NOTE: This issue takes place after the “Apocalypse Tomorrow” arc in Cable.

Archangel’s Aerie, Three Days Ago

Dani Moonstar awoke to silence on the morning she found out about the end of the world.

The whisper of a breeze snuck in through the open doors of Warren Worthington III’s bedroom balcony, ruffling the feathers of the blue-skinned man’s angelic wings. His breathing was nearly inaudible, and his torso moved smoothly up and down in time with it. Dani heard none of this, because all she could hear was the pounding of her heart.

The young Cheyenne woman had always been a fighter. No matter the odds, no matter the strength of her opposition, Dani never let the fear take hold of her and place doubt in her mind. It was the sheer, foreboding weight of the fear that had attacked Dani in her sleep that had taken hold of her. Something was going to happen, something unavoidable. The world was on a collision course with Death, and she could feel it all around her.

As a teenager, Dani had traveled to Asgard with the New Mutants, her classmates, in a bizarre series of events. While there, Dani had encountered the Valkyries and unlocked her ability to see the image of death hovering over those whose lives were going to end soon. That sense was what overpowered her now. The images came from miles around. She could feel the image of a red-skinned, fork-tailed devil as it hovered over a car carrying a devout Catholic couple driving past Warren’s home. The Grim Reaper stood watch over the butler downstairs as he turned fitfully in his sleep. Dani turned to Warren and gasped at the sight of hooded Death herself standing silent guard over Archangel’s sleeping form. The illusion turned to Dani and put a finger to her lips.

At the sound of her gasp, Warren stirred and mumbled, “Y’okay?” without looking up.

Dani looked around nervously before putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. “I’m fine. Go back to bed.” She waited a few minutes to make sure he was asleep again before she carefully stepped out of bed and tiptoed into the master bathroom, shutting the door behind her. Then she sank to the tiled floor, sobbing with her back against the door. All of the things she had been through, from the Demon Bear to Apocalypse’s Dark Riders, those things she at least felt were combatable. This storm of death sigils without a hint as to where the death was coming from seemed like an inevitability, something that no one, not even the world’s spectacle of super heroes, could even hope to avoid. It was like their fates were written in stone.

Dani looked up to the ceiling. “Gods and ancestors, give me something to combat the threat before me,” she whispered, calling on both the Cheyenne and Asgardian pantheons.

There was silence again for a moment. Then, as if in answer to a prayer, Dani watched as a shimmering blue rift opened up in the air above her head, cut away from reality itself. A hand gloved in dark blue sank out of the rift, clutching a worn, leather book. Then the hand snapped back into the rift, and reality closed around it. It happened so quickly, Dani wasn’t sure she would believe it had happened if the book didn’t remain on the floor in front of her. It had landed with its front cover up, and Dani could read its title scripted carefully across the front: Libris Veritatus, Vol. 01.

Dani reached out to grab the book, and realized her mistake just a moment too late. Another aspect of her powers that had developed more recently was tied to the emotions that were attached to events, objects, and places. She could be in a place or touch something and sit through a replay of an event that had left an emotional stain on the item in question. For the first time, however, the emotion attached was so strong, it forced itself on her.

She was an unseen observer on a troublesome time in a young woman’s life. The girl sat at her wooden writing desk, blind but scribbling away furiously, writing and drawing images as if she could see the page in front of her. Her name was Irene Adler, and she was a mutant, a precog. She could see the future, and, at the moment her powers first manifested, began writing every scrap of it, drawing every image, and scribbling down every last phrase of prophecy she could manage. Then the image blurred, and Dani was drawn closer, into the girl’s mind, where she could see them. She could see the threat they posed to the world, and the destruction they wreaked, even though there were only a handful of them in existence. They torched the world and rebuilt their own from the ashes in a matter of twenty-four hours.

The sight of the atrocities that were going to be committed around the world brought out the warrior within Dani. It showed her that the death-bringers were mortal, that they could be hurt. It motivated her to act, and, as much as it pained her, she knew exactly what she had to do if humanity had a fighting chance.

When Warren Worthington woke up that morning, the first thing he noticed was that it was cold in his room. He was no longer warmed by Dani’s form pressed into his, keeping the cool of the night from getting to either of them. Warren stood up and flexed his wings, spreading them across the length of the room. “Dani?”

