BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Around this time, Professor Xavier outted himself as a mutant and the institute as the home base of the X-Men. In an effort to reinvent the public view of mutantkind, the institute was publicly opened as a school for mutants and Xavier also sought to establish community outreach centers for mutants around the world. Domino and a woman named Risque were the inaugural staff for the X-Corporation offices in Hong Kong. Amusingly given the wide mandate of watching out for mutants’ rights issues in all of Asia, the two women did their best to follow through on their orders.
When Risque was killed during an investigation of John Sublime and the TransSpecies Movement, Domino called for assistance from the X-Men’s main strike force. She and Wolverine confronted a renegade Chinese general named Ao Jun, who was dealing with Sublime under the table in black market mutant organs. They uncovered a U-Men operation in the Ningxia Hui province of mainland China and rescued a caged prisoner named Xorn. During this adventure, Domino and Wolverine had a casual affair that was enjoyable and (according to Emma Frost) uncomfortably loud. [New X-Men Annual 2001]
Domino apparently severed her ties to the X-Corporation sometime after that. She uncovered evidence of innocent mutant civilians, even entire families, vanishing into the night. Her research turned up stories of a mutant containment camp called Neverland and a government program actively using mutant foot soldiers against other mutants. Looking for aid, Domino reconnected with Cable in order to plan a response. [Soldier X #12] Cable and Domino assembled a network of informants known as the Underground to be their eyes and ears, and established a core group with Meltdown, Maverick and Cable’s mentor Blaquesmith. They were shocked to learn how deep Weapon X’s influence went, and that several former allies were working for the mysterious Director, including their old Six Pack teammate, Garrison Kane. [Weapon X (2nd series) #6-7]
The Underground spent several months sizing up the opposition, waiting for the proper moment to strike against the Director. During their operations, Domino was often paired with the mysterious new Maverick. His distant demeanor and ruthlessness unsettled Domino. During a showdown with 
Weapon X operatives Wildside and Reaper, Maverick shot Domino in order to accomplish their goal of bringing them in. Naturally, Dom was none too happy with her new teammate's idea of teamwork. A major breakthrough came when they were contacted by Brent Jackson, the Director’s second-in-command, who wanted to deal. Jackson had convinced roughly half the active Weapon X agents to side with him against the Director and wanted to lend his support to the Underground. Despite serious concerns about Jackson’s true motives, Cable and Domino agreed to work with him and managed to infiltrate the Weapon X compound with his inside help. The Director was driven from the Weapon X compound and the area was nearly secured by the Underground when Jackson played his hand, triggering a failsafe weapon he was immune to that knocked out Domino and the rest of her team. Domino and the Underground were mindwiped by Jackson and left with the false memories of the Weapon X Program being completed demolished, causing them to dismantle the Underground and allowing Weapon X to continue operating in secret. [Weapon X (2nd series) #8-13]
Domino next resurfaced as a member of the new Six Pack, assembled by G.W. Bridge and S.H.I.E.L.D. Cable’s powers had recently increased exponentially and he began influencing matters on the world stage – forcibly initiating disarmament in Chechnya, ending deforestation in the Amazon and establishing his own private floating fortress. His actions made existing governments the world over nervous, including the Americans. Bridge gathered the Six Pack to reconnoiter Cable’s “Providence” and Domino went along to see for herself what Nate was doing. Dom was most concerned because (as she put it), despite his intentions Cable had screwed up virtually everything he’d tried to fix in his life.
