Real Name: Nathaniel Christopher Charles Summers
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #201, January 1986 (As child); The New Mutants (Vol. 1) #87, March 1990 (As Cable)
Powers: Nathan Christopher Summers is the mutant son of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor, a genetic clone of the mutant named Jean Grey. His mutant abilities include telepathy, telekinesis, and limited astral time-travel; exhibiting the former two at a very early age.
As a baby, he was telepathically sensitive and could generate a telekinetic force bubble around himself to ward off attack and protect himself from harm. After being infected with Apocalypse's techno-organic virus and transported into a possible 40th century dystopian future, though, the larger portion of his fledgling psionic power was focused on constantly keeping his body together. His telekinesis worked to stop the spread of the virus while his telepathy constantly worked to dampen his sensitivity to the unbearable pain his body was constantly in. As he reached adulthood, his unrestrained telepathic and telekinetic abilities were phenomenal, but most of the time attempting to use them would weaken their grip on the virus, causing him great pain and letting the virus spread. During his teens, he met a fellow psionic named Blaquesmith who helped train him and activated the Professor, the Celestial artificial intelligence formerly known as "Ship" that directly interfaced with his techno-organic parts right before he was sent to the future as an infant, integrating itself into his mind and body. The Professor was able to monitor Nate's bio-signs and access his mutant powers to regulate the virus for Nathan. The Professor also provided him vast amounts of information stored in his databanks, mass and proximity sensors alerting him to potential threats, and wide-spectrum analytical scanning allowing him to monitor the life-signs of other beings, scan them for weaknesses, provide tactical suggestions, etc.
Something happened to him between his last recorded appearances in the future with the Clan Chosen and his first appearance in the present with Six Pack as Cable: His telekinesis was far weaker than it had ever been growing up and his telepathy was simply gone. By the time he began operating as Cable in the modern era, virtually the entire left side of his body had been co-opted by the virus. Cable had forced his T-O virus to work for him, incorporating various weapons and devices into the metal components. First, he used exterior camouflage that would disguise his techno-organics as non-living bionics or synthetic organic material. His strength level increased into the 1 to 5 ton range, and his left eye was equipped with infrared sights, night vision, and computerized targeting options. He often employed retractable laser or plasma weapons, finger torches, cyber-jacks for computer uplinking, and hidden compartments built in his metal for storage. Nathan also had latent transportation powers which the Professor coordinated for him through mechanical relays on Greymalkin, a massive space station Cable had brought back in time with him, complete with a teleportation matrix and TDC (Time Displacement Core). Using computerized commands, Cable could activate body- and tech-slide or time-rip transportation signatures in order to move through time and space. He could travel alone, or coordinate his systems to transport additional organic or mechanical mass. Bodyslide by One, for instance, would teleport him alone; Bodyslide by Six would teleport him and the five people in closest proximity to him; Bodyslide by Six, Pack Gene-Scan would isolate the genetic signatures of his Six Pack team for teleportation wherever they were in his general vicinity, and so on.
During his time with X-Force, Cable's telepathy returned and he began to hone his psionic powers to a greater degree than before. As a telepath, he can read minds and project thoughts, communicate mentally, create mental illusions, fire “mental bolts” used to stun or kill, project his astral form and travel to the astral plane, and exert mental control over a person’s mind. Telekinetically, he can levitate people and objects, create powerful telekinetic blasts, and create a telekinetic force shield.
His astral time travel abilities were completely latent. He could not consciously or deliberately access them at all. Their only use was to act as a catalyst for mechanically engineered space/time displacement, like his bodysliding, TDC, or Shi'ar technology. Essentially, he is a biological power source for time travel effects.
Of course, the extent of his abilities has fluctuated over the years, depending on the state of his T-O infection. After temporarily losing his powers, he began using an Askani weapon known as a psimitar lance to help focus his powers. The psimitar was made from a psycho-sensitive metal that drew upon and amplified the wielder's mental energy into blasts of energy. After his powers eventually returned, Nathan became capable of wielding the full potential of the psimitar. When the cure for the Legacy Virus was released into the world's atmosphere, Cable sensed that it had caused a subtle shift in his own T-O virus, making it possible for him to remove the virus. He succeeded in the attempt, and his power levels began to grow dramatically as a result. The T-O virus eventually returned, but with his expanded power levels, the virus was a minor nuisance at most. Being artificially reduced to childhood and then rapidly accelerating back to his actual age caused him to lose his powers again altogether.
