Hiyo, everyone, you didn't really think that was the end, did ya? Now this chapter… Well, it doesn't really have any action, but you still have to read it, it contains vital information!

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Entering her quarters, Lynx groped for the light switch, and as the room sprang into being, her gaze fell upon the mirror in the corner. She had it here only as a tradition, for she had been avoiding looking there for a long time, freaked out by how the image in it was different from the one that she had seen all her life. It wasn't only that her straight brown hair, long in the Matrix, was now very short and sort of shaggy (it was even weirder when she didn't have hair at all) but her almond-shaped eyes seemed somewhat different, too. She could remember them being hazel all her life, framed by long dark lashes, but now they seemed a dull, dirty yellow.

Frowning at the bony figure in the mirror, Lynx sprawled on her bed and closed her eyes. As she did that, she began to get carried off, tangled in a train of thought, floating inevitably toward her memories. She began to think back, way back, back to when her life began to take a crazed spin into the weird direction…

She remembered that day very clearly. The day it all started. It must have been May, she was walking home from class. The weather was starting to move up the temperature scale, and all of the trees in the city were abloom with different colors.

It didn't all start all in one day, though. Lynx realized that Alisa Raines, her alter ago, who she used to be back then, before, never had an absolutely ordinary life. She had discovered her telekinetic ability back when she was a kid, and it was so much a part of her life she never thought of herself as a freak or anything. It affected her mentality, she always knew, she could do this, there were other people who could, but most people couldn't. She was so used to it, that it became normal.

Alisa managed to keep her ability a secret, though, only her best friend Jodi knew about it. The two of them knowing each other ever since they were toddlers, it became normal for Jodi, too.

There was one other person who knew. Jodi's aunt, a family outcast, was a psychic. She worked with the supernatural, there were rumors she practiced magic and some referred to her as a witch. "My aunt knows everything," Jodi had said once, "You can tell her anything, she'll keep it a secret. And she can answer any question you could ask."

So Alisa went to see Jodi's aunt to ask for advice. When she came into the room the psychic was working in, she found herself in the dark, with only candles lighting the room, facing a woman wearing a mysterious black veil over her face, sitting before a table with a crystal ball on it. Oh great, Alisa thought, this is so corny and old. Now I know she's a fraud for sure.

But, remarkably, the woman made a tremendous impression on her not only because she really seemed to know everything, but also because of her powerful intelligence. Alisa felt it there like a presence superior to her own, as though she was not talking to an ordinary human being, but something more.

It was her who taught Alisa to think of her ability as a gift, but not tell others about it. "There are lots of bad people in this world," she said, "People who would want to exploit your talent, use it for money, experiment with it. They would turn you into a guinea pig, and there would be nothing anyone could do. It is a great gift you have, but it is up to you to use it wisely. In your future life, I know, there will be a time when you will have the urge to use your powers, to use them to do good, to save someone's life. It will seem to you that you have no choice, but think before you act. The use of your powers at a larger scale will go against you. Remember about bad people? Exposing yourself will cause you great trouble and pain, it will take you to a place where you don't want to go. Not everyone can be saved. Sometimes there are sacrifices to be made, but it's up to you what you are going to do with your life. Whether you can follow your destiny. And you know what that is. If you don't know now, you will later. The thing you should know, though, is that everything in the world is interconnected in ways you'd never think it could be. One thing acts because of another, one thing depends on another, the world exists because of this interdependence. That's how it is, that's how it always was, and that's how it always will be. Now don't ask me for any more answers. With time you will find them on your own, even the answers to the questions you don't know you have yet, questions about the world its self, and what things are what they seem and what things aren't. That is because you depend on the world and it depends on people like you. That is what's called interdependence, Lynx."

She had called her Lynx. Alisa couldn't get over the fact. Even though she had learned to depend on her intuition, she still couldn't believe someone could tell the future or know things they had no way to know. Nobody knew about Lynx, not even Jodi. It was her secret code name, she used it to hack. Being only an 11 year old kid, she was still a beginning hacker, but she had always known that was what she wanted to be. With plans to take over the world, she decided to keep her code name and real identity a secret, to be safe. There was absolutely no way Jodi's aunt could have know that she was Lynx.

As she got older and joined the ranks of America's Most Wanted hackers, Alisa was tormented by one question. The Question. What is the Matrix? It was the Atlantis of hackers. The remnants of Noah's Arc. The Bigfoot. The UFO. The Lost City Of Gold. She also began to discover that she didn't just move things with her eyes, she also knew things, just like the psychic woman. She knew things before they happened. Sometimes she got this solemn sureness about something, with nothing to confirm it, but it was always right.

And along with that came something else. More and more, it seemed to her at times that something was wrong with the world. Sometimes it seemed that things happened that never actually happened, and Alisa couldn't figure out whether they happened in real life or in a dream, while she was sleeping. That was a very spooky feeling, wondering sometimes whether she was dreaming or not. Maybe she was in some kind of terrible accident, lying in a coma, and all her life was just a very long dream…

With all those weird happenings, the day finally came where the wild goose chase of her life had started. A sunny day in May when she was returning home from class, in her last year of high school. Alisa had a funny feeling that morning, and for some reason she remembered Jodi's aunt. But she didn't dwell on it now, thinking about how she and her friends decided to goof off in class, because it was their last year of school, and almost got detention. That was a lot of fun. Passing an elementary school across the street, she noticed kids playing soccer in the schoolyard. One of the little boys, who had blond hair and wore a red T-shirt, was especially good. As Alisa watched, he kicked the ball, passing it to a teammate, but the guy didn't catch it, and so the ball went flying over the fence, landed on the sidewalk, and kept rolling out into the street.

