Family

I was a good hacker/program writer, but at the moment that was probably the farthest thing from my mind, I skated past students and teachers alike as I rushed to get out the door.

"Miss Anderson, you are in enough trouble. Stop right now!" The shrill voice of Ms. DeMarco called out. I shook my head at the irony, what DeMarco had said was true, I had probably broken every rule they had in this school and had been suspended more times than I can remember, I'd also probably be in detention until I graduated in two months time. It didn't bother me, Mom had died years ago and Dad spent most of his time trying to find the end of the whiskey bottle, everytime I got in trouble he didn't even seem to notice. About four years ago I had gotten into trouble for hacking into the school computers to change someone else's records, but of course I got caught. So I wasn't really surprised when I got called to the principals office, instead of Dad sitting there in a drunken stupor, my brother was there and he didn't look very happy. The principal had spent the entire time, telling him about all the stuff I'd done and asking him why Dad had never called to find out what was going on, after all the phonecalls and messages, etc, etc. After he was finished his tirade school was finished and most of the others had gone home, my brother didn't say anything to me until we were in his car, then he turned to me.

"You've been doing this sort of stuff for ages now and this is the first time anyone's actually gone in to talk about it?" He asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah, well Dad keeps trying to break yesterdays record of how much he can drink in an hour, and she never answers the phone anyway. Do you know how far back with the rent she is? I had to do something to get money, otherwise we're gonna be living on the streets, and he doesn't care." I replied. He looked at me closely then and I knew that he'd seen my healing eye.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked, I could hear the concern in his voice. I shrugged my shoulders again, this time ducking my head to avoid his eyes.

"Hit my head on a press door." I said quietly. He put his hand on my shoulder and I winced away from him, he stopped for a moment, then pulled the shoulder of my sweater back, revealing the purpling bruise that decorated my whole back.

"And this? He did them both to you didn't he?" He said. For a moment I was going to shake my head, but then I nodded, as tears dripped down my face. We had never been that close; as almost ten year separated us, but now he pulled me into his arms and I sobbed on his shoulder.

"You got any stuff that you need to get?" He asked. I looked at him confused for a moment.

"You don't think that I'm going to leave you at home with him do you? You're coming to stay with me." He said. And that's exactly what happened. But now Tommy was gone, and as a minor I wasn't allowed to live on my own, so I was sent back to live with Dad and once again I became his punching bag.

Trouble, yeah I had a habit of getting into a lot of that.

"Sure, then I'll disappear like Scanner." I muttered, a month ago the same guys had come to school looking for my only friend; Scanner, they had taken him away and no one had seen him again. I'd searched for him, but not only could I not find him, but I couldn't find anything that suggested that he'd ever existed. When I called to his house his parents had acted like they didn't know who I was talking about. The stairs was coming up quickly, I leaped up and my rollerblades came down on the banisters, DeMarco stood near to the end of the stairs and she seemed to be changing into one of the men that had been chasing me, he reached out a hand to grab me as I shot past, but I lashed out with one foot and hit him in the chest. Then I was out the door, the school was at the top of a steep hill and I picked up speed as I went down it, at the same time pulling out my mobile and laptop, they used to be Tommy's, but now I used them. I plugged the phone into the computer as I ducked down a side street. Please be on! I thought desperately. Within moments I was in the chatroom, but there was only one person in there.

Black Lady: Have u seen neo in here?

Tank: Do u have a problem, BL?

I started typing again, hell it wasn't like it could get any worse.

B.L: Yes, but u prolly wouldn't believe me if I told u the truth.

Tank: u might b surprised my what I no, does it have something to do with men in suits that can move from person to person?

I stared at the screen for a moment, how did he know could he be one of them? No, I decided, he'd hardly say it if he was.

B.L: Yes, they were all over the place, and they move faster than anything I've ever seen b4 what the hell is going on?

There was a pause before and then someone else came into the chatroom.

Morpheus: For that you'll have to see more than you might want to. Are you willing to do that?

