Friends of Humanity

PHASE 1

Friends of Humanity
Portrayed by none
Known Aliases:	FoH
Affiliations:	Anti-Mutant

Socked By:	Various
Introduction:	November 2003

The Friends of Humanity are one of the major anti-mutant groups in the United States, both on a political level (rallies, leaflet campaigns etc) and in terms of more violent activities.

The Friends of Humanity first came to the mansion's attention on November 17, 2003, having claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the son of one of the Professor's friends in the Senate. The group had not been heard of before this time; they did, however, at that time have established connections with the Mississipi branch office of the FBI, which during that time was being investigated for corruption. At this time, they were primarily an underground militia/terrorist cell network, that gradually moved into public view and attempted to establish a positive face and a solid recruitment base as a counter to the mutant-friendly McKenna administration. A further incident brought them under further notice, with information on the Florida branch being passed onto the FBI by the X-Men.

The FOH have been under investigation by the FBI for years, but as they were largely underground, and not doing anything hugely (or obviously) illegal, no charges have ever been laid against the group as a whole. In some places where they have overly-enthusiastic and idealistic youth in their membership, there have been some problems, leading to small time arrests for assault or vandalism, or, as in the case of Salem Center, a sympathetic police force has looked the other way.

Prior to the dismantling of his financial concerns, the group was being primarily and secretly funded by Magneto, as part of a long-term plan to bring anti-mutant hysteria to the point where humanity would fire the first shot in the human/mutant war he wants, which would then enable him to claim self-defense and unite mutantkind against their oppressors This had been in the works for the FoH since they were introduced, however during Magneto's imprisonment, his finances were frozen by Judge Carter Blaire, Alison' father and the FOH had to look at other means of funding.

Up until 2004, the FOH were primarily a New England group--the first reports of their activities came from Philadelphia, which was their most likely point of origin; as of late November 2003 they had been active all up and down the East Coast, with a few incidents in the Midwest (such as in Doug's hometown of Denver) and in California as well. Past 2004 they became more widespread, distancing themselves from violence and becoming more politically-minded - by 2006, they had offices in New York, as was evidenced by an incident involving an attack by a disgruntled mutant. They were also using more creative means to target mutants, including the Internet - M-Date was a fake mutant online meeting service set up by Duncan as a means of drawing mutants out.