I made an executive decision and picked Tank. Because he's cool. And sorry this took so long, I kind of sort of forgot about it.
"…paranoid, narcissistic, and borderline anti-social," fumed Venus. She was brandishing her tablet at Morpheus, who looked more or less unaffected by her raging. "The egghead's a crackpot! In my professional opinion, I think we should dump him over the side and leave him for the sentinels to find."
"You didn't injure him, did you?" Tank inquired over the top of the monitors. "He still needs to train. I knew I shouldn't have let you go all psycho on him before I got my time with the guy."
"He's fine," she answered, plopping down in the second operating chair. Tank pushed the hand that held her tablet away from one of the more important keypads. "Against my better judgment."
"You couldn't hurt him even if you wanted to," he laughed. "You never took any 'violent' programs."
"That can be fixed," she muttered darkly as Cypher's door opened. Tank winced as she slammed the chair under the table.
"You're Tank, am I right?" asked Cypher, sliding into the chair Venus had recently vacated.
"You are right," he agreed. "Go sit in one of those chair with the big metal plugs."
He complied. Tank had no idea about why Venus took such an intense dislike to him. Cypher seemed like a nice enough guy. He didn't talk much, but who said that was a bad thing? Maybe Venus was just annoyed that she didn't have a part in unplugging him.
"Dozer, would you mind plugging him in?" he called to his brother.
Dozer lumbered over from a foul-smelling bucket filled with a somewhat opaque liquid, and warned Cypher, "This might give you the willies."
Dozer connected the plug to his port. Cypher's eyes rolled back in his head, then closed, all while flickering nervously from Tank to Dozer to the code flashing on the monitors. Tank's eyes followed Cypher's, looking at the screens with an expert's eyes. He seemed to be adjusting well to the nothingness that surrounded him. That was good, because Tank had no intention of running anything other than the kung fu lesson until Morpheus was plugged in. He'd already caused one redpill to lapse into a coma when he provided too much input, too fast.
"When you're ready, Dozer." Tank swiveled briefly to make sure that Morpheus was plugged correctly, then returned his gaze to the monitor. Morpheus and Cypher spoke for a moment before Tank received the command to call up the dojo that had been sent to them by another ship's operator.
No one on the ship paid any attention to the one-sided battle playing out on the monitors. The only thing that could interest them was if Cypher suddenly sprouted a second head and bit Morpheus's balls off. They'd all seen this too many times to pay attention any more.
With one eye watching the screens, he reminisced about the other's training. Apoc, even without any training, had almost beat Morpheus through brute force; as did Switch. Mouse had been absolutely hopeless, and Venus, tiny as she was then, had simply stared down Morpheus and refused to fight. Trinity had fared about as well as Cypher was doing now.
"Ouch," he muttered emphatically. A swift chop from Morpheus had just cracked over Cypher's bald head.
"Bring up the loading area," Morpheus commanded. Tank's fingers blurred over the keyboard as he called up the blank area. This was Morpheus's thing, so he let his mind wander as the chief explained the Matrix. The system really was a wonder. It would be nice if the coding could be translated, but there was just too much input to crack down and make it understandable to new kids. The new display screens were nice though. He ran a finger over the closest screen, thinking about how to improve the image quality. Maybe on the next trip to Zion he'd get some image adapters.
"Switch to the Mouse's new program," ordered Morpheus once he'd finished explaining. Cypher must be taking it pretty effing well to have gone straight from having his world flipped to another program.
"We don't have a distraction yet," Tank pointed out after getting Mouse, who had been eavesdropping, to shut up. "The program will be virtually useless."
"I'll go in," grinned Venus. She too had been eavesdropping, her chin on Mouse's shoulder. The two were irrepressible.
Tank cracked a smile and relayed the message to Morpheus.
"Fine with me."
"You're good for entrance," said Tank, glancing over his shoulder at the blonde girl. "But no more analyzing, no shooting, no poisoning- actually, you know what? Don't go near the guy."
She smiled angelically at him before her eyes rolled back in her head. He chuckled and flipped a switch to change programs. Morpheus and Cypher stood on a virtual street, filled with people dressed in the same kind of depressing colors there were out in the real world. People rushed by without noticing either of them, occasionally forcing them out of the way.
Morpheus started to monologue, explaining the dangers the Matrix could present. Cypher paid little attention. He gazed around at what he thought was the world he had recently left. If the program was going to play out like the code suggested, that was a bad move.
Out of nowhere, Venus sauntered by, dressed flamboyantly in a vividly red, low-cut dress. Mouse made a strangled noise from somewhere behind Tank. He could practically hear Venus grit her teeth as she smiled at Cypher.
A loud, "Yes!" reverberated over her channel as an Agent pressed his gun to Cypher's head. Several more of the creeps had the two surrounded while she slipped away, not-so-silently celebrating.
"Damn, Mouse!" exclaimed Tank, "You know what you're doing!"
"I try," answered Mouse, perched by Venus like a concerned father. "Can you get her out now? I'm not sure what those Agents are going to do next."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" asked Apoc with a flash of white teeth. "To busy with the digital whore idea to finish it?"
"Why I oughta- I mean, of course not," he changed tactic after catching a glimpse of the giant gun nestled next to Apoc. "I just haven't had a chance to run the program and catch all the bugs, because, as you know, we haven't had much free time lately, what with the whole unplugging of Cypher."
"You got it," smiled Tank, still laughing at the expression on Cypher's face. "Morpheus, this is your operator. Buckle up, it going to be a bumpy ride. You're back in three… two… one."
Woo! End of chapter two.