Title: Downloaded: Chapter Three
Author: Stormhawk
Rating: PG
Notes: Nope.
Word Count: 2596
Please Read and Review.
"I'm impressed, not," Stef scoffed as they stopped outside of a run down warehouse. It was dragging on past midnight now but so far they hadn't run into any trouble.
"Wait till you see inside, it's not pretty out here but it's beautiful inside. Gadget just hates high rent bills and he got this on the cheap."
"Plus he needs all the space," Nevin piped up quietly.
"For what?"
Grady smiled, "you'll see." Knocking on the door they all stood back and waited.
And waited. About three minutes later a pair of running footsteps finally approached from the other side, unlocking it the metal door was slid open.
"Hey guys," Gadget said as he stepped out. "What can I do for…who is that?" He asked upon noticing Stef.
"Take it off," Tavis suggested so she pulled off the beanie and slipped off the sunglasses.
"Wow, where did you guys get a hologram of Stef?"
"I. Am. Not. A. Hologram."
Gadget looked at the trio, "huh?" was his intelligent answer.
Tavis grinned. "She's real, it's all real. It's…" the rest of his sentence was obscured by Stef's hand clamped over his mouth.
"Don't scream again or I will hurt you."
"The matrix is real…right, ante up – who's the programmer. Grady you did not write anything this good and I doubt that you could have gotten into the JL server so tell me the truth."
"The programmer is Jonas, can we come in? It's freezing out here."
"Sorry Grady, come in…" Gadget said, "After you tell me the truth."
"He just did you idiot," Stef said.
"Did she just insult me?"
"Yes and don't talk about me in the third person cause I'm already pissed off."
Gadget blinked and Grady nodded, the young man made a strange noise and stumbled back before regaining composure, "I am so sorry – come in, come in, come in." He stepped aside and they all walked into the relatively dark warehouse, flicking some switches some fluorescent lights that looked like they hadn't been changed in fifty years flickered on. Elsewhere there were thin tubes of blue and green light illuminating several areas.
"Now," Gadget said raking his fingers through his shock-green (code green) hair and shaking his head. "The matrix is real?" Just as a precaution he pinched himself.
"Yes," Grady said blandly. "And we need your help."
He smiled, "I'll do anything."
Tavis leant over toward Stef, "our obsession is nothing compared to his."
"And I am extremely proud of it," Gadget said with a smile. "Why do you think my hair is this color."
"You were in an industrial accident?" Stef asked with a smirk.
"I'm a code addict," he said followed with what sounded like a demented pixie laughing. "Well, the closest I can come."
"He's on the message board, he's got over five thousand posts. Everyone else is pissed cause no one else has more than two thousand."
"And that was what I was doing before you showed up."
"Have you got a Spyder?" Stef asked thinking of something apparently no one had. Then again, she was good at that.
"Nope, why waste the money."
"It's not a waste of money," Nevin objected.
"Then what do you use? Their 411 was useless."
"I use ten 411's networked so it's faster than a Spyder."
"Well that should work shouldn't it? You could get me back in that way."
"What happened to your Spyder?" Gadget asked and Nevin produced a padded carry bag, unzipping it he handed the ruined piece of technology over to Gadget.
"Who's the moron who did this?"
Nevin flushed bright pink but the other three pointed anyway. The short boy looked up, "Can you fix it Gad?"
"What is this?" he asked as he rubbed two sticky fingers together.
"Sub-T cola."
"You idiot. You should know it instantly screws the circuitry."
"And if you can't fix it they're going to kill me and dump my body in the river."
"It's nothing less than you deserve," Stef said coldly.
"I. Didn't. Mean. To. I already feel guilty enough."
"Good. Don't you think that Jonas will figure out that I'm missing? What, am I supposed to knock on his door and tell him that…?" She felt bad for exploding, stopping she held out her hand. "Truce?"
He nodded, "I'm sorry," he mumbled as he shook her hand. Immediately most of the tension flew out of the room.
"Back on topic, no you can't use my system to hack back in."
"Why not?" Tavis asked.
"Grady will understand this," Gadget said as he put the Spyder on a workbench. "Fine my system is faster than yours but it's like ten hands working to achieve one goal, for major hacks like the JL server you just need one really strong hand, the Spyder connection."
