Ok, finally, chapter 3's here!! Yay! In this one, we get to meet our old friends… And some new. Shift is my character, he has joined the team before Lynx, in case you'll be wondering.
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As soon as the needle was taken out of the back of her brain, Lynx sat up in her chair and held her head in her hands, trying not to cry from the shock.
Tank spun around on his chair. "Now I've got to give it to ya, girl, you made some very narrow escape down there! Jeez, you scared the shit out of everyone! I can't believe you created those bullets, I mean where did that come from?!"
Lynx forced a sheepish smile. She realized there was blood seeping from her thigh where the bullet hit her, although there was no bullet in there now.
Trinity appeared out of nowhere. "Thank God you're alive!" she exclaimed, "Are you alright?"
"Well, except for the fact that I almost got sent to heaven by old friend Jones, I'm bleeding like Frankenstein and my guts still feel like they've been through a meat grinder, yes, I'm perfectly fine."
Trinity smiled. "You're okay," she said. Trinity rarely smiles, Lynx realized.
"You should do something about that wound, though."
Lynx went to give herself some kind of treatment for the bleeding gash, wondering how the wound came into being. Well, sure, her mind was telling her she was shot, but how did that make a connection to her real body?
When Lynx returned she realized the Neb was strangely empty. "Where are the others?" she asked.
"Still in," Tank replied, motioning his head toward the three men lying in their chairs.
"Neo and Shift have gone back in to rescue you," Trinity said, "Mouse is working on some new program somewhere else, and Morpheus is taking care of some other business. He doesn't even know about the shit you got into."
"Don't tell him," Lynx said, smiling, "Save it for when Jones realizes his dream and finally empties his gun into me."
"I have a feeling that's not his dream," Trinity said very seriously, "To tell the truth, I was afraid when he gave you that choice."
"What, you thought I'd betray you guys?" Lynx was surprised. But then she remembered. "Oh, I guess after the way I'd acted a while ago would make you expect anything from me."
Trinity shook her head. "It has nothing to do with you. It's just that a long time ago, before you or even Shift were recruited, one man betrayed us. He cooperated with the agents in exchange for a 'normal' life. I guess he kind of snapped… Even after all those years he's been with us, he couldn't take it anymore."
"He was an asshole!" Tank spoke suddenly, without turning around. Lynx realized with shock his voice was filled with anger and hate.
"A pathetic fucking asshole, that's what he was."
"Tank," Trinity said gently, "I understand that he did caused you a great deal of pain. To me, too, and to everyone else, but you especially. But you must try and understand… He wasn't strong enough. He snapped. It could happen to anyone who'd have to go through all this."
"Still, there's no excuse for what he did," Tank said angrily, "You and everyone else had been through the same thing, and none of you came up with that little stunt. And Lynx just proved she is more trustworthy than that."
"Who was the guy? What exactly did he do?" Lynx asked.
Trinity shook her head. "That's irrelevant. Besides, it's too painful to talk about."
Lynx nodded. She looked at the screens Tank was sitting at. She could read most of the code now, and it was like watching a very fuzzy old movie screen with black spots and patches where the code still unknown to her was.
As she watched she saw Neo and Shift running down a street, their guns ready. Lynx was a little worried about Shift, though he was an excellent fighter, he was still a regular guy.
Shift was a tall, Latin - type of guy with short black hair and a goatee. He was cute, but that was not the reason she liked him - he was a very kind, understanding person with an optimistic view of life. He and Lynx became great friends, being the two people who weren't part of the original team before. It seemed to her that if she lost Shift she would lose her best friend, and snap. Again.
As she watched, Neo took out his phone and dialed.
"Operator," Tank said, "You slowpokes are too late! Lynx already took care of herself rather well and is safe and sound with us! So now you guys have to get out."
Meanwhile Shift was looking around, checking the area for potentials. He has a special ability to detect potentials right before they turn into agents.
"Copy that, Tank," Neo replied, "Tell us the location of the nearest exit."
"It's on King and Elm. You're very close to there now, but be careful - you have potentials close at hand."
