I open my eyes. My head is still hazy from all the ruckus I made before getting kidnapped. As bleary as it is, I can make out the words floating above me. Maverick incorporated. That was the logo I saw earlier.

Wait... what happened? Slowly I regain consciousness. I am not fully in control of my body, but mostly I am. Where am I? Strange muffled noise comes out of my mouth when I try to shout. The piece of cloth in my mouth prevents me from yelling. I was blindfolded and gagged before. If they took off the blindfold, that's good news right?

My arms are sore and tied behind me. While I'm in a sitting position. I wiggle in the restraints of the rope. What kind of animal ties their fellow human being up this way?? Or what if they aren't humans? I stop moving. The door to the other side creaks open and figures wearing white lab coats trudge in. The lab coats all have the maverick logo on it. There they stood, a Baker's dozen.

The men all stare at me defiantly through the transparent glass and I stare right back. Their mouths move but I can't hear them. Sadly I think I might have gone deaf from shock.

"Now can you hear me, number 049?" One of the men, considerably older than the rest, with a face only a mother could love, the head scientist I assume, asks. He removes his finger off a blue button near a mic which I now conclude is the reason I couldn't hear them before.

I glare at him. For people who looked like scientists, they sure are dumb. I mean I can't talk with this piece of cloth in my mouth so what now? I shake violently in the chair. Just remove this cloth from my mouth... I'll strangle him from here.

The head scientist chuckles. "We've got a feisty one on our hands." He taps the mic and speaks into it. "My apologies for tying you up in such an inhumane manner. But you were going to beat up the people helping to bring you in here, so I made the order. We will now remove the cloth binding your mouth."

Two men walk in, one I recognise from earlier which punched Kyle and the other which I don't know at all. The cloth is removed from my mouth and the two men stand at my both sides.

"Asshat!!" I glare at the head scientist as hard as I can. He shudders a little before asking for privacy from the other scientists. As soon as they leave, he starts speaking into the mic again.

"049, I bet you're yearning to know why you've been kidnapped and brought here against your will." He snaps his fingers then grins while staring off into a distance. "It's for the greater good of humanity. You see, here at Maverick incorporated we have a vision. A place where mankind can keep existing for millions of decades to come. I present to you Matrix - the fight for power."

He brings out a projector, then places it in an angle that I can see clearly and starts to demonstrate. "This is the Matrix." He points to a dot on the map, he zooms in and points again. "It's an alternate universe that exists only in the virtual reality world." He plays slides of people dressed in armour looking knight-like, kids running to hug their parents who just returned from war, couples being separated, and the King sitting on the throne with a bored expression. "As you can see, the Matrix is set in an ancient era, sadly this is a condition that cannot be fixed although we have certain hunches on how to do so... well, you'll see."

I feel queasy. For some reason, I don't want to be here all of a sudden. Not all of a sudden. I've been having a danger instinct right from the beginning. This isn't good, not good at all. I look at the scientist, holding back my tears and whisper in a soft voice. "What do you want? Why are you doing this? What does any of this have to do with me?"

"You my dear, will be our guinea pig for testing the game." Now his grin reaches both ears. "We can't say for sure that the game is a hundred percent safe. I'd say it's a 50:50. The other experiment 6 months ago went wrong, the circuits went haywire and fried all the test subjects brains in the real world. I hope the same doesn't happen this time."

I grit my teeth and my nails dig into my palm so hard I can feel blood seeping out. How dare he? How dare them? I know the world is rotten, but this is going too far. They treat human life like it's some disposable resource. Well, it's not! And fuck anyone who thinks so. "Give me a break, Mr-looks-like-dog-shît. You say it's for the greater good of humanity, but who would want this?!" I yell and tears stream down my face. "Who in the world would want this?! I think you all are just bored scientists looking for a way to make your life more interesting. If not, you all have misplaced priorities!!"

The man's face tenses a bit but relaxes soon and he heads for the door. He turns to look at me, a huge red flag parade runs through my head. "Maybe you're right, maybe we are bored and looking for something fun to spice things up. But we do have a vision and we'll do whatever it takes to get there." He is about to leave when he adds, "And my name isn't looks-like-dog-shit, it's Maverick, Maverick Creed." With this, the door reverberates and he is gone. Just like the wind.

