5.1 Teachers and Politics Don't Mix

Posted on Wed May 24th, 2023 @ 12:34am by Duke Drake & Sakura Tanikawa & Astrid Lindstorm & Eli King

910 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: 1. Year One
Location: Haven Manor Teacher's Lounge
Timeline: September 11, 1992 1215

Dr Drake sat in a chair as he watched the Mayor's speech on the live local broadcast.

Mayor Mark Kline stood on the stairs of the city hall building in downtown New Orleans and surveyed the crowd before him. He was pleased with the turnout including several groups of high school students, they may be too young to vote, but not too young to learn about their civic duty. After a brief welcome and introduction, he began his speech.

"Dear citizens of New Orleans, As you know, mutants have lived among us for quite some time now. They're not different, they're just gifted. And it is our duty to protect their rights. Henceforth, I'd like to announce that we are going to set up registration kiosks manned by city officials for mutants to register their superpowers. This will ensure the safety of all individuals within the city, including our mutant population. Let us respect and appreciate their talents, while still maintaining the peace.

Through registration, we can ensure that those who may unintentionally harm others with their powers can receive proper training and support. It also allows us to properly monitor and regulate the use of these abilities, preventing any misuse or abuse. This is not meant to limit the potential of mutants, but rather to protect them and our city from any potential threats."

"I didn't think Mayor Kline was going to push for registration like this," the Doctor said aloud to no one in particular, "This is unconstitutional!"

Sakura knew very little about American government and didn’t know if Professor Drake was right or not, so she stayed quiet on constitutionality. “They’ve been discussing similar legislation back home,” she said. “People are afraid of the destruction even a single mutant might bring. Is a list of people with powers a bad thing?” The Professor knew that Sakura was already registered (had to be, as a condition for her work visa), and admittedly it had caused her to lose out on certain job opportunities, but no one from the government had come for her.

"If history I'd any indicator, fifty years ago the Jews only had to wear a star and we all know how that progressed," Doc paused before continuing. "My fear is that they will take away our basic freedoms or worse use the Registration as a target list. In fact Mayor Kline's opponent believes mutants should be sterilized or eliminated based on their power sets."

Eli sat, silent on the subject at hand. His eyes trained on the television. Absentmindedly morphing from his own face to that of the Mayor and back.

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-Moments Later-
As the Mayor reached the climax of his speech the sound of several school busses honking their horns filled the air. The television crew quickly shifted their cameras towards the new sound. The large shape of multiple busses filled the screen. The busses were spray painted black with the words "Apostles of Prometheus." The busses disgorged itself of its human contents until a large crowd appeared carrying various signs with hateful slogans and epithets directed at eliminating or abusing mutants. Their leader stepped to the forefront and using a bullhorn started a chant,"Mutant lovers go home, Down with the Muties."

As the Apostles pushed into the crowd panic began to break out as they picked fights trying to force mutants to reveal themselves.

Eli was suddenly horror struck as the scene unfolded on the screen. "We have to do something." He said looking around at his colleagues.

"Grab your suits meet at the bus in 5 minutes, we have a 20 minute ride ahead of us," Doc ordered before grabbing his special suit from Joe along with 2 way radios and the keys to the bus.

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-Aboard the bus-
The Doc had the radio turned on as he drove to downtown New Orleans.

"This is a breaking new update," the dry male voice said, "The number of protesters are growing around city hall. The small crowd of roughly a hundred included several local school student groups have been caught up in the mayhem. During the Mayor's speech a group calling themselves the Apostles of Prometheus began violently hurting crowd members. Several people have already been taken to local hospitals, our eyewitness chopper is reporting that the mayor is pinned down with his security team near the podium..." the voice continued giving a play by play description of the protest, but the Doc spoke over it.

"We need to stick together and find our kids quickly and get them out, I can teleport short distances, but with this group targeting mutants I'm not sure how many I can move before they target me. Who else can help with evacuation and who can help with distractions?"

Eli had been intently listening to the radio and then to the Doctor. "I can be a distraction." He said, standing slightly from his spot to be seen. "Who should I be?" His question was laced with a lot of uncertainty.

"Stick with me, Eli," Doc said. "I'm not really sure all of the details of what we are walking in to. We may need to use your ability to help slip in or out."

Doc drove on in silence as they focused on listening to the constant radio reports being put out by the broadcaster. The news wasn't good and as they grew closer his fear for his students grew.

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