The Dark Ride
Westchester County. Sunday morning.
When Scott Summers invited Nathan Dayspring over for breakfast, he thought they'd have a chance to talk. A nice, quiet, father and son chat.
He should've known better. It is rarely nice or quiet when the father and son are: Cyclops and Cable.
POOM POOM POOM
Cable blasts three more of the self-propelled flying discs with his ion cannon, as he and Scott stand in the Danger Room.
"What'd you say?" Cable asks his father.
"I said..." Scott begins.
POOM POOM POOM
"...Oh, forget it." Scott says, disgusted.
"I'll be done in a minute." Cable tells him.
POOM POOM POOM
"Swell.." Scott replies.
POOM POOM POOM
"All I was saying was you might want to spend a little more time honing your own natural powers and a little less time depending on big guns." Scott tells him finally.
"And I appreciate your having an opinion. But I've got my own way of doing things." Cable replies.
"Nathan, believe me, nobody knows more about being your own man than me." Scott tells him. "I'd like to think you inherited that trait from me. But in the heat of battle..."
"Don't!" Cable interrupts. "Don't talk to me about the heat of battle! I've seen as much or more than you have. More than anyone should have."
"I know." Scott replies. "But I also know that even the most seasoned warrior uses everything he has at his disposal. I've spoken with Jean. She's willing to work with you. She wants to."
"It'd be a waste of time." Cable tells him. "Battles are won by superior firepower."
Cyclops knows better than to react like this. What he has to come to terms with, however, is that no matter how old your children get, they can still get under your skin.
"Firepower?!" Scott says. "You want to see firepower? Good luck getting your ion cannon to do this!"
Scott Summers displays the gift that makes him a mutant. The resulting optic blast is devastating to say the least. He blasts one of the discs four times and Cable catches the disc that falls in front of him. A perfectly shaped *X* is all that remains of it.
"Show off." Cable says.
"Computer: terminate danger room sequence." Scott orders. "I'm...going to see about breakfast."
Hey, Domino." Cable yells up to Dom, who is in the observation booth with Jean Grey Summers. "You wanna come down and shoot a few?"
"I'll pass, Nate." Dom replies. "Just watching you gives me my daily dose of machismo."
Scott speaks to Jean through their telepathic psi-link. "Jean, I'm sorry. As Nate would know if he tuned into our psi-link, I wanted him to agree to spend some time with you. And instead I let him get to me."
"Scott, give him time." Jean replies, through the psi-link. "We can't expect Nathan to embrace this right away."
Jean takes a sip of her coffee and turns to Domino and says, "I like that you and Nate are--"
"Friends, Jean." Dom interrupts. "We've been friends for a long time."
"Right." Jean replies. "Anyway, I thought you and I could get to know one another better."
"Um...didn't someone say something about breakfast?" Dom says, and makes a less than graceful exit.
"Okay, Domino." Jean thinks as Dom leaves. "Play it cool. But I see in your eyes how you feel about Nathan. And I know how he feels about you."
One of the greatest gifts Charles Xavier give to his X-Men is a sense of family. Cable is coming to accept this.
"Hank, are you going to eat all those?" Scott asks, as they all enter the kitchen.
"Why, is there more I can have?" Hank replies.
"Cable," Storm greets him. "How nice to see you when it does not require ducking."
"Storm." Cable nods in greeting. "Glad you're here. One of the reasons I brought Domino along was to give you some news."
"News?" Storm asks.
"The Morlocks, they're alive." Cable tells her.
"But how?" Storm replies. "That is impossible! Cable, take me to them."
"Impossible?" Cable tells her. "Not quite."
Within the hour they are twenty stories below New York City, in the tunnel world once called home by a hideously deformed band of mutants known as the Morlocks.
"Gee, back in the sewers again." Dom remarks. "How does a girl get so lucky?"
"There was a time I led the Morlocks, and I still have a responsibility to them." Storm explains. "If there's the slightest chance that they still live..."
"Like I was saying, Storm, don't get your hopes up." Cable tells her. "We made brief contact with one of them. But they seem to be caught in some kind of dimensional rift. Hold up, people. Something's wrong. It didn't look like this last time."
"Maybe they're redecorating." Dom says, taking in the scene of destruction around them.
"Blood." Cable says, as he picks up a rock that is covered with blood. "And it's fresh."
Suddenly the very air is split by a horrendous scream.
"I hate it when he's right." Dom remarks, taking the safety off her plasma rifle.
There isn't any warning. The wall to their left bursts apart like paper-mache under the sheer physical force of that marauding mutant known as Caliban.
