teehee, I had fun with all of Mouse's programs, especially Sally.  Two chapters in two days, NOT BAD!  I'm trying to make up being so slow before, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Hey, a callout, it was only a day haha…

Anna- hey! One of my (real life) friends decide to leave a review!  Anyways yeah thanks, I mean 'bother' all well I fixed it…

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My eyes flicked open, I struggled to get up but someone was holding me back, I fought.

"Let me go!" I yelled eyes darting to whatever was holding me down.  It's not happening, I told myself, it's not real.

"Calm down! Stay still!" Mouse, he was holding me down, telling me to stay still.  I stared at his cool eyes, I blanked.

Whatever I felt was real.  Heat, heat on my shoulder where he was keeping me down.  My trance was cut short by someone pushing my head back by my forehead, I thrashed back.  I wanted out; I wanted to be left alone.  That jerk of a captain did the worst thing you can do to a human being, to a person's mind.  I don't believe his crap.

Mouse was using he elbows on my chest to keep me still.  Then I felt to worst feeling, even worse then the sticking of it in, they yanked out the needle.  They let go of my head but Mouse still kept me down.

"Listen!" he said firmly, hair falling out of place, dancing on his forehead, "you got to BREATHE!"  He was right; I was hyperventilating, "calm down.  Breathe normally, you're gunna faint!"  I tried to get control of myself; he loosed his grip, "breathe normally, please."

Yeah well, easy for you to say.  I was getting over the truth of it all, at least enough to breath normally.  I was having another problem though, him.  I mean how about YOU try breathing normally when a really cute guy is leaning over you, holding you down, and obviously caring about you.

Yeah, breathe normally, right.

I was okay, well better.  My breathing was a bit better; Mouse lifted his hands from my shoulders.  Now I felt sick, really sick.  "I'm sorry…" whispered Mouse so quietly only I heard him.  He backed away.  I slowly lifted my head, no one spoke.  I was only acting slightly freakish, slightly psycho.  I was shaking, in a daze, totally not feeling like I was truly there.  I was surprised I could walk straight.  Brain overload, that equals extreme exhaustion, which means tears.  I was holding back.

That's when I collapsed.

                        *  *  *

Mouse's stomach is very comfortable to lie on.  He had convinced me to go into a program with me, I had held out for three days.

"You can have any dream world you could possibly imagine!" he said, I told him I had one hell of an imagination.

We ended up on a carpet, staring into a night sky.  The stars were as beautiful as a winter new Hampshire sky, but not as cold.

"God, I feel so stupid," I said breaking the silence; Mouse was fiddling with my hair, which I might add was nice to have back.

"Why?" he said staring at the sky, he was leaning against a rock; my head was against his stomach.

"Well, I freaked out and I dunno…"

"Eh, don't worry you actually weren't that bad.  I've seen way worse," that stars were so pretty, I could stare at them forever.  It was silent again.

"When were you freed?" I asked quietly.

"Two years ago," he stopped playing with my hair.

"So you were thirteen?"

"Yeah," I looked at him; he was still staring at the stars.

"Most have been hard…" I murmured.

"Not really, I wasn't very happy in the Matrix," he sighed, I had a feeling that I should push the subject.  Another silence, I didn't mind though, it was nice.

The past three days had been pretty hard; I was still pretty queasy from being freed.  I found out a lot, but I knew I still had loads to learn.  The first day I didn't leave my room, I was getting used to the food.  I had explored the ship; they explained the power plants, all of that.  They told me a little about Zion, all I knew is it was an underground city, they told me about the fleets of ships.  They explained the construct; they started to explain the Matrix.

"Technically I'm too young to be on this ship," he started, "the age limit is seventeen, I should be in a Zion orphanage."

"Why aren't you?" I asked.

"Apollos let me stay; he fought really hard to keep me on this ship."

"Why?" he started to play with my hair again.

"Because the Oracle told him to," he said it firmly.

"Who's the Oracle?"

"Well," he started, "she's a guide, she will tell you things."

"What things? The future?"

"She tells you what you need to know," he heaved a sigh.  Once again, don't press the subject.  But I had a bit of curiosity.  He looked at me.

