BIOGRAPHY - Page 3
The group relocated to Larry Trask's old Sentinel base in the Adirondack Mountain range, or "Le Chalet Schwarzkoff" as Boom-Boom called it, and did their best to fit in with their new surroundings and with each other. The last part proved more difficult, however, once Feral lost control and slit open Cannonball's gut during a training exercise. This created a serious rift 
between Feral and the former New Mutants, and Tabitha was none too eager to keep quiet about it. Things weren't going to well on the global front either for, after a disastrous battle with Black Tom and the Juggernaut led to the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, X-Force was slandered as being the aggressors in the situation, a fact which brought local authorities, the US government, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. down on their and Cable's heads. Sam and Tabitha weren't eager to live up to their new image as mutant terrorists, but agreed to stay with Cable for the time being even so. [X-Force (1st series) #1-6]
Things went from bad to worse when the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants stormed X-Force's base, and Sauron impaled Cannonball on his wings, leaving him fatally wounded. Boom-Boom saw the guy she loved bleeding out and laying lifelessly in her arms, and it was perhaps the worst moment of her young life. Imagine her surprise when, minutes later, Sam woke up alive and well. Cable claimed that this meant Cannonball was a so-called High Lord, a member of a very rare subrace of nearly mutants destined to rise up again. Naturally, Sam was scared and confused, and Tabitha didn’t feel much different about her lover’s strange new status. [X-Force (1st series) #7, 9-10]
Shortly afterwards, X-Force were attacked by Weapon: Prime, a joint S.H.I.E.L.D. / Department K task force built to bring down Cable, and X-Force too if necessary. Boom-Boom was surprised to find herself facing off against Rictor, who had joined Prime since he believed Cable was responsible for murdering his father. When Rictor said that under Cable’s leadership the team had become hunted criminals and suspected terrorists - everything they despised - Tabitha couldn’t deny that there wasn’t some truth in his words. A final confrontation between the two teams was delayed, however, as a villain had hacked into the base‘s systems and triggered a self-destruction sequence. Cable went missing after the explosion and, with him out of the picture, Tabitha quickly supported bring Rictor back into the team. [X-Force (1st series) #13-14]
In the days that followed, X-Force made their way to Warpath's Camp Verde reservation until they could come up with a better long term plan. Their planning was suddenly put on hold when a newscast informed them that Charles Xavier had been shot in New York at a Lila Cheney concert by a man claiming to be Cable. X-Force saw it as their responsibility to check out the scene and prove or disprove Cable's innocence, but this only got them into a conflict with the X-Men and X-Factor, who captured and detained them in the Danger Room until their part in the assassination attempt could be ascertained. Cannonball was able to convince them that Cable might not be 
totally to blame and, after Mr. Sinister directed them towards Stryfe as responsible for the attack, they made use of his knowledge of the MLF's activities. In exchange, Sam and Tabitha were freed from the detention cells to help the X-Posse take down Stryfe's henchmen as equal partners. Their investigations led to Dust Bowl, Arkansas, and a massive MLF stronghold underneath. During the battle, Boom-Boom and Cannonball personally took down Skids and Rusty, who had been brainwashed by Stryfe after their capture. Skids managed to break Tabitha's jaw with a mean kick before going down, though, and she was sidelined for the rest of the conflict with Stryfe, which ultimately ended with the apparent deaths of he and Cable. [X-Force (1st series) #16-17, X-Men (2nd series) #15]
In the aftermath, Tabitha and the other members of X-Force were confined to the mansion's grounds while Xavier and the government decided what, if any, charges should be brought against them for working with Cable. She decided to change her name to Boomer, and used a Shi'ar clothes synthesizer to whip up a new outfit for herself, and some of the other X-Force members. Boomer was initially uncomfortable having Sam's ex-flame, Lila Cheney, around the mansion, but she felt much better after they had a talk and Lila assured Tabitha she had no more interest in Sam, nor he in her. [X-Force (1st series) #19]
