After watching Stryker leave with the authorization papers, President Dean sat in his chair, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight streaming through the window as he breathed a small sigh of relief.
As a newly inaugurated president, Dean wasn't having as easy a time as others imagined. After his predecessor stepped down, he not only had to deal with the mountain of messes the man had left behind, but also had to struggle through his duties amid doubt and criticism from all sides. Compared with other presidents, Dean consequently had less authority and a less stable position, leaving him vulnerable to threats.
That was why Dean urgently needed to accomplish something major to bolster his authority and secure his position.
Even now, the Mutant problem remained a difficult one to solve. Although crimes involving superpowers weren't as frequent as before, they still left the public in a state of panic. And it wasn't just the public—Dean himself and other high-ranking Americans were afraid, too. The Mutant problem was like a fish bone stuck in the throats of him and the other officials: deeply uncomfortable.
A law without the force to enforce it was just empty words. Faced with the Mutants' bizarre array of abilities and the handful of individuals who were essentially walking nuclear weapons, ordinary people and so-called advanced technology were ultimately at a disadvantage. Human technology would gradually gain the upper hand over Mutants as time went on, but so what?
Humans and Mutants both knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. Humanity's main advantages lay in its overall numbers and technology, while Mutants' lay in their superior physical abilities and all kinds of strange, unpredictable powers. Who knew when some power-awakened Mutant lunatic might become as powerful as Magneto and start a war against humanity? Besides, technology wasn't