A New Dimension of Existence (part 14)

Alyssa and Kat walked around the city together while holding hands, the former looking around in awe. She felt like she was in the future; that's what everything looked like after all.

"Wow..." said Alyssa. "This city looks so...advanced."

"What do you mean?" asked Kat.

"You've seen my world! It looks nothing like this!"

"I've only seen your neighborhood," said Kat. "How would I know if big cities look different in your world?"

"I guess you wouldn't," said Alyssa. "But seriously, it looks like the future here. Were people around longer in your universe or something?"

"I'm not sure exactly how long people have been around," admitted Kat. "Not that I'd know how long they have in your world. But maybe we're just smarter." Kat looked at Alyssa jokingly.

"That's always possible," said Alyssa. "Hey, what kinds of things do they teach in...wait, you don't have school here, do you?"

"No we don't, we can share knowledge directly, as you've seen," explained Kat. "I don't know how your world does without it; that would really get in the way of—oh, well that explains it." Kat smiled.

"I bet," said Alyssa, smiling at Kat. "So what exactly are you doing right now? Like you're right here, but are you still imprinted on me? We're not actually here are we?"

"No, we're not," laughed Kat. "I wish I could do that. Your physical body is back at home—you're probably lying on the floor or something."

"Glad I don't have anyone coming over," Alyssa laughed as well. "I'd be embarrassed if someone saw me sleeping on the floor."

"Eh, it doesn't really look like sleeping. More like you're just lying there not moving."

"Like I'm catatonic or something?"

"Yeah I guess it could look like that. Would people in your world think there's something wrong with you if they saw you like that?"

"Yeah, probably," said Alyssa. "And if they said something and I didn't respond? Definitely."

At that moment Alyssa noticed some more details on the cars passing by. They all had such elaborate designs filled with personality (probably literally, come to think of it) that she had never seen in her own universe. One of them looked like it was decorated in vines with pink and white flowers, another was made of beautiful, glimmering multicolored crystals, and one even looked like it was on fire, the fire actually serving very well as a part of the design, strange as it sounded. At least she hoped it was just a part of the design. That car was driving awfully aggressively.

"Hey Kat, did you see that car? Is it supposed to be...on fire?" asked Alyssa, with a hint of concern.

"Probably just the person's motif. Nothing to worry about."

"Motif?"

"That's what we call the way things look when someone imprints on them. Generally it fits your personality in a way, unless of course you change it."

"Well they were driving pretty aggressively, so that wouldn't surprise me."

Alyssa remembered what she was asking before. "So you're right here, right? Where exactly is this world coming from?"

Kat smiled, and her face appeared on all the buildings surrounding them. "That's me too!" they all said in unison, in Kat's voice.

"Ahhh!" shrieked Alyssa. "What in the...oh that's right. ...But you're here though..." She gestured to Kat.

"Yep," said Kat.

"But I'm also here!" said Kat as one of the buildings.

"And here!" said another building.

"Here too!" said Kat's voice from high above them, and when Alyssa looked up she saw Kat's face in the sky made of clouds.

Kat snickered as she placed her hand on her hip, and made her face vanish from everywhere but her human body.

"Okay, that's weird. How are you doing that?"

"Oh, it's easy!" Kat said. "I just imprinted on your image of the world, remember? Then I can do pretty much anything from there. You should try it sometime."

"Oh I'd love to!" exclaimed Alyssa. "Hey, so does that mean you're controlling everyone here?"

"Well I can," said Kat. "But it mostly works like a dream. This world is part of me, but I'm not really consciously concerned with most of that part."

"Interesting. So can you go into your own mind like that and dream whenever you want, or do you have to have someone else helping?"

"Of course, can't you?"

"Nope. It's not unheard of like imprinting, but for most people it takes tons of practice, and it's almost impossible if you aren't falling asleep anyway."

"Well, you probably can now. It's a lot like imprinting the way you do it, you just move yourself into yourself, if that makes sense."

