BIOGRAPHY - Page 13
Cable had reached his lowest point, operating with virtually no powers, no resources and no support. His precognitive visions still pushed him into action, though, despite no longer being capable of handling what he could before. Nate teamed-up with Wade when he had a vision of Deadpool apparently shooting Carl Weathers, creator of a temporal harness. An assassin named Split Second, wearing a future version of the same harness, arrived to influence events and Weathers' son was killed in the crossfire. The temporal harness went haywire, dropping Cable and Deadpool back before the fight took place. Events continued to loop over and over again until Wade defeated Split Second. By that point, however, the temporal harness had rewound time too many times in an isolated pocket, creating a temporal anomaly.
Nate and Wade were cast 35 years into the future, Split Second's starting point. As a time anomaly himself, Cable suffered considerably from the anomaly created by Split Second's suit. In fact, the presence of a veteran time traveler like Cable at Split Second's anomaly had a catastrophic effect on the timestream as a whole. A chronal cancer began to emanate out from Nate's personal timeline, fracturing the multiverse and causing severe temporal stress on Cable himself, creating a lesion in his brain. Deadpool was recruited by the Time Variance Authority to correct the anomaly by killing divergent versions of Cable, "pruning" the contradictory threads of 
Nate's timeline. Deadpool chose instead to save the various Cables he met, which not only stabilized the timestream anyway but closed the temporal loop began decades earlier when a young Nate observed Deadpool saving him at various points in his life.
Although the TVA was satisfied, the temporal chaos wasn't quite settled. Deadpool had to loop through time again, preventing Split Second from assassinating Cable, which created a divergent Cable restored to his full powers who wanted revenge on Split Second. This Cable then tried to kill HIMSELF, following the TVA's original theory that his chronal cancer would be cured by eliminating other divergent Nathan Daysprings. Deadpool stopped Cable from his self-assassination spree, and instead encouraged Nate to accept his divergences. This proved to be the final cure for Cable and the multiverse. A combination of Nate's psychic abilities and his status as a time traveler, mixed with the temporal harness he was wearing, allowing multiple divergent copies of Cable to congregate into a single timeline and merge into a single, integrated Cable. Nathan was reincarnated as a new and improved version of himself, apparently becoming younger, restoring both his mutant powers and his artificial arm. At peace for the first time in many years, Nate thanked Wade for his help. [Deadpool & Cable: Split Second #1-3]
Cable re-established himself as a crusading protector of the timeline, on guard for anachronisms and disruptive influences on the timestream as a whole. In the near-future, he confronted Stryfe again and renewed their ongoing struggle. Cable also acquired an artificial intelligence in the year 2087 named Belle, patterned like a sailor's tattoo of a pretty girl on his bionic arm. In that year, he found the planet overwhelmed by mutagenically altered plant life and the Terrigen Mists. Nate found archival information showing Deadpool and his new teammates in the Avengers Unity Division fought the early spread of these plants in Boston. Instead of pursuing Stryfe, Cable decided to return to the present and assist Wade.