Still, Cable met the Six Pack peacefully, even though they entered his home with weapons blazing. After getting the tour of Providence, Domino agreed to work with Nate and even stood up for him against the X-Men. Matters moved even beyond Cable’s control, however, when the U.S. government called in a favor from Reed Richards and set the Silver Surfer upon him. Nate’s carefully plotted plan to overload and exhaust his powers by helping the world and establishing Providence was overturned by the need to defend himself against the Herald of Galactus. Seriously injured and psychically lobotomized thanks to a device he created with the help of Deadpool, Cable was on the brink of death when he vanished from the public eye. [Cable / Deadpool #7-10]
Domino and the Six Pack reorganized to track down Cable, although Dom was primarily doing it out of concern for her friend while Bridge and the others did it out of concern for what Nate would do if he continued running around unchecked. They tracked Nate to one of his safe houses in Switzerland, but were trapped in a telepathic field as Nate’s mind continued to shut down due to his traumas. The Pack was freed after Deadpool and the Fixer found a way to reconstruct Cable’s techno-organics using a Phalanx embryo, but his mutant powers were virtually gone. S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to leave Cable alone afterwards, since his powers were neutralized and he seemed content to work on supervising Providence for the time being. [Cable / Deadpool #11-12]
Domino remained with Cable during his convalescence and recuperation, and they spent some time together off the island. Domino worked with Cable when they reassembled X-Force to deal with the rising of the Skornn, but she left him and Providence behind soon afterwards. Dom still wasn’t entirely comfortable with Nate’s new direction in life and needed some distance to decide if she could support him. [X-Force (2nd series) #1-6]
Domino was unable to stay away from Cable’s orbit for very long, however. Through G.W. Bridge and S.H.I.E.L.D., Domino learned Cable had developed connections to the resistance movement in Rumekistan, a country recently overthrown by the anti-nationalist Flag-Smasher and his 
ULTIMATUM army. Fearing that Nate was involved in a political assassination plot, Domino volunteered in infiltrate the country on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. The more she saw in the country, though, the more Domino came to believe the resistance was right to rebel. Caught in the uprising during a public address, Domino saw Flag-Smasher order his ULTIMATUM soldiers to fire into the innocent crowd, and Deadpool apparently about to assassinate Flag-Smasher on Cable’s orders. In order to stop Flag-Smasher and keep the blood off of Nate’s hands, Domino took the shot herself and executed the country’s ruler with a sniper’s bullet.
Partially in shock after the shooting, Domino was unnerved by how easily Cable appeared before the crowd and convinced both ULTIMATUM and the resistance to lay down arms and work together under his guidance for the good of Rumekistan. Despite the good he seemed to be 
accomplishing, Domino’s every instinct told her Nate had gone too far. He had, in effect, just conquered a foreign nation by assassinating the current leader, and manipulated her into helping him do it. Domino found that she simply did not trust Cable to do the right thing. After dramatically showing that she could kill him any time she wanted, Domino left Rumekistan and an emotionally crestfallen Cable behind. [Cable / Deadpool #27-29]
The American government agreed with Domino and the Six Pack was soon reunited to strike out at Cable and prevent him from altering the world stage to fit his views any further. A political smear campaign was arranged, using sabotage on both Providence and Rumekistan to hopefully undermine the people’s faith in Cable and his teachings. Domino was uncomfortable with the Six Pack’s mission to disrupt the Rumeki electrical grid, seeing it as punishing good people just for being aligned with Cable. When Cable was nearly killed trying to protect Rumekistan and stop their sabotage, Domino’s distaste for the mission only grew. Ultimately, the Six Pack was outplayed. Cable allowed the entire incident to take place just so that he could successfully foil the plot and cement the faith of the world’s people in his efforts. He also hoped the exercise would help Domino reconsider her personal belief in him as well. Cable was successful on all points, as Domino openly spoke out against S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Six Pack’s mission to the media. She then accepted his offer to leave the Six Pack and relocate to Providence as his friend and lover once more. [Cable / Deadpool #33-34]
Now at odds with the US government, Domino went a step further when she decided to free the 198. Since M-Day, the majority of mutants left in America had been forcibly confined to a reservation on the Xavier estate, under the protective custody of the Office of National Emergency and the Sentinel Squad. Using Cable’s Civil War connections to Captain America and the secret Avengers, Domino coordinated a rescue operation with Shatterstar and Caliban on the inside as a 
revamped X-Force. They attacked the X-Men and O*N*E before making off into the night with all the 198 who wanted to be free. X-Force hid the 198 in a defense bunker recommended to them by Captain America. The deranged O*N*E commander General Lazer nearly blew them all up using nuclear weapons hidden in the bunker, but a collection of pro- and anti-registration heroes worked together to save the 198 from the detonation. Iron Man arranged for amnesty for America’s mutant population under the Superhuman Registration Act, and they were all allowed to go free without government oversight. [Civil War: X-Men #1-4]
Back on Providence, the island was nearly destroyed during a battle between Cable and the X-Men and the alien construct known as the Hecatomb. Worse, Sabretooth had escaped from X-Men custody and was loose on the island. Domino coordinated with Cable, Deadpool and Irene Merryweather to get the civilian population to safety before the island sank. As the last rescue ships left, Nate insisted Domino leave with Irene and the others while he stayed behind with Deadpool to mop up loose ends. Tragically, Cable was apparently killed on Providence battling the Marauders while securing his tech. After the survivors of Providence were picked up by the authorities, Domino spent three weeks being debriefed by S.H.I.E.L.D. before they were satisfied with her answers, and another three weeks drowning her sorrows over Cable’s demise. [Cable / Deadpool #41-43]