Chapter 363 Irony
On the night after the antidote conference ended, more than two dozen underground mutant rallies were secretly held in various parts of the Federation.
A large number of scattered mutants continued to gather through rallies. They launched fierce debates on the release of the antidote, and gradually formed dozens of mutant groups of varying sizes, belonging to three distinct factions.
One of them believed that the antidote was salvation, which gave the lower-class mutants who had had enough persecution and discrimination a second chance to choose their lives. The members of this faction were mostly composed of mutants with significant defects in their abilities and tended to be naive and weak in character.
They called on all compatriots to remain rational. The injection of the antidote adhered to the principle of voluntary non-compulsory, so there was no need to confront the government and the Worthington Group government head-on. Just respect the voluntary choice of every mutant compatriot. Excessive intensification of contradictions would only push the already bad situation to a worse direction, and might even lead to armed suppression by the government. These were typical appeasers.
The second group believes that the antidote is a precursor to war, and is a preliminary test for humans to gradually erode and eventually completely exterminate the mutant race. The members of this faction are mostly mutants with relatively strong and controllable abilities, strong personalities, or far-sighted plans.
They advocate that the entire mutant group can no longer remain silent and condone. The end of letting things go is that they will be gradually divided and eroded by humans in the process of disintegration. Mutations are talents and evolution, not diseases slandered by the Worthington Group. Humans cannot tolerate stronger aliens, so they are prepared to use antidotes to castrate their talents and harm their limbs, causing them to gradually degenerate into mediocre peers who are not much different from them.
Faced with this vicious plan to exterminate the whole family, mutants must unite their forces, use protest marches, and even armed riots to make their voices heard, and resist the issuance of the antidote with the most tough and even resolute attitude. Only in this way can they defend their future right to survival from being forcibly deprived. These are typical hardliners.
The third is the most mixed neutral faction. They have not expressed any clear views on the antidote. They do not despise their compatriots who are preparing to inject the antidote, nor do they support groups that openly oppose the antidote. All they want is to protect their own lives and property by banding together for warmth during this period of turmoil. The members of this faction include all walks of life, and they all focus on self-preservation. In a sense, the external attitude of the X Academy can also be classified as a neutral faction.
The press conference held by the Worthington Group was like a big stone thrown into the center of the lake. In less than a day, it stirred up the mutant society, which was originally a stagnant pool of water, and gave off an indescribable chaotic vitality.
A large number of mutant groups with different propositions and sizes began to emerge. The more they experienced persecution from the mainstream society, the more they understood how insignificant the power of a few individuals was compared to the collective. Only by uniting can they gain a foothold and make their voices heard in this cruel world.
Among these numerous groups, the most powerful one is the Brotherhood of Mutants. That night, Magneto, who had been hiding in the Federation and had never appeared, showed up for the first time at a mutant gathering.
He swept the whole audience with his unrivaled personal reputation. With just one appearance and one speech, he directly recruited more than half of the mutants in the gathering and rebuilt the federal branch of the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Then, these newly joined Brotherhood members began to disperse under Magneto's instructions. They wandered around the various mutant gatherings in the Federation to promote the Brotherhood's ideas and recruit members unconditionally. Soon, the scale of the Brotherhood expanded rapidly like a virus. Without spending too much time, it swallowed up several mutant groups belonging to hard-line factions one after another.
For those mutants who live in the dark of society and make a living by fighting for strength and ruthlessness, Magneto's reputation is far stronger than that of the relatively "weak" professor. It is not an exaggeration to call him the spiritual leader of the hawks.
Preventing the Cuban Missile Crisis, crushing the modern army by himself, establishing the Brotherhood of Mutants, openly rebelling against the national government, committing many major crimes in succession, assassinating President Kennedy, interrupting the mutant registration bill, and establishing the metal island of Kiyoshi that belongs exclusively to mutants...
These far-reaching major events have jointly created Magneto's reputation as a mutant bipolar. This tough-minded old man has been fighting for the greatness of mutants all his life. Although in the eyes of humans, he is the leader of the most influential terrorist organization in this century, from the perspective of mutants, he is an absolute hero.
So when he appeared in the Federation and raised his arms, countless mutants who admired his deeds began to flock to him. After dawn, at least 70% of the hard-line members in the entire Federation united under his command.
There are also many members of other factions who changed their ways. In this world with extraordinary abilities, the cohesion that a strong leader can represent is immeasurable.
What is the extent of Magneto's personal force? Under his most basic metal manipulation, the guns, missiles, and even nuclear weapons that are the foundation of modern armies have become large toys that can be manipulated at will.
