Chapter 37: CHAPTER 37 - UNDERCURRENTS II
A/N: Blasted exams. No other words needed.
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In a huge mansion in Salem that functioned as a boarding school to the public, Professor Charles Xavier, a publicly respected figure as an anthropologist and psychiatrist with multiple PhDs to his name, sat in his office with a few 'teachers' and a furry apeman.
"You sounded urgent in your call, Charles, what's wrong?" Hank McCoy asked as he sat down with other people in the room.
The white hair blue eyed Ororo Munroe, Storm.
The short, gruff and hairy James Howlett, Wolverine.
The stoic burly Piotr 'Peter' Rasputin, Colossus.
And the youngest of everyone gathered here, the visor wearing Scott Summers, Cyclops.
Charles' wheelchair moved with a tap of a button on the armrest, from the back of his desk to the front of his teachers.
"A topic was just put into discussion following the death of General Ross, which was just an excuse in my opinion, and it concerns us mutants."
Even without him saying anything, the others in the room could already tell that it was nothing good. It's the government they are talking about.
Charles gave a wry smile as he saw them already preparing for an unsavory news. "It has yet to be passed into a bill but they are calling for a Mutant Acts Right, Duty and Obligation. Basically it's putting the mutant in the face of the public."
"That's nice and all, but we all know it's not as pretty as you make it sound. Give it to us, Chuck." Logan said with thick arms crossed against each other.
Charles nodded and this time, gone was the demure expression on his face as he delivered the caveat that some might react badly to.
"They want all mutants to register, or I guess re-register, as citizens and the state will be given the right to track all mutants in the country and assess their potential danger levels. Though it has yet to be given a hearing in the Senate, this is however the gist of it."
The mood of the office straight up plummeted as if falling into a tundra. None of the people here were stupid, not even the young Scott Summers. Being one of the proactive front of the mutant kind, they knew first hand what sort of games the government was more likely to play when given access to super powered individuals.
"This doesn't sound good…"
"Yes, but a lot of people will sign the registry. Fights will ensue, and I can imagine them saying those who refuse to sign will be treated as criminals. No matter how atrocious the notion of it is, I have to admit it was nicely done." Ororo opinionated.
Colossus looked at her, confusion evident on his face. "How?"
She then explained, "Due to the nature of the act and it specifically targeting mutants, the people who will be fighting are mutants. Those who want to sign and those who don't. Those in power don't have to do anything as the mutant kind devolves into internal strife."
"Civil War." Charles interjected.
Logan grunted as he thought about it and his mind wandered towards some of the children in the school. "Some of them would sign no doubt." He said it in a whisper but it was no doubt heard by everyone.
"Wait, why would they want to sign?" Scott exclaimed.
Everyone kept quiet at his question as they were uncomfortable with the answers they all knew why.
They wanted to return to the public. To their families and live the life they dreamed of.
Becoming a mutant forced them to hide themselves until the public was ready to accept them, and now that the very notion of it was about to be dangled in their faces and with them given the faux right to choose and become an open citizen of the country once again, it left no room for doubt that some, most, were going to sign it.
Seeing as they were going nowhere with this line of questioning, Hank changed the topic. "What of the mutants they said killed Ross? Have they found out who it was?"
Charles tapped a few buttons in his chair and connected it with the TV in the room and drew their attention to it.
"I was able to procure the files from a friend of mine in the Congress and this is the report from a few soldiers in the base."
They looked at it for a few minutes and noticed a few things in it. "So no one knew how he got there, and there were no recordings of him either until he appeared there out of thin air. And bullets also bounces off his skin. Also energy projection." Logan pointed out.
"Teleportation, superhuman physicality and energy projection? That's quite some good abilities for one person." Hank commented as he gave the reports a once over.
"Are we sure he isn't one of Magneto's?" Scott asked but Charles shook his head but didn't outright deny the possibility of it.
"I'll see what I can do in terms of finding this mutant. Carry on as normal until we get more news of this." Saying so, Charles wheeled out of the room with a task to perform in mind.
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[Vision POV]
I looked at Davis as he groggily opened his eyes and blinked for a few seconds before closing his eyes back as his hand made to grab the blanket and draw himself deeper into it to get a more comfy sleep.
BANG! CRASH!!
He jumped out of bed with urgency as his eyes scanned every inch of the room before landing on me.
"I guess the only appropriate greeting here is 'Good morning'." My voice was calm as I took a seat in front of him while he watched me like a hawk, taking in all my action with extreme scrutiny.
"Who are you? Where am I?" He asked even as his eyes took in all the escape routes present in this room. Like the huge sliding glass door that covered a large section of the room.
I paid no attention to his scrutiny as a part of my mind sifted through the cluster of data available to me after accessing my body, while another sort focused on Davis.
"My name is Vision, and I brought you here?"
"And where is here exactly?"
"Upstate New York."
"Huh?" I sighed at how he was on the uptake and decided to elaborate it further.
"I rescued you from the base you were kept in and brought you here to try and save you, whatever of you remained that is."
He looked at me unsurely and then walked towards the glass panel and stared at the whole Compound that was visible from up here with slacked jaws.
"Where 'exactly' did you say this is?"
"Allow me to reiterate; the Avengers Compound, Upstate New York."
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone