forced Cannonball to promise not to interfere with External affairs in return for Sunspot's life. Gideon attempted a hostile takeover of Genetech and the Taylor Foundation, but was thwarted by Night Thrasher and was defeated by him in physical combat. Gideon witnessed the External Nicodemus's death. Gideon was then offered a position with HYDRA, but refused and battled a HYDRA strike force. He was aided in defeating them by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. Gideon was attacked and captured by X-Force, who then rescued Boomer, Siryn, and Warpath. All of the Externals were eventually killed (except for Cannonball); Gideon was not spared and was killed by the energy vampire, Selene. Gideon mysteriously appeared alive and well in the not too distant future, working beside Ahab against fellow External Cannonball (who was briefly killed by Ahab in the same issue). Later while investigating a disturbance in the timestream caused by the premature death of Candra, Cable travels back in time and discovers that Selene's attack on the other Externals did not work as they thought, and that they were actually alive but being targeted by some unknown assailant. Cable travels to Gideon's location and learns that he is still in stasis, recovering from Selene's attack. Cable is confronted by the mysterious murderer, a time travelling Gideon himself, who reveals that he spent 3,000 years in stasis and when he woke up, humanity had changed considerably. Deciding to prevent this outcome, Gideon traveled back in time to kill his fellow companions. Powers and abilities Gideon is a mutant who has the ability of Super Human Enhancement Assimilation: the power to temporarily endow himself with the super powers of any beings in his proximity, whether they are a superhuman, android, or mechanical battlesuit. He scans and replicates his target's energy signatures and genetic templates, granting him a full understanding of the potential applications of the powers he acquires and enabling him to overwhelm an opponent with a superior mastery of their own powers. Gideon was an External, meaning his aging process is greatly slowed and that he can apparently regenerate injured or missing cells from even near-fatal injuries. He was granted with limited immortality, only ended by an extremely mortal wound such as losing the limbs, by the Legacy Virus (two Externals died by this method) or, in the case of his death, by a draining of the life energies. Gideon is an extraordinary