New Sunrise

Gambit's first assignment for the mysterious New Son was to rescue Courier from the Savage Land and to steal schematics for some terraforming equipment from the High Evolutionary. (Gambit 1/2) This was followed by a mission to steal information about a downed celestial vessel that had been in possession of an ancient Chinese warlord. (Gambit 1) Then, he was asked to steal files on mutants from Moira McTaggert as well as assist Jake(Courier) in his attempts to recruit Crew ASKEW, a group of amoral scientists. (Gambit 2, 6) He failed in the latter, but met a mutant by the name of Quiet Bill who could see into other realities and in whom the New Son was very interested. The pieces began to fall into place for Gambit, who began to see the scope and shape of the New Son's plan.

However, he only realised the full truth when the New Son sent a number of assassins after him in order to force him to reach the full potential of his powers. (Gambit 17-19; cf Powerhouse) Among them was Angel, who was really working with Gambit to stop the mysterious man. They managed to fool the New Son long enough to get Remy out of real danger, then, together with Courier, the two X-Men confronted him. Backed into a corner, he revealed himself to be Gambit! Or a version from another reality, at least!

As he told Gambit, he was born in the alternate reality's foremost mutant research and genetic planning facility. Much like the children in "Dark Angel", he was trained for the use and exploitation of his mutant powers. When he hit adolescence, however, he was skilled enough to incinerate the facility and escape. He, then, made his way to the X-Men, where he found a home for a few years until he killed that world's Phoenix.

He was banished from the team and spent some years both as an ally and foe of various superhumans. When he was 18, however, he was taken in by Jean-Luc LeBeau, whom he called his friend and mentor. While with the Guilds, he was informed of the prophecies of the Resurrection of the Old Kingdom and his role in them. They were meant to bring about heaven on earth, meant to lead everyone as one into the shining light of the sun. In a tragic sense, they did. Instead of the utopia for which the Guilds had hoped, the energies of the Old Kingdom when combined with his biokinetic powers created an uncontrollable cascade of energy that destroyed everyone and everything save the New Son. Ravaged by guilt and grief, he tried to undo his actions, to control time by controlling the flow of kinetic energies, but could only manage to breach the space between multiverses and travel to other realities. So, he decided to prevent his alternate counterparts from making the same tragic mistake as he had.

His original plan for 616 Earth had been to create an alternate earth in orbit around the sun, but the fake world that Doom had shifted back from the universe to which the FF and Avengers had gone made that impossible. The orbital paths were too precise to make another earth feasible. Consequently, he was forced into trying to get Gambit to understand and control his powers and, when that failed, he attempted to kill him. By using his powers at their full potential, Gambit was able to defeat him, but at a cost. Much to his pleasure, he found he had burnt his powers out to what they had been before Sinister had restored them.

Powerhouse

Clearly, the plotline involving Gambit's powers was intimately intertwined with that of the New Son. It began with Gambit travelling back to Victorian England because he had already travelled back in time to Victorian England! The Guild had a photograph taken in 1891 that had Remy and Courier in it. Jean-Luc explained that he had rescued him from Candra as well as prevented her from gaining some of the power of the Old Kingdom. That power would have been enough to allow her dominion over time and space. So, with the help of Sek and the Mengo Brothers, Gambit and Courier set off for Latveria to use the time portal that was present there. They successfully managed to travel to Victorian England and accomplish what Jean-Luc had described to Gambit, but had no way of returning to the present.

Unfortunately, Sek had not had an opportunity to program an auto-retrieval on the time machine and Gambit had to improvise. He had the infamous, silver vial on him and asked Sinister to reimplant the contents of it - namely, what he had removed from Gambit's cerebellum. After the surgery, his powers were returned to their natural, supercharged level, to the level they had been when he had sought out Sinister because he had been unable to control them. Somehow, using his increased powers, he was able to travel back to the future with Jake. (The metamorph's mode of transport was less than pleasant, however!) At first, he was delighted with his new power-level, because it enabled him to touch Rogue. (For more information on that, check out our Rogue\Gambit history.) However, as it had in his youth, it gradually spiralled out of control. It started with Rogue experiencing a slight static shock, then progressed into him spontaneously charging patches of his teammate's skin.

It was unsurprising, therefore, that he was so pleased about burning it out when he battled against the New Son.

Meanwhile . . .

Other noteworthy adventures during this time-period included:

• Confronting a childhood bogeyman in the Pig when he attempted to kidnap a child who produced a nerve gas that was capable of controlling people's minds. (Gambit 3, 6, 7)
• Saving children from the vampiric predations of two assassins with Blade (Gambit 4)
• Rescuing Rogue from the X-Cutioner when he used her as bait for his mousetrap for Gambit (Gambit 5)
• Reluctantly helping Sabretooth and Sinister by getting the adamantium necessary for healing Creed in exchange for a device that could tell if his team-mates had changed in any way that would make them dangerous. (Gambit 8, 9, 11)
• Trying unsuccessfully to retrieve the Momentary Princess - a device created by the Witness which contained vital information. (Gambit 10)
• Being attacked by a Neo in New Orleans (Gambit 22)
• Paying off an old debt by rescuing the daughter of a man from whom he had attempted to steal as a child (Gambit 25)