Then his eye caught something on the open balcony doors. It fluttered in the still-weak breeze. The note was taped to the glass at the top. He carefully pulled it off the glass and walked out into the morning air to read it.

Warren, it read, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to leave for a few weeks. Call it a vision quest, call me crazy, but there’s something I have to do…to save the world, I think. In our business, you know I’m not all that crazy. Anyway, when the time comes, I will tell you what I can, but for now, know you’ll be in my heart, and I will still love you after this all dies down. Love, Dani.

Warren stood there as the wind ruffled his feathers slightly. He knew that Dani had a good head on her shoulders, and that she wouldn’t have left him worrying about her if she hadn’t had good reason. Still, as he gazed across the red sky opening up in sunrise, he couldn’t help but wonder if something inside her had snapped after all the pressure she had been under, and all the things that had happened. He shook his head. It was better to trust her, wasn’t it?

“Dani,” he muttered, “I really hope you know what you’re doing…”

WRITTEN IN STONE

Part I: Vision Quest

By Hunter Lambright

The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Now

Josh Foley was living life in a dream. The gold-skinned mutant teenager walked down the city streets, waving at all the girls he met, but knowing he was too good for any of them. He strolled up the front steps of the television studio where international—no, interplanetary—superstar, Lila Cheney, was being interviewed. Josh walked past the cameras even though Ellen Degeneres herself rose out of her seat to stop him.

Lila stood up and leapt onto Josh, screaming, “Of course I’ll marry you!”

“Josh, wake up!” hissed a voice from reality, jolting Josh out of his dream. “We have to go—now.”

“What’re you talkin’ ‘bout?” he mumbled, rolling over onto his stomach without opening his eyes. “It’s Saturday.”

“If you don’t want me to shock you awake with your greatest fear, I’d think about getting a move on, Josh,” said the voice, and Josh’s groggy mind vaguely recognized it as Dani Moonstar’s.

He rolled over, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Dani? What are you doing here? Beast told us you quit two days ago.”

“I temporarily resigned,” Dani said, biting her lower lip. “I don’t expect you to understand yet, but you have to get up and pack your bags. You won’t be back for awhile.”

“What’s going on, Dani?” Josh asked. He sat up in bed now, more alert that he had been before. “Where are we going?”

Dani sighed. “I need your help. We don’t have much time before something horrible is going to happen, and I need your help to stop it. I know that’s not much information, but it’s all I can tell you right now.”

Josh cocked an eyebrow at her. “So it’s like an X-Men covert ops thing? That’s so cool!”

“Sure, if that’s how you want to think about it,” Dani said. “But it’s not all going to be fun and games. This is serious stuff. People are going to get hurt, and you’re going to need to be there to patch them up, okay?”

“Sure,” Josh said. He stood up and started packing, eyeing his roommate warily. “I’m surprised we haven’t woken him up yet.”

“I’m force-feeding an illusion of his greatest desire into his dreams so that he won’t. If anyone wakes up and sees me here, Scott’s going to throw a fit,” Dani muttered, more to herself than anything.

“Why’s that?” Josh asked, stuffing random clothes into a duffel bag. “What’s the weather going to be like there?”

“Apparently Beast didn’t take it too kindly when I said I had information about a threat to mankind, but that I couldn’t give it to him,” Dani said, shrugging. “And bring all kinds of clothes. We’re going to be doing some traveling.”

Josh continued packing until his bag was stuffed to the brim with clothes. Then he threw in a toothbrush as an afterthought. “I think I’m good to go, Dani.”

Dani cocked an eyebrow at the half-dressed teen. “In flannel pajama pants?” she asked.

Josh looked down at himself embarrassedly, then pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. “Right. Give me a minute, would you?” he asked. Dani turned her head, and Josh was dressed by the time he gave her the go-ahead to look back. “Now I’m ready,” he said, his golden ears still tinged with red.

“Good,” said Dani. “Let’s go meet your teammate outside and get out of here before Beast comes to track me down.”

“Teammate?” Josh asked, frowning. “Who is it?”

“Foley?!” demanded an angry voice as the two stepped outside of Josh’s room. “Miss Moonstar, this is some kind of sick joke, right?”