Cable met up with Deadpool and the Unity Division under Rogue's command, explaining what he had seen in the future. They organized against the Shredded Man, a NuHuman responsible for the outbreak. One of the Avengers' new members, Synapse, was also a NuHuman and immune to the Inhuman pathogens spreading in Boston, so she scouted ahead. Cable had a psychic flash that Synapse would kill the Shredded Man and inadvertently condemn the Earth when the eco-terrorist was no longer around to control his plants. Cable intervened and learned Synapse was actually the Shredded Man's granddaughter, Emily. Seizing an opportunity, Cable used a formula prepared by Belle to remove Synapse's immunity to the Shredded Man's toxins. This forced the NuHuman to reverse his attack on Boston in order to save his granddaughter. Cable agreed to keep Emily's family secret for the time being. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #2-4]
Steve Rogers offered Cable a place on the Avengers Unity Division while Nate was operating in this timeline. To spice the deal, Rogers revealed he and Rogue had a mission to locate and neutralize the Red Skull, since the villain violated the grave of Charles Xavier to steal his telepathic brain. Nathan was more than willing to assist the team when phrased like that. Furthermore, Cable found himself trapped in the present when he next tried to time jump. Running a diagnostic, Belle found a temporal anchor Stryfe had apparently attached to Cable during their last encounter in 2087. And so, while still pursuing his own agendas and working to disentangle the temporal anchor, Cable became an active member of the Avengers. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #5]
Nathan worked with the team uncovering the secrets of Pleasant Hill, combating the insane robot Ultron, and confronting the Death Celestial with Earth's heroes when it arrived in Manhattan. Cable also took it upon himself to train Synapse in her neurological powers, which had many parallels to his own telepathic powers. He helped her explore the boundaries of what she could accomplish, while also improving her self-esteem and confidence as a neophyte hero. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #7-11, Civil War II #1]
Cable never lost sight of the mutant agenda as a whole, however, and worked behind the scenes with Rogue and other agents to investigate the M-Pox caused by the clouds of Terrigen Mists. This led to them attacking U.S. military installations where the government was apparently synthesizing a weaponized version of the mists to use against mutants. Captain America learned of their actions, thanks to the Inhuman seer, Ulysses, and tossed the mutants off of the Unity 
Division. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #13-14] Although Rogers disbanded the Unity Division (in part because of his secret status as an agent of Hydra), Rogue and Deadpool decided to maintain the team in spite of losing Rogers' sanctioning. The others followed suit and Cable rejoined the Avengers as they fought a magically reanimated and possessed Hulk in Japan. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #16-17]
The time came when the telepathic Red Skull launched a strike on the Unity Division. Cable and most of the roster except for Deadpool were captured by the Skull. He attempted to brainwash the team into serving as his puppets, but Cable fought back fiercely against Shmidt's telepathic influence. Cable was powerful, but the mind of Charles Xavier was ultimately too strong, and Nathan was doomed to lose. Seeing no alternative, he activated the "lifeboat protocol" and seemingly wiped his own mind in order to prevent the Red Skull from accessing his Omega-level psychic powers and knowledge of the future. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #18-19]
Rogue and Deadpool managed to rally their allies and free the other Avengers from the Red Skull's control. Beast performed brain surgery to remove the telepathic elements of the Skull's enhanced brain, and Charles Xavier's brain was cremated, finally giving him peace. Cable seemed beyond recovery, but Synapse realized Nate had tricked the Skull, hiding his mind inside the circuitry of his bionic arm. While mentally recovering Cable's consciousness, Emily learned she had joined her grandfather the Shredded Man by the original 2087 from which Cable had arrived, and was complicit in that future. Cable had remained in the present, not just because of the Red Skull, but to train Synapse and guide her down the correct path. Now that Synapse was ready and the Skull neutralized, Cable decided it was time to move on. With a parting thank you to Emily for saving him, Cable left the present and the Avengers, returning to his patrol of the timestream. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #22-23]
As he moved backwards and forwards through time, Cable battled several anachronisms and time bandits, overcoming the warlord known as Conquest and dealing with the External named Gideon, who returned from the future as a time-traveling murderer of his own kind. [Cable (3rd series) #1-5, Cable (1st series) #150-154] Things went bad in the present during Cable's absence, however. Deadpool's family was infected with a bio-weapon and, unable to reach Nate, Wade was forced to deal with Stryfe. The Chaos-Bringer saved the four lives Deadpool asked, but demanded Deadpool take four lives for him in return. Cable was his first target. Nate was surprised by Deadpool's attack, and even lost Belle and his cybernetic arm in the fight that followed. Cable was only saved when the Time Variance Authority arrived to arrest him, believing him to be the time terrorist Stryfe. [Despicable Deadpool #287]
