Disclaimer: I do not own the original ideas from Xena or The Matrix

Summary: This is an Uber story imitating the plot and environment of The Matrix with Uber versions of Gabrielle and Xena as the main characters. (Yeah believe me, I have no idea what I was thinking) Also, Uber Gabrielle is living as a man(LAAM).

Warning: Some adult language

Chapter 1: Content Just Existing

Thane aka Morph

I rub my eyes because of the light assaulting me from the window in my room. I honestly can't stand the fact that I have a window in my room. I could be perfectly content with the dark, the hum of my computer, and the light emanating from it's monitor. Contrary to most, my neurotic self rather revel in its dull glow, than to save energy with a screen saver. Another work day has arrived and I drag myself out of the warmth and comfort of my bed. I curse the day. What do I have to look forward today? Oh nothing at all, just another day of some person telling me how to automate a process, turning it into a song and dance, ending with a totally useless product. It is tedious. Day in and day out, I have to hear them blather on about how they think this would be the next big thing. When I first got the job, I looked forward to it, but much like most of life, you underestimate how much things are about the almighty dollar and not at all altruistic. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

It's always been strange for people to understand, but when I get home I go straight back to sitting at the computer. I forget about the nine to five, and pursue my own projects. What projects you ask? Well you name it. Sometimes I'll script something to play my games for me, sometimes I data mine, sometimes I write something to set up and cold call people with a random quote from a quotation book. Sometimes I'll transfer money to charities across the nation. Why you ask? Because I can. Information is key to knowledge and power, but to be honest, the only part that interests me is that I can do it. That I can write the code to make it do what I want. I could almost care less about the data it gathers. The excitement of starting a new challenge, to being stuck on trying to find a work around, to get it to do what I need. It is all intoxicating. It is my drug. A drug that I can't seem to get enough of. I am known as Morph in the underground circles. I'm known as a black and white hat, since the things I've done, straddle the line between malicious and helpful.

A year ago I stumbled upon a system that resisted my prodding at its exploits and my brute force attacks. It has become an obsession for me to find out what this system is, and to finally find a way in. All I have found out so far is its name; the Matrix. Given my desire to problem solve, I refuse to accept that there is no way in. I will keep trying. I'll exhaust every pathway until I find my key in. It is the way I am, I refuse the impossible because no matter how impossible something seems, sometimes all it takes is the ingenuity to take even the smallest opening to blow it wide open. Some call it hacking, I see it as searching for the ultimate challenge.

I push the covers off and pad over to the bathroom. I've been sleeping in my underwear lately, I find it reminds me the status of my physique. I've been blessed with a great metabolism but I eat more than most people of my stature, which means I should never miss out on my daily exercise. I'm short, 5'4'' in fact, petite in appearance, but stout in my appearance. I seem to build muscle quite easily. A gift I appreciate while taking in my well defined stomach. I scratch at my dirty blond hair, and harrumph at the cowlicks standing up from my sleep. Not something you would hear everyday, but every morning I am reminded that I am living as a man. I bind myself, deepen my voice, and play out a role I never intended to last so long. How did I end up doing this you ask? Well, I'll tell you the short of it. As a woman in a software engineering field, it is often times hard to prove yourself. It is also sometimes hard to get a job. In a field dominated by males, they worry you won't fit in with their way of thinking, their jokes, and their activities. They also think you'll leave in pursuit of being barefoot, pregnant, and a domestic goddess. Sometimes I don't blame them. It is the nature of the beast of information technology field. Many women start out in the field and give it up. I'm not one. My love for computers and the challenge of developing keeps me coming back. So I know what it is like to be the needle in a haystack. Most times I have no problems with the way it is, but sometimes I'm crushed under the weight of it. The last time it crushed me was when it finally gave way to a break in my sanity.

I had been out of a job due to the recession and was going for interviews and couldn't seem to find luck. Most likely because of my age. Usually women of twenty eight start deciding to make families and I'm sure it kept me out of a job. Then I stumbled upon my dream job. A job with Metacortex; a well respected software company. It wasn't the company that appealed to me, it was the projects they were working on. From biotechnology to artificial intelligence; two things that have always held my interest. When I went for an interview, everything went well, but I didn't get the job. Somehow I was passed up by a programmer with less credentials and experience than I. How do I know? Any piece of information stored electronically, I can get it. I chalked up my lack of hiring to the good ole boys club; since the team of fifty programmers occupying the jobs did not include one woman. So with a purpose I set about to test my theory. I cut my hair and I practiced mannerisms. It wasn't hard since I'd always been a bit of a tomboy. For once in my life it would benefit me. It helped me masquerade my way into the boys club. I reapplied for the job and, surprise! I got the job. So here I am now. Who am I? I am Thane Everton; born female. Mass database updated to become Thane Everton; male, since birth. My green eyes stare back at me as I look myself in the mirror. Naked in front of the mirror is the only time I really know who I am. Or do I?

