Author's note: ALL ART COMMISSION OFFERS FOR THIS STORY WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DECLINED
...
Scott Summers, Age 7, Summer of 1976
Reverend Stryker cut an imposing figure in his all-black suit. A tall but thin man, with his hair in a military cut from his days in the Marine Corps. Gold spectacles covered his face. In his right hand was the bible he had carried with him since Korea.
"Blessings upon the followers of Christ..." Stryker said, his voice rumbled in a deep baritone that some described as hypnotic. His stern countenance commanded attention, and the piercing gray eyes seemed to bore through you. Scott took his eyes off the white limbed, skull faced monster (Whose skull was covered only by skin but still visible with a white spiky crown shape on its slick forehead) with strings of blond hair on its tan scalp, feminine in shape, doll like in anatomy, fingers and toes ending in short gold talons only a few meters away. His heartrate refused to spike at the creature's presence.
"Blessings upon those who accept the word of God..." Stryker added. "May we all one day stand before God and find acceptance of our souls through our faith in the Lord Jesus."
"Amen." The thousands in the pearly white Megachurch said in unison.
"I'd like to start with a little interesting tidbit that occurred 'round last Tuesday..." Stryker continued in that thunderous, commanding baritone as he paced with the crisp military precision around the massive Podium. "I passed by a member of our beloved flock, on the street. I shall not name them. I greeted them and we talked a bit. We touched on a subject I go into only extremely rarely. The subject was that of my military service...alongside Captain America..."
ARTFUL, ISN'T IT? The creature asked in his head. THIS IS NO MERE TIDBIT. IT IS THE PREFACE TO HIS ENTIRE SERMON.
"They say 'Reverend, Is Captain America actively sinning by having the Super Soldier Formula in his system?" Stryker spoke, voice catching the deepest centers of one's brain and refusing to let go.
"Now, I want to say this, before I give my answer: Steve Rogers is a brave, selfless, dedicated soldier. I personally would not have made it home alive had it not been for Captain America. Nevertheless, The Serum remains deeply divisive as a topic. A lot of people feel it is wrong to alter a body from the way the Good Lord intended. Well, to that I ask, 'Why do we think Heart Transplants are okay? Why do we think leg braces, or Prosthetic Hands or prescription glasses are not, too, the work of Satan? Why is Penicillin, or Aspirin, or digestive medication not subject to scrutiny? Before Rogers received the Formula, he was literally at death's door'..."
HE'S PREPPING. The creature hissed in his mind.
"This didn't seem to be quite satisfactory to this sheep..." Stryker continued, all eyes on him. "So, they press me; 'But Reverend, that's different from creating a literal superman! Past a certain point, should we not accept God's Will for our bodies? In accepting such a drastic, life altering procedure, I cannot help but think Rogers offended God in such a way as to lock himself out of Paradise. Is he not presenting a poor example for millions of God-Fearing Americans to twist science and nature so completely to do as we please with God's creation?"
Katherine's eyes hardened at the statement.
"I ask. 'What would you say if Rogers had been born with such abilities?' Would you think he was severed from any means of gaining God's grace automatically?'"
He looked around, waiting a moment before following up:
"Without hesitation, this member of my flock nods their head emphatically."
THE SEED IS PLANTED.
"I of course, was extremely surprised to hear this answer, so I ask; 'why?'" Stryker asked rhetorically with a shrug.
"They answer, 'Because to be able to do such things without the explicit blessing of Christ is to basically be resorting to witchcraft, which is of The Devil. And the Bible says witches and warlocks must not be suffered amongst those who worship and fear God. We should cast out Rogers and those other Sinners he works with, who use foul abilities Christ would never permit his children to wield.'"
Stryker let this answer sink into the crowd a few moments before he continued speaking.
"So, I say to this member of my flock; 'Of what proof do you have that their abilities be of Satan, and that God hath not willed Rogers and The Avengers their abilities? God worketh through many means'..."
Stryker surveyed the whole crowd, now hanging on his every word. That stalwart manner, that crisp diction, had snapped countless soldiers to attention, had made them follow him into vicious battles.
"This member of my flock then replies 'Why Reverend! They are idolized like the Golden Calf! Surely giving devotion to something other than God is a great sin.'"
Stryker held up the Bible in his hand. "It is indeed! But the sin of Idolatry lies with the one that chooses to idolize. Even the more...questionable members...such as the one pretending to be a Norse Mythology figure despite being COMPLETELY inaccurate to the description in the myth...they do not command worship...they do not say Americans should abandon their God. Even though her background is hazy, there is no reason to treat such an individual any different than you would a member of another military unit using a codename inspired by mythology...though even I can't argue how risqué her choice of attire is..." he added throwing a small joke in, causing a few chuckles in the audience.
