Questions of Ethics
"You can't be serious about this?" Rogue shouted.
"Rogue I know this sounds a bit unethical," Emma said.
"Sounds a bit unethical? That's because it is unethical!" Kitty protested. "Which is no shock that this idea is coming from you!"
"Technically it was my idea," Reyes spoke up.
"Okay that is a shock," Pyro remarked. The Misfits and X-Men were gathered around the war room trying to decide what to do with the information they had gathered.
"This isn't just some random batch of information," Reyes said. "Sinister and Factor One have done a complete and total mapping and genetic study of the X-Gene that is over 90 percent accurate. With this information we can cure dozens of genetic diseases or other kind of diseases that attack the immune system. Not to mention project the accuracy and stability of mutant genes within the body."
"It also appears the Hellfire Club have created a nearly foolproof test charting the probability of an X-gene in a body and a timetable on whether or not it will emerge naturally or not," Hank said. "And a way to create artificial X-Genes and induce them into the body with a high success rate."
"That must be what they used back on Genosha with those mutates," Laura said.
"So why should we use it? This kind of stuff is what Magneto would do and is doing!" Kurt said. "Forget it! As someone who was affected by genetic experimentation I say we lock this information up and throw away the key!"
"Hey you're not exactly the only one around here who's been used like a lab rat you know?" Todd spoke up. "Maybe some of us want to put our two cents in?"
"That is the purpose of this little meeting," Emma agreed. "Rahne you sounded like you wanted to say something?"
"I do. I hate what was done to me but…" Rahne sighed. "If what I went through could save even one life, then maybe I can put it behind me. Maybe not all of my suffering was for nothing? At least it would make some sense."
"What sense? They tortured us! There's nothing good that can come from that kind of sick research!" Paige snapped. "I say burn it!"
"What good would that do?" Laura snapped. "Information is valuable. This research is an advantage!"
"That's pretty harsh Laura," Sam said. "Even for you."
"She's also right," Althea sighed. "Mutants need every advantage we can get in this war. If we cure some diseases and promise to cure more…"
"What? You think that would buy our way into…" Kurt twitched his tail angrily.
"Into freedom? A life where mutants aren't hunted? A peaceful solution to this war? Yes!" Althea snapped.
"So we just use this information without any regard where it came from?" Kurt asked. "Forget the suffering and pain inflicted on innocent people as long as we can use it to our advantage?"
"No one is saying that Kurt," Danielle told him. "We couldn't save those people but maybe we could save others?"
"I would think that saving any lives would be something the X-Men would respect," Pyro pointed out.
"Forget it! I would never use something or want to use something that came at the expense of innocent lives!" Kitty protested.
"Really? Ever have a vaccination shot when you were a kid? Take penicillin if you were really sick? Wear makeup?" Tabitha asked. "What about heart transplants or any other kinds of transplants that save lives every day?"
"Okay that was animal testing which is really wrong and I am totally against but still it's not like humans were being experimented on!" Kitty said.
"Oh please!" Rogue rolled her eyes. "There are people who willingly take pills and shots that nobody knows what the hell will do to them for money!"
"Yeah but at least they choose to do it and they are paid!" Kitty said.
"True but does that make it any more ethical?" Rogue asked. "Buying and selling your body for medical reasons is just as bad as for sexual favors in my book."
"You would consider it like that," Pietro groaned. "But to be fair I'm not exactly thrilled about this idea either."
"You're not?" Wanda asked.
"It sounds too much like something Magneto would do," Pietro said. "Sacrifices for the greater good and all that. Speaking as one of those sacrificed time and time again for the greater good, I'm not that comfortable with us using this information."
"It's already being used," Xi pointed out. "By Sinister, Factor One and who knows how many people in the Weapon X Program still out there! The only difference is that we are going to use the information to save lives. Not twist them."
"Xi has a point," Logan grunted. "I hate it but it's a valid one. This is the stuff the Hellfire Club's sick little empire is based on. They've been using it against both humans and mutants for years. It's time someone else used it against them."
"Like a weapon," Kurt snorted.
"Not like that. We're only going to use it for cures and to help people, right?" Todd asked. "I mean like Xi said Sinister is already using it to make mutants into weapons and so is Factor One and the Hellfire Club. It's not like we're the only ones who have this information ya know? Even if we don't use it that won't stop those guys from using it!"
"But we're supposed to be better than them!" Kurt said.
"Can't be much better if we're all dead," Todd told him.
