Chapter Three: Upgrades
Jackson gasped and dropped to his knees. There was suddenly a searing pain in his back. He felt his skin stretching and breaking. There was a ripping sound, and wings shot out of the former Agent's body. Jackson glanced down at his hands and saw his immaculate fingernails lengthening into sharp, deadly claws. He felt a pleasant, burning sensation in-between his lungs. He coughed and fire shot out of his mouth, scorching the ground below Jackson lifted up his left hand and clenched his fist.
The Merovingian reached down to help him up.
"Well," the Exile began, "you must choose a new name."
Jackson thought for a moment, and then it came to him.
"Lucifer."
He heard a slow, mocking clap, and in walked the last person Jackson had ever expected to see in the Chateau.
Seraph leapt up, shooting his feet out in opposite directions and kicking Lynx's guns out of her hands. He shot out his hand in a blow towards Lynx's head. She threw up her hand to block it and returned a lightening fast blow at the side of the Guardian's head.
He blocked the blow and shot his left foot out to her stomach. His kick connected with her injury, and Lynx's eyes watered in pain. She dove over Seraph and landed behind him. Whirling around, she blocked a blow from the man and kicked out at his knee, connecting with a solid crunch. Seraph flipped over backwards and she dove after him, swinging her fist into his jaw. He shot his palm into her chest and shoved her backwards.
She ducked behind the remains of one of Phoenix's practice targets. Seraph's fist shot through the stomach of the replica and she stepped on it, using his arm as a brace and jumping into the air above his head.
Voyd watched the screens in amazement. Lynx's code was glowing furiously. Voyd had never seen her move so fast and hit so strong. He watched her continued fight against the Guardian with astonishment.
"Wow," he whispered almost silently.
"Mister Jackson…" Smith said in a drawling tone. Lucifer gazed at his former leader in astonishment.
"You are undoubtedly wondering how I am still here."
Lucifer nodded mutely.
"I was deleted. The anomaly managed to neutralize my code, through an old-fashioned process I was unprepared to defend against. That problem has been solved. And now I live for only one purpose."
"And what is that?"
"To destroy the anomaly."
Phoenix glanced over his hand and his eyes moved to Fallen Angel.
"Your play."
Fallen Angel looked up in irritation.
"I'm fully aware of that. Now if you would just wait for twenty seconds past your diminutive attention span then maybe I could get some thinking accomplished!"
Phoenix smirked. Fallen Angel selected a card and placed it down on the pile. He dropped his hand to the ground. "I win."
Phoenix cursed.
"Not again!"
Voyd ran in.
"Hey, guys, stop the games for a moment. There's a situation."
Lynx aimed a double kick at Seraph's head. Seraph blocked her blow with his arms and flipped over backwards. The two combatants landed at the exact same time and squared off into fighting stances.
Seraph relaxed his stance and bowed.
"Good. This way."
Lynx blinked a few times behind her shades. What?
She gave a mental shrug and walked after the man. Seraph led her to a door in the adjoining room. He opened it, revealing a white hallway with many green doors. Lynx stepped through the portal and shut the door behind her.
Voyd jumped in his seat. "Where'd she go?"
"They're marooned," Morpheus observed. The Nebuchadnezzar slowly approached the powerless Gnosis. Phoenix slowly set the hovercraft down next to the ruined ship.
"Let's move out," the captain ordered. Phoenix grabbed an EMP rifle from the gun case and followed the crew across. Morpheus led, slowly opening the hatch of the Neb and glancing around outside. He pressed the radio to his ear.
"Voyd?"
"Still clear, boss. You're good to go."
Morpheus jumped across the gap between the two ships. He opened the door on the Gnosis and walked inside. Phoenix came across after him, and Fallen Angel followed the rebel.
The crew spread out and began searching the corridors. Morpheus headed left, And Phoenix and Fallen Angel walked down the right passageway.
It was Morpheus, however, that finally found the crew.
Rabbit sat on his small bed, typing away on a laptop that was hooked into the main console of the Neb. Green coding spiraled down his screen, shifting form and position as he typed. From across the hall, Voyd looked over into the open room.
"What are you doing, anyway?"
"I've written my own Agent program," Rabbit said smugly. Voyd frowned and walked over.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Rabbit displayed his computer screen. On it was an Agent, but instead of the business suit and glasses, this Agent wore a fluffy pink tutu and wore star-shaped lenses. His hair was died neon green.
"What is that?"
"My Agent," Rabbit replied, hurt. "I call him Priscilla."
"Why'd you make an Agent?"
"I need to test out my new program on him."
"What?"
"I've written a program designed to destroy the Agents and other machine-controlled programs. I need a test subject."
Voyd stared in shock. A program that destroyed Agents…
"You know what this could mean?"
