In Hong Kong, a mansion sits on the peak of a hill,
overlooking the city. Inside, a trail of dead bodies lead to the main office,
the work of Matsuo Tsurayaba of the Hand, there with a proposition for the
owner of the place, the Mandarin. Though Mandarin is initially dismissive, he
concedes to hearing Matsuo out. Matsuo states that the current political
climate in China would make it easy for the right person to slide in and carve
himself an empire, someone like the Mandarin himself! In order to help the
Mandarin save face after his many losses to Iron Man, Matsuo has a suggestion,
and Mandarin orders his servant to bring them tea so they can discuss the
matter further. Elsewhere, somewhere much stranger, a young Betsy Braddock
rides a carousel with her brother Brian, pretending the tiny fake plane she’s
in is real. All of a sudden, it seems to turn real, as Betsy finds herself in
the middle of an airborne firefight before the experience just as quickly fades
and the carousel ride comes to an end! As Betsy and Brian begin to leave, the
carousel attendant presents Betsy with a ring that must have been left there
and tells her she can keep it.
Betsy and Brian walk off, Betsy acting out a battle
while Brian remains lost in his book. Betsy tackles Brian and playfully swipes
his book, telling him to come and get it! As he goes to retaliate, the two
suddenly find themselves as adults, clashing swords in a much more serious and
intense battle, before flashing back just as quickly! Both very confused, they
realize Betsy must have done that with her telepathy, and Betsy admits she just
wants to play with Brian sometimes, feeling so cooped up in their big, lonely
mansion all the time. Brian finds and presents Betsy with yet another ring he
found, just as their older brother Jamie pulls up in his car with a new date. Betsy
hops in the car, greeting Jamie enthusiastically, while Jamie’s date seems less
than pleased. Jamie offers to help Betsy take the car for a spin, operating the
pedals while she steers! They zoom off, enjoying the speed, while Jamie’s date
tumbles into the backseat! Eventually, Jamie’s date has had enough and begs
them to stop and Betsy reluctantly obliges. When the car skids to a stop, Betsy
is suddenly an adult and her passenger is instead Doug Ramsey, Cypher of the
New Mutants! Doug yells at Betsy for her reckless driving and she decides to
leave him behind and she’s greeted by the doorman as she returns to the Body
Shoppe.
Inside, Betsy meets with Storm and the two happily try
on all kinds of outfits in quick succession. Betsy is then dragged away in
order to get a “makeover”, as she’s worked on and completely changed physically
by strange versions of Mojo and Spiral. Now looking like a Japanese ninja, as
if it were completely normal, Psylocke questions why Brian became Captain
Britain when adventure was all she ever wanted, and admits to Storm that
something doesn’t feel quite right. It’s then shown that Psylocke is actually
floating upside down in a tank, all of this a dream-like state, the attempts of
Matsuo and Mandarin to brainwash her into becoming the Mandarin’s new assassin!
Back in her dream, Psylocke feels sorry for herself and smashes the mirrors
showing images of herself and her brother. She attacks Storm, demanding the
ring that Storm has and obtains it before decimating Storm with a fire blast
from the ring! Psylocke then decides she wants to obtain all ten rings and next
comes upon Colossus. She freezes him solid with an ice blast, and shatters him,
obtaining her fifth ring! She then repeats the process with Dazzler and Havok,
finding them in Hollywood and Genosha respectively, and kills each of them,
obtaining her sixth and seventh rings.
She then finds Rogue and Carol Danvers already dead,
and takes the eighth ring off of them, wondering why killing her friends seems
to come so naturally for her. A voice then calls out to her from the shadows,
stating that her brother had the ninth ring but that he doesn’t need it
anymore, as the cracked helmet of Captain Britain comes bouncing towards her!
She’s then blasted back by the one who took it, a manifestation of Slaymaster! Back
in reality, the telepath the Hand are using to monitor Psylocke cries out in
distress, and they realize that she’s resisting their control, as the mental
manifestation of her self-doubt, Slaymaster, threatens to destroy her! In
Psylocke’s mind, Slaymaster beats down on her, stripping her of her rings, and
even rips out her eyes, as Mojo and Spiral look on! Just as Slaymaster has
Psylocke defeated, Mojo influences things, as Psylocke gets her second wind,
striking back at Slaymaster with several savage blows! The more she hits him,
his face cracks, changing into that of the Mandarin, as she admits that she’s
never been truly tested in a life or death situation. She has the manifestation
of the Mandarin at her mercy and mentally compels him to kill himself with his
own ring! Mojo then decides to give her inner eyes to match the outer ones he
gave her so long ago! Psylocke presents the Mandarin with his rings that she
collected, now apparently under his control, to do with as he pleases! To be
continued!
Give that special marvelite a timely gift