Cable's Safehouse, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.

"You must triangulate the firepower of three different energy signatures. I've managed to forge three blasters that emit three distinct energy signatures. That is the only way you can defeat Boroh," Blaquesmith explains.

"How am I supposed to do that? I can't triangulate the guns to that much accuracy, even with telekinesis!" Cable yells.

"There is a solution to everything if you take the patience to figure it out," Blaquesmith says. "I've mapped out positions in Manhattan, just a few blocks from here, where you, Rachel, and Irene can position yourselves and blast Boroh."

Irene chokes, "W-what? ME?!"

Blaquesmith types a few commands into the computer and a map of Manhattan Island appears. Three glowing dots appear. Blaquesmith points to the dots, "If you position yourselves in these exact spots with Boroh in the middle, you'll defeat him... after blasting him, of course."

"ME?!" Irene yelps again.

"I'll have to disagree with you on this one, Blaquesmith," Cable says, "I'm not going to endanger Irene."

"She is the only one able, I'm much too frail for another bout with Boroh. And Mr. Hammer here is paralyzed," Blaquesmith explains.

Hammer turns around after typing with the computer, "I can still hack like the best of 'em. Don't like guns much, anyway."

"Well... Irene is the only help on hand, I guess," Cable says. "Get her some lightweight battle armor."

"W-what..." Irene says.

"It'll be okay," Rachel says, "I'll protect you."

"As will I," Cable says as he grabs his blaster. "You just get in your position and stay there until Rach and I are in ours."

"How are we going to get Boroh in the middle of our little triangle?" Irene asks.

"I'll think of something," Cable says.

"Why don't you come up with something now!?" Irene asks.

"Don't worry, Irene, I know what I'm doing," Cable says reassuringly.

Blaquesmith walks up to Irene and hands her a suit that resembles a wetsuit, "Put this on."

"This? This is supposed to protect me?!" Irene exclaims.

"Don't be blinded by 21st Century technology, Irene, it's a very thin armor," Cable says. "It's what my suit is made of."

"Mine, too," Rachel says.

"Sorry, but you Summerses are freakin' crazy when it comes to heroics," Irene says, going off to her room to change.

A half-hour later...

"Do you think he got our call?" Rachel asks. Cable, Rachel, and Irene are now on the surface, waiting in what seems like a ghost town; everyone has disappeared.

"There's not many heroes left to face him," Cable says. "He'll come."

Suddenly, the gray creature descends rapidly, crushing into the asphalt in front of the three heroes. He points a finger at Rachel, "Ah, the One To Make Me Bleed, we meet again, but you have lost, and cannot face me a second time!" He glances at Cable and Irene with all six of his dark eyes. Irene hides behind Cable's large exterior. "You on the other hand, are welcome to challenge me..."

"I challenge, mighty Boroh," Cable says.

"Nathan, be careful," Rachel says telepathically. "Psionic attacks don't work on him."

"Alright. Get to your positions, I'll see what I can do..." Cable commands with his mind. Irene and Rachel run off to their designated positions.

"I will have no dishonorable fighting," Boroh bellows. "No cheating!"

"Just worry about me," Cable says. He unsheathes his psimatar and delivers a pulsing blow to Boroh; he falls backwards. Boroh does a backwards flip, lunging at Cable, tackling him to the ground.

Cable flips Boroh over him, and Boroh lands on his back. Boroh grabs Cable by the neck with his feet and throws him into a building. Cable actually causes the concrete edifice to crack. He wipes blood from his lip. Cable retaliates by throwing an impact grenade at Boroh. The explosion knocks Boroh back a couple steps, so Cable uses a telekinetic shove to force him back more.

Cable suddenly feels a surge of pain as his left arm begins to gurgle. The techno-virus sure seems stronger than it used to, ever since the Vice persona was made dormant. Perhaps it's for the better, Cable's full potential - the ability to draw from the godly Fifth Force - is too dangerous for a mere mortal to wield.

Cable fails to notice Boroh unearthing a telephone pole and throwing it at him at alarming speeds. Cable redirects it with a psimatar blast at the last moment. Cable ignores the pain in his body using Askani techniques and delivers a flying kick to Boroh's jaw. The behemoth is barely phased by the kick and backhands Cable, sending him through a lamppost. Sparks are discharged as the post hits the street.

