X-Men Wiki
Register
Advertisement
111788-55360-cypher


Characteristics[]

  • Height- 5'9
  • Weight- 150 lbs
  • Eyes- Blue
  • Hair- Blond

Biography[]

Massachusetts Academy[]

When Kitty Pryde moved to New York she attended Stevie Hunter's dance lessons. It was considered a good influence that she should meet & befriend other kids her age. One of those friends was Douglas Ramsey. It just so happened that Doug also happened to be a computer genius, on a par with Kitty's own intellect. So when she wasn't caught up in the X-Men's fights, Kitty began to hang out with Doug. Neither of them realised that Doug's natural gift for computers was due to his mutant ability to understand and communicate in any language. On one occasion they were using the computers at Doug's house to hack into something Top Secret. Kitty used Doug's natural ability to hack into the government computers at Project: Wideawake and activated a Sentinel. Doug innocently joked that he didn't want to know what she'd done. Kitty's interference had forced Henry Peter Gyrich & Sebastian Shaw to destroy the activated Sentinel, thereby wasting millions of dollars worth of investment. Unaware of the chaos he'd help to cause, Doug treated Kitty to snacks and soda in the kitchen, but Professor Xavier sent an angry telepathic message to her reminding Kitty of her training sessions. Doug said a hurried goodbye to Kitty as she ran out the door, but he was unaware of the real reason that she was in a rush. He was also unaware of how much Kitty had grown attached to him. Yet he was aware of how much he liked her. When he was offered a scholarship to attend the prestigious Massachusetts Academy, Doug ran to visit Kitty. While the X-Men & New Mutants were enjoying Christmas-like festivities inside, Doug tapped on the frosted window and Kitty ran to meet him by the back door. He was so excited when he told her his good news, so he couldn't understand it when she appeared alarmed. Kitty insisted that she attend the open day along with Doug, since she didn't want to reveal that she knew the Head Mistress of the Massachusetts Academy was Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club & mortal enemy of the X-Men, as that would also mean revealing her own secret dual life. While neither Doug nor Kitty knew was that he was a mutant, both professor Xavier & the White Queen had detected his presence. Professor Xavier wasn't concerned about the need to train him (like with more dangerous powers), yet the White Queen had also discovered that Doug was a mutant, and saw him as an opportunity to lure Kitty Pryde into her school. By the time Kitty & Doug went to visit the Massachusetts Academy, the Beyonder had kidnapped all of the Earth's heroes, including the X-Men. Seemingly with no-one to come to their aid, the White Queen kidnapped both the teenagers. Using her telepathic powers to block Kitty's ability to phase, the White Queen tied Kitty to a chair and demanded that she leave Xavier's to become her pupil. While taunting Kitty, the White Queen revealed what she had done to Doug. He was kept in a telepathic induced fantasy; Doug believed he was romantically dancing with Kitty. He had remained free to wander around the campus, while the White Queen had twisted his feelings for Kitty to keep him placated. Back in New York, Magik had used her spells to send her Astral Form find her missing best friend, Kitty. Upon discovering that Kitty was held captive, she convinced the New Mutants to travel to Massachusetts and help her free Kitty & Doug. Although Doug was exposed to some of the fighting between Cannonball and Jetstream of the Hellions, the White Queen continued to use her telepathy to wipe his memory. So by the time the New Mutants had successfully rescued Kitty, Doug was unaware of what was happening and extremely confused.

Cypher[]

