Author's note: The point of view was purposely changed. Don't ask me why!! It's a creativity issue. : P
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Chapter 3
Darkness. Then I felt something on my shoulder … shaking me hard. I opened my eyes.
"Diode! Are you alright? Thank goodness we managed to-"
A woman. I couldn't make out what she said after that, as my mind had gone blank. I took a look at my surroundings. I was strapped to some sort of electric chair in the middle of some sort of room. There were two other chairs next to me. The walls were metallic. Cold and artificial. Conduits ran all over the place. I spied a man sitting at a computer console. He was looking at some bizarre codes running down five flat panel computer screens. It must have cost him a fortune to get a system like –
Suddenly, it came back to me. I was on the Pegasus. The woman shaking me was my captain, Kyra. The man at the console was the ship's operator, Anji. I have two other crew members, Coal and Slayer. Coal serves as the ship's pilot while Slayer is a gunner. My name is
(Max Jackson)
Smith Anderson. Of course, no one calls me that any more. I am now known as Diode. I am the first-mate of the Pegasus and have been serving on this ship for past 4 years.
"Hey! Are you listening? You had us all worried!"
I struggled to get up. I gave up on my second attempt. Apparently, something had happened while I was in the Matrix. My voice, bleak and cracked spoke out. "What happened?"
Anji swiveled his chair around and said, "It seems that the machines were trying to capture your mind. Some sort of mind-control program. If weren't for our captain here …"
Memories flooded my mind. Distant and disconnected, they seemed to make no sense at all, yet I could almost grasp them. Something about roulette and stopping the human rebellion. They were all connected, somehow.
"Whatever it was, it affected you badly. You should get some rest," said the captain.
"Yeah, I suppose."
I stumbled to the crew quarters on board. As soon as I had hit my bunk, I fell asleep. I had not a single dream.
I awoke the next day (I'm quite sure, but you can't really tell 20 miles underground) feeling a little more refreshed but still pooped nonetheless. I had vague memories of the previous day. I made my way to the bridge and sitting (where else?) in the captain's chair was Kyra. Her shoulder length auburn hair lay messily around her head. She didn't look too bad despite the fact that she desperately needed a bath.
"Morning. I hope you're feeling better." She had known I was there without even looking back.
"Morning, captain. I just need some coffee, that's all,' I said. Of course, there was no coffee to be had in the real world. Not here at least. She looked slightly annoyed at my jest. "What happened yesterday, Kyra? The details are somewhat … blurry to me."
"Well …" she started as I took a seat in the pilot's chair, careful not to bump the controls (although it was totally safe as the ship was powered down). As she filled up the massive potholes in my memory, yesterday's events slowly crept back to me.
It was a recon mission. We were only supposed to scope out a hacker named Isis. Should she be found to be of use to our cause, freeing her mind was in the hands of another ship, the Byzantine.
It started out perfectly. Kyra, Slayer and I had entered the Matrix. We were inserted just a block away from Isis's apartment. Slayer, with his spiky red hair and black trench coat led the way. Of course, his hair wasn't red in the real world. But he always kicked a fuss about his appearance in the Matrix that Anji decided to shut him up and gave him the crimson hair.
Slowly, we made our way through the garbage filled alleyways. Our objective was within reach. Just one more alley ahead. Suddenly, an Agent appeared at the end of the alley leading to Isis's apartment building. His shiny leather shoes reflected the sun. They made clicking noises as he approached us. We had no choice but to run for we were no match for an Agent. Kyra drew her Ingram sub-machinegun and commenced firing on the agent. Of course, the Agent easily dodged every single shot, but it bought us time.
Slayer and I made a break for it. Running at speeds impossible by human standards, we were putting as much distance as we could away from the Agent. Kyra was running not far behind us, her empty Ingram Mac-10 lying on the ground. Her cell phone was ringing. She answered it and got our extraction point from Anji. It was just two blocks ahead, on the second floor of a hospital building.
After a while, we realized the Agent was no longer pursuing us (did he even chase us in the first case?). We let our guard down. For some reason, most Agent related fatalities only occur at extraction points. Or at least that's what I had heard. I was dead wrong.
A door burst open and an Agent came out, his Desert Eagle handgun in hand. I whipped out my own weapon, another Israeli Military Industries .50 Desert Eagle. The only difference between his gun and mine was the colour scheme. Mine was chrome while the Agent's was a dull black. Anji had given it to me as he thought defeating an Agent with his own gun had some poetic justice. I hated him for that as a Desert Eagle only holds 7 rounds.
Within seconds, my gun was empty. There were massive holes behind the agent where the .50 slugs had chiseled out chunks of wall. The Agent appeared to be unscathed, apart from the dust blasted from the wall all over his immaculate suit. He raised his index finger and made a metronome movement with it. Clearly gesturing: 'No, no. Bad boy'.
He didn't have long to continue gesturing though, as Slayer had removed his handgun and was dishing out unhealthy amounts of lead at the Agent. As the Agent did his supersonic dodging dance, Kyra and I took off, with Slayer not far behind us. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way she had tripped on a glass bottle. As I turned to help her up, I heard a shot. At first I thought it was just Slayer, attempting to punch a few holes into the pursuing Agent, but the stinging pain in my back proved otherwise. As I went down, I saw Kyra staring wide-eyed at the Agent which had appeared behind me.
Of course, I had no recollection past this point, as I was knocked out. I was lucky to be alive as the Agent had used a tranquilizer round instead of a regular leaddie. Kyra could do nothing as she was too far away. By the time she had gotten up, I had been dragged down an alley. Within seconds, Kyra had her cell phone in hand and had summoned Anji to track me. It would be another two hours before they would find me, unconscious, in an abandoned warehouse.
Armed to the teeth, Slayer, Kyra and the crew of the Byzantine had come to my rescue. Having pinpointed my location, they found me in the warehouse, strapped into a chair, not unlike the one used to jack people into the Matrix. Surprisingly, there was only a single Agent guarding me. Even then, it was no easy task. Although Agents can dodge bullets with God-like speed, a sufficient volley of bullets can finish one off. And that's exactly what they did. Armed with heavy machineguns, assault rifles and a mini-gun, they nearly tore the whole warehouse down releasing Hell on the Agent. Several minutes and a few hundred rounds later, I was being carried to a payphone at a nearby park.
I sat silently for a while after Kyra finished her story. Yes, it had cleared up a lot about yesterday's events. However, there were still questions left unanswered. "Kyra, did we enter a casino or anything like that yesterday?"
She stared at me. It was a strange question after all, but it meant a lot to me. "No. Why'd you ask?"
"Never mind," I said. However, I did mind it. I needed answers, and the only place I could get them was in the Matrix.
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To be continued…
Special thanks to EmyLyii (SilverButterfly) for beta reading! So sorry….I had to reload your beta-read version!!
The un-reviewer
SilverButterfly: Yeah, Max is a rather Gary Stu-ish character. However, I hope the second chapter sorta explained that. I could have elaborated on the outside streets a little more, but the main point there was the Architect explaining Max's situation. Glad you like how it's writ.
Shadow Peach: Hmm, true, the Architect is a little less pompous in my story, but as you pointed out, it is Matrix version 3.0. Aside from that, since the Architect programmed Max, it kind of makes him his father (cue Luke Skywalker yelling, "NOOOOO!!!!"), so no need for the pompous act. Plus, with machine to machine (or so it seems) interface, it would be a waste of megahertz to emulate the arrogant schmuck character. (Whew! All excuses in the world for going slightly OOC : P)