thrown into a wall before, let alone by a female."

"What do you have against females!?" Solitaire growled, attempting to throw another punch at him.

Harper caught the punch in his left hand, "The way you humans are bred, the female of the species usually exhibits lesser physical ability than the male. However, you obviously do not have that status." He started to crush her hand, causing Solitaire to yelp, "I can crush your hand, rip your body piece by piece in this world, and yet you show little pain, almost nothing outside disorientation. That's... interesting." He then clubbed her in the back of the head with his Desert Eagle, putting Solitaire to her knees. She was barely able to remain conscious now, and Harper knew she would take a while to recover. So, he decided to end it like this.

"Garbage, only good for consuming resources." Harper told her, then pulling the trigger.

The shot never came though. Before the hammer could strike the bullet, a glint of light appeared to travel through the front of the gun, all the way to the back. A second later, the top portion of the barrel, the spring and half the .50AE bullet exploded into different directions. Harper looked up just in time to see Anubis strike him with the hilt of his katana against the nose, with enough force to break it had he been human. This was followed by another cutting attack by Anubis, but Harper moved back, only gaining a scar across his face.

Solitaire managed to come to at this point, but barely. She could see someone fighting the Agent in front of her, and doing rather well actually, as he or she was backing the Agent against the building exit. However, who could it be? Blade and Irvine had already gotten out, and Janus and Kira were both in a different areas. That left only one person out of the crew, and surely it couldn't be him...

The Agent finally took to the offensive and caught Anubis' sword blade, forcing it out of his hands. He then grabbed the assassin by his neck, in a similar move Solitaire had made on him, holding him there and head butting him three times. The third one made Anubis fall backward, but it didn't disorient him, at least not for that long. The assassin made a spin kick that made Harper join him on the ground, then following that up with kicks towards the Agent's up turned face, but Harper managed to deflect each attempt with his own legs. The Agent finally kicked towards Anubis' head, forcing the assassin to jump back up, quickly followed by Harper, and continue the fight standing. Both men threw punches and kicks at each other, but none managed to land any significant blow, until finally Harper nailed Anubis in the chest with a palm strike.

Anubis stammered backwards, feeling as though his lungs had been smashed, immediately coughing up blood. As a result, he lost his balance and eventually fell on one knee. Harper grinned at his accomplishment, forcing this human to kneel before him. Certainly, if he himself were human, he would have felt honored or whatever humans feel when one acknowledges the other's superiority.

However, he didn't realize that Anubis had stumbled back close to his katana. In another blur, Anubis grabbed it and made a slash at the Agent, cutting off one of his legs. Now it was Harper who was forced to kneel, but Anubis wouldn't be allowed the satisfaction of a seized victory. Harper's body fizzled with bright bolts of electricity before the Agent program exited the body of the now dead bluepill.

Anubis felt like he could laugh at his fallen opponent, but this caused him to cough up blood. He stumbled, feeling faint on his feet, to the point where he had to use his sword as a cane to keep him up. At first, Solitaire wasn't hesitant to approach him like this, but she saw that he really was wounded. She could feel deep inside herself, a sense of gratitude and a sense of wonder. Why had he helped her? He wasn't the type to save comrades certainly, even if Irvine ordered him. Then there was the way he fought. The way he pushed the Agent against the doorway, allowing her to run at any given time while he distracted it wordlessly.


She knew he would deny all this or ignore her, but she was good at seeing through action rather than mere words. Still hesitant, she walked over to the assassin. "Let me help." She said, placing Anubis' right arm over her shoulder, then taking his sword and placing the tip in its sheathe. Anubis grabbed the blade edge and pushed the sword into the sheath, letting it slide in.

"I can walk by myself..." he began.

"Don't give me that. You can hardly breathe." She countered, but gave no hints of anger in her voice. In fact, it sounded more like concern, "Just don't say anything, like you usually do."

Anubis complied, because he knew she was right. *CENSORED*, not good enough, was all that he thought at that point.

----

(Epilogue cont'd)

Janus and Kira came out from an alley between two buildings and into a street. They ran across, to a large parking lot of a mall. It was empty, no one to be seen in sight, no cars, just a few buildings they could only see the backs of. They stopped and looked around. Across from the parking lot, a series of apartment complexes stood tall.

"Which way do we go?" Kira asked.

"This way," Janus said, pulling her along, in the direction of the tall brick apartment buildings. They came up to a fence, and when it came to getting over it, they jumped and flipped over it without laying a finger on it. Janus was impressed. I didn't think I could do that. The duo now was behind a large warehouse, and they continued to head on the direction of the cross street Glitch told them. As Janus ran, his coat billowed out behind him like a large cape

"We'd better hurry," Kira told him. "Agents are looking for us."

"No kidding," Janus answered sarcastically.

Then came the sound of infected coding. They both stopped in their steps, and Janus' coat came down and wrapped around his legs. The ground before them started to flicker and glitch, and up from this came the ghostly figure of one of the mysterious silver-clad guys programs from that abandoned building. Once he came all the way out of the ground, he unphased and stood on his feet.