He never revealed the reason why, but Doug decided not to attend the Massachusetts Academy after all. Life seemed to continue as normal until one night Cannonball appeared in the middle of the night. To Doug's amazement his half-naked friend confessed his secret identity, told him the truth about Xavier's and that he was also a mutant. Cannonball then flew Doug to Xavier's School for the Gifted and took him into the secret sub-basement levels. When the others saw Doug, they rallied around him to see if he was okay. Doug snapped back. His whole world had been turned upside down in the space of a few minutes and he was angry. However, his initial anger passed when he discovered an alien robot hiding in the Danger Room. Doug used his mutant power of languages to programme the Danger Room and create images to communicate with the alien. Amazingly the alien reciprocated and told them about him. In that busy night, the New Mutants gained two more members; the technarch alien Warlock and Doug Ramsey who became known as Cypher. Not long after he joined the school, Cypher was invited along to a Lila Cheney concert in New York. The New Mutants were lucky enough to go backstage where Cannonball saved Lila from a falling amplifier during the sound-check. Strange events continued during the concert when Vrakanin aliens appeared to attack Lila & her band. The gig climaxed with Lila, the band, and Cannonball disappearing into a blinding bright light. With Warlock's help, the rest of the New Mutants managed to follow their missing team-mate. Lila had teleported Cannonball across the galaxy into the safety of her Dyson Sphere. However, the rest of the New Mutants were let floating in space. Warlock saved them, and when they landed Cypher was keen to spend time deciphering the alien languages inside the Dyson Sphere. However, they soon came under attack by more Vrakanins. While Cypher managed to escape unseen, half the team had been kidnapped. By the time they caught up to the others, the plot had been unveiled. Lila had planned to steal the Earth with a gigantic teleporter and sell it to the highest alien bidder. he Vrakanin had double-crossed her. Although she saw the error of her ways, the teleporter had been damaged during the fight between the New Mutants and the Vrakanin. The whole Dyson Sphere began to glow white as the Earth was in the process of being teleported onto the site of the Dyson Sphere. All the New Mutants, the Vrakanin and Lila's band were powerless to do anything about it. However, after being exposed to the alien languages written around the Dyson Sphere, Cypher had begun to understand it. The teleporter was part of an old alien technology that existed before Lila had made it her home. Cypher discovered the instructions for the teleporter and hurriedly began to translate while operating the alien machine at the same time. Everything appeared to have disappeared in a blinding white light when Cypher succeeded in de-activating the teleporter. The light faded, and the others rushed to praise him. On his first adventure with the New Mutants, Cypher had saved the entire planet Earth.

Legion[]

Officially inducted at Xavier's School, Cypher didn't get the spend much time adjusting to his new home. He and half the New Mutants travelled with Professor Xavier to Scotland. On Muir Isle they were introduced to Gabrielle Haller and her autistic mutant son David. Tom Corsi & Sharon Friedlander had mysteriously fallen into a coma, and they believed that child-like David was the reason why. Unfortunately, Moira MacTaggert and Wolfsbane were next to fall victim to David's uncontrollable powers. Professor Xavier and Mirage used their powers in tandem to dive into David's psyche, but the instant they did that they came under attack from a psychic fire. When Gabrielle Haller & Cypher rushed to their aid, the fire surrounded them and they collapsed unconscious. Cypher had been dragged deep into David's mind. He found himself in a reproduction of Paris, but it was in the middle of a war-zone. Cypher was powerless, but managed to protect himself & Ms. Haller while under fire. They stumbled across a small punk girl called Cyndi who could create fire. Despite the extreme circumstances around them & her brattish attitude, Cypher was polite to Cyndi so she agreed to help them. Together they headed for the psychically-created Eiffel Tower were they were reunited with the Professor & others. The Professor was accompanied by a man called Jack Wayne who was a telekinetic. It was revealed that David was in fact the Professor's son. Both Jack & Cyndi were fractured parts of David's mind, and that along with a telepathic third personality known as Jemail they made up the Legion. Jack & Cyndi didn't like Jemail, and believed that they couldn't infiltrate a giant black dome that he hid in. However, Cypher reasoned that they had been led to believe that despite never having tried it. The Professor understood what Cypher meant, and as they approached the black dome they were able to pass inside. In there, a fight ensued between Jack & Jemail. Cypher leapt over Cyndi to protect her from flying shards of mirror. With a little help from Mirage they managed to stop Jack Wayne from damaging David's psyche any more. Jemail used his telepathy to learn English through Cypher's mutant powers, and began to explain David's tragic past & transformation into Legion. The New Mutants, Professor Xavier and all the others who had been absorbed by Legion were safely restored to their own bodies. Cypher remained on Muir Island with them, while the Professor spent time with his son.

