Program 4: World of the Real

Jake turned from the door which had just shut to face his new environment. It was a small room not unlike the one he had just been in, except this one had a bunch of machinery in one corner of the room, including a single chair, mirror and telephone.

"Take your seat over there," Morpheus instructed Jake. The sixteen-year-old sat on the seat and waited nervously for what would happen next. Morpheus took out a phone and said, "All right, he's ready."

As soon as he said that, a group of people came through the door, all dressed in different kinds of black clothing. Jake could identify their nationality by their faces: a Japanese man, a Caucasian woman and a Caucasian girl about his age. They all took their places at different parts of the machine. The Caucasian girl started hooking Jake up to these pads that she placed on his skin.

"All this was back here?" Jake asked.

The girl nodded as she continued to hook him up. She had a gentle touch.

Morpheus started dialing something into the phone part of the machine while he spoke to the boy.

"The red pill is part of a trace program. It will halt your input/output signal while we find you in the Real World."

"Signal? You mean like an electrical signal?"

"Yes. That signal allows you to interact with the Matrix. We will stop the signal so we can pull you out of the Matrix and you can enter the true world."

"What's that mean?"

"We're just pulling the plug on you, that's all," the Japanese man translated.

"How long, Kage?" Morpheus asked.

"Just a couple more minutes."

"Valkyrie, tell Link we're about to proceed."

The woman nodded and pulled out her own phone, to talk to the person coordinating them in the Real World.

"So Morpheus, what is the Matrix?" Jake asked, trying hard not to pick at all the pads placed on him.

"You'll find out soon, just try to relax now," the girl answered for the captain. There was something familiar about her voice to Jake. He had heard it somewhere before…

Shaking his head, Jake turned to face the mirror to his side and saw that it had a small web-like crack in it. The longer Jake stared at it, the bigger the crack seemed to become. Then, it slowly started to fix itself before Jake's eyes.

"What the…?" Jake turned to see if anyone else noticed the mirror, but they were all still working on what they were doing. Turning back, he saw that the mirror was completely fixed. He couldn't believe his eyes.

Reaching out to feel the mirror, his hand actually went right through it! The mirror rippled as Jake moved his hand inside of it. It felt like heavy liquid. He didn't know mirrors could do something like this. Or maybe it was just a special mirror.

"Kage?"

"One more minute, Morpheus."

Feeling what was inside the mirror was both strange and cool to the teenage boy. Retracting his hand from it, he saw it continued to ripple for a few seconds before returning to normal. Looking to his hand, he saw a few drops of the mirror liquid on his hand.

That began to slowly grow and envelop his hand.

"Uh…Morpheus…what's going on?" Jake asked, both shocked and scared at the same time, "This isn't really happening, right? This isn't…"

"What? Real?" Morpheus finished for him, "Yes, it is real."

The mirror liquid had now enveloped his hand and was slowly starting to creep up his arm.

"Um…I changed my mind…I can live with the Matrix…" Jake said, beginning to panic.

"I'm starting the trace now," Kage reported.

"Link, you getting all this?" Valkyrie asked the person on the other end of the line.

"Cold…i-it's c-cold…" Jake shivered, the panic in his mind rising as the liquid began to cover his chest, "Why do I f-feel so weird inside…?"

"Jake, just stay calm," the teenage girl told him.

"H-how do you k-know my name?"

"It's not important right now."

"Something's wrong with his body chemistry," Kage reported, "I'm losing the trace signal."

"Try and reestablish it," Morpheus went over to Kage's workspace.

"Link, can you pick up Magna's signal from the Real World? We're losing him here," Valkyrie asked.

"It's r-really c-cold…" Magna gulped as the liquid continued to envelop his body. It had now taken control of the lower region and was working toward his legs.

"Link says something's disrupting Magna's signal," Valkyrie said.

"No shit," Kage growled, "I think the Agents are messing with his signal."

"Well, can't you do something?" the girl asked.

"What do you think I'm doing, Ophani?" Kage argued.