Just then Alyssa noticed a familiar face on an electronic billboard at the top of a building. "Hey, isn't that..." said Alyssa, just before the name "Anistasia Lynn" appeared on the screen, followed by "LIVE PERFORMANCE HERE FRIDAY NIGHT!"

"Oh cool, wanna go together?" Kat snapped her fingers, and instantly two tickets appeared, one in Kat's hand, the other in Alyssa's. "We've got tickets!" she said cutely.

"How did you—oh, right," laughed Alyssa. "I'd love to, but the show's not until Friday. Anything you can do about that?"

"Maybe." Kat said jokingly before closing her eyes and placing her hands together. At that moment, Alyssa saw time quickly speed up. Cars and pedestrians moved faster and faster until they could only be seen as a blur speeding across the city, and the sun rose and set what had to be dozens of times. Alyssa felt the temperature around her rapidly rise and fall with the sun, the average temperature gradually dropping. Everything then slowed down again as Kat opened her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

"Umm...you did way more than five days."

"Did I?" asked Kat as she pulled out her phone. It was Friday night all right—but a Friday in December, two months later. "Haha, whoops," she laughed, as she held out one finger in front of her, freezing time. She slowly moved her finger in a counter-clockwise circular motion, making time flow backwards at a proportional rate. "Actually..." she said, moving her finger clockwise instead, putting time back where it was. "Watch this, Alyssa."

With that, Kat lifted her head and looked at the billboard, smiling. A pink flash from her eyes instantly changed it to the same ad Alyssa had pointed out before, only saying "LIVE PERFORMANCE IN 04:53", counting down every second. Kat then waved her hand over the ticket, the ticket briefly glowing the same pink, as the date changed. Alyssa looked at her own ticket to see the date had changed there as well, despite Kat not putting her hand anywhere near it. "Let's go." Kat smiled.

"You gonna stop time again so we can cross the street?"

"I've got a better idea," Kat started. "Follow me!" she said as she gently lifted about two stories off the ground.

"What the...?" yelled Alyssa to Kat. "You want me to...how?"

"Like this!" yelled Kat. She beckoned Alyssa over to her, and just like that she too lifted into the air and floated over to Kat.

"Whoa!" shouted Alyssa as her body quickly lifted into the air. "Oh my god, I'm...whoa...hold on I've got to get the hang of this..."

"Don't worry, you can take as long as you want!" Kat yelled back to her as she gently clapped her hands twice, instantly freezing everything around them once more.

"Wow, this is so cool!" exclaimed Alyssa. It was a little scary for her too, as was somewhat evident in her voice, but her knowledge that none of this was real—hard as it was to believe—was enough to all but eliminate the fear. As her confidence increased, she made several loops in the air, her entire body glowing light blue as she picked up speed, while she trailed glimmering white sparkles. "Wheeeeeeee!!!!! This is so much fun!!!!"

Kat just floated in the air above her and watched, one hand on her hip, as if it was nothing new to her. "Wanna see the show now?"

"Just a sec!" Alyssa flew around for several more subjective minutes, enjoying every second of it, as time remained frozen around them. "Okay, ready," she said, exhilarated.

Kat held one hand to her side and snapped her fingers, resuming the flow of time, as she sped off toward the building where the show was to take place, her body glowing hot pink and trailing pink and white sparkles, with Alyssa following.

"Tickets, please," said the ticket taker as they walked up to the entrance.

"Here you go," said Alyssa as she handed over the tickets.

"We'll be in the VIP section," said Kat, smiling.

"You're not on the list," said the ticket taker, looking down at a notebook.

"That won't be a problem," said Kat with a smile as she touched the ticket taker on the shoulder, who in a burst of pink sparkles instantly turned into a tiny mouse, quickly scurrying away in fear.

Alyssa gasped. "Kat, what gave you the right to—"

"Relax, none of this is real, remember?"

"Oh, right," Alyssa laughed, somewhat embarrassed at having forgotten, especially after seeing Kat do something that made it so obvious.

