Neo ascended the few, short steps slowly. "Tank, give Flare the blueprint. We're going in." He whirled when he reached the door, faced Flare. The slender Asian man nodded slowly as the specs on the building were downloaded to his yellow-tinted glasses. Neo nodded in reply. "Tell Morpheus we're getting him now," he said, clipping the phone to his belt. Then he turned around and twisted the doorknob.

The team burst into the corridor. Flare said softly, "Fourth floor, stairs dead ahead," and they quickly, silently moved towards the staircase. Neo led, with Flare and

Psi beside him. Trinity and Gunner followed them, and Sox and Kat brought up the rear, moving backwards.

Flare added as they ascended the steps, "we have to cross the second floor to make it to the staircase going to the third, same thing for getting to the fourth floor."

"Bull," Neo whispered in reply. The building design was not in his favor. He had to do probably double the distance. "What about the windows?"

Flare shook his head, "all the windows are barred. Not the nice end of town."

They made it halfway across the second story hallway before the attack came. Psi was the first to notice, firing a shot to kill the nice old lady carrying her groceries. "A potential," he whispered. The face morphed into the familiar cold lines of an agent's face before settling back into a kindly grandmother's expression again.

As he spoke, another door opened, an agent. Neo cursed even as he flew at the agent, Trinity hot on his heels. When they fought, it was simple: Neo got the agents, Trinity guarded his back.

"Hello, Missster Anderson," the agent said smugly, just in time to have Neo wave his hand and delete the codes that specified it had legs. The arms followed, and what was left of the agent toppled over.

"Run!" Neo said, a few decibels short of a shout, and the team obeyed. Neo and Trinity led, followed by Gunner and Psi, then everyone else. Neo half ran backwards, making sure his whole team was there. He saw Gunner's dark grey muscle shirt, Psi's creme robes, Flare's yellow glasses, Sox's namesake accessories, Kat's black baseball cap. And of course, Trinity was there, right beside him. She was always right beside him. He gave her a faint smile as he ran up the stairs to the third floor.

There were three agents waiting on the third floor. Psi practically flew to the back of the team, while Gunner hesitantly followed. Much as the big black muscle man loved a good fight, he didn't want to get himself killed, not today. Flare, Kat, and Sox followed. Only two people of the seven on the team had a chance of beating even one agent in actual combat. Neo and Trinity stepped forward.

"Hello, Missster Anderson," all three said in unison. Then, they raised their handguns. Time froze, if only for an instant. The room was silent, still. No one moved, no one spoke. Then the dam in time broke with one blow: Neo's laughter.

He laughed jovially, even as the sound of three guns firing filled the air, and only then did he fly into action. He held out a hand and the bullets froze in midair before falling, useless, to the ground.

Then, Neo and Trinity both leapt at the three agents. The two, friends, coworkers, sparring partners, and lovers, stood back to back in the center of three agents. Neo swiftly knocked the gun out of one agent's hand, then whirled in the same motion to take on the other two at once. Trinity smiled at his macho behavior even as she began a long series of spinning kicks to the head at the remaining agent, and action which required her spinning on the ball of one foot as she kicked. She got off about a kick every two seconds, which wasn't enough to do real damage. Instead, it distracted and infuriated the agent, keeping its attention on her and pushing it far enough away to prevent any real harm to her, at least temporarily.

Neo used his ability to rewrite the code again on one agent while he gave a flying kick-and-punch combo to the other. Even as one agent fell to the ground, Neo was starting to move faster than the eye could follow. The other agent began to punch him. Neo actually gave the impression of focusing on blocking for a second or two, before becoming bored with the charade and instead blocking with one hand even as he rewrote the code on the agent Trinity was fighting.

Trinity, who had been using the kicks as a source of balance, shot him a mock glare as she began to tumble out of control. Neo caught her in one arm even as he smashed his hand into the face of the sole remaining agent. Taking advantage of having the woman he loved bent over backwards, he grinned. "We should get into these situations more often," he whispered in her ear, kissing her and pulling her to her feet simultaneously.

The girls laughed gently, the boys quietly clapped, and Trinity's pale face flushed slightly. Neo grinned, and pointed his gun at the next stairway.

The team followed behind their leader, and they moved up the steps together. "There should only be two more potentials," Neo whispered to Trinity and Psi. "I'm sure they've transformed by now, but watch out." They all nodded. "Ready, team?" Neo added, receiving six more nods in response. "Then let's go!" He kicked in the door.

Before them stood over a dozen agents. "Ohhhh shit!" Psi whispered, and then only the wind on the windows deigned to fill the silence.