Vengeful Thinking.

**Zerotolerance**

Finding your target isn't always as easy as a simple macro to point yourself off in the direction of the enemy. It usually requires a threshold of patience and plenty of time. In certain scenarios it requires that you track down another target first so that you can milk them of the information you seek. Sometimes you wait in one spot for a very long time with no results.

But sometimes it pays off.

"I've been waiting for you," I tell the Exile, "I need you to show me the right direction."

"What?" He looked at me puzzled. He wasn't quite certain that I work for the Machines, but I'm sure he suspected.

"No, no, no. Not what. Who. I'm looking for a Redpill." I offered a smirk.

"Go look in a mirror."

"Original." I smirked wider. "I'm looking for Tytanya."

"Get in the elevator. Lead the way." He made a gesture and I stepped by him, the stench of hostility in his code aura.

You don't exactly recognize the sound of a shotgun coming out from beneath someone's coat, but in my line of work you learn early on to familiarize yourself with the safety lever being depressed. He already had a shell in the chamber as I didn't hear the distinctive click-chk of the firearm... I might have waited for it to be certain, but that wasn't a chance I was about to take. You end up dead that way.

Dodging shotgun bursts wasn't as easy as weaving through scattered bullets. Especially at a point-blank range. I had to remain close enough to avoid the expanding walls of murder and at the same time avoid being directly in front of the barrel. At this proximity, one failed bob of the head or one stupid error in judgment concerning the position of my hands would turn me into virtual hamburger.

"Go find your answers elsewhere, toaster!" He sneered as he turned to run.

I thought I was leading the way?

A jumper. I hate aerial combat within the simulation. It never ends well.

I could see the Matrix coming apart at the seems, bleeding through into a visible spectacle of bent light, distorted color, and visible sound.

"Escape is impossible," I try my best to fill an agent's shoes. He doesn't listen. He obviously knows the difference. Judging from his poor execution skills with a shotgun he's a fugilist by nature. I had to prepare myself for such a case.

"Operator," I speak into the cell, "I'm going to catch this guy, but I need some reinforced gear. Operator?"

"I'm here," Outlash acknowledged.

"You're relentless, toaster. You want to catch me?

Fine."

"..."

"Now you're listening to reason, code-trash." I grinned.

But that grin was fleeting.

He was fast.

A blur.

I was left with little time, but I was easily reminded of where his skills were lacking. I move out of the way where it counts. Despite his existence as a renegade program he was no Insertion, Tytanya, or Krytical.

"Give up." I insist.

"You're going to tell me..."

"...what I need to know."

"Y-You... *CENSORED*... t-toaster." He slumped to the floor of the catwalk. He was out of juice. Through it all I had yet to go on the offensive and he made the wise decision - he realized that if I wanted to kill him, he could not fight back at this point. Me? I hadn't even broken a digital sweat. I was more than prepared to delete him if he didn't tell me what I wanted to hear.

"Talk."

"You don't want me, toaster. Y-You want Ingus."

"Excuse me?"

"Ingus. He has the connections. If you're looking for a contraband signal, he's the one that will find it for you. He knows them all. Xeros. Ikkaku. Tytanya. He knows them all. H-He... He knows them all."

It wasn't what I wanted to hear. It didn't matter, though. He was too scared to lie to me at this point. In times such as these, with war on every edge of the Front Lines, sometimes you have to show a bit of compassion to your adversary. As I checked my Bedlams I'm sure he let loose a glob of brown code all over his Merovingian underpants.

"Get out of here. And mind the gun laws in Mega City, will you?"

So now I have a new target in a series of targets... I need to find the Fallen Anomaly... Now, I know as much about the code signature that ran through Neo's veins as the next guy. I may not be the most brilliant, most cunning, most powerful Redpill on this side of the iteration but I do know one thing about anomalies... I know I'm not one of them... Could I have prepared myself for something such as this? Will I be able to face him and get through this alive? Or will he finish what Tytanya started?

I still feel that cold metal at my throat to this day, attempting to sever my lifeline and leave an empty husk back aboard the Armitage.

So long as I reach my mark, I don't care what's at stake. I will give my life to see her pay for what she did.

**TimeMaker**

Who's that SEXY exile? (You made everything pretty /drool)

**Ballak**

(( I like how you set this event up. It's pretty epic in how you described the combat in the story and then revolved it around the other RPers in Vector. Hope to see more. <3 ))

**TonyJaa**

GREAT work man...

**Zerotolerance**

Ballak wrote:

(( I like how you set this event up. It's pretty epic in how you described the combat in the story and then revolved it around the other RPers in Vector. Hope to see more. <3 ))

(( While my NR threads are generally from my own point-of-view, I've slowly started to feature other players in the RP and RPvP Vector community. It will only get better over time as I try out some new effects and ideas, including some paradigm shifts as well as a fight taking place in the Real. ))

(( The first collective of my NR threads can be found here along with several other players' entries which coincided with them: System Purge v1.0 ))

**Madbent**

Nice War!

I always enjoy your stories the comic-style wash of the screens.

**TonyJaa**

You need to do a story with Zion too!!!

**Zerotolerance**

yuenwoping wrote:

You need to do a story with Zion too!!!

(( The next one will have some Zion Redpills in it. ))

Ingus · 09/26/2007 16:43:28

That was great war.. I loved the chase scene... and seeing my face makes me say "uh-oh" hehe but looking forward to it!

Another great episode of your series... keep'em coming!

Annakonder

great work..... but you should always be careful what you wish for SMILEY

**Zerotolerance**

(( As an after-thought, I'd love to get Ikkaku involved in one of these. ))