Title/A New Shade of White
Author/Lelio, 18, girl.
Regulations/I do not own characters of THE MATRIX.
Inspiration/ I was under the influence of a bunch of different types of music while writing this. Not sure if it'll be evident, but it happened. A few of the bands/soundtracks I listened to; Placebo, Silent Hill OST, nine inch nails, deftones, sneakerpimps, orbital, vnv nation, dj shadow, kidney thieves.
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Within the cold and steely heart of Central City, members of the crew of the Melpomene were slinking through the streets, it was their turn to scout new rebels out. Lute was one of those few who were searching. The smell of old streets after a good downpour of rain burned her nostrils as she waited outside an apartment complex. As she had been disconnected from the Matrix for the shortest period of time compared to the rest of the crew, she was only set with the easiest, and dullest jobs. Though it had been nearly five years since then, and she was now nineteen, easily just as skilled, if not more so as the rest of the crew. Above her, near the top of the building, a window opened and someone whistled shrilly at her as she watched the progress of a shiney beatle scuttle near her shoe. It had been fascinating for the nearly thirty seconds it took to skitter the foot it had covered in that time. Yet when Dice reached his head out to signal it was time, Lute snapped her head up to look at her caller and quickly crossed the sidewalk to the sleek, old-fashioned black car they had brought, leaving behind the equally old-fashioned wrought-iron fence she had been leaning against that caged in the meager garden set about the brick building.
Sliding into the cold leather seat, Lute reached for her seatbelt, but was rocketed from the drivers seat before she was clasped in . A pale hand had reached in and grabbed her in a vice-like grip and propelled her from the car like a doll. She flew over the fence and landed in the line of small bushes. Back on her feet in seconds, she glared at one of two powder white men. They were both standing close to each other, but one was heading off towards the door of the apartment. It was amazing these two could run about in public without accumulating little circles of gawkers.
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Yossi had quickly made it past the basic defenses of her client's insurence company. Being paid an unqestionable ammount of money for this job had given her plenty of incentive. She did these types of jobs with a high level of numbness. She'd lost early morals, but always played on the good side of society otherwise. Without the restraint of good versus bad in her head she could make money easily and supply her life. Only a year ago she had erased all evidence of her existence on all types of files in computers everywhere. Several unfortunate events led her to this and she was indeed lucky that she was as independent as she was. Only clocking twelve years, and infinatly wise in all things hard and software, she had leveled out an easy enough life. Only the best equipment was stocked in her small apartment that once belonged to her aunt, who died a year ago in the same accident that her parents had perished in. It didn't take long to settle into an easy life with plenty of clients and sorts of people believing she was of age. She only lived for her computer and found that healthy enough, though she often forgot to eat, sleep, and bathe, always staring into the glowing screen of one of her many computers.
She was in fairly poor condition, a tad smelly and underweight when her screen flashed a shade of pale silver. She blinked at the sudden brightness, squinting into the light. Her computers were well protected, healthy compared to the many leisure devices normal families owned. They were elite. So when, even the ones who were shut down, flashed silver screens, she was indeed perplexed. Even more so when the one she had been using to hack the insurance companies base began typing the name, "Yossi" over and over again till the large screen was completed. This was the name she used with clients, and on her computers. All were named that, so when the option to shut down a computer came up, it said "Shut Down Yossi". She glared steadily at it and reached over to shut the device down when the screen returned to normal before she could reach the little button. Her mind was immediatly racing with culprits who could have sent a virus into her computer, and their immenant punishment when they were caught. But no faces came to light. Other hackers that were even in her league were all at a truce after they ended up shutting down five major city power sources in a bitter hack-war. Only two were carted away to face unhealthy sentences in prison. She was one of the lucky eleven that had escaped unscathed from that mess.
