His skin was whiter than snow, and his evil rivalled that of Lucifer's. He was the one who created the trouble. He was the one who wanted their blood. His was evil. He was sinister. He was Sinister. A creation of the ancient being known as Apocalypse. He'd turned on his own master for his own scientific plans. And now those plans might finally bear the fruit that he had wanted for so long. With the skin he took from Siena Blaze's finger nails during her confrontation with Rachel Summers, he might finally find what he has always wanted. The most powerful being. The spawn of the Summers clan.

"Well, 'Father,' what is it that you are up to now?" the voice asked.

Sinister was not one to be taken by surprise, but this was one of those few times when someone was finally able to do that. He maked it a point, a passion almost to know everything that needed to be known. Somehow this had gotten past him. If he was shocked, he quickly covered it up, amazingly well. "Ms. Pryor. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"O, you!" she exclaimed as she gave a gentle slap to his back. "Suddenly I need a reason to pop in on dear old Dad?!"

"Well, it has been 10 years since we ever talked."

"True. True. But, well, I need to know something, that's all."

"Truly? What could that information be?"

"Why, it is indeed about our Mrs. Summers."

"What would that be?"

"Her pregnancy."

"I don't know what you are talking about." Sinister turned his back quickly and resumed his work on Rachel Summers' skin fragments, when he was suddenly blown to the side.

"Don't you even try to lie to me." Her teeth were tight and her lips barely moved.

"Whatever do you mean, my dear?" He quickly choked down his fear.

"Tell me the details. And don't even try to lie."

With shivering lips and a sweat dampened brow, he answered, "Jean's body is weak. She has been through much. If she were to, say, overexert herself too much, she could, um... lose her child."

Releasing her grip on him, Maddie smiled. "Oh, is that all? Thank you. And I'll be going then. Toddles." And with that she was gone. And Sinister was relieved, but his fear had just deepened.

Jean's hands clapped happily. She just had one problem and quickly asked Cecilia about it. "I just don't know when I should tell Scott."

"Well, you should tell him soon. This is not really something you can hide for a long while," Cecilia responded.

"Well, duh! But the hard part would be how? How can I tell him this without him giving some weird reaction?"

Then a voice spoke up. "Tell Scott what?"

"Scott!" screamed Jean.

Scott turned with a smile on his face. Jean noticed how cute and young he looked. She could hardly believe it herself but she had had time to get used to it. Time to adjust. And time to think of a way to tell him.

"Yes," Scott exclaimed back.

"Well, dear, you know Rachel?"

"Yes, why... oh my god." Scott just went blank. He didn't move. He didn't breathe. If Jean could see his eyes she'd  see just how big they got. "I... need time to... uh... think. But... I'm happy." And then he walked out. Still frozen, he found a way to leave the two women to their business.

"That's what I was afraid of," Jean whispered.

"Oh," Cecilia responded, dazed in her own way. "He's like a big teenager. Just doesn't know how to handle it yet."

"I need a book," Jean shouted suddenly.

"What!?"

"A book. I don't know what it is but ever since I've found out that I was pregnant, I've been wanting to read everything."

"Well, everybody's got their own thing."

"Let's go to the mall so I can stock up for nine months."

"Okay. Just let me tell Scott."

"This is taking place about say, 6 months ago. Yeah, that sounds about right. Just go along with me. This is hypothetical. Really. So, let's say that we are in the U.N. You know the place. Well, there are these like delegates standing around or sitting. I forget which. And then in the center of the room there's this spotlight. And all the other lights go out. Then with a creak, the doors open and whispers swarm throughout the room. And then this dude walks in. He's got white hair, and evil eyes, and his skin. His skin is not normal. It's kind of pinkish. Really off center. And let's also add in some fear. How about my fear...

"'Sir,' says this guy, 'you called us hear saying that you have a plan.'

"'That's right,' answers the mystery man.

"'Well, pardon us for our skepticism, Sir, but your last plan failed.'

"'That was due to Senator Kelly's sudden change of heart. You all read my files and reports and know full well that all was going splendidly. And that I did indeed have the mutants on the run.'

"Now, I was scarred. There were talking about giving this guy a job again. This is all hypothetical. None of this really happened.

"The pink skinned man spoke again, 'Now, you also have in your possession my new plan, and you can see that the financial problems are not there. That is only if you, the few gathered here from the main U.N., will join. There is also a list of the other groups that are willing to participate. And I'm sure if you join, and if you so choose, you can recruit more and convince those who have yet to sign to indeed sign.'

"'Your idea does have merit, let us resign and vote on this,' said another man. 'We will meet again in one week. Thank you. Officer, return this man to his cell.'

"Needless to say, hypothetically, that all the voting was all for the idea. Except me. They 'convinced' me to change my vote. I didn't like giving this madman the power that we had given him before. But when the next week came, we told him our vote.

"Oh, God, what have we started?

"As the man walked out he sang a little song. It went something like this:

"God, I'm so scarred."

"It's okay," said the other man on the phone. "I'm here. It's simple. We go to the Efficient group, and they'll take care it."

"You don't get it!" shouted the U.N. member. "They are part of it!"

"Not for your mystery man. For you!"

"Wha--?"

That is all we have from the phone tab. The assault on Mr.__________ ________ was quick and easy. There were no problems. Our men came in and killed him. The assault was blamed on Russians who want to regain a communist party there.

The pink skinned man turned in his chair and threw the document on his desk. His phone rang and he answered it. "Mr. Bastion here."

Jean's chair was huge, and soft. She curled up tightly, and read. Her blanket was thrown across her lap and her bag of chips were next to her chair. She read quietly and only read the dialogue and every now and then she flipped back to another page when she missed something. When she went to pick up a chip her hand began to shake. Tears started rolling down her cheeks and she cried. The pain was back. But this time it was stronger. Harsher. It was as if it was alive, and attacking her personally. Like it knew her weak points. And then she couldn't hold it in and she screamed.

And at the Hellfire Club, Maddie sat and she couldn't fight it either. For the first time, she screamed too.

fin

Well, things are picking up in this story, so, tell me what you think about the story, about what may happen and all that good stuff.  I'm open to anything.

Also, I'm trying to put together a mailing list--so just e-mail me, say you want on in the subject line and poof you are on.