When it happens. . . .

Inquirer

Alright, I bet you're wondering what's happening, right?

. . . .

Well, I'm not 100% sure myself exactly why things are as they are right now, but I'll tell you what I know (and what I guess is happening).

Now, to recap I'm in here in Cyberspace to find yet another Torg High Lord, the Cyberpope, and after capturing him here (via some fancy software attacks/tricks) I was going to jack out and tell the others were his body (mind still stuck in the VR) was. We'd take the TARDIS, scoop him up, and be away before those Cyber-church boobs knew something was wrong.

Using some rather tricky signal compression tricks, I was barely able to successfully jack into the Godnet (Cyberpapacy's version of a beefed up VR Internet with religious/Catholic overtones). Poor unused Arabsat like telecommunications bird will never be the same after this is done, I fear. Should remember to send some kind of compensation to those Arabic owners to pay for damages to their space property, alas. But that's later and aside.

Problems immediately hit me when I found that some kind of crossover was in the works here inside the Godnet. It was, at a guess, where some kind of Torgian invasion of the VR reality (a mini/pocket Cosm in it's own right) into a mini/pocket reality we'll call the Matrix! Something, anway. Or perhaps whatever Darkness Device Aspect still within the Cyberpope caused this crossover. Don't know and cannot spare the time to cypher it out. Time is not something I have much to waste here!

Heh, that said, I had to get involved when my cyberspace avatar appeared because I'm not the one to stand by and let a murder happen, unopposed. Stopped the traitorous "Cypher" from killing his fellow shipmates and managed to slip away in a confusing debacle that followed. See, the thing here is (like in a few other incidents I've heard of from other Champions). . . .

. . .

It's called "storyline fracturing". Basically, it's where the timeline of a reality gets twisted back upon itself and fused into a new, weird present. Here we had in the bebacle the "real" Morpheus and friends awaken within "reality". . . .only to find that their Matrix "Avatars" were running around, still alive and with the personalities and such. In other words, we had the same people (more or less) in two different places at once, and I do mean two places at once since the "reality" outside the Matrix (which was actually the Godnet) and that place inside the Matrix. Well, it's one and the same seperated by a bit of. . . .distance. If the yahoos in "reality" travelled far enough in the Godnet, they'd find those places they'd visited within the Matrix. . . . Ah, drop it. It's stupid.

Well, usually as things work once a Matrix character jacks out of the Matrix, their Matrix Avatar ceases to exist. Not this time, though. This time, though a disconnect had happened and the "real" folks were out, the Avatars (still thinking they were just the "real" Hackers stomping around the Matrix in VR Avatar bodies) hadn't just disappeared or the usual shtick. Nope, they'd managed to get to an Exit (one of those old syle phones as seen in "The Matrix" the move) and. . . .shown up still in those fancy clothes they wore. . . .and met their "real" selves.

Yeah, you got it. We have the "real" Neo meeting his "Matrix Avatar" double (and both thinking that they are the "original" Neo).

That, and at a guess, I figure that since the fellow named "Neo" is supposed to be "the One" and in the Catholic faith, God is a Trinity (the One who is Three, basically, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirity). . . I figure that that is the reason why I get readings of three Neos.

Three or not, I'm kind of "piggybacking" off of Neo's powers and doing things I usually couldn't do due to the rules of the Matrix. Could have hacked my way around those rules, but this way is quicker and easier for me.

. . . .

Well, that aside, before that, I'd managed to win some trust from Morpheus' crew (who's life I'd saved but who were still suspicious of a woman who'd appeared from nowhere). I'd done that by making like I'd been sent from the stil free human city, Xion, and had managed the miracle of getting away from a killer robot ambush of my hovership (en route to Morpheus' ship to warn him about Cypher's treachery). Managed to win some time with some effective (but hurtful) lies to Morpheus and probably would have to do a lot more "tapdancing" with the others to cover holes in my story if things hadn't happened as they'd happened. So whilst the Matrix folks and the "real" folks were confused and shouting at each other, I slipped away and jacked into the Matrix by one of those strange Hacker chairs (as seen in the movie).

