The Matrix Preloaded
Chapter 3
The Old Apartment
A/N: I do not own the Matrix or any characters I am using from the Matrix movies, and I'm pretty sure that Niobe's first name isn't Danielle; that's just something I made up.
"I know that this hotdog is just a code that was cooked from a program programmed to look like a cow... but I don't care," Puck said, her mouth half full.
"Why did I let them stop for hot dogs?" Orcus wondered out loud while Mink complained about the two new recruits in the car. Morpheus and Cypher had donned leather jackets and helmets and rode motorcycles in front of and behind the main car. Cypher had wondered why they couldn't just take an unmarked van. Mink had told him that she was not thirtysomething and when he objected that he couldn't tell she had thrashed him.
***
"We're here" Mr. Clark told his three children.
"Be nice, Danielle, your grandma's old and she doesn't care about your problems," Mrs. Clark told her daughter. Danielle just shrugged as the family walked into the familiar apartment building shaking her head.
The Guardian looked at the familiar family, reading their code. He smiled to himself, they had no clue he was reading their code, or that he could even see them. His shell was fit his purpose to a 'T'. To make sure that the apartment was safe, he had chosen to appear as a blind beggar in dressed in an old suit and a ratty top hat. No matter what he was pretending to be, he still had to look good doing it. Clean, clean, clean, clean, packing heat. From the looks of it the teenage boy was carrying an Uzi.
"Excuse me, son," he addressed the young boy who appeared to be some inner-city youth rap star wannabe, "are you by any chance carrying a firearm?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, Pops?" Ted replied looking at the man, then his family. His mother was in denial, his father had given up on him and Bobby probably didn't even know what a firearm was, but Danielle looked disgusted with him.
"No," Mrs. Clark was quick to reply, "he's the good one. Check her," She motioned towards Danielle.
Fine, the Guardian decided, we could always just do this the hard way. He picked up his cane and turned to face the wall behind him. He tapped three times on a certain piece of graffiti and smiled. An Asian man who appeared to be in his early thirties appeared in the doorway. Seraph was the man's -- or rather, program's -- name. He was an Exile who until about twenty years ago had served as the Merovingian's right hand. Then Seraph had been given the duty of training Seth, and that's when everything had gone wrong. Seraph trained the other Incubus too well. So well, in fact, that when Seth had messed up an encounter with a rebel ship, causing the deaths of Cain, Abel, Tiger, Vlad and Jacob, Seth not only been able to flawlessly cover his tracks and shift the blame to Seraph in the eyes of the henchman, he was also able to convince the Merovingian that Seraph was guilty -- not an easy task. But the Oracle had stepped in, giving Seraph a new purpose and changing him from a demon into an angel. Seraph approached the man.
"I cannot let you into this building armed; please surrender your weapon." As Ted looked Seraph up and down he shook his head. "Then I must apologize." The Guardian laughed as Seraph began his usual routine.
"For what?" Ted looked the man in the eyes.
"For this." Seraph pushed the younger man into the wall and then pinned him on to the ground. "Will your surrender your weapon now?" As the boy nodded the parents looked disgusted, that is until the Chinese man pulled a leather square out of his pocket and allowed a badge to fall down. Works every time, thought the Guardian.
"Seeing as this is a first offence I can let it go if you just surrender the weapon," Seraph told the Clarks. When Mr. Clark nodded, the white clad man took the gun and walked out of the door. Each of the Clark family left the room with different thoughts racing through their head: Ted wondering how he would protect his gang's turf, Mr. Clark wondering why the officer had let his son who was now a felon off with a warning, and Mrs. Clark wondering how her baby boy had been caught up in the world of gangs and guns. Bobby's eyes shone until his mother warned him not to mention this to Grandma. Only Danielle wondered how a blind man could have known that Ted was a boy and realize that he had a concealed weapon on his person.
Armed, Armed, Armed, Armed, Armed, Armed; he Guardian nodded as he looked at the familiar codes. These numbers were blue, not green, a sign that the minds of these RSI's had been unplugged from the Matrix. The crew's senior officer just nodded at the program then turned to Cypher.
"We'll be back in an hour," Orcus informed the scout. "Don't do anything stupid." Mink nodded in acknowledgement as she stepped outside but Cypher just muttered something under his breath. "No," Orcus called before the elevator closed.
Cypher pulled out his cell phone and dialed Orcus' number "Do you have any clue what I just said?"
"No, but I still don't want you to do it."
Puck smiled as she saw Seraph entering the Oracles apartment. Perfect timing, she thought as she eyed the mistletoe. She ran towards the door pulling off her sunglasses in mid-stride. She stepped into the doorway and closed her eyes. "Pucker up, darling," she ordered.
