"So what's this mission?"

"Assignment," he corrected gently. "There is a computer college on the edge of the city. We have reason to believe that the rebels have taken interest in several of the students there. We need to discover which ones and dissuade them from joining the rebellion."

"When do I start?"

"Now," he said and the world disappeared. Her eyes goggled as it refocused and they were standing in the ground of a college.

"I'm going to have to get used to that," she muttered and looked up at which college it was. She suppressed a chuckle; this was one of the colleges she had actually been considering going to. She looked around at the night time college. There were still quite a few students walking around. "It could be anyone of them."

"They have taken an interest in the general populous as many of these students are hackers who are on the trail of the 'truth'."

"It won't be easy. Look at them, anything Morpheus says to them will draw them in. Freaks, geeks, losers, loners and hackers. He says what they want to hear."

"These people are a stereotype of most of the rebel population before they are taken into the real world."

She looked up at him, "what would have happened if I had taken the Red Pill?"

"You would have woken up in the real world in a pod. You would have been flushed from it once you were disconnected and a hovercraft would have found you. Then it is probable you would have gone to Zion if you survived the shock of the events."

"So my brain is here and my body is in a pod?" She said slowly, trying to comprehend it.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Why a pod? What's the deal?"

Smith sighed, a lot of times when recruits asked this question they had trouble handling the idea. Some had their memories erased and some, in rarer cases had been taken to mental hospitals.

"Are you sure you want to know this?"

"Sure." She said, "I want to know."

"You are a battery. Human beings are batteries. There was a war and the machines won. Human beings are efficient at producing bioelectricity so we take advantage of that. Humans are now grown in fields, the ones in the Matrix anyway, those who leave and become rebels spend the rest of what tends to be a short life as a rebel, entering and leaving this world by phones set up as entry and exit points."

She leant against the fence near them and was very quiet but wasn't that affected. "Recruit Mimosa?" He inquired.

"I'm ok. That kind of came out of left field but it makes sense. At least human beings are doing something useful for once." He gave her a questioning look. "Oh don't be so surprised, I detest human beings."

"Then shall we get on with the mission?"

She smirked, "actually I have an idea."

"You do?"

"To make all these guys avoid them like a virus."

"Really?"

"You got a picture of the rebels?"

"This is a computer simulation, you can have whatever you want."

"You didn't teach me that yet."

"Just clearly think the word 'require' and then the item which you require. It works with everything from photographs to brick walls."

She shook her head, "you really like brick walls don't you?" he didn't respond. She followed his instruction and in her hand appeared a photo with Morpheus and Trinity on it. "Perfect."

"If I may ask, what are you planning on doing?"

"Well, if this photo gets spread around with a good rumor behind it these guys will avoid the rebels like the Tag98 virus."

"This should be interesting, you can continue."

Stef smiled and held out her right hand. In it appeared a long leather jacket. His expression was clearly asking for an explanation, well it did look a great deal like something a rebel would wear.

"These suits might be standard issue, but they will avoid me like the Tag virus instead of the rebels. Hackers and suits don't mix."

She slipped off her Agent jacket and put her new one on. It was a perfect fit, she looked at her suit jacket and made it disappear.

She then walked off into the college ground. She found a guy sitting on the bottom of the stairs of one of the building, engrossed in a thick Batman comic.

"Mr. Bruce Wayne?" she asked to get on his good sign. He looked up at her.

"Can I help you?"

"Are you a hacker?"

"I don't think I should answer that question without a lawyer," he said, suspicious.

"Hey, back off Batman, I'm trying to give you a warning."

"How so?" She dropped the picture down to him.

"You see those two? They are part of this computer cop unit; undercover so we let our guard down. They claim to be Morpheus and Trinity but all they want to do is stick you in jail."

"How'd you get this?"

"Friend of mine. You want to keep it and show it around."

"Yeah, thanks. What should we do if we see them?"

"Don't talk to them and don't believe anything they say."

"Ok."

"Morpheus!" Tank yelled from his seat, after so much sleep depravation it was all worth it, he had found her. The older rebel came in.

"What is it?"

"I found the one that got away from you."

He sighed with relief, "good. Where is she?"

"The computer college on the edge of the city." Morpheus nodded and picked the intercom mike, he called down the engine room and told Trinity and Neo to get up there.

"We're all going in," he said.

"Ok Morpheus," Neo said as he nodded at Trinity. Morpheus put the mike back down.

"Sir?" Tank said.

