Washington, DC.

Cable has been though quite a lot these past few weeks. After defeating the upstart god known as Deathglare with a bit of luck, Cable's dark side resurfaced. As Vice, Cable laid waste to much of Los Angeles. If it hadn't been for X-Man, Vice would have been the dominant personality. On top of that, an alien creature who can adapt to his opponent's strength, has been terrorizing New York, defeating many heroes - Rachel Summers included. Even a black hole forged by Blaquesmith's technology couldn't take the monster down. Now in control of himself, Cable is powerless, being held prisoner by the US Government. And he is dying. *

(* That pretty much sums up Cable #1-18. What? Have you been slacking on your Cable issues again? UGH! Brad)

"We have to turn the negator off!" Agent Paris yells as he opens the door to Cable's cell. Techno-organic shards are swarming. The living nano-machines form themselves into wires and stick to all corners of the small room. Sparks fly as the techno-virus begins corrupting electrical functions.

"Jesus!" Agent Raymond exclaims. She yells down the hall, "Mr. Denti! We have to turn the power dampeners off! He'll destroy the entire place with that virus of his!"

Cable's face is more emotionless than usual. His entire being is not focused. It's as if he's already dead... but, in fact, he's very much alive. The virus is covering his entire body, except for small portions on his face. He can feel it inside of him, as well. With his techno-organic spikes piercing into the electrical systems, Cable can sense information running through him like a computer.

He learns of secrets he never thought possible... then again, he once worked with the government as a mercenary. But things have definitely changed for the worse. Corruption is everywhere. The President has a cheery attitude about the current state of the nation, and for the most part, the public doesn't know what goes on in Washington. They don't need to know.

Cable's mind flares when he receives information on the original X-Force. The government has dubbed them terrorists for working with Cable!

They obviously don't update their info much... at least they don't check up with SHIELD on a regular basis,* Cable thinks to himself.

(* Okay, Cable-slacking doesn't compare to X-Force-slacking! Check out Dave's series here at M2K! -- Commander Brad)

Then Cable stumbles upon information regarding Tracy Raymond and Jack Paris. Both were disguised as NYPD officers to spy on him, ordered by Carl Denti - the X-Cutioner. Raymond and Paris managed to obtain secrets of Cable's safehouse location, as well as linking him to Irene Merryweather, even Stacey and Kenny Kramer.

While they don't have all the time-travel details, they know more than enough that could put Cable away for a long time. If he survives this techno-virus, that is.

Suddenly, just as the virus starts to transform Cable's heart into nanotechs, a teleportation signature appears, revealing a beautiful young redhead. At first, Cable thinks it's his sister, Rachel, but he peers closer and finds out it's Jean Grey... or at least her clone. It's Madelyne Pryor, Cable's mother.

"What's she doing in here?" Denti exclaims. He draws his semiautomatic gun and fires at the former Goblyn Queen. Madelyne easily shields herself with her telekinesis. Her eyes light up and Denti falls flat on his back.

Madelyne then focuses her telekinesis on her son's body. She's holding back the virus for him. Blood drips from her nose, but she doesn't care. The strain is horrendous, even for a powerful mutant like herself. But Cable has been holding back the virus, more or less, for his entire life.

{The... negator...} Cable's warped voice manages to say.

"Don't worry, we turned it to its medium setting," Agent Raymond says. "Just to get you to stay alive."

The light in Cable's left eye beams as the metallic substance spurting out of his body seems to seep back into his skin, through his pores. He grits his teeth in agony. When the virus is contained, he slumps on the floor out of exhaustion.

Madelyne rushes to her son's aid, lifting him back up onto his chair. "Take off these restraints... take them off my son," Madelyne commands the two CIA agents. Tracy and Jack stare at Madelyne with a dumbfounded look. Madelyne snarls, "Take me prisoner instead!"

Cable perks up. Was she serious? Cable manages a brief telepathic scan and discovers what his mother is saying is true.

"Why would we do that, ma'am? Cable laid waste to half of LA," Agent Tracy Raymond says.

"And how the hell could he be your son?" Jack Paris asks.

Madelyne crosses her arms and walks away into a corner. "I once attempted to merge Earth with a demonic dimension... doesn't that sound worse than a mere earthquake? Sure, I was under demonic influence, but then again, so was my son in a way."

"How is he your son, Miss--" Jack Paris asks.

"Pryor. Madelyne Pryor," Cable's mother responds. "Cable is my son, biologically. I haven't been the best mom... but I love him..."

"That's impossible," Paris declares.

"Damn, woman! Where do you work out?" Raymond exclaims, getting a guilty smile on her face. "You must be in your fifties if Cable's your son, he's like thirty-something."

