Nathan Christopher Summers sips a cup of strong coffee. He doesn't mind the taste... part of him embraces the fact that he's suffering. It's a good way to anger himself even more. Sitting across from him is a woman named Becka, a kindly Navajo who saved him from the desert heat. And now she's giving him food! What else could a man ask for? Besides that...

A waitress comes to the booth Cable and Becka are sitting in, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen to write with. She speaks in a slight southern accent, "Hello, I'm Nancy. So what'll it be tonight for you lovebirds?"

"Actually--" Cable was about to say, but stops himself to prevent Becka's feelings from getting hurt. He smiles, "I'll have the um... Salisbury steak, medium rare."

"Baked potato or French fries?" the waitress asks.

"Um potato, with sour cream, chives... the whole deal," Cable responds.

"And salad?"

"Is it included with the steak dinner?"

"Yes."

"Then lay it on me... er... please!" Cable responds with a devilish grin.

Becka laughs, "Ah sure hope you've got enough money to pitch in. Ah'll have the fillet, potato, and yes on the salad, with ranch dressing."

The waitress smiles cheerfully as she scribbles the order down. Without looking up, she asks, "And to drink?"

"I'll have a Rolling Rock... bottle preferably," Cable says.

"Okay..."

"And Ah'll just have a Sprite," Becka says.

Nancy smiles, "Ok, thanks. Should be about twenty minutes, I'll have someone come over and give you some biscuits."

"Yay, biscuits!" Cable says.

"My, I'm not sure what to think of ya, Nate. I mean in the truck, you were so reserved and quiet... now you're actin' all casual... it's mildly disturbing... I like it," Becka whispers. A basket of biscuits is placed on the table. Nathan picks one up and jams it in his mouth, downing it in two bites. Becka leans closer to Cable. "Why are ya headed for LA? Tryin' to make it in the biz?"

Cable smiles enigmatically. His left eye glows. "You have no idea, Becka. I want to see what I'm capable of. Too long have I held back..."

New York

"Alright, if that's the way you want to play," Boroh insists. Standing before him is the first Askani, Rachel Summers.

Rachel twirls her psimatar around behind her as her hair begins to glow and flow like an inferno. Her eyes seem to become white. "Whoever you are, whichever planet you're from, you made a big mistake coming here!"

"Less talk, more fight, woman!"

Rachel's lips curl up into a snarl, "Woman?!?!? You make it sound like that's a bad thing!" Rachel telekinetically rockets up to Boroh's face and savagely swipes him with a TK-reinforced psimatar blow. Boroh has to step back a little. He wipes what appears to be blood from his lip. Rachel smiles, "I may look young, but I have almost one-hundred year's experience in this business. Want to quit?"

"NEVER!!!!!" Boroh screams as he backhands Rachel into a hydrant. Water spews everywhere. Rachel's hand rushes to the back of her head and can feel the blood gushing.

Rachel pushes herself upright and charges her psimatar. Blood clots. Come on, Rach! Keep it together!

Arizona...

"Nate, please don't do this!" Becka says, trying to pull him back into his seat.

"No... this man called you something inappropriate... I'm teaching him a lesson in manners," Cable says as he grits his teeth at a trucker. The man stands almost as tall as Cable and wears a tan hat that covers his long, curly brown hair along with a wife-beater and torn jeans.

The trucker's friends form a crowd behind him. "Ah don' think that'd be a good idear, son," the trucker says to Cable.

The customers of the small restaurant instinctively put down their tab and clear out of the structure, driving away hurriedly.

Becka remains behind Cable, "Please, let's just go--"

Cable telekinetically pins Becka to her seat and inches his index finger, signaling for the trucker posse to begin their advance. The truckers take empty beer bottles and smash them on the edge of the bar and brandish the broken glass as a weapon. One trucker recklessly charges at Cable, who simply dodges to the side, using the man's momentum to shove him down onto the floor.

