(Chapter 9 cont'd)

Raven couldn't have been more pleased with himself at his accomplishment. Before him, he watched as Axe, the ship's operator, was typing with great hype at his monitor, browsing through the simulacra Raven had obtained from Anome, like a fourteen year old looking over his dad's porno mags. Arius gave his nod of approval, highly anticipating the usage of these programs in the future. Magnus, however, remained unphased at this.

"I've got to hand it to you, Raven, this is some cool *poop*," Sideways said with great excitement. "Zion actually had some decent programs in their arsenal."

"All in a days work my dear Sideways," Raven said with his usual charisma. "You will relay these babies to the other ships, won't you?"

"The one's that I think are useful, sure," said Blood, who's face was displayed on one of Sideways' monitors. "The rest we'll save for when we get into Zion's mainframe. Just a little 'thank you' for all the support they've given us," he said with sarcasm.

"That ought to be entertaining." Arius said in the background

"So, what do you want us to do now? We've still got that office building for a few more days, and if not that, we can always get another one," Raven said.

"Just do what you're doing right now, keeping an eye inside the Matrix," Blood replied. "We just got word that the Nabonidus is in Zion right now, so that'll take Morpheus off our backs for a while. However, Sideways' been picking up some abnormal activity in the Matrix, and I want that investigated."

"Axe has as well. Unfortunately, not even Magnus can figure out what it is, though it does seem to put pressure on him. Some new type of reaction to the code fluctuations I assume."

"Whatever it is, Raven, I want to know about it yesterday, so head back into the Matrix. Nosferatu out." The comm. screen ended there, and the monitor Blood's face was on at Axe's consoles switched back to flowing green code strands.

"So much for our benefit." A black woman with a ponytail complained, "Can't the guy cut us a break for once?"

"If he did, Kahn, he wouldn't be Captain Blood," Raven chimed. "And if he wouldn't be Blood, then this would all be a waste of time anyway."

"Whatever," Kahn said, looking at Magnus. "What about him? You just said the waves are having some effect on his brain..."

"I'm fine," Magnus simply replied, not turning to look at her, "The pressure doesn't hurt, it just doesn't feel normal. The whole reality fluctuates to this wave, like an ocean. I myself want to know what's causing the waves."

"You sure, Magnus?" Raven said, his usual demeanor now traded over for concern, "I can do this without you."

"No, Captain, I have to find out what this is." Magnus looked up at Raven with his pale blue eyes, "Because I can feel the pressure now, even outside the Matrix."
----

The Nemesis sped through the tunnels, and as Marley typed in the commands to bring up sensor readings, he noted the temperature was dropping.

"Temp's dropping Cap, we're getting closer to the surface."

Irvine let out a hiss of air through his nostrils as if the news were obsolete.

"Only thing that matters right now is getting as far away from that swarm as we can, got it?"

Marley nodded and in a more serious tone he answered, "Yes sir."

From their last location, Glitch suddenly picked up readings that sentinels were swarming the ship from all directions in a circular shape, so Irvine had the crew get ready and got the hell out of there. Problem was, they were leaving a heat signature behind and since the area they were in was cold and only getting colder as they went, it would be easier for the sentinels to find them.

The ship rumbled and those on the main deck stumbled into a wall or fell.

"The hell was that?" Anubis asked, clinging onto a ladder.

Glitch brought up the ship's hull integrity and it showed damage in the tail. "What's going on up there Irvine?" Glitch asked into the microphone on his headset. "Did we hit something?"

Irvine's radio voice crackled over the head phones. "No, a lump of rock and metal just rose up from the ground and hit us in the *CENSORED*," he said. Noting his answer was saturated in sarcasm, Glitch took the hint.

"No further questions," he answered, and rolled his eyes as he shook his head. "Can't provide a good explanation, 'nub."

Anubis glared, and would have went over and hit him if it wasn't for the fact he had to stay at the ladder, or else he's have a fun time trying to get over to him without falling on his *CENSORED*, so he had to improvise.

"Don't call me that."

Janus, hugging the corner of two walls meeting, looked over when he heard Anubis's rash reaction to Glitch's choice of nickname. Anubis shot him a look that had "What the hell do you want?" written all over it, but Janus continued to look in his direction with no words, only coming up with analytical conclusions. When Anubis saw that he hadn't looked away, he stared back. Janus never got why he was such a loner, but figured he'd find out one day. Carefully guiding himself, he went off to the cockpit to join Irvine and Marley.

"Cap, over there." Marley pointed out. There was a small cavity in the tunnel wall up ahead and it was big enough to fit the Nemesis in. "You think we have enough time to stop to park this thing, shut it down, and charge the EMP?"

Irvine frowned.

Marley shook his head and blinked with a sigh as though to scold himself for coming up with such an idea. "I guess not. You got a better idea?"

Light flashed from the sky followed by a rumble, lighting up the wall coming up ahead. A crack to the surface.

"Now I do," Irvine answered.

Marley smirked and readied the ship to hover vertically. Once Irvine brought the ship into the ravine leading to the sky, he turned it 90-degrees and it began to ascend. As it went up, it hit into wires, cables and rods that jutted out from either side of the ravine, scraping along the surface of the hull.

"Which way do we go?" Marley asked. "They're getting closer".

Irvine's eyebrows wrinkled as he surveyed the land before him displayed on the holographics.

"East."

Marley nodded, and so, the ship was turned in said direction, and off they went. They passed over wreckage and debris that stuck up from below, and lightning struck again. Ahead of them, the land mirrored the sky and everything above it when it flashed. Marley had a double take. The thunder rumbled.

"What is that?"

Irvine moved his head forward slightly, his forehead and eyebrows wrinkled. "That's a body of water. A big one." He moved the ship forward and Marley looked confused.

"A body of water?"

Irvine looked over to him as though to say "what do you mean?", then he remembered, Marley is from Zion, and had never seen a body of water before.

"I forgot for a moment that you aren't from the Matrix." Marley arched a brow.

"Don't worry," Irvine told him. "Just keep your eyes open."

The Nemesis buzzed forward and as it passed over the water, its image was reflected on the surface in the dark, the reflection of the hover pads standing out the most. Lightning flashed overhead, showing the ship clearly against the water for a brief moment against the bright white sky.

"I've never seen so much water."

Irvine chuckled. "Neither have I. At least, not here anyway."

Marley glanced over at him. "They have water like this in the Matrix?"

Irvine nodded. "All over the place. Those sentinels still after us?"

Marley spoke into the microphone on his head set. "Glitch, update on the squiddies?"

Behind Glitch stood Blade, Anubis, and Janus, all watching Glitch's screens displaying sensor and radar outputs. He shook his head. "No sign of em. Better stay alert though, these guys are like cops. You never know if they'd alert another sentinel bunch in the next area to be on the lookout."

Marley looked over to Irvine. "We lost em, but we should stay on alert anyway."

Irvine nodded. "Good."

Marley scanned the area. "Where we gonna land?"

Irvine spotted a large charred building off in the distance, big enough to safely store one of these ships in. "Over there, the building wreckage." As Marley and Irvine directed the ship over in the building's direction, Marley thought of something.

"What about Resistance ships, should we look for them?"

Irvine shook his head. "Nah, don't worry about them. They can't hurt us."

Marley again arched a brow. "You sure?"

Irvine looked over at him with a face that demanded to know why he was being questioned.

"Of course you are," Marley said, looking ahead again. He noticed a sign on the ground among the wreckage. It once read "Paradigm City", but now, only the portion that read "Paradigm" was visible. Once they guided the ship into a hole in the side of the building, the set it down and it landed with a rumbling thud. Marley began shutting down the hover pads and navigational systems and prepared the auxiliary power for standby.

"How long until we have to recharge?" Irvine asked as he sat back in his chair in a rather relaxed posture, examining the world outside, visible through the hole they had just come in through. Marley glanced over to Irvine before checking the power supply, because he knew there were two meanings to that question.

"We'll have to go back to Zion pretty soon," he said, conscious of what Irvine was thinking. Irvine arched a brow and looked over at him with a smirk, but sighed reminiscently and looked down at his feet, figuring Marley knew why he cared so much. He looked back over to him and nodded his head toward the cockpit's exit. "C'mon. Let's go see what's new." Marley nodded and when Irvine left, he followed.

But the time Irvine and Marley made it to the main deck, Kira and Solitaire had joined the party and they were all huddled behind Glitch watching the screens of code strands. This irked some curiosity in him, and he arched a brow as he walked over. "What's everyone looking at?"

Glitch spoke up, keeping his eyes on the screen. "I found some sort of glitch in the Matrix."

Kira smirked. "How fitting," she added.

"What's going on?" Irvine asked as he came over to the console setup.

"Well, look at this here," Glitch said as he typed in a command. The center and left screens froze while the right screen kept going in real time, a section from the center screen was highlighted, and transferred onto the left screen, and the center screen resumed displaying real time code. Glitch pointed to the playback footage on the left screen.

"Watch this."

Irvine removed his USP Compact from his shoulder holster and proceeded down a hallway. It was dark and dirty, and it looked like the place hadn't been cleaned in 30 years. Slowly approaching a doorway, he leaned with his shoulder on the framing of the doorway, and tilted his head in to see what was inside, with his gun ready. Nothing. Then he heard something strange, like the scrambled sound of Matrix coding, only it sounded more..infected.

He looked down the hallway, and in the dark, all the way at the end, he saw, or at least he thought he saw, a ghost like figure come out of wall and into the hallway. He frowned, and took a good look for a moment to make sure he'd seen right. He put his glasses back and put his gun up, disengaging the safety. The ghost snarled as bullets shot through its transparent body, in full rage. It solidified into a silver clothed male, though Irvine didn't have enough time to get to the details of its appearance. It quick drew a gun from its coat, what Irvine identified as a Taurus PT945, and fired back. Irvine strafed and jumped behind a support beam at the corner, and the entity continued to fire its weapon.

It didn't take long for the captain of the Nemesis to figure out this was the disturbance. Or it was at least a part of the disturbance, as worst case scenario dictated there might be others like it. He'd worry about that later though. Irvine fired three more shots at the program, and as he saw, it phased into its transparent form to let the bullets fly through. At the same time, though, the Taurus it was holding also went transparent. So it can't shoot me, Irvine thought. He spun out from the corner and fired another pair of .45 bullets at the program, forcing it turn into its ghostly form as it fired a three shot burst. The bullets flew through the entity's body, not effecting any of his internal organs.

After the burst, the entity saw that it had used up all eight bullets in the magazine. No, wasted them, though it really didn't matter. It seemed to enjoy a good sport. It threw the weapon down, and leaped at Irvine while transparent. The human fighter dodged, but instead of flying past Irvine, the entity resolidified, turned toward him and kicked his gun out of his hands. Irvine blocked the following punch, and threw his own punches and a kick at the head. The program blocked all the punches, but it didn't react fast enough to block the kick, which made its head fly back. Irvine followed this by grabbing the program by the face and head butting it in the forehead three times, with the last so hard that the program almost stumbled back. Seeing it was no match for the human's unorthodox fighting style, the program phased, again, and flew around the room like a ghost, then dove and picked up its Taurus. It resolidified, reloaded the weapon, and fired two shots at the slightly confused Irvine.

Fortunately, Irvine snapped out of the trance at seeing the thing fly around when it turned back into a human, diving for his own gun and firing three shots at the thing. It phased, letting the bullets fly past, then turned human again. What it didn't realize though, was it had returned into a solid state just in front of one of the metal structural beams that held the building together. All three bullets ricocheted off the beam and shot right into its back. One bullet impacted with such velocity that it blew the right hand off, which was holding the Taurus, and the last two had shot through the torso.

Irvine didn't waste the opportunity. He made one last shot into the creature's forehead, in between the eyes, the shot having enough force to actually send it flying backwards a few feet before it hit the floor.

"So much for interrogation." Irvine sighed, walking over to the corpse. As he came over it, the corpse phased, and sank into the floor.
----

(Chapter 9 cont'd)

Anubis made his rounds as though he were taking a stroll in the park. His gun remained in its shoulder holster, and his sword remained sheathed. His shoes were the only noise that could really be heard as he went down the hallway, looking into each room finding nothing at all particularly interesting.

He was looking out for basic things he would consider glitches in programming, like flickering walls or disappearing objects, basically faulty coding, but kept in mind that whatever it was they were looking for also went through things and could teleport. Letting out a bored sigh, he turned a corner and began down another hallway, the lights overhead flickering in the dark. The only light other than those was the daylight from outside, which obviously couldn't get into all parts of the building, notably his.

Looking into the first room he came to, he saw his reflection in a mirror, which made him scoff a little. He wasn't jumpy enough to get alarmed by the mirror like many other people would be in this situation, but in his opinion, it seemed like a bad joke. Why was there a mirror placed there? Then, behind him, he heard the infected code noise, but didn't turn around right away because he'd never heard the noise before. As he tried to identify it, he saw what was making the noise in the reflection of the mirror. A transparent, blurry figure rose from the ground. It had a slender face with bony cheeks, and in place of its eyes were dark shadows. One of the more eye catching features of this thing was it's long hair, rose up and on end like a sentinel's tentacles in attack mode.

