BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
With Havok’s powers going out of control and the climate growing more hostile to mutants, Forge took a more active role in X-Factor, effectively usurping Havok’s role as a leader. One of the decisions he and Cooper made was forcing Mystique to join the team, instead of simply sending 
her to jail for her crimes. To ensure her cooperation, Mystique was outfitted with a restraining device that prevented her from turning into a member of the X-Men or X-Factor for more than thirty seconds at a time. Unhappy with her role, Mystique promised to make trouble and, in addition, kept on coming on to Forge. [X-Factor (1st series) #114]
He also had to deal with troubles from his own past, as signs showed that the Adversary was escaping from his prison and intending to return to Earth and that his teacher Nazé was miraculously alive again. Forge chose to ignore these signs, until Roma herself – chased by the Adversary – came to him to appeal for help. Inadvertently, she had shown the Adversary the way 
and he was coming to claim Forge, who refused to use magic, trying to beat his foe with technology instead, an attempt that backfired as the Adversary seemingly killed all of X-Factor. It was only with the help of Nazé that Forge reclaimed his heritage as a shaman and beat the Adversary, using a mix of magic and his mutant power, forcing his foe to resurrect X-Factor before he escaped. [X-Factor (1st series) #119-121]
At around the same time, Storm broke up with Forge for good, feeling that their relationship had no future in the long run. [Storm (1st series) #1, 3] With growing concerns, Forge watched as his team was taking a turn for the worse with villains, such as Mystique and Sabretooth, being forced onto the team. Also, the government was starting to use them to hunt down other mutants – something that came to a crunch, when they found that they were being used to hunt down their former teammate, Jamie Madrox. [X-Factor (1st series) #128-129]
Shortly after being unable to prevent the death of presidential candidate Graydon Creed (unaware that their teammate Mystique had actually been the murderer), the team quit and faked their deaths. Forge, at the time, was growing closer to Mystique, who was looking for her kidnapped godson, Trevor. He felt for the first time that she had actual human emotions and he started to fall in love with her. [X-Factor (1st series) #132-134]
Sabretooth, however, turned out to be a government sleeper agent, who attacked the whole team, hurting them badly. They were saved by Val Cooper and Havok but Mystique managed to slip away, vowing revenge on Sabretooth. The team in that incarnation was finished and its members took some time to heal in the care of the Brotherhood under Havok’s leadership. [X-Factor (1st series) #136-137]
When the reformed Havok was trying to rebuild a new X-Factor, including the X.U.E. members from the future, Forge wanted no part in it, as he was disappointed in Havok’s past behavior. He agreed to let Havok’s team use one of his building in New Jersey as a homebase, but warned Havok against acting up again. [X-Factor (1st series) #145] This new team never actually got off the ground, since Havok was believed to have perished soon after.
What Forge did afterwards is unknown, but he popped by the Massachusetts Academy to create a Danger Room of sorts for the students, made from a sentient bit of salvaged technology. [Generation X (1st series) #47] Later, he worked for Xavier’s Underground alongside Jamie Madrox, observing ongoings in Genosha. Exodus abducted him, forcing him to create technological Boosters that would enhance Exodus’ powers, which he used to create harmony between mutants and human in Genosha. When the X-Men freed Forge, things turned back to normal. [Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘99]
When the X-Men reorganized themselves, Forge came back to the mansion to once more work in the background. He also apprenticed Dani Moonstar, [X-Men (2nd series) #103, X-Men Annual 2000] however neither of them stayed at the mansion for long.
Forge eventually returned to a reservation to resume his studies in shamanism but dropped them soon afterward, deciding this simply wasn’t right for him. He moved to Baltimore, creating a new 
workshop there. Some time later, Professor Xavier visited him, confiding about his black op mutant spies, one of whom had recently been murdered. He needed Forge’s help in locating the one person who could possibly finish the dead agent’s mission: Mystique.
Together, they found her right on the brink of being executed for all her crimes. They freed Mystique and forced her to work as a secret agent for Xavier’s cause, whether she wanted to or not, with Forge playing “Q” to Mystique’s “Bond” by creating the technology she required for her missions. [Mystique #1-3]
Impressed by the non-lethal way Mystique handled her first missions, Forge invited her on a cup of coffee. The date was rather awkward, with the two of them constantly arguing about her anti-human stance. They ended up trying to rescue an abducted mutant boy, who turned out to be the abductor instead of the abductee and telepathically influenced Forge into trying to kill Mystique. Using her wiles, Mystique was able to make Forge snap out of it, though. Forge still cared deeply for Mystique, though he had little illusion about her feelings for him. [Mystique #10-12]
Eventually Mystique played double agent for the mysterious Quiet Man, who hated Xavier. In fact, the Quiet Man was actually Xavier’s previous agent Prudence who blamed Xavier for her predicament of her essence being stuck in the body of the man who had killed her. With the Quiet Man’s aid, Mystique managed to get out under Xavier’s thumb and stole the interference transmitter. Forge was left with mixed feelings for her, on the one hand telling her he didn’t care, on the other secretly wishing her luck. [Mystique #24]
Forge eventually moved back to his Dallas headquarters, but was always willing to help the X-teams with gadgets, e.g. helping Cannonball and Syrin locate Cable or building power-controlling gauntlets for New X-Man Surge. [Cable / Deadpool #15, New X-Men (2nd series) #21]
After M-Day depowered all but 198 of Earth's mutants, Forge attempted to build a Nimrod unit with the goal of protecting mutants and humans and destroying Sentinels. However, he was then attacked by a heavily damaged timetraveling Nimrod unit (which had been guiding the mutant-hating fanatic Stryker). Nimrod demanded Forge fix him or he would use his last power to teleport to Africa and kill Storm. Forge reluctantly agreed and learned from Nimrod that he had forced a future version of Forge (who had been married to Storm) to outfit him with timetravel capabilities. Playing for time, Forge claimed he 
couldn’t fix Nimrod but offered the new Nimrod body he had been building as a receptacle. Nimrod agreed and downloaded himself into the other body. Meanwhile, Forge secretly sent a distress signal to the X-Men who weren’t available. Instead their students, the New X-Men, received the signal and decided to go help. Fighting the robot with everything they had, they managed to overload Nimrod’s newly added timetravel device, sending Nimrod back into the timestream. [New X-Men (2nd series) #26-31]