The Warrior Finds A Home

Cable and The New Mutants made it back to their HQ and treated Rictor's injuries. He would need several days rest but he would recover. This little adventure into the Morlock tunnels had shown Cable that even though this team had plenty of raw power they had no unity. They fought as individuals and not as a team. Cable was going to have to correct this flaw or it was going to cost them dearly in battle. He began working with them in danger room simulations that forced them to rely on one anothers strengths and to compensate for each others weaknesses. He also began working with each member one on one letting them get used to his fighting style and getting to know each of them as a seperate individual so that he might better guess how they each might react to different situations in combat. They were all very eager to learn and to please their new leader so they picked up on things very quickly.
Cable spent every second of his free time either checking in with the Professor on Graymalkin to see if he had anything new to report on Stryfe's location or using Cerebro to augment his own telepathic powers to search for Stryfe, the MLF and Rusty and Skids. So far, he had not found a trace.
"By the dream," Cable thought to himself, "Where could he have gone this time. He's making himself a hydrogen bomb by all indications but for what reason? What does he want? He has to have a plan, a motive behind his maddness. He's always had a reason and a set goal before he ever started any project or campaign, what is it this time?" Cable had given himself a severe headache pushing his telepathy to it's limits for so many hours in a fruitless search. He decided to go to the danger room and work off some of the edge before he hit the sack.
In the infirmary, the rest of the team had dropped in to visit Rictor. "Doggin' it fer shure now!" Cannonball said, as they entered and formed a circle around Rictor's bed.
"I am not. My wounds still haven't healed!" Rictor replied.
"It was that very matter which got you into this mess t' begin with." Rahne, chimed in.
"Rahne's right, Ric! Consider yourself lucky that Cable wanted to come get you in the first place." Sunspot told him.
"I'd be happier not owing him anything, Dacosta! I mean...I'm glad you guys came to help and all...but nothing Cable did makes a difference to me, Okay?" Rictor told them.
"How could you say that, Ric? The man has been good and kind t' us since we first met him! You've not told us what your problems with him are...or were...and until you do, how c'n you expect us to support your views?" Rahne told him.
"What she said!" Tabitha chimed in, "'Cept maybe with half as many words."
As the group left, Rahne stopped at the door, turned and said, "We've said our piece. I didn't mean t' snap. Please give this a chance. Give Cable a chance, but most of all...give yer'self a chance."
"They're right. I quit on myself." Rictor thought as he got up and dressed and made his way towards the danger room. "I learned in the tunnels that you can't ever quit. Now that I think of it, I've never used my powers like that before. Kind'a like sensurround or something, but I wasn't really in control, was I? Only one way to learn to control it. Practice, and only one way to practice in this place...the danger room."
Rictor entered the danger room control room to set up some practice runs while no one was around, in case he messed up again. When he entered however, the danger room was already in use...by Cable. "He's got the danger room sequence set on a *Full-Scale-Solo-Combat-Mode* that's too much for one man." Rictor thought.
Cable on the other hand was enjoying himself immensely. It felt good to forget about everything for a few moments and lose himself in combat. He was facing three combat droids with all safety protocols off. The first one moved in like a silver blur only to lose it's head from the round-house kick that Cable met it with. The other two slowed up at this and moved in more slowly, hoping to avoid the fate of their robotic brother. Cable was the blur this time as he grabbed one of the droids in a head-lock and spun it into the other with a force that would have broke bones in a human opponet. This had the desired effect. Cable smiled as the droids moved back and then charged together hoping to crush Cable between them. Cable waited til the last moment and jumped back a step, grabbed both their heads and slammed them together full-force, scattering nuts and bolts everywhere.
"He did it! He doesn't know I'm watching, so he wasn't showing off or anything. He did it because he knows you have to always practice, in order to survive the kind of work we do. So he wasn't asking me to do anything he doesn't do himself. Maybe if I had listened I wouldn't have gotten trashed by Sabretooth...O'kay Cable, you win. Maybe this danger room stuff...working out of this grubby basement under Xavier's mansion...maybe it'll be cool.
I don't like you. I don't trust you, but maybe...just maybe...I'm beginning to respect you.