"Wow, we got good seats," remarked Alyssa as they walked into the elaborate auditorium and sat down in the front row.

"Of course, we're VIP's, remember?" Kat laughed. "But why not take it one step further? I'd actually prefer a private performance." Kat simply tossed her hand toward the seats behind them, throwing sparkles over the entire room, turning the seats, along with everyone in them, into a swarm of pink and black butterflies, which fluttered around the room. "Remember, this isn't real," Kat said with a smirk, looking at Alyssa.

"You don't have to tell me that again," Alyssa replied, as she put her arm around Kat's neck and leaned against her, Kat returning the favor. Alyssa was so relaxed that she fell asleep.

"Hey, Lyss," Kat said a couple minutes later, waking Alyssa. "Show's about to start."

"Oh!" Alyssa said, opening her eyes but still leaning comfortably against Kat. "Sorry, I think I fell asleep!"

"You tired or something? I can freeze time again so you can sleep as long as you want," Kat offered. "Well within reason, can't do anything about time passing in the real world."

"I'm fine," said Alyssa. "Oh, look, there she is!"

"Yep," said Kat. "You surprised to see her at her own show?"

Alyssa said nothing, just smiling at the joke.

"Hello everyone!" said Stacy as she walked onto the stage. "...Oh, huh, small crowd tonight? They didn't tell me this was a private show...oh hey Kat! Who's that you're with?"

"This is my new friend Alyssa," said Kat. "She's from another dimension."

"Oh really?" asked Stacy, as if playing along with what she believed to be a joke. "How'd you get here?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kat spoke up.

"Okay..." said Stacy, somewhat confused. "Anyway I had a whole show planned cause I was expecting a huge crowd, but is there anything specific you'd like to see?"

"No thanks," said Alyssa. "Just do whatever you'd do during a regular show."

The real Stacy would have found this situation more than a bit unsettling. Here she is, about to do what she thought was a show in front of a huge crowd, but instead she only sees two people, and one of them was actually a fan she knew fairly well. Surely she would have been told if this was a private show right? And even then, why such a large venue?

Of course, this wasn't the real Stacy; she was simply a representation of her within Kat's mind, so concerns like that, which would only serve to get in the way of Kat's intended experience for Alyssa, simply didn't come up. "Will do," she said.

Kat leaned over to Alyssa and whispered to her. "Just so you know, the real Anistasia Lynn can do all the cool tricks you see here."

"How do you know?" asked Alyssa.

"Because I'm only letting her do things I've seen her do in real life. Or at least stuff I know she'd be able to do based on that."

Just then, one of the stage's spotlights flickered off.

"Oh, hold on one sec," said Stacy. "Can you get the lights on that...thanks," she said, as the other spotlights turned to illuminate the broken one.

A look of concentration appeared on Stacy's face as her legs rapidly grew taller, enabling her to easily reach the spotlights that were several stories high. "Let me see what the problem is," she said as she touched the broken light, and vanished with a flicker much like how the light went off.

"Whoa, where'd she go?" asked Alyssa.

"Look," said Kat, pointing at the light.

Alyssa looked, and saw that the metal housing of the light had turned a bright pink, decorated with golden stars. A second later, Stacy's face appeared on it. "Right here!" said Stacy as the broken light. That answered her question.

Just then the light turned on. Instead of white like the other spotlights, it was glowing pink. "Got it!" it said, in Stacy's voice. The light rotated itself toward the back of the stage, and what looked like a pulse of light shot out at the back wall. At that instant, the light turned back to white, and an image of Stacy appeared on the wall where the pulse hit it, like a movie screen. "Hey girls!" she said, waving to Kat and Alyssa, before stepping out in front of the screen as what looked like a glowing hologram. As soon as she broke contact with the wall, she returned to her normal, solid appearance.

"No way!" said Alyssa. "She can do that?"

"Yep," said Kat, smiling. "Told you she does cool tricks."