Bad Karma[]

Upon their return to the United States, they found that the other New Mutants had been experiencing problems of their own. Magma & Sunspot had been kidnapped, and while Cannonball & Magik had tracked them down with Lila Cheney's help, they were too young & inexperienced to do anything to help them. With help from Kitty Pryde & Rachel Summers, they had been able to finally free their friends, but discovered who was behind their kidnapping; the first New Mutant, Karma. Obese and sadistically evil, Karma fled the battle leaving her old team-mates dumb-founded. The New Mutants tracked Karma down to the seedy crime-filled city of Madripoor. On the flight over Cypher used his laptop to provide more research and disseminate all information about Karma's new criminal lifestyle. Unfortunately he accidentally caused an argument with Sunspot by suggesting that the Professor must have had a good reason for not revealing Karma's fate to them. Realising that it was a touchy subject, Cypher apologised repeatedly to calm Sunspot. Upon arriving in Madripoor, both Warlock & Cypher were left on the beach while the other New Mutants stormed Karma's heavily-guarded home. However, it didn't protect Cypher from Karma's powers. He & Warlock had been spotted when her limousine drove passed them. While Warlock's alien mind was immune to any telepathic influence, Cypher was possessed and became one of her slaves. Soon afterwards, many of the other New Mutants joined him and they became Karma's favourite toys. It transpired that Karma was herself a pawn of the Shadow King, who had turned her power against herself & her friends. Magik, Mirage, Storm & Warlock all fought to save their friends. It was only thanks to Magik & Warlock's immunity to Karma's powers that they were able to trick the Shadow King into releasing Karma. However, it was clear that the Shadow King had hidden inside one of the New Mutants. Magik played detective, and threatened to kill the Shadow King's new host with her Soulsword. When Cypher began to scream for mercy, they realised he had become the new host. Magik knew that Cypher had knowledge of her Soulsword, especially that it could not kill. Therefore the Shadow King had revealed himself. The others acknowledged how typical it was of the Shadow King to prey on the most vulnerable and weak of the team; meaning how defenceless Cypher was in a physical battle.

Asgard Adventure[]

After the Shadow King had been defeated, Storm invited the New Mutants to relax on the Greek island of Kirinos. While relaxing on the beach, Cypher & Magik tried to educate Warlock on human fashion. Cypher tried to explain that as a male, Warlock shouldn't wear a bikini, which resulted in Warlock wearing humourous over-sized underwear instead. However, while they were relaxing they New Mutants and Storm were kidnapped by hordes of Loki's men. Transported to Asgard, the New Mutants were held hostage by the Enchantress. Magik conjured up a stepping disc to teleport them all away, but it clashed against the Enchantress' spells and scattered the team around the mythical realm. On his own, Cypher magically appeared in a great banquet hall during a busy feast. There, the Asgardian residents mocked Cypher's slight frame, compared to their own gigantic muscles. They pitted him in a sword fight against a parlour maid, but when Cypher couldn't even lift a sword to defend himself they locked a collar around him and made him into a slave. He remained there, miserably carrying large dishes to & from the kitchen until Darkchild came to collect him. The master of the banquet hall refused to hand over his newest slave, but was soon killed in battle. Seeing the gigantic dead body fall, Cypher was scared for his life and slipped outside through a window. Outside he met Warlock, who encapsulated Cypher and flew them both away to safety. They landed on the edge of a desert where they were reunited with Karma. They were overjoyed to see her again, and Cypher commented on how she was 'skinny again' (since her encounter with the Shadow King had left her hideously obese). Unfortunately they were once again pursued by Darkchild & her Asgardian riders. A fight broke out between team-mates. Warlock wrapped himself around Cypher, taking the form of a mecha-styled suit to aid & protect him in battle. The rest of the New Mutants soon appeared and joined them in battle. With Karma's ability to possess the Darkchild they infiltrated the Enchantress' fortress, saved Magik and began preparations to save Storm from Loki. Magik had retained some of her Darkchild persona and demanded that Cypher remain by her side to translate the Enchantress' ancient tomes. However, when they realised that the video feed from Warlock had disappeared, he & Mirage rode off on Brightwind. They found Sunspot enjoying himself in a local bar surrounded by beautiful Asgardian women. Outside they located Warlock. After being weakened by Loki's attack Warlock saw Mirage as a Valkyrie coming to take him to Hel. In a panicked state, Warlock grabbed Cypher and fled. Warlock was forced to stop fleeing when he ran out of energy. Lost and alone, Cypher offered some of his own life-glow to help Warlock. Although Warlock was hesitant in case he permanently infected Cypher with the transmode virus, he reluctantly agreed. Warlock merged with Cypher for the first time, and Cypher was amazed at how the world around them looked through Warlock's eyes. Re-energised, they joined the other New Mutants (and X-Men who had travelled to Asgard to save them). Cypher and Warlock stayed out of harms way while their team-mates fought to save Storm. Once Loki was defeated, they were all transported safely back to Earth.

