He said he killed an Agent

Chapter 6: Sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them

An explosion rocked the center of the park, causing smoke to rise up above the trees. There were screams from inside the public recreation area, and the three leather clad rebels standing on the outskirts of the park seemed equally concerned.

" Looks like they've started without us." Dial said, looking around carefully with his shotgun in hand.

" Morpheus is nowhere in sight, Gannon." Pandora told her captain. " They must have already executed their plan."

Gannon took out his cell phone, contacting his operator.

" Hermes, do you still have Morpheus and Niobe's locations?" Gannon asked.

" They just left the park." Hermes replied over the cell phone.

" And what about the girl?"

" The code's a little scrambled, but it looks like Morpheus is carrying a program in his arms. They're heading towards the Oracle, so I'd bet it's Sati."

Gannon took the phone away from his ear, and stared at the smoke rising from the center of the park.

" What's wrong, Gannon?" Pandora asked.

The long haired captain shook his head. " It's over, the rescue was a success. We missed it."

" So we're done here?" Pandora tried to confirm.

Another explosion shook the ground, emanating from the center of the park.

" I don't think its over." Dial stated with a slight laugh, " Unless the Agents are self-destructing."

Gannon put the phone back up to his mouth.

" Hermes, I guess it's safe to say there is Agent activity in the center of the park?" Gannon asked.

" Yeah, but I'm only reading two right now." Hermes replied.

" And have you found Nighten yet?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

" I haven't been able to trace Nighten, Captain, but...there is someone in the middle of the park with those Agents, but...it's not reading like one of us."

Gannon turned to his crew.

" Did Hermes find Nighten?" Pandora asked.

Gannon shook his head. " No. But there is a person in the middle of the park, fighting Agents."

" And it's not Morpheus or Niobe?" Dial questioned.

" I'm thinking it might be Nighten." Gannon declared. " And I'm not going to leave him in the Matrix."

" Well, then let's get in there," Dial said, " before Smokey the Bear gets pissed."

Gannon nodded, putting away his cell phone, and drawing his Uzi.

" Remember," Gannon advised his crew, as the started running, " keep moving and keep shooting. That's how we're going to survive."

His two crewmates nodded, as they ran in a straight line to the middle of the park, avoiding trees, leaping over benches and trash cans, and blowing by people at ridiculously fast speeds without offering apologies.

When they reached the middle of the park, they saw a large stone fountain that was crumbling, a crushed bench and a knocked over trash can, fiery trees, and two agents.

One had blonde hair, and another had a silver tie.

" What the hell?" Pandora said quietly, as the crew crouched to avoid being spotted. " Are you sure those are agents? They look...different."

Gannon nodded. " Look at the way they move, Pan. Synchronized. Structured. With purpose. These may be newly created programs, but they are most certainly Agents."

" I don't see Nighten anywhere, Captain." Dial said, as he aimed his shotgun at the Agents.

" There's too much smoke." Gannon replied. " He might be behind the fountain. We need to make a pass, straight through."

Pandora turned to him. " They'll follow us."

" I think we could lose them in the smoke." Gannon contended. " You two know what to do."

Gannon gripped the shoulders of his crewmates, and then tapped them on their backs.

Dial stood up and started running at an angle towards the Agents, firing wildly with his shotgun as he yelled to get their attention.

The two Agents snapped their pistol's into their hands, but were forced to dodge the shotgun blasts before they could return fire.

Pandora started running at an angle opposite of Dial's, towards the dilapidated fountain, firing multiple shots from her twin silver pistols in-between Dial's shots.

Pandora did not slow when she reached the fountain, instead she proceeded to run up the side of it and kick off of the stone, twisting her body in order to deliver a kick to the back of the blonde agent's head. His silver tied counterpart immediately turned towards her, shooting off his jet black pistol her direction, so Pandora leaned completely over, doing a cartwheel on one hand as she fired upside down with the other at the silver tied Agent.

The bullets from both individuals missed their targets, so the silver tied Agent was very confused when his shoulder was clipped by a shotgun shell. The program angrily turned to face Dial, who was still zig-zagging around the fountain, shooting and reloading his shotgun as quickly as he could.

" I don't see our boy anywhere!" Dial reported.

Gannon cringed. " Well right now we're pinned down! Stay active!"