After Deadpool fought his way into the TVA to kill Cable, Nate got the drop on Wade and after they escaped forced him to explain his actions. Cable and Deadpool considered going back in time to the night Stryfe made his deal with Wade, ambushing the Chaos-Bringer there. Nate received a temporal message from himself, however, warning that Stryfe was prepared for an ambush and carrying out that plan would lead to their deaths and the total annihilation of New York. [Despicable Deadpool #288-289]
Running out of options, Cable and Deadpool visited the Junction Box, a hub for time travel activity and various doppelgangers of Cable moving from one timeline to the next. In order to give Stryfe what he wanted and preserve Deadpool's family, Cable decided to find a future version of himself that could die without affecting the timestream. Nate was forced to allow Deadpool to murder 
"Omega Cable", an ancient future version of Nate resting at the End of the Universe. Deadpool brought the heart of Omega Cable to Stryfe to complete their deal, giving Cable a chance to strike back at his evil clone. Deadpool got a phone call from the future, however, learning that Stryfe would get away and still threaten his family. He got Cable to abandon his attack on Stryfe by claiming he had planted a bomb near Hope, forcing Nate to seek her out and disarm it. Stryfe didn’t succeed in killing Cable, but he may have destroyed the friendship between Nate and Wade. [Despicable Deadpool #290-291]
Throughout his life, Nathan was followed by his oldest friend, Metus. The techno-organic shape-shifter held on to his sense of betrayal towards Dayspring, and sought him out whenever Cable seemed to have found love and support. He attacked Nate during the era of the original X-Force, with Nate Grey, with Hope in the far future, and many other occasions. At the Xavier Institute in Central Park, Metus attacked Hope again while she was visiting, leaving her with a scar over her eye like her father’s. Cable learned about the attack, and realized it was time to end Metus’ threat once and for all.
Cable and Hope hadn’t spoken since she fired him from X-Force, and their reunion was uncomfortable at first. Neither of them were naturally inclined to open up to others, but with each other they made the effort. Wounds healed, and Nate apologized for being an absentee father. He recruited Hope into setting a trap for Metus. When the shape-shifter appeared, Hope mimicked Nathan’s telekinesis and they both held him still long enough for Cable to make contact. 
Dayspring reabsorbed the techno-organic viral load from Metus’ body, purging him of the infection. With Hope’s help, he recreated the process he once used to purge himself of the T-O virus temporarily and expelled the excess viral material he absorbed from Metus out of his body. Cable had finally taken steps to make right his oldest crime and brought a dazed and regretful Metus to the Xavier Institute where he could finally learn how to control his gifts. [Cable (1st series) #155-159]
As a self-declared “time cop,” preserving the timeline from anomalies and paradoxes was Cable’s duty. So, it was always something of a curiosity that he allowed his own parents and the other members of the Original Five X-Men to remain in the present uncontested for as long as he did. Taking a long view on the timeline, Cable believed the risk was worth it for the impact the O5 had on the present, and the lessons they would ultimately bring back through the past. Time ran out on this precarious plan, however, as the time-jumping Hound Master Ahab would soon interrupt Cable’s guidance of the timeline and kill young Bobby Drake, a paradox which would unravel the timeline in both directions.
Seeking to prevent this disaster, Cable sought out teenaged Iceman in New York City, where he was already under attack. It wasn’t Ahab who found him, though, but Cable’s own younger self. This Kid Cable arrived from an Askani future that was deconstructing in real time because of 
Ahab’s success. Possessing the adult Cable’s determination and none of his patience, Kid Cable planned to abduct Drake and the other O5 before forcibly returning them to the past. He got the drop on his older self, disgusted with the old Cable’s failure of duty. In a convenience store on a side street of Manhattan in the early 21st century, Nathan Summers was gunned down and murdered by his own earlier incarnation. [Extermination #1]
Cable was hardly a man unprepared for his own death, and his passing triggered a series of Casket Protocols. Hope saw to the security of his necessary safehouses while the remainder went on high alert. Deadpool fulfilled Cable’s last request to preserve his body, preventing his DNA or techno-organics from being dug up and abused. Greymalkin II was secretly restored in orbit and Belle saw to its maintenance and systems. She oversaw the monitoring of Stryfe activity and other concerns to the timeline for Cable’s inevitable return. [X-Men: The X-Terminated #1, Cable (4th series) #10]