"What is it?" he heard the not-so-good tone in his friend's voice. Tank shook his head, not saying anything and pointed to the monitor on his left, bringing up a clearer view of an area near their potential.

"Shit," Morpheus swore quietly. "We need to get in there now." There was an entrance less than a block from the college so they were there minutes after they arrived in the virtual world.

*****

Stef went back to Smith after she had finished her talk to 'Bruce'. She smiled, "I think the story is going to get around. I don't think many of these guys are going to want to trust the rebels after the story I told this guy."

But he was looking past her, "rebels," he spat. She turned and followed his gaze, picking the dark-clothed rebels from the night. Evidently they had come back for her. How nice after leaving me to die, she muttered in her brain.

Then she got another good idea.

"Point your gun at me," she said to Smith in a whisper.

"What?" he asked in total disbelief. If he had been human a thought similar to 'what the hell is she thinking?' would have been running through his head.

"They've obviously come back to 'rescue' me. Pretend like you're still trying to kill me." He complied with the new recruit's plan, drawing his gun and aiming it at her head. He was frankly surprised that she actually trusted him enough to let him point his gun at her when less than two hours ago he had really been going to shoot her in the head.

It was easy for Stef to pretend to be afraid. All she had to do was recall the gut-freezing fear from a little while ago. Though she hadn't done much drama in high school she was a good actress when called upon, maybe it was because she was a natural liar.

Some of the students who were returning to the campus or hanging around with their friends saw the agent raise his gun and therefore gave them cause to scream and run in terror because of a situation that had nothing to do with them. The rebels came upon the agent and their missing potential.

"Help!" Stef screamed to the rebels - and the general public. To Smith she started babbling inanely for her life. "Please, please don't shoot me. Oh god don't kill me!" Taking the charade where it needed to go, he took a step forward. He needed no practice or acting lessons, he had done this hundreds of time before, except in those cases he had all the intentions of killing the rebel.

Stef tripped on the uneven ground as he took another step toward her. He trained the gun down on her as she looked up at him, the rebels certainly were taking their time. "Goodbye," he said coldly as he went to pull the trigger. She saw someone jump into the air and knock him to the ground.

Someone else grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet as they sprinted across the college ground. She looked over her shoulder to see Morpheus and a tall thin man in a long black coat fighting Smith. Trinity was the one running with her and she was having trouble keeping up.

Speed in a fight wasn't as easy as running over uneven ground if you weren't prepared for it.

Morpheus managed to shoot Smith who left his host and morphed from one of the college lecturers. Instead of running back to immediately join the fight again he held back, wanting to see how well his new recruit handled herself. And how well she had thought this idea of hers out.

And, it was a rare recruit who survived a fight with Anderson.

***

Trinity finally stopped running about three blocks from the college ground. Stef looked around, acting like she had no idea what was going on. "Shouldn't you go back and help them? Who the hell was that guy anyway?"

Trinity gave her a suspicious look, "you mean he didn't say anything?"

"I remember being asked a bunch of questions and then I was here. It's kind of fuzzy," she lied. "Where are we going?"

"We need to get you out of the Matrix. It's not safe for you in here anymore, the agents know about you."

"Agents?"

"Ones like him. They are our enemies." Neo said as he and Morpheus came running up to them.

"Who are you?" She asked the stranger.

"My name is Neo."

For half a second her computer-nerd side took over and she looked up at him. "You're Neo?" Neo was another name among the great hackers of the time. Living legends.

Then the geeky innocence was gone. Legend? He was just another rebel. Trying to destroy the world. Another enemy.

"I am. We have to go now."

"Where? Where are you taking me?"

"I told you," Trinity said. "You have to get out of the Matrix." Then the group started to walk along. Soon, they came to an old and dilapidated building.

Going through to a back room it was pretty much the same set up as the room that the rebels had jumped from only hours before. There must have been dozens of these rooms across the entire city. If not the whole world. The only difference in this one was that the phone was ringing.

"I'll go out and tell Tank to be ready," Morpheus said as he picked up the ringing phone. Smith's words jolted her, about them using phones to enter and exit the Matrix. She whipped out her gun and fired at Morpheus. It was too late though, the bullets harmlessly going through his disappearing form.

The other two sets of eyes stared at her. "Traitor!" Trinity spat as she pulled out her gun.

"Recruit," Stef affirmed and shot at her, the bullet missed the rebel but got her gun. Trinity flung the hunk of useless metal to the ground and went to attack. Neo held her back and pointed to the phone.

