SPIRAL: Page 4 of 4

Mojo must not have been pleased with his servant’s recent independent streak, as he soon punished Spiral by stripping her ability to teleport between dimensions and banishing her to Earth. Homeless and with little job prospects, she ran across a mutant named Ginny, who had the psychic ability to make others feel a sense of belonging. Developing a surprisingly protective and maternal bond with the young woman, Spiral nevertheless chose to exploit Ginny’s power for profit. Operating within the Los Angeles night club scene, Spiral sold placebo pills to customers, while Ginny secretly used her power to give everyone in the building a drug-like high. This information eventually found its way to Wolverine via his old friend Puck, who sent Psylocke and Storm to meet with the Alphan to investigate. Psylocke’s bad blood with Spiral caused her to immediately attack the woman, while her teammates discovered Ginny locked in a vault. However, Ginny used her power to make the club patrons attack Psylocke, giving Spiral the opportunity to reach Ginny and teleport away, though not before Puck hitched a ride. The small man proved little difficulty for Spiral, who threw him off the roof before escaping once again.

Spiral had a device to help mask Ginny’s psychic signature but it was not enough to hide from a world-class telepath like Psylocke. The mutants soon located and confronted Spiral but were interrupted by the surprise arrival of a Demon Bear-possessed Bishop. Bishop kidnapped Ginny and the now tied-up Spiral threatened and pleaded with her captors to save the girl. Psylocke realized that their best bet to catch up with Bishop was to have Spiral teleport them to where she sensed Ginny’s psychic signature but threatened the woman if she even thought about sending them into a trap. The team found themselves in a subway tunnel where a fierce battle with Bishop began. Spiral used the opportunity to grab Ginny and teleport away. [Uncanny X-Force (2nd series) #1-3]

Exhausted to the point that she could no longer teleport and with Bishop continuing to track them like a predator, Spiral decided to take the man head-on, so Ginny could escape. She received a beat down but, before Bishop could finish her off, Ginny attempted to psychically stop him. Spiral pleaded for the girl to run but she didn’t want to see Spiral hurt. Unfortunately, her efforts were in vain and Bishop grabbed the girl. The parasitic psychic entity controlling the man established a psychic connection with Ginny and transferred over to the young girl, its plan from the beginning. After escaping, Psylocke and her team finally caught up to them and subdued Bishop. A despondent Spiral felt she had nothing left and didn’t even try to fight back, as Psylocke berated her for being a monster. Psylocke struggled with her desire to kill this woman that had caused her so much pain but Storm made her realize that Spiral was not worth it.

Captured and tied up, Spiral watched as Psylocke and Storm attempted to psychically exorcise the Demon Bear entity from Bishop, while Puck watched their prisoner in boredom. She even convinced the man to drink some Jägermeister with her, which she had stored away. She used the opening to break free of her restraints but was unable to overcome Puck. After their scuffle, though, they realized that the unconscious Psylocke had been kidnapped. Spiral teleported to where Psylocke was and rescued her and the two women fought. Spiral explained that she knew running was pointless and that she wanted help in finding Ginny, who was the one person that saw her as more than a monster. Spiral reasoned with Psylocke that they were not that different, both physically transformed into something else against their will. She pleaded with Psylocke that she was trying to rebuild her life, to which the other woman could surely relate. Betsy finally relented and agreed to let Spiral leave, for which Spiral promised not to forget this gesture. [Uncanny X-Force (2nd series) #4-6]

In her search for Ginny, Spiral embarked on a bit of self-reflection. Posting a missing photo in downtown Hollywood, she met a woman named Summer and, rather than slice her up with her sword, Spiral made an effort to make eye contact and be nice. This new attitude immediately paid off, as Summer relayed her concern about a missing friend of hers that was last seen associating with a creepy cult of people in white robes that came and went like ghosts. After thanking Summer by cutting off the thumb of a creep that molested her, she fled the scene and began her search for the cult. She utilized her body shoppe modification skills to attach spy tech to a bird which then helped her identify some robed individuals entering a donut shop.

Upon investigating the shop, she found that the owner had been murdered. Using her mystical skills, Spiral reanimated the corpse to learn that the victim’s daughter had been kidnapped by the cult and gave her the location of a recruiting center for the cult. Having the information, Spiral obliged the woman by returning her to a merciful death. Finding a revenant demon creature at her next stop, Spiral was thrilled to finally be able to slice up the monster with her swords but not before gaining a clue as to the cult’s ultimate location in a magic shop. She gleefully massacred all of the revenants inside but was enraged to discover that the leader of the cult was none other than a possessed Ginny. The villainous puppeteer was a future version of Professor Xavier’s twin sister Cassandra Nova and the revenants were the dark sides of humanity within all humans. Knowing that this threat was too much to handle by herself, Spiral swallowed her pride and went to Psylocke’s team for help taking down Nova and rescuing Ginny. [Uncanny X-Force (2nd series) #12]

Spiral may have come to the team for help but that didn’t mean she was ready to be a team player. While the others understood that the priority should be to stop Nova from performing a ritual to bring about a revenant-filled apocalypse, Spiral’s only concern was saving Ginny. She demanded that Bishop give her the envenom solution that would force Nova out of Ginny’s body but he explained that doing so would allow Nova to escape. When the team entered the battle, Spiral and the others sliced through an army of revenants before Nova targeted Spiral with a psychic attack, forcing her to relive childhood trauma involving her pet dog. Eventually, Nova captured Psylocke and banished the others outside her now-animated fortress with a mystical barrier preventing Spiral’s teleporting back inside. While Nova extracted the revenant of Psylocke, Bishop asked Spiral to teleport the two of them above the fortress to drop into it and rescue their team leader. The battle started to turn in their favor until Spiral used the stolen envenom to sneak attack Ginny’s body and free her of Nova’s corruption. Nova instead possessed the nearby Psylocke revenant and, while at first it appeared Spiral had run away from the fight, she returned from relocating Ginny in time to help save Psylocke as recompense for her owed favor. The battle concluded with Psylocke slaying her revenant self and ultimately ending the threat of the ritual. [Uncanny X-Force (2nd series) #13-15]

