After choosing our weapons, the Twins, Smith, Neo, and I were soon outside meeting Niobe, Morpheus, Ghost, and Trinity. The silver car holding our newest allies drove up and stopped beside the sidewalk. After setting eyes on the Twins, Trinity turned to get back into the car she had come out of, but Morpheus quietly persuaded her to get back out. I turned to look at the Twins as Trinity walked up to us. One was eyeing her as she walked past him. I couldn't see One's eyes for his glasses, but by the way his cheek moved I could tell that he gave Trinity a wink, which was followed immediately by a flirting kiss. Trinity's nose wrinkled in a cringing way as she tried to ignore him in the friendliest way possible.
"Neo, what's happened? And why are they here with us?" Trinity gestured toward the Twins.
One and Two shifted the machine guns they held hidden under their coats.
As Neo told the whole whacked out story to the new members of our little group, I walked over to the Twins. Two smiled at me as I stopped beside him. We held our gaze for a few seconds before I spoke.
"So, are you guys ready to go after Mero?"
"Yes we are." Two grinned, showing perfect white and straight teeth.
I looked up at the sky and noticed that it had a green tint to it. The Matrix certainly did have the real world. I shuddered at the thought of actually being inside a Matrix program.
"What's wrong?" Two asked as he noticed my shudder.
"It's just," I hesitated, "knowing that we're inside a Matrix program now. It scares me a little."
Two glanced at One then back at me.
"I know it doesn't bother you two because you live in it, but it does bother me—bothers me a lot." I placed my arms around myself to block out the chill of the October air.
"Don't worry, Angel, we'll get your world back to normal soon," Two placed his arm around my shoulders. "We promise."
Two drew me closer to him in a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his slick silver coat and closed my eyes. For the first time since everything had happened I felt safe. I opened my eyes and looked over at One. He stood silently and shifted his feet while looking around him, and then he turned to look at Two then at me. Could he have been jealous? As much as I hated to, I pushed my way out of Two's arms and walked over to One.
"Want a hug too?" I asked, smiling.
One stopped and looked at me while blushing.
"Uh, no that's ok." One cleared his throat and walked away from Two and me. I turned to Two and playfully punched his arm. He took his hand and ruffled my hair and before we both knew it, we were playfully punching each other and laughing. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see One. He had stopped a little ways away from us and was looking over his shoulder at us as if he longed to be playing with Two and me, but was too proud of what he was.
"Hey you three, we've got to go back in." I heard Neo shout.
After another trip into the weapons room, everyone was ready. Each of us wore a trench coat to hide the weapons we were carrying so as not to attract unwanted attention from the normal people around us. On top of that, we all wore sunglasses now. It felt so cool to be hanging out in Matrix clothes and hanging out with the characters themselves, even though I still didn't understand how they got into our world.
On the way back down the stairs, Neo's landlady met us.
"What's going on, Anderson?" she asked, adjusting her thick-rimmed glasses to focus us.
"Nothing," Neo cleared his throat. "Just having some company over, that's all. We're all going out for awhile." Neo threw a glance at the rest of us as he spoke.
"That's nice," The elderly lady smiled. When all looked good and we were about to go out the front door, she stopped us again. "Oh, by the way, Anderson, what was all that noise I heard awhile ago? It sounded like it was coming from your room."
"Uh, it was nothing. I just knocked over some stuff when I tripped and fell." Neo rubbed his head when he thought about the fall he took after being knocked over by Smith's rage.
"I thought she was going to go with us there for a second." Trinity breathed once we were outside.
"We're going to need another car." Neo turned to One who was already in the middle of typing out something on the laptop. Before our eyes, a green blob of code formed and from that it took the shape of a car before finally turning into one. It was a black mini van.
"Is that the best you can do?" Neo looked the van over. One shrugged.
"What more do you want? There's nothing else that'll hold all of us." One closed the computer.
"Except a boat," Two smirked.
