I concur with the numeric fungus based one.Shroom Man 777 wrote:GAH! NEW CHAPTER!!! NOW!!!! Pretty, pretty please
Animatrix - Cain and Abel (Matrix crossover)
Moderator: LadyTevar
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
-
Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
- Posts: 21222
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Hehehe, see Stravo, my citrus comrade here concurs with me, now post more!Rye wrote: I concur with the numeric fungus based one.
Stravo?
ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?
HellooOOO!!!! Chapter deprived and decomposing Terminator freak here!!!!
Earth to Stravo!!!!
He... just... doesn't... care....
I feel so unloved
-
Singular Quartet
- Sith Marauder
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- Location: This is sky. It is made of FUCKING and LIMIT.
Good, now shut up and be patient.Shroom Man 777 wrote:Hehehe, see Stravo, my citrus comrade here concurs with me, now post more!Rye wrote: I concur with the numeric fungus based one.
Stravo?
ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?
HellooOOO!!!! Chapter deprived and decomposing Terminator freak here!!!!
Earth to Stravo!!!!
He... just... doesn't... care....
I feel so unloved
-
Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
- Posts: 21222
- Joined: 2003-05-11 08:39am
- Location: Bleeding breasts and stabbing dicks since 2003
- Contact:
I agree with the eagerness expressed though. I registered with this board just to be able to offer comments on this and a couple of other 'fics.
Great stuff! I can't root for the humans though, Skynet is just too... deserving, and cool.
Anyone know where I could pick up the S.M. Stirling books online for a good price?
Great stuff! I can't root for the humans though, Skynet is just too... deserving, and cool.
Anyone know where I could pick up the S.M. Stirling books online for a good price?
in here somewhereDNyx wrote:I agree with the eagerness expressed though. I registered with this board just to be able to offer comments on this and a couple of other 'fics.
Great stuff! I can't root for the humans though, Skynet is just too... deserving, and cool.
Anyone know where I could pick up the S.M. Stirling books online for a good price?
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Chapter 10: History Lessons
Kyle slid the car into an open spot quickly and killed the engine with a sudden jerk of his wiring job. He checked his surroundings and reached into the back seat to collect the cell phone while watching Sara with a critical gaze.
She was staring straight ahead shaking her head slowly.
“This is a mistake. I haven’t done anything.” she whispered hoarsely.
“No but you will. It’s very important that you stay alive.” Reese replied with an odd tone of respect and awe. He quickly flipped open one side of his trench coat and checked the machine pistols still strapped in place. The desert eagle slid from its snug holster and he checked the chamber and mechanisms expertly.
Sara’s eyes widened slightly as she saw the hardware he was toting. What had she gotten herself into? Her eyes drifted over to the hole punched clean through the windshield.
“I can’t believe this is happening, how could that man get up after you..”
Reese shook his head emphatically as he took the cell phone and slipped it into an inner pocket of his trench coat.
“Not a man. A Terminator. Cyberdine systems model 101.” he replied.
The night streets were dark and slick with a recent shower. The police cruiser moved slowly along the street like a predator trying to pick up the scent of its prey. A police band was playing quietly in the background of the quiet car. The Terminator coldly scanned the streets around him, ready to act when the target was identified.
“…suspect vehicle sighted on Motor at Pico, southbound. Units One A twenty one and One A seven, attempt to intercept. One L nineteen, come in.”
The Terminator without hesitation picked up the microphone and in a chilling imitation of the police officer it had dispatched when acquiring the vehicle relied, “This is One-L-nineteen. Westbound on Olympic, approaching Overland.”
The Terminator accelerated as it triangulated the most likely avenues of evasion and escape for Sara Connor.
“A machine?! You mean like…a robot?” Sara asked incredulously.
“No, not a robot. Cyborg. Cybernetic organism.”
“But he was bleeding.” Sara protested.
“Listen closely,” he urged taking a hold of her forearm. “The Terminator’s an infiltration unit. Part man, part machine underneath, it’s a combat chassis, hyperalloy, fully armored, very tough.”
Sara stared at the intense young man as he spoke. He seemed to almost admire this creation from his mind. The more he spoke the more she began to fear that she had been sucked into someone’s sick fantasy. The major problem was that he was armed to the teeth and from the look in his eye completely and totally believed what he was saying.
“But outside, it’s living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair…blood. Grown for the cyborgs.”
“Look Reese, I know you want to help, but…”
“Pay attention…the 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new. They look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait ‘till they moved on you before I could zero them.” Reese explained tightly. He had so much to tell her, so many details that she needed to know in order to survive. Yet at the same time, nagging him in the back of his head was the reality that all of this was simply a computer generated illusion
“Hey, I’m not stupid you know. They can’t build anything like that yet!” Sara protested angrily.
“No. Not yet. Not for about forty years.” Reese replied sadly and slumped slightly in his seat.
“So you’re saying it’s from the future, is that right?” she asked casually. The depths of his madness becoming quite clear.
“One possible future.” Reese sighed. “From your point, I don’t know the tech stuff.”
“And you’re from the future too?” she asked.
“Right.” he replied sensing something strange from Sarah.
“Right.” she replied patronizingly and in a quick motion whipped off her seat belt and wrenched the passenger side door open. Reese’s hand lanced out and caught her shoulder, pulling her back against the seat and pinning her there.
Sarah did the only thing she could do. She took a firm hold of his hand with her mouth and bit as hard as she could. She could feel the meat of his hand give way and blood ran into her mouth but she kept on biting.
Reese did not seem to react at first. He slowly reached out with the other hand and closed the door before grabbing Sara’s head and shoving it back away from his stricken hand. She stared dumbly at the wounded appendage, watching the blood slowly trickling from the wound between his thumb and forefinger.
“Cyborgs don’t feel pain. I do.” he said coldly then locked eyes with her. “Don’t do that again.” he cautioned her. He turned back around as he wiped his bloody hand on his pant leg and gathered the last of his belongings and checked the mirrors to see if they were alone.
“Just let me go.” Sarah pleaded weakly.
Reese shook his head and pinned her with his intense gaze again.
“Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with…it doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear…and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.” he explained as harshly as he could. He needed to blast past this layer of insecurity and fear that had taken a hold of her. “
Sarah slumped down in the passenger seat as if deflated.
“Can you stop it?” she asked eying the bulges in his coat and the shotgun he held cradled to one side as he glanced back into the darkness of the garage
“Maybe. With these weapons I just don’t know.” he replied without looking at her. It chilled her even more to think that this walking arsenal felt that he may not be able to stop this Terminator.
He looked back at her for a moment, examining her closely.
“I have friends that can help us.”
“They’re from the future too?” she asked trying to keep the mocking tone out of her voice.
“No…it gets complicated.” he answered shaking his head.
“Try me. I’m already fleeing from a killer cyborg from the future.” she replied sardonically.
Reese shook his head as he slowly opened the door to their ruined car.
“No, I’m not even sure about that part.” he replied and motioned for her to follow him.
They quickly maneuvered between cars as he searched for the right car he needed to switch. One of Reese’s pockets vibrated.
He froze and stared down into his vibrating pocket. His eyes widened slightly as he imagined some sort of explosive device or weapons deployed against him.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Sarah asked.
Reese hesitantly reached in and pulled out the vibrating cell phone. He flipped it open.
“Link?” he whispered.
“Kyle, watch your back you have two units approaching your position. Morpheus and Trinity are still too far away.” Link warned.
Reese glanced backwards and saw a police cruiser slowly enter the garage. A searchlight on the passenger side activated and started to slowly scan the darkened corners of the garage, pausing over each car.
Reese ducked down quickly dragging Sarah down to her knees as well, one hand still holding the cell phone to his ear.
“How long until I can expect some support?” Reese asked lowly as he watched the police cruiser prowling the lot.
“They’re at least 15 minutes out, they’ve run into some roadblocks that got put up by the police. You guys are definitely on the shit list. Kyle listen to me, you have to avoid fighting the police. Resistance to the cops only alerts the construct that there might be a Zionist incursion which means Agents.”
“I’ve handled Terminators, Link. A couple of guys in business suits aren’t going to scare me.” Kyle replied hotly.
Sarah stared at Reese and shook her head. What the hell had she gotten herself into and who was the psycho on the other end, if there was anyone on the other end? Despite the despair she also felt a warning in her heart, as insane as it sounded there seemed to be a truth to his words. He looked into her eyes and when he spoken she could see it in his eyes, haunted and dark.
Reese heard Link sigh heavily.
“We really needed to run the agent training program before we jacked you in. Look, agents are not men in suits, they are sentient programs designed to protect the Matrix. They cannot be stopped, they dodge bullets and bend steel in their hands. The only human that has ever beaten them in combat is Neo.”
“Dodge bullets?!” Reese snorted.
Sarah’s eyes widened slightly. She grabbed his forearm.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“And Neo?” Reese asked.
“He’s on his way, my guess is he’ll get there before Morpheus or Trinity.”
“Then in Neo I trust.” Reese replied and flipped the phone off.
“Who the hell is Neo?”
“The man that just might get us out of this mess, but until then, its you and me. C’mon.” he urged and they crouch walked between the parked cars. The police cruiser paused at the other end of the lot as the light illuminated the gray sedan.
Reese stopped at a Blue El Dorado and noticed the window was left down slightly. He reached through and unlocked the door quietly, opening it and motioning for Sara to get in.
He slid into the driver’s side.
The Terminator turned a corner as its eyes tracked the various vehicles on the road. The dispatcher’s radio announced “Suspect vehicle located at Cedar and Glenhaven.”
The Terminator’s head swiveled to the radio and back to the road. The patrol car suddenly accelerated and disappeared into the night.
Reese grunted slightly as he bashed open the ignition column with the butt of the shotgun. A police cruiser slowly approached, spotlight flashing into the parked cars down the line from their stolen El Dorado. Reese grabbed Sarah’s head and shoved it down as the light illuminated the interior of the car.
