Hang Out

"Smith! Smith!"

Smith stood rearranging his basement, and putting the red couch on the other side of the room. He was trying to make it seem more spacious than it really was. It was getting smaller with all the new furniture the kids had been bringing him. A red couch, a large red chair. Broken television, a television stand, a desk, a bookshelf, and a key holder. Of course he had no keys, so he placed his sunglasses there.

"Smith!"

He smiled, knowing that voice anywhere.

Shadow came jumping down the stairs, fumbling with her school backpack. She didn't notice much else, as she ran into him, and fell to the ground. He stood above her and smiled.

"Look!"

She pulled out the greatest fifty bucks she had ever spent.

"She's been showing everyone." Squishy said, coming down the stairs.

"Almost got beat up for having it." Glitch said, coming too.

Smith smiled, as he grabbed it from her, and held it gently.

"Well..." Smith began, as he studied it.

"Isn't it awesome! I got it off Ebay!" Shadow yelled.

It was a Smith bust, small but greatly detailed. With him pulling out his gun, and his back turning into the code.

"Very awesome indeed." Smith agreed.

He started walking towards his desk with it.

"Hey! That's mine!" Shadow yelled grabbing it. "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

She ran away from Smith, holding the bust gently and strongly in her arms. Smith raised an eyebrow and looked at Squishy and Glitch. They just nodded. This was completely normal, it would pass within the next week.

"What about me?" Smith asked.

Shadow hissed at him, as if her bust was worth more.

"Fine!" Smith yelled at her.

Shadow laughed, holding her bust. Squishy walked passed her, hitting her on the back, and running to the couch. And Glitch stared at her.

"So what else is new?" Smith asked, turning away from Shadow.

"I got math homework you can help me with." Glitch said.

"Do you mean, do, or help?" Squishy joked.

"There was a assembly today." Shadow said, her bust in her arms.

"Oh right...At least we got out of Fifth period." Glitch said, sitting next to Squishy on the couch.

"One of those Candy drives." Shadow says. "I hate those, they're so demeaning."

"Oh, Candy?" Smith said. "Chocolate?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Mr. Godinez, may I borrow a dollar?" Smith said, turning to Squishy.

"Shut up!" Squishy yelled, throwing a pillow Smith's way.

Smith smiled, throwing it back at him, sadly for Squishy Smith was getting stronger. And Squishy lay on the couch his face covered with a pillow, and Glitch and Shadow laughing.

"Don't mess with the Agent, Squish!" Glitch yelled.

"Ow..." Squishy said.

"Oh, sorry, Squishy." Smith said, pulling the pillow off his face.

"You need to teach us how to do that, Smith!" Shadow yelled.

Smith frowned, as Squishy rubbed his face.

That's what's been happening for so long. It's been three months since three kids found him. Things have been said, stories have been told. He knows what happened long ago. And he dreams broken memories. Not that he tells the kids of course. He doesn't tell them the hatred that's inside him. The hatred he still feels, and wants to go away. He doesn't want the kids to worry, they wouldn't understand. But he allows them to show him the past, and books and documentaries about it.

Ever since they've been coming his strength has been growing. Maybe because they come over almost everyday. He doesn't mind though. These children, are now all he has.

Plus they've been going to Goodwill and the dump finding stuff for him. Like the couch, and bookshelf full of books. They even got him a TV, unfortunately it doesn't work. Glitch and he have been trying to fix it. They've been giving him food too.

He likes chocolate.

These children, little spawns of something he used to disgust. They're all he has now. The only memories he truly can feel. These kids, that found him, and told him who he was. Shadow, the little writer, Squishy the kid who reminded him of Jones, and Glitch the mechanic. Shadow, the little girl who looked up to him as if he were a messiah...Like Neo. Shadow, the little girl who knew too much about him for her own good. Never could have imagined this would be his fate. He would have killed them before. But that was before of course.

They are his friends now.

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"Andy called yesterday." Shadow said, lying on the floor.

"Akio and Shadow sitting in a tree..." Squishy began.

"Shut up!" Shadow yelled kicking his leg.

"Who's Andy?" Smith looked over at the others on the couch, and Shadow on the floor.

"He used to be my neighbor. He was freed two months ago." Shadow said.

"She has a crush on him." Glitch said.

"No I don't! If anyone, I have a crush on Smith!" Shadow yelled.

"Uh, huh. You deny the truth woman!" Squishy pointed.

"Well you have a crush on me!" Shadow pointed back.

"How did you know!?" Squishy yelled.

Glitch started laughing.

"Because your pupils dilate every time you're close to her, your body temperature rises about two degrees, and your palms sweat." Smith said.

