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"All human wisdom is summed up in these two words – 'Wait and hope.'"

— Alexandre Dumas, (The Count of Monte Cristo)

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<(Atem and Jean Grey team up)>

"Wow, this is... unbelievable. How many of these do you think he made?" Jean said, looking at an unconscious Cyclops clone floating inside a glass tube.

Jean and Rudeus were right now in what looked like the main research room of the facility at the center of the whole structure. They had already slaughtered dozens of Cyclops and Wolverine clones on their way in. The clones although were supposed to be as powerful as the original but they were nowhere even near since the two had absolutely no problems in slaughtering everyone without even breaking a sweat.

If the originals at their peak conditions were to fight their clones, the original version would win ninety percent of the time. It was not a matter of strength but more of refined skills, better control over their abilities, and the experience the originals had gathered all their life compared to their younger clones.

Also, Rudeus in no way believed that the higher power limit of clones was actually equal to those of the originals. This was a world of superheroes and everyone knows that superheroes can grow more powerful with time like shonen protagonists when the plot calls for it.

"A lot. Sinister seems to have some kind of obsession with Cyclops. I mean half the clones he ever made are those of his. I wonder if he uses them for something other than missions and scientific studies. Maybe he is into gay orgies with red-eyed assholes." Rudeus answered as he smirked.

"Oh, my god. Did you have to say that? I just imagined it in my mind and I wanna puke now." Jean said with a disgusted face.

Rudeus wanted to continue joking but he soon sensed something near them. He sensed a presence approaching them. The life signature of the person approaching was not similar to the clones they had easily defeated before. this was something else, something stronger than mere clones.

"Aah, looks like I am on time. I am very happy to meet both of you at long last. Forgive me I am late but one of my prisoners tried to escape again. These shapeshifters, they are the worst I tell you." A tall muscular man with bleach-white skin wearing a weird tight suit with a cape slowly walked toward them in an overbearing manner like he was in control of the entire situation.

"Mr. Sinister, I presume?" Atem asked with a raised brow as he looked at the new arrival.

"Precisely, although I think you know my real name too, Nathaniel Essex I mean, since that... computer of yours should be smart enough to find out everything about my history. Although, I do appreciate you calling me Mr. Sinister. I like that name way more. It has a certain charm towards it, doesn't it?" Sinister gave them a friendly smile which truthfully looked quite sinister due to his weird appearance.

"I do agree, it does. May I ask, why you called us here? Because I am gonna assume that you sent X-24 to lure us out into your base. Do you wanna try to kill me or maybe work out a deal or something?" Rudeus too returned his smile and asked. He didn't wanna kill Sinister so soon. Hell, he didn't even know if he was gonna kill him. Whatever Rudeus' choice would be, it would depend on what Sinister does next.

"Kill you? Who me? Hahahaha. That's the best joke I have heard all week. I kill someone who effortlessly destroyed my last master when the former was more or less just a newborn? That would be impossible for me Atem. So even trying is useless. Like, what am I gonna do, wrestle with you, try to mind control you? Whatever I try, you can probably do a hundred times better." Sinister laughed heartily as he talked.

"Yeah, I guess so," Rudeus said, not denying his own superior power compared to the scientist.

"I can't read his mind. It's like I am trying to read a brick wall." Jean said in a low voice as she scrunched up her eyebrows.

Rudeus knew that trying to read the minds of evil geniuses like Sinister would be useless. They would always have a dozen tech and mental barriers to protect their secrets. And someone like Sinister was not any different.

"Trying to read my mind would be useless Miss Grey. I had a special chip installed in my brain to stop any psychic waves from even coming close to my mind. I am not an omega-level telepath like you and as you have proved before, alpha-level telepaths like Xavier aren't exactly safe from your mind-bending powers. So I learned from his 'mistake' and came up with this little invention. No telepathy or telekinetic powers work on the chip and thus in extension, my mind." Mr. Sinister explained.

"Wow, you really prepared for this, didn't you?" Rudeus asked in amusement.

"Yes, yes I did. I became your admirer after you killed Apocalypse. I had dedicated my entire life to making the perfect being who would be powerful enough to get rid of Apocalypse forever but you did that in less than a day. You were better than anything I could ever come up with. You were the epitome of perfection, or at least that's what I initially thought." Mr. Sinister said while walking around.

"What do you mean? He IS perfect." Jean angrily stated as her eyes glowed dark silver.

"Well, yes his body is. But his mind isn't. He is held back by his sense of... humanity. Despite being a god, you don't really act like one, do you Atem? No, you act like a human. You have so much potential, so much power, yet you squatter it around like nothing. It's frustrating." Mr. Sinister said as he shook his head like he was disappointed.