New Headmaster[]

However, back on Earth Professor Xavier had been attending the trial of Magneto in Paris. Although Magneto was acquited, Xavier had suffered a mortal wound. Before he mysteriously disappeared (to join Lilandra & the Starjammers) he entrusted the care of his school to Magneto. Magneto was a strict teacher with the New Mutants. Straight away Magneto upset Cypher by refusing to let him participate in a Danger Room session with the rest of the team. Since he saw Cypher's powers as a weakness in battle, he forced him to watch from the control room. The other New Mutants were forced to battle Magneto, but their attacks were soon turned against themselves. From the control room, Sharon Friedlander couldn't calm Cypher's anger. Instead he used his impressive IT skills to programme the Danger Room. Cypher recreated the land of Oz to disorientate Magneto. However, the field of poppies sent half the team to sleep which gave Magneto the upper hand. Later, when the team licked their wounds over milkshakes, Cypher was still bitter about being treated like a baby. However, they were all convinced about Mangeto's commitment to them when they secretly spied on him as he threatened a bunch of local thugs who had previously attacked Mirage.

Death In The Secret Wars[]

On a quiet summer's day Cypher was racing Mirage as they swap laps in the pool. However, the Beyonder had come to Earth and encountered Magik across town where he removed the demonic side from her soul. She was no longer Magik, and was full of praise for the Beyonder. When Illyana returned to the school and tried to convert the other New Mutants, she was forced to accept her dark side back in order to save Kitty Pryde from Limbo's demons. However, the Beyonder was angry that they had rejected his peaceful domination. Therefore, on a night when the X-Men were on the other side of the country, the Beyonder attacked the New Mutants. Magik stepped forward as a self-sacrifice. However, when they watched her body disintigrate into dust the others attacked. One by one they fell in battle to the Beyonder. When Warlock was severly injured, Cypher offered to share his own lifeglow. However, unlike in Asgard, they came under attack. Cypher's body turned to dust. He died instantly. The New Mutants had been eradicated from time and living memory, as if they had never lived.

Resurrection[]

Before his final battle against the combined forces of Earth's mightiest heros, the Beyonder wanted to experience life as a mortal. He cerated a machine that would be able to remove his Beyonder powers and birth him as a baby. However, he wanted to be certain that the machine worked before he used it on himself. Therefore, he collected the remaining energies left over from the New Mutants. Although there were only a few remains, The beyonder used his machine to resurrect the New Mutants. However, they were emotionless and obeyed the Beyonder's commands like zombies. As such, they were sent to fight the Earth's mightiest heroes including the X-Men who had forgotten that they'd even existed. The New Mutants were outnumbered, and soon Phoenix telepathically learned their true identities. After the Beyonder was defeated, the New Mutants returned to school. However they suffered from nightmares where they would climb into graves instead of their beds. Being a low-level telepath, Magneto shared in their mental suffering. After minor prompting from Empath, Magneto was finally convinced to relinquish the guardianship of his students over to the White Queen. When they arrived at the Academy, the New Mutants were officially inducted into the Hellions. The pre-established Hellions tried to tease their new team-mates, and Jetstream taunted Cypher over the passive nature of his powers. However, still haunted from his experience with the Beyonder, Cypher didn't respond. He and the others remained apathetic for the first couple of weeks, but did begin to make progress after receiving telepathic counselling from the White Queen. Cypher & the others remained at the Academy until Magneto discovered that he had been manipulated into relinquishing the New Mutants over to their greatest rival. His journey to Massachusetts was hampered by the Avengers, but he was saved by Magik's teleportation powers. Reunited with their old headteacher, both Cypher and Magik spent time musing over how their teacher had come through for them after all. Although the New Mutants were finally reunited, they were shocked & disgusted at how Empath had abused his powers on their teachers. They planned a night to torment him, each of them using their powers in turn to scare him. Although Cypher's powers weren't physically intimidating like the others', he resorted to physical violence. Angry, he grabbed Empath by the collar of his pajamas and threatened to punch him. However, he couldn't bring himself to do it and let Empath go, despite Sunspot calling him a coward.

