Hi, this is the prologue of my Matrix story: Ace of Spades. Neo and the crew are NOT the main characters…which I think is a good thing. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and enjoy!
Silent, stealthy, Warlock crept on the roof a huge building. The mall he was on top of resided in city unfamiliar to him. It had a few large buildings, but not so much that his vision was ever impaired. Now that he thought about it, Warlock realized the mall wasn't much of a building, either.
Crawling further, he reached the glass area of the roof, and determinedly he looked about again for any sign of the Agent that had been following him. Not seeing him in the vicinity, he leaned gingerly over the glass, making sure a trapmind wouldn't spot him in his position on the roof.
Luckily for him, the sky was overcast, so Warlock doubted highly that any pedestrian would look up to gaze at the sky. Breathing heavily, Warlock squinted into the building, frantically searching for the telephone booth he knew was a hardline, a way of escaping the Matrix so that he could return to the real world.
Under his breath, he cursed his luck. Hardlines were usually located in a remote location, derelict of any passers-by who could note his strange behavior. This hardline, however, sat in the middle of a public location. Warlock knew he had to time his escape right. He would have to contact his operator, and get him to activate the hardline, a telltale sign of this the phone ringing. Then he would have to pick it up before any pedestrian strayed to it and answered the phone by accident.
Warlock peered around himself on the roof again for any sign of Agents in the vicinity, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black cell phone. Raising the cell phone to his ear and flipping it open, it automatically turned on, in contact with another person.
"Operator," came the high-pitched, though subtly sexual, female voice on the other end. This was Cosine, a female who, like Warlock, was released from the Matrix many years ago. She was the Operator on the ship Warlock resided in, the Prophetic Vision. The Vision was currently located in the real world, where Warlock wished to be.
"Cosine, I need you to activate the hardline on my signal," Warlock said in his would-be-calm voice. He was trained to always remain briskly calm in every situation, though his heart was pumping quickly, as he knew an Agent wasn't far. He had to act fast. "I'm above the hardline now, there's just too many people in there. We can't risk getting one of them fried answering the phone," he stated firmly.
On the other end of the quickened conversation, he heard Cosine pause her breathing, a simple sign that she was currently running some sort of scan. "It looks like you have a lot of time, Warlock," she said calmly. "I don't detect any Agents near-WAIT!" Both Warlock and she paused their breathing simultaneously; Warlock's heart beat ever faster as he awaited something from Cosine.
"Well?" he whispered half-heartedly. He thought he knew what she had found, and horribly for him, he was correct.
"It's-it's an Agent, Warlock! Get the hell outta there!" She bellowed into the headset that he knew she wore on her beautiful auburn head. The calmness in her voice was now lost completely.
"Activate the damn line!" he roared back into the small phone in his hand. He heard her rapid typing into the console in front of her, then a small whimper.
"Go…hurry, he's right behind you!" She shouted at him. Warlock couldn't hear the phone two floors below him, but he knew at that moment it was ringing. Wasting no time in confirming his thoughts, he raised his right hand, which was carrying the cell phone, while simultaneously reaching into his elongated jacket for his weapon. He pulled out his gun, a large automatic pistol, and slammed his right elbow down to the glass, breaking a small section of it.
A bullet narrowly missed his head and erupted into his phone, which promptly exploded into a thousand small pieces. Eyes dilating, Warlock risked a glance over his shoulder, and a blue coloration arose in his face as he saw the Agent behind him, firing his own Desert Eagle at him.
With a panicked cry, Warlock rose to his feet, turning to blast a few bullets at the Agent, which all missed widely. The Agent fired again as he calmly strode towards Warlock, but missed only by the breadth of an inch. With an anguished, inaudible cry, Warlock brought himself to his senses. He focused his mind and body, attempting to harness into the power of the Matrix. His eyes closed, and when he reopened them, everything was in slow motion, as thought time had slowed to allow Warlock the ability to perform past normal human limitations.
The Agent, having picked up on Warlock's gestures as he tapped into the Matrix, increased his stride into a slow-motion run. He fired his gun more rapidly, shooting what would be nearly five bullets a second. Warlock ducked under two of the bullets, which could clearly have been seen in this slowed frame of mind.
