BIOGRAPHY - Page 3
Banshee and Forge hooked up with and shared a few adventures with X-Factor and soon they were joined by Storm and her new partner, Gambit. The reunion between Forge and Storm was 
awkward since, thanks to the meddling of the villain Nanny, Storm now had the body of a prepubescent girl. [Days of Future Present crossover] That problem was soon to be solved however when the various X-teams found themselves hunted by the Genoshan troops. Several New Mutants, as well as Storm, were kidnapped and the other X-teams followed, trying to get them out. During the drawn-out battle, Storm was once more restored to her original appearance. [X-Tinction Agenda crossover]
Soon after, the X-Men met with Professor Xavier in the Shi’ar galaxy and finally realized that Xavier’s archenemy, the Shadow King, had the Muir Island residents in his power. Using the backdoor Forge left in the defense system, they snuck in but most of them were nevertheless nailed and converted by the possessed Muir Islanders. Forge, owever, stayed free and cobbled 
together some gadgets that allowed him to free several other X-Men, such as Wolverine, Rogue and Banshee. Eventually, while Xavier, the original X-Men and Storm fought the Shadow King on the astral plane, Forge helped to banish him by using Psylocke’s psychic knife to disrupt the physical nexus of the Shadow King – Polaris. [The Muir Island Saga]
With the reorganization of the X-teams, Forge mainly worked in the background as team mechanic, improving the Blackbird, Danger Room, Xavier’s wheelchair and such. The arrival of the new X-Man, Bishop, from the future, put further strain on the relationship between Storm and Forge, a relationship that was already on the rocks, since Storm was too busy with her job to ever find time for her lover. Forge proposed to Storm, but Ororo hesitated. As Jean Grey refused to tell Forge about Storm’s true feelings, Forge became convinced that Storm didn’t love him.
He thought she could never be a complete person outside the X-Men. Therefore, he retracted his proposal and left to help Mystique, who seemed to be on the verge of 
losing her mind at the time, although she may well have been faking that condition. He felt partially responsible for Mystique’s state (as he blamed himself for not saving Destiny on Muir Isle) Ironically, Storm would have said “yes” to his proposal. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #289-290]
At that time, Forge re-established his work as a freelance counselor to the government and helped Xavier on occasion but tried to avoid running into Storm. [Uncanny X-Men #299-300] Mystique stayed with Forge in his newly rebuilt Dallas penthouse for the next few weeks or months. Although she was using that time to secretly dig through his files, they nevertheless formed a close friendship or possibly even more. Forge tried to help Mystique and suggested she seek out psychiatric help (namely the superhero’s shrink of choice, Leonard Samson). He asked her to open up about her life prior to meeting Destiny, as he figured the source of her troubles lay there. Raven, however, when pressed, changed the subject. Eventually, Forge’s home was attacked by the time-displaced mutant, Fitzroy, who was intent on killing Forge as part of the 
Upstarts’ competition. Drawing Fitzroy’s fire on himself, Forge asked Mystique to call help, which she did. She returned to help by impersonating Fitzroy’s archenemy, Bishop, and taunting him. In response, he slashed her through the torso with his claws, grievously injuring her. The X-Men intervened in time to save Forge, who was busy tending to Mystique against Fitzroy, and Bishop recognized Forge as Genesis, the man who, in his future, would come to power after the Summers revolution and be instrumental in forming the X.S.E. (Xavier’s Security Enforcement – the strikeforce Bishop was part of) [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #301-302, X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #4]
Forge didn’t return to the X-Men afterwards, but instead took over Valerie Cooper’s job as liaison to the government’s mutant team, X-Factor (at a fortunate time, since the team and Val had had a serious falling-out of sorts). After first quizzing Havok on why he should keep them on and not just fire the entire team and start from scratch, Forge assured him that he’d do his best to keep the bureaucrats off the team’s backs. [X-Factor (1st series) #93-95]
A short time later, Storm and Forge eventually realized that they both had been partially to blame for their troubled relationship and made up again, though the duties to their teams prevented them seeing each other very often. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #306]
Some time later, the threat of the Phalanx arose, originally an anti-mutant group that had infected themselves with the techno-organic virus of Warlock’s people, forming a techno-organic gestalt. What they had not counted on were the facts that they couldn’t co-opt mutants and that the 
genetic imperative of the aliens, from whom the virus derived, led them to try and co-opt everything. To that end, they had abducted the X-Men and several young mutants. The other X-teams met to fight them. A renegade Phalanx, Douglock, kidnapped Forge and several others to show them the threat of the Phalanx up close. With his mutant power to perceive technology in a different way, Forge was mentally overwhelmed by the Phalanx, who forced him to help them midwife their off-spring. It was only at the last moment, thanks to Nightcrawler’s appeal, that Forge managed to snap out of it, destroying the Phalanx offspring before they could hatch. [Phalanx Covenant crossover]