The Hellfire Club and the man known as Eisenhower Hammer have made the biggest mistake ever. They invaded hostile territory. They invaded the life of the mutant known as Cable. And now the favor is about to be returned. His very self has been turned upside down and twisted. *

(* Check out #20-24 before you read another word! -- Brad)

A piece of him has died, and it will never be replaced. Blaquesmith is gone forever. Not even the wonders of 40th Century technology can bring him back.

Cable stares up at the alien ship that belonged to the late alien, Boroh. Now, it is commanded by the brain waves of Hammer. Ike Hammer was once a trusted friend of Cable's, but that friendship was broken with a pull of the trigger.

Rachel Summers and Irene Merryweather stand at least thirty feet away from the Askani'Son. Rachel still clutches the corpse of Blaquesmith within her purple cloak. Irene clutches her laptop containing her documentation of Cable's life, The Book Of The Askani'Son. Irene has learned from the Fifth Dimensional being, Aéulgo, that her masterpiece will become a universal example-setter in the far future.

"What is he going to do, exactly?" Irene asks Rachel, who still has tears in her eyes.

"Askani tradition demands that Blaquesmith be avenged," Rachel responds bluntly. Although Rachel looks like she's no older than 20, she is actually almost 100 years old mentally. She is both wise and powerful, as well as beautiful.

"Does that mean he'll kill?"

"I don't know. I never approved of this useless killing, just rendering the enemy in a comatose state, alive. The Canaanites, however, avenged their own by killing...Nathan has been doing that all too often lately...Askani are not allowed to kill unless in defense."

"But did you see what Nathan did with his powers? He transformed his clothes--"

"I know..."

"The techno-virus didn't even flare up."

"He must have used the Fifth Force...in a small dose, anyway. I hope he won't burn himself out...I hoped the virus would keep his powers dampened."

Before Irene or Rachel know it, Cable telekinetically sends his body into the sky, towards the large alien ship...

Cable latches onto the top of the massive craft and jabs his psimatar, pulsing with telekinetic energy, into the hull. The weapon pierces the outer covering of the ship. After cutting a hole for himself, Cable descends into the ship.

As the weapon systems attempt to blast at him, Cable holds out his techno-organic arm, shorting out the electric currents.

{{You will not defeat me, Cable!}} Hammer's computerized voice blares from all angles.

Cable continues down a catwalk, leading to the main deck. Before him, he sees a large screen showing a view of New York City below. The scene is halted by Hammer's image appearing on the screen.

Cable looks at his former friend with utter bitterness in his soul. "I sincerely hope you're not taking this personal...because this time, I am going to kill you."

Hammer laughs, {{You can't kill me, I am part of a machine now...I am a bona fide immortal now.}}

"Maybe...you're basically dead already. Your body died when you transferred yourself into these computers. You're not Ike Hammer, not anymore."

The screen suddenly shows a targeting system locked onto Irene and Rachel on the streets below. {{Don't try anything funny.}}

"Go ahead and kill them...see if I care...either way, you're goin' down," Cable says coldly. He's secretly tampering with the targeting system. Hammer smiles as he commands the ship to fire two plasma blasts. He's distraught to see the blasts missed them and hit the East River, harming no one.

{{You--?}}

"Me."

Cable takes his techno-organic arm and shifts it into a spike, jabbing it into the main computer of the ship. Cable's mind is flooded with the ship's computerized essence and gains the information necessary to purge Hammer's mind from it.

{NNNOOOOOOOoooooooooooo--}}

The screen goes blank.

"Computer, activate stealth mode," Cable commands.

Rachel and Irene watch as the ship suddenly fades out. "What happened?" Irene asks.

"Nathan's alright, I can still sense him. He most likely regained control of Greymalkin II."

"The question is...what is he going to do with it?" Irene asks rhetorically.

The Hellfire Club...

Tessa is busy hacking away on the computer located adjacent from the Inner Circle's circa-1750 meeting room. Madelyne Pryor is hunched over Tessa's shoulder.

"Wait...this doesn't make sense," Tessa says. "Everytime I try to perform a search on Cable, there's nothing."

"Try his legal name," Madelyne suggests.

Tessa types in Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. No results found.

"Try it without the name Nathan...that wasn't the name he was baptized with," Madelyne responds.

Tessa types it in. "Christopher Charles Summers, son of Scott Summers and the late Madelyne Pryor-Summers," she reads aloud.

Madelyne laughs, "Guess the world still thinks I'm dead..."

