The Matrix- Slayers Style! (Part 2)

by XelFan12





"This is my very own hovercraft," explains Xellos, leading Gourry along. "It's called the 'Xellos'! You're now standing on the main deck."

Gourry nods, and continues to follow Xellos.

"And here's the core," Xellos goes on. "We broadcast signals here, and use it to hack into the Matrix. Which is where you were. As I said, that world is fake."

"So you mean I don't really owe all those taxes?! WAHOO!!" exclaimed Gourry.

Xellos had no comment for that, so instead he moved on to introductions. "You already know some of my crew," he said, gesturing to the people all lined up. "You obviously already know Lina. There's Martina, your previous driver. Next to her is Sylphiel. Valgaav's over there. Over there by those computers are Amelia, and her big brother Zelgadis. The little one behind you is Chibi-Xellos."

Gourry looked behind him to see a smaller version of Xellos. Chibi- Xellos smiled in the same exact amused smirk that Xellos had. Gourry sweatdropped. I won't even ask, he thought.

"Lina, would you care to show Gourry what the Matrix is?" Xellos asked.

Lina showed him to a chair, and told him to sit down while Xellos walked over. "This will feel… pretty bad." Xellos took a needle of some sort, and put it in the mechanial thing that had appeared on Gourry's arm when he had turned into a chimera.

Gourry opened his mouth to yell, but the next thing he knew, he was in a seemingly blank white area that stretched out forever in all directions.

"This would be the construct or loading program!" said Xellos cheerfully, suddenly appearing.

Gourry looked around some more. "Looks like nothing at all to me."

"Perhaps, but as I said, this is the loading program! See? This is your mental projection of your digital self. Your clothes are hair have both changed! We'll need a full length mirror!" Xellos ordered.

A full length mirror suddenly appeared, and Gourry looked in it. "Hey! How come I'm wearing a pink and purple shirt with robin's egg blue pants? Why am I wearing sneakers with Velcro straps?! Why is my hair in about 50 tiny pigtails?!?!"

"Well, I suppose that's your mental projection. Although, I prefer mine." Xellos stepped up to the mirror and looked over himself with his perfectly ironed suit, which was a nice shade of black. The coattails hanging off the back of the suit and his expensive leather shoes made him look like a real gentleman. His hair had remained the same style as always.

Gourry still looked annoyed, but then he got curious. "How'd you make that mirror come here?"

"As I said twice before, this is the loading program! We can load up anything we need almost instantly! We'll have two armchairs and a T.V.!"

Two armchairs and a T.V. came out of nowhere and stopped near them. Gourry and Xellos went over and sat down. "We can get anything?" Gourry asked, surprised. "That's great! I'll have a 9-course meal, complete with fortune cookies and a bag of chips! Oh, and a table to put the stuff on!"

The stuff Gourry wanted settled in front of him, and he began to eat.

Xellos cleared his throat. "Delete previous load!"

The stuff Gourry was eating, along with the table, disappeared. "That's not fair! I was hungry!" complained Gourry.

Xellos loaded up a remote control for the T.V., and turned it on. On the screen, majestic buildings stood tall in the bright light. "This is the world you know, also known as The Matrix."

"You said the Matrix was everywhere! Isn't it over here too?" Gourry protested.

"No, it's only everywhere in the world you came from."

"So I'm not in the world I came from anymore?"

"No, you weren't in the world you came from since you got covered by the mirror substance, and was reborn as a chimera."

"What's a chimera?"

"That is a secret!" Xellos changed the channel. Slayers NEXT theme music is heard, and Xellos is also seen on the screen as the song ends. "I do look good in that opening!" Xellos changes the channel again, and dark, scary buildings are seen. "And this is the world of today."

The camera pans forward through the screen of the T.V., and then down until we see Xellos and Gourry watching the television again on a rocky terrain. "How did we get here?" Gourry asked.

"Welcome to the desert of the real!" announced Xellos dramatically, ignoring Gourry. "You're probably wondering how the Earth got like this."