Ophani went over to hold Jake's hand while the mirror liquid continued to claim his body.

"Just hang on, Jake. You can make it," Ophani reassured him.

"I'm gonna try and insert a vaccine into Magna to try and get rid of the Agents."

"While he's trying to jack out? You know how risky that is?" Valkyrie questioned.

"Do it," Morpheus ordered.

"But Morpheus…"

"We are not going to lose Magna to the Machines. Now, Kage."

Kage began typing like a maniac on the computer.

"How long before his signal stops, Ophani?"

"I don't know. Maybe less than a minute," Ophani replied.

"Inserting the vaccine into Magna…now!" Kage pressed a button on the computer and Magna felt a surge of pain inside him.

"GAAAHHH!"

"They're fighting it off! And Magna's got thirty seconds before he's jacked out!"

"Fight them, Jake. Fight them!" Ophani told him.

The mirror liquid was now working toward the only other places it hadn't claimed on Jake's body: his right arm and head.

Why is this happening to me? Why, why, why to me! Jake thought as he tried to force out whatever was happening inside his body while outside the liquid worked it's way up to his head.

"It's working! The vaccine's driving the Agents out!" Kage reported.

"Link has Magna's signal in the Real World," Valkyrie reported.

"Keep fighting, Jake! You're almost there!" Ophani told him. By now, the liquid had taken his arm and Ophani was forced to let go of him.

"G-g…." Jake started to scream.

"Something's weird about Magna now," Kage reported.

"We can't help him anymore. Now, it's up to him," Morpheus told him.

"Yeah, sir, but…"

"G-g-g-g…" The liquid was starting to cover Jake's face.

"Taurus is taking off," Valkyrie relayed Link's message.

"Try and relax now, Jake," Ophani said.

"Here he goes…" Morpheus simply said.

"GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Jake let out a horrible scream as the metallic liquid flowed through his mouth and into his chest. It started out as a solid scream, then slowly dissolved into a gargle, then a strange buzzing sound, and then nothing.

His eyes slowly opened.

He was floating in some kind of weird, gooey red liquid. All over his body were cords that were inserted into him. And he felt a large tube in his nose and mouth. Lifting his arm to the top of the liquid, he felt it slowly break through and he could at last feel some air. But it felt extremely cold. Grabbing onto the side of something with the arm that was in the air, he pulled himself up and sat up inside what looked to be a pod.

Taking hold of the tube that was inside his nose and mouth, he slowly pulled it out. As soon as it was out, he coughed and hurled over the side of the pod. After he was finished feeling sick, he looked all over his body and really noticed the plugs. Trying to remove one, he found he couldn't and felt his face for any other plugs.

He felt a large one at the back of his skull.

Feeling it, he tried to pull that one out as well, but as he did he saw something that made him drop his hands.

There were other people in the pods with wires just as he had. They all looked so peaceful asleep. He looked up and down and saw pods all around him, all filled with people plugged into something in a gooey red pod. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people exactly like him. The pods crackled with electricity as bolts of lightning seemed to be exchanged between them.

It made him sick to his stomach.

Looking up again, he saw that the sky was dark and stormy. By the looks of it, it had been that way for a long, long time.

My God…what's going on here?

A hovering machine came down to the pod in which the teenager was in. He stared at the machine before it seemed to pop out of it's shell with needles and spikes and God-knows-what sticking out the end. It's head looked at the boy with unconcerned interest. A claw popped out from the lower end of the machine and took hold of his neck. The boy's hands instantly went to claw, trying to pry it off of him.

Then, he felt a drilling pain in the back of his skull as the machine seemed to unscrew the cord inside his head. He tried to scream, but his voice wouldn't work. Gritting his teeth in pain, the cord came free of the teenager's skull and the mechanical claw holding his neck let him go. The machine returned to it's shell as it descended to the pods below.