Sliding through those Matrix datastreams (green data stream. . . how drole), I see in my cyberspace senses where the Cyberpope is at. He's rather obvious in here, what with those waves of entropy (or whatever) his Darkness Device shard (for lack of a better term) left within him.

Willed my body to instead of appearing at a phone/exit to instead to force my way into the Matrix proper through an Agent's radio earphone piece. Sounds like shear madness to do that, appearing in front of such powerful Matrix Entities.

. . .

Not on their best day shall those cybergoons EVER even come close to matching me in Cyberspace. Never.

. . . .

Trust me.

Now, as I take in the scene around me as the surprised and shocked Agents (and surprised Morpheus. . . though the suprise is muted by the serum that the Agents used on him try to break him to get those stupid codes to Xion's mainframe) that I've interrupted them. I take that from where the still cursing Agent Smith (who's ear is bleeding from where his earplug had exploded upon my arrival) that he'd been just about to regale his "guest" about how humans weren't really mammels. . . but viruses! How fun!

"Oh Smith," I tsk him, "Stop underestimating human beings or you are going to find upon your next life coming back as an elf nicknamed 'Eyebrows'!"

Hugo Weaving, the actor who played Agent Smith in the movie, also played Elrond in The Lord of the Rings, in case you failed to get the joke, folks.

Of course, Smith and the other Agents, being the limited folks they are, don't get the joke. That and Morpheus is too out of it to even try to get the joke.

I then look. . . .deeper into Smith and mutter a curse.

"Who are you?" Agent Brown (who looks rather like that one guy, Stark, I note) says in that calm but menacing way he has.

"Why are you here?" Agent Jones adds, drawing his handgun, covering me.

They look at each other, bemused and amused as I mutter something magical seeming. Then. . . .suddenly find out what it is like to be asleep and dreaming. A real new experience for those killer AIs, I am sure.

Hey, I don't do wetwork. If I can put out an Agent without violence, I'll do it. Magic spells (or Matrix powers expressed through magic spells) aren't recognized as threats until too late. Could have done something more lethel, but that's stupid. Would have only killed the bodies, leaving the Agents to go off and possess some other poor shmuck and come back, fighting yet again and again. Yeah, and like I said before in other discussions, I'm utterly tired of killing and all that war stuff. Done it almost all my life and I'm glad to have finally gotten away from it after the Enemy/Allliance War ended, folks.

Live with it.

I ignore them as they snore, instead looking over at Agent Smith (who's somehow managed the luck of having "possessed" the Cyberpope. . . Creator know just how, when or why). He's looking at his "friends" (do Agents have friends?) and then back at me, now VERY wary.

"Agent Smith," I say in a slow and low voice, stealing his line from "The Matrix" (the movie), "You are going to help us. Whether you want to. . . .or not."

. . . ..

Let us just say that he. . . .does NOT go along with me quietly. Won't sicken you with the "blow by blow" details because. . . .they're rather embarrassing to me, really. Really hammy stuff, that Matrix fight I fought. . . Point in fact, I had a rather BAD time of it! See, beside his usual Agent powers, Smith seems to had suddenly gained powers that the Cyberpope had. Got a serious case of Hellfire burns by a near miss. . . .

What? You SAY it was too easy?

Whatever. You're crazy AND you weren't there, chucka. Just used DM knowledge and my skills learned from years of Cyberwarfare, folks. Experience counts.

That said, though, I Must admit, however, Smith has a rather good singing voice, though, drunk though he now is with the Happy Hammer (a software attack untility) that's intoxicated him!

Wonder where he learned the words to "Daisy". Watching 2001: A Space Oddessy?!

. . . ..

Nevermind, I don't want to KNOW! Betty has said in the past that since I was from cyberspace I, of course (as those in similar positions) am the most "nickpicky" about movies which include stuff about "cyberspace" and such. I swear, this crossover is near the bottom of my list of places I want to be! The only place worse than "The Matrix" (in my book) would for me to have visited Frank Hurbert's Dune (where cybernetics and AIs are heresy).

