It was 1992, and Dr. Calvin Sobek, secretly the reptile-obsessed biochemist and supervillain Alligator Rex, had a big problem. In his war against his greatest enemy, the Cobalt Chevalier, he had subjected himself to numerous mutagenic substances and compounds which slowly wreaked havoc on his body, and after one particularly bad onset of illness, Sobek ran a test and confirmed that he would be dead in a little over a year. He was perfectly aware of the risks involved and had even planned one last, catastrophic scheme to be carried out before his death, but his body had begun to fall apart ten years too soon for such a scheme to be carried out. Dr. Sobek wasn't going to let a little thing like untimely death ruin his legacy, though, and had prepared a backup plan for just such an occasion. If he couldn't go out with a bang, he needed a successor, but a henchman would never do, and he had neither the inclination nor the time to produce an offspring. No, he would have to create an heir himself.

Dr. Sobek's final creation was two twin, female embryos, which he nicknamed Helen and Clytemnestra, cloned from his own DNA and spiked with small samples of his mutagenic formula, which would make them physically stronger then any average human and hopefully give them resistances to the DNA breakdown that was killing him. He was just putting the final touches on Helen's genetics when the Cobalt Chevalier burst into the room, flanked by legions of police officers. A firefight soon broke out between Sobek's minions and the police, and the doctor, crippled and close to death at this point, was dragged deeper into the lab by one of his henchmen, a poor Russian-borne thug, as chaos broke out. Believing Helen was lost, Sobek crawled to the incubator where Clytemnestra, now resembling a newborn was stored, and ordered the loyal henchman to escape with what remained of his legacy, but not before injecting the newborn with a massive dose of his mutagenic formula. He was later found dead and abandoned in the incubator room, a wicked smile still visible on his face. The Chevalier, thinking that "Helen" was the only child created by Sobek, decided to take the newborn in, and that girl would later become his sidekick, the Rouge Ranger.

The henchman, meanwhile, dropped off the "newborn" Clytemnestra at an orphanage in Chinatown, spinning a tall tale of child abuse and abandonment that convinced the matron of the orphanage to accept the child without asking too many questions. She only asked for a name, and the man gave her the name of his recently deceased sister, Claudia Sokolov, after which the henchmen ditched his colors and hopped on the first boat to Vladivostok the following day. Claudia's childhood at the orphanage wasn't a happy one, and while she often went hungry she at least had a roof over her head. In order to stave off hunger, she fell into the employ of local gangs, running packages of dubious legality for them making just enough money to avoid starving. It was here that she met her best friend, an orphaned Japanese girl her own age named Kimi, who rarely ever spoke to anyone.

The pair of them kept working as gangland couriers until Claudia turned thirteen, and something inevitably went wrong. Claudia and Kimi of them were working together on a large delivery, and when some local thugs saw what they were carrying, they decided that they wanted some for themselves and attacked the two of them. At the sight of her best friend being attacked, something inside Claudia snapped and Sobek's mutagen activated, mutating Claudia into a hulking, reptilian creature, able to send one of the thugs flying with a single punch and convincing the rest to retreat. Claudia was terrified and confused by what had happened to her, and tried to look to Kimi for solace. Smiling, the Japanese girl took a deep breath, then seemingly turned into a cloud of white smoke, passed through a solid wall and back out again, then materialized once more in front of her. Claudia was so stunned by the dual revelation that she and her best friend had superpowers that she didn't notice the man in the red military jacket making a phone call to his boss about "two potential recruits".

That boss was the enigmatic and mysterious Zhurong, a Rogue with the mysterious ability to cheat death through extraordinary luck and the leader of Phoenix, a criminal enterprise built like a paramilitary force and staffed with war veterans and immigrants from Russia and China with military backgrounds. Intrigued by their abilities, he personally offered the pair of superhuman teenagers a position in his establishment, with a substantial payment for their services. Claudia and Kimi readily accepted his offer, eager for the opportunity to hone their powers, and the pair of them became "agents" of Phoenix. Claudia's time in Phoenix was some of the best years in her life, and Claudia and Kimi's successes attracted more Rogues to the organization, making Phoenix one of the most powerful and dangerous organizations in the city. Claudia and Kimi became very wealthy and respected from their work in the organization, being called Red Wyvern and White Wraith by the media, respectively, and after Kimi broke her usual silence by confessing her love to Claudia, the two became romantically involved as well. The good times were never meant to last, though, and soon Phoenix found itself in a war with a new enemy; ARGO.

Surprisingly the criminal enterprise managed to hold its ground for some time, thanks to the brilliant leadership of Zhurong and the competency of agents like Claudia and Kimi, but when Zhurong was assassinated by his second in command, Smoking Mirror, the entire organization collapsed. Claudia and Kimi were captured by ARGO and sent to the Illwood Correctional Facility. To keep her contained, Claudia was fitted with an apparatus that regularly injected her with an anti-mutagenic compound, which prevented her from transforming into her stronger form. The injections also caused intense pain, and the ICF staff weren't always diligent with the morphine injections, but Claudia was able to persevere with the help of her lover, Kimi. One month later, agents from ARGO appeared to drag Kimi from her cell for interrogation. Claudia demanded to know what had happened to her, and when she assaulted a guard who said that she wasn't coming back, Claudia was thrown into solitary confinement for a month, without painkillers, and when she was returned to her cell, a new prisoner was in Kimi's place. Filled with rage and sorrow, Claudia swore that if she ever escaped from this place, she would bring down the bastards that sent her here and stop at nothing until she figured out what happened to Kimi.