Los Angeles

Cable stands atop a hill overlooking the historic City of Angels, next to him is the iconic Hollywood sign. Cable inhales and exhales, smiling devilishly. He unleashes a powerful telepathic surge of energy, forming an illusion around his body, making it appear that he is dressed in jet-black armor, complete with a Stryfe-like helmet.

"My name is VICE now. Cable is dead..."

Arizona...

Police sirens and lights are blaring all over this desolate area outside Tucson in front of a small diner. A black Porsche pulls up behind the police vehicles. Two CIA agents step out. Their names are Jack Paris and Tracy Raymond. Their boss, Carl Denti, known to some as the X-Cutioner, wants Cable apprehended. They intend to complete that task by any means necessary.

A state trooper stops the two agents, "I'm sorry, this is--"

Agent Raymond reaches into her coat pocket, revealing her certified CIA identification and continues to walk. Agent Paris follows, showing the trooper his ID as well with a little smirk.

Paris and Raymond see a medic tending to a trucker whose eye was apparently torn out. Paris asks the medic, "What happened here?"

The medic responds, annoyed, "We don't know! No one does!"

Raymond approaches a young woman, still sitting in one of the booths. She's motionless, comatose. A trooper is looking at the woman's ID. Raymond peers over the trooper's shoulder. "Rebecca Redhawk...Phoenix, Arizona...23..."

The trooper glances at Agent Raymond, "She hasn't said a word since we arrived."

Agent Paris approaches Agent Raymond, "You think this was our guy?"

"Possibly, this was an obvious psionic assault. Just look at everyone!" Raymond exclaims. She sighs, "Looks like he's headed for the west coast... lots of people he can terrorize there."

Agent Paris slips on a pair of Oakleys, "Let's roll."

Hell's Kitchen

"Oh God!" Irene exclaims as she sees the broken body of Rachel Summers hooked up to wires and machines all over. Androids tend to her less-severe wounds.

Blaquesmith stands at the foot of Rachel's bed, grasping her pale, cold hand.

"I-is she okay?!?!" Irene yelps, rushing to Blaquesmith's side.

Blaquesmith glares into the shadows of the room, "Of course she's not fine..."

"It's not your fault, if that's what you're thinking," Irene says.

"It was an alien named Boroh... I remember legends about him..." Blaquesmith says. "No one could beat him. Ever."

"What about Nathan--?" Irene asks. "Did you find him yet?"

Blaquesmith sighs, "Yes...but I don't think he'll help us."

"Why not?"

"Because he's lost his mind, child. Dayspring isn't himself anymore... perhaps never again. His dark persona has control," Blaquesmith explains.

"His dark side?"

"Yes, child. As telepaths, our own emotions are intensified from our empathy. The Askani taught to control the more evil emotions we all possess. It's obvious from Dayspring's experiences that his dark side has grown too strong for him to control. It's happened before with Jean Grey, even Professor Xavier."

"So, is Cable's dark self a separate entity forged by his own telepathy or what?" Irene asks.

"Worse," Blaquesmith responds, "Cable's dark side is Cable. It's been a part of him since he was conceived. We all have darkness within us. It's how we use that darkness, whether it be positive or negative, to truly control it. I blame myself... I should have never taught him everything I knew of the psionic plane..."

"So we can't simply fight this devil-may-care Cable?"

Blaquesmith shakes his head, "It would be impossible. We would have to somehow convince the goodness inside him to counteract the evil... but that would require me to be in close proximity... and we have the threat of Boroh, as well as Rachel's health, to worry about."

"So what are we going to do?" Irene asks.

"You watch over Rachel. I'm going to call the one man who can neutralize Cable's darkside... Nathaniel Grey... Dayspring's brother."

"X-Man?"

"As much as I hate to admit I need that recluse's help..." Blaquesmith says somberly. "For Dayspring's sake."

Los Angeles

The screams of thousands are heard as the very earth begins to shake. Vice is telekinetically agitating the San Andreas Fault, which runs right through Los Angeles. Fire erupts from underground gas lines beneath the streets of the smog capital of the world. Vice smiles, "My own personal hell shall be shared with the millions that make up this wretched city!"

Buildings crumble and fall, people are hurt, even killed. There is no regret in the eyes of Vice. Suddenly, Vice must stop the assault. One weakness he forgot about, the techno-virus. Cable never really saw it as a crutch of late, but Vice seemed to ignore it... a deadly mistake.

Blaquesmith's astral form appears to Vice, "Nathan? Can you hear me? You must overcome your darkside!"

"Nathan can't hear you right now," Vice growls as he holds his trembling left arm. "Soon I'll learn to access this so-called Fifth Force to wipe out everything that gets in my way!"

"Not even Cable himself was sure how to do it. It involves a great deal of concentration... and pain..." Blaquesmith says, trying to persuade him not to use the godly force.

Vice telekinetically descends to street level. A passing car, with a cell phone addict at the wheel, almost takes him out. Vice telekinetically tugs the fender of the car, causing the driver to crash through the windshield. Vice laughs, "Worthless humans... stupid. It's a wonder they haven't destroyed themselves yet..."

Blaquesmith looks on in horror at his former pupil. It's very difficult to see him like this. "You... you will be stopped. Evil never triumphs!" Blaquesmith yells.

"Let the do-gooders try and face me. Evil never triumphed because I didn't say it could. Now I'm saying it can!" Vice yells.

"You're not as powerful as you may think, Nathan."

"Vice! VICE! MY NAME IS VICE, FOOL!!!" Vice yells as he delivers a massive telepathic surge, rendering the entire city of LA unconscious. Blaquesmith's astral form wavers, then disappears.

