-1 Month

Proxy Blue would have been better named Proxy Black, her colours darkened through navy as if in mourning. She looked exactly like what she was. A computer generated head talking blankly and unblinking. "With the war officially over, things are quiet, only the odd outbreak of violence quickly stamped out. There are still mutants out there, but there has been no sign of organised activity in recent weeks - unsurprising since, according to government sources, all key dissidents have been arrested and are awaiting closed trials, while mutant capture teams are growing increasingly proficient at catching the menaces.

"Those good people, who never let a war get in the way of their work, published this years Fortune Five Hundred. Take a good long look, people, at the politicians that made the top fifty. The top ten makes interesting reading too. And now that we have an outbreak of peace, don't let the goss stop."

*****

Eckhart sat board stiff on the edge of the cot Wally had so kindly provided for him, trying very hard not to feel the germs and diseases that were infesting every pore.

It was driving him insane, the itching, burning, festering and desiccating his skin was going through now that his protective dermal covering was starting to break down, and he'd run out of any replacement. His eyeballs had fire ants crawling over them and his nose wouldn't stop running. In a bid to keep some part of his sanity intact, he let the newly insane part take over. The insane part that chattered and drivelled and threw up bits of memory, breaking them up and mashing them into one glutinous mass without form or identity, while leaving his body to rot on the cot.

His rational mind was cowering in the corner, biding its time, peeking out only when Wally brought in what passed for food. Morrisen must have felt insanely threatened by him to have made him public enemy number one and he couldn't step outside without fear of getting lynched. They left him alone here in the hovels, mostly because they were all so wrapped in their own petty worlds that they didn't really care. That, combined with a paranoid distrust of authority in the shantytown meant he was fairly certain he wouldn't be reported.

Things were settling now, though, and perhaps he'd soon be able to move about more. But what could he do? Human society had never cared for those who were different, and now they were positively obsessive about getting rid of them. That had to change. There were still mutants and humans out there who could bring that about, but they needed leadership.  They wouldn't listen to him, but they would listen to five extraordinary people who'd spent far too much time meddling in his business. And with Eckhart himself on their side, they'd stand a far greater chance of succeeding if they used the stealth and cunning ruthlessness he was known for, rather than the idealistic and trusting manner that had failed so spectacularly.

He didn't even know if any of them were still alive.

But, his insane mind giggled, we know where to start.

*****

(To be continued in Ringing the Changes part 2: 'The End')