Bratpack/Douglock[]

Although Cypher was willing to use his fists do the talking, he was still bothered by the passive nature of his powers. He had saved the world, but still couldn't tell anyone about it including his parents. Cypher was frustrated, and Mirage explained that she felt something similar having multiple roles and identities since she had become a valkyrie. They recognised that they were not regular teenagers, and felt ostracised from non-powered kids of their own age who would gossip over frivolous nonsense. The next day, Warlock acted as Cypher's super strong suit again, while Sunspot aided them to remove an old dead tree which had fallen on the school's grounds. However, when Doug & Warlock began to lift the tree, Sunspot screamed in pain and was crushed by the tree. Despite their best efforts, it appeared that Sunspot had died. Cypher fled the room in tears blaming himself for Sunspot's death. He ran down into the morgue where Warlock caught up with him. Warlock informed Cypher that the dead body he had been crying over wasn't Sunspot. Cypher demanded to see what Warlock could see, so he forced Warlock into a gestalt merge with him just like they had done in Asgard. This allowed Cypher to inspect the dead body on a molecular level. They were so busy discussing the meaning of their discovery that they forgot to separate again. So by the time the other New Mutants found them, they grew angry and scolded Cypher for being so reckless. They were concerned for Cypher's life, because of the possibility that Warlock's transmode virus would infect him & convert his body into living circuitry. Using the information that Warlock and Cypher had discovered, the New Mutants teleported to an abandoned boarding school near Manhattan. While the others fought with their team-mates and Bratpack who had been aged into their early-to-mid twenties, Cypher and Warlock remained on the roof. They found a lost blonde boy who was naked and crying. The boy identified himself as Brian, who had lost his twin sister Betsy. Despite his young age he could fly & had super strength. Cypher took control of the situation; he gave Brian the tunic-half of his uniform, and formed a plan. They saved Magma (who had been de-aged to before her mutant powers had developed) from the other mind-controlled New Mutants, and used Brian and Magma as a diversion. While the Bratpack were hunting the de-aged heroes, Cypher & Warlock snuck inside the abandoned school. Once all the New Mutants, Bratpack members and Brian were free, Spiral ceased spinning the carousel. Before she could attack, Warlock finished restoring the pieces of Psylocke's mind freeing her from Spiral's control. Spiral made Psylocke an offer just as she was about to depose her; the chance to live in happiness, where she could see. However, Douglock cried out that Psylocke didn't need to be enslaved by Mojo. Touched by his words, Psylocke's towering astral form attacked Spiral with beams from her eyes. Just as they all began to return to their physical bodies, Psylocke apologised to them all for causing them so much trouble and pain. Back in the physical world, Cypher woke in a dark attic alone with Psylocke. She cried that she didn't have the strength to rip out the cybernetic eyes Spiral had implanted in her. Cypher cried for her, and held her by the shoulders when the light suddenly came on. Mirage entered the room and suddenly Psylocke realised that she was naked. Cypher blushed and turned away while Warlock covered Psylocke as a cybernetic cat-suit. When Captain Britain entered the room he picked Cypher off his feet to give him a powerful bear hug as thanks for saving him & his sister. Inside they found a young woman who had been strapped into a mechanical moving chair with her eyes held open. Psylocke had been warped into a mirror image of Mojo. Warlock wrapped himself around Cypher like a layer of skin, so they were invisible to Psylocke when she looked at them with her mechanical eyes. Warlock reached into the implants in the back of Psylocke's head, but t created a psychic feedback that implanted her memories of her former adventures in Britain into Cyphers mind. It ended with an explosion which separated Warlock from Cypher. As they saw Psylocke lying helpless on the floor they were determined to save her; Cypher demanded that Warlock perform another gestalt meld with him. However, just as Cypher was marvelling at the beauty of Warlock's vision, the robotic tail from Psylocke's chair grabbed them and dragged them into her mind. Inside Psylocke's mind, the merged boys landed in the mud. Looking up they saw her dancing on top of a carousel, and the New Mutants & Bratpack members would appear as the ride's animals whenever any of them were caught in the real world. The gestalt merge began to effect Cypher & Warlock; Cypher's speech-patterns became more robotic and alien, while Warlock spoke like an American human boy. He had become a new entity referred to as Douglock. Psylocke offered Douglock a place on the carousel. Even though he rejected it, she forced him to become another one of the ride's centaurs. However, Douglock ripped off the Mojo facade & used a long tendril to grab Psylocke by the wrist. However, she chopped the tendril off causing Douglock to scream in pain. Psylocke's facade melted away to reveal Spiral. She caused the carousel to spin uncontrollably which began to destroy the ground around them. However, the ground represented Psylocke's real mind. Therefore Douglock acted as two separate beings who were connected; Warlock spun a think web of circuitry to catch the crumbling ground & restore the giant jigsaw of Psylocke's mind, while Cypher reached into the carousel and pulled the others free. Once all the New Mutants, Bratpack members & Brian were free, Spiral ceased spinning the carousel. Before she could attack, Warlock finished restoring the pieces of Psylocke's mind freeing her from Spiral's control. Spiral made Psylocke an offer just as she was about to depose her; the chance to live in happiness, where she could see. However, Douglock cried out that Psylocke didn't need to be enslaved by Mojo. Touched by his words, Psylocke's towering astral form attacked Spiral with beams from her eyes. Just as they all began to return to their physical bodies, Psylocke apologised to them all for causing them so much trouble & pain. Back in the physical world, Cypher woke in a dark attic alone with Psylocke. She cried that she didn't have the strength to rip out the cybernetic eyes Spiral had implanted in her. Cypher cried for her, and held her by the shoulders when the light suddenly came on. Mirage entered the room and suddenly Psylocke realised that she was naked. Cypher blushed & turned away while Warlock covered Psylocke as a cybernetic cat-suit. When Captain Britain entered the room he picked Cypher off his feet to give him a powerful bear hug as thanks for saving him & his sister. The next day Mirage caught up with Cypher. He was feeling better than the last time they'd chatted. He watched Psylocke bid farewell to Captain Britain, and afterwards she turned around to blow him a kiss. As a telepath, she was aware of his physical attraction to her, and she admitted to herself that she was extremely fond of him too.