To compensate, he began using technological aids to artificially duplicate his lost powers. He incorporated technology from the Dominus Objective into his mechanical systems, which allowed him to access the Infonet, the electronic datastream blanketing the planet. Essentially a mental and hyper-accurate search engine, Cable could scan through the entire contents of the internet, e-mails and personal correspondences, radio broadcasts, and anything ever transmitted by electromagnetic signal. The Objective enabled him to more efficiently sift through the Infonet's contents to locate whatever he wishes to find. Like telepathy, he can also use the Infonet to project data into other people's minds -- either sharing knowledge he has gleaned from the datastream or his own thoughts and memories. Unlike the intimate mind-touch of telepathy, though, being fed information by the Objective is like "feeling a book". Furthermore, Cable adopted a military force field project called the "Cone of Silence" into use as a personal body suit. He could surround himself with a gravimetric sheath, a protective shield which deflected any kind of personal attack and enabled him to levitate and fly at high speeds. It could also be manipulated outwardly, creating hands of energy which he could use to physically grab people or objects, moving them around or crushing them to pieces.
During the decade-plus he spent raising Hope Summers in the future, Cable's telepathy and telekinesis became active again, but he slowly lost control over his techno-organic virus as well. Later, the techno-organic infection was completely purged from Cable's body by Hope, using the power of the Phoenix. Although he is now unaffected, Cable's human form did not quickly recover or regenerate in the absence of the virus. His left eye is missing, leaving him with an eyepatch, and his left arm was weak and atrophied. He used a "battle-arm" designed by Forge, acting as an exoskeleton to support his arm's weight, provide a level of superhuman strength, and include several forms of micro-munitions launchers. Cable's psychic powers were also remotely manipulated by Blaquesmith and a future version of Hope. He had strong telepathy and telekinesis once more, in addition to fully realized precognitive abilities that fed him information on upcoming threats and disasters. The potency of the visions was so strong, however, it could potentially kill him. Forge and Doctor Nemesis developed a way to mechanically streamline Cable's future-sight, diverting it onto the "mission board" screens at their base for everyone to witness, and lessening the stress it puts on Cable's body at the same time.
Cable's abilities changed again following the Alexandria incident. He was injected with a biotech formula called the Volga effect, designed to weaponize mutant abilities and causing them to violently explode as their powers were destabilized. He attempted to stop the detonation by cutting off his own arm, but the formula continued to exist in his system. As a result, Cable and Doctor Nemesis devised a treatment placing him in cryogenic suspended animation, halting the destabilizing effects of the formula altogether. Sequential clones are then grown from Cable's corrupted cells, and mnemonically imprinted with a copy of his memories. These clones were just as unstable as the original Cable, and would die or explode every 24 hours due to the formula. The mnemonic headband he wore helped maintain some cerebral continuity for Cable between incarnations, recording and then transferring memories from one clone to the next. Cable was working on borrowed time, because his real body would lose two minutes of life every day when it was thawed out for the cloning process. Cable's powers were drastically limited in that state. He could manifest extremely mild telekinesis at times, as well as a few seconds of precognitive insight to guide him in combat. Mostly, he relied upon technological aids such as remote bodysliding and the bionic arm replacing his amputated one.
After Hope cured him of the Volga effect, Cable's capabilities were at an all-time low. He no longer possessed telepathy, telekinesis, or techno-organic capabilities. Even Cable was beginning to feel his physical age, making him weaker and more tired than in the past. He only possessed a limited precognitive ability at this time. Cable was revitalized during a temporal mission which streamlined various divergent timelines growing out of his complicated continuity. Cable merged with these timelines, gaining increased vitality and restoring his telepathy, telekinesis, and techno-organic components. Cable began operating as a temporal warrior, with timeslide and bodyslide capabilities integrated into his techno-organics. They were coordinated by Belle, a "tattoo" on his T-O arm that acted as an artificial intelligence maintaining his technological capabilities, as well as possessing ranged scanning sensors, wireless data retrieval, and so on.
Cable is a highly accomplished warrior and battle strategist. He is highly adept in many forms of hand to hand combat in the use of various forms of weaponry from both the 20th and 40th centuries. Cable also holds a law degree and is licensed to practice law by the New York bar association.