"Wow. Uh, that means a lot man. I don't think I have been praised that much even by my own believers before. You know what to show my appreciation, I'll tell you why I hold back and not just conquer the entire planet all at once. It's because... it would be boring. I might be a god but even gods have boring lives. I don't want to destroy the good story I have going on for myself here. I would much rather take it slow and enjoy the process while having as much fun as I can than rush through and regret it later." Rudeus truthfully explained his real thoughts.

"That's foolish. You are not supposed to enjoy life while making 'friends'. You are a mutant god. You are supposed to stand at the apex of life and rule everything beneath you. That's what perfect means." Sinister said with a raised voice, losing his composure for a few moments.

"Metahumans, not mutants." Rudeus corrected Sinister.

"But you have failed to do that. You have failed to reach the perfection you were supposed to. So I had to step in. But don't worry, I'll make sure that Atem will one day become the god he is supposed to be, even better than you." He took a deep breath while ignoring Rudeus and pressed a button on his bracelet.

The very next second, two different thick metallic pods began to rise from the ground a little away from them. They looked like huge white eggs made of metal.

"Are those what I think they are?" Rudeus' lazy smile that he had up till now disappeared as he observed the pods with interest.

He could sense huge amounts of raw power coming from one of the pods like it was radiating some form of psychic energy while the other was radiating pure cosmic energy.

"I can make clones of every mutant, so I thought why not make clones of the strongest mutants I know? Why not make them even more perfect? Why not remove the faulty inhibitions that stop them from reaching their final strength levels? And that's what I did. I made a pair of clones. Hahahahaha" Sinister laughed like a cliche crazy scientist as he looked at his creations.

"That's not possible. My cells cannot be cloned." Rudeus narrowed his eyes. Zoya had informed Rudeus after running hundreds of tests and simulations on Rudeus and had confirmed a long time ago that cloning him was simply not possible due to the unique and divine nature of his cells.

Also, Rudeus was pretty sure that systems cannot be cloned.

"Perhaps not for a human scientist. But I had help from a mutual devil friend of ours. He provided me with all the magical tools, rituals, and data about gods that I needed to make him. All I needed more was more data on the energy that ran through your veins and once I had collected enough data while you were fighting the Cyclops army, it was only a matter of time before I succeeded." Sinister explained his entire plan like a 90s cliche villain as he went back to his gentlemanly demeanor.

"So, you called me here to collect additional data on me? That was a very good plan actually. Did you really plan that all by yourself or did you have any outside help? Also, what about the other pod?" Rudeus asked fishing for more information. He even asked about the second pod despite having some idea about what it contained. He had already used his Rinnegan and tried to see inside the pods. The pods had some sort of high-level magic lining them, so his Rinnegan was useless. Even his cosmic sense could only vaguely guess the outline of the figures inside.

"Still looking for more intel, aren't you? Hahaha, I guess I can tell you since I have already won and achieved everything I wanted to achieve. I did make the plan myself but I had the help of the precognition ability of a certain mutant called Destiny. Threatening her with the life of her wife Rave Darkholme more commonly known as Mystique after I kidnapped them both was pretty easy.

As for these second pod, I guess that will be a surprise, won't it? I can't just spoil everything, can I?" He smiled as he looked at both Rudeus and Jean and pressed another button on his bracelet.

Rudeus could have easily stopped Sinister by now. All he had to do was just speed up to him, break his wrist, and take his little bracelet before he could even move. He could also just use his omega-level telekinesis and prevent him from even moving. But Rudeus didn't want to do that. He wanted to see what Sinister had designed. He was curious to at least take a peek at his own clone.

As both pods slowly opened, Rudeus clearly saw the figures inside them. Inside one of the pods, a handsome man lay with his eyes closed looking the same as Rudeus except the clone had brown hair, contrary to Rudeus' silver hair.

The second pod on the other hand had a girl lying inside it, a girl who looked the exact same as Jean Grey.

"You cloned me?" Jean asked in surprise.

"Yes, two gods made by my own hands. They might be copies but they are even better than the originals." Sinister smiled.

"You sure? Wanna put it to the test?" Rudeus asked with a smile as he activated his Rinnegan.

"Sure. It would be my pleasure to bear witness to your downfall at the hands of my own creations. Suedur, Madelyne show our guests the real meaning of your perfection." Sinister ordered.

As soon as he gave the order, the eyes of both the clones opened as they looked straight at Rudeus and Jean respectively.

Suedor or what Mr. Sinister called Rudeus' clone was the first one to step out of his pod.

But the moment he took the first step, he fell as he lost balance. Then he began to shake as it looked like his bones were turning into jelly, the muscles in his body burning like cooked steak and his blood boiled quite literally. Smoke began to rise from his body as slowly golden energy began to leak from the cracks appearing on his skin and the cracks became bigger and bigger until he suddenly burst into an explosion radiating pure cosmic energy all around.

"..." Sinister had no idea what happened. He was gobsmacked. He just stood there with his mouth wide open, not knowing where everything went wrong.

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