Spiral’s final mission with this version of X-Force involved a fight with an alternate version of X-Force led by Cable, as orchestrated by Cable’s evil clone Stryfe. Bishop, Cable and Cable’s daughter Hope had bad blood between them and so Strfye kidnapped Bishop and Hope in an effort to get the two to kill each other. When Spiral and her team confronted Cable, Spiral was ordered to teleport away an unconscious Cable, but was tracked down by his teammates. The fight was interrupted when Spiral was hit with a brainwashing injection that allowed a revived Cable to coerce her into teleporting him directly to Stryfe’s lair. However, Spiral’s overconfidence in her fighting abilities led to her swift defeat and forced teleportation to the middle of the ocean by the omega level evil mutant. When her team located her, Psylocke removed Stryfe’s psychic block on her powers and she led them all back to his lair for some payback. Ultimately, Stryfe was defeated and the vengeance in Hope was quashed when Bishop saved her life. [Vendetta crossover]

During an event in which Mojo tried to take over the world utilizing giant spires and harnessing the power generated from people viewing his television programs, Spiral made a brief appearance leading Mojo’s army. She attempted to kill an alternate reality son of Wolverine but not before being stopped by another alternate reality version of Wolverine. The teams of X-men eventually managed to overcome Mojo’s forces and prevent his takeover. [X-Men Gold (2nd series) #15]

Back with Mojo, Spiral once again assisted him in his latest attempt at a movie. Mojo had recently fallen in love and so wanted to reflect this new romantic streak in one of his films. Thus, he kidnapped the most popular X-couple, the recently married Rogue and Gambit. Unfortunately, a flaw in Rogue’s powers caused her to accidentally kill Gambit. Spiral’s analysis of Rogue suggested that something was wrong with her and that they should probably try using different X-Men. However, Mojo was dead set about using these two and threatened to exile or cast Spiral into the slave pits if she didn’t obey him and magically reset the production, including Gambit’s death. Attempting multiple genres, every time the couple kissed Gambit was reduced to dust. Spiral convinced Mojo that maybe the next time she should go in person to try to determine the wrench in the machine, to which he agreed.

This gave Spiral the opportunity to put her true plan in motion. She had persuaded Mojo to kidnap Gambit and Rogue, as she needed a master thief to steal something for her. To that end, she took Gambit to a blind spot and returned his memories. His concern for Rogue and her broken powers was all-consuming, so Spiral agreed to help use the production to help Rogue confront and overcome her power problems if he helped her steal a six-armed baby. While he performed this task, she helped psychically counsel Rogue through her past traumas, while she physically defended her body in the real world from Mojo’s troops. Just as Gambit arrived to back up Spiral and free a now mentally healed Rogue, Mojo showed his face to voice his displeasure. Rogue took on the fat villain herself, while Gambit and Spiral took on the other soldiers. Upon learning about his marriage, Spiral congratulated Gambit but still voiced disgust at their romance. She ordered him to get the stolen object, which turned out was not a baby but a piece of Spiral’s soul that Mojo had stolen long ago. Absorbing it into herself, she was no longer bound to Mojo. Her soul now fully intact, she grimaced as she felt compelled to help the lovebirds defeat Mojo. Once the trio had escaped, they called all of their debts even and Spiral teleported the couple back to their home. [Mr. and Mrs. X #7-10]

In the age of Krakoa, Mojo had gotten with the entertainment media times and transitioned into internet streaming content. He had various streamers competing for the top spot and, while Spiral’s Showcase initially held that position, she slipped into second to Shatterstar’s gladiatorial battles. When the X-Factor team showed up to investigate the death of a former mutant that had been making a name for herself as one of these streamers, Spiral showed them the footage of her killing herself as a means to boost her popularity. Spiral seemed content with her new role as a popular streamer and even had her friend Ginny helping her with her show. When asked if Ginny would like to take her mutant earned place on Krakoa, Ginny hard passed on leaving the only person to treat her like family. Spiral did end up helping the team by teleporting them over to Shatterstar’s arena, where they were able to resolve the case. [X-Factor (4th series) #3]

While Dazzler was on a mission to retrieve a love shard from the former Avenger Eros/Starfox, Spiral came into the picture as Eros’ latest crush. He had last possessed the shard while attempting the woo the six-armed beauty but left it at the bar when she handily rejected his advances. His inability to move on from this was almost pathetic and he was all too eager to travel to Mojoworld to try his luck again. Upon arriving, Mojo had doctored a video implying that Dazzler was now romantically involved with Eros, and Spiral remarked how disgusting it was that Dazzler kept popping up with her men. Despite Dazzler’s protests that this was certainly not the case, Spiral needed little excuse to attack her rival in love. Despite her best efforts to kill Dazzler and a simpering Starfox, Eros’ ability to teleport away eventually allowed Dazzler to locate the love shard in Mojo’s staff. With the mission complete, the pair left the enraged Spiral behind. [Marvel Voices Infinity Comic #88-89] This version of her was called into question as when Lila Cheney and Ms. Marvel were forced to perform for Mojo, a version of Spiral working for him claimed to be one of dozens of clones under his employ. [Ms Marvel: Mutant Menace #2]