"What have we here?" the program quipped in a grainy voice, "A lowly snake masquerading as a human." It appeared to smile at him, and then showed what looked like razor sharp teeth behind its lips. Wouldn't expect any less from a haunted house, Anubis thought as he saw the image in the mirror. In a split second, he spun around and charged at the entity head on.

He ran at the "ghost" and made a drawing slash at the thing's torso with his katana. As he partially expected, the sword flew through. His adversary laughed at that, then in a mere second, unphased into an RSI of a male dressed in a classy looking ankle length trench coat that was fashioned after a suit jacket, along with a dress-shirt and tie, and slacks. Every article of clothing was colored silver. The waving hair turned into thick silver dreadlocks, extending down to the man's mid-back, and its 'eyes' formed into a pair of frameless shades. His skin was a pale white color.

The ghost started out by throwing a punch at Anubis' head, which Anubis blocked with his right elbow, and countered with a kick to the stomach. He followed this up by performing a three slash combo, the first two aimed at the ghost's shoulders and the last at the head. The ghost program dodged the first two slashes and then turned back into its transparent form when Anubis slashed at the throat, since Anubis' last slash was too fast for it to dodge. When he resolidified, he grabbed Anubis' sword arm and forced it out of his hands, throwing it to the side.

Without his sword, Anubis punched at the ghost's face, and then at his torso, all of which were blocked by the ghost. Worse off, the ghost seemed to be enjoying the fight, as he wasn't punching back or countering, rather, he merely blocked all of Anubis' attacks. It laughed a little when it gotten a hold of both of Anubis' hands and forced him into a face-to-face standoff.

"You're testing me, aren't you?" Anubis' mouth crept into an almost unnoticeable smile. "That's rather rude."

He broke the ghost's grip, and focused into a long dive at his sword. After grabbing it, he spun so that he was upright, quick drew his Colt Government M1911A1 from his right holster with his left hand, and fired five shots at the ghost. The ghost went transparent again, as expected, then reforming once Anubis' assault was over. That would prove to be a fatal error. Anubis flipped and landed into a crouching position, just as the program was reforming, then went into a focused dash, both hands gripped on his sword. The ghost tried to go transparent again, but it was too late. All it could do was dodge, as Anubis made a horizontal slash at the gut. In one last move, the ghost used its left arm to knock the sword away from its torso, before jumping away in a similar move to what Anubis made.

Blood dripped from a long scar on its left arm from Anubis' slash.

"So you bleed after all," Anubis said, in a serpent's voice rather than his usual cold tone. The ghost attempted to go transparent again, but Anubis didn't waste the second. This time, he slashed off the left arm entirely. The ghost was disoriented, allowing Anubis to slash off the other arm, with the same result. The ghost felt shock that this human could strike it down, which was over-riding it's though to phase and repair itself. It stumbled onto its knees as a result, barely landing on the floor and looking up. That's when Anubis made one last stroke, this time through it's neck, and a red ring of blood formed around the circumference. As the body then slumped over, it phased, sinking into the floor.

"It only takes one bite from a snake," Anubis said simply to the corpse, "One bite for its venom to flow into your veins." He whipped out the blade of his sword to throw the blood off, then re-sheathed it.

Back on the Nemesis, Glitch was impressed as he watched the ghost's code disappear, reading out how Anubis destroyed it. "Nice."

----
Janus and Kira walked down a hallway side by side. Janus looked into the rooms on his side of the hall, and Kira did the same with her side. Janus coughed to clear his throat.

"I've been gone for...how long has it been since I came here? It's difficult to tell when a full day goes by without sunlight or anything."

"I think you've been with us for seven weeks now."

"Seven weeks.. They've probably considered me dead now. At least, I have."

"Why?"

"I don't live that life anymore. I'm Janus now, and I can't be two people."

"Hah, you sure about that?"

He realized the irony of what he said. "Oh. Maybe I am."

They turned a corner continuing their search, and stopped. Before them now, instead of the rest of the hallway, was a wall 15 feet away from them. "That's weird.." Janus remarked.

Then they heard the noise of infected code.

"Hey..what's that noise?" Kira asked. Out from the wall in front of them came another ghost-like entity, the wall glitching and blinking as it came through. Behind their sunglasses, both Janus and Kira's eyes widened at the site. The entity stayed there floating for just a moment, and then it assumed a normal, human looking form, and looked the same as the one Anubis had just dealt with. Janus and Kira exchanged looks, and when they looked back, a creepy smile crept over the entity's black lips.

"Well then," he began, speaking in an upper-crust british accent. "You don't belong here.."

"Who are you?" Janus inquired in a demanding tone, his facial expression accented by his sunglasses made him look all the more serious.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He let out a "Heh." Testing the patience of this human who had the fortitude to challenge him seemed like a fun idea.

Janus let out a huff of air through his nose. I guess we found the glitch. But I don't have time for Sterling's poppycock right now. He looked over at Kira, and she looked back at him.

What is he looking at me for? Shouldn't we be worried about-- she saw him slowly reaching for his gun.

"What are you doing here?" The silver clad program asked.

Janus stared back at him, making sure to establish some sort of mutual eye lock past the lenses of their dark glasses, enough to keep the entity from noticing him going for the gun.

"Don't be rude. I asked you a question!" He yelled. Janus didn't say a word.

The ghost became impatient now. "I'll take care of--"

He was cut off by the blast of Janus' gun. *BAM-- BAM BAM*

However, as soon as Janus fired, the ghost phased again, and the bullets flew through it and smashed into the wall behind it.

Janus had a double take. "What the...?"

The ghost unphased and with a frown, punched Janus square in the jaw. He staggered back, dropping his gun. As it slid a few feet from him, he looked back up in time to see the bottom of the program's white croc-pattern boot come flying at his face. Moving to the side, the kick flew past him, and Janus struck the ghost in the chest and followed up with a high round house kick, but missed since the ghost ducked.

Just as it came back up, Janus dealt it a palm strike to the center of its rib cage. It stepped back a step or two, and Janus moved in to attack again, but this time the ghost kicked out once more, connecting with Janus' face. As he was knocked back, his glasses flew off, and the ghost turned towards Kira, flashing his creepy grin.

He sent his fist flying at her but she moved out of the way in time, and it went into the wall. Side stepping to her left, his right, she sent a hard mid kick to the program's stomach region while he was still stuck, but he was unaffected. In one fluid motion, he ripped his hand out from the wall and back handed her across the face with his knuckles, knocking her to the ground.

He wasn't as powerful as an Agent, but he still dished out pain nonetheless. As she hit the ground with an "Agh!", he reached into his coat and pulled out his Taurus PT945, and while aiming it at her, he pulled the hammer back. He smirked at the sound of it locking into place, and snickered. "What a waste.." She stared up at the gun barrel.

*BAM*

And the ghost started to fall before her. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out what had just happened. Then, the ghost's body phased again, sinking into the floor. She looked over to her right and saw Janus, laying back on the ground with his gun in the air, smoke leaking from the barrel, and they exchanged looks.

Glitch watched the program's code fade away as it ran down the screen. It didn't come back in any other location. "Good shot.." he said to himself. Marley nodded in agreement.

----

Three black SUVs drove down the street single file toward the school. Each car contained one of the three men sent in by Vega, and as many of the simulacra that could fit with them. The simulacra, originally developed by Zion, were to be used as backup and distraction forces for Morpheus' Matrix Corps, but since the Resistance had acquired them thanks to Raven, they'd been reprogrammed to be used against Zion and Anti-Human Programs within the Matrix, thus giving a tremendous advantage to the Resistance that neither Zion or the Nemesis crew was currently aware of.

They all seemed as though they were redpills, and you wouldn't be able to notice a difference unless you were informed. Due to their various outfits and different yet dangerous but styled looks, they fit in with the rest of the Resistance, each taking on an individual appearance, making it look as though the Resistance had suddenly gained new free minds into their ranks.

When the trucks pulled up to the abandoned school, Glitch became confused. "Who the hell are these people?"

The doors swung open, and those inside exited the vehicles. Gash was the first one out, since he was in charge of the attack. He wore the outfit of a WWII Nazi S.S. Officer, complete with knee high officer boots, black pants and gloves, and jacket. Over this was the trademark leather trench coat that made the S.S. all too recognizable, except it lacked the Swastika arm band, and Gash wore it closed.

On his head was a German panzer helmet, the headgear used by the Nazi troops that became their trademark during the war. However, this one had a mask on it, something like a gas mask yet without the tube, and an angled extension on the mouth area, black armor that covered the entire face, and black circular eyes.

Kane wore a black military field officer uniform with a dark red shirt under the jacket, and over this, a black double breasted overcoat.

Stealth was dressed in a dark gray ankle-length coat over a t-shirt and cargo pants both charcoal grey in color, and standard military combat boots, worn over his pants.

The simulacra, armed with all different kind of guns, were now all out of the SUVs. Everyone had a different pair of sunglasses on.

Gash spoke in a deep and filtered sounding tone. "Is everyone ready?" he asked.

Watching through the goggle eyelets of his helmet, he saw everyone nod as they either readied their guns or stood there waiting. "Then let's go. Shoot to kill."

Glitch's eyes widened. "Oh...*CENSORED*..." was all that managed to escape his voice box.

Marley couldn't believe what was going on. "Holy hell..call Irvine, now!"

Glitch nodded, and dialed Irvine's number and waited, but instead of a ring, all he got was static. "What the hell?"

He tried again. Still, static instead of a ring tone. "Why won't the call go though!?" he asked frantically. "The glitches in the code must be disrupting the area and preventing calls from getting through, like a dead zone."

"They've got no service...There's no way to warn them!"

Janus and Kira ran down the hallway, looking for a staircase.

"What was that thing?" Kira asked.

"You're asking me? I'm the new guy, remember?"

She shook her head with an grumble. "We gotta find the other two and get outta here before more of those ghost things show up," she said. As they came around a corner, they stopped in their steps, for Kane and his band of programs had come around the corner of the parallel hallway. Kira knew who it was. Janus had no clue.

"*CENSORED*." Kira whispered

"Going somewhere?" Kane asked smugly. They saw the other men bring up their guns and on instinct, both jumped out of the way, Janus one way, Kira the other. The spray of bullets just missed them as they jumped out of the way, the loud noise of gun fire filling the air.

Janus rolled as he landed and ducked behind a corner, and Kira landed across from him on the other side of the hallway. Janus held his SVI out around the corner and fired three .45 shots into one of the simulacra. All three shots hit through the chest, and the program dropped to the floor. Janus noticed, as the program died out, it sprawled onto its back, its arms and legs twitching in all directions like some sort of dying animal.

Kane held up his Colt Anaconda and fired a round at Janus, the bullet smashing a chunk off of the brick edge of the corner, however he had moved out of the way in time.

"Get them!" Kane's voice roared over the gunfire. Kira ducked out and fired, and two .380ACP rounds from her Beretta 85FS went into a combat program's chest and he dropped onto his back.

Janus came up and fired twice and ducked back down again, unsure if whether or not he had hit anything. On the other side, one of the combat programs noticed that its M16 assault rifle had run dry, and it threw to the side. Reverting to "close combat mode" as Syx referred to it, it crouched to the ground on all fours, then jumped into the air, landing on the left wall, then leaping again onto the opposite right wall.

"What the hell?" was all Janus could let out before the program pounced on him, and pushed him to the ground. Janus struggled at its grip, as the program opened its mouth to reveal large canine teeth that in no way fit into a human, and at the same time, letting out a hiss of hot air into Janus' face. Janus kicked the thing off of him, but it spun in midair and landed on all fours, then pounced back at him. The ex-detective reacted fast, jumping into the air just as the program pounced and kicking it in the face with enough force that it literally keeled over and fell to the ground on its back. Janus then promptly finished it off with a single shot to the forehead.

----

Pagan, the Merciless' crew assist, was watching the whole ordeal while standing behind Syx, who was still seated in front of the operations consoles. "*CENSORED*, Syx, what the hell did you do to those simulacra?"

"I played with their coding a bit and styled some of them after a few of the more exotic exiles we've seen in the Matrix. Looks like they have a pack of the Lupine-types with them."

"Nice thinking," Pagan said. He rolled up a chair and took a seat next to Syx, as though they were watching a movie.

----

(Chapter 9 concluded)

Wincing behind his glasses as more bits of debris flew in his face from a bullet hitting the floor in front of him, Janus reached to his belt and pulled out a fragment grenade. He pulled the pin as Kira fired three more shots around the corner, and when she came back to reload, he tossed it around the corner. It bounced down the hall unnoticed at first until it landed in front of the four gunmen.

