The dark haired woman that Nexus could now identify as Trinity hid a grin as the Kid's bellowing reached them. Neo had never really gotten used to the attention paid to him by the citizens of Zion, but the Kid's hero-worship was kind of sweet in its naïveté. It was true that Neo had played a part in the Kid's release from the Matrix- the totality of his faith in Neo had saved him when any other hacker would have been gunned down. But the boy had put the pieces together himself- he had been his own red pill.

Now if only he would figure that part out…

They seemed to be drawing a crowd this time, before they had even left the docks. This time, at least, the faces approaching were familiar ones, from the Peregrine and the Solaris ships. Maybe they could distract Kid so they could slip away- the walls of the Neb were thin, and an insatiable hunger had been rising in her for the last few days that could not be quenched by the slop they ate on the ship. She glanced at Neo, catching and locking his gaze for a brief moment- long enough for her to reads a similar hunger brewing in her lover.

The three crews converged, exchanging polite greetings. In the midst of it all, Nexus stood rooted to the spot, staring at Trinity and Neo, apparently star struck. The captain of the Nebuchanezzar noticed this as he was discussing the growing number of sentinels in the tunnels with Loki. Loki turned his head to see what had briefly captured Morpheus' attention and chuckled. "You probably see a lot of people looking like that when around those two, huh?" Loki paused a moment, scratching his chin. "Told us she saw your pair there crash a helicopter into a building, and delayed the explosion till she got clear. Medea found out a coupla days ago that she started having dreams right after about being in a pod. She was actually flickering in and out of the Matrix, like a TV with bad reception. The funny thing is that she's barely a hacker at all. She was a comp. sci. and philosophy student at some fancy school."

Loki looked at Morpheus, who seemed to smile slightly at Loki's incredulous air. "Lemme guess. You've been expecting something like this." Morpheus' slight smile widened. "I admit that the dream part is a strange thing. Her connection to the Matrix may have been weakened by what she had witnessed, especially during an unconscious state. But cases such as the one you mention are becoming more frequent now, especially since Neo has come into his own. There are more witnesses now, and they are becoming more difficult for the system to contain." This was said with the air of one suggesting they go out for tea. "I am interested in one thing, however; the records show that there was a sweep done of any and all potential witnesses in that area, since it was visible to so many."

It was Loki's turn to smile. "It took them around 30 seconds to repair the damage before they could focus on the witnesses, and by then Nexus had hauled her ass out of there." Morpheus laughed appreciably at this.

Nes and Skylla had carried their conversation over the amalgamated group. "So Worm has a baby sister," Nes marveled. "Amazing. And here we were, all thinking that he had hatched from a dragon egg…I bet she had had that agent bit cooked up for a while now. Worm nearly had a stroke when she said that."

Skylla laughed. "Vengeance can be sweet sometimes. She told Loki that she'd been paid a visit by agents after Worm was tapped to verify that she was, in fact, a freak-out little kid.I wouldn't forget something like that in a hurry." Her grin took on a smug quality. "And I've been noticing that our very own Trans has been growing less asinine by the day since she woke up after we fixed her up. Methinks she's having quite an effect on our resident motormouth. Speaking of motormouths, how's yours?"

Nes glanced around, attempting to locate Tangerine in the crowd. The girl had sidled up quietly to where Neo and Trinity were, with the Kid going on at a mile a minute. Normally excitable and talkative, the girl seemed to have reverted to the quiet child that Maiar had plucked up from the Matrix. After watching the trio for a few moments, Tangerine approached the Kid, tapping him on the shoulder. When the Kid turned towards her, the short girl stood on her toes and whispered something briefly into the Kid's ear. The Kid turned bright red and excused himself to Neo, as he turned tail and went to go milk one of the others for information from the warfront. Tangerine beamed at Neo and Trinity, who looked back at her, both relieved and mystified. After a moment she turned wordlessly and went back towards where Nes and Skylla stood, regarding her curiously. "What on earth did you tell that boy?" Nes demanded.

Tangerine blushed brightly. "Uh…that they probably wanted to, uh, gohavesex," Tangerine finished to sentence in a great rush, but both women had caught it. "Oh, Tan. You didn't." Nes appeared something resembling appalled, while the less mature Skylla burst out laughing.