"Go," he ordered. "I'll deal with her."

Trinity fixed a glare on her but picked up the phone as it rang. Neo stared at her behind dark glasses. Then he moved too quickly for her to see. She tried shooting at him but her gun was knocked out of her hand and was flung across the room.

She fought him but a solid hit to the stomach left her gasping for air and then he kicked her, she went down, hitting her head on the table as she went. She laid still on the floor, still very much alive but in too much pain to move just yet.

By the way he was fighting, he wasn't going to let her walk away. She heard his footsteps behind her as he came to see whether she was still alive or not. Require, no physical vital signs. She thought loudly, unsure if a request like that would even process. Hoping it would work she stayed absolutely still.

She heard the rustle of Neo's coat as he leant down and checked to see if she still had a pulse.

Not finding one, he picked up the ringing phone and left in the secure knowledge that he had dealt with another traitor.

She couldn't hear him so she knew he was gone, but she didn't feel like getting up. It was too nice here on the cold floor. She was sick, tired and beat up. She hadn't been allowed five minutes to slow down since meeting Trinity on the corner of River and Dale so if it was ok with the world in general she was going to stay exactly where she was.

But, her rest was interrupted again. Someone else bent down and checked her pulse. "A waste," she heard Smith mutter.

She grinned and sat up, "I'm not dead."

Smith took a half step back, "as it would appear."

"Sorry for leaving with them but I didn't really have much choice in the matter. And I figured they might bring me to somewhere like this so I thought it might be good to get rid of another one."

"Well that was good thinking on your part. Places like these often elude us."

"I did good?" she asked.

"Yes. And you survived a fight with Anderson which is unusual for a recruit without backup."

"Survived yes, but I feel like shit." She paused, "Why don't they survive?"

"Anderson. Neo as you might know him. Is what the rebels call 'The One'? He is merely an anomaly who can manipulate the Matrix much more than a normal recruit or rebel."

"Ok."

"How many recruits are there now?"

"Six, including you, but the number has ranged up to thirty in certain ages in the past. We have been recruiting for fifty-four years now."

She looked up at him seriously, "how many has he killed?"

"Twelve that we know of, it may be more as more than as there are not always survivors to report which rebel dispatched which recruit."

"Well I'm glad I didn't make his total thirteen, and I don't plan on being his next victim." She painfully pulled off her jacket and could feel some bruises forming already. She went to require her suit jacket to put back on but she stopped.

She held her hands a little away from her body and put a look of concentration on her face. Her suit jacket appeared on her, without having to put it on and button it up. She smirked. "What now?"

"There will be nothing further tonight."

The world around them blurred again and they were standing in another hallway of the Agency. He walked up to a door with a small number thirteen on it. "This is your room," he said. "All recruits are given a room like this one, just require anything else that you need."

"Thank you." He nodded and walked away. Thirteen, what a lucky number. But maybe it was hers, her birthday was on the thirteenth. Luck was different for everyone. She shut the door behind her, locked it and looked around.

It was a spacious self-contained unit. There was a bathroom and shower, a small kitchenette, bed and enough space to put a few more items of furniture.

She peeled off her jacket and collapsed on the bed. Tonight had been too much to handle. She stood and required some pajamas. She looked at the bruises on her arms and the small cut on her head that wasn't bleeding anymore. She knew she should hurt a lot more but it didn't, maybe because she knew it wasn't real.

She dumped her uniform in the corner; she could require it away in the morning. She clicked off the lamp and finally allowed herself to rest.

She was woken the next morning by someone knocking incessantly on it. Shaking her head she pulled herself out of bed and opened it. "Yes?"

"You're the new recruit?" the guy at the door asked. Like the recruits she had seen before the tests last night he wasn't in a suit, but instead a tracksuit.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm Stef Mimosa."

"Curt O'Connor. Were you going to stay in here all day?"

"I just got here last night, I don't know how it works yet."

"Well you can have breakfast by yourself or you can come join the rest of us." He offered.

She thought on it for a moment, human interaction wasn't her strong point. But these people were recruits so maybe they were on the same wavelength as her. "Ok."

He smiled, "good. Come on."

She frowned, "I'm in my pajamas."

"Require a tracksuit and come on." She looked down at herself and required herself into a tracksuit. It was comfortable, a black, white and gray spray jacket and black pants. Underneath was a black tee shirt. She ran a hand through her hair and nodded.

"It's this way."

