The Cabal

Pictured : The Vanisher, "Black Tom" Cassidy, The Silver Samurai, Lady Deathstrike, Moses Magnum and Arana.


The Cabal in this alternate Marvel Universe is an international group of six super powered criminals with small criminal operations but sizable influence  within the underworld circles of the areas they are active, who have banned together to unite their  individual power and criminal resources to create a joint criminal organization to compete with other larger and wide reaching criminal organizations such as the Yakuza and the Maggia.  

The Cabal and the X-Men came into conflict due to the actions of two of it's members,“Black Tom” Cassidy and the Silver Samurai accompanied by a contingent of skilled mercenary henchmen, as they  appeared in New York and attacked various high profile businesses, all secret legitimate fronts for Nefaria Maggia Faction operations.  With Count Nefaria , the faction's head engaged in a war to take control of the criminal underworld network of western United States, The Cabal sought to strike at and attempt to weaken the east coast operations of the Nefaria Faction in order to establish a foot hold in the United States for their various criminal operations.  With “Black Tom” Cassidy being cousin to Banshee and the Silver Samurai being uncle to Sunfire, the two X-Men decide to find out how and why their respective criminally inclined relatives are working together and why they are attacking the businesses they are targeting.  Using mini Cerebro detectors, Banshee and Sunfire are able to track down their mutant relatives location at an assumed abandoned warehouse in order to confront them but find themselves facing not just their two relatives, but the other four members of the Cabal as well.  When their two team mates fail to report in their status after quite a bit of time has passed, the rest of the X-Men use the main Cerebro unit to pinpoint their missing members whereabouts resulting in conflict with the criminal Cabal who have imprisoned the two X-Men.  The battle ends in a stalemate with the X-Men freeing their two captured members and the Cabal teleporting away thanks to the mutant abilities of Cabal member the Vanisher ending the battle.

Since their conflict with the X-Men, the Cabal have continued with their activities against the Nefaria Maggia Faction as well as begin to expand their criminal enterprise on the international level leading which have lead in turn to encounters with Spider-Man, Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D, the Champions and of course operatives of the Nefaria Maggia Faction.   The X-Men's most recent encounter with the Cabal came about due to their becoming unwitting participates in an ongoing rivalry conflict between the Vanisher and the self proclaimed “King of Thieves” in the person of the mutant known as Gambit.          


THE VANISHER

The Vanisher in this alternate Marvel Universe remains Telford Porter, a mutant with the psionic ability to teleport himself or any number of persons or object to any destination that comes to his mind. Porter has used his ability to establish himself as a highly success thief and occasional spy. Porter is American by birth, but maintains his base of operations and activities in Canada. The Vanisher in this alternate universe for a time was an operative of the clandestine organization known as the Thieves Guild prior to his breaking ties with them to operate on his own. It is due to his association with the Thieves Guild that his rivalry with fellow mutant thief, Gambit began as he too has broken ties with the Guild due to family connections to become a master thief of some renown in the criminal underworld in his own right.  

The Vanisher uses his teleportation abilities and his skills as a thief in the role of the Cabal's transporter and intelligence gather for their various endeavors seeking to expand his status in the criminal underworld beyond that of a thief.        


“BLACK” TOM CASSIDY


Thomas “Black Tom” Cassidy remains much the same in this alternate universe as in normal continuity but with some obvious changes. This alternate version of Cassidy possesses the  mutant ability to generate powerful thermokinetic force blasts from his hands. He carries a traditional Irish fighting stick, a shillelagh, which he expertly uses along with his mutant abilities . He has a rival like relationship with his cousin, Sean Cassidy aka Banshee that originates to their days as teens vying for the affections of the girl named Maeve Rourke who eventually became the wife of Sean. Tom used his criminal connections to indirectly aid his cousin Sean after the death of Maeve at the hands of the criminal organization known as Factor Three, whom Sean was investigating as an Interpol agent, gaining the location of the group's base of operations and providing it to his cousin allowing him to bring them to justice for the death of Maeve and other crimes.

“Black Tom” has used his mutant abilities over the years to establish himself as a minor independent crime boss in the Irish criminal underworld, choosing to join the Cabal to increase his power in the underworld without the fear of a possible mutant back lash/overthrow he believed would have occurred had he ever attempted to elevate himself in mundane criminal circles.    


THE SILVER SAMURAI

The criminal mutant known as Kenuichio Harada in this alternate Marvel universe is the maternal uncle of Shiro Yoshida aka Sunfire.