"...And that's how I got kicked out of the movie theater last week," joked Stacy.

Alyssa laughed. "I like her."

"Why thank you...what was your name? Alyssa?" asked Stacy.

Alyssa nodded.

"Why don't you come up on stage, Alyssa?"

"I'd love to!"

Alyssa stood up and walked to the side of the stage where the steps were. Before she got there, however, she heard her own voice coming from the stage. "Hey Stacy!"

Immediately Alyssa paused and looked up to the stage to see an exact duplicate of herself standing next to Stacy. "Whaa?" Alyssa gasped, continuing her walk up to the stage to get a closer look.

"Oh, you can go back to your seat, you're already here," Stacy said jokingly. "Though I guess you can come up too if you want. Right Alyssa?" She turned and looked not at the real Alyssa, but at the fake Alyssa she had somehow created.

"Sure, come on up! I've always wanted to meet myself," said the fake Alyssa.

"And if there's two of you..." said Stacy before closing her eyes. Her body slowly split into two like a cell dividing, the two identical women separating until they were only merged at their outstretched hands, before splitting completely.

"We might as well have two of us as well," said the two Stacys in unison.

"No way, that's impossible," said Alyssa.

"And, say, imprinting isn't?" said Kat. "Considering what you've done yourself it shouldn't be too hard to believe she can do that."

"Especially since you just saw it with your own eyes," said one of the two Stacys, the other putting her arm around the former and leaning against her.

"Well I've never seen the real you do it, so—" Alyssa trailed off, remembering that this simulation of Anistasia Lynn wasn't really "programmed", if that term applied, with an understanding of the fact that she wasn't real.

"Oh, we're both just as real!" said Stacy. "I'm still one person; I just split my body into two, so I have more than one now," explained the other. "There's no one 'original'," added the first.

"But there was only one of us when we first did it, so I'm not real sure what you mean," said a third Stacy, who Alyssa hadn't noticed.

"Whaa—where did you come from??" exclaimed Alyssa.

"I was you a minute ago," said the new Stacy. "Just changed back."

Alyssa hadn't noticed until then that the duplicate of herself was gone, replaced by the third Stacy. "Oh, so you just changed into me," she said as she realized where the duplicate of herself had come from.

"Yep!" that copy of Stacy said with a smile. "I must say your features were very easy to replicate. Hardly took any attention."

"Huh, yeah, I can see why that would be," said Kat from her seat. Even she, having lived in a world where this type of shared dream (with all its quirks) is a common activity, thought it was quite cool how her subconscious had picked up on a physical similarity that she had never consciously noticed.

"Anyway it was nice meeting you Alyssa! You can go back to your seat now," said one Stacy.

"Or stay here if you want I guess; it's a private show after all," said another.

"Eh, thanks, but I'd rather sit down," said Alyssa, walking back to her seat.

"Okay, well I hope you're having fun!" said the third Stacy.

"Oh, definitely, you're amazing! In my world no one's ever seen anything like what you can do."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," one of the Stacys said, still playing along. "Maybe there's a version of me in your dimension who doesn't even know what she can do," said another. "Hopefully she'll learn!"

"I hope so too!" said Alyssa as she sat back down.

Continuing the show, one Stacy motioned backstage. "You know, I could really go for a nice relaxing soak in a hot tub," said another at the same time. "Stacy, would you help me into my swimsuit?" she said, turning to the third.

The third Stacy held her hand in front of her face as if blowing a kiss, and blew a shower of sparkles in the direction of the Stacy who had addressed her. As the sparkles surrounded her, her long, elegant dress glowed and morphed into a slim, one-piece swimsuit, bearing the same pink and gold pattern. "Thank you!" she said.

"Sure thing," said the other, winking.

Meanwhile, right on cue, a stage hand wheeled a portable hot tub on stage, before going backstage once more. The tub was pink and had the same gold design as Stacy's outfit, as if she had imprinted on it, though she hadn't. It was filled with steaming water, mixed around by bubbling jets.