X-Force moved on, back to Camp Verde and soon, back to Cable as well. In the months that 
followed, many past and present teammates went missing, defected, or even died, and eventually Cannonball decided he simply needed some time away. He asked Boomer to come with his to visit his mamma and siblings in Kentucky for a few weeks, and they took off. Their vacation wasn't a total snooze, as they were both kidnapped by the Upstarts and later visited by the Externals, but Sam and Tabitha did get to spend time by themselves and seriously confronted their feelings for one another. Boomer admitted being uneasy about Sam's supposed "immortality" but they move past that and finally said "I love you" to one another out loud. [X-Force (1st series) #29, 32-34, 37]
After that they returned to X-Force, they also paid a visit to the Massachusetts Academy, where a new generation of mutants were training to eventually become X-Men. Both Sam’s sister, Husk, and Jubilee had enrolled there, and while the Guthries sorted out some family business, Boomer and Jubilee went shopping. Obviously, they had moved past their earlier animosity. [X-Force (1st series) #42]
Over the next weeks, Boomer began re-examining more of herself than just her lovelife at the time, and wondered if it was really time for her to grow up and act more responsibly. She even 
reached out to Priscilla, a young runaway, forced to work as a prostitute on the streets of Greenwich Village. Tabitha knew that if things had turned out differently, she would have been in the same position and tried to help Priscilla, handing her a card of Childwatch. However, before anything could come of that, X-Force were called into action again. [X-Force (1st series) #43]
With yet another of their headquarters being blown up, X-Force moved back into Xavier’s mansion. Tabitha‘s life with Sam was interrupted when he was graduated onto the X-Men team, and the two of them began seeing much less of one another, even though they lived in the same house. Feeling abandoned, Tabitha chose to reach out to the worst person in the mansion she could have: Sabretooth. Victor Creed had been a semi-willing prisoner in the mansion for months, subjecting himself to psychic therapy under Charles Xavier in order to cure his bloodlust and 
homicidal rages. A week or so before X-Force moved in, however, he had gotten loose and engaged Wolverine in a running fight throughout the mansion. Creed had pushed Logan too far, and the X-Man popped his claws straight through Creed's brain, rendering him brain-damaged and in an almost fugue state from then on. Boomer saw the childlike Creed as someone who needed her for once, instead of the other way around. She began bringing him a saucer of milk every night and even confided in him, though she believed he could barely understand what she was saying. [X-Force (1st series) #44-47]
Her looking for attention began to make others in the house uneasy, especially once Creed started showing signs of improvement, and some began to suspect he was faking his condition. X-Force even staged an intervention and forced Tabitha to agree to stop seeing Sabretooth. In the end, the others were right - Creed had been faking his impairment for at least part of the time Boomer was coming to see him. After Xavier finally admitted defeat when it came to "saving" 
Sabretooth from himself, the wild man was locked down and heavy restraints and was set to be transported to federal confinement in the morning. Boomer came to see him one last time that night, to confront him over abusing her trust. After she said her peace and was about to leave, though, Sabretooth used the knowledge of her past that she herself had revealed to him in their talks to get under her skin, forcing Boomer into the rash act of launching her time bombs at him... and unfortunately freeing him from his restraints. Her actions led to the X-Man Psylocke being critically injured, and Creed escaping into the night. [X-Force (1st series) #48, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #328]
Bommer had an incredibly hard time dealing with the guilt over this incident and, for the first time in years, decided to go home and visit her father. He actually admitted he was sorry for running her off when she was younger, and revealed to Tabitha that her mother was actually still alive, and out there somewhere. The two of them were actually on their way to a reconciliation when Sebastian Shaw and Holocaust came to the door and leveled the entire trailer. Boomer and the rest of X-Force were temporarily brainwashed into pawns for Shaw to use against Cable, and her father was sent to the hospital in critical condition. [X-Force (1st series) #49-50]
