All characters belong to Marvel and we are not making any money at all out of this. So there. CABLE 26: Rebel Without A Cause by anon "So, Theresa, I guess you're it," Cable said to his gathered team. "Cable... ye canna be serious about this. Are ye sure this is what ye want t'be doin'?" Siryn asked, incredulous. "I'm... yes, folks, I'm sure. I can't do this anymore. I've got to find a new way. X-Force is yours, Theresa," Cable said, trying to look strong in front of the kids. "Hey, boss-man, what're you gonna do?" Boomer asked, cracking her gum. "I don't know, Tabitha... I'm sure I'll think of something." Cable looked around at his now-former charges. "That's all, I suppose. Dom will be sticking around for a while, I think. If you've got any real problems, you go talk to her. I'll see you around the school. Good-bye." With that, Cable walked out of the conference room at Xavier's. Out of X-Force. Later that afternoon, Nathan was in his room cleaning his guns. "How'd it go?" Domino asked from the doorway. Cable looked up from his pistol. "I think they're in shock, Theresa especially. But they're all stronger than they think... they'll do fine. Besides, they've got Xavier to direct them if things get really bad." "So you're sure this was a good idea?" Dom asked, sitting on the bed. "No, of course I'm not sure. But it seemed like the right thing to do... I'm not who I thought I was. None of this is what I had originally thought. Any kind of leverage I might have had here is out the window. I'm lost." "Lost?" "I always had the advantage that I knew what would happen eventually... I thought I could direct events the way they should be. I never expected to shunt my time in the process." "Nate... is it gone? Completely, I mean? Do you have no way of getting back?" "Not completely... If it had been erased entirely I wouldn't be here. It just isn't this timeline anymore. As for getting back, I'd need a Tinex to do that." "A Timex?" "Not TiMex, TiNex. Short for Time Displacement Nexus. It's a time-travel device invented by Apocalypse, later refined by the Caananites under Parradian Haight. The Tinex could access multiple timelines. The small Tinex on Graymalkin might have been able to do it, but..." Cable faltered as he remembered the Professor. "I'm... I'm sorry, Nathan." "It's all right... I just miss him sometimes, that's all." Cable looked back down at his pistol. "After Sl... Scott left, he was the closest thing to a father I had. I hope he's enjoying himself." "So..." Dom said, trying to change the subject. "What are you going to do?" "I dunno," Cable looked up again, thoughtful. "Try to have a normal life, I suppose. I do have a law degree. Maybe I could defend mutants." "Oh, sure. You'd make a great trial lawyer. Decision doesn't go your way, you blow away the judge." "Gimme a little credit, Dom. I haven't killed a judge since... it must be eight or nine years now. Remember that guy in Botswana?" "That little smack? Yeah, he did deserve that," Dom said, laughing. 'I suppose you're right though... maybe I'll look up some old friends... guys I haven't spoken to in years." "You have friends? Like who?" "Whatever happened to Burke?" "The 'jacker in Biafra? He works the street in New York." "Nathaniel?" "Nathaniel who?" "Bumpo." "Nate, Natty Bumpo's been dead for two hundred years." "Oh, that's right. I knew there was a reason I hated the eighteenth century. What about Pete Wisdom?" "That creep from Black Air? Haven't you been paying attention?" "To what?" "He's sleeping with Kitty Pryde." "Who?" "Kitty... never mind. Don't you EVER listen to what's going on around here?" "Not really, no. Never seemed important," Cable said, reaching over for his ion cannon. After finishing his guns and eating dinner, Nathan was back in his room watching television. "Naaaate?" Domino called from the hallway. "In here, Dom," he yelled back. "Nate, would you do me a really big favor?" Dom asked, trying to sound sweet. "Oh, shut up, Niles!" the television said. "I don't think I like the sound of this. What is it?" "Would you get me some ice cream?" "What?" Cable asked, turning around. "Some Ben and Jerry's. Cookie Dough. Xavier's out." "You want me to go get ICE CREAM?" "Mmhmm." "No, Frasier, YOU shut up!" the television spoke again. "I didn't know you ate ice cream," Nathan said as Dom sat next to him on the couch. "All the time." "Where can I get ice cream around here?" he asked, still a little thrown aback. "At the WaWa in Salem Center." "Do they sell 'Guns&Ammo' there?" Domino shoved Cable off the couch and threw her car keys at him. As Nathan pulled out of the driveway in Domino's Miata, a figure watched him from across the street. "About freakin' time!" the figure muttered to itself, getting up to leave. "You'd think the poor bastard never goes anywhere. I mean, jeez, I coulda been sitting here all