X-Man Unlimited

THE AGE OF APOCALYPSE

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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 is revealed -- Sinister. Against Forge's orders, Nate goes off in search of Sinister.

X-Man #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.

THE BOY WHO FELL TO EARTH

X-Man #5: Nate arrives in the Swiss Alps, blows up a truck, and is taken in by a man named Sevn Days pass, when suddenly Madelyne Pryor knocks on Sven's door. Sugarman sends Rex after Nate.

X-Man #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 Madelyne flee while Rex is down for the count. While resting, Nate probes Madelyne's head and sees a contorted image of Havok.

X-Man #7: Nate and Madelyne fly to Paris, where Selene seduces Madelyne into abandoning Nate. Nate is alone again... with Rex still on his trail.

X-Man #8: Having lost Madelyne, 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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #13: Nate returns to Paris in search of Madelyne, 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.

X-Man #14: Nate battles the recently-retconed-into-a-psi-vampire Exodus, then turns on Cable, discomforted by the psionic backlash between the two.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #16: Nate and Holocaust fight and stuff. Threnody gets captured.

X-Man #17: Trevor Fitzroy meets Madelyne, with unfortunate results for the former, while Nate frees Threnody and finally defeats Holocaust, with Threnody's help.

THE ONSLAUGHT

X-Man #18: While Nate is hiding in the mansion with X-Force, Sinister and the Marauders capture Threnody who is hiding in a church.

X-Man #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-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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... Madelyne Pryor.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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 Madelyne Pryor.

X-Man #25: Nate returns to find Threnody, only to see Madelyne Pryor, instead. Jean Grey, having been alerted by Madam Sanctity as to Madelyne's presence, arrives on the scene, and she and Madelyne proceed to go at it, with Nate taking Jean's side. The truth of Madelyne'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. Madelyne, having felt betrayed by Nate, flees as Nate discovers that he has lost his telekinetic power.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #31: Fill-in story in which Nate meets the Dire Wraiths.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #33: Jacknife is defeated and Nate once again ponders his responsibility in messing with peoples' lives.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #40: Nate stops the Great Beasts, but not without considerable effort, while Madelyne 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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #42: His telepathy gone, Nate travels to Clifden, Ireland, with Madelyne 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.

X-Man #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 Madelyne 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.

X-Man #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 Madelyne 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.

X-Man #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 Madelyne find themselves in Latvertia, just as as an enormous pyramid-like building comes crashing down near them.

X-Man #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, Madelyne stops two Dark Riders from capturing Jean Grey, and Ness, using the remains of a tech-gnome, tracks down Blaquesmith.

X-Man #47: Stryfe has drained Nate's power, adding it to his own, and Madelyne 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, Madelyne 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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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, Madelyne and Ness aren't getting along very well, and the Psi-Ops prepares for a major operation against Nate.

X-Man #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 Madelyne, he finds the Psi-Ops are waiting for him. Nate and the Psi-Ops fight each other to a stalemate, while Madelyne teleports one of the injured MacAleers to a hospital, and Ness and Scanlon, leader of the Psi-Ops, have a lengthy conversation. Madelyne returns, and after saving Nate from being ripped in half, inadvertently makes a crack in one of the Psi-op's 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 Madelyne believe they've won, but Ness knows differently.

X-Man #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. Madelyne 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 Madelyne is gone, and is seemingly killed in the ships explosion. Madelyne, who now looks like an old woman, 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.

X-Man #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, Apocalypse's 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.

X-Man #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 Age of Apocalypse with Forge and the rest of his troupe, before he wakes up next to Scott and Jean.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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 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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #59: Deciding to become more pro-active, Nate turns to the Fantastic Four to help him track down the other Age of Apocalypse 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.

X-Man #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 nightmar e- he has been captured by Apocalypse.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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 human-like 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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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 Madelyne. 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 Madelyne to clear his head, he finds a newspaper with Quito's destruction on the front page. Seeing the aftermath of the destruction, Madelyne 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 Madelyne Pryor from another Earth, in reality the only Madelyne 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.

X-Man #68 Nate is taken to Madelyne'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 Madelyne 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 Madelyne's control and flies away. Soon after, on the other side of the world, he meets another version of himself.

X-Man #69 The alternate version of Nate tries to gain his trust, as Nate struggles to understand this alternate Earth. Meanwhile, Madelyne 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 Madelyne 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 Madelyne 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 Madelyne. Mr. Scratch, having located Nate, destroys the corpse, but not before it reveals Madelyne's most startling secret.

X-Man #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 Madelyne. Believing the alternate to be the fully operational Nate, Madelyne unleashes him on Asia but it has no effect. The alternate reveals the deception and Madelyne kills him. She prepares to return to Nate's Earth to retrieve him but Nate destroys the machine that lets her travel across universes. Madelyne attempts to regain control of him but fails because her control was removed when the Nates rebuilt each other. After seemingly destroying Madelyne 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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

X-Man #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.

History

Unlimited