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

Comments

audio; private

[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 who had been persuaded to risk their lives for their country and the greater good.

I stopped it, but it's only going to happen again. Now I'm the monster they hunt. There'll be another group of children in their hands, being told that exterminating dangerous mutants is what their country needs them to do. And if they aren't hunting me, they'll be hunting the next powerful mutant in the line up, their own recruited telepath.

audio; private

[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.

audio; private

[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.

audio; private

[usavatar]

I'm neither. I just don't believe Hitler's way is the right way.

I can't tell you his motivations - and you don't know them, yourself. There are other ways. Slower, harder ways, maybe - but violence is never the first answer to anything, or the only one.

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[metalwield]

[ oops trigger word there because you did not just say something that could possibly be taken as comparing Erik's chosen violent methods to Herr Hitler's. There's half a second before Erik starts snarling in furious German, but none of it's audible over the sudden screech of twisting metal.

In fact, Erik's wearable actually shorts out. ]

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[metalwield]

[ Perhaps ten minutes later, there's a text message and a location ping. ]

These coordinates. One hour. If you are not there, I will start hunting every member of your team one by one.