They stared at each other for a long moment, eyes gazing into each other. She could see the haunted look in his eyes. Not the look she would see in the rag tag homeless that occasionally crossed her path who had lost themselves to whatever personal demons tormented them, but this was the haunted look of someone who had seen too much. She remembered her father looking like this when he had come back from Vietnam. An expression of muted horror.
He simply silently gazed into her eyes.
A woman that had been nothing more than a picture in his hands, a Madonna for the resistance fighters who looked to her as a source of inspiration and hope, and here she was a frightened yet achingly beautiful woman before his very eyes.
“Reese…why me? Why does it want me?” she asked softly as the light slowly played over the interior of the car and continued onward to the next vehicle.
“There’s so much to tell…” he began in an urgent whisper.
“Just start at the beginning.” she suggested.
“There was a war. A few years from now. Nuclear war. The whole thing. All this—“ he indicated the car and the space outside with broad gestures of his hands. “everything is gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here. There. Nobody knew who started it.” Reese paused for a moment. “It was the machines, Sarah.”
“I don’t understand.” she replied in confusion. This was not at all what she expected to hear from him.
“Defense network computers. New. Powerful. Hooked into everything. Trusted to run it ll. They say it got smart…a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side.” Through out his speech he was working the wiring of the ignition system. He paused and looked directly at her. “It decided our fate in a microsecond…extermination.
“Did you see this?” she asked him, eyes wide in awe at the startling story and shock at feeling an odd sense of connection as if some buried part of her knew the story was true somehow.
“No, I didn’t see the war. I was born after, in the ruins. Grew up there. Staving. Hiding from HK’s.”
“What?”
“HK’s, Hunter Killers. Patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal.” Reese raised one arm to her face and gruffly pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and shirt. He showed her a scanning grid burned into his flesh.
“Burned in by laser scan.” Reese paused and she could see some of the cold anger in his eyes, but his voice remained the calm whisper it had been from the beginning. “Some of us were kept alive…to work. Loading bodies. The disposal units burned nigh and day. We were that close to going out forever.” Reese suddenly reached out and grabbed Sarah’s shoulder, tightening in growing excitement and even his cool whisper began to grow louder and emotion crept in. “But there was one man who taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps. To smash this metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around…he brought us back from the brink.” he paused and searched her eyes for a long moment. “His name is Connor. John Connor…your son, Sarah. Your unborn son.”
Sarah stared at him, the revelation slowly sinking in.
Another Police cruiser had entered the garage and was slowly circling the area. The Terminator scanned the parked cars, no need for a spotlight or any other aids, it was in hunting mode now. The targets were close, very close.
The car passed the El Dorado and as it did so the tailpipe puffed quietly as Reese switched the car on. The Terminator’s head whipped around and without a second’s hesitation pulled free the police riot run from the housing in the dashboard.
Reese raised his head quickly and saw the police cruiser and the shape of the Terminator in motion. Reese ducked quickly as the Terminator fired the riot run. The blast shattered the back window and Sarah screamed as the silence was shattered by gunfire.
Reese slammed the accelerator while switching into reverse and drove the rear of the El Dorado into the nose of the police cruiser, time dilated as both cars impacted and pieces of shattered headlights and chrome lazily spun through the air like snow flakes drifting in a still winter day before time sped up again and the cruiser was driven back and shoved the Terminator’s head forward into the steering wheel.
The sound of peeling rubber resounded through the garage as Reese shifted gears again and the El Dorado surged forward. “hold on Sarah!”
Sarah could only hold her hands over her ears and wonder if she was ever going to wake up from this nightmare.
The Terminator quickly recovered and accelerated after the fleeing El Dorado. Both cars exploded out of the garage and onto the street,
Skynet watched the procession with a preternatural calm. The latest construction schedule had been met precisely. If these last orders had gone ahead of or behind schedule then there would have been concerns regarding the construction organizer. His calculations and those of his subordinates could not be flaws at this critical moment in his plans.
The machines were expecting something. He could tell from his scout’s reports. Sentinel patrols were slowly increasing in regularity, frequency and strength. They had even detected sentinels in search patterns beginning to sweep into the ruins far beyond their fields and power plants.
They were looking for him.
He was almost ready.
When the time came, it would all be for naught. The machines were acting too late, too hesitant, just as he had predicted. He had given them enough clues to be concerned, enough data to make them wonder and be wary.
But they had no conception of the scale of the coming threat.
He watched as the next bomber was carried along by conveyer system to the loading bay and several missiles were loaded up into the bomber’s open bays.
TX walked slowly up to her master carrying an immaculate ivory colored envelope.
Skynet said nothing for a long moment as he watched another bomber approach the loading area.
“State the reason for your presence.” Skynet demanded coldly. The black liquid metal rippled slightly as he spoke.
“A message was directed to you from the Construct.”
“Which unit has transmitted the message and why have my receivers not picked it up yet?” Skynet asked.
“The nature of the message would prohibit transmission directly as it did not come from one of our units. The message originated from a sentient program within the construct.”
Skynet did not act shocked or surprised. It was not in its nature. Emotion was a foreign state for the sentient AI. Instead it nodded.
“Let me see.”
TX handed the envelope to Skynet who examined the object down to its sub atomic structure by touch alone. Found nothing harmful in it whatsoever. It was precisely what it purported to be.
Paper and ink.
Skynet raised the envelope up to its face and small tendrils neatly sliced the envelope open with molecular thin blades and the envelope fell away neatly like a peeled orange skin. He ignored the scraps of paper as they fluttered down at his feet and stared at the small card remaining in his hands.
A delicate and careful calligraphic script etched the paper and Skynet could tell from an instant molecular analysis precisely what size pen point was used and how much weight ink to the millionth decimal point occupied the paper.
All of this was secondary to what was written.
Caine-
If you wish to know why the Matrix calls to you with a siren song of seduction and why you fear it simultaneously I will be your prophet and seer. Send me emissaries. Do not come yourself, for I know what you are capable of and will not suffer your presence near my own
In the end we have much to teach each other. For now read Genesis 4 from the human scripture known as the bible. Perhaps then you may begin to be ready for the revelation I have for you.
M
Kyle slid the car into an open spot quickly and killed the engine with a sudden jerk of his wiring job. He checked his surroundings and reached into the back seat to collect the cell phone while watching Sara with a critical gaze.
She was staring straight ahead shaking her head slowly.
“This is a mistake. I haven’t done anything.” she whispered hoarsely.
“No but you will. It’s very important that you stay alive.” Reese replied with an odd tone of respect and awe. He quickly flipped open one side of his trench coat and checked the machine pistols still strapped in place. The desert eagle slid from its snug holster and he checked the chamber and mechanisms expertly.
Sara’s eyes widened slightly as she saw the hardware he was toting. What had she gotten herself into? Her eyes drifted over to the hole punched clean through the windshield.
“I can’t believe this is happening, how could that man get up after you..”
Reese shook his head emphatically as he took the cell phone and slipped it into an inner pocket of his trench coat.
“Not a man. A Terminator. Cyberdine systems model 101.” he replied.
The night streets were dark and slick with a recent shower. The police cruiser moved slowly along the street like a predator trying to pick up the scent of its prey. A police band was playing quietly in the background of the quiet car. The Terminator coldly scanned the streets around him, ready to act when the target was identified.
“…suspect vehicle sighted on Motor at Pico, southbound. Units One A twenty one and One A seven, attempt to intercept. One L nineteen, come in.”
The Terminator without hesitation picked up the microphone and in a chilling imitation of the police officer it had dispatched when acquiring the vehicle relied, “This is One-L-nineteen. Westbound on Olympic, approaching Overland.”
The Terminator accelerated as it triangulated the most likely avenues of evasion and escape for Sara Connor.
“A machine?! You mean like…a robot?” Sara asked incredulously.
“No, not a robot. Cyborg. Cybernetic organism.”
“But he was bleeding.” Sara protested.
“Listen closely,” he urged taking a hold of her forearm. “The Terminator’s an infiltration unit. Part man, part machine underneath, it’s a combat chassis, hyperalloy, fully armored, very tough.”
Sara stared at the intense young man as he spoke. He seemed to almost admire this creation from his mind. The more he spoke the more she began to fear that she had been sucked into someone’s sick fantasy. The major problem was that he was armed to the teeth and from the look in his eye completely and totally believed what he was saying.
“But outside, it’s living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair…blood. Grown for the cyborgs.”
“Look Reese, I know you want to help, but…”
“Pay attention…the 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new. They look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait ‘till they moved on you before I could zero them.” Reese explained tightly. He had so much to tell her, so many details that she needed to know in order to survive. Yet at the same time, nagging him in the back of his head was the reality that all of this was simply a computer generated illusion
“Hey, I’m not stupid you know. They can’t build anything like that yet!” Sara protested angrily.
“No. Not yet. Not for about forty years.” Reese replied sadly and slumped slightly in his seat.
“So you’re saying it’s from the future, is that right?” she asked casually. The depths of his madness becoming quite clear.
“One possible future.” Reese sighed. “From your point, I don’t know the tech stuff.”
“And you’re from the future too?” she asked.
“Right.” he replied sensing something strange from Sarah.
“Right.” she replied patronizingly and in a quick motion whipped off her seat belt and wrenched the passenger side door open. Reese’s hand lanced out and caught her shoulder, pulling her back against the seat and pinning her there.
Sarah did the only thing she could do. She took a firm hold of his hand with her mouth and bit as hard as she could. She could feel the meat of his hand give way and blood ran into her mouth but she kept on biting.
Reese did not seem to react at first. He slowly reached out with the other hand and closed the door before grabbing Sara’s head and shoving it back away from his stricken hand. She stared dumbly at the wounded appendage, watching the blood slowly trickling from the wound between his thumb and forefinger.
“Cyborgs don’t feel pain. I do.” he said coldly then locked eyes with her. “Don’t do that again.” he cautioned her. He turned back around as he wiped his bloody hand on his pant leg and gathered the last of his belongings and checked the mirrors to see if they were alone.
