BIOGRAPHY Page 10
Since Cable and the messiah baby were sent to the future, Cyclops had been patiently waiting for word on their status. When none came, he tasked Beast with creating devices that could send a group of people through time, so that they could find out what had happened. He had fitted X-Force with these devices and then activated them once he finally got an idea of where and when Cable was. Landing in the middle of a ruined city in the future, X-Force quickly tracked Cable down but he wasn’t exactly happy to see them. He had been protecting the messiah baby, now a young girl named Hope, from another time traveller, Bishop. The traitorous X-Man believed Hope would be the cause of a great catastrophe in his timeline and he wanted to kill the girl before it came to pass.
Bishop aligned himself with Cable’s evil clone Stryfe but, as the two sides clashed in battle, Archangel heard a voice call out to him. Leaving his team without warning, he flew off and followed the siren’s call to a cave in the Adirondack Mountains. When he entered, he found his former master Apocalypse waiting for him in a severely weakened state. The urge to kill Apocalypse overwhelmed Archangel but he managed to fight it off and return to his feathered state. Apocalypse was ready to die by his hands but instead Angel gave him some of his metal feathers, which boosted the ancient mutant’s health. Despite seeing mercy as a weakness, Apocalypse was grateful to Angel for showing him some and then suggested they team up to destroy Stryfe. Angel accepted and transported Apocalypse to Stryfe’s city, where he used technology to restore his former master to full strength.
In the meantime, Stryfe had captured Hope and was preparing to kill her, but the arrival of Apocalypse and Archangel put a stop to it. Stryfe was knocked out and Apocalypse managed to get hold of Hope. He saw how special she was and he wanted to use her but Archangel stepped forward and demanded she be handed over. He reminded Apocalypse that he saved his life and as such Apocalypse owed him a debt. Apocalypse reluctantly handed Hope to Archangel and then left without further trouble. Hope and Cable jumped back into the time stream again in search of a better future, whilst Warren rejoined X-Force. With their allotted time in the future fading fast, the team prepared to return to the present. [Messiah War crossover]
Knowing that they would arrive in the present mere seconds after they left it, the team split up to try and save the lives of the mutants with the Legacy Virus. Whilst some went to rescue Boom Boom, Archangel and the others raced to the UN. They found the Leper Queen’s soldiers and Archangel lost himself in a blood rage, as he sliced the men to bits. The two X-students were saved and the team returned to base to await the next crisis. [X-Force (3rd series) #17-18]
When Norman Osborn capitalized on some civil unrest in San Francisco, he sparked a war between his forces and the X-Men. Once again, the X-Men became outlaws and Osborn deployed his own squads of X-Men and Avengers to stop them. Cyclops called on X-Force to deal with the bigger threats and Warren was forced to turn to his Archangel persona when he squared off against Bullseye. Osborn’s teams were defeated but the X-Men were forced to relocate to the new island of Utopia just off the coast. [Utopia crossover]
After rescuing X-23 from the mysterious organization known as the Facility, X-Force were drawn into a fight with Selene and her hoard of undead mutants. [X-Force (3rd series) #19-25]
By now, the various members of X-Force were beginning to break under the strain of the missions and the dark secrets they were keeping. Before going their separate ways, they had one final mission and it was going to be their most important one yet. Cable and Hope finally returned to the present but they were immediately set upon by a group called the Sapien League. Cyclops detected their arrival on Cerebro and sent a squad of X-Men, including Angel, Wolverine and X-23, after them. When X-23 used lethal force on one of the humans, it seemed X-Force’s secret was out but Warren kept quiet about his dealings with the team. However, the group was soon sent after William Stryker and his Purifiers and the religious zealots seemed extremely well prepared for the X-Men. Pinned down by the gunfire, Wolverine gave the nod to Warren, who then transformed into Archangel before everyone’s eyes and sliced Stryker in half with his wings. There was no time to dwell on it though, as Cable and Hope were still at large, and so the group pushed on. Hope was eventually brought to Utopia but the X-Men suffered heavy losses during the mission, including the apparent deaths of Nightcrawler, Ariel, and Vanisher.
