IC: How Deep the Rabbit Hole goes...(Matrix thread)

[Mayu]

She growled and slapped the hand away "This is my ship and I will do as I please, I was chosen because I can be a captain, I do my job and don't need to take this bull shit from you, I have every right to throw your ass out!" She sighed. "If you step out of line again I will throw you in a cell where you can live the rest of your life for all I care"

 

[Kuuroinochou]

She was met with the slamming of a door as he moved away from her tyrant. She had every right to be upset and he'd have given her the same warnings in her position but...he was himself nothing more. He did what he could do as far as cleaning himself was concerned before venturing back out into the halls.

Looking this way and that he sighed noting the little tyrant captain had left. "Oi..." he muttered to himself heading for the bridge, there he found Steel sitting as animated as ever in front of the screen. With a perked expression he looked on screen, "Message?"

 

[gagonthis]

B-SOD was everywhere, he watched his interest as the liberated mind made it out of the Matrix in the knick of time, catching a grazing shot to the side as he left, and he also stood atop the building watching the fight with the Agents and the one called Stone below. He flickered in and out of static, watching every detail around him, processing and filtering the information before deciding what to do next. With a leap onto the building across he disappeared into an alley, stepping through a wall and reappearing many miles way.

 

[Dynosius]

Steel listened intensely to the message. His eyes followed the words as if he was reading the Matrix code. It took a while before he noticed 404. He turned his head towards him. "Yeah, yeah... It's from the Zenith. They want to meet up somewhere in the Matrix."

He then adressed 404. "Could you tell the captain we've got a message?" Without waiting for an answer he turned back to his usual business.

"Echo, are you going to finish training or should I get you out?"

 

[Katamari Roller]

Stone's leg was tightly bent at the knee in the air, her arms spread, maintaining her balance after kicking the panther through the window. As she slowly landed her foot onto the floor, James, Robertson and Jones caught up to her and then walked outside and onto the emergency ladder.

On the ground, the panther lay inert, unmoving. That was most strange, and they let Stone know this simply with a glance. Her tall, willowy, dark figure moved out, and hopped off the building. Her form darted down the air and landed with a thud, and a brief vibration.

The other Agents did likewise, landing in front of her, surveying the Black Panter from a cautious distance. Agent Patterson, the one who was covering this exit, observed from under the ladder.

Usually, when a rogue program was destroyed, it would vanish. But this one didn't. Stone straightened up, dusting her clothes off with her hands as she advanced upon the 'animal', drawing her weapon from the back of her waist, out of her pants. As her Desert Eagle rose to aim at the program, another four did the same. The ensuing repeated roaring of the firing echoed in the alleyway and over the roofs, but nobody would remember it exactly two seconds after that happened. Not after the Panther vanished into a stream of ones and zeros that seeped into the concrete ground.

Stone slid her handgun back into her jeans, where it disappeared, leaving behind no bulk to be noticed.

"Thank you for your assistance." The Agents dispersed, be it walking back into the building or out into the street. Stone followed the latter, and merged with the streams of humans going around their business. In the sheer thickness of human presence... their touch, their smell... Stone found herself strangely comfortable for an Agent.

Why would that be, she wondered? A bug in the program... maybe, but why was she the only one affected? No other Agent had ashown any sign of being comfortable with humans like she was. Although they didn't seem... uncomfortable, either. They just didn't mind their existance. But Stone knew she wanted humans to keep existing. Why? Wouldn't it be easier if those rebels stopped existing? Wouldn't she be more efficient in any other kind of objective?

But her existance was necessary. Stone had been the first Agent. So far, she still remembered from a long time ago, because she had actually obsessive episodes about it. She would spend hour after hour thinking just about that, between trying to experiment the human sensations that always seemed so close to her, yet were never grasped by her body or mind. Pleasure, anger, cold or heat, pain... pain was the only sensation that she barely registered when she was wounded while hunting rogue programs, or human rebels.

Stone almost envied them. And in this, she found a reason to hunt them. They had everything that she, as a part of the Matrix, was entitled to. These frail, weak creatures were the reason she was created like this, with an imperfect body that could not feel what she wanted to feel, a body that couldn't work the way she thought it was supposed to work. And worse yet, they, the humans, proved to be absolutely inefficient in everything they did. There was no human who could compete with a machine.

So their importance to the Matrix was a thorn in her side. Stone couldn't feel like them, so she couldn't manage to approach their purpose, their way of life, the reason they existed, worked, and suffered for.

As her lith figure side-stepped into a café's entrance, Stone wondered. Did anything link the machines and humans? Was there a reason that, should the humans be independent from the machines, and the machines be independent from the humans, would justify them living together in harmony?