"But to be serious once more...while this member of my flock meant well, I could not help but judge them overzealous. It was absurd to think that a person is suddenly damned for a medical procedure or receiving superhuman abilities by accident. I view each and every one of those kinds of incidences as acts of God. But this member of my flock, they did touch on a most interesting subject nevertheless...what IF, someone was born superhuman, as opposed to being made such?"
Stryker paced a bit, and Scott noticed the white limbed creature standing behind Stryker suddenly. He looked at the large viewscreen. The drones viewing the Podium Stryker was on were not able to capture its presence on their feed.
"Well, certainly, the temptation to sin, I think...would be stronger..." Stryker began. "If the temptation to sin were too strong...I could see a scenario where such a person might have to give up such power...if only for the sake of their souls, of course..."
...
Cyclops, as he and Blob fought their way to Essex, replayed his battle on the road with Shishido (SEE: TOTAL X-MEN #13). It was like an out of body experience. The haze of knife attacks, optic blasts, punches, kicks, neck snaps, shield bludgeoning was only where a small portion of his mind was focused.
Had Shishido actually been stronger than him, or had simply not knowing (Or, perhaps, not remembering) he had the Serum caused him to fight below his full potential? His infuriated state of mind seemed to have loosed him from another mental shackle. His kicks and punches were super charged. He could still be hurt, but he was reacting so fast, processing so much data that the attacks of the optic soldiers, even the more trained methods of the Optic Commandos or the Greycrow clones, firing rail guns and explosive crossbow bolts at him were barely slowing him down. With Blob, the attacks simply didn't scratch him. His massive girth and strength sent clones and soldiers flying with just light taps from his knuckles. Harder punches reduced them to bags of jelly. They worked for the woman who had kept him imprisoned and experimented on. Some were HYDRA recruits. As far as Blob was concerned, they had printed their own ticket to Hell.
He was just the train hitting them as they lay on the tracks.
He spotted Cyclops moving like greased lightning and was amazed. Where had Scott learned to fight so good? What had Essex subjected him to without him knowing?
Danger and Xavier had finally caught up, both horrified by the utter devastation Cyclops had unleashed, knowing Essex having imprinted herself into his DNA via her homebrew Super Soldier Serum (Which was based off of HER DNA) as well as Storm had sent him into a paroxysm of wrath, utterly determined to kill Essex now to be free of her. To free Ororo of her.
He liked Ororo.
I knew the results would be incredible. But you are surpassing even my wildest expectations, Scott. Essex called out in his head.
Tell me, do you really think ordinary bog-standard humans could ever accept you? They can barely accept Captain America. Being the so-called 'Perfect Man' invites a LOT of jealousy. How much more jealousy do you think YOUR existence will cause outright? How many shall flee to whatever God they worship and beg his protection from you? How many of them will beg protection from the God your own Mother worshipped?
Do you think even those genetic dead ends in District X could accept a perfect example of their species?
Cyclops stopped at a blocked off chamber, protected by a heavy looking door of gray metal, sensing the atoms of every opponent waiting for him and beyond. More Greycrow clones and Optic Commandos. But this time there was an extra wrinkle. He saw other atomic signatures when he closed his eyes.
"Hostages..." Cyclops whispered. "Wired to blow...the door is solid Titanium..."
"You can see them?" Blob asked.
"I'm the Cyclops, Blob. Seeing is what I do..." Cyclops replied.
Cyclops! Because of the Visor? That's...that's BRILLIANT! You've gotten into THEMING! I thought Shishido was dead on picking Gorgon for a code name, but CYCLOPS? Chefs. Kiss.
Xavier had scavenged one of the Greycrow Clone Crossbows surveying the trail of dead that Cyclops had left in his wake with Blob's help.
"Brutal but it's nothing I wouldn't have done back in the jungle to survive..." he admitted. "But we cannot make this a habit. Even though the Optic Army Essex has created IS too dangerous to spare and filled with confirmed terrorists, not everyone that stands in our way will be the same. We must operate on a case-by-case basis for these issues."
"Essex's Optic Army is an issue I regard as kill-upon-sight." Cyclops replied, processing things more and more, mind becoming more computer like. It was like his neurons were on fire, yet aware of everything. The others seemed to move slow, so he adjusted his perception until he was operating at their speed.
Danger was scanning him as he stared at her.
"Your brain must be going a million miles a nanosecond..." Danger remarked, shiny pink metallic skin showing through a super revealing leotard stopping just short of being obscene. Her skin reflected him, Blob and Xavier in a distorted, funhouse-mirror sort of fashion.
"What's it like, processing like an Android?"
Yes, Scott, tell me, what's it like?
