Chapter 25: And Sinister Was His Name Part Two

Chapter Twenty Five: And Sinister Was His Name Part Two

Marvel Girl opened her eyes groggily. It took her about a moment to recollect her thoughts, before she pulled herself to her feet. She watched, as Cyclops was stirring slightly, but the other members of the X-Men had been rendered unconscious. She sensed that someone was there, but no one was responding. Even Professor Xavier had been knocked unconscious.

“Jean?” muttered Cyclops groggily. “Those mutants…attack…is everyone alright?”

“No, knocked out, all of them, except for us, I guess my mental shield worked but the Professor’s didn’t,” responded Marvel Girl, as she was confused at how this could be. Her telepathy was far less advanced than Professor Xavier’s but yet there he was, unconscious and she was still in one piece. In concentration, she tried to get though but it was a futile effort. “I can’t reach them, only enough to know that they’re still alive, only mentally stunned, if that’s possible.”

“So then everyone is present then accounted for, just unconscious,” said Cyclops weakly, attempting to verify the situation and Jean nodded, but suddenly her eyes darted around, seeing that one person was missing.

“Except for Spider-Man,” replied Marvel Girl. “Gone, they must have kidnapped him when we were indisposed but there might be one person who could tell us exactly where they’ve take him.”

Cyclops turned around and saw a battered Sabertooth move right towards Wolverine, in an attempt to put the finishing touches on his unconscious foe. Quickly, Cyclops unleashed an optic blast, sending Sabertooth back from his teammate. The blow was enough to disable Sabertooth for a second but Marvel Girl stepped in. Sabertooth was off the ground, just a few inches, because of the telekinesis.

“Where is Spider-Man?” demanded Cyclops forcefully. “Who are you working for?”

Sabertooth just responded with a loud sadistic round of laughter.

“Please you little wimp, like I’d tell you my secrets,” said Sabertooth. “You two aren’t going to be do nothing to me, with Xavier and Wolverine knocked out, they’re the only two who could control me for long. Besides, it’s not like you can hurt me, I have a healing factor just like the runt on the floor and he’s the only one who could even put a dent in me, if he had the guts to that is and if he did have guts, I’d just tear them out.”

“He’s right,” said Cyclops as Marvel Girl just looked at Sabertooth, going through all the options, which were very few. They could hold off Sabertooth until the Professor woke up and tried to gain some information as to the whereabouts of Spider-Man but that could take time, time that they did not have. “Now what do we do?”

“I was kind of hoping you would have a suggestion, Scott,” said Marvel Girl in a defeated voice, before she decided to take the only situation. “Well, I guess I’m going to have to try reading his mind.”“Didn’t the Professor say that his mind was even more screwed up than Logan’s?” asked Cyclops.

“Yes, my mind is more complex and twisted than the runt’s, you won’t be the same if you step in, girlie,” said Sabertooth with a snarl. “You don’t even have the powers, not like that pathetic old man Xavier could even delve into my mind without getting a headache. You’re soft and weak and once you let your guard down, I’ll mangle that pretty little face and…”

Sabertooth was cut off, as Jean tried to get into his mind with all the concentration she could muster. She meant nothing but a shredded patchwork of unconnected and sometimes vague memories, and that was not even seeing the giant blank spots darker than the blackest nights that someone appeared to not have wanted Sabertooth or anyone reading his mind to access.

-

It was getting very late and perhaps it was just her, but Gwen was getting rather worried. Several hours earlier, Wolverine had taken Peter to the X-Mansion on a matter of grave importance and there had been no word back from Peter then. She tried to call both Peter’s cell and his Aunt May at home, but no answer on either end and she found herself making her way towards Peter’s house, in a panicked, hurried manner. In the back of her mind, despite mostly accepting her boyfriend’s other identity, she did have a tendency to dread something bad happening. Peter had pulled himself through some rather tight scraps and lived to fight another day.

Something told her, a feeling in the back of her mind, that nothing was right. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but better to be safe and sorry.

“No one’s home,” thought Gwen in a panicked manner. “Now I know something’s wrong. Well you don’t be a Police Captain’s daughter without knowing a few tricks. Maybe the GPS on Peter’s cell phone…seems like an invasion of privacy, but if he’s in trouble, I have to try something.”

-

Jean stepped back, her temples throbbing, as Cyclops moved forward.

“Anything?” asked Cyclops.