Avalon

Morrigan instructed me to keep tabs on the hacker, Morph, who was competing with my own exploits. He was building a name throughout the underground, rivaling my own. I've gotten into numerous federal databases, and others, to suit the needs of our team. To the underground, it is no secret that I am out to cause chaos in every way possible. In his case, no one really understood his activity. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the systems he has gained access to. His hacking has been random and difficult to determine the purpose behind, at times he didn't so much as leave an easter egg or two. For a long time he didn't even interest us, flying off the radar. Then one day his attempts hit our mutual interest. We traced the recent attempts on the Matrix to him. Immediately Morrigan asked me to track him and keep an eye on him; he seems like an ideal candidate to wake up. Unfortunately we were not the only one's whose attention they've grabbed. Every time I've tried to make contact, we were ambushed by agents dead set on keeping us at a distance. Perhaps they can feel that we may have another 'red pill'(another person to wake up to the malevolence of the virtual reality that is known as the Matrix).

I sit in a dingy old abandoned factory. 125 Horton Road. What remains of a surveillance room is all that surrounds me. I spot my reflection in the glass of the television monitors that have long since been rendered useless. Cracks adorn many of them that were once part of an array that takes up a majority of the wall. I never imagined myself to be vain, but looking at my reflection, I can't help but feel vain. My residual self image in the matrix brings out the bad ass biker chick in me. I indulge in wearing a latex cat suit, something I probably would never wear in reality. My black hair is long and flowing, unlike the actual hair I possess, which is short and easy to manage. My bright blue eyes portray a calm that I know would not come otherwise, outside this realm. I am who I need to be in this place. I need to be a cold, calculating, agent killing machine. This place is an illusion. I feel powerful in this realm, even though in reality, I am just a normal woman fighting at the side of her friends in a pitiful outlawed existence at the hands of machines. It is a life that we intend to change.

I wait for the call from Zero to exit the Matrix. My mission to send our potential 'red pill' a cell phone for our first contact is now completed. I am now on my way out. I call in with my own cell.

"Operator." Zero says at the other end of the line.

"It's Avalon. I'm here." I inform.

I hear typing at the other end and he responds with his gruff dark voice. Zero has always bothered me. He's not someone I'd readily trust with my life, but in our real world, beggars can't be choosers.

"It's at the end of the hall at the front desk." he tells me.

I instantaneously hear a phone ring and close my cell and put it back into my pocket. I walk toward the sound when I suddenly get a bad feeling in my gut. My suspicions are confirmed when the phone stops mid ring.

"Son of a bitch!" I curse as I hurdle in the opposite direction I originally headed. The double doors of the factory are burst wide open by the force of two agents who have now entered and I assume a third who seems to already been in the building severing the landlines.

I quickly turn around in my sprint away, to spray the two agents coming with bullets from my handgun. They scramble easily out of the path of the bullets. I need a window, a vent, anything! I need to get out of here and to a new exit. I pull my cell from my pocket and await Zero.

"Operator." He answers.

"God dammit Zero! This exit is compromised, you couldn't fucken check if the coast was clear?" I yell to other end of the line.

Of all the irresponsible, dick headed dangerous things, Zero was the master of them all. His ego and self importance only increased when Morrigan determined that; although he had the potential, Zero was not 'The One'; the person that will bring the Matrix down and return us to reality. Since then he's been a lackluster liability to the safety of the team. I'll not let him be the death of me.

"There was a phone booth on Evan and First that I noticed on the way here, set up an exit, or so help me Zion, I will fucking haunt you from the grave!" I demand.

"Got it." He answers back irritated.

I turn to face the agents, who are dressed in sharp gray suits, decked in sunglasses, who've now closed in on me a mere ten feet away. My escape has reached a dead end at the wall. I pull out my fifty caliber handgun and shoot the stucco of the wall ahead of me and pray that the factory isn't lined with cement. I fire my shots into a tight group, and am relieved to see that parts of the wall crumble from the impact. I barrel through the wall with my shoulder and go tumbling out into the streets. If I get out of this, I'm feeding Zero a knuckle sandwich.

To be continued in Chapter 2

**Author's note: Hope this wasn't too bad and that it won't ruin your impression of ubers XD. Thanks for reading :)**