The fear had dropped somewhat considerably from Warlock's face. This is what he liked, entering himself and combining with the Matrix. It gave him a feel of superiority, of God-like powers, in which he could perform whatever he wished. A look of renewed confidence entered his face, and he focused on the Agent, who was coming ever nearer, and mightily fired off several rounds of bullets towards the oncoming doom.
The Agent paused briefly, and blurred as he spun his torso around to dodge the bullets soaring towards him. He stopped dead and raised his Desert Eagle once again, firing off many more rounds at Warlock.
He jumped up into the air, and rolled sideways. Landing, he went onto one hand, kicked off from the ground, and fired with his other hand towards the Agent as he flipped through the air. The two traded bullets, once again entering nearer to each other's vicinity as the Agent began to close space again.
In the heat of battle, Warlock had forgotten his purpose for being on the roof. Losing all sense of combat, he turned towards the glass, and dove into it. It shattered slowly, and fortunately for him, nobody had picked up the ringing telephone, having been distracted by the gunfight on top of the building. Many of the scared faces turned towards him.
Landing softly on the hard ground inside the mall, Warlock heard a large crash and screams as the Agent landed behind him, creating a small crater in the ground. Looking frantically around, warlock searched with his eyes for the phone. In the dead silence of all the eyes on him and the agent, he could hear the phone, and turning around, his heart dropped as he saw it ten feet behind the Agent who was making this day a living hell.
With a look of resignation, Warlock dived at the Agent as the Agent did likewise, though with a completely calm expression. They fired at each other as they slowly floated through the air towards each other, but both missed and hit bystanders. All pedestrians shot seemed to be hit melodramatically in the slow-motion world Warlock had activated in his mind, as they slowly flailed their limbs and fell to the ground.
Warlock swore inwardly at himself, breaking his concentration, but losses had to be endured for the better of the entirety of the Matrix. A bullet sliced through his left shoulder, and pain exploded inside his body. He lost focus and thought, and fell normally to the ground, shuddering in pain. The Agent landed behind him, and Warlock knew they had reverted to normal speed when he heard some pedestrians gasp at what had just happened, and others scream, noticing their dead friends or family.
The Agent, choosing to enjoy and savor his victory over the Freemind, walked over to him instead of ending his pain by blasting him in the back of the head with his strong weapon.
Warlock soon wished the Agent had.
The Agent grabbed him by the back collar of his clothes, and hoisted him into the air. He paused briefly, and Warlock tried to tense every muscle in his body as the Agent slammed him face first into the ground. Stars swam in front of his eyes and blaring pain seared through his body as the Agent ravaged the ground with his body several times.
Hoping it was over as the Agent dropped him on the floor again, Warlock loosened his muscles, and rested face down. His brain swam in his head, and he tried to open his eyes, coming to all fours on his hands and knees. Everything was blurred, but still he could make out a foot as it appeared in his view.
Shutting his eyes again, Warlock felt himself being punted from the ground, and soaring through the air. He fell through a pane of glass, crashed into a shelf of books, knocking the entire shelf over. A domino effect ensued, as what sounded like twenty shelves fell one after another.
The Agent hopped over a pool in the center of the area in the mall, knocking an old man into it and sending a wave onto the floor with his speed through the air. He landed inside the bookstore, and hoisted Warlock into the air by his neck this time. His grip tightened, and he choked the little remaining life out of Warlock's lungs. Warlock's eyes opened wide, and he felt them popping out of his head.
He gazed down into the face of his doom, and resignedly glared at him. For the first time the Agent spoke.
"That's right, Mr. Knox," the Agent said to Warlock, tightening his grip. Allen Knox was Warlock's Matrix name, the name that the Agents would know him by. "Never say die," the Agent finished.
Warlock glared once again into those placid, shaded eyes.
"I'm Agent Malcolm," came the Agent's voice, "Nice knowing you."
With another firm clasp of his hands he not only suffocated Warlock, but crushed his neck at the same time.
Agent Malcolm dropped the carcass carelessly to the ground, placed his gun away, and with his other hand, reached up and fixed his tie. He then calmly walked out of the mall, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.