Reality Bites by Chaynne
These characters don't belong to me. I wish Mulder did... :)
The words appeared on the computer screen. Special Agent Fox Mulder rubbed his eyes viciously and wondered if his tired eyes were not playing an unfair trick on him. He closed his eyes and reopened them. No trick. His screen had gone blank and there was a line in glowing green letters:
I've been looking for you, Fox.
He took a deep breath. Who are you? He wondered out loud. Almost as if in response to the barely spoken words, a sentence appeared on the screen.
I am Neo.
Mulder frowned. "Neo? The hacker? Langley's friend?"
That's right.
"But..." Mulder spluttered. "I heard you had gone underground. Quit your job and gone into hacking full time."
LOL. I like that. But I have something that I think will interest you.
"Me?"
Yes, you, Fox Mulder. Meet me at the corner of Smith and Main, and we can talk some more.
Mulder looked at his watch. 3.30am. Oh well. It wasn't as if he was sleeping anyway...
On the ride to Smith and Main, it occurred that he had been having a conversation with his PC. He had talked to it and it had wrote him back. And he didn't even feel stupid doing it. He shook his head. He had to be losing it!
At the corner of Smith and Main was a solitary figure in a black leather trench-coat. He was backing Mulder, but turned as the car drew up.
Mulder got out and shook the younger man's hand. "Its good to meet you, Neo."
Neo smiled warmly and gripped the agent's hand strongly.
"The same here, Agent Mulder."
"So...why am I here?"
"That's one of the things I like about you, Agent Mulder --"
"Call me Mulder. All my friends do."
"Mulder. You cut straight to the chase."
"That's a nice way of putting it."
Neo smiled. "Would you like to take a little car ride? We can go somewhere that's safe."
Mulder turned to his car and Neo stopped him. "My car is safer."
Wordlessly, the FBI agent followed him.
-------------------
They arrived at an abandoned building five minutes later. They got out of the car, and the hacker led Mulder up to the first floor. There was a room with an old chair and a bed.
"For some time now, I have been watching you. I now realise that you are in grave danger unless I reveal to you the true nature of the person that is stalking you."
Person?
"You know him as Cancer Man."
Mulder watched the thoughtful young man carefully.
"This is not the real world as you know it, Fox Mulder. This is just simulation of reality. Millions of people are being deluded that this is real. The man that you know as Cancer Man is one of the major forces behind this deception."
"So why are you telling me?"
"Because you believe."
The two men locked gazes. Mulder was the first to look away.
'Time is running out, Mulder. The Agents have plans for The Matrix, and none of them are good."
Mulder frowned. "The Matrix?"
"That is what The Agents have called this world."
"But who are The Agents?"
"Sentient beings that have created The Matrix to keep the humans in ignorance."
Neo could sense the questions in the fast growing impatient FBI agent and he forestalled them with a raised hand. "It is easier to show you than to explain. Come."
-------------------
Fox Mulder had seen a lot of strange things, but this took the biscuit. First, Neo had given him a choice of two pills, a red one and a blue one. Red for rememberence and blue to forget. Of course, he had taken the red one, he was as curious as hell as to what the younger man was talking about.
They had gone to a room were two people were waiting: a tall black man and a slim white woman. Both of them were dressed in black. Neo had introduced them as Morpheus and Trinity. They had strapped him into a freaky looking dentist's chair, Morpheus explaining in his melodious Shakespearean voice what was going to happen. Then all the freaky stuff had started.
Now it seemed like months later, he was up and around and was using the training programs regularly. Neo and Morpheus had both explained The Matrix and its role to him, repeatedly. Each time he had heard it, it sounded more and more freaky. And more and more it made sense.
-------------------
"You are ready." Morpheus told Mulder one day after a grueling session in the virtual dojo.
They entered another program; this one had two winged red leather chairs and an old Radiola Deep Image TV.
Morpheus sat in one chair and motioned for Mulder to sit in the other one.
"Since Neo has been here, we have been able to find out a little more about origins of The Matrix. The Matrix was created by the sentient beings - - The Agents - - who wanted to keep the humans under control. We have now discovered who gave the first humans the technology to get the whole process in motion. The man you call Cancer man. If we do not stop him, history will repeat itself with devastating results...you are the only man who can stop him.
"We must send you back, and you will infiltrate his organisation, the Consortium. We will be successful because we have you. You are Mankind's only hope.
The scene abruptly changed to Mulder's bedroom. He awoke breathing hard. He couldn't believe the dream that he had just had, with the talking computers, The Matrix and Cancer man. All the makings of a really scary nightmare...
The phone beside his bed rang and he answered it.
"Mulder, it was not a dream."
Mulder dropped the phone.