Title: Downloaded: Chapter Two
Author: Stormhawk
Rating: PG
Notes: Nope.
Word Count: 2282
Please Read and Review.
For a moment there was nothing but blackness, the only light was coming from the holo-player, there was a click as Grady pressed pause and twisted a different dial to turn the lights back up.
"She's still here!" he almost screamed.
The Tavis did scream, again and went running around the room. Nevin's face split into a wide grin as he went to stop his friend from hurting himself. Then he too started to run around the room before collapsing into a nearby chair.
"It's all really real," Grady said. "Oh my god I don't believe it. I hope I'm not dreaming."
Stef leant over and pinched him. "You're not dreaming. You didn't have a problem a minute ago, why now?"
"Fine, I'm not dreaming. Then again, how would I know the difference between the dream world…?"
"Don't quote Morpheus or I will kill you."
"Sometimes when we've been up for a lot of hours without sleep we see things that aren't really real. Nevin thought he saw Greer once. The Matrix is real," he squeaked like a little girl.
"I'm trapped in a house with three obsessed fan-boys, this is marginally better than Jonas' lab."
Tavis knelt down and started to bow. "We are your humble slaves, do with us whatever you will. I do mean whatever," he said as he leant his forehead on her shoes.
"Please get up you're embarrassing yourself."
"Marry me please," he begged with puppy dog eyes. She stifled a giggle.
"She'll injure you Tavis," Grady said from the kitchen as he threw a bag of popcorn into the Nuke1500. Taking only twenty seconds it was only just slower than requiring some.
"Please? We worship the digital ground you walk on. You're real, it's all real!"
"Please stop shrieking like a little girl." Tavis nodded, pouted dejectedly and got up.
"Can we watch the movie?" Nevin asked.
"Press play," Grady said as he carried a huge bowl of popcorn in. Nevin pressed play and the projector whirred to life again.
The green words filled the blackness. Then two voices were heard.
"Trinity," she muttered as she recognized the voice.
"And the guy is Cypher," Tavis filled in.
"Who?"
Nevin laughed, "She doesn't know who Cypher is. Don't spoil it for her."
"Who are they talking about?"
"Neo…uh…Anderson," Tavis corrected himself.
"Shut up guys, just let her watch it."
"Thanks," she said sarcastically.
"Lieutenant, you were given specific orders…""He's human, they never listen."
"Recruits do," Grady argued.
"They're different."
"Are there any agents?""Yeah Trin, three of them."
She watched as Jones started to chase the rebel across the rooftop. "Kill her Jones, kill Jones, get her!"
"He doesn't."
"Shut up Tavis."
"Ug, Anderson," she said as the projection showed his sleeping form.
"Well this movie is about him," Nevin reminded her.
Wake up Neo…Grady paused it. "Did that happen to you?"
"What?"
"Well, you were going to become a rebel. How did it happen?"
"Not like this."
"She quoted Switch."
"Huh?"
"Nevin, the lady-agent is talking."
"Lady-agent? Whatever. I used to live on the net, used to haunt boards and stuff. Then one day I got this private message on my site's guest book that said. 'Is this the truth or…or wills c real. Find it to find the truth.'"
"Or wills c real?"
"I figured it was some kind of weird joke. I almost deleted it but I was bored so I tried to figure it out."
"Obviously you did, what is it?"
"Or wills c real, Lewis Carroll."
"Alice in Wonderland. I sent the answer back to whoever it was. Then a FedEx guy showed up with a phone."
"We know the rest."
"We are the first ones who know how you almost become a rebel. We have to tell the world."
"Jonas would know, if he finds out…"
"Then we'll put it on FFW. I doubt he reads all the stuff on there."
"FFW?"
"Fan fiction dot web."
"You're kidding right."
"No, why?" Tavis asked.
"Cause in my world it's fan fiction dot net."
"Dot net, that is so old," Grady said.
"Sorry Grady, it can't be 2063 everywhere."
"I know but still that seems ancient to us."
