The Office of National Emergency — often stylized as O*N*E — was created in response to the events of M-Day, in which ninety percent of mutants around the world suddenly lost their powers.

While the X-Men and the Avengers knew the cause was the Scarlet Witch who altered reality into the House of M and then altered it back with the now infamous phrase “No More Mutants”, the majority of the world woke up one day to learn that the number of mutants in the world had drastically reduced from hundreds of thousands to just one-hundred and ninety eight. This understandably kicked off a worldwide panic, and in order to manage the publics anxiety, the President of the United States issued an executive order to create a department to handle the response.

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Alongside the Office of National Emergency, the President also issued an executive order which established the Sentinel Squad O*N*E led by Colonel James Rhodes aka War Machine. While most Sentinels have been at the forefront of anti-mutant agendas, the Sentinel Squad O*N*E was created to guard the Charles Xavier School For Gifted Mutants which was converted into a makeshift refugee camp for surviving mutants who retained their power. The Sentinel Squad O*N*E was supposed to protect them from outside threats which could reduce the population of mutants even greater, although the presence of towering machines of death on their front lawn didn’t do much to assuage the fears of the remaining X-Men and there were several attacks on the school which resulted in casualties, further weakening the trust between the mutants and their supposed guardians.

The Office of National Emergency were headed up by Val Cooper, who was the government liason to Havok’s X-Factor team in the early-to-mid nineties. A generally trustworthy person if not the essence of a bureaucrat, Val is generally on the side of mutants in most cases. However, the O*N*E hasn’t been seen since the X-Men abandoned Westchester to move cross-country to San Francisco and they were never officially dissolved or disbanded on panel, so it stands to reason that their still ticking, but without a mutant refugee camp to watch over and with the return of mutant births, their purview remains a mystery.

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With attacks on both Beast and Forge from different angles, it does raise the question of if the Office of National Emergency is behind the attacks or if they were simply used as foot soldiers the way the Reavers were against Beast. If Val Cooper is still at the O*N*E then there’s sure to be some terse conversations between her and Havok considering their often acrimonious relationship in the past. Whoever is behind the attack on the mutants may come to regret it because they’ve accidentally assembled this squad of the X-Men who wouldn’t have united if it wasn’t for that first attack on Beast, and will likely see to their own downfall as a result.