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NEXUS #1: EXPLORERS Part One: Beginnings written by Brawl NeXus #1: Explorers- Part One: Beginings Cable looked at his new teammates. He had to leave his universe, no, was forced to leave his universe to prevent its destruction by the M'Kraan crystal. But when he got there, and without Clarice Ferguson, his girlfriend, he was forced into something again, this time waiting for this team to get it together. He looked at "his" two second-in-commands, a girl called Phase and a guy named Brawl. He could sense the two really liked each other but were arguing venomously. He looked up and down the table for the third time that minute. The team was mostly unfamiliar to him. There was some kid in futuristic clothes, a girl who sat with her hands over her ears moaning in discomfort, and a couple who hadn't let each other's hands go since they got there. The guy was well built and seemed to have a telepathic sense. The girl looked around slowly and carefully. Her movments were extremly fluid and cat-like. Then there was the three familiar people. One looked like Paige Guthrie and clasped hands with a young man who looked near exactly like the villanous Synch, except his slightly slanted eyes. And the third was Jubilee, or so it appeared. She had introduced herself as Banshee, but didn't look a thing like Sean Cassidy. Cable's attention was caught by two new arrivals. One was a masked woman dressed in all black. The other was the first person Cable met when he got there: Robert Drake. Robert looked exactly the Iceman of his universe, minus the ice sheath. Brawl was the first to speak up when the two new arrivals sat down. "Why on Earth are we here?" he inquired, raising his voice a lot; it boomed around the room. The girl with her hands over her ears moaned louder. Robert walked over to the girl and, after forcing her hands away from her ears, placed two small devices in her ears. She spoke for the first time after heaving a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you," she whispered in a mezzo-soprano voice. Robert nodded in acknowledgement. "You're welcome," Robert replied. "To answer your question Mr. Rynare," he went on, addressing Brawl, "we're here to prevent the destruction of all your universes." "Whoa," Phase interjected. "All our universes?" "Yes," the woman in black rasped, "every last one. Even the base universe." "But why us?" Banshee asked. The woman looked at her. {Because you are the best of the best from the variant universes,} she said telepathically. "Wait," Paige said. "Why'd you just talk telepthically when we know you have your voice?" {Would you rather listen to my rasp or this voice?} Before anyone could answer the woman continued. {We must introduce ourselves. You all know Drake. I am Contral.} That sounded too much like "Control" for Cable's liking. He suppresed a nervous twicting of his shoulders. {If you'd like to introduce yourselves...} Contral motioned to Cable. He stood to introduce himself. "Uh, I'm Cable," he said, "I'm a psion." Brawl stood. "Brawl. Tactile telekinetic." "I'm Nikki," Phase said. "My codename's Phase. That's my power, too." "Jubilation Lee," Banshee said. "Codename's Banshee. Can turn just 'bout any type of energy into sonic blasts." "Cluster," said the boy clasping the girl's hand. "Telepath and seismokinetic." "Katra," said the girl. "Can shapeshift into any kind of cat." "Synch II," Everett said. "I'm a chameleon. Can blend in with and mimic just about anything." "Husk," Paige said, "I can control plants I guess." "Quantum," said the kid in futuristic clothes, "Quim for short. I can control quantum energy." "Blackwolf," said the final person at the table, the girl who didn't like noise. "I got hypertuned senses and enhanced physical attributes." Cable understood now. The noise everyone was making had been disturbing her, maybe even hurting her. Cable smiled at her, his face full of sympathy. She gave him a brief inclination of her head and and small smile. {Good,} Contral said. {Now on to your mission.} ****((X))**** Cable twirled his blasters on his index fingers expertly. Contral insisted she see a display of each of their abilities. That meant a display of Cable's cybernetics, marksmanship, and psionic abilities. He'd be fighting the member of the team with the abilities closest to his own, meaning Cluster, even though Cable overpowered him by a huge margin. The earthquake maker stood across the training room, stretching for the fight. Cable thought it was useless, but started doing the same. The cybernetics in his arms moaned in protest but Cable ignored it. Contral looked down on the two heroes from the control room. "You may proceed," Drake said. Cable nodded. Cluster made no indication that he heard Drake and attacked. The ground underneath Cable buckled