Chapter Three

"She is the first now," said the one.

"Yes, maybe she will be of the more compliant type," said the second.

"She has not come to know her powers yet," said the third.

"She does not know her own nature," said the second.

"If she doesn't come to her powers naturally," began the first.

"We will have to force them upon her," finish the second.

"That is what killed the first," said a fourth.

"We did not wait long enough," said the first.

"We should wait longer," said a fifth.

"There is talk of the anomaly among the rebels," said the second.

"We must have at least one assassin ready," said the third.

"There is always talk of the anomaly among the rebels," said the fourth.

"This time they believe they've found it," said the second.

"They always think that," said the fifth.

"This time they have a subject, and we know who he is," said the first.

"Then why do you not go after him?" asked the fourth.

"We already have a team on the case," the third responded.

"It sounds to me like you are accepting defeat," said a sixth, who had just walked up.

"We can only do so much, and too much is not a problem," said the first.

"What of the other ones?" asked a seventh.

"We will leave them to themselves," answered the third.

"They are solid program," said the second.

"The first two were created from humans," hissed an eighth.

"The other two hundred forty are programs," said a ninth.

"Do we know if they will come into their missions soon?" asked the sixth.

"No, we do not," said the first.

"What do we know about the first two?" asked the eighth.

"They are partly human," said the first.

"They have emotions and attachments," said the third.

"They can write their own codes," said the fourth.

"And they can plug them into the Matrix," said the sixth.

"They can change the Matrix?" asked the fifth.

"No, but they can change certain codes," said the seventh.

"What does that mean?" asked the first.

"They could give themselves wings," said the tenth, who had just walked into the room.

"They can fly?" asked the other men.

"No. But they can create things that will fly for them," said the tenth.

"Can they re-write programs?" asked the first.

"Yes, but barely. They can only change a few symbols," said the tenth.

"Will they be able to do what the anomaly will be able to do?" asked several men.

"No, but they will be a fair match," said the tenth.

"Then why do we only have one of these super-beings?" asked the sixth.

"Because they are still only human," said the fourth.

"What can the programs do?" asked several men.

"They can take over humans," said the fifth.

"They can open any door," said the ninth.

"They can hear through three feet of steel," said the eighth.

"They can write codes," began the first.

"And insert them into the Matrix," finished the second.

"Which is superior?" asked the sixth.

"We are," responded the men.

-}^^#~@~#^^{-