Peace and Love

It was amazing seeing thousands of pilots flying in the distance ahead and behind him, going at speeds so fast that, in burst mode, the ground under him blurred, and the colors blended into a single pigment, usually forest green or muddy brown.

Cody decided running was kind of jarring, making his vision uneven with each step as he ran forward like an Olympic athlete. Being left behind by all the leg M.U.s, his surrounding comrades were using tank tracks.

“At least that one’s form is good.”

“But why is he running? If he wanted to stay on the ground, he should have gotten tracks.”

“Still, running exerts energy. It’s almost like running in water. The strength he must have,” came another.

“But why does I gots ta run all day, teach? I wanna read manga ‘bout math an’ science like them other kids!” the child whined to the adult who stood before him in the school’s hallway.

“You’ll thank me one day, Cody. Your kind… it’d be a waste of my time having to stop and teach you when the other kids are trying to learn. I don’t want to sacrifice the minds of important youth for some… Your kind gets scholarships for athleticism and religion, not their brains. When you get into college, it’ll be because I knew where your kind’s strengths lie. Besides, you had to have seen by now—you’re in fifth grade. You can’t be that dumb. Why no teacher or student talks to you. Why is that?”

“Because… mah skin… tats?” Cody didn’t want to say it, hugging himself as he looked away from the teacher, squinting his eyes closed when he heard her correct him. That word…

Suddenly, Cody was ahead of many of the others using tank tracks, flying in bursts with each step carrying him at least a mile before he landed. Ashley was distant now, her voice distorted as she called out to him.

An unfamiliar M.U. was right next to him, to his surprise, quietly flying beside him.

Cody noticed the land was ending its flat, middle-American fields. He was up on mountains. How fast had they been traveling to make it across America in less than an hour?

Flying, he attempted to level himself as the other did, and as they began to rise, he called out to the other, “Who… um… I’m Cody. Cody Ello Fin.”

“I know,” Heather’s voice came smoothly clear, as if she were next to him, sitting in his pod beside him.

“Heather, you waited beside me?”

“You were seeing memories… am I right? Of running?”

He didn’t answer at first, but she was so intuitive, he was afraid she would know he was lying like before. “Yeah,” he said as they flew over the first mountain peaks.

Heather no longer spoke. She just flew beside him.

To change the subject, he said, “What kind of weapon is that? And uniform? I didn’t see melee weapons like a baton on the list.”

Heather only sighed, as if knowing his intentions of avoiding a conversation about “running.”

She burst past him slightly, turning to face him and flying backward with ease. “It’s a laser sword.” She turned the rod upward, and a red beam flared up out of the tip like a knife.

“I can increase the output to make it longer but less effective, though more quickly will the magnifying lens burn out. You’ll get to customize if you can live. But my blade is costly, as well as my uniform.”

She had several customizations he could see—her leg bursts not only had the foot ones like him, but side ones, as well as bursts at her hands and back. Her shoulders had pincer horns on them, perhaps protecting the head at the sides, but what was more odd was the small batons lining around her waist like a bandolier. Were all of them swords?

Suddenly, the water was in view. As the sun rose and peaked over the ocean, it intensified the beauty of it. Seagulls lined the skies in clusters. The sun cascaded over the scenery, making its colors more vibrant.

Cody looked at the land under him. His hometown really was a small, spread-out little fishing village.

While several tiny dots could be seen pointing up at him and the many others, he tried futilely to look for his hut, but they all looked alike from up here.

“I was hoping this was not going to be a water battle,” Tod came in at a distorted distance.

“Maybe we will find an island,” called another voice he didn’t recognize.

“Islands would be protected for our long rangers to get stability and clear shots. We can’t fight on them. I feel Midway will be a battleground we will fight on. I hope the Japanese don’t intervene,” Tod returned.

Cody shivered, remembering his history manga on the Japanese in third grade.

Mechanical uniforms originated in Japan. After Japan introduced manga to America, the world embraced its manga ways, and in return, financed Japan well beyond any country’s needs. Its technology skyrocketed, and though it wasn’t allowed a military, it created anti-“war” research first thing. Lasers shot at the sky at a Chinese nuke that was sent to Japan when it accused Japan of breaching the military agreement by creating mobile mechanical uniforms that people could pilot.

But Japan said they were only for industrial usage until America agreed and sided with China. As a hundred nukes were flown to Japan, Japan shot them down with ease as they harmlessly fell from the sky. Then they used their industrial uniforms to retrieve the nukes and carry them to the Middle East. They warned the world, “The treaty is over. Hostilities will be met with equal or greater force, but only if hostilities will be met. For now, we will show you, the world, simply put, we… are… no longer… afraid…” The detonation of the nukes on Middle Eastern soil turned the sand oasis into fields of glass and shook the world to its core.

Japan then showed everyone their uniforms’ new style, no longer industrial, known only as Mids, in homage to the Middle Eastern sacrifices of the 1970s, known to all as The Declaration of Peace and Love.