Swipe and Jazz made their way to Treat's exit point, walking carefully not only to avoid notice, but nursing Jazz's wounds as well. When Swipe opened his eyes to see the ceiling of the Hammurabi, he could see a scowling John Doe standing above him. John Doe looked like he was about to say something, but Swipe interceded harshly before a word could be spoken.

"The next time you wanna pull sh!t like that, you damn well better be sure the people you're dropping in have the low-down on what to do. You're gonna tell me I failed horribly and we lost the girl and we got ourselves killed. Read the god-d*mned printout to see how it went down, if you didn't see it the first f#ckin time. You expect me to just instantly know everything I need to know about being in there, well guess what? I don't. You want me to give speeches and babysit duracells, you better damn well give me a script. You want me to go in there and kill stuff randomly, I seem to be pretty good at that all by myself." Swipe pulled his own plug and stood up violently, getting right into John Doe's face. "You want me to be some sort of natural at this without telling me how it goes down, don't expect the best results." Swipe turned and stormed to his room, slamming the heavy metal door closed and spinning it down tight, all the while ignoring John Doe's angered shouting.

Jazz veritably winced in pain as Swipe slammed the door shut, sending a note of finality echoing through the small ship. John Doe stopped yelling, knowing Swipe was ignoring him. Swipe was going to get a talking to later, for he had just made the captain of the ship look impotent in front of the rest of the crew. Treat bit her bottom lip and winced one eye shut as J.D. stormed to his own chamber, leaving Jazz, Treat, and the Tamper mannequin alone in the main area. When the resounding echoes of bulkheads being slammed shut finally died away, Treat just looked at Jazz and shrugged slightly.

"Ouch," was all she said as Jazz rose stiffly and silently limped to his own chamber. His door closed with almost no sound at all...

By Technomage (Houdini) on Tuesday, April 02, 2002 - 08:18 am:

** Jazz and the Captain have a little exchange of words**

Jazz emerged from his chamber an hour later and quietly approached the Captain.

"What can I do for you Jazz?"

"John, you and I go way back so I hope you don't
take this the wrong way. Screw it. I'm going to be blunt about this Captain, I'm not going even to bother sugar coating it."

"Bring it on. I'm a big boy. Let me have it Jazz."


Jazz paused for a moment to read John's expressionless face.

"I've noticed that ever since Swipe was freed from the Matrix you and him have been in a pissing contest, with each one trying one up each other."

"I'm trying to train the kid. In case you didn't notice Jazz, the Matrix isn't a simple cake walk its a WAR. I have seen too many good people die at the hands of the agents and why? Because somebody gets too cocky and makes a stupid mistake thinking they are better at the game then they really are."

"So you wanted to teach him a lesson? Well that's great John. Break every reg in the training manual to try and break a man's confidence."

"Not his confidence, his ego. The regs are just guidelines. I have full discretion to modify the training course as I see fit. No enough of this. Assemble the crew in the mess hall at 06:00 hours. Zion has a mission for us.

By Starlit simulacron (Ranger) on Wednesday, June 19, 2002 - 03:01 pm:

Treat watched the Matrix flicker by, her concentration half on the next potential recruit - a person whose call name was Angel - and the time. She allowed 3o minutes to pass before reluctantly leaving the console in Tamper's 'hands' while she called on Swipe.

She pushed the door to his cabin open without preamble, catching him pacing. It looked as if he'd tried playing with his Matrix tutorial monitor, but had been too agitated so he'd resorted to pacing.

She crossed her arms across her chest, "Sucks that you got no door locks, huh, Swipe? Are you done with the wounded prima donna routine?"

He flashed her a furious look, "How am I supposed to react?! You all just throw me headfirst into simulations with no instruction, and expect me to know what's going on then tell me I'm a failure when I don't. Screw you."

"Bull. You just don't like hearing that you WILL NOT WIN against an agent in the real Matrix. Most everything you need to know is in that seven minute loop on that monitor," she said pointing at the equipment she had provided for him, "everything else you've experienced yourself. The only alteration to what you've gone through yourself is the Sandoval construct, 'cause that's for us. We need to learn how you think in the Matrix. I even told you as much.

"You have been treated no differently than any other new recruit, it's always a trial by fire, 'cause there's so damn few of us. We have to know if you are survivable. We recruit the ones we THINK will be, but what you've been going through is so that we'll all KNOW how well you might do.

"Now calm the hell down and tell me what you do know."

Swipe tried to speak twice, still not willing to give up what he had thought was righteous anger. After a moment he flopped onto the bunk and ran a hand through his bristly hair, "I know the best way to survive is to avoid being noticed and run like hell if I am noticed," he said reluctantly.

"And the whole concept really pisses you off. You think you should be able to fight and win."

He thought about it, "Yeah, I guess so"

"Why? 'Cause you're a red-blooded American boy raised on John Wayne and victory to the righteous? Get over it. There is no America, John Wayne has been dead for centuries and the Matrix still calls the shots. The best we can do is react to those shots and sometimes slip between the lines of code. We hope to change that, yeah, but we can't do so if everyone we put into the Matrix thinks it's a good idea to go toe to toe with an Agent. That way we end up with a lot of dead folks, when what we want is a lot of free folks."

Swipe frowned.

"Still mad?"

"Yes. No. Yes."

She smiled thinly, "Come out. I'll teach you a few things you might want to know on the way."

"To where?"

"Zion."

By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 04:12 pm:

As the Hammurabi eased itself into the huge cavern that served as Zion's docks, Swipe couldn't help but gape at the immensity of the cave, the number of ships docked, and the sheer precision with which the techs and guards moved about. It all seemed almost as if the docks were a giant hive of ants, each individual with its own purpose to serve the greater good. As the ship settled down on its respective platform, Treat smiled and winked at Swipe.

"Welcome to Zion, kid," she said, peeling her headset off and rolling out of the pilot's chair. "Follow me. I'll give ya the grand tour."