Me: Welcome... to the Desert... of the Real.
Shi: Ah, quiet, you. She just finished Chapter Five this morning, and she was reading the script of The Matrix a little while ago, so she's right wired off it now. Don't mind her, though.
Primrose: Master is really happy, too. She finished a hole chapter in just two days! It usually takes her at least a week.
Me: Hey! Shut it, Rosie! With five people in the family, I don't often get a lot of time on the computer. Anyway, you know what to do, Bob.
Bob: Aibou doesn't own The Matrix or Beyblade. She does, however, own the Helm and it's crew.
Chapter Five
TVs, Squiddies, and Death Threats
When the Blade Breakers arrived in the white oblivion, they were – to say the least – dubious. Cire and Omni appeared to appear out of nowhere, popping up behind them, sitting in armchairs. The beybladers didn't notice them at first, as they were looking off into the distance. It was all white, everywhere... even if they looked down, all they saw was white, there didn't appear to be any solid floor.
"Welcome to the Construct," Cire's voice came, making them jump. The group whirled around and saw the two resting in the comfortable chairs.
Kai, once again, flipped at them. "What the hell is this place?!"
Omni stood up calmly, a slightly hypnotic look on her face. "Has Cire told you about what started the war? The birth of AI?"
Hilary nodded slightly, and asked, "Is it really true?"
"Of course it is," replied the Captain. "Kai, you wanted to know what this place is, right? It is our loading program. A blank slate in which we can come up with anything we want. Guns, clothes, chairs, anything at all."
As usual, The normally quiet Kai was disbelieving. "Nonsense."
"Look at you, Kai. Look at yourself!" shouted the girl. "The plugs on your body have disappeared! Your hair's grown back! You are wearing your normal clothes!"
Looking at each other, the Blade Breakers realized that what Omni was saying was right. "This cannot be real," Ray said. "Either that, or the other place isn't real, because your hair can't grow back in a matter of seconds."
"When you look at yourself now, you are only seeing an image of yourself, you are seeing what you looked like inside the Matrix. That is what we call Residual Self Image – the mental projection of your digital self," Cire explained.
Kai took a deep breath, and looked like he was going to begin shouting again, but Omni beat him to it. "You are going to ask, 'What the fuck is the Matrix', aren't you?"
Hiwatari was taken back. She'd predicted exactly what he was going to say, word for word. "How –?"
"Did I know what you were about to say?" interrupted Captain Omni. He nodded. "Simple, really. You tend to asked the most obvious – yet in a way, the most important – questions. And if you're wondering how I got the wording... you love saying the word 'fuck'. I wonder why..."
"Shut up and answer the goddamn question!" he yelled.
"I think I should explain a word that Ray brought up first," Cire said. "Real. Somebody explain what you think real is."
Hilary, who had always loved answering the teacher's questions, piped up. "Real is everything. It is what you can see, taste, smell, touch, and here."
"If you believe that to be an acceptable answer," said the adult, "then real is only electrical signals interpreted by your brain. And if so, then the Matrix is real."
Tyson then began to whine. "This is confusing. My brain hurts."
"That's because you've never used it before," Hilary whispered to him.
"The Matrix is where you lived. The air you breathed, the food you ate, the television programs you watched, the computers you typed on, the roses you smelt, the songs you heard... everything you thought was real, it was all the Matrix," the ship's captain explained. "And the Matrix is, well, a control to keep us humans in order."
"Where are we now, then?" inquired Ray.
"Right now," said Cire, "we are in our loading program."
Tyson seemed to be putting two and two together. "Are you saying," he slowly began, "that right now... we're in a ... computer program?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Omni delightfully. "Exactly!" Most of the group listened to what she'd just said, and were still not buying it. "Is it really that hard to believe? I mean, look at how advanced you were inside the Matrix. Kenny could do almost anything on his laptop that he wanted. Satellite signals could be sent worldwide so you could get TV program from halfway across the world. Men have gone into space. Now, think about how advanced you people would be several centuries from now."
Kai looked thoughtful for a while, and suddenly began to talk. "If what you are saying is true... if it really is several centuries in the future from when we think it is... if, for the last almost two decades, we have been living in this dream world you call the Matrix... then... what the hell does the world look like now?"
