The Defenders

The Defenders
“Run!” I shouted. “They’re coming!”
“Quick, this way,” I followed Alexa as she jumped off the top of the waterfall, went into a graceful swan dive, and landed in the seething pool at the bottom of the waterfall. When I surfaced, I thought to myself, She’ll always be better at that then me. Oh well.
“Eryn, are you okay?” Alexa asked anxiously.
“Lexy, I’m fine!” I replied. Sheesh. The waterfall wasn’t that high.
“Eryn, I’m just trying to make sure you’re alright,” Alexa said, looking a little put out. Lexy, or Alexa Maria Johnson, was 2 hours older than me, Eryn Marie. We, as you can possibly tell by our names, are 14-year-old identical twins. Well, maybe not the 14-year-old part, but you get the point. Because she was 2 hours older, and Mom died when we were born, Lexy felt it was her job to make sure I was okay and everything.
“Swim, Eryn, swim!” Lexy whispered frantically, jolting me out of my train of thought. “They’re still coming!” Right. I took a deep breath and dove under once again. We were attempting to flee from Mederlv’s henchmen. You know the defanition of “henchmen,” right? Totally evil but completely stupid? Yup, that’s them. Anyway, Mederlv is our arch nemesis. When I say “our,” I mean me, Lexy, Dad, and all Dad’s buds. At first, I thought they were just normal guys, just like Dad, Lexy, and me. They would come over on Sundays and watch football and do guy stuff like that, but I soon found out I was only half-right. Turns out we are keepers of the peace, and not just on Earth, either. I was right that the guys were like us, but what I didn’t know is that none of us were normal. (Hence the other planets.) Anyway, Mederlv is like the exact opposite of us, the disturber of the peace. (Plus the stupid henchmen.)
After swimming for about five minutes, we (Lexy and me) arrived at the rendezvous point, where we were meeting Dad. Luckly, he was already there. Lexy and I clamered into the helicopter and we flew home.
For the first 13 years of our lives, we were (or so it seemed) normal. We went to an average school, got average grades, led an average life. Then a few weeks ago, on our 14th birthday, Dad and some of the other guys told us all about our jobs as defenders of the peace and Mederlv and other planets and such. I’ve never asked so many questions in my life. We went out to lunch to celebrate Lexy’s and my birthday, and from then on, we didn’t, for even one moment, consider ourselves normal ever again.
Lexy and I had taken swim lessons since we where five, so we were expert swimmers. (Probably Dad’s intention. Our lives might depend on it one day.) In our back yard, we have a huge swimming pool, with a really deep end for diving, and a regular and high diving board. We were quite the popular duo during summer each year. Now, we hardly had time to finish our homework because of training, but Dad made sure we were still doing okay in school. The first high dive dive we learned was the swan dive. Even though we both got the hang of it pretty fast, Lexy was still better than me. I wasn’t jelous or anything, because I got it first, so I figured we were even.
***
“So, girls, how did it go?” Dad asked, in the safety of our dining room as we were eating dinner.
“Fine. We got to try out the swan dive on an actual waterfall, as opposed to a diving board. It was a little scary, but really fun. If I had stopped to think, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” I answered.
“Did you get what you needed to?” asked Chris, one of Dad’s buds.
“Yes. It’s right here,” Lexy said, pulling a small, waterproof container out of her pocket and opening it. She turned it upside-down over her palm and a small, gold and silver ring fell onto her hand.
“Excellent, girls. This is precisely what we needed,” Dad said.
“What do you need it for?” I asked.
“That, Eryn, I am afraid we can not tell you at the moment. Now, don’t give me that face, you’ll find out soon enough,” John, another of Dad’s buds, said.
“Fine,” I said, sticking my lip out in a fake pout.
“You won’t have any time to mope about it anyway,” Dad said.
“Why?” Lexy asked.
“We need you to go back and get something else,” Chris said.
“Why do you need us to do it? Can’t you do it yourself?” I asked at the same time Lexy asked, “What do you need us to get?’
“Eryn, if you are going to want to do something big, you’re going to need to learn some patience.” (I had always been a little impatient.) “And Alexa, you two are going to get a disc containing nanorobotics,” Dad said.
“What’s that?” Lexy asked.
“A nanobot is a microscopic robot and nanorobotics is the technology of creating them,” I answered matter-of-factly.
“Where did you learn that?” John asked.
“The internet,” I replied simply.
“Eryn, you spend way too much time on the computer,” Lexy stated, also matter-of-factly.
“I know. How else is one supposed to learn anything besides math and grammar and spelling?” I retorted.
“I will take you two to the waterfall tomorrow morning and you can get into Mederlv’s base from there,” Dad said quickly, sensing a bickering match coming on.
“Okay, Dad,” I said with a little sigh.
“Good. Now go get ready for bed,” said Dad.
