Lucifer watched 0.2.8's progress towards the target uneasily. He all too clearly remembered his own deconstruction at the hands of this human. Had he been in his physical form, he would have shuddered at the memory. Pushing away the almost human trepidation he turned his attention back to Raphael's Agents, monitoring their reactions to the situation. The Combat unit appeared to anticipate the conflict in a manner that suggested that he might welcome it. Lucifer considered this. It was a relatively normal reaction in a Combat unit, to anticipate the opportunity to exercise one's skills, though the acceptable parameters of such a reaction had to be carefully defined. Next, the Strategic unit, which shouldn't have actually been betraying too much of a reaction; any reaction. This Strategic unit wasn't directly concerned with the conflict with the rebel, his analytical subroutines were currently processing several methods that could be deployed to keep the Command unit from being deconstructed a second time. Lucifer wondered at that, the fact that this team of Agents showed evident concern for each other's continued existence. But then perhaps that made them a more affective team, rather than three random units thrown together who had no reason to act in concert.
And the Command unit… the overriding action was preparation for dealing with this unpredictable human again. There were no irrational thoughts now, no uneconomic wastage on revenge, even the background static of relayed information from the rest of his team had almost faded to nothing. Lucifer recognised the symptoms, as it were, the calm, the silence that echoed as loudly as any sound… He wasn't the only once to notice.
Within the Mainframe, Raphael now attempted to hide in Lucifer's shadow as he felt the shifting of vast code as the four Seraphim turned collective consciousnesses towards them.
Walking along some miscellaneous street, head down, hands shoved into his pockets, Neo didn't bother to take in his surroundings. His mind was still filled with the horrific mental replay of the terror that he had witnessed. He had to admit that initially he hadn't thought much of the plan to copy Agent code. He'd suggested that it might prove too dangerous simply getting a copy in the first place, let alone creating their own Agents to do the fighting for them. After all, wasn't that a similar situation to the one that had started the whole problem? Humans had created AI and the AI had decided that they we're going to tolerate human rule and had turned the tables. But the argument had been that these rogue Agents could be used to fight against the Matrix Agents so that human lives wouldn't be lost and once the task was accomplished they could be terminated, so they wouldn't have the time to rebel against humans again. Neo had tried to point out that it was probably the same argument that had been used in the first place but apparently no one wanted to listen to 'the One' when it came to Zion politics.
The more he thought about it, the end didn't really justify the means. Especially if they succeeded in freeing humanity only to have huge numbers of the population die. Which brought the argument back to the basic question of whether or not the Matrix was actually a bad thing. Neo chewed his lower lip, thinking.
Yes, the Matrix was a bad thing since it enslaved humanity; it kept them from the real world, and let them be used by the machines.
No, the Matrix wasn't a bad idea because it was hardly slavery if you didn't know about it, the real world wasn't all that and what you didn't know really couldn't hurt you.
Neo frowned at the ground as he walked, that evened out the score between the arguments, there had to be other points…
There were no Agents in the real world.
There was more than slop to eat in the Matrix.
At least you knew you were free in the real world.
At least you wouldn't freeze to death in the Matrix.
There was no Smith in the real world.
There was chocolate in the Matrix.
There probably had never been a Smith in the real world.
Hacking was still 'fun' in the Matrix and not a life or death matter.
There would most likely never be a Smith in the real world.
People didn't tell him he was a saviour and send him out to fight for the cause in the Matrix.
He sighed at what was becoming a rather circular argument.
There wasn't really a Trinity in the Matrix.
They'd probably find a way to build a Smith in the real world.
Neo chuckled to himself at the last two points. Smiling slightly, he idly wondered what would be worse; having only a computer generated Trinity to hold or having a cyborg Smith trying to kill him.
Finally, not truly having found any answers Neo resolved to just wonder the city, enjoying the view and trying not to think about anything. Unfortunately meditating for anything longer than five minutes was beyond him so it just became a casual stroll.
Turing a corner into a quieter part of the city centre Neo was suddenly aware of a shift in code. Raising his gaze to the end of the street he saw two familiar figures. Trinity and Reye were hurrying towards him, when suddenly Reye stopped, eyes fixing on a point behind him. Almost wishing that he couldn't anticipate what was there, Neo turned to find himself facing three Agents. And Smith was looking particularly vindictive.
Initially it should have been a simple task for 0.2.8, to destroy or at least damage three rebels, even if one of them was Neo. But it seemed that other rebels had been alerted and the Agents were now outnumbered. Added to the logistics of the situation was the fact that the rebels present were 'potentials' with similar abilities, though to a lesser degree, to those possessed by Neo. Said rebels were slowly backing them up down an alleyway.
Neo had yet to use any of his extreme abilities, simply keeping up with the barrage of gunfire directed at the Agents. They fired back but even modified clips had a limit, especially when, as Smith suspected, one of the rebels was tampering with the physical construct.
"Retreat." Brown advised calmly through the communication channels, attention still fixed on firing at the rebels.
Jones didn't have a chance to reply as the rebel gunfire ripped through his current host. The body dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
"Retreat." Smith's silent order.
To his credit, Brown didn't hesitate, gracefully back-flipping over the high wall behind them and disappearing out of sight.
Smith faced the half a dozen or so humans, unwilling to retreat without causing some damage. Though his options were limited he truly had no intention of running, especially with the human 'Neo' in front of him. Then his gun jammed, cutting his options in half. Surprisingly the humans stopped firing. Smith watched them suspiciously; weary of an entire group that might potentially be able to deconstruct him. They he saw the inward glaze of their eyes and around him the Matrix began to shift. The girl that hung close to Neo smirked at him.
Oddly he was calm, almost disinterested in the situation unfolding around him, Smith found that he couldn't truly feel affected by it. This unfolding quiet in his mind was something that he'd never experienced before, something that probably didn't belong…
"You're gonna die!" he heard the girl's voice directed at him.
He turned his gaze to her, she was unstable, something that should not be allowed to disrupt the Matrix, something that should not exist. Smith frowned slightly and suddenly the girl was disintegrating, falling into shifting patterns of code that were already fading. And so were the other rebels; disintegrating into fragments of dimming code around him.
Standing in an empty street, facing the human who had once been his demise, Smith didn't even notice Trinity fleeing at Neo's behest. In silence, human and machine faced each other on equal terms, perhaps for the first time.
Within the Mainframe Lucifer was aware of Raphael staring up at him, eyes huge. Lucifer turned his gaze upon his Lieutenant. "I believe the humans would call it transcendence." He said.
TBC…
Neo only being able to meditate for 5 minutes may well be a dig at someone I know who can't even manage that… but that's beside the point.
And Brown can do proper ninja jumps apparently.
Before I get any more biblical perhaps I ought to read "Paradise Lost" since people keep mentioning it…
00:13, 11/05/02