X-Babies[]

When the New Mutants first met the X-Men, Kitty Pryde had called them X-Babies. However, upon the appearance of the newest X-Man, Longshot, it was the X-Men who de-aged into X-Babies. When they grew up again, they were mind-controlled by Mojo & Spiral. The New Mutants were forced to wear their graduation uniforms for the first time and battle the X-Men on stage in the middle of Central Park. During the fight, Cypher was treated as a weakling. However, by utilising his knowledge of the X-Men he helped to free Psylocke from Mojo's influences once more. As she approached to attack, he opened his mind to her telepathy. Flooded with warm emotions & memories from him, Psycloke was shocked back into her own consciousness. Then one-by-one the X-Men were freed and turned against Mojo. Afterwards the New Mutants returned their graduation costumes to the trunk in the attic.

Warlock[]

Cypher's friendship with Warlock was so tight that when the New Mutants were invited to a social dance at Salem Centre High School, Cypher spent his evening hanging around Warlock. He had fun with Warlock's changing appearance, but spent most of his time trying to keep Warlock away from the young couples at the dance & accidentally revealing their secret identities. Cypher knew something was wrong when Warlock started acting strange after the Morlocks & X-Men had been attacked in the Morlock Tunnels. While the mutants were rallying inside the mansion's secret sub-basement levels to try and aid the survivors, Warlock was sat on the porch scanning for something. Cypher was suspicious, however he over-looked Warlock's lies because of the extreme circumstances. Cypher's strained friendship with Sunspot was worsened when Sunspot's taunts angered him to the point that they began to fight. However, when Karma & Magik went missing soon after they went to check on Leong & Nga, the New Mutants travelled through the sewers to investigate. When they arrived in the city they soon found Karma & Magik, and the detonated remains of Karma's apartment. They weren't given a chance to consider what had happened, or who had caused it. Instead, Warlock's father the Magus appeared & began to attack.

