As "Cable and X-Force" continues its first year, writer Dennis Hopeless continues to plant seeds for new mysteries. Whether it's Cable's continuously malfunctioning powers, the re-emergence of Blaquesmith, Hope heading back to the future to meet Lady Stryfe or Domino and Colossus' surprising romance, Hopeless has a lot of coals on the fire -- not to mention his work on another Marvel NOW! launch title, "Avengers Arena."

In order to get a better idea of what's coming down the line in both the future of the book and Hope's journey into the future of the Marvel Universe, Hopeless joined X-Position to discuss all things X-Force, including bringing Blaquesmith back into the fold, introducing Lady Stryfe, a possible appearance of Nate Grey and more. Plus, some tidbits about things to come in "Avengers Arena!"

Dudebro McTypo starts off this X-Position with a quick query about Blaquesmith.

Hey Dennis! First I want say "Cable and X-Force" has been one of my top favorite books to come out of Marvel NOW! Great job! Time for questions!

1) I was super pumped to see you bring back my favorite time-traveling Yoda/Gremlin in Blaquesmith! I was wondering is he going to be a permanent addition to the cast or just a guest star? Also what's his favorite slushy flavor? Strikes me as kinda of blueberry fan.

2) In the recent New Mutants run, we saw Hope begin to bond with her "uncle" Nate Grey aka X-Man. Any chance we see Cable meet up with his AoA doppelganger?

3) Are we going to see CXF cross over into any of the other X-Books?

Keep up the great work!

Hey Dudebro!

1) I fought for Blaquesmith from the very beginning. Next to Hope he's my all-time favorite Cable supporting cast member. Blaquesmith will be a big part the current arc that runs through issue #14. Beyond that we'll see. I'll definitely do my best to fit him back in. As for slushies, Blaquesmith has eclectic tastes. If it's made of syrup and frothy ice, he'll put it in his mouth.

2) No plans at the moment but I'm a big fan of guest stars so there's always a possibility.

3) Yes. Definitely. We have a big crossover coming up that I probably can't talk about yet. There should be an announcement coming fairly soon.

mr_infinite's curious about the implications of Hope's time-jump and her meeting with Lady Stryfe.

Dear Dennis, It was great to see the big reveal at the end of this week's issue -- a female Stryfe! How much will this new version of Stryfe play in to your plans for Hope?

Speaking of Hope, it seems like the book has now split in two different stories -- Cable and X-Force's and Hope's. Will the two eventually converge or are you mostly hoping to keep them separate as you explore each timeline?

Mr. Infinite!

Blaquesmith yanked Hope into the future to meet Lady Stryfe. This trio will be spending a lot of quality time together in upcoming issues as Hope fights to learn the truth behind Cable's visions.

The present and future stories are intertwined in a lot of different ways. We'll be weaving in and out of both throughout this arc. Then everything crashes back together in our big game changing issue #14. This arc is the culmination of our entire plot up 'til now. By the end most of the big lingering questions will be answered.

For a quick change of pace, Christopher has a few questions about "Avengers Arena."

Dearest Dennis! You're brilliant. You're firing on all cylinders with "Avengers Arena!"

Thank you for resurrecting Nico! I was hoping all that blood loss and pain would pay off for her! Can we assume further exploration of her post-death existence will be explored as the story progresses? Power expansion, personality changes, etc?

Regarding the finale scene in the last issue, I don't need to know where you're going. I don't need answers to what Arcade is doing with what Deathlocket saw. I just wanna know: Are all of the collected "fallen" in that lab/room really dead?

In previous interviews you'd spoken of characters you'd hoped to include but were unavailable. Which of those unavailable did you have your sights set on killing, given the chance?

Christopher!

Nico just went through a series of extremely traumatic events. She was beaten, disarmed and left to die alone in the snow. All of that before actually dying and being violently resurrected by her own powerful dark magic. I'd say it's a safe bet this experience has shifted Nico's point of view. We'll definitely be exploring Nico new perspective, increased power set and how the two will influence her action going forward.

There are a lot of clues on that final page of issue #12. All of it will be addressed. For now I'll just say the dead characters are still dead. Our plans haven't changed. We aren't retconning anything, we're just showing you another layer of the story.

As for who I would have killed, it never really got that far. I submitted my cast requests early on before the book was plotted. By the time I started working out who would die when, our cast was set.

Nissus wants more Nate Grey, and is hoping for some kind of crossover or interaction.

Is there any chance of Cable and X-Man crossing paths? In the past, they have met several times, and now both are in a difficult situation regarding their powers. Given the almost exact similarity between them, could they find ways to help each other?

Nissus!

I'd say there's definitely a chance. We sewed the seeds for this sort of story back in issue #7 when Cable and Cyclops had their heart to heart. All we have to do is find the right story moment to pull them back together.

Wrapping up, Boom Boom superfan cora reef wants to know more about how her favorite character will evolve throughout the series.

Dear Mr. Hopeless, In my opinion, Boom Boom has always been one of the most underused and awesome characters in the Marvel U, so I'm excited to see that you're using her and bringing a new spin to the character. How, if at all, do you plan to have Tabitha evolve during her time on Cable's team?

While we've had the chance to see Cable's X-Force squad intersect with the rest of the Marvel Universe, this seems like a team that's largely set apart from what the other X-Books are doing. With Battle of the Atom coming up, how will your title come back into the fold for the celebratory event?

Domino and Colossus' relationship fascinates me. Why did you choose to pair those two characters?

Cora Reef!

Boomer is one of my favorite characters too. She was on my cast list from the very beginning and it was damn near painful holding off 5 issues before bringing her in. I'll do my very best to give you as much Boom Boom as possible going forward. I'm currently working on plans for our next two arcs and one of my goals is to build in meatier character moments for Boom, Forge and Nemesis. If it all works out we'll see some interesting new sides to Tabby.

I'm as excited as anyone else for "Battle of the Atom" but unfortunately Cable and X-Force won't be involved. The crew has big doings coming up that will require their full attention.

Colossus and Domino made a strange kind of sense to me from the moment I knew we'd have them on the team. Colossus was in a very dark hole when we got him and needed a little fun infusion. Dom certainly knows fun. For Dom's part, she has a type. She likes big silent types with metal body parts. I don't think either one of them expected anything serious to grow out of that night in Mexico. As you've seen and will continue to see, the intensity of the thing caught them both by surprise. This might just be the real deal.

And our Behind-the-X question: If you could switch a character in "Cable and X-Force" for a character in "Avengers Arena," who would it be and why?

I'd switch Arcade for Dr. Nemesis. This arrangement wouldn't work out well for Arcade but I think we'd all love to see Nemesis's mad science version of Murder World.

Special thanks to Dennis Hopeless for taking on this week's X-Position!

Next week, it's a quick journey to the other side of the X-Force coin, "Uncanny X-Force," as X-Position welcomes back Mr. Sam Humphries to take on your questions about Psylocke, Fantomex, Puck, Spiral, Storm and more! Got a question for Sam? Go ahead and send over an e-mail with the subject line "X-Position" or if 140 character questions are more your speed, try Twitter. Either way, make sure those questions are in by next Friday! Do it to it!