AUTHOR'S NOTE: Again, sorry for the tardiness.
Nathan was on fire tonight! In less than twelve hours, he'd managed to defeat an army of sentinels, rescue dozens of helpless captives, withstand an extremely potent tranquilizer/hallucinogen, break free of a fatal psychic hold, survive a wide spectrum of natural disasters, fight off homeless cannibals, and escape a torture chamber specifically designed for his weaknesses, all while hauling a 60-pound tank of highly flammable, toxic gasses over his shoulder.
But his mission was still far from over. Truth be told, all this wasn't even a warm-up to his task ahead. Now Summers stood gazing at a vast blanket of rolling, foaming waves, his chest tight and his mind reeling. The ocean? He looked back at the smoldering rubble of his would-be prison. There was no way back; he couldn't have made a wrong turn, but this was a dead end. Nathan started at the incoming tide. Can Apocalypse fly, he wondered. As he sat plotting, he noticed the water lapping at his feet change slightly. It was coming faster, in fuller, choppier waves, and there was a sound, like thunder, rising from the sea. He looked up.
Nathan had seen his enemy in a variety of sizes, from human proportions to the height of a skyscraper, but today, he had outdone himself. Apocalypse was rising out of the sea in a slow, menacing manner that reminded Summers of a Godzilla movie, his body mass equal to that of a space shuttle.
The cyborg looked at the miniscule teenager from his full height and gave a satisfied snicker. "So, young man, you have come to fulfull your destiny. Well, I've been waiting over a century to see what you've got. Don't disappoint me."
Summers merely returned the sneer. Without a word, he reached into his pocket and pulled a long device that resembled an ice pick. He could see two gigantic eyes watching him, calculating his next move, but he was way too fast for his adversary. In one quick movement, he pressed a tiny button on his uniform, dematerializing himself, and rammed the stake into the tank at his feet. The moment the rod pierced that thin, metal sheath, the tank burst forward. Propelled by its toxic contents, it spun in four wild circles, each getting exponentially larger, until it flew into the ocean and made contact with the robot's leg.
Apocalypse cried out, just before bursting into flames. As his remains fell into the shoreline, Nathan Summers found himself feeling eerily incomplete. Maybe it was the sudden thickening silence in the wake of such a battle, but it seemed that his life's work had come too easily. As if to answer his confused thought, as voice sparked from behind him.
"Some Chosen One," Apocalypse sighed. Nathan turned just in time to catch sight of him, barely larger than himself now, and aiming a huge gun on his shoulder. Hot metal seared his skin, and he tried to barrel roll away.
But he could not move. In a glaring flash of light, the holographic world around him disappeared. He collapsed onto a dusty desert floor, clutching a fresh bullet wound on his shoulder, and hung his head in frustration.
Mother Asakani pulled out of her little brother's mind and knelt beside him. She laid a comforting hand upon his other shoulder, but he brushed it away and spat at the dirt beneath him angrily. Slowly, he rose to his feet and turned to face her, a look of defeat in his eyes. "It's too much," he said.
She gazed up at him wonderingly. "What do you mean?"
"I can't do it, okay? Every time I think I'm going to beat him, I get beaten worse than before." His eyes shifted nervously, and then he said lamely, "I give up."
"You give up?!" She was incredulous. "And what about your people? Hell, what about all humanity? Do you give up on that, too?"
"Look, I'm not the Chosen One you think I am! The prophesy was wrong."
She stood with amazing speed and slapped Nathan across the face, hard. "Don't you dare!"
Nathan stumbled back a few paces, holding his face. She may have been over 1,000 years old, but Mother Asakani still had her youth, and her strength. Her hair had never grown white and thin, her eyes never became gray and misty, like Sanctity's. Her arms and legs were still taught with muscle, and her powers had never faltered, not even for a moment. Nathan often found it difficult to remember that she was older than him.
Nathan Charles Christopher Summers was now 17 years old, and already a grown man. There was no doubt that he was his father's son—he had a head of thick, brown hair, a tall, muscular frame, and amazing athletic agility and speed. But he also carried an unspeakable burden. On that fateful day, when Asakani'son had been taken from them, Nathan was infected with the Techno virus. The Dark Sisterhood, an army of mutants trained to fight Clan Asakani, had injected the virus into his bloodstream, stolen his brother, and then gave Mother Asakani a choice—save Dayspring or save Asakani'son. Mother Asakani chose Nathan, even though she knew he wasn't expected to make it past puberty.
But together, they had fought the virus. With Mother's help, Summers went through weekly physical therapy sessions, in which she would train him to fight the computer program in his body, with the aid of her telekinesis. After years of training, Nathan was able to use his telekinesis and telepathy, though both would cause an outbreak. Therefore, he reserved his abilities for emergencies and usually relied upon his high-tech uniform and weapons in battle. Nonetheless, he was an uncanny soldier. And Mother Asakani had noticed. Though she never told him, she had seen him grow into a man; she'd seen him become more than anyone thought possible.
