| Appearances of Nate Grey, Version 1.8b.
Last updated April 8th, 2001
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THE AGE OF APOCALYPSE
- XMan
1 -- Nate's story starts with a flashback to the moment he was freed
from Sinister's slave pens by Cyclops. In the present, Nate is with
a group of mutants called "The Outcasts" who pose as an acting troupe
while covertly carrying out terrorist acts against Apocalypse. The group
consists of Toad, Mastermind, Sauron, Brute, and their leader, Forge,
as well as a new mutant, Theresa, and a man called Essex. Apocalypse
learns of Nate's existence and sends Domino out to retrieve him.
- XMan
2 -- Domino, Grizzly, and Caliban question and kill a mutant called
Rossovich in search for information about Nate. The Outcasts attack a
genetic processing center. Nate and Sonique (Theresa) visit Magneto
on the Astral Plane. Brute notes to Essex that he looks familiar; Essex
promptly kills him.
- XMan
3 -- Violent battle between The Outcasts and Apocalypse's henchmen,
resulting in the deaths of Mastermind, Toad, Caliban, and Grizzly, as
Nate wipes Domino's mind clean. Forge confronts Essex who fatally wounds
him and leaves. Essex's true identity (gasp) is revealed -- Sinister.
Against Forge's orders, Nate goes off in search of Sinister.
- XMan
4 -- Sinister explains Nate's origin, how he was created from the
DNA of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, and created to be the ultimate weapon
against Apocalypse. In return, Nate kills Sinister, and goes off to
find Magneto. Nate meets Prelate Summers and Jean Grey.
- X-Men
Omega -- Nate and Magneto battle Apocalypse. Nate and Holocaust
battle with M'Kraan crystal shard, and both are thrown into the "real"
world.
THE BOY WHO FELL TO EARTH
- XMen
Prime -- Blaquesmith detects Nate and Holocaust's arrival in mainstream
Marvel Universe reality, Nate in Switzerland, and Holocaust in space.
- XMan
5 -- Nate arrives in the Swiss Alps, blows up a truck, and is taken
in by a man named Sven. Days pass, when suddenly Maddie Pryor(!) knocks
on Sven's door. Sugarman sends Rex after Nate.
- XMan
6 -- Blaquesmith is alarmed by Nate's existence. Rex locates Nate
in Switzerland. Rex is beaten, Sven's home destroyed, Sven himself killed.
Nate and Maddie flee while Rex is down for the count. While resting,
Nate probes Maddie's head and sees a contorted image of Havok.
- XMan
7 -- Nate and Maddie fly to Paris, where Selene seduces Maddie into
abandoning Nate. Nate is alone again... with Rex still on his trail.
- XMan
8 -- Having lost Maddie, Nate gets job on a cruise ship, in an attempt
to find a peaceful life. It doesn't last long, as Rex finds him, and
nearly succeeds in killing him before he is rescued by the intervention
of the Dark Beast. Blaquesmith finds out who and what Nate is.
- XMan
9 -- Dark Beast tries to recruit Nate, insinuating that he would
die prematurely otherwise. Nate refuses the offer and proceeds to beat
the tar out of him. Realizing that he may need help, Nate then sets
off in search of the X-Men. Blaquesmith heads to Xavier's to warn the
Professor about Nate.
- XMan
10 -- Blaquesmith explains Nate Grey to Xavier. While telepathically
investigating Nate, who is halfway down the coast from him, Xavier's
astral form is torn into the physial plane by Nate, who, again, decides
to fight. Xavier, having never before felt such raw power, feigns defeat
in order to cover his escape.
- XMan
11 -- Nate meets Rogue, who sedates his rampant power. The two meet
up with the X-Cutioner and defeat him without breaking a sweat. Xavier
contacts Moira about the new psi in town.
- XMan
12 -- Nate goes to Muir Island, where, after he is attacked by Excalibur,
Moira informs him that his power is killing him. Nate freaks, goes ballistic,
and is taken out by Excalibur, who is just barely able to talk him down.
Threnody gets tired of living under Sinister's servitude.
- Excalibur
95 -- Nate and Moira have a little chat and Nate flies off angry,
not knowing who to trust.
- XMan
13 -- Nate returns to Paris in search of Maddie, but instead meets
Threnody, who was hiding his existence from Sinister. He proceeds to
ruthlessly wipe out a team of cloned Marauders who were pursuing her.
- Cable 30 -- Cable tracks Nate Grey
to his own safe house in the Swiss Alps.
- XMan
14 -- Nate battles the recently-retconed-into-a-psi-vampire Exodus,
then turns on Cable, discomforted by the psionic backlash between the
two.
- Cable 31 -- Cable takes down Nate at
Blaquesmith's urging, but saves his life at a great cost to himself,
allowing the techno-organic virus to run rampant within his body.
- XMan
15 -- Nate and Threnody travel to Rio to recuperate from their altercation
with Cable and Exodus. Nate unsuccessfully tries to scan Threnody's mind,
finding nothing but death and Sinister. He also tries, unsuccessfully,
to remove the neuro-blocks from Threnody's head. Onslaught sics Holocaust
on Nate.