“Not much I’m afraid, just a bunch of vague memories that I can’t even figure out how they make sense and just a lot of darkness,” said Marvel Girl before she added as an afterthought. “And the name Sinister kept popping up on occasion, it was about the only clear thing. I can’t get anything other than that, I managed to knock him out, it should last long enough for us to figure out what to do. I wish I could’ve delved deeper, but I would have lobotomized him.”

“Not that I wouldn’t blame you,” said Cyclops but Marvel Girl just gave him a slightly disapproving look.

“Knowing his state of mind, he may have been even harder to control, someone tampered with his mind before, many times over” said Marvel Girl but she screwed her eyes shut, trying to make sense of what she saw in Sabertooth’s head. The word Sinister and several vague images, she was certain if she had just one piece of information to tie it together, basically needing a miracle. She dropped Sabertooth, who had been put to sleep and was brought out of her state of trying to piece this entire mess together by the ringing of Kitty’s cell phone. At first, it did not seem to pressing to pick it up but when she saw who was calling she quickly picked it up.

“Hello, Kitty?” asked Gwen

“No Gwen, it’s Jean, there’s been a bit of a situation here, regarding…Kitty being knocked out and Spider-Man being captured by someone,” said Jean and she could almost here Gwen taking a deep breath and the phone shake on her. “Don’t worry, Scott and I have it under control and we’re working to get him back, just hold tight and don’t worry, we won’t let him get hurt.”

“You have no idea where Peter is, do you?” asked Gwen in a forced calm voice, she did not really need telepathy to figure that part out. “Good thing I might have figured something out. I can’t be sure exactly where he is, but he’s somewhere off the coast, on a remote island. Exactly where, I don’t know.”

“I know where he is exactly now, thanks Gwen,” said Jean before she frowned. “How exactly did you…”

“GPS on his cell phone,” said Gwen quickly and Jean looked dumbstruck at having not figured out to take that simple step. “Please bring him back safely, wherever he is.”

“I will, don’t worry,” said Jean, but she wished the entire team could have gone on this mission, as those mutants that attacked him had handily defeated the X-Men and while she had no clue who this Sinister guy was, he seemed like bad news if someone like Sabertooth worked for him. “Get to the Blackbird, Scott, we need to leave now.”

“Now?” asked Cyclops.

“Yes, because if we wait until the Professor and the others wake up, we will be too late, much too late.”

-

Spider-Man saw the face of Sinister in the shadows, as Sinister took one step forward. With one tug, the warped geneticist casually removed Spider-Man’s mask, causing Peter to flinch in pain, Sinister seemed rather unimpressed by the face that stared out in front of him.

“Just a child getting the luckiest break of his life by getting phenomenal superhuman powers,” said Sinister icily as he walked over, to get the baseline DNA results that he could get without any deep cutting. 

“Impressive Spider-Man and quite a scientific paradox. Your DNA is remarkable and completely unique, even without the genetic material that the spider introduced into you.”

Peter suddenly looked up, morbid curiosity getting the better of him.

“What can you tell me about your parents, Spider-Man?” asked Sinister.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but they died when I was young, I wouldn’t know that much about them,” said Peter through gritted teeth.

“A pity, but I doubt they were mutants, your DNA tells me as much, but perhaps they were subjected to some type of genetic manipulation, done quite poorly I might add,” said Sinister as he looked at the results, analyzing the data, checking over calculations. “Not quite an X-Gene that caused you to survive the introduction, because you would be far more powerful but it’s something similar. Something quite intriguing that is going to accelerate my final work to its fullest extent. You see, Spider-Man, humans like you will be the norm once I’ve finished weeding out the weak. The strong will survive and the world will be reshaped into something more suited for the future health of evolution.”

Sinister paused for a scant few seconds, before he walked over to a covered tray and placed his hands on a cloth.

“But enough small talk, Spider-Man, it’s time to get to work,” said Sinister as he slowly pulled the cloth off, revealing a number of surgical tools. “Time to see what your DNA can truly tell us, I barely scratched the surface so time to cut beneath the surface and find out what exactly makes Spider-Man, Spider-Man.”

Sinister reached over and picked up a surgical saw, a twisted grin appearing on face and Spider-Man looked up, as Sinister approached him.

“Uh, hate to break this to you, Dr. Essex, but I’m sure this isn’t covered under my medical insurance,” said Spider-Man but his usual quipping was rather forced and did not nearly have the same effect as it would under normal circumstances.