“I have to be teammates with Hellion?” Josh asked, his eyes wide open in shock.

Dani eyed the wiry, dark-haired teenager with a stony gaze. “Does it look like I’m kidding, Mister Keller? You two are a piece of the puzzle that needs to be put together so that billions of people don’t die, okay? Please, don’t give me crap.”

Julian Keller raised a hateful eyebrow. “Are you kidding me? The fate of the world depends on this loser?”

“Funny, I thought the same thing when I saw your name come up, okay?” Dani muttered. “Look, I get that you don’t like each other, but then, Julian, you don’t like anyone. I’m sorry. I don’t like the dynamic here any more than either of you two, okay? I don’t even know why you don’t like each other.”

“He stole Laurie from me,” Julian muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and huffing.

Josh stifled a laugh. “She was sick of you and of playing second fiddle to a second girlfriend.” He paused. “Oh, crap, I need to leave Laurie a note. She wouldn’t understand if I left in the middle of the night without telling her.”

“No,” Dani said, the words coming out more harshly than she had intended. Josh’s eyes pointed toward the ground. “I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to be on this one. It will make more sense later, I promise. Can you trust me?”

Josh sighed. “I guess…but will she?”

A door creaked further down the hallway, and a boy with purple skin poked his head out. “Miss Moonstar, is that you?”

“Dammit,” Dani hissed. “Keller, fly us out of here.”

Julian shrugged, and then his eyes lit up in a turquoise flare. That flare extended from his eyes around his entire body, until it encompassed him, Dani, Josh, and all of their bags. “Get ready, this might be a little bumpy,” he said quietly, and then they rocketed down the hallway. A telekinetic shove opened the windows at the end of the hall, and the trio sped through the frame and up into the night.

San Francisco, California

It hadn’t been too long since the day and age when the Damocles Foundation building had seen great use. Back then it had been operated by its original proprietors, and had been the scene of more than one corporate mishap, all before Roberto DaCosta had bought the foundation and its grounds out from under Odysseus Indigo and his fellow foundation members.

Roberto himself stood in front of the gates of the Damocles Foundation building. It was true that the place was in disrepair, and that it hadn’t been occupied for over a year, but then, that was the point of buying it and shutting it down. Roberto had put plans for making it into a community center a day and an age ago, but they had never come to pass. It had simply fallen off the radar.

That was exactly what made it perfect for Dani Moonstar.

When the taxicab pulled up to the front gates, Dani stepped out and paid the driver, including his tip. Then she pulled her bag out of the trunk, set it on the curb, and walked over to Roberto without actually acknowledging his presence.

“Dani!” Roberto said, pouring on his trademarked charm. “Is this any way to greet an old friend?”

Dani eyed him levelly for a moment. “Sorry. I can’t decide if I want to jump up and hug you out of the remnants of a girlhood friendship or if I want to bitch-slap you for never coming rushing in to the rescue after Odysseus Indigo sold me to Apocalypse,” she said coldly.

For once, Roberto was left speechless. Finally, he managed, “So…what are you going to do?”

“Neither. There are children present,” Dani said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. The cab pulled off, revealing Josh and Julian standing behind it. “It’s a long story. I’m sure you and Tabby don’t have time for it.”

Roberto put his hands up. “Look, Dani, I can explain—”

“Bobby, now really isn’t a good t—” Dani started, but Roberto cut her off with a kiss on the lips.

“I’m sorry. I was horrible and full of myself, not coming to look for you after what happened… When I heard what happened, I felt disgusted by what I did. You have to understand, I made a mistake. I don’t want to forfeit our friendship because of that,” Roberto said. As he finished, he took a step backward, rubbing the back of his hand against his mouth. “Ah, sorry about the…you know…it was the only way to get you to be quiet for a moment.”

Dani sighed. “I’m sorry, too. Everything has been a little crazy lately, Bobby. You’ll forgive me for being a little…on edge.” She looked over the gate at the building. “So this is it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Roberto said. He fished the keys out of his pocket, the let them dangle from his fingers as he held his arm out toward Dani. “The place should be relatively empty save for tables and chairs. Do you mind if I ask why you need it?”