Then, almost instantly, the plugs all over his body began to snap free. He struggled in pain as all the plugs on his legs, arms, chest and back came free and he was bleeding all over. There was a flushing sound as the back of the pod opened into a big hole, draining the liquid and the boy into itself.

Rushing down what looked to be a pipeline waterslide, the teen wondered just what was going on. What was with the pod people? What happened to the sky? Why did a machine unplug him? His mind dwelled on these questions for a few moments as the tube ended in open air and he splashed into a large dirty pool. Gasping for air as he reached the surface he tried to swim out, but his body couldn't support his weight in the water.

Then, several bright lights shone down out of nowhere as the boy looked up. A door of light seemed to open and a giant claw came to grab him and pull him upwards. A bright light? Pulling him upwards? The answer came to the boy.

He was dead. It was the only possible explanation.

The door closed behind him as the claw opened and set him down hard on a metallic floor. Several people dressed in ruined clothing came to attend to him. He shivered as they wrapped a blanket around him, trying to warm him up. They chatted all around him, but he couldn't focus in on a specific conversation.

His mind was a flurry of questions, drowning himself in strange thoughts. A man came over to him, and leaned over him. He looked different in a grey shirt and dark pants, but the boy knew who he was.

Morpheus.

"Magna…" Morpheus began, "Welcome to the Real World."

With those words ringing in his mind, Magna lost consciousness.

"That was too close, Morpheus," a feminine voice said.

"I know," Morpheus replied, "But it was worth it."

Magna opened his eyes and saw that Morpheus and Valkyrie were standing over him, talking.

"Wh…what are you saying…?" Magna's voice managed to pull out.

"It's all right, Magna," Morpheus told him, "You're safe now."

"I'm dead now…right?"

"It couldn't be farther from the truth."

Magna felt something within him. Leaning up his head slightly, he saw a thousand needles sticking out of his naked body. All of them were interlinked with each other, and were fed by wires from a computer.

"What's going on…?"

"Your muscles have atrophied. We need to rebuild them with electrical stimulation," Valkyrie replied.

"My eyes hurt…" Magna whispered as he let his head back down.

"You've never used them before…" Morpheus told him as he put a hand on the boy's forehead, "Don't worry. The answers are coming. Just rest for now."

Magna slipped back into sleep before Morpheus could finish speaking.

Magna's consciousness faded in and out all the time while the crew of the Metatron worked on recovering Magna for the next couple weeks. The next time he was fully awake was when he was completely recovered. His eyes opened and he sat up from where he was. A needle was plugged into a hole in his right arm where a plug now resided. Taking hold of the needle, the teenager slowly pulled it out of his arm. When it was completely out, he put it to the side and looked around at his new surroundings.

He was in what looked to be a person's quarters on a ship. Everything was made of metal, partly rusted at that. He was sitting on a bed at the back of the room. Around him was a lavatory, a couple of shelves, a kind of closet full of clothes and an overhanging light completed the room. It wasn't much, but it appeared to be his own room.

Looking at his body for plugs, he found that he was clothed in a grey long-sleeved shirt, a purple vest, dark pants and combat boots. Feeling his face he found that everything remained the same, except for his hair which had seemed to have finally started to slowly grow.

Then, he felt the plug at the back of his skull.

"Don't touch it!" a voice suddenly cried. Magna's hands dropped and he looked to the doorway in front of him to see a girl in a white shirt, dark jeans and boots. Her hair was black with the front bangs dangling on either side of her face died blonde. Magna suddenly realized it was the same girl he saw before he had been overtaken by the metallic liquid. The same girl he saw in news reports.

The same girl who he went to school with and had feelings for.

"Jenna…?" Magna asked her.

"I'm not Jenna anymore," the girl said, "My name's Ophani now."

"You look so…so…"

"Different?" Ophani finished as she stepped into Magna's room, "Yeah, being here can do that to you."

"Where am I?"

"I think he can explain that better than I can…" Ophani smiled as she stepped to the side and allowed Morpheus to come into the room.

"Hello, Magna," Morpheus greeted.

