Twins

The planet Watertoo is completely covered by water. It has no true islands, but there are sometimes temporary “islands” of foam that persist for many days after a storm whips up the sea surface. Under one of these islands swims a Mermaid, her long seaweed hair trailing behind. Reaching the other side, she slips out from the shadow and slithers up onto the surface of the foam, joining a dozen of her comrades sunning themselves in the cold air. “Sally! I thought you were visiting your sister in the reefs,” she says, turning over and exposing her pale green body to the sky.

“I am, but she wanted to go sunning, and here she is,” Sally the Mermaid responds, placing her hand on the shoulder of another with especially bright green hair.

Sitting up, the first Mermaid says, “Oh, pleasant to meet you. Daphne, is it?”

“Yes,” Daphne responds, twisting the fine strands of her hair around her fingers.

“I’m Gloria, and I love your hair. How do you keep it growing so fine? Mine always fills up with floatation bladders if I don’t brush every day.”

“Well, have you ever heard of anemone extract?” Daphne says, but she is cut off by a loud booming noise from high in the sky. Every head turns upwards.

“What is that?” Sally asks.

A ship has appeared several miles above. The noise was the sound of it entering the lower atmosphere at high speed. Now missiles are headed straight for the foam island. Having barely enough time to understand this, every Mermaid drags herself toward the water. Only Gloria makes it. She dives as the island above her ignites, the explosion shining like the sun. The invasion has begun.

The boy alliance has deployed troops to several planets. Around Candy and Gruezhe they are locked in stalemate with the girls, neither side able to advance. On Earth, Cartop, and Watertoo, they have landed invasion forces. Only around Watertoo have they erected a successful blockade. Needing someone to manage the surveillance teams while the other Girlbusters are involved with the other planetary invasions, Nathaniel and Sot are assigned to Watertoo.

Nathaniel sits next to a psychospeeder unit, allowing it to speed up his thinking so he can listen to multiple channels from all over the planet. “The Mermaids cut another one of our fake telegraph lines. That puts them further north than expected.”

“Wow, slow down – or step away from the PSU for a minute,” Sot complains.

Nathaniel forgot that he was thinking faster and talking faster. Rather than step away and miss something important, he talks as slow as he can and repeats himself.

“That’s good to know,” Sot says, updating the map.

“Any news on our missing strike team?” Doctor Bill asks.

“Not yet,” Nathaniel answers.

News arrives later that day. “We found them! They’re being held prisoner on Pan Sea Mount,” Nathaniel announces.

“I’ll prepare a rescue party,” Sot says.

Nathaniel leads the team himself, bringing with him Haticat, Fred, Doctor Bill, and four Nino soldiers. While the citizens of the Mermaid city are distracted by the large submarine exchanging torpedo fire with them, Nathaniel’s team crawls through the coral outside the giant anemone-house where the boys are being held. Their special suits protect them from scrapes, stinging tentacles, and pull oxygen from the water for them to breathe. Waiting until no Mermaids are in sight, the boys swim to the top of the anemone-house and into the mouth. Once inside, they take out the single guard and swim around from room to room.

In one room is a computer. “Grab the hard drive,” Nathaniel orders.

In another room is a large mirror with strange circuitry on the back side. The reflection seems to lag slightly. “It’s probably for checking makeup,” Haticat suggests.

“Bring it with us,” Nathaniel orders.

In another room, they enter an air pocket from underneath. On the ledge on the outer wall are five of the six members of the missing team. They are all wearing dresses and look shell-shocked. “Where’s agent Nason?” Nathaniel asks.

“Kissed…dead,” one boy mumbles, still staring at the far wall.

Everyone is loaded into an escape balloon and ascends to the surface where they are picked up by a surface battleship. Just as they think they are getting away, an adult aircraft flies overhead and drops a package on the deck the size of a small car. Tentatively, the boys push aside the ropes holding it together to read the label. “Home-work?” Haticat mutters.

“What does that mean?” Fred asks.

“Whatever it is, the slip says we’re supposed to have it finished by tomorrow,” Nathaniel says.

They do not have the time. The ship is chased by Mermaid sea planes that they can barely keep ahead of. The ship is hit by missiles several times. The ship leaks. The pumps keep failing. It takes all night to return to boy waters. Only then do the girls give up. When they dock at the repair platform, they learn that a large storm is coming and they need to help prepare for it. The storm hits at dawn. It only begins to wind down at noon and Nathaniel is desperate to finally get some sleep. This is when the adults return, demanding the completed homework assignment. “We didn’t even have time to open it,” a crew member protests.

“No, you chose not to do it!” the adult states through a megaphone.