"The world also thinks the infant Nathan Summers is dead. Apparently, it was the only thing Scott and Jean could do without sounding nuts with the whole time-traveling thing..." Tessa goes into deep thought. "I still don't understand why the FBI files on Cable wouldn't be accessible...it can't be because they changed the codes, I'd know if they did that. The only way the files could be blocked was if--"

"I uploaded a virus into the World Wide Web," Cable responds, stealthily appearing behind Madelyne and Tessa. His astral form, anyway.

"Nathan?!" Madelyne exclaims. "Where have you been? You were teleported--"

"Save it, Pryor. Hammer's dead. And soon, so will the Inner Circle..."

"Y-you can't! You'll be dubbed a terrorist...again," Madelyne tries to reason.

"I don't care."

Suddenly, Tessa feels pressure around her throat. ".....I...can't.....breathe...!"

*CRUNCH*

Tessa's head is crooked to the side with blood pouring out of her mouth. Her eyes are bloodshot and wide open.

Madelyne laughs psychotically, "My baby boy...hehehehehe...."

"You're not afraid?"

"Not really....I mean, what other purpose for me is out there? I'm a clone, there's really nothing else out there for me...now you're destroying the Hellfire Club....it was the one thing to which I felt I really belonged...looks like my usefulness has expired...kill me, Nathan...do one last favor for your mother...."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that...you'll just have to think about what you've done over the years. You'll have to live with your sins."

"But...that's worse than death for me...!"

"Good."

Suddenly, Cable's astral form fades away. "Nathan?" Madelyne begins to walk into the meeting room, but gets bonded with chains and gagged.

Gloom peers into the computer room to see what the commotion is about, "Are you alrig--AHH!!"

Cable, in the flesh, grabs her by the throat. Gloom trembles. "Stay dead this time, you dumb bitch," he says coldly. He jabs his psimatar into her gut, covering her mouth so she can't scream. She slowly falls to the floor. Madelyne notices that Cable is dressed for a one man war. He looks at her with his left eye beaming with pure white light.

Suddenly, there is a loud shout of horror by Chen Mang. He fires a blast of flame at Cable, who has to dive for cover to avoid it. Mang cradles Gloom in his arms. He looks back at Cable, "I loved her, you son of a bitch!"

Cable draws a plasma gun. The laser targeting forms a circle on Mang's forehead, "You're right about one thing, I am a son of a bitch. Enjoy yourself in Hell, asshole."

*BLAM!*

Mang's body, sans head, slumps to the ground amidst charred brain tissue and blood. As the body hits the ground, Cable stands across from a shocked Sebastian Shaw.

"What did you do?" Shaw asks cryptically.

"I've evened the score."

As Shaw takes out his cell phone, Cable crushes it with his telekinesis. "What the--?"

"No phone calls for you. You'll never threaten my friends or family again..."

Shaw is appalled, but he smiles, "You can't do anything to me...GUARDS!"

At least thirty armed guards storm the room, pointing their guns at Cable. He simply presses against his temples and concentrates. "Sleep."

The guards suddenly slump over and begin to snooze. Shaw is angered now. "You'll pay, you son of a bitch!" He begins charging at Cable.

"Is that my new alias? Son of a bitch?" Cable grabs Shaw before he can ram into him and throws him into a bookshelf. Shaw's bulk increases as he absorbs the kinetic energy of the impact.

Shaw punches Cable in the face, sending him through a table at the other end of the room. "Bad move, Summers."

"I thought I told you not to call me that...?" Cable unleashes about forty shells on Shaw, but he's able to absorb the impact of the bullets before they can penetrate his body.

Shaw laughs, "Fight me man to man!"

Cable unhitches his array of weapons from around his waist and shoulder. He notices the techno-virus has been purged of his body partially. The only infected part of his body is from his left forearm down. "Hmm, that's weird, I seem to be using the Fifth Force again..."

"Fifth what?"

"The Fifth Force, you know, the plane of existence beyond time and space? Apparently, I can draw from it," Cable explains. "Remember Deathglare?"

"Yes, the Avengers defeated him..."

"Well, that's what the world wants you to think. In reality, the Avengers don't even know what happened to him. Truth is, I killed him all on my own...and he was a god. You're small potatoes, Shaw."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Shaw demands.

"As a telekinetic, I already manipulate a portion of space. And with my ability to manipulate the Fifth Force, I can do anything I want here in the third and fourth dimensions...I can control space and time with a mere whim."

Suddenly, time freezes, except for Shaw and Cable. "What's going on?!" Shaw yells.

"How are you going to absorb kinetic energy when there's no movement anywhere?"

Before Shaw can answer, Cable punches him across the face. Blood trickles down his cheek. "What in God's name--OOF!" Cable punches him in the stomach. "This isn't fair!"