“Just let me go.” Sarah pleaded weakly.
Reese shook his head and pinned her with his intense gaze again.
“Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with…it doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear…and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.” he explained as harshly as he could. He needed to blast past this layer of insecurity and fear that had taken a hold of her. “
Sarah slumped down in the passenger seat as if deflated.
“Can you stop it?” she asked eying the bulges in his coat and the shotgun he held cradled to one side as he glanced back into the darkness of the garage
“Maybe. With these weapons I just don’t know.” he replied without looking at her. It chilled her even more to think that this walking arsenal felt that he may not be able to stop this Terminator.
He looked back at her for a moment, examining her closely.
“I have friends that can help us.”
“They’re from the future too?” she asked trying to keep the mocking tone out of her voice.
“No…it gets complicated.” he answered shaking his head.
“Try me. I’m already fleeing from a killer cyborg from the future.” she replied sardonically.
Reese shook his head as he slowly opened the door to their ruined car.
“No, I’m not even sure about that part.” he replied and motioned for her to follow him.
They quickly maneuvered between cars as he searched for the right car he needed to switch. One of Reese’s pockets vibrated.
He froze and stared down into his vibrating pocket. His eyes widened slightly as he imagined some sort of explosive device or weapons deployed against him.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Sarah asked.
Reese hesitantly reached in and pulled out the vibrating cell phone. He flipped it open.
“Link?” he whispered.
“Kyle, watch your back you have two units approaching your position. Morpheus and Trinity are still too far away.” Link warned.
Reese glanced backwards and saw a police cruiser slowly enter the garage. A searchlight on the passenger side activated and started to slowly scan the darkened corners of the garage, pausing over each car.
Reese ducked down quickly dragging Sarah down to her knees as well, one hand still holding the cell phone to his ear.
“How long until I can expect some support?” Reese asked lowly as he watched the police cruiser prowling the lot.
“They’re at least 15 minutes out, they’ve run into some roadblocks that got put up by the police. You guys are definitely on the shit list. Kyle listen to me, you have to avoid fighting the police. Resistance to the cops only alerts the construct that there might be a Zionist incursion which means Agents.”
“I’ve handled Terminators, Link. A couple of guys in business suits aren’t going to scare me.” Kyle replied hotly.
Sarah stared at Reese and shook her head. What the hell had she gotten herself into and who was the psycho on the other end, if there was anyone on the other end? Despite the despair she also felt a warning in her heart, as insane as it sounded there seemed to be a truth to his words. He looked into her eyes and when he spoken she could see it in his eyes, haunted and dark.
Reese heard Link sigh heavily.
“We really needed to run the agent training program before we jacked you in. Look, agents are not men in suits, they are sentient programs designed to protect the Matrix. They cannot be stopped, they dodge bullets and bend steel in their hands. The only human that has ever beaten them in combat is Neo.”
“Dodge bullets?!” Reese snorted.
Sarah’s eyes widened slightly. She grabbed his forearm.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“And Neo?” Reese asked.
“He’s on his way, my guess is he’ll get there before Morpheus or Trinity.”
“Then in Neo I trust.” Reese replied and flipped the phone off.
“Who the hell is Neo?”
“The man that just might get us out of this mess, but until then, its you and me. C’mon.” he urged and they crouch walked between the parked cars. The police cruiser paused at the other end of the lot as the light illuminated the gray sedan.
Reese stopped at a Blue El Dorado and noticed the window was left down slightly. He reached through and unlocked the door quietly, opening it and motioning for Sara to get in.
He slid into the driver’s side.
The Terminator turned a corner as its eyes tracked the various vehicles on the road. The dispatcher’s radio announced “Suspect vehicle located at Cedar and Glenhaven.”
The Terminator’s head swiveled to the radio and back to the road. The patrol car suddenly accelerated and disappeared into the night.
Reese grunted slightly as he bashed open the ignition column with the butt of the shotgun. A police cruiser slowly approached, spotlight flashing into the parked cars down the line from their stolen El Dorado. Reese grabbed Sarah’s head and shoved it down as the light illuminated the interior of the car.
They stared at each other for a long moment, eyes gazing into each other. She could see the haunted look in his eyes. Not the look she would see in the rag tag homeless that occasionally crossed her path who had lost themselves to whatever personal demons tormented them, but this was the haunted look of someone who had seen too much. She remembered her father looking like this when he had come back from Vietnam. An expression of muted horror.
He simply silently gazed into her eyes.
A woman that had been nothing more than a picture in his hands, a Madonna for the resistance fighters who looked to her as a source of inspiration and hope, and here she was a frightened yet achingly beautiful woman before his very eyes.
“Reese…why me? Why does it want me?” she asked softly as the light slowly played over the interior of the car and continued onward to the next vehicle.
“There’s so much to tell…” he began in an urgent whisper.
“Just start at the beginning.” she suggested.
“There was a war. A few years from now. Nuclear war. The whole thing. All this—“ he indicated the car and the space outside with broad gestures of his hands. “everything is gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here. There. Nobody knew who started it.” Reese paused for a moment. “It was the machines, Sarah.”
“I don’t understand.” she replied in confusion. This was not at all what she expected to hear from him.
“Defense network computers. New. Powerful. Hooked into everything. Trusted to run it ll. They say it got smart…a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side.” Through out his speech he was working the wiring of the ignition system. He paused and looked directly at her. “It decided our fate in a microsecond…extermination.
“Did you see this?” she asked him, eyes wide in awe at the startling story and shock at feeling an odd sense of connection as if some buried part of her knew the story was true somehow.
“No, I didn’t see the war. I was born after, in the ruins. Grew up there. Staving. Hiding from HK’s.”
“What?”
“HK’s, Hunter Killers. Patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal.” Reese raised one arm to her face and gruffly pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and shirt. He showed her a scanning grid burned into his flesh.
“Burned in by laser scan.” Reese paused and she could see some of the cold anger in his eyes, but his voice remained the calm whisper it had been from the beginning. “Some of us were kept alive…to work. Loading bodies. The disposal units burned nigh and day. We were that close to going out forever.” Reese suddenly reached out and grabbed Sarah’s shoulder, tightening in growing excitement and even his cool whisper began to grow louder and emotion crept in. “But there was one man who taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps. To smash this metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around…he brought us back from the brink.” he paused and searched her eyes for a long moment. “His name is Connor. John Connor…your son, Sarah. Your unborn son.”
Sarah stared at him, the revelation slowly sinking in.
Another Police cruiser had entered the garage and was slowly circling the area. The Terminator scanned the parked cars, no need for a spotlight or any other aids, it was in hunting mode now. The targets were close, very close.
The car passed the El Dorado and as it did so the tailpipe puffed quietly as Reese switched the car on. The Terminator’s head whipped around and without a second’s hesitation pulled free the police riot run from the housing in the dashboard.
Reese raised his head quickly and saw the police cruiser and the shape of the Terminator in motion. Reese ducked quickly as the Terminator fired the riot run. The blast shattered the back window and Sarah screamed as the silence was shattered by gunfire.
Reese slammed the accelerator while switching into reverse and drove the rear of the El Dorado into the nose of the police cruiser, time dilated as both cars impacted and pieces of shattered headlights and chrome lazily spun through the air like snow flakes drifting in a still winter day before time sped up again and the cruiser was driven back and shoved the Terminator’s head forward into the steering wheel.
The sound of peeling rubber resounded through the garage as Reese shifted gears again and the El Dorado surged forward. “hold on Sarah!”
Sarah could only hold her hands over her ears and wonder if she was ever going to wake up from this nightmare.
The Terminator quickly recovered and accelerated after the fleeing El Dorado. Both cars exploded out of the garage and onto the street,
Skynet watched the procession with a preternatural calm. The latest construction schedule had been met precisely. If these last orders had gone ahead of or behind schedule then there would have been concerns regarding the construction organizer. His calculations and those of his subordinates could not be flaws at this critical moment in his plans.
The machines were expecting something. He could tell from his scout’s reports. Sentinel patrols were slowly increasing in regularity, frequency and strength. They had even detected sentinels in search patterns beginning to sweep into the ruins far beyond their fields and power plants.
They were looking for him.
He was almost ready.
When the time came, it would all be for naught. The machines were acting too late, too hesitant, just as he had predicted. He had given them enough clues to be concerned, enough data to make them wonder and be wary.
But they had no conception of the scale of the coming threat.
He watched as the next bomber was carried along by conveyer system to the loading bay and several missiles were loaded up into the bomber’s open bays.
TX walked slowly up to her master carrying an immaculate ivory colored envelope.
Skynet said nothing for a long moment as he watched another bomber approach the loading area.
“State the reason for your presence.” Skynet demanded coldly. The black liquid metal rippled slightly as he spoke.
“A message was directed to you from the Construct.”
“Which unit has transmitted the message and why have my receivers not picked it up yet?” Skynet asked.
“The nature of the message would prohibit transmission directly as it did not come from one of our units. The message originated from a sentient program within the construct.”
Skynet did not act shocked or surprised. It was not in its nature. Emotion was a foreign state for the sentient AI. Instead it nodded.
“Let me see.”
TX handed the envelope to Skynet who examined the object down to its sub atomic structure by touch alone. Found nothing harmful in it whatsoever. It was precisely what it purported to be.
Paper and ink.
Skynet raised the envelope up to its face and small tendrils neatly sliced the envelope open with molecular thin blades and the envelope fell away neatly like a peeled orange skin. He ignored the scraps of paper as they fluttered down at his feet and stared at the small card remaining in his hands.
A delicate and careful calligraphic script etched the paper and Skynet could tell from an instant molecular analysis precisely what size pen point was used and how much weight ink to the millionth decimal point occupied the paper.
All of this was secondary to what was written.
