Fluffy: Who is Cable?
Red:His real name is Nathan Christopher Charles Summers Dayspring Askani'son. Try saying that three times fast! He is the current leader of X-Force, although he is often in absentia from the team and will soon be in absentia for an undisclosed amount of time. He started out in comics as a cute little innocent baby, whose diapers were changed by certain members of the New Mutants who are now in X-Force. He was born to Scott Summers and Madylene Prior, a clone of Jean Grey, and as an infant was infected with the TO virus by Apocalypse, who had been told the baby would eventually bring about his downfall, and was taken 2,000 years into the future by Mother Askani, who turned out to be his half-sister Rachel, to save his life. He was raised there by Redd and Slym, bodies from that timeline occupied by the minds of newly married X-Men Scott Summers and Jean Grey, until he was about 11 years old, then mentored by Blaquesmith, a funny-looking little man with psychic powers. As an adult he came back to the 616 world and gathered together the New Mutants, some of whom left the before X-Force was formed, and some of whom stayed on to form X-Force, which was then joined by some more new members, and a few more, and then a few more ex-New Mutants! After X-Force had been together for awhile, he left the team to go after Tolliver and got thrown off track by Deadpool. He returned briefly for the X-Cutioner's Song, where he saved the X-Men's butts by pulling Stryfe into the timestream, but unfortunately ended up falling into the timestream himself as well. So X-Force thought he was gone forever, so they go about with their lives. Then he comes back, gets his ass kicked by Magneto, recovers like a good little TO-infested soldier, and leads X-Force nicely for a good long time. Then, after the AoA, he decides to let Xavier have a hand in guiding his charges, the beginning of a long and painful run that saw a huge drop in sales for the comic. He also had a nasty habit of going AWOL and then reappearing frequently. Recently, he asked X-Force to go underground and take new identities, but they didn't like that, so they told him fergitaboutit, so he left them to fend for themselves with no money. In issue #75, he dropped in to see how X-Force was doing, but didn't intervene when a fight broke out, and after they settled it on their own, he realized they didn't need him anymore, so he left them alone. Therefore, Cable is definitely not a part of X-Force anymore.
Misbegotten: Okay, who is this Domino person that he thinks is so swell?
Red: Domino is Cable's partner-in-crime, sometimes called his girlfriend, although their relationship is rather unstable, but they definitely care for each other. Domino is a mutant with the power of enhanced luck ("Things just tend to fall into place for me") who was once briefly married to a guy named Milo, who was recently killed by Donald Pierce. She was a member of the Six Pack (or Rat Pack, whatever you wanna call it), and was kidnapped by Tolliver and replaced by the Shapeshifter Vanessa, aka Copycat, for over a year. Copycat stayed with X-Force during this time under the guise of Domino, until she betrayed the team and was discovered. In X-Force #30, the real Domino joins the team, becoming a co-leader of sorts. And she is much more stable than Cable after the AoA, believe me! Sometime soon she'll be forced out away from X-Force too, and her luck powers will go on the fritz. Her first name is Beatrice but I don't know her last name. Was her last name revealed in her LS? She has been nick-named "Petey the Dog" because of her chalky white skin and black "eye patch" which also prompts Caliban to address her as "Patch Eye", which she hates. And she loves big guns too. She was captured by Operation: Zero Tolerance goons, who stuck a device in her neck that occasionally interferes with her nervous system, so her luck is gone, so she left the team. She's coming up again next month, in grave danger, oooh!
Professor of Nuttiness: Who is the Cannonball/Sam person whose name kept coming up during part I?
