“Are you ready?” She heard a voice from behind her while she looked out the window pushing a wispy strand of brown hair out of her face. She turned around to see a tall man in his mid sixties, a huge grin spread across his face, but failed to reach his eyes as they were filled with worry.

“Of course,” she responded, pulling down her suit top to straighten it. “You need to stop worrying Jerry,” she said putting a hand on his shoulder. “Now we have nothing to fear. We’re past the worst.” She tried to put as much optimism in her voice to help out her companion, her running mate, her mentor. He smiled with his white eyebrows raised.

“I know,” he said, “But can you really blame me?” He asked.

She smiled and took his arm taking a deep breath. She looked over to him and nodded and they opened the double doors. They were blinded by the light of the early morning. She smiled and waved heavily, hearing her name shouted over and over again. She smiled as she stepped into the light seeing the press come into full view. Cameras were flashing and she kept hearing, “Madame President, Can you answer a few questions Madame President, Over here Madame President!” She took a deep breath and put up both her hands and said, “Thank you my friends. I am speaking to you for my first time at the White House on the subject of the financial crisis.” She paused for effect. How far she had come, from being some no name mayor in her town, to being President of the United States at the age of forty seven. First female president, with the biggest economic crisis since the great depression on her hands in her first week in office. She didn’t think she had even seen any sleep since she arrived. Everything she had brought with her was still in boxes, she had dark rings under her eyes only hidden by certain amounts of makeup. But she remained strong and calm. She really was qualified for this job, and she was ready to show that to the world.

“As we all know…” She paused as she looked up to the sky seeing an orange smoking form headed straight to where she was giving her speech. The crowd of press turned, but it was too late. The missile hit right in front of her feet between her in the press. She was blinded by light and thrown backwards through the glass doors behind her. She felt every cut every piece of glass and shrapnel as it embedded into her skin. She felt herself fly into the wall inside the room behind her and she fell to the floor in a blast of heat. She lay feeling every injury on her body. She felt a giant cut that ran along her face with her arm that didn’t have white bone sticking out of it. She felt the cut, and just as she did, she felt it heal underneath her examination. She felt all of the cuts and breaks from the explosion start to heal. She grabbed her fractured arm, forcing it back in with a scream coughing from the smoke that surrounded her. She shook her head and popped her neck back into place. She stood up slowly her face practically sewing itself back together as she looked squinting through the smoke to the fire that was burning outside the broken glass. She cracked her knuckles, and looked down at the ground beside her. A huddled form lay there and she took a deep breath, her face becoming cold white even through the scorching heat around her. She knelt down next to Jerry Walker and closed her eyes her fingers feeling for a pulse on her neck. Finding none, she took a deep breath just as security busted down the door leading to the room. Everything had felt like it went in slow motion until they arrived in the room grabbing her and pulling her away from the rubble away from the wreck, away from her best friend. She just shook her head, she couldn’t even think enough to push them away. All she could do was think why, why, why.


She was underneath the ground in a base that was through underground tunnels at least one hundred miles away from the White House. Getting there through a system of hypersonic trains that travel using the nutrients found in dirt for fuel, they arrived at the spot in less than ten minutes. She was now sitting on a bench in the hallway of an underground facility a drink of water in her right hand her face set in a perplexed state. People were passing back and forth rushing around her but at the moment, she just couldn’t bring herself to focus. He was gone, Jerry was gone and it was her fault. If she hadn’t become president, if she hadn’t… but she couldn’t think about that, she needed to get her head back on, get to work, there was a lot of other things to worry about. She stood up kicking off her ruined heels against the white hall wall and set down her cup. She stood up and walked purposely down the hallway to what the signs above her head told her was the ground zero meeting room. She saw may people sneaking glances at her as she walked by, her bare feet pounding across the floor, determined as she was to fix this crisis. The two guards outside the door looked aghast at her as she nodded to them they opened the doors and she strode purposely into the room. It went silent from the argument that was previously being carried out, and she looked around the room. They all looked at her astonished and she just said, “What do we know so far?”

The entire room was silent until finally the Attorney General stood up picking up his papers and walking around the table. “So far all we know is that the White House has been attacked, but also strategic points around the United States. These as we know of so far include the White House, The Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, the JP Morgan Tower, the capitols in the states of Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Georgia, and Iowa, also large cities such as Seattle, Las Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Star City, and more that we haven’t located yet. They attacked strategic places in the nation, for reasons now unknown. We are trying to figure out who bombed us, but at the moment, that too is unknown. It seems that the rest of the world is also experiencing bombings that have either happened, or are going on right now. Most other countries are dealing with threats foreseeable in the near future. They so far are just as perplexed as we are. We have many questions we are trying to answer and are trying to work directly through code with Russia, Israel, Great Britain, France, and Italy to name a few to try and answer these questions.” He started to make a steady pace around the room, “Some questions we are trying to determine: Who would have attacked us? How would they have acquired this multitude of bombs? What are their motivations for attack?” She nodded letting all this set in. So not only had the nation been attacked, but the entire world. She could barely believe it. “We were…just about to take a quick break, but if you would stay here, myself and a few others will help you to debrief.” She nodded and rubbed her head.

“Ok.” She said, and sat down at the long oval table as some people walked out of the room. The door closed and she sat facing the Attorney General, Secretary of State, and few other select members of her cabinet. She looked at their questioning faces and she finally asked, “What?” She looked at their faces with the continued blank stares and the Attorney General again spoke up.

He nodded and said, “Well frankly Ms. President, we are all wondering, how did you…survive the blast? Not only did you survive, but you came out without a scratch. How did that happen?” Her face went white, and she lowered her eyes to the ground.

“I…I can’t really, it’s sort of a hard subject.” She started.

“I think that it’s a pretty easy question really.” He said calmly.

“Let’s just get to the point Ms. President…” Started the Secretary of State, “Are you a mutant or are you not. If you’re not, it’s a miracle, if not you’re a curse.”

The Attorney General Barkins threw him a sharp look and glare. “Well we didn’t want to ask it that directly,” he said throwing another glare, “But that is the basis of the question we’re trying to ask.”

She went over all the possibilities in her head. It was now or never. Could she be impeached for being a mutant? Was that written in the constitution? Or would it be a good thing, would it make her even more of a qualified person for the job. She didn’t know about the impeachment, but she knew that one way would not be good, but it would be right. She nodded slowly and swallowed hard. “Yes.” She said slowly trying to answer all questions. “Yes I’m a mutant.” She said trying to get the words out herself. She didn’t really want to say them, but she knew it was now or never. “And you know what, with all I’ve been through, all I’ve seen in my time, with all that I can do…I’m probably one of the better qualified for the job. Now I’m ready to get cracking down on this, it’s up to all of you if you want to work with me or not, a mutant. But in a time of crisis I really don’t care who I’m working with as long as we are working towards a common goal. Russia has been on questionable terms with us for a couple of years now, but I am ready to accept them with open arms and work together with them to help solve this global crisis. We may not like them, their kind, you may not like me, my kind, but I am ready to solve this crisis once and for all put a stop to it. It’s your choice.” The Secretary of State huffed and left the room with a disgusted look on her face. I shook my head and looked around the room as about half of my cabinet just up and left. I looked down at the ground, shaking my head. Barkins put his hand on my shoulder timidly at first, but then he gripped it reassuringly. He looked at me straight in the eyes.

“Are you ready to fight with me, or against me?” I asked.