She followed him to a large room at the end of the hall. There were some tables in the middle of it and the other four recruits were already eating. "Guys this is Stef," he said to the others. "Stef, this is Enid, Jack, Quart and Lisa." All the recruits nodded to her and she sat next to Lisa and across from Curt.

"So which one?" Curt asked her.

"Which one what?"

"Which agent recruited you?" Quart said in a everyone-should-know-what-he- means voice.

"Smith."

"Jones got me," Curt said after he required some Cocopops. "I was at school and somehow a fire got started, I was trapped in the computer lab so I had no choice but jump from the window. I was on the fifth floor, I jumped out and didn't have a scratch on me. He had been looking for another recruit but he found me instead."

Enid spoke next. Among this group it was tradition to share how they had become recruits, but that wasn't the same for all the groups of recruits or different agencies, each had their own ways. "These guys were bothering me. Four guys like who were all like a foot taller than me, Brown found me at the police station where I was giving a statement. I beat the shit out them without even trying." Stef smiled, someone with Enid's slight frame wasn't the kind of person you expected to be able to do that.

But then again, mind really did work over matter, or muscle, or speed in this world.

Jack and Quart told their story, they had been petty thieves who had managed to scale the sheer side of a building and had been recruited by Brown soon after. Although he held no stock in recruits, Brown's logic was that at least he could have strong ones.

Lisa was mute by choice, she spoke to the agents out of respect but to the other recruits and humans in general she used sign language. Stef didn't understand it so Enid summarized it for her. Lisa had survived a school shooting where she had seen all of her best friends shot dead, she had survived by dodging the bullets. She was another of Jones'.

She looked at the group, three were Brown's recruits and two were Jones'. She was Smith's only recruit. So she decided to ask, "doesn't Smith have any other recruits?"

"Usually he does."

"Is it because of the test statistics?"

Enid scoffed, "I think those numbers are faked. Usually one of three gets it, so I don't know where they get the one in five hundred shit."

Stef shrugged and Curt spoke, "Smith's last recruit was shot last week. A guy named Leon was killed by Neo."

"Oh."

Enid spoke in a whisper just loud enough for them to hear, "I think Smith sicks his recruits onto Neo and his gang, you know like attack dogs." Then in a normal voice, "stay as far away from Neo as you can if you want to live."

"Yeah, I know he's dangerous. I met him last night." Everyone stopped eating and looked at her.

"But you had Smith with you..." Quart started.

"No."

"You're lying, no one takes him on by themselves."

"I didn't know who he was."

"If it was you by yourself, and you had only been a recruit for a couple of hours how in hell did you survive?"

Quart shook his head, "I think she's lying. She's trying to make herself sound good."

"Why would I do that?" she asked defensively.

"To impress us."

"I don't think so."

Lisa made a sign with her hand that no one needed to translate.

"Fine," Stef spat. "If you think I'm lying then screw you. I don't need this, I don't need you. I don't need friends, I have never needed friends." She shook her head and walked out of the room. She wasn't upset, frankly it didn't surprise her. It was human nature. Yet another thing she hated about the species she unfortunately belonged to.

"I am not taking a patrol with her," she heard Quart say and a couple of the other recruits agreed. She shrugged it off and went back toward her room.

Smith was walking down the hall toward her. "You met the other recruits I assume?"

"Yeah," she said casually.

"There is a rebel downstairs. You are to interrogate her."

"Me? What do I know about interrogation?"

"All recruits are given a chance to interrogate a low-ranking rebel to see how they handle it. You came up with an idea very quickly last night, let's see if you can repeat that."

"I'll try. Anything specific I'm supposed to trying to find out?"

"Because of her low rank she won't know anything important but if we can learn the location of her ship the Sentinels can destroy it and that will be one less for their fleet."

"Ship?"

"Hovercrafts specifically. The rebels use hovercrafts to find places to hack into the Matrix."

"Oh, ok."

"Do I ask her questions and write down the answers? How are you supposed to find out what she says?"

He required something and handed it to her, a small microphone about two inches long. "Take this and anything that is said will be transmitted back to us."

"Well that seems simple enough."

He looked at what she was wearing. "Your suit is standard attire during an interrogation."

She looked up at him; "actually I have a different idea."

"And that would be...?" She concentrated for a second. Smith watched on, one moment there was a tidily dressed agent recruit standing in front of him and she was wearing a battered and torn set of black clothes. "Care to explain?" He asked as he looked at her new attire.

