The man named Brother Blood stepped into the small teahouse. He looked around and shrugged at the man seated in front of him. "I hoped I would find the Oracle here," he said, disappointedly.

Seraph looked up, drinking his green tea. "You seek the Oracle?"

Blood grinned as his eyes began to glow red. "Yes, and I was hoping you could take me to her."

The golden program stood up and advanced towards Blood, who suspected nothing. "Of course. I am Seraph, guardian of the Oracle. I can take you to her, but first, I must apologize."

Blood laughed. "For what?"

Seraph held his hands up. "For this." The program hit Blood so hard that he left a large dent in the teahouse wall. Seraph smiled as Blood stared, amazed.

Blood rushed Seraph, but the program caught Blood's hand. Blood kicked at him, but Seraph caught his leg too. Blood's other fist flew at Seraph's face. Seraph simply tripped Blood and kicked him into the wall.

Blood pushed off and collided with Seraph. He used the momentum from the shove to kick off of the wall, but Blood snapped his foot down and kicked Seraph into the support beam.

"Very good. Again I apologize, but you do not truly know someone until you fight them." Seraph opened the door with his special key, revealing not a bustling Chinatown street but an empty hallway of green doors.

"These are program files in the Matrix, aren't they?" Blood asked as they walked slowly down the hallway. "Like hacking a computer? Did you make them?"

"No," Seraph replied simply before opening the door, revealing a small park area. The Oracle sat at her usual bench. Brown stood at the side, glancing around, looking for someone. Or several someones.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He looked on four rooftops, finding all of the people he expected to be there. The Oracle had told him who to look for:

On one rooftop, Blood's son and eight of his finest students waited, poised to strike as soon as Blood gave the signal.

On another rooftop, Agents Johnson, Jackson and Thompson waited, prepared to kill the three programs and Blood as soon as the Architect gave the signal.

On the third rooftop, Sati lay on the ground, aiming a high-powered M95 sniper rifle. Brown had trained her to use the deadly weapon.

And on the fourth rooftop a young man was seated, cocking the hammers of several weapons strapped to his body. The Matrix had only seen this kind of weapon selection once before.

The first had been made by Neo. The second had been made by Robin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Very well," said Blood a few minutes later. "That's all I needed." He raised his hand, and his nine jumped from their rooftop.

"Damnit," Johnson yelled, and the three Agents jumped off as well. Sati quickly aimed the sniper rifle at Johnson's head, but was distracted by a loud yelling.

Robin leapt off of his perch, guns blazing. He didn't care about killing people as much as Raven did. He hated this lie. "DIE!" he shouted as the Skorpions drilled through two HIVE students.

Seraph was already engaged in hand to hand combat with Blood and Dark, his son. Seraph caught Dark's hand as swiped at the program with his grafted claw, and snapped the claws off. Dark screamed, but Seraph ignored him. He whirled behind Blood and put his hand through the man's head.

Blood shrieked as he watched his own blood splatter the ground. Seraph leapt over Dark and kicked him into the bench, knocking him unconscious.

Brown was fighting only one upgrade, but losing badly. Johnson kicked him into the wall, while Thompson and Jackson looked on. The Agent pulled his Desert Eagle, and was about to kill Brown when Sati capped Johnson in the back of the head.

Thompson spun to get a bullet in the chest. Jackson dodged a bullet, but he wasn't quick enough to dodge Brown's bullet. The Agent sank to the ground as Sati took out her keys and vanished into the Portal.

Brown turned toward the melee. Six students remained, as Robin didn't have many opportunities to use the guns still strapped to his body. He and Seraph fought back to back until the piss-off little midget of the HIVE, Gizmo, decided to unleash the missiles.

Seraph dove out of the way, but Robin caught two and threw them at Mammoth and a shadow-like student. On impact, they were shattered by a sonic-boom type explosion.

Robin then leapt over the techno-geek and snapped his backpack with a single kick. The other HIVE students moved in, but Seraph quickly kicked them out of the way. They began to retreat, but three were quickly taken as hosts by the Agents. Seraph and Brown began to fight them.

Robin kicked Gizmo into a wall. "I won't forget this, you crud-sucker!" said the boy, weakly.

"Learn some real insults, you ugly fuck," Robin muttered as he drew the Glock and fired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Oracle slowly stepped into the Portal. She looked back sadly. "That's too bad," she murmured as Seraph ushered her inside and closed the door.

Robin turned to leave, at his commander's chosen hard line, when he heard a small croak. "Wait… I want to go with you…"

It was Dark. Robin slowly turned and saw the teen's arm had regrown its spikes. "What?" he asked.

"I want to get out."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Commander?" said Robin, unsurely.

"Yes?" came the gravelly response.

"I'll need you to load some unplugging kits and send someone else in. We've got someone who wants out."

"Robin, your mission was to simply stop Blood's plan. The monitors are already showing that the Trainman is within the vicinity of the Agents. We don't have time!"

"Commander, I've got a feeling that Blood's son could be very useful. Especially with his abilities in the Matrix."

The Commander paused for a moment, then sighed. "Fine, Robin. But hurry it up. I'm sending Cris in."