"It's not something I'm ready to talk about." Cyclops answered.
Ugh, ALWAYS the wet blanket.
"What's the hold up?" Xavier asked.
"They have hostages..." Cyclops said. "Wired with explosives."
Danger used the advanced sensors in her eyes to pierce the barrier.
"He's right...I believe you've made them desperate, Cyclops..." Danger said.
"What would you recommend, Professor?" Blob asked.
"Saving those hostages is paramount. Danger, could you jam the explosive transmitters on their captives?"
Danger nodded. "I can't do anything about manual triggers, though."
Xavier rubbed his chin. "Now the matter becomes how to kill everybody except their bargaining chips."
"My onboard rail guns still work. May I?" Danger offered.
Xavier thought about it a moment.
"Are you sure your railgun can pierce the door?"
"At this range, my Railgun won't even notice it's there..." Danger replied.
"Neither will my beams." Cyclops said.
"You take everyone on the left, I'll go right..." Danger suggested to him quietly.
"Acceptable." Cyclops replied
They both got into position. Danger's micro-railgun popped out of her shoulder.
"On my count, you two..." Xavier instructed. "Three...two...one...fire..."
Danger and Cyclops both fired through the door, incapable of holding back Cyclops' beams even when they were filtered into a red spectrum by his bulky visor. His beams launched out in micro-second bursts. In moments, every hostile on the other end was dead. Danger went over and tore the doors open.
What a fascinating Android.
Danger immediately and patiently disarmed each explosive, wires creeping out of the interiors of her hands to disable the explosives strapped to the chests of disfigured Mutants. One of them looked at Cyclops and the backup Captain America Shield in his hand.
"Are...are you Captain America?" one of them asked in shock.
"Sorry man. I'm just Cyclops. A Mutant."
The eyes of the severely disfigured Mutant only widened, and his voice took on a completely awestruck tone.
"You're a Mutant Captain America..." the Mutant said, not taking his eyes of Cyclops, or the red eye with an X at the center of its pupil that he had painted on the front of his armor.
Cyclops, disturbed by the other Mutant's awestruck stare, turned to Blob as the other Mutants were freed from their bindings by Danger, who were equally awestruck not just by the sudden realization that a Mutant equivalent of Steve Rogers actually existed, not just that he had just showed up to bail them out at the last second, but that Charles Xavier was helping him also.
"Blob, escort them back to District X..." Cyclops told Fred.
"You sure?" Fred asked.
"I need to make certain they get back to District X safely. You're the best one for it. Follow the dead to retrace my steps..." Cyclops replied. "And tell everyone to get ready. Especially Storm. She needs to get ready to kill Essex on sight. We ALL need to be prepared to destroy Threshold if necessary."
"Gotcha." Fred confirmed.
It won't help, Scott. You've been a gritty Comic Book Antihero for what, a solid day at most?
Cyclops turned to Danger.
"I suppose that body being crammed full of fancy Sci-Fi tech has something that would let you tap our radios?" he asked.
Danger nodded.
Do you actually believe you have ANYTHING even RESEMBLING a solid grasp of this profession?
Do you think your childhood hero would see you as anything other than a threat to the U.S. once they become aware of what an Omega Mutant is, what they're capable of? When he realizes you're everything he is and BETTER?
"It's just us and Essex now..." Cyclops trailed, turning to Xavier as Blob got the hostages out. "Professor, you really should think about retreating with Blob. If the Mutants lose you..."
"You're worth fighting Essex to the death over." Xavier replied sharply. "Not a chance."
Cyclops was given a quiet pause at this, but only for a moment.
"Fine." Cyclops grunted. "Like I said, your funeral."
While Blob led the Hostages away, Cyclops, Danger, and Xavier headed into a much more ancient and carved out passage, one with hieroglyphs in an unknown language.
Cyclops approached it, seeing a figure in black wearing a visor with a golden, flame bird like design in the middle of all the glyphs. He was immediately discomforted at the sight.
"Curious, what's this?" Xavier wondered.
"Prophecy..." Danger answered. "It's not relevant to our objective..."
They finally exited into the very edge of Threshold. Xavier's jaw dropped at the remains of the futuristic crystalline towers and evidence of high technology. Cyclops fell open mouthed at the sight along with Danger. But otherwise said nothing
I couldn't bear the thought of the Dead Ends getting to touch this magnificent place. But The Phoenix Stone? That is a greater prize than ten Thresholds.
I can feel you getting closer. The anticipation is killing you, isn't it? Admit it. You're curious.
"Absolutely amazing...this city could change the whole world if we let it. Perhaps there lies the danger..." Xavier mused as he walked with an almost reverence of the structures around them.
