I only own the narrator and Ray characters, as well as the new characters I am introducing here. )

note: 9999 is computer speak for total system shutdown. A lot of people were worried about this fact during the days leading up to September 9th, 1999

START: SYSTEM ERROR

VAR: 555-9999

ERROR CORRECTED.

UNIT 275869999754643 CORRUPTED.

DISPATCH:

AGT15, AGT27.

END.

It took a week for the call to come.

A whole week of the suspense steadily building in my mind. I was lucky to sleep three hours a night then. Ray had stopped by again twice, and now I realize just how worried he was getting. But I was a wreck at the time; I still attended some of my classes, but only my philosophy ones; my often starry-eyed daze, which would have been cause for concern among my regular crowd actually helped my blend into my philosophy lectures.

Go figure.

I awoke one day, around noon, a full seven days after that fateful IM had pooped up on my computer screen. Groggily, I got up and half-stumbled into the washroom, peering blearily at my reflection Ugh. My hair was a mess, and the skin under my eyes was baggy and dark, giving me raccoon eyes. Half-heartedly, I swept my hand through my short, wheat-coloured hair. Some improvement made, but not much.

My cell phone rang, and my heart would have jump clean out of my mouth had my teeth not clenched together so tightly at that very instant. I had set it at the edge of my sink in my stupor, and it was a miracle in itself that it had not fallen in and been wrecked.

It rang three times before I got the courage to reach out and bring the phone to my ear. 'Hullo?'

'Hello Nexus,' a flat male voice replied. Holy crap, these people knew my screen name. Creepy…yet somehow I wasn't quite surprised.

The man continued. 'They know about you. I don't have time to explain who, or what, but I suggest that you leave immediately if you don't want to meet them.'

I looked down at myself, then clad in a T-shirt and boxer shorts. Also a pair of ratty blue slippers. 'Hold on…now? As in, right now?'

'That would be the idea. Go to the Adelaine subway entrance. Hurry.' The line went dead.

I know I dropped the phone, because I had both hands free to climb through my window onto the fire escape of my building. The next few minutes, however, were a blur. Only now do I realize how lucky I was that it was only 5 AM; there was almost no one to see me running the three blocks in my pajamas and slippers to get to the subway.

As I stood there, shivering on the sidewalk, a thin drizzle broke out. I raised my face to it, closing my eyes to take in the feeling of tiny raindrops lighting upon my face. This rain was even colder than the chill morning air, but it didn't bother me. As a kid I had loved going for polar dips in the lake near my house – that is, waking up at the crack of dawn and jumping into the night-chilled water. That cold had brought instant alertness and clarity like nothing else, and this gentle rain of an early spring seemed to wash the fear and fatigue out of my mind. That was, to me, the feeling of being totally and completely free.

And, in a way, I was right.

I could hear a car pull up the curb, and I opened my eyes, reluctantly bringing my mind back down to earth.

The car was a dark, forest green, of a vintage variety. It could have been a GTO, but I wasn't sure. The back door opened and a woman peered out at me.

She was clad in a long, black trench coat, with leather slacks and high-heeled boots that looked rather expensive. Her dark brown hair was braided in an elaborate cornrow design, and dark glasses hid her eyes.

She seemed to almost grin at my own attire, then got down to business. 'Nexus?'

'Yes.' I wished that I had something smart to say right about then, instead of gawking like a tourist. 'This is very weird.'

'I can't say you're wrong. Do you know why you are here?'

The phone call had confused me, but now I had an idea. 'Ah…the Matrix?'

This time she did grin. 'Get in.'

I complied. As the GTO pulled away from the curve, the woman added, 'By the way, my name is Medea.'

I had once thought that the coldness of my childhood swims had been the ultimate cold. I was wrong then, and as the chill swept through every fiber of my being in the Matrix after I had taken the red pill, I began that short and violent journey that gives a shocking clarity to the world outside.