Meanwhile, the blonde haired agent was up on his feet pursuing Pandora, who was flipping backwards to avoid the shots from his pistol. Gannon rushed forward unleashing his Uzi on the Agent, who immediately backed off Pandora.

The blonde woman took this opportunity to drop her body and perform a low, sliding kick at the Agent, taking the legs out from under him. But the blonde program was persistent, firing off shots at the girl even as he fell to the ground. Pandora rolled away from the agent and pushed herself off the ground into a crouching stance, keeping an eye on the Agent as he hit the ground and started to roll himself, in order to avoid the steady stream of bullets coming from Gannon's Uzi.

The other Agent, with the silver tie, was now chasing Dial around the fountain, as the two strafed in a circle, back and fourth, exchanging shots while taking cover behind the crumbling statue at the fountain's center.

Dial cringed as a bullet whizzed past his ear, taking a chunk of the stone he was hiding behind with it. He crouched and rolled to the right, and shot into the water in the fountain in front of the Agent, sending a spray of water up onto the Agent's suit and in his face. Dial's follow up shot grazed the Agent's knee, and he was about to fire a third when something knocked him out of the way.

The strong black man looked around wildly for his hidden assailant, and then looked back to the Agent he was fighting. Before the silver tied Agent could raise his pistol, Dial heard a shot, and the next moment a grenade hit the Agent and exploded, knocking the Agent down. The blast also destroyed what little was left of the fountain, and water started to overflow onto the cement they were fighting on.

The blonde Agent looked over to see his partner be blown away by an explosion, and so Pandora went to punch the Agent's exposed back. The Agent obviously predicted this, as he lifted his leg backwards and kicked the woman in the face. Gannon's enraged stream of firepower that followed fared no better against the Agent, but he kept trying, strafing back and forth.

Dial, seeing no evidence of where the explosion originated from, approached the Agent that was lying face down on the ground, unmoving. When he was in range he released a round from his shotgun at the Agent's head, and to his great surprise...it hit.

Blood spewed from the limp agent, but other than that, there was no reaction.

" Captain!" Dial yelled with excitement and a little confusion, " this one's not moving!"

Gannon and Pandora were backing away as they fired at the oncoming Agent, who seemed very enraged at his partner's condition.

" Keep moving Dial, he'll find another host soon!" Gannon replied. His words were followed by a yell, as a bullet from the blonde Agent's gun implanted itself in the captain's upper arm.

" Gannon!" Pandora yelled, kicking her captain out of the line of fire, only to charge at the Agent.

The Agent fired but could not hit the beautiful and deadly warrior, as she ran up his chest, and performed a bicycle kick to his face.

Pandora flipped backwards off of the Agent, keeping a pistol aimed at him, as she carefully moved back towards Gannon.

" Dial, what the hell are you doing?" Pandora yelled to the Mnemosyne's first mate. " Get over here and help us, the other Agent should be back here any second!"

Dial shook his head with a large grin on his face.

" This is different, Pandora!" Dial exclaimed. " He's dead! This isn't a host body, it's him!" Dial ripped the silver tie off of the corpse, and waved it in the air like a flag.

Pandora's eyes went wide behind her stylish sunglasses.

" That doesn't make any sense..." She said, shaking her head.

" Pan, he's getting back up." Gannon warned, as he tended to his arm, biting his lip from the pain. He stood up, ignoring his wound, and switched his gun to his uninjured arm.

As Gannon reported, the blonde haired Agent was certainly on the move again, but looked up when he heard a scream from above.

A man with white hair dressed in red leather had leaped off the top of a burning tree, and tackled the remaining Agent to the ground, firing an explosive from his grenade launcher directly on top of the Agent's chest, causing a deafening blast.

Pandora and Gannon shielded their eyes, and when they looked again, they saw the white-haired man circling the Agent like a shark. The blonde haired program's body was smoking, and he was on his hands and knees.

Pandora turned to her captain. " But, that's...."

" The Maniac?" Gannon finished. " Son of a bitch, I guess he did live. Maybe he knows what he's doing."

Pandora turned back to look at the Maniac, completely amazed. " He has to be a program."

The Maniac was wearing his signature grin of self-confidence, lazily swinging his grenade launcher around his his hand.

