Thankings to all reviewing persons, replies are peculiarly placed in the middle of the chapter just to be awkward. ON second thought I think I'll just put them at the end.
Chapter 31: You are me.
The Destiny had changed somewhat since the last time I'd seen it.
Whereas once it was a humble tree in the middle of a seemingly endless collection of other nondescript trees in a forest in Cambridgeshire, now it seemed to have tired of this existence and turned itself into a huge wooden fortress complete with more gun turrets then you'd think would be practical. It looked a bit like Minas Morgol would if it were made out of wood.
These gun turrets had, presumably, been what had kept the Demons and sentinels from entering the Destiny and killing everyone inside, (including myself strangely enough;) anyway, debates on individuality can wait for later. It was lucky that we'd turned up when we did. The Destiny, according to Smith who apparently could see the Matrix coding as opposed to the colourful shapes that we mere mortals see. And what he saw was that the Destiny had taken a pasting.
The first of the lavishly armed helicopters that had taken down the remaining sentinels prior to our arrival set down about twenty meters in front of me. Followed soon by another. We stayed put about five feet above the ground whilst a series of smallish looking marines or whatever they were leaped from their own flying machines, and after communicating to each other through a series of hand gestures, spread out into the remaining trees where the surviving demons had fled into.
This looked wrong, with all the weapons fire there had apparently been in the last hour, there should have been a forest fire the size of the, well the forest I guess. Anyway, apart from the newly constructed graveyard below us, the surrounding area looked unspoilt, picturesque greens and browns covered the area as far as I could see. More tricks of the system presumably. No doubt some program or another had selected the fire with some fancy metaphorical cursor and pressed the delete button.
My thoughts returned to the Destiny as our own helicopter set down.
***********************************************************
It was quiet. That didn't seem right; the sentinels should have been ripping down the walls and slicing us to pieces, failing that there should have been muffled explosions and fierce vibrations in the floor. Instead there was quiet, perfect silence. It was cold too.
I opened my eyes and for a few seconds which would have been spent in a fit of panic if it weren't for my screaming head and general weariness, and was surprisingly surprised to see one of the gunnery chairs in the far corner of the room, I half expected for us to have been moved. That was all my somewhat blurred vision could make out. Everything else looked like a mesh of crude colourful shapes. I soon noticed that many of these shapes were moving.
Demons, we had Demons inside. My mind sprung back to what I could remember of news stories regarding Demons, about the mutilated corpses that had been found hanging from church towers and other tall buildings, mass rape, brutal murders, and two unfortunate victims were even skinned, and they were still alive.
I had to tell myself that I wasn't about to let this happen to us about five times before I found the energy to push myself off of the floor. I drew both of my swords, both of which felt like two huge tombstones that were attached to my arms, and managed to take a few weary steps towards the blurry figures before fatigue and injury caused my to fall to the floor. It's a minor miracle that I didn't impale myself on a sword or two.
***********************************************************
In another time and place, it might have been funny.
I watched as my drunken self image clawed himself to his feet and staggered towards us which a yell that sounded more like a cow faking an orgasm. After which he promptly buggered over.
Hawk had tried something similar when we arrived, at least that may have been the intention. She launched a weary fist at Ghost before collapsing into his arms.
"Are they always this friendly?" Niobe asked after 'I' fell to the floor.
"No." It seemed like the only appropriate thing to say.
I turned around to look at what everyone else appeared to be staring at, my attention shifted to Morpheus however, who seemed to be staring at my image with what was a curious blend of fear and anger, and possibly guilt. At the time I thought nothing of it and went over to see Dragon who appeared to be trying to put his ribs back into place.
"Wanderer?" He said upon seeing me, "You look like Hell. Who are these?" He paused for a few seconds, "that is you right?"
I gestured with one slightly irritated hand to the unconscious figure laying face down on the floor. Dragon shifted himself so as to see, and hissed in sudden pain as his dangling bones were forced into motion.
Those gathered around him shifted out of the way and Dragon's face turned from me to the me who was lying on his nose.
"Well I guess that brings me to the question, 'Who the fuck are you?'"
He's presumable assumed that I was someone else who bore an uncanny resemblance to Wanderer. I didn't really feel like explaining the surreal truth of the situation to him. Instead I wandered back towards Wanderer and left the others to do it for me, or just stare at his amazing dangling rib cage seeing as none of them actually knew what was happening.
***********************************************************
I pushed myself off of the floor as quickly as I could in such a way that I would hopefully avoid falling on my face again. On doing so, I felt a hand being placed lightly on my shoulder.
"Easy." It said, the voice sounded familiar, but at the moment, I couldn't care less.
Shock filled me upon seeing the face, it was one that I hadn't seen in what felt like an eternity, and I could still recognise it with almost perfect clarity. I didn't even notice the others at first, the Demons and sentinels were a dim and distant memory.
Summoning what energy I could, I drew one of my arms and charged towards Morpheus with a growl that my subconscious had seen fit to provide me with.
To be continued.
Right, now for replies:
Agent Josie:
Tai Wilson: How about a pool table? They're the same basic thing. I'm trying to stay away from consistency in this story, but I keep forgetting what I've already one so its not as easy as it seems. It doesn't seem all that easy to begin with, oh well, thanks for reviewing.
Agent Josie: I have heard nothing from Natalie on the subject of Monkey Island which I am choosing to interpret as a good sign. I'm not sure why but anyway, I shall celebrate with a marmite sandwich later. Thanks for reviewing. LSD can cure a fear of spiders, at least for a while, or so I'm told
JME2: It shall be done, thanks for reviewing.