"No, I don't. I designed it just for the fun of constant frustration, 'cause I get my kicks from failure. Now leave me alone, I'm testing the program."
Rabbit typed in a command and hit send. Both the rebels stared anxiously at the Agent on screen, waiting for something to happen.
"Where are we?" asked Lynx, her voice echoing in the hallway.
"A programmer's back door," the Guardian answered. "These doors lead everywhere in the Matrix."
Lynx looked around her. "How does it work?"
"Each "door" inside the Matrix is in reality a piece of code. All that is needed to change the code's function for a brief amount of time is the correct program," Seraph answered, displaying a key he held in his hand. He put the key in a door and twisted it counterclockwise, opening the door to reveal a teahouse. Sitting at a table, sipping a cup of tea, was the Oracle.
"The recurring versions of the Matrix are becoming more and more flawed. In the first version, when I was newly activated, the anomaly barely lasted two weeks before we lured him to the Source and destroyed Zion. He made the choice, and was neutralized. In the second version, the anomaly almost made the wrong choice.
"Sensing a problem, the Architect rewrote the emotions program once again. The third cycle went off without a hitch. The fourth cycle was a little rocky – an Agent was almost killed – but we defeated the rebellion once again.
"Then came the fifth version of the Matrix. A rebel who called himself "Raven" took down an Agent. The Architect revamped the entire Matrix program in order to make us stronger and more indestructible. It was a disaster. The Mainframe crashed, and we lost entire crops of humans. Power was lost for days, and the rebels wiped out a large portion of our army. However, in the end, we put them down, as always.
"But now they have killed an Agent again, me! I fought against the Source, and was allowed to stay. I pulled myself free of the Mainframe, just as you did here. And now, I am free."
"Welcome back, Lynx," said the Oracle smiling. "Please, have a seat."
Lynx sat. The Oracle smiled again.
"I still remember last time you were here, just after Niobe unplugged you. You were young, headstrong, very determined, and very foolish. You have grown in many ways since then. Now you have become a true fighter."
Lynx gradually grew uncomfortable under the Oracle's examination.
"Why - "
"Are you here?" finished the Oracle. "Simple. Neo is need in the outside world right now, and I need to get him a message. The time has come. The endgame draws near, and unless you rebels can do something to stop it, all will be lost."
They lay in the galley, dead. Five crew members, three men and two women, lay face down one the floor, no marks on their bodies. Morpheus knelt down by one female, a yellow-haired woman, and turned her over. She stirred, and Morpheus jumped backwards.
Morpheus spoke into his radio again.
"Voyd, have Neo and Trinity bring a stretcher over here. One's still alive!"
Phoenix examined the black box in the command bridge more closely.
"It looks like some sort of machine, but I've never seen anything like this in our ship. What's it do?"
Fallen Angel shrugged.
"Beats me. Cut it open."
Phoenix slipped out his knife. He stabbed the box and dragged his knife along the edge, cutting the top off. He ripped the cover away, revealing complicated machinery. As he was doing that, Fallen Angel searched through the ship's records.
"Hey, I found the ship's log!"
"What's it say?"
Fallen Angel put it on the screen.
00:52:34
Today we lost Ice. The meeting was ambushed, and she failed to get out alive. The funny thing was Digit never saw her die. We don't know how it happened.
No one knows what to do next. We've been ordered back to Zion, but no one knows exactly where to go. We've decided to put out a radio call for assistance.
05:34:24
Are call was answered by a Sentinel we destroyed it, but not before it got off a radio message. We must flee.
12:45:23
We found the wreckage of another ship, the Hammer. Exploring inside it, Pandora found a black box in the bridge. There was no sign of the crew anywhere. We brought the box back with us.
17:56:57
Pandora decided to open the box. When she did
"When she did what?" asked Phoenix.
"It cuts off there," answered Fallen Angel.
Phoenix examined the box he had opened.
"This must be Pandora's mysterious box then."
Fallen Angel looked up in horror. "And you just opened it."
A red light went on inside the box, and a loud, rapid beeping sound filled the bridge.
Priscilla stood there on the screen, looking around. Suddenly, a red spot appeared on his arm. He glanced down in agitation and touched it. It spread to his finger, leaping up his other arm and to his shoulder. He cried out in surprise.
The virus spread over the Agent's body, until the program was covered in the mysterious red substance. Black cracks appeared throughout the Agent's body, and he suddenly collapsed into pieces, falling to the floor.
Voyd and Rabbit stared.
"It worked," Voyd said shakily.
Rabbit seemed unsurprised.
"I wrote it, after all."