Janus was closer to him, Kira a foot or so behind Janus. The program's black lips curved into a mischievous grin.

"Haven't we met before?" he asked in an instigating manner.

Janus' eyebrows wrinkled in slight frustration. Kira didn't get it either. I thought they were only in that glitching building...she thought to herself.

The program attacked, pulling a switchblade from the inside of its coat and stabbing for Janus' throat. He casually side-stepped out of the way, the silver sleeved arm coming past him like a dodged punch. The program stumbled forward, sneering at Janus for his maneuver. But before the program could move to make another attack, Janus grabbed its arm, pushing up at the tricep and down on the forearm with a *SNAP*.

The program's head whipped back with gritted teeth, and it let out an "Rrrgh!" in pain. It reached for its handgun in a concealed holster on the back of its belt, but Kira pulled out her own and fired three .380 ACP rounds into its torso. It writhed in pain, entering its phased state. Its transparent arm became free of Janus' grip, to his surprise, and it floated back some. It solidified again, fully healed from its injuries, and went back on the attack. Swiping its blade for Janus's face, it missed as he leaned back, but instead of stumbling like last time, it took a big step forward and continued with its advance, slashing down for Kira's face.

She backed up, causing the sterling albino to fall forward a bit, enough to throw off his balance from his attack position. This gave Kira enough time to fight back, as she spun and high-kicked the program in the face. It stumbled back a few steps into Janus, where he promptly caught it in his arms and snapped its neck. Dead, or it seemed so at least, the ghost's body phased as it fell from Janus' arms, falling into the ground once again. He shot a look at Kira.

"Let's get the *CENSORED* out of here!"

They ran towards the intricate complex of apartments, but no more than a few seconds later did they hear gunshots behind them. They stopped to see where it was coming from; Another silver clad program had appeared and was shooting after them. They kept running, but suddenly out of nowhere, another seemed to have appeared, also shooting in their direction, but this time in front of them. Thinking quickly, Janus pulled Kira's arm and she followed him down a side street.

However in this maze of brick and street, the silver clad programs were all but pervasive. As they turned around the corner, another one had come out of an alley not too far down the street, firing at them with his Taurus PT945, which seemed to be the trademark handgun of these silver clad programs. The .45ACP rounds smashed the brick corner to bits as Janus and Kira ducked out of the way running down another alley.

"We're almost there!" Janus exclaimed.

----

Not far from Janus and Kira, a passer-by walked down the sidewalk and into an alley to access the back door of his apartment. He removed from his jacket a set of keys, fiddling through them with his one hand trying to find the right one. Suddenly, his body began convulsing, and he dropped his keys. When it was over, he'd morphed into Agent Davis. Davis pressed his hand to his ear piece, receiving news of an unknown malfunction and forbidden presence in the area. He then ran off out of the alley.

----

Being chased by the two silver clad programs, Janus and Kira dodged in and out of the series of back alley-ways trying to escape. As they ran, the gunshots that followed behind them were reminiscent of a nightmare, where one ran from a beast he could not escape, no matter how much he tried to get away.

Ducking constantly from the shots, the two Nemesis crew fighters did their best not to trip over themselves, keeping each other's safety in their best interest. While it was a motivation to stay alive, they couldn't afford to let it get to them now, neither could risk playing hero. One of the silver clad programs had to reload his pistol, but then the one stopped them from their pursuit, as though it could sense some sort of unseen danger ahead.

"Stop here," he said in a stern tone, sure that going on ahead would spell trouble for them.

"Trouble ahead?" the other asked.

As the one to the leader's right slammed the clip into his gun and pulled on the slide, he looked to his twin. "An Agent."

"He shouldn't be a problem for us. They have rules to follow," he reminded them, re-holstering his pistol.

"True, but he's after us. Even if we beat him, and we can, others would follow." The leader said.

"We share a burden with the redpills," the second one said.

"Let it be theirs this evening." The leader decided.

Then, as if on cue, the two of them phased. Once again, they passed through the ground and disappeared.

----

When they'd heard the gunshots had stopped, Kira looked behind to see if they were still being chased, and saw nothing. "They're gone," she told Janus. They could hear the phone ringing just around the corner up ahead.

"Doesn't matter, keep running. We're almost home," he answered.

They came around the corner, the phone on the brick wall to the left down the alley. But they froze in their steps. The tall, built body of Agent Davis stood before them like a powerful figure looming over the weak. He stood there staring at them behind his black sunglasses.

Janus and Kira stood there in fear staring back, sort of crouched in their stance and holding each other back as though to protect themselves. There was a dead and dreadful quiet. The two couldn't move a muscle, they couldn't make a sound.

Janus blinked. Like a person waking up in the middle of the night to find themselves trapped in sleep-paralysis, he became aware of this fear that had overcome him. His thoughts shifted as his stare remained on Davis behind his mirrored lenses.

