Introduction - IC

The X-Men are dead. So is Magneto, their formidable arch-rival, but his Brotherhood of Mutants remains, under mysterious new leadership. The thing that stood between the Brotherhood of Mutants and the rest of the world is gone

It started when the Brotherhood of Mutants strayed into the sights of Frank Castle; when the Punisher got word of mutants working with criminals in Vegas, taking illegal money off the casinos, he intervened and killed the mutants involved. They were members of the Brotherhood...and then, the inevitable counterattack by the Brotherhood, sparing no effort, heedless of the innocent lives of mere humans, that spilled into the streets of Las Vegas. The X-men tried to intervene. The city was destroyed in a battle between the X-men and the Brotherhood of Mutants; the toll of the dead and wounded was incalculable. The X-men were gone and the Brotherhood was triumphant in this fight, though Magneto, the stabilizing influence on a motley crew, was gone. That was a decade ago.

In response to the Battle of Las Vegas, the governments of the world are deploying new forces with previously classified and experimental technologies in an attempt to contain the 'mutant threat' and everything seems to hang from a very fraying single thread indeed. The response of those in power scares more mutants into the Brotherhood's way of thinking even as the Brotherhood wages a skillfull propaganda campaign of "told you so" aimed primarily at other mutants, who were apprehensive about the future, terrified that humanity would turn on them and seeing only one place left to go that would accept them.

There have already been incidents between mutants acting on their own and more organized Brotherhood missions, which seem intended to goad the government forces, notably H.A.M.M.E.R, the successor agency to S.H.I.E.L.D, who are tapped to help create and maintain a heavily armed gendarmerie (militarized police department) called the Mutant Control Force (MCF) that handle mutant related incidents exclusively with a variety of experimental technologies intended to level the playing field against mutants. Their help, of course, comes with a price, one that some government officials agreed to.

Tensions are on the rise and even the most reasonable politicians, the level headed ones, support mutant registration out of political necessity and the more extreme political groups are gathering steam and support as they advocate internment camps for mutants. Havens for mutant like Xavier's academy, by the order of a US government acting on behalf of its hysterical voters, have been shut down on the pretext that they are 'training grounds' for mutant extremists. Without the X-men or the Professor to hold the line, there are few groups willing to advocate for mutants, particularly as the cause becomes more unpopular than ever and the public turns hostile.. The Brotherhood, as a result, draws recruits from those mutants out of a sense of hostility toward the world or out of mere self-preservation. Some mutants go into hiding, but are hunted by the Brotherhood and the MCF alike.

All seems lost.

Xavier and the X-men are gone, but Janus is activated.