Red: Sammy used to be in X-Force. He was one of the first New Mutants. But let's start with his childhood first, okay? Sam Guthrie was born the oldest of 8 children in rural Kentucky, a poor, but very close-knit family. Sam's father died of "blacklung", a common name for a lung disease that coalminers get from backup of coal dust in their lungs, when Sam was about 16. So he had to start working in the mines to supplement his family's farm income, even though it killed his father. Very soon into his new job, Sam's mutant power to project a kinetic blast field around his lower body to propel him through the air and make him nearly invulnerable surfaced, creating a big mess in the mines. So the Hellfire Club finds him, and they recruit him. But Xavier gets his claws into the boy pretty fast, and he becomes one of the original 5 New Mutants. Sam is the only character to stay with the New Mutants throughout their entire existence, and was the first one to join X-Force, which makes him a smart man, I say! He had buddies in all his teammates, especially Mirage, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Karma, Doug, the whole bunch, as well as Kitty Pryde, who was in the X-Men. At first he had a major crush on his teammate Magma, but it didn't go anywhere, and then he started going out with Tabitha. Cable made him the deputy leader of X-Force right away, a job which Sam handled pretty well. Fairly soon into the X-Force series, Sam finds out he's an External, which means he's a mutant immortal. This does not make Sam happy, the prospect of living forever while all his friends and family drop around him like flies does not please him in the least. After Cable is lost to the team, Sam becomes the leader of X-Force, which makes him feel rather nervous, to tell you the truth. He is not comforted by the idea of the lives of him teammates being in his hands. So when Cable comes back, this makes Sammy feel relieved. He's enjoying himself for awhile, and then when Illyana Rasputin dies, it makes him feel unhappy, because it's another reminder of his immortality. After Bobby gets teleported off God-knows-where by Locus, Sam takes Tabitha home to meet his family. While they're there, the Externals come along and try to convince Sam to join them, because he offers them hope. But ultimately he refuses, and they accept it. But the visit makes him feel less uncomfortable about having to live forever, because he knows he's accomplished something in his 20 years that most of the Externals haven't in hundreds or even thousands of years, and also makes him appreciate Tabitha even more. So they go back to X-Force, and everything's going fine until they find out where Bobby has been, which seriously bums Sammy out. Anyway, after the AoA, Sam is told by Cable that there's no longer a place for him on X-Force anymore. At first he's shocked, understandably, but then Cable and Xavier tell him the X-Men want him on their team and he's "graduated" from X-Force. Sam was just thrilled, but I say X-Force isn't the New Mutants and if the X-Men want "graduates" they should bug Generation X and if they wanted Sam they should have asked for "new members". X-Force is supposed to be its own team, not a talent reserve for the X-Men. But enough about Loeb's ludicrous change of direction! Anyway, Sam was at first a little uncomfortable on the X-Men, he missed X-Force and especially Tabitha, but now he's gotten so at home with the X-Men it frightens me. He even took Wolverine's side against Cable in an argument that almost turned into something ugly. And he dumped Tabitha when he caught her cheating on him with Bobby. Oh well, they hadn't been talking much since he joined the X-Men anyway. Sam was named after... oh, go look it up for yourself, fanboy!
Professor of Nuttiness: Lovely. Now, who is Shatterstar?
Red: Shatterstar is a guy from an entertainment-oriented planet called Mojoworld. He was trained as a child to fight in the arenas to entertain the masses. No one knows anything about who his parents are, and don't even get me started on the story arc that promised and failed to reveal his origin. Shatterstar lands on Earth looking for the X-Men, needing help defeating Mojo, the ruler of his planet, and instead finds the newly formed X-Force team. He clashes with them, and they are impressed by his skills, so after the dust clears, they offer him a spot, which he accepts. When first arriving on Earth, Shatterstar shows no discernible sign of emotions, and somewhat disapproves of teamwork, and doesn't understand Earth's culture in the slightest. But he quickly gives teamwork a chance, and discovers him teammates