"It'll have to do. We're running out of time." said Morpheus. All eyes turned to him. He pointed down the road where several black evil looking cars were quickly coming our way.
"Who are they?" Niobe asked as she adjusted her sunglasses.
"Don't know but I suggest we don't wait here and find out," Morpheus ran to the van and opened the side door. "Get in everyone. I'll go alone in the other car and try to throw them off so the rest of you can get to the Merovingian."
Everyone quickly piled into the small black van, Trinity, Niobe, and myself in the back seat. Neo, Ghost, and Smith found their places in the middle seats, and the Twins in the passenger and driver's seats.
"Someone take this thing." One shouted as he handed the laptop to whoever would take it behind him. Neo grabbed it to keep Smith from snatching it. The sound of bullets tore the air around us. It was the black cars. We watched as Morpheus revved up his car and sped off while taking a good amount of the black cars, in pursuit, with him.
"Good. It is going as planned." Ghost whispered. One started the van, pulled out, and started driving in the opposite direction from where Morpheus went with the enemy.
Not long after, though, we were met with some new friends.
"Where did they come from?" Niobe shouted over the chaos of One's driving as she stared out the window at the black cars following us.
"No idea!" One shouted back as he spun the van around and down a small street, hoping to lose the cars.
"Can you tell who's driving them?" Trinity asked anyone who'd answer.
"They look like Smith." Neo shouted back. All the while, Smith remained silent. Trinity, Niobe, and I ducked when several bullets tried to go through the back windshield, just a few inches away from the backs of our heads. Some thumps where heard at the side of the van where bullets hit it.
"Thank goodness for bullet proof glass." Ghost sighed as he saw us dive lower into the floor as bullets continued to try and break through the glass.
"One, keep this thing steady. I'm going to see if I can't pop off a few of them." Two said as he rolled down the passenger side window. Moving around in his seat, his back to the windshield, Two whipped back his silver coat and pulled out the machine gun he had been hiding and leaned out the side of the car.
"You want a piece of us? Eat this, creeps!" Two shouted out the window. Taking aim and gritting his teeth in an evil sneer, he pointed the gun at one of the pursuing cars and started firing.
"Good shot, Two!" I shouted after seeing one of the cars spin out of control and run into a light pole. One jerked the car to the left to keep from hitting a piece of the light pole (or was it a piece of the car?) that came raining down around us. Two fell back against the dashboard from the car being swerved to the side. Before Two had a chance to say what he felt like saying to his brother at that moment, he noticed One trying to get his attention.
"Two!" One shouted at his brother.
"What?" Two turned to One who motioned forward with his head. Two turned around to see several more black cars in front of us.
"Blast it! Where are they all coming from?" Two again leaned out the window, his silver dreadlocks flying in the wind, and started shooting at the ones in front. The bullets made holes all up the backs and sides of the cars, but they kept on going. A Smith clone in one of the cars leaned out of the window and took a few shots at us, the bullets cracking the front windshield. One jumped at the sudden impact of the bullets and swerved to the right to try and interrupt the agent's aim. A bullet from Two's gun stopped the persistent agent clone as One steered the van in a crazy zigzag fashion, trying to avoid slamming into the back of one of the enemy cars. The cars in front of us switched lanes, stopped suddenly, started up, slowed down, swerved back and forth, and did whatever else they could find to do to cause more confusion as if the flying bullets and fast speed wasn't enough.
"Why don't these guys learn how to drive?" One angrily said as he quickly swerved the van inches away from a major crash into one of the black cars.
"You think they're bad drivers?! What about you?" Two shouted before firing several rounds of bullets at the car we passed, succeeding in blowing out the driver's side window. Two laughed wickedly at his victory of shattering the window.
"I'm bad because they're the ones causing me to be that way!" One shouted back, continuing their conversation.
Beside me, Trinity turned around opened up the back window a little ways and stuck her gun out and started firing at the cars behind us. Neo suddenly jumped up and pulled open the side door.
