The Sixth Matrix
Chapter 1
The
He had one thing on his mind: Mr. Anderson. The human had defeated him. The man shook his head in disappointment. Somehow, that human had killed him. That is, killed him in a sense. Mr. Anderson had fought him and somehow, somehow defeated him.
The 'Agent' shook his head again but continued. These…emotions were distracting. The Matrix had recently downloaded new information that humans do…called 'emotions'. They had been downloaded just three weeks before Mr. Anderson had been…recruited.
The AI walked past the arena, where sweat filled the air and the smell. He walked down a hallway and into an office that was hidden by a secret door in a closet. The AI stepped into the office and was immediately stone cold, with no fear or any kind of distraction.
One of his 'partners' looked at him; slowly, as if gravity was pulling him the opposite way. "Do you have their next target?"
The man looked at his accomplice and replied, "Yes; his name is Traa."
The other Artificial Intelligence officer looked at him and said, "Traa? We've had him monitored for weeks, knowing he was a possibility. After the last few…incidents, AI Command has issued the New Order; no other recruits or we are terminated from the program and will be transferred to the power fields."
The Agent looked at him and said, "Capture him, bug him, and then keep him under full surveillance with SWAT teams. Tell the FBI that he is a possible terrorist interested in bombing the city. Understand?"
"Yes," was the firm reply.
The other Agent, an AI woman, said, "I will monitor him with the SWAT myself."
The leader gave the slightest nod, moving only a millimeter and the others left the room, as if the nod were a silent dismissal. When they were gone, the Agent sat down on the desk on the single table and sighed.
"Not this time, Neo. I won't work in the power fields."
Knox
Age: 14 Hair: Black Eyes: Blue Height: 5' 11'' Weight: 156
Occupation: Cyber-Hacker
Connections: N/A
7:34
Knox was walking down the street, moving his head to the beat of a passing car. A black leather coat covered his black shirt; his legs almost sweating in the hot sun as a reaction from the pitch-black jeans he was wearing. He loved the color black; he didn't know why, he just did.
It was his own, unique style. And this one guy he saw, was way cool. In fact, ever since he saw that guy, he had been wearing black. The man was walking into a police headquarters or some building like that (Knox didn't know), and as Knox kept walking, he heard gunfire.
It scared the hell outta' him, but he liked it. It gave him an adrenaline rush. He couldn't explain.
Knox kept going straight on the sidewalk. He was taking a shortcut today; he was running late for eighth-grade. Not the best of neighborhoods to shortcut through, he thought as he heard a scream in the distance.
He knew some martial arts; he had taken it for a year (his parent's thought it might help his 'potential'). He had made it to red belt before he moved here, to the great city of New York.
Now, every minute he was on the streets, he was on full alert; had to be on full alert. If you weren't you-
Two huge hands suddenly pushed Knox, who happened to be so wrapped in thought, from his right. He stumbled into a dead-end alley and immediately recovered his balance. He had about seven yards in between walls and about another ten yards till the wall at the back of the alley.
His quick scan told him one thing: nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Focus, he thought, as he tried to remember his karate training. Relax and your speed can be twice as fast. Focus on your enemies. Be aware of your surroundings. There was one Dumpster behind Knox. Probably where I'll be at the end of this.
Knox readied himself, scanning his attackers. Four teenagers, all recognizable from the day before. They had been watching his house from a street corner yesterday afternoon and last night. Knox pulled out a pocketknife and stepped into a horse stance.
The leader of the gang, a boy with blonde-bleached hair, stepped forward and pulled out a short sword from behind his back. Knox though: oh no.
"Name's Cadge," he said.
Huh?
"You're in our territory. We've noticed you've been here for a few months but never really crossed the line… until today. You need a lesson in boundaries, boy." Cadge somehow signaled the others and they pulled out knives, bats, and one walked over to a trash-can and pulled out a… Knox's eyes widened.
A gun?
It looked like a 22, but he wasn't sure because the guy pocketed it quick."Don't worry," said Cadge. "We aren't going to kill you; just give you a little lesson."