like it when he saves their butts from getting fried, and gradually comes to understand Earth's culture, with the help of television. Shatty has a great friendship with Rictor, and the possibility has been raised that Shatty is in love with Rictor, but I don't see it, the whole thing just looks like good friends to me. Anyway, Shatty eventually comes to develop a set of emotions beyond rage and bloodlust, which catch up with him when Rictor leaves the team after AoA. I mean, this man is majorly bummed at his buddy taking off to Mexico! But he gets all buddy-buddy with Tabitha, which helps. While helping Siryn break Deadpool out of the Weisman Institute, he is told by Gamesmaster that he is really an Earth boy named Benjamin Russell, and the whole Shatterstar thing is just Gamesmaster's funny little joke. So, after the fight with Sinister and Onslaught, X-Force decides to find out what's the deal with Benjamin Russell and Shatterstar. The NYPD, who formerly had records on a young man named-you guessed it!- Benjamin Russell, has no information to give X-Force after the Onslaught thing. Russell was supposedly a resident of Boston, Massachusetts, so X-Force decides to fly up there and try and find some answers, but on the way they are intercepted by two Mojoworlders named Gog and Magog, who shunt them off to Mojoworld and kidnap Shatterstar. The story arc that entails is too pathetic to go into detail about here, so I'm not going to waste my time on describing it. But we find out Shatterstar was killed on Mojoworld, and his soul was placed in the body of a comatose mental patient named Benjamin Russell, who happens to look exactly like Shatterstar. He's been just dandy ever since. Though quite frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't had any problems with big guys swinging him around by his ponytail yet. Why he was named Shatterstar, I have no clue. Some Mojoworlder decided it was a good name for him. And the name Gaveedra-Seven has been brought up in the comic, too. But I have no idea what that is. He left for Mexico with Rictor when Cable asked the team to take on new identities. He reappeared in X-Force a few months ago when Arcade made him fight Domino and used Rictor as a hostage. But, he got beaten by her, he took it pretty well, so he's okay now.
Professor of Nuttiness: Very well. Who is Rictor, this guy whose departure to Mexico caused Shatterstar such anguish?
Red: Well, Rictor was born to a large family in Mexico. He loved his father a great deal, despite the fact he was a gun dealer. When Julio Esteban Richter (Rictor's real name) was a boy, Stryfe came along and shot Julio's father for a debt. The guy died, of course, and years later, when Rictor met Cable, he thought Cable was the guy who killed his father. Anyway, as a teenager Rictor goes off and he gets recruited by X-Factor, which at the time consisted of the original X-Men. He, Tabitha, Artie, Leech, Rusty, and Skids form the X-Terminators and they're together for awhile. Some time later, Julio and Tabitha join the New Mutants. and somewhere along the way, Julio takes a liking to Tabitha. He also takes a liking to Rahne Sinclair, who was also on the New Mutants, at some time in his tenure with the team. After Tabitha got together with Cannonball, I suppose. Anyway, here's what I heard of what went on when Cable first found the New Mutants. Now, when he first started leading the team, Rictor thought this man killed his father, so he naturally had a royal attitude, but without saying why. Before the series is over, Rictor goes off to look for Rahne, because she had disappeared during the X-Tinction Agenda, he just leaves the team like that. After awhile, Rictor joins Weapon P.R.I.M.E. and gets into a fight with X-Force, where Cable gets lost from the team. So, thinking Cable is out of the picture forever, Rictor joins the team along with Sunspot, and all their old New Mutants buddies are glad to have them back. Now, Rictor is okay for awhile. When Cable comes back to the team permanently, Rictor is pissed at first, but then Natey tells Rictor it was really Stryfe who killed Julio's dad, and Rictor still comes up with excuses to hate Cable's guts, but at least he's staying on the team. So they're all cool for awhile longer. Rictor becomes a good friend to Shatterstar. Then one day, Shatterstar sees and records a newscast from Mexico (Shatty likes to watch TV, BTW) that says Rictor's uncle and cousin have been wounded in a gunfight. So Rictor, with Cable and Domino's company, goes back home to Mexico to see his family and visit his relatives in the hospital. While at home, Rictor remembers exactly what