Title: The Best Homework Excuse Ever
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own the Matrix trilogy, the canon characters, story or anything related. I can only wish that I did. I make no profit from this – I am merely exercising my writing skills for the reading pleasure of readers. However, I own this story. I own the character Chase, and Lady Delerith owns Ari.
Authors' notes:
Solia: This whole holidays business is working out well – I have heaps of spare time to do basically anything I like, including writing, editing and uploading chapters of this story.
Lady Delerith: WOOT! Another chapter, everyone happy? I like this so you all should like it. Or else shakes fist menacingly. Just one thing. If anyone wants a certain moment/scene/character/s from this fanfic illustrated just give me a hollar in a comment and I'll see what can be done. Enjoy
THE BEST HOMEWORK EXCUSE EVER: Chapter 15
Cinnamon Brown's boyfriend of seven months, an adoring and protective Matrix-born called Alloy, lived with his one roommate, Kris, in a room eight doors down from the girls. Chase and Ari chatted with Cin and Teardrop all the way to their apartment, where they left their belongings, before carrying on down the corridor to the boys' place.
"Welcome back, twins!" Alloy said when he opened his door exactly three seconds after they knocked. He held his arms open expectantly and wouldn't let Chase or Ari enter without giving him a big hug.
"Hey, Al," Chase said as she obliged, embracing him briefly while Ari slipped past them and sneaked into inside. She was glad Cin wasn't the jealous type – Alloy was very affectionate towards anyone he knew Cinnamon cared about, playing along the 'your friends are my friends' theory of relationships. He was great for Cin. He loved her and would do anything for her, and was willing to adopt her friends as his own to ensure they had more in common. He even had nicknames for the four girls – 'twins' for Chase and Ari, 'Doc' for Tear and 'Cinna' for his beloved girlfriend.
Cinnamon was the last to enter; she closed the door behind her and waited patiently for her boyfriend's attention. Alloy playfully scruffed up Teardrop's beautiful curly blonde hair as she walked in. She shot him an amused frown over her shoulder, but he had already set his sights on Cin. She boldly stepped into his waiting arms and met him halfway in a passionate kiss.
"Aw," Ari teased as she plonked down onto the floor against the far wall. Chase and Teardrop slid down either side of her, smilingly watching the couple. But as Chase reached the floor, she felt her smile fade. It wasn't that she was jealous. It wasn't that she wanted Alloy – not at all. She just wanted what they had. For the past six months or so, she'd started to notice that she missed her family less, but wanted someone for her own. Throughout her entire childhood, Chase had never once imagined growing up and not getting married. In every daydreamed prospective future, she'd been a rich, well-respected member of society (usually a doctor, forensic scientist or software tycoon) with a perfect, supportive and faceless husband and two adoring, talented daughters.
Lately, here in Zion, that ideal future seemed very remote and unlikely, especially considering that Chase was seventeen and had still never been in a proper relationship.
"Is it those gorgeous chicks from down the hall again?" a voice asked from the bathroom. Chase and the other single girls grinned, and Cinnamon and Alloy broke apart.
Kris, Alloy's roommate, was an open-closet gay. He was twenty years old, incredibly funny, sweet and dear to them all. He also insisted on calling them all 'Gorgeous'.
"If he wasn't gay I'd so like to join him in his closet." Ari winked at Chase and stared up at the bathroom door where Kris came out. "What'd you think, Kris, you game?" Ari called up to him and wiggled her eyebrow playfully. A Cheshire grin spread across his delightfully dark face.
"Damn, if only, hey, gorgeous?" Everyone broke out laughing about this, except for Chase who just looked at her dear friends.
Chase often felt slightly guilty for Cin and Teardrop. Because of their affiliation with Chase and Ari, most people wanted little to do with them, either. When Chase and Ari were away with the Nadir, they were pretty alone. Thankfully Cinnamon had Alloy, and Teardrop had her old friend Ricka and Ricka's baby son, and they both had Kris. Teardrop also had quite a few friends from before Chase and Ari had even come to Zion.
The girls spent most of the day with Alloy and Kris but Chase couldn't help but notice everyone stare at the 'twins'. She felt sick. She'd almost forgotten since her last visit to Zion how it felt to be her. To be one of the Twelve. And she wished, more than ever, that she could just be close to normal again.
