Part Two: “Freedom Is a Four-Letter Word”
Although clearly insane, blood-thirsty, and with little respect for Earthly laws, Spiral somehow spent a large portion of her time on Earth as an agent of the United States government. While on the hunt for Longshot, Spiral had become separated from Mojo and trapped on Earth. [Longshot #1] Temporarily without a means of getting home, she decided to make the most of her situation and learn more about the planet and its inhabitants. Somehow, despite not having any legal identity, Spiral joined up with Dr. Valerie Cooper’s new government team Freedom Force, 
led by none other than Mystique, the former leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Since the entire team was composed of convicted felons, Spiral’s presence on it was not too far-fetched.
Mystique’s Freedom Force apprehended criminal mutants and high-profile targets. Early on, the group encountered the X-Men twice: once in Washington, D.C. to arrest the former terrorist Magneto, and again in San Francisco to detain the X-Men. [Uncanny X-Men #199, 206] Spiral’s magical prowess made her an asset in both of these battles, almost single-handedly tipping the outcomes in her team’s favor. During these early missions with Freedom Force, Spiral behaved herself and acted within the constraints of the law. For instance, while attempting to apprehend the X-Men in San Francisco, she resisted the urge to absorb the nearly limitless energy supply of the avatar at that time for the Phoenix Force, Rachel Summers - an act that surely would have killed the young mutant. Spiral instead chose to bide her time.
Not long after that, during a perfectly legal mission to arrest a young mutant wanted for assault named Rusty Collins, Spiral once again sensed the immense, radiant energy of Rachel Summers. This time, she abandoned her assignment without permission so she could lure the mortally wounded Rachel into the Mojoverse. Although abandoning the mission meant defying
her employer, it gave Spiral the opportunity to kidnap Rachel in secret - and going AWOL was probably more forgivable than kidnapping and murdering a civilian in plain sight while on the clock. Nevertheless, Spiral’s behavior here was merely the first instance in a long history of insubordinate behavior while working for Freedom Force. [X-Factor (1st series) #8, Uncanny X-Men #207-209]
With her target captured and held in the Mojoverse, Spiral returned to Freedom Force, somehow regaining Mystique’s favor. The team’s next assignment was to arrest the Avengers. Spiral proved to be a crucial part of this mission, taking out both Captain Marvel and Iron Man. The Avenger Wonder Man even acknowledged her to be Freedom Force’s most powerful member. It seemed her prowess in battle and her worth as a soldier more than made up for her occasional insubordination. [Avengers Annual #15, West Coast Avengers Annual #1]
Freedom Force later traveled to Dallas, Texas, to prevent the X-Men from dying as per a precognitive vision of Destiny’s. There, due to mistrust and confusion, 
they battled the X-Men outside of Forge’s Aerie. Although this battle reunited Spiral with several victims of her past machinations, she performed her most heinous act on Dazzler, whom she had never before met. After Freedom Force defeated the X-Men and took them prisoner, Spiral placed Destiny’s mask to Dazzler’s face and stabbed it with a magic knife, adhering it in place. The spell didn’t kill Dazzler - but it certainly didn’t make it any easier for her to see. When Freedom Force and the X-Men had to team up to defeat the world-threatening menace of the Adversary, Spiral tried to reverse the spell she put on Dazzler, but found she couldn’t, possibly due to the interference of the Adversary’s magic. [Uncanny X-Men #225-227]
Freedom Force succeeded in protecting the civilians of Dallas from the menace of the Adversary. Similarly, the X-Men succeeded in defeating the Adversary himself, thanks to the help of Forge. However, this victory appeared to cost the lives of the X-Men and their ally, Madelyne Pryor. Shortly after the events in Dallas, Illyana Rasputin, the New Mutant known as Magik, came after Forge in hopes of achieving vengeance for her brother Colossus, who had been among the X-Men who appeared to die in Dallas. Thanks to Destiny’s precognition, 
