Chapter 1: John Landmen

John Landmen sat at his chair in his small cubicle. He had brown hair, green eyes and had a look of someone you wouldn't want to annoy. John was not married and had no children, he sometimes took pride in the fact that he was unbound to anyone. He was tired, he got up to go to the water cooler, not that he was really thirsty he just wanted an excuse to stretch his legs. He stopped to speak to Tomas Anderson, but found his cubicle empty. Maybe he was in the bathroom. He was walking passed the accountant when a man behind him pushed him in the back to get past him.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" The man who'd pushed him was wearing a black suit with sunglasses and an ear piece was sticking out of his ear. The man had black hair that was cut close to his head, and a strong face. This man didn't seem scared of him, this actually scared John.

"Have you seen Mr. Anderson? The accountant was... unable to help me." John didn't like this man and really didn't like the fact he'd just been hit in the back. Tomas was also a good friend of his.

"Anderson? Anderson... Oh! You mean Tomas, no, I haven't seen him today, I think he might be sick." The man in the black suit frowned even more, if that was possible and walked off.

"Your welcome." John muttered. John saw the man as he turned a corner; and the flash of a black gun caught his eye. John ran to the secretary.

"Martha! Have you seen Tomas! It's important, he's in trouble... or he has a very annoying bodyguard."

"Oh you mean that odd fellow? No I don't think he is a friend of Tomas's. I think he went down that hall." She pointed and John ran through the open doorway there. He saw Tomas Anderson quickly moving along the outside of the windows.

"TOMAS!" His friend apparently couldn't hear him. Tomas had one thick head to go off performing stunts now. A pay phone nearby started ringing, John, now thoroughly scared, picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Is this John Landmen?" Came a women's voice.

"Yes this is, who is this?" Suddenly John felt a large pain in the back of his head. He sat up, which he realized meant he'd been laying down. A kind woman was staring at him the face.

"Welcome to Zion, and the real world."

"Real world? Is this gonna be some weird therapy thing were I have to sit in a chair and talk about my life?"

"No, you need to talk to Captain Nitro." John was then sent to this 'Captain' though of what he didn't know. This guy said that this was earth, that much John liked. He also learned that he'd been in the matrix, that was where the phone had been, and he was bald. This John didn't like.

"So, I was in a computer called, the matrix? And now I'm in the real world. Now there's this huge army about to kick our butt?"

"In a nutshell, yes, that's a good summary."

"Ok, well forget this I'm going back to sleep so I can wake up from this nightmare." John said.

"Sadly, you aren't, we're putting you back in the Matrix so you can learn all the fighting skill you will need to help us within that world."

"I suppose I don't get any say, and it's likely that I'm gonna get killed?"

"Yes." Captain Nitro said.

"...Bring it on." John was lead back to the crude seat he been laying in earlier. They lay him down and stuck something into the back of his neck. It hurt a lot, John gave a small cry of pain. Then he was standing in the middle of a kind of dojo. He was dressed in a black martial arts garb. John saw a cell phone nearby that started to ring.

"Hello?"

"Slither?" This was the name he'd had in the real world, so this was the matrix again.

"Nitro."

"Ok listen we're monitoring you. Link is downloading Kung Fu for you right now."

"Done." Came a new voice. "Ok Slither, Programs are gonna come at you. You need to focus don't think you can use Kung Fu, know you can use it." Three people, well programs came at him. Slither focused and jumped. He kicked one in the chin, grabbed the second one's head and swung him around with it. His other hand ended up punching the last one in the head. The third one lay down and disappeared. The other two came at him, mad now. Slither grabbed one's hand and punched him in the face over and over.

"Holy crud I'm good." Suddenly the second guy hit him, it hurt, he was punched again and again.

"SLITHER, YOU'VE GOT TO KEEP FOCUS, KEEP FOCUS." Came Nitro's voice. Slither focused, everything slowed down again and the two foes were easily destroyed.

"Good," Came Link voice. "Go to the next room got a nice sword for you in there."