Mutant Underground
Mutant Underground | |
---|---|
First Seen: | January 2015 |
Details
The Mutant Underground is a loose organization of individuals sympathetic to mutants. Stemming from old X-Corps contacts, friends of Charles Xavier cultivated over the years, former students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and new contacts made by X-Factor and other groups, the "mutant underground railroad" serves to divert mutants, especially young, newly manifested mutants, to safe houses where they can receive support when they attract attention of government agencies and such or are unable to remain in their homes. In some circumstances the Underground has directed potential students and others to the Xavier Institute. It is important to note that the mansion does not run the Underground, they simply help or work with them in various ways
Underground cells have been noted in a number of countries - Canada, Northern Ireland and Great Britain and parts of South America. Within the United States, the Underground operates as a series of independent cells, with only a few individuals having knowledge of other cells than their own in order to prevent the entire group being shut down. This is not such a danger in the States as it once was (in June 2017, for example, two Underground workers were murdered by anti-mutant group the Church of Humanity), however the Underground remains an option for those seeking non-governmental help.
At the Institute, there are a number of individuals who participate in assisting the Underground more directly, largely through facilities in District X. They are as follows:
- Jean Grey (medical assistance)
- Sooraya Qadir (powers training and education assistance)
- Theresa Cassidy (funding and international contacts from her time with Medicans Sans Frontiers and the UK branches of the group)
- Angelo Espinosa (legal assistance)
- Alani Ryan (general assistance, including organising donation drives, etc)
- Alex Summers (general assistance, including organising donation drives, etc)
- Vanessa Carlysle (general assistance, including organising donation drives, etc)
- Tandy Bowen (District X food bank, plus assists her uncle Michael Bowen who is involved in the group)
- Kyle Gibney (education assistance)
The various teams - X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force and to a lesser degree, eXcalibur - all lend their services to assist the Underground with issues relating to their various purviews. The Underground has also proved to be a useful resources to the Institute, especially when needing to re-home rescued mutants such as the street kinds transported from Madripoor in July 2021. In more recent times, concerns about the Brotherhood of Mutants recruiting disaffected young mutants from the Underground have arisen, based on intel provided by Garrison Kane during his time undercover with the Brotherhood.
During the course of Operation: Bat Country, Stacy X was established as SUNSET, a safe house option in the Mutant Underground. She runs a hotel near her X-Ranch that provides short-term haven and odd jobs (mostly related to cooking, housekeeping, and groundwork) to mutants moving along the system. If they're interested, some are added to the roster at the X-Ranch. Darcy is her primary intermediary to the NYC Underground. Further connections were established with the Chicago branch, when members of X-Force (plus Angelo Espinosa and Sooraya Qadir) responded to a request for help in finding a young runaway mutant. The individual from the Underground who assisted them, Madin, came back to the mansion with them, along with the runaway, a pyrokinetic called Ben Hammil.
Plots
X-Men Mission: Coming to America
Meta
Introduced by: The Mods