Everyone stared at Smith for a second. Still an Agent at heart, as Shadow put it.

"Well, you know I knew for more obvious reasons, but yeah, that's true too." Shadow said.

"Yeah, Squish, everyone at school knows." Glitch held back a laugh.

"Aw man..." Squishy lowered his head.

Smith smiled.

"What did Akio say?" Glitch asked.

"Right, he called to tell me how he was doing. He says he's bald, and he misses his spiked hair. He doesn't know what he'll do without black dye though." Shadow said, sitting up to look at them. "He says it's cold, and everything seems...seems real. Everything is, more alive, more vibrant. And it's cold. Really, really cold."

Smith looked away.

"Wow." Glitch said.

"I wonder what's it's really like out there." Squishy said.

"Real, maybe." Shadow said.

"Your friend is right. It is very cold there."

Everyone looked at him.

"How do you know?" Glitch asked him.

"That's right! You were in the Real World! When you copied that guy! Uh..." Shadow snapped her fingers trying to think of his name.

"Bane." Smith said.

"Bane! Yeah!"

"You were in the Real World?"

"Yes." Smith says.

"How?"

"He copied Bane, and went through an Exit. There was nothing left of Bane, so he just took over the mind and the body. He was in the Real World." Shadow answered for him.

"Yes, that's how it went." Smith said.

"So what's it like?" Squishy asked.

"I felt...It felt...Alive." Smith looked at them. "You have to understand, that was the first time I had ever felt alive, ever experienced things like that."

"Like what?" Glitch asked.

"Pain." Shadow interrupted.

Smith looked at her, and she looked away.

"Right? You cut yourself, because it was the first time you felt something like that. The cutting of skin, and the wet blood that spilled out." Shadow said, avoiding Smith's stare.

"You were a cutter?" Squishy asked, confused.

"I had never felt anything close to whatever that was. And it was...amazing." Smith explained himself. "I had to breath, I had to eat, I had to do things I've never done to live in that body. I felt alive, I felt human. I hated it at the time, but the feeling of freedom I got from being outside the Matrix. That is what I truly liked out there."

"Wow." Glitch said.

"It's like being born again" Shadow says. "That's what Akio told me..."

"Yes. And besides, I think you'd enjoy the plugs." Smith smiles.

"Ewww." Squishy says.

Shadow and Glitch laugh.

"Squishy is squeamish." Glitch explained.

"Then I won't go into the details when I literally blew Mr. Anderson's eyes out of his face." Smith smiled.

"Ew!" Squishy yelled.

Shadow laughed.

"How weak Mr. Anderson was within the Real World." She laughed.

And then Smith saw a piece of himself in her.

"Don't call him that." Smith snapped.

"What? I do it all the time." Shadow said.

"Just don't call him that, his name is Neo." Smith commanded.

She stared at him for a moment.

"All right, Smith. His name is Neo." She nodded.

And Squishy and Glitch stared at Smith.

He couldn't have them acting like him. He couldn't allow these children to be like him. He was a murderer, and Virus. They could never be like that.

"You know, she's always called him that, even before she met you." Glitch defended her.

"Just don't call him that anymore." Smith lowered his head.

"He's right you know. Didn't that guy beat you up cause you called him that?" Squishy said.

"Someone hit you?" Smith looked at her.

"Yeah, so...Happens all the time when you where a suit to school. I would have worn an earpiece, but those things are so damn expensive!" Shadow said. "That's why I want you to teach us how to fight."

Smith stared at her, puzzled. Why on earth would she want to be like him...

"I heard they put a statue of Neo in Zion." Glitch said, to change the subject.

"Yeah, Akio said that too." Shadow said.

"Right in the middle of the city, right?" Squishy asked, and Shadow nodded.

"I also heard they're going to make a second city." Shadow said.

"Really?" Smith asked.

"Yeah, Babylon. There is talk about building it on the surface." She said.

"Wow." Glitch said.

"That'd be cool."

"Machines will even help."

"Cool."

And Smith looks a way, until the sunsets, and the three kids have to go home. And Shadow is the last one to go, as she holds her Smith bust still tightly in her arms, and waves goodbye.

They leave him then, to the night and the cold.

But they are all he has. And he wouldn't trade them for all his copies back.

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Next Chapter: He Writes Too

Please R/R! I'll need reviews to survive!

I do have a Smith bust, Andy did move away sadly, and Matt still thinks I have a crush on him. Whatever :p I don't.

More to come, some stuff on Jones and Brown, and some more of my friends with their Matrix names! Then uh oh...

Johnson and the others are coming...