- XMan
16 -- Nate and Holocaust fight and stuff. Threnody gets captured.
- XMan
17 -- Trevor Fitzroy meets Maddie, with unfortunate results for
the former, while Nate frees Threnody and finally defeats Holocaust,
with Threnody's help.
THE ONSLAUGHT
For a full listing, see The
Cable Guide
- Avengers 400 -- Nate seeks the help
of the Avengers.
- Onslaught: X-Men -- Nate arrives at
the mansion with The Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
- Uncanny X-Men 335-- Cyclops tries to
protect Nate by hiding him with X-Force.
- XMan
18 -- While Nate is hiding in the mansion with X-Force, Sinister
and the Marauders capture Threnody who is hiding in a church.
- X-Force 57 -- Sinister defeats X-Force
and walks off with Nate.
- XMan
19 -- Sinister tries to reason with and control Nate, discussing
his powers and past with him, as well as making some insinuations about
Threnody, but Onslaught nabs him, instead. Threnody is still held hostage
by the Marauders.
- X-Men 56 -- Onslaught powers up, with
the use of Nate and Franklin Richards' powers. Xavier meets Joseph.
- Onslaught: MU -- Nate is released from
Onslaught and he chats with Chuck about the heroes who sacrificed themselves,
something which was missing from his own world.
- XMan
20 -- Now free from both Sinister and Onslaught, Nate goes into
the sewers to find Threnody. There, he meets The Abomination, an old acquaintance
of hers. Nate and The Abomination fight; Nate and Threnody
escape, leaving the Abomination thinking he had killed Nate. Rumblings
of the Hellfire Club are heard in the distance.
- XMan
21 -- Nate runs around New York with Threnody, particularly in Washington
Square, using his powers to "help" people, tell fortunes, expose two
bit con artists, and get into posh Manhattan restaurants. Over dinner,
Nate explains to Threnody that he just wants to live an ordinary life.
- XMan
22 -- Nate and Threnody find an abandoned apartment and take up
residence there. Nate begins questioning Threnody about her connection
to Sinister, remembering the insinuations about her Sinister made. The
Inner Circle gathers anew: Sebastian Shaw, Selene, Trevor Fitzroy, Tessa,
and... Maddie Pryor.
- XMan
23 -- Nate confronts Threnody about her motivations in remaining
with him and whether or not she holds any allegiance to Sinister. Bishop
and Rogue pay Nate a visit, having heard about his activities as a street
performer, and questioning his own motives in using his power for financial
gain. Nate promptly tells them to leave and mind their own business.
- XMan
'96 -- Nate journeys back to the past of the AoA, where he meets
younger versions of Magneto and Forge. Meanwhile, Maddie regains her
memories and vows revenge against Sinister, the Summers', the X-Men
and everyone else who wronged her.
- Amazing Spider-Man 420 -- Peter Parker
takes Nate out for coffee and an interview, and the two exchange war
stories after Nate forces Peter to reveal his secret identity. Nate
explains to Peter that the code of "power and responsibility" means
nothing to him, having come from a world where power was the only way
to survive.
- XMan
24 -- In a fit of depression following her falling out with Nate,
Threnody goes to a terminal cancer ward and feeds off the dying. Nate,
fearing he had been transformed into a vampire after being ambushed
by Morbius, seeks out Spidey's help in tracking down Threnody to save
her from Morbius. The two defeat Morbius, but it is unclear whether
Threnody wants to return to Nate. Nate leaves, as Threnody is met by
Maddie Pryor.
- XMan
25 -- Nate returns to find Threnody, only to see Maddie Pryor, instead.
Jean Grey, having been alerted by Madam Sanctity as to Maddie's presence,
arrives on the scene, and she and Maddie proceed to go at it, with Nate
taking Jean's side. The truth of Maddie's existence is revealed --
that she is a now-independent psionic construct of Nate's own mind;
one which Nate attempts to uncreate and fails. Maddie, having felt betrayed
by Nate, flees as Nate discovers that he has lost his telekinetic power.
- XMan
26 -- Nate decides to start his life over once again and seeks out
the help of Moira MacTaggart. Moira runs some tests on him, which reveal
that his TK is not gone, but rather held back by his own subconsciousness.
Nate leaves again, pondering his fate, as we see Havok and the Brotherhood
setting their sights on him.
- XMan
27 -- Nate joins the Brotherhood in "liberating" Aroura from a Department
H train, only to learn that the Brotherhood's true goal was the appropriation
of something else on the train: toxic gas. Things between the Brotherhood
and Nate boil to a head when Nate discovers that the one who engineered
his joining of the team, and is responsible for his reacquisition of
his telekinesis is none other than the Dark Beast.
- XMan
28 -- Upon realizing that the Brotherhood's goals are not as noble
as they originally presented them as being, Nate insures that Aurora will be safe with them slaps the Dark Beast silly, and then releases
the "Coldsnap" to prevent the Brotherhood from using it.