"Ah, *CENSORED*!" Kane yelled, and drew back behind the corner. Before the simulacra noticed, the grenade exploded, and the building shook. Kira looked back at the damage through the smoke and looked over to Janus. After checking his magazine to see how many rounds he had left, Janus looked back around the corner and saw that the grenade had killed the rest of the programs that were with him.

"Who were those guys?" Janus asked.

"Resistance. The one in the black suit was Kane, but I didn't recognize the rest. Must be new redpills," Kira explained.

"Bastard, I'm really going to enjoy shooting his balls off..." Kane said to himself, his ears ringing from the blast.

Figuring he'd try his luck anyway, he fired in their direction three times. His shots hit the wall opposite from Janus and Kira in the center of the hallway twice and the floor once.

Janus glanced over at Kira, and nodded down the hall where there was an open hole in the ceiling. "One's alive. I'll cover you."

She nodded and ran for it, going down the hall to the hole. She jumped up and grabbed onto a pipe, and pulled herself up to the roof. Janus followed, backed against the wall and fired through the smoke left over from the grenade blast as it cleared.

Kane ducked away from the bullets and they smashed into the concrete wall behind him. He shot back twice and when he pulled the trigger again and heard *click*, he snorted.

"Rrgh.." he grumbled under his breath, remembering that his weapon of choice only had six shots to it. How the hell does Arius put up with this *poop*? It'll take too long to reload, better get out now, he thought to himself, and escaped down the hallway.

Once Janus confirmed Kane had left, he followed Kira up to the roof.

"Come on, there's a fire escape on the side of the building," she said, nodding over to a ladder that was leading to the roof. They climbed down and reached the fire escape, continuing their way down until they made it to the ground.

----

Anubis and Irvine, however, weren't as fortunate as Janus and Kira. Since the captain of the Nemesis was the primary target for the Merciless' crew, Gash had focused the other six simulacra onto him like hunting dogs on a pheasant. He and Anubis had managed to make it to the lobby of the building before Gash caught up with them.

"To whom do we owe the occasion?" Gash's filtered voice emanated out to them. Seeing they were outnumbered and cut off from escaping, Irvine went for his phone. Putting two and two together once the connection failed, he and Anubis both realized there was no way to contact the ship or get an exit.

Four of the programs held back behind a wall with Gash, firing their guns at the two redpills, while two of the programs had went into to close combat measures after running out of ammunition. They crouched down on all fours, leaping and rebounding off the floor and walls, dodging shots from Anubis and Irvine's handguns, then pounced at the two humans.

Anubis back flipped before the program could land on him, and instead, it hit the ground with its open hands piercing through the concrete.

Irvine had shot his attacker in midair while Anubis drew his sword and beheaded the simulacrum attacking him. Anubis' actions, though, left him open to a shot from Gash's Walther P38. A single 9x19 Luger bullet shot through his left arm, just missing the shoulder blade, but managing to slow Anubis down some.

"Anubis!" Irvine yelled, firing two more shots at the masked fighter. Gash ducked back behind the corner as a result, allowing Anubis to dash behind a support beam. One of the programs couldn't resist attacking the weakened fighter, not when its blood was spilling. Foolishly, it pounced at Anubis, and was swatted down by his sword. The program gave out a dying hiss as it keeled over on the ground, before Anubis slit open its throat.

"We gotta get out of here!" Irvine called out to Anubis. "Cover me!" he ordered.

Anubis complied, sheathing his sword and continuing to fire with his 1911 while Irvine drew a high explosive grenade, armed it and threw it at the wall.

*BOOM*

The grenade detonated, punching a large hole through the side wall. Irvine pulled another grenade out and threw it at the corner that Gash and the last three programs were behind. This time, the three programs jumped away as the grenade landed, with only Gash standing above it as it exploded. Irvine took the opportunity to run out the hole, followed by Anubis, and the simulacra gave pursuit, seemingly bouncing off the ground at great inhuman altitudes like three werewolves. Gash quickly recovered from the blast, being unwounded thanks to the armor he wore under his overcoat, and gave chase.

Now Anubis and Irvine were running down the streets, avoiding the public areas as much as possible as the programs continued to jump at them, firing their assault rifles. Once again, Irvine tried calling the Nemesis for an exit, but all he got was the default, seemingly cynical female computer voice that said "This number is no longer in service. Please try your call again later."

Irvine snarled at that voice. Got to get to an open area. Then he remembered one such area close to their position. Reloading a magazine into his USP and firing shots to keep the simulacra back, he waved at Anubis to follow him, and the former syndicate assassin had no problems doing so. He knew what Irvine was thinking, remembering the construction area not too far from the abandoned school building. They had no choice but to retreat for now anyway, seeing as they were now heavily outnumbered.


After running down the streets, the two ducked into the elevator that led to the top of the building, which was still in framing stages, the support beams and concrete blocks and plywood still visible. Irvine threw a third grenade out the entry way to keep the simulacra away as Anubis activated the elevator, raising them up above the ground. All three of them leaped back, just as Kane and Gash drove up in one of the SUVs. They both walked out, watching as the simulacra continued to fire their weapons up at the elevator. The bullets bounced off with *PANG* and *TWANG* noises. Gash took out his cellphone and contacted the Merciless.

"Operator," Syx said.

"We have them cornered, Syx. Can you spare a few more programs from there?" Gash asked.

Syx shook his head from the other side, "Sorry, Vega advises against it. You'll have to make due with what you've got. And hurry up too, before the cops show up."

Gash cursed to himself, saying a random phrase in Vietnamese.

Syx laughed at that, "What are you complaining for? Two fighters cornered in a construction complex with one wounded. That shouldn't be any trouble."

"We can't exactly close in on them until they waste ammunition, and if we send simulacra in, then they'll either be gunned down or cut apart by the *CENSORED* with the sword," Gash replied. "And where the hell is Stealth?"

"How should I know? You know how he operates. Just finish them off quickly and get back here. Merciless out." With that, Syx hung up.

Gash closed his cellphone, and looked at Kane, sighing, "And I was so enjoying this hunt."

Kane laughed a little, "All things must come to an end, Gash. Those two can't hold out forever, they only have handguns and maybe one or two grenades."

"I know," Gash said, pulling out his two MAC-10s. "Let's get it over with."

"Gladly," Kane said, drawing both of his black Colt Anacondas, gun twirling one of them in a similar manner to a cowboy. With that, the two casually walked toward the construction building, as the simulacra began pursuing the cornered Irvine and Anubis...
----

Chapter 10: Freedom isn't free; We pay the price in bullets

Date: 2004 Matrix time

Time: -

Area: The Construct

When Janus and Kira answered the phone to exit the Matrix, they wound up back in the Construct instead of waking up on the ship. Glitch nodded over to Blade.

"Okay, the other two made it back," Blade walked over and checked the screens. "Alright. You know what they gotta do."

Janus pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the number for Glitch. The phone rang once before he answered. "Operator."

"Glitch, why are we still in here?"

"You two have to go back in and get those guys out of there." Janus' eyebrows went up, surprised.

"What is it?" Kira asked him.

"We're going back in to get them," he answered.

She arched a brow. "How are we gonna get them? They have three top soldiers with them and those other guys."

"You guys are gonna need some equipment," Glitch told Janus.

"Yeah, you got any suggestions?" he asked. Glitch typed in "B:\ GUNS" and hit the "(" key.

Janus heard the sound of something loading and turned his head to the left to see hundreds of rows of racks come flying in his direction from out of nowhere, and they stopped a few feet from him. He saw that they held thousands and thousands of guns and other weapons. He also noticed his clothes had changed into a black ankle length trench coat over a black thermal-fabric shirt, with black BDU pants tucked into jungle-type combat boots, and kneepads, along with holsters strapped to his thighs and his belt.

"Nice."

Kira rolled her eyes at his reaction, as she was used to the equipment's form of loading in the Construct, and at the same she understood Glitch's suggestion that Janus asked for.

"I was hoping you'd be more specific," Janus said to Glitch.

"Heh. Just pick out the hardware you'll need, make a game plan and call me when you're ready. Hurry." With that, Glitch hung up.

Janus looked at the phone before closing it and returned it to his pocket. "Well, we better get started."

"What do we need?"

"A lot of guns," he said in an apparent tone as he picked up a double shoulder holster off of one of the racks.

"You're just planning for the both of us to run in there and shoot the place up to get them out?"

"Yeah," he answered, now putting his coat on over the double shoulder holsters. Once he was done he grabbed thigh holsters for each leg off of a rack. Kira was appalled, at the fact that Janus, the new guy, who only immediately after his first mission back into the Matrix, was ready to do something like this. She didn't understand it.

"You better start getting your gear," he said, pulling two Glock 21s from a rack and placing them into his shoulder holsters.

"What makes you think that we'll be able to get Anubis and Irvine out of there without backup? There's only one time something like this worked, and that was when Neo did it, and he was--" she was cut off.

"Good for Neo, I don't care what he did," Janus said in a stern tone. Kira narrowed her eyes at him. "We don't have time to wait for backup. I may not be anyone special, but if I don't try to help Irvine, then I'm not even what I think I am."

"What are you?" Kira asked.

"His friend." He pulled two Beretta 96s from a rack and placed them into his thigh holsters. Kira watched as he moved on to remove two UMP45's from the racks and held them up in front of him, testing their weight, and finally clipping them to his belt after folding the stocks. He wasn't going to back down, and she couldn't help it.

"Janus, this is crazy," she said.

He pulled a short-barreled SPAS-12 with a pistol grip from the rack and looked at her.

"After all that *CENSORED* you were saying about having a free mind? It's crazy enough to work," he said, followed by the *CHICK-CHACK* of the shotgun being pumped.

Kira's eyebrows raised questionably at his confidence, and she scanned over the racks, selecting a set of shuriken.

----

As Gash and Kane were climbing the second large concrete staircase, lined with walls of plywood and red support beams, the simulacra were one floor ahead of them in the chase after the two stranded fighters. Kane pulled a speed loader from his jacket pocket after holstering one of his revolvers, popping the cylinder out and loading six fresh rounds with a twist.

"Pain in the *CENSORED*.." he mumbled as he popped the cylinder back in with a flick of his wrist, and repeated the process with his other revolver.

"Perhaps you should use a handgun that has a magazine," Gash said suggestively in his deep cybernetic voice.

"No, that'd be too easy. Using a revolver requires some skill, never mind two," Kane retorted, twirling one on his right hand in a quick and fancy manner.

"Or you could join a circus.." Gash said sarcastically. "

No, you're the freak with the gas mask on, you'd fit right in," Kane answered, following up with a "Heh."

"Silen--"*BAM BAM* Gash was cut off by gunshots, and he immediately looked up. "They're on the top floor and they've probably run out of ammunition."

Kane looked to him. "All they have is that sword.."

"Irvine's probably killed them already, I don't hear anything else." Gash's helmet did enhance his senses by 50%. "I'll fill him with so much lead he'll sink to the bottom of the river before you can blink."

"Of course."

They made it to the top floor and walked a few feet beyond the steps, surveying the area. The three bodies of the simulacra lay scattered all over the place. The floor was solid concrete, with plywood walls here and there, and red support beams running along the ceiling and connecting the ceiling and the floor. The perimeter of the floor was surrounded with wooden scaffolding, and the outward walls made of glass. Several stacks of supplies, wood, steel, and other items were placed here and there.

"Where could they be...." Gash said to himself.

"Irvine, why don't you come out and have a chat with us? We'll give you some bullets....of course, they'll be shot at you, but it's all in your head, right?" Kane taunted, walking around slowly, twirling his pistols. He heard a noise and looked in its direction, catching Irvine running to a new hiding spot. He watched as he ran and fired a shot at an adjacent vertical support beam. The bullet ricocheted off the iron and hit Irvine in the ribs.

"Rrgh!" he roared under his breath, keeping in what would have been a yell of pain.

Gash scanned around, looking in all possible places someone as silent and crafty as Anubis could hide.

Peering out from the sacks of mortar he crouched behind, Anubis watched as Gash began turning in the opposite direction from his location. When he figured the timing was right, he jumped out from behind the pile and went to run behind a stack of wooden boxes, but he wasn't fast enough.

Gash heard him move and he turned around, following Anubis in the lined up sights of his MAC-10, and then fired. Hit in the arm twice, Anubis growled in pain, dropping his sword as he ran. He nearly tripped over himself as he fell behind the stack of boxes.

"Well..what have we here..." Gash said questioningly, walking over to the sword. He put away his MAC-10s and picked it up off of the floor with both hands. Taking a moment to study the sheath, he removed the sword, examining the blade, noticing the razor sharp edge and that it lacked the stain of blood.

"Very nice....a trophy indeed." Re-sheathing the sword, he took out his phone and dialed the ship.

(Chapter 10 cont'd)

"Operator," Syx answered.

