I live in a world of superpowers. It wasn't always like this. In the year 2176, the US, China, and Russian governments finally got their heads out of their asses and worked with the people instead of trying to control every moment of their daily lives. Coincidentally, that was also the year I was born.

Within fifty years, there were mining colonies all over the solar system. It was the golden age, according to the magazines. I never watched the news back then. They were all owned by various political groups to spout their propaganda.

I believe it was around 2240 when the first child was born with a superpower; by that point, I was already getting on in years. I spent most of my life as a carpenter. It was a good life, simple and comfortable I never had to worry. Will they destroy my house today?

Anyway, the child had the power to levitate objects from birth. Luckily powers grow as you get older, or that child would never have survived. That is a rule, but sometimes there are exceptions. A few years after that, another child was born with the power to freeze anything he looked at, unfortunately for the doctors and his parents.

At the time, we all thought only the children would get powers. We were wrong. After some study, they discovered that the minerals mined from mars emitted strange radiation that changed the entire planet. More and more people began showing signs of abilities beyond the norm. I included, at the time, I was enjoying my retirement. I bought a pleasant house in what was North Carolina.

My place is set on a hill a few miles east of Greenville. It used to be beautiful scenery all around, not like today, where I am practically in downtown East Coast City. Back to me, while I was enjoying my retirement, knowing my time was drawing near, I noticed a strange problem instead of getting weaker; I felt better every day. Now, I say a problem because I was looking forward to joining my wife in the next life.

Strength wasn't the only strangeness to this, and I was also regaining my youth. I would say in a tad less than three months. I looked only eighteen again. As someone that didn't particularly like being a kid and dropped out of school, as soon as my parents agreed to let me get a job. Being talked to as if I'm a child really annoyed me.

Anyway, my powers, yes, that’s where I was. All my physical attributes got a massive increase in the first year of my change, but they never stop growing. That's why supers with long life spans are scary. They are calamities waiting to happen. Look at one wrong, and boom, and there goes a city or two.

I think it was around 2250, and the supers started banding together into groups. Well, the so-called good guys did. The villains are more honest about wanting to rule the world and keep to their own organizations. Oops, sorry that's getting ahead of me.

Retired, yes, that's Where I was, wasn't I? anyway, I no longer looked like a doddering older man, and people kept giving me strange looks, so I decided to hell with them. I have already worked my ass off for decades. I'm going to enjoy my fresh youth. That's when the registry came into effect, totally putting a wet blanket over my good mood. Everyone had to register their power. If you were special, they 'let' you join their super not secret club of heroes. Well, I had no interest, so I hid all but my longevity. They weren't interested in a norm, with only longevity, it seems.

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Several years went by while I did my thing. We had no kids of our own, so I traveled around, checking out how things changed in my old neighborhoods, stuff like that. The battles between the costumes, yeah, really did that, just like the old comic books from my childhood. They kept getting more destructive all the time. I decided to be out was too much of a risk. I might show something about myself; I would rather not. Not because I don't care, but if anyone found out about my physical side, I would never have a free moment again.

Although, in retrospect, they would probably only put a monitor on me to make sure I didn't go, villain. After all, I can't fly or shoot nukes out of my ass. Eventually, the superhero guild became the federation that now rules the world. They erased all the borders, and if you put a toe out of line, someone will swoop in and cart you off to a lunar prison. Let me be clear. That includes whispering anything about the federation. Don't make the mistake of believing those costumed nazis care about the planet, much less the people.

It is the year 2476, yeah, 300 years since the world stepped onto the path of change. I am, as usual, sitting on my front porch. Although this is still the same piece of land, the house has changed at least fourteen times, that I Can recall. Not from wear and tear. Oh no, it was all from supers battling in the area. What the heck is wrong with these loons. There are entire swaths of land in the center of what used to be the USA, where nobody lives. Why not fight there?

Anyway yeah, my house, Although I complain, it's also for those reasons I still haven't worked in all this time, those costumes have far more credits than brains, so I get a hefty payout every time it happens. As I mentioned earlier, I am a carpenter. Although time and materials change, building a house is still building a house, and I have only gotten better with age. I have sat here on my porch as the world rolled on by; I saw the Cities grow together until all the east coast merged into a gargantuan super city. Although I miss my peaceful hill, I Am not one of those nut jobs that want to see the world burn to save it.

Sorry, I got sidetracked again, but I am over three-hundred years old. That's to be expected of me. In these two-hundred and thirty-six years, my powers continued to grow, to where I have to restrain myself constantly. A slight twitch might destroy not just my home, but I might turn the block into a crater. I spend an inordinate amount of time in my underground bunker; I built over many decades from the best superalloys mined or created in the last century.

Sitting on my rocking chair with the sun setting behind me, I see my neighbors sitting on their balcony. Although they seem to be just another couple, I know the federation sends them to keep tabs on me; they change about every decade, but I'm careful never to show anything to them. No matter how suspicious they are, they won't do anything to open, because, in this world, you never know who the person next to you may be. For all you know, the nosy lady next door might be Galactic Girl or some such. I can't keep up with these weirdos naming sense.

I wave to the couple. They're nice enough sometimes the watchers aren't so cordial, not sure if that's part of their cover or there just pissy from watching a boring old man-boy. Both of them nod at me, then go back to watching the city lights brighten. This view is beautiful from up here. You can see the lights turn on, like a wave crashing on a beach. After watching the scene for a good hour, I stand to walk up to my babysitters. “Arlene, Ted, I’m going shopping tomorrow. Do you want to carpool or follow?”