under his feet. As Cable was knocked off balance, he smiled. Cluster had caught him unaware, something that wouldn't happen again. "Activate magnetic gravity enhancers!" Cable cried out. The small electro-magnetic devices in his boots kicked in, giving him enough weight on his feet to walk, but too much to be knocked off balance again. He sprayed energy at where Cluster was several second earlier, but the boy had moved. Cable reached down and deactivated the mag-grav devices on his boots manually, against his better judgement. He still crouching, he slid his fingers under a floorplate that had been buckled. He lifted with all his strength. The servomotors in his arms kicked in and the floorplate was torn out of the ground. Cable hefted the plate above his head and gave a command to activate his infrared vision in his electronic eye. As infrared kicked in, he saw Cluster's heat signiture. He threw the floorplate towards Cluster with one hand, making sure it didn't hit him, and gave the command for a single blaster. As his caught the blaster with his free hand, Cluster ran out from his cover. Cable switched the blaster to stun mode and peppered the air above Cluster's head with energy. Cluster ducked and rolled, suing his seismokinetic powers to force a barrier up in front of him. Cable put his blaster away and primed his psionic powers. He could feel Cluster doing the same with his telepathic powers. They sprung at the same time. The two blasts of energy splashed off each other and fizzled out. Cable grinned. "Truce?" he called across the room. Cluster nodded breathlessly. Cluster used his seismokinetic power to straighten out the room. The only sign of their brief combat was a missing floorplate near Cable and the missing floorplate mangled on the ground several feet away from Cluster. Contral came into the room. Cable ran his hand through his hair at the grey streak in his brown hair. Blink had ribbed him back home about having grey hair at age twenty. {Impressive display gentlemen,} Contral said telepathicly. Cable could sense displeasure in the woman nonetheless. "And...?" Cluster sensed the same displeasure apparently. {Cable, you never hit him once,} she said angrily. {You are an extremely poor marksman!} Cable grinned. "Not quite," he said. With that he left and motioned for Cluster to follow. Confused, Contral looked at the scorch marks left by Cable's blasters. They spelled the words "X-Men Forever." ****((X))**** Cable sat by Blackwolf this time at the briefing. He had formed a friendship with the loner mutant. She smiled at him, obviously smitten. Brawl and Phase sat on the other side of Cable, bruised by their encounter. Even though Contral insisted they weren't evenly matched, the two had demanded that they fight each other in the powers display. Sure enough the two had been evenly matched. Cable could see a large goose egg just above the scalp line in Phase's platnuim blonde hair and she had a black eye and numerous bruises besides that. Brawl was severly bruised despite his tactile TK field that he said made him near invulnerable. Cable laughed at the two to himself. He could feel that they had fallen for each other but would refuse to admit it. Contral stood in front of them. {The first operation of Generation Next's mission is to capture one of your enemies, the mutant 'hero' Skin.} Generation Next was a name Cable liked. {You will then bring him here to draw the remainder of our enemies. They are the team of the 616 reality calling themselves... Generation X!} Something about this mission sounded phony to Cable already. ****((X))**** Cable looked at his infiltration team on the roof of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The group was made up of himself, Phase, Blackwolf, Synch, and Katra. Cable had switched on his stealth inhibitors, making him invisible to any kind of detection system. Combined with his all black uniform for missions like this, Cable was completly undetectable by any man-made system, or the naked eye for that matter. He tapped his mask to activate the commlink between himself and Brawl. The remainder of the team was just outside the school's grounds. "Brawl, Cable, any motion in the school?" "Cable, Brawl," came the answer. "Nothi... wait, someone in the kitchen. Looks like someone got up to get a midnight snack." Cable heard Brawl press several keys on the portable console he carried. "I think it's our man," he continued. "Same height, build, and so on." Cable nodded. "We're moving now," he said and motioned to the team. They started moving towards the school. Cable followed behind the rest of the group to gather his thoughts. Contral had gathered all her information from the asteroid that the team had been using for a base. Cable hadn't even realized that they were in space the entire time. He saw Synch