THE ASKANI’SON RETURNS

By Shawn Gauthier

Author’s Note: This story takes place several days after Apocalypse #1

The desert is not a kind place. The sun, that large hot ball of fire in the sky, seems to cook everything below it. The resulting heat lays heavy over everything in the area, sucking the life and energy out of the living. Very little moves here – it is a dead place. Not the kind of place you would expect to find a symbol of hope. Yet, one is here, slowly crossing the sands of the desert.

This hope comes in the form of a solitary man. He is covered in a dark, hooded cloak that drapes over his shoulders. The hood of the cloak and the sun work in tandem to cast a shadow over the man’s face, masking his features. In his hand he holds a wooden walking stick that he is using to traverse the terrain.

Suddenly, the man’s progress is halted. He tucks his walking stick under one arm and pulls his hood back as he surveys the horizon. He is revealed to be an older gentleman, probably in his forties, with greying hair and a strong jaw. He would appear like any other middle aged man if not for his eyes. His right eye seems to show signs of a wisdom that defies his age, while his left eye seems to have been replaced with fire.

He raises one of his arms from under his cloak until it is perpendicular to the rest of his body. Slowly, as he closes his right eye, he raises his hand until his palm is facing outwards, taking on the shape of some perverse intergalactic traffic cop. The fire in his left eye flares as the man reaches out with some unknown sense.

Using this unknown sense to search for something, the man takes several steps forward, then pivots in place several times before bending down to lay his palm on the sand beneath his feet. A smile stretches across his face as he rises once again to his full height.

Then, using two hands, he raises his walking stick above his head before slamming its tip down into the sand. Immediately the sand begins to shift and continues to shift until it forms a giant wave. The wave carries most of the sand away from the area, revealing a secret door underneath.

The door is embedded in the desert floor and consists of a metal not indigenous to Earth. A tiny camera mounted within the door focuses on the man as he approaches. Not recognizing the stranger, defensive protocols are enacted. Two large laser cannons, one to the left and the other to the right of the man, rise up out of the sand a couple of meters away.

At the speed of light, the man leaps into the air a fraction of a second before the land he’d been standing on has been decimated by laser fire. Meanwhile, in the air, the man contorts his body, enabling him to land right next to one of the laser cannons. Within seconds the far laser canon recalibrates its aim and fires at the man.

As if by magic, the man’s walking stick changes shape from a plain wooden staff to that of a futuristic, technological weapon called a Psi-Lance. As this transformation takes place, the man sweeps the lance in front of him to deflect the laser aimed at him to be deflected back at the laser cannon, causing it to explode. Then, following through with the sweep, the man uses the lance to cut the near by laser cannon in half. It also explodes into a shower of sparks and shrapnel.

Behind the steel doors, in a small dark room sits what used to be a man. Trial is more machine than man, which suits him just fine. The mechanical advancements allow him to better perform his function, that of protecting his master’s hidden fortress. Apocalypse is not a master that you want to disappoint.

In front of him is a computer monitor which he has been using to view the scene that has unfolded just outside the fortress’ main doors.

‘Who was this stranger?’ thinks Trial. ‘How was he able to find the secret access doors hidden beneath tons and tons of sand?’

It’s obvious that he’s a threat to taken seriously. The mysterious stranger has already disabled Trial’s first line of defense, the laser cannons.

‘No matter. He will never be able to get past the second line of defense, the Tag Units.’

Trial’s fingers float over a keyboard as he types in the commands to run the stranger’s picture against all the pictures in Apocalypse’s mutant database. He wants to know the name of this worthy adversary.

Just outside the entrance, the mysterious stranger again approaches the doors. This time, however, no laser cannons pop out of the ground. The man pauses only briefly in front of the door before tapping his Psi-Lance against it three times. Miraculously the doors give way for him, parting to allow him access. But before the man can enter, a swarm of tiny mechanical orbs exit the fortress to attack him. Each Tag Unit immediately begins firing on the stranger.

The man’s eye begins to flare again and an invisible force field is quickly erected around him, keeping the lasers from reaching their target. The orbs begins flying around the man, randomly firing at him, testing his forcefield. Signs of strain begin to appear on the man’s face, but just when it appears he might collapse, his eye flares brighter then ever before.

Again the man’s powers are focused on the sands beneath him. This time, however, the sand begins to form into giant sharp poles that jut out of the ground and spear the orbs out of the sky. Soon the orbs’ numbers are dwindled down to only a few. These few catch the man’s individual attention. As he focuses on them they begin to skyrocket towards the distant horizon. Finally the man is the only one left standing.

“The Askani’son! The Askani’son is here!” Trial’s screams echo down the fortress’ many corridors. The Askani’son, Apocalypse’s arch enemy is here! Trial’s first instinct is to warn his master, but Apocalypse left for parts unknown immediately following his recent awakening. Not knowing his master’s location makes warning him a nigh-impossible feat.