" Sorry to say, Agent Williams," The Maniac spoke, " but I don't think you can survive another blast."

The blonde Agent coughed out a small portion of blood.

" I can be replaced..." The program said slowly, looking over to his dead partner. " But...I do not want to be deleted." The Agent removed his sunglasses, and stared up at the Maniac, who had his grenade launcher ready to fire. " I do not want to be deleted." He repeated.

The Maniac was a little stunned.

Prostrated in front of him was a newly created Agent...pleading for his life. Begging...to let him live.

" And what, Agent Williams, would you suggest I do?" The man in red leather asked, still not taking the barrel of his weapon away from his face. " The Agents are the only thing holding this world together. It's my job to kill every single one of you bastards. If I were to let you escape, you would return to your headquarters, report what I did, and I'd have another batch of freshly cooked programs out setting more traps for me. Only then, they would think I was merciful. And to be honest with you, Agent Williams, I like instilling fear in my enemies."

The blonde Agent's face contorted, and his eyes started to water with a pitiful mix of sadness and rage. Williams swiftly took his pistol and shoved it into the Maniac's gut, firing off two rounds that cut straight threw him, coming out his back with streams of blood.

The Maniac cringed, and shook his head. He was in pain, but he maintained his posture and calm demeanor.

" You see, Agent Williams, that is why I have to eliminate you." The Maniac explained. " We are having a hard enough time trusting the machines in this newly formed peace...but we are not yet in a time where programs can be trusted."

Williams started to convulse wildly, with blue electricity circling around his body.

" I had a feeling you might try to do that." The Maniac stated, as he grabbed Williams by the collar, and lifted him into the air. Williams immediately stopped convulsing, and the blue electricity faded. The Agent looked down with terror to see he was still in the park, in the presence of the man trying to kill him.

" I'm not going to be able to escape..." Williams said with realization.

Streams of tears were falling from the Agent's eyes.

Observing the event, the crew of the Mnemosyne looked to one another with amazement. They were witnessing a broken Agent...who was crying.

" I can help." Williams offered, hanging in the air from the Maniac's arm. " I can get you information. I'll be a spy for you!"

" This from a man who just shot me twice in the stomach." The Maniac said blatantly. " I'm sorry, Agent Williams, but even a 'Double Agent' is still a program, and that means you have to be killed."

Williams closed his eyes as the Maniac shoved his grenade launcher into the blonde-haired Agent's chest, and pulled the trigger. Naturally, there was a large explosion, which temporarily blinded the crew of the Mnemosyne.

When they were able to see again, they viewed the Maniac, unharmed, standing over the unmoving body of Agent Williams.

White light emitted from the Agent's eyes, as it did from the other agent with the silver tie, and both bodies were engulfed in a tower of light, which incinerated any evidence of their existence.

The Maniac dropped his grenade launcher to the ground, and lowered his head. It seemed he actually felt a bit of remorse for the Agent he had just killed...never before had a suit-clad menace begged for his life, nor made an offer to help their cause. The white haired man frowned as he considered what type of Agents he would be fighting in the future, as they seemed to be becoming less and less machine...and more and more human.

Gannon stood up, his hand on his injured arm.

" We meet again, Maniac." Gannon said, as the rest of Mnemosyne's crew gathered around him. " And once again you seem to have saved our lives."

The white haired man turned to Gannon with his smug smile, and laughed.

" Good to see you too, Captain." The Maniac replied.

Gannon froze, and his two crew-mates were equally overcome with shock.

" Wh...what did you call me?" Gannon stuttered to ask.

" What the hell is this guy talking about?" Dial added.

The Maniac paused and looked confused, and then smiled.

" I guess the white hair is kind of throwing you off." The Maniac said, running his hand through his cropped white hair. " Sorry to get ahead of you guys like that, but I knew Morpheus and Niobe would need my help."

Gannon was looking increasingly confused, and then Pandora gasped.

She recognized the smug smile, and suddenly the face looked more familiar then ever. She turned to her captain.

" Oh my God," Pandora said, still in awe, " Gannon...it's Nighten."

(End of Chapter 6)

In response to reviews:

LiMiYa- Yeah, with this new confederation of Agents, you'll start too see a lot of differences in them. And I think you'll have a lot of fun with the twists to come.