"Well I'm guessing she'll never tell me anything if she thinks I'm a recruit. But if she thinks I'm a rebel like her, she won't her guard as high."

"Very well." On the way down to the cellblock she explained the rest of what she had planned.

***

The rebel, a woman named Athena stood and walked to the bars of her cell when she heard the cellblock door open. She saw what she thought was another rebel being half-dragged, half-led by Smith.

Stef was really getting into the part; she was screaming curses at the agent and threatening him. Athena allowed a small smile, all she could muster given her hopeless situation. But she had to smile at the unknown rebel, she was exceedingly brave to be cursing at Smith.

Agent Smith, deadliest agent of them all. The one that everyone in the rebellion feared.

Athena herself hadn't been brave enough to say anything when she had been captured. Smith grabbed a handful of Stef's hair and yanked her head back to hold her still while he opened the cell door.

"That hurts," she muttered and he let her go a little, but not by a noticeable amount that the rebel would see. Athena, for perhaps half a second had thought of trying to escape as the door opened but a dark look from Smith quelled those thoughts and promised a quick death if she acted on them.

Letting her hair go, he grabbed Stef by both of her shoulders and shoved her into the small cell. Stef landed roughly on the floor and hit her head. "Jerk!" she yelled at him. The comment sounded in character, but he shouldn't have pushed her so hard.

He slammed the cell door and walked away. Athena immediately helped her to her feet and guided her to the spare bunk. "Are you ok?" Athena asked with genuine concern.

"Sure I guess," she said as she rubbed the back of her head. She'd have to pay him back for that.

"He could have killed you."

"I'm not afraid of him," Stef was able to say truthfully but it backed up Athena's theory that she was fearless.

She truly wasn't afraid of him, Stef realized. The night before he had been quite willing to put a bullet in her skull but for some reason she trusted him.

"I'm Athena."

"You can call me Unseen. Short for Unseen Spyder."

"I don't know of you. Are you new?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"I just hope we can get out of here before we get our plugs pulled."

Plugs? Stef didn't understand. Lucky the rebel was in a talkative mood.

"I'll never forget how my captain explained it," she took on a somber pose. "You see this plug? We're going to stick it in the plug in your skull. Then your mind gets loaded into the Matrix. If your plug comes out before your mind. Game over kiddo."

"Harsh."

"Yeah, it's the truth," she paused. "Everyone knows the rule though, you talk, you get your plugged pulled."

"So where's your ship?" Stef asked casually.

"Why would you want to know that?" Athena retorted suspiciously.

"I'm just making conversation," Stef said holding up her hands, showing that she meant no harm. "I just need to think about something besides the blinding pain in my head."

Athena sighed, "I'm sorry. But you...you know what's going to happen to us. What happens to everyone who gets caught by the agents. We're going to die Unseen, I'm just having trouble processing that."

"Death is a part of life. You can't hide from it."

"How can you be so unfeeling?"

"Practice," Stef said coldly. "I don't have anyone, so why should I care what happens to me?"

"That's not a good attitude to have."

"Sorry," Stef said, wishing that last statement had been something that she was making up.

"My ship is below the 347 pods. Where's yours?"

"In the fields," she said quoting the only location she knew in the real world.

Athena's eyes went wide. "The fields? Damn you must have a good pilot."

"He's the best. Devil may care pilot and all round good guy."

"That sounds familiar."

Stef smothered a smirk and the urge to hum the 'Roger Ramjet' theme song. "Maybe you heard someone else say it," she said with a perfectly straight face.

Athena shrugged, "probably."

They talked for about half an hour more before Athena's head violently jerked and her body fell backward limply like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Stef had her suit back on by the time Smith opened the door. "They found her ship," he said as Stef stepped out of the cell.

"Sorry she didn't know much but I tried my best. Some more taken care of at the very least."

"For your first interrogation...it was slightly unorthodox but acceptable." He gave her a half smile; "you are proving to be a worthwhile recruit."

"Thanks. Maybe if you didn't sick all your recruits on Neo you'd find out that we are worth the trouble." She felt bad the instant the words were out of her mouth, sometimes her mouth worked faster than her brain. "I'm sorry sir that was out of line."

"I do not 'sick' my recruits onto Anderson. Whoever told you that was lying."

"I should have suspected so. It came from a human."

"Recruit do you genuinely despise your species?"

"Yes." She said then smirked, "humans suck, it says so on the tee shirt I was going to buy." Smith gave a slight chuckle and Stef smiled. He did have a sense of humor.