Chapter 7: Free Your Mind
Date: Approx 2203
Time: -
Area: Tunnels of the Real
Janus awoke, and he realized that he was still in his quarters aboard the Nemesis. He'd been dreaming of his old life inside the Matrix, and waking up to this wasn't the most welcoming feeling. He took in a deep breath and yawned. Then he heard someone walking down the hallway towards his door. The person stopped there and knocked three times. Janus arched a brow and opened the hatch, and saw Glitch standing there with a smirk.
"Hey, what's up? You sleep good?"
"Uh, kinda. What do you need?"
"Oh, come with me, we gotta get your trained."
Janus' eyes darted around in several directions and then he blinked and nodded. "Oh, yeah, I remember. Let's go."
Glitch nodded, and then walked down the hall. Janus followed and blinked a few times after yawning. He watched where he was going with one eye while he used his finger to wipe the crust out from the inside of the other, and then switched to the other eye, repeating the same process over again. They reached a ladder, and he climbed up after Glitch, making sure to stay low enough so he wasn't hit by Glitch's feet. Finally, they reached the main deck.
Janus looked around to see what was going on. Marley was at the operator station, Blade was welding something, Solitaire was tightening something with a ratchet, and the others he didn't see. Glitch snapped his hand over in Marley's direction and then threw his fist back slightly with his thumb extended as though to tell him to get out of his chair. He came over to them and nodded.
"What's the deal?"
"Newbie needs combat training. Where's Irvine?"
"Cockpit. I'll go see what he's doing." Marley nodded to Glitch and lightly punched him in the shoulder, and patted Janus on the back before he walked past them. Janus looked over to Glitch, who returned his look.
"You ready?" Glitch asked, and Janus replied with a nod. Motioning over to the chairs, Glitch told Janus to have a seat. He then grabbed the plug and inserted it into the canal in Janus' head, and chuckled when Janus' face cringed.
"You'll get used to it," he said.
"You're going to upload the training into my head?" Janus asked.
Glitch shook his head repeatedly in the yes fashion and with an assuring tone he said, "Don't worry, you'll like it, I promise." Then he made his way over to his control setup. He pulled out a small metal box containing several small square shaped disks. He picked one up that had "Basic Operations" written on it and smirked, dropping it back in and digging through the box some more to find a different one.
Finally, he said "aha!" and pulled a disk from the box. Janus looked over to see what the commotion was about, and Glitch grinned. He popped it into the nearest drive and pressed the engage button on his keyboard. Since his chair was located behind Glitch's station and to the right, Janus could see some of the screens. When Glitch put the disk in, one of the screens read "Jeet Kune Do."
"You're gonna upload it into my head? And I'm gonna know it just like that?"
"I hope you're strapped in." Glitch answered with a grin. Janus' forehead and eyebrows wrinkled as he tried to figure out what was about to happen. Glitch pushed the engage button again. Janus' eyes closed but his eyebrows raised, and then his face cringed, and then his eyes opened. He panted for air trying to figure out just happened, but one change he noted was he now knew Jeet Kune Do like the back of his hand.
"Whoa.."
"Ready for more?"
"Bring it."
Glitch nodded, and the uploading continued. Over the course of the next few hours, several different styles of combat were uploaded into Janus' head. Every so often, the words on the screen would change in accordance with what style was being loaded into Janus' head. Hapkido, Xing Yi, Drunken Fist, Mi Zong, Ninjitsu, Sambo, Tong Bei, Yuan Yang, Shuai Chiao, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Judo, Karate, Tai Chi, San Shou, Aikido, Eagle Claw, Ba Gua, Mantis, Shaolin Fist, Baji Quan, Lui He Ba Fa, Longfist, Wing Chun, Tae Kwon Do, Gun-Kata, Leopard, Fu Jow Pai, Tang Soo Do, Escrima, Nan Chuan, Jujitsu, Hung Gar, Crab, Pi Gua, Snake, Crane, Kenpo, Shotokan, Dragon, Kickboxing, Kung-Fu, Black Dragon, Judo, and Kendo, among many others, were all loaded up into Janus. Irvine approached Glitch as he was typing commands for the uploading procedures.
"What's his status?"
"He's doing pretty good, guy hasn't stopped yet."
"How long until he's finished?"