Y'know, part of the reason I think we never got along was we couldn't see each other for who we actually were. Always hiding behind those human masks and human names, kept like vestigial organs. A societal appendix.
But useful, on occasion. A shorthand. A footnote. Easy to memorize. Like scientific notation.
Cyclops surveyed Threshold, committing everything to memory. He saw half abandoned carts full of strange statues and exotic looking technology. He was prepared to destroy it all to kill Essex.
I cannot help but wonder...if I had been upfront about what I was from the start...would you have even been the tiniest fraction more receptive to my truth that you are a God?
I suppose we'll never know...
"Mutants and Humans clearly have a history dating back farther than even I imagined..." Xavier muttered. "Sharing the discoveries here with the world would surely cause people to give some thought to the idea of mutually beneficial co-existence...
"The Phoenix Stone is here...there's a reason this place was buried..." Cyclops grunted. "Keep an eye out for Essex. My guess is she is right at the center of this place."
You even have SIGHT-BASED PUNS?!
They came across loads of bodies. They way they had been killed was merciless and cruel. Xavier utterly hated Essex at this point, and he hadn't even laid eyes on her.
"Definite Supervillain. Old-School Supervillain Thinking, too...the more modern types are sloppy, they often don't go out of their way to kill like this one does..." he observed. "Systematic...like Doom."
As they near, Cyclops felt a pit of dread in his stomach. He spotted Optic Soldiers, but they stood at attention as a sort of honor guard. Dread mixed with Rage in Cyclops...
None of the soldiers moved to attack him as he led the way, back-up Shield held in front.
As they got near the center, Cyclops felt an absolutely HORRIFYING Atomic Signature that was as alien to his perceptions as Mystique's was and THEN some. And he felt something even worse, even more incomprehensible hiding in the atoms of what appeared to be a statue depicting Loki in the nude, holding out her hand. The more his ability to sense and perceive Atomic Structures developed, the more alien his own perceptions got.
How limited his senses had been before his mutation manifested.
He missed having limited senses. He could even see his own structure now. It was almost as alien to him as whatever Essex was.
"She's no Alpha..." Cyclops whispered. "She's Omega, like me."
"But I thought Danger said the Brain was cloned from an Alpha!" Xavier exclaimed.
"She may have been Alpha at the time the Brain I modified was cloned..." Danger clarified. "She may have evolved into an Omega. Or she may have modified herself to become Omega. Probably by studying Cyclops..."
"Good guess!" called out the dark, feminine Northern London contralto from the shadows near a chair seemingly hued from Stone, sitting at the head of a table seeming formed from the very granite they walked on. It was a small, round one, meant to make them sit as close to her as possible. Cyclops paused at the glowing red eyes and the equally glowing red diamond on the forehead above those eyes. What looked like an English Tea Meal waited nearby the red eyed figure still in the shadows.
"My status as Omega came from elsewhere, I'm afraid. But I did study both Cyclops and Ororo to further perfect myself..."
"Essex..." Cyclops snapped.
"Tell you what...why don't we just get the whole heroic battle thing out of the way first, get it out of your system, so you'll be of a much sounder mind. I would hate to have to turn you into pulp before I served a meal..."
Cyclops hurled the Shield at her face and fired a microsecond optic blast at her chest...but Essex caught the shield with a display of telekinesis, moving it to face outward from her just before his beams could reach her, deflecting the blast back at him and sending him flying into a wall, Xavier tried to fire but was frozen in place and the shotgun torn from his grasp along with his gauntlet. Danger tried to fire her arm cannons but the projectiles were simply redirected upward...
Cyclops ripped the Visor off and directed his gold beams right at the ceiling above her, but the creature had already hurled the shield at low speed with telekinesis at his jaw, knocking his golden beams upward, the shield redirecting itself to swipe his legs out from under him, before flipping over and pressing down on him HARD, pinning him to the ground.
Danger herself was restrained, twisted in the air to face downward and suspended in midair. Essex's telekinesis forced her weapon systems to stay housed. Danger knew it would be tactical suicide to try and bring the others now. She sent a morse code signal to Mystique's radio, informing her of the situation. A slow route, more dangerous and time consuming would be necessary.
Essex hadn't even moved from the shadows. But what DID float out were two hostages. One was a pale, albino man with oddly symmetrical features, with red eyes and irises resembling a white snowflake image. The other was a badly injured blond man in a tacky Hawaiian tourist shirt and matching shorts, barely conscious, like the first.
"Oh, God, DOUG!" Xavier exclaimed in horror as he realized Essex had captured Cypher.
"S-sorry, Professor..." Cypher called out weakly. "There were just too many of them."
"These two are rather exceptional. I would hate to have to dispose of them..." Essex called out, keeping the two captive mutants suspended and paralyzed.