blend in with the bricks and Phase disappear slowly as she scaled the wall. Katra morphed into a black housecat and slinked down the wall with grace standard to cats. Blackwolf dug her fingers into the brickwork and scaled in that fashion. Cable tapped his legs. The servo-motors whirred in reply and Cable jumped off the roof. Why they had even scaled the school in the first place was beyond him, but he couldn't think about his decision just then. He rolled to absorb the impact of his landing. He stood quickly. "What do we do now?" Phase asked, suddenly materializing next to him. Cable jumped slightly. "We hurry in and out," Cable answered. "Got it?" Blackwolf flexed her bicep. "Definitely," she said. The others nodded in agreement. "Okay," Cable said, "cover me." Puzzled, the team nodded. Cable sprinted towards the window and dived through. Angelo Espinosa jumped in surprise and took up a defensive position. Cable shook his head. "I'm not here to hurt you," he said calmly. Angelo frowned. Cable was reminded of the Skin of his reality. "Listen, I'll explain on the way out, but you have to look like you struggled, got it?" "Why should I?" Angelo replied defiantly. "Trust me," was all Cable said in reply. Angelo looked undecided for an instant. Cable opened a psionic channel between them. Angelo started nodding. "Let's go." Angelo lunged at Cable. He was impressed. When he suggested that Angelo looked like they'd struggled, Cable didn't think he would start a fake fight. They sparred for about a minute and Cable threw him out the broken window, all according to his hasty plan. Cable jumped through the window behind Skin and saw that his teammates had Skin. Cable quickly reassured him telepathicly and Angelo flashed him an affirmative. Cable made a quick scan of the school. Only Jonothon Starsmore was awoken, but he wouldn't be able to get outside in time to "rescue" his teammate. They sprinted to the rendezvous point and teleported back up to the astroid. ****((X))**** Cable was able to convince Brawl to let him interrogate Skin. Cable decided to confront Contral first though. He walked into her office without knocking. "Why on Earth did we run that mission?" he asked angrily. "Skin is a menace," Contral said, too startled by his sudden appearance to us her telepathy, "as is the remainder of Generation X." "That's a crock of bull and we both know it!" Cable exclaimed in reply. "Generation X is almost an exact replica of the X-Terminators in my reality. Clarice is one of the only members missing. And to Skin's knowledge, she's dead!" Suddenly, Cable realized that Contral wasn't wearing her mask. Her face still remained in the shadows. He tried probing telepathicly to get her to move into the light. {Don't attempt it Cable!} she shouted in his head. Cable pounded the desk, his rage starting to boil to the surface. "I have one question," Cable said cooly, his white-hot rage about to explode. "Why me? You could have picked any Cable from any reality or any other hero for that matter." He leaned in closer, his voice quieted to a whisper. "Why do you pick me to lead?" {You and your reality are unique,} Contral said, finally gaining her composture enough to use her telepathy completely. {Your world is a combination several factors that are seen in other universes, but ot in the number they are in your universe. One: Apocalypse rules on your world, despite what your X-Men have tried. Two: your universe is invaded by an alien race. Three: Clarice Ferguson is alive, although she should be dead.} Cable nodded in reply. Clarice was from another universe entirely, or at least something to that effect. {Four: you returned to the past as a teenager. There are several more but the most important beyond the ones I just told you is this: Charles Xavier exists in your universe. Yes I know it's just a clone, but he still exists!} Contral pulled her mask over her face and stepped into the light. {Is that everything Cable?} "You'd better hope I don't tell anyone else about this," Cable declared and stormed out of the room. Cable didn't know that Contral had a failsafe against him. Contral didn't know that Cable was going to tell Brawl and Phase immediately. And neither knew that Drake heard the entire conversation. ****((X))**** Angelo stood when he came into the room. Cable looked at him. Angelo looked hopeful. What he had to tell him wasn't good. Brawl and Phase stepped into the room behind Cable. He heard Banshee just outside with Synch. The two were there "just in case." Cable hadn't told them about Contral. "Well?" Skin asked. "Contral wants to kill you and then your team," Cable stated, his anger at the woman evident in his voice. "The three of us are the only ones that know the truth about Generation X." Skin gave him a puzzled look. "Truth?" came the question. "Contral, the woman