"Okay, my love", came a nasally voice. Muko, one of the "kids" that the Oracle took care of, pulled Puck down and started to kiss her face. It's tradition she reminded herself until her lips were pierced by a tongue. "You little freak!" Puck screamed throwing the program across the room. She felt blood trickle down her neck. "You bit me, you perverted little scum!" Puck jumped into the Oracles room and over the coffee table. She then jumped 3 feet into the air and caught Muko in a drop kick.
"Puck!" Orcus yelled as he entered the doorway. "What are you doing"?
"He bit me, Orcus," she replied.
"What, you Mushi, go to your room," Orcus ordered the program.
"You're not my Mother!"
"Programs can't have mothers," Orcus informed him.
"Priestess, Orcus is trying to sell me crack," Muko retorted.
"Muko, go to your room," the Priestess ordered as the child turned around he looked Orcus square in the eye.
"The Gemini is the ugliest ship in the fleet."
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you little shit, it's the greatest ship in the history of Zion and you know it!" Orcus screamed.
"Can't I read Charlie Brown in peace?" Morpheus yelled out.
Before any could reply, Orcus' cell phone rang.
"Orcus," the man answered his cellphone.
"Shield's in trouble," Ceres' voice flooded into his ear.
"Well, I'll leave Mink in charge and take Cypher, tell Daimyo to meet me there, where is he?"
"He's playing chicken with agents on the freeway."
Orcus swore loudly as Morpheus tossed him the keys to his motorbike. He pulled out his phone and dialed Mink's number, telling her that she was in charge and leaving Eva to explain to the kids exactly what a fscking bastard was.
As Orcus walked through the door Mink walked in.
"Tradition", Eva yelled.
Orcus kissed Mink quickly, and then cursed Shield's name quickly as he ran down the hallway, bumping into an African-American teenager. "Someone needs to learn you some manners, dog!" he yelled pulling out an Uzi and pointing it towards the man. Orcus grabbed the man's arm and pulled it in a circle, disarming him, he then hit a pressure point, knocking him unconscious. I don't have time for this shit, he thought, picking up his cellphone and dialing Eva.
"You're needed in the hallway".
***
"Puck," the priestess told the young woman, "she will see you first."
Puck got up and walked into the room to see an elderly woman sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette.
"You must be Puck," the old women broke the silence. "Don't look so surprised, sweetie, I know that you were expecting something out of The Wizard of Oz, but I'm not so bad once you get to know me. Cookie?" the Oracle asked.
Puck smiled and reached for a shortbread cookie. "Did you know?" she questioned.
"That they're your favorite? Of course, sweetie, that's why I baked them. Now let me have a look at you." She looked Puck up and down and all about. "You're very noble, Puck, I hope that the more of the potentials turn out like you," the Oracle smiled.
"What's that mean?" Puck questioned her.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, sweetie, but something's going to happen to you."
"You mean a choice."
"No, you've already made the choice. You just don't understand it yet; it concerns a new crewmember. You won't know until the time comes, but you're going to have to risk your life to save hers."
"Will I die?" the young woman questioned.
"Like I said before, sugarplum, I can only see past the choices that you understand but I do know this: if you do this, you risk dying. I wish I had some better news."
"It is time for you to go," came a deep Asian voice. Normally Puck would have been happy to see the program but this time she only turned back and looked the Oracle in the eyes.
"What if I make the wrong choice?"
"If you make the right choice, you may or may not die," the Oracle responded, "but if you make the wrong choice, Orcus dies, no ifs, ands or buts."
"What was said was for you only," Mink told the younger rebel as she walked out.
Puck just nodded, chills running down her spine.
***
"So you're Morpheus," the old woman looked the young man up and down.
"And you must be the Oracle," Morpheus kissed her hand.
"Ooh, such a charmer. Well I've seen enough for today, Morpheus. I now know the most important thing there is to know about you, that you don't believe in fate, not yet anyway. Something's going to change that. I see great things for you Morpheus; you will help us win this war."
"How?" the young man asked.
"Look up there honey. That means 'know thyself', and when the time comes you'll know what to do."
Eva rolled the unconscious man on into the recovery position. As she looked up she saw Mushi running down the hall, a teenage girl following him.
"Dear God, Ted," the girl said out loud, "what did you do now?" She looked down to see one of the people from the apartment administering first aid to her brother.
"You're one of those people!" Danielle stated.
"Yes, I'm Eva."
"Danielle."
"And this is Mushi," Eva told the other girl taking the boy's hand and grabbing him. "You're brother will be fine. He just fainted, should be up in an hour or so. Come on Mushi," Eva said and then whispered, "Did you bite her too?"
"Well, well Eva", the Oracle said "I have nothing to say to you because you beat me to it when you meet Niobe in the hallway".
"You mean that Danielle is...?"
"The very potential that Ceres is looking for."