B.L: If it will get these creeps of my ass, Ill go any

The screen exploded in her face, her head swung around to stare at the two men who had followed her into the alley. Of course I would have to pick a dead end! I thought. I turned to face them. They weren't even moving towards me; they just stood there. A very short list of escape options ran through my head, then I ran right at them, picking up speed, just as I got really close to them I jumped and snagged the overhanging firescape ladder above them, landing behind them I kept going.

On the Neb, Morpheus swung around to face Tank.

"What happened to her?" He asked.

"She just left, she'll be back in a minute." He glanced at another monitor.

"Wait, she's on the run, two agents are chasing her. You're going in." It was more a statement than a question, Neo and Trinity had just joined them, Tank loaded them all in, a moment later they all stood by a ringing phone on the same street as the person they were looking for, who was bearing down on them, behind me were the two agents, I didn't stop, until someone caught my arm as I flashed past them. Then I looked at him.

"I realise that it's been a while, Tommy. But in case you didn't notice I got a little problem." I said, jerking a thumb back over my shoulder.

"But if you want to take them on, be my guest." The agents who had been chasing me took one look at Neo and fled. I stared after them then at Neo.

"How'd you do that?" I asked, he turned and pulled me into a hug, after a moment he pulled back.

"You ready now?" He asked, I nodded and we followed the other two who led us toward an old looking black car, I got into the back with Tommy, almost as soon as we were inside he started asking me questions.

"What happened after I left?" He said.

"Those people at whatever department, decided to send me back to live with dad. I ran away from there about a month ago." I replied. He cursed.

"I'm sorry I had to leave in a hurry, I didn't have a chance to go back for you." He said. I shrugged my shoulders, as if it was no matter, but if I was to be honest I felt like he'd abandoned me to the wolves. I wondered what he'd say if I told him that dad started doing other stuff besides beating the shit out of me. I said nothing about it, as the car pulled up to a building and we got out, then they both left me alone with Morpheus.

"I'm going to make this simple, because we don't have much time. The red pill will show you the real world, the blue pill means you go back to your ordinary everyday life." He said, I snatched the red pilled and swallowed it before I could change my mind. He nodded smiling.

"Follow me." He said. He led me into as room, where Tommy and Trinity had set up loads of equipment, half of which I couldn't identify. Tommy sat me down in a chair and stuck some pads on me; I looked up at him a little apprehensive.

"You did this?" I asked, he smiled down at me.

"Yes, Don't worry, it's just so that we can find you easier." He said.

"What the hell does that mean?!" I asked, he might have answered me, I'm not sure because I was to busy staring at a cracked mirror, the cracks were fixing themselves. I glanced at the others and was about to ask if they'd seen it, when I stopped to stared at my legs, both looked like they were encased in liquid metal that was working it's way up my body.

"She's going into arrest." Tommy called out. Morpheus had a phone in his and was talking into it rapidly.

"Locked!" Yelled the woman.

"Go, Tank!" Said Morpheus. The last thing I remember hearing is Tommy saying "See you in the real world'. Then I was waking up in a pod of gunk, I struggled my way to the surface, and broke through some kind of membrane covering the pod, there was a tube stuck in my mouth that felt like it went all the way to my stomach, I yanked and pulled trying to get it out, when I eventually did, I started gagging and coughing. Leaning over the edge, I saw pods the same as the one I was in, there was a person in every single one, then some sort of machine flew down in front of me, it grabbed me around the neck, and pulled something out of the back of my head, then the cables in me were pulled from me and a moment later I was sliding down a long pipe, to land in a huge pool of water below, I couldn't swim but I sure as hell didn't want to drown, I tried to move my arms and legs to help me stay afloat, but they wouldn't do what they wanted me to, I slowly sank beneath the surface, that was when a huge metal arm like thing, grabbed me and hauled ma upwards towards a ship that hovered in the air above me. I was pulled inside and a very different looking Tommy grinned at me.

"Welcome to the real world, sis." Was all I heard before I drifted off into unconsciousness.