- XMan
-1 -- "Flashback." An untold story from Nate's youth.
- XMan 29 -- Nate Grey is dead, but his
psyche still lives. And by sheer force of will, he brings himself back
to life, and restores his powers -- at least long enough to free himself
from his underground tomb, after which, upon collapsing, he is found
by three mysterious girls. Meanwhile, in the morgue... something stirs.
- XMan
30 -- Nate is nursed back to health by the three girls. He is then
asked by Cable to protect the Greys from Prime sentinels; Nate does
so, also saving the "Roust" kid (from #20), and spares the Sentinels,
whom he discovers are actually innocent people being controlled.
- XMan
31 -- Fill-in story in which Nate meets the Dire Wraiths.
- XMan 32 -- Nate, Jam, Bux, and Marita
go clubbing, where they meet Jacknife -- a psycho who blames Nate for
messing up his mind and is bent on killing Nate, and everyone associated
with him.
- XMan 33 -- Jacknife is defeated and
Nate once again ponders his responsibility in messing with peoples'
lives.
- XMan 34 -- Jam gets in an accident
and loses an arm... until Nate comes by and fixes it. He returns to
Washington Square to find that he's become an idol to hundreds. The
Purple Man is responsible for this.
XMan 35 -- Nate fights a bunch of terrorists,
and leaving death and destruction in his wake, is suddenly shunned by
everyone -- more machinations of the Purple man, who hops into a limo
with a terrorist and the chauffeur, Bux.
-
All Saints Day -- Nate travels to Transylvania
and fights monsters
-
XMan 36 -- Nate, blamed for the explosion of the terrorist bomb and now on the
run, confronts the Purple Man and discovers what Killgraves plans are- for Nate to
resurrect his family. Zebediah's plan fails because he can't control Nate, but Nate fails
because once he realizes the truth, Jam's new "arm" disappears, nothing
more than a psionic projection. While he knows that he can't erase his
mistakes, he can, maybe, erase peoples memories of them.
- XMan
37 -- Nate tries
to erase everyone's memory of him, and believes he has found Threnody again, when
Spiderman shows up to stop him. In the heat of battle, Nate accidentally resurrects Gwen
Stacy, a friend of Peter Parker's who died because of Spiderman, and then Nate is
attacked by the Psi-Ops, three armored beings who are hunting Nate down. When Nate is
knocked out by one of the Psi-Ops, Gwen Stacy disappears, nothing more than a
psi-projection, just as she realizes who Spiderman is. Feeling that he's lost Gwen again,
Spiderman gets extremely upset at the Psi-Ops.
- XMan 38 -- Nate
and Peter defeat the Psi-Ops, who teleport away just as Nate telepathically begins
learning more about them, and Parker forgives Nate for accidentally
"recreating" Gwen Stacy. Just as Spiderman leaves, Madelyne returns. Meanwhile,
Roust, his brother, and Dr. Arlington, who still possesses the power to miraculously heal,
are traveling around the world making people well.
- XMan 39 -- Out
in the Canadian wilderness, Nate has a vision of the future in which he takes out half the
planet in a fatal discharge of energy, fighting a familiar armored figure. As he awakens,
Madelyne and him start arguing when he tells her he doesn't need her anymore.Once they
realize he's awoken the Great Beasts with his vision, Madelyne leaves, forcing him
to stop the powerful beings himself. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Nate, a man knows only as
Ness has shared his vision, and starts searching for Nate.
- XMan 40 -- Nate
stops the Great Beasts, but not without considerable effort, while Maddie reappears to
advise him but doesn't fight them directly. Meanwhile, more is learned about the three
individuals who are the Psi-Ops and their leader, and Ness closes in on Nate.
- XMan 41 -- Psi-Ops,
looking for Nate, start threatening a group of scientists that Nate had saved from the
Great Beasts. Ness, who is also looking for Nate, shows up and scares the
Psi-Ops off.
Meanwhile, Nate tries to search for Threnody on the astral plane, although Madelyne tries
to stop him, when a disturbance on the plane knocks out his telepathic powers.
- XMan 42 -- His telepathy
gone, Nate travels to Clifden, Ireland, with Maddy close behind. As soon as the two arrive
seemingly natural disasters begin, first an earthquake and then a fire, which are actually
being started by mysterious tech-gnomes. Nate puts out the fire but then disappears, just
as Ness finds him.
- XMan 43 --
Madelyne finds
Nate, who passed out after stopping the fire and had been missing for the last week.
Meanwhile, some kind of creature is absorbing all the flesh off people, leaving only their
bones. Once Nate and Maddy find out, Nate at first thinks that he might be the creature,
killing in his sleep, but then they find the energy being, who looks just like Nate,
but is composed of pure energy. Meanwhile Ness, left with only the remains of a
tech-gnome, loses track of Nate and ponders his next move, while the leader of the
tech-gnomes ponders his.
