1991: A Freedom Ring Prelude

A Few Years Ago[1]

Contacting his computer, the Professor, Cable initiates a bodyslide to return to the future from which he comes from.[2] There he is greeted by the various robots that he has named after his childhood family and gives and updates them on his current progress with Samuel Guthrie.[3] Once settled in his main control room he checks on the Proessor’s progress in repairing his database, however he learns that this is an ongoing process. When ask what his plans are, Cable tells Professor that he has only come back to this era to take a step back from his mission to get a clearer perspective, saying he needs to do that from time to time or else get lost in all of the exciement he experiences in his travels to the past.

The Past

Outside an undisclosed Hydra headquarters, Jubilee complaints to Wolverine that she is bored and that she wishes they were at a shopping mall. Logan tells Jubilee to keep quiet as, despite their ridiculious costumes, Hydra are a legitimate terrorist organization and very dangerous. He tells her that this should be an easy mission and that once they grab the item Nick Fury has sent them to retreive they can get right out. Jumping one of the sentries, Wolverine has Jubilee put on his costume and has her pretend to be taking him in as a prisoner, hoping the ruse works long enough to get them inside the compound. The ruse works just as Wolverine planned, but once the door is opened the guards inside notice something is up. When Logan attacks the Hydra agents he tells Jubilee to help. However, when she tries to shoot the guards with the gun she stole, the recoil knocks her onto her ass.

As they sneak into another building, Wolverine starts to suspect something is up when the alarm hasn’t been sounded yet. That’s when the Mandarin comes blasting through one of the walls coming to claim something that the Hydra agents have that he wants. He tells them that fighting him would be a waste of time and to clear the way. Wolverine tells Jubilee that this recent development will help them as they won’t have to be so quiet now.

The Future

The Professor interrupts Cable to tell him that he has just unearthed data about a mission Wolverine went on in the past that is of importance. However, the data is incomplete and the Professor fears that Logan may have died on this mission. At first Cable thinks it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, but is reminded by the Professor that Cable himself said that Wolverine will be invaluable to the coming war. Cable resigns to the fact that he’ll have to go back and save Logan’s life and tells the Professor to remind him to do this in about a week.

The Past

Wolverine and Jubilee run past the battle between Hydra and the Mandrain, a battle that the Mandarin is winning thanks to his ten powerful rings. That’s when Cable arrives in that era, annoyed that the Professor didn’t send him back moments before the Mandarin’s attack. He soon bumps into Wolverine and Jubilee, and Logan warns Cable to not get in his way. Following after them, Cable explains that he has come to lend a helping hand.[5] They soon find what they have come looking for, a fragment of a destroyed Cosmic Cube that Hydra has in their possession that Wolverine has been sent to collect. Before Jubilee can use her powers to short out the containment field, the Mandarin comes crashing into the lab, ordering the three mutants to step away from his prize. Cable tackles the Mandarin and tells Wolverine and Jubilee to make a run for it. The pair then flee with the shard of the Cosmic Cube. Outside of the lab, they see the damage the Mandarin causes. Wolverine then hands Jubilee the shard of the Cube and orders her to get to the transport while he goes back to save Cable.

Wolverine ambushes the Mandarin, telling the villain that he has the shard and to get it, the Mandarin has to kill him. The Mandarin blasts Wolverine with his disintigration ring, but the feral mutant advances even though the energy is stripping the flesh away from his body. Cable then attacks the Mandarin anew, telling Wolverine to get Jubilee and get out of there. Realizing that the girl has the shard, the Mandarin uses his freeze ring to trap both Wolverine and Cable ina block of ice. He quickly catches up with Jubilee and easily disarms her.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nick Fury arrives with SHIELD and he is not impressed to hear that the Mandarin managed to escape with the fragmet, telling Wolverine and Jubilee that he has now become three times as powerful as before. After hearing that Cable was also there, Fury wants to know where he managed to sneak off to.

The Future

Cable returns to his home base asking the Professor if he made things worse by saving Wolverine since the Mandarin escaped with a powerful weapon. The Professor points out that he has no record of the Mandarin using the fragment, that was true even before Cable went back to save Wolverine, therefore his mission was always a success.

The Past

The Mandarin returns to his hideout in China, where he meets with Chen Hsu, who senses the Mandarin’s presence immediately. Chen asks what the Mandarin wants. Cutting to the chase, the Mandarin presents to Chen Hsu the fragment of the Cosmic Cube and asks him to fashion it into an 11th ring for him to wear.

Recurring Characters

Wolverine, Cable, Jubilee, Nick Fury, Mandarin, Hydra Professor

Continuity Notes

1. The use of the year 1991 in the title should not be taken seriously and is a topical reference. It denotes the era in which this story — a flashback —- takes place, speciically the era of X-Men titles that were published in 1991. Per the Sliding Timescale, this story takes place during “Year Eight” of the Marvel Universe’s Modern Age. From the perspective of next issue this story happened about four years prior. Likewise should any reference to this story taking place in the late 20th Century should also be considered topical.

2. At the time of this story, Cable spent time between the modern age of Earth-616 and the 37th to late 39th century of Earth-4935, first depicted in X-Force #8.

3. Part of the reason why Cable went back into the past was to also mentor Samuel Guthrie — aka Cannonball —because he was believed to ascend into becoming an External a race of immortal mutants starting in New Mutants #86. The truth of his menoring of the New Mutants, and later X-Force, was also revealed in X-Force #8.

4. Professor was previously the artiical intelligence that was aboard a Celestial ship that was commendeered by Apocalypse for a time. When Nathan Summers was infected with a technorganic virus and brought to the future with a potential cure, the Ship’s AI travelled with him. It’s memories damaged, it began calling itself “Professor” after it was revived by Cable’s ally Blaquesmith. It has been trying to guide Cable in his attempts to stop Apocalypse’s conquest of the future from happening with whatever memory it can recover. This was all detailed in Askani’son #1-4 and Cable #7.

5. When Jubilee suggests that Wolverine should have been brought Quicksilver on this mission, Logan quips that Pietro Maximoff has too much baggage. He’s not wrong. At the time of this story here is some of the baggage Quicksilver was dealing with:

   • Since Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4, Quicksilver was convinced that Magneto was his father. However, Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #5, they aren’t Magneto’s children. This was a lie perpetuated by the High Evolutionary to hide the fact that he experimented on Pietro and his sister while they were children.

   • He also was dealing with the end of his marriage after he discovered that Crystal was having an affair with a man named Norman Webster in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #1-12. During this period, Pietro was temporarily driven mad by Maximus in X-Factor Annual #2.

   • At the time of this story, Pietro is estranged from his wife and had since joined X-Factor in X-Factor #71.