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 15
THE NORTON MANEUVER
Inside the Matrix, several people materialized in front of a phone booth in an abandoned subway station.
"Here we go," said Cyclone. "Time to phone the Agents."
"And they'll bodyjump here?" said Lovejoy, a crew member from the Copernicus.
"Nah, we picked this spot so that no coppertops'll run into us," said Jyslen, who'd been from the Enterprise. "The Agents are coming here the old-fashioned way."
Cyclone dialed a number. "Hiya. Yep, this's me. You around here? Ah, good."
There was the sound from the direction of the stairs of a black sedan driving up. "That'll be them now," he said, wandering towards the entrance and hanging up. "Looks like they came early."
"Mr. ... Cyclone," said Agent Grey as they emerged from the subway, flanked by Agent White and Agent Black. "Did you bring the program?"
Cyclone grinned. "Got it right here," he said, holding up a disk.
It promptly got shot by a sniper rifle. "Shit!" said Cyclone.
"Don't worry, I have a spare. It's in these bullets," said Lovejoy, tossing Agent Grey a handgun.
Agent Grey frowned and turned towards the source of the gunfire. "There," he said, pulling out his own Desert Eagle and --
-- dodging as more bullets flew towards him.
"C'mon! We gotta get outta here!" said Cyclone, running back down the stairs.
He saw someone disappearing into green codes into the pay phone, and then the phone exploded.
"Aww, shit," said Cyclone, pulling out his cellphone. "Zebes? Yeah, where's the nearest hardline?" He rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know there's an Agent right behind me."
Agent Grey's face remained unreadable. "You'd better come with me," he said. "Fortunately, you will not need to worry about police officers. Or me, for that matter."
Fate opened her eyes. "Ready for the next intercept point," she said.
"Yeah," said Pylon, typing up. "Y'know, the thing I love about it when Agents get into cars, is that you only need to destroy the car, which can't dodge bullets."
He pushed another button, and Fate felt herself pulled back into the Matrix.
Ace had never held a grenade launcher before, but he'd had several years of experience programmed into himself by Pylon. This didn't mean he was comfortable with it, however. Pylon had told him not to worry, because "you will most likely not have time to get used to it," and the way he'd said this didn't help.
He aimed it towards the road, and waited for Fate to make her move, and tried to ignore the approaching sounds of gunfire.
Cyclone had his machine gun out, and was riding shotgun in the Agents' sedan, firing left and right. "Blasted Zionists!" he snarled.
In away, Agent Grey he was glad about the attack; it's always easier to dislike someone when they're shooting at you, and it seemed to be working on Cyclone.
Neither of them, however, was expecting Fate to suddenly land on the hood of the car. With a yelp of alarm, Cyclone fell out of the car (which had only been going at thirty miles per hour at that moment), and Agents White and Black pulled out their handguns.
Before they could fire, she began shooting at them. They easily dodged, but dodging bullets really does not do you any good, especially when you're driving a car. She abruptly leaped out of the car and crashed thruough an awning in front of a store ...
... before a grenade, fired from above, smashed through the windshield.
"Ace."
Ace turned. Styx was standing there, pointing a gun at him. "Ah."
"Nothing personal," said Styx with a shrug. "It's just ... well, we're on opposite sides now, and, y'know ..."
"You," said Ace, standing up and stepping away from his gun, "are a bastard."
Styx sighed as he went to kick the grenade launcher off the roof. "Y'know, I really only need to hold you off until -- Waugh!"
"Hi there!" said a short figure in a rain poncho, grinning widely, grabbing Styx in a headlock from behind. There appeared to be a large scythe strapped to his back.
"Who the hell are you?" said Ace.
"I'll be your local friendly deus ex machina for today," said the man cheerfully, "the Rogue program whose purpose was to delete programs at the Source: the one and only Sneaker!"
"You were nice and dramatic up until that last part," said Styx in a choked voice, and then used a complicated series of martial arts moves to dislodge Sneaker from him.
