Inferiority | Teen Ink

Inferiority

May 20, 2017
By Anonymous

James woke up in an unfamiliar room, blurry figures stirring through his vision. He could hear some distorted noises but could still hear some figures speaking, but it didn't seem to be English. The blur began to clear when he noticed a tall humanoid figure, with blue and green skin accompanied by two grotesque monsters. They seemed to be communicating in a language he had never heard before. He now could see where he was, he was strapped to a bed with a bright light staring down at him. He fell asleep in his bed that night and woke up in an unfamiliar place. The humanoid figure began walking towards him, carrying a box full of outrageous tools that James had never seen before.

"Do you know where you are?" The creature asked James in better English than even James could speak. "It is required that we ask you this before beginning inspection."

"Inspection?" James asked, his raspy voice echoing throughout the building. "You really think I'm going to let you do that huh?" He scoffed, his voice much clearer now after clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry, I don't recall asking you such a question human." The creature said, looking at James dead in the eyes before returning to the clipboard he was writing on. "We brought you here for one reason and one reason alone, for research. As your memory of this place will be wiped, I will tell you that we are planning on invading your home planet and taking it's resources to better support our way of life." James looked shocked, anger flowing through each part of his body but there was no way he could escape the bindings on the bed. "Now please, if you want to go home with just a memory wipe I suggest you cooperate, we could always just find another human." The creature snarled, forcing James' mouth open with just the touch of one finger.

The alien placed strange looking goggles over his eyes and began to look down James' throat. "My my, such an inferior creature to ours, as we thought, an end to your race would be a trivial matter." The creature pulled away from James, and James relaxed on the bed once again. strangely, whether it was out of insanity or desperation, James began laughing mockingly at the creature. The creature's eyebrow raised to this strange sight, "I can understand the lunacy in the face of futility, but to fully understand your kind you must be in a state of constant fear." 

"You really think I've gone crazy?" James stopped laughing and stared at the creature. "Hmph, inferior, trivial, man, you really haven't done very much research." James spit at the creature, but it dodged swiftly.

"I guess you humans are so narrow minded that you can't see how inferior you truly are." The creature said, checking some monitors behind him. "It seems I must show you first-hand what we are capable of, to place the fear into your heart. Most humans we obtain are quickly obedient and understand their place, but it seems you are a bit less educated than the masses." The alien grabbed onto James' arm with the most delicate grip and suddenly, in a flash of light, they were teleported into a large field. A dark sky loomed above with buildings behind them, stretching much higher than anything he'd ever seen on earth.

Many creatures were stirring in and out of the buildings, greeting one another in their strange language. James was still bound by handcuffs like objects that kept his hand down by his waist. "Now then human, watch in horror at what we are capable of with just the snap of our fingers!" The creature said, turning James and himself towards the wide field. Much like he said, the creature snapped his fingers and with that snap came the blast of an enormous explosion, more than any human could possibly comprehend, destroying the ground along with it. The blast made James tremble, but the creature just stared at the incredible blast. 

A large piece of shrapnel came flying directly at James, moving at incredible speeds. Right before it hit, the flow of time began to slow, and the shrapnel came to a halt. James looked around to see everything else moving along as usual, but the field that the explosion took place in was completely frozen! The creature began moving towards the shrapnel, and kicked it, but it stayed in place. The creature walked back to where James was standing and time began moving again. James braced for the flying shrapnel, but the shrapnel began flying backwards, so fast that it was gone before James could blink. The kick the creature did sent the shrapnel flying!

"Hmph." The creature breathed, confidently, as if nothing had even happened. He looked back towards the field where the explosion had left no trace of what it was before, and the creature snapped his fingers once again. In a flash, the entire field was back to the way it was, like it was before he had even got there. "All of these buildings behind you," The alien said, "were built from just the snap of our fingers. This is why you are inferior, human." He began showing off more wondrous displays with his snapping, like instantly building skyscrapers, making a banquet of strange foods, and even creating new life with just a snap. 

"All of us have this ability from birth." The alien remarked, grinning happily at the masterpieces he created. "This is what inferiority truly is! This terrifying power was given to us by our ancestors and we will gladly exercise the power in conquest!" 