What is this? What am I afraid of? What is she afraid of? He isn't real. He doesn't exist, not if this is a dream world. 'Your mind makes it real'....Well, if your mind makes it real...

Janus stood up straight. Kira looked at him like she thought he was crazy.

"What are you doing?!" She yelled in a whisper.

"I can fight him." He answered. His voice was bold with confidence.

Davis snorted as though to laugh. Janus took a step forward, and Davis pulled out his gun, the famed Desert Eagle in .50AE. In a reflex response, Janus lifted in front of him his left hand, open palmed as though to say "stop". His right arm followed behind; He was covering his face. He turned from the waist up to his left, closing eyes just tight enough so that he could barely see out of them, and leaned back, jumping up and back into the air as though he had just taken an uppercut. The first shot rang with a flash. Kira's eyes opened wide, and the world moved slow.

~As Janus fell backwards into the air, it sizzled with wads of lead like angry flies heading straight for him. The first bullet passed over the right side of Janus's rib cage as he fell back, and Kira sprawled off to the side behind the corner to evade the oncoming bullets. As Janus came closer to the ground, he unfolded his arms and tilted his head all the way back as the second and third bullets flew over him. He gritted his teeth, feeling their heat on his face and they barely missed. Twisting all the way so he was facing his right, his right hand landed down on the ground as the fifth bullet passed over his face as he brought his left arm over his face for protection. The sixth bullet skimmed the surface of his arm as it planted onto the ground as he landed. The bullet took a piece of his tricep, and his elbow hit hard into the ground as the rest of his body landed~

The seventh bullet smashed into the concrete just barely missing Janus's head, causing bits and pebbles of it to smack up into his face, like when you mow the lawn and a tiny rock kicks up. His left arm lay over his torso, and his right leg bent at the knee as he lay there. Davis walked over to him with a fearful pace. Kira didn't know what to do; she knew her own bullets wouldn't stop Davis, all she could do was watch.

"Oh no..." she said to herself.

On the Nemesis, everyone else was watching.

"Well Irvine, you tried. Did you tell him how little someone's chances were for getting out alive even when they were running from an Agent?" Blade asked as he stared at the screen of scrolling green runes.

Irvine didn't say a word.

When Davis reached Janus, who lay helplessly and injured on the ground, he pointed his gun at Janus's head. But when he pulled the trigger, the gun went *click*. They both arched a brow in confusion. Even the guys watching the screens did. But this was his only chance. Janus took advantage of the brief pause, using the muscles in his back to spring himself up.

He planted his left hand on the ground for support and leverage, going for the same move he tried on Irvine that ended up in him getting thrown off a roof, and kicked Davis across the face. As Davis's head snapped back, Janus continued turning in the air, impossibly pushing himself up with his arm and turning 360-degrees, landing on his feet and facing Davis. His glasses had fell off, but fear was absent from his glare as his hair fell down onto his shoulders.

Nor Kira, or the rest of the crew watching could believe it. "No way.." they all said to themselves silently.

Janus stood facing Davis as he came back into pace. They stared at each other; Janus into anonymous black square lenses, Davis into what he considered were fragile, weak human eyes. A small gust of wind blew by.

"He's not gonna..." Anubis began.

Janus punched for Davis's head but was blocked and consequently punched in the gut causing him to keel over into the perfect position for the uppercut that followed, knocking Janus back a few steps. He was a bit knocked out, shaking his head and his shoulders a bit to get back into the game, but Davis just waited there. When Janus looked ready again, Davis punched straight for Janus's face, but he leaned to the right and cracked Davis in the face with the knuckles of his right hand, coming back up with the same fist and returning the uppercut from before.

While Davis's head had knocked back, Janus lifted his leg and kicked Davis in the stomach, knocking him back a few steps. However, Davis had come right back into a stance that showed he wasn't affected. Janus punched out with his right, Davis blocked it with his forearm and punched back, for Janus to block with the same maneuver.

He did a little "wax-on/wax-off" with the same arm he blocked with, his left, pushing Davis's arm out to the side, and smashed his right elbow up into Davis's nose, a move that would normally kill a man. But Davis came right back and with a kick he sent Janus flying into the brick wall, creating a huge "dent" in the wall.

Slowly, and pushing off of the surface of the dent his body had created, Janus pushed off of the cracked brick and got himself up, running forward to punch Davis in the face. However, he only walked into a block paired with a blow to the stomach that led into a kick that sent him flying back into the brick wall he had just came from, only above the hole he'd just made!

Landing on the floor on his hands and knees, he tried hard to stand up fast but wasn't fast enough. He got up just in time for Davis to grab him by the shirt, turn, and hurl him into the opposite wall on the other side of the alley. Kira stood, watching, because at the same time she was afraid to get involved, she was also in awe of the fact that Janus kept going.

"*CENSORED*, I don't know what you fed this guy but if he can live through all of that and still have the will to stand, he may have a chance," Glitch said.

Still, Irvine said nothing.