"Morpheus, what's going on? Where am I? What is this place?" Magna started to ask Morpheus all the questions he wanted to ask.

"This place is my ship, the 'Metatron'. And you are currently in the room that has been assigned to you as a member of my ship."

"What? I've been drafted?" Magna asked in disbelief.

"That is for you to decide. But I imagine now you have questions that need answering. Come, I'll show you what you want to know."

Exiting the room, Morpheus indicated that he wanted Magna to follow him. Magna got up and followed Morpheus down the corridor of the ship with Ophani behind him. As they walked, Morpheus began his explanation.

"In the Matrix, you believe it is the early 21st century, while in actuality it is the early 23rd century."

"I'm 200 years in the future?"

"Correct. We were enslaved by the artificial intelligence we designed to help us. We began a war that lasted a century around the midpoint of that time. Right now that war is over, but there are remnants of it that threaten to start it up again. Our job is to ensure that never happens," Morpheus said as he started to climb a ladder, followed by the teens, onto a horizontal deck, "This is the main deck. Our control centre. This is where we broadcast our signal to hack into the Matrix."

The control centre had a core, many chairs, a control booth and machinery hanging all around the group as they walked. People attending the machines stopped to gather around the group.

"This is my crew. You already know Ophani," Morpheus gestured to the girl behind Magna.

"Valkyrie, my lieutenant." The brown haired woman in dark clothes stepped forward.

"Kage." The Japanese man in clothes similar to Magna's nodded his head.

"The ones you haven't met are Link, our Operator." A black man in a dark sweater and pants waved at Magna. "Welcome aboard," Link shook Magna's hand.

"Taurus, our mechanic and pilot." A red-haired muscular man in overalls came to pat Magna on the back. The teenager felt as if he was run over by a truck merely by the touch.

"And our newest member, Blitz." A boy older than Magna with blonde hair and brown eyes wearing an outfit similar to Morpheus'. He grinned at Magna and patted him on the other shoulder.

"There are more people onboard, but they are just refugees traveling to Zion," Morpheus replied.

"Zion?" Magna asked.

"The city where we live," Ophani answered, "Deep underground."

"You'll see it soon enough," Valkyrie told him.

"You wanted to know what the Matrix is?" Morpheus asked, "Then I will show you. Ophani?"

Ophani nodded and took Magna's arm to lead him to one of the many chairs on the main deck. Getting into the chair, Magna looked around uncertainly for something to happen. Ophani strapped him in as Taurus took down the machinery behind the chair and Morpheus came over to Magna.

"Now try and relax," Morpheus warned him, "This may feel…a little weird."

Taurus slipped the plug into Magna's skull and Magna screamed at its feel. Taurus hit a button on a display screen above Magna's chair and Magna's screaming stopped as he relaxed into the chair.

He was nowhere.

Absolutely nowhere. That was the only way to describe where he was. A big white nothing. Everywhere Magna would turn would be nowhere. He couldn't move anywhere without really knowing where he was going. He could be going in one direction, but could really just be stuck in the same spot. It was too confusing for him to think about.

"Welcome to the Construct," Morpheus' voice came suddenly, forcing Magna to turn to try and find him, "This is our loading program. We can load anything we need here. Training simulations, weapons, vehicles, anything we need."

Morpheus was now dressed in a business suit with mirrored sunglasses. Walking over to him, Magna suddenly noticed his own clothes. He was now dressed in the same clothes he had worn when he jacked out of the Matrix for the first time. Not only that, but now his hair was back to normal. Running himself over with his hands, Magna was shocked to no end.

"Your appearance is now what we call 'residual self image'."

"…?"

"It is what your mind thinks you look like in the Matrix."

A pair of chairs and a television set suddenly appeared between Morpheus and Magna. The captain took his seat in the chair closest to him while Magna took the opposite.