“It’s…a long story,” Dani said. “I can’t tell anyone much right now because I don’t know how much things will change because of how much I tell people. It’s complicated.”

“Oh, so it’s a prophecy or precog kind of thing? Say no more,” said Roberto. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Will you need any help getting settled in here?

“No, I think we’ll have it covered,” Dani said. “I’ll be leaving the boys here while I do some traveling to get the pieces into place. They’ll get the place back in working order. It’ll be their bonding exercise, maybe.”

Roberto eyed the two teenagers, who were obviously sniping with each other about something. “As long as nothing explodes…” he said with a laugh. “I’m serious, though. Anything you need, I’ll help you as long as it’s in my power. I can tell this mission of yours means a lot. If there’s any way I can be a help, let me know.”

Dani pursed her lips. “Actually, there is one thing you can do for me. Is there a possibility you could get me a flight to Pakistan? Today?”

Roberto pulled out his cell phone. “Danielle Moonstar, all you had to do is ask…”

Pakistan

The man known as Cable stood with his back to the village as he looked out on the open desert. The fading sunlight glinted off his left arm, which had been transmuted into metal by a transmode virus given to him as an infant. The man was built like a bear, and was armed for it as well. A gun as thick as his thigh was strapped to his back, and his energy spear had been stabbed into the ground next to him. He allowed himself a weary sigh as he looked out at his opposition. “Let’s do this.”

They had crawled out of the sand, these creatures. They were the Phalanx, and they had returned to earth on a small foraging ship. Cable’s companion, known as Prosh, had piggybacked on their ship, but Cable had, until now, been too occupied to do anything about these Phalanx. He was fortunate, then, that they had taken so long to dig themselves out from under the sand that had buried them upon their crash-landing. Now he was prepared for them.

One of the robotic aliens advanced towards him. Cable hefted his lance out of the stand and launched it at the creature. The weapon speared it, causing it to convulse as its computing systems were overloaded with electrical energy.

“If you don’t pack up and leave this planet, I will do the same to each and every one of you,” Cable warned, but he knew that it was futile. If they were interested in leaving, they’d have done it already. Plus, if Cable guessed right, their craft was too damaged to be doing any leaving any time soon.

He noticed that the drones were gathering around one of the other Phalanx, one that stood out from the others. This one was taller, and its plating was yellow in color compared to the drones’ purple. Its skull rose into the form of a jagged-horned helmet. “You, Cable,” it said, addressing him by name. “I am Lightstorm. You are half-brother to the Phalanx.” It lifted its arm to demonstrate. “Why attack your brethren?”

“You are no brethren of mine,” Cable said, gritting his teeth. “You are a curse.”

“Your words pain the Phalanx collective so,” said Lightstorm. “In the interest of survival, you leave us no choice.”

“Never planned on it,” Cable said in reply, and launched himself into battle. He pulled the energy gun from his back and strafed the gathered Phalanx, scattering them so that they wouldn’t have the chance to swarm him. Then he ran up and yanked the energy spear out of the dead Phalanx’s body and jammed it into the throat of another.

“Attack the traitor!” Lightstorm commanded, and another wave of Phalanx descended on Cable.

He raised the energy gun to his shoulder and popped off two quick bursts into a pair of Phalanx heads, causing their exo-skulls to implode. Then he whipped around and sliced the energy spear across a third Phalanx’s stomach. He kicked the Phalanx into the sand and plunged the spear into the base of its spine. It shuddered twice and then went still forever.

Another Phalanx came up front behind Cable, its transmode-infected claws scraping against the gun’s strap. It came loose and tumbled a few feet away into the sand. Cable turned around and dashed his lance through the alien’s neck, leaving himself open to attack from the other side. He shoved himself backwards from the hive-mind’s grasping hands, realizing that he had gotten himself in a little deeper than he had thought.

Without warning, the closest Phalanx’s head exploded in a fiery rush of shrapnel and heat. The next Phalanx took two shots through the back before it collapsed onto the ground, writhing in an attempt to keep moving, despite its incapability of doing so. A third watched its hands ignite as twin arrows pierced the palms and lit up in a conflagration worthy of a barbeque and holiday.

