by Kipjo Ewers
“By the way I go by the name ‘Peace’ now,” she announced. “#3 is my slave name.”
“Where…” Sophia fought to get her focus.
“You mean, where I’ve been hiding?” chuckled Peace, “off planet!”
“Off planet?” Sophia stood stunned. “You mean space?”
“Shit!” Peace scoffed. “I mean I traveled to Mars, Saturn, and then I backtracked to Venus, which is like a twenty-four-seven acid trip! After that, I spent like a month and a half on Mercury! Let me tell you girl! Clothing is not optional! The upside is no tan lines!”
She snickered, pulling the straps to her outfit revealing she had none.
“Now the backstory if you must know,” she said as she began to stroll around, “is that I apparently woke up after you. Not sure how long, but it was definitely after you.”
“You woke up in a sack too,” Sophia deduced.
“Oh yeah,” she nodded. “I don’t know about you, but there ain’t nothing more fucked up than waking up at the bottom of the ocean with no memory, in jellyfish afterbirth, and glow in the dark fish floating all around you.”
“I never lost my memory.” Sophia furrowed her brow.
“Typical.” Peace rolled her eyes. “Anyway I broke out returning topside a basket case, I didn’t even remember that I had powers. I don’t know how I figured it out, but I ended swimming all the way to South America. Murdered like two Great Whites and a Mako on the way there… pesky little shits.”
Sophia was not sure if she should continue to listen, or begin slugging her again.
“On the way there, which took about three days,” she sighed, “my memory started to come back. Not gingerly, mind you; it came like tsunami waves that I had to ride out. Believe it or not our little fight seven years ago actually traumatized me to the point I had a terrifying fear of you.”
“That’s comforting to know,” Sophia scoffed.
Peace glared at her, then decided to ignore her comment.
“Anyway,” she continued, “with the gut feeling that you were out there somewhere, I went into deep hiding. I mean I went native, like an Amazon rainforest bush bitch native. It was pretty easy considering that I didn’t really need to eat, didn’t need a lot of clothes, or even shelter, for that matter. During the day I kept a low profile, at night I worked on mastering my abilities.”
She opened the palm of her right hand facing up. A red electrical charge snapped and crackled from it before producing a red and orange sphere of pure energy. With a thought, she dispersed it.
“I can make bigger ones and even full streams,” she grinned. “I can also do this.”
Her eyes became ablaze as she unleashed a reddish orange eyebeam blast straight at Sophia. On instinct, she threw up her forearms to block the shot, her bracers constructed of dark metal deflected the heat beams hitting the sand of the Sahara crystallizing it. The bands held although the shot left a shearing mark on them.
Sophia’s eyes blazed as she got ready to fight again. Peace cackled, backing up with her hands held high.
“Okay! Hold up, I’m just messing with you,” she chuckled. “No need to start brawling again. Very nice what you did with your ‘wonder bands’ though. Throw a cowl with some ears on you, and you’re the Trinity rolled up into one.”
“What do you want?” Sophia’s voice boomed.
“The first thing I want is to finish my story.” Peace was serious again. “So there I was building my confidence. I gained some sense of peace. The indigenous thought I was some witch or goddess; they’d bring me food offerings from time to time but they pretty much left me alone. I would have probably stayed there to my own devices had you not shown up one day in my backyard.”
Sophia searched her memories, remembering the day she visited the Amazon rain forest, which was a record of six times.
“You where there?” she asked, stunned that she did not detect her.
“Oh yeah, I saw you coming a mile away,” she nodded. “I buried myself in the mud like Dutch while you were strolling around uprooting trees for your fancy shmancy garden. The fear I had for you paralyzed me. It was friggin humiliating. After you left, I came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be too long before you found me, that the world was just too small for the both of us. If I was truly going to be safe, I should look to the stars.”
She pointed up with a glint in her eye. Sophia briefly glanced up herself before returning her eyes to her mortal enemy.
“So after a couple of midnight test runs when I knew you weren’t buzzing around,” she continued, “I stole the proper attire and provisions that I believed I needed for space travel and said farewell to this beautiful dirtball planet. Let me tell you that breaking through that stratosphere into that big black nothing is one hell of a rush! But you already know what it’s like to be unbound. Anyway, it took me a day and a half to get to Mars, which was a disappointing red rock of nothing.”
She looked down at the ground, doodling a pattern with her boot.
“So I left, it took me three days to get to Saturn. Don’t ask how I knew how to get there.” She rolled her eyes. “And as I stood there on one of Saturn’s many moons preparing to set off again on my journey to the unknown. I realized I had no friggin idea where I was going! And then it happened at that moment. The fear I had for you faded away, and the rage and hatred set in. Unfortunately for Saturn it is now short a couple of moons.”