The villain orchestrating everything turned out to be Bastion and, with most of the remaining mutants holed-up on Utopia, he erected a giant force field around it and trapped them all inside. He then opened up a portal to his own dystopian future and sent wave after wave of Nimrod Sentinels through, to attack the X-Men. With no way of closing the portal from their side, Cyclops decided to send X-Force on a one-way-mission through the portal to close it from the other side. They succeeded in their mission and even managed to return to the presentas Bastion was defeated but there were losses once more as Cable died and several X-Men were crippled or seriously injured. Cyclops disbanded X-Force in the aftermath, as the secret was out now. With Hope literally and figuratively returned to mutantkind and new mutants emerging around the world, X-Force had served its purpose. [Second Coming crossover]
Warren and Wolverine weren’t ready to give up on X-Force, though, and they set up a new team with a slight line-up change. Warren’s ex-girlfriend Psylocke was drafted onto the team and the two quickly restarted their relationship. Psylocke even used her telepathic powers to try and bring peace to Warren’s tortured mind and help him deal with Apocalypse’s influence. Despite the work Psylocke was doing, the Archangel persona couldn’t be removed completely, but Warren was able to retain more control when he shifted into his metallic form.
Warren’s main reason for keeping X-Force alive was that he had a feeling that Apocalypse was going to rise again. For over a year, he’d secretly had Deadpool searching for any clues that Clan Akkaba was working on a way to bring Apocalypse back. Finally, Deadpool struck gold but was captured by Akkaba’s forces in the process, so the new X-Force went to rescue him. They located him in a giant spaceship hiding on Earth and the team snuck in to discover Clan Akkaba were looking to house Apocalypse’s essence in a new body. After fighting against the new Horseman of War and rescuing Deadpool, the team fled before the ship teleported away to parts unknown. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1]
Needing a new secret base, X-Force relocated to Cavern X in Arizona where Warren had set up a strange museum to everything X-Men, good and bad. It even came with its own Danger Room, although Warren was none-too-happy when he discovered Wolverine was making Psylocke kill holographic versions of Archangel, so that she was prepared for the worst.
After a short time, Warren got the news he was waiting for and Clan Akkaba’s ship had been located on the Moon. X-Force suited up and flew there in Fantomex’s own ship but was ambushed on arrival by the new Horsemen. Warren tried to attack Famine but he was instantly emaciated by the Horseman’s power and taken out of the battle. The rest of the team didn’t fare well either but Deadpool managed to drag Warren away so he wasn’t hurt any further. Deadpool then cut chunks off his own body to feed Warren so that he didn’t die of starvation. After recovering enough strength, they stormed the ship in search of the rest of their teammates.
As Warren flew through the complex, he could feel Apocalypse there and the Archangel persona grew stronger and stronger. They eventually found Wolverine and Fantomex outside a large door and Warren knew that his former master lay on the other side. 
When he broke through the door, though, he discovered that the body housing the new Apocalypse was a ten-year-old boy and Psylocke was guarding him with her life. Archangel was adamant that the child should die, because they all knew what he would grow up to become. Psylocke stood against him and the two ended up fighting over the young boy’s life. Archangel won and was about to kill the boy but, as he stood over the scared child, he couldn’t strike the final blow. The rest of the team agreed to rehabilitate the boy at the Jean Grey School but, when they were all distracted, Fantomex shot the child in the head. The team fled the ship as it prepared to teleport again and they returned back to base in silence. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #2-4]
X-Force also had to contend with an attack on Utopia from the Reavers, as well as an incursion of Deathloks from another reality. [Uncanny X-force (1st series) #5.1, 6-7]
Psylocke continued her telepathic sessions with Warren and managed to delve into his memories to the first moment he felt rage. As she watched the memory unfold, the Archangel persona angrily confronted her but she locked it away in a cage deep in Warren’s psyche.
Deadpool had gone missing once more on a mission to investigate a telepathic signal at a nuclear base. The rest of X-Force arrived there but were immediately set upon by the Shadow King and his soldiers. Warren was taken over by the evil telepath and it was up to Fantomex and Psylocke to free him before he was forced to launch any nuclear warheads. Psylocke entered Warren’s mind to remove the Shadow King but she discovered the Archangel persona had led the telepath right to his cage. The Shadow King opened the prison, thinking he could work with Archangel, but the errant personality killed him instead and forced Psylocke out of Warren’s mind. In the real world, Warren snapped to his senses but now it was hard to distinguish if he or Archangel was in control. He saw a soldier standing by the launch button to the warheads and it was obvious the man had also just been freed from the Shadow King’s influence. Warren didn’t give him time to adjust though and, using his metal feathers, he killed the man where he stood. When the rest of X-Force entered, they saw the body and reluctantly assumed there had been no other option but to kill the man. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #8]