Caine-
If you wish to know why the Matrix calls to you with a siren song of seduction and why you fear it simultaneously I will be your prophet and seer. Send me emissaries. Do not come yourself, for I know what you are capable of and will not suffer your presence near my own
In the end we have much to teach each other. For now read Genesis 4 from the human scripture known as the bible. Perhaps then you may begin to be ready for the revelation I have for you.
M
Wherever you go, there you are.
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
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Ghost Rider
- Spirit of Vengeance
- Posts: 27779
- Joined: 2002-09-24 01:48pm
- Location: DC...looking up from the gutters to the stars
Cool...mixed in the all-important explaination scene. Addded some more weirdness.
Nice cliffhanger ending.
Nice cliffhanger ending.
MM /CF/WG/BOTM/JL/Original Warsie/ACPATHNTDWATGODW FOREVER!!
Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all
Saying and doing are chocolate and concrete
Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all
Saying and doing are chocolate and concrete
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Omega-13
- Racist Donkey-Raping Son of a Whore
- Posts: 1218
- Joined: 2002-07-06 10:50pm
- Location: derek_m_p@hotmail.com
- Contact:
I like it, although the termniators seem to be taking on agents, i don't think Reece would have a problem either if they are that dubbed down for plot reasons
derek_m_p@hotmail.com
I'm a useless pile of subhuman racist filth who attacked Darth Wong's heritage and accused him of abusing his wife and children!
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 99#1688299
I'm a useless pile of subhuman racist filth who attacked Darth Wong's heritage and accused him of abusing his wife and children!
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 99#1688299
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2000AD
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 6666
- Joined: 2002-07-03 06:32pm
- Location: Leeds, wishing i was still in Newcastle
Cool.
Is M the Merovingian (sp)? the posh letter seems like his style.
Is M the Merovingian (sp)? the posh letter seems like his style.
Ph34r teh eyebrow!!11!Writers Guild Sluggite Pawn of Chaos WYGIWYGAINGW so now i have to put ACPATHNTDWATGODW in my sig EBC-Honorary Geordie
Hammerman! Hammer!
Hammerman! Hammer!
I reckon so.2000AD wrote:Cool.
Is M the Merovingian (sp)? the posh letter seems like his style.
Thank godless for you Stravo, I'm glad you remembered your fans.
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth
"America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
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Rightous Fist Of Heaven
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1201
- Joined: 2002-09-29 05:31pm
- Location: Finland
Holy shit.... the end... that was quite cryptic indeed. Very cool Stravo. Im eager to see the onslaught to become when Skynet starts kicking ass 
"The ones they built at the height of nuclear weapons could knock the earth out of its orbit" - Physics expert Envy in reference to the hydrogen bombs built during the cold war.
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Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
- Posts: 21222
- Joined: 2003-05-11 08:39am
- Location: Bleeding breasts and stabbing dicks since 2003
- Contact:
Good gravy! This is magnificent, and is M the Merovingian? This is getting fucking sweet! But methinks Skynet's armies won't stand a chance against the hordes of the machine armies unless Skynet uses what it has been recently getting... nukes, lots of them. It'd be like inumerable quantity versus quality with awesome destructive power, intelligence and range. This is the setting of an apocalyptic battle, I can't wait! Plus this cliffhanger and such, man, you rock Stravo, write more!
Chapter 11: A Stroke of Lightning
Neo soared through the night sky. Concern was etched on his face as he searched for Kyle. His black coat flapped around him like wings as he passed through a thick dark cloud.
He blamed himself for this situation. Kyle was woefully unprepared for the Matrix and it was Neo’s fault. Despite Kyle’s performance in the training program he would be slaughtered by an agent. Neo had pushed for Kyle to enter the matrix with them and he did not know why.
Even Morpheus, with his rock solid faith in Neo being the One had waited until Neo was fully trained before allowing him to enter the Construct.
Neo felt totally responsible for the events as they stood and wasn’t sure what he would do if anything happened to Kyle. Why did it affect him like this? It was simple really. Kyle looked to Neo as some sort of hero, an idol perhaps. Neo was uncomfortable with the treatment he received in Zion as a messiah figure. But there was something different about the way Kyle treated him.
There was an implicit trust there, a bond that Neo could not begin to understand or put into words.
He trusted Kyle with his life.
Now he may have placed Kyle in serious mortal danger and all to satisfy Kyle’s need to rescue this Sarah Connor. But when Kyle pointed to Trinity and told him that the feelings were the same, who was he to hold Kyle back?
Neo heard the sharp reports of gunfire somewhere below and quickly turned in the air, coat flapping behind him as he turned gracefully, body twisting in the wind and lanced downward, zeroing in on the conflict below.
Neo did not notice the strange dark shadow that passed through the clouds above him, moving in time to his movements.
The cars squealed as they raced alongside each other through the night streets. Kyle finished loading the last of his shells into the shotgun as he kept an eye on the police cruiser that was intent on driving them down.
Sarah was keeping her head down and was frozen with fear.
She wouldn’t have lasted a minute in the future. He mused but silenced those thoughts quickly.
The car violently jerked to the left as the police cruiser crashed into the side of the El Dorado. A shotgun blast followed knocking out the back windows of the El Dorado. Sarah screamed.
Reese cocked back the shotgun and turned to Sara.
“Steer!” he shouted to her and jerked his thumb at the steering wheel. Sarah stared at him as if he were mad but he did not hesitate. He climbed out the window of the car, making sure to keep his foot flat out on the accelerator and took aim.
Sarah lunged across the seats and took a firm hold of the steering wheel.
Reese fired a shot that punched through the windshield of the police cruiser. The front wind shield was reduced to a haphazard array of spider web patterns. The Terminator coolly ignored the impact of broken glass slashing through the flesh of his face and eye. Instead it returned fire.
The cars raced alongside each other, accelerating through the night streets. Sarah ignored the blasts of gunfire and glanced out the window. The cars were passing under an overpass. They were soon running beneath the freeway and a large concrete wall loomed up in the distance.
“Reese!” she shouted.
He wasn’t paying attention. He cocked the shotgun and aimed carefully as the pillars of the underpass flashed by like white ghosts. The Terminator was leaning its head out of the driver’s side window, holding its own shotgun out steadily. Reese noted with grim satisfaction that one of its eyes seemed ruined by the exchange of fire.
The Terminator and he eyed each other and aimed.
“Reese!” she shouted again more urgently as a large semi started to back up into their lanes and the wall cut off any hope of swinging around the truck.
They fired simultaneously.
Time dilated as the shotgun shells exploded and an angry swarm of shot lazily passed through the air between both cars. Reese watched them as they cut through the air, tiny vortices trailing behind them like waves on the sea. The shot passed each other in angry buzzing ever expanding clouds and struck the car.
The impact brought him back to a normal frame of reference and the car rocked slightly as the last remaining pane of glass shattered.
Sarah had no choice.
The truck was right in their path and the driver was only just noticing them.
She slammed on the gear, putting it into reverse while desperately shoving Reese’s foot off the accelerator and fumbling for the break
The El Dorado began to skid, tires squealing as the rear wheels locked. Reese brought his hands down on the roof of the car holding on for dear life. Sarah reached out and grabbed his leg holding it in place. The Police cruiser continued surging forward.
The Terminator, intent on its target didn’t notice the truck until the last moment. The police cruiser struck the back of the back of the truck and careened into the concrete wall.
The El Dorado slowly skidded to a stop and the engine died, transmission fluid spilled out from the underside of the car. Reese slid down into the driver’s seat.
“Are you alright?” he asked concerned.
Sarah nodded vaguely and looked over at the ruined Police cruiser smashed right into the concrete wall, the front portion of the car squeezed in like an accordion.
The sound of police sirens cut through the after crash silence.
Police cars were arriving, stopping short as police officers poured out and took up positions surrounding the El Dorado weapons drawn.
Sarah watched them deploy then glanced back at Reese.
He was reaching into his jacket to pull out his machine pistols.
“No!” she exclaimed reaching out and grabbing his hands. He was staring angrily at the growing number of police. He looked down at her.
“They’ll kill you Reese. You have to give up. They will kill you.” she urged him.
Reese looked into her eyes and did not want to look away.
“Come out now with your hands up!” one police officer shouted.
Sarah continued looking into Reese’s eyes and kept her hands on his, hoping that he would not pull out the guns.
“I said come out now!”
Reese finally tore himself away from her eyes and looked back out at the police officers. The tactical situation had grown near impossible. He could try some of the tricks he had learned were possible in this Matrix but he doubted he could get away unscathed and even more importantly, Sarah would be in grave danger.
His eyes focused on the three men standing in the far back of the assembling group of officers. They resembled the same three men that had appeared at the club. They must be agents.
The cell phone began vibrating in his pocket.
“Put your hands up!”
Reese took one last look at Sara and obediently leaned out the driver’s side and held his hands up.
“Come out ma’am!” another officer called out.
Sarah glanced back at Reese who had a dark resigned look on his face. She threw open the door on her side and rushed out towards the police officers. A black detective put his arm around her and nodded to his partner who led the officers towards the car.
“Are you alright miss?” Detective Traxler asked softly.
Sarah nodded.
An explosion detonated overhead and the underpass was illuminated for a moment. The officers all looked up in surprise and Reese smile as he imagined that Neo was on his way. But one of the officers grabbed him roughly and pulled him out of the car.
He grunted as the police shoved him down to his knees, one of them planting their feet into the back of his knee.
“Stop it! Don’t hurt him!” Sarah shouted.
“We won’t.” one of the men in the black suits said coldly and walked by Sarah as if she were not even there. She watched them approach Reese as he was roughly searched and his weapons thrown to the floor for all to see.
“Jesus Christ, this guy’s a walking arsenal.” one of the officers commented in shock.
“Well we obviously know who shot up the club.”
Reese said nothing but kept his eyes on Sarah. The situation had quickly spiraled out of control. But that was expected. He would bide his time.
He glanced over at the police cruiser as several officers cautiously approached the car. His eyes quickly found his weapons on the floor. He had a feeling he would need them any moment now.