“My Master will kill me if I allow his fortress to fall into the Askani’son’s hands! I must find a way to stop hims” muses Trial to himself. After pondering for a few brief moments, he begins to see the silver lining in the storm clouds surrounding him.

“If I defeat the Askani’son, the master will be most pleased! Maybe even pleased enough to add enough technology to my already mechanical body to make me the ultimate killing machine!”

His course of action decided, Trial immediately sets about his mission of destroying the Askani’son.

Nathan Summers, a.k.a. Cable, a.k.a. the Askani’son, uses his mutant powers to search for his enemy’s dark presence. This is the same extraordinary sense that he used to find the fortress beneath the dessert sands. His search leads him straight towards a darkened chamber in the center of which a giant capsule rests. Cable approaches cautiously.

Again, three quick taps of his Psi-Lance allow him access to places that were previously barred to him. Immediately following his third tap against the capsule, it begins to open. Cable readies himself for the coming climatic battle against his enemy, Apocalypse. Instead, what springs forth looks to be the latest version of the government’s Hound Project.

The Hound springs at Cable with the intent to kill. The Hound, however, never gets its chance. Instead, Cable immediately grabs the beast in a telekinetic field, suspending the creature in mid-air.

‘What is Apocalypse up to with this creature?’ thinks Cable. ‘And more importantly, where has Apocalypse gone?’

Letting his frustration take control of him only momentarily, Cable uses the full extent of his power to forcibly extract all of the technology from the creature’s flesh. The Hound lets out an all-too-human scream before giving in to the welcomed escape of unconsciousness. Its body twitches and spasms as its nervous system becomes exposed to the surrounding air.

Horrified by his actions, Cable gently lowers the creature to the floor next to him. Laying a hand on the creature’s bloody scalp, Cable mercifully disables the pain registering part of its brain. Though numb, it is still evidently clear that the creature is slowly dying. With no other option available to him, Cable picks up the creature and lays it back in the hibernation capsule from which it came. It pains him to leave the creature in Apocalypse’s care but he sees no other option. The capsule will at least keep him alive.

“Cable’s number one rule: whenever given a choice, always choose life over death,” states Cable, to what he thinks is himself. Unknown to him however, Trial has entered the room behind him.

Distracted, Cable’s powers do not tell him that he is not alone until it is to late. Trial is able to shoot a projectile device into the back of Cable’s head. The Askani’son collapses to the ground, unconscious.

The device that Trial uses to bring down Cable is called an Emotional Stress Enhancer. Its function, as its name implies, is to cause its victim such emotional stress that their brain, being unable to deal with the torment, simply shuts down. Trial chose this weapon because his previous physical attacks have proven ineffective. Thus it was time to try another route; it was time to attack his psyche. Plus, he’s interested what kind of effect the device will have on such a high level telepath.

The moment the device’s needle punctures Cable’s skull, the Askani’son is put into a catatonic state. His brain is forced to quickly relive all of its previous life events. When the device finds a memory that causes its victim any emotional discomfort, it focuses on that memory, allowing its victim’s own imagination to work against it.

Cable has lived a troubled and burdened life, so it does not take the device long to find such a memory.

Inside Cable’s Head.

Cable was the result of a union between the X-Men’s Cyclops, Scott Summers, and Madelyne Pryor, who it was later revealed was nothing more than a clone of Jean Grey. Unfortunately, at a young age, Nate was inflicted with a techno-organic virus by his archnemesis, Apocalypse. Forced to choose between keeping their son close by and chancing his death or sending him two thousand years into the future to be cured, his parents made one of the most difficult decisions a parent could make. They chose the latter, and Cable was sent into the future, entrusted to the care of the Askani Sisterhood.

The device in the back of his head begins working double time, and Cable finds his psyche placed within his infant body moments before he was entrusted to the Askani. He is forced to relive this gut-wrenching goodbye, but it seems so new to him since he was really too young at the time to remember it all. He desperately wants to comfort his parents and tell them how much he loves them, but all of his words come out only as a baby’s wail. Suddenly, he is all too aware that he has missed his parents. All the good times and memories that will never be.

His heart weeps.

Even two thousand years in the future, Cable’s life was filled with danger and tragedy. The future was a world built in the image of its mad tyrant, Apocalypse, and Cable had shouldered the responsibility of overthrowing this tyrant. During this time in his adolescence, Cable became very familiar with fear and death, thus robbing him of any hope of a normal, nurturing childhood.

Images of friends dead and gone flash before him causing his heart to weep even more.

Finally after years of struggling and loss, Cable and his adoptive parents, who actually turned out to be his biological father and the real Jean Grey, managed to destroy Apocalypse’s hold over the future.