"Hey, maybe it's the same interface, or still like it," Nevin suggested as he jumped off the couch and clicked it up on his computer. Taking a swig from his drink that he had left sitting there since dinner he set it down. The other three came up behind him.
"Damn!" he screamed, "the server's down," getting unreasonably angry he threw his can of drink against the wall, hitting the Spyder full on, the blue, arachnid-shaped device fizzed once and slid down the wall. He stared in horror, "did I just do that?"
Tavis dove behind the desk and retrieved it; the sticky soda had seeped into and was frying the circuitry. "You little idiot," Tavis screamed as he dropped the dead machine and charged at his friend. Gripping his shoulders, he screamed, "You killed the Spyder!"
"I didn't mean to," he said as he tried to squirm free. "Honestly."
Stef swallowed – this was bad, "can't you just buy another one?"
"Yes, yes we can. Also the moon is made of green cheese, Neo is your older brother and Zion means 'puppy dog'" Grady answered sardonically, he looked at Tavis. "Can I kill him?"
"Go ahead, we'll throw the body in the river." Tavis sounded deadly serious.
"Why can't you buy a new one? It's just a modem."
"No it's not Stef, it's a Spyder – much more advanced. It took us six months to save up for it, even then we had to borrow money from Tavis' granddad."
"Can you get it fixed?"
"No, this circuitry's completely screwed."
"Oh hell no, no friggin' way. It can't be wrecked; you have to get me back onto Jonas' server. I cannot get stuck out here."
"We'll find some way to get you back in."
"You'd better," she threatened, there was no need to add anything to it. They knew exactly what she was capable of.
"We could try that old modem you've got stuck in the crate."
"That thing? It runs at 411 kb/s, that is so slow."
"411 kb/s? Shit that's fast."
"Not out here, Spyders deal in megabytes. What's the fastest modem in your world?"
"Most everybody uses a 56k." That earned gales of laughter from the three fan boys.
"Man that is so old," Nevin said as he crashed onto the lounge, holding his stomach before it exploded from laughter.
"So can we use that other modem?"
"We can try, but don't expect any miracles." Nevin slunk out of the room to retrieve the ancient piece of technology.
"I don't belong out here. This is Jonas' world, and for the love of god Carol is out here."
"I told you didn't I?" Tavis said jumping up and down on the spot. "Caroline Whitehall is Carol Whitman."
"Maybe he just based her on her."
"Whitehall?" Stef asked, if anything that was a lame new name.
"His girlfriend. She's on holiday with him."
"Good. Personally I really don't like being within a light-year of her. Girlfriend?" Stef snorted. "Do you know how unlikely that is? We're just code to him, he's going to use her and delete her or chuck her back into the mainframe. I know Jonas too well."
"He did make Stevie's file for you," Nevin said quietly as he walked back out with a red circular object with a uni-cord attached.
"And this is obviously the price, turn my world into a lie."
Nevin shut his trap and plugged the modem into his computer, resetting the settings and installing the old drivers he waited for it to dial up. Instead of the standard tones or even a recognizable form of them they played out to the tune of 'O Fortuna'
"I wish my modem did that."
"56k's don't do that? What sounds do they make?" Tavis asked.
"Didn't you ever listen in school?"
"No, only IT – you were the only one who wanted to take history, we did it cause we're your friends. If they had of taught us about obsolete tech in IT I would have listened but Mrs. Stowe is the worst teacher in history."
"Obsolete tech?"
"It's not meant as offence. But why are you complaining? You use the agency computers."
"Is it going to work or not?"
"Nevin?" Grady asked.
"No dice, the message board is only halfway through loading. I can't even get Geo-search to run."
"We'll have to scratch that idea then."
"Well Grady I hope you have a back-up plan."
"We could take the Spyder to Gadget – he might be able to fix it, he rebuilt my computer twice."
"Stay out of this Nevin. You're the one who caused this mess in the first place."
The sharp-featured boy jumped to his feet, his face was beet-red. "You think I did it on purpose or something?" he practically yelled. "I just got angry that the FFW page wasn't working. You think that I could ever mean to screw up this badly?"
