#4
April 2001
Registration
Part Four: Congressional Attack
by Ritchie Filippi and Chip Caroon
|
#4 April 2001 |
Registration Part Four: Congressional Attack by Ritchie Filippi and Chip Caroon |
Xavier Institute for Higher Learning - late Friday night
The former students of the Institute stood in front of Charles Xavier's desk. The professor looked at them. On the left was Clark, then Jean, Hank, Morph, and Sarah.
"As you know, the Brotherhood has been causing many problems for us," Xavier said. "I need the five of you to be on guard in case they show up at the Congressional hearing tomorrow."
"What's so special about tomorrow?" Morph asked.
Hank turned to his friend and spoke up. "The Senate is discussing mutant registration. A very touchy subject, prone to terrorists attacks."
"That's correct, Henry," Xavier said. "Now, you should all get ready and get some rest. You must be up early tomorrow to make the flight to Washington."
As the mutants turned to leave, Xavier asked Clark to stay behind.
"Be careful, Clark," he said after the rest had left. "Tomorrow might be the battle we've been waiting for."
Clark nodded and left the room.
A man stood at a podium, overlooking the Senate. His name was Robert Kelly, and he was also a Senator.
"Today, the future is now," he began, all eyes on him, "things that we will be voting on today will be felt for generations to come. This is for our children and our children's children. The topic I will be presenting to you today, is Mutant Registration."
The streets were overflowing. News reporters, journalists, citizens, protestors, and activists were pushing and shoving their way towards the front. Cops were barely able to keep the crowds back, barely able to contain the hysteria. On one side of the crowds, people were holding up signs that vary from person to person but still hold the same meaning, "Death to all mutants!". While across the path are Mutant Rights Activists, their signs reading "Mutants = Humans" and "Don't Kill our Offspring". The Congress meeting was only made known to the public early that morning, when the Saturday morning cartoons were preempted for special reports on the proposed ‘Mutant Registration Act'.
Among the crowd, a man wearing an all black suit looked around, but saw nothing out of the normal.
{Jean, how are things by you?} he thought to himself, waiting for a response.
{Nothing yet Clark. All is clear by Morph and Sarah too.}
{How about Hank?}
{Not sure, he hasn't contacted me through the mind link yet. And I haven't been able to contact him.}
{Keep trying to contact him, something might be up.}
{Sure thing . . . }
Only a few feet from Clark, was one of the Daily Planet's star reporters, Lois Lane, and her photographer, Jimmy Olsen.
"No word on the voting yet, huh, Ms. Lane?" Jimmy asked.
"Nope," Lois replied. "It's gonna take some time for them to vote on this. It's crazy that they are even considering this, we can't segregate people like this, I mean it has never worked in the past. It will only lead to something bad."
Jimmy took some pictures of the different groups and their signs.
Peter would love this, he thought. But, only one of us could come here, and he said he needed to stay in New York to do something. I wonder if it has anything to do with that girl he met . . .
"Just last night, mutants showed us twice just how powerful and dangerous that they are. First, one of our very own government facilities was attacked and destroyed.* Many men are in critical condition, others are dead. Then, just a few short hours later, a mutant decided to destroy a bar in New York City,** why? I mean, what reason did he have to do this? Simply because he could. These are just two examples of the many occurrences involving mutants attacking and killing normal humans. And this is why I feel that Registration is the only possible next step that we can take. These weapons should not, and can not walk around unchecked."
*(last issue)
Senator Kelly paused for a moment, and then took out a file from his briefcase.
"Right here, I have police documented cases of mutants in our schools. Only two years ago, a young man turned into a reptile ‘monster' during the middle of a school day, although there were no fatalities, the boy did over $50,000 damage. That's not even including the emotional distress that he caused his fellow classmates. He hasn't been seen since, who knows where he might be? Would you feel comfortable knowing a ‘monster' like that could be going to your child's school. Could walk and talk like a normal kid, then a girl might dump or reject him and he could go crazy, and tear up the school. Cause the Taxpayers to pay more and more money, and why? Why, when it can be avoided!
"More recently, a young homeless boy took out half a building, cost countless families their homes. If we knew about him sooner, we could have regulated his powers, maybe negated them for him. How would you feel if someone cost you your home, or your job, because they couldn't control themselves?"