"You get it, Joey!" She heard the kids yell. So the blond boy ran out of the schoolyard and after the ball. As he ran out on the street, in the middle of which the soccer ball was lying, Alisa noticed a car coming right at him. It was a pickup truck that had just come from around a corner, and the driver didn't even see Joey until it was too late, while Joey didn't see him at all.

Alisa was the only one who did. "WATCH OOUUT!!!" she shouted, but Joey didn't seem to hear her. At that moment she panicked. She knew she had to do something. And she knew she could. She was the only one who could. In that split instant a thousand things rushed through her mind, she knew that this was the moment Jodi's psychic aunt has talked about, even though she'd forgotten it, convinced herself she didn't believe it, she knew it has come. If she used her powers… She had been told what'll happen. But if she didn't… A life depended on her. The life of a child. A child who could probably become a soccer star. Jodi's aunt told her she'd have to make a sacrifice. And she did.

Concentrating all the power she had within her, she hurled it at the truck, creating an invisible barrier in front of it, willing it to stop with all of her might. Se could feel the cars momentum, and felt the strain equivalent to trying to lift it, she tried to imagine it away. Really, the car had no weight. No speed.

Inches from hitting Joey, the car suddenly stopped. Completely. It only stopped for a second there, but it was enough for the boy to pick up the ball and keep running, and for stunned driver, who had been madly squeezing the brakes, knowing he was too late, to comment in bewilderment, "What the? -"

He had felt no G-force, he wasn't even thrown forward as his fast-moving pickup came to an abrupt stop, which defied all laws of physics. His airbag didn't open, and it was in perfect order, it's just that all of the momentum of the car just disappeared, although it hadn't been there in the first place. But only for a second. It took superhuman strength from Alisa to keep it still for that second, it was one of those moments when an extreme situation gives a human the power of a titan. As the kid ran out of the way, she let go, and the car continued moving, brakes screeching, leaving black smoking traces on the asphalt.

Alisa stopped Joey when he reached her side of the street. She felt dizzy and there were silver specks swimming in her eyes from the tremendous effort, but she forced herself not to collapse.

"Hey, Kid!" she called, "You almost got run over by that truck over there!"

It obviously didn't come through for the kid how serious he situation was.

"Oh, my mom keeps on telling me that all the time." He grumbled.

"No, I'm serious!" Alisa exclaimed, "Come here,"

As Joey approached her, she crouched down to be level with his face. The boy clutched his ball, looking guilty.

"I know all the adults are really being boring and annoying telling you to be careful on the road," she said, "But believe me, they have a point. Getting hit by car hurts. It really hurts, Joey, and if it's really bad you die. Just think of your mom, what will she do if you're dead? And I don't think you want to die, either, do you?" She looked him in the eye. He shook his head.

"Well, that might happen if you do what you just did - run out in the middle of the street without checking for cars. You always must look around. And please, don't risk your life for a soccer ball. It's just not worth it."

The boy nodded. "Alright?" Alisa asked. "Okay," he mumbled.

"Alright, then, off you go, but remember to be careful.

The little kid ran back to his schoolyard, checking the street for cars before crossing. Alisa breathed a sigh of relief. Then, suddenly, she got a weird feeling. It was as though she was being watched. She got that feeling before, but never to this extent - now it was very powerful, she could almost feel a pair of eyes boring themselves into her back.

As she turned to look over her shoulder, she saw a weird-looking fellow with freaky hair, wearing an ugly suit and cool shades, standing at the end of the block. There were other people, but she felt an absolute sureness that it was him who had been watching her. As she watched, the man got into a black car on the corner, and the car drove off.

Alisa was left with a weird feeling. A nagging premonition, the cold feeling of inevitability. She knew she had made a choice, a vital one, but she wasn't sure it was the right one. Although deep down inside, she knew, that whatever it was going to bring her, she couldn't have let that child die. She had done the duty of a human being.

But, after that day, Alisa started to get the feeling of being watched, more and more often. Sometimes at school, it seemed to come out of nowhere, or at home, where she saw a strange-looking car pass by her window and seemingly slow down for a second. She got that feeling before, seeing weird characters obviously faking reading a newspaper at a coffee shop and feeling a piercing gaze. She was quite used to that, though, considering herself over sensitive. And who knows what kind of morons just stare at people. Now, she did not know who and why was watching her, but she had a feeling she has to get far away. The plan had been in her head for a long time, to be as far away from her stupid family as possible, and now she had the perfect excuse.

"Mom," she said, coming home one day, "After graduation, I'm leaving."

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Well if u didn't like this don't give up! I'm tryin to work up a plot here, u see. There'll be more action later in the story, I promise, I have lotsa things in mind! Like I said, this story's gonna be kinda long… So just think of it as a book :)