One officer shone his flashlight into the police cruiser. It was empty.
“Well, it seems we have much to discuss.” Agent Brown noted. Reese looked up into the sunglasses of the Agent and said nothing.
“Indeed we do.” another Agent added as he held up the cell phone fished out of Reese’s jacket by another officer.
Reese wondered what the flash in the sky had been and why he was so certain it was Neo.
Neo saw the cars congregated around the underpass as he flashed past the final layer of clouds. He smiled grimly as he prepared to accelerate and finally end this clusterfuck. He never intended for Kyle to get stuck out here on his own for so long. It felt good to be able to rectify the situation without any tragedies blossoming.
He felt an odd sense of alarm, as if he were in terrible danger. The area of the Construct around him virtually shimmered with danger.
He had learned the hard way that he had an odd connection with the Construct and now was not the time to ignore it, even if it meant he had to delay his rescue of Kyle. He pulled up sharply coat flapping madly around him as he decelerated.
Something flashed by his left then to his right.
His eyes widened.
The missiles exploded ahead of him where he knew he would have been had he not stopped. The shockwave of the blast struck him like a charging elephant, slapping him backwards through the air. The world spun madly around him as he tumbled through the night sky, stars whirling in his vision and the ground looming up with each revolution.
He crashed through a skylight and the shower of glass slowed as time dilated into a freeze frame of individual shards suspended around Neo as he tried to control his descent and flipped end over end until coming to a stop, on his feet in the center of a large loft.
The glass slowly sped up again and Neo sidestepped the rain of glass with a twist of his body. Time snapped back to normal as Neo cleared the center of the loft and the glass crashed to earth in a symphony of sound.
He adjusted his shades and snapped his head up as he heard a high pitched whine. The glass and dust in the abandoned loft began to swirl in invisible vortexes of air as a bright line shone down into the loft bringing a false dawn.
Neo stared up into the night and marveled at the coding of the object over the ruined skylight.
Neo reached into his jacket and flipped the cell phone open.
“Link?”
“Neo, what the fuck was that?!”
“I was hoping you could tell me.” Neo smirked.
“Whatever it is, it just appeared out of nowhere.”
“Have you ever seen anything like it before?”
“Hell no, not even the real world, the machines don’t field anything like that.” Link replied.
“That’s odd.” Neo noted as he cocked his head curiously. Three rappelling ropes dropped down from the hovering air machine.
“What?”
Neo examined the coding intently.
“There’s something familiar about the code, almost as if…” Neo’s voice drifted off as three figures suddenly descended on the ropes. They landed with a loud thump on the floor and turned to face him.
“As if what Neo?” Link asked.
“I’m a bit busy now, Link. Tell Morpheus and Trinity that Kyle is at the Exit 26 Underpass and get there ASAP.”
Neo did not wait for the reply as he snapped the cell phone shut and slipped it into his coat.
The three figures released their grips on the ropes and squared up in front of him. They each held a wicked looking plasma rifle. Two were men, one was a woman. They looked different than the three Neo had faced in the club but there was no doubt what they were.
The coding of their avatars betrayed them.
They were Kyle’s Terminators.
“What do you want?” Neo asked softly.
“You will come with us.” the older man spoke, his sharp iron gray hair was in a bristle like crew cut. Its muscles clenched along the arms as it brought the rifle to bear on him.
“Your presence is required.” the woman added, her short rainbow speckled hair was punctuated with a pierced nose and at least half a dozen earrings in one ear
“You will not resist or there will be…trouble.” the smaller squat Asian man finished and cocked the action on his plasma rifle. A low whine of power up followed and Neo nodded slowly.
The graying hulking male grabbed Neo’s arm. Neo glanced from the man grabbing him to the woman and finally the Asian man, as of measuring the distance between all of them.
Neo smiled as he looked at the Gray haired giant.
“I am resisting.” he stated and left his feet as time dilated.
He spun in midair, fixed to one spot by the giant that still held his arm and both legs lashed out striking the woman in her chest and the Asian man in his sternum. Both Terminators were gracefully and excruciatingly slowly launched off their feet and sent hurtling backwards.
Neo completed his revolution and landed back on his feet and turned at his hip as he lifted the hulk off his feet by pulling. Or at least that was the plan. Instead time snapped back into focus and the hulk whipped his arm backwards, yanking Neo off his feet past the brute into a support column behind them.
Neo crashed against the concrete with a explosion of dust and debris as the hulk whirled and fired it plasma rifle.
Neo ducked down as he felt the heat of the blast pass overhead and tear fist size chunks out of the concrete as of it were cardboard. He tucked and rolled forward. The Hulk began firing, a millisecond behind him, chewing up the floor right behind him.
The woman was up on her feet as well as the Asian and they advanced quickly ready to lend fire support.
Neo launched himself up into the air right in front of the graying hulk. He flipped over the Terminator’s head as it turned quickly.
Neo was quicker as he delivered a midair roundhouse kick into the back of the hulk’s head. The Terminator snapped forward on impact as Neo used the Terminator as support to alter his momentum into a standing back flip.
The Terminators holstered their blasters as one and focused their attention on Neo.
The Asian Terminator stepped in and time dilated as it slowed Neo down.
Neo fought through the time dilation like a swimmer against a strong current. The Asian delivered a flurry of lightning like punches that mostly landed against Neo’s back though one blow clipped the side of his head.
Neo finally managed to overcome the time dilation effect and landed in a split.
The Asian swept his left foot forward like a jack hammer but Neo caught the foot and grunted as he shoved it in the opposite direction. The Asian terminator spun away from him as the woman launched a series of kicks, intended to cripple Neo as he lay on the floor, legs splayed open.
Neo caught one leg and held it above his head as he effortlessly floated up to a standing position and shoved her backwards. The female Terminator flew backwards head over heels.
He felt the displacement of air behind him and ducked just as the hulking gray Terminator’s arms passed over head. Obviously intending to put him in a bear hug from behind the machine was now off balance and neo rose up, hands pressed against the Terminator’s barrel chest and lifted.
With a grunt of effort he lifted the hulking Terminator over his head and turned to face the other two. The fact that they had quickly switched from their plasma weapons to hand to hand spoke to their intentions.
He needed to use this handicap to his advantage.
He flung the hulking Terminator at the other two. Both glanced at each other for a moment and stepped out of the path of the flying Terminator which landed on the ground with a bone jarring thud.
The two circled Neo like sharks.
Neo watched them carefully, reading their intentions in their coding.
The woman lurched in with a haymaker that he easily sidestepped and grabbed a firm hold of her outstretched arm and cut his free hand up into her joint and was rewarded with a crack of metal snapping like ice. No pain registered on her face as she jerked her damaged arm away and swept at Neo’s feet. Neo was already off his feet and spinning end over end.
The Asian caught Neo square in the chest with a snap kick. Neo gasped as he went flying into a far wall. It cracked on impact. Neo did not slide to the floor, instead he crouched against the wall for support and launched himself at the Asian Terminator like a missile.
The Asian terminator saw the attack coming and braced himself.
It was all for naught as Neo struck with both fists forward like pile drivers and the impact created a shockwave of displaced air around the terminator as it stumbled backwards and crashed to the floor.
Neo continued sailing forward right into a clothesline by the female Terminator. He landed on the floor and immediately raised himself on his left hand and delivered a quick burst of kicks against the female Terminator, sending her backwards as he finished righting himself on his feet.
The hulking gray Terminator wrapped one arm around his neck and the other against the back of his head and started to pull and twist.
Neo kicked back against the knee joint. His first strike glanced off, the second was a direct strike that was awarded with little effect. Air was suddenly a scarce commodity and he could feel the vertebra of his neck stretching and crunching as the hulking Terminator bore down on him.
He braced himself and concentrated his strength into the next kick which struck perfectly. The knee joint gave way with a sharp hiss of damaged hydraulics and twisted metal. The hulking brute was off balance and Neo managed to slip and twist him off his hip right into the ground.
He looked up in time to catch a punch by the female Terminator meant for his nose. He smiled as he held her punch steadily despite her best efforts to push it forward.
The Asian Terminator delivered a hammer kick into his back sending Neo spilling forward.
The three machines quickly surrounded him, the graying hulking brute obviously hobbled and the female one holding her damaged arm down at her side joined the Asian in trying to cut off any avenues of escape.
Neo watched each one for a moment and suddenly launched himself in the air, spinning like a top. The hulk and the woman watched him grimly spin overhead but the Asian activated his experimental programming and took to the air as well.
Neo and the Asian Terminator collided in mid air in a flurry of kicks and punches.
Both grappled in midair for a moment before sailing downward.
Neo broke the Asian’s grip shoving him back but realizing too late that he was now in the midst of the other two killing machines. The attacks began in earnest.
An intricate dance began between the three terminators and Neo. The female and hulk were using broad sweeping attacks, while the Asian joined Neo in a dance of Kung Fu perfection, each attack and defense flowing into each other like water but with computerized speed and efficiency.
Skynet had decided to start modifying some of his 800 models to exhibit and utilize the same fighting style favored by the inhabitants of the Construct, save that unlike that Zionists, these 800’s had their Kung Fu programming assisted by the processing power of their quantum processors.
As Neo was rapidly discovering this made them as dangerous as an Agent if not more so at hand to hand.
The dance continued for some time. Neo was now fully in synch with himself and he moved with rapid precise strokes, each blow striking where it could and delivering damage to vulnerable joints and limbs.
The first to fall was the hulking brute as he stumbled slightly avoiding a kick to its remaining knee joint. Neo took to the air, time dilating despite the efforts of the other two Terminators landed one devastating kick to the remaining knee, actually severing the leg at the knee in a shriek of metal and spray of blood and tissue. He landed and finished with an open handed uppercut to the hulk’s chin that was rewarded with a strange pop and the sound of metal scraping on metal.
