Thanks to all reviewers, as what is almost always, replies are at the end of the chapter.
Phrase for the fortnight: The only thing that made me feel better was the thought of ripping out your entrails.
Just so you know, I never played 'Enter the Matrix' and my knowledge of the Logos, its crew and so forth is marginal at best. If I screw anything up then please tell me and I'll try to correct it.
Note to self, must end with a cliffhanger.
Chapter 18: No.
It was a few seconds before I could inhale; the new knowledge and accompanying headache were swimming about in my cranium. In the corner of my eye I noticed that Sparks, my sadistic operator, was busy loading another disk in to the unreasonably large machine he was perched in front of. I gripped the sides of the chair and prepared for another upload, or is it download? Ah who cares?
It was an unspeakably weird experience. You'd expect the seemingly constant influx of knowledge to overwhelm you, assuming of course the headaches didn't. In reality though, everything that was shoved in my brain was as clear as a disturbingly large phone bill. Part of me kept wondering however whether or not my head was going to explode.
"How's he doing?' I recognised the voice as Niobe's. Shortly before receiving a short, thorough and painful crash course in how to drive motorbikes.
"Four hours, no screaming."
"How many of these disks are there?" I groaned from my seat.
"Almost two days worth." Sparks chortled in reply.
I resisted the urge to groan with despair and instead inhaled sharply as another heap of pain was shoved into my head.
*******************************************************************
There were about fifteen of them.
The first thing I noticed was that three of them were lying on the leaf strewn floor; they looked as if they'd been burned to death via a lightning strike. I didn't have time to wonder how they'd ended up in that state however as the first guy came at me with what looked like a Samurai sword.
I barely managed to dodge the first swing, it was aimed just below the ribs, making it all that more difficult to avoid. These guys weren't your bog standard half wit demon. They were professionals, with a very good chance of killing us.
I was slightly quicker with my gun then he was with his sword. I fired twice, once into what was probably his heart, once into his chest. The force of the bullet entering at such a close range would have hit him like a battering ram, thereby preventing any further pestiferous swipes of his sword.
The rest of the group, who had moved a few steps behind me, drew their own guns and fired into the ranks of suavely dressed programs. Unlike their fallen comrade however, they knew the bullets were coming and dodged them with ease. It soon became apparent that this was going to come down to a fist fight.
I stowed my gun hastily, drew both of my arm mounted swords and advanced towards the enemy.
*******************************************************************
After what was apparently eight hours, which felt more like eight minutes. (Perception of time goes to hell when you're getting mounds of shit shoved in your head.) Anyway, I found myself sitting in the mess hall pushing my spoon back and forth in the bowl of runny ooze which I had been condemned to eat.
The first time I tried it, it felt like I was eating my own vomit. I remember thinking how the stereotypes about healthy food were true in the real world, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't the only sodding food.
Sorry, I'm drifting from the subject, my head was throbbing slightly, but the painkillers that Ghost handed me after I left the chair had dealt with the worst of it. I took the moment o solitude to reflect upon what had happened to my life over the last few months. I'd been doing this quite a lot recently. In spite of everything that had happened, the situation still, at times, was difficult to believe. The annoyingly frequent dreams of my old life weren't helping. Especially when I usually saw Seamus die in them.
I doubted it was the same Morpheus, like I said, there were thousands of them, and why a freedom fighter would want to blow up a café was, at the time, a mystery to me. Still, the name wasn't the easiest one to hear, or think about.
I told myself that I'd have to get used to it however, at the same time as the proximity alarm sounded. Panic took hold for a few seconds before the 'training' kicked in. I shot out of the door and towards one of the gun turrets.
*******************************************************************
I buried the sword as far into the program as I could before pulling it out and swinging it at a program who was sneaking up behind me with what looked like a butcher knife in hand. My sword impacted about halfway up his neck and cut downwards at about a 33 degree angle. The head rolled slightly on the mud before coming to a halt, the face looked bizarrely peaceful. I guess he didn't have time to scream.
Two kills in a matter of seconds is a rare occurrence for me, I usually only scrape one in a single attack on the demons, it was the reason I was doing so poorly on the head count. Anyway, the enemy were thinning out now, and a quick glance over my surroundings told me that everyone was still alive.
About ten metres away I noticed that Hawk was having a harder time then was usual in dealing with a program that was wielding a broadsword. I retracted the sword on my right hand, drew the gun from the holster in my coat, took aim, and watched in horror as the sword passed through Hawk's stomach.
