Next, came the Hellfire Club, revived and in full planning mode. It was a brief encounter that put them at the side of Spider-Man, but now they’re fully aware that a new Hellfire Club is on the rise and it is someone they will have to contend with.
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#14
SEP 12 |
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“Sinister Aims and Aspirations” Part One
Estonia
Ivan Matkoff knew that he was next on the killer’s list. Over the past month, high level AIM officials were being whittled down to nothing by a test subject of theirs who went out of control. It was so bad that people barely wanted to whisper the name and promotions started to become more like death warrants. Ivan wasn’t sure how AIM intended to stop this rampaging mutant, but something had to be done. Otherwise, their organization was looking at a complete collapse.
Sitting at his desk, almost in the dark, Ivan tried to look over his notes about a recent experiment, but could barely concentrate. The specter of this crazed mutant loomed over him like some sick Grim Reaper looking for just the right moment to take his life. Israel was the last place a staff member was killed, but that meant nothing in a world of teleporters and supersonic fliers. The killer could be there in a matter of hours or in the blink of an eye. Every breath Ivan took could potentially be his last. Part of him had wanted to fight, but everything he read about this Legion made him seem unstoppable. He was a mutant with hundreds of abilities at his disposal. How could such a creature be stopped?
“That could easily all be solved, my dear man.”
Ivan swiveled in his chair at the sound of the voice. It was classically Victorian and seemed to suggest that the man who spoke it carried a regal quality about himself. “Who’s there?”
“The better question, my good man is why am I there?” From the shadows of his office stepped a man with a white face and red diamond centered on his forehead. Everything from the neck down was a shiny black. His every step forward clanked like metal.
The man’s red eyes were like something out of a child’s nightmare. Ivan swallowed a large lump in his throat and tried to muster up any bravery he had in him, which honestly wasn’t much; the fear of death around the corner had left him drained. “I think both are valid questions. This is my laboratory so I believe I can ask as I please.”
“You are quite right, of course. I am a man of manners after all. My name is Dr. Nathaniel Essex. Though I am commonly referred to as Mr. Sinister, or Sinister if the mister seems a bit superfluous for you. I do not much mind either way. As for why I am here, well it has come to my attention that you have quite the mutant problem on your hands,” Sinister said, looking around the laboratory as if it were a smudge of dirt.
Ivan felt a bit offended by Sinister’s unspoken assessment of his equipment, but he didn’t dare vocalize. He had heard of this man and his experiments. It was said that he was one of the greatest geniuses walking the planet. If it wasn’t for his fearsome appearance, Ivan might even have been honored to be in his presence. As it were, it was taking everything he had to not piss himself. “Yes, we have had a problem with an escaped test subject, but in time we will get it under control.”
“Says the dozens of dead bodies,” Sinister winked. He moved closer to Ivan, standing over him menacingly. “Do you have absolutely any inkling of who that mutant is? Legion is the son of Professor Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men. You made the son of the planet’s most powerful telepath into a guinea pig. Charles is rarely moved to anger, but I think this would warrant such a case. Don’t you agree?”
Ivan swallowed back another lump. He'd had no idea. What were his superiors thinking authorizing such an experiment? They must have been out of their minds.
Sinister saw that Ivan was beginning to understand the grave that AIM had dug for itself. He smiled, taking in the full breadth of the man’s shock and fear. “Yes, you have erred terribly I think. But I am here to offer you a solution, Mr. Matkoff.”
The young scientist couldn’t imagine what Sinister wanted, but if everything he said was true then he needed to hear him out. It could be the difference between him living one more day and living long enough to have grandkids. Still, he imagined whatever deal Sinister had to offer would not come cheap. “What sort of solution?”
“Take me to your immediate superiors and I will be more than happy to lay it out to them. But I promise you’ll be rid of your Legion AND X-Men problem.”
The Xavier Institute
Joshua walked through the foyer with Blink, keeping a small distance away from her. He wanted to be close, but not too close to make her uncomfortable. “I heard about everything that happened with that Sekhmet chick. I’m really sorry.”