Now, to a normal person, that would have meant getting pajamas on and brushing teeth and stuff like that. However, as I said before, we were not normal. Getting ready for bed meant a) doing our evening workout routine, b) doing homework, c) eating a snack, d) putting on pajamas, and e) brushing our teeth. That’s why we started right after dinner, usually between six and 6:30. At 9:00, I finally collapsed onto my bed, completely exhausted.
***
The next morning, we were on our way back to the waterfall in Dad’s helicopter. When we got to the top, Dad dropped us off from the helicopter with a brief “Good luck.” And, to me, “Take care of Eryn.” Boy, were we going to need it. The luck, anyway. We watched Dad fly away, after responding to his “Good luck” with a “Thanks, love you, see you later,” and heading toward Mederlv’s lair. We decided to take a different route than our previous one, as to avoid as much detection as possible. When we were about halfway there, a little more then five minutes after landing, I heard a shout, huge boots stomping on dried twigs, and everything suddenly went black in a matter of seconds...
***
Where’s Eryn? was the first thought that popped into my head as I regained consciousness. The second was, I forgot to feed the dog this morning. People’s brains work really weird sometimes, don’t they? Sitting up, I thought I was in my room, as I hadn’t yet opened my eyes. When I did, I immediately knew something was wrong. First of all, my walls were sunset orange, not black. Second of all, my bed did not feel like a table. After I had processed these thoughts, my head felt a little clearer. I evaluated my surroundings. All I figured out was that there was only one door, no windows, nothing. I walked over to the door, and after finding out that it was locked, I then thought, Where am I? Then I remembered that I had been captured by someone, but who that was, I wasn’t sure. The only possibility that I could think of was Mederlv. As I was contemplating this, a low, gruff voice saying interrupted me, saying, “Follow me.”
“And why should I?” I questioned, more daring then I felt.
“Because I am taking you to your sister,” said the voice, turning out to be one of Mederlv’s henchmen.
“And how am I to know you aren’t lying to me?” I continued.
“You cannot,” Because of the simplicity and truthfulness of his words, I replied, Okay,” and followed him out the door.
***
“Turn the light of,” I grunted, thinking Alexa had come into my room to wake me up. “It’s Saturday. There’s no school today.” Upon hearing no response, I shielded my eyes with my arm and attempted to go back to sleep. After lying there for a few minutes, I heard the swish of a door opening and looked up. Standing in the doorway was Alexa, as I had thought. Standing next to her, with his hands ready, should she attempt to dash away, was one of Mederlv’s henchmen. His blood-red uniform was unmistakable. Why was one of Mederlv’s henchmen in my doorway?
“Eryn! Are you alright?” Alexa said worriedly, rushing to the side of the bed. The bed. There was something wrong with my bed. And last time I checked, my walls weren’t black, they were aquamarine blue. I sat up and answered,
“Yes, of course. Why?”
“Oh, Eryn, can’t you see it? We’re not at home! We’re Mederlv’s lair!” cried Lexy, exasperated.
“What? Oh, that’s a real funny joke, Lexy,” I said, not concerned.
“Eryn! What’s wrong with you? What happened to you?” Alexa said, almost in tears.
“How should I know? For one thing, what makes you think something I wrong with me? And second, if there is something wrong with me, how should I know what happened while I was asleep?” I answered.
"They did something to you, I just know it! I know we sometimes fight, but you've never acted this way before!” spluttered Alexa, even closer to tears.
“You know what? I think they’ve done something to you and you’re just acting like they haven’t and pretending you think something’s wrong with me to seem more natural so I don’t suspect anything. I don’t even think you’re really Alexa, but some imposter!” I exclaimed, my voice rising. “Get out, imposter!”
Alexa, or the imposter posing as her, fell to her knees and sobbed her heart out. When the henchman gently lifted her to her feet and led her back to her own room, she didn’t even seem to care. I, however, felt oddly satisfied as I watched her leave.
***
As the henchman led me back to my room, was crying so hard I couldn't see. I didn't even notice when the henchman closed the door, or hear him lock it. I sank down to my knees and continued to cry. After what felt like hours, I couldn't cry another tear. I got back to my feet and tried to regain my composure. Why had Eryn acted like that? I thought to myself. Sure, we had had many arguments, disagreements and fights, but she had never acted like that before. I pretty sure they did something to her, but I'm not sure what Then other thoughts occurred to me. What if they did something to me, too? What if I really was an imposer?
***
As soon as Alexa and the henchmen left, I suddenly felt horrible about what I had said to her. It was almost as if the henchman was controlling my actions. But why would he want to split us up? What good would come from that? Maybe the henchman was controlling her, too? What I really need is some way to talk to Alexa without the henchmen around. If only we were telepathic, like in books. That would make it really easy to communicate with her. I might as well try, even though it wasn't likely. Of course, a month ago I wouldn't have even considered it, but after being told about other inhabited planets it seemed as if anything was possible. I concentrated all my thoughts on Alexa. Alexa, can you hear me? I repeated over and over again in my head. All I could hear was a faint "Go away. I don't want you in my head any more."
***