"And so now we come to a crossroads in fate," the Oracle continued. "For it is the time of the humans. I believe we are closer than any other rebellion has been - "
The Oracle paused and glanced up at Lynx, as if in fear. Lynx shrugged mentally.
A male voice interrupted from behind them.
"You always were a dreamer."
Lynx turned her head to see a tall, bald-headed man dressed in white robes. A beard covered the man's chin, stretching down to his chest. He walked with support of a staff. His black eyes swept over the room, taking in the three occupants. His eyes lingered on Lynx for a moment.
He stepped forward. "Greetings, Prophet." The Oracle said calmly.
Do not try to bend the spoon, that is impossible. Only instead-
"Try to realize the truth."
"What are you talking about?" Lynx asked.
Pain.
That was what Pandora noticed first, the pain. It singled her reawakening into the world of the real. There was a sea of blackness and pain, in which Pandora felt herself floating. She pushed upwards, past the pain and blackness, into a world of confusing light and sound.
"Hold her, she's coming up!"
Her eyes opened. A black man – the legendary Morpheus – was examining the readouts on the medical table. A black-haired woman knelt down besides her, holding her hand and sticking a needle in. And to Pandora's left – a man she recognized very well.
Neo. The One.
"How do you feel?" he asked her kindly.
She thought for a second.
"It hurts."
The Oracle shot a cautionary look at the Prophet. She opened her mouth to speak, but Seraph laid his hand on her shoulder.
"It is time."
The Oracle got up and headed to one of the doors. As Seraph opened it for her, she glanced back over her shoulder at the Prophet.
"Now is not yet the time for your truth."
She looked over to Lynx.
"Give Neo this message: He must reach the Source. Nothing else matters. When he reaches the Source, the path of the One ends. And so will the war."
The Oracle left the room.
The old door swung open, creaking on its rusty joints. The Key Maker looked up from his ceaseless work to see the shadow of the Merovingian fall across the opening to his small cell. He walked in, flanked by his two bodyguards. The Key Maker got up from his bench and faced his captor boldly.
"Your escape attempt failed," the Merovingian stated simply. "And it has been suggested that your continued existence is a threat to the stability of our little retreat."
"We do only what we are meant to do," said the Key Maker calmly.
"And you are meant for only one thing," the Merovingian replied. "Deletion."
Twin One brought his gun up, pressed it to the head of the Key Maker, and pulled the trigger. Two knelt down and examined the body, pulling a golden key from around the corpse's neck. He handed it to the Merovingian.
The Prophet sighed. "I have been instructed not to reveal all to you. But the Oracle is correct. Neo must go to the Source. Give this to him."
The Prophet handed Lynx a slightly bent spoon. Lynx smiled. He walked to a door and turned the knob, revealing the back doorway again. He stepped through.
The door on the opposite side of the room swung open as the door shut behind the prophet. Through the door stepped the figure of an Agent Lynx had never seen before.
Pandora sat on the edge of the medical table, holding her head. Morpheus passed her an aspirin and a cup of water. "What happened?" The captain asked her.
Pandora swallowed the pill and took a gulp of her water, then began speaking in a trembling voice.
"We found the Hammer. It was completely…completely destroyed. No one alive. We also found a black box inside. We brought it back to the ship to see what it did. I decided to open it, and when I did - "
She choked briefly, swallowed, and continued. "When I did, a horde of Sentinels found us. They threw a bomb at our ship and knocked us off course. Everyone died in the crash, except me."
The light beamed brighter, and the beeps increased in volume and frequency. Fallen Angel dropped the box and ran through the door, leaping across the gap between the two ships, Phoenix hot on his tail.
He rushed into the medical bay.
"Morpheus, we need to leave now. I opened some box, and I've got the worst feeling that - "
Pandora gasped.
"Get out of here, Morpheus, or we'll all die."
"Miss Hawkins, nice to finally meet you at last."
Lynx kept her guns pointed at the newcomer.
"Who are you?"
"You do not remember me? I'm hurt, Miss Hawkins."
It dawned on her. "Smith? You?"
"Me, me, me," the Agent answered. Lynx turned to run, but the door behind her opened and another Agent…Smith!...stepped through.
"Me too," he said.
Voyd stared. "Run, Lynx, run!"
Lynx opened the third door and ran out into the sprawling megacity that was the Matrix. She heard the sound of Smiths running behind her. A third Smith appeared ahead of her, firing a pistol. She dove over the bullet, rolled, and continued running. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed her ship.
"There's an exit at Franklin and Jefferson. Can you make it?"
Lynx glanced around her.
"Maybe."
"Good luck. And hurry. Out."
Fallen Angel slid into the driver's seat and powered the ship up. Phoenix dropped down into the gunner's seat. The Neb lifted off and shot out of the cavern, just as Sentinels flew in the other side.