My mind froze. This time it was worse then it had been after my first kill. I stared at Hawk's corpse in utter disbelief, unable to do anything else. Part of me wanted to fall to the floor and sleep, or at least block out the world as much as was possible, another, more influential part of me had a better idea.
I scream as I emptied my remaining bullets at the program. Either I was quicker then he was, or I'd startled him or something, because all but two of my seven bullets smashed into him. Sick satisfaction filled me as his head exploded with the third shot. This was quickly replaced however as I noticed Hawks, bloodied, twitching body on the…
Twitching?
That's pretty much how it happened. I stared in a sense of shock that almost matched the first as Hawk slowly clawed her way to her feet. The gun in my hand dropped to the floor and I moved over towards her.
"What?" She asked in response to my dumbstruck expression.
"Oh," she said suddenly in understanding before grinning at me, revealing her bloodstained teeth, "I'm a Vampire Wanderer, remember? It takes a wooden stake through the heart to kill me."
"What," I cut myself off, feeling chocked with relief and confussion, "um," I cut myself off again, there seemed to be nothing to say and I was beginning to feel somewhat embarrassed.
"Come on," she said, staring at the hole in her jumper, the wound had vanished. More tricks of editing, "we should probably get inside."
To be continued.
Right, now for replies:
Angel-Of-Lightness: Marvellous thing is your return to the shadowy realm of Fanfiction.net. Now you must find a large tarantula or possibly a scorpion to defend the machine against your sister. Thanks for your string of reviews over the last few hours.
Agent Josie: You have overlooked the fact that the blind shrews don't know where i live. Even if they did, they'd probably get lost, stumble onto a motorway and get run over by two or more motorcycles. Besides, what they don't know won't hurt them. Thanks for reviewing.
Tai Wilson: What's your opinion on cliff-hangers? Do you think they're a good or bad way to end a chapter? In either case, thanks for reviewing. Shit, I've still got to read Crossfire.
SaphireNight: I disagree. Cliff-hangers can add suspense to a story and make the reader want more, I guess if you use them too often however then the reader may go for your throat with a pizza cutter. In either case, thanks for reviewing.
Phrase for the fortnight: The only thing that made me feel better was the thought of ripping out your entrails.
Just so you know, I never played 'Enter the Matrix' and my knowledge of the Logos, its crew and so forth is marginal at best. If I screw anything up then please tell me and I'll try to correct it.
Note to self, must end with a cliffhanger.
Chapter 18: No.
It was a few seconds before I could inhale; the new knowledge and accompanying headache were swimming about in my cranium. In the corner of my eye I noticed that Sparks, my sadistic operator, was busy loading another disk in to the unreasonably large machine he was perched in front of. I gripped the sides of the chair and prepared for another upload, or is it download? Ah who cares?
It was an unspeakably weird experience. You'd expect the seemingly constant influx of knowledge to overwhelm you, assuming of course the headaches didn't. In reality though, everything that was shoved in my brain was as clear as a disturbingly large phone bill. Part of me kept wondering however whether or not my head was going to explode.
"How's he doing?' I recognised the voice as Niobe's. Shortly before receiving a short, thorough and painful crash course in how to drive motorbikes.
"Four hours, no screaming."
"How many of these disks are there?" I groaned from my seat.
"Almost two days worth." Sparks chortled in reply.
I resisted the urge to groan with despair and instead inhaled sharply as another heap of pain was shoved into my head.
*******************************************************************
There were about fifteen of them.
The first thing I noticed was that three of them were lying on the leaf strewn floor; they looked as if they'd been burned to death via a lightning strike. I didn't have time to wonder how they'd ended up in that state however as the first guy came at me with what looked like a Samurai sword.
I barely managed to dodge the first swing, it was aimed just below the ribs, making it all that more difficult to avoid. These guys weren't your bog standard half wit demon. They were professionals, with a very good chance of killing us.
I was slightly quicker with my gun then he was with his sword. I fired twice, once into what was probably his heart, once into his chest. The force of the bullet entering at such a close range would have hit him like a battering ram, thereby preventing any further pestiferous swipes of his sword.
The rest of the group, who had moved a few steps behind me, drew their own guns and fired into the ranks of suavely dressed programs. Unlike their fallen comrade however, they knew the bullets were coming and dodged them with ease. It soon became apparent that this was going to come down to a fist fight.