Knox gulped as Cadge rushed forward. Cadges little sword was more like a dagger, Knox thought as he dodged the slice that would've given Knox a gash in the thigh.
Knox rolled to the left, jabbed up his knife and felt an impact. Not good…but good. Cadge stared at a one-inch stab in his upper leg. Cadge yelled in pain the other three rushed Knox. Knox fought hard but in the end, they had him cornered in front of the Dumpster.
Knox had lost his knife but given all of them a good beaten before it was over. They formed a circle around him and Cadge stepped in, his leg bleeding. "You are a good little kid. Bummer you had to put up a fight." Cadge nodded his head and someone from behind Knox heard the gun's hammer cha-chink.
"Stop," a voice came from behind the Dumpster. A man stepped out, dressed in all black, his trench coat going to his knees. Knox couldn't see him but three of the gang members took off. They ran away and Cadge tried to but his leg slowed him.
When Cadge was almost outside the alley, the mysterious figure leapt forward, grabbed Cadge by the shoulder, and swung him back. Cadge flew through the air and landed on top of the Dumpster, rolling off of it.
He groaned in pain.
Knox couldn't believe his eyes. It was the man that wore all black and…whoa! Knox slowly got to his feet and said, "Tha-a-anks," in a shivering voice.
The man offered his hand. "Neo."
"Knox Singleton." Knox tried to give a good grip but he was still a little shaken up. Where did this guy come from? No one was behind the Dumpster earlier.
Neo walked over behind the Dumpster and picked up Cadge by the shirt and looked at the wound on his leg. "Good hit, kid," he said. Good hit? He's an undercover cop and he's saying I did a good job stabbing someone.
Knox turned and started to run out of the alley, but as if the man was right behind him, the man grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around, saying, "Don't worry. I'm not a cop and you won't be late for school; its going to be canceled today."
Did he just read my brain?
But for some reason, Knox felt that he could trust him. After all, he did save his life. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must handle Traa-I mean Cadge."
Neo walked over to Cadge, picked him up, and walked behind the Dumpster. Knox waited patiently for about a minute but Neo still hadn't come out. What the… Knox walked around to look behind the Dumpster and gasped. No one was there.
Neo and Cadge had disappeared. All that was there, was an old pay phone, its receiver swinging in the wind.
Cadge
Age: 16 Hair: Bleach-Blonde Eyes: Black (contacts) Height: 6'2" Weight: 194
Occupation: Gang Leader
Connections: Knows several places for supplies like ammunition, guns, knives….
8:09
"Let me go you mother fu-," Cadge was yelling.
Neo cut him off. "Be quiet Traa. I have an offer for you." Neo was in a building a few miles from New York City. They had recently learned how to 'tele-port' using phones. Phones were typically used to travel in between the Matrix and the real world.
Neo discovered a week before Cadge that you could also tele-port to different areas of the Matrix using phones. So far, it had come in handy.
"What the…where are we? How the heck did you get me here?"
Neo smiled. "I have a deal for you Cadge," he said simply.
"Let me GO!"
Neo rolled his eyes behind his dark, untouched sunglasses. "Morpheus is waiting so quit struggling and just calm down."
Cadge thought, calm down. Breathe Cadge. You've gotten out of worse situations than this. Cadge looked up and his eyes widened. "How the…how'd we get here?!" I'm not in New York!
Neo finally lost it. "Shut up!" After a few seconds he added, "If I let you go, will you run?"
Cadge slowly shook his head. Neo pulled out 50-caliber pistol and said, "If you do, I doubt you'll like the punishment. Understand?"
I can't believe Morpheus wants a gang leader. Neo let go of Cadge and Cadge stood up straight, trying to flatten out his clothes and look good. "Now where are we," he asked, a little more quietly.
"A warehouse, a few miles from Manhattan. If-," Neo gestured to a chair, "-you'll sit down, I will try to explain what is going on." Cadge carefully took a seat. It was strange. They were in an empty warehouse with no windows or doors. Only a phone in the corner.
"How did we get in here," he asked.