Deciding now was the perfect time to clean herself up, she pushed her leisure chair away from the desk and stopped dead in her tracks. Someone was knocking on her door. She couldn't see the front door of her pathetically small apartment. It was peeling with cheap beige paint. Noone ever came calling at her door, not even the owner of the building. No pizzaguy ever stood at her door, no salesmen. She was dead to the world except under the identy of twentyseven year old "Lisa Jones", a person she made up in order to own this apartment, the computers and the likes. She walked from the computer room and now could see the front door. Her small eyebrows knitted together, creasing the delicate skin between them as she approached the door apprehensively, slowly. The peephole was too far up the door to see, she'd never used it before. Carefully, tentatively, intending to press her ear to the door, she approached. Before she could, however, a voice iminated from the other side, passing easily through the thin wood of the door.
"Yossi," it said, not asked, with a strong, calm and oh so reasonable tone.
She gasped and jumped back like she'd just touched the top of the hot stove, but the door wasn't burning and her heart was still hammering in her chest.
"Open the door, Yossi," this was the voice of a psychologist, something she probably should have talked to before she erased her name from the hundreds of databases.
And she did, she grasped the handle and turned before she knew what she was doing, but what choice did she have? That voice on the other side of the door was promising her something, freedom. She knew this, always. She knew this when she'd turn on her computer, when she walked around her empty apartment, alone. She knew the world was at odds with her. And she was so close to understanding, everyday. Something was wrong, something was different. She'd told herself at first that this was what happened when you lost parents. She had never been close to them, but she wasn't completely apathetic. And now, the answers were close, on the other side of the door, weren't they?
The door swung with a painful moan, fully open like she had excepted whatever it was the person on the other side of the door had to offer. The face was kind, yet stern. Young, yet wise. His sunglasses, though, she wanted to remove them. She was certain there'd be perfect eyes to fit with his accepting face. He didn't smile, but it wasn't a mean, or agressive look. It was almost expressionless, but it didn't have the hushed silence that presidential bodyguards had. She blinked, in awe. The man wasn't alone, however, he had two women and a younger man with him. He looked the oldest out of them, though none were younger than twenty..or twentyfive. All were wearing different styles of sunglasses and this annoyed her somewhat. They were in a building, a dim one at that. Today was to be cloudy, a chance of rain if she remembered reading the webpage weather-ticker right. It was strange this had distracted her, the guests had already entered and the man named Dice was steering her towards her mangy couch.
"Do you know who I am?" he was sitting on the couch beside her. She should have been more cautious, something should have been telling her these were strangers, but nothing was clicking in her mind, nothing seemed dangerous.
"Yes," Yossi nodded numbly. She was feeling almost euphoric, this was an important part of her short life, wasn't it?
The man didn't seem surprised, but smiled warmly and introduced himself as Dice. Then the oddest story she had ever heard spilled out of him like gushing water. He was talking quickly, he must have been in a rush. Before she could fully comprehend what we was saying about the real world and the digital world, the story was complete. She was blinking owlishly, starring down at the blue carpet, stained and worn, and only comfortable to stand on in certain parts. One of the women was occupying a particularly uncomfortable part, but she was wearing shoes with the thickest heels Yossi had ever seen, she'd never know.
Dice stood, looking accomplished yet suddenly weary. He walked over to the living rooms largest window and slid it open with some difficulty. The old window had never been opened and resisted brusquely. He whistled loudly and sharply at whoever was down on the ground and turned around, leaving the window open.
"We're going to take you to a place that will make this all seem more clear, Yossi, alright?"
Yossi was still a little dazed. She suspected that if they did this often, her case must have been the easiest because she had no one that would miss her. Only her clients, but that wasn't something she cared about much. She nodded placidly and let the youngest member of their group, the guy who she placed evenly at twenty six, steer how out the door. She wanted to lock it, to protect the computers in there from any sticky fingers, but she had the nagging feeling that she wouldn't be returning. She realized then that she'd probably miss those computers. They were like her special works of art, they even had her name in them, like a fancy signature.
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Lute only seemed to be dodging his blade and jumping away from his heavy boots. The dreadlocked, ivory program was frighteningly swift. He would have been a match for the Agents if he wasn't part of the Matrix like them. She'd been guarding the door of the ratty apartment building for almost a minute, though time was becoming agonizingly slow. She knew Dice and the others would be down soon. The other twin seemed to be waiting for his brother to finish, but Lute was proving more of a challenge. She knew if he entered the fray, she might as well have stepped aside and let them march through.
