KING MAGNETO: Things Heard.

by Poi Lass

He calls himself "President Lehnsherr", and that's what smart people call him to his face. I've heard that the Acolytes call him "My Lord", and "Father" and "Our Saviour", and have to kneel when he enters the room. I've heard that his friends call him "Magnus", though it's strange to think of the man even having friends. Maybe that's just rumour.

And as for what his enemies call him... well, that's not really talk for polite conversation.

Heard that a man called him "Buckethead" once, right to his face, called him "Magsy", and "Tin Can Man", in front of witnesses and everything. One of the Rebels, I heard.

And I heard he didn't live long after that.

In bars, you'll hear him called "that mutant bastard" by drunks, you'll hear him called "the devil himself", you'll hear him called a dictator, a madman, evil personified, and if you've got half a brain you'll be out the door before the fool calling him that finishes talking. Or maybe, if you're feeling lucky, you'll just keep your distance, you'll glance away, you'll put that look on your face that says, 'I am not a part of this', and stare nervously over your shoulder.

And you'll hear some people, ordinary people, who won't use the word "President", because that would suggest he was voted in, that there was some kind of community decision that ended in his being made ruler of the planet, call him "King Magneto".

I think it was the Daily Bugle that started it, just before they were shut down. "King Magneto?!", that was the headline, just that. I guess it caught on.

King Magneto. King of the world.

If you wanna shake your head about it, don't do where anyone can see. Not in this town.

Heard there are spies everywhere. Heard he's got cameras everywhere.

Heard he put up satellites; went into space himself, took down all the government ones, and put up his own. Heard there are satellites up there that can tell human from mutant, and kill when he says so. Heard he tries to track down every single mutant on the planet. Heard he takes them in, and trains them up for the Acolytes, if they're made of the right stuff.

Heard smart mutants hope not to be made of the right stuff.

Yeah, you hear a lot of things, and you never really know which of them are true. You hear he foams at the mouth when he gets angry - and you hear he gets angry a lot, which is not so hard to believe. You hear he eats human children, and you laugh, nervously, and try not to believe that one. You hear he keeps the bodies of his enemies in cold storage, to bring them back to life when the world's at peace, and mutants are completely in control, and there's no hunger and no war and no problems at all, just to show them he was right. You hear about the assassination attempts, and the executions, and that he goes out, personally, to 'take care of things' when a mutant gets killed by a human. You hear that a hundred humans die for every mutant, yeah, we've all heard that one, and we all know it's true.

Heard it in the propaganda put out by his people. Heard it in the propaganda put out by the Rebels.

Heard him say it himself, on the broadcasts.

Yeah, you hear a lot of things in bars, and at work, and on the streets, and it can't all be true, but you know enough of it is to keep your head down, and your mouth shut, and to not say anything against mutants ever, and to try very, very hard not to even think it, because you've heard that mutants can look just like normal people, can be sitting on the bus behind you, or in the bar just next to you, or even serving the beer, and you've heard they can read minds.

And you've heard what happens to people who piss King Magneto off.

We've all heard about that.

Yeah, we've all heard about that.

Never did hear though, why he chose New York, and not Geneva or somewhere, to rule the world from. Never did hear why his base is some big mansion, not even in the city, but out in a nothing place called

Salem Centre.

No, never did hear anything about that.

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