Blood and Metal

At the L'Museum D'Orsay, in Paris, France, the visitors to the museum get an unexpected surprise as Zero teleports in four members of The Mutant Liberation Front. Sumo, Dragoness, Skids and Wildside immediately take out all the guards and move to a certain exhibit and Sumo crashes through the display case and grabs the prize that they have come to claim.

POOM

Meanwhile in Newfoundland, Canada, five miles north of St. John's, a S.H.I.E.L.D. chopper lands on a top secret base and G.W. Bridge jumps down to greet his welcoming commitee of one.
"Commander Bridge."
"General Clarke." G.W. replies.
"It's good to see you recovered, G.W." Clarke says.
"Jeremy, beneath this starched uniform and stiff upper lip, I'm a walking gauze pad." Bridge tells him.
"I was sorry to hear about your and Weapon Prime's failure to bring in Cable." Clarke replies.
"Not as sorry as I was seeing Cable slip through our fingers again." Bridge tells him.
As the two men enter the huge building Bridge turns to Clarke and says, "Not bad, Jeremy. Department H has developed nicely since I last visited. How's Kane doing?"
"You'll see in a second. We've updated both of his bionic arms and added some improvements, since the previous ones were damaged in your assault on Cable's X-Force." Clarke tells him.
The two men enter a workout room to find Kane taking out four battle droids as he gets used to his new arms.
"G.W.? What's this, Night of the Living Dead?" Kane asks with a grin when he notices G.W.
"Thrilled to see you too, Kid. Shower and hit the Command Center in ten minutes. I've got something you should see." Bridge tells him.
Eleven minutes later, Kane is watching a security video of the museum where Cable attacks and kills one of the MLF.
"This isn't right!" Kane tells them.
"The museum security cameras don't lie, Kid." Bridge replies.
"I know, but Cable is Stryfe! I saw Cable leading the MLF! After abandoning his X-Force unit, why would he hunt down his remaining foot-soldiers?" Kane asks.
"That's what we want you to find out." Bridge tells him.
"The only way to figure out Cable's game is to start at the beginning, G.W. and that means picking up the pieces of The Six Pack."
A little less than six hours later, in South Stickney, outside of Chicago, Kane walks up to a modest looking house and knocks on the door. An elderly lady answers.
"Garrison? It's been so long." She says with a warm smile.
"Hello, Mrs. Canty." Kane says, as he returns the smile.
"How have you been, Child?" She asks.
"Day to day, Ma'am, and you?" Kane replies.
"Oh, you know--No complaints. Taking care of Ike is a full-time job, I must say." She tells him.
"Is he here, Ma'am?" Kane asks.
"Child, where else would he be?" She replies, as she leads him to a back bedroom and knocks on the door. "Eisenhower, someone to see you."
"C'mon in." Hammer calls.
Kane enters to find Hammer in a wheelchair equipped with tounge controls, for Hammer has been paralyzed from the neck down since The Six Packs last mission.
"Kane. Long time." Hammer says.
"How you been, Hammer?" Kane asks.
"How d' you think? What're you working on now?" Hammer asks.
"Believe it or not, I'm after Cable, and I need your help. Do you remember the list of safe-houses you thought Cable had?" Kane asks him.
"Every one of them." Hammer replies.
"I need that elephant memory of yours to call them up." Kane says.
"Get yourself a pencil and a long piece of paper. And Kane, when you find him...Put a bullet through his spine for me!" Hammer tells him.

Meanwhile, at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, Cable has brought the sword that the MLF had tried to steal to an old friend, Benehl Hussan, to try to identify it.
"An interesting item, Nathan. Clan Branagna, circa 1050, Scottish Highlands." Benehl tells him.
"But not a priceless piece, Benehl?" Cable asks.
"Oh, no, no...By no means." Benehl replies.
"Then why would someone try to steal it?" Cable asks.
"To complete a collection, perhaps." Benehl says.
"What kind of collection?" Cable puts to him.
"The figurework on the hilt...I've seen it's stylings before, on other artifacts." Benehl says, as he turns and takes several books from the shelf behind him. He thumbs through them and finds what he is looking for in several. "Here...And here...Here, too...Nathan, take a gander at these. Buddhist Wall Scroll, circa 1014 A.D. Shogun Mask, 1550 or so. A Mayan necklace, 1700's, I think. Egyptian Hieroglyph, 1200 B.C." Benehl recites them off.
"And what's the connection? Do any of these pieces match the short list of museum hits?" Cable asks.
"I'm checking this Interpol print-out...Two of them...Necklace and Scroll." Benehl replies.
"Which leaves the Shogun Mask and the Hieroglyph. Where are those pieces now?" Cable asks.
"The Mask is in a private family collection...Yashida Family, I think. And the Hieroglyph is right here in our own museum collection." Benehl replies.
Cable smiles a predator's smile. "I've got them!" He thinks to himself.