Tangerine became defensive. "Well, it was pretty obvious, the way they were looking at eachother and everything." She looked back at the crowd, but Neo and Trinity were nowhere to be found. "See? They're already gone."

Nes looked about ready to smack the girl upside the head. Tangerine seemed to sense this as she grinned her most impish grin and darted away into the crowd. Nes glared after her, obviously perturbed. Skylla looked at her friend with great doe eyes. "Aww, Ness. you're just so…motherly. It's really quite sweet." Nes froze, turning slowly to look at the other woman, half disgusted and half amused. Skylla gave a Cheshire grin in return, and slowly, Nes decided to reciprocate it. After all, this was a time of rest and replenishment. Why not have a little fun once in a while?

Captain Mifune strode towards the three intermingled crews, his face stony and grim. The bags under his eyes were dark and pronounced, a sign of the three consecutive nights of sleep he had missed over the last week.

Loki caught sight of the familiar face first. He grinned, waving at the captain of Zion's defense systems. However, the grin slid off his face as Mifune shook his head slightly at Loki, looking at him balefully with hollow eyes. Loki turned, catching Medea's eye and jerking his head in Mifune's direction. Medea craned her neck to see over the others as a cloudy expression passed over her face upon seeing Mifune's current state. Any time Mifune looked that tired meant that bad news was coming.

Loki drifted over to Koi and Nexus, who had just noticed the subtle shift in the mood of the group. They watched as Medea quickly made her way over to Morpheus and Worm, calling the captains' attention towards the newcomer.

Koi looked worried. "Must have something to do with the extra sentinels we've been seeing lately." She sighed, then seemed to shake off her funk. "Oh, well. I guess Medea can tell us about it tonight." The captains seemed to stop, as if they had forgotten something, and Koi's face visibly brightened. "Ooh, looks like you might be meetin' the Council today, newbie. They like to meet the people who're fightin' for them, preferably soon after the unplugging. That, and room assignment, paperwork, some other stuff."

Sure enough, Worm turned back towards the group, waving Nexus over. "Hey Ev!" he called. "You might want to come along too, you need to get some stuff sorted out."

Nexus gave a disgruntled snort at the mention of her coppertop name, a thing that she had quickly learned was greatly frowned upon early on when she had asked Trans what his name had been. "You might not want to ask that around here," the young man had advised her. "People don't like being reminded of their lives as a battery."

Koi chuckled and gave Nexus a small shove forwards. "Have fun," she called merrily after her. Nexus walked towards the captains, giving her brother an incredulous look while shaking her head. Medea laughed, softly singing "You're in trouble…" As Nexus drew near, Worm grinned guiltily at his feet, realizing that, baby sister or no, he had just insulted a fellow soldier. Nexus wrinkled her nose at him. "Dork," she muttered loudly as she caught up with them. Worm laughed as the four captains and Nexus began to walk towards the Council chambers, and Mifune raised an eyebrow at the girl. "I realize that you are new to all this, but most of us are not exactly lenient when it comes to insubordination, for future reference," he addressed her sternly.

Nexus simply laughed at this, further confusing the Zion defense captain. "You mean this dork? That's my brother, dude." She flashed him a toothy grin as Medea sniggered on the other side of Mifune. Nexus had seemed so enigmatic only a few days before, but here and now she was just another quirky, cocky adolescent. Morpheus, who had been looking off across the city, was now watching these new developments unfold from his quiet position, a small smile playing upon his mouth as he saw the young woman flippantly insult an officer of Zion that could easily prevent her from getting on a ship when the Peregrine left its dock, but chose to find something interesting across the bridge of that level. They came to the elevator and crowded inside.

Medea broke in before Mifune, a strong opponent of insubordination, could exclaim his incredulity. "Family reunion, Captain Mifune. Girl's got twelve years of hair-pulling to get out of her system." Nexus grinned like a shark at this, and a moment later Worm let out a sharp yelp. "Dammit Medea, you did that on purpose. Stop giving her ideas." Medea chuckled, and Mifune looked away, hiding something that looked suspiciously like a smile.

"Here we are," Worm said, sending his fuzzy-headed attacker a reproachful look (which was favoured by a toothy grin), as the elevator reached their destination. The five soldiers stepped out, moving towards the large, elaborate doors leading to the Council chambers.