"Syx, this is Gash. I want you to send more of those programs to fill the building. We'll lure their friends into a trap and take them out all at once."

Syx looked up to Vega to see what he should do.

"Alright, do it." Vega told him, and Syx responded with a nod.

"Okay Gash, I'll send you about 30 of em, that should be enough."

"Excellent. Make sure they're normal ones, no more of those animal-freaks." Gash hung up.

With the push of a button, the simulacra loaded into the building, ten per floor. Immediately after, the others arrived.

----

"You're on guard duty, but I want you to encourage them to fight you anyway, the idea is to trap them. However, don't hesitate to make kill shots, understand? Report back when you finish your first rounds," Gash's voice emanated from one of the simulacra's cell phones, which was in its "walkie-talkie" mode for the others like to hear.

"Understood sir, we'll be ready for them," the simulacra said, and hung up once Gash killed the connection on the other side.

"You heard him, weapons ready." They all loaded their guns, which were either handguns or sub-machine guns. Taking patrol positions throughout the floor, they began their watch, waiting for any other parties to arrive.

Dark glasses. Game faces. Janus and Kira approached the building in a bad *CENSORED*, almost "western" stride. With stacks of supplies and building material all over the place in the building, there were several hiding places they could go to and from.

I'm not in the mood to play hide and seek. Janus nodded his head to the right and Kira split from him, heading in that direction. He came up to the side of the rather wide entrance to the first floor, big enough for loading vehicles to pass through, and wasn't noticed. As he peeked his head around the corner, he saw two guards speaking to one another in the middle aisle out of three, the aisles formed by stacks and stacks of crates and building equipment acting as walls.

He could only make out mutters, and he figured they were going over guard positions and patrol routes. He noticed, on the other end of the room, Kira was peeking behind the doorway opposite the one he was peeking from, and nodded to her. The guards nodded their heads and did an about-face, walking down the aisle in the opposite direction from each other.

Janus waited as the one guard walking in his direction came close enough, and then came out from his hiding spot. The guard looked at him with a surprised, almost confused look as he tried to determine who this man in the long black coat was. Before he could move however, he was met by the muted spit of a silenced Beretta, and fell to the ground with a thud. The whistle of a razor sharp shuriken pierced the air followed by a *THAK*. Janus looked up to see the other guard drop to the ground with the shuriken in his forehead. Kira walked over and examined the body. She picked up his MP5-K.

----

Gash looked over at Kane, though his impatient facial expression was hidden by his mask. "They haven't reported anything. It's been 30 minutes."

"So maybe they aren't done yet," Kane suggested, and looked over to the direction Irvine last ran to.

"You're lucky Gash is being so generous, Irvine. With all these guards, if it was up to me you and your friend would already be dead."

Anubis smirked in his hiding spot, checking his 1911. He had no more ammo, and without his sword, he couldn't do anything against twelve men armed with guns.

Gash grumbled. "What the hell are they doing down there.."

His answer came at the door. Gash and Kane turned their heads as they heard it slowly creak open. There stood Janus, staring at them behind mirrored lenses, a UMP45 in each hand. The simulacra guards looked over, and everyone had a confused look on their face, except for Janus. He held each gun up in front of him, picking random targets.

"Damnit..." Gash said under his breath, realizing why the guards weren't responding. He and Kane jumped out of the way. Bullets began flying all over the place. One guard jerked around in his place as blood burst from his chest before he fell, and another went flying back into a vertical support. As Janus moved from the doorway and strafed to his right, Kira came out behind him armed with two P-22s and fired at the guards taking aim at Janus as he moved.

Return fire started coming back, and Janus moved behind a vertical support to cover himself, fired out from behind it, and the guard he hit went crashing into a wooden crate. Kane came out from his hiding spot only to quickly duck back behind it as Kira fired in his direction, the bullets' velocity dying as they smashed into the stack of wood. One guard ran out with a TEC-9 and fired at Janus without aiming, and Janus proceeded to gun him down before he could take more than a few steps.

"God *CENSORED* it! How did they make it up here!?" Gash yelled from his cover.

Anubis and Irvine didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Syx!" Gash yelled into the phone.

"Yeah, more guards, you got it."

As Gash hung up, more of the guards loaded into the room. As two of the new guards ran at Janus, he used up the rest of his UMP ammo on them and sent them falling back down on themselves.

He saw Anubis in his hiding spot and nodded over to him, pulling two Glock 21s from his shoulder holsters. Holding them up in front of him, he ran into Anubis' direction, firing at whatever guards in the way. One of them jumped up into the air in a pounce, gun in hand. Two shots later from Janus's guns, and he fell back through the air through a crate.

Another guard popped out in front of Janus with a shotgun, cutting his run, and he quickly hid behind a vertical support as the shotgun round that would have ripped him apart smashed into the iron beam. He peaked out to his right, and quickly went back as another shotgun blast missed his head. He looked out to the left and the same thing happened, so figuring the guard would guess he would move out to the right again, he turned and stood out to the left again. As the guard was ready to blow Janus open on the right side, Janus came out and lit him up. He heard a yell behind him as another one of the simulacra came at him from behind. He jumped and twisted in the air, jump kicking it in the chest. As it flew back, Janus fired off the rest of the bullets into its chest, blood spurting out as it flew back and fell. Throwing the empty guns to the ground, Janus took cover crouching down next to Anubis.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Here, these are for you," Janus answered, pulling two new M1911A1's from the back of his waistband.

"What about my sword?" Anubis questioned.

"I'll get it, just work with these for now."

He pulled out his SPAS-12. "Ready?"

Anubis nodded, and they both stood up from the hiding place, back to back and firing. Janus blasted the head off the shoulders of a guard firing at him with a CAR-15 as Anubis broke a guard's spine into pieces with a few well placed shots. They nodded to each other and split up.

Now, there were many targets of choice in this situation. The masked guy in the Nazi SS uniform, the simulacra and even the potential Agents that may or may not show up, but there was only one Anubis wanted, and wanted dearly. And that was the ingrate with the Colt Anacondas. As he had heard on the Nemesis, the one called Gash was supposedly one of the best Matrix fighters in the human race period, second to another man in the Resistance that Anubis kept hearing about, "the Potential," whom he hadn't seen yet.

After seeing the man in action, Gash was simply too arrogant for the syndicate ninja to have an enjoyable fight with. In fact, the only reason he considered going up against the iron masked assassin at all was to get his sword back. It didn't matter how skilled or strong his opponent was, if the mind is set elsewhere, then all that special power is put to waste. To Anubis, the one called Kane was a much more interesting opponent. But first, he wanted to get back at those simulacra just for being *CENSORED* annoying.

He ran at one of them, rolling on the ground while avoiding its machine gun fire, before popping a .45ACP round into its skull, specifically into its nose area. Since the nose wasn't the densest part of the human body, the bullet went straight through it, into the brain and out the other side, leaving a nice trail of sprayed blood on either side. Anubis then acted fast and grabbed the corpse before it could fall over, then ducked behind a steel beam.

As he expected, Kane took notice of his little escape, as he drew both Anacondas in a cowboy-style quick draw, and squeezed off two bullets, one from both guns at the steel beam. With little time to dodge, Anubis yanked the dead program's assault rifle and ran to another beam.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Kane taunted, firing another shot at the beam as he walked through the center. The sound of his boots along the floor gave off a distinct metallic sound for some reason, like those of cowboy spurs, even though Kane's boots weren't tipped with steel. It was very distinct, but the Resistance gunner didn't mind, because his opponent was wounded and cornered behind a steel beam.

(Chapter 10 cont'd)

"Die!" Kane laughed, jumping out to where Anubis was kneeling and firing off three bullets from his left gun. However, much to Kane's shock, Anubis wasn't there, but the corpse of that simulacra he took out. The corpse was leaning against the beam, appearing to be standing, but when Kane opened fire, it fell to the side.

"Where did-?" He was answered by a bullet shot into his shoulder socket, then another one into his hip. A third bullet was also shot, but at this point, Kane instinctively rolled.

Son of a *CENSORED*, how did he get over there!? Kane's mind roared, seeing Anubis directly across from the beam Kane had cornered him at. It was fairly obvious that the redpill had made his way across from the beam Kane was at now, but what the gunman didn't understand was how he did it without being detected. Much more, how did he move the corpse from that one side to this one?

To Kane, it was like one of those Japanese comic books or animations, in which whenever an acclaimed ninja got hit by an attack, there would be a puff of smoke and the ‘ninja' would turn out to be some random object, usually a piece of wood. Then, the real ninja would pop out from another direction and nail the attacker in the *CENSORED* with shurikens. Only, Anubis was using a pair of Colt 1911A1s and a CAR-15 assault rifle.

There was no way Kane would know he wasn't too far off from his thoughts on Anubis. When Anubis seemed to grab the assault rifle and run for it, he managed to keep the corpse as well. He then ran across the relative short distance to the opposite pillar, keeping the corpse concealed on the opposite side of Kane's view. Once he got to the pillar, he stood the corpse up and made it so its silhouette made it appear to be standing. After that, Anubis simply snuck around Kane while he was focused on the silhouette behind the beam, using stealth techniques he had learned while working in the syndicate.

Now though, Anubis was exhausted, and what felt like hours of fighting started to catch up with him.

"Bastard!" Kane roared, running from his cover spot and firing his revolvers rapidly at Anubis' position. He ran and rolled, attempting to draw out the CAR-15 he swiped from that simulacra, but one of Kane's shots sliced off the strap while another shot hit the rifle itself, sending it flying back a good distance away. Anubis drew his own M1911A1s and ran again, firing strafing shots at Kane, as the two made it to opposite beams again.

Kane took the opportunity to reload his guns, but with the shots Anubis sank into him, he had trouble even with the speed loader. *CENSORED* ninja, He thought. After finally reloading, he jumped back up and fired three shots at the beam he saw Anubis duck behind in, but none of them hit human flesh. He looked around from his position, and saw the syndicate assassin running back to a different area.

"Oh no you don't!" he snarled, firing more rounds at Anubis, but the assassin evaded each shot. Kane, not taking people running from him, gave chase.
----

Kira ran along the wall firing her handguns, hitting whatever guard she could. As she came to a stack of wood a guard was hiding behind, he came out ready to put one in her skull, but instead her heel smashed up into his face and sent him staggering back. She aimed and pulled the trigger but her handguns were out of ammo. He grinned at this, aiming his revolver, but she grabbed the barrel and pulled it towards her, smashing his face with a roundhouse elbow strike, following up with a backhand punch to the side of his nose. This disoriented him a bit, and when she had the chance to finish him off, guards began firing at her, so she ran. When she safely made it to cover, she pulled out two USP Match handguns and was ready to go. She ran out from behind the wall and did a no-hands cartwheel, firing as she flipped, taking down a pair of guards shooting at Janus. When she made it to Irvine, she kneeled beside him.

"Are you alright?

"Just a hit in the ribs but I'll live."

"Oh yeah? You might need this." She handed him the MP5-K she had taken from the guard downstairs earlier.

"Thanks."

"Ready?"

"Hell yeah."

Kira grinned. At that moment, both Irvine and Kira both ran out into the open, firing at the simulacra on each side of the construction building, with Irvine covering the left portion and Kira covering the right. The simulacra programs strafed from their fire, returning fire while others charged at them. Those that close were gunned down by the duo, while the rest were forced to cover. Otherwise, they were gunned down anyway.

Three simulacra did manage to avoid fire and get past the hail of bullets, but since their primary target was Irvine, the three attempted to gang up on the Nemesis captain. Kira covered for Irvine by shooting holes into the programs, but it was Irvine that did the real damage. As one of the programs aimed a punch at him, Irvine dodged the blow and grabbed at the program's throat, quickly crushing it. He then whipped the body around to the other simulacra and ‘kicked' its head with the corpse's feet. It stumbled back from the blow, giving Kira enough time to nail the bastard with one of her USPs.

The firing continued, until their part of the building was cleared of renegades, and only Irvine and Kira were left standing over the corpses. As if the timing weren't convenient enough, Irvine's cellular phone rang, to which he looked down at, arching an eyebrow. He then looked at Kira, earning a shrug from his comrade.

"Figures." He griped, picking up the cell phone and pressing the ‘send' button, "Irvine."

"This is the last time I let you go out on a school night, young man," Glitch mock lectured, giving off his best ‘angry Grandmother' impression.

"Glitch, you bastard, where the hell were you all this time?" Irvine berated.

"Sorry, sir, I was trying to save car insurance by switching to Geico."

Irvine rolled his eyes at Glitch's poor attempt at a comeback. "Look, just what the hell is going on up there?"

"It's the Merciless, sir. They picked up your broadcast signal and sent Kane, Gash and possibly a third fighter along to hunt you. And if that's not bad enough, they now have some kind of programs working for them."

"*CENSORED*," Irvine grumbled, "Are there any other ship crews near our position?"