Chapter 3
The Old Apartment
A/N: I do not own the Matrix or any characters I am using from the Matrix movies, and I'm pretty sure that Niobe's first name isn't Danielle; that's just something I made up.
"I know that this hotdog is just a code that was cooked from a program programmed to look like a cow... but I don't care," Puck said, her mouth half full.
"Why did I let them stop for hot dogs?" Orcus wondered out loud while Mink complained about the two new recruits in the car. Morpheus and Cypher had donned leather jackets and helmets and rode motorcycles in front of and behind the main car. Cypher had wondered why they couldn't just take an unmarked van. Mink had told him that she was not thirtysomething and when he objected that he couldn't tell she had thrashed him.
***
"We're here" Mr. Clark told his three children.
"Be nice, Danielle, your grandma's old and she doesn't care about your problems," Mrs. Clark told her daughter. Danielle just shrugged as the family walked into the familiar apartment building shaking her head.
The Guardian looked at the familiar family, reading their code. He smiled to himself, they had no clue he was reading their code, or that he could even see them. His shell was fit his purpose to a 'T'. To make sure that the apartment was safe, he had chosen to appear as a blind beggar in dressed in an old suit and a ratty top hat. No matter what he was pretending to be, he still had to look good doing it. Clean, clean, clean, clean, packing heat. From the looks of it the teenage boy was carrying an Uzi.
"Excuse me, son," he addressed the young boy who appeared to be some inner-city youth rap star wannabe, "are you by any chance carrying a firearm?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, Pops?" Ted replied looking at the man, then his family. His mother was in denial, his father had given up on him and Bobby probably didn't even know what a firearm was, but Danielle looked disgusted with him.
"No," Mrs. Clark was quick to reply, "he's the good one. Check her," She motioned towards Danielle.
Fine, the Guardian decided, we could always just do this the hard way. He picked up his cane and turned to face the wall behind him. He tapped three times on a certain piece of graffiti and smiled. An Asian man who appeared to be in his early thirties appeared in the doorway. Seraph was the man's -- or rather, program's -- name. He was an Exile who until about twenty years ago had served as the Merovingian's right hand. Then Seraph had been given the duty of training Seth, and that's when everything had gone wrong. Seraph trained the other Incubus too well. So well, in fact, that when Seth had messed up an encounter with a rebel ship, causing the deaths of Cain, Abel, Tiger, Vlad and Jacob, Seth not only been able to flawlessly cover his tracks and shift the blame to Seraph in the eyes of the henchman, he was also able to convince the Merovingian that Seraph was guilty -- not an easy task. But the Oracle had stepped in, giving Seraph a new purpose and changing him from a demon into an angel. Seraph approached the man.
"I cannot let you into this building armed; please surrender your weapon." As Ted looked Seraph up and down he shook his head. "Then I must apologize." The Guardian laughed as Seraph began his usual routine.
"For what?" Ted looked the man in the eyes.
"For this." Seraph pushed the younger man into the wall and then pinned him on to the ground. "Will your surrender your weapon now?" As the boy nodded the parents looked disgusted, that is until the Chinese man pulled a leather square out of his pocket and allowed a badge to fall down. Works every time, thought the Guardian.
"Seeing as this is a first offence I can let it go if you just surrender the weapon," Seraph told the Clarks. When Mr. Clark nodded, the white clad man took the gun and walked out of the door. Each of the Clark family left the room with different thoughts racing through their head: Ted wondering how he would protect his gang's turf, Mr. Clark wondering why the officer had let his son who was now a felon off with a warning, and Mrs. Clark wondering how her baby boy had been caught up in the world of gangs and guns. Bobby's eyes shone until his mother warned him not to mention this to Grandma. Only Danielle wondered how a blind man could have known that Ted was a boy and realize that he had a concealed weapon on his person.
Armed, Armed, Armed, Armed, Armed, Armed; he Guardian nodded as he looked at the familiar codes. These numbers were blue, not green, a sign that the minds of these RSI's had been unplugged from the Matrix. The crew's senior officer just nodded at the program then turned to Cypher.
"We'll be back in an hour," Orcus informed the scout. "Don't do anything stupid." Mink nodded in acknowledgement as she stepped outside but Cypher just muttered something under his breath. "No," Orcus called before the elevator closed.
Cypher pulled out his cell phone and dialed Orcus' number "Do you have any clue what I just said?"
"No, but I still don't want you to do it."
Puck smiled as she saw Seraph entering the Oracles apartment. Perfect timing, she thought as she eyed the mistletoe. She ran towards the door pulling off her sunglasses in mid-stride. She stepped into the doorway and closed her eyes. "Pucker up, darling," she ordered.
