Six Pack

Biography

Biography

Over twenty years ago, Cable, a telekinetic mutant warrior from the alternative future realm of Earth-4935's forty-first century, first met mercenary George Washington "G.W." Bridge; although Cable had originally traveled from his home era to a point in time a few years after this meeting, he had since traveled back and forth in time as his priorities required, and he became a mercenary to learn about the earlier era's economy, sociology and political systems from that perspective. Cable, Bridge and a third mercenary, inventive genius Hammer, formed a team called the Wild Pack. They were soon joined by the luck-enhancing Domino, who subsequently recruited a fellow mutant, the super-strong Grizzly. Finally, a few years after Cable's first meeting with Bridge, thirteen-year-old Garrison Kane became the unit's sixth member. It is unclear whether or not any other mercenaries served in the Wild Pack during its formative years, but these six – Cable, Bridge, Hammer, Domino, Grizzly and Kane – formed the group's core membership throughout most of its recorded history. Most of the Wild Pack members were motivated by profit or thrill-seeking, unaware of the role in Cable's larger plan to prepare a pre-emptive strike against the ancient mutant who would one day rule Cable's home era, Apocalypse.

Little else is known about the Wild Pack's early days, and since Cable resumed his travels through time between Pack assignments, it is virtually impossible to determine the order in which he himself chronologically experienced those missions; from Cable's perspective, some missions of years ago may not even have yet occurred. Although Cable's teammates knew he had access to advanced technology, including the teleportation capabilities acquired via his space station Graymalkin, none of them were aware of his true origins and resources. Grizzly suspected Cable was an extraterrestrial, while Hammer believed he was using sentient technology stolen from Japan. Kane was simply uninterested in theorizing. Only Bridge and Domino correctly suspected that Cable was a time traveler.

In any event, Cable's fighting experience was instrumental in training the Wild Pack to the height of proficiency, and as of some five years after the team's formation, he was team leader. Following adventures in Madagascar, Argentina and elsewhere, the Pack took an assignment form techno-subversives A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) to retrieve an energy converter component stolen by A.I.M.'s parent organization, the more violent terrorist organization Hydra. After completing this mission, Cable traveled a few years into the future to establish contact with the New Mutants, whom he would subsequently reorganize as X-Force, then returned to the Wild Pack's era of activity shortly after his departure. Some weeks after the A.I.M. assignment, the Pack traveled to Tehran, Iran, where they deceived the Iranian government into believing they had arrived to free several hostages, thereby diverting the authorities form their true purpose, the destruction of an unidentified facility. Their client on this mission was the criminal entrepreneur Tolliver, although none of them, not even Cable, knew that Tolliver was not only another time traveler from Cable's era but was in fact Cable's own adopted son, Tyler.

Three years after the Iran assignment, in the fall, Tolliver again approached the Wild Pack, who met with his staff in his Austrian citadel. At Tolliver's request, the team dropped the "Wild Pack" sobriquet to avoid charges of copyright infringement from the Nazi-hunting Wild Pack of nearby Symkaria. Rechristened the Six Pack, Cable's team arrived in Khyber Pass, Afghanistan to investigate Russian interference with Tolliver's opium route through the area. Unknown to the Pack, the opium route was maintained by Stryfe, Cable's clone and yet another time traveler from his home era, on behalf of Tolliver, who evidently arranged the assignment to bring Cable and Stryfe into conflict in what was apparently their first encounter in the era in which they were active.

While battling Russian operatives in S.P.A.C. Unit armor, the Six Pack discovered Stryfe's hidden base and attempted to use explosives to kill Styfe himself, who simply teleported away, as the Six Pack did shortly before the base's destruction; however, now perceived as having betrayed their employer by attacking his facility, the Six Pack suffered a severe blow to their reputation and were themselves targeted by other mercenaries. Moreover, the mission brought the team to the attention of government agents such as Henry Peter Gyrich and Jasper Sitwell, concerned that the team's activities in Afghanistan could have threatened U.S.-funded activities in the area. Tensions were heightened by Cable's refusal to reveal his agenda to his teammates, who felt that his personal grudge against Stryfe, whatever its origins and nature, had no place in their business operations.