Mother Asakani put her arms around her little brother, and forced him to the ground. "You are the Chosen One, Nathan. And you know it. You're just frustrated."
He nodded. "Every single training session I've lost. I've been training for over 10 years, and I haven't beaten him, not once. And that's just your Danger Room rip-off hologram Apocalypse. That's not even the real thing. What if I go up against him, thinking I'm ready, and I die? What will happen to everyone else?"
She smiled at him maliciously. "You're never going to think you're ready, so you don't have to worry about that." He threw her an evil eye, and she chuckled. "Nathan, when you were first infected, Sanctity told me something. She said, 'If Nathan gets the Techno Virus, it will be destined; it will not be a mistake.' You never know, maybe the reason you are the Chosen One is that only a computer can beat a computer."
He rolled his eyes. "Great, now I'm not even human." She could see him smiling behind his sarcasm. "I'm Dayspring—the incredible living computer. Maybe I'll catch up with Spiderman, and we can join the circus together."
"Cable."
"What?"
"Cable," Mother Asakani repeated. "You're Cable, the incredible living computer." He looked confused, and she explained, "When you grow up, you don't call yourself Nathan or Dayspring, you call yourself Cable. At least you did when I knew you."
She could see that he was wondering how they'd met, and what kind of adventures they'd had, but he didn't ask her any of the 100 questions flying through his mind. He just flashed her a smile and asked, "So now I'm grown up?"
"Yes, you are." Nathan pulled his arm from around his sister's shoulders and smacked a kiss onto her forehead, before standing and heading off to his tent.
Mother Asakani sat thinking for a long while after he left. She felt a tide of change coming. She wasn't sure what it was, or if it would even be good change, but she knew it would be strong and fast. The more she thought of Dayspring growing up, the more she realized that he didn't need her anymore. Oh, sure, he thought he needed her. When she dipped into the depths of his psyche she could see herself there, clearly still his "mother". But she knew. He didn't need his all-powerful, all-consuming Mother Asakani anymore.
In the wake of these slightly disturbing thoughts, she felt a strong sense of nostalgia. She pondered, for hours it seemed, about Asakani'son. Mother had never told anyone what happened the day her other son was taken away. She explained it away as a choice between Asakani'son and Dayspring, which, of course, enraged many of the Clan. Why had she chosen the infected boy? Asakani'son was always the stronger of the two, and he was perfectly healthy.
In truth, Mother Asakani could have saved both children without so much as a sweat of her brow. But, as she ran to rescue the kidnapped baby, the Phoenix Force sent her a very clear message: Asakani'son belongs to Apocalypse. She didn't understand quite what this meant, but she knew, from the force of her convictions, that she had to heed Phoenix's warning, or Nathan Dayspring would suffer. Somehow she knew that his life was on the line. So, she allowed the Dark Sisterhood to take the boy away, and focused on nursing the Chosen One.
But, every day since then, she'd longed to catch a glimpse of Asakani'son. She just wanted to make sure that he was happy, that he was healthy, that he was alive. The Phoenix Force wouldn't allow it. In all her time with the Phoenix, she'd never known boundaries. She was all-powerful, wasn't she? This sparked a lot of anger and resentment within her, and she began to hate the Phoenix Force. She only held onto its remnants in order to train Nathan.
But now that he didn't need her…
Mother Asakani stood and rose into the air, slowly, but steadily. She was gathering all of her courage, readying herself for something she never saw herself doing. Did she dare let go of her lifeforce? She kept rising, until she was at the very rim of the earth's atmosphere, too far from the Clan campsite to hurt anyone. She closed her eyes, and mounted all of her strength. Then, in a single second, she expelled every bit of the Phoenix Force from her body. An enormous burst of telekinesis flew from her, at least three miles in diameter. Several lightning rods came zig-zagging through the air from below her feet, to pierce her body. She felt herself turning into fire, and then ice, then stone, fire again, glass, metal, fire… During her metamorphosis, her body continued to excrete countless forces, from telekinesis, to laser beams, to spears and knives, to electromagnetic waves. It seemed an eternity.
And then she realized that she was falling. She fell for miles, gaining speed, her body becoming icy as it passed through the clouds. She could see the ground now, coming faster and faster. Finally, just 15 feet from the ground, she caught herself. She didn't feel any connection with the Phoenix Force as she telekinetically lowered herself to the ground. When her feet touched the ground, she released, at felt a slight headache rearing from the back of her brain.
She focused upon a campfire nearby, enclosing it in a TK shield. The shield became smaller, and smaller, until it suffocated the flame, and reduced it to embers. Lifting her TK, he tried, concentrating hard, to light the fire again. But flame of the Phoenix Force had left her. She was all Rachel Summers, no Phoenix.
Mother Asakani went into her own tent, and stood before her mirror. Just as she thought, her hair had thinned into a scraggly, white mess. Her skin was wrinkled, worn, and fragile. Her muscles were all but gone. But she had never felt so alive, so free.