"Well, no, not-"

"We only have bits and pieces of how it happened, but-"

"But I said that I'm not really wonder-"

Gourry gave up as Xellos began speaking again. "We know that it happened when the entire world was celebrating over the coming of C.I. (Chimera Industrialization). In the past, chimeras could only be formed over older and slower methods, but this new and improved method could create them far faster and more efficiently. At first, people monitored the progress of the machinery making the chimeras, but they soon discovered that they couldn't keep up with the speed that it was being built at, and the machines seemed to be functioning just fine by themselves anyway. People became careless, and eventually stopped watching over the machines altogether. Chimeras were supposed to be a way of healing someone about to die, and fusing them with another body to continue living. The machines, however, decided that they needed more energy to stay at their speed and power. They began to 'accidentally' injure the humans, and bring them in to their industry to make more and more chimeras. If a chimera ever died, its energy split in half to power other chimeras again. The humans didn't realize what was happening at first, and when they finally did, it was too late. The machines had managed to make an ultimate chimera by the name of Rezo. They copied him many times to have more powerful forces if the need ever arose, and then disposed of the original. The human population decreased farther as the machines decided to stop their "accidental" plan, and just assault the humans. The humans that escaped fled and built their own city close to the Earth's core that they called Ceipheed. The machines even simulated the Matrix so the chimeras they make would never know what had happened, and would live in a sense that they were in a "real" world, while the world of today became dark with the machines and their creation, the Rezo copies. Soon, the machines fused themselves with the Rezo copies, making themselves more powerful than ever before. No one was powerful enough to stop that force. Do you understand now?" Xellos was pretty tired now after all that talking. He was usually a very secretive person anyway.

Gourry had fallen asleep quite a while ago. His snoring sounded loudly, and somehow echoed although the contruct stretched out forever.

Xellos was pretty annoyed. He went over to shake Gourry.

Gourry woke up to Xellos with an annoyed expression. "Wha-?"

"Never mind then." Xellos said, changing the channel. "Basically, the humans of today are no longer born, they are fused. Endless rows of mechnical arms and containment units, melding together organisms and creating chimeras!"

Gourry's eyes opened wide open, and he began to say the word "no" in a very dramatic way: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…"

"Bring us out of the construct," Xellos instructed Amelia.

Coming out of the construct, the whole crew of the good ship "Xellos" noticed Gourry's distress. "…OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…"

"Breathe, Gourry. Just breathe," someone ordered.

"…OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- " Having finally run out of air, Gourry threw up and collapsed to the ground.

"Amelia, would you carry Gourry back to his room?" Xellos asked.

"Anything to help in the name of justice!" Amelia declared, and did as ordered. "Gosh, you're heavy, Mister Gourry. Do you have to wear armor all the time?"

***

Gourry woke up again later on his pillow. "…OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

"Gourry, you might want to stop before you pass out again," Xellos advised.

Gourry decided to stop. "Oh, fine. Wait, you mean that I'm a… chimera?"

"Yes, I do believe so."

"Do I have any special powers if I'm a chimera?"

"Well, according to the tests we ran on you while you were asleep, you should now have some sorceror blood in you. You'll be able to learn magic easily now."

"Is everyone on this ship a… whatever-it-was?"

"Yes, everyone except Amelia and Zelgadis. They're only humans. I suppose that's why Amelia had such a back strain after she "helped in the name of justice" by carrying you to your room. Come to think of it, I could have just teleported you here. Yare, yare. No need to think of such matters now! Valgaav is part dragon, part mozaku, and part human. Sylphiel has some sorceress blood, but she's mostly human. Martina is mostly idiotic, but I think there's a bit of human in her. And I do believe Lina is part human, part sorceress, and part greedy pig. Of course, there are some unusual instances. Take me, for example. Somehow, during the cloning process, I ended up 100% mozaku, and the machines wanted to make a copy of me at first for some reason, so they started scanning me. Then, they decided better of it, so a complete clone was never made. The result, as you might have guessed, was Chibi-Xellos." Xellos explained.