Kind of have, now, a better appreciation for those Champions who complain about being in danger of going "crossover cuckoo"! Never suffered from such fears before, considering my line of work I'd retired from (i.e. a reality jumping Military AI). Now? Well, playing around on a reality who's a mirror of my Torg game (a genre crossover game even before this lunacy of game meeting reality). . . it's kind of pushing things. Heh.

Well, I'll roll with the punches like I always do.

Anyway, after beating Agent Smith bloody and broken (something that's only possible due to the mixed up nature of having possessed who'd he'd possessed, i.e. he can't disengage and get another healthy body right now) I sigh as I put some kind of software utility to keep him stable (but still out of it). Run a trace and locate the living body on the other side (who's still alive. . . barely). Won't have done it this way if I'd had a choice, but then again. . . Smith had to do it his way. . . . .and too much is at stake for a nice and peaceful solution. Er, right. Anyway, after I give Smith a few more blows from my Happy Hammer utility (which manifests pink cartoon hammer in the Matrix) to keep him in place AND to keep him out of pain, I take the still loopy Mobius down stairs (doing a masterul job at avoiding the roving Military patrols, thank you!). Being out of spells/sleep utilities I instead knock the living crap out of the guards at the front door (and all that before they can scream for backup....Be like NEO, INquirer). I take him through and give him to his startled plugthug friends (Neo and Trinity) just as they were about to come in and spring him!

Love it when I get to do that! That and I even get in the last word as I fly off (Superman style) before I see the befuddled Trinity (dressed in fetish gear again, of course) sputter out any questions.

Don't have time for them, folks. Oh, I know they have a boat load of problems that needs fixing, but I'm not going to stick around and help them. I CANNOT help them. It is something they've got to do for themselves. Really.

I jack out as Betty makes a joking, hoping aloud that I'll be successful. Something about how having "adds" in Faith-Athiesism not being a good thing in the Cyberpapacy. "I was," I simply say, not mentioning anything about what happened within. It would not add anything AND frankly it is not something I feel like....sharing right now. Touch embarassing you might say.

So we go and get the Cyberpope. We get the Aspect....and I find out that the wrong guy in the Matrix got sucked back into the Cybperpope's body.

Agent Smith glares up at me from the hospital bed we'd improvised to hold him whilst the Doctor had hooked up medical gear and such to keep him stable (after we'd taken the Darkness Device Aspect from him). Smith in the Cyberpope. How drole.

"Shut up," I say, casting yet another sleep spell to stop his ranting.

I look then at the others, those who know about that movie (in one form or another), and just say that "I'll explain later."

That is, of course, about the time we finally get a knock on the door of the TARDIS (we'd flown back to the Nile Empire after picking up the Cyberpopes' body). It was one of the PCs, babbling about how one of their members having gone missing....

Well, after a frantic manhunt by us all, we find him and find out what happened to him, more or less (re: 26731).

"How in the hell did Scorpious manage that?" John mutters, looking up at the sky in askance, "Getting away and all that?!"

"Well . . . he's Scorpius!" Betty laughs nervously, looking at the Farscapian folks.

Right.

"So we now have a third party chasing down High Lords," I sigh, shaking my head. "Lovely!"

Warplaning soon happens and we decide we'd better go even FASTER than before. Drop off the two High Lords to either our PCs (Mobius to face Arabic/Isreali justice). As for the other High Lord, the Cyberpope's fate (Agent Smith or not) can be handled by Itallian/Papal folk. Next stop, we decide, should be Aylse....

....and unlike on the Doctor's Earth, where a materializing TARDIS might be overlooked by the roving human crowds.... Uh, let us just say that in the Doctor's haste he forgot to remember that I'd said in the past the TV show "Doctor Who" not only existed...but was very popular...

1. And we do have a few fans (Core Earther as well as some Aylsian folks) in the staring crowd....

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