"Not at the moment, but if they reported your position, you can be sure as hell Blood's going to show up."

"Great..." Irvine said under his breath. He didn't want anything to do with Blood at this point, especially since he had "the Potential" in his crew, and one of the most powerful human made ships at his possession.

"Alright, get Blade and Solitaire in here, we're going to need some help getting out. And tell Marley to arm the guns, in case Vega or the other Blood-hounds pop up out of nowhere." Irvine then looked around the area he was standing in, "And try hacking some weapons into this place."

"Alright sir, I'm on it." Glitch said on the other end, immediately typing on his console.
----

Janus fired at a guard, sending his guts flying all over the place, pumped the shotgun, ducked, and rolled. One of the simulacrum guards was crawling on the ceiling above him ready to pounce, but Janus saw him and blasted him down.

Gash came out armed with his two MAC-10s flanked by a few guards, all firing at Janus. Janus took one more out before he had to move for cover, but he had to be quick. Scurrying around before they could get to him, he popped out from behind, wasting the other three guards with the remaining shells he had left in the shotgun.

Gash quickly turned to face Janus, holding up his guns in front of him ready to fire as Janus ran at him. Before he could fire though, Janus grabbed his arms, pushed them out to his sides, and in the same motion he back flipped and kicked him up in the chin. There was a *CLANK* noise from the contact of Janus' steel tipped boot with Gash's mask, and his head was knocked back slightly. As he slowly brought his head forward, Janus was back on the attack.

First he struck Gash's guns out of his hands with cross-body strikes, then sent a palm strike to his chest. It wasn't so effective however, as Gash only took a step back, so Janus sent a high kick at Gash's head which he automatically blocked with his forearm, as well as the follow up kick aimed at his ribs, one after the other, and punched Janus in the face with a right hook and spun quickly to follow up with a left roundhouse kick to his chest.

Janus took two steps back from the blow. Taking out Anubis' sword, Gash got a two-hand grip and swiped down at Janus, but he leaned all the way left from the waist up, so Gash swung out to his right. Still ducking, Janus moved under it, dodging again and now leaning to his right. Angered, Gash swung down overhead, but Janus grabbed onto Gash's hands as the sword came down and stepped back to his left. When the sword came down and missed, Janus struck Gash in the face with his elbow, knocking his head back and causing him to let go of the sword.

Pulling the sword away and gripping it, Janus quickly spun around as Gash was standing up straight again, and as he spun and faced him, in the same swift motion he swung out left slashing across his neck and then brought the sword back swinging out right and cutting into his torso. Struggling for air, Gash brought his hand up to his throat and looked at fingers to find blood stained on the black leather. He looked back up to Janus, who turned and sent a hard left kick to his chest. The kick sent him flying and he smashed through the wall of windows behind him.

Gash screamed as he fell, the cybernetic roar of his voice through his helmet accompanied by the sound of blood gurgling in his throat. His body slammed through a pile of debris, and was impaled upon a sharp iron rod through his back and out his chest.

Anubis came out after gunning down another guard program, and Janus turned to him. Anubis returned the look as he checked on his crewmate, and as he did, Janus tossed him his sword. Anubis caught it and looked at it, and then back to Janus, finding himself surprised. Janus simply nodded to him as he pulled out his two Beretta 96s, and then turned to get back to work.

(Chapter 10 concluded)

The receiver began to ring suddenly at Sideways's workstation aboard the Nosferatu. Puzzled, he looked over to Blood as it rang a second time.

"Well what are you looking at me for, pick it up," Blood told him. Off to the side, Balthasar, leaning against a wall with his arms and legs crossed, rolled his eyes.

"Operator," Sideways said as he answered the call.

"Sideways, this is Stealth. Let me speak to Captain Blood."

Sideways's eyebrows wrinkled and he turned to Blood. "It's Stealth, he wants to talk to you, Blood."

"Where's he calling from?"

"Where are you Stealth?"

"I'm in the Matrix. I have some news he'll want to hear." Stealth said in his cool-toned voice. Sideways looked back over at Blood.

"He's got something for you."

Blood arched a brow, and walked over to take the headset from Sideways. Once he put it on, he spoke up. "What is it Stealth?"

"Roughly an hour ago, the Nemesis crew entered the Matrix in a strange area effected by some sort of glitch, they were probably investigating. Syx saw the same glitch, and reported to Captain Vega that the Nemesis crew was also inside. He decided to send in Gash, Kane, and Myself, with a few of those program entities that Captain Raven copied and gave to us, the ones he got from Anome."

"He did what!? I didn't give the authorization to anyone to use those!" Blood yelled. Balthasar snickered too himself off in his corner.

"There's more. Once we got there, we made contact with the Nemesis crew. There were also some sort of exiles, all dressed up in silver."

"Well what happened once you made contact?"

"Shooting started, and before long, the four from the Nemesis crew escaped. Irvine, Kira, and two new crew members I've never seen before were there. Gash, Kane, and the simulacra went after them, they split up."

"What about you?"

"I parted from the group to watch from afar for recon so I could provide this accurate report of the situation."

"Good thinking. What happened then?"

"Kira and one of the new guys got out, while Irvine went with the other new guy, a blonde. They ran to a construction site where they were trapped by Gash and his entourage. They played cat and mouse with them, both Irvine and his crew mate suffered bullet wounds. Then, the other two that got out earlier had come back, armed this time, and they silently infiltrated the building, which was now filled with more copies of the simulacra, acting as guards. Once they made it to the top floor where the others were, a gunfight started, which was part of a rescue attempt to save Irvine and the blonde guy. Many of the simulacra were killed in the fight, but Syx kept loading them into the Matrix to help Gash and Kane out. Gash took the blonde guys sword before the gun fight started, and during the gunfight, he went to fight the other new guy that was with Kira. He was disarmed, and with the blonde guy's sword, the new guy cut open his throat and his chest, before kicking him out of a large window paine. He fell many stories down to the ground and was impaled upon a piece of metal debris."

Blood was dumbfounded, at a loss of words, and it became obvious on his face. All he could let out was a "Huh?"

Balthasar arched a brow. "What's the matter?"

"Gash is dead."

Balthasar's eyes widened. "Who killed him?"

"A *CENSORED* new guy!" Blood yelled. He gritted his teeth. "Is there any more?"

"Afterwards, the blonde was given back his sword and he started fighting with that as well as the guns he was given by the new guy earlier when they first got in. The blonde guy cut Kane's arm and then Kane escaped, while the Nemesis crew finished off the rest of the simulacra. Authorities, and possibly Agents, are now proceeding to the area."

"Are they still inside?"

"Trapped on the top floor with authorities surrounding the ground level, they have no way out besides up, and the building's too far for them to jump to any other rooftops."

A slight grin came over Blood's face. "Perfect. Stealth, we'll take it from here. I'll have Sideways hack an exit for you that will patch you back to your ship. I have that idiot Vega to take care of. Don't worry about an excuse, I'll tell him we noticed from the monitors."

"Understood." Stealth hung up the phone.

Blood turned to Sideways. "You get that exit ready." He then turned to Balthasar. "You get your gear ready, you're going in."

"To do what?

"To kill Irvine and his friends."

A mischievous grin crept up on Balthasar's face. "Yes, Captain."

----

Kane's eyes opened quickly and he took a breath as he lay in his chair on the Merciless. You could see in his eyes, first, a look of confusion as he placed himself and tried remembering where he was, a side effect of jacking out of the Matrix, much like when you first wake up from a deep sleep. Once it all came to him, he exhaled a sigh of slight relief. When he went to get up, pain shot up through his left arm and he looked at it with gritted teeth, remembering how Anubis cut him earlier with his sword.

The sword... he remembered, an angered look forming on his face as he remembered its owner whom he now despised, and how he caught him in the arm with it. He looked over to Gash's chair, where Gash's body lay motionless with no breath, and that look of death on his Vietnamese face, blood all over his chin, neck, and shirt from gurgling it up after his throat was slashed open by Janus, the man only known to them now as "the new guy", using Anubis, "the blonde guy"'s sword to do it.

That new guy... Kane thought as the quiet sound of a flat lined vitals monitor whined in the background. Behind his stone face of anger, you could almost see in his eyes, a touch of sadness or depression in the death of his friend.

"Ar you okay?" he heard a voice say from behind him. He turned to look and saw Pagan. He was about 6'0, dark hair, in his late 30s. He wore old olive drab fatigues and a black t-shirt, along with his boots and black gloves. On his head she wore a black bandana. He could see Kane was distressed.

"Kane?" he asked again.

He shook his head, coming out of his trance. "Yeah...I'll be alright, just need to fix up this arm. Why haven't you guys cleaned him up yet?" he asked, waving his hand at Gash's body.

Pagan sighed, it wasn't like Kane was the only one who cared. "...We'll get to it."

Syx's receiver rang. It was Blood. "What is it Captain?" Syx asked.

"GET VEGA ON THE LINE RIGHT NOW!!" Blood yelled. Vega's eyes widened when he heard it, and Syx winced from the sound blasting into his ear. He handed Vega the headset and he put it on.

"You shouldn't yell that loud, sentinels might hear you," Vega stated.

"No Vega, I think I need to, because apparently, common sense and logic doesn't sink into your thick head!" Blood berated.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play stupid with me Vega, you're already an expert. Why did you use those combat programs Raven gave everyone?"

"Because, 'Captain', it was a good opportunity to squash the Nemesis crew."

"I never gave you the authorization!"

"Why do you think I didn't ask for your permission? Sending in three men would have been stupid, they would have been outnumbered."

"One of them died anyway, you *CENSORED* *poop*!" The look on Vega's face said "*CENSORED*, he caught me there."

"Do you have an excuse for that too Vega? Of course sending in three men would have been stupid, but apparently, according to you, so is thinking!"

"Blood, the--"

"Wrong answer, there is no excuse. Gash unnecessarily died today, and it's your fault because you have poor judgement. He was our best fighter after Balthasar, and now, because you had to try and play hero, he's no longer with us."

"Don't give me that *poop* about Balthasar, Teacher's pet is more like it."

"You don't get it, do you Vega? Gash is dead. Because of you. You basically killed one of your men."

"I didn't think he would have died, I thought he'd be able to handle himself."

"That's the problem, you didn't think. If you told me, I would have established a crew of guys to go in and take care of them with a plan. Instead you went on your own, sent your men in with a crew of simulacra that were poorly programmed, and two of our men were hurt, one of them dead. There's no excuse for that."

"How the hell did you find out anyway?"

"We were watching the whole thing on our monitors. You didn't think anyone'd notice did you?"

"Hey you listen Blood, I'm tired of your *poop*, acting like you're the boss and that everyone has to answer to you, just because you have the biggest ship. I'm a captain the same as you, I didn't intend on anyone dying today except Irvine and his crew mates."

"Don't give me that **bullcrud** Vega. I'm the leader around here because I'm the one keeping us alive, not because I have a big ship. If you were in charge, we'd be dead already. You're a captain, and have your own ship? Go back to Zion and listen to Morpheus babble about Neo and his greatness for all I care. The fleet's suffered the loss of a ship already, and we've been fine, we wouldn't suffer greatly if we lost another. Hell it might even do us some good, because now anyone around you has a death wish."

"Go to hell, Blood."

"Look around you. We're already there. I'm just the devil that's here to make life worse for the ones who have their heads up their asses. Today that's you." Blood then hung up.

Syx looked up at Vega. "You alright?"

Vega was furious. With a "RRAARRGH!", he threw the headset hard down on the floor. Kane and Pagan looked over fast.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Kane asked.

"Blood was watching the whole thing on his monitors and I just got chewed out for using the programs without asking him, and for Gash being killed."

"Sounds...orthodox.." Kane said in a suggestive, yet sure tone.

Vega looked over at Stealth in his chair. "Where the hell is he?"

Suddenly, Stealth's eyes opened as he took a breath and then looked around. Syx looked surprised, as well as everyone else.

"How the hell did you do that?" Syx asked. "I never made you an exit."

"When Blood saw the situation on his ship, he had Sideways make me an exit and reroute it to here so I could get out."

"Well, he's doing everyone favors today, isn't he?" Vega asked sarcastically. He looked over at Pagan, who was helping Stealth out of his chair. "Get Kane's arm fixed up, and then clean up Gash's body. We have to say goodbye."

He sighed. He'd never felt so guilty.

----

Blade opened his eyes and found himself looking out of a phone booth on an empty street. Across the street parked in the alley he saw the truck Glitch gave them, a black Chevy Silverado. He checked his gear: An MP5K with a 15 round clip hanging by a strap and three extra clips, sword in sheath on his back under his coat, cellphone. He hung up the phone and stepped out of the booth.

"C'mon Solitaire, we ain't got time..." he said to himself.

Soon after, her body formed in the phonebooth, in the same way people's bodies disappear when they leave the Matrix, but in reverse. She checked for a gun, and found a Walther PPK. She stepped out and looked to Blade. "Are we ready?"

