Protector of Men Ch 61

"Zandra," Neo breathed, appearing at the top of the stairs. Zandra's eyes turned wide and she leapt up to him, amazed.

"How'd you get here?" she asked, looking him over.

"I was let out."

"They let you out?" Came Shade's voice from the lower level, his face showing the utter confusion he was experiencing.

Neo looked to the Twins, who were now sneering in their corner. "You," he breathed. One of them made a fake smile that quickly disappeared.

"yes," he replied rudely,

"Us." The other finished. Zandra looked from the twins to Neo. Obviously there was some kind of history that she didn't know of, but this was not the time to ask questions. They had to get him out.

"How do we get out of here?" she asked him, trying to get his attention as he looked around the hall in a mix of wonder and nostalgia. His mind was snapped back to the present when a door burst open from the stairs below, the Merovingian came forth with a look of utter surprise and rage.

"Ah!" he shouted, eyes alighted, "Persephone! Encore ce whore me trahit!" (*Again this whore betrays me!*) Neo looked at Zandra and silently told her to be ready. Below them, Cover and Shade were retreating slowly up the stairs to where he and Zandra stood, Zandra gripping her sword as if it would fall out of her hands if she were not careful. The Merovingian continued to mutter, looking about the hall desperately.

"Cette petite chienne le laisse encore, la fera hors n'apprend jamais à obéir... merde d'un âne.." (*This little bitch ruins it again, she will never learn to obey... shit of an ass..*) He suddenly stopped, and looked at the Twins.

"Don't just stand there," he shouted, pointing at the group of rebels above, "Kill them!" The twins looked at each other and grinned an icy smile; Zandra watched as the Merovingian stormed out of the room with another foreign bout of exclamations. She looked to Neo, and he nodded once.

"Here we go."

One of the twins pulled out a switchblade and began twirling it in his hands like a baton; the other slowly began walking up the stairs.

"Zandra," Cover warned, looking a little afraid. She shook her head once, and got her sword ready. She wasn't just going to wait for them to attack – she'd do it first. The twins might be creepy, she thought with a shudder, but they can't be invincible.

Suddenly the twins stopped for a moment, looked at each other over their sunglasses. Zandra felt a ripple of energy pass through her, and looked to Neo for a moment in hopes that he would explain the momentary pause and flaw. She thought she could detect a hint of reaction behind his dark sunglasses. Quickly she turned back to the twins. One shrugged, and then they continued up the stairs.

"Something's going on out there," Neo whispered. Zandra nodded, and stepped onto the banister above everyone else. She couldn't let the twins get to Cover or Shade, it would have to be her and Neo against them. Someone would have to start things, and Zandra figured that it would have to be her. She readied her sword and launched herself to the side, landing right behind the albino programs. With her free hand, she pulled out her Micro-Uzi from her holster. Above, she could see Neo pulling a sword off of the wall for himself, inspecting it before going to the top of the stairs. One of the twins turned to Zandra and smiled before readying his own blade. So it started.

"Puis-je vous aider?" (*How may I help you?*) the Maitre-d' asked, examining his reservation book thoroughly. He didn't care to look at the guests that now approached. If he had, he wouldn't have asked.

Johnson pulled out his Desert Eagle and pointed it at the man's head. He laughed once weakly, then gulped and was silent.

"Where is Smith," he asked monotone, his gun only inches away from the maitre-d's forehead.

"I will show you the way," he allowed, scuttling to the door and unlocking it before letting the agents pass. Once the agents had left him alone, he promptly fainted.

Inside the restaurant things were fairly quiet. Roughly a hundred Smiths were standing, milling, sitting on the ground, and one of them had his gun pointed at another. When the agents came in, he fired, the Smith falling to the ground in a flash. Shit, the clones thought as the agents sauntered in. Three more to get rid of.

"Program AS:874, you have been scheduled for deletion. You are no longer necessary," Jackson said, stepping forward. "Submit yourself."

"Submit?" One of the Smiths asked, stepping forward. "Why submit when I can rebel?"

Smith didn't realize how much he sounded like one of the very rebels that he had been created to destroy.

The agents narrowed their eyes and began to shoot.

But the Smiths were not worried – they were expendable. All it would take was a few of him to overwhelm the agents, and one by one they'd be gone. It didn't matter if a few of them were killed, because there were too many of them anyway.

