Drive

Looking at the confusion on their faces— I proceeded to explain. 

"It will be a law that will ensure that no powered beings use their abilities to cause harm while the normal humans will be prevented from harming the powered beings under this law. If one of them tries to marginalise the other, it will be a punishable crime." I explained.

"But do you really think it will be possible?" Howard asked. "Introducing something new is easy but making the people follow it is difficult."

"It is." I agreed. "But I didn't say it will be an instant success."

It will be a difficult and tedious job.

"We have to be smart about it. We first need to introduce them to the public and slowly build their opinion in a positive way. It will take a long time… quite possibly decades. But considering the growth rate of such beings— it is a must." I changed the slide to that of a mutant saving a falling bus. "If we are attacked by those extraterrestrial beings, we will need every help that we can get." The slide changed to a man lifting a building with one arm. "As you can see… They are far above human soldiers. Someone like this guy could take on an entire platoon without breaking a sweat."

Like usual, they started murmuring at the possibilities.

"That seems viable." One of the nation leaders stated. "We can now move onto the smaller details."

It was a success… as expected.

…

…

[Later]

After the meeting was over, Joel, Howard, Peggy and I decided to throw a small party at our success. 

Peggy had a really bad alcohol tolerance… So, I had to make sure not to get her too drunk.

"About those powered beings… do they have a name?" Howards asked, drawing both Peggy and Joel's attention.

I nodded. "Currently the science team has come up with two names— mutants and mutates. The ones that received their powers because of that specific genetic trait, which we have named the X-Gene are being called mutants and those that have their powers because of other reasons are referred to as mutates." 

"Interesting names." Howard nodded.

"We might come up with new names later once we identify all the superpowered species." I shrugged, chugging down a beer.

I looked at Howard. "What are your thoughts on this? Do you think they should be treated as equals?"

Howard nodded. "I have never met any mutants but I was friends with Steve and by your description, he is considered a mutate. I don't see any reason to not like them… instead, I think that they are quite fascinating." He smirked. "In a way, I am jealous. I would have loved to be a mutant as well."

I chuckled. "Trust me, you don't. Some of them end up with the appearance of a monster. It depends on your luck if you end up with a good X-gene or a horrible one."

I looked at Peggy who smiled at me.

"I think it is a wonderful idea. After all, it was not in their power to make the choice. So, there is no reason for us to hate them." She smiled sweetly. "We are slowly getting rid of the racism and sexism and I believe that we can get the people to accept mutants as well."

Joel was smiling at our discussion. 

"Cheers to the dream." He said as we all joined him.

"Cheers to the dream!!"

Which will be a reality.

.

.

.

It was nighttime by the time we decided to return home and Joel left with Howard as he had to give Joel a few files on S.H.I.E.L.D. 

That left Peggy with me so I decided to drop her home.

"What made you pick up this mutant project?" She asked as I drove through the bustling street.

"I have met a few mutants." I said. "And each of them has been very kind." I looked at her and then at the road. "But every single one of them had the same story. They suffered."

Peggy understood what I was talking about.

"How bad?" She asked.

"Pretty." I sighed. "They were thrown out of their houses, treated like monsters by their own family and some were even hunted down."

She seemed upset at the revelation.

"One of the mutants helped me once when I nearly drowned."

She stared at me in shock. "When?"

That made me chuckle. "It was during a business trip with the Sultan of Saudi. I was stung by a jellyfish and nearly drowned— but was saved by a young mutant with aquatic features. It's thanks to her that I am alive today."

Peggy smiled. "Must have been a sweet girl."

I showed a strained smile. "She was."

She noticed my look and frowned. "What happened to her?"

"Killed." I said, driving through the busy road. "The Sultan killed her as he thought she was a spawn of that devil." 

"You couldn't do anything?" She asked, with a little bit of hurt in her voice.

"It was during my first foreign trip." I explained. "I was trying to branch out my business and I had no powers back then. The only people I knew were some rich businessmen. So, I had to be careful while dealing with the Sultan." My grip tightened over the steering. "I watched her get killed in front of my eyes. The Sultan didn't listen to my words and said that the devil spawn was trying to corrupt me."

She went silent as she heard the story but nearly shouted in anger as my words kept replaying in her head.

"Some Sultan he was." She mumbled angrily.

Sighing at that— I agreed. 

"In this world, you either have to stand at the top or follow all the rules of society if you don't want to suffer. I learnt it the hard way and that's why I'm trying to make the dream of coexistence a reality." 

The worst part of that story was…

It was true.

This time I was not lying to her, it was a true story. I saw the girl getting beheaded and the look of fear and sadness on her face.

A girl that was not even fifteen had her life ended for helping me. 

I am not a good guy— never was. But even I have my limits. There are times when even I feel sad for others and I believe that is a necessary emotion.

Being selfish is often considered evil. But that is mostly the society.

I am evil, I know that. I have killed for my safety and convenience. But there is a difference between being evil for your safety and being evil for the sake of being evil… for the pleasure of it.

Someone like the Green Goblin was one such example of an evil for pleasure. While Essex was an example of being evil for ambition and safety.

I was similar to Essex and I was fine with that. As long as I didn't end up like Green Goblin, I was gladly going to accept the title of evil.

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[[A/N: 20 Advanced Chapters on Pat reon + Access to other stories: Pat reon.com/ToothlessS

Marvel Facts (1): Shuma-Gorath is one of Dr. Strange's strongest villains that he wished to defeat but never actually could. Strange managed to send him away but not defeat... Why? Because Shuma-Gorath is one of the Great Old Ones, beings that both Gods and Daemons feared. Lovecraft used these in his books and Marvel took inspiration from those and added the characters in their comics.

(2) This is not much of a fact but Stan Lee and crew managed to create a working timeline from before the universe's beginning. Dawn of existence to the present ongoing time. It sounds ridiculous with all the retcons, new character origins etc... But if you dive deep enough— every single story is connected. Nemesis, Celestials, Humans etc... everyone's story is interlinked perfectly. Respect to them and it surprised me as to how well the stories were connected. And people say that such a massive franchise cannot have a working timeline...

I am looking at you, DC.]]