Peace looked up at her with the same eyes she wore when they had their very first one-on-one conversation at Mount McLoughlin.
“You see the only other person to put fear into this little black heart of mine other than you,” she said, “was my dear old dad, may he rot, burn, and suffer in hell. I had to tag team two of his closest friends and promised them to split his meth and a profit of two hundred thousand dollars so that they can slit his throat and empty several rounds in him. They ended up tag teaming me again against my will. Left me five hundred dollars for my troubles, but it was worth it to remove that fear forever.”
She advanced one step closer to her with her arms folded behind her.
“But I forgot who I’m talking to.” She smirked. “You don’t give a damn about my ‘hard life.’”
She brandished a sarcastic smile looking Sophia up and down as she glared back at her giving her ten seconds to get out of her face. Peace, not wanting another confrontation, just yet took the subtle facial hint to retreat one step.
“So anyway,” she sighed, “I about-faced heading back here with the intention of taking the moon and cramming it down your throat. Then something else happened on my journey back. Little by little that rage and hatred started to fade as well, and I had a moment of clarity that allowed me to think and see straight in… god knows how long. You weren’t my problem, and I had no reason to hate you.”
Peace lowered her head in frustration, rubbing her eyebrow. Sophia realized in disbelief that she was mustering up the courage to give an apology.
“If I was you,” she raised her eyes looking at her, “and you did to me what I did to you, I would have probably done the same and probably worse. And although I was given orders to carry out, I think I took such pleasure in f-ing up your life because my own up until then was so shitty. My issue was not with you but with people who were suppose to care for me who failed me, and a world that didn’t give a fuck about me. So I turned into an animal to survive, and you became just another prey. For what it’s worth… you didn’t deserve that, and I’m sorry.”
She almost fell out just by her words. Sophia, now with narrowed eyes, stepped forward trying to wrap her brain around what she had just said.
“You attacked the Regulators’ base an hour ago reducing it to rubble.” She replayed the events leading them to where they stood. “You released three of the most dangerous superhumans currently on this planet.”
“Yeah I did that,” she nodded. “I also killed one of their team members, actually I think I killed all of them. But if you’re going to bitc
h about us rough housing in the UK, remember you started it by slamming me into the Matterhorn. I just want to point that out.”
“You do see how what went down is going to make it difficult for things to be good between us, basically makes your apology worthless right?” Sophia asked with a sarcastic smile of disgust.
“I don’t really see how,” Peace shrugged nonchalantly, “I mean you destroyed a base, like, seven years ago and killed a whole lot of people. You don’t see me throwing a fit about it.”
Sophia wore a look realizing that she was truly crazy, and she was taking part of an insane conversation with her.
“And it’s the UK,” Peace rolled her eyes, “who really gives a shit about the UK? It rains there all the time, and the people are certified assholes. I mean, despite all of that, considering how well shit turned out, I don’t see a reason for us to have any ill-will toward each other. Do you?”
“You’re a psychopathic murder!” Sophia screamed at the top of her lungs. “You murdered my husband and framed me for it! That’s going to make it pretty hard for you and I to be girlfriends! Like never!”
Peace lowered her head for a minute, taking in some air, and then raised it displaying a scowl. She took a step toward Sophia, who crossed her arms standing her ground.
“All right, let’s gain some prospective here,” she snarled. “I was an ex-con turned assassin by the United States Government, who had no choice but to follow orders due to the nanites implanted within me promising a slow and painful death should I refuse them. Your husband was a lying sack of shit with daddy issues! No one put a gun to his head to join our unit, so you need to put the blame where it belongs!”
She turned, storming away as if she was actually arguing with a girlfriend. In frustration, she kicked up a cloud of sand while throwing her hands in the air.
“I mean, Jesus! How are we suppose to work together to change this dirt ball of a planet if we’re fighting over a man?” she yelled. “And a dead one at that!”
“What do you mean ‘work together’?” Sophia raised an eyebrow zeroing in on the important part of her statement.
“You think I was bullshitting you seven years ago about us making the world the way we want it to be?” She turned to her. “I was as serious as a stroke the day you decided to play chicken with a nuke and our lives.”
“You mean us being “gods” again?” Sophia rolled her eyes.
“Oh, no, no, no, my dear deluded ‘sister.’” She waved her off. “I told you I evened out. I have no desire to become some god. Gods are nothing more than egotistical contradictory sons of bitches, and I also have no desire to be some queen or ruler. Subjects are like rugrats, always needing a tit to suck on, or someone to wipe their ass, and I hate kids. I love my independence.”
“Then what?” She became impatient.
“Like I said,” Peace said, looking at her as if she was deaf, “make the world as we want it to be. Look around you. How long do you think this planet has left at the state our inferior counterparts are running it into the ground? Another decade, maybe two? They’re like a bad television sitcom that keeps getting worse year after year after year. It’s time to cancel their season and try something new, don’t you think?”