"I can't help but feel this argument parallels that of the building of nuclear bombs in the Cold War," Hank said.
"Last I checked bombs ain't that good for saving lives," Logan said. "This is different."
"Okay then what about all those other medical experiments? Like what they did in the Holocaust to the Jews or anyone else they thought was 'unfit'?" Kitty spoke up.
"Which Sinister turned out to be a part of," Lance said. "Hell knowing him he probably gave those SS doctors pointers!"
"He would gleefully do a vivisection without anesthetic at the drop of a hat if someone asked him nicely," Remy grumbled. "Trust Gambit on this."
"The MRD does stuff like this all the time," Bobby said. "You think anyone tells them to stop? Even after all the info we put on the web?"
"I find both prospects very distressing," Ororo sighed. "If we use the information we are disrespecting the dead and those who suffered in those experiments. If we don't use it we run the risk of letting more innocent people die when we have a possible cure for their sickness."
"It's a Catch 22," Hank said. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."
"Look we can all argue about the ethics of this until the Blob puts an all you can eat buffet out of business," Logan spoke up. "But the truth is that Sinister and Factor One have this information and are still using it. What we have is only a fraction of the stuff they've got. It's how we use it that matters. I say use it to save lives."
"And what do we say when people ask us where we got this research?" Kurt asked.
"Tell them the truth, that some of it was compiled from the Weapon X Project and other illegal mutant experimentation projects that the government was aware of," Althea said. "They were trying to turn mutants into weapons instead of helping people."
"We could argue about this all day but what it all boils down to is your decision Cyclops," Logan pointed out. Everyone looked at him.
"I'm not going to say it's a high priority but do what you can," Scott sighed. "If we can even save one life…And we are not going to use that information as a weapon! Only to save lives and cure diseases! And we will give it to people suffering without any provisions. This information will not be used as a bargaining chip. Whether that helps people make up their minds about us or not will be up to them but we will give it to them anyway regardless on how they feel about us."
Scott held up his hand to stop the murmurs. "Look I know some of you are disappointed in this decision. But this wasn't made lightly. No one should be sacrificed for any kind of information like this. And we must always remember where this information came from. I'm not even sure that this is the right decision. Personally I think we should burn the whole thing. But our enemies have made it impossible for us to do so. Toad is right. Even if we didn't use it, Factor One, Sinister and who knows who else would. And they'd exploit this information for their own personal gain. They already are. But if we use this information responsibly maybe we can save lives? It's not just about saving mutant kind. It's about finding a way to counter the damage those monsters have done. And this might be the best way."
"I don't like it Summers but…" Lance began.
"Hey something's going down on one of the monitors," Tabitha noticed. "It's on the news!"
They watched the news. "Oh crap…" Logan said. "I think we'd better put this argument on the backburner."
"Ya, especially since something worse has happened," Kurt groaned. "Which it always does!"
The mutants weren't the only ones having trouble with ethical questions. As evidenced in the same time in the New York MRD Headquarters.
"Haskett, what do you want to talk about?" Wraith asked as he worked at his desk. "As if I didn't already know."
"It's about last nights' raid," Haskett frowned. "Which in my mind was a complete failure!"
"That is a matter of opinion," Wraith said. "But go ahead and vent anyway."
"Look I understand some of our methods for capturing and hunting down mutants need to be a bit…Unorthodox," Haskett said. "And I've never said anything about using interrogation members on humans. Even though I think some of them are a little young to be put through that. I know this is a war. Difficult decisions have to be made."
"But?" Wraith prepared for the shoe to drop.
"It's one thing to bust into a house full of mutants. It's another to do it to a house full of humans and kill them all and take their money!" Haskett said.
"Those humans weren't exactly defenseless," Wraith snorted. "They were drug dealers working with the Mexican Cartel. And because of the money we recovered, we have enough to stay within budget for the next fiscal quarter. Besides we took some drugs and human garbage off the street. What's wrong with that?"
"Sir we're supposed to be helping people! Not exploiting them to put money in our pockets!" Haskett snapped. "Do you know some of our own men are taking the drugs seized as evidence and selling them on the streets?"
"Not in our precinct," Wraith frowned.
"No, none of our guys but I know for a fact a few MRD units in other cites are!" Haskett said. "There hasn't been any sign of any real mutants along the Texas Mexican border for months! But the MRD down there are forging papers and rigging equipment to make it look like they are! They are killing humans! And not all of them are drug dealers! Some of them are just illegal immigrants in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"So what? Some of those people are just as dangerous as mutants! America has to protect itself from all threats!" Wraith said. "Personally I don't care if a person is a human or mutant if they threaten my way of life…All I care about is stopping them."