- XMan 44 -- The
energy being is revealed to be Holocaust, or as he now prefers to be called, Nemesis, and
he and Nate begin fighting almost instantly. Madelyne tries to keep Nate away from
Nemesis, but Nate feels its his responsibility to stop him. Working together, Nate and
Maddy believe they've destroyed him, but Nemesis escapes to find the Dark Beast for
help. However, the killings continue, and now it might really be Nate committing them.
- XMan 45 -- Nate,
awakening from a nightmare, finds one of the tech-gnomes casting
dreams into his mind, and realizes who is responsible, Blaquesmith.
Blaquesmith reveals that he has been testing Nate for a great conflict
to come, and then Nate and Maddy find themselves in Latvertia, just as
as an enormous pyramid-like building comes crashing down near them.
- XMan 46 -- Stryfe and his Dark Riders, crash landing in Stryfe's Pyramond ship,
begin wreaking havok in Latvertia, and one of them inadvertently unleashes Nate's true
potential, briefly returning Nate's telepathy to him.. Unfortunately, Stryfe is still able
to capture him, intent on adding Nate's power to his own. With Nate captured, Cable enters
the fray. Meanwhile, Maddie stops two Dark Riders from capturing Jean Grey, and Ness,
using the remains of a tech-gnome, tracks down Blaquesmith.(continues in Cable #63)
- XMan 47 --
(continued
from Cable #63) Stryfe has drained Nate's power, adding it to his own, and Maddie pretends
to join Stryfe, in order to absorb some of the energy he has gained. Cable and Nate escape
from Stryfe's Pyramond, to formulate a plan, but when the Pyramond begins growing, Nate
enters it again. Seeing him, Maddie gives him all the power she has siphoned, but in
retaliation for her betrayal Stryfe absorbs her psi-energies, nearly
discorporating
her. While Cable tends to her, Nate attacks Stryfe , although his power is absorbed again.
Transported by Blaquesmith, Ness arrives to stop Nate from fulfilling the events
from his vision, and Stryfe is stopped without destroying half the planet. Disaster
having been averted for now, Cable treats everyone to breakfast.
- XMan 48 --
Floating
around London, Nate stops a girl from committing suicide, and tries to explain that he no
longer has the power to "fix" her depression once she realizes who he is. She
doesn't believe him, gets angry, and tells him to go away. Later, he is attacked by The
Crusader, a fanatically religious man who believes Nate is a tool of the devil. The
Crusader nearly kills Nate, when the girl he saved earlier enters the building the two are
fighting in, and Nate stops the building from collapsing on her instead of protecting
himself. The Crusader, having almost caused the death of an innocent person, and seeing
that Nate protected her instead of himself, loses faith in his purpose and his power as
well, so that Nate is easily able to defeat him.
- XMan 49 -- Nate
discovers a young human-like female from another dimension, being pursued by hunters
intent on taking her back. He defends her until he discovers that she's an escaped
criminal, and reluctantly lets them take her back to their dimension. He tries to go with
her, but fails, and has no way to find her.
- XMan 50 --
(Continued from GenerationX
#50) Most of Generation X has been attacked and
captured by The Dark Beast as genetic material for his experiments. Meanwhile, Nate,
who was floating high above Dublin, Ireland, was mind-probed by Emma Frost, and
seeing the Dark Beast in her mind decided to take a trip to Massachusetts and ask Emma why
she ripped memories out of his head without asking. When he arrives Gaia has just told
Emma that Generation X has been kidnapped, and Nate joins Emma and Gaia in rescuing them.
Generation X is rescued and the Dark Beast escapes, but Frost gives Nate
some leads as to his whereabouts. Meanwhile, Maddie and Ness aren't getting along very
well, and the Psi-Ops prepares for a major operation against Nate.
- XMan 51 -- Nate revisits the loft where he lived for a time,
while unaware that Threnody is watching him in the shadows. Returning to
Ireland with Maddie, he finds the Psi-Ops are waiting for him. Nate
and the Psi-Ops fight each other to a stalemate, while Maddie teleports
one of the injured MacAleers to a hospital, and Ness and Scanlon, leader
of the Psi-Ops, have a lengthy conversation. Maddie returns, and after
saving Nate from being ripped in half, inadvertently makes a crack in one
of the Psi-ops armor, allowing Nate to hurt the Psi-Op by dropping the
rest of the MacAleers demolished house on him. As the other two Psi-Ops
retreat, Nate and Maddie believe they've won, but Ness knows
differently.
- XMan 52 -- Nate
is attacked by an army of Psi Ops. Although weak, Nate decides to
fight, not wanting anymore innocents to suffer because of him.
