Thanks once more to all reviewers, well there's only one for now but that may change, anyway, onwards to chapter 28.
Chapter 28: Oh shit.
The toucan eventually decided that it had better things to do and flew off into the distance. I watched the beast fly for a few moments before returning to my pointless staring at my surroundings.
Behind the tranquillity and peacefulness that the beach seemed to radiate, there was a nagging feeling that the second I left it, the tranquillity would be replaced by fear, death, pain and destruction. From what Smith had told me before the others arrived about what Neo was planning to do, (and what he'd tried to do when he was turning bog standard pedestrians into copies), it seemed threat to humanity, the machines, the toucans, everyone and everything, was far greater then I had even considered.
"Hey," I turned around to see another unknown male, one of the Hammer's crew whose name I didn't know.
"Morpheus wants us all back at the main hall or whatever the fuck it is." The voice was filled with anger, I'm not sure why. My guess was that this person had unpleasant feelings towards Smith; to be honest I didn't really care.
I spent most of the walk back thinking about how I was now taking orders from a man who may have killed my brother. Then I'd get angry for a few seconds and hastily tell myself that it wasn't him, it was some fucking thug with knowledge of explosives who'd suffer a grisly end sooner or later.
I shook of the pestiferous thought as we entered 'whatever the fuck it was'. Everyone's face was displaying obvious misery and slightly less obvious anger. This seemed to support my 'impending doom theory'.
***********************************************************
I'll admit, my knowledge of the Matrix and the outside world was, and still is a little thin, but I did know that Sentinels shouldn't be in the Matrix.
The beasts charged at us shortly before we reached the Destiny. After a few disbelieving stares, everyone flung themselves out of the way of the advancing squid shaped machines. I almost instinctively fired off a few shots, I knew that this was unlikely to do any good but I did it anyway.
Three bullets ricocheted off of the head of one of the four sentinels and fell harmlessly to the ground. I shook off what was a curious mix of despair, disappointment and disbelief as I threw myself out of the way of another sentinel. Not before it threw one of its spiked arms at me.
The claws on the end of the arm cut threw my upper leg like a knife cutting through paper. I couldn't surpress the following scream of pain. Actually, it was all I could do to lay on the floor, cradling my pierced leg whilst the beast raised itself about seven meters above me and stared at me like a predator before its lunch.
Needless to say I was somewhat grateful when a blast from Dragon's rocket launcher destroyed the beast.
The noise was deafening. Putting my hands to my ears made little difference. The sight itself was somewhat impressive however. The sentinel's head was torn open, sending metal fragments into a nearby tree; the arms of the machine fell around me in almost humorous thuds.
The leg had already begun to heal itself, a benefit of digital enhancement. This made little difference however, the only one who stood any chance against the sentinels was Dragon, and the remaining three sentinels all seemed to be focusing on him now.
"Run!" Screamed Manticore.
And run we did, Manticore torched another Sentinel that was perched on a nearby tree before beginning a hasty sprit towards the Destiny. I had to be supported by Hawk and Manticore before my leg had sufficiently healed.
***********************************************************
"…The anomaly remains the same power and abilities that he had before the transformation. He will be more willing to use them now that he is not bound by primitive human feelings of compassion. He will not hesitate to kill each and every one of you, despite what you may believe."
I couldn't be certain but I thought I saw traces of a grin on his face.
"Unfortunately, with the recent termination of the exile known as the Merovingian, who was also Mr. Anderson's strongest ally in his attempt to destroy humanity…"
"Why is he only targeting humans?" Niobe asked.
"It's a bit short sighted isn't it?" this came from the aforementioned angry person, "I mean, without the humans, the Matrix cannot function, right?"
"We believe that Mr. Anderson intends to spread throughout the first city as I planned to do. At which point he will reconfigure the humans so as to remove consciousness, free will and self awareness; in essence, they will be transformed in mindless batteries as opposed to ones with minds."
"Which is as good as killing them all off." Added Morpheus, who for some reason seemed to be staring at me as if I reminded him of someone else. He looked away when I stared back.
"Why humans?" Niobe repeated impatiently.
"We don't know." There was definite irritation in Smith's voice. You didn't have to be in his company for very long to know that he still regarded us as lower life forms, being interrupted by one didn't do much to improve this.
There was silence for a while. I reflected on what he had said and considered asking who the Merovingian was, but decided against the idea. Fairly soon however, another question sprung to mind.
"You said 'unfortunately' when you said that the Merovingian was dead, why?"