But even then, things did not bode well for Cable. During his battle against Apocalypse, the Askani Sisterhood produced a clone of Cable to trick the tyrant. Apocalypse in turn raised the clone in his own demented image, and as a result, the clone literally became Cable’s evil twin, the Chaos Bringer himself, Stryfe. It was Stryfe who took the life of Cable’s wife, Aliya. It was Stryfe who managed to sway Aliya’s son Tyler down a dark path, and eventually made him an enemy of Cable’s. Tears form in Cable’s eyes as once again he imagines another family that would not be. Now, all is lost since both Aliya and Tyler are dead. So many regrets.

Cable’s heart continues to ache.

Next come the memories from this era. He remembers how his hatred for Stryfe lead him to follow Stryfe back in time. He remembers how his hate burned so strong within himself that he would pay any price just to ensure that one day he would be there to defeat Stryfe once and for all.

To achieve this end Cable first brought together a group of mercenaries and dubbed them the Six Pack. He never told them their real purpose as they took on one mission after another, as all the while Cable was searching for any sign of Stryfe. When they finally did encounter Stryfe, it resulted in the end of the Six Pack. Stryfe easily defeated them, leaving two of the Six Pack members crippled, one by Cable’s own hand. Cable’s heart spasms as he remembers pulling the trigger on his own teammate Hammer, who as a result lives the rest of his life confined to a wheelchair.

Cable’s heart skips a beat.

Then, there was the second group that Cable drafted in his unending campaign against Stryfe. X-Force. They were just children when he first met them, before he trained them all to be a lethal force to be contended with. Was he wrong to treat them as solders rather than children? Was he wrong to take away the innocence of their youth? Was he wrong to bring them into his war?

Cable’s heart skips several beats as his body struggles to survive.

Then there are the atrocities that Stryfe is directly responsible for. Since Stryfe is a clone of Cable, shouldn’t Cable share some of the responsibility? He killed Rictor’s father! He planned out the extinction of Warpath’s entire tribe! Most importantly, he was responsible for releasing the Legacy Virus upon the world! The virus that is responsible for killing countless innocent mutants and is now on the verge of affecting the entire human race! Hundreds have died because of the mistakes of his past.

Cable’s heart stops.

Back in the waking world, Cable’s heart beats once. That beat is then shortly followed by another and another until his heart begins to beat again with new strength, bringing new life and new hope.

Removing the device from the back of his head, Cable rises to his feet and faces the now intimidated Trial.

“Where is he?” the words echo in Trial’s head, even though Cable’s lips did not move.

“How… how did you escape…?” stammers the now panicking Trial.

{Cable’s rule number two: You have to let go of the past to embrace the future,} comes the answer inside Trial’s head. {Now, where is he? Where is your master?}

Mustering up the final few strands of his courage, Trial responds, “I will tell you nothing!”

Again the voice inside his head blares, {Fair enough! Have it your way…}

Suddenly, Trial’s brain begins pulling the images of the past few weeks forth from his memory. He recounts Apocalypse’s awakening only a few days ago. He outlines his master’s plan to destroy The Twelve before the Askani’son can gather them together. Trial struggles to keep the last secret locked inside his memory, but the force inside his head is too much, and Cable learns of Apocalypse’s rage over how something has altered the future of the universe, resulting in Apocalypse no longer knowing who The Twelve will be. In the last thought pulled from Trial’s head, he learns of Apocalypse’s intent of finding Ozymandias, who he believes still knows the identities of The Twelve.

For the second time, a smile can be seen on Cable’s lips. {You know. You know what has happened to change the events of things that are yet to be. You know who is responsible. Tell me. Tell me what you know.}

Trial would have continued to rant on if Cable did not stop him. “Be silent.” It is the first time that Cable has used his actual voice in their exchange. “I want you to give your master a message for me. Tell him that a new and improved Askani’son stopped by to pay a social visit. Tell him that now he has my full undivided attention, and their isn’t an ocean deep enough or a rock large enough for him to hide underneath so that I can’t find him. Tell him that I am coming for him.”

With that, Cable opens his hand, palm side up, to reveal the device that he just pulled from the back of his head. With his telekinesis he wills the device to fly across the room in a large arc until it becomes imbedded in the back of Trial’s head. The machine man collapses to the floor, spasming under the influence of the device.

With nothing left to learn here, Cable makes his exit. As he walks out into the hot sun, he pulls his hood up over his head. His Psi-Lance once again transforms back into a walking stick.

So, the master of the fortress has left in search of his former servant, Ozymandias. Could Ozymandias actually hold the knowledge of who The Twelve will ultimately be? If so, then Cable could not afford to let Apocalypse reach him.

That means that he must find Ozymandias first…

NEXT ISSUE: The Search For Ozymandias starts here! As both Cable and Apocalypse race to reach Ozymandias first, the lives of the legendary Twelve hang in the balance!