The next morning, Marjorie was in her bed, still staring at the ceiling. She didn’t sleep at all. In fact, she didn’t feel the need to do so. She went to bed out of habit; from her virtual life.

“What am I doing?” asked Marjorie to herself.

She knew that the life she had led so far was a fabrication, a training program of sorts to teach her how to act like a human. She knew now that she wasn’t one. Getting used to the real world will be difficult especially with these human habits she still needed to learn.

Marjorie got up. She was wearing her pajama still. She looked around her room and couldn’t find a wardrobe or even a dresser. Besides the bed and the mirror, the room was bare.

“Where are my clothes? I’m not going to spend all day in my pajamas now,” thought Marjorie.

While looking at herself in the mirror, Marjorie couldn’t help feeling a certain aching, a nostalgia for her old life and habits as virtual as they were. She could still remember her father’s lectures; her mother’s sewing lessons; the wrestling show she watched with her baby brother and…Quinnie.

The Quinnie she had known in the simulation wasn’t real either. She isn’t the one that she met the day before; the one that saved her; the one that…killed that woman. Marjorie couldn’t hold back the tears that came up at this thought; Marjorie still couldn’t accept that her sister could do such a thing. But then again, she didn’t know her. This Quinnie did feel genuine.

“No, she isn’t a murderer. She was fulfilling her duty! She said it so herself! And Quinnie would never lie to me! We are still sisters no matter what!” thought Marjorie, exhorting herself.

“You’re still in your room?”

Marjorie turned to the voice. It was Quinnie. She wasn’t wearing her Champion regalia this time. She looked just like the Quinnie she knew.

“Are you ok, Margie? You look a bit blue,” asked Quinnie.

The sight of Quinnie, her being normal looking, it calmed Marjorie a great deal.

“I am fine, Quinnie. I am just a bit…I don’t know…” started Marjorie, trying to explain her feelings.

“Don’t worry about it! I brought you a change of clothes! Look it is a replica of your favorite blue dress!” enthusiastically said Quinnie.

Marjorie got dressed and felt much better.

“Ok! So…what does a Champion’s day looks like?” asked Marjorie.

“Follow me! I will show you! I will show you the REAL world” replied Quinnie.

The girls ran through the ScienceTech main corridor. As they whizzed past Dr. Bless’ office, Quinnie shouted:

“We’re going out for some sightseeing! I am taking Marjorie with me!” said Quinnie to Dr. Bless.

“Wait! Her training starts today! I also still have a ton of tests to run!” shouted Dr. Bless.

“Don’t worry; we will be back before you even know it!” reassured Quinnie.

And just like that, Marjorie was taken out to see the real world.

The girls ran all the way to a cliff. From there, they could see the neighboring town in the distance.

“Look at the view! What an amazing vista, don’t you think?” said Quinnie.

“It is so…vibrant! The colors, the scents, the breeze on my skin!” said Marjorie, enchanted by the panorama.

“That’s the real world for you!” said Quinnie.

“It’s amazing! It’s so…real!” said Marjorie.

Marjorie was taking in the view. She had never seen such a sight before! As sophisticated was the virtual simulation she lived in, it never could replicate such a sense of open space and freedom. It was still a cage.

“I see a small town over there,” noticed Marjorie.

“It is called Belvedere. We’ll get there but you need to know one thing: we are Champions. We have to remain incognito when we aren’t on duty. We also need to be models for our fellow Americans. Behave!” explained Quinnie.

“I understand,” said Marjorie.

“Good! Race ya to the town!” said Quinnie.

Quinnie had jumped down the cliff and started running. A bit uneasy at first, Marjorie followed suit. While her body was virtually indestructible and unable to get tired, Marjorie couldn’t still use her gift of super-strength to propel herself forward and run as fast as Quinnie.

After a few minutes, Quinnie looked back; Marjorie was nowhere to be seen. Quinnie turned around and ran back to get her sister.

“Still can’t use your gift, huh?” said Quinnie.

“No! How can you run so fast?” sadly replied Marjorie.

“I will show you one day,”

“Awwww…”

“No whining! Come on, hop on my back!”