The red eyes in the shadows turned to her three new captives.
"Lady Androids, and Gentlemen..." Essex said to Cyclops, Danger, and Xavier. "I'm going to release my hold on you three so we can talk. Any hostilities, and these two suffer."
Xavier stared at the High Tea meal prepared for three, each using Fine China cup sets colored a dark blue with a red diamond in the middle of the plates or on the side of the cups. The meal waiting was fresh, expertly cooked. It consisted of Deviled Kidney with buttered bread, a plate of scones prepared in the Cornish Style (Jam spread on the split open halves of the scone with a dollop of clotted creme on top). A plate of red, diamond shaped finger sandwiches waited at the center of the table.
"Alright, Psycho, I'll play your spy film villain crap for now..." Xavier grumbled.
Instantly, the telekinetic hold was released on the trio. Cyclops scrambled up, blistering rage playing out in his stare. It took him a moment to compose himself to his usual cold state.
Cyclops hadn't known what to expect. But he hadn't expected this. It was bizarre. Macabre. She had made them walk through a trail of corpses just to serve them an evening meal, after effortlessly crushing their attempts to combat her AFTER she had deliberately invited them to try.
Essex was mad, utterly mad.
Cyclops watched her eyes focus on him and his blood ran cold, as she floated the visor back to him and fitted it back onto his head with her mind.
"So that's your real face..." she remarked.
He restrained the urge to fire on her again, off balance from what she was doing. His bulky visor felt heavy suddenly. He couldn't risk getting any of the others here. They were not ready.
"I don't get it. You make us butcher our way to you and you serve us tea?" Cyclops asked, suspicious and quietly enraged at how effortlessly she had defeated all of them.
"I imagine you two are famished from all the killing." Essex replied casually. "You're new to this profession, Cyclops. You mustn't rush things. Besides, this is the first chance you and I have ever had to truly speak openly and honestly..." she trailed, stepping forward.
Cyclops mouth fell open very slightly as she came out of the shadows, not sure what to make of it, even though it completely horrified him on multiple levels. She had a 36-24-36 figure covered in a form fitting but segmented dark blue armor, with a strange, flowing cape seemingly composed of large tassels that curved upward unnaturally behind her before dropping back down and hanging loosely, with a high crimson collar, arms covered by silver gauntlets that had strange cable snaking out of them and connecting to the side of her spine. Her waist bore a strange symbol surrounded by Red Diamonds:
- A -
Her face had two strange blue lines that started at the corners of her mouth and went upward past her scalp and to the back of her head, covered by short cut, slicked back black hair. She looked like some sort of high-tech vampire, her skin a pale, corpse-like white. Which, given her behavior so far, Cyclops mused probably wasn't too far from the truth.
Danger's eyes widened. The situation was so much worse than she imagined. She knew it would be bad. Any version of Sinister and their first meeting with the X-Men was always a horrible experience. But their situation was so much more dire than normal.
They were not ready. They were barely coming to grips with what had been dumped on them. They were not ready for an experienced Omega Mutant. Not in the slightest. They didn't even have the training to work together (And by Danger's observations they were not the close-knit family other versions of the X-Men often only played at being after enough decades of becoming familiar enough with one another to develop grievances)
"Hello, Cyclops, Professor Xavier, allow me to introduce myself..." the red eyed woman said pleasantly.
"No false names from this point forward. I. Am. Sinister." she said. "Mistress Sinister, to be exact."
"Dracula fangirl, I take it?" Xavier asked, in regard to her looks. Cyclops spared Xavier a surprised side glance behind his visor.
"You noticed too, huh?" Cyclops asked.
"It was impossible not to." Xavier replied.
Sinister scoffed.
"That old vampire wouldn't know fashion if it bit him..." Sinister replied, tone dripping pure contempt. "I was actually aiming for more of an 'Evil Sci-Fi Queen' sorta thing but I can totally understand how you would mistake it for an attempt at imitating the good Count, Professor. Or should I say Doctor Nemesis?"
"You're well informed..." Xavier replied, narrowing his eyes. "Not many out there know my old Vietnam codename."
"Few things can be hidden from me, Professor..." Sinister replied. "And may I say it is an honor to have a fellow scientist of such immense accomplishment in my presence. Your work on Psionics in the 1970's for the Army was all but required consultation reading in my telepathy research laboratories."
Xavier scowled. "Don't try and butter me up, Sinister. Anyone who'd commit the unbridled slaughter of the innocent that I came upon today, I could NEVER bring myself to consider as being anything close to a peer. We're nothing alike."
"Superior Destiny requires Superior Force, Professor. Compared to a number of others who have been in my position in the past? What 'I' have in mind is actually the 'least' bloody of a number of options available to me. Now, please, sit!" Sinister said with a sweeping gesture. "The tea is getting cold..."
