The Marquis and its entire crew is made up by me, as well as certain other characters. The rest of it is the property of their respective owners. So here it is.
MATRIX
ACE
CHAPTER 8
ESCAPE
"Well, that's not good," said Styx as the car barrelled down the road. "What happened?"
"Hell if I know," said Fate. "A guard turned into Agent Grey all of a sudden ..."
"They have names?" said Zephyr.
"Right," said Fate. "There's Agent Grey, Agent White, Agent Black, Agent Adams, Agent Roberts, and Agent Williams. I know 'em all by sight."
"The guard looked kinda like he recognized you, or something," said Ace.
Fate said, "Hmm ... Maybe. I mean, I haven't exactly kept a low profile since I knocked Roberts, Adams, and Black off a building simultaneously ..."
Ace must have been gawking. Fate grinned. "I've managed to 'kill' every single Agent at least three times in my carreer," she said. "I've managed to take 'em all down."
Police sirens began to blare. "Looks like we're gonna have company," said Styx. "Ace, you call up Pylon. Fate, get the guns out and get ready."
"What the hell happened back there!?" exclaimed Pylon almost as soon as Ace punched in the number. "An Agent showed up, then Fate thunked 'im, but ..."
"That's pretty much it," said Ace. "We got the package."
"GOOD," said Pylon. "Now watch out. There's a bunch of squad cars in your way. Make a left at the next intersection."
Ace relayed these instructions, and Styx swerved to the left ... while, from the right and from what had been the front, a group of police cars hove into view.
"That was close," said Zephyr.
"Okay, now make a right at the next turnoff," said Pylon. "It's a dead end, but there's a phone booth you can use."
"Go right at the next street, there's a phone booth," Ace said to Styx. Into the phone, he said, "Anything else you think you should tell us?"
"Yeah. When I cart your bodies back to Zion, would you prefer cremation, or the Gardens?"
Ace rolled his eyes and hung up, just as the car swerved around to face the other direction next to the phone booth and screeched to a halt. They all promptly jumped out of the car; the phone in the booth was ringing.
Fate reached it first, and picked up the phone, putting it to her head. She promptly vanished in a bizzare green burst of light. Styx hung the phone up, and it almost immediately started ringing.
A police car was charging towards them, and it looked like there were Agents riding it. Styx quickly took the phone, and vanished in the same way Fate had. Zephyr hung up, getting ready to pick it up again as the car got closer, almost at top speed now ...
And Ace realized he wasn't going to have time to get out.
He dived out of the way, seeing the green glow even as the police car smashed the phone booth in.
Zephyr gasped as she awoke. "Ace!"
"What happened?" said Tenshi.
"Those Agents smashed the phone booth," said Pylon. "He can't get out!"
Agent Roberts adjusted his tie as he stepped out of the police car. "Mr. Klaymoore," he said.
Ace had never felt this tense before. "And you are?"
"Roberts," said the Agent. "Agent Roberts. I suppose you realize how much trouble you're in, Mr. Klaymoore?"
Ace smirked. "Yeah, it really kills me, huh?" he said.
Agent Roberts arched an eyebrow. "Indeed," he said, pulling out his Desert Eagle. Agent Adams also stepped out of the car, weapon similarly drawn.
Ace calculated his odds. They weren't good. "Aw, hell with this," he said, and dived over --
-- to the car, which was still running. Styx had been too interested in doing so as well to worry.
Without a second thought he jumped into the driver's seat, shifted into "drive", and slammed his foot on the gas pedal, opening up the cell phone with one hand.
The operator phone rang. "Operator," said Pylon.
"I'd like to get out now!"
"Working on that right now," said Pylon. "In fact, you've got some help on the way. We got contact with the Copernicus again, and you should be running into Tetsuo, Ice, and Reynaldo, right about ..."
Ace was still barrelling down the street, cell phone in one hand, when suddenly a large black van zipped past him going the other direction. Leaning out of the passenger's side was a black-haired man in a white trenchcoat, shooting a machinegun at the Agents behind Ace ...
"... now," said Pylon as they passed by.
The Agents looked startled to see that Ace had company, and swerved out of the way to avoid Tetsuo's fire. Ice -- a muscular man with dark blonde hair -- grinned as they crashed into another police car -- which was also being driven by Agents.
"Ohh yeah!" said Tetsuo, pulling back into the van. "Another one bites the dust!"
"Not quite," said Ice. "They can still jump at us, Tetsuo."
"Yeah, yeah ..."
A Spanish-looking man leaned in from the back. The sound of several motors running came from behind him. "Ice, we ready to go help wonder boy?"
"Pretty much," said Ice. "Are all four of 'em ready to go, Reynaldo?"
Reynaldo nodded. "Yep! Just give the word ..."
Ice went slightly down another street, turning the van around. "We don't need 'em yet. I think this van's got a little while longer ..."
"Okay, now where do I go?" said Ace.
"You're on a one-way street, but you should -- no, wait ... Stop! You're going onto the freeway! It's suicide! Go left!"
Ace swerved, hurriedly going down the sidestreet to his left.
"Okay. I think I should say -- Oh shit, the Agents just blew up the exit Myanmar and Lovejoy were holding!"
"Damn. NOW where do I go?" said Ace.
"Um ... well, there is an exit that isn't being blocked by ten squad cars ... um ..."
"It's across the freeway, isn't it?" said Ace.
"Fraid so, kiddo. Okay, Ice's van is coming up behind you. You're gonna have to do exactly what he tells you. He's the first officer on the Copernicus."
Ace nodded. "Okay ... here goes ..." He drove towards the on-ramp to the freeway.
"Oh, crap, there's a whole bunch of Agents chasing after Ice! You're gonna have a tough ride ..."
Ace took a deep breath. It was time to find out he was really good at this ... and if not, well, dead men didn't find things out, did they?