“No, we didn’t have time,” the nearest crew member on deck repeats.

“You’re all punished!” the adult declares. No punishment is ever enacted, but the adults return every few days to drop off more homework and more threats. Every once in a while, the adults ground an entire crew for a few days if they are caught fighting. Fighting is against the rules, but planning for war is seen as just a game the boys and girls are playing together. Both sides learn to keep a lookout for patrolling adults and halt all fighting when they are present. Fighting resumes the moment they leave.

Months later, the boys have secured dominion over the planet. They still hunt down and kill any remaining girls they can find, but the battle of Watertoo is over. In the meantime, news arrives that the boys have won Earth, but lost Cartop. Jash arrives and is reunited with sot and Nathaniel, but Jain has died on Cartop. Nathaniel is promoted to take his place.

The Girlbusters get to work decrypting the hard drive from Watertoo. This is how they learn that the mirror is a gift to the Mermaids from the girls of Barbeth. The message reads: “Use it to double your numbers.”

“Well, what could that mean?” Doctor Bill asks.

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to go to Barbeth to find out,” Nathaniel says.

Barbeth sits in the middle of the Small Blue-Green Nebula. It has two cores. The people there have three eyes, two noses, and big lips. The boys and girls there have segregated and hold an unsteady armistice. The boys have one quarter of the planet, while the girls have the other three quarters. Both sides know war is coming, but are waiting on aid from Paffy and Ninosa. The girl government is run by a dual presidency. Barb makes decisions of foreign policy and Beth makes decisions of domestic policy. Only those with the right names are eligible for those positions.

With help from local boys, Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill sneak into girl territory and spy on the girls through a telescope. Nathaniel is shocked by what he sees. He can’t believe it. “How many bodies to Barbethites have?”

“What do you mean?” Haticat asks.

“Every girl I’m seeing has two bodies,” Nathaniel reports.

Haticat looks through the telescope. He sees every girl walking in pairs. Each partner dresses the same, has hair styled the same, and most importantly has the same face. “The books are wrong. Barbethites don’t have three eyes and two noses; they have six eyes and four noses.” Fred and Doctor Bill scramble to look.

Nathaniel tunes the parabolic microphone to listen in. “Bonnie, Becky, you two look so cute together,” one girl says.

“You two do too,” the second girl says. They all giggle in the most annoying way possible.

“Ugh! How do girls stand being around themselves?” Nathaniel asks.

“Why don’t you come with us and find out?” Nathaniel turns to see a laser pistol pointed at his head. Behind it is a Barbethite girl in a red dress. Her second body approaches Nathaniel from the other side.

Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill are captured and kept alive for experimentation. The girls say something about making twins of them to see if new boys can be trained to act right, but they do not understand. A mirror is brought into their roomy cell and Nathaniel is told to hold still. The girls flip a switch on the back of the mirror. Nathaniel’s reflection shudders – and then steps into the room. “Hey! How did I get over there when I’m still over here?” Nathaniel asks.

“That’s your twin,” one guard says.

“Huh?” Nathaniel says.

“Boys are so dumb!” the guard exclaims.

“We made a twin of you because twins are cute,” the second guard says.

“This means we can make twins of all the boys and make them all cute,” the first guard says.

“I don’t want to be cute!” Nathaniel protests.

“Hi, what’s your name?” Nathaniel’s twin asks.

Nathaniel pauses a moment in confusion. He was talking to him. “You know my name; you’re me.”

The confusion deepens when twins are later made of Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill. Sometimes they are separated from each other for questioning or more experimentation. Nathaniel cannot understand why one version of Haticat does not remember what he told another version. It is deeply frustrating. He cannot understand why his guard sometimes goes by one name and sometimes by another. One day, Nathaniel’s twin returns from experimentation wearing a dress. “Eww! I’m wearing a dress! Get it off!”

“I want to wear a dress; dresses are cute,” his twin says.

“Why did I say that? Why am I saying things that aren’t true? I’m a liar!” Nathaniel complains.

“You didn’t say that; I said that,” his twin says.

“Now I’m saying contradictory sentences that don’t make any sense! I’ve turned stupid!” Nathaniel whines.

“Having two bodies must make you insane,” Haticat says.

“Does that mean I’ll be insane next?” Haticat’s twin asks.

“Oh no!” Fred’s twin says.

“Stop it! We are not the same person! My name is Nedward!” Nathaniel’s twin says.

“My name is Nathaniel!” Nathaniel argues.

“We are different people. The girls made a brand-new person and made me look like you, but I’m not you,” Nedward says.

