Author's Notes: One—okay, after consulting a script of The Matrix, I realised that I've left a lot of stuff out. For instance, the two following scenes. So, totally disregard what happens for the next two scenes having anything to do with the story. Two—there following scenes contain explicit language during some scenes, so, if you don't think you can handle it, read it anyway. I mean, it's not gonna kill ya...probably. Three—this is my longest chapter yet, so get ready to be reading for a while. Finally, four—I am sorry that I missed putting this chapter up yesterday. I was busy, and did not have a lot of time to do write it. But, it's up now, don't worry.
Chapter 7: A Lot of Stuff Happening at Once (I can't think of a good title for this chapter)There seemed to be trouble aboard the Nebucadnezzar. Neo was not quite sure what was going on, but everyone was in the control room, looking very nervous.
"Sorry, I fell asleep there," said Neo. "What'd I miss?"
"There are some squids near here," said Apoc, as he examined one of the computer screens.
"Squids? What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas in goin' bye-bye."
"Hey, you already used that line!"
"Oh, yeah."
"Learn your lines, Cypher," said Trinity. "Anyway, squid is a nickname for a Sentinel, which are robots that are designed for one thing."
"What's that?"
"Search and destroy."
"Uh-oh. That doesn't sound too good."
"Also, they advertise for Arby's restaurants."
"Oh, god! This is awful!"
"How long until they find us, Tank?" asked Morpheus.
"I'd say about...two minutes."
"Uh-oh."
"Oh, I'm sorry. One minute. My watch is broke."
"Oh, this has gone from bad to worse!" cried Morpheus. "Do we have an EMP ready?"
"Fully loaded," replied Tank.
"Good."
"EMP?" asked Neo.
"Electro-Magnetic Pulse," replied Trinity. "It's a wave of electricity that shuts down any electronics in the area."
"Electricity makes electronics shut off?"
"Yes."
"That makes no sense."
"Neither does any of this movie, but try to pay attention."
"Shut up!" snapped Morpheus.
"You shut up!"
"Fire the EMP."
"Okay, one second..."
There was the sound of the Nebucadnezzar powering off.
VVVVVVvvvvvv..."Okay, be very quiet," said Trinity. "I'm hunting wabbits."
"You're talking by telling me to be quiet, so you should be quiet, too."
"You be quiet!"
"No, you!"
"Shut up!"
"You shut up!"
"You wanna go?"
"All take you on any day, wimp! You think you're so cool just 'cause you got a cookie from The Oracle!"
"Seriously, guys, be quiet!" snapped Morpheus.
The crew of the Nebucadnezzar stared out the window of the cockpit, and saw a horrible machine. It had tentacles swinging out of it like whips, spikes jutting out of it like a warning to not get too close near it, a dozen red, glaring robotic eyes, and a large sign saying, "Arby's New Market Fresh Sandwiches! They Taste Good!"
"GAAH!" screamed Neo. "Apostle of the Devil!"
"Be quiet!" snapped Morpheus.
There was a long pause.
"Okay, it's gone."
"Good. Now, as I was saying, I deserved that cookie!"
Cypher sat alone in the control room, working on the computers. He didn't hear Neo walk up.
"Hey, Cypher, is it okay if I use your toothbrush? I dropped mine in the toilet."
"GAH! Neo, don't sneak up on a guy like that!"
"Sorry."
"Now, what were you saying about my toothbrush? No, you can't use it!"
"Oh, well, I already did. I just wanted to see if you cared."
"Um..."
"So, what's that on the screen?"
"That's my screensaver."
"Cool! What are all those symbols?"
"Actually, I programmed it to display the words 'Cypher is Cool' over and over again, but it messed up, so now it's just a bunch of Japanese symbols. Stupid language packs..."
"You need to get Windows."
"Yeah...anyway, want a drink?"
"No."
"Well, I'll give it to you anyway."
Cypher handed Neo a glass of some clear drink. Neo drank it.
"Man, this tastes horrible! What is this? Engine greaser?"
"No, it's Sprite from Arby's."
"Okay, I think the Arby's joke has gotten kinda stale."
"I agree. Well, the author couldn't think of any other joke."
