Nathan Dayspring
Nathan Dayspring is a teacher at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and the founder of the mutant-focused humanitarian organization known as Elpis. He is also an active member of the X-Men.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: x_cable
Real Name: Nathan Morrow
Codename: Cable
Aliases: Nathan Dayspring, Nathan Winters
First Appearance: February 21, 2004
Date of Birth: April 1, 1966
Place of Birth: Bethel, Alaska
Citizenship: American
Relatives: Dr. Moira MacTaggart (wife), Rachel Kinross (daughter), Saul Morrow (father, deceased), Esther Morrow (mother, deceased), Gideon Faraday (uncle, deceased), Aliya Sundell-Dayspring (first wife, deceased), Tyler Dayspring (son, deceased).
Education: BA in History, MA in International Affairs, J.D.
Relationship Status: Married
Occupation: Researcher and lobbyist for Elpis, languages teacher
Team Affiliation: X-Men
Biography
Childhood
Nathan knows very little about his childhood. Repeated telepathic alterations of his mind caused enormous holes in Nathan's memory which his traumatized mind attempted to fill with fabricated memories. The damage was so severe that, thirty years later, even Charles Xavier is unable to help restore what was lost.
What he knows is that when he was twelve, something happened to make him leave the family home in Alaska. His father, Saul Morrow claimed that his memory of a violent confrontation was inaccurate, but did not provide an alternate explanation. Somehow, Nathan wound up in San Francisco, living on the streets and attempting to manage his newly manifested psionic abilities. Two years later, he was picked up by Social Services and sent to New Mexico to be enrolled in a government program known as Mistra.
The Mistra Years
Mistra was one of several government programs designed to take mutant children and turn them into operatives - in this case, psionically conditioned 'super-soldiers' indoctrinated in a pseudo-Spartan collective culture. Nathan spent sixteen years as an operative, rapidly rising to the rank of field leader. He has not shared many details about his time with Mistra, although he has at various points made reference to spending a great deal of time in Iran, having been involved in the Gulf War, and spending a year undercover in Kazakhstan. His cult of personality among his fellow operatives led the Mistra directors to devise a plan to get him under tighter control. Sending him and his team to destroy a bioweapons facility in China, they set up a trap; Nathan's team was killed, and he was exposed to a biological weapon that he would discover, years later, was specifically tailored to put checks on his powers.
There were unforeseen consequences. After some time convalescing on Muir Island under the care of Moira MacTaggart, called in as a specialist because of the unexpected virulence of the virus, Nathan returned to Mistra a changed man. His conditioning broken, he made plans to escape with his wife and child, but Mistra sent a retrieval team after them. Aliya and Tyler were killed, and a badly injured Nathan barely managed to escape to Mexico.
The Pack
During his first year out of Mistra, Nathan traveled the world, tracking down each and every member of the team involved in the deaths of his family. On one such hunt, in Cambodia, he encounted GW Bridge, a CIA officer dying by the side of the road after having been betrayed by his partner during an arms deal. For reasons he was never able to fully explain, Nathan rescued the dying man, who soon became his closest friend. Bridge later followed him to New Mexico when Nathan went back to destroy the Mistra home facility, preventing him from walking out into the desert and dying.
Once Nathan had recovered, Bridge had a proposition; as neither of them could go home again, he suggested that they take their skills and experience and go freelance, offering their services as mercenaries. Joining them in this was David Rabin, a former Mossad agent. The three of them gradually recruited others. Nathan, on a trip to Hong Kong with Bridge, spent an evening at one of the underground fighting pits and saw a very young fighter by the name of Domino taking on two fully-grown men. He purchased her contract from the manager of the fighting pit, and he and Bridge raised Domino, who insisted upon putting her skills to work with the Pack as soon as she was of legal age.
Over the next several years, the Pack operated in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin and South America. They earned a reputation for being highly competent - and scrupulously attentive to the terms of their contracts. At various times they were employed by national governments, especially Britain, for high-risk missions such as nuclear sabotage in Kashmir and North Korea.