Janus began to fall in a slump as he leaned against the wall, unable to hold himself up with his own legs from the constant smashing into bricks. Davis picked him up by his throat and with immense force, punched Janus in the chest. As though he were being crucified, Janus's arms extended out to his sides when he took the shot in the chest and when his body was forced back into the wall, the tremor his body created caused cracks to spread in the wall, away from his body.

His head slunked down as he coughed blood up. Back on the ship, in his chair, he coughed up blood there too, causing all the spectators to turn and see where the "cacghk!" had come from. Janus could barely keep his eyes open now, he was almost nodding off. Davis decided it was now time to finish this dance.

He forcefully grabbed Janus by the throat, so hard that his head bounced off the brick wall he was being pushing up against. The Agent's grip tightened, but Janus's eyes stayed in the same, almost dead stare rather than bulging. He felt pain coursing throughout every inch of his body. He watched as Davis waited for him to die.

Those watching on the Nemesis were just waiting for Janus's heart meter to flat line, no one saw a way out of this one.

I can't die..how can I die? It's not real, it doesn't exist. If I give up now and die here, I'll disappoint Irvine...

His gaze fixed upon Davis's black lenses.

What...what are you? What are you waiting for, why don't you smash my head against the wall and we can get this over with? You wanna torture me and watch me die a slow death? Look at you. All you are is a computer program, right? *CENSORED* you...*blinking*' machine!

Janus's limp arm raised and took Davis by the throat.

Kira, the Nemesis crew, even Davis, couldn't believe it. Davis's face went "?!" Janus's grip tightened. So tight that the veins on his neck started to bulge. Davis gripped Janus's arm with his free hand, but Janus's grip got tighter. Davis gritted his teeth, his face going from "?!" to "?!!", as he removed his hand from Janus's throat and grabbed onto the redpill's arm with both hands, tightly, thinking maybe he could grip it so tight that the human would succumb from the pain. But no such thing happened. Instead Janus lifted Davis off his feet.

Glitch couldn't believe what he was seeing. Kira didn't know what was going on. Janus stared up at the struggling Agent.

"You don't get it do you? I know it's not real. I'm taking advantage of that," he told Davis. Glitch noticed one or two runes fall down the screen that were all white in color, not a shade of green.

"What is that?"

With that, a look of fear came over the Agent's face. Janus turned, and smashed him into the wall he was just being pressed up against, creating a "dent" in the bricks in the same fashion Janus's body had done to the opposite wall. Remembering that wall, Janus turned, his grip still deadly tight, and threw Davis at the hole he made with Janus's body. He flipped forward in the air, and landed upside down in the hole, landing on his head and his neck. Janus was breathing heavy, sounding as though he were enraged. Davis slowly climbed up and out of the hole.

Seeing his opponent standing and waiting for him, he got up and ran at him, throwing a punch for his face. Janus blocked it, but with his other hand Davis punched him across the face, and followed up with a roundhouse kick to his face, knocking him back. As he came in with a punch that would have knocked him the *CENSORED* out, Janus was still leaning back from being knocked back by the kick. Davis's fist flew past Janus's face, causing him to lean in toward him.

Janus punched him in the face so hard that it spun him around to face the other direction. While his back faced him, Janus jumped and sent a kick into his lower back that sent him flying forward. He landed on the ground and skidded a bit, cutting him up some and tearing a bit of his suit. He got up off the floor, examined himself, dusted himself off, and turned around to face Janus, standing in a perpendicular intersection with another alley.

Janus let out a sigh, the Agent just wouldn't give up. But then suddenly, out from the cross alley came an arm clothed in a leather sleeve with blood stain, and it took Davis by the throat.

Caught off guard, the Agent couldn't do anything about it, and he was raised up into the air by this arm. The owner of this arm stepped out from his hiding place. Ankle length leather trench coat, black shirt, black BDU pants with knee-high boots with buckles covering the laces, muscular build, and long black hair. Balthasar.

Davis tried to look down to see *who* it was choking him to "death", but he couldn't tilt his head enough. Balthasar's grip was so hard, that the Agent program and all of its rules couldn't handle it anymore, and it "died". The body hanging by Balthasar's grip was engulfed in a flurry of blue-green bolts until it transformed back into the civilian host body.

When the reversal was complete, Balthasar tossed the body into the brick wall facing him, and it went all the way through rather than just making a "dent". He turned and looked at the other two. Janus had never seen him before, and to each other they were both strangers, but Kira knew who it was.

In a whisper, she had identified him. "..The Potential!"

"Ohh *poop*..." Marley said under his breath.

Balthasar took out his gun. Janus knew that if he moved too fast, whoever this guy was that just helped them, may shoot them both. The two men of similar appearance stared at each other, Janus once again into black lenses, and Balthasar into determined eyes. Behind his lenses, Balthasar could see Kira had come out from her corner into regular sight.

"So," Balthasar began in an elite tone, "you must be the new guy. And I see you have a friend with you."