“Huh?”

“You know, piggyback ride!”

“Ok…”

Marjorie hopped on Quinnie’s back and immediately she felt the same nostalgia rushing through her once more. Quinnie had given her many such rides when they were younger; the virtual Quinnie at least.

A few minutes later, the two had reached Belvedere. The town exuded the beauty of peaceful New-England like communities. However, the usually peaceful ambiance was disturbed by a man shouting slogans in a megaphone in the town square. He was followed by a group of citizens holding up signs and clipboards.

“Fellow Americans, the hour is dire! We must unite as one and tell our president that we do NOT want to have these…people come in our beautiful country!” said the man.

“What is going on?” asked Marjorie to Quinnie.

“There has been a deluge of immigrants in the last couple of years. Immigrants from the Eastern Bloc,”

“That is good, no? That way they will get to experience the benefits of our side of the world!” said Marjorie.

“That was the idea but…many of them have caused…problems,” said Quinnie.

“What problems?” asked Marjorie.

The megaphone man, who was walking by, heard Marjorie’s question.

“Little girl, these foreigners are incompatible with our way of life! They respect nothing and mooch on our hospitality! They refuse to assimilate and become Americans like you and I! They are COMMUNISTS!” said the man.

The man continued his march, followed by his angry posse.

“That’s why we need true Belvedere patriots to stand and sign this petition! We will send it to President Eisenhower to tell him to STOP these people from coming in here! They need to be vetted and confirmed as lovers of American values first!” shouted the man.

“Don’t listen to him! He is a racist white supremacist!” said a voice.

Another man with a megaphone surrounded by his followers had shown up. Among them, many were wearing mask, bandanas and armed with baseball bats. They were counter-protesters.

“Who are you to tell these people that they aren’t American?” said the counter-protesters’ leader.

“I am a veteran of the war, son! I have fought and bled to protect this nation’s principles, son! I have seen what these…people do first hand!” said one of the protestors.

“The war is over old man! We need to open our doors to the oppressed!”

“Hey, you should respect your elders! Especially the veterans!”

“Don’t get me wrong sir, I and everybody here thank you for your service to this country to kick the Nazis’ asses but we are at peace! The time is for reconciliation!”

“Not if we let commies come here! They openly spit on our flag!”

“It is free speech!”

“Free speech my ass!”

“We can’t stay closed on ourselves! We have to open our minds to the world around us!”

“Not if it screws with our country! They want a better life? Then they should stay in their countries and fix them! Not come and mooch on our stuff!”

“Forget these idiots! Everyone, sign the petition!”

“Face it, grandpa: Eisenhower is out! Our boy Kennedy will get in soon! You’ll see!”

“Over my dead body!”

Two mobs formed behind the two men shouting in their respective megaphones: protesters and counter-protesters, pro and anti-immigration. A riot was very close to break out. All that was needed was a slight physical provocation.

“Quinnie, we have to do something!” pleaded Marjorie.

“Stay calm, Margie. Let the local authorities handle this,” said Quinnie as she pointed to a few police cars coming towards the malcontent groups.

The police officers spilt the two opposing groups and kept them from reaching each other.

“Citizens, disperse immediately and resume your peaceful business!” said an officer.

“Officer, we have permits delivered by our Mayor! We have the right to be here! These ruffians are the ones barging in illegally,” said the protesters’ leader.

“You can’t silence us! Everybody knows that the police are the most racists of them all!” shouted someone.

A hail of rocks met some of the officer. Here it was, the riot trigger. People from both sides started fighting each other, the police officer caught in the middle couldn’t do a thing.

“Quinnie…” anxiously said Marjorie.

“I know. I will take care of this,” said Quinnie.

She ran in a nearby ally-way. A second later, she came out in her Champion regalia, ready for action.

“Citizens! Please, listen to me!” said Quinnie.

“It’s Liberty!” said someone in the crowd.

“She is on OUR side! She will help us kick that racist Eisenhower out of office!” proclaimed a protestor.

“Don’t let these traitors get in the way of justice! Liberty is on OUR side!” replied someone else.

