August 2138

"All enhance humans are encouraged to register with DHS." said the reporter on the news.

"Yeah," said Israel, This is how it starts."

"How what starts?" I asked.

"The discrimination." he replied.

"Please elaborate." I said.

"Eventually the government will require us to register." replied Israel.

"And how would that serve them?" I asked.

"With a record of all the enhance humans in the country, they could estimate what it would take to exterminate us." said Damingo.

"They couldn't possibly." I said.

"With a detailed list of strengths and weaknesses, they could theoretically develop weapons that could kill even us." said Tray.

"Why would they do that," I asked, "we protect them?"

"We might, but we've been defending them from other enhanced." said Israel.

"So fear will drive them to it," I said, "but we will never give up on them."

"Fear will drive almost anyone to do almost anything." said Damingo.

"True," I said, "so do we register?" I asked.

"All good enhanced will probably follow our example," Tray said, "so we should think about this carefully."

The way I see it," I said, "if we register and things go south every enhanced would turn against us, but if we wait until we're required to register the rest of humanity will probably stop trusting us."

"And once the crackdown starts everyone will stop trusting us." said Israel.

"Or we could not register at all." said Damingo.

"I don't feel comfortable with defying the government." I said.

"When a government becomes oppressive it is the right of the people to abolish it." said Israel.

"That's true," I said, "okay, I'll defy the government once it becomes oppressive which will be when registration is required."

Two months later

"A huge enhanced protest against registration turned violent today after one of the protesters teleported behind the barricades and physically assaulted a pedestrian and was shot by police which prompted the other protesters to rush the police. One officer is in critical condition and another is dead, now people are calling for mandatory registration." said the news reporter.

"And so it begins." Israel said.

One month later

"The enhanced registration act was signed into law today it requires all enhanced to register with DHS." said the news reporter.

"Okay guys," I said, "what do we do now?" I asked.

"We should start with nonviolent action, only escalating when they do." said Tray.

"Define 'escalate'." I said.

"When they start knocking down doors and dragging people from their homes." said Tray.

Two weeks later

"Titanicboy was arrested today after police say he threatened to burn one of them," said the news reporter, "a bystander had this to say about the altercation."

"All I saw was Titanicboy light his hand on fire and walk aggressively in the direction of a police officer."

"The police chief says that he caused a car to explode as he was being led to a police cruiser."

"Okay," said Tray, "we know that's not true, so what do we do now?"

"He wouldn't want us to break him out so I say we show the world what's going on here by doing that." said Damingo.

The next day

"The Homo Classis tried to break their leader out of prison last night, but were unable to do so and are now themselves in police custody." said the news reporter on the television outside the cell.

"So that's what they're saying you did," I said, "I'd say this qualifies as escalation."

"Argeed, they are literally knocking down doors and dragging people away." said Damingo.

"Okay then," said Tray, "what do we do now?"

"Use our powers to get out of here and overthrow the government." said Israel.

"But once we do that won't the rest of the world see us as rebels?" I said.

"That's how the world saw Washington and his troops as they were fighting for freedom." said Israel.

"Yes, but using our powers would most likely prompt an aggressive response from the people." I said.

"True, so what should we do then?" asked Tray.

"Reveal our secret identities." I said.

"But that would put our families in danger." said Damingo.

"Exactly why we should do that," I said, "with us in here if they arrest our families for 'harboring fugitives' then the people would see what's really going on here."

"Okay, you're free to go." said the guard as he opened the door.

"Oh no you don't," I said, "you're going to release us because you've found out who our families are and then claim that we escaped so that you could arrest them for 'harboring fugitives'."

"If you want to sit in this cell for the rest of your lives, it's fine with me." said the guard.

Two days later

"The families of the escaped criminals called the Homo Classis were arrested today for harboring fugitives." said the news reporter.

"Well that didn't go as planned." I said.

"They just filmed an empty cell at another prison." said Tray.

"So what will we do now?" asked Damingo?

"I don't know," I said, "I don't want to forcibly escape because that would turn the world against us."

"But if we escape from a different prison than where the government said they were holding us people would start realizing what's really going on." said Tray.

"Or they could claim that they moved us to a higher security prison." I said.

"So," said Damingo, "the resistance would start as soon as we escape anyway."

"Yes, but if we're going to overthrow the government I don't want it to look like a dictatorship instituted by evil enhanced." I said.

"So you're saying that overthrowing the government after escaping from prison will automatically look bad." said Tray.

"Yes," I said, "If we overthrow the government and start arresting the people that will inevitably protest the new one, then we will look like dictators using force to instill fear and keep order."

"So you want to show people that we are good by sitting here doing nothing." said Israel.

"When you put it that way…" I said, "we need to find a way to prove that the government is corrupt."

"How?" asked Tray.

"I've got an idea," I said, "we can access government records through the computers in this prison."

"How?" asked Damingo.

"It's an ability I discovered accidentally while I was trying to pass the time the first day I was in here." I said.

"How do we do it?" asked Israel.

"It works similarly to the way we communicate telepathicaly, except with technology," I said, "expand you mind outward, but incorporate your technological half you should see the CPUs of the computers instead of the minds of the staff, now ask it to queue up records starting with the day registration was instituted and we should uncover the truth."

Two weeks later

"Records were released late last night showing that the police were instructed to arrest enhanced persons and prepare them for processing," said the news reporter, "now people are protesting outside of prisons holding the enhanced demanding their release."

"Success." I said.

"There's no way for them to deny it now." said Tray.

"You're all free to go," said the guard, "sorry for going along with it for so long."

"It's fine," I said, "you were just following orders."

"The Homo Classis are emerging from the prison now." said the reporter over the cheering of the crowd as we walked out of the prison.

"Can we overthrow the government now?" asked Tray.

"Now that we're walking out of prison with a cheering crowd I don't think that's a good idea because once we do that we'll lose all our supporters." I said.

"It would probably be a better idea to wait and see if the government has actually changed." said Damingo.

One year later

"They still haven't repealed the registration act." I said.

"No, but they aren't arresting enhanced people." said Damingo.

"At least not publicly." I said.

"They're only arresting the enhanced people we stop," said Tray, "I've checked."

"So I think it's safe to say the government has actually changed." I said.

"At least for now." said Israel.