Delay in processing an interactive application for a portable subscriber unit (216) is reduced in a two-way messaging system (200) having a distributed architecture including a plurality of intelligent control elements (202, 204, 208, 212, 214, 216). A software messaging agent (210) is shipped (408) from a first one of the plurality of intelligent control elements to a second one of the plurality of intelligent control elements, the second one requiring less communication among the plurality of intelligent control elements to process the interactive application than required by the first one. Thereafter the software messaging agent operates (410) in the second one of the plurality of intelligent control elements for autonomously processing at least a portion of the interactive application, thereby reducing processing delay resulting from communication latency.