Author’s Note:
I know I seem a bit obsessed with these two and their continual sneak-up-on-each-other-at-night
shenanigans,
but hey, when
else are they going to, well, get it on? Hee hee. This fic is a bit more
light-hearted than the others I’ve done and
the BIG ONE
I’m working on (why oh why do I write the emotional gut-wrenching stuff?).
Enjoy. Good smut to come in part
II (hopefully,
if I can bring myself to write it).
Cat-and-Mouse: The Chase
by
Scottishlass
Trinity groaned
as she tried to roll over; sleep was the first thing she needed and the
last thing her body was about to allow. She
mentally checked
her bruises to see if they were still there. The twelve stitches in her
shoulder needed no checking, the sting was
enough. The
pain wasn’t too bad, nothing she wasn’t used to, but combined with the
other feeling, the night was beginning to
slow to a
agonizing crawl. Something had to be done about it, she knew, because night
after night of this would simply drive her
mad.
She was surprised
that she wasn’t there already – the brink of insanity. She knew that they’d
been driving the crew crazy for
weeks. The
tension between them had been mounting since the days when Trinity realized
that he’d been dreaming about her.
For awhile
she’d promised herself that her human impulses could be put on hold until
their emotional love blossomed, but in the
passing weeks
she’d thought little about the Oracle’s prophesy and more about her growing
need for him. For his warmth, his
scent, his
touch.
So they flirted.
Not the kind of teenage type of superficial interest, but flirting that
conveyed more of their destiny together. He
idolized her,
she adored him. Yet without words they spoke, with long glances and soft
touches that made the rest of the crew
roll their
eyes – a type of joking that helped them masquerade their jealousy. Jealousy
of intimacy, of love, more than pleasure.
The type of
electricity that radiates between two people in the beginning stages of
love. An unseen force with a magnetic
strength.
Hatred pushes apart, lust attracts. Love makes them inseparable.
***
They had sparred
that day. Morpheus never set Neo and Trinity in a match together during
Neo’s training, perhaps a wise
decision on
his part, she thought. But after an evening of boasting around the mess
hall on Neo’s part set her in the mood for a
good fight.
Although she did believe that he was the One, a good beating would lower
his inflated ego a bit. After all, he had yet
to see the
Oracle.
Trinity loaded
into the sparring program first to warm up before Morpheus sent Neo in.
She relished her moments of quiet
reflection
before a good fight, her own personal meditation time. A time to get the
mind in tune with the muscles.
Neo entered already eager to fight, a wry smile on his face.
She tried not
to smile at his boyish readiness. "You are too sure of yourself," she said
confidently as she stretched her arms over
her head.
"I’m going to kick your ass."
"I got Morpheus,"
he said as he bounced on his heels. "I give you five minutes at best."
He looked around the dojo. "This is my
world, Trinity."
She raised
an eyebrow at him and went to meet him at the center of the dojo. "Like
I said, you’re too confident." She eyed him
carefully,
a playful gleam in her eye. "How well can you free your mind?" she asked.
"I made the jump, finally."
"Good." She
looked around the dojo, an idea beginning to form in her head. "I’m glad.
So you can fight. Can you run?" Her lips
curled into
a faint smile as she called out for Tank to load the agent-training program.
The operator
smiled as he quickly pressed the keys, knowing exactly what Trinity had
in mind. She used this on all her trainees:
a cat-and-mouse
romp through the agent-training program designed to knock down a bloated
ego. Keeping up with the group
on the run
was extremely important to the resistance fighters; separation most usually
meant death.
Morpheus nodded
to himself at her decision; he liked to see Trinity in action. He had chosen
her for her position for a reason;
her stoic
front and superior fighting skills made her an ideal leader. He hadn’t
put the two into a simulation together on purpose,
simply because
he didn’t feel that Neo was ready for the stunts she pulled with her trainees.
She’ll go easy on him on purpose,
he thought.
She likes him.
The captain
kept his eyes on the screens as the rest of the crew gathered around to
watch, too. Neo operated extremely fast,
which proved
to be not only entertaining, but awesome as well. He had all but Cypher
convinced that he was, indeed, the One.
Now all he
had to do was see the Oracle. Morpheus turned his attention back on the
fight. He needed to watch closely to make
sure Trinity
and Neo could work together; it would be imperative when they took him
to learn of his destiny.
Inside the
construct, Trinity kept her eyes locked with Neo’s, the energy between
them beginning to mount as the dojo
dissolved
to the darkness of the construct’s new program.