happened the day his father was killed by Stryfe, and comes to the revelation that violence and guns weren't going to solve the problem, and his family was still selling firearms, despite their futility, out of some sick sense of family honor, and Rictor decides he does not approve of this. Meanwhile, outside, someone sees Cable and thinks he is Stryfe, and a crowd of armed Richters surrounds Cable and Domino, so Rictor comes outside and shakes them all to the ground, and shows them what a real weapon is! This makes Julio feel so much better! So then he goes to the hospital, where he visits his cousin, Omar, the one who was shot, and Omar is revealed to be a trigger-happy weakling who thinks he's all powerful just as long as he has a gun. Julio tells Omar he is going to prison where he belongs, then says he is trying to be too good for the rest of his family (really, I'm not exaggerating) and leaves the hospital deciding to use his brain rather than a gun from now on. So he comes back, he's a good little soldier, still a friend to Shatterstar, apparently doesn't hate Cable anymore. In X-Force #43, we find out he has a natural way with women and yet is still a virgin. Then, after the AoA, Rictor leaves X-Force for an undisclosed amount of time, claiming he needs time with his family. So they're not that bad after all, huh Julio? Well, we don't see anymore of him until the beginning of that Godawful Shatterstar Saga, when he comes back to the team to help his friend through some difficult times. Well, he's still just as brazen and hot-headed as always, despite wanting to help his friend. After that, he really hasn't had much exposure yet. But that's okay, as it hasn't been all that long yet. But his uniform is really ugly. Anyway, Rictor's a pretty good-looking guy, with weird-cut brown hair and always a smooth look on his face. He was named after the scale for measuring earthquakes, as his power is to create seismic waves. Although why they messed with the spelling rather than just using his last name is beyond me. When Cable asked the team to take on new identities, he took off for Mexico again. Then, Arcade lured him into a trap by sending word that Julio's cousin was picking up a shipment of guns. Arcade captured Julio, and holds him captive to watch Shatterstar and Domino fight. But he got released as soon as there was a victory, so we'll assume he's going along his merry way again.
Mommy: Okay, Red, so who's Caliban?
Red: A large purple idiot, that's who. No, I shouldn't say that, I'm being a little bit too harsh. Caliban was born with a rather freakish appearance, and so was abandoned by his parents, and lived in the Morlock tunnels. His powers are enhanced strength and tracking mutants. When he first appeared, it was his first time detecting other mutants, and he was so blown over at finding other mutants that he kidnapped Kitty Pryde. He gave her back, though. But he fell in love with her later on. So, in a comic some time later, I believe just after Mutant Massacre, Kitty gets drafted into marrying Caliban. But she painted the walls with her unhappiness with this idea, and Cal cared for her enough to let her go. He wasn't too smart at the time, you see. He always spoke in the third person, like he does now. Anyway, during Fall of the Mutants, Caliban gets radically altered by Apocalypse and becomes a horseman. This makes him smarter, but it does not make him happier, and it doesn't last. Wait a minute, before he was altered by Apocalypse, I think Cal was in X-Factor! Yeah, now it's all coming back to me. So, Caliban stays one of Apocalypse's horsemen for quite a long time, but eventually, after X-Cutioner's Song is over and Pocy is dead, I suppose, Cal gets changed again, this time a little different from both his former incarnations, and joins X-Force. Right now he's got a weird-shaped head, purple skin, and the IQ of dryer lint. He likes to say stuff like "Caliban has always looked like Caliban. Except now he looks like a different Caliban." You think I'm joking. But he's really sweet, kind of funny at times, although not on purpose. In the last issue of X-Force before the Flashback, we see Ozymandias, a slave/captive of Apocalypse, looming over Caliban, apologizing that this will be Caliban's last night spent in the X-Mansion. And he just got shunted off back to Apocalypse by old Ozzy, and no one in X-Force knows what's happened to him. Ozzy messed with Cable's head so that he wouldn't remember what happened to Caliban until it was too late. So Nate just told X-Force Caliban is safe and in good hands. Boy, are they clueless.
Rose: Okey-dokey, Red. Now, who is Risque?