He nodded in the direction of the truck. "You drive. I got a call to make."

They walked over to the truck. Solitaire climbed into the driver's seat, taking the keys down from the overhead visor and turning on the ignition. Blade hopped into the bed of the truck and found an M240 with a full box magazine of 200 rounds. "Not bad," he remarked as he kneeled down on one knee against the cab and rested the M240 atop his thigh. Solitaire got the truck rolling, and Blade pulled out his phone. He dialed Irvine.

On the top floor of the skyscraper in construction, Irvine and the others could hear the sirens from the other end of town. A look of knowing the impending doom came over Irvine's face.

"Cops," Janus said.

"We'll never get out of here in time," Anubis added.

"How the hell are we gonna get out of here...?" Irvine asked out loud. He tried not to show his panic. Then, his phone rang. He hesitated before finally answering it.

"Hello?"

"Irvine!" Blade said out loud over the engine of the truck. They were moving pretty quickly down a street, passing by a block of apartments going over a face renovation.

"Blade? Where are you?"

"Coming your way with Solitaire."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well I think everyone knows you have no time to get down there before the police get to you, so we got some favors for you."

"What do you mean?"

"By the time we get there, the cops will already be surrounding the building. We'll drive by and try and get some heat off your tail."

"That won't get all the cops away."

"That's what the helicopter's for."

"What helicopter?"

"Glitch hacked one onto the roof, that's your ride out of there. Call him up, he'll have directions for your exits." Blade then hung up. He could tell by the streets they were taking that they were almost there, and he could hear the sirens. Up ahead, there were patrol cars speeding down the road.

"Follow them!" Blade yelled. Solitaire nodded and picked up the speed.

----

Irvine hung up his phone and put it back into his pocket. "Come on, we have to go to the roof."

"Why?" Kira asked. "We can't jump, we'll die."

Irvine sighed at the irony of her statement. "I know, we're not going to jump. Just come with me. Janus, Anubis," he motioned for them to follow him, and to the stairs they went. On the roof, they found a Black Hawk military helicopter, sitting as though it was always there. Irvine removed his phone from his pocket once again. This time, he dialed Glitch.

"Operator."

"Glitch, wanna give us a hand?"

"Alright, listen up. You guys are gonna take the helicopter and fly to separate exits I'm gonna establish in different points of the city, you guys decide who goes with who, you're going in pairs of two."

"Why don't we use just one phone?"

"You guys are all together, you're at a greater risk of attack and death if you all stay together, you'll be splitting up for safety. Which one of you are planning on flying that helicopter?"

Irvine looked at the others. "Who wants to fly?"

"I will," Anubis called out. Suddenly his eyes closed and his eyelids flickered, the pilot program for the Black Hawk downloading into his brain. Once it stopped, he shook his head slightly.

"Okay," Glitch said. "Get going, and stay on the phone, I'll tell you where to fly for the first exit. Hurry, we'll be lucky if this works."

"Come on, let's go." Irvine said to the others. They all got into the Black Hawk, Anubis and Irvine in the cockpit, Janus and Kira in the back. Anubis flipped all the switches, and the rotors began to spin, slowly at first but then they got faster. The helicopter was ready to go.

"Get us out of here," Irvine said. Anubis nodded, pulling back on the joystick. The helicopter lifted and inconspicuously pulled away from the rooftop, unnoticed by the police below.

----

Epilouge: The End is the Beginning of the End

Date: 2004 M.T.

Time: Evening

Area: Mannsdale Housing Projects

The black Silverado fishtailed and it moved around the corner with a *SCCCCRRRRRR*. As they drove down the block toward the construction site, Solitaire could see that there were squad cars and S.W.A.T. vans all over the place around the building. She looked back to Blade.

"Are you ready?" She yelled.

He pulled back the action on the M240 and nodded. She pushed the pedal to the floor. The Silverado's engine revved and they went faster down the block. Some cops at the building heard the sound of the speeding truck, and turned to see where it would be coming from. As they came in front of all the cars, Blade opened fire.

*TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA*

The M240 roared as Blade held down the trigger, hitting several of the squad cars, causing some of them to explode even. Cops ducked and jumped out of the way, and 7.62x51mm bullets ripped holes into the sides of the cruisers. Some of the cops returned fire from their hiding places, but even if they did hit the car, their measily 9x19mm rounds wouldn't do the truck any damage.

As Solitaire rounded the corner to turn down the adjacent street, Blade continued to fire as long as there was some sort of a law enforcement vehicle in his sight. He let go of the trigger when he could no longer see them. Solitaire looked into the rear view mirror.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. They should be coming to follow us any second now."

When the truck had gone, the cops came out from ducking. There was confusion, questions being yelled all over the place such as "What the hell was that?!" and "Who were they?" Finally a decision had been made to go after them, and one of the officers spoke into the radio on his shoulder.

"This is Carter, a speeding vehicle just passed by the construction site at 5th and Bayview in Mannsdale, a pickup truck. There was a gunner in the bed of the truck with a machine gun and he messed up our cars pretty bad, unknown if anyone was hit or killed. Squad cars have been dispatched, over."

In no time, the squad cars were in pursuit of the truck. Blade heard the sirens, and behind them he could see two squad cars chasing them down the street, no sign of a helicopter or any other units. Solitaire's phone rang, so she pulled it out and answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Solitaire, it's Glitch, listen, the others got out of the building by helicopter, you guys just gotta get out of there. There's two squad cars behind you now."

"Which way should I go?"

"Make a left, now!"

She complied, and the truck swerved left. Blade slid from the little corner he was sitting in, trying to hold on. "The hell are you doing?!" He yelled.

The squad cars sped up, and they got closer to the truck. "Can we get any backup?" one of the cops driving asked his partner

"No, everyone's tied up at that *CENSORED* construction site, this was a clever little maneuver."

They yelled as their bodies suddenly twisted and transformed into those of Agents Williams and Miller. In the car behind them, the policemen transformed into Agents Johnson and Thompson. Blade had a double take.

"*poop*!" Blade yelled.

"What's the matter?"

"You got Agents tailing you, four of them," Glitch told her. "Tell him to put that gun to good use, and make a right."

"Take 'em out!" Solitaire yelled as she turned the car. Blade tried to stay in place and get the gun up at the same time. Williams saw this, and gave a quick glance over to Miller. Miller took out his Desert Eagle and aimed straight in front of him, taking out the windshield as he blasted at the truck, putting large holes into the hatch, nearly hitting Blade.

"Whoa!" He yelled. Deciding accuracy wasn't important, he just pointed the gun in their direction and fired. Williams swerved the car left and right, dodging most of his shots, although some of them put decent sized holes into the hood of the car. Miller shot back, this time he took out the glass in between Blade and Solitaire, and she was startled.

Blade tried to return fire again but the truck swerved around another corner as he fired, resulting in him totally missing Williams and Davis's car, but instead hitting the side of Thompson and Johnson's car. One of the bullets went through the door and into Thompson's leg, causing him to grit his teeth.

"You feel pain?" Johnson asked in a robotic tone.

Thompson wrestled the wheel to turn the car without crashing. "Redpills are a nuisance," he muttered.

Blade tried to shoot at Williams again, but the weight of the gun, along with the recoil, and the fact that Solitaire was driving like a madwoman, made it all too difficult to work the gun.

"*CENSORED* this!" Blade said as he threw the gun down. He pulled out his MP5K and ducked again, as more of Miller's shots nearly hit him. Blade pointed his gun at the shot up squad car and fired, hitting Miller in his left arm, just as his clip ran dry. Some luck though that the Agent was shooting with his right hand. The Nemesis' first mate smirked, but his moment of grief was cut short when Williams ran the front bumper into the back of the truck, sending Blade slamming into the back of the cab.

Williams reached into his coat and pulled out his gun, handing it to Miller. "Keep shooting," he ordered.

Miller brought the gun up just as Blade came up again.

(Note to readers: "~" denotes bullet time sequences beginning and ending).

~The spray of bullets from Blade's submachine gun sizzled through the air as Miller aimed his gun. Three of them slammed into the Agent's chest, blood bursting from underneath and staining his white shirt, while the others headed his way ripped into the seat. The rest hit Williams, two in the chest, one in the head, and one in the neck. As the bullets hit Miller's chest, he grit his teeth and closed his eyes tight behind his glasses, losing his aim as he pulled the trigger twice. The .50AE rounds flew back at the truck, missing Blade, but hitting the rear left tire and clipping the gas tank~

The truck bounced from the bullet hitting the tire. Williams lost control of the car and "died", while Miller's body transformed back into that of a cop with a flurry of electric volts. Williams transformed also, and his host body's foot slammed into the brake. The squad car immediately stopped in a dead halt and began to turn horizontally in the road.

Thompson and Johnson's car smashed into the side of the car in front of them and as a result, the back of the car bumped up into the air, turning the whole vehicle upside down, landing on top of the first car and killing the Agents as the windshield smashed down onto the hood of the first car.

"*CENSORED*.." Blade said. The truck bounced slightly again though, and Solitaire lost control. Blade fell as the car swerved and fishtailed, eventually rolling onto its right side. He fell out and rolled onto the ground before stopping. As he got up from the ground, he grabbed his left shoulder, and pain was shot through it.

"Ahh..*CENSORED*.." he said to himself. He looked over to the truck and saw that Solitaire was climbing out of the car, having sustained little or no injury. "Come on," he told her, and she went to him.

"We gotta get outta here." She said. Blade's phone rang, it was Glitch. Solitaire had left her phone in the car.

"You guys alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, we're alright."

"You'll live, but you need new exits. You guys aren't even close and staying together would be a risk, so I'm gonna give you two different exit points, now get moving."

"Pain in the *CENSORED*..." Blade muttered. They started to run down the street when the truck exploded. They stopped and looked back for a moment. "'Like a rock'.." Solitaire said sarcastically, before they started running again.

"Okay, you guys are in Camon Heights. Blade, your exit's gonna be at Camon North. Solitaire's will be at Camon Central, go."

Blade closed the phone against his hip and put it back into his pocket, then he looked over to Solitaire. "You're at Camon Central. See you when you get there." They nodded to each other before they split up, Solitaire down a back alley, and Blade down the street to his exit at an intersection further down. He reloaded his MP5K with a new clip.

----

Balthasar opened his eyes and found himself in an empty downtown subway station. The pay phone rang in front of him and he picked it up. "I'm in," he said.

"Alright, listen Balthasar, get upstairs and to a secure area, I'll call you back to tell you which pairing from the Nemesis you're closest to, you go after them from there," Sideways told him.

"Right." Balthasar answered. He hung up the phone and ran to the stairs leading to the city streets above.

----

Anubis flew the Black Hawk over the downtown area. They passed by several tall skyscrapers, and luckily, they hadn't been noticed yet. Irvine listened to Glitch over the phone.

"Okay, up ahead there's an empty enclosed parking lot boxed in by a few buildings, do you see it?"

"Yeah, I can see it." Irvine told him as he nodded in the direction of the lot. Up ahead below, amongst some lower buildings, Irvine could see the parking lot down on the ground below. Irvine looked over to Anubis and he nodded too, also seeing where Irvine had nodded to.

"Alright, take the helicopter down there, and drop off Janus and Kira. I'll tell them where their exit is and get back to you guys." Glitch explained.

"Where's Blade and Solitaire, did they make it out alright?"

"They had a bit of a car accident but they should be okay, they're headed to their exits as we speak. You got the plan down?"

"Yeah, we know what to do," Irvine answered. He hung up his phone and pointed to the parking lot. "Head down there, we have to drop these two off," he said to Anubis. The ex-syndicate member nodded as he heard Irvine over the spinning rotary blades. Irvine turned around to Janus and Kira.

"Listen up you two. We're dropping you off, Glitch will contact you and tell you where your exit point is."

Janus and Kira exchanged glances before looking back at Irvine. "We'll be alright," Janus told him.

Anubis brought the helicopter down deeper into the city as he moved closer to the parking lot. Once he was over the lot, he steadily brought it down so that it hovered a few feet off of the ground.

"Okay you two, out," Irvine told them. They moved to the edge of the opening and jumped out, Janus first, then Kira. Janus squinted his eyes as the winds from the helicopter blades blew his hair all around. Anubis looked down to him and nodded, before pulling back up into the skies. Janus and Kira stood and watched as the helicopter lifted off, then turned to each other once it had turned in the opposite direction.

"We better get moving," Kira said to Janus. He held up a finger as though to say "wait a minute." His phone started to ring, and he pulled it from his pocket.

"Movie-fone," Janus answered.

"Very funny. Zia South," Glitch told him.

"Right," replied Janus. The call then ended. He turned to Kira as he put his phone away.

"C'mon, this nightmare's almost over. Follow me." They both ran to the street.

