The private jet that was to take them back to Washington was waiting for them at the airport.  A civilian aircraft, for once, which meant the short flight would be that much more comfortable.  Valerie was waiting for them on the airplane once they arrived.  She was already dressed up for the press conference later today, going with a conservative office attire consisting of a knee length black skirt, and matching jacket over a white blouse.  Johnson was also inside, sitting at the front of the airplane in his usual dark suit and tie, and holding an even darker mug of coffee.

”You wanted to talk about Camp-X? Valerie didn’t so much as wait for the airplane to taxi to the runway before mentioning the email John wrote to her earlier that day.  She knew he was reluctant to broach the subject in front of Johnson, but if he wanted to discuss the matter before the meeting with the President, he would have no other opportunity to do so.

"I don't know about talking about Camp-X specifically. I wanted to talk about what just happened at the Raft and how it relates to Camp-X. The atrocities led by the doctor at Camp-X were horrific, and hopefully were not being carried out at Camp-X. But there was something else at Camp-X. I believe Zoey Fujino committed mass murder, deciding it was better to kill every one of the prisoners there, no matter the severity of their crime, rather than risk any of them escaping. Killing an escaping prisoner is understandable. Killing all prisoners in a facility, including all those who are not even trying to escape, is actually mass murder. And now someone has done the same mass murder at the Raft. They killed all the guards as well, making it even worse. If you doubt how bad it was, I can let you know what it feels like to experience all of them dying at once; trust me that you don't want that experience. Now, we cannot prosecute the person who pressed the button like we potentially can Zoey Fujino. But someone was responsible for setting it up, and they surely were not in the facility, and whoever it was needs to answer for what was done. Eventually another facility will be built. I understand restraining mutants with all sorts of varied powers is difficult. But something different than mass murder for all if there is any threat of one escaping must be done."

Was that all done in one breath? Ana Sofía must have snuck some little breaths in there somewhere, as she just let loose non-stop once Valerie gave her the opening.

He listened to Windtalker, nodding as she spoke. He waited until she said her piece, and cleared his throat.

Slightly paranoid, John's arms made sure to scan the plane for listening devices and hidden cameras. He wanted to trust the government, but too much had happened to just hope for the best. Once he was sure, another arm showed Director Cooper and the others the video of Captain American speaking to the former commander of Freedom Force via holographic replay and audio speakers.

"Look, I know the ex-commander is most likely fired by now. Or on leave or something. But these are the social media numbers of internet traffic regarding camp X." Another arm shows the holographic pie cart of internet comments and discussions. Most of them where really bad.

"If we go on TV, as the offical mutant task force of the US government, and give some excuse for Camp X? It will literally give aid and comfort to people like Magneto. Given the wide spread knowledge of mutant power restraint tech, the whole Camp X thing seems like a deliberate effort to make an anti-mutant gulag. You dont need a black site prison for mutants if you can cancel out their powers.

We need more transparency. We need to show the mutant community as thier police force, we can be held to account. Firing the former director may not be enough. Not for the followers of Magneto anyways. So as mutants Freedom Force needs to be honest with the public. Or this is gonna happen again."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

"It's worse than that," Frank said. Giving excuses would be bad, sure. But prosecuting the offenders might actually be worse. "If Zoey Fujino stands trial and wins, it will be open season on mutants, everywhere. It'll be like saying it's okay to kill mutants just because they might do something bad."

Kate accepted Ana's invitation to spend the few remaining hours of night at her house and after calling Zoey that night was quite happy to find that Valerie had arranged to have cloths delivered so she would have something to wear.  After a little time she finally decided upon a nice cardigan and skirt.  She had seen some of the news and wanted to look as innocent and least threatening as possible.  Even if people watching her on TV could see that was obviously a lie impressions still mattered.

So with that picked out she went with the rest onto the plane to DC.  With everything going on and being said she felt she needed to add her own two cents.  "I think another problem is that nobody knows that these things were even happening, except apparently the deep dark secret parts of the government that nobody trusts and Magneto.  How a terrorist knows more than the rest of congress is something they won't like, and the rest just gives more reason for why no mutant should trust the police."

Frank's frank talk about Zoey made her uncomfortable.  She liked Zoey but intellectually knew that what she did was wrong.  It was like what Frank did, but not as obviously not-bad and she didn't like thinking things like that about friends. "Maybe we need to emphasize how new we are and that we aren't doing the old things?  That was the last super evil villain style prison right?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:49, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

Valerie knew she was stepping into a mine field when she agreed to have this discussion.  This was a difficult conversation, with the different points of view potentially impossible to reconcile.  But she also knew they had to talk through it – the sooner the better.   She didn’t want to string them along, even if it meant she would have to get through the press conference and the meeting with the President on her own.