“Ah yes Spider-Man, I do admire your attempt to try and find some humor in this situation, but I can assure you I am not one of your little villains who gets a costume and some moderate degree of power, gaining the foolish notion that he is actually something,” said Sinister as his red eyes glistened maliciously in the distance. Peter Parker’s palms were sweating, his heart was thumping, and Sinister’s appearance added to the horror. He tried to thrash violently, in an attempt to free himself from his restraints but it was about his useless as he expected. “Oh and I feel as if I’m obligated to mention this, but this may hurt at first. Don’t fret though young Spider-Man, the pain will be over, once you’ve bled enough.”

“I have to get out, free myself, that blade, I can see that steel it won’t be long before its slicing through my skin,” thought Peter as his palms were completely soaked with sweat and he could feel his heart thumping against his chest. “He’s drawing it out, making me suffer, just because he can, it’s not like I can stop me.”

A sound of fighting could be heard from outside and Sinister paused long enough, to see Harpoon of the Marauders flying right through the doorway of the lab. Another optic blast had backed of off the mutant, as Archlight went flying down to the ground. Sinister just turned away from Spider-Man, with a calm, nearly bored expression on his face, as he could hear his Marauders being picked apart outside.

“Right on schedule,” muttered Sinister triumphantly as he saw Vertigo drop to the ground outside the hallway and Marvel Girl and Cyclops step into the room.

“Let me guess, Sinister!” shouted Cyclops.

“Bravo, boy, I see you are remotely intelligent, in addition to power, that’s an attractive combination for one’s genetic material,” said Sinister calmly but he stepped right next to Spider-Man. “I’ll not let you embarrass yourselves by boisterous talk about you being so good that you found me or you fought off my abilities to knock you unconscious, when in fact I allowed you to remain conscious and let that foolish brute Sabertooth there with a clue that Miss Grey would be able to put together and I am pleased to think that my plans had worked.”

“You mean you planned this?” demanded Cyclops as he would have used his optic blasts on Sinister, had he not been standing right in front of Spider-Man. Had Sinister moved, Spider-Man would be seriously hurt.

“We walked straight into a trap,” said Marvel Girl in a horrified tone of voice.

“Of course you did, you foolish children” said Sinister mockingly as he flicked a black orb that suddenly bombarded both mutants and caused them to collapse to the ground, severe, deliberating headaches caused by their mutant powers being forced within them. Sinister walked forward, they were both paralyzed and with little effort, he placed them both on surgical tables, before slapping bracelets around their wrists. “I’ll have to thank Professor Warren for these mutant power nullifying cuffs, they will block your powers. He can really be a devious little jackal sometimes.”

Sinister chuckled but he stopped when he saw that Jean Grey was trying to fight the powers of the mutant power suppressers and much to his astonishment, her powers were nearly potent enough to override such technology, but naturally he had plans. With a press of a button, she was shocked with a nearly lethal amount of electricity, that would in fact kill a normal human but was quite unpleasant for even the most powerful mutant. Jean screamed loudly, blood curdling screams as her body was racked with pain.

“JEAN!” shouted Cyclops in a horrified voice. “STOP IT YOU MONSTER! YOU’RE HURTING HER!”

“I am aware of that, Mr. Summers,” said Sinister in a voice completely devoid of any sympathy but despite the horrifying screams that he heard, Peter managed to get his wits to himself long enough to realize that for the moment, Sinister’s attention was elsewhere, away from him and perhaps if he had timed this just right, he could free himself. “She was being disobedient and needed to learn her proper place.”

The loud screams stopped as Sinister held the remote in his hand.

“I bet you would like nothing better than to blow me to bits right now, Mr. Summers but those bracelets completely block out your powers,” said Sinister, as he casually took off the visor from over Cyclops’s eyes and sure enough, the mutant could open his eyes, without blasting everything around him. He felt rather weak and sick and that part was done by design.

“I’ll make you pay for this, when I get out of here!” yelled Cyclops.

“Ah how touching,” said Sinister in the most un-sincere voice imaginable but Peter managed to shift the operating table he was on just enough. He saw a torch on the table of surgical tools and if he remembered right, given the proper temperature, he could melt the restraints and free himself and once he did, he would have only one shot to get that remote control away from Sinister. He caught Cyclops’s eye who responded with a scowl. “That’s right boy, no matter what I do to Jean right here, you can just sit there and watch and like it because I can do anything I want and you are both powerless to stop me.”

