Dark Tide Rising

• Writer - Robert Weinberg
• Inker - Rick Ketcham
• Inker - Norm Rapmund
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Saida Temofonte
• Colorist - Enigma
• Ass't Editor - Pete Franco
• Editor - Mark Powers
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada
• Penciler - Tom Derenick

Summary

  Cable trains with Shin (iss. 85), who says he relies too much on TK. He still prefers a psimitar or ion cannon over martial arts; she says he may not have the choice, warns him about the Dark Sisterhood, and disappears.

  Little girls jump rope in the street. They know who Cable and Irene are and extort money for the ice cream truck. They are actually three witches (since iss. 79). The Dark Sisterhood also have disguised agents about. They arrange crimes all over the city.

  Irene asked Cable to introduce her to Beast and Phoenix. She gives him a present: Meatloaf's "Bat Out Of Hell" on CD. They meet Beast in a secret lab; Irene asks him about the infant Cable, infected and sent to the future (X-Factor 68). He points out that the baby's DNA was infected, so his clone, Stryfe, should have been, too. Someone had a cure but didn't cure Cable.

  On the street, Cable sees Aliya for a moment. He realizes he's being watched and takes a cab to Times Square. He tells Irene to warn Blaquesmith and says they're moving.

  The three girls tell Cable who's watching his base, and he confronts a homeless woman. She pulls a psimitar on him and gets away. Cable confronts Blaquesmith, who admits he helped Finality, the Dark Mother of the Dark Sisterhood, years ago, before he realized they were villains.