"The ends justify the means? We're not supposed to be going after humans!" Haskett shouted.
"Open your eyes Haskett! There are a lot of threats to this world and as much as I hate to admit it, mutants aren't exactly the only threat out there!" Wraith told him. "I've been looking over some of these files I've acquired from my sources and notes from Walcolski's desk. I'm beginning to wonder if he may not have had a point."
"What do you mean?" Haskett asked.
"I never believed all that crap about mutations being part of a natural evolutionary process," Wraith said. "And there are too damn many of them to be just flukes of nature. God doesn't make that many mistakes. For years I've heard rumors of governments working on secret super soldier formulas. From what I've been gathering it's starting to make sense."
Wraith shoved some papers at them. "This is a genetic study our scientists have been working on the Jump drug. It's composition and where it came from."
"Everyone knows where it comes from," Haskett said. "Mutants, specifically the Hellfire Club."
"Turns out we were only half right," Wraith said. "I got this report from a contact in SHIELD. You know who is the first person who came up with the basic formula? I'll give you a clue, it's the guy who's studied more mutants than anyone. Including himself."
"Charles Xavier," Haskett frowned. "So he's…"
"That's where we get to the interesting part," Wraith told him. "You know when he made this particular formula? When he was in the military. The American military. Over thirty years ago, under the direction of a black ops unit stationed in Korea."
"What?" Haskett asked.
"From what I've been trying to piece together somehow our government was trying to recreate the Rebirth Project," Wraith said. "Similar to the one that created Captain America only with more stable results."
"And they used this to do so?" Haskett asked.
"Didn't get the chance," Wraith said. "Something happened and the base was destroyed. Apparently according to the SHEILD files, Xavier shelved the project. However he wasn't the only mutant who had access to the formula. Guess who else just happened to be at that base at the same time?"
"Magneto?" Haskett gasped. "Wait wasn't this around the time the two of them had that little tiff and parted ways?"
"That's one theory," Wraith said. "Bottom line is both our government and Magneto got this basic formula from Xavier. My guess is, Magneto didn't have as many scruples as Xavier did. But according to these files some project named Weapon X didn't either."
"Weapon X? Isn't that the same covert ops that…?"
"Created Wolverine? Yeah, it is," Wraith said. "Magneto did have a brief alliance with the Hellfire Club. My guess is that he gave them the formula before it went sour for whatever reason. Lucky for us mutants seem to fight each other just as much as they do humans. But it's not the mutant connection to this that worries me the most."
"It's what the government is doing with it's copy of the formula," Haskett said.
"We need more information. Any information," Wraith said. "Unfortunately those drug dealers we blasted dealt only in cocaine. Not jump. Despite what one of our informants said. But we do know that the Hellfire Club is supplying Jump to several places in order to try and make more mutants. And for some reason the government isn't that keen on tracking them down."
"You think someone in the government is in league with the mutants?" Haskett was stunned. "They're letting this happen?"
"Wouldn't be the first time. As I was saying we need to stop any and all threats and it just so happens that the emergence of mutants is tied to the drug trade. Or one of the reasons anyway. However the Texas rigged numbers are higher than ours," Wraith frowned. "That is not acceptable. I'll have a talk with the commander down there. Get him to at least stop being so obvious."
"Sir! Something is happening at the Senate building! I think you'd better see this!" An aide ran in. He turned on the monitor.
The Senate was in session. But it looked more like a petting zoo had gotten out of control. "Get these raccoons off of me!" Senator Kelly screamed as he was tackled by several raccoons.
"Humans of the Senate! You are now our prisoners!" A raccoon shouted as he stood at the Speaker's podium.
"Okay that's something you don't see every day," Haskett blinked.
"What the hell is this?" Wraith snarled. "Is this some mutie's idea of a joke?"
"Before you humans judge us let me educate you on one fact! We are not mutants!" The raccoon morphed into a young man with black leather eyeliner on his face wearing a black leather outfit. "We are a different race of shape shifters! We have lived for centuries hiding in the shadows but no more! Today is a day of reckoning! Today we step into the light and take our rightful place in the world! For today is the day the Were Raccoons Rise!"
"We are not getting paid enough for this…" Haskett groaned.
Next: It's shocking! It's terrifying! It's the Rise of Were Raccoons!