Living At The X-Mansion
After the event of X2, Nathan's precognition went out of control, beginning with nightmares and violent precognitive episodes and later increasing to blackouts. Eventually he contacted Dr. Moira MacTaggart, with whom he had maintained a close and affectionate friendship over the years. She convinced him to come back to the United States and to Xavier's school for help.
His first few months at the mansion were marked by increasing health problems due to his precognition. Although he managed to form strong relationships with some of the staff and students, including Angelo Espinosa, Amanda Sefton, Cain Marko, and Alison Blaire, his health problems worsened. Charles Xavier eventually intervened, and managed to make contact through the precognitive link with the Mother Askani, who was initially hostile, insisting that Nathan needed to help her people.
The situation was eventually resolved when Nathan took it upon himself to play host to Askani's astral self. Left with the memories and psychic essences of her and her clan, Nathan found himself with a new outlook on life. Shortly thereafter, he began working as a teacher at the school, seeing it as a way to contribute to a better future for his fellow mutants. Not long after that, he was asked to become a reserve X-Man.
The Road To Youra
Early on in his tenure at Xavier's, Nathan was summoned to New York by an old acquaintance of his from Mistra, Colin MacInnis. He returned to the mansion two days later with only fragmentary memories of his time away. Months later, a Mistra retrieval team kidnapped Moira in an attempt to get Nathan to trade himself for her. It turned out during his previous disappearance, he had been implanted with a psionic worm program. Upon activation, this Trojan Horse would destroy his conditioning and do the same for any Mistra operative within his telepathic range - but result in his own death. A contrite MacInnis provided Xavier with the triggering phrase and the Trojan Horse was successfully triggered under controlled conditions, freeing Nathan of his conditioning.
After some months of recovery, Nathan found himself drawn back into MacInnis's anti-Mistra operations when he was alerted to the presence of a conditioning centre in Vermont. The recovery mission saved Kyle Gibney, the sole survivor of the group of children undergoing conditioning. Mick Foley, a member of the Mistra team Nathan's team encountered at the conditioning center, experienced a break in his own conditioning and fled. Nathan, again warned by MacInnis, went to Belgium with Alison to retrieve him before Mistra could recapture him.
Over the following months, the threat of Mistra temporarily receded, and Nathan continued to train to become an active X-Man. He assisted Remy LeBeau in a complicated operation in Las Vegas, and helped save Cain Marko's life when the Crimson Gem was shattered, an act that left Nathan himself temporarily blinded. He also asked Moira MacTaggart to marry him. The two of them found out near the end of the year that they were expecting a child.
Early in the following year, the X-Men received a call for help from MacInnis, whose helicopter had crashed with several rescued children aboard in Northern Canada. The X-Men went in to retrieve them and fought a Mistra team charged with the same mission, freeing the Mistra field leader, Timothy Morgan. With Mistra's operatives in disarray and the directors on the run, the government, MacInnis's people, and the X-Men made plans to cooperate to take them down for good.
The final operation took place on the Greek island of Youra. Though a last-ditch, scorched-earth tactic by one of the Mistra directors led to a high death toll on both sides, the joint task force was ultimately successful. Nathan himself successfully triggered a modified version of the Trojan Horse to stop the fighting, but was severely injured in the fighting.
Tomorrow's Children
Nathan's physical recovery was faster than expected, although emotionally he continued to struggle with the aftermath of the Youra mission. Two months later, he and Moira MacTaggart were married on Muir Island.
While preparing for their child's arrival, Nathan was shocked to discover that Mistra had possessed a copy of his birth certificate. With the help of the government taskforce, he reunited with his father, Saul Morrow, only to discover that his fragmentary memories of his childhood were apparently inaccurate.
Deeply confused, Nathan devoted himself to continuing his rehabilitation, and was soon back on active duty with the X-Men, taking part in a number of missions. In the meantime, he continued to investigate his father's claims, with the help of Remy LeBeau, Madelyn Bartlet, and Jake Gavin. The search eventually led to a businessman by the name of Gideon Faraday. Nathan and Remy broke into the headquarters of his company, Eris Consulting, only to be surprised in the act by Faraday himself, who displayed a mutant ability to synch to the powers of others - in this case, Nathan's telekinesis.