"You're still going on and on about this inferiority garbage, but I haven't seen one thing that makes humans inferior." James said, a confident smile beaming across his face. "I ask you this, is the race that was born with all the power they could ever need, and live in comfort for all their lives superior than the ones who had to work all day every day to even have a lick of that kind of power?" James asked, the creature looked back stunned. "I'll give you five lessons as to why humans will always be superior to your c***y race." 

"Hmph, you're still only 32% in fear, and it keeps declining. Do you really mean this gibberish you keep spouting?" The alien looked at his clipboard, clearly a bit shaken up from James' response. "Fine, I will also give you five lessons as to why we are the superior race."

"Heh heh, I like where this is going!" James agreed, "To begin with, all humans are born differently, so you'll have to research a lot more than the few you already have to be able to fully understand us. There is one thing we all do have in common though." James looked at the alien defiantly. "We all want to protect one thing, even if it costs us our lives! You freaks would never understand because all the things you have can just be easily brought back. You don't have to protect anything, so you go around trampling on the society's because yours is too boring!" The creature became slightly angered, a vein on his forehead becoming visible.

"Our intelligence and capabilities are much higher than yours, your ignorance is unimaginable!" The alien yelled back at James. "We have the ability to take the form of any lifeform, and adapt to any languages instantly as well. We are capable of that which humans could only dream of!" The creature looked down arrogantly. 

"It's because we humans are so ignorant that we are capable of anything!" James said, "It allows us to keep on going no matter what stands in our way, learning more and more the farther we advance. Having to work like slaves to even have a chance at life." The alien's temper began to show as his face became slightly red. "Why do you just go around destroying other planets and try to keep yourself as the only society left? Because you don't care about the bonds you make with anyone, as you don't need them! You could just make friends with a snap of your fingers!" James began to show another finger from his bound hands, "Now for lesson 2!" He shouted, "You get to live a comfortable life no matter what happens to you, and you can have anything you would ever want without putting in any effort. The reason you want to invade other planets is because you want to exercise the power you were born with, if you didn't have your power, you all would die in a heartbeat!" James' words hammered the creatures heart, causing him to yell at the top of his lungs.

"Hah!" The creature yelled back, "You're just like a c***roach underneath our feet, we could end your entire race in a heartbeat!" As he said this, his arm began to form into what seemed like a bright flashing blade, preparing to cut James in two.

"Lesson three!" James stood his ground, and yelled from the heart, "You have never felt the pain of losing before, so you decide that when you do lose to throw a fit and use everything you can to kill one tiny bug, now that you know you have lost, you will go straight to violence!" The creature, laughed the remark off but lowered his arm as it morphed back into a hand. 

"You truly believe you have won?" The alien mockingly laughed at James, "Then we shall settle this on your terms, I will take up the biology of a human and we can see who will win in a fistfight, just like you ruffians normally do." He prepared himself in a fighting stance, and the cuffs around James' arms disintegrated. 

"Then i shall begin with lesson number four!" James remarked as he swiftly dodged a jab towards his face. "You generalize an entire planet's worth of people because of the research you have done on a very small amount of them. You believe that all human's will give up and be obedient to you because a lot of us will." He dodged a few more punches, the creature had given up on talking and is now focused fully on fighting. Getting more and more frustrated as James dodged left and right, evading each punch with surprising skill. "No one is born differently in your society so you think that humans are all the same too, but you're wrong." James lifted his arm, and delivered a devastating uppercut to the creature's chin, sending him flying backwards. "Not all humans are going to stop in the face of danger, some will keep fighting until they are either dead, or what they want is achieved!" James yelled at the creature, who was rubbing his chin. "You could never understand having people you know and love give their lives to protect what they value most! Because your society doesn't have to fight for anything!"

James reared back in a fighting stance, and prepared for the creature to attack. With a loud war cry, the creature began charging at James, and with supernatural speed, managed to hit James' chest and send him flying back towards the building near them. A couple of the bystanders noticed and began watching. "F-Final lesson." James coughed, barely standing as the dust cleared around him. "When you start to feel the pain of something stronger than you, you start cheating and throwing a tantrum, no human could possibly send somebody flying back that far." The creature, overcome with rage began laughing.

"I cheat because I must show you how inferior you are! Now you can truly feel the fear of being hopeless!" The alien yelled back. "Our race is just much more powerful than yours!"