"Hmmm… huh?"

Xellos sweatdropped. He wasn't getting very far using longer explanations with Gourry. "You'd better rest some more. You'll need it."

"Why?"

"Training."

***

"Morning! Did you sleep?" Amelia comes in all cheerful.

"Huh? I think so." Gourry muttered sleepily. "That's weird. You've got no hole or whatever in your arm."

"Oh! That's because Zelgadis and I were born right here in the real world in the city of Ceipheed. We're 100% pure human!"

Gourry was confused again. "Ceipheed? Human? I think I heard something about that in a dream somewhere."

"Ceipheed's way underground. It's really the only place we've got left. You know, I really hope that you're the One. This is such an exciting time. If you are, you can finally defeat those Rezo copy machines in the name of JUSTICE!" cried Amelia, standing up in a theatrical pose with brilliant colors flashing about her.

"Well, okay."

Amelia started to walk out the door. "Follow me now." She led Gourry through some rooms, ending up at a chair hooked to a computer, and many gadgets. Gourry was beginning to feel like he was at the doctor's office or something. "Now sit down in this chair."

Gourry sat, and something was hooked up to him. He looked at the computer screen. "Flare arrow," he read. "Flare arrow? I'm going to learn 'flare arrow'? What's that?" He soon felt silent as Amelia pressed a button, and Gourry's eyes opened wide as he learned it. He gasped as the downloading finished. "That was weird."

"Yup. Want to learn more?" Amelia asked.

"Definitely."

***

Gourry had learned many things now, including different types of fighting and spells, and was currenly learning how to add.

Xellos walks into the room. "So, how's he doing?"

"He's been learning 15 hours straight. He's a machine! But I'm getting tired of pressing all these buttons, and for some reason, the program for teaching him how to add if not functioning. Wait, I think I finally finished."

Gourry sat up abruptly. "I know stuff."

"Show me," challenged an amused Xellos with a familiar smirk.

Xellos and Gourry end up in a video game. "This program is similar to the reality of the Matrix!" says Xellos cheerfully. "Some rules can be bent, and others… can be broken. Watch. I know a cheat code for this game." Xellos patted his head 3 times, kicked the ground 2 times, and punched Gourry in the gut really hard 1 time.

"OW!" yelled Gourry, as Xellos got infinite lives.

Gourry and Xellos began to proceed through the level.

***

Back in the "Xellos", Amelia rushes to the table where everyone's eating breakfast. "XELLOS AND GOURRY ARE PLAYING 'RANDOM CREATURES'!" Amelia yelled, and everyone scrambled to get see how Xellos and Gourry were doing in the video game.

***

Gourry and Xellos had just come by a huge dragon. Xellos stood by so he could see if Gourry could handle it. Gourry tried some of the techniques he'd learned with his Sword of Light, but this dragon was particularly bad. It swiped Gourry away with its spiked tail like a fly.

***

"Gourry dear's fighting the toughest dragon in the game! Do you think he can win?" asked Sylphiel worriedly.

"THAT is a secret!" declared Chibi-Xellos.

***

"Do you really think your speed, power, or technique are the cause of your not being able to win? You're fighting with the rules of the game. You're better than this. Go beyond!" Xellos urged.

Gourry whipped out a GameShark, and pressed a few buttons.

Now Gourry moved unbelievably fast. The dragon had no way of keeping up with him. He tried one of the most difficult spells he'd learned. After chanting the incantation, he shouted the spell's name. "Ragna Blade!" The spell's huge black magic power merged with the power of the Sword of Light, and the dragon was turned into dust with no effort at all.

***

"I don't believe it," Zelgadis muttered, as the others nodded their heads in agreement.

***

"Amelia, load the jump program." Xellos commanded.