“John, you played the recording from Commander Price just now*.   I thought the Commander made the perfect argument for the existence of these super prisons.  What would you suggest, as an alternative?  How do we put such people on trial, or imprison them, when being within two hundred feet of them is akin to being issued a death warrant?  How?”

She shakes her head

“We had no other option but Camp-X.   As for the Raft; that prison was managed by a different branch of the government because it was never meant to be a prison for Mutants.  I never realized they had measures in place to stop a potential breakout.  Nonetheless, normals can’t possibly stop a mass escape of supers without resorting to extreme measures.  There were dozens of supervillains in that prison, each of them earned the electric chair several times over.  And if but a few escaped, it would have been a catastrophe on a global scale."

"Look" she let out a drawn sigh

"I’m not at peace with any of this either.  You find me an alternative, a better option, and I PROMISE you I will take it up all the way to the president, use whatever influence I have, even quit and become a whistleblower if I have to.    But we can’t just say what we’re doing is wrong, when the best we can propose is the deaths of countless millions at the hands of psychopaths and egomaniacs with ambitions for world domination."

Douglas Price:

"Carlos Pérez was a psychopathic serial killer with the power of making people heads explode.  We couldn't exactly put him in court in front of a judge and jury.  Then there's George Hannaby; objects spontaneously combust in his presence.  We picked him up after a fire in his house consumed his parents, kid sister, and pet rabbit.  Need I go on?"

In reply to Valerie Cooper (msg # 45):

John shrugged. "There will always be risk, Director Cooper. Can I promise 100% success rate? No. No one can.

Remember, no one in Camp X was actually charged with a crime. Not to mention they just disappeared into the night. Some of them are horrible dangerous people...but some are just dangerous because it was forced on them, by nature and by the government.

What should have been done in the first place when dealing with problematic mutants is go to the mutant community to restrain them.

You wont have people like Magneto coming after you if we can figure out some sort of mutant restraint system that become as common as handcuffs, and at the same time highly regulated in their use. And the way you have that happen is through a selected council of a human and mutant review board. Each member should be selected by certain established criteria and by...maybe the president and her advisers?

I would NOT leave it up to congress. The human justice system is filled with inequality and corruption. America has more people in prison than anywhere in the world, including China with it's billion plus population! And we use private corporations with the cheapest methods possible. Not to mention a drug war that results in a prison population of 40% non violent offenders in jail. By the time they get out of prison, they are pretty violent. Plus the fact that some of them cant find work or even vote in the south which then makes crime even worse."

He paused, realizing he was going a bit off track. "Look, I can write something up, point you in the direction of how I as a mutant would like to see this go. I have some ideas of technology that could help. But even if you dont change a word of it and send it to the President's desk, I know its out of your hands at that point. I am also sure there are people in the Presidents cabinet who are telling her Gulags are the way to go now. If she does that, and does not find another way, this cold war between humans and mutants will become a hot one. And weather or not Magneto lives or dies, he will have won that war. He needs to be proven wrong publically. It's the only way to stop him."

Even as John said this, he knew what he was proposing would only maintain a better system for a cold war. Humanity was not capable of being decent to each other, much less mutants. The history and the cold unfeeling logic that judged human behavior showed that to be true. John wished he could somehow see a future where humanity loved its children...but his own past showed that to be impossible.  As he was not wearing a mask, he struggled to keep that despair off his face.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:55, Wed 09 Feb 2022.

"The trouble there is that Magneto needs to be proven wrong in absolute black-and-white, and he's really only wrong in certain shades of gray." Frank was waiting by the microwave, where he was heating up some of the cold pizza. It would be terrible, but edible, and he was hungry. "He's got some valid points. Just because he goes around using murder as a tool to make them doesn't entirely make him wrong. The Camp-X mutants were kept under 24-hour sedation. The X-Men supported that. Magneto opposed it. If you reduce the argument to those simple terms, suddenly Magneto's right and the X-Men are wrong.

"Now, like it's been said already: releasing those mutants would have been very, very bad. Just waking them up might have been catastrophic. Magneto would have released them without any alternate means of restraining their runaway abilities, so we opposed him. But all we really did there was choose the lesser of two evils.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of moral ambiguity. There is no right answer."