"Hey, this isn’t fair," said Neo, taken aback by the change of scenery.
"You forget
who you boast in front of," she murmured as their RSI’s changed to her
traditional Matrix-romping clothes. "This is
my
world, Neo. Now catch me. If you can."
***
Neo barely had a chance to orient himself to his surroundings when Trinity took off running.
"Hey, wait,"
he called trying to get his feet to move. He bounded out of the alleyway
after her, only to trip over his own feet and
land hard
on his hands, scraping his palms. What the hell, he thought, trying
to see what had tripped him up.
They were boots. Trinity had given him damn boots.
Grimacing,
he dusted off his pants and looked for Trinity among the crowd. He couldn’t
see her anywhere. A beeping from his
side caught
his attention; he had a cell phone.
"Okay, Trinity,"
he spoke into the phone after clicking it on," so you’re fast, you’ve proved
it to me...can we go back to the
sparring program
now?"
She didn’t bother addressing his suggestion. "You have to keep up with me, Neo. We have to stay together!"
"And just why is that?" he asked, fighting his way through a stream of people.
"Because if you don’t, you’re going to get shot."
He barely heard the phone click before the explosion of a bullet tore through the air above his head.
"Oh shit!"
he yelled as he hit the cement for the second time. He opened his eyes
to see a pair of boots similar to his. Trinity was
standing over
him, gun in hand.
"You nearly shot me, you bitch!"
The second-in-command smiled. "No, Neo. He nearly shot you."
Neo turned to see the body of an agent lying directly behind him.
"So when I tell you to run, Neo, you’d better run."
His eyes widened as he got to his feet, ignoring Trinity’s proffered hand. "Are they real?"
"You didn’t
see me dawdling around when we got here, did you?" she asked, glancing
around Neo. "I think we’d better get
going." She
looked him in the eyes. "There’s another on the way. Now keep up with me."
Neo nodded, and began to run.
***
"Geez, she’s
fast," whispered Mouse as he watched Trinity maneuver her way through the
crowded city streets and cluttered
alleyways.
"Like a panther in that black leather..." muttered Cypher suggestively.
Morpheus watched
Neo closely as he did his best to stay behind Trinity. She was an expert
at using her mind to overcome even
the most dire-looking
circumstances. Her last encounter with an agent could have earned her a
badge of courage, if they still had
such adornments.
She frequently
used the simulated Matrix to drill herself. Several years ago, when she
began to feel that she needed to push
herself harder,
she programmed the "agents" to inflict pain. Much against Morpheus’ wishes,
she game them combat skills just
an edge above
her own...and guns. Guns that worked.
He remembered
the first time she’d gone up her own creation, running like hell through
the city with three armed agents right on
her tail.
He watched until they trapped her down an alleyway. She was just reaching
for her weapon when he pulled her out.
Trinity came
out of the program sweaty, achy, and madder than hell. As soon as the data
spike was removed she began yelling.
He had let
her get it all out before explaining that he wasn’t going to stand by and
watch his best officer commit suicide.
Eventually
they’d compromised; the agents would be armed, but programmed to miss.
He had insisted that the pain of a bullet
grazing the
skin would be enough motivation to get her to rise to the next level of
skill. She had agreed.
Now he watched
Neo with a bit of amusement as he ran for what he thought was his life.
Trinity did have a point; Neo had
become a bit
over-confident in his combat skills when he was still lacking the group
training in retreat tactics that would more
likely prove
to be much more valuable than a few good karate chops.
Morpheus watched
as Trinity rounded a corner, jumping over the sleeping man who was nestled
in the shadows just out of
Neo’s line
of sight. Neo couldn’t react fast enough; he stepped directly on the homeless
man’s genitals. Before it’s over,
thought Morpheus,
Neo’s going to have the whole city chasing him.
***
"You gave me boots," Neo panted as he raced along just a few steps behind Trinity. "Freakin’ boots!"
"It’s combat gear."
"Combat gear my ass."
"Get used to it. You tired yet?"
"No."
"Good. We’ve got about a mile to go before the exit...and there’s more agents."
"Can’t you get rid of them?" he gasped.
"There are only three here. They jump. Only kill the body they’re in...killing time."
"Only three? Oh, fuck."
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Wish me luck."
She crept along
the brick wall, motioning for Neo to be quiet. Silently she drew her weapon
and nodded for Neo to do the
same. His
eyes widened again when he realized he was armed.
Trinity watched him carefully as he removed his weapon. "I have a big gun," he whispered to her, a slight smile on his lips.
