issue summaries

Cable 94 Countdown Part 2: Armageddon Approaches Writer: Robert Weinberg Penciler: Michael Ryan Inker: Candelario and Pertzborn Colorist: Avalon Studios Letterer: RS & Comicraft's Saida Temofonte Assistant Editor: Pete Franco Editor: Mark Powers Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada Date: August 2001

Irene Merryweather (a former reporter who has now been forced to assume a false identity due to her association with Cable) investigates the epidemic of women with their memories erased. These are the members of the Dark Sisterhood who Cable has taken out by wiping their memories.

Irene talks to a nurse about one of these women's condition. The nurse is stumped about what has caused this to happen.

Time stops and Alecto appears to her again. (Alecto had warned Irene about Blaquesmith in Cable 85). Irene tells her that her investigation into Cable's childhood was interrupted by the Dark Sisterhood trying to kill her.

Alecto explains that she is the Second of Three and they serve the Lords of Probability and Possibility. It is their job to ensure that the multiverse functions properly. They appeared to Cable, under the guise of the three witches of Macbeth to make sure that he remains true to his destiny.

Irene yells at her for manipulating Cable, but the Alecto explains that they need Nathan Summers to ensure the stability of the multiverse, and they need Irene, as the Chronicler, to understand the bigger picture. The tales that she writes will be more important than she can imagine. Alecto has scrambled Irene's thoughts, so the secrets she has learned will remain safe from even the most powerful telepaths, like Cable.

Alecto leaves and time starts again. The phone rings and it's Cable. He asks her what character from a movie she said he reminded her of once. She answered Tom Cody (from the movie Streets of Fire) and he tells her to meet her at a department store's clock at noon.

Irene gets into the elevator and Cable reaches down from the roof of the elevator. He doesn't trust that he isn't being overheard on when talking on phones. He lifts her up to the top of the elevator and they go to his secret hideaway. He tells her that he was taken by surprised when the Sisterhood ambushed her.

Weeks ago, Rachel Summers watches as the group Students Against Mutants (S.A.M.) lights a mutant effigy on fire at their anti-mutant rally at her college campus. Rachel had tried to led a normal life, but the real world had caught up with her. Rachel has realized in the last issue that it's all a ploy of the Dark Sisterhood to stir up more hatred of mutants and inside the mutant effigy is a bomb.

Rachel jumps into action as the effigy explodes. She rushes onto the stage, shouts that she is from the FBI and she had been watching S.A.M. and it's leader, Connie Moore, for weeks now, and for the crowd to remain calm. She explodes the bomb and channels the force of the explosion upwards, away from the crowd so no one is harmed.

She holds up her student ID and telepathically convinces the crowd that it's an FBI badge. She tells them that Connie Moore planted the bomb in the mutant effigy dummy so that mutants would be blamed for the resulting deaths at the rally. S.A.M isn't a peaceful organization - they're anti-mutant terrorists willing to do anything to destroy mutants. She says the police are on their way and everyone needs to clear the square.

She turned to Connie Moore and says the police will let her off with a slap on the wrist, and they won't realize that the Dark Sisterhood controls S.A.M., but she does. She wants to know about them.

Moore replies that she won't tell Rachel anything. Ray replies that if she doesn't answer her questions, she will never feel safe again. Moore says she can't scare her. Ray replies, "Wanna bet?"

Later, Rachel is in her college apartment packing. Her friends ask about her leaving, saying she hasn't even declared a major yet, and everyone things she's cool and there are some guys who want to ask her out.

Rachel, continuing to maintain the alias that she’s an FBI agent working undercover to investigate S.A.M, that she has to follow regulations. Now that her mission is over, she’s gone and she is too wired to let the world go to hell without doing something.

Her friends tells her to take care, keep in touch and not to forget she has friends there at the college.

College has been a nice break for Rachel, but playtime is over. It's back to work. She vowed to not let what happened in her future happen in this past. She needs to get back into action and find Cable.

Back to the present, Cable explains to Irene about why he erased all of those women’s memories and about what he has learned about the Dark Sisterhood. Their goal is a global matriarchy.

He explains what he’s learn of the Dark Mother’s past. In 1660, a meteorite crashed in Germany and was found by six children. All but one died. He eventually married and moved to America where he had three children, the youngest being Fiona. Fiona’s older sister was accused of being a witch and killed. Her brother went to India and Tibet to study the occult and never returned. Her parents were killed in a boating accident and Fiona inherited millions of dollars. Fiona married a series of very wealthy men, gave birth to daughters and all of her husbands died shortly afterwards. Fiona reported died at the page of 100, but no body was ever seen and her granddaughter that took over her estate looked just like her.

Irene thinks she understands. Fiona became the Dark Mother and the meteorite was the source of her powers. Fiona’s descendents are the members of the Dark Sisterhood. There are nearly 30,000 of them in all.

Cable also intercepted messages from the Sisterhood about him, and found out that they want to eliminate him before the final stages of the sixth progression. When they failed to kill Cable, they decided to include him in the plans. For months, the Sisterhood have been moving people into place in Washington and organizing the anti-mutant rallies, with National Guard units in place to stop any outbreaks of violence.

Elsewhere, the President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate (the highest ranking senator) is speaking at an event and is shot dead by an assassin.

At the same moment, a bomb goes off underneath a car. The police find a man dead in a manhole beneath the car with "Cable Made Me Do It" written on the wall. Inside, was the Speaker of the House.

Irene and Nathan’s conversation is interrupted by a news report on tv reporting that Cable had killed the Speaker and the President Pro Temp.

Irene demands to know what the name of the Sisterhood’s plan was again. Confused, Nathan tells her it was the Sixth Progression.

The reporter continues on the news report that the President has called an emergency cabinet meeting and that the country may be put under martial law.

Irene explains the order of succession to the Presidency: if the President is killed, the Vice-President becomes President, followed by the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Temp, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasure and then (sixth) the Secretary of Defense.

The news reporter continues that Secretary of Defense Gina Anderson may not be unable to make it back from her trip to Asia in time for the meeting.

Irene concludes that if everyone at the cabinet meeting is killed, one of the leaders of the Dark Sisterhood becomes the new President of the U.S.