"Damn him," the Merovingian muttered in an unseen corner of the room. All of his henchman had been killed, and now he'd be scraping the barrel for any further protection from Neo, Zandra, Smith, and now the agents as well. The Merovingian swore silently, and slammed the door behind him on his way to the dungeon.

Zandra didn't hesitate to shoot. Before the twin could get a stair closer to her, she opened fire with her small weapon, making sure that no one else could get in the way. But the twin phased, and reappeared with an even more devious smile than before.

"Oh, shit," she whispered, backing away and down the stairs. "What are you?"

The twin only smiled broader, wielding his knife like liquid, moving his arm to and fro like a carefully choreographed dance. He enjoyed watching Zandra's expression, he delighted in it. She was so fearful, so confused…

"Neo?" she shouted, reaching the floor of the hall with her sword pointed at the approaching twin. He paused from his intense fighting to look down at Zandra, but only for a moment. Cover and Shade stood motionless in the back of the hall, watching Neo intently. He's amazing, Cover thought… perhaps even better than Zandra…

Neo couldn't help her now, she'd be on her own. Anticipate, she reminded herself, raising her sword higher. The twin scoffed and then ran at her, his own dagger raised as well.

Luckily, she had the upper hand, weapon-wise. As he came at her, she thrust her own sword in his direction, causing him to phase and back off momentarily. Zandra was still put off by the phasing: she wasn't sure what else this program could do…

She twisted her sword around her, trying desperately to ward off the evil twin by showing him her skills. It didn't work, and the twin made a face of boredom before flying at her again.

Cover and Shade were getting restless at the top of the hall. Watching Neo fight effortlessly gave them hope, and soon they had decided to do a little combat of their own. Shade silently decided to help Zandra, while Cover relented, and went to aid Neo. Not that either needed aiding, but more that the two didn't want to be cowards in the small fight. After all, they were only two twins, how hard could it be?

Zandra was quickly tiring of this new situation. If she couldn't injure the foe, how would they beat them? Soon enough she would fatigue, and then where would she be? Probably at their mercy. And Zandra guessed that they possessed little of that.

She was locked into close battle with the twin, desperately thrusting her sword, continually getting nothing. The twin was still smiling: he knew that she was growing weary of the fight. But perhaps he wouldn't kill her immediately… we always love a good fighter, he thought along with his twin, perhaps we can have some fun?

Enveloped in himself the twin did not realize that behind him, Shade had pulled out his gun. Zandra did her best to mask her realization, and continued to fight with her sword. Shade pulled the trigger and fired three times into the twin, but his aim was bad. Instantly the program was injured, but not badly. The twin stopped fighting and turned around slowly, looking at Shade with a visage of pacifism. He looked at his mangled arm and frowned in thought. Upstairs the other twin had stopped fighting too, and looked down at his brother in silence.

"That wasn't nice," the twin said, inspecting his bloodied white jacket. Everyone watched in silence.

"We didn't like that," the other finished. The twin downstairs suddenly phased for a moment, then went back to his solid form, and inspected his arm again.

"Well look at that," he mused, smiling at Shade whose eyes were now the size of dinnerplates, "No harm done."

Everything then turned into a frenzy. The twin flew at Shade, Zandra behind him, attempting to slash him with her sword. Shade backed off panicked, the twin continuing to phase each time he fired his weapon. Above Neo was sparring with the other twin, Cover soon giving up on assistance. Neo could handle himself – and he was even quicker than the twin. Soon he decided to aide Shade, and slid down the banister of the stairs to reach the other battle. But suddenly everyone stopped.

A door opened.

A/N – Geez, there's so much stuff happening, I have to keep reading past chapters again so I don't get confused. Just got back from choir kickoff party… bleh… was there for 6 hours because of officer stuff. My feet hurt.

Next weekend I won't be able to update, I'll be in North Carolina for a college visit. But I'll be thinking of you! Yeah, I'm updating pretty quickly, but having a bit of writers block, and I'm REALLY REALLY SORRY but it may take me a few days to upload. Like three or four. But I won't forget about you guys, I promise. It's just hard to write climaxes, and I've had an assload of homework lately. Like six papers and a frickin huge biology project. Fun stuff.