Challenge #02336-F146: We Can be Heroes

Almost everyone remembers where they were the week the Sun turned Green. Scientists the world over confirmed it was an interstellar dust wave caused by an ancient supernova that had interacted with our atmosphere.
Humanity had continued mostly unaffected. But this was the stuff of comic books and movies. the changes were subtle at first. People noticing enhanced benefits from consuming certain plants, others started tapping into new abilities, and as time progressed things became... strange
now we had almost legitimate "supers" people who were double fast, double strong, who could levitate, or sense peoples thoughts.
And then there were the men and women that Previously called themselves "witches" or "Druids" or "Magic users" (that were always just considered whacked out hippy types, or at worst devil worshipers by the fundamentalists), were actually performing, for lack of a better description, magic, by mixing herbs and plants for enhanced effects.
And in my head keeps circling that damned Bob Dylan lyric about changing times... -- Adam from Darwin

Call me Tetris. I was a little kid when the Green Sun happened, and I remember loving it because the world had gone lime. I was five. Lime was my jam and I loved everything green. I didn't like it when things went back, I remember that. I remember watching every single Youtube video about the green sun because I wanted it back.

I guess that was why I knew everything about the Power Creep when it happened to me. They can't call it Mutation, because nobody's DNA got changed. They can't call it Manifestation - I think someone has the copyright on that. So they call it Power Creep. Me? I can instantly know measurements of things by eye and mentally fit stuff together without even trying.

Bugs the hell out of some dudes. Girls aren't supposed to know that your metalwork project is two millimeters off, for some reason. We're especially not allowed to pack things neatly, efficiently, and in one quarter of the space they say they need. My first paying job was sorting out someone's old warehouse. I cleared up half the volume of the place and pissed off my boss. I help builders with things, sometimes. The ones who can get over gender roles, anyway.

There's all sorts of meanings to 'Differently Abled' now. It's interesting. All those close-minded bigots? The ones who have an Opinion and are usually not afraid to yell about it? The white-abled-privileged-males, most of them, and the ignorant-white-privileged-females, too... Not one of them got an Ability. It's like... in order to be Able, you had to have enough imagination to see things another way.

So yeah, all those people who have nothing better to do than belittle people? They got squat and they hate it.

There's a little kid who needs a motorised chair to get around. Their Ability is to make people's physical body match their personality. She is real popular with the trans community and keeps the politicians in line. She's an absolute sweetie, though. Insists that people in power keep their promises and reminds them of what she can do.

She has turned one guy into his personality. Everyone agreed the scumsucker deserved it.

There's the Witches, Wizards, and Magecrafters... they can put together whatever and -boom- instant magical artifact. More than a few of them are going around curing diabetes and stuff like that for free. Pharma companies are pissed. They can stay pissed. They're the ones who made illness a profit industry. They deserve to be disassembled.

There's grandmas who can bend I-beams, helping with Habitat for Humanity because they can also fly. There's little kids who have phenomenal powers, helping because they want to. My absolute fave? The little toddler who helps with their dad's moving company because they can lift an entire couch in one hand. It's so adorable, I nearly died.

All over the world... the people who used to be cast out and ignored or talked over are helping out the world just because they can. There's a kid in Australia called Dynamo who just... powers the entire country. They're gently divorcing the Australian Government from its love of the coal industry because their power comes free.

Going green is becoming more than a trend. I can't say I feel good about the cluster of people who are just... plastic magnets. On one hand, they're getting all that noise out of the ocean, but... on the other hand? It's gotta be gross.

The right wing are yelling about it. Thank the deities of your choice that they can only yell about it. I mean, can you imagine it? The most venal, petty, vicious people in the world with Abilities? They'd break the world even worse than it's broken already. They're crying about how the world is being made better without them and, frankly, it's making them look like a bunch of whiny babies. But mostly? They're whining about how it isn't their turn any more.

It's been their turn for - what? Three hundred-and-so years? Minimum? It's about time someone else had a go at this sort of thing. Me and the whole rest of the world reckon we're doing pretty okay. They can't do anything about it. We've got someone who can mess up guns or bullets in every single public facility and area.

Let them whine. They're not even popular with their kids. People are turning away from their hateful messages and violent rhetoric. They'll be dying out soon enough.

More than likely, they'll be whining with their dying breaths.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / roboriginal]

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