"This is the world you know," Morpheus said as he took out a remote from his jacket and pointed it at the television, which started showing screens of the city Magna had grown up in, "The world where you were born into. The world where you were given an identity and the rest was up to you to decide. It is only a neurological interactive simulation called 'the Matrix'. A dream world built to keep the human race until the control of the Machines."

Magna suddenly remembered the 'power plant' he was in and all the humans alongside him. And the Machine that unplugged him from his pod. And the dark sky.

"This is the world as it is now."

Morpheus clicked a button and the television screen showed an image of a ruined city along a stormy skyline. A kind of desert was surrounding it on all sides. Before Magna could blink, the image on the TV screen had faded in around him and he and Morpheus were now sitting in the middle of the image.

"Welcome to the Desert of the Real," Morpheus told him.

Magna looked all around at the scene.

"This is the surface world as it is now. But it wasn't always like this. It was once like it is in the Matrix. About 200 years ago, all of the world was united in celebration when we gave birth to AI."

"Artificial Intelligence," Magna quickly realized.

"Right. One intelligence that created a whole race of intelligent Machines. Soon after we created them, they started a war with us. We don't know who struck first, but we know that we did that," Morpheus pointed upwards and Magna looked up at the stormy skies.

"We thought that by scorching the sky, we'd stop the Machines indefinitely because they were dependent on solar energy then. But they soon found another power source that was more abundant than the sun."

"Us," Magna said simply.

"Throughout history we've been dependant on machines for our survival," Morpheus let out a small laugh, "Fate is not without a sense of irony."

"…"

"There are fields. Infinite fields, Magna, where the Machines power source is grown and harvested. No one there has parents. No one there is born. They are grown."

"No…" Magna gasped.

"You don't believe it now, but know I'm right. You saw it for yourself, just as I did. Aren't you curious how none of them went hungry and looked perfectly healthy?"

"Kind of…"

"Whenever a Human dies in the Matrix, he or she is liquefied and fed to the living."

"What…?"

"I saw it for myself, Magna. I stood there after seeing it and realized the truth. The answer I was seeking. The answer you were seeking. What is the Matrix? Control," Morpheus said as he flicked off the TV and he and Magna were back in the white nowhere, "A computer generated dream world that exists only to turn a Human, you and me and so many others, into this."

Morpheus withdrew a single battery from the remote control.

Magna stared in horror as he took all the information in.

"It can't be…no…" Magna gasped.

"It isn't easy, Magna. But it's the truth. It's what you wanted."

"No!" Magna got out of the chair and backed away from Morpheus, "I didn't want any of this! No! Get me out of here! Get me out! I want out!"

Magna opened his eyes and struggled to get the plug out of his head.

"Get this thing out of me! NOW!"

"Hold still!" Taurus said as he held Magna back in his chair. Ophani helped him and Taurus removed the plug from Magna's head. As soon as he did, he left Magna alone and the teenager launched from the chair.

"Get me off this thing! I don't wanna be here! Stay away from me! All of you, stay away!" Magna screamed as he backed away from the group who gently started moving toward him, "I don't believe this! I don't frickin' believe this!"

"Magna, just relax!" Morpheus instructed as he went over to join the others as soon as he was unplugged.

"Relax? Relax while what? Everything I knew goes out the window! Live onboard a stupid ship underground while machines rule the world! Get jacked into a program where anything is created! I don't know why I even trusted you, Morpheus!" Magna screamed, "Let me off this bullshit of a ride! NOW!"

"Breathe, Magna, breathe!" Morpheus warned.

"Why did Seraph and Sati trust you people! You bastards! All of you are bastards!" Magna was backed into a corner as he struggled to try and get away from them. Steadying himself against a wall, he tried to look for a way to escape, "You can all die like bastards! You and your bullshit!"

"Magna, relax and breathe!" Morpheus and the crew inched closer to Magna.

"Stay away from me! I don't believe this…I don't believe this…I don't believe this…" Magna fell to his knees and clutched his stomach, "Don't come near me…don't co-"

At that, Magna threw up and fell unconscious on the floor of the main deck.