"You couldn't have come at a better time." He watched as a bar finished growing from one point on a screen to the other and when it did, the uploading procedures were finally complete. Irvine stood over Janus and his eyes opened, and he let out a sigh of relaxation as he looked up at Irvine with newfound knowledge in his eyes.
"How you feeling?"
"I could beat Bruce Lee if I wanted to."
"Oh really?"
The next thing Janus knew, he was standing before Irvine on the rooftop of a skyscraper building. He looked around in amazement, in awe at the fact that this was all a computer program yet it looked so real. Real. What was real now? He shook his head, telling himself not to worry about it. He looked down at his clothes. He was dressed in a form fitting black t -shirt, black BDU pants, combat boots, and kneepads. It was night time. He turned around and saw Irvine standing there in his suit with the knee-length jacket, black in color with a cobalt blue shirt underneath and a matching tie.
"What is this?"
"This is the Jump Program. Our version is made a bit different, so that you're less likely to fail. Practice makes perfect."
"Practice at what?"
"Before you can survive in the Matrix, no matter how much combat and fighting knowledge you have, you must free your mind."
"Free my mind?"
"Yes. Open it up. Throw away your fears, your disbelief, your doubts. Concentrate on executing the improbable, and more importantly, the impossible. Free your mind."
Janus arched a brow, and then suddenly Irvine ran from him and jumped across the ten foot gap to the building across from the one he previously stood on. In response, Janus lifted his eyebrows. That looked easy..
Irvine looked back. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
Janus was skeptical. Nevertheless, he shrugged, shaking his head, and took a few steps back so he would have a decent enough distance to get a running start. After walking a few steps, he stopped, turned around, and looked back. Irvine was standing with his arms crossed, looking around as if he had better things to do. Janus broke into a quick sprint, and eventually built up speed. When he reached the ledge, he stepped up onto it and pushed off, flying over the gap and landing next to Irvine. He looked back before looking to his mentor.
"That was it?"
Irvine grinned and shook his head. "It gets better."
Janus' forehead wrinkled when he tried to comprehend what he meant, but once again, Irvine broke off running and went from one end of the roof to the other and jumped up. He went through the air and landed on the next building. This time, the gap was about half of the width of a city block.
Ooookay.. Janus got into running position, and bolted off again. The closer he got to the other edge of the building, the faster he ran. The edge came, and he jumped. Up into the air he went, bringing his legs down in front of him before he landed, and with a "WAM" he landed on the next rooftop. He stood up and stopped for a moment, and turned around. He looked over the ledge and looked at how high up they were. Then he looked at the distance of the jump. How the hell did I do that? He turned back to Irvine as though he was expecting something.
"This is it," Irvine said. "This is the last jump. If you can do this, you can do anything." Janus nodded. And then Irvine was off. He repeated the same process, running and gathering speed, and jumping at the ledge, soaring over the gap that was literally a city block wide and landing on the rooftop across the street. Now Janus stood there alone. He inhaled, and sighed slowly, fixing his view on the rooftop. He remembered all the dreams he thought of when he was running away from the Agents out of Club Duality, the dreams of making super-jumps to get away, and realized that this was no different than those dreams. He felt a wave of confidence come over him.
Free my mind. I can do this... Irvine watched through his sunglasses. Janus began to run.
"Come on, come on..." Irvine said to himself. Janus got closer to the ledge.
Glitch, Marley, Anubis, Blade, Kira, and Solitaire's eyes were all glued to the screens, the suspense building.
"Here it comes," Glitch whispered.
Janus made it to the edge and pushed off and flew up into the air. Moving his legs as though he were running, he stared at the point on the rooftop next to Irvine. I have to get there.. Irvine looked up and followed Janus' path through the sky, and was eventually looking straight up above to his zenith. Janus touched down behind him and the sound of crushed concrete was heard. He had landed in a kneeling position, and it seemed as though he was waiting for something. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked around.
I made it.
"He made it!" Solitaire said out loud. "Our jump program beats the shit out Zion's."
Blade nodded his head a few times. "This guy's got it down. How useful you think he's gonna be now, Kira?" She smirked and hit him in shoulder.
Janus stood up and Irvine came over to him with a smile. "Good work. See what happens when you believe?" Janus nodded. He looked at the rooftop he had jumped from across the street, then back down to himself, and all around.