Both Cyclops and Xavier hesitated. Danger stayed behind them, silently studying Sinister and more importantly, Cyclops' reaction to her, trying to discern more of just what made this particular iteration of their relationship tick.
"Oh, don't worry, gentlemen. While I am capable of having a mutant colony of genetic Dead-Ends razed to the ground, I would never poison Tea! Who would tolerate being a guest of mine?" Sinister asked rhetorically. "Even Doom never poisons the tea of his guests. No diplomat would ever set foot at his table if he did. Basic Etiquette." Sinister assured.
The pair hesitated before sitting at the table. Sinister took a sip of the tea. Cyclops looked at the atomic structure of the drink, saw nothing that said the drink was tainted, and took a hesitant sip.
He looked at Xavier's drink. "It's safe." he told Xavier.
That it tasted good wasn't what troubled him. It was that it tasted familiar. Like he had drank it before. He caught Sinister grinning like the Devil at his direction before she focused on Xavier.
Xavier took a sip. His eyes widened.
"Berinag...the gardens that grew those leaves all but shut down during the sixties..." Xavier noted. "It tastes like the leaves were ripped straight from the soil of the Himalayas."
"My interest in genetics first started in the cultivation of Tea Plants. My father spent his whole life attempting to breed the so called 'Perfect Tea Plant'... one that could grow in any soil. Thrive in any climate." Sinister replied. "The tea you are drinking is the closest my father ever got to success. He had a special talent for it."
"A regular Gregor Mendel..." Cyclops muttered, voice running over with sarcasm, taking a sip, sparing a glance at her two floating hostages.
Sinister chuckled.
"Hardly. My family got their start in the East India Company..." Sinister trailed taking another sip. "Right around the sixteen hundreds was when we started getting involved in, shall we say, privateering around the Spice Islands. By the time we hit India proper we had our fingers in virtually everything, including the illegal slave trades and sale of certain, shall we say, controversial goods within the Chinese Mainland."
Essex chuckled as she sipped her tea.
"What's a little Boxer Rebellion between trading partners?" she asked rhetorically as she chuckled.
Xavier's face twisted in disgust.
"You're not just Old School Supervillain vile; you're Old School Global Corporation vile." Xavier noted, almost incredulous as Sinister took another sip of her tea.
"Just when were you born, exactly?" Cyclops asked.
"I was born about ten years before the first Indian Rebellion, in Bengal." Sinister answered.
"The Indian Rebellion was in 1857..." Cyclops trailed, disdain evident in his tone. "No wonder you're so thorough at killing. You were probably shown how to do it first-hand."
Sinister shrugged and looked exasperated. "This is what bothers me about modern society. You're all so convinced you're all so much better than previous generations of thinkers. Just because you have microwaves and television and Stark-Tech Graphene Batteries."
The knife and fork on Sinister's plate lifted of their own accord and cut into her Deviled Kidney.
"Take away those modern conveniences and most of humanity would regress to a state of barbarity even the British Empire at its absolute most abusive and tyrannical would never have stomached to maintain their rule."
Sinister chewed the piece of kidney thoughtfully. Scott thoroughly examined the atomic structure, saw nothing was there that shouldn't be there, and took a bite himself. It tasted familiar, like the tea.
"I guess what happened here tonight is just more rebellious locals getting in the way of business as usual?" Xavier asked, his glare screaming pure contempt.
"When you live in a nasty, brutal era, you develop nasty, brutal solutions to quickly put an end to problems before they spiral out of control..." Sinister replied. taking another bite of kidney, chewing and swallowing after. "There was so much junk data in the bodies of most of District X's inhabitants it might have taken decades, even for me, to even get anywhere near creating a stabilizing agent for their genetic code. It really would have been more merciful for them to have just let evolution take its course and let Natural Selection have the final say. Your era is no less brutal than mine, Professor. Your rulers have just developed better skill at hiding it."
"People aren't Dodos or some rare, endangered jungle cat." Xavier snapped.
"Tell that to the fossil records." Sinister replied. She telekinetically cut into her deviled kidney and used the fork with her mind to feed herself a bite, chewing, dabbing her lips with a napkin after she swallowed it.
"Back then, people understood that when you have power, you exercise it for what it MUST be used on to keep the wheels turning, no matter who it inconveniences in the short OR long term. The only difference between now and then is that it has become much less fashionable to admit in this day and age. You all sneer at the Company for killing the natives, and yet your own government did everything The Company did and worse, to keep Vietnam. And they failed, even worse than the British did in India."
Sinister took another sip of tea.
"Your era has zero grounds to criticize mine. If anything, my era has grounds to criticize yours; all that incredible science, and access to history books, and still, you repeat our mistakes..."
