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The aftermath of last year's mutant crisis was still rippling through society.
Thanks to the inauguration of the new president, George W. Bush, and the support of Senator Robert Kelly, the mutant Hank McCoy—better known as Beast—had officially entered the U.S. government as an officer within the Office of Mutant Affairs.
This marked another formal collaboration between mutants and the federal government since the creation of Department X during the 1960s, when mutants had cooperated with the CIA.
Unlike before, when cooperation had been limited to a presidential hotline installed in Professor X's office and occasional communication between the two sides, this arrangement represented official institutional cooperation.
The Mutant Registration Act, meanwhile, quietly died.
One major reason was Magneto's actions the previous year, which had nearly transformed world leaders and key representatives into mutants. The incident had profoundly shaken the American government.
Officials understood very clearly that if all humanity became mutants, it would not be an evolutionary leap.
It would be the collapse of the existing world order.
Until a countermeasure could be developed, the United States dared not further escalate its oppression of mutants.
The device had already been destroyed, and all of the mutagenic compounds had been dispersed. Only trace residue remained on the inner surfaces of the containers.
Expecting American scientists to reverse-engineer a solution from such incomplete remnants in a short period of time was unrealistic.
As a result, the government was highly motivated to identify the creator of the device and formula to prevent more of them from being produced.
However, Magneto had accepted all responsibility.
Including claiming to be the inventor of the mutation device itself.
His absolute refusal to reveal the original designs or the chemical formula infuriated the government.
If the X-Men had not been watching closely, Magneto would likely have been stripped of his rights and subjected to every interrogation method imaginable.
For now, the government could only accept his testimony and treat him as the inventor of the device while keeping him under strict supervision.
The X-Men had publicly rendered valuable service, making it politically inconvenient for the government to immediately turn against mutants again.
Thus, official hostility entered another dormant period.
But public sentiment could not simply return overnight to the comparatively tolerant atmosphere of a decade earlier.
---
Ever since the collapse of the Red Empire, the United States had spent nearly ten years without a true rival.
And during those ten years, America had become increasingly eager to find its "next enemy."
Experience had taught its leaders that when no external enemy existed, problems within the country became far more likely to erupt.
Starting with the 1992 Los Angeles riots, nationwide protests inspired by that event led to disturbances of varying scales in Las Vegas and New York during the same year.
Then came:
The 1993 Waco Siege
The 1996 racial unrest in Florida
The 1997 North Hollywood shootout
The 1999 Michigan State University riots
The Woodstock '99 riots (held at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in New York)
The Seattle WTO protests
Among these nine major disturbances of the 1990s:
Four stemmed from racial issues.
One stemmed from religious conflict.
One involved a confrontation between criminals and law enforcement.
Two were caused by college students with too much energy and too little restraint.
One involved anti-globalization anarchist protests.
The pattern revealed quite clearly what America's greatest social problems were.
To redirect internal pressure, the government had previously made the mistake of targeting mutants.
Although Magneto's plan ultimately failed and groups like the X-Men openly stood alongside the government, one could just as easily interpret the situation as mutants playing both the villain and the hero in the same performance.
The warning was unmistakable.
Unwilling to let internal tensions explode, America sought enemies abroad.
In truth, this trend had not begun with the new century. The signs had been visible for years.
The problem was that none of the enemies America had cultivated managed to generate the same universal anxiety that the Red Empire once had.
Nothing united Americans across racial and social divisions quite like a common external threat.
Whether out of lingering fear of the bipolar Cold War world or simple confidence that no equal rival remained, the largely Protestant- and Catholic-led political establishment eventually turned its attention toward an opponent nearly a millennium old:
The Middle East, where Islam was the dominant faith.
Part of this focus also stemmed from the victory in the Gulf War of 1991.
That success further elevated America's international status and strengthened its confidence in intervening abroad.
The result was an increasing tendency to keep shearing the Middle East for wool, seemingly determined not to stop until the sheep were bald.
From another perspective, the region's vast oil reserves—the liquid gold of the modern age—were simply too tempting for American financial interests to ignore.
Since modern international norms no longer permitted outright conquest and annexation, America's preferred method remained cultivating pro-American proxies.
The CIA frequently intervened, practically coaching ambitious opportunists step by step in the hope that, once they gained power, they would align themselves with American interests.
As the saying went:
Where there is oppression, there will be resistance.
After years of persistence, America's policies finally encountered a turning point.
---
On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers seized control of four commercial airliners.
At the time, the U.S. government had not yet grasped the gravity of the situation.
Officials initially assumed it was merely another traditional hijacking motivated by money.
At 8:46 a.m. New York time, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.
The towers rose so high above the city that even from an apartment on East 49th Street, one could see the dark smoke billowing into the sky if looking in the right direction.
At that very moment, Katharine Hepburn had been preparing to take Katie out for their daily walk.
The obvious chaos on the streets caused both her and Henry to abandon the routine.
---
Henry had long been mentally prepared for this day.
Yet he had still harbored a faint hope.
Perhaps this terrorist attack wouldn't happen in a Marvel universe.
After all, this world was filled with supervillains and superheroes alike.
How could ordinary terrorists—criminals barely worthy of notice—possibly create an event of such magnitude?
Reality proved otherwise.
A world containing billions of people was not populated solely by a handful of supervillains.
Even with Professor X and the X-Men present, these champions of justice appeared powerless in the face of a catastrophe on this scale.
Henry's thoughts resembled those he'd had when dealing with the loose ends from Russia.
There was no sense of vengeance fulfilled.
No schadenfreude.
Nor was there overwhelming sorrow for humanity.
What occupied his mind was a much more practical question:
What should he do next?
"Henry."
Katharine Hepburn called out to the silent man staring at the news coverage on television.
"Hm? What is it, Kate?"
Henry snapped back to attention and forced a reassuring smile, hoping to calm the ninety-four-year-old woman.
"Can you help?"
Pointing at the smoking skyscrapers on the screen, Katharine asked the question plainly.
"Help?"
Henry blinked.
Up until now, his primary concern had been finding a good excuse to get everyone as far away as possible.
Helping had not even entered his list of options.
Though she still didn't know the full story, Katharine had never been the type to stand aside while others suffered.
"Maybe I should prepare some first-aid supplies. Food. Water. Go over there. Someone might need them."
Henry couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"Kate, at your age, the last thing you should do is rush into a disaster zone."
He shook his head.
"You'd only end up becoming someone else's responsibility."
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