----

Balthasar walked through the crowded street. Shoving past some businessman, he made his way into a small alley which lead to a small lot, boxed in by the walls of the surrounding buildings. He removed his phone from his pocket and dialed the Nosferatu. After a ring, he heard Sideways pick up on the other end.

"Talk to me Sideways."

"There's a pair headed to an exit at Zia South, they're the closest." Having received the info he needed, Balthasar killed the connection and put the phone back into his pocket.

As if on cue, three Agents, one from each door in each "wall" of the lot, came out and approached him. They were Agent White, Agent Bird, and Agent Lewis. White stopped in front of him, Bird to his left, Lewis to his right. Balthasar didn't seem surprised or worried in the least bit, but rather annoyed that Sideways didn't see it coming. He looked at each of them behind his black lenses.

"White, Bird, Lewis. Nice to see you again." He told them in a cocky tone. They all smirked.

"You know the rules, Mr. Daniels. You may have escaped last time but this time we'll be happy to put a stop to your unauthorized entries," Agent White told him.

Balthasar rolled his eyes behind his glasses, letting out an impatient sigh. "Please."

Agent White was the first to attack. He punched out with his right fist for Balthasar's face, only for him side-step to the left. Grabbing White's still-extended arm with his right hand, Balthasar punched him in the jaw with a left hook.

Turning in the same motion while letting go of White's arm as he was knocked back, Balthasar reached for his gun and as his back faced White, Balthasar having turned 180-degrees, he pulled out his handgun, an all black SVI 2011, and turned to his right to see Agent Bird coming for him. Quick on the trigger, he fired five shots into the Agent's chest before the Agent could realize he'd taken his gun out.

As Bird fell, Balthasar was now just about to complete the 360-degree turn, he looked over his right shoulder and saw Agent Lewis moving in for a punch, so he right-roundhouse kicked him in the face, knocking the Agent down to its left. When he was down and Balthasar's circle was complete, he looked down as Lewis looked up in time for Balthasar to shoot him five times in the face. As he looked down at Lewis' body transform back into a civilian, he re-holstered his gun.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Agent White's right fist coming at his face. He leaned back, the punch flying past his face, and pushed the arm forward. To counter this, White spun counter clockwise planning to execute a high left roundhouse kick to the back of Balthasar's head. Predicting something like this from the Agent, Balthasar ducked forward, the Agent's foot and leg flying over his back.

As the Agent's foot came down, Balthasar came up and in a counter-clockwise roundhouse fashion, smashed his right elbow into White's nose, busting it open and causing blood to gush out.

While White was phased and his arm still tucked in from the elbow strike, Balthasar gripped his gun. As White came back, Balthasar smashed him in the face with his elbow again, knocking the Agent back and giving himself enough room and time to pull his gun out.

Three quick shots into the middle of the Agent's chest and he dropped down to his knees, and then fell onto his face. When he re-holstered his gun, Balthasar noticed the blood stained on the leather of his trench coat on his elbow. He let out an annoyed hiss, and left the alley to access the street.

"Time to find those rookies."

----

(Epilogue cont'd)

Anubis brought the helicopter down on the drop off point, hovering a good twenty feet from the ground.

"Get off, we don't have time!" Anubis yelled to Irvine over the rotor blades. The captain of the Nemesis agreed, slipping out of the helicopter's passenger area and dropping to the ground below. The syndicate assassin hung in the air for a few more minutes, watching as the captain's trench coat flew up from the air sliding through the gap between Irvine's back and the coat, then dropping down again when Irvine touched the ground. He would've waited a little longer, but the proximity alarm on the Black Hawk's radar display began going off, then followed by Glitch on the cell phone.

"You got two F-16C Falcons coming in hot, and their pilots have been overridden by Agents! Get out of there!"

Anubis didn't give a reply. He ascended a little and shot forward, weaving in between buildings and street areas to keep the F-16's from getting a missile lock on them. "Did you equip the Black Hawk with on board countermeasures!?"

"There was no room. Black Hawks weren't designed to carry offensive ordinance!"

Anubis growled, wishing the operator had put in a Hind or some other gunship that he could use against the Agents. Even though they were Agents, he could take on two F-16s with a gunship if he had something to fire at them.

Forget it, just use what you got! He told himself.

Then Glitch came back on him, "We also got another problem."

"What?"

"We got Blade out, but a SWAT team has cornered Solitaire at Camon Central. They're keeping her from the exit."

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Anubis spat.

"*CENSORED* it, ninja boy, why are you asking me? Help her out, man!" Glitch ordered on the other side.

"Solitaire is a competent fighter, she does not need my aid." Anubis gave a cold reply.

"Usually, I'd agree with you, but she's taking too long fighting them off, an Agent can pop in at any moment." Glitch stated.

Anubis was about to reply, but another alarm went off. "*CENSORED* it," he muttered, before taking evasive maneuvers. One of the F-16s had locked onto him, and fired a missile. Judging by how close it was, it probably fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder, a heat-seeking missile that had a good reputation for pulling hard maneuvers. Anubis didn't think at that point, he started to unbuckle from his chair.
----

From the cockpit of his F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter, Agent Harper only grinned at seeing the Black Hawk burst into a cloud of flames on his HUD. He pulled his fighter up and over the cloud, gaining some altitude while the second F-16C, now piloted by a freshly formed Agent Davis, leveled out with him, pulling into formation.

"Any sign of him?" Harper asked his comrade.

"It doesn't matter. There are still three more. They are to all be eliminated." Davis stated.

"Intercept the target Vince Burnett. I will destroy the other female," Harper said in a cold mechanical tone that surpassed even the usual Agent tone.

Both F-16s broke formation, heading for different directions, before the two Agents both dropped away from their host bodies, leaving a pair of confused Air Force pilots.
----

The SWAT leader shot the knob off the door, then shoulder tackled through the wooden frame. He didn't make it far though, as a mysterious force shattered his face mask and sent him flying backwards. The rest of his team looked to see who would dare make such an attack, only to find a petite oriental woman dressed in a leather jumpsuit and jacket, grinning at them as if they were applauding her. She gave a theater-styled nod-bow to them, then burst into action, running at her first target and punching him square in the jaw, so hard that it broke on contact.

The four other SWATs brought their machine guns up and opened fire, but by that point, Solitaire had rolled herself behind the body and let the bullets rip into the SWAT man, before she kicked it into one of her attackers. The force was enough, combined with the bullet proof vest and gear that it effectively broke the man's ribs on contact. That left three to deal with.

As she half expected, they didn't make any attempt to dodge, they merely stood there firing their machine guns at the girl, as if they would hit anything. She flipped and landed, much to their shock, on the brick wall opposite of them, running down toward the street, but instead of running that way, she flipped off the wall and drew her Walther PPK. Although one would look down upon the gun due to its small size, she showed how effective it was, firing a pair of shots into one of the SWATs' neck, taking him out of the fight. She then merely ran to another SWAT and jumped, landing her foot on the tip of his helmet, and causing his partner to blast him in the face while bringing his machine gun up to her level. When she jumped off the man's helmet, she flipped in the air again, slipping her gun away for a moment before landing behind the last SWAT.

The guy, a rookie fresh out of the academy, drew his combat knife in an attempt to slash her. Rather than dodging, Solitaire simply brought her right hand up and caught the man's wrist. Slowly after that, she started to twist the arm behind the trooper, the sounds of pops and crackles from the bone structuring giving way to stress playing vividly. The man screamed in the slow pain, dropping the knife when Solitaire got the arm all the way to the man's mid back line. The oriental woman was then about to kick the man into the opposite wall when his body fizzled and wavered.

"Oh *poop*.." was all she managed to let out as Agent Harper formed in front of her.

The first thing Harper did was punch her, with enough force that sent her flying through the brick wall. Then, using his left arm, he began to twist the right back into place, the sounds of bones cracking once again filling the air. Difference was, they were cracking back into place, and Harper did not make any signs of pain. Solitaire gaped at this, through the dust, knowing full well that she was done for now. She drew her gun again and fired shots at Harper, but the Agent weaved to the sides, dodging each bullet that flew at him, until Solitaire's pistol finally ran dry.

"Not bad, human," he said, while pulling out his Desert Eagle.

Solitaire threw herself from out of the hole and somersaulted past the two bullets that Harper fired at her, jumping up again and punching the Agent across the face. It felt as though she had punched a steel pipe, but she didn't let it slow her down, instead following it up with a punch combo to the stomach, then a karate chop to the right shoulder and finally a round house kick that had enough force to make Harper stumble back. Even then she didn't let up, continuing onto throwing a flurry of palm strikes at targeted nerve areas to disable Harper from moving, before finally she gripped his tie and head butted him. Strangely, her attacks did have an effect, as Harper was sent flying back into the wall opposite from the one she made a hole in, causing it to dent.

However, the force of the head butt left the Chinese girl disoriented, making her stumble and rubbing out her vision. This allowed Harper to recover quickly, but he decided to be a good sport. He waited for her to recover, all the while dusting himself off and cracking his neck.

"Amusing, very amusing," Harper said. "I've never been thrown into a wall before, let alone by a female."

"What do you have against females!?" Solitaire growled, attempting to throw another punch at him.

Harper caught the punch in his left hand, "The way you humans are bred, the female of the species usually exhibits lesser physical ability than the male. However, you obviously do not have that status." He started to crush her hand, causing Solitaire to yelp, "I can crush your hand, rip your body piece by piece in this world, and yet you show little pain, almost nothing outside disorientation. That's... interesting." He then clubbed her in the back of the head with his Desert Eagle, putting Solitaire to her knees. She was barely able to remain conscious now, and Harper knew she would take a while to recover. So, he decided to end it like this.

"Garbage, only good for consuming resources." Harper told her, then pulling the trigger.

The shot never came though. Before the hammer could strike the bullet, a glint of light appeared to travel through the front of the gun, all the way to the back. A second later, the top portion of the barrel, the spring and half the .50AE bullet exploded into different directions. Harper looked up just in time to see Anubis strike him with the hilt of his katana against the nose, with enough force to break it had he been human. This was followed by another cutting attack by Anubis, but Harper moved back, only gaining a scar across his face.

Solitaire managed to come to at this point, but barely. She could see someone fighting the Agent in front of her, and doing rather well actually, as he or she was backing the Agent against the building exit. However, who could it be? Blade and Irvine had already gotten out, and Janus and Kira were both in a different areas. That left only one person out of the crew, and surely it couldn't be him...

The Agent finally took to the offensive and caught Anubis' sword blade, forcing it out of his hands. He then grabbed the assassin by his neck, in a similar move Solitaire had made on him, holding him there and head butting him three times. The third one made Anubis fall backward, but it didn't disorient him, at least not for that long. The assassin made a spin kick that made Harper join him on the ground, then following that up with kicks towards the Agent's up turned face, but Harper managed to deflect each attempt with his own legs. The Agent finally kicked towards Anubis' head, forcing the assassin to jump back up, quickly followed by Harper, and continue the fight standing. Both men threw punches and kicks at each other, but none managed to land any significant blow, until finally Harper nailed Anubis in the chest with a palm strike.

Anubis stammered backwards, feeling as though his lungs had been smashed, immediately coughing up blood. As a result, he lost his balance and eventually fell on one knee. Harper grinned at his accomplishment, forcing this human to kneel before him. Certainly, if he himself were human, he would have felt honored or whatever humans feel when one acknowledges the other's superiority.

However, he didn't realize that Anubis had stumbled back close to his katana. In another blur, Anubis grabbed it and made a slash at the Agent, cutting off one of his legs. Now it was Harper who was forced to kneel, but Anubis wouldn't be allowed the satisfaction of a seized victory. Harper's body fizzled with bright bolts of electricity before the Agent program exited the body of the now dead bluepill.

Anubis felt like he could laugh at his fallen opponent, but this caused him to cough up blood. He stumbled, feeling faint on his feet, to the point where he had to use his sword as a cane to keep him up. At first, Solitaire wasn't hesitant to approach him like this, but she saw that he really was wounded. She could feel deep inside herself, a sense of gratitude and a sense of wonder. Why had he helped her? He wasn't the type to save comrades certainly, even if Irvine ordered him. Then there was the way he fought. The way he pushed the Agent against the doorway, allowing her to run at any given time while he distracted it wordlessly.


She knew he would deny all this or ignore her, but she was good at seeing through action rather than mere words. Still hesitant, she walked over to the assassin. "Let me help." She said, placing Anubis' right arm over her shoulder, then taking his sword and placing the tip in its sheathe. Anubis grabbed the blade edge and pushed the sword into the sheath, letting it slide in.

"I can walk by myself..." he began.

"Don't give me that. You can hardly breathe." She countered, but gave no hints of anger in her voice. In fact, it sounded more like concern, "Just don't say anything, like you usually do."

Anubis complied, because he knew she was right. *CENSORED*, not good enough, was all that he thought at that point.