"So, what is all this slaughter aimed at?" Xavier asked.
"Improvement of the species. You see, Xavier, I'm a caretaker. Of Evolution itself. I cut away at flaws, breed them out until I produce a superior life form." Sinister answered as they ate.
"Evolution isn't about superiority, Sinister..." Xavier replied calmly, leaning back in his seat, sipping the tea. "It's about what works for the survival and reproduction of the organism in the short and long term. I've heard this all before. You're talking about Eugenics, not Evolution."
"You act as if Eugenics is a dirty word. You don't seem to think so when you use it to breed dogs, racehorses, and cattle." Sinister replied, breaking a piece of buttered bread with telekinesis and floating it into her mouth, chewing on it. "So why get shy when it comes to humans or Mutants or whoever else has genes that do spooky things? What if Eugenics is THE best way to achieve survival of the species as a whole?"
"Even if it was, even if it could be done humanely, which I absolutely do not believe is possible...it's still a... plan... a schedule, even..." Xavier trailed with a shake of his head. "Worse, it's a schedule prepared by you, a person who has thus far demonstrated absolutely callous and abusive behavior and shows no respect for the life of innocent people, or even the very children in your care. You've clearly given the young man next to me a level of trauma he'll be sorting out the rest of his life. If Evolution DOES need a Caretaker, I cannot imagine a sorrier example of such a hypothetical steward."
Sinister rolled her eyes and turned to Cyclops.
"Enlightenment ideology. It's not the boon to science people claim it to be. Such a brilliant mind who could put his psionic research to real, world-shaking applications and he's as cowed as Pym or Wyndham..."
"My dedication to science will NEVER overrule my responsibility towards those who could be harmed by it." Xavier snapped. "You're a criminal, Sinister. And a Murderer. Any claim to legitimacy you may have had went out the window when you chose to spill the blood of an innocent."
"I was never interested in anything you had to say from the start..." Cyclops said, sipping his tea. "I'm still going to kill you."
Sinister sighed.
"Cyclops, you're fighting for a society that will hate and fear you the moment they learn you exist and that you don't have to answer to their silly laws and their sillier religions. They would have put the people of District X into camps with numbers stamped onto their foreheads, waiting for the oven. It would have been a slower, much more cruel death than what I gave them. They'll never recognize your inherent superiority, and they'll label any humans who help you as race traitors. And you want to fall on your sword for them?"
"Mutants will just have to prove they deserve to survive by weathering the storm. If we can't...then we simply were not meant to, in spite of our powers." Cyclops replied. "If anything, you've proven Mutants have more to fear from other Mutants then they do Humans. It wasn't humans who sacked District X. Not in the biological sense. OR the metaphorical one."
"You're 'never' going to let the Orphanage go, are you?" she muttered.
"No. I'm not." Cyclops replied, taking another sip. "Did you actually hope to convince us of anything?"
"I thought it was worth a shot. My plans would go much more smoothly with you on my side instead of fruitlessly fighting me..." Sinister replied with a low-key shrug, biting into a scone. "You and this team you are building is at worst, a minor distraction. A bump in the road. It won't stop me."
She leaned forward in amusement.
"You're no superhero, Cyclops. Your bald friend isn't one either. You're posers. Pretenders to the standards Captain Rogers set. And when you can't live up to them it will be so obvious to the entire world..." Sinister taunted. "I'm trying to give you an out here..."
In the meanwhile, Danger had been transmitting coordinates to Mystique's radio in morse code.
One of Mystique's portals opened right next to Sinister and a MASSIVE burst of red electricity slammed into Sinister from an enraged Storm who TACKLED Sinister as she was sent flying, fists infused with red lightning as she swung at Sinister's face again and again. Sinister's hold on Bobby and Cypher was released instantly by the momentary distraction and without prompting Cyclops immediately rushed the two hostages and hurled them both through the still open portal, Xavier grabbing Carter Slade's shotgun and pointing it at Sinister only to be grabbed by Cyclops.
"GO!" Cyclops shouted at him, pointing at the open portal, Mystique desperately gesturing for him to come through.
"But-" Xavier protested.
"No arguments, Professor! This is not a fight you can help with. GO!" Cyclops repeated.
Xavier looked upset but he nodded after a half second and ran, leaping through the portal. Mystique immediately closed it. Cyclops had no time to ask why the others were not coming through. He had to hope they had something worked out because he genuinely wasn't certain how long Storm could hold Sinister-
He got his answer seconds later when Storm was sent flying by a telekinetic blast into the upper cavern ceiling, which she barely managed to get a red electricity bubble around herself in time.
