SINISTER SECRETS

By Ryan Krupienski

She dashes through the dark corridors, the faint light glimmering off the silvery portions of her armor. Her double-bladed lance grasped in one hand, she turns her fully-masked head for a moment to see if her pursuers are close. They’re not.

She slows down, attempting to catch her breath. That will prove to be a mistake.

“Stopping already, sweetheart?” says a cold voice from the shadows. Out walks a white-haired man, wearing a form-fitting light purple uniform, smiling devilishly.

“Riptide!” the woman exclaims. “I defeated you once before, and I’ll do it again!”

“Not this time, sweets. You’re facin’ all the Marauders this time, and this ain’t a training session,” Riptide says. He begins to spin around, sending sharp shurikens in the woman’s direction.

The woman deflects the shurikens with her lance. “You and the others are nothing but carbon copies of the true Marauders, Riptide, while I am the one true woman who has come to call herself Chyna!”

Chyna twirls her lance in her hands, generating a bright yellow-orange colored energy. She swings the lance at Riptide, and strikes him right in the face.

“ARRGGHH!” Riptide cries out. He falls to the floor, unconscious.

Chyna walks over to her attacker, looking down at him. “It is a pity you chose to serve Essex to begin with. He has the power to renew your life countless times, therefore he has complete control over you. But I shall not let that happen to me. I have endured enough in my life, and I will not let him control me. Nor will I let him ruin the lives of others. That is why I must escape, Riptide. I have a responsibility to use my abilities to ensure that no one is done injustice as I was.”

Chyna touches the left side of her mask, lowering her head and closing her eyes. She still remembers that fateful day when…

*BBRRRAAAAAMMM!*

An energy blast comes from behind her, knocking her onto the floor. She quickly gets to her feet, and turns around to face the rest of her pursuers – the Marauders.

Arclight, Scrambler, Harpoon, Vertigo, Blockbuster, Prism, and their leader, Scalphunter. Some of the most vicious killers ever to walk the face of the planet, they were gathered together by the X-Man Gambit, and led into the tunnels beneath New York to slay the defenseless mutants known as the Morlocks, whom Sinister had declared ‘genetically unfit’.

Scalphunter walks toward Chyna, a large gun in his left hand. “Injustice? Nah, what happened to you is just bad luck. Too bad your powers didn’t kick in before the car blew…”

“QUIET!” Chyna yells, as she kicks Scalphunter in the stomach. “You know nothing of that night!”

Instantly, the other Marauders dash at Chyna. Harpoon sends two harpoons in her direction, which she barely dodges in time. Scrambler attempts to touch her and dampen her powers, but instead is sent flying in the air and right into Prism. Blockbuster pounds his fist right into Chyna, but she stands her ground, having activated her force field.

She backs away from her opponents, of whom only Vertigo, Arclight, Harpoon, and Blockbuster are now standing. Vertigo approaches her slowly.

“Can’t escape, Chyna. You belong to Sinister now, we all do,” Vertigo says.

“I belong to no one, Vertigo,” Chyna replies.

All of a sudden, Chyna feels a pounding in her head, and can hear an eerie humming sound. Vertigo has put her powers to work, causing Chyna to feel nauseous and dizzy. Chyna falls to her knees, holding her head in her hands, trying to reclaim her sense of balance.

“No…” Chyna moans. She can’t take any more. Vertigo’s power overcomes her, and causes her to black out.

While she’s unconscious, her mind is alert, taking her thoughts back nearly an hour, when she discovered the truth about the one she had come to trust…

Sinister’s lair. The exact location is unknown, but that doesn’t matter, it serves the same purpose as all his former headquarters did.

The room is dark, but is illuminated by the active computer systems’ bright monitors and flashing control panels. A tall, armor-clad woman stands at one monitor, searching for answers to her questions concerning the mad geneticist known as Sinister.

‘What secrets are you hiding, Essex?’ Chyna asks herself, scanning through the files at Sinister’s disposal.

‘When you first took me in, I trusted you completely. You had saved my life, and I was grateful. You helped me learn to control my emerging mutant powers, trained me to be a great warrior. But then I met them… the Marauders. Vicious killers, who you claimed you formed to kill people who do wrong. But I believe otherwise.’

‘I must find the files on the Marauders, discover their true purpose. And I must discover what you are up to, Essex. I…’

Her thoughts stop. She looks at the screen, which has a video feed of the X-Man Phoenix on it. ‘What? Why is Essex monitoring normal humans?’ Chyna wonders.

“Computer, activate audio recordings for this entry,” Chyna commands.

“Activating audio recordings,” the computer’s monotone voice replies.

‘Essex should secure his files better,’ Chyna thinks.

The computer begins to play the audio recording for the file.

“Essex’s journal, March Twenty-seventh, Nineteen Ninety-nine. Jean Grey-Summers, Phoenix of the X-Men, is finally pregnant. If only she were longer ahead in her pregnancy, I might be able to somehow use this child as a tool in defeating the mad Apocalypse, who, if prophecy remains true, will rain complete and utter destruction upon the world before year’s end. At first, I believed Jean to be pregnant with one child, a girl, but now something has changed. It seems now that she is…”

“Computer, disengage audio feed, shut down file log,” says a cold voice from behind Chyna.

Chyna turns around and sees Sinister walk in, an angry look on his face. “What do you think you are doing, Miss Hong?” he asks.

Chyna just stares at Sinister, not showing any sign of fear. “My name is Chyna now, Essex,” she replies. “What secrets are you holding from me? You want me to trust you, but I cannot do that when you hide things from me.”

“Very well then, Chyna. What do you wish to know?” Sinister asks slyly.