night! Some people just..." The figure ran down Graymalkin Lane after the Miata, muttering to itself the entire way to Salem Center. Nathan scanned the magazine rack at the WaWa, two pints of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream in hand. He turned over to the guy at the register. "Hey, do you have 'Guns&Ammo?'" he asked. The guy gave him a funny look he'd received more than once in the store. He supposed it wasn't every day they saw a 6'5", 250lb man with white hair. After paying for the ice cream, Nathan walked out to the Miata mumbling about women and ice cream. Opening the driver's side door, he flung the paper bag onto the passenger seat. "Ow! Hey, watch where you're throwin' those things! What the hell you got in there anyway, bricks? Jeez, these things're heavy... ice cream? What the hell are you doing with ice cream?" the passenger seat shouted at him. It took Nathan a second to realize that the passenger seat can't talk before he pulled out his gun. "All right, who... oh, no!" Nathan moaned, dropping his gun to his side and putting his hand to his head. "Hey, nice to see you too, Natey-boy!" Deadpool said, putting his boots on the dashboard. "What do you want, Deadpool?" Nathan asked, already exasperated after two minutes together. "Just some help. You'd think your welcome could have been a little more kindly. Throwing that ice cream at me wasn't really..." Nathan cut him off quickly. "HELP you?! Give me one good reason, hell one BAD reason why I should help YOU." "I'll give you money. Lots of it." Nathan seemed to consider this possibility. "How much?" "Lots. Depends on how much you help me." "What do you need, Wilson?" "Just some information. On Tolliver." Nathan shot to attention. "Tolliver... why on earth do you want to know about Tolliver?" "Because! He was the best boss I ever had! I want to find out what happened to the guy. Word is he's alive somewhere. Some funky cyborg-assassin went looking for him a few years back." "Yes. Sinsear." "How do you know?" Deadpool asked, his mask bunching up as though he were raising his eyebrows. "I killed him." "No you didn't. That's what I'm trying to tell you." "Not Tolliver. Sinsear." "Oh... thanks. Weas said that guy was gunning for me too. Guess I owe you." "You were offering me money, as I recall?" Cable asked, trying to keep Deadpool on track. "Yeah, right... well, since you wasted Tolliver the first time, and I heard some cyborg was after him, I figured you might know what was going on." "What, you assume all us cyborgs get together?" "I dunno! I just want to know if you know anything." Nathan pondered this for a moment. Maybe if I send him after Tyler, he'll get himself wasted. Maybe Tyler will waste him. Either way there's a good chance he'll get wasted. This is too good to pass up. "Okay, Deadpool, listen up. I only have one lead, but it's a good one. There's a place out in the desert. About four days west of Cairo. Last I heard, Tolliver was there," Nathan said, trying to conceal the smirk on his face. "You're sure about this?" Deadpool seemed doubtful. "Positive. Confirmed lead." Nathan nodded sagely. "All righty then! I'll be on my way. But first..." Deadpool reached into the passenger seat of the Miata. He pulled out a briefcase and threw it at Nathan. "What's this?" Nathan asked. "Hundred and twenty-five large. For the help. Thanks!" Deadpool said, running off into the forest. Nathan opened the briefcase and tried vainly to catch all the money that fell out. "So you took a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars from Deadpool and sent him off after Tyler? Are you crazy?" Dom asked him that night at the kitchen table over the ice cream. "Not at all. Way I see it, we get the money and hopefully Deadpool gets himself killed. It's a win-win situation." "When you put it that way..." "Trust me. I know what I'm doing." "I hope so... Nate, have you seen this?" Dom said, indicating a newspaper. "What...? That Graydon Creed is running for President? Sure." "No... that there's going to be a big fundraising party for his campaign next Thursday at the FOH Headquarters in New York." "So" "Don't you get it? Every rich mutant-hater in the free world is gonna be at this. This is a golden intel opportunity." "So what? You're saying I should put on a disguise, crash the party, and ransack the joint?" "Basically." "To what end?" "To screw Creed over, that's what! Think of the damage we could do!" Nathan raised an eyebrow at Dom. "We?" "Well, you can't go to a fancy party like that by yourself, can you?" "No, I suppose not..." Nathan said, his voice trailing off. "Nate? Something wrong?" Dom asked him. Nathan returned to reality. "Nothing, Dom. I was just wondering if my tux still fit." TO BE CONTINUED... Next issue: Cable crashes a party, a window, and into the ground. Fun with the FOH, in CABLE 28.