"You wanna go grab a bite to eat, Jake?" came the voice from behind the young technician. With a start, Jacob Logan spun about in his swivel chair, minimizing his work-screen as he did so.

"Yeah. Sounds great. Where you wanna go, Jim?" he replied, forcing a smile onto his face.

"How about Ranch1? They've got great chicken fajitas" Jim answered cheerily. Jacob nodded, then spun back around to face his machine.

"Gimme 5 minutes to close out this work, and I'll meet you at your desk to go," Jake said as cheerfully as he could. Jim responded affirmitavely, then strode away.

Jacob let out a sigh of relief, thinking about how close he came to being caught burning company DVD's for a little side profit. As he closed out his latest work, he straightened his tie, combed his dark hair back a little more presentably, then grabbed his case to leave. As he walked out, he didn't notice the blinking cursor on his chat screen...

are you there, Swipe? >

By Solenoid (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

"He's faster... better!" said Mouse proudly, "Go on, go on in and try him out."

Morpheus stared on among his troops and gave a single nod. His team ran for the control room, lept into their control-chairs and plugged in.

The sky-scrapers towered over them, metal obelisks all. Cypher, Trinity, Apoc, Neo... they strolled along the streets through choking crowds of city-goers.

"This looks suspicious," said Cypher, "I don't like it."

"If this simulation is really as tough as Mouse says," replied Trinity, "You'd better shut up and pay attention."

The small group concealed their weapons, just as they always did when they went into the Matrix, but each had his hand tight around the grip.

Suddenly, an Agent appeared, previously a man reading a newspaper on a bench. He stood and raised a gun immediately, ignoring the innocents around him as he fired at the team.

"No," swore Cypher, dodging the bullet as he moved with super speed. The Agent fired two more, and Cipher fought to make contact with the ground in order to dodge. One clipped him, the other punctured his black cape. Almost instantly, as Cypher lept, Trinity reacted. She made a running jump and swung her leg around mid-leap, hitting the Agent right in the chin. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a second Agent appear. He aimed and fired.

Neo ran at him with superior speed and pulled out an Uzi for each hand. Neo fired. The Agent seemed to be in three places at once as he dodged around the projectiles, then returned fire. Neo was hit once, twice, and again, dodging so the bullets hit him in non-essential locations. He yelled, "Two are too many. What's Mouse doing?" Suddenly, another Agent appeared from the coffee-shop, listening on his ear-piece as he joined the other two.

Apoc pulled out his Anti-Personnel gun and swept across the doorway as the Agents approached. The shot was clear - the crowd of innocents had long since dispersed. These Agents reacted too fast, a twist to the right or left making each bullet ineffective. Apoc tried to lay down his shots in a trap-pattern, but the three were already taking aim at him. Apoc looked behind him for a moment... Cypher was down, Neo was wounded as he fought on, and Trinity was being overpowered.

As Apoc prepared to dodge three bullets, the middle Agent of the three became fuzzy for a moment, then threw out both arms in opposite directions, knocking aside his fellow Agents' pistols. Apoc recovered instantly, falling to his knees and jamming his fingers into the access-holes of the manhole cover.

As he worked, he looked up and realized that the rogue Agent wasn't an Agent at all... it was a tall, thin black man with piercing eyes. His arms and legs were very long, and the Agent-uniform almost seemed too small on him. The Agents were surprised at this sudden appearance, and as they tried to react, Tamper grabs their pistols and flings them away. The two Agents begin punching him from both sides with unbelievable speed, but he just takes it, then pivots on his heels, spinning with outstretched arms, and knocking them down.

The Agents leap to their feet like spiders, and the first comes at Tamper in a rush, the second throws off his glasses and charges Trinity. Neo is down now, badly hurt, and Trinity is forced to fight the Agent by herself. She screams in desperation as she fires Neo's Uzis... two! This test was so unfair. In reality, all of them together had never defeated so many as ONE Agent. "God!" she shouts, as the AI takes out another gun.