 

[Kuuroinochou]

404

404 shuddered he didn't like going in the Matrix anymore than the next person but it was a necessity for their cause. Nodding he headed back through the ship looking for their bratty captain. He found her easily enough and sighed hoping their earlier tit-for-tat wouldn't cascade into a snowball effect for the day. "You're needed on the bridge." he said coming to attention. "There's a message from the Zenith, they want to meet in the Matrix."

 

[Mayu]

Mayu nodded "Thanks" She bowed her head she knew it was going to be hard for everyone to accept her as captain but she would prove herself and that was something she would have to do but wanted to do it. Slowly she walked out onto the bridge. She heard about the message and crossed her arms looking at everyone.

"Display Message Please"

 

[FenixZero]

Echo nodded at Steel words, "I think we're all finished here for now. Go ahead and terminate the program"

Turning back to Necro, he offered her a rare and genuine smile, "You improved alot today. You should be ready for full combat sims before too much longer. Ahead of schedule"

The truth was, the needed as many soldiers as they could get. Too many captains and ships spent their time scouring the Matrix for The One. Not that Echo didn't believe, in fact he had met Captain Morpheus on several occasions, it was simply that Echo believed if one is to pray for wind, he should also row for shore. He never put much stock in miracles or messiahs, but if The One ever did show up, Echo would be the first to greet him.

Tossing the sword back onto the table, Echo felt the sudden cold spike through his body as the jack was removed from his counter-part in the real world and he was brougth back to the Oberon.

 

[Dynosius]

Steel's fingers flew over the buttons of his keyboard, ending the training and opening the message from the Zenith. The vid-screen displaying the Matrix code blinked once and then showed the captain of the Zenith. Steel turned up the volume a bit, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Greetings, Captain Mayu. We need to speach each other again. Name a place and time, the crew of the Zenith will be there.

The message ended and Steel turned to Mayu. "Well, captain... Guess that's clear enough. Tell me where and when, and I'll send them a message back."

 

[Mayu]

She thought about it for a moment and nodded "Yes simple enough" She sighed some. "Noon Tomorrow, In The Matrix Our Usual Spot"

(OOC: I forgot where all you can go so bare with me)

 

[Mephistophelily]

Necro gasped as she sat up, giving an annoyed grown as she hugged her knees on the chair and rubbed her neck with the other hand. That thing still hurt.
"Echo?" She gave him a glance, a bit confused on what was going on. "A meeting? Wait, a meeting in the Matrix? Can I go along too? Please?"

She was rather eager to go into the actual system with them.. now that she knew what everything truly was. The most she had gotten so far were these simulations... "I promise, I'll stay right behind you the whole time. I won't touch anything, won't get in the way..."

 

[gagonthis]

B-SOD smiled slightly as he watched Stone work. She was different from the other Agents. He blinked as program information loaded... incomplete as it was. He remembered her. He remembered she was the first of these... She was one of the first he trained. He burst into static again his train of information trailing off... There was something else he needed to do. He stepped into the shadows again, disappearing into the latice of the Matrix

 

[Dynosius]

Steel nodded, opening the message-logs. Within seconds the message was sent, and there was only the waiting for an answer from the Zenith. Done for now, Steel turned his attentions back to the Matrix code. The green symbols slid down the screen as rain drops on a window.

He was... Intrigued.

 

[Mister J]

The message was recieved and a reply was sent. Knives and River jacked in. They appeared within a small room, a phone sitting in a table before them. Knives wore a longer jacket this time, the clasps covering his mouth a bit. He adjusted his red tinted glasses and moved to the door, heading out.

A few minutes later had the two of them sitting on an iron girder high above the streets. It was an old abandoned construction site. The steel frame of the skyscraper looked like a skeleton of sorts rising into the sky. It had been where they met the past few occasions.

Knives pulled out his two M9s and checked them...just in case. He was always taught to be prepared. The Agents could appear at any time, anywhere.

The information he had was certainly worth killing over...and he knew they wouldnt hesitate to rid themselves of it.

With a sigh he looked to his sister, running a hand through her hair.

"You alright over there?"

 

[Kuuroinochou]

River smiled looking up to her brother, "Yes... I'm okay." Her hair blew in the winds created by the Matrix, dressed in black faux trimmed romper with hood, and black buckled knee boots she checked the whip she carried at her side. Having her brother, gave her a sense of security that ditered her from carrying a gun. But this time around she brought with her two desert eagles attatched to a gun hoister on her belt. Thankfully her brother had taught her to use them correctly.

"You ready?" she asked pulling up her hood over her head as she looked out over the city.

 

[Mister J]

"Always."

He lets his hand fall from her hair as she put up the hood. It drifted down along her side and set atop her thigh.

"I havent seen you wear that before. Tryin' something new sis?"

Using his free hand he put the two guns away, sliding them back behind him into the holsters on the inside of his jacket.

"I like it."

With a bit of a sigh, he turned on the large metal girder and layed his head down on her lap, staring up into the sky. It was a clear night out, not many clouds to speak of and the moon shown brightly.