“It was like I was outside my own body, watching me do all these terrible things. The worst part was that I tried to hurt my friends. I nearly killed Domino. It was horrible. Sometimes, I can still hear Sekhmet whispering in the back of my head,” Blink said, shaking it as if at just that moment some dark thought came through.
Joshua couldn’t imagine what it was like to have your freedom taken away from you. It was the grossest violation of a person that he could think of. And he couldn’t think of a single thing to say that would help Blink get through it. “You shouldn’t feel guilty about those things, Blink, it wasn’t your fault. I’m sure you were trying to fight it. You’re a good person, don’t ever doubt that.”
Blink held her head down and didn’t look Elixir in the eye. “I’m just scared. The Professor is helping to remover Sekhmet out of my head, but what if I lose it? What if I attack someone and really hurt them this time?” She looked up at Joshua, with tears nearly in her eyes. She had just found a home with the X-Men and this darkness inside her made her afraid that she would lose it. Every night she could feel herself trapped in that sarcophagus, screaming to be freed. Then the transformation started and she was a servant of Sekhmet, mind and body.
“I can’t say I understand, but I can relate,” Elixir said. “Professor X brought me here because my powers lack control and I could hurt someone. It’s not an easy thing knowing you can’t control yourself. But I think we’re lucky in a way.”
Blink looked shocked by the comment, but Elixir continued. “I mean, we understand that for most of our lives we really aren’t in control. We know the real reality of life. Everyone else is just living in an illusion.”
Blink shrugged. “That’s one way of looking at it, I guess…”
Joshua laughed. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
Blink smiled. “It was a good effort.”
“So you have a session with the Professor today?”
Blink shook her head softly. She needed to have a session with him. She wanted to have one. It was like the oppression of Sekhmet’s control grew with every step. Professor X told her there would be anxiety, but she never expected this. It was like every day was a struggle to get through. “No, he’s off to Washington D.C. with Archangel and Ms. Frost. They’re going to testify.”
“About Little Rock, huh?”
“Yes, I don’t know how it’s going to go. I think those Senators are looking for someone to blame. And since they can’t find Stryfe, they’re going to put a bull’s eye on the Professor’s back.”
Elixir knew that mutants had made progress, but there were still hurdles that needed to be crossed. Particularly in the political realm. “The Professor can handle them. He’s got that kind of spunk about him. I wouldn’t doubt that he puts them in his place.”
“Hopefully Archangel keeps his temper in check. And Ms. Frost doesn’t drop a nasty comment.”
Elixir laughed and covered up his mouth with his fist. “I think we might as well forget about that not happening. Let’s just hope the Professor keeps it from getting too bad.”
Washington D.C.
Capitol Building
Charles Xavier sat at the podium with Warren to his right and Emma to his left. They were the three that were essentially the face of the new mutant movement that was sweeping the United States and the rest of the world. He had feared that this moment would come, but ever since Little Rock’s populace was destroyed it was inevitable. All he could hope was that the events of today would help him to mitigate the damage that Stryfe had caused. He knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but he wasn’t going to capitulate to angry sentiment.
Emma held his hand for support as the first Senator addressed him. “Hello, Professor Xavier. I wish we were meeting today under better circumstances, but the people of this country deserve answers.”
Xavier leaned forward into his microphone. “And I will do my best to provide them, Senator.”
The graying Senator nodded. “I think the primary question on all of our minds is whether or not Stryfe is still a threat. Is he capable of doing again what he did at Little Rock?”
Xavier paused for a moment, attempting to consider his next words. In this day and age of social media every word could be examined and examined again. Careers and movements rose and fall on the back of Youtube and Facebook. “Stryfe has not yet been captured, but my X-Men, along with a number of law enforcement agencies, are tracking him down with due diligence.”
Charles knew that he had avoided answering the second part of the question, but he hoped that the Senator would move on to another question. But from the steely look on the politician’s face, Xavier knew that his ploy had been noticed. So before the Senator could call him on it, he leaned forward into the microphone again. “Unfortunately, Stryfe and his Brotherhood do indeed have the potential to do what was done at Little Rock again. There have been discussions with Frost Industries to attempt to develop Psi Emitters that can be distributed to every major city to pick up on pulses in psychic activity.”