"Miss Munroe! Such a delight to see you again!" Sinister joked, rising from the crater Storm had pounded her into as Storm floated back towards her at high speed, in the grip of a deadly fury she had, for the most part, suppressed for months.
"I trust your father's death wasn't TOO painful..." Sinister taunted.
"I would have roasted you alive for my mother alone, Essex!" Storm shouted as she got closer, glowing red eyes crackling on the surface with tiny red arcs of electricity, utterly bent on killing her.
"But for my father?! I'M GONNA DISINTEGRATE YOU!"
Sinister's grin only grew wider.
"Bring it." Sinister replied.
"She's not alone!" Cyclops shouted, while Danger busily slaughtered the Optic Commando honor guard.
Sinister flashed him a grin also.
"Fine. You can bring it too."
Both Cyclops and Storm fired their respective energy blasts at the same time. Sinister willed a semitransparent bubble of energy around her to block the energy, while at the same time tearing off whole chunks of the cavern above with telekinesis to hurl them at Cyclops and storm, forcing them to break off their assault to survive the gigantic projectiles to survive.
Danger at this point didn't even bother firing projectiles, instead going for straight energy blasts herself with the multiple cannons built into her. Sinister immediately grabbed control of the advanced LMD with her mind, forcing her to fire on Cyclops and Storm against her will even as more and more chunks of rock were telekinetically hurled at them in turn.
A portal opened up next to the nude, golden Loki statue and Power Princess immediately grabbed the Statue and dragged it in with her own telekinesis before the portal closed immediately after.
Sinister snarled at the theft.
"Look at the effort you all have to put up just to pull off a simple theft..." Sinister sneered, a blast of green concussive energy pouring out of the glowing red diamond on her forehead and slamming directly into Cyclops and Storm, while Sinister telekinetically hurled Danger away.
"Do I look worried by this pathetic display?" Sinister asked she telekinetically gripped both Cyclops and Storm.
"You act like dogs nipping helplessly at the heels of the one whose table you ate scraps from!" Sinister shouted, increasing the pressure on their bodies.
"Avatars of Humanity's coming perfection, yet you would be but roaches if given the choice!" Sinister snapped, slamming them both repeatedly into the ground...
...
Meanwhile, Toad, Nightcrawler, and Blob ventured quietly down the tunnels that Cyclops had earlier cleared out. Mortimer and Kurt were particularly aghast at the carnage Cyclops and the others had left in their wake.
"Are we sure we are the good guys?" Kurt asked.
"Some of these scumbags are HYDRA." Fred snorted. "They'd have killed us all in a heartbeat if they could have."
"They were still God's children also..." the furry blue teenage mutant replied as he set mining charges on the walls, Toad carrying a belt of strange looking grenades taken off the corpse of an Optic Infantryman that had been recovered.
If they were, they chose to get disowned." Fred replied, having very personal reasons to despise HYDRA, and anything HYDRA-related.
Just then their radios blared.
"Mort, Come in!" Xavier's voice exclaimed.
"Yeah?" Toad replied.
Zarda told me Cyclops and Storm are losing to Essex! You've got to hurry to them. You might be their only chance. And be on the lookout for some...help..."
"Help?" Toad asked.
"Remember that brain-cannister thingy we found Cyclops with?" Xavier asked. (SEE: TOTAL X-MEN #13)
"Yeah." Mort answered.
"Danger...did something to it...Just be wary. It might be heading your way..." Xavier warned.
"Gotcha. We'll try not to freak out..." Toad assured him.
"And Mortimer?" Xavier added. "If we make it out of here alive, you are going to explain to me, in full detail, just EXACTLY where you got Danger from..."
Toad sighed. "Sure, Professor."
The three began to run, Mortimer now planting the charges on the fly at the specific points the blueprints the surviving excavators had provided.
They would be repeating this pattern when they got to Threshold itself...
...
The cannister containing the strange, altered Brain of 'Mother Righteous' had already grown a nervous system, a skeleton that was almost complete, as muscle tissue rapidly spread over both as it staggered out of the jet, the nanomachines directing this growth filling her reworked brain with purpose.
"Scott..." it hissed out in a broken voice as it staggered out of the Jet, sensing its counterpart even from here...
"Scott..." it called out again, tonelessly, creeping past survivors gearing up to completely evacuate the remains of District X, staying out of their sight as its body continued to regenerate.
It's slowly remembered telekinesis killed the lights near the tunnel entrance the others had gone down as it hid in the shadows, creeping in just as flashlights were pulled out, staying out of the beams of light as it formed a pair of glowing red eyes in its skull, part of it covered in pale white skin with a glowing red X right in the middle.
"Scott..." it repeated in a hiss as it began to pick up speed, genuinely starting to run as it grew more skin and muscle...