Red: Okay, I'll let you put her under Allies because she doesn't have any beef with X-Force or Cable. Risque's real name is Gloria Dolores Muñoz, she was born in Florida. Her mother's Seminole, her father's Cuban. Her parents divorced when she was 12, she lived with her mother until she was 16, she's been on her own since then. That's about all we know about her childhood. But that's enough, it's better than what we have on Shatterstar! Risque was helped out of a "bad situation" a few years ago by Sledge, a big handicapped guy up in Detroit. We don't know what kind of a "bad situation" that is, but she owed him a favor. He needed a guy with enhanced strength, speed, and senses, so he tells her to go out and bring him back Warpath. So she sends him a message through the NCIA (National Council of Indian Affairs) that says some woman wants to meet him in a junkyard in New York City. So he jogs over to New York City, and she blows up a car in his face, he throws a crushed 2-ton vehicle at her, she implodes it with her mutant power, and the dust settles. She assures him she didn't want to hurt him, only meet him, and gives him a kiss, and then scurries off telling him not to forget "Risque". Now, this makes James feel very special, because she gave him more *ahem* physical attention in a few seconds than Siryn gave him in all the time she's known him. So later on, when X-Force gets into a fight with Selene, James nearly gets killed by her, but Risque pulls him out right on time, takes him down to her pad in Florida, and nurses him back to health. They get very close during this time, and have a nice little fling. But James hears about the destruction going on in New York, and he comes back up, and she comes with him. Risque participates in the fight against Mr. Sinister, and when the rest of the team was unconscious, she and Siryn go up against him together, as we later find out, but unlike Siryn, Risque is missing at the end of the fight, making Warpath feel very worried. Risque comes back after that awful Shatterstar Saga thing and the Castle Doom arc, which makes James feel very happy. They have an outing in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, but it gets ruined when Blob and Mimic show up wanting James to come with them, and chase them all over the neighborhood. But James and Risque together defeat them, and she takes him over to a friend's apartment over in Tribeca. James is a little teed-off because Blob and Mimic knew Risque but were after James. Risque gives him a drink and tells him she's supposed to bring him to a man in need of his particular powers. Then James starts to pass out from tranquilizer in the drink, and falls asleep feeling very upset with Risque for selling him out. He wakes up in Sledge's attic 3 days later, and Risque comes and tells him she had no choice in the matter, she did what she had to do, but she really loves James. So Jimmy tells her she could have asked for his help in the matter rather than selling him out, and she feels mighty rotten because she got dumped by her Apache. Last we saw of her, she was at Sledge's place watching James float through space. Risque is a subject of pity from many fans who feel sorry for her because she "had no choice" about what she was doing and she got her heart broken, but I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. Risque most certainly had a choice. She could have, and should have, simply turned James in to Sledge as soon as she rescued him from the Black Queen, rather than having a fling with him and leading him to care about her, when she knew she had to sell him out eventually. That would have made it much easier on her, Sledge, and James. The way she carried out her job was very messy and tedious and hurt a lot of feelings that could have been spared.
Loudmouth: Okay, Red, who is Charlotte Jones?
Red: She's Archangel's old girlfriend, a detective in the NYPD. X-Force was arrested after the fight with Selene, and she was the only one who didn't think they were out to demolish New York just because they were mutants. And she tried to get them information on Shatterstar, but after Onslaught came along and cleaned NYC's clock, the info disappeared like milk down Misbegotten! But she was pretty nice to X-Force, despite where they were found after the think with Selene. I really don't know anything else about her.
Fluffy: Well, you haven't told us what she looks like yet, that would be a start.
Red: Oh yes, Miss Jones is an attractive Black woman with flat-cut hair. Cool?
Mommy: Yes, thank you Red. Now, who is Deadpool?
