Versus

It is said that there is a fine line between genius and insanity, between good and evil and that absolute power, corrupts absolutely. I don’t think anyone really knows what the tipping point will be that makes you cross the line, until it happens. Like most people I had always stayed in control, stayed on the right side of the line, but then suddenly I found myself on the other side, or was I.  In the beginning I questioned myself whether I was good or evil, was I a protector or a villain, I rationalized my actions with the thought of “My abilities can be used for good or evil, I chose good.” You may disagree because after all, murder is murder, but when you have the ability to injure or  kill with a mere thought, is it still evil if the only people you harmed, were those that were truly evil sadistic people, those that who tormented, tortured, abused and controlled, those who themselves have done such harm to a person, a child and animal or an entire town. Did they bring it on themselves, to receive that which they inflicted on others? In my mind the heartless, deserved it, Karma was swift.

Let me go back to the beginning, my entire family, mom, dad, older sister, younger brother and myself all have this ability, as did everyone from our planet. My siblings and I were trained from the beginning to control our thoughts and actions because the consequences could be severe. My parents and brother, like myself were in control, we blended in well on earth, by most outsiders view we were normal. We had mastered all emotions, never acted rashly and avoided the cruelty in our city. My sister on the other hand, saw the world differently, she was a rebel for justice, and spent most of her teen years arguing with us over not stopping evil when we could. It was almost a nightly conversation at the dinner table, even when Warren was over for dinner. Warren was the only human who knew what we could do, he was like a loyal cousin, he found out about us when we were young, after Bree saved his life from a neighbourhood gang. He vowed to keep our secret and always had. I always thought our parents knew best, Bree on the other hand insisted we needed to protect the innocent, not hide. Nightly we walked around the city, Bree would point out any little incidents she saw and try to convince me to join her side of the debate. “Look” she would say “that guy is smacking his girlfriend, wouldn’t you like to just take his breath away for a minute, so he stops?” or “See the this” as she pointed to the newspaper “Murder, arson, gang wars, drug dealer…etc. etc. why can’t we stop them, what is the point of having power, if you do not help people?” I would just repeat the mantra of our parents “Peaceful thoughts, peaceful actions” and we would head home, without doing anything. The day before my 16^th birthday, Bree who was 18 then, and I were out for our usual walk of debate, heading towards the corner café to meet with rest of the family for our weekly family outing. We spotted them sitting in the outdoor patio, mom waving to us smiling, then we heard screeching tires of two car coming around the corner, bullets flying back and forth, screams rang out, the cars flew past us we looked towards the café, we ran fast, bodies were laying on the ground, some crying and injured and others dead. Our family were among the dead, Bree, covered in blood, holding mom in her arms crying, while I stood there in shock, not knowing what to do. She looked up at me with wild eyes and screamed “PEACEFUL THOUGHTS, PEACEFUL ACTIONS!” and this was the moment I crossed the line. After that day, Bree and I grew even closer, we now shared the same viewpoint on the use of our abilities, which we now used nightly. We remained in the family home, Bree got a job in the clerking department at the courthouse, making it easy to find the evil people, especially those who got away with it, and those gangs that the police could not stop. I dropped out of school and took care of the house and monitored the police scanner, our parents bedroom was turned into an office complete with whiteboards, computers, scanners, maps and everything else we needed to do our job of making the city a safer place. The list on the whiteboard of evil people seemed to be a never ending, as soon as one name was wiped off, another was added. Warren had decided to move in with us and help with our mission, which was greatly appreciated, as his skills in technology and computers were amazing, and emotionally, we felt a little less lost when his bright smiling face was there, even if his sense of humor was weird, but it kept us smiling. Every morning Warren would go out for coffee and grab all the newspapers on his way back, for some reason he collected all the headlines that we were involved in like “Man holding a child hostage, dies of anaphylactic shock” “police chase ends, when driver passes out and crashes into a tree” but his favorite is the one that read “5^th street gang members all dead due to