Tamper turns his head to see that she is seriously overwhelmed. "We gotta GO!" says Apoc, "We gotta go now!" He is holding Cypher over his shoulder, and vanishes into the Sewer. Trinity fires at the two Agents and misses, one jumps at her and pins her even as she goes for Neo. Tamper runs across the ground with an Agent on his heels, his large white sneakers pounding the pavement as he runs. Without slowing down, he grabs the manhole cover and throws it like a frisbee, deflecting a bullet from Trinity, and also hitting an Agent in the head.

"I don't believe it," thinks Trinity. The tall, thin man is drawing all the fire, leaping with arms outstretched at her attackers. He leaps into the sky like a sacrifice, chest out, holes appearing all over his body, the sun's light shining all around him. Trinity is revitalized at this sight, and fights the remaining agent off her, backflips, grabs Neo in mid-air, and lands on her feet. She runs at top speed for the phone, trying not to think that already both Agents are taking aim at her. Then, inexplicably, a wall comes up between her and them, and she watches the cement crumble under rapid fire... but it is enough time for her to vanish, taking Neo with her...



"Mouse!" she shouted, holding her wounded arm, "What are you, insane?" She restrains herself from punching him out, but her eyes still show her anger. Inches away from her face, Mouse just starts to laugh. "Isn't he great? Isn't he great? ha ha ha ha!"

"Yes, very impressive," said Morpheus, "this new AI you've created, Tamper, is really something special. He even sacrificed himself for the team."

"Not really," said Mouse, "The Tamper unit is fitted with a homing program. He can get in or out of the Matrix instantly. And he's just a few billion lines of computer code. As long as he's not actually killed in the Matrix, he completely recompiles as soon as he unplugs."

"He looks familiar, though" says Neo, "something about his face... Jordan?"

"Yeah," says Mouse, "isn't it great?"

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

Jacob & Jim walked up 7th ave towards Times Square, then entered the brightly-colored storefront which was Ranch 1. They joked back and forth, checking out the ladies as they made their way to the restaurant. Neither one noticed the mounted cop across the street at the X-Treme arcade. After all, why should they?

"Unit 17 to base, suspect sighted entering Ranch 1 on West 41st and 7th Ave. Advise" the cop spoke into his walkie-talkie. Almost immediately, he began convulsing as an Agent took control of his body, finally morphing into one of the dark-suited nightmares. 2 other people on the street nearby underwent the same transformation, and the 3 agents simply looked at each other casually, walking across the street...

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

"Hey-- Where're you goin' with my phone?!?" Jim shouted as Jake dove over the counter & into the kitchen...

"Good, Swipe. All the way in the back, there's a door into the alleyway. Go through."

"It's alarmed!"

"Go through." Jake plowed through the fire-door, sounding off an intense alarm, causing people for blocks around to turn and look. "Good. Turn left, third door on your right. Go through."

"There's no handle!"

"Kick the door, Swipe." >kick< "Good. Turn right, go down the corridor, turn left. Duck."

"What?!?" Jake yelled. Just then, a window to his right erupted in a shower of glass as bullets flew through it from an agent's gun. Jake dove for cover.

"Get up and run to the door. A car will be waiting for you. Go. NOW!" Jake responded, diving through another fire-door and onto the street. A black lincoln sat at the curb, its rear doors open, with 3 people inside. Just as Jake managed to dive into the back seat, the car took off, and a hand pressed his head down into the seatwell.

"Stay down"

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

"What the hell's goin' on?!?" Jake shouted from nearly under the seat, squirming for a more comfortable position.

"Shut up, Copper-top. Just stay down, and everything will be fine," a woman's voice responded. Jake's world went black as a sack was placed over his head.

"Don't worry,Swipe. It's for your protection as well as ours," the voice from the phone said--from the front seat.

"Who are you?" Jake asked, incredulously.