"DICE!" she shrieked loudly as she saw the other twin dive for her, a pure white fist aimed for her cheek, but she flipped away, no hands and blocked the other brothers kick by grabbing his ankle after she landed neatly and prepared, taking the chance to trip him with a foot. The twin heading for the door didn't even bother with the handle, but turned into a ghostly version of himself. The Matrix's code was revealed in his form as his hair flew about. He resembled Medusa with her knotts of snakes for hair. He stepped through the door and disappeared. Lute's eyes went wide behind her sunglasses, but his brother was on his feet again, landing a heavy boot in her stomach.
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Yossi's room was three floors up and the cheap owner of the apartment never had elevators installed. The complex was in horrible need of renovations. They were almost to the ground floor, Yossi had been nestled in the midst of them, the younger guy and a women behind, and Dice and the other woman in front. The warm sense of safety was slipping away as she felt their tension. They were intensly worried about something, but she never felt like asking, since her mind was still processing the story Dice had told her earlier. A war, machines, Zion and the computer program of the Matrix. All of it seemed familiar, like it had been a long ago bedtime story a mother had used to help her drift to sleep.
She had always been an alert girl. Also in tune with her surroundings, so even when she had immersed herself deep in thought, she didn't bump into the smooth leather-clad back of the woman leading her down the stairs. Everyone looked down over the dirty wooden railing at the entrance of the apartment. The double doors were right there, they could leave now, but the oddest person Yossi had ever seen was blocking the way. The entrance room of the apartment was big and sparcely decorated. The wide stairs twisted around to face the doors straight on, and right now, everyone was looking sideways over the railing and into the pale white face of an equally pallid clad man. One side of his mouth was turned upwards as he gave a dangerous smirk. He, too, was wearing sunglasses, but Yossi had the creeping sensation that he was watching her behind them. It wasn't difficult to tell he was on the 'machines' side.
The door of the apartment building, out of the corner of Yossi's eyes, caught her attention. Yossi thought this was out of place. With the quiet staredown between the people she was with and the ivory man on the bottom floor going on, it seemed like anybody that walked in would find this odd, maybe even run screaming of fright. But the situation was raised to another level of strange when an identical man stepped in, never bothering to open or close the large entrance doors. He just stepped right in. The young man behind her sucked in a breath, Yossi heard him whisper an urgent "no", and the moment seemed to freeze.
But then, everything went crazy. Everyone she was with lept over the railing, the youngest even went so far as to grip the banister and flip over it. She felt very alone, then, yet was distracted when each of them began engaging the twins into a heated battle. Her eyes widened and she sank to sit on the step, feeling small and never blinked once as she watched, mesmerized. The fight didn't last long, however. The twins kept phasing, ghostly, white, ghostly, white. Then, while slipping past a particularly brutal punch that Dice was aiming at his gut, one of the twins leapt onto the banister, landing cat-like and steady where Yossi was sitting. He had to grip the wood to stay in place as he looked down at her, smirking smugly. His brother was in his specter form, no one was trying to attack him, but running for Yossi and the ivory program. The other wouldn't have this, and was in front of them all with a retractible razor.
All of them pulled out their respective guns at this and aimed. Two at the twin in front of them, the others were steadily pointed at the one on the banister. He'd looked over his shoulder when he heard the running stop, still smirking, he slowly slid from the banister and wrapped his arms around Yossi's stomach and pulled her to stand in front of him. She sucked in a breath, the whites of her eyes were circling her pupils. Shouldn't she have ran? Not sure, but she certainly stopped breathing.
No one dropped their guns, Yossi thought the ones that were pointing in her direction should have wavered a little, but they seemed sure of themselves. Yossi, however, couldn't help but feel nervous standing at the receiving end of the barrels.
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End note/Everyone enjoys reviews, I'll even take the critique head on. (meow)