Now she awakes on her bed at the
Unity Squad's HQ with the pair hovering solicitously over her.
Beast bounds in, overjoyed to see his old buddy
Simon Williams back in the ionic flesh.
Hank McCoy has come up with a (scientific gobbledygook) explanation of why kissing Deadpool released WM, but he wonders if Rogue will retain Wonder Man's powers. The sight of her hovering (literally this time) over the bed suggests she has.
Anna Marie passes on Beast's offer to test her powers. After being used as a lab rat by by the
High Evolutionary's master scientist in the 2nd series of this title, and more tests after she suffered
Terrigen poisoning in
#0 of the current
Avengers series, she's had enough. And Simon kindly answers my question from last issue - when the master scientist apparently removed WM's consciousness from her mind in
v2#1 it merely sent him to sleep until now.
Now Wade gives Simon some news - he's broke. After
Tony Stark had money problems (at the start of the post-
Secret Wars universe) and could no longer fund the
Avengers teams
Steve Rogers persuaded DP to use money he was getting from merchandising to bankroll the Unity Squad. When that wasn't enough Wade siphoned proceeds from his
Mercs For Money gang. And then (which is news to us too) because Simon was presumed dead Wade used
his stash. And currently that's looking after
Cable's hospital bill.
That segues us to the main section of this issue.
Synapse is watching over Cable who closed down his own mind in
#19 to deny
Red Skull access to his powers. It seems various
X-telepaths have failed to revive him, and Synapse's touch doesn't detect any neural activity. But on a hunch she tries contacting the AI in his cybernetic arm instead - and finds herself inside
Nathan Summers' subconscious.
The 1st scene is the
Days Of Future Past future and she's hunted by
Sentinels and the
Hound Rachel Summers. She runs past the graves of various superhumans and finds Cable apparently kneeling over his own inert body. But this 'Cable' is his evil clone
Stryfe who tries to shoot her. But
Emily Guerrero mentally hijacks his nervous system and causes him to shoot himself in the head instead.
Then Emily is confronted by what appears to be her grandfather, the
Shredded Man from
#1-4. But it's really a 'Shredded' version of her future self. Cable knew that in a future Emily would follow her grandfather's path in reducing Earth's population to mutated plants and animals and her fellow
Inhumans. He came back in time to prevent that future by nurturing her hero-side.
As Synapse destroys her future self Cable wakes up in this dreamworld. Emily explains that she noticed his AI
Belle was no longer displayed on his cybernetic arm, which led her to guess that he'd wiped Belle to make room for his own consciousness. Now she uses her neural power to allow that consciousness to transfer back into Nathan's head.
Then they return to reality in the hospital room where Nathan really
is awake. After exchanging explanations Cable pops back to the future - his job here is done.
Deadpool is trying to get Wonder Man's money back by selling the
Schaeffer Theatre that house their HQ. But he learns that no-one will buy it because it's been 'spandexed'. Anyone who buys an old superhero hideout finds themselves a target for old enemies. Simon leaves in disgust.
Then a car draws up bearing
Captain America (
Steve Rogers) who takes Wade away to new job.
Now we have a final scene with most of the rest of the team.
Doctor Voodoo,
Quicksilver and
Wasp share a coffee break.
Jericho Drumm intends to seek out his brother
Daniel who has allied himself with the
Hand.
Janet Van Dyne will collect her stuff and leave. They join Rogue and Synapse as Jericho gets a magic message from someone called
Prixat that Daniel and the Hand are digging up graves in New Orleans. The others all offer to accompany Voodoo to investigate.
For the special marvelite in you