Into The Past & Alternate Futures[]

Magik teleported them into Limbo, to keep them safely away from Magus. Warlock begged them to leave him there to die, but somehow Magus followed them and attacked in Limbo. Panicked, Magik teleported them back to Earth. However, they arrived in Scotland, hundreds of years in the past. There they saved Robert the Bruce and spurred him on to keep fighting the English. Cypher was curious as to why the Scottish King wasn't afraid of them like the English soldiers. He admitted that he didn't know if they were children or demons, but considered himself blessed to have met the New Mutants. When they bade farewell, Magik teleported them back into the future. However, she missed the present day and the team was divided into two alternate future timelines. In one future, Karma, Magma, Sunspot & Wolfsbane found themselves on the destroyed site of the Xavier school. There, Cannonball & Mirage were the only surviving New Mutants. In a society crushed & dominated by the Sentinels, Cypher had been killed many years previously. In the other timeline, Cannonball, Cypher, Mirage & Warlock found themselves in a society were mutants had risen to supremacy and stole mutant children away from their human parents. Cypher used Warlock as a turbo-powered skateboard as they evaded the Arbitrators (police dressed in similar gold & black uniforms). As they escaped, Cypher graffittied a message that 'Humans Are People Too'. The New Mutants joined forces with an extremely aged Katie Power. As they were providing stolen supplies to the humans, they were arrested and taken to the Chief Arbitrators; Sunspot & Magma. They were held in a power-field to await telepathic surgery which would force them to accept the inequality of the future society.

Douglock Vs Magus[]

Cypher & the others waited in their cell until they were rescued by Magik and Professor Xavier. While the others had been scattered in the future, Magik had stumbled through space and was found by the Professor. He then used his telepathy to boost her control over the Stepping Discs to save the rest of the team. Back in the present day, the New Mutants found themselves on board the Starjammer. They din't have a chance to distrust the other members of the team or consider what cold-hearted adults they had seen them grown into. Instead, the Starjammer had come under attack. Magus has left Limbo and tracked them into deep space. He was destroying a nearby planet, while Warlock cowered onboard the Starjammer. Cypher argued that Warlock shouldn't just give up. However, by then Magus had grown tired of waiting, so had dragged the Starjammer underwater. The other New Mutants charged into battle with Professor Xavier's telepathy guiding them and boosting their power-levels. Warlock finally plucked enough courage to face Magus, but was easily swatted away. Cypher begged the Professor to help his best friend. However, he was spurred by the Professor's words and turned to help Warlock by himself. He was ready to offer his own life energy to restore Warlock, but was interrupted by Binary who used her starbolts to re-energise him instead. Cypher's plan was then put into action. Magus was distracted by one of Mirage's illusions; an image of Warlock fully grown and ready to defeat him. Warlock & Cypher landed on Magus' shoulder and began to hack into his programming. Combining Warlock's physiology with Cypher's ability to translate languages, and they re-wrote Magus' programming. They reduced him to an infantile Technarch who hadn't been born and abandoned him on the dying planet he had been pulling apart.

Return to Earth[]

The New Mutants enjoyed a little rest & relaxation in space. Warlock acted as a personal space-pod for Cypher as they aided Cannonball & Binary with external repairs to the Starjammer. However, their time with the professor was cut short as he forced Karma to control Magik and teleport them all back to Earth. However, Magneto grew increasingly strict with them upon their miraculous return. He had not given up hoping that they were still alive and would return. However, he drummed the severity of their actions into them with Draconian methods. They were forced to undergo a Danger Room sequence where they were chased through New York by the Marauders. One by one the New Mutants all died. Magneto was furious with them for running away on the day that the Marauders had attacked the Morlocks, but his methods only caused more anger & a greater rift between headmaster & students. One warm day the New Mutants were playing soccer on the grass. An accident caused Sunspot to grow angry and lashed out against Cannonball. The other New Mutants were angry at Sunspot. They all took Cannonball to hospital, but left Sunspot at school where he found Professor Xavier's report on him; Xavier was afraid that Sunspot would become a villain like his father. Regretful and frightened, Sunspot ran away. Upon their return the New Mutants discovered that Sunspot had run away. Although Magneto asked them to stay at the school and enlisted the help of Siryn and Multiple Man, Warlock was too concerned for the safety of his friend. Warlock followed Sunspot's trail into the city. However, he left his best friend Cypher physically weakened if the remaining New Mutants should come under attack.