"Oh."
"Hey, did Morpheus tell you why you're hear?"
"He says that I'm The One."
"You're not the first. So far, I've seen five people that Morpheus believed was The One get killed by agents."
"Well...maybe that's 'cause they weren't One-ish enough."
"Haha. You're cute, but no. If you see an agents, do what we do and run."
"Will do!"
"That's the spirit! When the going gets tough, the tough run away from computer programs!"
Author's Notes: Okay, back on track. From here on in, I'm starting from the part right after Neo, Morpheus, and for some reason, everyone else, are leaving The Oracle's apartment building.
As Neo, Morpheus, and for some reason, everyone else, walked down the stairs to the ground floor, Neo looked over and saw a cat walked past a doorway. A few seconds later, another cat walked by that looked just like it.
"Déjà vu," said Neo.
"What did you say?" asked Trinity nervously.
"I just had déjà vu."
"Oh, no."
"What?"
"Déjà vu is a glitch in The Matrix. It's usually caused when they change something."
"Like, the outcome of the Nicks game?"
"Um...no."
"Damn. I had money on that game."
"Moron."
"I know what it is," said Morpheus. "Let's go!"
"Well, I had déjà vu at The Oracle's apartment, too."
"You did? Okay, then we have to kill The Oracle."
Meanwhile, Mouse, for some unexplained reason, was sitting on a couch in some fancy room in the building looking at a porno photo of the woman in the red dress.
Just then, Mouse's cell phone rung.
"Mouse," said Morpheus' voice, "Neo had déjà vu. Get out of there right now."
Mouse's eyes darted up. He knew that the agents would be coming to the door, so he needed to get to the window. He shot off the couch and to the window. He flung back the drapes, only to see what had been changed—the window of Mouse's room had been changed to a brick wall. He was trapped.
"Uh-oh."
He paused, and turned around. The door to the room was already opened, and agents had already come in. Mouse took out the two machine guns he had brought along with him, in case something bad happened. He began firing hundreds of rounds off at the agents. With super-human speed, the agents dodged every single one of the bullets until Mouse was empty.
That was when the agents took out their guns. They fired ten, short shots straight at his chest.
Meanwhile, back on the Nebucadnezzar, Tank watched as the heart monitor above Mouse's body began to slow down. He saw that Mouse's real-world body was thrashing violently, as if being shot repeatedly. And, the second The Matrix told Mouse that he was dead, Tank saw as Mouse's heart monitor stopped entirely. The Flatline alarm sounded. Mouse was dead.
"Well, I didn't see that coming," said Tank.
Back in The Matrix, Morpheus could see that the agents had called in the police, and there were dozens of squad cars closing in on them.
"Oh, shit," said Morpheus.
"They've called in the fuzz!" cried Trinity. "Cheese it!"
"Trinity, give me your phone!"
"But, they'll be able to track it!"
"Doesn't matter!"
"But, I got this phone half price at a Radio Shack sale!"
"Yeah, but it's an AT and T phone, so it's worthless. Give me it."
"Fine."
Trinity handed Morpheus her cell phone. Morpheus quickly dialed a number.
"Operator," said Tank's voice.
"Tank, answering the phone 'Operator' isn't funny anymore."
"Sorry."
"I need a map of this building, fast."
Tank began typing rapidly on his keyboard.
"Got it."
"I need the main wet-wall."
"The 8th floor."
"The 8th floor," Morpheus told the others.
They followed Tank through the 8th floor, until they found a weak pressure point wall.
Of course, the line was tapped, and Agent Smith could hear everything that was being said through his ear microphone.
"The 8th floor," he told the police. Him and the police ran up the stairs to the 8th floor and looked around. They did not see Morpheus, Trinity, Switch, Apoc or Neo anywhere. Fortunately, they didnot see the large hole punched through in the wall in the bathroom.
At that moment, the three of them were climbing down the small space between the walls, using the pipes as footholds.
Eventually, one of the policemen heard the small sound of whispering.
"THEY'RE IN THE WALLS!" he yelled automatically. The agents and the other policemen did not need to pause. They all opened fire at the walls, hoping that one of their shots would hit one of them.