"Why don't you sit down and see for yourself?" Omni asked. They looked at her questioningly, but soon Tyson saw a television.
"TV!" he exclaimed. "Quick! Check if Astro Boy is on!"
Cire shook his head, and turned on the TV. It showed a picture of what looked to be New York City. "This is the world as it was in the year 2000. It exists now only as a control simulation to keep us asleep and in order." He must have pressed a button, because soon it showed a blackened sky with dark buildings. "This is the world as it is today." Once again, the screen changed, now showing them endless rows of tower-like structures that had what looked like pink pods covering them. Spider-like things were crawling from pod to pod. "There are fields, kids, endless fields were humans aren't born, but simply grown. If you remember back to when I gave you all a history lesson this morning, I told you that we blocked out the Sun, right?"
Max nodded. "Right... what does this have to do with the fields?"
"Well," Omni picked up, "these fields provided an endless supply of power. The Harvesters liquefy the dead and feed them to the living. The machines made the Matrix so that we would not wake up."
Kai seemed to be starting to believe some of what these people were saying. "Well, how come there are people outside of the Matrix?"
"You're beginning to believe," Cire said. "You see, there was a man born inside the Matrix. It is said that he could edit the Matrix to be what he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us. And he taught us the truth – 'As long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be free.'"
"So, he's kind of like your God, or Jesus, or something," Ty said.
Slowly, Cire nodded. "I guess, in a way... Anyway, when he died, the Oracle prophesized his return. It is believed that when he returns, he will destroy the Matrix, end the war, and bring freedom to our people."
"Cool," Ty said.
Throughout the day, the Bladers kept to themselves, and stayed in their rooms. Kenny and Emily brought them food, and went to socialized with their other friends, knowing that the Blade Breakers would want to keep to themselves.
"Jeez, Ken, were they always this uptight?" inquired Dee, as they ate their supper in the mess hall.
Everybody but Cire, Omni, and Strife was there. Two or three people were always one duty, no matter what time it was.
"Well, Kai's always been, and Tyson's just been a goof-off. Hilary was really strict all the time," Kenny told them. "Max and Ray were just neutral, though, ya know?"
Dea nodded. "How do you think they're taking it? Inside, I mean, knowing that their entire lives haven't been real?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I suppose they're still a bit skeptical, believing and yet at the same time, not. They're just wondering how they got themselves messed up in all this," replied the boy. "After I got freed, I remember I was constantly thinking of what would've happened if I had taken the blue pill. I soon realized, though, that if I had taken the blue pill, I would never have felt fulfilled in life."
Emily smiled slightly. "That's deep, Chief. I was still freaking out over my hair at that point. For weeks I felt like strangling somebody." The cafeteria instantly filled with laughter. "What?" she said loudly. "I did!"
"I don't blame you," Blaze said from across the table. "Before I was freed, I had beautiful, flowing, elbow-length hair, a fiery shade of red, and I always kept it down..." She sighed heavily. "But I prefer it shorter now, though. Gets in the way if it's too long." Blaze ran her hand through her hair, which was still red, though only shoulder-length. When she'd been Beyblading the day before, however, it had gone to pretty well to her elbows. "Hey, Dea, what was your hair like?"
Dea thought for a moment, remembering back to before she'd been 'unplugged'. Her hair was basically the same as it had been in the Matrix; dirty blonde, just passed her shoulders, although in the real world she didn't have highlights. "Oh, it used to be pure blonde... Hey shut up, guys!"
Three of the boys had started snickering, because of her history as a blonde. "Sorry," they muttered.
"Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I was a blonde. My parents always put my hair in braids, two braids. I despised it! Never told her, though... never did... If there's one thing I regret, it's not being truthful with them."
"Jesus, the one thing I regret is just disappearing, and then not letting my friends know I'm okay. They were worried sick. Still are, I think," replied Emily
Kenny said, "Me too. I'm curious about why my idiot friends didn't think of looking at my laptop sooner, though."
"So I'm an idiot now?" a voice came from the doorway. Everyone jumped at the sound of the voice, and when they turned around, Kai was standing there, with Ray along side him.
"That's not what I meant!" Kenny said in an exasperated voice.
Ray smiled slightly. "What did you mean, then, Chief?"