“What are you looking at, Nathan? Get over here!” shouted Cable’s savior, waving from a rocky outcropping that lurched out of the sand closer to the village. Cable jumped to his feet and grabbed his blaster before running over to join her.

Once over there, he managed a grunt. “Little Cheyenne’s all grown up,” he muttered. “And she’s brought a new bag of tricks with her?”

“Trick arrows,” Dani Moonstar explained, drawing back another and letting it fly. It arced toward one of the Phalanx that had gotten closer since Cable’s dash toward the rocks. “I bought them off the black market from a guy calling himself Trickshot. They’re for times like now when illusions and psychic arrows are useless.”

“Right,” Cable said, nodding. He hefted the gun back to his shoulder. “Let’s finish this thing off, then.”

Cable fired off four shots. Each one hit its mark on another Phalanx troop. The aliens were beginning to become few and far between. “Lightstorm! Tell whoever sent your scout ship that Earth is still too strong for the Phalanx!”

He ripped off another three burst from the gun. Balls of blue energy streaked across the sand. “Last chance, Lightstorm!” Dani followed up Cable’s threats with a volley of arrows that picked off several of the remaining troops.

“Retreat to fight another day, brothers!” shouted Lightstorm, though there were precious few Phalanx left to answer his call. He began charging the ridge, and the Phalanx drones that remained moved to follow him.

Cable blasted the retreating Phalanx, cursing as Lightstorm disappeared over a ridge. “Come on, Dani, let’s go!” he urged, watching in pain as the head Phalanx moved out of sight.

Dani stood her ground. “No can do, Nathan. We have bigger fish to fry.”

“Lightstorm is getting away!” Cable said. “If we don’t move now, he could easily lose us in this desert!”

“That’s not my problem,” Dani said resolutely. “Are you even going to ask me why I’m in Pakistan, Nathan? I wasn’t just passing through the neighborhood.”

Cable stood there for a moment, visibly deflated. “You have my attention, Moonstar. What’s going on?”

“Read my mind,” Dani said, as if the matter were no big deal. “It’ll be easier, and then you can see things the way I saw them. You’ll know why Lightstorm is a little low on the priority list. The world needs X-Force. Go ahead, read it. Please.”

Cable squinted for a moment in concentration as he reached out with his mind into Dani’s. He took a step backward as the images assaulted his mind. He saw the cities leveled and the blood-soaked ground of the future. “That’s the threat you’re building your X-Force against?” He shook his head. “We’re going to be ants trying to stop a tidal wave, Moonstar. You realize that, right?”

“We have the ability to plan ahead on our side, Nathan,” Dani said softly. “I need someone with the experience to know when to take orders and when to give them. And I need someone with the technology to get me around the world at a moment’s notice without having to call in favors to my rich friends.”

“You want to use the bodyslide technology,” Cable said. It was a statement, not a question. “I can set you up if you have a central location to use as a hub. What do you have in mind.”

“So you’re in?” Dani asked, relief creeping into her voice.

Cable nodded heavily. “I’m in. There’s a war to be fought here. I plan to be wherever I’m needed.”

“Great,” Dani said. She drew her arm to the side, pointing the tip of her bow toward a barely-visible charter airplane off in the distance. “Because I know a private pilot who would love to get the hell out of Pakistan. How d’you like San Francisco?”

The Damocles Foundation
San Francisco, California

Josh Foley wearily hefted his umpteenth box onto the metal table of the conference-room-turned-storage-facility, moaning as his back ached in protest. He turned to Julian Keller, who walked by airily, three more boxes caught in his telekinetic grasp. Julian turned up his nose at Josh’s tired form.

“This sucks, man,” Josh said, sitting down on the ground. “When Miss Moonstar said that my presence on this team was necessary for the fate of the world, I figured it would mean more duking it out with the bad guys and less grunt work, you know? Yet she’s already flown halfway across the world, brought back a guy with a metal arm and glowing eye, worked on something in the main room for a few hours, and then they both disappeared again while we’re here doing shit work.”

Julian shrugged, watching his boxes slide into place. “The time’ll come, just you watch. Besides you should consider us lucky that we haven’t had to use you yet. You’ve gotta be kinda sadistic, since the only way you’ll be useful is if somebody gets hurt.” He grunted. “That’s the last of the boxes, what’s next?”