Janus stayed stone face. Balthasar quickly lifted his handgun;

*BAM*

Janus waited for the pain of being shot, or the sudden loss of control of his body that would cause him to fall to the ground dead. But it never came. This confused him, and he arched a brow is display of this. Why had Balthasar wasted a bullet if he wasn't going to shoot him?

Behind him, Janus heard an "Ugnh..." Turning his head so he could see somewhat behind him, he could see Kira standing there behind him at the corner. He turned sideways so not to turn his back to Balthasar and leave himself open to be shot. When he got a better look at Kira, he could see that she was leaning on the corner of the wall with her one hand, and holding her stomach area with the other. Blood was seeping through her fingers. Without second thought, Janus ran to her, away from Balthasar, forgetting about him completely.

"Jesus, will you be alright?!"

"I..I don't know. It hurts.."

"I gotta get you out of here."

"No, wait.."

Ignoring her protest, he took the arm she was using to lean on the wall with and draped it over his shoulder. The phone on the wall still rang, waiting for the two to answer the call. But Janus knew they wouldn't both be able to make it through the exit with Balthasar there, so he made his choice. Walking her over to the phone, he told her, "You're going back."

"What are you doing?"

They'd reached the phone. He put his hand on it, not yet taking it off the hook. "I'm just the new guy, no one's grown attached to me yet. I can die without costing the crew anything."

Her eyes widened. "No! Don't do it!" She was in great pain, and she was fading.

"I have to. We have to"

"Janus.." Her eyes closed.

He put the phone to her ear, but nothing happened. At first, he didn't understand why. But then she let out a final exhale, and her neck muscles loosened. Her head gave way and hung, lifeless. Janus frowned.

"Kira, come on. Don't do this."

But there was no response. Janus didn't want to believe it, but he knew. He'd seen this so many times in his life. With a sigh, he gently laid Kira's body down on the ground.

Balthasar watched all this in amusement. He knew he had one bullet left in the gun. Janus turned around to face him, not hanging the phone up.

"Quite the gentlemen. The heroic knight sacrificing himself and his chance get away with his life so that the fair lady can make it out alive. Didn't work out that way though did it? You might have passed that training simulation we've all been through. 'Rescue Chip,' right? This time you failed. All a good show of chivalry, but we've all seen this movie before. We know how it ends."

"You and me both."

A silence fell upon them, as they stood staring at each other. Balthasar re-holstered his gun, and Janus frowned in confusion at this.

"She didn't make it. But dying in an alley wouldn't fit you. I'll give you a mercy killing."

Janus arched his brow, and Balthasar took off, bolting down the alley, with Janus in immediate pursuit. His pains from the clobbering he'd received from Davis had seemed to fade; His mind was determined on catching this foe.

Little did he know it was the best fighter in the Matrix since Neo that he was going after. But even if he did, he still would have went.

----

Kira's vitals flat-lined back on the Nemesis. Blood leaked from her mouth and she coughed up more. Irvine and Marley ran over right away to help her.

"Kira wake up!" Irvine yelled. He smacked her face a few times as Marley prepped a shot. But she didn't react. On her vitals display monitor, "CARRIER SIGNAL LOST" flashed repeatedly.

Marley looked at Irvine as though to ask if he should inject the shot. But the Captain merely drew up to look at him with an expression of anger and sadness on his face. Finally, he shook his head. Kira was gone. Marley started unhooking her.

Looking over to the other redpills in his crew, Irvine could see they were all as embittered by Kira's death as he was. He also realized they were torn, between their loss of a long-time crew member, and the safety of a recently-added one. Not interested in losing another crew member this day, he spoke up. "How's Janus holding up?"

"He's doing okay for now," Glitch said. He refreshed the screen, a new screen opening from inside another expanding square of code. "He's right here, running after Balthasar, they're playing cat and mouse." The screens showed Balthasar and Janus running through the alleys and streets, jumping over obstacles and from rooftop to rooftop.

"Looks like Balthasar's leading him somewhere," Anubis suggested.

"He has no idea what he's getting himself into." Blade said in a hopeless tone. "Aren't you going to do something Irvine?"

"There's nothing we could do to save him now."

"What?" Glitch asked, almost shocked. The feeling was mutual among the rest of the crew, they'd never imagine their captain leaving a man behind.

"How can you stand there and not do anything?" Solitaire asked him.

"He won't let us help him."

"What do you mean?" Anubis inquired.

"I've never seen anyone stand up to an Agent, go through a beating like he did, and come back for more, all while not even out of the Matrix for a year even. His confidence is fueling him. His mind is so free right now, that he doesn't care if he comes back or not. To him, if we tried helping him, we'd be putting ourselves in danger. All we can do is wait."

"How are his vitals?" Solitaire asked.

"Go to his chair and check," Marley told her. She ran over and checked his screens. In a nutshell, he was still alive, but he'd seen better days.