"In this virtual reality, we can do anything as long as we believe?"
Irvine shrugged slightly and nodded at the same time. "Almost anything. The One could do whatever he wanted."
Janus nodded as though to say he understood. Irvine took his phone out of his pocket and opened the face shield. The phone rang, and Glitch answered on the other side.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Next training program, please."
Glitch nodded, typed in the command, and pressed engage, and the rooftop slightly changed around them. Janus looked at Irvine with a questioning look as he put his phone back in his pocket.
"This is a sparring program. Unlike the other ship captains who use a dojo for their sparring simulations, we use city locations like this one to be a more accurate simulation of the real thing, because the odds are, you're more likely to be defending yourself somewhere in the Matrix rather than a dojo. Therefore, this gets you better conditioned, like our version of the jump program. Before we fight though, there are a few pointers you should know. First of all, this sparring program is just like the Matrix in that both are virtual reality simulations based on rules. Some of the rules can be bent, and some of them can be broken, for example, physics like breathing and gravity need not apply, but that all depends solely on one thing."
Janus arched a brow and Irvine tapped his own forehead with an index finger.
"The more open your mind is, the more things you can do. Now, fight me, if you can. Remember: free your mind."
In an instant, Janus put himself into a random ready stance, and Irvine did the same. Then, the fight begun. They ran at each other. Janus punched for Irvine's head , but Irvine blocked and punched back. Janus pushed Irvine's arm down to his right, and executed a mid kick to Irvine's kidneys on his right side. The kick connected, but Irvine showed no expression of pain. Then Janus went to chop at Irvine's neck, but Irvine raised his left arm, wrapped it around Janus' oncoming arm, and pulled it down to his left, yanking Janus down in the same direction.
Janus' head was right in front of Irvine's now. Irvine punched his head twice, then followed with a knee strike to Janus' gut area, causing him to bend down forward slightly, so Irvine finished off the combo with an elbow strike to Janus' back. He fell sort of, but then came back suddenly and gave Irvine a hard uppercut, causing him to nearly fall backwards, his arms going up.
With the same fist, Janus backhanded Irvine's head, causing him to face toward his left, and followed up with a right fist to his gut. Irvine keeled over, and Janus chopped Irvine's mid back, sending him downward. Then he kicked Irvine back up to his feet, and struck Irvine right in his chest. From the waist up, Irvine tilted back. Janus went to follow up with a left fist towards Irvine's head, but he blocked, and wrapped his arm around Janus' arm and pulled Janus towards him, so that now the his left side was facing Irvine. He gave out a medium kick to the Janus' gut, causing him to bend forward and lean right into Irvine's follow up attack, which was a kick to the Janus' head. Irvine then let go of the Janus' arm and punched him right in the nose.
Janus spun around 270-degrees counter-clockwise, and was now facing Irvine. He delivered a palm strike to Janus' chest and sent him flying back. He landed on his hip, but he was unphased. Irvine dusted himself off and looked at Janus
"You did good. Solid, fluid motion, improvisation, yet you try to get too many shots in too fast. Your method wasn't the problem though.."
Janus got up and started running at Irvine. He got ready, and started running at Janus. When they had about 5 feet between themselves, they jumped up into the air in bullet-time.
Janus held his left arm out in front of him with a clawed hand, and his right hand was cocked back in a fist, ready to give out a punch. As he brought his fist forward, his left hand came back. Irvine had his arms wide open with fists similar to a Gorilla would have before pounding his chest, and his chest was facing Janus, unguarded.
Janus' fist smashed right into Irvine's head, in his left eye. His head snapped back, and Janus landed in front him. Irvine's head came forward, so Janus gave Irvine a roundhouse right elbow to the nose, causing him to look towards his right, and then Janus smacked Irvine's face back forward by using his left fist, with his elbow still pointed forward, executing a left backhand punch. Irvine was still trying to place himself from getting smacked up so much, so Janus used it to his advantage and gave Irvine a right hand forward punch into his chest, sending him back about two feet.
Behind Irvine was the rooftop stairwell doorway and behind Janus was nothing. Irvine shook his head, and made a quick dash towards Janus with his right fist out forward, and came at him like a bullet. Irvine had just barely missed him, for Janus had leaned back slightly and Irvine's fist barely clipped his face. If Irvine had hit him, it probably would have had knocked him out and nearly took his head right off his shoulders. Janus jumped up when he was safely out of Irvine's range of attack.