The next night, Zero teleports in Dragoness, Reaper, Kamikaze and Rusty Collins. Before they have gone ten steps, Cable opens up on them. He blasts Dragoness out of the air and turns on Collins next. His plasma blast cuts right through Rusty's pyrokinetic attack and blow a hole in his left shoulder. His next plasma blast blows Reaper's new bionic arm, replacing the one which Shatterstar cut off in their last encounter, to bits. Zero opens a teleportation portal for the group to escape, but Cable manages to clip Kamikaze's right shoulder as he is going through.
"Neither Kamikaze or Collins will be arm wrestling for a while. But I still didn't get Stryfe! Stab His Eyes! I need answers!" Cable curses himself, as he reaches for his communicator to have Professor teleport him out.

After the Cairo altercation, Cable holes up in his safehouse in Switzerland. He muses to himself as he sits in front of the moniter screen.
"I like this safehouse the best. It's the quietest, the most secluded...Like me...The most isolated. In order to understand Stryfe's gameplan, I've got to do what I've done so much of for so long. I've got to immerse myself in yesterdays."
"Coffee, Sir?" The servo-droid asks, it's sensors picking up on the fact that Cable's cup is near empty.
"Thanks, Bobby. Now, Professor, continue." Cable says.
"Cultural icons sought by Stryfe contain no identifiable similarities." Professor tells him.
"Then what does he want with them?" Cable asks.
"Perhaps the items maintain some kind of personal significance." Professor replies.
"To Stryfe, or to whom he's stealing them from?" Cable asks, sipping from his cup.
"Insufficient data for analysis or conjecture." Professor replies.
"But this line of thought is on-target. The problem is, these museum pieces are spread throughout centuries of history and from different parts of the planet. Give me a list of everyone and anyone who could be considered a time-traveller, including all known Externals." Cable tells him.
"Processing...Program delayed. Perimeter Alert. Intruder identified." Professor tells him.
"Lousy timing. Run concealment program. And let's find out who our uninvited guest is." Cable orders.

Garrison Kane bursts through the huge picture window and fires one of his detachable fists through Cable, which passes through him with no effect.
"What the...?" Kane asks, puzzeled, just before he is knocked across the room and through the far wall.
"Hologram." Cable explains, as he advances on Kane. "What do you want with me now, Kane? Didn't the job done on your Weapon Prime unit put an end to this ridiculous vendetta?" Cable asks.
"No." Kane replies, knocking Cable out of the window and into the harsh cold and snow outside of the mountain top chalet. Kane is out the window right behind him, seeking to keep up the momentum of his attack, but Cable is nowhere to be found. Kane advances through the snow, seeking Cable. Suddenly Cable rises up behind him with a fair sized rotted tree in hand and promptly breaks it in half across Kane's back. As Kane is rising from this attack, Cable tackles him and the two men go rolling down the mountainside. As they come to rest on a ledge of the moutain, the pair begin to exchange blows.
"It's time to come clean, Cable!" Kane yells.
"I have nothing to come clean about, Garrison. What's happened's happened. You can't change the past. Only mess with the present to protect your future." Cable says, as he delivers a blow which sends Kane tumbling down and over the ledge. Cable sees him grab hold and begins to make his way down to him thinking, "That's it, then. He wants the truth. And of all the people I know, save for Sam and Domino, he deserves to know it. And I play semantics with him. I want to shake his hand, pop a beer with him, tell a dirty joke or two. Instead, we're trying to kill each other."
As Cable reaches the ledge, Kane reaches up and grabs his ankle, pulling him down. Cable grabs a tree with one arm and draws his ion knife from his boot with his other and activates it.
"An ion blade, Nate? You going to cut me loose...Again?" Kane asks.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't. What is this about, Kane? Why are you here?" Cable asks, with steel in his voice.
"Because you LIED to us all along...And the rest of the Pack PAID for it!" Kane screamed, tears flowing down his face, as he activated a holographic projector in his bionic eye.
All the steel within Cable melted as a life-size image of Stryfe was displayed removing his helmet and exposing Cable's own face. "So, now he knows." Cable thinks, "He believes that I've lied to him all this time. He's as afraid of finding out the truth as he is of having lived a life of lies. Dear God, Help Me." Cable prays, as he drops the blade and reaches down, pulls Kane up and holds him as he weeps uncontrollably.