----

It was a beautiful day inside the Matrix. The sky was blue, with hues of pink, yellow, green, and orange throughout the clouds, and the sun shined with a beaming yellow-orange. On an empty rooftop stood Janus and Balthasar, their little chase game throughout the city stopping here. A breeze picked up, causing the skirts on their trench coats to sway slightly.

Janus stood at one side staring at Balthasar, and Balthasar the vice versa. A small piece of paper being pushed by the wind blew in between them, and as if on cue, they began to run at each other. They met at the middle of the roof, where Janus began to throw a series of punches and kicks at Balthasar, only for him to nonchalantly dodge and block each one while standing in his place. He returned the flurry of attacks with some shots of his own.

Janus blocked and dodge some of them, however he wasn't quick enough to counter every attack, and was hit. In particular, Balthasar went to strike at Janus's head from the left, was blocked, came from the right, and was blocked again, and as his second shot was moved out of the way, Janus took a shot in the ribs on his left side when Balthasar snuck in a right kick, and then punched him in the chest with his left fist.

While Janus was phased by this, Balthasar wound up his right hand and as Janus gained his balance and came up straight again, Balthasar smashed him square in the face. The hit was so hard that it knocked Janus off of his feet and he fell on his back, his head bouncing off the concrete on impact. His face showed the pain he was feeling. He moved slowly on the ground. Balthasar walked over and stood over him. He took out his pistol. Janus couldn't move- couldn't think.

"Such heroic nonsense."

*BAM*

The gunshot echoed in Janus's ears. There was a pain in his chest, a burning. Through his eyelids, just beyond his eyelashes, he could still see the light from the sky. But everything slowly began to fade. A thousand thoughts crossed over his mind as he lay there. Balthasar stood there and stared for a moment, like a hunter watching to see if his prey had died.

The smoke rising from the bullet hole in the center of Janus's chest passed as a confirmation of death for Balthasar. Hitting the slide release on his pistol, he re-holstered it, smoke still coming from the barrel. He reached into his pocket as he walked away, pulling out his cell phone.

----

On the Nemesis, Janus's vitals had dropped. His heart rate monitor flat lined. On the neural synchronization monitor, "CARRIER SIGNAL LOST" flashed over and over. The constant wine of the flat lined monitor hung in the air.

Blade sighed, as though to say "*CENSORED* it."

Anubis and Solitaire were feeling equally discouraged. It was the second crew-member death in less than 45 minutes.

Glitch sat staring at the code, and Marley put his hand to his forehead. A look of guilt and regret hung over Irvine's face.

"Let me go back in." Anubis simply put. These words came as quite a shock to the crew, although when they saw Anubis' face, they could see he was ready to kill.

"What the hell-? We just got you out! And Janus is dead, why the hell do you want to go back in?" Blade yelled.

If Anubis wasn't holding back his rage at that moment, he probably would've broken Blade's nose, but fortunately he kept himself under control. Without any words, he moved back over to his chair, starting to re-enter his clothing and weapons.

Irvine moved against him. "There's nothing you can do."

"Get out of my way, Irvine." Anubis snarled out of warning.

"Don't do this, Anubis. It'll be a noble, but short fight, and it won't bring Janus back."

"No, but I will at least take from Blood an eye for an eye. Isn't that what we all want right now?" Though Anubis said that sentence without raising his voice, it was clear that there was rage present in his voice, and the look in his eyes that he was very much ready to kill. In fact, he was so convincing, Irvine was about ready to let him have his way when Glitch spoke up.

"Captain, you may want to wait on that..." he said. On his monitor, a curious white strand of code poured down across the screen.
----

(Epilogue concluded)

In the Matrix, Janus lay there motionless. In the dying thoughts of his mind, he recalled his thoughts, like a person who was half asleep, in the limbo between the dream world and the waking world. Irvine's voice echoed; 'The body cannot live without the mind. If the mind was killed, it tells the body it was killed, which results in you being dead.'

Am I dead...?

Janus' eyes continued to stare up into the endless sky, though he had accepted a long time ago that he was dead. Even in the Matrix, he felt his heart shut down and his blood flow began to slow down. His eyes felt dry now from the lack of blinking, which had once been an instinctive action, but along with the rest of Janus' movements, had faded with his mind. After a few moments, the sky had become fuzzy, then slowly faded to black, much like death was portrayed in the movies.

Janus assumed that this was caused by the blood loss, after all, .45ACP had a good reputation for blowing open flesh and inner organs. But that didn't matter now, it wouldn't be long before he ended up wherever he was destined to go.

This made the former detective laugh a bit, it was hilarious. After all this time, after finally learning the truth about his existence, it would all end here. He was never able to completely follow the White Rabbit through his hole, instead ending up being left in Lotus Forest, with no aid from the Cheshire Cat or Tweedledee and Tweedledum. It felt so incomplete, and if it weren't for his lack of energy, Janus would have cried out in frustration. Why did it have to end here? There was so much to learn, so many things to do now that he was free.

