BIOGRAPHY: Page 3
All of a sudden, Nate found himself in the Age of Apocalypse again, though only for a few seconds. Nate investigated the reality altering wave he experienced and tracked its source to Genosha. The Sugar Man planed to go back to the AoA at an earlier date and get a certain virus he wanted to use to gain control over Earth. However, he needed Nate’s energies to open the gate. Nate ran into his trap and, after activating the portal, followed the Sugar Man. On the other side, he met a younger Forge and Magneto, who were aware of Sugar Man’s plans as a future Nate already was in the AoA at an even more earlier point in time and told Forge. After they together defeated the Sugar Man, they ran into a dilemma: Nate wanted to stay and prevent the worst horror from occurring in the timeline, which made perfect sense to Magneto. Forge, on the other hand, urged Nate to take Sugar Man and leave - so that he would survive in that other, true reality. Eventually, he tricked Nate into powering up the portal again and leaving for the other Earth. [X-Man Annual ’96]
Shortly before Christmas, while Peter Parker happened to be in Central Park, Nate instantly recognized him as a superhero and transported the two of them away.
Peter was furious about the irresponsible way Nate acted and, to explain, told him about the loss of his uncle and how he was responsible for that. As he sarcastically sniped, it would probably be easier for Nate to just force people telepathically, Nate angrily showed him the life he lived in the AoA and how his loss of Forge paralleled that of Peter’s Uncle Ben. Nate accompanied Peter on his errands. They talked some more and Peter finally invited him over for dinner with Mary Jane and Aunt Anna. When Peter fell asleep, Nate sent him a dream about his Aunt May (presumed dead at the time) telling him not to feel guilty about the loss of his daughter. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #420] On his way back home, Nate was attacked by Morbius, the living vampire and Nate’s psi-powers somehow echoed his vampiric state. Nate asked Peter for help and they reasoned that Morbius possibly now shared Nate’s need for Threnody and would look for her.
Threnody, in the meantime, had been feeding on the sick and dying in hospitals and on the street. Finally, she went to her mother’s grave, where first Morbius and then Nate and Spider-Man found her. There was a brief scuffle, as Threnody took Morbius’ side against the two young men, but they quickly lost and Peter took Morbius away. Nate told Threnody he knew what she had been doing and what she considered her shameful secrets. He cared for her and wanted to help her, but she would have to decide that she actually wanted help, he told her and flew away.
Shortly afterwards another unexpected visitor showed up for Threnody - Madelyne Pryor. During her time with Selene and the Hellfire Club, her memories had returned, along with incredible telekinetic and telepathic powers. Madelyne sensed that Nate had just been there and demanded to be taken to him, but Threnody realized something about the redhead - even though she was walking around and breathing, Madelyne was still dead. Angered to hear this from the death-energy feeding mutant, Madelyne killed Threnody in cold blood and then traced Nate to where she first met him, in the Swiss Alps. However, Nate was with Jean, who had sensed the ramifications of Madelyne on the astral plane.
Maddie saw red, being face to face with the one person who took away everything from her, simply by existing, and attacked. Nate suddenly found himself cast in the unfamiliar role of the voice of reason as he was trying to figure out just what the hell was going on between those two seemingly identical women. As Maddie berated him for not taking her side, he pointed out that she, after all, left him without any reason. Maddie angrily lashed out, causing the ground to erupt. Nate shielded them all, but Jean noticed that he was weakening, even as Maddie grew stronger. She had access to his power. Telepathically connected, all three of them suddenly realized the truth. Nate brought Maddie back from the dead when he arrived on this Earth. He subconsciously had reached out for Jean - his mother - and instead gave form to Maddie’s psionic ghost, an empty psionic shell, or so he thought. Nate wanted to set things right and uncreate her, but found out that he could not. Madelyne was now independent of him and angrily teleported away to the Hellfire Club, leaving Nate and Jean confused and worried. [X-Man #24-25]
After Jean too departed, Nate discovered that his telekinesis was gone. He thought that this might be the first signs of his powers consuming him. From Switzerland, he telepathically contacted his friend, Peter Parker, but he could do nothing other than advise him to have himself properly examined. Nate decided that, of all people he had met, Moira MacTaggert was possibly the best choice and, since he no longer was able to fly, he had to use a sailboat to get to Muir Island. Once there, Moira ran another series of tests. Turned out that his readings were exactly the same as before - there was nothing wrong with Nate. Moira theorized that it was Nate suppressing his own powers out of fear. [X-Man #26]
While he was still wondering about how to deal with this, a teleportation portal opened in front of Nate. Havok and Fatale of the Brotherhood offered to help Nate. They explained the purpose of their organization and also promised to have the means to restore Nate’s telekinesis. Nate was interested in the idea to make a stand for mutant rights and accompanied the pair as they attacked a high-security train from Canada that was carrying the mentally imbalanced Aurora. Havok told Nate that she was about to be experimented on. However, the Brotherhood really wanted the train’s other cargo - tons of the toxic gas CS-9. Back in their base, Nate was placed in a special chamber that slowly gave him back his powers. However, he soon started to notice some oddities and, scanning the minds of Fatale and Havok, he finally found what they had been keeping from him. The Brotherhood had one more member: the Dark Beast from the Age of Apocalypse. 