"Ack!" said Sneaker, stumbling backwards. And then he raised his hand ... which five seconds ago had been empty. "Got yet gun!" he said, grinning, and tossed it over the edge of the building. And then he simply vanished.
"That was weird," said Ace.
"Stupid Rogues," said Styx. "Uh, look -- my Operator's probably on a hair trigger, so ..." He took a deep breath, and then charged.
Ace was ready for him.
"Operator."
"Report, Pylon."
"Okay," said Pylon. "The Neb's crew is handling themselves fine ... Fate just took down two Agents again -- I think it's Roberts and Williams this time, or no, actually Adams, not Roberts ... Zephyr and Norton are fighting with Cyclone and Lovejoy ..." He looked at the other screen. "And Ace is in deep shit."
Ace was relying mostly on Focus moves, since he certainly had a high degree of skill with martial arts, but Styx had actual experience. And Styx was better at Focus moves, too.
Styx finally managed a jab that sent Ace sprawling to the edge of the rooftop, feeling like someone had hit his solar plexus with a hammer. He winced as he looked up, almost directly into the sun as it was blocked by the other Runner's form ...
"Traitor," gasped Ace.
"Sorry," said Styx, and kicked him off the roof.
Ace focused. Damned if a traitor like Styx was going to get the better of him. The windows seemed to float lazily past him ...
One of them was open. Ace grabbed onto the sill, and with a strength he knew he wouldn't have had were this real life, he pulled himself in, and paused for breath, glancing around. He appeared to be in a smallish bathroom.
He took out his cell phone. "Pylon? Exit, please."
"Got ya one. It's about five feet behind you."
"I'm backed up against the wall, Pylon."
Somewhere in another room, a phone began ringing.
"Gotcha," said Ace. He hung up, opened the door, and found sudden death staring him in the face. "GAH!"
"Nothing personal," said Agent Roberts, his gun pointed straight at Ace's face. "It's just that the meaning of my existence is to end yours."
Ace considered this, and then kicked the gun out of the Agent's hand. Roberts slammed him against the wall; Ace focused, and managed, kicking at the Agent's chest, to go through the wall.
The phone was knocked to the floor and Ace picked it up, slamming it against the side of his head.
Styx sighed with relief when he saw Ace pull himself in. Now it was out of his hands.
He turned; Jaxter was standing there, his gun raised and ready. He sighed, spreading his hands out to his sides. "He survived," he said.
Jaxter shook his head. "That isn't the point," he said.
"No," said Styx. "Guess you're right." He sighed.
"Sorry," said Jaxter. There was nothing more that needed to be said, nothing that could be said.
And Styx, with all that had happened, accepted it. This was realy the easiest way out.
"Ouch," said Ace as he sat up.
"You know, there are better ways of getting through to another room than letting an Agent smash you through a wall," said Pylon, "and they should be tried first."
Ace shrugged. "Actually, I was talking about how hard I hit myself with the phone."
"Cute," said Pylon. "But fortunately, that bizzare Rogue that attacked Styx was also kind enough to delete the Agent Repellant program; looks like we're safe from their finding an immunity for now."
Ace nodded, and then said, "What happened to him after that?"
Pylon's expression hardened, and he looked over to where Jaxter was lying, still plugged in.
And he wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a tear running down the other man's cheek.
Cyclone watched as the Sentinels carried Styx's body away, so that he'd be recycled and, as it were, put back into the Matrix. "God DAMMIT!" he snarled, punching one of the walls as hard as he could. He didn't even care about his bruised hands; he was that angry. Styx had been a crew member, if only for a short time. But more than that, he was a friend. Until it was time to be put back into the Matrix, Zion was gonna pay.
Oh well. Fortunately, whatever that insane Rogue was only deleted the physical code of the gun itself. Agent Grey had taken the actual source code of the "agent repellant" when he'd bodyjumped. So they probably still had that edge, at least.
It was only a matter of time now.