"No prob," Neo said, "Thanks, Tank." Then he turned off his phone.
Suddenly, Shift jerked his head around and shot a man across the nearly-empty street. He and Neo exchanged looks, and started running towards the intersection. Soon they reached it, and headed for the payphone on the corner. Shift turned around and fired at an old woman coming towards them, but the old woman was already morphing an agent, who deftly dodged the bullets.
"Uh, Neo?" Shift called.
Neo turned around and looked at the agent. The agent was definitely looking for trouble. It was Agent Jones, Lynx realized. Was he really that stupid? He was probably very angry after being tricked by Lynx. So he attacked Neo.
Neo's arm moved like a lightning as he fought away the agent, then with the other hand, he punched him twice in the face and once in the neck faster than the eye could follow, causing it to break. Then he kicked Jones sideways in the stomach. It didn't look like a very hard kick, but it sent the agent flying into a wall.
Tank was laughing. "It seems like old friend Jones is having a real bad day!"
Trinity was smiling, again, but for a different reason. Lynx rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, there were two policemen running down the street. "Hey, you! One of them shouted at Shift, "Someone told us you shot that man down the street for no reason!" Shift smiled grimly. The next thing you knew, he slammed the policeman in the face with his fist, then jumped, kicking him away, spun around in midair, kicked the other policeman in the stomach with one foot and in chest with the other, sending him tumbling across the street. Then he landed on his feet with perfect balance.
"Good job. You go first." Neo said, handing him the receiver. So Shift, and then Neo disintegrated into thin air inside the telephone booth.
Upon waking up, Shift immediately jumped out of his chair. He seemed to have some never - ending source of energy. "Lynx!" he exclaimed, "You here? You alright? Man, for a moment I thought we lost you there." There seemed to be genuine concern in his eyes.
"Well, as far as you can see, I'm alive…still" she mumbled with a sheepish smile. She did not want to give away the fact that she'd been terrified. She wasn't afraid of Shift, sure he'd understand how she felt, but Neo was here, too, and he was their leader, the One, and she felt as though she still had to prove herself as a warrior. For it was he that had made that choice to give her the chance when everyone else lost all hope.
"Hey, did I miss something here or did Lynx just escape a building full of agents without a scratch?" Neo inquired. Then smiling at Lynx, "Congratulations."
She chuckled. "Thanks for finishing off Jones for me. I guess Tank was right - it's his really bad day."
"I guess the snob isn't used to getting trampled on," Shift said, "What exactly did you do, Lynx?"
"Well, I just told him to get his sorry little ass out of my way or -"
"Guys, you don't know how she did it," Tank interrupted, "Sorry, Lynx, I have to tell them."
So he went on to tell them about Lynx's escapades, not without adding a little of his own imagination and exaggerating things a bit. When he was telling about how Agent Jones gave Lynx the choice, she noticed Neo's eyes flicker quickly from Tank to her and back.
"- That idiot!" Tank continued, "He gave her 2 bad choices, so she chose the third! Suddenly I see the code's all changin', and there are bullets in her guns! She made them materialize out of thin air!"
Both Shift and Neo looked at Lynx. "Is that true?" Neo asked. Lynx thought about saying something funny, but instead just nodded. Shift grinned, looking from Lynx to Tank and back. "But that's amazing!" he exclaimed, "See, Lynx, I always knew you were special! To move objects mentally is one thing, but to deliberately write the code?" He smiled at her in a special way he did sometimes, and she felt some kind of warmth inside, something that made her smile back. She usually didn't like to be the center of attention, but this time it felt really good to have so many people actually care about her.
After a while Morpheus came out. Everyone expected he'd tell them what he's been doing, but he said nothing and just looked very concerned. Lynx retreated to her room, deciding to face her demons and make plans for the future. Many questions crossed her mind. Now, that she could do this, would she never run out of bullets? Would she be able to conjure up guns? Or, maybe, the other way around, would she be able to erase things from existence, and, for example, walk through walls?
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Yay, finally, the end! Phew. Well, if someone here fell asleep reading this, their feelings are totally justified. But it'll get better soon!