As Boroh advances on the defenseless Cable, Nathan ponders using his techno-virus. When he was captured by Jack Paris and Tracy Raymond, he discovered he could use the techno-virus in interesting ways, namely manipulating technological devices.

Cable holds up his left hand and Boroh suddenly grabs his chest. The device that regulated his heart rate was malfunctioning from Cable's techno-organic intervention. But Boroh recovers quickly and slams Cable's head into the pavement. Blood drips from his forehead. Boroh grabs Cable's short-cut hair and prepares to punch him at pointblank range.

Cable grabs Boroh's fist before it can hit him and kicks him in the stomach. He morphs his techno-hand to resemble a blade and slashes Boroh in the chest. He bleeds heavily. As Boroh tends to his wound, Cable wipes the blood off his forehead.

Cable knows this is the time he must act. He activates his wrist controller, and the microcomputer locks onto Boroh's body. Before he knows it, he is bodyslided to the exact middle of the triangle.

Boroh turns around in every direction, "WHAT IS THIS! THIS IS CHEATING!!!!"

Cable bodyslides to his position, taking out his specially made blaster, "Ready..."

"YOU WILL NOT BE OFFERED A CHANCE AT THE TITLE A SECOND TIME, ADVERSARY!" Boroh shouts.

"Aim..."

"THIS IS A SOCIETY OF MEDIOCRITY!" Boroh shouts.

"Smoke him...."

*ZOOM*

*ZOOM*

*ZOOM*

All three blasts, colored red, blue, and green, hit the alien known as Boroh and burn his grayish skin. He lets out a frightening shriek, which breaks every window for about five miles. Boroh slumps over, defeated. His adaptability device has been overloaded.

Cable, Irene, and Rachel approach him. He looks up at them, he tries to reach out to them, to strangle them, but his life slips away and his arm falls on the cold street. Suddenly, Cable realizes something, there is a large ship hovering over Manhattan.

Irene follows Cable's stare and sees the monstrous ship as well, "Whoa..."

"It's his ship," Rachel says.

Cable smiles, "And we're going to need a new headquarters now that the government knows about our current safehouse..."

"Considering this thing screwed up the bodyslide program, perhaps Blaquesmith can use that thing to modify it," Rachel suggests.

Irene looks down at Boroh's corpse, "Oh! Eeeww! Sick! Yuck!"

"What?" Cable asks.

"It's... it's... yuck!" Irene sputters.

Cable sees that Boroh's body is literally melting away. "Earth's atmosphere must be hazardous to his alien body...."

"Yuck!" Irene says again.

The Safehouse...

Blaquesmith readies the equipment so that it can be moved to Boroh's ship when the time comes for it. Androids assist him with the heavier loads. "Is the self-destruct mechanism intact, Dayspring?"

"Yeah, I checked it," Cable says. The self-destruct is important for Cable's safehouses so no one can get their hands on the advanced 40th Century technology whenever he moves to a different base.

Meanwhile, Hammer uploads a program into the alien ship's computers. "What was that for?" Cable asks.

Hammer replies, "Just some translation programming. It'll make things easier once we move in there."

Irene gathers her clothes and things in her room, making sure her laptop is functioning properly as well, since it's going to be getting a workout for a long time.

Rachel meditates in her empty room, just as Nathan walks in. "Am I interrupting something?"

Rachel opens an eye, "Now you are."

"Sorry," Nathan says with a smile. "Where's your psimatar?"

"I put it back in Blaquesmith's weapon-reservatory. I never used a psimatar back when I was the Mother Askani. It's just not my place to use one... it goes against a tradition that I myself forged," Rachel responds. "I'm just trying to get in touch with my psyche..."

"You have no other possessions?" Cable asks.

"Just the clothes on my back. Sometimes you have to realize that your own self is your greatest possession," Rachel says, standing up.

Irene walks by the door, "You guys almost ready? Blaquesmith is having a fit."

"Are we ready?" Nathan asks.

"I guess--"

Rachel's sentence is cut off. Cable backs away slowly and realizes that time has stopped. A feeling he wished would never occur again. Suddenly, a greenish mist pours into the room, forming into a tall, bald black man with a draping blue robe.

Cable is flabbergasted, "A-Aéulgo?"

Ten minutes earlier, The Hellfire Club...

Sebastian Shaw sits at a large dinner table, with Madelyne Pryor and Tessa sitting on either side of the Black King. He wipes his mouth with a napkin and swallows, "Ladies, I have an announcement."

