The New Mutants # 98 - The Beginning Of The End Part One

Meanwhile, Cable and Cannonball experienced their own training session in the Danger Room.  Cannonball stole Cable's combatent, so Cable set up a slalom for Cannonball to fly through.  He managed it with ease, while keeping the roar from his blast field muted.  Cable then transformed his robotic arm into a laser and fired at Cannonball.  He managed to avoid the attack, but the break in his concentration meant that his blast field began to roar loudly again.  Cannonball was deflated, but Cable spurred him on, hoping that one day he'd be able to expand his blast field into a protective defence.  However, Cannonball was more concerned about the decreasing size of the team.  Cable described Warlock a casualty of war, and called Wolfsbane a prisoner or possible defector.

In the office of Emmanuel DaCosta, Eve wore purple high heels with a matching purple strapless dress.  She brought Mr DaCosta his early afternoon coffee.  He heels clicked along the office floor as she left.  Unaware of anything suspicious, Emmanuel DaCosta drank his coffee and instantly began to gasp for air and clutch at his chest.  Eve stood silhouetted in the doorway looking triumphant as his dead body hit the floor.

A little later, Boom-Boom teased Rictor and accused him of being suicidal.  He was angry that it had been weeks since they had left Wolfsbane in Genosha (see X-Factor #62).  Rictor wanted to go back to Genosha and save her, but knew that his power alone wasn't enough.  He asked Boom-Boom to go with him, but she admitted that she could do little more than create pot-holes with her time-bombs.  Rictor ran out the room threatening to run away.  Boom-Boom claimed that Cable wouldn't let him, but Rictor wasn't going to ask for permission to leave.  Boom-Boom was left alone talking to herself as she considered what they could do next.

A few minutes later, Cable came under attack while looking for a book in the library.  Deadpool addressed Cable as 'Nathan' and introduced himself as Mr Tolliver's hired hitman.  He held Cable at gun point as he told him not to take it personally and took the measure of Cable's calculating personality.  Deadpool was clear that Mr Tolliver blamed Cable for something that had gone wrong.  Just as Deadpool said 'Arrivederci' to Cable, Cannonball silently flew up behind him and stunned him.  Deadpool wasn't knoncked out, and threw a neural disrupter net at Cannonball.  The net ate threough his blast field, causing Cannonball to fall out of the air.  Cable then punched Deadpool with his right then left hooks.  Deadpool's jaw had been broken, but he continued to talk.  He threw a knife into Cable's left leg, causing him to fall.  However, Deadpool hadn't expected an attack from Rictor's powers.  Boom-Boom, Rictor and Sunspot ran into the library.  Deadpool neutralised Rictor with constricting wires around his throat.  Just as Boom-Boom and Sunspot considered how to attack Deadpool, there were three 'thunk' noises and Deadpool fell forward with three knives in his back.  A white-skinned woman with bobbed black hair and a black spot over her left-eye stood behind Deadpool.  She greeted Cable and he addressed her as Domino (see Copycat).  She sarcastically asked him how his new babysitting business was going.

Soon they had Deadpool's back wounds dressed and bound his hands behind his back.  Cable considered what to do with him, so Deadpool suggested a chance to rehabilitate in a prison in the Bahamas.  Cable and Domino threatened to send him back to Mr Tolliver who hated failure.  Boom-Boom, Cannonball & Sunspot were amazed to see Cable smiling around Domino.  Boom-Boom compared them to Bonnie & Clyde.

Close to midnight, Domino and Cable conferred in private.  Cable revealed that he had mailed Deadpool back to Tolliver by Federal Express.  Domino asked to know what personnel they would have available to them.  Cable recalled the previous living members of the New Mutants.  According to Cable Rusty & Skids had defected to the Mutant Liberation Front, Karma had her own agenda, Magma was not worth the effort recruiting from her home in Nova Roma, and Moonstar was worth forgetting.  Domino was disappointed with the lack of choice, but Cable confessed he had taken steps to rectify that.

A few minutes later, Rictor pushed open the hatch from the underground complex.  He ran away into the night.  Boom-Boom was sound asleep, unaware of the letter he'd left for her.  It was addressed to Tabitha, and he declared that he was going to find Wolfsbane to live happily ever after.

In the small hours of the morning, Sunspot was woken up.  Gideon has snuck into the underground complex and avoided all the security features to reach Sunspot.  Sunspot was shocked to learn that his father had died from a heart attack.

Note:  The character introduced as Domino is in fact the shape-shifter Copycat.