None of the shots had hit any of them yet, but they were coming damn close. The bullets began blasting holes in the walls and the pipes.
"I'll hold them off!" Morpheus yelled to Trinity. "Get Neo out! It's the only thing that matters! Well, that, and who wins the Superbowl. But mainly Neo!"
Neo thought about how The Oracle had said that he wasn't The One. He also knew that Morpheus believed that he was The One. Morpheus was going to have himself killed so that Neo could survive. Between the life of the leader of the humans, and Neo's life, Neo knew that he should be the one to die.
"No!" screamed Neo. "Don't go!"
"Get out of here, Neo!" yelled Morpheus. "You're more important than me!"
"But—"
"Go!"
Neo groaned, and began to lower himself down the walls.
"This is going to be one of those 'I told you so' things, isn't it?" he grunted.
They climbed to the basement and smashed through the walls. There were more police there. After a couple of gun shots and a lot of kung fu, they were all dead. They four of them found a catch basin, and climbed in.
Back on the 8th floor, Agent Smith was examining Morpheus."The great Morpheus. We meet at last."
"Yo."
"'Sup?"
"No'in' much."
"Me too."
"Sweet."
"I'm down."
"Who are you?"
"Agent Smith."
"All of you agents look the same."
"Speaking of which, did you know that Conan O'Brian is actually an—"
"Aren't you supposed to be fighting me?"
"Oh, right. Okay, let's get this over with so I can kidnap you.
There was a huge kung fu sequence, lots of bullet-time shots, and a lot of stunt wire. After a minute, Morpheus was easily lying on the ground, too tired to keep moving.
"That was easy," commented Agent Smith. "Take 'im."
Dozens of police officers rushed into the room; too many for Morpheus to fight. He had been captured.
Cypher, meanwhile, had been caught by the police and brought to the agents. He had been set free, of course, and then he had devised a plan to find out where the rest of them would go, to help the agents. He called Tank.
"Operator."
"I need an exit."
"Cypher?"
"Yeah. There's been a car accident. My squad car crashed. I'm out now."
"Oh. Well, there's a phone at Franklin and Erie, at an appliance store."
"Thanks, man! You're my saviour! My own personal Jesus Christ!"
"Hmm...isn't it a coincidence that you look just like the guy who said that line?"
"I guess."
Cypher hung up.
"Franklin and Erie," he said to the agents.
"Operator."
"It's Trinity. I need an exit."
"Franklin and Erie."
"Okay, thanks."
"You're not far from Cypher."
"Cypher? I thought the police got him."
"Not anymore."
"Okay, bye."
Cypher got to the appliance shop first. He heard the phone ringing. He picked it up.
Back on the Nebucadnezzar, Cypher's real body jerked back into reality. He got out of the chair and past Tank, who was examining the proximity of the others to the appliance shop. Cypher went to the back of the room, and picked up something that was only to be used in emergencies—a high-powered atomic laser radiated rifle.
Back in The Matrix, Neo, Trinity, Switch and Apoc had reached the shop. They heard the phone ringing."I love the sound of a phone ringing in The Matrix," said Switch.
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning," said Apoc.
"Déjà vu!" said Neo.
"Okay, kill Apoc," said Trinity.
Meanwhile, back on the Nebucadnezzar, just as the others were about to get into the shop, Cypher called to Tank, "Hey, Tank!"
Tank turned around. "Yeah?"
"Look at this awesome new toy I got!"
Cypher held up the laser rifle.
"What is that? Is it like, a laser?"
"Yeah, it's a laser pointer."
"Cool."
"My new laser pointer."
"Cool."
"Want to see it work?"
"Yeah, totally!"
"Tank!" cried Dozer, from across the room. He ran up to Tank's body.
"You killed him!" yelled Tank. He got up, and ran towards Cypher, his arms outstretched.
BLAM!Both Tank and Dozer were now dead.
Cypher noticed something on the screen. Trinity had picked up the phone. Cypher walked over to the microphone and said into it, "Operator."
"Cypher?" asked Trinity.
"Wassup?"
"Wassup!"
"Wasssah!"