Neo sat down in the chair facing Cadge. "I think you'll get your answers if you're quiet. Let me ask you a few questions first. Why'd you attack Knox?"
Cadge laughed and replied, "That little punk kid? Ha ha. I get it. You are some kind of special cop aren't you? In that case, I'm not tellin' you nuttin'."
Neo nodded slightly, as if it was what he expected. Then he made a face of shock and pointed to an area behind Cadge, saying in a frightful voice, "What is that?!"
Cadge jerked his head around, wincing from the stab in his leg. He didn't see anything. "What are you trying to pull," he started to say as he turned around. He stopped when he saw a table in between him and Neo.
And Neo was gone. Cadge looked around, finally getting the feeling that these people weren't cops. Cadge turned away from the phone and-light! Suddenly a light flashed from behind him.
He whipped around to see another man. He was black, tall. A baldheaded guy with cool looking shades. Cadge raised an eyebrow, saying, "Where did you come from?!"
The man smiled and said, "My name is Morpheus. Where I came from is irrelevant. We are in need of… people, Traa. We-
Cadge cut him off. "Why do you people keep calling me Traa?"
Morpheus put his hands on his lap and said, "Because that's your real name. Cadge is a name in which a holographic-computer-generated sequence named you. Your real name, Traa, is Traa."
Cadge blinked. "Right." Cadge got a look on his face and said, "And I'm the lead singer of Linkin Park." Morpheus pointed at Cadge's leg. "Does that hurt," he asked, as if he never heard of pain.
Cadge shook his head, thinking about how demented this black man was. "Of course it hurts you stupid black man. Let the hell outta here, I'm gone." Cadge stood up but the pain in his leg almost tripled and blood began to pour. Cadge winced and sat back down.
"Kind of stuck here, aren't we Mr. Singleton?"
Cadge frowned. What was this? These guys sure weren't gang members from anywhere nearby. Cadge's thoughts were interrupted by Morpheus. "That pain is not real."
"….huh?"
Morpheus pointed at Cadge's bleeding leg and said, "That pain is not real. It's a feeling in which you are told to feel. Hit it. Go ahead, hit it."
Cadge gave Morpheus a strange look and hit it…surprisingly, it didn't hurt. "What the…"
Morpheus smiled. "I have…friends in real places that would like you to join us. You have obvious fighting skills, you can control your panic well, although your performance earlier didn't help me prove that to others." Morpheus smiled. "But I have an offer for you."
Cadge got a sudden feeling that this guy was telling the truth. He hit his leg again…it didn't hurt. This guy was telling the truth. Cadge didn't understand it but…he had this feeling…
Morpheus held out both of his hands; they were in fists, both palms down. "Now you have a choice because we are running out of time. Would you like to join the reality, or keep living in a…world where your own destiny is already made up."
My own destiny is already made up because whatever is telling me I feel pain isn't telling me when I should, Cadge thought. "Whoa, this is freaky."
Morpheus nodded and turned his hands over, revealing one pill in each hand. "The red pill will give you your reality, the reality in which you are living in. The blue pill will erase me from your memory, letting you live each day stuck in a reality where you are told what you feel."
Cadge's hand trembled. What do I do?
Slowly, Cadge reached out for the red pill. No one was going to tell him how to feel. He would control himself and-
BOOM! An explosion filled Cadge's ears and he hit the dirt. Morpheus didn't move. Helicopter noises filled the air and Cadge looked up, seeing a helicopter armed with about twenty missiles…and the roof to the warehouse was gone. "Holy shi-," he started to say when it fired another missile. Cadge's eyes widened and he readied himself for death…but it didn't come.
He slowly looked up and saw the guy named Neo, holding out his hand as if trying to stop the missile. Freaky thing was…that he was stopping the missile. Neo whipped the missile around and shot it back at the helicopter. Two people jumped out as it exploded. Both in tuxedos of some sort, Cadge couldn't tell.
Morpheus was talking. "So Traa, what's it going to be?"
Cadge yanked the red pill out of Morhpeus's hand and popped it into his mouth. He swallowed it and suddenly…everything faded away and….