"Because with his death, Mr. Anderson…"
"His name is Neo!" This came from Niobe. It was about the fifth time I'd heard something like this since I'd been in the construct, and I couldn't quite keep my eyes from rolling.
"Very well, Neo, has now begun his expansion throughout the Matrix, he already possesses the power to edit what he wishes to a limited extent, and so far, all attempts to contain him have failed."
"So where do we come in?" This came from Ghost.
***********************************************************
We made it, barely.
Hydra was the last to make it through, she did so just as a sentinel was extending one of its arms to presumably rip her spine out.
Fortunately however, the Destiny's external defences apparently work on Sentinels as well, it just took a little longer for the electricity burst to kill them then it did with humanoid programs.
"What the fuck was…"
I was forced to cut myself off so as to inhale loudly and cringe at fresh lingering pain in my leg.
"How did Sentinels get in the Matrix?"
Hydra's question was cut off by a sudden ringing of a telephone. This was odd for two reasons. One, we didn't own a telephone, two, the phone itself was curiously shaped to resemble a sentinel ripping a nondescript human to pieces, it was quite clever really, the sentinel's head was the listening end and, that's not really all that important I guess.
We all stared blankly at the device for several moments, no one really felt up to questioning its presence what with all the other weird and impossible things we'd seen today.
I was closer so I was the one to pick it up, after receiving a permissive nod from Manticore. The voice on the other end was male, and also surprisingly soft.
"This isn't over." It said before hanging up.
To be continued
Right, now for replies.
Naz: Thanks for reviewing. I have no use for crayons, and you have just reminded me of my upcoming 8 hour long graphics exam. I'll have to beat myself senseless with a hammer to banish this image, oh well, how goes your life?
Tai Wilson: If any new ideas come to me, I'll make another chapter. For now however, I have nothing. Its strange, with this fic, ideas come to me just like that (clicks fingers). With the other one, they, uh, don't. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: Thanks, it would have been nice if I could get a second me running about for a while so I could get some first hand experience on what it's like before writing this, but I don't see that happening somehow.
Yar Kramer: I'll try to read your fic if I get time. Anyway, you could argue that by setting your fic 150 years in the future, you killed everyone off, except for a few programs maybe, ah i don't know. I guess that doesn't really count. Oh well, thanks for reviewing.
Chapter 28: Oh shit.
The toucan eventually decided that it had better things to do and flew off into the distance. I watched the beast fly for a few moments before returning to my pointless staring at my surroundings.
Behind the tranquillity and peacefulness that the beach seemed to radiate, there was a nagging feeling that the second I left it, the tranquillity would be replaced by fear, death, pain and destruction. From what Smith had told me before the others arrived about what Neo was planning to do, (and what he'd tried to do when he was turning bog standard pedestrians into copies), it seemed threat to humanity, the machines, the toucans, everyone and everything, was far greater then I had even considered.
"Hey," I turned around to see another unknown male, one of the Hammer's crew whose name I didn't know.
"Morpheus wants us all back at the main hall or whatever the fuck it is." The voice was filled with anger, I'm not sure why. My guess was that this person had unpleasant feelings towards Smith; to be honest I didn't really care.
I spent most of the walk back thinking about how I was now taking orders from a man who may have killed my brother. Then I'd get angry for a few seconds and hastily tell myself that it wasn't him, it was some fucking thug with knowledge of explosives who'd suffer a grisly end sooner or later.
I shook of the pestiferous thought as we entered 'whatever the fuck it was'. Everyone's face was displaying obvious misery and slightly less obvious anger. This seemed to support my 'impending doom theory'.
***********************************************************
I'll admit, my knowledge of the Matrix and the outside world was, and still is a little thin, but I did know that Sentinels shouldn't be in the Matrix.
The beasts charged at us shortly before we reached the Destiny. After a few disbelieving stares, everyone flung themselves out of the way of the advancing squid shaped machines. I almost instinctively fired off a few shots, I knew that this was unlikely to do any good but I did it anyway.
Three bullets ricocheted off of the head of one of the four sentinels and fell harmlessly to the ground. I shook off what was a curious mix of despair, disappointment and disbelief as I threw myself out of the way of another sentinel. Not before it threw one of its spiked arms at me.
The claws on the end of the arm cut threw my upper leg like a knife cutting through paper. I couldn't surpress the following scream of pain. Actually, it was all I could do to lay on the floor, cradling my pierced leg whilst the beast raised itself about seven meters above me and stared at me like a predator before its lunch.