"Life is never fair, Shaw," Cable says, his voice echoing, with both of his eyes bleeding with white light.

"Jesus, what the hell are you?!"

"I'm more powerful than you thought, Shaw...I guess I don't blame you for underestimating me. I'm not even sure how I'm doing what I'm doing. Guess it's all instinct..."

Blood drips from Cable's nose, followed by a sharp pain to his chest.

"...Aaaarrrgghhhh....what's....happening....?"

Time resumes, causing Shaw to lose consciousness. Cable touches Shaw's face and finds that it is deathly cold. Cable wipes the blood from his nose and realizes his techno-virus has returned to its normal infection area.

Police sirens blare in the background.

Cable checks Shaw again and feels no pulse. A swell of guilty pleasure boils in him. As Madelyne limps into the room, Cable simply remains still.

"I'm free of your chains," she says. She looks at the bodies around her, swallowing hard.

Cable allows Madelyne to fall into his arms. He kisses his mother on the forehead. Maddie is crying. After a tight hug, he says, "Now you have to face your past."

Maddie wipes the tears, smearing her eye-shadow, "What...?"

Cable releases his grip on Madelyne, causing her to slide down onto the floor. She sits in a cross-legged position and looks like she witnessed a war.

"Computer, bodyslide by one..."

*ZZZPPP*

The doors bust open with a dozen armed cops. "Freeze!" one of them yells.

Madelyne can't help but laugh. "I'm frozen..."

The cop grabs Maddie by the arms and presses her against the wall, pulling her arms behind her and slapping some cuffs on. "You're in big trouble, missy. Homicide of prominent people...Sebastian Shaw...and these....others..."

Madelyne could use her powers of telekinesis to free herself, but something within her told her not to. Not yet. She'll strike when the time was right. Now, she needed time to think...to plan...

Greymalkin II, Earth's Orbit...

The massive ship once belonging to the alien "Universal Champion", Boroh, was now Cable's new headquarters. And yet, he doesn't feel much has changed. If anything, he feels at home "from above". The ship was in stealth mode, meaning it was totally undetectable, both from the naked eye and radar.

Cable walks towards the main computer located in front of the ship. As he approaches it, a chair unfolds from the floor. He sits down. "Computer, lock on Rachel Summers and Irene Merryweather."

{{Scanning...Found.}}

"Bodyslide them here."

{{Bodyslide in progress...}}

*ZZZPPP*

"What the--?"

"Oh my...Nathan?" Rachel says.

"I was at the Bugle...in my office," Irene says. "I heard what happened..."

"Yeah, well...the Inner Circle had it coming," Cable says coldly.

"I took the liberty of burying Blaquesmith," Rachel reveals. "And I must say I'm disappointed in you, Nathan. The slaughter of the Inner Circle...that was unnecessary. It was Hammer who caused the death of Blaquesmith."

Cable gets out of his chair and stares out a window, into the inner depths of space. "They had it coming. If they weren't stopped now, what if they did something more horrific later? They threatened my friends and family, Rachel. I couldn't let anything happen to them...not to you or Irene."

"I appreciate that, but you know in your heart it was wrong, don't you? Or have you been pushed towards total darkness again? I've seen what Vice did, I know what he is like. Right now, I don't see Cable anymore..."

"Well, that's too bad, sister."

"Indeed, brother."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Irene jumps in, "you guys can't fight, your destinies are inter -- I mean you guys have to work together."

"Not necessarily," Rachel says. "For all I know, Nathan's fight is over. Apocalypse is dead and there's nothing else for him to do here."

"You're wrong, Rachel. Deathglare, Boroh, and even myself -- no one could stop them but me...what would've happened if I just stopped after Apocalypse? Huh? My mission hasn't stopped, it's only begun! Sanctity is still out there doing God knows what. I have to stop her!"

"Tanya is my responsibility, I will take care of it," Rachel says.

"How?"

"I just will. I am the one who taught her how to control her powers. I couldn't contain her psychotic tendencies...so that is my fault. I will do it."

"Look, I am one of the few heroes on this planet or in this reality that isn't afraid to take the fight to the enemy, no matter what the consequences are! The X-Men, Avengers, Alpha Flight, Defenders, New Warriors, Fantastic Four, and maybe even to an extent, the Thunderbolts, are too afraid to obliterate their enemies. They'd rather slap them on the wrist and have them locked away in the Vault or the Hellicarrier or some other piece of shit maximum security prison ONLY to have them escape and commit more crime later. Hell, they gave Magneto his own goddamn country!"

Rachel sighs, "Get me out of here."

"Where will you go?"

"I'll find some place."

"With the X-Men?"

"I think I'll be on my own, for a while. I just don't want to be a part of your cold-blooded killing."