Peter managed to grab the blowtorch but at that moment, Sinister turned around. Quickly, on an instant, he turned the blowtorch right at Sinister’s face, causing the crazed scientist to be burned temporarily and that allowed him enough time to free himself. With a dive, he went for Sinister but Sinister caught him, before flinging the wall crawler right into a metal cabinet. He landed hard before he slumped to the ground and Sinister walked over, putting his foot on Peter’s chest and forcing the hero to the ground.

“Quite pathetic for something that was created off of my research, I bet you thought you were going to take me by surprise and grab this remote to free your little friends,” said Sinister, taunting Peter by waving the remote in his face, while applying more pressure with his own foot, grinding it right in his chest. “You thought wrong, because compared to me, your powers are that of an insect compared to a God. Or rather in your case, an arachnid compared to a god.”

“You think an awful lot of yourself, Essex, but still, you’ve preyed to some of the same mistakes…” said Peter, as he attempted to push Sinister’s foot off and managed to slide underneath but Sinister just waved his hand and a telekinetic blast knocked the wall crawler backwards, causing him to crash down to the ground.

Peter shakily rose up and another one caught him flush right in the chest and he found himself right back on the same operating table that he just freed himself. Sinister picked up the surgical saw and prepared to pick up right where he left off before he was interrupted.

At the last second, Peter managed to block the handle of the saw. The blade was spinning, just mere centimeters away from his chest. Any closer and he would be sliced right open but he placed his legs underneath Sinister and managed to kick him off. Sinister staggered back and Peter dodged the saw being swung at him. Landing right on his feet, Peter stood right against Sinister.

“Impossible, there should be no way you should have regained your full strength this soon,” said Sinister, saying it more out of making a scientific observation, than showing any anger and he was quite content with picking apart the carcass later to find out why this had happened. Two attacks were narrowly avoided.

“I recover a lot quicker than I look, Essex,” said Peter, as he leapt up but this proved to be quite the cardinal error as Sinister grabbed him by the ankles and swung him, sending him flying right onto a nearby table. 

Sinister waved his hand and Peter was flung off the table. He held his arms out instinctively but remembered he had no web shooters and he was nailed flush in the chest. He could feel the pain.

“At your full power, you still aren’t enough to beat me, Spider-Man,” taunted Sinister, but Peter was not done yet. Peter Parker was many things but a quitter he was not and he bounced back up to his feet and dove right towards Sinister. Sinister flung his adversary off, but reaching forward, he grabbed onto the remote control device and smashed it right on the ground. “You fool, what have you done?”

“SPIDER-MAN WATCH OUT!” shouted Cyclops and Peter realized what he done, as the blasts from Cyclops’s eyes came back at full power now that the mutant power suppressors were nullified. Sinister managed to put up some kind of shield to block it, and Peter threw himself behind a metal cabinet, as Marvel Girl released herself, still very weakened, as Cyclops screwed his eyes shut.

Sinister was up as both of the mutants were freed and Spider-Man was had now pulled his mask on. Cyclops took a step forward and released a high impact optic blast right towards Sinister but he was too crafty and avoided it.

Rather, Sinister waved forward and his followers stepped in right in front of him.

“Marauders, you can eliminate them right now, I have sufficient genetic material from all three of them,” ordered Sinister calmly, as he moved forward. Marvel Girl attempted to stop him but Sinister was ready, repelling her powers back at her somehow. Vertigo unleashed her powers, causing the three to be caught off guard and dizzy, as Sinister slipped something in a briefcase before he bolted.

“I don’t think you can see it, but your boss just ran off and if we defeat you, I doubt he’s coming back,” said Spider-Man as he tried to fight his way, just barely able to avoid a charged harpoon from harpoon that blew up the ground.

“The thing is that we don’t plan on losing to you, Spider-Man,” said Harpoon as he threw two more of his charged weapons, with Cyclops managing to fight through enough of Vertigo’s attack and knocked the weapons, rendering them to dust. Spider-Man scaled the wall, avoiding the spinning attacks of Riptide, before he jumped up the mutant, covering his eyes, as the battle raged on around him.

“You’ll lose your lunch, before I lose this fight!” shouted Riptide but no matter how much he tried to throw off Spider-Man, the wall crawler held on with all of his might and no matter what, he was not flung off, not even for a second. Rather, Riptide had eventually spun right into a wall, knocking himself off, as Archlight, grabbed Cyclops and threw him to the ground, but Jean lifted the powerful mutant off the ground and Spider-Man spotted his web shooters and several web cartridges lying on a table of notes.

