You'll hide behind walls,

You'll hide behind desks,

I just want you to know I can see through your masks

The newly elected President Kelly stretched as he looked at his schedule; he had just spent an uninterrupted night of sleep in his presidential suite. He turned round in his chair until he was looking out of his office window. It was a strange feeling, knowing that he was elected by the largest margin of votes in 50 years. He was now officially the most powerful man in the world, with thousands of nuclear warheads at his disposal, the biggest army in the world and no one to oppose him. When you think about it he could literally crush any country he wanted, except possibly China, there were to many of those little slitty-eyed bastards.

He laughed as he remembered the applause after an election speech he had made on TV. The journalists raved he was the president of the future, hundreds of foreign governments called to offer their support to such a liberal and tolerant senator. Fools all of them. Kelly thought he should have won an Oscar for that performance, the opposition called it 'the greatest political u turn in history' but no one wanted to know. The truth of the matter was he hadn't made a u turn; in fact his opinions hadn't changed since he was the principle at Bayville High. He still hated mutants and no one knows, except of course for the Friends of Humanity. Ah his own private army, you could get so much more done with a vigilante group that with the CIA or FBI, after all Trask had one as does Magneto and Xavier has one as well, he just doesn't want to admit it publicly.

Professor Charles Xavier was a real snake in the grass and President Kelly admired this. On the surface Magneto and Trask are much more dangerous but they are predictable, they have one-track minds and they also think they are untouchable. What they haven't learned yet, thought Kelly, is that one volunteer soldier is better than ten conscripted ones. Magneto bullies, blackmails and forces young powerful mutants onto his team but they don't believe in the cause and so, when push comes to shove they will save their own neck instead of their glorious leader's. Trask had much the same ideas, in fact he was so like Magneto it was amusing and both of them are small time players. Kelly was sure that they both regarded Xavier and him with contempt, but the proof was in the pudding. Magneto had 5 members on his main team and 4 renegades that he ignored, whereas Xavier had in total 17 with that number rapidly increasing each month. The comparison between Trask's army and FOH was much the same. The time for extremists was over, the people respected leaders who would talk to each other instead of blowing each other up.

As he thought more on how he could come out on top of this war, Kelly immediately ruled out Magneto and Trask. I'll let them do my dirty work he thought, let them destroy each other and then when they are weakened they will be easy to eliminate. Xavier was more of a challenge, he was a popular public figure to mutants and humans alike and therefore a much more dangerous opponent. Hidden beneath the calm exterior there was a master strategist, one who wasn't afraid to make sacrifices for the cause. Take for example the mutant prisoners in Trask's 'Top Secret' factory, he could rescue them without much difficulty but he doesn't want to reveal the strength of his team yet. Naturally his precious Xmen didn't have a clue about the real Charles Xavier, which says a lot about their intelligence he thought.

Not that the members of his own little army are much better, they all believe that mutants are like Magneto and would kill them and their families without a second thought. Their ignorance was his power over them, or rather cultivated ignorance. Every other advert or program on the TV concerns mutants, and more than one negative one was funded by the government. Naturally the rest of his party had no idea and neither did the masses of the USA except for a select few and naturally his enemies.

That reminded him, he had to phone Jones about the next senior associates meeting and try to think of a new plan to dishonour the name of Charles Xavier. The last meeting hadn't come up with any successful ideas as anyone who has any unpleasant information about Xavier curiously forgets it. As he picks up the phone and dials a number he allows himself to wonder about a world without mutants. As he thought about those pleasant images he hummed the American national anthem to himself. He was jolted out of his daydream but a harsh voice on the other end of the phone barking, "What is it?"

"Now, now Mr Jones that is no way to speak to your newly elected president? I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience for you to schedule a meeting of the senior associates and please don't approach General Hastings with that tone of voice as he is already tetchy enough about the lack of progress being made."

"Of course President Kelly, I am sorry for the curtness but we have a situation. One of the junior staff members has overheard that Trask plans to experiment on humans and he is demanding to know what we are going to do about it."

"Has he told anyone else?"

"No sir, we managed to contain him in the compound, we have already aroused suspicion of his loyalties in the other members so that he can be disposed of without any unnecessary questions. However we have reason to suspect that he has already discussed this with his wife and I need your authority on what we should do with her and her daughter."

"Hmmm, we'll have to cover this up well. Tell me was this man well known in our ranks?"

"No sir. He didn't get much chance to socialise with the other members because he has two jobs to provide for his family. I believe that his child has some learning difficulties that require special and costly treatment."

"Well Jones, I'm sorry to say that you will have the sad task of informing his wife that he was grievously injured in a mutant attack, then you shall escort her and her child to a limousine to take them to the hospital. Naturally she will never reach this destination. In fact, why don't you drop in them as a present to Mr Trask, I'm sure he will appreciate it. With this special treatment that the daughter was receiving it wont be hard to convince people they where muties."

"Consider it done sir"

I would like to assure you all that I am not a racist and the comments in no way reflect my personal views.

I would also like to thank LyraFan for reviewing my last chapter, I hope to return the favour when I manage to get on the net for more than five minutes.

Again I would appreciate it if you would take time off from your busy and exiting lives to review this FF. I have already started the next chapter so there wont be such a large gap between chapters (hopefully!)