Now:
At their headquarters, Forge warns Cable’s team to EVAC now – the window is closing! Cable gives the order and Forge teleports them out.
A moment later, Colossus pushes Cable against the wall, accusing him of lying. Domino wants to intervene but Forge stops her. Those were good men in there, Colossus seethes. Good, honest hard-working men. Those were friends and they killed them!
They did what they could, Cable replies. They did not do enough, Colossus insists. And then they attack the Avengers! They run and hide! Now they look like terrorists! Like cowards who kill and the run away. Cable retorts he doesn’t much care how they look.
Colossus tries to hit him, but Cable puts his shield up. He then presses a button on Colossus’ chest plate, at which point Colossus turns human against his will. Cable uses that moment to overpower him. He’s sorry it shook out this way but that punch would have killed him. Colossus got his licks in. It’s done.
Days earlier:
Panic at Miami Beach. A reporter announces that the 500 passenger cruise ship Regal Opulence collided with the Stark Oceanfront hotel twenty minutes ago. The shore seems to have been overrun with some kind of technological entity. It consumes everything it touches and has been spreading like wildfire since the crash. Whatever this thing is, it’s devouring Miami Beach.
In their headquarters, Forge has been setting up a teleportation gate to Miami Beach hanging in the air on Domino’s orders. Pretty high up for no chute, he warns her. She always gets a lucky bounce, Domino shrugs.
Lying on the table, Cable complains that he should go. Dr. Nemesis, who is examining him, agrees. Unfortunately, he will be busy barely surviving emergency brain surgery.
Forge hands Domino a globe-formed device, telling her to get it as close to the mass’ center as she can. It might do the trick. He warns her to be careful. If that mess down there touches her, it’s game over. Nemesis asks her to get him a sample. Hope gets her jetpack and grabs Domino, flying both of them through the portal.
They land in the dunes above the disaster. Domino borrows Hope’s jetpack.
Operating on Cable’s head, Nemesis muses there’s some sort of Dr. Frankenstein vibe about this, isn’t there? Performing experimental surgery surrounded by garbage and insanity… Forge replies sharply that a lot of that garbage is heavily armed and his crazy’s got a hair trigger! He doesn’t doubt that, Nemesis agrees. Oh dear, he mutters as he takes off Cable’s skull cap. What is that? Forge asks confused. Trouble, is the grim reply. The worst kind of brain trouble.
At Miami Beach, Hope tries to evacuate some kids and their pets from the danger zone (and misses her jetpack sorely). She hears a cry for help coming from a girl trapped on the balcony of a house in the danger zone. Some reporters notice and recognize Hope.
Hope grabs a motor bike and drives towards the house. The reporter identifies her as the heroine of the Avengers / X-Men Phoenix conflict and praises her courage.
Hope uses the momentum to jump on the balcony. She grabs the kid, jumps over the strange matter and lands on the beach.
How does it feel to risk her life to save an innocent child? the journalist asks. It hurts, Hope replies.
Closing in on the horror, Dom asks if Forge is listening, Ask Dr. Nemesis if he thinks it’s funny she’s supposed to get him a sample of techno-death goo using the grandpa tongs he bought to reach high cans of beans. Does she really want to hear the response to that? Forge asks. She doesn’t.
She gets too close to part of the ship. As a result, the jetpack malfunctions and she lands on the beach, surrounded by the goo that has already swallowed several people. Domino preps the gadget and throws it at the goo, promising Forge that, if it works, the two of them will be getting very drunk tonight.
An energy flash glows and the goo dries up. So, are they drinking? Forge asks. Yes, they are, Domino replies.
Hope and the camera team witness the event from some distance away. With the reporters distracted, Hope follows Domino back through the teleportation portal. What did she do to her jetpack? she asks. Domino promises to buy her a new one.
Elsewhere, two shadowy beings watch the news, which cannot report who solved the problem but do praise Hope for her involvement. A being in a spiky uniform asks the other if he thinks they got his attention.
In Nebraska, Cable sits up on his bed, face held in his hands. Then he gets up to check on Hope, who is sleeping nearby. Domino who stands in the doorway informs him Hope’s been here every night like that, waiting for him to wake up. Foster parents be damned. She’s a hell of a kid, Cable states.
Going somewhere? Domino asks, not budging. Trying to, he replies. At two o’ clock in the morning, she continues, after being laid up for days with his brain all cut to hell? It’s important, is his cryptic reply. He’ll be back.
Angrily, she reminds him he is dying. His brain’s swelling up. She’s been trapped in this hole, keeping this secret from his daughter, waiting for him to wake up. Knowing he’d just stare at her with that set jaw of his. Anyway… Nemesis did what he could, put in that implant thing for the headaches but he couldn’t fix him. Says Cable has maybe a –
He fixed enough, Cable interrupts. The headaches are visions and they are clear now. It’s the future he’s seeing. Can’t explain how but that’s the deal. There’s bad news coming down the pike. He thinks he can get out in front of it. Save the world one more time.
Save the world? Domino cries out, exasperated. That’s his plan? His brain is trying to burst free of its skull! Forget the fact that saving the damn world has been ruining his life forever! There’s a sixteen-year -old girl in there who’s so exactly like him she wants to punch her little face. She only got him back for a minute and here he is, stitches still in his skull, running away from her in the middle of the night. When is enough gonna be enough? Can’t someone else save the world for once? Can’t he be done?
That’s what this was supposed to be; what he’s been trying for. He wanted to retire, figure out how to be some kind of dad without all this. Domino encourages him to do that. He tells her the new thing in his head, he can’t ignore it. He has to stop what’s coming because nobody else can. Then maybe, well… they’ll see how it goes.
And so he visits the Art Institute of Chicago at night, where he finds a sole visitor, one Peter Rasputin aka Colossus. Unsurprised, Peter informs him that he doesn’t want any trouble. Didn’t bring any, Cable promises. Pretty smart, holing up in a museum after hours. The head of security is a friend, Peter explains.
Cable hands him a harness, telling him he had this made for him to help with his powers. Peter looks at him, he is partially metal, partially flesh. How did he find him? And how did he know about his powers? He knows a lot of new things lately Cable replies. He gets if Peter wants to be left alone. But he has a job for him all the same.
Holding onto the harness, Peter explains that he is no longer a superhero. Yeah, well, Cables replies, it’s not that kind of job…