"Weapons training?" she mouthed, trying to suppress a grin. Neo shook his head in the negative. "If you see one, shoot it."
"Do they all look the same?"
"Men in black, baby."
***
Morpheus stood
behind his crew, a frown spreading across his face as he watched them.
They were flirting. He didn’t mind that
Trinity had
taken a liking to Neo, in fact, he was glad to see that they were getting
along so well. He was worried that Trinity
would feel
pressure to fall in love with the One, but so far that hadn’t seemed like
much of a problem. He knew that Trinity
covertly watched
Neo before Morpheus even told her that he suspected that he was the One.
But watching
them so blatantly flirt during a serious training simulation was something
that he wasn’t going to let slide, especially
in front of
the other crew members. Training sims were always regarded as the real
thing, for necessity. They were more of an
exercise routine
for Trinity now, which he acknowledged and accepted, but for Neo the simulation
was a valuable resource.
He tried to
convince himself that Trinity was flirting with Neo to try to knock him
off balance, to beat him, but he knew that
wasn’t the
case. Neo didn’t maneuver as fluidly as Trinity, but nevertheless he performed
exceptionally well for his first time in
her program.
Unusually well. Trinity’s plan to knock his ego down to size wasn’t
going to work, he thought. Maybe I’m
going to
have to do it.
***
Neo fought
the agent blindly, wildly throwing punches and kicks as fast as he could.
He could almost feel Trinity at his back,
conserving
her energy as she methodically held off agent number two.
"You’re flailing," he heard her say as he took another punch to the stomach.
"This isn’t working," he said, groaning. "We can’t fight them."
"Come on, Neo, give ‘em a good karate chop or two."
"This isn’t funny, Trin. He’s kicking my ass."
He turned around
to make sure she was all right, but she had already made her break for
it. A glimpse of black on a fire escape
above him
caught his eye before he was face-to-face with the other agent.
"Jump, Neo,"
he heard her call from somewhere from above, as the words of Morpheus immediately
echoed through his head:
free your
mind. I’m not even really here, he thought quickly as the two agents
on either side of him simultaneously raised their
weapons. Jump,
you idiot, like she told you. And then, his brain tacked on, beat
her at her own game. He was high enough
in the air
to see the agents shoot nothing but each other.
***
Trinity hesitated
just enough to make sure Neo didn’t get hit before she took off at full
speed toward the exit. The pay phone
was attached
to the rear of a seedy Quick-E-Mart, full of all sorts of characters. A
random generator would determine the body
for agent
number three – Agent Dick, as she called him. Last time he’d taken over
the body of an unsuspecting bag lady just as
she rounded
the corner; she dove into a roll, just merely missing a nick in the leg
by a bullet before she answered the phone.
This time she
thought she’d approach from the neighborhood side behind the building.
An old wooden fence separated the dirty
alleyway behind
the store from a low-income housing project; she could easily approach
from behind (dodging
neighbor-turned-Dick
if necessary) and vault over the fence to the phone. Plan in mind, she
changed direction and sprinted
across the
street, unaware that Neo still on the fire escape, was following her with
his eyes, a smile on his face.
***
Cracking her
knuckles, Trinity prepared to jump the fence. She took off running, dove
forward, planted her hands on the
ground and
faulted backwards over the fence so that all she’d have to do was extend
a hand to the receiver of the phone... but
as her feet
hit the ground someone grabbed her from behind, pulling her backwards toward
the fence.
She spun around quickly, coming nose to nose with Neo.
"Caught ya," he said huskily between panting breaths.
In any normal
circumstances she would have promptly kneed him in the balls and reached
for the ringing phone, but something
caused her
to freeze. For an instant there was no simulation, no alleyway, no ringing
phone...just Neo, his lips just inches from
hers, their
bodies pressed together against the rickety fence. She swore she could
feel his heart pounding against hers through
their clothes;
an awkward moment that she didn’t want to break for fear of losing this
energy, this tension. She was so
engrossed
in the moment that she didn’t even hear the back door to the Quick-E-Mart
open and a lanky teen come out with a
bag full of
trash. He had only an instant to gaze on the two strangers in black before
he saw them through the eyes of Agent
Dick.
The faint click
of a gun being taken off safety snapped her out of the moment. Time seemed
to crawl as she grabbed Neo by the
shirt and
swirled him around, pushing him toward the phone with one hand and reaching
for the receiver with the other. Pressing
the grimy
receiver to his ear, she gritted her teeth and waited for the pain.
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