"Wasssssah!"
"Aaahhhhhh!"
"Aaahhhhhhh!
"Aaaaahhhhhh!"
"Okay, we should stop now."
"Yeah."
"So, where's Tank?"
"Dead."
"Dead?"
"I shot him."
"You little—!"
"You know, for a long time, I was in love with you, Trinity. I had dreams about you."
"You killed Tank, didn't you?"
"No!" yelled Apoc.
"Oh, god!" yelled Switch.
"I'm tired, Trinity," Cypher replied. "I'm tired of this war, I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of this ship, of being cold, of eating the same fucking goop every day. But most of all, I'm tired of this jagoff and all of his bullshit."
Cypher's eyes wandered over to Morpheus' body, unconscious. His mind was in The Matrix, perfectly vulnerable to outside harm.
Trinity now realized how Morpheus had been captured so easily.
"You gave Morpheus to the police, didn't you?"
"Yeah, so what if I did?"
"You son of a—how could you do that?"
"Easy! It was actually pretty fun, really!" responded Cypher. "I believe that humans have a place in the world, and the real world is not it."
"But The Matrix isn't real."
"I disagree. I think The Matrix is more real than the real world. For instance, all I see is me pulling the switch. You have to see Apoc dying."
"Those aren't the right lines."
"Who cares? DEAD!"
Trinity watched as Apoc's eyes rolled back into his head, and his body slumped to the ground, completely lifeless.
"Well, you don't see that every day," commented Trinity.
"And, if you have anything you've always wanted to say to Switch, I suggest you do it now."
"Okay," said Neo, hearing Cypher's voice from the cell phone. "Switch, I love y—"
Switch collapsed to the ground.
"Too late," said Cypher.
"Damn!" said Neo.
"But, you've been unplugged," said Trinity. "You can't go back."
Cypher made a buzzing noise.
"That's what Morpheus the cock sucker wants you to think. But the agents will put me back to sleep, and when I wake up, I'll be rich, fat, and I won't remember a goddamn thing. God bless America!"
"God damn you, Cypher!" yelled Trinity.
"Hmm...I wonder what the human's rebellion would be with the absence of Neo."
"Cypher, you wouldn't..."
"If he's really The One, then I shouldn't be able to pull the plug, should I? Need to a god damn miracle to stop me!"
Trinity looked at Neo nervously.
"What?" he said. "What are you staring at me for? Do I have something in my teeth?"
Cypher smiled.
"You never did answer me, Trinity," he said. "Do you believe Morpheus' bullshit? Do you believe that this fucking moron in The One?"
There was a long pause. And then, Trinity muttered her answer so quiet, that Neo could not hear.
"Yes."
"WHAT?" yelled Cypher. "YOU BELIEVE THAT ASSHOLE IS THE ONE? I DON'T BELIEVE IT!"
Cypher did not notice a charred yet still alive Tank aim the laser rifle at him.
"Believe it or not, you'll burn in Hell, you piece of shit!"
BLAM!
Cypher was dead. For good.
By now, Trinity had hung up the phone. For the past few seconds, she had been expecting Neo to fall to the ground, dead. But he did not. After a few seconds, the phone rang again. They knew that it must've been someone other than Cypher.
"You first," said Neo.
Trinity picked up the phone. She then felt herself lying down in the seat on the Nebucadnezzar. She opened her eyes. Tank was there.
"Tank, you're hurt."
"I'll be okay."
"Dozer?"
Tank looked down.
"Gone."
"I'm so sorry..."
"It's okay."
"What about the mindless swearing?"
Tank looked down.
"Gone."
"I'm so sorry..."
"It's okay."
Neo opened his eyes a few seconds later.
The Matrix. Government office building. Agent Smith was interrogating Morpheus. Agent Jones was attaching electrodes to his brain, to see what he was thinking at any given time. He was on a chair in the middle of the room on the top floor, a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. Agent Smith was staring out the window at the huge city that lay before them.
"It's beautiful, isn't it, Morpheus?" asked Smith. "Six billion on this planet, people, all so...oblivious."
He walked over to Morpheus.
