The Dark Mother

Significance: obscure
Ref. Under: Blaquesmith
Abilities: psionic
Time period: a) c. 3000 B.C. b) c. 2000 A.D. c) c. 4000 A.D.

More of a byproduct to the story than an active participant, the Dark Mother, also called Finality, was most closely associated to it through her past dealings with Blaquesmith, who upon coming to this era supplied her and the ranks of her telepathic Dark Sisterhood with psimitar technology, turning the group into what would be akin to the evil Askani.

Finality claimed, from resemblance to Jean Grey, to be Cable�s grandmother, but since her latest looks didn�t match with previous glimpses of her uncovered face, this claim can be disregarded as intentional fabrication.

Her motives to have women conquer the world were outgrowths from an event in her childhood in which �men� decimated her family during the Salem witch trials.

Status: She was deposed as her headquarters and organization came crumbling down around her. She is now catatonic, as of Cable #95.
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Kane, Garrison

Significance: secondary
Ref. Under: Cable
Abilities: exists as a living weapon
Time period: a) c. 3000 B.C. b) c. 2000 A.D. c) c. 4000 A.D.

Here is a man with an inferiority complex. Kane, for as long as he�s been alive, has sought to become bigger, better, more improved. Yet among all the members of the Six Pack, he is the one who has grown the least.

A young man when he started out as a merc, he is, years later, little more than he was then. If anything, he�s less. Weak-minded and subservient, he�s been oppressed and brought down since the day Cable abandoned the Six Pack. To balance his degradation, he�s physically built himself up over a long period, but this is only a fa�ade.

A white boy amid a pack of mutants and buff black men, it was natural for him to feel uncomfortable and inadequate. Back then, he put his trust in Cable. So when Cable �betrayed� his team, Kane was stricken deeply. Like the rest of Six Pack, he was overcome with anger, resentment, and bitterness. The team disbanded and he had nothing. Unlike the rest, though (perhaps with the exception of Hammer), he never quite moved on.

He harbored his hate and followed G.W. Bridge to S.H.I.E.L.D. where his arms and body were repaired, altered, and even enhanced to give him more power than he�d ever before tasted. When Cable returned, Kane forgave him and fell back on his role as the na�ve boy. And when Stryfe broke his arms, Cable fixed him again.

But part of him remained broken. He was disillusioned, for he was now a man, but still had nothing. Giving up the super hero�s life, he settled down with the shape-changer Vanessa, who, incidentally(?), Cable had known intimately and rejected before him.

This did not suit him either. Nothing could give his life meaning. With his bionic arms signifying his cold demeanor, his relationship with Vanessa froze over. When the new Weapon X program approached him with the means to enhance his body further, Kane accepted further strengthening his body as a solution to his problems, despite the harsh fact that they are not physical in nature.

The tragedy of Kane�s downfall is clearly expressed in his reaction to the death of Vanessa, who, before she was killed by Sabretooth, was also targeted for death by Kane. While Deadpool (who also loved Vanessa) mourned for her, Kane could not summon any emotion whatsoever to convey his �loss.� So the psychopath was more well-adjusted than Kane.

Status: Kane appears in the monthly Weapon X. In Weapon X: Marrow, Kane participated in the torment and conditioning of fellow operative Marrow.
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Professor

Significance: secondary
Ref. Under: Apocalypse, X-Factor, Cable
Abilities: control over the spacecraft of which he is comprised
Time period: a) c. 3000 B.C. b) c. 2000 A.D. c) c. 4000 A.D.

It is not unnatural for a machine to double-function as a friend. To the members of X-Factor, and after them Cable, Ship was proof positive of this fact. Following his liberation from Apocalypse, to whom Ship was a slave, the sentient spacecraft went on to earn the trust and companionship of great heroes.

This genuine acceptance placed onto an alien artifact forged unbreakable loyalty in Ship for his friends. Without Apocalypse to influence Ship�s actions, he found within himself the capacity to choose and make independent choices. He chose, for instance, to accompany baby Nathan to an uncertain future and guide him from harm. Where Nathan�s own father could not follow him, Ship shouldered the burden.

While it�s not entirely clear as to how it happened, Ship�s memory databanks of his experiences in the twentieth century were either damaged or erased upon his entering into the timestream, leaving him as something of a blank slate, and warranting a change in name. Ship, emerging from Nathan�s chest cavity amidst the boy�s teenage years, was known thenceforth as the Professor. The change in calling was also practical, as Ship was no longer a ship in the sense that he was before, but only a formless sentience deprived of physical mass until the later creation of Graymalkin.

His function remained the same. He was still a friend and a confidant, a doting guardian to Nathan in his formative years. Later, when he and his charge returned to the twentieth century and the Professor assumed a more human form as Prosh, the change affected Cable�s psi-powers in a negative way. Unwilling to see his friend come to harm, Prosh sacrificed his life on Earth and newfound friends among the ranks of X-Force to save Cable by retreating into the lonely void of space, far enough out of range so that Nathan could recover. A simple machine would never be capable of such a selfless act.

Status: An encounter with his Celestial creators and the threat posed by the alien Stranger necessitated Prosh�s temporary return to Earth in X-Men Forever. To contain the threat of the Stranger, Prosh incarcerated the villain within his own mass and currently roams the spaceways as a floating prison, never again to open its gates. Another selfless act.
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