Maddie gives him all the energy she can spare, and then tries to
teleport away but is hit by the Psi-Ops. Nate temporarily buries her to
prevent her being killed. Meanwhile, Scanlon tries to radio for
help, because the Psi-Op reinforcements aren't under his command, and
Vise, one of the Psi-Ops who is secretly working for the Dark Beast, kills
him. Fontaine feels Scanlon die and scans Vise's mind, discovering that
all the Psi-Ops are carrying nukes and that Vise might use them to stop
Nate. Fontaine turns to Nate for help and the two destroy the Psi-Ops
command ship. Ness discovering that Maddie is gone, and is
seemingly killed in the ships explosion. Maddie, who now looks like an old
woman probably because she lost so much energy, teleports away. The
MacAleers, angry over losing their home, tell Nate to go away. Lastly,
Threnody is in the family way, and she believes Nate is to thank for it.
- XMan 53 -- After
having nightmares about the Age of Apocalypse, and a premonition of
something terrible on top of an Alaskan mountain, Nate turns to this
reality's versions of his genetic donors, Scott and Jean, for help. On top
of the mountain they find humans, mechanically enhanced humans, and
Infinites, Apocalypses soldier clones, fused to one another, most of them
dead. After being attacked by a few Infinites that are still alive, they
discover a building, also from the Age of Apocalypse, where the
Infinites have begun cloning themselves. The building houses a
mutant-nullification grid that negates their powers. While
Jean goes to destroy the mutant nullification generator, Scott and Nate
head for the replicating pool to stop the Infinites, unaware
that a bio-mechanical creature called Hatchet Nine is on it's way to kill
Jean.
- XMan 54 -- While Nate and Scott
make their way towards the replication
pool,
Jean is attacked by Hatchet Nine. Even without her telepathy, Scott knows
she's in trouble, and he and Nate go to her rescue. Hatchet Nine is just
about to kill her, when Nate and Scott come to her rescue. Nate becomes
separated from Jean and Scott and must fight Hatchet Nine alone, without
his powers, but he is able to trick the mutate into destroying the
nullification generator. The destruction of the generator begins a chain
reaction that implodes the entire building, and the three must get out while fighting an army of new-born Infinite. They escape, and Nate
briefly
passes out and thinks he's back in the AoA with Forge and the rest of his
troupe, before he wakes up next to Scott and Jean.
- XMan 55 -- Back at Jean and Scott's Alaskan home, Nate and Scott spend some
time fishing, to learn more about one another. The two find what appears to
be a father and son, both badly injured. The father asks Nate to heal his
son with his powers, but Nate refuses to, remembering what happened
to Jam. Nate knows the boy is beyond help and considers letting him die,
when Nate realizes the two are really Guardians of the M'Kraan crystal.
The Guardians are testing Nate, to see if he has enough control over his
power to be allowed to live. Nate, Scott and Jean fight the two, but the
Guardians are virtually unstoppable. One thinks Nate is
dangerous enough to warrant termination, but the stronger of the two realizes
that Nate has passed the test and so they leave Nate alone. Scott gives him his old X-Factor uniform, while Threnody, who has
been tracking Nate for some time, secretly watches from a safe distance.
- XMan 56 -- Nate
finds himself in the idyllic town of Greyville, where his life is perfect.
Nate lives with Cable, Jean Grey, and his timeline's Forge and hangs out
with Maddie, Threnody, and Spiderman in his spare time. Eventually
Nate begins to question this life he leads, when suddenly Sinister attacks
and destroys his perfect life. Nate attacks what he thinks is Sinister,
only to find it a shell, with a small old man inside. Nate believes that
none of it is real and everything around him disappears, revealing him to
be on an island. Based on certain details of his life in Greyville,
Nate believes that Killgrave, The Purple Man (from issue 36) has made him
create it. Nate rushes off to face him, unaware that his true adversary,
Mysterio, who is manipulating him to discover the true identity of
Spiderman, continues to observe him. Meanwhile, Threnody and her undead
followers close in on Nate.
- XMan 57 -- Nate
attacks Killgrave, and accidentally kills him, only to discover that it
was only an innocent man made to look like Killgrave. He now believes his
true environment to be a large glass dome on the ocean floor and that his
reality was nothing but holographic projections, and all the other
participants actors. At this point Mysterio reveals his reason for
manipulating Nate, to reveal Spiderman's identity and also to rob banks
across the country. Nate's anger over believing that he's killed an
innocent man helps him finally discover that everything has been an
illusion, even the actors, with smoke from a mind altering drug having
been warping his perceptions. Nate confronts Mysterio and a battle of
wills ensues. When Mysterio reaches into Nate's mind and unwittingly
returns his telepathic abilities to him, Nate turns the tables on Mysterio
and traps him in his own ideal fantasy without him even realizing it. Nate
collapses from the strain, just as Threnody and a crowd of walking corpses
catch up to him.
- XMan 58 -- Nate
is reunited with Threnody and learns about almost everything
that has happened to her since they were last together. Threnody has
developed an addiction for the death energies of the dead, and they
follow her wherever she goes. Nate wants to stay with her and help end
her addiction, but Threnody says that she can never end her addiction
with his help because he's part of it. She claims that she loved
the unique death energy that she got from him, but that she
never loved him. In the meantime, something has been tracking Nate,
and targets his visibly angry face, just after Threnody has left
him. Later, Threnody returns to her newborn child, seemingly happy to
be free from Nate and the zombies that had been hounding her.