"We're here to set you free, Swipe. Don't worry, you'll know the entire truth soon enough. Right now, though, keep your head down and try to relax." The man's voice had a soothing quality, almost hypnotic, and Swipe found that, despite himself, he actually -had- relaxed slightly. All Jake knew was that the car kept driving...

After about a half-hour, Jake felt a stinging pinprick in his left arm. "What the--" he started, but was interrupted by the man's voice once again.

"Swipe, remain calm. You want to know the truth about why you never feel completely awake, or for that matter, completely asleep? If this all seems like a bad dream to you--you're right. It is a bad dream. We're here to wake you up." Jake's head started to spin, and he felt as if he were falling.

"What the hell did you give me?" he tried to yell, but the words came out slowly and slurred together. It was then that he blacked out...

By Solenoid (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

The sack was off, and Jake was coming to. He found himself staring up into the deep brown eyes of a huge black man, and Jake realized that he was being carried. The man looked over his shoulder - a female figure came up alongside him, and a third figure as well. "We lost 'em," she said to the man, "for now. Tamper, you can put him down. That is, if he can behave..." It was the woman from the car...

The huge man nodded once, and settled Jake gently onto the ground. They were in a back alley, the sun was already down. And it was obvious that he was being led somewhere... to something...

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

"Where are we going?" Jake asked, walking along amidst the other three. Nobody answered him, and almost immediately afterwards they came upon an old, brick-face building.

"Inside, you will find your answers, Swipe. But you must want to hear them. You will be given choices. The only advice I can give to you is: be honest," the black man spoke. Jake just looked at the imposing, green door, trying to decide whether or not to step through...

By Solenoid (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

"Mouse is dead," says Morpheus, "but we found this stowed under his cot."

The others look on as two crewmembers drag out a large, wooden trunk. The top is lifted open, and inside is a mannequin made of paste-brown plastic. Littering the bottom of the chest are artificial eyes, hair, feet, wires, and cogs. The manequinn itself is incomplete, and as Trinity grasps it under the arms and holds it up, everyone can see that it is featureless - no eyes, no mouth, no ears... its body is genderless, and its chest is like an empty, hollow drum. Its arms and legs are out of proportion, too long for the body, joined on hastilly.

"I don't get it," says Neo, "Mouse was always working on something. What's so special about this thing?"

Morpheus approaches the dummy and leans its head forward. The crew looks on, and discovers that there is a jack in the back of its head.

"Oh my God," whispers Neo.

Morpheus motions for Trinity to release the plastic frame. She sets it gently back in the chest, and the manequinn settles into a knee-hugging position with its eyeless face peering to the side.

"That isn't all," says Morpheus, "Not only did Mouse create a physical body for his Tamper program, he also finished constructing all of the mind-body links. At 0-600 today, we plugged it in. This dummy, this machine you see before you... is in full working order."

"So what do we do?" says Trinity, "I mean, we've been training with Tamper in the Simulation all along, and he is good... do we really need to put him in here?"

Morpheus looks at her with his warm, brown eyes. "Mouse knew that there was no real need to inject Tamper into a body. That's why he never told us about this project - it was just a fantasy. But even so, it was his dying dream, his greatest dream, to make his creation truly real. We humans have taken heavy casualties in these recent months. It is getting harder and harder to hold the lines. Tamper is the ultimate fighting machine, but we have Neo now. We have to send Tamper to where he is truly needed. And to do that, to transport him, we need to put him in a body. So here, old friend Mouse, your dream is about to come... true."

And with that, Morpheus jacks in the puppet. It springs to its feet almost unnaturally, wobbling on the poles that are its legs. It turns to look at Morpheus, its blank face turned in his direction as the holes in the sides of its head detect Morpheus' breathing.

"Tamper," commands Morpheus, "It is time to enter your body, like Mouse wanted."



"I shall do as you say, Morpheus," says the Tamper-robot. Oddly, the sound does not come from it, rather from the ship's speakers, causing the sound to emenate from all around them. Tamper's head tilts as the program joins with its body, a soul into a body, a small slice at a time.