"Do tell," Madelyne says, teasing Shaw.

Shaw gets out of his chair and walks over to a door, opening it. An Asian man and a pale-skinned, pink-haired woman walk into the room, with their 18th century garb on - the traditional Hellfire Club attire. "We have two new additions to the Inner Circle. Madelyne, Tessa, I'd like you to meet Chen Mang and Gloom."

These two particular mutants used to be associates of the rogue god, Deathglare, who almost succeeded in becoming omnipotent. Gloom was killed by Cable,* but with the intervention of Aéulgo, all those that died because of Deathglare's influence were brought back to life.** It seems Gloom was brought back as well.

(* In issue #2 -- Brad)
(** As explained in M2K's Cable 2001 Annual -- Brad)

The new members take their respective seats at the dinner table. Madelyne raises a questioning eyebrow at the two newbies, "So what're your powers? The power to make a really boring entrance?"

Chen Mang's eyes light up, "I'm a pyrokinetic."

"I suck life energy outta people and can turn invisible," Gloom says.

"At least she admits it," Madelyne whispers to Tessa.

Shaw sits back down at the head of the table, "So, Mr. Mang, I hear you used to be Deathglare's head assistant, what was that like?"

"Whatever happened to that guy anyway?" Madelyne asks.

Tessa responds, "The Avengers supposedly captured or killed him according to police reports."

"Actually, Cable--" Mang begins. "Um... nevermind..."

"And what about the newscast of all those dead people?" Shaw asks. "Only to be revealed as being fake? No one died! What a sham! Damn media..."

Gloom can't help but stare at Madelyne, "You look like someone I've fought before..."

Madelyne smiles, "Well, that was probably Jean Grey... is that who you're talking about?"

"No... Cable," Gloom responds. "He killed me."

"Metaphorically?" Maddie asks of her son's actions.

"No, he killed me... for real," Gloom responds.

"He didn't kill you enough, apparently," Madelyne mutters under her breath.

Shaw clings his fork against his wine glass, "Let's talk about something else, shall we?"

Madelyne raises her wine glass, "Hey guess what? Cable's my son!"

Gloom and Mang spit out their food as time freezes...

The Present...

"What are you doing here?" Cable asks. "Is Deathglare--"

"No, nothing of that sort. I'm here to warn you, my friend," Aéulgo says calmly. In his native realm of the Fifth Dimension, he is a god, but he can only enter our realm if he freezes time. He could enter our realm physically... but that can cause some problems...*

(* As we've seen in M2K's Cable 2001 Annual -- Brad)

"Warn me?" Cable asks. "Is it the government??"

"No, please let me explain, Nathan. There is a traitor in your midst. Be wary of your friends, test them if you wish to measure their loyalty..."

"Who--?"

"I must also inform you about my true purpose. I am a Fifth-Dimensional being, who can manipulate space and time, the Third and Fourth Dimensions. I answer to the Sixth, beings higher than my people who influence everything there is in the multiverse. The Sixth are the ones who forged your life the way it is, I simply pushed you towards their goals. You are the Champion of Good, you are the Chosen One of the Sixth. Through me, you are directly linked to them. In time, you will realize your ultimate destiny..."

"Wait!" Cable shouts, he has more questions than answers.

Suddenly, Cable feels weak as time seems to rush ahead like a wound-up racecar. Aéulgo is gone. Suddenly, Cable remembers seeing a robed black man, looking much like Aéulgo, while he was growing up. He remembers that the robed man talked with Blaquesmith quite frequently.

Blaquesmith said he was in self-banishment when Nathan first came to the far future, learning the wonders of Celestial technology... but Blaquesmith also said he himself planned Cable's mission.* Is it possible Blaquesmith and Aéulgo worked together? Was his life... staged?

(* As revealed in issue #13 -- Brad)

"Nathan?" Irene asks. "I said are you coming?"

"What? Oh...yeah, I be there in a minute, Irene," Cable says, rubbing his forehead. He suddenly shocks himself back into reality. Who's the traitor???

NEXT ISSUE: The Hellfire Club captures Irene Merryweather! Cable must rescue her by his lonesome, but will he be able to handle what has been done by the Inner Circle to his biographer? And more clues to the traitor! And what of the mysterious Aéulgo? Was he present for more of Cable's life than we previously thought?