There isn't any time for talk. Only action. And that's the way Cable likes it. He rams his ion cannon into Caliban's gut, doubling him over, then slams the butt of the rifle into the large mutants chin, knocking him through the other wall of the tunnel and has the ion cannon levelled square between Caliban's eyes before Caliban can react.
"Mister, you picked the wrong guy to mess with." Cable tells him. "You've got three seconds to tell me why you've attacked us. One--"
"Cable!" Storm shouts. "Can you not see he is hurt?"
"S-Storm?" Caliban says. "Caliban not attack, I run away!"
"Back off slowly, X-Men." A voice orders from behind them.
Cable, and the others, spin around to behold The Dark Riders. Apocalypse's former henchmen. Hurricane: The summoner of gale force winds. Deadbolt: The skeletal weapon. Lifeforce: The amazonian psionic vampire. Barrage: Who has had his very arms transformed in plasma cannons. Spyne: the cannibalistic carnivore. And Gauntlet: Their crack-shot leader, and the one who has just spoken.
"Caliban has been judged and found unworthy." Barrage tells them.
"Cable, isn't it?" Gauntlet asks. "Well, now we have us a real test."
"If you bunch of uglies know who I am," Cable tells them, "Then you ought to know that I'm no X-Man!"
POOM
Cable's blast catches Barrage dead center, taking him out of the fight.
"Riders! Take these fools!" Gauntlet orders.
Within moments, the sewers are a war zone. Heavy caliber plasma shells and ion energy blasts ripping apart the Morlock's world and bringing down the house.
"Uh-oh." Cable remarks, as the ceiling comes crashing down around them. "Domino: With me!"
"Right behind you!" Dom replies, and Cable covers them both with a telekinetic shield. "Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into, Nate."
Behind the collapsed wall, Hurricane summons heavy winds which slam Storm into the tunnel wall.
"I hoped you would be judged someday, Storm." He tells her. "So I could see for myself how you earned the name 'Wind Rider'!"
"By the Goddess!" Storm shouts, and her eyes go opaque as thunder rumbles throughout the tunnels and lightening flashes both in the air and in Ororo's eyes. "I hope that was your best shot. You will not get another."
Meanwhile, Lifeforce has ambushed Domino.
"You flatter yourself, Domino." Lifeforce says, as she hits Dom from behind. "Consorting with mutants when you have no powers of your own."
"Speak up, Lady!" Dom replies, as she recovers and lands blow after blow on Lifeforce. "I can't hear you over the sound of my fist going through your face!"
"Mutant or not, I'm gonna dig draining every last drop of life out of you." Lifeforce says, using her power to drain Dom of her energy and her very life.
Cable blasts away at Gauntlet, forcing him to take cover, and begins to make his way towards Dom, when Spyne drops on him from above, knocking his ion cannon from his hand and slams him into the tunnel wall.
"I've read the files on you, Cable." Spyne says. "Apocalypse believed you were cause for concern. Referred to you as 'The Chosen One' I hope that makes you extra tasty!"
"Dropped my weapon." Cable thinks quickly to himself, "It's gonna make what I have to do that much harder. But as my dad would say...'Gotta make use of everything at my disposal'!"
With this thought, Cable telekinetically blasts Spyne into and through the far wall of the tunnel.
"Feel it." Lifeforce whispers over Dom, as she continues to drain her. "Feel your life slip away."
DONK
Lifeforce, falls forward, knocked unconscious by a telekinetically hurled stone.
"You all right?" Cable asks.
"Your timing, as usual, stinks!" Dom replies. "Can we leave now?"
KRRRRRRAKKKKK
All of the Dark Riders are struck down by Storm's lightening barrage.
"This insanity stops now!" Storm orders. "Caliban needs medical attention. You Riders will grant us safe passage or--"
In an unexpected techno-flash, Hardrive, the Dark Rider's teleporter, appears. His purpose is singular: the battle is ended.
"There will be no need for empty threats." Hardrive tells them. "Gauntlet overstepped his authority by engaging you. He will be punished. The Dark Riders have standing orders not to interface with the one called Nathan Dayspring."
"What?" Cable yells. "If Apocalypse is dead, who gave that order? Was it Sinister? Who is running the Dark Riders?"
"It is over for today, Dayspring." Hardrive tells him. "Enjoy this minor victory."
"Over?" Cable replies. "It's over when I say..." Cable stops, as Hardrive teleports the Riders away. "They're gone."
"Caliban thanks you for rescuing him." Caliban says, running up to nearly smother Nathan with a warm hug.
"Don't thank me yet." Cable replies, pushing back a bit. "We're going to patch you up, quick. Then, with the help of your mutant tracking ability, we're going hunting...for Dark Riders!"
"Here we go again." Dom sighs.
The Dark Ride Continues with:
Judgement Day
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