Cable sighs, "Madelyne, just let me mind wipe these two so we can--"

"Not so fast," X-Cutioner says, with his full armor on, with a gun pointed at Paris and Raymond's heads. "You escape, and they die!"

"Oh well," Madelyne says, helping Cable stand up. "Let's go, son." Cable shoots her a glare.

"No!" he shouts.

"Come on!" Madelyne says through clenched teeth. Normally, any son would be instantly enthralled by their mother with that remark, but not Cable.

Cable's left eye glows intensely. His inhibitor collar unhitches itself, falling to the floor. Next, his restraints break apart like weak dirt. He rubs his wrist and smiles. "Bring it, Denti!"

Hell's Kitchen, the Safehouse...

Rachel walks into the main computer room, with Blaquesmith at the console as usual. "Something's wrong with Nathan, I think it may be his virus!" Rachel declares.

"I'll run a scan," Blaquesmith says, typing in commands to activate the scanner. A separate window appears above the previous window - an analysis of Boroh. "He's in Washington... and Phoenix is there with him."

"That's impossible," Rachel says. "Scott, Jean, and some others left for space awhile ago."*

(* You missed Team-X #1???! AHHH! Too young to have a heart attack-Brad)

"It must be Madelyne, then," Irene says, who just happened to walk into the room with a laptop.

Rachel sighs, "While I don't trust her personally, I do trust that she'll take care of Nathan..."

Blaquesmith proceeds with his analysis of Boroh. He rubs his chin, "He seems to have trouble adapting to multiple attacks... but these heart rate statistics I took while he was evading the black hole I created show that his body was stable..."

Irene whispers to Rachel, "Who's he talking to?"

"Probably himself," Rachel responds. "He figures a lot of information out that way... let him go crazy, he'll have the meaning of life hammered out in about five days..." Rachel's eyes land on Irene's closed laptop. "Working on another entry?"

Irene smiles, "Actually, I'm working on a résumé."

"Really? To where?" Rachel asks eagerly.

"The Daily Bugle," Irene says. "Jameson offered me the job awhile back, but I never took it... after Cable defeated Deathglare, I decided to pursue it. There's got to be some way for me to do the things I love for money."

"Well, good for you," Rachel says, hugging Irene. "I'd give my telepathy for a normal life. I wonder what it's like going to a job everyday..."

Irene laughs a little, "Who says heroism isn't a job?"

"And here I should be condemning you guys for making me young again," Rachel says with a smile. "Now I'll never be able to go into retirement."

Washington...

X-Cutioner still has Cable at a standoff with agents Raymond and Paris at gunpoint. Cable can't see Denti's facial expression with that eerie executioner mask on, but his thoughts stick out like a light bulb. X-Cutioner wants Cable incarcerated, possibly dead.

Cable tries to attack Denti psionically, but finds he can't. X-Cutioner laughs, "Did you think I wouldn't learn?"

Agent Paris takes the moment of distraction to judo-flip X-Cutioner on the floor. Agent Raymond kicks the guns out of his hands and draws her own gun. Agent Paris does the same.

"Endangering the lives of government agents... gee, that's gotta be what? Ten years in prison with a hefty fine?" Paris asks.

"That's the way I see it," Raymond says. "You might be Denti's little pet, but we answer directly to Mr. Denti, not you."

Cable puts his hand on Tracy's shoulder, "Umm, you guys should know--"

"DIE MUTANT!!!" X-Cutioner screams, shooting a projectile weapon at Cable. He ducks, only to have it hit the apathetic Madelyne.

"ARGGH!!!!!" Madelyne shouts in agony. Her hands rush to her temples. The capsule-like object releases an array of electric currents into her body. The impact on her mind is horrendous. She slumps to the ground.

Cable does a quick sweep with his telepathy. Madelyne is alive, but has serious neural damage. Cable's stare intensifies on the X-Cutioner. "You picked the wrong day, the wrong mutant, Denti," Cable says grimly. He assumes attack position. Cable usually has his psimatar to focus his powers, but is out of luck. He wishes he had it, so he could cope with the lasting shock of the techno-virus, but he'll deal.

Raymond and Paris suddenly bust on the scene with their firearms drawn in front of the anticipating Cable, facing X-Cutioner. "You're under arrest," Paris says.

"Guys, let me handle--" Cable begins.

"Put your hands on your head, X-Cutioner," Raymond commands, her finger itching to pull the trigger on her gun.

X-Cutioner appears to cooperate for awhile, until his raised gauntlets charge up with plasma. "Look out!" Cable yells, tackling Raymond and Paris to the floor. The blasts miss them, but they would've been fried.

Cable's left eye erupts psionic energy as he leaps in X-Cutioner's face, punching him across the face with his techno-organic arm. Cable then punches him in the stomach with his unaffected arm. With X-Cutioner bent over trying to catch his breath, Cable knees him in the face, promptly telekinetically shoving him through a stone concrete wall.