Josh cocked an eyebrow at Julian. “I’m the sadist? You spent one history class period telekinetically prying the wings off a fly, Julian!” Josh shrugged, the fight going out of him as quickly as it had risen. “I don’t know. She’ll probably want us to set up the cots now.”

“Cool, where should we put them?” Julian asked, dragging several fold-up cots behind him with his turquoise telekinetic glow.

Josh shrugged. “Like it matters? Probably in one of the rooms further from the front gate so that people can actually, you know, get some rest in the downtime. Hopefully this is temporary. Maybe we’ll get actual rooms like the X-Men have.”

“According to Miss Moonstar, this whole team is temporary, dumbass,” Julian said snidely. “Get over the lack of glory and help me with these things, will you? Didn’t Miss Moonstar say this building was supposed to be newer? Like, that the old one was leveled in an old X-Force battle or something?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Josh replied. He followed Julian into the room furthest from the front, dragging a pair of cots behind him. “Why?”

“Because there’s a bunch of trash back here,” Julian said, looking at the empty cans in his glow. “And a couple of blankets, it looks like, and—ah, shit.”

“What?” Josh asked.

Julian put a finger to his lips. “Be quiet! Someone’s been living here, dumbshit!”

There was a deep voice from behind them, belonging to a goblin-faced man wearing sunglasses in the darkness of the building. He adjusted the lapel of his suit as he stepped into the room. “That somebody would be me. My name is Odysseus Indigo, boys. Would someone mind telling me what the hell you’re doing in my building? And it better be good, because I haven’t had anything to eat in days…”

Julian tried to mouth something like a fish out of water, but the words wouldn’t come out. “I can’t use my TK,” he finally managed, flexing his fingers uselessly. “Ah, shit.”

“‘Ah, shit’ is right,” said Indigo as he launched himself at the boys, his clawlike fingers outstretched for the kill.

Location Undisclosed

The man known as Pasco walked in a zigzag like throughout the mazelike streets of his employer’s chosen meeting place. It wasn’t his choice; it was one of the employer’s personal demands. Pasco knew what this man could be like, and so had chosen to obey the man’s whims.

Pasco’s head darted to the left and right as he zigged and zagged in a weasel-like fashion. The middle-aged Hispanic man fancied himself an explosives expert after he discovered that his mutant force field left him immune to any damages an experiment done awry might cause him. That was what had gotten him into the black market business and led his employer, known only as the Tin Man, to his doorstep.

“You can stop now,” said a deep voice from the shadows. It grated like someone drawing a file across a sheet of metal, and nearly shocked Pasco out of his boots. For a man who loved explosions, it was funny how a human voice had the power to frighten him.

Pasco stopped and walked toward his employer. “Gracias, sir. I found the ship in question, anchored where you said it would be. I rigged the cargo hold to explode when you said, no problema. It was a quiet job, in and out, no complications. Is there anything else you need from Pasco?”

The man shook his head. “You have done well. I have seen your work already and deemed it acceptable for my needs.” He lobbed a duffel bag toward Pasco. “This should contain your fee as well as a tip. You’d be wise to get out of town and soon. I would suggest heading for the country for a few weeks.”

Pasco stared at the man for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Thank you for the advice. I plan on taking it seriously.” He took a step backwards, then turned and walked a few more before turning back again.

“Is something wrong?” asked the Tin Man from the shadows.

Pasco looked around nervously. “You’re not going to, ah, betray me or anything?”

The Tin Man allowed himself a rare chuckle. “Can there not be honor among thieves, as they say in America?”

Nodding, Pasco turned and took a few more steps down the alleyway before turning around one more time. “This’ll probably get me killed…but why do they call you the Tin Man, ese?”

There was a clinking noise, and Pasco thought he saw a glint of metal from the shadows of the man’s dark coat. “Because,” said the Tin Man, his metal teeth grating, “I have no heart…”

NEXT: Dani Moonstar and Cable continue to build the X-Force team! Hellion and Elixir take on Odysseus Indigo and learn just how far he’s fallen! And we finally learn the full extent of what Dani saw when she grasped the first volume of the Books of Truth! Stay tuned, faithful reader, for part two of “Written in Stone!”