XMan 59 -- Deciding to become more pro-active, Nate turns to the Fantastic Four to
help him track down the other AoA survivors. Reed Richards tests the
extent of Nate's psionic abilities, and is slightly alarmed by how
powerful they are. In the mean time, the results of the tests are
retrieved by an unknown being., who orders Caliban to bring Nate to
him. While spending some time with Franklin, Nate has a premonition
of impending disaster, leaves the F.F., and is almost immediately attacked
by Caliban, who grabs Nate and brings him to Caliban's new master
- XMan 60 -- Right after being attacked by
Caliban, Nate finds himself on an
alternate Earth where things turned out for the worse because he never
existed. Jean Grey's niece and nephew were taken by Sentinels, Dark Beast
released the coldsnap and killed untold millions, Stryfe became ruler of
Latvertia, Spiderman was turned into a vampire by Morbius, and the X-Men
are killed by Dark Beasts's new brotherhood of mutants. After realizing
that he really has had a wonderful life, Nate awakens from what was only a
dream, and comes face to face with the nightmare- he has been captured by
Apocalypse. (continues in X-Men #97)
- XMan 61 -- Suffering memory loss about
who he is and where he came from, Nate is just another prisoner in a labor
camp, along with a young woman named Urchaala and a small energy being
named Fuzz that she keeps as a pet. His TK is limited to what he can touch
now, but after Nate takes off the helmet that gave him amnesia, his
memories quickly return to him and he tries to escape from the camp. He is
recaptured by the guards, called Underseers, but he escapes again, just in
time to help Urch rescue an newborn infant, although the mother is lost.
Underseers start chasing them again, but Nate, tired of running and not
knowing how he got to wherever he is, stands his ground.
- XMan 62 -- While Nate and his new
friends continue to run from the Overseers, it is revealed that he is on
the Shiar Imperial Throneworld, and that he was brought here under the
orders of Lilandra, Magestrix of the Shiar Empire. Meanwhile, Nate and
Urchaala are pursued by a creature called a Darkle for unknown reasons,
and Urchaala, her newborn sister, and their father are briefly reunited.
Afterwards Nate and Urchaala continue their escape but are surrounded, and
a holographic projection of Lilandra appears ordering them back to work.
Using Fuzz and his telepathy, Nate makes Lilandra experience the
horrific conditions in the labor camps, and all it's suffering, as if she
had been their herself. Moved by what she has seen and felt,
Lilandra frees Urchaala, and her father. She sends Nate to
Earth- and, unbeknownst to any of them, the Darkle as well.
- XMan 63 -- Nate
Grey's last stay in New York ended tragically, but all that
seems to be behind him as he finally returns, with a newfound
confidence and a better grasp of the world around him. Nate senses a
powerful force that has been killing off members of an organization
known only as "the group", one by one. Knowing that unless
he intervenes they will all be killed, Nate seeks them out to warn of
the danger they face. And six months before, a man named Mr. Scratch
murdered Mr. Forge, the great inventor, in a New York City that bears
little resemblance to the one that we know. How this will effect Nate
remains to be seen...
- XMan 64 --
Nate confronts the group, which calls itself Gauntlet, and tells them
of the danger they face. To earn their trust he lets them
telepathically scan him and learn who he is. Gauntlet are a group of
mutants who, by using their powers collectively, have been able to
explore the multiverse, the future, and the past. While exploring they
disturbed a powerful force- and now it wants them all dead. The force
that has been hunting them down reveals itself - a humanlike
creature from an Earth where humans weren't meant to live. The
creature attempts to kill the rest of the Gauntlet, but Nate stops it,
giving them time to get away. Nate tries to kill the creature but it
escapes, leaving Nate no choice but to go after it.
-
XMan
65 -- Nate walks away from a pile of rubble that was a building - until his fight with the creature from the broken Earth
- and
telepathically convinces all the bystanders that he was never there.
He mentally links with the members of the Gauntlet that are now
scattered throughout New York City to learn where their exploration of
the multiverse has led them. They apparently wronged the creature from
the broken Earth in some way, but have no remorse over their actions.
Nate travels to the other Earth to discover what the Gauntlet did that
angered the creature so much, and it reveals that they trapped his
people there and stole their children.
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XMan 66 --Nate
links with the Broken Man's mind to learn what the Gauntlet did to it
that angered it so much. On the broken Earth, humanity had
evolved into creatures that mutated quickly in order to adapt to an
ever-changing, inhospitable environment. Realizing that the creatures
internal organs might transfer those abilities to a human host, the
Gauntlet stole their children, with the intent of selling the organs
for their unique properties. Promising the Broken Man that he would
make things right and return their children, Nate confronts the
Gauntlet with what he has learned, and through their records
discovers that the children had died weeks ago. Nate makes sure that
the children receive a proper burial, but not before making sure that
the members of the Gauntlet receive punishment for their crimes.
