Manhattan:
SHIELD agents try to pull out the Gorgon’s sword out of Wolverine’s stomach, but that is easier said than done, as the sword is rather heavy. After a final pull, the agents manage to do the job, but as they do, the process is painful for Wolverine, and he screams. Quickly recovering, Wolverine orders the agents to call as many super-agents as they possibly can, as the Gorgon is about to kill Nick Fury. The agents are surprised to hear that, but, as he runs away, Logan tells them to just do like he said. Once outside, a teleportation portal opens, and Wolverine jumps through it.
SHIELD’s secret New York City Infirmary…
While still holding a badly injured Elektra by her throat, the Gorgon mentions to her that he finds it amusing that she’s taking money from the Vatican as well. And yet, he believes it makes such perfect sense. Gorgon realizes that Hydra’s mission is to destroy everything the Vatican’s God created. He thinks it’s only natural that they would request an immediate assassination. Elektra notices all of the SHIELD agents surrounding them, and doesn’t know what they are waiting for. She orders the agents to just shoot the Gorgon!
The Gorgon uses his powers on Elektra’s neck, and she collapses. He mentions that the agents have barely registered their presence so far. The agents open fire. The Gorgon smiles, and he magnificently whirls his sword around his body, and all the bullets bounce off before getting the chance to hit him. Instead, Gorgon manages to ricochet the bullets back towards the SHIELD agents, and they get hit!
Outside the hospital…
Wolverine arrives, but is ten blocks away from the hospital. He teleports again, but still isn’t at the right place. Once there, Logan witnesses how the Gorgon single handedly murders every SHIELD agent that stands in his way. Dum-Dum starts to worry, and asks Logan what he’s doing teleporting all over New York. They need him! But, Wolverine is still five blocks short, and wonders what’s wrong with his teleportation unit. He supposes that the GPS controllers must have taken a hit back at the hotel. He teleports again.
The Infirmary…
The Gorgon continues to fight his way through the many SHIELD agents, and has almost reached Fury’s room, the man he came to kill. He slashes his way through the room’s guards, and bursts his way through the door. More guards are inside Fury’s room, but this won’t let the Gorgon stop. The Gorgon takes off his sunglasses. He concentrates, and turns the guards into stone! Gorgon takes out his sword, and cuts off the agent’s heads. He shouts that Hydra is undefeatable and indestructible. He hails Hydra, and points his sword to Fury’s neck, promising to make this a nice, clean cut.
Fury, unable to help out thanks to the fact he’s still lying wounded in the hospital bed, orders him to just do it. Just at that moment, Wolverine finally manages to teleport inside the infirmary, and lands in Fury’s room. Showing the Gorgon that he’s still the best there is at what he does, Logan wastes no time and jumps at the Gorgon, pushing him outside the window!
They fall down. Logan is impressed at how strong the Gorgon is. He’s bad to the core. Logan keeps punching his enemy, even when they fall through a skylight below them. It doesn’t matter with what he hits the Gorgon: knives, bullets, gas bombs, chain saws: the Gorgon keeps getting back up again. Logan decides to use his claws, and go for the broke.
He takes half a pound over Gorgon’s shoulder, and a strip of meat of his back. Gorgon starts to bleed. Logan intends to just enjoy himself. Since there’s no time to do anything fancy, Wolverine keeps on slicing with his claws, hitting the Gorgon at every slice. The Gorgon manages to duck, and hits Logan again with his sword. He feels the punch, but isn’t hurt too badly. Logan thinks he best tries to make the Gorgon drop the swords next.
So, once he manages to get closer to the Gorgon, Logan sticks his claws right through the Gorgon’s stomach! He bleeds even worse than before, but is still standing. The Gorgon concentrates on using his sword, and sticks it again through Logan’s chest! As Logan has the hardest time to breathe, Gorgon tells Logan that he knows what Logan is thinking: he’s thinking that this is a noble, warriors death. Gorgon pulls his sword out of Logan, and slices him for a final time, calling Logan an idiot.
Logan drops against a wall. Gorgon quickly runs to Logan, telling Logan that he hasn’t accomplished anything here. Logan dodges the Gorgon’s next slice. He hears the Gorgon telling him that he only nixed some Hydra bases the Gorgon claims he didn’t even have two months ago. Logan also killed an old woman the Gorgon claims he was going to kill eventually anyway. Logan killed a whole lot of people, but they only saw death as a reward.
The battle continues. The Gorgon starts getting nasty, and keeps punching Logan with his arms, and hits him in the face. Logan recognizes that the Gorgon is using his powers to dig down deep and is pulling up all the weeds that could choke a man’s soul. As the Gorgon grabs Logan’s throat, Gorgon recalls Logan all the horrible things Hydra made him do. All the horror Logan brought to people’s lives. Logan knows he shouldn’t be listening to the Gorgon, and just focus on what he wants. Gorgon claims that Logan has killed everything he ever touched. Logan wonders if that’s true, why on Earth he can’t kill the Gorgon?!