Several weeks later, while investigating a training camp for mutant children in Chad, the X-Men again encountered Gideon, whose company had been involved in setting up this camp and others. His suspicions mounting, Nathan nevertheless continued to stay in contact with his father. Shortly after the birth of his daughter, Rachel Kinross, Nathan met with his father in New York, and was introduced to his uncle - Gideon. Gideon and Saul revealed themselves as mutant supremacists adhering to a Social Darwinist ideology, Gideon informing Nathan that he had been responsible for his enrollment in the Mistra program, as well as for the deaths of his wife and son. All of this had been done to turn Nathan into the ultimate survivor. Devastated, he fled the scene.
With support from Moira, Charles, and many others, he determined not to allow these revelations to derail his life. Continuing in active service as an X-Man, he began freelance humanitarian work in an attempt to work against his family in that sphere as well. Over the following months, he did a great deal of traveling with the X-Men and also with Angelo, whom he hired as a research assistant to help him in his humanitarian work. Gideon made repeated attempts to intervene in his life, mostly notably assisting Pete Wisdom with a trap that left Nathan in the hospital. Later in the year, reeling from the loss of Askani in the events at the Hellfire Club, Nathan was left frantic when Gideon kidnapped Domino to lure him and Pete to Namibia to rescue her. There, Nathan discovered that his mother's involvement in his family story was also more complex than he had imagined. A precognitive as well, she left him advice in the form of a map that allowed him and his team to rescue Domino.
The New Year turned tragic when Gideon lashed out yet again, killing Bridge with Nathan's own powers. Nathan struggled to find a way to fight back more effectively, and with the X-Men's help, was successful in entrapping Gideon and exposing his involvement in mutant slave trading. Saul, in desperation, set up a 'summit' between his son and his brother. Nathan went along with this, trusting in his precognitive visions to lead him to a resolution. Gideon betrayed his brother, kidnapping Nathan and taking him to South America, where he revealed that what he wanted was to synch to Nathan's precognition and see the distant future. Outside Ushuaia, the 'city at the end of the world', he succeeded in recreating Nathan's precognitive link and was fatally injured by Askani, who told Nathan that Gideon's death meant that her future had been definitively changed and then vanished from his life forever. Saul then killed his brother by allowing him to synch to his cell-altering ability and then committing suicide. Nathan and the team of X-Men sent to rescue him returned home.
Elpis
Nathan returned to the X-Men immediately after the events in Ushuaia, diving into that and his other work in an attempt to avoid having to deal with his father's death and the implications of what had happened. A few weeks after Saul's death, he discovered that his father had left him his company and his fortune. Nathan sold the company and put the proceeds and most of the rest of his inheritance into the founding of a new NGO, Elpis. Specifically addressing mutant issues in the developing world, it is to some extent Nathan's way of repairing all of the damage done by his family over the decades, but it has also become one of his abiding passions in life.
When Magneto abducted Julio Richter, the son of an old friend of Nathan's, Nathan was on the team that followed them to San Diego. With his teammates, he confronted Magneto on an offshore oil platform to attempt a rescue of Julio, but Julio lost control of his powers and caused an earthquake. Though the damage done to San Diego was significant, a greater threat was posed by the tsunami the earthquake created. Along with Jean Grey and David Haller, Nathan helped hold back the tsunami's primary wave, shattering his psimitar as he channeled the energies of three powerful psis through it. The tsunami was successfully repelled from the beach, but Nathan overstrained his powers severely, leading to a flare-up of the virus that would have claimed his life had MacInnis not appeared with information about the nature and origin of the virus. Nathan was forced to perform a partial self-lobotomy, burning out the catalyst portion of his brain that allowed him to reach beyond the natural ceiling of his powers.