"When The Matrix was created, we let the humans know it was all virtual reality. No, it wasn't real, but everyone would always be happy. The world was perfect. But still, no one accepted the program, and entire crops were lost. Agent Thompson accidentally set them on fire. But if anyone asks, it was the human's fault.
"That is when we saw that human beings define reality through pain and suffering, so we made the world normal, with crime, death, pain, suffering...and the humans accepted it. Well, they didn't accept it; it was more of a they-didn't-know-it-was-virtual-since-we didn't-tell-them-this-time sort of thing.
"The perfect world was a world that humans always wanted to get out of. So The Matrix was re-designed, to the turn of the century. The peak of your civilization. Or should I say, since this was the dawning of artificial intelligence, the peak of our civilization?"
Agent Smith turned to Agent Jones.
"Double the dosage," he said.
Agent Brown came in.
"We've got trouble," he said.
Back on the Nebucadnezzar, Tank was watching Morpheus' life support monitor carefully. He seemed to be concerned.
"What is it?" asked Neo.
"They're hacking into his brain."
"How?"
"The inject a serum into his brain to disable his alpha waves. It's like hacking a computer. All it takes is time."
"How much time?"
"Depends on the mind. But eventually, all minds crack, and then his brain will look like this."
Tank turned to the screen. There was a brain wave monitor on the screen. It looked like a heart monitor for your brain. Tank typed a few buttons, and soon, the brain wave bar stopped moving. It was perfectly still.
"If this happens," said Tank, "Then he would tell Smith anything he wants him to. He would give out the access codes to Zion's mainframe. If the agents had that code, they could hack into the defense system and render Zion completely powerless to prevent invasion."
"And...that's bad?"
There was a pause.
"Just how stupid are you?"
"Very!"
"Okay, shut up, then."
"Will do!"
Meanwhile, in the government building...
"Never send a human to do a machine's job," said Agent Smith.
"If, indeed, Reagan had failed," said Agent Brown, "They will sever the connection as soon as possible, unless—"
"They are dead," said Agent Jones. "In either case—"
"We have no choice but to continue as planned," said Agent Smith. "Deploy the sentinels. Immediately."
"Sentence fragment!" yelled Agent Brown.
"'Sentence fragment' is a sentence fragment," said Agent Smith.
"Umm...I knew that."
Back on the Nebucadnezzar...
The three survivors, Neo, Tank, and Trinity, were trying to figure out what to do in a situation like this.
"There has to be something we can do," said Trinity.
"There is," said Tank. "We have to kill Morpheus."
"What?""Dude, I'm not killing Morpheus!"
"Why not?""Déjà vu!" said Neo.
"What?" groaned Trinity.
"Well, there's this show that I used to watch in The Matrix called South Park, and—"
"Neo, honestly, if you keep having déjà vu, we're gonna have to kill you, too."
"Sorry."
Tank looked up.
"You know we can't let the agents know the codes," he said.
"I know, but still..."
"It's our only choice."
"I know...alright. We'll pull the plug."
Neo looked up and paused.
If it was him or Morpheus who was going going to die, it would not be Morpheus. He needed some way to stop Tank from killing Morpheus. But what could he do?
Tank stood next to Morpheus' lifeless body.
"Morpheus, you were more than our leader," he said in a sad tone. "You were... our father. We will miss you, always."
Tank's hand closed around the plug, and just as he was about to pull the life support off of Morpheus—
"STOP!" yelled Neo.
"What?" groaned Trinity in an annoyed tone. "Did you have déjà vu again?"
"No, not that," said Neo. "Well, yeah, I did, but that doesn't matter! It's The Oracle. She told me that I wasn't The One. And I know realize that Morpheus would be willing to sacrafice his life, the one life that could lead the humans to beat The Matrix, to save my useless life, who he believes is the life of The One. I can't let him die to save me."
Tank and Trinity stared at him.
"What can you do?" she asked.
Neo paused and walked over to the chair.
"I'm going in after him."
There was a long pause.
"Fine," muttered Tank. "Kill yourself. See if I care."
"Hey!"
Author's Notes: Tomorrow, Neo's true fate, and that awesome government lobby scene! Stay tuned!