"Great, any chance in hell you can fix it?"
"For you, my dear agent," Gadget said, bowing low and kissing her hand, "I would turn myself into a snowball and go to hell."
"He's scaring me," she whispered to the trio then giggled.
"But my lady, I am serious," he rose and placed he Spyder under some kind of scanner, sitting at his computer, he moved his hand over a small mouse-pad sized mat that glowed a strange blue. The screensaver flicked off and the cursor followed the movement of his index finger.
The wallpaper was a still image of Matrix code. Pausing and looking up at her, "what does the hell does that represent?"
She looked at it. "City street, night, drunk man, quarter moon." Gadget sighed happily then pulled up a diagnostic tool so he could look closer at the Spyder. The scanner the Spyder was under flicked to like and Stef flickered at the same time.
"Ok, no high voltage for you," Grady said gently pulling her back. "Or there won't be anything left to put on the server. Gadget?"
"Hmm?"
"We're going to use your holo-player."
"Ok," the nerd said – now at work he was completely lost in it. The foursome traipsed downstairs and into another room that had surround sound and a more advanced looking projector. Tavis slipped the disk in and chapter skipped until they were looking at Neo asleep in front of his computer again.
Skipping a minute or so it resumed play when his friends were knocking on the door.
*****
"Who was that?"
"Just a fan Carol, no reason to get jealous."
"I saw the way you looked at her," she said as he opened the door to the room and carried their bags through.
"I wasn't looking at her that way."
"Don't cheat on me Jonas."
But Carol, he thought, you're just a program. A slow smile spread across his face, turning and locking the door he moved the bags into the next room.
"Don't ignore me."
"Carol I turn you off as I easily as I can turn you on." And he meant the latter in both ways. Sighing, and knowing both halves of his comment were true she unzipped one of the bags and rummaged around for her bathing suit. No sense in wasting a five-star paradise trapped in a domestic argument that she couldn't win anyway.
Behind her back he smiled smugly, he loved the power he had over her. But he had a role to play, and he was good at it. Crouching behind her he placed his hands on her thin shoulders, "don't be upset Carol, you know there's no one else but you."
"Even though I'm a program."
"That doesn't matter to me." And neither do you, not really anyway – you're just fun to have around.
She turned and smiled at him, "really?"
"Yes really," he said as he slid his hands up her thighs and up into her shirt.
"I forgive you then."
Two hours later.
Carol was lying in the sun, thanks to all the modifications and inventions Jonas had made she was able to feel the warmth of the sun as clearly as she had been when she had been…
Been what? He brain asked her suddenly. Been alive? Been back in the Matrix? Been human? She'd never been human, a fact she was only reminded of everyday. Especially when Jonas would push a cord into the space where her heart would be to top up the battery. At least it was below her skin, the disc system that allowed her to exist out here, it wasn't blatantly obvious like the rest of the holograms out here.
"Unnatural!" someone screamed. Opening her eyes and pushing her sunglasses up she saw a small group of humans dogging a holo-worker. The unaware waiter was just doing its job by serving drinks. Holding back a shudder she watched.
The humans grabbed the tray from the waiter's hand and threw it aside, the waiter – programmed to ignore persons such as these – simply knelt and starting picking up the shards of glass.
A tall man kicked the hologram that looked like a twenty-something young man with brown hair in the same outfit as the human workers and he rolled onto his back. The others joined in; some of the patrons got up to do something but were stopped by the tall man's speech.
"They're nothing, it's nothing but a piece of technology, would you be reacting this way if I were beating your toaster?" One of his friends helped him pick up the waiter and together they threw him into the pool. There was a fizz a moment after he hit the water and a small plume of black smoke after he sank. There was no body and his disc sank slowly to the bottom of the pool.
Carol was scared, for the first time in a very long time she was scared. Out here she was just a hologram, just like the man who had just been murdered. No, maybe it wasn't truly alive like her but it still had a right to live.
"That's what's going to happen to all of them!" the anti-hologram group shouted as security dragged them away.
Suddenly, this paradise was a lot less inviting then it had been when they first arrived. Climbing to her feet, she slipped her sandals on and all but ran back to their room.
