Breaking News: The New Secretary of Mutant Affairs

[morph]

The Press Room of the White House had been intricately prepared. Chairs had been placed properly on the cleaned and scrubbed blue carpet, with reporters now occupying the folding chairs that had been provided. A rumble of voices echoed through the white walled room in anticipation of one man's arrival, with a single podium set up on the stage in front of the reporters.

The rumble suddenly lowered as somebody finally stepped on stage. A foot, covered by a black dress shoe, first stepped out from behind the curtain to the left. Another foot followed. Legs clad in dark blue slacks moved out to follow the shoes. They trailed up to a torso, dressed in a buttoned-up white shirt, with a dark blue dress coat over it. Hands came up to adjust the red necktie that was worn around his neck.

The figure stopped walking as he came in front of the podium. He adjusted the eyeglasses that were worn in front of his brown eyes, and then lightly trailed his hand over the side of his brown hair. The rather attractive causasian then placed his hands on the podium and looked out over the crowd of newsmen.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Doctor Kevin Sidney." Those words would probably wake up the entire Xavier Institute. The inhabitants of the mansion would more than likely be watching it, since nearly all of the channels had switched to the coverage of it. The older members of the mansion would probably be shocked to find that one of their own had ascended to Hank's position.

"As it has been rumored throughout the week, I am the new Secretary of Mutant Affairs. Dr. McCoy opted to resign from his position due to personal reasons. But that won't set up back. I promise you that the relationship between man- and mutantkind is at an all time high. Magneto is no longer a threat and we are making progress against the so-called 'Brotherhood'."

"Before any questions, I would like to take a moment to talk about the NovaTeX incident. This was a blatant attack by the Brotherhood. At the current count, 25 mutant lives were lost, along with 37 human lives, due to the machinations of the Brotherhood. The Cure that NovaTeX produces is a purely optional pharmaceutical application. Nobody is forced to take this cure. The Brotherhood will be caught for their crimes against not only mankind, but also mutantkind."

"With that said, I received word this morning from Director Denti of the FBI that the Most Wanted List has been updated." Lifting his hand, a screen lowered from the ceiling to stand at his side. A single image was shown on it, a photo of a young man. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is John Allerdyce, alias Pyro. According to reports and testimony, he is the new leader of the Brotherhood, and he also orchestrated the attack on NovaTeX. With that said, he is now #1 on the FBI's Most Wanted List. If anybody has seen this man, they are advised to call 911 IMMEDIATELY. Now, are there any questions?"

Instantly, a million hands went into the air. Kevin lifted his hand to point at one of them. "Yes, you?"

[trish]

It had been an interesting few days at the office.

With all of the mutant activity going on, Paul had been insisting that she go to Baltimore to report the aftermath of the story, and then there had been an incident in who-knows-where, Hicksville that she was supposed to be chasing up, and finally she'd been thrown on a plane to go and represent the network at the White House. The position of Secretary of Mutant Affairs had been open for some time, and rumour was flying around that there had been a new appointment. When a press conference was announced, she was sent on the off chance that it was indeed to deal with the Secretary of Mutant Affairs, although apparently they still trusted her to report on other things if the need arose. That thought was a little dry - she hadn't intended on becoming the network's mutant liason, though she still enjoyed her job more than anything.

When he entered the room, everyone stopped fidgeting and listened to the speech. she wrote down his name - her workload had just been added to, without a doubt Paul would want a feature piece within the next day or two, and it would fall to her to get the details.

She couldn't help but feel smug when she was called on first, although she didn't let it show on her face. "Patricia Tilby, WNBC. The American people have been shown no evidence that John Allerdyce was even at NovaTeX Baltimore. Isn't it damaging to mutant-human relations to incite a state of fear over unsubstantiated claims?"

Trish had more questions. Like the claims that the X-Men had been fighting against the sentinels. But for now, she sat down to await Kevin's answer.

[OOC: The only footage of Pyro at Baltimore is in Trask's plotting hands, and hasn't been shared with anyone yet. Let me know if you didn't know this.]

[morph]

Dr. Sidney remained silent through her question, his hands clasping together and resting on the podium as he listened. This was true. He hadn't been briefed in full on the situation, but he knew enough about it to formulate a response. Slowly, he nodded as she reached the end of her question.

"I would like to thank you for bringing up that point, Ms. Tilby." With one hand, he grabbed the rim of his glasses and lightly adjusted them. "It is true that we have no footage of John Allerdyce at the scene of NovaTeX." A low rumble of voices went through the room. "But we do have footage." The image of Pyro on the screen faded into a montage of various screen captures from the NovaTeX security systems, which showed various members of the Brotherhood fighting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what you see before you was taken from what little data that was left from the NovaTeX security systems. These faces should be familiar to you. Some of them were at M-Day on Alcatraz. Some of them have been on various news reports. The thing that all of these people have in common is that they are members of the Brotherhood. This footage, combined with the witness accounts of the survivors, is more than enough evidence to show that the Brotherhood was greatly involved in the incident. It is known that John Allerdyce has been leading the Brotherhood since Erik Lehnsherr's disappearance. Due to these actions, we have no other choice that to put John Allerdyce at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted List, with the other members of the Brotherhood also joining him."

"In the coming days, we will be releasing information on all of the members of the Brotherhood spotted at NovaTeX. In short, the only thing that has damaged mutant-human relations is the fact that there were killer plants, which were controlled by a member of the Brotherhood, eating human beings and mutants alike outside of NovaTex. Next question."