Freedom Force was ready for Magik and her fellow New Mutants to attack. Destiny’s powers also gave her advanced warning that during the battle; Sunspot would crush Spiral with a brick wall - an act she permitted to happen. Spiral’s humiliation, she said, was like balm to her soul, as she found her totally insufferable. Destiny’s dislike of Spiral was never elaborated on, but it perhaps had to do with Spiral’s malevolent demeanor. Sure enough, when Freedom Force defeated Magik at the end of that same battle, Spiral had the gall to ask Mystique for permission to kill the young, incapacitated girl. [New Mutants (1st series) #65]
Freedom Force later became primary enforcers of the Mutant Registration Act, and Spiral accompanied the team on several missions to arrest mutants who had not yet registered with the U.S. government under the mandate. For the most part, she displayed good behavior in concordance with her boss’ orders. Even though Spiral had already abandoned at least one mission and had earned the disdain of Mystique’s close companion Destiny, Mystique
appointed her to oversee a mission to apprehend an unregistered mutant girl named Amanda in a small, Midwestern town. [Daredevil (1st series) #269] Ultimately, Spiral’s subordinates Blob and Pyro failed in this mission - as Spiral suspected would happen - and she had to return home to report their failure. Nonetheless, she retained her influence over the team.
However, Spiral demonstrated both her ruthlessness and the scope of her influence over Freedom Force shortly thereafter, when the team was dispatched to arrest the unregistered mutant Firestar - and possibly make her a member of Freedom Force. When Firestar tried to elude them, Spiral retaliated by skewering the young girl’s father on one of her swords, despite Mystique’s orders to do no harm. The unapologetic Spiral rubbed salt in the wound by telling Firestar she hated her from the first moment she saw her. Mystique was later taken hostage by Firestar but, by that point, Spiral was fed up following her absentee boss’ cushy
orders. She proposed to the rest of Freedom Force that they rescue Mystique and kill Firestar as an act of vengeance. During this quest to kill Firestar, Spiral ended up having to challenge a rival villain for the right to slay the mutant girl. She might have won had not a freak accident taken her out of the fight. While Spiral was unconscious, Mystique - realizing she could never put Firestar and the humiliated, vengeance-fueled Spiral on the same team - struck a deal with Firestar in exchange for her freedom and helped her fake her death so the world would leave her alone. However, she feared what would happen were Spiral to ever discover Firestar was still alive. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #82-87]
By this point, Spiral had descended from Mystique’s most valued agent on Freedom Force to her biggest liability. Mystique’s fear of what would happen if Spiral ever discovered Firestar were alive indicated the severity of her inability to control the six-armed sorceress. Having an agent of the federal government haphazardly slaughtering civilians, mutant or not, would never fly. Mystique decided something had to be done, but didn’t know how to reign in an operative as frightening and, frankly, as evil as the one she had on her team. She truly had the tiger by the tail.
Instead of outwardly dismissing Spiral from the team, Mystique employed the rather passive-aggressive method of keeping her on the payroll without actually dealing with the problem. Fortunately for her, Spiral never bothered to show up for any more of Freedom Force’s missions. Although the team crumbled and disbanded during this period of time, the Spiral problem lingered, making Mystique quite nervous. Exasperated, she finally went to Wolverine, one of the few people she trusted, for help in dealing with Spiral. She confessed that although Spiral was never quite sane to begin with, she had now gone completely off the deep end. [Wolverine (2nd series) #51]
Incidentally, a matter far more critical just happened to arise at that time that diverted everyone’s attention elsewhere. Spiral’s general priorities had also shifted at this point. Having obtained what she needed from Freedom Force - knowledge of Earth and enough experience with its inhabitants to hate them - she instead focused her attention on stopping her egomaniacal master, Mojo, with whom her long, complicated history had finally reached a tipping point. Before examining that event and relationship, however, it is important to examine one of Spiral’s other Earthly ventures - a joint-project with Mojo, and an entrepreneurial endeavor that afforded Spiral as much pain as it did pleasure: the Body Shoppe.