Cadge lost consciousness.
"Neo, go get the other! NOW!"
Neo turned and looked at Morpheus and replied, "Get outta here. Go now!" Morpheus turned and ran for the pay phone. Neo looked down at the other end of the warehouse. Two agents were calmly walking toward him.
Great, he thought. "Sorry guys, got to run," he yelled and they started running at him. Neo looked at the pay phone. Morpheus was gone. Neo ran for it. The two agents were gaining fast. Neo dove for the phone and-
Suddenly everything was green, numbers flashing around and then it was back to normal. "Whoa," he said. He was now in Brooklyn. Close call, he thought. He had tried to take on two agents before and he nearly died. He still wasn't experienced enough to take on two.
Neo stepped away from the phone and onto the streets. The Agents had probably lost track of him but they would find his trace in Brooklyn and by then…he hoped he would have the next recruit.
"At least Traa was a success," he muttered. He estimated he had about an hour before he would start getting traced and an hour-and-a-half before Agents would be on his tail. Neo slid past people without a problem.
Neo kept going. Where did Knox live? It was fortunate that Traa had decided to hassle Knox this morning. Neo now knew what area Knox would be in. Or nearby.
Neo turned a corner and walked down a few more blocks. The crowd was thinning out, most of the people hustling to their jobs and teenagers late for schools. Typical New York day. Neo smiled. Was the typical New York day.
As walked down the streets, he passed the alley that Cadge…Traa had first tried to nail Knox. Knox probably went home, a little shaken up, Neo figured. Knox was the first person to be named what his real name was; the Matrix gave him the name Knox and his real name was also Knox. Just one of a few glitches that seemed to be popping up lately.
It has been about three months since Neo first figured out the Matrix. When he read the codes and realized that he could predict what they were going to do. Then Neo wondered why he was walking. "Let's fly," he said and read the codes of air.
Slowly he rised up while he focused on reading the pattern and numbers so he could fit in between them. Then, the higher he got, the less numbers there were and he started flying with ease. The Matrix didn't, know that he here until he ran into a pile, of 'cluster' of numbers. Of course, he could just fly all around and have a complete blast…but the Agents would immediately know exactly where he was…and he had a mission right now.
Neo suddenly realized he was a mile up from the ground. Oops, he thought, got a little distracting. Flying was the best thing Neo had ever done. He loved it. But right now, it was time for work.
Neo floated down to a building and scanned the buildings around him. Now that he was back on the ground, he could be traced. It was either be traced, which would take awhile for the Agents to find him, or fly, possibly messing up and giving away his exact position.
And Neo needed all the time he could get.
Knox
He flipped on the TV, hoping to find something good. Nothing on the WB…nothing on FOX or ABC… nothing on TV. He turned it off and reached over for his Walkman. He put in a tape that was his favorite; Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and Hot Dog Flavored Water. He liked it, even though it was a little negative. He turned it up loud.
He listened to once and then put it away, surprised that an hour had already passed by. He removed the now-cold rags on his bruises and limped around the apartment. He walked over to a window, opened it and looked down at the road.
Four or five taxis were in a heap, and a large bus was tipped over. A lot of people were yelling at each other and there were about two ambulances. Whoa, thought Knox, I must've really had that music loud.
Then for some reason he looked up, toward the top of the building across the road from him. He saw movement from another building…what the!!!
A man jumped twenty feet from one roof to another. Knox looked a little closer and it was the guy that saved him this morning! What was going on?!
Knox watched as the man jumped onto the roof in front of him. How was that possible? You can't jump twenty feet and clear it…how? Knox started shaking his head. This isn't happening, this isn't happening, he thought.
He stepped away from the window and went to his room. He had a good idea of what that guy looked like. Knox quickly got onto the Internet and went to a government site, govermenthelp.gov or something like that. Knox hacked into the private records of criminals and started flipping through the photographs.
After what seemed like half-an-hour but was really five minutes he found the man's picture. His name was 'Mr. Anderson'. Also known as 'Neo'. Knox looked up his criminal record. Cyber-hacking/journalism, resisting arrests, and supposed killing of federal agents. Knox raised his eyebrows. A nerd was jumping buildings?