Cable takes the young man back to the house, which has already self-repaired the damage done, and warms him up with some fresh coffee as he explains how the MLF has been stealing artifacts and that he knows where they plan to strike next. Kane agrees to help him in return for Cable helping Hammer to walk again. Cable agrees and the next day they go to the city of Agarashima, Japan. To the ancestral home of Clan Yashida. Cable explained how the Yashida family has been in turmoil since their clan-head, Mariko Yashida, was murdered.
Cable picks the locks and bypasses the security. No sooner have they entered then they are attacked by several Ninja's. They both go into automatic, doing what they do best. Which just happens to be blowing away everything they want. There are so many, however, that Kane is soon swarmed.
"There're too many." Cable thinks, "It's all I can do to stay on top of them, and Kane's candy for the ants if I can't break through to him."
As Kane is pinned down, The Silver Samurai charges up his blade and approaches.
"You are good, Gaijin. But rather ineffective against such an impassioned onslaught. The price for disrupting our home, is paid for in blood!" Silver Samurai says, as he raises his sword high for the killing stroke.
Samurai feels a still hot barrel of a plasma pistol against the back of his skull.
"Let's make it a two-for-one sale and chalk it up to inflation, then." Cable tells him with an icy voice.
The Silver Samurai, the new leader of the clan, isn't a total idiot. He decides to talk.
"We assumed you were Yakuza opposition." Samurai tells them.
"Nothing of the kind. We came for a piece of art in your possession. The Shogun Mask. Someone is going to try to steal it. We want to replace it with a fake and let the replica be stolen." Cable explained.
"Why should I do this for you?" Samurai asks.
"Because then we'll owe you a favor." Cable replies.
"Is that all?" Samurai asks.
"In light of your recent troubles, isn't that enough?" Cable replies.
The Samurai smiles a slow smile.

Two days later, back in the safehouse in Switzerland, Kane awakes, showers and fixes himself a sub-sandwich for breakfast. He enters the den to find Cable examining a holographic map of South America.
"Stryfe's took the bait. The mask's in Cancun of all places." Cable tells him.
"Don't you ever sleep?" Kane asks.
"Covering all the bases. Just trying to be prepared." Cable replies.
"Sure. Regular Boy Scout, you are. Want a bite." Kane offers half his sandwich.
Cable shakes his head.
"How did this happen, Nate?" Kane asks.
"You make choices in life, Garrison. Sometimes they're the right ones, sometimes they're not." Cable replies.
"And when do you know which was which?" Kane asks.
"When you stop and look back on them." Cable says.
Kane suddenly throws down his sandwich and rips off his shirt, exposing his bionic arms.
"And when you do that with me, with Hammer what do you see, Nate?! WHAT?" Kane screams.
"I see...I see I had a choice that had to be made...If I had to do it all over again...I would make the same choice. What does that make me?" Cable asks.
"It makes you a Bastard. I hate you. But our deal is still on, I help you nail Stryfe, you help me save Hammer." Kane says, as he turns and leaves the room.