Back on the Nemesis, the crew had rounded up around Glitch's control setup after they heard from Marley that Irvine was fighting Janus when they has asked where he was. Kira whistled. "Didn't think he'd be this good on his first spar match."
Blade smirked. "Beginners luck."
Marley shook his head, "Wow, he's got a lot of fight in him." He chuckled. "Maybe he can square off against an Agent."
Anubis arched a brow and glanced over at Marley before he looked back at the screens. "He'll never be that good."
Solitaire chuckled. "He speaks," she said as though she was amused.
Glitch spoke out, "Yeah okay we know guys, shut up. Fight's still on."
In bullet-time, as Irvine came by, Janus jumped up in the air and performed a spinning round house kick, with his fists up in karate stance fashion.
Janus' foot smashed into the Irvine's back, and sent him flying. His head would have smashed into floor, had he not put his arms up in front of his face prior to impact. Irvine got up as fast as he could and turned, now facing the city below, and when he looked behind him, Janus was running at him. It appeared as if Janus was going to punch him, so Irvine put his arms up ready to block a punch. But a punch wasn't what Janus had in mind. When he was 2 feet away from Irvine, he dropped.
He caught himself on the floor with his hands, and with his right foot, sent a kick right up behind Irvine's arms. It would have been perfect, but he leaned back and Janus' foot went flying up past his head in front of his face. He grabbed Janus' leg by the ankle and started to spin, building up momentum and speed. Then he let Janus go and watched as he flew backwards through the air. He started to fall, but he missed the edge of the rooftop. So he kept falling. He kicked his legs and reached his arms around trying to find something to catch himself on, but found nothing to grab. As he fell, he screamed.
"IRVINE!!!!"
His body finally hit the street below, but it stretched like a trampoline and prevented his body from smashing. Then it rebounded and launched him back up about 10 feet or so into the air before he fell back down, this time onto solid pavement. The impact hurt, but he'd live. His body ached. As he picked himself up, he turned and saw Irvine approaching calmly.
"You handled yourself quite well. You're able to stand your ground, but an Agent would have thrown you off the roof like that in no time. Always remember that."
Janus nodded again. "I understand."
"There is one more test you must take before you're finished."
Arching a brow, Janus thought of what he could mean. "What else do I have to do?"
Irvine looked around as though he was a tourist. "Whenever you go into the Matrix, you run two major risks: Getting killed, or getting captured, and that risk is as high as ever."
"Why?"
"Agents can move in and out of any body still plugged into the Matrix, and you've seen them before. But they've been upgraded, again. Originally they weren't as hectic, and we didn't have to worry much about them as long as we weren't traced, and if the situation called for it, we could briefly stand our ground against them. Now, they're practically impossible to fight, and they're frequently present. They'll either kill you on the spot, or if you're a ship captain, they may capture you to get Zion mainframe codes, and then kill you. Either way, we're more of a priority to them, and they are extremely dangerous."
Janus took note that Irvine had mentioned Zion again, that which he had no knowledge of. Now was the time to get out of the way. "You keep talking about Zion; What is it?" Irvine turned around to face him.
"Zion is the last human city. It's the only place we have left for refuge when we're not in our ships. It was once almost destroyed, but thanks to Neo we got lucky. It has more defense systems than it did before, but it's still treated as though it's always at risk."
"What for?"
Irvine's tone became more serious. "Those machines are still out there, and we're at war with them again. As long as they exist, Zion will always be in danger of attack. If it were to be obliterated, we would have nothing."
Irvine sighed. There never seemed to be an end to this living in fear. Living day to day, hour to hour, hoping and praying they would see the next. He called himself a fool for thinking that Zion was really safe and that their worries were over when Neo made the truce. He knew it wasn't. He knew that the machines could attack at any moment they pleased; The fear was still there. That's why he chose to leave Zion. Living as though the war had not ended was more comfortable to him and the other ships' crews than living where you weren't sure if it was over or not. Now, he got what he wanted, but at the cost of Zion's peace. It was a guilt that weighed on his shoulders that he didn't think he would ever be able to get rid of. The look of reminiscent remorse slowly crept over his face. Janus stood there waiting, and Irvine didn't seem to notice or remember Janus was there.