The next day, after sad goodbyes, Chase was to be found sitting alone in the Core of the Nadir, tightly braiding five strands of string she'd found in their apartment in Zion (at her and Ari's request, their residency with Teardrop and Cinnamon was not to be filled, so they could stay there whenever they came back to Zion). She'd been plaiting for about fifteen minutes now, almost unconsciously, while she was deep in pessimistic thought, and her creation was starting to look something like an unfinished friendship bracelet.
Ari entered with Citadel. The brown-haired twenty-nine-year-old sat down at the computers, but Ari, spotting Chase, walked over to her and sat down on the floor beside her. For a moment, neither one spoke, until Ari noticed the braid.
"Cool. What is it?" she asked.
"No idea yet."
"Friendship bracelet?"
"I guess it could be." Chase joined the ends of the braid so it was a circle. "Yeah, I guess so. I wasn't really paying attention. I was just bored."
"I have a game you two might be interested in playing," Citadel said, holding up a small floppy disk. Both girls stood and walked over, intrigued. "It's a two-player game. It works on developing teamwork skills. Interested?"
"Yeah, sure," Ari said, looking to Chase, who nodded. She slipped the braided friendship bracelet into her pocket. "Can I have one of those when you finish?"
"Huh?" Chase asked as she sat down in one of the chairs.
"Can you make one of those friendship bracelet thingies for me, too?" said Ari. She plugged Chase in and then sat down in her own chair. "I never worked out how to braid with more than three strings. Plus… I never really had any friendship-bracelet-worthy friends as a kid."
Chase felt herself smile. She wasn't surprised. Friendship bracelets were up there with slumber parties, truth-or-dare and the girls-only, boys-suck-for-breaking-your-heart-darling, chocolate-consuming movie nights. Unlike Chase, Ari was not a girly-girl.
"Yeah, sure. I'll teach you if you like."
Before Ari could answer, they were loaded back into the Construct. Ari seemed to forget the previous conversation as they stood together in the vast whiteness.
Chase waited for the simulation, glancing over herself. Naturally, knee-high black boots decked her feet and lower legs. The short denim skirt she wore hid a very small portion of her thighs. Curious – she rarely got denim now. It was usually some other fabric. And she had a sleeveless black top.
The best thing about this Construct was that even though it gave her a different outfit each time, it always kept to her personal style – girly and elegant.
Ari always got her style, too – punk and heavy. Chase thought how she could play around with the settings to give Ari a little wardrobe change next time. Her hair was mahogany purple, wavy and secured in a slick, low ponytail. Neither girl had been given sunnies.
The simulated world dropped in all around them. It was a dank and dirty basement with cement floor and walls. Old, dry blood spattered the colourless walls. Weak sunlight filtered through the small, dusty window at the top of one wall. Dust floated in the air, catching sunlight sometimes.
Chase slowly drew back closer to Ari.
"Ew, gross," she muttered. "Why on Earth would we ever get into a place like this?"
"Yeah, Chay, you might catch something," Ari said jokingly.
Before them, at their feet, two weapons appeared – a Mac 12 (and two rounds) and a long, smoothed stick, like those used in martial arts movies. Chase leaned down and retrieved the gun and the rounds. Ari crouched beside the stick and lifted it, examining it.
"How cool is this?" she asked delightedly. "Who would have guessed that we had these things on our weapons list?"
Chase looked up suddenly as she heard nearby yelling and heavy footsteps. Ari stood quickly, holding the stick.
"I guess we have to defend ourselves and get out of here," she suggested. Chase didn't answer. Instead, she braced herself, ready for the fight that was surely about to begin. One foot before the other, a classical still-action stance that Chase liked to employ.
"You fend them off, I'll cover you, like usual," she said, checking the gun for rounds. It was full. She shoved the other two into her belt behind her.
The footsteps were just above them, rhythmic and heavy, like many armed guards were headed straight for the dusty old stairs on the other side of the room.
"Ready?" Ari asked, bearing her staff. She'd had no real training in the use of the things as far as Chase knew, but maybe she'd watched enough movies to bluff it.
"Sure."
The first men came into sight, barging down the stairs. They were ancient samurai warriors of some sort, complete with machetes and swords. But before the three could reach the basement floor, the stairs actually collapsed. Surprised, Chase must have let her guard down, because the next thing she knew, a small horde of machete-bearing warriors burst from the dust of the ruined stairway, slashing their weapons at Ari. In defence, Chase's friend brought the staff up to fend them off. She swirled the staff and in doing so smacked a man in the nose. Her next movement was to agilely spin and stab the end of the stick into the next man's stomach.
