Niobe practically beat the chair attempted to brush the dust off of it. It had been years since she had last plugged in. After Neo's peace, there had been little need. The younger (usually more enthusiastic) of Zion were chomping at the bit to free as many minds as possible.
With the chair finally cleaned to her satisfaction, Niobe laid back in it. It felt good. Retirement had not suited her. She was relieved, actually, to here that there had been a change- a reason to go back and check things out.
"You ready?" Link asked.
"Aint come here for nothing." Niobe smiled. She felt the plug enter her neck with a click.
"Welcome," chimed a cheerful voice, "to the new Matrix. There have been a few changes since your last plug in, so allow me to run you through them. Please say 'yes' or 'no'."
Colorful lights played across Niobe's eyes. "What is this shit?" She asked them, not expecting much of an answer.
The female voice only repeated itself. "Please say 'yes' or 'no.'"
"Fine. Yes." "You have selected "yes," if at any point you know the information, say "skip" and the simulation will continue to the next section."
A dark and polluted city clarified in front of her. "In the late 1990s, humans created artificial intelligence in the form of service machines. These machines..."
Niobe rolled her eyes. "For the love of God, skip."
The image changed to several men and women, all standing in line shoulder-to-shoulder. "With every reboot of the Matrix, a person was selected as the One. This one would choose the select males and females to..."
"Skip."
"In the 6th reboot, the One was a man called Neo." Before Niobe could say 'skip," an image of Neo flashed before her eyes, and she couldn't help but smile. He had been amazing, that's for sure. "He defeated a major virus to the Matrix, stopping the reboots and bringing about a truce between man and machine for many years."
The image of Neo shifted to a short, slouched man with thinning blond hair. Despite these years of peace, a new One still emerged. He was called Nu. Nu was a brilliant hacker. What he lacked in the strength and agility easily gained by the past Ones, he made up for in sheer knowledge of computer code and machinery. This allowed him to, once free, break into the very code of the Matrix and alter it to his liking."
Niobe finally found herself standing in a telephone booth surrounded by the familiar city. The voice continued through the phone now. "With that, I welcome you to the new Matrix, where- as it should be- machine and programs serve mankind."
Niobe cautiously put the phone on the hook and looked around. The sight that met her eyes left her speechless.