Out of nowhere, X-Cutioner rockets into Cable's stomach, whacking him in the temple with his staff. X-Cutioner draws two plasma blasters and begins firing away like crazy on the Askani'son.

Cable, having only milliseconds to react, can only block the blasts with his techno-arm. The blasts actually singe the durable, techno-organic hide. Cable reaches out with his hand, squeezing it into a fist. X-Cutioner's guns are crushed to pieces, as well as the bones in his hand.

"ARGH!" Denti screams in horror.

Cable telekinetically nabs Raymond and Paris' guns and proceeds to unload what's left of the rounds on the X-Cutioner's damaged armor. Sparks fly as the bullets hit the tattered areas of the alien metals. X-Cutioner screams as the sparks burn his body, not to say less of the bullets.

As the shells run out, Cable dives to the floor, doing a somersault, using the momentum of his dismount to tackle Denti to the ground. Cable telekinetically activates the cell door's lasers and pushes the X-Cutioner into them.

The lasers cut through the armor like adamantium through... well, just about anything. Denti shrieks as his skin gets the taste of intensified light. As he passes out, Cable turns off the lasers and throws the defeated X-Cutioner on the floor.

"Wow," is all Paris can say.

"Indeed," Raymond declares, a bit turned on by the fight. "I haven't seen moves like that since... ever."

Cable smiles, "Thanks. I'm only a mutant terrorist, after all." Cable takes off X-Cutioner's mask, revealing Carl Denti's bloodied face. "Here's a real terrorist."

Tracy takes out a pair of hand-restraints and slaps them on Denti. "So, what really happened out there on the west coast?"

"It doesn't matter," the recovered Madelyne says. "I'm a bigger criminal than Cable, here. And there's that alien that he has to deal with. So let him go free and let me take his place."

"It's okay, Madelyne," Cable says. "If you let me go free and I beat that gray alien, will that be enough for the US Government to cut me some slack?"

"Well," Paris says with an uncertain tone, "You also kind of... saved our lives back there." His uncertainty turns into a friendly smile. Cable can't help but smile, too.

Tracy puts her arm around Cable, "We'll cook up a little something that should clear your name."

Cable does a little mind scan; they're telling the truth. Suddenly, a man in a wheelchair motors into the cell room with a ventilator. It's Ike Hammer. Cable hasn't seen him for years.

"Hello, Cable."

"Hello, Hammer."

Cable bows his head, "Look, I'm--"

Hammer raises his hand, "No need for that. We all had to do what we had to back in the day."

"I have the technology to cure your paralysis," Cable says. Hammer isn't excited by it.

"Are you kidding? This wheelchair is part of me now, I wouldn't give it up for a second," Hammer says with pride.

"I am looking for a hacker, though," Cable says with a smile.

"Count me in," Hammer says.

Less than twenty minutes later, Cable and Madelyne are walking on Pennsylvania Avenue, with Cable telekinetically pushing Hammer. "I need to contact Blaquesmith telepathically so he can recalibrate the bodyslide program and get me to New York," Cable says.

Madelyne shakes her head, "I can teleport now, remember? I'll drop you off at that safehouse of yours."

Cable isn't used to this much attention from his parentage, especially Madelyne. "How can I trust you?"

"I'm your mother, Nathan. Time-fluxes or not."

"Sometimes motherly love is all you need," Hammer says.

Cable nods and grabs onto his mother's arm. In a flash, the three are gone.

The Safehouse...

Cable and Hammer reappear in the computer room, much to the surprise of Blaquesmith, Rachel, and Irene.

"Everybody, this is Mr. Eisenhower Hammer. He used to be the computer whiz of Six Pack," Cable says, introducing the new member to his "team".

Hammer chuckles, "What do you mean used to?" His stare levitates towards the futuristic computer screen in front of him. "Wow... someone pinch me."

Irene is the first to shake his hand, "I've heard so much about you, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," Hammer says.

Rachel offers her hand, "I'm Nathan's sister."

"Hell-o!" Hammer says with a smirk.

"Um... right," Rachel says, a little regretful.

Cable reappears in the room with his battle gear on, armed with an array of weapons, his psimatar included.

"Some things never change, huh?" Hammer asks.

"Not in this family," Cable says. He walks up to Blaquesmith, who is busy typing away on the computer. "So, give me the briefing on this Boroh... how do I beat him?"

Blaquesmith stops typing and turns to face his pupil, "You can't beat him alone."

"Alright, how?" Cable asks, getting into his serious tone.

NEXT ISSUE: What's Blaquesmith's master plan? Will it work? Be here for a fight to the finish for the Universal Championship with Boroh against Cable, Rachel Summers, and... Irene Merryweather????