"This is so crazy!" Lois said as the cops tried to hold back rioters. Then, in a split second, things got a whole lot crazier. Smoke covered the area, as something hit the Capitol like a ton of bricks. A stone column was damaged, and as Lois attempted to get to her feet, she noticed the hundred pound stone falling right for her. She closed her eyes as her past flashed in front of her eyes, then everything stopped as she felt herself flying. She opened her eyes, and saw Clark's face.
"Don't worry," he said. "I have you."
"You have me? Who's got YOU?!" Lois exclaimed.
Clark set her down at what he though was a safe place. However, it wasn't, as yet another column began to fall. Even Clark with his superhuman reflexes didn't have time to get Lois to safety. Lois closed her eyes, thinking this was the end. But she never felt the columns hit, nor was she flying. She opened her eyes, and saw Clark standing over her, with his arms extended holding the column up, was Clark.
"Look out!" he yelled.
She quickly moved, as the hundreds of pounds of stone piled over him.
Oh my god? she thought to herself.
Then, there was motion in the rubble, and Clark broke through. His black suit ripped up, showing off his uniform which was under it. He brushed dust off of himself as he looked right through the smoke. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone, to the source. Jimmy helped Lois to her feet.
"We have to get back, what just happened? Who was that?" asked Jimmy, fear in his voice.
"…a…a super-man…"
Clark reached the back of the Capitol, where the source of the blast was. Hank was on the ground, unconscious and bloody. Standing over him, the Brotherhood; with Magneto in the front, others included Havok, Rogue, Quicksilver, Force, Strike, Fog, Maggott and Iceman.
Less than a second later, Jean, Sarah, and Morph were behind Clark.
"I have other things to attend to, my ‘Brotherhood', please help to show these misguided mutants the meaning of fighting back!"
Magneto used the magnetic forces around him to lift his body off of the ground, and through the floor above him, as his team took the offensive.
Quicksilver began running circles around Jean, as Force used her abilities to keep Jean grounded.
Sarah quickly turned her body into flames as Strike, Fog, and Iceman made there way around her.
Morph increased his muscle mass as Rogue and Maggott closed in.
Clark was face to face with Alex Summers, also known as Havok.
Jean stayed low to the ground, avoiding punches from Quicksilver, but she couldn't shake from Force's hold. Jean concentrated and lifted a piece of concrete with her mind, dropping it right on top of Force, releasing her hold. She than used her power to create an invisible wall, stopping Quicksilver's run with a harsh THUD. She then ran to Hank's body.
"Hank? Hank, can you hear me?"
Morph was bending and shifting his form to dodge Rogue's powerful punches.
"Hey, Doll, why don'tcha stop throwing punches? I have a lot better ideas of what we could be doing!"
She punched his arm and he molded around it, pulling her to the ground. Two slug like creatures ripped out of Maggott's stomach, and jumped at Morph. Morph turned his arms into one big baseball bat and knocked them across the "battlefield." Maggott felt pain as his body turned blue, and he jumped at the shape-shifting mutant.
"Time to brawl!" Maggott said as the two began exchanging lefts and rights. Blood began to shed.
Sarah lit the ground up around her as Strike and Fog took a step closer.
"Iceman, put her out!" Fog yelled.
"Will do!" Iceman said as he let ice flow from his fingers. The ice hit the ground right in front of Sarah and jumped back, taking out both Strike and Fog.
"Nice save," Sarah said as the flames on the ground jumped back onto her body.
"Anytime, cutie!" Iceman said, then shot ice on the ground below his body, which lifted him straight up. "I'm following Magneto, I can't let him hurt any more people, not after what happened yesterday!"
"Be careful . . . " Sarah whispered to herself.
Clark and Alex kept a little distance between themselves. They were both holding back a bit.
"You want this less then I do!" Clark exclaimed
"Ya wanna know what, I don't give a @#%$ about anything anymore!"
Alex released huge amounts of hot plasma on the ground below him, which shot directly into Clark's chest. Clark was knocked back a step, but then jumped through the hot plasma and tackled Alex. Alex kicked Clark off with both feet, and than punched him across the face, his left hand breaking on contact.
"AGGGRRRHHHHHH! You son of a-" Alex shouted, as he used his right hand to blast a beam where innocents sat under, hiding in fear.