I can't help but wonder what my fate is now. Will I die just like the other test subjects before me? Where are Kyle and Peyton? (Monica too I suppose) Bluish-grey eyes is dead, huh? But why? Why was he killed? What is this freak show? I take a moment to observe my surroundings.

The room is wide and spacious. Although the majority of this side is covered in darkness, the other side however is sparkling white. Different equipments standby and monitors are connected to several other devices. I see it now, the Maverick logo. It is a shade of black, brown, and white splattered everywhere. A giant bloody scarlet M in the middle. It's a rather normal logo. But something tells me there's more to this logo than it shows.

"I have a good feeling about this set, they all look pretty strong." A voice mumbles drawing closer, "Well, I can't say. That 049 looks weak." Another breathes. I whip my head up in time to see two scientists walk in, which I presume are the owner of the voices I heard before.

The two men standing beside me loosen the rope tying my hands and lead me out of the dark room. The two scientists are in front of us and one begins talking, "049, you'll be undergoing imprinting very soon. That means you'll be chipped and registered into the system." I look around and see other abducted people scrambling into hiding, they all look awful. Like they haven't slept in days. We get to a room and I am asked to lie on a stretcher.

A machine is brought over me which is used to check my blood pressure and other health stats. Five masked people, one holding a syringe and a scalpel approaches me. I whimper sideways, I don't want to get cut, I hate cuts.

"Hold her." The one with the scalpel says, the others rush to hold me down. I yell, scream, fight but it doesn't help my situation. When the blade pierces my skin, I yell even louder. The pain is insurmountable.

"Her stats are dropping!" A voice hollers. "I don't care, hold her!" The man with the scalpel hollers back. The blade cuts even deeper into my skin and I can feel the blood draining out of me. I feel weak and powerless. I feel warm, no hot, no, steamy.

"Huh... Doc?" Another voice laced with concern calls. "Her temperature is rising! It's too high! At this rate we won't be able to chip her!"

The rest of their conversation is lost to me. My head hits the stretcher and the last thing I see and hear is the man holding the scalpel with his mask down, now clenching his fists and announcing. "Close the cut! There's nothing that can be done. She's an irregular, of a different kind."

°°°°

I pry my eyes open... they are too heavy to keep open, I want to close them for a little while, just for a minute.

Welcome to The Matrix! A voice booms through my body, I wiggle around. The voice came from within me.

"Who are you?"

I'm Serena, your guide to The Matrix. A NPG huh? A non-player guide does exactly what the name implies. They aren't characters in the actual game but they act as guides and help the players make decisions, they also introduce new players to a game. I wonder how I know that, I don't even play video games. A game... I'm in... a game?

"Where am I?"

You're in the Matrix. The game requires you to pick an avatar. Please allow me to demonstrate.

A cursor pops up in my face, or on my screen I guess, it blinks twice before a long trail of characters are displayed. The place I am in is dark, too dark to make anything out but the characters light up my screen so I can see crystal-clear the options before me.

An Avatar... I scroll through the characters till I find one that looks like me, but the upgraded version of me. She has ginger red hair like mine and obsidian impenetrable dark hazel eyes. Mine are a few shades lighter. Her lips are heart shaped and her nose is straight and sharp enough to cut diamonds. Well a person could look worse right?

"This one." I say to the most human-ish voice I've ever heard come from a robot and tap the option.

Well done Warrior! Next is to chose your path in this world. Shall you be a Knight, Sword-drawer or a common man?

"A Knight, sword... wait, hold up, hold up! What is going on here?"

You need to decide your fate. Whatever decision you make now will affect you forever... now the hour is before us. What will you choose?

If I had to guess... common man. I don't think any of the other options are safe, and being a common man means leading a normal life. Yup, I can't wait! "Common man."

I see you have made your choice. Stay safe Warrior. Walk through the gate of the nobles. What isn't clear to you will be. Welcome to Matrix - the fight for power.

A/N:
Sumimasen minna for late uploads, hope you liked this chapter!! Click the orange star below and comment your thoughts. Adios!!