Cable turns around to face his sister, "Computer, bodyslide Rachel to Manhattan..."

Rachel walks up to her brother's face. "And if Vice is swimming around the surface up there," she says, pointing to Cable's forehead, "I'll be the first to make sure he drowns."

A flash of white light and Rachel Summers was gone. Cable never thought it would be good to see her go. Perhaps it's for the better, if Blaquesmith's final words were true.

Irene sighs, "She didn't say good-bye to me..."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it personally," Cable says. He sighs, "I don't expect you to see me the same way you once did...the only time I was this violent was when Aliya--"

"You don't have to vouch for yourself." She gently takes hold of Cable's arm. Irene tries to kiss him, but he turns his head, walking towards the viewing screen again.

"I don't know what's happening to me," Cable says, his hands shaking. "I've got too much power...it's frightening. I froze time around Shaw...that's how I killed him somehow..."

"Well, the Fifth Force is something that you can use to your advantage...right?"

"The techno-virus is getting weaker and weaker. For almost forty years, it's acted as a dampener for my powers...when in reality...it's acted as an incubator. My powers are getting stronger every day now. I don't want to become another Stryfe through Vice."

"You won't."

"Eventually, Vice will come back when I lose control...you can't be here when that happens."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I don't want you here."

"But--" Tears suddenly pool in Irene's eyes. "I'm your biographer, I have to--"

"And you'll continue to chronicle my adventures...from a different point of view. You won't be living among me. You'll have to type down what I do...and based on your knowledge, assume why I am doing what I'm doing..."

"But Nathan, I love you. Don't you want a normal life...?" Irene wipes her eyes, "A life with me in it...?"

"No."

"No?"

"Everyone I love is a target...I can't let those people slow me down. I have a mission..."

"What mission is more important than love? Or was your last strand of humanity wasted on the Hellfire Club?"

"Ego has nothing to do with it. I've lived among the people I've sworn to protect. I know what they want in a perfect world. I can only try and make that real for them...even if I have to weed out the trash. No one else will do it -- they're too afraid of what the world will think of them. But I am not afraid. I know the consequences of war."

"Some will think you've gone over the edge."

"They can try to dig up all the dirt they want, I've uploaded a virus into the Internet that scrambles searches of information pertaining to me. Even Cerebro's files on me are blocked."

"What about paper documents?"

"That's a risk I'm willing to take. In a few years, everything will be on computers. Newspapers, magazines, comics...everything."

"Why would there be comics? Aren't those things for kids?"

"I liked Preacher, myself, actually." Cable walks back to the computer screen and types in a few commands. On the big screen before them, a map of the Manhattan area shows up. "I managed to find a nice apartment for you...close to the Bugle. I'll keep track of you, just to make sure you're alright."

Irene notices there's small status icons on the big screen, keeping track of multiple persons on Earth, including Sam Guthrie, Moira MacTaggart, Domino, GW Bridge, and others. She sighs, "Just don't spy on me while I'm taking a shower."

"I'll try not to."

Irene smiles.

"Just when you're undressing."

Irene folds her arms, tapping her foot. "You're one in a million, Summers. Wouldn't mom love to meet you?"

Cable kisses Irene on the cheek. After gazing into her eyes, the two pull a Casablanca, kissing, doing a "dip" thing.

I don't know whether to get her in bed or drop kick her ass out of this ship, but I know she can't be with me. It would never work out. Still, there's something about Irene...she's different. She's got the same charisma and ambition Aliya did...

She pulls away, our lips stop touching, and she gives me a look saying this is my last chance to change my mind. I close my eyes, mentally activating the bodyslide program. I open my eyes, and she's gone. I wonder if I'm torturing myself on purpose?

Aliya was my everything. But I find everything I loved about her in Irene...and I'm shoving her away? Why? Come on, Nathan...you know why...you love her. It's really love.

As I gaze into the infinite continuum of space, I think about my life. Do I regret a single thing? We'd all like to erase certain mistakes...that's what I hoped by coming back here. So much pain...and for what? If there ever was the feeling of being used, I have that feeling now.

I'd like to know what's going on out there...beyond the stars and planets...but I have a feeling I'll find out eventually. I'll just have to continue to do what I always have...my reason for being put on this Earth...

Rachel's right about me losing control. I've become the thing I've been fighting all these years. I shouldn't have killed the Hellfire Club in cold blood. I guess I'll have to live with that mistake for the rest of my life.

NEXT ISSUE: While searching the bowels of the new Greymalkin's computer, Cable finds an unexpected surprise! Meanwhile, a criminal uprising in China will force our hero to tackle something over his head!