BOOM BOOM II: Page 2 of 6

Publication Date: 20th Oct 2022
Image Work: Peter Luzifer and Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - Page 2

In the aftermath, X-Factor began to question whether their sentient Ship was the best environment for Boom-Boom and the others to remain, given the frequent attacks and various things that came up preventing the senior members from directly contributing to their charges' education. And so, using a scholarship program Angel had set up for mutants at his old alma mater, Tabitha and the other teenagers were enrolled in the prestigious boarding school known as the Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. This blue blood atmosphere was hardly the environment the kids wanted, and Tabitha expressed her dislike by destroying the school uniforms and making fun of the other, somewhat snotty students.

She was almost relieved when Taki, a classmate of their younger friends, Artie and Leech, arrived to warn them the boys had been kidnapped  by demons, as it was a good reason to ditch school. Together with Taki, the X-Factor trainees returned to New York, following one of Artie's telepathic messages he had projected to them of his location. On the way, they stopped to get some better clothes, and Boom-Boom took the opportunity for shopping to dress them all in more super-heroic fashions. They even took to calling themselves the X-Terminators after the old name of the X-Factor team. [X-Factor (1st series) #32, X-Terminators (1st series) #1-2]

Before long, the demons they were searching for actually found the X-Terminators, and they all ended up prisoners of N’astirh, the demons’ leader. Threatening to kill his friends, N’astirh blackmailed Taki into creating a computer that would allow him to process his magical spells faster and easier than he could cast them himself. By the time the other X-Terminators broke free, the goblins had already kidnapped ten mutant babies, who N’astirh used in conjunction with his spell-processing computer to open a giant portal between Limbo and Earth. Battling the hordes of demons that began invading Earth, they ran into another group of young heroes, the New Mutants, who were also caught up deep in the Inferno. Tabitha already knew two of them, Sunspot and Warlock, from the Fallen Angels. Together, they were able to thwart N’astirh’s plans and rescue all of the abducted children. [X-Terminators (1st series) #3-4, New Mutants (1st series) #72-73]

As the Mutants found their old headquarters had been destroyed in the aftermath of that crisis, the X-Terminators offered to let them stay on Ship with them. It seems that Boom-Boom and the others had missed so much of the school year while out fighting demons that Exeter told them not to bother coming back, at least until the next semester. X-Factor had no objections for the two groups of teens to merge into one, the “new” New Mutants.

Ever the manhunter, Tabitha set her attentions on her new team leader, Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball, and went out of her  way to impress him with her time bombs. She was not as successful as she would have hoped, especially since Sam was just getting over the apparent death of his girlfriend, Lila Cheney, at the time. Boom-Boom was also unaware that her friend Rictor had developed feelings for her, for he was mostly content to simply help her along in her problems, acting as a positive influence for the sometimes flaky Tabitha. [New Mutants (1st series) #74, X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (1st series) #76, X-Factor (1st series) #41, New Mutants Annual #5]

When Dani Moonstar’s was possessed by some evil spirit, causing her to burst into magical flames, the New Mutants were whisked away to Asgard. Even though Tabitha had fought demons during Inferno, being surrounded by trolls, dwarfs and other natives of the  strange Norse realm, had a devastating effect on her. She was scared and terrified, and it took Rictor several attempts to snap her out of this mood. When the New Mutants learned that Hela was behind the Valkyries‘ transformation into demonic creatures, in an attempt to conquer the entire realm, they decided to alert the rulers of Asgard. However, on their way out of the fortress, they were separated. Only Boom-Boom, Warlock and Wolfsbane’s one-time love, the wolf-prince Hrimhari, made it out in time; the others got locked in when Hela magically sealed the place shut. [New Mutants (1st series) #78-80]

Whereas the odd threesome didn’t manage to convince Odin’s guard of the gravity of the situation, they gathered many friends and allies from all over Asgard, so that by the time Hela opened up the fortress again to launch her attack, an entire army was expecting her.  By the time Hela was defeated, Tabitha had entirely gotten over her fear and she even somewhat regretted having to leave Asgard and the friends she had made there. [New Mutants (1st series) #81-87]

Back on Earth, Boom-Boom discovered that, during the time she had been separated from the others, Rictor and Wolfsbane two had grown much closer. Although she never seriously considered him a love interest for her, Tabitha was jealous that she no longer had Rictor’s full attention. He barely noticed, when she presented herself in a rather revealing new dress.

Around the same time, the New Mutants gained a new instructor, a military man known as Cable. Both Cable and the Mutants had developed problems with the government's mutant task force, Freedom Force, and so they moved out of X-Factor's Ship, so as not to condemn their allies by their presence. They moved into the sub-basement bunkers still running underneath the old X-Mansion properties, and began training extensively as Cable honed their minds and bodies to be his soldiers against Stryfe and the deadly Mutant Liberation Front, who had kidnapped their former members, Skids and Rusty. [New Mutants (1st series) #88-90]

On one mission against the Mutant Liberation Front, Boom-Boom, Cannonball and some others were taken hostage. Sam managed to swipe the key to their locks by flirting with their captor, Dragoness, and getting her to kiss him. Boom-Boom reacted so negatively to it that Sam couldn't resist teasing her some by pretending to be really into the terrorist woman, and so in a fit of pique Tabitha grabbed Sam and gave him a kiss he wouldn't soon forget. Both of them clearly enjoyed it, and they began to edge towards being an actual couple. [New Mutants (1st series) #93-94]

Unfortunately, dark times were ahead for the New Mutants. In retaliation for an earlier fight with the X-Men, the Genoshan Magistrates kidnapped Boom-Boom and some of her teammates and transported them to the African island nation. The media took an interest in the international incident, and tracked down some relatives of the captured mutants.  When they interviewed Tabitha’s father, he said that “the little tramp“ was getting what she deserved for running out on him. Fortunately, Boom-Boom didn’t learn of his harsh words, as she was busy fighting for her freedom in Genosha. Although stripped of their powers, she and Rictor had managed to escape, whereas Wolfsbane had been processed a mutate slave. In the streets, Rictor and Boom-Boom ran into some X-Men, and Jubilee was given the task to safeguard the pair while the others tried to invade the Magistrates‘ citadel. Due to their somewhat similar attitudes, Jubilee and Boom-Boom didn’t go along that well, but the three youngsters managed to avoid capture several times and eventually made their own way into the Genoshan citadel to joined up with the other X-teams for the final showdown against Cameron Hodge, the villain behind Genosha’s recent attacks. [X-Tinction Agenda crossover]

In the wake of that crisis, the team fell apart. Warlock had been killed by the Genosha and Wolfsbane opted to remain on the island to help rebuild it. A few weeks later, Sunspot also left to take over his father’s business and Rictor ran off to Genosha to find Wolfsbane, not willing to accept her decision, even though Tabitha tried talking him out of it. Cable invited his old comrade Domino onto the team to help with their training and, through circumstance or design, new members like Shatterstar, Feral and Warpath arrived at the mansion within a matter of hours. With everyone from the Morlocks to Deadpool to the Cadre Alliance warriors of Mojoworld attacking them on their front stoop, Cable decided it was best for the team to move to a new base of operations. This revised, harder-hitting roster also completed his plans to re-forge the New Mutants into something stronger, an X-Force. As the last two remaining members of the New Mutants, Boom-Boom and Cannonball made a promise to each other to follow Cable, but still try and uphold Professor Xavier's dream for peaceful co-existence in the process. What's more, the two of them also opened up about their feelings for each other before leaving the mansion's ruins, and began seeing each other romantically. [New Mutants (1st series) #98-100]