Less than year after the Afghanistan fiasco, Cable led the Six Pack to Stryfe's citadel in the Cordillera de Carabaya mountains of Uruguay, assuaging their skepticism over an unpaid mission by claiming that data from Stryfe's computers could be useful in future missions, although the data was actually intended for use in Cable's war against Apocalypse, who had not yet awoken to battle the original X-Men's X-Factor incarnation; however after the Pack downloaded data onto a disk and wired the citadel to explode, Stryfe captured Kane and, blocking Cable's teleportation technology, threatened to kill the youngest mercenary unless the disk was returned. Unwilling to risk Kane's life for Cable's mysterious agenda, Hammer prepared to return the disk, but Cable, believing his private war more important than his friends' lives, shot Hammer in the back, severing his spine. Unfortunately, Stryfe nonetheless teleported away with the disk and Cable pursued him, effectively leaving the rest of the Six Pack to die as Stryfe's citadel exploded. All five survived, but Hammer's injuries left him quadriplegic – though he later regained use of his arms – and Kane's arms and legs were destroyed in the explosion, and the team disbanded. As the years passed, Kane was reconstructed as the cyborg Weapon X for the Canadian government, Bridge became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Domino resumed her solo mercenary operations. Hammer isolated himself in his home, and Grizzly's subsequent activities remain a mystery.

Six years after the Six Pack's disastrous defeat in Uruguay, not long after the formation of Cable's X-Force, Bridge organized a mission to capture Cable and recruited Kane's team of government operatives, Weapon: P.R.I.M.E. (PRototype Induced Mutation Echelon), soon joined Grizzly, to attack X-Force; however, their efforts proved ineffective, and they turned their attention to the terrorist Mutant Liberation Front, led by Stryfe, whom, thanks to his identical appearance to Cable, they now believed to be Cable himself, having, they presumed, taken over the identity of his enemy. In the aftermath of their shared campaign against Stryfe, Cable reconciled with Kane and Bridge, while Domino, caught in the elaborate scenarios surrounding Cable and Tolliver, had recruited Grizzly and Hammer to help her locate X-Force. All six former teammates converged at X-Force's former Arizona base, and the reunited Six Pack, minus Cable, remained together in pursuit of Copycat, who had impersonated Domino under Tolliver's orders, but the five soon parted ways again. Hammer returned to seclusion and Bridge to S.H.I.E.L.D., and months later, Grizzly, driven to a berserker frenzy by Tolliver (now called Genesis), murdered several people before Domino was forced to kill him in battle. Years later, Kane, as an operative of the U.S. Weapon X team, apparently sacrificed his life in an effort to save Cable, Domino and their short-lived Mutant Underground.

Recently, Cable, having recovered from the techno-organic virus which had repressed his potential for most of his life, experienced a dramatic increase in his mutant powers that enabled him to perform good deeds across the world but also gave him world-threatening potential. In response, Bridge reorganized the Six Pack to invade Cable's island base of Providence on a reconnaissance mission. Joining Bridge, Domino and Hammer (mobile in a high-tech floating chair) were Anaconda, super-strong limb-stretching veteran of Roxxon's Serpent Squad, Sidewinder's Serpent Society, and Superia's Femizons; Constrictor (Frank Payne), long-time armored coil-wielding mercenary fresh from a legal victory against Hercules; and Solo (James Bourne), ex-government operative and teleporting anti-terrorist vigilante. However, the newcomers lacked a vested interest in the assignment, and Cable easily defeated the Pack although Domino decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, he placed the less amenable Bridge and Hammer in stasis. Offered a higher salary, Anaconda, Constrictor and Solo simply switched side and fought the X-Men on Cable's behalf before the Silver Surfer attacked Cable at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s request. However, Cable's ally Deadpool – per Cable's plan – shut down part of Cable's brain to again reduce his powers. Deadpool teleported Cable's comatose form to the latter's Switzerland safehouse. When the Pack arrived after searching three other safehouses, Cable inadvertently absorbed their psyches into his own, where they remained in a surrealistic mental scenario until Deadpool and others merged him with another techno-organic life-form acquired from A.I.M., restoring him to an approximation of his former condition, thus removing the threat the Six Pack had been organized to fight.

Six Pack was once again assembled after the super-human Civil War|civil war, minus Constrictor who had been recruited in The Initiative, and his place in the group was taken by the ex-friend of Cable loud-mouth mercenary Deadpool. As the other members of the team planted bombs under the city of Barjnov the Capital of Rumenistan aiming to interrupt power supply to the city and there for undermining Cable's leadership. Deadpool used his good relations with Cable to lead him in a trap and rendered him unconscious. Six Pack then went ahead with their plan and activated bombs. They succeeded to blackout the city but it didn't last long because Cable's intervention. Using his powers to repair the relays that the bombs destroyed. He then intercepted the fleeing Six Pack disposing them quickly but leaving Domino unharmed who earlier had loudly opposed the mission and actions taken by Deadpool. Bridge, Solo, Anaconda and Hammer were captured and later deported. Deadpool was literally thrown out of the country by Cable and warned to never return. Domino regretted her participation in the mission in a live TV-news report and stayed with Cable to support his vision.

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