Red: Deadpool's real name is Wade Wilson, he is a mercenary who was involved with Vanessa, the shapeshifter who replaced Domino for a year, went through the same Weapon X program as Wolverine, appeared in New Mutants after Cable took up leadership of the team, then clashed with X-Force a few times, but awhile ago he became... "entangled" with Siryn. Anyway, I'm really not sure where Wade is from, although he might be Canadian. He started out as an assassin-for-hire to pay a debt and kept at it because it was a profitable business. Well, he was really tight with Vanessa, when one day he found out he had terminal, untreatable cancer. This was not good for their relationship, believe me! So he thinks he's done for, abandons Vanessa. Somehow ends up in the Weapon X program, where a funny little man named Dr. Killbrew (what a name to live with when you're a doctor, huh?) performs ghastly operations on Wade that endow him with a healing factor which enables him to grow back limbs that get cut off, regenerate vital organs, fun stuff like that. Unfortunately, it also makes his skin regenerate so fast and constantly that he's covered with bumps and looks far from normal, so he has to wear a mask all the time. This wrecked his social life, to say the least! Anyway, Wade works for Tolliver, who turns out to be Cable's son, Tyler, for awhile, and in that time, runs into the New Mutants under the direction of Cable, and then X-Force. In run-in with X-Force, he picks up a wounded Black Tom and a concerned Juggernaut, and gives them to Tolliver. Later on, we find Black Tom turned into a tree (the details of which I will explain later) and he's out to get Deadpool because he needs Wade's cell samples to help him go back to normal. This is Deadpool's 2nd LS in which this happens. In this story, Wade meets Siryn, and finds her very desirable. (Actually, he met her in early X-Force, where he beats her up when most of the team is away, but he was on assignment then.) Later on, Siryn calls him up and asks him to bust her out of the Weisman Institute, so he comes along and accommodates her, but gets kidnapped himself and stuck there for a time, and Terry was slightly mind-wiped of the experience, so she didn't bring him with her when she left. But she remembers eventually, and she and Shatterstar come get him out, and boy is he glad to get out of there! It turns out Gamesmaster had been treating him horribly while he was there, because when Terry showed up, he asked her to kill him. But after the experience is over, he feels all better. A little time goes by, and Deadpool is hired by the law firm Landau, Luckman, and Lake to kill Sasquatch. He refuses blatantly. Then his buddy/arms supplier Weasel gets kidnapped, and Wade loses something very important to him while busting Weasel out: his middle finger! He gets a package from Dr. Killbrew, only it says it's from Black Tom, just to lure Deadpool in. Wade grabs Siryn, heads up to the coordinates on the package, and is extremely angry to find Dr. Killbrew, the guy who ruined Wade's life by turning him into a freak. He is just about to frappé Killbrew when Siryn convinces him to hear the doctor out. Killbrew tells Deadpool the reason his finger isn't growing back is that he's dying. So, he is convinced by Killbrew and Siryn to steal some gamma-irradiated blood from the Hulk to save his (Wade's) life. Killbrew injects the horrible green stuff into Wade, and it saves his life, but doesn't completely restore his healing factor. Anyway, Wade wants to kill the doctor for ruining his life, and he nearly accomplishes it. He welds the door shut so Siryn can't come in while he guts the quack, but she finds the door welded shut and screams it away. After she cons Wade into sparing the doc (in a very touching scene), they go back to the Xavier Institute and she assures him (even after he rudely drooled all over her) that if she got her head together and cleared up some free time in her life, she'd consider pursuing a relationship with him, and in the meantime, they're buds. Somewhere along the line, either before or immediately after being asked the kill Sasquatch, Wade takes a prisoner/roommate, an old blind woman named Al, with a tongue sharp as a razor, i.e. a perfect contestant for Deadpool's constant rambling. Wade's main weapon is his mouth, he loves to make wisecracks, lacerating insults, especially while's he's gutting you. Just recently, while fighting off a funny-looking little man, he called the opponent a "disgusting Kojak reject!" This is why he is known as the "merc with a mouth". I'm listing him under allies because aside from being Terry's bud, he hasn't fought with anyone in X-Force in God-knows-how-long. Several months ago, he seriously screwed himself over with Siryn. He was feeling insecure, so he went looking for her, and found her on vacation with James. Wade asked James (rather rudely) to bug off for a few minutes so he could have a moment alone with Siryn, hoping she'd kiss it and make it better like she did before. James said no, as he didn't trust Deadpool, so Wade threw a grenade at Jimmy to punish him and get Siryn's attention, and Terry was not impressed. She told him to clean up his own mess, and left him with no hope of ever being on good terms with her again. Another case that gets no sympathy from me! After it was all over and he was raped by Typhoid Mary and beaten up by T-Ray and talked down to by Gerry, he came out of it with his head held high. So I guess our merc isn't so fragile after all.
