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Moira MacTaggart was a sensible person, she took her job as mayor of New York seriously. As she should - in her own opinion, there were few things worse than politicians who did not do so.
Unfortunately for her, not to mention the city itself, New York tended to be the battleground of alien invasions (statistically at least once every three years). Megalomaniacs wanting to destroy/enslave mankind (statistically every six months) and of course, the local madman Magneto, who would fall into the last category, but warranted a chapter of his own, Moira felt. Mostly because he came with a built in adversary, who, along with his X-men, would stand up to, and stop, Magneto and his Brotherhood.
Unfortunately, the damages done to New York in their escalating fights were not exactly minor (statistically the six months cycle of megalomaniacs was blown to pieces by nearly monthly skirmishes in the streets of New York between these two groups).
Moira had looked at the budgets, the budget cuts, the ever growing list of damages that needed repaired. The complaints from citizens, that with the growing damages, the insurance that would cover such damages by powered beings (officially offered by companies from 1997 to present) becoming far too expensive to take out. No matter how she turned it all over and over, there was no getting around the fact that New York would be in economic trouble within another two years, if not less. Especially if the fights escalated.
Which led to her having offered the heads of the two groups a meeting on neutral ground (her office).
Much to her surprise, she'd thought she'd need to resort to threats to get the two men to agree, but apparently they had been sufficiently intrigued to at least turn up.
As she'd hoped, and made several backup plans for, the two men arrived a few minutes apart. Professor X, who was a lot shorter than Moira'd expected, had turned up first. A rather pleasant man, if a little too flirty for her taste and for the situation. He was, as always, wearing a hood that left his face in shade, so there was no chance of her recognizing him from anywhere.
Magneto turned up, theatrically as he always was. There was a loud thump and cursing from the front office and Moira shared a look of surprise with Professor X. The double doors to her own office were pushed open, with far more force than necessary, and Magneto stalked through them, waving dismissively at someone he'd left in the front office.
Moira tried to hide a smirk. It was well known that Magneto employed a teleporter, but as her main office was fitted with a dampening system, it would have bounced the mutant off their course. Possibly, she should have warned both men about the dampening field, but Professor X didn't seem to mind and if it kept Magneto on his heels, she wasn't regretting it. Moira nodded at her assistant, who looked a little terrified, to close the door.
Magneto, of course, wouldn't just let her open with the speech she's prepared.
"First you invite us here and then you show us just how much you fear us by having a dampening field installed - very embracing of you, mayor MacTaggart."
Moira refrained from rolling her eyes. She knew that Magneto was dangerous, she knew that he was dangerous even without his powers, but the man was so theatrical and so ...garishly dressed, that she had a hard time taking him all that seriously.
"I'm sure the mayor meant us no disrespect," Professor X said, voice inviting and soft around the words.
Moira wasn't sure, but there was a definite Britishness to his pronunciation. She filed this information away and turned to look Magneto in the eyes. He was tall, a lot taller than her and Professor X. Dressed in a purple getup that was a bit of an eyesore. Not to mention the metal helmet that made him look like a… well, Moira squashed the thought, or she'd have laughed out loud.
Professor X's mouth quirked up in a small grin and Moira had to wonder, for a moment, if the dampening field wasn't working and he'd caught her thoughts.
"I did ask you both here for a rather overdue conversation," Moira said steely. "I am, however, not a fool - and it would be foolish to lock myself up in a room with two of the most powerful mutants of New York City, without some kind of protection."
The two men eyed each other, Magneto with a certain air of contempt and Professor X with a quirk of the mouth that hinted at some kind of private joke.
Clearing her throat, Moira waited for the both of them to give her their attention. She tapped the screen on her desk and turned it around so the two men could see it. "These are the damages done by the Brotherhood and the X-men through the past two years. I am well aware," she interjected when Professor X opened his mouth to interrupt, "what the X-men do, they do to stop the Brotherhood, but there is no doubt that the fights themselves are costing the City, its citizens, a lot of money - not to mention the injuries inflicted on innocent bystanders."
This time Magneto opened his mouth to argue and Moira knew very well what would be coming out of it. And she was right.
"Humans, they are per definition never innocents." His voice was low and cold, his thin lips set in a determined straight line.
Professor X scoffed. "Come now, Magneto." He put a hand on his hip and shook his head. "There are innocent mutants getting caught in the crossfire as well - how to do you justify those?" Magneto took a deep breath, but Professor X put up his hand. "And if you say 'necessary collateral damage' I swear, I'll paddle your arse."
Both Magneto and Moira stared at Professor X. She for one, had not expected such talk from the man. He'd always struck her as prim and proper.
"You and what army?" Magneto choked out, possibly caught between amusement and outrage.
"Take the helmet off and no army is needed," Professor X offered.
Moira was wondering if she was hearing the flirty undertones of the man's voice or if that was just the way he normally spoke. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. From what she'd gathered, the two men were mortal enemies.
Magneto just stared at him.
Moira cleared her throat again, and this time, when she launched into her speech, they at least let her finish it. More or less. But there were less interruptions than she'd expected.
Half an hour later, she breathed deeply in, held it and then exhaled, feeling the tension leave her body. She watched as the two men left her office, walking side by side. They'd listened, they'd made no promises, but she had to hope she'd gotten through their thick skulls how important this was.
All she could hope, for the sake of the City, was that they would limit their battles or take them somewhere well outside any populated areas. After all, for all Professor X's flirting and Magneto's posturing, she was dealing with two grown men.
Just because life liked to spite her, she watched with horrified fascination as Professor X sidestepped and tripped Magneto enough to make him stagger forward, his head turned enough that she could tell he was making a joke.
Moira fully expected to find the whole building torn down around their ears for this, but she breathed a little easier a moment later, when it didn't seem like Magneto was going to retaliate. However, the quirk of lips and show of teeth were a worry, a second before Magneto took a step to the side, bodychecking Professor X into the wall before walking on, not looking like he gave a shit.
Grown men, right. Her doors fell closed and Moira sank into her chair behind her desk, head in hands. Grown men, she had to keep telling herself.
Ten minutes later, her phone beeped and she considered breaking out the bottle of scotch in her bottom drawer. "Yes?"
"Mayor MacTaggart, your ...guests are still in the building."
Moira stared at her phone. "Come again, mister Levine?"
"Security has just called to say that your guests are currently in a janitor's closet on the ground floor."
Moira wondered if she might have already drunk the bottle, because this would make no sense unless she was inebriated . "And what are they doing in said closet? Fighting?" It was possible the building would yet come down around their ears, then.
"Judging by the description of the sounds…" Levine trailed off. "Apparently your guest are working out some ...mutual… erm… tension?" Levine's voice rose a little at the last word.
"Fuck my life," Moira muttered to herself, pulling the bottom drawer out, grabbing both glass and bottle. She deserved booze and a fucking medal. The booze, at least, she could provide herself.
The End