Chapter 31: You are me.
The Destiny had changed somewhat since the last time I'd seen it.
Whereas once it was a humble tree in the middle of a seemingly endless collection of other nondescript trees in a forest in Cambridgeshire, now it seemed to have tired of this existence and turned itself into a huge wooden fortress complete with more gun turrets then you'd think would be practical. It looked a bit like Minas Morgol would if it were made out of wood.
These gun turrets had, presumably, been what had kept the Demons and sentinels from entering the Destiny and killing everyone inside, (including myself strangely enough;) anyway, debates on individuality can wait for later. It was lucky that we'd turned up when we did. The Destiny, according to Smith who apparently could see the Matrix coding as opposed to the colourful shapes that we mere mortals see. And what he saw was that the Destiny had taken a pasting.
The first of the lavishly armed helicopters that had taken down the remaining sentinels prior to our arrival set down about twenty meters in front of me. Followed soon by another. We stayed put about five feet above the ground whilst a series of smallish looking marines or whatever they were leaped from their own flying machines, and after communicating to each other through a series of hand gestures, spread out into the remaining trees where the surviving demons had fled into.
This looked wrong, with all the weapons fire there had apparently been in the last hour, there should have been a forest fire the size of the, well the forest I guess. Anyway, apart from the newly constructed graveyard below us, the surrounding area looked unspoilt, picturesque greens and browns covered the area as far as I could see. More tricks of the system presumably. No doubt some program or another had selected the fire with some fancy metaphorical cursor and pressed the delete button.
My thoughts returned to the Destiny as our own helicopter set down.
***********************************************************
It was quiet. That didn't seem right; the sentinels should have been ripping down the walls and slicing us to pieces, failing that there should have been muffled explosions and fierce vibrations in the floor. Instead there was quiet, perfect silence. It was cold too.
I opened my eyes and for a few seconds which would have been spent in a fit of panic if it weren't for my screaming head and general weariness, and was surprisingly surprised to see one of the gunnery chairs in the far corner of the room, I half expected for us to have been moved. That was all my somewhat blurred vision could make out. Everything else looked like a mesh of crude colourful shapes. I soon noticed that many of these shapes were moving.
Demons, we had Demons inside. My mind sprung back to what I could remember of news stories regarding Demons, about the mutilated corpses that had been found hanging from church towers and other tall buildings, mass rape, brutal murders, and two unfortunate victims were even skinned, and they were still alive.
I had to tell myself that I wasn't about to let this happen to us about five times before I found the energy to push myself off of the floor. I drew both of my swords, both of which felt like two huge tombstones that were attached to my arms, and managed to take a few weary steps towards the blurry figures before fatigue and injury caused my to fall to the floor. It's a minor miracle that I didn't impale myself on a sword or two.
***********************************************************
In another time and place, it might have been funny.
I watched as my drunken self image clawed himself to his feet and staggered towards us which a yell that sounded more like a cow faking an orgasm. After which he promptly buggered over.
Hawk had tried something similar when we arrived, at least that may have been the intention. She launched a weary fist at Ghost before collapsing into his arms.
"Are they always this friendly?" Niobe asked after 'I' fell to the floor.
"No." It seemed like the only appropriate thing to say.
I turned around to look at what everyone else appeared to be staring at, my attention shifted to Morpheus however, who seemed to be staring at my image with what was a curious blend of fear and anger, and possibly guilt. At the time I thought nothing of it and went over to see Dragon who appeared to be trying to put his ribs back into place.
"Wanderer?" He said upon seeing me, "You look like Hell. Who are these?" He paused for a few seconds, "that is you right?"
I gestured with one slightly irritated hand to the unconscious figure laying face down on the floor. Dragon shifted himself so as to see, and hissed in sudden pain as his dangling bones were forced into motion.
Those gathered around him shifted out of the way and Dragon's face turned from me to the me who was lying on his nose.
"Well I guess that brings me to the question, 'Who the fuck are you?'"
He's presumable assumed that I was someone else who bore an uncanny resemblance to Wanderer. I didn't really feel like explaining the surreal truth of the situation to him. Instead I wandered back towards Wanderer and left the others to do it for me, or just stare at his amazing dangling rib cage seeing as none of them actually knew what was happening.
***********************************************************
I pushed myself off of the floor as quickly as I could in such a way that I would hopefully avoid falling on my face again. On doing so, I felt a hand being placed lightly on my shoulder.
"Easy." It said, the voice sounded familiar, but at the moment, I couldn't care less.
Shock filled me upon seeing the face, it was one that I hadn't seen in what felt like an eternity, and I could still recognise it with almost perfect clarity. I didn't even notice the others at first, the Demons and sentinels were a dim and distant memory.
Summoning what energy I could, I drew one of my arms and charged towards Morpheus with a growl that my subconscious had seen fit to provide me with.
To be continued.
Right, now for replies:
Agent Josie:
Tai Wilson: How about a pool table? They're the same basic thing. I'm trying to stay away from consistency in this story, but I keep forgetting what I've already one so its not as easy as it seems. It doesn't seem all that easy to begin with, oh well, thanks for reviewing.
Agent Josie: I have heard nothing from Natalie on the subject of Monkey Island which I am choosing to interpret as a good sign. I'm not sure why but anyway, I shall celebrate with a marmite sandwich later. Thanks for reviewing. LSD can cure a fear of spiders, at least for a while, or so I'm told
JME2: It shall be done, thanks for reviewing.