Number: 64

Title: MATRIX || ZERO

Type: Fan Fiction


                    Insanity Productions Presents...


                             MATRIX || ZERO


                     A Fanfic written by Rick Spiff

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         "Most people think Zero is an alias. It's not, sadly.
         Zero is my given name. I don't know why, and I've
         never had the mind to ask. The answer to that question
         is the only thing that has ever scared me."

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Neo knew that the bullets weren't real, even as they cut apart the
not-real wall in his wake. The not-real brick wall took the not-real
hit, the not-real bullets throwing sharp chunks of not-real masonry into
the not-real air.

Neo knew that the bullets weren't real, but they could kill him all the
same.

He sprinted past three not-real doors, tearing open the fourth and
rushing inside. He pulled up short of the business end of a katana.

"What?" He said an instant before he realized it.

Sword. Normal looking guy holding it. No, not normal looking. Features
okay, expression... strange. Maybe thirty years old, black windbreaker,
open. Handgun holstered in the belt. Blue jeans.

Nothing unusual about the room. Average basement garbage pit of an
apartment. Dead body in two parts across the couch... okay, _that_
wasn't exactly normal either.

The couch had to at least be forty years old, but the body was fresh.

The man didn't answer. The sword didn't move.

"Neo!"

Shouting, from outside. Neo moved past the blade, everything slowing
down around him. He knew it was subjective, but it was still fun. He
grabbed the man's wrist, letting everything speed back up. He just
wanted the sword back--no need to break too many bones.

It was to his great surprise when he was thrown violently aside, much
like a rag doll behing hit by a truck.

It was to no surprise at all to see Morpheus roll into the room amidst a
hailstorm of bullets that richocheted about the room like angry hornets.

The sword man didn't flinch. Neo wasn't sure if that was something to be
surprised at.

Morpheus didn't miss a beat, quickly attacking the sword man with an
over-hand blow. The sword's tip was pointing at the floor; the man
should have been wide open, but somehow he wasn't. Neo was about to
shout a warning when he counter-attacked. The man simply side-stepped
the blow, pulling his sword out of the way. His leading foot stomped on
Morpheus', tripping the large black man, but not injuring him.

He opened his mouth to speak, Morpheus still bouncing off the floor,
when Trinity came through the door and attacked the man with a flying
kick. Neo was off the ground by this time, attacking in a straight line.
The man turned, using the side of his blade to deflect Trinity's kick.
He continued the movement, turning in a small circle; stepping far out
of range of Neo's punch, and producing a black handgun from almost
nowhere and pointing it at Neo's head.

He didn't dare move. The sword man was clearly an agent of some type,
and not to be trifled with. But wouldn't an agent kill him right away?
Why hold him hostage? Trinity's face behind the man...

"Don't move!" He shouted.

Morpheus froze--Neo could tell without looking. The agents were only a
dozen feet away from the apartment. Trinity... was behind the man, one
arm outstretched in a strike, but held in place by the now bloody edge
of the man's sword.

Neo could see Trinity's face contorted in pain. She was okay, for the
moment, holding her own wrist and fighting the urge to pull back. The
man had put his sword through his jacket in a move that Neo would call
genius if it wasn't being used to keep his lover immobile.

The agents where there. _AT_ the door. Game over.

Until the man blew their heads clean off. He lowered his smoking gun and
looked Neo in the eye. "In trouble?"

Neo pushed aside all the questions burning in his mind and answered the
man. "Yes."

"Not here because of me?" His tone was conversational, perfectly so.

Neo's eyes went to the man--no, what was left of a man, spread across
the ancient couch. "No."

"Don't move. I'm pulling the blade out." Trinity's eyes closed and she
nodded quickly. There was a half instant of pause, of tension, then the
man jerked the blade forward in a single, rapid movement. Trinity
quickly began to bandage her bleeding hand.

Neo took a half instant of his own to realize he didn't see the man
holster his gun. "Thank you." He managed to say.

"Thank fate. If you'll excuse me." He went for the door. A splash of
surprse was on his face.

"Wait." Morpheus said, stepping forward and stopping the man with one
hand. "Who are you?"

"Zero." He said.

Morpheus looked ready to press his question at the obvious blow-off, but
the instant he tried to halt the man, he was flung into the ground.

Neo watched worriedly as the man left, whistling a showtune the hacker
couldn't place.

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