Clark used his super-speed to catch it in time, but as he turned, he got a powerful blast directly in the face, blinding him for a moment. Alex melted the ground below Clark and both men fell into the basement, surrounded by darkness. Both men continued to fight, Clark holding back a bit.
Maggott hit the ground hard. Morph stood over him.
Hank's eyes opened, as Jean and Sarah regrouped.
"Where are they?" Jean asked, looking around.
"I'm not sure . . . We knock them down, and they disappear?" Sarah replied.
"This has been too easy . . . Something's up . . . "
As Jean finished, almost on cue with her words, SWAT members filled the room, guns drawn and ready to fire at will.
"Holy . . . "
People were all over the place, not fully sure what was happening. Senator Kelly looked all around in fear, then, the devil was in front of him.
"Mu-mu . . . Mutants . . . ?"
"Whom else would you expect?"
"I . . . I . . . ?"
"You sort forth to attempt to line and tag my kind, set us aside, destroy us! Well, I shall never let that happen again!"
Magneto pulled off his gloves, exposing numbers tattooed on his right arm.
"Never again!"
Magneto placed his right hand to Kelly's head, cutting off the iron supply to his brain, killing him instantly. As Kelly's body fell to the ground, ice shot across the room, hitting Magneto in the chest, melting on contact. Iceman stood only feet from Magneto, his fists forming two giant spikes.
"You said that there would be no murder on last night's complex assault! Fifty lives were taken! Fifty!"
"Young Drake, sometimes sacrifices must be made for the sake of many. Few die, while hundreds get to live. This is the way of survival!"
"No . . . NO! NO MORE!"
Iceman jumped at Magneto, who simply put up a magnetic force-field. Both of Iceman's ice spikes broke on contact. Iceman then poured tons of ice directly at Magneto, who maintained his position.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Drake, but I must be going . . . In fact, SWAT members should be circling your friends as we speak. What a shame . . . Heh . . . Follow me, but let your friends die, or save them and lose me . . . "
Iceman grinned his teeth and jumped back down the hole towards his friends.
All of the Brotherhood members were gone, except for Rogue, who had been knocked unconscious. A bruise had appeared across her face.
Then, in the blink of a eye, the SWAT members started to unload their weapons as a figure broke through the pavement. The bullet's bounced off the man's chest as he moved in closer, then two ray's of heat shot from the mans eye's, melting the weapons. One of the SWAT members threw a light bomb, which knocked Clark back a step. But the bomb also gave Iceman the time he needed to create an ice-wall in front of the SWAT members, blocking off the two groups.
"We have to get out of here!" Clark said, pointing to a large hole in the wall away from the SWAT members.
As they began to move out, Jean called to Morph, pointing towards Rogue, "We can't just leave her!"
Morph nodded his head in agreement and lifted her body over his shoulder.
As they left, a figure moved out of the large hole leading to the basement. It was Alex.
"NO! You sons of-"
Alex than noticed the SWAT members breaking through the ice.
"@#%$, another time . . . "
Alex moved right for the front exit and the hysterical crowds, yelling "THEY ARE COMING THIS WAY!" as he exited. The crowds were bad enough at first, but now they were twice as bad. Riots forming all around, total havoc!
Mutants attacked, he thought. It'll have so much coverage, the Avengers League can't miss it. I know there are a few who don't like their real purpose, but at least now, they have to do something.
He smiled.
A young boy was sleeping in a cardboard box, his clothes ripped up, his hair long and dirty.
Alone.
Afraid.
A figure approached the boy. It was a tall woman, and from the looks of her clothes you could tell that she was rich.
"Son? Are you okay, son?"
The boy didn't answer. He only shivered some more.
"Why don't you come out? I just want to help you . . . "
The boy slowly emerged from the box, and took the woman's hand.
"That's a good boy . . . "
The woman's lips curled up into a wicked smile that only Mystique could create.
**(Week of Doom: Havok)
Outside . . .
Clark flew right at the source, the Brotherhood. {Jean, Sarah, Morph, Hank! Everyone status?} But there was no response.
Elsewhere
{We have to get out of here!} Jean warned Clark, wondering where he might be.
Lex Luthor sat in his office in the heart of New York, watching the events in DC unfold on his television. It was quite interesting.
New York City
Continued in X-Men Secret Files #1 - nothing will be the same! Then, next issue features Sentinels, shadows, and Manhunters!