Arizona, about a klick north of the US / Mexican border
Cable rides with a group of bikers. They pass two cops who choose to ignore them. They stop at a donut shop in the desert. He good with the trade? Cable asks the leader. He gets the bike in exchange for a big time laser cannon. Cable warns him not to get caught for that. He thanks him for the escort and rides on.
A bar in Tampico, Mexico
Domino gets another pair of shots and puts them down in front of herself and Piotr Rasputin, who hasn’t drunk any of his so far. Why does she keep bringing him more alcohol? he asks. She downs hers. Because he is a big guy and at some point he’ll need to catch up.
He tells her he worked in the plant. He hefted bags of flour and sugar with those men. Laughed at their dirty jokes. He was starting to know them. Now they are dead and they are sitting here, hiding from the consequences.
Dom reminds him it would have been worse if they hadn’t been there. He agrees, they did what they could which was nothing. But disrespecting those men by trying to drink away the—
They aren’t drinking to forget. That never works. They are stuck in the part of Mexico that doesn’t have any beach. Their photos just went to every corkboard on the planet. And, knowing Cable, things are going to get worse before they get better. They have a day, maybe two, downtime here. The barman has good Tequila, the bar doesn’t seem to close and Piotr still has cash. She promises him he’ll wake up two days from now, guilt intact. Give himself a fun break. Drink with her. He doubts it’ll be much fun. It’s worth a shot, Dom smiles, maybe they’ll get lucky.
Elsewhere, a junkyard in Mexico:
Forge and Dr Nemesis managed to get an arcade game back going again. It’s Nemesis’ turn. Forge tells him he wouldn’t think less of him for giving up. Nemesis rejoins classic video games are an exercise in precision. Patience, calculation and timing are paramount to success. Insulting Forge, he tells him he was born to play Time Nuggets. Forge’s utterly pedestrian score is doomed!
Forge puts his ridiculous hat onto Nemesis’ head, telling him he found him a hat. He’ll wear his mocking garbage hat like a crown upon his kingly head, Nemesis raves. As he basks in the warm light of Forge’s defeat and humiliation! Forge points out he beat him by only four points. Don’t cheapen it with words, Nemesis orders. Forge suggests a rematch. Different game. Something bigger. Double or nothing! As long as it isn’t leg-wrestling, he’s on!
Hope’s home is still under SHIELD observation. She returns home from school and is not surprised to find Cable waiting for her. What does he want? She greets him coolly. Thought he owed her an— She warns him not to apologize. He left her behind. Everything always goes how he wants it. She was too dumb to realize what that means this time.
He owes her an explanation, he finishes. The premonitions he’s been having… feels like he’s being dragged around by the nose. Has he thought maybe someone is doing this to him? Hope asks. Anything’s possible, he concedes. Point is this: They’ve both spent their whole lives jumping through other people’s flaming hoops. Thought he could be done with that, but here he is back at it. He needed Skitch, the doc, Colossus and Dom, so he pulled them in with him. But he’s just selfish enough he wouldn’t do that to her. The world sees Hope as a hero. She doesn’t have years of mud on her like the rest of them. She has the chance at a normal life here. A place where she can grow the rest of the way up and be whatever it is she decides. He won’t let her risk that.
She interrupts him. Normal? Is he kidding? This isn’t normal to her. He raised her. Bouncing around half a step in front of the gun. Saving the future for a present that won’t ever appreciate it. That’s what she wants. That’s her normal.
He warns her one of these days she’ll wish like hell ‘normal’ means something else. Hope points out the only things she is good at are the ones he taught her. She is just like him. Everybody says so. What is she supposed to do here?
Be young and stupid! he tells her. Screw up! Run around half-cocked and get into some trouble! Do whatever she want to do! She just can’t come with him. Not this time.
In the junkyard, Forge is building a giant robot. Nemesis mocks how has he lived long enough to convince himself that ponytail was a good plan and yet never learned to work smart rather than hard?
In his experience, hard gets the job done even when smart gets lost up his own &%*. How’s his plan coming? He’s nearly finished, Nemesis replies, looking at a scorpion he’s holding in a glass cage.
In a hotel room, Domino and Piotr kiss passionately. She finds the button on his chest plate and fiddles with it. His power runs out of control again, parts of him turning metal. She likes that. He likes it too, he admits.
Cable is on his motor bike en route to the border when suddenly he groans. “Damn it, not now!” He falls off and has a vision. In it, a spaceship is attacking Earth. Some Avengers and the military are trying to fight it.
In the motel, Colossus gets dressed while Domino is still sleeping. He uses his device to turn fully metal. Travel safe, Domino calls from the bed. When he tries to apologize, she stops him. This was for fun. For blowing off steam. Mission accomplished. He won’t hurt her feelings. He agrees it was fun. The first fun he had in a very long time. He thanks her. The mistakes he made won’t wash away so easily. He has to go… make it right. She offers to pretend this never happened. Let’s not do the last part, Piotr decides. Okay, she smiles.
A border patrol finds Cable and holds a gun to his head. He recognizes him as the mutant terrorist from the news. He’s gonna call in, get a fat reward. He was told he wouldn’t have any border trouble, Cable remarks. Henny’s out sick, is the reply, and nobody paid him off. He’s going down!
Cable grabs the man’s rifle and disarms him. No, he’s not. He steals the man’s car and straps his bike on the roof. He can’t leave him out here to die! the guard shouts, Cable throws him a cell phone.
In Mexico, watched by a crowd, Forge and Nemesis fight a strange duel. Forge in his giant gorilla robot is battling Nemesis on the back of his scorpion (that’s grown quite a bit). Fear is the mind killer, Nemesis who is on the ropes, shouts. The robot slams the scorpion.
Cable joins the crowd. Just in time, Domino greets him. In time for what? Cable asks. Robo monkey versus “mega scorpion,” she suggests. Her money’s on Forge. How’s his daughter? About like you’d expect. Pete took off, Domino informs him. Early this morning.
Soon, Forge gets a trophy and Nemesis proves a sore loser by claiming that the scorpion threw the match. Cable calls them over. He promises they’re going to chase this thing. Put a dent in Deathlok’s head. Suss out who’s all involved. Clear their names. But that has to wait. He got another vision on his way here. Something different, just as nasty. He guesses it won’t be the last. He needs a team. An outlaw X-Force, made up of folks who can do good work on the run. He’d like to have all three of them, but he gets what he’s asking. The whole damn world is on their heels. They are eating them alive in the press.
Domino tells him to stop talking. She’s in. Forge announces he knows better, but so is he. That’s all it takes for them? Nemesis mocks. Grumbled Clint Eastwood vagaries? Let him enumerate his objections: One: their first job together was such a cock-up that they are all now wanted murderous terrorists. Two: all of this hinges on the precognitive headaches of a gun-toting action figure Cable. No offense. Three: his 1943 Stetson stratoliner is sitting in an evidence locker somewhere and he’ll likely never get it back. His answer is no.
They’re gonna need a spaceship, Cable points out. When do they leave? Nemesis asks.
Colossus stands in front of the border patrol, introducing himself and explaining he has come to turn himself in.