The unearthly quiet in such a megalopolis is almost frightening for Vice. No beeping of carhorns... nothing. Just the sound of the wind carrying the toxic emissions into the atmosphere. All that can be heard is the sound of fire crackling and the crumbling of buildings too weak to support themselves.

Suddenly, Vice feels a rush of pain to his upper jaw. He is forced to stumble backwards and fall. When he gets up, he is face-to-face with a young man in a strange blue jumpsuit.

"And they say I was a loose cannon... sheesh," the young man retorts as his left eye glows. "Talk about hypocrites, right?"

"You got a lot of guts coming here, kid," Vice spits, telekinetically pushing himself up. X-Man simply raises his right hand, clenched in a fist, promptly releasing it. Vice is propelled twenty feet away into a jumbled mass of concrete by the powerful telekinetic shove. Nate Grey smiles as Vice's eyes light up. "This should be fun."

"Thou hath enough from the Odinson?" the mighty Thor bellows as he stands victorious over the seemingly unbeatable Boroh with his majestic hammer cackling with energy.

Boroh smiles and blasts Thor with a strange device. "Thou hath better prepare to lose... LOSER!"

"What--?" Thor grimaces as he is encased in a strange energy matrix. Thor tries to break free, but the harder he exerts force, the harder the matrix repels him.

Boroh smiles, "Don't worry, I've beaten your kind before. No need to be embarrassed, God-Thor."

Thor, without saying a word, raises his hammer and teleports out of the energy matrix. His voice seems to boom from the heavens, "May Odin look upon you, adversary. For thine fate shalt be determined at a later time."

Boroh laughs, mock-yawning. He continues down the deserted street. Ever since he started his "tour" of New York, people have stayed indoors...

The Safehouse...

"By the First Ones..." Blaquesmith breathes as he watches the nightly news.

"Boroh beat Thor? Jesus!" Irene gasps. "How strong is this punk?"

"He seems to be a match for every opponent he faces..." Blaquesmith observes. "It can't be luck. It must be some sort of technological-enhanced feature. He somehow throws back whatever is thrown at him."

"Can you build something to counter that?" Irene wonders.

"Possibly, but what if Boroh counters my counter-device?"

"Why not just vaporize that S.O.B. and be done with it?" Irene asks.

"Because then he'll probably vaporize me," Blaquesmith says, rolling his eyes. "It's been awhile since I've participated in war... but it's in my blood just as much as it is in Dayspring's. I'll have to do this on my own..."

"What do you plan to do?"

"An easy task... creating a localized black hole for Boroh to be sucked through," Blaquesmith says sincerely.

"Wouldn't that cause a hole in... well.... THE SOLAR SYSTEM???!" Irene exclaims.

"Don't be so harsh, child. I will add a feature to the black hole device to close it," Blaquesmith says.

Sometimes I wonder if that guy has gone senile..., Irene wonders in her head.

"I heard that," Blaquesmith says with a little smirk.

"D'oh!"

Later...

Irene walks by the med lab, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Rachel move. She hurriedly rushes into the room, trying to comfort her. "Don't move," she says. "You'll hurt yourself."

Rachel groans, "I've failed..."

Irene shakes her head, "No you haven't. Blaquesmith thinks Boroh uses some kind of device that can counter every attack made on him. Boroh beat Thor if it makes you feel any better."

A tear rolls down Rachel's cheek. "Where's my brother?"

"He's in LA... apparently, there's some... well, a lot, of property damage from the earthquake..." Irene says.

Rachel sighs. Her entire body aches, even Blaquesmith's healing technology doesn't take away all the pain.

"But X-Man is there with him... trying to knock some sense into him," Irene explains.

"The other Nate?" Rachel asks with a weak smile. "Is that wise? He's got more power than he can handle... how is that going to fare against Cable, who has control over his powers?"

"Sometimes you have to blow the house down before the little pigs build a new one out of bricks."

Rachel raises an eyebrow, "Not sure I understand the analogy..."

"They never had fairy tales in your timeline?" Irene asks.

"Oh, they had fairy tales... tales of mutants fighting for a world that feared and hated them..." Rachel says somberly. "In my native era, pretty much all the X-Men were killed, along with every other hero... I guess we needed some way to instill hope in our useless cause."

Irene nods.

Rachel continues, "When I formed the Askani with Blaquesmith and Sanctity... I told them about the Dark Phoenix and what she did."

"Wasn't the Dark Phoenix your mother? I mean, Jean Grey?" Irene asks.

"Yes...the Phoenix Force had cloned Jean Grey, possessing the clone's body. In essence, she was Jean Grey .* But as I was saying... I used the Dark Phoenix to persuade the misfits that first made up the Askani to be wary of their emotions. I taught them to be mindful of them, but not to be controlled by them... Nathan's forgotten that lesson..."

(* Confused? While piloting a doomed space shuttle, Jean Grey was saved by the Phoenix Force, which replicated her body, placing her real body in a cocoon. The Phoenix also took a portion of Jean's psyche and took her place while she healed in the cocoon. Since the Phoenix couldn't cope with the human emotion, she went insane and destroyed a solar system. She later "killed" herself, but the real Jean emerged a few years later from the cocoon. Whew -- Historically Correct, Brad)

NEXT ISSUE: X-Man and Vice duke it out in LA. Will X-Man convince the shred of Cable that's left inside the cold heart of Vice to give up? Or will Agents Paris and Raymond take him into government custody? And will Blaquesmith's plan work to rid the world of Boroh?