"When humans are faced with a problem they can't overcome, they don't run away, they keep climbing higher, because they want to survive and better themselves at all costs!" James yelled back through a raspy cough. The creature dashed towards James at alarming speeds, and James was scraped by one of his punches over the shoulder, ripping much of the skin on his shoulder off. James doubled back in pain, grabbing his shoulder and staring at the creature, who was preparing for a huge attack. "All you do is run away, cheat, or do whatever you can so you don't lose the comfort of your easy life." James coughed out in pain, blood dripping down his chest. "We humans have the exact opposi-" Before James could finish, the creature dashed towards him, and blasted him with multiple destructive punches. One after another, the punches kept crushing him chest, smashing rib after rib, and destroying the building behind him. Just one of his punches could kill a man if it were properly placed. After around 30 punches James went flying through the rubble of the building, the rubble landing around him. 

The creature looked towards where he landed monstrously. "I told you we have the ability to collect more of you humans, killing one of you would only get me minor repercussions." A massive number of creatures had gathered around the scene now. Dust still clearing from the battle. "This is why you are inferior! If you couldn't deal with just one of us, then how would you survive an invasion from us?" The creature yelled angrily. "It doesn't matter if I cheat as long as we end up the superiors!"

"It-" a voice came from the mass of rubble and dust, and the creature looked down towards it, terrified. He believed he was just hearing things, and shrugged it off. "It's called resolve!" James yelled, clearing the dust around him. He was still standing, his chest was smashed, blood was dripping out of everywhere on his body, and he was shaking to stay standing, but he was looking at the creature, dead in the eye. "The resolve to not compromise one's ideals, no matter how bad matters get. Humans have this ability, it’s the only way we could have lasted this long!" He yelled towards him, coughing up blood throughout his words. "The ability to keep driving forward, no matter how big the wall may be, and never running away or giving up because we want our victory more than our comfort! This is something that you monsters don't have because you don't care about things like ideals, all you care about is being superior! When humans hear that someone is better than them, most of them won't start cheating to be better, they will work twice as hard to achieve what they want!" "Humans know what it is like to be inferior more than anyone! They are born inferior and have to work super hard to become stronger in their own society! They have to fight against their instincts to become better people, no matter what it takes!" “We won’t just start running away or cheating to go the easy route, we will keep going forward with everything we’ve got!”

The creature jumped towards James, going for a finishing punch to his skull. "Shut up you fool! You will never be superior to us!" Before he could land the punch though, he heard a loud noise from the areas around them. The crowd of creatures around them had begun clapping and cheering and some of them came to stop the creature who was trying to kill James. They locked their arms around his and forced him away from James.

"Yeah! Now I remember! I realize what has been missing from my life for so long!" A man from the crowd said. "That's right! I don't want to be so boring and not protect the things I value most, I can't keep cheating my way through life, now that I know what humans have to go through!" A woman in the crowd said. The rest of the crowd was speaking in an alien language, and the angry creature was kicking and screaming as the others had trouble keeping him down. He eventually settled down, as two guards came through the crowd to inspect him. 

"Your report on the human research is now required, do we proceed with the invasion as planned?" One of the guards asked the creature.

"There would be no point." The creature mumbled back, "The humans would be too powerful for us to invade." The guards looked at him, baffled. James began to collapse, so the creature snapped his fingers and restored James to his full health. He snapped them once more and a small portal was created near him. "Leave human, we will no longer invade you. We need some proper training beforehand, clearly, we have forgotten who we are." 

With a couple of goodbyes, James left through the portal and found himself in his bed preparing for sleep. He had no recollection of these events and would just continue on with life as usual. The aliens also went into a large-scale training and government reshaping because of these events. They wanted to shape the government around the individual and give everyone their own unique lives, rather than having everyone live the same. The creature that inspected James was promoted to a high position of power and led with an iron fist, but after a long hiatus. Before he took this position, he went on a long journey to find his own ideals, beliefs, and himself. 


The author's comments:

I was inspired to write this piece because I was wondering what would we do if incredibly powerful aliens really did invade. I hope people will get inspired and find who they really are from reading this piece, and learn the resolve to keep moving forward no matter how hard life punches you in the face. As well as learn how to deal with feeling inferior to someone or something.


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