He was left powerless for nearly two months, a state that forced him to reassess his life. He soon proved to himself that he could still make a difference. An Elpis investigatory trip to Afghanistan resulted in the rescue of a young mutant girl named Sooraya Qadir. Nathan took Sooraya under his wing when they returned to the mansion, assisting her with her English and the process of adaptating to her new circumstances. Though he was troubled by frequent telekinetic fits and severe headaches, Nathan came to accept that he did have worth even without his powers...
... just in time for them to return. Although he had lost some telekinetic function due to the brain damage and psionic scarring, his abilities were not significantly diminished. Returning to the X-Men, he led a mission to Alcatraz when a mutant Chechen separatist threatened San Francisco with a nuclear weapon, and was both surprised and pleased when Angelo decided to begin training for the team.
He also continued his work with Elpis. Most of that fall was dominated by the situation in the Czech Republic, where reactions to San Diego were running high and both anti- and pro- mutant groups were caught up in a cycle of violence. The Czech government sealed off a neighborhood, Smichov, where the worst of the violence was taking place, leading to a humanitarian crisis. Nathan, Angelo, Rahne, and Medusa traveled to Smichov as observers, to document what was happening and help other NGOs with an assessment of humanitarian needs. There they encountered Mystique, who was manipulating the mutant militants trapped in Smichov, although she claimed she was encouraging non-violent resistance. Nathan contacted the mansion, and Xavier attempted to get permission for the X-Men to enter Smichov and remove Mystique. It was refused, and Smichov erupted in rioting, evoking a response from the Czech military that left the neighborhood ablaze and many dead.
Soldiering On
For Nathan, the events in Smichov were only one more reason to devote himself to both the team and Elpis. His workaholic tendencies only grew worse, however, and his encounter with Mystique in Prague left him doubting the ethical limitations he had placed upon his use of his powers. He resolved this by 'outing' himself as a telepath in his work at the UN, a decision whose consequences are still being felt.
Returning to Youra with the team to help the Greek government shut down a military experiment gone wrong, Nathan found himself struggling with memories of the final operation against Mistra. This all happened shortly before the one-year anniversary of Bridge's death, sending Nathan into an emotional tailspin that he corrected with a winter climb of Mount Washington and a brief ritual of sorts at the summit.
A sequence of X-Men missions shortly thereafter pushed Nathan to his physical limits. He was slow to recover after a near-drowning in Russia left him with pneumonia, but insisted on taking part in the capture of Sabretooth and the rescue of President McKenna's daughter from mutant terrorists. He even traveled to Kansas City to help out with relief efforts there after a devastating blizzard, but soon realized that if he was going to properly recover, he needed time to rest. He headed to Muir, intending to do so.
Events conspired against him. The Elpis office in Tel Aviv was one of the targets of a coordinated campaign of suicide bombing by a new militant mutant group, the Preservers. Nathan raced to Tel Aviv to do what he could for his injured friends and to spearhead the effort to see Elpis through the crisis. He drove himself to his limits and beyond, and while he managed to avoid collapsing from exhaustion, the stress did begin to wear away at him badly. When the X-Men were sent out after the Preservers and their bombmaker, Nathan was injured in the ensuing fight, but managed (with some pharmaceutical help) to keep the badly damaged Blackbird in the air on the way home. Off active duty afterwards because of his dislocated shoulder, Nathan tried yet again to concentrate on rest and relaxation.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 245lbs
Eyes: Gray
Hair: Graying brown
Other Features: Significant number of scars of varying types.
Powers
Telekinesis:
Although Nathan is a broad-spectrum psi, his telekinesis is his primary and strongest ability. Even after his self-administered lobotomy to cure himself of the virus after The Rictor Effect, he is still an extremely powerful and experienced macro-telekinetic. With a few moments to prepare and meditate, he can lift weight equivalent to the Blackbird without significant strain. He is capable of a high level of multitasking with his telekinesis, able to control multiple objects on individual trajectories. His telekinetic endurance is exceptional, the product of long practice and harsh training at Mistra. His telekinesis is so well-trained that it has to some extent become second-nature even in everyday life; Nathan is as likely to levitate a coffee cup to his hand as he is to pick it up.
