(empdisc recording)
The rebel group known as the Clan Chosen is attacked by the Canaanite army at their base located in the Grand Canyon. Cable directs his troops in a counterattack, ordering his long time friend, Tetherblood to make sure Jenskot is especially protected. Tetherblood, however, informs him that the base is already well protected by Dawnsilk and Tyler. But during the battle, the worst happens; the base is completely destroyed by an explosion, causing Cable to go into a panic.
Before he can make it to the remains of the base, he is stopped by Boak, who warns him that the sight isn’t pretty. Cable pushes him aside, and soon finds Jenskot amongst the debris. As he cradles her dying form in his arms, Jenskot forces Cable to promise her that he will look after her son Tyler, at which point she dies. Boak then mournfully informs Cable that it wasn’t the Canaanites who killed his wife and kidnapped their son; it was the chaos-bringer, Stryfe.
(reality)
The program ends, and the images fade, leaving the man known as Garrison Kane with the lasting impressions that the Empdisc has given him. As it turns out, it has been a year since Cable first brought Kane to the far future, and he has spent a great deal of that time researching Cable’s past.
After returning the empdisc to the archive, Kane leaves the library and makes his way through the city of Applecrust, once known as New York. Not much has changed this far in the future, the city is even more corrupt and rotten, but it hasn’t lost any of its glitz and lights. However, while on his way back to the secret base of the Clan Chosen, Kane is jumped by a gang of punks, sent by the now in power, Neo-Canaanites. During the scuffle, Kane shows of his new prosthetics that he has gained upon his arrival, as the synth-skin transmutes into metal, blasters move into place on his shoulders. Kane quickly makes short work of the punks and escapes into the back alleys.
Elsewhere, the leader of the Neo-Canaanites, General Haight, has taken a special interest in Kane, a man with literally no past. The General considers such a man a threat, realizing that Kane can only be a time traveler of some sort, and calls in the Flatliners, a group of armored commandos. The Flatliners promise to eliminate the Kane anomaly before he can interfere in the General’s plans, at which point the General informs them that he would hate to have to call in Sinsear.
Later, Kane finally makes it back to the Clan Chosen base, and is chastised for venturing into the city and looking up information at the archive. Kane explains that he wants to know what happened to Tyler after he was kidnapped by Stryfe, at which point the Adam-Unit known as Eleven projects a holographic recording of those events.
(holographic recording)
It portrays the Clan Chosen, led by Cable, making their way through the Lake Michigan venting tunnels, where they are suddenly attacked by the automated defenses. It is then that Stryfe made his appearance, and he is not alone. Tyler has been brainwashed, and is holding Dawnsilk, one of the Clan Chosen, as a hostage. Faced with a no-win scenario, Cable shoots his own son and then teleports the rest of the team away, leaving Stryfe with a triumphant smile…their battle is far from over.
(reality)
After the program ends, Kane begins to realize just how Cable became such a cold and hard soldier, by making such impossible decisions. Kane also comes to the conclusion that the only reason that Cable hasn’t returned to the future is because he must have died in the past.
Just then, the wall explodes behind Kane as the Flatliners attack. The Clan Chosen are quick to retaliate, however Dawnsilk is taken hostage again with a blade to the throat. But before the Flatliner can carry out the threat, a blast to the Flatliner’s head ends the confrontation. And to the much disbelieving eyes of the Clan Chosen, Cable now stands before them … somewhat changed, sporting a goatee among other things, but very much alive.
Cable warns them that the Flatliners are rigged to explode if they should be defeated, and the team escapes just as their base explodes behind them.
Elsewhere, located in the African Nations Continental Alliance, a rebel force has been decimated. General Haight witnesses the destruction and death around him; he has come here for one being in particular. The one-man army known as Sinsear. General Haight wants Cable dead; however he wants him eliminated before the Clan Chosen even existed.
Elsewhere again, The Clan Chosen has reconvened at the abandoned Adirondack Mountain base, the same base that X-Force once used. Cable has a plan to return to the past, he wants to raid the Tinex and use it to travel back, but he also wants it destroyed after he leaves. The only person capable of doing that without ripping the Earth’s E-M field is Hope. However Hope has never forgiven Cable for allowing her sister and nephew to die. But Hope reluctantly agrees, at which point Cable points out that the new Tinex was built into Niagara Falls. Kane asks why the Tinex was built, and who they were sent back to eliminate, at which point Cable points out that’s it’s him.