"Where will he go?" asked Neo.

"There is a smaller ship which needs him more than we do - the Hammurabi. Not everyone can have a Neo," smiles Morpheus, "but someone, at least someone, can have a Tamper."

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

Jake stared at the door before him as if in a waking dream. Finally, he glanced at the sidewalk, shook his head, and stepped forward. 'What else have I got to lose,' he thought. As he strode over the threshold, he looked around. The building was old, with dust and cobwebs clinging everywhere they could, making the ancient mahogony woodwork on all the banisters look as if it had been sprinkled with powdered sugar. The floor was a large checkerboard pattern--black and white squares each vying for attention as Jake walked down the cathedral-arched hallway. Tattered, moth-eaten curtains clung for dear life to the several windows he passed--they may have at one time been some shade of green, Jake noticed. Even though his mind was somewhat numb, everything in here seemed to jump at him with the utmost clarity of detail. He could almost -see- each speck of dust that floated past him.

Finally, he came to another door, this one being a heavy looking, antique mahogony affair, with great brass knobs which were highly polished. As he reached for one, the door swung silently open, revealing a tall, bald black man, wearing a leather trench-coat and mirrored sunglasses. Jake jumped a step backwards with a start, not knowing what to make of the newcomer.

"Hello, Swipe," the man said clearly and evenly, a slight smile curling the corner of his mouth upward. "Won't you come in?" The man moved to the side and gestured into the room. Jake saw an old fireplace, preceded by two ancient, leather high-back chairs, facing each other, with a small table between them. On the table was a glass of water. "Please, sit down, Swipe." Jake sat, slowly, as the black man perched on the opposite chair.

"What the hell's going on?" Jake asked. The black man chuckled.

"This must all seem like a dream to you. Only, you realize it's a dream, at which point you attempt--even expect--to wake up. Well, Swipe, I have some news for you. Everything you know to be real, is but a waking dream--a prison for your mind. I am here to wake you up--to free you from your hidden shackles."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jake asked, only half-confused.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know why you stay up late at night, at your computer--why you have strange dreams. I know what it is you're looking for. I have the answer to your question. You do know the question, don't you?"

"What is the Matrix?" Jake said, now more intrigued than ever. The black man smiled.

"I cannot tell you what the Matrix is--it is something you must see for yourself. But you must be willing to accept the truth. I must warn you--once you step through the looking glass, there's no turning back." A ringing noise emitted from the black man's pocket. He produced a cell-phone, and spoke into it. "Yes... pause ...Well done. We'll be a moment." He then hung up the phone. Turning back to Jake, he spoke again. "I give you a choice--you take the red pill, you receive the truth--you wake from your dream and begin a new life. You take the blue pill, and you stay in dream-land, the truth remaining hidden in plain sight. The choice is yours." The man produced each pill as he spoke, the blue in his left hand, the red in his right...

Jake took the red pill, and drank it down with the glass of water.

"Follow me, Swipe," the black man said, leading Jake back out through the door. This time, the room was different, and a strange, electronic apparatus took up most of the middle of it, a dentist-looking chair just beyond that. The man motioned for Jake to be seated, and began pressing buttons and operating the apparatus. The 3 from the car were here as well, also taking part in the activity. Jake started to feel nauseous again.

Jake felt as if he was being turned inside-out, chills erupting through his core. He felt like he was falling, and then the room started to swirl around him. And then, the nightmare started...

By Margravine (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date:

Red. Grey. Pain. Jake saw the wall of humans encased, the wall of the living, the unaware. He knew he had been cut loose from the life he thought he'd been living and rather violently at that. He knew they said he was safe, that his muscles and tendons were being repaired. He felt cold for the first time in his life - real, bone penetrating cold. And then at last there were faces swimming out at him through the haze. Finally, he opened his eyes, awake, aware, and wary, and more than a little frightened.