All of this before Chase thought to react. She brought the gun up to eye-level and fired into the dust, where untold amounts of warriors were dropping into the basement from the above floor.
Ari had dealt with four of the samurai warriors by the time Chase next glanced at her. The dust was settling – a pile of dead and fatally injured warriors was building up on top of the broken stairs. More were dropping in. There would be an untold number of these things.
Still, Ari was doing great. A simple staff became a violent weapon in her apparently skilled hands. She was doing great at defending them both.
Chase fired again into the dust, killing whoever dropped into the basement before they got to the cement floor. She missed one. He ran at her. Ari was preoccupied. Chase turned her gun to the man's chest and held down the trigger. His body jerked violently every time a bullet hit him.
"Chase!"
Quickly, Chase spun around to Ari. Her friend had been forced onto her knees by the particularly strong warrior. She had the staff above her head, braced against the sharp machete that would slice through her should she give.
Chase had barely taken a step in their direction when the man lifted his sword, lifting the pressure from Ari's staff and taking her by surprise. He kicked the staff from her hands, leaving her defenceless.
Chase turned her gun to his forehead and squeezed the trigger. He fell back, dropping his machete beside his would-be victim, Ari.
Turning back to the broken stairs, Chase shot a few of the newer enemies before lifting the staff with the toe of her boot and kicking it into the air. Ari reached up and caught it. Chase grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet as she reloaded her gun.
"Thanks," Ari muttered, tightening her hands on her staff. There was no need for it right now. Chase's gun was keeping the samurai men at bay. "We have to get out."
Without speaking, Chase shot twice at the window. Ari ran for it, stuffing her staff through before climbing out herself. Chase followed, still shooting at anyone threatening who cared to drop in. She didn't have time to climb through like Ari had. She wasn't tall enough. She kicked a wooden crate over to the window, used it as a step, and pulled herself through the window much quicker than Ari had struggled through.
Ari caught her arm and pulled her free of the room. She already had the staff in her hand. Chase got to her feet and shoved the gun into her belt beside the final round.
Now they were trapped in a backyard with six-foot fences.
"Great – does that stick double as a pole-vault?" Chase asked.
"It's a combat staff," Ari said. She approached the fence and quickly examined it. "I reckon you could shoot a hole through this wood, but it'd take a while."
"We'll just have to free our minds," Chase said, backing up until she was pressed against the far wall. Ari got out of her way. Carefully regulating her breathing, Chase allowed all doubt to die within her and knew that she could somersault over a six-foot-fence.
She kick-started herself from the fence and bolted for the end one. Before she reached it she fell into a perfect front-walkover and then sprung into the air, performing a high somersault that landed her on her feet on the other side.
"Come on!" she called to Ari. She looked around. She was in a lonely, wealthy-looking street much like the one she'd grown up in. She felt a tiny prick of homesickness.
Ari's 'combat staff' landed on the manicured grass beside her and Ari herself followed.
"Let's hurry," she said. She looked around as she retrieved her stick. "Are we in a show home village?"
Chase laughed and started jogging down the street.
On this street, there was only one car. It was parked along the side of the road. Distantly, the sound of many approaching law enforcement sirens…
"Jesus, what have we done?" Chase muttered to herself as she started moving faster. She and Ari might have run right past the car, if it hadn't been for Ari realising that nothing could be taken for a coincidence in training programs. Like the weapons in the basement, a car parked along their path would be there for a reason.
It was unlocked and both girls knew how to hotwire a car.
"I am so driving," Ari said, running a hand along the roof. Chase got into the passenger-side seat and leaned across to look at her friend through her window.
"So get in and drive, and no bad corners."
Ari opened her door and grinned. Chase put her seatbelt on.
"You're such a girl, Chasey," Ari teased. "I'm not a bad driver."
Chase laughed sarcastically.
"Put your seatbelt on," she instructed. Ari pulled a face and sighed in frustration, but did as she was told. Chase found that having a gun in her back was not incredibly comfortable, and while Ari fiddled with the wires underneath the steering wheel, Chase pulled the pistol free and left it on her lap.