The Dream[]

As the New Mutants were rushing about & getting dressed in their fanciest clothes, Cypher stepped out of the shower. Looking in the mirror his vision magnified thousands and thousands of times until he saw a tiny microchip deeply implanted inside his eye. Scared, Cypher was suddenly overcome by the same transmode virus that Warlock was comprised of. Hearing his screams, the other New Mutants came running to see what was the matter. One by one, Cypher touched them, infected them and killed them with the transmode virus. Desperately frightened by what he had done, he leapt out of the nearest window where he was confronted by Warlock. However, Warlock had become the new Magus and demanded to fight Cypher to the death. Cypher woke with a start. After his shower he had sat on the toilet, leant against the basin & fallen asleep. However, there was a microchip secretly lodged deep within his eye. The others hurried him to finish getting dressed. In their absence, Magneto had become the new White King of the Hellfire Club. As such, they were all invited to a social function hosted at the Hellfire Club's headquarters. When they arrived in the city Magik fell back away from the others to talk to Cypher. He had been acting skittish without Warlock around to protect him, but he lashed out angrily at Magik. In his anger he slipped backwards into the path of an oncoming taxi, but was teleported back to safety. Although saved by Magik, Cypher remained bitter that they treated him like a defenceless baby. Inside the club Selene caused a scene where she destroyed a figurine that was supposed to be her, claiming it was a fake. Unfortunately Magma claimed that that figuring had been on her ancestor, and trouble brewed when Selene claimed that she was related to Magma. The other New Mutants averted another scene, but when they met the Hellions they all went their separate ways. Tarot asked Cypher if he wanted to dance, but he was still in a bad mood from earlier. So he snapped at her and accused her of scheming something malicious, which caused her to run off crying. Empath was delighted to see someone else causing emotional chaos for a change. Upstairs Cypher's mood began to change. He stumbled upon a poker game where Roulette draped over him and called him 'lover'. He continued to win high-staked bets until all the other players were defeated. Roulette kissed him, and he grabbed a nearby bottle of Champaign to celebrate. Alone, they continued to drink until Cypher was intoxicated. They were later discovered by other New Mutants & Hellions. Wolfsbane was shocked by Cypher's hedonistic behaviour, while Mirage grabbed him by the collar and reprimanded him for acting like a Hellion. Her comments caused more aggravation between the two teams until Cypher suddenly remembered Roulette's own powers of luck. He instantly grew angry & slapped her. Thunderbird intervened, which caused more anxiety between teams.

Hang-Over & Hellions[]

Tensions ran high between the two young mutant teams. The Hellions & New Mutants agreed to a competition, to track down who had created the forged figurine that was presented to Selene. While Magma struggled with her own fealings of hatred towards Selene, Cypher was sobering up. Magik offered to teleport him to Limbo where she could conjur up a hang-over spell, he dashed into the en-suite; vomiting at the propsect of going to Limbo. Mirage & Cannonball followed him. While Mirage verbally berated him for his shameless behaviour, Cannonball held him upright in the shower. Still fully dressed in his suit & black-tie, the hot water appeared to help sober him up. They took their time to get ready, and changed into their graduation uniforms. Magik used her spells to spy on the Hellions and discovered that the villains responsible were the Viper & Silver Samurai. They teleported ahead of the the Hellions to the Viper's base, but Cypher held back. He admitted that without Warlock there to help protect him, that he was scared he might get hurt in action. However, his fears were short-lived when he saw a sniper take aim at Mirage. Cypher leapt to push her out of the way, and was shot squarely in the chest. Cypher fell to the ground & didn't move. Angered, Magma unleashed a large fiery ring to hold Viper's guards prisoner while Magik was about to unleashed her darker persona on the sniper. However, Wolfsbane ran over to Cypher and cried out in relief. She rolled him over to reveal a large burn mark across his chest. Cypher's uniform had protected him from the bullet, and he'd saved his friend in battle. Wolfsbane clung on to Cypher, hugging him with great relief.

Powers and abilities[]

Cypher possessed the mutant ability to translate any language, spoken or written. This included computer code, which made him an excellent computer programmer and hacker.

Afflictions[]

  • New Mutants
  • X-Men formerly
  • X-Force formerly
  • X-Factor formerly
  • Mutant Resistance (earth-11326)

Alternate Realities[]

in other media[]

Film[]

X2: X-Men United

X3: The Last Stand

Advertisement