Politics

Rock music could be heard blasting through the speakers of a militaristic plane as the Dark Angels were being transported to the location of their first mission. Iceman, Tempo, Answer, Fixer, and Quicksilver, sat in their seats without their power dampeners even on their bodies for the first time in months.

A few of them were looking out the windows at the outside world, marveling at the sunlight that they missed for so long.

Standing at the forefront of them all was your average Joe-looking American soldier, one of Waller's very best who was chosen to be the one in charge of the mutants so they don't step out of line. With the voice of nothing less than a pure American, he spoke.

"Listen here, kids, from this day forward, my word is the law.

My name is Captain Eagle-"

"Wait, are you serious? Eagle? Is that like, a fake name?" Quicksilver laughed, looking around at the other members of the team. Iceman and Fixer were also laughing, turning their heads to the side to hide their smiles. Ky had a small smirk on his face, finding the name to be a bit humorous as well considering the situation. Xiao looked around at everyone else with a straight face, she didn't understand why an American soldier with the last name Eagle sounded completely stupid.

Eagle clearly wasn't having it. 'Why the fuck did Waller put me in charge of the goddamn daycare crew?' Eagle thought it was completely idiotic for a bunch of high school kids to be Waller's supposed ace in the hole. However, Waller's manipulation had a hold on more than just the mutants.

Every soldier who worked under Waller was actually a criminal, a prisoner that was supplied to him by the US government as a form of prison population control. Time served under Waller would result in their sentence progressing five times the rate it would in a regular prison. For example, Ryan Eagle was sentenced to fifty years in prison, however, working under Waller would reduce that to just ten.

Like the mutants, soldiers like Captain Eagle had chips in their heads that would explode if they didn't follow Waller's precise instructions. The soldiers and the mutants were one and the same, though the prejudice towards the mutants did not cease despite that fact.

Fed up, Eagel pulled out a remote with the names of all five members taped onto it. "All I have to do is hold down the button with your name on it for five seconds and boom. Brain matter and skull bits splattered all across the walls of this carrier. And guess who's cleaning up the mess, not me that's for damn sure. No more stupid jokes. This is serious."

Quicksilver raised his hand incredibly fast, so fast no one could even see it move. Eagle looked at him, ignoring him before finishing speaking. "There are a few rules you're going to have to follow if you don't want your head turned into mush.

Rule number one: Do not desert the mission. Prior to this mission, your heads were programmed to explode immediately upon passing a certain point of the prison. That has of course been deactivated and a new program has been initiated. If you walk far enough in the opposite direction of your objective, your head will explode after three verbal warnings.

If you don't follow my instructions, your head will explode.

If you don't listen to Waller, your head will explode.

Rule number two: We are not friends. I've heard about you two." Eagle pointed to Ky and Xiao, knowing all about their antics from seeing it himself and from Waller's words. "We will have none of that. No laughing, no hugging, no kissing, no fun time bullshit. You will speak to me like I am your boss and you will speak to each other professionally. We're on a mission to protect our country, not a field trip.

That leads to rule number three: We are not here to sightsee..." Quicksilver's hand was still up and he started to shake it very impatiently as his question was still being unanswered. Eagle rolled his eyes. "What?"

"Is Eagle your real last name or is Captain Eagle like... Captain America?"

"Jesus Christ..." Ky placed his hand on his forehead and shook his head. Tom and Bobby smiled slightly, again hiding them to not get on Eagle's bad side. Xiao continued to look around at everyone else. She was reading their minds to try and understand why it was funny, but she didn't get it.

"Yes. My last name is Eagle. Any other stupid questions?"

Ky raised his hand. "You need Waller's permission to kill us, right? I find it hard to believe he gave you the authority to just simply blow up our heads considering that he views us as his most prized possessions. I assume the five-second button press is to avoid accidental presses, but I assume it also notifies Waller and he has to okay the decision, right?"

Eagle scoffed. "As I said, I am the one-"

"He said yes in his head. He's Waller's puppet basically." Xiao interrupted, of course being able to sense he was lying due to her powers.

"Okay, rule number four: Never-" once again, Eagle tried to speak, only to be cut off by Answer.

"I can't turn it off. Therefore, rule number four is impossible." All of the boys, excluding Ky, looked around frantically. They didn't know how they felt about her being able to hear every single thought that came out of their head. "You guys are fine. I don't care about that... stuff." Xiao looked at both Iceman and Fixer as she said this. "And I can't read your thoughts. They're too fast." she said, looking directly at Quicksilver. For her, his thoughts were going so fast, they sounded like gibberish. She actually preferred it that way, gibberish was better than hearing real words to her.

"Okay, rule number five: Let me finish my sentences, Answer." Eagle at least wanted to give the illusion as if his mind wasn't being read.

Xiao nodded, giving Eagle the go to keep going.

"Our mission is to infiltrate a Russian base that is said to be holding onto mutant weapons that make nuclear war look like child's play.

We go inside, we kill the weapons and we come back home. Simple enough, right?"

"Sounds simple, but it can't be that easy. It sounds like suicide." Tom told him.

"Yeah, what are we, some kind of suicide squad?" Bobby asked before all six of them looked at you, the reader through the words on this very page.