"Damn they're late."

 

[gagonthis]

B-SOD stepped out of the shadows, watching the two humans. They had materialized into the matrix mere moments before, the distrubance drawing him as it always did. He did not understand how it always took the Agents so long to appear. The Matrix told him immediately when one of the humans jacked in. Perhaps it was part of his virial infected mi.... ZZZZZT the static hit him and B-SOD lost his train of thought. His image in the Matrix frowned slightly as he looked at the humans before him. B-SOD knew they did not belong here, that they should be purged from the system, but B-SOD choose to remain in vigilence, perhaps to observe them, learn from them, what drove them to keep appearing within here? To risk the wrath of the Agents, ineffecient though they were, was not something that such a weak program would do lightly..

 

[Kuuroinochou]

"Patience they'll be here..." she purred softly running her fingers through his hair as she looked up into the sky. "I wonder when all of this will be over. You think we'll live to see the end of this war?" she asked absentmindly just letting her mind drift on autopilot.

 

[Mayu]

The Meeting

Mayu had everything set up with the thanks of her crew, she could depend on them when the time came down to it. She got dressed all in black as she was getting ready. She looked at her reflection and smiled a bit, closing her eyes as she hoped this meeting would go ok, she put on a black long jacket and that was it. She was plugged into the Matrix like always and went to the meeting place, she of course was on time.

 

[Mister J]

"I dont know River..."

He looked away from her, lifting his hand to intertwine with hers.

"I hope it does...but it doesnt seem like it."

His eyes drifted back to her as he used his free hand to lift up the glasses so he wasnt looking at her through red tint.

"Hopefully the information I have will help..."

 

[Kuuroinochou]

River looked down at her brother a soft smile coming to her lips. "You cannot leave me. Not now not ever Knives..." she said leaning down to kiss him softly upon the lip linger a moment. "I want us to always be together. I'll watch your back; you watch mine?"

 

[FenixZero]

Echo nodded to Necro's request. Normally it was Captain Mayu's authority to choose who participated in a mission but he was the ranking officer underneath her and it was simple enough request. Besides, they needed their ship represented at the meeting.

"Stick close Necro and let me and Captain Mayu do the talking" he bowed his head a bit to her and moved back over to the chairs, where Mayu's body had already entered the system.

They laid back in their chairs and prepared to enter the Matrix. It was quite a different experience then entering a construct or a training sim. The Matrix was like a rush of every sense, thought and idea you'd ever had, in about a 10th of a second.

Reopening his eyes within the Matrix, Echo set the pay phone back on the hook and surveyed the landscape. The construction site was in an obvious state of disrepair, but it was a perfect meeting spot. Plenty of cover, but still more then enough room to see an Agent coming. Hopefully.

He caught sight of Knives and his sister River. A sister that had grown some since Echo had last seen her. Tucking his jian underneath one arm, Echo moved to join them.

 

[gagonthis]

B-SOD 'blinked' in a blur of static as more people materialized right near where he was standing. This was a large group, some important meeting. If this didn't bring the agents out he would be quite surprised. Still he felt he should move out to these people, warn them off, threaten them. Their kind did not belong out here and it was clear they would cause a great amount of unrest if they lingered long. B-SOD blurred with more frequency when around a large number of neural projections or programs in the Matrix. As such his virus caused him to act up more. He would wait to see what had brought so many together and then decide what his course of action would be.

 

[Katamari Roller]

Stone sat on a table looking out into the street. Bringing the coffee cup to her mouth, she savoured the dark liquid. It was warm, and sweet. For some reason, she found herself always pouring a lot of sugar into it. Yet, she didn't enjoy it. She just felt like doing this, drinking coffee, walking around...

Her eyes, empty, gazed out at the human mass milling around like confused insects who had lost their queen. Stone wondered what it was like to actually enjoy the things humans enjoyed, but she didn't really wish to know, and she couldn't anyway.

A couple entered the café, and a breeze passed by her ear, moving her long, dark hair a bit. Stone had a hunch, a feeling something was going on. Maybe it was a part of the Matrix, or of her own program, but she knew something was afoot. Dropping a few dollars on the table, she took a last swig of her coffee and stepped out of the establishment.

Again, another breeze caressed her face, a soft, cold air that seemed to entice her skin to move away from herself... something big was going on, there was no doubt. Stone felt things the other Agents didn't, and decided to follow her hunch, flowing her way through the human throng towards the source of this breeze...

 

[Dynosius]

Steel watched the Matrix code fall. His eyes seemed to follow each individual symbol all at once. There was something strange about the code. A disturbance like that of a virus... He shrugged it off. Nothing to worry about.

He opened a com-link to Mayu, Echo, and Necro. "Got you all in. Hurry up, the Agents aren't reacting, but they will in a matter of minutes."