September 11th, 2001

Everyone remembers where they were when the first planes hit. They were sitting by the radio, mowing the yard, looking up with blinking, blinded eyes at the plume of smoke that became a black cloud. It began with the World Trade Center. It ended less than an hour later, with the detonation of a nuclear bomb in Washington. In less than an hour, the United States of America was gone, sacrificed to the ideals of a group that most knew nothing of.

al'Taqwa. The righteous.

The first months after the war were a confused blur for much of the country. Frightened, the public rallied under the leadership of New York mayor Rudy Giuliani until general elections could be called. During this time, the threat of attack by the Muslim fundamentalist group al'Taqwa loomed large in the public mind. One leader rose, however, from the Midwest - a state senator from Nebraska. Mike Wainwright proposed unity, drew together a coalition from both political parties, began investigations into what had happened. By the time general elections were held, in the spring of 2002, Wainwright was the clear choice for the next president.

The country prepared for war, skirmishing in Afghanistan with rebel leaders, killing them easily. Like a hydra, however, al'Taqwa had many heads, and those kept springing up in other parts of the Middle East, leading to all-out war after Wainwright easily won another political victory in the 2004 election.

Some citizens questioned the new war. Most supported the man who led them out of the valley of fear, out of the shadow of the worst terrorist attack America had ever sustained, the worst war injury she had ever suffered. Wainwright had such strong support from government and country that it seemed he could do no wrong, even as he led America down the path to empire and to vengeance. Iraq became a client state, with Hussein toppled early in the fighting, killed by one of his own guards who hoped to end America's invasion of his country - and then Iraq became a colony, one populated with death squads and terrified civilians and a powerful resistance. When Saudia Arabia spoke out, Wainwright took the approval of the people as his mandate, and expanded his war.

For the first time, Saudia Arabia enshrined equal rights for all - the right to die at the hands of the American colonizers was a right not withheld on the basis of race, creed, or gender.

Not all of the fighters were military. The presence of mutants had been known for some time, but in the easy freedom of pre-9/11 America, they had merely been watched, and that both sporadically and casually. But in the wake of the tragedy, when citizens cried for blood and there was no voice of moderation left, the mutants were drafted into serving their country, and were sent overseas. Those who refused were detained at Guantanamo Bay; those who went committed tragedies of their own.

America went swiftly down the path to empire, in fear, and used their mutants and their citizens to do it.

The righteous make war on the heathen.