Brother Brood

In an unspecified Brood foray to Earth, the enigmatic cult leader known as Brother Brood (based from DC's Brother Blood and Marvel's Brood) was infected with the egg of a Brood Queen, and experienced a "spiritual" awakening, coming to believe that becoming one with the Brood was the only truth. He infected his followers and they, in turn, kidnapped the metamutant Terra-X for him. Shatterstarfire of the X-Patrol witnessed the attack, and along with Niles Cable, travelled deep into his lair beneath Zenosha to rescue her.

As Koriand'ru and Niles battled the Cult of Brood in an attempt to rescue Terra-X, they were quickly overwelmed, and Niles chose to sacrifice himself by telekinetically forcing Shatterstarfire to safety. The captured Niles Cable was then brought before Brother Brood himself, who boasted that with Niles in his grasp, Zenosha and all of Earth would fall before the Cult of Brood. Implanted with a Brood egg and chained within the tunnels that housed the cult, Niles Cable was confronted by a vision of his dead wife from the far-future, Raveniya the Healer, who offered him a way to escape the infection, a way that would mean certain death. Meanwhile, Brother Brood was officiating over the "Holy Rebirth" of Terra-X into the Cult of Brood, when X-Patrol arrived and battled their way through his followers to the Brood Pit, where the ceremony was taking place. As the heroes confronted Brother Brood, Terra-X, now calling herself Terra-X the Destroyer, emerged from the Brood Pit, fully under Brood control, and viciously attacked them, only to be knocked unconscious by Elasti-Girl, who had shrunken and entered her inner ear. Dial H.U.S.K., in the form of Artemisty Knight, the bionic Amazon Archer, took aim at the Cult leader on his perch above the Brood Pit, but was surprised when her arrow struck only an empty cloak, he had draped it across a rock as a distraction, sneaking around to attack the heroes from behind. He boasted tha one of their "unbelieving number" had already been "converted", and everyone assumed he was speaking of Niles. Janet attempted to attack Brother Brood, only to be blasted away by an infected Niles Cable. As the team faced defeat, Jericho spoke of a future in which Niles Cable would lead the Brood to a brief, and ultimately doomes, victory, cementing Humanities hatred for, and persecution of, metamutantkind. Brother Brood then transformed into his Brood Queen form, saying that "when Brood and metamutant join, both are made more powerful!". In the chaos of battle, Jericho was revealed to be Niles Dayspring, a younger version of of Niles Cable himself, and the elder Niles chose to sacrifice himself, freeing the "Soul-Self" of Raveniya he carried within him. Raveniya then enveloped Brother Brood, apparently killing him. Niles' "Techno-Virus" killed the nascent Brood within him, and would have killed him as well, had his younger self not telekinetically forced it into remission. As the heroes chatted, the Cult of Brood seemed to simply give up, without their Queen they didn't have the will or the intellect to fight. As Niles waxed poetic about the future, Beastling, with a dark look on his face, remarked "the promised, glorious future!. The again, life's just full of surprises, BROOD on that for a while"