Instantly, Xellos and Gourry were standing on a building. There was a huge gap between it and the other building. "This is where you let it all go, Gourry. Fear, doubt, disbelief, stupidity. Free… your mind." Xellos jumped off the building. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…-"

***

Valgaav looked with on with a smile. "You all know what's gonna happen."

"Yup," nodded the other members of the "Xellos" in unison. "Xellos always does this."

***

"…HHHHHHHHHHHHHH…"

Gourry stared.

"Just kidding," Xellos smiled, and teleported to the other building right before he hit the ground.

***

"Every time there's a new recruit, he always scares them," Zelgadis commented.

"Yeah, I think it's a waste of his time," Lina said.

"Do any of you suppose Gourry will make it?" Chibi-Xellos asked.

"Make what?" asked Martina.

"The jump," replied Chibi-Xellos.

"But no one's ever made the jump," Sylphiel pointed out.

"I know. I know. But what if he does?"

***

Gourry rubbed his hands together. "Okay, okay, I can do this." He jumped off the building. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He was about to hit the ground, when he said, "Just kidding." BOING! Gourry hit the ground, which happened to be rubbery at the moment. He bounced up, then hit the solid ground with a WHAM!

***

"What the? What does that mean?" Chibi-Xellos looked on in concern.

"It doesn't mean anything," Zelgadis declared. "Then again, it might mean Gourry was trying to copy Xellos."

"Nobody ever makes the first jump," Valgaav agreed.

Gourry and Morpheus woke up in their chairs. Gourry felt his lip. He looked at his hand, and saw blood there now. "If you die in the Matrix, you die here?"

"The body can not live without the mind," Xellos informed him sadly.

"Huh?"

"Well, most of the time, anyway." Xellos grinned mischievously.

***

Lina opens the door to Gourry's room, where Gourry was resting yet again. She brought him his dinner, looks as Gourry for a second, and then leaves.

As she shuts the door, she notices Valgaav watching her.

"I don't remember you ever bringing me dinner," Valgaav grumbled. "There IS something 'special' about him, isn't there?"

"What? You doubt him now?"

"Well, I always wonder. If Xellos is so sure of Gourry being the One, why doesn't he take him to see the Oracle?"

"Xellos will take him when he's ready. Or rather, when he feels like it. You know how Xellos thinks."

Lina walked away, leaving Valgaav leaning against the wall with an unsatisfied expression on his face.

***

Gourry is struggling to keep up with Xellos as they walk through crowded streets filled with normal people and Rezo copies.

"The Matrix is a system, Gourry," Xellos informed him. "Look around you. People turning evil looking for a cure for blindness, businessmen, people looking for new staffs, authors, people looking for a new theme song, lawyers. The very minds of the people the people we're trying to save. But until we free them, they're still part of the system! And they'll fight to protect it." A woman in a red dress walked through the crowd. "Now are you listening to me, or are you looking at the woman in the red dress?"

"Well actually," Gourry replied. "I'm not paying attention to either. I'm busy making sure I don't step on a crack so I don't break my mother's back."

Xellos fell over. Getting up again, he regained his composure and said, "Look at the woman."

Gourry looked, and a Rezo copy was about to hit him with a spell.

"Freeze it!" Xellos instructed.

Everyone in the streets stopped moving except for Xellos and Gourry. "That's not a woman!" Gourry pointed out.

"Well it used to be," Xellos explained. "That's why you looked that direction."

"Oh, now I get it."

"This program was designed to teach you one thing: Pay attention! Oh, and one other thing: If you're not one of us, you're one of them. Always be on the alert. You don't know who could be a Rezo copy."

"Can't you just look for people that look like Rezo?" Gourry asked.

"That is a secret!" Xellos grinned. His cell phone rang, and he picked it up.

"I used to have a cell phone…" Gourry grumbled under his breath.

"We've got trouble!" a voice through the phone sounded.

***

Xellos and Gourry got out of the simulation, and rushed to the front of the hovercraft. "What is it? A ship from Ceipheed?" asked Xellos, eyeing the radar.

