Chapter 71: 71. A Problem's Solution
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1970,
Hector was in his 9th term as the President, as he won the elections of 1960, 1964 and 1968. It was a mad thing, but since the economy was stable, people were happy with his policies, they saw no point in changing him. Not to mention, they loved him, even more, when Hector started releasing songs and some novels.
Among his works were The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia. Why did he do this? Simple, he tried to look for J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, only to find out that both these men had died in the Battle of the Somme's trenches during the First World War. Hector remembered from his made-up past that he was involved in the war and hence caused changes.
In these past years, he passed various laws that defined American society. The biggest demon that he had to defeat was racism. His fight was not to end it but to eradicate it. Of course, he had passed a number of acts back in 1943 already, but enforcing them was one hell of a task.
Often, coloured folks were not allowed to enter colleges, which would nearly cause riots. He was amazed that a nation like America, which had always been a multicultural place, that had seen coloured people since even before America was founded, was still not fully integrated.
Hector did a few things for it, first of all, his Police Reforms were a banger, with longer periods of training, education about laws and de-escalation studies, with buying guns requiring various identity proofs, address proofs and mental sanity certificates, guns were not found in every random home. Only those who were really enthusiastic about it bought it. Thugs could not easily get them either.
This helped the new police in feeling safer at their jobs. So, better police meant better justice. Hector also ensured that no state had a mad Governor with regressive thinking. If there was, he'd get a visit from Hell's Inquisitor.
He continued to talk to people through the radio and now Television. By 1970, he had pushed the integration of society to the level it would have been in the 2000s. And since there were no race-riots, no Martin Luther King Jr. and other such movements, the American society enjoyed a healthy stable time.
He also introduced new prison laws, now criminals were not just kept inside walls and fed every day, they were made to work either in mines, fields or taught other basic skills. They produced items that got sold outside. Not just that, a silent notification had been given to all prison guards that whichever inmate kills a paedophile shall be awarded a lavish dinner once. Of course, none of it was official.
Other than this, he had ensured that all cities in the future stay pedestrian-friendly with bike lanes all around. His goal was to keep traffic minimum inside the cities and cars should only be used to travel interstate. Hector knew how important cars were for the economy, so he didn't change the car culture to the extreme by bringing Japan-style Bullet Trains. He kept railway expansion limited to freight. Still, public transportation in cities was made to be good.
But among all the good things, the bad news came when Roosevelt was hospitalised, the man was 88 this year, and he had long overstayed his time.
...
Walter Reed Medical Centre,
Old and weak now, Roosevelt lay in a bed, connected with him were various instruments. He looked at Hector, looking the same as the day he first met him.
"You old bastard, it wasn't the serum, was it?" Roosevelt asked.
He was alone in the room, so he confessed, "I'm not an ordinary human, Roosy. Do you really think anybody can jump from one plane to another?"
"Hah, knew it. *Cough* My time has come, you're about to become the 10-time president in two years. My country is in safe hands, that I am happy about." Roosevelt's voice was going more and more silent.
"I don't know, my friend. I've been President for 36 years now. I have brought all the changes I wanted to. Now all my time is spent improving the little things. I don't think I will stay President forever. I will one day just resign and go back to live at Mount Vernon, do some fishing and stuff." Hector said. He had honestly started to get bored. His adopted son, Erik, had grown up. He was in the Army right now, being 40, he was a Colonel already and will soon be taking retirement. Moony was the only entertainment left.
*Cough* "Bahaha... shut the fuck up, you can do anything but stay silent. You first started with killing gangsters in Chicago, then Hitler as the President. Your life can't be normal, I know it. But... I do hope, even after you quit, you keep an eye on the country. We're a capitalistic nation, too easy to go corrupt and take the easier route to make more money. There is a need for a Sword of Damocles to keep some people in line. Like you did with Stark by passing the CATSA act. Ah... fuck, it's painful. Now go, I will be with my family now. You do your work, maybe come back when I'm being lowered in my grave," he shooed him away.
Hector stood up and handed him a vial, "Drink it, it's Moony's saliva. It can heal anything. You can live for a bit more time with this and feel less pain,"
"Ah, yes, your magical dog son. But no, keep it. I will die as a mortal, and besides, drinking saliva sounds too damn nasty," Roosevelt pushed the vial back to him.
*Sigh* "Fine, take care, old friend." Hector left, allowing the close family to enter.