Nate decided that he could not work with the evil scientist and blasted his way out of the base. However, he did not want to leave the lethal gas in McCoy’s possession. Nate went into the storage room and released all of the Coldsnap gas, even though it would cost him his own life. [X-Man #27-28]
When the Brotherhood discovered what Nate had done, they quickly abandoned their hideout, fearing to become victims of the lethal gas as well.
In a state between life and death, Nate’s entire life flashed before him, and he was confronted by manifestations of the people close to him. Threnody, Forge, Madelyne and even Nate himself confronted him with his own shortcomings. Finally, Nate realized that if his powers were so strong that they would ultimately kill him, they would also be strong enough to save him from this gas. Nate pulled himself together with his telekinesis back in full force and smashed his way out of the tunnels. Back on the surface, Nate passed out from the strain and was discovered by three girls who had often seen him performing his miracles in Central Park. Bux, who was very much into tantric spiritual healing, the down-to-earth Marita and Jam, a musician, nursed Nate back to health. Together, they stayed in Nate’s loft. [X-Man #29]
When Zero Tolerance troops attacked Xavier’s mansion in Westchester and downloaded Cerebro’s files, Nate was telepathically alerted by Cable that he was the only one close enough to rescue the children of Jean’s sister, Sara Grey, from the Prime Sentinels. Nate did as requested and left Joey and Gailyn in the care of their grandparents, as the Sentinels were curious about the unidentified telepath and still searching for him. [X-Man #30]
For the next weeks, Nate kept a low profile. One night, he went clubbing with the three girls and many people recognized him from his performances in Central Park. Nate was asked to sing with the band and, surprisingly, he did quite well, though he never had been on stage before. However, the show was interrupted by the arrival of Jackknife, who was hunting down and killing every single person that Nate had contact with. Jackknife was actually Jack Cole, one of the many misfits belonging to the Abomination’s group. Turned out that, during Nate’s battle with the Abomination, he accidentally unlocked Cole’s latent psychic powers. Jack couldn’t handle himself and became psychotic, blaming Nate for the voices in his head. In direct battle, Nate defeated the mentally imbalanced misfit when the police arrived. They asked him to surrender, but the crowd who witnessed the battle intervened, claiming that Nate was a hero. The next day, Jam lost an arm in a motorcycle crash. When Nate, Bux and Marita visited her in the hospital, something strange happened. After touching Nate, one of the medics in the hospital developed the ability to heal and Jam's arm was restored. The miracle boosted Nate’s popularity even more and Nate was now admired by hundreds of followers like some kind of messiah. [X-Man #32-34]
While watching a basketball game at Madison Square Garden, Nate foiled some terrorists’ plans to bomb the stadium. Before the group was turned over to the police, he did a mindscan to make sure that they no longer carried any explosives. However, one of the gangsters himself was unaware of having a subdermal bomb and, in the resulting explosion of the police station, many people died. All of a sudden, it was over and Nate fell from grace. Instead of being admired, he was now hunted. Turned out that Nate’s popularity had been caused by the Purple Man, Zebediah Killgrave, who was able to control others with his pheromones. As his control faded with distance, he slowly influenced Nate to get his telepathy under his control. With the combination of mental and pheromone based possession, Killgrave hoped to get his family back and ultimately to rule the world. Yet once Nate found out how the Purple Man’s power worked, he could release himself from his grip by filtering out the pheromones with a thin TK shield.
Though victorious, Nate had no reason to feel that way: an entire block of New York City was destroyed during their battle and Jam had to live through the ordeal of losing her arm once more. The Purple Man had been responsible for Jam’s accident, predicting the effect Nate’s miracle would have - however, the arm was not really restored, but only a psychic projection that now faded. [X-Man #35-36]