"Neo! What are you doing?" Ghost shouted as he grabbed onto Neo's coat.
"I'm going to stop them!" Neo shouted back before jumping from the moving vehicle and disappearing somewhere. Ghost shielded his face as several bullets flew past the open door. After Neo was gone, Smith jumped up and across Ghost and leaned out the side of the van. Taking out his gun, he started to fire on some of the cars around us. For some reason, I didn't quite trust him. He acted like he had turned good, but I still had my doubts. He was too quiet since he turned to our side, as if he was planning something and was just acting good to play us along. I started to wonder if Smith was the cause of this ambush since Neo had said that the ones following us looked like Smith. He could have somehow duplicated himself without us knowing it and planned this attack to keep us from the Merovingian. I continued to keep my eyes on him as he took aim at the cars Trinity was firing at. Since everyone else was in on the action, Ghost decided to pull out one of his guns and open one of the side windows to see if he could succeed in knocking off a few cars himself. Out of nowhere, Neo suddenly jumped down on the front of a car that was trailing along beside us, his trench coat slowly rippling outwards behind him. In slow motion, almost like a dream, the car's front end started to dent in as if Neo weighed several hundred pounds. With a quick jump up, Neo disappeared and the car turned a flip forwards and rammed into the side of a building before blowing up and raining bits and pieces of debris everywhere. The impact of the explosion shook the van and the heat from it was felt coming in through the open side door. With a sharp turn, One quickly jerked the van down one last street before losing all the agent cars completely.
"Where are we?" Niobe asked after the long hard chase through town. It was about an hour later, but we finally lost the enemy cars that were filled with clones of Smith. Where Neo and Morpheus were, I couldn't say. They had gotten lost during the chaos of the highway showdown.
"We're here at the Merovingian's house." One softly answered.
Thoughts of the night when I found the Twins suddenly filled my mind as I looked around at that fancy neighborhood. It looked different in the daylight, but I still remembered it. There were the bushes I had hidden behind. My mind returned when Trinity got up and moved forward to get out of the van. Niobe followed then I got up and followed behind Niobe. I glanced over the side of the van at all the many bullet holes and dents then ran my eyes down to the smashed—or rather crushed—fender and shattered headlight. I had expected worse. That expectation came true after seeing the melted back end of the van where the enemy car's explosion had got too close for comfort.
"How are we going to go about this?" I asked. "Are we going to wait for Neo and Morpheus or go on inside?"
"I think we should go on in." said Niobe.
"I agree. It may be too late if we wait for Neo and Morpheus. They'll come when they finish off the other Smiths."
"C'mon, we can sneak around and surround the place." Ghost eagerly said.
"No, wait! The Mero has security cameras all over the area. He's sure to see us." said Two.
"He's right. It's a good plan, but the Mero will most certainly find out that we're here before we could do anything. The best possible thing would be to rush in and raid the place," One turned to Smith. "What's wrong with you?"
Smith didn't say a word.
"We're in the Matrix now so don't forget what you can do. Use every possible thing you can if an enemy comes toward you," Trinity said as she whipped out one of her handguns. "Is everyone ready?"
At that moment, clicking and chinking of guns could be heard all around as everyone pulled out what weapons they had hidden in their coats. I pulled out two handguns and readied them then checked the others that I still had in my coat to make sure I could get at them once the bullets ran out of the ones I held. Two walked up beside me while placing a fresh bullet clip in his faithful machine gun.
"At last, the moment I've been waiting for," Two grinned and chuckled. "Hey, Angel, whatever happens in there I want you to know that I'll be there to cover you whenever you need me." Two shyly and softly said while looking at the others.
I smiled.
"Thanks, Two." I said, patting his arm and walking forward, next to Trinity.
"We're ready." Ghost coolly said, holding his gun up beside his face.
"Alright, let's do it." Trinity cocked her gun and led the way.