...
White House,
Hector sat by his table, reading some documents, mainly reports from each state. His grip over the entire country was rock-solid. Each representative, Senator and Governor was his pawn in a direct or indirect way.
But the most concerning news came in the form of a report from Vietnam. Originally, by this time the Vietnam war should have started, but because Hector had made the region peaceful and his forces were ever-present in Asia, things didn't go that bad.
However, the Soviets had started to become crazier after they lost the already lost Space Race. In 1965, the first man stepped on the moon, it was not Neil Armstrong, he tried to find the man but could not. Instead, it was none other than Logan the crazy bastard.
He did that keeping the future in mind. When he launches the Mutants rights, he will be able to give an example that the first man on the moon was Logan, a war hero and a mutant.
*WOOF*
All of a sudden a big magic circle opened up in his office, Moony and Logan walked in from it. "Haha, how's my boy? Did you enjoy your time? Did you get the certificate?"
~YES DAD~ he barked.
Logan showed the document, which read, "I, the Ancient One, hereby declare Moony King Washington, a Master of the Mystic Arts."
There was a ribbon attached to it with golden letters saying "The goodest boy in the world,"
"Hahaha, she did it, what a madwoman. Moony, it seems we're going to have to go out again, a new war is brewing in Vietnam. I will need your help sometimes," he revealed.
Moony puffed out his chest, ~You can count on me, dad.~ he meant.
The good boy didn't have an easy time learning sorcery, the problem was his attention span, it was too short to stay focused.
[Past: 1960, Kamar Taj,
Moony was standing in the open courtyard, facing the Ancient One. She put a sling-ring on his paw, it was custom made. "You have already started to form the rings, but you need a push to truly master it. I have trust in you, you can do it, Moony."
She created a portal to the top of Mount Everest, "You have 11 minutes,"
With that, she disappeared. However, 11 minutes passed and she didn't see a single sign of sparks. This got her worried for Moony, so she made a small portal to peek, "Awww... so cute," she blurted.
Her assistant also looked and nearly cursed, "What the, he's playing in the snow."
"Of course, it was my mistake. He's a husky, he loves snow. Fine, this time I will send him to a Desert." So she brought him back and then left him in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
30 minutes later, she again saw no signs and peeked. The Assistant again exclaimed, "What the... he's playing in the sand now and... is that a rattlesnake in his mouth?"
The Ancient One tapped her bald head in confusion. Moony was too strong to get the motivation to use magic. She informed Hector about this, so he gave her a suggestion, "Simple, use treats or just lock him in a room full of numbers. He hates math,"
It worked like a charm, a frightened Moony used the sling ring to make a portal in a single minute, but he instead of teleporting to Kamar Tak, teleported to the White House, beside his dad since that was his safe space.
The training and journey to become a Master were full of such shenanigans from Moony.
[Past Memory Ends]
As soon as Logan heard the word, 'war', he licked his lips, "I will get my suit,"
"Haha, sure you should, more than a million soldiers will join too. But I don't want to mess things up. The Viet Cong are simple South Vietnamese who look like any other person, but they are supporters of the communist National Liberation Front. It's easy to destroy the army of Ho Chi Minh, but fighting these hidden Viet Congs will be hard.
"The confusion can make the G.Is commit war crimes, kill villagers in fear. I need a way to tell a Viet Cong and communist from an ordinary villager." Hector revealed his dilemma.
Not to mention, he can't use overwhelming force as he did in Korea, as here USSR was also involved, not just China, which still had no Nukes.
They silently tried to think about what to do. How do you fight a war where the line between the enemies and common people was so thin? However, oftentimes answers present themselves.
*WOOSH*
Hector felt something. He was highly alert and stood up.
"What happened?" Logan asked.
"Something... no. Someone just tried to read my mind," he muttered.
"MUTANTS?" Logan growled, angered obviously, as he saw Hector being the last person on whom a mutant should abuse their powers.
Hearing the word, a possibility appeared in Hector's head, "Hmmm... I think I know who this was."
He picked up the phone and spoke to his Chief of Staff, "Prepare the Marine One chopper, I'm heading out,"
[A/N: Guess which character is appearing?]
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Special thanks to *DougErNuts* *Oluwatimileyin Olayemi* *BirdRant* *Franklin Walley* *Brennan Tubbs* *Qul* *phong thanh nguyen* *Dillon Tyler*
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