Later that day, outside of Cancun, Mexico, deep in the Yucatan Jungle, Cable and Kane cut a path through the thich undergrowth.
"We're side to side, back to back." Cable thinks to himself. "Kane said he would never trust me again, but here he is, trusting me with his life...And I'm trusting him with mine. And for someone like me, who hasn't trusted anyone since the day Aliya died in my arms...It's equal parts comfort and agony."
Cable stops and takes a scanner from his belt.
"We're on track. The mask registers five kilometers west." Cable tells Kane.
"Wonderful." Kane replies.
"Why so edgy? Since when do you bug so long before a fight?" Cable asks.
"Rocket Scientist, remember what happened the last time you and me were in rough territory, chasing after Stryfe?" Kane asks, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yeah. I remember." Cable replies.
The rest of the way is covered in silence, save for the sizzle of the lasers cutting the undergrowth. The sounds work Cable's spinal column like a piano, cutting and searing all the way down to his conscience.
"How could I have done that to the Pack?" He asks himself, "Even for the fate of the entire future...Did I really make the right choice?"
As they near an ancient temple, Cable's thoughts are drawn back to the present.
"This is it." He tells Kane.
"Good call, Cable. Nothing gets by you, does it?" Kane says.
"Let's move." Cable tells him.
As they enter the temple a huge block falls towards them from above. Faster than thought, Cable draws his plasma pistol and blasts the block to pebbles.
"Diversion?" Kane asks.
"I'm thinking, yes." Cable replies, as he sees Strobe, Reaper, Wildside and Tempo approaching fast. He telekinetically adjusts his hand-cannon to a wide-screen bioelectric dispersal effect. Enough to take them out without killing them.
"Why hold back?" Cable asks himself, "Because they're so young? Because maybe, Stryfe is using them now, the way I used The Six Pack all those months ago?"
Cable puts all other thoughts aside, as they make their way down the long winding tunnel and asks Kane, "How could we have been made?"
"That's how. The Mask." Kane replies, as they round a corner and spot the Mask hanging on a empty wall.
Cable senses them before they turn around, "Stryfe must have been shielding them before" He thinks, as they turn around to find themselves facing an army of Stryfe's foot-soldiers along with the rest of the MLF.
"It's a trap." Kane says. "I'd think Stryfe's about the least of our worries right about now, Nate." Kane says.
Suddenly, a teleportation portal opens behind Kane and an armor clad arm reaches out and grasps him by the neck like a pup, just as it did all those long months ago.
"That is where you are wrong, Little Pebble, for you should never consider death a trifle thing. And I assure you, whole-heartedly, Stryfe means to kill you both!" Stryfe told them.
"Why now? After all the years...After all the games...Why here and now?" Cable asks.
"Because time's up, Nathan Dayspring. I am now prepared to set my life aright. It is time to make those who stabbed my heart...Who bled my soul...Pay for their sins!" Stryfe replies.
"Who in this time could have hurt you?" Cable asks, regreting the question even as he asks it and fearing the truth, but not even daring to think it for fear that Stryfe might pick it up.
"What is it you want, really want?" Cable asks, to change the subject.
"I seek to solve the puzzle of my future with pieces of the past. I want your living computer, the one you call Professor. I want to own it as He once did." Stryfe tells him.
"Who?" Cable asks, knowing the answer.
"The sinner of time. The master of tomorrow. The end of all that is." Stryfe replies.
"Apocalypse. The relics you've taken...The pieces of the past...All having to do with Apocalypse...But why?" Cable asks.
"The data link to your living computer...In exchange for Kane's life." Stryfe replies, refusing to explain further.
"And there's the choice again." Cable thinks, "Is Kane's life more important than the answers I need to know about Stryfe?"
Cable produces a diskette from his belt.
"The Professor. You don't get him until Kane is freed." Cable tells him.
"It is so." Stryfe says and tosses Kane aside.
"Burn in hell." Cable tells him and crushes the worthless diskette.
"you fool. You Fool! You Die, Nathan Dayspring Askani'Son, YOU DIE NOW!!" Stryfe screams in rage and attacks with all he has.
"By the Dream!" Cable thinks, "Telekinetic Fury, dwarfing my own abilities...My body's falling apart...Both blood and metal...Stripped bare...Naked to the core...By anger greater than mine...By power greater than mine..."
Behind Cable, Kane rises up and shouts, "NO!" Kane shoots both hands at the spikes on Stryfe's shoulders and activates his Contact Spark: Electromagnetic Feedback.

SHAZZAKAKRATH

FWATHWOUMMM

"Garrison, wake up." Cable tells him.
"Cable...Am I...Where am I?" Kane asks, confused.
"Safe. And alive." Cable tells him with a smile. Kane notes this because he has never seen Cable with a genuine smile except when Domino was around.
"My arms?" Kane asks, looking down at his new arms.
"Good as new. Better than that. As good as Blood and Metal. Courtesy of modern day science. Welcome to Applecrust. It used to be called Manhattan, until about seven hundred years ago." Cable told him, as he led him out onto the balcony overlooking the shining metropolis.
"You saved my life, Nate." Kane turned to him and said.
"And you saved mine." Cable replied.
"I guess we owed each other, Huh?" Kane asked.
"I guess we paid each other back as well." Cable replied.
"Not completely." Kane said.
"Hammer? Take a look around you. This is the face of tomorrow. We'll find something here which will help Hammer walk again." Cable told him.
"Nate...You said something to me...That people don't know whether certain choices are right or wrong until they look back on them. When you look back on this choice...The one you made to save me over nailing Stryfe...What will you think?" Kane asked.
Cable turned and looked Kane square in the eyes and told him,
"I'll think...That no matter what the cost...If I had to do it all over again...I'd do the same exact thing."

Our Journey Continues With
The X-Cutioner's Song