Glitch frowned. "What the hell is he doing, taking a coffee break?"
Blade walked over to the chairs and stood over the one Irvine sat in. He slapped Irvine on the cheek, but not too hard. "That oughta do it."
Irvine snapped out of his trance when he felt the small bit of pain on his face. He shook his head and looked back over to Janus. "I'm sorry, I--" but he was cut off.
"No, it's alright. I understand. What does this last training involve?"
Irvine tilted his head slighlty, and then remembered what he was talking about with a nod. "Oh! Yeah, that's right. Like I was saying, when you go into the Matrix these days, you risk your life, and the chance of getting captured. Should anyone be captured or held up and not able to get to their exit in time, the first available person from any of our ships will be sent in to get you out. Your objective here is to be the knight in shining armor. There will be simulated people who can turn into Agents at any possible moment. Cops can be called in and will try to kill you, their bullets will hurt, but if they hit you in an area where you would die immediately, the simulation will end. There will be a simulated redpill that you have to rescue, and if he is killed before you get back to the exit, you fail. You're to make sure he gets out of the Matrix before you do. You'll be given a pistol and two extra magazines. You'll have a phone to contact us with in case you need any help. Good luck."
As he stood there, Janus watched the world around him change. Irvine's image before him faded into a transparent figure broken up by particles of light and then disappeared. The new surroundings consumed the existing environment he was in like a huge expanding mass. The border of the new programmed reality as it swarmed over all of the buildings and streets and floor and sky was hi-lighted in a bright green light. Janus took a moment to look around him as the changes took place.
Now, instead of standing on a rooftop, he stood in a crowded street full of pedestrians and cars, and skyscrapers towered over him. There were changes on him as well. Adding to what he was already wearing, the bright green light came over his body and a black ankle length trench coat formed over him. It almost resembled a cape.
On his head, the green light took the shape of sunglasses. He felt the gun in the back of his waistband, and the two clips attached to his belt in the back, both well concealed by the coat. Theses change happened in a matter of maybe five seconds tops. He looked around a bit more at the people and the buildings to familiarize himself with the new environment he was in, and then he heard the phone in his pocket ring. He took it out and pressed the button to release the face shield, and it quickly slid down with a CHAK He put the phone up to his ear.
"Alright, you all situated?" the voice on the other end asked. It was Glitch.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Tell me where he is."
"Okay. He's stuck on an apartment rooftop downtown from where you are, building 344. He was running from an Agent but he stalled it for now, but you have to hurry, because the cops are after him and they have a chopper."
"I'll need something fast."
"Coming right up. Anything else?"
"A full-auto AR-15 in a pistol configuration. Make it quick."
"The alley to your left."
Janus shut the face shield and put the phone back into his pocket. Looking over to his left, he saw an alley, just like Glitch said, so he made his way over to it, pushing his way through people as he went. When he finally made it to the other side of the street, he didn't waste time and went down it quickly and saw what Glitch left for him. It was a black ninja-type motorcycle. "I said fast, not a crotch rocket." He noticed the AR-15 pistol hanging onto the handle grips by its sling. He hopped on and started the ignition and revved the engine making a loud VVVMM noise. He slung the AR-15 pistol over his shoulder. The traffic and all the pedestrians in the street would be a problem, so he turned the bike and went down the rest of the alley into the less occupied back roads.
Speeding through the roads in the downtown direction, he thought of what Glitch told him, how the guy he had to go in after was stuck on a rooftop. He turned right and thought of how he could get up onto the roof in a manner that they could both get down. He built up speed, going about 50 MPH, and he could hear sirens a few blocks away.
Time was running short. He looked at the address number on one of the buildings he passed, and it read 426. He still had some way to go. He switched gears and kept going straight and then made another left. Looking to the number signs again, he caught a glimpse of 340 as he passed by, so he knew the building was just down the block.
The man stood on the roof dressed in black pants and boots and a patterned dress shirt tucked in. He had a two-tone P8 in his waist band, and black biker gloves on his hands that ended at his wrist. His hair was short, black, and spiked, and he had a goatee. His glasses were black framed with red lenses. He listened nervously as the sirens got closer, and he heard the whooping of helicopter blades. In the distance, he saw the helicopter itself. Looking around, seeing buildings with rooftops too low to jump on without hurting himself, and buildings that were tall enough were too far to make a jump to.
