(A very secluded room in a very secluded mountain chalet in Vail, Colorado. 8:22 AM, December 3)
As per the wish of Gideon, Adam opens the fighting sequence in his training room. Gideon can train with the best robots Shaw Industries has to offer him. Gideon isn’t impressed, as he beats them easily, and because the robots are too noisy. He orders Adam to send a note about that to Sebastian. Adam doesn’t understand how Gideon’s powers can defeat the robots, but Gideon demonstrates his powers to his partners and shows off.
After the morning workout, Adam informs Gideon about his agenda for today: at 12:00, he has a meeting with the Taylor Foundation. At 12:30, he has lunch with Ms. Chaffee, and at 2:00 he’ll have to be check the DaCosta stock inquiry. At 3:00, the Roxxon and the Savage Land oil leases, at 4:00 another workout, and dinner remains open.
Gideon suggests visiting New Orleans, maybe with Ms. Chaffee, if lunch goes well. He wants to know if they’ve got someone with their dear old friend, Emmanuel DaCosta. Adam informs that they have their agent, Eve, present. That’s splendid, and so Gideon orders to have her proceed as planned.
Cable has a hard time in the Danger Room, fighting some simulative robots. Cannonball tries to help him out, but Cable orders Sam to stay back. Sam wants to practice his powers, so he ignores his boss. That’s fine by Cable, who lets Sam rescue him, but commands the Danger Room to start a more advanced program. Sam has to dodge some spikes, which come out of the walls, and ends that perfectly. Cable wants to try out something different. He wants Sam to dodge several things that come at him at the time. Cable transforms his metal arm into a blaster, and shoots at Sam, who can just barely dodge the blast.
(the school, 9:12 AM, December 5)
Sam knows that he could dodge the attack, but he wanted to try to turn down the volume of his blast field at the same time as well, and he failed to do that. Sam asks Cable what’s up with the armblaster, but he simply answers that he thought it was time for some improvements. Nonetheless, Cable admires Sam for the good thinking about trying to try to damp the volume of his force field, as he thinks it would be a great asset for the team.
Sam becomes angry, as he tells Cable that there isn’t much left of the team. Cable knows that. He checks the team roaster: Warlock died in action, which soldiers often tend to do. He’s a casualty of war. Cable thinks that Wolfsbane or deserted the team, or is a prisoner somewhere. Sam corrects the boss that they aren’t soldiers: they’re a family. Cable doesn’t agree, as they are fighting in a war, which makes them soldiers. And he tells Sam that he would do best to start acting the part.
(office of Emmanuel DaCosta at Brazil, 1:22 PM, December 4)
A day earlier. Eve, Emmanuel’s secretary, gives him the coffee he had ordered. Eve leaves. Emmanuel drinks of it, but the coffee has been poisoned, and the man dies. Eve smiles.
(sub-basement of X-mansion, 2:45 PM, December 5)
Rictor angrily tries to convince Boom-Boom to help him find Wolfsbane. He is sick of not hearing from her, but Tabitha doesn’t know what they can do with their “puny powers.” She fears that they are going to end up the same way like Rahne: either killed or captive or missing. That’s fine by Rictor. He tells her that he doesn’t need Tabitha, and goes out to find Rahne himself.
(the school library, 2:51P.M.)
While Cable is reading some books, he is suddenly shot! Luckily, he survives and meets his attacker, who introduces himself as Deadpool. He explains to Nathan that he has been hired by Mr. Tolliver to find him, which he now has. Oh, and Deadpool jokes, Tolliver also hired him to kill Cable! Deadpool doesn’t have anything personal against Cable, but he just does his job. Cable tells Deadpool that Tolliver got himself into trouble because he talks too much. Deadpool claims that Tolliver informed him that Cable is the cause of all his troubles, so that’s why he wants him down.
Cannonball successfully manages to attack Deadpool from behind, and has succeeded in turning the volume of his force field down. Deadpool gets up and throws some wires at Sam, which go through his force field and capture him! Deadpool jokes about it, and thereby doesn’t notice Cable attacking him from behind. Cable punches the assassin, breaking his jaw. Deadpool hates when that happens, so he takes out his knife and throws it into Cable’s leg!
Deadpool is attacked by Rictor, who used an earthquake to startle the man. The rest of the New Mutants show up as well, and Deadpool seems to know them all. Deadpool throws some more wires, which take out Rictor first, because Deadpool sees Rictor’s vibratory powers as the one most dangerous. Rictor tries to shake the coils loose, but Deadpool warns the New Mutant not to do that, because the more energy Rictor expends, the tighter they’ll constrict. Sunspot attacks Deadpool, who prepares to throw some knives at him.
But once more, he is attacked from behind, and gets thrown three blades in his back! The man collapses, and Domino steps forward. She came because Cable called, like always. Cable thanks her for that and asks Domino where she has been. Around, she answers, and back again, it seems. She asks Cable how his “baby-sitting” is going. Cable answers that it could be worse, or better. They tie Deadpool up, and both smile as they plan to send him back to Tolliver – since they know how he deals with failures. The New Mutants are surprised to actually see Cable smile.
(11:45 PM)
Domino and Cable check their options for the team. Rusty Collins is aligned with the Mutant Liberation Front, and too difficult to liberate right now. Skids Blevins is also with the MLF, but Cable doesn’t like her powers in the field. He doesn’t see Xi’an as a team player, and thinks she has her own agenda. Domino finds that a shame since telepaths can come in handy. Domino likes Magma’s fire powers too, but Cable informs her that Amara is holding up in Nova Roma, the jungle civilization, and doesn’t seem her worthy of the effort. Last up is Danielle Moonstar, who became a Valkyrie and stayed in Asgard. Domino doesn’t understand that, but Cable tells her not to try.
Domino doesn’t see much they can work with. Cable either, but he claims to have already taken steps to remedy that.
(11:53 PM)
Rictor writes Boom-Boom a note that he has left to find Rahne. He leaves the basement and takes off.
(1:32 PM)
Gideon approaches the sleeping Sunspot. He wakes Bobby and informs him with some terrible news: his father has had a heart attack, and is dead!
