With an almost feverish pace, codes spurted from drives at speeds unimaginable – without even being scanned the codes were translated then uploaded into the Matrix where they would do their jobs. The machines were coding faster than ever, repairing and replenishing the programmes that were affected by the deletion. Extra electricity was diverted to the code programmers of the Matrix, which were working overtime to make sure the Matrix wasn't affected anymore than it already had been.
Constant scans were being run through the Matrix, hundreds of times more than usual, to find out the source of the deletion but each scan came up with the same answer: a virus was sitting in a dark corner of the Matrix – it had re-written the code around itself to form a protection against the programmes which fought tooth and nail to hack their way in and delete it. There was no way through.
If the virus kept on the way it was, soon it would have the power to rewrite the large parts of the Matrix and use it to get through to the machines to control them, it was as though history was repeating itself – but instead of it being humans being overthrown by their creations the machines it was the machines being fought by their creation – the Matrix.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but there is no way through here. This is a restricted area until further notice." The army official held out his arms to indicate the barriers behind him.
"But if I don't go through there it will take me hours to get to work, you can't just cordon nearly a third of the city and expect us to just lie down and take it!" said the short woman, who was wearing a business suit and brandishing her suitcase in anger.
"Ma'am, I am going to have to ask you to leave."
"Bu-" The women began to protest.
"Ma'am, please!" The officer shouted.
The women turned on her heel and stormed off to get into her car, thinking of her long drive to work ahead of her.
The army official breathed a sigh of relief, his moustache ruffling on his upper lip. The woman was right; even he didn't know why they had to cordon of so much of the city – this operation seemed to be on a need-to-know basis, and the commanding officer hated need-to-know.
Harassed looking people were being marshalled from behind the barrier out of their part of the city which was cordoned off.
A black car began to pull up in front of the barrier, the officer sighed, but this time it was not of relief but of anger: why couldn't civilians just stay away from army cordons? Before the official could approach the car it had stopped and two men had climbed out, adjusting their sunglasses – even though it was a cloudy day. They wore black suits with black ties and shoes, their faces were expressionless.
The official swore under his breath: he hated the big guys.
"Sir, step aside," said one of the men.
"And who are you?"
"Agent Gross. We have clearance to be in this area, step aside," said the man on the left. The army official did not see the agent's eyes narrow behind his sunglasses.
"Ok, ok. I get the picture." The guard official scowled at them, and then moved aside to let them pass.
The Agents walked past the barrier and began making their way down the near-deserted streets of the cordoned off part of New York – the only people left were being marshalled away by armed army officials. The Agents turned off of a main street and strode down an alley, their shoes clicking in time with one another.
"I can feel it from here," said one, a frown creasing his otherwise smooth, pale forehead. "I can too," the other simply replied.
The came out of the alleyway and on to another main street, at the end of the street was a tall brick wall – the street simply ended where the wall began, stretching up higher than the buildings.
"It's bordered itself in with walls like this," said the first agent, the other looked at the wall, his face still impassive.
They both came to a large group of army officers, many wearing head gear including ear protection.
"Hey! We're about to blow the wall, so I suggest you put on some protection," said a large guy at the front, holding out two head set like his. The agents took them and dropped them on the ground and turned to watch the wall – which they could now see was dotted with explosives.
The army officer shrugged and turned to his group. "Now!" He screamed and one of them pressed a large red button on a yellow control pad.
There was a pause.
Then with a loud rumbling boom, the explosives detonated. But the wall did not fall apart as any other normal wall did; it began to ripple outwards, soaking up the shockwaves.
The army officials gasped in amazement as the wall stopped rippling, its bricks untouched and very solid looking.
All around the group similar explosions were taking place at other walls around the site, followed with gasps and cries as all the walls reacted in the same way.
The agents stood, unmoving, there faces showed no trace of amazement.
They began to run at the wall, their black shoes pounding against the road.
The army officials stood to watch them, their mouths now agape.
The agents reached the wall and jumped. Being in the Matrix, the laws of physics do not apply, and the agents leap took them up the wall and landed on the top, the wind whipping their ties into a frenzy.
The army officials dropped their equipment and began to run; rubbery looking walls they could deal with, but super humans were not on the contract.
The scene that greeted the agents was one of complete chaos. A black shapeless cloud span on the spot, a roaring sound coming from within, it was about the size of a house and it was growing larger by the second. The agents jumped from the wall and landed in front of it, large cracks ripping into the road beneath them and, with a one quick flick inside their suits, they pulled out their guns and began to shoot in to the black mass.
It roared, shattering the windows of the buildings around. The roar was deep and rumbling, pierced with screeching like metal on metal – it was a note that seemed to reach out to air and snatch it.
The cloud began to retract and become fluid, like dark twisting water and rain began to fall from the cloudless, sunny sky. It curled in, undulating and twisting until it formed a pale teenager dressed all in black with bare feet.
The agents rushed at him, dropping their guns.
With a fluid motion, the boy gracefully flipped and as he did so his clothes became fluid once more and twisted around him like a cloak – flapping across his face like dark water across the reflection of ice cold dawn.