Chyna turns and points to the monitor. “I was reading a file on that monitor, a surveillance file on a woman known as Phoenix. Why do you watch this woman? Of what importance is she to you?” she asks.

“She, Chyna, is of a rich and powerful bloodline, one that I have been monitoring closely for a long time now. Her power, combined with that of one other…”

Sinister activates a holographic projector, and images of Cyclops and Phoenix appear out of thin air.

“Scott Summers, Cyclops. His genetic material, combined with that of Phoenix, will potentially create the most powerful mutant to ever walk the face of the Earth. I desire to have that child, for the sole purpose of saving the world from an immensely powerful being called Apocalypse.”

Chyna looks at the holographic images, then turns to Sinister. “I have heard you speak of this Apocalypse, how he plans to unleash great evil as prophecy demands at the end of the year. But how will you stop him with this child, if it is not even born yet?”

Sinister can’t come up with a believable ruse for the answer to this question. He taps a control on his small wrist-computer, and almost immediately, the Marauders gather around him.

“What…? What is going on?” Chyna asks, looking at the Marauders with confusion.

Sinister smiles evily. “You’ve dug too deep already, Chyna. I may as well let you in on my little secret, since mine are the last words you’ll be hearing for a long time.”

“You’ve been wondering about the Marauders here for a while, what their true purpose is. I’m sorry to say, they do not kill evildoers, nor do they protect the innocent. They are contract killers, who dispose of any being I deem genetically unfit. They did so years ago, killing thousands of the pathetic and weak Morlocks.”

“As for Phoenix, yes, you are correct, her baby will not be born before Apocalypse unleashes his forces upon the world, and even if it was, it would be but a child, unable to access its powers or use them effectively against an opponent. This child is part of my plans for after Apocalypse is destroyed. This baby will be the first of an elite army of mutants that I will use to usher in a new era where the genetically strong dominate, and…”

“NO!” Chyna exclaims, cutting off Sinister. “You are clearly a schemer, for you talk quite proudly of your deeds. I trusted you with my life, and you have betrayed that trust. I believed you when you told me nothing but lies, and now that your evil has become known to me, I will expose it to those you intend to hurt.”

Chyna runs out of the room, into the shadows and out of sight. Sinister trails her with his eyes, but to no avail.

“Find her, and bring her back to me. She must not escape!” Sinister commands, sending the Marauders off in Chyna’s direction.

Chyna wakes up, discovering that she’s chained to the wall in the same room she uncovered some of Sinister’s secrets. The Marauders managed to capture her, and now she’s at Sinister’s mercy.

‘I have to escape…’ she thinks to herself.

Sinister walks up to her, having just entered the room. He grins, staring her right in the face. “You are never leaving here. The information you possess is too valuable, and if it falls into the wrong hands, it will destroy my plans. It’s nothing personal,” he says.

Chyna spits on Sinister. “You seek to take a child from its parents, just so you can usher in a new era of mutant superiority? You are sick and twisted, I shall despise you for the rest of my days.”

Sinister wipes the spit from his face, which now harbors an angry expression. “Your days, Chyna, will be numbered if you test my patience any further! I saved you from certain doom, doom that you would have inflicted upon yourself, had you not been given emotional stability. I trained you in the use of your mutant powers, gave you purpose…”

“It was all a lie, Essex! You did all that so you could use me as your puppet, not because you actually cared!” Chyna yells. “If you are going to kill me, do it and be done with it. I refuse to remain your prisoner.”

Sinister laughs. “Hahaha! So headstrong and demanding, much like your young cousin. You have no choice now, Chyna. There’s no way you’ll escape. Your powers are dampened, you are chained to the wall, and even if you did manage to get free, all the exits in this complex are guarded by my Marauders. You’re trapped.”

‘No, it cannot end like this!’ Chyna thinks to herself. ‘There has to a way… to escape…’

“I’ll leave you now, dear Chyna. You need your rest.” Sinister exits the room, leaving Chyna alone.

Chyna looks around, for something, anything, that may help her escape. The chains that keep her in place are too thick to break without her powers, and there’s no key of sorts anywhere in sight. But then something catches her eye…

One hour later.

Sinister walks into the room, towards where Chyna is chained up. Make that ‘was’.

“No! NO!” Sinister yells angrily.

The chains have been broken, and Sinister can tell it’s the work of a sharp object by examining the slice marks.

‘So, you used your lance to break free of the chains. I should have left it farther beyond your reach, or perhaps I should have restrained you more. You are not one to be underestimated, my dear. You have information, that, if given to Cyclops and Phoenix, will ultimately complicate my plans. But alas, you have no way of tracking them, unless…’

Anxiously, Sinister walks up the the computer, and clicks a few buttons. “Computer, have any files been copied within the last hour?” Sinister asks.

The computer beeps a little, then replies, “Files on designate: Cyclops and designate: Phoenix were copied aproximately thirty-four minutes ago.”

“Damn her!” Sinister says, slamming his fist on the control panel. “I taught you well, Chyna… too well, it seems.”

Sinister walks over to another computer, and activates an intercom. “Marauders, come to me,” he orders.

The Marauders gather in the room once more, and stand facing Sinister, awaiting his orders. “Chyna has escaped. She has taken the files on Cyclops and Phoenix with her, and probably a tracking device to locate them as well. I want you to find her, stop her from reaching the X-Men… and when you find her, I want you to kill her.”

NEXT ISSUE: While Cyclops and Phoenix begin to plan for the arrival of the twins, Beast and Cecilia take some time for an official training session for Cecilia’s new powers – and a little more! Meanwhile, Angel and Psylocke are in New York plotting and scheming – when none other than Chyna shows up near Salem Center! You know what that means – Psylocke vs. Chyna!