“Please, everyone! Listen to the police officers; you must disperse right now!” said Quinnie.

The pro-immigration mob got closer to Quinnie.

“Liberty, you should be on our side! We are fighting for the rights of these downtrodden immigrants!” said the leader of the group.

“I fight for the American people! These immigrants have entered our country illegally!” replied Quinnie.

“See? I told you she was a traitor!” said a protestor.

The pro-immigration mob started chucking rocks at Quinnie. She conjured her shield and engulfed herself in blue Patriotic Flames. As her flames elevated her above both mobs, Quinnie reiterated her earlier admonishment.

“Citizens, follow the police officers’ instructions and disperse immediately!” said Quinnie.

The mobs continued ignoring the order and kept shoving the police officers trying to keep both groups apart.

“Why aren’t they listening?” thought Marjorie.

Marjorie made her way through the crowd and placed herself in the middle of the fight.

“Stop it! Everyone! You must stop! Nothing will come out of this fighting!” shouted Marjorie.

“Get out of here, little girl before you get hurt!”

“Yeah, go back to your mama’s skirt, you little runt!”

Marjorie, ignoring the angry replies, grabbed a megaphone from one of the protestors’ hands and hopped on a police cruiser. She started strongly chastising.

“You should be ashamed! All of you! Don’t you see the bad example you are setting for all? This is not the way things works in America! Beating people whose opinion you disagree with is barbaric! What are you all, Commies?”

Quinnie landed next to Marjorie.

“This isn’t the Belvedere I know! Protest if you will, but do so lawfully!” said Quinnie.

“Don’t tell us what to do! Where have you been lately? Haven’t you seen the many terror attacks these…foreigners perpetrated in many cities across the country? Heck, across the world even? The Commies are winning!”

“We know,”

“And you did nothing about it yet?”

The hostility was escalating once more. Marjorie, unable to contain her desire to help made a bold announcement through her megaphone.

“I will find out what happened! I will put a stop to the terror attacks! All of it! I will rid the world of terror and restore peace!”

Upon hearing Marjorie’s declaration, everybody stopped fighting, mouth agape, incredulous to the spunk of that little who came from nowhere.

Then everyone started laughing heartily. The earnestness of Marjorie couples with the enormity of her claims were too much; protesters, counter-protesters and even the police were laughing.

“It is true! A Clayton never breaks a promise!” continued Marjorie, peeved by the laughter at her expense.

Quinnie swiped the megaphone away from Marjorie’s hands.

“I think we heard enough of Lil’ Miss I-Will-Fix-it-All for one day,” said Quinnie.

The police had managed to break up the mob. Everyone was going back to their regular business. Quinnie dragged Marjorie in an alley and changed back to her civilian clothes.

“Margie, what was that back there?” angrily asked Quinnie.

“I was just trying to break up the fight before it got uglier,” replied Marjorie.

“Yeah but they don’t know you are a Champion! You just made a laughing stock of yourself,”

“I know. That was the point. See? Everybody stopped fighting!”

“I will admit you did get them to calm down,”

“I know that we are Champions and we are supposed to rely on our gifts to solve any situation, but I am telling you, there are many was to calm people down without using force,”

“I know that. Come on, give your big sis some credit here!”

“Well, nobody reacted positively to your Patriotic Flames back there,”

“Yeah, I was hoping some flashiness would shut them down but it seemed to have done the opposite,”

“Hehehe, so I can teach you a thing or two!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself! You are still the rookie here! Speaking of learning stuff, let’s go back home”

“Quinnie…was what that man said true? Are we being invaded by foreign commies?”

“Don’t worry about it,”

“I need to know, I am a Champion too!”

“All I can tell you now is that for the past five years, many people have tried to sneak into the country illegally. From the Mexico frontier, to the Pacific and Atlantic ports, they are forcing their way in. While most are peaceful, many have been causing all sorts of problems. They look like honest people but many of them are sleeper commie agents!”

“I see…”

“Now are you ready to go home?”

“Yeah, let’s not make Dr. Bless more furious than necessary,”