"John; what you're suggesting, asking the Mutant community to restrain Mutant criminals, would undermine democracy.  Only the US government, which is elected by the people, should have the power to enforce the law.  We can't delegate that power to anyone else"

She frowned as he went on disparaging the American justice system, especially when he made the comparison to China.  She was pretty sure THEIR statistics didn't include the millions of Uyghurs held in interment camps.  Arguing the point, though, would only sidetrack the debate

"I did plan on demanding transparency and non-partisan oversight of those prisons.  It might get me in trouble with my boss, but we can't let Homeland Security operate without any sort of supervision.  That's the best I could come up with so far.  Unless you have that magical piece of technology that can inhibit Mutant powers at the ready..."

In reply to Valerie Cooper (msg # 48):

"Director Cooper, with respect-you have already asked the mutant community to police the mutant community. Freedom Force are the mutant representation of that community. Given this is a state of emergency, and your other options are far worse, you need to deputize certain mutants to restrain these criminals.

Magneto is counting on the US government to overreach. He believes they would use the excuse he provided them to start a mass imprisonment of mutants. I am sure you know the expression, 'when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.' You cannot brute force your way out of this mess until the technology catches up. That could be years away...or longer if Magneto has his way."

"It might sound like I'm splitting hairs here, but I didn't approach the leaders of the Mutant Community, if such existed, and asked them to police their own.  Freedom Force doesn't represent the Mutant community.  The Mutant community doesn't have membership cards, they didn't run an election and choose you " she points at John "to represent them.  Freedom Force is a branch of the government.  Though you are all Mutants, you represent the American people as a whole, not just the Mutant community . That is an important distinction"

"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't look into recruiting Mutants into the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  Just that they ultimately must answer to the government, and not some unelected, self professed community representative"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:37, Wed 09 Feb 2022.

In reply to Valerie Cooper (msg # 50):

"We are out of super prisons of any kind, and yet we have an abundance of super criminals. The President has the power to suspend the law during times of emergency. Including using the normal means to hire and fire people. This qualifies as an emergency given the fact we have no other option. That being said, I am not suggesting anyone force the leaders of the mutant community into government service.

I am saying if the President and Freedom Force asks publicly, and the fact that most mutants are not holocaust survivors ready to stop the rise of what they see as a 4th Reich, those mutants will volunteer if they are called upon. They are also citizens of this country, right?"

It was weird, hearing those hopeful words coming out of his mouth. Normally he was much more pragmatic and a bit pessimistic. However, he was running out of options. Until he invented a way out of this mess, there was nothing to fall back on.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:00, Wed 09 Feb 2022.

"Well it sounds to me like one problem is keeping all your dangerous eggs in one basket, so if one thing goes wrong for a single one everything breaks.  If you spread things out then one thing going wrong is only loosing one egg.  The other thing is if they earn the electric chair, have actually earned it then use it.  After the trial of course, and to the trial by video if its too dangerous to do it in person."

Kate sighed.  "But just do everything out in the open.  Give a mutant criminal the option of serving their sentence peacefully.  Let them know that if they agree to be a prisoner, to not try to escape that they will be treated fairly and humanely.  There was a prison near where I grew up.  It had a chain link fence with barbed wire on top sure, but they lived in little houses and there weren't anyone with guns in towers and all the rest.  They stayed in jail because they were serving their time and while I'm sure a lot of them could have escaped if they wanted to, it wasn't worth it.  So do the same thing with mutants."

"If somebody is a danger to everyone near them, give them the option to live out in the middle of nowhere.  Get them a good phone and computer and satellite tv or whatever.  That has got to cost less than a secret evil prison where you have to keep them drugged up and one mistake will cause chaos."

Gwenyth of course immediately went to the cockpit. She had actually never flown a jet before and no-doubt annoyed and harassed the pilots with her incessant questions. Before too long however she had a suspicion that the rest of Freedom Force wanted her back in the cabin to be a part of the smarty-pants political conversation.

So it was that Gwenyth found herself occupying the long couch in their jet, legs crossed, one hand on her thigh while her other arm propped up her head, iridescent violet-white hair artistically splayed all about herself. She hadn't meant for it to fall that way; it just does that. It's a good thing she was pretty because she had no idea what to add to the ongoing conversation between Tank, Windy, Valerie, and especially Shiva. She was still trying to figure out her own place in the world; there was no way she was qualified to discuss others'.

One thing she does appreciate is Valerie's stated willingness to go as far as necessary to see that solutions be heard. But it's clear from listening that there are no easy, safe, or surefire solutions. Plus, she's a woman, and she knows all too well how women are viewed in any sort of power hierarchy.

So, instead of weighing in on an arena she has no business in, Gwenyth instead browses the major social media sites, taking the pulse of public relations. She tries to follow along with the discussion as best she can as she does.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Wed 09 Feb 2022.

