A black sedan, escorted by police vehicles, slowly pulled onto the tarmac...
Behind the cordoned-off barriers, a crowd erupted into fervent cheers, waving signs and shouting like starstruck fans at a concert.
However, the man stepping out of the car was no glamorous Hollywood celebrity... it was Senator Kelly, his face adorned with a benevolent smile.
As a rising political star, he had gained fame for proposing the Mutant Registration Act. His hardline stance against mutants had endeared him to a certain segment of the population, particularly those with xenophobic leanings.
«Drive the mutants out of America!»
«Freaks! Monsters!»
«Mutants are demons!»
Reading the bold slogans on the signs, Senator Kelly smirked with satisfaction. Mutants had first revealed themselves to the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis, at the height of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
With the shadow of nuclear annihilation looming, mutants made their grand debut on the global stage.
It was only then that humanity realized that these extraordinary beings had been living among them all along. Born with superhuman abilities, they had long hidden in plain sight, masquerading as ordinary people.
Mutants had always faced discrimination. As modern society progressed, opinions about them grew increasingly polarized. Many among the elite believed mutants threatened human dominance and should be monitored, controlled, or even eradicated to prevent catastrophe...
Senator Kelly, ever the opportunist, saw his chance. He positioned himself as a crusader for human safety, a warrior against the mutant menace. He repeatedly called for mutants to publicly register their identities, proposing special government oversight to track their movements. Any deemed dangerous would be imprisoned immediately.
This radical stance won him fervent support. Once an obscure politician, Kelly had become a hotly debated figure, drawing widespread attention.
Waving to the cheering crowd and delivering a rousing soundbite for the cameras, Kelly was then ushered by his bodyguards onto a waiting helicopter.
He was headed to the high-profile world leaders' summit on Liberty Island, where the mutant issue would be a key topic of discussion. If his Mutant Registration Act passed, it would be the crowning achievement of his political career... a golden ticket to greater influence and power.
"Senator, do you support gun registration? Mutant children are more dangerous than firearms!" Kelly argued into his phone as the helicopter took off, lobbying fellow lawmakers, "There's no difference. Allowing mutant kids in schools is like handing them loaded guns. You never know when they might fire."
After a passionate ten-minute tirade, Kelly hung up and tossed the phone to a bodyguard, his cheerful facade instantly dropping.
These calculating old foxes all wanted to use him as their pawn, sending him to the front lines while they lurked in the shadows, waiting to swoop in and claim the spoils.
"With this globally watched summit, you might emerge as the biggest winner," a bodyguard flattered.
"This is America. We reject mutants, they're ticking time bombs threatening our society. That's why I say lock them all up! This is war, and this country needs people like me to stand up—" Kelly paused, and glanced out the window at the blue expanse below, "Wait… aren't we headed to Liberty Island?"
When he turned back, his burly bodyguard had morphed into a blue-skinned, red-haired woman... judging by her curvaceous figure.
Before Kelly could scream, she kicked his seat, her yellow eyes burning with hatred, "Because of people like you, I was too scared to go to school as a kid!"
A brutal strike knocked the senator unconscious. When he awoke, he found himself in a damp, dimly lit cavern, handcuffed to a metal chair. An elderly man with an air of regal pride approached, his bearing that of a king.
"Who are you? Where's Henry?" Kelly stammered in terror.
"He's been dead for a while, Senator. You've been with Mystique this whole time," the man replied calmly, "She can take anyone's form..."
"If you harm me… it'll only prove my point!"
The old man chuckled disdainfully, looking down at the trembling politician, "Do you fear God? It's an odd question, I know. I myself see God as a mentor, a guiding light, a comfort to the soul. But what you truly fear… is me... Us... Mutants, with our extraordinary gifts."
He turned, and as he walked, Kelly's chair slid forward as if pulled by an unseen force.
"I'm not surprised. Humans have always feared the unknown… Fear neither God nor me. Soon, you'll have nothing to fear at all."
Lights flickered on, revealing a strange metallic device at the cavern's center. The elderly man levitated upward, placing his hands on the machine's pillars. Twin arcs of metal above him whirred to life, spinning rapidly.
"What are you doing?!"
Panic surged through Kelly as realization struck. This was no ordinary man, he was the extremist who believed mutants were humanity's superiors. The leader who could manipulate magnetic fields and control metal...
Erik Lehnsherr...
Among mutants, he was better known as Magneto, a terrorist who had survived Nazi concentration camps, allegedly assassinated President Kennedy, and once plotted to reshape the world into a mutant-dominated utopia...
Kelly had read countless reports on Magneto. Unlike the more moderate mutant leader, this old man led the Brotherhood, a faction of mutants who despised humankind and schemed to overthrow human governments, replacing them with mutant rule.
"We're going to make you one of us, Senator."
Magneto smiled faintly as the spinning machine emitted a soft, rippling light that engulfed Kelly.
Moments later, the glow vanished. Kelly sat limp in the chair, his eyes vacant, as if his soul had been drained.
A weakened Magneto, supported by Mystique, approached him with a mocking grin.
"Congratulations, Senator. You're now one of us... A proud mutant..."
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