Finally, Nathaniel begins to understand. “Like camouflage?”

“Uh…sort of,” Nedward says.

“So, we’re different people with different names?” Nathaniel asks.

“Yes!” Nedward shouts, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

“So, one of us is Nathaniel and one of us is Nedward?” Nathaniel asks.

“Yes!” Nedward yells.

“Which one am I?” Nathaniel asks.

“Nathaniel,” Nedward says through gritted teeth.

With Nathaniel’s confusion over, his disgust begins to set in. The highest value of all boys is uniqueness. That way, everyone can be the best at at least one thing. If Nathaniel is no longer even the best at being Nathaniel, what good is he and why does he exist? What an abomination of nature twins were! This time, the girls had gone too far. They were messing with things far more important than play styles and control of territory. He simmers with rage.

For days afterward, he constantly feels uncomfortable. It is a weird feeling to be able to see, but still be helpless in telling people apart. Just being near twins makes him feel like he is being teased for mistaking one person for another, the most offensive blunder one can make in boy culture. He constantly worries how people will judge him for things his twin does, which he cannot seem to control no matter how hard he tries. Having a twin is like not having any control over his own body – and not even knowing what sort of mischief he was getting into. It feels like being blind and naked at the same time.

Society would collapse if twins became normal. How would contracts be enforced? How would justice be delivered? What would happen to the system of military rank if all boys looked the same? Nathaniel realizes that he must kill the twins. It is a moral imperative.

He gets the chance a couple days later when a rescue team headed by Jash and Sot comes for them. “Wait, why are there two Doctor Bills?” Jash asks.

“One of them is a twin!” Nathaniel says.

“What’s a twin?” Jash asks.

“I’m Doctor Bill,” Doctor Bill says.

“I’m Doctor Will,” Doctor Will says.

“Technically, we’re a set of twins together…” Doctor Bill starts.

“Shut up!” Nathaniel yells, grabbing Jash’s gun and shooting Doctor Will.

“The girls are making twins of people. We have to stop them,” Haticat explains.

Jash calls in reinforcements as the Girlbusters hunt down the boys’ other twins. They kill them and then systematically destroy ever twinning mirror. This turns out to only be possible from the circuitry side. Anything launched at the front simply reflects off. Sot searches the computer database for the location of the mirror factory. It is one hundred kilometers away. Jash orders an airstrike and a full-scale war breaks out on the planet.

Eventually, the Girlbusters return to boy base, but the guard will not let them in. “I’m ordering you to open the door,” Jash says.

“I’ve been ordered to hold you here,” the guard responds.

“By whom?” Jash asks.

“By Jain,” the guard answers.

“How?” Jash says. “Jain is dead. He died on Cartop.”

The guard suddenly looks concerned. “Jain told me that Jash died on Cartop and that you were a girl-made twin.”

“Jain must be a secret twin pretending to be Jain,” Haticat says.

“Or he’s right that Jash is the twin,” Fred says.

“Or it was the twin of Jain that Jash saw die on Cartop,” Doctor Bill says. “Or it was a twin of Jash that Jain saw die on Cartop.”

“Anybody could be a secret twin,” Nathaniel says. Nathaniel and Jash look at each other. Fred and the guard look at each other. Haticat and Doctor Bill look at each other. Each fingers their holstered weapons nervously.

“Wait, we can’t start fighting each other; that’s what the girls want,” Doctor Bill says.

“Then how do we tell each other apart?” Fred asks.

“The twins are built from reflections, right?” Jash asks.

“Yes,” Doctor Bill answers.

“So that means they have reverse symmetry. A right-handed person would have a left-handed twin and vice-versa,” Jash says.

“Yes…We can ask Jain to sign his name,” Doctor Bill suggests.

Curious himself, the guard brings them all inside to confront Jain. “I told you to hold them outside,” Jain says.

“They told me to bring them inside,” the guard responds.

“I want to see you sign your name,” Jash says.

“What?” Jain says.

“The real Jain was right-handed. I want to see you sign your name,” Jash says again.

Scowling, Jain takes a piece of paper, picks up a pen in his right hand, places the point on the paper, and then suddenly draws his pistol with his left. Fred shoots him in the arm and he falls on the floor. “He keeps his gun on the left!” Fred blurts out.

Fake Jain rolls on the floor, holding his left arm. “You can’t win. Cuteness always wins.”

“Guns always win,” Jash says, then shoots him in the head.

The war continues on Barbeth for a few more days. Arms and troops flood in from Ninosa and Lectipas and the boys make a quick victory. All vestiges of mirror technology and the knowledge to make it are destroyed. Guns win.

SUPPORT