Ironwood September 21st

I'm back in Naples, back in italy. I'm being crushed from all sides, my core is under attack, I create minion after minion to no effect, and Leviathan just sends out wave after wave of hate. I alter myself, becoming stronger and tougher and try to move, but I exist in his world. Everything hurts, and it feels like I'm drowning. I fight and I fight, but all I get in return is pain. I'm failing, my army moves trying to save what I can, who I can.

He's going to sink the city. I distrupt his attention, it's taking all my will but I can move against the current, I can get into his face, he's fast but I have a wild kind of determination. I grab him and I don't let go. I just keep attacking in vain. Both of us try to pierce the other's defenses. I get creative, I create plants, bacteria, organic acids trying to get through the layers. Trying to figure out his defenses. I find his core, the location of it, He screams and kicks me off, the hole heals and he flees into the deep. I look around at the destroyed city, and think about my failure.

"Hey, hey it's ok."

I almost died, I can die here, I probably will die here on Earth Bet. I talked about it, thought about it, but only now does the realization hit me. June's snuggled up to me and I remember last night, was it an act of weakness? She's cuddled up to me, I got so obsessed with the big picture that I lost track of the details.

God, last night could have gone bad, really bad, with my powerset.

"If I hurt."

She smiles, she has a dazed look on her face.

"Last night was wonderful."

I might have fucked up one of the few friendships I have, not alot of people talk to me period. Even the people I heal treat me with an odd unease. God I...

"Marry me."

She smiles.

"What?"

June flicks my screen.

"You and me, let's make us official."

This is too fast, much too fast, but realistically did I have other options? I needed time, to figure things out figure the relationship out.

"I think...maybe a year long courtship is in order, if you feel the same way in a year's time then we should think about marriage."

My father once said that if you don't know a persons marriage material within a year then it's not going to work anyways. June blinked behind her glasses.

"And if I do?"

The most important thing about an anniversery is that you never forget what day it happens on.

"Then I would like the ceremony to take place on Halloween."

"Why?"

"I appreciate the irony."

"That's fair... let's work this out, you and me."

We shook hands and went to the planned Protectorate meeting. I wasn't invited to a lot of them. I would show up once a month and then go back to the district. I took my seat and June sat next to me. The others looked up, normally they would talk about various issues and then it.

"We're dating now."

The others blinked and stared at June, they then stared at me, Caffeine blinked.

"Um ok...um yeah congratulations...I don't see what that has to do with Toybox's move to Seattle, but um good for you."

There were some weak grins and everyone went back to work, pointedly trying to ignore me once again.

Iron Wood October 1st

I've been given internet access, I blink at my results on PHO.

"Cold Iron."

I blinked...must be some independent cape I didn't hear about in town, I'm going to check and they're shipping us. It feels weird to be on the other side of this.

"What are you looking at, oh PHO."

She pushes me slightly to the side and reads along, we see a photo of us in the park cuddling.

"Cute."

I felt a little unnerved but June took it in stride, she kissed me and then left for work, I created a minion to read for me as I did my healing. I mostly focused on history, law and well more law. Historically, this version of Earth Bet Reagan won both elections, then there was 8 years of Bush, and then they brought in Powell to be president so there's been roughly 20 years of republican rule. There might be four more, but after that people are pretty sure it's going to swing back to the democrats.

Legal changes, the equal rights amendment of 1979 actually went through on Earth Bet. Which means that yes, women can be drafted and... wow Earth Bet is actually better then my world in some ways. Especially family court, equal custody was instituted after 1984 when the tender years act was challenged in Robert vs Fresno. Child support is rare, you have to give up your 50% custody or screw up pretty bad. Alimony is just plain illegal, assets earned before the marriage go back to the person who earned them when it ends.

So Kaisers ex, or rather future ex couldn't take him to the cleaners even if she wanted to, huh inheritance also can't be split. Other then that assets earned during the marriage are split 50/50. The divorce rate is roughly 25%. Gun laws countrywide are a lot more lax, pretty much every state has concealed carry laws, even DC.

Earth Bet's drug laws are a lot more draconian then even back home, but the first amendment's still in effect, and it looks like there are fewer misdemeanors and minor crimes. Politics is still rough, but it's more practical and pragmatic then back home. That said there's a lot more crime, the murder rate is much higher. Taxes are higher, and the social safety net is smaller. Overall though, the threat of someone who got screwed over and going on a rampage has made the laws generally less bullshit then back home.

Lets see cape laws, financially the golden age of the rogue was about 92-93, then they changed the laws. You basically have to unmask to have anything larger then a sole proprietorship, this is the mess that ended up creating the Elite. Think of it as an economic murder suicide pact, something mundane companies did to protect themselves from parahuman competition, which created more villians, which created more crime and... yeah, it's pretty bad.

Toybox gets around it by being basically a co-op, they're exploiting a loophole in the law, the government though is completly unwilling to close said loophole because of how bad the last attempt fucked over the country. It's interesting stuff, I turn my attention to the large crowd of people being wheeled into my next station. It's an assembly line process, I go into a large warehouse, raise my hands, heal everyone and then go to the next one while they manage the large groups of people flooding into Seattle.

This is my life now, the PRT agents and capes of the special district don't really talk to me. Hell I've never actually met the army of Thinkers and Tinkers in charge of the district, but the general PRT personal well... It's better, after almost a year of working with me their open disgust has turned into polite tolerance. They're not friendly, but for the most part they're not hostile either. I walk into the next room. I see a lot of wheelchairs, amputated limbs and blind people. Fixing them takes a couple minutes and then they're sent on their way.

I've had time to think about how the special district operates, the country rations out my healing with the PRT getting first priority and the general public having to get E-tickets for Endbringer healing. The way it works is that every major hospital in the country is issued a certain number of E-tickets for patients that can't be cured with modern medicine. They're supposed to hand them out on a first come, first serve basis but there have been complaints about corruption.

This is how 70% of the E-tickets are handed out, the other 30% can be bought directly from the PRT through an auction. The result of this is that the special district runs at a profit, despite all of the Tinker tech, personal and the housing requirements for yours truly. This profit goes into the PRT general fund and pretty much gets eaten up. I don't know how much money I put into the PRT's pocket, but I'm pretty sure it helps.

I look over at a building in the district, that's merchandizing, where they sell T-shirts, toys, and other stuff. I look through a crow's eyes through the Tinker tech windows and see replica's of my coat on sale, Special district T-shirts, and oh, they finally started making my toys. That's really cool. I watch a child with a bald head point at one of my plushies. The woman sighs and buys it for him. He holds the doll tightly and starts walking toward the tramcars for the cancer patients.

I feel a little weird, I don't really think too much about the people I heal, but they're real people with real lives, and this world is a real world with real people, both good and bad. It's getting harder and harder to treat it all as a work of fiction, and I wonder if that's a bad thing. Am I getting so obsessed with the destination that I'm missing the journey? This is my life now, maybe I should actually try living it.