"No, it's another ship," Zelgadis informed him. "Dark Lords, they're killing machines."

"Lord Beastmaster was the one dark lord that helped on our side," Xellos remembered sadly. "She never told us why, as everything was 'a secret'. That's right, I even got my favorite saying from her…"

"Xellos, this is no time for fond memories," Zelgadis interrupted. "These Dark Lords only do one thing."

"Search and destroy," Martina put in helpfully.

"Actually, search, find, and destroy. And besides, then Dark Lords actually do 3 things instead of 1." Chibi-Xellos smiled.

Amelia pulled down a switch that brought out a red button out of a hidden drawer in the control panel. "This is the button that disables all electrical systems in this ship," she informed Gourry. "It's the only way we can hide from the Dark Lords."

The hovercraft lands, and Amelia pushes the red button. Everyone holds their breath as the Dark Lords come closer. Not sensing anything, the Dark Lords ignore the "Xellos" and continue on their way.

***

Some time later, Valgaav is at a bunch of computers looking at some type of code displayed on all of them.

Gourry startles Valgaav by suddenly coming in. "Hey, is this the Matrix?" Gourry asked.

"Don't pop in like that! And no, this isn't the Matrix. These are actually just some random symbols I felt like looking at," explained Valgaav, using the master remote to change all the channels to the code of the Matrix. "There's way too many symbols to actually decode the Matrix. Sometimes I just look at it, and try to find some truth to it. I don't even see the individual symbols anymore, I got so used to it. Just streaks of green. Want a drink?"

"Hmmm… okay." Gourry takes some liquor, gulps it down, and spits it out all over the floor. "What is this?!"

"Toilet water. Pretty funny, huh?" Valgaav grinned. "Just kidding. It's the only stuff we have. Good for 3 things. Oiling engines, rotting brain cells, and dirtying our floors. Mop it up." Valgaav threw Gourry a mop.

Gourry begins to mop up the stuff he spit out.

"Did Xellos say why you're here?"

Gourry nods as he cleans.

"What do you say to that? 'Oh, okay, I'll save the world'? Here's some advice: If you see an agent, do as we do. Laugh at them, blow some of them up, and laugh again as you run away because of reinforcements."

"Okay. Thanks for the toilet water, or whatever it was."

"Sweet dreams." Valgaav had other plans to attend to.

***

"So we have a deal?" a Rezo copy says as he and Valgaav eat dinner.

"Yeah, as long as you can get me out of this reality. I want to get back in that Matrix. I don't want to remember anything! Try to get me a good life when you put me back in."

"Anything you wish," the Rezo copy said generously, jingling his staff. "However, I do want something in return."

"Anything."

"The codes to Ceipheed."

"I don't have them…. But I'll get you someone that does."

"Xellos." The agent managed a smile.

***

Gourry sat down at the breakfast table back aboard the "Xellos".

Amelia put some kind of unrecognizable glop on Gourry's plate.

"You know, if you close your eyes, and really imagine hard, this stuff almost tastes like oatmeal," Chibi-Xellos claimed, giving Xellos's familiar smirk once again.

"You've never eaten oatmel, Chibi," Sylphiel pointed out.

"I know, I know. That's what I'm trying to say. What if those machines got it all wrong. THEY don't know what oatmeal tastes like. Maybe what we THINK is oatmeal is actually… roasted duck, or… corn chips. I mean, they could have made chicken taste like marshmallows, and we still don't know the difference. You know, maybe they did. Maybe this glop actually tastes like marshmallows, and we just-"

"Shut up, Chibi," Zelgadis ordered.

"This is a simple protein. Everything the body needs," Lina explained. "Personally, I don't think so! I want more food!"

"Me, too!" put in Gourry.

"Hey, then I want more, too!" Martina complained.

Xellos suddenly walked in. "I'm taking Gourry to see her."

"See who?" asked Gourry.

"The Oracle."