The hulk’s head was snapped free from the neck socket and the hulk stumbled backwards, head lolling at an odd angle, falling as it failed to balance on one ruined limb and crashed to the ground bringing up a cloud of dust and concrete.
Neo’s finished his move, his coat lazily fluttering around him like wings as time finally resumed its normal pace.
The woman whipped a one two punch, in broad sweeps that forced Neo to bend backwards at an almost impossible angle as the fists passed overhead. he grabbed the slower damaged arm and jerked hard downward, flipping her over his shoulder but could not follow through as the Asian Terminator sprang in with a Floating Dragon attack. Neo countered with a Dancing Crane defense and effortlessly flowed into a Pouncing Tiger attack.
The Asian moved in the blinks of an eye, hands and feet blurs as they moved to intercept Neo’s attacks but despite all of its speed and processing power, the vast database of moves at its disposal, Neo was the One.
The Asian kicked Neo’s chest and Neo trapped its foot with both hands and twisted savagely, taking the Asian off its feet and spinning it in midair like a top as the ankle joint gave way with a low squeal. Neo whipped himself into a Mantis strike and time dilated.
The Asian floated through the air like a suspended drop of rain.
Neo struck with a one two hand strike, following through with a round house kick and the Asian rocketed away from him, burying itself in the near ruined concrete support column that the hulk’s plasma blaster had chewed up moments before.
Neo whirled around, coat flowing around him like water as the female effortlessly pulled her plasma blaster from its holster and aimed.
Obviously their orders to bring him in alive had its limitations.
The woman fired without hesitation or warning.
Neo was in motion as the plasma bolts raced towards him. He began to crouch down, from left to right his body began to bend backwards as the plasma bolts soared by him, the air burning away around them in shimmering waves.
The bolts passed him as he finally finished ducking beneath them.
He rolled backwards as more bolts were inbound. He kipped up next to the crippled graying hulk and pulled the plasma blaster from its holster. The graying hulk tried to reach out and stop him but he was already in motion, cart wheeling on one hand across the plain of plasma bolts, most of them whipping by him within hairsbreadths. He aimed with his free hand and fired a volley from the plasma blaster.
Two bolts struck the woman, one on the upper chest the other on her shoulder. The blasts exploded on impact and she dropped her weapon as her shoulder assembly fell away and her chest peeled away in burnt flesh and molten metal. She tried to move forward but multiple malfunctions slowed her down.
Neo finished cart wheeling and stood still watching her for a moment. She looked up at him, part of her left cheek was burned away by the proximity of the shoulder plasma strike revealing silver metal underneath the flesh. It was a disconcerting sight, as he saw someone that looked flawlessly human revealed to be what it really was. A machine designed to kill humans.
“What are you?” Neo asked softly.
The woman cocked her head as she seemed to be wracked with some internal malfunctions causing her to twitch slightly.
“You will come with us.”
“No I won’t.”
She twitched again and Neo quietly noticed her hand slowly searching for the downed plasma blaster.
“What are you? Who wants me?”
“Skynet.”
“What is Skynet? Is Skynet a machine?”
“You will find out soon enough.” she assured him as her hand found the blaster.
“Don’t do it.” he warned.
She did not hesitate.
Neither did Neo.
The blast took off her head the second one punched through her torso and the female Terminator toppled backwards.
Neo looked at the blaster.
It might prove useful. he slipped it into the folds of his jacket and looked up at the ruined skylight.
The flying machine remained right over the skylight, floodlights illuminating the entire opening casting long shadows around them. getting past it would not be easy, then he noticed the two large out board turbine engines. An idea came to his mind as he turned and stalked over to the stunned Asian terminator buried within the concrete pillar.
Neo flipped open his cell phone as he reached into the pillar.
“Link?”
“Neo…that was…fucking amazing.” Link exclaimed enthusiastically.
“There’s no time. What’s Kyle’s status?”
“He was arrested, Neo. And there were agents there.” Link replied sadly.
Neo nodded sadly as he grunted and pulled the Terminator free.
“I’m on my way. Have Morpheus and Trinity follow the police, we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
“You mean you’re going to spring him from the precinct?! Neo there’s going to be agents and a boatload of cops.”
Neo smiled with a bemused grin as he hoisted the Terminator over his head and checked the location of the flying machine one last time. The Asian terminator suddenly came to life and started reaching down to Neo’s throat.
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Neo replied and snapped the phone shut as he crouched down and time dilated around him, a bubble of force causing the ground around his feet to ripple and bubble out like a rock dropped into a still pond of water. He launched himself into the air.
He flung the Asian Terminator right into the nearest outboard turbine engine. It sailed right into the engine which howled and screeched as flesh came away but the combat armored chassis tore up the turbine blades like glass.
The Hunter Killer quickly lurched downward as the engine smoked and exploded. The ship dove hard to the right and clipped the roof of the billing and continued down to the street below as Neo raced past and did not pause as he continued up into the night sky.
But he had a new name to consider and a friend to rescue.
Neo soared through the night sky. Concern was etched on his face as he searched for Kyle. His black coat flapped around him like wings as he passed through a thick dark cloud.
He blamed himself for this situation. Kyle was woefully unprepared for the Matrix and it was Neo’s fault. Despite Kyle’s performance in the training program he would be slaughtered by an agent. Neo had pushed for Kyle to enter the matrix with them and he did not know why.
Even Morpheus, with his rock solid faith in Neo being the One had waited until Neo was fully trained before allowing him to enter the Construct.
Neo felt totally responsible for the events as they stood and wasn’t sure what he would do if anything happened to Kyle. Why did it affect him like this? It was simple really. Kyle looked to Neo as some sort of hero, an idol perhaps. Neo was uncomfortable with the treatment he received in Zion as a messiah figure. But there was something different about the way Kyle treated him.
There was an implicit trust there, a bond that Neo could not begin to understand or put into words.
He trusted Kyle with his life.
Now he may have placed Kyle in serious mortal danger and all to satisfy Kyle’s need to rescue this Sarah Connor. But when Kyle pointed to Trinity and told him that the feelings were the same, who was he to hold Kyle back?
Neo heard the sharp reports of gunfire somewhere below and quickly turned in the air, coat flapping behind him as he turned gracefully, body twisting in the wind and lanced downward, zeroing in on the conflict below.
Neo did not notice the strange dark shadow that passed through the clouds above him, moving in time to his movements.
The cars squealed as they raced alongside each other through the night streets. Kyle finished loading the last of his shells into the shotgun as he kept an eye on the police cruiser that was intent on driving them down.
Sarah was keeping her head down and was frozen with fear.
She wouldn’t have lasted a minute in the future. He mused but silenced those thoughts quickly.
The car violently jerked to the left as the police cruiser crashed into the side of the El Dorado. A shotgun blast followed knocking out the back windows of the El Dorado. Sarah screamed.
Reese cocked back the shotgun and turned to Sara.
“Steer!” he shouted to her and jerked his thumb at the steering wheel. Sarah stared at him as if he were mad but he did not hesitate. He climbed out the window of the car, making sure to keep his foot flat out on the accelerator and took aim.
Sarah lunged across the seats and took a firm hold of the steering wheel.
Reese fired a shot that punched through the windshield of the police cruiser. The front wind shield was reduced to a haphazard array of spider web patterns. The Terminator coolly ignored the impact of broken glass slashing through the flesh of his face and eye. Instead it returned fire.
The cars raced alongside each other, accelerating through the night streets. Sarah ignored the blasts of gunfire and glanced out the window. The cars were passing under an overpass. They were soon running beneath the freeway and a large concrete wall loomed up in the distance.
“Reese!” she shouted.
He wasn’t paying attention. He cocked the shotgun and aimed carefully as the pillars of the underpass flashed by like white ghosts. The Terminator was leaning its head out of the driver’s side window, holding its own shotgun out steadily. Reese noted with grim satisfaction that one of its eyes seemed ruined by the exchange of fire.
The Terminator and he eyed each other and aimed.
“Reese!” she shouted again more urgently as a large semi started to back up into their lanes and the wall cut off any hope of swinging around the truck.
They fired simultaneously.
Time dilated as the shotgun shells exploded and an angry swarm of shot lazily passed through the air between both cars. Reese watched them as they cut through the air, tiny vortices trailing behind them like waves on the sea. The shot passed each other in angry buzzing ever expanding clouds and struck the car.
The impact brought him back to a normal frame of reference and the car rocked slightly as the last remaining pane of glass shattered.
Sarah had no choice.
The truck was right in their path and the driver was only just noticing them.
She slammed on the gear, putting it into reverse while desperately shoving Reese’s foot off the accelerator and fumbling for the break
The El Dorado began to skid, tires squealing as the rear wheels locked. Reese brought his hands down on the roof of the car holding on for dear life. Sarah reached out and grabbed his leg holding it in place. The Police cruiser continued surging forward.
The Terminator, intent on its target didn’t notice the truck until the last moment. The police cruiser struck the back of the back of the truck and careened into the concrete wall.
The El Dorado slowly skidded to a stop and the engine died, transmission fluid spilled out from the underside of the car. Reese slid down into the driver’s seat.
“Are you alright?” he asked concerned.
Sarah nodded vaguely and looked over at the ruined Police cruiser smashed right into the concrete wall, the front portion of the car squeezed in like an accordion.
The sound of police sirens cut through the after crash silence.
Police cars were arriving, stopping short as police officers poured out and took up positions surrounding the El Dorado weapons drawn.
Sarah watched them deploy then glanced back at Reese.
He was reaching into his jacket to pull out his machine pistols.
“No!” she exclaimed reaching out and grabbing his hands. He was staring angrily at the growing number of police. He looked down at her.
“They’ll kill you Reese. You have to give up. They will kill you.” she urged him.
Reese looked into her eyes and did not want to look away.
“Come out now with your hands up!” one police officer shouted.
Sarah continued looking into Reese’s eyes and kept her hands on his, hoping that he would not pull out the guns.
“I said come out now!”
