Chapter 16
.
Xavier helped Ben to become a member of the Xmen. He already had it in his programing to help people, to never kill people, even if they might deserve it. But Ben deserved to be more than just a robot, to have simple pleasures, to maybe fall in love one day. There was of course a certain irony in Xavier helping Ben to develop into an individual person. Ben already had a similar moral code to Xavier's. By helping Ben to make his own choices, Ben could conceivably choose to live a different life, make different choices. What if Ben chose to live only for himself, or to fight alongside Magneto. It did seem possible that Ben could look at the situation logically, and decide Magneto had the right ideas. All Xavier could really do was to try and guide young Ben, and hope he made the right choices later. Xavier could not, would not, force Ben to live a life that was not his own. That Xavier firmly believed that his ways were the best ideas was no excuse to force it upon another. There was no excuse to enslave someone like that. Fortunately Ben seemed to adapt fairly well to the Xschool. But Xavier couldn't help but worry about president Kelly. For the moment at least he seemed to be fighting for mutant rights. But his main goal was to try and prevent the world of Apocalypse, and to due that he was willing to create an army of enslaved robots. Xavier feared what else Kelly might do. He couldn't help but fear that Magneto was right, maybe Kelly would ultimately find it easier to stand against mutants than his own right flank. And if that happened, was the dystopian future truly inevitable?
.
Warren Worthington was one of Xavier's former students. Warren's father couldn't accept the fact that his son had wings, and even sought a "cure" for his son. This had caused much tension between father and son, Xavier helped Warren learn to control his anger, to accept who he was. But Warren had always had a certain resentment towards the "normal" humans. He had never shown any interest in fighting for Magneto, and he credited Xavier with that. But he also didn't want to be an Xman, didn't want to fight to protect a world that feared and hated him. Xavier had always wondered what Warren would do with his abilities and his money. One day, about a month after Ben had first come to him for help, Xavier found out what Warren would do. On this night, Warren made a televised speech. He owned enough percentage of this network for them to give him airtime, and the other networks considered Warren Worthington to be influential enough that they should cover this speech. Most thought he was planning to run for office, but Warren had a surprise for them.
.
Warren: My name is Warren Worthington III, and I am a mutant. I have wings, can fly, I have never been a threat to anyone, yet I have been looked down upon and ridiculed my entire life. Because I was born into a wealthy family I have always had considerably more options than other mutants. My father was able to send me to expensive private schools, so I never had to worry about being expelled for being a mutant. I never had to worry about an employer firing me without cause just for being a mutant. On the rare occasions when someone refused to sell me property for being a mutant, I could simply buy property from others. But there are millions of mutants without my resources who experienced these things. Employers use these mutants as laborers to do the work of multiple homo sapiens, yet they pay them less than minimum wage. Mutants are incarcerated at five time the rate of homo sapiens because judges do not give them the same assumption of innocence as homo sapiens, and because most of the time they cannot afford qualified lawyers. Some mutants have attempted to serve their respective countries and improve their own status by joining the military. For their patriotism they are given the most dangerous duties. The few who survive are not afforded the same benefits as human veterans. Many wind up on the street, begging for scraps from the very citizens they protected. This is not to say all humans are like this. When the journalist Peter Parker exposed the Raft, or president Kelly's plot to replace us with robots, humans and mutants alike protested. But the fact is that the people of this country were given a choice in the last election. This was not a rigged election, mutants were not prohibited from voting. And what did the majority of the American people do with this freedom? They elected a man who talked about forcing mutants into concentration camps. It is true that Kelly has broken these campaign promises. He is not the first politician to lie to voters, and he will not be the last. For the moment he has not tried to round us up, notice I say "For the moment." But he continues to support the policies that lead to the mass incarceration of mutants. Kelly also supports testing for mutant genes in unborn fetuses, o at least the right of pregnant women to find out. Ironic isn't it? The preachers who supported president Kelly's campaign, those who claimed to believe in the right to life, seem noticeably silent when mutant children are aborted. The question is why have we put up with this? Why do we fight so hard to be accepted by those who fear and hate us? I am not talking about war with the homo sapiens. I reject both the extremism of Magneto, and the appeasement of Charles Xavier. I am suggesting we give these humans exactly what they want, exactly what they voted for, a world without mutants. I have used my considerable resources to build a community in Antarctica. It is a community where mutants can live free from "normal" humans. We will no longer be the willing slaves to their society, no longer sanction our own oppression. We can truly be free here, free to choose our own occupation, our own sexual partners, free from a world that demonizes us. Rest assured that the temperature of this area has been modified, it will be warm enough. If they want us gone we will give it to them. Let us see how their economy collapses without our laborers. Let us see how their national security functions when they can no longer use mutant soldiers as cannon fodder. It would seem that the mutant rebels in Genosha are on the verge of victory, and the apartheid state will soon be destroyed. There are those mutants who might prefer to not be part of the new regime, to not trade one dictatorship for another. They are ofcourse welcome in our new community. We will be a democratic society. Although we may have human diplomats, for the most part we will be for mutants only. In short, we mutants are going on strike. Don't bother negotiating with us, you have nothing that we want. If you do not like how your society functions without willing mutant slaves, you have no one but yourselves to blame.