He clenched his fist. "Shit!" He tried his phone again, but it was dead, of no use. He threw it down to the street and it smashed into bits. A few blocks back he was being chased by an Agent, but he caused a ten-car pile up and that gave him enough time to run a few more blocks. He was unfortunate though to find after climbing up the fire escape ladders that the door to get down into the building was locked, and he couldn't jump. If he went back down, he risked another Agent getting a lock on his position.
Janus zoomed down the block past the building the guy was on. He saw a multi-story parking garage across from the building that was too far to jump from to get to the apartment rooftop, but he wasn't planning to jump. He stopped the bike in front of the parking garage with a fish-tail, and the back tire screeched. After switching gears again, he went forward and busted through the small gate and went up the ramp to the next level. There were five levels in all.
Kira watched the screens and arched her eyebrow. "What's he doing?"
Anubis shrugged. "I don't know. I would have used a grappling hook."
When Janus made it up to the fifth level, he saw a small ramp on the other side farthest from him. He backed the bike up, and he heard the helicopter and sirens getting closer.
"No way," Irvine said out as he watched.
Janus hit the gas and with a loud VVVVMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM filling the air, he sped across the rooftop and hit the ramp. He went flying up into the air. The guy on the other roof watched in awe. The bike slammed down on the roof and Janus swooped around, hitting the breaks. The pilots of the helicopter were in eye view now. The Agent was with them. The helicopter flew overhead and circled around to come back to make another pass.
"I'm Chip," the guy said.
"Come on!"
Taking the hint, Chip jumped onto the bike as Janus revved the engine again. He started to drive, and the pilot brought the helicopter around in the air in front of the building to stop Janus from making the jump, with the door facing Janus, the Agent facing him.
Acknowledging this, Janus pulled up the AR-15 out and aimed it up at the blade rotors and fired a stream of automatic fire. The bullets hit into the base of the rotor. It sparked and whined, and the helicopter began to spin out of control. The pilots flew forward and tried to move out of the way of the building.
Janus hit the gas, and the bike raced forward, off the rooftop of the apartment. They flew through the air and the bike went through a gap into fourth level of the parking garage. The pilots tried to control the 'copter, but it started to fall and it tipped forward, and crashed into a nearby building side with a loud explosion, killing the pilots inside.
When they landed on the top of the parking garage however, Janus looked back to see the Agent jump up into the window after them from the ground below.
"Damn it!"
He turned and drove down to the next level of the parking garage, but he knew it would be of no use. "We gotta ditch this bike," Janus said. He rode off into a corner and they both got off. Now they were on level three of the parking garage. Janus looked over all of the cars.
"We can sneak out behind those."
The Agent came down and saw the lone bike, hesitating for a moment, then began scanning the area. Janus and Chip were ducked behind the cars, moving ever so gently as not to make a sound. Slowly moving along, Chip slipped and hit into a car with an alarm. It sounded off, giving away their spot with loud sirens blaring and echoing.
"Oh that's bad," Glitch said as he watched.
Seeing the Agent look over in their direction, Janus first pushed Chip away and then dashed, quick enough not to get hit by the bullets sent flying his way. They both ran, ducking behind cars and hiding behind pillars, over to the nearest set of ramps leading down to the next lowest level. The Agent fired and they ducked, the bullets almost making their mark, concrete bits flying up into the air from the impact points. More car alarms sounded off. Janus looked out from the concrete pillar he hid behind and blind-fired his AR-15 pistol. The Agent's body suddenly blurred, and he moved in all sorts of positions, the bullets passing him by and hitting the wall far off behind him. Janus looked back to Chip.
"Go."
Chip nodded and jumped over the railing, falling down to the next ramp. He landed in a crouch and ran down the rest of the way to the bottom. Janus faced the Agent as he backed toward the ramp cutout, and kept shooting until he ran out of bullets. When he did, the Agent went from blurry to solid again and a sly smile came over his face. He raised his gun and Janus ducked back behind the pillar. Three rounds flew past where he was standing. Had he not moved, he would have been killed. He ran quickly and jumped down the same way Chip did, following the same path down to the bottom.