Knox's breath was cut short when he heard a voice behind him say, "Like my record? I can see that you are a lot like me."
Knox slowly turned around on his chair and looked at…Neo. "How did you get in here?"
Neo smiled. He was leaning on the doorframe and replied so nonchalantly that it was almost as if it was his everyday thing. "I jumped over and crawled through the window." Knox blinked.
Neo looked at his watch and said, "Alright, we've got problems bud. C'mon, lets go or your going to be barbecue."
Knox leaned back in his chair. "What makes you think I can trust you? You jump from roof-to-roof, you disappear. I don't think I like you." Neo snorted. "Right. Well, I did save your life this morning…" He let it hang.
Uh oh, thought Knox. He's gotta point…what the…what am I thinking?! I don't have to what this guy says! "Get outta my apartment. NOW," he yelled. Knox dove forward, not sure what he was doing. His fists flew straight and true.
Neo stepped back, surprised. This kid was tough. But if he-
BAM! The bullet came from behind, plowing into Neo's left shoulder-lade. He flew forward from the impact. He hit the floor, his vision switching back in forth from clear, to green numbers. His right arm ran up to his left shoulder as he jumped back to his feet to see what shot him.
An Agent. Where there's one, there's more.
Neo read the numbers and jumped forward. He saw the Agent's arm rise and fire the gun. Neo had already read what he was programmed to do. The bullet soared by, missing Knox by an inch and Neo by less. Neo's feet reached the Agent's head in a flying sidekick.
The Agent flew back into the wall and Neo looked at Knox for a second and yelled, "Run!" Neo then dove toward the Agent. They exchanged blows; Neo threw a fist, blocked, Neo ducked and attempted to trip the AI, the AI jumped up and Neo's leg went below him. The Agent counter-attacked, getting a solid-hit on Neo's left shoulder.
Pain soared through him, reminding him that he didn't have much time. The Agent realized his gone was on the floor a few feet away. He dove for it and Neo crescent-kicked him in mid-air. The Agent flew back and out the window. Flying down toward the car wrecks below.
As it fell, it changed into another human, a technician that had been working on elevators inside the apartment building.
Neo looked for Knox, having to take it easy because his shoulder. More Agents would be there soon. Neo pulled out his cell-phone and said, "I need an escape. The recruit is gone, I was ambushed a few minutes early. I'm wounded so hustle."
A few seconds later, Tank's voice came over the line, saying, "Alright. I've got you an escape three blocks from there. You better hurry. That new sat-thingy is showing four Agents in that vicinity."
"Okay," Neo said and put the cell-phone away.
He ran out of the building, aware that an Agent was just down the street walking the opposite way. Neo sprinted forward, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. He looked behind him, seeing the patterned Agent turn around to look at him.
You can make it Neo, he told himself. You can make it you can make it you came MAKE IT! Gunshots from behind. Neo hit the concrete sidewalk and rolled a few feet, a few bullets whizzing over him. He jumped back to his feet as bullets hit the concrete where he just was.
Neo turned right, just as a bullet grazed the back of his neck…it would've gone through his head if he hadn't turned. He charged down that street. As he ran, he got the cell-phone and asked, "Where is it?"
Tank's voice came on the line. "We've got problems here, Neo. You need to move, NOW! Uh, make a right." Neo turned right, into a dead-end alley. "What now," he asked.
"Run to the end of it and you'll see a door that goes into the back of a restaurant. Then follow the phone's ringing."
"Alright," Neo replied. "Oh shi-," came a cry from Tank but the line was cut short. Uh oh. Neo reached the door, his heart beating fast, causing him to lose more blood from his wound. He heard the phone and ran through the kitchen, catching mean looks and shouts from the workers.
As he passed one chef, Neo saw him change into an Agent. Neo saw the phone…sprint or fight. Sprint! Neo ran. He heard the banging of pots and pans behind him and people shouting 'hey' and 'watch it'. Neo reached the phone, he picked it up, gunshots………..