Needless to say I was somewhat grateful when a blast from Dragon's rocket launcher destroyed the beast.
The noise was deafening. Putting my hands to my ears made little difference. The sight itself was somewhat impressive however. The sentinel's head was torn open, sending metal fragments into a nearby tree; the arms of the machine fell around me in almost humorous thuds.
The leg had already begun to heal itself, a benefit of digital enhancement. This made little difference however, the only one who stood any chance against the sentinels was Dragon, and the remaining three sentinels all seemed to be focusing on him now.
"Run!" Screamed Manticore.
And run we did, Manticore torched another Sentinel that was perched on a nearby tree before beginning a hasty sprit towards the Destiny. I had to be supported by Hawk and Manticore before my leg had sufficiently healed.
***********************************************************
"…The anomaly remains the same power and abilities that he had before the transformation. He will be more willing to use them now that he is not bound by primitive human feelings of compassion. He will not hesitate to kill each and every one of you, despite what you may believe."
I couldn't be certain but I thought I saw traces of a grin on his face.
"Unfortunately, with the recent termination of the exile known as the Merovingian, who was also Mr. Anderson's strongest ally in his attempt to destroy humanity…"
"Why is he only targeting humans?" Niobe asked.
"It's a bit short sighted isn't it?" this came from the aforementioned angry person, "I mean, without the humans, the Matrix cannot function, right?"
"We believe that Mr. Anderson intends to spread throughout the first city as I planned to do. At which point he will reconfigure the humans so as to remove consciousness, free will and self awareness; in essence, they will be transformed in mindless batteries as opposed to ones with minds."
"Which is as good as killing them all off." Added Morpheus, who for some reason seemed to be staring at me as if I reminded him of someone else. He looked away when I stared back.
"Why humans?" Niobe repeated impatiently.
"We don't know." There was definite irritation in Smith's voice. You didn't have to be in his company for very long to know that he still regarded us as lower life forms, being interrupted by one didn't do much to improve this.
There was silence for a while. I reflected on what he had said and considered asking who the Merovingian was, but decided against the idea. Fairly soon however, another question sprung to mind.
"You said 'unfortunately' when you said that the Merovingian was dead, why?"
"Because with his death, Mr. Anderson…"
"His name is Neo!" This came from Niobe. It was about the fifth time I'd heard something like this since I'd been in the construct, and I couldn't quite keep my eyes from rolling.
"Very well, Neo, has now begun his expansion throughout the Matrix, he already possesses the power to edit what he wishes to a limited extent, and so far, all attempts to contain him have failed."
"So where do we come in?" This came from Ghost.
***********************************************************
We made it, barely.
Hydra was the last to make it through, she did so just as a sentinel was extending one of its arms to presumably rip her spine out.
Fortunately however, the Destiny's external defences apparently work on Sentinels as well, it just took a little longer for the electricity burst to kill them then it did with humanoid programs.
"What the fuck was…"
I was forced to cut myself off so as to inhale loudly and cringe at fresh lingering pain in my leg.
"How did Sentinels get in the Matrix?"
Hydra's question was cut off by a sudden ringing of a telephone. This was odd for two reasons. One, we didn't own a telephone, two, the phone itself was curiously shaped to resemble a sentinel ripping a nondescript human to pieces, it was quite clever really, the sentinel's head was the listening end and, that's not really all that important I guess.
We all stared blankly at the device for several moments, no one really felt up to questioning its presence what with all the other weird and impossible things we'd seen today.
I was closer so I was the one to pick it up, after receiving a permissive nod from Manticore. The voice on the other end was male, and also surprisingly soft.
"This isn't over." It said before hanging up.
To be continued
Right, now for replies.
Naz: Thanks for reviewing. I have no use for crayons, and you have just reminded me of my upcoming 8 hour long graphics exam. I'll have to beat myself senseless with a hammer to banish this image, oh well, how goes your life?
Tai Wilson: If any new ideas come to me, I'll make another chapter. For now however, I have nothing. Its strange, with this fic, ideas come to me just like that (clicks fingers). With the other one, they, uh, don't. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.
LiMiYa: Thanks, it would have been nice if I could get a second me running about for a while so I could get some first hand experience on what it's like before writing this, but I don't see that happening somehow.
Yar Kramer: I'll try to read your fic if I get time. Anyway, you could argue that by setting your fic 150 years in the future, you killed everyone off, except for a few programs maybe, ah i don't know. I guess that doesn't really count. Oh well, thanks for reviewing.