Sitrep 5 ¦ Video (backdated to late Dec. 25)

[usavatar]

[When the feed comes on, it shows Steve in full dress uniform, looking fatigued. He forgets for a moment what he wanted to say - rather, how he wanted to say it.]

It seems like a lot of us got... unpleasant surprises, this holiday. [Silence. Then,] I'm... I don't know how many of you are familiar with the history of Earth as I know it, but I

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[metalwield]

[ Someone is cranky and furious about the date and his thoughtful gift from Hypatia and a bunch of other things, and Steve just happens to be a convenient target. Sorry bro. His voice is scathing. ]

What a touching story, Captain. How fortunate we are to have you here to inspire us.

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[metalwield]

Actions have consequences. He threatened my-- family.

[ There's a pause before the word 'family,' but once said he can't take it back. ]

The truth is that you don't know him at all, Captain. You haven't had any previous dealings with mutants, correct?

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[usavatar]

[Looong silence, because the bitter irony of that first statement is something that Steve just. Nope. Cannot do.]

I don't see why that matters.

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[metalwield]

It matters a great deal. In the world where I come from, mutants are only starting to appear in significant numbers. Those who can pass for human keep their powers hidden in order to avoid conflict with the general public, but those with physical mutations aren't so lucky.

Pietro's world is a future, one of several I've heard described. There are far more of us in the future, and the government openly persecutes us because of the danger we represent. The Ultimates, the Avengers, whatever they're called across the different worlds, are an anti-terrorist unit. That includes suppressing mutants.

And they are using a mutant to do it. I was leashed and used by your government for the same purpose.

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[usavatar]

...I'd be stupid to say I didn't think it was possible, or that some version of that isn't the truth. But the things I've heard are different. The people I've met aren't the sort to fight for no reason I don't know how the future will play out any more than you do - but I know that I won't be a part of something persecutes the innocent, and I know the friends I've made who are part of it wouldn't be, either.

Quicksilver trusts his team. [He can't exactly share Pietro's version of events without betraying the man, but he doubts he'll be able to convince Erik of anything without details. Middle ground, then-] And I trust that he told me the truth when he told me how he joined the Ultimates. He's where he wants to be.

[As much as is possible.]

[Silence again.] He's my family here, Magnus, and I don't care what you say - if you don't leave him alone, your business if going to get pretty fascinating.

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[metalwield]

[ oh son you did not just ]

He is not your species.

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[usavatar]

[oh yes he did]

That doesn't matter to me. It shouldn't matter at all. Isn't that the whole point?

All I know is, if you try to go after him again in any way, I will stop you. If you go after the SHIELD agents, their associates, my friends - same tune.

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[metalwield]

The way you stopped me the first time?

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[usavatar]

[Quiet and cold:] No. With extreme prejudice.

I don't want to - but whatever I have to do to keep my people safe, I will do.

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[metalwield]

[ That gets him to bark out a laugh. Oh the number of times he's been threatened by men in uniform. ]

Do you Americans practice any other kind of prejudice?

I'm sorry, Captain, but there is very little you can do to stop me.

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[usavatar]

I'm sorry you believe that. I'm sorry you've been given reason to.

But if you make me, I'll find a way to stop you. I won't give up until I do.

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[metalwield]

You'd better get on with it, then. Do you know what I've been told is in store for me, in the future? I'm going to shoot out my son's kneecaps because, and I quote, he displeased me. I'm going to try and assassinate the President of the United States. I'm going to kidnap a teenage girl and use her to forward my goals of mutant supremacy, deliberately endangering her life. I'm going to cripple the only person capable of stopping me. I did murder a man who wanted to wipe out all humans by starting World War 3, not because I disagreed with that goal, I just wanted to go about it a little differently.

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[usavatar]

[In store for him. The inevitable. The removal of choice, possibility - and suddenly Steve is a lot more sympathetic to Erik than he was ten minutes ago.]

And you haven't done any of that yet. That doesn't have to be the future you choose.

[Deep breath. Somehow this whole conversation is like coming up for air.] Why would you want to kill us? I know in theory why you would - but if there was a human child standing in front of you, someone who'd done nothing to you, someone who probably never would, could you honestly just... murder them? Would you give people a reason to hate you like that? You know the way the mob thinks. Give them one emblem to blame, and everything that resembles it is at fault. People are easy enough to scare without war on their minds.

[Exhale.] You know what the future is supposed to be. You're better-armed than anyone to change it for the better, for everyone.

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[metalwield]

It's not going to be my choice. I could leave, I could disappear into the wilderness and ignore everything going on around me and it would not stop the fact that mutants are going to be hunted, tagged and ID'd, and imprisoned or killed the moment they become inconvenient to those in power. No matter what I do, that is going to happen. It's already happened.

The CIA used me and Ch-- and a telepath to identify young mutants, recruit them as soldiers, and pit them against a monster, an older, powerful mutant who had been murdering his way to power for decades. They were civilian children. They had no idea what they were fighting or how. One of them died.

[ His voice gets progressively more furious, nearly snarling the words. ]

And in the end, do you know what happened? After I killed that monster and prevented a nuclear war? The humans turned on us. Shaw's body wasn't even cold before their guns and missiles were trained on us, since we had become their new greatest threat. They would have murdered civilian American children

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[usavatar]

That's what you think Pietro is to SHIELD. [It's quiet, but there's no denying the anger in it - and it's not directed at Erik.] The next round of abuse.

...For what it's worth, he's not. I don't know that you'll believe me, but he's not. He cares about his team. And he doesn't hunt mutants - it's not why he's there.

[He can't - won't say more than that, but. He has to at least say something. In defense of SHIELD, if for no other reason.]

There has to be another way. One that won't hurt the innocents on either side. There has to. Don't give up on the possibility that things can change without a massacre. Cycles can break. They can be broken.

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[metalwield]

He certainly didn't volunteer out of his overwhelming concern and compassion for humans.

You sound like my former partner, Captain. Naive and profoundly blind. You've come from a war that centers around persecution and attempted genocide. You'd think that humanity would look back on that and learn something, hm? But it only takes a few years before new movements to oppress the undesirable crop up. It's simply what humans do.