Captain Eagle shook his head. "Long as you're with me, I'll keep you guys safe. I get one month off my sentence for every one of you I bring back each mission. There's no way I'm passing that up."

"Awe, that's sweet." Quicksilver quipped, tapping his foot as he spoke, "How much longer till we get there?"

"Few hours. Just sit tight." Eagle finished lecturing them and sat down on his seat on the opposite side of them all.

"So, what do you do?" Ky asked him, wondering if this guy was a mutant since he brought up having a sentence. "Are you a human or..."

"What do I do? I shoot the bad guys. Nothing more, nothing less." Eagle scoffed at the idea that they could even consider that he was one of them. In fact, he found it offensive.

"Define bad guys." Bobby knew what he meant, but he wanted him to say it.

"You know what he means, mate." Tom could sense the hostility in the air. He wasn't the type who enjoyed arguments. He just wanted to go through the motions and get this mission over and done with.

"Nah, tell us what you mean, Captain. You mean mutants, right? Yeah, 'cause we're so different from you." Ky challenged him. He was curious and wanted to know how a bigot's mind rationalized the hatred of his people.

Eagle laughed, shaking his head. "Damn right, you are. I ain't anything like you freaks."

Xiao sat with a pouty expression, trying her best to bite her tongue and not say what she was thinking. However, what Eagle truly thought of them, those words locked away in his mind, were vile. She couldn't hold back any longer.

"Because of a fucking gene!? Because we were born with a special gene in our DNA, that means you want us all dead!? Look at us! We look just like you! If you and I were walking down the street, you wouldn't know the difference, so why!? Why do you hate us!?" Xiao screamed at the top of her lungs, surprising everyone, even Ky. He'd watched her grow to become more emotional over time, but this was shocking.

"It's more than a gene. It's because you freaks are violent. There's a reason why crime rates are high amongst you 'people'. And yeah, you do look like me, and that's what makes you scarier. You blend in with the rest of us." Eagle acted like he had all the answers. Xiao looked at him with her eyes quivering and her fists clenched. She wanted to scream again, but she knew yelling wouldn't change anything.

"Why do you think that is, Captain? You say we're violent. Why do you think we are?" Ky asked him calmly, crossing his arms and looking directly into the captain's eyes as he spoke.

"Are you asking me what makes mutants violent?"

"Sure."

"Because they were born that way. That's why. That X-gene gives more than just your little superpowers. I bet it's what drives them to act out in the way that they do. Fucking savages are programmed that way." Again, Eagle spewed his bullshit. He was listening to what was spewed to him in school, on the news, and by Waller.

"You ever thought about maybe humans are the reason mutants do some of the things they do? Violence is a learned behavior. Mutants commit crimes, sure, but there are far more crimes committed by humans than mutants. There's so little of us left, of course when you compare percentages, it makes it sound like we do the most crime. We're only 0.4 percent of the population.

Besides, most of them are only doing it to survive.

Take mass shootings for example. Your people are the ones doing that, not us. Pulling the trigger on literal children in schools or shoppers in a Walmart. Mutants rob a corner store so they can feed their starving child. I can't say those two are comparable, can you?

If we were actually violent, we'd all come together and wipe every last human from existence. We'd take over the world. But we don't because most of us are too scared to act.

Most of us." Ky's gaze was locked onto Eagle's as he told him the reality of it all, though Eagle ignored all of it, focusing on the last sentence exclusively.

'"Is that a threat, 1226? Cause if it is, you're too late. I guess being locked up, you freaks wouldn't know about what's happening back home. The Brotherhood of Mutants and their leader Magneto are already doing showing us all just how violent you can be.

Enough with the politics. I'm going up to the cockpit." Eagle couldn't take the heat, though he presented himself as being the bigger man by fleeing.

"Run away, coward." Xiao told him. He ignored her and continued going forward. "Desiring the right to live is not a political stance!"

Eagle closed the door behind him, leaving the five mutants in the main cabin by themselves.

"What a fucking muppet." Tom didn't seem too hurt by Eagle's words, but he was still offended nonetheless.

"Yeah, Waller's hand is really far up his ass I bet." Bobby added.

Ky, sitting next to Xiao who was crying quietly, placed his hand on her leg gently. This is the first time she'd ever gotten into it with a bigot due to being sheltered all her life. The four boys had dealt with this their entire lives. Mutant sympathizers existed, so during school debates or whatnot, they'd act as if they were simply one of them rather than a mutant themselves. They'd heard of these talking points before.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright. Just ignore him, he's an idiot." Ky told her softly.

"Are they all like that? Do humans really all think of us that way?" Xiao asked him.

"Most of them, yeah. But remember, your father was a human, right? So there are some good ones out there.

Besides, Eagle might not be a bad guy...

He's just misinformed, brainwashed by the higher-ups."

Xiao leaned her head on Ky's shoulder, gaining the attention of all the other boys on the plane. Quicksilver, despite being a quick thinker, was slow to understand what the two were until that very moment. "Wait... you two are a thing? Like... dating? How'd that happen?"

Everyone else looked at him with dull expressions as the plane continued flying toward Russia, taking them to their first mission.