"NATE!" Becka screams as she struggles to get out of her chair. "Get outta here! PLEASE?!"

Cable ignores her as he gets dogpiled by a bunch of the truckers. A telekinetic pulse shoves them all away. Cable grins devilishly as he telekinetically nabs the head trucker by his throat, slowly dragging him in midair towards Cable's face. When he is at eye level with Cable, he says, "Big mistake, mutie freak!!!"

Cable appears to be offended, "Is that anyway to laugh in the face of death? You should be begging for mercy. I could mash your heart into a pulp or turn you into a vegetable. What's your choice? You'll die eventually, anyway."

The trucker's face turns deathly pale as he breaks into a sweat, gulping hard. "I... I... I..."

"You want your eye torn out?" Cable asks mockingly. "Your wish is my command..."

The trucker screams in horror as his right eye is torn out forcibly via telekinesis. Blood gushes from the orifice as he screams in horror. Becka screams as well, "NATE! OH MAH GOD!!!"

The truckers gather around their wounded comrade and begin to harbor vengeful emotions. Cable speaks, "I wouldn't try that, if I were you. I can anticipate your every move with my telepathy...your surprise attack on me won't work."

Cable approaches the trembling Becka. He smiles, but the sound of police sirens returns his face to its normal, emotionless expression. His left eye illuminates as he telepathically erases everyone's memories. Cable quickly exits out the back door, into the cold desert night air...

New York

Rachel blocks a punch from Boroh with a telekinetic shield, promptly unleashing a psionic barrage upon the mind of the gray alien. Boroh simply smiles, "Was that supposed to hurt?"

His alien brain physiology must be too advanced for a telepathic attack to disorient him, Rachel ponders. Either that, or his will power rivals Storm's!

Boroh jumps into the air, twirling around, delivering a pulsing kick to Rachel's jaw. Rachel wipes blood from her chin and delivers a similar kick to Boroh, but he isn't phased by it. Boroh grabs Rachel's arm and breaks the fibula bone over his knee. Rachel shrieks in pain, dropping her psimatar, which Boroh crunches to pieces with his foot.

"And now, the KILLING blow!" Boroh yells as he smiles. "You realize you're the first to make me bleed... the penalty for that is harsh." Boroh dangles Rachel from her broken arm before him and smiles. Rachel plays possum and simply slumps down. Boroh throws Rachel to the side, into a concrete structure, two blocks away.

Rachel spits out blood and begins to construct a splint for her left arm out of old pieces of wood and rope. Meditation techniques ease the pain in her arm. The pain is all in her mind, she must shut that part of her mind out. Her telekinesis can compensate for her disabled appendage. Rachel feels a surge of adrenaline as her hair begins to rage like an inferno once more.

The Safehouse, Hell's Kithcen

Blaquesmith vigorously types commands into the main computer located towards the back of the safehouse, trying to locate his student who has apparently gone over the edge. When no results come up, Blaquesmith violently smashes the console.

Irene comes into the computer room from her quarters. "What's wrong, 'Smith?"

"Nothing, child. Frustration, is all," Blaquesmith says. "There appear to be some kinks in the bodyslide program, as well."

"Uh oh... is Rachel okay?" Irene asks.

"Yes, she's fine. The molecular-reassemblance is still functioning, just the triangulation of destination was disabled from a strange electromagnetic pulse...probably from some atmospheric snafu. It's fixed, just as long as no alien spacecraft decide to penetrate the Earth's atmosphere again,"* Blaquesmith explains. "There's that, and the fact that I cannot locate Dayspring anywhere."

(* Check last ish, where Rachel accidentally arrived in Colorado instead of Salem Center -- Brad)

"Didn't you say Rachel and Nathan forged some kind of rapport when Nathan was just a baby?" Irene asks.

Blaquesmith nods, "Yes, it was a very unique and sensitive rapport. Rachel felt it necessary to look after her brother, since she had no family in her native timeline. It even allowed Rachel to communicate with Dayspring even after she died, even when he was 2000 years in the past."