Late that evening, Cable was working out with Rahne, in the danger room. Cable leading the way, while Rahne in half-wolf form followed behind, dodging wall mounted lasers all the way.
"Push it girl--push it!!" Cable encouraged her, "You know you want to succeed, Wolfsbane! Wanting it means doing it...and in our business, doing it means staying alive!" All this Cable said, as he dodged, rolled, fliped and jumped through the laser fire. Until, finally, they reached the far wall and hit the cut-off switch, that dis-armed the lasers.
"We made it!" Cable said, "And you kept pace with me all the way through! Shift back to human form and give me a second to reprogram the danger room sequence. "You performed very well, Rahne, as I expected you to.
"Thank you, sir." Rahne replied meekly.
"...But, one success doesn't matter much in battle. Ready to try something a little different?" Cable asked
"When you are." Rahne replied.
"Good, get ready...and...Go!" Cable ordered her.
Suddenly Rahne was awash in the hologram of a carnival. With a giant clown about to step down upon her. Rahne's face immediately lost all color, as she went white with fear. Cable could not believe his eyes, for of all the emotions that he had expected this simulation to evoke in Rahne, this sheer terror was not one of them.
"Cable...stop the program, now. T'was na' a funny joke." Rahne told him.
"It wasn't meant to be." Cable replied, as he shut down the simulation, "Why the hissy fit?"
"The sequence reminded me of something..." Rahne began.
"The Case of the Corrupted Carnival?" Cable asked.
"How do you know of that? You weren't with us then." Rahne replied.
"I know everything I need to know about the people I deal with, Rahne...both enemies and allies. Come on, lets get some air, top-side." Cable suggested.
As they exited out into the cool night air, Cable told her, "I ran that sequence to test you psychologically. Not physically. It was a routine case at best. Why the excessive reaction."
"I don't know sir. Maybe t'was simply the first time I realized how even the most innocent of places...the most lovely of days...could be turned foul and corrupt."
"Shouldn't that go without saying?" Cable asked.
"Maybe, Maybe not. t'was a disheartening experience nonetheless." Rahne proceeded to tell Cable about the teams run-in with a Skrull slave operation that was operating under the cover of the carnival. She seemed very upset over what Cable had thought of as a very minor adventure.
Nathan tried to think of something comforting to say to her, but could think of much, he knew that comforting words were not exactly, one of his strongest points. He did the best he could, however.
"Rahne...child...if your sense of fear or helplessness, stems ffrom the fact that you perceived the carnival as a place free from danger, or worry...then I'm sorry to tell you that the world will never be polite enough to accommodate your perceptions." He told her.
"Tis na' that, sir, so much that...well...it would be nice to believe that there remained places free from ill or strife, for the children of the world. From my time with The New Mutants, I have learned that, the reality of such a request is...difficult...to oblige...but it shouldna' be impossible, no?"
Nathan, could not believe the wisdom and beauty of spirit in this young girl. He thought for a moment and replied, "No Rahne, it shouldn't...and you should never let go of that hope...that innocence...Lord knows, I could use some of it...I mean, surely there must be some things on God's green earth, that don't pose a threat to us!"
Rahne seemed very touched by her teachers attempt to console her. She seemed to sense that this was a totally new role for him and that, in many ways, Nathan was The New Mutants student as well as their teacher. She gave Nathan a great hug, which caught him totally be surprise, Nathan did not know how to handle displays of affection well. "Thank ye, sir. It means a lot, yer' understanding and bein' here for us."
"Eh, not a problem...but...eh...we should get back inside...I've got a session with Sam in a few minutes and after all my speech's to you kids about promptness, it wouldn't do for the instructor to be late, now, would it?" Nathan stumbled over the words.
Rahne just smiled and said, "No, sir, 'twould na' do a'tall."

They slowly turned and headed back towards the entrance and even though Nathan did not realize it yet, a process had begun here today that would eventually break down all the barriers he had built up over the years. The stone cold warrior which he had been since the day of Aliya Dayspring Askani'Sons's death...was finding that he did, indeed, still have a heart. These kids were stirring up feelings of love and loyality that he hadn't felt since that dark day in the Grand Canyon, and much to his surprise, Nathan found that he had missed these feelings.
Yes, the warrior had indeed found a home, one that would soon melt his heart and instill in him a deeper commitment to his mission and to the Dream of a better tomorrow. These children, these New Mutants, would do more to put Cable back on the path of The Chosen One of the Clan Askani' then all the teachings of Blaquesmith had ever done, for though Blaquesmith told him why these things had to be done and that he was The Chosen of the Askani' that it was his destiny and birthright and so forth and so on. These children would give Cable a reason to Want to make tomorrow a better place.
Yes, the warrior had found a home at last, and nothing would ever be the same for any of them again. The mission was coming to an end...But the Dream was only beginning.