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XMan 67 --
In a story that begins six months before Nate meted out punishment to
Gauntlet, he is very much as he was before - aimlessly wandering the
globe with Maddie. Nate wakes from what be believes is a dream - in which
he destroyed Quito, Ecuador, just to show that he could. Going for a
walk with Maddie to clear his head, he finds a newspaper with Quito's
destruction on the front page. Seeing the aftermath of the destruction,
Maddie explains that she made him destroy the city to see if he is fully
operational, and that she is no longer merely the phantom he
originally created, but a Madeline Pryor from another Earth, in reality
the only Maddie he has ever known. Telling him that she'll reveal the rest
if he takes her home, the two travel to her Earth and are greeted by Mr.
Scratch, who was last seen ripping Mr. Forge's heart out.
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XMan 68 -- Nate is taken to Maddie's palace, from where she rules over half of her
Earth as it's queen. She tells him that she had spent years searching for a Nate Grey that would be able to help her gain control of
the rest of her Earth, but that out of all the others only he showed
promise. Nate is
confused by all these revelations, and does not want to believe that she
is really the same Maddie he has known all this time. Still exerting
considerable control over his mind and it's powers, she forces Nate to sit
by her side, and then to incinerate a young woman, completely against his
will. Feeling a mixture of grief and anger over what he's been forced to
do, Nate
breaks free of Maddie's control and flies away. Soon after, on the other
side of the world, he meets another version of himself.
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XMan 69 -- The alternate version of Nate tries to gain his trust, as Nate
struggles to understand this alternate Earth. Meanwhile, Maddie has sent
out an elite group of soldiers, led by Mr. Scratch, to re-aquire her
weapon. Nate's other self explains that Nate is the first truly functional
version he has ever known, as all the others, including himself, have been
defective. Admittedly a bit insane, the alternate version is the Nate of
this Earth and the first one Maddie tried to use. After escaping from her,
he became the self proclaimed shaman of his tribe- a small village
populated by humans that he protects and prevents Maddie from detecting.
The two enter a building in the village, where his alternate has
preserved the corpse of Mr. Forge, in the hopes that there might still be
some secrets about Maddie buried deep within it's brain. The alternate
version isn't powerful enough to retrieve those secrets, but Nate is, and soon
the dead man begins to speak, revealing all Mr. Forge knew about Maddie.
Mr. Scratch, having located Nate, destroys the corpse, but not before it reveals Maddie's most
startling secret.
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XMan 70 -- Nate and Nate attack Mr. Scratch, who is immune to mutant powers
and therefore is unscathed. Mr. Scratch breaks Nate's spine and
crushes the alternate Nate's windpipe, nearly killing the alternate, but
the alternate is able to merge his powers with Nate's so that
one can rebuild the other and trade physical characteristics. The
alternate then sends the Nate back to his Earth. Mr. Scratch, unaware of
the deception, thinks that the alternate has burned himself out and
takes the alternate, who now looks like Nate, back to Maddie. Believing
the alternate to be the fully operational Nate, Maddie unleashes him on Asia
but it has no effect. The alternate reveals the deception and
Maddie kills him. She prepares to return to Nate's Earth to retrieve him
but Nate destroys the machine that lets her travel across universes.
Maddie attempts to regain control of him but fails because her
control was removed when the Nates rebuilt each other. After
seemingly destroying Maddie and her creations, Nate returns to his own
Earth.
Six months later, in the present, Nate arrives at the aftermath of a
fight between two mutants- one dead, the other dying. Nate heals the dying
mutant, and tells her to stop killing others before flying off into the
sky.
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XMan 71 -- Nate senses a mutant nun named Sister Perpetua who is tortured by
visions of pain and suffering on other Earths. Nate offers to help her,
triggering a vision. They travel to the source of her latest vision -
Earth 253, being attacked by Qabiri, who has set out to destroy those who have
the ability to walk between universes, but now has decided the entire
world has to be destroyed as a pre-emptive strike to prevent anyone else
from gaining that ability. With Quabiri already having killed most of that
Earth's defenders, who called themselves The Protectorate, Nate meets the handful that remain- Citydweller,
Technocrat, Nightfigher, White Bird, and Zeitgeist, who is that Earth's version of Sister
Perpetua, and who apparently had a relationship with the
recently departed Professor X, who bears a remarkable similarity to Nate. As Qabiri prepares
for his final attack, Nate tries to figure out what's going on.
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XMan 72 -- While Qabiri floats out in space, preparing to blow everything up,
some of Earth 253's remaining defenders tell Nate about Qabiri's
attack on their world and what occurred before Nate arrived. Nate
learns that Professor X was a Nate Xavier, not a Nate
Grey, which explains why he was killed so easily by Qabiri. As Nate
tries to talk some sense into Qabiri, The Protectorate moves the
Earth's remaining survivors to their headquarters. With all the cities
dead, Citydweller has nothing to sustain him and literally falls
apart. Technocrat explodes from the injuries she's sustained. Unable
to dissuade Qabiri from blowing the Earth up, Nate tries to stop him.