[trish]

The notepad was rapidly filling with Trish's characteristic neat scrawl. While most would have thought that a contradiction in terms, there was no other way to describe the reporter's writing. It was a scrawl, quickly scribbled down, yet it was perfectly legible. There were several exclamation marks after the words 'killer plants' - it had seemed so ridiculous to hear, was still hard to believe even after having seen the remains of the plants, and some of the damage they had done. Yet the government was confirming the existence of quite a dangerous - and dare she say, scary - mutation. She noticed that he'd said nothing about the zombies that people had claimed were attacking them - apparently that was too far. Either way, NovaTeX was bound to incite anti-mutant sentiments again.

It took a few more questions until he returned to her, and she wondered where they'd managed to find this one. Certainly being trained in smooth talking already. He wasn't like Hank McCoy, identifiably mutant. In fact, for all they knew, he may not be a mutant at all - Trish wondered at what that would do for mutant-human relationships.

"Dr. Sidney. I was wondering if you could enlighten the American people about the involvement of the X-Men at Baltimore. Eyewitness reports have told us that while they appeared to be fighting the Brotherhood, several members may in fact have attacked the government's newly unveiled Sentinels. Can you confirm this?"

[morph]

After one of the answers he gave incited a laugh through the crowd, Kevin looked out over the crowd once more, the smile slowly fading from his lips as he looked for somebody to call on. He saw a familiar hand up once more and hesitantly pointed to it. "Once again, Ms. Tilby."

Once more, Dr. Sidney grew silent as Trish led up to her question, staring down at the floor for a moment as she spoke. That was a heck of a question. In fact, President Cockrum and himself had had a discussion about that earlier in the day. President Cockram was, of course, familiar with the X-Men - he and Charles Xavier spoke regularly before his death. That was one of the reasons why he had chosen Kevin. Once he saw that he had attended the prestigous Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, combined with his doctorate and speeches, he chose him for the position.

Of course, it was also explicitly stated to never reveal the identity of the X-Men.

The mutant group was merely an urban legend among the likes of Roswell, and the government's position was just the same as that.

"As you may know, Ms. Tilby, the United States government does not confirm nor deny the existence of these so-called 'X-Men'. I can, however, confirm that there were other mutants in the area that were fighting the Brotherhood. With how many mutants were in line to receive the Cure, this isn't surprising." Then she asked him about the Sentnels.

He was strongly opposed to the Sentinels. The hulking suits of power armor were Bolivar Trask's pet project. In Morph's eyes, the Sentinels, combined with the Cure, were only furthering general mutant persecution instead of fighting the threats of evil mutants. In his position, however, he had to remain neutral, as much as it pained him to do so.

"The Sentinel program was designed to help. I would like to assure all of you of that." He could feel his stomach churning. "They are there to fight and detain those mutants who break the law, such as the Brotherhood. As this was their first run, there was bound to be some malfunctions. With all of the chaos that was happening at NovaTeX, it was hard to tell friend from foe, and when these mutants saw the Sentinels attempting to apprehend them, they did what any person, mutant or human, would do: they fought back." He was going to be throwing up after this. Of course, he'd have to make some vomit TO throw up.

"Next question."

[trish]

Ah, that old chestnut.

The United States government seemed to follow one philosophy when it came to the X-Men: 'Deny, deny, deny.' They gave the American people less credit that they deserved. They gave the American media less credit than they deserved. And yet, even with news footage of the X-Men in Baltimore, the government would not admit to their existence. She let the slightest hint of disbelief touch her expression. It was to be expected, of course. The government, by acknowledging their existence without doing anything to stop them, would be condoning mutant vigilantes. But everyone knew that the leather-clad team in Baltimore were the X-Men, regardless of what the government tried to say.

Trish Tilby started to tap her leg with her pen. Usually it would have been her notepad, but that made noise and she was well aware that her unthinking motion was not the best of habits. She waited impatiently through a few more questions, laughing politely when appropriate and scribbling down notes for future reference, before he finally came back to her.

"If the Sentinel program was untested, bound to have malfunctions as you said, why was it launched? Isn't that a gross compromise of the safety of the American people?"

She sat down, satisfied that once he answered that, she would have gotten all of her important questions through. Anything thing else of use that she could find out was simply a bonus. She flipped to a new page in her notebook, pen poised to take down his justification.

[morph]

Dr. Sidney noticed her pen taping, along with the furor on her eyebrow. Eventually, he had no other choice to choose her once more. She wasn't like the others. She asked the legitimate questions, the questions that he had to fumble with in his mind to think of an answer for. Luckily, Mrs. Sidney didn't raise a fool, so he was able to quickly formulate a response.

For example, like now.

"Now you're putting words into my mouth, Ms. Tilby. I never said that the Sentinel program was untested. We have gone through numerous trial runs with hundreds of hours spent over the course of several years in constructing the suits. However, on the first public run, there were bound to be kinks in an actual application on a real battlefield."

"In perspective, let's put them into terms of what I'm a doctor of. In 1998, when Bill Gates had the first public showing on Windows 98, there was a blue screen error because there were still bugs. This was our blue screen error, due to the unforeseen attack by more mutants than just the Brotherhood. Secretary Trask of the Department of Homeland Security assured me this morning that following the incident, the Sentinel armor and the soldiers operating them are under research and advisement."

A random person walked out on stage just as he was reaching the end of that speech. Without turning to look at the person, Kevin found them whispering in his ear. Slowly he nodded, still facing the crowd, before the person walked back offstage. "Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this conference. Thank you and good day." As he walked off stage, there was a variety of clicks, clacks, and flashing lights, with a loud rumble of voices synchronizing with the cameras. The reporters immediately stood up, shouting things, trying to get more information.

Backstage, Kevin was in the bathroom, generating vomit to throw up.