----

(Epilogue cont'd)

Janus and Kira came out from an alley between two buildings and into a street. They ran across, to a large parking lot of a mall. It was empty, no one to be seen in sight, no cars, just a few buildings they could only see the backs of. They stopped and looked around. Across from the parking lot, a series of apartment complexes stood tall.

"Which way do we go?" Kira asked.

"This way," Janus said, pulling her along, in the direction of the tall brick apartment buildings. They came up to a fence, and when it came to getting over it, they jumped and flipped over it without laying a finger on it. Janus was impressed. I didn't think I could do that. The duo now was behind a large warehouse, and they continued to head on the direction of the cross street Glitch told them. As Janus ran, his coat billowed out behind him like a large cape

"We'd better hurry," Kira told him. "Agents are looking for us."

"No kidding," Janus answered sarcastically.

Then came the sound of infected coding. They both stopped in their steps, and Janus' coat came down and wrapped around his legs. The ground before them started to flicker and glitch, and up from this came the ghostly figure of one of the mysterious silver-clad guys programs from that abandoned building. Once he came all the way out of the ground, he unphased and stood on his feet.

Janus was closer to him, Kira a foot or so behind Janus. The program's black lips curved into a mischievous grin.

"Haven't we met before?" he asked in an instigating manner.

Janus' eyebrows wrinkled in slight frustration. Kira didn't get it either. I thought they were only in that glitching building...she thought to herself.

The program attacked, pulling a switchblade from the inside of its coat and stabbing for Janus' throat. He casually side-stepped out of the way, the silver sleeved arm coming past him like a dodged punch. The program stumbled forward, sneering at Janus for his maneuver. But before the program could move to make another attack, Janus grabbed its arm, pushing up at the tricep and down on the forearm with a *SNAP*.

The program's head whipped back with gritted teeth, and it let out an "Rrrgh!" in pain. It reached for its handgun in a concealed holster on the back of its belt, but Kira pulled out her own and fired three .380 ACP rounds into its torso. It writhed in pain, entering its phased state. Its transparent arm became free of Janus' grip, to his surprise, and it floated back some. It solidified again, fully healed from its injuries, and went back on the attack. Swiping its blade for Janus's face, it missed as he leaned back, but instead of stumbling like last time, it took a big step forward and continued with its advance, slashing down for Kira's face.

She backed up, causing the sterling albino to fall forward a bit, enough to throw off his balance from his attack position. This gave Kira enough time to fight back, as she spun and high-kicked the program in the face. It stumbled back a few steps into Janus, where he promptly caught it in his arms and snapped its neck. Dead, or it seemed so at least, the ghost's body phased as it fell from Janus' arms, falling into the ground once again. He shot a look at Kira.

"Let's get the *CENSORED* out of here!"

They ran towards the intricate complex of apartments, but no more than a few seconds later did they hear gunshots behind them. They stopped to see where it was coming from; Another silver clad program had appeared and was shooting after them. They kept running, but suddenly out of nowhere, another seemed to have appeared, also shooting in their direction, but this time in front of them. Thinking quickly, Janus pulled Kira's arm and she followed him down a side street.

However in this maze of brick and street, the silver clad programs were all but pervasive. As they turned around the corner, another one had come out of an alley not too far down the street, firing at them with his Taurus PT945, which seemed to be the trademark handgun of these silver clad programs. The .45ACP rounds smashed the brick corner to bits as Janus and Kira ducked out of the way running down another alley.

"We're almost there!" Janus exclaimed.

----

Not far from Janus and Kira, a passer-by walked down the sidewalk and into an alley to access the back door of his apartment. He removed from his jacket a set of keys, fiddling through them with his one hand trying to find the right one. Suddenly, his body began convulsing, and he dropped his keys. When it was over, he'd morphed into Agent Davis. Davis pressed his hand to his ear piece, receiving news of an unknown malfunction and forbidden presence in the area. He then ran off out of the alley.

----

Being chased by the two silver clad programs, Janus and Kira dodged in and out of the series of back alley-ways trying to escape. As they ran, the gunshots that followed behind them were reminiscent of a nightmare, where one ran from a beast he could not escape, no matter how much he tried to get away.

Ducking constantly from the shots, the two Nemesis crew fighters did their best not to trip over themselves, keeping each other's safety in their best interest. While it was a motivation to stay alive, they couldn't afford to let it get to them now, neither could risk playing hero. One of the silver clad programs had to reload his pistol, but then the one stopped them from their pursuit, as though it could sense some sort of unseen danger ahead.

"Stop here," he said in a stern tone, sure that going on ahead would spell trouble for them.

"Trouble ahead?" the other asked.

As the one to the leader's right slammed the clip into his gun and pulled on the slide, he looked to his twin. "An Agent."

"He shouldn't be a problem for us. They have rules to follow," he reminded them, re-holstering his pistol.

"True, but he's after us. Even if we beat him, and we can, others would follow." The leader said.

"We share a burden with the redpills," the second one said.

"Let it be theirs this evening." The leader decided.

Then, as if on cue, the two of them phased. Once again, they passed through the ground and disappeared.

----

When they'd heard the gunshots had stopped, Kira looked behind to see if they were still being chased, and saw nothing. "They're gone," she told Janus. They could hear the phone ringing just around the corner up ahead.

"Doesn't matter, keep running. We're almost home," he answered.

They came around the corner, the phone on the brick wall to the left down the alley. But they froze in their steps. The tall, built body of Agent Davis stood before them like a powerful figure looming over the weak. He stood there staring at them behind his black sunglasses.

Janus and Kira stood there in fear staring back, sort of crouched in their stance and holding each other back as though to protect themselves. There was a dead and dreadful quiet. The two couldn't move a muscle, they couldn't make a sound.

Janus blinked. Like a person waking up in the middle of the night to find themselves trapped in sleep-paralysis, he became aware of this fear that had overcome him. His thoughts shifted as his stare remained on Davis behind his mirrored lenses.

What is this? What am I afraid of? What is she afraid of? He isn't real. He doesn't exist, not if this is a dream world. 'Your mind makes it real'....Well, if your mind makes it real...

Janus stood up straight. Kira looked at him like she thought he was crazy.

"What are you doing?!" She yelled in a whisper.

"I can fight him." He answered. His voice was bold with confidence.

Davis snorted as though to laugh. Janus took a step forward, and Davis pulled out his gun, the famed Desert Eagle in .50AE. In a reflex response, Janus lifted in front of him his left hand, open palmed as though to say "stop". His right arm followed behind; He was covering his face. He turned from the waist up to his left, closing eyes just tight enough so that he could barely see out of them, and leaned back, jumping up and back into the air as though he had just taken an uppercut. The first shot rang with a flash. Kira's eyes opened wide, and the world moved slow.

~As Janus fell backwards into the air, it sizzled with wads of lead like angry flies heading straight for him. The first bullet passed over the right side of Janus's rib cage as he fell back, and Kira sprawled off to the side behind the corner to evade the oncoming bullets. As Janus came closer to the ground, he unfolded his arms and tilted his head all the way back as the second and third bullets flew over him. He gritted his teeth, feeling their heat on his face and they barely missed. Twisting all the way so he was facing his right, his right hand landed down on the ground as the fifth bullet passed over his face as he brought his left arm over his face for protection. The sixth bullet skimmed the surface of his arm as it planted onto the ground as he landed. The bullet took a piece of his tricep, and his elbow hit hard into the ground as the rest of his body landed~

The seventh bullet smashed into the concrete just barely missing Janus's head, causing bits and pebbles of it to smack up into his face, like when you mow the lawn and a tiny rock kicks up. His left arm lay over his torso, and his right leg bent at the knee as he lay there. Davis walked over to him with a fearful pace. Kira didn't know what to do; she knew her own bullets wouldn't stop Davis, all she could do was watch.

"Oh no..." she said to herself.

On the Nemesis, everyone else was watching.

"Well Irvine, you tried. Did you tell him how little someone's chances were for getting out alive even when they were running from an Agent?" Blade asked as he stared at the screen of scrolling green runes.

Irvine didn't say a word.

When Davis reached Janus, who lay helplessly and injured on the ground, he pointed his gun at Janus's head. But when he pulled the trigger, the gun went *click*. They both arched a brow in confusion. Even the guys watching the screens did. But this was his only chance. Janus took advantage of the brief pause, using the muscles in his back to spring himself up.

He planted his left hand on the ground for support and leverage, going for the same move he tried on Irvine that ended up in him getting thrown off a roof, and kicked Davis across the face. As Davis's head snapped back, Janus continued turning in the air, impossibly pushing himself up with his arm and turning 360-degrees, landing on his feet and facing Davis. His glasses had fell off, but fear was absent from his glare as his hair fell down onto his shoulders.

Nor Kira, or the rest of the crew watching could believe it. "No way.." they all said to themselves silently.

Janus stood facing Davis as he came back into pace. They stared at each other; Janus into anonymous black square lenses, Davis into what he considered were fragile, weak human eyes. A small gust of wind blew by.

"He's not gonna..." Anubis began.

Janus punched for Davis's head but was blocked and consequently punched in the gut causing him to keel over into the perfect position for the uppercut that followed, knocking Janus back a few steps. He was a bit knocked out, shaking his head and his shoulders a bit to get back into the game, but Davis just waited there. When Janus looked ready again, Davis punched straight for Janus's face, but he leaned to the right and cracked Davis in the face with the knuckles of his right hand, coming back up with the same fist and returning the uppercut from before.

While Davis's head had knocked back, Janus lifted his leg and kicked Davis in the stomach, knocking him back a few steps. However, Davis had come right back into a stance that showed he wasn't affected. Janus punched out with his right, Davis blocked it with his forearm and punched back, for Janus to block with the same maneuver.

He did a little "wax-on/wax-off" with the same arm he blocked with, his left, pushing Davis's arm out to the side, and smashed his right elbow up into Davis's nose, a move that would normally kill a man. But Davis came right back and with a kick he sent Janus flying into the brick wall, creating a huge "dent" in the wall.

Slowly, and pushing off of the surface of the dent his body had created, Janus pushed off of the cracked brick and got himself up, running forward to punch Davis in the face. However, he only walked into a block paired with a blow to the stomach that led into a kick that sent him flying back into the brick wall he had just came from, only above the hole he'd just made!

Landing on the floor on his hands and knees, he tried hard to stand up fast but wasn't fast enough. He got up just in time for Davis to grab him by the shirt, turn, and hurl him into the opposite wall on the other side of the alley. Kira stood, watching, because at the same time she was afraid to get involved, she was also in awe of the fact that Janus kept going.

"*CENSORED*, I don't know what you fed this guy but if he can live through all of that and still have the will to stand, he may have a chance," Glitch said.

Still, Irvine said nothing.

Janus began to fall in a slump as he leaned against the wall, unable to hold himself up with his own legs from the constant smashing into bricks. Davis picked him up by his throat and with immense force, punched Janus in the chest. As though he were being crucified, Janus's arms extended out to his sides when he took the shot in the chest and when his body was forced back into the wall, the tremor his body created caused cracks to spread in the wall, away from his body.

His head slunked down as he coughed blood up. Back on the ship, in his chair, he coughed up blood there too, causing all the spectators to turn and see where the "cacghk!" had come from. Janus could barely keep his eyes open now, he was almost nodding off. Davis decided it was now time to finish this dance.

He forcefully grabbed Janus by the throat, so hard that his head bounced off the brick wall he was being pushing up against. The Agent's grip tightened, but Janus's eyes stayed in the same, almost dead stare rather than bulging. He felt pain coursing throughout every inch of his body. He watched as Davis waited for him to die.

Those watching on the Nemesis were just waiting for Janus's heart meter to flat line, no one saw a way out of this one.

I can't die..how can I die? It's not real, it doesn't exist. If I give up now and die here, I'll disappoint Irvine...

His gaze fixed upon Davis's black lenses.

What...what are you? What are you waiting for, why don't you smash my head against the wall and we can get this over with? You wanna torture me and watch me die a slow death? Look at you. All you are is a computer program, right? *CENSORED* you...*blinking*' machine!

Janus's limp arm raised and took Davis by the throat.

Kira, the Nemesis crew, even Davis, couldn't believe it. Davis's face went "?!" Janus's grip tightened. So tight that the veins on his neck started to bulge. Davis gripped Janus's arm with his free hand, but Janus's grip got tighter. Davis gritted his teeth, his face going from "?!" to "?!!", as he removed his hand from Janus's throat and grabbed onto the redpill's arm with both hands, tightly, thinking maybe he could grip it so tight that the human would succumb from the pain. But no such thing happened. Instead Janus lifted Davis off his feet.

Glitch couldn't believe what he was seeing. Kira didn't know what was going on. Janus stared up at the struggling Agent.

"You don't get it do you? I know it's not real. I'm taking advantage of that," he told Davis. Glitch noticed one or two runes fall down the screen that were all white in color, not a shade of green.

"What is that?"