"Now that you understand and you accept it well enough," Morpheus said, "you're going to need to pick your new names. We try to refrain from using names given to us in the Matrix. Try to use something symbolic."

Vic already had a name picked out, but waited to hear Gar's. "Wait. Can we still use our powers anymore?" asked the boy.

"Raven can because they were a part of her, and Vic has already come to terms that he is fully human. You... we're not sure."

"Then I'll be the Beast." Morpheus smiled. "That's not cliché at all. Now we'll need you to choose a signature gun."

They looked up. "What?" asked Vic coldly. They were not killers.

"Yes. I know this will be hard for you, but the Agents have already attacked our men. We're just about no longer welcome in the Matrix. You're going to have to kill. As long as a person is a part of the Matrix, they believe you are terrorists or some nonsense."

Alarms went off in Vic's mind. "Agent Johnson," he reminded Gar. "Remember what he said in that French guy's place?"

"Oh yeah! He said something like terrorists will still kill... OH, MY GOD! HE WAS TALKING ABOUT YOU?" Gar shouted at Morpheus.

He nodded. "Johnson has always hated me in particular. I beat him. I killed many of his hosts. But most of all, I killed his pride as an Agent.

"You see, in the Matrix, during the war, the system described us as terrorists, so that people would hate us and try to kill us. The Agents did this the best, though."

"Dude, what are these "agents" that you keep talking about? They're like government guys or something?" the boy asked.

"No. They are sentient programs that move in and out of humans still connected to the Matrix by full wire. They are programmed to kill us. That is their sole purpose."

Gar turned grimly. "That doesn't sound so pleasant." Vic shook his head.

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Raven had gotten the speech as well, from Niobe and Ghost.

"Your name already was Raven, so that can be your Matrix name as well since it doesn't sound like Garfield," Ghost informed her in the Construct. "Now all you need to do is pick your weapon, which you need to carry at ALL times to protect yourself. Your powers won't cut it.

"Your best friend believes you to be dead or a terrorist. We can protect you from her, but her purpose was to prevent you all from being unplugged."

The girl shook her head. "That one."

She raised her arm and pointed at a double-bladed sword. "That'll do," Ghost smirked. He raised his cell and said into it, without dialing, "Sparky, I need a change of clothes for Ms. Rae, she just picked the double katana."

"What?" came a sarcastic voice from the end of the phone.

Raven's clothes were instantly changed. The sword was now on her back, sheathed. She gasped. "Hey, don't be surprised. It's like a computer," Ghost told her. "Just like a computer, you can break the rules. Now, let's see what you're capable of. Sparky! The usual."

He opened his hand, and a sword materialized there, just a plain old katana. She took out her double-bladed sword, and they began to fight.

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It was two minutes in, after she and Ghost were about evenly matched, when she noticed that Ghost was blindfolded.

"How..." she asked. "It's easy," he answered, still one step ahead of her. She found that amusing. "My mind is free enough that I can do all of this. I trained with my sister Trinity."

Her eyes widened. "Trinity the hacker was your sister?"

He raised an eyebrow. "How did you know she was a hacker? You must have been told by Johnson, right? We were freed on the same day, and so we called each other brother and sister."

He frowned. "The last thing she ever said to me was 'Thank you, Ghost.' She died when this ship crashed into a tower in the Machine City.

She saw that his blindfold was slightly damp. "I miss her. We used to spar and argue. She'd beat me once and gloat for weeks. You'd like her."

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"You call that concentration?

"I'm surprised you had the guts to come back here after the last ass-whooping I gave you."

"That, dear brother, was an act of pure mercy, after having beaten you...how many times? Gee, I guess I lost count after we hit double digits."

"That, dear sister, is merely an act of sympathy my sex uses on the weaker sex to cajole them into playing."

"Oh, that's it. You've done it again. You'll eat those words and half the rocks in this garden."

"Come on, Trin. MAKE me."

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Ghost popped back to reality, still parrying all of Raven's attacks.

"That's enough for today, Raven."

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The Hammer arrived at Zion four hours later. "Get this boy to the med wing immediately," Roland barked at the officers who carried Robin out on a stretcher.

"Is he gonna make it, Captain?" Kid eagerly asked, the Believer and the Logos having returned with the Mjolnir.

"Of course, Kid. I'm just worried if he'll ever move in this world again."

Robin quickly reached the empty medical bay. "Where am I?" he asked the attendants.

"You must be a new one. You're in Zion, the last free city."

He groaned. "Why am I here? Why can't I move anything?" He tried to move, but found he could hardly move his mouth to speak.

The nurse was more patient than Roland had been. "Zion is where you come for your basic real world training. However, that's...kind of...not the reason you're here right now. You see, your muscles have atrophied a little too much. We're worried you might be paralyzed in this world."

"What do you mean in this world?" he asked again.

But he had fallen asleep right after asking this. A smile flitted across his face.

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During his sleep, he had a disturbing dream. He and Cyborg were chasing Slade through a suburb. Slade pulled out a shotgun and fired. It narrowly missed and hit Cyborg's metal side, which caused the half-machine to fly backwards.

Starfire flew in front of the boy as Robin was about to disarm Slade, and fired a star bolt. He flew back.

She lifted him by the collar. "What have you done with my friends? Where is Robin?"

He found he couldn't speak, and Slade drilled Star in the back. The bullets spread through her and hit Robin, and they both fell into a bottomless chasm.

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The next day, Raven, Gar, and Vic were allowed to visit Robin in the med bay. "Is he going to be okay?" Vic asked the medical attendant.

She shook her head and whispered, "His muscles have atrophied beyond repair. He will need assistance just to jack in. He will never move again in this world."

Then she smiled. "But look here." They moved closer and saw that he was jacked in. She motioned to three more chairs, and the other three teens jacked into the Construct as well.

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"Ah. Koriand'r. I see you have failed." The red-haired program turned. Johnson and Jackson were standing in the living room of the Tower, both Desert Eagles trained on her.

She stood up. "They deserved to know the truth. The war is over."

Johnson smiled. "No, Koriand'r, it has only just begun."