Seeing as how there was no way of returning, he decided to stay in the current situation. So... is this how death feels like? he asked himself. He had to admit, outside being cold and not being able to move his body, he didn't feel any pain at all. The feeling of intense heat, melted metal against his chest and the sudden shock from his lungs being blown open had long since faded along with the rest of the Matrix, leaving the former detective to continue... floating in the darkness. He figured he was floating, because he couldn't feel the hard pavement and nothing else for that matter. Instead, he felt himself drifting like a leaf down a river, seemingly no real destination but going on its course none the less.

Wait... What the hell am I thinking? Janus asked himself.

Am I going to die like this? After everything I did to learn the truth, after the choice I made and the road I've traveled? This is my fate, why I left everything important to me?

Janus could feel anger start to grow inside of him.

*CENSORED* you Irvine, you really got me to think that perhaps there was a reason to come out here. You really made it out like there was something here, some reason to exist in the real world. Well guess what, numb-nuts, all you did was lead me to my death. I hope I can haunt your dreams at night, you self righteous pirate son of a *CENSORED*.

He shook his head at that.

No, it wasn't his fault. I made that decision to come out, I knew I could've died in Irvine's company, and I accepted the fact I could die wherever he took me. Heh, that wack job was right, when it comes down to it, we humans never want to accept making a mistake. We'll find every variable we can to make it look like we were innocent, but when it comes down to it, it was all a matter of choice...

Choice... Janus wondered at that. There I go again. Blaming my damnation on a simple word. Yeah, that's right. Just another excuse to justify my fate, not like it matters. But still, I can't help but wonder if there really was a reason for everything... Was living in reality really worth it? Was it really worth fighting for? Was it really worth dying for...?

Almost instantly after that phrase, Janus did something that probably would've killed him if he weren't already dead. He blinked. Almost instinctively, he closed his eyes and tightened his eyelids, as if trying to hold back tears. Then he realized, he was dead, he wasn't supposed to blink.

Slowly but surely, he began to feel his body again. The weight of his clothes, his body laying on the rooftop, the wavering of his trench coat against an invisible wind, all familiar feelings and yet still unique in their own right.

The former detective didn't have long to enjoy these feelings. In the distance, he thought he could see a single flicker of light appear, so close that he could feel the warmth. Naturally, he reached out toward the light, curious as to what it was. When he touched it, the light formed into the familiar katakana code strand, only white this time, which then scrolled down like it was designed to do.

Janus turned to his left and saw another strand scroll down, then behind him, another strand. More and more strands began to rain down until it surrounded him. From each strand, Janus could feel a power unparalleled by anything he felt before, all coming into his body. He could feel life return to him, and his motor functions began to resume as he instinctively took in air.
----

The Oracle sat on her couch, knitting a garment. Sati sat before her, watching cartoons on the television. The Oracle looked up suddenly, as though someone had called her name. But there was no sound. A look of confusion and remembrance came over her face. Something was different; There was a change. However, she couldn't place it. At least, not until she felt the code in the Matrix begin to ripple. For a moment, her programmed heart stopped beating, and she could feel as the simulated blood stopped rushing through her veins. As a result, she dropped the garment and the knitting tools. It had been a long time since she felt this.

In the room of screens, a warning came over The Architect's monitors. Several monitors reverted to display a large view of scrolling code, and in a box layered over the code, read "SCRIPT MALFUNCTION: ANOMALY UNKOWN." The box disappeared, to give a full view of the falling runes of code. The Architect arched a brow as he began to notice the change. More white runes appeared on the screen, and for possibly the first time in his long existence, the Architect's eyes widened, the emotion known as surprise caving in from his programming. He knew what the code read as, but it shouldn't have been there.

----

"What's going on?" Glitch asked. The others looked at the monitors, and too were puzzled by this white coding taking over the green. On the Nosferatu, and every other Resistance ship, and every ship out of Zion, it was seen.

----

The phone rang, and someone picked up on the other end.

"He's dead. I'll need an exit." Balthasar said. He ended the call and put his phone away.

Janus could see the sky. 'Can the mind live without the body?'

He then felt what could only be described as a sudden power that had coursed through his body. His eyes opened, and he inhaled greatly as though he had gone through a great scare. Slowly, he brought his hand to his chest to touch his wound. Blood on his fingers, hot. He blinked. Taking a moment to look around, he saw he was in the same world, on the same rooftop. What happened to me?

He slowly stood, and he remembered. I'm alive.

----

On the Nemesis, Janus revived. The heart beat started up again, only it was rapid. The carrier signal was abnormal. He began to breathe again. The coding that represented Janus strolled again, but it was all over the screen, throughout the white coding.

"That's not possible...." Irvine said.

----

Janus's body jerked in his place as he stood. A power had overcome him from within, in a rush, as though he were hit by an immense wave but was strong enough to overcome it. All of a sudden, from inside out the green coding that made up his RSI had changed to white, glowing brightly. He looked at himself.

And he was suddenly a different person. He looked at his arms, his hands, examining himself, as he could see this new power running through him, the white coding that he had never seen before shining brightly. He looked around him, and for the first time, he saw the Matrix. An entire world made of scrolling green code, the dream world, in its true form, the false reality it always was.