Sister Perpetua and Zeitgeist see a human form streaking towards the
Earth, and assuming it's Qabiri rush to finish him off, only to
find Nate lying unconscious in an impact crater, apparently
-
slow-roasted by Qabiri. Soon after, Qabiri blows the Earth up.
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XMan 73 -- Sister Perpetua and Zeitgeist carry an unconscious Nate down the
Spiral to escape from Qabiri, not really sure where to go next. They end
up on a lifeless Earth so inhospitable that Nate will eventually die from
the strain of creating breathable air. Although Sister Perpetua and
Zeitgeist believe Nate has brought them there, Nate believes
they have, and grows suspicious of the two. They are startled by the
appearance of Hassan, a woman who just happens to look like Perpetua and
Zeitgeist. Amid the implausible coincidences and inconsistencies,
Nate probes the three identical women and concludes that they are part of
a single individual, which they deny. Now back on his own Earth, Nate
merges the three back into the single being they once were - Idris, who
escaped the Brilliant City long ago. Qabiri, who has been busy on the
other side of Earth slaughtering innocent people, arrives to kill Nate
but is stopped by Idris. Realizing that she is not yet
prepared to fight Qabiri, and that he cannot stop Qabiri on his own,
Nate
retreats with Idris to plan his next move.
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XMan
74 -- Nate and Idris journey to the Brilliant City to ask them for
help in stopping Qabiri, but its inhabitants are unconcerned
with what happens to the Earths lower on the spiral. Nate leaves Idris to
speak with her people and continues to try to talk sense into Qabiri,
confronting him mentally while physically staying a safe distance away.
Nate travels to the Brilliant City and Quabiri follows him, but before
Qabiri can destroy Nate, his own people turn on him, believing he has
become corrupted and must be destroyed before he can taint them as well.
While everyone except Nate and Idris are locked in battle, Nate learns why
Idris splintered herself into countless selves across countless earths-
she is a mutant among her people, the only one who could see the higher
beings above the Brilliant City - but her arrogance wouldn't let her
accept it, and so she made herself forget rather than face the truth.
Ironically, Qabiri's battle with his people lays waste to the Brilliant
City, destroying the very thing he was trying to protect. Although the
Brilliant City's people will in time accept their loss of arrogance and rebuild, Nate cannot rebuild Idris from the infinite numbers of
people she fractured herself into. No longer wanting to remember who she
is and where she came from, Idris is returned to the state in which Nate
originally found her - Sister Perpetua, free of the visions of other
worlds dying, and free of the burden of knowing who she really is.
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XMan 75 -- A
race of energy beings that have existed for tens of billions of
years have been infecting the primitive
single-celled life of still forming worlds. They wait for that
life to evolve into increasingly more complex forms and multiply, and
then harvest those life forms for their energy. Earth was one of the
planets they infected, and now that the human population has spawned
super powered mutants, the energy beings are ready to harvest the
humans of Earth. Unfortunately, this will kill everyone, but the
beings are like farmers- the crop is planted not to continue growing,
but to be eventually consumed. They send one their own to
prepare the humans for harvest, which takes on human form, and waits
for thirty years until the crop is ripe.
One
of the humans, a young mutant with telekinetic powers named
Mike, suspects what is going to happen but can't stop the alien
"farmer" from harvesting every human on the planet. However,
he burns a plea for help into a field, which another young mutant
named Nate Grey sees as he hovers high above the Earth. Nate has the
power to destroy the energy being, but the being's life energy is
interconnected to all life on Earth, from the very first cells the
beings infected billions of years ago. Killing the alien farmer
might kill everyone else as well- except for Nate, who is from
an Earth in an alternate universe.
With
the harvest imminent, Nate doesn't have time to think of any
alternatives, so he risks his life to save everyone else.
Knowing that the likelihood of survival is slim, he telepathically
passes on what wisdom and sense of purpose he can to Mike. Nate pushes
his power as hard as he can, causing it to overload, a situation he
was always afraid of because it would cause an explosion that could
take a chunk of the Earth with it. He has greater control over his
power than he ever has before, so he forces the energies to implode
inward, and as he grapples with the alien farmer the two become pure
energy, which mixes and flows into all life on Earth.
Nate sacrifices himself but his energy now "taints" all life
on Earth, so that the alien farmers wont be able to harvest the Earth.
And Mike is probably the only one who will ever know of this noble
act.
Mike senses within himself the
knowledge that
Nate gave him, and struggles to understand it. He knows he will never
understand it by staying in the small town in which he has grown up.
After saying goodbye to his girlfriend Carla, Mike flies away, to
learn how he might become a sort of shaman of his tribe- other
mutants. He realizes it wont be easy- he will have to live apart from
others, and will have to be careful not to let his emotions guide his
decisions. Above all else, he will have to be prepared to do whatever
the tribe needs, no matter what the cost. He doesn't know if he can do
all that, but he can at least try.
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