"If I'd stayed in the Matrix, I probably would have become a mechanic," Ari commented as the car hummed to life. It was an older car, but in surprisingly good condition. "Mainly to upset my parents, but also because I love cars."
"What did your parents want you to do?" Chase asked as Ari slammed her foot down on the accelerator. Both girls' heads hit the headrests as the car sped forward. "Hey! Not so fast!"
"Who knows? They never told me. Something where I could be away for months at a time, I guess."
"Your parents couldn't have been that bad, Ari," Chase said, glancing in the mirror on outside of her door at the police racing around a corner after them.
"You never met them."
Chase decided not to push it. Ari sped around a corner. They way she and Chase were thrown to their right would have made anyone watching assume they were taking a sharp turn, but it was nothing sharper than a 90 degree left turn onto an empty main road. It was just Ari's insane driving.
Both girls, though too young to have learnt to drive in the Matrix, were well trained in motor vehicle control. They had both taken virtual driving lessons for cars (Glyph had only planned on giving them the program for left-hand-steering-wheeled cars, but both girls had insisted on learning to drive with right-hand-wheeled cars, too, like they were in Australia), trucks and motorbikes, and planned on downloading the motorboat program next.
Suddenly, Chase noticed movement ahead on the road. She and Ari leaned forward simultaneously, squinting despite their already exceptional eyesight, and realised what it was at the same time.
"A roadblock," Chase said needlessly as Ari changed gears, speeding up. "What are you doing? There's got to be ten police cars there, lined up – there's no way we can crash through."
"I know."
Chase sighed, deciding to just trust her friend, and watched as the roadblock sped impossibly closer. If Ari insisted on driving straight into those cars, they would be completely smooshed. And that wasn't even a word.
"Hang on," Ari muttered, giving Chase an instant to check her seatbelt, before turning the wheel sharply and redirecting the little car down a partially concealed dirt road to their right. As they bumped along at top speed over the uneven ground, they heard the sirens of the roadblock start up as the police gave chase.
"This isn't fun," Chase commented, trying to brush her fringe out of her eyes every single time it was jolted out of place.
"But you're not bored now, are you? Not spacing out making little bracelets."
"I guess not." Chase finally gave up and tucked her fringe behind her ear, which she should probably have done to start with, except that she knew it didn't look as good like that. "So. Where are we going?"
"How should I know? Does this car have a RefIndex? Check the glove box."
Chase opened the compartment above her lap and looked in it for a book of city maps.
"Nothing."
"Do they even have RefIndexes outside of Australia?" Ari asked suddenly as she swerved dangerously to avoid a broken tree stump that, judging by its battered appearance, looked like it had not been avoided so well in the past.
"It stands for 'Reference Index', so I'm sure they would," Chase answered, carefully checking underneath her seat. "They'd at least have maps, wherever we are, right?"
"Take the wheel for a sec." As Chase grabbed the wheel and kept it steady, Ari quickly ducked down and felt around underneath her seat. She sat up almost immediately with a folded-up map in her hand, which she dropped onto Chase's lap the same moment that she took the steering wheel back.
"Good girl," Chase said, unfolding the map. It was only an A4 sheet of paper with a few roads marked on it. It showed the house they'd started off in, and the street it was on. That joined an off-street (from which the police had first appeared) and the other end joined the main road the roadblock was on. A centimetre before the roadblock was this twisty little dirt road, and at the end of this was a car park, which belonged to a large shopping centre. This was a very simple map, which was good, because Chase sucked at reading maps.
"It seems we're going shopping." Chase quickly informed Ari of their apparent destination.
"Shopping?" Ari asked, pulling a face. The road was smoothing out and the huge shopping centre was visible ahead. "I hate shopping. It's so pointless."
"And you call yourself a teenage girl?" Chase asked in mock disgust. "This might be the point of the exercise. It will be good for you."
They had reached the parking lot. It was nearly full, but still, no actual people. In her search for a spare parking space, Ari very nearly clipped a few other cars. She found one and zoomed into the 'disabled' space. They both undid their seat belts and shoved open their doors in record times, snatching for their semi-lost weapons (Chase's gun was now on the floor beside her feet, and Ari's 'combat staff' was somewhere in the backseat).
"Get inside the shop," Ari said, starting to run, keeping her head down as the police cars entered the car park. "A gunfight in a parking lot isn't much fun. I've done it and I used a jeep to win."