"Well, you guys should've known to check my laptop. I spent hours on that thing!" he replied. "And the odd thing is, Tyson is the one that thought of it..."
Just as Emily opened her mouth to speak, the lights shut off.
"Hey, what's the deal?!" Kai nearly yelled.
In the distance, they heard Hilary scream. "Shit," Emily's voice said. "Holy shit. I'll go get Hil. Kenny, go get Max and Tyson."
"Right," Kenny said, and Kai and Ray felt them pass.
"What the hell is going on?!" questioned Kai.
Several more people rushed passed. "You talk too fucking much, you know that?" Blaze's voice came. "Phantom, Tochi, Geichu, lead them to the cockpit. We'll go on up ahead."
"Alright," agreed Geichu. "This way, guys."
Omni and Cire were sitting in the drivers' seats when everyone got there. On a small blue pad between the two, a hologram came up, showing two weird- looking squid-like things.
"What the hell are they?" inquired Kai in a normal voice.
"Squiddies," Kenny replied. "Sentinels. Machines designed for one mission."
In the darkness, the Captain smiled. "Search and destroy." Then, talking into her headset, she whispered, "Is the EMP fully charged?"
"Yes, ma'am," replied the quiet voice of Strife. "Whenever you're ready."
"EMP?" wondered Max aloud.
Emily replied, "Electromagnetic pulse. Shuts down anything within the blast radius. It's the only defense we've got."
"Shhhhhh..." soothed Omni. Looking out the window, two large machines identical to the holographic 'Squiddies' came into view. They halted, and looked around. The arm of one change into what looked like a satellite dish. Then both of them went off. The cockpit filled with sighs of relief as Omni said to Strife, "They're gone."
On cue, the lights flickered back to life. "You're not lying about all this," came Hilary's voice. "It's all true..."
"Where the hell are we?" inquired Tyson.
As people began to file out, Omni said, "As you probably well know, there used to be huge cities that took up hundreds of miles. They were destroyed. These old service and waste systems are all that's left." Seeing the puzzled look of Tyson's face, she added, "They're sewers, kiddo."
"Eww..." was his reply. "Why did you shut off the lights anyway?"
Emily shook her head. "Idiot. It was so we could charge the EMP."
"EMP?" inquired Tyson stupidly.
At this point, Dee, who'd taken Cire's place when he left with the others, snapped. "You idiot, haven't you been listening to a single word we've said?!"
"Jeez, I'm sorry, calm down," Tyson said.
Kenny, sensing trouble, suggested, "Why don't back to the cafeteria and chat with the others?"
The group agreed, and everyone but Omni went back to the cafeteria. Everybody else was there, except for Strife.
"So, did you guys have family back there?" inquired Blaze to the new recruits.
Tyson was stumped. "Back where?"
"In the Matrix," replied a frustrated Emily.
They each nodded. Tyson said, "I lived with my Grandpa, and I saw my Dad every now and then."
"I lived with the Elders when I was younger, but I left them to go exploring," Ray told them.
Kai said ashamedly, "I lived with my Grandfather Voltaire when I was younger, but he's in prison now."
"My mom and Dad are separated, and I live with my father, but I see my Mom pretty often," said Max.
Hilary just sat there, staring at one of the walls.
A couple of the guys got up to leave. Just as they went through the entryway, Tyson ran up to them.
"What do you want?" one of them asked. He was about 5'7", and had cinnamon hair that was slicked back. Thinking back, Tyson realized this boy was KC.
"So, what's it like being shacked up with all these girls?" Ty asked them.
KC looked slightly befuddled. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, like, um, did you ever get to second base with any of them?"
In a split second, Tyson was pinned to the wall, his feet several inches above the floor, with KC's hand around his neck. "If you or you friends ever," he spat, "harm or make a move on any of these girls, we will not hesitate to beat you, cut you, or break your bones. We will cut off your fingers, then your toes, then your limbs, one by one, and then, we will cut out your foul tongue. Is that clear?"
At first, Tyson thought they were only fooling around, but noticing the serious look on the boys' faces, he loudly gulped. "Clear as crystal."
Me: How did you like it? Why not review it? Ask any questions, give me suggestions, or just comment. Anyway, I'm working really hard on Chapter Six, and I hope to get it up by this weekend, alrighty? No promises, though...