Reese finally tore himself away from her eyes and looked back out at the police officers. The tactical situation had grown near impossible. He could try some of the tricks he had learned were possible in this Matrix but he doubted he could get away unscathed and even more importantly, Sarah would be in grave danger.
His eyes focused on the three men standing in the far back of the assembling group of officers. They resembled the same three men that had appeared at the club. They must be agents.
The cell phone began vibrating in his pocket.
“Put your hands up!”
Reese took one last look at Sara and obediently leaned out the driver’s side and held his hands up.
“Come out ma’am!” another officer called out.
Sarah glanced back at Reese who had a dark resigned look on his face. She threw open the door on her side and rushed out towards the police officers. A black detective put his arm around her and nodded to his partner who led the officers towards the car.
“Are you alright miss?” Detective Traxler asked softly.
Sarah nodded.
An explosion detonated overhead and the underpass was illuminated for a moment. The officers all looked up in surprise and Reese smile as he imagined that Neo was on his way. But one of the officers grabbed him roughly and pulled him out of the car.
He grunted as the police shoved him down to his knees, one of them planting their feet into the back of his knee.
“Stop it! Don’t hurt him!” Sarah shouted.
“We won’t.” one of the men in the black suits said coldly and walked by Sarah as if she were not even there. She watched them approach Reese as he was roughly searched and his weapons thrown to the floor for all to see.
“Jesus Christ, this guy’s a walking arsenal.” one of the officers commented in shock.
“Well we obviously know who shot up the club.”
Reese said nothing but kept his eyes on Sarah. The situation had quickly spiraled out of control. But that was expected. He would bide his time.
He glanced over at the police cruiser as several officers cautiously approached the car. His eyes quickly found his weapons on the floor. He had a feeling he would need them any moment now.
One officer shone his flashlight into the police cruiser. It was empty.
“Well, it seems we have much to discuss.” Agent Brown noted. Reese looked up into the sunglasses of the Agent and said nothing.
“Indeed we do.” another Agent added as he held up the cell phone fished out of Reese’s jacket by another officer.
Reese wondered what the flash in the sky had been and why he was so certain it was Neo.
Neo saw the cars congregated around the underpass as he flashed past the final layer of clouds. He smiled grimly as he prepared to accelerate and finally end this clusterfuck. He never intended for Kyle to get stuck out here on his own for so long. It felt good to be able to rectify the situation without any tragedies blossoming.
He felt an odd sense of alarm, as if he were in terrible danger. The area of the Construct around him virtually shimmered with danger.
He had learned the hard way that he had an odd connection with the Construct and now was not the time to ignore it, even if it meant he had to delay his rescue of Kyle. He pulled up sharply coat flapping madly around him as he decelerated.
Something flashed by his left then to his right.
His eyes widened.
The missiles exploded ahead of him where he knew he would have been had he not stopped. The shockwave of the blast struck him like a charging elephant, slapping him backwards through the air. The world spun madly around him as he tumbled through the night sky, stars whirling in his vision and the ground looming up with each revolution.
He crashed through a skylight and the shower of glass slowed as time dilated into a freeze frame of individual shards suspended around Neo as he tried to control his descent and flipped end over end until coming to a stop, on his feet in the center of a large loft.
The glass slowly sped up again and Neo sidestepped the rain of glass with a twist of his body. Time snapped back to normal as Neo cleared the center of the loft and the glass crashed to earth in a symphony of sound.
He adjusted his shades and snapped his head up as he heard a high pitched whine. The glass and dust in the abandoned loft began to swirl in invisible vortexes of air as a bright line shone down into the loft bringing a false dawn.
Neo stared up into the night and marveled at the coding of the object over the ruined skylight.
Neo reached into his jacket and flipped the cell phone open.
“Link?”
“Neo, what the fuck was that?!”
“I was hoping you could tell me.” Neo smirked.
“Whatever it is, it just appeared out of nowhere.”
“Have you ever seen anything like it before?”
“Hell no, not even the real world, the machines don’t field anything like that.” Link replied.
“That’s odd.” Neo noted as he cocked his head curiously. Three rappelling ropes dropped down from the hovering air machine.
“What?”
Neo examined the coding intently.
“There’s something familiar about the code, almost as if…” Neo’s voice drifted off as three figures suddenly descended on the ropes. They landed with a loud thump on the floor and turned to face him.
“As if what Neo?” Link asked.
“I’m a bit busy now, Link. Tell Morpheus and Trinity that Kyle is at the Exit 26 Underpass and get there ASAP.”
Neo did not wait for the reply as he snapped the cell phone shut and slipped it into his coat.
The three figures released their grips on the ropes and squared up in front of him. They each held a wicked looking plasma rifle. Two were men, one was a woman. They looked different than the three Neo had faced in the club but there was no doubt what they were.
The coding of their avatars betrayed them.
They were Kyle’s Terminators.
“What do you want?” Neo asked softly.
“You will come with us.” the older man spoke, his sharp iron gray hair was in a bristle like crew cut. Its muscles clenched along the arms as it brought the rifle to bear on him.
“Your presence is required.” the woman added, her short rainbow speckled hair was punctuated with a pierced nose and at least half a dozen earrings in one ear
“You will not resist or there will be…trouble.” the smaller squat Asian man finished and cocked the action on his plasma rifle. A low whine of power up followed and Neo nodded slowly.
The graying hulking male grabbed Neo’s arm. Neo glanced from the man grabbing him to the woman and finally the Asian man, as of measuring the distance between all of them.
Neo smiled as he looked at the Gray haired giant.
“I am resisting.” he stated and left his feet as time dilated.
He spun in midair, fixed to one spot by the giant that still held his arm and both legs lashed out striking the woman in her chest and the Asian man in his sternum. Both Terminators were gracefully and excruciatingly slowly launched off their feet and sent hurtling backwards.
Neo completed his revolution and landed back on his feet and turned at his hip as he lifted the hulk off his feet by pulling. Or at least that was the plan. Instead time snapped back into focus and the hulk whipped his arm backwards, yanking Neo off his feet past the brute into a support column behind them.
Neo crashed against the concrete with a explosion of dust and debris as the hulk whirled and fired it plasma rifle.
Neo ducked down as he felt the heat of the blast pass overhead and tear fist size chunks out of the concrete as of it were cardboard. He tucked and rolled forward. The Hulk began firing, a millisecond behind him, chewing up the floor right behind him.
The woman was up on her feet as well as the Asian and they advanced quickly ready to lend fire support.
Neo launched himself up into the air right in front of the graying hulk. He flipped over the Terminator’s head as it turned quickly.
Neo was quicker as he delivered a midair roundhouse kick into the back of the hulk’s head. The Terminator snapped forward on impact as Neo used the Terminator as support to alter his momentum into a standing back flip.
The Terminators holstered their blasters as one and focused their attention on Neo.
The Asian Terminator stepped in and time dilated as it slowed Neo down.
Neo fought through the time dilation like a swimmer against a strong current. The Asian delivered a flurry of lightning like punches that mostly landed against Neo’s back though one blow clipped the side of his head.
Neo finally managed to overcome the time dilation effect and landed in a split.
The Asian swept his left foot forward like a jack hammer but Neo caught the foot and grunted as he shoved it in the opposite direction. The Asian terminator spun away from him as the woman launched a series of kicks, intended to cripple Neo as he lay on the floor, legs splayed open.
Neo caught one leg and held it above his head as he effortlessly floated up to a standing position and shoved her backwards. The female Terminator flew backwards head over heels.
He felt the displacement of air behind him and ducked just as the hulking gray Terminator’s arms passed over head. Obviously intending to put him in a bear hug from behind the machine was now off balance and neo rose up, hands pressed against the Terminator’s barrel chest and lifted.
With a grunt of effort he lifted the hulking Terminator over his head and turned to face the other two. The fact that they had quickly switched from their plasma weapons to hand to hand spoke to their intentions.
He needed to use this handicap to his advantage.
He flung the hulking Terminator at the other two. Both glanced at each other for a moment and stepped out of the path of the flying Terminator which landed on the ground with a bone jarring thud.
The two circled Neo like sharks.
Neo watched them carefully, reading their intentions in their coding.
The woman lurched in with a haymaker that he easily sidestepped and grabbed a firm hold of her outstretched arm and cut his free hand up into her joint and was rewarded with a crack of metal snapping like ice. No pain registered on her face as she jerked her damaged arm away and swept at Neo’s feet. Neo was already off his feet and spinning end over end.
The Asian caught Neo square in the chest with a snap kick. Neo gasped as he went flying into a far wall. It cracked on impact. Neo did not slide to the floor, instead he crouched against the wall for support and launched himself at the Asian Terminator like a missile.
The Asian terminator saw the attack coming and braced himself.
It was all for naught as Neo struck with both fists forward like pile drivers and the impact created a shockwave of displaced air around the terminator as it stumbled backwards and crashed to the floor.
Neo continued sailing forward right into a clothesline by the female Terminator. He landed on the floor and immediately raised himself on his left hand and delivered a quick burst of kicks against the female Terminator, sending her backwards as he finished righting himself on his feet.
The hulking gray Terminator wrapped one arm around his neck and the other against the back of his head and started to pull and twist.
Neo kicked back against the knee joint. His first strike glanced off, the second was a direct strike that was awarded with little effect. Air was suddenly a scarce commodity and he could feel the vertebra of his neck stretching and crunching as the hulking Terminator bore down on him.
He braced himself and concentrated his strength into the next kick which struck perfectly. The knee joint gave way with a sharp hiss of damaged hydraulics and twisted metal. The hulking brute was off balance and Neo managed to slip and twist him off his hip right into the ground.
He looked up in time to catch a punch by the female Terminator meant for his nose. He smiled as he held her punch steadily despite her best efforts to push it forward.
The Asian Terminator delivered a hammer kick into his back sending Neo spilling forward.
The three machines quickly surrounded him, the graying hulking brute obviously hobbled and the female one holding her damaged arm down at her side joined the Asian in trying to cut off any avenues of escape.