Irvine hadn't lied to him after all, for now, he truly did see this world for what it was. As he took this in however, he wasn't surprised. For some reason he couldn't understand, he was familiar with all of this. He knew it all, from the ground to the sky, and all that was in between. It was as though for that brief moment when his mind was separate from his dying body, he had become part of the world around him, and was resurrected upon realizing it.

He could see every change, every fluctuation in the code before it happened, as it happened, took shape, and changed again. He didn't understand it, and his mind battled itself, his old self trying to come to terms with his new self, and vice versa. Confusion and Nirvana simultaneously. Before him, a man made of bright green coding stood, it was Balthasar. Janus could sense something in him too, but he couldn't see it. In the blink of an eye, his code vision switched to normal sight.

Balthasar turned around, knowing he heard something, but unable to believe it was anything from Janus. However when he saw him standing there, staring him down as though he were waiting to be seen, his eyes widened behind his lenses. But Janus's face never changed. He didn't say a word.

"N..No," Balthasar said tripping over his words. "This can't be. I killed you."

But there was no witty comment. Only that stare. This wasn't the same man Balthasar had just killed. For the first time since he couldn't remember, Balthasar felt fear. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his pistol from his shoulder holster and aimed. He pulled the trigger, but was there was no blast of a gunshot, only the *click* of an empty magazine.

He tried again. *click*. He looked at the gun, and quickly back to Janus, afraid that if he took his eyes off of him, something might happen. Janus reached for his thigh, and pulled from the holster his remaining Beretta 96, which still had some rounds in it left over from before. His teeth still gritted, Balthasar couldn't believe he was going to be shot. He wanted to run, to run at Janus and beat his body down into the concrete.

But instead of firing, Janus tossed to him the Beretta. When Balthasar caught it, he looked back at Janus in a skeptical manner. When he began walking toward Balthasar, he held the gun up and fired, continuously. But as Janus walked forward, the bullets headed straight for him veered off course within inches of his body.

----

On the construct monitors of anyone's ship, the white coding began scrolling down the screen so fast, that the picture on the screens changed from scrolling code to actual footage of what was going on in the Matrix. Everyone was in state of awe.

----

When all the bullets were used up, Balthasar threw the gun away. Janus was only feet away. Balthasar ran to him, and began throwing a series of bunches and kicks at Janus, who nonchalantly dodged or blocked each shot by a simple nod of his head, tilt of his body, or lift of his arm. The whole time, the unimpressed, yet fear summoning look stayed on Janus's face.

Balthasar sent a fist for Janus's face again, but this time, Janus caught it in hand. Balthasar first looked to his hand, then to Janus. He tried to pull it away, but Janus's grip tightened, so much that Balthasar could feel the bones in his hands beginning to crack. It was ridiculous, he knew this wasn't his body. But why did it hurt, now, in the face of fear? He didn't understand, and if there was anything these two men had in common most at this time, it was that neither of them could understand why or how any of this was happening.

Balthasar began gritting his teeth again, and Janus ever so slightly leaned his head to the left. A punch; WAM! Janus's idle fist slammed into Balthasar's chest, sending him flying back to the opposite end of the roof and into the steel door leading to the stairs that led down into the building. The door had severely dented, and Balthasar landed on the ground before the door in a state of shock and ultimate pain.

----

"Get a trace on that *CENSORED* ship!" Blood yelled. Sideways got to work, and established a trace to find the Nemesis.

"What's happening?" Leon asked, in disbelief of what he was seeing. This spectacle could be seen by anyone who could watch a construct monitor, and it made sense to no one.

"I don't know, I've never seen this before," Sonia said.

"None of us have." Blood told them.

A beep went off, the trace was complete. "I found them," Sideways said.

----

Janus took one last look around. It was time to go. Leaving Balthasar behind on the rooftop, Janus left to return to the exit he was supposed to leave from. Since the others could see where it was he was headed, Glitch re-patched the exit. By the time Janus had walked back to the alley, the phone was ringing, waiting for him to pick it up. He took it up off the receiver and looked down at it for a moment, hesitating. He blinked, trying to recall all of these events. He knew he wasn't the same man he was only a few moments ago. A voice interjected his thoughts.

"The answers are coming," it said. He heard it, the same as when a person hears voices as they doze off into sleep. He was sure he heard it, but there was no sound. He brought the phone up to his head, and the world before him broke into pieces as his body disappeared, until he was back in the Construct. Then, his eyes opened on the ship. He took a breath, and exhaled slowly. On the construct monitors, the picture gradually faded back into scrolling green code.

As he lay in his chair, a voice came from the side.

"Janus..?" It was Irvine. As he approached Janus, he could see a look on his face that gave him a sense that there was something different about him.

"What happened in there?"

Janus turned his head to face Irvine, with an omniscient look in his eyes.

"The mind can live without the body."

----

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