Senator Jane Simmons of California smiled politely, but Charles Xavier saw the shark teeth behind the façade. The woman was a friend and ally of Sigrid Trask, one of his most vocal human opponents at the moment. Like Emma, her demeanor screamed old money and while in her mid-fifties she could easily pass for late thirties. Her blonde, Hollywood looks were coupled with tough rhetoric on mutants, homosexuals and union groups. She had all the hallmark traits of a Fox News conservative. Charles knew that some of his hardest questions were probably going to come from her. With poise and practiced charm, she spoke into her microphone. “While your suggestions sound good in reason, Professor Xavier, how can we trust that such emitters wouldn’t be used for more nefarious purposes?”
Warren straightened up in his chair. “As a leader in the business community, Worthington Industries is more than willing to vouch for the integrity and respectability of Frost Industries. They along with the X-Men possess sound judgment and would not abuse this technology. The fact of the matter is simple: sssomething has to be done to prevent another Little Rock and this is a sound way without stepping over anyone’s rights.”
Senator Simmons flipped through some paperwork. “Do you mean the same judgment that caused one of your senior members to create millions of dollars in property damage at a hospital? Did you not previously state to the public that X-Corps International would serve to provide secure medical facilities to mutants? How can we trust the judgment of the X-Men when one of its most senior members can’t even remember the facilities its own organization provides?”
Charles was keeping a straight face, but secretly he was seething. Cyclops’ actions involving Rachel had caused public relations damage that was going to take months to fix. And he was here cleaning it up. What was Scott thinking? He had to have known better. The only justification he could give for it was that maybe Scott was too nervous in the moment, but even that didn’t make sense. Cyclops had kept cool in some of the most stressful situations. It really was a conundrum that he fully intended to address with Scott soon.
Emma felt the same anger in her as Charles. She'd had to take time out of a busy schedule because of Scott’s momentous blunder and now an already difficult Senate Hearing has been made more difficult because of his actions. She wanted nothing more than to ring Scott’s neck, but Charles wouldn’t let her enforce any kind of discipline. She could only imagine what other issues these Senators were going to bring to the forefront of this witch hunt.
She looked behind her and saw Sigrid Trask in the crowd. Her hair was wrapped into a tight bun and she had a smug expression on her lips that Emma wanted to slap right off. But she was a lady and ladies knew how to take care of their inferiors without physical confrontation. She had a few bombshells herself to drop before this was all over.
Estonia
Ivan had assembled his superiors as quickly as he could. Most of them were spread across the tiny country, but they moved swiftly to answer his summons. Once he explained the situation to them, they began to realize just how urgent it was. Ivan figured that Sinister wasn’t the kind of person that you refused an invitation from. And if he could really help him with their killer mutant problem then they needed to listen.
They were all seated at a long rectangular table in a secret room at the back of the facility. All six of them sat in chairs that looked like they belonged in an old British university President’s office. It gave them a façade of authority, but when that all saw Sinister that mirage faded away. That pasty man exuded sly menace and it permeated the room like an overwhelming fog. Ivan wished that they hadn’t tried to show Sinister a perception of power. He imagined that the scientist would just feed off of that and be even more threatening.
The first superior to speak was Allan Poestand. He was a robust man in his mid-forties and balding right down the center of his silver hair. His eyes usually were cold and unwavering, but they seemed to falter a bit in the presence of Sinister. “Ivan has made use aware that you wish to help A.I.M. with an issue we have been trying to contain. What would be in this for you?”
“Even with my terrasect technology, I have had many laboratories destroyed by my enemies. If I were to help you with your issues, I would want your cooperation and full use of your facilities. In effect, I want to possess my own branch of A.I.M. Given your current situation, I really do not believe that you can afford to turn me down.”
Amelia Burkheart, a thin woman of fifty-seven, looked at her peers cautiously and then to Sinister. “We will have to work this request through the hierarchy.”
Sinister nodded. “I would suggest you work fast. My plan hinges on events in Washington D.C. so that leaves you with a very small window of opportunity. Please stress that to your commanders.”
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To Be Continued...
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