“If you’re talking genocide…” Sophia narrowed her eyes.
“I don’t like using that word... such a nasty term. Plus, I know we still need the little knuckle draggers if we’re going to increase our stock. What I am proposing is a quick systematic fade out, like when a new model phone or car comes out. You don’t keep making the old one.”
“You just keep pushing the envelope on how crazy you are.” Sophia shook her head.
“You know what’s crazy?” She stepped forward. “Half of our wildlife gone in less than forty years! That is crazy! Deforestation, global warming, idiots butchering rhinos over their horns because they believe it will cure them of limp dick disease! Our world is dying because we are a species created weak in both body and mind! We consume, and we don’t give back, we prey, especially on one another, because he who has the power makes the rules! Just look at our history!”
“You won’t give us your oil? We’ll pretend you were behind the fall of some towers and are hiding weapons of mass destruction, and then we’ll drop bombs on you from afar and then take it!” Peace mockingly carried on. “You don’t want to give up your land? We’ll kill you for it with our guns, and while we’re at it, we’ll murder your women and children driving your race to near extinction! You want to fight for your freedom? We’ll crucify you, your family, and friends from one town to the next as a warning not to oppose us! You don’t want to obey and worship me? I’ll drown you all and start anew!”
She looked up into the sky as if to spit at God and give Him the finger.
“For centuries we’ve been in that afternoon program where the father confronts his kid about smoking weed,” she sneered. “But what if this was a world where everyone had power, where everyone was like us, or close enough?”
She started to walk around Sophia in a circle continuing her lecture. Sophia stood listening for now because, while they were talking, there was no destruction, giving her the time she needed to figure out a way to put her down for good.
“You ever been in a bar, where everyone was packing?” Peace asked. “Of course you haven’t, you’re a ‘Miss Goody Two Shoes.’” I’ll have you know it’s one of the most peaceful and safest places to be, except for those who are not armed. Because everyone knows that the guy next to him is holding, and the last thing you want is a bar packed with guns blazing.”
“You want to bring back the Wild West?” Sophia followed her movement.
“I want to make us all truly equal,” she answered. “I want us to be independent of trivial things that we really don’t need! I want to get rid of our old parasitic shells that continue to drag us down and become the race that we were meant to be! One solely focused on reaching our true potential! You tell me how much more noble can one get than wanting that for her people?”
“Why the rush?” she asked. “Another ten years the next generation would have matured, and if the birth rate of superhumans continues steadily as it has, we’ll be what five maybe ten percent of the population?”
“You really have blinders on, don’t you?” Peace looked at her in disbelief. “You really think those cockroaches are going to allow that to happen? Just because they haven’t gone and ‘William Strykered’ us does not mean the so called ‘powers that be’ aren’t working on measures to either thin out or eliminate our herd should we ‘dare’ step out of line or overtake them. They’re quiet now because they know they can’t match us. And now they have some of us taking up sides with them against each other for worthless things such as ‘loyalty’ or ‘money.’”
She turned, spitting in disgust into the sand. Her act brought back more demons from their past.
“This so called new ‘Cold War,’” she gestured, “is against us! Maybe if you pulled your head out of the sand of that island of yours you’d see it! If we’re against each other, we’re not against them! And as long as they keep us plugged into their madness we are destined to repeat the insanity of their failed miserable race! In order for us to grow and thrive, to see each other as a one race, and not separated by the color of our skin, stupid flags, fucking religion, or money; we must become unplugged permanently! The human race must die along with their poison!”
Peace stood waiting for her to buy her pitch. She could already tell from her facial expression that it was not a sell.
“You’re about to tell me to go F--- myself, aren’t you?” Her nose twitched.
“And I intended to use the full four letter word while doing it,” she snidely smiled. “What gave it away?”
“You’ve been collecting the heads of warlords.” Peace pointed a lecturing finger at her. “And breaking the bones of white slavers among other devious things. Yet you continue to remain on the fence because you still see what? Redeeming qualit
ies about them?”
She leaned in as Sophia wore a stunned look that she knew so much about her activities.
“Oh, yes, Ms. Dennison,” she grinned. “I have been keeping very close tabs on you. I have a theory about our little intimate time in the heart of the nuclear explosion. You see, I think a little of you got into me, while a little of me… got… into… you.”
“I’m nothing like you,” Sophia growled.
“Save that movie line for someone who will buy it,” she snorted. “The eyes tell all. You’ve got some rage in you, long before you knew I was still alive. Come on, deep down you know what I am saying is the truth. You want hands off your family? That little island you got there? I’m a woman of compromise. One island and a couple of normals from your bloodline isn’t going to hurt the cause. What else do I have to do to get you on my side?”