Outside, two hobos are watching the battle. One of them thinks they should go help out, but the other tells his friend not to be stupid and just stay out of it.
Gorgon holds Logan tighter. He wants to know what Logan’s deepest shame is. Mariko’s death, or perhaps even Northstar’s fate? Logan feels that his left lung is gone. The Gorgon is now choking Logan’s tongue. Logan has to keep it together, and wants to finish the battle. Gorgon continues to think about Logan’s shame, suspecting it might be Rikuto, the little boy Hydra used to get Logan in the first place. The Gorgon takes off his sunglasses, ready to turn Logan into stone.
Thankfully, Wolverine manages to snikt out his claws. Surprised, the Gorgon looks at them, and his very own reflection makes his attack ricochet, and the Gorgon turns into stone instead! Logan says farewell to the Gorgon, and slices through the stoned statue and destroys it.
A few minutes later, SHIELD helicopters are around the building Logan is in like a plague of locusts. Logan does what he can to feel his feet again, but his guts are spilling around, trying to stitch themselves back together. Logan is at least happy that the Gorgon is finished, killed and done for, and takes a look at his ashes. A voice calls out to Logan, asking if he’s okay. Logan turns around, and notices it’s… Spider-Man!
Spidey noticed the whole place crawling with super-agents, and wants to know what’s going on. He notices the ashes, and asks Logan if that used to be a person. Logan apologizes, but he has no time to chit-chat. He stands up again, but still bleeds heavily. Spidey jumps down, telling Logan that he needs a doctor. Logan tells Spidey he can relax, as Logan can take care of himself. Logan really can. He feels that his liver is already gluing back together. But he has already forgotten what he and Spidey were talking about. Logan walks away, and asks Spider-Man to tell Fury that he is sorry, but the battle isn’t over yet.
Later, at an unknown, temporarily SHIELD headquarters…
The Helicarrier V20 is still sixteen weeks from completion. Fury, almost recovered but still with an arm in a cast, is taking a memo for Shadowcat. Fury first apologizes for the many spelling mistakes he’ll probably make, but voice recognition is still getting used to the new teeth and lungs in Fury’s body so there might be some glitches in the Syntax.
Fury begins. He tells Kitty that, like she might have heard, Elektra survived the New York episode, but nobody has a clue where she disappeared to. Rumor has it, that Elektra has re-started the Hand in Eastern Europe and is turning them into her own, private militia. But it’s nothing Kitty has to worry about. At least, not yet, anyway.
SHIELD can also confirm that Von Strucker’s wife was neutralized back in her New York, but Fury kind of have his doubts that this draws the line through the terrorist activity. The Gorgon might be down and Hydra’s bankrolled, and even though they chopped off a lot of their heads, many others have taken their place. Again, this is more Fury’s problem than it is Kitty’s.
Fury also received Kitty’s e-mail in which she asked about Northstar’s condition. Fury is sorry to say that they never recovered Jean-Paul’s body after he got snatched by the Hand. Fury sends his sympathies to Kitty and Northstar’s friends, but Fury is glad that at least they never turned Northstar into a monster like they did with all the rest of their victims.
Elsewhere, at an unknown location…
Northstar sits chained, in costume, on a chair in a lab. He is furious and has a very, very evil look on his face.
Temporarily SHIELD headquarters…
Fury continues the message. He knows that the real person Kitty wants to know about is probably Wolverine. Fury wished he had an answer, but he hasn’t. The truth is, Logan has been off the radar for close to eleven weeks now. All they found so far is a trail of messed-up corpses from Jersey to Japan. Word from the local police is that Logan is searching for something, but what that is, nobody knows. But, SHIELD is talking about eighteen hundred corpses so far. And the longer Logan keeps killing these people, the harder it gets for him to keep Logan’s face off the box.
Fury tells Kitty that her little friend owes him a lot for this. Fury had to pull a lot of strings to keep Logan out of the papers, and Fury always collects his debts. Fury asks Kitty to tell Logan when he finally comes back to the X-mansion, that he’s got a phone call waiting. Fury really wonders what Logan is searching for.
The Xavier Institute…
Shadowcat, while drinking a cup of coffee, reads Fury’s memo, and thinks about Logan as well.
Meanwhile, in Japan…
Logan stands on a beautiful grass hill, and takes a silent look at the sky. He has a serious look on his face. A female voice calls out to him.
It’s Ichiro and his wife. Ichiro’s wife asks Logan if this is where their son has been buried. Out here, in the cold? Logan apologizes. He tells Ichiro’s wife that she has no idea how sorry he is. Ichiro holds his arms around his wife, trying to cheer her up. As it starts to rain, Wolverine, Ichiro and his wife quietly look at the hill in front of them, thinking about Rikuto.