Within the past year, he has begun to use a telekinetic exoskeleton in the shape of a firebird, a trick learned from Askani. The exoskeleton itself is equivalent to Nathan's most durable telekinetic shield, and can withstand both projectiles and energy assault. It permits him to fly, although not gracefully, and his top speed is generally 50-60mph; the exoskeleton has occasionally been referred to by other X-Men as a "flying tank", an apt description. All of his 'lifting' ability is channeled through the exoskeleton, as demonstrated in San Diego when he briefly kept the oil rig Magneto had levitated to use as a temporary base of operations from sinking again. The one major drawback of the exoskeleton is that Nathan is unable to use his telekinesis independently while wearing it.
Prior to San Diego Nathan was also capable of micro-telekinesis, but the brain damage and psionic scarring have left him unable to access that level of his ability, perhaps permanently. He is however still able to see what he calls 'lines of force', potential and active kinetic energy in the world around him.
Telepathy:
Nathan is best-defined as a medium-range, communications-oriented telepath. His working range is around 100 miles, although he's capable of sensing (if not directly communicating with) more distant minds. His telepathy was very poorly trained prior to coming to the mansion, a deliberate choice on the part of Mistra; he used it mostly as an early warning system, and consequently had extremely poor shields.
Years of working on a weekly basis with Charles Xavier have solved that problem, but Nathan continues to be somewhat uneasy with his telepathy. He remains particularly sensitive to stray thoughts, and is often unwilling to exercise most of the active telepathic techniques available to him because of his experiences with Mistra. He is capable of the telepathic switchboard and has used it on a number of X-Men missions, but has some difficulty maintaining his focus on his surroundings when he does so.
Precognition:
Nathan possessed a secondary mutation that developed in his early 20s – a narrowly focused form of precognition locked on the Askani, a clan living two thousand years in the future and engaged in a fierce war for survival. His precognition, unlike that of Marie-Ange Colbert, manifested much more like a cross-temporal telepathic link - first with various Askani, then with future versions of himself. This precognitive link allowed him to play host to their astral selves for a time. It was broken with the Mother Askani's 'death' during the events of Lost In The Woods. His precognition appeared burnt out for some time, but later refocused on his uncle Gideon, who played a significant role in the chain of events leading to the Askani's future. After the final confrontation with his uncle, Nathan's precognition vanished once more, and according to Askani, permanently. Her parting words left Nathan believing that his precognition had been artificially induced, to allow him to play a specific role in the course of events. He has however accepted that with the disappearance of the Askani's future, he may never know the truth.
Miscellaneous:
While he played host to the Askani Nathan was also capable of manifesting the psionic ghosts in a form visible to the people around him. The nature of this ability was never defined, although it may combine elements of both telekinesis and telepathy. As it was never done consciously, how Nathan managed it remains a mystery. It may however be the explanation for the extremely lifelike hallucinations Nathan frequently experiences of his departed friends.
Equipment
Nathan uses a psimitar, a psionic amplifier built for him by Forge adapting an Askani design. It resembles a medieval halberd.
Trivia
Nathan is a talented linguist, speaking over a dozen languages fluently, and has varying degrees of competence in close to twenty others.
He began writing poetry during his year spent undercover in Kazakhstan, as the men of the Kazakh nomads entertain themselves around the fires with sung poetry and he needed to fit in. Nathan can be spotted from time to time with a small leather-bound notebook holding his latest poetry. It has a habit of vanishing abruptly if anyone notices it.
Plots
2004
2005
X-Men Mission: Mutant Mole People
X-Men Mission: A Mirror Darkly
X-Men Mission: Mutant Michelangelo
X-Men Mission: Who's The Thief
2006
X-Men Mission: Trans-Siberian Hustle
X-Men Mission: The Empty Quarter
2007
Meta
Player: Alicia
E-mail: 120px
AIM: cablewriter
Player Icon Base: Gerard Butler
Meta Trivia |