that brought us together, insists your team is evil," Brawl replied. "We all know it's quite the opposite. In fact, many of us, myself included, have worked with a version of Generation X." "We need to get your team up here and take the astroid from Contral," Cable said. They quickly outlined their plan to Skin. He nodded in agreement. "I'm in, amigos," he said, "when do we start?" "Now," three voices replied in unison. ****((X))**** Skin attacked Cable with all his strength. The cyborg warrior flew into the hallway where Synch and Banshee waited. Jubilation knelt by Cable. "I'm okay, get in there and help the others," he commanded. Banshee nodded and they both ran inside. Phase had disappeared and Brawl was unconscious against the wall. Skin was gone as well. A grate in the ceiling hung ajar. Synch jumped into the vent and started crawling. Cable came into the room. "Find them!" he ordered as he picked up Brawl. "Phase could be hurt and Skin's a menace. I'll get Brawl down to the medi-lab." Cable rushed from the room. He ran to the nearest lift. There he was met by Skin and Phase. After the lift doors closed, Brawl looked up. "That was too cool," he whispered. Cable smiled. "Shuttle bays!" he ordered. Within a minute the four heroes were in a shuttle and bound for Earth. They never noticed that another shuttle was missing. The trip to Xavier's was short. As Brawl touched down, Cable noticed that another shuttle was in the yard. The door opened when the shuttle had made a complete landing. Drake stood in the door. "It's about time," he said. "Generation X is waiting inside." Slightly confused, Cable, Brawl, Phase and Skin followed him inside. ****((X))**** "So the four of you are the only ones that know?" Emma Frost asked. The members of Generation Next nodded. "There's a good chance that Contral will attack now," Drake said, "especially after we stole several shuttles." Cable agreed. A thunderous tremor shook the school. "Bloomin' 'ell," Sean Cassidy cried, although not at his full capacity. "Don't they know we have innocents here now." "It's Cluster!" Phase said from her perch at the window. "Him an' Blackwolf are leading the team!" Cable cursed and lept into action. "Get the rest of your team up," he ordered Sean and Emma. "The four of us will try to hold them. Hurry!" A sonic blast shattered the windows in Sean's office. Cable gave the command for his blasters and started firing at Generation Next. Quantum returned fire with a quantum blast. Cable dodged and jumped from the office to the ground. As he landed tendrils of grass started wrapping around his legs. A blast of psionic energy burnt the grass to ashes and Cable fired on Husk with a low intensity blast. The fair-headed heroine went down. By that time, Brawl, Phase, and Drake had entered the fight. Brawl was combating Quantum and Cluster while Phase was exchanging blows with Blackwolf and Synch. Drake was left with Katra and Banshee, and took them both out easily. Four to four was perfect odds. Cable tackled Cluster just as he would have hit Brawl in the solar plexus. The two wrestled for a moment and both kicked away and rolled to their feet. "I'm not going to miss this time Cluster!" Cable said as he re-drew his blasters. "Neither am I!" A fissure opened in the ground beneath Cable. He easily side-stepped and fired three quick shots. One grazed his thigh, another hit his shoulder and the third went wide. Cluster gritted his teeth and lunged at Cable. Cable took advantage of the younger man's rage and dove underneath him. As Cluster sailed over him, Cable's legs drove upward, directly into Cluster's gut. Cluster hit the ground and started clutching his stomach in pain. Cable took stock of the others. Drake had easily crippled Blackwolf by simply yelling in her ears. Phase had bested Synch and was now checking to make sure she hadn't killed him. Brawl held Quantum in a clothes-line and held tightly to the struggling young man. Cable walked up to him. "Quantum," he said calmly, "what were Contral's orders?" "Kill you because you betrayed us to the enemy," Quantum replied. "Just Cable," Brawl said harshly into his ear, "or all four of us?" "And Generation X." The statement was made just in time for the team of young mutants to hear as they walked out of the school. "Think rationaly boy," Sean said. "Have you worked with Generation X on your world?" "Yes," was the reply. "Were they evil?" The question hung in the air for moments. "No." "Why do you think we are?" Sean asked. Quantum suddenly looked puzzled. "I don't know." Emma gasped. "I do," she said. "All but the four that came here to warn us have a psionic command in their head, insisting we're evil. Contral has manipulated you all." "Oh man," Quantum muttered to himself, "she's gonna pay." "You betcha," Cable said. He turned and walked into the school.