"Hi!"

He looked up, painfully stiff. A tiny woman with tip-tilted eyes and black hair pulled into an untidy pony tail sat beside him. Maybe Polynesian, he thought numbly, or Filipino.

She grinned and bounced to her feet, "I'm Treat. How're ya doin', Swipe? Feelin' better? I hear the re-birth thing sucks, never did it myself. Whatever the captain tells you I'm the real power around here," her grin grew impossibly wider as she pointed a thumb at her chest and winked, "Best operator around. I'll let 'em know your up."

She bounced out of the room, never having allowed Swipe the oportunity to respond even if he had thought to. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

By Solenoid (Sol) on Unrecorded Date:

Tamper swivels his head around from where he sits at a console. He seems to look on for a moment, then tends to the control panel where he monitors the other members of the crew who are just now emerging from the experience.

By Bryan (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date:

Jake slowly drifted back to sleep exausted....

Two hours Jake awakens to find a tall almost totally bald italian guy with dark sunglasses sitting by his bed.

"Good evening Swipe, my name is Jazz. You have been unconscious for several days. Treat and the gang did some very good work on you.

"What work?"

"Your muscles suffered from atrophy. We gave ou a natral sedative while undergoing the treatment process to rebuild them.

"OK... Uhh.. Where am I?" Jake asked still confused.

"The question is not where are you, but rather WHEN are you. You think it is the year 1999, when in fact it is closer to 2199. The honest truth is we don't exactly know.. "

But that's impossible I...

Nothing, I can say will explain it to you. You have to see it for yourself. Follow me...

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date:

"What the hell is going on here, anyway?" Jake asked, feeling his hair--or lack thereof. His hand dropped lower, tentatively rubbing at a cramp in his neck--and touched a metal disk. He pulled at it slightly, and felt the tug inside his head. Jake panicked, drawing his hands away quickly. For the first time, he noticed the metallic jacks in his arms, and he nearly screamed.

"What the hell did you people do to me?!?" he yelped, jumping into a crouch on his bunk. The bald man extended his arm, but Jake slapped it away. "Get me out of here! I want out! This isn't happening--This isn't really happening!" Jake felt nauseaous, and doubled over, hugging his spasming abdomen--and vomited on the bald man's legs, then passed out once more.

By Margravine (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date:

"Swipe's awake and alert again.."

John Doe looked at Treat, "Did you scare him?" he asked.

Treat made a face, "No. I hardly said anything at all. He'll scare himself though, they all do...or Jazz will."

"Did you tell Tamper?"

Treat wrinkled her nose, "Why would I tell that thing?" she asked, fixing herself a bowl of food.

"Well, it…he…Tamper is crew now...but I understand. Its being here is a favor to Morpheus.”

Treat's expressive face changed again, reflecting mistrust, "It seems a little too much like sleeping with the enemy to me," she sniffed, "and anyway, it's not in my department."

She spooned up a mouthful and frowned, "Don't you think you’ve left Swipe alone now for long enough, my Captain?" she asked through the mush.

He got to his feet and went to see their newest crewman.

Swipe was sitting up when John Doe walked in. It was just starting to occur to him that he was very literally a newborn in this harsh world he had chosen, and he was on the verge of a major freak out.

“Welcome, Swipe. You’re safe aboard the Hammurabi. I’m John, chief of this tub.”

Swipe looked the man called John over warily, he wore an old grey sweater and shapeless dun trousers, he had short hair that was so blonde it was almost colorless, his features were chiseled and though handsome, his looks were somewhat harsh. He had a lean, spare frame that accentuated his height, which Swipe judged to be an inch or two greater than his own. In fact the only sign of color about the man were the bottle green eyes that were examining Swipe just as searchingly.

“We’ve been out of the mix for a while. We had a death, a retirement, and a convalescent. I’m glad you decided to join us. There’s a lot for you to learn about your new life. First lesson: what is and is not real….”