suspected tainted drugs.” One thing Bree and I noticed was that the more we used our powers, the more developed they became, not only could we control how much pain we could inflict, but we could also alter the appearance of the cause, helping us stay undetected, no pattern could be discovered. This was a relief for two reasons, one being, it would really create suspicion if every criminal were to suddenly die of the same thing. The other need to stay undetected was the Infraction Hunters. This was in a sense, the law on our planet, they monitored all planets for our kind, you see we were fugitives. Our planet had been overthrown by an unbelievably bad group, they were rounding everyone up and putting implants in us that would prevent us using our powers, leaving them in control. Our family along with hundreds of others managed to escape to other planets before we were implanted. This was our parents’ reason for keeping hidden, and not helping.  Warren was looking through an old book that he discovered in our parents’ closet, when he was making room for supplies.  With a huge grin on his face and the book in his hand. “Look! this is amazing guys, look!” he exclaimed “What?” Bree asked “You are not going to believe what is in this book” he said excitedly. “What is so amazing about an old book?” I walked towards him and I recognized our family symbol with moms writing on it “Warren, what is it?” “It’s you! I mean its like your family tree and all the things you can do, you have no idea what you can do, you guys are like awesome, no, more than awesome, holy shit almost scary, I mean I’m not scared of you but holy shit!!” “Give me that” Bree said sharply while ripping the book from his hands. She flipped through it, pausing occasionally, then looked up at me “What?” I said nervously. Bree stuttered a little, I repeated “What?” with more fear. Bree stood up and walked towards me, “Sis, we are Karma.” Now I was confused, “What are you saying Bree, Warren explain this to me” they looked at each other and Warren said, “Sit down little cos, this is going to blow your mind.” We sat down and spent the entire evening going through the book, detail by detail, and making a list of powers and how to activate them. We had no idea just how powerful we were, and that the history of our planet was to travel the galaxy and manifesting karma as it was deserved, Good or Bad. This revelation completely took away any feelings I had before about my actions, now that I knew this was our purpose, I felt even stronger about doing it. There was so much information in the book, not only about our powers, but there was a scheduling system, a delivery chart to help decide what and who to go to and keeping good versus evil balanced. We hadn’t considered the fact that wiping out evil without rewarding good, could cause an imbalance that would alert the Infraction Hunter’s, we only hoped we hadn’t done so already.  Warren looked a little down “What’s up?” I asked “Nothing really, I was just wishing I had some sort of power that would let me help” he said “But you are a great help to us, we would be lost without you” Bree said “I know that part, but I mean something big, not just regular help, with all this karma talk, it makes me question what I have coming to me” both Bree and I laughed, hugged him and I said “Cos, it will happen some day, you have good things coming, don’t worry.” Bree piped up “But for now let’s concentrate on restoring the balance.” We started researching to find those deserving good things to happen to them, this was a little trickier because not all good deeds are noticed. The cool part of delivering good was, all it took was a casual touch, an accidental bump into someone in a crowd, and within 24 hours good things and their hearts desires would start entering their life. The first person I got to touch was a senior lady who had taken care of anyone who needed help, she didn’t have much but shared all she had. Three days after we touched the newspaper ran the story of how someone she had helped in the past, became a millionaire, he returned to pay off her mortgage and give her a year’s supply of groceries. The smile on her face was the most beautiful thing to see. 

Life for the three of became pretty routine, Bree worked through the day, bringing the evil list home, Warren and I watched the internet on our laptops, for stories of good people that had fallen on hard times, or people with low self esteem that needed a little boost of confidence. Throughout the week we would enter the data into a secure program on our tablet, that was never hooked to the internet, it would calculate and create a balanced schedule that we would act on during the weekends.  Functioning this way for an entire year, we thought we had it all under control, perfect system, no chance of detection, but we never once considered that the Infraction Hunters had a system of their own, one that would set a trap for us,  a trap that only a human could free us from.