The Yoshida Family in this alternate Marvel Universe are owners of Japan’s largest and most successful electronics tech and aerospace manufacturing corporation. Shiro’s parents were killed in an accident that would later be revealed to have been orchestrated by Kenuichio Harada himself in an elaborate and twisted ploy to become the guardian of his nephew and by way overseer of Shiro’s interest of the Yoshida Corporation until he became of age and could take control of Yoshida Corporation. Harada’s plan however hit a road block in the form of Mariko Yoshida as she became the primary controller of the Yoshida Corporation.

But the emergence of Shiro’s mutant ability to generate super heated plasma allowed Harada to bond with his nephew due to his own mutant energy generation abilities. Shiro Yoshida adopted his Sunfire identity due to the influence of his uncle combined with his emotional turmoil over his parents’ deaths and engages in various criminal ventures with his uncle in his identity as the Silver Samurai, culminating in a kidnap and ransom attempt of Tony Stark when he came to Tokyo for a proposed business deal with the Yoshida Corporation during the early days of the reformation of Stark Industries into Stark Enterprises. This attempted kidnap ransom scheme leads of course to conflict with Iron Man. The end result of the incident with Stark/Iron Man finally brought to light Harada’s part in the deaths of Shiro’s parents dissolving the bond that formed between nephew and uncle and the young Yoshida declaring his uncle his mortal enemy.

Since his failed ploy to gain control of the Yoshida Corporation and attempted kidnapping and ransom of Tony Stark, Harada has used his Silver  Samurai identity and his mutant energy generating abilities to establish him self as a successful underworld enforcer and assassin primarily working for the Yakuza but also having undertaken contracts with other crime organizations such as the Nefaria Maggia faction. Now as part of the Cabal he seeks to finally take his place as a leader of his own criminal organization.

In this alternate universe not only does the Silver Samurai's mutant ability allows him to generate a field of tachyonic energy around his katana that allows it to cut through almost any material on earth, he can use that same tachyonic energy to enhance his own physical strength, speed and resistance to physical injury which along with his martial arts skills and knowledge have helped to contribute to his success as an underworld enforcer and assassin.


LADY DEATHSTRIKE

This alternate Marvel Universe incarnation of Lady Deathstrike is of Chinese descent rather than of Japanese descent. Dai Xiaoli is the daughter of criminal scientist, Dai Jianyu, a cybernetics expert who once served the villainous subversive and would be conqueror known as the Claw before he was eventually toppled by S.H.I.E.L.D. and even oversaw his own criminal assassination enterprise,the Death's Head, prior to his death under the title of Lord Death Mark.  

Dai Xiaoli was one of her father's cybernetically enhanced assassin operatives prior to his death and her ascension to the leadership role of the Death's Head as Lady Deathstrike.  Dai Xiaoli, like her father  is also a skilled expert in cybernetics as well as a more than formidable hand to hand combatant knowledgeable in various forms of lethal martial arts made more so by her cybernetic talon like appendages.  

 Lady Deathstrike has become part of the Cabal in order to fully expand the Death's Head organization's reach beyond the Far East as it has remain it's chief area of operation since its founding.  Death's Head operatives act as the primary footsoldiers for many of the Cabal's activities that don't require the actual Cabal leaders direct involvement.        


MOSES MAGNUM

Moses Magnum in this alternate Marvel Universe remains an African born and based criminal arms dealer and occasional terrorist. Magnum also has been scientifically enhanced with the ability to generate and release pulses of vibratory shockwave energy from his hand.  His shockwave energy abilities also amplifies his natural strength as well as gives him an a degree of durability against physical attacks and energy.  

Magnum operates his own weapons developing and manufacturing enterprise which provides him with the various arms he sells to various criminal & subversive organizations that operate in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and through membership in the Cabal seeks to expand his arms dealing operation to other parts of the globe. Magnum provides weapons when need to the various footsoldiers/henchmen used by the Cabal to engage in the numerous undertakings need to help the Cabal achieve it's ends.


ARANA

 
This alternate Marvel Universe incarnation of Anya Corazon is an adult superhuman criminal enforcer and assassin for various Latin American drug cartels and corrupt high powered government officials and would be dictators. Arana possesses mythically derived spider like physical abilities including enhanced strength, speed, agility, reflexes and stamina as well as wall crawling and venom generation/excretion abilities, which she has made ample use of in her assassination assignments.  

Like the Silver Samurai, Arana has become a member of the Cabal in order to expand her role from enforcer/assassin to leader of her own criminal organization and with the aid and backing of the Cabal seeks to gain control of the various cartels and corrupt officials she has been employed by and make them enterprises/tools for the Cabals use.