PRT Special district

Bob Sanchez

"She's going in again."

I went over the tapes.

"Shouldn't we, you know?"

"She's 6 foot 5 tall parahuman, you want to tell her she can't go in there then go do it yourself, Brad."

My partner frowned.

"It's an, you know?"

I shrugged.

"The brass OK'ed it so no, we're not allowed to stop her."

"Is it a Master effect, is that why?"

I picked out a folder and put it in front of him.

"Her internet history before she transferred."

He looked through it and his eyes slowly opened and then he cringed and put it down, he looked at the folder with disgust.

"I... I was a lot happier not knowing that."

"So was I."

"Isn't that a violation of-"

"We have clearance, and she had to sign a lot of paperwork to get to this position, we've done the Master-Stranger protocols. We have had her scanned by Tinkers and Thinkers. At the end of the day, she really is out to bag an Endbringer."

"Why?"

I shrugged.

"Why do women date men in prison? Why do supervillians have fangirls? Maybe she thinks she can change him with the power of love, or she just got to know him and fell hard, or maybe it's just her thing. Point is, the brass thinks she's a stabilizing influance so were going to allow this."

"Really?"

"Yeah really, there are two people related to this whole thing who are under heavy protection, Icy and Rogers. Brass is terrified that he will go on a rampage like his siblings if something happens to them."

"And how bad would that be Bob?"

I thumbed through another file.

"Well he's a master of biology, can create an army from scratch, viruses with ease, and pretty much shut down all biological life with in his radius. So if he went crazy, yeah we would be fucked. Whole west coast is gone fucked, I'm really honestly glad he's on our side."

We continued to watch the feed around the housing zone.

"So why are we risking the publics safety?"

I sighed.

"Were using Tinker tech to scan everyone he heals, he's been working with us."

"But the risk?"

I leaned back.

"Look his siblings have seriously fucked up our shit, the special district just took over an entire public park which you know pissed people off, and this? All of this? It's expensive and the PRT's bleeding money as is. He wants to join our side, he has to do some community service. We get some good PR and some more funding. The public gets a court of last resort for the really bad diseases and the big guy gets to prove that he's not a psychopath like his brothers are."

I stopped.

"Seriously, fuck those guys."

I fist bumped a little ET bobblehead, pretty much everyone in the district owned one. I don't know who leaked it but everyone knows about how things ended for the Endbringers on their last go around.

"So those guys really exist?"

"Not in our galaxy but yes, Spielberg was right, aliens exist, and they kicked the Endbringer's asses."

"Still not used to that, Bob."

I shrugged.

"It makes sense, the evil alien invaders get their teeth kicked in and go into hyperspace, their ship gets screwed up by weird dimeinsional stuff and they crash land on Earth. Superpowers come from symbiots that escaped the ship and the Endbringers are still trapped inside and are trying to get out. Case 53s, well thats what happens when these symbiots shards go wrong during a trigger. It sucks that aliens are assholes, but at the same time hey, at least we know we're not alone."

"I imagined that an alien invasion would have been, um..."

"Different? It is what it is, and we're better off knowing the truth then being in the dark. Yes powers come from aliens, yes some aliens are destroying our cities and murdering people for shits and giggles, but we know they can be killed and that there are only 21 of them and that they have been defeated in the past. We're fighting a war and it sucks, but we're going to make those bastards pay."

"And him?"

I looked at the warehouse.

"If he's legit, then I'm prepared to make an exception."

Mike Sterns Age-7 October 1st

The cancer hurts, I'm not hungry but people keep telling me to eat. Washington is a lot colder then Texas, but the doctors say that this is the only way I can get better. I still remember when Mr. Ironwood came here. It was scary, a monster had just killed a whole bunch of people in jJapan, and we were all worried that the same thing would happen in Seattle, and then he wanted to talk to Mr. Rogers and well mom sat me down and told me about death and that he might not be around much longer, but he would be with Jesus and be in heaven, but then he walks out holding Mr. Ironwood's hand.

He told him to stop being bad and now he isn't, I wish someone would tell that to the other Endbringers. Now he's on our side and he fixes people up, apparently he used to be the bad guys' doctor.

"Do you have your ticket?"

Mom brings out the plastic yellow card, the PRT man is scary and everyone has guns.

"Why are you so scary?"

The man smiles.

"To keep bad people out, so that good people can go get fixed up."

"Oh...then keep it up."

He chuckled and motioned for us to go forward, mom held my hand and we were told to wait.

"So Ironwood's going to make me all better?"

Mom nodded, her hair was all fluffy, and her eyes were red.

"Yes, Mike he's going to make you better."

We went through the metal detectors and then went on the tram, I saw a big picnic place with shops and food places.

"It's a long wait folks, sorry."

Mom sighed and held me close, I saw other kids who had cancer just like me. Mom looked around.

"So what do you want to do?"

"How bout the toy store?"

She nodded her head, mom didn't like going to toy stores but we walked in. There was a lot of stuff, Sesame street stuff, cape stuff, and clothing. I saw some books for kids, one of them was about how Mr. Rogers talked to old Ironwood. We walked over to the toys, there were toys for all the heroes the big ones, and the ones in town.

I looked at the fluffy Ironwood doll, there were a lot of Ironwood toys but a lot of them were dusty. It didn't look like people bought a lot of his toys.

"Can I please have one?"

Mom bit her lip, thinking about stuff.

"Do you really want an Endbringer toy?"

"He's a good guy now, isn't he?"

Mom stared at the toy, her face was kind of sad, she picked up the toy and gave it to me, I hugged it tight and we got something to eat. Mom looked nervous, worried and kept tapping her fingers.

"It's going to be ok Mommy, Mister Ironwood's going to fix up my cancer."

Mom smiled.

"I'm sorry, Mommy's just worried."

She looked at the plastic card and then we got in line for another car, then we drove to a big place with lots of other people. Mr. Ironwood walked in raised his hands and then I just felt a lot better, everything stopped hurting.

"Well."

"I feel better."

Mom let out a sigh of relief. After that we had to go into another line and get checked out by the doctors. They told mommy that my cancer was gone and we left the park. I continued hugging my new doll close to me.

"I told you he was a good guy."

Mom was crying for some reason, I didn't get it, isn't this supposed to be a happy day?