Putting his gun back into the holster under his jacket, the Agent walked over to where Janus jumped from to see where he might have landed. Smirking, with a nod, he walked off.
"Are you hurt?" Janus asked as he made his way over to Chip and reloaded his gun. He looked back to check for the Agent, seeing no sign of him. "Where did he go?" Janus asked.
"No, let's keep movi--DUCK!!"
Janus turned his head to see the Agent pick up a car as if it was as light as a feather. His eyes widened; he couldn't believe it. He jumped out of the way as the Agent hurled the car in his direction. It slammed through the wall of the parking garage, and that was all it took to get Janus moving again. He and Chip both started to run again, and the Agent ran right after them, fast. Very fast.
As they both ran, Janus pulled the phone out of his pocket as his coat billowed out behind him. After opening the face shield, he put the phone up to his face.
"Glitch!!--" BOOM--BOOM BOOM the bullets zipped past his head. "Where's the exit!?" he yelled into the phone.
Chip turned back and fired back BAM BAM
"It's two blocks away on 5th street. A phone booth. You're almost there."
Dropping the phone, Janus grabbed Chip's arm and pulled. They kept running, but the Agent was still behind them. Janus knew there was no way they were going to be able to run two city blocks away from this thing, so they had to find a short cut. He looked up ahead and saw one of those stores where the owner lives on the top of the store, where the door to get upstairs is next to the door that leads into the store itself.
Holding his gun up and aiming at the doorknob, he fired a few rounds until he saw it hang limp. Leading Chip, and unfortunately the Agent, he ran up to the door and kicked it in, running up the stairs and into the apartment. Chip followed, the Agent at least twenty feet behind him still, so he didn't want to give it the chance to catch up by shooting at him.
He followed Janus up the stairs and to the back of the house where he was waiting. "Up the fire escape!" he instructed, and up they went. When the Agent caught up, he was slowed down when he tried shooting at them and climbing the stairs at the same time. Every round he fired missed and made a loud PANG or TWANG noise when it hit the steel. They made it up to the roof, and without say, they ran to the edge and super-jumped across the street to the rooftop on the other side of the street.
When they landed, they ran and jumped one more time. The Agent was one roof behind them; The exit was on the sidewalk below. "The exit is down there. Go, I'll cover you," Janus said to Chip.
The simulacrum looked appreciative and nodded. "Alright. Thank you."
He ran over to the fire escape ahead, and Janus looked back at the Agent.
BOOM BOOM
Two shots whizzed past him and he fired back
BAM BAM BAM BAM.
The Agent's body blurred again, and he stood there like that until Janus had stopped firing, then solidified again. Janus ran over to the fire escape ladder and looked down to the sidewalk. He saw Chip enter the phone booth and disappear; Then he started his way down. The Agent stood there and waited for a moment. His head shook and his body transformed into the civilian he had originally taken over. When Janus was low enough, he let go of his ladder and fell down the rest of the way to the sidewalk, only a ten foot drop.
The phone booth was just down the block, so he started running. Janus looked back again to make sure he wasn't being followed; He saw a car pulling into a parallel parking spot. The driver's head began to shake, and it transformed into the Agent. He dropped to the floor as the Agent moved to open the car door. As he fell he aimed at the gas tank under the backside of a car, and when he fell , he fired a shot. The bullet ripped through the air and smashed into the gas tank making a small hole.
A CLANK was heard, there was a spark, and as the Agent passed the car, it exploded into a fury of flames. Janus figured the Agent was out of commission-for now.
"Check out this bad ass! He's a regular action movie star," Glitch said, looking quite entertained.
Slowly, Janus got himself up off of the payment and walked over to the phone booth. The phone rang when he saw it, like someone was waiting to call him. He walked over to it, opened the doors and took the phone off the receiver. Hesitantly, he put it up to his ear, and felt his eyes close. The next thing he knew, he was taking in a deep breath and looking back up at the ceiling of the Nemesis. Irvine was staring down at him.
"You made it. So did he. Good job. You're ready to operate in the Matrix."
Janus nodded. "Thanks."
Anubis looked over at him. "Don't let it get to your head, it's nothing fun," he said as he passed by.
Janus' eyes followed him as he left. What's his problem?