"That must mean Nathan has shut off that rapport..." Irene realizes.

"Yes, but I do not understand how he can be evading the computer's scans. I'm scanning for DNA... nothing is showing up, and I know Dayspring isn't dead."

"Don't say that, Blaquesmith... please don't..." Irene says, closing her eyes.

Blaquesmith puts his hand on Irene's shoulder, "I am sorry, child. Nathan is very able on his own. Your chronicles will go on for quite some time, you'll see just yet." Irene sheds a tear.

"Cable gave me compassion when he asked me to be his biographer," Irene says. "I had no one...no friends...no family. My parents pretty much disowned me when they found out I was a slanderer. Cable became a financial supporter and a friend. To be honest, the money didn't matter... just Nathan's company was enough for me." Irene sniffles and runs into her dormitory, slamming the door.

Blaquesmith has had enough of this. Blaquesmith expands his telepathy and ascends onto the Astral Plane.

"I'm doing this the old-fashioned way, Dayspring... You can't hide forever! I know you can hear me!"

After a while, the bluish environment of the Astral Plane swirls around, displacing itself for a new arrival... Cable's astral form.

"Where in the name of the First Ones have you been, Dayspring?" Blaquesmith exclaims. "Why haven't you been answering our telepathic summons?"

"I'll ask the questions, old man," Cable says coldly.

"What happened, Dayspring? Was it the battle with Deathglare? Your full potential has gone to your head, has it?"

"No... my power-levels had nothing to do with this. This was inevitable. Did you really expect me to stay SANE through the course of this mission YOU planned out for me? This... this is a subconscious way to cope with it all. Losing Aliya, Tyler, Dawnsilk... it was too much. And don't get me started on the war with the Canaanites..." Cable says shakily.

"Dayspring... Nathan... you need help. You have post-traumatic stress disorder... you need treatment..." Blaquesmith explains. "You're blaming your friends for something they didn't do..."

Cable laughs, "Let's see... Dark Phoenix... Onslaught... looks like my turn was next in line. All that suppressed rage coupled with raw power spells destruction, Blaquesmith."

"Perhaps," Blaquesmith says as he transforms his astral form into a muscular titan, complete with psionic armor. "Don't expect to win, my pupil."

Cable grins devilishly as he transforms his astral form into a shady version of his body, similar to that of the Shadow King's, "That's where you're wrong, fool."

Blaquesmith wakes up in his body, his nose bleeding. "How--?" He sighs. He underestimated Cable's potential. He is indeed as powerful as the Phoenix Force foresaw.

Suddenly, there is a slight numbing in Blaquesmith's mind. A new telepathic link has been established, but it's too broken to be recognized.

"Blaquesmith... help... help me..."

"By the First! Rachel!" Blaquesmith exclaims.

Not too far away...

"You should have played dead, woman. Now I am forced to make that real!" Boroh regally exclaims as he dangles Rachel's battered body by her ankle.

"...don't..."

"But I must, dearest Earther. You've been a worthy opponent, but I have a reputation to uphold.

Suddenly, Cable's astral form appears to Rachel. "Hello, sister. This is the last time I'll be appearing to you--"

"...Nathan... help..."

"Now... let me finish! It is your destiny to be killed by this brainless, ego-infested brute. That is all, die with honor, dearest sister Rachel." Cable smiles sinisterly before fading away.

Rachel blanks out just before she is violently slammed into the asphalt by Boroh. Boroh raises his gauntlet, which runs a scan on the limp body of Rachel. "Impressive," Boroh says, "she's still alive... barely!" Boroh walks away carelessly, looking for a new challenger.

NEXT ISSUE: "Dark Cable" arrives in Los Angeles to start wrecking havoc, while Blaquesmith and Irene watch over the comatose Rachel. Blaquesmith will have to act quickly if he is to neutralize the threat of Boroh on his own! And who will Blaquesmith enlist to stop Cable's terrorism?