August 20th 2002 Bogota Columbia

Ironwood

He was moving fast, so incredibly fast, I popped his bubbles as quickly as I could and healed the wounded and injured as best I could. Buildings collapsed and were destroyed, my minions kept up the popping, kept up the pressure, the world kept exploding, kept blowing up, but there was a sense of comradship on the ground. Casualties were high but there was a sense that we were all fighting for a singular cause. The pressure on Cronos grew, our hits grew more concentrated, we were driving him out of the city. Out of Columbia, eventually seemingly having had enough, he turned his back towards us and ran.

"What's the damage?"

"10% of the city destroyed, 10% casulties. Cronos got away, we will compile the data and have the Thinkers go over it. Don't forget people, we won today, we drove him off, we're going to get him."

I went to tend to the wounded, while the others concentrated on getting back home. Hero landed in front of me when I was finished.

"So how much longer until the project's finished?"

I shrugged.

"The Portals on Mars, Europa, Ganymade, Io, Callisto, are finished, the portal system to Titan and Triton is finished but the trees are not yet complete, and Pluto...Pluto is proving to be a pain."

He nodded his head.

"How are things going on Mars?"

Between the healing and offworld construction of city sized trees, I didn't keep up with the news.

"Sphere's happy, but he wants to visit the other worlds in the network."

"I'm sorry, but I want to complete the entire network before I open it up, best to get it all finished at once, yes?"

Hero wrote something down.

"So why are the offworld trees so much bigger? Sphere says that they're city sized."

"Lack of atmopshere, the offworld portals have to be contained that way, then there's the matter of shipping, if I want people to be able to sail through the system they have to be large enough to hold ships which increases the size. Then theres the matter of housing, air, food, water and a lot of other things. We're talking about the primary jumping off point for interstellar travel."

I shrugged.

"Also Sphere's wishlist was really long."

Hero chuckled.

"Well back to work, eh."

He activated his jetpack and flew off. With my job at an end, I headed home.

September 15th

"Say Mommy, come on, Mommy?"

Juno stuck out her tongue at us and continued to make a mess, Justin just kind of moped as his sister happly caused chaos.

"Come on, Mommy?"

"NO!"

We blinked, at her first words.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!"

I wiped some babyfood off of my screen as my daughter kept chanting her first words with a smile on her face. Justin looked at the mess she was making.

"Water?"

June smiled as our children said their first words, I felt a sense of accomplishment and warmth as another bit of babyfood hit me in the face, Juno giggled in her high chair and I had the sense that all was right in the world.

November 13th

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Juno and Justin, happy birthday to you."

We blew out the single candle on the cake and the PRT agents in the hall clapped, we had successfully made it through a single year of parenthood, we could now actually sleep at night. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but after months of waking up, checking on the babies at all hours, being able to sleep, well it meant a lot. Juno giggled at us while Justin kind of looked away.

Should I be concerned about him, was he ok? Did I screw up somehow, I-

"It's ok."

June, looked at me.

"I didn't say anything."

"I know big guy, but we've been together long enough for me to know your moods, Justin's fine, you're doing ok, we're doing ok. Just be here with me, ok?"

I took her offered hand and we started opening their gifts for them.