Without any sound at all he landed lightly upon one of the agent's shoulders and span off, his flowing black cloak brushing across the agent's face as he broke their neck. Just before he landed his foot made contact with the other's face and made that agent spin off haphazardly and hit the wall with a loud, cracking thump. Once again the wall soaked up the shockwave, ripples flowing out until they died away.
The virus landed, his clothes retracting once more into his normal black attire as he stood to his full height and breathed in – as though sapping power from the very air around him. His face had a nasty scowl upon it, contorting the silver scars that laced his otherwise perfect complexion; he then relaxed his features as he turned to contemplate the wall he had built himself.
His senses extended beyond the reach of any normal human or programme, he could feel the very essence of the Matrix around – he just couldn't completely grasp it all, yet.
He let his senses flow further away from him – dancing upon the ever-changing signs that made up the Matrix. He could feel the soldiers on the others side, all aiming their large missiles at the wall; he could feel their hearts fluttering with anticipation. His senses edged further – he could almost hear the machines outside the humans' life pods, whirring to and fro...
There was a large buzzing sound and the virus retracted his senses, recoiling in pain. So the machines could feel him feeling them…he would deal with that later, but for now he had to get to grips with this world he was in…
The breath let out a stream of water vapour that hung in the air before melting away as though never there. The breath was filled with anxiety; anxiety that seemed to float through the air even after the breath had gone.
"Will you cut that out, Morpheus? You're making me even more nervous." Niobe said sharply, giving a look just as sharp.
"The great Niobe, nervous?" Morpheus said, a half smile creeping across his face as he turned to look at Niobe.
"It's what makes us human. You told me that."
"So I did." Morpheus said and turned to look out of the window again.
"Morpheus…" Niobe began, for the first time she felt a little lost. She couldn't think of what to say for a second, until Morpheus turned to her, giving him his full attention.
"Yes?"
"Trinity and Neo died to save us. It was supposed to be the end to the war, but it seems that we haven't changed a thing; in fact it seems a lot worse now." Niobe said, her brow creasing into a frown as she did so.
Morpheus turned to the window once more, his breath like a ghost upon the air and said, "The war is over. A new war has begun. An unforeseen war, the war between machines and the Matrix. When Neo died to save us and destroyed Agent Smith he sent out a large cyber wave that knocked some programs out of place. This most likely would have made no difference, except that it made a chain reaction which created, as you well know, a virus. Are you sure this is the spot?"
Niobe checked some figures on a screen in front of her, "Yes, we're bang on. This is exactly where she told us to be."
Morpheus let out a sigh. The Oracle had sent them a message, a message telling them to be at this location at this hour; she did not tell them why they had to be there. Niobe felt uneasy, she had never been completely at peace with the Oracle, the programme had always made her feel uneasy – giving them advice even though she was not human herself? It did not seem right. How were they to know if she was just working for the machines to play the last of humans right into the machines clutches? Morpheus seemed to trust her with his life, and he had been right so far…
Suddenly something caught Niobe's eye. A flash of metal and what sounded like a distant whirring of machinery reached her ears.
"Do you hear that?" She asked sitting up in her cockpit, Niobe looked out of the window.
A harsh beeping began to issue from the controls in front of them; Morpheus flipped a switch and pressed the green button underneath it. A hologram fizzled into the air above a small lens, on it a lone sentinel twirled in mid-air.
"Shit!" Niobe cursed, she would never trust anything from the Matrix again.
"Shh!" Morpheus said, "It's not moving. This is not coincidence."
They sat watching the sentinel as it twirled idly on the spot for a while, until a small blue light began to blink next to the hologram.
"Incoming message…it's from the sentinel…" She frowned at the co-ordinates of the message path and, sure enough, they coincided with the machine's position.
Morpheus frowned as well. "Receive it." He ordered, turning to looking at the hologram again.
Niobe pressed the blue blinking button.
Silence.
Then a voice crackled out of the speaker, a voice that was definitely female yet it seemed to speak on different notes so it sounded like it was singing while still sounding very like a computer.
"Humans. This is a message from the machines. The sentinel near you is harmless, simply acting as a transmitter for this message. As you well may know from one of our primary programs, the one you call the Oracle, there is a virus within the Matrix. We get many viruses yet they are normally destroyed before they can act, but this virus is very powerful. If it grows too powerful it could take over the Matrix, leaving the humans and machines at its mercy. We now need your help. The virus believes itself the spirit of man that was endowed upon us machines when the first artificial intelligence was created. If this is what it thinks, then humans would be able to bring it down. If not then the Matrix would have to be closed down, for the sake of the last of human kind in your city, Zion. If the virus got control of the machines it could control us to do almost anything. We cannot unplug the humans; the virus has stopped this already as its power grows. You must enter the matrix soon where you will be met by an Agent, he will give you three rings, and these rings are simple programs allowing you to bend the rules of the Matrix even more, this may help with dealing with the virus. If you wish to co-operate then enter the Matrix soon. We will detect you."
The line was severed. The blue light stopped blinking. Niobe turned to Morpheus, gripping his hand tightly as she began to sob slowly.