"Okay, my love", came a nasally voice. Muko, one of the "kids" that the Oracle took care of, pulled Puck down and started to kiss her face. It's tradition she reminded herself until her lips were pierced by a tongue. "You little freak!" Puck screamed throwing the program across the room. She felt blood trickle down her neck. "You bit me, you perverted little scum!" Puck jumped into the Oracles room and over the coffee table. She then jumped 3 feet into the air and caught Muko in a drop kick.
"Puck!" Orcus yelled as he entered the doorway. "What are you doing"?
"He bit me, Orcus," she replied.
"What, you Mushi, go to your room," Orcus ordered the program.
"You're not my Mother!"
"Programs can't have mothers," Orcus informed him.
"Priestess, Orcus is trying to sell me crack," Muko retorted.
"Muko, go to your room," the Priestess ordered as the child turned around he looked Orcus square in the eye.
"The Gemini is the ugliest ship in the fleet."
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you little shit, it's the greatest ship in the history of Zion and you know it!" Orcus screamed.
"Can't I read Charlie Brown in peace?" Morpheus yelled out.
Before any could reply, Orcus' cell phone rang.
"Orcus," the man answered his cellphone.
"Shield's in trouble," Ceres' voice flooded into his ear.
"Well, I'll leave Mink in charge and take Cypher, tell Daimyo to meet me there, where is he?"
"He's playing chicken with agents on the freeway."
Orcus swore loudly as Morpheus tossed him the keys to his motorbike. He pulled out his phone and dialed Mink's number, telling her that she was in charge and leaving Eva to explain to the kids exactly what a fscking bastard was.
As Orcus walked through the door Mink walked in.
"Tradition", Eva yelled.
Orcus kissed Mink quickly, and then cursed Shield's name quickly as he ran down the hallway, bumping into an African-American teenager. "Someone needs to learn you some manners, dog!" he yelled pulling out an Uzi and pointing it towards the man. Orcus grabbed the man's arm and pulled it in a circle, disarming him, he then hit a pressure point, knocking him unconscious. I don't have time for this shit, he thought, picking up his cellphone and dialing Eva.
"You're needed in the hallway".
***
"Puck," the priestess told the young woman, "she will see you first."
Puck got up and walked into the room to see an elderly woman sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette.
"You must be Puck," the old women broke the silence. "Don't look so surprised, sweetie, I know that you were expecting something out of The Wizard of Oz, but I'm not so bad once you get to know me. Cookie?" the Oracle asked.
Puck smiled and reached for a shortbread cookie. "Did you know?" she questioned.
"That they're your favorite? Of course, sweetie, that's why I baked them. Now let me have a look at you." She looked Puck up and down and all about. "You're very noble, Puck, I hope that the more of the potentials turn out like you," the Oracle smiled.
"What's that mean?" Puck questioned her.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, sweetie, but something's going to happen to you."
"You mean a choice."
"No, you've already made the choice. You just don't understand it yet; it concerns a new crewmember. You won't know until the time comes, but you're going to have to risk your life to save hers."
"Will I die?" the young woman questioned.
"Like I said before, sugarplum, I can only see past the choices that you understand but I do know this: if you do this, you risk dying. I wish I had some better news."
"It is time for you to go," came a deep Asian voice. Normally Puck would have been happy to see the program but this time she only turned back and looked the Oracle in the eyes.
"What if I make the wrong choice?"
"If you make the right choice, you may or may not die," the Oracle responded, "but if you make the wrong choice, Orcus dies, no ifs, ands or buts."
"What was said was for you only," Mink told the younger rebel as she walked out.
Puck just nodded, chills running down her spine.
***
"So you're Morpheus," the old woman looked the young man up and down.
"And you must be the Oracle," Morpheus kissed her hand.
"Ooh, such a charmer. Well I've seen enough for today, Morpheus. I now know the most important thing there is to know about you, that you don't believe in fate, not yet anyway. Something's going to change that. I see great things for you Morpheus; you will help us win this war."
"How?" the young man asked.
"Look up there honey. That means 'know thyself', and when the time comes you'll know what to do."
Eva rolled the unconscious man on into the recovery position. As she looked up she saw Mushi running down the hall, a teenage girl following him.
"Dear God, Ted," the girl said out loud, "what did you do now?" She looked down to see one of the people from the apartment administering first aid to her brother.
"You're one of those people!" Danielle stated.
"Yes, I'm Eva."
"Danielle."
"And this is Mushi," Eva told the other girl taking the boy's hand and grabbing him. "You're brother will be fine. He just fainted, should be up in an hour or so. Come on Mushi," Eva said and then whispered, "Did you bite her too?"
"Well, well Eva", the Oracle said "I have nothing to say to you because you beat me to it when you meet Niobe in the hallway".
"You mean that Danielle is...?"
"The very potential that Ceres is looking for."