It can be said that as long as Magneto joins his army, the deterrent power of the national army will be reduced by at least 60%, and there is a Brotherhood base as a backup. Even if a big mess is caused in the Federation, the worst that can happen is to follow him to the isolated island of Kiyo.
These conditions constitute the practical reasons why so many mutants joined the Brotherhood without hesitation. With the combination of spiritual worship and practical factors, Magneto assembled a powerful mutant army in just one night, and the number of troops in the army is still expanding at a very fast rate.
On the second day, with the first light of day, all the changes that occurred in the dark night were silent, and the overall atmosphere of the federation became more and more turbulent.
Both the human military and the mutant community gradually noticed the abnormal changes in the undercurrent. Among them, the most obvious perception was the Worthington Group, which held a press conference on the antidote the day before.
With the strong promotion and subsidies of the government, the release of the antidote began to be fully promoted today. Tens of thousands of antidote potions that had been prepared long ago began to be sold publicly at various injection points. Although the price of the sale was not free, it was unimaginably low, and even a loan injection service was provided.
Basically, as long as you are willing to inject, you can still get the antidote even if you can't pay a penny. The only restriction is that it must be used on site.
The effect of the antidote is exactly the same as what the Worthington Group advertises. It takes effect on the spot within ten seconds after injection, and there will be no side effects or discomfort. On this day, countless mutants with distorted appearances cried with joy at the injection site.
From a biological point of view, mutants refer to mutants produced by gene mutations. It can be said to be evolution, but it can also be explained as deformity. The mutated genes give them extraordinary special abilities, but also produce many monsters with deformed bodies, and the latter are not few in number.
In various injection sites in the Federation, you can see various beast-like orcs, strange races with changeable skin colors, skeletons with exposed bones, hunched and twisted dwarfs, and horrifying aliens. There are many monsters that are very different from normal humans. These monsters have a unified name in the classification of mutant levels-Ipsilon-level mutants.
They have weak abilities, but their appearances are all kinds of strange due to gene mutations. They are the failed products of mutant genes. Not to mention human society, they are at the absolute bottom of the mutant population, accounting for 20% of all mutants. It doesn't sound like a lot, but in the total base of 17 million, there are more than 3 million of them.
If we talk about the group that is most excited about the release of the antidote, the human government can only be ranked second. These Ipsilon-level mutants are the well-deserved first. At present, among the long queues of people queuing outside the injection point, nearly 80% are occupied by this group of people. They are in tattered clothes, smell bad, and have a fear of shrinking and panic that has not appeared in the light for a long time, but their eyes are full of expectations and longing for a new life.
This part of people is also the main reason why Beast Hank still chooses to support the release of the antidote after knowing the harm of the antidote. For those "monsters" who can only hide in the dark corners of society forever, the antidote is their only salvation.
Now they finally have a second chance to choose their lives. A large number of "monsters" walked neatly into the antidote injection site under the command of armed guards. Then, at the exit on the other side, one after another, people dressed the same as the previous "monsters" but looked like normal humans.
The first thing this group of people did when they walked out of the door was to take off the loose clothes that almost covered their whole bodies, revealing their haggard but normal human faces in the bright golden sunlight, either crying or laughing wildly, and then ran away from here.
In fact, even if the antidote is injected, their social status at the bottom has not changed, but after getting rid of the identity of monsters, they finally have the qualifications to live under the sun again.
Of course, not all mutants are excited about the antidote. The number of disgust and hatred will only be greater. The streets outside the injection site are full of mutant groups marching against it. They hold up signs with various protest slogans and shout in unison, "We don't need an antidote!", which looks amazing.
What's worse, they would glare at their fellow mutants who were waiting in line for injections and abuse them; and facing their former compatriots who had turned back into humans at the exit and were feeling mixed emotions, they had no mercy or wishes, only extreme indifference and disgust after their race was betrayed.
But the most ironic thing was that the people in the queue had strange appearances and abnormal body shapes, and their identities as mutants could be identified at a glance, but most of the people who opposed them outside looked the same as ordinary people. If it weren't for the placards held high in their hands, it would be difficult to tell with the naked eye that both sides were compatriots of the same kind.
Those in the queue were still queuing in silence, and those who were scolding were still scolding fiercely. With the staff and journalists who maintained order in the middle as the dividing line, this group of compatriots was invisibly divided into two incompatible groups.
At the back of the parade, Xu Yue, Storm and Logan quietly watched the ironic scene in front of them. After a long time, he, who was in front of the two, spoke softly:
"Ororo, now you know why the professor is not against the antidote?"
Beside her, Storm looked at the former compatriots who were running away at the injection point, and then glanced at the strange-looking "monsters" in the queue. She pursed her lips and was speechless for a while.