Rose: Okay. Who are Generation X?
Red: Generation X is a team of mutants up in Massachusetts. It is really the new Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and the students are training to be X-Men. Even though both the teachers/headmasters in the school think Cable is trying to foment chaos and is a bad influence on children and other living things, they've never clashed with X-Force and get along pretty well with them. (Besides, everybody plus Sheryl Crow thinks that about Cable!) People in Generation X who are involved with/related to people in X-Force include: Most notably Banshee, alias Sean Cassidy, the headmaster of Gen X, who is Siryn's father, then we have the White Queen, headmistress of Gen X, who was Warpath's teacher back when he was in the Hellions (he thinks she's a major bitch now) and then there's Paige, aka Husk, who is Cannonball's younger sister. I know, Cannonball isn't in X-Force anymore, but his soul is still there, as far as I'm concerned. Generation X is like the present-day version of the New Mutants. Except the adults are keeping a very close eye on this bunch.
Misbegotten: Who are the X-Men?
Red: The X-Men are the original team of mutants, the more comfortable residents of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. X-Force lived with them for awhile, but that was Cable and Xavier's idea, not X-Force's. The X-Men haven't always been what you'd call open-minded with X-Force, but at least they didn't let "the kids" starve out in the cold. But we'll get to that lack of open-mindedness thing later. Anymore questions?
Fluffy: Who are X-Factor?
Red: Oh geez, don't even get me started on that one. Well, too late, I'm started. During the X-Cutioner's Song, X-Factor was the bunch who really badly wanted to nab X-Force and then get Cable! And their Val Cooper is the one who wanted to put them in federal custody! And they're not sharing their home with X-Force now! But they got along with X-Force pretty well during the Phalanx Covenant, so I guess they're okay now.
Loudmouth: Who are Excalibur?
Red: Excalibur is a mutant team based in England. A few of their members are buds with several members of X-Force. There's Kitty, who was the youngest of the X-Men at the time of the New Mutants, and there's Rahne, who was one of the original 5 New Mutants, and the rest of the team is pretty cool, so they get along with X-Force just fine.
Fluffy:Who is Karma?
Red: Karma's real name is Xi'an Coy Manh. She was born in Vietnam. She has the power to possess people. She was one of the original New Mutants. Karma, Xi'an Coy Manh, was born in the Central Vietnam highlands, a daughter of a colonel in the South Vietnamese army. Her powers of mental domination, or possession, were brought about when her brother, Tran, was about to be killed by a Viet Cong soldier. Xi'an instinctually took control of the soldier, thus preventing her brother's death. He, Tran, however immediately discovered he had the same abilities, and made the soldier kill himself. A number of events occurred after this. South Vietnam was overthrown, her uncle promised, yet failed to evacuate Xi'an and her family, except for her brother Tran. her parents were slain at the hands of Thai pirates, while Xi'an and her family were attempting escape from Vietnam. After rescue by the US Navy, Xi'an and her younger brother Leong, and younger sister Nga were rejoined with their uncle and brother Tran, who was working for Coy in his criminal organization. Xi'an soon left her uncle, along with her younger siblings, when asked to use her powers in Coy's illegal activities. Afterwards, Xi'an sought and gained the aid of Father Michael Bowen, whom she knew whilst he was stationed in Vietnam. Coy then had Leong and Nga kidnapped, in order to lure Xi'an into working for him. Xi'an, after becoming involved in a complicated mess between Spiderman and the Fantastic Four, found and rescued the two youngsters. At one point, in order to save Spiderman's life, Xi'an was forced to kill Tran. Soon after, Xi'an was invited by Professor Charles Xavier to attend his school to learn the use of her abilities more fully. The last time we saw her, she was hanging out with some very chummy women and sporting a spiky lavender haircut, and living in New York. A lot of fans have conjectured she's a lesbian.