As usual, Danny seemed to be sitting nearby (not really part of the conversation), listening in.
He remained quiet, though often a small smile creased his lips, and lit his eyes, when someone said something particularly intriguing.  This happened a lot when Kitty-Kate spoke;  for her age, she was quite insightful.

"Camp-X was a high security facility for dangerous mutants.  Obviously, we didn't put people in there that didn't pose a risk to anyone; intentionally or unintentionally.  And I know how putting people on trial via a webcam sounds like a good idea.  We do it when we can, but it isn't always practical.

Pérez murdered three officers when we tried to bring him in.  He would have killed off the prison guards too if we didn't sedate him, so its not like we could sit him through a trial even if he was in a cell hundreds of miles away - there would still be people around him.  Same goes for George Hannaby.  He wasn't a bad man, but he couldn't control his powers.  It would only be a matter of time before he sets whatever room you put him on fire; webcams, laptop, and himself included.  Then we had people like 'Citric', that induced metal-corrosive acidic rain to fall in a ten miles radius.  'Avalanche' that could generate earthquakes capable of leveling entire cities.  It goes on and on.  "

She didn't think any of them really appreciated the scale of the problem.  And there were other constraints as well

"You also need to be aware that we're working within a limited budget.  We can't afford to split prisoners to hundreds of locations across America and still be able to allocate the manpower to guard and treat them.  It would also be that much harder to scramble the army to recapture them, in case of an escape, when the breakout could happen anywhere in the US"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:11, Thu 10 Feb 2022.

In reply to Valerie Cooper (msg # 55):

John listens to the others and waits for a chance to respond.

"To people like Magneto, that is the all the excuse they need. Can you honestly tell me, with the limited resources you just said, no mistakes where made? Remember, there is no charges and no trials. Just because a mutant could create earthquakes, does not mean they would.

I have to return to my original point. If you had a staff of mutants, not just as soliders, but as the offical govement response to mutant problems like this, you would not need to be kidnapping people and drugging them into comas. The President needs to enact her emergency powers for us to find and recruit as many willing mutants as possible. Not just for human safety, but for theirs as well. I know the backlash to Magneto's actions will be taken out on mutants with no real ability to defend themselves."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:47, Thu 10 Feb 2022.

"He'd only have to do it once," Frank said softly, regarding 'Avalanche'. He was beginning to see why someone like that wasn't given the benefit of the doubt. Too much doubt, not enough benefit. And he'd probably already shown some proclivity to do so, to get himself locked away. If otherwise, how would they have known about him in the first place?

Frank was beginning to see why the X-Men had defended this status quo. He still thought they'd needed to try harder, but try what precisely? There was no easy answer.

"We all need sleep. We're not going to solve the world's problems right now."

"Not every mutant has control over their powers," Gwenyth says quietly, looking up from her phone for a moment. "Have you read the report on the Manhattan Incident?"

In reply to Gwenyth Blake (msg # 58):

"I agree. I did not have full control...and still don't. Not totally." He glared at Six, which seem to turn the end of its length into a bunny. John rolled his eyes at the limb.

"Yeah, from the file I read about the Manhattan incident it was bad. Really bad. I was not there so I can only imagine Agent Tank did what he had to do. Certainly extreme measures are sometimes needed.

But if we want to help new mutants, the only way is for them to learn control. If that is possible.

The best way that happens is by getting those mutants help by people who have experience in mutant powers. Because outbreaks of mutant powers are going to keep happening randomly, there is nothing we can do about that. What we can do is choose how we react to it."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Fri 11 Feb 2022.

Danny nodded with that last part from Johnny.

Kate was pouting a little, and of course she knew better so just waited for a chance to speak up.  "You can't punish someone just for that they could do... maybe you do need to take them someplace remote to figure out how to control their powers, but how do you know they won't figure it out, or learn and get better.  It would be like saying Frank can't fly because he might choose to take the plane hostage or something stupid like that.  OR no, throwing him in jail because he could take a plane hostage."

Danny nodded to that too, with a smirk.
Maybe they should lock Frank up on the premise that he might take the plane hostage.

"No arguments there:  We're not putting anyone away for what they could do, but for what they've already done"

There were, in fact, a few politicians suggesting just that.  Thankfully, they were still sitting across the aisle, and not in any position of power.

"I admit, the government prioritized the public safety, but I don't know if they are that wrong in doing so.  None of us are experts on Mutants.  There is no evidence to suggest that all Mutant CAN learn to control their powers.  Clearly, some can, while others can not.  And we can't stick people out in the middle of the Mojave Desert until they figure things out.  Someone would have to take care of them, which would leave them exposed to their powers.  We can and do consider this option for Mutants who aren't dangerous to the point they can murder you in their sleep.  For the few who were though, that's what we had Camp X for"