Quickly, the web slinger took them, as Vertigo stepped forward, to release her attacks, but Spider-Man webbed her mouth shut, before webbing her arms and legs together and without another word, she was rendered unable to use her mutant powers.

Archlight was disposed off, but Harpoon was still fighting, having knocked Cyclops off balance. He threw another one of his charged harpoons, blowing up the ground beneath Marvel Girl, but he faced off against Spider-Man.

“Ready to dance, wall crawler?” asked Harpoon menacingly.

“Bring it,” said Spider-Man without a beat as he circled Harpoon. Harpoon aimed right at Spider-Man and flung one of his super charged harpoons, but with a fluid and expert movement, Spider-Man shot a line of webbing around the super charged harpoon and flicked it back, causing the weapon to blow up the ground right underneath Harpoon and send the mutant flying right into the air. Webbing him up, he caused Harpoon to struggle but he was quickly put down.

“Is that all of them?” asked Cyclops, adopting a business like tone of voice.

“I believe so,” said Marvel Girl and Spider-Man looked at them, before he nodded in confirmation, Riptide, Harpoon, Vertigo, and Archlight had been wrapped up, to be most likely sent to the same mutant containment facility that the Brotherhood was. “But Sinister, he got away with something.”

“Genetic samples I heard,” said Spider-Man and the two mutants. “He managed to steal something from you two as well, I know he got some samples from me and if you two hadn’t shown up when you had…well let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Don’t worry, I’ll be alright…I’ve been through worse.”

“Although off the top of the head, I can’t think of anything and come to think of it, this was the tightest spot I’ve been in,” thought Spider-Man still rather shaken from the ordeal but he quickly tried not to think about it, especially considering broadcasting his thoughts would make it very hard to fool a telepath.

“Professor Xavier,” said Marvel Girl suddenly, causing Spider-Man and Cyclops to jump. “Yes, he wants us back immediately, now that I’ve explained everything to him, including you Spider-Man, he fears that Sinister might have done something to you, he’ll explain more when we get there, everyone’s awake, safe, Logan’s brooding about being knocked out and not being able to fight.”

“That figures,” said Cyclops but he turned, with the three making their way back to the Blackbird to return to the X-Mansion.

-

“PETER!” shouted Gwen in surprise as she jumped off the front step and rushed towards Peter, embracing him. “Thank God, you got out alive!”

“Yes, thankfully,” muttered Peter, as Gwen stepped back to give him room to breath. She looked at him with shock. He had a completely haunted look on his face.

“Peter, something happened to you,” said Gwen but Peter just looked at her. “What?”

“Nothing Gwen,” said Peter quickly, not wanting to drag her into this. Not tonight. “I’m fine.”

“Well you seem to be doing a pretty good impression of someone who is most certainly not fine,” answered Gwen but Peter just turned his back on her and moved her way to the door.

“Why don’t you go, Gwen, it’s getting late,” remarked Peter in a rather chilly tone that Gwen was not used to. “I appreciate your sympathy but I don’t need it from you.”

“I was just concerned something happened,” said Gwen shakily.

“Well thanks for your concern, but I don’t need it, no one needs to concern themselves with someone like me!” shouted Peter as he turned from her and she tried to follow him, but Peter shut the door in her face.

“Fine, Peter, if you feel that way, fine!” snapped Gwen losing her temper but she could never in her life have seen Peter act like this, at all. In fact, she could count the times on one hand that Peter actually got angry and still have fingers left over. Most certainly, he had never gotten angry with her.

It convinced her that something had happened and she walked off. It would be futile to try and talk to him right now. She knew that he would talk when ready and not a second before.

-

Try as he might, Peter Parker could not go to sleep, despite the effort. He heard his Aunt May return home shortly after he did, but he could not bring himself to face her or any other normal people. At least not now, not at this moment.

Sinister was all that he saw before he went to sleep. He could not shake his specter any time soon.

-

In a lab, Mr. Sinister smirked, as he put the genetic samples with the countless other mutant specimens he acquired over the year. Today, he was one step closer to forcing the ultimate evolution of this world. The possibilities were endless.

“Warren, you have a new assignment,” said Sinister, as he looked at the test tube containing the Spider-Man genetic sample, with a calculating look on his face. 


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