The Stacy in the swimsuit climbed into the hot tub and sat down. "Mmmmm..." she sighed. "Why don't you join me?" she said, looking and motioning toward her twins.

At the same time, the two other Stacys both nodded and dove into the hot tub themselves, their hands together in front of them as if they were leaping off a diving board. Instead of landing in the tub normally, however, they merged with the water, which took on a bright pink tint, with gold currents running throughout it.

"Mmmmmmmmmm..." echoed Stacy's voice from the water. "Feels even better here..."

"Meh," Kat said. "Imprinting on air is harder, and I can do that."

"Oh, but can you, Alyssa?" asked Stacy.

Instead of just answering, Alyssa closed her eyes and evaporated, just like she had earlier, taking on the appearance of a white, Alyssa-shaped cloud sitting in the air above her seat, surrounded by a vaporous blue glow that looked like the sky.

"Wow, I'm impressed!" exclaimed Stacy. "Not many people can do that! How long have you been practicing?"

"Practicing? I got it on my first try," answered Alyssa.

"No, really," said Stacy.

"She's telling the truth," said Kat. "I was impressed too. She doesn't know how lucky she is."

"Wait, you—really?" said Stacy, clearly more than impressed. "That's amazing, you must have a natural talent! You could be famous like me!"

"Oh, I'd love to be!" said Alyssa.

"Well, come up with some tricks of your own, and you'll be famous in no time!"

"I'll try!"

"In the mean time, why don't you float yourself over here? I could use some air to make bubbles!"

"Wow, you're getting all the attention today," remarked Kat, as Alyssa excitedly floated towards Stacy.

"Don't worry, I'll keep our minds from mixing," said Stacy, not realizing Alyssa would really only be merging with part of Kat's subconscious otherwise.

"So what did you want me to do exactly?" asked Alyssa as she floated on her back above the hot tub, among the steam.

"Just form a sphere, and float into me," said Stacy's voice, echoing through the water.

Alyssa did as she was asked, curling into a ball which quickly turned into a perfectly-spherical ball of vapor, about half a foot in diameter. Slowly she floated downwards into the water that contained part of Stacy's essence. As she did, a round indentation formed on the surface of the water, which closed back up as Alyssa's bubble became completely submerged, her sky-blue glow shining through the pink water.

"Ooh, this is fun!" came Alyssa's voice from inside the water. "You're all around me!" She had to constantly focus on remaining under the water lest the bubble naturally rise back up.

"Now watch this," said Stacy.

Alyssa felt herself moving upwards as she was no longer able to fight the push of the water. But as she met the surface, she found herself not in open air as she expected, but rather surrounded by a thin film of Stacy's liquid body, forming the inside of a beautiful glowing bubble which quickly grew to about three times its size. "It's like you're giving me a ride! Whooooo, I love this!" Alyssa giggled in ecstasy.

Stacy gently reached out and touched the bubble, smiling. It didn't pop, but rather split into dozens of smaller bubbles, possibly more than a hundred.

"Whoa, this is so cool," said Alyssa's voice from all around. "I'm being carried around in every bubble at once...hmm, let me try something..." As Alyssa concentrated, the bubbles merged back into a single bubble, which took on the shape of Alyssa's human body, her feet attached to the floor. "Hey Kat!" she said as she waved, Kat waving back.

Suddenly Alyssa's bubble popped, the droplets of water not landing on the floor but rather floating back into the hot tub. "Oops!" she said, floating back to her seat and retaking her solid human form.

"You know, this is so relaxing I could just melt," said Stacy. Even to Alyssa, it was obvious she meant this literally.

And, indeed, she did literally melt, mixing with herself in the water, which quickly turned opaque and took on a thicker consistency. "Guess that was more true than I thought!" laughed Stacy, making her face appear on the surface.