Jonas was still lying in the bed, but he had turned the TV on and had ordered a drink. He smiled as she walked in.
"Too hot out there?" he asked with a grin.
"I want to go home."
"We just got here," he said indignantly as he clicked the TV off.
"I know. Arthur, please, I don't want to stay here."
"Too many guys staring at you? It's the outfit."
"It's nothing to do with that." Her tone stopped him and for the first time he looked up at her with something that almost approached worry.
"What is it?"
"It was one of those anti-hologram groups…it was just a waiter but…it could have been me."
"No, you don't show up like a hologram, I'm not stupid."
"Please can we go?"
"We'll lose the grand deposit. And it means we'll be stuck back in the city instead of out here. Sun, surf, sand, you and me – it sounds like fun doesn't it?"
"If you don't come with me I'll go by myself."
"Fine. You can catch the next plane."
"You're not coming with me?"
"I deserve this vacation Carol, I work my ass off everyday, you just laze around."
"You never had to live my life Jonas, do not judge me!"
"Your dog died when you were four, your cousin at seven. You had your first smoke at twelve, first drink at fifteen. First…close relationship…on your eighteenth birthday, you stayed with him for the next few years, he never popped the question then he left one day, you didn't know it but he'd joined the rebels. Having nothing else to do with your life you started looking around and found the signs that led you to almost become a rebel. Instead you became a recruit, then your little boyfriend shot you – he killed you Carol, just cause you were wearing a suit – he never really cared about you anyway. Then you had the whole back from the grave thing thanks to dear Agent Smith, but you didn't come back right, something was wrong. And it wasn't the system, I've checked that – it was you, you were the one who cracked, none of it was their fault. Then you were really stupid and tried to kill everyone, that didn't work so well cause you got deleted. But that didn't work either so for fifty-four years you were floating around the system, then you woke up and tried to do it all again. That really didn't work, you had enough left of you to imprint your sequel with evil then I brought you out here."
"Don't I have any secrets?"
"No, not a one."
Carol just stood there, feeling open and almost violated; he had stated her entire life without feeling. "But if you want to go home, that's where we'll go. You can go on a spending spree and I'll have some fun with the simulations."
*****
"I," Stef said through fits of laughter, "am never going to be able to keep a straight face during an interrogation again."
"Wait until the virus speech later," Grady said a grin, "it's even better."
"Don't you feel bad for laughing at him?" Tavis asked.
"No, plus he doesn't know I'm laughing at him so it all works out."
"Do you ever want to tell him?" Nevin asked quietly. "About all this?"
"The real, real world? All the time."
"Then why don't you?" Gadget asked as he walked into the room.
"I just don't, I don't know why but I just think it's the right thing to do."
"How's the Spyder?"
"No dice but I'm open to suggestions."
"No one works well being web deprived, who's up for random posting?" Grady asked.
"What about the movie?"
"It's not going anyway Tav, neither is Stef for a while so let's show her the board. You want to see it?"
"Sure," she agreed and they made their way back upstairs, beyond the few computers that Gadget worked on at once was a room with half a dozen computers in it. Hanging on the wall was another set of ten linked 411 kb/s modems.
"Do you collect those or something?"
"Yes Stef, I do. They are obsolete tech so they're easy to find. I have many other impressive collections if I may say so."
"Only if you stop acting strange when you talk to me."
"It is done. I've got a crate of CD's; no one has used them in twenty years. I've got one hundred and twenty floppy disks, do you have any idea how hard they are to find?"
"I can guess for out here."
"Here we go," Tavis said having pulled up the board. Sitting at the computer next to him she balked at the window in front of her, it wasn't quite the same as what she was used to. The back/forward/home/stop/refresh buttons were on the side and the address bar was down the bottom and they would all hide themselves when not in use. There was no file/edit/view/etc menu. There was a button on the keyboard for that.
Writing the address into the bar she had managed to make stay there by turning the auto hide off she only had to wait a few seconds before the homepage popped up.
Tavis adopted a Morpheus-like pose, "welcome…to the message board."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hey guys (you know who I'm talking to) I'm going to let them surf around the board for most of the next chapter so I'll need your messages/posts/topic suggestions for Chap 4.
Talk to me on the real message board.