Chase thought this was a weird thing to say, until she noticed that every other car here was a small, less-than-hardy vehicle. Nothing like a jeep, anyway. She bolted after Ari.
The automatic glass doors called Chase in, and she hurried inside the shopping centre, the fully expected wash of comfortable air-conditioning cooling her instantly. The shops. There was nothing so familiar as this world.
"I hate shopping," Ari grumbled, as the glass doors closed behind her. She darkly eyed a nearby clothes rack. Chase checked outside. The police had vanished, no longer relevant to the program. They had just been there to pursue the girls to this place.
"Citadel wouldn't chuck us into a program… just to shop – would he?" Chase asked, unconsciously sifting through the clothes on the first rack. Someone walking past bumped her, and she realised suddenly that this huge store was bustling with crowds of random people, just shopping, going about their daily lives. Hopefully there was no gunfight in here, either. She wouldn't want to kill anyone, even if, as with these people, they weren't real.
"I doubt it. There must be something else here," Ari said as a woman with two early school-age sons gave her a nasty look. Ari was still holding her combat staff. The little boys were pointing and whispering excitedly. Chase overheard 'Samurai warrior princess' from the older one and smiled, subtly hiding her handgun before the mother-of-two or either of her sons noticed that. The last thing she wanted was a mass panic.
Chase used her few moments of peace to examine some of the jeans on the rack beside her. She was disappointed, however; they were all high-waisted jeans with disturbing fluorescent piping and stitching.
"How old is this program?" she asked, sincerely disgusted. She put the jeans back and backed away.
"Older than you – but still young enough to injure you," a man nearby said. The girls turned to look. Behind three old grannies (who were tutting and looking distastefully at Chase's miniskirt as though it were a personal insult to them and their era of concealing oneself respectfully) stood a salesman, his face open and friendly, but his innocent, round eyes narrowed a little mischievously.
"Is it him?" Ari asked under her breath. Chase nodded, quite certain.
"Think so," she whispered back, adjusting her footing, readying herself. This would hopefully be a hand-to-hand combat, in which she and Ari could team together against their common foe.
The girls were prepared – they were waiting for an attack. Nothing. The salesman blinked innocently. Then his face began to contort, his mouth opened as though in helpless pain. Chase and Ari stared as his uniform became a suit and his mischievous yet innocent eyes were covered by a pair of dark glasses.
An Agent!
Chase didn't stop to think. Her mind was too full of images anyway – images of a suited man leaping down from a treetop, his hands outstretched, reaching for Ari's throat. That was not happening again, not here. She snatched out her handgun and raised it, squeezing the trigger. Her aim was perfect. A stream of bullets pounded into the salesman's forehead, less than a centimetre off centre. His transformation ceased, and he dropped, salesman once again.
All of this within a second.
And then the people started to scream, panicked.
"Go Chasey!"
Chase opened her eyes and found herself back in the Core of the Nadir, Citadel beaming at her from his place at the computers.
"Was that program meant to be so short?" Ari asked, trying to pull her plug out by herself. A pair of hands did it for her, and she looked behind her. "Captain. Were you watching us?"
"I was," Glyph agreed, disconnecting Chase as well, "and I've never seen that simulation played out like that before."
"How were we meant to play it?" Chase asked, sitting up. "We had to guess."
"You got the first bit right – with that first fight," Citadel explained, smiling. "But then you… exceeded the programs expectations. Most people don't see that dirt road until they reach the roadblock. Usually, you're forced to tackle the cops before escaping down the dirt road, and you face them again in the parking lot, before the showdown with the agent in the shops."
"Oops," Ari muttered, going red. "I'm sorry."
"No!" Glyph said, laughing. "It's excellent. You outsmarted a program. That's a good thing. You'll need that in the Matrix, against Agents and so forth."
"Chasey took care of that Agent," Citadel said, almost proudly.
"I've never seen anyone dispatch the Agent so fast," Glyph said smilingly. "Then again, for most recruits, it's the first time they've ever seen an Agent. You two have had previous experience with the monsters. You also have shockingly fast reflexes. The program shuts down when you destroy the Agent, that's why it was so short, Ari," he added. "Chase got rid of him before he could get started on you."
The girls sat in silence for a few moments. Glyph kept smiling at them.
"I think you're both ready."