I stowed my gun hastily, drew both of my arm mounted swords and advanced towards the enemy.
*******************************************************************
After what was apparently eight hours, which felt more like eight minutes. (Perception of time goes to hell when you're getting mounds of shit shoved in your head.) Anyway, I found myself sitting in the mess hall pushing my spoon back and forth in the bowl of runny ooze which I had been condemned to eat.
The first time I tried it, it felt like I was eating my own vomit. I remember thinking how the stereotypes about healthy food were true in the real world, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't the only sodding food.
Sorry, I'm drifting from the subject, my head was throbbing slightly, but the painkillers that Ghost handed me after I left the chair had dealt with the worst of it. I took the moment o solitude to reflect upon what had happened to my life over the last few months. I'd been doing this quite a lot recently. In spite of everything that had happened, the situation still, at times, was difficult to believe. The annoyingly frequent dreams of my old life weren't helping. Especially when I usually saw Seamus die in them.
I doubted it was the same Morpheus, like I said, there were thousands of them, and why a freedom fighter would want to blow up a café was, at the time, a mystery to me. Still, the name wasn't the easiest one to hear, or think about.
I told myself that I'd have to get used to it however, at the same time as the proximity alarm sounded. Panic took hold for a few seconds before the 'training' kicked in. I shot out of the door and towards one of the gun turrets.
*******************************************************************
I buried the sword as far into the program as I could before pulling it out and swinging it at a program who was sneaking up behind me with what looked like a butcher knife in hand. My sword impacted about halfway up his neck and cut downwards at about a 33 degree angle. The head rolled slightly on the mud before coming to a halt, the face looked bizarrely peaceful. I guess he didn't have time to scream.
Two kills in a matter of seconds is a rare occurrence for me, I usually only scrape one in a single attack on the demons, it was the reason I was doing so poorly on the head count. Anyway, the enemy were thinning out now, and a quick glance over my surroundings told me that everyone was still alive.
About ten metres away I noticed that Hawk was having a harder time then was usual in dealing with a program that was wielding a broadsword. I retracted the sword on my right hand, drew the gun from the holster in my coat, took aim, and watched in horror as the sword passed through Hawk's stomach.
My mind froze. This time it was worse then it had been after my first kill. I stared at Hawk's corpse in utter disbelief, unable to do anything else. Part of me wanted to fall to the floor and sleep, or at least block out the world as much as was possible, another, more influential part of me had a better idea.
I scream as I emptied my remaining bullets at the program. Either I was quicker then he was, or I'd startled him or something, because all but two of my seven bullets smashed into him. Sick satisfaction filled me as his head exploded with the third shot. This was quickly replaced however as I noticed Hawks, bloodied, twitching body on the…
Twitching?
That's pretty much how it happened. I stared in a sense of shock that almost matched the first as Hawk slowly clawed her way to her feet. The gun in my hand dropped to the floor and I moved over towards her.
"What?" She asked in response to my dumbstruck expression.
"Oh," she said suddenly in understanding before grinning at me, revealing her bloodstained teeth, "I'm a Vampire Wanderer, remember? It takes a wooden stake through the heart to kill me."
"What," I cut myself off, feeling chocked with relief and confussion, "um," I cut myself off again, there seemed to be nothing to say and I was beginning to feel somewhat embarrassed.
"Come on," she said, staring at the hole in her jumper, the wound had vanished. More tricks of editing, "we should probably get inside."
To be continued.
Right, now for replies:
Angel-Of-Lightness: Marvellous thing is your return to the shadowy realm of Fanfiction.net. Now you must find a large tarantula or possibly a scorpion to defend the machine against your sister. Thanks for your string of reviews over the last few hours.
Agent Josie: You have overlooked the fact that the blind shrews don't know where i live. Even if they did, they'd probably get lost, stumble onto a motorway and get run over by two or more motorcycles. Besides, what they don't know won't hurt them. Thanks for reviewing.
Tai Wilson: What's your opinion on cliff-hangers? Do you think they're a good or bad way to end a chapter? In either case, thanks for reviewing. Shit, I've still got to read Crossfire.
SaphireNight: I disagree. Cliff-hangers can add suspense to a story and make the reader want more, I guess if you use them too often however then the reader may go for your throat with a pizza cutter. In either case, thanks for reviewing.