"What did she tell you?" I said looking back at him.  He stayed silent and looked away, back into the sky.  Then I felt stupid.  I looked away, to my hands I was resting on my stomach.

"Sorry, you don't have to tell me," I said quietly.  He didn't say anything, I decided to leave the silence be.  We must have been starring into the sky for about five minutes.

"You will probably see her soon," then he changed subjects suddenly.  "I hope they don't leave you in Zion."

"What is it like there?" I asked looking back at him.

"It's nice I guess, most everyone helps everyone else, they survive together.  There are a lot of people, a lot of parties.  There is even some real food, and there is usually a good game old Gatza going on."

"What's Gatza?" I said suddenly.

"Oh," he continued dreamily, "it's like poker, with special dice and cards.  There are waterfalls they use for showers too…" I had to admit it sounded nice.  "And it's always warm, but it's nice only once in a while.  It's nice as a treat, otherwise it would get boring."

"If that happened would I come back to this ship?" I asked suddenly, cutting off Mouse's daydreaming about Zion.

"Probably not, but I would hope so, but lets not think like that.  You're gunna stay on this ship if Apollos has any say at all."

                        *  *  *

"Come here," said Mouse the next day.

"What?" I asked as I walked down from the cockpit, Flame had been showing me some controls on the radar.

"I want to show you something," he took my hand and led me to the main deck.  Loki was there; he was like a second operator, he didn't operate while we were in the matrix but he was good enough for the construct.

                        *  *  *

The white of the construct, then I was standing on a city street, an alleyway.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Well I wanted you to meet some people, just before you start your training and all."  I looked at him strangely.

The sound of heels on pavement came from down the alley; I turned my head to look.  There was a girl walking to us, her long brown hair danced around her shoulder elegantly.  She was wearing a pale blue dress and holding a purse delicately.

"This is Charlotte," she Mouse as she extended her hand out to mine.  "She's a very good program, quite a personality; I'm starting to not expect what she is going to do next."  I took her hand and smiled.

"Pleasure," she said sweetly.  "Mouse," she said in a cool voice, "can you tell your friend Loki to stop following me, I don't have much of a liking for him."

"Sure," he said.

"Thanks," she bent down and kissed his cheek.  She turned to me, "careful with the kid, he's pretty fragile."  She walked away and disappeared around the corner.

Mouse was chuckling to himself.  "I told you they had personality."

"So that's what Loki and Flame were arguing about…" he kept on laughing.  "So you MADE her?" he nodded, "I'm not gunna ask why…"  He seemed to agree.

"Here, I'll show you some new ones I've made for a friend of mine," he snapped his fingers.  We were in a building, and on the end where some men in black.  Even were loaded with weapons, each looked pretty formidable.

"These are some guards I made for Jalax," he admired them and they practice there fighting.  "I hope he likes them, I made them extremely durable."  The scene changed again, this time to a sunny sidewalk, it was completely silent until I heard the sound of someone running.

"Oh brother," muttered Mouse before turning to meet the new program running to him.  It was another girl, she was wearing a skirt and huge flip-flops, her blonde hair was pulled back and her tank top matched her flip-flops.

"You came back!" she said giggling, she tackled him, wrapping her arms around his neck.  "I knew you would, I knew you wouldn't leave me!"  She was beaming at him, he looked like he was about to be sick.

"Well um, sorry Sally I just got really busy and…" she saw me.  Her expression changed totally.

"Oh so you found someone else huh?  Someone real?  Well thanks," she looked at me, "he's not very faithful hun, I would dump him while you can."  She let go of Mouse, "get lost!" she said kicking him in the shins before walking away in those ridiculous flip-flops.  He winced in pain as she walked away.

"I don't understand why I ever found girls like that attractive," he nodded his head in shame, "she'll be okay don't worry, she's pretty stupid."  She actually reminded me of Amanda Brown, which was pretty scary, but also pretty funny.

After that he showed me some training programs that I could practice fighting, I didn't fight but I met the masters.  After that I let Jade teach me how to weld.  After dinner I was told I would start training the next day, fight training.