"Ok!" Tavis shouted as the boy's rant got louder and louder. "That doesn't matter now, what matters is that it happened. Jonas is coming back in three weeks, we need to get it sorted out by then."
"Three weeks? If Gadget can't fix it then we will have to win the lotto or rob a bank or something."
"How much are they?"
"Money works differently these days, um…I think it would be the equivalent of two thousand dollars judging by what I know about your time period."
"Two grand?"
"No dial-up fees, only an annual fee of one hundred dollars for the satellite access, it's worth it in the long run."
"Ok."
"Plus it lets you hack into the higher security systems."
"Shut up Tavis, I only hack what's worth it. Like JonasLabs."
"What exactly were you expecting to find when you hacked the server?"
"Not the source codes, that was the biggest bonus of all time. Trailers, deleted scenes, stuff like that."
"Deleted scenes?" Stef asked gritting her teeth, counted to ten. "Don't mind me, you'd feel the same way if this happened to you."
"We didn't expect to find you, or to find out that the Matrix is real, don't scream Tavis, it's getting on my nerves. I mean, how would you feel if you found out that middle-earth was real?"
Stef smirked and jerked her head at Tavis, "probably act like him."
"Then you forgive us?"
"Probably, just as long as you get me back on Jonas' server before he finds out. That wouldn't be good for anyone."
"Don't we know it, Jonas has great PR but there's rumors on street level."
"Like what?"
"That anyone who messes with him…disappears. There was this guy, Tim Annerly who kind of turned up dead and he was an old employee."
"He's dead? Cool."
"How do you know him?" Nevin piped up in a small voice.
"Nevin, I am not talking to you." She said with a glare down at him.
"Ok Stef."
"I met him when I was out here the first time. I'm not sorry he's dead."
"Then there was Phelan Maat…"
"Phelan? What do…he's dead too?"
"Broke right into the heart of Jonas' lab. He was murdered in his jail cell, could be unrelated though."
"Shit! That was my fault – well Jonas'…but me, he helped me get back home. Shit!"
"Phelan is Peter," Tavis said with his eyes wide.
"Who?"
"Jonas must use a search and replace program so that every time you say a name from the real world we hear it or see it if it's another person so that the audience doesn't catch on."
"He's the worst kind of combination, a psychotic ego-manic, uber-genius."
"Let's go see Gadget before he goes out."
"Who is this guy anyway?" Stef asked as Grady shut the projector down.
"I'd say Mouse but you wouldn't get that yet. Um…brilliant, scarily so actually. Lives in computers, addicted to the web and can fix almost anything."
"Except soda-ruined Spyders."
"One more word Nevin and we leave you behind," Grady threatened.
"I'll be good, I promise."
"Ok, then let's go," Stef said walking toward the door.
"Stop, stop, stop," Grady said grabbing her by her arm. "Not yet, a couple of things first."
"Like what?"
"Backup battery for the holo-disc, I'm not sure how long that one will last. And not wearing just that."
"What's wrong with my clothes?"
"We need to hide the disc and we can't do that with what you're wearing. Tavis go grab one of my coats." Tavis nodded and disappeared into Grady's room.
"From what I know they're lots of holograms out there."
"Yeah…that doesn't mean anything. Holograms are disposable…programs aren't people out here, you get a holographic worker walking along the street and it's not beyond stupid school kids to break their disc."
"Kill them?"
"Yeah Stef, we don't want that happening to you."
"Here, this should fit," Tavis, said handing her a gray jacket. Pulling it on she zipped it up, hiding the disc inside.
Nevin raised his hand, afraid to speak without being asked first. "Yes Nevin?" Grady asked.
"Uh…there's still one problem."
"Which is?" Stef asked as the short boy rose to his feet.
"Not to sound stupid but you're Stef Mimosa. Lots of people know who you are."
"I hate to say it but he's right." Stef sighed and looked around, grabbing three items from the table she pulled her hair into an ultra-short ponytail, slipped the sunglasses on and pulled the beanie down.
She was almost unrecognizable, "incognito enough?"
Nevin nodded, "it should work."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ok, I'll get started on Chapter 3.