"Don't mind him," Marley said as he walked over. "He's always in a bad mood. We just ignore it, he does what he has to. Congratulations. You're a full member of the team now."
Janus looked back up at him. "Uh, yeah. It's great."
----
"Balthasar, behind you!" BOOM BOOM BOOM-TATATATATATATATATATA
"Come on, move!" Blood shouted. He wore a black tactical vest over a blood red t-shirt, and black BDU pants over his combat boots of the same color. He fired an UZI back at the Agent on the other end of the car garage so Balthasar could get over to the car so they could get to their exit.
Balthasar had long black hair that went to his mid back. He was dressed all in black: Leather pants and an ankle length black coat. A black t-shirt covered him underneath that and was tucked into his pants. The boots he wore went up to his knees, with four buckles going up the front of each over the laces. He was armed only with a Glock 21 and his magazine was running low. He was ducked down behind a dumpster with an Agent firing at him. Blood fired and the Agent blurred, giving Balthasar the chance to run. He did so in the fashion of rolling out of the way and diving over to the car.
He climbed into the back seat and Leon, the person driving the car, shouted out to Blood. "Blood, into the car, time to move!"
Leon and Balthasar aimed out of the window and fired at the Agent to keep him over on his end while Blood climbed into the car. He ran around, opened the door, and climbed in, slamming the door. Balthasar chucked a grenade out behind the car as they peeled out, for cover. As they drove up out of the garage, they heard a loud BAM behind them.
"Is the exit ready?" Blood asked as he reloaded his clip.
"Not sure, why don't you check?" Leon suggested sarcastically as he dodged cars and pedestrians left and right.
"Maybe if you actually learned to drive.." Blood started off.
"Hey, guys, shut up, I'm trying to call Sideways now, okay?!" Sonia shouted. She sat in the back with Balthasar, and was dressed in black and green. The phone rang and Sideways picked up on the other end.
"I know, I know, Exit right? I'm working on it," Sideways said as he typed DIAL.EXE into the keyboard so he could patch the exit. "Make the next turn on your left and drive under the overpass, it's right there. We'll be waiting for you."
She hung up the phone and repeated the directions to Leon. He followed them, but when they got to the overpass, someone was waiting for them. A black car.
"Who's that?" Blood asked. The doors opened. From the driver's seat stepped out Niobe dressed in her brown leather and armed with an AK-47 Beta Spetnaz; The front passenger seat: Morpheus, in his purple suit and crocodile leather trench with a Tommy-gun. Out from the back came Ghost in his black suit and trench coat with two Walther P-99s, and Kid in a knee-length version of Neo's cassock, with an HK P2000.
"Shit," Balthasar said. "We can handle them."
Leon put the pedal to the floor and hit the car into the wall so that it made a sort of barrier in front of the phone, but so that no one was injured. As soon as their car stopped, the bullets started flying. Leon and Balthasar opened their doors up and everyone jumped out and got behind the car and started shooting back. The phone started to ring.
Blood shouted out over the gunfire: "Morpheus, you got a lot of guts trying to pull some shit like this!!!"
Balthasar reached up over the roof and fired two shots over at Ghost, causing him to wince slightly even though he wasn't hit.
"Someone get through the exit!" He yelled.
"Blood, you go!" Leon told him. Blood nodded, handed his gun over to Leon and reached for the phone. When his RSI disappeared, Sonia hung up the phone so Sideways could load the exit again. When it rang, it was her turn. She left, and as Leon hung up the phone, Balthasar guarded him with cover fire.
"They're outnumbered!" Kid yelled as he shot for Leon's head as he answered the phone. The bullet traveled through the fading avatar though. Balthasar was the last man left. He grabbed Leon's Uzi and aimed over at Morpheus and fired through the windows, hitting him twice in the stomach region. Morpheus yelled out; "AGH!"
The others stopped firing for a moment, just enough time for Balthasar to hang up the phone and pick it up again. He faded away, and the four Zion fighters were alone. Niobe tended to Morpheus.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
He nodded. "I'll be fine. Did he get out?"
She nodded. "Barely, but yeah."
He sighed. "Damn it. Call Sparks, tell him to set up the exit. Then have Link ready to get the ship back to Zion, we'll need to recharge."
Ghost took out his phone. "I'm on it."
----