The liquid in the tub began to move, as she slowly flowed outward and onto the stage floor, leaving the hot tub empty and forming a thick puddle on the floor. The puddle quivered a couple times, before near-instantly rising up in the shape of Anistasia Lynn, holding her hands above her head in celebration. She looked just like her normal self, except with a glossy, rippling liquid surface.

"You know, I've thought about staying like this all day before. Being liquid can be quite useful," said Stacy. "For instance, I never need to worry about finding a comfortable seat." With that, she instantly collapsed into a puddle, again with her face on it. "Most comfortable position there is!"

Rising back up into her liquid-human form, she said, "And I can fit through any opening I like! Just lower my surface tension, and..." She demonstrated by melting through the floorboards on the stage, and emerging once again in her human-like form from a crack under the front of the stage. "...here I am!" she finished. She got back on the stage by simply throwing her liquidy form on top with a splash.

"Or, what if I feel like being something else?" She rapidly swirled her liquid around before emerging in the shape of a giant bird the size of a human, remaining airborne by flapping her wings. "Ever see flying liquid before?" she asked. "Well, you have now."

"Or maybe I want to look a bit more...powerful," she said, her wings growing and her liquid body shifting into the shape of a dragon. She opened her mouth as if to breathe fire, and blew bubbles instead, which gently floated back into her.

Suddenly she stopped being a dragon and collapsed back onto the floor, scattering her liquid around before coming back together in human shape. "Only problem is, if I need to change back for whatever reason..." As she became solid again, a huge amount of water—regular, clear water—flowed out from all around her, soaking a huge area of the floor, including under several of the seats. "This happens," she concluded.

"Here, let me get that," she said. Closing her eyes, she turned so her back was facing Kat and Alyssa, and extended her hair, making it grow longer and longer in waves until it covered the floor in the entire auditorium, soaking up all the water. As she lifted her hair in the air, in between all the seats, it hardly looked wet, as with the extra absorbency she gave it, she had more than enough hair to soak up all the water with most of it remaining dry. Holding out her hands and concentrating, Stacy carefully moved this huge mass of hair, floating above all the seats in defiance of gravity, and gathered it all above the hot tub, retracting her hair until there was comparatively enough water for it to be completely saturated. As Stacy quickly crossed her hands in front of her, the mass of hair wrung itself out tightly, dropping all the water back in the hot tub, before her hair returned to its normal (though still quite long) style.

"I really love how useful my hair can be," remarked Stacy. "Like before I figured out how to do this—" at that moment she separated her arms into several pairs of duplicate limbs, before merging them back "—I'd always use my hair when I needed extra hands. Like this." She demonstrated by quickly pointing at Kat. One of her pink ponytails instantly extended towards Kat, becoming even longer and separating into smaller strands, before wrapping around her and forming the shape of a hand, lifting Kat, not even surprised, into the air. "See? No hands," said Stacy, her hands on her hips. "Well, except this one," she said, slightly lifting the "hand" that was holding Kat. Stacy then put Kat back down in her seat, and returned her hair to normal.

"And this is always fun," she said, her hair swirling around her head until it spun as fast as helicopter blades, lifting herself several feet in the air, where she stayed for several seconds. "Took me a while before I could do that," she said while she floated there, before gently floating back to the ground, her hair falling around her.

"Oh, and my hair's real useful if I need to get somewhere fast, too," she said. Crouching down, she mentally formed her hair into two long bunches, which she extended halfway across the auditorium, tossing them in an arc, and used them to quickly vault over all the seats before returning her hair to its normal length and style. Then, with an upward glance, she shot one of her ponytails into the air and wrapped it around a beam near the middle of the ceiling, slimming and extending her hair in the process. With her hair securely gripping the beam, she retracted it somewhat, pulling herself into the air, where she swung back onto the stage while holding her hair with both hands. When she landed on the stage, she did a brief bow as she once again returned her hair to normal.

"Can't you just extend your legs like you did before and take really big steps?" suggested Alyssa.

