Robert Tandon casually drove into his drive a few minutes before six that night. Stepping out of his fairly new black BMW, He quickly withdrew his briefcase from the back seat and locked the car. He paused momentarily to gaze upon his reflection in the car windows. Robert flashed a quick, cheesy smile at himself before heading off.
In his opinion, he was doing pretty well for his age; nice car, nice house, great job, and a half-decent family on top of it.
With a spring in his step, Robert approached the front door of his home. As he mumbled with the keys that he had moments ago jammed into the pocket of his suit, His wife opened the door. He smiled and leaned down for a kiss. His wife gave a quick smile and kissed back, then pulled away.
Robert looked down on her, confused. "Anything wrong?" He asked.
His wife gave a faraway look, "Brian's school had another test today." She admitted.
Annoyed, Robert shrugged. 'So? They have tests all the time." He stated.
Unfortunately, his wife persisted. "But why? He's the only invalid and everyone knows it." She said bitterly.
Rolling his eyes, Robert pushed past her to put down his briefcase and hang up his coat. Loosening his tie, he changed the subject. "So what's for dinner?"
His wife chose to ignore his question. Instead she came up behind him and seductively began to massage his shoulders. "Isn't there something you could do about it?" She asked.
Robert was silent.
His wife jolted back. "Fine then," she snapped. She turned and walked into the kitchen. She grabbed a few small packets from the refrigerator and slipped them into the microwave. Then she called for Brian to come down for dinner.
A few minutes later the three of them were eating in silence.
The silent, stressed atmosphere was quite common in their home. Robert was always busy with his work, as was Marsha – not to mention the fact Robert had lately been growing more and more uneasy with Brian's condition the older his son got.
After a few more minutes of silence, Marsha finally stood up and turned on the TV. "Much better," she commented, sitting back down with the remote.
Marsha continued to flick through channels until she found one of the big, worldwide news stations.
"My God," She murmured, reading the headline. Both Brain and Robert turned towards the TV.
'Official Government Control of Mutants Proposed' the headline read.
"Turn it up!" Robert urged with a slight hiss.
Marsha quickly obeyed, in time to catch most of the report.
"—The President is among the leading supporters of the newly proposed bill. Now, as we said earlier, Congress and the Senate have both been working very hard to keep knowledge of this under wraps. A statement of this kind is a very interesting political move-" Robert reached over and changed the channel to a different news station.
"Still wildfires continue to rage over a remote location in northern Alberta this evening. Officials are still not releasing reports on how and who-or what – is starting these fires. In more important news this evening, a shocking news leak has come from D.C., the knowledge of a secretive, unknown bill soon to be brought up in Congress. Here we go to Justin Anderson in D.C. to tell us all about this shocking development. Justin?"
The screen split in two to show images of both the anchor and the reporter. The reporter spoke up.
"Yes, as some of you out there may already know, this afternoon we received a document from an individual who wishes to remain anonymous. There was a note attached, saying only 'What do you think of your perfect world now, Charles?'. Authorities are looking for anyone who knows anything in relation to this case."
"Now, what exactly is this bill about, Justin?" The anchor pressed.
The reporter, Justin, paused. "Ah, yes. Well it appears to be led on by a few high-end businessmen and legislators, not to mention highly endorsed and supported by our President. The bill declares the need for a system of keep control over the mutant population – possibly even over this next generation of Invalids as well. Details are difficult to attain at the moment; but we were able to learn that the voting for this bill will take place in approximately three weeks-- nearing the four-year anniversary of the worldwide attack that is believed to have been caused by a terrorist cell of mutants."
Stunned the three of them stared at the screen, even after the news changed to some other topic. Marsha was the first to snap out of it and promptly turned of the TV. "Don't worry about it, sweetie," She said to Brian, carefully watching him.
Brian shrugged at shifted in his chair. His mother always over-reacted to these kinds of things, making sure he didn't feel any emotion towards it whatsoever. He had long ago come to the conclusion that she was really trying to comfort him for his benefit- but more for hers. She held on to some strange belief that if she could keep everything neutral and maintain the status quo, her son would remain normal and perfect forever. And while Brian couldn't really object to that, he didn't think it did a damn thing either.
His father loudly cleared his throat. "Your mother's right, that's nothing to be concerned about."
And they ate the rest of the meal in silence.
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On the other side of the country, in upstate New York, a group of teenagers and several adults were all grouped around a TV, watching the same report. In the very center of the group, was a completely bald man in a wheelchair. He was dressed nicely, he looked as if he had just come from a corporate meeting of sorts.
One of the younger students, a red head girl named Theresa, gently tapped on his shoulder. "Professor?"
The bald man looked over at her and gave a sad smile, "Yes, Siryn?"
"Will we have to leave?" She asked, sounding much younger than she really was.
The professor shook his head, no, slowly. "I don't believe so, but I have a few phone calls to go make." He calmly said before wheeling out. The rest of the group stayed behind, engrossed in the report that they believed to be sealing their fates.