Neo watched each one for a moment and suddenly launched himself in the air, spinning like a top. The hulk and the woman watched him grimly spin overhead but the Asian activated his experimental programming and took to the air as well.
Neo and the Asian Terminator collided in mid air in a flurry of kicks and punches.
Both grappled in midair for a moment before sailing downward.
Neo broke the Asian’s grip shoving him back but realizing too late that he was now in the midst of the other two killing machines. The attacks began in earnest.
An intricate dance began between the three terminators and Neo. The female and hulk were using broad sweeping attacks, while the Asian joined Neo in a dance of Kung Fu perfection, each attack and defense flowing into each other like water but with computerized speed and efficiency.
Skynet had decided to start modifying some of his 800 models to exhibit and utilize the same fighting style favored by the inhabitants of the Construct, save that unlike that Zionists, these 800’s had their Kung Fu programming assisted by the processing power of their quantum processors.
As Neo was rapidly discovering this made them as dangerous as an Agent if not more so at hand to hand.
The dance continued for some time. Neo was now fully in synch with himself and he moved with rapid precise strokes, each blow striking where it could and delivering damage to vulnerable joints and limbs.
The first to fall was the hulking brute as he stumbled slightly avoiding a kick to its remaining knee joint. Neo took to the air, time dilating despite the efforts of the other two Terminators landed one devastating kick to the remaining knee, actually severing the leg at the knee in a shriek of metal and spray of blood and tissue. He landed and finished with an open handed uppercut to the hulk’s chin that was rewarded with a strange pop and the sound of metal scraping on metal.
The hulk’s head was snapped free from the neck socket and the hulk stumbled backwards, head lolling at an odd angle, falling as it failed to balance on one ruined limb and crashed to the ground bringing up a cloud of dust and concrete.
Neo’s finished his move, his coat lazily fluttering around him like wings as time finally resumed its normal pace.
The woman whipped a one two punch, in broad sweeps that forced Neo to bend backwards at an almost impossible angle as the fists passed overhead. he grabbed the slower damaged arm and jerked hard downward, flipping her over his shoulder but could not follow through as the Asian Terminator sprang in with a Floating Dragon attack. Neo countered with a Dancing Crane defense and effortlessly flowed into a Pouncing Tiger attack.
The Asian moved in the blinks of an eye, hands and feet blurs as they moved to intercept Neo’s attacks but despite all of its speed and processing power, the vast database of moves at its disposal, Neo was the One.
The Asian kicked Neo’s chest and Neo trapped its foot with both hands and twisted savagely, taking the Asian off its feet and spinning it in midair like a top as the ankle joint gave way with a low squeal. Neo whipped himself into a Mantis strike and time dilated.
The Asian floated through the air like a suspended drop of rain.
Neo struck with a one two hand strike, following through with a round house kick and the Asian rocketed away from him, burying itself in the near ruined concrete support column that the hulk’s plasma blaster had chewed up moments before.
Neo whirled around, coat flowing around him like water as the female effortlessly pulled her plasma blaster from its holster and aimed.
Obviously their orders to bring him in alive had its limitations.
The woman fired without hesitation or warning.
Neo was in motion as the plasma bolts raced towards him. He began to crouch down, from left to right his body began to bend backwards as the plasma bolts soared by him, the air burning away around them in shimmering waves.
The bolts passed him as he finally finished ducking beneath them.
He rolled backwards as more bolts were inbound. He kipped up next to the crippled graying hulk and pulled the plasma blaster from its holster. The graying hulk tried to reach out and stop him but he was already in motion, cart wheeling on one hand across the plain of plasma bolts, most of them whipping by him within hairsbreadths. He aimed with his free hand and fired a volley from the plasma blaster.
Two bolts struck the woman, one on the upper chest the other on her shoulder. The blasts exploded on impact and she dropped her weapon as her shoulder assembly fell away and her chest peeled away in burnt flesh and molten metal. She tried to move forward but multiple malfunctions slowed her down.
Neo finished cart wheeling and stood still watching her for a moment. She looked up at him, part of her left cheek was burned away by the proximity of the shoulder plasma strike revealing silver metal underneath the flesh. It was a disconcerting sight, as he saw someone that looked flawlessly human revealed to be what it really was. A machine designed to kill humans.
“What are you?” Neo asked softly.
The woman cocked her head as she seemed to be wracked with some internal malfunctions causing her to twitch slightly.
“You will come with us.”
“No I won’t.”
She twitched again and Neo quietly noticed her hand slowly searching for the downed plasma blaster.
“What are you? Who wants me?”
“Skynet.”
“What is Skynet? Is Skynet a machine?”
“You will find out soon enough.” she assured him as her hand found the blaster.
“Don’t do it.” he warned.
She did not hesitate.
Neither did Neo.
The blast took off her head the second one punched through her torso and the female Terminator toppled backwards.
Neo looked at the blaster.
It might prove useful. he slipped it into the folds of his jacket and looked up at the ruined skylight.
The flying machine remained right over the skylight, floodlights illuminating the entire opening casting long shadows around them. getting past it would not be easy, then he noticed the two large out board turbine engines. An idea came to his mind as he turned and stalked over to the stunned Asian terminator buried within the concrete pillar.
Neo flipped open his cell phone as he reached into the pillar.
“Link?”
“Neo…that was…fucking amazing.” Link exclaimed enthusiastically.
“There’s no time. What’s Kyle’s status?”
“He was arrested, Neo. And there were agents there.” Link replied sadly.
Neo nodded sadly as he grunted and pulled the Terminator free.
“I’m on my way. Have Morpheus and Trinity follow the police, we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
“You mean you’re going to spring him from the precinct?! Neo there’s going to be agents and a boatload of cops.”
Neo smiled with a bemused grin as he hoisted the Terminator over his head and checked the location of the flying machine one last time. The Asian terminator suddenly came to life and started reaching down to Neo’s throat.
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Neo replied and snapped the phone shut as he crouched down and time dilated around him, a bubble of force causing the ground around his feet to ripple and bubble out like a rock dropped into a still pond of water. He launched himself into the air.
He flung the Asian Terminator right into the nearest outboard turbine engine. It sailed right into the engine which howled and screeched as flesh came away but the combat armored chassis tore up the turbine blades like glass.
The Hunter Killer quickly lurched downward as the engine smoked and exploded. The ship dove hard to the right and clipped the roof of the billing and continued down to the street below as Neo raced past and did not pause as he continued up into the night sky.
But he had a new name to consider and a friend to rescue.
Wherever you go, there you are.
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El Moose Monstero
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Trytostaydead
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2000AD
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Cool. Finally get to see Neo really kick ass.
Ph34r teh eyebrow!!11!Writers Guild Sluggite Pawn of Chaos WYGIWYGAINGW so now i have to put ACPATHNTDWATGODW in my sig EBC-Honorary Geordie
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Oh, please, I'm above such pettiness...Trytostaydead wrote:Dammit, you got first.. assmucherThe_Lumberjack wrote:Sweet! Good stuff...
*waits till noones watching then does a little dance...*
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SylasGaunt
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By far the hardest part of writing this chapter was trying my best to capture what a Matrix like fight would be like with Terminators. I am not looking forward to writing the Burly Brawl considering the changes I've made to it.
Anyway I'm glad I seem to have done a good job of doing that.
Anyway I'm glad I seem to have done a good job of doing that.
Wherever you go, there you are.
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2000AD
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I'm just waiting for the bit where an "Arnold" turns to Neo and goes "I know Kung-fu"
Ph34r teh eyebrow!!11!Writers Guild Sluggite Pawn of Chaos WYGIWYGAINGW so now i have to put ACPATHNTDWATGODW in my sig EBC-Honorary Geordie
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Crazedwraith
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Well in this regard You seem to have Kopped out abit, its not really matrix style fighting vs termies. It matrix style fighting vs Matrix style fighting termies. In other words having terminators fight like zionists defeats the point of Zionist/terminator fights.Stravo wrote:By far the hardest part of writing this chapter was trying my best to capture what a Matrix like fight would be like with Terminators. I am not looking forward to writing the Burly Brawl considering the changes I've made to it.
Anyway I'm glad I seem to have done a good job of doing that.
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NecronLord
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Yeah, not bad, but it just doesn't sit right with me for some reason. I suppose it's because they'd simply shoot a few caustic grenades (see T-X) into the room and grab Neo as the chemical weapons take effect, still, your story.Stravo wrote:Anyway I'm glad I seem to have done a good job of doing that.
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Maybe you could let the more obsolete Skynet units use karate and the like but with Terminator moves. But the more advanced units should just maintain their old fashioned Terminator stuff, but using Matrix stuff to vastly increase their speed and do fancy stuff too. But I urge that the more advanced Terminators not to use kung fu and just stick to old fashioned ways, except being more stronger and faster and dealing way more damage. The less able older units can use speed. Stronger units like the T-850 onwards should use the old fashion.
T-850s could be used by Skynet if the Zionists were to use more plasma weapons, T-850s are said to be hardened against plasma weapons.
Overall, it was a great chapter! I want more! And I wanna see some more kick ass action. The action you've provided here wasn't bad, it was good, I see that you are experimenting with the concept of kung fu terminators. Don't go too kung fu-ish though.
When'll Skynet go into the Construct? Will Skynet's awesome brain power give it super Neo-like powerZ?
T-850s could be used by Skynet if the Zionists were to use more plasma weapons, T-850s are said to be hardened against plasma weapons.
Overall, it was a great chapter! I want more! And I wanna see some more kick ass action. The action you've provided here wasn't bad, it was good, I see that you are experimenting with the concept of kung fu terminators. Don't go too kung fu-ish though.
When'll Skynet go into the Construct? Will Skynet's awesome brain power give it super Neo-like powerZ?
I could see the terminators trying to use chemical weapons on Neo but would they really work on him? He really does even need to breath in the Matrix.
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