"I most certainly can," said Stacy, as she demonstrated exactly what Alyssa described, walking around the room much faster than one could walk with normal-sized legs. "But it looks a lot cooler when I use my hair, don't you think?"

"Yeah, definitely," agreed Alyssa. "I was just asking."

As Stacy got ready for the next part of the show, Alyssa whispered to Kat. "Hey, can you freeze time real quick?"

"Sure," Kat whispered back as she raised a finger in the air, freezing the whole world around the two of them.

"This is a lot of fun, but I'm getting kinda tired," said Alyssa. "Can we put this on pause or something, and come back another time?"

"Want to return to the real world now?" asked Kat.

"Yeah, if you don't mind."

"Sure thing!" As Kat said that, she faded away, and Alyssa watched the world around her shift back to normal.

But when Alyssa got her bearings back, she noticed a very unexpected and somewhat scary situation. She was still in her house, but she was lying down on some kind of table being pushed around by people! She quickly realized she was on a stretcher, about to be pushed out her door by paramedics to the ambulance she saw outside. Was she hurt? Who could have found out and called an ambulance for her?

Suddenly, Alyssa heard a familiar voice from behind her. "Hey, she's waking up!"

As the paramedics gasped in relief and stopped pushing the stretcher, Alyssa looked behind her to see Tara. What was she doing in her house? How did she even know where she lived? Alyssa wasn't upset, just confused.

Then, as if the situation couldn't get any worse, Alyssa felt a strange but familiar sensation of something emerging from the back of her head. At this point, an understandable look of shock and disbelief appeared on both paramedics' faces. "That was fun...WHAAA?!?" came Kat's voice. "Oh no! What's going on here?" she said frantically.

The paramedics slowly turned and looked at each other, each of their looks confirming to the other that yes, they did see what they thought they saw. At this point, they could only react to the situation by running back to the ambulance, screaming.

Tara, of course, was scared too, but for a different reason. Though the idea of imprinting on another person had never occurred to her, she was of course quite familiar with imprinting itself, so she knew what was going on. Instead, she was worried about how the paramedics would react to what they saw. If she was right about the anti-imprinting conspiracy, they could be in some pretty big trouble. It was obvious that the paramedics didn't have any idea what was going on, so they clearly weren't part of the conspiracy if there was one, but if they weren't careful, those who were would surely become aware. She couldn't let those paramedics get away before she had a chance to warn them!

"Kat, please get those paramedics back in here!" said Tara. "I'll tell Alyssa what's going on."

Kat nodded and ran out the door. Luckily the ambulance hadn't driven away yet.

"Sorry Alyssa, I just saw you were lying there unresponsive, so I got worried," apologized Tara. "I had no idea you were doing something with Kat...what were you doing anyway? I never even thought about imprinting on a person."

"What were you doing here in the first place?" asked Alyssa, still not mad. She wasn't one to get mad. "How did you know where I live?" She was seriously wondering.

"Well, I had your email address," said Tara. "So I got the idea to try emailing myself to you...you know, imprinting on an email message and sending myself to you. Didn't mean to intrude; didn't really think of that."

"Wait, you...that's amazing," said Alyssa. "I never thought of that; you can do almost anything with imprinting, can't you?"

"Yeah, it's great!"

"Actually, wait, you figured it out? You can imprint now? That's wonderful!"

"Oh, you bet," said Tara. "It's so much fun. I went inside my TV and entered a cartoon! You've got to see the video."

"That was one of the first things I did too!" said Alyssa excitedly. "Well, it wasn't a cartoon; it was the weather report. A cartoon sounds a lot more fun though."

"It was! It's so much fun just becoming different things too! Like I was a picture on my wall, a rug on my floor, my coffee machine...I love it! Seriously, how do more people not know about this? It's awesome!"

Just then Kat walked back in with the paramedics, still shaking after having seen something that went against everything they knew about the human body, and even science in general.

"Okay, so what you saw is called 'imprinting'. Crazy as this sounds, I'm from another dimension where this is perfectly normal..."